The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-04 00:00:00

THE SUE, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 18b5.

which may before this have " carried the war into
the enemy's camp," even though that camp be on
the high seas. The Chilian question bids fair to
add considerably to the perplexities of 1866. In
the meantime M. ROSALES, the Chilian Minister in
Paris, has published his reply to the Circular of the
Spanish Foreign Minister. M. ROSALES enters
very fully into the various statements made by M.
DE CASTRO, as might be expected, putting a very
diflerent construction on the matter. M. DE COSTA,
after disavowing M.LTAVIRA because he had not
kept to his instructions, refers to a Circular which
the Chilian Foreign Minister addressed to his
diplomatic agents at the various courts, ask-
ing them to use their influence to obtain the
approval of the arrangement with M. TAVIRA.
Such a Circular, says M. ROSALES never existed.
He himself was the only one who received a de-
spatch of the character described by M. de CASTRO,
and it was dictated by the anxiety of the Chilian
Government to remove every possible cause of
misunderstanding between their own country and
Spain. It was no secret at Valparaiso that there
was no difference between Admiral PAREJA and
M. TAVIRA, and the Chilian Government fear that
" mischievous rumours might prevent the QUEEN'S
Government from accepting the arrangement"
which had been in fact concluded. M. ROSALES
points out that the Madrid Official Gazette
of the 23d November publishes the instruc-
tions given to M. TAVIRA on the 24th of
February, in which there was no mention of
a salute to the Spanish flag. Fresh instructions
were, however, sent on the 25t of March—a month
after the first ones—in which M. TAVIRA was de-
sired to demand the salute. " What, then," asks
M. ROSALES, " had occurred between the 24th of
February and the 25th of March, that could occa-
sion this fresh demand ? Nothing, for no com-
plaint had been made against Chili." It appears
that the recall of M. TAVIRA was principally due to
his having continued the negotiations, according to
his first instructions, without introducing the ques-
tion of the salute. Such, at least, is the apparent
reason, the real motive being more truly expressed
in the decree appointing the Admiral, " finding in
you the qualities which the mission requires," a ques-
tionable compliment, judging from subsequent events
M. ROSALES finds occasion to criticise the Admi-
ral's observance of his instructions. It seems he
was told to confer with " the Plenipotentiary ap-
pointed by the President of Chili," which he did not
do. He was desired to hold a conference with the
Diplomatic Body, but M. ROSALES remarks that in
this case he should have proceeded to Santiago, since
it could scarcely be presumed that the Diplomatic
Body would perform a journey of 30 leagues, and
then proceed in a body on board the City of Mad-
rid to confer with the Admiral. M. Rosaus
adds with a quiet satire directed against M. de
CASTRO'S attack upon the diplomatists. " Had
the honourable members of the Diplomatic Body
acted thus they would undoubtedly have
been blamed by their respective Governments."
They corresponded with the Admiral, however,
and the paragraph which M. ROSALES quotes from
their second letter is sufficiently significant. They
believe that the Chilian Government would not
have refused explanation had they been asked in a
friendly manner, but it was impossible for it to
grant demands made in the absolute terms and in
the menacing tone by means of a peremptory ulti-
matum. The Spanish Minister asserts that the in-
vidious :selection of the anniversary of Chilian
independence for the reception of the ultimatum
was not premeditated, but adds, " Even if it were
true, it is not worth the trouble of being discussed."
M. ROSALES is probably not mistaken in regarding
it as an international affront to the Republic, and
it was certainly not calculated to conciliate either
rulers or people, while, happily, it has not suc-
ceeded in frightening them into a humiliating sub-

mission.

Professor Anderson.—St. James's Hall.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, DEC. 4.

The Moniteur Belge of to-day says :
" The new phase upon which the illness of the
King has entered had not altered up to yesterday
evening. But the improvement in his Majesty's
health has not made progress."

TURKEY.
CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC. 3.

It is asserted that a new loan of six millions, bearing
6 per cent. interest, to be issued at 60, has been con-
cluded by the Porte with the Credit Mobilier of
Paris.

LITERATURE.

Chronicles of Carlingford.

