The Sun. — London, England, 1862-06-02 00:00:00

TREAT RE-ROYAL, HAY MA RKET Lessee Mr. J B. liuckstone. THIS EVENING, a Household Picture, under Two Lights, entitled THE WIFE'S PORTRAIT. Mr. Howe, Mr. W. Farren, Mrs. C. Young, &c. After which, at half-past 7, will be performed (138th time) OUR AMERICAN COUSIN. Asa Trenchard, Mr. Buck stone ; Lord Dundreary, Mr. Sothern. Followed by a new Spanish Ballet entitled LA CONTRA BAN.DISTA. Senora Perea Nena, Senor Ricardo, and the Corps de Ballet To conclude with MY HUSBAND'S GHOST. OYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. AA , Sole Lessee and Manager —Mr. Edmund Falconer. 171st Night of the continuous run of "Peep o'Day." THIS EVENING, PEEP O'DAY ; or, Savourneen Deelish. Messrs. Walter Lacy, Addison, Charles Selby, Geo. Melville, and Edmund Falconers Mrs. D. P. Bowers, Miss Clara Weston, and Miss M. Hudson. After which, a new musical, pictorial, poetical, and ballet Interlude, entitled KILLARNEY. Miss Anna Whitty and Miss Lydia Thomson. To conclude with the new farce entitled I COULDN'T HELP IT. Characters by Mr. Addison, Mr. Warlow, and Miss Lydia Thompson. Acting Manager—Mr. F. B. Chatterton. Prices as usual. Doors open at half -past 6, to commence at 1 , . Box-office open daily from 11 tills. . Commence a 7 _ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. Lessee, Mr A. Harris. THIS EVENING, TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. After which. at Eight o'clock, LOUIS XI. Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean. Supported by Messrs. J. F. Cathcart, B. Potter, Everett, Shore, R. Cathcart, Raymond, &c. ; Miss Chapman. and Miss N. Chapman. To conclude with THRICE MARRIED. Commence at 7. No hall-price. NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.--. Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster. THIS EVENING, a new domestic drama, entitled DOT : Messrs. J. L. Toole, Emery, Billington, Stephenson ; Miss I. Keeley, Miss Woolgar, Miss H. Simms, Miss K. Kelly, and Mrs. H. Marston. To be followed by THE OCTOROON. Messrs. Dion Boncicault, Emery, Jamison, Billington, P. Bedford, Phillips, Stephenson, Powell, Romer ; qrs. Billing - ton, Mrs. EL 319 '" ston, Miss Latimer, and Miss Denvil. Commence at 7. C A NTERBURY HALL AND FI NE ARTS GALLERY. The miraculous STECKEL at a quarter to 11. Grand Selections from " Lucrezia by Miss Rus sell, with Band and full Chorus, conducted by Mr. Jongh mans. Great success of UNSWORTII, in his celebrated Stump Speech " Or any other man " (the original), and EUGENE, In his Burlesque Singing and D ancing, at Ten o 'clock. JOE BROWN, the renowned American Prize Jig Dancer, for a few weeks only. Also the following Comic favourites —Mr. Randall, Mr. H o lli n gsworth, Mr. J. G. Forde, and Mi ss Caroline Parkes in her new entertainment. Messrs. Morton and Stanley beg to inform visitors to Lon don during the Exhibition that the GALLERY of PAINT INGS well be Open, free. between the hours of Twelve and Two o'clock on and after Monday. nrilE OXFORD, 6, OXFORD-STREET.— E ve ry Evening.—The unrivalled Ethiopian Come diau a, Rumsey and Newcomb' s Mi nstrels, EUGENE an d - 13 N sWORTH (the original "or any other man"), in addition to a host of other comic talent.—Operatic Selections and the cantatas of the "Jolly Beggars" and " MAY DAY " (sup ported by the entire company. Full Band and Chorus. — Musical Director, Mr. F. Tonghmans. Ball, 6d.; Balcony and Stalls, ls. ; Private Boxes. 10$. 6d. In rehearsal, Verdi's "Great International Exhibition Cantata," and will be produced shortly. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. Tis DAY.—Monaing, 4b. 40m.—Afternoon, 4h. 58m. To-MORROW. -Morning, sh. 16m.—Afternoon, sh. 35m. NOTICE. All remittances are, henceforth, to be made to Mr. JOHN CHAPLIN, at The Sun office, 112, Strand, who has been appointed, by the Lord Chancellor, Reeeiver and Manager of The Sun newspaper, and the outstanding debts due in respect thereof. On Wednesday next the Japanese Ambassadors and their suite will have an opportunity of behold ing a sight worth seeing—England's great annual Holiday ! What Lord PALMERSTON a few years since aptly designated—" the Isthmian games of Englishmen !" Tbat contest of contests—the win ning of the prize, in which Mr. DISRAELI happily symbolised long before then, as " the Blue Ribbon of the Turf!" A spectacle, to witness whieh, not only the major part of the population of London streams forth by read and by rail to air itself upon Epsom Downs, but together with that huge propor tion of the inhabitants of the metropolis, a wonderful collection of sight-seers drawn thither from all quar ters of the United Kingdom. It is the Londoner's Holiday, of course, par excellence. But it is the Holiday likewise, and hardly less, of "All the 'World and his Wife," to say nothing of their very numerous family in attendance—" Country cousins," as Punch sings," flocking in dozens" from nearly every nook and corner of the provinces. Already their excellencies from Japan have witnessed many curious scenes during their sojourn amongst us— ever sinco their white flag with the blood-red moan in the centre of it, has been fluttering over the parapet at Claridge's Hotel in Brook street, Mayfair. They have beheld " more things" i n one wa y or another here in England, than have ever yet been n dreamt of in their philosophy r' But of all the spectacles yet displayed to their view since their arrival in this country, the one about to be scanned by them On their way to and from, b u t above all during their stay atEpsom Downs on Wed nesday text (no farther off than the day after to morrow), will, for a dead certainty be recognised by them, one and all, as incomparably " the" most characteristic at once of the land and the people in which and among which they are now sojourners. It has been judiciously arranged that the Japanese Ambassadors shall be conveyed to the Derby—the legitimate way ! That is by the high way, and not by the railroad— their excellencies travelling, tot cooped up, however snugly, in a train, but according to the good old fashioned mode of journeying in voguebefore the in vention of the steam engine, in open carriages and four, with postilions. So that the whole panoramic display will thus be witnessed, in its entirety, h o rn the doorway of CLAutnGfs to the central p l ace set apart for their Excellencies on the Grand Stand, where they can witness at their ease the latest exemplar of the grandest horse race in the world. In this way, o f Course, as a wholly unprecedent portion of the motley throng, the Japanese will themselves on Wednesd a y next "astonish the natives," if only by the eccentricity of their appearance. But we may rest tolerably well assured at the same time, that the natives will, in their turn, in tile way, cfford their excellencies far more than an equivalent. Naturally they will be providing one another with that perpetual craving of all civilised nations, whether of the East or of the - West, of Eurppe or of Asia—a new "sensation !" Only the sensation afforded to that strange little groupe of Japanese visitors must be multiplied by all the whimsical avocations of the holiday-makers swarming around them " out " (like themselves) for The Derby! And far more than that multiplied also by the variety of the constituent elements of the vast concourse there collected together. Speci *ens of the os iroXXot, and of the “ci 611 e de Ir .. ° "erne "—the pick, of the male portion a t least, of the Upper Ten Thcusand, and anything but the pick of that larger and more miscellaneous circle around it yclepped generically TE o Blacklegs and patricians—swells and taaanpers—knaves and fools—the pigeon and the rook : here the taw, sharper, there the country bumpkin—lords and roughs—all huddled together there, upon the comae: as w ild .. and no t all the livelong day as the Carnival at Rome in'ite last mad frolic: as confused and varied as ever the mob and the booths of Vanity Fair appeared to the won dering eyes and ears of CHRISTIAN. ylk the road thither—all sorts of vehicles, from the degitier drag of the four-in-hand