The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONUON, FliluAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1866.

intiohinery for cleaning, packing, &c., and the exhi-
bition of samples were all very useful, and the know-
IT which the organisation obtained through our
COW als, rather agents, at the various ports proved
vale able to the public. Paraguay, in South America,
baa .always been an industrial country, and cotton
has been ranked among her chief productions. She
did not, indeed, attempt to compete with the
Southern States of North America in the days of
their yrosperity, but she had always produced suf-
ficient in quantity and quality for home consump-
When efforts were being made in all parts
to procure samples of cotton, and the Brazils and
Venezuela began cultivating the precious seed in
earnest, Paraguay was able to send some excellent
samples of her ready grown cotton, and was likely
to make a large profit by the Cotton Famine, when
her career was checked by the war with the allies.
Brazil, already too large, thought it very
desirable to increase her dominions, while
the inland situation of Paraguay rendered
her fertile soil a tempting prize to the
cupidity of the other neighbouring States. `iThe
Brazils, Buenos Ayres, and the Argentine Con-
federation formed an alliance against the little Re-
public of Paraguay, but, as has often happened in
similar cases, numbers proved powerless against the
.spirit and unity of the people. Paraguay suffered
heavily from the deprivation of her commerce,
since the blockade of the river La Plata cut her
off from communication with Europe and
America; but, nevertheless, she has kept up her
resistance undaunted, and now they have, accord-
ing to the last news, every prospect of ultimate suc-
cess. The Paraguayans are determined to carry on
the war to the last. The soldiers are unanimous,
and declare their willingness to fight to the last
man; while the great success achieved at Curupaity
has delighted the country. The cotton which the
Paraguayans had been assiduously cultivating for
the European markets has proved more useful at
home, and is being converted into clothing for the
army. Still, when the war is over, as there is every
reason to hope it will shortly be, and Marshal
LOPEZ is finally routed, Paraguay will still be a
useful resource to the English trader. We must
never again depend exclusively on one source of
supply, especially the foreign one; and if our manu-
facturers are wise they will keep open every re-
source which the scarcity has shown to them.
Queensland, Egypt, Paraguay, North Africa, &c.,
will all be valuable, and the gallant little Republic
when she has got over her difficulties will most
likely be able to supply us with many other staples,
as well as proving an important customer for our
manufactured goods.

tion_

Lord DERBY has just performed a graceful and
kindly act, which proves that he, at least, is not
altogether under the influence of party feeling. He
has recommended Her MAJESTY to confer the honour
of knighthood on the late Lord Mayor, and has con-
veyed the intimation to Mr. Alderman PHILLIPS in
cordial terms. Alderman PHILLIPS is decidedly
opposed to Lord DERBY in politics, but that fact
has not interfered with his lordship's appreciation of
his public services during his mayoralty. "For
this honour," writes his lordship, " you are
indebted less to the accidental circumstance
of having received the King of the BEL-
GIANS at the Mansion House than to the
admirable manner in which you discharged the duties
of your high office, and more especially for your
valuable services in the case of the cholera in Lon-
don and the famine in India." Such a testimony
adds to the gratification of receiving a mark of dis-
tinction from the Sovereign, since the new title may
be accepted, less as a form of courtly compliment
than as a token of royal and ministerial recognition
of the faithful discharge of onerous and laborious
duties. The fact acquires additional interest
from the circumstance of Alderman PHILLIPS hav-
ing been the first member of the Jewish persuasion
who has received Knighthood during his term of
office. We are glad that Lord DERBY has so com-
pletely set aside any prejudices which might be sup-
posed to attach to him personally or politically, and
has proved that he is in some respects at least a
Liberal Minister.

French troops from Mexico. The vessels will sail
for their destination on the 15th inst.

The Duke de Mouchy, who recently married the
Princess Anna Murat, is again in possession of his
title of Grandee of Spain, which was enjoyed by his
ancestors.

The Court of Assize of the Haute Saone has been
occupied with a case of embezzlement, similar to
that of which Lamirande has been convicted. The
cashier of the Treasury of the Department, M.
Dumont, has been convicted of embezzling 225,000 f.,
and of stealing securities to the value of 50, )00f.,
and has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
The Opinion Nationale, after giving an analysis
of President Johnson's Mess ige, denie3 that there
has been any communication between France and
the United States relative to political matters in
Mexico. "The latest negotiations between France
and the United States have related almost exclu-
sively to the departure of the French army from
Mexico. We may add that the demands of Presi-
dent Johnson upon this subject have been for-
mally received. The French troops in Mexico
will return very speedily to France."
The famous aerolite, weighing nearly 5001 b.
English, which fell in Mexico, has been received
in Paris.

