The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-31 00:00:00

THE ROYAL HUNT CUP.

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The prize, selected by the stewards of the present
year, is icy the form of a candelabrum of the " Cinque
Cent° " period of ornament.

The candalabruat carrier five lights, and springs from
a base upon vrhich is a group engaged in the sport of
bah Ling. A lady on hcr,eback is gracefully casting off
the falcon, whilst a noble sportsman, leaning upon his
horse, and a faictner with the tray of hawks, jeseies,
bclls, and lures, and other adjuncts of the sport, await
the issue.

The base is ornamented at the four sides with panels
—die first and sec,nd bearing the rtyna cf the cup and
the Rya cipher—the third and fourth those of the
stewards and of the winner.

The execution of the cup wag entrn..ted to Messrs.
Hunt and Roskell, at Now Bon,i-street, and the design
is from the pencil f Mr. T. Brown.

MR. WASHIAGTO.N WILKS.

This d stinguished State prisoner was yesterday after-
noon, by the grace and favour of the Sergeant-at-Arms
of the House rf Commons, in whose custody he has been
slues Friday evening, permitted to attend Divine rervice
in Westminster Abbey. He was attended by two officers
of the house, and occupied a seat in the choir. Beyond
one or two of the vergers his person was perhaps uo-
keoesn to a single individual in the congregation, so that
his appearance excited no curiosity or interest. At the
conclusion of the service he was escorted back by his
attendants to the place in which Le is incarcerated, in
immediate contiguity to the House of Commons. To
this he was conducted on Friday night by Capt. Gossett,
the Deputy-Sergeant-at-Arms, shortly after undergoing
his examiea ion at the bar of the house, under a warrant
by the Speaker, which, carrying out the decision of the
house, re naiteed him to the care of the Sergeant-at-Arms.
Far th , information of some, it may be necessary briefly
t o state that Mr. Wilks has been declared guilty by the
House of Commons of "a false and scandalous libel"—
queting the language of the journals of the house—which
recently appeared in the Carlisle Ezanziner, of which he
is the editor, proptieter, and publisher, on Mr, Clive,
the member for Hereford, chairman of a select committee
on a group of railway bills. To this committee, in the
present se scion, two rival railway bills for connecting the
city of C-s-lisle with the town of Hawick were referred—
one of which was prom3ted by the Caledonian Railway
Company, the other by the North British, and, after au
investigation, which lasted some three weeks, the com-
mittee decided in favour of the Caledonian project. As
u-ual, a high degree of party feeling was exhibited by
the railway magnates interested in the rival lines,
and by many of the leading inhabitants of the districts
which they were intended to accommodate, and a corre-
sponding amount of disappointment was felt by the
parties who ;ere worsted in the conflict. Espousing
the beaten cause, Mr. Wilks inserted in his paper,
whica has not been long in existence, an article imput-
ing to Mr. Clive, iu Langone somewhat strong and
occasionally insolent, a manifest feeling of partisanship,
arising, as was alleged, from interested motives in favour
of the Caledonian project, throughout the whole if the
investigation, arid attributing to this circumstance the
loss of the competing scheme. For this he has hien
c tiled to the bar ef thelleuse, and, refining to withdraw
the imputations on Mr. Clive, and not expressing his
readiness to substartiate them, bat been adjudged to
have committed a breach of privilege, which be is now
expiating in a snug little suite of apartments in the
Palace at Westminster. Here, ty the generosity of
the Legislative body, whose dignity he has wounded in
the person of one of its members, be certainly has no rea-
son to complain of the treatment he receives. Indeed,
the ette n•ion and consideration shown to the prisoner are
lade less than flittering. He has regularly supplied him
from the cuisine of the house everything in the way cf
refreshment which ho may order in reason, spirits ex-
cepted. His quarters comist of a sitting room and bed-
room comfortably furnished, and, unlike the limbo in
which sitei'ar ini-demeanante were accustomed in days
not far remote to purge themselves of kindred offences,
his is sionte in an elevated and airy part cf the
Palsce, commanding an extensive view of the spacious
quadrangles below and all the surrounding architec-
ture. The last political celebrity by which this part
of the Palace was occupied was Feargus O'Connor ; but
poor Fergus Lad but one apartment assigned him,
which was used both as dermitory and sitting-room, and
be was enlya'lowed occasionally to stretch his legs in an
adjacent corridor. Mr. Wilks, however, is permitted to
take daily exercise in the open air—of course iu the
company of an officer of the House—on the fine terrace
overleokieg the Thames. On Saturday be enjoyed this
privilege for upwards of an hour. He is attended night
and day by a messenger of the House, who occupies an
adjacent apartment. He is allowed the use of boots,
newspapers, and writing materials, may smoke a cigar
whenev, r he likes if he be so disposed, and re ceive visits
from his friends, if not invite them to dinner. What
more in this rout dane condition can a man want 1 If
he be of is superlatively patriotic tarn—and how can a
man owning the name of Washington Wilks be other-
wise ? —he has now leisure enough, if he bad not before,
for the exerci•e of political agitation. It is true a few
iron bars, however unnecessary, reticulate the wine
doves of this part of the building, and at present a police-
man keeps watch and ward over the entrance ; but it
has been said—

" Stone walls do not a prison make,
" Nor iron bars a cage :
" Minds pure and lowly take
" These for au hermitage ;
and, were it not for " the little bill" which some ens
will have to p3y, we see no reason why Mr. Wilke
should wish to be at large again until the end of the
ses:•ion.