The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

APRIL 11, 1857 THE Waal) OF TRADE have published a revision of the mercantile marine signals. The principal alteration is the substitution of letter, in place of numeral flags. By these means communication at sea will be rendered more convenient, and the opportunity be more frequently taken advantage of. The signal code being divided into two parts, the messages in tho first intimated by three and those in the second by four flags, a means of international communication is also made available. In all languages the signal will have the same meaning, and it can be made known either by the same or corresponding flags adopted by previous arrangement. An alphabetical index to the volume now published, and available for refer ence to any particular vessel, the distinctive signal of which it is wished to ascertain, adds greatly to the utility of the scheme. BY ♦ TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND lately concluded, British subjects no longer can trade by right from the mouth of the River St. John to the Bay and :Fort of Portendic, on the western coast of Africa. On the other hand, France concedes to England the French factory at Albreda, on the north bank of the Gambia; French subjects and vessels to have access to the Gambia under similar restric tions as enforced against the British. Ma. BECKETT DENISON, ➢I. P. for the West Riding, at a public dinner on Wednesday at Don caster, in reply to a complimentary toast, said he had now been elected for the West Riding for the fourth and, he believed, the last time. (" No, no.") He said for the last time because he felt that in the first place he had arrived at the eleventh hour of his life, and, in the next, because he believed that before another general election the West Riding would be cut up into smaller. divisions under a new Reform Bill : He would not offer any objection to such a measure as that, for he confessed that a constituency numbering some 37,000 voters was too large for any two members to do justice to. He admitted that the time had arrived for in troducing some measure of Parliamentary reform, and he should certainly vote for the second reading of such a measure, unless—which he did not expect—it should go too far. In that measure of reform Doncaster would in all probability be included as one of the new boroughs autho rised to send a member, if not two members, to Parlia• went, for he found on looking over the statistics of popula- tion that Doncaster. Rotherham, and Keighley, were, in point of numbers, the three largest unrepresented towns. Lllttropolitan. DR. LETHEBY, in his quarterly report upon the sanitary state of the City, states that the mortality has been above the:average—viz., at 26.2 per 1,000, in stead of 25-9. The prevailing cause of death had been disease of the respiratory organs. Each union had contributed towards the excess, but the St. Botolph division of the City of London Union is the largest proportion. The report then passed to the consider ation of causes which lad to the great mortality In the union, dwelling particularly upon the over crowded state of houses inhabited by the poor, and pointing especially to three or four cases, in which Dr. Letheby had found 48 men, 73 women, and 59 children living in 31 small rooms; and to Rose alley, Bishopsgate, a row of 12 houses, each con taining six or seven rooms, in a ditty and ruinous condition, and inhabited by the very poorest Irish. Here Dr. Letheby found in all 77 rooms, 70 of which were tenanted by 03 families of 252 persons. In one room 2 men, 3 women, and 5 children ; in an other, 1 man, 4 women, and 2 children; in a third, 1 man, 2 women, and 2 children, with the dead body of a poor girl (who had died a few days before in childbirth), lying on the bare boards, without shroud or coffin. This court was the continual haunt of contagious diseases; and he had examined closely to see if there was not some agent there peculiarly favourable to decomposition and the generation of disease, and by chemical analysis he discovered that, while the atmosphere was greatly deficient in oxygen, it contained three times the proper quantity of car bonic acid, besides a considerable amount of aqueous vapour, charged with alkaline matter, smelling most abominably. In conclusion, the report insisted upon the necessity of taking steps to amend so dangerous a state of things. The report was ordered to be printed. THE NORTH WEST LONDON PREVENTIVE AND RE FORMATORY INSTITUTION appears to be working well. Ile institution was established in 1852, and com menced with only six inmates. At present there are 82 persons in the institution, of whom 17 are about to emigrate, and one is training as an industrial assis tant for a reformatory. The results which have at tended the working of this institution are shown by the fact that of 06 persons who have left it since its opening 10 have emigrated, 32 have been established in trade, 20 have enlisted in theiarmy or navy, 9 have been received by their friends, 15 have quitted the institution prematurely from dislike of iLs discipline, 2 have been dismissed for miscondu c t, 5 are i u ser vice, 1 is labourmaster at another