The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

226 THE MAU-MLITT OF THE COUNTY COURT for ex tensive credit in country districts was shown in a trial lately held on the Midland Circuit. The pro secutor was a" tallyman," who had no less than 0,000 debts on his books, and stated that he summoned not less than 250 persons on an average to these courts every year. MR. Ds Momvs, formerly member of Parliament for an Irish county, was charged at the Mansion house on Wednesday with forgery, his wife being also included in the accusation as an acces sory. It was shown that the prisoners had written to a broker respecting some stock amounting to 1,5201., which was invested in the names of two trustees. One of these he said was dead, and the stock must be sold. Being informed of the proper steps to take in such a case, Mr. De Molyns subsequently seat up a certificate of the death of one trustee, and a war rant of attorney signed in the name of Simpson, the survivor, for the sale of the stock. This operation was thereupon performed, and Mrs. De Molyns called at the broker's office and received the money. Sub sequently it was ascertained that the signature of Mr. Simpson had been forged to the warrant of attorney. Both the prisoners were consequently arrested in London at a house where they had lived under an assumed name. Mr. De Molyns, in de fence, said that the money was his own, having been invested with the trustees for his benefit. After the death of one he wrote to the other for power to sell, and, getting no reply, signed his (the trustee's) name to the warrant, believing the course to be per fectly legal and proper, and learning that there was no other means of getting at the fund. The Lord Mayor observed upon the extraordinary nature of the case, which he felt bound, however, to send before a jury. He consented to accept bail for the defendants' appearance when the cause should be tried. THE BURNHAM MURDER came under scrutiny at Aylesbury on Wednesday and Thursday] last, Hatto, the groom, being placed on his trial before the Lord Chief Justice on the capital charge. The facts of the crime have very recently appeared in our co lumns. It will be remembered that the murdered woman was housekeeper to a farmer named Good win, and that her body was found in her room par tially consumed by fire, but with marks of death by violence still uneffaced upon it. In order to connect the prisoner with the crime, very voluminous evi dence, of a circumstantial character, was adduced, the proceedings lasting two entire days. Ultimately the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and sentence of death, without hope of commutation, was passed upon the culprit by Lord Campbell. gtaihnis nnb Oluttes. PLACARDS offering 501. reward have been issued in the metropolis by the friends of a gentleman named Walsh, a surgeon, of Worcester, who has been for some few days missing under the most extraordinary circumstances. Mr. Walsh, it appears, arrived about the Ist inst. at the Sussex llotel, Bouverie-street, and afterwards left that house for the South-Western Railway, to see a newly-constructed staircase, since which time, notwithstanding all inquiries, nothing has been heard of him, and it is feared that he has been waylaid and murdered. The police are busily employed in the matter. A FATAL ACCIDENT occurred on Thursday week in Rotten-row, Mr. Hentry John Blagrave, No. 8, Southwick-place, having been thrown from his horse. On being picked up he was found insensible, and removed to St. George's Hospital, where he rallied a little. A relapse came on, which continued till his death, which is supposed to have been the effect of concussion on the brain. Deceased, who was aged 34, was in the possession of a large fortune. AN Exri.osioN took place on Monday evening at the firework manufactory of Mr. Coton, in the West- minster-road, by which the premises were set on fire and destroyed, and the lives of Mr. Coton and three other persons sacrificed. Mrs. Coton, her sister in law, and two children were fortunately extricated from the building without suffering much injury, having been at the moment of the explosion in the basement floor. The great quantity of fireworks of all sorts in the premises did not all explode at the same moment, but continual detonations lasted for some time, to the terror of the neighbourhood, the rockets, Roman lights, &c., being discharged in all directions, and driving back on all sides the mob assembled to witness the scene. The firemen from the different stations were quickly in attendance, and immense volumes of water were poured upon the flames. It was, however, with great difficulty, from the combustible nature of the contents of the place, that the fire was at length extinguished. The cause of this fatal conflagration is not known. Mr. Coton and a boy had gone to the top floor of the manufactory for the purpose of papering some fireworks almost immediately before the explosion took place. SATTJRDAY, FAREWELL BANQUET TO SIR C. NAPIER. THE members of the Reform Club entertained Sir C. Napier on Tuesday in celebration of his appoint ment as Admiral of the Baltic fleet. The coffee-room of the clubhouse was selected as the scene of the banquet, and was decorated for the occasion with the flags of England, France, and Turkey in appropriate union. As the room afforded space for only about 160 guests, many intending