club, to the costermoner's tray 4 Ito ,-4 1- .4-," • •c, s _ . • THE SUN. LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1862. LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 2, 1862. upon wheels drawn by the leanest " moke" of a used-up donkey—just one of those assinine anato mies that SAM WELLER speaks of as rid& n out of the world so very mysteriously by the race that appa rently never dies—that of the old postboys ! Here the fast dog -cart with its four oustide back to back, and a giant hamper between them—there the lum bering omnibus, carrying far more in and out than it has any right to do by leave or license : to say nothing of that collective defiance at once of Martin's Act, of axles, and of linchpins that occa sionally—at almost the sharpest turning in the narrowest part of the road—brings the whole con veyance to grief together with a ll the chopfallen freight of unfair fares, who thus find out to their cost upon what false principles of economy they have rashly chartered it ! Onward there will stream that varie gated and fantastic procession ofsigh t t h se e ut er o sa s n k d ir h ta foloi day makers along the highw ay from London—to the neighbourhood of the Grand Stand at Epsom—to the wonder at heat (however well concealed under the mask of their nil admirari visages) of their observant excellencies the Japanese Ambassadors. Everything that is most familiar to us being strangest of course to them : even the very means of transit used by the multitude— Whisky, buggy, gig, or go-cart, curriele or tandem." Through the crush of the turnpike gates, on among the pretty suburban villas, with their way side gardens full of lilacs and laburnams, to say nothing of the children and the nurserymaids, on between the country hedgerows of hawthorn, with the green landscapes beyond them to the right and to the left—on through the little straggling town sacred to salts and racing—on to the soft-turfed and wheel-cut downs themselves—to the back en trance of the Grand Stand, from which ' coign of vantage' the race is to be seen upon the issue of which each year more is dependent than upon the issue of any other sport in the wide world by land or by water. Even in getting to the Grand Stand through the motley crowd huddled around it, the Japanese will have reasons enow to look about them ! Inca pable, we may be sure, of getting any adequate ex planation from their interpreter, even though Mr. MACDONALD were as glibly voluble of tongue as Mr. CHARLES MATHEWS in Patter versus Clatter— whilst gazing around upon that oddest medley any where to be found within an equal space upon a given day. Bands playing, niggers singing, prize fighters having their rounds, Punch and Judy in full swing, conjurers juggling, organ-grinders playing different tunes (excruciatingly) within a few paces of each other, card-sellers bawling (each a sore throated Stentor) the names, weights, and colours of the riders; betting men here and there, both in and out of the Ring, note-book and pencil in hand, shouting still more loudly the odds given or taken ! Aunt Sally having her nose broken, gipsies telling fortunes, people on foot and in carriages, on horseback and in merry-go-round, cigar -smoking, talking, laughing, everything but crying gentlemen with blue veils and green, ladies with dresses and parasols all the colours of the rainbow ! From the little white-washed weighing-room under the Grand Stand, to the freshly verdant paddock to the right of it, where the racers are saddled— each of the mere preliminaries of the Race may be said, with truth, to have its special attraction for the eager throng of spectators there assembled. Until the bell clangs and the course is cleared—of all, that is, but the inevitable dog and the nearly equally inevitable stout gentleman. Then, off !—hidden behind the hill fronting the chief mass of the beholders—emerging after a few seconds upon what seems almost the rim of the horizon— the parti-coloured silk jackets of the jockeys, like a flying bed of tulips in the distance —round Totten ham Corner, and then home, fluctuating as they run, but flying all the while like the wind, and so, almost with a flash, past the winning post ! A number run up, there—telling the winner ! almost before the ruck, which is nowhere, has swept past the umpire's chair ! It is a scene we have all witnessed—a scene with which we are all of us familiar—but one that will be viewed on Wednesday next for the first time in their lives, and, we may be certain, with a very novel sensa tion, by our quick-witted and observant visitors from the far-off empire of Japan. It gives one a new kind of anticipative relish of the coming Derby merely to think of how it will appear to those unaccustomed eyes of the Japanese, Not only men of business, but every one of us, on the ground of humanity alone, must inquire with deep interest respecting the cotton question. No thing in the American war touches us as does its in terference with our cotton supply. The Americans know this so well, that both North and South equally expected it would cause an armed intervention on the part of both England and France. The South hoped for it so confidently that it may well be doubted if it would have commenced the rebellion had it not felt certain that France and England could not, and would not, do without its cotton. Its Commissioners came over and began speaking at the Fishmonger's -hall for the slaveholders' in surrection against free-territories and a free-soil President, as if assured that the offer of free-trade and cotton would make us forget international ob ligations, and compel us to fraternise with men who separated avowedly to build up a new republic with the Divine Right of Slavery as its corner stone. France would have listened for the sake of her operatives. England, however, stood firmly by liberty and law; and the poor Commissioners re turned home telling a sad tale of the anti-slavery feeling of England. But the North feared our intervention as much as the South hoped it. It did so in two respects, with the best reason. It knew that in a similar position of things, in regard to itself, the United States would have declared that international law must give way, lik e th e H a b eas C orpus A c t an d the Fr eedom of th e P ress, to t h e national safety; an d it knew th at if we thought so, nothing could have prevented E ngland and, of course, ever-willing France, from scattering the blockading ships, and supplying the South freely cotton. make with the munitionswould o d did this fear haunt th e of w the arinreaThatalone repayment fo South invincible to the Nortb. So deeply North, th at M r. LINCOLN, in appointing a solemn day o f thanksgiving, made k t a n d non-intervention one of th e c hi ef reasons of our I thank fulness to Heaven. And, we must confess while we have never suggested th at the blo, at e should be broken, we have yet always felt that the moral rights of some five millions of person s in England and France, to a free supply of the article of commerce by which they lived, quite balanced the international rights, of one-half of a Federation Sovereign States, to close to the world the ports of the other half. We are only thankful that the painful decision between the rights of starv ing operatives, and the rights of President LIN COLN did not rest with us. We much fear that our verdict would have been, that, as for forty years and mo r e, the North had nurtured and helped Southern slavery in exchange for commercial tariffs hostile to this country and 014 world, it must take the consequences of its own complicity in crime; and that we could not allow our people to staffer because the elar ?holder •s, so long and criminally petted by -- - - the Nor th, at length turned against her. But \ what is the present prospect ? At first, per haps, most thought the South would never go to war—then that the North would soon crush it. Fort Sumter soon dispelled the first illusion, and Bull's Rvin the second. Then, as the spring came on, confident prophecies of sixty and ninety days as the period of the war were talked