The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

EXCHANGES.

On London—at
6 months' sight, per rupee, 2s. 111 for document bills.
6 months' sight per rupee, 2s. lkd. for credit bills.
On Calcutta—at
60 days' sight, per 100 I. 1001
30 days' sight ditto 100-4-
At sight ... ditto ... 101 i
On Madras—at
30 days' sight ditto ... 99
At sight ... ditto ... 99f
On China—at
60 days' sight, per 100 drs., 214 r. to 215 r.
BANK AND OTHER SHARES.
Bank of Bombay 8.1,000 each, 1,000 paid up, 20i per
cent. pm—sales.
Oriental Bank l,OOO do., 500 do., 15i per cent.
dis.
Commercial Bank l,OOO do., 500 d0.,10 per cnt. ds.
—sales.
Agra Bank 5OO do., 500 d0.,1 per cnt. pm.
Bank of Madras l,OOO do., 1,000 do., 22 per cent.
premium.
Apollo Press Com. 12,500 do., 12,500 do., 15,700.
Colaba Press Cam. 7,000 do., 7,000 do., 15,000.
Colaba Land Corn. lO,OOO do., 10,000 do., 7,000 nom.
Bombay S. N. Com. ... 500 do., 500 do., 50 per cent.
dis.—sales.

Or, Ind. P. R. Com. 50 do., 27 4 5 paid.

JULY

GOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
Five per Cent. Transfer Loan Rs. 114 to 115.
Five per Cent. Lan, 1825 26 107,J; to 108 per 100

Sicca.
Five pc Cent. Loan, 1829.30 107 to 107:12- per 100
Siccc.

Five per Cent. Lour, 1841-42 105 to 105:1.
Four per Cent. Lo;:n, 1832-33 95i- per 100 Siena.
Four per Cent. Loan, 1835-36 924. per 100 Co.'s.
Four per Cent. Loan, 1842-43 92 per 100 Cc's,

PRICES OF BULLION.
Sovereigns each ... 10 1-16th r. irr
Bank of England notes liir. per
Spanish dollars ... 220 r. to 222 r. ... per 100
German crowns ... 211 r. to 211ir.... per 100
Sycee silver 103ir pqr 100 tolas
Gold leaf (range of
(11EilitY) ... 16 3-16ths r . . pr toma.
Gold Ingots, according
to touch 15ir. for 97 teh.... per to'.a.
FREIGHTS.
To London 2L 17s. 6d. to 31. per ton.
To Liverpool ... 2/. 10s. to 2/. 153. per ton
To Clyde ... 3/. ... per ton.
To Calcutta ... Rs. 215 ... per rase.
To China ... Rs. 14 ... ... per candy.
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
BOMBAY.
ARRIVALS.

June 7—The India, from Liverpool 10th of February;
Helena, from Zanzibar 17th of May; John Moore, from
Liverpool 13th of January, and Belfast Ist of February;
Victoria, from Singaporo 28th of April.
Juno 12—The Emperor, from Liverpool 10th of
February.
Juno 13—The Teazer, from Calcutta 25th of April,
Signalled the Coromandel, from Moulmein to London,
out 28 days, in latitude 0.22 south, longitude 93.25 east.
June 14—The Mohassur, from the Mauritius Ist of
June.

June 15 —The St. Abbs, from London 28th of Fe-
bruary, and Madeira 16th of March; Sefinatuliah, from
Jeddah 19th of April.
June 16—The Futtel Rahimon, from Juddah 30th of
April; Sovereign, from Liverpool 15th of February,
Kingstown Dublin Bay 21st of February.
June 17—The Julia, from Juddah 6th of April; Anne
Mitchell, from London 22d of February; Marion, from
Greenock 27th of February; Inconstant, from Li ver-
pool 21st of February; lion. Company's steamer Bere-
nice, from Bushire Ist of June, touched at Bassadore and
Muscat, which latter place she loft on the 12th inst. at
8.30 P.m.; Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company's steamer Malta, from Hongkong 24th of May,
Singapore Ist of June, Penang 3d of June, and Point de
Gale 13th of June at 7 P.M.

