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

V" I JUNE 10, 1854. that i on explosion soon afterwards took place, blowing up the deck, and severely burning two and slightly in luring a third seaman employed on board. Ma. Wuzzat TOWN, of Sandwich, was fined 100/. before the magistrates in petty sessions, on the 29th u lt., for letting a horse without a licence. Mitigated to 251., and 41. 3s. 10d. costs, on immediate payment. A FRIGHTFUL MURDER was committed on Wednes day at No. 2, Mead's-place, Newington-causeway. The victim was a widow named Murray, the occupier of the house, which she let in lodgings, and the murderer is an advertising agent, Henry Summers, who lived in her house. The other inmates were alarmed by a scuffle and cries on the morning in question, and found the poor woman lying in the passage and Summers leaving the spot with a clasp knife in his hand. The woman still breathed, but died in a short time afterwards. Her body was then discovered to have been terribly cut in many places. The murderer was arrested and examined that same day at Southwark Police Court, and remanded. It appeared that within the last two or three months he bad become possessed of a large sum of money through the death of a relative, and since then had carried on a very dissipated life, being continually in toxicated, and in a state of great excitement, so much so that his conduct had been remarked by several individuals who encountered him. A FIRE, which resulted fatally to a young woman, named Sarah Green, occurred at Messrs. Moses,' chinadealers, 134, Lower Marsh, Lambeth. The fire occurred in an upper room, in which the young woman and a child were living, and it is believed that a spark from the fire ignited her dress. She was discovered with her clothes in flames. The firemen cut them from her body, but she was so frightfully burned that she expired shortly after removal to Guy's Hospital. The child had a narrow escape. SEVERAL DESTRUCTIVE FIRES have happened during the week. On Monday night one broke out in Gresham-street at a stationer's shop, and before it was quelled inflicted serious damage to several ad jacent tenements in Gresham -street and Alderman bury. Some extensive warehouses filled with most valuable commodities were exposed to extreme danger, and saved at much hazard and difficulty by the firemen. On the same day a cork-manufactory belonging to Messrs. Shabar, in Ratcliff-highway, took fire and was extensively burnt. On Tuesday a mill at Barcomb, near Lewes, belonging to Mr. Billiter, used for grinding flour and expressing linseed oil, was nearly consumed by fire, together with a large stock of oil, the whole damage being estimated at 8,0001. While the fire was raging a quantity of oil escaped into the river Ouse, whose waters were covered with flames for a considerable distance. That day an alarming fire occurred at the pauper lunatic asylum at Colney-hatch. The conflagration was stopped in time, resulting only in the destruction of a wooden " drying-house." Fortunately the inmates were kept quiet during the agitating interval before the flames could be repressed. THE number of British ships wrecked in the month of May amounted to 101. The record for April con tained a list of 99 ships, making a total of 200 losses in the two months. NEW WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. THE preliminary operations for the construction of the new bridge at Westminster have already commenced, and the outlines of the structure itself will, before long, become visible to the passengers who thread their way, steamer bound to Chelsea or Kew, through the narrow waterway afforded by the arches (or sometimes the single arch) of the old bridge, which still remain permeable to traffic. In design the new bridge is to be Gothic, in accordance with the Palace of the Legislature, and is to be built of iron, under the superintendence of Mr. Page. The bridge will span the river and its banks by seven arches. The first arch on each side will be 95 feet in span, with a rise of 16 feet from Trinity datum ; the second, 105 feet, with rise of 17 feet 6 inches; the third, 115 feet 3 inches, with rise of 19 feet ; and the fourth, or centre arch, 121 feet in span, with a rise of 20 feet. The low-water line is 18 feet below Trinity datum. On the Surrey side there will be also two small land arches. Including these, the whole length of the bridge may be called 914 feet. The width will be 85 feet,including the parapet on each side. In the construc tion of the foundations the engineer proposes to avoid the use of caissons. Screw piles will be driven at intervals of five feet from centre to centre, to form the outer line of each pier ; iron sheathing will be introduced between these to make an enclosure, and the loose ground is then to be dredged away from within. Timber piles are then to be driven in over the area so enclosed at intervals of three feet one way and four feet the other from centre to centre, and concrete will be filled in between them. On the top will be placed two layers of six-inch landings and granite slabs, and on these will be built the pier, rising two feet above Trinity datum, to receive the iron superstructure. The headway in centre opening, twenty feet, will be about five feet less than in the centre opening of the present bridge, and the roadway, nearly level, will be ten feet lower. The new bridge will occupy some of the site of the old bridge, and, as it is proposed to use the latter during the construction of the new bridge, part of the latter will be put up first, and this will be made fit for temporary use before the old construction is taken away and the remainder of the new work put up. The cost of the bridge is to be 201,0001., the tender of Messrs. Mare for that sum having been accepted. THE PRESS. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. ARRANGEMENTS for the collection and preparation of agricultural statistics upon a regular system are now in active progress. Sir John Walsham has just pre sented a supplementary report on the subject, in which he sets forth the conclusions regarding the best form of proceeding which he has arrived at, either by his own investigations when conducting the experimental inquiry in the county of Norfolk, and from the experience collected by Mr. Hall Maxwell in Scotland, while pursuing similar inquiries on behalf of the Highland Society. The form of the schedule that should be sent to occupiers is inserted in this part, both Sir J. Walsham and Mr. Maxwell agreeing that the inquiry should at first be confined within the simplest limits, and not elaborated by questions calculated to perplex, if not alarm, the farmers generally. They propose that the distribu tion of crops and the amount of stock throughout Great Britain should be ascertained on the Ist of July; that the estimates of the produce per acre, to be pre pared by the enumerators of the Scotch districts and the statistical committees of the English unions, in respect of the harvest, should be lodged with the superintending authority, by whom the results of such harvest would have to be calculated, between the 20th of October and 20th of December ; and that the Board of Trade should publish the estimates before the Ist of January. Respecting the most expedient machinery for collecting the required facts, Sir J. Walsham considers that the agency of parish officers and boards of guardians will be the most effective, and estimates that by this means the whole work might be performed, as far as regards England and Wales, for an annual sum of 15,0001. Those boards ' necessarily comprise a comsiderable proportion of the leading agriculturists throughout the country, while union officers are well known to all classes within the district for which they act, and, as a body, are most intelligent and trustworthy. If this organ isation were made available, nothing more would be needed than for the Board of Trade to delegate the undertaking to the Poor Law Commissioners. With reference to the feeling with which agriculturists regard this scheme of collecting agricultural statistics, through the agency of boards of guardians and their officers, it is stated that a general opinion in its favour seems to prevail among practical men. Under these circumstances, looking at the critical influence which the next harvest must have upon all the com mercial and financial interests of the country, it is hoped that no obstacles will be permitted to prevent the entire system being put in force during the pre sent year. A YANKEE BARGAIN IN THE WIND. Cult American cousins, with their keen scent for abargain, are already beginning to speculate upon the possibility of realising something handsome for themselves out of the present European crisis. Their first glance is directed towards the territory which Russia possesses on their own continent, and the plan for turning it to account is thus described in the New York Herald:—" It must be manifest to every intelligentj reader that the possessions of Russia on the north-west coast of this continent are held at this time subject at any day to seizure and annexation by Great Britain. The addition of those islands and seacoast lying north of 54 deg. 40 min. to British Oregon would make that colony so valuable to its owner as to render its ultimate ac quisition by the United States impossible, except front the chance of external war or internal revolution. But the Russian possessions in question may undoubtedly be pur chased by our Government at this crisis for less than cost price, and their acquisition would so far hem in the pos sessions of the Hudson's Bay Company as to make their purchase at a reasonable sum a natural consequence. It may, therefore, be worth while to admonish our Govern ment that the position of this republic as the first com mercial nation of the world—that our territories on the Pacific, and our prospective trade, across that ocean, with the nations and islands of Asia—suggest the policy of strengthening and extending our commercial facilities, wherever the opportunity is offered, without disturbing our peaceful relations with other powers, and especially wherever an advantageous bargain of annexation may be made. In this broad and general view, when Honduras, through her minister to Washington, shall lay before our Government an offer comprehending the incorporation of that State into our Union, quietly and peacefully, and without the extortion of a Gadsden treaty, we should close in with the offer, for our constitution and our institutions, our enterprise and our ' manifest destiny,' are sufficiently cohesive and elastic to cover the continent and its con tiguous islands, of all sizes, and in all latitudes. Hence, also, if the Russian territories in question can be purchased for a mere trifle at this time, it is our policy and our duty to purchase them." Tim son of a workman in the Moselle department, named Brodbergen, committed parricide, as it is surmised from no other motive than that, having been drawn for a soldier, he hoped to become exempt from service as the son of a widow. His crime was discovered and the assassin awaits h . !, trial. 