The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-14 00:00:00

A CHINESE ADDRESS.

During his visit to Castlemaine (Australia), the Duke
of Edinburgh received the following address from the
Chinese population of the district :—" From the Chinese
residents at Castlemaine.—We of the hundred sing (people)
of the great clear nation (China), from the province of
Canton and the neighbouring districts, have anxiously
waited, royal sir, your arrival at Castlemaine to come
forth and welcome you, great England's lesser lord,
1,000 years second in the temple below. We bow our
heads to the ground and let our hands hang down as a
token of reverence. We maintain that posture, and in
great swelling words give utterance. At this propitious
time the subtile influences are efficacious in the ground,
increasing its fertility, and men are becoming eminent
for virtue and talent. The earth yields more
largely her golden treasures. We acknowledge with
thankfulness the gracious love of the reigning dynasty of
England, which permits our merchants and all others to
follow their occupations here. We have a feeling of pro-
four d veneration and respect, which leads us to obey and
induce obedience to the royal laws. With serious atten-
tion we have endeavoured to act in accordance with them.
When her Majesty your sacred mother commenced her
reign, like the time when the three holy sages, Wong 1.,
Yaou, and Shun, hung the upper and inferior garments on
their persons, so the whole empire was forthwith subjected
to order and decorum. Royal prince, you have gone out
to examine the distant part of the empire, and all the
people skip for joy in welcoming you. To look upon the
dragon (royal) countenance may be compared to beholding
the dark clouds and the sun immediately bursting forth.
Ws have followed you to the tiger-skin-covered seat (the
levee) with beat of drum, vibrating stringed instruments,
and blowing the cheerful reed, mingling with every voice
singing your virtue, which is as high as the vault of
heaven. Your benign love is liberally diffused, and
extends to all things. The blessings and happiness you
confer are as the ocean. They mollify and enrich us who
are of another country, although the subjects of this. The
people love you as the Kaum Hong tree which shaded
Chao Hong, the brother of the Emperor Moon, when he
stayed his horse to rest during his tour of inspection of the
empire. Following in your track sweet rains fall, making
no noise. All kindreds and people are improved by your
example, and thus military opergions cease, and
literary pursuits are cultivated. We desire earnestly
that your royal house shall, through all ages,
remain unmoved, and reign continually over a
nation as rich and powerful as England is at
present. Prolong your stay with us until the customs
of the people in every nook of our shores are inquired
into and known by you ; then all will be exhilarated with
delight. When you retnrn to the royal court and take the
corner place, we hope you will sit down in joy with uni-
versal peace prevailing. Oh ! how excellent and admi-
rable, how worthy of praise is he to whom, with venera-
tion, awe, and humility, we present our address. In the
sixth year, eleventh month, of the reign of the Emperor
Hong Ohe, of the dynasty of Tsin—English calculation of
time, 1867 year, twelfth month—at Castlemaine, by the
Flowery Nation (Chinese), this address was humbly pre-
sented."

There is now a prisoner in Taunton Gaol who has
just had a legacy left him of £16,000.
Sir John Lubbock is still a candidate for the represents-
tion of the University of London. His committee solicit
support for the hon. baronet on the grounds of his close
connection with the university, of his distinguished lite-
rary and scientific attainments, of his ability as a public
speaker and man of business, and, above all, on account
of his thorough identification with the educational views
and general politics of the great majority of the graduates.

Amongst other notices of motion there is one by Lord
Eustace Cecil, the younger brother of Lord Cranborne,
who will press the Secretary for War to extend the Con-
tagious Diseases Act to every camp, garrison, and seaport
town in the United Kingdom. Mr. Headlam promises to
move for a committee to inquire into the expediency of
altering the internal arrangements of the House, with a
iew to the better accommodation of the members. Mr.
Seely intends to renew his indictments against the Admi-
ralty by moving for a select committee to inquire into the
application of moneys voted by Parliament for the use of
the Admiralty, and into the system of keeping accounts
by that much-abused department. Major O'Reilly will
move for leave to introduce a bill for further regulating
the sale of fermented and distilled liquors in Ireland.
Mr. Norwood will bring forward a measure conferring
Admiralty jurisdiction on the county courts.
Mr. Bicknell, who has been so actively engaged, in en-
deavouring to demonstrate the value of horseflesh as an
article of diet in this country, has been lecturing at the
Crystal Palace on the subject. There were, he said, six-
teen countries in which the use of this new meat was legally
recognised as a wholesome and nourishing edible. In fact,
the only important country in the civilised globe where a
prejudice still existed against horseflesh was England. The
lecturer then proceeded to answer the objections urged
against hippophagy. It was contended that the people
would only have the opportunity of eating old and
diseased animals ; that the flesh was hard, unwholesoMe,
and nasty; that the use of it was forbidden by the Mosaic
law; that the horse was the faithful servant of man, and
therefore it was cruel to kill him and eat him ; and there
was the strongest objection of all—prejudice. He denied
that all horses were diseased. But, to obviate any diffi-
culty, he would have a rigid Government inspection.
Experiment had shewn that the flesh was neither unwhole-
some nor nasty. The religious argument was set aside by
the doctrine of St. Paul. The sentimental objection
was so weak that it would be far better to sacrifice it than
to deprive the people of an important food. After his
address Mr. Bicknell invited his audience into an adjoin-
ing room, where there were prepared the plain joints,
soups, sausages, &c., from an animal alleged to be 23 years
old. The ladies and gentlemen seemed to appreciate the
new meat.

