The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

APRIL 1 1857. - - was to be found in the genuine English peasant. Perhaps they were better here in Lincolnshire, but he thought he might safely say that those of Sussex had not their equal. In more southern countries they were quick to catch ideas, quick to exercise their faculties ; nature made up for the deficiencies of man. And if we went to those who were called par excellence " savages," why the very necessity of their position, the necessity of providing for themselves daily food by their own skill and cunning, made them ten times as quick and bright as the English labourer, for whom everything was provided. He had travelled among, and had had intercourse with natives of New Zealand, and marked the difference between them and the English labourer ; and, though we were in the habit of speaking of the former as a " poor benighted savage," and pleading for him at our missionary meetings, he was in intellect and in the quickness of his faculties far superior to our own countrymen. Therefore he thought we ought to give to this matter of education our most earnest attention. It affected our interests and it affected our duty; it was the thing for which we lived upon earth. The great object was the propagation of the reli gion which had been intrusted to us ; and if we did not do something to stem this tide of ignorance which our fathers had allowed to grow to this height—and we must remem ber that we had to deal with the arrears as well as to dis charge our own present duty—if we did not do this, all that we valued most highly, all the benefits of civilisation and religion would be swept away. Coat ant lastion. ACCOUCHEMENT OF THE QUEEN.—BIRTH OF A PRINCESS. At seven minutes before two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon the Queen was safely delivered of a Princess. There were present on the occasion, in her Majesty's room, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, Dr. Locock, Dr. Snow, and Mrs. Lilly, the monthly nurse. In the adjoining apartments, besides the other medical attendants (Sir James Clark and Dr. Ferguson), were the Mistress of the Robes, the Lady in Waiting on the Queen, and the following Officers of State and Lords of the Privy Council—viz., his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Palmerston, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Secretary Labouchere, Lord Panmure, Sir Charles Wood, the Bishop of London, and the Marquis of Breadalbane. His Royal Highness Prince Albert went about four o'clock to the Privy Council-office, and was present at a Committee of Privy Council, the other Lords present being the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Palmerston, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Sir George Grey, Mr. Secretary Labouchere, Lord Panmure, the Bishop of London, Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines, and the Marquis of Breadalbane. At the Council a Prayer and Thanksgiving was ordered for the safe delivery of the Queen, to be used next Sunday during Divine service. The foreign ambassadors and the nobility and gentry in town have called daily to pay their re spects and inquire after her Majesty's health, which, with that of the Royal Princess, continues in the most satisfactory state. Her Majesty and the infant Princess continue to progress most satisfactorily. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, with the Prince of Wales and the I'rincess Royal, has taken daily rides. The Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, and their youthful son, are expected to arrive in this country in the course of next month, on a visit to the Duchess of Cam bridge. The Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duchess will stay about two months in London. His Excellency the Ambassador of France and the Countess Persigny left town on Thursday for Paris. The Marquis and Marchioness of Ely are ex pected in town on Monday next from the south of France, where they have been staying for some months past. The Earl of Eglinton is at present staying at Brighton. Lady Willoughby Gordon and Miss Gordon have left town for a short excursion on the Continent. plitttal. THE CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS for West Suffolk, Mr. H. S. Waddington and Captain P. Bennet, were entertained at a public dinner at the Town hall,Burf St. Edmund's, this week. Mr. Waddington, in the course of his speech, observed : After the election of a Speaker by the new Parliament, other questions would be brought forward, and he thought an attempt would be made at a new Reform Bill, but until the Conservative party knew exactly what that Reform Bill was, they could not pronounce any judgment upon it. There had been great alterations in the new Parliament. TBE PRESS. The house had lost, in the first place, the Manchester squadron, who were good orators in their way, and expressed themselves generally well, according to their own ideas and opinions. With regard to taxation, he could not help expressing his satisfaction