The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-03 00:00:00

Do (Red Sea Telof,raph), Au' ~-
Etchoquer Bills, £l,OOO, 2 &21 per Ct 22 6 pm
Do £5OO 22 6 pm
Do. £lOO & £2OO 22 6 pin
Bank of England Stock. 41 per Cent —
Do. Account
LITMAN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
ndiau cock, 101 per Cent., AprillB74 —
Do. Account
Do. 5 per Cent. July, 1880
Do. 4 per Cent., Oct. 1888
Do. Certificates
Do. Enfacod Paper 4 per Cent
Do. 5 por Cent., Jan. 1872
Do. 5f per Cont., May 1879
Do. 5 per Cent., Rep. Dob., 1872 ' —
Do. do. 1877
Do. do. 188')
Do Deb., 5 per Cent., Aug. 1873
Do. Bonds, 5 por Cent., £l,000
Do. under £I,OOO
FOREIGN FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
Argentine Republic, (t por Cent
Austrian Bonds, 5 per Cent. 1859
Br tzilian 5 per Cent
D). 41 per Cent., 1852-58-00
Do. 1803
Do. 5 por Cent., 1865
!Jo Account 751 1 41 51
Do. £lOO Bonds
Buenos Ayres 6 per Cent
DJ 2 per Cent. (Daferrtd 3 per Cent ; 43 21
0 aba, 6 per Cent.
Cadian 6 per Cent
Do. 41 por Cent
00. 6 per Cent., B •
Do., 1867
Do., 7 per ,Cent., 18E6 9Ol
Do., Scrip £32 paid
0 mbiau, 6 per Cent.
Danish, 3 plr Cent., 1825
D ,nubian Principalities, 7 por Cent —
Do 8 per Cent., 1867
Eluador New Consolidated, 1 per Cent...
rigyptittr, 7 per Cent
1)0. Secoad Issue
.•
D £5lO Bonds
Do. £lO6 Bonds
Do. 1864
Do. £5lO Bonds
Do. £lOO Bonds .... 88
Government ita,il way ilebonturiis .... 921
Greek, 5 per Cent., 1824-5, ex Coups — •
Do. Account — 12
Do. Coupons

Do. Account ...
5 per Cent ..
liondurasGov Rail Loan ip.Ct.,Xlspd pin

.
It3ii,u o peL ("et t., 1660 .. .
Do. Account • .
Do. Alaremmana Itaiway
M 3xicail 3 per Cent
Ditto for Account
Dn. 1864 -
Do 6 per Cont. Anglo-French
51ontevidoan 6 per Cent. —
..
I.oorish imperial 5 per Cent
New Granada ll/
Do 3 per Con,
Do. Deferred
Do Land Warrants (Hectares)
Peruvian 5 per Cent. 1865
Do Account
Do 4/ per Cent. (Uribarren)
Do 44 per Cent.. 1862
Do Account
Po-tuguese 3 per Ct., 1853, '6, '7, '97'60,'2,'3
Russian 5 per Cent., 18227 £ St —
Do 44 per Cent. 1850
Do 44 per Cent., 1860
Do 3 per Cent., 1859
Do 6 per Cont., 1662
Do. Anglo-Dutch, 1861, £lOO Bonds BB
Do. do. £Bl 155. do: —
Do., 1866, £lOO Bonds - B7l 4
Do. do. £B4 15s. do —
Sa.-diniau, 5 per Cent —
Spanish 3 per Cen —
Do Account _
...
Du New Deferred ••• •••
Do Account
Do Passive 254 4
Do Acc.out
Do Corn. Cert. of Coup. not funded

Do Account
Turkish 6 per Cent. —
Do Account
Do 6 per Cont. 1858 ..
Do Account
Do £lOO Bonds
Do 6 per Cent., 1862 —
Do Account
Do XIOC Bonds • 6l
Do.. 1863 —
Do 5 per gent., 1865 —
DD Account
Do 6 per Cent., 1865
DJ 4 por Cent., Guaranteed -
Venezuela, 3 per Cent. —
D J Account —
Divideuas on the above payaule in London

French Rentes, 3 per Cent., Ex. 25f. —
It %hal. 5 per (lent. 1831, Ex. 251.
Do. Account
THREE O'CLOCK.
Consols, Money' 92 it
Do. Account

SUPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day

---~----

GRAVESEND, Friday Morning.
Arrived Sikkebu Fena; from Groningen.
Sailed—Zurburan, steamer, for Cadiz; Panther, steamer,
!or Boulogue.

DEAL, Friday Morning.

