The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

Alttrorolitan. Tim Or.n HARROVIANS eat their annual dinner at the Freemasons' lavern on Wednesday, when Lord Palmerston presided. In the course of the speeches and toasts, Mr. H. Drummond, M.P., who proposed the health of the chairman, "as a sample of a Harrow boy," spoke as follows : It is not as we have heard of him in his public character that we ought here to speak of him ; neither is it for the many years that I have known him and received and valued his friendship, that I propose his health this day, but it is as a sample of a Harrow boy. And I say that it is your wisdom, and the wisdom of all of us, to uphold the principle on which the school had been conducted ever since I knew it under the management of Dr. Drury. I say that the first thing to make a boy is to make him a gentleman. Let the boys be treated as gentlemen, and gentlemen they will be. My advice is, stick to your clerical education, be not led away by neologies, zoologies, and all such trash from Germany—stick to your longs and shorts. Stick to school education as the foundation of everything, and as long as you do this, let manufacturers and other people of that sort come in with their competi tive examinations, but still the boys of Harrow, Eton, and the other great public schools will be the ruling classes in defiance of all others. My noble friend near me was an eminent scholar both at Harrow and Cambridge. What he has since proved himself to be you are as good judges as I can be; but 1 say that such as he is, he was produced by Harrow. He is not only an ornament to Harrow, but an ornament to the Government of the country, the House of Commons, and the nation at large. therefore propose " The Health of my Noble Friend who presides over us to•day." Tun Mumma LAW SOCIETY hold their anni- versary dinner at Greenwich last Saturday. Lord Brougham presided, and, in the course of his speech of the evening, referred to the satisfactory progress of the society during the past year. He paid a high compliment to the exertions of Mr. Napier towards the establishment of a regular Department of Justice and a system of compulsory examination for bar risters, which he (Lord Brougham) was certainly in favour of as an almost necessary measure, and cer tainly one well calculated to raise the status of the profession. With respect to legal reforms, Lord Brougham expressed the following opinion : During the present session he expected that a great deal would be done in the way of legal improvement ; and the measures for a reform in the law of marriage, and in the proceedings of the probate and ecclesiastical courts, were in a forward state, and stood a fair chance of being made law this year. A much•needed legal reform, for simplifying the laws relating to the transfer of real property, he feared would not be brought forward this year; and it was a dis grace to our code that the transference of an acre of land should still remain a process in which the greatest legal difficulties were encountered. He believed a Government bill would shortly be brought in with a view of obviating those difficulties, but he (Lord Brougham) fancied he would have to do what he bad done with regard to the 13111 for the Improvement of the Patent Laws, when, after waiting some time for the Government measure, he was at last obliged to bring in a bill on the subject himself, on the provisions of which two bills respectively one very good bill had ultimately been enacted. - - AT THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL on Wednesday, Mr. Anderton gave notice of a motion that the free dom of the City be presented to the Duke of Cam bridge, with a sword or other testimonial of the value of two hundred guineas. A letter was read from Mr. Locke, M.P., resigning his o ffi ce of Common Pleader of the City. The resignation was accepted. The Lord Mayor informed the court that Prince Frederick William of Prussia would meet the corporation in the Guildhall on Monday next, to re ceive the freedom of the City. THE HUME TESTIMONIAL FUND COMMITTEE held a meeting ou Thursday, to decide upon the applica tion of the 1,3001. in hand out of 1,0581. 7s. 2d. subscribed. It was resolved that the fund be placed in the hands of the Council of University College to establish a scholarship for jurisprudence and political economy. under the title of the " Joseph Hume Scholarship." IN THE WEEK that ended on Saturday, July 4, the total number of deaths registered in London was 1,029, being less by 49 than the average rate of mortality at the beginning of July would have pro duced. The deaths arising from zymotic diseases exhibit an increase, chiefly in consequence of in creased prevalence of diarrhe3a. The births amounted to 1,004. Vrobinttal. A LAMENTABLE ACCIDENT happened at Shrews. bury last week. M. Jullien's annual musical fete had been held, in conjunction with the Shropshire Horticultural Show, on the Isle of Poplars, an islet in the Severn. A bridge of boats connected the island with the main. At the conclusion, about ten p.m., of the entertainment, a vast number of persons made for the bridge-passage. The bridge soon became overcrowded, the people became alarmed, and some mischievous men instantly began to rock the boats. In a few minutes the central boat gave THE PRESS, JULY 11,1857. way