of. Even Lord RUSSELL Taticinated in this style in the Lords, sent down thereby the price of cotton at Liverpool, and caused countermanding and discouraging orders to be sent to India ! Alas ! the ninety days for the end of the war are now contemplated by the noble prophet, much as Dr. CUMMING must contemplate his outlived predictions of the end of the world. We can hardly say, perhaps, that the war makes no sign of an end, but it at least makes quite as many of long continuance. A succession of Federal suc cesses seems at first sight as if the end was near. We have little doubt that all the Confederate seaports, including Charleston and Fort Sumter, will soon be in the hands of the Federals. Indeed, by this time Charleston may well be the only one outstanding; Mobile and Savannah having pro bably fallen. At the same time, two mighty armies, one in Virginia, and one in Tennessee, confront the two of the Confederates. Yet it may well be that the Confederate strength is condensed, not broken. We should not be surprised, any day, to hear that BEAUREGARD had beaten HALLECK, able soldiers, as both of them are, or that he had retreated to an other ilia . ; southerly position which he is reported to be making very strong, leading HALLECK a Fabian dance after him, till yellow fever will do more than his artillery. In Virginia, we should conjecture the chances of victory in a pitched battle to be greatest in favour of M'CLELLAN. But if they are visibly so, we may be almost certain that Richmond will be left as a barren conquest to the North ; that prestige will not weigh with the South against strategy; and that the Confederate army of the North-East will retire yet further south, and inland, where it will bid defiance to the North till the semi-tropical heat makes fighting impossible for the Northerns. Not expecting, therefore, as more than a mere possibility an early termination of the war, what may we expect from the occupation of all the Con federate ports by the Federals ? Two of them have already been opened under not unreasonable restric tions. No contraband of war can of course be admitted ; but it is likely that, to insure the gcod will of Europe, and to render the Confederates unpopular there, the export of cotton will be encouraged. Cotton, the property of individuals, and all bought by foreign agents, will, we may assume, so far as the Federals are concerned, be quite safe, and the payment for it in money, or in ordinary commercial articles, subject to the Northern duties of the Morrill tariff, will not be obstructed. Will the Confederates sell their cotton thus P That they would destroy it rather than the North should seize it, is certain ; but if families which, for nearly twelve months, have been deprived of almost all imported comforts, should gain a safe opportunity of obtaining them again, the temptation will be strong to sell the cotton and take the comforts. Public feeling is, however, a mighty master, and it may be deemed unpatriotic. Besides, the Morrill Tariff, as a badge of Northern domination, is justly more odious to the South than to civilisation generally, and we should not be surprised to find the South resolute to purchase nothing which has paid tri bute under that disgracefully selfish Act. In the stories of cotton burning, we have not much faith. None will be burnt which can be sold to Europe, though all will be, which it is feared the Federala would seize_ Even, however, under the most fa- vourable circumstances, it will be slow work to get the crop of 1861, all unginned and unpacked as it is, fit for the market, and then to get it to market. As to the actual stock of cotton in England it was probably never so low at the present time of year. We gather from "Neill Brothers' Circular" that the stock in hand in March, 1862, amounting to 190,000 bales, is but slightly above a tenth of what we had in hand at the same time last year, and consequently a e price is already doubled. At Havre a similar state of things exists—lndia, we are informed, appears to have been cleared out by the shipments of last year ; and the stocks of Indian cotton, both in England and afloat, are smaller than last year; the shipments this year being a hundred thousand bales less, since the first of January, than they were last year. The real cause of all the difficulty we take to be the uncer tainty whether the American crop of 1861 may not reach us unexpectedly soon. But for, this greater efforts would be made not only in India but in other parts of the world. But surely the certainty of its reaching us but slowly even were preliminaries of Union or Separation arranged to-morrow, might encourage those most interested to push their energies in every direction ; the far greater pro bability being that it will be years before the old trade can be le-organized with the cotton States of A merica. Two or three points of considerable interest at tract attention in the American papers this morning. Foremost of them we must place the engagement of the gunboats with the battery on what we now learn is termed Ward's or Drury's Bluff, eight miles below Richmond, on the St. James River. It will be remembered that we assigned strong reasons for thinking it impossible that the Federal less'in five gunboats, none of them even large boats, could be 1,100 men. Our contemporaries, however, seemed to take for granted the correctness of the telegram. But to-day we have the official reports of the Com mander of the Galena, the largest boat, the Nanga tuck, whose 100-pounder burst, and of the famous little Monitor. From two only, the Aroostook and the Portßoyal, we have no particulars. The Galena, which bore the brunt of the fire, and received eighteen shots, lost 13 killed and 11 wounded. The Nangatuck, notwithstanding the accident, had but two wounded ; and the Monitor lost none. Of course, the whole crews of the other two would not have come near to 1,100 men. From one to two hundred would have been their greatest number. The Monitor's iron casing, though she could no t invulnerableelevate her g to three guns sufficiently te to touch the f or t, proved shots which hit her—the Galena's coating being pierced by eighteen shots must therefore be due to the inferiority cf her mail. On the whole, seeing this was an engagement of four hours' duration, that the boats had to anchor, and could not avail themselves of their grand ad vantage, relatively to fixed forts, that of keeping in motion ; that the mail coating of one was ob viously o f very i nfer i or qua li ty; t h a t th e b a tt ery two hund re d f eet a b ove t h e water cou ld ma i n t a i n a plun g i ng fi re, thus hitting the deck, the least protected p ar t ; and, lastly, that the loss was a f ter all so inc ons id erable—taking all this into ,consi deration, w e can only argue that forts in elevated situatio ns may have, v als pretty v e Fort," mo c ra l t, o y s ” e ia, e r s m a n oe , umr e b , et sail oho rw at Sebast o p o l the o ad vantage o f any ships at named it, perched on the hill, annoyed the ships more than all the forts, placed as those at Spit head would be, on a level with the shore. The zoports from the Federal army in Virginia reach to the 20th ult. They show the advance of M'CLELLAN to about ten miles from Richmond, and the general preparing for "operations in the front of Richmond." The opinion there was that Rich mond would be defended to the uttermost. Congress men and representatives from Southern States are said to be present encouraging the chivalry of the South, and JEFFERSON DAVIS asserts in print that he never intended to abandon the capital, and and that should it fall, which he sees no reason to expect, the war might yet be prolonged in Vir ginia for twenty years! It would seem that the engagement of the boats and the battery, only seven miles below the city, produced quite a panic in the city. This is very natural. We can all imagine what our citizens would feel with a large French Army encamped on Blackheath, and French gunboats attacking old Tilbury Fort. Old General WOOL is not inactive; he has moved on to Suffolk, an important town