The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-30 00:00:00

THE ITALIAN QUESTIQN.

At last the oracle has spoken.. After a preter-
natural silence of several weeks, tbe Potentate
whose will sways the destinies of Europe has pro-
nounced on the solemn question whether a French
Prince is to succeed the late Austrian satraps in
the government of Central Italy. The manifesto
in the Illiniteur will be a severe blow to the hopes
of Napoleon Jerome's partisans. That the 'Prince
has a party who have worked bard to create a
throne to place him on is beyond a doubt, and it
would be too great confidence in human virtue to
believe that the Imperial cousin himself has been
without some hope of more exalted rank, or has
been perfectly free from all interference in the mat-
ter. Indeed, the solution of the Italian difficulty,
by placing the. Prince on the throne of Tuscany,
Modena, and Parma, has been likely enougk ever
since the Italians showed such antipathy to their
fugitive rulers, and the indignation of the world
was so much excited by the spectacle of an un-
necessary war ending in an incomplete and almost
inglorious peace. We have not the smallest doubt
that Napoleon 111., when he agreed to conditions of
peace at Villafranca, was perfectly sincere in his de-
termination to restore the Dukes. What may have
been the secret springs of action which produced
this astonishing compromise no man can say. The
stubliorn resistance of the Ajstrians, the strength
of the fortresses, the- unconcealed diSpleasure of
England, the open hoStility of Oermany, even:
personal weariness and the intense heat, of the
weather, may have bad something-to do with it.
But from all we learnt of this event it would seem
that the French Emperor was really and truly de-
sirous to be quit of the war, and that he accepted
the restoration of the Dukes as he accepted-the re-
tention by Austria of the fortresses and of Venice—
because the Kaiser would not yield on these points.

Still there seems much reason to suspect that the
plan of providing a throne for Prince Napoleon had
been considered prior to the war. It is well known
that from the earliest period of the year—from the
time when the Emperor made his hasty address' to
M. Hubner—the Prince was the open and avowed
champion of the war. His partisans were loud on
the necessity of trampling on the treaties of 1815 ;
of establishing the nationality of Italy, or rather
of driving out the Austrians, for it did -not appear
whether delivered Italy was to be left entirely to
herself. Then came the hasty marriage between
the Prince and the daughter of Victor Emmanuel.
It is idle to say that there was nothing personal in
this alliance, that the Prince only represented
France, and that the union was only a drawing
closer of the bonds which linked together the poli-
cies of the Emperor and the King. Neither Sove-
reigns nor States in the present day require these
family ties to insure the stability of alliances which
are cemented by a common, interest. France
and Sardinia would have equally fought side by
side had neither Napoleon Jerome nor Clotilde
ever existed; and we doubt whether one
Frenchman or Sardinian in ten thousand ever
thinks on the marriage as in any way in-
creasing the friendship of the two nations. But
to Prince Napoleon himself the advantages were
obvious. By marriage with an Italian Princess he
became, according to the easy code of Royal natu-
ralization, an Italian sufficiently to govern any part
of the Peninsula which might be in search of a
Sovereign. At the time it will be remembered
that the future elevation of the husband of Princess
Clotilde was hardly doubted, and the only question
was whether Lombardy and Venetia were to be
united under his sceptre, or whether his throne was
to be placed on the banks of the Arno. We do not
quote the gossip of six months since in the belief that
it indicated any settled policy in the mind of the
Emperor; but every one conversant with modern
political society knows that secrets are very badly
kept, and that, whether in English clubs or Parisian
drawing-rooms, a certain approximation to the de-
signs of men in authority is apt to be" arrived at.
That at the beginning of the war an Italian settle-
ment for Prince Napoleon was contemplated is as
certain as most facts connected with the affair.

Then his Imperial Highness, armed with procla-
mations and beaming with smiles, was sent to Tus-'
cany to lead the ardent volunteers of that fair land
to victory and glory. He had an independent
corps, with which he was to revolutionize the terri-
tory of the petty Princes, and perhaps not to spare the
holy possessions of the Pope. He it was who was to
attack the Austrians on their left flank, and, crossing
the Po far lower down than the French armies could
attain, was to insure the retreat of the enemy. But,
unfortunately for the adventurous scion of Im-
perialism, the enemy gave way too easily. Fortune
favours the bold, and Napoleon Jerome was so very
bold that fortune favoured him rather too much.
The Austrians would not stay for the Prince and
his corps and his noble volunteers, to beat them.
They abandoned Pavia and Piacenza and all the
places which had been the standing menaces of Sar-
dinia and the Duchies for 40 years. They retreated
on their fortresses, they left the Legations, they
blew up their works at Ancona, and by the time the
Prince had worked himself up to the proper pitch
of martial ardour there was no enemy to fight.
He did not even " assist" at Magenta or Solferino.
The separate corps remained in embryo, the Tus-
cans and Modenese have never had any fighting as
yet, and the groat war of 1859 passed over with-
out the Prince's name receiving any additional
lustre.

