The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

OCTOBER 21, 1854 Coat ad lastin. HER MAJESTY'S RETURN FROM SCOTLAND. Last week we announced the arrival of the Queen in Edinburgh on Thursday, and subsequent departture next morning, and gave the pro gramme of her Majesty's journey southward. This programme was followed with the punctuality and exactness which characterise all Court movements. The following are the principal incidents with which the royal journey southwards was enlivened. The royal train arrived at Hull from Edinburgh a few minutes before six o'clock on Friday evening, and the Queen and Prince were received upon the plat form by the chairman and directors of the North- Eastern Railway, many local and corporate dignitaries, and an immense concourse of townspeople and visitors. The royal party proceeded at once to the Railway Hotel, where addresses were presented from the corporation and local bodies. The town, which had been decorated during the day, was brilliantly illuminated during the night, and thousands who could not get beds at any price had to walk the streets. The nextmorning, at nine, the mayor, recorder, and corporation were in attendance on the Queen, and at twenty minutes to ten the Sovereign left for the pur pose of visiting the town. Besides the Queen, Prince Consort, and royal children, the cortege com prised the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Burghersh, Colonel Grey, the Earl of Carlisle, and Lord Londesborough. Prince Albert, attended by Major-General the Hon. C. Grey, had previously visited the new building meted by the Literary and Philosophical Society. On arriving at the pier, her Majesty ascended the platform, followed by the mayor and civic authorities, Here the assemblage were somewhat at fault to learn the cause of a momentary bustle within the cir'ile of her Majesty's presence. The excitement was oc casioned by the fact of the Sovereign at this moment intimating to the mayor, Dr. Cooper, her intention of marking her appreciation of the reception she had met with by conferring upon him the honour of knighthood. Dr. Cooper having knelt down, her Majesty pronounced the magic words conferring the unexpected honour, the sword handled by the Sove reign in touching the shoulder of the mayor being that so honourably borne by Lord Burghersh on the heights of the Alma. After this incident her Majesty embarked on board the royalyacht Fain. b commanded by the Hon. Cap tain Denman, and steamed rapidly down the Humber to Grimsby, where her Majesty landed at one o'clock. At the Grimsby docks the Queen was received by the Earl of Yarborough, high steward of the borough, the mayor, and the municipal authorities. Addresses having been presented by the corpora tion and the dock company, her Majesty, his Royal Highness, and the Royal Family, proceeded to the East Pier, and thence to the Tower, which was ascended by his Royal Highness and some of the younger branches of the Royal Family. Luncheon was prepared at the dock, after which her Majesty passed through the streets of Grimsby to the station. The train conveying the royal party left the station under a salute of twenty-one guns, and proceeded towards London, stopping only at Boston and Peterborough for a few minutes during the entire transit to the metropolis. The train reached London at half-past five, and at Windsor a quarter before seven by the Great Western Railway. Lord Alfred Paget, Equerry in Waiting to the Queen, joined the royal party at Edinburgh, and at tended her Majesty from Holyrood to Windsor Castle. The Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold, and the Prin cess Louisa, arrived at Windsor Castle from Osborne at half-past twelve o'clock on Saturday, attended by Lady Caroline Barrington and Mr. R. Ormsby Gore. The Queen held a Privy Council at Windsor on Wednesday, for the purpose of issuing the usual order ,for the further prorogation of Parliament. When at Newcastle, on her way to Hull, the Queen made inquiries of the mayor of Gateshead relative to the late calamitous fire, expressing her sympathy with the inhabitants, and desiring that her name should be added to the subscription list in aid of the sufferers, with the munificent contribution of lON. Admiral Vircin had an audience of the Queen on Tuesday, to deliver his letters of recal as Envoy Extra ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of Sweden. Baron Wydenbruck, for some years secretary at the Austrian embassy at London, chamberlain of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, and actual Charge d'Affaires for Austria at the Court of Hesse • Cassel, was married on Monday, according to the rites of the two Churches, to Miss Isabella Blacker, daughter of the late S. J . Blacker, lieutenant-colonel in her Majesty's service. Mn. Swun O'BRIEN, the hero of the Irish cabbage garden rebellion of 1848, having obtained leave from Nan Diemen's Land, is now at Madras, on a visit to his brother-in law, Major Gabbett. THE PRESS. Volituai nn ()ritual. Two CABINET COUNCILS, the first since the recess, have been held during the current week, on Tuesday and