The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-16 00:00:00

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THE

SUN,

LONDON WIONDAY EVENING,
The yearly comparison of weekly imports is as follows :
Beasts. Sheep. Lambs. Calves. Pigs.
1860 499 .. 3,702 .. 255 .. 59
1859 678 .. 3,424 141 .. 121
1858 655 .. 4,756 375 .. 48
1857 .. 318 .. 1,473 .. .. 195 ..
1856 485 1,193 .. 285 .. 12
855 783 .. 3,529 21

DECEMBER

16,

1861.

THE GREAT CHRISTMAS

detected. In one instance a small sample of iron of
about 2 inches square actually endured he strain of
64 tons, the ponderous chain of the hydraulic press
even snapping without any sign of a fracture to the
iron tested. So satisfactory were the trials consi-
dered that the officials of the dockyard who super.
intended them state that in all their experience they
never tested iron at all equal to that submitted to
trial on Saturday. There can be no doubt that the
Lords of the Admiralty will at once accept the offer
of Earl Dudley to supply the iron for the Achilles,
provided an agreement can be arrived at with re-
gard to the price.
It is stated that four 100-pounder Armstrong
guns will shortly be mounted at Great Yarmouth—
two at the north and two at the south battery.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander T. J. Young,
additional, to the Colossus, for service in the Coast-
guard ; N. G. Willoughby, midshipman, to the
Stromboli ; W. H. Adlam, second master, to the
Investigator; and S. S. Hall, master's assistant, to
the Swallow.

CATTLE MARKET.

Notwithstanding that the value of live stock has not
ruled so high during the greater portion of the present
year as in 1860, the exhibition of beasts here to-day, for
Christmas consumption, was unquestionably, taken as a
whole, the best on record. The great abundance of food in
most of our grazing districts, and the improved health of
the stock, compared with some previous years, has certainly
been in favour of a large show, both as respects number and
quality ; but we believe that fewer second-rate and inferior
animals were brought forward this morning than at the
corresponding period sines 1857. Owing, however, to the
immense number of young beasts, chiefly crosses, on
sale, some persons may be inclined to take exception
to these observations ; but it must be understood
that had it not been for a most extensive system of crossing
—so extensive, indeed, as almost to threaten the extinction
of some particular breeds—the consumptive demand of
the United Kingdom, even allowing a large margin for
importations from the continent, could not possibly have
been met by our graziers. Prices, therefore, would have
ruled very high—though stock would have been selling at
rates considerably above the views of cautious buyers—and
the result would have been highly prejudicial to the inte-
rests of a portion of the grazing community. We freely
admit that great caution is necessary how far the system of
crossing is further increased ; nevertheless, it is evident
that thus far it has proved highly beneficial to the
country generally. It is, however, surprising to find
beasts, only 15 or 16 months old, weighing from
110 to 120 stones, and of a quality not to be sur-
passed, even by the best Scots—we here allude more par-
ticularly to a portion of the supply from Scotland and Nor-
folk, but when we consider the high quotations realised for
them, we may congratulate the graziers upon the great
success of their efforts to meet the demand with a descrip-
tion of stock which has become highly valuable both to the
butchers and consumers. This success has naturally in-
duced breeders in nearly all parts of the kingdom to extend
their system of crossing ; hence, to-day, almost every
breed exhibited less distinctive features than hither-
to, and we may safely venture to assert that
there were fully 2,000 beasts on show, chiefly
crosses with short horns or Scots—possibly with Doyens or
Herefords.

COMPARISON OF TUE " GREAT DAYS."
A otatement and comparison of the supplies and prices of
fa,f, stock exhibited and sold in the great metropolitan
cat,`lo market, on Monday, Dec, 17, 1860,:and this day,
Monday, Dec. 16, 1861.
Per 81b, to sink the offal.
Dec. 17,
1860.
Coarse anal inferior beasts 3 4to 3 8
Second quality do 3lO 4 4
Prime large;oxen 4 6 5 0
Prime Scots, &c 5 2 5 4
Coarse and inferior sheep 3 8 310
Second quality do. .. 4 0 4 8
Prime coarse-woolled d 0..... 410 5 4
Prime Southdown do.
Lambs
Large coarse calves
Prime small do.
Large hogs
Neat smalliporkers 4 8 5 2
Beasts
Sheep and lambs.. 19,550
Calves
Pigs.,

