The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-28 00:00:00

KING THEODORE'S SON.

Says an evening contemporary :—" It was very easy
to bring King Theodore's son to England, bat it was
not so easy to decide what should be done with him
afterwards. He could not be turned loose to gain his
livelihood, and it would have been unreasonable to ex-
peat the nation to provide for him after spending five
millions to accomplish the ruin of his father. To have
kept him in England all his days would also have been a
mistake,.for that section of society which is always on the
look out forßummun Lolls would have gone wild with delight
over a king s son, and would have soon contrived to
render him good for nothing. A plan has, therefore, been
adopted which opens up a career of usefulness to the youth-
ful "1-have-seen-the-world," and will probably satisfy his
ambition hereafter. Ho is to be carefully trained for the
Indian Civil Service. He will have to enter through
the open gates of competition, but he is said to
be a quick boy, and there will be no unusual difficulty in
rendering him fit to appear before the examiners. He is to
be brought up, it is stated, in the house of a private gentle-
man. We hope there is no mistake as to the orthodoxy of
the gentleman in question, or we shall soon hear from the
Record."

AN EXPERIMENT IN WHALE FISHING.

A novel experiment in whale fishing has been tried at
Peterhead during the past fortnight. At this season of
the year large numbers of the species of whale known by
the seamen as " finners " appear in the bay. It has
always been a matter of some surprise, and even
regret, that these fish could not be caught and
utilised in the same way as the Greenland whales.
Several attempts have from time to time been
made to capture some of them, and about thirty years
ago a Mr. Hutchinson succeeded in securing two fish,
but he does not seem to have prosecuted the undertaking
much further. A party of gentlemen belonging to the
town, headed by Captain Gray, of the Mazinthian, screw
steamer, have been making arrangements for trying what
can be made of the business with appliances specially con-
structed. The lack of success hitherto doubtless arose
from defective fishing apparatus and ignorance of what
was really required. The boats used were the common
whaling boats, and these were too light in themselves,
while the plash of the oars drove the fish away, so that it
was impossible to get near them. The party have procured
from Messrs. Hall, Aberdeen, a decked fishing•boat, which
is fitted with an engine and screw, and otherwise made
suitable for hunting the whales in the bay. The craft,
which was originally intended for the herring fishing, is
about the size of the boats used for that purpose, her engines
being from five to six-horse power. The miniature whaler
has been several times at sea, but no fish have yet been
landed. Numbers of fish have been seen, and a few have
been fired at and struck, and on one occasion when the
harpoon was fast in a fish the line broke, and the whale
escaped. These failures,however,shew the promoters of the
undertaking what is required to prosecute the fishing suc-
cessfully, and they have Leen acting upon the information
and strengthening their gear. The harpoon is made with
four "flukes" instead of two. On its point is placed a tin
case containing prussic acid, in order to make the fish die
quicker, as this species often run a long way after being
struck. Unlike the Greenland whale, they aro not
frightened by the noise of the vessel. They will swim
about almost within hail for hours, but when struck they
dart off at an immense velocity, making it almost im-
possible for a common boat to give them line or follow
them. The vessel now in use has an advantage over the
boats formerly employeil in that a harpoon-gun can be
placed at each side, and thus command a greater stretch of
the sea than can be done with the one gun placed in front
of the regular whaling-boat. This species of fish are
said to measure from thirty to eighty feet, and to yield
from six to eight tuns of oil, so that one fish would be
ample remuneration for a few days' unsuccessful work.
The oil is about two-thirds of the value of the common
whale oil.—Scotinan.

FOOLHARDY FEAT.—The Buffalo Express says
quite a sensation was created at Niagara Falls recently by
the exploit of two labourers employed in the construction
of the new suspension bridge. The main wires of the
bridge have been stretched across the river, and these
ambitious individuals, by holding to the upper cable,
walked on thelower one from bank to bank, the wind
blowing furiously at the time, to the great consternation of
the crowd which thickly gathered.

