The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

THE couEr. I UP to the 8th inst. the Court was held at Osborne. The Queen and the younger members of the Royal Family have enjoyed good health, and have taken their accustomed exercise both in walking and driv- ing. THE Prince and Princess of Wales paid a visit to her Majesty before the Royal Family left Osborne. HER MAJESTY, their Royal Highnesses Princess Helena, Princess Louise, and Prince Arthur, attended I Divine service at Osborne on Sunday msrning. The Rev. W. L. Onslow, chaplain to her Majesty's ship Racoon, officiated. THEIR Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, and her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, at- tended the service at Whippingham Church. HEK MA JESTY left Gosport on Tuesday to proceed to Germany in the Victoria and Albert yacht. It is an- ticipated that the Queen will disembark at Antwerp, whence her Majesty will proceed to visit the King of the Belgians, and will afterwards go to Coburg in order to inaugurate the late Prince Consort's memorial. HER MAJESTY is expected to return to Windsor about the 4th of September, after which a visit will be made to Balmoral. THE Dagmar, a cutter yacht, recently completeqfor his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales by Messrs. Harvey, of Wyvenhoe, near Colchester, is of 36 tons' burden. The dimensions of the Dagmar are:—Length on decks, 50ft. 6in.; main breadth, 13ft. 7in.; depth, 8ft. 4in.; draught of water, 8ft. 6in. The saloon is fitted with Spanish mahogany, walnut tree, and bird's eye maple. The ladies' cabin aft is superbly fitted with mirrors, couches, and spring cushions covered with crimson silk, &c. From the saloon forward on the starboard Bide is a commodious cabin for the captain, and on the opposite side is the pantry, with -cooking apparatus supplied by Messrs. Paskell and Atkey, of Cowes. The sails are by Lapthorn, of Gosport. The yacht, which will cost about £ 1,500, has been built in ten weeks. She has left Wyvenhoe for Osborne, Isle of Wight, in charge of Captain Potter, of East Donyland, Essex, with a crew from "Wyvenhoe and East Donyland. Their Royal High- nesses the Prince and Princess of Wales are in excel. lent health and spirits, and anticipate with much pleasure a trip in their new yacht.

THE ARTS, LITERATURE, &c. AN edition of Lord Derby's translation of the Iliad," in blue and gold style, is to be published in New York, by Mr. Scribner. TENNYSON'S Enoch Arden" has been published at Boston in a cheap form. A large edition has been -sold. MR. JOHN BRIGHT has recently prepared an edition of his speeches for publication in America. In making the selection, the author has specially chosen those speeches which relate to the defence of the cause of liberty and free government in America." AMONGST works recently published we might notioe "A History of the Mathematical Theory of Proba- bility, from the Time of Pascal to that of Laplace," by I. Todhunter, M.A.; Etonian a, Ancient and Modem. Being Notes of the History and Traditions of Eton College;" "The Isthmus of Panama," by Charles Toll Bidwell, British Yice-Consul at Panama; Manual of the Turkish Bath. Heat a Mode of Cure and a Source of Strength for Men and Animals," from the Writings of Mr. Urquhart. Edited by Sir John Fife, M.D. IN serial works we should call attention to the new tale in Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper," called Bound to the Wheel." It is written by the author of Guy Waterman's Maze," and is causing consider- able sensation amongst the reading world. THE reading public will learn with regret that Pro- fessor Aytoun, of Edinburgh, is dead. He died at a small shooting-lodge he had recently leased at Black- iills, near Elgin. WE have also to record the death of Mr. W. H. Smith, the founder of the well-known firm of W. H. Smith and Co., who died at Watson-house, Bourne- month, at the advanced age of seventy-three. The deceased gentleman retired about seven years ago, leaving to his son, Mr. W. H. Smith, the entire management. It is, indeed, principally within the last seven years that the business has received its extraordinary development, but its great success, and its conversion from an ordinary news-agency into the vast book-distributing establishment, are undoubtedly to be traced to the industry, energy, and prudence of its founder, who succeeded in securing to himself the larger portion of the monopoly of book and paper vending at the several railway stations. WE are informed that "a room will shortly be pre- pared at the South Kensington Museum for the recep- tion of musical works and literature, to be opened free to the public." THE returns up to the 1st of August show the at- tendance of 300,000 at the world's fair," at Dublin. The building-its contents, and the gardens, are now not only fully completed, but are seen in all their freshness and beauty. Daily the visitors are treated with musical entertainments of the highest order, including the bands of the different regiments now stationed in the garrison of the town; as also some of the most dis- tinguished organists