The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-02 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1352 50 .. 1353 75
Northern .
New ditto 897 50 .. 897 50
Lyons and Mediterranean 960 .. 961 25
Geneva 417 50 ..
Southern 557 50 .. 556 25
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 492 75 .. 492 50

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA

LONDONDERRY, WEDNESDAY.

The screw steamer Canadian, which sailed from
Portlan:don the 20th ult., arrived at Moville at 10 30
a.m. and her despatches at Londonderry at 2 30
p.m. English time. She landed all her mails, ex-
cept those for Liverpool and London.

The screw steamer Kedar arrived at Halifax on
the 18th, and tilt royal mail steamer Niagara on the
19th.

A Massachusetts regiment going to Washington
was attacked in Baltimore by a mob, and 11 were
killed on both sides, and many wounded. Martial
law had been proclaimed there. Governor Hicks
has declared to allow any more federal troops to
pass through Baltimore, thereby causing great
indignation in the North. The regiment reached
Washington on the 19th.
Virginia has seceded. and a proclamation has
been issued by the Governor, recognising the
Southern Confederacy. The news was received
with rejoicing in the south.
North Carolina has seized the Government forts,
and all the Slave States seem to be arming for the
defence of the South.

The Federal Government will condemn as pirates
all privateers seized.

No more provisions or arms are allowed to go
South.

President Lincoln, in a proclamation, declares al
the port's of the seceded states blockaded.
Troops are arriving at Washington from al
points.

Virginians closed Norfolk harbour by sinking
vessels, to prevent egress from the navy yard. A
United States ship of war threatened to level the
town, when the obstructions were removed.
The Federal commissioners at Harper's Ferry,
being pressed by 1,000 Virginians, destroyed the
Armoury, Arsenal, Manufactory, bags, and 13,000
stand of arms on the 18th April, and then retired
into Pennsylvania with their men, of whom they
lost three.

All the bridges have been destroyed between
Baltimore and Washington.

Troops will be forwarded from Philadelphia via
Harbour de Grace and Annapolis.

Five thousand men are under arms at Washing.
ton to-day (April 19).
The southern loan has all been taken up.

Accounts from Havana of the 15th state that an
additional number of Spanish troops had gone to
San Domingo. It was rumoured that Prince
Alfred would return to England without visiting
Havana, on account of the death of the Duchess of
Kent.

Major Anderson and his command had arrived at
New York, where they received a great ovation.
A despatch in the Nev J'ork Tribune states that
Fort Pickens now contains 800 men, and seven
vessels were lying outside.
Private despatches from Baltimore state that the
position of the loyal citizens there was very critical.
One despatch says :—" We hope the North will
stand by us, and in their forced passage through
our city to the capital remember that there are
many true men here. Our police, and many of our
military companies, openly defy the Government."
The New York Evening Post of the 19th ultimo,
learns from a reliable source that President Davis,
at the head of the confederate army, was within
twenty-four hours' march of Washington. Great
excitement prevailed at the latter place. The
President's mounted guard had been mustered into
service as cavalry.

The telegram from Lisbon of the earthquake at
the city of Mendoza, in the Argentine Republic, by which
7,000 lives and 2,000 houses are reported to have been de-
stroyed, the loss of property being estimated at a sum equal
to £14,000,000 sterling, has created great anxiety for fur•
ther news among all the merchants interested in the com-
merce of the River Plate. The city of Mendoza is situated
almost at the extreme west of the republic, on a rich and
well irrigated plain near the Andes, within about 100 miles
of the Chilian frontier, and it has long had a large popula-
tion and active transit trade, with every prospect of increas-
ing prosperity.

The petition about to be presented to the House
of Lords in favour of the Government Bankruptcy Bill,
and earnestly praying that it may not be referred to a select
committee, has been signed by an almost unprecedented
number of the leading mercantile and banking firms of Lon-
don. Should this document bo disregarded, the inference
will be unavoidable that the wishes and views of the com-
mercial world are to be sacrificed for the sake of party
hostility.

