The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-08 00:00:00

AND RIVER P:

'LATE MAILS, I IMPERIA:

SOUTHAMPTON, Feb. 7.

The Royal Mail Company's steamship Magdalena,
Capt. Woolward, with the above mails, has arrived.
She brings 75 passengers, specie value £47,500, and
a large cargo. The Magdalena brings 4 packages of
diamonds and a cargo consisting of 1,144 bags of
coffee, 1,083 bales cotton, 553 bales tobacco, 4 boxes
of cigars, 5 boxes ostrich feathers, 20 packages ipe-
cacuanha, and 139 packages of sundries.

The Magdalena experienced head winds the whole
voyage to Lisbon (except two days near the Line),
westerly winds from Lisbon to Cape Finisterre,
northerly and north-westerly across the bay, and up
the Channel south-easterly rain and thick weather.
She anchored in the Solent at 11.45 p.m. on the 6th

Admiral Elliott and all his squadron, except the
Satellite, were at Monte Video and River Plate. The
Egmont, Sharpshooter, the Dutch frigate Due de
Nassau, acid the French surveying vessel Lamothe
Picquet, were at Rio de Janeiro. The Curlew sailed
from Rio for Monte Video on Jan 7. The Prussian
sailing frigate Niobe was at the Cape Verde Islands.
The Government of Rio de Janeiro are sending
every available soldier and vessel of war to the River
Plate to prosecute the war there.

BUENOS AYRES, Dee. 29.
The Standard publishes the following summary of

sews :

" Without attaching much importance to the
great apprehension entertained at present of a gene-
ral River Plate war, we regret sincerely to acquaint
our foreign readers that the state of things in this
Republic is anything but desirable. Since the sail-
ing of the French packet the troops of Flores, aided
by the Brazilian gunboats, have besieged and bom-
barded a little town in the Uruguay called Pay-
sandu, and been effectually repulsed by the heroic
garrison of the place. The bombardment of this
once thriving town has caused the most profound
sensation throughout the country, and, if followed
up by any success on the part of the Monte-
videan Government troops, cannot fail to result
in very serious consequences. Flores and his allies,
the Brazilians, have been compelled to raise the siege
owing to the near approach of the Government
army ; and we are now waiting to hear the issue of
a battle which is anticipated by all, but very pro-
bably never will take place.
"Meanwhile, the Paraguayan Government, view-
ing with distrust the alliance of Brazil with such a
man as Flores, has virtually declared war against
Brazil, seized the Brazilian maii steamer, and actu-
ally despatched a force of 2,000 men to wrest from
Brazil the rich province of Matto Grosso. The
Argentine Republic, we are happy to say, still re-
mains neutral, and the people repose the most un-
bounded confidence in the cool firmness of President
Mitre to steer clear of all the dangers whichthreaten.
A very strong party is raising its head in the pro-
vinces, which is vehement in its complaint against
the National Government for its neglect to protect
the frontier, as Indian invasions are of late so daring
and repeated that the lives and properties of the
estancieros are in the greatest peril. The frontier
line of this Republic is of such immense extent that
it is almost impossible to defend it, save at an enor-
mous expense, which the country at present is utterly
unprepared to meet.
"In compliance with the terms of the law, the
Government bank has burnt another nine millions
of the paper currency, and the demand for our cir-
culating medium is at present so great that specie
has suffered a sensible decline since the departure of
the Samtouge. Still, business is very dull, money
is scarce, and a general want of confidence most
painfully obvious. Few of the saladeristas have as
yet commenced working, but they will begin early
in the new year with every prospect of doing a good
business, as estancieros are not only willing but
anxious to sell their cattle at whatever price they

can. get.
"We regret to say that the news respecting the
gold mines of San Juan is very discouraging, but
the silver mines are getting excellent returns.
"The state of the interior provinces admits of
much improvement ; the people are restless simply
because destitute of capital or employment. They
have positively no occupation, and embrace politics
and electioneering in the hope of securing a liveli-
hood. We find great fault with the Government of
this country for its excessive apathy in agricultural
and industrial matters, and hope to see President
Mitre, in the coming year, adopt a new line of policy
in this respect.
"The market openedvery weak this morning, and
specie displayed a downward tendency ; subse-
quently, no doubt owing to the general conviction
that Flores has suffered a defeat, specie grew firm ;
paper money, however, is scarce, and collections
most unsaleable. Loans for 30 days in the currency
are freely made at 2 per cent per month, and na-
tional bonds hypothecated as collateral security.
" A great number of bills of exchange were offered
on the market to-day at as high a rate as 49, but
the rate of first-class bills cannot be quoted higher
than 49k.
" The wool market is very depressed, although
some large sales were made in the North Plaza as
high as 97."

