The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-09 00:00:00

SALE OF BLOOD STOCK.
The following were sold by Messrs. Tattersall yester-
day :

Guineas.

The Long Rifle, by Footstool, out of The Trap
per's dam, 3 yrs old ; no engagement
Brown Bess, own sister to the Long Rifle, 2 yrs
old ; engaged in the Oaks, 1857 ; sold with
her engagements

EASTERN COUNTIES STEEPLECHASES.
These chases, which have been twice postponed in
consequence of the frost, will take place to-morrow. A.
special train will leave the Bishopsgate station, for Ips-
wich, at 9.30 a.m., returning to London half an hour
after the last race. The train will stop at Colchester.

MARKET NEWS.—(This Day.)

HAY MARKETS.

SMITHFIELD.—IIeadow hay, 2/ 10s to 4/ 68 ; clover do.,
3/ 108 to 51 8s; and straw, 11 4s to 1/ 91 per load.
Trade dull.
CUMBERLAND. —Meadow hay, 2/ 12s to 4/ 88; clover
do., 3/ lUs to 5/ 8s ; and straw, 1/ 5s to 11 108 per load.
Supply good.
WIIITECHAPEL.—Meadow hay, 2/ 108 to 4l 6s; clover
do., 3/ las to 5/ 8s; and straw, 1/ 4s to 1/ 99 per load.
Trade rather dull.

COLONIAL.
TEA.—There has been a very active business tranctich
ed
in most qualities, but principally in fine eongous, wsah
have realised rather higher prices. The stocks of Common
Congou are very light, and there are free buyers at 90.
per lb., good sound qualities bring 9d. per lb.
SUG Att. —Large transactions have been entered into
both for home use and for exportation, and there is still a
good demand chiefly on speculation. Previous rates,
however, in almost all instances, have been fully sustained,
the arrivals have been unimportant, and the stocks are not
much larger than they were at this time last year. Prices
are expected to rule higher. The Refined Market is rather
dearer.
lan-
COFFEE.—There has been a good inquiry for both p
tation and native Ceylon, and the superior qualities of both
have brought enhanced rates. The deliveries have been
lare, and the stocks very much reduced, in the a rather
higher.
any large arrivals, and prices are expected to rule rather
higher.
RfeE.—The transactions in low and damaged sorts have
been large for distillationispuarrptiocslees,,caotmf
compared
lalrye
dp
with v i o not
nsheor,B
aria
etnait
sskbte, transacted, srdakcette, da,aeansta,
but in the superior qualities no businessbhria
princeusmaieTreistetonekoms
of this
this time last year, was very much reduced,
also are lower. A. steady business has been and prices
previous rates.
spot, is quoted
TALLOW—There has been a very
on
thewith this time last
prices are on the advance. P.Y.C.,
58s 6d to 583 9d per cwt. As compared
year prices rule fully 6s to 8s per cwt. lower.

ART IN FRANCE.—M. Ingres, the celebrated painter,
has just finished two remarkable drawings, which have
excited considerable attention smarm connoisseurs. The
subject of the first is "The Birth of the Mures, presided
over by jupitcr," and that of the second, "A Child mak-
ing an Offering to the Virgin." M. Marelle, of the Rue
Truden, one of the most enthusiastic dilettanti of pictures
and works of art, lately died at Paris, aged 75, leaving
behind him a collection of about 4,000 paintings, the
fruit of about 50 years of untiring research. Very many
of them are by Greuze, Chardin, Watteau, Boucher, and
other masters of the 18th century. One of the pecu-
liarities of his collection is that it contains the portraits
of many of the most celebrated men of different
centu-
ries, paintediby contemporary artists. Before his death
he bad been struck with paralysis, which left hint nothin g
but his eyes to afford him enjoyment. In this state
him,
he
used to have his favourite pictures placed before
and all. day long regard them. His last; words on dying,
articulated with difficulty, were, " See my last purchase ;
it is a Watteau !" By his will he has ordered that about
his children rend grandchildren,
500 of his pictures shall not be sold, but reserved for

SIR C. NAPIER AND SIR R. PEEL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—I beg to send you my reply to a letter re-
ceived from Lord Palmerston, dated Dec. 1,
refusing me an investigation into my conduct, in
consequence of Sir R. Peel's statements. I also
send a letter to Lord Palmerston, enclosing the
Grand Duke Constantine's reply to my letter to
his Imperial Highness, dated the 29th of October
last. C. NAPIER.

" No. I.
" SIR C. NAPIER TO LORD PALMERSTON.

"Merchistoun, Dec. 5, 1856.

"My lord,—Your lordship tells me that you have wit—
nessed with great pain ' the discussions that have taken.
place between me and the Board of Admiralty, both in and
out of Parliamont, as well as the attacks made by me upon
Sir J. Graham on a public occasion.' But, my lord, if'
you have felt pain on that occasion—provoked as I was
by Sir James Graham and his Board—how much more
pained must you have been to witness the unprovoked at-
tacks made upon me by a member of your Lordship's Go-
vernment on two public occasions.

" Your Lordship tells me that ' you have always main-
tained, when professionally employed in executing instruc-
tions under your department, that you had full reason to
be satisfied with my judgment and discretion ; and you are
bound to say that you estimate the great services which
professionally I have performed. You highly respect the
noble qualities, of which, in my professional career, I have
given such frequent proofs. But you have seen with sin-
cere conduct on shore things which my beat
friends (and
(anin m
dyouy claim to be one of them) coald not witness
without deep regret.

