The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

JANUARY 20, 1855. Valiant an Omani. ACCORDING to the Lithographic News Skeet of Ber lin, Major de Stutterheim and several other officers of the old army of Schleswig-Holstein have signified to the English Government that they were disposed to enter the foreign legion forming in England. NOTICE has been given for the appropriation of Smithfield as a grand terminus for the underground railway from Paddington and King's-cross to the General Post-office, great part of which has been au thorised by Parliament. THE Markets Improvement Committee of the Cor poration of the City of London have named the 26th inst. as the day for opening the newly-constructed market at Copenhagen-fields, Islington. It is how ever by no means certain that the ceremony of inau guration will take place on that day, as the Home Secretary has not, at present, approved of the regu lations for the management of the market, as agreed to by the committee. When his lordship has so done, be will tlx the day of opening, and from that date Smithfield will cease to be a market. The new market will cost the city 320,0001. liEurrawcr HEWETT, R.N., who 130 much distin guished himself in a late instance when attached to the naval brigade before Sebastopol, has returned to England with a view to pass the examination involved by his promotion. It will be remembered that Mr. Hewett on the occasion of a sudden attack of the Russians upon the allied intrenchments, when directed by military authority to spike the Lancaster gun of which he had the charge, resolutely refused to obey the order, stating that be was sure it did nut proceed from his captain ; and, instead of complying, cleared away the parapet of the battery, and turned the gun against the advancing columns of the enemy with such effect as to cause their speedy retreat, making dreadful havoc in their ranks. Admiral Dundas, with a praiseworthy appreciation of his in• trepidity, not only recommended Mr. Hewett at once for promotion, but placed him in temporary command of her Majesty's ship Beagle—a position which he will again assume on his return to the Black Sea, ac emu paui ed by the approval of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. . . _ AT the approaching meeting of the Crystal Palace Company it will be announced that the receipts have been sufficient to give, if it were deemed expedient, a dividend to the shareholders. As, however, all the receipts have been appropriated to extending and improving the enterprise, the directors wisely abstain from paying a dividend out of the capital—a principle which, it is to be hoped, will not be departed from, either in this or any other public company. THE COURT OF DIRECTORS of the East India Com pany have appointed, as a temporary measure, the Right Hon. Sir James Stephen, K.C.8., LL.D., Pro fessor of History and Political Economy at Hailey bury College. A PETITION against the return of Messrs. Mowatt and Adair (for the borough of Cambridge) will be presented on the first day of the reassembling of Parliament. The petition will pray for the seats on behalf of Lord Maidstone and Mr. Slade, Q.C., as well as to avoid the return of the present members on the ground of bribery and treating at the former election. AT THE MEETING OF THE COURT OF SESSION OR Wednesday, Mr. Craufurd presented the Queen's letter, appointing him a judge in the room of Lord Rutherfurd. After the usual probationary trials, he will take his seat on the bench to Lord Ardmillan. Mr. T. Mackenzie also presented his commission as Solicitor-General, and was sworn into office. GENERAL BEATsoic, who is in Constantinople with a large staff of Indian officers, charged by the Go vernment with the formation of a body of 4,000 ca valry, is about to proceed to Thessaly, for the pur pose of raising that force from the population of those provinces. REAR.ADMIRAL HOUSTON STEWART, having become second in command of Sir Edmund Lyons' fleet in the Black Sea, Rear-Admiral Montagu Stopford will succeed him as admiral superintendent at Malta. THE GOVERNMENT, it is said, is about to organise a baggage and transport corps. The officers will be selected from the East India Company's army, and will rank with officers of her Majesty's service. Colo• nel M'Murdo is to have the command, and he, with some other officers and men selected from the metro politan police, will sail next week for Constantinople. The policemen will form the nucleus of the corps, which will then be completed at Constantinople by Turkish recruits. THE POPUIATION OF LONDON now suffers, as ap pears from the last returns, a high rate of mortality. Last week the deaths of 1,466 persons (743 males, and 723 females) were registered, showing an in crease on the previous week, in which the number was 1,404. In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1845-54 the average number was 1,203, which, when corrected for the increase of population, shows that the present mortality is 143 in excess of the de cennial average. THE PRESS. saw and Volta. A irDMIENT waa given on Monday by the Lord Chancellor, in an appeal of great importance to the body of Wesleyan Methodists. The case arose out of an information on the part of that governing body among the Methodists known by the name of the Conference, the object of which was to exclude the trustees of a chapel at Birstal, in the West Riding of York, from appointing their local