The Press. — London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 11, 1854. THE CITY FREEDOM was presented on Thursday to Mr. Layard, M.P., the celebrated Assyrian traveller. A Court of Common Council was held for the purpose, and the presentation made with much formality and complimentary interchange. The Lord Mayor gave a dinner at the Mansion-house in the evening in ho nour of the occasion. THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY ACCOUNTS for the past half year have been made up, and show the feasibility of adividend of 5/. per cent., with a balance of 85,000/. to be carried to the credit of the next half year. six EVERARD HOME, of H.M.S. Calliope, died at Sydney, N.S.W., on the 2nd of November last. Sir Everard was the senior officer on the Australian station. Sairf anb. THE LATE ELECTION AT DERBY. Tliz DEBBY ELECTION CASE, kncwn as that of " The Queen v. Beresford and others," had been re moved from the Central Criminal Court to the Queen's Bench, where it stood for trial on Thursday. The grounds of action were based upon the allega tion that one Morgan had bribed certain electors of the borough in question, and with this person, and the illegal acts he was said to have committed during the last election, it was sought to connect the various defendants, or some of them, under comprehensive though indefinite charges of conspiracy. When the cause came on, however, Mr. E. James, as counsel for the prosecutors, who were nominally inhabitants of Derby, stated that he had no evidence to offer in support of the indictment. L')rd Campbell, there fore, instructed the jury to return a verdict of Not Guilty, which was done accordingly:— Sir F. THESIGER said he could not allow this matter to pass without, on the part of Mr. Beresford, denying in the most dis tinct and unequivocal language that he had anything, directly or indirectly, to do with the course which the prosecutors bad adopted, and that nothing iu any way had been done by him (Mr. Beresford), or on his behalf, to prevent the most minute inquiry hr.o, and consideration of, the whole of the case; for he was m let anxious that the fullest investigation should take place. Mr. Beresford was there, although labouring under the conse quences of a serious accident, but he came to the court anxious to meet the charge, for which there was not the slightest founda Um. The charge contained in the indictment had been sus pended over Mr. Beresford for months, necessarily giving him great uneasiness and anxiety of mind, and it aas only until late on the previous night that he hart received a communication that it was not intended to adduce any evidence in support of the charge. Up to this moment he was ignorant of the grounds of the charge, and of its sudden abandonment, lie had done all in his power to afford every facility to have the issue tried. Great delay had taken place as to the trial of the cause, because it 'was said that it could not be proceeded with before the meeting of Parliament, as several documents were required which could only be given on application to and leave of the house. No attempt bad, however, been made ou the other side to obtain those documents. lie was of opinion that not the slightest sus picion could he entertained with respect to Mr. Beresford. There was no ground for the charge ; and from the course which Mr. Beresford had adopted there was not the slightest imputa tion on his character ; and he was ready and anxious to have left his case to the consideration of the jury. Mr. JAMES said no compromise had been effected, and no such charge could be made against either party. Lord CAMPBELL said that, under the circumstances, it might have been supposed that the course pursued was suspicious; but, from what had transpired, the public mind would be satisfied that no corrupt compromise had taken place. MR. Pntuarrs, an extensive horsedealer, was severely injured in the late accident at Hornsey, on the Great Northern Railway. Besides much physical suffering, he was confined for a month by the effects of his injuries, and afterwards obliged to leave town for change of air. All this while his business was uravo dably neglected, and he consequently com menced a suit for compensation against the company, who paid 2281. into court; but this not satisfying the plaintiff, the cause was tried in the Queen's Bench on Wednesday. His case rested principally on the extent of the business profits which had been sacri ficed during his confinement. On this point he said : 1 am very extensively engaged in the foreign trade for t he Bel gian, French, and Sardinian Governments, and all over the Con tinent. At the time of the accident I was on a preliminary journey before my long tour of a month. I was to have been at Bowdon and Morin:esti° fairs. 