The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 10, 1861.

ters and mates of merchant vessels might
be enrolled as officers of the Royal Naval
Reserve Force. The Admiralty, it is now pretty
well known—(we took occasion to comment upon
the whole of the new scheme very recently our-
selves)—have proposed to invite from the merchant
service, to be enrolled as Lieutenants in the Royal
Naval Reserve, as many as 400 officers altogether
—these 400 to consist of two distinct classes, 130
ranking with (but after) lieutenants of the Royal
Navy, the remaining 270 in their capacity as sub-
lieutenants or " reefers" with (but after) the Royal
Navy sub-lieutenants or midshipmen. Of the
sailors themselves, that is of those who
are not officers, but simply seamen before
the mast, or ready to go before the mast,
when wanted to the number of 30,000 in all—no
more than 5,000 or 6,000 have as yet gone over
from the merchant service in answer to the
summons, or rather it should be said the invi-
tation, of her Majesty's Government. That
such is absolutely the fact, Mr. LINDSAY
said yesterday, is to be regarded with nothing less
than surprise, " considering the very liberal terms
upon which," as he remarked, " seamen of the mer-
chant service are invited to join the Royal Naval
Reserve." Invited, observe—as yet ! But, said the
hon. member for Sunderland, "It behoved the
seamen of this country to remember that the law
of impressment was not abolished, and that when
the country was in need of their services they
would be liable to be called out, as in former
years !" So much in terrorem : but now as an in-
ducement, as an attraction—Mr. LINDSAY thus
epitomises in a few plain words the alluring condi-
tions held out to the merchant seamen of England !
"Every seaman," said he, "of the Royal Naval
Reserve would receive a retaining fee of £6. When
called out they would receive the same pay, allow-
ances, and victuals as the continuous service seamen
or petty officers of the Royal Navy. They would
have the same prospects of promotion, and men
joining for actual service would receive clothing,
bedding, and mess traps ; they would receive a pen-
sion after 60 years of age, and not less than £l2 a
year. If wounded or injured they would have the
same pensions and allowances as in the Royal Navy.
If they had been 10 years in continuous service they
would be eligible for all the benefits of Greenwich
Hospital." So soon as these conditions come to be
really known and thoroughly understood by the
sailors in the merchant service, we cannot have any
doubt whatever but that the 30,000 men required
for the Royal Naval Reserve will be completed, and,
if need be, as Mr. LINDSAY conjectures, even 20,000
additional.

► IL! !,..) A a. 1.1.1 V •

.

BERNE, JULY 10.

The Federal Assembly has elected M. Staimpfli,
present Vice-President, as President of the Swiss
Confederation for 1862.

Dr. Furrer, Federal Councillor, has been elected
Vice-President of the Swiss Confederation.

MILAN, JULY 9.

The Lombardia of today says :—" It is stated
that the Austrian Government has ordered all the
Venetians who are imprisoned in Mora'via, Bohe-
mia, and Styria, for political reasons, to be set at
liberty and allowed to return to their own coun-
try."

PARIS, JULY 9.

The pleadings in the case of M. Mires terminated
today. Judgment will be delivered on Thursday
next.

The Patrie of this evening says—" It is asserted
that King Victor Emmanuel will shortly proceed
to Naples, and will reside there for some time."

There is no truth in the statement that General
de Lamoriciere will again take command of the
Papal troops.

Count Arese is about to return to Turin.
The Chevalier Nigra is shortly expected in Paris.
The Duke de Gramont has taken his departure
for Vichy:

LIVERPOOL, JULY 10.

The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia
Company's steamship Glasgow, which sailed to-day
for New York, took £189,761 in specie.

LITERATURE.

Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, Lady
Companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales.
2 vols. Allen and Co., Leadenhall-street.

