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

((4*
tight

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dec. 30.

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

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 Bernstorfr 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 countess 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. Hoiford, Mr. H. Butler John-
stone, M.P., Mr. C. Grey.'lle, Mr. Elliot, Mr. Edward
Herbert, Miss Ogilvy, &e.
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 Dering, the Earl and Countess of Winchilsea,
Lord and Lady Sondes, and a host of the nobility and gentry
c,nnected with the county were invited.
The Baron Waldenburg, Count Salino, and M.
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 Bu
G.C.B , the British Ambassador at Constantinople, left
Hall's PrNate 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 WS
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.

DOMES TIC 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 healtb•
diligence, punctuality, and cleverness, readiness tco
oblige, and rigid honesty of a certain sort, are es-
sentials. Piety, devotion to parents, self-respeer,
and the like are held of small account. This i 5
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 C
tended sense of the term, is the employing class, and it
is here that the greatest unreasonableness prevails.
Many are living beyond their means, at least in this
sense, that they are trying hard to make their money
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 maximum of work is exacted, with the minimum
of indulgences. Masters and servants are embarked
in mutual struggle, each trying to get as much and
givo 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 generd complaints, and find,
we may suppose, some solace to their wounded
spirits, in the never ending flow of discourse on the
crimes of servants, which forms the staple Of
women's conversation at middle-class tea-parties.
A few, of a practical turn, wish " somebody" would
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
furniture, inferior clothes, and inferior everything'
to those of their richer neighbours, so also they
must be satisfied with inferior servants. Looking
the question broadly, it appears that while adtniv
ting abundant faults and errors on both sides, the'
reform must begin at the top. It can scarcely
13(1f
expected that an improvement in the character
servants will react upon their masters, bat there' ;
no doubt that the moral influence of masters is L;),
important as it is subtle. The faults of servants
are, in the main, also the faults of their emploYer7
Excessive love of dress is constantly brought forward
and no doubt servants do waste money and there ,
upon it, to a shocking degree. But how about mis-
tresses ? Do they ever talk to their servants with
genuine interest on any other subject ? Does it not
et least appear to be of the first importance in their
eyes ? Daintiness in food is another of the eriulee‘
of servants. But while they are waiting at table,
what is the theme of their master's discourse? it;
not the appearanao of a tough joint or an ill-seasoned
dish considered a sufficient justification for per-
fect storm of indignation ? What sort of
must cooks have of what is essential to the haPP,i'
ness of men ! Servants are toe fond of gossip. .1!
the conversation of " the parlour" so very Inn"'
higher in quality than that of the kitchen ? idvie;
ness is another of the stock accusations.
re
many of us work at all harder than we
obliged ? Telling stories is, we believe,
almost
universal among servants. Perhaps; in this respect,
also, we do not set the -very best exu.mple Possible;
The petty deceptions, the incessant
appear richer than we are, which servants know allo
about, and which, indeed, it is part of their busineso
to carry out, fill our households with am atmospher
of deceit, in the last degree destructive of the habit_
efforts
of truthfulness. We may add that the habits o_f_
both masters and mistresses before marrioge are 0.e.r1
dom calculated to prepare them for the not
task of directing a household. fort and
to be exacting, and inconsiderate of the
icai,
unused
name thod.
convenience of others ; women,
destitute of the
to authority, and often wholly; is essential to the
capacity for administration which
Men are
of CVOLL a a mall estab-
order and good government co
aoraCnersytoemed
men-.—Victoria Magazne.

M EgcaUISITE OF THIN PAST.—""
....---_
thes BwitAaDvii),:g'sretce of his hair to the tip of his
Fromis out of his well-cut trouser (Oere were
1847,1°inagnd it was le
of the bout), he was the creature to be wondered at. And
dangling toys of
polished ipsehgetdo
Ph:: _
of the Prosent--,' the cat of his coat, the easy nonchalance
genre to show vary little
of his manner, the waxed ends of his curved moustachret th'e
gold and enamel that jingled at his veatch-
chain, the waves of perfume that floated away from ilii°
cambric handkerchief."
Tile ORATION THE GREEK RHETORICIAN Pll
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 time
he did not like it at all. "My dear sir." said the
first
" Delighted." " May I remind you that your audience
will hear it only once, and that they too may be delightcd ?"
BEERY BAVARIAN s.—Listen to the conversation
of Bavarians—it turns on beer. See to what ohe3..
thoughts of the exile recur—to the beer of this country. Si!
down in a coffeehouse or eatinghouse, and the waiter briffir_
you beer unordered, and when you have emptied you
r_
glass, replenishes it without a summons. Tell a doctor
air
climate of Munich does not agree with you, and he will
.$:
you if you drink enough beer, Arrive at a place before :Jr
steamer or train is due, and you are told you have so Jon° lic:
drink beer. Go to balls, and you find that it repitic/ei
champagne with the rich and dancing with the poor:
anal.;
nal.;
once went to a servants' ball and stayed there 130111°
but when I came away dancing had not begun, and al!:;/.
society was sitting as still as ever, drioking boor.)-"' I"
ber force 8 Social Lift, ;n Germany.