The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-28 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert, attended by Colonel
the Hon. Charles Grey and Captain the Hon. Dudley
de Ros, visited the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday
afternoon at Gloucester House.

Her Majesty had a dinner party last evening at Buck-
ingham-palace. The company included her Royal High-
ness the Duchess of Kent, the Archbishop of York and
the Hon. Mrs. Musgrave, the Duke of Newcastle, the
Marquis of Cholmondeley, Lady Fanny Howard, Lady
Frances Bruce, the Baroness de Speth, the Earl of Car-
digan, Lord and Lady John Russell, the Right Hon.
T. B. Macaulay, Brigadier-General Pennefather, Briga-
dier-General Buller, and Count Henkel.
Mr. Pratt had the honour of exhibiting in Bucking-
ham Palace gardens 'his tubular life boat and tubular
collapsing boat to his Royal Highness the Prince.
Chevalier Bunsen, the Prussian Minister, transacted
business yesterday at the Foreign-office.

Her Majesty will hold a Privy Council to-morrow
(Wednesday) at Buckingham Palace.
A Cabinet Council was held at the Foreign-office,
Downing-street, yesterday afternoon, which was attended
by the whole of her Majesty's Ministers. The Council
sat two hours.
THE CRYSTAL PALACE.—We understand that her
Majesty has signified her gracious intention to be present
at the opening of the Crystal Palace, which, as at present
contemplated, will take place on or about the 24th of
May.

ACCIDENT TO THE KING Or PRUSSIA.—The King met
with a slight accident on the 22d inst. atOharlottenburg.
Whilst walking in the Palace garden, as is his Majesty's
wont, at night, he struck his face against a projecting
branch of a tree, and hurt the skin beneath the left eye.
His Majesty's extreme shortsightedness will make the
possibility of the accident very intelligible. The casualty
has produced a low fever, for which his Majesty has
been advised by his medical attendants to keep his bed.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT THE WEST INDIA Dot s.---
(THIS DAY.)—This morning, between three and four
o'clock, a most destructive fire raged on the banks of
the Thames, at the Pier Head, West India Docks,
Black wall, creating the utmost consternation amongst
the shipping. The building is extensive, and is used as
the master's office and storehouse. The alarm was given
by one of the officers on duty, and messengers were im-
mediately despatched for the engines ; but, owing to
the combustible nature of the stock in the storehouse,
the flames made terrific havoc, the reflection of which
was the medium of alarming nearly the whole of the
metropolis, so that the police on the bridges sent intelli-
g►ence to the fire station before the messengers had time
to arrive, and reached the fire in a quarter of an hour,
and got to work in admirable style, under the direc-
tion of the district fireman, Messrs. Gogo, Ferrad, and
Henderson. All the shipping lying in the river near
the docks sent their crews to assist the firemen, as great
fears were entertained that some of the vessels lying
in the docks might share a similar fate, from the huge
flakes of fire flying over the rigging. After great exer-
tion on the part of all present, the fire was at length
subdued. The cause of this calamity was the upsetting
of a naphtha lamp. Building and contents not insured.
The master's offices and storehouse entirely destroyed.
PERU.—The private letters from Peru by the last
arrival seem to indicate complete political disorganisation
throughout the country. Revolutionary outbreaks con-
tinue, that of Caxamarca, in the north, having been
followed by another at Arequipa, in the south. The
contempt for the Government is alleged to be daily in-
creasing, and their financial malversations are described
by their opponents to be both shameless and notorious.
It is asserted that all their recent surplus has been squan-
dered without any measures having been taken for call-
ing in the base coin in circulation, and that the 200,0001.
raised in England a year ago, with the ostensible ob-
ject of paying off specific liabilities to that extent, bad
not been so appropriated. So long as they retain
power, it is added, every effort will be made to pro-
mote the sale in the markets of Europe of those por-
tions of the sterling, bonds of the domestic debt in
which the heads of the Government, its favourites, and
the contractors may be personally interested, and it is
pointed out that, inasmuch as the manner in which the
debt has been increased by the creation of the bonds
may cause them at a future time to be declared illegal,
the utmost caution will be necessary on this side. With
regard to the various contests by which the Republic is
ravaged the latest intelligence is that Belzu was renew-
ing his preparations for a Bolivian invasion, and that the
insurgent leader Elias, after his defeat at Ica, had gone
south with his cavalry, and would doubtless join the
malcontents at Arequipa, whither also General Castillo,
the former President, had pmeeded.