The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-01 00:00:00

FRANCE.

BOURSE, Dec. 31.—The market shows rather
more firmness, but without much change as regards
the amount of business. The reponse de primes
(option) was made at 66f. 40c., at which price Three
per Cents. now stand. Railway Market quiet, but
with prices in general maintained. The market
improved towards the close, and left off as follows

41 per Cents 9l 40
Do. end
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 50
Credit Mobilier 1045
Do. end month 1046 25
Bank Shares 3280
Credit 1 ander
Roman
BAILI

Italian Loan 7l 90
Do. end month 7l 65
New ditto
Do. end month —
Russian
Austrian
Spanish Threes —
Rome Debt
Deferred

'A.ItS.
Cash. Account.
976 25 .. 975
975 .. 975

Orleans ...
Northern
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 931 25 .. 930
New ditto . 890 ..
S authern 677 50 .. 682 50
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa .. 615 .. 615
Ditto to Barcelona .... 298 75 .. 300

THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAINE, Thursday.

The note of the 27th inst., which Sir Alexander
Malet, the Ambassador of Great Britain in this
city, hes addressed to the Federal Diet on the
Schleswig-Holstein question, and which was re-
ferred to the Holstein Committee in yesterday's
sitting, is couched in the following terms :
"In consequence of instructions from the Govern-
ment of her Britannic Majesty the undersigned has
the honour to communicate to his Excellency Baron
Von Kubeck, president of the Federal Diet, a copy
of the London Treaty of May 8, 1852. The under-
signed has the honour to request his excellency to
lay this treaty before the Assembly of the Federal
Diet. The undersigned is at the same time in-
structed to remark that the High Federal As-
sembly will observe that by the treaty of France,
Great Britain, Russia, and Sweden agreed to recog-
nise King Christian IX. as the successor to
ail the possessions held by his Majesty the late
King of Denmark. This recognition has already
taken place by all these Powers. The undersigned
is, therefore, instructed to point out that if the
Federal Assembly by any over hasty steps enters
upon a course opposed to the London Treaty serious
complications might result.
" The undersigned is further instructed to notify
to his Excellency the President of the Federal
Assembly that the Government of her Britannic
Majesty is ready to discuss these subjects in a con-
ference which should assemble at any place that
might be agreed upon, and in which all the sub-
scribers of the London Treaty, and a representative
of the German Confederation should take part.

" The undersigned avails himself of the oppor-
tunity of this communication to his Excellency
the President of the High Federal Assembly to
state the assurance, &c.
(Signed)

" A, MALET."

AN ORIENTAL KHAN,

An Oriental khan is not an inn as we use this
word in the language of London, Sydney, and New
York ; a place where you find good food and a clean
bed, an obliging host, a cheery welcome, and a heavy
bill. Such things are not of the East. A khan is
a fort and a mart; a refuge from thieves; a shelter
from the heat and dust; a place where a man and
his beast may lodge, where a trader may sell his
wares, and a piigrim may slake his thirst. In the
most ancient days, before Abraham had yet led his
sheep out of Haran and pitched his tents in the
plain of Aloreh, the khan was a sheikh's house or
tent, the best place in the tawn ; for the chief had
everywhere in the East a right to receive, to rob or to
protect the strangers who came among his tribe.
Where there was no sheikh's house or tent, as in desert
roads and in lonely glens, the khan was no more
than a camping ground for the merchants and way-
firers passing through the land, In Hebrew, the
word means a lodging for the night. When this
lodging for the night was not in a sheikh's house or
tent, it was always near a spring, a well, or a run-
ning stream; nearly always in the shade of a goodly
tree, or a group of trees ; to wit, under the oak at
Hebron, or beneath the palms of Jericho. Bat in
course of time, the predatory Bedawin bands must
have caused this open field to be protected by a
fence, either of a prickly plant or of a heap of
stones, and a porter appointed to keep the gate.
Such was that rude inn by the wayside from
Egypt into Canaan at which Joseph's brethren
slept for the night when they found the money
in their sacks and were sore afraid ; such
that other in at which Zipporah, moved by the
Lord's threatenings, took up the sharp stone and
circumcised her first-born son. This kind of lodging
for the night, or shelter from the heat of noon, may
be seen at this day in its most simple form, at Abu
Gosh, that robber's den which stands on the site of
what once was Kirjath-jearim, one of the resting-
places of the ark. It is a field with a fire tree for
shade, a stone screen for protection, and a spring
near by for drink. The wall has no gate, and the
lodger, who hopes to stretch his limbs in peace, or
enjoy his dinner of bread and grapes, has to leap the
fence. Once within the wall, he is safe from the
fiery smiting of the sun, from the trampling feet of
the camels, and in some degree from the pilfering
fingers of Abu Gosh.

The Duncan, 81, screw line-of-battle ship, of 3,727 tons
and 800 hoi se power (nominal) of engines, is expected to be
commissioned this morning at Portsmouth by Capt, Gibson
for the flag of Sir James Hope, K.C.8., the future Com-
mander-in-Chief cn the North American and West India
station,