The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-15 00:00:00

THE CIIRISTMAS BOOKS.

of Sicily—an aspiration which he has thus expressed
—" 0 Fate ! give us a dozen years more life, and a
lift in our faculties, immense ; and let us try still if
even our own verses cannot do something with it."
A dozen years, forsooth ! let him count upon them,
in his hopeful spirit, as a certainty, and he may yet
wed his name to immortal song in connexion with the
fame of the Sicilian Robin ! A. dozen years, for-
sooth ! Three years, Leigh Hunt, and you may give
us a golden epic worthy of living for :13 e, side by
side with Colin Clout. Richard Doyle has surpassed
his reputation in his exquisite sketches of Polyphe-
mus and the Syrens ; he has risen from the gro-
tesque vulgarities of caricature to the fantastic ele-
gancies of dreamland. In the " Midsummer Eve "of
Mrs. S. C. Hall, we have a fairy tale suited in every-
thing but its title to the festive evenings of Christ-
mas. As it was published in periodical chapters in
the Art- Union Journal we took occasion to commend
its merits, both as a literary production and as the
vehicle of a multitude of inimitable illustrations. Our
impression as to its excellence is only confirmed now
that the entire volume is completed, and the scat-
tered chapters and dispersed embellishments grouped
together. Mrs. S. C. Hall has written things over
which we are not ashamed to confess our tears have
fallen not unplentifully ; but she has never before
composed a work in which her powers both of senti-
ment and:imagination were more sustained than they are
in " Midsummer Eve," and never before have her ima-
ginings been so profusely and gracefully sprinkled with
artistic decorations. Her inspiration has been drawn,
we conceive, partly from the " Dream" of Shak'pere,
partly from the " Plea" of Hood, and principally
troin the poetic legends of that Ireland whose wit and
passion she has already so repeatedly pourtrayed.
With something of the exaggerated ideality which
was perceivable in his " Musical and Pictorial
Almanack," Mr. F. W. N. Bayley has endeavoured
to commemorate in a becoming manner the triumphs
of the Jenny Lind season at her .‘iajesty's Theatre,
by enditing a poem which he has called the " Wake of
licstacy." By a prior title, and a more comprehen-
sible one too, to those who are unread in his verses,
he has christened the book " The Souvenir of the
Season." Lavishly emblazoned with gold on the back,
the volume is illustrated by several fanciful litho-
graphic engravings from the pencil of Kenny Mea-
dows, and the title-page is a copy (by J. Barrett)
from the only photographic likeness of the songstress
taken in England. Mr. Bayley is stark staring mad
about the Sweaish Nightingale, and that will cer-
tainly be considered no valid disqualification to him
as a versifier by the many thousands of her Majesty's
lieges who have also qualified themselves for Bedlam
by listening to the voice of Mademoiselle Lind. The
work is the effusion of honest enthusiasm, arid
as such must be considered, and may be remembered.
alr. William Makepiece Thackeray, or as he
I delights to call himself, Mr. Michael Angelo
Titmarsh, in other words Yellowplush, in
other words Fitz boodle, in other words
the snob and the fat contributor of Punch—has
penned a little pink glazed book, and embellished it
with engravings sketched by his own pencil, and
coloured by his own paint brush, and designated it on
the title-page, on the cover, in the puff preliminaries,
and in the advertisements " Our Street." Last
winter we remember " laughing consumedly" over
" Mrs. Perkins's Ball"—which was good. We re-
collect also praising it as it deserved. This winter
we have " yawned consumedly " ever " Our Street"
—which is execrable. Every sentence is a spasmodic
effort at fun. The author grins at you perpetually
from his pages, hat his grins are as forced and
heartless as the grins produced by galvanism. He
has evidently undertaken his task with the deliberate
determination to be droll—if he could. The result
is, literally, dreadful. Mr. Titmarsh instead of being
" fast," as is his wont, has, all at once become
awfully slow. What he, perhaps, fondly imagined,
while writing, to be very smart indeed, is nothing
more than so much twaddle. His pictures are the
least deplorable parts of his book ; some of them are
conceived in a spirit of true facetiousness : ex. gr.
the portraits of the gentlemen of "Our Street," the
outline of the man in possession, and the daguerreotype
of the lady whom nobody knew. One of the
most extraordinary phenomena of literature that
has ever come under our observation is
most certainly " The Emigrants of Ahadarra," by
William Carleton. The marvel of it has originated
in the enterprise of' the publishers of the Parlour
Library." They here present to their subscribers an
original fiction from one of the most remarkable, and
certainly one of the most celebrated, writers of the
age—the great novelist of Ireland -_William Carleton
—for one shilling ! The type is good, the paper is
good, the form of publication is neatness itself, and
the story is told with energetic vigour, with a force
indeed not unworthy of its distinguished author. The
