The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-13 00:00:00

THE PLANET MERCURY.

It affords a a high idea of the 'watchfulness of
the ancient astronomers that they should have de-
tected the existence of the planet Mercury. It
is so close to the sun as never to be seen save
in the full glare of morning or evening twilight.
Laplaca says—" A long series of observations
was doubtless necessary to recognise the identity
of the two bodies which were seen alternately
in the morning and evening to recede from and
approach the sun ; but at length, as one never
presented itself until the other had disappeared, it
was concluded that it was the same planet which
oscillated on each side of the sun." Yet, as the
planet Venus was known by the two names Hesperus
and Phosphorus, so Mercury was for a long time re-
cognised by the Greeks under the two names of Apollo
the God of Day, and Mercury the God of Thieves,
" who profit by the evening," says Arago in explana-
tion, "to commit their misdeeds." Yet it is fully
as „likely that the name Mercury was assigned
to the planet on account of the rapidity of its
movements and the difficulty of detecting it. In
our latitudes the plinet is very seldom visible to
the naked eye. It is related that Copernicus, who
died at the age of 70, complained towards the end
of his life that though he had often tried he had
never been able to detect the planet, " in conse-
quence, probably," says Gassendi, " of the thick
vapours which ascend above the horizon on the
banks of the Vistula, waere the illustrious astro-
nomer resided." The author of this paper has
twice seen the planet wite the naked eye in the
course of this year, and once in 1863. However,
Mercury fully deserves the comment of an old writer
(named Goad) in 1686, who described the planet
as "a squinting lacquey of the sun, seldom show-
ing his head in these parts, as if he were in debt."
Yet we learn from Lepsius's " Chronologie der
2Egypter" that the Egyptians had watched the planet
(which they considered sacred to the God Horns)
from the earliest times. The Indians associated
Mercury with Buddha; and the tribe of the Ase-
dites, in Western Arabia, directed their worship
exclusively to this planet. The astronomer Ptolemy,
in the ninth book of the " Almayest," records as
many as fourteen accurate observations of Mercury,
extending back 261 years from our era, and be-
longing in part to the systematic labours of the
ancient Chaldean astronomers. The earliest of
these observations is dated in the year of Nabonasser
494, or sixty years after the death of Alexander the
Great, on the morning of the 19th day of The
Egyptian month Thoth. In the observations, the
planet's place was carefully assigned with reference
to two fixed stars, neither of which, we feel certain,
has ever been visible in our letitudes in such full
twilight as always surrounds the planet Mercury.—
Cornhill Magazine.

A notification has been issued from the War
Department announcing that the Ordnance Select
Committee report that they have examined, with
much interest, the drawings of the mechanism of
the new French breech-loading cannon, communi-
cated to the British Government by the Emperor of
the French, together with a note which enters fully
into particulars of the rifling and breech closing.
The chief peculiarities presented by the rifling are :
—The bottom groove is continued through the
powder chamber, as a guide for the shot in
loading. The grooves are all deeper at the
breech than at the muzzle. The bottom grooke is,
however, shallowed at the breech end of •16in.
and -27 in, while it is deepest in the gun there
of •2-lin. The grooves have all been made less
deep since the pattern of the 16in. gun (which is
the earliest) was fixed, and in the 19in. gun (which
is the latest) are both narrower and less deep than
the others, which tends to show that experience has
convinced the French, as it had previously convinced
us, that the studs were made unnecessarily large.
There is an arrangement on all the guns to prevent
the lanyard being pulled until the captain of the
gun is satisfied that the breech is closed ; this con-
sists of a catch, or loquet, acted on by a spiral
spring, which closes the opening, so that a knot on
the lanyard cannot pass until the catch has been
forced down by hand. The bodies of the gum;
are of cast-iron, strengthened externally with steel
hoops.

