The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-24 00:00:00

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StIN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24, 1862.

MIS DAY'S MARKETS.

CORN EXCHANGE.

Although the country markets held on Saturday were
but moderately supplied with wheat, the demand for all
kinds was in a sluggish state, and prices had a drooping
tendency. All spring corn moved off heavily at barely
previous rates. In flour very little was oing.
Throughout the continent the grain tr de has continued
remarkably quiet; but in America rathe more money has
been paid for both wheat and flour.
Up to our market last week the arrivals of English
produce were much restricted. From abroad we received
9,895 quarters of wheat, 3,725 oats, 2,121 beans, 797 tares,
9,581 linseed, 1,274 rapeseed, 26 sundryseeds ; 1,170 sacks
and 20,022 barrels of flour.
Fresh up to this morning's market the arrivals of Eng-
lish wheat were on a very moderate scale, and, generally
speaking, the condition of the samples was decidedly infe-
rior. All dry parcels changed hands steadily, but by no
means readily, and last Monday's quotations were well sup-
ported. Damp parcels, however. were only saleable by
submitting to lower prices, but there appeared to be no dis-
position to make purchases in them, even at reduced rates.
Our currency, therefore, for English wheat remains much
the same as on this day se'nnight.
There was a fair show of foreign wheat on the stands.
For the most part sales progressed slowly, and a limited
amount of business was transacted, at prices barely equal
to those realised on Monday last.
Floating cargoes of grain were in slow request, neverthe-
less the quotations were supported.
Good and fine malting barley met an improved sale, at
very full prices ; but inferior parcels, as well as grinding
and distilling sorts, moved off heavily, at about previous
rates.
The malt trade was dull, on former terms.
Although the supply of oats was by no means extensive,
the demand for them was in a sluggish state, and the cur-
rencies were barely maintained.
The show of beans was less extensive. There was, how-
ever, no improvement in the inquiry for them, yet prices
ruled firm.
Peas—the supply of which was only moderate—sold
t idnuflla,voaurndotfhbeuyvearlsu.ecoof lumryerican
slowly, arutoulalretdetrrsaaodtmease.wwhaas
qualitiesThefl
mar-
kets also were the turn cheaper.

CURRENCY PER IMPERJAL MEASURE.
Wheat—Essex and Kent, red, new
Ditto, old —s —8
Ditto, white, new 6lB 68s
Ditto, old —B —8
.INorfolk and Lincoln, red, old —B 8
Ditto, new
Talavera,
Rye—
Barley—Grinding 2Bs 298
Malting 368 428
Malt—Suffolk and Norfolk sos 66s
Brown
Kingstown and Ware Ms 70s
Chevalier 66■ 688
Oats —Yorkshire and Lincolnsh., Feeding 2lB 258
Potato
Youghal and Cork, black l9O 23s
Cork, white l9s 24s
Scotch, Feeding 238 28s
Beans—Tick
Pigeons,
Peas—Grey
Maple
White 3BB 418
Boilers B3s 41.
Flour—Town-made
Suffolk 398 438
Stockton and Norfolk 39s 40.

moderate business has been passing, yet no change has
taken place in the quotations compared with our last report.
The first series of public sales of colonial wool for the year
are announced to commence on Thursday next. The arrivals
since last auctions consist of the following, to which must
be added about 5,000 bales left over from the last series :
Sydney 3,316 bales.
Victoria ...
Van Diemen's Land. 469 ~
Adelaide
New Zealand lO9 ~
Cape 19,133 „

Total.. 35,378 7)

TALLOW.

The tallow market continues dull, and a further decline
has taken place in the quotations, P.Y.C. being to-day
quoted at 46s per cwt; rough fat, 2s sid per 81b.

1858. 1859. 1860. 1861. 1862.
Stock this day.... 19,277 20,720 :,2.940 70,910 43.635
Price of Y.C.
—s Od - s Od 608 3d —s Od Os Od
52s 92 to's2s 6d to 60802 t0,5989d to 468 Od to
Delivery lastweek 1,938 1,432 1,2411 1,001 1,795
Ditto from June 1 87,987 82,036 65,922 61,435 96,952
Arrivals last week 390 1,110 694 802 173
Ditto from June 1 93.2 2 91,180 86.781 108,251 83,826
Price of Town . 55s 64 545 3d 618 9d 608 3d 48s Gd

asked a man without a sense of tune in him. " Because it
haunts me." "No wonder," said Foote, "you are ever
murdering it."
Foote praising the hospitality of the Irish, after one of
his trips to the sister kingdom, a gentleman asked him
whether he had ever been at Cork. " No, sir," replied
Foote ; " but I have seen many drawings of it."
Why learned men are to be found in rich men's houses,
and rich men never to be seen in those of the learned, was
mace asked of Foote. " Why," said he, "the first know
what they want, but the latter do not." .