1 had heavy foreign commissions for stallions. The Belgian Government allowed me 251. com mission for each horse. The Nice of the horses averaged from 1501. to 4001. each. I have always obtained from eight to tell horses for them annually. The confidence is placed in me per sonally. I had orders from Prince Bauveau and others. Mr. Allen, a great dealer, of Melton. Yorkshire, had died, and his stud was for sale. I expected to buy a great many horses at that sale. I had commissions from several French noblemen for stallions and brood mares. I had to procure from eighteen to twenty trade horses for • person in Paris, at 101. a horse com mission. I also wanted to supply my own stock. The whole of these profits were lost to me. I could not attend to business in consequence of my illness. I became acquainted with the merits of race horses by attending races. I could not attend the Don caster meeting. My returns are about 40,0001. The plaintiff's cashier gave evidence to the effect that his profits during 1851, on 187 horses bought and sold, were 8,4501. In 1852 he bought 260 horses, and obtained a profit of 5,0001., and in last year only 222, at a profit of 4,300/. The jury gave him 150/. beyond the sum tendered. Ma. Jam'Es BOHN, late a bookseller in St. James's street, received an immediate certificate at the Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, with a compliment THE PRESS. from Commissioner Holroyd for his conduct since his affairs were surrendered to that court. The ac counts given of his embarrassments were said to pres , mt an unparalleled instance of waste and sacrifice, through no fault of his own. The bankrupt had possessed property of the value of 20,0001., and was solvent. By an act of misplaced confidence he assigned the stock as security for a debt. That property, worth 20,000/., had, by a combination of trickery, been sold by the sheriff for about 1,500/. As illustrations of the sacrifice thus made it was mentioned that a " Lactantius " of Henry VIII. was sold in a "lot" for less than Od., and the " Aristotle" of Edward VI. for the same sum. Many other works of great value had been similarly sold for 2d. and 20. per volume. THE PROJECTOR OF THE ISLINGTON CATTLE MAR KET, Mr. It. WESTBROOK,obtained a second-class cer tificate from Commissioner Goulburn on Wednesday. His honour in giving judgment commented on the too frequent instances in which clever projectors without capital incurred heavy liabilities in the hope of organising a company to carry out their schemes. In such cases the court could not affirm that the bankruptcy which sometimes ensued had arisen from unavoidable loss and misfortune, such as would enable him to give a certificate of the first class. Often, however, it occurred that the parties acted in the honest persuasion that their speculations would answer, and among these he willingly reckoned the present bankrupt. THE LATE FRACAS AT THE CONSERVATIVE CLUB came before Sergeant Adams at the Middlesex Sessions on Wednesday. The defendant, Mr. W. H. Newman, a barrister, surrendered to take his trial, and pleaded guilty of the assault, his counsel ex plaining that it had been committed in a moment of irritation upon seeing Captain Garth, while standing at the club window, put his hand to his face with a gesture, which his client fancied to imply a pre meditated insult. That impression be now knew to have been mistaken, and lie accordingly made before the court an ample apology to the prosecutor in the name of the defendant. The counsel for Captain Garth announced the perfect absence of any vindic five feelings on his part, and, the apology being accepted, a nominal fine of ls. was inflicted on the defendant, whom the judge ordered besides to give recognisances that he would keep her Majesty's peace for twelve months. THE CASE OF LUMLEY v. GYE is specially fixed for trial in the Queen's Bench on Monday week, the 20th inst. It is expected to last more than one day. Damages are laid at 30,0001. Sir F. Thesiger, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. Hoggins, Mr. Cowling, and Mr. Huddleston have been retained for the plaintiff; and for the defendant the Attorney General, Mr. Willes, and Mr. Creasy. A special jury has already been uominated. lttibtnts nnb Offnuts. A FINE TRADER of 800 tons, the Hannibal, out ward bound for Sydney, got ashore on the Church Rocks, near Folkestone, on Saturday evening during a heavy fog. The place is notorious for its perils, and the position of the Hannibal was most critical. Fortunately, the electric telegraph was available on the coast line, and tidings of the disaster being flashed to Dover and Ramsgate brought three steam - tugs to her aid, and by help of A calm sea and rising tide she was drawn off into deep water by two a.m. next morning. Within an hour a gale sprang up which would have infallibly knocked the Hannibal to pieces if not thus timely rescued. THE COUNTRY BETWEEN BRIDGWATER AND TAUNTON is almost one sheet of water, from the overflowing of streams since the late heavy rains. These overflows, however, leave a rich deposit, and the district con• tains some of the finest pasturage in England. THE principal of the audit department of the North-Western Railway Company, Mr. Goalen, has been given into custody on a charge of extensive frauds, involving an amount of between 5,0001. and 0,0001. A FRENCHMAN, who calls himself Louis Monte gnard, and says his father is a merchant in London, has been charged at Manchester with abstracting notes and bills to the Saturday nearly 10,000/. at an hotel. He went on to the Queen's Hotel in that city, staid there only two hours, and was noticed wandering about in the vicinity of the bed rooms. Property was afterwards missed from one of the rooms, and a portmanteau found cut open, from which money and bills of exchange had been ab stracted. The police were advised, and the man speedily captured at the railway station. The miss ing bills, and a large number of similar documents stolen, as it proves in the same manner, from different rooms at the hotel, which