accordance with old custom, this omce

be closed, and no paper issued. From time

immemorial, Christmas has been kept as a

holiday in Virginia—a day on which at least

secular business is suspended.

•These are not "merry Christmas

times." Iv the fearful strife going on, the

divisions engendered, and tbe feelings exci-

ted, men have no inclination to be " merry.'

At such a season, however, there is one thing

Iwhich all can unite. Let us "remember

ie poor" and suffering, aud make them asappy as we can, by the bestowal of suchtiaritya8itisin our power to give.

The Weather. —The weather turned coldv yesterday afternoon, and lute last night

there was a heavy northwest gale. The tidein the Potomac to-duy was uncommonly low

Dance sous.—The firing of pistols, tirecrackers, &c, about the streets on ChristmasEve and Christina* Day is always danger-

ous, aud, at such a time as this here, ia f.ol-1ish in the extreme.

Christmas Presents. —The confectiouery Iand fancy stores bave quite a large assort- jment of articles suitable for Christmas feast-

ing and Christmas presents, notwithstand- j

Skating.—Some of the boys had their jskates on early this morning, " trying the jice," on the ponds and shallow waters. Some jice was formed last night on the shores of the jriver and creek.

River Movements.—There has been but jone arrival from below this morning—thatof a small oyster vessel, which passed tho jbatteries last night in the darkness. The jcaptain reports that two large coasting

Bchooners passed the batteries unseen lastnight, but, as yet, they have not arrived up.

The schooner Delaware, before reported at

fort Washington, returuing.unwilling torisk

a passage of the batteries,arrived yesterday,

and is now at. Fowlo'b wharf.

Christmas Eve.—The aspect of the town

to day was far different from the usual busymerry vigil of the great holiday. The toy

and cake shops, usually filled to repletion outhe eve of Christmas, showed only the ord -nary business. The roll of drums and the

roar of artillery have driven Santa Claus

from his pleasant vocation.

Church Ornamentation. -The CatholicChurch in this place has beeu handsomely

Ornamented in view of the festival of Christ-mas. The galleries of the Church bear in

letters of evergreen the following transla-:tioo of a portion of tbe hymn '* Veuite ado- jremus:"

"To Je.«us this day born,Gratefal homage return,

"lis he who all heavenly gifts doth hrmg•; ; IThen e'er let as adore him oar Clod ...nd King.

The Oriel window on the am is embossedwith evergreens, the gas jets and galley |post- are similarly ornamented, while the ,Altar is decorated most handsomely.

The Mayor's Ofkick.—Notwithstanding

the approach of the merry season, whichusually in thil country attends the Christ-mas holidays, there has been but little ebu-llition of the usual dee. It Is owing to this,no doubt, that the Major's office has beenvery-ouiet for tbe last day or two, and that

ibis mo.i.iug not one case came up for adju-dication. \u25a0\u25a0

i.'henews of the death of Prince Albert,

uusband of the Queen of Great Britain,eceived with regret on thij side of the[antic.

_The U. S. House of Representatives ad-raed, yesterday, nntil Thursday.

3«n. Sumner, U. S. A., is improving sifrom the enters of his full. He is stillifined to bis bed. It, willbe two or three*'ks before he can possibly resume his di -s. Ha has requested Gen. McClellan ti»

npirarily relieve him from the c•• Ihis division.Yesterday morning, a destructive fire < c

enrredat No. 101 Broadway, New York. Afive-sf ory brick building, occupied on thelower 11 or by liegeman & Co., as a drugstore, was entirely destroyed in a very s. o:ttime after the fire wai di- -overed. The ea-tima'ed loss is about $05,000.

We have on hand several eomatuaicatedpieces of poetry, fol which, at present, it i*impossible for us to find room. Our limitedspace necessarily compels _us to excludemuch that we would otherwise wish to pub-lish.

GENERAL NEWS.