539 CLOTHING-COLONELS. AN important missive, "regulating the future position of the colonels of regiments with regard to the clo thing of their regiments and the emoluments which they are to receive," has just emanated from the Horse Guards. This document comprises a royal warrant by which flied payments are substituted to the colonels (according to the system in use in the household cavalry) in lieu of the varying profits they now derive from the " off-reckonings." The warrant sets forth : VICTORIA R.—Whereas it has been found expedient to alter and revise the warrant end regulations regarding tho supply of clothing, accoutrements, and appointments to our army, so that the colonels of the respective regiments shall in future receive a fixed annual allowance in lieu of deriving any pecuniary emolu ments, as heretofore, from the off-reckonings, we are therefore pleased to direct that, in future, the following allowances shall be made to the colonels of the respective corps In lieu of off•reckon ings, Grenadier Guards.... 1,0001. per ann. Coldstream Guards .. 1,0001. " Soots Fusilier ditto .. 1,6001 " tat Dragoon Guards .. 8001. " Other regiments of Dragoon Guards 4101. " and Dragoons, each (To be reduced to 1,0001. Ist Regiment of Foot 1,2001. " in the event of a va cancy occurring. 60th ditto 1 Ist BtUn. COOl. " 2nd ditto COOL " Rifle Birgde. 1 let Bat. 6001. " If appointed before Ist vild do. 60 , 1. June, latit ; but if ap- Other Regiments of In- pointed subsequently fantry of the Line I Bi. ~ only COOL per annum. and West India Re giments, each.. •... The clothing, accoutrements, and appointments will in future be provided by the colonel, the public only paying the cost price of such articles ; the payment will be made under such regula- tions u the Secretary at War may hereafter determine. The engagements already entered into by the colonels of the respective corps will be taken over by the public in such manner as the Secretary at War may hereafter direct. Given at our Court at St. James's, this 6th day of June, 1864, in the seventeenth year of our reign. By her Majesty's command, SIDNCY ptiant. lip of insolvents, left vacantby the death of Mr. Baldwin, has been accepted by Mr. Hatchell, Q.C., late M.P. for Windsor, and Irish Attorney-General in Lord J. Russell's Government. The of is nearly as good as a judgeship in the superior courts, involving incomparably lighter duties, with a salary of 2,0001. per annum. GLOWING descriptions are given by the Dublin Freeman of the proceedings on Sunday last at the Church of the Conception, on the occasion of Dr. Newman making his "inaugural profession of faith" as rector of the "Catholic University" of Ireland. Dr. Cullen, as the Papal legate, was, of course, pre sent, and preached the sermon, and several other bishops assisted at the ceremonies. GEORGE W. STEVENSON, EBQ., J.P., eldest son of the rector of Callan, county Kilkenny, was killed by a fall from his horse on Saturday night last. GRATIFYING indications that the harvest will be at once early and abundant are noticed in almost every district in Ireland. The late rains have done won ders in bringing on the crops of all descriptions. The potato crop is one of the largest planted for many years past, and presents a luxuriant appear ance. Two Romanists abjured the errors of Popery in Dublin last Sunday. One of them bad been a student for the Dominican order in the priesthood. Foul " Gzias," named Coote, Chetwode, Scott, and Newcomb, were brought up at the Portarlington Petty Sessions on Wednesday, charged with stealing knockers. In a drunken freak they had wrenched off more than forty knockers in one night. The offence being proved, the magistrates considered it too serious for summary adjudication, and committed the defendants for trial at the quarter sessions. Sour calculations showing on how much more costly scale the present war is carried on than any of its prede cessors are offered in Herapalh's Journal:—" There seem, indeed," says our contemporary, " to be no limits set to the expense. Large sums have been spent in im proving the science and practice of gunnery within the last two or three years, against which no complaint can be made. It is necessary for our protection. Shells are now generally used instead of shot, and the destructive effects, therefore, of cannon indefinitely increased. We under stand, too, that o u r powder is very much superior to the Russian. It is alleged to be one-third stronger. But if we have improved our guns and our skill in using them, the expense has more than kept pace with both. In former years shot only was used, and a 82-pounder cost about ba. It is now found that shells are incomparably more efficient, and what is called a 321 b. shell, fitted with fusee and all complete, costs 205., and the charge of pow der, with wads, 12s. more, or Us. for every 321 b. shell fired. For an 14-inch, or 321 b. shell, the cost is 24s , and with powder and wads, Bs.. The guns for the 321 b. shell weigh about two tons, and cost about 4111. The guns for the 1381 b. shells weigh from 'l to 4( tons, and cost from 1551. to 951. each. From these few facts ono may form sonic idea of the costly game we have entered on, and, from its probable destructive effects, what the Czar's IMP jects and others will owe to his ambition and madness."