TFIE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
The story of the production of this delicious little novel,
is one of the best known episodes in Goldsmith's history.
No incident of an author's life has become more popular :
painters have transferred it to their canvas, and biographers
to their pages, and our anecdote life of the novelist would
be incomplte without it.
The work had been no hasty effort, but a labour of love.
whenever the author could shift off the yoke of translation
or compilation. It is thought to have been commenced so
early as 1761, and it lay by him until the spring of 1763.
The circumstances attending its sale are too singular to be
told in any other words than those of Johnson, as reported
by Boa well :

" I received one morning," says Johnson, " a message
from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as
it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would
come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and
promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went
as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady
had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent
passion—l perceived that he had already changed my
guinea, and had a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him.
I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm,
and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be
extricated. He then told me he had a novel ready tor the
press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its
merit ; told the landlady I should soon return - and,
having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I
broUght Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent,
not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having
used him so ill."

Mrs. Piozzi gives the same anecdote with some varia-
tions; among others, that Johnson found Goldsmith with
his bottle of Madeira in the evening not the morning; and
Mr. Croker inclines to adopt this more favourable account.
Another version of the story is that Goldsmith insisted
on the landlady joining him in a bowl of punch.
Nearly two years elapsed ere the " Vicar of Wakefield"
was published ; when it rapidly obtained a popularity
which has lasted down to our time, and which is likely to
last as long as our language. It came out on the 27th of
March, 1755 ;, before the end of May a second edition was
called for ; in three months more, a third ; and so it went
on, widening a popularity that has Lever flagged.
Yet Johnson was deceived as to its succeeding : speaking
of the work to Boswell, some time subsequent to its publi-
cation. he observed, "I myself did not think it would have
had much success. It was written and sold to a bookseller
before the 'Traveller,' but published after, so little expec-
tation bai the bookseller from it. Had it been sold after the

......___ ~.._ __ .
' Traveller,' he_ might have had twice as much money,
though sixty guineas was no mean price."

GEORGE CO LM AN.
Colman and Bannister were dining one day with Lord
Erskine, the ex-chancellor, who, in the course of conversa-
tion on rural affairs, boasted that he kept on his pasture.
land nearly a thousand sheep. "I perceive, then," said
Colman, " your lordship has still an eye to the Woolsack."
One day, speaking of authorship as a profession, Colman
said, " It is a very good walking-stick, but very bad
crutches." (This is usually attributed to Sir Walter Scott.)
He was once asked if he knew Theodore Hook ? "Oh
yes," was his reply, " Hook and I (eye) are old asso-
ciates."

Narrative of the War with China in 1860. By
Lieutenant-Colonel G. T. Wolseley. Longman