on account of its command of railways. From the Western army we have, of course, only Northern accounts. According to them, as might be expected, though nothing is done, yet HAL• LECK'S quietness is described as a " masterly inaction." He is starving and exhausting BEAURE GARD and uniting his own forces, while FARRAGUT, the naval hero of New Orleitns and the Mississippi, is moving on to Memphis, the only large town to which BEAUREGARD can look. The questionable reports of the destruction ofprivate property—cotton and sugar—still continue. We do not credit them without confirmation, since the Federals have shown no disposition to appropriate such property, but rather the contrary; and we can hardly think the Confederates so reckless as to destroy property which they would be permitted to turn into money, an article they must greatly need. Indeed, accord ing to the last accounts, a silver dollar is now almost a curiosity in the South. The PRESIDENT has, as was expected, annulled the proclamation of General HUNTER, giving liberty in three States to the negroes, and, so oddly, proclaiming slavery to be incompatible with martial law. The PRESIDENT'S pro clamation is, however, very strongly worded. He addresses the Border States with the language of entreaty—of religious remonstrance—of appeal to the opportunity afforded them to do more good by one effort than has been done in all past time. He asks them to rise above the range of personal and partizan politics, and to see to it that the " vast future have not to lament their neglect." He takes care, while repudiating General HUNTER'S unauthmised proclamation, to reserve his own right to deal with slavery as circumstances may require, and places side by side with this the opportunity afforded by Congress to emancipate their slaves, in a mode by which, says the poetical PRESIDENT, "the change would come gently as the dews of heaven, not receding or wreckingan w y e th m in ig g h .: May his app ea l b e success ful! We c ou ld not hope it of the hea r t s o f th e s laveholders, but hope it of their prudence. RECEPTION OF THE BISHOP OF 2ILILTA AT lIIALIA. A correspondent of the Malta Observer, writing from Messina, under date May 21, says : " The Catholic Bishop of Malta arrived here on Sunday, attended by a staff of priests, who were all warned not to attempt to come on shore, and they wisely listened to good advice; for had they landed I fear the Pope would have had to include the Bishop of Malta amongst the martyrs that are to be canonised, as the Messinese were prepared to receive his excellency and staff with a discharge of rotten eggs, potatoes, cabbage stalks, old brooms, &c. As the bishop did not land, on Monday, shortly before the steamer left, hundreds of people (of respectable appearance), and amongst them priests, went off in boats alongside and commenced shouting, ' Viva la Francis, Abasso it Papa Re, Abasso i Codini r and hooted your poor bishop in such a manner that the captain of the steamer got up steam and left the port followed by the boats, the people continuing to hoot the bishop. The steamer remained outside the port for the mails. The French consul and captain have made a great fuss about it, insisting that the French flag had been insulted (such was not the case, unless they consider shouting ' Viva la Francis' as an insult). The former wanted our prefect to arrest the leaders, but he refused to do so unless the consul demanded it in writing, which, however, he has not done. The bishop, on his return, will be able to inform the Maltese papers of the sentiments of the Messinese towards the Holy Father, and if his fright did not prevent him hearing distinctly, he will also be able to let them know that from the cries raised of ' Viva Vittorio Emanuele," Viva 'ltalia,' the Mes sinese are not very anxious to abandon the iron rule of Victor Emanuel for the tender one ' del giusto, populaire, magnanimo sovrano, legittimo e per vo lunta nazionale, Francesco 11."Ilese deplorable occurrences are consequent on the offences given in Malta to Italians and the cause of Italy, and are much to be regretted," Trie bishop is the bearer of an address from the Maltese to the Pope, in favour of temporal power, and vehemently hostile to the unity of Italy. A SUNKEN ROCK.—The following has been posted n the Underwriters' Rooms, Liverpool :—" Admiralty, 29th May, 1862.—Thomas Court. Esq.—Sir,—l am corn. mended by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to acquaint you, for the information of the underwriters at Liverpool, that, on the notice respecting the sunken rock, reported by Captain NV. Hall, of the ship Ethel, appearing in the !hipping Gazette, 19th inst., their lordships ordered her Majesty's ship Asp, Commander Aldridge, to proceed immediately to the spot and search for the rock in question. I hat officer has this day reported that a rock, having only 19 feet over it at low water spring tides, does exist with the following bearings:--Coal Rock Buoy, S.E, S,; Skerries Lighthouse, NV. S., magnetic. I transmit two charts of Holyhead Bay and the coast of Anglesea, on which the Ethel Rock has been laid down. The clearing mark for the Coal Rock also chars the Ethel Rock, but leads rather too close to it.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, C. PAGET." An interesting incident marked the representa tion of the " Jaive" at the Paris Opera on Wednesday evening. After the second act, on the audience recalling the performers, they appeared bringing on the stage the bust of Halevy, which the widow of the composer had just presented to the theatre. Flowers were immediately thrown from different parts of the house, and the whole audience rose, and with the loudest acclamations paid a just tribute to the illustrious deceased. AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS IN THE EAST.— Within the memory of the oldest inhabitants of the Eastern district, a finer spring, or weather more conducive to the growth and development of all kinds of agri cultural produce has not bean experienced. The warm showers have stimulated the corn crops in the most marvellous manner, so that in some dis tricts in Essex the wheat has already broken into ear, and the spring corn wears the most promising appearance. There will this year be an abundance of straw, and from the general appearance of the wheat crops, should no unfore seen casualty arise, a full average crop is anticipated. Beans and peas never looked in finer condition, the former being, happily, free from the black fly so prevalent at this season of the year, and the latter strong on the bine and well covered with blossom. Upon the whole, the prospects of farmers have not for many years been so encouraging. THE SECOND READING OF THE BALLOT BILL. — Mr. Berkeley's Ballot Bill was brought in on Friday after noon, and read a first time. The second reading is fixed for Wednesday, July 2d. By the vote of Tuesday night, the question is removed from its usual condition of a discussion on secret voting, in the abstract, and the house will have before it the exact plan proposed by Mr. Berkeley, and be able to compare its provisions with those of the Government Corrupt Practices Prevention Act. Liberal members will, no doubt, muster strongly on the second reading in order to secure a fair consideration for the question of the ballot. PRESSURE OF WATER.