The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 28, 1857. said that he considered paper a proper article for taxation : In the interview which the deputation from the society had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer previous to the meeting of Parliament the right hon. gentleman clearly showed by the questions he asked that he was completely ignorant of the bearing and incidences of this duty—its effect on the manufacturer and the bookseller—and the extent to which it enhanced the price of books. It was not the tax at its commencement that constituted the whole of the evil, but its bearing throughout the various ramifications the paper had to go through—the wholesale stationer, the printer, and the bookseller—before it came in the shape of a book into the hands of the purchaser of the book. The tax was imposed originally in 1712 u a war tax, and an it bad remained ever since. Mr. Ingram, M.P., stated that the paper trade was sensibly diminishing in this country. In the United States of America there were 750 paper mills, pro ducing 270,000,0001b5. of paper a year. In Englund the production of paper was 166,000,0001b5., only 155,000,0001b5. of which werefor home consumption. Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P., said that the original object of the paper duty was not revenue. The journals of Parliament proved that the intention of imposing a duty was to prevent the circulation of cheap newspapers and to check the diffusion of knowledge among the people. Printers in those days were considered the natural enemies of peace and order : He was not making his assertion without book ; ho could refer to the journals of the House of Commons as his authority. In 1711 a message was sprit by Queen Anne, complaining of the scurrilous libels which were being published against her Majesty's Government, and calling upon the House of Commons to find a remedy equal to the mischief. Well, Parliament talked of a cen sorship, and of other plans for restraining the press. At last some member hinted that perhaps a tax might accom plish the same end, and not bear the odious name of censorship; so they agreed to impose three heavy taxes upon the press. Some resolutions in accordance with the object of the meeting were duly proposed and carried. Mttrapolitan. THE HOUSELESS POOR OF LONDON have lately attracted the attention of the Lord Mayor, who, ac companied by the Rev. J. B. Murray, Mr. Under- Sheriff Anderton, and Mr. Bunning, visited the Refuge for the Houseless Poor in Whitecross-street on Monday night. Upon arriving at the establish ment they found men, women, and boys applicants for admission. The fact was apparent to the visitors that all these persons would have been applicants for admission to the casual wards of the unions if the same facilities for admission to them were there afforded as were found at this establishment. The visiting party then proceeded to the City of London Union at Bow, where they found only nine persons in the ward for the reception of the casual poor. It was admitted by the officials that numbers that even ing had applied for admission, but, not having an order from the relieving officer in Fenchurch-street, they could not be taken in. According to the exist ing practice the casual poor are obliged to get a ticket in Fenchurch•street before they can obtain shelter and food at Bow, the distance between the two places being three miles. THE UNEMPLOYED assembled in large numbers at Smithfield on Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Osborne and others addressed the meeting on the advantages of emigration, and the remarks of the speakers were favourably received. Resolutions to the effect that the meeting should proceed en masse to the offices of the association in Clerkenwell green and sign the petition to the Houses of Parlia ment were carried, and the meetings on each occa sion dispersed. A NEW ARCTIC EXPEDITION is not to be under taken. In consequence of the adverse decision of the Admiralty in the House of Commons on Tuesday, a decision so little anticipated after a suspense of many months, during which the subject was under consideration, Lady Franklin is under the necessity of undertaking, on her own resources, the comple tion of the search for her husband's expedition. The late period at which this decision is made known renders it impossible to make the requisite prepara. tions for proceeding by the east. The western route by Behring's Straits will, therefore, be adopted. THE PEOPLE'S MONDAY EVENING CONCERTS.— The Lord Mayor has forwarded, through Mr. Under- Sheriff Anderton, a donation of 5/. i n a id o f th e f un d now being raised for defraying the expenses incurred in establishing the cheap concerts for the people at st. Martin's-hall. WHITFIELD'S TABERNACLE in Tottenham-court-road was burnt to the ground last Monday morning. The flues had been overheated on the previous day. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week exhibit a satisfactory state of the public health. The deaths have decreased from 1,368 in the first week of the month to 1,243 for the last week. The births amounted to 1,873, THE PRESS. r inc z I. A DARING ATTEMPT AT BURGLARY was made last Saturday morning at the house of the Rev. J. Nodder, Ashover, near Chesterfield. The rascals broke into Mrs. Nodder's room first, from the outside. Mrs. Nodder, who was up attending her baby, snatched the child from its cot, and rushing out of the room, locked the door on the outside, and fled to her bus band's bedroom. The burglars, four in number, soon broke out of Mrs. Nodder's room, and entering the room of a Miss Heeley, the niece of the rev. gentle man, so frightened the young lady, that she jumped out of the window before they could seize her, and ran in her night dress, without shoes or stockings, for more than a mile, into the village. Meanwhile, the burglars reached Mr. Nodder's door, and forced it open ; when the rev. gentleman, who was up and pre pared, after giving them due notice that the first man who entered would be shot, fired the moment the first man made his appearance, and shot him in the abdomen. Of course they all ran away, leaving their masks, tools, and lanterns behind them. The next morning a wounded man was picked up by a butcher a few miles off by the roadside. The butcher drove him to the Chesterfield station ; the man took a ticket for Derby, and from thence to Birmingham. The police tracked him in the course of the day, and Inspector Glossop, of the local force, set off at once, and on reaching Birmingham paid a friendly visit to a woman leech-bleeder. She had bled a man that very day for a gunshot wound in the stomach. That was quite sufficient for the inspector; and before Monday evening had passed, the keen police-officer had hunted down his game, and captured it in the shape of a suffering and exhausted ticket-of leave man. The other three men are supposed to belong to a Nottingham gang. Miss Heeley is still suffering severely from the effects of her fright. AN ACCIDENT happened to Earl Fitzhardinge on Monday last. When hunting with his celebrated pack of foxhounds in the Berkeley-vale, Gloucestershire, his horse threw him at a fence. His lordship was conveyed in a carriage to Berkeley Castle, and medi cal aid was promptly at hand ; the injuries, however, which his lordship has sustained are serious to a person at his advanced age. COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS appear to be having a run at present. The inquiry into the cause of the frightful accident at the Lund collieries, near Barnsley, was opened on Monday, and was adjourned for a week. There was no evidence of much importance adduced. This horrible tragedy has been followed by a severe explosion, on Tuesday, at the Ridsgrove pits, in Staffordshire. Two men were killed, several most severely burned, and others seriously injured. election ntelligenct. COLCHESTER.—Mr. Rebow has been returned for this burgh. EAST SUSSEX.—The canvass made by the respec tive supporters of Viscount Pevensey snd Mr. J. G. Dodson being now completed, both candidates have announced their determination to proceed to a poll. The polling will take place next Thursday. PONTEFRACT.—Mr. B. Oliveira, M.P., has addressed a letter to one of his constituents, explaining the course he will pursue in reference to the representa tion of Pontefract, when a dissolution of Parliament takes place. He expresses his surprise that Mr. Wood has been started as a candidate, and more especially on examining the requisition to find the names of some of those gentlemen who, at the last election, were amongst his most strenuous sup porters, including his proposer and seconder. Having the utmost confi.lencs in the kindly feeling and support which he has met with from his constituents, he will, whenever a dissolution may take place, seek for a renewal of the honour of being one of the representatives of that ancient borough in the House of Commons. SOUTHADIPTON.—A petition against the return of Mr. Weguelin was presented to the House of Commons on Thursday evening. WEST KENT.—Mr. Martin has been returned for the representation. Gusoow.—The news that Mr. John M‘Gregor had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds was received at Glasgow on Tuesday with " surprise and delight." The names of various gentlemen have been men• tioned, among others Lord Melgund, the Lord Provost, Mr. H. C. Ewing, and Mr. Walter Buchanan. The nomination will take place on Tuesday next. TIPPER/Mt.