The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-25 00:00:00

THE NEW FOREIGN OFFICE.

Lord Stanley, the Foreign Secretary, received and
entertained a distinguished company on Wednesday
evening, for the first time, at the new Foreign Offices, it
Downing-street. The opening of the building to the public
marks an event of interest, as the second step towards
uniting four of the great State departments. When the
building now in process of erection is complete, the India,
roreign, Colonial, and Home departments of Government
will be housed under one roof. The chief secretaries and their
permanent subordinates will be enabled, if they so please,
to communicate with each other through the medium of a
speaking tube, and thus possibly may be saved, the neces•
city of a portion of that interminable despatch-writing
that continually goes on between one department and the
other departments, which has so greatly tended to fix
upon all the epithet of the Circulocution Office.
Last year, on the occasion of the visit of the Sultan of
Turkey to this country, the new India Office was by an
effort made tolerably complete, and on Wednesday
evening the second portion of the building, which is
dedicated to the Foreign Department, was thrown open.
The Foreign Office is the north-western portion of the
building, considered as a whole. It has special features
of attraction peculiar to itself internally, which cause
it to rank, in those respects, superior to the other por-
tions of the building. For- example, there is there a
splendid apartment known as the Conference Room, the
dimensions of which are—length, GG feet ; breadth,
33 feet ; heighth, 45 feet. The roof, or rather ceiling
of this room is divided into compartments in the form
of the head of a waggon, and is what architects term
gusseted, for windows. These gussets are painted tux,
qunise blue, and are powdered with stars of gold, the bor
derings of the same colour. The ceiling of the room is of the
same tint, but it is divided into geometrical divisions, in
which-are introduced a number of cameo-like medallions
on red fields, containing representations of the greater
planets ; and similar medallions, on fields of gold, of the
various constellations by their signs. The wallsof this room
are painted of a delicate salmon colour, with white and
gold borderings, and are decorated with ornaments of gold
and deep Indian red. This room looks out upon the quad-
rangle, which will ultimately face Parliament-street.
The ceiling of the staircase is in form vaulted, the centre
being domed. In this dome there are female figures,
draped in white, on a deep field of gold, with proper
heraldic bearings, representing the various nations of the
earth in a circle ; inside these figures are painted the signs
of the zodiac, the whole culminating in a firmament
studded with stars, with the sun in the centre or apex of
the dome. In the four corners are larger figures, represent.
ing the four quarters of the globe. Round the figures of
the nations is a golden belt, on which is inscribed the
words, " Let the people praise Thee, 0 God ; yea, let all
the people praise Thee. 0 let the nations rejoice and be
glad. For thou shalt judge the folk righteously, and
govern the nations upon the earth." Mr. Scott, the archi-
tect, and Messrs. Clayton and Bell, who did the decora-
tions under Mr. Scott's directions, sn certainly entitled to
great credit for the way in which the work has been both
designed and executed. A very large assembly was pre-
sent on Wednesday evening in response to Lord Stanley's
invitations, and the praise of the building was almost
universal. The reception was preceded by a dinner
party. The banquet was served in the Cabinet Room ;
covers were laid for twenty-eight.

THE STRIKE OF BOOT AND SHOEMAKERS AT
LIVERPOOL—The whole of the operative hoot and shoe-
makers of Liverpool are now on strike, and the leaders of
the union, finding that the masters would not be coerced
into agreeing to their demand for a fresh increase of wages,
have ordered what are technically called the "women's
men" also to leave the shops, so that the masters now have
only matron oraplord. "

cyaibt

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, June 24.

The Queen and their Royal Highnesses Prince
Leopold and Princess Beatrice went out yesterday
afternoon.

Princess Louise, attended by Lady Caroline Bar-
rington, arrived at the Castle yesterday afternoon
from Buckingham Palace.

Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Louise,
Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice, drove in the
grounds this morning.
Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess
Louis of Hesse, attended by Baroness Gran*
Major Von Hesse, and Baron Von Rabenau, arrived
at the Castle this morning from Buckingham Palace.
Prince and Princess Christian dined with tue
Queen yesterday.
The Judge Advocate-General had an audience
of the Queen to-day.

The Prince of Wales presided yesterday morn-
ing at a meeting of the Governors of the Wellington
College, at the New Palace, Westminster.
His Royal Highness afterwards rode out, attended
by Lieutenant-Colonel Keppel.
The Princess of Wales drove out, accompanied
by the Crown Prince of Denmark.
Prince Christian, attended by Lieut.-Colonel G.
G. Gordon, went to the anniversary dinner of the
Royal Caledonian Asylum yesterday evening, at the
Freetnason'a Hall.

NAVAL AND MILITARY IN7ELLIGENCE.

No. 2 Battery of the 21st Brigade Royal Artil
lery paraded at 10.30 a.m. yesterday morning at
the Royal Artillery Barracks, under the command,
,o
of Capt. Battiscombe, and were marched, preceded
by the band of the regiment, to the Royal Arsenal,
and embarked on board the Lady Eglinton steamer,
belonging to the London and Dublin Compaq,
alongside the T Pier, for conveyance to Portsmouth,
to join the head-quarters of the Brigade. TWO
Batteries (Lieut.-Colonel Penn's and Capt. Twiss's)
having arrived a few days ago, and landed at Ports-
mouth on their return from the Abyssinian Expe-
dition.

Lieut. Nolan, R.A., who went with a detachment
of Royal Artillery from Woolwich to join the
Abyssinian Expedition as instructors in the use of
artillery in mountainous countries with the modern
system of carrying small mortars and howitzers on
pack saddles on the backs of mules, and the method
of loading and unloading them when required, and
which did good service at the battle before gag"
dala on Good Friday, arrived at the Royal Artil-
lery barracks yesterday morning, and met with a
most cordial welcome.

A detachment of the Commissariat Staff Cori
left Chatham yesterday and proceeded to Aldershobt
to do duty with the troops at the camp.
A notification has been received at Chatham
garrison from the Horse Guards announcing that
the reinforcements of cavalry and infantry will be
despatched from England to India during the enetl"
ing months of July and August, in order to arrive
in India earlier in the season than last year.
His Danish Majesty's screw steamsloop Heimdal,
14, Capt. Hedemann, from Iceland, June 6, arrived
in Plymouth Sound yesterday afternoon, bound
probably for Denmark.
His Danish Majesty's screw schooner Diana, 31
Commander Duntzfelt, from Copenhagen, for the
West Indies, arrived in Plymouth Sound yesterday
morning.
The following notification was issued from the
Admiralty yesterday :—" Letters for her Majesty's
ship Bristol may be sent to Lisbon. She will arrive
at that port at the end of June, and will remaiii,,
there 14 days, and then proceed direct to Gibraltar•