The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 25, 1869.

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royalty must now be borne by those young shoulders.
A few hours later there gathered together in that
quaint, ugly palace which bad been her childhood's
home the Prime Minister (Lord MELBOURNE)
and more than a hundred peers, who came to swear
allegiance. The first to sign it was the Duke of
CUMBERLAND. He came to do homage to the crown
won, and yet in him the QUEEN saw a crown lost.
For more than a hundred years the Crowns of Eng-
land and Hanover had been worn by the same persons.
But Hanover would not be ruled by a woman, and
so for the first time since the accession of the House
of BRUNSWICK the Crowns were to be separated, and
the Duke of CUMBERLAND was to take the lesser
one. We cannot help speculating as to what would
have been the result if this had not happened.
Would BISMARCK have cast his covetous eyes upon
the Electorate if the Queen of ENGLAND had also
been Electress of HANOVER ? Would he have won
the battle of Langensalza if he had had to encounter
not only British troops but a British navy ? Would
he have
.fGublit, it ? However that may be, greet
were the rejoicings at the termination of the old
union. It had never been popular in England from
the time that the English courtiers, who knew no
German, were compelled to translate into Latin for the
benefit of the first GEORGE, who knew no English,
the directions for the coronation in the Abbey nearly
a century and a quarter before. As for the new-
made Queen, she may well have felt that her duties
as Sovereign over the British islands, over half of
India, and over the colonial empire, which was vast
even then, were sufficient for her, and that to be spared
the exposure to continental collisions which her govern-
ment of the German State might have involved was a
real relief. " The awful responsibility" she said, at
her first council, " is imposed upon me so suddenly,
and at so early a period of my life, that I should feel
myself utterly oppressed by the burden, were I not
sustained by the hope that the Divine Providence
which has called me to this work will give me
strength for the performance of it, and that I shall
find in the purity of my intentions, and zeal for the
public welfare that support and those resources which
usually belong to a more mature age and long ex-
perience." The next day there was a formal procla-
mation of the QUEEN'S accession at St. James's
Palace, and among the most vigorous to cheer her,
conspicuous even in that enthusiastic crowd, was a
man destined afterwards to give her no little
trouble—DANlEL O'CoNNELn, the "Liberator."
Then came the dissolution which always follows
the demise of the Crown; a useless arrangement now,
since the Sovereign no longer chooses her advisers,
but has them chosen for her by the popular voice.
Mr. DISRAELI has described in his cleverest
novel how TAPER and TADPOLE, in want
of a " cry " for the hustings, hit upon
" Our young Queen and our old institutions."
In spite of their cry, TAPER and TALPOLE did not
prosper. The young QUEEN had a strong partiality
for the Whigs. Their leader, Lord MELBOURNE,
had been her guide, philosopher, and friend. A
little later, when the great bed-chamber controversy
arose, and Sir ROBERT PEEL could not

form a Ministry because he could not
' reorganise the QUEEN'S Ladies i,n Waiting,
it became the fashion of the Conservative
party to denounce the QUEEN with as much
vehemence as the former denouncers of O'CONNELL,
are now demanding the repeal of the Union. A little
later a conciliator appeared in the person of a youth,
strikingly handsome, and very accomplished, though
not a bit of a Tory. This youth became, while still
under age, the husband of the QUEEN, and it was he
who, in great measure, taught her to suppress all
political partialities, and to shew equal graciousness
to both the two great parties in the State.
In 1817 it really seemed as if heirs to the throne
would die out. GEORGE 111. had had a numerous
family; yet he had seen but one grandchild
grow up to adolescence, and she was then lying
dead, with her dead baby by her side. Twenty-
three years later all fear on that score was set at rest
by the news that the QUEEN expected to give birth
to an heir. In nine months from the time of her
mirriage she saw her firstborn, and within a year of
the daughter's birth she gave birth to the son who

has now grown up to sec four children of his own,
besides nephews and nieces past counting. That
England will want an heir of the House of Brunswick
seems humanly impossible, at all e:•ents within
any such period as monarchical government
is likely to continue. But though the QUEEN
has this consolation, it cannot make up to ber for the
loss which has darkened the last seven years of her
life. She has not lost one of her children—only one
of her children's children has died ; but death has
taken him who was not only husband, but guide and
counsellor, him whom she might address in terms
as touching as those with which ANDROMACHE bade
farewell to HECTOR. It is under these circumstances
that the QUEEN has withdrawn in great part from
public life. She still performs the duties which none
but the Sovereign can perform ; but those which
any member of the Royal house can fulfil, and which
can, perhaps, be better performed by one who is young
in years, she has transferred to her son. It is under
throe circumstances that the QUEEN spends her
fiftieth birthday in seclusion among the Highlands.
It is under these circumstances that the Royal
jubilee year will pass unmarked by fitting fes-
tivities, and probably forgotten by the great bulk of
the QUEEN'S subjects.

