The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-26 00:00:00

The Liberal Banquet at Cologne.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
COLOGNE, July 24.

After the excitement of the day before yesterday,
and a portion of succeeding night, every effort was
made by the guests invited to the Liberal banquet
to carry out the programme originally laid down at
some less objectionable spot. While a portion of
their number began the progress on the Rhine at
4 a.m. for Oberlahnstein in a couple of gaily-deco-
rated steam-boats, the majority left yesterday for
the same destination by the trains departing at six
and nine o'clock. A band accompanied the latter
train, and played patriotic airs during the journey.
At Bonn and several other stations the travellers
were greeted with loud cheers by spectators waiting
on the platforms.
Upon reaching Oberlahnstein, in the Duchy of
Nassau, the guests, preceded by their band, re-
paired through streets lined with flags to the Hotel
Lahneck. Those who had arrived by the earlier
train and the two steamers, among whom were
some 40 deputies, had dispersed among the various
refreshment-houses for lack of room. The recep-
tion given to their visitors by the inhabitants of
Oberlahnstein was of the most enthusiastic kind ;
handkerchiefs were waved from the windows as the
procession passed by, and the words of hearty wel-
come shouted to them were cheerfully responded to
by the guests. On reaching the Hotel Lahneck,
Dr. Becker warned the company against expressing
too much enthusiasm, as calculated to bring about
interruption, and prove a sorry return for the hos-
pitality of the Lahnsteiners, for whom he proposed
three cheers—a motion eagerly and instantly re-
sponded to.
In the course of the afternoon toasts were pro-
posed to Herr Clasmn-Kapplemann, to whom also
a telegraphic message of greeting was despatched.
The healths of all holding similar opinions with the
guests throughout Germany were drunk ; Herr
Emil Rittershaus, the poet, made a terse, but feel-
ing speech ; and a prologue by Karl Siebel, of
Barmen, was read in the author's absence.

Towards six o'clock, shortly before the train
left for Cologne, the troops specially summoned by
the Duke from Wiesbaden made their appearance,
and proceeded to clear the hotel. Several arrests
are reported to have been made. The six o'clock
train, mostly carrying returning guests, consisted
of 24 carriages. At its departure, as well as at
that of the steamers, loud cheers were interchanged
between the passengers and the inhabitants of the
town. During the entire return voyage the
steamers were greeted with enthusiastic hurrahs,
waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and firing of
guns from the various villages and single
houses upon the banks. At quieter moments
toasts in prose and verse mingled with the strains
of the band. Chief among the healths drunk was
that of Herr Grabow, president of the Chamber of
Deputies, prevented from being present by the
serious illness of a child. Thirteen telegraphic
greetings from various places were received during
the day. The steamers stopped at Porz, where the
greater part of the guests disembarked to go on
afoot to Deutz, while the remainder took boats for
Cologne, where they landed amidst the hearty
cheers of the assembled crowds.

In Cologne itself nothing of material importance
took place from noon to evening. Unusual excite-
ment was, however, visibly displayed in larger
assemblages in the streets, loud conversation, and
expression of much dissatisfaction. The steamers
intended to participate in the festal progress were
occupied until late in the evening by pioneers, who
were relieved every three hours. The reinforce-
ments at the main guard were withdrawn at noon,
and no further military arrangements were noticed
in the course of the day. Crowds assembled towards
evening upon the banks of the Rhine, awaiting the
return of the expected steamers. Large numbers of
persons also collected in front of the central railway
station, to meet the train froni•OberlAnstein..The
guests arriving by both methods were received with
tremendous cheers and shouts of applause, most of
them being accompanied by numbers of _ enthusias-
tic admirers to their respective homes.

SUDDEN DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE
MERCANTILE MARINE ASSOCIATION.—Yesterday a
large circle of persons interested in the welfare of the mer-
cantile marine was thrown into gloom by the announce-
ment of the sudden death, from apoplexy, of Captain Ben-
jamin Sproule, President of the Mercantile Marine Service
Association, member of the Liverpool Local Marine Board,
one of the committee of the school frigate Conway, and
senior partner of the firm of Sproule and Ponsonby, ship-
store dealers. The deceased had been with the pilotage
committee on their excursion on Saturday, and on Monday
he was present at a meeting of the association of which he
was president, and had been oneof the principal promoters.
Later in the day he returned to his home, Rose-mount,
Oxton, and upon going upstairs about one o'clock in the
morning, with the intention of going to bed, he fell in a fit
of apoplexy, and after lingering about an hour he died.
Mrs. Sproule and her daughter were from home. The
event will prove a severe practical loss to the institutions
with which Captain Sproule was connected.

