The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-25 00:00:00

MISS TURNER.

The following is a Copy of tile Private Bill
brought into the House of Lords to annul the alleged
marriage of Miss Turner :
" An Act to annul and declare void an alleged Mar-
riage between Ellen Turner, an infant, and Ed-
ward Gibbon Wakefield.

" Whereas Ellen Turner, the only child and heir
of William Turner, Esq., an infant, under the age of
sixteen years, was lately, by fiend, contrivance, and
forgery, illegally taken and carried away by one Ed-
ward Gibbon Wakefield, a stranger, wholly unknown
to the said Ellen Turner, and, being under the con-
trout of the said Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was
afterwards, to wit, on the eighth day of March, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and twenty-six, by fraud, imposition, fear, and in-
timidation, made and induced, at Gretna-green, in
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called Scotland, to marry the said Ed-
ward Gibbon Wakefield, according to certain forms
and ceremonies, which are alleged to constitute a
marriage according to the laws and customs of that
part of the United Kingdom called Scotland :
" And whereas the said Edward Gibbon Wake-
field was afterwards convicted in due course of law,
of conspiring, with certain other persons, to take
and convey the said Ellen Turner out of the custody
of certain persons then having the lawful order,
keeping, education, and governance of the said
Ellen Turner, and to cause and procure her to marry
the said Edward Gibbon Wakefield without the
knowledge or consent of the said William Turner,
her father, and of having unlawfully taken and con-
veyed the said Ellen Turner, then being a maid, un-
married, under the age of sixteen years, out of and
from the possession of certain persons having by the
consent and appointment of the said William Turner
the order, keeping, education, and governance of the
said Ellen Turner, and is now suffering the sentence
of the law upon the first of the said convictions :
" And whereas it ;s expedient that the said alleged
marriage should be declared to be null and void :
"May it therefore please your Majesty,
(Out of your princely goodness, and in compassion to
the sufferings and misfortune of your said subject and
his said daughter), that it may be deelaredand enacted;
and, be it declared and enacted by the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com-
mons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by
the authority of the same, That the said alleged
marriage between the said Ellen Turner and the said
Edward Gibbon Wakefield is and shall be from
henceforth null and void : And it is hereby declared
and enacted to be null and void, and so for ever
hereafter shall be taken and adjudged to be, to all
intents and purposes whatsoever, as if such forms
and ceremonies never had been celebrated or per-
formed."

ELOPEMENT.—A lamentable instance of de-
pravity has been communicated to us ; and we
give it publicity the more readily, in the hope
that our doing so may lead to the apprehension
of the delinquents concerned. A poor tailor,
residing, on the Castle Hill, some time ago fool-
ishly received an Irishman of the name of Kear-
ney, a man of disreputable habits, into his house
as a lodger; and the interloper by dint of smooth
words and a prepossessing exterior, so completely
turned the head of the tailor's wife, that she lately
eloped with him, carrying off thirty-eight pounds
of her
.husband's savings, and clearing the house
of every thing she and her paramour considered
of value. Her depravity is rendered the more
disgusting by the fact, that she had been married
many years, and had brought her husband eight
children, all of whom she has deserted, with the
exception of the youngest, au infant which she
carried with her. Kearney is one of those wor-
thies who encourage and practise low games at
fairs, and he has been more than once detected
trying to impose on the unwary by the stale de-
ceit of ring-dropping. We observe that a person
answering to his description has been practising
, this trick in Aberdeen,—Edinburgh Oburver.

