The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-08 00:00:00

The Shipwrecked Mariner. Morrish, Paternoster-

row.
This is a quarterly magazine of a very useful
character, giving full information respecting all
shipwreck societies, lighthouses, &c., and adding
an account of a new method of restoring the appa-
rently drowned. There are some miscellaneous
contents, but the chief interest centres on the main
object of the work.

We are pleased to find that the present Govern-
ment patronises literature. As an instance, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer has recently appointed a son of Mr. E.
Farr, the author of many popular historical and other
works, and the editor of various black-lettered volumes of
poetry, to a clerkship in the War-office. Literary men have
too long been neglected, and a Government who thus be-
friends them is truly worthy of place and power. It is
generally supposed that no appointments are made, except
through political influence. The time has been when such
was the fact, but it must be mentioned, to the honour of
Mr. Disraeli, that literary merit has equal right with him
as political influence.—City Pass.
THE PRAYER-BOOK AND THE PAPER DUTY.--A
parliamentary return moved for last session shows that in
the year ending March, 1857, the sum of £1,344 ss. 3d. was
allowed as drawback on the paper used in the printing of
Prayer Books, and in the year ending last March,
£2,007 12s. 4d. We should be glad to know why Episco-
palians should be thus favoured with a fiscal exemption in
the printing of their devotional formularies, while dissenters
have to pay the full duty on their hymn-books and other
devotional works. There is miserable meanness iota sys-
tem which levies taxes on hostile denominations, and at the
same time claims immunity from exactions to which they
are liable. But it is " all of a piece."—Liberator.

VINTAGE IN FRANCE.—The greatest satisfaction,
letters state, prevails along the banks of the Rhine at the
prospects of the vintage, which are everywhere remark-
able, both as regards quantity and quality.
Letters from Tunis announce that the first of
the three wives of the Bey, whose name was Lella Khebira,
died on the 20th ult. She had several children, and exer-
cised great influence over her husband. Her mother was a
Frenchwoman of Nimes, of the name of Edouard, and hav-
ing run away from home when young arrived in Tunis,
where she married one Suria, who was a son of Prince
Ismael of Tunis, uncle of the present Bey, by a Christian
woman. She bore her husband five daughters, two of whom
remained Christians, and the other three became of the
Mussulman faith. Of the two Christians, one married Count
Raffio, the present Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the
other a Neapolitan, named Gaeta. Of the three who be-
came Mussulman, the two elder married Mamelukes, and
the younger espoused the present Bey. All the daughters
are now dead, except Mme. Grea.
ROUTES TO VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.—We may
mention for the information of any who may intend to go
out to the gold-fields, that of the various routes to Van-
couver, that by Panama is the quickest. The West India
mail packets start for the Isthmus on the 2d and 17th of
each month. The length of the voyage is 22 days. Trains
run across the Panama every day, thence to San Francisco
steamers take about 14 days. Small steamers take the
miner up to the Frazer, calling at Victoria for permits,
&c., and land him at Fort Yule, 150 miles up the river, in
the midst of the diggings. The second route is that over-
land, through Canada and the United States. Railways
and steamers run as far as St. Paul's in Minnesota, and
thence a distance of 1,200 miles across the Rocky Moun-
tains takes you to the diggings. Expeditions are being
fitted out in Canada and the States for this route. Wag-
gons pass the Rocky Mountains at the Kootanie Pass. The
writer remembers a miner in the California fever days;
going across alone on foot, and trundling his worldly goods
in a wheelbarrow. The third route is, without change of
conveyance, round Cape Horn.—Fraser's Magazine for
October.
THE MARRIAGE LAW IN FRANCE.—Considerable
interest was lately excited in a case of intermarriage which
has occurred at Pau. A young Frenchman of respectable
family in that place some time ago made the acquaintance
of a young English girl, and fell in love with her. She repre-
sented that she was of highly respectable family, and had a
fortune of £4,000 deposited at Coutts's Bank. He went to
England, and was duly married to her in the English form
at a place called Ledbury. But it turned out that his wife
was of low origin, and had not a farthing in the world ; and
the poor man was not only arrested for debts which she had
incurred, but placed himself in a serious predicament by
drawing on Messrs. Coutts for funds which she did not
possess. He was undoubtedly duped, but nevertheless he
remained her lawful husband. His family, however, took
legal proceedings to have the marriage set aside, and the
Court of Pau has decided that it is null and void, inasmuch
as it was not effected in accordance with the French law--
it not having been published in France, and the consent of
the man's parents not having been obtained. The
moralyounghis case is, that the parents of English girls who
alof
marry Frenchmen must take care that the formalities of
the French, as well as the English, law are observed.—
Galignani' s Messenger.
THE SOVEREIGN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
PREROGATIVE OF THE CROWN.—Thero is no difference
between the power exercised by a king and queen in this
country. Their office is hereditary, passing upon their
deaths to the next heir—males, in the next degree of rela-
tionship, being preferred to females ; thus the youngest
son of the present Sovereign would inherit the throne to
the exclusion of her eldest daughter, but any daughter
would stand in the order of succession before an uncle, a
nephew, or a male cousin. The crown of these kingdoms
can Protestant;
are otestanth; should the king or
queen, ei
r.
apparent, marry a
Roman Catholic, it is forfeited from that moment. The
person of the sovereign is sacred ; she is above the law ; no
act of Parliament can bind her, unless it contains express
onlys such, be
wornr
whenby a they
words to that effect. It is also a maxim of law that she can
do no wrong. She is the supreme head of the Church,,
the Army, and the Navy. She has the power of
declaring war and making peace, of arranging treaties, and
coining money for the use of her subjects, and of
sending and receiving ambassadors. She may refuse
her consent to laws passed by the two Houses of
Parliament ; but this right has not been "exercised by any
sovereign since the reign of Queen Anne. These and other
rights are called the Perogative of the Crown. Under our
Constitution, the sovereign must govern through her
ministers, who are responsible to Parliament and the co-an-
try for her political acts. The royal consort has, as such,
no share in the government of the country, but may be ap-
pointed to fill any post in the State that a subject, can hold.
"" How We are Governed," by Albany Fonblanque.