The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-24 00:00:00

As midshipman he afterwards served in the Hebe,
and as master's-mate in the Romney, first in the
Channel and then in the Mediterranean. His
examination being successfully passed on the 3d
of June, 1791, he was thereupon in the following
year appointed acting-lieutenant in the Pearl, and
was subsequently confirmed in the beginning of
1793 in the Orestes. During that same year we
find him the.ninth lieutenant of the Britannia (100
guns), and then the tenth lieutenant on board
the flag-ship the Victory (100 guns), off
Toulon, in which latter vessel he speedily
attains the rank of First Lieutenant, and
is then promoted before the expiration of October
to the command of the sloop Speedy. Immedi-
ately after this we come upon the catalogue of his
many brilliant achievements. His resolution in
maintaining the blockade of Genoa caused him to
be named, in the January of 1794, Acting Captain
of the Inconstant, and to be officially posted, as
early as the month ensuing, in the 32-gun frigate
the Meleager. His energetic co-operation
with the
soldiers of Austria in Piedmont ; his hardihood
on the 31st of May, 1796, under the bat-
teries of Larma ; his share in the blockade of
Leghorn ; his capture, during the December
of that year, of the 40-gun ship, the Sabine ;
his defeat at the same time of the 34-gun ship
the Matilda ; his participation in the destruction
of the corvette L'Etonnant, and his seizure of the
privateer Maria ; his bringing out from under the
fire of two powerful batteries on Grand Canary
Island the French letter of marque the Marseil-
laise ; and, besides many other heroic deeds, his
valiant conduct during the great battle off Cape
St. Vincent—may be found honourably inscribed
upon the tablets of our naval history, by the
truthful hand of JAMES, or by our other national
annalists. His career, up to the close of the last
war, was one of daring and valorous activity, as
since then, until shortly before his death in 1853,
it has been one marked to the last hour by pro-
fessional zeal and political consistency. His glory
it was to have extorted by skill and courage the
applause of NELSON, and to have won by his
magnanimous courtesies the commendation of
NAPOLEON. Briefly—let it be remembered of Sir
GEORGE COCKBURN, now that he reposes in death,
that he was approved by NELSON for his gal-
lantry, and that NAPOLEON pronounced him to be
a gentleman.

Whatever opinions may be entertained as to the
legal effect of the limitations contained in the will
of JOHN WILLIAM, seventh Earl of BRIDGEWATER,
there will be a general feeling of satisfaction at
the final decision of the House of Lords, which
we published in extenso in our impression of Sa-
turday. Where so great a diversity of judgment
existed amongst the highest judicial authorities as
to the technical construction of the instrument,
where the Lord Chancellor and no less than nine
of the Judges were on one side, and four ex-
Chancellors, the Chief Baron, and Baron PLATT
on the other, it would be highly presumptuous to
declare authoritatively as to the real effect of these
provisions, or whether the acquisition of the title
of Duke or Marquis of BRIDGEWATER could be
deemed a condition " precedent" or " subsequent"
to the enjoyment of the vast estates which passed
under the devise. But every person is competent
to form his own judgment as to the policy of such
a condition, which was unquestionably calculated
not only to exercise a very demoralising and inju-
rious influence over the happiness and independ- '
once of the successive legatees named in the be-
quest, but also to place our most gracious SOVE-
REIGN—the fountain of all honour in the United
Kingdom—in a very unpleasant position, being
coerced either to bestow a high dignity on a per-
son who might not have merited it, or possibly,
resenting the unwarrantable interference with the
Royal prerogative, to refuse a well-deserved
honour to a meritorious servant, lest similar efforts
should be made by wealthy testators to secure
honours and dignities for the relative to whom
they were enabled to leave great riches. Had the
attempt been successful, there would unquestion-
ably have been a necessity for further legis-
lation to prohibit (as in the celebrated THE',
LusoN case) a similar disposition in any fu-
ture case. The decision of the tribunal of
ultimate appeal has, however, happily removed
the difficulty, and bestowed the wide-spread do-
mains in accordance with the dictates of sound
common sense—and rendered substantial justice
to the parties concerned.
The facts of this very extraordinary case which
appeared at considerable length in our report of
the judgment of the House of Lords, may be
briefly stated in a form more intelligible to our
non-professional readers. FRANCIS the Third and
most celebrated Duke of BRIDGEWATER, whose
name will be remembered so long as the canal
system exists—by his will bequeathed his canal
property to his nephew, the Marquis of STAFFORD,
afterwards Duke of SUTHERLAND, with remainder
to his second son the present Earl of ELLESMERE,
by whom it is now enjoyed—but devised the
family estates and personal property, exceeding half
a million sterling, to his cousin, General JOHN
WILLIAM EGERTON, the great grandson of JOHN,
third Earl of BRIDGEWATER, and grandnephew of
SCROOP first Duke of BRIDGEWATER, who suc-
ceeded as seventh Earl. This Nobleman had ever
evinced a morbid anxiety to retrieve the lost
honours of his house, and, being unable to achieve
his object during his lifetime, determined to make
the testamentary disposition of his immense pro-
perty the means of eventually accomplishing his
desire. With that view, and guided by the skil-
ful advice of the most acute real:property lawyers,
he framed the extraordinary will now under no-
tice, and which has just been set aside, so far as
the most important particular was concerned.
_ _