and Co.
Although the public must be pretty well ac-
quainted with the history of this war, from the
perusal of the voluminous accounts of special corre-
spondents and Government despatches, a succinct
and comprehensive narration of the various events
of the campaign cannot fail to prove interesting.
Colonel Wolseley has contrived to combine a de-
tailed account of all the movements of the army
and flotilla, together with a description of the coun-
try, and the habits and customs of its strange inha-
bitants. The capture of the Takoo Forts is minutely
described. The Chinese had taken great pains and
spared no expense in their construction ; but, like
most Chinese works, it was too complete, for' each
fort being surrounded by two ditches, some 20 feet
apart, the space between them being planted " as
thickly as close stubble, with sharp bamboo stakes,
to cross which on foot was almost impossible"—
thus, when the allies entered at the gate, the de-
fences, which had proved ineffectual to keep them
out, presented an insurmountable barrier to the
discomfited garrison when they desired to retreat.
In the arrangements for the attack the French, as is
usually the case, were far better prepared than the
English, who, in military affairs, generally con-
trive to be too elaborate, and thus often
baulk their object by being too secure.
The author, in deprecating certain arrangements,
has the justice to admit that it is easy to find fault
after the mischief is done.
" It is very easy when an undertaking of this kind is
over, to pick out faults in the arrangements made before-
hand, and many are the wiseacres afterwards, who say,
Oh, why was not so and so done?' How very stupid
to have done so and so ?' These remarks particularly
apply to hangers-on about the camp, travelling gentlemen,
and that class commonly known as adventurers. Errors
in judgment are frequently made in all warlike operations,
and such will ever be the case, as long as warfare presents
such a vast variety of combinations. One of these mistakes
was made in taking up a small pontoon bridge, instead of a
number of ladders, or a small plank-bridge made like a fire-
escape, to rest on wheels. As it happened, the pontoons
were not only useless for the assault, but were really a very
great impediment, as they blocked up the narrow cause-
way along vhich we had to advance, and exposed a large
number of men for a considerable time as they carried
them, and who had fre luently to stop until a wounded
man was removed from the party. A round shot passed
through one of the pontoons as we advanced and rendered
it quite useless. A few ladders made of bamboo, and a
small number of planks carried along withthem would have
enabled all to get across both ditches easily, whereas all
the English storming party, who actually captured the place
in conjunction with the French, struggled and clambered
across the wet, muddy ditch, having water nearly up to
their armpits ; the pontoons did not prove of any use, and
were the unfortunate cause of many wounds and several
lives being lost."
Before leaving the swamp on which the Takoo Forts
were built the author inspected the forts on the
south bank of the river, and from his observation
Colonel Wolseley understood the cause of the failure
of Admiral Hopein 1859. He vindicates the conduct
of the gallant admiral in making the attack, and shows
that although his rashness was censured on that
occasion, because of his want of success, yet had he
declined the encounter he would most probably
have met with far greater blame. He observes that
because the forts were taken with ease in 1858, it
did not follow that they should not be able to with-
stand an attack in 1859; and after describing all
the obstacles to be met with by a force attacking
from the sea, he sums up by stating it to be his be-
lief that were a resistance offered similar to that
which the land force encountered in the recent
attack, no troops in the world could capture the forts
from the sea. The melancholy affair of the cap-
ture of Mr. Parkes and his comrades, and the sub-
sequent deaths of the unfortunate Brabazon, Ander-
son, and Boulby, are related with every particular.
Col. Wolseley blames Mr. Parkes for dividing his
escort. This is no doubt right enough, but Mr.
Parkes's greatest mistakes seems to have been when
he found that the Chinese had not kept faith with
him, and were prepared to cut off his retreat, to
waste precious time in attempting to negotiate with
a people in whom his long experience must have
taught him no trust was to be placed, If when he
found his advance stopped by Chinese infantry, in-
stead of seeking their General, he had given
the order to charge, his party would have
reached the British lines as did Colonel Walker's
some few minutes previously. But for the fortu-
I nate circumstance that Col. Walker was called to
the assistance of a French officer and so got himself
involved, he and those with him would have shared
the fate of their less fortunate countrymen; "but
finding that to remain longer in the Chinese lines
without fighting was impossible, and for so few
men to contend against crowds would have
been ridiculous, he called out to his party to ride
for their lives," and all (some half a dozen) started
at a gallop, and cut their way through with only
two wounded, although exposed to the fire of all
those near them, as well as the batteries. The de-
scription of Pekin and its fortifications are full of
interest. An amusing account of the sack of the
Summer Palace by the French is given, in which
the author maintains that soldiers are little better
than schoolboys on such occasions. He ridicules
the idea of the remonstrance made by the French
against the burning of the Palace afterwards by
the British. He thinks that after they had
taken or destroyed everything of value
in the building, it was rather out of place to deny
us the satisfaction of destroying the shell. After
leaving Pekin, Colonel Wolseley paid a visit to
Nankin, and he gives a very different account of
the rebels to that furnished by some other travellers.
He says that there is no regular form of Govern-
ment, that the soldiers, or rather mob, live by pil-
lage, and that if proof be required of the wanton
destruction of property perpetrated by these robbers
one need only look at the banks of the river above
the possessions of the self-called Christians, where
all is prosperity, and in their own territory, where
all is desolation. That the Chinese hold human
life cheap is well known, but
it would seem that
they possess a certain discretion in their wholesale
slaughter. There is a certain resemblance between
the Mormons and Chinese with regard to women,
at least that portion of the celestial empire under
the rule of the Eastern King, who calls in the
assistance of religion to secure his own ends :
THE FAIR SEX AT NANKIN.

"In Nankin, the population of which is now very
small, there are about two women for every man. Most of
the inhabitants have been captured, a large proportion hav-
ing been taken from Soochow; and unlike any other town
which I had hitherto visited in the empire, the women
walked and rode about in public, and did not pretend, as
Chinese ladies usßally do, to be in the least degree afraid
of foreigners, nor did they seek to shun us. 7 hey were
almost all beautifully dressed in the curiously worked silks
and satins of Soochow. With admirable discrimination
the followers of the Heavenly King seem exclusively to
reserve the good looking women in the almost general mas-
sacres which follow their victories. Old women and female
children there were, we may say, none, although there Was
a very large proportion of boys. To be the husband of one
wife does not necessarily foam part of the nor