The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-12 00:00:00

of the . perversion of the sense of my despatch, to Lir TEb- I
which its publication had led, and, secondly, of
the breach of faith in omitting its confidential
character, which destroyed in that quarter
ono's public utility. In proof of this," adds Lord
NORMANBY, "circumstances having afterwards in-
duced the Government to wish to have some confi-
dential communication with the Papal Nuncio at
Paris, at the time of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill,
Monsignore FORNARI declined to have any confi-
dential communication with me, on the ground that
his private conversation with me had been published
to the world, and upon them had been founded an
erroneous impression as to the acts of his Govern-
ment. Such," observes the, noble marquess in con-
clusion, "such are the mortifications to which
English agents may be exposed when serving a
Government which perverts private diplomatic com-
munications to serve diplomatic purposes." Alto-
gether, we cannot but deem this a very opportune
revelation of the darker under-currents of dip-
lomacy in a Whig Government ! It reminds one
of that suppressed Indian despatch that was whis-
pered about together, not so very long ago, between
Lord What's-his-Name (Mr. SMITH that was yes-
terday) and the present chivalrous Prime Minister
of England the Lord Viscount PALMERSTON.

T NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

TURIN, SATURDAY•

The Austrian letter of invitation to the Congress,
signed by Count Rechberg, has valved, and is
couched in the same terms as that of France to
Piedmont..

FLORENCE, DEC. 10.

The Provisional Government has, by allowing a
discount, collected in advance the land-tax for 1860,
amounting to between six and seven millions of
francs.

PARIS, SATURDAY.

The Council of State is preparing a project of law
reducing the customs duties, more especially on
articles of primary necessity.
Marshal Randon, the Minister of War, has, it is
said, tendered his resignation.

DRESDEN, SATURDAY.

A telegram from Frankfort, published by the
Dresden Journal, says :—" In to-day's sitting of
the Federal Diet, the committee on the affairs of
Electoral Hesse was increased by the appointment
of representatives of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, and
Saxony."

THE HEART'S CIZARITT.

(From Me Odd-Fellows' Magazine.)
IVY ELIZ4 COOL
A nice man walk'd abroad one day
And a poor man walk'd the self same way ;
Whet► a pale and a starving face came by
With a palid lip and a hopeless eye :
And that starving face presumed to stand
And ask for bread from the rich man's hand;
But the rich man sullenly look'd askance,
With a gathering frown and a doubtful glance,
" I have nothing," said he, " to give to you,
Nor any such rogue of a canting:crew.
Ge stork, get work I I know full well
The whining lies that beggars can tell."
And he fastened his pocket and on he went,
With his soul untouch'd and his Wisdom content.

• MADRID, DEC. 10.
The following despatch has been published
CAMP, ELOTTRO, Dec. 9, Evening.

This morning the enemy impetuously attacked
our redoubts, but were energetically repulsed by
the garrison, and retired to the valley commanded
by these redoubts.

RUSSIA.

The enemy then came up again, but were at-
tacked and repulsed by 10,000 men of the second
corps, serving as our vanguard.
The Moors lost 300 killed and 1,000 wounded;
the approximate loss of the Spanish was 30 officers
and 280 men wounded, and 40 killed.

Now, this great owner of golden store
Had built a church not long before,
As noble a fane as man could raise ;
And the world had given him thanks and praise ;
And all who beheld it, lavished fame
On his Christian gift and his godly name.
The poor man pass'd,—and the white lips dared
To ask him if a mite could be spared.
The poor man gazed on the beggar's cheek,
And saw what the white lips could not speak.
He stood for a‘moment, but not to pause
On the truth of the tale or the parish laws ;
He was seeking to give—though it was but small,
For a penny, a single penny, was all :
But he gave it with a kindly word,
While the warmest pulse of his breast was stirred.
'Twas a tiny seed his Charity shed,
But the white lips got a taste of bread ;
And the beggar's blessing hallow'd the crust,
That came like a spring in the desert dust.
The rich man and the poor man died,
As all of us must,—and they both were tried
At the sacred Judgment seat above,
For their thoughts of evil, and deods of love.
The balance of Justice there was true ;
Fairly bestowing what fairly was duo ;
And the two flash-comers through Heaven's gat e
Stood there to learn their eternal fate.
The recording angels told of things
That fitted !hem both with kindred wings ;
But, as they stood in the crystal light,
The plumes of the rich man grew loss bright.
The angels knew by that shadowy sign,
That the poor man's work had been most divine ;
And they brought the unerring scales to sea
Where the rich man's falling-off could be.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SUNDAY.