narrative goes to the very bottom of the evils of Ire-
land, and lets one more into the secret of its mal-
administration than a whole waggon load of blue-
books. It tells more of the sorrows of Erin than a
dozen orations in Conciliation Hall, and tells it,
moreover, with much of Irish humour, and with a
still greater amount of Irish passion. " The Emi-
grants of Ahadarra" is a work not only entitled to
consideration from its unprecedented cheapness, but
from the circumstance of its being the latest compo-
sition of William Carleton. Another illustration has
been afforded of the beauties, the originalities, the
drolleries, and the virtues inherent in the country life
of England in " The Hall and the Hamlet." It is
a work which could alone have been written by the
author of " Rural Life in England," and is calculated
to redound more to the credit of sir. Howitt than
even his " Homes and Haunts." It is a genuine book
—a book which breathes of the green lanes, and de-
picts our agricultural population as they are in the
park and the homestead, in the hall and the
hamlet. Several portions of it have already appeared
in print, but the majority of the tales and sketches are
here first published. They are some of them quaint
enough, and even at times fantastic enough, both in
conception and in the manner in which they are nar-
rated ; but in the generality they are eminently
natural, and afford a fair notion of the incidents and
personages which may be encountered by a sojourner
in the more secluded parishes of our inner shires.
Sometimes the individuals portrayed are homely even
to the ludicrous—instance " The Country Manty-
Mekker"—and sometimes again they are graceful
beyond measure—instance " The Fortunes of Alice
Law." Occasionally, too, William Howitt runs riot
in the ridiculous, as in " Sampson hooks and his man
Joe Ling," but there is always truth at the bottom of
his descriptions. Truthfulness, indeed, is the pre-
vailing characteristic of Mr. Howitt's present com-
position, and he has evidently regarded his subject
throughout with an indescribable relish. We can
thoroughly appreciate his aspiration, that with our im-
provement in the organization of society we may not
destroy those peculiarities which impart such a re-
markable interest to the yeomen and farm labourers
of merry England. Perhaps the most elegant of the
various Christmas Books for 1847-8 (after Leigh
Hunt's, always after Leigh Hunt's,) is the new
edition of" Poems and Tales by Lord Byron," illus-
trated with many very exquisite line engravings by the
celebrated (and justly celebrated) engraver E. Finden.
" Zuleika" alone, as the frontispiece, would be
sufficient to render any book entitled to admiration ;
it is a representation of the Zuleika of Lord Byron,
the countenance, like that of Kate Kearney, who
lived by the banks of Killarney, is " bewitchingly
simple." Some of the landscapes are delicious, and
the little vignettes to the " Giaour" are admirable as
embellishments to that string of poetic pearls. As a
single instance of the success with which Mr. Finden
has delineated the imaginings of the illustrious poet,
we may point to his engraving of Conrad rescuing
Gul°are from the flaming harem of Seide. The work
is altogether produced with all the decorations of art
and with all the refinements of a fastidious taste.
There are, besides the volumes already mentioned,
several little books and brochures of a less pre-
tentious character, but which do not merit any
the less a particular allusion. Of these Punch s
Comic Almanack is anything but the least
deserving of commendation. Ii is brimfull of
the oddest conceits both of pen and pencil, and
the cartoon-sketches by Leech, and the marginal
vagaries by Doyle, ought to drive cholic and the
megrims from our shores, if they don't dissipate the
miseries of influenza or the horrors of Asiatic cholera.
The publication is a very broadside of jokes—written
and pictorial. We would particularise Mr. Leech's
picture of the Snob at the Opera, and Mr.
Doyle's outline of Punch exploring Vesuvius (like
a second Empedocles), as the very acme of
the laughable. Nor is the facetious wholly pre-
dominant this season ; the sentimental has its place,
as shown by the " Lays for the Thoughtful and the
Solitary," by Mrs. Charles Tinsley. They are issued
somewhat in the same form as that which has been ren-
dered popular by the Voices from the Crowd and
the Mountain, by Dr. Charles Mackay. Most of the
lays are musical, as pieces of versification, and all of
them inculcate a generous and, at times, a noble and
lofty moral. We welcome the authoress as another
labourer in the cause of popular advancement—a
cause which may be as widely promulgated, and as
materially assisted, by the song of the poet as by
the speech of the orator or by the declamations of the
press. Divers other effusions demand our considera-
tion, but these must be reserved for another oppor-
tunity. What we have already enumerated will
prove that the winter season, which is now hurrying
to, its conclusion, has been fruitful in its additions to
Christmas lore, and that if it has not been so prolific
as several of its predecessors, it has produced less
that demands reprehension, and more that is emi-
nently commendable.

