The general regulations hitherto issued by the Lord Chamberlain for
the state funeral are not very explicit. It is announced that the funeral " will be saemnized on Thursday the 18th instant, in St. Paul's Ca- thedral " ; but no hour is specified. We notice that carriages entering St. James's Park—which is to be closed to the public at large—are to enter not later than eight o'clock a. on.
The Customhouse, the Excise, the Docks, and all other Government or public places appointed for the transaction of business, will be closed on the 18th. So -will Lloyd's Coffeehouse and the Stock Exchange. The Bank of England will only retain a very few clerks, to transact unavoid- able business. The banks generally are expected to follow the same rule; and probably most commercial people will suspend business for the day.
Correspondents of the Morning Herald point out some omissions in the procession. "A Yeoman" takes up the cause of the Militia- " The Militia, between the years 1804 and 1814, supplied the feninsular armies with 119,485 men ; and now great importance appears to be attached to their speedy reorganization. Indeed, the great Duke's last official corre- spondence was connected with their most efficient equipment, and for years past he had ever been most anxious for their reembodiment.
"The Yeomanry have been hitherto the only irregular force embodied and trained' since the peace ; and no one can deny that they would be a most • valuable adjunct to the regular force, if, unhappily, this country should ever be exposed to any foreign aggression. "A small proportion from each branch of our National Guards (for such the Militia and Yeomanry may be justly termed) would make but a very small addition to the procession, and it would be a great honour conferred upon the irregular force of the kingdom to be represented in this last act in the career of England's greatest hero." " Justice" has rather warmly signalized "a remarkable omission"—
" Those officers who fought with and followed the Duke through all his glorious campaigns, and who, for thirty-seven years, the Duke himself thought worthy, and invited expressly, to commemorate the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, which closed his great military career,—these are the only men who seem excluded from the painful gratification of joining in that . procession which is to follow him to his last home."
Very alarming estimates of the cost c4 the funeral are in circulation— some running up the bill to 400,0001. or more. Mr. Hume is already looking after it. Now as it would be most unseemly to witness a money- squabble in the House of Commons on this account before the funeral, and disgraceful to open any grudging audit afterwards, a suggestion has been made that the Queen might gracefully withdraw the question from Parliamentary jurisdiction, by defraying the whole charges out of the half-million legacy bequeathed to her Majesty by the late Mr. Nield.
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