The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-10 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 10, 1861.

Human nature is such that every tragedy and
every grave epic must have its amusing interludes,
if at least our poets would conform their fictions to
facts. Our own " Immortal Bard" has taught all
Englishmen this lesson; and even the few conver-
sant with the regular measured stately productions
of the Grecian Tragic Muse learn their notions of
propriety from the teacher who has surpassed them
all. So we moralized for a moment as we read the
story of the reception of the " gallant" Captain
WILKES by the citizens of the American Athens.
The worthy Bostonians perceived that, as in olden
times every court must have its fool, and every
good tragedy something to relax the features for a
minute, that they may return with more freedom to
the expression of pity and terror, so the serious busi-
ness of the San Jacinto and the Trent must have a
dash of the ludicrous in some one of the scenes, and
they were willing to be the performers of that part.
So, to entertain all Europe, and England espe-
cially, they entertained the hero of the San Jacinto.
Some Mr. J. W. EDMONDS, unknown, we are sorry
to confess, to our editorial omniscience, presided.
He was well up in his part. When the American
performers exhibited at the Alhambra, one of the
clown's witty remarks on the jumping feats was
that he had a brother who jumped so high that he
never came down again. Oratorically Mr. EDMONDS
performed the same tremendous feat. He started
with the " patriotic impulses," rather the " patriotic
instincts" of a hero, who, by one " lice act," (sic) a
" deed of daring," had "clothed himself with a
power over the minds of his people which could not
come from title or escutcheon "—from those empty,
ragged things which silly Englishmen prize.
Having jumped so high at first, Mr. J. W.
EDMONDS could not of course come down—he spoke
of the " splendour of the s chievement," of its " vi-
brations reaching the far west ;" aye, more, of reach-
ing the dens of the traitors, " the clicks" of the
achievement or vibration, or splendour, we hardly
know which, " being like the clicks of the death-
watch" in the said dens ; he spoke of the " brilliancy
of the action" which "raised the patriotic pulse of
the whole people," of the " resources," the " wis-
dom," and the "prudenee" of the "man of the hour"
—indeed, for to the end we must get, where we find
Mr. J. W. EDMONDS still aloft they were

Ohone t for THE O'DONOGIIUE I Surely nothing
but an Irish howl can be a really fit and proper
accompaniment to his name. The " definite article"
is certainly the appropriate prefix to it. Of all
the O'DONOGHUES—not forgetting CHARLES
LEVER'S, otherwise HARRY LORREQUER'S—this is,
without any doubt of it, The O'DONOGHUE. Wonder-
ful—considering what may be now called his ante-
cedents—that any constituency (even in Ireland)
should enable him to add to his name the mystic
initials M.P. A politician who can talk and act,
as THE O'DONOGHUE has now been for some time
past talking and acting, is, in sober seriousness be
it said, hardly the man to be entrusted with the rank
and responsibilities appertaining to a Legislator.
Why, compared with the deeds and words of this
harmless BoBADIL, the impassioned songs of DAVIS,
the preposterous proclamations of MITCHELL, the
fantastic demonstrations of O'BRIEN, the high-
flown aspirations of EMMETT, the audacious pro-
jects of TONE, the hopes and prayers of the noble
FITZGERALD, were loyalty itself.

