The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

I 111 JANUARY 7, 1854. 25* e time of the census there were more than teachers in Sunday schools instructing, every Sunday, in religious knowledge as many as 1,800,000 children. The total number of scholars on the books of the schools was about 2,40(1,000, giving an average of about two teachers to every fifteen scholars. THE CONVOCATION FOR THE PROVINCE OF CANTER BURY was on Wednesday further prorogued, in pur suance of the royal writ, until the Ist of February, the day after the meeting of Parliament. The Primate performed the ceremony of prorogation, which took place as usual in the Jerusalem Chamber, but was of merely formal character. THE SILK TRADE IN 1853, according to the com mercial circulars, presented in China silk un in creased import of 7,000 bales, and an increased delivery of 9,000 bales ; in Canton silk, an increased import of 1,200 bales, deliveries as last year ; in Bengal silk, a diminished import of 2,000 bales, a diminished delivery of 2,000 bales ; in Italian silk, au increased import of 1,9(X) bales, an increased delivery of 1,200 bales; in Brutia silk, a diminished import of 900 bales, a diminished delivery of 900 bales ; in Persian silk, an increased import of .2,800 ballots, and an increased delivery of 1,000 ballots. THE EXPORTATION OF MACHINERY AND MILLWORK has experienced a great increase during the past year. In the first eleven months of 1853 the declared value was 443,2541. of steam-engines, against 310,4951. in the previous par, while of all other sorts the value was 1,308,0271. in 1853, and 850,5711. in the preceding year. AN ASSOCIATION OF CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS has just been instituted for the purpose of establishing a college of pharmacy. This society designates itself the British Association of Chemists and Drug gists ; and, in an address to the chemists and drug gists of the United Kingdom, it states their number at somewhere about 10,0(X), and that, in order to confer upon this body—respectable in social position as in numbers—a professional status, the committee proposes, in the first instance, a complete and recog nised registration of all duly-qualified chemists and druggists, and that the functions of this association shall be limited to the granting of certificates of qualification, to maintaining a complete register of all persons possessing such certificates, and to the proper discharge of the duties of a board of examiners. The committee state that they have already received, from many members of the medical profession, their approbation of the proposed plan, and propose to confer upon their associates a diploma or certificate of qualification, as issued by direction of the British. Association of Chemists and Druggists. THE INDIAN AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS which were despatched on Wednesday by the Ripon were un usually bulky, the total number of boxes being 390, and weighing 33 tons. Nevertheless, the despatches for India were considerably reduced by the frost and snow, which had delayed an immense number of letters from Liverpool and the north intended for transmission by this mail, but whose arrival in South ampton was protracted until long after the Ripon had sailed. VICTORIA, of which Melbourne is the capital, is to be the head-quarter station of the troops serving in Australia, in place of Sydney. According to the Melbourne Morning Herald, a private letter received in Victoria states that the now governor is to be Lord Marcus Hill. NINETY-SEVEN PERSONS have renounced the emirs of Popery in St. Paul's, Bermondsey, since the last published account, issued on the 30th of September last, THE patronage of the Church of England, accord ing to the parliamentary volume on religious wor ship, is thus distributed :—Of the 11,728 benefices in England and Wales, 1,144 are in the gift of the Crown, 1,853 in that of the bishops, 038 in that of cathedral chapters and other dignitaries, 770 in that of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Colleges of Eton, Winchester, &c., 931 in that of the ministers of the mother churches, and the residue, in number 6,092, in that of private persons. THE directors and promoters of the new Mecha nics' Institution in St. Helen's, near Halifax, have invited the Right Hon. the Lord Stanley of Knows ley to preside at a monster meeting, to be held in the Town-hall on or about the 14th inst., for the purpose of aiding and furthering the objects in con nection with this promising institution. Great pre parations are making to give his lordship a cordial anti worthy reception. UPWARDS of 3,500 persons attended on Wednesday se'nnight at the Carr Mill dam (one of the most beautiful lakes in Lancashire, belonging to Sir John Gerard, Bart-). to witness a grand skating match for 101. between Chisnall, of Blackbrook, and Gee of Bißinge, three times round, or about twelve miles, which was accomplished in eighteen minutes, Gee beating Chisnall cleverly, although Chisnall beat him last year. The match was very exciting, and a great number of nobility and gentry from the neighbour hood were present. THE PRESS. THE directors of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway have resolved to distribute, as the reward of railway merit, gratuities among such of the men whose general conduct and length of service have rendered them deserving of the bene faction. The amount of the gift is to be a week's pay to those whose service has exceeded two and a half years, and half a week's pay to those who have been in the service twelve months. Yalu anb Volta. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION, affecting the jurispru dence and defining the authority of the legal tribu nals in Jersey, has just been decided by the Queen in Council. The process out of which this decision has resulted engaged the Committee of the Privy Council for many days during December last, the im mediate issue relating to the prerogative of the Crown in issuing certain orders iu Council for remedying evils complained of both in the civil and the criminal administration of justice in the island. The mem bers of the Committee before whom the cause was ar gued were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Palmerston, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Jus tices Knight Bruce and Turner, the Judge of the Admiralty Court, Sir J. Patteson, and Sir E. Ryan. The following is a brief outline of the case : On the 11th of February, lira, three separate orders were is sued by the Queen in Council :—let. For establishing a court for taking preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, and for summary jurisdiction; 2nd. For establishing a civil court [Jr summary jarisdietiou, for the more easy recovery of small debta ; 3rd. For the establishment, in the town of St. Helier and its vicinity, a new police, in lieu of the existirg force. These orders were transmitted to the Lieuteuaut-tiovernor of Jersey by the Home Secretary, who directed that they should be registered aoeording to the usual and proper form, so that they might at tain the force of law. The Lieutenant-Governor duly transmitted the orders to Sir Thomas I.e Breton, bailiff a►d president of the States of the island of Jersey, that he might communicate them to the Assembly. The States, however, refused to register the enters so as to give them the force of law, but registered them only provisionally, which had the effect of suspending their ope -1 atioll ; and then proceeded to pass certain acts, subject to the approval of the Queen In Council, which acts related generally to the subject-matter of the royal orders. The Assembly after wards presented a petition to her Majesty in Council, praying the recal of the three orders of the 11th of February, and that the bills which they had passed should receive the royal sanction. They contended that these acts were strictly in harmony with the wishes of the inhabitants, and submitted that, iteAvutting to the constitution of Jersey, her Majesty was not empowered to pass any laws, or impose any taxes on the people of that island, without the concurrence of the States, the legally eoustituted legislature of the island. They asserted, as a broad principle, that the exclusive authority competent to tix or change the mu nicipal law lu the island was vested in the states, representing, by their three orders of jurists, clergy, arid oolvatables, the whole community, as the propounding power, over which her Majesty was the supremo go temor, and that, as the Queen could not tax the people of Great Britain without the consent of her Parlia ment, so could she not tax the people of Jersey without the con sent of the States, the existence of which as • legislative body bad been recognised by various charters from time immemorial. They, however, admitted that they could not enact laws or im pose taxes, except upon extraonlivary emergencies, such as for the defence of the island, without the sanotiou of the Queen. On the other side it was alleged by certain inhabitants, who petitioned in favour of the orders of the Queen in Council, and against the hills passed by the States, that this body had never in such matters more than a concurrent jurisdiction with the Crown, which in all cases had the power—although in some not the exclusive power—of originating legislative measures for the island of Jersey. They further contended that, when the Crown had exercised its power, and issued an order in Ccuncil in the nature of • legislative enactment applicable to.lersey, it was the duty of the States to register it, and that they could not lawfully refuse to do so. While admitting that the Stateshad a right to make temporary, the petitioners denied their power to make per manent, laws. It was urged that the six hills passed by the States, with the view of substituting them for the orders in Cowl eil, were most objectionable, for they not only retained many of the most serious abuses mid defects which the orders in Council were designed to remove, but would, if they acquired the force of law. neutralise the reforms and improvements which they pur ported to introduce. During the inquiry some curious revelations were made relative to the administration of justice by the Royal Court of Jersey. It was shown that, according to the mode of procedure in that court in civil cases, the defendant might, if litigiously inclined, so act that it would be impossible for the plaintiff to obtain judgment for a small sum, such as 51., under twelve months ; and if an appeal were made the period oc cupied in recovering such a debt would be from two to three years. Instances were cited to show that, where 10/. or 12/. were involved, judgment had not been obtained for four or five years. The petitioners prayed that a Small Debts Court might be estab lished without the power of appeal, and with a pro cess similar to that which existed in this country. The mode of administering criminal justice in the island was also impugned, as involving most unne cessary delay. The formalities observed in trying criminal cases are somewhat singular. In the first instance the preliminary evidence is taken down, and this lasts for some weeks, during which the accused is kept in prison. He is then brought before a jury d' inditentent, or jury of policemen, who do not hear oral testimony, but to whom the written evidence is read over. The majority of this jury rule the ver dict, and in the event of its being against the accused he is brought. before a jury called a jury grand indite, composed of twenty four