Still the Prince had not lost all chance. The
Dukes had fled from Florence and Modena, and
the poor Duchess of Parma was expelled by the
subjects of her son. The interview at Villafranca
might have been expected to end in some stipu-
lation in favour of the cousin who would have
fought so bravely, and who only wanted an
opportunity; but at Villafrance Napoleon Jerome
was never mentioned, or was mentioned only to
be put aside. The Dukes were to be restored,
if not by French and Australian bayonets, at least
by the advice and moral suasion of the two
Emperors. What chance, then, was there for
the Prince ? But soon it appeared that the Tus-
cans and their countrymen would not have their
fugitives back at all, and that they were deter-
mined to place a throne at the disposal of some
worthy aspirant. The hopes of the Palais Royal
again rose high. Who so likely to be chosen for
the throne of Central Italy as the Prince who went
out to fight for it ? But again fortune frowned.
The Italians, with that want of consideration and
gratitude which distinguishes them, still clung to
the notion of an united Italy. They would have
nothing to say to a French Prince, but unanimously

A paper, of which the following-is the substance,
was read by Mr.' John Smith, of the Perth Aca,
demy, at the meeting of the British Association in
Aberdeen. We are Induced,,from the scientific im-
portance of .the paper, as well as the local associa-
tions of its long highly" . respected author, to
detach it fium our necessarily meagre abstract of
the general proceedings of the Association, and
give it the prominence we now do. It will be seen
by this short report of the abstract of the theory
propounded by Mr. Smith,-that it overturns all our
former ideas on thesu-bject of lighi,, Lid must intro-
duce a new method of analysis in several departments
of science. No small pride, we doubt not, will very
generally be felt in this locality upon so important
a scientific place being taken by one Of ourreitizens.
We understand the doctrines propounded ,were re-
ceivedwith the most marked respect and attention
by the learned auditors.
readTa paper on the cause of colour,
and Ili:kV it was produced. • He began by remarking
that it was chiefly some experiments on light which
he wished in the meantime to describe, and although
the experiments originated from a new theory of
light which he long reflected on he could not enter
on the argunaents on which' it was founded, the -
time allotted by:the association not being sufficient
for so intricate a discussion.

-He said that in attempting to explain certain na-
.tural phenomena, could not satisfy himself by ap-
plying the principles of either theory of light, that
many natural phenomena indicated beats or vibra-
tionsna the luminous ether very different from what
science thught., • That'is, that there were'gfeater in-
tervals. between them than., Newton had demon-
strated, and scientific men believed. He. therefore
endeavoured to contrive a machine whichshould be
able to make as many revolutions or beats in a se-
cond as he considered the effeetivk 4ibratiOnS of

light were repeated in a second of time, and ar-
gued that by certain contrivances to produce light
and shade in alternate vibrations he should pro•
duce colour. It is rather difficult to give a popular
idea of, what Mr. Smith meant here. But it may
be expressed in this way ; light he considered as mo-
tion, darkness or shadow he consideredas no notion.
No motion, he said, might-be represented by any-
thing dark, as lamp black, or black velvet ; white,
by anything which is ,pnrel): white, as white paper,
one of the best tests of what is called white. Having
described wha h sh Odd consider as white or motion,
and what as shadow.or black or no motion, his object
was to prove that colour is illuminated shadow:
Now, the remarkable part of this proposition which
he set himself to prove is, .that it is the very con-
verse of Newton °s proposition, for Newton says,
that "colour is not produced by the reflections or
light on the confines of shadow, as the ancients con-
ceived." Newton endeavoured to prove his proposi-
tion by experimenting with the prism, an instru-
ment which Mr. Smith said was imperfectly under-.
stood, and consequently could not be considered an
analytical instrument, but as light was not refracted
in the substance which he used to represent his
white raY, there would'be no difficulty with it. He
said that his instrument was made to perform what
he considered nature performed by refraction, viz.,
to throw light on shadow, using these terms as a
popular illustration of what was meant. Having
given something as near as this, as we can remem-
ber of what he said was the basis of his experiments,
he then described several of his experiments, and
exhibited them to the section.