The sailing frigate Forte quitted Cherbourg on
the 7th inst. for China, with 400 men of the Ist
Regiment of Marines, and 200 seamen drilled to the
use of the musket. The Andromaque, Vengeance,
and Perseverante had previously sailed with an
equal number of soldiers and seamen. The only
ship now to sail for China from the ocean ports is
the screw steamer Rhone, which is at Brest, and
has on board the 2d battalion of Riflemen. It is
expected that the Rhotfe will sailsimmedlately.
The Emperor having been informed that 800 men
had been embarked on board a frigate for China,
saw that the frigate must be inconveniently crowded
and ordered that a steamer should be at once de-
spatched from Toulon to bring her back, in order
that the men might be sent in detachments of 400
each. No French newspaper has, I believe, alluded
to the fact. Is this silence a proof of the liberty of
the French press, that no one ventures to mention a
fact which redounds to the praise of the Emperor,
lest it might be considered as implying blame to the
Minister of Marine, and which perhaps would be
followed by an avertissement ?
A letter from St. Petersburg of the 3d inst. men-
tions that Count Maarawiew-Amourski, Governor-
General of Siberia, has paid a visit to Jeddo, the
capital of Japan, with a squadron composed of 12
vessels of the Russian Imperial navy, viz.,—the
frigate Askold, bearing the Governor's flag ; the
corvettes Binder, Gridene, Waiowada, Nowik,
Boiarine; clippers Plastonne, Djignitte, Opzitohnik '
transports Yapouez, `Vostok, and the steam corvette
Amerika. It is added, that so large a foreign fleet
was never before seen at the capital of Japan, and
that it produced a profound sensation there.
THE BOURSE, Dec. 10.—Large sales have con-

Full many deeds did the angels weigh,
But the balance kept an even sway ;
And at last the church endowment laid,
With its thousands promised, and its thousands paid
With the thanks of prelates by its side,
in the stately words of pious pride ;
And it weighed so much that the angels stood
To see how the poor man could balance such good :
When a cherub came, and took his place
By the empty scale, with radiant grace ;
And he dropp'd the penny that had fed
White, starving lips with a crust of bread.
The church endowment went up with the beam,
And the whisper of the Groat Supreme,
As he beckon'd the poor man to his throne,
Was heard in this immortal tone—
" Blessed are they who from great gain
Give thou Sands with a reasoning brain ;
Bat holier still shall be his part
Who gives one coin with a pitying heart 1"

tinued throughout the day for realisation of profits,
and the prices were rather lower. Threes, after
having been done at 70f. 45c., declined to 70f. 25e.
Mobilier varied from 845 f. to 833 f. 75c. ; Austrian,
774 f. 25c. to 772 f, ; Lombard, 772 f. 50c. to 770 f. ;

Orleans, 1,435 f. to 1,425 f.; Lyons, 942 f. 50c. to
035 f. ; Northern, 982 f. 50c. to 977 f. 50c. ; Southern,
540 f. to 535 f. The following were the last quo-