These are two pleasant and entertaining volumes
of chronicles, which rise above scandal, although
they deal largely with the Court affairs of various
countries, and are the work of a lady's pen. Miss
Knight had' considerable reputation in her own
day for her literary and scholastic abilities, although
to us she is only known as a lady of high principle
and cultivated taste. She was the daughter of Sir
Joseph Knight, an admiral of some distinction in
the British navy, who served his country faithfully
during a long life; a fact of which his daughter did
not scruple to remind royalty itself when she was
treated with undeserved disrespect. Her mother,
who was a woman of much ability, took care that
her child should have a first-rate education ; and
Cornelia, whose talents were far above the average,
amply repaid her care. Her father died when she
was about 18, and her mother, whose income was
inadequate for the expenses of a London life, took
up her abode on the Continent for the next 20
years. At Naples they formed the acquaintance of
Sir William and Lady Hamilton, who were very
kind to them, and to whose protection Lady Knight
especially commended her daughter at her death.
Here too they frequently met with Nelson himself,
of whom many interesting anecdotes are told.
On her return to England, Miss Knight, who had
obtained considerable reputation among her conti-
nental friends, was appointed to be in attendance on
Queen Charlotte, and took up her abode at Windsor.
She retained this position for seven years, when, on
some arrangements being made for the household
of Princess Charlotte, Miss Knight received a press-
ing invitation from the Regent to become one of its
members. She was herself very ready to accept the
offer, having a chivalrous sympathy for the miser-
able position of the young Princess, and a keen per-,
ception, as she frankly confessed, of the injudicious
treatment which was adopted towards a high-
spirited and open-hearted young woman, whom it
was the fashion to treat as an untrained child. The
acceptance of the post of Lady Companion to the
young Princess, however, gave mortal offence to the
Queen, who never treated her with common kind-
ness afterwards, and scarcely with ordinary civility.
She persisted in calling her " Sub-governess," and
objected to treating her differently from the sub-
governesses of her own daughters. To do Miss
Knight justice, notwithstanding her loyalty and
Tory principles, she resented any indignities with
spirit and decision, and appears to have acquitted
herself with kindness, delicacy, and judgment in a
very awkward and invidious position. The conduct
of Queen Charlotte is only what might be expected
from the sweet Queen" of Miss Burney's
memoirs; that of the Prince Regent was also
in accordance with his character. Miss Knight
was summarily dismissed at the time of the
Princess's flight from Warwick House to the
Princess of Wales, and it was the announcement of
the changes, which included the departure of this
faithful friend, which drove the unhappy Princess
to desperation, Miss Knight, however, has had her
revenge quite unconsciously. With all her care and
discretion in avoiding scandal her bare narrative of
the daily life at Warwick House reveals such a
system of petty tyranny and heartless selfishness
on the part of the royal father, that Miss Knight's
wrongs are amply avenged. To many readers these
records will be the most interesting part of the
work. The portrait of the Princess Charlotte is
prefixed to the first volume and corresponds with
the character given of her in its pages. She is
described as being open-hearted, impetuous, and
generous to a fault, and if she did not always dis-
play the discretion and wisdom of greater years
and experience, it was scarcely to be expected from
one so young and so unfortunately situated. Rather
it is surprising that a warm-hearted and impul-
sive girl, meeting so little love and sympathy, dis-
tracted by the dissensions between her patents, and
subjected to the restraints and strict surveillance
of a State prisoner, should have displayed so many
admirable qualities. Even the discreet Miss
Knight cannot always restrain her indignation at
the treatment of " the future Queen of England."
On one occasion, in conversing with Lord Moira,
Miss Knight told him that her sole motive in ac-
cepting the post offered to her was "to assist in
rescuing a noble young creature from surrounding
persecution, to give her room to show what she
really was, misunderstood as she appeared to be,
and certainly capable of becoming a blessing to her
country or the reverse. Measures such as had been
recently pursued with her, must drive her, I urged,
to despair, and spoil her disposition if not counter-
acted by affection and tenderness." As she argued
thus on the discipline to be pursued towards a dispo-
sition which could not turn to harmless mediocrity,
but must be good or evil, tears fell from Lord Moira's
eyes as he exclaimed, " This is what I felt for her
father ; he was everything that was amiable and
still I cannot help loving him." To the Princess
Charlotte's untimely death, Misa Knight, scarcely
alludes, though, unless the warm affection she profess-
ed for her evaporated very quickly, she must have felt
it deeply. Soon after her summary dismissal from
Court duties, Miss Knight went abroad wne. ehe
spent the rest of her days. She died in 1837 at
Paris in the 81st year of her age. Of course, in
the records of her wanderings many allusions to
Continental politics are introduced, and numerous
anecdotes possessing authenticity and originality
are given. The reputation she obtained among her
contemporaries was extensive, as we find from the
mention made. of her by several writers. Mrs.
Piozzi, who gave her anecdotes of Johnson and
Boswell, called her " the far-famed Cornelia
Knight," and many similar phrases show the esti-
mation in which she was held. Her literary labours
are not likely to attract much attention in the pre-
sent day ; the principal ones were " Dinarbas," a
companion to " Rasselas," and "Marcus Flaminius,"
a classical novel. The volumes before us have been
carefully edited, and reflect credit both on the
writer and editor. They will furnish the reader
with ample entertainment for leisure hours, and
possess the interest attaching to records of court
life without scandalous gossip or unsuitable revela-
tions. The anecdotes at the conclusion are selected
from a large number recorded by Miss Knight at
the end of her journals; they were gathered in vari-
ous quarters at different times, and are, says the
editor, "if not new, at all events authentic." We
subjoin a few as fair specimens of the quality and
variety of the collection :

