The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-28 00:00:00

IHE ITALIAN OPERA HOUSE.'

It is rumoured that the forthcoming opera season
will probably be the last in Covent Garden
Theatre, as it is reported that the authorities of the
Post Office have completed the purchase of the
building with the view of converting it into a cen-
tral telegraphic depot.
THE ELECTION FOR SHERIFF.

The nomination for the vacant office of Sheriff of
London and Middlesex will be held in the Guildhall
on Thursday next. A contest is likely to ensue.

DEATH OF ADMIRAL LEEK&

Admiral Sir Henry John Leeke, K.C.8., K.H.,
died at his residence, Uplands, Fareham, Hants, on
Saturday afternoon. He entered the navy in Sep-
tember, 1803, as a first-class volunteer, on board
the Royal William, then lying at Spithead, and bear-
ing the flag of Admiral Montagu. Between the
period of his advancement to the rank of lieutenant,
the 24th of November, 1810, and the receipt of his
second commission, bearing date the 15th of June,
1814, he was again employed in the Mediterranean
and also at the Cape of Good Hcpe. On one oc-
casion, while the Persian, with a host of French
prisoners on board, was off Cape Trafalgar, on her
passage home, the prisoners, in the absence of
the crew (who, worn out by fatigue, had all, with
the exception of Mr. Leeke, the quartermaster and
two men, gone below), assembled on the deck, and
were in the act of making a rush aft, when Mr.
Leeks seized a cutlass, threw another to the
quartermaster, and, with much gallantry, succeeded
in keeping them off until the alarm had brought
the ship's company to his assistance. On the 26th
of March, 1819, Captain Leeke was appointed to
the Myrmidon, 20, on the western coast of Africa,
where he cruised with great activity against the
slave trade, and either liberated or contributed to
the release of upwards of 3,000 blacks. In
May, 1820, having the command at the time of
her Majesty's ships Myrmidon, Morgiana, Thistle,
and Snapper, he landed at the Pongas,
in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, and,
at the head of only 170 seamen and marines, added
to 180 black soldiers of the 2d West India Regi-
ment, contrived to burn eight towns, to demolish a
battery, and to effect the utter defeat of a barbarian
force of 5,000 men, commanded by King Munga-
Brama, a ruffian who had murdered an officer and
several men belonging to the Thistle, and had re-
tained three others as prisoners. During the three
years that he remained on the African station Capt.
Leeke surveyed the coast to the extent of 600 miles.
Sir Henry, as a flag officer, afterwards commanded
in chief the Indian navy. His respective commis-
sions bore date—as captain, May 27, 1826 ; rear-
admiral, April 15, 1854 ; vice-admiral, May 2,
1860 ; admiral, Jan. 11, 1864.

His Royal llighness the Prince of Wales and a
distinguished party are expected to visit Lincolnshire
next week, for the purpose of hunting the Burton country
with Mr. Henry Chaplin, the master of the hounds. The
visit will be strictly private.
The who are members of the National
Education League h we had a meeting, and appointed a com-
mittee of five, includiug Mr. Dixon and Sir Charles Dilko,
to draw up amendments to the Government Bill.

The Pope (says John Bull) has at last ceded to the
incessant solicitations of his friends, and relieved Father
Hyacinthe of his monastic vows. Father Hyacinthe is to
become a secular priest, under the title of L'Abbe Lovson

The house carpenters and joiners of Glasgow have
demanded a reduction of their working hours from ten to
nine hours per day. The masters have declared themselves
willing to concede an advance of a halfpenny an hour, but
they refuse to reduce the working hours.

The Memorial Diflomatiqzte declares that the
papers seized at the houses of the persons arrested in Paris
during the recent riots, reveal an extensive conspiracy,
including nearly all the continent, and affecting more par-
ticularly Italy, Austria, and Hungary.
Cook, the champion, and Dufton played a match
at billiards on Friday night, at the Corn Exchange,
Aylesbury, 1,000 up, Dufton receiving 200. At 460
Cook made 95 spot strokes, and won. Continuing, he
made 41 more spots, which is said to be the greatest break
ever recorded..

Sir John Lubbock, the new :nember for Maidstone,
is the fourth baronet, and was horn in 1834. He was
educated at Eton, whence he proceeded to Trinity College,
Cambridge, where ho took his B.A. degree in due ecurse.
He was married in 1856 to a duughter of the Bev. Peter
Hordern, of Chorlton-cum-llardy, and succeeded his father
in 1865.

At the hearing of a charge against a Glasgow
butcher, for being in possessiou of the carcase of a cow unfit
for human food, Dr. Johnstone thought the carcase neither
unwholesome nor unsound, and to prove it had eaten a por-
tion of the meat. after it had been cooked. A. professor and
his assistant declared that the cow was suffering from
pleuro-pneumonia, and utterly unfit for human food. De-
Endant was convicted and fined.
At a meeting of the shareholders of the Kingsbridge
Railway, held to-day, it was stated that having found it
impossible to get funds to complete the line, the directors
recommended the abandonment of the question. This was
put to the vote, the result being for the abandonment, a
share value of 24720 ; against, £1,020. The line, which
is about one-third made, was to have been worked in con-
nection with the South Devon.

The American House of Representatives and the
Senate have once more come into direct opposition. The
former passed a resolution favouring an increase of 50
millions in the paper currency. The Senate, on
the contrary, has declared against any addition to the
present amount of irredeemable paper money. It is likely,
therefore, that the currency will remain 9* its present.