The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-03 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LO_NEON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, lEErz.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.--This Day.

COURT OF PROBATE AND DIVORCE.
(Before Sir J. P. Wilde.)
The Court sat for the first time this day since the end
of the long vacation.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day,

BOW-STREET.

Charlotte Thompson, the daughtet of a boarding-house
keeper in Norfolk-street, was charged with stealing some
wine, the property ,of Mr. Mackie, who lodged in the
house.

Mr. Mackie said in September last ho went out of town,
and on his return he found a bottle of port had been taken
from his cheffionier. Ho was told the prisoner had stolen
it, and out of copsideration for her mother he forgave her.
On Wednesday morning last he again found the cheffionier
had been forcibly opened and another bottle taken, and as
it was the wish of the mother he prosecuted in the present
ease, as it appeared to be the only way to cure her of her
propensity for drink.

Mr. Vaughan—When did you give her into custody ?
Witness replied, when he returned last night. She
went out in the morning and returned drunk in the even-
ing. When she was accused of stealing the wine she, with
an oath, denied it.

Elizabeth Arnold, housemaid at No: 5, Norfolk-stroet,
said she found Mr. Mackie's cheffionier broken open on
Wednesday last, and some wine had been taken away. At
that time the prisoner was in the kitchen with her mother,
the worse for drink. She went down to get the key of
Mr. Mackie's room, to lock it up. - She did not speak to
the prisoner, but told her mother. Yesterday morning,
when she got up she found the prisoner absent from her
bedroom, and she must have got up early and gone out.
On the bottom of the flight of stairs she found an empty
wine bottle concealed amongst some brushes. She
recognised it as one of Mr. Mackie's bottle by the seal.
When the prisoner came home she was the worse
for liquor, not so bad as drunk, but not sober. She told
her she had been at Mr. Mackie's wine, but she denied it.
Mr. Vaughan—What do you know of the former case ?
Witness said she saw her on the Wednesday morning
coming out of her bed-room tipsy and partly undressed.
She had a bottle which contained wine, from which she
was drinking. She went up to her and told her she had
been at Mr. Mackie's wine, but she again denied it.
Mr. Humphries, the second clerk—How did you know it
was Mr. Mackie's wine ?

Witness said she knew it by the seal. The prisoner's
room was next to Mr. Mackie's, both being in the front
and top of the house. She had got out of the window,
crawled alone the varagot, and entered by the window of
Mr. .Mackie's room. After returning to her own room she
had washed her soiled garments, in order that witness
might not see the marks of her progress along the parapet.
Mr. Humphries reminded the magistrate that the prisoner
had been promised forgiveness.
The prosecutor said he only meant to convey that he
had not condoned the matter by saying ho would forgive
her.

The prisoner denied the charge, and said things were
often missed from the house, but she did not take them.
What she had taken to drink she had paid for.
Mr. Vaughan remanded the prisoner for further evi-
dence.

The Correspondence of Voltaire

(From the Paris Correspondent of the Times.)

