The Sun. — London, England, 1861-01-02 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT GARDEN.—Under the Management of Miss Louisa Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison, Sole Lessees. The great Pantomime of BLUE BEARD, universally pronounced to be the hit of the season. Never surpassed for Magnificence of Scenery, Costumes, Decorations, Dances, P roces sions, and surpassing beauty of the Fairy Transforma tion Scene. • - • Commence at Seven. Doors open at Half-past Six. - - THIS EVENING and during the week, r TIE MARRIAGE OF GEORGETTE : Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. H. Corri. Conductor, Mr. Alfred Mellon. After which, the Grand Oriental Pantomine of BLUE BEARD. The opening writ ten by J. V. Bridgman, Esq. Supported by a combination of talent unequalled in the annals of pantomimic art. Mr. W. H. Payne, Harry Boleno, Henry Payne, Hildyard, Milano, Fred. Payne, Tanner, J. Barnes, the Zelinskis, Miss Clara Morgan, and 3ldme. Boleno. The Pantomime produced by Mr. Edward Stirling. The MORNING PERFORMANCES each week, WED NESDAY and SATURDAY, commencing at Two o'clock. Stage Manager, Mr. Edward Stirling. - Acting Manager, Mr. Edward Murray. ROYAI, ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN. Under the Management of Miss Louisa Fyne and Mr. W. 'Harrison, Sole Lessees. THIS EVENING, the MARRIAGE OF GEORGETTE Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. H, Corrie. To conclude with the Grand Christmas Pantomime, BLUE BEARD ; or, Harle quin and Freedom in her Island Home. Clowns, Messrs. H. Boleno, H. Payne, Hildyard, and Lilliputians. Harlequins, Messrs. Milano and F. Payne. Pantaloons, Messrs. Barnes and Tanner. Columbines, Mdme. Boleno and Clara Morgan. Sprites, the Zelinski Family. Mr. W. H. Payne, Mlle. Lamoureux, &c. Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. Commence at Seven. THEATRE. ROYA L, HAYMARKET, Dame, Mr. J. B. Baekstone. THIS EVENING, SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. Tony, bumpkin, Mr. Buckstone ; Young Marlow, Mr. Howe ; Miss Hardcastle, Miss Fanny Stirling After which. a new Pantomimp, QUEEN LADYBIRD AND HER CHIITIREN. The Pantomimists by the un rivalled Lcclercqs, Herr Cole, and Fanny Wright. Commence %t 7. ROYAL PR IN GE S S'S THEATRE.- Lessee and Manager, Mr. A. Harris. THIS EVENING, Jan. 2, ERNESTINE. Messrs. J. G. Shore, R. Cathcart, Basil Potter ; Mesdames Heath, Car lotta Leclercq, Weston, and Murray: After which, a new Christmas comical pantomime, entitled ROBINSON CRUSOE ; or, Harlequin Friday, and the King* of the Caribbe Islands : in which Monsieur Espinosa and Mdlle. Marie Dumilatre, of the principal cantinental theatres, will appear. Clown, Mr. A. F. Forrest. ADELPHI, NEW THEATRE-ROYAL Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Ben,. Webster. THIS EVENING, AN UGLY CUSTOMER. Messrs. J. L. Toole, C. Selby, and Warde ; Miss K. Kelly, and Miss E. Thorne. After which, THE COLLEEN BAWN. D. Boucicault, D. Fisher, Billing-Jon, Falconer, Stephenson, C. J. Smith, Romer. Miss Agnes Robertson, Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billington, and Mrs. Chatterley. To conclude with a new Burlesque Extravaganza, entitled BLUE BEARD FROM A NEW POINT OF HUE. Messrs. ,T. L. Toole, P. Bedford, C. J. Smith ; Miss Woolgar, K. Kelly, Laidlaw, and J. Thorne. Doors open at half-past 6—Commence at 7. Box-office open from 10 till 5. No charge for booking. Private boxes, £2 2s. ; Family Boxes, Orchestra Stalls, ss. ; Balcony, 4s. ; Front Circle Stalls, Ils.; Pit Stalls, 25.; Pit, Is. 6d. ; Amphitheatre, is ; Gallery, 6d. Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith. THEATRE - ROYAL LYCEUN Sole Lessee and Directress. Madame CELESTE. THIS EVENING THE OMNIBUS. Pat Rooney, Mr, John Drew. After which, the Lyceum Christmas Comic Extravaganza, CRYSTABELLE or, The Rose without a Thorn, showint THE VISION OF A ROSE, ITS FADING AT EVE. AND THE MAY-BLOOM OF THE WILD BRIAR. Followed by the comic Drama, entitled HANDY ANDY. Messrs. Campbell, Johnstone, T. Lyon. Forrester, Villiers, Butler, and John Drew; Mrs. J. Rouse, Mica Hudspeth, Miss M. Ternan, and Miss Neville. A STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.- Proprietor and Manager, Mr. WM. BATTY. This Evening, a new Spectacle, entitled THE LION CONQUEROR; or, The Death Jungle, expressly for the introduction of the Wonders of the World, " The Groupe of Performing Lions." The Lion Conqueror, Mr..T. Crockett. To be succeeded by Scenes in the Arena, supported by talented Parisian and British Artistes. Concluding with Batty's Prize Equestian Comic Panto mime, for Good Little Boys and Girls, by T. L. Greenwood, entitled HARLEQUEN AND THE WONDERFUL HORSE ; or. Percinet and Grociosa, the Ugly Duchess and the Greedy King, produced with Gorgeous Scenery, by Mr. Cuthbert, new Costumes and Appointments, and introducing in the comic scenes Batty's Prize Equestrian Harlequinade, and the celebrated Old Bob Ridley, and Brandon Ledger. Harlequin Mr. Sylvester, Coluipbine Miss Hariet Dalton. Pantaloon Mr. G. Perks. Clown Sprites—Messrs. Thorne, Lockhart, and Sons. Doors open at half-Fast 8, performance commence at 7. Box-office open daily from 11 till 4 Stage Manager—Mr. W. WEST. Director of the Arena—Mr. Pearson. CANTERBURY HALL. Open Every Evening at Seven. GRAND SELECTIONS (First Time) from LA FTGLIA DEL REGIMEN TO (Donizetti), NORMA, SONNAMBULA, and MARTHA. Principal Artistes Miss RUSSELL, Madame MARIA, Miss TYRRELL, Miss WILLTAMS, Mr. HENRY HERBERT, C. W. BERNARD, and Signor TIVOLI. Musical Director.... Mr. F. JONGHMANS. The Comic Department comprises Messrs. J. BLANCH ARD, A. B. IlotriNGswoßTit, Master BARRY, G. W. PELL, CHARLEY Fox, and E. MARSHALL. The Fine Arts Gallery has been enriched by the addition of the late John ILartin's three Grand Pictures—viz., " THE GREAT DAY of HIS WRATH," "THE PLAINS of' HEAVEN," and "THE LAST JUDGMENT," on view until 12 o'clock at Night. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. THIS DAY.—Morning, sh. 24m.—Afternoon, sh. Vim, To-mounow.-Morning, Gh. Bm.—Afternoon, Gh. 36m. THE WEATHER.—StrilOnnas, JAN. 2, 1861, THEAMOMETER, IN THE SHADE. 40—highest since noon yesterday. 27—lowest this morning and during the night. 31—this day at noon. BAROMETER-30,05. WlND—Easterly—fresh, blowing a gale; with a bitter sharp frost. LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2, 1861 ----___,•,___ The second day of the New Year had not yet dawned, when there disappeared from the scene one of the Five Great European Sovereigns. At forty minutes past twelve, this morning, expired at last, after long affliction, FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., King of Prussia. The demise of this unfortu nate monarch at Potsdam, in his palace of Sans Souci (deplorable misnomer !)