Dec. 16,
1861.
3 4to 3 8
310 4 4
46 4 8
410 5 0
32 3 6
38 4 4
46 5 2
54 5 6
00 0 0
46 5 0
52 5 6
310 4 4
4 6 410
8,040
26,300
202
460

We may now offer a few observations in reference to the
pure breeds. In number, the shorthorns certainly stood
first. The quality of this particular stock is too well known
to require any lengthened comment from us ; but we may
state that the supply in this particular was a wonderful one,
though, at the same time, it must be admitted that the
enormous weight of some of the animals was against
what we should consider a full average price. As
regards the Devons, they were in quite their usual
force, and scarcely any of them were beneath really
fine quality. Possibly some few of them were of a
heavier weight than the general character of the
stock seems to warrant. The 40 North Devon oxen, fed
by Mr. Senior, of Broughton House, near Aylesbury,
were certainly remarkable animals. Some of them weighed
200 stones, and the whole changed hands at high rates.
There was a superb show of Herefords, but the number was
not quite equal to some former seasons. The Sussex beasts
were in considerable strength, but most of them were of an
age which told against their actual value. No doubt they
will die well, but butchers generally do not regard: six
and seven years' old bullocks with much favour in this age
of crossing. There were some very good Welsh runts in
the market, but long-horned stock was a very scarce
commodity. Quito the average number of Irish beasts
was brought forward, and in a comparative sense they were
mostly in prime condition. The arrivals from Scotland
were large, and of a quality seldom equalled ; indeed, our
improsssion is that the show of Scots was far superior to
last year. The finest portion of the supply comprised
the 36 Scots exhibited by Messrs. Maidwell and Hoyland,
and the six shown by Mr. John Lumsden, all the property
of Mr. John M'Combie, of Tillyfour. They were greatly
admired for their splendid symmetry, and the prices rea-
-1 lised were very high.

The following return shows the number of beasts exhi-
bited, and the prices realised for them on the great days in
the last 20 years :
Years. Beasts shown.
1841 .. 4,503
1842 .. 4,541
1843 .. 4,510
1844 .. 5,713
1845 .. 5,320
1846 .. 4,570
1847 .. 4,282
1848 .. 5,942
1849 .. 5,765
1850 .. 6,341
1851 .. 6,103
1852 .. 6,271
1853 .. 7,037
1854 .. 6,181
1855 .. 7,000
1856 .. 6,748
1857 .. 6,856
1858 .. 6,424
1859 .. 7,560
1860 .. 7,860

Prices.
• . 3s 8d to 5s 04
.. 3s 44 4s 8d
.. 2s 84 4s 44
• • 4s Oct 4s Gd
.. 3s 6d 4s 8d
.. 4s 04 5s 8d
.. 3s 44 4s 8d
3s 4d 4s 8d
.. 3s 4d 4s Gd
.. 3s Od 3s 104
.. 2s 8d 4s 2d
.. 2s 8d 4s Od
.. 3s 2d 4s 10d
38 6d 5s 4d
.. 3s 84 4s 2d
.. 3s 4d 5s Od
.. 3s 4d 4e 8d
.. 3s 44 5s Od
.. 3s Gd 58 4d
.. 3s 4d 5s 4d

On Mr. Giblett's stand we noticed some very fine Nor-
folk cattle, fed by Mr. G. Wortley and Mr. Robert Wortley.
Mr. Giblett had likewise on sale a large number of Scotch
beasts, forwarded by Messrs. Stewart, Martin, and Knowles,
of Aberdeen, and Mr. Maurice of Huntly.
Messrs. Morgan and Allday had a very good show of
stock, comprising Scots from Mr. Robert Leeds, and from
Messrs. Ruddick and Stodart. There were, likewise, some
very good Herefords on the stand.
Mr. Vorley had an unusually prime supply of beasts.
The short-horns forwarded by Mr, Cartwright, of Kirkby,
near Sleaford ; the Scots belonging to Mr. North, of Small-
borough ; the 12 Scots forwarded by Mr. Hutchinson; and
the five runts by Mr. Thompson, of Thorp, were greatly
admired.
Mr. Collins had a very fine show of beasts, including

