The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-22 00:00:00

HARVEST PROSPECTS.

The fact that a crisis is upon us, settrco'y second in im-
portance to that of May, 1866, is not to be concealed. We
are threatened with insufficient supplies of food for man and
beast. Wo say threatened, because recent experiments with
electricity go to show that vegetation may be sustained by that
agency alone; and, moreover, there is the theory of electrical
diffusion with rank vegetation, within the tropics, and of mag-
netic contraction, with little or no vegetation at the poles.
According to the electrical .theory, nothing that has yet
happened from the drought is irremediable; while
the ignoring- of that theory loaves us the alterna-
tive of the alarmists. The reactionists in grain
prices, the Bulls of Mark-lane; foresee no end of trouble,
and talk widely of wheat getting into ear in an unsatisfactory
s'ate, of beans coining into full flower at 20 inches height,
and of clods as hard as burned brick. Nay more, the
alarmists speak of the drying off of wheat straw before the
ears are well filled ; their hypothesis being that after the
demise of the straw rain becomes as itioperaive for the
expansion of the ears ai for the lengthening or the heighten-
ing of a brick wall. The hypothesis is plausible ;
but unless plausibility is to rank with moral certainty and
demonstration, it cannot ho convincing to well-
ordered inif:ds. At present the soil, like our bodies, is
in a negatively electrical contli ion, inert, as wo our-
selv,s are dal] and lazy; but let the thunder-storm come,
and immediately our vigour will be regained, and vegeta-
tion, as regards the wheat ai.ll barley fields, may perf. ct
that which was so well begun. Nu cleat were thunderstorm
to he long deferred, recovery may soon exceed the power
of moderate rah, ; unless we are to accept the theory that
by rain, without thunder, the positively electrical condition
of the soil may be r, stored. In some of the rural churches
prayer has been offered for rain. We trust it mey soon full
wi. h some abunditiC3 ; but meanwhile there is to justifica-
tien for Only three weeks ago the fairest harvest
respects ever known were recognised; wo were to receive
bountifully, and in so doing were to be enabled to recover
firm tll3 depression that has long possessed every branch
of industry. Let us still be hopeful.-71te Bulltonist.

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

....-

The Times of India of May 26 gives the following itemi
of India news :

rho fracture of the cable of the Indo-European Tele.
graph, between Mussendon and Guadur, has been repaired,
and the communication is now perfect. The date of the
latest public telegram received in Bombay from Great
Britain is th,t 21st of May. Private telegrams up to the
22nd have been received.

Calcutta and Madras have adopted addresses of condo-
lence with her Majesty on the attempt on the life of the
Duke of Edinburgh;

Cattle plague of a most virulent and deadly form has
broken out in the district surrounding Calcutta.
It is runioured that Colonel Mead, C. 5.1., will be al,-
pointed as Resident at Hydrabad.
It is expected that the inquiry into the affairs of the
Old Bank of Bombay will commence on the Ist June.

Mr. Hamilton Maxwell, of the firm of Nicol and Co.,
has been appointed a director of the Bank of Bombay.
A memorial to the Supreme Government and the
Secretary of State is being signed by the shareholders in
the Bank of Bombay, piotesting against the Bank of
Bengal being allowed to maintain a separate agency in
this city.

A national testimonial of $31,000 bas just been
presented to Mr. William Lloyd Garrison.

Addresses of sympathy have been voted at Cal•
cutta and Madras to the Queen on account of the attempted
assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh.

On Saturday, William Sadler, aged 12 years,
slipped from a timber raft near Southwark Bridge and
was drowned. This makes the third child of the same
family that has lost its life in the same way.

Mr. Oharles Dickens has very kindly given 1,700
dole. to the Perkin (United States) Institution for the Blind.
The money is to be laid out for the production of 250 copies
of the OM Curiosity Shop, printed in raised letters for the
use of the blind.

The Ordnance Select Committee have made their
report on "coiled" wrought iron inner tubes for guns, which
has just been issued. The committee recommend an ex-
tensive conversion of our present cast iron smooth-bored
guns into rifled guns, with linings of coiled iron, for secon-
dary purposes of defence.

A few nights since a painter, named Francis
Kelly, residing in Netherfield•road, North Everton, a
suburb of Liverpool, ran into a butcher's shop, and, seizing
a knife off a block, plunged it twice into his left breast,
and then ran down the street. He was with some difficulty
conveyed to the Great Northern Hospital, where he died
from the self-inflicted wounds.

The Duke of Edinburgh (amongst other noble gifts
made by him on the eve of his departure from Australia)
presented a splendid gold watch and chain to Mr. William
Vial, who had the courage and good fortune to be the first
to seize on O'Farrell, the assassin. A public testimonial
was als ).to be presented to Mr. Vial. The Duke had shown
him much attention, and had him at dinner on board the
Galatea.

Is IT LAWFUL TO PLAY CRICKET ON A SUNDAY?--
In his recently-published work upon "Saints and Sinners,*
Dr. Doran states that " at the present time cricket is the
only game which can lawfully be played in England on a
Sunday." Either Dr. Doran or the Leominster magis-
trates must be in error, for the latter have just fined four
boys a shilling each and costs, with the alternative of
seven days' imprisonment, for playing at cricket on Sun•
day week.

A meeting of the inhabitants of Liverpool "in
favour of the continued connection of the United Church
of England and Ireland with the State," was held on
Saturday afternoon. The meeting was very crowded, and
Mr. Horsfall, M.P., Mr. Turner, M.P., and Mr. Graves,
M.P., with the other prominent members of the party,
were, on appearing upon the platform, received with voci-
ferous cheers. Resolutions favourable to the object for
which the meeting was called were adopted.

AN Ox ATTACKED WITH HYDROPHOBIA.—An
ox was attacked a few days back with hydrophobia at
Ostabut-Asme (Basses-Pyrenees), and spread alarm
throughout the neighbourhood. The first symptoms were
observed while the animal was in a field, but it was got
into a shed, the doors of which were stoutly barricaded.
It broke everything inside, but was at length shot dead
through a window. The owner of the beast does not
know whether it had been bitten by a mad dog, or whether
the disease was spontaneous.

In committee on the Regulation of Railways Bill,
Mr. Leeman will move that companies stall not, except in
cases of special insurance with them, be liable to pay more
than £4OO for a first-class passenger; £3OO for a second;
and .£2OO for a third ; any sum so payable is to be
in addition to the claim made under an assurance. The
insurance clause which Mr. Leeman proposes to insert pro-
vides that any passenger may demand to be insured by the
company at whose office ho is booked, the maximum amount
of insurance being £3,000 for a first-class passenger, £2,000
for a second, and £l,OOO for a third, the premiums for the
same being ls., 91., and GI. respectively. The compen-
sation for injuries is to b 3 proportionate to the injury
sustuiued.