Passed, Jan. 2.—Susan, for Salcombe; Venus, screw
steamer, for Cardiff ; Aboyne, for Colombo— all from
London.

Anchored.—Normandy, screw steamer, from Taganrog
'or London.

OLD FOLK IN NORIIANDY.---In the provincial die-
tricts of France one cannot fail to be struck by two equally
noticeable facts in the families of the peasants: children
are brought up with excessive indulgence ; old people are
proportionably neglected. This state of things has its
exceptions. 1 have known working mothers who were
able to make their children obey them, and 1 possess
among nay poor people some few ancient friends whose
eons and daughters surround them with all tender care.
But., generally speaking, among our peasantry the two
facts I have named always co-exist, the one naturally re-
sulting from the other; for spoilt children who are
neither respectful nor obedient in their youth are not
likely to become so in riper years. In our Normandy,
when parents are no longer fit for work, it is customary
for them to divide any small property they have among
their children, and then to go and live with one of these
upon a sort of pension, to which the others contribute,
tho amount and payment of which small pittance the ma-
gistrate often has both to decide and enforce. The poor,
old folk, thus completely stripped of their possessions, lan-
guish forlornly in the chimney-corner. Often I meet them,
dragging themselves feebly and solitarily, up and down the
orchard which is attached to almost every Norman cottage,
or else put in charge of a troop of indocile, rude children,
who torment them unceasingly. Continually I have said
to myself, "Why cannot our peasants be taught the duty
of taking care of their aged parents ? or why, at least, is
there not some asylum for poor old men and women?"—

Macmillan's Magazine for January.
THE ORIGINAL JEST-BOOK.—It is singular to
find how soon the stories became old, even in early times.
Even the exclamation of "Joe Miller ! to indicate a vene-
rable joke, is as old in sense, if not in sound, as the days
of the father of Alexander the Great. When Philip was
the Macedonian king, there was a club of wits in Athens
which met once a week, not in the tavern, but the temple of
Hercules. They had such a favourable opinion of their
own powen, that they chronicled all their own jokes, and
kings sent to borrow the book—" The Book of the Sixty"
it was called, from the number of the members—when
they were depressed by the turn of politics, or by their own
humours, and stood in need of a laugh and its refreshing
influences. Very many "good things" must have been
entered in this proto-jest book, though we do not know
what they wore. For a time they served the.purpose of
"diners out," and of men who carried no wit about with
them save what was contained in their memory of the
wit of others. The volume, however, became so familiar
through its contents being circulated abroad, viva voce,
that the hearers at last got weary of it, and whenever
a dull fellow sought to derive some brilliancy by re-
peating one of the oft-told stories, he, was met by a
general cry of "Come, that's an old Sixty."—Argosy for
January.
THE EMPEROR'S PRIZE.—The Independance Beige,
speaking of an audience which the Papal Nuncio
had with the Emperor Napoleon a few days back, says:—
"It is believed that at this interview Mgr. Chigi handed
to his Majesty the hat and sword which the Pope had
blessed at the last Consistory, and which, according to
custom, are presented to the Sovereign who has rendered
during the year the greatest services to the Holy See and
the Catholic Church.

SONG BIRDS FOR NEW ZEALAND.—The Otago

Times states that Mrs. Bunbury, a lady who arrived from
Great Britain in the William Davie, has landed with quite
a collection of song-birds—only a portion of those which
she had when the ship sailed, but enough, and of kinds, to
constitute a most valuable present to the Acclimatisation
Society, to which body Mrs.Bunbury has presented them.
There are in the collection skylarks, thrushes, blackbirds,
starlings, goldfinches, and linnets, and all of them were
landed in such excellent condition as to prove that

throughout the voyage they had been tended constantly
and with skill. Captain Logan also successfully brought
out some song-birds, although he lost propel tionately
many more than Mrs. Bunbury. Indeed, of some 70
shipped by the captain, only 10 or 12 have survived.
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, REGENT'S PARK.-A
remarkable plant, perhaps more curious than beautiful, is
now in flower in these gardens. and is supposed to be the
first of its kind that has yet flowered in England. It is a
species of agave nearly allied to the so-called American aloe,
said to flower " once in 100 years," but differs from its
brother, and most if not all other members of the agave
family, by carrying its flowers on a pendulous or drooping
flower spike some 10ft. long, curving to one side, with the
point nearly reaching to the ground; the flowers are closely
packed round the stem, and number some thousands. The
plant was raised from seed received-at the gardens from
Mexico about 25 years ago, so that in England, although
perhaps not in its native country, it appears to be of very
slow growth. The name at present attached to the plant
is Agave dasyliroide,s, but it may probably turn out to be a
now species or variety.