The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-28 00:00:00

THE ARA CCELT.

It was here that Romulus, in the gray dawning of Rome,
built the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Here the spolia °pima
were deposited. Here the triumphal processions of the
Emperors and generals elided. Here the victors paused
before making their vows until, from the Mamertine pri-
sons below, the message camp to announce that their
noblest prisoner and victim, while the clang of their tri-
umph and his defeat rose ringing in his ears as the pro-
cession ascended the steps, had expiated with death the
crime of being the enemy of Rome. Over these very steps,
nineteen centuries ago, the first great Comer climbed on
his knees after his first triumph. At their base, Rienzi,
"last of the Roman tribunes," fell. And, if the tradition
of the Church is to be trusted, it was on the site of the
present high altar that Augustus erected the " Ara prirno-
genito Dei," to commemorate the Delphic prophecy of the
coming of our Saviour. Standing on a spot sl thronged
with memories, the dullest imagination takes fire. The
forms and scenes of the past rise from their graves and
pass before us, and the actual and visionary are mingled
together in strange poetic confusion. Truly, as Walpole
says, " our memory sees more than our eyes in this
country."

The work of an author who thoroughly identifies
himself with his subject is always interesting, and
when the subject is one of such world-wide inte-
rest it cannot fail to be doubly so. Notwithstand-
ing the defects we have alluded to, the book is full
of attraction from its life-like sketches of a fasci-
nating people, while the writer combines, in a
singular degree, the enthusiasm of an artist with
the keen observation of a quick-witted American.

TURIN, JAN. 22.—Signor Rattazzi is at the Lake
of Como, where, it is said, he does not occupy him-
self overmuch with political matters. The Marquis Gual •
terio left to-day for Genoa, where he will occupy the office
of prefect, left vacant by the departure of the Marquis
d'Affiitto to Naples. The Marquis Gualterio is from the
Marches. In IS4B he followed Charles Albert in the Lom-
bardy campaign, and afterwards wrote an excellent work
upon the Italian revolutions. Baron Ricasoli appointed
him Prefect of Perugia, but from this post he was recalled
by Rattazzi, who did not like the somewhat unfavourable
manner in which he had been spoken of in the work just
alluded to. Parliament definitively opens on the 28th.
Financial questions will be the order of the day, and politics
will be shelved as much as possible. This course will meet
with pretty general favour out of doors.
UNINFLAMMABLE LADIES' DRESSES.—A writer
in a contemporary says :—Permit me to offer a
simple but effectual remedy against the ignition of ladies'
dresses. When the dress has been cleaned in the usual
manner, mix a handful of common salt in water or starch-
water, then saturate it well in this before wringing it out.
The salt will be found to possess two virtues—that of
preserving the colours and making the dress perfectly non-
inflammable. The objection to sulphate of ammonia or tung-
state of soda is their tendency both to perish colours and
fabrics. Any family can in two minutes test my receipt,
and should it be found to possess the Virtue I plaint for it,
then a cheap, simple, and effectual remedy will be provided
against a repetition of these terrible fire accidents.
FAIRSTAR AND DARKSTAR.—I remember how
mightily I was enchanted and honoured when my
my ;Lady Fairstar did me the unfathomable honour of
asking me to dine at her splendid mansion in a glorified re-
gion of Belgravia ? It seemed to me, then a poor strug-
gling barrister, on a mythical yearly allowance, that I was
on the htgh road to fortune at once ; and that I had only
to follow my Lady Fairstar's cavalcade to be landed safe in
the very heart of the gardens of Aidann without delay. I
went, I made no manner of doubt that I went to fascinate
and to subdue, and that I should make such deep dints on
the heart of our delightful hostess as not even the incessant
rubbing of high life would be able to efface. And certainly
my lady was gracious to me. But I found, in the end, that
all I had made by the white elephant of her countenance,
was a portentous bill at my tailor's, another portentous bill
at my bookmaker's, an unnecessary supply of embroidered
shirt-fronts, and French cambric handkerchiefs, and my
laundress left unpaid owing to the transfer of her funds
to the pockets of the cabmen. That was what I
found, when I took the two columns and added up the cost
and the gain of my Lady Fairstar's Russian dinners, with
scented ringlets laughingly shaken, and bewildering smiles
prodigally bestowed. It was a white elephant ; nothing but
a white elephan : and I ran away from it, Those grand
visits are terrible matters generally. You are asked to a
country house. You are acknowledged to be a crack shot
and a first-rate rider, you tell a story capitally, and pocket
every ball on the board ; but at what a cost do you thus ad-
minister to the white elephant of your pride ? At the cost
of a year's income compressed into the six weeks of your
stay. Butlers and footmen and pages and grooms and girlies
and coachmen and the odd men about the place, and the odd
women too—all to fee, all to pay—and the little wife left at
home to fight with an unruly butcher who hasundisciplined
notions of trade, and to tell taradiddles to the landlord, who
finds himself under the necessity of " looking you up."
That is your white elephant when you get Lord Darkstar's
invitation to his country-house in the hunting season.—
Dickenss " All the Year Round," just published.

A communication from Zurich states that conside-
rable sensation has been produced in that place, by
the arrest of the cashier of the Bank, a man about 60 years
of age, who has always enjoyed the unlimited confidence of
his employers. A complaint had been made that m a sum
paid by that establishment some rouleaux supposed to con-
tain gold were filled with pieces of lead cut to
the same size.
The cashier was arrested, and on a rigid investigation
taking place, a deficit of 183,000 f. was discovered. The
prisoner, soon after his detection, endeavoured to commit
suicide, but did not eneee?d, and is now getting better from
the wounds which he inflicted on himself. No ono knows
what be can have dine with such a large sum."
THE PLANET MARS in very many particulars
in its resemblance to our earth is very striking. It
would appear from various drawings taken when different
portions of the planet were presented to us, that at times
parts of these features were blotted out by clouds, while at
others they were observed in the greatest detail, apparently
through a cloudless atmosphere ; the dark parts, which are
presumed--and as far as evidence can go in such matters
proved—to be seas, having on these occasions appeared
nearly black, as if a perfect tranquillity of surface had re-
duced the irregular reflection of light to a minimum. Note-
worthy and bearing on this is the fact that the spot observed
to be the blackest, both in 1860 and last year, is land-
locked, or nearly so, supposing it to be a sea, while the
brighter portions of the so-called seas are nearly always
farthest from the sheltering influences of the land.
As seen inverted by the telescope, there is a sea very like
the Baltic in shape; but the most remarkable feature, per-
haps, is a long sinuous arm of the sea, extending far
in-
land, sometimes resemtling a vast "pothook" laid on its
back from east to west as if a channel as wide as that
between Liverpool and Dublin existed in Equatorial
, Afric I,
and ran inland for a thousand miles or so.
.1 he blue colour
of the darker portions has. on many occasions been st rik-
ingly apparent, the red tinge. having been more rarely
noticed. From these observations it would appear that, if
lite exist in Mars, it exists at all events under some of the
conditions with which we are acquainted.—The Reader.
A report is current that a despatch from Constantinople
has been received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Paris, announcing the decision arrived at by the Conference
of Ambassadors assembled to settle the affair of the arms
Beet into Servia. The opinion of the Conference is said to
be that there was no kind of infraction of the convention of
the 19th August, and that consequently there was no need
for the Porte to send a commission into the Principalities.
The Conference was simply about to draw up some obser-
vations which it proposed to address to Prince Comet.