The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-05 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

about
. MAjesty left town seven o'clock on Wednesday
/tiling on his return to Windsor Castle.
d fort Bulow, the Prussian Minister, left town on Wednes-
it he Continent.
Paid Visits
Althorp arrived in town yesterday ; his Lordship
1. ViSitS to Viscount Melbourne and Mr. Secretary Rice.
hi. Araujo Ribeiro, the Brazilian Minister, and M. de Hum-
meLauer, the Austrian Charge d'Affaires, transacted business
Yel,terday at the Foreign-office.
1),1'1, Hon. Edward Petre, M. P., Colonel Napier, Mr.
Ploitill°re, M. P., Mr. Wray, Receiver to the Metropolitan
vor
cc:it:l:l:he Military Secretary to the Commander of the
the ces, had interviews Yesterday with Mr. Secretary Rice at
office.
thhe Right Hon. Charles Grant had an interview yesterday
Viscount Melbourne at the Treasury.

It is asserted that Lord Gardiner will be the new
Ord of the Bedchamber, vice the Earl of Gosford.
Lord and Lady Rolle are now at Stevenstone, near
Torrington,B! in Devonshire, contributing to the comforts of the
"rrolmding peasantry.
Viscount Cantalupe, eldest son of Earl Delawarr,
to ila Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, has left town
J°
in the 3d battalion, at present in Dublin.
bb,,The Marquis of Douro, Sir M. Ogilvie, Captain
man. Colonel Hare, Major Campbell, and about fifty other
raszengers. were on board the Dundee steam-ship, which
sailed on Wednesday morning at ten o'clock.
eIIATsWoRTH.—The Duke of Devonshire is ex-
teted to arrive at his princely chateau to-morrow, from the
Uke of Sutherland's seat in Staffordshire. Grand doings are
IPeeted there during this month and the next.
t 9,reat preparations are making for the next Doneas-
: ,„4-aces, as the St. Leger attracts much notice. The Earl
of 1-firewood and Earl Fitzwilliam will entertain a succession
of visitors during the races : and their equipages, with those
tt other distinguished characters in the county, will add to
Inge rna,rnificence of the course. Arrangements have been
to keep it clear of low vagrant gamblers, by having a
unable ?lumber of constables and of police to attend for the
1/urPose.
TIIg ROYAL PARK, WEYNioUTII.—This splendid
4,,,t(lit_ion.to the accommodation of Weymouth, which is now in
sit iv Negress, will occupy forty acres of land most rurally
••Listed, forming a contrast on the right to that of the sea
It w
is r the left, as you enter this fashionable watering-place.
iltgrheat,e°stbe planted and laid out in a very tasteful. manner, and
serpentine river will pass through it, This will be the
improvement to Weymouth, with the exception of
eeaplanade that was ever attempted, affording the most
A delightful walk's occasionally enlivened by a band of music..
to crescent of thirty first-rate houses is also in contemplation,
`[tend from the Belvedere to the entrance of the town.
priVir• Stanley has written a letter to the editor of the
presto7z
Pilot, in which he states that the correspondence pub-
twp in many of the newspapers, as having taken place be-
tocie.4 himself and Lord Grey, is a forgery from beginning to
e an that te correspondence in question has not, either
cootshxPressd ion orh substance, the slightest resemblance to any
gad the which have at any time passed between him
the Noble Lord.
011.,o11., petition to the King from the holders of Spanish
ak bas •already received 2 000 signatures, and will lie open
t,;olll:it_her signatures at M. Chavant's, No. 19, Rue de Ch'.try,
" 'oe sth instant.—Galignani's Messenger.
ROdwell is composing the music of a new grand
Sio-ois, to be produced at the opening of the Surrey Theatre.
• 4irt Miss Inverarity, and some other popular vocalists, are
"Red to appear in it.
Atts4tnenterprising mercantile house of Hobart Town,
tire' Ilk are about to send out a vessel to circumnavigate the
Pole; in the centre of which is supposed to be the South
on
.tei* The ex_pedition will be under the command of Captain
•--Netv York Paper.
the PA
PtltA.—The construction of a railroad across
ver,„,:inlus of Panama has been determined upon by the Go-
sore -‘ellt of New Grenada. This is a very important mea-
ci,d iilvrthether considered with respect to facilitating commer-
'
"course or promoting the great cause of science.
ettgo Nandi, lately lost off the Arklow coast, had a
2004„ On board valued at 50,000/., of which not more than
W
°rt. has been saved.
trete great portion of the inhabitants of Littlehampton
‘.101444,e1' alarmed on Wednesday night at half-past 10, by a
lslitite.sLuaking of the earth, which resembled the shock of an
r,it"e. The same was also experienced at Arundel, and
rrrette 01 a remarkable degree at the Castle.—Brighten
ST.
14erou, 'ANNE'S, WESTAIINSTER.—At a very nu-
-414 respectable vestry meeting, held yesterday, for the
the ilk of choosing a Sunday evening lecturer, in the room of
4". ej: -Harness, the late curate of the parish, the
". Hine, A.M., was unanimously elected.
eiglikjt‘7,A;:jeArss.E OP CRIME.-At the Somerset Assizes
'4sl)taii;;P° Barristers attended, only nine or ten of whom
soar; the , At the Bristol Assizes. about forty were pre-
, briefs were shared among six of the whole.
41ttilors age of birds has been computed, from different
itbc,z,t ;_to be as follows :—Swan, about 200 years ; parrot,
turko,,";. goose, 80 or more ; eagle, bustard, duck, and
sltot, -18Perlio4:81; of life not known ; peacock, 25 to 28 ; phea-
hen, 16 to° 110 ; crow, 100 or more ; nightingale, 17 to 18 ;
RohmPigeon 16 to 17- linnet and canary, IS to 14;
'lel; IS to 20. "
on Abeiltwileender.taking of considerable magnitude is going
• t0,,,hi1l the Thames below Blackfriars-bridge and Brix-
HOuce •, A reservoir has been formed at the back of the
the %vat°. Correction at Brixton,
which is intended to purify
t4Yingo7 tt°llve.yed in pipes eighteen inches in diameter. The
ast number of hpan pes
hands.
days .
%few editor of the Ami de la 1711-ite, of Caen, was
prisoltsince condemned by default to three months' im-
seudint and a fine of 3,000 francs, for p üblishing an article
e°ntstkgp:.° bring the King's Governmentinto hatred and
area` is
(ioeu - ENGLAND.—.The following very cu-
Id from a manuscript of Benjamin
In, prved
ryeey:ribn the British Museum :—" In the year
but one of Queen Elizabeth, the whole liar tPlitelbiltsi et
ch4,l,uta.
In Lo amounted to no more than 600,000/.
1., to 800,000)/a•rin1633,
to
ir2lee
the eight year of King
oo,oooi. •1660, the 12th of Charles 11.,
tte ila,
uth 12tho'ifr of Queen Anne, to 3,200,0001. ; in 1751,
4 Year of George IL, to nearly 6,000,000/. ; in 1765, the
bl~rbett, t_ lIL, to 10,300,000/. Thus, from Queen
LeincruaUharles IL's time, our public burdens were dou-
frt:f
ton[
f about 60 years, and from thence to the
r4oll"llo7tle4ettx:trla7Aosrndlien''lreign, about 54 years, nearly trebled ;
that again nearly doubled ; and what is
abrutYliwtarhisdslaosft einoo,oormoomusoobturindenthiencnrarearsoewd
cunt 6,000,0001. t
14" 14 to upwards from 1751 to 1765."

