The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-08 00:00:00

SIR RICHARD ENGLAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUIT.
SIR,- As I have just left the army in the Crimea, and
have seen what has been going on there, I think I ought
not to let the public conclude, on the authority of the
Tinto, that Sir Richard England is responsible for the
Third Division having been less engaged with the enemy
than other portions of the army. At the battle of the
Alma the Fourth Division, as well as the third, was
held in reserve, and neither Sir George Cathcart nor Sir
Richard England had any choice in the matter.
Balaklava is distant about six miles from the camp of
the Third Division, which was not detached to that place
on the 25th of October, having been left by Lord Raglan,
with the divisions of Brown and Evans, to hold the front,
while the assault in rear of our position was met, and
the cavalry, Highlanders, and Turks supported them,
by the Guards and the Fourth Division, who alone were
detached from the English camp for the purpose. Here
again, then, Sir Richard England had no choice in the
natter.
Inkermann was fought on the extreme right of the
English position. The Third Division was on the ex-
treme left. Under the pressure of a sudden attack it
must necessarily occupy that ground which it could
most quickly reach. This ground may have been
comparatively distant from the brunt of the battle, but,
for the safety of our position, its occupation was not
the less necessary ; and here, again, I may repeat that
Sir Richard England had no choice in the matter.
In the name therefore of good old English fair-play,
I ask you to let the public read this letter, remembering,
too, that, glorious as were the exertions of the " bat-
talion officers and soldiers" at Inkerman, others did
their part as well, for as many as eight out of the 14
general officers who were engaged with the troops there
were put hors de combat.—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant,

ARTHUR W. TORRENS, Brigadier• General
98, Ebury-street, Dee. 7.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, DEC. 7.
There waa no,addition to the Royal dinner party yes-
terday.
Tne Queen and Prince, accompanied by Princ• Eroest
of Leiningen, walked in the Home Park this morning.

The following Ministers were present at the Cabinet
dinner given by the Earl of Aberdeen on Wednesday
evening at Argyll-house—viz., Lord John Russell, the
Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke
of Argyll, Viscount Palmerston, the Earl of Clarendon,
Sir George Grey, the Duke of Newcastle, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Sir James Graham, Sir Charles Wood,
Earl Granville, the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, and
Sir William Molesworth.
M. Musurus, the Turkish Minister, transacted busi-
ness yesterday at the Foreign-office, Downing-street.
Sir E. Buxton had an interview with the Earl of
Aberdeen yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-
street.
The Cathedral Commission met at No. 1, Parliament-
ment-street, yesterday. The Commissioners present
were—the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Marquis of
Blandford, MP.' the Bishop of London, the Bishop
of Oxford, the Hon. and Rev. H. M. Villiers, Sir
John Dodson, Sir John Patteson, Rev. Dr. Words-
worth, Rev. Canon Selwyn; and Mr. Henry Kings-
cote (Secretary).
Sir Alexander Spearman had an interview with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday at his official
residence in Downing-street.

