The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-23 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

The Nord publishes the following despatch from
St. Petersburg :

" The Emperor has just conferred upon Prince
Gortschakoff, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Andrew, as a
testimony of his high satisfaction rt the favourable
conclusion of the treaty with China."

BERLIN, Wednesday Evening.—Letters from St.
Tetersbuig state that Russia will now endeavour to
arrange another treaty with China, to settle the
western frontier of the two empires, between
Kiakhta and Tomsk. At present those districts
are the scene of continual warfare between the
borderers in their hunting excursions. The semi-
official Berlin Zeit treats the Villafranca concession
as a very slight matter, but advises the Austrian
Lloyds to prepare for a powerful competitor in the
new Russian Company. Letters from Zara, in
Dalmatia, state that the line of telegraph has been
rendered useless for the present through some of
of the posts having been knocked down by a storm.
On attempting to rectify the damage, three of the
persons employed touched the wire, when two were
killed by a tremendous discharge of electricity, and
the third severely hurt.

INDIA AND THE CAPE.

PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY.

The screw steamship Indiana, Captain Lambert,
arrived here to-day from Calcutta and the Cape of
Good Hope. She left Calcutta July 3 ; Point de
Galle, 14 ; Mauritius, 28 ; and the Cape, August
13. She brings home as passengers Lieut.-Colonel
Kennedy, sth Fusiliers ; Lieutenant Fenwick, 10th
Foot ; Captain Brown 14th Light Dragoons • Cap-
tain Grimston, 93d Highlanders ; Captain gcovel,
79th Highlanders ; Captain Unwin, 6th Foot ; Staff
Surgeon Glutterbuck ; Dr. Grant, sth Fusiliers ;
Assistant Surgeon Tovey, 30th Foot ; Lieutenant
Lever, 80th Foot ; Lietitenant England, 30th Light
Infantry; Lieutenant Cox, 13th Light Infantry;
Ensign Bartleman, Bengal Army ; Mr. W. Acra-
man, Mrs. Major Ellis, child, and two servants ;
Dr. and Mrs. Wavle and child, Mr. and Mrs. R. V.
Barlow, Mrs. Leslie, Mrs. Quirian, Mrs. Corcoran
and child, Miss Green, Mrs. Rawding and child,
Captain Clay, her Majesty's 19th Regiment ; Lieut.
Jerome, 86th Regiment, in charge of invalids, 111
men, 12 women, and 12 children, of various regi-
ments. Lieutenant the Hon. C. Ward, 73d Regt.,
died on the voyage between Calcutta and Point de
Galle, on the Bth July.
From the Cape we learn that the Governor, Sir
G. Grey, left Cape Town on the 27th July to enter
upon his duties, with the consent of the Cape Legis-
lature, and at the earnest request of the belligerents,
as mediater between the Free State Government
and the powerful Basutu chief Moshesh. Great
hopes are entertained throughout the country that
a happy issue will result to South Africa from these
negotiations, owing to the changes rendered neces-
sary in British Kaffraria by the alteration of policy
of the new home Government, and to the awk-
ward situation in which the settlers of the British
Legion and other German immigrants are placed.
The governor has decided upon giving 200 farms
of 1,500 acres each to farmers with some capital
from this colony, in order that employment be fur-
nished for the Germans, some of whom are desert-
ing daily from the Legion. Admiral Sir F. Grey,
accompanied by Lady Grey, left Simon's Bay on
the 27th ult., in her Majesty's ship Boscawen, for
Mauritius. It is understood that the admiral will
afterwards proceed to Mozambique.
Her Majesty's ship Megmra, Commander Purvis ,
arrived in Simon's Bay on the 10th August. She
has come to embark troops for India. Her Majesty's
ships Hermes and Lynx were in Simon's Bay.

CHILDREN.

BY PROFESSOR LONGFELLOW.

