The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1866.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

THE FIRE NEAR NEWPORT-MARKET.—The Rev. J.
Williams, clergyman of the 'district of Newport-market,
and chaplain of the Newport-market Refuge, waited upon
Mr. Knox this morning to ask his assistance with the view
of originating a subscription on behalf of the sufferers
through a fire which occurred yesterday morning in
Porter-street, Newport-market, when several poor families
had every article of furniture destroyed, and nearly all
their clothing, seven families being admitted into and still
living at that most useful institution, the Newport-market

Reiuge.

Mr. Knox said he was sorry to hear of the disaster, and
with the view of commencing a subscription on behalf of
the poor persons, ho would order £5 to be given from the
poor-box.

ASSAULT.—Mr. Win. Fletcher, of No. 4, Piccadilly, was
charged before Mr. Knox with assaulting Mary Williams,
of No. 17, Montpelier-square.

Mr. Sayer, from the office of Mr. Edward Lewis, of
Great Marlborough-street, appeared for the complainant.

The complainant said she went into Mr. Wakelin's
tavern in Tichbourne-street just before closing time, and
the defendant, who was there when she went in, made an
insulting remark, and she slapped his face. The defendant
then followed her and struck her in the eye, knocking her
down.

The defendant said that the complainant struck him in
the eye, and he did not resent it, but on the complainant
again attempting to strike him he prevented her doing so,
and certainly did strike her. But for the provocation he
received he could not have done so, being the last man
who would strike a woman.

Mr. Knox said he believed the defendant had received
great provocation, and therefore he would not send him to
prison without the option of paying a fine. The defend-
ant must not knock females down.
The defendant was thou fined £5,

The Diplomatist of the Drawing-room.

(From the ion. Grantley Berkeley's "Life and Recollections.")
About this time there arrived in England, in the dis-
tinguished position of Ambassador to the Court of St.
James's from that of Versailles, a man whose diplomatic
reputation was second to that of no player in Europe. The
astute Metternich acknowledged his skill—my ready-
witted friend, Esterhazy, held it in profound respect—and
all the most accomplished employes of the most intriguing
of Governments respected him as a master of their craft.
He had the advantage of wonderful experience, he had had
the incalculable benefit of marvellous good fortune. The
trials he had undergone and the perils he had survived, the
difficulties ho had overcome, wore enough to have gained
for him the force of enjoying a charmed life, or, at least, of
possessing a sup3rnatural intellect. Ho had never made a
mistake. Ho was invariably a winner. No matter how
the game stood, if ho could not be permitted to count
honours he was snre to win by cards ; and if the result
depended on an odd trick, that trick was certain to be
his own.
Lady B. had mot this celebrated man abroad more
than once—she had met him at Vienna playing his cards
with consummate skill at the round, game there got up for
the entertainment of the Congress of European Powers -
she had met him in Paris when he was the host of the
Emperor Alexander of Russia, during the occupation of
the French capital by the allies, and when it is believed
that he was permitted to look at the Imperial hand and
suggest the Imperial play—she had met him on one or two
other occasions, in one or two other places, sometimes
having the deal, sometimes shuffling till he got it —but
generally with good cards in his hand, and making the
most of his superior knowledge of the game.
Ho had lately turned up a king—a King of Hearts—that
is to say, of French hearts. At least, he was so considered
when he first took the title of " Sing of the French." A
few years afterwards he ceased to be a king, and then
some people who looked more closely at him declared him
to be a knave. The fact is, the card had been a good deal
thumbed, and appeared to have fallen into dirty hands ;
under such circumstances it is difficult to pronounce, in an
uncertain light, its true character. No matter, kings have
been found to be knaves before now, and of such we
islanders have had our share.

Lady B. having learnt that the representative of this
dubious sovereign had arrived in London, forwarded to
the embassy a cordial invitation, and having that forenoon
sent directions to the hall porter that she was not to be at
home till a certain hour, to any one else, she took her ac-
customed seat in the glass room about the time usually
given to morning calls.

She was dressed with great care, but that was a matter
of course with Lady B. Her toilette, morning or evening,
was always studied; indeed she dressed as if perpetually
sitting for her portrait. She looked well, but that was also
a matter of course with Lady B. Whether going to a
drawing-room or to Almack's, preparing tor dinner or
waiting for a visitor, her ladyship seemed to insist on look-

ing well, and what she insisted upon was realised to the
letter, as her lel d, who admired her immensely, as her
family, as her household, could have testified with remark-
able unanimity.
'Though a matron who had already planted her nursery
pretty thickly with olive branches, Lady B. was in excel-
lent preservation. Many of her juniors envied her her
clear complexion, her roundea form, and her fine figure.
Her personal advantages were still great, and she was not
in the slightest degree inclined to hide thorn from credit-
able observation. She did not agree with_the fact that
Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most," for her
sense of the grand was apparently dependent on her
sense of the beautiful. Consequently her dress was always
elaborately fine ; fine in fabric and fine in fashion, made in
the best way, worn in the best manner, and sot off with
the costliest ornaments. The result was certainly im-
posing.-

last night at the Theatre Royal, from my box, where I
go with my suite. I see him in the role of an Irishman.
It is droll that ' Teddy the Tiler'—his acting was
good. I notice him a little unsteady ; perhaps wha(you
call rollicking. But, pardon ! I cannot say I saw him off
his balance,"

Lady B. for a moment looked confounded, then detecting
the equivoque, which she belioved was accidental, laughed
a pleasant mellow laugh, in a slightly perceptible degree,
it must be added, mingled with mortification.

