The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-03 00:00:00

The Price of Gold.

The quotation of gold at Paris Is about. 4 per mine pm., and
the short exchange on London Is 25.35 per ..C1 sterlinr.r,. On
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of 41
17s. 100. per ounce for standard gold, It appe.•s that gold la
about 3-10ths per cent. dearer in London than in Patin.
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is 174 to 175 per cent., and the premium on
gol tis about bog per cent. At these rates there Is a profit
on the importation of gold from the United States.

The Court of Assizas of the Rhone bee just tried
a man named Blargotton, aged 49, a weaver by trade, on a
charge of having by false representations caused the child
of a woman with whom he cohabited to be registered
as the legitimatci offspring of his wife. It appears
that the prisoner was married at Torero in 1849 to a
woman named Mario Givro, by whom he had five children.
In 1862, having formed an illicit connection with a woman
natued Berard, he deserted his wife and family, and went
to live at Atuplopuis, where ho and Berard lived as man
and wife. In February, 1869, the woman Berard gave
birth to a male child, whom the prisoner get
registered as the son of his wife, and satis-
fied the registrar of the fact by producing the certificate of
his marriage with Marie Givre, In July following the
local authorities wore informed that Berard was not the
prisoner's wife, and ho was arrested.' In his defence this
prisoner stated that his only object in committing the
trend was to save the child from the disgrace of ille•
gitimaoy, but the Mayor of Amplepuis deposed that
the prisoner had stated that his object in washing
the child to be regarded as legitimate Wit/ that
it might share the property coming to his children from his
wife's family. The jury having found the prisoner guilty,
he Court sentenced him t > two years' imprisonment.
UNIVEReITY BOAT RACE.—SOO:IO changes 8111C0
our last notice have taken place in the position of
the Cambridge crow. Mr. Selwyn has been removed from
No. 2 oar to the stroke, Mr. liinglako from the stroke to
No. 6, and Mr. Hawkins from N. o. 4 to No. 2. The crow
commenced rowing on afonday in a vary largo outrigger—
not the now boat by Dlr. Matthew Taylor, expressly built
for the occasion, and in which they purpose rowing the race.
Although they cannot be said to have improved so much as
their friend.; could wish, yet it is confidently hoped that by
the day of the race (the 19th inst.) this powerful crew will
have attained that perfection of style wiich has for so many
years characterised the rowing of university men. Betting
is brisk at 5 and 6 to 4 on Oxford.
TUE GREAT EASTERN STRAbitiIIIr.—LIVERPOOL,
iVedneaday.—Our readers will no doubt remember
that on the 17th of last month the Groat Eastern was put
up for unreserved sale at public auction, when the highest
bidder was a Mr. John Rae, of 117, St. James's-street, in
this town, who offered £25,000 for the vessel. In const-
quenco of some difficulty in reference to the payment of the
deposit money, the auctioneer, the Hon. Mr. Cunard, of the
firm of Cunard Wilson and Co., shipbrokere, repudiated
the validity of Mr. Rae's bid, and the vessel was ulti-
mately knocked down to Mr. Yates, of the Great Eastern
Steamship Company (Limited) for a sum similar to that
offered by Mr. Rae. To-day, however, Mr. Rae, acting
upon legal advice, proceeded to Mr. Cunard's and. there
tendered £25,000, and claimed the great ship as his Proon-
perty, stating that as ho was the first bidder of £26,0t
the 17th February, ho had au indisputable right.
We understand his money was refused and his i

course dismissed.
ai
ts olsassi nt ,Ybcayrheasr peraeptttyivasti The pattiarch lived many
years, ;
MDLLE. ADELINA PATTI is heard of this liettllOU,
captivating nut only the Parisians, but
gives soirctes, at which rad and other artists sing
it is said, ,hearing no music whatever. Ile now
Hale pieces of his composition.
TUE MASTER OF THE ROLLS AS M.P. FOR VIE
CITY OF LON DON.—A movement is on foot in West-
minster for the purroso of securing the return of Sir John
Itomilly, the Master of the Rolls, R 5 member for the city
at the next genersl olootton. Ihe Master of the Rolls is
the only judge who is at liberty to hold a teat in the House
of Commons.
CRYSTAL PALACE.-000 Shilling Day, Wednes-
day, March 2.—Admissions on payments, 469; ditto
by
season tickets, 643; total visitors, 1,11'2,