CATTLE SHOW IN BRAZIL.--The Co rreio Paull:S-
tan°, a paper published in Sao Paulo, gives an arnus-
ingiaccount of what it states to have been a ceremony of a
perfectly novel charactar, not only in that province itself,
but also in the empire of Brazil. The first cattle show on
record there, as it appears, took place in Sao Paulo on the
23d of December last. The idea, according to the Correio,
originated with the superintendent of the Sao Paulo Rail-
way, Mr. J. J. Aubertin, and was quickly responded to by
the whole staff, who made up a list of subscriptions which
allowed of the distribution of several handsome premiums.
The meeting gave rise to the liveliest curiosity among the
inhabitants of the city and the district, who attended in a
considerable number, in spite of a most unpropitious after-
noon. Happily, however, the large locomotive shed of the
railway was placed at the disposal of the meeting by Mr.
P. W. Sharpe, the resident contractor, where cattle and all
were well sheltered, and where an admirable distribution of
certain railway material quickly converted the interior into
a compact cattle-market. The animals exhibited consisted
of oxen, sheep, and pigs, and the following premiums are re-
ported as having been presented to the several successful
competitors by her Excellency the Marchioness of Santos,
who, in spite of the bad weather, attended expressly for the
occasion, viz. :—Ten guineas for the best ox, to Senor J.
A. de Borba Cujo ; six guineas for the second best ox, to
Senor Candido J. Silvo ; six guineas for the best sheep, to
Senor Cujo ; three guineas for, the second best, to Senor
Chox ; two guineas for the best pig, to Senor Cujo ; and
one guinea and a half for the second to Mr. P. W.
Sharpe. Mr. Sharpe also exhibited a most beautiful fat
cow, to which the judges were reluctantly compelled
to deny a prize, from the wording of the regulations.
The judges were four in number—three Brazilians and
one Englishman,—viz., Senors Commendador Fidelis
Prates, Dr. Martinho Prado, J. R. dos Santos Camargo, and
Mr. H. T. Jarvis, a gentleman on the contractor's staff. A
formal report of the proceedings, drawn by Dr. Fidencio
Prates, the hon. secretary, and signed by the judges, was
presented in duplicate to the Camera Municipal of the city,
and to his Excellency the President of the Province (Con-
selheiro Joao Crispiniano Soares, who acknowledged it in
It handsome despatch. The novelty of the whole affair
appears to have been warmly appreciated by the Paulistas,
who, we understand, contemplate an annual repetition of
our English ceremony. Indeed, from all accounts, there
is no excuse whatever for the province not producing and
sending to market animals of a first-class character. At
present, however, there is a great lack not ;only of good
producers, but likewise of good butchers. The sheep are
for the most part miserable, and mutton properly so called
can scarcely be said to make its appearance at table at all.
In meat and in vegetables too the city is very poorly pro-
vided ; yet, with a little care and industry, vegetable and
animal would flourish as elsewhere. This want of variety
in vegetables, combined with the abundance of pork and
bacon always on hand, leads a great portion of the people
to confine themselves to this last sort of food, mixed only
with the dry, black bean of the country ; hence the preva-
lence of scrofula. Two simple conditions onlyare required
to remove this stigma in a land where the bounties of na-
ture have been so much talked about as to have become a
stale subject—viz., exertion on the part of the producer.
and a generous support on the part of the consumer ; this
latter most especially. As the province will now very
shortly have a fine railway to develope its resources, it is
to be hoped its people will lose no time in bestirring;them-
selves in reference to the noble branch of industry which
relates to the breed of cattle—an element of progress not
less important in an agricultural than in a sanitary point of
view, and if rightly pursued sure to be highly remunerative.
THE COUNTESS DANNER.—We hear that the
Countess Danner, the morganatic wife of the late King of
Denmark, is about to marry Count Silfwerstolpe, descen-
dant of a very ancient Swedish family, and that the mar-
riage will take place at Nice,