The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

APRIL 18, 1857. MAJOR-GENERAL VAN STRAUBENZEE, C. 8., who shortly embarks for Hong Kong, is not to be suc ceeded by another general officer, THE COLONELCY OF THE 60TH RIFLES ( first battalion) has just become vacant by the death of Lieutenant-General Thomas Bunbury, which oc curred on the 13th inst. He was formerly in the 67th Regiment, and served in the East Indies and the American war. General Bunbury's death also canses a vacancy in the list of general officers, by which Colonel W. Freke Williams, commanding a brigade at Malta, with the temporary rank of major general, becomes a major•general on . the establish ment. H.M.S. Transit, steam troop-ship, re•embarked her troops and stores and sailed for Hong Kong on Wednesday morning. H.M.S. Himalaya, with 000 men of the 90th, sailed on Thursday for Hong Kong. REAR ADMIRAL FANSHAWE, Wall his flarr - in the Boscawest, 72, arrived on Tuesday from th e e North American and West India stations. The gallant admiral !struck his flag on Wednesday evening at sunset, and the ship will be forthwith paid off. Yalu ad Voila. THE KIDDERMINSTER RIOTERS, including some twenty-six persons, among whom were two gentle men of the town (Mr. Talbot and Mr. Chillingworth), were examined on Saturday last by the local magis trates. It appeared from the evidence that Mr. Talbot, addressing the mob, said, " Now, my lads, don't throw stones," and as a matter of course a volley was at once sent into Mr. Lowe's hustings. The evidence of the different witnesses i❑ no degree varied from the version of the affair already received. The further hearing of the case was adjourned till yesterday. FOUR CROYDON BAKERS, Graham, Pitlake, Mar ling, and Parks, were brought up at the petty sessions charged with selling bread largely adul terated with alum. Dr. Normandy stated that he had analysed the bread produced in all the cases, and that he had found it to contain a large quantity of alum. The bench fined all the defendants upwards of 101. each, including costs. Notice of appeal was given in all the cases. A MURDER has been committed in the Caledonian road. An eccentric person, one Tripp, lodging on the second floor at 28, Giffard-street, Caledonian road, was called upon by his landlord, a Mr. Scott, at an early hour (about two o'clock) on the morning of the 7th. Mr. Scott, it appears, had come for his rent. There was some dispute between the two. Another lodger, on hearing the noise, got up, gave a light to Tripp and Scott, and while Scott was stand ing at the door of the prisoner's room the prisoner went into the room, returned with a cutlass in his hand, deliberately stabbed Mr. Scott in his side, and then attempted to cut him down. Scott was at once taken away and surgical assistance procured, but he died shortly afterwards. The prisoner on being apprehended frankly acknowledged the deed, was sorry Scott had not then died, and regretted that he had not "cut his head off." A preliminary investi gation was held at the Clerkenwell Police-court on Tuesday. The details of the case were corroborated by the evidence of different witnesses : Sergeant Beckley, N : The prisoner was brought to the station about four in the morning. Upon being told the nature of the charge he said, " I did it." I told him it was my duty to caution him, when he again said, " If it had not been for the lodger interfering, I would have given him a right one and a left one, which would have saved the trouble of taking him to the hospital. I was justified in doing it, as Mr. Scott had no right to come there at that unseasonable hour fur his rent." At that moment Silence came in, when the prisoner said, " If it had not been for your interference I would have soon finished him." I then asked the nature of the wound, and was told that it was an inch and a quarter, when he said," I wish it had been six inches." To Mr. Robinson : The prisoner, I shoutti say, was not drunk. He might have had something to drink, but not much. He was a sober man. Prisoner: We had both had something to drink. This is what I expected after I had had the gin and water. Mr. Corrie fully committed the prisoner for trial. A POISONING CASE at Glasgow is just now exciting much attention in the North. A Miss Madeleine Smith, a young lady, has been apprehended on the suspicion of having administered poison to her lover, a French gentleman named L'Angelier, and has been formally committed on Friday last to stand her trial on the charge of murder. The result has been arrived at after the consultation with the Crown authorities in Edinburgh. So far as motive is concerned, the grounds of the charge are understood to be that Miss Smith was anxious to cast L'Ange her off in consequence of having received and accepted an offer of marriage from a gentleman of considerable wealth. L'Angelier was resolved to maintain his ascendancy, and had some power of blasting the young lady's reputation in the event