The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-27 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The band of the Coldstream Guards attended at Clare-
mont during dinner on Friday (her Majesty's birthday)
and performed the following pieces :
Grand March, dedicated to his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert Kohl.
Fantasia, selected from the Bohemian Girl Balfe.

The Chatsworth Quadrille
Selection from the ballet Alma Costa.
The Polka Dance
Dalkeith Waltz Labitzky.
Serenade, "Come Gentel" Donizetti
The Earl of Liverpool, the Earl Delawarr, the Earl of
Jersey, Sir Henry Wheatley, Col. Berkeley Drummond,
and Captain Francis Seymour took their departure from
Claremont on Friday night, after dining with her Ma-
jesty and Prince Albert.
On Saturday morning the Queen and Prince Albert
took their accustomed walk in Claremont Park. In the
afternoon her Majesty and his Royal Highness drove
out in an open pony carriage.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the
Princess Royal, and the Princess Alice were taken
their usual airings on Saturday in the gardens and park
of Claremont.
Lady Caroline Cocks and the Hon. Miss Frances De-
vereux, the Maids of Honour in Waiting to the Queen,
left Claremont on Saturday.
Yesterday the Queen and Prince Albert, the Ladies
and Gentlemen of the Royal suite and the Household,
attended Divine service at Claremont. The Hon. and
Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay officiated.

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager attended Divine
service yesterday in the Chapel Royal, St. 'James's.
The sermon was preached by the Bishop of London,
who took his text from Ephesians, chap. iv., verse 30.
The Prayers were read by the sub-Dean; the Lessons
by the Rev. Messrs. Barham and Packman; and the
Communion Service by the Bishop of London. The
Musical Service was King's in C, the Sanctus in C Ring.
The Anthem was, " Let God arise" (Greene).
The Bishop of Norwich, and the Dean of Hereford,
the Clerk and Deputy-Clerk of the Closet, were in
waiting.

Her Majesty was attended by the Countess of Sheffield,
the Hon. Charlotte Hudson, and Earl Howe. Among
the Nobility present were the Dukes of Beaufort and
Leeds; Marquises of Northampton, Normanby, and
Winchester; Lords Harrowby, Cawdor, Cathcart, Shef-
field, Wilton, Vivian, Hawarden, Ebrington, J. O'Bryen,
Ernest Bruce, Alford, Leveson, and Ingestre; Ladies
Westmeath, Wilton, and C. Sanford.
The Bishop of London, assisted by the Rev. Dr.
Sleath and the Rev. Mr. Barham, afterwards adminis-
tered the sacrament.

The Duke of Rutland attended the early service in
the Chapel Royal St. James's yesterday. The sermon
was preached by the Rev. Dr. Wesley.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge attended Divine service yesterday morning
in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley-street. Baroness
Ahlefeldt and Baron Knesebeck were in waiting on
their Royal Highnesses. The Duke of Cambridge at-
tended Divine service in the afternoon in Grosvenor
Chapel.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester visited
her Majesty the Queen Dowager on Saturday at Marl-
borough House. Her Royal Highness the Duchess or
Cambridge, accompanied by the Princess Mary, also
visited her Majesty on Saturday.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the
Duchess of Gloucester yesterday, at Gloucester House.
Their Royal Highnesses honoured the Italian Opera
with their presence on Saturday evening.
A deputation, consisting of Sir David H. Blair, Bart. ;
Sir T. B. Hepburn, Bart, M.P. ; Sir Robert Houstoun,
K.C.B. ; Mr. Archibald Smith ; Mr. Smollett, M.P. ;
Mr. Baird, M.P. ; Mr. M‘Gregor ; Mr. Burnley ; Mr.
A. Oswald, M.P. ; Mr. Maxwell Alexander ; Mr.
Mungo Campbell ; Mr. Lockhart, M.P. ; and Mr.
Forbes, M.P., had an interview with Sir Robert Peel on
Friday, at his official residence in Downing-street.
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Arbuthnot had an in-
terview with Lord Stanley at the Colonial-office on
Saturday.
A meeting of the Commissioners for the government
of Pentonville Prison was held at the Council-office on
Saturday. The Commissioners present were, the Duke
of Richmond, the Earl of Chichester, the Speaker of the
House of Commons, Major Jebb, Mr. Crawford, and
Mr. Russell.
Sir Robert Peel left town on Saturday morning, for
his seat, Drayton Manor, Staffordshire.
A deputation respecting flint glass, consisting of
Messrs. Grayebrook, Bacchus, Summerfield, Guest, and
Chistey, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
his official residence, in
Exchequer on Saturday at
Downing-street. Mr. John Wood, Chairman of the
Excise, was also present at the interview.
Sir Henry Hardier) and Mr. Hawes, M.P., had
inter-
views with Lord Stanley on Saturday at the Colonial-
office.
The Afarchioness of Bristol, we regret to state, expired
on Saturday morning at Brighton.