—cannot, however, even by the courtliest flatterer of crowned heads, be deemed other than a most happy release. And this not merely for himself, asan ill-fated Prince bowed down for years past with the direst afflictions with which the All-Wise, and even when His awful designs are, as in this instance, most terribly inscrutable, the All-Merciful GOD can afflict His creatures —FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., having been towards the close of his life stricken down to the dust (brought down to a level with the lowliest of mortal men) by blindness, and lunacy, and utter decrepitude! Death to the unhappy King him self could alone, therefore, come as a relief under the influence of those frightful circumstances. A relief likewise, his disappearance from the face of the earth cannot but prove to the Kingdom of Prussia and to the whole Prussian population. There at the palace of San Souci the cry in effect issued in be the s ame as that which in the old Bourbon times from the window of the Tuileries—Le Roi est snort, vire le Rot ! The Prince REGENT is now Prince REGENT no longer. He has succeeded his brother as Sovereign Ruler of Prussia —he has already, ipso facto, by the death of the late KING, ascended the throne of the Great FREDERICK. The Prince of Wales has lost a King of Prussia as his godfather. The Princess Royal of England has gained a King of Prussia for her father-in-law. Well will it be for Prussia, well will it be in a great measure for Europe, if the new Sovereign take now but timely warning from the history of his fraternal predecessor. Let his .Majesty but bear in remembrance all his own lofty liberal ante cedents, and let him, so remembering, a c t up to them right loyally. And so—when his reign too shall, in due time, according to the inexorable course of nature, have been completed—the last scenes of it may not close as those of the late KING'S did so deplorably—by the most wretched anti climax well imaginable ! We write thus, remem bering the day when—it is but a dozen years ago, it was in the midst of the great movements of 1848— when that same King of PRUSSIA who now lies dead at Potsdam, the merest wreck of humanity, rode through his capital in the midst of his enthusias- :C? Cr 4 • g ' .11•0 1 \ ~-44Z;^ *.l . - THE SUN. tic people, Soldier and Champion of Germany, his breastplate shining in the sun, his right hand bearing aloft the tricoloured banner of Germany's glorious Fatherland ! who make a papal reign so hateful to every true liberal in Europe, can share none of the pity which the poor old POPE piously, and, to profane ears, I ludicrously, bewailing in the Vatican, elicits by his honest sorrows. On his ministers all Europe,as well as the Romans, looks as the wolves in sheep's clothing —wolves, indeed, whom the clothing fits so scantily that none but the PorE himself is deceived in them One deed, known to all the world, has made them the execration of all Christian and civilised society. ANTONELLI and his accursed clique can never be even thought of evermore but as ordained, as clerical fiends, all the worse compared with the BOURBONS of Naples, of Messina, and of Palermo' by their shameless assumption of pastoral titles. How is it that Pius IX. has never learned the true character of the Perugian devilry of his ser vants ? Could we suppose him to be privy to it, we should pray that he might be hurled from his throne at once; but if he does not, what a pitiable plight for the Head of Roman Catholic Christendom to be in, that while deeming his rule a Theocracy —a vice-Divine rule—his servants should be furnished him from the bottomless pit. It is this melancholy, and to his own soul, poor man, blissful ignorance, which makes his Allocu tions on temporal matters create more than a smile. All without see things as they are. He sees them in some sentimental form, in which he innocently speaks of them to the laughing world as realities. Numbers of sympathisers of course he has. Birth, education, temperament, party, will provide them for almost any cause, especially when it is personified by almost feminine virtue. But in the broad daylight of human life, it will not do. Even a VICTORIA, were she served by Perugian butchers, and persisted in retaining them, would, doubtless, with many tender regrets, be sent after our JAMES 11. When we hear him, in secret con sistory, begin thus—" Venerable Brothers,—The Church, from its origin, assailed by fierce and con tinual tempests, is in our day the sad object of the attacks of enemies so great and so numerous that their hatred, long since existing, their rage, swollen to its height, appear to be let loose all entire against our Pontificate"—our blood boils within us at this blasphemy against the early Church, till we recollect that it is the blasphemy of ignorance. The good old Bishop has little idea that the " hatred and rage" against the Popedoni are aroused by those very things done in its name which the primitive Church would have branded as " the works of the Devil." And, indeed, that not the Pontificate, though an office wholly un know n to primitive Church History, but the wordly appendages, ambition, and cruelty which characterise it, are the sole cause of all the " hatred." Let the professed representative of St. PETER be as emulous of representing St. PETER in his temporalities as he is desirous to appropriate the spiritual powers he attributes to St. PETER, and the Popedom would peacefully enjoy the homage of all who love it. The EMPEROR'S policy—he tells the world—is Peace. It was the formal intimation made yester day upon the Jour de l' An—an intimation addressed by his MAJESTY to the assembled Ambassadors, It is the wish of France says NAPOLEON 111. And while so speaking—with a very admirable con sistency the Imperial ruler of France, with these words of Peace upon his lips, has the whole land under his sway bristling with bayonets, has every dockyard and arsenal in his empire ringing still with the note of preparation. Nothing should hide from us the fact—not even the benignant words uttered yesterday by the supreme master of 36,000,000 Frenchmen, the sovereign commander of an army of 600,000 war riors in the highest state of discipline, and of a maritime force second only to that of Great Britain —nothing, not even, we repeat, those blandly encouraging assurances from our Imperial Ally across the Channel, should close our eyes to the recognition of the wholly indisputable truth that 1861 opens ominously with all kinds of sinister portents of War in Europe. It is not that these evil auguries are drawn, according to the popular phrase from a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand, emerging dimly from one particular point of the horizon. The whole political atmosphere is charged with electricity, and sombrely darkening to the view as we look abroad at the commencement of this present January, north, south, east, and west, over Christendom. Whatever the French Emperor may say now in words of such honeyed suavity—his acts throughout have spoken, they still speak a language, in regard to the future, altogether differently. " Wiser in his generation' than those amiable sentences addressed by him yesterday to the European Envoys would, if alone taken into account, seem to indicate—his Imperial Majesty regulates his military, his maritime, and his diplo matic departments upon the probability, or, at any rate, upon the possibility, of a general war in Christendom. Hence it is that—with this dire contingency kept continually within her view— France, under the auspices of the Moderator of Revolution and the Regulator of Europe, retains yet an army firmly planted still, after a twelve years' occupation, in Central Italy, planted there at Rome, in greater force than ever, upon the covetted rov arm of the looked-for Italian kingdom, whether it be GARIBALDI, or MAZZINI, or CAVOUR, or VICTOR EMMANUEL that the Italians themselves may select for their Archimedes ! Hence is it, also, that France, under the like guidance of NAPO LEON'S duplex Policy—a Policy of Peace in Words and of War in Action—has contrived to plant another army firmly upon the borders of Asia Minor, upon the pretext of avenging upon the Druses of the Lebanon the murder of the Maro nites—but manifestly, in truth, to be there at hand whenever the occasion shall at length arise for interference