The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

THE PENINSULAR MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY MORWING.
One of the Peninsular and. Oriental Company's
steam-ships, with the mails from Gibraltar, Cadiz,
Lisbon, Oporto, and Vigo, has arrived in tiro river.

SPEdli-L—The shipments of specie by the Peninsular
and Oriental steamer Pera amount to 778,7631., of which
3,7131. is gold for Alexandria, Ceylon, Madras, and
Singapore, and 775,0501. silver for Bombay, Calcutta,
Penang, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Canton, and Shanghai.
The Paris letters, with scarcely an exception, affirm
that a report has gained credence of its being the inten-
tion of Government to issue a decree for the suspension
of specie payments by the Bank of France. The drain,
notwithstanding all the arrivals of gold and silver that
take place, is said to be proceeding at a greatly in-
creased rate ; but, if this is the ease, it may probably be
attributed to the hoarding caused by mischievous re-
ports such as that now in circulation. It is not be-
lieved in London that the French Government can have
entertained the idea imputed to them.
DELAY OF THE INDIAN MAILS AT MARSEILLES.—
Mr. Fleming, the secretary of the Manchester Commer-
cial Association, has received the following reply from
the Postmaster-General, to a letter on the subject of the
delay of Indian mails at Marseilles :LGeneral Post-
office, Oct. 2, 1856, Sir,—With reference to your letter
of the 18th ult., on the subject of the delay, at Mar-
seilles, of the mails from India, which arrived at that
port on the 11th ult., I am directed by the Postmaster-
Genera( to acquaint you that the arrangements for the
conveyance of the Indian mails, through France, rest
with the French Post-office. Hie Grace has on former
occasions called the attention of the Director-General
of that office to the delay which sometimes occurs in the
transmission of those mails from Marseilles and he will
do so again, in reference to the delay whichl took place
on this occasion. I am, Sir, your obedient humble ser-
vant, J. TILLY."

RUSSIAN CORONATION FETES.

MOSCOW, SEPT 23.
THE DINNER TO THE PEOPLE AND "THE ACCIEIFNT."

The rain utterly destroyed the effect of the very
curios and almost grand spectaole of the dinner given
by the Emperor to 200,000 people, though it must be
admitted theft, so car es the spectators were conc,A-r.ed,
they would have deprived them of the pleasure of seeing
so many mouths filled at once had they acted on a fine
day as they did last Saturday. It was not the police
chief, but a stupid artisan, who caused the fatal and pre-
mature onslaught upon the victuals. The Czar was much
displeased when he heard of the mistake, but he displayed
that command over his feelings for which he is remark-
able, and in which he presents a contrast to his late
father, and very sensibly remarked that as it was done
it could not be helped.
The reason assigned to me for this extraordinary
cweretemps by a Russian officer of rank was as fol-
lows : It all arose out of a " signal"—that never-failing
source of disaster, and error, and confusion. It appears
that the laissez diey was to havo been given to the
people by the hoisting of a white flag on the flagstaff of
the pavilion occupied by the Emperor, and that this was
to have been done by the order of his Majesty, to let
the multitude know they might fall on the feast in his
presence. The luckless chef de police, on whom so much
reprobation has already fallen, took it into his unhappy
head to experiment with the feelings, passions, organs,
and emotions of about half a million of people ; he
wanted to see if the flag halyards were " all right," and
to that end he very wisely gave the order to haul away,
and up went the white flag and the double-headed
black eagle thereupon fluttering aloft to the top of the
pole. Now, it is I,kely that the chef was quite prepared for
its not going up, but it is certain he was utterly unprepared
for the contingency of its elevation. The flag, the cyno-
sure of hundreds of thousands of hungry eyes, had not well
flown c'ear out from the staff ere, with a growl of de-
light, and with a simultaneous spring like that of some
hungry monster, the myriads rushed on the tables, and
in the twinkling of an eye sheep, sausages, hams, bread,
beef, fowls, fruit--ay, even the platters, dishes, plates,
trees, tubs, wooden spoons, and some of the very tables
themselves, were swallowed in that mighty maw, and
had disappeared for ever. The flag was seen by all the
world, but few indeed beheld the unhappy police master,
who in unspeakable affright and consternation ordered
the people to stop, shouted to his emissaries, sent orders
to distant Cossacks, and had the flag jerked down again
in all haste. The mischief was done—the feast was
gone. As well might the Cossacks hope to keep out
the tide with their lances as strive to break the
human flood which raged round the remnants of the
banquet. These remnants were only bits of wood,
fragments of tables, and pieces of the stands
on which the sheep had been impaled and from
which sausages and fowls had depended. The waters
dammed up so long were irresistible when the dam had
once given way. The immense rua,s of human beings
who, restrained by their feelings of loyalty and obedi
sacs to the Emperor, and by the fear of the lance of the
Cossack, had tranquilly waited through hours of rain
and storm for the sluices to be opened, had burst forth,
and "all the King's horses and all the King's men could
not get theM back again," or undo the work they had
performed with such prodigious celerity. One could
form some notion of the way in which the pyramids were
built by seeing the way in which 5,000 sheep and many
tons' weight of meat and bread and massive tables and
woodwork were all gobbled up, secreted, or carriel off
by this "little dinner party." It is true we did not
see it, for the programme fixed it for 12.30, and the
proceeding took place before 10 o'clock, and there was
nothing to gaze at of all we had come to see.
The "people's" dinner cost 350,000 silver roubles.
THE DAL MASQUE AT THE KREMLIN.