Notwithstanding the glad tidings conveyed in the
journals above alluded to, we are by no means sure
that the Austro-Prussians will ever screw up their
courage to the sticking point, and attempt a storm-
ing or a bombardment of the Dybbol position.
Their object hitherto has obviously been to wear
out the Danes by incessant alarms and petty skir-
mishing, making the best of their superiority of
numbers, which enables them to come up with
ever fresh troops against the scanty and over-
worked detachments of their weaker antagonists.
In all the not unfrequent encounters to which I had
occasion to allude the Danes have invariably ex-
bibited the strong, sterling stuff they are made of,
and have done all that could be expected of mere
men. They have already either strongly held or
promptly regained their ground, and cannot, there-
fore, be said to have been worsted on any occasion.
Still, they have suffered severe losses, possibly more
severe than those of their foe in actual numbers ;
certainly incomparably more fatal and irreparable
to an army whose numbers are already so unequal
to the task that has been set to it. 200 dead and
wounded. 300 prisoners, are a formidable item to be
subtracted from the army whom we may have
about us.

The Danes are brave men, and, as such, apt to be
rather deficient in vigilance, foresight, and cunning.
They have to deal with a subtle enemy, especially
with the Austrian,' proverbal for the craft with
which impetuosity of attack is always enhanced by
suddenness of surprise. The Danes found out now,
rather late, that their outposts had been pushed too
far forward, that they had been too heedlessly laid,
now on the skirts of a wood, now at the meeting of
two roads, now in other spots favouring the stealthy
onset of the foe. More provident measures have
been adopted of late, that their outposts had been
partially drawn in, the ground has been carefully
studied, so as to take advantage of the localities
most suitable for a good look-out ; the fields have
been bared of all their hedges ; barricades, abattis,
palisades, and trenches, all that can stem violence
or foil stratagem, has been duly considered. Hence-
forth the Danes will not be caught napping; and
there will either be no more fighting or it will be
more deliberate and probably more decisive.
Preparing and waiting for such contingencies is,
however, weary work, and the poor soldiers, who
aro all spirits and glee whenever an alarm is
sounded, or the signal is given for a sally, droop
and mope sadly when there is nothing of the kind
going on. The toil, the outpost and picket duty, and
exposure to the inclement weather are still the same,
whether there be fighting or no fighting ; but the
leaven, the fun of the thing is in the fighting itself,
in the chances of falling in with the hated enemy,
winging a " saucy Prussian who comes here where
be has no busiuess," or knocking over a " stolid
Austrian who meddles with things which concern
him even less." The Danish soldiers aro not bois-
terously merry, neither have they a gloomy, dissa-
tisfied look. They do their work patiently, steadily,
mostly in silence, as men who do not shirk duty, but
are not over fond of it. Many of them, it should be
borne in mind, are middle-aged "reserve" men,
lately recalled to the standards, hardly weaned from
their peaceful avocations and the sweets and com-
forts of home. But even among the younger set
you do not generally see the upright bearing, the
lively glance, the resolute mien of the thoroughbred
soldier. You would say they are all peasants lately
taken from the plough. Robust frames they cer-
tainly have, more than average stature, strong-knit
limbs, thick round shoulders ; they are a well-fed
set, thriving upon their victuals. Such puffy cheeks,
such rosy complexions one could hardly expect to see
an grown-np men; men, too, exposed to all the hard•
ships of a toilsome campaign in most unpropitious
weather. The blood and race are the same as the
English. Imagine so many thousand recruits taken
out of the agricultural districts and subjected only
to a three or four months' drill, and you have the
Danish army such as it is. Whenever not hard, at
work as skirmishers or as diggers in the trenches,
they have hard work of it to kill time, whether
they be quartered at the farmlAuses scattered all
over the island or allowed to idle about in the
streets of the town.