One of the Paris papers, with an affectation of
official authority, states that Prussia will not take
any part in negociations which may arise respect-
ing the temporal power of the Pope.
M. Artom has assumed the post of Ambassador
from Italy at Paris, during the temporary ab-
sence of M. Nigra.

There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at Corn-
piegne, at which the Emperor presided.

L A TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE SEINE STEAMER.
SOUTHAMPTON, Friday Morning.
In accordance with orders received from the Privy
Council, the West India Mail steamer Seine, Capt.
Revett, has been released from quarantine this
morning, and has just arrived in dock.

THE CANDIAN INSURRECTION.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Dee. 6.

Government advices received here from Candia,
dated 30th ult., announce the submission of the
most important districts, and the entire dispersion
of the insurgent bodies. The Turkish authorities
in the island had been reinstated in their posts.

FRANCE AND AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, Dec. 7.

It is stated that the final negotiations for a treaty
of commerce between France and Austria have been
con eluded.

The French commissioners will leave next week.
Baron Beust will entertain them to-day at a ban-
quet.

The treaty of commerce will come into force on
the Ist January, 1867.

FRANCE.

BOURSE, Dec. s.—Two o'clock.—The market
continues inanimate and with lower quotations.
French Threes have lost 10c., the present price
being 69f. 621 c. Italian Fives continue to have a
downward tendency, caused by different reports,
such as a loan shortly. This Stock has declined
15c., at 56f. 15c. offered. Credit Mobilier Shares
lose 5f., at 582 f. 50e. Railway Shares are generally
rather firmer. Orleans, Lyons, and Austrian are
even quoted with slight advance of lf. 25c.
Three o'Clock.—The close has taken place badly,
and at the following lower quotations :

ti per Cents 93 Bank Shares —
Do. end month I Italian Loan 56 15
3 per Cents. 69 65 IDo end month 56 10
I Do. end month 69 55. Mexican Loan —
Credit Mobilier ... 585 Do. Bonds —

Do. end month 583 75 i Spanish Throes ...
Credit Foneier — Home Debt
Do. end month 1377 50 Deferred

RAILWAYS.

For Account.
Orleans
Northern llB5
Lyons and Mediterranean.......„ 9Ol 25
Southern 583 75
Western — --
Eastern

Sardinian . —
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain ll6 25
Sara,goSF.a
Ditto to Barcelona
Roman .. 65

BANK OF FRANCE.

PARIS, Nov. 29.

The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :

LITERATURE.

Mugby Junction. By Charles Dickens,

As seasonably welcome as either plum-pudding
let us say, or as mince-pies—and, happily, just as
inevitable for many years past, on the annual com-
ing round of December—have been the successive
Christmas Numbers of Mr. Dickens's periodical.
He has so far spoilt us in their regard, that we have
long since come to look forward to them every suc-
ceeding twelvemonth almost as mere matters of
course. We would as scon think, somehow, of
celebrating Christmas without, for example,
dangling a pendant bunch of mistletoe overheal,
or without wreathing green branches and red berries
about the pannellings of our home;rooms, as without
according once more a welcome, not merely upon our
hearths, but within our hearts, to some new tale or
series of tales more or less appropriate to the season
—to the holy-days and the holly-nights of Christ-
mas-tide—tales-told by our Great Novelist at regu-
lar intervals now during a goodly span of one whole
score of years—between 1845, the first memorable
year thus celebrated by Mr. Dickens with the
bestof all his Christmas Books, the Christmas Carol,
and the last year, 1865, hardly less noticeable in its
turn as the year within which he produced about
the finest of all his Christmas Numbers, Doctor
Marigold. Happily his inventiveness as a Christ-
mas story-teller appears to be fairly inexhaustible.
He never seems to lack, year after year, some inge-
nious device—some device perfectly new and original
in itself, and never previously thought of as a me-
dium for the relation of a series or cluster of narra-
tives—upon which, as upon a connecting thread, he
can string together the priceless pearls, blown egg-
shells, winter daisies, or what not, making up the,
miscellaneous assortment of each successive Christ-
mas Number. Here, in " Mugby Junction," is the
last, and certainly not the least surprising evidence
of this extraordinary ingenuity of his in the way of
imaginative contrivance. It is as different from
" Doctor Marigold," in the root idea
of it, and in the whole manner and treat-
ment of it, as " Doctor Marigold" was,
in each of those particulars, different from " Mrs.
Lirriper." Each as a Christmas Number stands
absolutely per se—must be regarded as distinctly
sui generis—" none but itself can be its parallel."
It was the same one year with the " Poor Tra-
veller"—another with the " Wreck of the Golden
Mary"—another with the t, Holly-Tree Inn." Mr.
Dickens never repeats himself. One while a Lodging
Housekeeper—another a Cheap Jack--now a Boots—
now a Railway Porter—his identity is swallowed up,
as one may say (and say,'too, without one atom of
extravagance) in the last of his:great realistic ideali-
zations. As well might you strive to detect the
voice of the Globe Theatre Manager and Dramatist
speaking variously through Malvolio and Touch-
stone, through G-obbo and Antolychus, as
endeavour to detect that of the Conductor of
All the Year Round, and as previously of
Household Words through Major Jackman, let
us say, or Master Walmers Junior, through the
weak-minded and feeble-voiced Giant Pickleson—
or, as in the present instance, through such per-
fectly new creations as Lamps, and Polly, as the
Boy Ezekiel, or as the nameless Signalman. The
singularly original notion upon which Mr. Dickens
has constructed this his new Christmas Number is,
beyond any doubt of it, as clever as anything of the
kind he has ever yet hit upon. " Mugby Junction,"
as might be surmised by the reader, is so
to speak the central-point from -which the
several stories of the number radiate. Barbox
Brothers, otherwise Mr. Young Jackson, grown
old, or at any rate rather elderly, is the prin-
cipal narrator, the collector or confidant of these
experiences of divers railway officials, comprising
among others engineers and travelling post-office
clerks, signalmen, and engine-drivers. From the
moment when in the deadest hour of the night (the
" deadest and buriedest" hour, as Lamps calls it,
later on, emphatically), when the Guard of the Night
Train during a momentaryistoppage of it at Mugby
Junction, in a drenching downpour of rain, looking
at the "tearful face of his watch," answers Bar-
box Brother's inquiry by telling him he's just got
three minutes to spare—minutes occupied by Bar-
box Brothers in summarily gettiug out of the train ;
then all of a sudden, and there locating himself, by
a sort of wild impromptu born of his eccentric
humour—we are yonder with him in the midst
of the railway world, the railway ticket, and
the railway people. How completely realised the
scene is to us let this fragmentary quotation
serve of itself at once to indicate :