A meeting of the Submarine Telegraph Company
has been called for the 13th inst., to elect three new direc-
tors, and to consider the charges lately brought against the
management. It is to be presumed, however, that the
shareholders will deem it expedient to reverse the proposed
order of procedure, and deal with the charges first, and the
selection of directors afterwards.

THE MAGAZINES.

Blackwood's Magazine.

There is an article on " The Ministry and the
Budget," which is very admirably done, and ex-
poses in a very striking manner the-many blunders
that are made by the bright and particular star
who now irradiates the financial horizon, and is
supposed by his admirers to be a heaven sent.
Minister born to suit the special occasion. The
following remarks on his abilities are very accurate,
and demonstrate the difference between theoretical
and practical talent :
" The bent of his mind is speculative and theoretical.
Like other fine scholars, his capacity for the discharge of
ordinary business is limited ; but distrust of his own powers
is a sensation which he never felt, and his ambition, fos-
tered by vanity, has become so exorbitant, that he consi-
ders himself eminently well fitted to perform the duties of
any office within the wide range of administration.
" We must, however, be allowed to distinguish between
the qualities which make a man a dexterous, keen, and
fluent debater, and those which recommend him to the
public trust and confidence as a wise and provident steward.
Beyond all question, Mr. Gladstone is in possession of the
one ; but that he can lay claim to the other we broadly and
unhesitatingly deny."

After a masterly exposition of the discrepancies
that exist in his statements in many cases, and the
one-sided view he persists in taking of important
questions, it is said in summing up the various
points of the argument, "It means simply this,
Mr. Gladstone, admitting all his brilliant qualities,
is the wrong man in the wrong place. An experi-
enced clerk from any mercantile house would be a
much better and safer Chancellor of the Exchequer."
After alluding to the danger that threatens if Mr.
Gladstone will institute a sweeping reduction of
the national expenditure by striking at the
army and navy estimates to suit the views of
the Peace party he has lately done his best
to propitiate, this excellent article concludes
thus :

" Well, then, if we cannot reduce the expenditure, what
is in store for us next year, if we lop away the paper duty,
but an augmentation of the income-tax P Money cannot
be raised now from any other source, though Mr. Glad -
stone, emulous of distinguishing himself in every line of
character, has come out as a chifflonier or rag-picker, and
improves his leisure moments by groping in the kennel for
casual pence. Many years ago he was impressed by a say-
ing of the late Dr. Chalmers regarding the power of the
penny ; but he totally misunderstood the application, for
in his view a million of pence are equivalent to the pence of
the million. So, last year, he inflicted a small Egyptian
lice-plague upon merchants, in the shape of infinitesimal
stamps, which really added nothing appreciable to the re-
venue, while it materially obstructed trade ; and this year,
he smites at chicory, renders it an unlawful thing to light
a cigar in a tobacconist's shop unless the owner pays an
additional duty, and follows the pharasaical method of tak-
ing tithes of mint and cumin, while neglecting the
weightier matters of the law. After having deliberately
and most attentively perused the Budget speech, and con-
sidered it in all its bearings, we have no other advice to
give to the ratepayers of Britain than the wholesome but
often-neglected warning of the police—' Gentlemen, look to
your pockets 1' "