Was there ever such a town in the world as
Sonderborg ?--ti country town of about 2,000
inhabitants; a shapeless mass of mean brick tene-
ments, FAtteezed in between the hill and the Sound,
crowned with half a score of flipping windmills on
'the summit, and choked up with ships and ship.
''wilding at the bottom ; a long, narrow thorough-
fare, and still narrower cross streets sloping down
to the water; old-fashioned houses with a curious
variety of quaint gables and slanting roofs ; a few
T.ltry shops, selling all sorts of wares, and china
Pipes besides, with a hard pavement of sharp flint
stones, now slippy with ice, now sloppy with mud,
and
more generally deep buried under a snow
offering the advantage of being both slippy and
sloppy at the same time.
If the place affords but few resources to the com-
mon soldiers, What shall we say of the officers, or
of us few civilians
privileged
to consort with them ?
I said that the Danish pri ; •
t vate 48 not unlike a raw
Englishman of Saxon ex
raction. The officer, chiefly
hsrung from the upper ranks, re
..aghty Norman whose ancestorsalinds one of the
" hi
h-mettled"
the blood in the veins of the Thane
and gF
the Ileptarchy. Fine auburn hair
hranklin of
mnfrequently even raven black hair, eleealr hair, not
complexion, and aquilline features are bronzedleas
(pent among- them
th than
an les could have atafrie-o
find. Of course, e D are a mixeexpecd race
t
x
till other Europeans, and you have here as
greait e
variety as you might perhaps see were you to step
a over the Baca to the other side. The German
element is perceptible among these German haters,l
who have been in past times Gorman worshippers.
But there is among them a type which I are inclined
to look upon as the real Scandinavian prototype,
end which is distinguished by length of fete, fine-
chiselled features,t he bearing of command, the sharp,
ringing voice, the slender but elegant and well
proportioned figures which may be traced among
the descendants of Norman nobles, whether you
seek them in these three Northern kingdoms, or in
the British isles, or in Normandy, or among 11,,
Acadiats of North A raertea, or even among ac,roo of
the oldest baronial houses of Naples. Whether fair
or dark, stoat or slim, however, these Danish gen-
tlemen arc all remarkably wellbred and courteous,
and intercourse with them is certainly most agree-
able. There is hardly one of them who cannot con-
verse either in French or Engiish, to say nothing of
German, a last resource for the stranger unfamiliar
with their own idiom. 'Well, we few civilians hav-
ing business in Eenderborg are as much at home
with the officers as we choose to make ourselves; wel-
come to share such fare and accommodation as they

