The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-02 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent visited her
Majesty the Queen yesterday at Buckingham Palace. •
The Earl of Derby had an audience of the Queen.
His Royal Highness the Prince Consort rode on horse-
back, attended by Captain Du Plat.
The Queen, accompanied by the Princesses Alice and
Helena, and attended by the Hon. Flora Macdonald, took
a drive in an open carriage and four in the afternoon.
Colonel the Hon. A. N. Hood and Captain Du Plat at-
tended on horseback.
The Prince Consort, attended by Colonel the Hon. Sir
Charles Phipps, visited the South Kensington Museum.
Her Majesty and the Prince Consort honoured the per-
formance at the Haymarket Theatre with their presence
last evening. In attendance were Lady Macdonald, the
Hon. Caroline Cavendish, the Hon. Flora Macdonald, Vis-
count Strathallan, Colonel the Hon. A. N. Hood, and
Captain Du Plat.
His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, attended by
Colonel the Hon. A. Hardinge, honoured Mr. Thomas,
architect, with a visit on Thursday in the Alpha-road,
Regent's-park, and inspected his works.
Colonel the Hon. A. N. Hood and Captain Du Plat have
relieved Major-General the Hon. C. Grey and Colonel the
Hon. A. Hardinge in their duties as the Equerries in Wait-
ing to the Queen and Prince Consort.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended by
Lady Fanny Howard and Sir George Couper, arrived at
her residence, Clarence-house, St. James's, yesterday morn-
ing from Frogmore.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
attended by Lady Fanny Howard and Sir George Couper,
arrived at her residence, Clarence House, St. James's,
yesterday morning, from Frogmore.

The Duchess of Sutherland returned to Trentham
on Wednesday from visiting Lord and Lady Blantyre at
Erskine House, N.B. The noble duke and duchess came
to Stafford House to-day from their seat in Staffordshire.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Breadalbane,
who are now at Nice, are expected to return home early in
the ensuing month.
The Earl and Countess of Albemarle and the
Ladies Keppel will leave town in a few days for Scotland:

Viscount and Viscountess Villiers have gone to
the South of France. The noble viscount and viscountess
have been induced by the impaired health of his lordship to
repair to a milder climate.
Lord and Lady Lilford and the Hon. Miss Powys
are expected home on the 12th inst. The marriage of the
HOn. Miss Powys and Mr. Fazakerley is appointed to be
solemnized on the 23d inst.

Lord Ward has arrived at Dudley House, Park•
lane, from Italy.

Lord Colonsay has left Fenton's Hotel for Edin-
burgh.
Sir C. EL Rushout and Miss P. Rushout have
arrived at Fenton's Hotel, from Sezincot, Moreton-in-the
Marsh.

The shipments of silver for India and China on
the 4th will amount to nearly £1,000,000, of ,which about
£400,000 is on account of the Government.
THE MINT.—We learn that the mechanical re-
s•urces of the Mint, although exerted to an unprecedented
extent lately, are found quite inadequate to supply the con-
stant demand for money made upon that establishment ;
and that, consepently, an addition to the motive power
employed there is being made. A new steam-engine of
40-horse power is in course of erection, and this is intended
to drive the laminating machinery. It will be placed side
by side with its ancient predecessor, which will not as yet
be removed. The united power of the steam-engines em-
ployed in the cash department is 66 horses, reckoning that
of the new money-maker.—Xechanies' Magazine..

LEGAL EDUCATION—INNS OF COURT.—The first
public lecture in this term will be delivered by the reader on
the law of real property, &c., on Friday, April 15, at two
p.m. The public lectures and private classes will be sus-
pended after Thursday, April 21, for the Easter holidays,
and resumed on and after Wednesday, April 27. They will
be again suspended after Thursday, May 12, and will be
resumed at the appointed days and hours on and after
Thursday, June 2. The educational term commences on
the 15th April, and ends.on the 31st July, subject to a de-
duction of the days above enumerated.
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.--William Frederick
Severn, aged 35, a guard in the employ of the South-
Western Railway, died yesterday from injuries received
under the following circumstances :—The deceased was in
charge of a train on its way faom Kew to Twickenham,
and the spindle of the break of the carriage inwhich he was
riding having been broken, had been secured in a temporary
manner with a piece of rope. As the train approached
Barnes station, the deceased was observed leaning over the
back of the carriage, as if watching the action of the break,
when his head came in contact with an abutement of a
bridge, dashing him with fearful violence on to the plat-
form of the station. He was picked up in an insensible
state, from which he never rallied. He has left a widow
and four young children totally unprovided for.
Mr. Charles Bell, of the firm of Thomson, Bonar,
and Co., who is the bearer of the sealed commission for the
Russian Loan, is expected to arrive in London early next
week. Meanwhile no definite particulars will probably
transpire.

The sugar manufactories of the Zollverein em-
ployed from the Ist September to the 31st December of last
year 19,322,076 quintals of beetroot, or 3,337,756 more than
in the corresponding months of the preceding year. Of
the whole amount, 17,Q14,177 quintals were consumed by
the Prussian manufactories. The duty levied was 4,470,684
thalers, to 3,177,035 thalers in. 1857.
ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN.---This
week, the Opera-house, Covent .garden, re-opens for the
season, with several improvements m the staircases and
exit-ways, to which we have lately alluded made, or in
course of completion. The new floral hall, whieh will form
an important adjunct to the building, as to the market,
cannot be completed for some weeks. Looking to the mat-
ter of exit-ways, as of chief importance, we find that for the
ground story, south side, two additional ways will be pro-
vided or made available, leading into the floral-hall, one of
them from the end of tha entrance-hall by way of the box-
office, and the other directly from the pit-corridor. There
will also be an iron staircase down into the floral hall as
an exit-way from the landing of the grand staircase of the
principal t4er of boxes. On the north side, the improve-
ments of similar character consist of a new external door•
way for the staircase of the amphitheatre stalls. At the
first opening of the theatre, the access was from the pit
corridor ' • and the staircase was made to serve for commu-
nication between the different tiers of boxes—the visitors to
the amphitheatre stalls passing up the gallery stairs. The
objections to this arrangement were remarked upon by us
at the time. The now-intended appropriation of the stair-
case mentioned to the purpose for which it was designed,
however, has seemed to render necessary an additional
staircase to serve exclusively for communication between
the several corridors—pit and boxes—on that side the house.
This latter staircase has now been completed. It is con-
structed of iron, and is carried by the girders of the flooring.
As there was no space for turning the stairs, they are
planned in unbroken flights, and consequently it was neces-
sary to cut one of the girders at each floor, and again form
the connection between the portion of the girder carried by
the column and the original bearing on the wall—an object
which is attained simply by the introduction of a piece of
the form required for head-way in the one flight, and for
support of the flight above. On the exterior of the Ifuild-
ing on the same side—that is, in Hart-street—all along, a
pent-house covering over the footpath has been con-
structed of thick glass, on cantilever bearers. The cover-
ing is scarcely wide enough for protection in all cases, but
will be of service.. The building seems likely to be well
adapted to its purpose,-and the interior promises to be
highly effeetive.—The Builder,