The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-21 00:00:00

\VhateYei Om; CAN for the did df foreign bayonets,
li the naftv dig is stipported !ly the »a,
t 4
The dr.hir recently tie Cdu: t ot
• I .„4
land 'OOl.O into in-yarning fair his late Majesty' King
Charttsi X. Frdi v"r`;`
,„ .; • I.
more wsenssioa 'wittiest esreics than geneissy
low an official announcement of a character merely
ceremonial. Thus it is that, when persons of frivo-
lous minds are invested with hish authority, circums
\vtd`lldlie ftspfded
tn:)ortant, are supposed td have soled interesting
in r, ltiticiii td pdhliti affairs: It Was on the
16th of NoVenibef that we innionlidad to the British
Emlilie the intelligence of the demise of the late king
of France. It was on the 16th of December, or ex-
actly one Month artehvards that the Lord Clianfocr-
lain, acting, as in such eases lutist always act, thi,
tier the instructions of the Secretary of State for the
Foreign Depattilienti tssited tits circler fot the British
Court to go into mourning for ten days on the imiati.
eholy occasion. In other words the British Court was
ordered to put on mourning about a fortnight after the
period at which, according to the ordinary sequence
of such proceedings, it should have been taking its
mourning off. A course so extraordinary has na-
turally excited some curiosity, and, although we con-
fess ourselves unable to solve the mystery, we think
it right to lay before our readers some of the more
plausible of the varions.rumours and.conjectures which
we have heard upon the subject. Some persons in-
sist that Lord Palmerston put the official letter
which announced to him the death of Charles X.
into the . pocket of a light claret-eoloured coat,
with pearl buttons, and thus forgot the intelligence
altogether, until about a fortnight afterwards, when
he wore the same dress at a juvenile party at
Pansanger, and having waltzed for three minutes
with a young lady, and being by this exertion
considerably exhausted, he threw the document,
along with his pocket-handkerchief, from its lurking-
place—that it fell on the floor—was presented to his
Lordship by his fair partner—and that in this way
the matter was recalled to his Lordship's recollection.
The rumour, as we have repeated it, is verycircum-
stantial, and it is thought to be the more deserving
of credit that this would not be the first time of an
accident of nearly a similar kind having occurred to
an official dispatch, under the present Administration.
There are persons, however, who confidently assert
that this story is wholly untrue, and that it has been
sent abroad by some friends of the Administration, in
order to veil the real circumstances of the case, which
these persons affirm to be that Lord Palmerston, im-
mediately on the receipt of the melancholy intelligence,
set on foot a negociation with the.. Court of the Tui-
leries for the purpose of obtaining the consent and
permission of the King of the French, r that the
Court of the Sovereign of Great Britain should
wear mourning for the deceased Monarch. It is
added that some of the Noble Lord's colleagues are
most anxious that all mention of the asserted nego-
ciation should be suppressed, lest. that portion of the
British people, who entertain extravagant anti obso-
lete notions of national dignity, should deem it humi-
liating and degrading, but that the Noble Secretary
for Foreign Affairs does not personally participate in
this feeling, but is, on the contrary, rather desirous
that the public should be made acquainted with the
fact, that he has conducted one negociation to a suc-
cessful issue. Another, and an cppotite, explanation
of the delay, given by persons not usually ill-informed
upon diplomatic subjects, is, that the King of the
French having of late shown himself somewhat defi-
cient in the energy and zeal necessary to carry into
execution the joint projects of the Governments of
Great Britain and France, with respect to the
nations of the Peninsula, Lord Palmerston thought
the opportunity too good to be lost, of - stimulat-
ing, by the threat of a Court mourning for Charles
the Tenth, the languid efforts of our ally, and of
fixing the wavering and ambiguous course of his
foreign policy. Should this turn out to be the fact,
Lord Palmerston, although his coup has not been
successful; will acquire nevertheless the reputation of
a statesman eminently skilled in the adaptation of his
means to his ends, and richly endowed with the quali-
ties of promptitude and vigour to seize and improve
the advantages which time and fortune throw into
his hands. We must own, however, that—for our
own part—we have considerable doubt of the correct-
• ness of this version of the affair ; for we think it un-
likely that his Lordship could have taken so masterly
a view of his position, and discharged the duties it
exacted with so much diligence, talent, and zeal,
without receiving the customary offering of just pa-
negyric from our Contemporary of the Globe. A
fourth version of the matter, very current in society,
is, that--.—since the death of Charles X.; Lord Pal-
merston has received communications from the Court
of the Tuileries, throwing, not merely cold.. water
—for this it is
~,known to have been constantly
doing for many months .back—but huge mountains of
ice, upon the Noble Lord's pet scheme of Peninsular
policy ; and that in a fit of vexation, his-Lordship
issued his directions to the Lord Chamberlain. This
explanation acquires plausibility, at least, from the
fact, which we believe to be undeniable, that for the
first fortnight or three weeks after . the arrival of the
melancholy tidings, Lord Pahnerston attempted,
wherever he went, to throw ridicule upon the notion
that any testimony of respect to the memory of the
deceased Sovereign should be paid by the British
Court, bound by the closest ties of alliance, as it then
pleased the -Noble Lord to say the British Court was,
to the King of the French. One other explana-
tion we have heard, and we will give it to our
readers, because, without professing to know the
facts, we think this explanation sounds, at least,
quite as much like truth as any of the rest. It is
said, then,- that his Majesty, whom all will admit
to have a finer and more correct sense of what it befits
the King and the Court of England to do upon any
occasion, determined, from the first, that he
.and his
Court would, upon this occasion, show that mark of
respect which decency and custom prescribe, to the
memory of departed royalty. The will of their Royal
Master was, it is stated, pertinaciously opposed by
Ministers,' until they found that it would be imprudent
on their part to urge the irreverent) and unbecoming
contest to extremities. It is thus that in some quarters
a lapse of time, quite unprecedented, we believe, on
any former occasion of the same nature, is accounted
-for.—Morning Post.