The West India interest in Liverpool are exces-
sively discontented with the Government plan for the
reduction of the Sugar Duties. They say that a differ-
ence of los. between the duty on Colonial and Foreign
Sugar (245. and 345. per Cwt. respectively) is nct
enough—that it is 2s. per cwt. less than that offered by
the Whig!, who proposed 245. for Colonial, and 365. for
Foreign—and that it will admit a very great quantity of
free-labour sugar from the markets of Europe, the place
of which will be supplied by the slave-labour sugar of
Brazil ! Certainly, their quarrel with Sir Robert is " a
very pretty quarrel ;" Lord Ilarewood and the London
West Indians:share in the feeling of the " Dicky- Sams;"
and the latter threaten loudly that they will turn
Radicals ! This augurs indifferently for Mr. Entwisle.
Division is the worst enemy o any party.—Leeds
Mercury.
The Reformers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields will
dine together on Tuesday, the 28th, at Roberts's, Artichoke
Tavern, Blackwall, to celebrate the opening of the select
vestry and the triumph of Reform principles in the parish.ra
J. T. Leader, Esq., M.P., will preside, supported by Gene 1
Evans and a host of Reformers of this important parish.
The interment of the late Sir John and the
Lady
Elizabeth Lowther took place at Swillington, in Yorkshire,
•on Saturday last. The mournful solemnity was attended by
a vast assemblage of the Nobility and Gentry of the sur-
rounding neighbourhood, and by large bodies of the tenantry
of the late Baronet.

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ENCOURAGEMENT TO 460.11 j. .-9
A man of the name of Walker wro 1,:------
le`ter to Mr. Charles Dickens, who was tr.l9pli L Ai4
by the account of his distress as to send him a sove-
reign and a suit of clothes. Another application soots
followed, which succeeded likewise to the extent of
2/. 12s. This was followed by a third, to the effect
that, having done so much, Mr. Dickens must do
more, and a water-butt was wanted. Mr. Dickens
was unmoved by the want of the water-butt. Mrs.
Walker was then taken desperately ill, and succour was
wanted for a dying wife. This did not do. Nothing
could be made of the dying wife. What, then, was
the next expedient ? Why, if nothing could be made
of a dying wife, making her well again would not
make a better case ; but killing her outright might
perhaps do better, so this was tried-
5, Mitre-street, Webber-street, Lambeth,
Friday, May 17.
" Sir,—My poor wife is dead. God rest her soul. She
is now in heaven, I trust, for she was a good mother and
aszood wife. In few words, can you spare a few crumbs
that fall from your table for my children ? I shall be
grateful.—Yours in the lowest depth of misery,
" To C. Dickens, Esq. " JOHN WALKER."
Mr Dickens, having made inquiries, found that the
woman was alive, and upon this proof of fraud, placed
the affair in the hands of the chief clerk of the Men-
dicity Society, who brought the case before Mr. Raw-
linson at the Marylebone Police-office.
Mr. Sturgeon, the officer of the Mendicity Society
stated—
" Ile went to 5, Mitre-street. The prisoner led him into
a back kitchen, and said he was in very great distress,
so much so as to be totally unable to procure even a scanty
meal. Witness told him he thought it was a pity that
his wife did'nt take in needlework to help to support her
family, when he said she had been ill, but was now much
better, and that she would soon get into employ. Upon
the prisoner's admission that his wife was living, he (pri-
soner) was given into custody, and after he was locked
up witness went back to the house, where he saw the
wife and her four children, who were evidenly in very
great distress; and he gave the poor woman a trifle from
his own pocket, and afterwards went to the station-house,
and afforded relief to the prisoner ; he had previously
scertained that the wife had really been very
" Mr. Rawlinson (to Mr. Knyvett)—The prisoner has
no doubt clone wrong, but here is a case of great dis-
tress, and that distress is proved out of the mouth of
your own officer; after that, do you really wish me to
commit this man?
" Mr. Knyvett—No, Sir, I do not.
" Mr. Rawlinson (to the prisoner)—What have you
to say? Prisoner (after some hesitation, and in a faint
tone of voice)—l wrote that last letter at the eleventh
hour, when we were so badly off that I knew not what
to do. I am sorry I overstepped the truth in saying that
my wife was dead, but my motive was good, as we had
not a bit of bread to eat. I have been a clerk and ac-
countant, and from the period of my losing my last
situation, I have not been able to support myself or my
family.
" Mr. Rawlinson—You are evidently a man of good
education; but it cannot be denied, and even you admit
it yourself, that you have put forth a falshood in your
last letter to Mr. Dickens. Under all the circumstances
you are discharged, and I am very sorry you have been
drought here.
"The poor man burst into tears, and before he quitted
the Court several persons relieved him, for which he was
truly grateful.
Here is fraud rewarded. As for Mr. Dickens, he
is, after all his bounty, by implication, treated as a
very hard-hearted man, for having thought the false •
pretences deserving of punishment.
According to Mr. Rawlinson, all latitude of false-
hood is to be permitted to persons who have no other
means of subsistence than the false pretences. It was
this man's trade to live on the representation of dis-
tresses, and when he exhausted benevolence, or failed
in a falsehood, he was, of course, as destitute as he
had described himself; and then Mr. Rawlinson is
only sorry to see him at the bar of justice,—he was
perhaps more sorry still that Mr. Dickens had not
been his dupe.
If a famishing creature begs in the street, the
magistrate enforces the law against him, and the
truth of his tale of misery is no excuse.
If another drives a trade in begging letters, and re-
sorts to false pretences, the truth that he is in want is
accepted as discharging him from justice, and as a
complete set-off for the fraud by w hich he has at-
tempted to obtain charity.
Why every trading mendicant, when his craft fails
him, must be in want.

