The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-12 00:00:00

The Queen held a second Court at Buckingham
Palace yesterday afternoon.
Her Msjesty, accompanied by their Royal High-
nesses the Princess Helena and the Princess Louise,
and attended by the Hon. Mrs. Bruce, Lord Alfred
Paget, and Colonel the Hon. A. Hardinge, arrived
at the Palace at half •past eleven o'clock.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
of Wales, attended by Lady de Grey, the Hon. Mrs.
W. Grey, the Marquis of Abercorn, Lord Harris,
Lord Alfred Hervey, the Hon. R. H. Meade, and
Major Teesdale. arrived at Buckingham Palace
shortly before three o'clock.
Field-Marshal his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, attended by his equerry, Colonel Tyr-
whitt, also arrived at the Palace.
Her Majesty, accompanied by their Royal High.
nesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess
Helena, the Princess Louise, and the Duke of Cam-
bridge, entered the White Drawing-room at three
o'clock.
In attendance upon her Majesty were the Viscount
Sydney, Lord Chamberlain ; the Earl of St. Ger-
mans, Lord Steward; the Marquis of Ailesbury,
Master of the Horse; the Duchess of Wellington,
Mistress of the Robes ; the Marchioness of Ely,
Lady in Waiting ; Lady Caroline Barrington, Lady
Superintendent ; Viscountess Chewton, Bedchamber
Woman in Waiting; the Hon. Mrs. Robert Bruce,
Bedchamber Woman ; the Hon. Lucy Lyttelton
and the Hon. Emily Cathcart, Maids of Honour in
Waiting; Viscount Castlerosse, Vice Chamberlain;
Colonel Sir Thomas Biddulph, Master of the
Household; Lord Methuen, Lord in Waiting ; Sir
William Hoste, Groom in Waiting ; Lord Alfred
Paget and Colonel the Hon. A. Hardinge, Equerries
in Waiting; the Marquis of Tweeddale, Gold
Stick in Waiting; the Earl of Ducie, the Cap-
tain of the Yeomanry of the Guard ; Lord Foley,
the Captain of the Gentlemen at Arms ; Lord George
Manners, Silver Stick in Waiting; Col. M. Bruce,
the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting; Lieutenant.
General the Hon. Sir Charles Grey ; the Earl of
Bessborough, Master of the Buckhounds.
The following distinguished persons had the
honour of receiving invitations to attend the Court:
—The Archbishop of Canterbury and Miss Langley,
the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of York and
Mrs. Thomson, the Archbishop of Armagh and Mrs.
Beresford ; the Duke of Argyll, the Lord Privy
Seal, and the Duchess of Argyll; Earl Russell,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; Sir George
Grey, Secretary of State for the Home Department,
and Lady Grey ; Right Hon. Edward Cardwell,
Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Mrs. Card-
well ; the Earl de Grey, Secretary of State for
War, and Countess de Grey ; Sir Charles Wood,
Secretary of State for India, and Lady Mary Wood ;
the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and Mrs. Gladstone; the Duke of
Somerset, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the
Duchess of Somerset; the Lord Stanley of Alder.
ley, the Postmaster-General, and Lady Stanley of
Alderley ; the Earl of Clarendon, the Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Countess of Claren-
don ; the Right Hon, Thomas Milner Gibson, the
President of the Board of Trade, and Mrs. Milner
Gibson ; the Right Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers,
the President of the Poor-law Board; the Right
Hon. William Cowper, the First Commissioner of
Works, Sec., and Mrs. Cowper; the Right Hon.
William Hutt, the Vice-President of the Board of
Trade, and Mrs. Hutt; the Right Hon. Robert
Lowe, the President of the Board of Health, and
Mrs. Lowe; the Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, Vice-
President of the Committee of Council on Educa-
tion, and Mrs. Bruce; the Right Hon. Sir. R. Peel,
Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Lady Emily Peel;
the Right Hon. T. E. Headlam, the juege Advo-
cate-General, and Mrs. Headlam ; the Earl and
Countess of Darby, Lord and Lady Chelmsford,
General and Lady Alice Peel, Right Hon. Benjamin
and Mrs Disraelli, Sir John and Lady Pakington.
the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Doke of
Dinster, the Earl of Dalhousie, the Viscountess
Sydney, the Marchioness of Ailesbury, and the
Duke of Wellington.

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, the
Earl of Carlisle, the Earl of Malmesbury, Viscount
Palmerston, Earl Granville, the Right Hon. the
Speaker of the House of Commons, and Mrs Milner
Gibson, were prevented by unavoidable circum-
stancesfrom attending the Court.