I The Missouri Republican announces au-

thoritatively that Senator Polk has joinedjtho Confederates at Memphis, and that

I Johnson, the other Missouri Senator, has

been with the Confederates in Western Vir-ginia since last July.

! The efforts being made to abolish Futler-shtps in the army are bringing to light many

abuses not before dreamed of. In Rome in-stances the appointment of sutler has been

given to whoever would agree to contributethe largest bonus to the regimental fund,

which is under the control of the regimentalofficers.

The C. S. State Department has been in-

formed that a route exists through Canada,

by which emissaries from the Confederatesescape to Europe. I ensures have been ta"

ken to cutoff this means of communication,

if possible.According to a U. S. army order just is-

sued, the subsistence department will pur-chase at cost prices all sound articles of sub-sistence saved by the troops or employees

by an economical use or management of the

rations. Allother sales of provisions issuedby the government to any persons whomso-ever are strictly forbidden. This regulation

Is intended to embrace saving.* from bake-ries and in hospitals, as well as all other

savings from the army ration.

The recent great fire at Charleston, fulldetails of which appear in the CharlestonCourier of the 16th inst., is even more ca-

lamitous and destructive than it was at first

supposed to be. The aggregate loss of pro-

perty in buildings, goods, &c, is almost in-

Idible.The Courier roughly estimates it

not less than ten millions of dollars.

Ihe ''Confederate Leather Manufacturing

tnpiitiy"' on the 28th of November electedlir board of directors. The "Southern

ft Manufacturing Company" held a simi-

election on the oth inst.

The tlag of the Texas tamp, at Dumfries,i, is made of the bridal dress of Mrs.igfall—pure white silk, with a "lone star."

The Mayor of New Oileaus has is.-;ued an

jorder directing all the street lamps made of

! copper, and which have been used for burn

'\u25a0ing oil, to be taken down and stored tillthey

!are again required.The Washington Post Offioe is- getting to

be au immense government machine. There

are frequently 70,000 letters received theredaily, and as many dispatched. The reve-nues have risen from *2000 a quarter be-

yond expenses, to $50,000, which will giveaoine itlea of die work.

Fully eleven hundred men are now em-

ployed at the Norfolk Navy Yard, a large

portion of them being engaged in rifling old

and new guns. The mechanical direction ofthe yard is under the supervision uf William

P. Williamson, a resident of Norfdk, andfor many years an engineer in the U. S.Navy.

The telegraph briefly mentioned a few

dny* ago that the Mexicans, at Mataniuras,

had got up a ti'jht, among themselves, not a

very unusual thing for thorn, however. —From the details which have since oome to

head, it seems to have beta quite a seven;

In tho opinion of Beecher, no home c-.n

be a perfectly happy one without ibree grand

i There is a rumor that Geo, Caleb Cuh-•\u25a0 » .... II be Bent to sup: psede Oen, Pbelpf,

I re oeiving a commission as Brig idler General.

A bill bas passed the Legislature of Mi -a\ gippi authorising an advance of treasury

[ DO tes--not to sxeeed the sum ot' $5,000,000

i—to the plantere of tbe State npon thehypothecation ofo itton valued at twenty-five

I- has been said that "joy and revelry at.

every ©an of feelings es mirth at the bed

In New York the warlike Intelligencefrom Europe causes gro.it dullness in gene-

| ral trade, and all articles are mere or less

now visiting the Northern States on fur-

lough. The sick and disabled soldiers are

also being sent home as fast as they recovera sufficient degree of strength to travel.

Borne experiment were recently tried at

I the Washington Navy Y.ird with an appara-jtUS for the ejection of liquidfire, which to

all intents and purposes is the famed Greeklirerevived, the secret ot which haa beenlost.

M. Alexander, a French manufacturer ofgloves sends yearly to America about 00,000dozen pairs of gloves, valued from '2,500,000

to 3,000,000 francs. He manufactures onlyfor export.

The .steamship North Star, from A.-pin-w.ill, has arrived at New York with $022,---000 in treasure.

Captain Morris has officially reportedthat the new steamer Pebsaeula is ready forservice.

