The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-03 00:00:00

theerless, banks, ►ve all, occurred in the the railway station down on Saturday cotton-mills of totally destroyed . the extent of at Airy, on Saturday was partially de -10,0001. Lord Rector of great hail of the . the occasion by a Rector was conducted incipal Dewar, the ' Provost and ma .he Town Council. eloquent inaugural nds of his audience education, and, arguing in mortalibus, no success was The noble earl re- Pitt, apropos of his public speaking the right .an carried that gift to a higher degree of perfection, as all parties have owned, than Mr. Pitt. Now, my father had the honour to be con nected in relationship with that great man—and, as such, be had the privilege of being in the house with him some times for many weeks together. Presuming on that fami liar intercourse, he told me, he ventured on one occasion to ask Mr. Pitt by what means—by what course of study —be bad acquired that admirable readiness of speech — that aptness of finding the right word. Mr. Pitt replied that whatever readiness he might be thought to possess in that respect he believed he derived very much from a practice his father—the great Lord Chatham—had en joined on him. Lard Chatham bad bid him take up any book in some foreign language with which he was well azquainted, in Latin, Greek, or French, for example. Lord Chatham then enjoined him to read out of this work a Passage in English, stopping where he was not sure of the word until the right one came, and then proceed. Mr. Pitt states that be bad assiduously followed the practice. At first he had often to stop for a while before he could find the proper word, but he found the difficulties gradually disappear, until what was a toil to him at first became at last au easy and familiar task. Of course I do not meen to say that with men in general the same success as iu the case of Mr. Pitt, or anything like it, would be found to follow the same course of practice; although I am able to assure you, from other cases I have known, that a coarse of study of this kind is of great use in removing the difficulties of extemporaneous speaking; and it not only gives its aid in public speaking, but also in written composition. Moreover, you will find this coarse has the further ad vantage o f confirming and extending your know- ledge of some valuable author who had already been made the subject of study; and on these grounds it is by no means unworthy of your thoughtful attention. MR. PRATT, solicitor and clerk to the county court at Berwick, in a fit of depression caused by pecuniary embrassments, blew out his brains last Thursday morning. The deceased was only thirty years of age, and had not long married. LORD Ri...SEE has contradicted the report that he had predicted an unusually hot summer. He has " never expressed any opinion upon the subject." Mitt. ROBERT K. Boarizx has been elected to fill t,, 11 ° face of general manager to the Crystal Palace Company, HE PRESS, APRIL 3, 1858. THE SENATUS OF THE EDINBURGH COLrGE have unanimously conferred the degree of LL.D. on Professor Ferrier, St. Andrews; and the degree of D.D. on the Rev. John Cairns, of Golden-square, U.P. Church, Berwick-on-Tweed. A PRACTICAL RESULT Of THE NIGER EXPEDITION was exhibited on Wednesday at Liverpool, by the arrival of the ship George, with a cargo of palm oil and ivory from Laird's Town, Africa, being the first commercial result of the Niger expedition sent out by Mr. Macgregor Laird, of London. A SPLENDID TESTIMONIAL was On Saturday last presented to Lord Forester on his marriage, by the members of the Belvoir Hunt, as a mark of their esteem, and as some acknowledgment of the sport shown during the twenty.seven years he hunted with the Belvoir hounds. The presentation took place in the library at Syston, Lincolnshire, the seat of Sir John Thorold, on the morning of a meet, and in the presence of upwards of 100 ladies and gentlemen. This beautiful work of art, which was executed by Mr. Hancock, of Bruton-street, was afterwards placed upon the lawn, and exhibited to more than 150 of the farmers of the county. It forms an illustration of an incident which occurred in Croxteth-park on the 15th of January, 1851. On an elaborately worked pedestal are the Duke of Rutland, Mr. Litchford, Sir T. Whichcote, and Goodal on horseback. The fox has taken refuge on the summit of a tree, and the whipper.in has nearly attained the spot. The tree is of bronze, and the horses and riders are in silver. The horses are modelled from life, and the riders may be easily recognised from the likeness they pre sent. The most minute details of the group are elaborately and beautifully finished. Lord Forester is standing near the hounds, which are in appropriate and striking attitudes. _ _ LIVERSEDGE CHURCH, near Leeds, was the scene last Sunday afternoon of a melancholy event. The Rev. W. Hughes, while reading the prayers, stopped suddenly, and in a moment fell dead in the pulpit. Mr. Hughes was highly respeoted by all classes in this populous district. T with the Brightot3rail the West-end Brighton traveller will then enjoy the advantage of Battersea over the London - bridge Station , and thus be enabled to count securely upon reselling the station in tune for his particular train. The works of the new line are spoken of in the highest terms, and every facility is given to the public. CHELSEA SUSPENSION-BRIDGE was thrown open to the public on Monday last. As far as Chelsea was concerned, the inauguration of the bridge was practi- cally the opening of Battersea-park, and the popula- tion of the northern shore seemed to have had the first opportunity to