The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-04 00:00:00

MARK-LANE.

The fresh arrivals of home-grown wheat to Mark-lane
to•day were but moderate. The greater portion of the sup-
ply, notwithstanding that the demand ruled far from active,
was disposed of at the rates current on Monday.
Thare was a fair show of foreign wheat on the stands.
In most descriptions a moderate business was transacted,
and Monday's quotations were well supported.
Floating cargoes of grain moved off steadily, at full

prices.
With barley the market was seasonably well supplied, but
the demand for all descriptions was in a sluggish state, at
about previous rates.
Malt changed hands slowly, at late rates.
Oats, the supply of which on sale was tolerably large,
met a slow sale, and prices ruled in sums instances the
turn easier.

Beans were in slow request, and the quotations had a
drooping tendency.
In the value of peas no change took place, but the trade
ruled quiet.
Flour moved off slowly, on former terms.

ARRIVALS TILTS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. ()atm. Flom.
English-- 910 20 1,920 13') ' 250
Irish..... — 960
130 230 7,010 30 ske,
Dr's.

LITERATURE,

" Manhattan" as a Novelist,

Marion. By " Manhattan." Three Vols. Only
Authorised Edition. Saunders,;Otley, and Co.

The announcement of a novel by " Manhattan,''
the Yankee Junius, whose dashing letters on the
American war have excited so much interest
in this country, is a matter of importance in
the literary world. So great has been the
anxiety for the early appearance of this book in
England that it has passed through the press with
unprecedented rapidity. A few days only have
been allowed for the preparation and publica-
tion of this three volume novel, each separate
volume having been printed in a different establish-
ment. Manhattan's work is now i❑ the hands of
the reading public, whose expectations have been
aroused to an extent that will subject the work
itself to a very trying ordeal, Perhaps the first
feeling of many readers will be somewhat akin to
disappointment., and assuredly the majority will
peruse it with some surprise. It is not until the
book is finished that its character can ba duly ap-
preciated. It has no intricate plot, it possesses no
vivid interest to enchain the reader's attention,
it contains no record of stormy emotions ;
it may rather be characterised as a panorama,
a penorarea of American life some five-and-twenty
years back. Marion, whose name is given to the
work, is not, as may have been anticipated, of the
gentler sex. Marion Monck (called after General
Marion) is the hero of the history, and even as
" Vanity Fair" was " a novel without a hero," so is
"Marion" a novel without a heroine. At the close
of the third volume we leave Marion Monck, aged
twenty-five, with the future before him, without
wife or lady-love, heart whole and fancy free.
When we take leave of him Marion is a partner in
a flourishirg commercial business, and is possessed
of great literary abilities, which, at that time, how-
ever, he is not inclined to employ. Many readers
will be disposed to recognise in Marion Monts; a
shadowy type of Manhattan himself. Although
the professed hero of the narrative he is rather a
spectator than an actor of the events which it re-
cords. We follow him through the ten eventful
years of his youth, but our attention is chiefly occu-
pied by the vivid pictures of men and manners,
which are displayed to us in rapid
succession. And what men and manners they are !
Marion Nortek is a native of South Carolina, " the
state, as her leading sons affectionately designate
her, in Congress, and elsewhere, has ever been re-
garded as the most aristocratic state in the Federal
Confederacy, and her Eons and daughters are the
very elate of the great American population. . .

Northern people cave without a murmur to South
Carolina preeminence." (Is Manhattan a native
of South Carolina ?) The father of Marion is of
English parentage, and his mother is of Dutch ex-
traction. The first years of the youth's life are
wild and happy, well calculated to develop his
physical powers. "In place of AB C ho knew
the number of every fish-hook, if he had no know-
ledge of grammar he could ride a horse and join in
a deer-hunt, if he had no knowledge of geogra-
phy, he knew every spot where game could be
scared up, and for arithmetic he could catch fish and
game to an extent that even David could not have
counted." His education is, however, t ken in
hand by an intelligent relative, and Marion himself
becomes ardent in the pursuit of knowledge. In
his boyhood he assists his parents in their business.
The filmily reside at Monck's Corners, on Cooper
River about thirty miles from Charleston. The
father keeps a large store, to which " fifteen
thousand negroes looked for their little Juan-
ries. The happiness which this store conferred
can hardly be realized." At fourteen the
youth, by his own desire, leaves home and
goes to seelx his fortune, first at Charleston
and then at New York. At New York he is entered
as junior clerk in the great commercial house of
Granville arid Nordheim, and here for some years
he pursues the even tenour of his way, gaining the
approbation of his employers and the effection of
many friends. Among these is the notorious Mr.
Bennett, of the New York Herald, who, when a
rupture has taken place between Marion and his
employers, urges him to take to the profession of
literature. Manhattan and his book will not find
additional favour in the eyes of the English public
from the fact that James Gordo: Bencett, whose name
has acquired noenviable reputation in this country, is
very closely connected with both book and author.
The first volume c)ntals the following, in many
respects, startling—