The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-14 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

PORTRAIT OF THE QUEEN.
. Colnagiti, London, 1941.
The engraver of this portrait, which is from an
original painting by Ross, has taken evident
pains with his tusk, whicii is executed in a skil-
ful and judicious manner. The por.zrait is a half-
length, and represents her Majesty ieatcd in an
easy, dignified manner, in her Stark chair. The
broad riband of the Garter cross her breast,
and on her arms are bracelets containing a mini-
ature likeness of Prince Albert. The resem-
blanc3 is a very correct one, conveying, not
merely the features, but the expression of the
Queen's countenance. •

Lord Ponsonby's departure from Constantinople,
on his return to this country, has, it is said, been de-
ferred in consequence of the serious state of things in
varit,us parts of the Ottoman empire.
. _

We are glad to learn, upon tF,e authority of
private letters received in town on Sat urday, that the
Countess of Coventry is rapidly recovering from the
serious effects of the coup de selerl, by which we men-
tioned her Ladyship had been attacke el, whilst taking
an airing in the vicinity of Rothe. La •d Holland had
left for Florence, in consequence of the improvement of
Lady Coventry's health. Lady Ironic:id continued in
attendance on her mother at Rome.

A NDOV ER.—Election warfare •h as commenced
in Andover with a vigour which some ;hat startled the
matter of fact and quiet folks of this quip •t town. In ad-
dition to the present Members, Ralph El Esq., and
Sir John Pollen, a third candidate has piling up in the
person of Lord Huntingtower, a young nobleman who
has lately taken up his residence near .ndover.

DOVER.--ELECTIONEEIUNG 110VEMENTS.--
Contrary to our expectations, it seems th e " peace of the
town," which the Tories professed to bi, so desirous of
maintaining, is to be " disturbed" by a " contest" at the
ensuing election, the Tories having broke n through their
professions and brought forward a second man in the
shape of Mr. John Holcombe, of Dover electioneering
notoriety. Weil,:be it so : we must, it .appears, do our.
best in the approaching struggle to "de I.4id the right."
—Dover Chronicle.

TRE.SENsus.—We are glad to learn, that the
census, so far. as regards the Manchester Adult, has been
taken in a very satisfactory manner. We understand
that, with few exceptions, the enamert,tors completed
their work on Monday. We have bean 1 of but one or
two instances of any thing like wilful rielject ; and from
all we can learn, we doubt not that the return of the.
population of this thickly-peopled distri ct will prove to
be more fully and carefully made than on any former oc-
casion. S.she schedulus, &c., are now in :,he Hands of tin-
several registrars of births, and deaths, -los- the purposes o:
examination and verification, and by the Ist July they
must be placed in the hands of the superintendent re-
gistrar for the union, who will have tends:3-s daring which
to examine them further, before they e.rt. officially re-
turned to the registrar-general for England and tit 'ales.
Paper.
MR. WI L KINS 'AND THE BUCKINGHAM
CREQLE.—We have looked, but looked in vain, for smut
denial or explanation on the part of Mr. Wilkins or his
friends, in reference to the remittance which he is al-
leged to have received from the Duke of Buckingham.
Afterwards, however, other facts have cane to our know-
ledge : we found that Mr. Wilkins had betas boasting that
" ad his men" would be present at the messing ; and not.
knowing of any men ordinarily employed by the learneti
gentleman, we presumed that the phrase had reference to
parties employed by him to attend that meeting for som:
special purpose ; and knowing that a body of men,
armed with bludgeons andiron bars, had made an irrup-
tion upon the meeting, we could not help putting th
facts together, and asking what was the particular mis-
sion of the " men" whom the learn ad gentlemar
was sending to the meeting, and whether they wen
to be paid out of the Duke of Buckinghat a's remittance.
These questions remain, as yet, unanswered ; but w-
think, and, if we are not mistatten, the public general!..
will think, that they are far from being improper or
im
pertinent questions, and that some notice ought to lys
taken- of them by the party most interested, —Manchester
Guardien. .
RAILROADS V. TILE METROPOLIS ROADS.--
A eircula4 of which the following is a copy, has jus
beets received by the parochial authorities of liensingtoY
and other parishes near London :—" Metropolis Road.
Office, 22, Whitehall-Once, May 27, 1841. Sir, T 1
traffic by tha various railroads trdas the niatrepolis, ha
sojaiportantly reduced the toll revenue of the neetropoW
roads, that die Commissioners have Leen obliged to tak'
into their serious consideration in what manner they cm
best contrast their expenditure, so as not to det norats
• the efficiency. of the roads under their charge. The'
bave •come to the conclusion that the lighting-of tht
roads in truth,. more immediately, for the accom •
modaton of parties living by the sides of the roads, that
for -the traveller, presents the most apposite source o:
reduction. I have been, .therefore, dir:.cted by the
Commissioners to .cemmuniente the intention of the
Board to. cease lighting the turnpike ros:i within you'
parish so soon as you shall have laid tiny- to make an:,
arrangements for lighitiqg, which may he ,iceped;teces-
sarys by the parish.—l 147• , yeitr obd lent orant,
Fenton, Seerettity." " • .