assistants at this festivity were disappointed, and a large number crowded into the ante-rooms, in order to hear the speeches, who could not obtain seats at the tables. Lord Palmers- ton occupied the chair, with Lord Dudley Stuart and Sir De Lacy Evans as vice-chairmen. M. Musurus, the Turkish envoy, Namik Pacha, Sir J. Graham, Sir W. Woleswoi th, Admiral Berkeley, Mr. Keogh, and Mr. Sadleir, were among the company present. After the cloth was removed, the usual loyal toasts were proposed in the customary order, and duly honoured. The health of the Emperor of the French was afterwards proposed by Lord Palmerston, who accompanied it with a recognition of " his per fect good faith, his single-minded sincerity, his energy of purpose, and community of determination, which has inspired in our minds the same full con fidence in him that I am proud to say he has always expressed in us." The last royal personage on his list was the Sultan of Turkey, " who is," said the noble lord, " I am sure, an object of interest to this company; as he is not only to this country, bat I may say to every honest man in Europe. There are two circumstaucee which are calculated, perhaps beyond all others, to inspire interest as a man—the one is, the good deeds of the man himself ; the other is, the evil doings of others to him. (Loud cheers.) Now, in both these respects the Sultan is pecu liarly entitled to inspire interest in the minds of the men of this country. That he is the object of evil doing on the part of others is a fact too notorious to require explanation ; for there never was a sovereign who, more than the Sultan now is, was the object of the most abominable injustice on the part of others—(loud cheers)—an injustice which is only to be equalled by that which is described iu the old fable of the 'Wolf and the Lamb.' But the wolf, this time, has made a mistake—it is no lamb he has to deal with. (Laughter and cheers.) As to the deeds of the Sultan himself, speaking here as a member of the Reform Club, it is surely a title to esteem that the Sultan is a great reformer. Gentlemen, I give you ' The health of the Sultan Abd-el-Medjid ; ' and I think that, by the manly support of England and France fighting hand in hand in his cause, the injustice with which he is threatened will be defeated, and that he will be placed in the permanent possession of those sovereign rights which he has always exercised for the benefit and welfare of his people. (Loud cheers.)" M. Mt.:suites replied briefly, in French, to the compliment paid to his Sovereign. The toast of the evening—the health of Sir C. Napier—then followed. In proposing this Lord PALMERSTON said:— " Gentlemen, there was a remarkable entertainer of dinner companies, called Sir Robert Preston, who when he gave a dinner at Greenwich, after gorging his company with turtle, used to turn round to the waiters, and say, ' Now bring in the dinner.' (Laughter.) We have now gone through the toast which corresponds to the turtle ; let us now go to dinner. (Continued laughter.) Let us now go to the toast which is the real occasion of our assembling here this evening—l mean The health of my gallant friend, Sir Charles Napier, who now sits beside me, If I were to address myself to a Hampshire audience, composed of the country gentlemen of that county, to which my gallant friend and I both belong, I would have introduced to your notice an eminent agriculturist. (Great cheering and laughter.) For, when it was my good fortune to enjoy his hospitality at Merchistoun-house, he gave me most valuable instructions as to farming, the state of feeding cattle, the growth of turnips, wire-fencing, under-draining, and the like. ( Great cheering and laughter.) My gallant friend is a match for everything, and whatever he gives his mind to he generally succeeds in it; but, however, he, like Cincinnatus, now leaves the plough and puts on his armour, and is prepared to do the same good service to the country which he has always performed when an opportunity offered. (Cheers.) My gallant friend has, indeed, made himself conspicuous on every occasion and in every place where he had an oppor tunity of distinguishing himself. 1 pass over the earlier exploits of his younger days, which are well known to all in his profession ; but there is one remarkable exploit of his life performed in the same cause of liberty and justice in which he is now about to engage. In D 433 my gallant friend volunteered to serve the Queen of Portugal against the tyranny and usurpation of Dom Miguel. At that time he commanded a modest fleet of frigates and corvettes, end at the head of that little squadron be captured a very superior force, including a large lime-of-battle ship. That VMS a great victory—for it decided the cause in dispute— it decided the cause of liberty in Portugal—it decided between liberty and arbitrary power in Spain, where my gallant friend at the bottom of the table ( Sir lie Lacy Evans ) also lent his powerful assistance, and with the same success but my gallant friend here gave the first turn to the success, and it is mainly owing to his victory that the Queen of Portugal obtained the throne, and that the Portuguese nation now enjoys its liberties. (Cheers.) A gallant friend of mine, whose loss I deeply lament, who was equally distinguished as a soldier and a diplomatist—l mean Lord William Russell—told me that hearing one day my