"making history fast," &c., &c., &c., &c.—and
when " the records of our naval history is made up,
there will be no names more luminous upon its
pages than DUPONT and WILKES."
The patriotism and instinct, and splendour,
and clicks, and brilliance, and prudence,
and history-making, and luminosity being
at last finished ; the old sailor himself, we
are bound to say, came forth a little more
soberly—thanks, profound gratitude, for such a
dinner, and such a reception, and such a speech
were his natural opening. Then he told the story
of his brilliant brave achievement, which, having
thirteen sixty-eight pounders at his orders, while
the Trent
nntohad none, the worthy tar doubtless
particular feat of bravery. The Cap-
tain, however, must do his part in the fun•making
—so, instead of telling his audience that as a naval
commander, he looked at his instructions and
orders, it seems he turned Vurist he had a civil
law library on board—to his cabin stu study hNeTwehn.t,
and took down his VATTEL, "his
WIIEATON, and the rest," and decided for himselfls
that he had the right to seize the two gentlemen
and their secretaries. There has been some grave
argument here on the error of supposing that a
Captain at sea could turn himself in a " Judge of
a Court of Prize,"—but I did it, says Captain
WILKES, and I glory in having done it, and
and would do it again." Of one thing Captain
WILKES did boast for
thh
might have captured mf—he
ies mTreenntanhderhseilf,sel alight

have got a prize worth 150,000 dollars for himself • legislation has done and is doing to destroy our
and his crew—but they all waived that privilege. population. A fearful responsibility is thrown upon i
" Prudent" captain ! Dearly bought dollars would us, for we must act." Or imagine BRITANNIA
they have proved ; the Trent in Boston harbour roused to indignation by such stuff as that with
would have hardly found a purchaser amongst the which THE O'DONOGIIIIE brought his amazing
wide-awake Yankees, and she would not have been speech of Thursday night to a close, as follows :
taken back but with a 'heavy claim for damages. "It has also been said that there has been an insult
Before the meeting WAS over, a judge BIGELOW, to the British flag, and I see by the papers that this
a name honourably known to us in the literary has caused very great and natural excitement in
world, but borne doubtless by a very different gen- England, and that we are expected to share in that
tleman, was called on to back the seaman's law. excitement. -Why should we share in that excite-
And very cleverly did the gentleman of the long ment ? If the people of Ireland have accepted the
robe do his part. It would not do to utter British flag as their flag—well, I said if ; ' if
law contrary to the wishes of the " distinguished" they have, I was going to say that then I suppose
assembly, and the "brave" captor of the merchant they would become gradually excited; but if they
vessel ;—so he would not go into details ; ho would have not adopted the British flag as the flag of
speak rather as a man of common sense. There Ireland, I suppose we shall continue in the blissful
were some cases so plain that they did not need state of resignation in which we are at present.
law books and counsel, and all that to investigate ; Fellow-countrymen, I shall not detain you longer,
he had not read up on the subject, but off hand, but I believe I am expressing tour opinion, and
there and then, he being at a dinner party, not on also the opinion of the people of Ireland generally,
the bench, would pronounce for the captain's law. when I say that we are against aiding England in
Common sense, not nice distinctions, were the thing a war with the Northern States of America."
now. Sophistry must yield to clear reason, and JOHN BULL can only have one response to make
what reason could be clearer than that which Cap- to any and every such demonstration as that—
tain WILKEs had for seizing the Commissioners on gasping out faintly while he wipes the tears of
board the British mailship. But the droll fellow of laughter from his eyes (like the fat old gentleman
a judge was not content with this merely. He and in the pit when LISTON was one night grimacing
the captain had exchanged parts. The captain, talk- him almost into convulsions)—" Take him away,
ing about" KENT, WHEATON, and the rest of them," or he'll be the death of me ! "
and the judge talking about bluff common sense
and reason. But there seemed to be an under current
of suspicion running through hie mind. He had 1
taken care to leave himself free to study the case
and change his legal opinion, but not only that, he
finished up a sufficient quantity of Yankee bragga-
docio, by proposing as a sentiment, " England and
the United States !" Verily, a DANIEL come to
judgment ! How can England but reciprocate the
sentiment—that is, provided we know where to find
the United States—when she finds her ships seized
by sailor-lawyers, and the seizure justified by
lawyer-sailors.
Governor ANDREW cattle forward more in the
style of the first speaker, talking of the " wise and
prescient judgment, the manly and heroic success"
of Captain WILKES—he told the meeting of the
cheer raised by himself, the Secretary of War, and
others who happened to be present at the moment
the telegram announcing the capture arrived,
and of the pleasure he felt in Massachusetts having
to furnish soon a prison for the traitors ; and " that
there might be nothing left to crown the exultation
of the American heart, Commodore WILKES fired
his shot across the bows of the ship that
bore the British Lion at its head." Well
done, Governor ANDREWS ! We only fear your
crowned Exultation will shortly have to dia.
crown herself, and look needlessly little on account
of her own folly.
We must do Lieutenant FAIRFAX, a Virginian
by birth and attachments, though he had remained
faithful to his commission, the justice to say that his
narrative of the transaction, in which he took so
prominent a part, was worthy of a gentleman and a
sailor. He had been as courteous on board
as his duty, acting under command, permitted, and
he was courteous to those whom he addressed;
but it seems to us, even from his speech to those who
applauded the transaction, that he at least would
much rather have had nothing to do with it. We
strongly suspect that Lieutenant FAIRFAX has real
good breeding in him, and really " patriotic in-
stincts and prudence," and that he well knows that
the second and third acts of this will be performed
in very different styles.

