The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-13 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

AND

Vutatt Optitton.

" Who mots may read."

FOR.EIGN.

The King and Queen of the French, the Duchess of Kent,
the Prince of Lemingen, and the Royal Family, arrived at
Fontainebleau on Tuesday evening, at six o'clock. The Pre-
fect of the department, the Sub-Prefect, General d'Astorg,
and the civil and military authorities of Fontainebleau, were
in waiting to receive the Royal party. In the evening the
King gave a grand dinner, to which 40 guests were invited.
The Count de Syracuse, brother of the King of Naples, has
arrived in Paris. This is the second visit paid by his Royal
Highness to this capital.
The National lays :—" It is announced that the Commit
of the Northern Railroad decided on Tuesday on the principle
that the Paris and Lille line, already almost terminated by
the State, should be finished and worked by it."
The Courtier Francais has the following :—" It is asserted
in political circles, which are generally well informed, that
the Count de Reuss (General Prim), who has had frequent
conferences with Queen Christina in Madrid, will shortly ar-
rive in France, with instructions to treat on a very important
affair. The negotiation with which he is charged is said to
be connected with the renunciation of the claim of Den Car-
los to the throne of Spain, and a marriage between the young
Queen Isabella and the Prince of Asturias."

The postscript of a letter from Constantina of April 24, in
the Toulonnais. says :—"lt is reported that our soldiers have
experienced a pretty serious check. The column, divided in
three, was about to attack the Ouled-Sultan, when the ad-
vanced guard, having gone a little too much forward, was
attacked with loss."

The Vienna journals announce that the exhibition of Na-
tional Industry in that city will open on the 15th instant, and
close at the end of June. The exhibitions in future are to be
quinquennial, as in France.
A fire took place at Bremen on the 30th ult.., in which
eight persons were burnt to death.
We learn from Munich, May 3, that some attempt had
been made to renew the disturbance caused by the rise in the
price of beer, but that tranquillity was maintained, without
the necessity of having recourse to violence.
On Thursday last two French artillery soldiers blew out
their brains at Valence. They were intimate friends, and
one of them having in vain endeavoured to induce the other
to abandon the idea of suicide, resolved at length to die with
h►m. Their lifeless bodies were found side by side on the
staircase of their barracks.

"On the day of the King's fete," says the Coutitutionnel,
" whilst the crowd on the Pont des Invalides was at its
height, a young man dressed in a blouse climbed over the
balustrade, and threw hirtiself into the Seine. He was
drowned before assistance could reach him."

The Stockholm journals publish an account of the funeral of
the late King of Sweden and Norway, which took place on
the 26th ult. The coffin was borne by Noblemen, and fol-
lowed to the church by the King and Queen. It was de-
posited in the Royal vault, and two Bishops, in presence of
the Archbishop, performed the Jordfastning, a ceremony used
in Sweden at all burials—the priest casting three clods of
earth on the coffin, and pronouncing the following words :
From earth thou tamest, to earth thou returnest—through
Christ thou shalt rise again." At this moment the batteries
of artillery at the Kungsholmen and the Kornhamer fired
256 shots, and the infantry two volleys. The procession
then returned to the Palace, where it enteredat half-past five
o'clock. The whole of the diplomatic corps were present at
the ceremony.

LAW AND POLICE.
At the Central Criminal Court on Friday, Henry Harding
was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, with hard labour,
for highway robbery; and James Lemens, a black man, for
cutting and wounding Jane Smith, was sentenced to three
months' imprisonment, the jury having found him guilty of
assault only.
At Bow-street, Edward Youngman Cotton was charged
with having committed a serious robbery in the house of his
master, Mr. Edward Driver, of No. 8, Parliament-street, near
to Whitehall, and then setting fire to the mansion, with in-
tent to burn it down, and thus destroy all proofs of his guilt.
A young woman of prepossessing features, named Henrietta
Smith, was charged as accessary. After a lengthened inves-
tigation, the prisoners were both remanded.

—At Lambeth-street Francisco Llancheris, a Spanish sol-
dier, was brought before Mr. Norton for further examina-
tion, on a charge of stabbing a young man named Benjamin
Rogers. He was again remanded for a fortnight.
Richard Redwood, Alexander Cecil, James Carter, Joseph
Clarke, and John Walker, were charged at Woolwich Police-
court with stealing six loaves from the cart of Mr. Tame,
baker, of Hare-street. The baker declined to prosecute
them, as they were in a starving state. Mr. Grove said they
must not ge about stealing bread; they ought to keep at
home, for their parish must support them. However, as the
baker himself humanely declined to prosecute, he should
discharge them.

COURT-PASZIONABLZ.
The Master of the Horse (the Earl of Jersey) has lately
made a reduction in the number of her Majesty's stud at the
Royal mews, in consequence of so many of the Royal journeys
being made by railway.
The Marquis of Bute, the Lord High Commissioner to the
General Assembly, is expected to arrive at Holyrood Palace
early this week. We understand that the arrangements for
the company who will dine with his Lordship during the
sitting of the assembly are to be on a scale of magnificence
beyond that of former years.
The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon and family left Gros-
venor-square, on Thursday, for Arundel-terrace, Brighton,
where his Lordship has taken a mansion for a month.
The Earl and Countess of Cardigan are not expected to
return to Portman-square from Stephen's-green, Dublin,
where the Noble Earl has taken the spacious mansion of the
late Lord Chancellor Manners, for a limited term.
The Earl and Countess of Albemarle returned to Berke-
ley-square, on Thursday, from Newmarket, for the season.
Mr. and Mrs. Standish Standish entertained his Excel-
lency the French Ambassador and the Countess de St.
Aulaire, his Excellency the Swedish Minister, and the Coun-
tess Bjornstjerna, Lord and Lady Aylmer, Count Louis de
Noailles, Count Esterhazy, Barons de Talleyrand, Brenner,
and Taylor, &c., at dinner last evening, after which Mrs.
Standish had a soirée.