THE

IGHE.

TO TEE ED.I lOU OF THE SUN. . I
SIR—In your journal[of this day, under the head of
the Irish intelligence, there appears a statement in
reference to the county of Sligo of so extraordinary
and suspicious a nature, that I feel called upon, in
justice to the character of my friend, the Rev. Mr.
Tighe, as well as to that of the peaceable inhabitants
of that county, to express my firm conviction that it is
a tissue of gross and unfounded fabrications from
beginning to end.
In the first place, the insinuation that the district
about Ballaghadareen was disturbed, I know of my
own personal knowledge to be unfounded ; and, instead
of being in the vicinity of the melancholy murders
alluded to, it is fully 15 miles distant. Then, with
respect to the sum of 20,0001., stated to have been
expended by_ Mr. Joseph Holmes "in keeping down
the markets," the entire fee, I am aware, of that gen-
tleman's property would not reach anything like that
amount. And, lastly, as to the imputations which
have been cast on Mr. Tighe, I have merely to remark
that, from my own intimate knowledge of that gentle-
man, and the estimation in which he is universally
held for his humanity and Christian conduct, I have
no hesitation in characterizing the entire statement as
a foul and malignant aspersion on the rev. gentleman
and his flock, whose forbearing demeanour, under
the circumstances detailed in the report, fully bears
out the opinion I entertain of them.—l have the
honour to remain, your obedient servant,
JOHN P. SOMERS.
Reform Club, Friday evening.
The report is taken from the Dublin Evening
Mail.