A parliamentary agent has been gravely intimating the
probability that. the general election will be deferred until
1871. He reckons that the Irish and the Scotch Reform
Bills will not be passed this year, and that if they are
passed next year too late for the electors to be included in
the register of 1570, the election will be postponed till the
year following. This ingenious and liighly self-denying
person, who certainly can have no personal reason for
wishing to put the election off, forgets that in this matter
Parliament is omninotent, and that even supposing the
Scotch and Irish bills were not passed till 1869, there is
nothing to prevent them from taking effect immediately
by means of a special Registration Act, such as that
which was passed in August 1832, and was followed
by a general election in the following December. It is,
moreover, extremely improbable that either the country or
the Liberal party would consent to so long a postpone-
ment as the agent suggests. There is a further difficulty.
'Under the Reform Act of last year a large number of new
electors will ceme upon the register on next New Year's
Day. They will certainly not be content to wait for
other two years before exercising their newly-acquired
privilege. Lastly, we believe that the Government do not
really desire delay. There are several questions, notably
the Irish Church, with which they feel themselves unable
to deal until the country has spoken out clearly and given
them the necessary impetus for a strong measure, such as
the Conservative party would not now be prepared to
per.

Tbe report of the Metropolitan Board of Works contains
some very interesting statements with reference to the use
of sewage as manure. The board have constructed eighty-
two miles of sewers in order to purify the Thames. The
sewage is sent to a point where it will be harmless, until
the works of the Essex Reclamation Company are con-
cluded. This company have made some experiments
lately with considerable success. They proved that
the sewage was most valuable as manure in the
growth of marigolds, potatoes, cabbages, flax, eclery, and
strawberries. It was tried in a wheat field, and those
parts of the field in which the sewage had been laid down
could be distinguished from the other by the strength and
length of the stalk and size of the ear. With regard to
the other improvements on the Thames, it is stated that
between Waterloo Bridge and the Temple considerable
progress has been made : the river wall has been constructed
to its full height, and the subways and sewers are com-
pleted. Below this, however, to Blackfriars Bridge the
works have not been as much as commenced, owing to the
delay occasioned by the Metropolitan District and Gas
Companies.

Two BOYS MURDERED BY THEIR BROTHER.--
The Court of Assizes of the Nord has just been engaged
in the trial of a young man named Jean-Baptiste Laoque-
man for a double crime of fratricide. On the 11th January
last the two brothers of the accused, aged 11 and 14 years,
left home at about seven in the morning to go to school at
Orchies, a village about half a mile from the cottage in
which they resided with their parents. An hour later they
were found lying near the path they had been following,
cruelly murdered, their skulls having been fractured
with some heavy instrument. The accused had also left
home shortly before the two boys, to go to his work,
;n the same direction. The elder brother, when informed
of the crime, shewed great embarrassment, and spots
of blood were observed on his clothes ; the suspicions
thus excited were shortly afterwards confirmed by an axe
which Jean-Baptiste had been seen sharpening a few
days before being found in a ditch, still covered with the
blood and hair of the victims. In consequence of those
proofs the accused confessed his guilt. The prisoner was
of a brutal and avaricious disposition, and had been im-
pelled to the deed by a desire to reduce the expenses of
the family, and increase his ultimate share of the little
property their parents possessed. The jury returned a
verdict of guilty, with the admission of extenuating cir-
cumstances, and the:court condemned him to hard labour
t. life.

