The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-23 00:00:00

.t 898 He could notremain there longer than the Ist of Sep tember, if he designed returning this season, as at that period ice commences forming very rapidly. It was his plan, at last accounts, to proceed as far north in his ship (the Advance) as the ice would permit during the fall then next ensuing. He would then proceed, with a portable boat and an ample supply of stores, to establish a depot at a remote northern point, and subsequently to penetrate to the most ex treme point acPessible. Even should he obtain no clue to the missing English navigator, Sir John Franklin, confidence is entertained that, with his rare scientific attainments and facilities for investigation, the expedition cannot be without important results. It is expected that, in the course of a few weeks, in formation will be received from Captain Inglefield and all the other English vessels now in the North Seas. KOSSIITICS PROPOSED VISIT TO NEWCASTLE.—The committee appointed to make arrangements for the visit of M. Kossuth to Newcastle have just received a latter from him stating that, in the present crisis of the Eastern war, it is, in his opinion, most advisable to wait the issue of the expedition to Sebastopol before addressing the inhabitants of that district. M. Kossuth says :—" I really think this time to be little favourable to discussions on the subject (the Austrian alliance and the general war policy of the British Go vernment). The allied armies are engaged in the expedition against Sebastopol. Now, I believe argu ments entirely different must be used, and an issue entirely different must be taken, according as the ex pedition willthave succeeded or not. Mr. Crawshay was quite right in saying, at your glorious meeting of August 28, ' The taking of Sebastopol will not be a reason for trusting the Government; but the not taking it will be a case for impeachment.' We may appropriately discuss matters before and after a battle, but certainly not during the battle. We must see the issue, and shape our course accordingly. However, by the end of this month we may expect to get such intelligence from the East as will enable us to see the situation clearly, and then the beginning of October may well suit the exigencies of the case. Should the contrary happen, then, in my opinion, it will be wise to adjourn the meeting to a moment of more favourable political opportunity," BRITISH ASSOCIATION.—The inaugural address of the association Was delivered by the president, Lord Harrowby. He adverted at great length to the different branches of science in which progress had been made of late—to astronomy, on which he read a report from Professor Challis; to the improve ments in barometrical and scientific instruments ; to geology, and the important question of the coal fields; to Lieutenant Maury's plans for improved naviga tion ; and to the statistics of crime and offences ; and concluded with a glowing eulogium on the spirit of the age, the enlightened views of Government, and the great names of modern science. Lord Derby, in proposing a vote of thanks for the address, said that he belonged to the pre-scientific period of education, but was not the less sensible of the value of that of which he had not had the advantage in earlier days. Sir Charles Lyall and Professor Phillips having spoken, the meeting separated. The general com mittee held its first meeting on the same day, and brought before the association reports on Lieutenant Maury's scheme of navigation, and on the accommo• dation to scientific societies in Burlington-house, and a correspondence between Lords Wrottesley and Aberdeen on the subject of pensions to scientific men. The attendance at the section-room was large on Thursday. In the mathematical and physical section a very interesting paper was read on the deviation of the magnetic needle, peculiar to Liver pool, by Sir John Ross, and one by Professor Tyndall on some peculiarities of the magnetic fluid. Professor Powell continued his report, read at Hull, on lumi nous meteors. The chemical section was occupied in the reading of reports of a generally uninteresting character. The geographical and ethnological sec tion, presided over by Sir R. I. Murchison, Bart., was opened by the reading of communications from Captain Charles Stokes and Drs. Blundell and Wilson on the subject of the exploring expeditions of Australia. The opinion of the latter, who is the geologist appointed by Government to the proposed expedition into the interior, is, that it will accom plish results highly satisfactory, and that the northern portion of Australia possesses facilities for commercial purposes with England far superior to the south. He also stated that the range of moun tain running through Australia were of an auriferous nature, and that the highest mountains were the most productive of gold, the lowest of the baser metals. The discovery of copper had changed the face of Australia as well as that of gold, as the farmer, who before cultivated wheat only as food for his cattle (the rate of transit to the English or other markets making its export unremunerative), had now a mining population to feed. Dr. Wilson expressed himself very confidently on the subject of the new expedition, and the results likely to accrue from it. The statistical section appeared to have excited the most interest, as the room was always well filled, THE PRESS. especially during the reading of an elaborate pamphlet on " The Cause and Consequences