The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-23 00:00:00

82 resisting to which will be laid before the Supreme Council— it will be shown that, to come to an amicable arrangement, we were willing to make every concession compatible with our solicitude tor the welfare of the Monarchy, and espe cially for the maintenance of its constitutional relations, established after great efforts. Ills Majesty was loudly cheered. AMERICA. Intelligence up to the 9th inst. states that the President's message in reply , to the demand of Congress for information upon Central American affairs was received on the 9th. The President states that Commodore Paulding committed a great error in making the arrest, but thinks he was ac tuated by patriotic motives and a desire to promote the interests and vindicate the honour of his country. No injury was sustained by Nicaragua, but she was rather benefited by the act, and she alone would have the right to complain, though it was quite certain she would never exercise that right. A long and warm debate followed the reading of the message, in which Messrs. Seward, Doolittle, and Pearce sustained the President's views, and Messrs. Davis, Crittenden, Brown, Pugh, Toombs, and Douglas opposed them. The message was finally referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The news from Kansas and Utah was not of any great importance. Cori au lasktort. The marriage festivities have engaged the Court during the week. The King of the Belgians, the Duke of Brabant, and the Count of Flanders arrived on Monday, and on that evening her Majesty gave a grand banquet to her illustrious visitors. On Tues day the Prince of Prussia arrived, and her Majesty and the Court attended the first dramatic representa tion at Her Majesty's Theatre. On Wednesday a state ball was given, and attended by upwards of eleven hundred of the aristocracy. On Thursday an ope ratic performance was attended by the Court at Her Majesty's Theatre. On Friday a grand banquet was given, and this evening the Royal party will again attend Her Majesty's Theatre. The Countess di Persigny will give a ball to a select party of the aristocracy on Wednesday next, at Albert-gate House. The grand ball in honour of the marriage of the Princess Royal, which was to have taken place at Willis's.rooms on the evening of. Wednesday next, has been postponed to the fol• lowing day, in consequence of the Countess de Per signy having arranged to receive on that evening. Earl Granville has arrived in town from Castle Howard, Yorkshire, the noble earl having gone there to pay a visit of condolence to the Countess of Carlisle. THE WEDDING OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL. Tits ceremonial to be observed at the marriage of her Royal Highness Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland, with his Rohl Highness Prince Frederick William Nicholas Charles, only son of his Royal Highness Frederick William Louis, Prince of Prussia, which ceremony is to take place at the Chapel Royal of St. James, upon Monday, the 25th of January, 1858, at balf•past twelve o'clock, has been resolved on as follows : The illustrious individuals and others composing the procession, except those who go to Buckingham Palace, will assemble in the Throne-room at St. James's Palace, not later than half-past eleven • o'clock. The foreign princes not forming part of the pro- cession will be conducted to their seats upon the haut pas of the Chapel Royal by the Master of the Ceremonies on their arrival. Their attendants will be shown to seats assigned to them in the chapel. The bridegroom, on his arrival at St. James's Palace, will be conducted to the Presence Chamber, where the procession of his Royal Highness will• be formed, in readiness to follow that of her Majesty, which will first enter the chapel. Upon arrival at St. James's Palace, her Majesty the Queen will be conducted to the Royal Closet. The bride, with her father, the Prince Consort, and his Mjesty the King of the Belgians, will be con ducted to the Queen's retiring room. Her Majesty's procession having been marshalled in the Throne-room by • Garter Principal King of Arms, will move through the state apartments, down the state staircase, to the Chapel Royal. Her Majesty having been conducted to her chair, the Lord Chamberlain, preceded by drums and trumpets, will return to the Presence Chamber to conduct the bridegroom, who will be supported by his father and the Grand Duke of Baden, to the Chapel Royal. His Royal Highness, having been conducted to his THE PRESS, JANUARY 23, 1858. seat near the altar, the Lord Chamberlain will return to the Queen's retiring room to conduct to the Chapel Royal the bride, who will be supported by her father and the King of Belgians, and whose train will be borne by eight unmarried daughters of dukes, marquises, and earls:—The Lady Susan Pelham Clinton, the Lady Emma Stanley, the Lady Susan Murray, tue