The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-22 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN BLOCKADE.

NEW YORK, April B.—The Alabama is reported
to have been seen on the 23d March, in lat. 32 INT.,
long. 73 W. The Cornubia and the St. George, from
, Washington, North Carolina, arrived at Bermuda
with cotton. The schooner Sue has arrived here.
She was captured on the 30th of March by the
United States' steamer Monticello, off Little River
Inlet, while attempting to run the blockade. She
has a cargo of salt bud dry goods. On the 28th of
March the fine English iron screw steamer Aries
(arrived here) was captured near the entrance to
Bull's Bay, which she was making by mistake, 1 er
intention being to run into Charleston harbour. She
was observed by the Stetting, steering towards the
land, steaming at a rapid rate. Chase was imme-
diately given, and fire opened upon her by the Stet-
tin, but without result. The strange steamer made
good time, and the Stettin was being sorely left be-
hind. After an hour's chase a dense fog set in, which
enabled the pursued steamer to elude the Stettin,
and for the time being to effect her escape. The
Stettin continued the chase a while longer, and
then lay-to till daylight. At early dawn the fog
cleared up, and the Stettin soon discovered the
Aries hard ashore, with her cargo going overboard,
to lighten her. The Stettin immediately bore down
upon her, and fired a gun, when the English flag
was lowered and she became a prize to the navy.
She is one of the finest prizes yet taken by the
blockaders. She is not quite a year old, and upon
her first transatlantic voyage. Her capacity is
about 600 tons. She came from the West Indies
with a cargo of coffee, salt, lead, liquor, &c. The
Captain of the Aries, while at Port Royal,
feigned
illness and deceived the surgeons, bnt being sus-
pected of treachery, and search having been made,
it was found that he had secreted no less than 16
revolvers, loaded and capped, ready to make an at-
tempt to retake the vessel. Previous to thie
board.
Tne ex-
posurebe denied the presence of firearms on
Tne Aries is a beautiful Clyde-built vessel, with
hinged masts, which can be lowered at pleasure.
The engineers of the vessel brought her to this
port, deporting themselves in a very becoming
manner. The Aries, when she left St. Thomas,
was conveyed by H M S. Phaeton, in company with
he Pet. Port Royal, April 14.—A little schooner,
laden with 300 bags of salt, on her way from Nas-
sau for Savannah, was caught by the transport
Mattano. The prize had a white captain and mate
aboard, but the rest of the crew were negroes, who
were evidently satisfied by the result of their
enterprise,

" The English House of Commons is one of the most
remarkable assemblies that the world has ever seen, and
almost every ambitious man looks forward to attaining a
seat in it as a possible contingency in his career. What
a bishopric is to the aspiring clergyman, the honour of
being a member of Parliament is to the other professions,
and to the man of family or wealth, whatever his condition
in life may be. Hence it is a motley group, and contains
samples of the piety, patriotism, intellect, chivalry, heroism,
wealth, commerce, and crotchets of this eccentric nation.
These strange elements are, however, held in subjection,
and directed to high and noble purposes, by a few of the
meat brilliant intellects of the age; for any man who as-
pires to the honour of being a leader in this assembly must
possess faculties and acquirements of no ordinary kind.
The physical I,bour alone which he will have to go through
is enbugh to try the very strongest constitution. But be-
sides this untiring application, he must have mastered a
vast amount of knowledge, and have a deep insight into
human nature ; for the legislation of this assembly must be
adapted to the feelings, Prejudices, and religions of almost
i every race of mankind. Hark ! there is a gentleman speak-
ing : his address is quiet ; there is an absence of everything
like excitement about him, and those to whom his words are
addressed : it is a question of foreign policy, and the em-
perors and kings of Europe will not retire to rest until the
electric telegraph has conveyed to them the substance of
what he has said. The eyes of the world are fixed upon
this quiet senate. Every noble soul throughout Western
Europe who longs to break the fetters which bind his
nation in bondage looks to it for encouragement and hope.
The enslaved all over the world, of every creed and colour,
know that they hays few friends who can help them but
God and the British Parliament. Two hundred millions of
people look to it for law and protection, and the arms of its
authority encircle the earth. In this for um of the world
who would not desire to excel ?

