The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-24 00:00:00

AItLINGTON."

PRAYING FOR HUSBANDS.---A very curious legend
was told by the Rev. C. W. Bingham to that por-
tion of the party which, at the recent meeting of the
Archaeological Institute in Dorset, was fortunate in visit-
ing the little Norman chapel of St. Catherine, at Milton
Abbey. The legend was that on a certain day in the year
the young women of Abbotsbury used to go up to St.
Catherine's Chapel, where they made use of the following
prayer :—" A husband, St. Catherine ; a handsome one,
St. Catherine; a rich one, St. Catherine; a nice one, St.
Catherine; and soon, St. Catherine." Mr. Beresford
Hope, who at these gatherings is always equal to any
emergency, modestly proposed that all gentlemen and
married ladies should retire from the church, so as to
afford the young ladies present the opportunity of using so
desirable a prayer.—Building News.
TEN YEARS' MARRIAGES.—The marriage rate in
England in the ten years ending 1863 fluctuated
between 0.626 per cent. in the quarter ending March, 1858,
and 1.014 per cent. in the quarter ending December, 1854.
By an apparently fixed and unchanging rule, the lowest
marriage rate prevails in the first quarter of a year and the
highest in the last. Thus the rates in the first quarter of
each of the ten years under review was as follows :-1854,
0.727 per cent. ; 1855, 0.631 per cent. ; 1856, 0.707 per
cent. ; 1857, 0.705 per cent. ; 1858, 0.626 per cent. ; 1859,
0.732 per cent. ; 1860, 0.711 per cent.; 1861, 0.673 per
cent. ; 1862, 0.680 per cent. ; 1863, 0.704 per cent. On the
other hand, the rate of the last quarters of each of the ten
years were :-1854, 1.014 per cent. ; 1855, 0.988 per cent. ;
1856, 0.996 per cent. ; 1857, 0.940 per cent. ; 1858, 0.967
per cent. ; 1850, 1.013 per cent. ; 1860, FOO6 per cent. ;
1861, 0.953 per cent. ; 1862, 0.945 per cent. ; and 1863,
0.998 per cent.

EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW.—It i 8 understood
that the directors of the North British Railway,
with which the Edinburgh and Glasgow Company has
just been amalgamated, have resolved to run Sunday trains
on the line between the two principal cities of Scotland,
between which all railway communication on the first day
of the week has hitherto been debarred. There will be a

fast train in connection with the night express trains be-
tween Edinburgh and London, in addition to one Parlia-
mentary train each way morning and evening. In the
old Edinburgh and Glasgow Company the great bulk of
the shares were held by the Sabbatarian party, but through
the amalgamation the balance turns completely the other
way, and the inhabitants of the district will now possess
the open communication on Sunday which has been so
long desired by many of them.
THE RECENT DUEL IN BELGIUM.—A letter from

Brussels states that in the late dispute with Captain
Chazal the conduct of Baron de Pret was so universally
blamed that he was obliged to go to Antwerp to find
seconds. After the duel, the Baron's seconds produced a
sealed letter, handed to them by him before the encounter,
in which he declared that in hissing the Brabanconne he
had acted with a degree of levity which he was the first
to regret, and that ho had no intention of offering any in-
sult to Belgian nationality. The wound of M. Chazal is
slight, and he was well enough to return to Ostend the
day after.
TILE BRITISH ARMY. It appears that the ave-

rage strength of the British army abroad in 1860 was 5,126
officers and 123,265 non-commissioned officers and men;
in 1861, 4,892 officers and 117,644 non-commissioned
officers and men ; in 1862, 5,496 officers and 124,703 non-
commissioned officers and men ; and in 1863, 6,248 officers
and 125,473 non-commissioned officers and mon. Of the
force stationed abroad in 1863, 4,383 officers and 97,597
non-commissioned officers and men belonged to infantry

corps.
THE MURDERER SOUTHEY.—NO steps have yet
been taken for bringing up Stephen Forward, alias
Ernest Southey, to London from Sandwich Gaol, where he
is now detained under the warrants of the coroner and the
magistrates. An urgent representation has been made to
the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on the
part of the coroner for Central Middlesex, that the pri-
soner may be brought before his jury on their reassem-
bling next Tuesday afternoon, inasmuch as they have no
evidence of identification before them, and will be unable
to return a satisfactory verdict without such identification.
No assurance, however, has yet been given in the matter,
although it is understood that the Lord Chief Justice of
the Court of Queen's Bench, who is the superior coroner
of England, will be consulted on the subject. It is at pre-
sent uncertain whether the prisoner will be tried in Lon-
don or at Maidstone. He may, if he pleases, be tried in
an application under what is known as
Londonrame r
'l7Act," or an application may be mikdo to a judge
at chambers for :,habeas to bring him to London whether
he will or no. In the event of the Government determin-
ingelms of the Central Criminal Court, which commence on
to bring him to London, he will be tried at the sin-
Monday, the 18th of septeraber.