The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-18 00:00:00

•
Montechiaro, Solferino, and other battlefielai from
this to Pesehiera, is but-. too painfully' striking to
the troops, who at* any time toil or have toiled to
wrest Italy from the hands of the Austrians. . The
peasant of Mantua, like him 'of Verona, is only
aware that his destiny is to be trodden on. All his
ingenUity is absorbed by the solution of the great
problem how far he may escape military outrage
and spoliation by a variety of crafty devices. .He
has stifled all . sympathy in his heart. He bows
as lowly to friend as to foe ; :curses both as deeply ;
avenges himself on both as. avagely if .a
good op-
portunity offers itself. There is a look of fiendish
malignity in his countenance as he closes-his door
against the soldier half killed with fatigue,-hunger,
and thirst, with his stereotyped, inexorable impas-
sible " Caro, no ho niente ." (Dear . friend, there
is nothing for you here.) He knows his well-stored
larder and cellar are safely walled up. He feels
sure the French and Piedmont,ese Allies will not,
like the Austrians, resort to the flat of their broad-
swords or the butt•end of their rifles to bring out
plenty in the alleged land of famine. He is aware
they will pass his inhospitable door with .a look
of scorn or a good round oath, which, after all,
breaks no mans bones. He chuckles in his heart
as he sees them go past the wicket of his
orchard and the corner of his hedge. Let
them tramp on and drop ! He will have none
of the coins they hold out so temptingly before
his eyes ; corn and wine are now worth more
than all the gold in the world ; and when the bully
Austrian comes back—the boor never says " if".—
for he thinks Austria has pledged her soul to the
great enemy to riold Italy, or at least her. :own part
of Italy, in perpetual fee—when the Austrian comes
back he will be able to say that the invader found
neither rest nor refreshment under his roof, and
this passive proof of his allegiance may perhaps
lighten, if not wholly avert, the burden of the
oppressor's dread displeasure.
Not so the Brescian or Bergamasque. He is tall,
stalwart, and daring—passionately addicted to field-
sports, fond of his gun whenever allowed the use
of it. He joins the deliverer of his country as soon
as he sees a chance ; at any rate he opens his hand
and house, make& the tired soldier welcome to all
his supply can afford, regardless of the consequences
of a reverse of fortune ; he is trusty and sanguine,
ready to stake his property on a cause on which his
guest ventures his life. He crowds his house with
the military ; bids his good wife and daughter wait
upon them ; shrinks from no demand on his cattle,
his horses, and waggons ; he will walk 10 miles
when asked to show the way for 10 paces. No
arrogance or peevishness of the soldier disheartens
or irritates him. He makes allowance for hard-
ships and sufferings. Himself hot-blooded and
impetuous, he makes himself as mild as a lamb to
soothe the impatient private, who often requites
him with ill-usage. ,
What the Brescian character is in the country,
that it is in the town. Everybody's business here
is simply to wait upon us. A military costume is a
passport to the reading-rooms and to all public and
private establishments. At the cafe, at the theatre,
every civilian gives up the best place to the officer.
It is the case of Cedant arena togis reversed. The
feeling which prompts all this kind attention is by
no means mere courtesy. Brescia has more than
30 hospitals, large and small, public and private
establishments. It has solicited the hardest work,
has volunteered to bear the heaviest expense in
behalf of the sick and wounded, and has looked
with jealousy upon any ambulance waggon driving
on to other places. Big Brescian heart !it would
have all the deeds of charity to itself ; and it is
that same brave heart that rose like a tiger's on
the first report of Charles Albert's second campaign
of 1849—alone it rose out of all the sluggish cities
of. Lombardy. It rose against its Austrian garrison ;
it crushed the strong and spared the weak. It
held out.for three days against the whole might of
an army, long after the route of Novara had extin-
guished all hope, and fell helpless into the hands
of Haynau, who had fiedibefore the strong, and now
wreaked his long revenge on the weak.

RN.EB4S SHEEP AND WOOL FAIR.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
Our annual Sheep and Wool Market—so-impor-
tant to the whole northern counties—commenced
nominally on Thursday and closed this evening.
The attendance was larger than that of last year.
In addition to our old friends from Lancashire,
Cumberland, and the South of Scotland, many new
purchasers appeared, while tenant-farmers from all
parts of the Highlands, Caithness, and the Eastern
Counties, were present. Few proprietors attend the
market—a circumstance to be regretted, for 'the
mingling of-landlords and tenar.ts on occasions of
this kind, could not but prove advantageus to
both.