Her Majesty wore asimilar dress End cap to those
she wore et the previous reception, but the latter
was ornamented with pearls instead of diamonds.
Her Majesty also wore a necklace of four rows of
large pearls, a miniature of his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort set in diamonds as a brooch, the blue
ribbon and badge of the Garter, and the badges of
the Victoria ana Albert Order and of the Order of
Queen Louise of Prussia.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales wore
a black silk dress trimmed with bonffants of crape,
and jet ornaments.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales wore
the uniform of a general officer, with the Orders of
the Garter and the Star of India.

Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Hon. Corps of
Gentlemen at Arms was on duty at the Court, under
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William
Topham, the Lieutenant. The following officers
were also on duty with the corps—Major Harmer,
the Standard Bearer; Lieutenant. Colonel William
M'Call, the Adjutant; and Captain Philips, the
sub•officer.

The Royal Body Guard of the Yeomen of the
Guard, accompanied by their officers, Lieutenant-
Colonel Cooke, the Ensign, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Sutton, the Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant, were
on duty under the eommand of Colonel Bourke, the
Exon in Waiting.

A Guard of Honour of the Grenadier Guards was
in attendance in the Court of the Palace.

After the reception, MM. de Biegeleben and de
Balan (the plenipotentiaries from Austria and Prussia)
had audiences of the Queen, to which they were in-
troduced by Earl Russell, K,G., her Majesty's
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
and conducted by Lieutenant-General the Hon.
Sir Edward Cast, K.C.IT., her Majesty's Master of
the Ceremonies. Lord Methuen and Captain Sir
William Hoste were the Lord and Groom in Wait-,
ing. _

Her Majesty honoured Baron Marochotti with a
visit to his studio; and afterwards, accompanied
by Princess Louise, returned to Windsor by special
train on the South Western Railway.

A correspondent of the _Reader, signing himself
A, J. Ellis, and dating his communication from
Colney Hatch (Park), April 30, 1864, writes :---
"In reference to your remarks on it's me in your
notice of Dean Alford's 'Plea for the Queen's Eng,
lish,' I consider that the phrase it is I is a modernism,
or rather a grammaticism—that is, it was never in
popular use, but was introduced solely on some
grammatical hypothesis as to having the same case
before and after the verb is. It does not appear to
have been consonant with the feelings of Teutonic
tribes to use the nominative of the personal pro-
nouns as a predicate. To them—and therefore to
English people—it is lis just es strange as est ego
cr r 1 iya), would be to Latin or Greek. These last
languages require ego sum, 64'0 filet (Matt. xiv. 27;
Mark vi. 50; John vi, 20). The predicate was here
simply omitted. In Goth'c we have precisely the
same construction, ik ins (John vi. 20). The English
Wycliffite translations both give I am. But the
Anglo-Saxon version, like the modern German, is
not content with leaving the predicate unexpressed,
and we find is hit eon?, ; High German, ich bin es;;
literally, lam it; namely, that which you see. The
Heliand paraphrase is very explicit (Schme!ler's
ed., p. 90, line 2), 1k hiusn that barn Godes' (6 I
am the Son of God'). The Welsh and Gaelic try
to be emphatic, the first saying myfi ydyw (q. d.
myself am), and the second, is raise a to ann (q. d.
it's myself that's living). But of course we do not
look to these languages as a guide to English. The
Danish is very peculiar and important on account
of its intimate relation with English. As in Eng.
lieh, the dative and accusative cases of the personal
pronouns now coincide in Danish, Jeg, 7/4 (I, me);
Du, dig (thou, thee; Han, ham (he, him). We find
the following rule laid down in Tobiesen'e
Danische Sprachlehre (Sternhagen's ed., 1828, p.
215) :—' After the impersonal verbs, deter and det
bliver (it is), the personal pronouns jeg, du, han are
not used in the nominative, but in the dative, as det
er mig der har gjort det (it's me that did it); deter
Dig, som har veeret nzester derfor (it's thee who was
its master); dee bliver ham som vi ville tale axed (it's
him that we wish to speak with [where also the
construction of the relative and preposition is Eng-
lish]; and similarly in the plural : deter os, jer,
dem (it's us, you, them).' This is perfectly explicit,
and shows the same construction as the English ;
but in the Testament the wish to be uncolloquial
has apparently forced the translator to depart from
the usual custom when the wcrds are given to
Jesus, but he returns to it when they are echoed by
Peter (Matt. xiv. 27, 28). Jesus—s«gde :—dct er
jeg—men Peder—sagde Ilerre, dersom deter
ba byd tnig," &c. (" Jesus said, It is I ; but Peter
said, Lord if it is thee, bid me,' &e.) The conclu-
sion seems to be that it's me is good English, and
it's lis a mistaken purism. We have now, I think,
come to regard the objective form of the personal
pronoun as a predicative form, and this will justify
that's him, although the Danes will say dcnite er
lion' (that's he). We are therefore in the same
condition as the F:ench with I hair c'est2noi,' though
we have not quite reached their 'lui n'osait pas'
(He/ didn't dire)."