runts and Devons, belonging to Mr. Coallis, of Coington
Grange; Herefords and Devons, the property of Mr. S.
Rogers, of Lashbury ; and Scots, from Mr. It, Overman,
Blyth, Bow, &c., of Norfolk, together with the latter breed
from Mr. Martin, of Newmarket, Aterdeen. Some of the
latter were seven years' old.
Mr. Grearge Dickson's show of beasts was a very fine one.
It embraced, as usual, a large number of Scotch fed beasts
of excellent quality, and many of them wore much ad-
mired for symmetry. They were forwarded by Messrs.
Knowles, Martin, Thomson, Murray, Kidd, Wishart,
Bruce, Longmore, Stodart, Frost, Mitchell, and other
graziers.
There was a full average number of sheep on offer in fair
condition. We noticed some very fine sheep on the stand
of Mr. B.Weall, from Oxon andßerks, including some for-
warded by Mr. W. Micklem, as well as by Messrs. Vidlers,
Walters, and other graziers. Mr. J. B. Weall had, also, a
fine show of sheep, from Messrs. Rowland,White, &c. Mr.
Gurrier had, likewise, a good show. Amongst it were 10
prize Downs from Mr Paul, of the Isle of Wight, and 60
Gloucester's from Messrs. Hewers and Fletcher. The sheep
exhibited by Mr. Collins were in prime condition. Mr.
Lintoll's sheep were very prime. They were principally
Downs, chiefly from Surrey and Kent, forwarded by Mr.
is
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of Croft, and 20 by Mr. Chatterton of Wigtoft. Mr. Dodd
exhibited 20 very fine west country Downs.
STATE OP THE TRADE.

Owing to the changeable state of the weather, and the
large supply of stock on offer, the beef trade was in a slug.
gish state, and, compared with last week, very little change
took place in prices. A few very inferior lots, &c., realised
5s 2d per 81bs, but the general top figure for beef was 5s
per 81bs.
From Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire
we received 3,000 short horns, &c. ; from Norfolk, 1,500
t4cots, &c.; from Scotland, 1,100 Scots and crosses; and
from Ireland, 820 oxen and heifers.
Prime Downs and half. breds were in fair request, at full
quotations, viz., 5s 6d per 81bs, but other breeds moved off
slowly, and prices had a drooping tendency.
Calves were short supply and steady request, at :fall
prices.
Pigs, the show of which was large, were a slow sale, at
late rates.

Per Sib, to sink the offal.

s. d. s. d.
Crse. & inf. beasts 3 4 S 8
Second quality do. 3 4 4 4
Prime large oxen 4 6 4 8
Prime Scots, &c. 4310 6 0
Crse. & inf. sheep 3 2 3 6
Second quality do. 3 8 4 4
Lambs, Os
Suckling calves, 21s to 308
21s to 295.

s. d. s. d
i Prime crs-wool d 0.4 6 5 2
Pme. S' thdown d 0.5 4 5 6
Largo orse. calves 4 -6-5 0
Prime small do 5 2 5 6
Large hogs 3 10 4 4
Small porkers ... , 4 6 4 10
d to Os Od.

and quarter-old atom pigs,

TOTAL SUPPLY
Beasts
Sheep .. 26,300
Calves
Pigs 460

FOREIGN SUPPLY.
Belgts
Sheep 5,250
Calves
Pigs .... , —

The total imports of foreign stock into London, last week,
amounted t 05,192 head. In the corresponding week in
1860, we received 4,525—in 1859, 4,364—in 1858, 5,731
—in 1857, 1,896—in 1856, 1,895—in 1855, 4,326 head.

PRICE .4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

,LITERATU.RE.

AYTOUN'S NEW WORK.

Norman Sinclair. By W. Edmonstoune Aytoun,
_

D.C.L. 3 vols.' Blackwood and Sons.

