The Sun. — London, England, 1863-09-09 00:00:00

4 ~~.~ J IP '',,,- . +,' ' . l .Ai di . P. ' ill Al le*-, ''' - ‘"k -- A - - ' l '* 7 • - - •••••._ JIEMATRE ROYAL DRURY - LANE. -- 1141 ~ Managers, Messrs. Edmund Falconer and F. B. Chatterton.—The Public is respectfully informed that the above (the National) Theatre will he ONE for the WINTER SEASON, on SATURDAY N PE EXT, S D eptember 12th, when will be produced an entirely new and original Comedy, by Edmund Falconer, Auth entitled or of " Extremes," " Woman." " Pee p o'Day," &c., NATURE'S ABOVE ART : A Romance of the Nursery, in which Messrs. Walter Lacy , Addison, Ryder,G. Belmore, F. Charles, Neville ; Miss Charlotte Saun lers, Miss Murray, Miss R. Leclercq, Mrs. Melville, and Mrs Ed mund Falconer. assisted by other artists, will perform. After the Comedy will be p resented a Popula, Farce, prin cial characters by favourite members of the Company. Bopx- o ffice open from Ten till Five daily. ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. Lessee, Mr. George Vining. Open under the Management of Mr. Walter Montgomery. THIS EVENING, KING JOHN. King John, Mr. Walter Montgomery ; Faulcounridg,e, Mr. Henry Loraine. To be followed by FAMILY JARS. Commence at 7. NEw THE taltE-I{.o eAL, ADELYII.I._ Sole pronrotor and Manatrer. Mr. R. Webster. THIS EVENING (for the Benefit of Mr. J. L. Toole), THE TRAGEDY QUEEN. Mrs. Stirling. Followed by YOUR LIFE'S IN DANGER. Messrs. J. L. Toole, P. Bedford, and M's. OPERATIC SELECTIONS, by the Nelson Sisters. After which, THE ROSEBUD OF STINGINGNETTLE FARM. Messrs. Toole, P. Bedford, C. J. Smith. And T E HAUNTED MAN; or, the Ghost's Bargain, in which will be exhibited Professor Pepper's adaptation of `he Great Spectral Illusion. Messrs. J. L. 'Toole, R. Phillips, Sefton. C. J. Smith; Mrs. Alfred Mellon and Miss H. Simms. R OYAL STRAND THEATRE. Manager, Mr. W. H. Swanborough. THIS EVENING, HIS FIRST CHAMPAGNE. Mr. Leigh Murray. Followed by (45th time) THE MOTTO, "I'M ALL THERE." Messrs. Honey, Turner, E. Danvers, Collier, Clifton; Mesdames Ada Swanborough, F. Josephs, Maria Simpson, Wallace, anct Jenny White. To conclude with TURN HIM OUT. Mr. Turner, Miss Thorne. Commence at 7. T" THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN," Containing the Latest SPORTING LNTELLIGENCE, ean be had Every Evening of G. R. GLENIE, NEWS AGENT, No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. THIS DAY.—Morning, 11h. 45m.—Afternoon, h. m. To-moßßow.-Morning, 12h. 20m.—Afternoon, 12h. 40m. The Weather—Sun Office, Sept. 9, 1863. THERMOMETER. This morning This day at Two o'clock 63 _ Barometer-29.85. Wind—South -Westerly; light, and cloudy. .2 4 2 eijg frA44la)i. N>.0.3011n, 4 LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9, 1863 At exceedingly delicate question is now arising as to whether El Toussoun or El Monassir are to be detained in Mr. LAIRD'S Building-yard down at Liverpool. Whether those two steam rams, now upon the very eve of their completion, are to be detained there, by order of Her MAJESTY'S Go vernment, under the Foreign Enlistment Act. The settlement of this question one way or the other, and that within a very few days from the present moment, is dependent, of course, upon the deei sion arrived at by :the law officers of the Crown, as to the bearing of that enactment upon one of the nicest points of international law. Whether can it be shewn that the destination of these two formidable ships-of-war is such as would bring their retention in the building-yard within the capacity or authority of the Government That is, really and truly, the question. Originally, as is well known, nay as their outlandish names sufficiently indicate, El Toussoun and El Monassir, they were ordered to be built in Mr. LAIRD'S yard by his Highness the late Pasha of EGYPT. They were ordered by him, we believe, about the time of his visit to this country : when his Highness was feasting his guests on board his yacht with all kinds of good cheer, while undermining his own constitution by paisoning himself with stale bottled-up Nile water. They were ordered, these two steam-rams, as one may say, vicariously or circuitously : that is to say by a French House, to whom had been given-by the late Pasha a strange twofold commission—one for coining a considerable sum of Egyptian money in France, the other for getting constructed,lhere in England, by one of our best shipbuilders, these very two steam-rams Et Toussoun and El Monassir. At the period of the late PACHA'S sudden and unlooked for demise, one of those two commissions had already been com pleted. The money, to the full amount stipulated, had been duly coined in France, and, not only that, it had been actually conveyed from France into Egypt. So that that part of the contract could not by possibility be repudiated. Not so did it happen to be, however, in regard to the other part of the commission—that is to say, in regard to the two steam-rams, then, at the time of the PACHA'S death, —merely in, course of construction. The commis sion, so far as it related to them, was at once can celled by his Highness's successor. Th e re sponsibility of the order devolved, in consequence of that unexpected repudiation of it in Egypt, upon the French house from which Mr. LAIRD had re ceived it. The problematic circumstance in regard to the transaction is its present phase, therefore, is —as to the purpose to which these two steam-rams are about to be applied by the French House fo: which they have been manufactured. What may be their destination ? The destination, that is, of El Toussoun and El Monassir ? Not Egypt, as originally intended—that we know. Whither, `when completed, is it intended that they should proceed ? " The accusation is," says the Premier's organ, the Morning Post, "that they are destined for war with a friendly Power. They will conse- quently," says the Post (and we presume it speaks thus confidently upon authority !)—" they will con lie ( )Alitly be detained, and a court of law will deter m i ne whether, under the terms of the Fo rei it 4 Enlistment Act, the detention is legal, or whe t h er „ heeds __the owners can recover them from the • °I the Government." Upon mere suspicion an in surtt ,„_ happenta7leoffice endeavoured (ine ff ectually, as it pletion of 4 1 ! evade, on l y t h e ot h er d ay, the corn itbstisiness contract int o which it had entered at deliberately. good will and pleasure, quite Nu nd mere suspici on o f f ou l pl a y, o f fraud, and arson, a atrocities besides— We kn ow h ar dl y what other murder in cold bl oo d, an d a l most, o ne might say, by Whole in of the whole TEmPLE fa ale, seeing that the lives . tally, in the case of WOOL LEY V. POLE, was said to hav e heen wilfully jeo pardised by the plaintiff on the burning down of his dwelling-house, on elra P 44- hill a year ago . All this Was attempted , more than weight ttas_picion, to b e able brought home to the accused Upon taereau for there was not evidence of any It will bs wis e on t h e to support the charge. matter of th e of the Government, therefore, in this e Part two steam rams now in Mr. LAIRD'S buildin g yard, upon mere suspicio n ! not to act simply and solely Itc:esnt events have materially contributed to enlarge our general store of krowledge• The wars and revolutions of our own days have familiarised us with the details of localities whose namea Wkre scarcely to be found in the old geographies and guide•hooks. Th e C r i mea , a l t h ough fi gur i n g in Tartar history, was not so well known in England and France tan years ago es it is now; Cawnporc and Lucknow were names only faL:iliar to Anglo- Indians, while the student might turn over a good many maps of Italy before he lighted on Solferino or Magenta; and we have all learned to thread our way more readily through the perplexing maze of English and Indian names, which serve to distin guish the localities of the vast States of America from following the track of this unhappy war. 