The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

1226 • THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857. MR. ARTHUR ANDERSON, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, has addressed a letter to the (holy papers, stating the circumstances relating to Mr. Vernon Smith's application to the company last au tumn, and with respect to which Lord Derby appears to have been to a certain extent misinformed. Mr. Anderson states that no letter was received, but that a verbal message was sent. He states the actual facts to be simply these : For some time previous to the month of September last some personal and verbal communications had taken place between some of the directors and officers of the East India Company and the managing directors of the Penin sular and Oriental Company relative to the transmission of troops to India, both by the fortnightly mail steamers and extra steamers, and on the 7th of September an official letter from the Court of Directors of the East India Company was received, requiring the Peninsular and Oriental Company to submit proposals for an arrangement to that effect. After further personal communications the arrangement was concluded, and the necessary instructions settled and forwarded both to the agents of our company and the proper authorities in India of the East India Company. I happened to be absent from the office on the day when the definitive settlement of the details was concluded. This was done on the part of our company by my colleague, Mr. Allan, assisted by the secretary, Mr. Howell. On my return to the office I received from them a verbal report of what had been done in this affair. They stated that it had required much active exertion on their part to get the details finally settled as between the Board of Control and the India-house in time for the instruc tions being forwarded by the outward mail of that day, and, as a curious incident, mentioned that after all had been finished and the instructions despatched, a messenger came down from the President of the Board of Control to inquire whether suchan arrangement could be made! This incident struck us with some surprise, and if we drew the inference from it that the President seemed not to be aware of what was passing in his own office in an affair of certainly no minor importance, it will perhaps be allowed not to have been an unnatural one. itittrouolitan. THE LEVIATHAN. The launching experiments were resumed on Wed nesday, to be postponed, we fear, for some days. The presses were set to work at an early hour, and at ten o'clock a slip was made of thirty-eight inches aft and sixteen inches forward. This, although not much, had the effect of placing the vessel straight in the ways, and of removing any suspicion that en obstruction between the rails might exist, and so effectually bar her progress. As in the case of former experiments, the works were interrupted by the bursting or breaking of machinery, a result which now appears to attend every attempt. The morning operations were brought to a stand-still by the bursting of a cylinder, followed by the breaking of one of the immense river chains, and finally by the destruction of the great crab-winch, upon which the pressure was so great as to stave in the iro❑ drum or axle. These mishaps all occurred at the head of the ship, and arose in spite of the most careful and skilful precautions. This end of the ship, which is under the control of Mr. Prowse, Captain Harrison's chief assistant, has been most admirably managed throughout, but nothing, it appears, is strong enough to resist the inert force of the immense vessel. At one o'clock the pumps were again applied, but no further movement could be obtained, the only result being that another cylinder burst, and another chain gave way, when further effort became impossible. :The last cylinder that burst being one of the principal ones, Mr. Hep worth, the master shipwright, was compelled to an nounce that nothing more could be attempted for at least two or three days. Mr. Robert Stephenson came down early, and remained a long time in con sultation with Mr. Brunel. Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, was also amongst the visitors. We are happy to be enabled to assure our readers that the cost of the launching will in all probability not exceed one•third of the sum, 70,000 f., so reck lessly asserted to have been already sunk in the attempt. With respect to the future, a writer to the Times observes :—" Very obvious expedients are often over looked. Why should not the ways' for the launching of the Leviathan be at once altered from their gradient of one iu twelve to a gradient of one in eight or less ?" NEW RULES have been, and a new governor is to be, appointed for Whitecross-street Prison. The prisoners have protested against the severity of the new rules, which they further declare to be illegal. The matter is under the consideration of the gaol committee of aldermen. WESTMINSTER ABBEY is in future to be lighted with gas during the performance of those Divine Services resolved on by the Dean and Chapter. THE WESTMINSTER SC titlT.Ans performed the Adelphi of Terence on Monday and Thursday even ings, according to usual custom. The performances were extremely spirited and effective, and the play was put upon the stage with unusual splendour. Two Cabinet Councils were held in Brussels on the day of election. The only ecclesiastic elected is the Abbe Hearne for Courtrai. SPAIN. The young I'rince of the Asturias has received as his find name that of Alfonso. The other names given are Francisco tie Assis, Juan, Mariano de la Concepcion, Fernando, Pio, Jaime, Pelayo. The Queen had consented to grant in amnesty to political offenders now in exile. TURKEY AND THE PRINCIPALITIES. The reply of both Divans to the note of the Com missioueis urging them to enter upon questions of internal administration is to the effect that neither assembly has any further wish t' express, reserving to themselves to fix the bases of the future constitu tion and frame an electoral law for the carrying out the same, as soon as the Congress of Paris has decided upon the four points submitted to them. The publication of the Sultan's decree dissolving the Divans, but which, according to others, pro rogues them only, is anxiously waited for. The approaching departure of Lord Stratford and M. de Thouvenel on leave is very generally reported. AMERICA. There is little political news from America. The opening of the Congress and the President's message are eagerly expected,and the New York Herald says, "It is reduced to a moral certainty that Mr. Buchanan, in his message to Congress, will adopt the Kansas programme of the Lecompton Convention, and sustain that programme for the settlement of the slavery issue—provided always that this question of slavery shall be submitted to the popular crucible of a fair and honest election in Kansas." MEXICO. The news from the west coast of Mexico is im portant. The operations of the united force of the Generals Alvarez, father and son, had been success ful, and the revolutionary troops under Generals Vicario and Juan Antonio were utterly routed at Chelapa. When Chelapa was taken Alvarez ordered it to be sacked, and the most frightful excesses were committed by his men. Neither age nor sex was spared. General Antonio died after his defeat, and Vicario was at Yguata in prosecution of his plans of revolt. Cuiumavaca city had declared for him. CHINA. Letters from Hong Kong, Oct. 30, state that it is no secret now that some vigorous operations are to be commenced at once. English and French ships of war continue to arrive, augmenting the allied fleets. The steam transport Imperador, with St ri a Royal Marines, has arrived, and the huperatrix, with a similar number, is near at hand, so that with the exception of the marines on board the Adelaide, and what are expected from Calcutta, it may be said that nearly the whole force is there. " To morrow, or the following day," says one writer, " the naval force will move towards Canton, and 1 hear that the 15th proximo is the day fixed upon for the attack on Canton, which place, when carried—about which no great difficulty is anticipated—will he retained by us until the Emperor expresses a wish to open negotiations." Coat ant ps4ion. Tier Majesty the Queen and Court have remained at Osborne during the week. The Court yesterday returned to Windsor for the Christmas holidays. Mr. Sidney Herbert, M.P., and Mrs. Herbert have left Be'grave-square for Wilton.house, near So lis- • bury. The Earl of Lincoln has left England for Rome. The Earl of Euston has left town for Paris. The Marquis of Dalhousie, by the last letters received from Malta, is represented to have derived slight benefit from his short residence at the island, and it is hoped that he will derive permanent good by his stay there until the spring of next year. Va Litz t al. CABINET COUNCILS were held on Saturday last, and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday during the week, at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Downing-street. The Ministers present were—Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Claren• don, Mr. Secretary Labouchere, Lord Panmure, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir C. Wood, the Duke of Argyll, and the Right Hon. M. T. Baines. The sittings were unusually protracted. A WAR COMMITTEE was held on Thursday at the War•office, Pall-mall, attended by Lord Palmerston, Lord Pantnure. the Duke of Cambridge, Sir George Grey, and Sir C. Yorke. THE RECORDERSHIP or Poor m, rendered vacant by the appointment of Mr. Hodges to the Chief Justice