is much used by mer chants, were discovered in his possession. A NEW RETTIIN OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS, including the official accounts on the subject for the half year 129 ending June 30th, 1853, has appeared. The num ber of persons killed in that period was 148, and the injured 191. The number of passengers was 45,080,316, and the increase of mileage during the half year 176, making 7,512 miles of railway open on the 30th of June. An addition to this return shows that by collisions and other accidents to trains, in number 40, there were 31 passengers and servants killed, and 140 injured. THE IRON-BOUND COAST OF THE ISLAND OF BARRA, off the western part of Scotland, has again been the scene of a heartrending shipwreck, in the total loss of the Liverpool ship the W. H. Davis, Captain Carling, master, while on her voyage to New Orleans, with every soul on board, excepting one man, num bering in all thirty sufferers. The ship had become unmanageable in the course of the recent gales, and in attempting, on the night of the 27th ult., to weather Barra Head, she went ashore on the rocks of Vater say, within a short distance of the spot where the Anne Jane was lost, with some 3(X) lives, a few months since. As soon as the ship touched the rocks, the master and crew took to the rigging, ex pecting, as the wreck heeled over, they would be able to gain the rocks. However, in a few minutes after wards, the ship went to pieces, and the whole num ber fell amidst the crumbling wreck and perished. Only one escaped to disclose their fate—the steward, a young man named Robert William Rushmore, who took refuge on the bowsprit, and, as the vessel broke up, sprang forward and succeeded in reaching the rocks in safety, although very much bruised. EIGHT LIVES WERE LOST BY A FEARYUL FIRE which broke out on Tuesday morning in Princes street, Soho. The details were of an unusually melancholy character. The house was numerously tenanted. The shop and parlour were occupied by a man named Reeve, a print and book seller ; in the Bret floor resided the ostensible landlord, James Anther, a painter and glazier, with his family ; the second floor was rented by an interpreter named Puzzi, who, with his wife and four young children, occupied the two small rooms of which it consisted ; and in the front and back attics lived respectively an aged woman, whose name is unknown, and a Jour neyman tailor named Adams, with his wife. It is believed that the fire was caused by one of the lodgers, who returned home about three in the morn ing, and is supposed to have dropped the match with which he lighted his candle among some straw. At all events, flames were first seen by the policeman on the beat rapidly kindling in the first-floor rooms, and before the inmates could be roused had extended to the floors above. A heartrending scene ensued. At almost every window persons were seen in extreme terror and peril, their retreat by the staircase cut off, and the fire gathering closer every minute. Some time elapsed ere the fire-escape arrived, and when brought to the spot the dense sheets of flame which poured from the lower windows rendered it impossi ble to mount them. Immediately afterwards the un fortunate interpreter Puzzi threw himself on the pavement, and was terribly injured. At the same moment his wife and children disappeared from the window, and seemed to fall back into the fire, which, by that time, had almost enveloped them. In another minute all the windows were left vacant, the fire, fright, and suffocation having paralysed the unhappy occupants, whose fate could not be doubted. When the engines arrived very little time sufficed to extin guish the flames, and to preserve the lower part of the house almost undamaged. The ruins were suffi ciently cool for examination by eight o'clock, when the relics, more than half charred, of eight bodies were found in different rooms. The official report briefly describes the results of this melancholy catas trophe—" that the upper part of the house, from the ground floor, is destroyed, and the contents consumed. Eight persons burned to death, and the lower part of house damaged by water." A ninth victim will pro bably be added, the poor man Puzzi not being ex pected to recover. FURTHER investigations are in progress with respect to the disastrous loss of the Tayleur, and the result, it is hoped, will remove some painful impres sions from the public mind as to the efficiency and general condition of the vessel when starting on her voyage. Mr. Grantham, inspector of iron ships for the Board of Trade, and Mr. Rennie, of Liverpool, have examined the wreck, at the desire of the owners and underwriters, and, with the aid of experienced divers, they have, it is said , clearly ascertained that the s ubmerged pointed rocks on which the broadside of the ship struck are such as would have torn to pieces any vessel, whether of wood or iron, one of the questions raised on the present occasion being as to the comparative security of iron or wooden vessels in cases of shipwreck. Captain Walker, of the Board of Trade, is still engaged in investigating the circum stances of this most melancholy disaster. THE OAKBANK SPINNING FACTORY, near Glasgow, was burnt to the ground ou Saturday morning, nothing being saved, with the exception of a couple of stories at one of the ends. Three hundred workers will be thrown idle by the disaster.