The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-10 00:00:00

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HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Jan. 9.

The Queen walked and drove this morning.

Her Royal Highness Princess Helena rode on
horseback, attended by the Hon. Emma Lascelles.

Princess Louise drove out.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Nemours
and the Princesses Margaret and Blanche of Or-
leans, are expected at Osborne to-day on a visit to
her Majesty.

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ARRIVAL OF PRINCE ART UR. —MS Royal High-
ness Prince Arthur, attended by Major Elphinstone,
landed in Southampton docks on Saturday afternoon, at
three o'clock, from her Majesty's yacht Elfin, Commander
Balliston, en route from Osborne to London. The band of
the Turkish frigate Paiki Nusret played the National
Anthem, and the frigate's colours were dipped, in compli-
ment to his Royal Highness, as he landed. Lady Caroline
Barrington also came up in the yacht, and proceeded to
London. Sir James Clark returned in the Elfin to
Osborne, on a visit to her Majesty.

The Duke and Duchess of Wellington have been
entertaining a select party at Strathfieldsaye during the
last few days.

The Marquis of Downshire has left Belgrave-
square for his seat in Ireland.
The Earl and Countess of Clarendon are about
to receive a succession of visitors at The Grove, near
Watford. Her ladyship will give a grand ball at The
Grove, on Friday next.

The Countess of Fife will leave town to-day on
a tour of visits. His lordship will leave to-morrow on a
visit to Viscount and Viscountess Powerscourt, at Powers-
court Castle, Ireland. Viscount Duff will leave town the
latter end of the week to resume his studies at Eton.

The Countess of Craven and the Ladies Craven
will leave Ashdowne Park, Berks, to-day, to join the com-
pany about to assemble at The Grove, Watford. The noble
earl will return to town this afternoon.

Lord Dufferin has taken No. 8, Grosvenor-
square, for a term of years ; late the residence of Lord
Rendlesham.

Baron de Pierres, Equerry to the Empress, has
returned to Paris from his visit to Holland. He had been
charged, as is already known, in conjunction with M.
Davillier, orderly officer to the Emperor, to accompany the
Prince of Orange on his return home from Compiegne.

On dit that the Prince of Wales is likely to be-
come the purchaser of the Rushton estate, about three
miles from Kettering. The estate possesses an excellent
mansion, and presents advantageous shooting and hunt-

ing facilities.

OTTO OF ROSE—is thus prepared at Ghazeepore—
The petals of any sweet flower are placed in clay

stills with twice their weight of water, and the produce is

exposed to the fresh air for a night in open vessels. Tho
next morning the otto is 'found cot gealed on the surface,

and is carefully skimmed off. These essences would be very
beautiful if they were pure, but the native distillers being

but little skilled in their art, and sandal-wood shavings to
the flowers to facilitate the extraction of the otto, which thus

becomes tainted with a heavy sandal-wood flavour. Besides
these essences, perfumed oils are also made with some of

these flowers in the following way :—Gingelly oil seeds are

placed in alternate layers with fresh flowers in a covered
vessel. The latter are renewed several times, after which
the seeds are pressed, and the oil produced is found to have

acquired the smell- of the flowers. Musk, civet, ambergris,
spikenard (valeriana jatamansi), patchouly, and kus-kus are

also favourite perfumes with the Indians.—Rimmers Book
of Perfumes.

THE MYSTERY OF THE NEBUL/E resolved by Spec-
trum Analysis—through the Spestroscope.—Perhaps

the most important discovery, and the one that will most
prominently mark the past year in the history of astrono-
mical progress, was recently announced to the Royal
Society by Messrs. Huggins and Miller. This discovery
upsets all the doctrines to which astronomers have pinned
their faith during the present century. Everyone is fami-
liar with the term Nebula, an expression employed to de-

signate certain misty masses of matter from which ligh t is
emitted, and which can only be examined with the aid of
the most powerful microscopes. These bodies, which ap-
pear as shapeless clouds of light at immense distances from
the earth, have been of late years studied and observed by

all classes of astronomers ; and, more recently, they have

been regarded as being simply huge clusters of fixed stars,
which, on account of their enormous distance from us, ap-
pear blended together into a confused mass. Watchful
observers concluded as we have said ; and it has been for
years the delight of astronomers to " resolve," as they
termed it, these nebulae. Since, however, thanks to the

researches of Bunsen and Kirchoff, a new system of chemi-
cal analysis exists, by means of which we can tell from the
light which a body emits what is the nature of its compo-
sition, and since this method has been put in practice in the
case of the sun and fixed stars, showing in them a consti-