A court-martial assembled on board her Majesty's
ship Duke of Wellington yesterday morning for
the trial of Mr. Benjamin Freeman, engineer
of the Warrior, on a charge of being drunk on
board the ship on the 30th of April. The
Court was composed of Captains Courtenay,
Lord Lilford, Wilmshurst, Lacey, Godenough,
and Lethbridge, with the assistance ,of Mr.
G. lloskins, the officiating Judge-Advocate.
Captain B )ys prosecuted, and Mr.. Harvey,
of Portsea, appeared as the prisoner's " friend."
The prisoner, in his defence, denied the charge, and
alleged that his excitable appearance was attribu-
table to the fact that be had just found some money
orders for a considerable amount which he thought
he had lost. The Court, however, considered the
charge proved, and adjudged him to lose three
years' seniority, to be dismissed the ship, and
severely reprimanded.
AFRICAN EXPLORATION.—Miss Alexandre Tinne
the Dutch lady who became so well known a few years
ago as an African explorer, has, according to letters re-
ceived at Malta Tripoli, reached Mourzouk in safety, and
abig of the Tarouks to escort her and
her numerous retinue to the starting post of th, annual
caravan for Soudan. Miss Tinne recently imparted into
Barbary a velocipede of the latest Parisian manufacture;
but finding it not adapted for the sands of the Great Desert,
she presented it to the Pasha of Tripoli.
AN IMMENSE Fisu.---On Saturday last, while
some fishermen were crossing that portion of land in Lin-
colnshire known as the " Wash," which has very recently
been flooded from the very heavy rains that have fallen,
they noticed a very large fish opposite the vicarage atCo w-
bit, a village on the border of this huge lake. They at once
set to work and succeeded in capturing an immense stur-
geon, over eight feet and a half in length, and weighing
more than 14 stones. They were unable to manage it, and
it had consequently to be shot. It was carted to Spalding
and there exhibited—thoowners, who are only poor fisher-
men, clearing a very handsome amount by thei exhibition.
It is many years since so large a fish has been discovered
in that direction.

SHIELDS, Monday Evening.—The weather has
undergone a pleasant change on the north coast to-day.
Tho wind is well round from the west, and there is a con-
siderable rise of temperature. The wintry chills and
north-east winds which have lingered so long into the
month of kitty seem to be gone.

Alendelssohn's "Elijah" will be given for the 11st
Vino this season, at Exeter-hall, by the National Choral
Society, on Wednesday, June 2. Miss Arabella Smyth,
Miss Palmer, Mr. G. Perren, and Mr. Lauder will to the
principal vocalists; conductor, Mr G. W. Martin.
August Siegrist, a young rope-walkert rode on a
velocipede over al-in. rope, 220 ft. long, at an elevation of
20ft. above the lake, in the City Gardens of San Fran-
cisco. A high wind was blowing at the time, and endea-
vours were made to persuade him todefer the experiment,
but without success. The wheels of the machine were
grooved, but at the first trial he fell into the water, but the
second time he rode across. On the 29th ult., at Boston,
Master John Reardon is reported to have driven a velo-
cipede over a rope, the wheels being grooved. He went
back and forwards several times.

THE IRISH CHURCH.

The Globe takes up the question, " What will the Lords
do with the Irish Church Bill ? " Our contemporary raises
it " not for the purpose of definitely anticipating the course
which the Upper House of Legislature will take, but in
the conviction that the circumstances under which the
measure comes before the Peers, and the relation in which
they stand to the actual Government of this great
empire, have not received precisely the right sort of con-
sideration." The Lords, we are told, " have to
cast a balance between the arguments which may be
urged against the bill, and the incidental pheno-
mena from which its upholders mainly derive
their strength. That balance they will cast in
a spirit of conscientious solicitude for the abid-
ing welfare of the country. They are most
critically placed, and should be protected from the
insolence of dictation and the terror of irrelevant con-
sequences. They will decide this case, we may be
quite sure, in no narrow party interest, and under the
bias of no short-sighted excitement. They will raise
themselves to a lofty height, where, free from the petur-
bations of current controversy, always too much em-
bittered by class prejudice or political passion, they may
be able to exercise the noblest of all attributes—that of a
perfectly judicial statesman4iip."
The Echo says :--" It is quite certain that the ITOuse of
Lords has not yet made up its mind what to do with the
Irish Church Bill- Not the most extreme section hopes
to save the Irish Establishment, but they would, if they
could, talk the measure into next year."