The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

'Afti,F7
elrtnifar.

HER MAJESTY.'

OSBORNE, JAN. 6.

The Queen, accompanied by Prince Arthur and
Prince Leopold, walked in the grounds yesterday.

The Prince and Princess of Wales.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, ac-
companied by the equerry in waiting and atten-
dants, went out shooting yesterday morning. In
the afternoon the Prince of Wales and suite went
skating on the ice, which now covers the canal or
ornamental water at Frogmore. The increasing
frost of Tuesday and yesterday has rendered the ice
extremely thick, and it is now in first rate condition
for the skaters. The Prince and the suite enjoyed
this healthy recreation for some time, and were on
the ice till a late hour in the afternoon.

PRINCE ALFRED.—His Royal Highness Prince
Alfred, accompanied by MajorCowell,arrived in Edinburgh
on Tuesday morning, having travelled from London by the
night train. It is expected that his Royal Highness will be
tho guest of Lord and Lady Belhaven, at Wishaw House,
to-morrow and on Saturday next.
Tne Duke of Hamilton left the family mansion
in Arlington-street, Piccadilly, on Tuesday, for his seat,
Easton Park, Suffolk, where his grace and a select party of
friends intend to have a few days' shooting.
The Earl and Countess of Derby are entertaining
his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge and a distin-
guished company at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire. The Duke
and Duchess of Manchester, the Earl and Countess of
Hardwicke and Lady Agneta Yorke and the Hon. Elliot
Yorke, Viscount Hamilton, M.P., Lord Henry G. Lennox,
M.P., Sir Henry and Lady Saphia Des Velma, and Colonel
Clifton, in waiting on the Duke of Cambridge, are of the
party enjoying the hospitalities of the noble earl and
countess.
The Earl of Lonsdale is expected to return to

town to-morrow, from Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
The Earl and Countess of Yarborough, seems`
panted by the Ladies Hare, passed through town on Tues-
day, for Sutton Place, near Staplehurat, Kent, on a visit to
Sir Edmund and the Hon. Lady Filmer, from BroAlesbYt
Lincolnshire.
Viscount Hinchingbroke has left town to join
the party visiting Sir Edmund and Hon. Lady Filmerl At
Sutton-place, Kent.
Lady Bloomfield is expected to return to the
Dowager Lady Bloomfield's residence, at Rutland-gate, to•
morrow, from Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Adeane's seat
in
Cambridgeshire, where her ladyship has been staying since
Monday last.
DEATH OF MAJOR-GENERAL WALPOLE, R.E.-""
We have to record the death of Major-General Joh
Walpole, who d'3d on Monday last at his temporary real'
dente in Charles-sheet, St. James's. Gen. Walpole had
been in active service since 1816. His commission 08
lieutenant bore dote 24th Sept., 1825 ; captain, 28th Noirq
1839 ; major, 15th Sept., 1848 ; lieutenant-colonel,
Feb., 1851; colonel, 28th Nov., 1854; and major•general,
9th March, 1868.

