The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-28 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, Dec. 28.

An official despatch has been received from Ad-
miral Roze, dated 22d October, announcing the
capture of Ranghoa, an important town in the
Corea, by the French forces on the 16th October.
On the 19th of the same month the Admiral re-
ceived a letter from the King of Corea, in reply to
which he stated the satisfaction demanded by the
French Government.

The Admiral was still at Kanghoa on the 22d
October, awaiting the arrival of interpreters from
Shanghai.
BOURSE, Dec. 27, Two o'clock. The market
opened at higher quotations, encouraged by a rise
telegraphed in English Consols of no less than
but prices are weaker now than at the commence-
ment. French Threes, after touching 69f. 85c., are
at 69f. 70c., or a fraction lower than yesterday's
close. Italian Fives have advanced 10c., at 56f.
65c. Credit Mobilier shares lose lf. 25c., at 508 f.
75c. Comptoir d'Escompte are quoted sf. lower, at
852 f. 50c., whilst Credit Foncier gain 2f. 50c., at
1,395 f. Railway Shares are firm, with a fractional
advance in some cases.
Three o'clock. The market has closed as
follows :

41 per Cents 9B 20
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 69 65
Do. end month 69 75
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month
.._

Credit Foncier --
---
Do. end month 1392 50

Bank Shares —
Italian Loan 56 70
Do. end month 56 75
Mexican Loan —
Do. 80nd5...,,,,,
Spanish Threes
Home Debt
Deferrod
'AYE,.

For Account.
Orleans
Northern l2OO
Lyons and Mediterranean 9OO
Southern 582 50
Western —
Eastern —

Sardinian -
Austrian
Lombard 3BB 75
North of Spain 1321
Saragosfa
Ditto to Barcelona
Roman,

BANK OF FRANCE.

76 25

PARIS, Dec. 27.

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 :

DEBTOR.

Dec. 20.

Dec. 27.
fr. c.
Capital of the Bank.... 182,500,000
Profits in addition to
capital (Art. 8, Law,
June 9, 1857) 7,044,776 G 2 7,044,776 02
Reserve of the Bank

182,500,000 -

22,105,750 14 22,105,750 14

and its branches
Reserve in landed pro-
perty 4,000,000 4,000,000 -
Notes in circulation -
Banknotes to order and
receipts payable at
sight 15,618,609 42 15,812,492 37
Treasury account cur-
rent creditor
Current accounts, Paris 259,593,558 98 251,083,023 67
Do. branch banks
Dividends payable 14,556,434 75 715,331 75
Discounts and sundry
interests
Rediscounted the last

449,601 76 13,134,104 93

1,574,256 34 2,372,304 91

six months
Surplus of receipts not
distributed
Sundries -
7,515,187 9G 11,279,035 95

Total 1,715,795,587 95 1,708,505,441 47
CREDITOR.

Cash in hand and in

Dec. 27.
fr.

Dec. 20.
fr.

Branch banks
714,524,692 56 710,380,185 73
Commercial bills over-

due
Commercial bills dis-
counted, not yet due 309,704,120 00 304,184,653 03
Do. branch banks 335,137,718 330,774,456
Advances on deposit of
bullion 32,614,600 33,081,500
Do. branch banks 9,006,900 9,361,900
Do. on French Public
Securities
Do. by branch banks
Do. on railway shares
and debentures
D. branch banks 25,873,000
Do. on Credit Foncier
Bonds
Do. branches
Do. to the State (Con-
vention, June 10,
1857) 60,000,000
Government Stock re-
serve 12,980,750 14 12,980,750 14
Do. disposable
Rentes Immobalis6es
(Law, June 2, 1857) 100,000,000 100,000,000
otel and furniture of
the Bank and landed

234,536 01

171,029 18

14,029,100 -
7,689,800 -

14,055,500 -
7,862,800 -

37,438,300 -

727,000 -
606,550 -

25;53000 -

706,300 -
631,650 -

property branches
Expenses of manage-
ment
sundries

8,306,692 -

60,000,000 --

8,316,991 -

- 2,860,870 62
11,002,691 33 14,097,314 86

Total 1,715,795,587 95 1,708,505,441 47
Certified by the Senator Governor of the Bank of Prance.
(Signed) ROULAND.

