The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-03 00:00:00

STEEPL

Carmarthen
Birmingham 11,12
Lincoln l9
Burrow '2o
Boston
MA]
Liverpool Spring 3
Shrewsbury Spring.— 10
Grand Military
War vviek l7
Chertsoy 2O
AP.

pia rgate 23
West Somerset 2l
Cheltenham ..... 26
Southdown Hunt
Cambridge
Grand National Hunt I Knighton
(Bodford)
Artillery(Woolwich) 3 tfambleden
Broil-110y
Aldershot
Hendon
OCTOBER.
Bromley 1 1 Ealing lb
DEC EM BER.
St. Albans 1
Kingsbury

THE ROTUNDA CLUB AND
EXCHANGE,

THREE DOORS FROM BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE, SURREY SIDE.
OPENED FOR BUSINESS ON SATURDAY, FEB. 1,
Annual Subscription Five Shillings.

Responsible Bookmakers desiring Stands should apply
immediately (as the number will be limited) to the Secre-
ary, 3, Black friars-roal.

MINING INTELLIGENCE.

THE COMSTOCK LODE.—flowr MUCH OF THE
COMSTOCK IS WORKED.—Comparatively few people out-
' side of the State of Nevada are possessed of any definite
sort of idea of the size and extent of the Comstock ledge,
and what proportion of it has been and still is being
worked. In fact, very few of us even in this city, dwell-
ing directly over the great lode, have a realizing concep-
tion of the extent of the mining excavations beneath our
feet, or of the amount of shaft, tunnel, and drift work
which has been done in prospecting in every direction
throughout the vast body of vein matter in search of the
much-coveted streaks of pay ore. Those of our commu-
nity, however, who delve with pick and shovel, or whose
daily avocation leads them down among the deep mines,
hundreds of feet beneath the foundation of our city, can
' hardly fail to have a fair appreciation of the subject. The
Comstock is pretty definitely traced, located, and compa-
ratively understood for the distance of over three miles,
including that portion from Cedar Hill, south, running
under this city, Gold Hill, and for a limited distance be-
yond. As to the width and depth of the lode, those are
two points which the profoundest experts, we believe,
have never thus far been able legally to decide. Front
present indications, it is fair to presume that it continues
down through the crust of the earth into the molten
bowels thereof, but the width is not so easily disposed of.
The peculiar hard diarite or "country rock," forming the
body of Mount Davidson, is generally conceded to be the
west wall of the ledge, but the precise location of tho east
wall has over boon a subject of legal controversy. w,
shall not presump'uously attempt here to locate and per-
manently fix that mythetical institution, but will sim-
ply. state that our own observation makes the real
Comstock ledge from 100 to 800 feet in width, being
narrower in some localities than in others. The vein
matter in the boundaries wo have described is composed
of
quartz,nd "horses," and other spe-
ciescolafyro% ems,
kformation, the vast majority
a descriptions porphy-ry,
of which does not come under the head of pay ore. This
latter desirable commodity
lying
ledge,
nua in
ne set of streaks
which or bodiescannot be
of alleasilzceusl,attehde
or depended upon to a certainty ; thus it is that the famous
Mexican
mine, which was once considered worth millions,
failed altogether to yield pay ore two years ago. There
wore two rich streaks in it, which narrowed as they were
sunk upon, from thirty to fortyfeet in width, until, at the
depth of less than four hundred feet, they gave out en-
tirols. Tho mine at present is like a nut with the kernel
extracted—the shell remains. The Ophir has a similar
history, and the Gould and Curti, once considered the
leading representative of the Comstock mines, has little
left to brag of. The future hopes of the mines wa have
mentioned all lio in the development of new bodies of ore
unknown at present writing. Their locations and pros-
pects are excellent. The pilneipal bodies of ore which
have been, and still are being, worked this side of the Di-
vide, are tho to included in ill) Savage,
hue, and Nor-
cross, and Chollar-Potosi These great bodies are
thus far continuous, that portion cropping ant at the Gould
and Curry descondi* thence with a dip to the south
through the Savage and into the Hale and Norcross, while
the other portion crops out at the surface of the Chollar
Potosi Mine, and is known as the 011 Medlar croppings.
The space included by these three mines is about 2,ZiO 0
feet in length of tho ledge, and during the last five o
six years many hundreds of thousands of tons of ore hay
been taken therefrom, the mining having been earried t
a depth of nearly 1,000 feet. Let it be borne in min
that the pay ore even at this point does not constitute one
half of the real extent of the vein itself, only Coe
streaks or todies of pry ore are followed and mined
out.— Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise.

13PIRIT:OPITHE PUBLIO JOURNALS.