reformatory, and 2 are deal. A meeting was held on Tuesday at the building in the New-road, when the Bishop of Lon don addressed ten young inmates about to emigrate. THE PRESS. CIVIL WAR HAS BEEN RAGING IN RATCLIFFE. The vestry last Monday held a meeting to nominate and elect overseers for the next year. The Board of Guardians appear to have anticipated some interruption, for they organised a body of officials and police in ile and outside the doors of the vestry-room. But the ratepayers of Rat. cliffs are not easily intimidated. Firm in their legal right to have a voice in the management of their own parochial affairs, they despatched a deputation de manding admission. It was peremptorily refused. In a moment their resolution was taken; they rushed up stairs, knocked over the beadle, scattered the police, but failed to complete their coup-d'atat, for the sitting members proved immovable. A hot dis cussion as to the rights of ratepayers ensued be tween the board and the ratepayers, no arrangement was arrived at, and the question raised is to he further agitated at the meeting of the Parochial Reform Association next Monday. THE ELECTION FOR THE CLERKENWELL INCUMBENCY, terminating in the return of the Rev. Mr. Maguire, is protested agoinst by one of the churchwardens as illegal. The Bishop of London has undertaken to obtain high legal opinion whether he should be justi. fled under the circumstances in granting Mr. Maguire a licence. THE FIRST BODY OF ARTISAN EMIGRANTS to Australia, under the auspices of the Wellington Emigration Fund, will leave London on the 16th inst. They have been carefully selected from un employed artisans who joined in the movement resulting from the late meetings at Smithfield. The selections already made most judiciously include several men with families.—Zealand Gazette. A WALL of a dilapidated house in Little Russell court, Covent-garden, yesterday fell in, killing one man, and so severely injuring two others that they are not expected to survive. A REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE RIVER THAMES from Putney to Rotherhithe, made to the First Com missioner of Works by Commander Burstal, R.N., dated the 27th oe January last, has been published this week. The first change to which it refers is the great alteration in the low-water surface of the river above London-bridge; this is attributed to the removal of the old structure in 1832, which in a great measure acted as a dam to the river, and obstructed the free action of the stream. The present low. water surface at springs compared with that of 1823 is higher at all the bridges, attaining at some to a difference of three and a half feet and four feet. In 1856, the time of high water at Battersea-bridge was twenty-eight minutes later than at London Docks, and the surface at nearly the same level ; whilst in 1823 the time was thirty-eight minutes later and the surface five inches lower. The bad of the river has considerably deepened since 1823, the great change being at Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, a strong disposition to the same being also manifested ht. Southwark. The report states : The bed of the river in 1823 at Westminster-bridgc. and one-eighth mile below it, was 18 feet 6 inches below Trinity datum. Hail London•bridge been then removed, the river would have been nearly dry there at low water, with a fall of 11 feet in the intermediate space of two miles ; and, considering the great depth of water there was between Lambeth Palace and the Penitentiary, viz., 29 feet below datum, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the scour would be very great as soon as vent was given to the river stream by the removal of Old London•brid•„e and the shoal below it, au also by the combined action of river steamers and dredging. In conclusion, Captain Burstal remarks, that should the proposed embankment be carried out, and the channel contracted, the strength of the stream would be increased and the bad of the river deepened. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETrRNS this week show a rate of mortality 76 below the proper average. 1,235 deaths, and 1,838 births, were registered. probinttal. SCREW STEAMERS for the Russian service in tho Black Sea have lately been ordered in considerable numbers at the Tyne ports. A fleet of vessels, ranging from 200 to 1,000 tons, are now being built. GREENWICH FAIR will not be held as usual next week. The district magistrates have decided upon its suppression, and the landowner has consented to abide by the decision. ANOTHER HORRIBLE FACTORY ACCIDENT occurred last week at Messrs. Brown's worsted factory, Brad ford. The deceased, one Spoffortli, overseer, in attempting while the shaft was in motion to slip a belt upon a drum, became entangled in the belt, was drawn up round the shaft, and, before the engine could be stopped, so frightfully mutilated that death had ensued before he was rescued. At the coroner's inquest one of the jury suggested the application in all factories of certain means lately perfected by which machinery can without injury be arrested in a moment. THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE COCREIrRIi has accepted an invitation from the Southampton Chamber of Commerce to a public banquet. The day is not yet fixed. 