LITERATURE.

IMPROVED SYSTEMofENGLISII GRAMMAR.
Rutherglen and Co., Glasgow, 1834.

Mr. Connell has here packed up much useful in-
formation in a small compass, and as his grammar is
remarkable for the terseness and simplicity of the rules
it lays down, we arc by no means surprised to find that
it has reached a second edition.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. PARTVH.
Illustrated with Maps and Engravings. London : Longman

and Co.

The present number of this most excellent work is
fully equal to the choicest of its predecessors both in
interest and illustration. Its contents are Sweden and
Norway, Russia in Europe, Greece, Turkey in Europe,
Turkey in Asia, and Asia ; of all which countries it
ought rather to be called the universal history than the
inexpressive denomination which it now bears. Of all
cheap publications, this in reality is the cheapest, and
of useful ones the most useful. The classification of
the various objects of inquiry respecting each country
is one of the greatest recommendations in works of
this description ; and though we have seen great care
bestowed on it in other works, the present is the only
one we ever saw which left us nothing to desire to ren-
der it perfect in that particular. The maps are the
only part of it not exactly to our taste. Perhaps the
publishers intend the publication of a complete set of
coloured maps to harmonise with the work when com-
pleted. We trust they will.

THE MAN of HONOUR and the RECLAIMED.