A poet turned novelist is no unssual spectacle.
Yet, accustomed though the reading public has
been to this spectacle, from the instance of the great
Sir Walter downwards, it is always interesting to
contemplate it. It always has a freshness of its own
that piques the curiosity of the most jaded critics.
We don't know any literary novelty in its way, for
example, more likely to compete in mere attractive-
ness with—let us say—supposing we could possibly
imagine such an occurrence—A novel by Alfred
Tennyson. Instead, however, of loitering to muse
thus over any such eccentric improbability—here
is a substantial "case in point"—precisely the very
phenomenon we are now alluding to as always in-
vested in our regard with a very peculiar allure-
ment, as invariably commanding our attention and
enlisting our sympathies upon the instant. Profes•
sor Aytoun has long been honourably known to the
reading public in many capacities as one among the
more rarely gifted contributors to our contemporary
literature. His popularity is not by this time mat-
ter of uncertainty. It is ripened and assured. As
a poet he enjoys, and deservedly enjoys, a very
high reputation. We speak not here of his
" Bothwell"—but refer more particularly to. his
poetic masterpiece, "The Lays of the Scottish Ca-
valiers." The brilliant success achieved by which
has stamped upon its very title-page the timbre-of
public approbation—" Thirteenth Edition" appear-
ing there upon the last issue of " The Lays" as evi-
dence that the writer of them has secured to him-
self a somewhat higher repute than that appertain-
ing to merely an accomplished versifier. Everyone
who knows anything at all about the volume—
knows some of it, we would almost wager, by heart.
The musical cadence, the rythmic swing, the
verve, the passion, at times the very rapture
of the verse in Aytoun's Scottish Cavaliers, 'waken
in the reader's heart a responsive enthusiasm—he
turns the pages unconsciously from the Table of
Contents to the Finis—and by the time the book is
fairly closed upon even a first perusal of it,
there aro passages (unless the reader be some-
what of a dunce) that come chiming back like
echoes in his memory. Hence " Thirteenth
Edition." Hence—by reason of this one par-
ticular effusion—the fact that Professor Aytoun's
name approaches us always—secure of its wel-
come. Besides the poetical reputation, however,
gained for himself almost entirely by that one
book, the " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers"—not
the least atom in the world, to our mind, by his
more elaborated poem of " Bothwell"—Professor
Aytoun has won his spurs long ago in the lists of
letters as a Critic, and in a double sense also as a
Humorist, almost equally, that is to say, as a prose
and ad a poetic Humorist. His contributions to
Blackwood's Magazine have been so numerous, so
various, almost always so distinguished for their al-
ternate and sometimes combined vigour and vivacity,
that among the public at large he has long been re-
garded by many as sitting in the chair of Christo-
pher North, as occasionally wielding the crutch still
(in his grip) so much the dread of Noodledom. Who
has not laughed over the annals of the Glenmutchkin
Railway—A.l. among the "Tales from Blackwood?"
Who, again, has forgotten our author's " How I
Stood for the Dreepdaily Burghs ?" Then there is
that delightful half-reputation—not by any means,
however, in the idiomatic meaning of the phrase
a " half - and - half " reputation won by
Edmonstoune Aytoun and Theodore Martin
together (after the Orestcs and Pylades fashion of
Beaumont and Fletcher, or Johnson and Garrick)
under the bizarre 220111 de plume of the :redoubtable
BON GUALTIER ! A personage, by the way,
whom we can hardly think of without
laughter. Here, again, what is it we read
significantly upon the title- page ? " Seventh Edi.
tion." We only wonder, however, that it has not
long since come to be the Seventeenth—" The
Book of Ballads" abounds so with exquisite and
irresistible drolleries—being a veritable companion
(as one may say, a genuine boon companion) to the
famous " Rejected Address." Then have we not a
delicious recollection of the instance in which Pro-
fessor Aytoun (apart altogether from Mr. Theodore
Martin) once upon a time did
" Our Young England's penny trumpet blow 1"

