The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-10 00:00:00

F i --
„

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at.
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, FRIDAY.

The Co2zstitutionnel, in an article signed by M.
Grandguillot, declares that the signs announced
from all parts of France concerning the deplorable
effects which had been produced by the letter of the
Bishop of Orleans (Monseigneur Dupanloup), which
the Siecle insists should be brought before the tri-
bunal, imposes on it the duty of not aggravating
the existing excitement by such a polemic, and
therefore M. Grandguillot says he does not intend
publishing the said letter in his principal edition
for Paris.

PARIS, FEB. 10.

' The Moniteur of to-day publishes the usual
monthly return of the Bank of France, which show
the following results as compared With.the previous
return :

INCREASE
Cash in hand 5l millions.
Current accounts 7 0 „
DECREASE
Bills discounted not yet
due
Advances
4 IP

Bank notes
9 19
Treasury balance 29 fy
The Moniteur does not publish the treaty of com-
merce with England.

TURIN, FEB.-9.
Count Arese left last night for Paris, charged
with' an.official mission.
The Marquis d'Azoglio will go to Milan next
Saturday.

COPENHAGEN, FEB. 9..
The two Presidents of the Diet have been sum-
moned by the King.
The present Ministry is provisonally carrying on
public business, M. Blixen being, President of the
Council, M. Westenholz, Minister for Holstein
and M. Gessen for Justice. The Faderlandet,
announces that M. Madwig has been summoned by
the King.

• . A
• I. 4, • 44,,,

LITERATURE.

Travellers' Tales Re-told. 'By Theta. Thompson
and Co., 111, Strand.
This is a very pleasant little volume of tales and
sketches, reprinted from the various magazines and
serials in which they originally appeared. They
are simple and unpretending in their style and
subject ; but the general reader will probably find
more entertainment in their pages than in more
ambitious works. Many of them are humorous in
their character, such as the one entitled " Fiction
in Fact and Romance in Reality," where a ro-
mantic author cannot find a suitable mode of killing
his heroine; others are melodramatic, such as " The
Autobiography of an Unrecognised Genius," which
shows forcibly the evils of desultory habits and
want of definite application. The lovers of tragic
and exciting narratives will be enthralled by the
story called " A Life Chase," in -which the unfortu-
nate hero is left alone with a madman, who an-
nounces his intention of cutting his throat. The
sketches are lively and amusing. The paper en-
titled " Why do young men marry 9" should serve
as a warning to all who rashly take the chains of
matrimony upon them. The sketch of " Social
Converse" has a good deal of truth mixed with-its
pleasant satire. The author draws an amusing
picture of an English railway carriage, full of tra-
vellers, with "such a curious combination of gra-
vity, dignity, and suspicion overspreading every
countenance that you would imagine you had
stumbled upon a grand jury, or rather a bench of
judges assembled to hear some very important case
argued." He proceeds to give the following valu-
able advice :
"If any adventurous wight design to inveigle his fellow-
travellers into a little pleasant intercourse during their
ride, let him be advised to give no quarter, but to com-
mence the attack at once on entering the carriage.
We have heard the very profound and original, not to
say exciting remark, that the train was two minutes and
a quarter behind time in starting, give rise to quite an
interestingly-animated conversation. But let the critical
moment pass, and it is to the last degree improbable that
there will be a nice opening for a young man again during
that journey. Every minute the coolness chills, soon it ar-
rives at the freezing-point, and how many degrees below
zero it reaches by the time of separation we possess no means
of ascertaining. Indeed, if silence has been preserved until
the first station be reached, he must be a courageous mortal
who would' then attempt to break it. Such an attempt
would seem to argue a presumptuous confidence in one's
own power of pleasing or of communicating information,
that would naturally arouse the opposition of every right-
minded Englishman. And then, what can be said at such
a stage of the proceedings which shall not wear the appear-
ance of having been studied.? And how can-the mast simple
observation be at all appropriate? Should any singularly
magnanimous person on the first starting hazard the state-
anent that the weather is very fine or wet, as the case may
be (though, by the way, let us advise our readers under such
circumstances, always to omit the intensive ad verb, and to say,
' The weather is fine, sir, or madam,' which omission gives the
person to whom your remark is addressed the opportunity of
carrying out your idea, and of not only acquiescing, but of
avoiding a servile agreement with you by adding very'),
this remark will appear quite natural and disinterested, if
made just as you are elbowing yourself into your seat; but
how strange, how uncalled -for, how almost absurd, would
i t appear after you have sat staring through the window
for a quarter of an hour to make such a reflection on the
weather Of course it would sound as, though you had
just made the discovery, or had suddenly waked up out of a
nap, or had some special end in view or interested motive in
saying so. And, in fact, whatever idea you might venture
to propound to interrupt a silence of fifteen minutes' con-
tinuance, would necessarily have such an air of sudden in-
spiration as would render the utterer of it an object of
unpleasant observation for some considerable period. Be-
' sides this, to whom aro you to address yourself? There
seems to be something almost invidious in singling out any
individual in particular to be the butt of your wit, malice,
or kindness, as it might be variously considered ; while,
should you address yourself to your audience generally, it
is more than probable the prevailing opinion will be, that
you are thinking aloud, or talking to yourself."
In another amusing sketch on the " Vagaries of
Invention," we meet tho following passage :
" Indispensable superfluities I Who cannot, on a second's
reflection, from within the narrow range of inventions fall-
ing under his own observation, select half a dozen examples
of these unneeded necessaries of life ; prisoner-taken Tartars
which will not let you take them off, nor will suffer you to
go without them ; tormenting comforters, wasteful save-
ells, miserably delusive specimens of tremendous ingenuity
tremendously misapplied ? Turn your eyes from fantastic,
cumbrous, and unsuccessful chimney-pots and cowls above,
to angular, triangular, quadrangular, but never right-
angular blocks of wood forming the pavement on which
unfortunate cab-horses plunge and slide to and fro, below !
and how many such witty intentions meet your view.
" Take up the advertising pages of a newspaper, and you
discover that you have lived for half an age ignorant of the
very existence of hundreds of articles, duly patented and
registered, which it was next to impossible you should live
without. Don't you feel prodigiously thankful to a kind
Providence for preserving you unharmed, and unarmed too,
in the midst of dangers against which you should have de-
fended yourself ? A semi-petrifyingsensation of fear should
pervade the man who believes the announcements to which
we have alluded. It is quite clear that nothing but John
Smith's Dentifrice, or a miracle, can preserve the teeth in
the case of the adult human animal. You have not used
that article, indispensable to the toilet of health and com-
fort, yet your teeth—incisores, eanini, molares—have most
perversely, and in bold defiance of the laws of nature as
enunciated by J. Smith, kept their places in your gums ;
Ergo—You are the subject of a miracle. Your poor in-
fant, too, has had a narrow escape from a premature
grave. You knew not of the health-preserving robe, or, in
your unwarrantable confidence in Nature and her qualified
and authorised ministers, you neglected to administer the
life. sustaining syrup ; you treated with reckless contempt
the pretensions of Jones's Infantine Elixir Vitro, and
Williarns's Quadruply-distilled Essence : and your infant
still lives !"