preachers, on the ground that the appointment of such preachers by the Conference was a necessary part of the constitu tion of Methodism enjoined by John Wesley, and imperative on his followers. The question is of the last importance to the unity of Methodism, as there are very many chapels whose trustees claim the same independence of action in the selection and nomina tion of their preachers : The information was filed originally in the Vice• Chancellor's Court, at the instance of John Middlebrook and William Beau mont, tws member. of the Wesleyan body at Biristal, and it prayed a declaration that the chapel was held iu trust for the ge neral body of Methodists, and that the preachers should be appointed by the Conference, in conformity with the true con struction of the provisions of a deed of trust of 1761, which gave the appointment to John Wesley and his brother Charles, and their nominees. Iu support of their prayer fur relief, the relators entered into a history of the origin and progress of Wesleyan Methodism, and the erection in 17610 f a chapel for the district of Birstal, through the exertions of one John Selson, who was nominated by Wesley to be the preacher. The infor mation set forth the deed vesting this building in nineteen trustees, who were to permit Wesley, his brother, and one Grim shaw, to nominate the preachers; and • further deed of 1783, which was followed in 1835, on the purchase of new property, by a declaration of trust which recognised its provisions as differing from those of the deed of 17A, by giving the trustees an autho rity to appoint the preachers alter the decease of the Wesley.. The information prayed the removal of the trustees who objected to the coutrollingpowers of the Conference. that the chapel and all the buildings be declared subject to the provisions of the model deed of 1751, and it also prayed a scheme for future regu lation of the chapel. The Vice-Chancellor, after much considera tion, upheld the deed of 1751 as the true declaration of trust, and declared the property acquired since that time to be held under the trusts of that deed, and not under the trusts of the deeds of 1781 or 1836. His Honour also held that the powers given to the trustees to appoint preachers after the death of the Wesley., however express and definite in their terms, were inconsistent with the present rules and regulations of Methodists, and that the nomination necessarily belonged to the Conference, whose appointed preachers ought to enjoy the free use and benefit of the trust premises. His Honour, however, refused to remove the dissenting trustees, because the provisions for that purpose bed not hitherto been strictly carried out, and he gave them the costs of appearance. An appeal having been brought against his Honour's decision, the case was argued at great length during several days in the Court of Chancery at the end of last Michaelmas Term. The Lord Chancellor then reserved judgment, which was finally pronounced on Monday. His lordship entered minutely into the circumstances of the case, recapitulating the tenor of a variety of trust-deeds, and examining the conditions under which the Birstal chapel stood with relation to the general body of Methodists as organised by Wes ley. The chief point at issue was this—whether the chapel should be managed by trustees appointed under the provisions of sundry deeds, executed when the edifice was built or enlarged; or whether the circumstance that its founders and congregation had from the beginning belonged to the body of Wesleyan Methodists sufficed to overrule all special deeds, so far as they related to the appointment of trustees, by subjecting the chapel to the control of the Conference established by Wesley for the management of all places of worship appertaining to his connection. The Chancellor's judgment finally reversed the deci sion of the court below, and sustained the validity of the special deeds relating to the trusteeship and con trol of the chapel. The effect of this decision will be to withdraw a very large number of Methodist con gregations from their connection with what has been considered the parent stock. Two DUTCHMEN, named William Kopps and An thony Joseph Steyne, were brought up on Tuesday by a detective policeman, charged with having been found possessed of 1,200 thalers stolen money, for which they could not lawfully account : It had been telegraphed from Cologne a few days before that the servant of a gentleman had disappeared. after having received a considerable sum of money fur his master, and the Com missioner of the City Police forthwith gave directions to some of his principal officers on the subject. The result was that Haydon astonished the two prisoners in Fenchurch-street just as they were about to exchange some foreign for English money at the premises of one of the bullion dealers, and took them into custody. The officer then ascertained that Kopps bad robbed nib master of LW) dialers, and invited hteyne w, accompany him to America, where they were to divide the spoil, and to start in business together, and that the passage to New York bad been already paid. The prosecutor soon afterwards arrived from Cologne. Ilaydon found iu Kopps's possession 1,200 thalers, and applied for the amount of the passage money to America, so that it was probable that almost the whole of the money would be soon in the possession of the rightful owner. Mr. Ludowic Kinricb, the