—M. Guibal, professor at the School of 111ines at Mons, has recently applied the compression of water very successfully to the detaching of rocks from their beds, and especially to the extraction of coal. At a recent meeting of the society formed by the old pupils of that scbcol, he produced a cast iron cylinder divided in two by a partition parallel to its axis, and pre senting the appearance of the shaft of a mine. By the application of the pressure of water he broke the two cast • iron hoops, which bound the two parts of the cylinder to gether, and the transversal sections of which presented a surface of 100 square millimetres. By calculation it was found that the pressure applied was equal to 75 atmospheres —a pressure amply sutilo.ent to detach coal, but far within the limits of the pressure which might, if necessary, be obtained. LATEST NEWS. PARIS, JUNE 2. The Moniteur of this morning announces that Count Bismark &hoc ahausen, the Prussian Ambas sador to the Court of the Tuilleries, presented his credentials to the Emperor yesterday. TURIN, JUNE 2. Public festivities in commemoration of the esta blishment of the Constitution took place here yesterday, notwithstanding the rain. Much enthusiasm was manifested by the people NAPLES, JUNE 1. Prince Napoleon did not leave Naples this evening, as was expected, He drove through the Strada di Toledo, and was received with cheers by the people; ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. SIGNORA FRICCI. The French journalists now in London in connec tion with the Exhibition—who are enlightening the Parisians day by day in regard to the barbarism of England, and who, from the point of view that they adopt, may be called the Philosophers of Lei cester-square !—have got to explain how it is that London, at this moment, has five times as many art exhibitions open as Paris, and almost twenty times as many permanent musical institutions. Setting aside our sacred harmonic societies—which are wholly unknown across the water—we have asso ciations, vocal and instrumental, which illustrate every field of music, and are yearly filling the me tropolis with some of the most accomplished ama teurs and skiLfulexecutants in Europe. In addition to this, we have two operas, presenting, with the sole exception of Alboni, the highest lyrical talent known to an .d accepted by the world, which, amply as they are stored already, are week by week drawing to their centres all the rising musical power, whether of Europe or America. At each theatre on Satur day night there was a highly successful first appear. ance, and, if we may rely on their respective pro grammes, this is an incident that will soon become to us just as familiar as it is agreeable. Another im portant circumstance is, that singers all but un known, or who have won only the most moderate recognition in their own lands, come to Lon don, and leap at once into a European re putation. This was the case with Mdlle. Patti, and may be it is very possible with the new singer at Covent Garden. If these facts, among a thousand others, are to be considered as evidences of our barbarism; tl-.en, in the profound bliss of our ignorance, we may safely conclude, with Gray, " That 'tis folly to be wise ;" and be quite content, with Dogberry, that our Leicester••square philosopher should " write us down an ass !" Signora Fricci, who made her debut at the Royal Italian Opera on Sa turday evening, in one respect at least is a decided acquisition—she bas a very superior voice. Making every allowance for her nervousness in such a character as Valentine, and with the knowledge that she was displacing in it such an artisrlis Mdlle. Csillag,„to whom Mr. Gye assigned it in his programme at the opening of ' the season —we could see no evidence of dramatic power in her to place her on a level with that lady, nor of dramatic and vocal power combined which entitled her for one moment to be named with Mdme. Titiens. Nature has bestowed on her neither the mental or physical gifts to such an end. Never theless, in voice itselt, nature has been liberal enough to her. She has a very clear and sympathetic, if not full or resonant organ, of great range and flexi bility, and a very even amount of tone. She has also thorough cultivation, and, in the various and arduous music assigned to the heroine of the "Huguenots,' executed the chromatic passages as ably as those of earnest feeling. Her first good impression was made in the solo of the duet with Marcel, "Ah l'ingrato d'offesa mortale," in which the beauty of her tones, combined with her depth of feeling, ob tained an instant and decisive recognition from the audience, the whole duet being so effective as to obtain her a recall. Her execution, however, of the still finer, and more important duet with Raoul, which almost stands alone in the• modern lyrical drama, was scarcely so meritorious, though obtaining her in like manner the honour of a summons. It wanted the volume both of voice and heart to which we have been so much accustomed in it. Nevertheless Signora Fricci, like Mdlle. Patti, has the great advantage of being young, and it is impossible to say what a few years may do in the way of strengthening emotion as well as tone, seeing that she sets out with an organ that is just as fresh as it is ex cellent. Another enjoyment of the evening was the admirable condition of Signor Mario, who was never in better voice, and sang and acted with all the vigour of a dozen years ago. His Belta Di civa had all the sweetness, and his share in the septett all the chivalric spirit which have made their delivery so much his own. His share also in the great duet was no slight source of its effect. Of the Marguerite of Madame Miolan, the Urbain of Madam© Didiee, the St. Bris of Monsieur Faure, or the Marcel of Mcnsieur Zelger, the merit is too well known to require a moment's eulogy. The band and chorus were quite as faultless, and the entire production of the opera exhibited all the perfection that distinguishes this house. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. MONS. NAUDIN. The continued illness of Signor Gliuglini, and the in:Ability of Signor Armandi to replace him in any fashion, gave peculiar zest to the success of the new tenor at this theatre, who made his debut on Saturday evening in the character of Mantic°. Mons. Naudin, who, we believe, sang in London a few years since, has a very clear and agreeable, if not very powerful, voice, which he manages for the most part with great tenderness and skill. His delivery of the finale to the third act roused the audience to enthusiasm, and his "A the morte" had a pathos which sensibly affected them. During the course and at the close of the Opera he received a very hearty demonstration. Another attraction of the night was the " Conte De Luna" of Mr. Santley, who, much to.the strengthening of its ranks,has carried his talents to this theatre. He was received with great cordiality, and sang with all his usual excellence. His "Il balen" especially roused the transports of the house. Of the Leonora of Mdlle. Titiens, we have only lately discoursed in full, and have only to add that on this occasion she renewed her claim to all our eulogies. The band and chorus were in excellent order. The house was very full. CANTERBURY HALL. There is a place in London which is a creation amongst art exhibition, I allude to the Canterbury Music Hall in Lambeth-marsh. It has been worthily patted on the back by several admiring journalists, and one has called it the "Royal Academy over the Water." It was built in 1851, as the leader of a new school of music halls, designed to supplant the old tavern concert room's and the publichouse "harmonic meetings," The music performed included many popular songs, both comic and sentimental, some of them being those classical lyrics which the world will never let die; but the chief feature of the evening was a selection from an opera, rendered by a very efficient company of singers, with a chorus and instrumental accompaniments. Under this head some of the best works of the best masters were given night after night, end so energetic were the conductors in getting of era scores from France, Germany, and Italy, that the quiet, orderly men and women, who formed the chief visitors of the Canterbury Hall, heard many works of foreign musical composers long before they were brought out at the Italian Opera Houses. After some few years of successful management in this way the pro prietors added a side-hall to their building, and this they fitted up as a gallery of modern pictures. Well lighted, well supplied with works by many of the leading Royal Academicians, and with a printed ca t a l ogue of the paintings, this gallery was a great and refining attraction to the visi tors. The exhibition, for its s ze, was as good as any average May display at the Royal