The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-16 00:00:00

EGYPT.

ALEXANDRIA, Aug. G.
By order of the Viceroy a sanitary commission,
composed of 10 medical men, will be shortly de-
spatched into the provinces of Upper Egypt, where
the cholera is prevalent.

The prohibition upon the entry of fruits _and
vegetables into Alexandria has been removed. They
are, however, still submitted to medical inspection
before being offered for sale, and green or spoiled
fruit or stale vegetables are vigorously condemned.
The cholera has entirely disappeared and the
public health is daily improving.
At Damietta, Rosetta, and the neighbouring
villages,' cholera has almost entirely ceased, and the
sanitary condition of the provinces of Behera,
Sarbir, Scharkia, and Dachalia is generally satis-
factory.
The Viceroy Ismail Pacha arrived at Alexandria
on the 3d inst., and set out for Cairo the same
morning, accompanied by Nubar
His Excellency Cherif Pacha has addressed the
following letter to M. Thevenin, Agent and Con-
sular-General of Prussia, at Alexandria :

Alexandria, July 16.

" Sir,—The terrible epidemic which has afflicted
Alexandria and all Egypt has brought forth all
that devotion and humanity could inspire in the
men who so nobly direct the Prussian hospital.
" I am happy on this occasion to express my
grateful sense of the exertions of the managing
body. I tender my thanks to the members for the
care they have not ceased to bestow upon our sick
throughout the whole duration of the epidemic, and
beg their acceptance, on the part of his highness, of
the sum of 7,500 f., which his generosity offers to
the establishment, that it may continue doing what
it has done so well up to the present.

" M. Jules Pastre is deputed to remit to you the
above-mentioned sum.—Receive, &c.,
" CHERIE PACHA."

No case of cholera occurred in. Alexandria from
the 2d to the sth inst. inclusive. During the two
days, July 31 and Aug. 1, there were only five
deaths from that cause.

• MADAME TUSSAUD'S.—In addition to the effigies,
life-size, in the Chamber of Horrors, of John Wilkes
Booth, the base assassin of the late President Lincoln, and
the poisoner, Doctor E. W. Pritchard, is ono of Miss Con-
stance Kent, whose sentence of death has been commuted
to penal servitude for life. The models are considered to
be oxcellentlikenesses of the culprits.
PORTRAITS AND PHOTOGRAPTIS.—In portraits
everything must be real, honest, and natural. The
• divine, almost intangible light of expression, hovering over
the face, is seized on by living skill and intellect and im-
prisoned in colours. Tints of fancy, of humour, of firm-
ness, of melancholy and pensiveness, in short, of the
hundred-and-one shades of- e±pression—tho presence, in
fact, of life—this is what gives the portrait its special
value. The absence of this is what drives the photographic
portraiture out of the, realms of art into the cold enclosure
of mechanism and machinery. This is scarcely understood
even as yet. It is often said that a photograph must be a
perfect likeness, for, according to the common expres-
sion, "it is you." But it is not you. The instrument itself
is incorrect, and exaggerates. It is forgotten that the
true portrait-painter does not take his sitter at one
special moment, when the eyes ars fixed on him
in a staring gaz, with till the musele,,

, .
rigid, and the feature; in n state, of smirking catalepsy. But
he draw; as it were, from memory, from an acquaintance
of so many hours, during which the sitter has been oppo-
site to him, and during which time he has learned by heart
the natural, habitual, and most characteristic expression
For a few moments, by the help of some observation, he
has caught, say, the sly roguish twinkle of humour in his
sitter's eyes, and has secured it for ever. The mere mecha-
nical shape of the features (which the photograph only
gives) he has before him, to be put in at any moment.
Then enter into the composition the skilful touch, the
bright bits of colour, the transparent delicacy of tone, the
poetry of treatment., which are reflections from the skilful
mind taking the picture. In short, anything that is the
free natural impression of the soul and of life has at once
an interest for other souls---a doctrine often preached by
Mr. Ruskin, whp has shown how " precious" on this prin-
ciple, become- the. Unfettered workman's carving on the
capital of a pillar, as contrasted with merely arbitrary
aid cOUVenYOnal design.—. Dickens's "All the Year Round.'

LITERATURE.