"Mysterious goods trains, covered withpalls and gliding
on like vast weird funerals, conveying themselves guiltil y
away from the presence of the few lighted lamps, as if
their freight had come to a secret and unlawful end. Half
miles of coal pursuing in a Detective manner, following
when they lead, stopping when they stop, backing when
they back. Red hot embers showering out upon the
ground, down this dark avenue, and down the other, as if
torturing fires were being raked clear ; concurrently,
shrieks and groans and grinds invading the ear, as if the
tortured were at the height of their suffering. Iron-
barred cages full of cattle jangling by midway, the droop-
ing beasts with horns entangled , eyes frozen with terror,
and mouths too ; at least they have long icicles (or what
seems so) hanging from their lips. Unknown, languages
in the air, conspiring in red, green, and white characters.
An earthquake accompanied with thunder and lightning, going
up express to London."

That is the night-view of Mugby Junction as it
meets the observant eye of Barbox Brothers. Here,
by way of companion picture, is the day-vicw of it
as it appears mapped-out before him, or rather
below him, with its maze of lines :
" But there were so many lines. Gazing down upon
them from a bridge at the junction, it was as if the con-
centrating companies formed a great Industrial Exhibition
of the works of extraordinary ground-spiders that spun
iron. And then so many of the lines went such wonder-
ful ways, so crossing and curving among one another,
that the eye lost them. And then some of theta appeared
to start with the fixed intention of going five hundred
miles, and all of a sudden gave it up- at an insignificant
barrier, or turned off into a workshop. And then others,
like intoxicated men, went a little way very straight, and
surprisingly slued round and came back again. And then
others were so chock-full of trucks of coal, others were so
blocked with trucks of casks, others were so gorged with
trucks of ballast, others were so set apart for wheeled ob-
jects like immense iron cotton-reels; while others were so
bright and clear, and others were so delivered over to rust
and ashes and idle wheelbarrows out of work, with their
legs in the air (looking much like their masters on strike),
that there was no beginning, middle, or end, to the
bewilderment."

From that same 'vantage ground of observation,
indeed, Barbox Brothers takes note of the pecu-
liarities of the scene, even to the very minutest, as
where he makes mention of the time when " pro-
digious wooden razors set upon end, begin shaving
the atmosphere." Here, however, let us introduce,
without any further preamble (or we shall never
have done with it), one at least of the many notable
creations of Mr. Dickens's humoristic genius, added
to his already astonishing Gallery, as with a touch
or two of his pen point he here calls a few new ones
into life. Foremost among them in this fresh
collection of his wonderfully vivid comic por-
traitures being—.