The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-11 00:00:00

8,7771., Hamilton imported only 1571., and some other
ports none at all. The value of the " Hosiery" imported
by the whole province amounts to only 3,5161. 4s. 10d.;
surely this is ridiculous. Why, we know a merchant of
Belleville (a third-class port in Upper Canada) who
imported fully that value of this article alone. On
turning over the next page to "Hosiery" we find Bel-
leville put down for 4,5231. of haberdashery, or more
than what the remainder of the province imported alto-
gether.
What luxurious and independent folks they mast be
is Toronto. Of the jewellery and plate imported into
the province Toronto alone imported 20,8331. out of
39,860/., while they monopolise the lace goods alto-
gether, say 2,5961. out of 2,753/., said to be imported by
the whole province. But it is not in jewellery and plate
and lace only that the Torontonians beat the remainder
of the province; they excel in music it appears, of 33,7091:
Musical instruments imported by the province, they glen.
imported 25,0191. Really they are a happy people these
Torontonians; they don't care a fig for time, at least so
i
says the "General Statement of Imports." We notice
that of the " unenuinerated articles" paying 12 per
cent. Montreal alone is put down at 190,1331., or Toon"
than one-half of the value put down for the whole pro-
vince, for these articles. The proportion which the im-
ports of Quebec hear to those of Montreal is about 1 to
3 or 1,141,594/. to 3,351,5391.; yet the unenumerated
articles for these ports show a proportion of about 1 to
28, or Quebec 6,9191., and Montreal 199,132/.
Quebec, 18th November, 1854. A. B. C.

LITERATURE.

Four Years at th. Court of Henry VIII. 2 vols.
Smith, Elder, and Co. •
These volumes contain the translations of the
despatches of Sebastian Giustinian, the Venetian
Ambassador at the English Court in the time of
Henry the Eighth. They extend from 1515 to
1519, and are addressed to the Signory of Venice.
The private reports of an ambassador at a foreign
court would at no time be devoid of interest, for
they give perhaps a clearer view of the private
affairs of kings and courts than any other form of
history. Those now before us, of course, acquire
an additional value from their antiquity. It will
be seen from the following extract from the intro-
duction, by the translator, Mr. Rawdon Brown,
that it is somewhat unusual to find so complete a
chain of letters of that date
" When the translator fret ventured to entertain the
hope that a selection of the papers which had furnished
so much amusement to himself might possess some
interest for the public, he did not hesitate in fixing his
choice on the despatches of Giustinian.
"It is so much more difficult, in proportion to the
remoteness of the period, to picture to the imagination
its manners, motives' and modes of thinking, that
contemporary letters full of the hopes, the fears, and
the reports of the day, acquire a vast additional
interest by their antiquity. And as they become more
interesting, unfortunately they are also more scarce;
no unbroken series of letters, such as the Giustinian cot..
respondence from 1515 to 1519, has hitherto appeared in
print, whether written from London or any ether capital.
"The discovery of the Giustinian correspondence is
recent. In the year 1843, the noble Girolamo Contarini
bequeathed to the library of St. Mark his family
collection of books and-MSS. ; amongst their contents
was a bulky folio volume to which my attention was
first drawn by Signor Giovanni Battista Lorenzi, one of
the officers of St. Mark's library, to whose zeal we owe
the catalogue of theContariai legacy, and of the museum
of the ' Marciana,' and to whose accurate knowledge
the frequenters of that institution are indebted for sp
much information. The paper is of the same manufac-
ture, and bears the same water-stark as that on which
was written the letter of Henry VII. previously
described. . The volume contains 226 letters, copies of
those addressed by Sebastian Giustinian to the Signory
during his. English embassy. They are transcribed by
his secretary—himself a man of some note in 'Venetian
annals. The copy is dated 1515 to 1519 ; it is headed
according to the pious form of the day 'ln nomine
Domini,' and is thus attested by the transcriber at the
end

