The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 22, 1863.

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, Aug. 21.—We have had a rather excited
market, with a go d business and higher prices both for
cloth and yarn. The excitement is, to a great extent, owing
to the rising cotton market arid the increasing difficulty
there is in buying goods, owing to the constant efforts of
spinners and manufacturers to force up prices so as to cover
the increased cost of c Aton. There has been a good deal of
business to-day in yarns, and the advance in prices since
Tuesday is fully Ad. per lb. In some cases (but these are
exceptional, and where yarn is of peculiar and first-rate
makes) we hear of Id. advance during the week. The de-
mand has been for India, China, the Mediterranean, and
home trade. Some business has also been done by the Ger-
mans, bat, as usual, they have exhibited a good deal of cau-
tion or timidity, and their purchases have been compara-
tively small. On the other hand, the home trade have been
rather free buyers. In cloth a very large business has been
done since Tuesday, though the market has not been quite
so active to-day, The business has evidently been, too, for
actual shipment, not for speculation. The better accounts
from India on Monday and again yesterday (bringing tele-
graphic dates to July 29 and 30) have evidently given a
further impetus to the market, and the prices of 30in. shirt-
ings have advanced 3d. per piece on the average. For 45in.,
50in., and wider cloths the advance has been Gd. per piece.
Of cloths of this description of first-rate makes, and scarce,
a much larger advadce has been given, but these cases are
very exceptional, and ought to have very little influence in
estimating the state of the market. One good feature of
the market this week has been that the business has not
been confined to the few houses, but has been more general
than for some time past. The home-trade houses are buy-
ing, though not extensively, but the t rade is sound and
healthy, and more hopeful than it has been. There has
been more or less demand for all markets, and the Greeks
who ship to Egypt are buying more freely, a result pro-
bably of the more plentiful supply of money to that part of
the world, through the increased quantity sent:thence, and
its greatly increased price. The influx of wealth to
some other countries through the stoppage of the American
cotton supply is also gradually producing a similar result in
extending the market for our manufactures. A much
larger business, it is said, could be done in yarns if stocks
could be found to supply the demand. The market closes
with a cheerful feeling, though no one looks upon the pre.
sent active demand as likely to continue for more than a
very short time. _ _

NOTTINGHAM, Aug. 21.—There was a rather better at-
tendance of merchants and manufacturers at this Exchange-
hall to-day, and the demand for lace yarns was improved,
prices being the turn in favour of the seller. There is more
doing in hosiery yarns, and late rates are being fully made.
In silks there is no material alteration. All descriptions of
brown nets are a very dull sale, and the tendency in prices
is to give way.

The Prince of Wales's Turkish Room, Marl-
borough House.

(From the Building _News.)