'Farions circumstances have combinsd to give fresh interest to the long-pending strife between Den- Inark and Germany, and in consequence we are all likely to know more about the quiet little duchies of Schleswig and Holstein than our predecessors ever learned. There has always been a degree of sympathy existing between the English and the Danes, due perhaps in some measure to our Viking ancestry. The two peoples have many charac teristics in common. They have the same love of freedom, the same fearless truthfulness, the same ' spirit of daring and adventure, the same resolution to maintain unshaken their ancient constitutional rights. Travellers tell us, too, of a striking simi larity in the appearance and language of the two races. A recent visitor to the town of Rendsburg declares that the country near it bears the strongest resemblance to our richer agricultural districts, while the chattering of the peasants in their low German increases the familiar impression. This town of Rendsburg, though little known to travel lers, is not without importance, and occupies a some , what remarkable position in reference to the quarrel with the Diet. It is a very ancient city, claiming to have been in existence nearly a thousand years, but it is not old enough, strange to say, for the qhue matter no r f its exact locality to have been dec i ded. The of its site was one of the four points commissioners who undertook to draw whichthe theboun dary line failed to agree upon, finding it impossible to unite in assigning it to eithr duchy. The ques tion in dispute is whether Rendsburg belongs t o Holstein o thus rto summed u p Schleswig. by The origin of th e dis pute a recent visitor ;—" The is difficulty is occasioned by the circumstance that the town is situated upon what must be called islands in the Eider. The river, which here farms its junc tion with the Eider Canal, separates into three branches as it approaches Rendsburg. Between the Schleswig and the Holstein branches as we may call them—the third is a trifling stream running through the town and seemingly serving as a sewer —Rendsburg was built. Now the Eider is the boun dary between the two duchies, and both the Con tending parties recognise it; but the Danes say that the Holstein branch is the real Eider, whilst the Germans contend that the Schleswig branch is the true stream. The Rendsburghers, who are thorough Holstciners, and by no means well affected to the Danish Government, claim, however, in sup port of the Holstein contention, that they were recognised as part ct the empire in its palmy days ; and that the town sent its deputies to the assembly summoned by the Emperor." How this vexed question will be ultimately decided it is of course impossible to say, but a military solution of the difficulty is certainly very much to be deprecated on all sides. Germany is already split into sections, distracted by factions, and threatened by despots. She has quite enough to do for the next half cen tury et least in consolidating her own internal forces, and in encouraging unity and peace at home. Why should she harass and oppress a neighbouring Power, who in no way interferes with her well being or crosses her prospects. The motive was plainly stated in the English House of Commons by the Prime Minister; and the Danes, who study carefully our English politics, must have regretted very vividly that Lord PALMERSTON did not hold the seals of the Foreign-office in place of his incon sistent and letter writing colleague,Earl RUSSELL. Lord PALMERSTON found the key to the riddle in the wild and fruitless ambition, long cherished by Prussia, to become a great naval Power. The countrymen of FREDERICK THE GREAT have good right to any pretensions they may choose to make in the way of military distinction ; bat, without any disparagement to a brave and enlight ened nation, we may decidedly say that nature has denied them the requisites of a naval nation. Even the long sought possession of the coveted harbour of Kiel would not, in itself, convert a people, whose proper classification is into soldiers and civilians, into a nation of sailors, and the endeavour to force a war upon a peaceable and well-disposed nation will not tend to raise Germany in the estimation of the thinking portion of Europe, and will tend very little to the furtherance of her own interests. Denmark has now a fine career open before her, if she is suffered to run it unchecked by internecine strife. Her people have all the capacities for de veloping I n t o a great nation. Her sympathies and traditionsare liberal, her populatio n b r ave and enlightened ; her KING is beloved by his people and her Constitution is moderate and capable of improvement. The intellectual powers of her race rank high, as many names known and honoured in Art and Literature testify. Politically, the last year or two has witnessed events of considerable importance connected with her fortunes. The alliance of her Royal family with the first of the great Powers of Europe cannot fail sensibly to affect her fortunes, notwithstanding the unhappy meddlings of an English statesman in an affair which we must charitably hope he did not under stand. The election of another scion of her ruling house to the vacant throne of Greece, although not so complimentary as if it had been made earlier, is another noticeable occurrence. Greece, like Den mark, has great capabilities, though her history is of the past rather than of the future. She is now, it is true, plunged into anarchy and confusion ; but if young King GEORGE and his advisers are equal to the position, a rapid change for the better may be expected. When his position is fully assured an d the area of his power extending, the youthful Monarch of Greece will hardly forget that he wa s once a Dane, and his sympathies and his influence will henceforth weigh in the scale of his country men and relatives. If rumour speaks truly another fair Princess of the Danish House is to extend the . _ influence of her country farther North, and under hese auspices the angry aggression of the German Diet lcses much of its terrors. We must hope that .hat venerable body will exercise their charac- :eristic and proverbial caution, and pause before ,hey rashly commence hostilities, ruinous to the nterests of both countries, and especially injurious ;o that scheme of German unity which is now more ,han ever filling the dreams of German visionaries, and occupying the thoughts of German patriots. The Polish reply to the Russian appeal is worthy of notice. It is certainly replete with interest, and animated with a spirit of independence. The Poles commence by stating that for seven months " a mur derous contest has raged in our country between two nations—the one eager to oppress and enslave, and the other fighting in self-defence." This is a v ery tru e d ef i nition of the state of affairs recently ; and with a justthat prid e d o t h e patr i ots go on to say thei r st °PPone n t s h ave drawn many forces from the remotest li wits of th e emp i re, but they have not i succeeded n crushing them h what they that is their courag e , d„ otio proceed, with indignant! —t ey have not quenched or endurance. Then they quite comprehen io call a " cruel re sible, to reject rejoinders they have quest" on the part of tyhetrsuly haug hty self-conceit of theltatiubBB-jans. Even the fort h from a trampled -on but unsubd e ) . ° lB of the CZAR m ight blush to hear the sharp called forth They are