The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-17 00:00:00

THE CASE OF 2'HE HARVEY BIRCH.

The New York Post, received by yesterday's
mail, says :—One of the most beautiful of the packet
ships that sail from this port—a pride and boast of
our commercial marine—the Harvey Birch, belong-
ing to Mr. J. H. Brower, of South-ste eet, has fallen
a victim to the piratical lust of the rebels. Return-
ing to this port from Havre, in ballast, after a pros-
perous outward voyage, she was seized by the
steamship Nashville, and burned to the water's edge.
There are reasons, it is said, why we should not
particularly commiserate the owner on his loss;
but be that as it may, the circumstances of the case
excite many reflections. Her crew, a body of inno-
cent sailors, prosecuting an honest and honourable
vocation, were seized by the lawless rovers, put in
irons as if they had been criminals, and in that
ignominious condition carried off to a foreign port.
Whether the Nashville professes to be a regu-
larly commissioned vessel of war, or a privateer,
does not appear. The probability is that she is
neither, and that she is cruising like a pirate, on
her own responsibility. But whatever she be nomi-
nally, the outrage is the same ; one of the grossest
that has yet been inflicted upon the flag of our
country, and the honour as well as property of our
citizens. New York muat feel the insult and the
wrong to her very heart. Seldom before in her
history as a commercial metropolis has anyone
dared to question her right to navigate the great
ocean which is the source of her wealth and supre-
macy. In all the seas of the world foreign powers
are glad to acknowledge the emblems of her enter-
prise, are glad to cultivate the most friendly relations
with her representatives, and glad to do all in their
power to foster and extend her commerce. But
these rebels do not scruple to arrest her merchant-
men, sink them in the great deep, and subject their
crews to the indignities which civilised nations
reserve for felons.

THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

M. Luigi Palmieri, director of the Observatory
of Vesuvius, has presented the following official
report on the present eruption :

Royal Meteorological Observatory of
Vesuvius, Dec. 10, 1861.

Sir,—Since the 7th of this month the needles of the
Lamont apparatus suffered extraordinary perturbations,
and whilst they increased in intensity, the electro.magnetio
sismograph began on the following day to mark a continual
vibration in the soil, with frequent shocks (sometimes un-
dulations, sometimes starts) of earthquake. Some of these
shocks were felt at Naples.
At last, about 4 p.m. on the Bth, a large cleft opened in
the lava of 1794, some miles above Torre del Greco, near
the Brancaccio property. At first there issued from it a
great abundance of smoke, and then as usual pieces of lava
violently shot forth with terrible roarings, which reminded
the inhabitants of Torre del Greco of past disasters, and
made them hasten to quit their houses and seek refuge
elsewhere. About 5 p.m. the fluid lava escaped, covered
with great scoria of a singular composition, rich in pyroxenes
and almost entirely devoid of leucites. After having de-
vastated several cultivated fields and partly buried some
country houses, the lava stopped, because the violence of
tho line of craters along the slcne gradually diminished
about midnight.
On flip morning of the 9th, whilst these lower craters
were again in considerable activity, the upper one, which
10.1. morr,
emit fire, and which seemed at last disposed to rest, began
violently to shoot out smoke, stones, cinders, and red-hot
materials with horrible detonations, which still continue.
I will not fail to keep you informed of the circumstances
of this new kindling up of our volcano, reserving the scien-
tific details for the next volume of the annals of the obser-
vatory, if mears for printing be furnished me.

According to the mercantile advices from NeW
York by the present mail, the rate of exchange had par-
tially receded from the point at which bullion remittances
would be requisite, the pressure of produce for exportation
immediately before the final closing of the canals, which
would take place in a few days, having created for the
moment an adequate supply of bills. The shipments for
the week had included about 100,000 quarters of wheat and
25,000 quarters of Indian corn, besides other grain, mak-
ing a total value of about half a million sterling, irrespec-
tive of enormous consignments also of salted meats, butter,
cheese, and other western produce. The public subscrip-
tions to the Federal loan continued on an indifferent scale,
the total having as yet reached only £7,390,000 out of the
£30,000,000 taken by the associated banks. The report of
Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, with the esti-
mates of the Government requirements to the Ist of next
July, the end of the fiscal year, was anxiously awaited.
The news of the burning of the Harvey Birch had caused
the New York underwriters to increase their premium for
war risks from 1 per cent. to 5 per cent—a step which is
alleged to have been regarded by the merchants as un-
called for and impolitic, and as giving an undue advantage
to the vessels of other countries. These advices say little
as to the Trent affair, and the idea of its be:ag followed by
war, nearly all the commercial community having fallen
into a habit of reserve with regard to political matters,
whether domestic or foreign, almost as peculiar and signi-
ficant as that which is observed at St. Petersburg. The
next steamers to arrive are the City of Manchester, from
New York, with dates to the 7th, and the Bohemian, from
Portland, with dates to the 7th, and probably two days
later by telegram via Cape Race.

The Americans in London belonging to the Con-
federate States manifested satisfaction at the intelligence
yesterday of the proceedings in Congress, on the assump-
tion that all prospect of a surrender of Messrs. Mason and
Slidell, exceptunder compulsion, has thus been terminated.
On the other hand, the Federalists assert that the action of
the House of Representatives, unsupported by a correspond.
ing vote of the Senate or by any declaration of the Presi-,
dent or the Cabinet collectively, is but of secondary im-
portance, and merely furnishes another illustration of the
subserviency of that body to the populace. Those who
take this view consider that the avoidance of the subject in
the Presidential Message is a far stronger symptom for
good then the other is for evil. They deem that the Presi-
dent and his advisers had resolved to wait to hear of the
manner in which the affair had been met in England and
throughout Europe, and that, having thus paused, they
will not be likely when the accounts reach them to act
with sudden recklessness, and to imitate when it is too late
the style of those who had had the sagacity at the
earliest moment to discount their triumph over Great
Britain.

EXTENSIVE SHAWL ROBBERY BY THE CHINESE.
—A curious discovery was made on Saturday at the South-
ampton Docks, involving a robbery of China crape shawls
to a large extent, perpetrated, there can be little or no doubt
from the circumstances of the case, in the country from
which the packages were imported. It is, of course, well
kpannoyw steamers,
m eexrtse,nsive shipments of China crape shawls and
India silks are made by the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
that they are landed at Suez, conveyed
across the desert by railway, and reshipped at Alexandria
on board the steamers which arrive at Southampton weekly
with the mails from different parts of our Eastern posses-
sions. Among the cargo brought by the Delta steamer,
which reached Southampton in the middle of last week,
were four cases consigned to Messrs. Dunlop and Schoales,
shipping agents at that port, the distinguishing marks on
each being a heart, and the cares numbered respectively
from 716 to 719. Each of the four cases was supposed to
contain 50 dozen China crape shawls, of the value of £320,
making a total consignment of 200 dozen, worth £1,280.
When these cases were opened in the dock warehouse, for
the purposes of examination, by the Customs' authorities, it
was f3uLd that not a single shawl was contained in either of
them. The cases were filled with matting and other light
material, with some heavy stones ingeniously wrapped up
in the centre to make the cases the exact weight they would
have been had the shawls been properly placed in them.
The exterior of the cases presented precisely the usual ap-
pearance, and there was nothing whatever about them to
indicate the fraud which had been perpetrated, which could
not by any possibility be discovered till they were opened at
the end of their journey.
The suspension was announced yesterday after-
niooniroaflNe.lessra. Westgarth and Co., a house in the Austra•
lo.na