" Mrs. Beauchamp's Vengeance" is a very smart
little tale, which exemplifies the mistakes that
vanity will lead folks to commit. The plot is very
ingenuously contrived, and the reader is kept in
the dark till quite the end. It is not often that one
finds a denouement so skilfully brought in. " The
Executor" is another story that is clever in its way,
it relates the troubles that befell many parties in
consequence of a certain lady being possessed of
more money at her death than had been supposed
likely by her connections. There is a paper on
" Motley's History of the Netherlands," which is
worthy of perusal, and it is said that " The value
of Mr. Motley's additions may be, and already hi.
been exaggerated, but that the materials which he
has brought to light fully justify the great literary
enterprise he has undertaken, there can be no doubt."
" The Euthanasia of the Ottoman Empire" is an
elaborate treatise that deserves careful study from
those who have leisure to devote to abstract ques-
tions. The consideration of the Life of the Right
Hon. William Pitt, by Earl Stanhope, is another
valuable addition to this month's number, and
claims that attention that an important subject
ably treated always deserves from persons of all
shades of opinion, and the reader may say of the
writer of this criticism what he himself says, in his
concluding words, of the author—" We thank him
for the large measure both of instruction and amuse-
ment which he has afforded us."

Dublin University Magazine.
The story of "An Only Son" is continued •at
some length, and improves on acquaintance. Ned
Locksley is a fine spirited young man, who attracts
our interest by his fearless bearing, and impresses
ail around him by his bold determination. The
account of his baffling the bullying set among
whom he was thrown is very exciting and enter-
' taining. There are other events described in the
last chapter which are peculiar, and also are ably
narrated. The circumstance of the idiot boy
coming forward to give evidence at a critical junc-
ture, and thug turning the CUULAC of affairs is a
remarkable incident. There is a very interesting
article on " Sir William Napier," which is on a
subject that can hardly fail to arrest respectful
attention and to meet with sympathising readers.
All must agree in the merits of that distinguished
man, who is here appropriately spoken of as " Our
English Tacitus," as I love to call him, and as such,
without doubt, as the greatest of all our military
historians, his brave bright name will survive
perennially in the national remembrance. There
are many who have dwelt on his stirring descrip-
tion and brilliant eloquence who will subscribe to
the truth.of this assertion, and it was in reference to
these triumphs that Mr. Disraeli forcibly remarked
that "Fortunate in everything, Wellington was
fortunate in having found an historian whose im-
mortal page now ranks with the classic of the
land that Wellesley saved." There is here given a
brief account of the family of Sir William, which
is worthy of notice.
" It is scarcely probable that the world will soon, if ever,
again witness so singular a combination of hereditary pecu-
liarities as that which distinguished the five sons of Colonel
the Hon. George Napier, of Celbridge, in the county of
Dublin. Their ancestry seems, in truth, like a famous
Parliamentary majority rem ded in one of the later volumes
of Hansard, to be nothing less than a fortuitous con-
currence.' . . Into the main current of the historic
lineage of the Napiers, it is curious to note how many and
how important were those tributaries. They secured to it
whatever ambidexterous advantages might be supposed to
result from the infusion into the blood of the Napiers, of
the divine ichor' of two royal houses—those of Henry IV.
of France, and of Charles 11. of England. They rendered
kindred to that same heroic blood, the blood of two chival-
rous but tainted traitors to the Crown—the great Montrose
and Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Through the maternal line
they enabled these fly:brothers, already mentioned, collec-
tively, to claim the sympathies of relationship wit h Charles
Fox, the orator of the Liberal Opposition ; and through the
paternal line, farther back by one or two generations, and
higher in the intellectual atmosphere, in the very empyrean
of abstract philosophy, to trace their descent directly from
the renowned inventor of logarithms, the immortal John
Napier, of Merchistoun."