tution closely resembling that of our earth, Messrs. Hug-
gins
and Miller determined to put the light of the nebula° '
to a similar test. They have done so. The spectrum
analysis of the nebular light has been accomplished, and, -'„,,
Wonder to tell, it has revealed the presence of only one or :''i
two elements, and these are gases. In the spectrum pro-
duced by the light of these quasi-suns the bands corre-
sponding to the various substances which compose the
solid mass of our earth were absent, and the only indica-
tion of any element whatever were two lines, which, pro-
bably, point to the presence of nitrogen and hydrogen.
Hence, the conclusion is inevitable that the nebula:, are
most probably enormous masses of luminous gases or
vapour. This important conclusion, which is one of the
most remarkable that has been for a long while arrived at,
brings astronomers back, in some degree, to the peculiar
views of Laplace, as expressed in his " Nebular Hypo-
thesis.—London Review.
A SHIELD FOR ACHILLES !—Who are responsible
for the due conservation of the public statues of ,
London ? 1 would especially draw their attention to the
disgraceful state of Achilles, in Hyde-park. The railings
which formerly inclosed and protected our public monu-
ments have been, in many cases, removed, and this statue
of Achilles affords a lamentable instance of the result of
such removal. During the present year, a fellow was
caught by the police in the act of stealing from the pedes-
tal some of the raised metal letters. Soon afterwards I
saw some urchins scrambling up to the statue, by using 55
steps the letters which still remained. To-day I see that,
of the inscription, commemorating the erection of the ,
statue in the reign of George the Fourth, not a single letter
remains ; and the pedestal is become a playground for idle
boys. Now, as a matter of taste, I think this Achilles de-
testable. It is a slightly altered copy of one of the figures
holding the horses of Manly. The originals are, I believe,
in Italy. . Besides the want of originality, it seems to mo ,
as absurd to commemorate the Duke of Wellington by
erecting a statue of Achilles, as it would be for us to com-
memorate Achilles by a statue of the Duke of Wellington- .
But this is a point of taste, about which others may differ
from me ; certain it is, that the monument was a national
one to the memory of our greatest general, and it behoves
the anthorities to protect it from spoliation and indignities- ,
It is, at all events, more creditable to the country than the
hideous jumble of cloak, hat, and mule-like horse, which,
weighs down the arch on Constitution-hill.
THE MILITARY OBITUARY OF FRANCE for the
year 1864, published by the Moniteur de l'Annee•
—The French army lost by death during that period one
Marshal of France—the Duke of Malakoff—and the gene-
rals of division the Marquis and Count Grouchy, sons of
the Marshal, both cavalry officers and troth distinguished,
in the wars of the first Empire. The elder, Victor do
Grouchy, was grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and
the other, Alphonse, commanded the 12th Regiment of
Chasseurs at the battle of Waterloo,where he was wounded.
After then), are named the generals of division Marquis de
Castelbajac, senator, and former Ambassador at St. Peters-
burg ; Baron Ldtang, senator; Count de Lagrange, senior
general of division, who was promoted to that rank ill
1814, and who made all the campaigns since the year
1800 ; Pellion, one of the most distinguished and learned
of Staff officers, which corps he entered in 1818 ; De Cour-
tigis, a long- time president -of the Commission of Staff
Officers ; and Thiery, an officer of the first Empire, who
distinguished himself in his profession from 1807 to 1854-
France has further to regret 12 generals of brigade who
died last year—all distinguished by their brilliant services.
Their names are Tardier° de St. Aubanet, Moreau, UrvoY
de Closmadeuv, D'Arlincourt, Toscan de Terrail, Chris-
tophe and Eugene Lemaire, Imbert de St. Amand, De-
launay, Le Barbier de Tinan, Marion de Beaulieu, and
Paillot. To these are to be added Inspector-Commissary-
General Fourrier, Commissaries-General Count de Bois 4
d'Anglas, Robert and Roch Gaston ; Colonel Augayat, of
Engineers, and former Professor of Fortification at the
Military School of Metz, conservator of the gallery of
plans at the Invalides ; Grandvallet, colonel of Chasseurs ;
Chapiron, Dumas, Champmontant, colonels of infantry
and Martin, colonal of Zouaves, killed in one of the last
actions in Mexico.
_. _

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GOLDSMITHS' HALL.—A deputation from a public,
meeting of watchmakers and jewellers, comprising the
officers of the British Horological Institute and others, had,
an interview on Friday, the 6th inst., at the Goldsmiths
Hall, with the wardens of the company, on the subject of
an improved system being adopted of assaying, marking,
and charging for gold and silver cases and jewellery, i°
meet the competition of the foreign producers and the
requirements of the public. The Prime Warden pro:lli:sea
the careful consideration of the company to the questioill
and that an early answer as to their decision should
.10
sent to Valentine Knight, Esq„ the president of the Britlf3/1
1191.01°giCal Institute, who beaded the deputation.