COUNT SEGUR'S RECOLLECTIONS.
Vol. 111. p. p. 449.
This is a very delightful volume, replete with
egotism and anecdote. Its author is a gossip of
the good old French school, polite in his repro-
bation, amusing even with his vanity. He omits
no opportunity of telling us, directly or by im-
plication, what an excellent diplomatist he is,
what smart things he has been in the habits of
saying to Catherine and Potemkin, what exceed-
ingly -graceful verses he has written, and moreover,
how Catherine praised their harmony (having
Feviously informed us that she had as much ear
for verse as a dromedary), also how highly he
has always been appreciated by the ladies for his-
intelligent and courtier-hke properties. It might
be supposed that such excessive self-conceit
would be disgusting ; far from it, it is the )nost
diverting thing possible. It is in fact, a mistake
that an egotist is necessarily a nuisance, for some
of the pleasantest men we read of were such.
Who dislikes the thoughtlegotisiiksof Mon-
taigne, the overflowing but simple conceit of
- Goldsmith (that redeeming charm of his character)
the sensitive and fanciful eccentricities of Rousseau,
or'greater still, the devoted self-worship of Words-
worth? Count Segur is an egotist of this school,
he is not (like Byron, the Lord Grey of poetry) a
haughty unsocial sublime coxcomb ; but mixes
uplis vanity with such kindly simplicity of cha-
racter, that it is impossible not to esteem him.
Next to his self-conceit is his adoration of
Royalty. Sense, courage, liberality, truth, all are
more or less compromised when he approaches a
crowned head. He falls down in amaze before
it, and scarcely dares look up, least, peradventure,
lie be petrified. This awe diminishes as he de-
scends in the grade of society. With a King,
for instance, he is planet-struck ; with a Prince,
electrified ; with a Nobleman, delighted ; with
a Commoner, content ; so that when he comes to
discuss the merits of this last, he does it with
perfect impartiality. The, chief charm of his
present memoirs is their extreme good-nature.
Count Segur is one of the few relics, if not the
sole one, of the days of French politesse ; his
youth was spent among the great and good of
the past century, with Washington, Kosciusko,
Catherine the Great, Frederick 11., and Prince
Potemkin ; accordingly he comes before us
fraught with the most stirring recollections, and
as he prattles away with all the good-natured
simplicity of a kind heart, we seem actually
to converse with his characters. The nar-
rative of Catherine's Journey to the Crimea,
which forms the greater part of his pre-
sent volume, is one of the most surprising events
that modern times have witnessed. The Em-
press, it seems, set off in the depth of winter on
a tour through her vast dominions, among barba-
rous and distant nations; traversed three thousand
miles of realms before almost unknown, and
after covering the Black sea with her fleets, and
the banks of the Borysthenes with her troops ;
afser receiving among her suppliants, an Em-
peror of Austria and a King of Poland, re-
turned in triumph to Saint Petersburgh, just time
enough to rescue it from the grasp of Sweden,
and to receive accounts of the capture of Ismael.
The details of this fairy journey are fraught with
imposing interest. Wherever the Empress went
she was received with the most splendid honors :
her courts were held in Cossack countries, civi-
lized, as if by miracle, for the occasion ; her
train floated in magnificent gallies on the Borys-
thenes; and every day, at sun-set, the gloom was
dispersed by thousands of illuminated torches
fixed up on either side the river. The character
of Catherine was full as extraordinary as her
journey. She seems to have combined the ener-
gies of' Semiramis, with the voluptuousness of
Cleopatra. In personal vanity she resembled
our own Elizabeth ; Potemkin was her Leices-
ter, Romnanzoff her Sussex ; she loved the one,
she respected the other, while in her young Aide-
tamp, Count Momonoff, she found the coun-
terpart of Essex. As sketched by Count Segur
she is all that is amiable, high-minded and ac-
venturous. Her amours, her despotism, her capri-
ces, notorious through all Europe, he adroitly
keeps in the back-ground ; while he brings into full
view the more captivating qualities of her mind.
This may be well for a courtier ; but it is unfair
for an historian. Potemkin's vacillating dispo-
sition, half-sublimity, half-sentiment, is described
with much better effect. He too is praised,
as being a Prince ; but justice is done to his
eccentricities, nor do we know any more amusing
scene than that between the author and Potem-
kin, where the one gives the retort courteous to
.he other. It is a green spot in the waste of
Russian politics. The blunt active energies
of Suwarrow, through which the hypocrite is
now and then seen peeping, are sketched with
equal spirit, and go far to disprove the popular
notion, that because a man is blunt, he must
necessarily be honest. In nine cases out often,
bluntness of manner is the mere veil which a
man of the world throws over his roguery : we
at least have found it so. The characters of
Joseph the Second of Austria, and Gustavus of
Sweden, Count Segur has of course eulogised ;
they are crowned heads, no matter of what
thickness and quality those heads may be, and
the good Count seems to agree with Fletcher,
that—

" There's not the least limb growing to a king,
But carries thunder in it
The remaining personages who figured at the
Court of Catherine, such as Prince de Ligne,
Prince de Nassau, Fitzherbert, Paul Jones,
Counts Momonoff and Strogonoff, we must dis-
miss with a word • history has long since made
up its mind respecting them, and if not, as they
have all passed in silence from the stage of life,
it would be useless to say more than that their
memories are enshrined in Count Segues Me-
moirs. As for the Count himself, his character
throughout is French, and unconsciously he has
drawn it in one single sentence, where he alludes
to the first burst of the Revolution. Paris, he
says, was a complete scene of confusion, parents
were separated from children, husbands from
wives ; all distinctions of society were swallowed
up in one wide gulph of anarchy, which so deeply
shocked him, that he was obliged to console
himself with (what does the reader think ?) going
every night to the opera. Individual charac-
teristics speak those of a nation ; Paris, it seems,
though all else was lost, never once lost its opera,
bad it been so, the Revolution might have
deepened into an annihilation. But we must
here draw to a close, though not without thank-