,ations

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge has
returned to St. James's Palace from visiting the Earl and
Countess of Derby, at Knowsley, Lancashire.
The Princess Gagarine has taken her departure
from the Brunswick, Jermyn-street, for Paris,
His Excellency the Count Lavradio has left the
Portuguese Legation for Trentham, on a visit to the Duke
and Duchess of Sutherland.
Viscount Palmerston left London on Saturday
Dar Brighton. his lordship returns to town to-day.
Sir R. Peel, Bart., arrived in Whitehall-gardens
on Saturday from Drayton Manor, Staffordshire. Sir
Robert leaves early in the week for the. Continent.
THE ORDER OF THE GARTER.—The death of
Earl De Grey would, under ordinary circumstances, have
placed a Blue Riband at the disposal of her Majesty; but
in consequence of the gracious gift of an extra Garter by
the Queen to Lord Derby, he will now occupy the vacant
stall in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, and the ordinary
knights—subjects of the Crown—will stand at the usual
number, and the present vacancy will not be filled up.
REPRESENTATION OF READING.—The elevation
of Sir Henry Singer Keating to the judicial bench creates a
vacancy in the representation of Reading. Up to Satur-
day evening no address had appeared, but it is confidently
stated that Sir Francis F. Goldsmid, Bart. (who issued an
address to the electors some months since, in anticipation
of Sir Henry's acceptance of a judgeship), will be the can-
didate on the Liberal interest, and Mr. Benson, it is anti-
cipated, will again seek the suffrages of the electors, so that,
in all probability, there will bo a severe contest.
SIGNOR GIUGLINI IN• PARIS.—The) numerous
admirers of Signor Giuglini in this country, where at Her
Majesty's Theatre he first acquired a great reputation, will
doubtless be pleased to hear of his new and triumphant
success with the difficult public of Paris. Signor Giuglini
made his debut at the Italians on Saturday evening as
Manrico in " II Trovatore," and was received from lint to
last with enthusiastic applause. The grand air and the
missrere scene (" Ah :.die la more") were both rapturously
redemanded ; and the eminent singer was further honoured
with numerous recalls.
PENSIONS ON THE CIVIL LIST.—The Queen has
granted a pension of £l5O a-year out of the civil list pen.
sions to the daughters of Frederick Cort, whose inventions
in the manufacture of iron have contributed so much to the
prosperity of the trade, while his family have been left in
deep distress. The Family of Dr. Lardner.—The Queen
has also been pleased to grant a pension on the civil list of
£12.5 a .year to the sisters of the late Dr. Dionysius Lard-
ner, whose contributions to' science are so well known.
CARDINAL WHENIAN.—With reference to the
duration of Cardinal Wiseman'a sojourn in Rome, it is
stated in the Freenian's Journal that a general impression
prevails that his Eminence is not likely, to return to Eng-
land as a permanent place of residence. The state of the
Cardinal's health (making a sojeurn in a mild climate ab-
solutely necessary) and other circumstances will, in all
probability, induce his Eminence to select Rome as -the
scene of his future ;labours. The Cardinal has delegated
all his powers to the Rov: Dr. Hearn, of the Church of the
Assumption, Warwick-stfeet, who is Vicar-General of the
diocese.
Tire British Government lately sent a traction
locomotive engine to the Viceroy of Egypt. After receiv-
ing it, Said Pacha ordered the engineer to get up steam,
and had the half-dozen carriages of the personages attend-
ing and his own attached td it •, then requesting them to
get into their carriages, ho started off with them—the loco-
motive at full speed—to the great dismay of its unwilling
passengers. They thus passed through the principal streets
of Cairo to the great amazement of its Arab inhabitants,
and through the Esbequoh, or Grand-place, on the way to
the Palace of Kamer-el-Nil. The Europeans collected in
front of Sheppard's Hotel to witness the scene were highly
amused at thia novel passen'epassengertrain, thus exhibited through
the city of the Kaleefs, in the suite of its present ruler.
But. Said Paella is notoriously fond of a practical joke.
"It is in contemplation," says the Algeria
Nouvelle, ".to 'fortify the ports of Algeria, and from 12 to
14 millions are to be devoted -to the purpose. The Govern-
ment is said to have fixed on the roadstead of Bugle as the
point of concentration for the French squadrons on the
northern coast of Africa, and the vessels which may be
lying there in a well-sheltered anchorage will be protected
by several strong forts. Algiers, Philippevilc, and Bona
are also to be fortified."
The Journal de Geneve of the sth contains the
following :—A dreadful accident occurred last evening
at Laney. A. ball was oiven at a wealthy inhabitant's,
and just before dancing 'began the fire in the room woi
carefully covered up with ashes to prevent the place
from becoming too hot The first quadrille was over,
and a waltz , was about to commence, when a young
lady, in passing before the fireplace, must have brought
her muslin dress in contact with the embers, for it
caught fire, and she was at once in flames from head to
foot. She rushed into the middle of the room, and several
of the ladies endeavoured to extinguish the flames, but in so
doing they set themselves on fire. In an instant five of them
wore in flames. In three cases the fire was extinguished,
but three others were most seriously injured, and tears
were at first entertained that the result would be fatal.
Happily the remedies applied have proved effectual, and
now they are out of all clanger."