persons possessing certain qualifications, and by their verdict the case is finally disposed of. The petitioners concluded by praying their lordships to advise her Majesty to give effect to the orders issued by the Queen in Council, and to command the States to establish a court for the recovery of small debts amounting to 151., and to frame other acts whereby the power of preliminary investigation into criminal offences, and of conviction for minor offences, might be vested in a court per• fectly independent of the Royal Court. In the re port finally presented by the Lords of the Privy Council to the Queen they recommend that the orders petitioned against by the States may be recalled. This is, in effect, tantamount to a recommendation that the petition of the States may be complied with. Her Majesty has been pleased to confirm the report, which will take effect accordingly. THE CHARGE OF MANSLAUORTER was laid against three Russian sailors who had killed a man named Bresnahan in a scuffle at Deptford. They were tried at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday. Ori ginally the prisoners had been eommitted for wilful murder under a coroner's verdict, but the grand jury ignored the bill involving the capital charge. Their names were Henric Gustav Itruncl, Andres Akoli, and Eric Gustav Kronholin It appeared that the priaottcrs belonged to a Maslen vessel which, at the time the is enn-once happened, was lyliqt off he t• ford, and that at a late hour, elicit they were walking in lb. town, as they were passing some wrwteu standing at the corner of a street, they made sonic remark to them which gave offence to the deceased, llruanshan, alto asked the prisoners abet they meant by speaking to the women. Au altercation took piece Ist tween the partite, all of whom had been drinking ; blows were exchanged, and Ilruanaban, together with another man who went to his assistance, was ktusled down by some of the pri soners. The struggle coati and at length the unfortunate di-reamed received a stab from a knife, which indicted mortal in jury, and the Other 111411, Stlllitfill, 1160 was seriously wttim.l r ,l hr the name instntment. It wits perfectly clear that the deceased received the fatal injury front some of the prisoners, but there was no evidence to show which war the hand that actually dui indict IL Mr. Baron Pt-vrr inquired if there was any evii denco to show how the matter began ? Mr. Iltsikin said there was not. It was a sudden affray, no doubt. The learned JUDOS expressed his opinion that the charge of manslaughter could not be established. There was nothing to show that the prisoners had combined together to do any illegal act, which alone would render them all responsible for au act com mitted by one of the party, anti there was no evidence to show by whose hand the fatal injury was inflicted. The jury consequently returned a verdict of Not Guilty, and the prisoner's were immediately dis charged. A Iik.VOLT/NO CASE OF CRUELTY, perpetrated on an infant of fifteen months old, was investigated on Tuesday at Southwark Police Court, when George Denton, a joiner, and a young woman who bad passed for his wife, were charged with breaking the poor child's arms, burning and otherwise illtreatiug it. Some neighbours who lived in the same house first discovered the conduct of the defendants, being attracted to their room by the incessant screams of the infant, and horrified at the spectacle it presented, and by the tales told by a girl whom the inhuman parents bad engaged to attend upon it in their ab sence. The evidence of these parties being heard, the child was exhibited to the magistrate, and caused the greatest indignation among all persona in court. It was a mere mass of skin and bones hud dled together, and so weak that it could hardly open its eyes, and at the least motion or touch screamed bitterly. Mr. Odling, a surgeon, stated that he bad inspected the child at the request of the police, and found both arms broken. No care bad been taken of the fractures, though they had been done some time, as the bones were not in any way united. There were also burns on the left leg. The male prisoner said it was all false what the girl had stated against him. The female said the child fell down and hurt itself, and she took it to a doctor's and to Ony's Hos pital, where she was supplied with lotion and ban dages which she had u.,ed. Mr. a Beckett remanded the man, allowing the female prisoner, against whom the evidence was less direct, to go at large on her own recognisances. - THREE MEN, named Bell, Baldwin, and Bowan, employed to fold papers at the office of the Wesleyan Times, were tried at the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday for stealing twenty-seven copies of that journal. Their employers had been robbed to a con siderable extent, and, a watch being kept, the pri soners were detected in putting a whole quire of un folded papers into a bag and carrying them off among the lot intended for post. They were all found Guilty, but. sentence was respited until next hession, in the hope of discovering the still more guilty parties by whom the stolen newspapers were purchased. The trade in these pilfered journals is known to be carried on extensively in the neighbourhood of St. Martin's-le-Grand. MESSRS. LAMBERT, goldsmiths in Coventry-at., have missed, as they estimate, more than 4,000/. worth of property out of their stock. The defalcation was not suspected before the disappearance of Simmons, a shopman who had been twenty years in their service, and latterly received 2(K)!. a year salary. He left business suddenly on the sth of December and never returned; but having been apprehended was brought up for examination at Marlborough-street Police Court. A long list of missing articles was produced, V 4 Amd