Academy, with the addi tional advantage of being open at a time when working men could go and see it. The admission charge to the hall, concert, and picture gallery was 6d. Such was the Can terbury Hall, Lambeth ; and such, I am happy to say, it is now, with its g l ory an d s u cc e s s undiminished. Th e edu cational influence of such a place can hardly he overrated, although it is created by mere trading enterprise, actin,, in an obscure corner of London, --Onto a Week. LITERATURE. Owen: a Waif. By the author of "No Church" and " High Church." Hurst and Blackett. In choosing a vagabond London boy, ragged and homeless, for his hero, and showing his gradual rise, social and moral, the author has displayed a I wholesome disregard of convention, and he has worked out his theme earnestly and thoughtfully. It is certainly a strange thing to reflect that in this, the largest and wealthiest city in the world, eighteen hundred years after the establishment of Christianity, human beings should roam the streets as utterly dead to the healthiest and most beautiful aspects of life as the most ignorant and degraded among those far-off heathen tribes, whom well meaning but misguided people, blind to the evil at their doors, yearly spend such large sums to convert. It is to direct attention to this class that the novel before us has been written. There is a vividness about the descriptions of the lower strata of society which shows that the author has not trusted to imagination merely, but has studied from life. And if the close is somewhat melodramatic, the feeling the work displays pleads forcibly in extenu ation. Owen, " the waif," deserted by his drunken and depraved mother at the age of nine, an age by the way at which he had pretty well learnt (after a fashion) to take care of himself, falls in at a county cattle fair with a costermonger named Tarby Chick ney, whose wife, pitying his destitute condition, and wishing to rescue him from the seemingly inevitable hulks, persuades her husband to let him help in their business; and ere he had long been thus engaged, another good Samaritan named Dell teaches him to read. He thus acquires a taste for knowledge, de termines to rise, and pursues his education at a flee evening school. Now, it happens that Mr. Tarby, in his " hours of ease," is given to imbibing beer and assaulting the police, and having, one unlucky evening, hit the head of one of these functionaries somewhat too hard, its owner dies, and Tarby is transported. Behold Owen now, at the age cf 12, left in threefold charge —of the business, of Mrs. Chickney, and of the Chickney offspring, an intent called Mary. But Mrs. Chickney dies too, of grief and consumption ; Owen sells the business, puts Mary to nurse in the country, and enters the iron foundry of a Mr. Cherbury, in which his friend Dell is foreman. Here, thanks to his learning, he is promoted to be clerk, but a mistake occurs in the books, fifty pounds are supposed to be missing, he is suspected of dishonesty, and is bluntly asked by his master if he had not formerly been a thief. Now, Owen, unfortunately, in his early days, being hun gry and ignorant, had set at naught the distinction between meum and tuum, but having reformed, he was by no means pleased at being thus reminded at his past indiscretions ; so, having rectified the mis take, for which the master was himself responsible, he abt•uptly leaves the foundry and goes to Austra• lia. There, after a few years, he makes money enough to enable him on his retarn to join John Dell, who had started a foundry of his own; and Mary Chickney, who has grown up a handsome and accomplished young lady, and has been adopted by Mrs. Cherbury, the mother of the ironfounder, cherishing a tender feel ing for him, he reciprocates it, and the tale ends with their marriage. It contains some interesting episodes, such as the reappearance of Owen's mother, the unsuccessful attempt on the part of her son to reclaim her, and her subsequent repentant death; and it shows very considerable power of charac terisation. The author has striven to give a real rather than a fanciful picture of life, and he has succeeded in producing one of the most vigorous novels it has of late been our fortune to meet. Captain Clutterbuck's Champagne. Blackwood and SODS. The tale thus whimsically named lately appeared in Blackwood'B Magazine, and is styled in the title page "A West Indian Reminiscence." In fact, the scene is laid in Jamaica ; and although the " Cham pagne" is the pivot round which the story revolves, the owner of that beverage is of infinitessimal im portance. The hero is a certain Lieutenant Brune, brave, accomplished, and generous ; the heroine is Miss Violet Arabin, beautiful, amiable, and rich ; and as they return from England in the same ship, they very naturally fall in love. But a wealthy planter and storekeeper named Melhado, vulgar, cowardly, and mean, stops the way—Violet's han is promised him by her mercenary parents, and Brune is treated to cold shoulder. In this dilemma (we think we have met with something like it in novels before), the lovers put their trust in strata gem, and it is agreed that while Melhado and Arabin pere are imbibing Captain Clutterbuck's champagne Brune shall steal away Miss Violet and the fateful ceremony shall be performed. The pro gramme is successfully carried out. 'I he lovers are united, the parents are reconciled, Melhado turns out meaner than vvas expected, and Violet and Brune live happy and prosper marvellously ever after. The tale is spirited and amusing, and the author is evi dently familiar with the scene and manners he I describes. Blackwood. The opening article in this number, on " The New Exhibition," admits the ugliness of the building, but at the same time gives Captain Fowke credit for baying constructed it " solidly convenient and serviceable, not to be surpassed for light, space, and means of internal access." This, considering the short time allowed for its erection, is as much as could be expected. It is something at least for a building to fulfil the purpose intended, and we wish we could say as much for a few others in the metropolis. The journal of Mrs. Petherick, who is "accompanying her husband in his arduous attempt to penetrate to the sources of the Nile," is pleasantly written and interesting. " Caxtoniana" also is good. The writer thus speaks of RHYTHM IN PROSE, In metaphysical works, the writers most conspicuous for harmony of style are those in whom the meaning is most clear from misconception. Thus Hume, the subtlest of ail our metaphy-icians, is the one whose theories have been the least obscure to his commentators or disciples; for his theories themselves led him to consult, in " every combi nation of syllables or letters," that euphony which, by pleasing the ear (or, through sympathy, the eye that "runs over the book"), allures the attention of the mind, and, while it increases the lucidity of the author by the delibera tion with which he selects his expressions, quickens the in telligence of the reader by the charm that lightens the fatigue of its tension; whereas the meaning of Locke is often made needlessly difficult by the ruggedness of his style, and many of the erroneous deductions which his fol lowers have drawn from his system may be traced to the want of that verbal precision which a due culture of euphony seldom fails to bestow. Much has been said, with justice, against the peculiar modes of euphony elaborated by Johnson and Gibbon ; too pompous and grandiose; too rempte for our homely verna cular : granted. But that does not prove the care for euphony to be a fault; it only proves that the modes of euphony favoured by those illustrious writers were too per ceptibly artificial to be purely artistic. Yet no critic can say that Johnson and Gibbon are obscure ; their m ean i ng is - much plainer than that of many a writer who pre fers a colloquial diction. Not only in spite of the fault, but because of the fault, we impute to their styles, Johnson and Gibbon are—Johnson and Gibbon. And if you re-formed their rhythm to simpler moeulations, accordant