of her marrying his rival. Hence the catastrophe. That the young lady procured arsenic about the time of L'Angelier's death, that he died THE PRESS. from the effects of arsenic, and that there is no reason to believe he committed suicide, are matters undoubted. The event has created much excitement in Glasgow; but it is more generally supposed that L'Angelier in despair poisoned himself. A MERCHANT OF BRISTOL, one Danger, a person carrying on an extensive general business, was tried at the Bristol Assizes last week, and found guilty of fraudulently obtaining a bill of exchange for 184/.los. from a gentleman named Latham, under pretence of negotiating a sale of 300 butts, when he had not one in store. Mr. Recorder Kinglake postponed sen tence till next session. AN ADJUDICATION OF BANKRUPTCY was made this week against the well-known Colonel Waugh, late of the London and Eastern Bank. The petitioning creditor is Mr. William Samuel Price Hughes, of Worcester, gentleman. Colonel Waugh is described in the petition as follows :—" William Petrie Waugh, of Branksea Island, in the county of Dorset, and of Little Abingdon-street, Westminster, trading there under the style or description of The Branksea Clay and Pottery Company,' and lately residing at 10, Upper Grosvenor-street, brick and tile maker, lime burner, trader, dealer and chapman." Colonel Waugh is said to be indebted some 200,0001. to the Eastern Bank. Corrtsponttnct. THE COMING REFORM BILL. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—Amongst the different schemes of electoral reform there are none of which a large increase of the electoral body does not form the most conspicu ous feature, and there is but slight difference of opinion as to the way in which it is to be effected. All reformers contemplate a lowering of the property qualification ; and the only difference is, that while some propose in addition educational or professional qualifications, others consider these projects as Utopian and unworkable. Now, since the large majority of the members of the present Parliament are rerormers, or at least pledged to support a Reform Bill, we may assume that it is certain a Reform Bill will be carried, and that the franchise will be lowered, and we may there fore, without presumption, speculate on the conse quences. We are indeed all called upon to do so, for there can hardly be a graver question in a representative country than the propriety of admitting a new class of men into the electoral body. Such a change, sooner or later, ramifies into every interest of the kingdom, and effects social revolutions much more thorough and complete than those resulting from war and insurrection. Now, the experience of the past permits us to pre dict with certainty some of the consequences which will :result from the change in our representative system with which we are threatened. Under the present system political power is in the hands of the ten-pound householders, and amongst the ten-pound householders themselves, those who occupy the lowest social po3ition enjoy the monopoly, to the practical exclusion of the rast. That this is the actual state of things must have been vividly brought home during the late elections to the candidates, all of whom were made aware—we hope painfully aware —that it was not to the higher orders of intelligence among the voters they had to appeal, but to the prejudice/ and ignorance of the lower orders. In plain English, they, one and all, found that their elections depended on obtaining the votes of the lower class of shopkeepers, and they moulded their profession of political opinions accordingly. There is no mystery in this, and no necessity for any recondite reason to account for it ; the ten-pound householders have political power because they are the majority of the electors, and the lower orders amongst them have appropriated it simply because they are the mi k jority of the ten-pound householders. An adulterating grocer, or the tenant of a low public house, is as important at an election as a high princi • pled merchant or an accomplished professional man; but there are more grocers and public-house keepers than honourable merchants or gentlemen with diplo mas, and therefore the grocers and publicans rule the roast. We will admit, in order to keep'on;terms with the Liberals, who are so soon to be our companions in political ostracism, that these classes know fully as well what is for the benefit of the nation as the others; but then, if the Liberals lower the franchise they must be prepared to make the same admission with respect to the five-pounders, who will then occupy their enviable position as the depositories of political power, for, as surely as the !lower orders of the ten-pounders now sway the destinies of England, so surely will the five-pounders secure to themselves the monopoly of power under the new Reform Bill. And for precisely the same reasons—namely, that they are the most numerous body. Society