The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-16 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, DEC. 15.
The Earl of Aberdeen is expected to arrive to-day on
a visit to her Majesty.
The Hon. Colonel and Mrs. Grey had the honour of
being invited to dinner yesterday.

Mr. Gisborne had an interview with Viscount Pal-
merston on Wednesday at the Home•office.
The Earl of Aberdeen left town yesterday morning for
Osborne, Isle of Wight.

Yesterday morning a funeral service was cele-
brated in the Catholic church of the Bavarian embassy,
Warwick-street, Golden-square, for the repose of the soul
of her late Majesty the Queen of Portugal. The service
was sung and high mass was performed by Fathers Bambor
and M‘Guyer. Invitations were sent by the Portuguese
Minister to all the representatives of the Sovereigns who
are related by consanguinity or affinity with the august de-
ceased, as well as to the Portuguese and Brazilians resident
in London. The deceased was sister of her late Imperial
Highness the Princess Maria Amelia, sister of the Emperor
of Brazil. The church was most numerously attended.

The Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and their
youthful family have arrived at Hamilton, from Brodick
Castle, Isle of Woran, en route to the south. The Grand
Duchess Stephane, of Baden, her grace's maternal parent,
who has been visiting the Emperor Louis Napoleon and
his Empress, has left Paris, with her suite, for her chateau,
near Mannheim, Germany.

The Duke and Duchess of Wellington, we under-
stand, have left Lisbon for Madrid, en route to Paris,
where our Ambassador at Court (Lord Cowley) will enter-
tain their graces at a splendid banquet at the Embassy, in
the Rue Faubourg St. Honore, previous to their return to
London. Her Catholic Majesty was understood to receive
the noble duke and duchess at a private audience at the
Palace, and we have reason to believe that the Spanish
estates conferred on our late honoured chieftain for his
victories in the Peninsula will be continued to the present
duke.

The Count and Countess de FlahaUlt leave town
on Saturday, on a visit to the Marquis of Lansdowne at
Bowood.

His Excellency the Ambassador of France and
the Countess Walewski leave town on Saturday, on a visit
to the Marquis of Lansdowne, at Bowood.

- -
• On Wednesday last the Marquis and Marchioness
of Salisbury entertained a large circle of friends, at their
country mansion, Hatfield House, Herts, including the
Earl and Countess of Verulam, Earl and Countess De La-
war and the Lady Arabella. Sack dile West, Lord and
Lady Rokeby and the Hon. Misses Montagu, Dowager Lady
Cowley, Marquis of Lothian, Viscount Grey de Wilton,
Lord Bingham, Captain the Hon. and Mrs. Mortimer West
and Miss Dallas, the Hon. and Rev. Gerald Wellesley, the
Hon. William Wellesley, Mr. Hay Drummond, Mr. H.
C. Johnson, Mr. Grosvenor, Sir William Fraser, Bart.
In the evening, her ladyship received all the leading fami-
lies of the county, and dancing was kept up until a late
hour.
- -

We are much gratified in being able to state that
Lord Feversham has, in the most benevolent spirit, given
to the Leicester-square Soup-kitchen, Ham-yard, Great
Windmill-street, a fine ox, exhibited by his lordship at the
cattle show, and weighing 170 stones, as his contribution to
the Christmas dinner to be distributed to the necessitous
poor by that institution. We hope this truly Christian
example will be followed by thoso who have it in their
power to promote the comfort and enjoyment of their fel-
low-creatures at this festive se&zon•

