The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-04 00:00:00

THE PAPAL STATES.

A letter from Turin of the 30th ult. says :
" The Official Journal of Bologna has just made
some curious revelations. It states that several
years- back, an advocate, M. Berni degli An toni,
found the conventions which were entered into in
1447 between the city of Bologna and Pope Nicho-
las V., by which the Pope recognised the rights of
that city, and denounced any one who should dare
to infringe them; and -these conventions were
ratified by 27 successive Popes. When in 1815,
after the cessation of the French occupation,
the Pope was invested with the possession of
Bologna, the senators of the city claimed its rights
in virtue of the convention of 1447. Pius VII.
replied that he would not refuse to Tender to
Caesar what belonged to Caesar,' but he referred them
to Cardinal Gonsalvi, his Minister. The senators
caused Antoni to present a petition to the cardi-
nal, and in it the advocate took care to cite the
document of 1447. But the cardinal said, ' Woe
to you if you publish that document ! And con-
sider yourself lucky that you are not at once sent
to the fort of San Angelo to be detained for the
rest of your life for haling quoted it ! ' The offi-
cial journal of Bologna also throws light on an-
other matter, which has excited considerable in-
terest. Some journals of the clerical party have
accused the volunteers of Garibaldi of having com-
mitted infamous acts in the convent of Veriruchio.
Other journals have asserted that there was not a
word of truth in the accusation, and that it was
only made by the enemies of Italian independence.
But the former persisted in their statement,
without, however, giving any proof. It turns
out that the whole affair is the result of a mis-
take. A letter was received at Rome, giving an
account of horrible acts committed by soldiers
in a convent at Perugia, and one of the persons
who saw that letter read by mistake Verruchio in-
stead of Perugia. As Verruchio, which if in the
Legations, is occupied by the soldiers of Garibaldi,
Mezzacapo, or Roselli, the person, in writing an
account of what he had read, ascribed to those sol-
diers the atrocities which had really been com-
mitted by the Swiss soldiers of the Pope at Peru-
gia. So true it is that the Swiss were the real of-
fenders that recently one of the criminal courts of
the Papal States condemned one Swiss to death
and another to 20 years' hard labour for ' atrocities
perpetrated is a convent at Perugia' The gover-
nor of Romagna, desiring to relieve his army from
the false accusation brought
.against it, instituted
an investigation, and the result was that no soldier
had entered a convent at Verruchio. A solemn
attestation of this fact was requested from the
abbess of the convent at that place, and she readily
gave it. This attestation, which is signed Fortu-
nata Rinaldini, and is drawn up in due legal form,
and vouched by witnesses, is published in the offi-
cial journal."

DEATH OF THE EARL OF JERSEY.

