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

State Concert.

By command of the Queen, a State concert was given
last evenws at Buckingham Palace, to which a party of
between 700 old 800 were invited.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of
Wales, attended by tie Countess of Macclesfield, the Son.
Mrs. William Grey, the Marquis of Aberoorn, Lord Harris,
Lord Alfred Hervey, the Hon. R. H. Meade, and Major
Teesdale, and escorted by a squadron of the Royal Horse
Guards, arrived at the Palace from Marlborough House
shortly before ten o'clock.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess oil:
t tuCekna
er ad
ebad: by Lady
Grand
d
Princess Mary arrived from St James's,
.8
Geraldine Somerset and Colonel Horace Pb ;rvo.lo.arri
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cam 11 ved, at-
tended by Colonel Tyrwhitt.
Their Royal Highnesses the Gran
Duchess of Mocklenburg-Strelitz arrived, attended by Lad}
Caroline Gust and Baron von Plessen.
His Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar
and the Countess of Dorenberg, and the Count and Countess
Gleichen also arrived.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales,
accompanied by her Royal Highness the Princess Helena
and their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge, the
Princess Mary of Cambridge, the Duke of Cambridge, and
the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz, conducted by the Lord Chamberlain and other offi-
cers of the Household, and attended by the Ladies and
Gentlemen in Waiting, entered the concert room soon after
ten o'clock.

Her Roy al Highness the Princess of Wales wore a black

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rich pink glace silk, handsomely irimmed with ruches of
crape. Head-dress of convolvulus, with veil; ornaments,
pearls.

Her Royal Highness:the Princess Louise, dress and head-
dress the same.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge wore a
black satin dress trimmed with black lace, and black satin
ribbon and jet. Head-dress, a tiara of jet with black
feathers, necklace and stomacher of jet.
Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary wore a black
tulle dress over black glace silk, trimmed with point d'Alen-
con and bouquets of silver wheat ears. Head dress a diadem
of diamonds and silver wheat-ears; stomacher, necklace,
and earrings, pearls and diamonds,
Her Royal Highness the Grand Dtichess of Mecklen-
burg-Strelitz wore a dress of terry velvet, trimmed with
point lace, satin ribbon, and bugles. Head-dress, tiara of
jet and black ornaments.
The Royal Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard,
accompanied by their officers, Lieut.-Colonel Cooke, the
Ensign ; and Lieut.-Colonel Sutton, the Adjutant ; and
commanded by Colonel Bourke, the Exon-in-Waiting, were
on duty in the grand hall and on the staircase.
As soon as their Royal Highnesses the Prince and
Princess of Wales Entered the concert room, the concert
commenced.

The performers, exceeding 180 in number, consisted of
her 31%jer,ty's private band, aided by several instrumen-
talists of the Philharmonic Society, her Majesry's Theatre,
and the Royal Italian Opera, the chorus being selected
from the Operas and the Sacred Harmonic Society, Exeter
Hall. The performance was conducted by Mr. Anderson,
the director of her Majesty's private band.

4, IT'S ME."

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 nut 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 as strange as est ego
to-TL ir'o, would be to Latin or Greek. These last
languages require ego sum, Eye eiiit (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 1 am. But the
Anglo-Saxon version, like the modern German, is
not content with leaving the predicate unexpressed,
and we find is hit eons ; High German, ich bin es.;
literally, lam it ; namely, that which you see. The
Heliand paraphrase is very explicit (Schmeller's
ed., p. 90, line 2), 1k bium that barn Godes' (` 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 miss a to arm (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 4
lish, the dative and accusative cases of the personal
pronouns now coincide in Danish, Jeg, mig (I, me);
Du, dig (thou, thee; Han, ham (he, him). We find
the following rule laid down in Tobiesen's
Danische Sprachlehre (Sternhagen's ed., 1828, p.
215) After the impersonal verbs, deter and det
bliver (it is), the personal pronouns jeg, du, Tian 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 master derfor (it's thee who was
its master); det Nicer ham som vi Mlle tale med (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,
dens (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—sagde :—det er
jeg—men Peder—sagde : Herre, dersont deter dig,
ba byd mig," &c. (" Jesus said, It is I ; but Peter
said, Lord if it is thee, bid me,' &c.) 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 denne er
(that's he). We are therefore in the same
condition as the French with their c'est moi,' though
we have not quite reached their Itii n'osait pas'
(him didn't dare)."