2 Vols. London, 1834. Bentley.

We like the first of these two tales the best. It
shows more depth of acquaintance with the world, and,
points a more useful moral than the last. The cha-
racter of Alfred Merton is one of those ever-day ones
which are to be found floating, like bubbles, on the
surface of polished society. He is a man of fashion,
within the strict pale of orthodoxy—of honour, in the
polite acceptation of that term—a roue, but so regard-
ful of forms in the quality of his libertinism, as not to
shock the delicate nerves of high life. The novelist
has hit off this character in a subtle and pointed style,
keeping probability always in view, yet just sufficiently
colouring it to awaken interest and curiosity. Let the
reader once fairly begin this novel, and we promise
him that he will not lay it down till he has reached the
word " Finis," at the end of page 271. The ease and
grace of the dialogues, in particular, will be sure to
hold him in willing chains.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EMINENT
ARTISTS. By Jouzsr GOULD. Effingham Wilson.
This is an useful and unpretending compilation. It
deserves to be favourably received by those who take
an interest in the fine arts, and want opportunity or
inclination to avail themselves of the more compre-
sive works on the same subject. In some few in-
stances,—why, we know not—the author has omitted
to quote his authorities, yet these articles are not more
original than any- other parts of the volume. A yet
graver objection, if it were worth while to inquire nar-
rowly into the demerits of so humble a production, is
that the compiler has too often been content to draw
his information from second-hand sources instead of
tracing it up to the fountain-head, where the waters
might be expected to flow more purely. For ),stance,
it does not say much for the diligence of a biographer,
that he seeks for knowledge in the silly, old, gossip-
ing Gentleman's Magazine, and this more particularly
when the subject under notice happens to be a French
painter.

JOURNAL of a RECENT VISIT to thePRINCIPAL

VINEYARDS in SPAIN and FRANCE.
By J. Busar, Esq, Smith, Elder and Co.
No praise, that we can offer, will go beyond the
merit of this useful and interesting publication. To
learn how wine might best be made, how the grape might
best be cultivated, and to obtain a sufficient quantity
of the slips of each sort to spread its growth through
New South Wales, was the object of Mr. Busby's
tour, and both in Spain and France he appears to
have met with the most unbounded liberality. No
coldness on the part of the great vine-growers, no
attempts to make a. mystery of their system either in
the field or at the press, no avaricious denial of the
more valuable plants, was any where exhibited ; all
was frankness, hospitality, and, it may almost be said,
unreserved eagerness to assist in forwarding his pro-
ject.—" We found him (Domecq) under the verandah
of his wine-cellar, and having mentioned the object of
our visit,lhe undertook with great readiness to give us all
the information we should ask," p. 15. " I uniformly
prefaced my request for information with a statement
of the object for which it was required," p. 111.
." I
mentioned to the steward of M. Ouvrard my disap-
pointment regarding my letters of introduction, and
my having resolved, in consequence, to trust to the
good-nature of the proprietor of Clos Vougert for a
friendly reception. He replied very heartily that I had
done well. He conducted me over the cellars where
the wines are made, and subsequently over those where
they are kept, explaining the whole process pursued
in making the wine, and answering all my questions
with great exactness," p. 119. " I had the good for-
tune to find, in the Botanic Garden at Montpelier, a
collection of most of the varieties of vines cultivated
in France, and in some other parts of Europe, to the
number of 437 ; and, on application to the Professor
of Botany, he, with the greatest liberality, permitted
me to take cuttings from the whole. I afterwards
added to this collection, 133 from the Royal Nursery
of the Luxembourg, at Paris," p. 135. It is delight-
ful to have to record these facts, and we trust the ex-
ample they afford will not be thrown away upon the
better part of the English community.
Mr. Busby commences his inquiries with Spain,
and, though not immediately connected with the main
object of his tour, there are two or three isolated ob-
servations well worthy of notice. It is generally sup-
posed that the aloe blooms once only in a hundred
years, and hence it has acquired the name of the
" Centennial Aloe." This, it seems, is a popular
prejudice. The truth is, that, though it is often
many years in flowering, yet, when once it has flowered,
it dies off for ever. He tells us, too, that olives are
biennial in their bearing, the old wood being rotten in
the second year, and it being necessary that the young
wood should be two years old before it can bear fruit.
In going over a vineyard at Xeres, Mr. Busby was
much struck by the appearance of a lofty tower. It
communicated with the house, and not only com-
manded an ample view of the grounds, the principal
object for which it was built, but of Cadiz and Seville
also. We notice this, as being admirably illustrativo
of a passage in the Scriptures---" A certain man
planted a vineyard, and hedged it round, and having
built a tower, he let it out to husbandmen."