-

. -
THE. FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW—we are gratified to
observe, still continues to flourish as a literary en-
terprize. In this respect it has already far more
than simply justified the very favourable anticipa-
tions in its regard, which were frankly avowed by
us at the time of its commencement—namely, upon
the appearance of. its manly, well-expressed and
very auspicious because thoroughly unboastful
prospectus, followed up as that prospectus
was immediately by one of the most bril-
liant first numbers of. any periodical that we can
to -this moment recall to our recollection. As
a _literary entarprize, we repeat, our anticipa-
tions in regard to the Fortnightly Review have.
until now been completely justified. Of its success
so far we can judge for ourselves—of its success,
that is, purely as an inttAllectual adventure new
alike to our English system and to our English
taste in the general organisation of our periodi-
cal literature. A whole volume has already
made its appearance number by number,
bi-monthly, or, to use its own rather awkward
titular adverb, Fortnightly. The current number,
the seventh, is here before us. And bow varied
that number is in its contents a very few words
will suffice to indicate. Added to a couple more
chapters of the serial tale about " The Belton
Estate," by Anthony Trollope, there are, for
example, among the miscellaneous papers in
No. 7of The Fortnightly--A chapter on British
India, by Colonel Belly. One suggestive of an
autumnal ramble through Surrey, by John Dennis.
A critique on Meyerbeer's "Africaine," by John
Hullah—a critique worthy at once of the writer and
of his theme. A trenchant homethrust at the criminal
jurisprudence of the north, by William Chambers,
entitled, " How Crime is Investigated in Scotland."
Another instalment (the 3rd) by W‘ Bagehot in
reference to the British Constitution. A bold
discussion, by P. G. Hamerton, on that vexed
qneStion as to the Housing of the National Art
Treasures. A yet bolder one in reference to' that
still more vexed question, as to the Irish Church, by
Anthony Trollope—whO seems, by the way, to be
perfectly prepared at all times and seasons to "have
at" anything or everything in turn—a new poet or
an old grievance—fox hunting or the West Indies—
love tales ad libitum and clerical stories almost we
had said usque ad nauseant. Besides these as
among the contents of this the current num-
ber of the Fortnightly, No. 7, Francis Lawley
leads off with a survey of the Last Six Days of
Secessia—the instalment being brought to a close,
as usual, by a well-digested epitome of public
affairs, followed by two or three terse literary
Of the literary excellence of the Fortnightly
we can speak, as we have said, from our own grate-
ful appreciation of it. While, of the New
Journal's success as a mercantile speculation,
we are rejoiced to hear accounts the most
favourable and encouraging—the circulation of Mr.
Lewes's English Double of the Revue des Deux
Mondes having steadily, appreciably and con-
spiduously increased, fortnight after fortnight, since
the date of its commencement.

CISIIIS.

The Loss of the Margaret Kerr.

- -4,--

OFFICIAL REPORT,

Report of the case in the formal investigation at
the instance of John Nelson Beaumont, Collector
of Customs and Receiver of Wrecks at the Port of
-Greenock, against James Macdonald, presently in
Greenock, as blaster of the Margaret Kerr, of

the wind would. hold ; that the captain and he
consulted the chart about eight o'clock, and he said
to the captain that he thought the vessel should be
put about, but the captain told him to mind his
own business, and that the vessel's course was quite
Correct ; that he went below after the expiry of
his watch at eight o'clock, and the vessel struck
about nine o'clock on the Crocus, i. e., Croker
Reef ; that at daylight he saw the remains of a
beacon about 150 yards from the ship, Plantation
Quay being about seven miles distant ; that the
ship could not be got off the reef, and was finally
abandoned on the 7th of March. This witness
stated that the captain was partially intoxicated
from the time he left Matanzas, but that he was
quite competent for his duties, and that he (the
witness) was of opinion that the captain would have
carried on the course he did although he had had
no liquor. On.. his re-examination, however, after
the witness Joseph
_Brunsden had been examined,
119 stated, after great hesitation, that while he was
on the wreck he had mentioned to some one that he
threw_ two bottles of rum overboard. to keep the
captain sober: Joseph Brunsden concurred with
the mate as to the time the vessel was lost. He
stated that he sighted land about four o'clock of the
21st, and reported it to the mate, Who told him to
keep the ropes clear for going about, but the vessel
was not put about. He further stated, that at the
time the vessel was lost the captain was incapable of
giving orders, baying been intoxicated, and that he had
been intoxicated from the time he left Matanzas,
and he mentioned 'circumstances showing the state
the captain was in. Among others, he mentioned
that he and 16 of the crew left the wreck on the
evening after the vessel went ashore, and that when
he came back to the Wreck, 36 hours afterwards, and
asked a glass of rum from the mate, the mate told
him that he had thrown the rum overboard to keep
the captain sober, and the mate admitted this, as
before stated. Under these circumstances, the sen

tence of the justices, concurred in by the assessors,
was, that the said James. Macdonald had been guilty
of drunkenness while in command of the said ship
when she was lost,; and that the loss of the said ship
was caused by his aggravated default, and they
therefore suspended his_certificate for three years
from oth August, '1855. A. TASKER, J.P.

JOHN NEILL, J.P.
We concur in the above rep6rt,
HY. 13Annisd
Nautical Assessors.
R. B. BA K ;
`