The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-18 00:00:00

THB LATE FATAL DUEL IN BERLIN.

A correspondent of the Co'ojne Gazette thus re-
lates the more specific causes of the duel :
At a fashionable eltib here, called the Jockey Club,
some young officers had been playing so high that their
financial resources had become seriously affected. The
matter was reported to the King, and HinCkeldey re-
ceived orders to put an end to such proceedings. The
official charged by Hinckeldey with this duty may not
have proceeded with the requisite tact and delicacy ;
that is.very likely. The gentlemen felt highly indignant,
and some of them, Herr Von Rochow among the rest,
demanded from Hinckeldey an explanation of the treat-
ment they bad experienced. Ilinckeldey, in consequence,
informed them confidentially, for this ho explicitly
dwelt upon, that he had stated in obedience to orders.
This confidential Communication was taken advantage
of, for the purpose of compelling Hinckeldey to state the
alleged order either by signing a document or in some
other official way. This he refused to do, and because
the affair was to become official, denied that he had
made such a communication, since, in an official point
of view, it would be considered non avenue.' Upon this
he was accused of having uttered a "lie"—an emphatic
insult, which was wade without the
.slightest val.fica-
tien, and with some additional coarse remarks on seve-
ral occasions. The same word was also used, it is
said, in a document personally handed to him. The
affair took different turas for months after this, bat in
' the meantime the bearing of several gentlemen of
high position towards Hinckeldey grew more and
more uncourteons. If they chanced to meet him in
company anywhere they ow+ im, so that all eirect it
intercourse was at an end. In the Carrousel, that lately
took place, some additional insults were offered him,
and ' matters had come' to such a pitch that Hineke!dey
deter Mined on bringing them to a crisis by means of a
duel. For more than a week his intimate friends were
aware that a hnstile meeting was imminent, nor, indeed,
is there a doubt of the fact, that had the duel of the
day before yesterday left him seathless, other duels would
hare succeeded. Prevented from taking part in one on
account of his official position, Hinckeldey sent in his
resignation a week before his death. As this resignation
at the end of a week was not accepted, llincke!dcy cot .
sidered himself to be no longer tied down by official
csnsitierations, and so the dud took place.

SUICIDF'S IN PARIS.

An Englishwoman named Henrietta B--, in the
service of 'an American family staying at the Hotel
da Louvre, on Saturi'ay requested a fellow-ser-
vant to procure her a bottle of brandy, and the latter,
knowieg that she was amen to drink, did so. But from
what Henrietta said on rcoAving it, the other servant
suspected that she had seine fatal design, and instead-of
going away she stood listening at the door. Presently
she heard some faint groans, and she caused the door,
which Henrietta had locked, to be forced open. Hen-
rietta was then found lying on the bed, with blood flow-
ing profusely from a deep cut in the throat, arid from the
arteries in the arm ; and a rizir stained with blood was
near her. • Medical assistance was procured for her, and
she was subsequently conveyed to the Hotel-Dieu. The
cause'of this ra=h a'.tempt itt• not known.---72'inether at-
tempt at suicide of the satne'kind was also made on Fri-
day. The occupiers of the hence No. 32, Rue Cba,bro!„
at La Chapelle, heard in the morning faint groans and •
cries in a room occupied by an elderly mho, a labonrei,
named Taut, and on.enteriug it they tound hini lying on
MS bed with a deep cut in the throat, and with two cuts
in the bud each'arm.' Medical assistancs was pro-
cured for him, and he was sent to the Hospital Leribois-
siere. He states that as be,was cloning on the bed, some
man, whom he did 'not'know, 'came in and inflicted the
'wounds with a razor' which had been lying on the
table ; but as it does not appear that the man had
any personal enemy, and as besides it was ascertained
that no robbery • had been committed in the room,
it is supposed that he endeavoured to commit. sui-
cide; but that, failing, ho was asbamud to say go.
In addition to the above, three persons committed sui-
cide the same day. A married couple named Francois,
hawkers of vegetables,' of the Rue Saintonge, in the
Marais, suffocated themselves with the fir Mes of char-
coal; they were found lying dead in their bed, clasping
each other by the hand. The man was GO years of age,
and the Woman 31, and it is supposed that it was misery
which caused the fatal act. The third person who corn•
mitted suicide was a washerwoman at Bagnolet, who
also effected her purpose with charcoal. Her reason was
profound sorrow at the death cif her daughter, aged 18,
which'took place some months ago ; in her hand she
held tightly grasped- a dar,utrreotype portrait of the
young woman, and in a letter to her husband she en-
treated him,to keep the girl's tomb constantly decked
with flowers. '

SUBMARINE TELEGNAPII BETTVEg

A V ROPE AND AMERICA.