have to put up with; roughing it, and, if the word
must be said, " pigging" it with them agreeably to
the exigencies of war and of a semi-state of siege.
We share their crowded rooms with them at the
hotels, where we have to put up with German beds
and French washstands, shin-breaking bedsteads,
smothering feather beds, stifling at the centre,
freezing at the extremities ; washstands with mere
' cups for basins, scanty allowance of water, cobweb
towels ; unattended apartments, nests of dirt, abodes
of confusion. We sit down with our military
friends at their mess, where we have soups and
meat, the meat not every day roasted, to the great
vexation of the Danes, with whom boiled beef is
spoilt beef, and among whom such a dish is as un-
popular as it ever was at the Knightsbridge-bar-
racks;, the soup once a week, a sweet soup," a
compound of stewed prunes, rice, and fat, which
whoever has once tasted it is sure to be sick of for
his lifetime. Finally we are admitted to their
amusements in the coffeerooms, where they kill the
time with very, very long whist, beer, and pipes,
making the atmosphere of the close, hot apartment
so dense and heavy as to outdo the deep outside fog
which frequently visits us as one of the many
phases of east wind, snow storm, heavy rain, and
other amenities of this wintry climate.
Life out of doors ought to be a relief, and the
country in summer must be as pleasant as the
almost incessant alternation of land and water can
make it; the water coming home almost to every
hamlet and farmhouse in the shape of Fiord,
Sand, Nor, or Vig, running water, stagnant water,
high tide and low tide, with fine old timber grow-
ing up close to its margin, and white country man-
sion or castle mirroring itself on its surface. The
land well tilled and fruitful, swelling up in smooth
round undulations, nowhere bold or abrupt, but no.
where tame and unpicturesque ; a land sufficient,
as it would seem, for the owner and the labourer,
presenting everywhere the signs of peace and plenty,
of comfort and contentment, a land a dweller wherein
accepted the hard lot of a long dreary winter, and
seemed thereby to have redeemed himself from all
other evils flesh is heir to. But the country at this
time of the year has but little to repay persons fond
of exercise, and skating itself is spoilt either by snow
or thaw every second or third day. Work enough
for our military; friends to go out morning and after-
noon to shoot and be shot at ; work enough for us
to go and see them at it. For the rest half-an-hour's
ride on a hard, frosty ground is rather hazardous, a
walk in deep snow or mud a vary toilsome amuse-
ment. Do what we may, our choice lies between a
sore trail of our fortitude out of doors, or a heroic
exercise of our patience in doors. Of course, philo-
sophy consists in trying everything by turns, and
taking the world as it is, and I must say that grum-
ling and ill-humour are by no means rife among us.
Still, it is rather a dog's life, on the whole, and it is
no wonder, on the one side, if the Danes long for an
attack—an earnest, decisive attack—which may re-
lieve the dulness of their quarters ; and no wonder,
on the other side, if the Germans prefer to put their
enemies to a long ordeal of ennui, which may wear
out their spirits, and tiro them of what is most
likely to prove in the end an unprofitable, as it now
most assuredly looks like a hopeless game,