A JAR OF HONEY Eli JAII MOUNT HYBLA.
By Leigh Hunt.
M I DSU R EYE. By Mrs. S. C. Hall.
THE SOUVENIR OF THE SEASON. By F.
-W. IV. Bayley.
OUR STREET. By M. A. Titmarsh.
THE EMIGRANTS OF AHADARRA. By W.
Carleton.
THE BALL AND THE HAMLET. 2 Vols. By
W. Bowitt.
TALES AND POEMS. By Lcrd Byron.
PUNCH'S COMIC ALMANAC for 1848.
LAYS FO it THE SOLITARY. By Mrs. C.
Tinsley
Formerly Christmas and the New Year were wel-
comed by very different tokens of joy than pleasant
volumes: Our forefathers, on the arrival of these
seasons of festivity, gave signs of hilarity immeasur-
ably more boisterous if not nearly so beautiful. The
contrasts, indeed, which are afforded by our popular
amusements are more valuable than a superficial ob.n
-
server could at first have imagtned—they evi.d.eneF,
progress of civilization ;
a remarkable degree, the
they display at once the physical enervation and
moral advancement of the populace; they proclaim
the great and beneficent feet, that scholarship has ex-
tended from the cloister and the attic to the workshop
and the fireside. Almost every man who has leisure
enough to enjoy himself, now -a-days, can find inex-
haustible sources of entertainment in his library—
it matters not whether that library consists of half-a-
dozen well-thutnbed volumes, or of some thousands
of books in calf-skin and morocco; it scarcely
matters, indeed, whether it be comprised in a
Shakspere, a " Cruece," a Jeremy Taylor, a
Richardson, and a " Pilgrim's Progress," or
contains all the treasures of all the literatures of
all the countrie- in all the world. A men who has
Defoe at his elbow, or Swift on his teaboard, can
dispense with the mummeries and pagentries of our
ancestors. He is independent of her Majeety's ser-
vants, the stage players ; he can snap his fingers at
the Lord of Misrule and the Master of Merry Dis
ports ; he can give the cold shoulder to the " waits"
arid the " carols ;" he can eat his plum porridge with-
out a sigh for the boar's head and the roast peacock.
Give us a Cervantes or a Dickens, and we will spend
a blither evening than any of those pudding-headed
squires who, of old, could'nt get on at all in tne way
of fun without a roaring company, without gongs,
and bugles, and practical jokes, and bumpers of spiced
bishop that (according to the old courtier of the
Queen's) " would make a cat squeak and a man
dumb." Nor are we by any means singular in this
preference ; the multitude have the same partialities.
People toil so perpetually in these days of industry
and enterprize, that quietude is pleasanter than ex•
citement, and wish tee increase of labour there is a
development of intelligence which excites a taste for
the mere intedectual kinds of recreation. This, we
take it, is the whole secret of the decline of thea-
trical amusements. Toil is so general and uninter-
initting. that the toilers yearn towards nightfall for
the ease of home instead of lunging for the hubbub of
publicity; they would rather don the slippers than the
crush hat, and would prefer a warm spot on the
hearth -rug for their feet, to a cold one in the pit of
the " Princess's." There is nothing surprising in this
predilection when we remember that our generation
is not merely an active but a thoughtful generation.
With a larger amount of enterprise than our prede-
cessors, we have also a more catholic taste for litera-
ture. Of late years the result of this diffusion of
literary pursuits has been singularly manifested.
Works, which would formerly have been produced in
a manner too costly and bulky to meet the popular re-
quirements, have been published at a moderate price,
and in deteched portions. Hence have arisen our
periodical novelists. Hence also have arisen those
annual story•books which have from time to time
(and especially during the winter of 1846.7) covered
our library tables with volumes in all the colours of
the rainbow—red, yellow, purple, blue, green, violet,
orange—and all embroidered with golden devices ap-
propriate to Christmas. Of both those kinds of pe-
riodical publications Charles Dickens has been the
originator. The green cover of " Pickwick" called
forth the pink of " Lorrequer," the emerald of " Mal-
vern" the saffron of "Vanity Fair," the primrose of
" Tadpole"—cum ceeteris paribus. In the same way
the crimson binding of the immortal " Carol" proved
to be the progenitor of a voluminous company of his-
toriettes similarly clad in cloth and similarly bedizer.ed
with gilding. The cessation of the Christmas series
of Mr. Dickens, or rather the interruption of it for
twelve months, is, singularly enough, simultaneous
with a diminution in the number of little books for-
merly issued by his imitators. Besides a story
.by
Mrs Gore, another by Charles ltowcroft, a third
by G. P. R. James, and a fourth by Thomas Miller,
there is not one of any note whatever. Like
the influenza, the epidemic seems to be on the de-
cline; and, in lieu of the frivolous fictions which
last winter disgraced the publishers, we have now
before us one or two works of a very superior,
and more than merely enterteiling character. Fore-
most among these is unquestionably the right dainty
book of en old favourite—" The Jar of Honey from