upon another emergency, for prompt and vigorous interposition upon another and a far grander catastrophe. The occupation of Syria by French soldiers, the occupation of Rome by French soldiers—behold two facts there indicated, two simple facts that speak far more trumpet-tongued in regard to the immediate Future, in regard to the prospects of 1861, than any words addressed yesterday to the Envoys of Europe by One sentence in the Allocution has somewhat puzzled us—that which seems to speak of the Druses as influenced, like the King of SARDINIA we presume:he means, by the doctrines of the Reformation :—" In fact," he says, " we have to deplore the invasion of perverse doctrine which —sprung from the principles of the disastrous Reformation—has acquired almost the force of public law, on the one hand by the perversity of impious men, who proclaim themselves the sons of the Church, and whom we must call the sons of darkness—and, on the other hand, by the fury of the Pagans, which, in the lands of the East, has burst forth with such vehemence as to cause the massacre and extermination of the faithful." We suppose he means the doctrine, that the tem poral government of states is better intrusted to civilians than to clerics. That this is the doctrine he deems so perverse and befitting " impious men" and sons of dark ness, we gather from his lamentations over the refusal of the Chambers of the Duchy of Baden to accept the Concordat, whiCh their over-religious or over-Romish Duke had negotiated for them, and substituted for it a law which is, in the " highest degree, contrary to • the liberty of the Church." He then adds, " This state:of things, as we know, is the result of the false doctrine of the Pro testants, who think that the Church is a sort of corporation (collegium) existing in civil society, enjoying no right with the exception of those which are granted to it by the civil power. But who does not understand how much such a conception differs from the truth? In reality the Church has been instituted by its Divine Founder as a true and per fect society, which is not circumscribed by the boundaries of any State, or subject to any civil power, and which exercises its power freely, and for the salvation of men, in all quarters of the world." Now, we beg to remind his Holiness that he is perfectly at liberty, at any moment, to realise for the Church of Rome the ideal of which he speaks. Nothing stands in his way but his temporalities. Some Churches which he thinks heretical do, in this point at least, attain to precisely what he describes; but it is by having nothing to do with temporal rule, nor with concordats, nor 'with rights granted by the civil powers, but by simply accept ing the civil protection granted by the State to all the Imperial Master of those notable armaments. It is in respect to the Italian question—it is in reference to the imminent disruption of the Turkish Power in Europe—that 1861 appears to he so ominous of War among the nations of Christen dom. The sick man at Constantinople threaten ing now to prove, very speedily, sick even unto death. Physicians have long been in ♦ain in his instance—those political' physicians whose diplomas have been gained in Diplomacy ! Even the San Grados who have kept him so long in hot water, and have let blood so freely, in obedience to the dictates of their implic faith in the exceeding efficacy of their skill as phlebotomists, even they are one and all Wiled in their desperate endeavours to ward off the fast-coming dissolution. Before much longer the last hour of the sick man must, in the order of nature, have struck : and after the death will come the division of the property. With a view to all which probabilities NAPOLEON• 111. has adroitly contrived for his soldiers this convenient Maronito plea, for a Syrian occupation. His Imperial MAJESTY with equal forethought having persisted in the occupation of the Eternal City itself until this present moment—keeping there that standing ground in the midst of the Peninsular arena that may again become the battle field between the Austrian armies and the Italian population. Recol lecting merely those two isolated incidents, the Roman occupation and the Syrian occupation by the armies of NAPOLEON 111. we are disposed to attach but a very moderate significance to the pacific assurance addressed yesterday by the lips of his Imperial MAJESTY to the assembled ambassadors of Christendom. Mote particulrrly are we led so to do, when through the words of Peace spoken by the French EMPEROR, come resounding to us the sullen tread of his armies still moving to and fro upon the soil of France, to the end that they may yet sustain and even increase their already high state of efficiency—and when, through that sullen tread of the warlike legions of this most Pacific Sovereign, there still comes also echoed to us from the shores of his empire, that yet more ominous sound already referred to, the ringing, from all the dockyards and arsenals of France, of the busy note of preparation ! The Heidi of the Roman Catholic Church is in deep affliction. The good man, for the man all who have had any opportunity of knowing him pronounce to be good, is suffering the greatest trials goodness can endure. As a private Christian he might grieve to see another, of a very different stamp to himself, so hustled by the temporal powers in respect of the temporalities of the pope_ dom, which, by the most unaccountable logic or blindness to facts, he believes to be a gift of Heaven to the Bishop of Rome. But to be, himself, the Bishop, and to feel his kingdom of this Ns orld dropping away by inches—rather, as he would say, torn away by un clean dogs, polluted with Pro testant notions on e this haveparticular subject—must be every reason to think anguish indeed. Pio Non° less ambitious than most of his prede cessors, but for that very reason what with them was matter of pure ambition, with him is matter of religious faith and love. All the stories of the odiousness and badness of clerical government he either totally disbelieves, or believes them to be the corrupt notions of corrupted sheep, whom even the proximity of the Chief Shepherd has not taught the blessing of living under the infallible and Heavenly Viceroyalty. What Protestants may smile at, as they write or read it, is with him matter of as unquestioning a faith as that of the first disciples in an entirely unearthly kingdom. But with the good old monk, elevated to the Arch-Pastorat e of Roman Catholicism, all of us terminate our respect for the Government of Rome. His Prime Minister and his other servants its peaceful subjects. The Free Church in Scot land is such a Church ; it threw overboard its tem. poralities when the State claimed authority based upon them. The Dissenting Churches of England are in the same position ; so are all the churches in America, the Roman Catholic Church included, and• the Catholic Church in England and Ireland too. Pius IX. is a very simple-minded man. Can no enlightened Catholic gain his ear, and whisper to him the words—" Be POPE only, and be free." Some things lead us to think that the Alton lien must be his own only. Would the astute Perugian savage have advised him to deign to notice the pamphlet which invites Louis NAPOLEON to follow the example of all other European Sovereigns, and proclaim himself Pope of the French Church ? And would he have allowed him to use as an ar gument what every child would see to be simple assertion, that the unity of the Church could only be a unity under the See of Rome ! The nineteenth century