No one who is unacquainted with the Australian
Alps can form any idea of their peculiar grandeur and
beauty ; and, indeed, it is only within the last five years
that, owing to the indefatigable energy of our gold miners,
they have become known to the general Australian popu-
lation, having been previously only inhabited on their ex-
treme verge by scattered and secluded cattle stations.
Thriving towns and mining communities are now planted
in the mountains in places four and five thousand
feet above the sea, enjoying an almost perfect climate
the clear unclouded Australian weather. with the
cool bracing atmosphere of Europe. So cold it is in win-
ter that the mountain torrents are locked in ice for weeks,
snow-mon are made in the tuwns of Grant and Woods
Point, and the English amusement of snowballing tho-
roughly enjoyed. At these times the long wooden aque-
ducts by which streams of water are conducted for mining
purposes become wonderful edifices of ice, supported by
huge columns, and hung with gigantic icicles. The hills
are covered with snow, and tke secluded and shady glens
look like some part of the arctic regions - the trees and
bushes being pendant with ice-drops that rattle and sparkle
in the wind.— Once a Week.

THE OCCUPATION OF EMPRESSES AND QUEENS.-
II omer has given us some notion of the employment of
Princesses of his day, one of the most interesting epiSodes
in his immortal epic being a descriptive account of the
daughters of Ulysses engaged with their, needles. It is
curious to observe how that domestic occupation survives,
although its mode has greatly changed, and is still occa-
sionally indulged in by living empresses and queens, to
relieve their minds from the cares of State and the weari-
ness of Courts. Thus, the Empress of the French, the
Empress of Russia, and the Queens of Spain and Bavaria,
we are told by Court newsmen, beguile their hours with
the Grover and Baker sewing machines. The needle,. as
used in the old-fashioned way, is fast departing from our
domiciles, but we have a far better substitute in these
invaluable and elegant machines ; indeed, as the Times
says :—" To possess a sewing machine, and to know how
to use it, is to possess a little mine of wealth."--Pall
11Ial1 Gazette.

'r36(/411
• •
tart 'l*
04 0 Kfs, itlf
Min

HER MAJESTY, ch.

OSBORNE, Dec. 27.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
walked iu the grounds yesterday afternoon ; and
her Majesty went out this morning, attended by the
Dowager Duchess of Athole.

Princess Christian drove out this morning with
Lady Caroline Barrington.

Prince Christian went out shooting to-day in
Parkhurst Forest, attended by Major-General F.
H. Seymour.

Colonel Jeffreys, C. 8., and Captain von Schro-
etter had the honour of accompanying his royal
highness.

" Griffith Gaunt," and its Detractors.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

have to thank you for some kind words
relative to a statement lately put forth, that my
story, " Griffith Gaunt," is compounded from two
independent and original tales in Household Words.
Will you oblige me by stating, as the truth is,
that I never saw either of those tales, nor read one
line of them. By the extracts lam convinced they
are simply short stories founded on the cause
celebre " Pivardiere." The bare outline of that true
narrative is made use of in the second and third
volumes of " Griffith Gaunt," and hence, no doubt,
has arisen a partial resemblance between three tales
of very different calibre, based, however, upon one
great fact.

In the parallel that has been drawn, all the
points of difference between " Griffith Gaunt" and
his predecessors appear to be fraudulently sup-
pressed.

Of course by this artifice, and by one criticaster
wording in his own language the three English plots,
a slight similarity may be made to appear a great
one.

Where two short tales and one three-volume
novel are all based on an outline, that would go into
a page, the short tales must, by the nature of
things, be more indebted to the historical record
than the voluminous fiction can be. Yet the editor
of the " Round Table " picks one out of the three
story-tellers as the one Plagiarist trivoluminous

I think the circumstance, apparently irrelevant,
that I am sueing this editor for :defamation, has
something to do with this droll selection. He has
a mind to show one there are such things as impe-
nitent liars as well as impenitent thieves. My
Attorney shall give him a pinch for stale news.
Let me add that to plagiarize is to borrow from
a homogeneous, not from a heterogeneous, source.
When an artist of fiction clothes with flesh and
vitality the dry bones of a State Trial, this is not to
plagiarize. Dramas and Tales that are, and will
long remain, the delight and wonder of the world,
have been so based on histories, biographies,
chronicles, and other records, indeed the more we
scrutinize the origin of lasting works, the more we
shall incline to say with the naturalists, omne vivant
ex ovo. —I am, sir, your faithful servant,

CHARLES READE.

The Mildness of the Season.