" It is a mistake," she said; "a misconception of my
meaning. I alluded to the necessity that exists for main-
taining among the principal European states an equili-
brium that shall prevent mischievous rivalries and dan-
gerous complications."

" Aha!" cried the veteran diplomatist, as the wrinkles
of his forehead mounted from his eyebrows to the roots of
his silvery hair.
"Pozzo di Borgo !" repeated he, in a low voice, pinching
his chin with his disengaged hand, and then allowing it to
sink into his voluminous cravat.

" Yes, Prince, Pozzo di Borgo told me - and your Excel-
lency must allow that he is likely to be well informed as to
the ideas of his Imperial master, my friend, the Autocrat of
all the Russias—"

"Ah !" exclaimed the ambassador, scratching the point
of his nose with his finger.

" That he is certain there never will be peace in Europe
till the great Powers are so equal in point of material
strength that there shall remain nothing for them to desire
and nothing for them to dread."

" Good!"
" And Palmolla--"

"Monsieur le Comte Palmella!" repeated the diplomatist,
and the wrinkles of his face followed each other like waves
from his eyes to his chin.
" Exactly ; the count assured me that a Holy Alliance,
to be durable, could only exist among sovereigns, when
there should be no superiority of any kind throughout the
Continent and Peninsula."
" Good !"

"On the contrary, Metternich informed me—"
"Prince Metternich—Oho !" cried the old man, peering
curiously out of his dull eyes at his companion, as he put
his chin a little deeper into his cravat.
"Informed me that it was necessary, for the security of
Europe, that Austria, should dominate both in Germany
and Italy."
" Ah

"Now what is your Excellency's opinion 2"

Lady 8., when she undertook the task of obtaining
information from Prince Talleyrand, had evidently fancied
that the game she was venturing to play would be an easy
one. She soon found that there were difficulties in it she
had not calculated upon.

" Pardon, my lady," replied her companion, the wrinkled
parchment smiling all over, as if from an hilarious impulse
he was courteouslyrestraining, "I cannot presume to speak
in opposition to the illustrious authorities you have been so
amiable as to name. As a matter of course, I agree with
them all."

" But their sentiments are conflicting," cried Lady B.
" So are mine," cried the Prince, and he again prinched

his chin.

" Their ideas cannot be made to coincide."

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS-LAST EVENING.
Mr. DODSON (deputy-Speaker) took the chair at twelve
o'clock.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

Mr. COWPER moved that the Thames Embankment
(North) Approaches, the Thames Embankment (Chelsea)
and the Park-lane Improvement Bills be referred to a
select committee, consisting of eleven members, six to be
nominated by the house and five by the committee of selec-
tion.

A discussion ensued, in which Viscount Cranborne, Mr.
Roebuck, Mr. Locke, and Mr. Henley took part, the matter
in debate being the source from which the funds for the
improvements were to be drawn, and the rights of the Duke
of Northumberland with respect to that part of his pro-
perty affected by the bill.
An amendment was eventually moved that the bills be
referred to a select. committee that day six months, but
it was negatived without a division, and the bills were
referred to the committee, as proposed by the First Com-
missioner of Works.
TESTS ABOLITION (I7NIVERSITY) BILL.

A. number of petitions in favour of this measure having
been presented,
Mr. COLERIDGE rose to move the second reading of this
bill, the object of which was, he said, to enable the lay
subjects of the Queen to obtain the full benefit of univer-
sity education, and to become, in the fullest sense of the
term, members of the university without respect to their
religious opinions. The University of Oxford was, be
contended, a lay corporation in existence long before the
colleges, and therefore it was but right that all the subjects

of her Majesty should have equal rights to participate in
the advantages arising from university education. He did
not consider the passing of the measure would be attended
with disastrous results to the Church of England.
Mr. TREVELYAN seconded the motion, showing, in
doing so, that it would be for the benefit of the University
as much as for the Nonconformists that the present tests
should be abolished ; and he also strongly urged that the
education of the University ought to be secular and not
clerical. The result of the present practice was that a
clergyman when he left the University went forth armed,
not for the purpose of fighting against pride and sin, but
more especially against dissent. Such could not be for the
general good ; anti, therefore, as a Churchman, he thought
it desirable that the present practice of tests and oaths
should be abolished.

Sir S. NORTHCOTE moved, as an amendment, that the
bill be read a second time that day six months.
Mr. BUXTON thought the time had gone by for com-
promise, and therefore it was advisable that the house
should pass its opinion as to the advisability of the pre-
sent measure. He should give it his support.
Mr. B. HOPE opposed the bill.

Sir W. HEATiiCOTE thought the most judicious
course at the present time was to read the bill a second
time, in order that the proposal of the hon. and learned
member (Mr. Coleridge) might go into committee, when it
would then be seen whether some arrangement might be
come to with respect to many of the enactments of the bill.
He thought as it stood its scope was more extended than
its proposer thought. He, therefore, advised his hon.
friend not to press his amendment, because if he did so he
should be compelled to vote against him.
Mr. BUTLER JOHNSON supported the bill, as he
thought it would do much good: He could not say he
agreed with those who considered these Oxford tests as the
bulwarks of faith.

Mr. NEATE was in favour of the bill. The principle
worked well in the University of London and the Queen's
University in Ireland, therefore he did not see that the
principle should be applied to Oxford.