The family of the testator consisted -of one
brother, FRANCIS HENRY, subsequently eighth and
last Earl with whom the BRIDGEWATER titles ex-
pired, and two nieces, the daughters of his sister
Lady AMELIA Hum E—one of whom was then
Countess of BROWNLOW, and the other wife
of Sir CHARLES LONG, afterwards Lord
FARNBOROUGH, a well-known and munifi-
cent benefactor to the National Gallery. As
neither Earl FRANCIS nor Lady LONG had,
or were likely to have, issue, the testator looked
to his grandnephews, the two sons of Lady
BROWNLOW, as the parties through whom he
could exercise a species of moral coercion on his
SOVEREIGN.. Accordingly, after bequeathing annui-
ties of 12,0001. a-year to his widow, 18,0001. per
annum to his brother FRANCIS, and 4,000/. to
Sir CHARLES LONG, and after his death to Lady
LONG, with a further life interest to the latter
after the death of Earl FRANCIS, the balance being
directed to accumulate, he gave the reversion of
his estates and the accumulated fund to Lord
ALFORD, and his first and other sons in tail male,
and in default of such issue, to his brother,
CHARLES
HENRY CUST, with several remainders
Over.Thethocornadrittyioinn wpoasss,esahioownesvheor,ulda, nnexed
that unless
within
estate
a certain time succeed •
Duke
or Marquis
in acquiring the title of
he.ireinris of BRIDGEWATER, " the use and
" cease and be
heirs male of the directed to be limited to the
such person should
e body" if
expensive lationv
provision which eve rise to the protracted and
absolutely void." This was the
the estate under the
Lord ALFORD 814Ceedeirl has just terminated.
died. without having
the arose whether the
Marquis of BRIDGE-.
alicmquitiarteidontsheoftitthlee
owf'ilDl,ubkuett
oor
r whether it
WATER, and the question th
estates, now producing nearly 80,0000/.
should go to his son, charged with a perl annum,
jointure of
5,000/. per annum for his widow,
passed over to his brother, CHARLES HENRY CUST,
Or EGERTON, with a similar proviso as to the
of the coveted title by , s eo
that
it would ultimately become an inheritance so the
Gentlemen of the Long Robe—an illustration of
the class of suits exemplified by CHARLES DICKENS
in JARNDYCE V. JARNDYCE. This destruction of
the estate has been averted by the final judgment
which, setting aside the former decision, has vested
ALFORD, a result which will be generally the estate in the son of the late, the present Lord
accept-
able to the community.
The decision of the veteran Lord LYNDHURST
exhibited the matter in the clearest light. There
were two points to he determined—lst, Was the
proviso and condition precedent, or subsequent to

the vesting of the estate in Lord ALFORD ? and,
2dly, Was it contrary to public policy ? The ma-
jority of the Law Lords decided in favour of the
appellant on both points—Lords LYNDHURST,
BROUGHAM, TRURO, and ST. LEONARDS holding
that it was a condition subsequent and against
public policy, in which views they were confirmed
by Chief Baron PoLtocK and Baron PLATT ; while
Lord CRANWORTH, Barons PARK; ALDERSON,
and Justices CROMPTON, COLERIDGE, WILLIAMS,
CRESSWELL, WIGHTMAN, TALFOURD, and ERLE
thought differently—that it was a condition prece-
dent, and not against public policy. Where such
men differed, who shall venture to decide the con-
troversy ? To an ordinary understanding there
seems to be sound foundation for the argument of
Lord LYNDHURST, that an estate could not " cease
and determine" unless it had previously existed,
and that, therefore, it must have been a condition
subsequent. If that was the case of the estate in
the first Lord ALFORD, the father of the claimant,
and then if the condition was contrary to pub-
lic policy, it would, according to all the prece-
dents, be absolutely null and void, the same as if
it never had been made. Now certainly it appears
to our minds as if nothing could be more mis-
chievous than to permit so great an inducement to
Parliamentary corruption—a condition so unfair,
and possibly annoying to the SOVEREIGN. If not
contrary to public policy, according to legal pre-
cedents it ought to be declared to be so, and
an Act of Parliament passed to prevent the re-
petition of similar experiments, in endeavouring
to extort the acquirement of titles of honour as
the condition of enjoying property under limita-
tions contained in any deed or will.

