The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-02 00:00:00

REMARKS.

A small but general diminution in atmospherical measure has
occurred since yesterday. It has been greatest in the north, but
readings in the South of France still continue lower than elsewhere.
Temperature has increased in the north and east : it is high in Scot-
land, but at Toulon a fall of 9 deg. has occurred. Winds in the north
and west are light and variable, whilst on our east and south coasts,
and in France, fresh north-east winds still prevail. Weather is
generally fine, but cloudy in the sonth•east. /L. thunderstorm is re-
Ported from Brussels.

Mr;Allnatt's monthly letter to the Times on the weather
does not give the past month so high a temperature as
might have been anticipated from the accounts which
were received from all quarters. It has been stated
that the thermometer reached 05 deg., but Mr. Allnatt
shews how absurd was this assertion. Four years

ago, on the 15th and 16th of June, 1864, the tempe-
rature at Madras rose to 114 deg., but it was even in
the tropics an unwonted event, and the season was
lamentably fatal to organic life. With our humid and
dense insular atmosphere anything approaching 100 deg.
would be almost unbearable. Last year, on the sth May,
the thermometer rose in the Channel Islands to-90 deg.,
but so oppressive was the heat that several of the resi-
dents at St. Hollers were attacked with syncope and half
suffocated. These arc recorded physical facts.. No such
effects were produced by the heat of the month which has
just expired. The truth is that the maximum temperature
was only 81 deg., and the average of the month ahArt 59 deg.
only four above the estimated average. The rainfall was,
of course, exceedingly scanty, barely gauging half an inch.
The air was very dry. In consequence of the lack of
moisture, crops are languishing, and cattle in various parts
of the country are dying of thirst. The highest observed
sun-force was on the 16th, when it attained at noon 144 deg.
On the following day the shade beat rose at four p.m. to
the maximum of the month, and registered 81 deg.

Mr. Frank Buckland rejoices greatly. There have been

falls of oyster spat in the rivers Crouch, Essex, and the
Roach. In the Crouch there have been found as many as

100 oysters adhering to the shell, and in the Roach 14
have been noticed. At Reculvers, near Herne Bay—a
fishery founded partly under Mr. Buckland—as many as
125 have been counted, and the system pursued has
succeeded admirably. Mr. Buckland's joy is all the
greater because he has so long been steadfast in main-
taining that " over dredging " is not the entire
cause of the failure, but that oysters have been scarce
because the young ones, when in a floating state, have
been destroyed either by the water being too cold or too
boisterous. He has maintained that to enable these young
oysters to live the two great essentials are " heat and
tranquillity." The present fall of spat has taken place
under these conditions, and the Inspector of Fisheries
hopes that in a few years we shall have again what we
begin to look upon as belonging to the past—cheap
oysters.
According to present appearances the coming elections
in the sister isle will cause more excitement than has been
witnessed for many years. From all parts of Ireland
come rumours of expected contests, and the war-whoop
has already been raised by the press on both sides. The
Times correspondent says that if the struggle be not fierce
and relentless it will not bo owing to the pacific influence
f the press. The Dublin Post declares that "no abuse
of .power will pass without, it is likely, its penalty this
time ; and the penalty, when exacted, will be a round
one. The best service, in fact, that the people could
render to the landlords as well as to themselves at the
coming election would be to take an attitude so firm at
once, and so imposing, as to make the exercise of landlord
power, whether for the purpose of intimidation in the first
instance or of punishment subsequently, an adventure too
manifestly hazardous to be tried by men of ordinary pru-
dence." It is questionable whether such stimulants as
these are necessary to arouse public spirit in some of the
counties. The disgraceful scenes enacted at the Tipperary
and Waterford elections are not yet forgotten, and it is
the duty of the press to calm, not foster, the agitation
which will naturally arise during the forthcoming con-
tests. _ _