On Thursday last was married, at the Catholic Church,
Chelsea, by the Right Rev. Dr. Griffiths, Catholic Bishop of
the London District, Sir Pyers Mostyn, Bart., of Talacre, to
the Hon. Frances Georgiana Fraser, second daughter of Lord
and Lady Levitt.

THE BANK CHARTER.,--Last week produced the
Ministerial Budget; this week has witnessed a far more im-
portant Parliamentary ea-posh—that relating to a renewal of
the Bank of England Charter, and the plan of a f future na-
tional currency. These two public questions areintimately
connected, and we wish it were in our power to speak in
terms of commendation of one or the other; but we cannot.
When we reflect on the rapid diminution of the Public Debt,
which took place previous to the " fatal measure" of 1819,
a decrease of twenty millions per annum, and consider the
constant struggle we have had ever since to keep our heads
above water, and that we are now, after twenty nine years
of peace, in the predicament of the drowning man catching at
a straw in the shape of a surplus revenue of less than
400,000/., for which we are indebted to the return of an ob-
noxious income-tax, we can scarcely restrain owt indigna-
tion at the financial folly that has produced such re-
sults. Unfortunately for himself Ana his country, Sir
Robert Peel, in the beginning of his career, fell
into very bad. iimpany-that of schemers, bullionists, and
self-styled political economists, who succeeded in polluting
his mind with foolish dogmas as to free trade In everything
except the most important of all commodities—gold. It was
never our misfortune to hear more ignorance displayed on
the subject of the currency than was exhibited by the
Premier on Monday night ; indeed, we doubt much if he
knows what money is—of course we mean in a philosophical
sense; for in his eagerness to get the command of it, on the
part of Government, he evidently confounded it with the
mercantile currency of the country, so that, not content with
exercising the prerogative of the Crown as the issuer of the
money of the realm, he would, forsooth, usurp the privilege of
banker in general for the nation, as if the Government had
not quite enough to do to mind its own affairs, but it must
needs look after those of other people. Let the Government
issue its receipts (we do not want gold ones) for all the, sup-
plies, services, salaries, &c. &c., which it raises from the
people, and let these receipts pass current as money, and be
receivable at the Treasury in payment of taxes, and a basis
will be thus formed of legal tender, on which the superstruc-
ture of mercantile currency mey be safely reared ; we shall
then be guided by the wants of our own community as re-
gards the circulating medium, instead of being obliged, as
now, to fix our gaze on Amsterdam and Paris, watching all
the changes of the bullion market, for the purpose of regu-
lating our circulation on some fanciful theory of the ex-
changes. Gold, as an article of commerce, would come and
go according to our wants, and it is likely we could always
command our fair share of it, seeing that we can afford to
pay the best price for it. We all got rich during the war,
when the foreign exchanges were against us ; we are now
all impoverished with the foreign exchanges in our favour.
So much for the wisdom of the Bullion Committee and its
disciples !—Pictorial Times.

ABINGDON ELICTION.—We have received com-
munications from several correspondents for which we
are obliged, announcing the return of Mr. Thesiger on
Saturday for this close-borough. The return is a matter
of no consequence, and about which there could be no
doubt, though there may be some doubt ()bout the con-
sideration. This is one of the rotten boroughs that some
how or other escaped destruction in the general sweep
made by the Reform Bill.
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.—The Commissioners of Cus-
toms, with the approval of the Treasury, have at length
brought out their scheme for the landing-waiters' and
searchers' department in the port of London. Two
offices of a new denomination will be created, with the
style and title of Inspectors-General of the Waterside
and Warehousing Departments. An addition of three
new officers will be made to the number of landing.
surveyors. The six classes of landing-waiters remain as
heretofore. Another rank of officers has been estab-
lished, subordinate to, and under the orders of the land-
ing-waiters, but superior to the lockers and weighers.
This class consists of sixty persons, to be chosen by the
Board of Customs, from the most experienced men
among the lockers and weighers, and to be called
Superintendents of Locks and Warehouses. The num-
ber of lockers now employed will by this arrangement
be reduced from 183 to 120, and the number of weighers
from 220 to 180. Messrs. Howe and. Kendall, who have
been for some time acting as superintendents of the
landing department, have been appointed the inspectors-
general, with salaries of 7001. per annum each. The
selection of officers for promotion to the additional land-
ing surveyorships is not yet decided. This arrangement
will, no doubt, prove beneficial to the servi6e, as far as it
goes ; but the frauds which have been perpetrated in
the Customs arose principally from the want of a suf-
ficient controlling power; and the addition of five I:irsons,
viz., two inspectors-general, and three landing surveyors,
is completely inadequate to effect any material and saht-
tary alteration in the old. and ineffective system.—
Observer.

COURT•MARTIAL AT CHATHAM.--On Friday the
Court-martial for the trial of Serjeant-Major William Neel-
ance, of the 12th Lancers, for attempting to bribe Major
Meyer, of the Cavalry Depot at Maidstone, to make a favour-
able report of his qualifications for the post of riding-master
to his regiment, and for writing a letter to the Duke of Wel-
lington calculated to injure Major Meyer in the estimation of
the Commander-in-Chief, assembled for the fourth time,
when the case for the prosecution was closed. The President
then called on the prisoner to make his defence, when he re-
quested time to prepare his answer to the charges. The Court
gave the prisoner until Saturday next to make his defence.
The apple blossom now presents a very beautiful
appearance in our neighbourhood, and there is every pro-
spect of a bountiful supply of fruit, as we have now little to
fear from frosts or rough winds.-Somerset County Herald. -