precipitate itself en ',wage on that new possession. From an early hour the people swarmed over in hundreds. The day was fi ne an d sunny, and in the afternoon the slopes extending from the embankment by which the park is con- nected with the higher level of the bridge to the river were covered with visitors, principally women and children, from the quarters most pent up. A number of carriages, and many equestrians, passed over the bridge also, and rode or drove in the park, which is at present in an unfinished state. Not to speak of what must be left to nature and time, the ground is not all laid out and the gravel walks are not continuous. Nevertheless, the pleasing trans- formations that have been effected would surprise any one who should now visit Battersea-flelds after an absence of five or six years. The fiat, cheerless, solitary expanse is now broken and varied with banks, and shrubberies, and ornamental water. Above all, it is annexed to the metropolis by a beautiful bridge. SEVERAL GREAT FIRES have occurred in the country this week. At Salisbury, the railway station was suddenly and entirely burned down on Saturday night. At Manchester, the cotton-mills of Messrs. Lewis and Williams were totally destroyed on Monday morning, and damage to the extent of at least 20,0001. inflicted. And at Bury, on Saturday morning, the railway warehouse was partially de- stroyed ; the loss is estimated at 10,0001. EARL. STANHOPE was installed as Lord Rector of Aberdeen on Friday last. The great hall of the college was densely crowded on the occasion by a brilliant audience, and the Lord Rector was conducted to the chair by the Very Rev. Principal Dewar, the Professors of the college, the Lord Provost and ma- gistrates, and the members of the Town Council, Earl Stanhope then delivered an eloquent inaugural address, impressing upon the minds of his audience the advantages and aim of education, and, arguing in the words of the Latin poet, Nil nisi magno Vita lab3re dedit mortahlms, pointed out that, in all pursuits, no success was achieved without patient study. The noble earl re laced also a curious anecdote of Pitt, apropos of his readiness of reply in debate : No man had that gift of using in public speaking tin right word in the right place—no man carried that gift tt a higher degree of perfection, as all parties have owned than Mr. Pitt. Now, my father had the honour to be con netted in relationship with that great man—and, as such he had the privilege of being in the h'use with him some times for many weeks together. Presuming on that fami liar intercourse, he told me, he ventured on one occasiot to ask Mr. Pitt by what means—by what course of stud; —be bad acquired that admirable readiness of speech — that aptness of finding the right word. Mr. Pitt replier that whatever readiness he might be thought to possess it that respect he believed he derived very much from practice his father—the great Lord Chatham—had en joined on him. Lard Chatham had bid him take up an' book in some foreign language with which be was wel a..:quxinted,in Latin, Greek, or French, for example. Lon Sad an Volta. THE TRIAL OF BERNARD will take place at the Central Criminal Court, before a special commission, composed of Lord Campbell, the Lord Chief Baron, and Mr. Justice Erle, on Monday, the 12th. 'lndio is to be brought over by the French authorities for the purpose of giving evidence in the case. The Attorney-General (Sir Fitzroy Kelly) will attend to conduct the prosecution, and Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., will conduct the defence. Truelove, the bookseller, charged with a libel in publishing and selling the pamphlet entitled Tyrannieide, will be tried at the ordinary session of the Old Bailey next week, and will be prosecuted and defended by the same learned gentlemen. Both trials are expected to excite very considerable public interest. THE TRIAL OF PHE REV. MR. SMITH AND HIS WEFE for the extraordinary attack upon Mr. John Leach, formerly a suitor of Mrs. Smith, will take place at Gloucester Assizes, before Baron Channell, this day. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had an interview in Gloucester prison, in presence of their legal adviser. The defence will be a joint one, and Mr. Huddleston, Q.C., and Mr. Symons are retained for the defence. A number of witnesses will be examined on both sides ; but the nature of the defence has not yet transpired. A good deal of curiosity is excited in Gloucestershire as to the result. ATTEMPTED ROBBERY IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE is now becoming so common an offence that scarcely a week passes without a case being reported. On Monday a gross case was brought before the bench at Croy don. An Irishman, one Cummins, was charged as follows :—On Sunday a man, named Mulley, got into a third-class carriage at Red-hill for London. In: the same compartment were Cummins and a woman. Upon entering the Merstham tunnel, the prisoner Cummins got close to the side of Malley, who put his hand in his pocket to protect his purse. Suddenly Cummins struck Malley a tremendous blow in the face. Mulley seized him A desperate strnggle now took place. Cummins at length got hold of Mulley's legs, and succeeded in forcing nearly the whole of his body out of the carriage, and it was only by a desperate effort that the latter saved himself from being thrown out. Eventually, however, he got the upper hand of the prisoner, and when the train arrived at the Caterham junction, the latter was handcuffed, and sent on to Croydon in custody. It required four policemen to take the prisoner from the railway station to the police sta tion. The woman who was in the compartment of the carriage when the struggle took place was in a fainting state when the train arrived at the Cater ham junction. Cummins was remanded till this day, Saturday.