ship of the Cape. has been conferred by her Majesty on Mr. William Major Cooke, of the Western Circuit and Hampshire Sessions. II& THE PUBLIC HEALTH is in a more satisfactory state this week. The deaths have fallen from 1,428 to 1,240. The average would be 1,237. The births amounted to 1,803 children. ca~rxnczal. DR. GOULBURN, on his resignation of the Head Mastership of Rugby, was presented on Monday last with a magnificent silver centrepiece from the old Rugbeians, and a handsome clock, mounted on black marble, from the boys of the school. The parting speeches between Dr. Goulburn and the boys were extremely affecting, and the rev, doctor, after thanking both old and young for their expression of personal feeling towards him, withdrew amidst the enthusiastic cheers of a crowded audience in the great school. A T.►r.L CHIMNEY, 120 feet high, attached to the Ouse Chemical Works, at Howden Dyke, fell in about seven o'clock on Saturday evening with a tre mendous crash. Happily the great body of the workmen had left, and only a few at the moment were about the works ; of these seven were killed on the spot, and three or four most seriously injured. An inquiry is pending. The loss is estimated at 5,0001., and falls entirely on Mr. G. Anderson fof Cleckheaton. THE MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE LATE EXHIBITION IN MANCHESTER, consisting of Mr. Thomas Fairbairn (chairman), Sir James Watts, and Messrs. T. Ashton, J. Heron, E. Potter, and S. J. Stern, had the honour of an interview with his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, at Osborne, on Wednesday, to convey the expression of their thanks for the munificent patronage which had been extended to the undertaking by her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness. We believe it is the intention of the committee to forward to the contri butors to the late Exhibition a formal acknowledg ment of their liberality which shall specify each work of art, and thus prove of great value, in future times, as an authentication of their property having passed through the ordeal of the criticism of the connois seurs of Europe. 3rtlanli. (From our own Ccrrespondent.) DUBLIN, Dec. 17. The protest against the Lord Chancellor's anti- Orange letter is being most influentially and exten sively signed. All the principal members of the nobility and gentry have attachad their names to it, and, before it is presented by deputation, an array of signatures from all classes of Prctestants will be seen—sufficient to convince the most obtuse that the rights and liberties of Irish Protestants cannot with impunity be made a shuttlecock for Roman Catholic battledores. You will notice that the moral, if I may use such an expression in such a connection, of Lord Chancellor Brady's edict is that partisanship is a disqualification for the magisterial office ; that it interferes with the due administration of justice, and gives a kind of protection to acts of violence and illegality. Everyone knows that Orangemen are men of extreme opinions, but they know also that those opinions are stri'tly legal and entirely loyal. If, therefore, they are to be penalised by exclusion from the magisterial office, it is clear that a new system, and one which the Constitution does not sanction, is introduced—viz., that when a man becomes a jus tice of the peace he must abjure his political senti ments and relinquish his party prepossessions. The Castle officials, you might presume, have resolved upon this novel course, and adhered to it; and in that case you might say that, although you disap proved of their conduct, you admired their consis tency. Lord Chancellor * Brady, however, when he ventured to palm off his new-born zeal against party spirit upon the Irish public, forgot that by that pro fession he invited an investigation of his own acts as the head of a political connection in this country. The Protestants make common cause with the Orangemen in resisting the injustice of which they have been the victims, and, acting together, some very curious and startling discoveries have been made of the mode in which Lord Chancellor Brady, who so abhors extreme views, has dispensed the patronage of the Crown. I will not take up your space with examples derived from comparatively remote times, although a wise and instructive little picture might be made of the Whig manner of dis tributing Government favours for the last ten years. There is a good reason, too, for not impaling Lord Chancellor Brady upon any but recent evidence. He may have only of late altered his practice in this respect, and it would be unfair to rake up the past against him if he has repented of its misdeeds. I will therefore to-day refer only to some very fresh instarres of the animus by which the Lord Cban cellor is actuated in his bestowal of official rewards.