It would.seem that the correspondence of Vol-
taire is inexhaustible, and that letters of his will
continue to be discovered in some corner or other
to the end of time. The Revue Francaise publishes
25 epistles addressed by the " Patriarch of Ferney"
to the Margravine of Brandenburg-Baireuth, Fre-
derica Wilhelmina, sister. of Frederick the Great,
and which the writer in the Revue affirms have been
lately discovered " among the papers of a rich and
noble family." These letters, supposing them
genuine, contain, howeVer, nothing remarkable.
One, written while on his way back to France after
the rupture with his royal friend, runs thus
:
" The Duchess of Gotha has just filled me with
surprise and gratitude by telling me that she has
charged M. de Gotha to speak to the King, your
brother, and to implore your protection in my
favour with his Majesty. Your Royal Highness
knows that I never desired any other than yours.
But for the fatal circumstance, and the unlucky,
journey of my niece, I should have gone from Leip-
sic to Baireuth to throw myself at your feet. The
evil is done ; but is it without remedy? Can the
philosophy of the King, your humanity, your coun-
sels, your prayers, do nothing ? Who can speak the
truth to a great man, if it be not you ? I admit, I
have said, I have written to the King, and I shall
say so all my life, that I was wrong to be obstinate;
but, Madame, is this an affair of State? It is but
a puerility of literature, a quarrel abOut algebra, a
minimum—and it is for that that I have been kept
six weeks a prisoner at Frankfort, that I have
missed the season of the waters with my frightful
malady; that my niece has been dragged by soldiers
through the streets of Frankfort ; that a wretch
sent away all her servants, and attempted to out-
rage her. These acts of violence were committed
by one Freiatag, who calls himself the King's
Minister. The King does, not know that this
same man was condemned to an ignoble punish-
ment in Dresden. All these frightful circumstances
are known in every Court, but perhaps his
Majesty does not know them. And as for me,
Madame, what is my situation ? lam old and in-
firm. I sacrificed to the King the last years of my
life, and I lived for him alone three years. All my
time was divided between him and my work. I
abandoned everything for him and he knows it; and
does he only bear in mind an unlucky, literary quar-
rel ? I must toll you the truth ; your royal high-
ness is worthy of hearing it. All the evil comes
from the letter which the King printed against
Koenig and myself at a time when he was not
rightly informed of the-dispute. I do not say this
to extenuate my fault. I shall always admit that I
was wrong in not holding my tongue, and in being
obstinate ; but 15 years of the most tender attach-
ment ought surely to weigh something against a mo-
ment of ill humour. I leave your royal highness to
judge of the matter. I ask you if there is not glory
in so great a man forgetting one fault, and bearing
in mind so many services? Shall so many monu-
ments of the correspondence with which the King has
honoured me, and of my idolatry for him, go down
to posterity, only that posterity should say, All
has ended in a prison, and in outrages on an inno-
cent woman ?' Ah, Madame, is there no glory but
that of having a fine army ? The King, your
brother, loves true glory, and he merits it. He
loves you, and he should believe what you say. It
is for you, Madame, to prove the greatness of your
soul, and to touch his. Do whatever you please
I place myself entirely in your hands. Ido not
speak to your Royal Highness of all that is said at
Versailles, Vienna, Paris, and London ; it is only
your heart that you. must listen to ; and it is only
to the heart of the King that you must speak. You
cannot but touch him, since you have resolved to
do so. My heart will be for ever penetrated with
the profoundest and most tender respect for your
Royal Highness. , •