of the day, from the cathedrals at home and on the Continent. The grounds attached to the exhibition are beautifully laid out and studded with fountains, cascades, &c., which, with the tasteful arrangement of the flower-beds, give a fairy-like Appearance to the entrance from Harcourt- street, which is situated on the south aide. Every country of the globe not only is represented by its exhibitions but by a number of tourists that are daily pouring into the capital of Ireland; and with the excellent arrange- ments made by the executive committee to meet every exigency, the greatest satisfaction is expressed. The collection of modern sculpture, unrivalled in any former exhibition in this or any other country, has been further enriched within the last week by the .addition of some very attractive works, including the Drawing Girl," by Magni. It is with gratifica- tion we find that the public wants of every part of the United Kingdom have been liberally responded to by both railway and steamboat companies in the shape of cheap excursions from almost every town and village. EXHIBITION OF THE ART UNION PRIZES.—This exhibition, of which there was a private view on Saturday, is usually a very welcome supplement to the regular academical exhibitions of the vear. We see collected together under one roof many of the prettiest little gems that have attracted us in the various galleries, and are able to make closer acquaint- ance with others which the eccentricities of hanging committees had hidden from our sight before. This year's exhibition is decidedly above the average. There are close upon 120 pictures, vary irig from .£10 to X200 in value, and it would be hard to point to an instance where a prize winner with the means placed at his disposal has made a bad choice. Still it is remarkable that the taste of the majority seems to run in the same line. Three-fourths of the pictures selected are laddscapes-little corners of shady lanes, with quaint old cottages cool, sequestered glens- reaches of silvery river flowing through green, grassy banks, golden cornfields falling to the sickle, mountain passes in North Wales, sunrises in bwitzerland, or sun. sets in Scotland and the Lakes. There are a few sea pieces, mostly of considerable merit, but of historical pictures or interiors the proportion is very small. The masterwork of the gallery, however, is an historical picture, Leslie's Defence of Latham-house, which represents the heroic Charlotte do la Tromouille, Countess of Derby, assisting to "fish" the nag- staff" which has been damaged by the Puritan cannon. It will be remembered as one of the great crowd-gatherers at the Royal Academy this year, and has been selected by the fortunate winner of the .£200 prize, Mr. W. H. Webb, of Halifax, Nova Scotia— for the Art Union has members not only in all our colonies, but in most countries of Europe. The only other historical production is The Princess Elizabeth in Captivity at Hatfield JJ- a well-drawn picture, though the Virgin Queen in her best days can hardly have been so pretty as the young lady who is gazing through the oriel window. The view of Arran Hills from Bate, by J. Adam, selected from this year's Royal Academy, is another pleasing bit of Scotch scenery, and Mr. Toten was lucky to get it for a < £ 25 prize. C&ptain Bamfield for a .£75 prize has selected a characteristic picture of an old French fishing town, by J. J. Wilson, with its gaunt old gables, red-legged fisher girls, and crumb- ling jetty, and in the view of Dysart" on the east coast of Scotland, by Danby, Mr. F-Lacy has decidedly the finest sea-piece in the room. The largest interior is the Grace before Meat," a X75 prize, which sets before our eyes the agricultural labourer's cottage as t ought to be, or as Mr. Henley would tell us it is- light, clean, and comfortably furnished—the family | sitting down to a hot dinner, and the father reverently asking a blessing. Among- the other pictures there are many which, though lower in value, deserve com- mendation, particularly A Spanish gipsy with cards, by Lidderdale; A Fern Gatherer," by F. Holl, jun.; "Magpie Ait on the Thames," "Cornfields near the Coast," by Percy; and A Boulogne Trawler running into Havre," by J. J. Wilson. Of the X10 prizes perhaps the tiniest of the little haymakers who, quite outspent by the sun, lies curled up by the hay- cock asleep will attract most admiration. The other prizes exhibited are porcelain busts of the Prince of Wales, from the original, by Morton Edwards, a statuette in porcelain of Go to sleep," reduced from the group by Joseph Durham, chromo-lithographs of Young England and Wild Roses, and last, though very far from least, a series of drawings, thirty-two in number, engraved by Mr. Lewis Gruner, from Maclise's Illustrations of the Norman Conquest, which were exhibited at the Roal Academy in 1857, Copies of the series, bound in one volume, will be presented to each subscriber for the coming year, and, looking te the character of the work, the council is no doubt cor- rect in the anticipation expressed in this year's report that it will lead to a large subscription.

