The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-18 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

Mr. Arnott, Dr. Copland, Mr. Everitt, and Dr.
Leighton, from the Middlesex Hospital Medical School,
had an interview yesterday with the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer in Downing-street.
The Duke of Marlborough, Lord William Bentinck and
the Master of the Rolls had interviews yesterday with Vis-
count Melbourne, at the Treasury.

The Greek Minister transacted business yesterday at the
Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The Postmaster-General had an interview yesterday with
the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Lord Holland entertained some of the Ministers at din-
ner on Wednesday evening►.
The Hon. C. Cavendish, M.P., visited Viscount Mel-
bourne yesterday.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE OF LORDS.—TOURSDAT, Dzc. 17.

This being the day to which Parliament stood prorogued,
their Lordships met shortly before four o'clock.
Lord Denman, Viscount Melbourne, and Lord Glenelg,
as Lords Commissioners, having taken their seats near the
Throne,

Lord DENMAN directed Mr. Puttman, Deputy Usher
of the Black Rod, to summon the Commons to hear the
Royal Commission read for the further Prorogation of Par-
liament.

In a few minutes Mr. Rickman, attended by the Officers
of the Commons, appeared at the bar, when the Commission
was read by the Clerk at the table.
Lord DENMAN then said—ln pursuance of his Majesty's
Commission to us and other Lords directed, and in obedience
to his Majesty's commands, we do hereby declare this pre-
sent Parliament to be prorogued until Thursday, the 4th
day of February next, to be then and here holden.
It was a matter of remark that his Lordship did not add
the customary words on the assembling of Parliament, " for
the despatch of divers urgent and important affairs."
With the exception of the Lords Commissioners, the only
Member oreither House present was Sir R. Inglis.

The House has undergone considerable alterations. It
is much improved in appearance, and rendered more con-
venient for transacting public business.

Lord John Russell, together with the Military Com-
missioners, have renewed their duties for consolidating the
military and civil branches of that department. The enor-
mous expense of the Board of Ordnance is the first on the
list for their consideration. Some notorious abuses require
the attention of the Commissioners relative to the half-pay
of certain officers, &c., belonging to this branch of the
army. _ _

.I,I'.EIV HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.—On Monday
there was an immense clearance made towards removing the
buildings to make way for the site of the new Houses of
Parliament. Several buildings, heretofore occupying the
corner of Palace-yard, leading to the Speaker's house, hav-
ing been sold by auction, have been pulled down, so that
now the clearance at such point to the river is nearly com-
plete. An immense area is thus opened, and it is provided
by a clearance of only a point of the ground allotted for the
new Houses. The industrious Office of Exchequer Bills,
where the Clerks worked an hour a-day, and kept holiday
on all red-letter days, ceases to exist. The old and infamous
Star Chamber now totters, and will fall soon. So that the
work of pulling down proceeds rapidly.

Westminster Hall is expected to be thoroughly re-
paired and re-opened at the commencement of next Term.
The walls have been all cased and ornamented in the inte-
rior with fine stone ; the floor, which bad been raised since
the Hall was first built, to prevent it from being overflowed
by the high tides, which destroyed its proportion, has been
lowered, and has a good effect. The beautiful roof has been
repaired throughout, and also the fine Gothic window at the
West end of the building.
It is rumoured that in the forthcoming Act for the
Municipal Reform of the city of London, the corporate pri-
vileges in the borough of Southwark will be superseded.

Mr. Balfe is now engagel in composing the music
for two new operas. Shakspeare's Merry Wives of Windsor,
for the King's Theatre, is the subject of one libretto. The
part of Sir John Falstaff by the pottly Lablanche, who
like Stephen Kemble, can undertake the character without
stuffing. The other subject is Victor Hugo's Notre Dame,
for Drury-lane, in which Madame Malibran is to enact the
graceful Esmeralda.
We understand it is in contemplation to form a
railway betwixt Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Bradford, and
Leeds. The distance would be little more than 20 miles ;
the rise in any one part not exceeding a yard in 150 ; and
the contemplated line would pass through the most pro-
ductive parts of this district, both in mines, manufactures,
and population.—Halifax Express.
Lord Gardner has no intention to relinquish his
stud of hunters at Melton, as reported. His Lordship's
credit as one of the crack riders in. England has long been
established.