—Should-aiCyloOTarise twit the present discussion in the
French Legislative Body on the Press Bill, France will in
no small degree, observes the Times, be indebted to M.
Thiers. We have before us the long speech by which the
lively statesman of the July Monarchy by turns thrilled
and edified, exalted and amused his colleagues on Thurs•
day, and it is wonderful to see what amount of sound
argument he contrived to muster under a vast mass
of commonpla4 aid irrelevant illustration. • From his
quotation of Pliny the Elder as to the physical
helplessness -of man in contrast with the brute crea-
tion over which he is by his intellect destined
to exercise sovereign sway, from the wonders
achieved by steam and electricity in everything
connected with locomotion and the transmission
of intelligence, creating a craving for information
proportionate to our means of gratifying it, M. Thiers is
led to the establishment of his truism—that man thinks :
hence thought and its utterance, speech and the press,
must be free. He examines the causes which for the last
three-quarters of a century have opposed the application
of this obvious maxim to France, and, what is more to the
purpose, he urges the reasons why the application should
no longer be delayed. Self-government, he is convinced,
bas became a necessity for all nations, and it* must be
grounded on individual liberty, electoral liberty, Parlia.
mentary liberty, and Ministerial responsibity ; in the front
of all which liberties, he, of course, places a free press.
Against this freedom he sees very serious obstacles
in tho bill, inasmuch as it does not satisfactorily
define the offences punishable by law, and refers
them to a tribunal which is under the hand
of the Government, the judgments of which are
beyond the corrective influence of public opinion. M.
Thiers thinks that in cases in which discussion is allowed
it should be unlimited. His exceptions are the great prin-
ciples of social morality, the private life and character of
individuals, and the person of the chief of the State where
there is a responsible Ministry. For what concerns the
public acts of public men there ought to be no restriction
or hindrance whatever, and he refers to his own words
during the discussions of the law of September, 1835,
when as a Minister he allowed anyone the most unreserved
freedom, not only " to discuss the acts of the Ministers,
but also to allege any facts, true or false, against them,
to excite against them hatred, contempt, and all
other unjust feelings." M. Thiers shews himself aware of
the necessities pressing on the Imperial Government.
" Two or three years ago," he said, addressing M. Rouher
and his colleagues, "you looked down upon us from the
height of your infallibility, but the Crimean and Italian
wars, the events in Germany, and the Mexican catastrophe
have done away with that infallibility, and those liberties
the bare mention of which called down upon us the charge
of insanity, have become a necessityfor you no less than
for ourselves. Let them, then, be real, full, ungrudged
liberties, for it is only by the freest gifts that true
gratitude can he secured. It would be difficult for
the Emperor's Government to resist the force of this
benevolent advice ; for the events enumerated by
M. Thiers have rendered personal government in France
a difficult task, and it would be vain to deny the existence
of dissatisfaction and misgiving. The• French are an
imaginative people. They must be governed by prestige,
and moral ascendancy can only be grounded on uninter-
rupted success. These are no longer the times in which
•
public opinion can be carried by mere self-assertion. There
may not be much change in the political situation. France
may be as prosperous at home and as much respected
abroad as she has been at any time within the last fifteen
years ; but her moral uneasiness is undeniable. Faith is
shaken. The word " impossible " has found its way back
into the French dictionary.

The Post has an article on the subject of the injunction
_ssued by Vice-Chancellor Wood restraining the Metropo-
litan Railway from declaring or paying a dividend except
out of the profits. In the opinion of our contemporary
it is the most influential movement that has been ini-
tiated, and the most important decision that has yet been
given, in railway matters. It is the first instance of a
board being pounced upon before the fact, and actually
brought to a stand-still, and forced to justify what they
propose to do, instead of only having to defend wh.-.t they
had done ; and it is the first occasion on which it has been
discovered by actual experiment that a shareholder has a
stand-point from which he can exercise a real and opera-
tive control over the oligarchy which administers his pro-
perty. Hitherto, as we all know, shareholders, when
deluded, robbed, and impoverished, have been content
with doing little more than appealing to the public by ex-
hibiting themselves in the very common but not very
satisfactory position of crying over spilled milk. Now
they have acted on the proverb, " Prevention is better
than cure."