that some reduction had taken place in the income tax, and he hoped that before long that tax would be entirely extinguished. He hoped also that more money would not be voted away than the Govern ment had in hand, as the country would then be called upon for more taxes. Captain BENNET, M.P., after appealing to the company to promote the Conservative interest in the registration of the division, said he believed the Times bad stated that the present Government was a Conservative Ministry : He doubted this altogether. He believed the present Cabinet was, as Burke had said, a " tesselated Govern• ment, made up of courtiers arid republicans." He was going to Parliament to support Conservative measures, and he trusted the part would not be a " tesselated " one on the side of the house on which he should sit. Sir R. BUXTON, adverting to the probability of a new Reform Bill, said he believed the question was one which would affect agriculturists more than free trade or protection; for, in the case of free trade, the farmers' skill and energy had enabled them to triumph over their difficulties, while in the case of a Reform Bill no skill or energy would avail the farmers if they allowed the power which they now legiti mately possessed to be wrested from them : The immediate result of a sweeping measure of reform, which degraded the suffrage into the bands of the ignorant and unlettered, would be that additions would be made to the already heavy burdens of the agricultural interest; and such a measure, instead of elevating the condition of the people of England, would tend to degrade them, by in troducing the worst of all tyrannies, the tyranny of a de mocracy. THE PARLIAMENTARY RETURN, relating generally to the Chinese coolie trade and especially to the late remarkable mortality on board the ship Portland, where, out of 382 coolies taken on board at Hong Kong and Macao, 128 died before reaching the Havana, has been published. The correspondence upon the subject in some measure illustrates the nature of the coolie trade. The captain of the Port land, in his evidence, stated that the Chinese were no sooner all on board than they attempted a mutiny. A police force came on board, and the coolies at length were driven below at the point of the bayonet. This disturbance arose from the men having been cheated of their bounty, eight dollars each. The mate states:—" I understood from the interpreter that the cause of the disturbance arose from the promised amount of money in advance not having been paid." The interpreter states :—" I believe the men got only one dollar." The captain, indeed, states that he " believes" they received their eight dollars ; but the only reason he assigns for his believe is, that "there had been a previous row about it in the John Calvin." The captain also states " I believe one-third of them had been kidnapped." The attempt was suppressed, and every precaution taken to prevent its repetition. A limited number of coolies at a time were only permitted on the upper deck ; the ship's crew were armed, and the captain "never lay down without his cutlass." The coolies soon after sailing became dispirited, committed sui cide, or fell sick and died like sheep. " The third day," says the captain, " I had the first suicide, and on an average I had three suicides daily between Hong Kong and until l passed the Straits of Sunda." It was a low typhoid fever that broke out. " Within a week after sailing," says the surgeon, "as many as sixty cases had appeared. The number of deaths," he adds, " was neariy the same all the voyage, but in creased in malignity." Suicides and attempts at suicide were frequent. " Those of the Chinese who attempted to commit suicide and were picked up, generally made a second attempt; they were then more carefully looked after." " I had usually," says the captain, " twelve to eighteen in irons for riotous behaviour or attempted suicide." The poor creatures refused to take food. "When they would not eat,', says the captain, " I have tried to force their food down their throats." The cause of this frightful mortality appears mainly to have arisen from an in fringement of the Chinese Passenger Act, which re• quires for each passenger a space of five superficial feet on the upper and twelve superficial feet on the lower deck. In the case of the Portland, about three superficial feet above and eight below were only allowed. A despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir John Bowriog, calling his atten tion to this palpable infringement of the Passenger Act, concludes the correspondence. THE REPORTED RESIGNATION by Mr. Horsman of the Irish Secretaryship is, we believe, premature. THE Emu. OF ELGIN will be accompanied in his diplomatic mission to China by his brother, the Honourable Frederick Bruce, and by Mr. Oliphant as his private secretary. Some further appointments will be filled up from the Foreign Office. piropolitan. THE EASTER DINNER AT THE MANSION-ROUSE included among the guests the Princes of Oude, the Rajah of Coorg, and other distinguished strangers. The Lord