The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-03 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTERS TELEGRAMS.)

RUSSIA.

FREEDOM OF THE CROWN PEASANTS.
BERLIN, AUGUST 3.

Intelligence received here from St. Petersburg
to the Ist inst. states that the Emperor of Russia
has issued a ukase,
declaring free landholders the
two million peasants who are tenants of the Crown
domains and appanages.
ST. PETERSBURG, AUG. 2.

A despatch has been published from Prince
Gortschakoff to Councillor de Knorring, charge
d'affaires at Vienna, on the 27th ult., with regard
to the Note of Count Rechberg of the 12th.
The despatch expresses surprise to find that Count
Rechberg has hinted the possibility of Russia enter-
taining a reservation, and proceeds :
" If this view of the subject has been put forward
by Count Rechberg from a desire to remove ak,l
idea of a separate agreement, which might be
judged incompatible with the engagements con-
tracted by Austria, and with the point of departure
with which she connects her measures, let us
hasten to bear witness that no agreement whatever
has taken place between her and ourselves upon
the subject of the late overtures. We have deduced
no approbation from the Austrian Note of the 18th
of June, and have anticipated her refusal of a Con-
ference. 'We have not dreamt of establishing any
assimilation between Galicia and Poland, but tradi-
tion, precedents, and the assistance received by the
insurgents from Galicia, attest their common inte-
rests, and show the necessity of an understanding
between the three Northern Courts.
" The proposition for a Conference was conceived
in a friendly spirit, in conformity with the relations
and interests of the two Courts, and we should

reject any different interpretation:'

The despatch terminates with an expression o
Prince Gortschakoff's regret that the Note of Coun
Rechberg presages a different l
impression.

PORTUGAL.
LISBON, JULY 30.
(Per the Magdalena.)
The royal family continues to reside at Mafra.
The state of the Queen's health is very satisfactory.
The King and the Due de Penthievre are today
on board the Portuguese war steamer Mindello,
which is practising her artillery.
The Duc de Penthievre, who has been staying on
a visit to the King, leaves shortly for New York on
board the American war frigate Macedonia, Which
has arrived here.

It is said that the King intends to open the
Agricultural Exhibition at Braga.
The reported resignation of the Bishop of Oporto
is unfounded.
not Thereren renew
h
is etveer y probability that the Ministers will
present tobacco contract, and that
the commerce in this article will be thrown open,
The Government are prosecuting the Company
formed for supplying Lisbon with water, for breach
of contract.

....To
has purchased on account of the
Crown
reis in the Portuguese funds,
with the proceeds of the diamonds recently sold.
The sale was e
effected in Lisbon to the agent of a
he Government
500
ee
0a 0 f
French house.
The misunderstanding between the Government
and the representatives of Senor Salamanca con-
tinues. The lost section of the liue of railway from
traffic
The Crato
byto
othre de rof the Government surveyors.
Cartacho is dead.
The subscription in Lisbon for the survivors
of the wreck of the Catalonian has been closed, and
amounts to £2OO.
Spanish frontier continues closed to
Viscountess
e

The keels have been laid at the Royal Arsenal of
and Duke Terceira.
two new corvettes, to be named Duke of Palmella
do

The vine disease continues to be developed.
Rentes, 48,1. Coupons, 48g. Exchange on Lon-
don, 54 at 90 days. Paris, 528. Hamburg, 48.
Bank of Portugal shares, 535. Bank of Oporto
shares, 252.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
LISBON, Wednesday, July 29.

In the Gazeta de Portugal we observe a deeply
interesting and recently completed report of the
Commission charged, as far back as 1860, to inquire
into the question of the Enfants Trouves, the
Foundlings. From this report it unahappily appears
that the mortality among illegitimate children
amounts, in various quarters, to no less than
80 per cent. And this in spite of the fact that
2,200,000 francs are expended by the State in sup-
port of the interests of the poor Foundlings. The
commission recommends, in its report, certain new
measures of supervision, together with the more
direct interference of the administrative au-
thorities and of the levies in aid of those
who cannot unhappily contribute to the
support of their illegitimate offspring. This
new authorisation, however, would be carried on
simultaneously with the continuance of the Found-
ling establishments already in existence, as asylums
for those poor human waifs and strays—though
without the continuance of the old system of
the bell and turn-table, a system found to
offer too great facilities for indiscriminate
admissions. Upon this head, however, the
Portuguese Guverument intimates that it asks
the advice of the Prefects, with a view, of course,
to the confirmation of its own judgment through the
aid of a more extended experience.

