The Press. — London, England, 1854-05-13 00:00:00

446 The LORD ADVOCATE remarked that there were three systems of education between which they might choose—the secular, the denominational, and the national. The first was impossible in Scotland ; public opinion scouted it utterly. The second bad been tried, and still existed, but was proved to be wanting. There remained the third alternative, and in the bill now before the house the attempt was made to create a strictly national system based upon a judicious union of religious and secular teaching. The right hon. gentlemen then adverted to the various strictures which had been passed upon the measure, and con tended that, if it did not satisfy all the conditions necessary for the solution of a more intractable problem, nevertheless it promised to do much towards removing the ignorance which constituted the worst blot and evil upon our modern society. Moderate and philanthropic men of all sects in Scotland had adopted the measure. Its chief opponents were men who disliked to abolish the tests imposed upon school masters, and so surrender the exclusive privileges of the Established Church. This abrogation of tests he considered the most important feature of the bill, and entered into calculations sh owing that they operated against the great majority of the people in Scotland, and formed an object of contention which it was necessary to remove. Mr. Moncreiff then alluded to other details of the bill, reviewing the criticisms and suggestions offered on different hands, and contending that the measure bad been framed upon moderate principles, successfully avoiding the extremes on either side. After a few words from Mr. BumEn the house divided— For the second reading . For the amendment Majority against the Government ---9 RAILWAY TRAFFIC REGULATION BILL. The motion for the third reading of this bill was opposed by Mr. I. Burr, who moved the adjournment of the debate. Some prolonged discussion followed, and a division was taken on the question of adjourn ment, which was negatived by a majority of 97 to 18 —79. The motion for adjournment was renewed, but ul timately withdrawn, and the bill passed the third reading. THE question which occupied the House last night is a very simple one. By the existing educational system in Scotland, the parish schoolmaster must be a member of the Estab lished Church, and the minister of the parish has the right of inspecting the school. The system is found to work admirably. The schools are attended by children of all reli gious denominations, and no objection is taken to the religious instruction they receive. The Government bill proposed to change this system, by removing the control of the schools from the Church, and by establishing a board of supervision. Against this change more than two thousand of the principal landed proprietors in Scotland, including the no blest of her peers and the ablest of her representatives, had signed a declaration stating that in their opinion " the present " system of parochial schools ought trot to be " interfered with, and that their connection " with the Church of Scotland ought to be " maintained." After an animated debate a division took place on the second reading of the bill, and the Government, in a full House, were beaten by a majority of nine. Yesterday's Moniteur contains a despatch from Ad miral Hamelin, dated off Odessa, the 25th ult., announcing that the Retrenetion, Descartes, and Niger had captured fourteen Russian merchant ves sels which were sent to Constantinople. Admiral Dundas had proposed an exchange of prisoners. The differences which at one moment threatened to break off the diplomatic relationship between M. Baraguay d'Hilliers and the Porte have been finally arranged. Reconciliatory visits were interchanged between the French Ambassador, the Seraskier, and Redschid Pacha. The son of Abbas Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt, has sent some mo , .t magnificent presents to the daughter of the Sultan, Minure Sultana, to whom he has just been betrothed. Two diadems of great beauty and worth are amongst them—one for the Sultana, the other for his bride—and five splendid horses for the Sultan. General Yussuf, the Arab chief, embarked for the East on board the Montezuma steam-frigate on the 4th inst. with 1,100 Zonaves and a few officers under his command. Letters from Melbourne, Australia, to the Ist of March, state that extensive new gold diggings, snr passing in richness any yet heard of, had been dis covered near Melbourne. The commercial accounts are represented as very prosperous. THE PRESS. WRECK