The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-20 00:00:00

at court.

Her Majesty and Prince Albert, with the Princess
Royal, accompanied by his Majesty the Ring of the Bel-
gians, with the Duke de Brabant, the Count de Flandres,
and the Princess Charlotte, visited the Exhibition of the
Works of Industry of All Nations yesterday morning,
arriving at the Eikiblisa at 20 minutes past nine o'clock.
The royal site eaisted of the Hon. Mary Seymour,
Nam* Es Moistandse, General Wemym, Colonel Boa-
Viazstrailleld de Miseiterke, and Count Albert Re Briey.
Her sad the sagest parts remained an hour at the
E and then returned to Palace.
Theliargas of Anglesey had an audience of the Queen

The Dukes of Gloomier end the Duke of Cambridge
visited the Ike al the Delideas yesterday at Rockingham
Palace. The Moine de Mealy, the Miami/ d'Orleans,
and the Prime Priem de Jehaville, she paid • visit to
his Majesty
Prince Al soloist by Coked lisawds, reds out on
horseback yeeletrity iesenAng.
Prince Anhui and the Primness Reims sad Louisa took
an skin, yesterday la an open earriege sad ibur.
The king of the Belgians, eosempeimed by the Duke de
Brabant, Count de Rendre, nail the Princes Charlotte,
visited the Duchess of Kent, the Dubssef Oloneestmo end
the Duke of Cambridge yesterday, et their reweave resi-
dences.
The Queen and Prince Wheel, esseepaided by the
Princess Alice and the Primes Levies, tee/ a drive yester-
day afternoon is an open melees sad tour. The equerries
in waiting, Osumi Wagers and Colonel Convene, attended
on horseback.
Der Majesty land a dinner party. yesterday evening at
Buckinfiexa,Pelnee. The company included the King of
the Be • the Duchess of Rent, the Duke de Bra-
bant, t e Comm de Plashes, Monsieur and Ma-
dame Van de Weyer, the Marquis of Westminster, Lady
Augusta Brace, Baroness de [teeth, Colonel de Moerkerke,
Count Albert is Briey, Sir Hubert Carswell, and Baron
Roppert.

- -
The Westadoter-bridge Commission met yesterday at
the office of her Majesty's Commies' ioners of Woods and
Forests, Whitehall•place. Present: Lord Seymour, Lord
Sudeley, Alderman Humphrey, Lord Lansdale, Lord
R. Grosvenor, Sir It. Inglis, and the Right Hon. C. Tess•
nylon D'Eyncourt.
The Right Hon. Henry Hobbouse had an interview with
Sir George Grey yesterday, at the Home-office.—Mr.
James K. Blair had also an interview with the right hon.
baronet.
Mr. James Lloyd and Mr. John Barnett had an interview
yesterday with Lord Seymour, at the office of her Majesty's
Commissioners of Woods and Forests, respecting the pro-
posed park for Finsbury.
Despatches were received yesterday, at the Colonial-office,
from the Governor of Western Australia. Despatches were
sent off yesterday from the Colonial-office to the Lord High
Commissioner of the lonian Islands and the Governor of':
Malta. Despatches were ales sent off to the Governors of
Ceylon, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council met yester-
day at the Council-office. The lords present were, the Chief
Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the Judge of the
Prerogativo Court,
..the Chancellor of the Duchy of Corn-
wall, and Sir Edward Ryan. The appeal, " 'Wallace r.
Fielding" (the Oriental), part heard, was concluded. The
appeal, Kaapche r. Smith" (the Commerce), was beard
and decided.

PRINCE ALBERT, attended by the lion. Colonel
Bourcrie and lion. Col. Grey, visited the Northern Schools
of the parish of St. Martin-in-the-fields, after presiding at
the meeting held at St. Martin's-hall, on the occasion of the
Jubilee of the Propagation of the Gospel. The number of
children in attendance at the schools was 3410; and, after
seeing them arranged in their several school-rooms, his
Royal Highness proceeded to the covered play-ground on
the roof, where 120 clothed children of the parochial
schools, and about 400 of the children of the Old National
Schools, were assembled, and, by his Royal Highness's
permission, welcomed their royal visitor with a song. The
Prince entered his name in the visitors' book, as a perma-
nent record of his visit. The vicar and clergy, with the
churchwardens and school committees, were in attendance.

MR. THACKERATS LECTURES.