The following exquisite lyric is extracted from a
new volume of poetry, just issued. from the press,
by the greatest poet of America—Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. " The Courtship of Miles Standish,
and other Poems," is the title of the little volume,
which will be more gladly welcomed by the thou-
sands of Longfellow's admirers in Old England
than either of his latest productions, " The Golden
Legend," and " The Song of Hiawatha"—for
already, after but lightly turning the leaves, we
recognise more true poetry worthy of the large and
gentle heart of Longfellow in half-a-dozen pages of
" Miles Standish" than in the two immediate pre-
decessors of " Miles Standish" put together. As
ample testimony of the truth of what we have said,
glance down the tender and beautiful verses here
following

Come to me, 0 ye children !
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.
Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.
In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooldet's flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn,
And the first fall of the snow.

Ah ! what would the world be to us
If the children were no more ?
We should dread the desert behind is
Worse than the dark before.
What the leaVes are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood,—
That to the world are children ;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.
Come to me, 0 ye children I
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.
For what are all our bontrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks ?
Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said ;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.

_dated the 19th inst., states
caine and Nereide are being
frigates an d laden with coal, with which they
fitted up as transports
that the t
o Macao, there to remain at the service
lheettsearilifnrgom Brest,
Afri
are to be despatched t
steamships .
in the Chinese seas. The French
th hitherto been forced to pay an enormous
the coals purchased in the Chinese seas.
for
of
Government the Fr French h
has i
DUNDALKprice LIFEBOAT. Lord Clermont has
liberally undertaken to build a house, at his own expense,
for the reception of the lifeboat and carriage which the
Royal National Lifeboat Institution is about to station in
the vicinity of the dangerous bay of Dundalk. His lord-
ship, who has had some experience of the important opera-
tions of this society on the Irish coast, adds that " the
National Lifeboat Institution deserves the best thanks of
the community for the humane liberality with which it has
provided the coast with lifeboats."
• HOLYHEAD, SEPT. 21.—The Harbours of Refuge
Commissioners, consisting of Admiral Hope, Captain Wash
ington, R.N. Captain Vetch, Mr. W. S. Lindsay, M.P.,
and Mr. Code, C.E., arrived here yesterday, and at once
proceeded with their investigations into the harbour accom-
modations at this port. They were assisted in the prosecu-
tion of their inquiries by the Admiralty agent, Commander
Priest, R.N. ; Captain Skinner, R.N., of Belfast ; Mr. J.
Hawkshaw, Admiralty engineer ; Mr. Charles Rigby, &c.
This morning they resumed their investigations, and at
noon inspected the quarries of the New Harbour Works,
and witnessed the dislodgment of about 9,000 tons of stone
from the solid rock, bythe agency of 22 cwt. of gunpowder,
which operated very successfully, and had a good effect. A
number of gentlemen from the neighbourhood also attended
to witness this blasting operation, among whom were—the
Hon. W. 0. Stanby, M.P.; Mr. R. T. Griffith, Careglwyd;
Mr. 0. F. Meyrick, of Bodorgan ; Mr, G. Dobson ; Mr. R.
L, Cousens, &c.

A letter from St. Petersburg says The fire
continues its ravages. Every day we receive the
news of fresh disasters occasioned by the burning
of the forests and the dry turf. Sparks carried by
the wind have even in several places set fire to the
wooden sleepers of the Moscow Railway and to the
posts of the telegraph wires. The passengers that
were in an express train, driven at a great rate,
were half suffocated in passing through one of these
places. Afterwards the communications were in-
terrupted for 36 hours. On the 12th September, at
the moment when Strauss' band were playing a new
waltz, Les adieux a Saint Petersburg,' at the
Vauxhall of Parlovsk, the tocsin was all at once
heard sounding in the town. The crowd hurried
from the gardens, and perceived the glare of a fire
which had broken out in the neighbourhood of the
same quarter in which occurred the serious con-
flagrations only 15 days ago. Several houses have
been destroyed, and the lives have been lost of a
young Jewess and several children, whose parents
had gone to see the illuminations at Vauxhall."