The productiveness of the vine may be estimated
from a few data scattered throughout the volume, and
which we here bring together. At Xeres a vineyard
yielded 2i to 4 butts per acre ; a second, on the road
to iklalaga, yielded 6 to 7 butts ; a third, at Dijon,
1,000 gallons ; a fourth, in the range of the Cote
3 hogsheads ; a fifth, in Champagne,
d'Or, yielded
yielded from 440 to .530 gallons. The wines, of
course, differ very much in quality, not less from the
nature of the soil or the peculiar species of the vine,
than from the manner in which the manufacture is
conducted. The greater or less degree of fermenta-
tion—the admission or exclusion of the stalks and

-skins into the vat—and the ripeness or unripeness,
soundness or unsoundness of the fruit submitted to the
press—all are matters of the first importance, and con-
tribute largely in forming the character of the wine.
As a general rule, while sweet wines may be produced
from a variety of soils, the dry arc invariably the
growth of calcareous lands.
On the subject of pruning, Mr. Busby makes some
observations, that the English cultivator may attend
to with advantage :
" He was gradually renewing his vineyards, the vines having
been destroyed in many places by a very destructive insect—a
small white worm, with a black head, which eats into the heart
of the old stock, and destroys it : vines, he said, which would
have been good for 150 years, were thus rendered useless--
they were now 40 years old : he attributed it to injudicious
pruning. It was customary to cut off the bearing branch close
to the old wood ; by this means the worm either obtained an
entrance to the heart of the stock full grown, or was deposited
in the egg, on the decayed part, and worked its way in when
formed. A footing once obtained, there was no mode of get-
ting rid of it, and the consequence was that the vines became
every year more injured in health, till they were at length in-
capable of yielding a crop. The system which Don Pedro
adopted in pruning was to leave one knot of the branch cut off,
which prevented the entrance of the insect into the stock.
" His mode of pruning differed from what we had previously
observed : instead of leaving only one, or at most two knots
on each of three or four branches, as was the case in the other
vineyards we had examined, he left one branch with seven or
eight knots, and two others with one knot each, pruning them
down alternately ; he did not consider that this was burthening
a young and healthy vine too much ; he was in the habit of
manuring his vineyards, but not each year in the same place.
He considered it a disadvantage to have many varieties, and
was confining his new plantations to three or four. He said
that all the varieties mentioned by Roxas Clemente were to be
found in the vineyards of Xeres, but the proprietors were all
anxious to make it be believed that their vineyards contained
only the most celebrated sorts."
The result of all this care is a delicious vintage, if
we amid only get it in the unadulterated state. This,
however, is rarely the case, and our author goes so far
as to affirm, that "no wine can be farther from what
may be called a natural wine than the sherry." It is
made up from a stock of all kinds and all ages, the
good serving to qualify the bad, and the old helping
to mellow the new. The peculiar nutty flavour is im-
parted to it by a dry kind of Xeres, called Amontillado,
or Montillado ; this is not, as our author seems to sup-
pose, the produce of any particular sort of grape, but
the result of a more perfect fermentation, by which the
saccharine matter is got rid of, and the wine becomes,
as it were, dry and clean to the palate. The Mon-
tillado is also used, being very pale, to reduce the
colour of the highly-tinted sherries, as, on the other
hand, boiled must is employed to cure the defect of
too much paleness. Still less known in this country
is the Manzinilla, the vins du pays of the district, a
light pleasant beverage, full of mellowness and flavour.
But indeed there are many other Spanish wines which
Mr. Busby has omitted to notice, as lying out of the.
immediate sphere of his travel, and having no charac-
ter in the mercantile world. These are produced far
up in the interior, and from the want of good roads
and ready conveyance are seldom much heard of be-
yond the place of their growth.
The French wines form a no less important topic,
and, even without reference to the probable effect of
Mr. Bl4usoby, s labours on the new and beautiful conti-
nent of Australia, it is impossible to read his account
of them without the liveliest interest. Amongst these
the delicious hermitage holds, if not the first place,
yet a place amongst the first ranks ; and we cannot
forbear indulging in a tolerably long extract, illustra-
tive of its qualities and the manner of its production:—

