The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOINDO FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 17, 1868

ready with a suggestion or a scheme, a remon-
strance or a regret, with respect to what has this
year risen into au open and acknowledged evil.
From other parts of London comes the cry of
distress, and the long-continued depression of trade
has so seriously affected the labouring classes by
diminishing their chances of employment that the
inevitable hardships of winter are this year in-
creased tenfold. The high price of provisions, too,
adds materially to the burdens of the poor, and
the indispensable 41b. loaf consumes the main part
of their scanty and fluctuating incomes. The ac•
counts given by eye-witnesses of the distress in
Poplar and Whitechapel are most painful, and all
that public benevolence and private charity can do
have as yet proved unequal to the task. Com-
plaints are being made of the want of unity and
system in the manner of distributing relief, and it
would be well if those actively engaged in the work
of investigating distress and dispensing charitable
funds would lay aside all local jealousies and par-
tisan feelings, and form a consistent and systematic
scheme by which the worst parishes might be di-
vided into so many districts, and each apportioned
to the care of one of the several committees. If
they would combine to lay down certain general
principles of action by which every committee
would undertake to abide, much good might be
done. By the adoption of such means the
Lancashire distress was relieved with won-
derful success and impartiality, and though,
no doubt, some mistakes were made, yet
the number of successful impostors was very
small. This is the great difficulty in dealing
with all such comprehensive distress as now exists
at the East-end. There are always a number of
impostors who turn the help given them into drink,
and in addition to these every one who knows
much of the poor must be aware of the existence
of a class who are not exactly impostors, but greedy
for pelf. These make a trade of private begging,
and go from house to house exaggerating their
necessities and concealing the amount of the help
they have already received. One family of this
class will often have five or six bread, or coal, or
soup tickets, while others close by in real want
have none. It is this which makes it so neces-
sary to visit and examine the cases of
applicants for help; and, indeed, it is often requi-
site to seek for the most deserving cases, since the
more respectable poor are so averse to begging that
they will suffer real hardships rather than resort to
it. The impostors and the regular beggars when de-
tected do incalculable mischief to the cause of the
really poor. Much is being said about the vast
sums expended at the East end, yet with it all we
find deaths from absolute want recorded every week.
Last Saturday the Registrar-General included three
in his return, and to-day we have the account of an
inquest held on a man 45 years old, who died from
" exposure to cold, and want of nourishment," after
a day's fruitless waiting for admission to St. Luke's
Workhouse. The parochial machinery breaks down
if left unaided. Until we have still further reforms

in the administration of the Poor-law we shall be
constantly harrowed by such histories during the
winter months, unless we have a thorough and
efficient organisation of voluntary assistants.
These will search out the really destitute, and
take care that while none are relieved from two
sources at once, none are left to die for lack of bread
and fire.

But painful as are the accounts from the metro-
polis itself the present distress is by no means con-
fined to its area, or even to this country. From
the Southern States of America we have terrible
accounts. White and black alike are threatened
by absolute famine ; and, what is worse, matters
are complicated by the mutual antagonism
of the races. The negroes, becoming reckless,
plunder the property of the planters ; in some parts
of the South they have even destroyed the domestic
animals. The freedmen themselves are suffering
terribly ; and no wonder, when in one State alone
there are 100,000 idle men. Much, if not all of
this misery, however, is clearly traceable to direct
misgovernment ; but we find that Europe is not
exempt from the troubles that afflict America. In
parts of Russia, and more especially Eastern Prus-
sia, the distress is approaching actual famine. The
towns are submerged by the rising tide of poverty,
while in the rural districts the people are starving.
The accounts which are given day by day
of the condition of the East Prussians are
something startling as coming from any
part of a wealthy European State. What
is more, the evil is not restricted to the districts
which are at present suffering so heavily ; all
Prussia is threatened with it. The national writers
are not slow to attribute this alarming condition of
affairs to the excessive weight of the military bur-
dens. They say that the whole strength of the
nation has been exhausted by the immense armies

kept up during the last few years ; agriculture has

been neglected, the fluids uutilled, the soil uuculti-
vated, and the consequence has been that the har-

vest, which, in 1865, was worth 37,000,000 florins,
was iu 1867 only worth 17,000,000 florins. The

harvest, of course, depends more or less on the
weather, but the loss of twenty million florins is