prosecutor, said: I live at Cologne. Kopps was my servant. I know nothing of the other man. I sent Kopps with a note to the post-office to fetch 1,500 thalers to me. He never returned. The papers found upon Kopps are of the description I ought to Lave received from the port-office. It was telegraphed to Cologne that the prisoner, who committed the offence, was in London. Alderman ROSE said he had no jurisdiction in the case, and discharged the prisoners without making any order about the money, which was subsequently Landed to the owner. AT the Liverpool Police-court on Wednesday John Bevan Donaldson, late collecter at the Liverpool Mercury office, was committed for trial for embezz ling several large sums which he had collected, the property of the proprietors of that journal. It it said his defalcations reach over 1,0001. JOHN JONES, a respectable-looking young man, whose father was stated to be an auctioneer in Par liament-street, was sent to the House of Correction for a month on Wednesday for stealing a book enti tled " The Man of the Times," valued at Bye shillings, from the Leopuld Coffeehouse, Old Kent-road. LADY BOUGHTON has been fined 1/. and costs at the Brighton Police-court, for assaulting her lady.- maid. SPRING CIRCUITS, 11455.—Oxford, Lord Campbell and Baron Martin—Norfolk, Lord Chief Baron and Justice Wightman—Northern, Baron Parke and Justioe Cresswell—Midland, Baron Alderson and Justice Coleridge—Home, Justice Maule and Baron Platt—Western, Justice Erie and Justice Crowder— North Wales, Justice Williams—South Wales, Jus tice Crompton. Chief Justice Jervis remains in town. girtilunts an elnuts. DISASTERS AT SEA.—ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY•F'OUR LIVES LOST.—The Hamburg mail, which arrived on Sunday, brought intelligence of further losses offthat coast during the terrific gale on New Year's-day. Three coasting vessels foundered, every soul belong. ing to them being lost. The reported loss of the George Canning, one of the Hamburg and New York packet-ships, on the Sornhorn-sands, at the south side of the Elbe, is unfortunately confirmed. Every soul on board met with a watery grave. One account states she had 104 persons in all, among whom ware 186 passengers. A spar bad been washed ashore with the corpse of a beautiful little girl, about tan years old, lashed to it. The ship was insured at Hamburg and New York for 80,0001. The Mlle mail brings tidings of the burning of a ate steamer belonging to Hull, called the Lady Seale, Captain Bailey. She arrived from that port at Hamburg on Tuesday evening, and early the following morning was discovered on fire. Notwithstanding all the exertions made to save her, the fire continued to rage, and the vessel was burned to the water's edge. Another very large transport-ship, called the Neap syke, No. 119, is reported destroyed by fire on her way to Balaklava with provisions and rum for onr troops in the Crimea. She was the property of Mr. Allen, the shipowner of Leadenhall street, and the fire is said to have originated ip the bold among the cargo, but under what circumstances Lloyd's agent at Constantinople, where the disaster occurred on the 27th of last mouth, had been unable to ascertain. The ships-of-war sent their Are-engines and boats to aid in the suppression of the fire, but without avail. She was burned to the water's edge. This makes the twentieth transport-ship that has been lost since the war was declared. A Liverpool emigrant ship, the St. Patrick, 1,000 tons, Captain Whitman, which left that port for New York on the 15th of last No vember, has been totally wrecked at Barneget. The passengers, 417, and crew, were all saved. - • - THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN, a few days ago, laid the foundation-stone of a church at Memsfield, Nous, containing as usual, in a cavity, a glass bottle hold ing some coins. A few days afterwards the workmen discovered that a smith's shop had, been broken open, and two crowbars taken therefrom. On further examination it was discovered that the crowbars bad been used by robbers in forcing the stone at the back of the one laid by the Bishop of Lincoln. After the stone had been raised by the bars, the robbers had propped it up by placing a plank against it, while they broke the glass and abstracted the bottle containing the coins. AN ACCIDENT which proved fatal to two persona occured on Monday, at Kingswood, near Bristol. Some workmen were making a well near the Rodney Tavern, while two of them, named George Crew and William Humphries, were digging at a depth of several fathoms, the earthwork of the sides of the shaft gave way above them, and a large quantity of stuff fell down and buried the unfortunate men. An immediate alarm was given, and assistance being procured, the earth was got out with as much rapidity as possible. Some considerable time, how ever, was necessarily occupied, and upon the bodies being got out from among the &twist, it was found that the vital spark was in each case extinct. THE house of Fould, Oppenbehn, and Co., bankers in Paris, was robbed on Monday in an extraordinary manner of five ingots of gold, worth 120,000 f. A partner in the house was accompanying a hand-cart drawn by two porters, containing several ingots, which had been sent to a sworn assayer's. By col lusion, it is supposed, between the porters and the robbers, some planks of the cart were taken out, and live of the ingots abstracted.