Sir Moses Montefiore's Mission to Morocco

The following interesting details of this success
of enterprise are extracted from the Gibraltar
Chronicle of the 19th inst. :
" We are to-day enabled to lay before our readers
the firman or edict from the Sultan to 01l the Go-
vernors of his dominions, the fruit of the exertions
of Sir Moses to better the condition of the Jews in
Morocco. At the advanced age of this venerable
gentleman a land journey at this season of the year
over the roadless plains of Morocco has been in it-
self a work of some toil and pain, and it is a matter
of congratulation not only that his labours have been
crowned with success but that his health has not
suffered from the fatigues of land travelling. The
party, on their journey up to Morocco, left Moga-
dor on the 17th, and with their Moorish escort of
cavalry and infantry, their 21 camels, 25 baggage
mules, and a numerous retinue of attendants, formed
a somewhat numerous caravan. On their second
day's journey they came in sight of the snow-capped
chain of Atlas, which remained a conspicuous object
bounding their landscape till they reached Morocco.
The journey was performed in easy stages of about
15 miles, Sir Moses Montefiore was accommodated
in a kind of palanquin or horse litter, but notwith-
standing this attempt to mitigate the fatigue of
travel the worthy baronet received many a rudo
shock from stump, bush, and stone, which made his
conveyance anything but a pleasant one. At the
close of each day's journey the Governor of the dis-
trict in which the party halted furnished them with
an abundant supply of provisicns by the Sultan's
order. This entertainment of the Sultan's guests
is called by the Moors mona.' Sheep, poultry,
eggs, milk, tea, su gar, are supplied by the
people of the district, and the value of these sup-
plies is deducted from their contribution to the Sul-
tan's Exchequer. On reaching Morocco the travel-
lers were lodged in the Sultan's palace, called Sidi
Ben Dris, situated in the midst of an orange garden.
The Sultan practises the rites of hospitality in the
manner sanctioned by high antiquity. The travel-
worn guest is not expected to disclose the object of
his visit till he has had time to recruit his strength
and to repose after the fatigue of his journey. Sir
Moises Montefiore and his party, therefore, passed
six days in their garden abode before being hon-
^eared with the first audience of the Sultan. As
most of our readers know, the Sultan, like a true
cavalier, gives audience on horseback, the colour of
his charger being an index to the temper of the
Sherriffian mind. When this is bright and serene
the Sultan bestrides a white charger; light sha-
dows that cloud its cheerfulness are not unaptly
represented by gray ; while a black charger de-
notes that gloom and discontent have settled on the
royal spirit. Sir Moses Montefiore and his party
were assembled in a spacious courtyard, lined with
some thousands of the Sultan's troops, watching
with interest the portal at its extremity from which
the white, gray, or black spirit was to issue, and
were soon gratified by the Sultan's appearance on a
superb charger of spotless white. He rode forward
to welcome hie guests; in a few courteous phrases
ho expressed his happiness at seeing them in hie
dominions, and addressed a few words specially to
the character and quality of each. Ho said that the
exertions of Sir Moses Montefiore on behalf of his
race in different parts of the world were not un-
known to him, that he was aware of the universal
character of the gentleman's beneficence, which was
not confined to any sect or creed, but embraced all
classes, and he expressed his satisfaction in seeing
him in Morocco. He expressed his pleasure also at
meeting Mr. Reade, the British Consul, who had
long been known to him. After Mr: Reade had
presented the different members of the party to the
Sultan, the latter concluded some phrases convey-
ing his appreciation of the friendship of England
by turning to Captain Armytage and the naval offi-
cers who accompanied him, and saying that no sight
pleasure than that of a British
uniform.
gave him
Before the close of the interview Sir
fif Moses greater
ontefiore handed to the Sultan the peti-
tion which he had prepared, praying for a removal
of the grievances under which the Jews were suffer-
ing. Tho Sultan graciously received the petition
and delivered it to the Chamberlain, promising that
its contents should have his best consideration.
Four days afterwards, on the sth of February, the
following finnan or edict was sent to Sir Moses
Nlontefiore as the
Sultan' formal assent to the
prayer for equal and impartial justice to the Jewish
portion of his subjects :
There is no
"'ln the name of God, the Merciful and Gra-
cious..
and Mighty, (L.s.)Power but in Clod, the High
lie it known by this
same to the high Heavens, as He
God exalt and bless its purpo
°or Royal Edict—may
a and elevate, the
moon l—that it is our command thatdo
ing within our dominions, be the (
which the Almighty God has placed
easllthJ Jews w 5.131 nre andsi d-
cthindit'on m
ever it may, shall bo treated by our com
cw what-
administrators, and all other subjQets in Z7o",
conformable with the evenly balanced scales of
justice, and that in the administration of the courts
of law the Jews shall occupy a position of perfect
eau ;lily with all other people, so that not even a

" It will be seen by the Sultan's formal injunction
to his Governors that he fully recognises the claims
of his Jewish subjects to protection against all
oppression and injustice. The Sultan has shown in
this that he possesses a spirit of liberality and tole•
ration and an enlightened knowledge of the duties
of a Governor towards the governed far in advance
of that possessed by his officers or the Mahomme-
dan portion of his subjects. It is hardly to be ex-
pected, perhaps, that after a long course of tyranny
and oppression, springing from religious fanaticism
every act of cruelty and injustice should at once
cease; but the authoritative declaration of the Sul-
tan's will, backed as it will be by the influence of
the representatives of Christian Powers in the coun•
try, cannot fail to prove for the future a most valu-
able bulwark to the Jews of Morocco. Sir Moses
Montefiore will, therefore return to the comforts of
his English home attended by the prayers of a
grateful population, and with the satisfaction that
must spring from the consciousness that this last
work, which has crowned the labours of his life for
the benefit of his race, promises to be so fruitful in
good results. Sir Moses Montefiore and his party
speak in the warmest and most grateful terms of
the kindness and hospitality they met with from
Captain Armytage and the officers of her Majesty's
ship Magicienne, and also of the valuable aid
they received in accomplishing the object of their
mission, from Sir John Drummond Hay, her Mrijes
ty's Minister in Morocco, and from Mr. Reade, her
Majesty's Consul at Tangier. The latter accom-
panied the expedition, and his knowledge both of
the habits of the people and of their language en
abled him to render services of the utmost value."