The temperature is described by the Gazeta as
cooler than it bad been. The capital is beginning
to thin already from the withdrawal of visitors into
the country for their late summer, or early autumn
holidays. .

Extraordinary inspectors of the public schools,
intended to go all over the country upon a tour of
examination, have recently been appointed by the

Government.

THE BRAZIL MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, AUG. a

The Royal Mail Company's steamship Magda-
ena, Captain Robert Woolward, with dates from

Buenos Ayres, June 27 ; Monte Video, June 30;
Rio de Janeiro, July 9 ; Bahia, July 13 ; Pernam-
buco, July 15 ; St. Vincent, July 22 ; and Lisbon,
July 30, has arrived here.
She brings 124 passengers, and landed 119 at
Lisbon, and £15,788 in specie; jewellery value £BO,
4 packages of diamonds, and a general cargo, con-
sisting of 300 rolls tobacco, 100 barrels tapioca, 50
serons ipecacuanha, 23 cases plants, 87 bales cotton,
232 boxes apples, 46 boxes pears, and 147 packages
sundries.

PERNAMBUCO, JULY 15.

The Confederate steamer Georgia, Maury com-
mander, captured .the American ship City of Bath,
736 tons, W. J. Cooper, master, on the 28th June,
in lat. 20.30, south, long. 29.30, west, off the desert
island of Trinidad, belonging to Brazil. This vesse
was from Callao, with a cargo of guano on French
account, bound for Antwerp ; the master being com-
pelled to give a ransom bond for 20,000 dols., the
vessel was allowed to proceed on her voyage.
The Georgia had taken the American ship Con-
stitution (on 25th June), with 1,300 tons coals from
Philadelphia, bound for Shanghai, and was dis-
charging the coal for the purpose of fitting out the
ship as a cruiser ; also the ship Good Hope, released
on giving ransom, and the Deserter burned. The
Vanderbilt has proceeded to Trinidad.

The American ship Samuel Robertson, 421 tons,
Hunter, master, which vessel put in here 15th June
on her voyage from New Bedford to Honolulu,
having been condemned, was sold by auction for
8,040 rs.

The bark Respigadera, of and from Liverpool,

for Callao, was wrecked off Cape Tres Puntas, on
the south-east coast. of America, in lat. 47.8 south,
and crew eseaped in three boats. The master,
James Joss, and six of the crew, had arrived at
Buenos Ayres. The jolly boat and gig, with seve❑
others, were lost sight of, and had not been heard
of by those who had reached Buenos Ayres.
Vessels spoken by the Magdalena—July 14, in

lat. 10.47 S,, long. 36.19 W., the French mail
steamer, going south ; 17th, lat. 2.57 long.
31.10 W., the English bark Montezuma,
from Glasgow for Valparaiso, 40 days out ;
21st, lat. 13.27 N., long. 26.17 W., the outward
mail steamer Oneida; 26th, lat. 27.58 N., long. 19
W., the Bremen ship Willey, steering south,
Political affairs are unsettled in the River Plate
Republics. General Penaloza, the great demagogue
of Rioja, held supreme power in the second city of
the Republic, Cordova.
The Northern Railway was opened as far as Los
Olives.

Business dull at Buenos Ayres, and money
tight. Rain had fallen at last, and the pasture
lands were again in good condition. Exchange on
England, 665. to 665. 6d. ; on France, 83f. to 83if
Doubloons, 459 dols. paper currency each.
Rio coffee-market inactive. Sales from the Bth
of June to the 7th of July, 58,840 bags, of which
20,500 for the States, 34,900 for the Channel, 960
for the Mediterranean, and 2,480 for the Cape of
Good Hope. Quotations :—Superior, washed and
pulped, 8,000 to 8,700 ; 7,400 to 7,500 ; first good,
7,100 to 7,300; first ordinary, 6,900 to 7,000; se-
cond, 6,400 to 6,800. No sales of hides ; stock,
8,200, held at 220 to 260 rs. Exchange on London,
26i to 27d. ; Paris 353 to 356.
At Bahia exchange transactions unimportant,
mostly passing at 27d., an later a few thousands at
261 d. Coeton, 19,5000 ; sales few. Little coffee
at market, and selling at 5,800 to 6,000. No sales
08 cocoa ; holders demand 3,700 to 3,800,

FRANCE.

PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
PARIS, Monday, August 3.

A very telling article appears in L' Union of this
morning apropos to the recent expatiation by La
France upon its famous thesis, or theory, as it
might be called, in regard to the probable "Isola-
tion of Russia." Any isolat'on of that kind being
scouted by L' Union as nothing less than a sterile
and peurile chimera !

Speaking of the Mexican war, L' Union ex-
claims :—" Catholicism ! monarchy ! Behold, the
immense benefits of which France can now insure
the enjoyment to Mexico! Behold, the inestimable
price she can draw from her victory ! France, in
truth, has no other policy than this to pursue there,
that is in the sense of the Mexican expedition.
That of conquest would be ruinous ; that of retreat
insensate. That on the contrary is the constituting
henceforth in Mexico of a free and Catholic Royalty
is the only honourable and fruitful policy that
France can dream of carrying out there !
Prince Metternich, says the Pays, has returned
from Trouville to Paris, in order to receive the
last instructions from the Viennese Cabinet on the
subject of the accordant policy of the three Powers.
Referring to the late military events in Poland,
L'Opinion Nationale of to-day remarks that those
events show incontestably that Russia is now re-
ceiving check upon check.
Le Constitutionnel contains a very biting reply
to La Prase dubbed by Le Constitutionnel the
avowed advocate of the Russian Government.
While sarcastically congratulating the Govern-
ment of the Autocrat upon having in M.
Girardin so conciliatory a champion among
Russian journalists, Le Constitutionnel says
with an ineffable sneer at La Presse, it would
have been better for Prince Gortschakoff to have
found one a trifle more concise, more logical, and
more inventive 1
Le Sieele wittily remarks that the solicitude of
the Press in behalf of Poland increases in proportion
to the delays or slowness of diplomacy.

SPAIN,
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
MADRID, August 1.

We can'state confidently that the Spanish trans-
lation of M. Renan's insidiously beautiful but
Pagan Vie de Jesus has been prohibited from ap-
pearing by the Spanish Government.
According to a commuication from La Granja,
published in the Epoca, her Majesty Queen Isa-
bella is now in the fourth month of her pregnancy.

THE RHANISIN.—This is the name of a wind
peculiar to Egypt, and which blows for 50 days
together, between Easter and Whitsuntide. M. Gregoire,
a member of the Egyptian Institute, has recently made it
the subject of a very interesting paper. Inconvenient to
men and hurtful to animals, this wind is particularly noxi-
ous to plants. Under the influence of its burning blast the
leaves wither, the flowers fade, and the fruit suddenly.
stopped in its development, dries up before it can get ripe
The atmosphere is filled with a large quantity of sand of the
desert, which will sometimes bury whole caravans under
the shifting hillocks it forms; on the contrary, the sand
brought into Egypt by the Rharnsin is an almost implac •
able powder, which will penetrate into any place, no matter
how carefully closed, even into a watch-case. This explains
the opacity of the atmosphere, the elevation of the tempera-
ture, and dryness of the air during the prevalence of
this wind. M. Gregoire points out the principal losses
occasioned by this wind. Those kinds of fruit which have a
kernel never ripen, when exposed to it during the first pe-
riod of their development. It is also extremely pernicious to
silk-growers; for when it blowsstrungabout the period when
the silkworms cast their skins for the last time about one-
half of the worms die. But the greatest loss occasioned by
this wind is the destruction of the corn harvest in the fol-
lowing way :—Every ear of corn is found in the morning
covered with small dew-drops adhering to each grain ; their
globular form causes them to act the part of convex leaves,
which, concentrating the luminous rays of the sun upon
the young grain, produce an elevation of temperature which
not only destroys the seed but the young plant, which,
though green a few hours before, withers up, and must be
cut down after exposure to the action described. To avoid
this misfortune M. Gregoire proposes to reap the corn be-
fora it is completely ripe,
a practice which is generally fol-
lowed in the South of France.
-

Bulwer Lytton's " Strange Story," in French,
forms the 580th to the 585th volumes of the "Bibliotheque
Choisie," published at Naumburg,