and sank, and some 150 persons were precipi tated into the river. Ten persons were drowned, and several were severely injured. An inquiry is proceeding. LORD PANMURE has acceded to a request made by the Bristol Town Council for a trophy of the late Russian war, and has presented the city with two 32-pounder guns. Steps are being taken by the. municipal authorities for the construction of suitable carriages fur the guns, and as soon as th ise are pre pared they will be mounted on Brandon-hill, an eminence commanding the city. A REMARKABLE ESCAPE from death, by falling out of a railway carriage window during the running of the train at forty miles an hour, is told this week of a child. During the transport of the 25th Regiment from Manchester to Dover on Wednesday, a child belonging to the wife of one of the soldiers, a fine boy about seven years of age, was leaning out of the window of the carriage in which he and his mother and others were travelling, when by some means he overbalanced himself and fell out on to the line, between Betchworth and Reigate, the train at the time running at full speed, or at the rate of forty miles an hour. The mother of the boy was with difficulty restrained from jumping out of the carriage after him. On the arrival of the train at Reigate Town men were instantly despatched down the line in search of the child, who was found lying between the two lines of rail, comparatively uninjured, the collar-bone only being fractured. What renders the escape more remarkable is that the second special train, conveying the remainder of the troops, which was following close behind the first ono, passed the child without doing him any injury. The little sufferer is now under the care of the regimental sur geon at Dover, and will probably soon recover. 3rtlant. THE IRISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS for 1855 and 1856 have been published. There is an increase only in wheat of 109,144 quarters ; in oats, barley, here, rye, potatoes, turnips, wurzel, flax, and hay there has been a marked decrease. On this subject we cannot do better than quote the commentary of Mr. Donnelly, viz.:— Although the yield per acre was less, the total produce of the wheat crop was greater by 109,144 quarters than in 1855, on account of the increased breadth under that crop, amounting to 83,•273 acres in 1856. Oats decreased 1,029,481 quarters caused by a diminution of 81,421 acres in the extent sown, and of half a barrel per acre in the average yield of Ireland compared with 1855. Barley and here also show a lower amount of produce in 1856, a smaller area having been cultivated and the yield per acre being under that of the previous year. These two crops show a general tendency to decrease for some years past. Rye, with a greater breadth, gives a smaller total produce in 18.56 than in 1855, owing to the difference in the aver- age acreable yield in the two years. Potatoes, with an in creased area of 122,403 acres, exhibit a decrease in the total produce cf 1856 compared with 1835, the yield per acre being less in the former than in the latter year. In the total yield turnips also show a decrease of 1,492,462 tons, a smaller breadth having been sown in 1856 than in 1845, and the average produce being estimated at 12'9 tons per acre in 1856, while in the previous year it was 16'6 tens. Appended to the agricultural statistics are a number of interesting tables, showing the amount and cha racter of the Irish emigration in the year 1856. The actual numbers were as under : January. February. March. April. Persona. Persons. Persons. Persona. 1856 1657 Increase in the first four mnths.of 1857 884 !,730 2,645 1,247 It will be seeni(observes Mr. Donnelly) that Irish emi gration has continued almost equal in amount in 1855 and 1856, and that, during the first four months of 1857, 6,386 persons more have left the country than during the con responding period of 1856. It will be found from the tables that, during the entire period embraced by the returns, the sexes emigrated in the proportion of 101 men to 101) women, while in 1856 the proportion was 110 men to 100 women ; 68.7 per cent. of the emigrants in 1856 were between the ages of 15 and 35 years, and only 13.7 per cent. were 35 years old and upwards—showing that the majority of those who left Ireland last year was from among the young and vigorous portion of its inhabitants. A SERIOUS ORANGE RIOT occurred last week in Crossgar, on the Ist of July, a day so histori cally memorable. The Protestants of the town as sembled in numbers in the immediate vicinity, and began to beat drums and play their favourite airs. They had not long continued when the sound at tracted the attention of the " navvies " employed at the construction of the extension line of the County Down Railway. The workmen immediately came down to Crossgar, reinforced by a number of the opposite faction, and an instantaneous riot was the result. As usual, the origin of the affray is not ascertained; but it is believed that the rankling animosity of years found vent in the struggle of the antagonists. Firearms were used, awl wounds ia flicted by other weapons. The town soon became the scene of frightful violence, and the result was that an aged man, named Martin, from an adjoining village, who had taken no part in the excesses, was shot