To grant to the mendicant impunity for his fraud,
because of his distress upon the failure of his tricks,
is only tantamount to annulling the law making such
a mode of livelihood penal.
The conduct of the officer of the Mendicity Society
in relieving the man after he had detected his fraud,
may appear odd, but it is quite consistent with all
their proceedings.
We have more than once explained that the pro-
tection of impostors against interlopers whose ap-
peals to charity are void of fraud, is the effect of the
labours of the Mendicity Society, whatever may be
the object of its supporters. Indeed, it would more
aptly bear the title of the Mendacity Society, seeing
how favourably it works for falsehood in all its guises
of imposture.
If a poor famishing wretch begs for bread, the
officers of the Mendicity Society pounce upon him
and punish him; but with the veteran cheats, and
gangs of cheats, the psalm-singing sailors in white
trowsers, who never were at sea,—the distressed
families, the fathers of which, " though unaccus-
tomed to sue for charity," have for years past made
long theatrical operations in sonorous voices—the
women with three or four children lying in their
laps, who never get any older, thanks to the succes-
sion crops,—these nuisances are never meddled with,
and the whole labour of the Mendicity's servants
seems to be to guard them against the competition of
any real objects of charity not regularly of the trade.
Consistently with this system, the moment the
clerk of the Mendicity Society found that the man
Walker resorted to fraud to swindle the charities, he
saw in him an object for the Society's succour and
encouragement.
The man is no doubt now set up, thoroughly esta-
blished, and protected as one of the regular pyfes.
sional impostors.—Examiner.

A NEW EPIDEMY.—ROME, MAY s.—We are daily
apprehensive hero of the breaking out of an epidemy
which, during several weeks past, has spread terror over a
portion of the states of the Church. Its ravages are not
confined to the valleys and other low parts of the country;
on the contrary, it rages more especially among the in-
habitants of mountainous districts. In the little town of
Tivoli, containing about 9,000 inhabitants, 90 persons died in
the space of a week. The malady is generally supposed to
be contagious, but of this fact there is no positive proof. In
every case in which a post mortem examination has taken
place there has been found congestion of the brain, as prior
to, and in, apoplexy. It appears to be the same complaint
which has recently prevailed in Naples and Sicily under the
name of torcicollo. It is clearly traceable to atmospheric
causes. After an exceedingly warm April, we have had
since the Ist of May several of the coldest days that have
been experienced since the commencement of the year. The
temperature frequently varies 20 degrees during the day.
Winter cloaks, after having been laid aside, are now resumed
again. The torcicollo is usually fatal in the space of 12 hours.
In Rome, however, it has been only sporadic, and without any
confirmed character.—Frankfort Zeitung.

