The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-20 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The funeral of the 12 persons killed by the fall-
ing in of the church at Louesme (Cote-d'Or) has
taken place in presence of an immense crowd. A
staff of doctors are in attendance on the wounded,
who amount to 23.

" Prince Gorschakoff," says the Presse, " who is
stated by several journals to be about to arrive in
Paris on an important mission, has been since the
Bth at Aix-les-Bains, where he has his attention
apparently rather occupied with the restoration of
his health than with political affairs."
The bulletin of the Paris Observatory gives the
following as the atmospheric state of Europe yes-
terday :—" The barometer is rising more and more
over central Europe, but is going down, on the
contrary, in the northern and southern regions.
This morning a slight centre of depression still
exists in the neighbourhood of Paris, where, how-
ever, the barometer has gone up since the preced-
ing day smm. At Brest the rise is only 22mm., and
the mercury has fallen 3mm. iu the north of Sweden,
at Haparanda, and in the south of Spain at Tarifa.
The winds are moderate almost everywhere, but
are fresh on the coasts of Provence and in the Gulf
of Genoa. Rain is falling at Bayonne. On Thurs-
day night at five minutes to twelve a strong shock
of earthquake was felt at Tarbes, and seemed taking
a direction from east to west." In Paris yesterday
the sky was overcast in the morning, but became
clearer in the afternoon. At three the thermometer
marked 15.5 Centigrade (60 Fahrenheit).
Bour,sE, May 18, Two o'clock.—A fair
amount of activity prevails in the market to-day,
and the quotations of all classes of securities show
a sensible improvement. Three per Cents. are
firm at 69f. 75c, an advance of 75e, and Italian
Fives, after having been dealt in at 52f., arc now at
51f. 85c., or 25c. higher. In Miscellaneous Securi-
ties, Credit Alobilier have gained 1 lf. 25c., at 375 f.;
Fancier 20f., at 1,480 f. ; Paris Gas 15f., at 1,5551.;
and Immobiliere shares 21. 50e., at 2021. 50c.
The railway share department is likewise buoyant,
and all the principal lines are being transacted in at
better rates.

Three o'clock.—The market has closed as fol-

lows :

1,4 per Cents 9B 40 Bank Shares 3500
Do. end mouth — Italian Loan 52
3 per Cents.
Do. end month 69 80 Mexican Loan l9 50
Credit Mobilier ... 370 Do. Bonds l4B 75
Do. end month ... 370 Spanish Threes
Credit Foncier — Home Debt —
Do. end month 1475 1 Deferred

LITERATURE.

Idols of Clay. By Mrs. Gordon Smythies. 3 vols.
Saunders and Utley.

Mrs. Gordon Smythies has been very felicitous in
the choice of a subject for her new novel. The
name in itself is singularly suggestive ; it is at once
a romance and a sermon. The words of Mrs.
Hemans' beautiful poem are familiar to us all.
When contemplating a group of school-girls at their
evening devotions, she tenderly exhorts them to
pray before the sorrows of the future life come upon
them, foretelling for some among them the fate of
so many of their sex—
" to make idols and to find them clay,
And to bewail that worship—thereforo pray."
_ _ _

Idolatora of this 'unhappy class are the chief heroes
an heroines of Mrs. Gordon Sinythies' novel. In
the case of the heroine, the very charming and love-
able Belinda do la Tour, the recognition of the
worthlessness of the idol of her devotion effects the
happy cure for her idolatry, and she finds a wor-
thier object for her best affections. The story is
full of incidents and adventures, many of which
are startling and improbable ; but readers who take
up a novel to find amusement for a leisure hour,
may find a pleasing interest in its pages, while the
moral lesson which it conveys is to many the lesson
of life. Stella Thornhill is another of those female
fiends so frequently to be met with in the pages of
modern romance. She, too, has her idol, and also
her idolator. So extravagant is the passion which
she entertains for the one and which she inspires in
the other, that before the commencement of the
story we are told that, in a fit of despair at the
coldness of her idol, she had attempted to destroy
herself, and had inflicted a wound upon her throat,
when the knife was wrenchcafrom her hand by her
devoted idolator, who, being discovered at the mo-
ment, was arrested as a would-be murderer, and
tried and transported for the supposed crime, his
idol of clay never uttering a word in his defence.
This one incident will convey a better idea of the
sensational character of the tale than any comments
which we could bestow upon it. Mrs. Smythics is
not only possessed of a very vivid imagination, but
of very considerable courage, both very requisite
qualifications for the authors of sensational romance.

DEBRETT'S ILLUSTRATED HOUSE OF COMMONS
forms a most acceptable companion volume to the
world-famous " Peerage " and " Baronetage."
Compiled and edited (evidently with great care)
by Mr. R. 11. Flair, the volume, which extends to
upwards of 400 pages, has boen issued from the
press by- the well-known publishers of Debrett, the
Messrs. Dean and Son, of Ludgate-hill. In notic-
ing the work, immediately upon its first appearance
a short time since, the Spectator facetiously directed
attention to the whimsical coincidence that Mr.
Bright's crest is rather appropriately a dragon's
head vomiting flames of fire. A rather important
word, however, in the heraldric description of this
crest was omitted by our contemporary, who ought
to have added that the dragon's head was a dragon's
head collared.
" ECHOES FROM THE CLUBS" began last week as
a Sixpenny Serial, " consisting chiefly of agreeable
gossip from Pall-Mall and other favourite regions
of Clubland, the day fixed for the publication of
Echoes from the Clubs being Wednesday. The
notion of a periodical of this kind is excellent in
itself, and so far as we can in any way judge from
a first number it gives promise of being admirably
well carried out by its projectors.
THE ST. STEPHEN'S CHRONICLE, now published
by Mr. Bentley, as a Six Shilling Monthly, still
holds its own triumphantly against all competitors
as the People's Ilansard. In its character as a
Parliamentary record it is pre-eminently biudable
for reference.