Romola. By George Elliot, author of " Adam

Bede." 3 vols. Smith and Elder.
We do not expect that "Rornola" will, be as

widely read or as generally admired as "Adam

Bede" or " The Mill on the Floss." The historical

epoch selected for the story is not of itself one
likely to be a popular favourite. The intrigues and
animosities of the Florentines of the 15th century,
the heart-burnings of the Mediceans on the death

of their great chief, the " Magnificent" Lorenzo, the
passionate philippics of the enthusiast Savonarola,
alternate intervals of popular excitement and de-
pression, revolting instances of individual treachery,

and terrible but well-merited retribution—such

scenes and such characters, admirably well described
though they be, are not themes most attractive to
the novel-reader, and such are the contents of the

greater portion of these volumes of " Romola."
The domestic story with which the political events
are interwoven is very remarkable as an evidence of
the writer's wonderful power in the development

of character. Tito Melema, the Greek hero—gay,
handsome, fascinating, eager to enjoy the pleasure
of the hour, winning all hearts, or rather attracting
all admiration, and yet in the pursuit of his own plea-
sure forgetful of every claim of gratitude or duty—is
a masterpiece. He begins his career by one fatal

error, and step by step is lad on till he becomes the
very embodiment of treachery and falsehood. The
gradual development of the seeds of evil in the
fertile ground of that unprincipled heart is admir
ably well described. When we first behold Tito
asleep in the public thoroughfare, exhausted with
the perils of his recent escape from shipwreck, when

he rises at the summons of the itinerant Bratto and
falls into the friendly hands of the benevolent
barber, Nello—the very prince of gossips and of

barbers ! we do not foresee that we shall hereafter
look upon him with loathing, and turn from him
. .

with indignation. We pity his youth and his mis-
fortunes—we are charmed with his gaiety and his
good humour, and we sympathise heartily with the

open welcome accorded to him on all hands by the

nobles and scholars of Florence. Tito Melema has
escaped from shipwreck, his only property being
some rare and valuable gems. These he disposes of to
great advantage, and is told, according to a phrase
of the day, they are worth " a man's ransom !"
At this unwary remark he startles, and then we learn
the secret of his history. His foster father, the

protector of his youth, BAldassarreCalvo,the scholar,
to whom he owes his education and his great
scholarship—to whom, in fact, he owes everything,
aLd who is the real owner of the gems in Tito's pos-
session, had been the companion of his voyage, but
was carried off a prisoner, while the younger Tito

escaped. " A man's ransom !" suggests to fit° that
the price of the gems, the property of Baldassarre,
should be devoted to his ransom from captivity, if,
as in all probability is the case, he is a prisoner at
Antioch. The duty on the one side is obvious, but
ou the other hand the temptation is strong. Tito
is just becoming popular at Florence ; an influential
position is in his grasp. He is a welcome guest in
the studio of old Bardi, and the charms of the fair
Romola Bardi have not failed to impress his suscep-
tible heart. Tito puts off the evil day of decision.
At last the money is in his hand, and a prudent
friend offers to invest it for him. Then comes the
struggle. It is the turning pint of his career.
" Behold this day, I have set before thee good and
evil !" The conflict of his mind is so powerfully
because so naturally described, that we cannot do
better than transcribe the passage
" Far in the backward vista of his remembered life,
when he was only seven years old, Baldassarre had rescued
him from blows, had taken him to a home that seemed like
opened paradise, where there was sweet food and soothing
caresses, all had on Baldassarre's knee ; and from that time
till the hour they had parted, Tito had been the one centre
of Baldassarre's fatherly cares.
" Anti he had been docile, pliable, quick of apprehension,
ready to acquire : a very bright lovely boy, a youth of even
splendid grace, who seemed quite without vices, as if that
beautiful form represented a vitality so exquisitely poised
and balanced that it could know no uneasy desires, no un-
rest—a radiant presence for a lonely man to have won for
himself. If he were silent when his father expected some
response, still he did not look moody ; if he declined some
labour—why, he flung himself down with such a charming,
half-smiling, half-pleading air, that the pleasure of looking
at him made amends to one who had watched his growth
with a sense of claim and possession—the curves of Tito's
mouth had ineffable good humour in them. And then, the
quick talent to which everything came readily, from philo-
sophie systems to the rhymes or a street ballad caught up at
a hearing I Would any one have said that Tito had not
made a rich return to his benefactor, or that his gratitude
and affection would fail on any great demand ?
"He did not admit that his gratitude had failed; but it

was not certain that Baldassarra was in slavery, not certain
that he was living.
" Do I not owe something to myself ?' said Tito, in-
wardly, with a slight movement of his shoulders, the first
he had made since he had turned to look down at the
florins. ' Before I quit everything, and incur again all the
risks of which I am even now weary, I must at least have
a reasonable hope. Am Ito spend my life in a wandering
search ? I believe he is dead. Cennini was right about
my florins : I will place them in his hands to-morrow,'
" When, the next morning, Tito put this determination
into act he had chosen his colour in the game, and had
given an inevitable bent to his wishes. He had made it
impossible that he should not from henceforth desire it to
be the truth that his father was dead ; impossible that he
should not be tempted to baseness rather than that the pre-
cise facts of his conduct should not remain for ever con-
cealed.

