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

,
rs: Do (Red Sea Telet,,raph), An,., 1908
E cbc,quer Bills, £l,OOO, 2 &21 per Ct.... 25 pm
Do £5OO — pra
Do. £lOO & £2OO — pin
Bank of England Stock. 44 per Cent 241 33
Do. Account
INDIAN aOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
ndiaa :cock, 104 per Cont., April 1871 —
Do. Account
- Do. 5 per Cent. July, 1880
Do. 4 per Cent., Oct. 1888
Do. Certificates —
Do. Enfaced Paper 4 per Cent —
Do. 5 per Cent., Jan. 1872
Do. 51 per Cent., !day 1879 lOB 1
Do. 5 per Cent., Rup. Deb., 1872 —
Do. do. 1877 —
Do. do. 188')
Do Deb., 5 per Cent., Aug. 1873
Do. Bonds, 5 per Cent., £l,OOO •
Do under £1,000
FOREIGN FUNDS—TWO O'CLOCK.
Argentine Republic, 6 per Cent 72
AnAtrian Bonds, 5 per Cent. 1859
Brt..).ilian 5 per Cent —
Da. /1 per Cent.,'lBs2-58-50
Do. 1853 -
Do. 5 per Cont., 1865
lio Account 751 it 4
Do. £lOO Loads
Buenos Ayres 6 per Cent.
Do 2 per Cent. (Deform! 3 per Cent.
.0 kba, 6 lair Cent.
Cd.nan 6 per Cent
ie. 41 per Cent
00. 6 per Cent., B •
Do., 1867
Do., 7 per ,Cent., 1866 9Ol
Do., Scrip £32 paid ... —
0 . tubian, 6 per Cent..
•
D mist'. 3 p ,r Cent., 1825
D nnbiau Principalities, 7 per Cent
Do 8 per Cent., 1867
El:.ador New Consolidated, 1 per Clew —
tlgyptiar, 7 per Gent
i to. Se, oad Issue
D '. £5 '0 Bonds
Do. £lO6 Bonds —
Do. 1861
Do. .i 5 .10 Bonds
Do. £lOO Bonds ..... 83
Government Railway Debentures .... 921
Greek, 5 per Cent., 1824-5, ex Coups
Do. Account
Do. Coupons
Do. Account
G tatemala 6 per Cent .. —
Honduras Gov. Rail. Loan., 7p. Ct., £l5 pl pm
It idau a per Cc!: t., 1865 —
Do. Account . —
Do. Maremmana ltaiway —
M. +xicar. 3 per Cdnt • —,
Ditto for Account • l5l
Dn. 1864 —
Do 6 per Cent. Anglo-French —
liontevideau 'i; per Cent.
•
Moorish imperial 5 per Cent
Now Granada ll/
Do 3 per Con —
Do. Deferred
Do Land Warrants (Hectares)
Peruvian 5 per Cent. 1865
Do Account _
Do 41 per Cent. (Uribarreu)
Do 44 per Cent.. 1862
Do Account
Po:tuguese 3 per Ct., 1853, '6, '7, '9,'60,'2,'3
Russian 5 per Cent., 1822, £ St —
Do 41 per Cent. 1850
Do 41 per Cent., 1860
Do 3 per Cent., 1859
Do 5 per Cent., 1,362 ......•..
Do. Anglo-Dutch, 1861, £lOO Bonds BB
Do. do. £B4 15s. do —
Do., 1866, £lOO 80nd5.... B7l 1
Do. do. £B4 15s. do —
Sardinian, 5 per Cent —
Spanish 3 per Ceti
Do Account
Do New Deferral
Do Account
Do Passive 251 1
Do Ace/ant
Do Com. Cert. of Coup. not funded
Do Account —
Turkish 6 per Cent. —
Do Account
Do 6 per Cent. 1858
Do Account
Do £lOO Bonds
Do 6 per Cent., 1862 _
Do Account
Do £lOO Bonds 6l
Do.. 1863
Do 5 per gent., 1865
Do Account
Do 6 per Cent., 1865
Do 4 por Cent., Guaranteed •••
'Venezuela, 3 per Cent.
Do Account —

Dividends on the above ptiyagle in London.
French Rentes, 3 per Cent., Ex. 251.
Hub 5 per Cent. 1851, Ex. 251. - 1
Do. Account
TWO @ln
Consols, Money' 9li 21
Do. Account

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day
GRAVESEND, Friday Morning.
Arrived Sikkebu Fena, from Groningen.
Sailed—Zurburan, steamer, for Cadiz; Panther, steamer,
for Boulogne.

DEAL, Friday Morning.

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

Anchored.--Normandy, screw steamer, from Taganrog
for London.

OLD FOLK IN NORMANDY.—In the provincial dis-
tricts of France one cannot fail to be struck by two equally
noticeable facts in the families of the peasants: children
are brought np 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 my poor people some few ancient friends whose
sons 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,
the amount and payment of which small pittance the ma-
gistrate often has both to decide and enforce. Tho 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?"—
liacmillan's Magazine for January.
THE ORIGINAL JEST-BOOK.—It is singular t 3
fine how soon the stories became old, even in early times.
Lveu the exclamation of "Joe Miller ! " to indicate a vene-
rable joke, is as old in sense, if not in sound, as the days-
of father of Alexander the Great. When Philip was
the Macedonian king, there was a club of wits in Athens
which inet once a week, not in the tavern, but the temple of
Hercules-. They had such a favourable opinion of their
own powers, 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
humour; and stood in need of a laugh and its refreshing
influences. Very many "good things" must have been
entered in this proto-lest book, though we do not know
what they were. 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, ha was met by a
general cry of " Come, that's an old Si sty.".—Argosy for
January. _

THE EMPEROR'S PRIZE. —The Independance Beige,
speaking, of an audience which th e Papal Nuncio
had with the Emperor Napoleon a few o,ays back, says:—
" It is belieied that at this interview lifgr. 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 tl.te 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 lauded with quite
a collection of song-birds—only a portion of those which
she had when the ship sailed, but enough, raid 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, thruslLes, blackbirds,
starlings, goldfihches, and linnets, and al'i. 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 propm tionately
many more than Mrs. Bunbury. Indeed, of some 70
shippel by the captain, only 10 or 12 have s urvived.

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, REGENT'iS PARIC.—A
remarkable plant, perhaps more curious that', beautiful, is
now in flower in these gardens, and is suppo led to be the
first of its kind that has yet flowered in Eagle nd. It is a
species of agave nearly allied to the so-called An terican aloe,
said to flower "once in 100 years," but diff.?rs from its
brother, and most if not all other members o.f the agave
family, by carrying its flowers on a pendulous or drooping
flower spike some 10ft. long, curving to one sid,), with the
point nearly reaching to tbe ground; the flowers ire closely
packed round the stem, and number some thousands. The
plant was raised from seed received at the garde'us from
Mexico about 25 years ago, so that in England, although
perhaps not in its native country, it appears to be o.f very
slow growth. The name at present attached to the plant
s Agave dasyliroidu, but it may probably tura out to be a
. •
now species or variety.