The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-11 00:00:00

r 970 A WATERSPOUT formed and fell at Crompton Fold and Weymoss, near Oldham, on Sunday evening last. The brooks in the immediate neighbourhood were of course flooded, and a considerable amount of damage was done to the property adjoining. THE BISHOP OF OXFORD has consented to deliver the opening lecture for the winter season at the Reading Literary Institution. A CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS tO Lord Belper has been agreed upon by the Corporation of Derby. SIR JOSEPH PAXTON, M.P., at the Bakewell farmers' dinner on Wednesday, criticised the sentiment recently propounded at an agricultural meeting by Sir James Graham with respect to the untoward in fluence which freedom in Russia might exert on the condition of the English agriculturist:— Sir James Graham must have let such a doctrine slip in an unguarded moment, for, in truth, whenever coun• tries became free they ceased to be competitors with Eng- land in corn. Last week, for instance, we had 16,000 quarters of corn from Russia, and only 4,000 from America, showing that where commerce was carried on in a free country there was a less amount of corn exported than where the people were enslaved. If Russia were as free as England, arts, manufactures, and other commer cial pursuits would flourish more and agriculture less. Having spoken in favour of a system of agricultural statistics, he remarked that, as far as he could gather from conversations with many farmers in that part of the country, they were desirous that any measure connected with agricultural statistics should be carried out on some principle, and that they should not be burdened with an expensive machinery for its execution. THE REV. DAVID WILLIAMS, D.C.L., Warden of New College, was elected Vice-Chancellor of Oxford on the Nth, in the room of the Rev. Dr. Cotton, whose term of office had expired. rtlaitt. THE CRIMEAN BANQUET is fixed for the 22nd inst. The Government tobacco store, capable of contain ing with ease 6,000 persons, has been selected as the building. Upwards of 4,000 soldiers will be invited. The Lord Lieutenant, the mayor and cor poration, and the committee, will dine with the men. The officers will not be invited to the present ban quet. Liberal offers have been made by Mr. Dargau to supply the temporary fittings, and by Mr. Bren nan to give 2001. worth of wine for the occasion. Mr. M. C. ORMSBY, the statician of the Encum bered Estates Court, has just issued his seventh annual report of the proceedings of the land tribu nal, from the filing of the first petition in 1849 to the concluding day of the seventh session on the 31st of August in the present year. The gross sum obtained by the various sales amounted to 18,299,3501. 14s. 9d., of which English, Scotch, and foreign pur chasers paid 2,510,3061., or little more than one ninth of the whole. MARSHAL PELISSIER was daily expected on a visit to Lord Gough. THE PARISH PRIEST OF BALLINGAVY has resisted the Income tax Commissioner upon the ground that his revenues, whatever they may be, were the free and voluntary offerings of the people. The follow ing conversation is reported in the local papers : COMMISSIONER: It is not we who seek to tax you, but the Queen. Rev. Mr. FITZGERALD: To me it is all the same as between you. I get nothing from either of you and owe you nothing. Yours is the only Government in Europe that gives nothing, with one trivial exception, to the Catholic Church. You took away what belonged to her and threw the Catholic clergy for their support on the bounty of the people, and now you are not satisfied with. out imposing on us this tax, the collection or which will cost you more than it will be worth, and render has odious as tithes were some time ago. COMMISSIONER : We must rule against you for 1501. Rev. Mr. FITZGERALD : You may rule as you like, and any amount that it pleases you, but I will appeal to another court, and take advantage of every resource the law affords me ; and, if this will not avail, you may then distrain and sell the means of support given by the liberality of a faithful and devoted people to a hard-working clergy, but one penny of a tax on their voluntary offerings you will never receive willingly from me. Stotlanb. THE WINTER SESSION OF THE EDINBURGH PHILO SOPHICAL INSTITUTION will be opened on Thursday evening, the 30th instant, by an address from the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, K.T., LL.D. The first course of lectures will be delivered by Mr. W. M. Thackeray, who will repeat his American course "On the Four Georges." The distinguished Arctic discoverer, Dr. Scoresby; the celebrated Dr. Gott freid Kinkell, from Bonn ; Principal Scott, of Man chester ; Professors Masson, Brewer, and Hunt, of London ; Allman, of Edinburgh, and Nichol, of Glasgow, will also deliver lectures on literature and science during the winter; and the session will be THE PRESS. closed on the 24th of March by an address from Lord Ardmillan, one of the Judges of the Court of Session. DURING THE LATE GREAT MINERS' STRIKE in the west of Scotland a certain sheriff's substitute held and expressed