(From tire Times.)
There is something in the month of December which seems
uniformly to make Lord Palmerston unmanageable. The
constellation which presides over the winter solstice must
predominate in his horoscope. December, 1851, saw Lord
Palmerston separate from the Whig Ministry, with which ho
acted for five years; December, 1852, witnessed his coalition
with the heads of the same party with which lie had quar-
relled only a year before; and now, December, 1853, beholds
a new breach between Lord Palmerston and his allies. The
disease of breaking up Cabinets seems with him to have as-
sumed a chronic form. There is an old Greek proverb which
warns us to love as if we were about to hate, and no man
has acted up to the precept better than ie nobleman
whose loss to the Coalition Ministry we this morning an-
nounce. In 1851, Lord Palmerston was separated from
his friends because he was indiscreetly hasty in his zeal
to approve the absolutist revolution of the 2d of De-
cember. In 1853 he quits the service of the public because he
cannot induce himself to support even a moderate scheme of
constitutional reform. In both cases he has been actuated
by anti-Liberal principles, and yet we shall not be surprised
to hear and read that in him the Cabinet has lost one of the
most enlightened and Liberal statesmen it possessed. This
delusion as to Lord Palmerstons's real principles and feelings
is not altogether his own fault, but rather that of the ultra
party in this country, which insists on foisting upon him
qualifications to which, as far as we are aware, he never made
the slightest pretension. It has been the fashion among the
Radicals to represent Lord Palmerston, in home as well as in
foreign affairs, as an ultra-Liberal statesman ; and many have
been the speculations* for rallying under him the more ad-
vanced sections of Reformers. To do Lord Palmerston justice,
these delusions have never been of his ;wising. Affable man-
ners, a frank and pleasing address, and a singular dexterity in
seizing and turning to his purpose the topics of the clay, have
invested him with much personal popularity ; but no one even
superficially acquainted with Lord Palmerston's history could
draw from it any augury favourable to these versions of ultra-
Liberal tendencies. Lord Palmerston commenced public life
under the Ministries of Mr. Percival and Lord Liverpool, and
in this high Tory school he imbibed principles which he has
never wholly abandoned, and which seem to have regained
their original force over his mind in proportion as he ap-
proaches the goal of his political career. The Liberalism of
Lord Palmerston, such as it has been, has never outrun—nay,
has barely kept pace with—the demands of the age. In 1851
he quarrelled with his colleagues in the cause of absolutism
against constitutional government, and he has now resigned,
not from any difference of opinion on momentous questions
of foreign policy, but because he cannot make up his mind to
reform in any shape—to enfranchisement or disfranchisement,
to any extension of the suffrage, or any removal of those small
and corrupt boroughs which still disgrace our constitution.
Like the Duke of Wellington in 1830, Lord Palmerston is
against all reform, and resigns his place because he will not
form part of a Reforming Ministry.
We do not feel disposed to comment on this withdrawal in
any spirit of bitterness or repining. We have never believed !
Lord. Palmerston to be that which Finsbury and Marylcbone
have so often insisted on making him. By his secession the
Ministry have lost a most accomplished gentleman, au able
debater, a skilful and practised master of official business;
but the Liberal cause has lost nothing. We believe that
among all living statesmen Lord Palmerston is the only re-
presentative left of those Tory principles which once formed
the dominant creed of politicians in and out of Parliament.
The very zeal which Lord Palmerston has displayed for a
liberal policy abroad, and for social improvement at home,
has often seemed to us the product of a mind anxious to di-
vert attention from organic changes by concentrating it on
topics less dangerous and less exciting. The habit of mind
of a Minister for Foreign Affairs regarding all changes in our
Government rather as they would affect our influence abroad
than promote harmony and progress at home, and the dread
of weakening the Executive by rendering our external rela-
tions subordinate, like our domestic affairs, to the direction
of Parliament, and have tended to increase these
anti-Liberal predilections. No one weighs his words more
warily than Lord Palmerston, and when he told us in the
autumn that the present was an age not of reform but of im-
provement, we believe that he gave utterance to his own sin-
cere conviction, and at the same time showed the direction in
which he was anxious to turn the minds of his colleagues and
the public. Sanitary reform, corporation reform, the purifi-
cation of our air and our river, were regarded by him, we
imagine, as so many diversions by which the public mind
might"be drawn off from the perilous contemplation of organic
changes. We believe Lord Palmerston to be a Tory of the
old school, such as Canning was in his earlier and middle life.
Instructed by experience, willing to concede much to popular
will, ready to deal with minor abuses, but resolute to with-
stand any attempt to extend the changes to which he was au
unwilling party in 1831, he sincerely holds the doctrine of
finality which Lord John Russell professed. Wo may regret
the loss to the Ministry of so brilliant a colleague, but we
cannot for a moment wish that in the Coalition Government
such principles should have been in the ascendant, nor feel
otherwise than rejoiced that in his hostility to all reform
Lord Palmerston was left without a seconder.
However willing we may be to do justice to Lord Palmer-
ston's motives, there are circumstances connected with his
resignation which seem to stamp it in some degree with wan-
tonness and caprice. It seems inexplicable that, having
worked stop by step with the committee of the Cabinet ap-
pointed to prepare the bill, it should only have been at the
conclusion of their labours that ho made known his funda-
mental objection to any scheme of reform. It is also at least
unfortunate that this secession should have the appearance
of being levelled against Lord John Russell, the author
and originator of the measure, but also the cause of
Lord Palmerston's withdrawal from the late Ministry.
The proper time to intimate his aversion to reform
would have been when Lord John Russell, in answer
to Mr. Locke King's motion, solemnly pledged the Go-
vernment to the introduction of a measure, and not after
the heads of that measure had been considered and
elaborated by himself. But most of all have we a right to
complain that Lord Palmerston should have chosen the pre-
sent momentous crisis of our foreign affairs to take a step
which might have the effect of exhibiting before the eyes of
foreign. nations even the faintest semblance of disunion in our
• councils. If war can be averted, it can only be by throwing
into the scale the full and undivided weight of our public
men, and it is not the part of a patriotic Minister to weaken
our influence at such a moment. Although Lord Palmerston
has resigned on grounds of purely domestic policy, there will
not be wanting journalists and diplomatists to represent his
resignation as a triumph of the pacific over the warlike ele-
ment in our councils. There was no necessity for so precipi-
tate a step. We regret to loss our Horne SJcretary. but we
should regret still more to keep him on his own terms.