1.1 A N I •
A

PARIS, DEC. 9.

The Patric of this evening publishes the fol-
lowing despatch from New York, dated Nov. 27 :
" It is asserted that President Lincoln displays a
very conciliatory spirit in the affair of the French
merchantman Jules et Marie, which the Federal
Government states was boarded by the San Jacinto
in consequence of some mistake."

TURIN, DEC. 9.

In the Chamber of Deputies to-day Baron Ricasoli
announced that the Ministers would give an ex-
planation on subjects which have been brought
forward by some members of the Opposition. In
speaking of the Venetian emigration he said, " We
have 12,000 Roman and Venetian emigrants, of
whom 5,000 receive pecuniary aid from the Govern-
ment."

General Della Rovere justified the prohibition
which he issued in Sicily against the public collec-
tion of signatures to a protest against the occupa-
tion of Rome by the French.

Signor Mellani spoke at great length against the
Ministry. A letter being, however, delivered to
him while speaking, he suddenly discontinued his
speech, and sent the letter to Baron Ricasoli, who
read it to the house. It was a correspondence, not
yet published, addressed from Naples to a French
journal in Turin, and asserted that General Della
Marmora had, in a recent report, requested the
Ministry to alter their policy in Naples, or he
should be obliged to follow the example of General
Cialdini by tendering his resignation.

Baron Ricasoli declared this news to be abso-
lutely false, a statement which was received with
applause by the Chamber. He also censured the
systematic invention of false news, intended to
have the effect of embarrassing the Government in
its external relations.

rench Women of letters ; Biographical icketches.
By Julia Kavanagh, author of " Nathalie,"
" Adele," &c. Twe vols. Hurst and Blackett.

We have here a work which the nature of

the subject, the merits of the style, and the reputa-
tion of the authoress, cannot fail to render popular.
Miss Kavanagh's name has been so long and so
tavourably known to the public as an authoress of
eminent ability, that any work from her pen is
naturally regarded with intdrest, and her intimate
acquaintance with French life and literature qualify
her in an especial manner for the task which she has
now chosen. The novels of " Nathalie" an d " Ad ele,"
as well as the charming tale of "Madeleine," are
all French in scenery and character, while Miss
Kavanagh has shown herself familiar with graver
studies, in her satisfactory performance of the diffi-
cult and delicate delineation of the " Women of

NAPLES, DEC. 9.
At 3 p.m. yesterday an eruption of Vesuvius
took place near Torre del Greco. This eruption was
of a more threatening character than any that has
taken place for a long period. The inhabitants are
taking to flight.

