The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-14 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent visited the
Queen yesterday.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert rode out on horse-
back yesterday, attended by Lient.-Coi. F. H. Seymour.
The Belgian Minister and Madame Van de Weyer,
the Hanoverian Minister, the Russian Minister and
Baroness Brunnow, the Austrian Minister and Countess
Colloredo, the Bavarian Minister and Baroness de Cetto,
the Danish Minister and Madame de Bille, the Countess
de Lavradio, Prince and Princess de Carini, the Turkish
Minister and Madame Musurus, the Brazilian Minister
and Madame Macedo, the Peruvian Minister, and other
members of the diplomatic corps called yesterday at
Buckingham Palace to read the bulletin of her Majesty's
health.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and their
Royal Highnesses the Duke of Cambridge, the Duchess
of Cambridge; and the Princess Mary, honoured the
performance of the French Plays with their presence
last evening. The Duchess of Kent was accompanied
by her Serene Highness the Princess Adelaide of Hohen-
lobe, and was attended by Lady Anna Maria Dawson
and Sir George Couper.
A deputation on the subject of the Advocates' Library
had an interview with the Earl of Aberdeen yesterday,
at his official residence in Downing-street. The depu-
tation consisted of the Lord Advocate, the Dean of
Faculty, the Solicitor-General of Scotland, the Right
Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P., Mr. Forbes Mackenzie,
M.P., Mr. Cosmo Tunes, Mr. Adam Urquhart, Mr. A.
S. Swinton, and Mr. Halkett.

Lieut.-Colonel Eyre had an interview with the Duke
of Newcastle yesterday. Mr. Chapman had also an in-
terview with hiitfrace at the Colonial-office.

A meeting of the Finance Committee of the Exhibition
of 1851 was held yesterday at the Privy Council-office,
Whitehall, Present—Earl Granville (chairman), Sir A.
Spearman, Bart., Sir W. Cubitt, Mr. F. Baring, M.P.,
Mr. Coulson, Q.C., Mr. T. F. Gibson, and Mr. Edgar
A. Bowring (secretary). Captain Owen, R.E., was also
present.
The Judical Committee of the Queen's Most Honour-
able Privy Council sat yesterday at the Council-office.
The lords present were :—Lord Justice Turner, Lord
Justice Knight Bruce, the Judge of the Admiralty
Court, Sir Edward Ryan, and Sir J. Patteson. The
petition, "Bodmer's Patent Extension" (part heard),
was concluded, and judgment given. An appeal from
Barbadoes, " Turner v. Cox," was part heard, the lords
present being Lord Justices Turner and Knight Bruce,
Sir E. Ryan, and Sir J. Patteson.

CLOSING OF THREE CITY GRAVEYARDS.—Lord Palmer-
ston having represented to the Queen in Council the
necessity of closing the churches and graveyards of All-
hallows the Great and Allhallows the Less, in Upper
Thames-street ; St. Edmund the King with t. Nicholas
Aeons, Nicholas-lane, Lombard-street ; and St. Law-
rence Jewry and St. Mary Magdalen, Gresham-street,
notice has been given to the vestry-clerks and parishioners
that the same will be taken into consideration by the
Lords of her Majesty's Privy Council on Saturday, May
14. The church and graveyard of Allhallows is situate
in a very crowded neighbourhood, being adjacent to
Messrs. Calvert's Lrewhouse, and surrounded by lanes
and courts densely crowded by the labouring classes,
who will appreciate the discontinuance of interments
immediately under their windows. It is expected that
many more of the City golgothas will be closed before
the session terminates.
DETERMINED SUICIDE BY A SOLDIER OF THE GRENA-
DIER GUARDS.—This morning, the following determined
suicide was committed at the barracks, Portman-street,
Portman-square, by William Bryan, a private in the
Grenadier Guards, quartered there. Last night de-
ceased returned home to his quarters apparently quite
sober, and in the best health and spirits. At the usbal
hour he retired to bed in the barrack-room, in which
also slept forty Of his comrades. At six this morning
as he did not get up, the serjeant of his company ordered
him to be called, when, upon one of the men proceeding
to do so, he was horrified to find deceased's bed saturated
with blood that flowed from an extensive gash in his
throat, inflicted by a razor that lay at his side. Although
quite insensible, and unable to speak, he was still alive,
but upon the arrival of the regimental surgeon, who in- ,
stantly attended, he breathed his last. No cause can be
assigned for the rash act ; for although nut a strictly
sober man, deceased was considered a smart, well-con-
ducted soldiery and was rather a favourite with his com-
rades. Deceased was unmarried, and 32 years of age.
Mr. M'Kenzie, the summoning officer, instantly for-
warded to the Coroner's office information of the melan-
choly occurrence, with a request from the deceased's
captain that he would hold the inquest as soon as pos-
sible, as the forty men who slept in the same room as
deceased had to be removed to other quarters, where
they must remain until after the inquiry.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—A crowded meeting
of this society was held on Monday, at the theatre of
the Royal Institution, Albemare-street ; the President,
Sir Roderick I. Murchison, in the chair. The paper
read was— "On Oceanic Currents, and their connexion
w Esq.,
with the proposed Central American Canals," by A. G.
Findlay,
F.R.G.S., illustrated by large diagram
of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and by maps of
Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy. Arrow-
smith's large maps of Australia, and Captain Moore's
" Great Circle-Sailing Indicators" were also exhibited.
Mr. Findlay directed attention to the very great import-
ance of a proper knowledge
.of ocean currents in the pre-
sent days of commercial enterprise ; the whole subject
having been nearly stationary since the days of its origi-
nator, Major Rennell, and mentioned our entire ignor-
ance of the causes, proximate and actual, of current
systems and data required. He gave a brief statement
of each current circulating in the two Atlantic Oceans,
as defined by Rennell ; the Gulf-stream, the Thwart-
channel Current, and the Agulhas Current, having only
been properly investigated, while the peculiarities of the
currents of the Pacific and Indian Oceans were most im-
perfectly and unsatisfactorily known.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN SOMERS TOWN.—About two
o'clock on Monday afternoon, Mr. Hornby, of 15,
Northampton-buildings, Somers Town, called at the
police-station and requested the assistance of a police-
constable, stating that a lodger of his had not been seen
to leave his room for three days, and as nothing bad
been heard of his moving about, he was afraid some-
thing was wrong. Police-constable 192, Snooks, was
immediately sent with him by the acting inspector, Ser-
geant Bloomfield, when, on entering his room, lie was
found to have expired. The body presented a most
ghastly spectacle, being much discoloured, and almost
in a state of decomposition. Mr. Bullock, surgeon, of
Skinner-street, was immediately called, who said de-
ceased had been dead for two or three days, and he be-
lieved that death had been caused by a rupture of a
blood-vessel. The deceased was about 70 years of age,
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