A WAGER AT WRIST.--I tell the story as nearly
as I can as he related it to me. "I used to play a
good deal with Rechberg," said he, "and took pleasure in
worrying him, for he was a great purist in his play, and
was outraged with anything that could not be sustained by
an authority. In fact, each game was followed by a discus-
sion of full half an hour, to the intense mortification of the
other players, though very amusing to me, and offering me
large opportunity to irritate and plague the Austrian. One
evening, after a number of these discussions, in which
Rechberg had displayed an even unusual warmth and irri-
tability, I found myself opposed to him in a game, the in-
threat of which had drawn around us a large assembly of
spectators—what the French designate as le galerie. To-
wards the conclusion of the game it was my turn to lead,
and I played a card which so astounded the Austrian
minister, that ho laid down his cards upon the table and
stared fixedly at me, In all my experience of whist,' said
he, deliberately, I never saw the equal of that.' Of
what ?' asked I, Of the card you have just played,' rejoined
he, It is not merely that such play violates every principle
of the game, but it acually stultifies all your own combina-
tions.' ' I think differently, count,' said I, ' I maintain
that is good play, and I abide by it.' Let us decide it by
a wager,' said he, 'ln what way ?' Thus :We shall
leave the question to the galerie. You shall allege what
you deem to be the reasons for your play, and they shall
decide if they accept them as valid,' I agree. What will
you bet?' Ten napoleons—twenty, fifty, five hundred if
you like I' cried he warmly. I shall say ten. You don't
like losing, and I don't want to punish you too heavily.'
' There is the jury, sir,' said he haughtily ; make your
case.' The wager is this,' said I, 'that, to win, I shall
satisfy these gentlemen that for the card I played I had a
sufficient and good reason. Yes. My reason was this,
then—l looked into your hand I' I pocketed his ten napo-
leons, but they were the last I won of him. Indeed it
took a month before he got over the shock.—B/achecood's
Magazine for May.
THAMES CONSERVANCY.—The following is the
general report of the proceedings of the conservators
of the river Thames, appointed by and under the powers of
the Thames Conservancy Act, 1857, from the Ist day of
January, 1363, to the 31st day of December, 1863. The
conservators of the river Thames have, during the Year
ended December 31, 1863, exercised the powers vested in
of s.llt h consists
them by a careful supervision over the river within thee
limits of their jurisdiction, The conservators have carried
on dredging operations for the improvement of the
,r,iver
hey
as far as the means at their disposal have admitted.
the material of which
have commenced the removal of a shoal situs!e_cle_ nearly in
mid-stream off Dagenham, the surface
chiefly of conglomerate gravel hard enough to justify the
character—viz, hard appellation it has commonly received of rock.l Consider-
able progress has also been made in the remova of a shoal off
Blackwell, known as the Gun Shoal,
being
din course of construction, to
it is composed being of a similar
con-
glomerate, and very difficult to
astremove, The powerful
dredging machine which in their. annual report the con-
servators
thorn described st ea rib e d a
executes
Embankment Act has been completed. In their last annual
Parliament the conservators described the legal
report to
difficulties they bad met with in carrying into effect the
improvement of the steamboat landings near London-bridgbeene
—those
early overcome,
part
of thethe
year,pier a
andt Old
t
ge
_ a .
—those
has been found to be a great public convenience. A very
numerously signed application having been received from
the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Southwark, and
persons carrying on business at Bankside, requesting the
conservators to place a steamboat pier in that locality, they
difficulties
Swan Stairsdilli
transferred thither the Blackfriars pier, which, in conse-
quence of the erectic It of the two new bridges, had to be
removed. The Blackfriars pier it is proposed shall be re-
Placed when practicable. The moorings alluded to in last
year's report as being about to be laid down in Gravesend
Reach fur troop and emigrant ships have been completed to
the number of four, and they have been found so convenient
sleesrhectveldtnhgiend
trhe
that the.conservators have determined to extend them by
placing four more, and they have accordingly provided the
necessary gear for the purpose. The repairs and renewals
required
from time to time for all the other moorings
have been effected so as to preserve them in the greatest
possible state of efficiency. The banks, locks, weirs, and
towing paths in the western part of the district within the
jurisdiction of the conservators have been maintained, and,
as far as opportunity has occurred, have been improved.
Eighty vessels have been sunk in the river during theyear,
all of which have been raised, There have been 2i grants
for embankments, and 36 for jetties, piles, and other accom-
modation. The conservators have met for the despatch of
business 138 times during the year.