We are accustomed throughout every winter to
receive verbal or written assurances, and occasion-
ally ocular demonstration of the extreme mildness
of the weather, although even at the time it may be
necessary to walk at a brisk pace and be well muffled
up to secure a comfortable degree of heat out of
doors. In point of fact these illustrations of the
so-called " mildness of the season" are in nine cases
out of ten mere indications that at this or that par-
ticular spot there is an abnormal growth of fruit or
flowers arising from the shelter which the confor-
mation of the ground or some other circumstance
affords to vegetable life. This season, however, ap-
pears to be an exceptional one. Octogenarians
assure us that never within their experience have
they known the months of October, November,
and December to be free from frost, and though
the weather, as a rule, has been far from agreeable
or clement, and although the average temperature
has perhaps been low, in every direction there seems
to be a profusion of blossoms, flowers, or fruit,
which is quite ,out of keeping with the old notions
of Christmas weather. Most striking among the
many illustrations of this which have lately come
before us is a package of ripe strawberries, black-
berries, and full-blown flowers which we received
yesterday, and which were picked on the previous
day, not on the sunny southern coast of Devon, but
on the northern side of Dartmoor, and at a high
level. Large red, wild strawberries have of late
been frequently picked in the open air at Crediton,
but at North Tawton, whence comes the " basket
of summer fruit" to which we have referred, it Is
indeed astonishing to find such a profusion of vege-
table growth, six or seven species of which generally
bloom at the earliest in May. We have also re-
ceived some fine and thoroughly ripe grapes, grown
in the open air at Crediton, and picked on Monday
last to grace the dessert of a gentleman of that
town, and in the Crediton churchyard is a summer
rose in full bloom ; a second crop of blackberries is
to be observed in many adjacent hedges. Coming
nearer home, we learn that a pear tree has lately
blossomed in a garden attached to the Plymouth
workhouse. If these be the results of such disagree-
able and apparently cold weather as has been ex-
perienced this year, who can wonder that the people
of Mexico get three crops of blackberries a season ?
—Western Morning News.

The Right Hon. Earl Grosvenor, M.P., bits
kindly consented to take the chair at the anniversary
dinner of the Great Northern Hospital, Caledonian-road,
N., to be held in .the spring. The committee intend
trebling the number of beds, and are liable for £7,000 to
complete the purchase and furnishing of the new hospital.
Additional wards will be opened as soon as the funds War"
rant the committee in doing so.
ANOTHER PROTEST AGAINST TRADES' UNIONS.--"
The protest of the Staveley colliers against the despotic
regulations of tho Trades' Unions has been followed by 3
similar demonstration of feeling on the part of the non"
unionists in the employ of the colliery company at Huck-
nall-Torkard, near Nottingham. At a meeting, which wag
well attended by the colliers, including many who had
seceded from the Union and have now returned t°
their employment, Mr. Walker, one of the proprietors of
the colliery, presided, and delivered a good practical speech
on the differences which had existed between masters and
men, pointing out the mischievous consequences resulting
from the principles upon which the Union is conducted,
and promising every necessary protection to those no'
unionists who were willing to resume work, but who were
deterred by the intimidation of the members of the Trades
Unions. After other speeches to the same effect by Mr. J.
E. Ellis, Mr. Buckby, and Mr. Ward, it was unanimously
resolved—" That this meeting is firmly convinced that the
Union agitation is opposed to the real interests of the
workmen, and, as an assembly of non-unionists, pledges
itself to support its employers, satisfied that, their interests
being identical, the only sound state of things is wher°,,
perfect confidence and good feeling exist between their'
The meeting was also addressed in sensible speeches hi
several of the older hands of the colliery in support of the
above views. A society for the relief of the workmen t°
cases of sickness was established, and tho most satisfactory
feeling prevailed throughout the proceedings, which Wel.°
very unanimous.

A stained glass window has been erected in
Kingsworthy Church, Hampshire, to the memory of the
late Lord Northbrook. The following is the inscription
This window is dedicated by the people of Kingsworthy
to the memory of the Right Hon. Francis Thornhill, 11'4
Lord Northbrook, of Stratton, in grateful acknowledgment
of his generous benefactions in the parish, and in the 110Pe
of perpetuating the influence of his pious and beneficent,
example. He was born April 20, 1796, and died Sept. 67
1866."

LARGE CATCH OF HERRINGS AT PLYMOUTH•'"
Within the last few days a very large quantity of herrings
have been taken on the Plymouth fishing grounds. 1111°
fish are in fine condition, and have, in addition to the re-
tail sale in the locality, mot with a rapid disposal f6'.r
transport to the neighbouring towns, and to the metropolls
and midland districts. During the last three days 250 toile
of the herrings have left Plymouth per railway. Along
the west coast of Cornwall the catch of herrings has beo3
very limited ; so much so that large consignments of the
fish have been forwarded from Plymouth to Penzance for
curing.