Mount Hybla," by Leigh. Hunt. Foremost of all it
is for its delicate embellishments, for the exquisite
nicety of its binding, and for the toothsome and
saccharine suavity of its -title-page. Even in these
respects alone it would be the book of the season., but it
is in a particular manner entitled to precedence, by
reason at its wit—a wit culled like honey-drops from
the flowers of Attica; its classicality (if the word is
allowable)—a classicality which breathes rather of
the academic groves and of the lemon- walks of Syra-
cuse than of the ditectus and the book-shelf; its
poetry (which is choice even to a punctilio) ; its good-
humour (which is scholarly), and its enthusiasm
(which is fastidious). Had Leigh Hunt never pro-
d. uced " The Feast of the Poets" he would
in this one book have demonstrated his ca-
pacity to supply a banquet of asphodels and
hippoerene. One circumstance must be remembered,
namely, that the book is a reprint from Ainsworth's
Magazine—but a reprint so mellowed by supervision,
and so enhanced by the decorations of another art,
that it is in a measure preferable to an original. The
very binding (from a design by Owen Jones) is a
thing to be conned : it is of a luscious honey-colour,
trellissed with green leaves and knotted branches; the
centre is a mesh of golden blossoms ; a humble bee is
crawling up the back, drowsy and drunk with sweet-
ness, just as one has seen it a hundred times in that
season when, as Tennyson sings—
" Heavily hangs the broad sunflower
Over its grave i' the earth so chilly;
Heavily hangs the hollyhock,
Heavily hangs the tiger-lily."
In the middle of the cover, too, is the identical blue
jar of Sicilian honey which attracted Leigh Hunt's
notice as it stood in the window of Messrs. Fortnum
and Mason, in Piccadilly, and from the mere sight of
which arose all those bewitching associations which
afterwards resolved themselves into the present
volume. We look upon the jar, and think, with the
author, of the blue sea and the blue heavens of Italy;
we hold it in the sun, and fancy that " a spot of in-
sufferable radiance comes in the middle of its cheek,
like a very laugh of light." We look at it again, arid we
think also of the copper pot of the fisherman
in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," that yes
sal which was sealed with the seal of the great
Solomon, and which Leigh Hunt himself has spoken
of as containing the " highly concentrated essence of
Jinn" Of the delicate thoughts contained in this
jar, what can be more delicate, and, being delicate, what
can be more truthful, and, being truthful, what can
he more refined than the one comprised in those five
words (page 25), "Flowers cannot help being beau-
tiful 1" Of quaint phrases what can be quainter than
that one where he speaks of Polyphemus (page 5)
"in his fiercer days, before he had sown his wild
rocks 1" Or than that one where he alludes to the
trick of Dionysius in hanging a sword by a single
hair over the head of Damocles, during a luxurious
banquet, and calls it (the trick) "a practical epigram
of the very finest point?" And of quiet humour what
can be more humorous than the remark with which
he concludes his account of the huge toy-ship con-
structed by Hiero the Second ?—a ship so-vast in di-
mensions that it contained " gardens, a wrestling
ground, rooms full of pictures and statues, floors with
subj,-cts from Homer, painted in mosaic, and eight
fortified towers"—by exclaiming "We should like to
know what Tom Bowling would have said to it."
Those who have not perused the papers as they ap-
peared front time to time in Ainsworth's Maga:,Me,
ss .
find what delectable bits are culled from the
classics by merely dipping into Chapter IV., where
there is the narrative of the prize-fight between .Pol-
lux and Amycus, from the original of Theocrieus, given
with all the daintiness of Walpole or Chesterfield,
and imbued, nevertheless, with all the relish of Ben-
digo or the Tipton Slasher. Let them but dip so
farinto the " Jar of Honey from Mount Ilybla,"
and we warrant them they Will be over their knuckles
and up to their wrists in its " dulcitudes" before
fifteen minutes have expired. If Mr. Hunt has else-
wherealmedfl'is(bientter amber,
things,h haso even,
caughto than many
r b
winged em
thoughts
June flies, with their opal-coloured pinions and their
gold green armour) in his honey. His " Jar of
Honey " is to prose what Boccaccio's "Pot of Basil"
is to poetry. Whoever runs may read what is written
in his pages, and may become very learned in Greek
over his salad, and profoundly versed in Italian over
his chocolate. Ali countries and all generations afford
him meats (sweet-meats) for his literary confections.
Scotland and Attica, Italy and Warwickshire, Syra-
cuse and Stratford, Allan Ramsay and Tasso, Spenser
and Moechus, Virgil and Marlowe—all add their
offerings ; they are the flowers from which he has
extracted the very sugary quintessence of poesy, or
rather they are the bees which have supplied his
.hive.
Before we part with our author, we would especially,
distinctly, emphatically, earnestly, imploringly conjure
him to fulfil his aspirations as to the composition of
a poem in celebration of his dear favourite King Robert

