The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUNS LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6, 18b5.

vantage of the Prussians when they are not quite
so omnipotent as they are now, nor so unwisely
allowed to have their own way.

Austrian affairs are also most confused
and complicated at present, and, notwith-
standing the great exertions that are being
made by the Government, very little is really
being effected, and it cannot be said that any prac-
tical result has been arrived at. The Ban of
Croatia has been summoned to the Council at
Vienna, and his departure from Agram was the
signal for a kind of demonstration being made.
One ofsthe national party addressed him, and urged
upon him the necessity of making known to the
Imperial Government the state of public feeling in
that locality. M. CEP ULIST, as Vice-President of
the Diet of the three united kingdoms of
Croativ, , Slavonia, and Dalmatia, declared
that it was expedient to tell the EM-
PEROR that they had no other wish than
to see their native country form part of a great,
undivided, and constitutional Austria, " all the com-
ponent parts of which shall enjoy equal privileges."
It was also stated to the Ban, as part of his mes-
sage, that great regret was experienced at the with-
drawal from the Diet of many members who disa-
greed as to the interpretation of the Standing Orders.
These dissentients have referred the case in question
to the Imperial Government as an arbitrator, in-
stead of settling the matter at home.
It is stated that the EMPEROR is, on the whole,
dissatisfied vith the doings of the Ban, and
perhaps this is no more than we might
have expected under the circumstances of the case.
Talk as they may, there is no real desire on the part
of the Imperial Government to witness an inde-
pendent constitution, or a free expression of opinion,
in the several States of the Empire. The difficulties
that environ the Austrians doubtless afford satisfac-
tion to the Cabinet of Berlin. The wily BISMARCK
has never been at a loss to take advantage of the
troubles of others ; and, be they friend or foe,
it is all the same. It is said that a
semi-official paper has denied the assertions
of a Paris journal, to the effect that Herr
Herr von BISMARCK instructed the President of the
Bank of Prussia to raise the rate of the 9th May dis-
count should any Prussian banking house take up
any of the Austrian Loan. This may or may not
be true, but it shows the state of things when such
a rumour gets afloat, and the credence that has
been attached to it speaks volumes as to the con-
duct of the Prussian Minister. It would seem as if
the two German Powers could neither be honest,
fair, nor faithful friends according to the interpreta-
tion of the terms by the laws of chivalry and
honour.

It seems that the arrangements entered into with
the Bhootanese are not at all of a satisfactory na-
ture. It has from the first been a mismanaged
affair, and the last bulletins do not improve its
character. It is said that the Deb-Rajah and his
advisers, who have all along inclined to the pacific
side, have intimated to the Engiish authorities that
they will not fight, and will yield to every demand
provided we increase the stipend which was formerly
paid to them for part of the Dooars. This condi-
tion is, we suppose, based upon the acknowledged
intention of the English to retain possession of
all the Dooars, but the notion of an increased
subsidy to the offenders is certainly a strange con-
clusion to the long-pending dispute. Bad as this is,
there is another side to the question which is still
worse. We have always heard of the divided autho-
rity in Bhootan as a fruitful source of evil, but the
latest development of it is that TONGS() PEULOW,
the leader of the mischief, is not inclined to agree
with the pacific theories of the Deb-Rajah, and
means to carry on the war on his own account. The
Deb-Rajah is powerless to deal with him, so that one
of our columns under General TURNER is forced to
undertake the office, and we have accordingly
undertaken the expenses of peace and war at the
same moment. This seems to be a very strange
conclusion to the business, and one which will seri-
ously encumber our Indian Exchequer. Even with
these favourable arrangements, no confidence is
placed in the good faith of the Bhootanese, so that
we seemed to have solved in a most satisfactory
manner the proverb of " How not to do it."