Lady Victoria Noel, the Lady Cecilia Gordon Lennox, the Lady Katherine Hamilton, the Lady Constance Villiers, the Lady Cecilia Molyneux. On arriving at the chapel the bride will be con ducted to her seat in the chapel, on the left side of the haut pas leading to the altar, near her Majesty's chair of state, and his Royal Highness the Prince Consort and his Majesty the King of the Belgians will he conducted to their seats on the haut pas, near the bride. The Lord Chamberlain and Vice-Cham berlain will stand near her Majesty. As each procession enters the chapel a march will be played. When the bride has taken her place near the altar, a hymn will be sung and the service will com- The service will be performed by his Grace the Archbisbop of Canterbury ; the Lord Bishop of London, Dean of her Majesty's Chapels Royal ; the Bishop of Oxford, Lord High Almoner; the Bishop of Chester, Clerk of the Closet; the Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, Domestic Chaplain to the Queen ; and the Rev. Dr. Wesley, Sub• Dean of her Majesty's Chapels Royal. The bride will be given away by her father, the Prince Consort. At the conclusion of the service, which will last about forty minutes, Handel's Hallelujah Chorus will be sung, and Mendelssohn's Wedding March will be played as the procession of the b ide and bridegroom is leaving the chapel. In consequence of the great inconvenience felt on the occasion of her Majesty's marriage, when signing the registry in the vestry of the Chapel Royal, which is excessively small, it has been de termined to alter that arrangement on the present occasion. The registry, tha..elore, will not be signed in the chapel at all, but in the Throne-room, when the high contracting parties shall have returned there. The dejeuner, which takes place afterwards at Buckingham Palace, will only include the royal guests, the bridesmaids, and one or two of the chief officers of State and foreign Ministers. For the concert, which takes place at the Palace in the evening, a large number of invitations have been issued. _ The Chapel Royal will be thrown open to the public, and will remain open for some days, with the state apartments in St. James's, after the con gratulatory Drawing-room of the 30th inst., and not on the 27th and 28th insts., as previously an nounced. _ _ The preparations within St. James's Palace and the Chapel Royal are now concluded. The principal staircase leading direct from the Palace to the Colourcourt has been quite redecorated. The railings and balustrade are richly gilded, and on all the landings of the stairs immense draped mirrors have been fixed, so as to give a most brilliant aspect to the whole place, especially during the passage of the various processions, which will be multiplied by the mirrors to an apparently indefinite extent. The seats, which have been erected so as to inclose the side of the corridor formerly open towards the Colour-court, with the columns of the corridor, have all been draped and finished so as to resemble in all respects the interior of the Palace, and their effect ►s rich and striking. In the Chapel Royal itself, the carved oak galleries on either side, relieved with gilding, exhibit a decided improvement on the old high sleeping pews which formerly disfigured the Chapel Royal. A very rich communion-table and rails are erected. The communion-table is richly draped with crimson velvet and gold, and adorned with the plate of the Chapel Royal. Most of the pieces of this are of pure gold, and of Queen Anne's time, hut there are some noble salvers and flagons with the crest and cipher of Charles I. The royal pew, over the entrance porch, has been draped with curtains and fittings of crimson velvet and gold, and this is designed to accommodate the corps diplomatique, more than thirty of whom will be present on this occasion. But, with all the care and economy of space which can be exercised, the number which can be present at the ceremony in the chapel is limited in the ex treme; and, indeed, we believe we are within the mark when we say that not more than 1,500 or so can witness either the ceremony or procession from any point of view inside the Palace. The tickets which will admit the fortunate few to these places have already been given among the Ministers and the great officers of State in certain proportions, and they will again distribute them among their personal friends. Her Majesty, however, with much kind feeling, has, we believe, specially recommended that the tickets shall eventually reach those who may be supposed to feel the strongest interest in the Princess Royal—viz., young ladies of her own age. The visitors, therefore, who will occupy seats in th e saloons of St. James's, being nearly all young ladies, and in full Court dress, will form, perhaps, the most. brilliant and beautiful portion of the whole spectacle. Visitors admitted to the covered seats in the Colour. court will nut