The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-11 00:00:00

ions.

ROSSINI'S FETE DAY !—Signor Mercadante hag
written an ode for out• door performance by 400 voices of
a commemoration festival in honour of Rossini,
to be held at Pesaro on Aug. 21, Rossini's jour de nom.
MB, J. R. FLA/XJ.IE, ROUGE CROIX l'unsnivADll'y
has recently given to the world, "A Corner of licit; or,
Some Account of the Parish of Ash-next-Sindwicb,
is
Historical Sites and Existing Antiquities."
T, mll.'•Go•
THE PURCHASE OF ASTON PARR:, 13`---
HAM.—We have much pleasure in learning this long"
complet Ide
delayed purchase is nearly on the point of
understand that the contract was signed 'aud e:ecialanhgaveo
yesterday. The corporation's and the c3n3P3nYand's -It only
been attached to their respective docunteut29attar to
remains for the conveyance to be settled for the „cs..
be entirely completed and the property to become t"e
that

session of the Cown.—Birnzingham Gazette.
THE " NEW ALABAMA:'—The new ship
fori.
carain Semmes, building on the Continent, anu
el
which will probably be ready towards the close
August,
is reported as over 4,000 tons, and will bProtected
the
solid steel plates 2fin thick. She is to be called
she
ew Alabama, and be armed with Armstrong one;
is built for a ram, will be furnished with engf:les,a°,.
great power, and will possess the means of throwing Oa'
ing water on her opponents. It is intended for
,ruite•
have the very 1 arge complement of 1,100 me Witha""
Per
are offered a bounty of £lO each on joining,
month wages, and prize money equal to that of her COP.;
is
mender, Captain Semmes ; in other words, the prize
to be divided pro rata by all cn board.' Isiost of the
officers and crew of the sunken ship will join the 1-evl.
Alabama. It is intended that she will commence oPerti°„rni
near Boston, United States. Federal ships of war
watching her progress, and will dispute her first t"-
go to sea.—Tohn
THE SATURDAY REVIEW SPEAKING " 1311‘f
ITS MIND" TO SIR CHARLES WOOD i°3l3-
sible to say that he is by any means either an admirable or
a pleasing specimen of the British statesman. perhaps
laer to
more entirely unoriginal mind never occupied itself wit
the business of Government. For more than 30 years he'
has been an inevitable member of every Whigdministrae
Lion, but his warmest friends would scarcely venture to
assert that he has ever displayed powers beyond those of
painstaking and industrious clerk. He has been Chancelloi
Board of Con
of the Exchequer, and President of the ti°, ;
i!aa ria!
and First Lord of the Admiralty, and Secretary of State n_
India; but it cannot be said that in any capacity he h
above the level of the dreariest commonplace. It is
certi
that he has never uttered a word in public which raeno;6
will take the smallest interest in remembering; and We a'
not awhre that he ever originated a measure which history;will care to associate with his name. He is best knowo
his contemporaries by a style of oratory which perplo%e..
and exasperates even the triend/y listener, and which la
singularly fitted to make the better ;Tann appear the svorse:
If he has over deviated into vivacity, it has been at
0;1
expense of conventional proprieties which a wiser man won is
have studiously respected. The most lively passage of
public career that we recollect was hpiecesis famwith unedifyiol;
ous controverei
ulled to
with Mr Laing, when bep
frankness the facts and figures of the Indian
Finance 1‘.13:
nieter, and rudely discredited the policy of 'an able an
meritorious colleague, who, whether mistaken or not 1.
the particular questions at issue, was at least entitled iv
courteous treatment. Of his temper and deporttaent thetr:
is, unfortunately, nothing to be said but what ft
would
ell 0
more agreeable to leave unsaid. Sir Charles "Wood II:
never enjoyed the reputation of being a please, et
m
work with, or under. Art has done nothing to ttorre
tu et ",
conceal the acerbity of a harsh and ill. conditioned are
and charity herstlf,has no resource but to assume' fila
candidiwhollys t e deny h
are valuable in unconsciousima tphueobfpl
ipocsescseuesrlisviaaornni peculiarities sfilsooofernmaenagnounnieibe:3B:tvin_ri
offensive to others. On the whole, though it would bo
at the best, as a type of laborious, not to saY
mediocrity;an
and the country would learn with
eaore
the Ho .80
complacency that he had made his last speech in
th
of Commons and served his last term as a Cabinet Dliai
and 2 a
We have had a very long spell of Charles Wood,
Opole,
list of new peerages which shall include the he
heaviest of heavy Whigs is cure to be goner
always provided that prornotiou to the lions! tot,
understood to mean retirement from official life.
with perhaps the ono exception of the presen
ea,„ the
tarY, there is no living public man (not air Ler
the category
Upper House) whose final withdrawal trom
OPof ,"
PEsible Ministers would be more univereally o
Yo'fl-.orda 10
t Ilona Secre-