The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-08 00:00:00

SEPT. 8, 1855. slowly on account of her keel touching a bank, the Riffians opened a heavy fire of musketry upon her, killing a boatswain on the forecastle by a shot through the heart. The Prometheus then steamed off a short distance, hauled down the flag of truce, and opened fire with shot, shell, and musketry upon the Riffians, and continued firing upon those were collected around, and no doubt killing and wounding many of them, besides destroying two large boats. Finding the Ruffians had all disappeared, at 5.30 p.m. she ceased firing, and ran down the coast to Al hucemas Bay, where she anchored for the night. gnarl air laston. Her Majesty, with the Prince Consort and other members of the 'Royal Family, left Osborne on Wednesday, and returned to London. Next morn ing, at an early hour, the Queen proceeded by the Great Northern Railway towards Scotland, and reached Holyrood by seven in the evening, where the royal party spent the night. Yesterday the journey was resumed and completed to Balmoral, where the Court remains, it is understood, for about six weeks. The Inclipendance Beige states of the late royal visit to Paris :—" The Empress Eugenie made a present to Queen Victoria, as a parting gift, of a Porte bouquet, ornamented with brilliants, which cost a very large sum. The Queen is very grateful for the reception she met with in France, and, indeed, almost overpowered by it. A bouquet was given to her on her departure by General Lawastine, in the name of the National Guard. Her Majesty pro mised to carry it with her to England. An artist, M. Eugene Lami, is at work at an album, which will contain sketches of all the fetes and ceremonials during her Majesty's visit. This album, when com pleted, will be offered to the Queen. The decora tions of the fete at Versailles were imitated from an old engraving, as the Empress particularly wished to see the lustres surrounded with garlands." Vote's Gazette of Berlin, under date of the 29th ult., says :—" The Countess of Westmorland re turned here the day before yesterday from Ischl. The Earl has given up his intention of retiring from public life, and will shortly resume his post at Vienna." NEW CHURCHES.—The thirty-fifth annual report of the Royal Commissioners for Building New Churches has just, been issued. It appears that twenty-seven new churches have been completed in various places Since the last report (which stated that 570 churches had been completed, with accommodation for 585,780 persons, including , l33B,s7s free seats). In these twenty seven new churches accommodation has been provided for 18,375 persons, including 11,774 free seats for the use of paupers. Thus, in the whole, 597 churches have been now completed, and provi sion made therein for 584,155 persons, including 350,349 free seats for paupers. Twenty-one new churches are also in course of erection, and the com missioners have approved various plans for more new' churches, and are now considering the propriety of approving other plans submitted to them for the pur pose. Measures have also been taken for affording facilities for the erection of parsonage-houses in various localities. There are twenty-one places where churches are now being built, and towards the erection of which the commissioners have made con ditional grants of money. The styles of architecture are generally Gothic of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries—that is to say, Early English and Decorated English. Eighteen applications have been made for further church accommodation since the last report. . _ THE fotindation-stone of a new workhouse was laid at Manchester on Wednesday, capable of con taining about 1,600 inmates. The guardians have succeeded in purchasing about fifty-eight acres of land, exceedingly eligible for the site, about three miles from the centre of the city. The old work house is to be retained for the aged and infirm, while the new building is to have accommodation for 745 able-bodied male and female paupers, seventyaix women and as many infants, 241 idiots, epileptics, &c., 255 children under sixteen years of age, and 281) other persons. One object of the new establish ment was to get land, so that the labour test could be properly applied. It will contain all the latest improvements in this class of structure, and is esti mated to cost about 46,0001. It is expected that the new building will be ready for the reception of in mates by the end of next year, or the beginning of 187. ITUE prospectus has been issued of the proposed Lndon Joint Stock Warehousemens' Company under the Limited Liability Act, The capital is to be 200,0001., in 201. shares paid up, with the power of increase to 500,0001. The promoters lay stress upon the well-known profits of the wholesale drapery trade, and contend that, as the success of the business de pends in a peculiar degree upon the possession of an ample capital, it ape pall adapted for a joiut-stock wtsioci444l9 THE PRESS. SIR J. GRAHAM AT CARLISLE. THE ceremony of cutting the first sod of the Silloth Railway was performed by Sir J. Graham yesterday (Friday) week. The new line is to join the Port Carlisle Railway, at Drumburgh, and to run to a point on the coast of the Solway Frith called Silloth Bay, a distance of nearly ten miles. The act for its con struction was obtained during the last session of Parliament, after a protracted and expensive contest with the Maryport and Carlisle Railway, and a double