357 THE BIsHOP OF GLOUCESTER has been alarmingly ill. His loriship, it is reported, is now considered out of danger. THE LUNDHILL COLLIERY PIT, it is anticipated, will not be emptied of the water fir another fortnight. The pumping operations are continued night and day. The general temperature of the water, between (II deg. and 03 deg., is considered a satisfactory proof of the extinction of all fire in the pit. The coroner's inquest was resumed on Thunday. A WATERLOGGED SHIP, the Holinger, from Nerve to Gainsborough, laden with deals, was discovered off the coast of Norway, on the 14th ult. On boarding her, six emaciated bodies of dead seamen were found. The vessel was without provision of any sort ; and it is believed that the crew, unable to make the land, or ignorant of their position, absolutely died of starve• Lion. A TERRIBLE MURDER was committed in Liverpool last Monday. A butcher, one Gibbons, in a fit of despondency at his failure in business, attempted to murder his whole family. He cut the throats of his two youngest bop, and similarly attempted the life of his wife and daughter. The two boys are dead, and neither the wife nor the daughter expected to live. At the coroner's inquest a verdict was returned of " Wilful murder." The man is believed to be insane. THE CORPORATION AT COLCHESTER have been pre sented by Lord Panmure with two Russian gun-i, to be exhibited in such a manner as may be thought proper. Lord Panmure requests that these guns may be suitably and correctly mounted and carefully preserved. They will soon be sent down from Wool wich; and the mayor is about to take the opinion as tolthe best and (most suitable position in which to place the trophies. MR. WILFRED LAwsox, the late Liberal candidate for West Cumberland, while hunting on Saturday was thrown from his horse and severely injured. At first it was reported that he hal sustained concussion of the brain, but this is not the case ; though his injuries were of so severe a nature as to prevent him from attending at Cockermouth on Tuesday to hear the official declaration of the poll. SOME REMAINS OF A ROMAN VILLA have been dis covered near the Roman camp on Wolstanhury-hill, Hurstpierpnint. They consist of a regularly-built Roman wall, indicating the building of which it would seem to form a portion to have been about sixty feet either way, and many fragments of arti cles, such as Samian ware, flue tiles of a hot vapour bath, amphorm, glass, and nails, have also been discovered. THE BIRMINGHAM JEVENIT.F. REFORMATORY INSTI TUTION held their annual meeting at the Town.hall, Birmingham, on Wednesday. The Earl of Shaftes bury presided, and in an eloquent address insisted upon the importance of industrial training as a great element in effecting the reform of a criminal. There was another matter of ♦ital importance for the success of these institutions. The responsibility of parents must be established. In nine cases out of ten the parents originated habits of crime in the children : Parents said they could not afford to par a weekly sum for their criminal children when they could well afford to do so and when they professed they could not pay, they should be told, " If you cannot be responsible with your purse, you shall be responsible with your person, and to prison you shall go." Whit a stringent law like that carried out in some thirty or forty cases, depend upon it the very parents who now sent their children to beg and steal would be found anxious to obtain admittance for their little ones into ragged or national schools. Mr. Newdegate, M.P., supported the principle in a brief speech, and a resolution adopting the report, which showed a small available surplus, was at once adopted. THE RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM of 1850 are reported as amounting to 281 persona killed and 394 injured. Of this number 112 were killed and 16 injured who were neither passengers nor servants of the railway companies, 112 killed and 80 injured who were servants of companies or employes of contractors, and 27 killed and 208 in. jured who were passengers. Of the passengers 8 were killed and 282 injured from causes beyond their control, and 19 killed and 10 injured from incautiousness. Of the 71 accidents reported on in 1850 it appears that in 7 cases only wcre the accidents attributable to circumstances which could not be guarded against, and that in only 3 of the cases were the accidents solely attributable to such circumstances. In 27 cases the negligence of the inferior servants entered into the cause of the accident. Ihe remaining causes of accident are classed under the following heads—viz., defects in the construction of works or rolling stock—insufficiency of accommodation or appliances for safety—insufficient staff, and inade quacy of the system of working. A general review of accidents reported since 1840 shows that the great majority of accill , nts are attributable to causes over which the managers of railways have control, but which, from negligence or false economy, they do not remedy. What is called "negligence" of servants in cases of accidant is often an habitual in-