The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-15 00:00:00

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION ebe likeSo : (STAMPED) Per Annum .. Half Yearly.. Quarterly .. .. 11 0 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE, Subscribers are requested to send their orders through News Agents; if direct to the Office, accompanied by a remittance. Advertisements also must have a reference or remittance. Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. ALFRED IVE, 110, btraud, London. 11) rtoo. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1857. POSTSCRIPT. PARIS, Friday night. It appears to be decided that the Conference for settling the Danubian question will be held in Paris. • The rumour that the Porte has remitted a diplo- matic note to the English Cabinet protesting against the oacupation ;of the Isle of Perim, is confirmed. This note, it is said, undertakes to prove that, since the time of Solyrnan 11., who in 1533 established his authority over all the islands in the Red Sea, the Porte has continued in uninterrupted possession of Perim, and that the Barbary chiefs with whom the East India Company treated had no right to cede the place. The Geographical Society of France has addressed q letter to M. Lesseps, approving in very decided terms of his project for piercing the Isthmus of Suez. LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE. HOUSE OF LORDS. OUR MILITARY CONDITION. Tho Earl of ELLENBOROUGH complained of the insignificant provision, including an amount of only 200,0001., made for the expenses of the embodied militia. He proceeded to remark at considerable length upon the military aspect of affairs in India and China, and upon the provision which was re quired at home to feed the enormous demands for troops to feed the wars now pending in Asia, and to provide for the defence of the country itself. Replying to the noble earl, Lord PANNURE and Earl GRANVILLE repeated the Ministerial explana• tions which had been more than once given, sub mitting that the news last received, though of chequered character, was on the whole not unsatis factory, and that ample preparations were making o meet every possible emergency. The subject, after some further conversation, was allowed to drop. Their lordships then disposed of the business on the paper, and adjourned at seven o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS. DITORCE. The house met at. 12, when the consideration in committee of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill was resumed. The 2bth clause, which had been so long disputed, was at length passed. Mr. GLADSTONE, on the next clause being pro posed, repudiated the charge of having wished to defeat the bill by delay. Lord PALMERSTON accepted this explanation, deny ing on his own part any intention of forcing the bill through the house without allowing opportunity for full deliberation. The ATTORNEY GENERAL added some remarks also of an apologetic and amicable tenor, and a general understanding seemed arrived at that the future pro gress of the measure should suffer little interruption until the 53rd clause (the clergy clause) was reached, respecting which serious objections were entertained. EUPHRATES VALLEY RAILWAY. On resuming in the evening, Mr. ESTCOURT, having put himself in order by moving that the house on rising should adjourn until Monday, called attention to the expediency of facili• tating railway communication between England and India by the route of the Euphrates Valley. An enterprise having that object in view was now pro moted by a private company, but the work was one of great national benefit. Among other results, the hon. member observed that if such a railway was now in existence many thousand troops could he despatched from England into the very heart of India within a period of thirty days. The proposed railway was estimated to cost 1400,0001., hut not more than 100,0001. would be required from the Government to encourage the undertaking. The motion was seconded by Mr. CRAWFORD. THE PRESS, AUGUST 15, 1857. THE PRINCIPALITIES QUESTION. Mr. GLADSTONE, in reference to the Euphrates Valley Railway, deprecated any appropriation of public money to support a commercial enterprise, and noticed some of the political difficulties in which any adoption by the Government of the proposed railway, passing as it did through foreign territories, might entangle the country. Mr. Gladstone then adverted to the question of the Danubian principali ties, and invited the Premier to afford full official information, which excited much interest, and respecting which a multitude of informal statements were in circulation. He thought that much unne cessary delay had occurred in carrying into execution the provisions of the Treaty of Paris with regard to the permanent organisation of the Government in the Principalities. The best safeguard to Turkey against the aggressions of Russia would be the interposition of a free and independent nation. The right hon. member then proceeded to cite various incidents showing the corrupt influences, violence, and intimidation employed by the antiunion party during the late elections in Moldavia. THE KING OF OUDE. Sir F. KELLY inquired on what pretext the King of Oude had been arrested, and whether he was still in prison. Mr. V. SMITH explained that the ex-King of Oude had been arrested on a charge of complicity with the sepoy mutiny. At the date of the last advises he was still imprisoned, but treated with every possible respect. EXPLANATIONS. Lord PALMERSTON explained on various points raised during the debate. He detailed the reasons which induced the Government to refuse encourage ment to the Euphrates Valley ;Railway and the Suez Canal schemes, but stated that a liberal contribution would be readily paid for the transmission of public despatches by electric telegraph to India. Re specting the Principalities, the noble lord reiterated the explanation previously offered by the Foreign Secretary in the Peers, and by himself in reply to Mr. Disraeli in that house, annouhcing the further circumstance that Austria had intimated her full assent to the annulment of the Moldavian elections. HOSPITAL AT NETLEY. Mr. STAFFORD repeated and enlarged his criticism upon the site, the plan, and construction of the new military hospital at Netley, near Southampton. Mr. TITE, having an extensive acquaintance with foreign hospitals, fully corroborated the conclusions presented by the member for Northamptonshire. DIPLOMACY AT CONSTANTINOPLE. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, reverting to the Principalities question, commented upon some of the diplomatic difficulties which were said to have arisen at Con stantinople on the subject. He went on to remark upon other points connected with the foreign rela tionships of the country. DIVORCE. The house having gone into committee, resumed the consideration of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill, which occupied the remainder of the night's sitting. The house resumed, and adjourned at half-past oue o'clock until noon to-day (Saturday). LIEUTENANT SHAFTO, of the Royal Horse Guards, was drowned on Wednesday morning while bathing just below Windeor•bridge, at Eton We ir. Captain Billington, who was bathing with the deceased at the time, in the course of his evidence at the ccroner's inquest said : Deceased could swim, but was not a good swimmer. went out with him at half•past eight o'clock this morning, with the intention of bathing. He plunged into the water first, and I followed almost immediately afterwards. We had not been in the water more than a minute when I saw deceased, who had swam out about ten or fifteen yards, throw up his arms. At first I thought he intended to turn himself upon his back and float, but immediately I saw his head go down. I swam to him as fast as I could, and succeeded in catching hold of one of his hands, and called for help as loud as I could. Suddenly he wrenched himself away from me, and sank immediately; he did not struggle at all. Samuel Quelch, Eton waterman, deposed to his doing everything in his power to save the . de ceased : Had heard Captain Killington call out for help. Saw the deceased iu the water after he bad let go of Captain Billington, who was partly under the water. Captain Kil lington afterwards swain on shore, and cried out, " For God's sake what can be done ?" Had hold of the deceased with the " hitcher" once, but could not retain him ; could have recovered the body if another person had been with him. The body was found within two yards of where it sunk, after it had been in the water about forty minutes. The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death." The deceased, who was nephew of the member for Cambridge, was in his twenty-eighth year. THE ASHTON COLLIERY EXPLOSION INQUEST on the thirty-nine men killed was concluded on Saturday. As every soul in the workings had been killed there could be no evidence to throw a satisfactory light on the cause, and the jury found a verdict to that effect. efibituarg. THE RIGHT HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER died at Sir William Wightman's villa, St. Alban's-bank, Hampton, at ten o'clock on donday night. The right hon. gentleman had been in declining health for some months past, and had removed from Ken sington Palace to Judge Wightman's villa within the last week to see if change of air and scene would have any beneficial effect on his health. The deceased was son of Mr. John Croker, Surveyor- General of Ireland, and was born in December, 1780, in County Galway, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he greatly distin guished himself, and in 1802 called to the Irish bar' Mr. Croker entered the House of Commons in 1807 for Downpatriek. He sat in eight successive I'arlia ments, having represented the University of Dublin, Yarmouth, Athlone, and Bodmin in the Lower House of the Legislature. Mr. Croker retired after the election of 1832, when he sat with the Marquis of Douro (now Duke of Wellington) for the disfran chised borough of Aldebrough, Suffolk. It will be remembered that Mr. Croker was, from his introduc tion into public life, a great friend of the Duke of York. In 1800, he was appointed Secretary of the Admiralty, which appointment he held until 1830, having in June, 1828, been made a Privy Councillor. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1810), D.C.L., LL.D., a Fellow of the Asiatic Society, and of other learned institutions. By his death a pension of 1,5001. on the Consolidated Fund ceases, which the right bon. gentleman had enjoyed ever since his retirement from the Admiralty in 1830. The de ceased gentleman married, in 1806, Miss Pennell, daughter of Mr. Wm. Pennell, for many years Consul-General at the Brazils, who survives her husband. SIR JOHN BENT, KT., died on Thursday morning, in his seventy-first year. The deceased gentleman was highly respected in Liverpool, and in the year 1851 occupied the high position of chief magistrate of that borough, on which occasion her Majesty and Royal Consort visited the port, and conferred the honour of knighthood upon its mayor. Sir John Bent was the head of a large brewing establishment, and his private residence was Edge•lane, where he departed this life. His demise is sincerely regretted by all the inhabitants, and, as a tribute to his memory, the national ensign at the Town-hall floated half-mast high throughout the day. Since his mayoralty up to November last (when he retired through ill-health) deceased was an alderman of the borough. Mn. AUGUSTUS E. FULLER, late M.P for East Sussex, died on Thursday week, after a very short illness, from diarrho3a. The deceased gentleman was born in 1777, and was son of the late Mr. John Trayton Fuller, by the daughter of the first Lord Heathfield. lie was returned for the eastern divi sion of Sussex at the general election in 1811, and continued in Pariiament up to the late election, when he was defeated by Mr. James G. Dodson, his former opponent. THE VERY REV. WILLIAM DANIEL CONYDEARE, Dean of Llandaff, died on Wednesday last, at the residence of his son, Itchin Stoke, near Portsmouth. The rev. gentleman had been ill only three hours. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1808, being first class in classics and second in mathematics—first in classics with the present Bishop of Chichester and the late Sir Robert Peel, and second in mathematics with the present Archbishop of Dublin. In the year alluded to Sir Robert Peel outstripped all his:competitors by taking a double first class. The deanery, which is worth between 8001. and 900/. a year, is in the gift of the Bishop of Llandaff. The dean held no other ap pointmont in the Church. His state of health is said to have been very much shaken by the death, a few weeks since, of his son, the Rev. W. J. Cony heare, the well-known ecclesiastical essayist, and author of " Perversion." ACCIDENT TO '1 HE ATLANTIC SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLE. AN accident of some description has occurred to the Atlantic telegraph cable. Up to four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday constant signals and messages had been received, in one of which, received some twenty hours previously, it was stated that the ship had arrived in the two miles' depth. At four a.m. (Irish time) the electric signals suddenly ceased. On testing for insulation there was found to be a total loss, which, from the indications of resistance coils, would seem to have occurred at a distance of from 350 to 400 miles from Valentia. On Thursday H.M.S. Cyclops reached Valentia with the informa tion that the Atlantic cable has been injured, and a length of about 300 miles is lost for the present. A considerable part of this, however, may yet be re covered. THE PEOPLE'S PARK, the gift of W. Crossley, M.P., to the people of Halifax, is to be opened on Friday next with great ceremony.