to your own critical canons, they would no more be Johnson and Gibbon, than Pope and Gray would be Pope and Gr ay if you recoil , trusted the " Essay on Man,' on the theories of Wordsworth ; or, by the ruthless excision of redundant epithets, sought, with Goldsmith, to improve the dirge of the " Elegy" into the jig of a ball a d. It is not, then, that rhythm should be cultivated only for the sake of embellishment, but also for the sake of perspi cuity ; the culture of rhythm In prose defeats its own oh ject, and results in obscurity, if it seek to conceal poverty of thought by verbal decorations. Its uses, on the contrary, are designed for severe thinkers, though its charm may be insensibly felt the most ordinary reader,—its uses are based on the common-sense principle, that the more the mind is compelled to linger on the thought, the more the thought itself is likely to emerge, clear and distinct, in the words which it ultimately selects ; so metals, opaque in the mass, are made translucent by the process of solution. Although " Six Weeks in a Tower" is suggestive of durance vile, it means in this case not so much imprisonment as that and transportation combined. China is the scene of the writer's suffering. The following describes his place of abode : A CHINESE TOWER. Our tower was a very jolly place for invalids—i n f ac t, it was one of those plac es that either kill or cure ; and while it proceeded at once to benefit me, it soon threatened to do for my companion. Loopholes are very romantic things to peep through (more especially if some fair face be attempt ing to do PO at the same moment) ; they are interesting, no doubt, and they have their uses occasionally; but the fact is, we had rather too many of them. There were no less than eighteen loopholes in this large upper room where we captives chose to sleep ; and as the season was wet and cold, the country bleak and hilly, it may well b e believed that they w ere occas i ona lly 4 regarded w i t h " the eye of eur , ing." It was in vain that we filled them with pieces of wood, and pasted them over with paper; that only served to create a more hideous noise at night, and by no means to keep out the 'damp chill wind which howled round our tower. Then the lofty r oom was simply composed of tile s , which admitted more wind; the boards below were not parti cularly close ; and, altogether, a cage could scarcely h ave been airy. The Chinese of the south never use fi re , for purposes of warmth, though those of the north cline emetimes ( ..ne and sleep on stoves. They . meet the winter by putting on more coats, and by sitting in'c]ose inner rooms without windows. The cold we experienced in Kuni.tow.u. was singularly penetrating, and no amount of clothe s we had to covered all the hetandtex_oel heap oli mo l o v n , s w i a n s b e l u an tli k c e i t e a n e t a p r r i o n t g ect t i h o e n. tpid W ii} e a of the day , buried t into the way of constantly wearing a Chinese and I t ea f k h abo d ve o , f go green cloth, which and rose up into a pyramidal which might have been a disfiguremeut lips to the eyes, ch vils, but -vas a recommendation with the eyes of forrign At one time we tried an earthen pot with Celestials. but that only burned our knees, and the a chary fire ; into our Ara . Our only real der smoke was whirled was still colder water. Avh defence against the cold intolerable, 1 emptied half a e l never I felt it getting myself, and then took a brisk Walk 'ticket of water over lively glow. Seldom has h d , which brought quite a more difficult circurestaneksY ropathy been pursued under first this process wasgone 11 or with better results. At dis covered to our horror t r , ugh on the roof, but we spectators whose gender that the opposite tower containo could not be determined. The Chinese, who avoid cold proceedings to b a indications of insanity; and the little children used to gather round the door of the room that was finally set apart for our baths, and comment in awe struck whispers on the splashing of the water. Opinions were divided on the subject : there were some who asserted against the explanation of insanity that the bathing was a ecies of worship ; and others that it was done in expiation of some horrid crime. In one of the classics of the Taiping rebels there occurs the passage (taken, I rather think, trot's an older work)—" Thang of the Shang dynasty, and Wang of the Chow, honoured God with the intensest feeling : the inscription on Shang's bathing -tub inculcated daily reno vation of mind, and hence God commanded him to assume the government of the empire." Had this spirit prevailed among the Chinese, we should at once have been elevated to the dragon throne and placed in possession of the ver milion pencil ; but daily renovation' is es rare a virtue among the Taipings as it with the Imperialists; it is even rarer than it used to be to find Scotchmen acting on their old adage, that " Clea n li ness i s next to godliness." Returning, the writer had a taste of the delights of the MIDDLE PASSAGE. At Shah-ee-Choong we had to wait a day and a night before we could get a boat, and at last had to content our selves with the ordinary passage-junk, which was small, rotten, had a hole in its side, and was crowded with twenty four bullocks and one hundred and three Chinese passen gers All the space below deck was occupied by the bul locks, and how the passengers managed to dispose of them selves above, so as to leave room for the sailors to move, was one of those mysteries which it is impsesible to under stand without visiting the East. 'We established ourselves in a covered place on deck, something like the half a barrel cut longitudinally, with the convex side uppermost. Anti. cipating what would happen at night, I placed the patient in the inner side of this den, and fortified the outside with our luggage and my own body. But unfortunately the barrel was capable of elongation by a cover which drew out, and when it came on heavy rain during the night, the passengers crowded under this cover, half suffocating us, and dispersing the most fearful odours from their damp dirty clothes. My poor companion was in a fainting condition till we got a board opened, which gave him some air. These hundred passengers added to the unpleasantness of the situation, by hustling and talking loudly and angrily among themselves, while a quarrel broke out among the sailors, in which some very bad language was used, as to whether they should stop or go on. The steersman, a rough cha racter, swore he would go on evtn if Mire' Bay were choked up with rocks, giving the very weighty reason that he had sailed all his life between Macao and Canton; and he had to be dispossessed of the helm by force. The pressure of the crowd was so great that, if I had given way to it, or yielded to their entreaties, we should have run a very fair chance of being squeezed or suffocated to death ; and I was only enabled to retain my position by the fortunate accident that there was a very strong coolie next me, whom I convinced, by sundry pricks with my bowie knife, that it was more his interest to press outward than to press inward. As the morning was wet, we did not leave till the other passengers had gone, and noticed that they each paid two hundred cash (about tenpence) as their fare, and that each individual cash was handled and examined by the boatmen, so that twenty thousand coins were scrutinised that morning. The continuation of " Salem Chapel," which flagged a little in the last number, now moves on, with increased spirit, and there is a favourabl e critique of Mrs.Oliphant's " Life of Edward Irving." The Cornhill. Still harping on the virtues of Philip and the improprieties of Firmin, sen., Mr. Thackeray shows us in this number how " the little Sister" hocussed and robbed the Rev. Tufton Hunt of the forged bill, whilst that aggrieved individual, presuming to complain, is hauled off by the police. We confess we are " aweary, aweary of this tale, and would that it were done. It won ' t progress. What small amount of freshness the charac era may once have had is