The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-25 00:00:00

THE RUSSIAN FLEET.

(From the Ministerial Cannier Francais of Wednesday.)
Russia evidently desires to accustom us to the idea
of seeing; her Baltic fleet enter the Mediterranean. The
Elbeifeld Gazelle, a Prussian paper, informs us that
eighteen vessels of the line are about to quit Cronstadt,
and sail for the Archipelago. This is the sceond time
in the course of a week that the same news has been
put in circulation. This perseverance seems to prove
that if it bst not already true, that it will soon be so.
Russia is not in the habit of abandoning the projects she
has conceived.
It is not written down in the treaty of London that
the Russian fleet shall enter the Mediterranean : it can-
not enter it without giving outrage to Eegland, who
certainly would witness with much uneasiness this
formidable co-operation. Mr. Canning would not
allow the Russian squadron previous to the battle
of Naverino to exceed a certain number of vessels.
Will Lord Pahnerston dare to pursue another line of
conduct now that the Russian fleet is more redoubt-
able than it was ? What prudent Englishman would
ever pardon him for letting
eighteen Russian ships enter
the Mediterranean when it can send out an equal num-
, her from the Black Sea, and when the English squa-
dron, scarcely sixteen vessels strong, might thus be
placed between two fires?
Let England, however, make herself uneasy about it
or not ; France ought to consider the arrival of so con-
siderable a Russian fleet in the Mediterranean as a me-
nace, ard we trust that the
Alinistry will take up the
matter.
P.S. We have just received a letter from St. Peters-
burgh which permits of our rectifying,the ElbedMl Gazette, and stating the case more coca.
the news given by
rately. The Emderor Nicholas has ordered nine vessels
of the line to be armed immediately, the most solid and
best constructed of his fleet ; to these are to be added
an equal number of frigates, and twelve light sail, cutters
or brigs. The fleet will thus consist of thirty sail. As
soon as it is armed, it is to sail for Revel, and there wait
for further orders.

At Eu, last week, a girl washaadccruesseodlveodf
uphoanvitiiiige
un t,tiemmppptye dg
itrol , poisonil
cede rbtayi ni:saolokul iseyr: of the garrison. The
destruction of herself and her lover by poison ; and for
this purpose prepared an omelette, which she served to
him and several of his companions. Fortunately, how-
ever, the dose intended for two persons being divided
among several,
aj lul r
y w
thanh opatrhe
omelettetooskickonfestsheandpa in
w escapedhicil
re
with no other in.
suited from its effects on the stomach.

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.

Yesterday a Court was held for the despatch of a
Teat deal of public business.

PRINCE ALBERT, AND TINE DINNER AT THE MANSION-

HOUSE.

Mr. KING, the Chairman of the City Lands Com-

mittee, having brought up the Report relative to the

fitting up of the Guildhall on the day of the presenta-
tion of the freedom to Prince Albert,
Mr. STEVENS begged to put a question to the Lord
Mayor, relative to the dinner to which it appeared his
Lordship had invited his Royal Highness. It was re-
ported very currently that the Prince had declined the
invitation of his Lordship, although his Royal Highness
had in the first instance accepted it, and that the reason
was that the Lord Mayor had not invited her Majesty's
Ministers, and other individuals of the highest rank in
the country to the entertainment. Now he (Mr.
Stevens) was very desirous of being informed whether
there was any truth in the report ?—(Hear, hear.)

The Loan MAYOR said that he would, as an act of
courtesy, answer the question of Mr. Stevens. It was
true that Prince Albert had accepted the invitation to
(line at the Mansion House, and it was true also that
his Royal Highness subsequently declined, but his Royal
Highness's reason for declining was certainly because the
Princess Augusta was in such a state, that her decease
was expected every moment. The Prince had in the
strongest terms expressed his regret that he could not
be a guest on that day, at the Mansion•house.—( Hear,
hear.) He (the Lord Mayor) would also inform Mr.
Stevens that he did not invite her Majesty's Ministers on
that day, for it would be recollected when the Queen's
Ministers dined with him and the Sheriffs at the Guild-
hall, what sort of reception they met with. He did not
wish for a repetition of any thing of that kind. He
had, upon this occasion, invited the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, the Bishop of London, and other distinguished
individuals to meet his Royal Highness, but, in fact,