One of the rooms on the first floor of Marlborough House
has recently been converted into a very good representation
of a Turkish mandar'ah or reception. room. It is hung
about with the many valuable and interesting articles which
his royal highness brought home as souvenirs of his recent
tour, and with the mat and other objects given to him by
his New Zealand visitors. As pipes of every kind—from
that which is fitted with the jewelled amber mouth-piece, a
gift from the Sultan, to the common " garmasak" of the
Egyptian peasant—are ranged about the room, it has been
called a " smoking-room ;" some people, better acquainted,
perhaps, with the Strand than the seraglio, have been
calling it the "divan." :It should be remembered that
there is no room specially used for smoking in a Turkish
house. The women smoke in the harem, the men in
their ordinary sitting-room, whether it be the enclosed
mandar'ah or the open leewan. The door-keeper smokes
on the mastabah, just inside the bab-el-hosh or door
which separates the courtyard from the street ; the cook
smokes in his or her kitchen, and the seis in the stable
or at the stable door. The term divan is as incorrect as the
smoking-room, because the " deewan" in not a room at all
but the mattress and cushions placed against the sides of the
room for people to sit upon. It would be wrong, then, to
suppose that the prince has become addicted to the Eastern
method of inhaling the fragrant weed. Neither nargheel,
sheesheh, nor chibc,uque in the room is stained by actual
contact with timbale or dukhhan. There is no gold leaf
tobacco in the gold embroidered bags, and we have no doubt
about the prince having the good taste to prefer a "choice
Havanah cigar" to the finest Gebelee, Sooree, or Abourikee
which was ever shown or sold in the Bazaar of Ladikice.
The apartment at Marlborough House is only a represen-
tation of an ordinary Turkish reception-room, and the
Eastern articles collected by the prince are placed in it. Not-
withstanding several shortcomings, the fittings of the room
have been very successfully designed. On entering the room
we find ourselves on a regularly arranged durkalah or lower
floor,whereon, in Eastern houses, the shoes of the guests are
left. This is floored with oil-cloth,instead of encaustic tiles ;
the faekeeyeh (fountain) is of white marble,inlaid with gild-
ing, and on the right of the visitors, facing the deewan, is
a tastefully designed suffeh or shelf backed with looking-
glass. There is an arch over and under it—the upper one
being decorated with the well-known complex Eastern
bracketing. On the shelf are laid out a calumdawn, or ink
and pen case, perfume vessels, and the elegant jug and
basin, the tisht and ibreek, used for washing the hands
before meals. The floor of the auffeh is paved with tiles,
and their beauty exhibits strikingly the shabby imitation
of them on the floor of the durka'ah. At the side of the
shelf there is a cupboard, fronted with carved woodwork
and lined with Turkey red-cloth. The woodwork is very
well carved, but it is hardly Eastern enough to be satisfac-
tory. It reminds us too strongly of English pianoforte-
makers' work. Instead of being pierced in the work, it is
cut out and stuck upon it. The lining or this cupboard
would likewise have pleased us better if the Turkey red
had been here dispensed with, and the quiet green of dull
red and white ornaments, seen in Eastern houses, had
been adopted instead. It would have looked more Turkish,
and, at the same time, formed a better back-ground to the
articles in the cupboard. These articles are too numerous
to specify ; but conspicuous among them are amber
mouth • pieces, embroidered tobacco • bags, a coat of
chain armour and a helmet, daggers, swords, &c., all artis-
tically arranged. Facing the visitor as he enters the room,
is a window, with lattice work adm:rably and truthfully cut,
which looks out into the gardens. The lattice work is the
favourite reel pattern, but it is executed with rare fidelity
and skill. There is a cushion on the window-seat, and some
embroidered work executed by the Christians at Beyrout has
been sewn upon it. The linings of the window are not equal
to the lattice shutter, being painted in imitation of inlaid
wood work. So again the walls of the room are painted with
Siena marble, and we miss the arable texts which nearly
always adorn Eastern rooms. A few inscriptions are cer-
tainly hung about the room, but in Eastern houses they form
strings and friezes, and tire made the prircipal ornament of
the walls. On the walls of the room hangs one of the most
interesting articles in it. It is a fragment of real old Egyptian
hieroglyphic in an admirable state of preservation and of
rare beauty. The ceiling of the durka'ah is, as usual, of a
different pattern to that over the leewan or raised portion.
While the former is formed into patterns by interlaced lines,
arranged in the form of a star and filled in with blue and red
colour, the latter is coiled with beams with long and narrow
retangular panels between them. Two large lanterns with an
ostrich's egg attached to the bottom of each hang from the
central beam. Three or four steps led from the durka'ah to
the Newell, the floor of which is carpeted with Turkey-red

cloth, and on it is laid a genuine Turkey carpet. The leewan
or raised portion of the room is separated from the lower part
by dwarf pierced wood partitions beautifully designed, and
each of different pattern to the others. Two leathern water
kboinettdldeeosef embroidery,vaw7ltih. hooks for fastening them to the camel's saddle,
hang an this partition. A raised framework about 18in.
high, called a takt, is put round the three sides of the leo-
wthan, and on it the mattresses and cushions are put to form
Thesewchnisehhiownes
naerteieecdoveenretdhwatitihn thethe same
win-
dow-seat. A round tray upon a low stool, inlaid with
mother-of-Pearl, &a, which, if not a real Eastern sufrah, is
indeed ben trovato, forms the only table in front of the dee-
wan. A splendid " water bubble" stands upon it. A range
of shallow cupboards are fitted over the mantel-piece, where
we find a magnificent coffee service, the finjans or caps
being, of course, no bigger than our eggcups, and the zeds
or holders most elaborately worked in filagree. Here, also,
we see the different specimens of Eastern dress—waist-scarfs,
abbas, keffiehs ; and in the centre, over the deewau, there
is another group of Eastern weapons—laggers and swords
of rare temper, armour, and helmets. On either side of this
group there is a stained glass window, and a similar one
over the cushions at the side of the room. The openings
are cusped and filled with blue and red glass. They spoil
the effect of the whole room by the quantity of light which
they admit. It is not the colour of the glass which. we ob-
ject to ; that is correct enough. But if an Eastern builder
had fashioned them they would have looked very diffe-
rent, and the effect would have been as charming as it is
now unpleasant. The coloured glass in a real kamareeveh
is in small pieces, and is separated by bands of plaster,
arranged in patterns sometimes of the most elaborate and
tasteful design. There would Lave been no difficulty in
making such work here. It could have been easily made
with plaster of Paris, Keene's or Martin's cement. The
h egmesleelev ei
in
, the
et
room
materially present
effecton eyf uglyev everything
in t
nt
—destroying that air of calm repose and perfect tranquil-
lity which pervades all Eastern apartments, and which con-
tribute so much to the " kef" of their occupants. We take
the liberty of suggesting this alteration, and also the sub-
stitution of resl tiles for the bb Abbyail-cloth on the floor