We are requested to state that Convocation will be
prorogued on Friday, the 15th instant, to Tuesday, the
6th of February.
The Marchioness Dowager of Etownshire has left
Grosvenor-street on a visit to Colonel the Hon. Alexan-
der and Lady Mary Wood, at Cumberland. Lodge,
Windsor Park.
The Countess of Leicester arrived in town yesterday
from Brighton. Her ladyship and the noble earl in-
spected the " cattle show," and left town again for
Holkham Hall, Norfolk.
The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady Emma
Stanley are expected- to leave Knowsley Hall, Prescot,
Lancashire, on Monday next, for St. James's-square.
Nis lordship's political banquets to the members of his
party will not, we believe, be resumed until after the re-
assembling of Parliament, the first week in February.
Lord and Lady Brackley, who arrived in Grosvenor-
street early in the week from the Earl of Ellesmere's,
Worsley Hall, near Manchester, have since left town for
Burwood Park, Surrey.
The Right Hon. B. Disraeli and Mrs. Disraeli have
arrived at Grosvenor-gate, from Hughendon Manor,
Bucks.
The Rev. D. Winham and the Rev. G. H. Proctor,
the two last of the twelve assistant chaplains selected
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to
minister -to our sink and wounded soldiers at the seat of
war, will sail from Portsmouth this morning, Dec. 8, by
the Magialena, which takes out the 13th Royal Irish
aid 83 officers.
SUICIDE AT CFIELTENIIAL—Mr. William Coles, for
the last 14 years collector to the Cheltenham Water-
works Company, committed suicide on Monday, by
drowning himself in a pond.
&MIFF JAMESOIi.—The Council of Government of
Malta have recently voted the sum of 2001. to Mr.
Sheriff Jameson, of Edinburgh, for his services in re-
vising the code of civil procedure for that island in
1851. The code is in the Italian language.
COLDBATH-FIELDS HousE OF CORRECTION.—The elec-
tion of a successor to Col. Chesterton, the governor of
this extensive prison, who retires, after a service ex-
ceeding twenty-five years, and on a pension of 3331.
a-year, took place yesterday. The salary of the new
governor is to commence at 5001. a-year, and that of
Colonel Chesterton has reached 7001. by progressive in-
creases. The candidates were Captain C. Cheethain,
Captain T. H. Colvill, Mr. George H. Henderson, Mr.
George Stephens, and Lieutenant Henry Corbett Taylor.
Captain T. H. Colvill was the successful candidate.
ROYAL GROIRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The following
papers are to be read at the society's next meeting, on
the evening of Dec. 11:-1. Reports from Dr. Barth,
addressed to the Chevalier Bunsen, dated Timbuctu,
Nov. 23, 1854, and March 23, 1854, announcing his de-
parture from that place ; communicated through the
Foreign-office. 2. Despatch from Consul Herman to
tee Earl of Clarendon, dated Tripoli, Oct. 3, 1854, re-
porting that the African mission had not yet returned to
Kuka from the south.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—At a monthly
iNgconie:. eHtfHey. rra;uadnin,aotmt
and
deae.renD.
Ltsdi.l:Tugr
vad.,
Hutton
ce—eu-llpdettrtrheoymesneiosßdwnteetiengrd
,rthe,
Hat
electediynßo, at
neti vh .eFtthh.efe
heeHlalLior.society'sfellows of
.oißfeviristsshhh.r house,.
Cu.p
so
ooel,f:
thorpe, and Messrs. F. Kumpf, W. Russell, J. H. Dark,
F. Peake, and T. Staunton, were proposed as candidates
for the fellowship. The report of the council stated that
the menagerie continued in the excellent state of health
which had marked the progress of the summer months,
and was at the present moment in a condition of une-
qualled efficiency. The number of fellows had increased
by ninety since the let of January, notwithstanding
several deaths and ten resignations. The number of
visitors to the gardens up to the Ist of December was
897,066.
FlLsis Horm—The Belgian and Dutch journals have
been announcing that the distribution of the estate left
by M. Jacques Dubois, a native of Vedrin, in Belgium,
was about to be made. The deceased is stated to have
died at Batavia in 1704, leaving behind him a large for-
tune. It results, says the Moniteur, from official docu-
ments sent in to the department of foreign affairs, that
this inheritance is quite imaginary, and it is not oven
known if such a person as Dubois ever existed.
TER TRIAL OF YHA GOLD AND SILVER COINAO2I.
Yesterday morning, the jury who were empanelled on
the previous day at the office of the Comptroller of the
Exchequer, waited upon the Lord Chancellor at Lin-
coln's Inn to deliver their verdict on the state of the new
coinage. Mr. Prideaux, the secretary to the Goldsmiths'
Company handed is a lengthened report, from which it
appeared that the gold and silver, which they had
minutely examined, was of the required weight and fine-
ness ; indeed, that there was an advantage, rather than
otherwise, in favour of the public. The Lord Chancellor
expressed his satisfaction with this result, and ordered
the verdict to be recorded. In the evening a grand
banquet was given, at the Goldsmiths' Hall, to the Lord
Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord
Chief Baron, Sir E. Ryan, Sir John Herschel, and other
persons of distinction.
TUE LATE Miss FEE/UM—ln our obituary for last
month we had to record the lamented death of Miss
Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, the talented authoress of
" Marriage," &c. " This gifted personage," as her old
and attached friend, the author of " Waverly," has
designated her, was born in 1782, and was the youngest
daughter of the late Mr. James Ferrier, for many years
Sir Walter Scott's colleague in the Court of Session.
Miss Ferrier's first work, " Marriage," appeared is 1813,
followed by "Inheritance," in 1824, and "Destiny," in
IS3B. These, like the earlier of Scott's novels, having
been published anonymously, Sir Walter, on one oce„ a-
skin, refers to the authoress as his "sister shadow, a
flattering but well-merited compliment, for no writer of
fiction has probably been more succesful than this lady
in the delineation of Scottish character. In conse-
quence of very delicate 14,Leiltli, a-conipeolicd with par-
tial blindness, Miss Ferrier formally years past had lived
in comparative retirement, admired and beloved by
the
few privileged to enjoy her rare and delighful powers of
conversation, which oho was permitted to retain to the
last.