almost every body was out of The Prince had over
and over again expressed himself delighted at
what bad taken place, but his Royal Highness would
not have attended then had not he (the Lord Ma) or)
set off from London upon hearing that his Royal
Highness had resolved not to come to the City on ac-
count of the serious condition of his aunt.—(Hear.)
Here the conversation dropped.
PRESENTATION OF PIECES OF PLATE TO THE SHE.
RIFFS FOR THEIR LATE CONDUCT.

The names of Sheriffs Evans and Wheelton having
been called, and these gentlemen having appeared in
the Court,
The LORD MAYOR rose to present them with the
pieces of plate which were unanimously voted to them
by the Corporation for their conduct in the case of the
House of Commons and the Sheriffs of London. All
the members and officers of the Court stood during the
presentation.
The LORD MAYOR said that it was a source of high
gratification to him to be appointed by the Court of
Common Council to present to the Sheriffs, at the close
of their year of office, a testimonal of the sense enter-
tained of their conduct upon an occasion of no ordinary
difficulty, and under circumstaacrs which called for the
exercise of peculiar deliberation and firmness. The ser-
vices which they had rendered, and for which they had
been visited with punishment, were so well known to the
Corporation, and indeed to the nation at large, that it
was quite unnecessary for him to occupy the time of
the Court in detailing particulars. Their felloW-citizens
were impressed with the deepest gratitude for their
spirited and able vindication of the law exemplified in
the course which they had resolutely pursued, and the
Court requested their acceptance of this testimonial,
and wished them, in their retirement from their office,
the duties of which they had so admirably discharged,
every prosperity and happiness.—(Loud cheers.)
Sheriff EvArts—My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen of
the Corporation—We receive with most grateful feel-
ings this splendid testimony of your approbation of our
conduct as Sheriff of London and Sheriff of Middlesex.
I shall leave my worthy colleague to speak for himself
on this pleasing occasion, and confine myself to the ex-
pression of my own sentiments. On being elected to
this honourable office, I stated my desire and determi-
nation to fulfil the duties attached to it with integrity
and fidelity ; and, on resigning the important trust
into the hands of my successor, I flatter myself, from
the kind manner in which you, my Lord, have been
pleased to express yourself, that I have in some degree
redeemed that pledge, and have not disappointed the
expectations of my. fallow-citizens. The peculiar cir-
cumstances to which you, my Lord Mayor, have ad-
verted, placed me in considerable difficulty ; but, acting
in strict accordance with the oath I had taken, it is
most gratifying to find that the course I pursued on that
memorableoccasion has met generally with theapprobation
of my fellow-countrymen.—(Cheers.) On retiring
again into private life, this magnificent work of your
approval of my public conduct will always be to me a
source of the highest satisfaction, and I cannot do jus-
tice to my feelings, without taking this opportunity of
expressing my warmest thanks for the uniform kindness
1 have at all times received from your Lordship, and
indeed from every member of the Corporation since I
have bad the honour of being connected with them. I
beg, my Lord, and Gentlemen, once more to thank you
most sincerely and respectklly.-(Loud cheers.)
Sheriff WIIEELTON also expressed his thanks. He
acknowledged the gratification be felt at the sympathy
and kind feeling so frequently expressed by so rn.eiy
members of the Court, as well as at the confi-
dence they placed in the Sheriffs, whilst so unexpectedly
' imprisoned by the House of Commons, for obedience to
the laws, a due regard to the importance of the oath
imposed upon them by their fellow-citizens, and the
obligations they were under to them in redeeming the
pledge to maintain inviolate the rights and privileges of
the citizens of London, uphold its dignity, and upon re-
tiring, surrender into the hands of their successors the
several trusts committed to their care unsullied and
unimpaired.—(Cheers.) " I embrace," said the She-
riff, " the present opportunity also of stating to the
Honourable Court, that, instead of being opposed to the
rights and privileges of the House of Commons, I have
ever been one of its firmest supporters, and whilst I am
ready to concede to that Honourable House the
power it possesses of incarceration whenever, a
breach of privilege is committed, I claim to
myself the right which I possess of obeying the dictates
of my own conscience in supporting the established laws
of the country, and in manifesting a consistent regard
for the solemnity of an oath—(Cheers)—and I do feel
that had I acted otherwise, I should have been guilty
not only of a compromise of principle, but also of violat-
ing the oath and obligations I am under to my fellow-
citizens, nor could I have retired from office with the sa-
tisfaction I feel that I shall do in having upheld the dig-
nity of the law, and in so doing supporting the dignity
of this Honourable Corporation."—(Cheers.)
The testimonials, of which a description was given
some time ago, and which were extremely beautiful,
were executed by Mr. Metcalf Hopgood, of Bishopsgate-
street. They excited very great admiration.
The Address of the Lard Mayor and the Answers of
the Sheriffs were ordered to be entered on the Journals
of the Court.
NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR PROMOTING THE MORAL AND
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE POOR.