41 per Cents. 96 75 i Credit Foncier.... 710
Do. end month:, ——l Belgian 4i . 99 50
3 per Cents 7O 20 Piedmontese (5) ..
Do. end month 7O 50 Roman B4
Bank Shares — Austrian
Credit Mobilier .. 850 Spanish Threes
Do. Account

MI SUN, LONDOIVi MODDAY gVENIN% DECEMBER 12, 18594

NEW MUSIC.

Austrian Government, it could not refrain
from observing, that if Paragraph 4 of the
supplementary Press Law should be strictly up-1 The Flower Queen. Vase a deux Temps. By
held, " a paper could publish hardly anything. Frederic de Bernhardt.
without being in danger of punishment." Fortu-
nately for Government, paragraph 4 cannot be car- 1
ried out, as it is so loosely worded that the judges ?
are unable exactly to understand its sense; As half-
a-dozen papers have received warnings during the
last three or four days, it is probable that the Go-
vernment will hold its hand for a time, as it must
know that the line which separates the serious from
the ridiculous is a very narrow one. The Imperial
Government thinks of proceeding against the 140
persons who signed the liwsmark protest against
the Imperial Patent of September Ist, so that there
is likely to be a "monster process" in Hungary.
The man who printed the protest—the Hungarians
call it a " petition"—was sentenced to imprison-
ment for 30 days, or a fine of 150f1. The pay-
ment of the money was at once offered by some
Hungarian patriots, but the printer declared that he
wished to be locked up "for having done his duty
to his country." It strikes me that it is unwise of
Government to proceed against the Kwsmark Pro-
testants, as it will be at a loss to know what to do
with them if they are convicted. The Hungarians
are in a state of great excitement, and one false step
on the part of Government might bring about a
conflict, which would lead to a regular Hungarian
question. It affords me pleasure to be able to in-
form you that the Minister of the Interior has in-
formed the Saxon Protestants in Transylvania, that
they are at liberty to dedicate 50,000f1., their an-
nual contribution to the provincial treasury, to the
improvement of their schools. "If there is money
enough in the. Treasury" the arrears due since the
year 1851 arc also to be paid up. It is said that the
taxes are to be raised in all the provinces, but the
report can hardly be true, as the Hungarian!,, Croats,
&e.,.are unable to pay the taxes already imposed.

Bouton de Bose Quadrilles. By Frederic de Bern-

hardt.
Evans and Co., 77, Baker-street, Portman-square.
Monsieur Frederic de Bernhardt, the composer
of these two very charming productions, has not
only evidenced throughout them both his mastery
of the science of musical composition, but he has
revealed in each that rarest gift of, all for the
musician—the gift of melody. This is particularly
observable in the " Valse a deux temps," though it
is noticeable also in a lesser degree in parts of the
graceful Rosebud Quadrilles. Danced to, as the
Flower Queen 'Waltz will doubtless be, during the
present and coming season in many a ball-room of
Mayfair and Belgravia, the delicate melody which
is its theme will harnit the memory of many a light-
footed sylph in crinoline long after she has ceased
her gyrations to its harmonious measure. The
composer's success, here, in dance-music, is such to
our thinking, is so daintily refreshing in originality,
that we shall hope to have an opportunity of recog-
nising M. de Bernhardt's ability as a melodist in
the production of a ballad or love-song, a branch
of his high art in which we conceive- him to be
naturally qualified to excel—estimating his qualifi-
cations, though w e do at the present moment, merely
throUgh the graceful medium of this " Flower
Queen Waltz" and these " Bouton de Rose Quad-
rilles." 4 rivederla !