Jewellery of the value of £2,000 has been stolen
from a luggage van attached to the London and North
Western train, starting from Victoria Station, Manchester,
for Liverpool. A traveller of Messrs. Schwabe's, jewellers,
London, saw his boxes deposited in the van, and at Liver-
pool one of them with watches and jewellery of the value
of £2,000 was missing. The police are on the alert, and
the robbery is supposed to have taken place at Manchester.
No intimation was given to the railway authorities as to the
value of the contents of the boxes, and as this is required by
the bye-laws of the company to be done before they can be
made liable for special loss, Messrs. Schwabe, the proprietors
of the stolen goods, in case the property is not recovered,
will bo the sufferers.

COST OF PAUPERISM—The return shelving the
expenditure from the poor rates on in-maintenance and
out-door relief in England and Wales in the half-year
ending at Lady-day 1868 states that it amounted to
£2,626,466—viz., £788,351 for in-maintenance, and
£1,838,115 for out-door relief, being an increase of
6'B per cent. over the expenditure in the correspond-
ing half of 1867. Owing to the absence of returns
from some places it is probable that the real ex-
penditure in both periods was nearly one per cent.
greater than these figures represent. Wheat, flour, and
bread were dearer in the half-year ending a Lady-day
1868, than in the half-year ending at Lady-day 1867 ; but
meat was cheaper. Comparing these two half-years, the
returns shew that in the later (ending at Lady-day 1868)
the increase of expenditure over the earlier was 12'3
per cent. in the )'Vest Riding and in Worcestershire, 11'3
per cent. in Derbyshire, 107 in Staffordshire, 10.6 in
Bedfordshire, and 10 per cent. in Lancashire. On the
other hand, the increase did not exceed two per cent. in
Hampshire, Cheshire, and Cumberland, and was less than
one per cent. in Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire, and
in Huntingdonshire there was a small decrease. In the
metropolis there was an increase of 10'9 per cent. in so
much as lies in Surrey, and 91 per cent. in that portion
which is in Middlesex ; but in the small part which
is in Kent there was a slight decrease, leaving the
increase for the whole of the metropolitan districts B'7 per
cent.

ABSINTHE SUISSE. —We (Lancet) have analysed
a sample of what we believe to have been the veritable
Absinthe Suisse, in order to determine whether the
analysis would throw any light upon the extraordinary
effects produced by this compound on the human
frame. These effects, as is well known, are high
and even delicious excitements, followed by propor-
tionate subsequent depression, with, ultimately,
early decadence of the nervous and vital powers.
The results of the analysis were as follows :
Specific gravity, 890-2. Alcohol, absolute, 65'528 per
cent., 655'28 per 1,000 ; green essential oil, '202 per cent.,
2'02 per 1,000; sugar, gum, &c., '354 per cent., 3'54 per
1,000 ; mineral matter, '056 per cent., '56 per 1,000. Two
particulars of the analysis especially challenge observation
and remark, and we believe that, taken together, they go
far to explain the highly injurious and even deleterious
action of absinthe upon the system. First, we observe
that alcohol is present in very large amount—as large,
in fact, as in the very strongest brandy. Second, we
notice that it contains no less than 2 per 1,000 grains of
essential oil. Now, a great variety of essential oils
exert the most marked effects on the system—take, for
example, those of tea and coffee ; and amongst those
which exercise these effects we must certainly
include the oil of absinthe. Now either the alcohol or the
essential oil alone is capable of affecting powerfully the
human organism, but when they are consumed together the
body is subjected to the double power of two most potent
agents, acting mainly on the nervous system. It is there.
fore far from surprising that it should give way under
repeated doses of this but too seductive beverage. Of the inju-
rious operation of an essential oil on the economy we have
another example in oil of grain, or fusel oil. The absinthe
was specially tested for metals, such as copper and iron,
as, had they been present in considerable amount, they also,
in combination with essential oil and alcohol, would have
explained in some degree the deleterious properties of extrait
d'a,bsinthe ; trace? of iron ply, I....._avLezza.mja ki
foundt.f.-44.4111,

6,0113:„f, rt:
• 4,
VII Tat

HER MAJESTY.