Alderman Thomas WOOD presented petitions from
Mr. Tooke, Mr. Samuel Gurney, Mr. F. Brewin, Mr.
Joseph Foster, and others, high in the class of philan-
thropists, praying for the aid of the Corporation to esta-
blish a Normal School.
The petition was read at length, and then referred to
a Committee.

TEIE PRINCESS AUGUSTA.--Her Royal High-
ness was in her 72d year, having been born on the Bth
November, 1768. She wat, the sixth child and second
daughter of George 111. and Queen Charlotte. The
event of the Princess Augusta's birth gave the corpora.
tion of the City of London an opportunity of approaching
his Majesty George 111., which they did with a better
grace than on some preceding occasions, steering clear of
political animadversions, and confining themselves to the
gratulations on the happy event, mingled with becoming
loyalty—a circumstance which afforded the King great
satisfaction, as was marked by the manner in which he
received and answered their addresses at the levee.
The sweet temper and amiable disposition of her Royal
Highness, both in childhood and after-life, made her at all
times a favourite with the various branches of the Royal
Family; and during the unhappy differences which existed
oetween George IV. and Queen Caroline. when the Prin.
cess Royal was married to the King of Wirternberg, the
Princess Augusta was called upon to preside with his Ma-
jesty at the levees and drawing-rooms. Within a few
weeks of her death she presented all her domestics, who
were much attached to her Royal Highness, with a copy
of her lortrait, as the last acknowledgment which she
could make of their attentions. It is generally under-
stood that her Royal Highness made a will previously to
her illness coming to the worst. The bulk of her pro-
perty the Princess has left to the children of the King of
Hanover and the Duke of Cambridge ; and the remainder
has been divided as legacies among her attendants and do-
mestics, not one of whom, it is said, has been omitted.
Her Royal Highness also, a few days before her decease,'
sent tokens of remembrance to all the branches of the
Royal Family.

NAPOLEON Al' ELBA.--The next Number of
Mr. Colburn's United Service Journal, which will appear
iin a few days, will contain, we understand, a complete
narrative of the embarication and conveyance of Napoleon
from Frejus to Elba, in the Undaunted frigate, with per.
sonal anecdotes and opinions of the ex Emperor on the
voyage, and during his residence on that island. This
narrative, which is from the pen of Sir Thomas Usher,
the Captain of the Undaunted, will fill up, perhaps, the
only blank in the history of the most extraordinary mat. of
modern times ; and must, therefore, prove highly accept.
able, not only to the readers of the above excellent peri-
odical, but also to the public at large, more especially at
the present moment, when the remains of Napoleon are
about to be removed from St. Helena to Europe—the
theatre of his exploits.
TITE CONSERVATIVE PRESS.—Four journals
of stanch Tory politics in this county are now in the
market. The proprietors of each have passed through
the Gazette.—Preston Chronicle.

The present year has witnessed the death of two
of the oldest female members of the Aristocracy—the vene-
rable Countess of Cork in her 93d, and the equally me_
rabic Counter,. of Dysart in her 96th year.