LITE.R.ATURIL

Life in Spain. By Walter Thornbury, author o
" Art and Nature," &o. 2 vols. Smith and
Elder,
Two volumes of travels in such a romantic
locality, sketched by the brilliant and facile pen of
the author of " Shakespeare's England,' " Art and
Nature," and many another contribution to the
literature of the day, will probably attract many,
readers. The work consists of a series of papers
which orignally appeared in " Household Words,"
enlarged and added to. While we can trace some
of the diffuseness and carelessness of style to which
such a method of writing naturally gives rise, we
can discover more vivacity and entertainment than
are often encountered in more serious and solid re-
' eords. The volumes are lively, varied, and full of
animation, telling the author's impressions in a free
careless manner, as though he were giving, viva
voce, on his return, an account of his adventures to
some enquiring friend. He troubles himself but
little about the intrigues of the Court or the cabals
of the politician, the errors of the Government or
the state of the national finances. All such subjects
he leaves in silence and obscurity, at once merciful
to his late hosts and to his English reader. He
would not be a trustworthy teller of travellers' tales,
however, if he returned from Spain without glean-
ing anything about the two national institutions
of the Inquisition and the bull fight. Accordingly,
wehave a thrilling account of the one, drawn from a
rare old Spanish volume, the work of one of the
sufferers ; and a vivid picture of the other, taken
from the writer's own experience. The verdict
pronounced on both is one which most of us will
subscribe to—that the Inquisition is a compound of
tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty, diametrically op-
posed to the great principles of Christianity ; and
the bull fight a ferocious and barbarous sport, de-
teriorating to the national character of the people
who so frequently witness it; The visit to the
Spanish wine merchant is amusingly told, and tells
some truths very disagreeable to the purchasers
of cheap sherry:—
"In XereS there were five hundred thousand arrobas of
wine—thirty 'of which went to a beta (butt)—made an-
nually. This =de thirty-four thousand butts, nine thou-
sand of which were of first quality. Sherry is too strong
and too dear for Spaniards, and too feverish for the climate.
The best is, in Xeres, a dollar a bottle. The best in the
bodega is worth from fifty to eighty guineas a' butt ; and
after insurance, freight, and sale charges, it stands the im-
porter in from one hundred to one hundred and thirty
guineas before it reaches his cellar (say) in Belgrave-
square.
" ' How many gallons in the butt, Don Sanchez ?'
" ' About one hundred and twelve. This will bottle into
about fifty-two dozen, and the duty is five shillings and six-
pence the gallon. So you may form your own opinion
about cheap London sherries, which are generally very
' curious' indeed—mere doctors' draughts, in fact, made up
according to certain swindling prescriptions.'
" Hero was a blow for my old friend Binns, who opens a'
bottle of forty-eight shilling sherry with the air of an anti-
quarian unswathing a mummy Pharaoh. Thought I, the
next time the deluded man points to the oily stickiness of
his glass, I will leap up, seize him by the white cravat, and
say in a hollow voice :
' Binns I you are the victim of a life-leng delusion ;
that stuff you drink, you think is the juice of Spanish
grapes, plucked by men playing guitars, and smoking
cigars ; you call it, in poetical moments, bottled sunlight,
sunfire, and so on—bah it (after the manner of Napoleon)
it is only a chemical compound made up of drugs and infu-
sion.* like Daffy's elixir or James's powder. It is cooked
up with boiled, treacly wine, and brandy. It is a compound
mixed with a dozen barrels, and made to order for a parti-
Cular market. If the vines of Xeres grew till they got
black in theface, Einns, they could not yield wine like your
forty-eight shilling sherry.' • .
"The Don laughed, and said that certainly the sherry
wine district was very small ; not more than twelve miles
square. Therefore, it could not yield honest wine enough
even for half London. The sherry grape grew only on cer-
tain low, chalky hills, where, the earth being light-coloured,
is not so much burnt—did not chap and split so much by the
sun, as darker and ,heavier soils do. A mile beyond those
hills, the grapes deteriorate. The older the plants the
better, but the fewer the grapes."
Another amusing chapter is that on Spanish pro-
verbs. We subjoin the introductory passage :
" The Spanish proverbs, the floating literature of Spain,
handed down by verbal tradition, smell of garlic and orange
peel, and are as profoundly national as the English nauti-
cal song or the Welsh triad.
"They are shot at you, or stabbed into you, or pelted at
you, at every tavern door and at every table d'hote. They
are the grace for the sour gaspacho and the unsavoury salt