66 Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of
guilty wishes, whoseunwholesome infecting life is cherished
by the darkness. The contaminating effect of deeds often
lies less in the commission than in the consequent adjust-
ment of our desires—the enlistment of our self-interest on
the side of falsity; as, on the other hand, the purifying in-
fluence of public confession springs from the fact, that by it
the hope in lies is for ever swept away, and the soul recovers
the noble attitude of simplicity.
" Besides, in this first distinct colloquy with himself the
ideas which had previously been scattered and interrupted
had now concentrated themselves : the little rills of selfish-
ness had united and made a channel, so that they could
never again meet with the same resistance. Hitherto Tito
had left in vague indecision the question whether with the
means in his power, he would not return and ascertain his
father's fate : he had now made a definite excuse to himself
for not taking that course—he had avowed to himself a
choice which he would have been ashamed to avow to others,
and which would have made him ashamed in the resurgent
presence of his father. But the inward shame, the reflex of
that outward law which the great heart of mankind makes
for every individual man, a reflex which will exist even in
the absence of the sympathetic impulses that need no law,
but rush to the deed of fidelity and pity as inevitably as the
brute mother shields her young from the attack of the here-
ditary enemy—that inward shame was showing its blushes
in Tito's determined assertion to himself that his father was
dead, or that at least search was hopeless."
Onward and downward the career of Tito Melema
is rapid enough. When Baldassarre, at length
escaped from prison, arrives at Florence, his adopted
child does not dare to confess his own iniquity, and
denoucces the friend and protector of his youth as
an impostor and a madman ! Fortune favours Tito,
but happiness, we need hardly say, does not attend
him. Very different is the gay adventurer of the
first volume from the treacherous coward of the
concluding chapters. " Falsehood," remarks the
faithful historian of his despicable career, "had
prospered and waxed strong, but it had nourished
the twin life Fear," Turn we now to a more noble
and attractive character—Romola, the faithful
daughter of the old blind scholar Barth. Here is
the first glimpse we have of her, in a chapter entitled
THE BLIND STUDENT AND HIS DAUGIITER

" The voice came from the farther end of a long, epacic

room, surrounded with shelves, on which books and anti-
quities were arranged in scrupulous order. Here and there,
on separate stands in front of the shelves, were placed a
beautiful feminine torso ; a headless statue, with an up-
lifted muscular arm wielding a bladeless sword, rounded,
dimpled, intantine limbs severed from the trunk, inviting
the lips to kiss the cold marble : some well-preserved
Roman busts, and two or three vases of Magna Grecia. A
large tabla in the centre was covered with antique bronze
lamps and small vessels in dark pottery. The colour of
these objects was chiefly pale or sombre : the vellum bind.
ings, with their deep-ridged backs, gave little relief to the
marble, livid with long burial—the once splendid patch of
carpet at the farther end of the room had long been worn
to dimness; the dark bronzes wanted sunlight upon them
to bring out their tinge of green, and the sun was not yet
high enough to send gleams of brightness through the nar-
row windows that looked on the Via do' Bardi.
" The only spot of bright colour in the room was made
by the hair of a tall maiden of 17 or 18, who was standing
before a carved /eggio, or reading-desk, such as is often seen
in the choirs of Italian churches. The hair was of a red
dish gold colour, enriched by an unbroken small ripple,
such as may be seen in the sunset clouds on grandest
autumnal evenings. It was confined by a black fillet above
her small ears, from which it rippled forward again, and
made a natural veil for her neck above her square-cut gown
of black rascia, or serge. Her eyes were bent on a large

volume placed before her : one long white hand rested on
the reading-desk, and the other clasped the back of her
father's chair.

