The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY

MdIiKET NEWS—(THIS DAY.)

LITERATURE.

CORN EXCHANGE.

Cinderella and the Glass Slijner. Illustrated by
_

Very moderato supplies of wheat were on sale in the
country markets held on Saturday, yet the demand for all
kinds was heavy, and priceS had a downward tendency.
Barley was very dull and cheaper. All other articles sold
heavily, on rather easier terms.

George Cruikshank. -bavid Bogue.
Excellent Mr. Harris, of St. Paul's Church-
yard, never dreamt of such a delectable treat for
the chubby young nursery folks for whose intellec-
tual appetites he catered so long and so very plea-
santly—ho never dreamt, we say, that charming
Mr. Harris, that grandfather Whitehead among
booksellers !—of the issue from the press of any
"Fairy Library" like this—a fairy library, edited
by the pure pen, and embellished by the delicate
and agile pencil of our perennial and beloved George
Cruikshank. Already the same artist-story-teller
has recounted to us, all over again, and with what
an accession to the old legendary tales of grace and
wizardry ! the wonderful fortunes of Sir Mannikin
"Hop o' My Thumb" (reminding us in etchings of
magical merit how the Ogre was bamboozled out of
his Seven-League Boots by the adroitness of Hop,
the eltrich Whippersnapper), as well as the still
more wonderful fortunes, if that be possible, of
clever Master Jack and the weird beanstalk, by the
aid of which the hero-urchin clambered in a twink-
ling from the back garden up through the clouds
to the brink, not, however of heaven, but of the
realms of giant cannibalism ! In a delightful
article about picture-books for children, contri-
buted by Mr. Thaekeray to the recently-published
number of the old Quarterly Review—a charming
chapter of most genial wisdom and facetiousness,
to which only the other day we took occasion to
direct our readers' attention very earnestly—the
wittiest of modern critics has said regretfully, and
almost reprehensively,
of our artist, "We prefer
the comic and fanciful to the historic, romantic,
and, at present, didactic George." While we
coincide to the full with the judicious preference
by Signor Buonarotti Titrearsh for those more fasci-
nating attributes of the genius of George Cruik-
shank—namely, the " comic" and the "fanciful,"
we cannot, for the life of us, regard either of them
as left in abeyance, or subordinated, in any way
nowadays to the historic, romantic, or didactic
powers of our "brave, honest, kindly, pure-minded
artist, humourist, moralist " Witness this the
exquisite series of shilling publications now coming
before us by instalment after instalment, tfiis
graceful " Fairy Library," through the embellish-
ments of which George Cruikshank proves himself
to be more conspicuously than ever, both humorous
and imaginative. Comically as he has so often
appeared, time and again, since the memorable
evening in the days of his boyhood, when his keen
eye detected, from the street outside, over the
parlour window-blind of a low public-house,
ostentatiously perched above the tap-room chim-
ney-piece, that plaster-of-Paris bust of Shakspere,
with the clay pipe in its mouth. Sight of outré
fun, and bizarre extravagance, the grotesque gla-
mour of which wakened up on the instant all the
dormant drollery of the future prince among cari-
caturists ! Fanciful and comic as the artistic
powers of George Cruikshank have since then
shown themselves to be so abundantly—as once
upon a time by his illustration of Washington
Irving's conceit about the little dog, whose tail
curled so tight that it lifted him off his hind legs—
we cannot remember them to have been ever more
brilliantly indicated as such—as comic almost to
exaggeration and fanciful almost to extravagance—
than
in these delicious revivals of the dear old tales
of the nursery fireside—" Jack and the Magic Bean-
stalk "—seven-league-booted "Hop-o'-my-Thumb"
—and the earliest and sweetest of our first-loves,
charming little glass-slippered Cinderella. Already
we have noticed in these columns the graceful
merits of the two former—in our comments upon
each at the time of its original appearance. It was
scarcely possible, indeed, to haat-e passed either by
without observation—the mere announcement of
their forthcoming being provocative among many
of what we cannot but regard as a very pardonable
curiosity both as to the letterpress and the accom-
panying embellishments. Surely it must have been
thus a hundred years ago, when the prospectus was
first issued of a new edition of " Hudibras," to be
adorned with etchings from the needle of Mr.
Hogarth. And so with something no less kindred
between theme and illustration has it been amongst
ourselves very recently in regard to this issue of a
new " Fairy Library," founded upon the old, old
tales, dear to the hearts and memories of all as
having been first drunk in with wondering delight
by the exquisitely appreciative senses of childhood
—the issue in this new form of these same darling
fictions of the nursery—no longer embellished by
gaudy-coloured woodcuts without any other charm
beyond that arising out of the brilliant varie-
gation
of gamboge, carmine, Prussian blue, and
vermillion. A "Fairy Library" from the pen
and pencil of George Cruikshank I A game
of romps with Robin Goodfellow 1 Better
we take it, speaking on the part of the young folks
in whose behalf the undertaking has been benefi-
cently designed, better than chestnuts for roasting
at Christmas, or snapdragon for broiling on Twelfth-
night. For the which magnificent preference let
this one story (retold and re-embellished) of " Cin-
derella and the Glass Slipper" be taken in justifi-
cation. Little Cinderella, herself prettier than
ever, her dainty foot far daintier, her golden hair
more golden-e-musing einderously in the chimney
corner in that wonderful frontispiece ! With that
marvellously small peewit of a witch opposite, ill
the peaked hat and the high-heeled shoes I Below—
the glass slipper on a velvet cushion, supported by the
golden trumpets of the king's trumpeters ! Above—
the clock "on the prick of" midnight—the melon
and the rat, the mice and the lizards ! Everything,
indeed, from first to last throughout the whole
series of the ten beautiful etchings here introduced,
is befitting the witcheries of the bewitched and be-
witching
Cinderella. Even after the transformation
has been effected by the crutch-handled wand of
that delightful fairy godmother in the legend—
George Cruikshank has so guided his pencil that
you still see the origin of all through the pomp's
and glories of the magic turn-out—the melon in
the state coach, the lizards in those gorgeous flun-
kies' and the whiskered rat in that long-moustached
coachman. Enough, however, in regard to the
if but continued as it has been com-
menced,merits of this third instalment of a "Fairy Libraryei
will render yet dearer than ever to the
children of England a name already pleasant in
their ears, that of their genial and jocund George
Cruikshank.