THE HIGH PRICE OF MEAT. The price of meat is now becoming a grave con- sideration. The force of the maxim, Down corn, up horn," is beginning to be felt in a serious manner, and people of all classes are, naturally enough, casting about to trace out the cause and discover a remedy. Mr. Caird calculates that one penny per lb. in the price of meat is equivalent to XI,500,000 sterling on the annual consumption of the metropolis, and to X10,000,000 on that of the United Kingdom. These are startling figures, and all the more so when it is remembered that the price of meat has risen many pence per lb. during the last few years. And by all thoughtful people it will be held to be a fact by no means creditable to the common sense and discern- ment of the country, that we have continued, in the face of this rapidly augmenting price of meat, to maintain a system of taxation which directly inter- feres with the natural course and processes of agri- culture, and diminishes the production of animal food. By the heavy tax on malt the growth of barley is ad- mittedly discouraged and limited, and yet it is by means of an extended cultivation of that grain that the land could be used to the best advantage, and the farmer enabled to grow more meat. Mr. Caird's state- ments on this head are strongly borne out by various other agricultural authorities. He declares without hesitation that by cultivating a greater breadth of land with barley, in substitution for wheat, an in- creased production of meat, of dairy produce, and of wool would be obtained, which would be at once an immense advantage" to British agriculture and to the country at large. The annual gain to the revenue by the malt-tax is probably not far short of £ 6,000,000; yet if Mr. Caird's calculation be correct, that the price of meat has been advanced one penny per lb., owing to the operation of the duty on malt in discouraging the growth of barley, the people are, in order to realise that X6,000,000 to the Treasury, mulcted in a further sum of tlO,000,000, in the en- hanced price of their meat. The food question is one which no country and no Government can afford to disregard. The re- peal of the corn laws long ago opened our eyes as to the monstrous evils of which vicious and mistaken legislation had been the fruitful parent; and whilst we now behold in the results of that change in our policy the advantages which free trade has conferred in promoting the welfare and prosperity of the nation at large, we perceive, as further fruits of that system, the blessings of content- ment, order, and wide-spread loyalty amongst the people. It is a significant commentary on this point. that a large body of working men, to the number of some hundreds, made a "demonstration" the other day in one of the midland counties, in reference to the high price of meat. It was not altogether un- natural that to such men the fact of the dearness of meat at the present time should be attributed to the hard greed of the butchers. But the days are happily gone by when the mob exercised summary vengeance on bakers and millers, and the law denounced fore- stallers and regraters. Since the repeal of the corn laws, the working classes have "accepted" the cost of their daily bread,"to whatever point it rises, as a fair and legitimate price, because it is not enhanced by artificial legislation. We have seen a cotton famine borne by the people with a patience and fortitude beyond all praise; but, who is there who will maintain that such an attitude would have been preserved under the operation of laws which artificially raised the price of food P The question (ijf the malt-tax, in connection with the high price of meat, is one which has also recently forced itself upon the pubJic attention, and we are almost disposed to regard the fact as an evidence of the occurrence of one of those singular conjunctions by which important changes are very frequently heralded and ushered in. With meat at famine prices, and with our corn law re- miniscences, it would take but a wonderfully short time to arouse the country to a sense of the utter absurdity, if not culpability, of maintaining a tax on a raw material of the manufacture of animal food. The Worcester men would rapidly learn to visit upon the Legislature that which they in their ignorance charged against the butchers. If cheap beer" is found to mean, at one and the Sime time, "cheap meat," it will scarcely require a seven years' agitation to compass the repeal of the malt-tax. If the breeches pocket argument be a strong one, the "belly," argument is still more potent; and the men of Worcester will very soon find themselves by no means alone in their desire to discover "the reason why" beef and mutton have attained famine prices.— Anti Malt-Tax Circular.

A BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE CASE. In the Nisi Prius Court, Manchester, the case of Whatmough v. Barnes was introduced. This was an action for breach of promise of marriage. Mr. Brett, Q.C., and Mr. Torr were for the plain- tiff, and Mr. Higgin for the defence. Mr. Brett, in opening the case, said it was one of those melancholy stories which, however amusing they might be to the spectators in a court of law, brought misery into the family of the sufferer. The plaintiff, who is twenty-three years old, was the daughter of an innkeeper who formerly kept the Fleece Inn, at Milnrow. The defendant, who is thirty-three, carries on business as a woollen manufacturel or dealer at the same place. In 1861 the defendant commenced a courtship with the plaintiff, who was then nineteen years of age. They had previously been known to each other for some time. The plaintiff's parents objected to the'defendant paying his addresses to her on the ground of his superior position in life; and, believing that he had no real intention of marrying her, they forbade him the house. He, however, protested that he was very strongly attached to the girl, and persisted in his attentions to her; and the parents therefore accepted him as a suitor for the daughter's hand. It transpired, however, that his own parents also opposed the match, and the defendant said he could not marry the plaintiff whilst his mother lived, but that he was determined to have her for his wife. In February, 1862, the plain- tiff's father died, and taking advantage of her affection for him, the defendant seduced her, and in June, 1863, she gave birth to a child of which he was the father. After the child was born he still expressed his deter- mination to marry the girl, and continued to keep company with her as her lover. IE 1863 the plaintiff also lost her mother. Subsequently his own mother d-^d, and he could then have redeemed the promise which he made to marry the plaintiff had he chosen to do so; but he changed his mind, and married Mrs. Cross, a lady of some property. Mrs. Jane Butter worth, residing at Belfield, near Rochdale, knew the plaintiff and the defendant. She had heard the latter declare, in the summer of. 1861, his intention to marry the plaintiff; he would have her, or else he would have his head taken from his body." After the birth of the child he said that he could not marry her then because his mother had made some property over to him to keep single as long as she lived." The defendant used to visit the plaintiff at witness's house and nursed the child. He gave her money when the child was born, and had given her some since. Aiice Whatmoagh, plaintiff's sifter, was also ex- amined. No evidence was called for the defence, and Mr Higgin having addressed the jury in mitigation of damages, hiB lordship said he thought, generally speaking, that actions for simple breaches of promise were very foolish things, because, if a man changed his mind and married another woman, the one who was deceived might think herself well quit of him before it was too late; but it was a very different thing where a woman, as in the present ease, was seduced as well as deceived. It was not advisable to reward women who anted indiscreetly, but here the plaintiff had yielded to the overtures of the defendant, after a long established promise of marriage; and it could not be imagined that she would be likely to rejoice at his in- fidelity, because he, as the father of her child, was the fittest party to make reparation by marriage; and, seeing that she had lost her position, in society, the jury would award her such compensation as in their opinion it would be reasonable for the defendant to pay. The Jury, after a short consultation, awarded the plaintiff the sum. of 4250 damages.

THE MURDER OF LIEUT. CLUTTER- BUCK. On Friday and Saturday last Laurence King, a rather good-looking young man of about twenty-five, was tried at the Tullamore Assizes, King's County, before the Lord Chief Justice, for the murder of Lieut.' Clutterbuck, late of the 5th Fusiliers. The Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Mr. George Battersby, Q.O., Mr. W. H. Griffith, and Mr. J. A. Curran for the prosecution; Mr. Leslie, H. Montgomery, and Mr. Constantino Molloy were assigned for the defence. It will be recollected that on Saturday evening, the 8th ult., Mr. Clutterbuck left the barracks at Parsons- town, for the purpose of shooting in the Brosna, and that he did not return. Search was made for him on Sunday and Monday, but without success. On the fol- lowing morning, however, the body of the unfortunate gentleman was found in a deep hole in the river. William Edwards deposed that he was a private in the 5th Fusiliers, and acted as servant to the deceased. On the day in question, about four o'clock, he left the prisoner in the hall communicating with deceased's room; Mr. Clutterbuck was there at the time. They had been talking together in the morning. About nine in the morning saw in his master's room, on the table, two sovereigns, four half-sovereigns, and two or three shillings in sil ver; also saw a gold watch lying on a chair beside his bed. About half-past four Lieut. Clutterbuck and the prisoner went out together; the former had a double-barrelled gun and a pouch with him, and also a dog. He did not leave either money or watch behind him. The dog came back about eleven o'clock that night; saw a man named O'Brien identify it at the inquest. Major Thomas S. Bigge: I am an officer in the 5th Fusiliers. Deceased was also an officer in that regi- ment. He stood about 5ft. llin. Was present when