will certainly not accept the word of the POPE for an assertion, which would lay all the world at his feet. Perhaps, however, these asser tions, and the quotations from a number of worthy old fathers, whose knowledge, and that of all the cen turies since, we possess—who were babes compared with us—perhaps they are all meant, in fact as well as form, for the faithful ; they, however, little need them. We cannot, however, follow the POPE through all his sighs and groans—his lamentations over persecutions suffered by Roman Catholics, which are light to those inflicted by Popery on the soil of Italy itself; throughout Spain also, France, ana Austria—his grief that people are everywhere taking education, marriage, &c., into their own lay hands—and an endless story of Papal sorrows over what Englishmen would call the beginnings of religious liberty. Educated Europe has outgrown all this as it has outgrown the BOURBONS. What indeed can be hoped from the Papacy when, un taught by all the past, its confidence lies in shut ting out the light—when in the 60 t h y ear of the 19 th century the avowed head of the Church can Behold the end of these translations of THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EN - ENING, JANUARY 2, 1861 the sacred books,everywhere scattered to corrupt the faith." Papal Catholicism must learn to stand the light of the Bible and of free discussion, or it will soon be a thing of the past. MR. W. J. Fox, M.P.—We understand that in in consequence of continued ill-health, Mr. W. J. Fox con templates retiring from parliameniary life before the open ing of next session. Mr. Deputy Dakin was yesterday elected alder man of Candlewick Ward, in the room of Sir G. Carroll, deceased. In the case of the British, Colonial, and Foreign Sugar Company, winding up in tie Court of Chancery, a dividend of ss. in the pound is new payable to the creditors at the offices of Messrs. Harding, Pulloin, and Co. CURIOUS PIIENO3IENON.—The Strathearn Herald reports a curious and interesting phenomenon in the his tory of fish as observable in the great glass cabinet of the Ochtertyre ice—many of the trolt and perch being frozen into the ice covering. It is probable that they were dead before being thus entombed. LIVERPOOL MERCANTILE MARINE ASSOCIATION. —The monthly meeting of this association was held yes terday. A resolution expressive of regret at the removal of Captain Mends, R.N., C.B.,from Liverpool, and of re spect for his talent and merits es an officer and a gentleman, was unanimously adopted. The Right Hon. the Lori Mayor has kindly con sented to preside at the annual dinner in support of the funds of the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-inn-road, to take place at the Freemasons' Tavern in the early part of the year. In the Paris corn.marke during the past week prices have been firm. The four marks of flour were quoted at 64f. the sack of 157 {Hos. ; wheat at 37f.50c. the hectolitre and a half ; rye, 22f, 50c. the 115 kilos. ; barley, 20f. 50c. the 100 kilos. ; and otts, 32f. 50c. the 150 kilos. The United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Com pany, which is rapidly perfecting its system, has secured the services of Mr. IV. Andrews as general manager and secretary. Mr. Andrews has been connected with tele graph companies about eight years, at one time as general and commercial manager, and for some years as engineer of the Submarine Company. The weather at Paris continues soft and mild, and rain fell last evening. A similar change has taken place in the provinces, the frost generally disappeared ; and the rivers which had been rapidly rising have either stopped short in their upward movement or began to subside. The Seine at Paris has ceased to rise. The crowd in the streets of Paris yesterday after noon presented a most animated spectacle, every one hurry ing along as if the fate of the empire depended on his haste, and nearly every other person being the bearer of some toy or present. The bonbon manufacturers could scarcely supply the demands, and every shop that sold small objects of good taste and not of high price was well attended. The petty dealers along the boulevards also seemed to drive a good trade. Towards evening the rain thinned the streets. PRICE or GOLD.—The quotation of gold at Paris is about 1 per mile premium, and the :short exchange on London is 25.16 per £ sterling. On comparing these rates with the English mint price of £3 17s. 101 d. per ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is about 2-10ths per cent. dearer in Paris than London. By advices from Hamburg the price of gold is 424 per mark ; the short exchange on London is 13.4 per £ sterling. Standard gold at the English mint price is, therefore, about 2-10ths per cent. dearer in Hamburg than in London. The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at sixty days' sight is 100 to 102 per cent., at which rate there is a profit on sending gold:to the 'United States. TURF NEWS FROM CIIANTILLY.—A law proceed ing is now pending between M. Benoist and M. Paul Autpont, concerning the celebrated filly Capucino. The DEATH OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. W ~~. ~.~~\~~~~w~~ar former asserts that ho is hor sole proprietor, and demands a right to take her out of Spreoty's stables at his pleasure, it being his wish, it is believed, to sell her to Count de Lagrange. The first claim the plaintiff has laid—that the mare shall be placed in Mr. T. Carter's stables during the litigation—has been rejected by the President of the Tribunal at Sonlis.—Count de Lagrange has sold the Zouave to the French Government, on dit, for £1,000; and M. Delamarre has sold Cagliostro to the Belgian Govern ment.—M. Desmasons, the late trainer to M. deVauteaux, has succeeded C. Green as private trainer to M. Verry, of Bordeaux.—C. Brown has terminated his engagement as first jockey to Baron Daru, and returns to England. THE LIFE OF A CRAB.—The crustaceans also— the crabs and lobsters, the shrimps and prawns and cray fish—are met with either exclusively in the neighbourhood of land or in some of those great masses of seaweed that float in open water in the mid-Atlantic. Crustaceans are very curious animals. Commencing life with a head pre posterously large in proportion to its size, the young crab emerges from the egg with a long forked tail but no body, and occupies its time in turning head over heels till it casts its first covering and alters its proportions. The true and recognisable crab does :not, however, even then appear; this singular form being at last elaborated after a series of changes and transformations which can only he likened to those of a pantomime. Of the crabs, some occupy their own mansions, which they leave periodically as their substance increases and requires larger accommodation; while others, not constructing houses for themselves, occupy shells which they self° for the occasion, and which would seem suitable enough if one may judge from the tenacity with which the tenant retains possession.—All the Year Round. UNEXPECTED REDUCTION IN THE PRICE OF INDIA SuAwLs.