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II ER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Feb. 13.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, ac-
companied by Princess Christian and Princess
Henriette of Schleswig-Holstein.
Her Majesty went out this morning, accompanied
by Princess Louise.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales
drove out yesterday, attended by the Countess of
Morton.

HAYMARKET THEATRE.—Their Royal Highnesses
the Prince and Princess of Wales, attended by the Countess
of Morton and Col. Keppel, honoured the above theatre
with their presence list evening to witness the performance
of the new comedy. "A Wife Well Won."

THE CROWN PRINCESS OF PRUSSIA.—The ac-
counts received from Berlin of her Royal Highness the
Crown Princess of Prussia are very good. Her Roya 1
Highness and the infant Prince, to whom she gave birth
on Monday last, are both doing well. Dr. Gream remains
in attendance for a few days.
The Duke of Leinster has left his residence on
Carlton-house-terrace on a visit to Lord and Lady Otho
Fitzgerald at West Park, Wilts.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury and
family arrived at their residence in Arlington-street on
Wednesday from Hatfield House, Herts, for the season.

The Marchioness of Lansdowne, accompanied by
her son the Marquis, arrived at Lansdowne House, Ber-
keley-square, on Monday last, from Bowood-park, Wilts.
His lordship is on a fair way to recovery from his recent
accident in the hunting field.

Viscount and Viscountess Sydney are expected
to arrive at their residence in Cleveland-square, St.
James's, to-day, from Frognal, near Foot's Cray, Kent, for
tho season.

The Eight Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P.,
arrived at his residence in Whitehall-gardens yesterday,
from Drayton Manor, Staffordshire. Lady Emily Peel
and family remain at Drayton Manor un'il after Easter.

The Earl and Countess Russell, Viscount Amber-
ley, M.P., and Viscountess Amberley, arrived at their resi-
dence in Chesham-place yesterday afternoon, from Pem-
broke Lodge, Richmond Park, for the season.
The Earl and Countess of Lichfield arrived in
town yesterday, from Ventnor, Isle of Wight, for a few
weeks.

The Earl of Lonsdale has left his residence, on
Carlton-house-terrace, for Ventnor, Isle of Wight, for the
benefit of his health.

The Earl of Glasgow has arrived at the
Clarendon Hotel from Scotland.

The Countess (Frances) Waldegrave and the
Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P., arri'red at their
residence in Carlton-gardens yesterdayfrom her ladyship's
seat, the Priory, Chewton, Somersetshiro.

General the Right Hon. Cecil Forester, M.P.,
arrived in town yesterday from Meaford Stone, Stafford-
shire.

M. and Madame Van de Weyer arrived at their
esidence in Arlington-street, on Wednesday, from New
Lodge, Windsor Forest.

DEATH OF SIR CHARLES LEMON, BART.—The
death of Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., at his residence, Car-
dew Penryn, has deprived Cornwall of one who has been
of eminent service to the county in all public matters, and
has won the affection and esteem of a very large circle of
private friends. Sir Charles was born in 1781, and suc-
ceeded to the title ten years later by the death of his
father.

MR. LEEMAN, M.P., BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS.
—On Wednesday, Mr. S. Leeman, M.P. for York, addressed
a meeting of his constituents in that city. He confined
his remarks chiefly to a review of the proceedings of the
last session of Parliament. In his brief reference to the
future he said that on the Irish Church question he looked
to the discussion which would take place in Parliament
upon it as one of deep interest, and as leading probably
to some expression on the part of the House of Commons
which might serve to re-awaken those remarkable scholastic
faculties of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, to
which he looked with the greatest confidence, when he
thinks the proper time had arrived for his letting down
the Irish Church with decent and fitting solemnity.

THE ABYSSINIAN FORCE.—We learn, by com-
munications received by the last mail, that the troops are
all healthy. The field hospitals are in operation and in
good condition. The sanitary state of the camp at Zoulla
is good. There is plenty of water, obtained by the tubular
Amerian wells. Two stone piers have been erected, and
a condenser is at work on each at the landing place.
The story about the enormous cost of the water-2s. a
gallon—seems to be a canard. The railway over the low-
lying district is nearly concluded.—British Medical
Journal.

