The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-06 00:00:00

DECEMBER 4.

George Reid, Esq., has this day been promoted to tho
rank of Staff Commander in her Majesty's Fleet.
The following promotions have this day taken place :
Messrs. .William Edward Filcher, Valentine Horne,
Charles Downes Thomas, Henry Jesse Iles, James AliGa-
rahan, and John Swanson to be Engineers in her Majesty's
Fleet. .Mr. Henry White (A) and Mr. William Ball to be
Acting Engineers. in her Majesty's Fleet.

COURSE or EXCHANGE—Last Evening,

--~-- -

Amsterdam • • Short 11 18

3 Months. 12 11
12 1i
25 50
. 25 50
13 91.
Short 25 12i
3 Mouths. 25 40
25 42i
120 k
10 95
10 95
30}
6 27j
471.
47-1-
25 571
25 57
25 57
25 GO
25 57k

Ditto..
Rotterdam
Antwerp
Brussels ......
Hamburg
Paris
Ditto
Marseilles
Frankfort, on the Maine
Vienne,
Trieste
Petersburgh
Berlin
Madrid
Cadiz
Leghorn
Milan
Genoa
Naples
Palermo

11 18/
12 2
12 2.1
25 55
25 55
13 9/
25 20
25 47/
25 47i
121

11 0
11 0

NEW music.

The approach of Christmastide is always a busy timo
for music publishers, and on our desk we have now a
choice variety of new music, both vocal and instrumental.

The Messrs. Cocks, of New Burlington-street, have just
issued some very pretty ballads well deserving attention.
Hilda's Answer," by Miss Reilly, is a graceful and flow-
ing composition, and " Bloudinette," the words by Lind-
ley, and the music by Leduc, is quite a gem. "Kathleen.
Aroon," by the talented authoress of "Kathleen Mavour-
neon," will have a host of admirers ; and Carpenter's
"Happy be thy dreams" is very sweetly set by J.R. Thomas.
The four new ballads make up a very pretty present,
which will be an important addition to the portfolio of
the pianiste.

Messrs. Boosoy, of Holies-street, have published more
than an ordinary number of new compositions, all of
which deserve high commendation. Amongst the new
ballads we select " The Last Serenade," and " Young
Leslie," by Mrs. Campbell. " The Foolish Shep-
herd," and " Cusha," by Dolores ; " The Maiden in
the Greenwood," by George Forbes, and " The Old
House on the Hill," by Claribel. They are, with.
out exception, amongst the best ballads that have
yet come under our notice, each abounding in genuine
melody. The new instrumental compositions aro of the
most brilliant and effective description, and like all the
pieces emanating from the establishment of the Messrs.
Boosey, they well repay the trouble of repeated practice,
which we regret is not always the case with modern com-
positions. Claribel's song, "I cannot sing the old songs,"
seems to be a general favourite, for both Brinley Richards
and Emile Beeyer have selected it for transcription. Each
have so well succeeded in their task that we divide our
favour equally between them. "Manchette," a morceau de
salon, by Theodore Mauss, a very brilliant piece, well calcu-
lated to show off the abilities of the performer, without in-
volving him or her in a labyrinth of intricate or nonsensical
difficulties. The "Fantasia Marziale" and "Carnival (lei
Florence," by George Forbes, are both pieces we can
highly recommend, as they are quite worthy cf the previous
works of this composer, and which we have before had the
pleasure of highly commending. The latest additions to
the music for the ball-room are "Janet's Choice Waltz,"
by Frank Musgrave ; the " Claribel Quadrille," by Burek-
hardt j • and the "Adieu Valse," by Snelling, with Out
which no collection can be called complete.
Six Grand Offertories for the Organ have been published
by the Messrs. Boosey, which will be gladly welcomed by
the performers on that noble instrument; and Jackson's,
King's, Ebdon and Boyce's, and Arnold's Church Services
have been arranged in so Cheap a form that the sale of
them ought to be enormous.

A song, "Up the Alma's Heights," by tho author of
"Hearths and Watchfires," has been published by Messrs.
Cramer and Co., we presume more for private than public
circulation. It has merit, but its appearance has been too
long delayed to be of service, commercially speaking, either
to author or publisher.