The company then assembled round the table,
upon which was placed the splendid paraphernalia
connected with the ceremony, consisting of a large
massive gold inkstand, pens, paper, &c. The box
which contained the freedom is of gold, with the
city arms exquisitely chased on it, and the following
inscription engraven on the inside of the lid :—" Pre-
sented to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence,
Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, &c. &c. &c.,
by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, on his
Royal Highness being admitted to the freedom and
clothing of that ancient and loyal Corporation, which
was unanimously voted, in testimony of the deep
and grateful sense entertained by them of his Royal
Highness's public virtues and private worth."
The Clerk of the Company (John Lane, Esq.)
read the resolution electing his Royal Highness a
Member of the Company. The customary oath was
administered, and the ceremony of clothing took
place.
The PRIME WARDEN then presented the gold box
and freedom to his Royal Highness, whom he ad-
dressed as follows :

"May it please your Royal Highway—The distin-
guished honour of presenting the freedom and livery of the
company of Goldsmiths of London for your Royal High
ness's acceptance, having devolved on me, permit me, in
their name, to entreat you graciously to receive them. In
the performance of this duty, I assure your Royal Highness,
that I am highly gratifying my own personal feelings, not
only on the occasion for which we are assembled, but by
indulging my unfeigned esteem for your Royal Highness's
person, the son of our revered late Monarch, who reigned
over hie subjects, happily for them, more than half a cen-
tury—a longer period than any of his Royal predecessors. The
records of this very ancient and loyal Corpofation will hand
down to posterity your Royal Highness's gracious conde-
scension, by having accepted, and the Company in their
having, by unanimous vote, selected a Prince of the Illus-
trious House of Brunswick, and next in succession to the
Crown, united in the person of your Royal Highness, for
the best gift in their power to offer."

His Royal Highness the Duke of CLARENCE took
the box in his hand, and addressed the company in
a short but feeling speech. He assured the company
lie felt particularly gratified in receiving the distin-
guished honour which had just been conferred upon
him. It was impossible for him not to feel peculiar
gratification on hearing the sentiments which had
fallen from their Prime Warden ; who, in the course
of the observations he had been pleased to make;
touched upon circumstances which had for many
years pressed upon his Royal Highness's mind. He
was deeply sensible of the benefits which his country
had derived from the meritorious reign of his late
revered parent. He was convinced, when the his-
tory of his late Majesty's reign should be scanned
over, its pages would vie with any that was past of
was to come. No man was ever more sincerely at-
tached to the welfare of this great commercial city
than his late father ; and he could assure them, that
on being admitted to the freedom of the Gold-
smiths' Company, if any thing could add to the gra-
tification which he experienced in receiving so dis-
tinguished a mark of favour, it was the allusion which
had been made to his late Majesty.
The ceremony being concluded, the assembly were
ushered into the grand hall, where a banquet was
prepared for the occasion. About 200 persons sat
down to dinner.

The Lord High Admiral was attended by Admi-
ral Sir C. Pole, Sir James Saumarez, Sir Thome.
Byam Martin, Sir W. Hoste, and other distinguished
naval characters. We observed also amongst the
company, Lord Bexley, the Hon. Berkeley Paget,
C.N. Pallmer, Esq., M.P. for Surrey, Thomas Hali-
fax, and several of the leading members of the court.
The freedom of the city was, presented to his Royal
Highness immediately before dinner in a gold box,
which cost 100 guineas, and after the ceremony of
clothing was terminated, the company entered the
hall. They sat down to dinner at seven o'clock.
His Royal Highness begged to drink wine with his
brother liverymen before the cloth was removed, a
proposition which was received with the warmest
applause.
The PRIME WARDEN rose, and proposed, in an
introductory speech, " Church and King," in doing
which he referred, in terms of great praise, to the
attachment professed and felt by his late Majesty and
the Duke of York for the church. He also reminded
the company of the high honour conferred upon
them by the presence of a Member of the House of
Brunswick, who professed the same sentiments and
principles.—(Loud cheers.)
The PRIME WARDEN then proposed the health
of their illustrious visiter, whose presence shed so
much lustre upon the company.
The ROYAL DUKE rose amidst the loudest cheers.
He felt, he said, exceedingly grateful for the warmth
with which his brother liverymen had drank his
health. He was the more obliged for the mark of
attention and respect with which he he had been treated
by the Goldsmiths' Company, in the presentation
of the freedom of the city, as it was the only mark
he had, for the 45 years that he had been a public
man, ever received from any one of the corporate
bodies.—(Cheers.)—He felt peculiar pride in re-
ceiving this testimony from a company of such high
respectability, and which stood so pre-eminent for
loyalty, for firm attachment to the King and Con-
stitution in Church and State.—(Cheers.)—Al-
though his ancestors were foreigners, he trusted that
his family were now sufficiently known to the people
of England to be called English. It was truly Eng-
lish; and the Livery might rest assured, that his
sentiments, with respect to the toast which had
been a short time ago given, were perfectly in unison
with those entertained by his late father.—(Cheers.)
—His Royal Highness then alluded to his recent
appointment to the situation of Lord High Ad-
miral—a situation unsought and unasked by
him. He trusted it would be found, that he
would zealously and adequately perform its duties.
He had been born and bred in the serYice ; and,