" Evcry shade of ambition may be distinguished here.
The country squire, looking more doltish and out of place
than ho does on the bench at quarter sessions, has struggled
hard and spent a few thousands that he may have the
honour of putting M,P. to his name. The restless dema-
gogue, the ' canker of a calm world and a long peace,'
who has come uppermost in the seething caldron of politi•
cal agitation, is borne here on the breath of promises which
never can be fulfilled. Men made of money, who have
bought the honour and paid for it, rising barristers, schem-
ing attorneys, hopeful naval and military officers, younger
sons of old families, heirs h lordly estates and dukedoms,
are jostling here with Irish agitators, 'the Pipe's brass
band,' the pink of Nonconformity, and the patrons of the
turf. All these may be seen, but they are seldom heard,
and less frequently listened to. They have come here t,o
find themselves in the company of men whose brilliant
souls, like some electric light, make mankind turn their
eyes away from the sickly glare of rushlight intellects.
These stars of the first magnitude are few, but they are
there, and it is to them that we are to look for the inter-
pretation of the thoughts and feelings of this great
nation,"

mrnediately afterwards we have the following de

scription of

MR. DISRAELI IN THE HOUSE.
" In the front seat on the Conservative side of the House
may be observed a man who, if his hat be off, which it
generally is, is sure to arrest one's attenti m, and we need
scarcely to be told atter having once seen him that he is
the leader of that great party. He is not old, just turned
fifty, we may suppose, but he bears his age well, what-
ever it may be. His face, which was once handsome, is
now " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." The
head is long, and the forehead massive and finished. The
eye is restless, but full of fire ; the hair black and curly.
Nature has evidently taken some pains to finish the exterior.
But he is about to speak; the debate has assumed a party
aspect; strong things have been said b,th of him and the
party which he reprasents ; Cobden, Bright, Gladstone,
Osborne, have each laid the lash on their political oppo-
nents, and now it is their turn to receive a chastisement
from the hand of a skilful operator. He is no sooner on
his feet than the House is hushed in silence; his friends
and backers, who have been galled by the heavy fire of their
opponents, now look up with exultation in their eyes; they
all know that he will say what each one of them would
have said if he had been gifted with the ability to give
exoression to the thought that was big within him. His
opponents also know that he is not likely to spare them.
Mr. Gladstone looks restless ; Lord John Russell pulls
his hat over his eyes until he cooks like a frog under a
fungus; John Bright eyes him with drab pugacity, and
Palmerston grimly smiles. The orator in the mean-
time beguiles his audience into a good humoured laugh
and then plunges at once into his subject. He
is at home everywhere : the most abstruse figures and
recondite facts—no matter what they may be—are at his
angers' ends, ripe and ready. The haad on the dial-plate
has travelled on for a whole hour, but we are uncon-
scious of the flight of time, for this luminous exposi-
tion of his subject is only the prelude to a reply which shall
demolish the reasonings of his adversaries. In terse, epi-
grammatic sentences, sparkling with wit and barbed with
satire, he retorts on his opponents amidst the grins and
impatience of his rivals and the hearty and enthusiastic
cheers of his friends. Another hour is gone, and still the
Senate is spell-bound by his eloquence. His closing sen-
tence is followed by a tremendous cheer, The squire leaves
the house to eat his pheasant, quite sure that the agricul-
tural interest is safe whilst it has such an advocate, and
the proudest of a proud aristocracy is flattered by his
friendship."

