The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-28 00:00:00

It is stated that the top of one of the cylinders
came off, owing to some defect in the priming, and
this is attributed to the error of taking in water for
the engines at a time when the tide had fallen and
the watenawas consequently muddy. As soon as
the mail bags had been put on board the Parana,
visitors proceeded to this vessel, which had getup her
steam and was under ways to accompany the Parana
down the bay. As the Parana went on her course to •
wards Black Head, some surprise, and afterwards a
good deal of anxiety was felt at seeing theConu aught,
though with steam and anchors up, remain appa-
rently motionless, and the anxiety was a good deal
increased when the Vesper was seen coming out in
the bay and signaling the Parana to return. It then
became evident that some accident haa occurred,
and as Captain Patey, the Government inspector,
had come out in the Parana to witness her trial
trip, and had taken the opportunity to inspect the
vessel and her crew, a consultation was at once held
between the officials of the Government and the
company as to what was best to be done under the
circumstances: Captain Patey had already declared
the Parana to be quite fitted to fulfil the Govern-
ment contract, and as she was coaled and ready to
go to sea it was resolved at once to transfer to her
the mails and passengers of the Counaught, and to
proceed to sea with as little delay as possible. A
telegram was at once sent off to London, stating the
facts and asking for instructions, and unless an ad-
verse answer shall be received, the Parana will leave
to-morrow at noon for New York. She is a very
fine vessel,- with ample accommodation for double
the number of passengers going out, and is in excel-
lent condition for the voyage and in every way fit
for her mission. She has been long and successfully
trading to the West Indies. She is able to do on an
average 12 knots an hour, and when on her passage
from Southampton to Galway with 1,000 tons of
coal on board she exceeded that rate of speed. Capt.
Heenan commands her ; Mr. Sewell is the first
officer, Mr. Hastings second, and Mr. Jenkins third.
She has been lately lengthened at Blackwall by
Messrs. Pritchard and Co. Her nominal horse-
power is 764, but her effective power is far beyond
that. She is 330 feet long and her beam is 45 feet in
breadth. In every respect the Parana is well suited
for the trade in which she is now placed, and we
think that the passengers who will go by her to
America will give a favourable report of her quali-
fications and the ability of her officers."
GALWAY, WEDNESDAY, Two o'CLooK.

This morning as the Parana was about to sail
with the mails transferred from the Connaught a
countermand was received from the Post•ofiice,
directing the mails to be forwarded to Londonderry
for shipment in the Palestine, which will sail to-
morrow evening. However, a telegram has now
been received authorising the mails to be put in
charge of Lieutenant Cashman, R.N., and they
thus have more than a full day's start of the
Palestine.

EUROPE IN THE 187'U C.ENTUI?Y.

As one views Europe through contemporary
books of travel in the early part of the last century
the landscape is awful,—wretched wastes, beggarly
and plundered; half-burnt cottages and trembling
peasants gathering piteous harvests ; gangs of such
tramping along with bayonets behind them, and
corporals with canes and cats-of-nine-tails to flog
them to barracks. By these passes my lord's gilt
carriage floundering through the ruts, as he swears
at the postillions, and toils on to the Residenz.
Hard by, but away from the noise and brawling of
the citizens and buyers, is Wilhemslust or Lud-
wigsruhe, or Moubijou, or Versailles—it scarcely
matters which,—near to the city, shut out by woods
from the beggared country, the enormous, hideous,
gilded, monstrous marble Palace, where the Prince
is, and the Court, and the trim gardens, and huge
fountains, and the forest where the ragged pea-
sants are beating the game in (it is death to them
to touch a feather); and the jolly hunt sweeps by
with its uniform of crimson and gold ; and the
Prince gallops ahead puffing h'e Royal horn ; and
his lords aud mistresses ride after him ; and the
stag is pulled down ; and the grand huntsman gives
the knife in the midst of a chorus of bugles; and
'tis time the Court go home to dinner; and our
noble traveller. it may be the Baron of Pollnitz, or
the Count de Konigsmarck, or the excellent Che-
valier de Seingalt, sees the procession gleaming
through the trim avenues of the wood, and hastens
to the inn, and sends his noble name to the
marshal of the Court. Then our nobleman arrays
himself in green and gold or pink and silver, in
the richest Paris mode, and is introduced by the
chamberlain, and makes his bow to the jolly
Prince, and the graeious Princess ; and is pre-
sented to the chief lords and ladies, and then
comes supper and a bank at Faro, where he
loses or wins a thousand pieces by daylight. If it
is a German Court, you may add not a little drun-
kenness to this picture of high life; but German,
or French, or Spanish, if you can see out of your
Palace windows beyond the trim-cut forest vistas,
misery is lying outside : hunger is stalking about
the bare villages, listlessly following precarious
husbandry ; ploughing stony fields with starved
cattle, or fearfully taking in scanty harvests. Au-
gustus is fat and jolly:on his throne; he can knock
down an ox, and cat one almost; his mistress,
Aurora von Konigsmark,is the loveliest, the wittiest
creature ; his diamonds are the biggest and most
brilliant in the world, and his feasts as splendid as
those of Versailles. As for Louis the Great, he is
more than mortal. Lift up your glances respect-
fully, and mark him eyeing Madame de Fontanges
or Madame de Montespan from under his sublime
perriwig, as he passes through the great gallery
where Viilars and Vendome, and
_Berwick, and
Bossuet, and Massillon are waiting. Can Court be
more splendid ; nobles and knight more gallant and
superb; ladies more lovely? A grander monarch,
or a more miserable starved wretch than the pea-
sant his subject, you cannot look on. Let us bear
both these types in mind, if we wish to estimate
the old society properly. Remember the glory
tend the chivalry ? Yes ! Remember the grace
and beauty, the splendour and lofty politeness;
the gallant courtesy of Fontenoy, where the French
Rife bids the gentlemen of the English Guard to
fire first ; the noble constancy of the old King and
Villars, his General, who fits out the last army
with the last crownpiece from the Treasury, and
goes to meet the enemy and 'die or conquer for
France at Denain. But round all that Royal
trampled
irees
arepeoplesplendour
of enslaved
their
rights,and ruinedeomea ;
upon and well-nigh destroyed,—nay, in the
very centre of Royalty itself, what horrible
stains
is but to a silly harlot that some of tile
noblestcommunities
laid waste, faith, justice, commerce
in the world are bowing down
;it the
miserable province that the King ties in diamonds
and
gentlemen meanness,
and some crime
of the and
proudestsham el
women I
t
round his mistress's white neck. In the first half
of the last century, I say, this is going on all Eu-
rope over. Saxony is e. waste as well as Picardy
or Artois; and Versailles is only larger and not
worse than Herrenhausen.— Cornhill Magazine.

THE SUNDAY BANDS.—On Sunday the'bund per-
formed in the Regent's-park for the first time this season,
At the same spot where it was located the previous year,
and, as on the former occasion, upon a raised platform. The
greatest order was maintained, and the only officers on
duty to preserve regularity were the park-keepers.