shown that the " highest objectld of a noble nation is not comprised in the oppression of a kindred race , or in destruc t i ve dreams of domi nationolain fthse globe." Thi s em phatic the lack of prog ress passage o q forcibly uare quarters that is made by th© mighty Baseitin empire. It is THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1863. because they only care for the quantity, and not for the quality of their conquests. To infuse a gradual improvement among their own possessions, and to soften down the harsh outlines of conquest into something more genial and gracious, is quite beyond the ken and above the wishes of the nation. The humiliating position that is occupied by the largest country in Europe is aptly alluded to in this reply. After stating that it is threnquarters of a century since the nation have advanced with great steps towards freedom, the speakers earnestly declare—" You alone have remained encrusted with the rough barbarism of ancient times and the Tar taric wildness of the steppes." This is plain speak ing, at all events, and, if it answers no other pur pose, it may take down the pride of the assuming dictators who presumed to lecture the patriots struggling for their birthright and the citizens pining for their social rights. It is melancholy to dwell on the passage that refers to the suffer info that have been endured for the cause of liberty on the soil of Poland. The in domitable energy that has held up the patriots and the sublime endurance that has m a i n t a i ned its ground despite all obstacles, and n o t w i t h standing all attack, are ill u st ra ted in thi s reply—_" a spirit stronger than the sword, and mightier than despair" has animated and informed these heroes and martyrs, and now the sentiment shines through these words, and imparts to them a life and lustre. The stirring memories of the past arouse these men when they declare to the Rus sians that finding it impossible to make them adopt a civilisation far inferior to their own, they have perpetrated heathenish cruelties against them, and by endeavours to annihilate them, have planned to call their native land their own. There is the prescience that a long course of injustice and deceit generally imparts to the oppressed when it is said, " We mark a satanic smile upon the lips of our oppressors when they hail us as brothers." Considering the circumstances of the case, the term is an insulting one, and it is not surprising that it should be rejected with scorn and contumely. Of what avail is it that a tor tured and tyrannised people should be made game of, which they certainly are when the represen tatives of the soil of their oppressors thus salutes them with the sacred title of affinity bearing evidence of cordiality and goodwill. It has failed in making the Poles think they were being ad dressed by those keenly alive to their welfare. It will fail in making any of the nations of Europe believe iu the sincerity of the framers of the appeal. "We shall never be decoyed again by the honey of your deceptive words," declare the Poles in their reply. For often has the fatal mistake been made for the lesson to need learn ing again, and forewarned is forearmed we may be sure in this instance. The absurd proposition that was made by the Russians, that the Poles should join them in attacking their natural enemies, the nations of Western Europe, is scouted with the scorn it deserves. On the contrary, they distinctly declare that if they occupy any position it will be to join the enemies of Russia, not the other nations, who are their friends. Then, as to the prospect of culture held out in the appeal, it is shown how the devastators have crippled education, suppressed schools, and stolen the treasures of art and of science. Finally, they say, " Not unto us, then, but to your CZAR, call loudly. Bow to the unalterable course of history. Of one thing let him ba assured, only he can obtain peace who is willing to leave others unmolested ; and only then will the Russian people be happy when they permit us to enjoy our happiness undis pat u da r td b rri e eo d sts . s : m s ao mouthpiece hopr to eohcye representitp r conclusionofprofesses s ses the t to on nation ieo.noblen Ao f that wo h deserves This i more uncalled-for and inconsistent thing than this appeal of Russian patriots to the Polish people has scaroely been heard of, and it is most satisfactory to peruse so good an answer. Nothing is more difficult than to concoc t answers to these awkward messages, and it is creditable to those who framed the reply that it in every way enters into the ne cessary detail, and aptly represents the spirit of the nation. At all events it cannot be said that this arduous struggle, this unequal conflict, and this dreadful suffering has been all in • vain. Through the gloom of the reign of terror which is established oa her soil, Poland has beheld some signs of a brighter dawn and a better day of freedom near at hand. The Russian EMPEROR cannot for shame accord privileges to that nation that he withholds from his own people, and hence it may yet turn out that the Russians themselves are benefited by the noble efforts made by the patriot sons of Poland. It is a tribute to courage and constancy of which history can record no more signal instance or strik ing example. Those who have perished on the battlefields, or who endure the harder lot of a foreign prison, might rejoice if they knew that in some measure their work was not profitless, nor their labour thrown away. The fact is that the Poles have held out so bravely, and resisted so in cessantly that the whole of Europe joined the cry of their wrongs. If unable to assist by armies, the voice of public opinion, and the concurrent test mony of witnessing nations is sometimes more - • • powerful than armed hosts. One urges and excites to opposition, the other overawes and impresses. If only good result accrue to the heroic nation that has been so long the shame of her tyrants, and the grief of her friends, it will be one of those world wide blessings that attract universal acclamation, and form the source of thanksgiving to all be holdcrs in divers nations and of many races. OUR IMPORTS.—The imports of foreign and colonial goods into the United Kingdom are of four classes. The first comprises articles of food. The corn puted real value of these in the returns for 1862 was no less than £ 93 ,027,988, a sum equal to three-fourths of the value of the entire export of British and Irish produce and manu factures. By far the largest item is for corn and flour, the imports of which in that year reached the enormous amount of £37,755,060. The import of grain, meal, and flour never reached 12,000,000 qrs., until the bad harvest of 1860, in which year it was 14,494,976 qrs., but in 1861 it was 16,094,914 qrs., and in 1862, 18,441,791 qrs. The average price on which the value of the wheat imported was computed in 1862 has not yet been stated ; in 1861 it was 53s 9d for Russian, 60s 2d for Prussian, 39s 9d for Egyp tian, and 55s 2d for American. There were other im ports of food of astonishing amount. Not to speak of strong drink, nor of tea, coffee, and sugar, we imported in 1862 cattle, sheep, and swine, and salted meat and lard, to the amount of more than £5,000,000 (the oxen and bulls were put is 1861 at an average of £l7 lls, and the sheep at 455) ; butter, nearly £5,000,000; cheese, £1,600,000 ; rice, £2,400,000; eggs, £500,000; poultry, £85,000. A second class of our imports consists of raw manufac turematerialisnofls64ws ; and the value of these was arrivalst as £91,984,804. Th e £96,513,530. In 186 , 0 thesatmheo largest W iiis ov h e y r r n ec e ei m ve e d a . ns l e 'li z e . import r the value of the imports ; the ris s ex pressed by a Pstatement of borne i n m i n d. quantity fell fromi n pike must be fillingi eap o impost o o f fi, wool in the Th hei u n 2 ip wa t of cotto computed valuo from £ 60s. 4d, cotton at 12,419,096 cwt. in 1860 to 4 3 , 5 6 , 7 7 8 5 , 6 3 , 3 8 3 89 c w t t e . i x n 31 1 , 8 0 6 9 2 3 ; ,0 t 4 h 5 e . In 1866 the computation wason American per cwt.; in 1861 at 725. 