The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-27 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This day.

LONDON, April 27.—Wind this day at noon—North-
Westerly; moderate breeze and fine weather.
OFF THE LIZARD, April 26.—Wind S.W.—Arrived.—
Flying Fish, from Barbadoes.

FALMOUTH, April 26.—Wind S.E.—Arrived—Scottish
Chief, from Melbourne.

FOWEY' April 25.—Wind S.E.—Sailed—Besaie, for
Trinidad.

PORTSMOUTH, April 26.—Wind N.E.LArrived—Rox-
burgh Castle, from Sydney.
CARDIFF, April 25.—Wind N.E.—Sailed—Tangier, for
Romberg; lda Jardine, for Callao; Lucie and Harriet, for
Bombay ; Annie Monroe, for Mauritius ; Psyche, for Rio
Janeiro.

NEWPORT, April 26.—Wind N.E.—Sailed—Orion, for
Vera Cruz.

MUMBLES, April 25.—Wind N.E.—Arrived—Polar Star,
,rom Caldeira.

SWANSEA, April 26.—Wind S.W.—Sailed—William
Jackson, for Valparaiso.

(BT MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
Arrived, April 26.—Wilholmina, from Porto Rico.
Arrived, April 27.—Carl Frederick, steamer, from Demo-
7ara ; Earl of Auckland, steamer, from Rotterdam ; Pan-
ther, steamer, from Boulogne.

DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Passed—Henry, for Quebec ; John Gilspick, for Boston ;
Palawan, for Sydney—all from London.

"NOT AT HOME."--Suppose, then, instead of these
three words expressing all they do and just what
you desire they should express—out of the house, engaged,
indisposed to receive visitors generally, or indisposed to
receive that special visitor in particular—at any rate a six
foot bar put up between you and the street door which not
the most pushing can very well force open, you were obliged
to tell the exact truth, and tell it too by Mary Maid's lips.
" Oh, sir, missis is having her new wig tried on, and please
she can't see you." " Please, ma'am, missis is at home, but
she says as how you are so unpleasant to her she can't abear to
see you, and you do so run on about yourself, and you have
such a bonnet as gave her the jaundice to look at." "Yes,
sir, master and missis is both at home, but master's in the
dining-room a-blowing up missis awful, and missis's eyes
they are as red as red, and she'd rather you did not see her
look such a fright !" "Yes, sir, they're all at home, but
there's young Mr. Sparrowhawk in the drawing-room
aloig with Miss Em'ly he is, and they are looking out for
him to say something like a gentleman to-day, for they've
all slinked down stairs and left them alone !" These are
only a few of the possible features of a perfectly unveiled
and honest truth ; and pretty possibilities they are ;
lovely features, certainly, to have handed round to all the
gossips of your set ! Duns ; it may be bailiffs (I have
known such things happen before now) ; poor relations
whom you love and value,and of whose sensitive pride you
are tenderly careful, but whose gowns and bonnets are
unmistakably shabby, and your visitors a purse-proud
couple, who will weigh them only according to the,money
worth of their appearance ; washing day and everything
pervaded by a smell of soap and steam and soda; your
teeth at the dentist's—no one suspecting they are " den-
tists' triumphs" at all; the off-day of the hair dyeing,
when you are a mixture of purple and grey ; Christmas
bills and papa in a state of fury and effervescence ; a case of
mild scarlet fever in the nursery, and you anxious to con-
ceal the fact yet not subject any one to danger; we can
imagine hundreds of instances in which no one would like
to tell the naked truth, and where the naked truth would
be quite unnecessary, and indeed do more harm than good.
Yet my friends and combatants used to gravely assert that
" not at home" was an untruth utterly inadmissible, and
that " engaged" was the nearest approach to a subterfuge
possible to be allowed. Engaged ! I wonder how many
people would take that for an answer ?—Dickens's " All
the Year Round."

THE g.LORENCE NIGHTINGALE LIFEBOAT.—The
people of Derby on the 22d inst. witnessed a most
interesting sight in the launch of their lifeboat-in the river
Derwent. The lifeboat was christened by Miss Wilmot
" The Florence Nightingale," after the distinguished lady
of that name, who is a native of Derbyshire. The banks
of the river were thronged by thousands of spectators who
heartily cheered as the boat glided into the water. The
cost of the lifeboat has been collected by the people of
Derby and presented to the National Lifeboat Institution.
The boat is to be stationed at Sunderland, where she
arrived on the 25th instant.