June 21—The Good Success, from China 18th of
April, and Singapore Bth of May; Victory, trom New
Zealand 26th of April.

Juno 22—The Margaret Skelly, from London 14th of
February, and Cape Town 15th of May.
June 23—The Thomas Campbell, from Greenock 12th
of March.

June 24.—The David Malcolm, from London Bth of
March.

DEPARTURES.

June 7—The Sesostris, fur Aden.
Juno 13—The Memnon, from Whampoa; James
White, for Hull; Bilton, for Liverpool.
June 14—The Richard Cobden, for Liverpool.
June 16—The Bride, for Woosung, iu China.
Juno 17—The Kalmia, for Liverpool; Faiz© Allum,
for Singapore and Siam; Elizabeth, for Liverpool.
Juno 19—The Singapore, for Point de Galle, Penang,
Singapore, and Hongkong; Anne Armstrong, for China;
Feroze, for the Laccadives.

June 20—The Rajahswarree, for Calcutta; Anne
Armstrong, for. China.

Juno 22 —Tho Emperor, for Liverpool; Beloochee,
for Liverpool.

Juno 2.3 —Tho Tinto, for London; Sir Howard D)u-
glas, for Liverpool.

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

A sad disappointment yesterday awaited the learned
and scientific!, as well as the lovers of the marvellous,
who had anticipated the gratification of witnessing the
rare and interesting spectacle of an almost total eclipse
of the sun. It is a subject of no ordinary regret, that
the unpropitious and clouded state of the heavens
should have denied to the vast multitude of metropo-
litan observers who were :preparing to profit by au
event so seldom occurring, and yet so replete with
matter for contemplation and instruction, the opportu-
nity for turning it to intellectual account. There is
no question that the celestial phenomenon which oc-
curred yesterday belongs to a class which, more than
any other, tends to realise to ordinary apprehensions
the great truths of astronomical science. An eclipse,
beyond all other marvels, serves the purpose, as it
were, of a popular demonstration of the accuracy of
those wonderful calculations by which the movements
of the heavenly bodice aro ascertained for hundreds of
years beforehand, and laid down with unerring cer-
tainty and precision. Most persons must have experi-
enced the vague and misty effect occasionally produced
on the mind by reading or listening to astronomical
lectures, in which not only millions of miles, but distances
altogether immeasurable and indefinite, are talked of with
a familiarity that often amazes still more than it enligh tens,
leaving the mind ultimately in a mere state of confusion
and bewilderment. We aro not sure, indeed, that a
doubt is not sometimes suggested, whether the grave-
looking gentleman who propounds such astounding reve-
lations touching the motions of the vast bodies in space—
" Cycle on epicycle, orb on orb"—
is not under a dreamy and mysterious delusion, and pre-
tending to tell ua infinitely more than he really knows,
or, if put to the test, would be able to prove. Certainly,
to the popular mind, there is all the difference in the
world between giving perchance a listless ear to the re-
lation of such marvels, and the palpable evidence pre-
sented to their sight by the actual occurrence. The
maxim of Horace—

" Segnius irritant animum demissa per aurens,
Quam gum aunt oculis subjecta fidelibus"—
will apply to the facts of astronomy at least as felici-
tously as to any others coming within the range of the
senses. The truthfulness of these profound deductions is
by such evidence removed from the dim and distant re-
gion of theory to the sphere of undeniable fact, and the
mind is gradually prepared to grapple with and admit
the other truths of this sublime science. Instead of being
♦iewed, as formerly, by our ancestors as the forerunner
of plague, pestilence, and famine, may not an eclipse
rather be regarded as one of the grandest of astrono-
mical lectures, delivered by Nature herself, with the
human race for an auditory, the heavens for a theatre,
and the sun and moon as the philosophical apparatus by
which her operations aro illustrated?
On the effect of such a phenomenon in ancient, and
even in more recent times, on the minds of men, nay of
whole nations—arising from the groundless, though per-
haps not altogether unnatural, superstition that con-
nected those purely physical effects with impending evil
and the wrath of heaven—we need not now dilate. With
the advance of science and the abundance of information
daily diffused at our public institutions, in a popalar
though philosophical form, such unfounded alarms have
vanished like owls at the approach of daylight; and the
announcement of an eclipse, instead of driving our
worthy citizens to their cellars for refuge against the an-
ticipated horrors attending it, serves rather to attract
them to every spot where it may bo seen to the best ad-
vantage.

