The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-09 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONUOY, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1864.

I
verseness lies mainly with his owner, It is so easy
to give the blame to somebody who can't answer
you, or whose complaints at best are not very intel-
ligible ! He would certainly show much greater
signs of stupidity if he paid much heed to his master
or showed much gratitude for the treatment which
he ordinarily receives. Like all animals he responds
readily to good treatment, end is capable of surprising
improvement, The horse himself, if illused like the
donkey, would soon deteriorate in some degree.
Those who have seen French donkeys and compared
them with the miserable hacks of our watering-
places, most have been forcibly struck with the
contrast. We are speaking merely of donkeys kept
for hire, not of private owners ; but these
animals fed mainly on the coarse bread of the poorer
classes, and kindly cared for, show a degree of spirit
and intelligence very difficult to meet with at
Brighton or Hampstead. Englishmen usually pride
themselves on their animals; English horses and
dogs are famous throughout the world, but English
donkeys !—the less said the better. It is therefore
not too soon to see if something cannot be done to
mend matters; and, accordingly, after cattle exhi-
bitions without number, after ornithological die.
plays of various kinds, after successive dog shows,
and a rumoured cat show, we are this day about to
celebrate a very novel exhibition, Mules and
donkeys are assembled together under the pro-
tecting shadow of the Agricultural Hall—nay, there
are even to be races celebrated in the hippodrome,
in recollection, we presume, of SOLOMON'S immoral
aphorism. And the despisers of mules and con-
temners of donkeys may hide their diminished heads
when they learn that their representatives come
from far distant lands, and that there are several
different classes of prizes. The Eastern lands
donkeys and mules are of far more importance than
here; and in journeys over rocky countries many
travellers have found cause to be grateful to their
sure feet and unwearied patience. Fine specimens
of the Eastern and Spanish breeds are shown, and
some beautiful specimens of Spanish and Mexican
mules. The hero of the exhibition is, however,
the Egyptian donkey, presented to the Prince of
WALES by the Pacha of EGYPT, and exhibited by
his Royal Highness. On this day, we believe, he
is to wear his splendid trappings, studded with
precious stones in true Eastern fashion. The
humbler British races are of course represented, and
the entries have, we hear, been much more nume-
rous than was anticipated for this very original
display. Miss BURDETT COUTTS has offered three
prizes of £5, 13, and £2 for the best-condition
donkey used. foc riding purposes on Hamp-
stead and other heaths. This is an excel-
lent scheme, and likely to do much good,
Similar in design are the prizes offered by some
benevolent persons for costermongers' donkeys. If

river.

these classes can be taught to treat their animals
better, and more humanely, it will be a great point
gained. There is nothing so brutalising and de-
grading as the unrestrained exercise of cruelty ;
and although, thanks to the exertion of the Society
for its prevention, there is much less of it possible
towards the lower orders than there was a few
years since, there is still far too much, even as there
is from man to man. Animals, like man himself,
are " fearfully and wonderfully made," and we have
been told whose care watches over the very hum-
blest. It is, then, no sign of superior wisdom or
dignity to abuse their helplesness, or the confidence
they are so ready to place in man. It is difficult
to argue against prejudice, especially among the
lower classes. Facts teach a better lesson, and a
good many lectures and sermons might fail to do
poor long-eared Iceddy the good which we hope
he will derive from the Metropolitan Donkey
Show.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.

KIEL, AUG. 9.

The clergy and gentry of the district of Kiel
held a meeting in this town yesterday, at which
23 persons were present.
The draft of a petition to the Schleswig-Holstein
Commissioners was submitted for signature to the

meeting.
The petition explained the necessity of and de-
manded a common government for Schleswig-.
Holstein, under the protection of Prussia, and
dwelt upon the importance of the closest union
with that Power.

After an animated discussion fire of the assembly,
viz, :—Ahlefeld of Oipenitz, Count Baudissen,
Knoop, Luikner of Schulenburg, and the Cloisters
provost Ahlefhld of Rantzau and Rohstorf, refused
to sign the petition,
Herr Blome of Heiligenstadt was absent.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, AUG. 9.

It is believed that his Majesty will not return
to Berlin before the beginning of next month,
and that at the end of September he will proceed
to Baden to celebrate the birthday of the Queen
of Prussia.

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
WITHDRAWAL OF THE BRITISH TROOPS
FROM THE ASHANTEE FRONTIER.
LIVERPOOL, AUG. 9.