France in the Eighteenth Century." The work
before us combines, in a singular degree, the interest
of fiction with the attraction of eareful and discri-

mihating criticism. It disinters from the dust of
long years of oblivion the lives and works of those
sparkling, pathetic, or sentimental writers who
once influenced the taste of their time and re-

fleeted the manners of the age. The women of

AMSTERDAM, DEC. 9.
The Bank of Amsterdam has raised its rate of
discount from 31-, to 4 per cent.

letters referred to in these pages are without ex-
ception novelists, and Miss Kavanagh's object has
been to show haw greatly women have contributed
to the formation of the modern novel in the French

and English literatures. Her selection has been
guided, she tells us, by great celebrity, original
power, and individual attraction. No living
writers are included in her list, the most modem
name being that of Mme. de Stael. It is by rea-
son of their recent deaths, we suppose, that she has
omitted to notice two distinguished writers of our
own day, Mme. Guizot and Mine. Girardin. The
plan she has adopted is to give a short biographical
sketch, with the outline of that individual history
which so often explains and accounts for much in
the author's writings, and then to proceed to
analyse her works and criticise their merits. In
most cases she gives a summary of the plot of the
chief novel, with extracts from the best scenes, and
thus the reader who probably knows no more of
Mlle. Scudery's " Grand Cyrus," or Mme. de Geniis
"Rash Vows," than their names, is able to
familiarise himself with the style and cha-
racters of their writings, and to compare
one with another. Commencing her volumes with
Mlle. de Gournay, the adopted daughter of Mon-
taigne, Miss Kavanagh gives us next a full ac-
count of the life and writings of Mlle. de Scudery,
one of the most famous novelists of the seventeenth
century. The authoress cites her name as a striking
instance of the vicissitudes of literary fame. " Her
fifty volumes of poetry and prose were the delight
of the most exquisitely polished society France has
yet known. They were translated into every Euro-
pean language, and found their way, it is asserted,
into Eastern tongues." Princes and men of let-
ters, fastidious critics and indolent fine ladies,
watched with eager interest for every one of the
ten volumes of a work which took years to appear.
" And now," she goes on to say, "it would take
years, a lifetime, perhaps, to collect a complete
edition of Mlle. de Scudery's works in that city
where her fame reached its fulness." The causes
assigned for this decadence are three: the length of
her tales, the representation of Greeks and Assyrians
with the manners and feelings of the French of the
sixteenth century ; and lastly, the ridicule of
Boileau and Moliere, which Miss Kavanagh shows
to have .been unjustly severe. The plot of these
long-forgotten novels is brought before us, and
their merits and deficiencies pointed out with a
s Ailful and discriminating hand. The wild and
singular career of Madame de Krudener, now chiefly
remembered by her influence over the Emperor
Alexander, is told further on in the work, and it is
curious to observe how often the ladies spoken of
have founded their romances on the events of their
own private lives. This seems as strange to our
English notions as the interesting suicides so long
fashionable in Continental romance. Mme. Ricco-
boni, an authoress of some celebrity:in the eighteenth
century, has the questionable honour of being
one of the first to introduce this termination-
In this particular, as in some others, we
must admit the earlier writers have the
advantage over those of our own day. Mize.
Cottin, best known by her charming "Eliza-
beth, or the Exiles of Siberia," also fills a place in
this chronicle, but the two chief lives in the second
volume are naturally those of Mme. de Geniis and
Mine. de Stael. The eventful and chequered life of
the former lady is ably told, and the strange in-
consistencies of her not very estimable character are
shown. Mme. de Stael is evidently high in favour
with her critic, who is never so satisfactory,
however, when she touches on politics. Her
portrait of Mme. de Steel herself is very ably
drawn. We congratulate Miss Kavanagh on hav-
ing invested an extinct branch of literature with
fresh and vivid interest, and with having compiled
an agreeable and well-written book out of mans/
,edious and uncared-for

FRANCE.