Will your 'Royal Highness permit me to place
at the feet of t lonseigneur,

" Formerly Brother, " VOLTAIRE ?"
The following letter appears from five of the pri-
soners confined in Sainte Pelagic :
" Some of the prisoners attacked with diarrhoea,
or colic, have been admitted into the infirmary of
Sainte Pelagic. Those who have relations here
will certainly have heard of it. As they may feel
alarmed at this moment of sickness, we think it
right to give some information, which we request
you to publish. It will serve to tranquillize that
part of the population interested in knowing the
truth. Five or six persons have been suffering for
the last three days from gastric and intestinal de-
rangements, but with none of the characteristics of
cholera. These patients, treated with the greatest
skill by Dr. Philippart and M. Patti, head apothe-
cary of the prison, are recovered or in a fair way of
recovery. One only sank rapidly. It is right to say
that this man was attacked under circumstances
most unfavourable for the treatment of such a dis-
ease. He was in an underground cell. The humidity
of such a place, the wart of exercise, food consisting
only of bread and water, are not calculated to enable
the constitution to resist the malady, but rather the
contrary. The prisoners in general, not possessing
resources to improve their position, are in a condi-
tion to predispose them to gastro-intestinalderange-
ments even in ordinary weather, and they are still
more liable to contract them in a wet or cold season.
The regimen to which the most of them are subject
is in itself sufficient to explain the cause. For this
reason it would be a great mistake to attribute it to
the prevailing epidemic. In order to fully justify this
observation, and to explain it clearly', it may be use-
ful to describe this regimen in a few words. When
the prisoners are not employed in the workshops,
they remain in the court-yard in the open
air, and without any shelter. There are cer-
tainly two heated rooms, common to all the
prisoners, and capable of containing from 20 to 30
persons each, but they are quite insufficient to re-
ceive at least 600 prisoners confined in Sainte Pelagie.
There is no occasion to enlarge on this fact ; it is not
new for the public. The opposition members men-
tioned it in the Chamber of Deputies the last Session.
Nothing has been yet said as to the food. The ques-
tion, of first-rate importance, merits serious examina-
tion. In order to explain it it would not be necessary
to enter into minute details. It is sufficient to state
that a speculating contractor receives 16c. (Id.)
per man per day to feed him.. It must be under-
stood that bread is not included. The authorities
undertake to have the bread made at the female
prison of St. Lazare, whence it is brought to St.
Pelagie. Are 16c. sufficient to feed a man, exclu-
sive of bread, especially when the profit the con-
tractor has a right to expect is deducted ? Wishing
to give this note its real signification, we declare
that we have personally no interest in the question.
The regime imposed on political prisoners is, with-
out being perfect, better than that on which
prisoners of another class are forced to live.
order to give a proof of justice and impartiality,n
we even declare that, lodged in the eastern wing of
the prison, we are in a very healthy position. But
this consideration cannot make us silent on a sub-
ject which we regard as a question of humanity.
We consider it a duty to publicly urge necessary
and urgent reforms in the prison system for the
sake of the unfortunate men who have so many
other misfortunes to support."

It was recently announced that, in accordance
with orders from the Empress, the juvenile convicts
at La Roquette were removed from that prison and
sent to penitentiary farms in different parts of the
country. Most satisfactory accounts have now been
received from one of the establishments at Vail-
hauques (II erault). The children already there
welcomed the recent arrivals with great cordiality.
The paternal but firm system acted on, and the
somewhat military organisation established there,
has increased the feeling of self-respect of the new
corners. The lads are active and intelligent, and
show great aptitude in the use of implements with
which they were before quite unacquainted. They
besides take a pleasure in the agricultural labours,
and do not regret their former life; they also enjoy
the partial liberty in which they live. The success
of the experiment will be a .source of gratification to
the Empress, to whose generous solicitude it is due.
The Archduchess Mathilda, second daughter of
the Archduke Albert of Austria, and the
.Princess
Hildegarde of Bavaria, has just been confirmed by
Archbishop Rauscher, in the chapel of the palace of
Burg, in presence of the whole Court.

Lord Palmerston.

A writer in the present number of Fraser's Maga-
zine records numerous anecdotes illustrative of Lord
Palmerston's character, from which we make the
following extracts :

Every one has heard the story of Sheridan's din-
ner party, at which the sheriff's officers acted as
waiters. On its being mentioned as apocryphal at
Brockett, " Not at all," exclaimed Lord Palmerston,
"I was atit. Sheridan, Canning, Frere, and some
others, including myself, had agreed to form a
society (projected, you r may remember, by Swift)
for the improvement of the English language. We
were to give dinnersinturn ; Sheridan gave the first ;
and my attention was attracted to the peculiarity
of the attendance by the frequent appeals on the
part of the improvised servants to Mr. Sheridan.' "
" And did you improve the language ? "
" Not certainly at that dinner; for Sheridan got
drunk, and a good many words of doubtful pro-
priety were employed."
He was purist in language, grammar, and ortho-
graphy, and some curious illustrations of his zeal
for their reformation are preserved in the Foreign-
office. He had a confirmed dislike to " that that"
and " had had ;" as in a sentence thus constructed :
" It was said that that general had had a check."
In the last speech from the throne her Majesty is
made to say that\she had great satisfaction in recur-
ring again to her Parliament. Some of the literary
men objected, and their objection was stated to-Lord
Palmerston one evening (February 10), when he
had been' unexpectedly detained in the House of
Commons, and had only just risen from an eleven
o'clock dinner. He defended the expression, and
maintained the argument with unabated spirit till
the subject was dropped. The next mornng, before
ten, the objector received the following memoran-
dum, written in the Premier's clear, bold, well-
known hand :
" JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY.