of the Preston Strike, by Mr. Henry Ashworth, of Manches ter." By statistical tables, Mr. Ashworth showed that cardloom spinners advanced from 1847 to 1853 22 per cent.; weavers, 114 ; self-acting winders, 10; and wool-spinners, 6 per cent., being an aggregate of 14 per cent. advance. He then proceeded to show the fallacy of a standard rate of prices throughout the entire country, as the necessities of the mills, the internal resources of each mill, its distance from railway and canal, all tended to render it impossible to equalise the individual value of each. He stated that the annual quantity of cotton manufactures exported from England to China, made by Preston operatives, would purchase one fourth of the tea im ported into this country. Another paper was read by E. J. Farrer, Esq. (in the absence of the author, Charles Jellico, Esq.), containing suggestions for improving the mode at present adopted for keeping and stating the national accounts, showing that the latter might be easily prepared in the same form as merchants' accounts, and that if so presented to Par liament would, in a few years, supply materials from which the whole financial operations and money votes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer could be impugned or justified on intelligible grounds, and not, as at present, on hypothetical assumptions and counter assumptions. Loan DUNDONALD, of whom report has lately said that the command of the Baltic fleet had been offered to him, and refused, has addressed the fol lowing letter to the Times : " Sir,—Until yesterday, when I observed the serious manner in which a conversation said to have taken place between the Chief Minister of her Majesty's Administration and myself is now treated, I did not consider it incumbent on me to volunteer a formal public disclosure," in order not to allow such a statement to go abroad uncontradicted,' and therefore I now rectify the omission, and declare that I have never been honoured by any conversation or com munication with or from Lord Aberdeen relative to the command in the Baltic, or in regard to operations to be conducted in that or any other quarter. " Permit me to add a line in justice to Admiral Napier, against whom ' the indignant dissatisfaction of the nation' is said to be roused—namely, that success could not have attended the operations of combustible ships against stone batteries firing red-hot shot, however coolly unresisting walls may be leisurely demolished. " There is butone means whereby to place the opponents on an equal footing, and that I have confidentially laid before the Government, with the hope that a protracted defensive war should not linger on, to the disorganisation of Europe and the ruin of our country.—l am, sir, London, Sept. 21. DUNDONALD. THE CHEVALIER BUNSEN, ex-Prussian Minister at our Court, is staying in retirement at Heidelberg, on the Rhine. The Chevalier's son, the Rev. Ernest Bunsen, has left town on a visit to J. B. Harford, Esq., at Falcondale, Wales. DEATH OF SIR GEORGE ARTHUIL—We regret to announce the death, on the 19th instant, of Lieu tenant-General the Right Hon. Sir George Arthur, Bart, K.C.H., D.C.L, at his residence in Gloucester square, Hyde-park, after a long and painful illness. Sir George Arthur entered the army in 1804, and served in Sir James Craig's expedition to Italy in 1806 ; proceeded thence in the following year to Egypt, and, being appointed Adjutant of the Light Battalion, was engaged in the attack on Rosetta, and wounded in the right arm severely. He served in Sicily under Sir James Kempt. In 1809 he com manded the light company of his regiment with the Walcheren expedition ; VMS employed in the attack on Flushing, and, being then on outpost duty, was ordered to check the advance of the French force, which he effected. Many of his company suffered, and he was again wounded. For his gallantry he was thanked in general orders, and appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General. He subsequently served as Military Secretary to General Sir George Done, when Governor of Jersey. He afterwards joined his regiment in the West Indies, and was selected by the Duke of Manchester, then Governor of Jamaica, as Lieutenant-Governor of Honduras, which govern ment he administered for eight years. Being ap pointed Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land in 1823, he remained in that colony twelve years. On his return to England he was created a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and was selected by her Majesty's Govern ment in 1837 to proceed to Upper Canada as Lieu tenant-Governor, where he remained until the union of the Canadas in 1841. For his services, both military and civil, he was created a baronet on his return to England, and was a few months afterwards appointed Governor of the Presidency of Bombay. 111-health obliged him to resign this appointment in 1840; but, previously, to mark their sense of his capacity and zeal during the very arduous time in which he was at Bombay, the Court of Directors ap pointed, and her Majesty's Government sanctioned, his being nominated to succeed Lord Hardinge, as Governor-General of India, in the event of that nobleman's death or resignation. His return to England prevented him from deriving any advantage from this high honour. .v; • --. SATURDAY, THE EMIGRATION SEASON TO AMERICA. iS now drawing to a close, and from the Government immi gration returns at Quebec it appears that 4:1,148 passengers had arrived in Canada this year, against 28,884 at the same time last year, being an increase of 14,264 souls. The emigrants from the northern ports of Europe this year—Norway, Sweden, and Germany—amounted to 10,206. The emigration to Australia last year only amounted to 61,401, against 107,881 in 1852. DWELLINGS OF THE AGRICULTURAL CLASSES.