The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-17 00:00:00

THE DIARY OF LORD PALMERSTON.

The Record makes an announcement anent Lord Pal-
merston's diary which will cause a feeling of disappoint-
ment. The main fact published by the Athenteum (it
says) is quite true, although not to the extent which an
evening contemporary would conduct sanguine readers to
believe, when it intimates that "Lord Palmerston's
shrewd perception and genial humour were employed in
this diary of his to analyse the characters of the great
men with whom, for threescore years, he was almost in
daily contact. Sir Henry Bulwer, who is said to be at
work on a biography of the veteran statesman, will have
materials at disposal unequalled since the days of Boswell."
The diary is said to be full of interest, and distinguished
by all the late Premier's finest characteristics. It
commences when he was 16 years of age, and it ends at
the close of 1830, when he assumed office as Foreign
Secretary. But at present no continuation of the diary
has been found amongst his lordship's papers; and it
has none of the attributes of a Boswellian record. It is
replete with interest ; modest, unaffected, and simple ;
without an atom of gall or ill-nature, but short and con-
densed, as if the style had been formed after the model
of the sententious brevity of Tacitus. It seems to
have been originally designed in its present form
chiefly to explain why he left the Tories and took
office under the Whig Earl Grey ; a change which,
according to Lord Palmerston's chivalrous sense of
honour, could only be justified by the fact that he was
himself deserted by the party, when be was unseated for
the University of Cambridge, for voting in favour of
Roman Catholic emancipation, although there had been an
established compact, according to which that question was
to have been an open one. The diary will explain that
his long term of service as Secretary for War was not from
the want of many overtures to accept higher offices. His
lordship was importuned by Mr. Perceval, as Mr. Pitt's
successor at Cambridge, to assume Mr. Pitt's office of
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He twice declined the
Governor-Generalship of India, and he was willing to
have accepted, on Mr. Canning's solicitation, the Chan-
cellorship of the Exchequer. But George IV. thought
that he should find a more pliant Minister in Mr.
Herries ; and Mr. Canning was compelled, after a visit
to Windsor, to make an awkward apology to Lord
Palmerston, by offering him a British peerage and the
Governorship of Jamaica! We understand that the
story of this interview is full of the most racy humour.
The Viscount burst into an uncontrollable fit of
laughter, which for a moment quite disconcerted
Canning ; until Lord Palmerston, with his ready good
humour, relieved the Premier by telling him that he saw
that he had not the Chancellorship of the Exchequer at
his disposal, but that as for himself, he preferred the
House of Commons to the niggers ! Lord Palmerston's
life spans the gulf that separates the era of Fox and Pitt
from the times of Gladstone and Bright. But we fear no
diary will be found to conduct Sir Henry Bulwer over
the thirty-five years which separates the commencement
of Earl Grey's Administration from the close of Lord
Palmerston's.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE DUEMOTY
FLITCH..

Fine weather allowed a large number of people to go to
Dunmow on Monday, when the flitch of bacon was pre-
sented. The custom is an old one, which fell into disuetude
years ago. It was revived by Mr. Harrison Amisworth,
in 1857 ; and this year has been arranged by the well-
known Mr. B. T. Smith, of Cremorne. There were a
dozen claimatas for the flitch, who said they were ready
to take the following oath:—
" You shall swear by custom of confession
That you ne'er made nuptial transgression,
Nor since you were married man and wife
By household brawls or contentious strife,
Or otherwise in bed or at board
Offended each other in deed or in word,
Or since the parish clerk said Amen
Wished yourselves unmarried again ;
it twelve month and a day
repented not in thought any way,
But continued true in thought and desire
As when you joined hands in holy quire.
If to these conditions without all fear
Of your own accord you will freely swear,
A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And bear it hence with love and good leave ;
For this is our custom at Dunmow well known,
Though the pleasure be ours the bacon's your own."

Only two presented themselves for examination, how.
ever, and a trial took place in a marquee erected for the
purpose. The judge was Mr. E. T. Smith. One (at least)
of the counsel was from the well-known "Judge and
Jury" Club. Mr. Sheridan, M.P., was not present.
The curtain rose upon the court in full session ; the
president or judge, in his robes, the clerk in a very time-
worn wig, the counsel on either side in full forensic
costume, and a mixed jury—half gentlemen and half
ladies—wearing the orthodox jury-box expression of doubt
and slight embarrassment. There was an attempt to
introduce "broad" remarks into the examinations,
but many of the crowd hissed. The couple who
carried off the gammons were named respectively
Leader and Casson, both of London. The jury
deciding that they were entitled. The successful claimants
were then carried in a somewhat elaborate procession
through the town, to the accompaniment of a band, and
with the attendance of a great crowd. There was after-
wards a flee champetre, in which the amusements were a
mock tournament, a bicycle race, a Punch and Judy show,
a clown's tournament, another Punch and Judy show,
a Maypole dance, and a display of fireworks. A gentle.
man, whose name is at present withheld, is stated to have
expressed his readiness to bequeath a sum sufficient to
secure an annual presentation of the flitch. The amount
required is stated to be about £7O.

A carpenter ran through the streets with his
hands about three feet asunder, held up before him,
begging the passers-by not to disturb him "as he had got
the measure of a doorway with him."

There is 1 Jew to 7 inhabitants in Poland, to
33 in Austria, to 42 in Russia, to 52 in Holland, to 61 in
Turkey, to 105 in Germany, to 333 in Belgium, to 412 in
Italy, to 446 in England, to 493 in France, to 595 in
Switzerland, and to 664 in Scandinavia.
STRANGE A.Mr-FoLLowxns.—Several of the
home papers complain that the expenses of the Abyssinian
expedition are doubled by the necessity of furnishing an
army in modern times with so many scientific accompani-
ments, but the most extraordinary follower of an army
that we have yet heard of has accompanied the Russian
troops to Samarcand. This is a Savoyard with a barrel
organ and a monkey. Is it for the purpose of keeping up
the spirits of the troops, or of striking terror into the
enemy, that he has been permitted to join the camp-
followers?—Calcutta Englishman.
PORTLAND STONE.—There is as much stone in
Portland as will furnish all the requirements of the world
for the next 1,500 years, and perhaps more. One acre, we
understand, is annually, removed. Portland stone has
been used as far back as the twelfth century in some of
our abbeys. But it was only in the reign of Charles 11.
that the quarries in Portland Island began to be worked
with any activity. Sir Christopher Wren gave the use of
Portland Stone a great impulse in London by using it in the
erection of St. Paul's. The most of the Queen Anne churches
in the City are of this material. Several recent public
institutions in the metropolis are also built with Portland
stone. In Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and several
large towns through the three kingdoms, Portland stone
has been used extensively. The convict prison of Port-
land Island is capable of accommodating upwards of
1,500 convicts. The Fenian convicts at prennt confined in
Portland are employed in working the quarries. They
work together, and not in conji,
convicts. Among their ••• *."
'lotion with the ordinary
of Irish newsn. -umber at present are two editors
-
in tti ' _ -vors, a couple of American officerswhoser ved
rate American war, some clerks, and several skilled
mechanics. A short time since some of the Fenian
prisoners confined here were amnestied unconditionally.
The political convicts have to work the same and to go
through the like discipline as the ordinary ones. Gover.
or Clifton is rigid in carrying out the discipline laitill9Wa
for i)biserYsingo iu the,PAlßatz.