TilE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.
In consequence of Mr. William Howitt having applied
to th L.rd -Mayor for a summons - againzt the Post-
ina3ter-Lieneral, to compel him to show cause why. the
General Post-office -should not refund to him (Mr.
tovvito the sum of twenty-pence, which he (Mr.Howitt)
had paid on a letter addressed to Mrs. Howitt, in Ger-
niftily, and which letter was never sent, the Lord Mayor
despatched a messenger to the Postmaster-General, and
on Tuesday, the Bth of May, there appeared on behalf
of his Lordship Mr. Peacock; the Solicitor to the Ge-
neral Post-office, and Mr. Bokenham, the Super-

intending President of the Inland Department, ac-
companied by two receiving clerks. Mr. Howitt ap-
peared with Mr. Wire, the Solicitor, and Mr. Manning,
printer, Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row. Mr. Howitt produced
a letter addressee' to " Mrs. Howitt, Heidelberg, Geri
mane." and having various postmarks upon it. Mr.
Howitt said that having just landed in London from
Germany, he was anxious that no accident should occur
to preveat Mrs. Howitt and his family having the most
early intelligence of his safe-arrival. He therefore had
taken the letter himself to the General Post-office, paid
for it, and received the proper change. That about three
weeks afterwards he received a letter from Mrs. Howitt,
stating that she and the family had suffered the extremest
anxiety in consequence of not having received a letter
from him since his departure, but that she had at length
received a printed circular from the General Pest-office
in London, informing her that a letter addressed to her was
then lying at that office. which was detained because the
postage of Is. Bd. had not been paid.
On the receipt of this letter Mr. Hewitt immediately
proceeded to the General Post-office.. He applied to the
clerk at the window where he had delivered the letter
addressed to Mrs. Howitt. The letter was immediately
shown him. He recognised also the young man at the
window as the clerk to whom he had given it, and said—
" This letter I posted myself and paid for, and you are
the person to whom I paid the money." The clerk would
not admit that he had made such an error, but expressed
regret that such an accident had occurred, and the let-
ter was handed out to him. On receiving it, Mr. Howitt oh-
served, " Now, Sir, I will takeehis letter and make you ac-
count for your conduct." When the clerk heard this, he ex •
claimed, "You can't have it ! Stop him ! stop him !" A
policeman was about to lay hands on him, when he said
—"Don't touch me ! Neither you nor any man shah
have this letter till I have seen the Secretary, and I insist
on being taken to him." Mr. Howitt was accordingly
taken into the office to Mr. Bokenham, the superin-
tendent of the inland department. He handed the letter
to this gentleman, and stated what had taken place. Mr.
Bokenham expressed great regret at the circumstance,
but endeavoured to persuade Mr. Howitt that he could
not have paid the postage. Mr. Howitt then demanded
to see Col. Maberly, but being told that he was not there,
he assured Mr. Bokenham that he would immediately
bring the case before him, and left the office.
Mr. Howitt went on to show that, in consequence, a
long correspondence took place on the subject between
him and the Post-office, and he complained that great
apathy had been shown by Colonel Maberly on the sub-
ject ;- that he had written very plainly to Colonel Ma-
berly, reminding him that complaints in the days of Sir
Francis Freeling received immediate personal attention
from that gentleman, and were neither subjected to un-
necessary delay, nor turned over to subordinates ; that,
in consequence, Colonel Maberly assured him that every
attention should he. given to the case ; and a report
froni the superintendent. of the inland department to
Colonel Maberly on the case had been handed to Mr.
Howitt, but without the.slightest evidence by any docu-
ment from Colonel Maberly himself that the case had
been laid before either him or the Postmaster-General ;
that he had, therefore, informed Colonel Maberly that,
as he saw no hope . of redress front the Post-office, he
should take the proper steps to recover the postage of the
letter, and had now. applied to the Lord Mayor for that
purpose.
in defence, Mr. Peacock stated that it appeared, on
inquiry, that this letter had been posted at a window
where both foreign and inland letters were posted, but
only till four o'clock in the afternoon, and that, after that
hour, the foreign letters were posted at another window ;
that this letter had been posted, it appeared, between five
and six, and therefore it ought to have been posted at the
other side ; that the clerk had taken it in as a penny
letter, and when the mistake was discovered the letter
had been opened in order to return it to the writer, but
that it was found to contain no address, and therefore the
