The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-24 00:00:00

CORN EXCHANGE.

The supply of English wheat fresh up to this morning's
market was very moderate, and the demand, though not to
say active, ruled steady, and prices were well supported.
The show of samples of foreign wheat was tolerably ex•
tensive, and a fair business was transacted in most descrip-
tions at full quotations.
Floating cargoes of grain changed hands to a moderate
extent, and the currencies ruled firm.

Barley, notwithstanding that the supply on offer was
limited, moved off slowly at Monday's fall in its value.
Malt was in slow request at late rates.
Good and fine oats supported previous quotations, but
inferior samples were rather cheaper than on Monday.
Beans and peas changed hands slowly on former terms.
For flour there was a moderate, but by no means exten-
sive demand, at full currencies.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
380 530 i 1,850 GO 1 810 sacks.
Irish. .. 2,380 1,
Foreign ........ 30,3;0 2,355 8,680

sks.
52,000 brls.

HOW EIIIANCIPA7ED GROES

THRIVE.

____ _e_

(Frodi Olinstead's Tow eel/ in the Cotton Eingdoin.)
I have been visiting a farm, cultivated entirely by free
labour. The proprietor told mo that he was first led to dis-
use slave labour, not from any economical considerations,
but because he had become convinced that there was
an essential wrong in holding men in forced servitude,
with any other purpose than to benefit them alone,
and because he was not willing to allow his own
children, to be educated as slave-masters, His lather
) had been a large slaveholder, and he felt very strongly
the bad influence it had had on his own character,
Ho wished me to be satisfied that Jefferson uttered
a great truth when he asserted that slavery was more
pernicious to the white race than to the black, Although,
therefore, a chief part of his inheritance had been in slaves,
he had liberated them all. Most of them had by his advice
gone to Africa. These he had frequently heard from.
Except a child that had been drowned, they were, at his
lest account,
all alive in general good health, and satisfac-
torily prospering. He had lately received a letter from one
of them, who told him that he was " trying to preach the
Gospel," and who had evidently greatly improved, both
intellectually and morally, since he left here. With regard
to those going north, and the common opinion that they en-
countered much misery, and would be much better off here,
he said that it entirely depended on the general character and
habits of the individual ; it was true of those who were
badly brought up, and who had acquired indolent and
vicious habits, especially if they were drunkards, but if of
some intelligence and well trained, they generally repre-
sented themselves to be successful and contented.
He mentioned two remarkable cases that had come under
his own observation of this kind. One was that of a man
who had been free, but by some fraud and informality of his
papers, was re-enslaved. He ran away, and afterwards ne-
gotiated by correspondence with his master, and purchased
his freedom. This man he had accidentally met 15 years
afterwards in a Northern city ; he was engaged in profitable
and increasing business, and showed by his books that
he was possessed of property to the amount of 10,000
dollars. He was living a great deal more comfortably and
wisely than ever his old master had done. The other case
was that of a coloured woman who had obtained hoe
freedom and who had become apprehensive that she was
about to be fraudulently made a slave again. She fled to
Philadelphia, where she was nearly starved at first. A
little girl who heard her begging in the streets to be
al owed to work for bread, told her that her mother was
wanting some washing done, and she followed her home.
Her mother, not knowing her, was afraid to trust her with
the things to be washed. She prayed so earnestly for the
job, however, suggesting that she might be locked into a
room until she had completed it—that it was given to her.
So she commenced life in Philadelphia. Ten years after-
wards he had accidentally met her there ; she recognised
him immediately, recalled herself to his recollection, mani-
fested the greatest joy at seeing him, and asked him to ,
come to her house, which he found a handsome three-story
building, furnished really with elegance; and she pointed
out to him from the window three houses in the vicinity
that she owned and rented. She showed great anxiety to
have her children well educated, and was employing the
best instructors for them which she could procure in Phila-
delphia.

A FACSIMILE 01 THE ORIGINAL

AUTOGRAPH OF GRAY'S ELEGY.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
When a man gives £l3l for a sheet of post paper con-
taining a copy of verses, he is well entitled to prize his
acquisition, and give it all the distinction he can. This
draught of Gray's Elegy is finely photographed by Cun-
dall, Downes, and Co., from a MS. belonging to Mr. R. C.
Wrightson. Gray had given a MS. to his friend and bio-
grapher, Mason. Mason left it to his curate, Mr. Bright,
and the curate to his son, who sold it to Mr. Penn, of
Manor House, near Slough, for £lOO. Still rising in value
the precious sheet was again offered for sale in 1854, and
was purchased by Mr. Wrightson, for the large sum above
mentioned, The neat handwriting of Gray (he always
wrote with a a crowquill), is faithfully rendered, and the
variations between this draught and the finally revised and
printed copy are curious. Six verses appear to have been
omitted, or at least melted down, as it were, into lines and
phrases subsequently employed :

" The thoughtless World to Majesty must bow,
Exalt the brave, and idolise success ;
But more to Innocence their safety owe
Than Power and Genius e'er conspired to bless.
And thou who, mindful of the unhonoured Dead,
Dost in these notes their artless tale relate,
By night and lonely contemplation led
To linger in the lonely walks of Fate,
Hark how the sacred calm that reigns around
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease :
In still small accents whisp'ring from the ground
A grateful earnest of eternal peace.
No more with Reason and thyself at strife,
Give anxious cares and endless wishes room ;
But through the cool, sequester'd vale of life
Pursue the silent tenour of thy doom."
In another omitted verse we have a fine little cabinet
picture :