his body was removed. There was a large hole about two inches broad behind the ear. Should say it was caused by a double shot from a double gun fired at the same time. After we got the body into the boat blood flowed from the wound. First heard of deceased's disappearance on the Sunday, at one o'clock. Went in search of him. Saw King at Riverstown. I asked him when he had last seen Mr. Clutterbuck, as he was out with him the previous evening. He said Mr. Clutterbuck had gone up the river with him the previous evening. Dr. Stoney proved the nature of the wound received by deceased. The wound on the head was caused by a gunshot, caused apparently by two barrels being dis- charged at once. Bridget Burke went out on Saturday, the 8th of July, to look for some geese, ana was in the field at a spot nearer to the river than the unoccupied house. Was standing near the corner, looking down towards the river, and observed two men one, Laurence King, and the other a stranger. Had known the prisoner a long time. He had been in the habit of coming to the house of the witness's father. It was at this time about seven o'clock in the evening. Saw the prisoner and the other man get into a boat near to Pat Brien's cotdrain. The prisoner had a gun in his hands. He got in first and then the other man got into the cot and appeared as if he were going to sit down. The stranger's back was towards the prisoner, and his face towards the bank. After that heard a shot or two shots firea off together. Was looking at the men when the shots were fired, and saw the man as if he fell down in the boat-the man who came last into the cot. Did not see him at all on looking again. King was in the boat at that time. Saw the shot come from that part of the boat where he waa. After the shot was fired had a full view of the boat for about five minutes, but did not see it moving. Did not wait to see more, but went home. It did not occur to witness that any accident had happened when she heard the shot. Martin Burke: I remember Saturday, the 8th of July last. I was in the potato-field at the back of the house, along with witness's brothers, Thomas and Joseph. Saw King coming into the field. He was in the habit of coming, as his father had potatoes there. It was about seven o'clock in the evening. He came up and said, There was but one officer in the barracks, and I am after shooting him." He then pulled out of his pocket a shot pouch and a soda water bottle half full of whiskey. He offerred it to witness, who just tasted it. He then said that he had met Pat Brien, and that he had told Brien that he had downed" one of the blue boys. Thomas Burke was then about five or six yards from witness, and was within hearing. King then left the field, and witness and his brother followed after him, and went into an adjoining pasture. There King showed them a gun and a bundle of clothes which were lying in the gripe of a diteh. The clothes consisted of a coat, trowsers, waistcoat, and a pair of boots. He then tied them up in a bundle, and went off towards the river with the gun in his hand. Witness turned into the house, but his brother followed after King. King appeared to be drunk, but was able to walk. Some further evidence having been given, Mr. Montgomery made an eloquent speech in defence of the prisoner, but The jury, after an hour's consideration, found him Guilty," the foreman stating that a majority of the jury wished the prisoner to be recommended to mercy. „ The Lord Chief Justice: From any consideration that I have been able to give to the case, I think it is one as little entitled to mercy as any I have met with or can conceive. To extend mercy to such a case would amount to an encouragement to the commission of murder that would render the life of every one in the community at the peril and hazard of being ex- posed to a similar fate. The prisoner, who was taken by this poor young officer as his guide and conductor, turns out instead to be his murderer, taking the first opportunity, not only of violating the trust reposed in him by a stranger, but of making him the victim of a cruel and cowardly murder. The Chief Justice, assuming the black cap, then passed sentence of death in the usual formal terms- the execution to take place on Wednesday, the 6th of September. The prisoner during the entire trial remained per- fectly calm and collected, without the slightest display of feeling, listening apparently to the evidence and speeches with fixed and earnest attention. The Court-house was densely crowded, and the case in its entire progress excited deep interest.

OUR MISCELLANY. -:+- Manners.-The first requisite to good manners, I am convinced, is ease; and this is never to be ob- tained by dwelling upon self. Consideration of the feelings of others is true politeness. To give a visitor a smiling welcome, a comfortable chair, seek for a footstool, draw down or raise a blind, So that there may be enough, or not too much light, undivided at- tention given to what they are saying, and if you differ from them, a gentle deference of manner is what is re- quired by good breeding.-Mrs. Penelope Jot, in Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper. A Fly's Eye.-If we examine the eye of a fly, for example, we shall observe that it forms the segment of a sphere projecting from each side of the head. If we pursue the examination further with the aid of a microscope we shall find the surface is mapped out, as it were, into countless numbers of separate lenses arranged side by side like the cells of a honey-comb. These lenses, somewhat conical in shape, converge towards the centre of the spherical segment. It has been computed that the eyes of some of the butterfly tribe number from 10,000 to 40,000; of these hexagonal facets Hooke counted 7,000 in the eye of the house fly. What, therefore, is lost by want of mobility is gained by extension of power.