the opinion that magistrates could not inter • fere to repress great assemblages of men held for the known purpose of intimidating their fellow•workmen, unless violence bad been actually committed. The Lord Justice Clerk, last week, combated this mistake in addressing the Sheriffs of Lanark, Renfrew, and Dum barton, at the close of the Glasgow circuit. He said : The law of Scotland does noZ require that there should be an act of violence in order to entitle magistrates to pro tect workmen disposed to continue at their labour, and to punish those who are guilty of any species of intimida tion. The question is, what were the object and purpose of the parties in their conduct, whether accompanied with violence or not—did they intend to intimidate, and was their object to create fear and lead to other workmen giving up their labour ? If they assembled in numbers near the works where workmen were willing to labour, or on the roads they traversed in going to their works, or near their houses, though no act were done and no expression used by way of threat, yet, if it is plain to a jury or a magistrate that they did not assemble for any other purpose than to overawe the workmen disposed to remain at their work at the wages offered them, then such conduct is a viola tion of the law. LORD PANMLTRE last week attended a meeting at Forfar, at which the " toll-bar question" was dis cussed. The leading neighbouring landowners were present, and after the report of the committee ap pointed in April last had been read, Lord Panmure addressed the meeting. He said : It had long been his opinion that there did not exist in this country such an example of taxation without repre sentation as in the mode of collecting and spending the statute-labour money of the counties of Scotland. They were most unequally taxed on this subject, many buildings used for business purposes being exempted which ought to pay statute-labour money ; and those who paid statute labour money had no means whatever of knowing bow their money was expended. He trusted that this subject would be taken up as a general question, because he thought that the whole community would be benefited by turning their attention to reform in this matter. If the taxation was equally spread over all subjects which ought to be made liable he did not believe it would increase, but, on the contrary, it would diminish the rates ; and he thought a much better system of levying the taxation for the maintenance of the roads might easily be invented. If the committee did reassemble, he hoped they would give their attention to the subject of the consolidation of the turnpike trusts, because when they went to Parliament for a new bill it would be better to have some matured plan by which these turnpike roads might be managed more econo mically and systematically than at present ; and it would be necessary to have that plan concocted and adopted by the county at least two or three years before the expiration of the present act. Tlli LORD ADVOCATE OF SCOTLAND, the Right Hon. James Moncrieff, M.P., has consented to deliver a lecture to the Young Men's Christian Association, in the Victoria-hall, on Monday, the 13th instant. The subject of the lecture will be, " Social Reform— Indifference and Disunion its greatest Obstacles." THE ANTICIPATED RETIREMENT OF MR. WGREGOR from the representation of Glasgow since the dis closures of the British Bank, has brought forward Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Dunlop of Creighton, and the Lord Provost (W. Orr) as possible candidates. Yaix anb politt. APPREHENSION OF ROBSON, THE CRYSTAL PALACE SWINDLER. MR. WILLIAM JAMES ROBSON is at this moment safe in the hands of the police authorities in London, to be dealt with according to law for the offences with which he stands charged. From the information which has been received on the subject, it appears that Robson, after a week's concealment in London, made his way in a well-adapted disguise to France—thence to Belgium, Germany, Hanover, and ultimately to Copenhagen. There he sojourned at the principal hotel for a day and a night, and then proceeded to Helsingborg, where he arrived on the sth inst. From this place he proceeded to Elsinore, where he remained until Sunday last, and on that day proceeded on board a steamer to return to Hel singborg across the Sound. On the steamer reach ing her destination at Helsingborg, the attention of the authorities there was called to Robson by the singular fact that he had no money to pay his fare for the trip, and this led to his detection and final apprehension. When questioned, he described himself as an Englishman, said his name was Edward Smith, and that he was travelling for pleasure. When asked for his passport lie was obliged to confess that he had none, and was then told that he had violated the Danish laws by travelling without a passport, and was taken to Copen hagen. On reaching that city it was at once sus pected that Mr. Edward Smith was no other person than the Mr. William James Robson, of whose offence, and a description of whose person, they had SATURDAY, some days before had information, communicated from Mr. Lund in