circular which had been mentioned had been sent to Mrs.
Howitt. Mr. Peacock
,contended that the clerk would
not have received that letter at that hour had he been
aware that it was a foreign letter, and added that it often
occurred that letters were put in, and before the change
was given out the person, to whom it beloner'ed was gone
away, and somebody else took it up ; and he had uo doubt
that this was the case in the present instance; so that, al-
though Mr. Howitt paid the full Is. Bd., change was given
out 7evili,.:ll somebody else got.
Mr. Howitt said that this was a string of suppositions,
but the simple' fact was this, that he paid the whole
!money and received the proper change, and was con-
vinced that the whole transaction was right. That he
posted four or five inland letters at the same time, that
he had. placed the letter uppermost, that the clerk might
See what it was. Then he demanded what was the
postage, which amounted to something more than 25.,
. and received a few pence out of half-a-crown. That he
had stated those particulars to Mr. Bokenham in presence
of Mr. Manning, who was here to give evidence of the fact.
Mr. Howitt then said that Mr. Bokenham, at his first
interview with him and the Post-office authoritieS alto-
gether, had pleaded that they could not admit that the
poetage had been paid to the clerk at the window with-
out charging him with dishonesty, and that they had no
reason whatever to believe him dishonest. Mr. Howitt
had no wish, and never had had for a moment, to charge
the clerk with dishonesty ; on the contrary, he had
'stated to Mr. Bokenham and to Colonel Maberly, and
he stated it there again publicly, that there was a noto-
rious and most obvious cause fin the accident, which was
in the defective arrangements of the'General Post-office.
He admitted that lie had taken his letter to the window
specified, at the hour after it was customary to receive
foreign letters there, and it had occurred thus : when he
went to the General Post-office he looked round to find
the department " Foreign-office," but to his astonishment
no such words could be found. Seeing, therefore, a
slide marked " Paid letters received here," he offered it
there, in the assurance that if that were not the right
place the Clerk would reject the letter. The letter, how-
ever, was taken in, and the money, received. The
error, therefore, on his part arose from no proper
external directions being painted up at the General
Post-office. There was no such word as " Foreign:
office" up at all ; but the foreign letters were actually
received with the inland letters at this very window every
day till four o'clock, and then at another at some dis-
tance. Since he had made his strong remonstrances
against this disgraceful state of things, some slight at-
tempt had been made to remedy it by the placing up of a
little trumpery board with ForeigreOffice upon it, though
on getting to the place you saw on the slide, "Foreign
letters not received here until after four o'clock," so that
you had again to seek for the spot where foreign letters
were received, and find it in the inland department still.
Now, he asked whether this was a state of things fit for
the General Post-Office of the greatest commercial
nation of the world. But this was only a smallepart of
the want of arrangement and accommodation, and it was
this to which he called the particular attention of the
Lord Mayor. In the evening, when the press of posting
letters was greatest, there was only one receiving place for
general post-paid letters, causing a rush towards that
window and a tumult most unseemly and disgraCeful,
and it was impossible. for a boy or female servant after
five o'clock to approach the window ; this was so noto-
rious that gentlemen had told him they frequently walked
in the hall of an evening to witness it.
The gentlemen from the Post-office admitted the ex-
istence of this riotous scene, and regretted it, but could
see no remedy unless the public would use them fairly,
and post their letters earlier.
The Lord Mayor then reminded them that commer-
cial men were obliged to answer their letters at the last
possible hour, and they had been actually curtailed of
one ; besides, merchants did not leave 'Change till five.
He must strongly recommend them to give the metropo-
lis another hour in the evening, and open more receiving
places also.
Mr. Wire strongly supported that view of the subject.
He said that Mr. Howitt had come there solely to bring
4) the knowledge of the public the evils which he, toge-
ther with vast numbers of persons, had so constantly to
complain of. Unckr the circumstances of. the present
:.:ase, he considered the Court must order the money to be
eAmded to his client.
Mr. Howitt having affirmed. the truth of these state;
merits, the Lord Mayor gave judgment that the money
mist be repaid, adding that this would have been his
.ecisieti had the amount been 20/. instead of twenty