cod-fish (bacalao). They aro the Spaniard's shield and stil-
letto. They are the wisdom of the age before books, and as
Spain changes no more than China, they aro the wisdom of
the present day. They are to the cigarette-smoker and
melon-eater what quotations are to the club man, and to the
debater in Parliament whom country gentlemen always
cheer when he quotes Horace—thinking it Greek, and to
show they understand him. To many wko do not think at
all they supply the place of books altogether, and are the
traditional Corpus Jurist of traditional wisdom bequeathed
them by their ancestors, who did think. It might bo a
question, indeed. worth the theorist-spinner's while to trace
the effect of these floating proverbs on a race to which they
serve as creeds, statutes, and guides of life; of which they
express the mode of thought, and, at the same time, influence
and direct it—moulding andtbein,g moulded. In these pro-
verbs we find every phase of the Spanish mind exemplified
—its ' pundonor,' its punctiliousness, its intolerable and
mean pride, its burning fever for revenge, its hardness, that
we, call cruelty, its love of ease and pleasure, its unprogres-
siveness, and its ardent religious instinct which degenerates
to superstition. For all those pleasant national vices that
brought their own special scourges, these proverbs 'have
warning or encouragement. Their kindlier feelings, too,
donot pass uninstanced. Proverbs with men are the small
change of wit ; but with the Spaniard they are too often his
whole mental capital. By an apt quotation a good memory
can always appear a genius in Spain ; and proverb-writers
being all anonymous when living and forgotten when dead,
there is no indictment in the High Court of Plagiarism
against the appropriator whole* off his mental firewor with-
out saying that he purchased it, but yet was not the maker.
When a man in England is witty wo suppose the wit is his
own ' • but when a Spaniard is witty in rolling diligence or
in striving steamboat, you may bo almost sure it is the
proverb osome contemporary of Cervantes, dead these two
hundred years, that tickles your diaphragm, and which you
swallow with a smile like a French sweetmeat. It acts as
a sort of mental snuff, pleasantly irritates, and leaves yon
refreshed. A man must be very mentally dyspeptic, indeed,
who cannotsligest a proverb without inconvenience or strug-
gle. If a Spaniard sees you smiling at a Spanish street•
group rather overdoing the bowing, as Spaniards sometimes
will, he will say in a rhyme, ' A civil tongue is not expen-
sive, and it is very profitable.' As the old Italians of Ma-
chiavelli's time used to say : ' It is a good outlay to spoil a
hat with often taking it off.' Von feel at once that you have
heard a shrewd proverb intended to explain to worldly
people the courtesy of a proud race."
The chapter on Spanish Ballads is decidedly infe-
rior to some of the others. It disappoints the reader,
who might have expected better things from the
author of " The Songs of the Cavaliers and Round-
heads," and the illustrations must certainly be of a
very different quality from the originals if the latter
have endured for so many centuries. But of the
author's prose there is little reason to complain. It is
true he gives us sometimes a more prominent impros-
sion of himself and his own doings than of the places
or people he is describing. Still the freshness and
vividness of the style will be pleasant to the reader
who is wearied with dry details and guide-books.
Occasionally the writer passes into a graver style,
and the chapter on the Spain of Cervantes is an
example of this manner. After remarking, as
none can fail to do, on the sudden and complete
decay of the Spanish power, he says :
" And now we know Spain only as a sluggard's garden of
a country, where men dance a good deal, stab a good deal,
and do a good deal on the guitar ; and from which we get
sherry (some of it), our nuts, oranges, inelons, and chesnuts.
We turn up our noses when we talk of it, and lament, with
insolent pity, its undeveloped resources, its bigoted religious
queen, its pride, its laziness, and its hopeless poverty.
• ' It might make the thoughtful man weep to take now
the map of Spain, and look at its choked-up harbours and
forsaken sea ; its ruined cities, its sluggish people, cagier
only for vice and folly, slow to work, and swift to stab. ro
see its plains of Paradise mouldering away into deserts, its
pastures cankering into barrenness, its mines unheeded, its
ports unused
,
from the trunk; the land that could produce all the trea-
sures of east and west, the wheat of Europe, the rice of
Asia, the sugar cane of South America, the palm tree of
Africa, now lying the dustheap of the nations ; the beggared,
despised, neglected, sightless country, ready, like a sick
sheep, to be torn in pieces by the first eagle that pounces on
it from the peak of the Pyrenees."
We must not omit to mention the tinted illustra-
tions, which add largely to the attractions of these
pleasant volumes.