The charter granted by the King, of Sweden to the
American citizen, Mr. T. P. Schaffner, containing the
exclusive permission to lay down a submarine telegraph
wire between the boasts of North America and Norway,
is dated Jan. 24, and contains the following articles :
" 1. The cmpany is permitted to lay down a tele-
graphie wire from the continent of North Amerioa to
the coast of Norway, and to establish a telegraph station
there, but permission" is not granted them to continue
the line by land through the dominions of Norway.
" 2. The concession granted by these presents is de-
pend, nt on the company's subscribing the sum necessary
for the undertaking within fire years from the present
date, nnl completing the submarine telegraph before the
expiration of another period of five years.
" 3. Should any interruption of the communication
take place after the opening of the line, the company is
bound to repair it at their expense as soon as possible,
and not later than after a year's delay.
" 4. The Norwegian Government engages to construct
separate lines of wires on the telegraphs of the state, for
the purpose of forwarding the despatches from America,
, if so desired, and on the guarantee of a minimum amount
of receiet3.
" 5. The company, and their agent, and servants,
shall be subject to the same laws and jurisdiction as
Norwegian subjects, as far as regards the telegraph in
the sea and land dominions of
,the prig of Sweden • and
Norway. •
" 6. Should a war break out between Norway and
the United States,, or between Norway and .any other
state thrOngh whose territory the proposed telegraph
shall pass, the Norwegian Government reserves to itself
the right of suspending the communication during the
continuance of the war, without detriment to the privi.
leges contained in this charter."

CURIOUS CEREMONY AT ROMAN CATHOLIC CIIIIRCHES.
—Sunday last being Palm Sunday the ceremony of
" Blessing the Palms " was performed at most of the
George's Cathedral, Southwark'.
t
Roman Catholic chnrches throughout the metropolis..
ze Atwasaei
sr Memoonr fi. e
pl dosnAttitl; the ceremony
mass e
.oragnti was performed by Cardinal_
other
veil)
6.8 .
'Rossini
" Stabat Mater' was given with full orchestral acCom•
pan im en ts. . .
SERIOUS ACCIDENT.—As Mrs. Hughes, of the Packet
Efe; el, Voryd, and one of her daughters were sitting by
'
ths fire in the bar of the hotel, on Saturday last, about
noon, a b Atle containing hal a pint of turpentine, which
unfortunately happened to be on the mantel-piece, :mei•
fieritally broke, when mum:L.4lo4qt the 4flammable !con-
tents were' in ablaze, ind the daughter's clothes caught
aro. She was.dreadfully. buret, and her clothes were
i alniost entirely consumed. She rushed out and plunged
1 herself into the river ; and had it not been that her fa,
they happened to be close by at,the moment she would
have met with a watery grave, it being high water at the
has, the water being about 20 feet in height. Miss Har-
id Hughes bas just obtained her majority. We regret
7iti'state that she still remains in a most precarious state,
3ler mother escaped unhurt, —Cerny/von lieralo.