I;once.

DEAL PuoTs-Tlie Deal pilots are known!
Llmost to a man to he Tories ;'and acting up to the prin-
•iple that a divided body cannot long be prosperous,
ley make no exception to the rule, •and have become a
;ye-word and a Pi &Verb ; and the world has read how
:Aebrated they are- for the celerity of their movements
Nhen under the whip of their Tory leader, and how
vadily they run to the poll to record their votes as the
,vistocrata of the 'borough may dictate. It is a great
:fence for them to have an opinion. A somewhat whim-
,ical scene occurred yesterday. A gentleman came to
)eal, on the alleged pretence of waiting for a ship coming
ato the Downs ; and, taking from his pocket a letter,
~..,ked one of the boatmen (conceiving that a boat-
Nian and a pilot were one and the same) the reason
Aby the pilots voted as they did against Colonel
ox, significantly whispering in his ear that he knew
friend willing and able to bribe them to stand
loof at the coming election. This soon got wind, and
ia a twinkle the whole town was ringing with the joke.
rut to be serious ; it was concluded that the person had
:.ome down on purpose to test the sincerity of their adhe-
:.•nce to the Lord Warden. A report had got abroad
that they were becoming wise, and about to divide their
votes half and half. But to indentify the pilots with the
boatmen, when their functions are so different, is very
amusing. The merchants and shipowners in London do
iit. 1:now the distinction; and conclude the pilots to be
seafaringen i
;tlemen, though we who live on the coast kiwis,
m rich, and adding to their wealth
r,, alter
and house to house, boasting that they
‘i,oyp acre,
a csorpe gentlemen,
n
• rend each from three to four -hundred pounds a y6ar.for
the benefit of the tradesmen. Can we wonder, then, that
o many turned, and so many refrained from voting at
• ;ie late election ? There are in Deal about sixtti,..pilots
being_ the
—a rather formidable body, certainly.--. Dozer Chronick.
were occupied
ii hearing motions, none of which contaloed any matter of
tYli e three C (tjCitoTo rSt S-0 t'SCalti aunrederl yY
~tCd:l,-)1 A:
tCeErnt,t
olio intcre.4. 'I he Lord Chancellor will continue to sit
liter days in the week at Lincoln's inn. lhe Vic„..Chancellor
' , in-sit to the purpose of hearing motions and the ordinary
:tlsiness of the Court up to the first seal, which is iii Pointed
..r the odinzt. The iNia,ter 1;) the Rolls will. not it after
1
lie remaining petitions are disposed of nivit the 21.4 inst,
xhieh is the Arst day appointed by his: Lordship for hearing
elallts4

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