The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

538 GOVERNMENT is moving for the defence of Dundee against the contingencies of a state of war. The shore in the vicinity of Ferryport.on-Craig has been surveyed by officers for the erection of a battery. THE GREAT "DERBY SETTLING" came off at Tattersall's on Tuesday last, the previous day having been occupied in completing the preliminary compu tations and comparisons of accounts. The liquida tion turned out, it seems, not very satisfactory. From the recognised authority on such matters we learn that, "although vast sums of money were dis bursed in the course of the afternoon, numerous im pediments to 'smooth going' presented themselves. Unfavourable reports of absentees were rife, and complaints of the ' tightness' of money were heard on all sides. One party who was present at the commencement suddenly sounded a retreat, and was hotly inquired after at the close. Another, who was generally deep in liabilities, was reported ' quite gone; but as he had been hit hard on the Metro pilitan ' his absence did not occasion much surprise. The list of cleared out and bound for the Levant' comprised several others whose liabilities in the ag gregate are very heavy ; in short, to a large number of persons it was about the worst 'settling day' they ever experienced. Towards the close of business a novel incident in the way of settling excited uproari ous mirth, and not a little derision, both inside and outside the room. A party who had laid against Dervish to an immense extent, and had afforded none of the backers an opportunity of hedging with him, was called to the door to receive payment in bags of copper of a bet of 40/. ! In expectation of the'scent' a cab was in readiness, the bags were emptied into•it, and the Potter of Pots' went off as quickly as he could amidst ironical Cheers for The Copper Captain !' " REAR-ADMIRAL MICHAEL SEYMOUR does not vacate his appointment as Captain of the Baltic Fleet on promotion to flag rank. He retains the captaincy of the fleet, but with a new commission. THE STATE APARTMENTS AT WINDSOR CASTLE were closed on Wednesday last until further orders. Sulu ad Voila. IN the much argued case of " Hope v. Hope," which has occupied the equity and ecclesiastical courts for many days during the last and present term, the Lord Chancellor, on Wednesday, gave judgment upon the question involving the custody of the children : His Lordship pronounced that by the law of this country Mr. Hope was entitled to the custody of the children, notwith standing the institution of a suit for a divorce, and the decision of the ecclesiastical courts ; and said that he should order Mr. Hope and Mrs. Hope to take the necessary steps for delivering up the children to Mr. Hope; arrangements being made to allow Mrs. Hope all reasonable access to them. The issue of this order was stayed for a week, in order to give the parties an opportunity of deciding what steps they thought advisable. AMONG a number of convicts removed within the last few days from the Gloucester County Prison to Milbank and Wakefield Gaols was Tom Provis, alias " Sir Richard Hugh Smyth, Knight, Baronet," the claimant of the Ashton Court estates. MR. JOHN PATRICK SOMERS, the late member for Sligo, who has been for some time an inmate of the Queen's Prison, has petitioned the Insolvent Debtors' Court. His schedule was tiled a few days ago, and an order for hearing issued for the 23rd inst. before Chief Commissioner Law. The debts are 10,8231. The causes of insolvency have arisen from the sacrifice of certain property in the Encumbered Estates Court, and to the leases of property expiring by the death of the person on whose life he held them. Another cause is " the very heavy electioneering expenses " he had paid. From 1837 to 1853 these expenses are stated at 5,5001. There rue only forty-three creditors on the schedule, and it is understood that there is a prospect of their being paid. A COMMISSION issued from the Irish Court of Exchequer in the well-known case of Birch of the World v. the Freeman's Journal, is now sitting in London, for the examination of Lord Clarendon, Lord Palmerston, Sir Charles Wood, and other im portant witnesses. The commission was taken out by Birch, who acts for himself in the matter. Lord Clarendon has been under examination for several hours on many successive days. Mr. Birch examines in person, and has already gone through nearly all the facts respecting his connection with the Irish Go vernment in 1848, '49, and '5O. THE BENEFIT SOCIETY known as "The Working Man's Equitable Building Society " have a by-rule by which all payments of money due to the associa tion must be made on Wednesday evenings, between certain hours anti in the presence of certain trustees. A subscriber to the society, Mr. Lazarus, a grocer in Aldgate, had taken shares in the association, under whom he also became tenant and mortgagor of a house and appurtenances. Sums amounting to 03/. 