The iron armour plated screw steamship Achilles,
26, was placed on Tuesday iu Keyhaca steamyard,
for the purpose of being advanced to the first divi-
sion at Hamoaze.
At the receat meeting of the American Board
(Presbyterian) of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
the following officers were elected for the ensuing year
President —Mark Hopkins, D.D., LL.D. Vice President
—Hon. William E. Dodge. Prudential Committee —ChM'
Stoddard, Nehemiah Adams, D.D., Augustus C. Thomr
son, D.D., Walter S. Griffith, Hon. Alpheus Hardy, Hon.
Liuus Child, Rev. Albert Barnes, Robert R. Booth, D.D.I
Abner Kingman, James M. Gordon, Rufus Anderson, D.P.,
Ezra Farnsworth. Secretaries for Correspondence—Re,v•
Selah D. Treat, George W. Wood, D.D., and N. Ll'
Clark, D.D. Recording Secretary—Rev. John 0. Means,
Treasurer —Langdon S. Ward. Auditors—Joseph S•
Ropes and the Hon. Thomas H. Russell. The Second.
Convention of the General Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America will be held in Pittsburg,
commencing on the 12th of November. At the last meet-
ing of the American Bible Society, eight new auxiliaries
were recognized and a large number of books granted,
besides $5OO to auxiliaries at the South. $5,440 were
appropriated for printing Arabic Scriptures in Beyrout,
foe work in Italy, and for printing Mictovesian Scriptures

Honolulu.
The fountain on the grounds of Seth B. Hunt,
at Bennington, Vermont, cost $25,000, and is the highest,
but one in the world. It is drawn from the hills througu
a six-inch pipe, throwing a stream 168 feet, presenting the
appearance at a short distance of a single silver bar. The
grounds about it are thrown open to the public on Tues-
day and Friday evenings.
A California correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial, who has been travelling on the Central Pad-
fib Railroad, says "it costs ten cents a mile (in coin) to
i
ride on it, and if you lender your fare in greenbacks, and
insist on their reception, the conductor halts and pushes
you off the train. A few days ago a passenger offered
greenback dollar for a ride of ten miles. He was promptly
ditched."
The propriety of changing the site of Yale col".
lege to more ample grounds is being discussed. The salt
of the present location would give a net profit of $200,00
over what it would cost to buy a new and better one'
Hillhouse-avenue and the Gerard.Halleck estate are tbs
most eligible situations spoken of. The alumni Ye/
naturally oppose the change.
The Watchman and Reflector says One of
the gratifying. items of the day is the association of con'
verted Jews in Chicago, under the name of the Western
Christian Brotherhood. The plan is to put in immediate
operation a system of evanzelical labour, consisting
preaching, mission schools, tract distribution, &c., &c., 121
which the Jewish population may be effectually reach° '
Chicago alone has not less than ten thousand Hebrew's
within its limits, and there are great numbers in other
Western cities."
The Citizen newspaper has been purchased
Mr. Peter B. Sweeney for seventy-five thousand dollare•
The well-known "Agate" (Whitlaw Reid), of the C'.131
cinnati Gazette, has connected himself with the editor,:
staff of the New York Tribune. Philadelphia has a 104
paper, the Daily Globe, with T. W. Knox for its New V'
correspondent.
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every packet.

Births. ife
BOURNE-On the 12th inst., at Shooter's-hill-road, the -
of C. W. Bourne, Esq., of a son. .fe of
JENYNS— On the 29th ult., at Toronto, Canada, the NO-
Colonel Jenyns, C. 8., 13th Hussars, of a daughter' f
TROOST —On the 10th inst., at Fallowfield, the wife °
Troost, of a son.

ges .
KNIGHT —WILDEN—OMarrian
the 11th hist , at St. Dlll2 CbV- ga-
pe], Samuel Knight, of 16, Maitland-park
verstock-hill, to Helen, eldest daughter of the 1003',
Wilden, Esq., of Leighton-road, and Mark-lane, cl J;,e,
O'CONNELL —PATTERSON—On the 9th inst., at S.
cre3if'cVgditl
Bayswater, Thomas O'Connell, of St. Mark's-lreetf
Notting-hill, to Amelia Patterson, of Leicester-0
Leicester-square.

Deaths. Sok,
CLARKE—On the 11th inst., Harvey William Clarke, -
of The Rookbry, Lower Tooting, aged 42.
.... 4,06
MATHEW— On the 9th inst,, Captain Wm. 110111 Ata"
late 45th Regt., aged
MERCER —On the 9th lust ,at Cowley, near Exetr, ~,,I
ral Alexander C. Mercer, Oulonel-Commands't 114)
Artillery, aged 85. 1,11000;
WRITTINGIIMS—On the 11th inst., at 85, Q 1100135.- 1 x •
terrace, W., Charlotte Anne, wfe of Major-Genere'
_.
Whittingham, 0 8., aged 381 --------"'---

WS,
London : Printed and Published by WELLIAIA AND,,1113
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tag SUN 03333, o.°
`. .1 of
Strand" in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the 03111
Middlesext=qriday, Nciirember 13, 1806,