The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

of floating ice with which the navigation has be- I
come impeded since yesterday. Three or four
steamers taking in cargoes will leave this afternoon
if possible. A considerable quantity of snow has
fallen during the past night, and much mere ap-
pears in prospective.
The navigation of the Eider is also at an end, in
consequence of the large quantity of floating ice in
the river. The English steamers Powerful, Leipzig,
Tanning, and Florence Nightingale have left the
harbour in order to reach sea, to avoid being
caught in the ice. They have been obliged to leave
part of their cargoes behind.

SPAIN.
The Madrid journals of the Ist have arrived.
The Guz,ctte contains a decree which enacts that,
for administrative and other reasons, the budget of
the present year shall be closed on December 31 in,
stead of on the 30th June nexi-, as decided by the
late Cortes. The Iti ovedades expresses surprise that
the charge d'affaires of France had done nothing
with respect to certain attacks on the Marqui3 de
Turgot, the French ambassador, made during the
latter's absence, in the French paper, the Courrier
de Madrid; but the Boja Autograja, says that that
functionary has taken sonic steps, though it does
not mention what they aro. It was reported some
time back that the 24,000,000 reals which Queen
Christina had received at Marseilles when proceed-
ing to Italy had been placed by the Spanish Go-
vernment at her disposal ou account of the arrears
of her pension ; but, according to the flojct Auto-
grafa, the sums which had been remitted to her
Majesty came from the sale of some of her pro-
perty. A number of troops had been collected at
Alicante to be embarked for Cuba, and the Govern-
ment had notified its readiness to enlist young
men 19 years of ago for military service in that
island, even without the consent of their pa-
rents. The civil guard in the course of November
arrested 70 deserters from the provincial militia.
Another rise had taken place in wheat in the
Madrid market ; the bushel had fetched as much
as 100 reals. The works for conveying good water
to the capital were advancing rapidly. A fire,
stated to be accidental, had destroyed the extensive
mills of the canal company at Valladolid, and with
them 3,000 arrobas of flour (the arroba is 4 gallons),
but 4,000 arrobas of flour and 14,000 bushels of
wheat were saved from the flames. A bank of issue,
with a capital of 18,000,000 reals iu shares, has
been established at Seville.

A letter from Copenhagen'of the 30th ult. says :
—" The Duke and Prince of Glucksburg have ar-
rived hero to express their gratitude to his Ma-
jesty for the decision which restores to them their
honours. They are to have an audience of the King
to-day at the Chateau of Fredericksborg. Rear-
Admiral Virgin has been appointed Swedish minis-
ter at this court in the room of Baron de Lager-
helm, now Minister of Foreign Affairs."

THE ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
EXHIBITION.

Mr. B. B. Denison and Mr. Taylor give the following
graphic account of a visit made to Si. Paul's Cathedral
to inspect the arrangements of the hammer of the great
bell :
"Thinking it possible that we might learn something
which might be useful with reference to the arrangement
of the hammer for the Great Bell of Westminster, we
went on Wednesday morning to St. Paul's Cathedral ;
and, after convincing several successive showmen, with
some difficulty, that the bell and clock were the things
we really came to see, and that we were indifferent to
the wonders of the whispering gallery, the geometrical
staircase, and the crypt, we obtained our tickets, and
were passed up a great many stairs, and finally escorted
by a lady into an upper chamber in the south-west tower,
when she said, "There is the bell, gentlemen." We
looked about, wondering where so large a bell could be
hidden, and said, "Where I"—" Up there." And, sure
enough, some 30 feet overhead there was a square hole,
and through the bole there was the end of the clapper to
be seen, and a piece of the bell, but no more ; for that,
it appears, is the nearest access and the best view which
the Dean and Chapter allow to the purchasers of their
bell.and-clock tickets.
"Finding no more was to be got there, we turned into
another room for a view of the clock ; and there,
t beyond all doubt, it was, for it was ticking twice as loud
as a good clock ought to do ; Inside a strong oak case,
with a single pane of glass in it, through which you get
a v:Zew of the end of one of the winding barrels and a
dial, but not one bit more of any of the machinery of the
clock. This, the lady told us, is called seeing the clock ;
and, to do her justice, she regretted she could show no
more as t•lie exhibition would no doubt be more attrac-
tive if it was better worth seeing.
ts We dare say that if we were to apply to the Dean,
stating why we wanted to see more of these things than
is included in the regular ticket, we should receive due
attention. But, in the first place, we saw ()dough to
satisfy us that we should learn nothing of any use to us
by seeing more ; and, secondly, we think it fairer to
speak for the public who are seduced into buying these
tickets by the belief that they are going to see the things
professed to be shown, than fer ourselves alone ; and
we therefore beg hereby to give notice to all whom it
may concern that so long as the exhibition remains in its
present state they had better save their eightpericies and
their legs, and stay downstairs.
" By the way, Sir lihristopher Wren's large wooden
model of the far grander St. Paul's Cathedral which ho
wished to build, as he did wider. streets after the fire,
was thrown in for the money. Sorely, as Mr. Petit
says in his hook on French architecture, the Dean and
Chapter might spend a few pounds in preventing it from
falling to pieces, as it will very soon if it is not re-
paired."

RUS,NIA AND THE UNITED STATES.

Alluding to the intrigues of Russia, and her en
deavour to create hostile sentiments between France
and England, the New York !Jerald says :
"Those who know the
a
Americancoalition
at o
g r:ipnsrt best England be
as
apt to conclude that such
nc mighte
the Russian Government is said to be
ptes
have the effect of drawing closer our.otvvsn
i plain that the
with the British realm. However, lagging
of
eating their skill.'
central
tes
United States occupy a secondaryapla_cgeuriensupon whom
France and Germany are the c the picture ;
the Russian diplomatists seem to
Again,— t they have only to bide
ss the water to the United
their time, and then halloo
shall jump
amcp"at a prospect of an alliance
States, and that
" Russians seem to imagine thS
we
g Englandu and France, or at least
aetainst Englanda.in'This isa very bold theory. While the
late war lasted.
with
Russiaa
there were persons in this country who
ritussia—sorne from inherent dislike of
being of the same kind es the
tq brothers to _ght an quarrc ; some from
which promp
• that the Western Powers were really hinder-
s feeling
glimgPlathdl,seVevitfhee feeling
g the work of civilisation by driving Russia from
Cons!antinople, while they pretended to be fighting
the battle of civilisation against barbarism ; some from
personal experience of British hauteur and incivility, and
of Russian courtesy ; some from a fear that if Great
Britain overcame Russia she would presently molest the
United States ; and a good many—the noisiest—from
connexion with a class of ex-British subjects whose hatred
cf England is their usual political stock in trade. From
these reasons, the question being' an open one, a great
many persons living in this country, and looking at the
conflict from a calm contemplative distance, desired to
sea Russia the victor in the war. But to infer from this
fact that the Ullii,ed States are ready to join Russia in
any future war with England is not warrantable. In the
first place, if a census of opinions were taken throughout
the United States, no doubt more friends of England
would be found that, enemies ; and secondly, the sym-
pathy expressed for Russia by her friends was a very cool,
calm business—entered into because the question was
known to he purely speculative. Had it ever become a
real living question, these philo-Itessians would have
thought twice before they took sides. Our interests are
naturally wound up with the nations which buy from us,
seil to us, trade with us ; which think as we do, read
the same books, enjoy the same luxuries, judge by the
same standards ; and whatever little bickerings there
may be between us, it is a great mistake to suppose that
we are going to quarrel with triends like England and
France to oblige a semi-Oriental despot like the Czar, of
whom we know next to nothing and for whom we care
less."