The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-19 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, DECI. 18.
The Marchioness of Ely has succeeded Lady Mac-
donald aq Lady in Waiting to her Majesty.
A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon at
the Foreign Office. The Ministers present were Viscount
Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Lans-
downe, Earl Granville, the Earl of Harrowby, Sir G.
Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Secretary Labouchere,
Lord Pantnure, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Charles Wood, the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, the Right lion. M. T. Baineg, and
the Duke of Argyll. The Council sat two hours and a
half.

Colonel Sabine, V.P.R.S., Treasurer of the British
Association, Mr. John P. Gassiot, F.R.S., Chairman of
the Kew Committee, and Mr. John Welsh, of Kew
Observatory, a deputation from the British Association,
had an interview with the Right Hon. Sir Benjamin
Hall yesterday at the office of Public Works, in White-
hall-place, on the matter of the Observatory at Kew.
A deputation from the City, respecting Smithfield
market, had an interview with the Chanceller of the
Exchequer yesterday, at kis official residence in Down-
ing-street. The deputation consisted of Mr. H. L.
Taylor (chairman), Mr. Deputy Hicks, Mr. Deputy
Obbar3, Mr. de Jersey, Mr. Perkins, the City Rcmem-
braucer, and the City Architect.

A deputation frorii the parish of All Saints, Poplar,
*consisting of the Rev. T. T. Baz Ay (Rector), Mr. H. W.
Hill (Overseer), Messr4. Edward Coleman, Juhn Carter,
and Samuel K. Ellison (Vestrymen), and Mr. Charles
C. Ccely (Vestry Clerk), transacted business yesterday
at tie Home Office. The deputation was introduced by
Lord Robert Grosvenor, M.P., and Mr. Charles S.
Butler M,P.

The-Marquis of Lansdowne has arrivei in town from
a visit to Lord Ashburton, at the Grange.
A deputation from the parish of St. Mary's, Batter-
sea, respecting a memorial addressed to Sir Benjamin
Hall, for a pier by the New Bridge, in Battersea-park,
had an interview with the Right Han. Baronet yester-
day at the office of Public Works. The deputation con-
sisted of the Rev. J. S. Jenkinson (Vicar of Battersea),
Mr. W. H. Wilson (Churchwarden), Mr. G. Chadwin
(Vestry Clerk), and Mr. W. Wood:.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governors of the West India Islands.

ACT OF EXCOMMUNICATION AT

COBLENTZ.

We find in the Journal de Frankfort some curious
details relative to an " excommunication" which
has just been pronounced at Cohlentz. The narra-
tive is as follows :

COBLENTS, Dec. 12.—0 n Sunday we were witnesses
of a ceremony which has not been performed for centu-
ries, viz.—an excommunication—the subject being M.
Sonntag, a merchant at Coblentz, who was divorced
from his first wife, and eight years ago was married by
the civil authorities only to his present one.
Last summer M. Sonntag was commanded by the
clergy to separate from his wife, and not obeying their
decree he was on Sunday excommunicated.
Dean Kramentz, after preaching a sermon against the
civil marriage, put on some other sacerdotal garments,
and, accompanied by two clergymen bearing wax tapers,
read, standing in the middle of the church, the sentence
of excommunication against M. Sonntag and his la ly.
He then extinguished the tapers, saying that the indi-
viduals named were not worthy to see the day of the
Lord, and throwing the candlesticks t the ground,
breaking them to pieces, exclaimed, "Let the bells
sound the funeral knell l " We immediately heard the
sound of bells and the chants for the dead.

The Dean, in conclusion, proclararedihat no one who-
aoever was to hold relations with the excommunicated,
to aaluto them, &c. This prohibition has not had much
cffect, for their howe has been tilled ever since with
visitors, and at night they have been serenaded.