gallant friend was in Valence, at a distance from the squadron which he had under his command, he and Colonel Hare went to visit him, and they saw a man dressed In a very easy way, followed by a man with two muskets on his shoulder. He took one of r THE PRESS. IN the evening of Saturday last the house of Mr. Joseph Harvey, of 11, Carter-street, Walworth, was entered by thieves, when 1,6311. in gold and 1501. in notes were stolen. A SINGULAR ROBBERY OF BANK-NOTES, amounting to 1,6751., was perpetrated on Monday in the City. A gentleman, residing in Christopher-street, Finsbury square, left his residence between three and five o'clock in the afternoon, and proceeded to Hatton garden, and back again, when on his retura be dis covered that a pocket-book had been abstracted from his pocket by some member of the light fingered fraternity. The pocket-book contained one 1,0001. Bank of England note, one of 5001., three for 501., one 201., and one 51. note. A reward of 1001. has been oftred for the recovery of the property or apprehension of the thief. AN ALARMING FIRE broke out on Thursday night at Messrs. Bielefeld's papier-miche warehouse, a lofty pile of buildings at the corner of Wellington street North and Exeter-street, Strand. When first discovered the fire was raging in the upper floor, and speedily the flames burst through the roof. Engines arrived in rapid succession, and, a plentiful supply of water being obtained, the hose was carried to the roofs of the adjoining houses, from whence torrents of water were poured on the flames, but, from the combustible nature of the stock, it was some time before the firemen obtained the mastery. The upper part of Mr. Bielefeld's premises was destroyed, and the adjoining houses considerably damaged. THE inqtllry into the cause of the late colliery accident at Wigan, which resulted in the deaths of eighty-nine persons, terminated on Thursday. The jury give it as their opinion that the general manage ment and ventilation of the mine in question have been satisfactory, and the system of working, under the peculiar circumstances of the pit, uncensurable. Under the clrcumstances of these awful explosions, however, they strongly recommend to the managers that, as far as possible, the use of gunpowder in the working-places within the mine should be wholly discontinued. Mn. J. HAYWOOD, teacher of chemistry at the Wesleyan College, Sheffield, died on Thursday from the efiects of a melancholy accident. A large bottle containing sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) broke in his hands, and, besides occasioning some severe burns, the acid fumes that issued produced so much injury to his lungs before he could escape out of their reach as to terminate in his death a few hours afterwards. THE Edinburgh steamer, Captain Phillips, with six chief and ten fore cabin passengers on board, struck upon the Barkumriff, on the coast of East Friesland, about three o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 27th ult., during a gale from the north west, and remained in a most dangerous position with her head towards the lighthouse of Barkum Island. The catastrophe involved the loss of twelve persons—viz., four stokers, three seamen, two ap prentices, and three passengers. A MOST DESTRUCTIVE FIRE broke out on Thursday morning on the premises of Mr. J. Cooper, news agent, in Old Road, Stepney. The police first raised the alarm, when the inmates had barely time to make their escape before the building was in one sheet of fire. The premises and contents were entirely destroyed, but the fire was confined to the house in which it originated. AN EXTENSIVE SEIZURE OF CONTRABAND TOBACCO has been effected by Mr. Gowland, commander of the revenue cruiser Vigilant, under rather extra ordinary circumstances. The Vigilant was on her cruising-ground off the Northland Head, when the commander, having observed some suspicious ap pearances in a cutter-rigged vessel at some distance, gave chase for nearly five hours, at the expira tion of which the vessel—which proved to be the Charlotte, of Gravesend, Beale master—was boarded. After Beaching her, as nothing contraband was found, the officers were about to let her go, when some stops (small pieces of line), which had been recently cut, and evidently used for tricing up bales or tubs, were observed around the gunwale, and told plainly that in the chase the goods had been cut away and sunk. Accordingly, measures were adopted for creaping and sweeping the ground they had passed over, and meantime the Charlotte was detained. Mr. Gowland's crew after a short time succeeded in hauling up a string of forty.two hales of un manufactured tobacco, firmly compressed in water. tight packages, and weighing nearly three tons. The vessel was taken to Rochester, where the crew, con sisting of three men, were examined before a magis trate and remanded. THERE are 35,000 fugitive slaves in Canada, who are re presented as in a very flourishing condition just now, owing to the high prices paid for labour on the lines of railway building in the provinces. In the town of Chatham alone there are 730 fugitives, who are rapidly acquiring property in land. In the new abolition town of Buxton there are 130 families of coloured people—escaped slaves—who own a tract of 9,000 acres of land. The whole amount of land in Canada West owned by the fugitives is stated to be '45,000 acres.