is a pyramid, and as you descend the base widens. Now, to keep on terms with the Radicals, as veil as with the vanishing Liberals, let us grant that our five-pounders are fully as competent judges of political questions as the ten-pounders—and we make this admission from conviction as well as from politeness—but they have not the same interests ; and we think our present oligarchy of ten-pounders might consider this before they gave a vote similar to that which merged the different orders of France in the Tiers Etat. A ten•pound householder is a big man, and looks down with natural superciliousness on his five pound neighbour. The five•pounder, on his part, feels no gratitude to the ten•pounders. As yet, being a working-man, and not corrupted by retail trade or the possession of a vote, he thinks himself an honest man ; but with all his honesty he bas certain queer notions on politics. He has not much to lose in the event of a division of property, and therefore dues not look upon Communism as so very absurd a thing as it seems to those who have some thing to divide. The sacredness of vested rights is not the most prominent feature of his religion. His ecclesiastical *predilections are not very strong, and be sees no magic in the word " Established." More over, like all other Britons, he has the very natural wish to shift taxation entirely off his own shoulders and put it on those of his wealthier neighbours. Why tax tobacco, or tea, or beer, or spirits, when there are landed gentry and ten-pound householders from whom the revenue could be so easily col lected? We merely throw out these hints for the considera tion of the present monopolists of electoral power. To such of them, moreover, who know history, we would ask how long is it since a memorable April morning in 1848, when the present Emperor of France, with his constable's staff in his band, showed his remarkable instincts on the side of order; and how many of the rank and file who that day marched to Westminster with " The People's Charter" would be entitled to votes under a five pound franchise? We would also direct attention to that remarkable document itself—the confession of faith to which the great majority of five-pounders are to this day prepared to swear. The five pounders like the five points, and they certainly will try to carry them ; and, being the majority of voters, it is probable they will succeed. Perhaps these remarks may awaken some to a sense of the frightful precipice on which we stand, and down which we seem so quietly to have made up our minds to plunge. And in case there may be some who wish to pre serve the Monarchy, and who are not prepared for a Republic one and indivisible, we beg to point out the only way in which the peril can be avoided. And, first, it cannot be avoided by refusing to lower the suffrage—that would simply engender bitter agita tion, mobbing, intimidation, and ultimate conces sion ; second, it cannot be avoided by an educational or any other qualification to the exclusion of a property qualification, because such qualifications are unworkable ; third, the danger cannot be ob viated and probably would be increased by the ballot. But there is one way in which the danger might be obviated and the Monarchy preserved, and that is by adopting a graduated suffrage. Balance property against population; prevent the lower orders from having the uncontrolled sway of the nation ; and we may yet escape from that democratic torrent which has hitherto seemed so resistless. What the graduation should be is a question of expediency, not of principle or of arithmetic. The object is to ballast the Constitution to provide a check to democratic passions, and this does not suggest any arithmetical scale. One vote to the five-pounders, and three votes to the thirty pounders, a class which would embrace the great majority of merchants and professional men, and the result would probably be effected without any fur ther graduation. In conclusion, let me state another consideration, which at once shows the peril of our position, and suggests the expediency of a remedy. The five poiind franchise is only a step in a certain direction. Reform Bill No. 3 will be a three-pound franchise, or perhaps a two•pound franchise, to be followed in due time by universal suffrage, and that by the Napoleonic system. Is it not of importance to check, or at least to control, this tendency ? - J. A. G. Sri; CHARLES TAYLOR, BART., expired on Good Friday, at his seat, Hollycombe, Sussex. Sir Charles had attained the great age of eighty-seven years, and sat in Parliament for a considerable time. He mar ried a sister of the late Right Hon. Charles Poulatt Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, and leaves issue one son, now Sir Charles Taylor, who inherits the family estates in Sussex and Somtrsetshire, asd one daughter, who is married to Mr. Williiim Brougham, brother of Lord Brougham, and formerly one of the Masters in Chancery.