The St. Petersburg Gazette publishes the fol-
lowin g speech from the Emperor Alexander to
the nobles of Pskoff on the 22d ult., on the occa-
sion of a general presentation of the nobility :
" I have long been anxious to visit you. The
nobility have always promptly responded to the
appeal of the Czar, and I have ever addressed them
with entire confidence. It was with the same con-
fidence that I appealed to you, gentlemen, in the
question of the peasants, and I thank you for having
responded with sympathy to my application. At pre-
sent that affair, with God's help, is drawing to a
close ; I hope you will await its conclusion with the
same confidence that I myself have shown in ap-
pealing to you, and with the full conviction that
this affair will be terminated to the common advan-
tage of both parties, in such a manner that the in-
terests of the nobles may be, as far as possible,
guaranteed, and that the condition of the peasants
at the same time will be really improved. I am
convinced that you will justify my confidence."
The next day, at the moment of leaving Pskoff,
when the marshals of the nobility presented them-
selves before his Majesty to thank him for having
been present at a ball given on the previous even-
ing, the Emperor addressed them as follows :—" I
thank you for your cordial reception, and I shall
remember with pleasure the agreeable evening I
passed with you. Remember, gentlemen, my words
of yesterday. lam convinced that you have confi-
dence in me, and I have equal trust in you. Be
assured that your interests are always near my
heart ; I hope that, by our common efforts, and
with God's help, we shall attain the end desired in
this matter, to the advantage of everybody. I pray
you to give no credit to reports spread abroad by
the evil-disposed, but confide in' me alone and in
my word."

THE GREAT EASTERN STEAM-SHIP.