putting it to his own lips exclusively—through the
mask of T. Percy Jones—and thereupon winding a
blast " most musical, most " just, exactly
the opposite of " melancholy " waking
everywhere, echoing and re-echoing bursts
of laughter to the tune of Firmillian !
Together with his twin-brother of the pen, Theodore
Martin, Professor Aytoun has more recently accom-
plished, in several instances with exquisite suc-
cess (ex. gr., as we indicated at the time in their
wonderful version of the " Bride of Corinth")—
Professor Aytbun and Mr. Martin, we say, have
more recently accomplished in regard to the Poems
and Ballads of Goethe, what Sir Bulwer Lytton ac-
complished some years since in regard to the Poems
and Ballads of Schiller ! Giving them accurately,
that is, to the people of another tongue—in our own
resounding and melodious vernacular. Already we
have spoken of the high position attained by
Professor Aytoun among living Critics. His
Lectures upon Poetry, delivered several summers
back in Willis's Rooms, St. James's—we, who at-
tended those lectures, sedulously commenting upon
them in these columns one by one as they were
given, can assert, from our own knowledge of the
fact, ale still borne here in London circles in delight-
ful remembrance. Often though we remember to
have found it impossible to do otherwise than dissent
toto ccclo from the conclusions arrived at by Pro-
fessor Aytoun in the course of his poetical criticisms,
we still listened with respect to the earnest avowal
of opinions that we coeld not at the same
moment but deem in our (of course we
are perpetually conscious of this) fallible judgment
altogether erroneous. And, as we listened with
the: liveliest sense of pleasure to those same Lectures
upon Poetry, while they were in the course of de-
livery, so after the lapse of eight or ten years, we
hold them still in most agreeable remembrance.
However, it is not as a Critic that we have now
occasion to regard Professor Aytoun anew—any
more than we have to scrutinise him in his various
characters as a Translator, as a Satirist, as a
Humorist both in Prose and Verse, above all, as a
Poet—facile princeps among our living Northern
Lyrists. No—it is because he has added a new role
to his already long catalogue of parts that we have
occasion now to turn our regard upon him, to ex-
amine into his new evidence of audacity as an
enterprising man-of-letters. The Satirist and
Humorist, the Poet and Critic, has at length in
his own good time appeared upon the scene under
a wholly different aspect, in a wholly different
capacity—as a Novelist. And now that his new
work appears before us in its entirety, it does so in
the old approved fashion as a symmetrical 3 volumed
Novel, price £1 Hs. 6cl.—the old price—before Rail-
way Libraries for the Million had been dreamt of,
and before any Chancellor of the Exchequer had
ventured to lay his unhallowed hand upon the once
sacred impost levied upon the raw material of
literature! Only, to account now for the main-
tenance of the old price, upon a work of this cha-
racter, in an age when the paper duty exists no
more, and when cheap editions along the civilised
track of our railroads are as " plentiful as black-
berries" used to be upon the hedgerows
skirting the old coach-traversed highways—the
publishers can issue their works with adornments
of paper binding and typography that contrast
rather strangely with the old:clingily bound 3 vols.
in boards, that were the sae plus ultra of the pub-
lishing world in the days of " Waverley." And
now that Aytoun is fairly before us as a Novelist—
how about the success or failure of his new venture
as a man of letters? During the piecemeal publi-
cation of " Norman Sinclair" as a monthly serial in
the pages of Blackwoocl's Magazine we have had a
sense that the writer of the story was labouring
the while under somewhat of a disadvantage. An
examination of the work as it now lies before us in
these three goodly volumes—all the scattered parts
ofit being at length thus massed together—only con-
firms us in this impression, insomuch that we would
venture to urge the author of " Norman Sinclair"—
should he again undertake to discourse to us in his
last developed capacity as a Novelist—we would cer-
tainly here venture to urge him so to do, nothereafter
i❑ a serial form, but at once in a separate and com-
plete publication, as " Adam Bede" was published, as
all the old tales—before series were thought of—were
wont to be published of yore. Norman Sinclair, there
can hardly be a doubt of it—Mr. Aytoun must him-
self be quite conscious of the fact—hung fire re-
peatedly during the course of its piecemeal issue, as
the current serial in Blackwood. It did so, in ono
point of view, quite unaccountably, now that we
can take an uninterrupted and comprehensive
view of the whole narrative. This—as we have said
—regarding it excusively from one point of view.
But there is another and a very essential one for a
serial—the one in which we look upon it, not in
regard to its intrinsic merits, but in regard to its
peculiar character as a serial. With its merits—
and they are numerous and various, some of them,