dead. Very many persons have suffered severe injuries from thrusts of sharp instruments and front stone-throwing. Lord Dungannon, the county Grand Master of Antrim, has issued an address to the Orangemen of that district, in the course of which his lordship tenders the following piece of advice: The near approach of the 12th of Jaly reminds me of a duty which, as your Grand Master, I must not overlook. I have to call to your remembrance that obedience to the law is the first principle among Orangemen, and I feel confident that the brethren of Antrim will on that day in no shape transgress it. Commemorate the occasion with all honour in your several lodges; meet together in friend ship, unity, and conviviality, and thus preserve a perpetual memory of those events to which we are indebted for the preservation of our constitutional privileges and the free exercise and profession of our faith. Let nothing, how ever, induce you to proceed further ; but by your order, moderation, and steadiness, reflect honour upon the insti tution to which both you and myself have the fortunate privilege of behnging. My public duties will not allow of my being among you ; still, my best wishes—my prayess for your prosperity—will not be wanting. MRS. SPOLLEN, the wife of the man arrested for the murder of Mr. Little, continues in a very weak and depressed state. She has repeatedly denied any participation in her husband's alleged guilt, and avers that she knew nothing of his intentions either to rob or kill Mr. Little. THE ADJOURNED INVESTIGATION into Mr. Little's murder took place on Thursday at Capel-street Police-office. The evidence elicited went to prove the finding of the razor and the hammer in the canal basin in December last, and also the finding of a second razor near the same place on the let of the present month, with the name " Spollen " scratched on it. A cutler named West, residing in Dame-street, deposed that he wrote the name " Spollen" on the razor, which was left with him to be ground or set some time before Mr. Little's murder, but whether six months before or seven years before he could not say ; neither would he undertake to swear whether it was left with him by the prisoner, or by a man, woman, or child. Another piece of new evidence was that a small brass padlock was found in the vessel containing the red lead on the top of which some of the money was found, and that a key which fitted into it, and also another padlock, were discovered in the drawer of the pri soner in which the eight sovereigns referred to on the previous day were found. The only other addi tional evidence brought forward on this occasion was the testimony of the station-master of Athlone ' to show that he had forwarded certain specified sums of money, called " surplus money," rolled up in dockets, to Mr. Little, within a few days before the murder; Ind the books of the deceased were produced to prove entries in his handwriting, ad mitting the receipt of those sums which formed a portion of the money found adjoining the Castle platform. The further hearing of the case was post poned to Monday at eleven o'clock. PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON and suite arrived in Kingstown Harbour before nine o'clock on Thurs day, and shortly afterwards proceeded to Dublin. His Highness is at present stopping at the Gresham Hotel. THE PROPOSED TRANSPORTATION OF AFRICAN NEGROES TO THE FRENCH COLONIES has excited some discussion in our daily papers. It is generally regarded as an attempt certain to lead to the revival of a modified slave trade. The Assemble Nationale this week, just before its suspension, published the following statement The Council-General of Martinique, having been core salted by the Government with respect to the project of introducing into that colony of 10,000 Africans, engaged as labourers for a certain number of years, /has replied : That it opposes in principle this emigration of Africans, but that it nevertheless accepts the consequences of the contract made by the Minister of Marine with the firm of Regis, of Marseilles, for the introduction, as a trial, of sOO Africans, inasmuch as that contract is defi nitive and irrevocable. The council begs that the Minister will annul the contract concluded with the firm of Regis, in virtue of the right reserved to him, so that the introduction of Africans may not exceed that number. It desires that in order to remedy the actual recruitment of labourers amongst Asiatic races the monopoly granted to the company, styled " maritime," should cease, and that every vessel bringing Indians to Martinique, in conformity with the laws and re. gulations concerning emigration, shall receive the usual premium. It proposes, moreover, to grant a higher premium to those Indians who at the expiration of their five years' engagement may consent to contract a new one. These resolutions are eminently prudent, in our opinion, and they prove that the .-Ixsemblee Nationale had well understood the interests of the colonists. One of the members of the coun cil who opposed the Ministerial project with the greatest warmth is of African origin. He regarded the question in its most elevated point of view, and proved that nothing could be more injurious to the most numerous port ion of the colonial population than this introduction of uncultivated savages.