Naive of Company.

Dividend
per

Ameunt
of
Share.

Annum.

ESCAPE OF GAS IN THE ME-

TROPOLIS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlP,—The continuous escape of gas in London and
its environs is, on an average, twenty-five per cent.,
particularly in localities where competition exists ;
and the ground below the surface of the public streets
is strongly impregnated with effluvia arising from
leaky mains and defective services. This is one of
the greatest drawbacks upon gas-light establishments,
operating as a dead loss, yet tainting earth, air, and
water with an obnoxious odour. Gas is also known
to be dangerously inflammable, particularly in vaults,
sewers, and in all confined situations, which requires
the greatest care to prevent serious explosions.
Water companies, well knowing the impure affinity
of gas mains, endeavour to keep them at a regular
distance by Act of Parliament, but this does not
always prevent impregnation ; and the public, from
constantly inhaling carhuretted hydrogen, think
little and care less about the matter.
These escapes do not always occur through ne-
glect ; but frequently, in consequence of new and
deep sewers, undermining large and heavy mains
(which are chained up during the excavation), and
the solid foundation being displaced, the mains gra-
dually sink, and often break, or draw the service pipes
in connexion with the public and private lamps. It
is to be hoped that the new Commissioners of Sewers
will turn their most serious attention to this complaint,
alike injurious to sanitary improvement and to public
safety.—l am, Sir, your most obedient seri ant,
J. S. UNDERWOOD,
Gas-light Surveyor.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia,—A simple method of effecting an immediate
communication with the engine-driver of every pas-
senger train may be accomplished by having a line or
wire over the top of every carriage attached to the train
before leaving the station, one end of such line to be
attached to a bell affixed to the tender, the other end
of the line to be carried to the last carriage of such
train to the guard; a bell-pull to be attached to the
interior of every intermediate carriage, by which any
passenger could instantly give an alarm whenever any
danger might arise from the breaking of a wheel or
axle. The affixing and adjusting such line or wire
could be done by one of the company's servants a
few minutes before starting.
The above may be a somewhat homely and simple
method, but let it be adopted until something more
r scientific is devised.--I am, Sir your most obedient
servant, ROBERT HEDLEY.
1848.
Runcorn, Jan. 14,

MEHEMET ALI AND LORD
DALHOUSIE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sfa,—l was much surprised at a particular cir-
cumstance related in the account given in your
journal of the interview between .Mehemet Ali and
Lord Dalhousie.
It appears that Mehemet Ali received the Go-
vernor-General of India sitting en roi, and the Go-
vernor-General pocketed the insult. Indeed, in the
account of your correspondent, who was present, the
Pacha is styled "his Royal Highness." What effect
will it have in India where kings, rulers of ten or
twelve millions of people, are always proud to be on
a footing of equality in matters of etiquette with th
Governor• General, when it is known that he has
submitted to be received as an interior by the vassal
of the Sultan, ruling over, perhaps, a million and
a halt of sous ? - -
Besides, our Government has studiously and wisely
abstained from favouring, indeed, has directly dis-
countenanced the regal pretensions of Mehemet Ali,
the Pacha of Tunis, and others, while France has
carefully fostered them. There can be little doubt
that this affair in Egypt was concerted by French
agency, in order to lower the Governor-General and
exalt the Pacha in the eyes of the Mahommedan po-
pulation of Egypt and thence of India; and Lord
Dalhousie exhibited but a poor specimen of wit in
falling into the snare. Matters of etiquette are of
very great consequence in the East. But the petty
Pacha of Egypt receiving the Governor-General of
India en roi is really too good! Oh, Lord Dalhousie,
you must be very green.
Your obedient servant,
ANGLICANUS.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Jan. 14.