A Paris letter says, "Thuilow Weed is

I here looking wise and seemiug busy."

There is much complaint in Wellington

of the great number of staff officers demand-ed by some of the Generals in command.—

! The excess of charges over the proper num-

!ber, it is said, exceeds $300,000 per annum.A letter from Richmond says: There has

beeu a good deal of sickness and; deaths of late among the Union prisoners,

1resulting in many cases from wounds. —Several hundred were sent to Tu.-scaloosa,Ala., last week.

It is rumored that some of the New Eng-

land Representatives are in favor of investi-

gating the shoe contracts, while others op-

pose it. Certain is it that many of the

shoes furnished are miserable affairs.

Paris is said to be gay, in spile of th

somewhat dubious state of the nationafinances, and the great falling off iv Ameri-can trade. The shops and the hotels suffer,but the theatres are crowded to excess.

Apart of the Confederate furet lately at

Dam No. 4, Chesapeake and Oh'«o Canal, itis said, has goue to Martinsburg.

Tho Baptist church, in Beaufort, S. C, is

the largest Baptist church in America. It

\u25a0was established in 1804.

Mr. Sickles, the machinist, the Washing-

ton letter writers report, has been kept on

board the Pensacola until her machinery was

pronounced in working order.

The details of recent movements on the

upper Potomac, furnished by correspondents

of the Northern papers, in letters from Wil-liamsport, give no news of special interest.

James W. Farr, was taken prisoner by theFederal troops at the late fia;ht at Draoei villo.

Colson's Mill,at Dam No. 6, Chesapeake

and Ohio Oaoal, has been burned, and the

Pun residence was set on fire, but thees were extinguished before it burned.

Letters are published in the Northern pa-pers from U. S. prisoners »f war, confined at

different places in the Snath, making tbe

Burgent8urgent appeals for oiotbing and other

v Buston Sunday Herald learns that the ;of battle ship Vermont, now nearly !- for sea, is lestini I for a mstom house ;lospital at Port 11 yal. She will carry

: thirty gun,, and B crew of 0 it over 300 men.

j Th,« Canard dock, when the New Yorkland Liverpool steamers locate, is bow be! /extended upwards of one bundn 1 feet. Th i

i c impaey's uew steamer So >tia willsoon leaveLive) po '1 for Now York, and her immenseBJue—l ciii;- the next largest »ca ol afloat to

the Great Eastern, bar length being 450 feet—demands tlie extension.

The "Bucktail" Rifles, so prominefitlymentioned in connection with the battle ofDraoesville, is tbe one lately commanded byCol. Biddle. If wm with Geo. DdcClellae iv

Western Virginia, and wm recruited in the

mountains of Pennsylvania.

Encke's comet is now visible as a teleeco-

\u25a0t in 'he bead of Pegeaat, movingie southwest. It willpass throughlion in February.

The field of battle at Dranesville, it is

said, presented a fearful scene after the fightwas'over— the dead and wounded lying allabout, and a number of dead horses stretch-ed on the ground.

Heavy cannonading was heard in the di-rection of Tybee Island the night of the17th in*t. The steam transport Marlon, arri-ved at Hilton Head the following morning,and reported that it was from the Confede-rate guns at Fort Pulaski, who were at-

tempting to drive Union forces from TybeeIsland.. The Marion was to return imme-

diately to the Island alter receiving on boarda reinforcement of eight hundred troops.

A Richmond correspondent of the Nash

ville Union and American says .-"-"The*President Davis has U'.de- consideration amatter which would, in all probability, re-

sult in the resignation of <ljn. Wise and allthe officers in his Legion, in which eventOhadiah Jennings Wise, his yon. would re-sume his post as editor of th" Enquirer, andoppose the Administration."