defeat. The third effort was successful, and it was determined by the directors to give eclat to the corn. mencement of the work by inviting Sir James Graham to turn the first sod. The scene took place at Drum burgh, a small township to the south-east of Bowness, and within sight of the Solway Frith. After the ceremony bad been performed with due eclat and gravity, a ciejeuner was given to the invited guests, and in the course of the proceedings Sir James made three speeches, discoursing in various terms upon topics suggested by the event of the day. Among a diversity of other remarks, the right hon. baronet said, in his first address : Amid the din of war—amid the prodigal and fruitless expenditure of millions of the public money—amid the grievances and disasters, the death, the sickness, the wounds and groans of thousands of our fellow -creatures, it is gratifying to my feelings to be occupied this day in a work worthy of a great and commercial people—a work which has raised the country of which we are the favoured inhabitants to the highest pitch of commercial greatness. Works of this kind iu foreign countries have been the boast of conquerors and of kings ; but in our country they are the works of citizens. It is not the statesman who has projected them, nor are they carried on for poli tical purposes, but they are the fruits of honest industry, they are derived from the earnings of industrious labour. When constructed they are directed by our neighbours ; and it is my hope and prayer that this work which we have begun to-day may be conducive to the interests of the com munity to which I am attached by every tie that can bind the heart of man to his fellow•creatures. It is the boast of the age in which we live that science and capital have been combined, and by that means the greatest monuments of the greatest country in the world been secured. Our com mercial greatness may pass away, but these works are ever lasting memorials that we in our time and generation have not lived in vain. I pray and trust that the work which we have began to-day may take its place among those to which I have adverted. In his second speech he observed:— I see the question constantly asked—a question which you cannot fail to divine, seeing that it has been so re cently and frequently put—" What would have been the conduct of Sir Robert Peel in existing circumstances were he now alive?" Permit me to say that that is a fruitless question-La needless and nnpreductive speculation. It is hard to say what in present cireumstanees would have been his conduct ; but time has not abated my sorrow for his loss. I feel every day more and more the loss of his friendship. I regret every day the absence of that advice on which I so much relied—that advice which was ever dictated by the soundest sense, by the warmest sympathy with the interests and feelings of the people of this coun try, whom he served with constant fidelity, and whose happiness, prosperity, and welfare, it was the object of his life to promote. I cannot tell you, although perhaps, with out vain boasting, I may say that I enjoyed to a great extent, to the last moment of his life, his confidence—l cannot pretend to say what in the varying circumstances of the present moment might be his position. I can, however, look back to what was his past conduct; and, recollecting what that past conduct was, I can truly tell you that, in reference to the past, it is the pronfleat recol lection of my public life that I was associated with him and enjoyed his confidence for the short remainder of that public life. It will he my endeavour to act in conformity with the principles he enunciated, and with the view I know he took of what was conducive to the prosperity of this country. Of all things he was the maintainer of peace ; he was the promoter of constitutional and progressive reform ; he was the great defender and champion of com merce ; he was the guardian of the manufacturing interests of this country, from which interest he sprung and evinced the utmost solicitude for its welfare; and if for a moment a cloud passed over his memory on the part of the agricul tural interest, yet now I think the time has arrived when I may safely appeal to those around me to say whether he was not the agriculturist'sfriend—whether he inflicted any lasting injury upon that interest by his deep conviction that commerce, manufacture, and agriculture, were identi cal and inseparable. These were the principles of my late lamented friend—principles which to the last moment of my life will actuate my conduct. I regret the loss we have sustained, but when I am asked what would have been the conduct of Sir Robert Peel in the present crisis, I will answer that for the remainder of my public life I will endeavour to give effect to the view I take of his princi ples. It is vain to ask what he would do. It is right to ask what he did. With reference to his views upon railway competition, he did not think that competition was benefi cial as the exception, but as the general rule. Facility of communication, lie was of opinion, whether by railroad, navigation, and, indeed, in every possible way it could be excited, was conducive to the real interests of the country. (Hear, hear.) And, in reference to speculation, he had such confidence in the shrewdness, intelligence, and good sense of his countrymen, that he was satisfied that those who engaged in such undertakings as a pecuniary specula- tion would have sufficient discretion and