MEDITERRANEAN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPIIS•—Our
Malta correspondent writes as follows, under date
of November 23:—" The interruption which occurred on
the 16th inst., in the Malta and Alexandria cable on the
Benghazi section has at times interfered with the work-
ing of the line. At tbo present moment, however, lam
informed that the communication is comparatively satis-
factory, though I believe it is not likely to continue
long so. Immediate steps are to be taken to remove the
cause of the present fault, and the telegraph steamer
Hawk, which has just successfully completed the repair
of the Corfu and Otranto cable, is to be at once de-
spatched to Benghazi for this purpose."
STORM AND FLOOD IN TILE WEST.—During
Sunday and Monday the wind blew with considerable
force from various points, veering from the north-east to
the south and north-west. This occurring simultaneously
with the spring tides has occasioned floods in some places
and wrecks in others, but the port of Plymouth has escaped
without harm, although the tide on Monday morning was
remarkably high. Tho tide rose very high at Teignmouth,
and did much damage to the houses near the Den, over
which the waves dashed. Torbay, St. Austen, Mounts
Bay, and other places felt the effects of the storm.
COUNT BISMARCK'S VISIT TO FRANCE.— The
Memorial Diplomatique declared that it is in a posi-
tion to clear up the mystery connected with the recent
somewhat enigmatical article of the Constitutionnel relative
to Count Do Bismarck's visits to Paris and Biarritz. The
French journals, our contemporary observes, were very
naturally delicate of entering on the question, not being
very certain how their observations might be received ;
but, as it is not constrained to the same reserve, it has no
hesitation in explaining what is meant. Accordingly it
gives the subjoined particulars :—" In the deep-seated con-
viction of Count De Bismarck, the annexation of the Elbe
Duchies to the Prussian kingdom might be effected with-
out the slightest difficulty, if Prance would consent to pre-
serve a complete neutrality in face of the arrangements in
which Prussia flatters herself that sooner or later she shall
be able to force Austria to acquiesce. The calculation of
that statesman appears to be this : neither England nor
Russia will over draw the sword to save the sovereign inde-
pendence of the Duchies. Austria herself, whose finances
so much require to be husbanded, will not have recourse
to war for a cause which in reality does not affect either
her interests ors !her honour. Not being able to offer to
Austria any territorial compensation for the-abandonment
of her rights of co-proprietorship in the Duchies, Count
De Bismarck was disposed to offer to the Vienna Cabinet
a very largo pecuniary indemnity, considerable enough,
indeed, to relieve efficaciously all its financial embarrass-
ments. If we are well informed, he even named the sum
of 80,000,000 thalers (300,000,000 francs) as the sum which
Prussia would be ready to pay into the Imperial Treasury
in return for the renunciation by Austria of her rights of
condominium. In order to carry out that project, it became
necessary to place the Vienna Cabinet in the impossibility
of contracting a loan. Count de Bismarck, who is above all
a man of action, himself understood to thwart all the efforts
of M. Do Beke, sent to Paris with that object by the Aus-
trian Minister of Finance. It was not by a simple coinci-
dence that the Prussian statesman left Paris for Berlin on
the day when M. Do Beke left for London to call on the
hou
esDneeshtoefelkßeeaa.rrinntigi o iftsi disappointment
Rothschild for a definitive resolution.
The Count knew well that the march of negotiations with
the Rothschild house at Paris left liige hope of success to
M.
ro n
tand
wassatisfactory o nly
manner
the
s,in
thep
which the Austrian loan had been concluded in the French
market. Our readers know already all the manoeuvres em-
ployed by the Prussian Government to discredit beforehand
the issue of the loan in question.• The friendly support
given on this occasion by the French Government to the
Austrian Treasury speaks very plainly as to the manner in
which the overtures of the Prussian Minister, tending to
obtain that the Court of the Tuilieries should close its eyes
to the bargain he hoped to make with Austria, must have
been received."
PRIVATE BILLS.—An official list was yesterday
issued, showing that the number of plans deposited
at the Private Bill-office of the House of Commons was
450, of which 334 related to railways, and of that number
18Thheanvuemr ebfeerr eonf cleoett otlrbaiilllsa
sv
will
oemi n Lc
roenads
eodn
b- t
yo th
thee
2s3edbiunrshts
when copies of all bills must be lodged at the Private Bil
office of the douse of Commons,

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

ARRIVAL OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.

(ti to Roche's Point.)

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (Morning).

The New York Times says that the Federal Go-
vernment have no ground for demanding the sur-
render of the crew of the Shenandoah.
The American, Consul's acceptance of the sur-
render of the Shenandoah as a war vessel precludes
the Federal Government from complaining against
the British authorities for discharging her crew.

The recruiting superintendent of Pennsylvania
has been ordered to despatch 450 cavalry recruits
to the department of the Gulf.

The Governor of Alabama, in his message to the
Legislature, urges the adoption of the constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery, the and passage of a
clause for the protection of negroes.

President Johnson has informed the Governor of
Mississippi that the Federal troops would be with-
drawn as soon as it is manifest that peace and order
can be maintained without them. Measures should
be adopted to give freedmen the necessary protec-
tion to enable them to assume all their constitu-
tional rights.