wholly gone, and Mr. Thackeray has found it in his heart to bestow on his readers all his tedi ousness. His sensation story, "The Notch on the Axe," is finished. It is a clever satire on the style of fiction most opposed to his own. The tale called " The Shallowell Mystery" will only please ro mantic young ladies; but the paper upon " Alcohol" is well written and sensible. These are— TUE SIGNS OP DRUNKENNESS. "Every one of the signs of drunkenness is a sign of do. pression ; first of all, the face becomes unnaturally flushed, and the movement s o f t h e eyes unsteady ; that is to say, that the muscular coats of the blood vessels of the face are paralysed, and that the muscles of the eyeball are paralysed ; then the speech becomes thick—that means, that the tongue is getting palsied. Later, the muscles of the trunk and limbs get paralysed too, and the drinker cannot walk, ner sit up right, but sprawls upon the ground ; and, at last, if the dose of alcohol have been very large indeed, the muscles of breathing get paralysed, and death results. The power of perceiving sensations, toe, is uniformly and p r ogressively lessened f rom t h e moment that intoxica tion begins, and the effects upon the mince are wholly of a paralysing kind First of all, the drunkard loses the power of coherent reasoning; then obliteration of ideas of time, and space, and locality ensues. A friend of my own tells rather a good story of two convivial yuuths,who were return ing from a public dinner in a state of slight obfuscation. One of them took it into his head that the broad door. step of one of the houses in Bedford-square was his own bed-room, and invited his companion to take a shake down' with him, as it was so late. His friend agreed, and the pair proceeded to divest themselves of some of their garments, and lay down, each with his head resting on one of the scrapers, as it might on a pillow. An early policeman found them sleeping softly, their hats and coats, &c., suspended on the area railings their boots a rrange d , with supernatural accu racy and neatness, side by side, upon the edge of the upper door-step. The question mooted is whether alcohol is " food, medicine, or poison P" and the conclusion tte writer arrives at are-- 1. That alcohol in small doses is a pure stimul an t . 2, That alcohol iu large doses is a re artay depressing, poisonous agent. 3. That the craving for drink is one not excited by moderate but only by poisonous doses. 4. That in various diseased conditions the dose of alcohol which may be borne without producing intoxica tion or alcohol poisoning is much increased, and that here, too, the feeling of craving ?or a repetition of the dose is not produced. Under the head of "The Home of a Naturalist" we have an interesting description of the grounds at Walton Hall; which, during the last fifty years. have been sacred to the enjoyment of all birds and beasts that have chosen to take up their abode ttiere. " Mead, hill, and dale have been laid Cut to S r Ait the idiosyncrasies of various species ; and tree s of krent kinds have been planted in clump;, rows, or in a solit ar y state, to attract the birr,o, that love such localities." Some curiou s resu l ts ' nav 6 followed. One is th e p er f ect tameness of all the inh i bit ants. " The shyest birds are so weft aware of their security that they care no more for spectators than the London sparrows for ps.ssengers;" ana, " al though a vast number of species congregate within jthe domain —enough, according to the popula: pre udices, to devastate the gardens, destroy the crops, and kill all the game—there ate few places where crops, fruit, and flowers are so luxuriantly abun dant, or whore the game is more plentiful." article termed " What are oil wells P" will be reed with interest. Petroleum,it appears, has been known. for ages ; and in Persia especially a large trade hat been carried on in it. " One of the most ancient Greek myths," says the writer, " is believed to have been connected with a knowledge of the petroleum gas. A jealous princess, wishing, without detection, to destroy another, who was her rival in love, anointed with petroleum the wreath she was about to wear upon her head during a sacrifice. On the lady's approaching the flam e o f t h e a l tar, the gas ignited, and, spreaing with the rapidity of light ning, her whole figure was soon sheathed in fire, and reduced to ashes." One effect of this oil in Canada and America is thus described : IPETHOLZUM. This unsavoury production of the prolific earth is now imparting a taste of its quality to everything wearable, eatable, and drinkable, throughout whole sections of the. Union, from the eggs and muffins you devour at breakfast„ to the sheets in which you lie at night, the soap-and-water with which you wash your face, the towels with which you would gladly cleanse the oleaginous particles from your skin, and the railway carriage in which you vainly seek to escape your persecutor. The whole Atlantic and Greet Western Railway smells like a leaky parafine lamp ; and unlE ss some means can be discovered of overcoming the it is a serious draw miasma, an American and a Canadian will be detected in society by his scent, as easily as a musk deer, or a ci ve t cat, In spite of the important advantages which the inha bitants of the petroleum districts are deriving, and mu s t a ship, which has once continue to derive, from the springs, back that their produce in a crude state emits so fetid an odour that everything which comes within its influence is rendered so noisome as to be all but unendur 'veayiwnagggpoentr,o l cum , been em ena A pl t o r y n e n d k, in a c c a o r n t is thereby ren dered for ever unfit to carry wine, flour, bacon cheese or co t eusee f iron,hbuumildainnefooord.furni Coe or timber may, it in such 1. : it is assumed, be con. ®hips or Carriages 2 with out but it may well be detriment; doubted whether wood intendedan y for article t i h " ure ould '. not be ' so deeply impregnated by the offensive miasma as to b dered completely worthless. Meanwhile . the flowin e rem- which whie • h both in the States and Canada ar© daily multiplying, throw forth oil in quantiti es so vast as to appear altogether fabulous. On spring, if • is said, yields at the rate of 150,000 gallons a- day© an d fie i m the wells in the States alone up wards of five millions o gallons are estimated to have been produced ; the whole I o e earth in the district is saturated, and the surface of the Delaware is covered with petroleum. It is impossible to contemplate without uneasiness, the immi nent damger of such oh,„_)ua state of things ; for should any !nis i. v( s person apply a torch, a candle, or oven a lighted cigar to ' the Oily pellicle, the whole expanse of the Delaware would be instantly in a blaze, and all the shi s in the river DTI tt , wns on it s banks would ,P ' • probably be consumes, since water, instead of extinguishin g the fire of petroleum, only causes it to burn inure fiercely. Ainsworth's New Story. W e are precluded by want of room from taking More than the merest momentary glance to-da'y at the new instalment oft hat capital tale of a hundred years ago, now adorning every month, the pages of Bentley's Miscellany--F1 rrison Ainsworth's ro tnantic narrative of "The Lord Mayor of London." Here is one small fragment from the June number, descriptive of the famous gambling-house in the City in the middle of the last century, the ruinous den known then familiarly to all the flash men about town as—. 1 ; , Seated g ahettahpe table " PICATID S. with a pile of rouleaux of gold an d of crown•pieces before him, constituting the bank, was a tailleur, or dealer—a young man, rather showily dressed, with a perfectly impas,-ive countenance. No turn of fortune, it was evident, was likely to move him. On 4is right stood the croupier, likewise a young man, but; rently of a very different temperament from his phleg.. matte companion, his eyes being bright and quick, and his fe ,tures extremely mobile. For the convenience of the punters, a little book containing 13 cards was placed on the • I im. ''''.,