As most of the continental ports are now frozen up we
have no sales of grain to report for immediate shipment.
From New York we have advices to the effect that flour
was cheaper.

The arrivals of English grain up to oar market last week
were on a limited scale. From abroad we received 923
quarters of wheat, 420 barley, 250 oats, 887 rye, 181 tares,
3,814 linseed, 1,297 rapeseed, 838 sundry seeds, and 1,009
barrels of flour.
•. Owing to the extreme severity of the weather, and the
great difficulties in the navigation of the Thames, scarcely
any fresh supply of English wheat came to hand to-day.
The show of samples was extremely small, yet it was equal
to the demand; but we may observe that, as all craft-
work is now suspended, millers refrained from making pur-
chases, as it is almost impossible to land cargoes even when
ariived. There was, therefore, literally no business doing
in any kind, and prices wore nominally the same as on
Monday last.
There was no foreign wheat on show except in granary
or by railway, yet no disposition was shown to purchase
any description. In the quotations we have uo change to
notice. _ _ .

Floating cargoes off Falmouth wero held at full priee3.
The supply of barley, both English and foreign, was
trifling. The trade, however, was in a depressed state, at
nominal currencies.

Malt sold heavily. In prices no alteration took place,
Oats were mostly held at full prices, and the sale for
them was steady.
For beaus, the supply of which was moderate, the in-
quiry was very inactive, at late rates.
The demand for peas was heavy, but we have no change
to notice in their value.

Flour sold slowly, on former terms.
CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.
Malt—Chevalier .... 71s to 725
Oats Yorkshire and
Lincolnsk., Feed 26s 23
Potato ...... 28s 30.
Youghal and Cork
Black. ...... 25s 29s
Cork, White .•• 26s 80s
Scotch, Feed..... 28s 31s
Means—Tick . •• 37s 39.
Pigeons.— ... •• 433 46s
Peas—Grey ..•• •• 113 s 37).
Maple... •• •• •• 39s 42s
White..... •• 39s 42s
Boilers ......... 42s 44s
flour—Town.mado... 65s 73s
Suffolk 54s 60s
Stocktn & Norfolk 53s 54s

Wheat—Essex iz Kent,
Red ...• new G2B to 783
Ditto.. •......... old 66s 72
Jim, White new 76s Sts
Ditt0........ old 78s 84s
slorfolk and Lin-
coln, Red, old GGs 783
Ditto new ...... 665 78s
Bye--Old ............ —8 —5
New .. ••• • .. 42s 44s
Barley—Grinding . 293 3la
51alting .••••.... 32s 348
•illevalier•••• ... 353 36s
halt—Suffolkand Nor-
folk.• •••••• 62s G7s
• • . •.••• •• 583 6°3
Kingston and Ware Cis 70e

SMITHFIELD.

Owing to the severity of the weather, the imports of
foreign stock into London last week were only 379 head.
In the corresponding week in 1854 we received 3,834 ; in
1853, 3,617 ; in 1852, 1,899 ; in 1851, 2,229 ; in 1850, 979;
and in 1849, 1,976 head.

Prom

Ostend .

Laugh At," is so far remarkable, however, amorp,
its compeers on the book-stalls of the railway sta-
tions, that it glitters outside with more than usu-
ally brilliant colouring. Its sparkling hues, never-
theless, resemble in other respects than their splen-
dour those visible on the surface of a floating
soap-bubble—they are not one iota less fleeting iu
their evanescence.