OF THE ERCOLANO. Somz details of the loss of the Ercolano have been com m unicated by Captain Townshend, M.P., to the Hertford Mercury, as he received them from the lips of Sir R. Peel. Captain Townshend :Ailed upon Sir Robert, to congratu late him on his almost miraculous escape and safe arrival in England. In the course of the conversation which en sued Sir Robert gave a narrative of the circumstances connected with the loss of the vessel. Sir Robert said that, feeling ill from the motion of the vessel, he was sitting in his carriage—which had been moved to midships on account of the heavy rolling of the sea--smoking a cigar, when suddenly, and without the slightest warning, a cz.illi sion occurred. A large vessel (the Sicilia) came upon them at the rate of eleven or twelve knots an hour, run ning for eight or nine feet into the Ercolano, and literally doubling her up." The collision was so sudden, death so imminent, that there was no time for consideration. Sir Robert had just time to spring out of his carriage be fore the funnel of the steamer and the apparatus of the galley fell against it and threw it overboard. To take off his coat, trousers, and boots was the work of a moment. His servant was standing by him—an old and valued servant, much attached to him—and in that awful moment Sir Robert found time and calmness enough to say a few words to his faithful servitor " Good by ! God bless you! Nothing can save us ! In a few minutes we shall be in the other world." The man said he would never leave his master; but Sir Robert, feeling that there was no chance for either of them, except in prompt and indi vidual activity, exclaimed, " You cannot help me. Do the best you can. I shall jump into the sea ; " and then he took a strong leap to escape the eddy caused by the sink ing vessel, which he happily cleared. In the sea Sir Robert got hold of something which he supposes to be the bowsprit of the Sicilia, which was carried away at the mo ment of the collision. Then he got hold of a chain, and finally of a piece of the wreck, to which he found three other persons, one of whom he thinks was his old servant, were clinging. In this position he remained, the sea rolling heavily, for three quarters of an hour. One by our his companions relaxed their grasp on the floating wreck and dropped exhausted into the sea ; and at last he alone remained, holding on till he was picked up by a boat belonging to the vessel which had run them down. Till that moment Sir Robert never lost consciousness or self- command, but once on board the boat he sunk into a state of insensibility, from which be was restored in the engine room of the Sicilia. Sir Robert says he heard the cries of people in distress from the Ercolano before she sunk, and he thinks that lives might have been saved if proper means had been taken. Mr. Halsey and his family, and many other passengers, he believes were below in the cabins, in all probability asleep, at the time of the collision; and the doubling up of the vessel would preventthem from getting on deck. But Sir Robert thinks that if the Sicilia had remained about the spot till daylight she might have picked up some of the passengers who would probably have been washed out and found clinging to the wreck. THE WRECK OF A LARGE SHIT, which had gone to pieces on the New Jersey coast during a terrible north-easter, was announced in the previous intel ligence from the United States. Subsequent tidings convey the particulars of this melancholy catastrophe, which has resulted in the loss of probably more than two hundred human beings. The unfortunate vessel was the Poichattan, of Baltimore, filled with emi grants from Havre, and bound to New York. She struck on the bar of Long Beach on Saturday night, the 15th ult., and was first discovered on Sunday morning by Captain Jennings, wreck-master. Her decks were thronged, and the sea was making a clear breach over her : the waves, which were mountains high, and the wind of fearful violence, twisted her about in a frightful manner. By one wave only at least a hundred persons were washed overboard. All this was within 100 yards or a little more of the main beach. Captain Meyers, commander of the Powhat tan, conversed with Captain Jennings with his speak ing -trumpet, and asked him to save as many of those washed ashore as he could, but Captain Jennings had to reply that they were all dead. A number of men who had been sent to the Government station some miles off, and across inlets, lagoons, d:c., did not return with apparatus and a mortar until the next morning ; and such was the severity of the