At the conclusion of this most interesting sketch
we meet with the following passage that records
some of the public achievements and private cha-
racteristics of this departed worthy :
" With a nature thrilling in its every fibre with sensi-
bility, and a temperament singularly impulsive and impas-
sioned, he combined in a wonderful degree, a judgment pre-
eminently judicial and dispassionate. In testimony of this,
it is only requisite to glance for a moment at that majestic
Plutarchian contrast or comparison with which he closes
the last chapter of the twenty-fourth book, completing his
great historic masterpiece. The celebrated peroration of
that oratorical history, in which Napier contrasts Napoleon
(whom the English annalist here designates magnani-
mously and magnificently ' the greatest man of whom his-
tory makes mention, the most wonderful commander, the
most sagacious politician, the most profound statesman),'
contrasts the great Napoleon and Wellington. Comparing
the battle of Wellington to the stroke of the battering ram
down went the wall in ruins 1' The battle of Napoleon
to ' the swell and dash of the mighty wave, before which
the barrier yielded and the roaring flood poured onwards,
covering all l' As thus, in these profoundly deliberated
and crowning passages, in his record of the wars of the
Peninsula, so equally judicial and dispassionate shone the
judgment of Sir William Napier in the heat and vivacity of
conversation. It was significant of the English soldier's
impartiality, and of the English historian's magnanimous
regard of the arch foe, that in his principal room at Scir de
House (the dining-room) the only picture visible upon its
walls, a picture hung, too, in the place of honour over the
mantel-piece, was a portrait, not of Wellington, but of
Wellington's glorious antagonist. An engraving fl om
Paul de la R oche's exquisite sidelong portraiture of Napo-
leon, the King and Emperor. As 'the other' principal
decoration of the soldier-author's salle-a-manger, there was
displayed a noble trophy of arms upon the waste of wall
opposite the windows of the apartment—sabres and muskets
disposed in grim geometric arr angement, having as its cen-
tral feature (a gracious and grateful gift from the Sove-
reign, to be thenceforth treasured in the family of its reci-
pient as a priceless'heir• loom) the heraldic banner borne by
the hand of General Sir 'William Francis Patrick Napier
in the ever-memorable pagert of the great Duke's fune.
ral, in St. Paul's Cathedral.'
"Minor Minstrelsy" contains some criticisms
on small poems which is worth perusal, as
it exhibits for the most part an impar-
tial spirit, and displays good taste and
appreciation. However, many readers may ques-
tion the validity of the statement that it requires
a much smaller stock of industry, talent, and
general knowledge to write two-thirds of the
novels, tales, sermons, reviews, and books of travel,
that make their yearly appeals to public sym-
pathy, than to write an average volume of the
poetry that reviewers care to notice very briefly,
or in the lump." "M:ria, a Modern Patriot," is
another of those sketches that have before appeared
of historical celebrities, not often thought of per-
haps, but who are, nevertheless, worthy of being
brought prominently forward. Espozy Mina is
described as one of those who won enduring repu-
tation by their exploits as guerilla leaders. His
exciting and eventful career presents us with some
very entertaining pages. " The Prince's Drives"
is a peculiar poem, called " A Legend of the
Bouddha." It is written in a graceful style, and
some of the lines are very elegantly expressed.
There is a pleasing description of the gardens of

Loumbini, and the author exclaims at last, in admir-
ing ecstacy :
" Tell me in sooth,
If ye would not dream the dream,
If ye would not be,
By the forest cooled and splintered light,
By the silver moon of the Indian night;
Where Himalaya's shadows fall
Upon the valleys of Nepaul."
There is a paper on " China," which discusses some
important questions relating to that empire, truly
observing that it will not do to say that " China in
this country means tea and cotton," but it means
one fourth of the human race. There is another
article on " Essays and Reviews," which is ar-
ranged with the same skill, and animated with the
same spirit as the former one, which appeared last
month in this magazine, and which reflected great
credit on its authors, alike from its decision and
moderation. " The Morality of Garbled Blue
Books" refers to a question that recently engaged
the attention of Parliament, and the system is here
denounced in the strongest terms. A few pages
are devoted to the works of "William Cardwell
Roscoe," that have been published since his death.
A high opinion is expressed of their merits,
mingled with regret that he had not more time for
the maturity of his powers.