La Patrie says :
" The Commission of the Senate charged with
the examination of the Senatus Consultuin for the
modification of the Constitution sits daily at the
Luxembourg Palace. We are assured that the ex-
amination will continue a few days longer, and that
the report of M. Troplong will be a complete
expose of the new system which is to be applied
to the administration of our finances. The Senate
will be convoked on Monday, to hear the reading
of the work of its learned reporter, and the discus-
sion will commence about the middle of next week."
La Putrie, in an artiele " On the Dissolution of
the Legislative Body," advocates the dissolution,
and convocation of a new Assembly at the end of
the present session.
The Message addressed to the Southern:States 01
the Union is not only given in extenso by the Paris
journals, but is analysed by most of them. The
Constitutionnel adds some observations, from which
we select the following passages :
"It is sufficient to peruse this document to per-
ceive to what extent reconciliation has become im-
possible between the two great factions of the old
American Union. Mr. Jefferson Davis accuses the
North of having given to the war a character of un-
exampled cruelty ; and, examining what is taking
place in the States which have remained faith-
ful to the Government of Washington, he seeks
to prove that the latter has violated the Con-
stitution, and does so every day ; that it de-
clared war without the consent of the Conzress ;
that it has arhitrsro— • and
Inoffensive citizens, and that it menaces the judges
on the bench when they endeavour to secure respect
for the law. From so many grievances, Mr. Jeffer-
son Davis draws the conclusion that the inhabitants
of the South feel nothing but contempt for their
former co-federates, and that the mere idea of again
accepting such an alliance excites among them
insurmountable aversion. The Message could not
pass over in silence an event so grave and so
directly concerning the affairs of the South as
the arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell. Mr.
Jefferson Davis maintains that as regards the
rights of neutral Powers, the Northern Government
had no more legal right to have those gentlemen
arrested on board an English vessel than in the
streets of London. In the opinion of the President
of the South, that act of violence presents pecu-
liar gravity from the fact that the persons arrested
by the Federal navy possessed the sacred character
of ambassadors. We must remark that this part
of the question has not hitherto been even touched
on in the discussions of the press of London and
of the United States. The fact is that the reality
of the character of ambassador, ascribed to Messrs.
Mason and Slidell, depends essentially on the
quality of belligerent which the South claims in
virtue of the logic of facts, but which the North
refuses to it, and on which Europe has not yet
formally pronounced. So long as this point
which would be the preliminary to a recognition
of the South, has not been decided, it is easy to
understand that England herself should complain
only of the outrage &me to her flag, and should
be silent on the diplomatic character ascribed to
the persons arrested."
The Presse expresses itself in the following
terms on the Southern document :—" President
Davis also announces that he does not desire the
intervention of any European Power in the present
conflict. The Southern States have good reason for
that. They well know that the European Powers
are still more radically opposed to slavery than the
Northern States. England, impelled by the neces-
sities of war, might alone, by recognising the inde-
pendence of the South, implicitly sanction slavery.
If France unites in action with her ally, there would
no longer be any ground to fear such a result.
Our intervention would have the effect of prevent-
ing a war undertaken in defence hf the most hon-
ourable principles from turning to the advantage of
the most odious institutions.
BOURSE, DECEMBER 9TH.—There has been a
slight improvement in the tone of the market
owing to the arrival of the English funds with an
advance, and a fair amount of business has been
done at rather higher rates than the closing ones of
Saturday. Threes, for the Account, are now at
67f 65c. Railways also firmer. The following are
the last quotations :-
4i per per Cents 94 80 ,
Do. end month
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 70
Bank Shares 2970
Credit Mobilier 735 ,
Do. Account
RAILWAYS.

Credit Fonder ....1200

Belem an 4i — __.
Piedmonteso Fives 67 95
Roman

71 75
ASpusantrisiahnThrees 4O 25
Home Debt .. 47 25

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1290 .. 1292 25
Northern.
New ditto .. 910 .. 910
Lyons and Mediterranean 1007 50 .. 1008 75
Geneva 350 350
Southern 668 75 .. 670
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard ........