The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-31 00:00:00

.9
Cinrit -°-
.c 5:"

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dee. 30.

The Queen drove out yesterday with the Princess
of Wales. Lieut.-Col. the Hon. D. de Ros attended
on horstback.

Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of
Mecklenburg• Strelitz is expected to arrive on a visit to her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, at Cambridge
Cottage, Kew, about the sth proximo, from Germany, and
will be most likely accompanied by the Hereditary Prince
Adolphus.
His Excellency the Prussian Ambassador and
the Countess Bernstorff entertained his Excellency Baron
de Cetto and a select. party at dinner on Tuesday evening,
at the Prussian Embassy, on Carlton House-terrace.
The Earl Russell left his residence, Pembroke
Lodge, Richmond Park, yesterday afternoon, for Osborne
on a visit to her Majesty.
The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield, who
arrived in town on Saturday from visiting the Earl and
Countess of Carnarvon at Highclere Castle, near Newbury,',
have since gone to Bretby Park, Derbyshire.
The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon are enter-
taining a select company at Highclere Castle, near New-
bury. Among the guests partaking of the hospitality of
the earl and ciuntess are the Countess of Portsmouth,
Count Strzelecki, Viscount Somerton, Lord Loughborough,
Hon. Frederick Lygon, M.P., Hon. A. Herbert, Mr. R. S-
Holford, M.P., and Mrs. Holford, Mr. H. Butler John-
stone, M.P., Mr. C. Greville, Mr. Elliot, Mr. Edward
Herbert, Miss Ogilvy, &c.
The EArl and Countess Amherst are seeing com-
pany at Montreal, Sevenoaks. Lady Amherst gave a grand
ball last night, to which the Marquis Camden and Ladies
Pratt, Viscount and Viscountess Holmesdale, Sir Edward
and Lady Doring, the Earl and Countess of Winchilsea,
Lord and Lady Sondes, and a host of the nobility and gentry
cinnected with the county were invited.
The Baron Waldenburg, Count Salino, and 31.
de Chatellee have left the Brunswick, Jermyn-street, for
Paris.
Baron and Baroness Lionel de Rothschild enter.,
tained a select party at dinner last evening at Kingston
House, Knightsbridge.
The Right Hon. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer,
G.C.8,, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, left
Hall's PrAvate Hotel, St. James's-place, on Tuesday for
Paris, in which capital his excellency proposes to pass a fear
days on his way back to the Turkish capital to resume his
diplomatic duties.
The Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, M.P.,
has left Hardwick House, Suffolk. and gone on a visit to
the Queen at Osborne, Isle of Wight.