51. A third class sists of articles used in manufacture or g articles reached raw materials of manufacture; and these inthis class £16,643,572 in the yea r 1862. Th e chief items ic of ur importse, net being con aruh: are wood, sawn or s plit, p l ane d or dressed ; guano, re he remaining copper partly wrought, an d i ron i n bars . or. of d T class comprises manu f acture d art i c l es, an d t h e imp t these in 1862 am oun t e d t o £ 17,1 9 6,463; a f ew unenume of rated articles bringi ng th e w h o l e amount of the i mparts 18 62 up to £225,716,974. Th e c hi e f manu f acture d articles imported were silks of the value of more than £6,000,000; woollens, £ 1 ,574,218; cottons, £899,738 ; leather goods (chkitY gloves), £851,256 ; clocks and. watches, £464,000 ; manufactures of hair and goat's wool, £397,454; and glass, £108,388. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. (REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.) GERMANY. THE QUEEN'S RETURN TO ENGLAND. GOTHA, TUESDAY. Her Majesty Queen Victoria left Coburg at half past ten last night. Her Majesty will remain a day at Darmstadt. Prince and Princess Louis of ILsse left before the Queen on Friday last. King Ferdinand of Portugal has arrived. LITERATURE. CHAMBERS'S HANDY GUIDE TO THE KENT AND SUSSEX COASTS. One Vol. pp. 172. W. and R. Chambers. A Shilling Guide-Book, capitally illustrated, admirably well compacted, gossipping but not garrulous, instructive in regard to what we want to know, and interesting throughout—has just been published by the Messrs. William and Robert Chambers, of Edinburgh and London. It conducts the reader or consulter of it, as its very title shows, along those pleasant coasts so delightfully familiar to us all—the coasts of Kent and Sussex. A beau tifu' little, delicately coloured, folding map (all the better it would have been if backed by linen) is pre fixed to the volumette as a sort of frontispiece. A map skirted along its northern margin by the meandering line of the River Thames from beyond Reading in the west, circuitously eastwards past Gravesend, the Medway and Sheerness, until its fresh waters are lost in the rolling salt waters of the Channel and the German Ocean. A map skirted along the south quite as waveringly from Portsmouth in the west, to the Forth Foreland in the east, confront ing the terrible Goodwin Sands. As to the interest , ing character of the various scenes traversed by the tourist who may take this Handy Guide-Book as his circerone that may perhaps be the most readily indicated by a passing reference to the subjects selected for the twelve ex cellent woodcuts distributed among the letterpress. Here Tilbury Fort, here Earl Amherst's lovely seat of Kuole near Sevenoaks. Yonder grand old Roehester Castle, looking down in ruins upon the stately old Cathedral. Yonder, again, at one while, Fort Pitt, Chatham, and at another Kit's Coty House, `he hughest Cromlech in all England. Mar gate is the subject of two illustrations, one of the town, one of the pier. Canterbury Cathedral meets our glance, a little later on in the very readable nar rative or descript:on here put together by one evi dently no novice at these kind of compilations. After wards we have a peep, successively, at Dover Castle and at that other airy castle overlooking Hastings. Near the latter fashionable watering-pluce, we are led, not un willingly, back, in fancy, by the draughts man, to Lovers' Seat, at Fairlight. The closing illustration, making up the round dozen, showing us the well-known bit. of Brighton, seen from the Chain Pier. In the form of an appendix there will be found grouped together, also, in this little Guide Book, all kinds of use ful information, such as the names of the owners of the bathing machines at the different watering-places—the dates of the various local races—the principal angling streams in the two counties, and a mass of useful statistics. FRANCE. BOURSE, Sept. B.—The market has been rather heavy, and the business done shows a decline— Threes, for the Account, being now at 69f. 10c. The Railway Share Market also heavy, and some lines rather lower. The market continued weak to the close, and left off as follows : it per Cents .. 95 75 Do. end month.... 3 per Cents Do. end month 6B 95 Credit Mobilier 1210 Do. end month 1210 Bank Shares 3100 Credit k oncior 1420 Italian Loan 74 05 Do. end month 74 10 New ditto 74 Do. end month 74 05 Russian Austrian Spanh,h Threes 53 Home Debt RAIL' 'AlrB. Cash. Account. Orleans 1045 .. 1040 -- Northern .... ~,. .. Now. ditto Lyons and Mediterranean 1042 50 .. 1040 GPnqva 495 .. 497 50 Southern 745 .. 742 50 Western Eastern Sardinian 430 .. 435 Austrian Lowbard North of Spain .. .. 562 50 .. 565 Saragossa. Ditto to Barcelona EGYPT. ALEXANDRIA, SEPT. 1. Intelligence has just been received from the White Nile of the slaughter of several boats' full of so-called ivory traders. The blacks surprised the boats, killed everyone on board, and carried off the cargoes. The loss has been so severely felt at Khartoum, the centre of the trade in slaves and elephants' teeth, as to have caused some failures, an almost unprecedented event there. No commisera tion can be felt for the fate of these men, for it was only an act of wild justice on the part of the blacks. Attention has been frequently called by travel. lers, and l a t e l y b y Capta i ns Spe k e an d G rant , to the inf amous practices of the wh i te tra d ers. Armed ba n d s are despatched in large b oats f rom Khartoum ; they surpr i se uno ff en di ng v illagers, kill the men, make slaves of the women and children, a n d d r i ve away the cattle to b e bar tered ag a i nst elephants ' teeth. A person who has ma d e several excursions on the White and Blue Niles tells m e th e t r aders have made the n ame of the " pale race " eo odious that the features of the natives alter and assume an ex pression of hatred when they utter it. It is time that th e G overnment of Egypt should take vigorous steps to c ur b the piratical expeditions from Khar toum, and t o stop the trade in b lac k s l aves . Th e boats are, it is true, visited at certain appointed stations along t h e river from Kh ar t ou m to C a i ro , and if a ny slaves are found they are con fi scated. But they never are found, for they are simply dis embarked a mile or two above each station, and making a short mare, on foot of three or four miles are re embarked a little lower down. This could not be don e w i thout the conn i vance o f th e aut h o rities, and were the Government to t a ke up the matter seriou s l y the t ra ff ic might be stopped imme diately. police boats moving up and down the river, and inspecting boats at pleasure, together with a proper supervision over the land caravans, would very soon render the trade impos sible. It is hopeless to expect any improvement in the condition of the countries bordering on the Upper Nile while such atrocities are permitted, and the sale of slaves connived at. Yet they are tracts of exceeding f er ti l i t y, an d might one day if properly matured by th e Egyptian Government form most valuable p ossess ions, and greater revenue than Egypt itself. a yield It is to be hoped that the massacre which has just occurred may rouse this Government into adopting stringent measures to put a stop to t he piracy