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, Aua. 23.

Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert,
accompanied by Count Alexander Mensdorff, and at-
tended by the Ladies and Gentlemen in. Waiting, drove
to Ventnor yesterday afternoon.
The Earl of Aberdeen left yesterday for London, and
the Earl of Clarendon and Sir Charles Lyell arrived on
a visit to her Majesty.
The Hon. A. Gordon has succeeded the Hon. B. de
Ros as Equerry in Waiting to the Prince.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE .DE

BRABANT.

The civil marriage of the Duke of Brabant, with the
Archduchess Maria, took place in a hall of the Palace
at Brussels, at 10 o'clock on Monday, the bride looking
rather pale and agitated, but magnificently attired in
white and diamonds. The bridegroom wore the uniform
of his military rank, a major of Grenadiers, to which he
has been recently promoted. The King himself wore
the costume of a general, with the red riband of his own
Order of Leopold ; and all the Great officers of State
wore their official costumes and orders.
For the ceremonial marriage the Collegiate Church
had been long under repair and decoration, and here the
Roman Catholic Church, so potent in Belgium, put forth
all that pomp and splendour which is so essential a part
of her character.
In the centre of the lofty nave rose a baldaquin, which
seemed nearly a hundred feet in height ; huge old tapes-
tries, half faded with the lapse of centuries, enclosed the
space in front of the altar. A dim religious light was
all that the antique painted windows allowed to pene-
trate from the dull unfriendly outer air, but a long array
of massive candelabra poured the light of thousands and
thousands of wax lights on whole legions of priests,
clad in white, who thronged in perfect order the high
ascending gradations of the altar, in front of which
sat the Cardinal Archbishop of Mechlin, Primate of
the kingdom, on a gorgeous throne, surrounded by
his suffragan bishops, with their high golden croziers
rising over their heads. In the centre space, under the
baldaquin were the chair of the King and kneeling
cushions for the Royal pair, all as rich as gold, velvet,
and embroidery could make them ; while on each side
the diplomatic corps, the Senate, the Court, the camp,
and the city were all represented.
The Archbishop received the King and the Prince at
the great gate, where they arrived amidst the loud huzzas
of the crowd. Blasts of trumpets of full intonation,
without a single • flat note, regaled our ears, and the
King, the Duchess, with long held train of silver cloth,
and the Prince, moved up the living avenue to their
places under the canopy. The bride and bridegroom
then knelt, and the ceremony commenced with a prayer.
The Cardinal Archbishop, when all were seated, read a
discourse to the Royal pair, monitory of things needful
in their new state and highly responsible position, which
was listened to with all the decorum requisite on such
an occasion.

The marriage service was then read and the nuptial
benediction pronounced, after which the deep peals of
the organ were heard and a subdued but sublime mass
choral swelled on our ears, the incense curled on high,
and at intervals a salute of 101 guns measured the pro-
gress of the scene. Last of all, with both organ and
orchestra, came Te Dcuin Lau(lamus with thrilling
power.

THE ROYAL VISIT TO DUBLIN. —ln anticipation of
the approaching Royal visit, Dublin is at present almost
suffering from an excess of population. Standing room
is not to be had at any price in the hotels, and lodgings
of the humblest pretensions to respectability are at a
high premium. Everything betokens a brief season of
unusual brilliancy in the Irish metropolis. The " illu-
mination" question was debated yesterday in the corpora-
tion, and a satisfactory " compromise" was agreed to.
Private houses are not to be lit, but it was recommended
that all large establishments and public places should
illuminate in such a manner as might be thought most
suitable. Fireworks are to be discouraged, " lest a
spark by the merest chance might fall on the Exhibition-
building, and be productive of serious consequences."
Alderman Reynolds fought hard for the chandlers, but
he was overborne by the sense of the Council.