WANT OF PUBLIC WALKS IN MINCIIESTER..--Thill
great city of 300,000 souls—of incomparable importance
—of untold wealth—does not boast of a single yard of
park ground upon which the foot of the poor may, of
right, be planted—does not possess a single tree or bush,
set apart to refresh the gaze, and revive the heart, of
the weary prisoner of the town ! Hardly a village on
the continent is destitute of a piece of ground, bordered
by avenues of stately trees, adorned with flower beds,
and abounding with shady resting places—the pro-
perty of the community. Here, on fine summer even.
ings, the whole population—the rich and the poor—the
master and the workman, each attended by his family
—the grey-headed grandfather and the prattling child,
may be seen in delightful company ; a pleasant contrast
to the opposite want of sociality and common sense at
home ! In France, these public resorts have greatly im••
proved the dress and demeanour of the poorer classes,
and have led to the extension, to the very lowest grades
of society, of that admirable politeness, peculiarly
French. Rouen, the Manchester of France, is, in spring
and summer, green with foliage; trees line its streets,
and shade its courts ; and its principal thoroughfare
possesses two rows of noble elms, limes, and chesnuts,
worthy of the royal parks. With us this shade and
verdure are forbidden by the smoke; but surely we can
plant and water beyond the influence of tall chimneys.-+
A Plea for Public Walks, &c.
VESSELS SPOKEN WlTH.—Grainger, Newcastle to
Malta, 26th ult., in the Gut of Gibraltar ;
Liverpool to Leghorn, 27th ult., lat. 37, lon. 8 ; Demo•
trius, Liverpool to Constantinople, 30th ult., off Lisbon,
by the Anne, Seeger, arrived at Falmouth. Mary Muir,
Feb. 28, off Ensenada ; Semnos, Valparaiso to London,
11th ult., by the Hilbert, Bruce, arrived at Cork. Emu.
China to London, March 28, lat. 12 S., lon. 11 W. a
Camillus, Bombay to Liverpool, sth ult., lat. I, lon. 2 W.l
Palatine, Batavia to London, 19th ult., lat. 18 N., len.
37 VT., by the Matilda, arrived at Liverpool. Isabelle
Margaret, of and from Bristol, 4th inst., lat. 46, lon. kb,
by the Margaret Littlejohn, Watt, arrived in the Clyde.
Vicar of Bray, London to Peru, Ist ult., lat. 1 N., lon.
22 W.,iby the Matilda, arrived at Liverpool.
PRUDENT PRECAUTION.—The proprietor of the
Surrey Zoological Gardens has communicated to Mr.
Braidwood, superintendent of the fire brigade, the az.
pearance likely to be produced by the forthcoming exhi•
bition of the Fire of London, that he may not (by suppos:
ing it a real conflagration) unnecessarily direct his atten•
tion to it. It has been arranged that a rocket shall be
discharged to point out the exact spot and time, that the
men on duty, at the different bridges, may not be de.
ceived.
ROYAL ACADEMY FANCY DRESS BALL.--SatUrda,
afternoon there was a meeting of the Lady Patronesses, at
the Hanover- square Rooms, in consequence of the great de.
mand for vouchers; and it. appeared that the second isme
was disposed of. We believe that Lady Jersey alone had
issued upwards of two hundred. We understand that any
vouchers issued after this day are to be charged double. 14
addition to Lady Jersey's splendid quadrille of forty, other 4
have been formed under the direction efLady C. Egerton, &c..
The Marchioness of Bristol, we regret to state, ex•
pired on Saturday morning, at Brighton. Her Ladyship was
the sister of the present Viscount Templetown, and was mar.
ried to the Marquis of Bristol, in February, 1798.
Sir Andrew Leith Hay, has paired off with
Broadwood until the 25th Jane.