The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-21 00:00:00

ROME.

The Minister of War at Rome has issued a notice
to the effect that he will receive tenders for 15,000
blankets for the troops.
According to a letter from Rome, in the Perse-
verenza of Naples, the army of General de Lamori-
ciere consists, on paper, of 33,714 men, of whom
22,000 are under arms, with 1,000 horses and 20
pieces of cannon. If, however, the garrisons which
must be left in every town—it might almost be said
in every village of the Romagna—to maintain the
authority of the cardinals and the legates, be de-
ducted, it will be seen that the General-in-Chief
will have but few men to lead to the assistance of
the King of Naples, as his intention is represented
to be, should any necessity for such a course arise.

THE FRENCH EXPEDITION TO CHINii.

The Union de la Sarthe publishes a long letter
from a gentleman connected with the medical de-
partment of the French expedition to China. The
following are some passages from the letter in ques-
tion, which is dated May 28, on board the Rhin, in
the roadstead of Woo-Hing :—" The town of Hong
Kong has a population of 70,000 or 75,000 souls,
and presents an admirable coup-d' mil when seen
from the sea. On entering the town and passing
along the principal street, the visitor is astonished at
the beauty and richness of the Chinese shops on either
hand. They are filled with the most curious articles of
the East; China crapes, procelain vases of the
most valuable kind, camphor-wood boxes, laciw
ered furniture of all descriptions, &c. Every'
thing is arranged in excellent order and in good
taste. The shopmen are well-dressed and ex"
tremely polite ; one sits at a desk with a camel;
hair brush in hand, for they do not use pens, and
sets down in the Chinese character every article
sold ; others are employed in displaying the goods
to the gaze of the stranger, and this they do so
cleverly, as often to decide the hesitating pur-
chaser. At short intervals near the shop door*
may be seen a Chinese money-changer, seated at
a small counter covered with rolls of sapeques, the
current coin of the country. In our evening rambles
through the town we often heard the sound of
music and female voices singing. One night we
made bold to enter a house where we heard a con-
cert, at the risk of being thought intruders. Our
intrusion, however, was not resented, for the per-
sons present immediately offered us seats, and made
signs for us to stay and hear. The room we°
on the first floor, extremely clean and neat, well
lighted by large windows with blinds, which
opened on a balcony towards the street. Four
musicians, with stringed instruments, castanets,
and a tantam, accompanied a young female who
sang and also played a kind, of guitar. Near
her stood several of her companions, who were
to sing in their turn. They appeared not to be
above 12 or 13 years of age, and were really
pretty for Chinese. These ladies indulged in a
cigarette from time to time, and handled their
palm-leaf fans very gracefully. In the middle
of the room stood a small table covered with
sweetmeats and tea-things. On one side sat
three or four merry-looking Chinamen, who listened
most attentively to the music, and at intervals
blowing clouds of tobacco smoke from their mouths
and nostrils. At the top of the room, on a divan,
reclined two more men who were smoking opium,
and seemed to enjoy it amazingly. When the
singers, whose voices were too shrill to be melodious,
had all sung in turn, the persons present drew
round the table and prepared to do honour to the
supper. Nor were we forgotten, for the gentlemen
invited us to take a cup of tea and some sweetmeats,
which we found not at all bad. Then, not wishing
to be thought too intrusive, we withdrew, after
thanking our entertainers as well as we could."

IL4IL WAY INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTH WALES.

The directors of this company state in their re-
port that the receipts for traffic during the half-
year ending the 30th of June amounted 1°
£170,577, as compared with £160,062 in the cor-
responding half of 1859, showing an increase al
£10,515, of which £2,115 was derived from pas-
senger traffic, and £8,399 from goods traffic. II:
dividend for the half•year on the ordinary stock 01
the company at the rate of 2 per cent. per annuray
leaving a balance of £1,979 to be carried forward,
is proposed by the directors.