A correspondent of the Daily News complains that
Oxfordshire runs great risk of being lost to the Liberals
for want of systematic and immediate attention to its
registration. He states that hundreds of Liberal free-
holders are unregistered, and that the registration of the
£l2 occupiers is left in many parishes at the mercy of
Tory overseers, guided by Tory landlords and Tory
agents. The Conservatives are perfectly organised,
whilst the Liberals, helpless for want of a candidate,
are losing votes irretrievably by every hour's inaction..
The remedy is declared to be very simple. The corre-
spondent suggests that men should go through every parish
and get the addresses and qualifications of all Liberals
entitled to be registered ; and that the superintending
solicitor should go the NoiLr_wle circuit of the county's revision
courts, and uphold the Liberia and oppose the Tory
laims. Oxfordshire is not alone is thLi want of politic-al
action, but when it is remembered that the lists are to be
made out by the 22nd of this month it will be to that
there is no time to be thrown away.

Mr. M. D. Hill, the Recorder of Bristol, writes an:
interesting letter to the Times explaining his system of
repressing vsgrancy and crime. His proposal is, that when
a person having been previously convicted of crime is
proved to the satisfaction of a jury to be without reason-
able means of subsistence, ho shall be adjudged a reputed
thief, and put under high reoognisances to be of good
behaviour for some limited period. Such a law, he thinks,
though it would not altogether suppress the thief and the
rogue, would do a great deal towards that end, The
present system is deplorably bad. Efforts have been made,
it is true, to reform our criminals while in prison at home,
but for many years these efforts were ill-directed, and our
prison gates opened daily to discharge prisoners in a state
worse than that in which they entered. They return at once
to a life of crime, resolved to use their former experience,
and the lessons which they had learnt from their fellow
prisoners, to multiply their depredations. And even
now, when it is accepted in theory that no convicted
offender should be set at liberty until there Is good reason
to believe he Is reformed, the practice is to make itnprisext,
ment so short that an attempt to use it for purposes of
reformation would be simply absurd, and offenders who
come to the bar with a long list of prior convictions against
their names are often set at large in a few months, or even
weeks, Mr, gill clortoullotea tido system "
it tii>~an
txmotA4frowlia.

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lIER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, July 1.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice
and the Princess Leiningen, drove out yester-
day afternoon.

Her Majesty, accompanied by their Royal High-
nesses Princess Louis of Ilesse, Princess Louise,
Princess Beatrice, and Prince Leopold, went out
in the grounds this morning.

The Prince and Princess of Wales drove out
yesterdayi accompanied by the Crown Prince of
Denmark.

MR. M A PLESO

TIER MAJESTY'S OPERA.

A grand combined fete is to be given at the Crys-
tal Palace for the benefit of that indefatigable
worker for the public, Mr. Mapleson, of ller Ma-
josty's Opera. Every usual attraction of the Crys-
tal Palace is to be supplemented by those extra
features which are reserved for the special days when
thousands of visitors are tempted. The greatest
novelty of all is the performance of a real
opera, personated with all stage adornments
and accessories—such as scenery, costumes, and
appointments. This completeness hitherto has, o
course, never been seen in the Glass Palace. The
day eet apart for this magnificent fete is Wednes-
day, the 15th of July. By a happy amalgamation
of attractions, it will offer, seriatim, a grand con-
cert, the display of the fountains, cascades, and
jets d'eau, with (if there be sunshine) their
beautiful effects, military bands to play in the
grounds, the opera of " Le Nozze di Figaro (the
choicest of Mozart), presented in all its points with
full stage effects, and an exhibition of some of the most
wonderful fireworks which have ever lighted up the
Crystal Palace and its neighbourhood, such enter-
tainments will be expressive far and wide of a day
of high festival. If tine weather prevail by day on
the 15th of this month, and the night be starry
and clear, such a sight will be witnessed as has been
but rarely seen in this country. In addition, al
the great artists of the opera are to sing ; for the
festival will be supported by all Mr. Mapleson's
forces, choregraphic and musical, and it boasts the
immediate patronage of their Royal Highnesses
the Prince and Princess of Wales and a host of the
nobility.