THE NAVAL AND MILITAR
ESTIMATES OF FRANCE FOR THE
YEAR 1849.
' (From the Journal des Debats of Thursday.)
Yesterday (the 12th) the bureaux of the Chamber
of Deputies commenced their examination of the
Budget of 1849. The third and last volume was
yesterday distributed to all the Deputies. It includes
the budgets of the army and navy. The former (the
military budget, or budget de la guerre) presents a
decrease of about 1,000,000 f., compared with the year
1848. It amounts to the sum total of 320,703,084 f.
It is proposed that the effective of the army shall con-
sist of 333,510 men, and 80,051 horses, of which force
58,729 men and 14,900 horses will be employed in
Algeria. It is known that the Government, by the
supplementary credits, increases the effective force
of the army in Algeria according to the necessities of
the service. In preceding years, the army in Algeria
amounted to nearly 100,000 men, including the paid
native troops.
The budget of the navy (marine) figures in these
estimates for a sum total of 139,309,608 t., present-
ing a difference, as compared with the budget of
1848, of more than 2,000,0001. less. This decrease
has been effected in the armaments and the naval
crews. It is proposed to reduce the effective of the
naval forces by 13 vessels and 1,959 seamen ; and it
will in that case consist of 203 vessels, with 27,372
seamen on hoard.
The following is a recapitulation of the vessels in
active service at sea—viz., 6 snips of the line, 7 fri-
gates, 15 corvettes, 16 brigs, 27 light- vessels, 23
transports, 51 steamers, and 28 different vessels for
the west coast of Africa station, whilst 12 vessels
will remain in harbour commission (commission de
rade), and 18 in port commission (commission de
port).
The reduction of the effective force will be carried
out at the distant stations. The Mediterranean squa-
dron, which includes 12 sailing and steam-vessels,
and that of the coast of Africa, are not to be re-
duced.
The saving thus effected in the armaments is some-
what lessened by the almost equivalent credits de-
manded in augmentation of the budget of 1848 for
the works of the dyke and arsenal of Cherbourg, the
Po The
e
improvement and defence of the small harbour of
days. Several have already terminated to-day
illation of the ensemble of the budget.
Toulon,itficlu,ereee bureaux
x

nwa
thisnaidispatching ltdli oodsnehr.
MAILS TO THE COAST OT AFRICA.—The first
regular mail to the coast of Africa will be msde up in
Postmaster-General a short time since,
the General Post office on the evening of the last day.of
this month. This mail, in accordance with a notice
a minlbag at Madeira on her way to her desti-
nation. on Madeira letters conveyed by
iwssilulebdeblontvbeeyed by one of her Majesty's ships. She
oippTwiliell be the regular packet postage of Is. 10d.,
0f mailbags by her Majesty's ships outward
letters for the west coast of Africa Is. each. The
very general. The Postmaster-
Generalbe c°
nlg
compelled by law to charge the full packet
postage
all letters conveyed by such means, and when
bound i s
on
is
there is no packet postage fixed by Acts of Parliament
on letters addressed to any particular foreign country,
happened. Mails for the Azores, Madeira,
letters for that country must be conveyed by her
and issetnsion, have just been made up
Ma-
jesty's ships free front any postal charge. A case in
her Majesty's ship Bonetta, and as
Verdes,bypecket rate to the Cape de Verdes, the
islands will be conveyed tree from
Capept
ooibnet
dhceos
conveyed
vieuyste
a
WIADsog, FEIDAT EVENING.—The Royal Family
and t,oort will return to Windsor Castle from
moat on on Monday next. The Earl of Morton succeeded
postage. lt eh tetreer si s fno
for ltloas le
the Marquis of °monde as Lord ia Waiting on her
Majesty on Monday last, when ,
buo Court arrived at
, Claremont. (

One day last week more than seven hundred ships,
laden with coals, and bound for London or other southern
ports, were lying at anchor in the Humber, opposite
Cleelborpes, where they were waiting for a fair wind.—
Lincoln Mercury.