We have to announce the death of the Earl of

Jersey, which took place yesterday forenoon, shortly
after ten o'clock, at the family residence in Berke-
ley-square. The venerable earl, after several weeks'
sojourn at Cowes, during which he caught a severe
cold, returned from the Isle of Wight about three
weeks back, and ever since reaching the metropolis
had been in a weak state. During the last fort-
night his lordship continued gradually to get
weaker, until at length he died at the hour above-
named from exhaustion, apparently without the
slightest pain or struggle.
The late nobleman, George Child Villiers, Earl
of Jersey, Viscount Villiers of Dartford and Baron
Hoo, county of Kent, in the peerage of England,
and Viscount Grandison of Limerick, county of
Leitrim, in the peerage of Ireland, was the eldest
of the two sons of George Bu sey, fourth earl, by
his marriage with Frances, daughter and heir of
the Right Hon. Rev. Philip Twisden, Bishop of
Raphoe, and was born on the 19th of August, 1773,
so that he had entered on his 87th year. The de-
ceased earl married on the 23d May, 1804, Lady
Sarah Sophia Fane, eldest daughter of the late
Earl of Westmoreland, by Anne, only daughter of
Mr. Robert Child, the wealthy banker, of Fleet-
street. By the countess, who survives the deceased
earl, he leaves surviving issue Viscount Villiers (his
successor in the earldom), the Hon. Frederick Vil-
liers, the Hon. Francis Villiers, and Lady Adela,
married to Captain fabetson, late 11th Hussars.
The Princess Nicholas Estes hazy, his eldest daugh-
ter, died a few years ago at Torquay, and Lady
Clementina Villiers, his second daughter, it will be
iccollected, died early in December last year, after
a short illness. The deceased peer succeeded to the
family honours and estates on the death of his
father, in August, 1805.
For a few months in 1830 be held the office of
Lord Chamberlain of the King's Household, but
on the late Earl Grey succeeding the Duke of Well-
ington as First Lord of the Treasury he retired.
On the late Sir Robert Peel's accession to office, in
1834, his lordship was again appointed Lord Cham-
berlain. In 1841 the noble earl succeeded the late
Earl of Albemarle as Master of the Horse to the
Queen, which office he held till the break up of
Sir Robert Peel's second Administration. Although
a thorough Conservative in politics, he supported
the Government of Sir Robert Peel in the repeal of
the Corn Laws, and all the commercial measures of
Reform introduced by that statesman. When the
Ear! of Derby came into power, in 1852, the Earl
of Jersey was selected, it was stated at her Ma-
jesty's request, to fill the post of Master of the
Horse, and on the Earl of Aberdeen succeeding as
Premier he was solicited to retain that office, which
he declined to do, owing to the " Radical element"
in Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet. Since that period the
Earl of Jersey, from weiet of years and increasing
infirmities, retired into private life. The rate earl
was made a Privy Councillor in 1830, and William
IV. made him a Knight Grand Cross of the
Guelphs of Hanover.
The deceased is succeeded in his title by his
eldest son, George Augustus Frederick Viscount
Villiers, born on the 4th of April, 1808, and mar-
ried in 1841 to Miss Peel, eldest daughter of the
late Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, by whom he has
a youthful family. His lordship was educated at
Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A.
in 1830, and M.A. in 1837. He was first returned
to the House of Commons, in conjunction with
Mr. Bernal, father of Mr. Bernal Osborne, in 1830,
and in the following year was elected re-
presentative for Minehead. From 1832 to
1835 he sat in Parliament for Honiton, in which
year he unsuccessfully contested Weymouth, but
was returned in 1841 ; he was, however, unseated on
petition. He was also a member for Cirencester
from 1844 to 1852: The present Earl is a Deputy-
Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and of Warwickshire,
and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Oxfordshire (the
Queen's Own) Yeomanry Cavalry.
By the lamented decease of the venerated Earl
the families of the Duchess of Richmond, Mr. and
Mrs. Russell, Lord and Lady Templemore, Vis-
countess Ponsonby, the Earl and Countess of West-
moreland, Mr. and Lady Sarah Bailey, Colonel and
Mrs. Bagot, Lady !I. Begot, and many others of
rank are placed in mourning.
From Mr. E. P. Shirley's "Noble and Gentle
Men of England" we learn that the family of Vil-
lers or Villiers is ancient in Leicestershire, Alexan-
der de Villiers being Lord of Brokesby, in that
county, early in the 13th century. The' present
coat of arms is said to have been assumed in the
reign of Edward 1., as a badge of Sir Richard de
Villiers services in the Crusades. " Villiers of
Brokesby" occurs among the gentlemen of Leices-
tershire " that be there most of reputation" in the
"Itinerary" of Leland, the antiquary, in the reign

