The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-05 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This day.

LONDON, Dec. s.—Wind this day at noon—South-
West; light breeze, and fine weather.
PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 4.—Wind S,W.—Arrived—lnvesti-
gator, from Belize.
OFF PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 4.—Arrived—Centurion, from
London for Sydaey—Trevelyan, from London for Cal-
cutta,
OFF DARTMOUTH, Dec. 4—Arrived—Young Irishman,
from London for Hong Kong.

NEWPORT, Deo. 3.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Emma,
from Mauritius.

CARDIFF. Dec. 3.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Empire, from
Quebec—Gilbert Wheaton, from St Michael's. Sailed—
Antioch, for E. t Jago de Cuba. _ _

OFF POOLE BAY, Dec. 4.—Arrived—Bombay, from Lon-
don for Auckland.

BRISTOL CHANNEL, Dec. 4. Arrived—Robert Bristow,
'rom Portland.

RAMSGATE, Dec. 4.—Arrived—Trunijohn, from Grimsby
for Gibraltar.

(BY 2.IAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.

Arrived, Deo. s—Elizabeth, from Cuxhaven—Napoleon,
from Gravelines—Johanna Petronella, from Helsingborg—
Wild Rose, Clansman, and Sundow, from Cronstadt.
DEAL, Monday Morning. '

Passed, Dec. 4—Helensbank, from' Colombo, for London.
Sailed, Dec. 6—Three Bells (ship), from Japan, for Rot-
terdam—Seine and Tamilo (screw steamer), from Paris,lor
London.

COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.—At a meeting of the
council of this corporation on Saturday, the diploma of
Licentiate was granted to Mr W. I'. Jones, 8.A., Queen's
College, Cambridge—to Mr William Martin, 8.A., London
—and to Mr J, .;Joner, Grove Park School, Wrexham.
The diploma of Associate was granted to Mr James Hays-
man, of Burdett House, Burdett-road. B. The following
gentlemen were elected members of the college—Mr A. R..
Abbott, Grove House, Tottenham—Mr W. Farncombe,
Staple-cross, Hurst-green—Mr W. H. F. Johnson, M.A.,
Llandaff House. Cambridge—Mr F. Nash, Kensington
Collegiate School—Mr Harry Smith, Arthur-street, Bit.-
ston—Mr M. Smith. Aston Villa School, Handsworth—
Mr 'l'. Whitford, Great Dover-street.

AMERICAN MAIL STEAMERS DUE AT LIVERPOOL
THIS WEEK,— The following steamers are due at Liverpool
this week, with the United States and Canadian mails, viz.,
the City of London, with dates from New York to the 26th
ult., and the Peruvian from Portland, with corresponding
dates may be expected, the former at Cape Clear or Queens-
town, and the latter at Greencastle in the course of to-mor-
row (Tuesday). On Saturday morning next the Cunard
steamer Australasian, with dates to New York to Nov. 30,
may be expected off Crookhaven or Queenstown.
JOHN LEECH'S ARTISTIC HABITS.—Mr Leech's
life and character are in his own " Sketches of Life and
Character." Any anecdote that can be told of him has
its double in his own works. Suppose we give this anec-
dote in the words of Mr Charles Dickens. He was very
fond of a bey known to Mr Dickens, an extraordinary
small boy, but of great spirit, who was a midshipman in
the navy. " Whenever this boy came home from a
cruise," says Mr Dickens, " he and Leech, and never any-
body else, used to go out in great state, and dine at the
Garrick Club and go to the play, and finish in an exem-
plary way with kidneys and harmony. On the first of these
occasions, the officer came out so frightfully small that,
Leech told us afterwards, he was filled with horror when he
saw him eating his dinner at the Garrick with a large knife.
On the other hand, ho felt that to suggest a small knife to
an officer and gentleman would be an unpardonable affront.
So, after meditating for some time, he felt that his course
was to object to the club knives as enormous and gigan-
tic; to remonstrate with their servant on their huge pro-
portions, and with a grim dissatisfaction to demand small
ones. After which he and the officer messed with great
satisfaction, and agreed that things in general were running
too large in England." But incidents like these are pre-
cisely what we find pictured in his pages ; and his friends,
pointing to sketch after sketch, can say, " I told him that:;"
".This happened to himself;" " I was present when he
came upon so and so." We select two sketches, for
which we are indebted to Messrs. Bradbury and Evans,
to illustrate this, not because they are greatly supe-
rior to others, but because they show his manner of
working, "the first is called " Private Theatricals,"
and appeared in the Almanac for 1854, with these words
under it :—" Dismay of Mr James Jessamy on being told
that he will spoil the Whole Thirg if he doesn't shave off
his Whiskers." The incident happened to himself; it is
his own whiskers that were in question ; and it is himself
that he is here making fun of. So again but a few weeks
ago, there appeared in Punch the sketch of " A Little
Scene at Brussels," with these words underneath, " T-mp-
k-ns (who has just come down breakfast) : Here I I
say, Garsong I I want a kelk chose for dejewnay l der
Korfee, and des Moots, you know ! (N.B. 'The stout party,
T. pokes in the ribs is a wealthy Belgian swell)." Hero tlio
incident is founded on actual occurrence. During this last
summer he went to the continent tor the benefit of hiehealth,
in company with Mr Elmore; and it was he himself mho
made the mistake of addressing a Belgian gentleman as the
waiter. But whereas ho himself was tall, he pictures the hero
of the escapade as short ; whereas he was a gentleman in all
his ways, he represents the said hero with the manners of
a " gent" terrible in his French. The type of an urn'
menso number of these sketches is to be found in his letters,
and one must conceive of them as a form of published letter.
Ile writes to a young but moat distinguished artist with
whom he had formed a close friendship—" When do you re-
turn ? Mind, you present yourself here directly you come
back. You are of course something like this by this date,"
and then on opposite pages of his letter he draws with pen
and ink two prodigious portraits of his friend, that illustrate
the felicity with which he could give a likeness from memory,
and preserve the likeness too, while confounding it with
extravagances that have no existence in fact. So when he
writes to another friend to appoint a day for hunting, he
must wind up with a sketch of what is likely to take place
on the morning of the hunt, He was troubled with a want
of sleep, and indicates on the sketch how difficult it will be
to wake him up. Now, what we have here in the rough,
in his letters, we have highly finished in his public works.
Representing scenes of private life, they have the same re-
lation to art that a man's letters have to literature. They
are his mode of correspondence, and they have the biogra-
phical character of a correspondence.—Corn/sill Magazine.
The Mayor of Arbas (Haute•Garonne) committed
suicide two days ago by blowing out his brains with a gun
during a moment of temporary insanity.
IRON SBIPBUILDINO AT CARDIFF.—Ott the 16th
of last month the first iron steamer constructed in Cardiff
was launched from the premises of Mr N. Scott Russell.
She is called the Mallorca, and is built far a Spanish Royal
Mail Company, to run between Barcelona and the island of
Majorca. Her dimensions are—length, 230 ft ; breadth, 26ft :
depth, 15ft ; and she is propelled by paddle engines of 190
nominal horse power, which are guaranteed to drive her at
12 knots per hour. She is constructed upon Mr Soott Rus-
sell's longitudinal principle of iron, made by the Dowlais
Company, ani is an elegant model. The launch excited
considerable interest, as being the first that has taken place
from that port, and is expected to be the forerunner of
many. Messrs Batchelor and Messrs Hill are also building
iron ships, and it is to be hoped that, owing to its proximity
to one of the great iron and coal fields, Cardiff may one day
become a formidable rival of Newcastle and the Clyde,