" The blind father sat with uplifted head and turned a little
aside towards his daughter, as if he were looking at her.
His delicate paleness, set off by the black velvet cap which
surmounted his:drooping white hair, made all the more per-
ceptible the likeness between his aged features and those of
the young maiden, whose cheeks were also without any
tinge of the rose. There was the same refinement of brow
and nostril in both, counterbalanced by a full though firm
mouth and powerful chin, which gave an expression of
proud tenacity and latent impetuousness : an expression
carried out in the backward poise of the girl's head, and
the grand line of her neck and shoulders. It was a type of
face which one could not venture to say whether it would
inspire love or only that unwilling admiration which is
mixed with dread : the question must be decided by the
eyes, which often seem charged with a more direct
message from the soul. But the eyes of the father had long
been silent, and the eyes of the daughter were bent on the
Latin pages of Politian's Miscellanea from which she was
reading aloud."
Romola's character acquires depth and strength
before our eyes, as with interest we follow her tale
of suffering. At first a studious girl, ignorant of

the world as Miranda on Ler island, then a loving,
suffering woman, shrinking with natural dread
from the heavy burden imposed upon her. Very
effective is the scene where she flies from her un-
happy home at Florence, and is arrested by the
way-side by the warning voice of Savonarola.
" My daughter," exclaims the impassioned preacher,
in words of truthful eloquence that convince and
convert the unhappy Romola, " my daughter, every
bond of your life is a debt ; the right lies in the
payment of that debt ; it can lie nowhere else. In
vain would you wander over the earth, you will be
nowhere at peace." Romola returns, and in the
pursuit of duty finds the only alleviation to he
painful lot. We will not dwell further upon her.
history. It will be read with a very vivid interest
by many who will be indifferent to the political
chapters. The opening description of the dawn is
very felicitous :
"More than three centuries and a half ago, in the mid
spring of 1492, we are sure that the angel of the dawn, as
he travelled with broad slow wing.from the Levant to the

Pillars of Hercules, and from the summits of the Caucasus
across all the snowy Alpine ridges to the dark nakedness
of the Western isles, saw nearly the same outline of firm
land and unstable sea—saw the same great mountain
shadows on the same valleys as he has seen to-day—saw
olive mounts, and pine forests, and the broad plains, green
with young corn or rain-freshened grass—saw the domes
and spires of cities rising by the river sides or mingled with
the sedge-like masts on the many-curved sea coast, in the
same spots where they rise to-day. And es the faint light
of his course pierced into the dwellings of men, it fell, as
now, on the rosy walnut' of nestling children; on the
haggard waking of sorrow and sickness ; on the hasty up-s
rising of the hard-handed labourer; and on the late sleep
of the night-student, who had been questioning the stars or
the sages, or his own soul, for that hidden knowledge
which would break through the barrier of man's brief life,
and show its dark path, that seemed to bend no whither, to
be an arc in an immeasurable circle of light and glory. The
great river courses which have shaped the lives of men
have hardly changed ; and those other streams, the life-
currents that ebb and flow in human hearts, pulsate to the
same great needs, the same great loves and terrors. As
our thought follows close in the slow wake of the dawn, we
are impressed with the broad sameness of the human lot,
which never alters in the main headings of its history—
hunger and labour, seed-time and harvest, love and death."
• The moral of the story enforced by Romola's ad-
vice to the youthful Lillo in the concluding chapter is
a most noble one• The author of " Adam Bede" has
done wisely and well in employing great intellectual
gifts in the development of a high principle—to
exhibit the fatal effect of a selfish seeking of our own
pleasure contrasted with the happy results of a
noble performance of our duty to our fellow-men;
For this lesson apart from its high literary merits
" Romola" is entitled to ad miration and approval.

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—July has been all that could be desired for agri-
cultural purposes. The hay crop has been secured in better
condition than has been known for many years. The corn
harvest has commenced, the wheat reported almost every-
where to look well, with promise of abundance.
We have in this month experienced temperature equal to
the average of our summers, but on the other hand we
have had greater cold than has been hitherto known in
July. •
Our average mean temperature of July is 61 deg., in 1852
it was 63 deg., in 1857 63 deg, and in 1859, 64 deg.
This year it was only 59.7 deg. The day registers ex-
ceeded 80 deg. on four occasions, culminating at 83 deg. on
the 10th; the appreciable summer readings in the day time
were, however, followed by rapid decline•of heat.
The nights were very cold . 14 registered under 45 deg.
On the 19th the register receded to 36.8 deg., being the
lowest for July here on record. In some parts the cold was
much greater, declining to 30 deg., or 2 deg. below freezing
point, in the neighbourhood of Reading. ( Times, July 21.)
For the reasons reiterated in my letter June 27 the mean
temperature of July was, like June, below the average of

former years.
The month just closed was the finest of any July on
record in this locality. Twenty-six days had complete im-
munity from rain, and the total quantity collected did not
amount to an inch.
My prediction, however, pointed to mean temperature
only, and the reasons were stipulated in my letters of
June 17 and 27.—1 am, sir, your obedient servant,

THOMAS L. PLANT,
Member of the British Meteorological Society.
Camp. hill, Birmingham, July 31, 1863.