be required to attend in Court dress, though no person in mourning of any description will be admitted. It has been stated that peers having seats in the Chapel Royal will wear their robes of state, but this is an error, as peers cannot wear their robes out of the House of Lords except at a coronation. All gentlemen present in the chapel will be required to wear full uniform, and the ladies Court dress, and all must be in their places by half-past eleven o'clock. After that hour none will be allowed to enter.. His Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia, with his suite, will arrive at the chapel at twelve o'clock. The procession of her Majesty will follow next, the bride elect, with her bridesmaids and ladies, arriving a few minutes before half-past twelve. The wedding rings that are to be used at the approaching nuptials are of Silesian gold, and have been made in Breslau. The maker of them—who has also a large gold refining establishment in that town—has bad the two ringi mounted on a skin of parchment, on which is engrossed, with every atten tion to esligraphy, a short history of his gold works in Reichenstein, from which we learn that in former days Silesia was a California on a small scale ; gold was not ouly obtained by mining, but also by washing the sands of certain rivers (the same is still in the recollection of old people as having been the case with the Rhine). In this form of the heading to an historical document the two wedding rings have lately been forwarded to the Royal bridegroom. The marriage gifts of her Royal Highness the Princess Royal are exceedingly beautiful. The dressing-case is presented by the Queen and the Prince Consort. It is of ebony, surmounted with gift ornaments, the design of which is the crown and royal arms. The interior is of blue silk velvet. The fittings are of gold. The dressing-case is eighteen inches long and about twelve inches high. It is a most beautiful specimen of workmanship. Among the presents intended to be given to the Princess Royal are mentioned a beautiful bracelet which Lady Grosvenor is to preeent. The device is two horse shoes, sot with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds in massive gold. The Earl and Countess of Fife present a very beautiful casket of Cairngorm. The bridesmaids are each to be presented with a locket, which is considered the most appropriate souvenir. The shape will be oval, the size about three quarters of an inch in width and an inch in length, very beautifully worked in massive gold, the ciphers of the Princess being introduced in turquoise and diamonds. The preparations at the Castle for the reception of the Royal bride and bridegroom are completed, and the rooms appropriated to their use are those which were occupied by the Queen in her younger days, at the time when she was the guest of William IV. — namely, those called the Duchess of Kent's apart ments, in the Lancaster rower. The Royal couple are expected to arrive at Windsor on the evening of the 25th, at five o'clock, and to travel by the Great Western Railway from Paddington to George-street, from whence they will proceed to the Castle under an escort of the Royal Horse Guards (Blue). On the 27th her Majesty and the Prince Consort, accompanied by their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg and the Duke of Cam bridge, will come to the Castle to attend the in stallation of the Prince of Prussia as a Knight of the Garter, when about sixteen of the knights will also be in attendance. In the evening a grand banquet will take place in the Waterloo Chamber; and on the following day a banquet upon an extensive and magnificent scale will be given in St. George's-ball. On Saturday, the 30th, the Drawing-room will be held, and on the Tuesday following the Royal couple will embark from Gravesend for their future home. The embarkation will take place from the Town Pier, off which the royal yacht, escorted by a squadron of men.of-war, will be moored. It remains for us only to state that the bridal dress of silken tissue, woven by the bands of our own Spitalfields weavers, is of white and gold, and a perfect marvel of flexibility and lustre; indeed, considering the quantity of real bullion employed in its fabrication, the ingenuity and delicacy of mani pulation exhibited by our Spitalfields artisans can hardly be too much commended. The same obser vation applies to her Majesty's dress, the only difference being in the colour and metal employed, which in the latter case are, the first, a tint which the French call maure, and the metal silver. The learned in these matters call the material on which both dresses are brocaded moire antique, and we are informed that in its production the looms of Spitalfields far surpass even their celebrated com petitors of Lyons. The velvet of which her Majesty's train is made is foreign, it not being possibl e to obtain the colour in England, otherwise it was her