" Him we have seen the greenwood side along,
'While o'er the heath he hied, his labour done,
Ott as the woodlark piped her farewell song,
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun."
And the following very beautiful stanza occurs immediately
before the epitaph :

" There scattered oft the earliest of ye year,
By hands unseen are frequent vilets found ;
The robin loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground."
Another stanza is thus given :

46 Some village Cato, who, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant f his fields withstood ;
Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest;
Some Caesar guiltless of his country's blood."
Mason, with excellent taste, suggested that English instead
of classical examples should be cited, and Gray substituted
Hampden for Cato, Milton for Tully, and Cromwell for
Caesar. Some of the other variations are curious, and every
alteration is an improvement. The line—

" E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires,"
stands in this first draught—

" And buried ashes glow with social fires."
The original idea, however, is in Chaucer—
" Yet in our ashes cold is fire yreken."
The last verse of the poem stands thus in the original :
" No farther seek his merits to disclose,
.Nor seek to draw thenifi•om their dread abode
(Ills frailties there in trembling hope repose) ;
The bosom of his Father and his God."
By comparing this with the revised version it will be seen
how much the poet improved the expression of the senti-
ment. Gray was an exquisite artist, and laboured at the
conceptions with equal diligence and taste. He perhaps
refined too much, but it was only by careful correction, com-
bined with consummate taste and genius, that such highly-
finished productions as this Elegy and the Odes could have
been produced. The circumstances attending the publica-
tion of the Elegy are thus related by the editor of the fac-
simile :

"Shenstono enumerates among the apologies commonly
made by persons guilty of a violation of modesty' in com-
mencing as authors, the accidental elopements of a com-
position,' the danger of an imperfect and surreptitious pub-
lication, the indiscreet pressure of friends, the pious and
well-meant frauds of acquaintances, and the irresistible
commands of persons in high life. So copies of the Elegy,'
being handed about by the indiscreet Horace Walpole, one
fell into the hands of the editor of a piratical publication,
called The Magazine of Magazines, who at once wrote to
the author to inform him of his intention to print, and to
request the honour of further communications. The poet,
of course, declined, and wrote to his friend Walpole, 'I
have but one bad way left to escape the honour thewould
inflict upon me; and therefore am obliged toms desire you
would make Dodsley print it immediately (which be
edbu, t 4 wlft th;
, out my name :' and he subsequently
done in less than a week's time),
from
ynn remarked, me °lrk'
his hands b
should like it better.' Horace Walpole accord-
inglywould add a line or two to say it came into y
accident,
penned an advertisement to the reader, assuring him
that accident only brought the poem before the public,
although an apology was unnecessary to any but the author ;
and the poet in acknowledgment writes, I thank you for
your advertisement, which saves my honour.' Among
many foolish fashions which have gone out since then, the
fashion which made it necessary to publish the Elegy in
a Country Churchyard' by the aid of such ingenious hypo-
crisy is among the least to be regretted. The poem was
published in February, 1751, in quarto, with the quaint
title of An Elegy wrote in a Country Churchyard,' price
6d. ; the title- page being decorated with skulls,hour-glasses,
and cross-bones, in white upon a black bar. It was anony-
mous here, and so continued to be published for many
years ; but the rogues of the Magazine of Magazines had
no such delicacy. They hurried it into print a few
days before the active Dodsley could be ready with the
author's edition. The plan of the Magazine of Magazines
was to introduce its pieces of poetry and prose by the ma-
chinery of a supposed club of convivial gentlemen of liter-
ary tastes. Accordingly, in their February number
Hilario rising remarks—' Gentlemen, give me leave to
sooth my own melancholy and amuse you in a most noble
manner with a full copy of verses by the very ingenious
stanzas
Mr. Gray, of Peterhouse, Cambridge. They are
written in a country charchyard.' By
this
n his fame
indiscretion
the reluctant poet was drawn into publicity, d
2
began to be heard of, even in the quiet retreat of Stoke."
The editcr assigns the locality of the Elegy to Stoke-
Pogeis, where Gray's aunt resided, and his mother are
where, in the quiet
little churchyard of Stoke the poet from the station at
and
buried. The spot is about two miles
Slough, and is eminently beautiful, realising the inimitable
description in the poem.

DEATH OF MR. JOHN MASTERMAN.-0110 of the
most honoured amongst the citizens of London has just
passed away peacefully from amongst us. Mr. John Mas-
terman, the head of the well-known banking firm, who
died yesterday morning, at the
aydevaranl
It has fallen to few men holding the
position i
represented the City in the Conservative interest from the
cBeldlhaetgoedt hiodfe
stloml. yearl a
iiBs e
so many friends and so few
i
enemes
during a long political career. Twice returned at
the head of the poll, he was a tower of strength to the
Conservative cause, and his name will ever be associated
with its chief triumph in the City. Respected equally
in those circles into which his daily avocations took
him and in the House of Commons, his opinions were al-
ways characterised by so much moderation and solid good
sense that he reflected back on the constituency which had
elected him the dignity with which their confidence had
invested him ; and we need only turn to the elections
that have taken place since his retirement from political
life to realise the loss to the Conservative party occasioned
by it. Death at the age of 81, closing a well-spent life,
and an honourable and useful career, leaves little to regret
save to the near circle of relatives and friends. Yet it is
almost with a sense of bereavement that we pay this last 1
tribute of respect to Mr, Alasternian.—Morning Herald: i