-Once a Week. Ancient Trees.—The celebrated chestnut (Cas tanea vesea) on Etna must be a thousand years old at least. The Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) of the Green Cape demand ef us, according to their thickness and the number of zones in some of their branches, an age of four thousand years, or thereabouts. The gigantic cypress (Cupressus discicha) at Santa Maria del Tule, six miles east of Oaxa.c"" in Mexico, has a circumference of 124 Spanish feet, about forty in diameter. This tree must be nearly three thousand years old. It is historically certain that it is older than the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. The age of the great dragon-tree (Dracaena draca) at Orotava, in Teneriffe, is supposed to be five thousand years. These examples are quite sufficient to prove the possibility of a compound plant living on without end-Schleiden's "Principles of Scientiifc Botany." The Way they Make Butter in France.-It is well known that cream may be converted into butter by simply being buried in the ground, but it is not generally known that this mode is in common use in Normandy and some other parts of France. The process is as follows:—The cream is placed in a linen bag of moderate thickness, which is carefully secured asd placed in a hole in the ground, about a foot and a half deep it is then covered up and left for twenty- four or twenty-five hours. When taken out the cream is very hard, and only requires beating for a short time with a wooden mallet, after which half a glass of water is thrown upon it, which causes the buttermilk to separate from the butter. If the quantity of cream to be converted into butter is large, it is left more than twenty-five hours in the ground. In winter, when the ground is frozen, the operation is performed in a cellar, the bag being well covered up with sand. Some persons place the bag containing the cream within a second bag, in order to prevent the chance of any taint from the earth. This system saves labour, and is stated to produce a larger amount of butter than churning, and of excellent quality, and is, more- over, said never to fail.- Journal of the Society of Arts. Unhappy Marriages among Men of Genius.-The rare occurrence of genius with domestic comfort is perfectly awful. Take Dante, the exile, who left his wife never wishing to see her more; take Tasso, wifeless; Petrarch, wifeless; Ariosto, wifeless; Milton, thrice married, but only once with much comfort; Dryden, wedded, like Addison, to a title and discord; Young lives alone till past fifty; Swift's marriage is no marriage; Sterne's, Churchill's, Byron's, Coleridge's marriages, broken and unhappy. Then we have a set of celibates-Herrick, Cowley, Pope, Thomson, Prior, Gay, Shenstone, Grey, Akengide, Goldsmith, Collins, Cowper, and I know not how many more of our best poets. Johnson had a wife, loved, and soon lost her. It is almost enough to make women tremble at the idea of allying themselves with genius, or giving birth to it. Take the philosophers- Bacon, like his famous adversary, Coke, seems to have enjoyed little domestic comfort, and speaks, for, as he says, certain grave reasons," disapprovingly of his partner. Our metaphysicians—Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Butler-are as solitary as Spinosa and Kant. The celibate philosopher Hume conducts us to the other great bachelor historians-Gibbon and Macaulay; as Bishop Butler does to some of the princes at English divinity—Hooker cajoled into marrying a shrew. Chillingworth unmarried, Hammond un- married, Leighton unmarried. Barrow also single. I only take foremost men: the list might be swelled with monarchs and generals in marriage.—Lacon in Council. An Interrupted Feast.—The excavations at Pompeii are going on with an activity stimulated by the important discoveries made almost at every step, and the quantities of gold and silver found more than suffice to cover the cost of the works. Near the temple of Juno, of which an account was recently given, has just been brought to light a house, no doubt belonging to some millionaire of the time, as the furniture is of ivory, bronze, and marble. The couches of the triclinium, or dining. room, are especially of extreme richness. The flooring consists of an immense mosaic, well preserved in parts, and of which the centre represents a table laid out for a grand dinner. In the middle, on a large dish, may be seen a splendid peacock with its tailspread out, and placed backto back with another bird, also of elegant plumage. Around them are arranged lobsters, one of which holds a blue egg in its claws; a second an oyster, which appears to be fricasseed, as it "is open and covered with herbs; a third, a rat farci; and a fourth, a small vase filled with fried grasshoppers. Next comes a circle of dishes of fish, interspersed with others of partridges, hares, and squirrels, which all have their heads placed between their fore feet. Then comes a row of sausages of all forms, supported by one of eggs, oysters, and olives, which in its turn is surrounded by a double circle of peaches, cherries, melons, and other fruits and vegetables. The walls of the triclinium are covered with fresco paintings of birds, fruit, flowers, game, and fish of all kinds, the whole interspersed with drawings which lend a charm to the whole not easy to describe. On a table of rare wood, carved and inlaid with gold, marble, agate, and lapis lazuli, were found amphorae still containing wine, and some goblets of onyx.