44 The hill, though of considerable height, is not of great
extent ; the whole front which looks to the south may contain
300 acres, but of this, though the whole is under vines, the
lower part is too rich to yield those of the best quality, and a
part near the top is too cold to bring its produce to perfect
maturity. Even of the middle region, the whole extent does
not produce the finest wines. M. Machon, the gentleman
whose property we were traversing, pointed out to me the
direction in which a belt of calcareous soil crossed the ordinary
granitic soil of the mountain, and he said it requires the grapes
of these different soils to be mixed, in order to produce the
finest quality of Hermitage. I took home a portion of the soil
which he pointed out as calcareous, and the degree of effer-
vescence which took place on my pouring vinegar upon it, in-
dicated the presence of a considerable portion of lime. It is
probably to this peculiarity that the wine of Hermitage owes
its superiority, for to all appearance many of the neighbouring
hills on both sides of the Rhone present situations equally
fovourable, although the wine produced even upon the best of
t'aem never rises to above half the value of the former, and in
general not to the fourth of their value. A good deal may
also be attributable to the selection of plants. The best red
wines of Hermitage are made exclusively from one variety,
and the white wines from two varieties ; but in the districi
generally a much greater number of varieties are cultivated.
The Red Grape is named the Ciras. The white varieties are
the Roussette and the Marson. The former yields by itself a
dry and spirituous wine, which easily affects the head—the
plant produces indifferently—the latter yields a sweeter wine—
they are mixed together to produce the best white Hermitage.
44 The labour bestowed upon these vineyards is immense.
According to M. Machon, on their first plantation, and every
time the plantation is renewed, the soil is dug to the depth of
41 or 5 feet. In most places it is also supported by terraces.
in which
This was the first place, in the course of my journey,
I observed any supports given to the vines, but these were
simply a stake of about five feet in height to each plant, and
the shoots were tied together at its top ; far from the care in-
dicatedtrelbleis opfertfhoremd in
Meedo c vineyards, this part
the rudest possible
manner. M. Machon informed me that the vines require con-
of tlie labour il the
seemedsmall to
con-
stant attention to keep them in bearing, and whenever a vine
is observed to be weak, or to yield a poor crop, it is dug out,
and its place supplied by a prouin from the strongest vine in
its neighbourhood. I saw this operation commenced and com-
pleted. A vine which appeared weaker than the rest was dug
out, and a trench of about two or two and a half feet deep was
opened up between it and the nearest vine in the adjoining
row. This vine bore three vigorous shoots ; the stock was
carefully bent down till it was laid flat along the bottom of the
trench ; a quantity of dung was next put over it, and then
some soil ; of the three shoots, the least favourable from its
inclination was cut off, one of the two remaining was bent
back to the original position of the stock, and there fixed by
the covering in of the soil ; the other, in like manner, was
bent in .the opposite direction, to fill the place of the plant
which was dug out. It is evident that this is a very different
process from that of filling a vacant space by bending the
shoot of an adjoining vine into the ground till it issues at the
place where it is intended to grow, and afterwards, when it
has acquired sufficient strength, cutting off its connection with
the original ; the stock actually became the root of two dis-
tinct vines, and their connection is never destroyed. This
process had.taken place with a considerable portion of the vines
this season, and a portion of them are annually treated thus :
Into each trench was put rather a large basket full 'of stable
dung, mixed with soil. On my expressing great surprise that
dung should be used at all in a vineyard of such reputation, as
I had always understood, that though it added to the quantity
of the wine, it injured its quality, and often gave it a bad
flavour, the.proprietor said, that without frequent and strong
manuring the vines would scarcely yield any thing ; and that
provided horse or sheep dung only were used, there was no
danger of its giving the wine a bad flavour, though the con-
trary was the case if the dung of cows, and still more that of
pigs, were made use of."
The vineyards of Champagne and Burgundy are
.strikinff examples of what may be effected by human
skill and industry in taming the stubbornness or supply-
ing the deficiencies of nature. Here the shoots are
small and puny compared with the vigorous branches
of the Spanish vines, yet is the produce much more
abundant in France, and no less superior in its quality.
The average result is 660 gallons per acre, or even
more, and there have been instances of these vineyards
yielding so much as 1,100 gallons per acre. This
immense quantity is derived from two sorts of plants,
the black and white Pineau ; of the former there are
two varieties, the plant vert, and the plant dore, the
latter of which was not common in the country a few
years ago.
This, it must be obvious is a very sketchy account,
but our limits will admit of no details.