of Henry VIII. ; but the great rise of the family
was in the reign of James 1., when the favourite,
Sir George Villiers, became Duke of Buckingham
in 1623. The Earls of Jersey are sprung from Sir
George Villiers, of Brokesby, the youngest of whose
two sons by his first marriage with Audrey Saun-
ders, Sir Edward was the immediate ancestor.
George, the second of his three sons by his second
marriage, with Mary Beaumont, was the celebrated
Duke of Buckingham. Sir E. Villiers was knighted
in 1616, and sent Ambassador to Bohemia in 1620 ;
and in 1622 was made President of Munster, in
Ireland, and " lived there," according to Sir Henry
Wotton, "in singular estimation and hospitality,"
where he died in 1626, lamented by the whole pro-
vince. He married Barbara, daughter of Sir John
St. John, of Lidiard Tregoze, in Wiltshire, and
niece of Sir Oliver St. John. who was in 1620 cre-
ated Viscount Grandison, of Ireland, when a col-
lateral remainder in favour of his niece and her
male issue was inserted in the patent of creation.
Accordingly her eldest son, William Villiers, suc-
ceeded his great uncle as Viscount Grandison in
1630. He distinguished himself by his loyalty in
the subsequent rebellion, and died of wounds he
received at the siege of Bristol in August, 1643.
His daughter and heir was the famous Duchess of
Cleveland. In default of male issue, he was suc-
ceed d by his brother, John Villiers, as third Vis-
count Grandison, but, dying without issue male, his
brother George became 4th Viscount. He died in
1699, at an advanced age, and was succeeded by
his grandison, John, who was created Earl Grandi-
son in 1721. But Edward, the youngest brother of
the 4th Viscount, was father of the first Earl of
Jersey. He embraced the Royal cause, and Claren-
don says he was one whose diligence and dexterity
his Majesty found fit for any trust. At the battle
of Newbury, in 1643, he fought gallantly, and was
wounded. In 1680 he was knighted, and made
Knight-Marshal of the Household. He lived to see
his eldest son advanced to be Master of the Horse
to Queen Mary at the Revolution, and died in 1689,
and was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward, who
attended on the Princess Mary to Holland, and
was one of those who accompanied her back to a
Throne, was knighted in 1689, and was appointed
Knight Marshal. In 1695 he was appointed Envoy
Extraordinary to the Congress of the Hague, and
was on that occasion created Earl of Jersey. He
was sent Ambassador Extraordinary to France in
1698-9, and the May following was made Secretary
of State. On the accession of Queen Anne he was
made Lord Chamberlain, and died in 1711, when
his son William, became second earl. He died in
1721, when William, his brother, succeeded as third
earl, and was in his turn succeeded by his son,
George Bussey, father of the late earl, the subject
of this notice.

THE MA GAZINES'.

Blackwood's Magazine.

" The Luck of Ladysmede" is continued, and the
chapters here recorded are very well written.
There is more of exciting interest than in any of
the previous instalments. In particular the account
given of the escape of the Lady Gladice is deserv-
ing of notice. The unfortunate lady had a narrow
escape, for her guide was more remarkable for his
zeal than his discretion, and had it not been for the
resolution of the lady herself at the last
she would have fallen into the hands of
her enemies. There is an excellent article
on " Mountaineering." " The Alpine Club,"
which refers chiefly . to the work recently
published, entitled "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers,"
has met with deserved success and merited
approval, for it combines great advantages for
those who are desirous of becoming acquainted
With those famous spots that attract the traveller
and delight the lover of excitement. It is observed
that the book suffices to show that the passion for
mountain climbing is most engrossing, and that it
is probable that amongst men of spirit and intelli-
gence the Alpine Club will soon be one of the most
popular, though " whether as it has the free entree
of all the mighty palaces of nature, it will care to
build itself a house made with hands in Pall-mall,
may long be a question." The following passage
at the conclusion refers to the preponderance of
English travellers in the mountainous regions who
have distinguished themselves.

"Nevertheless, it is to be esteemed a national honour,
that most of those peaks hitherto considered inaccessible,
and many of those passes hitherto considered impassable,
have yielded to the courage and perseverance of those
islanders, whose still more daring and enduring country-
men have passed the continuous night of the Arctic winter
in darkness and suffering, to solve problems not much more
important ; or endured the torture of thirst in the burning
deserts of Central Africa, with an.end and purpose avowedly
and really higher, but in no dissimilar spirit. While France,
actually more old-fashioned in her ways, still pants for
that military fame of which the world has heard so much
before, Great Britain strives for newer and bloodless laurels,
and seeks, according to the Creator's sanction, to assert
the supremacy of Man less over his brother than over ma-
terial Nature."
" The Seaside in the Papal States" contains some
amusing anecdotes, conspicuous among which may
be mentioned the adventure of the steward who
wandered about to pay a sum of money, and whose
perilous rencontre at midnight is very remarkable.
In this paper we meet with some good descriptions
of the places mentioned and the mode of life,
which it is said is infinitely more original than
that of Brighton or Scarborough. There are
some verses, entitled " Breton Ballads," which
are nothing particular in their style, that
represent the state of things at the time.
" Captain J. H. Speke's discovery of the Victoria
Nyanza Lake, the supposed source of the Nile," is
very well worthy of perusal. The accounts are
most interesting, and the zeal displayed by the ex-
plorers was most praiseworthy. The writer
expresses his conviction that he has discovered the
probable, and, he believes, true source of that mighty
stream the Nile, and has almost, if not entirely
solve d a problem, which it has been the first geo-
graphical desideratum of many thousand years to
ascertain, and the ambition of the first monarchs of
the world to unravel."