" ' In this Life the Thoughts of God and a future
State often offer themselves to us. They often
spring up in our minds, and when expelled recur
again:—Calanty.

" One 'meaning of Recur' is to have Recourse
to,' and it is perfectly good English to say I have
Recourse to you again.'

" Etymologically, to recur' is to run back,' and
one may with Propriety say I run back, or come
back, to you again.
" The Queen recurs or comes back to her Parlia-
ment at the ciad of every Recess, and she does again
that which she has done before." . . .
" He was as much at home in Italian as in Eng-
lish ; and some amusement wan caused in the House
of Commons by his correction of his accomplished
friend, Mr. Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), who
unluckily said Cagliari instead of Cagliai. . . .

His company hours were materially curtailed by
business, but, from the Moment he joined the circle
till he left it, he was always ready to amuse and be
amused ; he was never out of temper or out of spirits,
never inattentive, absent, or pre-occupied the dis-
tinctive good breeding of working statesmen, as
punctuality is the good breeding of kings. He
listened as well as he talked ; he thoroughly enjoyed
good conversation ; and he liked it the better for
being enlivened with fancy and fun. He told a
story capitally, frequently with an apropos, which
brought its application within Barrow's somewhat
large and elastic description of wit.

" If (says Sydney Smith) I say a good thing to-
day, and repeat it again to-morrow in another com-
pany, the flash of to-day is as much the flash of to-
morrow as the flash of one musket is the flash of
another; but if I tell a humorous story there are a
thousand little diversities in my voice, manner, lan-
guage, and gestures which indicate a rather different
thing from what it was before, and infuse a tinge of
novelty into the repeated narrative." Thus was it
with Lord Palmerston, and his best anecdotes, when
he could be coaxed into repeating them, had always
a fresh zest. His play of mind was equally effective
in catching and improving any passing drollery or
humorous thought.
When Lord D erby's translation of the Iliad was first
announced, a gaest at Broadlands told him he must
keep pace with his great rival by translating the
"Eneid. " Stop till I am out of office, and theparallel
will be complete."
He laughingly quoted the authority of an emi-
nent physician, that continuance in office, with the
resulting employment, NA as good for the health.
" Would not active opposition do as well ?"
" No, no ; that stirs up the bile and creates acidity.
Ask Disraeli if it does not."

Nothing, by the way, created acidity in him ; he
never said or sanctioned an ill-natured remark on
anybody. On being told that a clever assailant
Jegretted a personal attack, he said, " Tell him I am
not the least offended—the more particularly because
I think I had the best of it."
It was mentioned to him that his Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Sir George Lewis, had been writing
letters to Notes and Queries on " The Wakefulness
of Geese." " The wakefulness of geese ! Why the
Opposition will think he means them ; and (what is
worse) they may say they are the geese that saved
the Capitol."
A couple were censured for going to country
houses without an invitation. " Don't be hard on
them," was his suggestion, " for if they waited to
be invited, they might go nowhere."
On its being stated as a good sign that Lady
was only attended by a popular physician, who shall
be nameless, he said, " Ah, very true, when you
trust yourself to Dr. you should have a super-
fluous stock of health for him to work upon."
When at Broadlands, he was a regular attendant
at Romsey church, but was occasionally late.
Once, when he did not appear till towards the end
of the second lesson, the sermon was more than
ordinarily long, which a guest attributed to the
complacent consideration of the clergyman, who
was determined that his lordship should gain in one
way what he lost in another. " I never saw it in
that light before. I will take good care not to tax
his kindness again."