Oracles from the iirtezah Poets. By J amen Smith.
Third Edition. Pp. 17,5. Virtue, Brothers,
and Co.
Wg hardly wonder at Mr. James Smith's pretty
little Drawing Room Table-Book having already
won for itself the honours of a third edition. Those
honours it is really entitled to. The volume, or
rather volnmette, is worthy of being reprinted. For
the original notion of the work the compiler acknow-
ledges himself indebted to the skill and fancy of the
compiler of what Mr. Smith, in the first sentence of
his Preface, frankly calls "its American prototype."
It is only the idea of the book that the English
man-of-letters borrows—not a syllable of the con-
tents—not one solitary quotation. Although the
first title of the little Work (given verbatim at the
head of this notice) is happily enough, and
evilicitly enough, " Oracles from the British
Poets :" its second title is ahr.ost better—par-
ticularly if, in remembrance of the merry old.
adage, " Laugh and Grow Fat," we apply to this
second title anything like a literal significance—
namely, a " Pleasant Companion for a Bound
Party !" In this suggestion, however, we are
shamefacedly conscious of yielding to the
temptation of indulging in what Charles Reade's
lady-mother, in Very Hard Cash, all but faints
over the mere mention of, as " jargon." Among the
Poets, by the way, here quoted as Oracles, one we
notice by name—" Twamley." Can it be possible
that this can be that immortal Twam-
ley who once upon a time (see Boswell)
introduced himself in an inn parlour
to Doctor Johnson as—the Inventor of
Warm Flat Irons P At any rate if not that Great
Original—here is Another Immortal Twamley ! As
a specimen of the sweets now gathered together,
and at the same time as affording a specimen of what
the Book before us is made of—we wouli refer the
reader to the Central GAME or QUESTION in the
Collection, to wit, " What is your favorite Flower ?"
A Question to which fifty distinct answers are
given in the shape of as runny excerpts from
various English Poets! Now Bishop Mant replies,
for example—

"Our England's Lily of the May,
Our Lily of the Vale."
Now Keats whispers to us honeyedly—
" the Woodbine
01 velvet leaves and bugle blooms divine."
Now Mrs. Hemans sings deliciously of—
"The foam-like meadow sweet."
Now Wordsworth cries aloud prophetically (for has
he not in truth made the flower essentiallyhis own?)--
There's a flower that shall be mine—
'Tis the little Celandine.
And EO on, butterfly-like, wo flit, from bloom fa
bloom, accordingly as we may select hap hazard any
number in chancing our reply to the general inquiry
as to what our favourite flower may be. So much,
briefly, by way of welcome to this " Pleasant Com-
panion for"—we cannot help it, Mrs.. Dodd! the
phrase is not ours, but the compiler's—" A Round
Party !"

THETFORD ELECTION.

-- o

The poll opened yesterday morning at 8 o'clock,
but could hardly be said to proceed briskly, as there
were only about 200 electors whose votes could by
any possibility be recorded. Mr. Harvey addressed:
a meeting of his supporters on Mcnday night, atd
appeared to be to a great extent .what be professes
to be, viz., the popular candidate in opposition to,
the combined Grafton and Baring interests. A con-
tested elebtion has not taken place in Thetford since
1841, when Sir .Tames Flower appeared in opposi•
tion to the interest which Mr. Harvey now sought
to assail, being returned by a majority,of 1; and
probably for the 22 intervening years the ordinarily,
quiet streets of the borough did not present so ani-
mated a spectacle as they did yesterday. Even as
it was, however, the popular effervescence was of a
very mild description. The first four hours' polling
proceeded as follows :

Hour. Fitzroy. Harvey.
Nine
Ten ......
Eleven
Noon 6S

At the close of the poll (4 o'clock) the numbers
were—Fitzroy, 93; Harvey, 81.
At half-past four the Mayor (Mr. Bidwell) an-
❑ounced the result as above, end declared Lord
Frederick Fitzroy duly elected. Lord Frederick
expressed his acknowledgments, and observed that
after a contest running up to twelve votes, he hoped
no more would be heard of Thetford being a pocket
borough. As in a short time there would be a
general election, he should have an opportunity of
meeting his friends again, and he hoped it would
be found that he had acted up to his professions.
Mr. Harvey also addressed the electors, and observed
that although a majority of votes had been recorded
for his opponent, he still felt that he was perhaps
the real representative of the majority of the inha-
bitants of the borough. (Cheers, and cries of " No,
no.") At the close of a few further observations,
the hon. gent'eman-publicly shook hands with Lord
Frederick Fitzroy, and the proceedings then closed
with a vote of thanks to the Mayor for the impar-
tiality with which he had conducted the bueiveGN Of
the election.