REPORTED DEATH OF LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR CHARLES
J. NAPIER.—The Standard says, that up to noon yester-
day no intelligence of Sir Charles's death had been re-
ceived at his private residence, although he was known
to be alarmingly ill. The gallant veteran has been
exceedingly unwell for the last two or three months,.and
during nearly the whole of that period was confined to
his bed in Hobart-place, Eaton square ; whence, how-
ever, he was conveyed, last Saturday week, in an easy
carriage, to his country mansion, at Oaklands, near
Hants. Although the report of his decease is without
foundation, it is understood that his ultimate recovery is
despaired of by his friends and medical attendants, who
indeed almost hourly expect his dissolution.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. —On Monday
afternoon a number of children, while playing on the
towing path of the Regent's-canal, near the New Globe,
Mile-end, one, a boy about nine years of age, accidentally
fell in, and was nearly drowned. A poor man, a jour-
neyman shoemaker, jumped in and attempted to save
him, but being afraid to venture beyond his depth, re-
treated, and left the child to perish. Mr. Horncastle,
of Poplar, coming by at the time, and hearing the screams
of the women wi nessing the child sinking, immediately
sprang into the canal and brought him up from the bot-
tom, and delivered him into the charge of the police, who
conveyed him home to his 'parents apparently lifeless.
Mr. Horncastle, after his bath, walked off in the direc-
tion of his home amidst the cheers of the numbers who
had by the time assembled.
DISTRESSING SUICIDE. ---Yesterday forenoon an in-
quest was holden at the Eel Pie House Tavern, Peck-
ham-footpath, Peckham, before Mr. Carter, one of the
coroners for the county of Surrey, on the remains of Mr.
Thomas Atkinson, a respectable tradesman, whose body
bad been found in the Surrey Canal, on Saturday morn-
ing, under what at first were considered suspicious cir-
cumstances. It appeared that on the previous evening
the deceased, who was a gas-fitter in an extensive way
of business, had been to Camberwell fair and Vauxhall
Gardens with a friend, whom he left at half-past lour in
the morning, and at eight o'clock- his body was found.
He had for some time before been very much depressed
in his mind, in consequence of his bringing two actions
against a person, and his apprehension that he should
lose both. The jury returned a verdict to the effect
that the deceased had committed suicide while labouring
under temporary insanity. The deceased has left a
widow and family to deplore his loss.
DEATH FROM CHOLERA IN THE MILLBANK PRISON.
—Yesterday Mr. Bedford held an inquest in the Mill-
bank Prison on the body of Mary Keith, alias Campbell,
aged 30, a convict, under seven years' transportation for
felony. It appeared that something like two hours
elapsed before the surgeon •of the prison was made
acquainted with the nature of her complaint. Dr. Baly,
the prison physician, said that on Saturday last he found
the deceased in a state of collapse from cholera. He
saw her three times on that day, the last time about 10
o'clock at night. He had no hope of her recovery, and
she died of cholera on Sunday morning at two o'clock.
In answer to questions from the coroner, Dr. Baly said
that there were no means of distinguishing between
Asiatic cholera and summer cholera. There were less
cases of diarrhoea in the prison this year than last sum-
mer. On making apost mortent examination of the body,
he found the same symptoms as in other cases of death
from the same disease. He considered that the symp-
toms set in at half-past eight or nine in the morning. He
regretted that the deceased had not been seen sooner by
the surgeon after she became ill ; but he did not think
her life would have been saved if she had been attended
to immediately afterwards. The jury returned a ver-
dict, "That the deceased died from cholera."

RATES op
fix
o eTANaTE2-The Paris is about at par (according to the last tariff), which,
at the English. Mint price of 3/. 17s. 101 d . per ounce
for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25.17 ; and
-^--- -quC;taiOn of gold at
exchangewshtaatt
gold Par
is aboutisonLonod.o6nB aptershcoernt
cent.
25.00, it
o,rit
than in Lando n. By advices from Hamburgh the price of
gold is 427 per mark, which, at the English Mint price
of 3/. 17s. 101 d. per ounce for standard gold, gives an
exchange of 13.6 ; and, the exchange at Hamburgh on
London at short being 13.41, it follows that gold is 0.82
per cent. dearer in liamburgh than in London. The
course of exc/hange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sigl it is 109 i per cent., and, the par of exchange
between En gland and A.merica nominally 23-40 per cent., it follows t) fat the exchange is 0.17 per cent.
in favour of England ; and, after making allowance for
charges of t tansport, the present rate leaves scarcely any
gold from the tinited States-
proiit on the importation of