storm that two of them had well-nigh perished. At 7 p.m. on Sunday the Pozrhattan's masts went by the board. Instantly the hull broke to pieces, and all on board were launched into eternity, leaving Captain Jennings during the whole night a lonely watcher on the beach, the dead bodies being continually rolled up by the surf to his feet. Of all on board, the captain included, not a soul was left alive to 'tell the tragic tale. The vessel was about 900 tons burden, and it is thought that there might have been about three hundred persons, passengers and crew. At the last accounts there had been nearly two hundred bodies of men, women, and children washed ashore. At the same time two large schooners went to pieces, and all hands perished save one, who was resuscitated with difficulty. Nearly one hundred bodies have also been washed ashore on Absecom and Brigantine beaches. And here is a mystery; for there were few or no traces of any ship having been wrecked on that part of the coast, though it is probable that a vessel might have foundered in the gale. The bodies were chiefly Germans and Scotch, judging from their appearance. SATURDAY, sporting. CHESTER RACES—TUESDAY. The GROSVENOR STAKES of 10 soya each, with 40 added. Mr. T. Parr's Rataplan (Haman ) 1 Captain 1). Lane's Epaminondas Eight ran. Betting: 5 to 2 against Rataplan, 4 to 1 against Epami nondas. Won cleverly by a length. The PALATINE STAKES of 15 BOYS each, with 100 added; three-year-old fillies. Mr. J. M. Stanley's Mishap ( Charlton ) 1 Mr. Bailey's I.urley Mr. R. Jones's Adelaide 3 The CHESTERFIELD STAKES, a handicap of 10 SOVS each, with 100 added, for three-year-olds. Mr. Mather's St. Clair (Carroll) 1 Lord Chesterfield's Communist 2 Lord Eglintou's Erycina 3 Fifteen ran. Won cleverly by half a length. The MOSTYN STAKES of 10 soya each, with 100 added, for two-year-olds. Mr. T. Powell's Flatterer (Yates) 1 Mr. J. Osborne's Lord Alfred Lord Chesterfield's br f by Epirus :1 Trojan Warrior, following also ran : Saticebox, Gipsy King, Warrior, Lily, Moor of Venice. Betting : 7 to 4 on Flatterer, 6 to 1 against Lord Alfred Won by a head. SwEsesrAsies of b soya each, with 30 added. Brother to King of Troy 1 Surgeon General Uncleared Seven ran. The WYNNSTAT HANDICAP. Domino General Won easily. WEDNESDAY. HELTER SKELTER HANDICAP Of 3 BOYS each, with 30 added. Mr. W. K. Walker's Cimicina (Bearpark) 1 Mr. Taylor's Game Chicken 2 THIRD YEAR Of the SF.COND TRIENNIAL PRODUCE STAKES, for four-year•olds. Mr. T. Parr's Defiance (Flatman) w. o. The TRADESMEN'S PLATE of 200 soya, added to a handicap sweepstakes of 2) soya each. Two hundred and fourteen subs. Captain 1). Lane's Eparninondas (Fordham) 1 Mr. Morris's Indian Warrior Lord Derby's Acrobat .. 3 MEMBERS' PLATE of HO guineas. Mr. T. Parr's Defiance (Flatman) 1 Mr. Osborne's Helena.. Mr. Gibbs's Monimia 3 Betting: 5t02 on Defiance. Won by a neck. SCRAMBLE HANDICAP. Rridekirk Jupiter Five ran. QUEEN'S PLATE. Rataplan 1 Bourton THURSDAY. The DEE STAND Cur. Mr. J. Osborne's Helena (J. Osborne) 1 Mr. Waller's Octavio. 2 Mr. J. Armstrong's Sabra CHESHIRE WELTER Cur. Gentlemen riders. Mr. Cornish's Captain Cornish ( Mr. J. H. Peart) 1 Mr. G. Hawkes'a Milk Boy (G. Whitehouse) 2 Mr. T. Bell's Lord Lieutenant (Captain Lane) 3 Betting : ti to 4 against Captain Cornish, 5 to '2 against Lord Lieutenant. A fine close race from the distance with the first two ended in favour of the Captain by a head. The DEE STAKES, for three-year-olds. Sizty-one subs. Mr. Howard's Scythian ( Wells) 1 Mr. Osbaldeston's Champagne Mr. Peck's Arthur Wellesley :1 Betting : 7 to 4 against Champagne, 2 to 1 against Scythian, who won by a head. FIRST YEAR Of the FOURTH TRIENNIAL PRODUCE STAKES, for two-year-olds. Mr. J. Osborne's Lord Alfred J L Os borne) w. MARQUIS OF WESTMINSTER'S PLATE. Lord Eglinton's Vanderdecken (G. Waddington) Mr. Morris's Indian Warrior Mr. Johnstone's The General Eleven ran. The SCURRY HANDICAP. Mr. E. R. Clark's Dear Me (G. Waddington) Lord Clifden's Anteverta Nine others ran. The SELLLNO STAKES. Galantlms }llly liridekirk Six ran. MATCH : 50 sovs. Orpheus Lord Hill Won by a head. Gmarn, a young well-sinker, who was buried by a fall of earth at Ecully, on the 14th ult., was got out alive on the 3rd inst., after nineteen days' inhuma tion, and in a state which inspires no alarm for his life. There was never before an instance of a man being saved after so long an imprisonment in the bowels of the earth, and under such dreadful cir cumstances. The Empress, who had taken much interest in the preservation of the man, has granted him a pension of 600 f. a year.