The directors of the Great Ship Company have
rescinded the resolution to which they had come a
few days since, to call together the shareholders
on the 15th, and have postponed the holding of the
meeting until the 11th of January. The reason
assigned is that they would not then be able to
enter as fully into all matters connected with the
company as they would desire to do, owing to
the fact that the questions pending between the
contractor and the company are still under arbitra-
tion. An approximate statement of the liabilities
and assets of the company, identical with that which
would have been laid before the meeting, had it
been held, has been issued to the shareholders.
One of the objects which the meeting of the 15th
would have had to consider has been already dis-
posed of, arrangements having been entered into
for meeting all the engagements of the company as
they may fall due during the ensuing three months.
A sum of £40,000 has been borrowed by the direc-
tors, on the security of the ship, and this will be
sufficient to meet all existing liabilities. The diffi-
culty in which the company finds itself placed at
present arises from the liabilities for ship stores
and provisions which are still on hand. There is
an item of about £lO,OOO for coals, and £20,000 for
wines, spirits, &c., most of which are still on board.
Had the great ship gone on its voyage to America,
or made the trial trips, as originally projected, with
passengers on board, the receipts would of course
have come in aid of those liabilities. The balance of
£8,750 of temporary loans is covered by the ba-
lance at the banker's and the amount of arrears on
calls, all of which are considered good. The capital
of the company originally was £330,000, but of
this sum only £303,250 has been issued, leaving
£26,742 yet to be issued. These, at the present low
value of the shares, with the stores in hand, are
nearly equal to the amount of the liabilities. In
addition, however, to these items, a sum of £15,000
will be required to carry out all the requirements
of the Board of Trade, which include feed pumps
for the larger engines in substitution of the donkeys,
and some other arrangemnts. Whatever defi-
ciencies may be ultimately found by the arbitrators
to exist in the work performed by Mr. Scott Rus-
sell will, of course, have to beanade good by him,
and the company holds security of the contractor
to the amount of £25,000. The arbitrators meet
twice a week at the offices of Mr. Hawkshaw, and
an enormous amount of evidence has already been
given on both sides. The claim of the company,
as against Mr. Russell, is of a very large amount,
and it includes an item of £60,000 for losses sus-
tained by the company in consequence of the works
not having been completed in a propbr manner, and
thus preventing the ship from going to America at
the time originally specified. Had the ship made
the voyages expected all would have gone well, an
immense sum would have been received for visitors
and passengers, and the large amount of stores and
provisions which lie as dead weights upon the
concern would have been consumed, and paid for by
the recipts or earnings of the ship.

THE FOG YESTERDAY.-LOSS OF LIFE

The metropolis yesterday afternoon was enve-
loped in the most dense fog we have been visited
with since October, 1851 ; from half-past twelve at
noon until two o'clock the darkness was so intense
that it was dangerous to attempt crossing the car-
riage road.
In Newington-causeway, Mrs. Willott, with an
infant in her arms, was knocked down and run
over by an omnibus; the unfortunate woman .had
her arm broken, the child providentially escaping
any injury.
Several cases were brought into the hospitals,
owing to accidents which occurred to persons re-
turning from places of religious worship. Few,
hovveveti, wore serious. At half-past one o'clock the
darkness had attained its climax, and the lights in
Licensed Victuallers' and other shops, imperfectly
observable, only tended to render it more visible.
On the river the opacity of the atmosphere was
much mere dense, objects at a few yards' distance
not being discernible. The steam boat traffic for
nearly two hours was totally suspended, and the
large Continental, Scotch, and Irish screw and
paddle steamers were compelled to bring up at
Blackwall, in order to avoid the intricate naviga-
tion of the upper and lower pools. On the ebb tide
much damage was occasioned in spars and rigging.
by vessels dropping down and coming into colli-
sion with others in the tiers. At Blackfriars-
bridge, at the commencement of the fog on the pre-
ceding night, a man and a boy were drowned from
a barge: The bodies were not recovered at a late
hour last evening.

The Moniteur publishes the textuf a law which
the Legislature of the State a Louisiana passed on the Ist.
September, absolutely interdicting people of colour, not
born in the' State, to sojourn in the territory; declaring
that .a free coloured man on arriving in a port shall be put
in prison and be maintained there at the expense of the
captain bringing him ' • alss that if the free black shall
not consent to quit the State within a given period, he shall
be condemned to not less than three and not more than 12
months' imprisonment, and in the event of his coming a
second time, to five imprisonment. The law adds
that any plivate person or police officer arresting a free
black nia4ua Orleaus shall rmiyo a reward of 1,0 dollars,