yesterday. Several of the ministers returned to town specially to attend the first of these councils, at which were gathered in consultation the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord John Russell, the Lord CLancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke of Argyll, _ _ Viscount Palmerston, the Earl of Clarendon,-the Duke of Newcastle, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir James Graham, Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, Sir William Molesworth, and Earl Granville. The Council sat three hours and a half. MAJOR BERESFORD, M.P., when speaking at the anniversary dinner at the Hinilkford Agricultural Club, used some expressions in reference to Sir J. Graham, which led to a correspondence with the right hon. baronet. Among other epithets Major Beresford let fall the term "coward," which, in a letter written on the 14th inst. to the F . :l.st Lord he consents to retract, admitting that "it slipped out unintentionally." Sir J. Graham, replying ou the same day, declares himself perfectly satisfied, as it is both his own opinion and that of the friend whom he had consulted that he could " neither ask nor desire more." THE Pusuc HEALTH.— The Registrar-General's returns for the last week from the metropolitan dis tricts furnish evidence of a steady, if not rapid, improvement in the public health. The deaths, which numbered 1,532 in the previous week, declined to 1,394 in that which ended last Saturday; but the mortality still exceeds the average of former years by more than 300 deaths, and it is also greater than the mortality of the same week in 1849, when the number had fallen to 1,075. Last week cholera was fatal in 249 cases, diarrhoea in 102. The deaths from the former disease were registered in the last two weeks in the five divisions of London in the fol lowing proportions :—ln the western districts 59 and 46, in the northern 25 and 14, in the central 31 and 24, in the eastern 95 and 50, and on the south side of the river 200 and 115. In the second week of October, 1849, the deaths reported as caused by cholera were 110. Scarlatina prevails to some extent in London, and the mortality from it exhibits a weekly increase. In the last three returns this dis ease numbered 88, 105, and 112. This is consider ably more tban the average. Tun proposal for a monument to Sir William Wallace is about to be carried out. Funds have been realised, and the Hill of Barnweill, near Craigie, between Kilmarnock and Ayr, is proposed as the site. Mns. SUSAN ABLETT, a native of Weybread, in Suffolk, died on the 7th instant, aged 104 years. She enjoyed the use of her faculties until the last year of her life. THE OLD BLACK BOY AT FECKENHAM is now closed as an inn. It has been in the family of the Gardners about 139 years. The sign, which is of copper, stood the whole of that time, until taken down on Thursday last. Denise the eleven years ending with 1853 there have been carried on the railways of the United Kingdom no less than 626,063,360 passengers of all 'lasses. During the last three years the numbers carried are-1851, 78,969,622 passengers ; 1852, 80,758,097; 1853, 94,906,440. The third-class pas sengers outnumber the first and second class put to gether, but the second-clnss furnish the largest amount of revenue, the third the next, and the first the least. The third-class have made more progress in number and amount than either of the other classses. LAST week's visitors to the Crystal Palace numbered 24,852. The receipts for admission were 1,1981.115. THE BISHOPRIC OF SYDNEY, which was vacant eighteen months, was offered in succession to three Irish clergymen. First to Mr. Hamilton Verschoyle, of Dublin, who declined it ; then to Mr. C. M. Fleury, chaplain to the Molyneux Asylum, who also refused; and then to Mr. Frederick Barker, who accepted it. ONE OF THE CANONRIES IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL has fallen vacant by the death of the Hon. and Rev. F. Hotham, who held with it the rectory of Denning ton, worth 1,0001. ayear, and the rectory of Burnham, worth 800/. a year. The canonry is in the gift of the Crown, and is worth nominally 6801. a year, but the actual value is considerably more. Fines have been paid in certain instances of as much as 40,0001., and even l'o,ooo/., the cathedral authorities being to that extent the gainers. THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNoW EEHoE has granted 1,0001. towards the foundation of a new colonial bishopric, that of Perth, Western Australia. Several other grants have also been made by the society for religious objects in the colonies, as well as in England and Wales. PILLAR LErran•noxEs are to be erected along the line of Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, the Strand, and Pic cadilly, by wayof experiment. Should the scheme suc ceed all the main streets of London are to be provided with these receptacles for correspondence. The pillars are to be erected at intervals of half a mile, or thereabouts. 