The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-30
GENERAL S URINARY.

York Express, under ate of September 3,
gives some very charst teristic performances
up il Paraguay. Lopez has aroused the ire of
the British Lion. and if er Msjesty's Minister
is as spunky as he has the credit of being,
Lopez may have an Eng ish war on his hands
Mr.. Christie, the Bri ish Minister near the
Argentine Confederation, started some weeks
since for Paraguay, on lard 81. B. Ms steam
er Wasp, for the purp Sc, it is supposed, of
renewing the English tr, ply, which expires this
year, or of making b tier one in its stead.
The Wasp broke down, ,er propeller becoming
deranged, and she had o return to this port |;
whereupon Mr.. Christi, stook passage on the
Paragusyan merchant o. ,amer Salto do Guayra,
and proceeded in safety 20 Ascension
Soon after biz arrival, ie opened negotiations,
and as preliminary st q waited upon his Elk
cellency the President 10 present his credeu.
tials. At his first visit Sc found Lopez dressed
in prepos,erous costp ne, half military, half
diplomatic, and some parts of it 80 grossly
exaggerated as to MAKE II extremely ridiculous
As part of his uniforn, Lopez wore an i'm.
imense cooked hat, all inged with swansdown
and bedizened with GO lace; and this orna.
ment he persisted in keeping on his head
during the whole interview; at which discour-
tesy MIR Christie took curious umbrsge, as he
is most unyielding in matters of etiquette. He
retired from the interview rather abruptly. and
made official complaint Of the affront the Pres
dent had put upon her Majesty's Minister, by
wearing his hat at an official interview; where
upon the sapient Paragnayan Secretary replied
to the indignant Plenip9, that her Majesty the
Queen always wore he- crown and robes of
state when che received foreign Ministers, and
that the President of Paraguay saw no i'm
propriety in wearing A;s hat, which with him
took the place OF the peculiar ensign of royalty
displayed by the Queen
Mr.. Christie did not ;sait to hold any more
correspondence with a. illustrated Govern.
ment. He asked for hi! passports, and without
delay took passage on, q small English mer
chant steamer. Whe, some thirty or forty
leagues below Ascenstn "A, the Little Polly met
the Parsguayan war 81 amer Tscuari. 1t was
night time when they lighted each other, and
both vessels had lights up. The Tacuari, with
out making signals OF any kind, deliberately
altered her course, and ran plump itto the Lit
tie Folly, cutting her d3wn to the waters edge
The passengers and c,ew all jumped on board
OF the Tacuari, withou. saving paper. Some
OF them had no time t take their hats and the
watch below were gls to be saved in their
night clothes. They g say that Mr.. Christie
did not make YER dignif ed appearance
tumbing over the rail- of the Tacuari in his
sAiH0 ohN oAoWCi6j udUub were tudEKIuI
that they escaped with their lives. The Little
Polly sslk instantly. nd in the morning moth.
ing could be seen Of b ,r.
1t is intimated here that the Tacuari people
had no idea that so { stinguished dignitary
as Mr.. Christie was board the Little Polly.
her only intention w 8 to cripple the Little
Folly, because that " ssel interfered with the
trafflc OF the Sslto Guayra, Ypors, and
other steamers owned by Lopez, which virtual.
ly monopolize the stea n trade OF the river
This case Is seri JUS one, as the steamer
and the whole of her valuable cargo are totally
lost, and are not insered. Nobody supposes
that Mr.. Christie, who sas returned to Panama,
will rest satisfied With 30 inglorious a termina,
ton of his mission to Paraguay.
The fall trade sale os books, which has been
IN progress at Leavitt { Co.'S for the lsst eleven
days, closed on Saturday night, after an pnpre-
cedently prosperous sals. The attendance was
from all parts of the country, and was very
large. Prices ran higt, in some cases exceed
ing the retail rate, and the amount sold, though
not as great as was Anticipated, was still very
good. This sale show that the book business
of the country is rapidly recovering from the
depression of last year, and there is no evidence
of the imitation which characterized the sales
of other years. The t. ,al amount of the sales
will reach nearly $4,000. OF Appleton L.
Co.'s books, 200 wsrth were sold Phillips,
Sampson, Il Co.'s inS2ice reached $40 900 !;
Derby Jackson, $4,000; Little, Brown, &
Co., $1,000. This firm gold a number of Kents
Commentaries--,he 6s,t time this book has
made its appearance at a trade sale. Harding
d Sons, of Philadelphia, sold $4,000 worth Of
their beautiful Bibles. Leavitt & Allen dis.
posed of $4,000 worth of books; Blanchard 4
Lea, $1,000; Ticknor Fields, So, 900. For
elementary educational sorks there was large
demand /; albums and lolyday works sold we'll
Webster's Dictionary, Hsecher's Life Thoughts,
and The Prince of ths House of David, had
large sales. Of the lsst-named work, 5000
copies were sold, showing large demand for
it. Altogether the sales were satisfactory to
the contributors, and SHOW the book business
to be in healthy condition.
The Republic of Sac Marine, in Italy, has
awarded medal to Maria Mitchell, the astron.
omer of Nantucket. 4 a honorary diploma of
the Berlin geographical society has been for.
warded to Prot. Bache, of the coast survey.
red Prot. Gould to &C icn, that be announces
the discovery of Isw asteroid by George
Searle, his assistant. Prof. Gould also pub.
fishes card, asking to have the question
whether the trustees G,isauoted his letters re.
ferred to an impartia tribunal, composed of
two persons selected b each party, and ffth
selected by the four. fhe trustees have pub
lished denial of the alleged garbling.
Captain Park, of th British brig John But.
Ter, arrived at New 7 ,rk from Port au Plat,
9th inst, states that Santa Anna marched into
Santiago on the LIST yay of September, with
z, 900 men and 1000. horses, and took posses.
sion of the Fort. SAINT ago had previously capt..
ulated, the President, y alverde, fed to Monte
Christie, there to embark for Turks Island
The Collector of Customs at Port an Plat, and
three men from Sants9go, also left for Turks
leland on the oh of September. When Capt.
Park left, there was mr., Government, the princi-
pal merchants had clsed their stores, the pa
per money was of Nc value, and no person
knew how to sell or buy, or what the next
change was to be.
The St. Paul MINI. Minnesotian of the l4th
inst. says that recent accounts from the Selkirk
settlement contradict the previous reports of
the destruction of the crops by grasshoppers;
on the contrary, the oops were most plentiful,
and the colony was neser better off for supplies
About the 18th of Juife the whole country was
filled with young grpsshoppers, just Matched,
and great fears were entertained of their destroy.
ing the crops, but q, soon as they could fly
they all rose in the al /, and attempted to cross
the Red river, but WIRE nearly all drowned in
the passage.
The Russian com,nercial city, Astrschan,
on the Voga, forty N, les from its entrance into
the Caspian Sea, was, visited by destructive
in August, the account of which
shows q want of means to subdue a FIRE, aud an
ineficiency in the us4 of obvious and simple
means, quite Turkish in stupidity:
: According to the Cologne Gazette, the fire