The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-14 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The Seine continues to fall slowly. The scale at
the Pont Royal now marks only 16 feet. When
the waters descend to 13 feet the navigation can be
resumed, as the towing paths are then uncovered.
The church of the Trinity, one of the largest of
modern Paris, will cost on its entire completion
3,888,911 f. The paintings already executed have
cost 157,000 f., and the sculpture 92,000 f.
The Tribunal of Arras, in its sitting of the Bth,
gave judgment in an action for defamation brought
by M. Florent-Lefebvre against li. Tierray, editor
of the Courricr du Pas-de-Calais. The latter was
condemned to 100 f. fine and costs.

The Moniteurpublishes a report from the Minister
of Agriculture to the Emperor, pointing out the
necessity of imparting instruction in agricultural
pursuits to the pupils in the normal schools. The
document is followed by an imperial decree appoint-
ing a commission to inquire into the measures neces-
sary for carrying out the suggestions named in the
report.
The Paris Savings Bank received, in the fortnight
ending the 11th instant, deposits amounting to
and reimbursed the sum of 717,141 f.
1,167,607 f.,
The total of the payments into the Caisse des Re-
traites for the Aged during the same period was
97,925 f.
The health of M. Empis, of the French Academy,
formerly director of the Theatre Francais, causes
much uneasiness to his friends.
The family and friends of M. Ingres have decided
to have a general exhibition of his works organised
this year. it will be held in the rooms of the Ecole
des Beaux Arts, and will comprise not only the
pictures and portraits which have established the
reputation of that artist, but also a considerable
number of sketches and most of the preliminary
studies which he prepared for his great works.
An accident occurred three days back on board
the steamer Francois I. when on its return from
llonfleur to Havre. Three passengers had placed
themselves in the forepart of the vessel, and notwith-
standing a warning from the outlook man of their
danger from the rolling of the steamer, persisted in
remaining there. Presently a heavy sea washed
over the bows, knocking down the three. Two
escaped with a thorough drenching, but the left leg
and arm of the third were broken in the fall.
BOURSE, Feb. 13.—Two o'clock.—The market to-
day is weak, nearly all classes of securities showing
a decline. Three per Cents. are at 69f. 60c. ;
Italian Fives at 54f. 40c.—a fall of 20c. Credit
Alobilier and Credit Foncier shares have receded—
the former 2f. 50c., to 522 f. 50c., and the latter Bf.
75c., to 1,515 f. Mexican Bonds are being done at
142 f. 50c. There is exceedingly little business in the
Railway market. Lombard are quoted at 406 f. 25c.,
or 3f. 75c. lower, and Austrian at 405 f., a decline of
lf. 25c. The close has taken place as follows :

4i per Cents 99 50
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 69 571
Do. end month 69 62
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month
Credit Foncier —
Do. end month 1525

Bank Shares 3580
Italian Loan 54 471
Do. end month 54 55
Mexican Loan —
Do. Bonds —
Spanish Throes
Home Debt —
Deferred -
rATS.

For Account.
Orleans
Northern 1202 50

Lyons and Mediterranean 920
-

Southern 570

Western

Eastern 550

Sardinian —
Austrian 403 75
Lombard 405
North of Spain —
Saragossa

Ditto"to Barcelona —
Roman.. BB 73

A WAIF FROM THE Sir,A.--An oblong deal box,
containing a number of letters and manuscripts, all written
in the German language, has been cast up on tho Welsh
coast, near Aberdovey. The letters are addressed to Isaac
E. Eckman, and among the pipers is a certificate of com-
petency granted to Isaac E.Eckman, seaman, of Christiana.
The certificate is dated Nov., 1863. The box also con-
tained a carte do visits of a lady, taken by a Gloucester
artist, and a photograph from an engraving of our Saviour.
The box is in the possession of Mr. David Williams, cus-
tom house officer at Aberdovey, who states that he has
failed to find among the papers any clue to the name of
the ship from which the box is supposed to have been
lost.

ATTEMPTED OUTRAGE IN A PIT.—At the Ches-
terfiel,l police-court on Tuesday, a youth named Michael
Cavan was charged by William Watson, engineer, with
cutting a rope at the Old Hollingwood Pit, belonging to the
Staveley Coal and Iron Company, on the 10th inst. It ap-
peared from the evidence that at about 11 o'clock in the
morning a man named Henry Goodwin heard some person
hammering near one of the inclines in the pit, and on going
to the place he found the prisoner there with an axe. Ho
had chopped eight or ten wires of the rope in two. On being
asked why he had done it, ho replied that there should be
"a moss there before the day was out." Had tho outrage
not boon discovered, and had the rope broken while in work,
no doubt it would have been attended with loss of life. Ile
afterwards admitted to Mr. Watson that ho had struck the
rope with an axe, and remarked that once he missed his
aim, and the axe made fire fly out of the brickwork. The
raagi6trato committed him for 14 Maya With hard labour.

LITERATURE.

Sybil's Second Love. By Julia Kavanagh, author
of "Nathalic." Three Vols. Hurst and Blackett.