The Perpetual Curate. New Edition. One vol.,
pp. 430. Wm. Blackwood and Sons.

In originality if not in power, the " Chronicles of
Carlingford" may take rank with the " Chronicles
of the Canongate." In vivacity, if not in eloquence,
they may be placed side by side with the " Chro-
nicles of Clovernook." And this without imply-
ing thereby that her admirers can seriously claim
for Mrs. Oliphant any such extravagant elevation
in the literary Walhalla, as might be supposed, to
rank her powers in their capacity as upon a
level with the creative genius of Scott, or even
upon an equal footing with the caustic wit of Jer-
rold. Whatever vitality there is in these pages, it
is the vitality of a woman's -vivacious, volatile; ver-
satile, and refined animation. If there is an appreci-
able lack of any quality in the whole run of this series,
it is in that strength or force of purpose which tends
so recognisably in the grander schools of imagi-
native literature, to realise to the world's recogni-
tion, as though they had been realities instead of
dreams, here the poet's, there the novelist's ima-
ginings. In " Salem Chapel," it is true, there is one
exceptional character, standing out as vividly drawn,
as substantially real, as humorously true to nature
and to life, as almost any creation that could be
named in the whole range of fiction. A com-
mon-place, vulgar, homely personage, enough, in
his way, but inimitable in his intense individuality.
Who that has ever read "Salem Chapel"—and those
who have not, as yet, would do well to set about
reading it immediately—will not fail to recog-
nise, upon the instant, that allusion is here
made to no other than Tozer the dissenting
butterman ! A character somewhat of the same
kind, but not nearly as good in its way,
appears here, in the pages of this last completed
work of the series—namely, Elsworthy, the book-
seller. But, in a still more striking proportion
than that in which we may suppose a bookseller to
be above a butterman, is the Elsworthy of " The
Perpetual Curate" below the Tozer of " Salem
Chapel." Vulgar, pig-headed, crass in their ortho-
dox self-sufficiency, they both are. But the vul-
garity, the pigheadedness, the crass self-sufficiency
of Tozer has about it an unctuousness to which
Elsworthy can lay no claim whatever, an unctuous-
ness beyond the reach of any librarian, even a
librarian such as Elsworthy, a sublimated unctuous-
ness, as we may say, only possible in and worthy of
—a butterman. There is one peculiarity in regard
to these novels of our authoress, in which she
appears to us to be almost unrivalled, to be entirely
unapproachable. We mean that by which she con-
trives to crowd within one family picture a throng
of brothers and sisters so numerous as nearly to
bewilder the reader, but of whom, throughout, the
characters are, by the author's hand, from first to
last, to a very nicety, most dexterously and deli-
cately discriminated. Something of this kind was
accomplished some time since, with a good deal of
success, by Miss Yonge, in her domestic story of
" The Daisy Chain." And Mrs. Oliphant her-
self, long before " The Chronicles of Carlingford"
had been commenced, evidenced her skill in
the performance of this literary feat with signal
ability in the opening of the story about the little
brown " Zaidee." There, too, was a whole, large,
rambling housefull of members of one family—
brothers and sisters galore ! But, it is as nothing
beside the feat accomplished in this way by the
Carlingford Chronicler in the delineation and
discrimination of the family to which the
Perpetual Curate belongs, the family of old
Squire Wentworth. There is the Squire's
family—rather, perhaps, we should say there are
Squire's families, seeing that he has married more
than once, having a numerous offspring in each in-
stance—there is the Squire's family, and there are
the collateral branches of it ! A very world in little
of itself—so far as relates to diversity of character
or of idiosyncracies ! There is old Squire Went-
worth himself. There is the Reverend Frank Went-
worth, Perpetual Curate of St. Roque's. There is
his brother the Reverend —or, to be plain, ex-
Reverend—Gerald Wentworth, formerly a member
of the English Church, now a convert to Catholic-
ism. There is Jack Wentworth, the eldest of the
brothers, the old squire's handsome scapegrace heir
—the best drawn character of them all to our mind
—the very beau-ideal of the perfection to which
cool effrontery can be carried in the person of a
comely and accomplished but utterly, worthless
vaurien. There are all the other brothers and sis-
ters, step by step, through the various stages of
childhood, down to all-but infancy. And
then there are the three old maiden
aunts—Miss Wentworth, the confirmed invalid
Miss Leonora Wentworth, and, best of all three,
poor, dear, tearful, timerous, all but hysterical, Miss
Dora Wentworth. Besides whom, have we not, here,
among the many amusing characters introduced to
us for our entertainment in "The Perpetual Curate,"
the Rev. Mr. Morgan, the Rector—and, we were
going to say, the Reverend Mrs. Morgan, the
Rectoress—of Carlingford 1 To say nothing of our
old friends the Wodehouses—including among them
that wretched ne'er-do-weel Tom Wodehouse—the
brute ! Altogether it is a delightful picture of life
in a country town, this third division in the unrolling
before us of " The Chronicles of Carlingford." A
fourth is still in progress from month to month in
the beloved double-columned pages of Blackwood,
where they have each of them in turn made their
first appearance—these pleasant " Chronicles of Car-
lingford." We should be very loth, however, to
believe that the last of the series is thrA same current
serial tale about " Miss Marchmont." For we would
not willingly have pass away from amongst us, in her
distinctive character as such (even though it be to
produce works of art as exquisite in their symmetri-
cal proportions, as her last sad tale entitled
" Agnes") the historian of " The Rector," the deli-
neator of " The Doctor's Family," the celebrant of
" Salem Chapel," the authoress of the story here
immediately under notice, this story of " The Per-
petual Curate," the serio-comic annalist of the career
of " Miss Marchmont," in a word, the already
world-famous Carlingford Chronicler.