At the timo (1830) when Louis Philippe was shaking
hands with everybody in the street, he held out his hand to
a man who said, " Stop a little." Thrusting both hands
in the mud, ho offered them to the King, saying, " Now
they are fit for you."

As we were going in the Admiral's barge the other day,
looking at the ships and talking of the victory (of the Nile),
Sir William Hamilton could not be pacified for the French
calling it a drawn battle. "Nay, it was a drawn battle,"
said Nelson, 'for they drew the blanks and we the
prizes."
* *

The Duke of Richmond, great uncle of the present one
(recently deceased), was very fond of hares and rabbits,
especially the latter, and used to have them constantly
served at table, dressed in various ways. His chaplain in
ordinary, who used to sit near the lower end, was not a
little tired of them, more especially as by the time they
came to him they were often quite cold; so being asked to
say grace, he recited—
" Rabbits young and rabbits old,
Rabbits hot and rabbits cold,

Rabbits tender, rabbits tough,

Thanks to Heaven, we've had rabbits enough."
This local habitation assigned to the oft-quoted grace on
rabbits is on the authority of the Princess Augusta.
4 • * * *

Sir Edward Sngden, a celebrated lawyer, who has lately
come into Parliament, having heard that he had been
turn.A into ridicule+ for Loin Er the Rnn of a hairdresser,
made answer, " So I am, and I am come into the house to
give a dressing to the Whigs."

Tho Marquis of Wellesley, when Lord-Lieutenant of Ire-
land, was at table with a party of Irish gentlemen who were
chiefly Orangemen, and in the dining-room hung a paint-
ing of the Battle of the Boyne, which in that country is
usually called the Victory of Boyne Waters. The com-
pany wishing him to pronounce an opinion, invited him
to change his seat. " Surely, my lord," said one, " you
would not turn your back on Boyne Waters ?" Lord Wel-
lesley replied, pointing to a bottle of claret that stood before
him, " Oh, I never look at water when I can get wine."

Forays among Salmon and Deer. By hmes

Conway. Chapman and Hall.

The author of these pages informs us in his pre-
face that he is a mere tyro in thebranches of sport
on which he writes ; be this as it may he has con-
trived to furnish a very interesting volume which
consists of narratives of different excursions made
by himself and a friend in the Highlands in pursuit
of deer and salmon. He also relates many curious
anecdotes and wild legends told him by the moun-
taineers. Among others one relating to the lon-
gevity of the stag may be taken as a specimen—
A CENTURION.
There is a tradition, said by ourinformant to be preserved
in the family of the Mackenzies of Brahan Castle, to the
following effect :

Many generations ago the male calf of a red deer was
reared as a pet in the family. Though a great favourite
while young and harmless, its popularity gradually de-
clined as its ago increased, and its play became rough and
eve l dangerous. Allowed to roam at large, tearing a silver
collar about its neck, as the badge of servitude; it eventu-
ally broke away from this easy thraldom and returned to
its native hills. Still, however, less timid than his brethren,
it continued occasionally to be seen, as it croised the path
of the huntsman ; but the silver charm about its neck pur-
chased for it a comparative immunity from danger; the
rifle was never directed, nor the deerhound slipt against the
former favourite of the castle. But these chance meetings
became less and less frequent, until at length they ceased
altogether ; and the doer was either not seen or not recog-
nised any longer.
Some years ago a stag was killed in the forest of Brahan,
and the flesher in cutting open the skin of the throat, felt
his knife strike against some hard substance which would
not yield to his blade. An investigation laid bare a silver
cellar, deeply imbedded in the flesh, and bearing an inscrip.

Lion to the effect that the deer had been reared by the Mac
kenzies of Brahan upwards of a hundred years before.
The whole is written in en off-hand manner with
out any pretention to grand effect, but open
where you will something to claim attention will
be found.