Eraser's Magazine.
The attention of the reader of Fraser will this
month be at once arrested by the opening essay,
both because it treats of # subject of considerable
importance, and also because he may conjecture that
the pen which indited it is not altogether strange
to him, but is wielded by one who has often en-
riched the pages of this magazine, and who has,
perhaps, unusual opportunities for forming a sound
opinion on public men and things. The subject dis-
cussed is the " Conduct of Business in Parliament."
The writer boldly accepts the fact that the close of
each session leaves an ever accumulating amount
of unfinished work, and that as there is a continual
increase of public business there is no immediate
prospect of improvement. Various remedies have
been suggested for this state of things, from the
common suggestion of restricting the length of the
debates, to Lord Derby's proposal of taking up a
bill at the beginning of a session at the stage at
which it had been left the year preceding. With
the complaint as to the extent of the speeches the
writer does not altogether coincide. He says, sen-
sibly enough, that these discussions clear a subject,
dispose of many arguments, give different views a
fair hearing, and bring out all the important points
of a question. With regard to the length of indi-
vidual speeches, he observes, with truth, that the
longest ones are generally those spoken by eminent
men, and are of value in elucidating the subject.
Without therefore denying that in many instances
the long debates might be curtailed with ad-
vantage, the writer does not look to mere restric-
tion of speech as the soluiion of the problem, and,
in truth, it is difficult to see how such a
restriction could be made available without seriously
interfering with that liberty of discussion, and that
right to the expression of individual opinion, which
are the very foundations of our Parliamentary inde-
pendence. We have not space to follow the writer
through all his able and sensible essay, in which he
displays the moderation and calmness of one fami-
liar with his subject, and thoroughly aware of the
difficulties attending the practical application of
universal cures. A good deal of quiet humour, too,
runs through his pages. Here is his description of

A BILL.
"All the most deadly things have an innocent or insigni-
ficant look about them. What harmfulness would a savage
discern in a little heap of black dust which yet would suf-
fice to blow his whole tribe to perdition ? A few drops of
some pearly, harmless-looking liquid are potent enough to
stop at once the vital force of the strongest human being.
And when you look at a bill in Parliament, it does not to
the uninitiated manifest its terrors. You have a mass of
bluish paper with a telling title (which, however, often
explains nothing), and a name or two on the back of it.
Yet that innocuous-looking thing may be full of mischief
—most probably is so. Dr. Johnson said something like
the following of one of Pope's lines, which the Doctor was
asked to explain :—' I do not know, sir, what it means ;
but it was intended to annoy somebody.' So of a bill ; you
may not make out very clearly what it will do ; but it is
sure to be the means of annoying somebody. • There is, how-
ever, one good to be predicted of any bill, that it may
stop the way of some other bill ; and if there be a sufficient
crowd of bills, not one of them will be able to move a step
How beautifully thus does nature provide against any ex-
tremity of evil.
In another place he observes, that the history of a
bill would prove a most interesting story, not infe-
rior to the adventures of a hero of romance, if we
could trace its white days, its dark days, its
struggles and misadventures, the firmness of its
friends, the constancy of its enemies, and the final
chapter of accidents, which carried it triumphantly
through Parliament, and transformed it into law.
We have afterwards a likeness of