(Front the Edinburgh Tritnas.)
We know that. 'the pious Montgomery ranked
among the fervent admirers of Burns ; and we
have seen the face of the saintly Chalmers glow
with delight as he pronounced one of his soul.;
stirring lines. No one can defend all that 'the
poet did or said. True, his frailties have been
somewhat severely dealt with. lie was, with all
his faults,- a greatly better man than either of his
two greatest contemporaries. He did not drink
half so hard as William Pat ; and yet respectable
people toast the memory of the "Heaveu-born
Minister," without making any allusion whatever
to the four bottles of port that he used to put under
his belt of an evening ; and while he was certainly
not 'more licentiOus or loss sober than Charles
James Fox, he was beyond comparison a wore
honest man ; for be was no gambler, and paid all
his just debts, and would have died rather than
fabricate the mean lie which deprived an honour-
able lady of her moral status as the wife of a British
prince. But it would be idle to represent Burns
as other than an imperfect character. His own
honest pen gave the he to the unwise friends of
his memory whOtOok up a position so untenable.
" The poor inhabitant below
.WaeqUick.to lea4n and wise tOlnow,
And keenly felt the social glow
And •iorter flame,
But thoughtless follies laid him low,
And stained his name." • •
Nor can it be denied that some of his writings
have done harm: • -It seems, ho*evet, to be a law
of Providence that the earth-stains which pollute
'the fountains of genius should be deposited by the
stream in
.its course, and that the living waters
should-at 'length run clear. 'And -it has been so
with the poetry of Burns. It is not by his worse,
bat by his better writings, that he is now realm-
bered—by his songs, unrivalled in the literature of
the world ; -and ly those undying pieces, sack as
the " Cotter's Saturday Night," so rich in charac-
, ter and manner, and .iii high moral , iseAtiment
, withal, that are destined to
"Be known,. perchance, when Scotland is no mre,
And tell the tale of what she was before."
I And if his writings have done harm, let us not for-
get that they have also done no little good. Robert
Burns was the man who first taught the Scottish
people to stand creed. Let us not be blind to the
great national faults, and only lynx-eyed to th 3
faults of the great national poet. A mean and
creeping subserviency to the great—a getting up
"to be hanged in order to please the laird"--was
the master fault of the Scotch people ; and a cen-
tury of persecution had failed to wean them of it.
That part of the General Epistle of-Janies which
treats of "respect of persons," and the undue
partiality shown to men with " gold rings and
goodly apparel," might have been more appro-
priately addressed to the Scotch, even after the
rich had. "oppressed" and drawn them "before
the judgment-seat," and " blasphemed the Holy
Name," than to almost any other people of Europe.
But the independent peasant who, in the most'try-
ing circumstances, never bent himself before the
worthless iT• iltby or the titled great, and who in
his ever-living strains asserted the dignity of man-
hood, taught them another lesion ; and they have
learned it. Yes ! the Scottish people have lost the
habitual stoop, and now stand erect ; and all
honour, say we, to the reformer who, more than.
' any other, effected the change. His life, as cer-
tainly as his works, was effectual in producing it ;
and had it accomplished nothing else, would not,
with all its errors arid shortcotuingi, have been
' spent in vain.

NIAGARA FALLS IN WINTER-A RARE

ADVENT U

During the recent " Cold term" ice has formed
aboice the fills in vast quantities, mostly in blocks,
which have conic down the rapids and lodged on
the shoal places. Last week the ice became wedged
in and frozen together between Bath Island and
Chapin Island, and from thence to the brink of the.
cataract. Such an occurrence, we are told, is not
within the recollection of the oldest inhabit in'.
Those of our distant readers who have visited thsi'
Falls will remember an island between the paper.
mill and the American Fall, above and around
which the water rushes with great violence. This
is called Chapin Island from the circumstance that
a man named Chapin, who was at work on the
bridge, fell into the rapids and fortunately reached
the island as the current dashed him towards the
cataract. Not less remarkable was his rescue by
the well-known adventurer, Joel R. Robinson, who
succeeded in reaching the island with a small
boat. This occurred many years ago, since which
the spot has not, been visited by any human being
until now. The first gentleman to cross the ice was
Mr. F. B. Fox, who visited the island, hoisted a flag,
and found the ice had formed from the island to the
brink of the precipice, where it was perfectly sure to
stand and look into the abyss below. It was a proud
moment to him as be stood where, in all proba-
bility, no mad had ever stood before.

fleaf erw3rds vi,itul the place with a number
of our citizens previous to the visit of a party, who
have been announced, throuli mistake, as the
pioneers.

In company with Mr. Fox and Mr. and Mrs.
Keys,-r, we visited the enchanting locality on Mon-
day afternoon. Mrs. Keyser is the.first lady who
visited Chapin Nand, or viewed the Falls troth a
paint below, We claim to be the first editor who
ever visited that locality.

The•eastern edge of the ice formation passes along
the side of the current down which poor-Avery
was carried to his awful doom. The water, though
not deep, rushes With irresistible velocity. Yet it
was safer travelling to the island and from thence
to the precipice. Here the continual accumulation
of spray and STIO vhad formed a mound from 2a
to 30 feet in height, and from the top of which we
stood and viewed the scene. To the right and far
below are mountains of solid ice, under which were
vast caverns made by the falling torrents. On
a shallow point overhanging the cavernous deep,
and fastened firmly to the rock, was a body of ice
from which depended vast icicles resembling in-
verted church spires. Oa our left the other por-
tion of the American Fall could not be so dis-
tinctly observed.—Magara Fall Gailtte,