The Queen, with the junior members of the
Royal Family, and their attendant suites, will
arrive in England on the 11th of September.
The Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain
his Serene Highness the Prince Leiningen, will pro-
ceed t 3 Cherbourg, and be ready to embark the
Royal party on the morning of that day. The
yacht will then cross to Portsmouth Harbour, and
the Queen and Royal Family will disembark at the
Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. They will then
travel t) Windsor, arriving at the Castle a little
after seven o'clock.

It is believed that the Queen A ill leave IVindsor
about Friday, the 25th of September, for her High-
land home at Balmoral.

711 E CA7ASTROPHE AT ABERGELE.

In the excitement attendant upon the awful
catastrophe of last week some expressions have
found place in the descriptions published by the
daily journals which do not appear to be exactly
warranted by the circumstances when these are
examined critically. The idea that the terrible loss
of life which occurred was due to " explosion" is
not well founded. The paraffin oil with which the
run-away trucks were loaded is not, at least in the
liquid form, an explosive material. It is highly
combustible, and when ignited, as it doubtless was
by the fire of the engine with which it came in
contact, it would burn with terrible rapidity. But
had the material been really explosive, instead of
a few carriages with their inmates being consumed,
the whole train must have been shattered to
pieces. Various explanations have been hazarded
in regard to the absence of cries for help from
the carriages, and the fact that no effort seems to
have been made by any one passenger to escape
from the burning vehicles. It has been suggested
by some that the inmates were stunned by the con-
cussion ; by others that they were instantaneously
rendered insensible by the anaesthetic properties of
the vapour from the oil. We do not think that the
circumstances can be altogether explained in either
of these ways. In even very violent collisions it
has never been the case that all the inmates of the
first few carriages have been so stunned by the
concussion as to be incapable of an effort at self-
preservation, and it has often happened that, the
whole force having been spent in breaking up
carriages, as occurred in this instance, the pas-
sengers have escaped with very little injury. There
must, then, have been other causes in operation.
The passengers here were grouped into two portions,
those who were consumed to ashes and those who
escaped comparatively unhurt. We must, therefore,
necessarily look upon the presence of the paraffin
oil as the essential cause of the exceptional horrors
which marked this railway accident. It has been
suggested that the unhappy victims were thrown
at the outset into a state of anaesthesia. Of the
anaesthetic properties of the vapour of paraffin oil
there can be no doubt. The oil is highly complex
and somewhat variable mixture of volatile hydro-
carbons, and though this mixture has probably
never been directly tested, some of its constituents
undoubtedly belong to the clam of anzsthetics•
Amylene, for example, is a well-recognised member
of the class, and amylene is a very common, if not
a constant, constituent of the oil. So far, then,
probabilities appear in favour of the hypothesis ; but
without venturing to dogmatise upon so difficult
subject, we are compelled to think that these proba-
bilities diminish on a closer examination. A careful
consideration of the circumstances appear to us to
indicate that the ignition of the highly inflammable
fluid mustshave followed almost instantly upon the
collision, and consequently that the unfortunate crea-
tures must have been surrounded by a sheet of flame
long before anaa sthesia could possibly have been pro-
duced. IVhat they then breathed was not the mere
vapour of the volatile hydrocarbons, but a torrent of
black smoke, charged perhaps to some extent with
hydrocArhon vapour, but deadly from its tempera-
ture, and from the products of combustion of which it
mainly consisted. Carbonic acid, and the still
more poisonous carbonic oxide, are more likely to
have been the noxious agents than the var ours 01
the oil. They must have been present in far larger
quantity, and are much more intense and rapid 10
their effects. It was probably asphyxia, in fine,
not anaesthesia, which cut short the sufferings o',
the victims. But this is not all. The cause 01
death, and the explanation of the horrible stillness
which characterized the inmates of the leading esr:
riages, may be reasonably ascribed, we think, la
some cases, to the shock which the sudden exPo"
sure of the entire body to flame would inevitably
occasion. The impression upon the nervous centres
thus produced would be a powerful agent in rapidly
extinguishing vitality. And there is nothing 10"
consistent with recorded experience in this Vey('
In our journal of the 17th of January'
1863, Dr. Buzzard described minutely the appear
antes presented by six children who had been
taken out dead from the top room of a house v(13104
bad been burnt down. They had all been found
lying in bed in a posture of repose, except one/
who was on the floor. The condition of the boo
showed unmistakably that the extensive burns °ll,
them had been inflicted during life, and signs °L
a b
suffocation were absent. Yet they had made,a f,
one doubtful exception, no effort to escape, an
their countenances bore no sign of a struggle for
existence. On such a point as the degree of Oa,
sciousness which would exist under the circuol
stances of violent death of this description it is at.
possible to speak with absolute confidence, but °a
the the whole we believe that a human body suddent!
wrapped in flames under the conditions which gr._
tamed at Abergele would have its vitality exll'll
guished with extreme rapidity. And this 003,4
amount of comfort is all that we can extrit....t,
from an event which is sickening to dwell upon'
7he Lancet.