The African Company's steamer Calabar, from the
Vest Coast of Africa, arrived here at an early hour

this morning.
Her dates are—Benin, June 26; Fernando Po,
July 1 ; Cameroons, 2d ; Old Calabar, 4th ; Brass
River, 6th; Bonny, 7th; Lagos, 10th; Accra, 12th;
Cape Coast Castle, 14th; Cape Palmas, 16th;
Sierra Leone, 21st; Bathurst, 25th ; Teneriffe, 30th ;
and Madeira August Ist.
She brings 900 ounces of gold dust. Among her
passengers is Governor Freeman of Lagos.
No news of interest had been received from the

All the British troops have been withdrawn from
the Aehantee frontier.

FRANCE,

BOURSE, August B.—The market still continues
dull as regards the amount of business doing, but
with prices well maintained. Threes, for the
Account, are unvaried at 66f. 35e, Mobilier have
improved to 1,002 f., 50c. Railway Mark©t quiet,
but in general firm. The market continued firm to
the close, and left off as follows
41 per Cent 5....... 95 Italian Loan 6B 30
Do. end month.... Do. end month 6B 25
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 40 New Mexican .... 56
Credit Mobilier..., 1002 50 Russian
Do. end m0nth....1005 Austrian
Bank Shares ...... 3395 Spanish Threes.,,,
Credit Fonder 1225 Home Dobt ..
Roman
RAILWAYS.

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Ileditarranean
New ditto
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona

Cash. Account.
882 50 .. 882 50
980 .. 985 --
910 .. 913 75

640 - .. 641 25
515 - .. 512 50
483 75 490 --
346 25 .. 346 25
427 50 430 -
532 50 .. 536 25
442 50 , 441 25
501 25 .. 505 -
237 50 .. 211 2.5

Death of Miss Catherine Sinclair,

It is with the deepest regret that we announce the de-
cease of tnis most estimable and accomplished lady. She
was daughter cf the late Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair,
founder of the Board of Agriculture, and the Hon. Diana
Lady Sinclair. She was born and educated in the Northern
metropolis, and commenced her literary career by publish-
ing, above thirty years ago, two works, entitled "Modern
Accomplishments" and "Modern Society." In the
former work she exposed with much felicity and
satire the mistakes and absurdities of modern female
education in the higher circles ; and in the
latter work she depicted what modern society
is among the higher ranks—what their habits of thought
and what their stile of conversation. We aro persuaded
that the dialogues given by Mies Sinclair have a greater
truth and reality than those of any author who has at-
tempted the same line of composition. Even in the pages
of Miss Edgworth and Miss Burney we do not find the
same brilliancy combined with the same reality as in those
of Miss Sinclair. These earlier works passed through
numerous editions, and were followed by others with a ra-
pidity of succession which surprised their readers. Her
" Holiday House" is the delight of children—they
see themselves described as they actually are, with capti-
vating fidelity, Her " Scotland and the Scotch," "Shetland
and the Shetlsnders," are full of vivid description, diversi-
fied by entertaining anecdote, and have been added by many
to their Black's or Murray's Handbooks. Throughout Miss
Sinclair's works there is a religious and moral tone which
has led many a father and mother to place them with plea-
sure and satisfaction in her children's hands.
Miss Sinclair's life was in accordance with her writings.
In all companies her presence was felt as an acquisition;
her wit and humour and vivacity enlivened all around her,
It was remarkable that while Miss Sinclair entered
into and added largely
to the joys of the prosperous, she
sympathised deeply with the sorrows of the afflicted. Many
will remember with aff.;etionate gratitude the tender care
and solicitude with which, day after day and night after
night, she attended on the sick and the di ing. No nurse
was ever more assiduous than she, .

Most of her charities were given unostentatiously and in
secret—in many cases to persons who had seen better days,
The inhabitants of her native town will now regard with
deeper and more tender interest the fountain which she was
the first to build for the benefit of the poor, the Mission
Station which she has long maintained at thel,Vater of Leith,
and the Cooking Depots which st her own sole charge she
established in the old town. May her admirable example
invite others to imitate it I—Advertiser.

MARKETS—This Day.

HAY MARKETS.

SMITHFIELD.--Old meadow hay, £3 Os to £5 Os ; new
do., £2.15s to £4 ss; clover, £4 to £6 Os; and straw, Si 4s
to £1 lOs per load. Trade firm.

CtratnzuLAND.—Old meadow hay, £3 08 to £5 Os; new
do., £3 to £4 ss; clover, £4 Os to £6 Os; and straw, £1
4s to £1 lOs per toad. A steady trade.

new do, £3 to 1 ss;
clover, £4 to £6 Os; and straw, Li
WRITECRAPEL —Old meadow hay, £3 Os to £5 Os ;
41 to .C 1 108. per load. Trade steady.

COLONIAL.
TEA,--Business has been rather inactive, and the few
dealings entered into have been of about previous rates. A
small quantity is announced for public sale this day.
SUGAR.—The market has remained dull, the rise in the
value of money haying checked speculative operations. In
the refined market there is little change of importance to
report.