Destruction of the Jersey Theatre by Fire.

JERSEY, Friday.
The Theatre Royal, Crescent, was totally destroyed by a
fire which was discovered about 4 o'clock this morning.
From information obtained through the best channels, it
appears that the theatre was closed on Friday night last, on
the completion of an engagement which Miss Emma Stan-
ley had entered into with Mr. Charles Harrison, the lessee
and manager, whose company was performing in Guern-
sey ; but as it was to be re-opened by Mr. Harrison on
Monday next, with Mr. G. V. Brooke and Miss A. Jones,
the necessary preparations were on the eve of being made.
Mr. and Mrs. Harrison, with the members of their com-
pany, returned to Jersey yesterday, and it was arranged
that the whole of the luggage of the company should be
removed from the packet to the theatre, where the com-
pany were to go for it in the evening. Many did so, and
had it carried off to their own apartments. The whole of
what Mr. and Mrs. Harrison had, however (including even
their private wardrobes), was allowed to remain, with the
intention of removing it this morning.
About 4 o'clock this morning the theatre was discovered
to be on fire. Two engines were speedily on the spot, and
two others from the garrison, manned by a heavy escort of
the Royal Artillery, accompanied by detachments of the
61st Regiment, who kept back the crowd, which by this
time had become immense. A messenger had communicated
the sad tidings to Mr. Harrison at his private residence,
and that gentleman, who was accompanied by Mrs. Harri-
son, was also on the spot. Colonel de Rinzy, the Deputy
Lieut.-Governor, Colonel Redmond, and most of the other
officers in garrison, arrived early and greatly exerted them-
selves. Extraordinary exertions were made to subdue the
flames, but to little purpose, as the only supply of water
was obtained from the adjoining houses. The adjacent
property was with difficulty rendered secure, and by nine
o'clock the fire had literally burnt itself out, all hopes of
saving anything but the outside walls having been given up
at least a couple of hours before. The ruins continued
smouldering up to this evening. The origin of the fire is a

mystery.
The theatre belonged to a company, who built it at a cost
of about £5,000. It was a fine building, of the Doric style
of architecture, and wa,3 insured for £I,OOO only, a sum far
short of repairing one half of the damage done.
Mr. Harrison, the lessee and manager, is a loser to a
truly lamentable extent, for although the value of the sta-
tionary property is partially covered by an insurance of
L2OO, his loss will amount to between £6OO and £7OO,
Much sympathy has already been expressed for Mr. and
Mrs. Harrison, and there can be little doubt it will take a
practical form.

THE PARKS AND THE SUNDAY BANDS.—Musie,
flowers, and the sculptor's art have added yearly
to the attractions of the public parks, converting them from
the mere grass plots of our ancestors' time into pleasure-
gardens of no mean order; nor is Government the sole
agent in effecting this beneficial change. Miss Burdett
Coutts' munificent gift of the large fountain in Victoria-
park has been followed by a public-spirited gardener in
the north-west of London, transferring that portion of the
Regent's-park facing the Colosseum, and on the west side
of the Broad-walk, into a garden of the highest style of
Italian art. This he has done at his own expense, and in
consequence of the approbation bestowed on it by the public,
he has obtained permission to lay out the east side of the
Broad-walk to correspond. The conductors of the Sunday
bands movement claim also to be regarded as public bene-
factors, for though but working men themselves, quitting
their avocations on the Saturday, they may be seen every
Sunday of the band season devoting their energies to the
self imposed and unrewarded labour which they believe to
be for the elevation of their own order. The eighth season
was brought to its ordinary termination yesterday evening,
with fine weather and largo audiences; the programme was
extended until darkness was stealing over the scene. An
extra performance is announced for Suuday next, when the
bands will give their services in aid of the find for the cora-
mencement of the season 1864,