—lntending purchasers of India shawls will be pleased to hear of tho possibility of obtaining a real Cash mere at an important reduction in price. The recent half yearly sale of Cashmeres was remarkable for being disad vantageous to importers. Although the number of lots put up far exceeded those of any sale on record, the prices, without any apparent cause, ranged considerably lower than usual. A few London buyers, taking advantage of the reduction in price, seemed particularly animated in their biddings. Some of the most important lots of fine shawls were knocked down to Messrs. Farmer and Rogers, of Regent-street, whose purchases were evidently on a very large scale, and quite consistent with the reputation of their house for India goods. The increasing patronage bestowed upon Cashmere shawls cannot fail to give an im petus to the general trade that must, in a short time, ren der shawls of every description as popular with English ladies as they have been for so many years with Parisian fashionables. A GALE.--SIIIELDS, Now Year's Day.-1860 terminated its existence in these northern parts as it began, in a howling tempest of wind and snow and sleet from E.S.E. Seamen have had to experience a bitter night upon the North Sea, and the aspect of the ocean from Tynomouth Point this morning is frightful, a fierce sea having raised a wall of foam along the whole line of the Northumberland coast. During Sunday and yesterday a number of laden coll'ers running before the gale being unable to take the port were obliged to make for the shelter of Leith Roads. The London and Leith steamships are in harbour. One of the steamships belonging to the General Steam Navigation Company, which left here on Saturday, attempted to got round Flamborough Head on Sunday, but was beat back by the gale, and had to put into the Tyno again. All has been made fast in this harbour for the ice and " freshets" which may be expected to come down from the upper reaches of the Tyne. The Industrie, of the Tees, ashore at Sunder land, is reported to be a wreck. A new barque, belonging Mr. Douthwaite, of South Shields, has had a narrow escape from destructiqn as she was being towed round from the building yard at Blyth. At daybreak on Sunday a largo vessel, which proved to be her, was observed off Blyth, close to the edge of the broken water. She was within a hair's breadth of destruction, when three steamboats got to her assistance, and brought her into the Tyne. THE THAW IN THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES.—in consequence of the sudden thaw en Sunday, the marshes have been flooded, in some places to a considerable depth, by the large quantity of water that has come down the country. On Monday the Ouse had risen so high that the water entered some of the houses in the Cliffs. On Monday morning, the line of railway between Lewes and Uckfield was flooded to such an extent that the trains could not proceed for some hours ; some portion of the lino being washed away. With the promptness that on all occasions characterises the officials of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company, measures were atonce taken to render the delay as short as possible, and a ballast train was able to get through about half-past 11. The ordinary passenger traffic was resumed at 1 o'clock. In the previous part of the morning the through passengers were sent on by cabs and flys.—Sussex Advertiser. BLOCKED UP IN THE SNOW.---A letter from Boulogne, dated Dec. 31, states that on account of the vast accumulations of snow, several of the trains from Paris had been 30 hours beyond the appointed time on the route; and that two duo on the evening of the 29th were blocked up the whole night near Staples, as also the express train which left Boulogne on the 29th, with 69 passengers, drawn by three locomotives. Provisions were sent to the snow-bound travellers from Boulogne. On the 30th the thaw set in and the next day communications were re-opened as usual. TIIE GRAIN MOVEMENT.—The statistics of the grain movement are of pressing importance, from their intl.. mate bearing upon the state of eur money market. We find that the imports of wheat in November were 988,024 qrs., against 327,278 in November, 1859, and 273,602 in Novem ber, 1858. The mere increase in the imports of wheat on the month, as compared with last year, makes a difference of about one and three-quarters millions sterling in the general balance of trade as between England and foreign countries. The quantity of flour imported in the month was 515,148 cwts., against 174,111 last year, showing like wise a great increase. For the eleven months the imports of wheat have been:5,015,236 qrs., against 3,729,316 qrs. last year. The difference against us on the eleven months' transactions in wheat is not less than £3,800,000. The eleven months' imports of flour have risen from 3,130,937 cwts. in 1859 to 4,327,639 cwts. in the present year. And, as the great bulk of the increase, both as re gards wheat and flour, is from the United States, the adverse balance is, not difficult ,of explanation.—Xoney Market Remy. , T 1.4 t) WS. (REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.) BERLIN, WEDNESDAY. King Frederick William IV. expired at 12.40 a.m. to-day at Sans Souci. BANK OF FRANCE. PARIS, WEDNESDAY MORNING. The Bank of France has raised its rate of dis count from 4-1 to 51 per cent. The Moniteur publishes an account of the recep tion of the Diplomatic Corps which took place yesterday at the Tuileries. The Moniteur says : " Lord Cowley confined himself to presenting to the Emperor the respectful congratulations of the Diplomatic Corps, in whose name he spoke. " The Emperor replied:— " I thank you for the wishes which you have expressed to me. I regard the future with confi dence, being convinced that the friendly under standing between the Powers will maintain peace, which is the object of all my desires.'" NAPLES, DEC. 31., 4.4 P.M. An insignificant attempt at reaction was made last night, and was easily suppressed. Some lazzaroni having shouted "Long live Francis II." were arrested. A personal enemy of the Duke of San Donato has made an attempt to assassinate him. The report in reference to the death of the officer in command of the Marquis of Downshiro's yacht is without the slightest foundation. - The Bourbon garrison of Civitella on the Tronto have burnt a Sardinian prisoner of war. Naples and provinces are quiet. MARSEILLES, JAN. 1. According to news received from Toulon, orders arrived there yesterday from Paris, to despatch provisions for one month to the squadron off Gaeta. * Letters from Gaeta to the 29th ult. state that the announcement published in some Italian journals of the departure of the Queen was false. Her Majesty had paid a visit to the hospitals. NAPLES, DEC. 29. It is asserted that Prince Carignan is about to replace Signor Parini as Lieutenant of the king, with Ratazzi as second in office. Disturbantes have taken place before the Palace of the Archbishop of Naples. Agitation and discontent are said to be increas ing in Sicily. ROME, DEC. 29. The elerical party is ♦ery dissatisfied with the Emperor of Austria for granting liberal concession to his subjects. The circulation of the last proclamation ad dressed by Francis 11. to the Neapolitans has been prohibited, although it was printed here. The reactionary movements in the Abruzzi are on the increase, the bands of reactionists having been reinforced by large numbers of Neapolitan soldiers. Two officers of the Papal Zouaves have been arrested for theft. The general conviction here is that the Papa Government will fall. BERLIN, JAN. 1. Letters! receivpd horn to-day from Prague state that placards in the Bohemian language had been posted up at the corners of the streets of that city, earnestly advising the Czeohs to remain quiet for the present, as the right moment for decisive action has not yet arrived. The placards further exhort the Czechs to ob serve the Hungarians, whose end is nearly attained, and finally to trust in Napoleon. PARIS, JAN. 1. This being New Year's-day, no business was done on the Bourse. PRUSSIA. The district of Bielfeld has elected as its repro• sentative in the Chamber of Deputies 111. Waldek a barrister and a democrat of the advanced school despite the opposition of the Conservative party and even of the Liberal Constitutionalists. The Cologne Gazette makes the following obser vations on the subject :—" M. Waldek is a distin guished barrister and a most honourable man. Doubtless, he was carried away too far by the cur• rent of ideas of 1848, and we should have preferred a man representing the moderate ideas which we profess. But, the selection having been made, we do not see great harm in it. On the contrary, we are glad of it, as we should be glad if M. Gerlach were re-elected. We think it desirable that every existing party in the country should be represented in the Chamber, and by their most distinguished and capable leaders." RUSSIA. Le Nord has the following :—" The announce ment that the French squadron had been withdrawn from Gaeta has not been confirmed. It was simply a premature report. We take advantage of this opportunity to correct a false statement inserted in some of the journals to the effect that Russia had threatened to send a Russian squadron to Gaeta should the French squadron be withdrawn. Our Paris correspondent gives the most formal denial to that rumour. ' The interests of Russia in Italy,' he says, ' and the sentiments of the Russian nation for that country, protest against such a decision, which, moreover, the Russian Government has not had the opportunity of taking. Whatever may be the personal sympathy felt for the misfortunes of Francis 11., the Emperor Alexander, who bas doubtless sent him friendly word; as he before gave him wise advice, has taken no engagement towards that Prince, or offered him any material support." AMERICA. LIVERPOOL, IVF,DNESD The Royal Mail steamship Asia, Captain Lott, which left New York on the 18th ult., and touched at Queenstown yesterday, arrived here this morning. THE QUEEN VICTORIA, WITH ZELEGRAPHIC CABLE, 4811 ORE. PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY, 10.30 A.M. The iron screw steamship Queen Victoria, with the Rangoon telegraphic cable on board, has grounded on the beach under Mount Edgocumbe, in Barn Pool, while going from Plymouth Sound to Keyham Steam-yard. A Government tug steamer and the merchan ;ng Lord Yarborough are in attendance. She has been ashore three-quarters of an hour. The tide is one quarter ebb. The Charivari represents the year 1861 under the form of a smart young girl with a basket under one arm and a large bag bearing the inscription of 600,000,000 f. under the other. A sedate bourgeois, in a long great coat and an umbrella in his hand, stops her, and says—" Why, what a hurry you are in, 1861 I One would think you aro going to market I" " Why, so I am," replies the other, "I have something to purchase in Italy!" S 7. JAMES'S RAIL. A concert was given here on Monday evening by the members of the first division of Mr. Henken's Choral Association. It was under the patronage of the Hullah Teitimoeial Committee, and as it was in so good a cause it is a matter of regret that it was so very thinly attended. It is greatly to be hoped that at the succeeding concerts of this committee a larger number will be present to assist the object that is in view. No one can fail to sympathise with Mr. Hullah, who made such praiseworthy efforts for many years to improve the public taste 'in music, and whose pupils gained so much proficiency under his able tuition. It was a sad misfortune that befel him in the summer, and it is a most creditable undertaking that is now on foot to ren der him assistance. This concert was better in the second part than the first. The solo singers were hardly equal to the very difficult parts assigned to them in the sacred selections. Oratorio solos aro always most elaborate and very trying tests of the singer's power. It was a great disappointment that Mr. Thomas was unable to appear, as he has often acquitted himself in a satisfactory manner at sacred performances. The best singer on Monday was Miss Wilkinson, whose recitative of " Angels ever bright and fair," was the chef d'auvre of the solos in the first part. The choruses by the associa tion were very well executed. In the second part the great success was Master Drew Dean, whose per formance on Curtis's Silver Cylinder Flute was really excellent, and executed most remarkably for so young a musician. Miss Huddart was encored in " The Mother's Song," which she sang with great spirit, and on being recalled she favoured the audience with the fine ballad of " The Three Fishers," which gave great satisfaction. " The Stars of the Summer Night" by the association was another good chorus. Altogether the concert was well executed in its way, and the audience seemed well satisfied with the entertainment. MARIA PICCOLOMINL A writer in a contemporary says :—" I was during a fortnight at a charming villa, three miles from Siena, the residence of the parents of our be loved and most celebrated artist, Maria Piccolomini now Marchioness della Fargua, of the Dukes Caetani, and it was by a miracle that this dear creature did not find herself in tumult and great peril on the return of the Swiss, headed by that assassin the too infamous Schmidt, in the city of Pieve, of which I will speak by and by. When I arrived at the Villa Piccolomini I found all the family reunited. Her sister Laura had on the Bth of October married a young Sienese, 23 years old, very rich, who possesses divers villas and a beau tiful palace in Siena. An heir to the family of La Fargua is expected in April. Returning to my interrupted narrative, I tell you that on the Bth of last September the Marchese and Marchesa della Fargua took leave of her parents, sister, and brother, in order to repair to the city of Pieve, where the marquis's feudal territory is situated, his magnificent palace and numerous estates. Ar rived at the railway station they were told no tra veller for three days could pass, the trains being expressly reserved for the Sardinian troops, who were coming into Umbria and the Marches to oppose and disband the formidable Papal troops who threatened ruin by fire and sword. Be hold the Providence that has always watched over the days of our beloved artist did not for sake her this time ; and in the delicate state she was she ran a great risk. After the Sardinian troops had dispersed the Papal hordes, the La Farguas entered the city of Pieve, and in accordance with their kind invitation I became their guest, and remained with them three weeks. As all that con cerns the fair Piccolomini has an interest for the English, I will give you a sketch of the Mar quis della Fargua's noble residence, and of his city. The city della Pieve, distant from Perugia about 25 miles, stands on a high and beautiful hill among the Apennines, encircled by a vast horizon, from whence you see at a small distance the Lake of Thrasymenus, celebrated in history, on the shores of which the great battle was fought bptwecn and the Consul Flaminius, who commanded the Roman legions. Besides this you see the cities of Cortona, Orvieto, and Viterbo. The population is 4,500 souls, and since A,D. 1605 has been the residence of a bishop. In the cathedral you admire the picture of the Virgin and Infant Jesus, the work of the immortal Pietro Vannucci (called Perugino) in 1513 ; also two others by the same ; and in the church of S. An tonio, where exists the celebrated fresco that occu pies the