A WAGER AT WHIST.—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
1 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
Rechhirg had displayed an even unusual warmth and irri-
tability, I found myself opposed to him in a game, the in-
terest of which had drawn around us a large assembly of
spectators—what the French designate as la 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, 'ln 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-
-1 lions.' 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 galtrie. 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;' 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 wiry 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.—Blacktcood'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 d
the Thames Conservancy Act, 1857, from the let day of
January, 1363, to the 31st day of December, 1863. The
vested in
conservators of the river Thames have, during the year
ended December 31, 1863, exercised the powers
have admitted,
them by a careful supervision over the river within the
limits of their jurisdiction. The conservators have carried
est of the river
gravel bard
_en?ugh to justify the
on dredging operations for the improvement
surface of which
ree.eived of rock. Consider-
conTshi
consists
as far as the means at their disposal
hut thel removal of a shoal off
have commenced the removal of a shoal situated nearly in
mid-stream off Dagenham, the
chiefly of conglomerate
in their :east'
f a similar character—viz,,
annual materialreport
the
eeo n which
..
appellation it has commonly
Consider-
able progress has alsoAbeasenminladi.t.
Stao remove. The powerful
the
Blackwall, known as the Gun
it is composed being 0
con-
glomerate, and yell - hard
servators described as
dredging machine Which
being in course of construction, to
enable
them to execute the dredging required by the Thames
Embankment Act has been completed. In their last annual
report to parliament the conservators described the legal
difficulties they had met with in carrying into effect the
improvement of the steamboat landings near London-bridge
_.those difficulties having been overcome, the pier at Old
Swan Stairs was erected in the early part of the year, and it
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
transferred thither the Blackfriars pier, which, in conse-
quence of the erection 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 for troop and emigrant ships have been completed to
the number of four, and they have been found so convenient
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 groatest
possible stato of efficiency. The banes, 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 the year,
all of which have been raised. There have been 20 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.

Established 1837.
BRITANNIA LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY
1, Princes-street, Bank, London.
Empowered by„Special Act of Parliament, 4 Vict. cap. 9.
Every description of Life Assurance business transacted.
ANDREW FRANCIS, Secretary.

-------
_BONNET'S SILKS A LYON.--Every Article of
commerce takes its title either from the inventor or
manufacturer, and the more perfect the production the
grater is the credit which attaches to the originator.
BONNET'S SILKS are said to be incapable of identifica-
ion in England ; but the fallacy of such an assertion is ex-
osedby the very trade mark of the firm, as exhibited by
Messrs. JAY, of Regent-street.
The following interwoven mark may be seen at the end
of each piece :—" Manufacture de C. J. Bonnet et Cie., it Lyon
e Injurieux." Wear guaranteed.

NEW. AMERICAN ODE—Silent Paupers, or
Starved to Death—Our Critic among the Pictures, &c.
eic., in FUN this week. One Penny.

THE DERBY.—RACE GLASSES (the best),
at CALL A.GH AN 'S, 23A, New Bond-street, W., corner
of Conduit-street. N.B.—Sole agent to Voigtlander, Vienua.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,
Covent-garden.
From this time until h end of th season there will be four
Opera nights in eacthe week, viz., every 3londay, Tuesday,
Thursday, and baturday.
Grand Extra Night.
Mdlle. Lucca ; 3ldlle. Battu; Madame Didiee ; M. Faure ;
Signor Attri ; and Signor 'Mario.
THIS EVE.NING (THURSDA-1), May the 12th, will be
performed, for the first time this season, Meyerbeer's Grand
Opera, LES HUGUENOTS. Valenti,,a, Mdlle. Pauline
LAca, her fourth appearance in England. and first appear-
nnce this sea on ; 31argari ade Valois, Mdlle. arie Battu
Dams d'Onore, Madame Tatgliafico ; Urbano, Madame
Didiee, her fir t appearance nis seas_ on ; II Conte di an
Bri ,M. Faure, his first appeArance this season arel
Signor Attri, in consequen9e oofr, hTeagillness of Herr Schmiat
liafico ; Meru, Simaor
11 Conte de Nevers,
signSoiglir Rossi; De ttetz. , Signor_ Felar ;
Polonini ; Tavannes,
Huguenot Soldier, signor Lucchesi ; and Raoul, Signor
Mario.

Conductor, Mr. Costa.
The incidental Divertissement wi I be supported by Mdl' e
Salvicni, Mdllc. Carmine, and M. Desplaes.
Commence at half past Eight.

Pit tickets, 7S. ; amphitheatre sta ls, 10s. a, 75., and ss. ;
amphitheatre. 28. 6d. Boxes, stalls, and tickets may be had
at the box-03c tlnder the portico of the theatre, which is
open from ten to five, and ac the principal musicselltrs' and
librartaus'.

