The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-17 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

Her Majesty accompanied by the Princess Victuire.of
Saxe Coburg and the Princess of Leiningen and at-
tended by the Matchioness of Normandy, took an airing on
Saturday in an open landau and four.
Duke Ferdinand of Saxe Cobourg, the Princess Vic-
toire, and the Princes Augustus ami Leopold of Saxe
Cobourg, and the Prince 01 Lti.iingen, accompanied by
Court Alexander Mensdorf, and attended by Baroness
Fenyevessy, and Lord Alfred Paget (Equerry to Her
Majesty) left Buckingham Palace at eleven o'clock yes-
terday morning in three crrriages and four for Portsmouth.
Their S:rme Highnesses were expected to dine last even-
ing with Admiral Fleming, the Port Admiral, and to em.
bark this day for Lisbon.
Her Majesty, accompanird by her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent, their Serene Highnesses Duke Ferdi-
nand, the Princess Victoire, the Princes Augustus and
Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, and the Prince and Princess
of Leiningen, and Count Alexander Mensdorff, honoured
the Italian Opera with her presence on Saturday night.
The Royal suite included the ➢Marchioness of Normanby,
Baroness Fenyevessy, Hon. Miss Cocks, Hon. Miss Ca-
vendish, Lord Byron, Mr. Rich, Colonel Wemyss, and
Lord Alfred Paget.

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Lord Melbourne had an aulence of her Majesty on
Saturday. _

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and her Royal High-
ness the Princess Augusta attended Divine Service yes-
terday morning in the Chapel Royal St. James's. The
sermon was preached by the Rev. J. R. Wood, from the
Psalms, chap. v., verse 7. The Prayers were read by the
Rev. Mr. Dakin, the Lessons were read by the Rev. Dr.
Wesley, and the Altar Service by the Rev. Mr. Dakin
and the Rev. Dr. Wesley. The Chaunt was Hawes and
Beethoven's; the Te Deum and Jubilate in B, King; the
Sarctus and Responses, King. The Anthem, " The
Lord is my light," ( Boyce), was sung by Messrs. W.
Knyvett, and J. B. Sale. Sir G. Smart presided at the
organ.

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'The Dean of Hereford was the Deputy Clerk of the
Closet in Waiting. Her Majesty was attended by Lady
Clinton,ud
Earl Hon.
Howe. Miss
Boyle, Hon. Miss Hope Johnstone,
a
Wynyard was in waiting on the
Aiiss
Princess Augusta.
The Queen Dowager and her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent, attended Divine Service in the after-
noon in the Chapel Roycl, St. James's.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Princess
Augusta of Cambridge, attended Divine Service yesterday
morning in Grosvenor Chapel. Miss Kerr and Baron
Knesebeck were in waiting on their Royal Highnesses.
The Queen Dowager visited the Duchess of Cambridge
on Saturday at Cambridge House. Her Majesty after-
wards went to Kensington.
The Duchess of Kent visited her Majesty, the Queen
Dowager, yesterday. The Duchess of Gloucester visited
her Majesty on Saturday, at Marlborough House.
The Duchess of Cambridge. and the Princess Augusta
of Cambridge, attended by Miss Kerr, honoured Lady
Shelly with their company on Saturday afternoon, at her
villa at Fulham.

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A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday afternoon. It
was attended by Viscount Melbourne, the Lord Chancel-
lor, Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, Viscount
Palmerston, Marquis of Normanby, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and other Ministers.
The Council was held at Lansdowne House, the Mar-
quis of Lansdowne suffering from an attack of gout. The
Ministers sat two hours and a half.
Sir Hesketh Fleetwood and Mr. Webster had interviews
with the Marquis of Normanby on Saturday, at the Colo-
nial Office.

Mr. Sefton, from Stockport, Mr. J. Bishop, Secretary
to the Metropolitan Beersellers' Association, and a Depu-
tation of Brewers and Beersellers, had an interview with
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on Saturday, in Down-
ing:street.

—A
Deputation from the Van Diemen's Land Company,
accompanied by Mr. Burnie, the Deputy Governor ;
Messrs. Cattley and Fletcher, and Mr. Samuel Ewen, the
Secretary, transacted business on Saturday, with Mr.
Labouchere, at the Colonial Office.
The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland arrived in town
on Saturday afternoon, from Brussels.