partly due to the reckless ambition of Count Bis-
MAME and his royal master. A Berlin journal
plainly says, "A man may raise with difficulty a
heavy weight, but it would kill him if he had to sub-

stain it through twenty-four hours. Under the new
military organisation the strain has been constant,
and the existing distress is but the result of this
excessive tension. Sadowa, it is said, has proved
who was right in the military conflict. But there
is another view of the question, and it may be con-
templated in the condition of the twenty-three dis-
tricts of East Prussia." The present pressure may
not be solely due to the actual campaign of 1866 ;
but the whole policy of the Prussian Government
has for years past been directed to two objects ex-
clusive of all others—the increase of the royal
power and of the military organisation. Such a
policy is fatal to the best interests of a country ;
and however brilliant may be its temporary results,
it must eventually result in weakness instead of
strength. The lesson is not without its moral, since
it is the despotic and " paternal" Governments of
Europe who are now anticipating with alarm the
presence of actual famine, while the people whose
energies and capacities they cramp and fetter are
beginning to trace their national misfortunes to the
errors of their rulers.

LICENSED VICTUALLERS' ASYLUM.—The annual
ball in aid of the funds of this admirable institution took
place last evening in St. James's Hall, and was, as it de-
served to be, a great success. The ball-room was ready
for the reception of the visitors at 8 o'clock, after which the
grand hall was soon well filled by ladies and gentlemen who
were anxious to pat ticipato in all the pleasure of la dense.
The dancing was continued with great life and spirit,
and about ten o'clock the largo hall became so densely
crowded that it became necessary to throw open the two
smaller halls. This arrangement was highly satisfac-
tory to all parties engaged iu the exhilarating amuse-
inept of tripping it on the light fantastic toe. About
twelve o'clock the company proceeded to the re-
freshment rooms, after which dancing was continued
until the small hours with as much gusto as at the very
outset of tho evening. It is gratifyiug to know that the
result of this annual reunion will be most beneficial to
the funds of the noble institution on behalf of which it
was held.

A telegram from Toulouse announces that one
of the buildings of the gunpowder-magazine of that place
blew up yesterday. One workman was killed and four
others wounded.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

rAms, THURSDAY, Jan. 16.

Our Academy of Sciences has been engaged in a very
interesting and important discussion, raised by a corn-
munication from M. Reiset, who started the proposition
that the general belief held by agriculturists, that severe
frost kills the noxious insects and larva that grub in the
earth, is a fallacy. M. Emile Blanchard said that it•would
be wrong to suppose that naturalists had hitherto lived in
ignorance of the habits of larva feeding on roots, and
that it was a well-known fact that while the temperature
continued mild they remained near the surface, and
descended to greater depths as the cold became more
intense, so as always to escape the effects of frost. The
idea, therefore, that a severe winter would rid agriculture
of its greatest enemies was utterly without foundation.
M. Chevreul said that M. Reiset had no intention of
passing himself off as the discoverer of the fact alluded
to, but had done science a great service by instituting
precise experiments for the purpose of ascertaining at
what depths, according to the temperature, larva would
be found in the soil, and this had not been done before.
These experiments had been carried on for upwards
of a year, and M. Reisct had ascertained that while the
thermometer stood at 15 deg. Cent. below freezing-point
in the air, the temperature of the soil at a depth of 50
centimetres did not fall below zero. This happened, how-
ever, on an occasion when the ground was entirely covered
with snow. After these important experiments, M. Reiset
had told agriculturists that they were utterly mistaken if
they trusted to frost for the preservation of their crops
from insects, and that they must exert themselves if they
wished to rid themselves of the impending scourge. Last
autumn M. Reizet, knowing that the white worm was
still quite near the surface, caused a field to be slightly
ploughed and harrowed. Two women followed the harrow
with baskets, and collected 344 kilogs. of white worms, at a
cost of 12f. per 2l acres. The field produced an excellent
crop, while that next to it, which had been let alone, prc-
duced nothing. _ _ _