Willis's Rooms were crowded yesterday, as
usual, with all that is most distinguished in society and
literature. Mr. Thackeray discoursed this time on Prior,
Gay, and Pope.
Matthew Prior, said he, early signalised himself by at-
tacking (in conjunction with Montague) the patriarch Dry-
den. Did not everybody know the MUM Mouse (zed Coun-
try Mouse by heart now-a-days ? What !—it was not gene-
rally known . Yet, as a natural consequence of its publi-
cation, Prior had been made in those times of his, Secretary
to the Embassy at the Hague. hose were the days when
your fortune was made if you could turn out an epigram or
a copy of verses. For of course with these qualifications
you were just the man to watch over important commercial
interests abroad. Prior, we were informed by Spence, was
wont, having spent the greater part of the evening with
the moat distinguished men of his time, to go off
and finish it with a soldier and his wife in Long-acre. We
were nut, therefore, to be surprised if his writings smacked a
little of the conversation of his Long-acre acquaintances.
But they were easy, humorous, showed a great deal of
good sense, and perhaps the great Samuel himself knew
Prior's works far better than he chose to say.
Having sketched off Prior in a few strokes, the lecturer
proceeded to John tiny. Gay deserved to be, and was, the
friend of everybody. His success offended nobody. Swift
used to pet him, as the Brobdignag maid of honour did
little Gulliver. The Duke and Duchess of Queensberry took
him under their protection, and with them he had his
saucer of cream, and played about, and grew fat, and so
died. lie grew less original and diverting, perhaps, in his
latter days. Gay :' was • little round French abk of a
man," said Mr. Thackeray. As for hie writings, they bore
the same relation to poetry that little Dresden china figures
did to seulpture. And the man himself, with his playful-
ness, his simplicity, and his goodnature, was altogether
like one of the Savoy boys who play the hurdygurdy.
These two writers pourtrayed and dismissed—in a way at
Imes so simple and so graphic—(the means so apparently
trifling and the likeness so amusing, that you were remioded
of the figures produced by the shadow of fingers on the
wall)—Mr. Thackeray proceeded to speak of Pope. If he
was not a humorist and wit, who was one ? Every man
of letters should respect Pope, he said, as the greatest lite-
rary artist England has had. He perfected incessantly,
borrowed an idea or a cadence wherever he could.
His youth in Windsor Forest formed a beautiful picture of
study and aspiration.
With regard to l'ope's letters, those to Lady Wortley
Montague were pert, odious, and affected. His love was
not edifying. He hated her afterwards with a fervour
that was far more genuine. But (if you excepted the
let-
ters to women) no collection afforded more delightful read-
ing. There was perhaps a little too much consciousness in
them—a little too much that seemed to imply that the
writers were addressing generations. But there was in
them something tine, edifying, and ennobling. In
these the statesmen and wise of the time held communion.
And there was something grand about the air of great men.
They spoke with a larger generalisation than common men.
Nothing was more grand than the love and friendship the
great men of that time bore one another. How Pope spoke
of Bolingbroke! " Show me," exclaimed Mr. Thackeray,
" six common-place middle-aged gentlemen as friendly as
they were."
He now reviewed Pope's career in detail, touching on the
delicate question of his relation to Addison, and taking, on
the whole, a very favourable view of Pope's character.
Steele, Mr. Addiaon's man, and his own man too, supported
yew* Mr. Pope. Pope was one of the Addison set when
and when John Dennis attacked Coto, Ye at-
tacked attic in • lampoon to avenge his patrols. It was
a masa production, and such as Addisoa could not love.
It was as dirty (the sarcasm here was very characteristic)
that it his usually been printed in Swift's works too!"
I with," the lecturer continued, " that Addison could
have lowed him better.': But Addison could act hear an
equal. When Pope found that his pinion was is strong as
anybody's, he soared on his own way. In deserts' each
other they followed an impulse of nature.
Mr. Thackeray Asa detailed the cireassetenese of the
publication or Thlodi's rival traasktion Asada Died "
which, as oar madam ars aware, is realty atteibused to a
wish on the part et/Milan to hut Pope's TIMM Mr.
Thackeray preserved the supdaion of Pope's Moe
under the eiressrleases whet' natural. He that recited
with sorpliado (the falivery beiffibpsetraps, esetewhet too
slow) the basal limes at " which
Macaulay lass eisserved " that evey Engler lies,
or ogli:bilLeoilmon, by heart." Such a weeps?. asiatis,...
he ma for anybody. s
bleeds tbat black 'Nand. lie ought to be drawn,
J
St. fistralism, with on wow in his side.
observed that
the
was ca.l
wit a=
icyhumoroady who was set M (1w and
shortened the lives end Warred mislead=
gestiman)--and having meld the refine sat sad palish
of Isis manors—hi examented IS his Mel aliretiew. His
siothir's lore imparts esmitlibig Ilse a saint-Oa riesetity
wherswe it lin every cetionte of his tii4:te
to feem had big death was an
braulital was the swag et that high soul—Ube the will
ca the aseissit statue Wiese beauty it hider and liatibitem
Nest sass a cams pletersagse emeesat rhi=
SIN/01/118, with Chuirelearb—enis et the meet
Mk Imago et the imam Mr. Thohoorag dealt
itpa-
tialy with the meabalwile ; chewed that sea posy bed a
D
to natilar Is
eggrieved. It the hems et
Duncied marableil_is aminvkles the rade
alt • beide wag—rope did geese amen le the literary
eicaraeler. H• it was tribe eseselat authorship in the
pubis Riad with meaty. guider, &ht. drink, cov=
cosls-rd lofts haw yeah the landlady had
He consiedsd by reading the asisheated analpewip id
the " Donald," in abash Pepe prephseise sad Esesdhes
the triumph el DION= and ltas.
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el this asst istaredine diessuree.

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