A PROLIFIC HUNDRED.—Chesterton continues to
be distinguished among the rural districts of Kist
Anglia, prob:Lbly above all the rural disricts of the United
Kingdom, for the fruitfulness of its inhabitants. We have
had occasion to call attention to this remarkable fact
at various times before, but the testimony supplied by the
last quarterly return of the Registrar-General is more than
usually telling. From his figures it appears that whereas
the marriage rate in Chesterton compared with the mar-
riage rate at Bury St. Edmund's is as 16 to 15, the birth
rate at the two places is as 49 to 24. Or, comparing Ches-
terton district with the borough of Cambridge, tho marriage
rate in the borough is to that in the adjoining district as 25
to 16, but the birth rate only as 45 to 49. In the same way
it might be shown roughly that if Ipswich were as fruitful
a localily as this portion of the fens, its return of births last
quarter ought to have been about 800, instead of 330.
Bury Post.

Last evening Mr. Smith, of the Strand, delivered
a very interesting lecture, illustrated with a series of
beautiful dissolving views, to the scholars of St. Paul,
Covent-garden Day Schools, at the School-rooms, Hart-
street. There was a very large attendance of children,
who were delighted with the treat prepared for them. At
the conclusion of the lecture the Rev. Mr. Ireland, the
curate, thanked Mr. Smith in the name of the assembled
little people for the pleasure and instruction his excel-
lent lecture had afforded, and expressed a hope that the
delight that had been exhibited by the children would be
an agreeable recompense to Mr. Smith for the trouble be
had taken.

DEBRETT'S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE for 1868
has made its appearance, corrected and revised, down to
the latest possible period previous to publication. The
work has been most carefully performed, and as books of
reference the volumes for the present year will fully main-
tain their reputation. The arms and crests affixed to each
of the different titles add an additional value to the volumes
as with a very short study a general knowledge of the
heraldic emblazouments of the leading nobility and gentry
will be attained, which cannot fail to become of the greatest
utility even to the general reader.

HUNGARIAN GRAIN.—It appears from a report
issued by the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, Com-
merce, and Public Works, that in 1867 Hungary exported
11,430,000 quintals of wheat, 2,544,000 quintals of oats,
and 2,457,000 quintals of other cereals. These totals,
which are of very unusual magnitude, refer only to the
quantities of grain carried by the Austrian and South-
Austrian Railways, and Danube Steam Navigation Corn- .
piny, and boats towed by horses. They do not accord-
ingly afford an altogether complete idea—although the
approximation is a close one—of the commerce of Hun-
gary with other countries in the matter of grain.
DISTRESSING DEATH.—On Wednesday evening
the Hon. James Henry Gordon, undergraduate of Trinity
College, Cambridge, and brother of the Earl of Aberdeen,
lost his life by a distressing accident with firearms. The
deceased gentleman was a first-class oarsman ; he rowed
No. 4 in the university race last year, and it was hoped he
would take his place in the crew that is to contest the palm
with Oxford at Putney next month; he was, moreover, a
crack shot, and member of the University Rifle Corps. Ire
was in the habit of experimenting with rifles, and notably
with ammunition, loading, acc. There is little doubt that he
was thus engaged on Wednesday evening, at his lodgings
in Trinity-street. The report of a rifle was heard in
his
chamber, and as he did not answer when called to, the
door was forced open. His body was discovered lying
near the foot of the bed, and not far from it a rifle which
had been discharged. The gentleman had been fearfully
shot in the head ; a great portion of the skull was blown
away; the bullet had passed upwards through the ceiling
of the room in which he lay, and had penetrated the ceil-
ing of the room above. He was dressed in his ordinal
attire. The Hon. James Henry Gordon was born on the
11th October, 1845, and was therefore in his twenty-third
year.
THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL COMPANY'S
STEAMER CEYLON.— This vessel on her last outward pas-
sage to Alexandria experienced very boisterous weather,
which amply tested the staunchness of the vessel and the
seamanship of the officers and crew. In recognition of the
last-mentioned point, an address was presented by Lieut.:
Colonel W. D. Stanley, Military Staff Corps, on n behalf of
the passengers, to Capt. Babot, commander of the Ceylo
in which they state :—" From the moment we left the
English shore we encountered a hurricane, which co
tinned throughout our passage in the Bay of Biscay ;
an
although we were relieved by a most seasonable cessation
of the above on our approach to Gibraltar, its recurrence
from that port to Malta, and again from Malta to ht
dria, impressed upon us the conviction that we might place
the utmost reliance upon you and all your officers. 1.°,,0
attention throughout the voyage 'to the comforts of lu
to
passengers was most marked; and we beg to convey to
you and your officers, as well as seamen, our thanks for
' your confitant and unwearied care."