The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-24 00:00:00

CORN.

The weather continues broken and overcast, with occa-
sional showers, which are much wanted.
Tof the trade is steady. The
farmers'he generalsupplies tendency
haven e ncfallon off steadily for three or four
weeks past, and must have caused a proportionate deminu-
t on of
stocks
country
o f foreign granary.
The market's reports aro generally firm, but
without much activity.

At Mark Lane this morning the attendance was small,
and the trade as usual on Wednesday was quiet.
Barley, beans, and peas, sold in retail on former terms.
Arrivals of oats were liberal, and secondary qualities
rather easier. Fine samples maintain their values.
Foreign wheat was purchased sparingly, and quotations
remain unchanged.
Floating cargoes of wheat off coast aro held for quite
late rates, but sales aro slow, and the number arrived is
increasing, although but slowly.
Flour is unaltered in value. Best qualities aro marked
555. 60s. ; second and country, 50s. 575. per sack.
NEWGATE AND LEADENHALL.

MEAT.—The marketi were rather firmer at the opening
this morning, and give our quotations for beef and lamb a
higher range, but at the close the top prices were 2d.
lower.

COTTON.
LrIL dull.EtnPeor.., Juno 24.—Sal©s probably 7,000 bales.
Mark

The excavations which are being carried on with
great activity just now at Pompeii have brought
to light two very valuable specimens of ancient
art, viz., two fresco portraits situated under a
portico of the Via Stabiana. It k believed they
represented the master and mistress of the house.
The man wears a magistrate's toga ; the woman is
in the attitude of a person reflecting about what she
is to write ; for she has a style in her right hand,
and is about to carry it to her lips, while in her left
she holds writing tablets. - Both these portraits are
well executed.

WIIITEBAIT.—It is difficult to say what great
mind invented whitebait, but it is not improbable that
Shakspero ate them, and that is a gratifying thing to
reflect upon. Towards Blackwall, just where the river
gets sufficiently impure to feed them, these delicious minia-
ture fish move from April to August. They are men-
tioned as early as 1612, as figuring honourably at
the funeral feast of that wise and benevolent London
the founder of Charter
il
n of James the First, four
yearsus3 merchant,92h
beforeTi This was
sa n
death atu the
g
ot reign
h a kspere, and the year be-
fore the Globe Theatre was burnt down, the year that
Henry the Eighth was acting, and the year before the
New River was completed. Every year these mar-
(an
to be caught,
assemble under the
avv
see lrilyto uws
windowsefires,h a(na nd ioeinfa cg
the
s ti
ofl, ebde Trafalgar,cooi species)dlT.
There is a rumour
among icthyophagists that these little bits of silver,
disgusted (like some of the corporation of London)
atm 0
at
th, e greatlk
of not Loudon
coming nago and modern improve-
as far as Greenwich much
longer. Among the very few things we still covet in
this mutable world there is one thing. We want to be
a Cabinet Minister. The reader may naturally ask
t anon dr aui
p
why. Is it in order to be badgered in the House by
stultifying and criminating quotations from one's
own bitter speeches ? Is it in order to wear the
ludicrous and uncomfortable Windsor uniform, so like
the dress of a stage general or a court footman ? Is it in
order to be talked at, frowned at, snapped at, barked
at, crowed at, brayed at? Is it in order to be held up
to ridicule in ceaseless caricatures ? Is it in order to
double one's enemies and lose half one's friends ? No,
it is in order to enjoy the annual Ministerial fish dinner,
and to get whitebait servod in the best style. This
historical dinner originated with a Scotch merchant,
named Preston, who lived at Dagenam Reach, in Essex.
He used to ask William Pitt down there, to rusticate
and drink port wino with his favourite, George Rose, the
Secretary of the Treasury. Pitt finding Essex inconve-
nient, the friends then took to meeting at Greenwich, and
in course of time most of the other Tory Ministers
were invited, each paying for himself, but Sir Robert
Preston contributing a buck and the champagne. On Sir
Robert's death Mr. Long (afterwards Lord Farnborough)
officially summoned the guests. The thirty-five or forty
guests used originally to. drop down the river in a gilt
Ordszauct barge.—Dlecens I " 411 the ,Year Round."