" How much more poignant, then, my Lord, must have
been your ' grief,' and how much more deep your regret
to witness the conduct of Sir Robert Peel—a Lord of th•
Admiralty, a member of your Government—in attacking
au old officer, double his age, who had served his country
honourably for upwards of 50 years, had several times re-
ceived the thanks of Parliament, and had even been high*
lauded in Parliament by the hon. Baronet's own father.
" Your Lordship must also remember that in attacking
me he attacked the French Admiral, my colleague ; and in
AO doing must have given offence to the French nation—our
ally.
" Your Lordship will permit me to observe that you do
nei put the case sufficiently strong. The attacks were made
at public meetings, it is true ; but they were made by Sir
Robert Peel, a Lord of the Admiralty, a member of your
Lordship's Government, and in the presence of one of your
colleagues I

" Your Lordship thinks no investigation necessary, be-
cause you consider my conduct to have been judicious and
proper, and to have been founded on a correct sense of my
public duty in the very responsible situation in which I was
placed as commander-in-chief of the Baltic fleet.'
" The fleet I commanded, your lordship observes, ' wee
perfectly sufficient, when reinforced by the French
squadron, to have enabled me to give a good account of
the Russian fleet if it had come out to give me battle.
But the fleet under my command was not sufficient for the
double purpose of attacking the stone batteries of Cron•
stadt, and afterwards encountering with success the Rus-
sian fleet.

"lour lordship further observes that if I had attacked
Cronstadt, whatever the result might have been to tke
Russian batteries, my ships would have been so seriously
damaged, and my fleet, after such an action with the bat-
teries, would probably not have been in a situation to
encounter the Russian fleet. The consequence of such a
state of things might have been a naval disaster, or the
temporary ascendancy of the Russian fleet, not only in the
Baltic, but in the North Sea, and on the coasts of England.'
" You therefore think that, in the then existing state
of things I acted with sound judgment in refraining frog►
attacking the batteries of Cronstadt with the fleet under
ay command; and that in pursuing this course I beat per-
formed the important and responsible duty which I had
undertaken.'
• •

" This, your lordship says, is your opinion now—was
your opinion at the time—and it was so expressed in a
private letter to me when I was still in command of tke
Baltic fleet; and that this is the opinion you have inva•
riably expressed to all s‘ith whom you have communicated
at any time on the subject.'
" I feel highly gratified that you entertain so high an
opinion of my public services in general, and particularly
of my conduct before Cronstadt. But I do not think,
after what has passed, that even your good opinion will
clear me in the eyes of the world.

" It was stated by Admiral Berkeley, in 1866, that it
was my fault Cronstadt was not attacked.
"It has been stated at one public meeting, in present() of
one of your colleagues, by Sir _Robert Peel, another Lord of
the Admiralty, that, ' had I done my duty, Cronstadt
would have been crumbled to dust.'
" This was confirmed at another public meeting, and it
was stated by Sir IL Peel, that ' what he had said at
iitafford was approved by the highest authority.' This
has gone forth to the remotest corners of the earth.
" The ' highest authority' could not have been your
lordship, after what you have written to me. It could net
have been her Majesty. Therefore I think the country has
a sight to know who this ' highest authority' is.
" Sir R. Peel's opinion, my lord, on naval matters is not
worth much ; nor, indeed, on any other. His want of jadg-
ment is proverbial, but his position gives him weight.
" Tile course he has pursued reflects little credit on your
lordship's Government ; and be assured, my lord, that he
is not the Samson to pull down the pillars of the State and
crash the Administration beneath its ruins.
" I therefore trust your lordship will reconsider year
decision, and grant me the investigation I request.

. _
" I have, &c.,
" CHARLES MAFIA'.
" The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston."

" No. 11.
" SIR C. NAPIER TO Loan PALMERSTON.
" Merchistonn, Dec. 7, 1856.

" My Lord,—Since writing to your lordship, on the sth
of December, I beg to send you a copy of the Grand Duke's
reply to me, just received.
" It is for your lordship to judge whether a member o f
your lordship's Government, who has endeavoured to ruin
the reputation of an old officer, is fit to be one of his mas-
ters; and yourlordshiP may perhaps be able to ascertain
who the highest authority' is to whom Sir It Peel al-
luded in his speech.

" I have, Sic.,
" CIiARLES NAFIBB•
" The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston."

"No. 111.
" SIR C. NAPIER TO THE GRAND DUKE CONSTADMINE.
"Merchistoun, Oct. 29, 1656.
" Sir,—l beg to send to your Imperial Highness a speech
of Sir R. Peol—a Lord of the Admiralty—ill which he
accuses me of not doing illy duty before Cronstadt.
" I also send your highness my letter to him, and
two
to Lord Palmerston.
" I think I have distinctly stated what passed between
your Imperial Highness and myself relative to Cronstadt ;
which certainly does not agree with what Sir It. Peel

states.
" I shall make no apology to your Imperial Highness for
writing to you. Your Highness s a frank, open-hearted
Bailor. I therefore request you will be pleased to inform
me whether I have correctly stated what passed between
your Highness and myself when you honoured me with au
interview, and whether, as stated by Sir Peel, if I had
attacked Cronstadt, I would have crumbled it into dust.
" I have the honour, Br.c.,
"CHARLES NAPIER, Vice-Admiral.
" His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Constantine."

" No. IV.

dear
October,Ad
"THE GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE TO SIR C. NAN"'
"Bt. Petersburg, 13th (25th) Nov. 1856.
29t"hMoYfyour letterh ave
utihtse
nlr:.viiiTinlgnlya:fsfiwrneri to
ohat yon
exactly reported the conversation I had with you concern-
ing Cronstadt.
" With regard to Sir R. Peel's statement, I consider it
necessary to sa that I spoke to laim but once, via., at his
y
official presentation in Moscow ; and that iwt a word con-
cerning Cronstadt—not even the mune itself—was men.
tioned by either of us.
" Yours affectionately,
"CONSTAIRTINR.
" Sir Charles Napier, Vice-Admiral."