—Qalignani. French Wives.-French laws and customs re- specting marriage, althout they cannot erase and obliterate the natural distinction ot sex, confer com- plete equality and fraternity. A Frenchworaan is not only a wife at bed and board, she is also a partner in business and a joint proprietor, without whose consul- tation and consent no important step can be taken. She knows when a bill is due as well as, or better than, her husband. She can consent to, or forbid, her children's marriage, She never sinks her maiden name, but attaches it to that of her spouse in a form very little differing from that of commercial associa- tions. Mr. WhIte starts a concern with Mr. Black; they announce their joint undertaking as White and Black. M. White married to Mdlle. Black, are known to the world as White-Black. A hyphen or an and makes all the difference. The same kind of fraternity also frequently occurs-quite as a matter of course, exist- ing in the nature of things—in the talk talked, in the books read, in the songs listened to, and in the double meanings laughed at jointly by a Frenchman and his wife. But while the laws of property and marriage do all they can to rivet the chains of matrimony, other in- fluences work in an opposite direction. Thus, moments of repulsion are sure to occur between a girl firmly grounded in a religion of rituals, scrupulous of small observances, and looking no further, and a man who believes few religious dogmas, or if he admits their spirit, will not be fettered by their letter. Bat above every other cause likely to prove the germ of future estrangement, is the way in which French matches are made. Many of the French themselves are far from being satisfied on this head, and have even the boldness to quote with approbation the ad- vantages offered by the English system as far as hap- piness is concerned.-All the Year Round,. Soldiers' Workshops in India.—We give be. low the preface of a catalogue of articles of the Belgaum Exhibition, and in doing so express a hope that the same spirit of enterprise exhibited by the 44th may also be adopted in many other of her Ma- jesty's regiments. The success of the Belgaum Exhi- bition, as the preface states, is no doubt in a great measure due to the establishment of soldiers' work- shops for we find the official report thereon mentions the 44th as one of the regiments'which has particu- larly distinguished itself in connection with Sir Hugh Rose's order:—" The object of the exhibition," gays the preface, was, first, to give the tradesmen and handy men, women and children of thelregiment, an opportunity of showing their ingenuity and skill, ac- cording to their various tastes; and, secondly, to give,, a direction to the minds of the men, and to occupy their leisure hours. The idea proposed by Colonel MacMahon was warmly taken up, a committee formed, and every encouragement afforded to all to come forward and lend a helping hand; great facilities' being offered by the recently established regimental workshop system, by order of the commander-in-chief in India, and which has been found to work so well, The undertaking has caused a spirit of emulation, and brought forward talent which otherwise would have remained unencouraged, and has moreover been the means of enabling the married tradesmen of the regiment to provide their families with many neces- sary comforts. A further result of the scheme has been the production, for the convenience of officers and residents, of numerous articles of furniture, black- smiths', armourers', shoemakers', and needlework- very difficult to be obtainecikt an out-statioza.Bo-m- bay Gazette, July 8. Pepys and Etty.—In Budrxngh.am-street, built 1675, Samuel Pepys, the diarist, cme to live in 1684. The house, since rebuilt, was the lasv0n the west side, and looked on the Thames. It had \jeen his friend Hewer's before him. A view of the libia.ry shows ns the tall plain bookcases, and a central winOwv looking on the river. Pepys, the son of an army tailor, and as fond of dress and great people as might be ejected of a tailor's son, was for a long time secretary of the Admiralty under Charles II. He was president of the Royal Society, and it is to his five folio books of ballads that we owe Dr. Percy's useful compilation. Pepys died in 1703, at the house of his friend Hewer, at Clapham. Pepys' house (No. 14) became after- wards, in the summer of 1824, the home of Etty, the painter, till within a few months of his death, in 1849. Etty first took the ground floor (afterwards occupied by Mr. Stanfield), then the top floor, the special object of his ambition being to watch sunsets over the river, whiehhe loved as much as Turner did, who frequently said There is finer scenery on its banks than those of any river in Italy." Its ebb and flow, Etty used to declare, was like life, and the view from Lambeth to the Abbey not unlike Venice. Thornbury's Haunted London. Fashion and Variety. A story," says an eminent writer, is never too old to toll if it be made sound new." If this be true, I may be excused for narrating the following veritable history:—In an Indian jungle there once resided a tawny jackal, a member, as all those animals are, of a jackal club which met at night ia the said jungle. It was the custom for the different subscribers to separate early in the evening on predatory excursions, and on one oc- casion the individual in question ha-viag dined very sparingly that day on a log of a horse, ventured in hopes of a supper within the