The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-17 00:00:00

ONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 17, 1868.

1 the subsequent assault of the 14th are full of
linterest. The leading features of bOth events
are familiar to us all, but the full details are now
laid before us on the first attack. THEODORE'S
troops, says the general, advanced with the full
confidence of men accustomed to victory. They had
been promised by THEODORE that they should en-
rich themselves with the spoils of the English, and
they made a stout resistance before they would be
driven from the field. This was THEODORE'S grand
mistake. Ile should have kept his men in the
fortress and have concentrated all his efforts there.
In any case his ulthn tte defeat was inevitable, but the
sortie of the 19th precipitated matters not only by the
actaal loss, but by its disheartening his people and
destroying the prestige of his troops. As Sir R.
NAPIER observes, they cast themselves from their
vantage ground, to which there was no return.
Those who accuse the British General of unneces-
sary harshness towards THEODORE will now be un-
deceived, s'nce Sir B. NAPIER offere I terms to the
defeated King after the first engagement, which
were refused.

The amnesty given by the Emperor of R !ssia
on the occasion of the birth of a sou to the Czare-
witch does not differ in any material respect from
its predecessors. It will be remembered that an
amnesty is by no means an uncommon event in
Russia, such acts of grace being usually per-
formed at coronations, and whenever there is a
birth or marriage in the Imperial family. Of
course, as these amnesties are so frequent, they
never amount to a full pardon ; for if they did, the
Emperor, after giving an amnesty for one insurrec-
tion, would have to wait for a second before he
could give another amnesty ; and even the Poles
cannot get up an insurrection oftener than once in
fifteen years or so. These amnesties arc, there-
fore, simply alleviations of the sentences originally
passed on political offenders, and are in no case
applicable to hardened " criminals," but only to
thos3 who are regarded as " worthy of confidence ;"
i.e., who have not shown too much independence of
spirit while under the orders of the Siberian
authorities. The boons conferred on the Siberian
exiles by former amnesties have chiefly consisted in
their being brought nearer to their native country,
and the same has been done in the present case.
Thus the new ukase permits the exiles in Eastern
Siberia to settle in Western Siberia, and those in
Western Siberia to settle in the north-east of
European Russia. Among other articles of the
ukase is one permitting all foreigners exiled in
Siberia to return, and another which pardons
exiles who were under twenty years of age at the
time of their banishment, but excludes from the
benefits of the amnesty such of them as were con-
demned to hard labour in the mines, thus reveal.
ing a fact which was not hitherto known, namely,
that boys under twenty are made to undergo this
terrible punishment.
The Roman correspondent of a contemporary,
writing on the Bth inst., says :—" The marriage of
Count Alphonso de Caserte, younger brother of
the King of Naples, with the Princess Maria
Antoinetta de Bourbon, daughter of Count de
Trapani, was solemnized this morning at half-past
seven o'clock, in the private chapel of the Vatican.
The nuptial blessing was pronounced by the Pope,
and the witnesses to the ceremony were four
cardina's belonging to the Neapolitan provinces,
but now residing at Rome—namely, Cardinals
Grasselini, De Lucca, Pambianco, and Monaco de
Lavalette. The bridal party included the King of
Naples, the parents of the bride, Count de Gir-
genti, Donna Maria Isabel, Princes of the Asturias,
and Duke Robert of Parma, who came to Rome
expressly to attend the marriage. The Pope ad-
dressed a very touching discourse to the royal
couple ; and, after the ceremony, entertained the
whole company, numbering upwards of sixty per-
sons, at a sumptuous al fresco breakfast. Cardinal
Antonelli was among the guests, and also attended
the marriage. At the conclusion of the repast the
bridal party proceeded through the galleries of the
Vatican,' and down the staircase of the Sistine
Chapel to the basilica of St. Peter, in ceder to
render homage at the tomb of the apostles. The
great door of St. Peter's, which is never used but
for the Sovereign Pontiff, was throWn open for the
egress of the bridal pair. The King of Naples
gave a state dinner in honour of the occasion, and
in the evening the Farnese Palace was the scene of
a grand riccrirnento.
The Bristol Post reports the following extra-
ordinary scene in a church :--In a pretty little
village church in Wiltshire, the other Sunday
evening, the minister announced the closing hymn.
'rho leader of the choir and clerk of the church,
an honest knight of the anvil, to the surprise of
the congregation, exclaimed, "'Tis the 'underd
and thirteenth hymn." " No, it is not," said the
clergyman, and again he announced the right
number, and requested the clerk to play it. " I
tell 'ee 'tis the 'underd and thirteenth," persisted
the village blacksmith. To prevent this unseemly
harangue, the clergyman descended from the
pulpit, walked to the harmonium, placed the hymn
before the clerk (who had been watching his opera-
tions with contracted eyebrows), and said, " Play
that, if you please." The stubborn functionary
looked at it, and seeing it was not his "'underd
and thirteenth," said, " This aint the right hymn,
I tell 'ee." " Never mind, you play it." " I
sha at, you play'en yourself," said the crusty clerk,
and he walkol from the plus. The congregation
was dismissed, and the clerk was sent for. '' Do
you know you have acted very improperly to-
night?" said the clergyman to him, " and if you
do not make a public apology before the congrega-
tion next Sunday, I shall request you to vacate
your office." " What, zur, make a public 'poligy !
Do you knaw Ibe a morried man ? Do you knaw
Ibe a your 'hunderd pours man ?" Ile refused to
apologize, and so he will lose his office.

A few days ago the Parisian public were a little
moved by reading in the Etendard (Government
paper) a paragraph announcing that the Emperor
had just lost his best friend." Several persons,
without waiting to turn to the next page, came to
the conclusion that it was some great personage
whose loss his Majesty had to deplore, and the
names of M. de Persigny, Dr. and Senator Con-
neau, M. Belmontet, General Fleury, and other
best friends, old or new, occurred to their mind.
Fortunately it was neither of those personages,
and the friend in question, on whose disinterested
fidelity no one ever cast a suspicion, was simply his
Majesty's dog Nero. As Nero belongs to history
it is expected that the Etendard will give his
biography, and that one of M. Haussmann's new
boulevards will be decorated with his name. The
Figaro relates a story about this now famous
animal. It seems that a month or two ago Nero
took it into his bead to absent himself without
leave from the Tuileries. He had probably heard
a good deal about the embellishments of Paris,
and wished to make a personal inspection of them.
Whatever his object, he had remained away for
several days, when a note appeared in the semi-
official journal, the Constitutionne/, offering a hand-
some reward for his recovery. It is suspected that
he indulged in a little dissipation, fora lady found
him in a deplorable condition, with all the marks
of having been engaged in personal conflict, bitten,
beaten, drenched to the very bones, and apparently
sick of the world. The lady gave him hospi-
tality for a day or two, and then took him to the
place indicated in the journal, when he was re-
stored to his owner. In a few days after the lady
received a lett r from the Emperor's secretary, en-
closing a gold medal as a reward for the care she
had taken of Nero. The medal is not meant to be
worn.

We published recently the announcement made
by the overseers of Salford of their intention to
place on the next Parliamentary list the names of
all duly qualified women. The overseers of Brad-
ford, on observing th's, communicated with the
Home Secretary, asking. his opinion upon the
point, and Mr. Hardy has replied, intimating that
it is not his duty to give legal opinions as to the
construction of Acts of Parliament, but adding
that "it is clear Parliament did not intend to give
yotls