The state of the weather and conditifin of the
crops: -exercise, of course, great—inffueii6e-lin this
market. There is still a want of rain 1 .but the
improvement of the crops since the beginning of
the month is very remarkabable. No doubt they
look their best just now, and when they begin to
ripen the effects- of the drought will be more evi-
d:mt in the deficiency of bulk, but upon the whole
the harvest prospect has greatly brighteued. Grass
is also freshened up. and the aftermaths promise
by their luxuriance to compensate in some degree
the extreme poverty of the hay-crop. The turnip
crop generally suffered much from drought and in
some places from high winds ; but it is mending,
and the later sown fields particularly are as forward
in this district as they were last year.
In addition to these rural prospects, the state of
trade generally throughout the kingdom has an
important bearing on the market. This is highly
satisfactory. The manufacturing districts are fully
employed, and the excellence of our trade has been
stimulated by the' prospect of peace. Hence wool
has greatly advanced in value. The late wool sales
established a rise previous to the peace, and the ad-
vance has been greatly increased by that fortunate
event. Dealers would have advanced more freely
for sheep had it not been for the indifferent promise
of the turnip crop, of which, however, fully enough
has been made by the buyers. It is generally
allowed that but for this cause the prospects of the
sheep trade never appeared better. The stability
of the present vigorous state of commercial matters
is confidently relied upon, and the ease in the money
market is held to support the idea even of a consi-
derable improvement.
In discussing these questions our friends at the
market spent most of Thursday and Friday. In
no former year was there less business done up to
Friday evening. Buyers and sellers could not ap-
proximate, and the market has been emphatically a
stiff one. But we are happy to say it has also
proved a good market. On Cheviot wool theadvance
over last year's prices is from ss. to 7s. per stone—
in some cases still more. Blackfaced wool was less
in demand. The market at Fort-William, next
week, is generally the best field 'for the disposal of
the blackfaced clips and stock, and hence sales were
hasnot pressednetkept
pl
here.its
Wac
ree bieelitehvee the
manufacturing bac kface. d
Ns
wool
dis-
tricts so well as the Cheviot. Formerly
higher
in proportion than the Cheviot ; but ' t
v
largely used in the carpet trade,
and sold
it is now only
wools
used in the worsted manufacture, asforeign
—lndian, Russia, &c.—can be obtained at lower
rates. In sheep the results of the market have been
a slight reduction from last year's prices on wed-
ders, in consequence of the uncertain prospect of
the turnips, though in several instances last year's
prices were maintained, and in a few an advance
of ls. took place—On ewes and lambs there has been
arise of from ls. to 2s. Some of the principal lots
of wedders are unsold, but on the whole a great
amount of business has been done. In wool the
demand hes gone on increasing all day, the price
afternoonh soldlas t
at
yt ea2r2sa.t
aln6ds.
2p3esr.
sa tdovnaen, csionlgd. readily ths hhi
The finer fleeces went at prices varying from 225.
to 245. 6d., and in one instance, it is said 255. was
obtained.

A large THE DINNER—FRIDAY.
tim
party, numbering upwards of 120 gen-
en, dined together at the Ordinary in the Ca-
ledonian Hotel. Mr. Macdonell of Morar officiated
in the chair, and the occupiers were Mr. Macleod,
Kingsburgh ; Captain Macleod of Orbost, and Mr.
Houston, Kintradwell. Mr. Spinks provided an ex-
cellent dinner, after which the cloth was removed,
and the company proceeded to what may be de-
scribed as the business of the dinner.

DEPARTURE OF IRISH NUNS FOR AUSTRALIA..."
Eight ladies of the Westport branch of the Order of Mercy
left Baggot-street Convent on the Ist of this month for
Liverpool, where, on their arrival, they remained in. St.
Mary's Convent of Mercy until Wednesday, the 6th, when
they sailed in the Saldanha for Sydney, there to found
order.—
Freeman's schools, &c., in connection with their
Journal.
OCCURRENCEPEFTTEIA.CROATLANE..
caused in the
before 12 o'clock, considerable excitement
forenoon,AMONGST
e PETTICOAT-LANE.—Yesterday er d ay
--e of the following
Cutler-street, Houndsditch, in con?'
vicinity of the Jews' Clothes Exchange, ,ceßarnes,passage,
alluded to were taken
of the houses in the passage beforeio the basement was used by
down, and the ground floor . wa tTasliacaEfeu JEWS
: minutes
occurrence :—lt appelred that some time back three or four
the members of the
As was usual on the Flun-
Hebrew persuasion as an exchangn for
the sale of old wearing apparel.
packed with human. beings
articlesflooring
of clohing. Whilst so en d
buying or selling
a large piece of flooring gave way, day morning
we. and those whog were
8 ding upon it were precipitated in a body to the ground
this was
beneath, a depth of nine or ten feet. The scene for a mo-
ment or two became one of great excitement, for the
screams of those who had been precipitated below an& the
cries of those on the stage were so loud as to induce many
to believe that a fearful sacrifice of life had taken place. A.
number of the City police, under Mr. Inspector Mitchell,
With a great many of the neighbours, hastened to the apot,
and they were fortunately euab) ed to extricate the who le of
the endangered persons.