The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-29 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR:.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, ..Lady
Charlotte I)undas, Baron Stockmar, and Mr. and the
Hon. Mrs. G. Anson, had the honour of dining with ber
Majesty at Buckingham Palace last evening.
The llon. Miss Stanley has succeeded the Hon. Miss,
Paget as the Maid of Honour in Waiting on the Queen..
Messrs. Fleming, Hob3on, Leach, Crabtree, and
Brooke, a deputation from the Short-time Committees
of the West Riding of Yorkshire;, had an interview with
Sir James Graham yesterday at the Home-office.
A deputation, consisting of Mr. George Clavering
Redman, Mr. Matthew Forster, M.P., and Mr. Robert
Harrison, had an interview yesterday with the Right
Hon, the Earl of Aberdeen, at the Foreign-office, on the
subject of the Portendic ri.ainis, on which a Commission
has lately been sitting at Paris.
Mr. Henry Cope, jun., Honorary Secretary of the
Metropolitan Anti-Bridge Toll Association, - had the•
honour of an interview on Wednesday with the Ea rl
oP
Lincoln, Chief Commissioner of her Majesty's Woods
and Forests, at the 'Woods and Forests-office, on the s ab-
ject of the redemption of the Tolls on the Metropolis
Bridges and other Metropolitan improvements.
A deputation from the Short-time Committee of the
West Riding of Yorkshire, including Messrs. Fleming,
Hobson, Leach, Crabtree and Brooke, had an interview
with Sir Robert Peel yesterday, at his official residence
in Downing-street.
A deputation from Paisley had an interview with the
Right Hon. W. Gladstone, yesterday, at the office of the
Board of Trade.
The Duke of Wellington arrived in town on Wednesday.

DURATION OF VITALITY IN SEEDS.—There
are many remarkable instances on record of the dura-
tion of the germinative power in the seeds of plants.
There are few gardeners who have paid any attention
to the matter at all, but could, if they were willing,
relate something interesting ou the subject. We have
road of seeds springing after having lain dormant for
40 years in the garden of lJpsal, and also of seeds vege-
tating in Bushy Park, in soil that was trenched, sup-
posed to have remained undisturbed since the time
of Charles I. ; also of raspberry seed growing that had
probably remained for twenty centuries in a tumulus
near Maiden Castle. But these cases dwindle into
nothing when compared with the one I shall now men-
tion.
Conversing some time ago with an individual
about the quality of the limestone rocks in a certahlidpmaret
of the country in which I was then travelling,
of one limestone quarry in particular, the limeb
he never intended to put upon his ground again. I_Y that
asked his reason for rejecting the lime, he told
ome,._„
of
it was full of seeds, and made his ground
he could
weeds, that he never intended to use it agaion,ir settled.
the yct sett,e,i.
get other lime. I believe geologists haven
majority. of
the age of the mountain limestone, but the
old. Think
them say that it is many•thousands of yearsalong with the
co.tf:witiet which
of seeds remaining for so long a timroe;acea,
and, after
remains of zoophytes,
kiln, to spring into
enduring the intense heat of the lie
for other crops
life when spread upon ground intended
It Was in vain to tell
than that of sorrel and charlock.
before the lime was
him that the seeds were in the soilaw
molluscs, and e_ t
action of the lime
applied to it, and that it was
I; rs of old did in.
the philoso? e
nion as tenaciously as..
system
of astronomy,—
lle held his opi
placed ! The other day a High.
maintaining
rnnetetalnii
nee
Gardeners'
sisi ege(dwittirihoeanticeila,ct.uosieedin itn Lt o sprig e..
AN HONEST MAheNshop of a haberdasher in the
landman went into the
requested a sight of some yellow
High-street, Perth,
buttons. t‘rvoituhblpeaclii(eagweasswiansduced to fix
and fterkimnd, of which he bought the requisite
upon a particularcoat.
On paying for them, Donald cast a
number for a
o the glittering drawer, and he felt an ex-
wistful lookint
to become the possessor of a whole
ceedin ;inclination
Accordingly be commenced
be-
fore him,
without value. a
package, .
with the merchant for a vest quantity,
A drawer fiullnehd
ity,
second bargain ,
, when in
tinkling he had a package safely deposited in his
a ket " The tail o' the merchant's e'e," how-
ever,breast poc •
and by dint of mancLuvringgot his back turned
noticed the act, but paying no attention to it, the
his waistcoat. " A's paid noo," he sapiadi,da.,s, he,, loaidd,
bargain was concluded, and Donald paid for the buttons
for
down the money. " Na, no yet," replied the merchant,
~ that package in your breast-pocket's no
I had nae mind o't," said Donald taking it out and layinn•
it on the counter. " What's the price o't ?" " Twelvbe
shillings," was the reply, " That's ower dear," said
o•
Donald, " I'll hae naethin to do wi't. Dell tak the
man's conscience, wad he robt an honest man !" and so
saying he hurried out of the shop amidst roars of laugh-
ter from the shopmen, who had been listenino• to the
1 colloquy.—Dundee Courier. 0

- -
CITY INIPROVEMENTS.—The Committee for
conducting the City improvemonts and the approaches
to London-bridge, have directed the immediate sale of
several houses in Lad-lane, ChM° widen the place, and
join Cateaton-street, which has been within the last few
days again thrown open from Ring-street (the main ap-
proach to Guildhall) to the Bank and Mansion-house.;
where the coach-way was Only open for one carriage it
buoy open for Lour, through Cateitou-street.