The Governor of Mississippi, in his message to
the Legislature, recommends that negro testimony
be received in the courts of justice, and that mea-
sures be passed for the protection of uegroes and
for the taxation of negroes to support vagrant
blacks. He approved the adoption of a special
code for their government.
The Governor of Louisiana has called a special
session of the Legislature to elect members for Con-
gress.

General Fisk has made a speech, stating that
President Johnson had informed him that he in-
tended to carry out Mr. Lincoln's views and see
the freedom of negroes guaranteed. He might not
believe in their ultimate attainment, but he meant
that they should have a fair chance.
The Freedmen's Bureau would be continued
until the Southern States resolved to deal honestly
and justly by freedmen.
A Radical Republican meeting has been held at
Dr. Cheever's church, in New York, at which
speeches were made denouncing President John-
son's reconstruction policy, and declaring him to
be the counsel for the rebel states and the upholder
of the secession doctrine.
Mr. Seddon and ex-Governors Magrath and Lub-
beck have been released on parole.
The United States' Circuit Court of Maryland
hare decided that the Government tax cannot be
deducted from the interest due to foreign stock-
holders of the American railroads.
Mr. Mackenna, the Chilian envoy to the United
States, has made a speech at Panama denouncing
the conduct of Spain as a pretext for obtaining a
foothold on American soil.
A cargo of slaves has lately been landed on the
north-west coast of Cuba.
The steamer Gambia left New Orleans on the
24th instant with 1,700 bales of cotton for Liver-
pool.

A steamer has arrived at New York with 3,000
bales of cotton from Apalachisla, Florida.
The British ship Mariannus has been wrecked off
the coast of Georgia. The crew were saved.
A British bark, name unknown, coal laden, has
been driven ashore and abandoned off Savana.

Money abundant; gold, 147 ; Exchange on
London, 160 ; do. on Paris, 3.521 ; Stocks steady ;
New York Centrals, 97 ; Illinois, 133 ; Erie, 934 ;
5-20 Bonds, 1011 ; cotton dull ; Middling Upland,
53 ; flour firmer ; wheat heavy ; corn quiet ; pro-
visions declining ; coffee steady ; sugar good in-
quiry ; molasses dull ; petroleum very firm ;. crude,
41 ; refined, 66.

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 23.
Cotton dull ; Middling Upland, 52 to 53 ; sales
to-day 2,200 bales. _ _

MOBILE, Nov. 23.
Cotton limited demand ; Middling Upland, 50 ;
to-day's sales, 800 bales.

MEXICO.
NEW YORK, Nov. 5 (Morning).

The New York; Herald publishes advices from El
Paso to the 20th October, which state that the Im-
perialists were advancing on that city. It is believed
Juarez would shortly go, via California, to the
Southern provinces of Mexico. Juarez had levied
heavy compulsory loans on the surrounding popula-
tion.

Advices from Rio Grande to November 15, via
New Orleans, state that the Republicans were en-
camped eight miles from Matamoras.
Matamoras papers of the 10th November state
that no further attack on the city was
apprehended.
From Vera Cruz, on the 13th November, it is
announced that the Imperialists had combined
successfully against the guerillas. There is no confir-
mation of the reported withdrawal of the Impe-
rialists from the interior of Mexico.
The Empress, with a large suite, left for Yacatan
on the Gth.

BELGIUM.
THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.

BRUSSELS, DEC. 6.

The Moniteur Beige of this morning publishes
the following bulletin respecting the King's health :
" The abdominal symptoms are unaltered. His
Majesty recovers his strength but very slowly.
(Signed) " WIMMER.
DE ROUBAIX.
" Palace of Laeken, Dec. 5."

FRANCE.
PARIS, DEC. 6.