COFFEE.—Ttere has been a moderate inquiry for colo-
nial descriptions at about previous quotations.

Ricz.—A. fax amount of business has been done in infe-
rior quilitios of East Indian, without, however, any
material change to report in prices.
TALLOW.—rhe market has continued steady, but owing
to the high rates current in Russia, prices have shown an
upward movement. P.Y.C. on the spot is quoted 41s. 9d„
and last three months 435, 93. per cwt.

COAL M

:ARK-ET.

Prices of Coal per Ton a

the close of the market.

s. d.
Cowpen Hartley 17 9
Eden Main.. l7 6
Tanfield Moor 13 0
North Pelton Gas 14 0
Hastings Hartley 17 9
Pensher 17 3

Walls End.

8. O.

Haswell - -------
04 19 0
Hartlepool lB 9
East Hartlepool 18 9
South Hartlepool 17 9
K elloe.. ..... . • l7 9
South Kelloe .. 18 0
Hough Hall 18 0
Hetton l9 0
South Hetton • ..19 0
Whitworth 15 3
t, 65 ; sold, 48.

Walla End.
Harton ........16 9
Caradoc ........18 3
Tunstall
ships at -mark(

The first Socket of Kent hops, growth 1864,
consigned by Air Alfred White of Nettlestead and Yalding,
to Messrs Hewitt, White and Co., Borough, was this day
sold at Z 7 per cwt to Messrs E. Swabey and Co., Leeds,
on behalf of liesers John Young and Co., Pale Ale
Brewers, Albion Brewery, Leeds. The quality is very
superior to the general run of first pockets,

MR, ALFRED MELLON'S CONCERT;

The Opening Night.