LA VIE DE CESAIL—A portion of the second
volume of the Emperor Napoleon's " Life of Caesar" is
now in the hands of the printers and publishers, Messrs
Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.

THE " GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE" now entering on
its 136th year, and once edited by Dr. Johnson, will be
published by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans from and after
the Ist of January.
THE LAST TOWN RESIDENCE of LORD PALMER-
STON is about, it is said, to disappear from Picca-
dilly, to be replaced by a Roman Catholic chapel. The
site was once occupied by an inn ; next by the present
mansion, which has been known by the names of Egre-
mont, Cholmondeley, and Cambridge House, from the
names of its various tenants, previous to its occupancy by
Lord Palmerston. One of its early noble tenants used to take
his chop and spend his evening at "the Glo'ster Coffee
House," when his lady had a rout. "He didn't care for
such things," he said, "and liked to be quiet." The third
Earl Cholmondeley acquired Houghton by marrying Sir
Robert Walpole's only legitimate daughter. The son of
the first Marquis Cholmondeley (Lord Malpas) embraced
the Roman Catholic faith, was converted from his conver-
sion, by the mother of the lady whom he afterwards mar-
ried, and susequently left the Established Church for the
Wesleyan connexion. During the Cambridge occupation,
her Majesty was leaving the house, when she was assaulted
by the last of the imbeciles who hoped to become celebrated
by such a guilty proceeding.

MISS BATEMAN.—But one week remains (says the
Manchester Guardian) of this talented lady's en-
gagement at the Theatre Royal. Those who have not
yet seen her Leah will have the opportunity of doing so on
the first three evenings of next week. On Thursday Miss
Batethan will take her benefit, and appear as Bianca, in
Dean Milman's tragedy of " Fazio." On Friday she will
play in the "Lady of Lyons," and on Saturday in all pro-
bability " Fazio" will be repeated. From Manchester
Miss Bateman proceeds to Bristol, and thence to London,
where she will give a farewell performance as Juliet, on
the 22d December, in Her Majesty's Theatre. A rumour
has been in circulation to the effect that Miss Bateman is
married. Such is not the case, but we believe that at the
close of her three months' engagement, which commences
in New York on January 15, she will retire from the stage,
and be married to a gentleman who, like herself, is a native
of one of the Southern States of America.
TRADE BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND THE UNITED
STATES.—The exports of Swiss goods to the United States,
from the district of the United States Consulate of
Zurich, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1865, amounted to
18,810,458 fr.