10s. had accrued on account of subscriptions, rent, and instalments of mortgage money, which Mr. Lazarus had, it appeared, duly made to Skinner, the acil6. THE PRESS. secretary to the society. Skinner had, however, turned out a defaulter, and, though the indictment presented against him at the Old Bailey for embez zlement had resulted in an acquittal, the association brought an action, which was tried at the Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, against Mr. Lazarus for the 63/ 10s. The payment of the whole amount was satisfactorily proved, but, as some instalments appeared to have been handed over to Skinner (who was on terms of intimacy with the defendant) on other days or under other circumstances than those appointed in the by-rules of the society, the jury found a verdict against him for the aggregate amount—namely 1( /., which appeared to have been thus irregularly paid. A 1,0001. bank-post bill was missed by the cashier of the Liverpool Bank from his desk, where it was lying in the course of business, on Saturday, the 22nd of April last. Payment being stopped at the Bank of England, the bill, on presentation at that establishment, was traced into the possession of Mr. E. Forster, a sharebroker, residing at Birkenhead. It was then recollected that Mr. Forster was in the bank on the day when the bill was lost., and standing sufficiently near the cashier's desk to see the papers lying thereon, and, in the frequent absence of that functionary, to be able to appropriate anything from it. Farther, it was shown that the 1,0001. hill in question had been changed by Mr. Forster for notes, through the agency of a friend to whom he applied, on the Liverpool 'Change, in the course of the even ing of the 22nd of April; and when the police officers, upon suspicion being directed towards him, visited his residence in Birkenhead, they found notes and cash to the amount of rather more than 1,0001., which Mr. Forster had made ineffectual efforts to conceal. The case was investigated on Monday last at the Liverpool Police Court, when, after a prolonged examination, Mr. Forster was remanded for further inquiry. THE crew of the celebrated British ship Anna M'Alister applied on Saturday to Mr. Yardley at the Thames Police Court for relief : Their vessel was lying in the harbour of Cronstadt when the war broke out, and was specifically exempted from the facilities for returning home offered by proclamation to all English ves sels. The crews were seized by order of the Czar, as a measure of policy to keep them from exposing the state of the fortifica tions of Cronstadt, and were sent into the interior of the coun try. They had since reached Berlin, and been relieved by Lord Bloomfield, and sent home . The applicants, six manly-looking fellows, said that when they were made prisoners by the Russian authorities, in spite of their own proclamation at the commencement of the war, they were transported into the interior of the country, and Captain Evans, the master of the Anna M'Aliater, received from the Russian authorities one silver ruble, value 3s. 2d., to meet their travelling expenses and supply them with food on the road. They reached Warsaw in a state of utter destitution, and suffer ing much from fatigue and want of food, and very fortunately hap pened to fall in with an Englishman, who presented Captain Evans with 201. for the maintenance of himself and crew. From Warsaw they were despatched to Mysolowitz, and thence to Ber lin by rail. On arriving at the Berlin railway station, the Prus sian authorities demanded the captain's passport, and he took from his pocket the one delivered to him by the Russian officers at Mysolowitz. and, with a recollection of the insults and tyranny he had met with from the officers of the Czar, spat upon it, and trampled it under foot. For this offence Captain Evans was consigned by the Prussian officers to durance vile, but after a few hours' Weal ceration he was released on the interference of Lord Bloomfield, our ambassador at the Court of Berlin, who provided them with the means of proceeding to Hamburg, where they were shipped as distressed British subjects for London. The seamen put in documents in proof of their statements, and added that they were in want of food, and had eaten nothing that day except the breakfast provided for them by the captain of the ship which had brought them to London. Mr. YARDLEY asked the seamen what they intended to do with themselves ? The seamen replied that they wished to reach Gloucester, in the west of England, to which place they belonged. Mr. YARDLEY said be had read of the detention of the Anna M'Alister, with the effects of Sir Hamilton Seymour, our ambas sador, on board. He had read an account of the detention and suffering of the seamen before him, and he thought this was a case deserving of commiseration. The poor•box fund was low, and he could not afford to give the sailors any money; but he would lend them 11. each, to provide them with food, and to en able them to reach Gloucester, which they could do by rail for 9s. each ; and he should expect them to return the money out of the first wages they received. The sailors thanked the magistrate, and promised to return the SI. when they got a ship. The chief usher then handed each man a sovereign, and they departed much gratified. ON BEHALF OF CERTAIN MEXICAN BONDHOLDERS an injunction was on Monday obtained from the Vice-Chancellor's Court in the name of Mr. M'Garel, restraining Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co. from parting with the proceeds of certain consignments of dollars which had been made to them in any other way than by paying or depositing them in the Bank of England, in the joint names of the chairman of the Committee of Mexican Bondholders and of Colonel Facio, the agent of the Mexican Government in London, for carrying out the arrangements which were made some time since for paying off the debt. The plaintiff, who is deputy-chairman of the com mittee, had