SOUTH AUSTRAIIAN COPPER MINING
COMPANY.

The copper fields of Australia look well, and bid fair in
future times to rival the more promising production of gold in
those splendid regions. We have on former occasions directed
public attention to the South Australian Copper Mining
Company, and it will be seen, by the following extracts from
accounts just received, that our anticipations aro in a fair
way of being realised :
" I am happy to have to inform you that we duly arrived
at this place on the 24th ult., after a 94 days' passage, and
that I at once proceeded to report myself and staff, and to
make arrangements with the bankers according to your in-
structions, and was glad to find on calling on Messrs. Elder,
that Dr. Rankin was then in town, with whom I immediately
proceeded to Strathalbyn.
" I find that you possess an undoubtedly good mineral pro-
perty in Strathalbyn, and one which properly and carefully
worked will I think amply remunerate you for all outlay that
you may make upon it.
" Owing to the recent extremely heavy rains it has been
utterly impossible to attempt to fork the water which is in
the shafts, in order to see the bottoms, and that all I can at
present do is to confirm the reports of Messrs. Pascoe and
Frewartha, as far as the surface goes, although I have no
doubt that I shall find the lode still standing, as they describe,
in the bottom.

" The property consists, as you have been correctly in-
formed, of about 650 acres, the greater part of which, is most
excellent wheat-land, and would readily sell for 4/. or Si. per
acre. The whole of the neighbourhood produces wheat of the
very finest description, and the wheat at Mount Barker (but
a few miles from us) took the prize at the Exhibition of 1851.
Should our mine, as I anticipate, prove a prosperous concern,
the value of our surface land will, of course, greatly increase.
"In the southern part of the set, on turning the sod, we
come upon a fine bed of limestone? and, in our northern
section, we have some of the best building stone which I
have as yet seen in the colony. The creek through our land
has, lam very glad to learn, continued to run for the last
two years through the whole of the summer.
" The lodes ou this property have been costeaned upon in
many places, and everywhere show most promising backs and
extremely well defined walls, together with good stones of
ore. The stratum is a kindly nucaceous slate, changing in
the southern parts into a more decided light-coloured killas.
This stratum is overlaid to the cast by sandstone, and there
are on tho property several hills consisting of large boils of
lode stuff, very similar in formation to the hills of auriferous
matter which I have seen on the gold fields at Echunga, and
elsewhere, and which are comprised of loose quartz and iron-
stone, fluccan, clay, and fine gossan. In several places
through the property springs of water, strongly impregnated
with metallic salts, are breaking from the back of the lode,
which entirely destroy all vegetation near, and I am having
a lobby taken up to intersect the lode at one of these places,
where I think we are very likely to find a good deposit of ore.
" The ore at grass consists of blue and green carbonates,
some black oxide (the rest having been carried away by the
rains), some red oxide, a rich coated yellow sulphuret, and a
poorer description of yellow sulphuret mixed with a good
deal of muudic. There is also a great deal of the grey sul-
phuret both mixed with the iron with which this property
abounds and by itself. I may hero state that we have some
very rich hamatite iron ore in various places. lam also con-
fident that we possess a good portion of silver in some parts
of the lode, and I do not by any means give up the
hope that we may find gold upon our laud, although two
samples of very promising quartz and gossan, which I brought
back with me to town, do not (if I am to believe 'the only
assayer here) give any yield. However, when Mr. W. Thomp-
son has erected his assay-office, I shall feel more confidence
in the result of the trials.