The building of the new division-room for the
House of Commons, which, we believe, was ordered to be
constructed on the motion of Mr. Ward, Member for St
Alban's, proceeds rapidly. The Speaker's rooms are also
in a state of forwardness, and will be finished by the 4th of
February.
A letter from St..Petersburgh, dated the 30th ult.,
announces that since the Emperor's return the greatest ac-
tivity prevailed among the members of the Russian diplo-
macy. The Emperor personally attends most particularly
to the navy. He is continually sending to inspect and
press the execution of orders transmitted by him to Crons-
tadt, Revel, and Abo. Much bustle is also observed in the
dockyards of Ochta and St. Petersburgh. • It is calculated
that he will shortly have in the Baltic seven or eight ships of
the line, five or six frigates, and about ten smaller vessels.
HAMBURG, Dze. 12.--The Elbe is full of float-
in.. ice. However, the Maria, Captain Felix, from Buenos
Ayres, and the Hernzora Habanera, Captain de Sabeira,
from the Havannah and Matanzas, being favoured by a
brisk south-west wind, got up to the city to-day ; but no
ships are able to go down the river. The weather to-day
is milder. The English mail of the Bth arrived this after-
noon by land, from Cuxhaven, where the Columbine, which
brought it, remained.—Hanzburg Borsen Halle.
A landlord of ten thousand a year, says, " My
pockets sigh in bare sympathy with those Noble Lords and
Honourable Gentlemen, at the late agricultural meeting,
over the reduction of my rents ; and, for several years, has
my heart rejoiced, probably in common with theirs, upon
the rise of said rents almost to duplication, in days, alas I
gone by, never, perhaps, to return. But I take up my pen
merely to observe, that all the arguments of my brother
clods are founded on the prico of 'wheat ; while other pro-
duce, beans, peas, tares, oats, are rather high than low in
the markets. Is this quite fair ? " Nor is the hay-trade
sa
bad one, the last crop having been abundant."
CITY OF LONDON ARTISTS AND AMATEURS
CONVERZATIONE.—The second meeting for the season
was held yesterday evening, at the London Coffee-house,
Ludgate-hill, with a large collection of beautiful works of
art, and a very numerous attendance of visitors. The
principal attraction of the evening was a large portfolio,
containing nearly 200 sketches, made by Mr. Vickers, dur-
ing his journey through Germany, Hungary, Poland, and
Russia. This gentleman has produced, with a few touches
of the pencil, an effect which has been found wanting in
the most finished productions of many of our artists.
Those which seemed to attract the most general attention
were of the city of Moscow. There were also exhibited
twelve highly-finished drawings of Moscow and St. Peters-
burgh, by the same artist, from which the plates in Heath's
Picturesque Annual are engraved, and an oil painting of a
Dutch landscape, possessing great merit, by the father of
the above gentleman, Mr. Stanfield, A.R.A., had also four-
teen drawings, one of which, " Sunset at Sea," was also an
object of much attention. Two landscapes, with cows, by
Mr. T. S. Cooper, A.R.A., possessed the usual excellence
which distinguishes the works of this artist. The other
exhibitors were Mr. Paris, the Roman Girl, from the Book
of Beauty ; Mr. Charles Stanfield, the series of pictures to
form Charles Heath's forthcoming Annual, the Pirate ;
'Mr. Franklin, an oil painting, the Masquerade Scene in
Lady Morgan's Manners Sackville ; Mr. D. Roberts, the
interior of our Lady's Chapel, in the church of St. Vievre,
Caen, Normandy, a painting in water-colours, which called
forth deserved admiration, and in which the-light and shade
almost equalled Rembrandt. There was also a specimen of
cameo printing in two colours, by Mr. G. W. Bonner, in
which the effect produced was very striking. It was a por-
trait of the Princess Victoria, and intended to form the
frontispiece of a forthcoming work.