The brother of the Marquis d'Orvault has been sound
guilty and sentenced to twenty years' hard labour. \\Then
the verdict was given the mother of the condemned man
half opened the door of the court, fell on her knees, and,
lifting her hands to heaven, cried piteously, " Twenty
years' hard labour 1" and fell to the ground. It is rumoured
that the Marquis intends to apply for a divorce.
The second State Ball of the season takes place next
Wednesday. The German Charity Ball is postponed for a
week in consequence of the funeral of the late Emperor
Maximilian, which takes place at Vienna on Saturday.
AcAding to a statement contained in the daily
journals, public beneficence keeps pace with the wants of
the destitute. The twenty soup-kitchens of the Prince
Imperial distribute daily from 40,000 to 50,000 portions.
Thanks to the aid given by the Civil List, each portion,
consisting of bread, meat, soup, and vegetables, costa
only five centimes. The kitchen of St. Onen, where the
greatest wretchedness prevails, distributes gratis daily,
in the Emperor's name, upwards of 2,000 rations. His
Majesty is not satisfied with making personal sacrifice for
the succour of the poor during the rigours of winter. He
has invited the co-operation of the city of Paris, which has
ordered the establishment of additional kitchens in the
sth, 18th, 12th, 13th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements. The
city, besides, distributes fuel in large quantities at the
various offices of public charity, and the quantity of bread
supplied to families who are assisted has been increased.
The breaking up of the frost will do much towards alle-
viating the sufferings of the poor.
The death of the Duo de Luynes removed from our
midst the richest member of all the old nobility of France.
In his chateau of Dampierre, near Versailles, is to
be found a magnificent collection of paintings, sculpture,
and works of art and vertu of all kinds ; and his collection
of medals and antiquities, presented to the nation some
time since, forms a special department of the Bibliothbque
Imp6riale of Paris. Every intellectual labour found a
patron in the late duke : he aided greatly in the restora-
tion of the art of glass-staining ; he gave a sum equal to a
thousand pounds to any one who invented a new process
in photography, and threw it open to the world ; when a
famous medal was stolen from the old collection of the
Bibliothique Imperiale the duke took the trouble to
find a similar one, purchased it for the sum of seventy-
two pounds, and presented it to the director, M. Naudet,
saying that a public collection had greater claims than a

private one ; a large number of splendid books owe
their appearance to his munificent aid. The Chiiteau
of Dampierre is surrounded by admirable roads, all
made at his own and his father's expense ; one of these is
thirty leagues in length. He made more than one ex-
cursion in the East for scientific purposes, and aided
many other explorers ; and he was himself a distin-
guished artist, writer, and connoisseur, but so retiring
that he could never speak in the Chamber. Probably your
readers know that the duke's son and heir, who was a
volunteer in the Pontifical Zouaves, presented the Holy
Father with twelve rifled guns. The Pope asked how he
could acknowledge this act of devotion. "By allowing me
to give twelve more guns, in case these should not be suffi-
cient," was the prompt reply
The removal of Mr. Adams from the British Embassy
is the subject of genuine and wide-spread regret. The best
wishes of Parisians, as well.as of English:residents in Paris,
will follow him to his new post of duty at Japan, whither
he has been promoted.
Court circle gossip has it that Mdlle. Patti will be
married to the Marquis de Caux in the course of three
weeks. It may, I think, be accepted as a fact, that when-
ever the marriage takes place, it will not immediately
dissolve La Diva's connection with the stage. The Marquis
is not a very wealthy man, and the great songstress is
supposed to be pOssessed of a fortune much less than was
originally supposed.

LATEST INTELL MENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(By Atlantic Telegraph.)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16.

The Senate has passed the bill repealing Mr.
M'Culloch's authority to contract the currency.
An amendment which was introduced, prohibit-
ing any further issue of legal-tender notes, was
defeated.

NEW YORK, Jan. 16.

The Allan steamship Nestorian arrived out yes-

terday.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Closing Prices.—Gold, 1398. Sterling exchange
on London, 1091. Five-Twenty United States
Bonds, 1882, 1091; ditto, 1885, 1081. Ten-Forty
Bonds, 102-1. Illinois, 135 ; Erie, 741. Cotton—
middling upland, 161 c. Petroleum, standard white,
25c. Flour—extra State, $lO 50c. Corn—old
mixed, $1 41c.

CHINA.
(By Malta and Alexandria Telegraph.)

AEXANDRIA, Jan. 16.

Advices received here from long Kong to the
15th ult., announce that the Imperial troops under
the Footai had been severely beaten by the Nienfei
in Southern Shantung.
The cotton combination of the Canton merchants
has been broken.