instituted the suit on behalf of himself and all other Mexican bondholders of 1851, claiming to be entitled, under the terms made with the Mexi can Government, to have the proceeds in question, representing upwards of 00,000 dollars, applied in pay • ment of dividends which are now due. The suit arose out of certain disputes which had occurred among dif ferent classes of holders of Mexican securities ; and the sum in question comprised the balance of certain re- SATURDAY, mittances made to Messrs. Baring by the Mexican Government on account of payments duo to cre. ditors in England. Messrs. Baring were only nominal defendants in the action, the real parties agai nst whom the injunction was granted being Santa Anne, President of the Mexican Republic, and Messr:. Jecker, Torre, and Co., his agents in this country. THE LONG -DEBATED CAUSE OF LUMLEY V. GYE was again argued before the Court of Queen's Bench cn Monday last. Several counsel having repeated the pleas and reinforced the arguments already presented on either side, the judges (Mr. Justice Erle, MI. Justice Crompton, and Lord Campbell) concurred n the opinion that no sufficient cause had been shown for disturbing the verdict already given for the de. fendant. The rule nisi for a new trial was accord. ingly discharged, and Mr. tile remains the success ful party from this protracted and costly series of litigation. THE LATE TENANT OF A COFFEE-HOUSE in Fleet, street, No. 156, which was burnt down in February last, was examined at the Guildhall on Wednesday, suspected of having set the house on fire himself. In January the prisoner, whose name is Hall, effected a considerable insurance on his furniture, and the fire occurred only a few weeks afterwards, under most suspicious circumstances. Evidence having been given as to some of the circumstances, the defendant was remanded for further investigation. Ma. WILLIAMS, while travelling on the Great Western Railway, lost a portmanteau, as he alleged through the negligence of the company's servants. He brought an action to recover its value, and the directors pleaded non-liability, and referred to a by law which set forth that the company were not be responsible for luggage unless booked and paid for. On the other side the clause in their act was cited enacting that every passenger was to be allowed to carry a certain amount of luggage, under prescribed conditions as to weight and size, free of extra charge. The lost portmanteau it was shown came within these conditions, and the Court of Exchequer on Wednesday gave judgment for the plaintiff, and affirmed the liability of the company to make good his loss. AN ATTACHMENT was obtained on some early day last week from the Court of Queen's Bench requiring a Yorkshire schoolmaster named Coates to bring up the body of one Alfred Vivion, a boy of only seven years of age, whom he was said to have detained in custody, in order that the child might be delivered to its mother. No direct submission was paid to this order from the court, but, some days after, the child arrived in London, having been placed in the train at Richmond, in Yorkshire. No person accompanied him, but a ticket, of which the following was a tran script, was sewed to his collar : " Alfred Vivion, 3, Mannor Cottages, Kenning Ovel. Under spesial care of the guard." - - The child arrived hungry, and crying fearfully, at the Great Northern Railway station, at ten o'clock at night, when he was turned adrift, and left to find his way home. Application was made on Monday to the court upon an affidavit setting forth the above par ticulars, and alleging that the schoolmaster had disobeyed the injunction, and should be visited forth with with the punishment due for a contempt of court. Mr. Justice Erle, however, thought that the transmission of the child to town was quasi obedience of the injunction, although the details might fairly be mentioned whenever the rule nisi came to be ar gued and adjudicated. Two ATTORNEYS' CLERKS, Howe and Ricards, were examined at Bow-street on Monday, (charged with having conspired to obtain the discharge of Mary Ann Blandford from the House of Detention] by,false re presentations. Mrs. Blandford, it appeared, had been imprisoned on a charge of such nature that the com mitting magistrate refused to accept bail for her ap pearance on the day of trial; but she was set at liberty, on application to ajudge at chambers,through the agency of the present defendants, who, it was alleged, had produced in support of the application a variety of supposititious documents, purporting to be the signatures of sureties, the consentof the solicitors to the prosecution, dm. When the trial came on it was found that Mary Ann Blandford was missing, to the surprise of the prosecutors, who had never been informed that any steps were being taken for her li beration on bail. These circumstances having been investigated, the two clerks were remanded, but al lowed their liberty on finding sureties for their al pearance hereafter. attibents anb Offences. A SERIOUS EXPLOSION OF STEAM COAL occurred on board a French vessel, the Bienfaisant, lying in Swansea harbour, taking in a cargo of coals. About 100 tons, fresh cut from the pit, had been put on board, and the mate had been advised, on account of the newness of the coal, to keep the hatches open for a time, so as to allow the discharged gas to escape. lie, however, omitted to observe this precaution, and fastened down the hatchway, The consequence was •