The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-07 00:00:00

SELLING A WIFE.

" A most melancholy affair occurred in the jail about this
time, that of a prisoner selling his wife.
" It appears that this man had been committed four years
ago, for having stolen a bag of white rice ; and his sentence
was, as usual, to remain in prison till further orders.
" After he had been here about twelve months he got
permission (through good conduct) to have his wife and
family with him. He had three children, two girls and a
boy, whose ages varied from two to six years.
" His family had not joined him more than six months,
when he sold the eldest, a girl six years of age, for fifty
thousand cash, or about thirteen dollars. Six months after
this, he sold the youngest, a little girl three years of age,
for twenty thousand cash, or about five dollars. One year
after this he sold his little boy, five years of age, for the
small sum of seventeen thousand cash, or a little more than
four dollars ; and now he was about to sell his wife. She
was a good looking Cochinese woman, about 27 years of
oge. He had been married to her, after the Cochinese form.
by buying her, ten yeats ago.
"I was present when the poor woman was brought out;
she was crying bitterly ; and when her husband spoke to
her, she appeared to turn from him with disgust. I pitied
her, not merely for her present trouble, but for what she
must have suffered on being separated from her children,.
The day had now arrived when she too must be sold, and for
what? not to enable ber husband to procure the common
necessaries of life, but to satisfy his unnatural desire to
obtain opium.
" Well to end this mournful affair. The poor woman
was handed over to three savage-looking men, one of theta
receiving a paper, or bill of sale, signed by the husband.
They also received a bundle of her clothes ; and, after pay-
ing the pun hase-money, they led her away. She was sold
for 80,000 cash, or about twenty dollars."

In the end through, the kindness of Quong, of
Saigon, ho is restored to liberty, and put
safely on beard of the brig Punch. The work is
full of interesting detai;s and dangerous adventure.
It is written in a plain, straightforward manner,
which must please all.

Danish Fairy _Legends and gales. By Hans
Christian Andersen, with Memoir. Third edition,

enlarged N\ ith 120 illustrations. Bohn.
Hans Christian Andersen bears a name held in
honour by children of all ages as one of the inter-
preters of fairy land. The simplicity of many of
his delightful tales brings them down to the com-
prehension of early childhood, while the hidden
moral often lurking under the history of stacks,
fir trees, and darning needles, speaks to older and
graver minds. Not like the old tales of giants
and fairy godmothers are the legends of " The
Wild Swans," " The Fir Tree," and " The Ugly
hackling." The latter charming fantasy is indeed
an allegory of its author's own eventful life. Like
the tgly little bird, the scorn of air farm-yard, the
shame of his relations, hunted, pecked, and perse-
cuted, till at length he develops into one of the
Ringly birds whose snowy plumage and stately
bearing had filled him with wonder. The poor
peasant boy who could not speak his own language
correctly, is now known and honoured through-
out Europe. The edition before us is
the third of the collected stories, and is rendered
still more complete than its predecessors by
the introduction of twelve additional stories
published a few years since under the name of
Historian. The stories themselves are too well
known and too popular to require criticism. We
need only say that the volume is of the convenient
size and excellent type usual in Mr. Bohn's
library, and enriched with very numerous illustra-
tions.

The Cornhill Magazine.
The adventures of " Philip" continua in Mr.
Thackeray's easy style. Our old friend J. J.
Ridley, the Royal Academician, re-appears among
the very miscellaneous companions of the hero ;
and it is interesting to notice incidentally how
the artist instincts of Michael Angelo Titmarsh
still survive in the breast of the successful novelist.
As the General seated on an Emperor's throne with
the fairest portion of the globe beneath his sceptre,
still cast a " longing, lingering look" to the im-
pregnable fortress of Acre, and sighed amidst all
his splendour, " I have missed my destiny," so does
the quondam Michael Angelo, whose books are
eagerly and lovingly perused by countless admirers,
so does he say now in the pages of his
successful magazine —" To by a painter,
and to have your hand in perfect command
I hold to be one of life's summa bona." The faith-
less pencil could not delineate with sufficient force
(and no wonder !) the conceptions of that fertile
imagination, and in despair the pencil has been
cast aside, but in its place the happier goosequill has
conjured before us scenes and characters. portraits
and " interiors," that it would require a very
skilful painter to surpass. We have all seen Mr.
Thackeray's heroes, and seen them with no super-
ficial glance, and yet Mr. Thackeray, looking back
on Acre, exclaims—" Here is occupation) here
is excitement ; here is struggle aid victory ;
and here is profit. Can max ask more from for-
tune ? Dukes and Rothsehilds may be envious of
such a man." True! Dukes and Rothschilds may,
but not the author of " Vanity Fair" and the " New-
Horace Saltoun" increases in painful
and "Frawley Parsonage" approaches its
icnotmereess!t", '
denouement. We will speak of it at greater length
when it is completed. We are inclined to rank
it among Mr. Trollope's masterpieces. The poem
foanni‘
o'
uTsh
lei
ni te isv. e r rTe
hminds"There
u ruksi
st
ho o
Bmaut ehh, of
is
Sa°llc tit! ipei Yt al
paper, well. worthy of attention. Millais has given
an interesting sketch of Mark and his wife when
the Philistines are at the Parsonage.

The Pungolo of Milan publishes a letter of
Francis 11., in which he orders General Fergola to con-
tinue his resiistance. The officer who conveyed the letter to
the General carried to him also a sum of 30,000 ducats.
The garrison of Messina is 4,000 strong.
ABDUCTION BY A FRENCH PRIEST.— A case
which has excited great interest in the north of France has
for the last few days occupied the Court of Assizes du Nerd,
sitting at Douai—the trial of a certain Canon Mallet, 64
years of age, a canon of the cathedral of Cambrai, on the
charge of the abduction of two girls under age. The canon
was a converted Jew, and the girls were the daughters of
`a German Jew, named Bluth, whom, together with most
of his family, the canon had converted to Christianity. He
had moved the girls from one convent to another, in one
case keeping one of them beyond the reach of her parents
for upwards of two years, and evidence was given tending
[
to show that he had criminally abused his influence over,
them, lie was found guilty, and sentenced to six years
imprisonment.