on the White Nile, and to the trade in blac ks. The Egyptian Trading and Commerc ial Com pany has just appointed a superior agent on the White Nile— one thoroughly acquainted with th ose co untries, and who has gained a high reputation for never havin g joined in any ac t of aggression against the nati ves . His presence, and the action of so powerful a Com pany, will greatly tend to rep ress the lawless acts of the ivory traders, by exposing their de e d s , and bringing those countries more directly under the notice of the European public, and instituting friendly relations and fair traffic with the black population. One of the principal objects of the Viceroy's visit to Assouan is to see personally what measures might be adopted towards lessening the danger of the Nile's rising too high , by directing the surp l us water into the Birket-al-Fayoum, an artificial lake formed by the ancients for this very purpose. Lower Egypt is exposed to inundation in t wo ways . The one is an unusually high Nil e rolling down water fro suddenly from the ely 'Tropics; the other i s f rom irrigation turned back i n t o the river. The a llandsiow allowed to of Upper fi o w er them, and rema i n a given time ; Egypt are fertili ze d b y the Nile being as the land is in:terraces, the water is transmitted from the higher to the lower levels by cutting the intervening dykes, and finally it is discharged back into the river at a point necessar il y much lower than where it was turned on to the lands. The rush of such a vast body of water, often at many points together, causes a sudden and great addition to the volume of the stream, and hence reaching Lower Egypt it occasionally bursts the dykes, and pouring over the country sweeps every thing before it, and rots the newly-sown grain in the ground. Your racing readers may b e i n t er e s ted in hearing that the much-vexed point as t o the merits of Eng lish and Arab horses has just again been tried i❑ Cairo. Ali Pacha, who has the finest stud of Arabs in Egypt, maintained that no English horse could run against an Arab for four miles. His Highness Halim Pacha offered to run Companion, a well- known racer hare, against him for any sum he liked. The match was run from the first station on the Suez desert to Cairo. The English horse, which was bred, I believe, by Lord Ribblesdale, won in a canter by more than half a mile. Such a crushing defeat has taken all courage out of the partisans of Arab horses. What astonished the natives most was that Companion, beating his adversary by so great a distance, was perfectly fresh, and quite ready to turn round and run the distance over again, while the Arab was quite exhausted and blown. The Ambassadors from Cochin China are here ; they are lodged in one of the Viceroy's Palaces, and are attended by a French officer, who escorts them about Alexandria, pointing out objects of interest to them, about which they do not seem to care at all. They leave in a French frigate, which has come to take them to France. THE EGYPTIAN HALL. Mr. J. K. Lord's descriptive and pictorial entertainment may now be said to have taken the position of ono of the established and favourite places of rteort in London. A very agreeable, pleasant, and withal most instructive even ing may be spent with Mr. Lord in his Piccadilly wilder ness ; now, list en i ng to his wonder f u l t rave l s , hi stor y, an d hair-breadth ' sea p es b y fl o od and field ; and again, to the wild songs of th e t rapper, with w hi c h hi s narra ti ve i s in terspersed. M r . L or d' s very e l oquent d escr i p ti ons o f th e wonders of Oregon, Vancouver's Island, British Columbia, and the Rocky Mountains are rendered highly interesting by the exquisite panoramic views with which he accompanies them. So appropriate are the decorations, so striking the pictures, added to the hunter-like costume and accoutre. ments and the earnestness of the lecturer, that the visitor is occasionally liable to forget the fact that he is comfortably seated in a hall in Piccadilly and not actually on the trail of a trapper in the far West. The Lord Mayor, who is a Freemason, has been frequently passed the sign by prisoners brought before him. 11,s lordship latterly, in consequence of this, made as in dignaat roramtrance to a priseaer—and a k)rother, Zadkicl's Almanac for 1864. Among the curiosities of literature in this later half of the nineteenth century, Zad kiel's Almanac holds its own in the oddest way imaginable —actually coming forth now, in the 34th animal issue of it, with a circulation -of no less than 50,000 copies! At sixpence a-piece, that is, according to the not very recondite calculations of Cocker, a round sum of 25,000 shillings, or eleven hundred pounds sterling—ex2ended upon a little astrological pamphlet in an age not only of railroads and electric telegraphs, of steam-printing and pho tograph, but one in which spectral illusions are patented. But then, as indubitably, it is an age also in which Mr. D. D. Home has held his seances, not only in the middle-class drawing-rooms of Eng land, but far and wide in most of the palaces of continental Europe I An age when Mr. William Howitt quite confidently avows his belief in spirit-rapping, as well in various other kinds of eccentric phenomena—attributable, he tells us, to the influence of a power ridiculously dubbed by one of that gentleman's friends, by a couple of female names, tackedtogether by a hyphen—names applied by the discoverer of this unseen influence, in affectionate tribute (we are left to imagine) to some fair friend or relation, say his sweetheart or his aunt. Cheek-by -jowl with these wonderful wonders-ot-wonders, Zadkiel Tao Sze, professing to be skilled in a science once the vogue among the world's greatest philosophers, amongst intellectual giants like Kepler and Brahe, like the poet Milton and the Chancellor Bacon, appears upon the scene autumn after autumn, quite as an ordinary, almost as a commonplace, personage. Here he is, however, a little earlier than is his wont, putting forth his almanack in the beginning of September, instead of, as hitherto, towards the close of October. Propitiously calling 1864, upon his title page, The Year of Hope ! And yet upon the opposite side of his pamphlet, upon the very last page of it, p. 84, " frighting the isle from its propriety," with the most ominous and appalling of hieroglyphics ! Britannia upon the sea shore standing by a broken column, her anchor snapped asunder, her banner of the union jack lowered, and trailing in the dust! Captain Morrison, R.N., for the mask, has be come transparent by this time, and the features of Zadkiel are distinguishable through the interposing veil of his disguise, has a word or two to say quite apart from his usual wont, in regard to the late trial, in which he appeared as plaintiff. Another gallant and learned officer in the royal navy, confronting him, as defen ant, in the Court of Queen's ;Bench, before the Lord Chief Justice of England. A full true and particular account of this strange trial will be found appended this year to Zadkiel's Almanack. In it the authentic record of those proceedings will be dis covered, given at length and in the minutest parti culars. That trial relating, as may ba very well remembered, to the Crystal Globe, scanned, among others, by a Bishop of the English Church Esta blishment, to say nothing of numerous Lords and Ladies perfectly well known among the Upper Ten Thousand ! The most noticeable peculiarity of all, however, in this new issue of Zadkiel's Almanac is one to be found upon page 80—LETTERS FROM H.R.H. THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT, addressed by order of H.R.H. to Zadkiel, otherwise Captain "Thanks" from H.R.H. "for the Morrison, R.N. horoscope of the Princess Royal"—for Zadkiel's Almanack for 1841—for another copy of Zadkiel's Almanack conveyed to His Royal Highness by Lord Robert Grosvenor ! To say nothing of thatnoble lord's promise in one of these letters (a promise we take it for granted afterwards fulfilled) to endeavour to obtain the exact moment of the Prince's birth, toge ther with the expression of a hope that it might be made known under a happy influence to his correspondent, the Astrologer! Under any circum stance, but particularly atter the notoriety of the late proceedings in the case of Morrison v. Belcher, it is perfectly comprehensible that Zadkiel should exult (as he, evidently and quite naturally, does) in being able to give publicity, just at this time, to the particulars of this really extraordinary corre spondence. A CHURCH OR A SUB-EDITORSHIP !—An adver tisement appeared the other day in one of the morning papers, says the Saturday Review, that may serve to indicate the kind of speculation which may soon become common —" Wanted, a Church of P rogress i ve Thought, : by a Young Minister, accustomed to a large Congregation in one of the first Provincial Towns. No objection to a S u b -Editorship.—Address, Alpha, &c." This modest pe tition for pulpit or paste-pot was cruelly thrust down into obscurity among the unfurnished apartments, second-hand billiard-tables , washing, nurses wet and dry, cream-coloured cobs, and gentlemen of the highest position who would be obliged by the loan of ten pounds for twenty-four hours. We presume poor "Alpha" indulges in the hope that his advertisement may catch the eye of some heretical deacon as it wanders down the column of notices "To Mas ter Pork-butchers," "To Grocers' Assistants," or " Eligible Milk-walks." But we fear his hope is ill-founded, Persons of this sort like to keep busi ness apart from pleasure, and would be sorry to turn their eyes, when once fixed on the shop till, to anything connected with the edifying pastime of badgering !pagtors, Besides, we would gladly think that even the most ignorant and stupid of deacons has too much intelligence to be taken in by so transparent a piece of impudence as a newspaper advertisement for a church of progressive thought by a person who has no objection to take a sub-editorship. And what is a Church of Progressive Thought ? An assembly, we presume, of half-educated tradesmen, who, under the sage guidance of the advertiser—himself probably a person with no pretence to any education beyond such as could be procured at a Dissenting theological college—would begin by a little mild Colensoism, would advance to some sort of mysticism, would tumble into atheism, and finally (th e majority of them), after about five years of progressive thought, would make a violent progress back again, and become the most orthodox of churchmen or narrowest of chapelmen, while their leader would be forced to insert an other advertisement in the daily papers, or perhaps take to touting for a photographer, NORWICH MUSICAL FESTIVAL. The choruses in Mr. Silas's new work, " Joash," were rehearsed on Monday evening in St. Andrew's Hall, under that gentleman's personal supervision. Mr. Silas expressed himself pretty well satisfied with the result, but intimated that the voices ought to be more concentrated, so as to produce a more united effect, and some effort will be made to attain this object. Mr. Benedict was expected down again yesterday, and last evening the choruses of his can tata, " Richard Coeur de Lion," were to be rehearsed. Mr. Benedict will remain in Norwich during the remainder of the week. The rehearsal of Monday evening was attended by about 200 persons, a charge of ls. being made for edmission ; for as the period is now approaching when a return must be secured on the outlay and liabilities incurred, the committee has abandoned the gratuitous principle on which it acted last week. During the last few days applications for tickets ha\ e been received tolerably freely, and the total represented by the sale had advanced from £2,500, at which it stood a week since, to about £3,.300 yesterday. The ex penditure will be somewhere about £3,800, so that there is a very fair prospect of a surplus being realised, as in 1860. For the Thursday and Friday morning performances, when " Elijah" and the " Messiah" will be given, there is scarcely a vacant beat now available; but the same cannot be said with regard to the miscellaneous concert of Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, at which last " loash" is supposed to be the staple feature. Great prominence has been attached to this work; but as it is a new and untried production, com paratively little interest has been displayed with regard to it. It is right, however, to state that the programme for this morning includes also the scene at the Gates of Nain, from Leslie's oratorio " Em manuel," and selections from the " Stabat Mater," and that Mademoiselle fitiens and Mademoiselle Trebelli will appear, as well as Sims Reeves. The usual fittings have been erected in St. Andrew's Hall, and the bare and naked walls will receive their old adornments in the shape of time-honoured portraits of local worthies. Mr. Charles Mathews upon the French Stage, (From the Daily News.) Mr. Charles Mathews, the English comedian, made his first appearance upon the French stage at the Theatre des VariLes, in Paris, on Monday night. The piece selected was a version in French, under the title of "Un Anglais Timide," of the actor's own farce of the " Bashful Man." Our Paris correspondent, writing on Monday night, gives the following account of the performance:— " Mr. Charles Mathews has not met with quite such a great success at the Varietes as I should have been glad to have recorded, and as I think he deserved. It is always an arduous task for an actor to play in a foreign language, and before such a critical audience as a Parisian one the ordeal is doubly frightful. But Ido not think the comparative failure of this evening's representation is in any degree attributable to that cause. Mr. Mathews speaks French better than almost any Englishman I ever heard. Indeed, his easy, graceful, and singularly correct pronunciation might be envied by many an educated Frenchman, and the very slight English accent occasionally perceptible was really no detriment at all to such broad farce as the Bashful Man,' From the moment he stepped upon the stage it was obvious that all the difficulties of a foreign tongue had been overcome with marvellous felicity, Although he speaks with the volubility which he inherits from his father, every word was audible in every part of the house and every 'point' told, The fault, if fault there were, was not in the actor but the author. The humour of the piece was, in the opinion of the audience, exhausted in the early part of it, and during the ten minutes which pre ceded the fall of the curtain they began to get weary. "No puff preliminary was resorted to in order to secure an audience for Mr. Mathews. I heard by the merest ac cident that he was to make his first appearance at the Varietes to-night, and could hardly believe my informant —so out of the usual course of things did it appear to me that such a theatrical event should take place without making more noise beforehand. I went however, to the door of the Varietes, and there I saw by the bills, Un Anglais Timide,' a comedy in one act, by Mr. C. Mathews, was to be produced this evening, and that Mr. C. Mathews would play the character of Mr. Brown. Thereupon I secured a stall—which was not difficult, for the theatre was by no means full at the opening, although before the ' Bashful Man' began nearly every