below, to whomsoever has the control of the work. When
se much pains has been taken and so much expense has
been incurred to make a fitting receptacle for the spoils of
peacefu' travel, we notice with regret defects which can be
so easily remedied.

in width and s§Aan in thickness; and the second 15ft
Tin in length by 3ft 4in in width and Olin in thick-
ness. The main conditions of the contract between
Messrs. Petin and Gaudet and our Admiralty are—
that the 41-inch plates shall withstand three shots
planted as nearly as possible in the samo place with-
out penetration being effected, and that the 51-inch
plates shall resist four shots in the same manner.
The 51-inch plate received in all 10 shots fairly dis-
tributed over its surface. Only in three instances
were the shots overlapping, or " planted as nearly
as possible in the same place," but in all three in-
stances was the plate broken through, and penetra-
tion effected by two shots, instead of five, as per
contract. Nos. 2 and 4 shots just impinged upon
each other's circumference, with No. 3 in close
proximity, all at the right hand end of the plate,
but with no other shot near, and Nos, 2 and 4 were
connected by a wide deep crack extending upwards
of 15 inches. Petin and Gaudet's 41-inch plate re-
ceived only six shots, which, however, sufficiently
decided its character. The first shot.on the lower
left edge exhibited a crack seven inches in length in
the indent. No. 2on the right lower edge, upon a
bolt, opened the layer of metal and cracked two
layers across. No. 3 shot, to the left of No. 2, opened
wide fissures in the plate end drove the broken
metal into the ship's side, with a large crack to the
right. No. 5, in the centre of the plate, above and
clear of 2 and 3, drove the plate into the ship's side
four inches, with deep fissures in the metal. The
last shot did no particular damage in the circum-
ference of its own impact, but opened up a deep
crack across a previous shot-mark 13 inches in
length. Penetration, it will be seen, was effected
in this plate with single shots.
The Odin, 16 gun paddle frigate, Commodore
Lord John Hay, C. 8., arrived at Spithead yesterday
morning from India and the Cape of Good Hope,
and last from Teneriffe. She brought home a num-
ber of invalids and supernumeraries from India and
the Cape, who were transferred to the Victory flag-
ship yesterday by the Pigmy steam tender. The
Odia was commissioned at Portsmouth by Lord J.
Hay on Sept. 20, 1859.
The Lucifer paddle steamer, Mr. G. Allen, master

in command (temporary), arrived at Portsmouth
early yesterday morning from Cherbourg, which
port she left the previous day, at 2 p.'., having
conveyed Vice-Admiral Sir M. Seymour, G.C.8.,
naval Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and in
the, Channel Islands, to Cherbourg from Jersey.
The Fire Queen steam tender was expected to arrive
at Cherbourg yesterday to receive Sir Michael on
board and convey him to Portsmouth. Sir Michael
had been engaged in his annual inspection of the
Channel Islands, and we regret to learn bad been
compelled to leave his son suffering under a sudden
attack of illness at Jersey. In Cherbourg Roads
were lying when the Lucifer left two screw line-of-
battle ships, four iron-clads—one a two decker, car-
rying 90 or 100 guns, with very close parts, and
with an enormous beak projecting in front, and a
paddle steamer.
The following appointments and promotions have
been made at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Thomas W.
Simeon, to the Rattlesnake ; Powell C. Underwood
has been nominated to a naval cadetship ; John G.
Sheerman, in the Ringdove, promoted to acting
chief engineer ; and John B. Gibson, in the Nile,
promoted to acting first-class assistant-engineer.
The squadron of the 18th Hussars, whose desti-
nation is Northampton, is to remain at Aldershot
probably till the first week of October, under com-
mand of Capt. Peyton.