MANUFACTURES IN MASSACHUSETTS.—The pre-
sent population of Massachusetts is 1,276,000, an increase
of 45,574 in five years. And all this in spite of the heavy
drain by the war cud an immense °nitration to the West.
The cause of this increase is apparent. Massachusetts
diversifies her industf_es. She is not exclusively agiicul-
tural or mechanical. But by her manufacturing industry
she is able to diversity her labor, and thus counteract the
tendency that a strictly agricultural population would have
to seek their fortune 3 in more fei.fle regions. Were
Massachusetts an exclusively agricultural State, like
Illinois, she would to-day be on the decline as respects
population, and, like Virginia, her soil would be exhausted
by constant cropping, without a proper return to the eas ih
of the necessary element of production. As it is, it is a
fact that while the fertile West, year by year, produces less
average amounts of grain to the acre, Massachusetts pro-
duces greater. These are facts that commend themselves
to all thinking men, and go to prove that nothing so
builds up a State, in all that relates to material prosperity,
as such a diverdfication of the pursuits of industry as shall
afford to every faculty an opportunity of making itself of
use to the public.

NORTH CAROLINA.--The Times correspondent
writing from Greensborough, North Carolina,
says that Sherman's troops, when they entered North
Carolina had almost glutted their passion for destruc-
tion in the sack of a belt of country stretching 40 miles
across Georgia and South Carolina, and when they
arrived here they could afford to goround to the shopkeeper
offering large boxes of plate for sale for $lOO, and car-
rying handfuls of watches, brooches, and rings from
door to door like pedlars the spoils of the Georgian
and South Carolinian ladies. Thus North Carolina's chief
direct loss by the war (setting apart the ruin of her
finances, and the demand made upon her strength for the
support of the army) was the manumission of her 332,000
slaves. Tho same writer draws a picture of negro
thebeenmostdetained a day
commonplace on nnify arl way
yincidents
further
indolence in North Carolina:—" Greensborough, where
i tn-
swohuethrewalrdhahvye
of travel on a Southern railroad
Johnston surrenderedthese
lroad
n broken bridge and a train off the track—is withinsa
a
ilne
Con-
federate to
few miles of the spot at which
Sherman. Around the village or town itself the
federate army had been encamped. It can never have
been a very active or bUsy place, but now it presents the
very realisation of poverty and gloom. It seems to have
had the last traces of its feeble life stamped out of it.
A small force of Indiana troops is stationed in the place,
and negroes come down to it in the vague expectation.
that somewhere hereabouts they will come into possession
of land and houses. I saw a characteristic group of them
near the line of railway. They were about twenty in
number, some in old Federal uniforms, others in Con-
federate grey, and all doing nothing with earnestness and
success. Some of them were leaning against trees, and
others lay upon their backs on the ground. Two women
sat en a rail looking on. The attraction which held them
together was a cracked fiddle, on which a negro was play_
ing about twenty bars of one tune over and over again,
while the loungers looked on with vacant oyes, not ex-•
hibiting the slightest appearance of interest in their faces.
I returned that way five hours later, and the same group
was still there, and the same luau was playing the same
tune on the same cracked fiddle, and they all seemed to
i ni j"
beforeizt
have settled down in that spot for the remainder of their
days. This scene, with a few slight variations, is in the
path of the traveller in the South wherever he goes. The
negro is always lying on his back in the suu, while the
lookse
„nl,tlseticgrhaiem w u,sit i., on and
neglectuedbNe'onnadel:rtlsn.igawhhottathttnehdrl pleasanti
a.s to
littlewith
townuses have made it . him."
look like a place whoa) fortunes were long since faded.
The county has had no money to spend upon the roads,
which are consequently a miscellaneous heap of mud and
stones, now lying in hillocks, and now in small hollows.
In the centre of the town is tho Capitol, with the usual
statue of Washington iu front of it. In the streets round •
about there are also the usual square-teed boots and shoes
banging outside the stores, the crinolines, the babies'
dresses, and the placards of bitters and quack medicines.
It was in one of these little stores that Andrew Johnson,
the President of the United States, worked as a tailor from
the time he was eight years of age until he went into Ten-
nessee. He was born at Raleigh, and the inhabitants
(when they get some more money) may perhaps yet raise
a statue to his memory. These Southern towns aro
cleaner than most towns in the North, but as a set-off
there is not half the bustle and activity visible in them. A
stagnant air is over them all. There are more people
hanging about them who mem to have nothing to do than
you see anywhere North, and these people look thinner
and paler, and in worse condition geuerally, and more
ill at peace with the world than their restless Northern
bretlarea.