GALLERY OF NATURAL MAGIC
AT THE COLOSSEUM.

We were favoured on Saturday with a private view
of some of the performances at this place of amusement,
which opens for the public this day. They consist
chiefly of the illusions and magical effects of optical
science ; photogenic drawing, or the new art of shadow-
fixing ; a view of the spots on the sun with extror-
dinary phenomena, by means of instruments of
great power ; electrical experiments, by one of the
largest electrical machines ever constructed ; the
wonders of creation as exhibited by a powerful
solar microscope ; the magic mirror, producing optical
combinations, and a succession of beautiful scenery ; and
I,:st and least, the" Haunted Cavern," in which attempts
are made to exhibit some of the geological revolutions
of the earth that have taken place since the reign of
chaos and eternal night." The effect produced by
this was not good, whether arising from the state of
the atmosphere, or from some original defect, we
cannot say, but unless materially improved, this part
of the exhibition will hardly repay the trouble of a
descent into the " Caverns of the Colosseum." Owing
to want of sun, some of the exhibitions did not take
place, the solar microscope was supplied with artificial
light, and even the vast power of electrical apparatus was
unable to overcome the effects of the present state of the
atmosphere. Yet with all these disadvantages the results
were wonderful. The " forked lightning of Heaven," the

i more common and more gentle flash seen streaming in
a thunder-storm from cloud to cloud, and the darting and
flickering rays of the Aurora Borealis, were imitated
most admirably. One experiment excited great ap-
plAuse. One of the assistants, placed on an isolated
bench, held in one hand a cup with spirit of wine, the
ether being connected by means of a conductor with the
machine, and with two or three strokes the electrical
fluid passed through his body and ignited the spirit.
The following minute description of this remarkable
machine, will be interesting to our scientific readers It is the largest that has ever yet been constructed,
and consists of a glass plate of seven feet diameter,
the thickness of which is under half an inch. So large
a glass was very difficult to secure on the metallic
axis, so as to prevent it slipping round from too loose
a hold, or cracking from too tight a one. To obviate
this difficulty Mr. Clarke had six separate discs of
plate glass placed on the axis, three on each side of the
great plate. The interior ones are 18 inches ; the
next, 13 ; and the outer pair, 9 ; giving an extra
thickness to the midst of the glass plate of 21 inches.
By these means the metal flanges outside all were screwed
up with safety to the great glass plate, and all cemented,
side by side, with Canadian balsam. The plate is put in
motion by a wheel and pinion in connection with a
crank. The exciting cushions are formed of leather,
stuffed with flannel and tin foil in alternate layers, hav-
ing large silk flaps for guiding the electricity to the col-
lecting forks of the conductor. These cushions are
framed on wrought iron, contrary to all previous prac-
tice, in consequence of some experimental discoveries of
Mr. Clarke. There are only two of these rubbers
(instead of four as usual), one at each side and oppo-
site to each other, presenting altogether rubbing
surfaces of four feet six inches. This new arrange-
ment has been adopted by the inventor to develope
the effects of quantity alone, instead of attempting by the
formation of a compound machine on the ordinary plan
to produce the effects of intensity, also an erroneous
economy of apparatus, as the present experiments satis-
factorily illustrated. The arrangement of the positive
conductor is also quite novel, being a sphere of zinc 5
feet diameter, supported by 4 glass pillars, each 5 feet
6 inches high. It is set in a mahogany frame, which has
4 wheels travelling on a rail-road, so as to enable it to
be guided with ease to and from the plate. From the
conductor branch twe brass arms, with a universal
joint that affords the experimenter every facility of ad-
justment. These arms are set in motion by means of
silk strings passing over pulleys attached to the ceiling.
The negative conductor in contact with the rubbers is
also a zinc sphere three feet in diameter, supported by a
massive glass pillar. The battery consists of twelve
green glass carboys, each ten gallons cipacity, set in
two boxes on wheels, and also moving oa a railroad
The entire arrangement of it is unique and has a moss
imposing effect.