The decision given in the Common Pleas in the case of
Grisselv. Bristowe and another does not give perfect satis-
faction to the Daily :."lews. If upheld, our contemporary
is afraid it will deal a heavy blow to usage altogether. The
plaintiff, Mr. Grissel, was a holder of shares in Overend,
Gurney, and Co. at the time of the stoppage of that com-
pany, and, wishing to get quit of the liability (2.35 upon
each £59 share), sold them in the market at a heavy 1038.
In accordance with the ordinary course of business, they
passed through the hands of a dealer or jobber, who
practically acts as middleman between buyer and seller.
At the time of the settling day the dealer (Mr. Bristowe,
in this case) gave the names of the transferees who had
agreed to purchase the shares. The transfers were
regularly executed by Mr. Grissel, but the books
being closed the transaction could not be completed.
The plaintiff being thus retained on the register of share-
holders, had to pay a heavy call, and sought his remedy
against the dealer through whom his shares were
sold. The court decided in the plaintiff's favour.
Should the decision be confirmed, the effect will simply
be to prevent all dealings in shares not fully paid up, save
by private contract, through a deed signed by each party
in addition to the usual form of transfer. It is nnneces-
eary to enlarge upon the delay and expense that will be
incurred by this system. Practically, it will result in the
entire exclusion of many classes of shares from themarket.
No dealer will care to transact business in a property by
which, from no want of prudence on his part, he may be
unwittingly involved in a heavy liability. Hence, when
any purchase or sale may be effected, it will be hampered
by nearly as many diffic ilties as the transfer of real pro-
perty. Until very rec.ntly investors have often preferred
to buy shares, since in time of need they could easily be
realised in the market. The recent decision will take this
advantage away. The dealer in shares will not incur the
risks to which he is now exposed according to the Court of
Common Pleas, nor will the broker be inclined to do busi
ness without adequate security.

What, asks the Herald, is the first and cardinal propo.
sition of our extreme educational reforthers ? Compulsory
local rating where required, and locally administered.
Yesterday this was to be permissive, to-day it is to be
compulsory. Who is to decide upon the necessity? In
the first instance the local board. In the case of their

neglect, some central authority—the Home Minister; the
Minister of Education—is to bring them to task for their
inactivity. Anyhow, the school is to be founded and sup-
ported, and people on tit° spot must pay for it. But people
on the spot are members of the Church of England,
Boman Catholics, Independents, Weslcyans, Baptists,
everything. What, then, is to be the colour of the reli-
gious teaching ? An invisible green, is the reply of the
Radicals. There is to be no tangible religious teaching at
all. The miswer is not only logical but inevitable. Either
the denominational school would soon cease to be such, in
which case it would also soon cease to receive voluntary
support; or it would require to be supplemented by
another, which would in time, as we have shewn, over-
shadow and probably destroy it. Let there be no miscon-
ception. We are asked to abolish what we have got,
and substitute in its place compulsory rates and seem

The Standard much regrets that there should be any
delay in the consecration of a new bishop for Natal. As a
matter of common sense there need be no difficulty what-
ever about it. It is as competent for Bishop Gray and his
suffragans to consecrate a new bishop as for the Wesleyans
to elect a president of their Conference, or for the Presby-
terians to appoint their moderator. It is a purely spiritual
act, and in no one respect trenches upon the prerogatives
of the Crown. The South African Church is as much a
voluntary body as any dissenting community in the empire.
It acquires no status whatever from the Crown, and is
free from all the restrictions which such recognition would
t nw„ with the
otherwise impose upon it. It is alm eretritlin
question to interpose the statute
of
George
never contemplated the state of things
established by the
Privy Council judgment and recognised by the action of
the Crown consequent thereupon. It obviously relates
solely to the consecration of bishops under the license of
the Crown to sees erected by the Crown. It becomes
obsolete when applied to cases in which the Crown
declares that it has no power to grant a bee, and no dispo.
salon to grant its license, or to take any action in th,
matter whatever.
- -

Along with the Lord Chief Justice and the general
audience, the Teegraph marvels that such a story as that
of the Countess d'Alteyrac could be told in court without
instant contradiction. The counsel seemed to recite his
case with ahi►rl of forensic bewilderment at its character,
and the jud3.o heard it with the evident air of one puzzled
t,, make out why, if there was an answer, the case had not
.en arranged ; and, if there was no answer, why, for
Lventy times more reasons, the case had not been
settl, d. The tone of the court positively forced the
counsel to adjourn for a new attempt at compromising a
quarrel of such pitiable family and individual dishonour.
I:iglit or wrong, regular or irregular, technical or equi-
table, could a lady who had for fifteen years lived faithfully
with one who has fallen heir to a vast fortune, be turned
out with abrupt harshness into the world, and no explana-
tion be forthcoming, except the difference of the French
ILw and the English law ? If ever woman thought that
she could dare to dispense with that contract which is
demandedt by religion as well as by earthly laws, let her
read her error in the romance of the Queen's Bench on
Saturday. •