The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-08 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert rode out on horse-
back yesterday, attended by Lieut.-Colonel the Hon.
Alexander Gordon.
The Royal dinner party yesterday at Buckingham
Palace included her Excellency Madame Van de Weyer,
their Excellencies the Chevalier and Madame Bunsen,
the Countess of Dunmore, the Right Hon. and Mrs. Fox
Manic, and the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert.
The band of the Coldstream Guards was in attendance
during dinner in the Palace, and performed the following
pieces:—
Grand Selection from Figaro Moz‘rf.

Caledonia►► Quadrilles —

Jullien.

Fantasia from Masaniello
Kriegs Murch der Priester Mendelssohn.
Coldstream Guards Polka
__ .

Fa; kedouble
Hie Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent visited her
Majesty the Queen Dowager yesterday at Marlborough
House.
THE KING OF ITANOTER.—Dispatches from Hanover
were received in town on Sunday, announcing that his
Majesty the King of Hanover had recovered from his
recent indi,position.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester visited
her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent yesterday at
Clarence House, St. James's.
The Earl of Burlington had an interview with Sir
George Grey yesterday. 11lr. John Fielding had also
an interview yesterday with the Right Hon. Baronet, at
1 the Home-office.

THE GAS QUESTION.—The controversy as to the
reduction of the price of gas in the metropolis, which
has hitherto been confined to the city of London
proper, is now likely to extend itself to the whole
of the gas consuming districts of London. The
citizens have long demanded that the two companies,
which share between them the monopoly within the
walls, should reduce their price from 6s. per 1,000
cubic feet to 45., a demand which they strenuously re-
sisted, and this gave rise to the City Gas Consumers' Com-
pany, which offers to supply the whole City at the maxi-
mum price of 4s. In order to stave off, if possible, this
threatened opposition, the old companies have tardily and
reluctantly offered to reduce the price within the
City boundary to five shillings, and here for the present
they appear resolved to stop, However this reduction
might have satisfied the citrzens some time back, it now
fails short of their expectations, whilst, as a natural con-
sequence, it is originating demands in other quarters
which will speedily press heavily on the attention of these
campanies. The City Company and the Chartered Com-
pany both supply gas beyond the City boundary, the
tomer in the vicinity of Hatton•garden, Saffron-hill, St.
John's, Cleikenwell, &c.; and the latter in the parishes
of Ste James's, Clerkenwell, St. Luke's, and in the
Finsbury district. Some of the more active indi-
viduals in these districts are already agitating the ques-
tion—why they should not also receive from these com-
panies the benefit of a similar reduction, as the difference
between them and their neighboers is a mere
conventional line. The same demand will also pro-
bably extend to the districts supplied by the Chartered
Company, from Park-lane on the west to the City
bouudary on the east, and from Oxford-street
and Holborn on the north to the Thames and
Vauxhall-bridge on the south. The various other metro-
pelican companies who have supported the two City
companies in the uniform prise 01 Gs. will also feel more
or less the detection of the latter from the uniformity
compact. 130 that as it may, it is impossible tot to foresee
that the concession of cheaper gas must ere long be ex-
tended by the existing companies considerably beyond
the limits to which it is at present proposed to confineit.
ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL.—The prizes in the me-
dical school of St. George's Hospital for the past ses-
sion were distributed yesterday in the presence of a
numerous body of spectators by the Dean of West-
minster, who, in uwardiag the honours, made some very
interesting observations upon the importance of the
different departments of study in which they had been
won. The prize list is as follows:—Senior Scholarship
—Mr. Alfred Howse. Junior Scholarship—Mr. H. V.
Carter. Surgical Clinical Reports—Prize, Mr. J. Rouse.
Anatomy, Senior Class—Prize, Mr. T. K. Hornridge ;
additional prize, Mr. H. Folkard. Junior Class—Prize,
Mr. J. Ewens; additional prizes, Mr. 0. S. Evans, and
Mr. W. B. Stephens ; certificate, Mr. H. V. Carter.
Botany—Prize, Mr. W. Lichfield. Chemistry—Prize,
Mr. U. V. Carter; certificates, Mr. J. Ewens and Mr.
W. B. Stephens. Materia Medica—Prise, Mr. J. Evens;
additional prize, Mr. W. 13. Stephens ; certificates, Mr.
J. S. Dodd and Mr. W. Lichfield. Medical Jurispru-
dence—Prize, Mr. J. Rouse; certificate, Mr. J. Parker.
Midwifery—Prize, Mr. 11. Dixon ; certificates, Mr. J.
Earle and Mr. J. Parker. Practice of Physic—Prize,
Mr. J. Parker. Surgery—Prize, Mr. C. J. Morris.
OFFICIAL RETIREMENTS.—it is said to be inane:ill-1
templation to make retirement compulsory n
Otice of all
servants above sixty years of age, the.prac
lowing persons to hold office afterthis
being
considered highly detrimental to the e
There is no doubt the aversion that age has to
interest. rjeuchetputri on
officers,it gi es even to
piserrivoidceof and life
public
often pre-
vents the country from realising much good, to say no-
thing of the loss the country sustains in allowing men,
improvementsts chillingt
suggested by
wholly unfit for their duties, to what is called "hold on"
until they have acquired a right to retire on full allow-
ance.—Devonport I elegraph.
ETON.—A vacancy in the appointment of an as•
sistantemaster having been occasioned by the resignation
of Mr. H. Birch, M.A. t(who has had the high and dis-
tinguished honour conferred upon him of being ap-
pointed tutor to his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales), it has been filled up by the appointment of the
Rev. R. Joynes, formerly a King's scholar of Eton, the
gentleman who obtained the Newcastle scholarship in
1843. Mr. Birch has now entered upon his responsible
duties as a tutor to the heir apparent, which, we under-
stand, were to commence the week after Easter. Mr.
Birch wilt reside with Royal establishment, and will of
course travel with his Royal and illustrious pupil from
place to place, as her Majesty may feel disposed to
change her residence.— Aylesbury News.
FATAL COALFIT ACCIDENT.—Ok Saturday a
serious accident occurred at a coal mine, the property of
the Duke of Beaufort, situate at Fishponds, near Bristol.
The colliery had been out of work for some years, but
had latterly been taken by a person named Monk, who
rented the property in the hope of discovering some un•
worked veins. On Saturday, while some men were
d
a
en-
gaged in the work, a man named Turner was so much
by the foul air that be very shortly died;
another man was so seriously affected that his life is
despaired of.— Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.
THE AUSTRALIAN MAILS, VIA INDIA.—TiIe first
Australian mail, via Southampton, Egypt, and India,
it 15 expected, be
and by
usecitele9rlfrallinvggret