—The Rev. Harry Stuart, of Oathlaw, whose late pamphlet on the position of the agricultural labourers of Scot land attracted so much attention, has been for some weeks on a visit to Dunrobin Castle. Mr. Stuart went north at the special request of the Duke of Sutherland, in order to suggest to his grace what could be done to improve the condition of his people. The duke placed in Mr. Stuart's hands a blank•paper book and a pencil, with a request that he would write down on the spot his freeest censure of everything which he found objectionable in his inspection of the farm dwellings on the Sutherland estates. His grace accompanied Mr. Stuart in this tour of inquiry, and with him made a thorough examination of houses, cottages, and bothies, prying into closets, mounting into garrets, and leaving no hole or corner unvisited. It is the impression of Mr. Stuart, who was much struck with the duke's minute knowledge of all the circumstances of his tenantry and dependants, that the agricultural classes in Sutherland are, upon the whole, well lodged—much better certainly, and at far cheaper rents, than the majority of the same classes in Mr. Stuart's own county of Forfar.—Edinburgh Courant. CHARACTER OF EDUCATION IN RUSSIA.-By an ukase of Sept. 1, 1840, a tax was laid en all pass ports for Russians travelling to foreign countries ; and by another of the following year all Russian subjects married to foreigners are obliged to return home—the nobles within five, and the burghers within three, years. This certainly is not a move ment in advance, for in the days of Catherine a Russian noble required neither passport nor per mission for such a purpose. Now he cannot leave the country without both ; and he must, unless he has great influence, give a special reason for his intentions. If the benefit of his health, or that of any member of his family, is assigned, the answer is, " We have the climate of Italy in the Crimea!" if the education of his children, "We have the uni versities of Moscow, Kbarkoff, and Kief !" where they will learn just as much as the State chooses they shall know, or nothing at all. The Emperor can see plainly enough that liberal education is the forerunner of the downfall of absolute power, but instead of cherishing enlarged views, and meeting the advance of such principles by just and gradual concessions, and the modification of that power, he endeavours to stifle every feeling of the kind, and shrinks from grappling with its progress. There are three universities, Moscow, Kharkoff, and Kief, but the character of the education given is not cal culated to enlarge the mind of the student. When at Kharkoff, I observed that the works on history were those most read; but these were so selected as to avoid all danger of expanding the ideas too freely. The history of England and other countries are compressed into meagre abbreviations, in which all those points that exhibit or might excite liberality of feeling are carefully qualified or omitted.—Jesse's Russia and the War. Sato anb Volta. AN IMPORTANT CASE was tried on Wednesday at the Old Central Criminal Court, when William Howe and William Thompson were indicted for a series of conspiracies to procure the discharge of persons in custody for felony. Mr. Bodkin thus stated the facts of the case : The defendant Howe represented himself as clerk to an at torney named Simpson, who had an office over a tobacconist's shop, in the Blackfriar's-road ; but on some occasions he repre sented himself to be an attorney, and Thompson, it appeared, also represented himself to be clerk to Mr. Simpson. The other defendant had also formerly been a lawyer's clerk, and there ap peared to be very little doubt that they had made use of their knowledge of the law to commit the offence now imputed to them. The first case to which he should have to call their atten tion was that of a charge of robbery against two women, named Scott and Blatchford, who were taken into custody in April last for stealing a purse from Mrs. M'Arthur, the wife of Colonel M'Arthur, who resided at Woolwich. These prisoners were exit mined before Mr. Hardwick, at the Marlborough-street Police Court, and, the charge being proved to his satisfaction, he com mitted both prisoners for trial. The defendant Howe attended as the attorney for Blatchford, and at the close of the case he made an application to the magistrate to admit her to bail. but from his knowledge of her character he re fused the application, and both prisoners were committed for trial. It appeared that upon this Howe made an application to Mr. Justice Coleridge, at chambers, to have the prisoner Blatchford admitted to ball, and the defendant Thompson made an affidavit that he bad served a notice of the intended application at the house of Co lonel M'Arthur; and when the judge made an order that the prisoner should be admitted to bail upon forty-eight hours' no tice being given to the prosecutor to enable him to make Inoue ries into the sufficiency of the sureties, the defendant Rickards represented himself to be the attorney for the prosecution, and signed a consent to the prisoner being admitted to bail at once without the usual notice. An order for the discharge of the pri. lik... lim. ev:.