" This ore at grass is turning out better and bettor every
day as we ate gradually cleaning up the floors and turning
and parting the piles, and, moreover, every examination of
burrows shows that more ore is concealed in them.
" I can at present safely say that we have at least 180 tons
of from 10 to 11 produce, and I shall not be surprised at the
amount proving to be much larger.
" The houses and other buildings on tho mine are in some-
what dilapidated condition, but Captain Dunstan, whom I
have located on the spot, is proceeding vigorously to make
them habitable. The smelting furnace is in pretty good
order, and I have a smelter now engaged in preparing it, and
in making a new bottom, who will, when that is done, com-
mence regulising the ores at grass. I shall thus be enabled
to ship you some 50 or 60 tons of good regulus of a produce
of say 40 to 42 per cent., and before he has finished this I
hope to have got the shafts in fork, and to be supplying him
with ore by breaking from the levels.
" I am very happy to be enabled to state that miners are
the most plentiful class of operatives here. I have engaged
4 miners from the Burra (who have returned unsuccessful
from the diggings) at 21. per week, and I could get 20 more
if I require them at the same rate. Mr. Forster, the manager
of the South Australian Company's Mines at Tungkillo and
at Reedy Creek, informs me that iu a month or two from
this time we shall be enabled to get as many men as wo like
at 71. per month, or even lower, and the men are returning
fast to Kapunda.
" There is here a duty of 51. per cent. on all machinery and
manufactured goods imported, and even more than that on
bar iron and other portions of the cargo; this will alone use
up more than 5001. more that we calculated upon.
" I forgot to mention that we have at least 2501. or 3001.
worth of fire wood (at present prices) stacked on the property
ready for use.
" I am, of course, in receipt of the drawings and duplicate
letter per the Victoria (which arrived before ourselves, but
the original letter and seconds of bill of exchange, and letters
of credit per the Stratford have not, as yet, come to hand
tTere. There are dreadful complaints here of the shameful
postal arrangements.
" Since writing the above, I learn that the Caroline has just
been signalled. When I have got the letter off by the Vic-
toria (which sails in half an hour) I will immediately go across
the Izthniuss and bOard her in the gulf."

From Widdin of November 30, we learn that the
bridge there is finished, and unless hard frost
should set in will enable all the boats and barges to
ply between Widdin and the island.
Supplies of wood are beginning Eto come in in
sufficient quantities.

Two regiments of cavalry ,1,800 men and horses),
commanded by Mazher Pasha (son of Redschid
Pashit), were brought to the Widdin side of the
river, as no advance is contemplated into Little
Wallachia at present, and stable accommodation
being more abundant there, they Are of no use
within the fortifications of Kalafat.

Another version of the documents concocted by
the Ambassadors of the four Powers at Vienna,
and recently sent to the Porte, is given by the
Berlin correspondent of the Times, who says
The Ambassadors of the four Powers at Vienna
have in the first instance signed a protocol, and
afterwards a collective note, which they sent to
Constantinople with the protocol. In these docu-
ments the Ambassadors point out the dangers
which the war between Turkey and Russia may
entail upon Europe, and justify their proceedings
by pleading the interests of their respective coun-
tries, which might possibly suffer from a prolonga-
tion of the war. Hence the four Powers offer their
good offices to reconcile the belligerent parties.
They call attention to the fact that it is not the
Czar's intention to violate the integrity of the
Ottoman Empire, the maintenance of which is
absolutely necessary for the preservation of the
balance of power in Europe. And since the Sul-
tan, in his turn, has declared his willingness to ful-
fil the engagements contained in the treaties, the
four. Powers have resolved upon asking him on
what conditions he would be disposed to make
peace."
A private letter from Constantinople of the 30th
ult. speaks of a desperate battle fought by the Rus-
sians on the banks of the Terek, to maintain their
communications between Teflis and the Caspian
Sea. The Russians lost a considerable number of
men in this engagement, which produced no re-
sult. All the unsubdued tribes in Circassia and
Georgia have risen in insurrection against the
Russians.