Th
e dubious appearance in the early part of the day,
and the cloudy and mote threatening aspect it after-
wards assumed, doubtless prevented many otherwise
eager sight-seers from availing themselves of those lo-
calities which are sufficiently convenient for the less
curious or less favoured mortals, who have neither the
desire nor the moons of transporting themselves from
Marylebone or Cheapside to Christiana, Konigsberg, or
elsewhere, in the zone within whose range the luxury of
a total eclipse was doubtless enjoyed. On Nunhead-hill,
however, and other elevated spots in the vicinity of the
metropolis, a few stray observers were stationed, de-
sirous, like ourselves, of witnessing the effect of the pre-
dicted obscuration on the surrounding country; but as
far as the purpose of observation was concerned, we
might as well have confined our astronomic survey to
the precincts of our own dwelling. We confess to having
exprcted to see a liberal sprinkling of peripatetic
Galileos proffering their tubes for a moderate charge, or
troops of amateur astronomers-royal learnedly sweeping
the sky through the medium of pieces of smoked and co-
loured-glass.
At Greenwich the gathering was at first considerable
but scarcely so great us mighthave bean expected. The
Astronomer Royal at Fredericksvaem, Mr. Hind at
Gothenburg, most of our men of scientific eminence
abroad—theb Observatory itself was deserted; whilst
many of the mere sight-seers who early in the day oc-
cupied the hill, being disheartened by the clouds, or
damped by the rain, left prematurely in despair of be-
holding the phenomenon which they had hoped to view.
And the result, it must be confessed, did not belie the
wisdom of the philosophers nor falsify the instincts of
their disciples ; for whatever may have been wit-
nessed by the professors who have gone to Sweden
and Norway, no important observations were made
by their deputies whom they left here. The un-
learned felt, therefore, some disappointment. In the
first place, the weather was most unfortunately hostile
to the wishes of the amateur watchers, clouds impeding
their view, and following each other in such rapid
succession as to forbid more than a glance, and to
refuse time for anything like a sufficient observation; in
the second, the coincident appearances were by no means
so extraordinary as had been predicted—in short, they
were not, to the unassisted vision, extraordinary at all.
The actual mathematical certainties of course came true.
The eclipse was duly noticed, and, as far as visible, veri-
fied to the letter the calculations on which it had been
announced. Between 2.20 P.M. and 2.25 it was first re-
marked; at 3..5 it might, for a moment or two, be well
seen; but at 3.10, the greatest phase, it was lost to sight
altogether. But the wonders of 1842 were not repeated;
the " fairy tales of science," as Tennyson, borrowing
from Lord Brougham, has phrased it, proved themselves
mere fictions. Yet the Euglish still love the marvellous,
though they have ceased to fear it. For upwards of two
hours the scrutiny continued, apparently with but little
result. To the naked eye, however, the clouds, which
wero obstacles to those provided with the necessary op-
tical instruments, were occasionally an assistance, as the
lighter of them answered particularly well the purposo
to which smoked glasses are generally applied, and
helped to heighten the effect which, to some extent, they
bad produced. Atmospheric changes worthy of note
there wore none; the wind blew slightly till the rain
fell, and then moderated, as in the ordinary course of
things it naturally would. Such were all the observa-
tions which, outside,, it was possible to make; unfortu-
, tuuately, in the absence of Professor Airey, there was
no information from within our national observatory to
be had—a circumstance which the professor might have
prevented, end which the public will regret.
Besides the naturally elevated positions of which we
have spoken, those wlsich art has raised were generally
occupied for the occasion. On the Monument and from