About half-past twelve o'clock on Monday a terrific
explosion, which was occasioned by some defect in the
gas pipes, and. the gas escaping in the extensive ware-
house of Messrs. Fuller and Co., button manufacturers,
Wood-street, Cheapside, took place, and property de-
stroyed to a considerable amount. A female in the ser-
vice of the above persons was severely. burnt about the
hands, the neck, and. head, by the explosion, and is now
lying at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
A person digging in the neighbourhood of St.
Mary's Church, Scarborough, during the last week, disco-
vered a very antique circular silver box, a silver spoon, a
number of silver clasps, a massive silver - ring, supposed to
have been worn on 'the finger as a charm, or cure for
diseases, and several ancient gold and silver coins. The
silver box', which is of.the 'rudest workmanship, about two
inches in diameter, and appears to have been gilt ; on the
bottom is engraved, in the roughest manner, a representa-
tion of the crucifixion ; and the limb is covered with a rude
etching of a lamb, holding a standard. There is little doubt
it has contained some valuable relic which has probably
mouldered into dust ; and that it has been worn round the
neck of its possessor, as there is a provision for expending
it, like a locket. The spoon is jointed in the handle, so as
to fold up to put in the pocket ; the slide which passes over'
the joint to fix the handle, represents a bishop's mitre, and
it is supposed to have been used by the priest, either in
anointing with oil, ,or administering extreme unction.
Among the coins are a silver penny of Edward 1., a groat
of Edward 111., which, as Calais is included in the inscrip-
tion, has probably been struck soon after the capture of that
place in 1346-47 ; an angel of Edward IV. ; a gold noble
and a quarter-noble—all in fine preservation ; and a gold
German jetton. From the various dates of the coins, it is
evident they have been hoarded as curiosities ; and they
have probably been buried with the body of their possessor.
—null Observer.

Monday. night Mr. Harper, the celebrated performer
on the trumpet, gave a concert at the London Tavern,
Bishopsgate4street, under the immediate patronage of the
Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress; and we feel pO-ratified in
stating that this established public favourite had the sup-
port of a very large and. fashionable audience.