995 THE commissioners have just started from Calcutta to investigate the charges against Sir James Brooke, of Sarawak. The expense of the inquiry is estimated at from 12,0001. to 20,0001. • THE HOP Dlrry presents a lamentable falling off this year. The follawiug is the official return from the chief districts :—Barnstaple, 31. 7s. sd. ; Canter bury, 14,6791. 14s. 41d.; Derby, Bs. Old. ; Grantham, 7s. 2d.; Hants, 4,9701. Ils. 61d.; Rochester, 29,1691. 14s. 3d. • Sheffield, W. 7s. lid. ; Stourbridge, 2,2391. Is. 3d. ; Wales, Middle, 81. Bs. aid. ; Worcester, 2,6611. 9s. ltd. ; total, 53,943/. Bs. 7*d. WINTER threatens to set in at a very early period of the year in the northern county of Caithness. At Spey, on Wednesday morning last week, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. MR. MECHI made a long speech a few days since to the Witham Agricultur al and Labourers' Friend Society at their annual meeting, in which he congra tulated the society on the improved feeling with reference to agricultural steam machinery. When he first put up his steam machine a good deal of ridicule was heaped upon him as a visionary, mis calculating person, but he was happy to see that steam thrashing-machines were now being used as com monly as the old thrashing-machines used to be ; and he had no] doubt steam:power would shortly he very generally employed in agricultural pursuits. It was also necessary that, instead of the common blacksmiths in the villages, there should be a man in every village who had sufficient knowledge of engi neering work to enable him to repair the defects which necessarily occurred in moveable machinery. He then alluded to the experiments made with the steam cultivator on his farm, and stated that in the first instance he was wrong in having the boiler fixed vertically instead of horizontally, and there was also too much velocity. It was found that they could easily corrugate the soil, but they were infringing the great law in machines which stated that what they gained in time they lost in power. These were de fects that would be easily rectified, and he had no doubt they would find a great many steam cultivators competing for the prize of 2001. offered, partly at his suggestion, by the Royal Agricultural Society. Agri culture, he declared, must progress, and however fond farmers might be of their old prejudices they must give way. THE Loss OF THE BARQUE Afahtika, Capt. Staunton of Greenock, and of the fearful sufferings of her crew from thirst and hunger, are recorded in the Greenock Advertiser. On the morning of the 30th of April, at two o'clock, the barque struck on Wreck Reef, off the coast of Australia, and in about fifteen minutes there were nearly six feet of water in the bold. The boats were got out, but the long-boat was soon knocked to pieces, and with her went the small quantity of water which bad been saved. At three p.m. the crew were compelled to abandon the vessel ; the water by this time being almost level with her stern. The crew, eleven in number, got into the pinnace and pulled clear of the wreck. They were without water and between two and three hundred miles from the land. The steward managed to get four bottles of wine and a bottle of beer into the boat before the cabin filled. The master made two attempts to get alongside at daylight, but was obliged to give it up, the ship being then with her stern in the water, and her bows resting on the reef. He then steered in for the land, which they did not fetch till the 7th of May, when they reached Harvey's Bay. At the time they landed four men were deranged, and one dead. On the morning of the Bth two more men died—one the chief mate. Water was found that afternoon, which saved the lives of such as still retained their senses, and an endeavour was made to save the two who were deranged, by pouring water down their throats, but in vain : they died on the morning of the et h. After burying them, the rest commenced travelling to the southward. They marched for ten days with out meat or drink, except sucking the dew from the blades of grass. They then fell in with a few natives, who fled on their appearance, leaving their fires burp ing, but neither left food nor water, although they had been feasting on fish. Close to this place they found a fresh-water river, and caught three toads, which they roasted and ate, hut which produced such sick ness and weakness of the joints that they believed themselves poisoned. In the morning the cook was dead, and the others proceeded through the bush, and fortunately fell in with a few aborigines, close to the sea beach. These kindly killed a serpent of about six feet in length, and cooked it for them, and after wards accompanied them to a little town, called Marytorough, inhabited by English. There the survivors remainded for five or six days, and proceeded afterwards to Sydney, where the second mate and two other men were put into the hospital. Captain Staunton and his steward were all of the crew who reached Melbourne. IT is in contemplation to erect a ball especially for dissenters in Oxford University, under the pro visions of the new bill and with the sanction of the Evangelical Alliance, from which body a committee has been formed to carry out the project.