WONDERFUL, IF TRUE.—A few days ago as
Maidman, gamekeeper to Admiral Sir 'Phipps
Hornby, of Little Green, near Petersfield, was lying in
wait for an alleged aerial poacher which had committed
several unwarrantable depredations on young game upon
the estate, and was known to the locality under the cogno-
men of " Old Margery," he ebserved her taking her even-
ing's zigzag flight. At this instant she took a sudden
downward dart, and after being a short time upon the
ground rose to return, when the fatal shot was fired, and
" Margery" fell to the ground. Upon going to the spot
the keeper found, to his great surprise, a fine weasel firmly
fixed to her talons, oth dead, and a short distance off a
hawk fluttering with a broken wing, which, from some
unaccountable cause, got into the line of fire, and fell from
the same shot. Upon being secured, the strange triad were
bagged, and they are now in the hands of Mr. Barnes for
preservation. The weasel in the talons of the owl, and
the hawk alongside, present a rare combination of birds of
prey, and with the destructive weasel are sufficiently in-
teresting, under the circumstances related above, to arrest
the attent ion of the lovers of natural history.—Surrey
Standard.

ELECTION AMENITIES.—The Western Morning
News publishes a letter addressed by Colonel Dawkins to
the late members for Totnes, by whom he was defeated
at the late election. Ho tells Mr. Pender that if he will
take his oath that none of the electors who signed the re-
quisition to himself (Colonel Dawkins) 'have received, or
will receive, any of Mr. Ponder's money, he is prepared to
withdraw some statements which he made against Mr.
Pender. As to Mr. Seymour's charge that Col. Dawkins
is not a " fighting man," the Colonel replies—" I am pre-
Wred to relieve him of his error as soon as he likes, at
ormwood Scrubs or elsewhere, and thus probably relieve
Totnes:at once of a representative not of her choice."

EMIGRATION FIGURES. —The annexed figures
show the various directions taken by the 208,900
persons who emigrated last year :—United States, 147,042 ;
Central and South America, 2,963 ; Canada, 11,759 ; New
Brunswick, 396 ; Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 433; New-
foundland, 33 ; Prince Edward Island, 8 ; Vancouver's
Island, 92 ; Jamaica, 843 ; British Guiana, 220 ; Trinidad,
128 ; other West Indian settlements, 1,215 ; the East In-
dies, 1,267 ; China, 205 ; Japan, 4 ; the Mauritius, 23 ;
Western Africa, St. Helena, Madeira, Malta, &c., 364; the
Cape of Good Hope, 873 ; Natal, 527 ; Mexico, 43 ; the
Falkland Islands, 5 ; the Sandwich Islands, 15 ; New
South Wales, 4,689; Queensland, 7,183; Victoria, 13,909;
South Australia, 2,842 ; Western Australia, 299 ; Tasma-
nia, 50 ; New Zealand, 11,970. It is a remarkable fact that
seven out of every ten persons who (emigrate from the
United Kingdom thus proceed to the United States. The
emigration to the troubled territories of Brother Jonathan
was on a larger scale last year than it had been since 1854.
On the other hand, the emigration to British North
America and the Australian colonies somewhat declined
last year.

ODD MARRIAGES.—In England, in the year 1863,
for which the marriage returns are now completed,
11 men were married who were neither bachelors nor
widowers, and nine women who were neither spinsters
nor widows. Half of these 20 marriages of divorced per-
sons took place in London. The returns state the exact
ages of nearly two-thirds of the couples married in the
year, and generally there is nothing remarkable in the
disclosure. More than three-fourths, both of the men and
the women, were under 30. But there are some entries
that certainly are rather remarkable. For instance, two
men above 80 married spinsters who were not 35; and a
girl of 16 was married to a man above 70. 228 girls were
married who were only 16 years old, and 30 without wait-
ing even until they were 16. Six youths of 16 must needs
take to them wives, all rather older than themselves. The
days of our years are threescore years and ten ; but this
return shows us 177 men and 42 women who had made
what is called a new start in life after they had passed that
boundary. Eight of these men were bachelors until, after
attaining the age of 70, they married, and three of the
women spinsters; 14 of the men had seen 80. birthdays.
Among the whimsies may be noted a man of 92 marrying
a woman of 81