—Another, and a worse case, came before Mr. Baron Martin for trial last week at Liverpool. Michael Brannon, also an Irishman, was tried and convicted of laving garotted and robbed a Mr. Wainwright tinder similar circum stances, but with the additional aggravation of pour ing chloroform over him after he (Brannon) had got him down. Mr. Baron Martin, in passing sentence, said : it would be frightful, indeed, if men were permitted to escape from the severest penalty allowed by law for crimes of such a character. No man, indeed, would be safe in travelling in railway carriages, particularly express trains, which only stop at long intervals. Persons might be robbed and murdered without any means of communica ting with the guard. He might direct sentence of death to be recorded, but as he did not wish to pass a sentence which probably would not be carried out, he should sen tence the prisoner to penal servitude for his natural life. REPRIEVES FROM SENTENCES OF DEATH have been granted by her Majesty, at the recommendation of Mr. Secretary Walpole, in the case of John Gordon, convicted of the Hagley burglary ; James Jones, of Carmarthen, for wounding with intent to murder ; and Emma Groom, for the murder of her own child. The sentence in the cases of the men has been com muted to penal servitude for life. THE QUESTIODI OF OPENING THE CRYSTAL PALACE ON SUNDAYS was negatively decided last week by the Vice. Chancellor, Sir W. P. Wood. The issue was raised by Mr. Kendall, a shareholder, as to whether the company, by the Act of '5O, which empowered them to give tickets in exchange for surrendered shares, did also permit them to allow such ticket-holders admission to the grounds on Sundays. The Vice-Chancellor decided that such an adraisiion would be a violation of the company's charter : Parting with a share, which was a valuable property, for a ticket of admission upon the terms proposed was, in effect, procuring a ticket of admission on Sundays in consideration of money paid indirectly to the company. The company were not authorised to issue tickets of ad mission on these terms, and the demurrer must be over ruled. The injunction sow-lit by the bill and notice of motion would be granted, restraining the defendants from issuing tickets so as to admit persons to the gronuds on the Lord's Day, in consideration of any money payment, directly or indirectly. AN ADJUDICATION OP BANKRUPTCY was made on Monday against Mr. John Townsend, auctioneer, of Greenwich, and M.P. for that borough. JANES Matzos, a " respectable " attorney of Ashton-under-Lyne, charged with forgery by altering a receipt for 1501. to one for 4501. ou behalf of one of his clients, a Mrs. Clarke, by whom he was deputed to pay 4501. to a creditor, and so robbing that client of 3001., was tried at Liverpool on Saturday before Mr. Baron Martin, convicted, and sentenced to penal servitude for life. THE MAIN DRAINAGE SCHEME. Tan President of the Board of Works on Tuesday received a deputation front the metropolitan vestries and district boards, upon the subject of the main drainage question. The object of the deputation was to request his lordship to defer giving assent to any plan for the main drainage and sewage intercep tion of the metropolis until full and open inquiry shall have been made—first, into the sanitary neces sity of the undertaking; secondly, its adequateness to accomplish the object proposed ; thirdly, the suffi ciency of the estimates for the whole amount of the work, so that the ratepayers may be acquainted with the total liabilities with which they will thereby be encumbered ; and fourthly, the mode in which it is proposed to raise and pay off the enormous sums that would be necessary. Mr. Ayrton, M.P., introduced the deputation ; Mr. Wade read a memorial, and after Mr. Young, Gene ral Codrington, M.P., Mr. Roupell, M.P., and other gentlemen, had spoken in support of the memorial, Lord Jose Mammas, in reply, remarked that the deputation would not, of course, expeet him to give them an answer one way or the other upon a ques tion involving so many interests at that moment. It would naturally be his duty, before giving his assent or otherwise to any scheme laid before him, to obtain all the information he possibly could bearing on the question ; and with regard to the observations of the last speaker, he must observe that the veto lodged in the hands of the Chief Commissioner of Works ought not to be exercised without due consideration of all plans submitted to him ; and in his decision no caprice should be allowed to interfere or I.:a weight. He could assure them that he would endea vour to inform himself of the merits of all plans brought befcre him, and which would have his best attention. As to the necessity of further inquiry, he might say that be bad already given his consent to a proposal for a select committee to inquire into the schemes of Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney and Mr. Walker, and be hoped soon after Easter the committee would be appointed. Regarding the suggestion in the me morial that the country should be called upon to pay a portion of the expenses for the metropolitan drain age, be was afraid that was a proposal that would meet with but very little countenance in the House of Commons, and he hardly thought the hon. mem bers present would be found in the ranks of its sup porters In conclusion, he assured the deputation that the whole subject should receive the fullest son sideration at his hands. A