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

It is an old saying that we value in others the
virtues which are convenient to ourselves, and this
is curiously illustrated in the popular ideal of a good
servant. In the masters' estimate, besides the
in-
dispensable physical qualification of vigorous health,
diligence, punctuality, and cleverness, readiness to
oblige, and rigid honesty of a certain sort, are es'
sentials. Piety, devotion to parents, self-respect,
and the like are held of small account. This is
true even of the upper classes. But the great mass
of servants are not to,be found in the houses of the
rich. " Gentlemen's families," though numerous in
London, form but a small minority of society gene-
rally, and absorb a quite inconsiderable number of
servants. The .middle-class, taken in the most ex"
tended sense of the term, is the employing class, and it
is here that the greatest unreasonableness prevaiis.
Many are living beyond their means, at least in this
sense, that they are trying hard to make their mono)/
go farther than it will. This leads to all sorts of
petty parsimonies, which press hard upon the ser-
vants, wages are screwed down to the lowest level;
the maximumof work is exacted, with the minimum
of indulgences. Masters and servants are embarked
in mutual struggle, each trying to get as much and
give as little as possible, each looking upon the other
as fair game, both alike disregarding the Golden
Rule, Do unto others as yon would that they should
do unto you. With such unrighteous feelings
on both sides, It would be impossible for any
system to work in an orderly and har-
monious manner. A radical improvement is
needed. But where is it to begin ? Mistresses,
happily unconscious of their own share of the
blame, take refuge in general complaints, and End,
we may suppose, some solace to ' their wounded
spirits, in the never ending flow of discourse on the
erimes of servants, which forms the staple of
women's conversation at middle-class tea-parties.
A few, of a practical turn, wish " somebody"
set up " training-schools or something," Which
would turn out good servants ready made to their
hands, instead of the raw girls who make their lives
a burden. It does not occur to them that as they are
obliged to be content with inferior houses, inferior
would
furniture, inferior clothes, and inferior everything,
to those of their richer neighbours, so also they
must be satisfied with inferior servants. Looking at
the question broadly, it appears that while admit-
ting abundant faults and errors on both sides, the
retorm must begin at the top. It can scarcely be
expected that an improvement in the character of
servants will react upon their masters, but there is
no doubt that the moral influence of masters is e°
important as it is subtle. The faults of servants
are, in the main, also the faults of their employers:
Excessive love of dressis constantly brought forwar'
and no doubt Ben ants do waste money and thouglit
upon it, to a shocking degree. But how about ro is.
tresses ? Do they ever talk to their servants With
genuine interest on any other subject ? Does ithei t nOt t
at least appear to be of the first importance in
eyes ? Daintiness in food is another of the oriole°
of servants. But while they are waiting at tab
what is the theme of their master's discourse? -11,3,
not the appearance of a tough joint or an ill-seasone4
dish considered a sufficient justification for a per-
fect storm of indignation ? What sort of not ion.
must cooks have of what is essential to the lUtPP
ness of men ! Servants are toe fond of gossip• le
the conversation of " the parlour" so very ranch
higher in quality than that of the kitchen ? Vie°
ness is another of the stock accusations. 9
many of us work at all harder than We ara,
obliged ? Telling stories is, we believe, almo-I,
universal among servants. Perhaps in this respect,
also, we do not set the very best example pobsible•
efforts to
The petty deceptions, the incessant efforall
appear richer than we are, which servants know
about, and which, indeed, it is part of their busines:
to carry out, fill our households with an atnao3l3ilit
of deceit, in the last degree destructive of the basil
of of
of truthfulness. We may add that the halal.;
el-
both masters and mistresses before marriage are
easy.
dom calculated to prepare them for the not vex"'
_sed
task of directing a household. Men area ccuste
end
ili
'to be exacting, and inconsiderate of the°mf't
convenience of others ; women,
destitute of the
to authority, and often wholly
is essential to the
capacity for administration Which a small estab-
order and good government of
merit.—Victoria Magazine. uninethodicat, unused

icaillslTE OF THE PAST.--'
—..-----
grace of his hair to the tip of I.IIS
MISS BRADDoN'S
odutof his well-cat trouser (there were
h. w‘as the creature to be wondered at." And
From the waving
polished boot peePleg
no pegtops in 1847, att it was le genre to show very little
()off the
hPereets)'nt-* the cut of his coat, the easy nonchalance
of hie planner, the waxed ends of his curved moustache, the
dangling toys of gold and enamel that jingled at his watch-
chain, the waves of perfume that floated away from his
cambric handkerchief."
THE ORATION THE GREEK RHETORICIAN Po-
PARED FOR HIS CLIENT.—The client was delighted
with the speech on a first perusal, he" had doubts about it
on a second reading, and when he had read it the third tirae
he did not like it at all. "My dear sir." said the rheto:
rician, "I think you said that you liked it at first ?'
" Delighted.' "May I remind Sou that your audience
will hear it only once, and that they too may be delighted ?''
BEERY BAVARIAN S.—Listen to the conversation
of Bavarians—it turns on beer. See to what the
thoughts of the exile recur—to the beer o f
the waiter br this country. 53
down in a coffeehouse or eatinghouse, and ing'S
you beer unordered, and when you ha-ve emptied Y°l2l.
Tell a doctor
glass, replenishes it without a summons. T
and he will
di!
climate of Munich does not agree with you, aslt
you if you drink enough beer. Arrive at
an
lace before the
steamer or train is due, and you are told yohave so loves t°
drink beer. Go to bails, and you find that it rep/ace:
champagne with the rich and dancing with the poor.
('
once went to a servants' ball and stayed there some 61110;0
but when I came away dancing had not begun, and all ,i..
society was sitting as still as ever, drinking beer.)---'0
berforce's Social Life en Germany.