London. A telegraphic mes sage to Mr. Lund, informing him of their important discovery, and stating that Mr. Smith should be taken care of until they received that officer's instruc. tions on the subject, was forwarded at once. From other sources of information, it appeared that Mr. Lund had clearly traced Robson from Paris through his long line of route to Copenhagen, and feeling certain of finding htm there or thereabouts, he on Friday evening last procured a warrant for his apprehension and was on the point of starting for Copenhagen, armed with that authority, when he was seized with sudden but fortunately temporary illness, As no time could be lost, Mr. Lund at once started Sergeant Coppin, one of his detective officers, with the warrant t 3 Copenhagen. On arriving there, Sergeant Coppin at once recognised "his friend," and although he could not take him into custody without the consent of the Danish Government, he determined to keep his eye upon and mark his game. The Government interposed no obstacle to the capture of Robson, and it is understood immediately ordered him out of the country, inasmuch as he had violated its laws by travelling without a passport. This being done, Sergeant Coppin at once accompanied him on his travels, and at the proper time in formed him that he must consider himself in his custody on account of the Crystal Palace frauds, under a warrant granted by Mr. Jardine, of Bow. street Police-office. On Thursday night Sergeant Coppin arrived in London with the prisoner, and the information of his safe detention in London was at once communicated to the Crystal Palace directors, and to their solicitors, Messrs. Johnston, Farquhar, and Leech. Yesterday the rogue, looking haggard and depressed, was brougbt before Mr. Elliott at tha Lambeth Police-court, the case of a Mr. Robertson, whose preference shares had been illegally transferred by the prisoner, was gone into, and the prisoner was remanded. In the course of the evidence Sergeant Coppin deposed that he arrested the prisoner at Copenhagen on Tuesday last, where he was residing under the name of Edward Smith. He said to him, " Mr. Robson, I am come about the affair of the Crystal Palace." He replied, " I am very sorry. I know I have done wrong, and I must suffer the law." Witness asked him if he bad any objection to accompany' him to London, and he said, " No, he should be very glad to get back." Prisoner's sister was at Copenhagen with him, and travelled in the name of Agnes Smith. Supenntendent Lund deposed that on the prisoner being brought to the police station, he said to him " Mr. Robson, this is a oad job." Prisoner said : Yes, I'm miserably guilty. I'll make all the reparation I can before I go. I hope they won't confine me for life solitary, but I don't mind being transported, for I deserve it. I carried a ring about me at least three months with prussic acid in it, and I intended to destroy myself, but something came across my mind as though it were from the Almighty, and the reason I did not do it was not to make my poor unhappy wife's latter days miserable, and I threw the ring into the sea. He went on to say : I give all my property to the Crystal Palace Company ; and he said, Mr. Remington owes me 1,0001. fo- money lent; Mr. E. T. Smith, lessee of Drury.lane, 1,0001.; Mr. Leech, 801; Mr. Wallack, 3001., and there is the lease of my house, Kilburn Priory, in a safe at the Crystal Palace, which is worth 3001. The news of his apprehension was received with gratification by the directors of the Crystal Palace, to whom the various rumours of the enormous extent of Robson's defalcations and plunderings on the company have been most annoying. The statements on this subject went so far as to as , ert that the sum of which the company had been defrauded would exceed 80.0001. The real amount will nut reach more than 20,0001., a very fair sum for a head clerk to embezzle and spend in so short a time. Some amusing details have been given of the career of Robson. He was born no one knows where, brought up no one knows how, and began life no one knows when, but some four years ago he married on eighteen shillings a week, as extra copying clerk to a law stationer in Chancery lane. Shortly after this he obtained a place in the Crystal Palace at thirty shillings a week, and appear; to have displayed such activity that he was transferred from one department to another till he reached the registrar of shares and dividend certificate office, at a salary of 1501. per annum. On these slender means the rogue established some chemical works at Kennington-cross as a blind, from which be might be supposed to draw his means ; he then took a large private residence—Kilburn Priory—furnished it in a style of great elegance, started his brougham, two dog carts, six horses, groom and coachman, and three domestic servants to attend on himself and his wife. As his principle was evidently a short life and merry one, he supplied himself with a coup • of mistresses, on a bonus of three 'hundred pounce married off one to a friend, but kept the odic x Li a snug little cottage in the Park•roail, St. John':• wood. In addition to all this ho had the impu-