The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-23 00:00:00

THE CHINESE ENVOY.

Chung-how, the Envoy sent by the Chinese Govern-
ment on a propitiatory mission to France, arrived at
Alexandria a few days ago, and it is reported that he is
likely to come on to England first before attempting to
fulfil his mission in the present distracted state of
the French nation.. We do not wonder that he
should prefer England to France under existing
circumstances, but it is to be hoped that he is not ac-
credited to the British Government. For, if not respon-
sible for the actual butchery of the French mission-
aries •and Sisters at Tientsin —in the sense of
having actively plotted against them —he has
not yet prtrged himself of a charge of com-
plicity or of a culpable supineness both before
and after the tragedy. We should be careful how we
welcome one tainted with the suspicion of abetting a
massacre comparable in atrocity to that of Cawnpore.
As a real mandarin, nevertheless—the first live specimen
that has ever been seen in Europe—there is some danger
of his being made a lion of, notwithstand-
ing the shadow that rests upon him;—perhaps
all the more on account of that strikingly interestinc,
circumstance. A word of caution may not therefore be'
wholly superfluous. The Foreign Office must be too well
informed of the facts to need any warning from us ; but
we do not feel so sure of society.—Pall Mall Gazette.

Movements in the Civil service are annpunced as
follows :—Education Office—Mr. F. J. Shilton has been
appointed Assistant Inspector ; Mr. J. White has been
appointed Examiner. Parliamentary Council Office—
Mr. S. W. Merry has been appointed Messenger. Factory
Inspectors' Department—Mr. J. Joneshas been appointed
Sub-Inspector. Civil Service Commission—Messrs. W.
Bustard, H. M. Atchley, F. K. Oyns have been
appointed Writers. Inland Revenue—Messrs. C. N.
Calvert, J. T. Coombe, R. Dickinson, W. T. Jones, J. T.
Durrant, C. W. Lavender, A. Goodall have been ap-

pointed Assistants of Excise.
THE FRENCH FLAG IN ST. ANDREW'S HALL,
NORWICH.—INTERESTING INCIDENT.—We quote the fol-
lowing from the Eastern Counties Daily Press :—" Above
the great west window of St, Andrew's Hall is hung in
festoons the ensign of the French ship Gen4reux, one of
the only two vessels which escaped the fate of the
French fleet at the memorable battle of the Nile. We
have now to record the death of an aged citizen who
was not only present at the capture of the G6nereux,
but afterwards of the other vessel referred to, the
Gaillaume Tell. Mr. Christopher Bunting, who died
last week at the advanced age of ninety-two, was in
his early days a steward in the Royal Navy, and not
only saw the ensign strike to the Foudroyantf then
Nelson's flag-ship, but on the quarter-deck of that
vessel saw it packel and addressed to Robert Harvey,
Esq , then (1800) Mayor of Norwich, little imagining
that. he would subsequently reside in Norwich, and
for more than half a century have the opportunity. of
seeing the flag decorating the walls of its principal
building'"
THE CHTYACE OF NOTRE DAME DE PARIS.—Mr.
Ruskin addresses the following letter to a contemporary :
--" Nearly every great church in France has some
merit special to itself : in other countries, one style
is common to many districts ; in Fraßee, nearly
every province has its unique and precious rnonu-
ment. But of thirteenth century Gothic—the most
perfect architectural style north of the Alps
—there is, both in historical interest and in accomplished
perfectness of art, one unique monument—the Sainte
Chapelle of Paris. As examples of Gothic, ranging from
the twelfth to the fourteenth century, the cathedrals of
Chartres, Rouen, Amiens, Rheims, and Bourges form a
kind a cinque-foil round Notre Dame of Paris of which
it is impossible to say which is the more precious petal ;
but any one of those leaves would be worth a complete rose
of any other country's work except Italy's. Nothing else in
art, on the surface of the round earth, could represent
anyone of them, if destroyed,' or be named as of any
equivalent value. Central among then, as in position, so
in its school of sculpture ; unequalled in that speciality
but by the porch of the north transept at Rouen, and, in
a somewhat later school, by the Western porches of
Bourges ; absolutely unreplaceable as a pure and lovely
source of art-instructionby any future energy or ingenuity,
stands—perhaps, this morning, I ought rather to write,
stood—Notre Dame of Paris.
OSTRICH FARMING.—On the ostrich farms in
South Africa the birds are kept for the purpose of grow-
ing their feathers. They are placed in enclosures, which
are from fifteen to twenty acres in size. There is a con-
stant demand for ostrich feathers, and their com-
mercial value depends greatly on they colour and
quality. The finest feathers are the long white ones,
which are taken from the wings. They are worth from £32
to £4O a pound. The finest white feathers are gene-:
rally taken by Court plume makers. They are carefully
washed with soap and water, and brushed with a
soft brush, then shaken out to dry. The long
black and grey feathers are next in worth. The
small ones only, fetch forty shillings a pound. The
feathers of the wild birds are held in greater esteem than
those of the farmed birds. The hunter singles out the
finest adult male bird at the most favourable season for
the feathers when the quills are not fully developed and
hardened, and follows it at a sharp trot for a
short time. He stops to rest, and the ostrich stops
also. He then continues his course at a gallop,
and by this time the ostrich is so wearied
with the previous exertion that he does not go along very
fast. The pursuer soon runs him down and kills him.
An ostrich in good plumage is worth about sixteen
pounds, and each bird has from two ounces and a half
to three ounces of the finest white feathe Some
rs.
hunters will obtain from fifty to eighty birds in a season
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