THEATRE ROYAL DR U R Y-L AN E.
Managers, Messrs. Edmond Falconer and

F. B. Chatterton.

THIS EVENING, AN APRIL FOOL. Mr. G. Belmore.
Alter which, will be produced the Grand Stage
Revival of Shakspere's Chronicle or Historical Play, entitled
the First Part of
HENRY THE FOURTH.
The cast will include impersonations by those eminent
Xrtists, Mr. PHELPS, Mr. Walter Montgomery, Mr. Walter
Lacy, Mr. Addison, Mr. Ryder, Mr. Robert Roxby, Mr.
Barrett, Mr. E Phelps, Mr. Rayner, Mr. H. Vandenhoir, Mr.
G. Belmore, Mr. }Merton, Mr. -Fitzjames, Mr. Neville ; Miss
Edith Wynne, M es Rese Leclercq, snd Mrs. Edmund Fal-
coner, supported by all the Members of the Drury-lane Ccm-
pany.
Concluding with MY HEART'S IN THE HIGHLANDS.

fiIHEATRE ROYAL HAY MARKET.-
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr, Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, AN UNLUCKY MORTAL. Mr. Wm.
Farren and Miss M Harris.
After which, DAVID GARRICK. Messrs. Sothern,
Chippendale, Buckstone, Rogers, Clark, Weathersby, &c. ;
Mesdames Snowden, ?Telly Moore, Eitzwilliam.
After which, the new Easter piece, entitled VENUS AND
ADONIS. Messrs. Compton, Wm. Farren, Coe, Sic. ; Mes-
dames Louise Keeley, Snowden, Nelly Eower, Hill, Wright,
Rogers, &c.
To conclude with A KISS IN THE DARK.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Under the Sole Management of Mr. Fechter.
With the most earnest d sire to adhere to the previous
announcement, Mr. FECIITER is compelled, in consequence
of the extraordinary Scenic preparation , to PO -TPONE
the production of HAMLET until SATURDAY, May 21.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-
Sole Lesee and Manager, Mr. Geo. Vining.
THIS EVENING, DONNA DIANA. Messrs. Vining,
Hermann Vezin, Nelson, D. Fisher, Sc.; Mesdames Hermann
Vezin, C. Carson, Ace
After which, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. The Two
Dromios, by the Brothers Webb.
To conclude with: DRAWING-ROOMS, SECOND
FLOOR, AND ATTICS.

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.-
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
Last Week but four of the Great Tragediene, Miss Bateman,
in the character of LEAH.
THIS EVENING,an apropos Sketch. SHAKESPEARE'S
HOUSE: Messrs. J. L. Toole. It. Phillips, Stephenson.

Af er which, at 8, LEAH : bliss Bateman, supported by
Messrs. A. Stirling, R. Phillips, Biffington, Stuart, Eburne,
Stephenson ; Miss H. Simms and Mrs. Billington.
To conclude with T IIE AREA BELLE : Messrs. J. L. Toole,
P. Bedford, ti. Romer, Miss Woolgar, and Mrs. IL Lewis.

Commence at 7.

MISS BATE MA-N.-L E A H.-THI
EVENING and EVERY EVENING.—Miss Bateman
will appear in her great impersonation of the Jewish
maiden until further notice. In order to give due effect to
tnis most remarkable success of the se son, entirely new
scenery by the celebrated artists Messrs. Danson and :Sons,
and Thompson. New dresses and appontments have been
prepare 4 for its production.—N. et. In consequence of the
eiressing and numerous applications at the Box-offi.,e, ar-
engemente have cow been made by which Seats ra,y be ob-
tained a Fortnight in Advance.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. under the
Management of Mr. B. WEBSTER.
Crowded with rank and fashion.— The greatly successful new

C6medy every Evening.

Amongst the artisTs engaged will be found the popular
names of Mr. Benjamin Webster, Mr. Charles Mathews. Mr.
Frank Matthews, Mr. J. L. Toole, Mr. a. Clarke, Mr. Paul
Bedford, Mr. F. itobinson, Mr, Ashley ; Mrs. Chas. Mathews,
Miss Herbert, Mrs. Frank Matthews, Miss A. Cottrell, Miss
Fanny Josephs, Miss Patti Josephs, Miso Wentworth, and
Mrs. Stirling.
EVERY EVENING, at 7, a Farce, with a new sensation,
called sHA iiE HANDS: Mr. J. Clarke, Mr. Ashley, Mr.
Johnstone ; Miss Fanny Josephs and Miss Patti Josephs.
After which, a new and oriinal Comely, in 5 acts, by Dion
Boucicault, Esq., entitled THE FOX CHACE. Mr. Charles
Mathews, Mr. Frank Matthews, Mr. J. Clarke, Mr. F. Robin-
son, Mr. Ash ey, Mr. W. Chanat,erlaine ; Mrs. Chas. Mathews,
Mrs. Frank Matthews, and Miss Henrietta Shams (her first
appearance here).
At 10, OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND. Mr. Charles
Mathews and Mrs. Frank Matthews.
- -

To conclude with UNDER THE ROSE.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Manager, Mr. W. H. Swanborough.
THIS EVENING, ORANGE BLOSSOMS.
Atter which (13th time) MAZOURICA. Messrs. Honey,
Turner, ; Marie Wilton, Simpson, &c.
Followed by THE LOAN OF A LOVER. Miss B.Wiltn.
To conclude with TURN HIM OUT.