The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-21 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS) WEDNESDAY.
The Moniteur states that despatches have been
received from Sebastopol of the 13th.
date Nothingof important had taken place since the
improved. previous intelligence. The weather had

The Moniteur also contains the following article:
"All France will be deeply affected by the
thanks which England has just voted by acclama-
tion to General Canrobert and our army, to Admi-
ral Hamelin and our navy, for their valiant co-
operation and their cordial assistance in the war
of the East.

" To this important and hitherto unexampled
manifestation of the sentiments entertained by a
great people towards its loyal ally France has
already replied by its admiration of the brilliant
valour of the English army and fleet. France
has warmly applauded the eulogiums which
our generals-in-chief, after the battles of Alma,
Balaklava, and Inkerman bestowed on the intre-
pidity of Lord Raglan and his troops. The two
nations, like the two armies, have done each other
the most frank, the most cordial justice. While
their soldiers and seamen vie with each other in
courage and devotion,the two nations appear to rival
each other in generosity, each giving the other the
greatest share of the glory acquired in common.
Nothing is better calculated to cement their al-
liance that the exchange of these noble sentiments,
nothing can better assure to thew the sympathies

and concurrence of all civilised nations nor more
speedily effect the final triumph of the sacred
cause they defend."
The Moniteur publishes a notice that the Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs has received an official com-
munication of a despatch addressed to the English
Admiralty, by Rear-Admiral Chads, the Com-
mander of the English naval forces in the Baltic,
announcing► the raising of the blockade of the
Russian ports in that sea and on the coast of Fin-
land.

The Minister of thelMarine has received a de-
spatch from Rear-Admiral de Suin, the commander-
in-chief of the French naval division on the Brazil
and La Plata station, dated on board the Andro-
mode frigate, at Rio Janeiro, the 14th ult., in
which he states that the captains of French and
English merchant vessels navigated those seas in
the fullest security, feeling sure that they would
everywhere meet with efficacious and energetic pro-
tection.

BOURSE, DEC. 20.—CLOSING PRICES.
Cash. fr. c. End of Month.
41 per Cer ts 94 —94 f. —c.
3 per Cents 63 50 68 75
Credit Ittobilier 740 Roman
Credit Foncier 560 Austrian
Belgian Five 5........ 918 Spanish Threes
Piedmontese B7 Home Debt

RAILWAYS-FOR CASH.

fr. c. fr. c.
Orleans 1,157 50 Lyons , ... 990
Western 630 Rthien 992 50
Cette
Mediterranean B6O Havre 535
Northern

ITALY.
CORONATION OF THE MADONNA BY

THE POPE.

ROME, DEC. 10.—The extraordinary solemnity,
which has called together so many Catholic digni-
taries from various parts of the world to this centre
of Catholicism, took place at St. Peter's on the
morning of the Bth inst., with all the pomp and
splendour for which the papal court is so justly
celebrated.

For five days preceding the ceremony, by expp.:-.4s
command of his Holiness, the relics of the holyface,
the lance, the cross, the inscription of the cross,
the cradle of our Saviour, and the chains of St.
Peters, were exhibited to the veneration of the
faithful, with due advantage of indulgences at-
tached, and triduos and fasts prepared the way for
the great event.
Early on the morning of the Bth, the ponderous
equipages of cardinals and prelates shook the streets
of the city in all directions, rattling hastily towards
the castle of St. Angelo and the Vatican, whilst the
multifarious vehicles of foreigners, and of polloi
citizens, crowded along the prescribed line of the
Lungara. Fortunately the day was very fine, so
that enormous numbers of pedestrians contributed
to the vain effort to fill the uufillable vastness of
St. Peter's. It must be candidly comfessed, how-
ever, by the oldest habitues and sight-seers of Rome,
that the ample church was never seen so nearly
full as on the present occasion. The procession,
having been duly marshalled in the halls of the
Vatican, descended by the Sala Regia into the
church, presenting an unexampled train of mitred
bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, and cardinals,
followed by the Pope himself, on foot and un-
crowned.

His Holiness gave utterance to the all-important
bull during high mass, after the reading of the
gospel. It took him about a quarter of an hour to
get through, but he was so much affected iu vari-
ous parts of the document that he was obliged to
interrupt the reading of it to dry his tears with a
pocket handkerchief. With the exception of this
and an occasional shriek from some one squeezed
or fainting in the crowd no particular emotion was
observable. The decorations of the church were
most gorgeous.
The next ceremony was tliat of crowning the
Madonna, which seemed to interest the mass of
spectators more than the previous dogmatical de-
claration. The procession of bishops once more led
the way to the cardinals' chapel, where a crimson
platform had been prepared before the altar-piece,
so as to allow of the Pope's ascending to the figure
of the Virgin, as depicted in the clouds in the
upper part of the picture. The cannon of St.
Angelo thundered out applause as his Holiness at-
tached the precious diadem to the painting, and
the crowd, kept at bay by a Battalion of Chasseurs,
reeked and panted in vain endeavours to catch a
sight of the proceeding. It is not for me to hazard
an opinion whether curiosity or devotion urged the
thousands of spectators on this occasion ; but cer-
tainly the numbers collected together far exceeded
anything I ever beheld before in St. Peter's.
In the evening the cupola of St. Peter's, and the
facades of most of the other churches, as well as
üblic buildings and private residences, were abun-

THE BALTlC.—lnformation was received yes-
terday, from Memel, that several Russian steam
gun-boats have been seen cruising off :that port
since the raising of the blockade.
The Wanderer of Vienna has the following from
Sebastopol dated the sth :—" The besiegers and
the besieged have received considerable reinforce-
ments, the latter, principally in cavalry and Cos-
sacks of the ' Don. General Liprandi has fallen
into disgrace."
The Prussian Minister of War has ordered tele-
graphic wires to be laid down to connect all the,
principal fortresses with Berlin ; also the military
stations situated along the coast.
Some of the German papers announce with con-
fidence that Omer Pacha's army will land at Eupa-
toria and march to Perekop, there to intercept the
Russian supplies and reinforcements.
The Madrid journals of the Ifith contain no
news of importance.