Sybil Kennedy, the heroine of this tale, is a most
charming creation, a type of all that is generous and
unselfish. The story is a very mournful one, and
we cannot but regard the authoress of her history
as unnecessarily severe in her apportionment of her
heroine's lot. Never, assuredly, has a faithful
heart been devoted to so many faithless friends.
The one prominent object of poor Sybil's girlish
adoration is her chosen companion Blanche Cains,
or, as one of her kind acquaintances very justly de-
clares she should be called, Blanche Cain. No lover,
whether " first" or " second," holds such a place in
Sybil's tender heart as this all-fascinating friend,
and veryligratefullydoesßlanclie requite heraffection
In the first place, this false friend lures away the
young lover to whom Sybil is first engaged, and
after inconceivable treachery betrays her friendship
even more cruelly. The deepest wound, however,
inflicted o❑ Sybil's gentle heart is the ultimate reve-
lation, in which she is loth to believe, of the perfidy
of one so trusted and beloved. "To make idols
and to find them clay," and; " to bewail that wor-
ship," seems indeed the appointed lot of hapless
Sybil Kennedy. One situation in this tale is, to
our thinking, very repulsive, and is in no way ne-
cessary to the development of the story. 'We allude
to Sybil's second love for one whom she had for
some time regarded as her uncle. The revelation
that the supposed relationship is a fabrication could
never convert the filial regard of uncle and niece
into a warmer affection, or, if it could do so such
an unnatural state of feeling is nowise agreeable to
contemplate. Sybil, herself, as we have said, is a
most unselfish and loveable creation, but the story
of which she is the heroine is throughout singularly
improbable. We have been so often charmed with
the writings of Julia Kavanagh, more especially
with her very delightful '• Madelaine," a tale of
Auvergne, that we regret our inability to speak in
more eulogistic terms of her new story of " Sybil's
Second Love."

Good Cookery illustrated, and Recipes communicated
by the TVelsh Hermit of the Cell of St. Goner. By
Lady Llanover. 1 Vol. Pp. 482. Richard

Bentley.

Assuredly the venerable and most learned
Hermit of St.' Gover must in career and character
be near akin to that other illustrious recluse intro-
duced to our kindly notice by Douglas Jerrold, we
mean the very agreeable historian of " The Chroni-
cles of Clovernook," the right jovial " hermit of
Belly-fulle." The lonely recluse of St. Gover's cell
proves to be a very master in the art of 000kery,
and not in bare theory, be it observed, but in very
fruitful practice. A traveller, from the so-called
region of civilisation, wandering in Wales, arrives at
the Hermit's cell, and in the course of conversation
with one who, for more than half a century, has
been living out of the world, and who is unac-
quainted with the march of intellect and the pro-
gress of science, he learns, to his utter confusion
and amazement, that he is the barbarian and the
recluse is the philosopher ! Very thlightful and very
graceful is the ironical humour with which (in this
imaginary conversation) the fair authoress sets forth
in forcible language the short-comings of the pre-
sent day. " Doubtless," says the hermit, after lis-
tening to his visitor's account of the groat advance
of knowledge since his own retirement from
the world, " doubtless the intellect of the last
sixty-four years has caused such advances that
there is not a matron or a damsel in any rank
of life who cannot cut out and make to perfection
what our Teutonic neighbours used to call a
first dress,' or a master of, a family, from the
noble to the peasant, who has not his dinner
dressed in a manner which combines delicacy of
flavour with the greatest economy and the ut-
inost attention to health, with such a tempting
appearance as does credit to the instruction or
execution of the wife, the d Lughter, or sister pre-
siding over the househol 1." At these words
the traveller turns, pale and falters. And
on cross-examination admits that in not a
single family of his extensive acquaintance is there
a single female who can either cut out or make a
shirt. A further explanation, as regards the culinary
arts and domestic economy of the civilised world
of the nineteenth century, yet further mystifies the
good hermit and confounds the unhappy traveller.
The result of their deliberations is a complete revela-
tion of domestic ignorance on the one hand, and, on
rho other, a generous course of wholesome and
wholesale information. The book is principally in-
tended for the (in other respects) educated classes.
The mistress of a family here learns that it is herduty
to be competent to instruct her ignorant helpers.
Not only are very complete and copious instructions
given in this volume, but a whole host of very ap-
petising Welsh receipts, as prepared by that Soyer
of the mountains, the Hermit of St. Gover. Alto-
gether, with its pictorial illustrations, homely ad-
vice, and very amusing anecdotes, this book is in
its way a treasury of culinary art and a curiosity of
literature.

FENI3IORE COOPER'S NOVELS—are now being re-
issued in a beautifully clear and readable double-
columned edition by the Messrs. Routledge. Each
of these famous romances of American life by sea
and by land being purchaseable in this form com-
plete for—Sixpence ! After this fashion we have
here already supplied to hand, each in a radiantly
coloured wrapper illustrative of the particular work
it thus serves at once to clothe and to embellish—
The Pilot, the Red Rover, The Spy, The Water-
witch, The Last of the Mohicans, and Eve Effing-
ham.

A HANDY BOOK OF THE LAW OF CABS AND
OMNIBUSES. By T. W. Charley, B.A. (Routledge)
—will be found very useful, in its way, to the pub-
lic at large, as well as to cabbies, drivers, and con-
ductors. The motto chosen for his title page, by
the fascetious barrister who is the compiler of these
pages, is the sufficiently familiar jesting application
to his subject-matter of that threadbare little scrap
of latinity, De omnibus rebus et quibusdanz aliis.