One. of his.experiments which he showed was a
disc of Bristol board with severarrings on it—part
of each ring was painted black—when put in mn-
tion it was completely coloured, there was neither
black nor white, but blues, purples, and greens.
Another white figure was of a form not easily de-
scribed in a paper, but it was a sort of spiral figure
cut out of Bristol board with a knife, and when
made to revolve the rings were beautiful in the ex-
treme, yellow outside, next ring rich purple, next
green, and so on, thus demonstrating that refrac-
tion does not separate a compound substance called
light into a great many simple substances, such as
red, yellow, orange, green, blue, !violet, and purple,
as is usually taught. and as Newton thought he
had demonstrated, but that it is a simple uncom-
pounded substance. It was only a number of ex-
periments such as these that Mr. Smith was able
to exhibit to the section for want of time and
want of light, but he was ' prepared to exhibit
the phenomena of coloured media, that is to show
how, by the motion of a shadow between the eye
and a white cloud all the colours of the rainbow
could be produced. There was another set of expe-
riments which he seemed to consider as very effec-
tive, and especially as being quite tangible. and
easily described, hut requiring strong sunshine to
show them. This was to cast a shadow on a white
wall or on a piece of paper of a particular figure, so
as to produce alternate heats of light and shadow
when put in revolution. The figure became coloured
of different shades, and because these could be seen
on the wall, like the spectrum through the prism,
he called them spectra by reflection.
There were a great many other experiments
which he had no time even to enumerate, much
less. to describe, but he showed some of the
figures to produce the phenomena which are per-
ceived when looking through transparent solids.
From these • experiments he deduced a 'very neat
and a very elegant, besides being a quite new, and
original explanation of the phenomena of refrac-
tion through the' ' This he did by drawing
the figure of a prism on a black board, and trac-
ing the ray to its origin, and explaining the
changes which it underwent, but which cannot well
be described so as to be understood without a dia-
gram.
He concluded in these' words nearly—Remark-
able as these experiments are, they are not more re-
markable than the results they lead to.
They prove the homogeneity of the ether.
They prove the undulatory hypothesis, but oppose
the undulatory theory.
They enable us to dispense with the different re-
frangibilities of the rays of light, ES taught by

Newton.
They remove .the necessity for the supposition of
different lengths of waves or of a disposition in
matter to produce waves of different lengths.
They help to explain many of the phenomena of
what is called the polarisation of light.
They give a new explanation of prismatic refrac-
tion, and explain in a plain and simple manner
many very intere3ting natural phenomena.
Startling, he said, as these conclusions are, to
those who are conversant with the subject of light,
he thought he was perfectly warranted in drawing
them from his experiments.—Perthshire Courier.

THE DIFFICULTIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES
AND PERU.—A correspondent of the New York Herald,
writing from Washington, Sept. 11, says :—" Our diffi-
culties with the Government of Peru, growing out of the
seizure of the Lizzie Thompson and other American ships,
has had the earliest consideration of the President and the
Secretary of State during the past week, and no doubt
stringent measures will be adopted to enforce our claims
against Peru. It will be recollected that when our Minister
at Peru demanded indemnity for the seizure and confisca-
tion of those ships, President Castilla agreed to refer the
matter to Washington, and abide by the decision of our
Government. This Government, after a fall investigation
of the subject, decided that the claim presented by our
Minister was perfectly just and proper, and directed him to
demand its immediate payment. But President Castilla
peremptorily refuses to pay, and therefore it becomes neces.
sary for our Goverment to adopt very decided measures
towards Peru ; and I have every reason to believe that the
next steamer will take out such instructions to Minister
Clay and the commanding officer of the United States
Pacific naval squadron as to satisfy President Castilla that
the American Government is not to be trifled with."

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TnE GREAT- EASTERN.—The accident which has
happened to the Great Eastern in uo way interferes with
the general question of her ultimate success. For the mo-
ment it may depress her interests, but the reaction will
inevitably follow, and the ship will be estimated according
to her own merits. The cause of the accident—the mere
turning of a tap the wrong way, probably by some bungling
workman—in no way tends to destroy ultimate confidence
in the ship herself ; not even by implying that she is toe
large to have her internal affairs administered properly—
although there are people abiurd enqng h to suppose that
mere size can put a ship beyond the contrtll bT man's genius
and skill. The fact is, it was just one of those accidents
which occur every day, either here or there, said which spring
from the smallest circumstances. The water-vessel` which
exploded is generally pronounced a danger() us.eontrivance,
and ought not to have been placed in the alai! ), perhaps ; but
it was not the vessel itself which was the prim ne cause of fail-
ure in the, present instance, but a mere adj• tuaet of it, and
that The -turning of a-iarf'the-wrot ag way all
the mischief, apparently, and things of that I :bad may occur
on land as well as on the sea—in any othel : ship as well
as in the Great Eastern.—Once a Week.