Ilarri-on Stevens, of Montreal, the wealth-iest man in Canada, is a native of Vermont,and owns property in New York to an im-

mense amount.The N. Y. Herald says: There is an abo-

lition conspiracy against the governmentwhich has its eeutre in this city and rami-fies to every part of the Northern States.—Its object is to force the administrationinto its measures by intimidation; force Mr.Lincoln and his Cabinet to abolish the con-stitution of the Union of 17H7, or supersedethem by a violent revolution- It is high

limefor the government to seize the ring-

sit'lers and put them in a place of security."In the hospitals of Washington, Alexao-

riaand CJeor'tettiwn, on the 13th instant,here were eleven hundred and fifty-threeick and wounded soldiers.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Compa-v are running regular trains between

Wheeling and Hancock, and also trainsfrom Parkershurg to the same place, con-necting at Grafton.

WAR NEWS.A '\u25a0kirmrsh between four companies of Fed-

eral troops and a force of Confederates tookplace at New Market bridge, near NewportNews, on Sunday morning. Several of theFederal soldiers were wounded, but the par-ticulars of the engagement were not knownwhen the boat left.

It is stated thnt the Confederates are fittingout an expedition to retako the forts at Hat-teras Inlet. The AVer, which is expected to

rendezvous at Roanoke Island, will consist ofeleven large and propellers, anda number of launches taken from the Nor-

folk navy yard. Arthur Sinclair, late of theU. S. navy, is to command the expedition.

From Missouri, it is stated that parties of

Confederates had destroyed about one hun-

dred miles of the North Missouri railroad,extending from eight miles north of Hudsonto Warrenton. Gen, llallock ha* issued anorder fixing the ncnaltv of death on all per-

! sons discovered engaged in molesting such

!property. A Federal force of one hundredand three men, it is stated, attacked androuted a body of four hundred Confederatesnear Hudson killing two and taking seven-teen prisoners.

From Kentucky, all i*> reported to be qui-et. Geo. Scho.ff, who was said to have

marched from Somerset to attack Zollieofier,has not moved at all, n«r is there any pros-

pect ol an onu-agemimt between them.

A Richmond paper of the 19ih states that,on the previomi day, some Federal gUDboatsascended the North Edisto rivt-r. and landed

Krong force on St. John's Island, thirtyi from Charleston.

OBITUARY.T)ikp. in VVT_.£h:.nston, on tho 28th ult., Mr?.

JANE relief of the late Henry Cryss, ofAlexandria, Va. Ineoajpllsnee with her lust re-quest, her remains wore conveyed to her old homoand plocod by the .ii-la of hur deceased husbandan I children, in St Paul's Cemetery. Tie pa-th otfortitude with which this lady bore the m:iny

severe trials which it pleased Providence to afflict.], t

, ;;, in her worldly pilgrimage; tho heroismw\th w) i i surmounted obstables, appallingto many ami . leartj ths sacrifices ahe madt wrher children's ike, and the christian resignationw-_h ~.,.. \u25a0\u25a0: | . ieided, all batons ef ilimc to the

hands of her Divine Master as tbey were budding•n'0 „.. |, the admiration and esteem

of hsr companions in life.

j*OTlCE—Providenoe permitting, Rev.Elisha p.v. N_b_js willpreach ia the M. B.meothig.bou • i Washington street, to-morrow

Imorning, at 11 o'clock Subject—Nativity ofC ir'st. The pal ;ic ;',re cordially invited to attend.

di 24—•!< _.TOR'S OFFICE!, I

.' :.E\..Ni>ni.\. Dee. 24, 1861 j

mE attention ofkeepers of Ordinaries a.nd_L Rcstanrants aad Oonfeetienets is culled to

chapter 198 ol the Code of Virginia, l«th section,

las well as to tho Corporate laws on the subject ot

keeping open oa the S.-bba:h. All persons aie,

: therefore, notified thai the laws will bo enforced.Tho Here >'-\u25a0 \u25a0of losing if »t '• ors, and keeping

\u25a0ids dors' o- ' tits open, will not prevent fines

'"""''»-"'"'\u25a0 IW.SM«KEKZIF,H-.0,.