whole façade representing the Birth of our Saviour and the Adoration of the Magi, painted by Perugino in 1504. This picture is supposed to be the best of this immortal genius's works; and his scholar, Raffaelle d'Urbino, is supposed to have assisted him in it. Pietro Vannucci was born at Pieve in 1446, but, having always studied and painted at Perugia, was called Perugino. Among the palaces the most remarkable are Cardinal della Corgua's, built in 1551, a fine structure ; that of the Dukes Bonelli, of ancient architecture, built in the fifteenth century, and now belonging to Signor Rinaldo, a citizen of Pieve ; finally, the palace of the Marchese Laval della Fargua, of beautiful modern architecture, situated in the highest part of the city, and enjoying one of the most delightful prospects the imagination can paint, for its terraces command the finest horizon, and within short distances of Lakes Trasimeno, Chiusi, and Montepubliano. Its spacious apart ments are adorned with beautiful frescoes and stuccoes, and the reception saloon is splendidly and delicately gilded by master hands. The present pro prietor is his Excellency Don Francesco Marchese di Laval della Fargua, of the Dukes of Caetano of home, who in July last espoused the noble Lady Maria Countess Piccolomini of Siena, whose name is so illustrious for the glory of her ancestors and for the lustre which she has thrown upon her own artistic career, not only in Europe but also in America, where she obarmed all hearers." DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.—On Sunday night last a fire broke out in the large flax warehouse cf Messrs. Briggs and Co., flax spinners, very near the Hunslet station of the Midland Railway, Leeds. The premises were three stories high, 100 ft. long and 30ft, broad ; and such was tile inflam mable nature of the flax and tow in the building that the fire made rapid progress till the whole building and contents were destroyed. Happily, the efforts of the fire brigades prevented the fire extending to some adjoining buildings, or the loss would have been much more serious. The damage has been estimated at from £ll,OOO to £12,000, which is covered to the extent of about two-thirds by insurance in the Lancashire and Imperial offices. The fire is believed to have originated in the spontaneous combustion of some of the tow or flax in the building. SUDDEN DEATH OF A CLOWN.—The pantomime at the Great Yarmouth Theatre had a melancholy finale on Friday night last. After the harlequinade was over the clown, named Algar, went to the dressing-room, but before he had changed his clothes he was seized with sickness, and lay down and died almost immediately. A medical gentle man was summoned from the boxes, but death had super vened before any aid could be rendered. It seemed that the poor fellow was suffering from disease of the lungs for some time past, and that he was absolutely dying during the whole of the evening he was endeavouring to set his audience in a roar with his jokes and drolleries. Deceased was only 35 years of age. Four years ago another actor, named Russell, dropped dead on this stage while performing in the " Hunchback." The last private letters from Vienna express hopes that some real amendment in the political and finan cial system of Austria may be shortly brought about by the almost total change lately effected in the Ministry. Every State department, with the exception of that of Foreign Affairs, which is still retained by Count Rechberg, has passed into new hands, and the liberation of Count Teleki seems to harmonize with the improved expectations. The revenue accounts from India are stated to be so satisfactory that there is no probability of any aid being required beyond the £3,000,000 which the President of the India Council is at present empowered to raise. It is also said that the necessity for that addition to the debt will be attributable almost solely to the inability of the railway companies to obtain at present any further funds on their 6 per cent. debentures. THE FRENcH IN CHINA.—The Patric says : " The despatches from China inform us of the fact that the city of Pekin has been entirely evacuated. The French troops have been, it is said, divided into two corps. We a re assured that the first corps embarked on Nov. 15 for Shang hae, and that the second corps has remained at Tien-tsin, where it will winter. The troops (marines) form ing the garrison of Shanghae were to be replaced by others from the north, and the marines sent to the French establish ment at Saigon," LITERATURE. aeron's Born. A book of Fairy Tales. By Henry Morley. Chapman and Hall. Another volume of Christmas fairy tales quaint and dreamy, humorous and romantic, appears under favourable auspices. The pen of Henry Morley, and the pencil of Charles Bennett, to bath of which the public are indebted for a large share of enter tainments, have assisted in its publication. Two of the twelve tales do not come before us for the first time. The humorous " Adventures in Skitz land," and " The King of the Hearth," have pre viously appeared in the pages of .Household Words, and the readers who can recall them to mind, may easily imagine the style and character of the other tales. Many of them have a quiet moral lurking under their legends of elves and sprites ; but as the author says in his pleasant introductory verses— " English wit rings best With an earnest undertone; 'Tia when reason lies under the jest, That an Englishman's laugh is his own." One or two of the shorter tales, however, arc un worthy of introduction,‘beiug simply absurd, with out further recommendation, and would have been better omitted from among their sprightly and sensible companions. But there are plenty of a higher class, among which we may mention " The Stavesacre Fairies," and " The Bag of Minutes." The latter tells us of a youth who received from old Father Time the gift of a bag full of minutes, and who, consequently -7 had always spare time at his command. This privilege, which at first seemed to be an inestima ble advantage was at last discovered to be worse than useless ; and, accordingly, by the advice of a sage counsellor, the Bag of Minutes, was scattered to the winds, " and ever since then, grains of spare time, seldom to be caught, are thought to be dancing up and down the world." Those who have such grains at their command cannot do better than procure Mr. Morley's pleasant volume wherewith to occupy them. Little Ella and the Fire King, and other Fairy Tales. Edinburgh : Edmonston and Douglas. This is a very amusing little volume adapted for the young, and it presents a great deal of variety in its pages. The little sketches are easy of comprehension, and some of them' are very en tertaining. Little Ella is a very striking warning to little maidens who think too much of them selves, and are vain and selfish. She found, indeed, that all is not gold that glitters, and the fairy palace she so desired to inhabit proved anything but an Elysian abode when she really entered it. " The Wonderful Apple-tree" is an instance of the great harm committed by those who give way to idleness, and think only of present amusement in stead of future welfare. " A Pig for an Hour," is a lesson for greedy children, as it shows how Wilfred was beset with troubles even after he was able to satisfy himself with all varieties of food. The adventures he met with were sufficient to deter the most inveterate glutton from his course, and the allegory introduced of his being transformed into a pig, is a very happy one, bringing before the young in an