intelligence to take care of themselves. He considered competition to be the soul of commerce, the parent of low prices, in which ype great bod 7 Of ;14e people 1 4 , 11 I* 01 aft i.lltflift, 855 was the advocate of competition: I say, I also am an advo- cate of competition ; and in reference to this scheme, I believe it will not only be conducive to competition which will be beneficial to the public, but will also I hope not be injurious to the shareholders, which was the only doubt I entertained upon the subject when first brought under my notice. (Cheers.) And in his third : "The glory of our native land," which is commemorated in the song we have just heard ("The Englishman" had just been sung), may, am far as relates to our arms, be safely left to our gallant soldiers and allies, who, having braved every privation and every danger in the field, and every evil that can possibly bend an army under the most difficult and disastreus circumstances, have triumphed over those ditfizulties, and, associated with our allies, have gained many victories, and, 1 trust., will gain many more. (Cheers.) Our object here to-day is also to sustain the honour and glory of our country. The arts of peace Moe their triumphs as well as the arts of war. They have abo their difficulties, which must be overcome by energy com. bined with prudence ; and the undertaking which we have this day begun is commenced under happy auspices because it is connected with municipal self-government. REFORMATORY SCHOOL FOR WILTS. Ax influential meeting of noblemen and gentlemen connected with the county of Wilts was held on Monday at Devizes, for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to establish a reformatory institu tion for that county. The Marquis of Lansdcwne presided ; and among those present were the Mar quis of Bath, Sir John Audry, Mr. J. Wilson, M.P., Captain Gladstone, M.P., Mr. T. H. Sotheron, M.P., Mr. E. H. W. Heneage, M.P., Mr. Ewart, M.P., Mr. Mereweather, Q.C. (Recorder of Devizes), Mi. G. P. Scrope, M.P., the Dean of Salisbury, dm In opening the proceedings, the noble chairman re marked that it had become a matter of general observation and regret that, although there was a pretty general diminution of crime, yet juvenile delinquency had been progressing for some years past. The only means of arresting its progress, he submitted, was by establishing a system of reforma tion whereby juveniles might be rescued from a career of inevitable crime. The subject bad already been treated with practical results in other counties, and it was most advisable to imitate their example in Wiltshire. The object of the meeting, which could not yet be considered as a county demonstration, was to ascertain in what direction the first step could be most advantageously taken. The Marquis of BATH proposed the first resolution, " That it is highly expedient that a school for the reformation of juvenile offenders be established in this county," and stated that at the quarter sessions in July last it wee virtually decided to take some step in aid of the object for which they were assembled. It had been found a difficult task—almost, indeed, an impossible one—to effect the reformation of our adult delinquents, and they were therefore led to consider, not how they might cure crime, but how they might check it in its youth and arrest its headlong career by the reformation of juvenile offenders, and make them useful members of society ; and, as the object had been achieved in other places, he thought it in cumbent on the inhabitants of Wiltshire not to be behind their neighbours in carrying into effect such an important undertaking. k Applause). The resolution was' carried unanimously. After another resolution had also been adopted, on the motion of Mr. Sotheron, to the effect " That such schools should be established upon the basis of economy and practical usefulness," a committee VMS appointed to select a proper site, and take the preliminary steps for the establishment a a reforma tory school. THE QUEEN, upon the recommendation of Sir William Moleaworth, has appointed Mr. Hincks, an influential member of the Canadian Legislature, to the Governorship of Barbadoes. This appointment, says the Times, is not so simple a matter as it would appear to be at first sight. "It is the inauguration of a totally different system of policy from that which has been hitherto pursued with regard to our colonies. We only trust that it may be carried out to its legiti mate extent, and that the more distinguished among our fellow-subjects in the colonies may feel that the path of imperial ambition is henceforth open to them. They are not Canadians, nor Australians, nor mere denizens in Jamaica or at the Cape, but Englishmen above all, and before all—Englishmen who have the same legitimate right to hold the highest offices in Church or State at home or abroad, as any person born within the four rseas. It is the feeling of Englishmen at home that this ought henceforward to be the rule of policy. We trust that this appoint ment of Mr. Hincks to a colonial governorship will show that at home we are really in earnest in the matter, and ask no better than to call into the service of the country, talent—home-grown or colonial—in fact, talent wherever it may be found." THE RETURNS Or THE METROPOLITAN REGIBTRARS continue to exhibit a rate of mortality which is not high for London at this period of the year. In the week that ended on Saturday last the A 9 51, 1 6 fmt v 49,4f1 miqdir94 709 8 Yu,