English Extracts.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 1371, 22 September 1858, Page 3

English Extracts.

The Due de Malakoff at the Stathßall. —The state ball at Buckingham .palace (says the Court Journal) on the 10th of May, was far more numerously attended than the ball given in honour of the nuptials of the Princess Royal, and much more brilliant. The nob e apartments are fully equal to accommodate 2000 guests with ease; but at a state ball all the

visitors crowd round where her Majesty sits or dances, and consequently the spacious and magnificent new ball-room was not large enough of itself, to accommodate the numbers that thronired in it. Her Majesty sat on the hnutpas, with lite youthful, pretty, and charming young Queen of Portugal by her side. Scats were also placed for all the members of the royal family, the Prince of Ilohenzollern, and the Princess Atm of Saxe-Weimar. The seats of the Queens were marked on the haut-pas by a footstool, a distinction omitted with the other members of the royal family. The royal bride danced frequently during the evening in quadrilles with the Prince v -nsort, the Duke of Cambridge, and Prince jatlward of Saxe-Wei-mar. In noticing the arrival of the Due de Malakoff, we remarked upon his “ agile step ;’’ and it is a great confirmation of the fact that not only the Queen of Portugal but our own gracious Sovereign selected the duke as a partner for a quadrille. The gallant marshal was a little taken aback when the honour intended by our Queen was first intimated to him, but he nevertheless acquitted himself with grace, and after each dance conducted his royal partner to her seat with true French gallantry. The

duke wore the full uniform of a Marshal of France, but paid us the compliment of displaying the Ribbon of a Grand Cross of the Order cf the Bath, without any other decoration. The Marriage Law in France. —A case of some interest to foreigners was yesterday submitted to the Imperial Court. A Hessian named Steinmetz came to Paris in 1798, and after working for some years as a journeyman tailor, established himself in business on his own account. In 1808 he married a young Frenchwoman named Roze, daughter of a tradesman of Paris, In 1815 a son was born to them, but in 1827, having lived very unhappily together, they signed, before a notary, a declaration to the effect that, as the man was a He ssianand had never been naturalized a Frenchman, and as his wife by her marriage belonged

to his country, they intended to avail themselves of the laws of divorce in that country and to have the marriage dissolved. The man then, by deed, made some provision for their son, whom he left to the woman, and returned to Germany. He there took steps for having the marriage put an end to, but it was not until 1834 that he succeeded in obtaining a decree of divorce from the Hessian Government. In 1537 he married a young woman named Weber, and had four children by her, and in 1855 he died at Darmstadt. As he left considerable property, his first wife, Madame Roze, put in a claim, on the ground that as divorce was not recognized in France, she alone was entitled to it, but the Hessian Courts rejected it. Part of the property being in France, she in 1856 brought an action before the Civil Tribunal of Paris to secure it. In support of her action she maintained that, though her husband had not been formally naturalized, he was a Frenchman in the eye of the French law at the time he married her, inasmuch as he had quitted his own country without any intention of returning there, and was regularly domiciled in France ; and that consequently the divorce which he had obtained in Hesse was null and void. The tribunal, finding that the man, when he married, really had no intention of returning to Hesse, and that, besides, he had been regarded as having abandoned his nationality by the Hessian Government, and had, after his return, to wait some years before he could recover it, gave judgment in favour of Madame Roze, alias Steinmetz. The second Madame Steinmets appealed yesterday to the Imperial Court against this decision, but the Court confirmed it.— Galignani's Messenger.

The Monument at Scutari. —The Monument in the Cometary at Scutari is rising rapidly. In. spite of the want of mechanical contrivances, thanks to the exertions of Colonel Gordon, - R.E. and Commander Bloomfield, Her Majesty’s ship Osprey, the stones have been disembarked and brought up the hill, and a scaffolding erected for putting them up, so that the English workmen sent out could proceed with their work. Hitherto only the pedestal and the four figures of angels have arrived, and they are put up almost entirely. The obelisk itself has not vet arrived. From what one can see the monument promises exceedingly well. Tim pedestal is formed of large solid blocks of gray coarse-grain granite, roughed on the whole surface except at the extremities, where they are jointed. The inside is filled out with brickwork. The figures of the angels, which are made up of three blocks equally of gray granite.and polished, are exceedingly beautiful, .their attitude graceful, with long flowing robes and hold a palm branch in their hands, their faces a living -picture of sorrow and hope, and the whole so soft as to astonish one at Marochelti’s master ch sei; but if the monument promises to be an ort a nent the place itself on which it stands is sadly neglected. You can scarcely make your way through it for rank grass and thistles, among which the economical natives have tethered their horses. I believe there is a guardian kept there by somebody or other, but he certainly is not looked after ; the graves arc all but obliterated, and, were it not for the tombstones, which are collected in a row just on the edge of the cl.fi', you would scarcely recognize the place as a cemetery. Surely those who lie there should be worth a little care and expense, and I am sure that their families alone would willingly provide the means of keeping there some pensioner as a guardian, and having the whole place kept clean and decent. The whole might be placed under the surveillance of tho Embassy. But, before anything else, a glus factory, which is just at the bottom of the cl ff, ought to be removed. The negotiations about it have been going on for some time, but the man’s demands are perfectly unreasonable. Surely, it might be demanded that the new law of appropriation, which has been introduced, should be applied in the case, and the man forced to give up the place against a fair valuation, especially as he cannot even show s titledeed for his right of proprietorship.—7'iizieJ Correspondent.