-
A MUNIFICENT GlFT.—Lady Cotton Sheppard
has presented £250 to the National Lifeboat Institution? '
£5O of which she has collected in various sums amongst her
friends and neighbours, for a lifeboat to be stationed E't
Porthdiullaen, on the Carnarvonshire coast. Her ladyshiPf
who takes the warmest interest in the National Lifeboat
Institution, has herself already given £lOO for two boat*
one of which is stationed at Port Rush, and the other I°
Porthcawl. The latter boat was instrumental a short time
since in rescuing, during a heavy gale of wind, the crew °:
10 men from the schooner Champion, of Liverpool, wreckce
off Pcrthcawl.
INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT OF A LIFEBOaI
CREW,—An important inquiry into charges
oc
cowardice and inefficiency made against the crew of the
Holyhead lifeboat has just terminated at Holyhead, befgo
the Hon. W. 0. Stanley and a large number of magistrate°
and other influential persons. The readers of The S'
will remember that this lifeboat was the means of rescuie
48 during the gale of the 3d Dec. last. Notwithstandl9:
this, the largest number ever saved by one lifeboat oil
single occasion, the above charge was made by the fatl3e',
of Captain Armitage, master at d owner of the brig WOt
bourne, who perished with all his crew. Captain Friel
R.N., honorary agent to the Lifeboat Institution at til°l
port, was also accused of sending incorrect and garbl'"
reports to the committee of that ins itution. From the
°
amination of a number of witnesses it transpired that DO ,
out of the 13 men who constituted the paid crew of the bc*
refused to go out on the morning is question, but in tad
hours nine other men volunteered to take their place,
he
during the 3d and 4th Dec. they were out repeatedly in
height of the gale. The result of the investigation W 00113" ,
the nine men who held back were censured, and the veltilla
teer crew highly commended for their gallantry, rf?,
charge against Capt. Priest was declared unfounded, an at
t
report to that effect was forwarded to the National Lifeb°°o
Institution. The latter has rewarded the nine mOlll/34
volunteered with £3 each, and the old crew who et°
to their colours with £4 each.
STUCK IN THE MUD,!—In 1862 Lord Derby fcc
mally proclaimed an armistice for the year ; 1'136
when, in 1863, hostilities were supposed to be resumed, Idl
course of events was precisely similar. Mr. Disraeli hipi°,to
has almost ceased to organise party combinations since
Galway contract subsided into its character of a profes;#
Irish job. There is no use in attacking Lord Russell, bece
the country has not the smallest desire to restore Lord
mesbury to the Foreign-office. Sir C, Wood is practie',4
exempt from criticism in a house which knows Otil;#
about India, and for the present he is covered from it,t,`7,,,,
by the popular nomination of Sir John Lawrence as 14-
roy. If, indeed, the frontier warfare should assume lel'rl
proportions, India would, as in 1856 and 1857, once 133.4-0
become the centre of political interest ; but in ordinary tiva
the smallest European transaction is more attractive of
popular curiosity, The Home Department may perli
occupy a portion of the time of the House of Commons 'ic//
unexciting questions of prison discipline, but Sir G. 6f,e
will scarcely run even the trifling risk of bringing fors'? 0,
another abortive bill for the reform of the City Corporetior
When Parliament, or any political party, cares as nau.eb 0,
abolishing the Mansion House as the Aldermen and Cl°,
mon Council for defending it, it is probable that 1:00;0
municipal theories will at last be too powerful for Gaioe
Magog. To laxer politicians, a powerless dignitarY,. lr
employs himself in giving splendid dinners seems al
tution, or fiction, which is neither intolerable nor
useless. The vitality of the Government depends Ott Pget'
Palmerston's health far more than on his measures. late
haps, half a dozen years hence, the standing comosoa,'"
of conversation may be the obvious remark that a lqil9
of 85 cannot be expected to last much longer,—,S'alli'
Review. of
USELESS SELF-SACRIFICE.--The anthoresS the
" Chronicles of Carlingford," says a critic In
Saturday Review, furnishes in one of her latter storl"tell#
very apt and truthful illustration of the complicated '0 10
edness of a half-consummated, fruitless self-saarifice' 010
" The Doctor's Family, the sharp and bustling little /4e tao
sister of the indolent and childish handsome wife °ipso
Doctor's indolent, spritless, and drunken brother F no!'
almost as a matter of course,appropriated to herself ,tad,
of governing, providing for, clothing, educating, .P.7lloef,
fact, keeping alive the whole establishment. Out 01 otll,
kindness of heart and energy of spirit, she has MA 6,111:
burden off the lazy backs of those who were bound ''7l•ltie,:
and by nature to bear the responsibility of mutate
,: 11",
themselves and their children. She sacrifices to tlie-u4
by day her money, her strength, her brain, and °,,-01,1w,
her heart ; and her sister and brother-in-law take it ejvley,
as a matter of course, and day by day become more
and dependent, and more incapable of gratitude. stirpoor Fred tumbles into the water in a state of
dity, the task of dragging the whole family back fro°4o,
land to Australia falls upon the shoulders of Nettie' p 1
the pretty widow can do nothing but sit maunderistOe,
" poor Fred's" eminent virtues ; and, but for the ro°P,,,
ance of an old -Australian flame, who soon obliteret'e,
remembrance of Fred, and consoles the widow into et";
marriage, the story must have ended by the disaPPlA,',
of its heroine to another hemisph, re, leaving behind bar
gleam of personal happiness, and carrying with her °gill
less and ceaseless burden. Probably the Nettles of a 00,
seldom have the luck to find a willing and able-bodle
stitute, happy to walk jauntily off with the weigb,° reif
which their bruised faculties and disappointed teel'l3f
staggering. People who, by the common consent 13 Lie
acquaintance, are called pour Freda" at the best 0000';
general*, contrive, either living or dead, to oppress t o e°,
scientious victims of their unprincipled imbecility t° e
The natural consequence, in nine cases out of ten, eto erejj
a self-immolation as Nettie made, would be for Ilert, ye
farm the journey back to Australia, and there sOr,ifte)
to death in apathetic energy under the insane NvOric),,l
the sister for whom she had given up everything/°oli
~9tand neglected by the naughty children (of vitovleoeloe
nau.ihtiest seems to have repaid her devotion wit';ot 1)14
love), and with the dull consciousness that she illjvDsioi,
'naps have acted more wisely and more rightly tint
herself free before the suttee of her own indepaude-
ence had been entirely accomplished. olel' if
ST. CLEMENT AT ROME.—Father Nll.ll'°-
11d
the Irish Dominican Convent of St. Ciel:1:00,,,
prosecuting with great zeal his subterraneau retigoct;io
under that venerable basilica, and has bad the 6" life
to discover a fresco painting illustrative of tnetsilo°l
martyrdom of the saint, accompanied by rneriYho
ritual and costume, which are most precious to to e`fd
of Christian archaeology. 'With regard to the °I tx,o god
painting just exhumed, the Cavaliere De it°6s,4potef.
authority in such cases, does not allow it a g'-
quity than the eighth century,