A PARLIAMENTARY BORE. •
" The Parliamentary bore is generally a person without
anything like method in his mind, who has uu .ystem to
go upon, and no definite plan of procedure. He pecks at
, an estimate. Hs dislocates a bill. On a supply day he
barks the bark of a foolish dog at the wrong person. He
asks a question, at a most unfitting time, upon some sub-
ject respecting which all prudent men would be glad to
avoid any discussion whatever. If he calls for a return,
and if, by chance, the matter in question is worthy of hav-
ing a return made about it, the terms which he uses to de-
scribe what he wants are so vague and so extensive, that
the return, when made, will generally be found to have
produced nothing but a loss of public time.
" The Parliamentary bore, when he comes from his study'
into his drawing-room, feels a complacent sort of pity, as
he a serves his daughter practising the polka or doing
crochet-work. He thinks what a waste of time those
feminine occupations are 1 And, all the while, he carries
in his pocket (as he is just going down in a great hurry to
the house) a foolish bill, or an inapt amendment, or a mo-
tion for an impossible return, or a draft of an irrational
question with which he is about to molest some unfortu-
nate Minister. In fact, he is hurrying to waste a nation's
time, and to weary out the patience of all the people who
will, hereafter, have to deal with his bungling work. Oh
' that he would but remain at home, and practise the polki
with his daughter 1 Or, if that be too undignified, that he
would sit clown quietly and send some hours in learning
the mysteries of crochet-work—thus, for one evening at
least, preserving the nation 7'rom the ludicrous mischief
which he will probably effect, if he allows himself to go to
the house with that fatal paper in his pocket."
Mr. Whyte Melville continues his story of " Good
for Nothing," and exhibits the old picture of" Cross
Purposes" in a new form. The tale of " Ida Con-
way," also proceeds, and the heroine begins to gain
our respect, though the story is somewhat tedious.
The pleasant essayist, A. K. H. 8., gives us his re-
flections " Concerning Things Slowly Learnt," in
his old discursive style ; professing to pride himself
on his ability, to say a very little in a good many
words. It is at least a satisfaction to his readers if
they share his opinion, that he says it so pleasantly,
combining humour and refinement, and although
keen enough to detect the little foibles
and meannesses of his neighbours, quite
ready to regard them with genial pity and kind-
ness. Those who have been recently lamenting
the universal enemy, that wind from the east which •
the old rhyme tells us is
" Bad for man and beast,"
may find some consolation in studying the laws
which are supposed to influence their tormentor.
A brief paper on " The May East Winds," gives
an interesting account of the causes which it 15
conjectured may regulate our spring weather. A
review of . a work entitled " Soldiers and their
Science," which bears a melancholy interest from
the fact of its having been the production of the
late lamented Captain Brabazon, contains much
interesting matter. It sums up the chief charac-
teristics of the great military leaders of history,
from Epaminondas to Napoleon. A thoughtful
paper on " The Individual and the Crowd" will
repay perusal. The author maintains that great
men are what their age has made them, and
that they are merely the exponents of its spirit,
not its leaders ; that the prevailing feeling or senti-
ment must find a mouthpiece for its expression
America, he says, would have been discovered with-
out Columbus, and the Reformation would have
taken place without Luther. Yet, though there
is doubtless some truth in his views, he carries
his theory to the extreme, since all such great
minds have left their impress on their age ; they
have often anticipated its convictions, they have
awakened it to a sense of its wants, and have
moulded or influenced its expression. However
much they may have been hampered by the ne-
glect or the prejudices of their time, we may be
sure that no great original mind has passed away
leaving the world as he found it; but though
the science he explored was looked on with indiffe-
rence, and the' truths he enunciated regarded
with suspicion, yet his life and his influence lived
and worked after him, preparing the way for
a
better and clearer day. There are also papers on
Turkey and Poland; and a continuation of the
Chronicle of Current History, which is now an
eventful record.

Bentley's Miscellany.
We have already noticed, at length, the editor's
brilliant romance, which occupies a considerable
portion of the magazine. The best of the other
stories is the continuation of Dudley Costello's history
of the adventures of "Lorn Loriot," which proceeds
with spirit. " Oujda" has deserted English coun-
try houses and ball-rooms for Parisian steamers and
faubourgs. His story is entirely of a different
character this month and is consequently refreshing
from its novelty. It tells an amusing tale of the
adventures of a'hapless Englishman who was mis-
taken fora runaway debtor, and pounced upon by
a set of indignant tradesmen and cheating money-
lenders, headed by a fair French coquette, who
claimed seven thousand francs lost to her at ecarte:
Those who have really involved themselves in simi-
lar difficulties may learn how to avoid come of the
clangorous class of liabilities, known as debts ct
honour, by studying a very clever paper
on
"The Science of Card-sharping." It is founded
on M. Houtlin's work, and exposes the de

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