The microscope, even with the artificial light, repre-
sented animals'ahnost invisible to the naked eye as large
as common-sized alligators, but owing to the haziness
of the day and to the surcharged state of the atmosphere,
we must defer a more full account of the exhibition till
a more favourable opportunity.

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL

SUMMARY.

The Times of this morning, alluding to Lord
Brougham's new Beer-Bill, expresses itself in this
slap-dash, unceremonious style :—" These beer-
shops, it seems, won't do. Not that they are com-
plained of by brewers or distillers—not that they
are they are objected to by their humble frequenters
—not that they are stigmatized as nuisances by
neighbouring householders—not that they are proved
to be private dens for gambling, intemperance, or
prostitution—nothing of the kind ; but because
three Parliamentary inquisitors who had been ap-
pointed' to watch their landlords have found that
their works, like those of the Asiatic Church, "are
not perfect," forth comes Lord Brougham, as an
apostolic censor, denouncing their unconsecrated
pewter, indignant at their Sabbath profanation,
shocked at their shabby furniture, excommunicating
them from civil ordinances, insisting that their goods
shall be despoiled, and proposing that these publicans
and sinners shall undergo the last penalty of con-
f2ssorship by an exterminating auto da fe, a few
months hence, without a reserve for repentance, and
without the benefit of shrift."
The Morning Post observes, with reference to
the Report of the Select Committee of the Com-
mons appointed to inquire into the question of
privilege involved in the case of Stockdale v. Han-
sard :—" There is one, and only one, suggestion of
the Committee which seems entitled to respectful
consideration, and that is the recommendation to
legislate with a view to place the privileges of
Parliament upon a solid and intelligible basis, and,
as a necessary consequence, to put an end at once
and for ever to all vague, undefined, and doubtful
pretensions of privilege which can never by possibi-
lity be useful for any other purpose than as they
may occasionally serve for apologies and instruments
of tyranny."
The Morning Chronicle, discussing the ques-
tion of the Ballot, observes as follows :—" The
Vote by Ballot has been stigmatized by such epi-
thets as false and treacherous. The terms may be
much more fitly applied to open voting, under the
circumstances which too frequently characterise the
elections of Members of Parliament. A false suf-
frage belongs to the foulest class of falsehoods. We
call that a false suffrage which violates the opinion
of the elector. If his own thought be, that A is
better qualified than B for a representative, in
voting for B he tells a lie ; a disgraceful and perni-
cious lie. Nor is the act less a lie because he has
promised to tell it. The promise to tell a lie can-
not transform it into a truth, any more than the
promise to pick a pocket can transform theft into
honesty. Nor can the time for deliberation, and
the sinister motive which induced the promises,
alter the character of the transaction. It is, in it-
self and essentially, a falsehood ; and that, too,
where truth is pre-eminently due from the voter, to
his own conscience, his country, and his God."
The Morning Herald contains the following
remarks on the Metropolis Police Courts Bill :
" This Bill, as it now stands, and the Bill to re-
duce the Lord Mayor of London, the Aldermen
and Commons to the degraded and servile condition
of a Board of Union Workhouse Guardians, exe-
cuting the arbitrary will of Home-office Commis-
sioners, were both emanations of that thing called
the Metropolitan Police Committee, of which Mr.
Benjamin Hawes was Chairman—Chairman did
we say ? Why, we have it on the authority of Sir
Matthew Wood, who, in his altercation with the
bustling little Lambeth Lycurgus the other day, let
out some of the 'secrets of the prison-house'
which ought to have been given to the public
sooner, that Mr. Hawes was often the whole Com-
mittee in himself. Here was the multum in parvo
indeed—the much in little, or rather the many in
one. Here was Benjamin the ruler' in the cha-
racter of a great Parliamentary Committee, cutting
and hacking to his fancy the. system of adminis-
trative justice of this great country, and carving the
civic constitution of London into convenient slices
of Home-office patronage, of which, no doubt, he
would himself have hade the lion's share.' "