—Monday week, the 9th of March, has been fixed for the county of Tipperary election. Fab' anti a(uttiligente. THE end battalion of the Goldstream Guards leave Windsor for the Wellington Barracks, and the 3rd battalion of the Grenadiers, at the Wellington Barracks, go to Windsor. The Ist battalion o f the 203 Coldstream Guards at the Tower go to Aldershott, to relieve the 2nd battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards. These changes will take place next week. CAPTAIN R. L. WARREN AND CAPTAIN H. B. KELLETT, R.N., have been granted the good-service pensions, vice Captains Nias and Drake, promoted to the rank of Rear-Admirals. GENERAL GEORGE BEATTY, of the Royal Marines, is to have the good-service pension in the gift of the Board of Admiralty by the decease of Lieut.-General Sir John Owen, K.O B. THE DECONATION OF THE VICTORIA CROSS iS for the first time about to be bestowed upon certain officers, seamen, and soldiers, for special and personal acts of bravery performed in the late war. The Gazette of Tuesday contained the names and special services of these distinguished persons. In the list of names of naval officers and men to whom the decoration of the Victoria Cross has been awarded is that of John Taylor, captain e the forecastle. This man died at his residence, at Woolwich, on Wednes day, a few hours after receiving information that the honour had been conferred on him. He had pre viously received medals for the Kaffir and Burmese wars—the Sebastopol medal with all the clasps—the French Legion of Honour, and the medal for meri• torious conduct. The Victoria Cross was awarded him for having conveyed a wounded soldier from the trenches before Sebastopol at the imminent risk of his own life. gab) an VAiitt. BACON AND HIS WIFE, charged with the wilful murder of their two children at Walworth, were ex amined before Mr. Elliott, at Lambeth Police -court, on Wednesday, and now stand remanded till Thurs day next for the completion of the case on the part of the Crown. The trial will take place at the Old Bailey next sessions. AN INQUEST' was held upon the body of the late Earl of Harewood, at the Harewood Arms, Hare wood, on Monday, before Mr. T. Taylor, coroner, and a respectable jury. From the evidence it appeared that Lord Harewood, when the accident occurred, was riding a favourite old mare hunter, and not a young horse, as has been reported, and was attempting to " brush" through a young thorn hedge, when the animal stumbled over a sheep net at the other side, and threw the noble lord over her head, and it is supposed that he was struck by tho mare with her fore feet while pawing to relieve her self. The medical attendant stated that death bad resulted from erysipelas in the head. A verdict of " Accidental death" was returned. THE WIDOW ALLsoe has again appeared before Mr. Broughton, who had appointed Wednesday to make some further inquiry into her case. In reply to the magistrate she said she bad not brought with her the document to which she had alluded on a former occasion, and in which it was stated that she was known to certain persons whom she had mentioned. She was asked about her sons in the Crimea, and she now said they never joined any regiment, but were " clerks in Lord Raglan's department," and were sent thither from India. She handed in a paper, which she said she got from the War-office last No vember. In this paper the magistrate remarked the name of the regiment to which her sons had be longed was inserted in a different handwriting frcm the other writing in it. Mrs. Allsop accounted for this by saying it was written by Lady Thesiger. She said that her sons were not in any action in the Crimea to her knowledge. General Brook, whom she had said she knew, had written to the magis trate, saying that there was a man of the name of Allsop, paymaster in the 44th Regiment, but that her story was a very improbable one ; of her sons, or herself, nothing was known. She said two of her sons had been admitted into the Blue-coat School, but by whose recommendation she did not know. After some further conversation with her, which was not very satisfactory, Mr. Broughton dismissed her, saying that ho would apply to the private secretary of Lord Raglan, and Lady Thesiger, to ascertain if her statements were true. THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE OF WALES have appeared as applicants in a case for arbitration before Sir John Patteson, at the Privy Council Office. A dispute has arisen between the represen tatives of her Majesty the Queen, on the one hand, and the representatives of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, on the other, in reference to the revenues of the under sea fisheries off the coast of Cornwall. The arguments, which are of a technical and abstruse character, will last some time, after which the whole of the documents connected with the question will be handed to Sir John Patteson. When the right hon. gentleman has duly considered the matter he will make his award, which it has been agreed on both side 3 p1i214 be Anal,