seat was occupied. From the conve) cation of people around me I found that Mr. C. Mathews' fame as an actor had not reached Paris. A great many came out of curiosity to see an Englishman play in French; but they knew nothing about him. The audience was therefore as genuine a one as could well be. Only if I may trust my own im pression there was a cabal of some 20 persons predetermined to hoot down the Englishman, if they could see their oppor tunity. In the early part of the piece Mr. Mathews' acting of the cool adventurer who makes himself at home in old Gogo's house, sets his furniture to rights, rehangs his pic tures, pokes him in the ribs, orders his servants about, and makes love to his ward, was fully appreciated, and rewarded by roars of laughter such as are seldom heard within the walls of a French theatre. But a comic song in English was not relished, because not understood, and another song to the guitar in Neapolitan patois (also not understood) provoked visible marks of impatience. At last, just as the very slight denouement of the farce was being worked out the audience seemed to think the explanations of how it came to pass that Mr. Brown mistook somebody else for Goo.o, jun., on a Rhine steamboat, as altogether unneces sary, and at all events too long. There was a good deal of stamping of feet, and some cat-calling, and the curtain fell amidst considerable disturbance. There was little or no applause at the end of the piece, and Mr. Mathews was not called for. I, however, heard several people in the foyer while criticising the piece, speak highly of Mr. Mathews' talent, and if he cares to p-rsavere on the French stage I a m quite sure there will be great curiosity to see him when he becomes better known. SHIPPING —This Day. LONDON, Sept. 9.—Wind this day at noon —South- Westerly; light breeze, and cloudy weather, with rain during the morning. FALMOUTH, Sept. 9.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—Pieter, from Akyab for Liverpool ; Trio, from Cochin ; Carolina, from liavannah. BELFAST, Sept. 7.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—Handy, from Salina. RAMSGALE, Sept. 7.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Helena, from Stockholm for Lisbon, assisted in here leaky, and is discharging her cargo. PORTSMOUTH, Sept. B.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Maria J ohanna, from London for Cnrdiff and Baenos Ayres ; Enable, from Gefle for Bilboa. CLYRE, Sept. S.—Wind S.W.—Sailed—The Channel Fleet. for Belfast. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday Morning. Arrived—Havre, steamer, from Havre ; Purveyor, from Swanage ; Courier, steamer, from Jersey. Sailed—Queen, for Plymouth; Antelope, for Cardiff. BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. GRAVESEND, Wednesday Morning. Arrived, Sept. B—Hannah Andrews, from Stettin; Frau Marie, from Taganrog ; John Bruster, from Prince Ed ward's Island. Arrived, Sept. 9—Elkin, from Wykobing ; Pole Star, from Calcutta; Albert, from Quebec; Four Staters, from Antwerp ; D. W. Pickering, from Pomeron ; Mellona, from Guernsey ; Springbok, from Stanbey ; Margaret, from Malmo; Rover, from Guernsey; Eliza, from Mazagan ; Sarah King, from Guernsey. DEAL, Wednesday Morning. Anchored—Minister, from London, for Sonswald ; John Exeter, from north, for west. A FRENCH WATERING PLACE.—It looks a comical kind of decency to English eyes. The men are dressed in a sort of trowsers and jersey all in one, which differs from ordinary garments of that description chiefly in being much toe short in the legs and arms. This ar rangement seems to be a compromise between the Govern ment's appreciation of decency and the natural human de sire to be as naked as possible in the water. But, to a stranger, it looks as if all the male population of the place had been seized with a sudden fancy for dressing in the clothes of their little boys. Bat they are not the oddest figures of the scene. The Government having ascertained the minimum of clothing that is respectable for men, appears to have come, by a kind of mechanical logic, to the conclusion that a similar quantity is abundant for women. The result is, that the beach is peopled with a number of nonde scr i pt- l oo k ing figures, bear i ng much the appearance of s h or t , ill -made men, scantily d res sed in cho colate-coloured serge —a sort of forked radish turned brown from keeping—which it requires some effort of reasoning, on the part of people who are not habituated to this Para disaical innocence of costume, to believe may possibly b e ladies. All these figu res w an der about in t he aimle ss dila tory way which appears to be an integral portion of the amusement. Some are approaching the water with lazy steps, wondering whether it is not rather cold, and, in the agonies of deliberation, displaying the beauties of their cos. tume to considerable advantage. Others, who have had their dip, a re pi c king their steps wearil y o ver the shingle, lookinghentsel in of vai t d vain for forriptphieng garments which cli ng t o their ca bane where they may re li eve L figures with a tenacity which gives rather a statuesque effect, All this time, by way of contrast, the beach is full of non-bathers —women dressed as only French women can dress--who , are come to enjoy the . spectacle,—Raturday .Review. omit- HER MAJESTY. • In accordance with Admiralty instructions the Fairy, steam-tender to the Victoria and Albert, let; Woolwich harbour yesterday, and took up moorings at Greenhithe, to be in readiness to convey her Majesty and the royal family and suite from the royal yacht to the Royal Arsenal-pier, where her Majesty will disembark on Thursday, and proceed from Woolwich to Windsor, In consequence of the proceedings taken by the War Department wit h reference to the orders issued by the heads of de partments at the Royal Arsenal on her Majesty's recent embarkation, the mistake will not be re peated on this occasion, and it is stated that no deviation will be made from the ordinary regula tions as to the admission of visitors—via., the eaiii tary and those provided with War-office tickets will not be excluded from the establishment, although ttie line of route and the approaches to the pier will be strictly kept by a strong body of the dockyard and the R division of police. Prince Napoleon was, a few days since, cruising off the Isle of Wight in his yacht. His Imperial Highness and the Princess Clotilde are going to Lisbon, in order to be there during the a c " couchement of the Queen of Portugal. His Excellency Count Nesselrode has arrived et Maurigy's Hotel from Paris. _ The Marquis of Bristol and the Ladies Hervey have arrived at Homburg from Dresden. The noble mar' quis and daughters are expected home towards the close of the month. The Countess (Dowager) of Jersey is expected to arrive in town to-day from Osterley Park, near Southall. The Earl and Countess Stanhope have arrived at the Hotel Mirabeau, Paris, on their way to Switzerland. Lord and Lady Pro by, Lord and Lady Kenyon, Sir Erskine and Lady Perry and family, Lady S. Lindsay, and Lady Stanuus are among the English visitors assembled at Baden-Baden, Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley and Hon. Misses Stanley left town on Monday for th 3 family seat is Cheshire. Mr. and Lady Selina Bidwell have arrived at Maurigy's Hotel from Deal Castle. Sir William C. and Lady Georgiana Codrington have arrived in town expressly to attend the wedding ° f Lord Londesborough and Lady Edith Somerset to,morrow• The youthful Duke of Hamilton is said to be about to enter Christ Church, Oxford, to complete his education. THE BLESSED WORDS OF SCRIPTURE.