The The Advertiser thus speaks on the subject
of a projected Commercial Bank of London :
" The startling announcement that :he Bank of
England had refused to discount- mercantile bills,
endorsed by Joitt Stock Banks, solely because they
were so endorsed, though accepted by the first bankers
of London is promptly met by the long projected and
now imperatively called for establishment of a Joint
Stock Bank in London, in shares of one thousand
pounds each, with 500/. paid up, under the title of the
Commercial Bank of London As this great
Bank (which will necessarily exclude all those
little speculators, in shares that have lowered the
confidence of the country, as to the invariable
soundness of ,the Joint Stock system) will,
doubtless, draw to itself, consolidate, and
act for the higher order of Joint Stock
Banks throughout the kingdom, the public will
soon see how long the Bank of England can keep
up its dangerous pretensionS to regulate and govern
the currency—attempting to crush, whenever it
thinks proper, all rivals near its throne. What, in
fact, is the Bank of England itself but a Joint
Stock Bank ? Why should it seek to devour its
own offvring ? What claim has it to the eyes of
Argus and the hands of Briareus—the power of
seeing, and the ability of controlling, all the com-
mercial and manufacturing interests of the king-
dom ? It will now be met in a manner worthy
of the -great system it has presumed to set
at defiance. The Commercial Bank of London is
no wild or mushroom speculation. It is founded
on a basis that has been well tested in the impor-
tant town of Liverpool. The Royal Bank
of Liverpool in shares of 1,000/. each (500/.
being paid up) has in three short years risen
to 50 per cent. premium, while the stock of the
Bank of England has been as rapidly falling. The
time has come at last, when the eyes of the
country are opened to the reckless and ruinous con-
duct of the Bank—alternately inflating and collaps-
ing the currency to suit its own interests. The
system of the Commercial Bank of London
will create a confidence which the Bank of Eng-
land will find it impossible even to destroy or shake,
and the more especially when the contemplated
union of the Banks in the provinces and in Scot-
land takes place. It is only necessary to peruse a
pamphlet which has been privately circulated, and
which we shall endeavour to notice at greater length
when we have more room, to see the vast public
and private advantages resulting from the establish-
ment of such a Bank as that contemplated, and also
to take a retrospect of the unsound and ruinous
system of banking as previously pursued. One
fact contained in a table at the end of this pamphlet
is worth many arguments—about 120 private Banks
(the names of which are given) have merged into
and become Joint Stock Banks within the last few
years. May we humbly ask Why? We pause
for a reply.

FLEETS IN THE MEDITER-

RANEAN.

TOULON, JUNE 9.—" The Porte has seven ships of the
line :—The Sultanieh, of 110 guns; the Fevzieh, 96 ; the
Tenifieh, 96 ; the Menduhieh, 96; the 1' elthieh, 94; the
Tevfikieh, 90 ; and one, the name of which is not known
to me. Eight frigates :—The Nizamieh, 64; the Hadieh,
64; the Torriri B.chri, 60; the Surieh, 58; the Noviki
Bachri, 56; the Naidi-zafer, 50; the Avnilah, 46 ; the
Mirati- zafer, 46. Four brigs of 20 guns each, two cutters,
and two steamers. Total, 23 well-armed and well-
equiped vessels.
"'The Egyptian fleet comprises 12 ships of the line,
without names, but numbered from 1 to 12 ; four frigates,
four sloops, three brigs, and one steamer. In all 24 vessels,
not so well built as those of the Sultan, but fully equal to
them in every other respect.
The Russian fleet in the Black Sea is composed of two
120 gun ships, the Paris and the Warsaw; one of 110,
eight of 84, three of 74, eight 60-gun frigates, four 44-gun
frigates, five 24-gun sloops, and a considerable number of
small vessels—in all, a fleet of about 50 sail.
The French fleet under Rear-Admiral Lalande consists
of four ships of the line : —l' Jena, l'Hercule, le Triton,
and le Jupiter; one sloop, la Favorite ; and one brig, le
Bougainville.
The English fleet, under Admiral Stopford, comprises
eight ships of the line ; the Princess Charlotte, 104 ; the
Rodney, 92 ; the Talavera, 74; the Bellerophon, 80 ; the
Minden, 74: the Asi:‘, 84; the Vanguard, 80; and the
Pembroke, 74 ;—two frigates : the Castor, 36 ; and the
Talbot, 28 ;—the Tyne sloop, 28 ; and the Jaseur brig, 16.