Thorn's Almanac and Oficial Directory for the
year, 1860. Thom and Sons, Dublin. Longman
and Co., London.
This useful publication has reached its seven-
teenth annual volume, and maintains its character
for general utility and careful compilation. The
editor remarks in his preface, that when first pub-
lished, in the year 1844, the Directory related
almost exclusively to Ireland, but encouraged by its
increasing circulation, and by the information and
assistance readily afforded him, he has endeavoured
to extend its sphere of action. It has a general
character, possessing some distinct directories refer-
ring to other portions of the United Kingdom and
to our colonial possessions. Among these more
general branches we find a Civil Service Directory
for the United Kingdom ; a Navy, Army, Militia and
Volunteer Directory, giving full information on
these very important topics; and an enlarged Colo-
nial Directory, giving lists of Government officers
and local authorities in our foreign and colonial
possessions, corrected by the colonial authorities.
The President of the American Republic and the
?Ministry of the United States are. also included.
One of the most remarkable features of the work is
the collection of statistics of the United Kingdom,
especially of Ireland. The compiler states that he
has been induced to give a prominent place to this
division of the work, thinking that it would be
valuable not only as a record of commercial transac-
tions, but as a means of testing the social condition
and progress of Ireland, as exemplified by the com-
parison of the yearly statistics. The wide range of
information which the work offers to our notice,
and the care and labour which have been expended
in its compilation, merit the continuance of the
encouragement and support it has hitherto received
so deservedly from the public.

Ernest and Charlie, or Play and Work. A Story
of Hazlehurst School. By M. Betham Edwards,
Author of "The White House by the Sea."
Edinburgh : Edmonston and Douglas.
In nothing is the improvement of literature more
manifested than in the great increase of admirable
little works written for the especial benefit of the
young. They,. are highly to be prized on many
accounts, as they affordfAia easy mode of
• itu-
pressing on these dawning minds the most striking
examples and the most important truths. The pre-
sent little book will be found an excellent addition
to the juvenile stores, and many children may de-
rive profit, while they glean amusement, from its
animated pages. The character of Charlie is very
well described ; ke is none of those models of per-
fection which exist only in imagination, neither is
he shown to us as altogether bad, but he is a fair spe-
cimen of a good dispositiOn,marred by many grave
faults which lead him into the commission of most
dangerous actions ; at the same time there is talent
and worth in his nature, which finally triumph over
the evil tendencies. Ernest is of a totally different
character, full of those gentle and attractive qua-
lities with which a beneficent Providence so often
endows those afflicted with a.gt ievous deprivation.
Ernest was blind—he was of a poor family, but his
many drawbacks were in home degree compensated
for by his wonderful gift for music: He had come
to London to endeavour to make his fortune by the
exhibition of his precocious talent,and he was intro-
duced at Charlie's school. Practical lessons alwayse
make the most impression on the young, and the
sight of this blind boy, alone, in a foreign land,
about to struggle to support himself among
and
stran-
gers, powerfully affected the. generous nature
warm heart of Chatlie; Steward. `there are many
little scenes in this -book that are very amusing,
and that are most likely to gain the attention of
young reader,4, to whom it. may be prcettted by
flit it friends in the confident hope that its perusal
will be attended with pretent pleasure and future
profit.

LONDON AND BLACKWALL RAILWAY.—I'he '
re-
't of the directors, to be Presented at the half-yearly
general meeting of proprietors.at the London Tavern, on
Tuesday, the 14th instant, states that there is an increase
in the receipts in the half-year i
of £1,518 rommired with
those for the corresponding six months a t previous
year, and that the expenses aro c:::iciiS3 of those for the
same period by Xlsi, icazeipia—July to December, 1858,
£18,174 ' • aitto 1809, £53,292. Expenses--July to Der
ft4sB, £18,236 ; ditto 1859, £11,419. The balanv.s the'
credit of revenue amounts to £34,872 N., and after
deducting £6,728 38. 10d• there remains
£28,144 Os• 94. for 'dividend. The directors re-
acclaration of a dividend at the rate of
.i 4
cent. per annum upon the £1,312,210 consolitlate so ir-e
the company, which is equivalent to a 4 u 4.
increase of 6d. a share on. that ?,a„iy4. 4,t. tivu- 0,17 it year,