Last evening—to the delight of the musiesloving
portion of that still considerable section of the
general public unhappily for them detained by
circumstances a little while longer here in town
when everybody else (who is anybody) is either
hastening, or has already hastened to the seaside or
to the continent—yesterday, we say, to the delight
of the million, if not of the upper ten
thousand, Mr. Alfred Mellon inaugurated
in Covent Garden Theatre the fourth annual
series of his autumnal concerts. There in the vast
area of that noblest among all the arenas
of public entertainment in the metropolis, better
known as the Royal Italian Opera House, Mr Mellon
was welcomed as hardly anyone else is welcomed
now-a-days, who appears, baton in hand, es a popu-
lar concert giver, composer, conductor, all in one, in
the centre of a nob:e orchestra. What the late "ea.
Jullien never attempted, Mr. Mellon has ftecem.
plished. Namely, in the dead season, of the year,
he has virtually now, during three successive sea•
sons (and he isjteet now doing it again for the fourth),
he hasvirtuany created ei soul (the soul of enthusiasm)
under the ribs of death---the death of the town, or
at least of the season. Whereas nobody (as the
Pheaee is) is supposed now to be in town—last evens
rug, upon the first glance on entering the Royal
Italian everybody (again as the phrase is) seemed
to be there. Dress circle, private boxes, amphi-
theatre, slips, and pit—every ordinary portion
of the house had, as it always does somehow at Mr
Mellon's magical summons, an admirable and over•
flowing attendence. Literally an overflowing at.
tandance lor the extra-ordinary portion of
the ho use on the occasion of these con-
certs, meaning by this the Promenade, was
:trammed at intervals during the night to absolute
inconvenience Passing through those "halls of
Balcluthe" they were certainly not " desolate !"
The resplendent edifice radiantly lit up, as it is
now nightly during the delightful weeks set apart
for these concerts, rang again and again at very
frequent intervals, not only with sweet sounds, vocal
and instrumental, solo and choral, but with genuine
bursts of enthusiasm. The performance last
evening led off with Beethoven's para-
gon Overture among all the four overtures corn•
posed by him for his Fidelio, incomparably the
overture of overtures among those four—the Leonora.
It was given magnificently by one hundred per-
formers selected by Mr. Mellon from the orchestras
of the Royal Italian and the Musical Society of the
metropolis. The very pick of these orchestras, we
may reasonably set them down as, moreover, not
only judging of the capabilities by their performance
last evening, but simply bearing in mind the fact
that these one hundred include among them the
names of very nearly all the great solo instrumen-
talists numbered in the two orchestras from which
they have been chosen. After a new quadrille,
based upon themes taken from M. Gounod's
last popular opera of " Mirella." Mr. Carrodus, the
English Violinist, gave brilliant evidence of his
quality as a master of that King of instruments by
his, rendering of Ernst's fantasia from Rossini's
Otello. Then, came forth conspicuously on the
platform in front of the orchestra, the Sensation
Singer of the day among concert-goers, Madlle.
Carlotta Patti ! Hardly—in fact we may confi-
dently assert—not by any means, legitimate, is
Mademoiselle Carlotta in her style of singing. Yet
it takes, and takes too we should say, quite wonder-
fully. Her opening cavatina gave proof of her
exceeding popularity, and proof of a kind, more-
over, that nobody could at all mistake. Whatever
she sings necessitates a recall. Her extraordinary
rendering of the "Carnival of Venice," as arranged
for the voice by Mr. Benedict—and that we remem-
ber her singing by the way at Mr. Benedict's own
concert, far better than she did last night—is, in its
way, just a vivid exemplar of Madlle. Carlotta
Patti, as a sensational vocalist. The close of it was
responded to by the enraptured audience yester-
day by a thundering encore—an encore answered
by Madlle. Carlotta's singing, with charming
espieglierie, "Gin a body meet a body coming
thro' the rye I" The polacca from Bellini's
" Puritani," and the bolero from the "Sicilian
Vespers," won, for the fair vocalist,
scarcely less hearty acclamations. As for the
solo instrumentalists who emulated Mr. Carrodus
in entertaining the audience yesterday, besides
a no less admirable player of the cornet■a-piston
than Mr. Levy, who gave with a sort of a whirling
flourish of sonorous sounds the Whirlwind Polka,
there were distributed among the selections—as, for
instance, in Mr. Alfred Mellon's own glorious are
rangement of selections from Verdi's Il Trovatore
(one of the especial:treats of the night !)—,abundant
solos set apart for trombone, flute, oboe, clarionet,
horn, and ophechlicle. Besides which the girlish
young pianist, who has already been astonishing
Londoners with her performances at the Crystal
Palace, the Hanover Square Rooms, and St.
James's Hall, always propitiating her audience
by the unaffected childish bob of her very curtsey
whenever she either approaches or reams
from the music stool—Madlle. Marie Krebs
was there among the stars of " Mellon's Con-
certs," shining as radiantly as ever in a superb
fantasia on " Lucrezia Borgia." It is impossible
to hear her—this gifted maiden of fifteen—without
recognising in her a very formidable rival to Mdme.
Goddard. Foremost among all the novelties pro-
vided however, with so unstinting Island by the
annual giver of these eminently popular series of
entertainments—first and foremost among all the
novelties provided for Mr. Mellon's admirers yes.
terday—stood forth, arrayed in magnificent
oriental attire, his head encircled with a blood-red
turban, his flowing beard descending upon
a railkswhite bernous, and upon a richly em.
broidered raiment, the name of which we
know not—Ali Ben Sou Alle—bearing in his
hands a strange new gold-gleaming wind instrument,
called by him a Tarkophone. Whoever the per.
former himself maybe, we shall doubtless learn later
on. Whispers have been heard identifying him
with a second clarionet player in M. Jullien's
orchestra. How correctly, or incorrectly, we can-
not even conjecture. At the least we can pro-
nounce his appearance last night as an indis-
putable success—as, himself, unquestionably a very
gifted musician—and his new instrument the turko-
phone, if not an absolute novelty, as an instrument
of wonderful compass, and exquisite tone, a tone
blending the dulcifluous mellowness of the clarion et
with a reverberant clangour, half that of the horn
and of the saxophone; Ali Bon Son Alle was encored
with enthusiasm in his delicious performance) of a
fantasia on Bellini's " Somnambula." As the first
part of the concert commenced with Beethoven's
overture of " Leonora," the second part began
with Mellon's overture of Marguerite, led, cf course,
by the composer himself. And as the First Pait
closed loyally with the National Anthem, the
Second, or in other words, the whole evening's
entertainment, was brought to a close by a scarcely
resistible feet moving galop by Bache—to the
sound of which the delighted audience were die.
persed.

CUTTING A LION's CLAWS.—The Brussels jour-
nals give an account of a curious surgical operation
just performed on the great African lion belonging to the
Zoological Society of that city. For some time past the
animal has boon suffering from disease in the feet, which
necessitated the cutting of its claws. In order to do this
without danger, a large box was prepared with a grated
bottom, covered by a wooden floor, which could be with-
drawn, so as to allow the lion's feet to pass between the
bars. The top of the box was also made to descend by
means of screws so as to press on the animal and prevent it
drawing in its feet. When the lion entered the box, the
latter was turned on its side and the sliding bottom with-
drawn. The paws then slipped between the bars, and the
screws above were tightened, M. Thiernasse, assisted by
five pupils of the Veterinary School, then proceeded to cut
away the claws. The patient bore the operation tolerably
well, only .ttering a short roar occasionally, and seemed
relieved when the first paw had been cut and dressed. A
keeper, to whom the lion is much attached, sat near its
head and endeavoured to calm it by talking, evidently not
without effect. The operation was successfully performed,
and there is every reason to believe that the cure will be
complete,