The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-23 00:00:00

A !;!11U.Rir OY THE PALACE.

(Firmn the Manchester Examiner.)
Every reader cf Dickens's veracious narrative of
the '' Adventures of M+rtin Chuzziewlt " will
doubtless remember that impre sive episode in
which " SetO Pecksniff, Esq.," arrives in a cab
before the second floor residence of " Mrs. Sarah
Gamp," midwife, High Holborn. P rkins or
Whilks ? Who could it be ? At all event, it was
some poor Benedict iu distress, pushed off pell-mell
at the eleventh hour, with a heart palpitating be-
tween conjugal solicitude and parental anticipa-
tions. Se, at lea,t, the matronly gossips who
quickly congregated under the windows of the
monthly official aforesaid settled among themselves,
while cabby's whip was put into requi'ition to make
a stir among the flower-pots, and wake the slum-
bering hauditaid of Luciva to a sense of her weighty
duties.

In this pleasing delineation of a frequent dilem•
ma who does not recognise a touch of nature which
• makes, if not, all men, at least the better portion of
them, kin ? We say no more, but pass on to the
narration of an incident which comes home to every
Briton, whether Ccelelis or Benedict, maid or 1110-
thx. A few minutes before 2 o'clock on the morn-
ing of Tuesday week a gentleman, evidently in dis-
tress, was seen running in eager hasteinthe vicinity
of the Horse Guards, making for a neighbouring
cab stand. Whether it was Whilks himself, or
some friendly deputy, is not stated ; but of the
urgency of his mission who that saw him could
entertain the slightest doubt ? " Cabby" is at
that hour of the morning a doubtful personage.
What if, after waiting for hours without a call he
should have betaken himself to his pillow ? The
case, like every other ca-e of the kind, depends on
speed. If no " Cabby" can be found, who knows
but that au inquest must be held in the course of
the next 24 hours ? Fortune, however, for once
pities misfortune. One solitary cab is on the stand,
surely kept there by some kind angel. A word and
a wink are enough. The poor hack looks tired to
death, and the wheels of the vehicle seem meditat-
ing some centrifugal feat not at all favourable to
locomotion ; but man must be reft of humanity,
horseflesh must renounce all pretension to creature
sympathy, and even met ter must be preternaturally
ineit, if such a look of distress as that poor gentle-
man wore did not send all three careerine along the
Strand like a young steam engine and appurte-
nances. The case was critical and pressing. Two
doctors had to be summoned. The creaky vehicle
had to be driven first to Hertford-street and back,
then to Sackville-street and lack. Thanks to your
selectest influences, ye vestal stars the work was
done, and in a few hours it was announced to the
world that "mother and child are doing well."
Now, who was this matron whom, in the dead
hour of night, " Cabby " so opportunely be-
friended ? We renounce a climax, and tell our
readers at once. It was that most gracious
Sovereign who reigns in ttte affections of
30,000,000 of British subjects, and on whose
dominions the sun never sets. Far be from us the
slightest wish to squeeze anything melodramatic
out of the incident we have faithfully recorded.
The Queen of England is neither morenor less than
woman ; nor a whit fairer or brighter for the dia-
dem she wears than she would be if those domestic
virtues which, in her case, adorn the highest rank
had been destined to bless the lowest. Still, we do
not set so lightly by our Sovereign as to be able to
regard the affair wi;h perfect good humour. We
pay handsomely for the maintenance of a retinue of
servants to wait upon her on all occasions. Only a
small portion of the munificent sum which is set
apart fur the Queen's household goes into her pri-
vate purse. The remainder is for the most part
divided among a crowd of splendid retainers.
There are masters of the horse, grooms in waiting,
equerries, gold sticks and silver sticks, and good-
ness knows what not; everything, in fact, but one
or two sensible, serviceable attendants, who know
how to provide for the commonest emergency. One
is reminded of the embarrassed old woman's peti-
tion, " Good stick beat dog, dog won't bite pig,
pig won't get over the &c., save that, in this
case, the stick or sticks, for there were plenty of
them, both gold and silver, did not begin to beat
the dog, and that but for a poor, unsalaried "cabby,"
with his four inches of well-used whipcord, the poor
woman would not have got home that night. The
trite observation, that the wealthiest people are the
worst served, is, it seems, universally true. It is
certain that Mrs. Perkins, blessed only with a
faithful husband and a maid of all work, would
have been as well, if not bee ter, attended to.
After this proof of assiduity we may well won-
der that the Prince Consort had not to run for
the doctor himself. The incongruity of the in-
cident with the previous State arrangements is
most ludicrous. Here we have had half a
dozen Cabinet Ministers wasting away the precious
interval of Parliamentary repose for a month past,
not daring to stir till they had been summoned to
the ante-chamber of the Sovereign. Her Majesty's
faithful lieges have been in anxious expectancy for
the same period, and crowned heads had given
their final orders for the earliest telegraphic an-
nouncement of the event. All through the previous
Monday evening it was evident that the expected
moment was at hand, yet, when it came, there had
to be a despairing rush at the nearest "stand,"
and, as fortune would have it, a poor cabby stood
between his Sovereign and an exigency which we
are too loyal to contemplate. All this while sump-
tuous stables, built regardless of expense, threw
their stately shadows placidly under the moon's
gaze, and a host of lubberly grooms were snoring
iu the Palace chambers !