—Thos e blessed words it is full of, words that in our howl of ease, or biblical criticism, pass over our mind like some drowsy chime; but in the bitter day of anguish and be' reavement, when the body is racked, the soul darkened; shine out like stars to the mariner ; seem then first to swe ll to their real size and meaning, and come to writhing mor tals like pitying seraph i m, divi n ity on th e i r f aces and 1 20 '; ing on their wings.—Gharles 17..eade's "Very Hard Cash. A YEAR'S RETRENCHMENT.—Addressing a meet ing of his constituents, at Aberdeen, the other Colonel Sykes rehearsed the achievements of himself and his fellow "economists" during the past session. M r ' Williams, the member for Lambeth," he said, "moved, oil the vote for 148,000 men for the army, that, taking jut e account that we have the volunteers, the militia , the ea'' rolled pensioners, and the yeomanry all available, 10,00 0 men should be struck off. But how many supported him ? Just 19. That is the proportion we generally ob tain—for lam always on that side. (Hear, and a laugh.) We had a good many divisions of that kind, and in fact the result is the same, except by accident. Again, there WO the proposal of Mr. Dodson, a moderate man, to place the diplomatic service money under the control of the House of Commons. Well, he got sixty-five to assist him in Wha t would appear certainly to be an absolutely necessary measure, against 136. Now, I come to a roiracle --(a laugh)—we succeeded in one motion of this kind. . 13-6 Constantinople, the house of our Minister had bean charged in the estimate £2,225 for repairs (annual, ineri you), besides a charge of £lOO per annum for an arcbi*: tect—a permanent charge, the architect being attached to the house. (Laughter.) I told Mr. Cowper—` If y ou , dismiss the architect, it will save you the £2,225 in repai rs ' (Laughter.) I did not intend to carry the matter forward ; but Lord It. Cecil rose on the Opposition side, and moved the reduction of the vote by the amount of the architect's salary, and was carried. (Laughter, and hear, hear.') Well, hero was a reduction of £4OO per annum out of a total expenditure of £69,302,008. That is the amount you spent last year, and all we could do in the House of Commove was to reduce it by £4,000 in the miraculous circumstan ces I have mentioned." (Laughter.) THE RAISING OF HOLBORN VALLEY.—Th ere are two plans before the public by which this may be accomplished. One involves the demolition of a large amount of property in Holborn, Skinner-street, Farring" don-street, King-street, and adjacent thoroughfares, for the purpose of raising the general level of the roadway According to this plan, instead of two steep hills, thew Wil l be four moderate inclines, running north and south, ail! east and west. This will be a resolution of levels, an should the gradients, east and west, be made easy enough for the heavy traffic that will continue to run in those directions, this plan will be the most thorough that could be devised. Mr. Bunning is the author of the scheme. The other proposes to throw a viaduct over the valley' towards the north side, thus avoiding an extensive destruction of property, and providing a roadway on a dead level from east to west. There will also be, as at present, a level road from north to south, but there Wil l be the great disadvantage of the present inclines out of the valley from Farringdon-street, &c,, and the Metropolita ll Railway Station to Holborn and Skinner-street. This plan was advocated, though not originated, by Mr. Marra ble, the late architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and it would be the cheaper of the two. We have thus two plans before us emanating from two great municipal autho rities of this metropolis. The responsibility of carrying ou t this indispensable improvement has been thrown by fa" liament upon the Corporation, and we leave to its wisdom and experience the selection of the most permanent an d practically-useful scheme.—City Press. EPITOME OF A FRENCH NOVEL.---One of the stories of the younger Dumas, which has long enjoyed a supreme popularity among the artists and stir dents of Paris : and the drift of which is thus described by a Saturday Reviewer :—Antonine, a beautiful girl, wh o gives her name to the book, is the daughter of a physician* Edward, or Arthur, or Alphonse —we forget which- 01 ° 1er a glimpse of her ancle one muddy day in the Rue do itiv,,, °ll ' and forthwith tumbles i n t o a f rant i c ecstacy of love , cannot eat, nor sleep, nor read. He is consumed with fever—he raves all day and cries all night—he looks ghastly; " it est soufrant," which seems to be the appro priate phrase for the climax of this kind of agony. Aft er a time he discovers the residence of Antonine's father, and calls upon him on the pretence of seeking his professional advice. Antonine has been peeping through the parlour blinds, and on his departure asks her father if the young man is ill. "My child," is the reply, " this day twelve months this young man will be dead." Antonine, who 14 deeply in love with Edward or Alphonse, swoons away at this, while the physician weeps copiously. It appears, hoc" ever, that there is a certain system for curing consumption, which is Edward's malady ; but it is one requiring the, most tender and incessant vigilance on the part of the nurse. The rest follows. Antonine devotes herself to his cure, and without delay marries the consumptive suitor• Then the action of the story really begins. The reader will be at no loss to imagine the situation, sad the elaborate . and minute expansi,n which it will receive at the hands of the author of "La Dame aux Camelias," and "La Dame aux Perles." Two young lovers in a state of frantic mu: . tual passion, heightened by the consciousness that their fiery bliss may be quenched within, twelve months , and one of them supposed to be slowly wasting away i 3 consumption—what more could be desired by any writer of reader of this school of fiction ? The medical details, nose' so indispensable alike to the boudoirs of the ChaniP s Elysies and the dirty garrets of the Quartiei Latin, ar e carefully enumerated. We may leave our readers to con' jecture the quantity of blood-spitting and the amount of passionate raving, and the loathsome artistic product which results from their combined representation. Suffice it to say that this is protracted through a whole volume, and that at last Edward is carried safely through the crises by means of the heroic devotion of Antonine. This is the end of the story proper, but the sting lies in " l'Envoi." Thv reader is supposed to be worked up to a tremendous Pil ch of sympathy with the sufferings of Edward and Antonine , and to be left happy in the contemplation of their future bliss, when his dream is dispelled in some such style (w e/ quote from memory) as the following :—" Reader, do Ye li really want me to tell you what became of them ? I would much rather leave it unknown. It would be better for you perhaps, not to know. But, after all, art is truth, &0., &°• Well, Edward is filling some small post in a provincial town, and has grown fat. He is now engaged in an in trigue with the wife of the Prefect. Antonine knows all about it, and laughs heartily." It is difficult to recall any" thing more deeply cynical than the laugh with which we are dismissed. The author plainly flings his moral et mankind as the sum and ccnclusion of all human philo• sophy, and implies that anybody wh o thinks otherw ioe must either be a romantic young fool or a hypocritical old one. A Rouen journal. in giving an account of a banquet of the Orpheenists, mentions among the curiositie s of the bill of fare, Cratons d'Ananas i la Verdi, Plombieres glACeefi a N Anber, end rein de velailleo a N ~...