The bal masque for the people tcok place on Thtrsday
night al the Palace of the Kremlin. About 20,0 W per.
sons were present. That is a literal fact, but it must
not be supposed that because it was called Lai ruisque
in French, or maskerad in Russian, that there was either
dancing or masques. It was a dense and silent mob,
of all ages and conditions, within five of the largest
salons in the world. The Halls of St. George, St. Vla-
dimir, and St. Andrew, and the Salle Alexandre were
brilliantly illuminated ; in the last alone there were
more than 2,000 wax lights burning, in richly gilt cfln-
delabra, and the other halls were illuminated with a
similar profuseness and splendour. It was not yet 9
o'clock when we enter( -I the palace by one of the private
doors, and, passing through long galleries, cor-
ridors, passages, conservatorie?, filled with pictures,
statuary, plants, and flowers, and lined with
a magnificent valotaille, and detachments of the Che-
valier Guard and of the Grenadiers of the Court, de-
bouched into the space in front of the thrones, which
was reserved for the diplomatic circle, the Ministers of
State, the officers of rank, and strangers invited to at
tend. A barrier about three feet was thrown across the
ball, at the distance of seven or eight yards from the
foot of the thrones, which were just the same as we saw
them on the day of the coronation, and outside this bar-
rier there was a dense mass of human beings, whose
heads and faces tapered away in long perspective to the
end of the hall, and were again visible through the arch
in the hall below, till they were at last lost in the haze.
Merchants' wives and daughters, the families of the in-
ferior employes, those of the lower order of nobility, the
shopkeepers, the stall-owners, the servants, the mujiks,
the very droschky drivers were all there, packed as close
as they could be, all looking towards the thrones, or
trying In vain to get a glimpse at the reserved paral-
lelogram, in which a very brilliant crowd of gentle-
men and ladies, in full uniform, were already awaiting
the arrival of the Emperor. Lord and Lady Gran-
ville, Lord Wodehouse, M. de Morny, Prince Esterhazy,
and a host of generals blazing with orders, distinguished
and undistinguished, were in this magic square, which
was kept i❑ order by the Chamberlains of the Court, all
in their magnificent State uniforms. The negroes of the
Court brought round from time to time trays of ices.
A splendid supper for 1,500 guests was served.