precincts of a neigh- bouring town. It happened that while employed in the Drawling distinctive of his kind he fell into a sunken vat filled with indigo, and when he had contrived to struggle out again, discovered, by the light of the moon, that his coat had assumed a brilliant blue tinge. In vain he rolled himself on the grass; in vain rubbed his sides against the bushes of the jungle, to which he speedily returned. The blue stuck to him, and so with the acuteness for which jackals are renowned, he determined to stick" to it. Shame indeed would have overcome him—ridicule have driven him to despair, when he rejoined his club, but for this resolution, that every morning he appeared among his kind, whisking his tail with glee, and hold- ing his head erect. A titter, of course, welcomed him, and, before long, you would have thought that every jackal present had been turned into a laughing hyaena. Our hero was nothing abashed. "Gentlemen," said he, in the dialect of Hindustani peculiar to his kind, "I have been to town, and bring yoa the last new fashion." The laughter changed to respectful admira- tion. One by one the members of the club stole up to him and inquired where he got the colouring, just as George IV. asked Brummell what tailor had madethat coat. The address was imparted, and if on the follow- ing evening not all of the prowling beasts appeared in a blue coat, it was only because three of them had been drowned in the attempt to procure it. The fable, which is a real Sanskrit one, will at once remind us of one concerning that sharp-nosed quadruped which farmers denounce and squires combine to run to death. But it has a moral as well as a satirical bearing, and we believe that this moral has not been done justice to. Fashion is called a despot; but if men, like the jackals and foxes, are willing, nay, eager to be its slaves, we cannot, and ought not to upbraid fashion. Its crowning is, in short, nothing more than the con- fession that vanity makes of its own weakness. We must be vain; we are weak; all we ask is to be guided in our vanity.—Hahits of Good Society. Murder of the Prince of Orange. The murder of the Prince of Orange gave the first rude shock to the system of ostensible neutrality which she (Queen Elizabeth) had proposed to herself. The crime of Balthazar Gerard irrevocably determined her future course. The story, so fraught with ruin to the Protestant cause, demands a word in passing. In 1583, the prince had shifted his quarters from Ant- werp to the little town of Delft, which lay on the high road between Rotterdam and the Hague. A canal, overshadowed by tall trees, occupied the centre of the principal street. On each side was a roadway, beyond, houses with their courtyard and offices stretched back to the town walls. One of these houses belonged to the prince; it was a two-storey brick building; it looked on to a courtyard which bordered on the street; along one side of the court, at right angles to the roadway, a narrow alley ran back to the walls. On the ground floor was the dining-room, and the principal entrance into the court. The entrance communicated by a covered way with a little hall, into which opened on one side the dining-room door, on another a deep archway with a door in the lane, on the third stairs which led to the private apartments above. On Sun- day, 8th July, 1584, the prince was aroused from sleep by the announcement of a courier from France, who bore intelligence of the death of the Duke of ADjon. The messenger was summoned to give details of the murder. He was a man of low stature, and meanly dressed; his complexion sallow; his general appear' ance furtive and disagreeable. He appeared to be somewhat under thirty years of age. His name stated to be Francis Guion, son of a martyred Calvinist. Such was Balthazar Gerard, a xnaJl who for seven years had been sworn to assassinat the man who now lay before him unarmed and in bed. The summons to the prince's chamber was so ucex" pected that Gerard had not time to mature his pJ!J>Il; nor, indeed, had he funds to buy a weapon. He vv" indebted to the charity of Orange, who oopip2,5" sionated his forlorn appearance, for an alms, which b6 expended in the purchase of a pair of pistols. purchase was made on the Monday. About noon oil the Tuesday, Gerard concealed himself in the sha()W of the archway which led into the lane. The prince, who was at dinner with his friends, came out con- versing pleasantly with the burgomaster of Lee- warden, his only guest that day. He had advanced to the bottom of the stairs, when Gerard stepped forward and discharged his pistol. The assassin passed through the archway, and ran swiftly towards the walls. He was, however, arrested by the attendac^f' But the greatest statesman of the age lay dead own dining-room, with three bullets through fii beart.-Exoclns of the Western Nations, by ViscoiW Bury.

The Drunken Burglar.—W. Coudofc, carpec^ was charged at the London Guildhall with into the Euston-road Tavern, and stealing therefrom bag containing 41 Ila. 6d. in silver, and £ 1 17s. o.a> copper, several silver spoons, some cigars, and eight pieces of plate. The robbery took place on »* night of Sunday, the 30th, on the following he was taken to the station-house helplessly dr« when some of the stolen property waa fonnd him. The prisoner obtained admittance throtifa window in front of the house, which was not sec Ta, fastened. It wa conjectured that there were concerned in the robbery, since the bag of_suv 5 copper had contained » £ 8. The police sta.e there would be another case brought agai geJit prisoner. He was committed for trial on the V charge.