effec tive manner the results of their conduct as it appears in the eyes of others. " The Silver Dog and his Puppies" is a very interesting little tale, but the little girls did not deserve the treasures bestowed upon them. This lively series of sketches is an admirable present for any child, and it is very elegantly brought out, and it is an ornamen tal addition to any table, while it is a source of amusement to a child, and belongs to that attractive class of books for juvenile readers which is one of the greatest improvements in the changes of modern literature. Holidays with Hobgoblins and Tales of Strang. Things. By Dudley Costello. John Camden Hotten. In this little volume are combined original ghost stories, which are as much in season at Christmas time as geese are at Michaelmas, but why or where fore is a matter of history so remote that we are unable to trace its origin, and superstitious traditions and amusing researches into the writings of the ancients on monsters and the marvellous. Among the ghost stories, the " Haunted House near Hamp stead Heath" and " The Apparition of Monsieur Bodey" are most worthy of note. The chapter on " Traditions and Superstitions" gives a brief ac count of the hold which superstition had upon the minds of men in the " dark ages ;" but goes on to show that in many rural districts, in spite of the schoolmaster being abroad, the people cling to the traditions which have been handed down from sire to son from time immemorial with a religious vene ration. It is in the nature of humanity to require some basis to rest their belief upon, and when rea son fails them they pin their faith on the invisible world of spirts. " Weary from doubt to doubt they fly, We welcome fond credulity, Guido confident though blind." In proof of how far superstition will carry some people, the following history of the melancholy fate of a peasant and his wife in the centre of France will show : The witch's Familiar was almost invariably a toad ; but a frog was made to figure in that capacity only a few years ago with fatal consequences. The history of the occurrence is a sad example of the effects of superstitious fear. It hap pened in the commune of Bussy-en-oth, in the department of the Aube, in France, in the year 1841. A young man of that village had been passing the day enjoying the very French amusement of fishing for frogs. lie had caught a great many, and placed them alive in a bag. On his way home he saw a peasant walking slowly on the road before him, the large half-open pocket of whose coat invited the fisherman to the perpetration of a practical joke. Accord ingly, as he passed the peasant, he managed, unperceived, to slip one of the frogs into his pocket. The peasant un suspectingly walked on, reached his cottage, and tired with the labours of the day, soon afterwards went to rest, throwing his clothes as usual on his bed. In the middle of the night, Jacquemin—that was the peasant's name— was awakened by feeling something cold crawling over his face, and uttering indistinct cries ; it was, of course, the frog that had crept out of Jacquemin's pocket, and had paused on its journey to croak. Jacquemin, who was of an exceedingly timorous nature, lay as still as death till his nocturnal visitor departed, nothing doubting that he had been visited by a spirit. The man's character for simplicity was so generally known, that people were always playing tricks upon him; and on the very next morning after the preceding visitation, one of his friends came into his cottage, and told him that his old uncle, who lived at Sens, had just died, and advised him to set off and claim his share of the inheritance. Jacquemin, on hearing the news, made no more ado, but at once set out with his wife for Sens, distant eight leagues from where he lived. Arrived at the house of the supposed deceased, the first person he saw was his uncle sitting in his arm-chair. Anybody else would have perceived that he had been duped, but this poor fellow, firmly believing that his uncle was dead, was seized with sudden terror, and dragging his wife out of the house, set off again to Bussy, without giving time for a word of explanation. In the meantime, the frog had not abandoned his cottage, but had taken refuge in a .hole in the flooring, from whence, every now and then, it uttered dismal croaks. Jacquemin, convinced that he had seen his uncle's ghost, fancied that these noises were made by the spirit, and the agony he -un derwent became insupportable. A prey to the direst fear, Jacquemin at last hung himself one morning in his hayloft. On the following day, his wife, despairing for the loss of her husband, threw herself into a pond, and was found drowned—a double suicide, caused by an imbecile super stition. Under the head of " Monsters," we find a curious description of those wonderful creatures in the existence of which our forefathers placed implicit faith. In olden times, such was the credulity of mankind and so great was their love of the marvel lous and impossible, that a traveller who related simple unvarnished truth would have been set down as an imposter ; and it must have been from this conviction that Marco Polo, the first Easte rn explorer to whom we are in debted for so m uc h valuable information, has furnished (we suppose by way of sauce to help the truth down the throats of the sceptical world) a most ingenious account of the Chinese Dragon. Ihe name of the author led us, on opening the volume, to anticipate a store of amusement. We have not been disappointed ; and we think that the reader, when he reaches the last page, will be of the same opinion. Advices were received at Lloyd's yesterday of the wreck, near Boulogne, of the ship Ardville, from Macao to London, with 616,7001b5. of tea and other cargo on board. The Sourisquois, from Bombay to London, is also telegraphed as being on shore near the same place, " in a bad position." THE LATE ATTEMPTED MURDER IN IRELAND.-- At the Capel-street Police-office on Monday, Joseph Dwyer, the party charged with the attempt to murder William Mulholland on Thursday evening last, was brought up and the charge against him investigated. The pur chase of the pick-axe and the shovel by him, and also of the pistol, powder, caps, was proved, and he was identified by Mulholland as his assailant, and by the salesman at Hyam's as the person who ordered the clothes. It was also proved that, after being duly c autioned, he stated to the police that he did not intend to kill the man. He was committed for trial at the commission. Mr. Curran stated that the defence would be insanity, and that he would clearly prove, at the proper time, that for the last twelve m o nths Dwyer had been of u nsound mind. DEATH FROM SUFFOCATION BY A PIECE OF ROAST BEEF.—Yesterday Mr. Payne, the coroner for the City of London, held an inquest at the Old Tavern, Great on the body o f C orne li us Pi c t on Koagar. It a ppeared the evidence of M r . J os eph Butler, of Beer lane, Towe r-street,T from 0 e r r o -s treet, the deceased went into the coffee-room of the Shades Tavern, and ordered some coffee, when he suddenly dropped his head on the table. The landlord immediately sent for a medical gentleman, who instantly came, but found him dead. On making a post mortem examination a solid piece of roast beef was found stuck in his throat, which suffocated him, The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death." the rate at t in t and rati dire the that sati in a po ha thi se] in pe tio con the beef con sup sun moi fay i for cie a di woi add to .4 Nei tit de IC