Mayor, in a complimentary speech, having proposed the health of their Highnesses, Major Bird replied he beiieved that a new era was dawning on India, and that it was heralded by the appearance of Indian princes at the table of the Lord Mayor of London:— Their Highnesses lied beard of the wealth, the power, and the progress of this magnificent country, and they had come personally to realise what had previously only been visions of the imagination. British enterprise had done much for the civilisation of India, but its action had been chiefly felt among the poorer classes, while the princes of that country had remained stationary. But these latter had a; last aroused themselves, and, coming to these shores, could themselves witness the mighty power of the British army, the multitude and terrible force of our armed marine, and, better than all, the indomitable energy and exhaustless resources of our commerce. They could see how the law was in this country above all things, and bow all classes, from the Crown down to the peasant, bowed down before the majesty of that law. The greatness of England had been the subject of much speculation amongst the attendants of their Highnesses, and to show the just ness of their conclusions he would relate a little anecdote. One of these attendants asking another what could be the cause of England's greatness, the other said, " The reason is plain—tbe people all work, awl nothing goes to waste. The dry bones which we throw out to the dogs is con verted into manure, and produces fresh food for man ; and the rags which have served the beggar are made into paper, on which are written the laws with which this peoplo govern the world." They had all read how the Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon, and how she went away fully satisfied. He (Major Bird) trusted that the distin guished guests of whom he was the unworthy spokesman would have the same story to tell when they returned to their native country. (Loud cheers.) Mn. SERGEANT PARRY, the defeated candidate for Finsbury, was entertained on Monday at a public dinner by his friends. Some two hundred Finsbury electors were present. Mr. Parry, in his speech, alluded to the charge of his having signed a petition for the opening of places of public amusement on Sunday:— When the question was put to him he said his impression was (as it was still) that he had never signed any such petition. At the instigation of a gentleman connected with the League, he had certainly signed two loose sheets —he was told he had signed three—but his belief still was it was only two—and that these had reference to petitions, not in favour of opening the National irallery, the British Museum, and other public institutions on the Sunday, but against any legislative interference either iu the one way or the other. THE COMPOSITION-MILL, a building attached to the Hounslow Powder-mills, blew up last Saturday, happily without causing loss of life. Some four or five hands were engaged in the mill, which contained a great quantity of saltpetre, sulphur, &c. Three of the lads employed in the mill had their atteutieu directed to the north-west end of the building by seeing a blue light flickering around the place. Knowing at once what was likely to ensue among so much combustible matter, an instant cry of " Fire !" and " Run for your lives," was raised. The various persons wilt. were then in the place made an attempt to run out, and at the same instant the place blew up. A lad named Warwick was struck on the heat and severely injured by a beam falling. Before the extent of the mischief done in the composition mill could be ascertained two more explosions followed. blowing two mills almost to ruins. The engines of the firm having been got out, were set to work from the mill streams on the grounds, and the fire was soon subdued. The total loss will be serious, but will not prevent the continuance of the business. Xaii nCIaI. NUMEROUS COLLIERY ACCIDENTS have occurred recently. On Thursday week, at Greenlawalls new colliery, near Puddo, about ten miles west of Berwick, an accident by which the pit was filled with water resulted in the death by drowning of five men then at work. On Saturday an explosion took place at the Bredbury New Pit, near Stockport, when one man and two boys were killed, and five men severely wounded. There is very little doubt that the lamentable accident was caused by the culpable negligence of one of the men in working with his naked candle. The same night an explosion at the Gorse Colliery, Swansea, resulted in the death of three persons, and several others severely in jured. The men who were to take the night turn proceeded to their work ss usual, at six o'clock, and a)thing extraordinary happened until about eleven o'clock, when one of the men engaged in the pit proceeded to a part of the work where it was neces sary that safety lamps should be used. He carried a safety lamp himself, but for some reason he bad taken the cap off, so that the light was exposed. Some of his fellow-workmen, it is said, remonstrated 581