THE THREATENED CAB STRIKE. A. great
amount of public inconvenience, resulting !NO
the cabmen's agitation against the railway privileged titb
system, is likely to arise in the streets of London to-Ilig7i
than has been experienced since the agitation commence:l;
Tho notice, directing "all cabs to be home at seat,
o'clock," on the occasion of the Cumberland-market eiet;
jug some three weeks since was but litttle attended to,
the
movement not being then very generally taken UP viAti
trade. Up to last week, however, 4,762 non-privileged ""„:1
ver5,1,132 non-privileged masters, 53 privileged drivers'
ad
42 privileged masters, in all representing 3,877 plata, llani
signed a guarantee not to ply at or near the railway
wringetat-
until the privileged cabs are withdrawn thereforra- n
the past week large additions have been made to the togh-t,.;
tures of both masters and men, so that it is expected
at least 4,000 cabs will be withdrawn from the streets
ri
night about seven o'clock, in order to enable proprie,t°o
and drivers to attend the " Great final meeting," to be P-ter
iu the Agricultural Hall at eight o'clock. As the Je'les
of the Cabmen's Association to the railway couVellso
sent a fortnight ago has produced no effect tending to
Do
amicable settlement of the dispute, it is more than Preltill
a strike will be decided on to-night. What its form ;is
be it is impossible to say. Some masters suggest keeP
all cabs at home until half-past ten every morning, 13°0
to render the conveyance of the public to the early tilter
difficult. Others are for keeping the cabs at home taller
four o'clock in the afternoon, while a small section
trade advocate entire cessation from ordinary cab ;tr of
for a certain period. Whatever may be the decie`3"blio
to-night's meeting in the direction of a strike the Pu
will be the sufferers.
pro"
IIOW TO INCREASE YOUR OWN RENT.--i'
.diog
perty owner of South London has been detectsd ON ,
a clumsy trick during the past week. He had induce r'
certain capitalist to examine a house he had for Ple'Bo.4
presenting the rent to be £l5 a year more than had
0
actually obtained for it, to back up which story Tbe
persuaded his tenant to act in collusion with him' a er
capitalist had almost completed the purchase, at air re
cssive price, believing that ho would obtain a a„igoo,
turn, when his pro3pective tenant rushed into the
and made a clean.breastpf his own perfidy, acknowle:bog
that he had been a party to a deception, of which 13civer1
now ashamed. The tenant had made the timely disc ,or
that he would be compelled to pay the extra £l5 per or
to the new landlord, according to his own stateiaaf 9,
be liable to an action for assisting in the Nvorkiag
fraud.—South, London Press. der
house, IVe
house, in the occupation of Messrs. Cope Brotber,,s'9,3 de"
d n esd ay evening a large cior
manufacturers, in Sidney-street East, Liverpool,
stroyed by fire.

ate:

,ers of the
suites, will
'ben

.t, Captain
1, will pro-
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lay. The
cbour, and
)ark at the
r will then
de a Halt)

e Windsor
her High-

GEL E.

the awful

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be exactly
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it came in
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help from
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suggested
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operation.
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those who
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al horrors

has been
re thrown
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y complex
de hydro-
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zsthetiag•
I member
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r to us to
laminable
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the mere
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tempera-
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far larger

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circuit'

it is jilt:
~ but (1)"
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ty eitiljii
his sal3 I extract
1 upoil."

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