" Nicelaus Sagnainns fideliter exemplavit.'"
"As 'the entire collection is too large for publication,
the translator has endeavoured to select such letters and
parts of letters as seem most likely to interest, by their
graphic touches and lively notices of the events of ON
day, or by their bearings on English history and
literature."
The translator observes on the singularity of
the fact that so many of the official documents
and state papers of the Signory of Venice
should have found their way to flats pub-
lic. A Government so famous for the mys-
tery that enshrouded all their manoeuvres and
the occult nature of their actions, one would have
naturally supposed would have preserved all State
papers in impenetrable secrecy. " Before trans-
mitting the official documents to the Government
it seems to have been the general practice," says
the translator, "to retain a copy for the family
library or muniment room of the ambassador him-
self, and thence, or perhaps from the notes of some
one who heard them read in the Senate and com-
mitted their substance to paper, these reports not
unfrequently, even in early times, found their way
to the public." So early as the sixteenth century
some of these diplomatic fragments were printed
and sold in the Venetian territory. The trans-
lator has prefixed to the work a preliminary ac-
count of the Giustirnan family, and the early
career of the ambassador, whose despatches
relate to a period when so many celebrities flour-
ished. It is only to he regretted they do not ex-
tend a little further. The chivalrous Francis 1., his
ambitious mother Louisa of Savoy, and the gentle
Queen Claude, the powerful Emperor Charles V.,
Henry the Eighth himself, his two sisters, Mar-
garet of Scotland and Mary of France, Catharine of
Arragon, Sir Thomas More, and Wolsey, then just
made a cardinal, are among those who figure in
these pages. Those desirous of studying the secret
intricacies of courts and cabinets will find these
volumes afford them peculiar facilities of becoming
acquainted with the details of the policy of that
eventful period ; while their value as a work of
antiquity, as well as their authenticity, render
them especially fitted for a book of reference.

The House of Baby ; or, Our Lady of Darkness.
3 vols. Chapman and Hall.
This is a most melancholy story. The style is
superior, and the description of characters and
events powerfully and feelingly given. The point
of the story turns on madness--a sombre and appal-
ing subject ; but it is divested of its horrors, and
shorn of its misery, in a great measure, by the pe-
culiar manner in which the dreadful fact is made
known to us. A thrilling interest and a touching
tenderness is evinced for those unhappy ones suf-
fering under the greatest calamity to which "flesh
is heir," instead of the abhorrence, the loathing,
and the terror generally manifested by the world at
large. Margaret Hastings, the heroiof nse, is a beanof
-
an impersonationstrength
tenderness of heart and generosity of
mind;
c;hwairtaheter,
disposition, she combined firmness and gentleness
to no ordinary degree. Her presence seemed
like a beam of light ; in the darkened house
of the sufferers she was as an angel visitant,
exorcising the evil spirit that haunted the family
of Baby. She gave sip to their service the whole
of her life. In childhood she was their playmate,
iu youth their companion, and through all the long
years that intervened to old age she was their
friend, their assistant, their nurse, their guide.
Without her there could have been no breaks in
the cloud, no lull in the tempest, and no respite
from the fell destroyer. But, with the blessing of
Heaven, she contrived to make the home of afflic-
tion at times happy, and always peaceful. Instead
of being a confirmed lunatic in a wretched asylum,
Arundel Raby was at times a shining ligh t i n the
world ; he distanced his competitors iu his
generation, and the sor
his waking life more
real, more earnest " than that of others. The
trials of Margaret were great, and seemed
not
n a
and insupportable to many, yet she f
flinched not in herself-iTmhpeoseexdpelariboonuore.
ofShehad
nothing to hope for. .
dreatmhes
staid
progress o
genera-
tions, the letahrenimngalaodfyskshilnletd.oupthtyhseicwiainldse,
of better things ; but Margaret had faith, not a
mere shadowy belief, or vague trust, but firm, un-
shaken confidence--t
faith that " could move
mountains " was hers pre-eminently. Her work
was prosperous in its way ; she was the visible in-
strument of amelioration to the lot of the sufferers.
In the course of the work many interesting persons
are met with ; a degree of artistic skill is shown in
their description, such as is not often faund in
romances of the day. Those who prefer the corn-
positions which have thought and deep feeling for
their distinguishing characteristics will be
satisfied with " The House of Baby." The
style is not that of morbid melancholy, and
the tone is not desponding
or repining. The ruling
passion, the pervading spirit, are courage and con-
stancy—courage in a warfare with the powers of
darkness, that armed warriors might have shrunk
from,
and constancy to trust in Providence through
dangers and sufferings that eclipse those ordeals
for which others have wora the hero's or the
martyr's crown. The house of Rabe, with its
ministering spirit, Margaret Hastings, never aimed
1 at concealment or subterfuge, and a useful warning
they thus conveyed to their fellow-mortals ; they
acknowledged that theirs was the bitter in the cup of
life, theirs was to be the burden and heat of the day,
others more favoured might Lave the evening hours
and the lighter portion. " Keen March winds anti.
soft April showers" alternated their existence ; the
flowers and fruitage were reserved for a future
land of promise, and a distant home of rest.
these sublime reflections a sharper sting, then
death's was removed, and the victory WU WO4
I over a darker night than that of the grave.