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY vls, 1848.

LATEST PRICES OF SHARES.
11l BANKS, ASSURANCE, AND OTHER COM-
PANLES' STOCK.
From the Official List,
PUBLISHED EVERYTUT.SDIT AID FRIDAY ETENING.

LONDON. FRIDAY, JANUARY 14.
JOINT-STOCIC ZIANES.

the classes in the community who are placed in the.

greatest risk, who are exposed to the greatest mis-
chiefs, and for whom the protection afforded by
the administration of the law is most needed, I

would point to that large class in the commurity
that in their various gradations—from the wealthy
occupiers to the person who supports him-
self by his industry with a small holding and with
scanty capital—the farmers of the country who, from.
their numbers, must constitute a large portion of its
population. I would say that they are the classes
possibly in the greatest risk, and in the most need of
protection. [His Lordship here referred to the
number and nature of the crimes that came before
the Court in Limerick, and having recapitulated th&
leading features and circumstances of Ryan (Puck's)
case and others, proceeded.] If these things are so,
am I not right in saying, that these classes of the
csommunity are those who most need the protection.
of the law, and the co-operation of ill for that pur-
pose. You, and such as you, wh) reside in dwel-
lings, and in places in which from the characters of
your residences, and from your means of swim-loping-
around you your servants and dependants, can protect
;),,ourselves against such a state ut things Os this ; and it
is a dreadful state of society in which you are obliged
to adopt precautions of that sort ; but a farmer residin
in g
a remote district can offer no resistance against
murderers assailing him in arms. His protection can
only be from the assertion of the supremacy of the
law. When, therefore, I say, that the co-operation
of all classes in society ought to be given in aid of
the law, and fur the suppre,,tun of outrages, I am not
I think wrung in sa3ing that there is no class in the
community who ought to be more stimulated not
merely by a sense of duty, but by a sense of their
own personal interest, to lend their co-operation v. 3
those who belong to the class of farmers. It is im-
possible that crime could prevail to such an extent if
that co-operation were given. it may be that it is
in some instances withheld from the influence of pre-
vailing intimidation—it may be that in some instances
it is withheld from some lamentable and mistaken
sympathies with the perpetrators of these crimes.
One of the circumstances which appeared before us
in Limerick, which has given me encouragement in
hoping that these outrages may be put down by the
administration of the law, with the co-operation of all
classes in the community, is that instances occurred of
the courage—not merely the courage with which
some of the assailants were resisted, but the courage

d in the
:est mis-
-tied by-
eeded, I
mmunty
wealthy
s . him-
.nd with. --
ho, from.
on of its
classes
t need of
to the
e before
lated the
(Puck's)
is are so,
cs of the
rotection.
:hat pur-
in dvvel-
•acters of
lamming-
n protect
is ; and it
e obliged
7 residing
against
ction can
ay of the
operation
_ .
in aid of
I am not
ss in the
ated not
of their
7ation v. 3
It is im-
extent if
hat it is ‘
e of pre- .
instances
mistaken
crimes.
'
before us
.ement
n by the
tion of all
a.curred of
th which
courage
► the laws
and I be-
,f persons
ar, that it
ars should
Lre taught
e laws of
species of
liberties,
present
giving to
ands. It
by their
use—their
has been
rime. In
mmission,
?spectable
en fleeing
ed on the
ged in the
felon was
to lose his
at he who,
felon and
and of the
the crime
; separated
?riod of his ,
n Frewen,
ow en his
ed for ever
most dear,
No to the
prott.ction.
a warning
-.ed to incur
my person,
even that of
of any of
✓ him by
lot commit
,t' William
I and ex-
✓ the pre- •
► the power
principals
rv, I have
al remarks
es which it
:ions which
hat has ()e-
-1 the causes,
rs, or with
,thing to do.
; to be dis-
on such an
to deal with
it respective
ion; and by
,ng adtninis-
.b, after all,
e the recto-
is Lordship
e provisions
appearing in
Df the police
observations
the same as
merick.] I
which have
of the Lord
and which,
)f. But the
mattpr whiCh