The followieg 1 amorous circumAarce, exhibiting a
deficiency of ready wit in a son of the Emerald Isle, ec-
curred on the afternoon of Thursday last. The boundary
walls of tbo dockyard are gear led at certain places
by sentinels to prevent any illegal traffic over the walls,
hut more particularly to guard against the escape of any
truant seamen sent on shore on duty to the dr &rod,
but who may be troubled with an earnest desire to visit
some of their friends euteide. At the north-west waft
adjoining Cornwall-street is a pole erected to denote
the course of the tunnel connecting the dockyard with
the Keyhara dOcks. A seaman belonging to the Forth
(mortar vessel) boldly marched up to one-of the sentries
and-asked him the height of the pole, intimating that
an officer required the information. The soldier, who
was an Irishman, said he did not know. To whiCh the
seaman replied, "Then I must know," and desiring the
soldier to hold a ball of spun-yarn he had brought with
him, climbed up the pole. When arrived at the top he
called to the sentry to pitch him tLe ball. Pat in his
simplicity did so. Jack made a couple of half hitches
round the polo and gently lowered himself outside the
well into the street, Pat exclaiming; ‘-e.ley Jesus, man,
you are on the wrong side !" All efforts to secure the ,
witty seaman have yet been ineffectual.—Plymouth Mail.
ESTIMATES OP CIVIL SEIIVICES.—The estimates on AC.
count of "Public Works and Buildings,"published on Fri-
day, include a sum of 895,3364, against 746,7601. re-
quired for the year 1855-6, thus exhiniting an increase of
148,5761. The items include 195,1411. for public build-
ings and Royal palaces ; for additional works in
the south portion of Buckingham Palace, for external
enclosures, lighting, and warming ; 91,684/. for Royal
parks and pleasure gardens; 99,383/, for the new Houses
of Parliament; 207,3051. for Holyhead harbour and roads;
233,0001. for harbours of refuge ; 3841. forTortpattialc
harbour ; 41,2211. for public buildings i A Ireland • and
19,3501. for the herbonr of Kingstown. Am ,ng "extra-
ordinary services" in Sc Wand are items of 2871. for im-
proving the window rashes of Holyrood House, 6,0001.
for improvements in Kng's College at Abertleen,
1,0531. for a new ceiling and glass windows in Glas-
gow Cathedral, ,and 3201. for the purchase -of two
old houses, the property of David Hume, for
the improvement of the grounds of Mil rood.
.As regards the parks, it is found that to, St. James's, the
Green, and Hyde Parks is appropriated 25,631/., to
'Kensington-gardens 2,7161., to Chelsea Hospital grounds
7501., tl e Regent's Perk 6,6011., to Victoria Park
4,8601., to Greenwich Park 2,2871., and to the Royal
botanical and pleasure gardens •at Kew 19,0781. To
Richmond Park is assigned a sum of 4,6221. (exclusive of
the Ranger's department), to Bushy Park 3,1311., to
Hampton-court Park and Gardens 3,6511., to Holyrood
Park 4,2281. to the P'ocenix Park 4,5701., and to Ken-
nington Park 1,5731. Under the bead of the new Houses
of Parliament, Sir C. Barry demands 9,5001
. for the com-
pletion of the Victoria-tower, 7,600/. for the clock tewer,
and other heavy items, amounting altogether to 52,5401.,
exclusive of the works not under his direction. 1,309/. ie
required for clearing away the dustfrom under both houses
in 18567, and replacing the mats and heireloths., and
8,000/. for "furniture, &c.," for the offices and rooms
of the House of Lords. The fuel for both houses, includ-
ing contingencies for ,lengthened nittings, costa 2,870/.
4,0001. is to be applid'thici pier to the decoration of the
new Palace at Westtninse r under the direction of the
Fine Arts Commission. The works include Mr. J. Gib-
son's statue of the Queen and its bes-reliefs, Mr. J. R.
Herbert's frescoeet in the. Peers robing-room illustra-
tive of " Juktice on earth and its development in law
and judgment," and the marble statues of men of emi-
nence (as members of Parliament) in St. Stephen's-hall.
The work of Mr. Gibson is nearly completed. Mr. Her
Bert is about to commence his fresco
,paintings, and, a
; regards the statues, commissions for 10, at the cost o
, 1,200/. each for three and 1,000/, each for the othe
beveD, have already been given.
_