M. Behic, Minister of Agriculture, has addressed
a report to the Emperor, in which he announces
that two gazelles brought over from England had
infected with contagious typhus divers animals in
the Farm d'Acclimation. An Imperial decree has
consequently been published, by which the decrees
of the sth Sept. last, prohibiting the importation of
such domestic animals as might cause the introduc-
tion of contagious typhus into France, is extended
to all quadrupeds, with the exception of horses,
asses, mules, and dogs.
BOURSE, Dec. s.—Three o'Clock.—The tone of
the market has suddenly changed. Heavy sales
for the close have caused Stock and Shares to de-
cline to even lower prices than yesterday. The
following were the last quotations :

4.-} per Cents 97 25
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 69
Do. end month 69 05
Credit Mobilior
Do. end month
Bank Shares 3797 50
Credit Fonder 1330
Italian Loan 65 10
Do. end month 65 17
RAILV

Roman
Ottoman Fives —
Mexican Loan 5O
Do. Bonds 333 75
Russian —
Austnan

Spanish Threes
Homo Debt —
Deferred -

832 50
- 1105
- - 837 50
- - ... 572 50

of the indirect taxes, and for the administration of
justice, have been decided upon by the Government.
The post of Director-General of the Lotteries,
with the staff attached thereto, is suppressed.
The Patria and the Correspondencia state that
the Queen will only return to Madrid after her con-
finement, and therefore will not be present at the
opening of the Cortes.

LITERATURE.

Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions.
Immediately upon the close of the last of his great
serial fictions and after thirty years of most indus-
trious authorship—it is surely very remarkable that
Mr. Dickens should now prove himself to be still
in all the fullness and freshness of his strength as
our Great Master Humorist, as he here incontes-
ably does, in this glorious green number—the
Christmas Number of All the Year Round—" Doctor
Marigold's Prescriptions." In his happiest moments,
he has never, in fact, been in greater force. So far
as the limits of his canvass will admit, the pic-
ture drawn here by the hand of this
incomparable Artist may take rank with
his most delightful and felicitous masterpieces. The
character of Doctor Marigold—lightly sketched in
though it is with a few rapid touches—is a creation
as complete and as perfectly inimitable in its
way as any one among the most famous of the other
creations of our Novelist. Mere sketch though it
is, when placed side 'by side with such highly ela-
borated portraitures as those of Mrs. Gamp or Sam
Weller, of Mr. Pecksniff or of Wilkins Macawber—
Doctor Marigold can hold his own with the very
best among them, and can do this, to our thinking,
even more triumphantly than that dear old
body Mrs. Lirriper ! It is so contrary to fact
that (as happens very often with others, after a
good many years of authorship) Mr. Dickens can
be said to have in any way written himself out or
to evidence even anything like the beginning of a
diminution of his powers—that, on the con-
trary, his genius reveals itself to us as
radiantly as ever it did in his life, in the pages he
has here devoted to the delineation of Doctor Mari-
gold. In its breadth of humour, in its vivacity, in
its volubility and effervescence, it is as rich and racy
as anything in " Pickwick." The patter of Doctor
Marigold, who is a Cheap Jack—the very Prince
and Paragon of Cheap Jacks —is as exhilarating
as the talk of Sam Weller when we first
meet with him as Boots in the Borough, or as he
becomes better known to us, still, in the
dialogues that take place afterwards between him-
self and Old Weller, when Sam has long since
settled down as ,man- servant to Mr. Pick-
wick. Mr. Dickens's animal spirits—to say nothing
of his genius and its originality are fairly
inexhaustible. They are, quite certainly, as fresh
and buoyant, as elastic and exhilarating as ever
they were—even as they were in his earliest days,
when, at a single bound, he assumed his position in
the very front rank of the imaginative writers of
his age and country. That foremost position'
he has since held uninterruptedly. And long,
with God's blessing, may he still continue to hold it
to the delight of the present generation ! That he
does actually retain his rare and some of them in-
comparable powers still well in hand at the point of
that wonderful pen of his with which at pleasure
(not only at his own pleasure, but at ours) he
moves us to tears and to laughter, to exquisite tears
and to innocent laughter, take (as proof positive) the
very opening words of his introduction to "Doctor
Marigold's Prescriptions" :
I am a Cheap Jack, and my own father's name was
Willum Marigold. It was in his lifetime supposed by
some that his name was William, but my own father
always consistently said, No, it was Willum. On which
point I content myself with looking at the argument
this way : —lf a man is not allowed to know his own name
in a free country, how much is he allowed to know in a
land of slavery ? As to looking at the argument
through the medium of the register, William Marigold
came into the world before Registers come up much—and
went out of it too. They wouldn't have been greatly in
his line neither if they had chanced come up before him.
I was born on the Queen's highway, but it was the King's
at that time. A doctor was fetched to my own mother by
my own father, when it took place on a common ; and in
consequence of his being a very kind gentleman, and ac-
cepting no fee but a tea tray, I was named Doctor, out of
gratitude and compliment to him. There you have me,
Doctor Marigold.
I am at present a middle-aged man, of a broadish build,
in cords, leggings, and a sleeved waistcoat, the strings of
which is always gone behind. Repair them how you will,
they go like fiddle-strings. You have been to the theatre,
and you have seen one of the violin players screw up his
violin, after listening to it as if it had bean whispering the
secret to him that it feared it was out of order, and then
you have heard it snap. That's as exactly similar to my
waistcoat as a waistcoatand a ?violin can be like one another.
I am partial to a white hat, and I like a shawl round my
neck wore loose and easy. Sitting down is my favourite
posture. If I have a taste in point of personal jewellery,
it is mother-of-pearl buttons. There you have me again,
as large as life.
Recalling to mind, a little later on, the fact that in
his early childhood his head " was flaxen curls,"
Doctor Marigold adds, apologetically, in one of our
author's deliciously ridiculous parentheses, "(though
you wouldn't know an old heath broom from it no w
till you come to the handle and found it wasn't me !)"
The first genuine display of Doctor Marigold's genius
(for it is nothing less) for the Cheap Jack patter is
afforded through his reminiscence of his own father,
old Willum's, dying speech—delivered profession-
ally—from between the blankets. Where the
poor used-up old Cheap Jack, "without a tooth
in his head and with a pain in every bone,"
puts himself up for the highest bidder, offering
amongst other inducements, when he can't get
any bid at all, to " throw you in a warming pan for
nothing and lend you a toasting fork for life !" After-
wards we have Doctor Marigold's own matchless
parallel between his professional patter, the
patter of the Cheap Jacks, and the political patter of
what he calls (with a reason) the Dear Jacks, in the
very same market-place—from the platform, not of
a cart,but of the hustings. His own lingo—who but the
realiser to us of a Mrs. Gamp, or of a Mrs. Lirriper,
could ever have dreamt of it ?-" Here's a pair of
razors that'll shave you closer than the Board of
Guardians"—" Here's a genuine chronometer watch,
in such a solid silver case that you may knock at
the door with it when you come home late from a
social meeting, and rouse your wife and family, and
save up your knockers for the postman "—" Stop,
again ! I'll throw you in another article, because
I don't like the looks of you, for you haven't
the appearance of buyers unless I lose by you"—
" Now I won't ask you how much for the lot, but
how little ? How little do you think of ? Don't be
ashamed to mention it ! Why, you're thinking of
three and threepence ! And a set of printed tables
in the lot that'll calculate your income up to forty
thousand a year ! With an income of forty thou-
sand a year you grudge three and sixpence. Well,
then, I tell you my opinion, I so despise the three-
pence that I'd sooner take thi ee shillings !" Never
was there surely such a Cheap Jack as Doctor Mari-
gold —in another sense than Byron's footpad in
" Don Juan," (but if possible more intensely)—
" So prime, so flash, so nutty, and so knowing !"
As another—more comprehensive and most charac-
teristic—specimen of his irresistible volubility of
humour, take his record of his own courtship :
" I courted my wife (he says) from the footboard of the
cart. I did indeed. She was a Suffolk young woman, and
it was in Ipswich market-place right opposite the corn-
chandler's shop. I had noticed her up at a window last
Saturday that was, appreciating highly. I had took to her,
and I said to myself, If not already disposed of I'll have that
lot.' Next Saturday that come I pitched the cart on the
same pitch, and I was in very high feather indeed, keep-
ing 'cm laughing the whole of the time:and getting off the
goods briskly. At last I took out of my waistcoat-pocket
a small lot wrapped in soft paper, and I put it this way
(looking up at the window where she was), Now here
my blooming English maidens is an article, the last
article of the present evening's sale, which I offer
to only you the lovely Suffolk Dumplings biling
over with beauty, and I won't take a bid
of a thousand pounds for from any man alive. Now, what
is it ? Why, I'll tell youwhat it is. It's made of fine gold,
and it's not broke, though there's a hole in the middle of
it, and it's stronger than any fetter that ever was forged,
though it's smaller than any finger in my set of ten. Why
ten ? Because when my parents made over my property
to me, I tell you true, there was 12 sheets, 12 towels, 12
tablecloths, 12 knives, 12 forks, 12 tablespoons, and 12
teaspoons, but, my set of fingers was two short of a dozen
and could never since be matched. Now, what else
is it? Come, I'll tell you. It's a hoop of solid gold,
wrapped in a silver curl-paper that I myself tools