The Lloyd of Vienna states that the Austrian
Consuls in the Ottoman Empire having taken Rus-
sian subjects there under their protection, the Porte
requested the Austrian Cabinet to take under its
protection Turkish subjects in Russia. The appli-
cation has been complied with, the Emperor of
Russia having consented to the arrangement.
The Augsburg Gazette has the following from St.
Petersburg, dated the 30th ult. :—" A few days
since the secretary of Prince Gortschakoff, a Pole
named Rodzewitch, arrived here under escort, and
was provisionally ocked up in the fortress. He
is accused of having furnished to Omer Pacha the
plan of campaign of the Russians. Another Pole em-
ployed on the staff has a similar charge laid against
him. A young Polish medical officer has also gone
over to the Turks. These facts seriously compromise
the position of the Poles in the Russian service.
Prince Gortschakoff intended at first to have had
Rodzewitch shot, but afterwards decided on sending
him to St. Petersburg in the hope that it might lead
t 6 the discovery of other correspondence. The
position of Prince Gortschakoff is a very difficult
one at this moment. It was first in contemplation
to give the chief command of the army to General
Luders, the conqueror of Bem, and who is a L.reat
favourite with the troops, but it was thought that
this would have given offence to General Osten
Sacken, who is his senior officer. General Rudi-
ger was then proposed, but the Emperor gave the
preference to Prince Gortschakoff, because he bears
a Russian name. It is stated that Prince Woron-
zoff, who is at present in a very bad state of
health, and to whom report has given as a successor
Prince Menschikoff (because it is not wished that
he shall again appear as grand admiral), has, it is
said, given information to the Government of con-
siderable malversations in the commissariat depart-
ment and of the soldiers being very badly fed. An
aide-de-camp was sent to the spot, but he found
everything in order, and General Woronzoff re-
ceived a very cool letter from St. Petersburg. He,
however, insisted on the correctness of his state-
ment*, and a second aide-de-camp having been sent
discovered the real state of affairs.'!
The Paris correspondent of the Morning Herald
thus comments on the affair at Sinope
_ _

" Since the attack made on the Turkish vessels
at Sinope public opinion has been showing itself
more and more excited at the inaction of the fleets
in the Bosphorus. Never, as you hear it said on
all sides, have two great powers, able to command
obedience to their behests, consented to appear in
a position at once so ridiculous and so odious.
They are at the entry of the Black Sea ; like po •
licemen with their noses at the open door of the
house they fear to enter, while the robbers are
plundering at their ease. And it is in presence of
a man like the Czar, whose course of conduct has
been founded, directed, and pursued upon the
calculation that the allies of Turkey are luke-
warm in the cause of what he calls the Pagans,
that they are confirming and justifying his
impressions, and encouraging him to go, as he
assuredly will go, the whole length of his de-
' signs. It is the profound conviction, ppenly ex-
pressed in society by men of shrewd intelligence,
that the Czar will in due time be master of Con-
stantinople, and that as soon as he has achieved
possession of the capital of the Turkish empire,
proposals for partition will be made, and an utter
hopelessness and sense cf imbecility accepted as
inevitable. The public voice will be heard, per-
haps, making a little senseless noise, but so drilled
and educated are we all into political respect for
the fait accompli, that the thing once done will be
recognised with Oriental submission to fatality.
So many proper moments for effectual interference
have been allowed to slip away, that should any
happy accident renew a favourable opportunity,
diplomacy would be too purblind ever to perceive
it. The entry of the fleets into the Black Sea be-
comes now a duty so imperative, that if the move-
ment be not already made, hope in the allies will
die completely out. Accordingly accounts from
Constantinople are looked forward to with anxiety,
as it will require some act calculated to give satis-
faction to the public mind in order to relieve it
from the depression into which it has sunk, and
revive confidence in the wisdom and determination
of the united Powers.
The correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, at
Constantinople, writes on Dec. Ist :—" Recruits
co4tinue to arrive. The Adria, an Austrian