The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

A UGUST 23, 1856. MR. ANTHONY VANBEVON, a student of the Royal Academy of Arts, was last Saturday fined SL, or in default sentenced to two months' imprisonment, by Mr. D'Eyncourt, at Clerkenwell, for insulting a respectable married woman, a Mrs. Stevens, in the Hampstead-road, at midnight on the pi evious night. Mr. Vanbevon prayed for "mercy," as, if he were sent to prison he should certainly go mad ; but Mr. D'Eyncourt was inexorable, and Mr. Vanbevon was removed. _ _ JAPES AND ANDREW BRACKEN, two brothers, were tried on Tuesday, at Liverpool, before Mr. Justice Willes, for the murder of a man named Bates, on the 28th June last. It way proved in evidence that the deceased, while looking on at a fight between the two prisoners and another man, had been brutally attacked by Andrew Bracken, who knocked him down and kicked him in the head so severely as to fracture his skull. James Bracken bad also at tacked the deceased, but had not kicked him when down. The jury found Andrew Guilty of murder, and James of manslaughter. The moment the verdict was pronounced a scene occurred in court— several women, relatives of the prisoners, shrieked and fainted, while the prisoners fell down on their knees and literally cried for mercy. The judge, however, proceeded to pass sentence, transporting James for life, and condemning Andrew to be hanged, without hope of reprieve. _ _ THE MAN COLE, who shot the girl, Emily Luker, maid-servant in Hawely-place, PeAdington, was fully committed for trial by Mr. Broughton, on Tuesday, for " wounding with intent to murder." ROBERT TELFORD, a labourer at Doncaster, one day last week was suddenly seized with a flt while in his father's house. On recovering from the flt he grasped the old man and strangled him on the spot. An inquiry has been held, and Telford committed to take his trial for manslaughter. He could not account for the impulse which led him to commit so horrible a crime. A MR. JAMES SMART, a portrait-painter, aged for 4r six, living in lodgings in Gray's inn -lane, was found on Thursday lying dead in his room, with his head nearly cut off. He had committed suicide from starvation and misery. THE DANGER OF THE INDISCRIMINATE SALE OF POIS3NS was exhibited at a trial for "intent to murder " this week at Liverpool, in the case of one Jane Newton, of Ashton-under-Lyne, indicted for having administered a dose of arsenic to her husband on Sunday, the 4th May last. It appeared from the evidence that the prisoner, the Friday previous, under the plea of clearing the flock beds in her house of fleas, which she stated to a witness were so troublesome that her husband could not sleep, had obtained from a druggist's boy a quarter of a pound of arsenic. She asked for mercury to kill fleas with, and the boy without hesitation gave her a quarter of a pound of arsenic. On the Sunday morning following, she went out with a jug and pur chased some stew for breakfast. When she returned she measured the stew out into three pots, and stirred up her husband's with a spoon. Her husband and two children soon after came downstairs to breakfast. He ate some of the stew, and in a few minutes was taken with a severe St of vomiting. The prisoner directly after took the stew away from the children, and washed out the three pots. The vomiting continued during the day. The next morning she gave her husband a basin of porridge, and he was seized with violent vomiting immediately afterwards. The vomiting continued up to Wednes day night, when, by the efforts of the medical men, it was at length subdued. The evidence against the prisoner was strong. She had pawned her hus band's clothes during his illness. She was also entitled to 8/. burial fee on his death, and bad frequently expressed her belief that he would not get better. In the vomit of her husband two grains of arsenio were detected, while none could be detected in the flocks, and she had grossly prevari cated as to where she had purchased the stew. The main point, however, whether any arsenic was in the stew, and had been put there designedly by her, could not be proved. The jury " acquitted " the prisoner, at the same time remarking strongly upon the reprehensible practice of indiscriminately selling poison to any and every purchaser. ADULTERATION OF FOOD. THE result of the deliberations of the select com mittee upon the subject of the adulteration of food, drinks, and drags, has appeared at length in a volu minous blue-book. The committee classify adulteration under three heads:—Those of which the object is to lower the the price of the article adulterated by the admixture of substances of a cheaper kind; those which are in tended to improve the appearance of the adulterated article ; and those which are practised for the pur pose of simulating some property injured or destroyed in the process of adulteration. They then draw a distinction between adulterations as pecuniary frauds and ill injurious to health : THE PRESS. In dealing with these various adulterations, it is neces sary to distinguish between the pecuniary fraud practised on the public and the injury to public health. lf, as re gards the adulteration of articles with substances of a cheaper and innocuous character, the public derive the full benefit of this cheapness in a lower price, it would be difficult, if not unwise, for the Legislature to interfere, unless it could do so by requiring that every such article be sold as a mixture, as distinguished from the article in its pure state. This the law already requires as to the article of coffee, and also as to the article of bread, which, unless made of wheat flour alone, must be distinctly marked with the letter "M." But whenever an article is so adulterated as to involve pecuniary fraud or injury to health, it appears to your committee to be the duty of the Legislature to provide some efficient remedy. The great difficulty of legislating on this subject lies in putting an end to the liberty of fraud without affecting the free dom of commerce. With respect to preventive measures, the committee are of opinion that the municipal or other local or dis trict authorities should appoint officers, who, on com plaint made, or in cases of reasonable suspicion, shall procure portions of any article supposed to be adul terated, with a view to their examination or analysis by some duly qualified person appointed for that purpose. On the report of such persons, if it confirm the suspicion of adulteration, a summons shall be issued, and the case be investigated before the jus tices, who shall have power to inflict summary punish ment, by fine or imprisonment, in every case where pecuniary fraud or danger to health shall have been proved. The justices should also be empowered to publish the names of offenders. A right of appeal to lie to the Court of Quarter Sessions. Authority should be given to local boards of health, or other governing bodies, t 9 forbid the use, for colouring confectionery, of all mineral matter, and all poisonous vegetable matter. Scientific analysers should be appointed under the authority of the General Board of Health, to whom the local authori • ties might refer for analysis in cases of suspicion of adulteration. The General Board of Health should from time to time issue such information as to the nature of the adulterations of articles of food, &c., injurious to health, as mayjbe obtained in the progress of scientific research on this subject, and as would serve to guide the local authorities in their endeavours to detect these frauds. The committee then enter upon the question of chemists' and druggists' licences, and consider that it may be properly deferred till it be seen how far the efforts of the Pharmaceutical Society and a more general system of inspection may prove successful. With regard to patent medicines and the sale of poisons, there can be no doubt that the public health is endangered by the use of several of those com pounds, and the stamp duty, by giving them a seem ing Government sanction, has an injurious influence in encouraging their sale ; while the present unre stricted sale of poisons is a matter of pressing im portance, and deserves the early attention of the Legislature. The evil arising from the existence of three distinct and, in some important instances, widely differing pharmacopoeias for the three king doms, is also dwelt upon by the committee as de manding consideration, and is referred to ,as fol lows: The evil arising from the existence of three distinct and, in some important instances, widely differing pharmaco pceiss for the three kingdoms, is one too evident to need enforcement. The result is, that many of the prescrip• lions of one country are not only inefficacious, but often absolutely dangerous, if made up in either of the others. One of the witnesses states that an Edinburgh prescription containing a solution of morphia, made np in London, would involve the patient taking twice the qnantity in tended. On the other hand, a patient taking prussic acid under an Edinburgh prescription, made np in London, would be taking only half the quantity intended ; the Edin burgh prussio acid being twice the strength of the prussic acid of the London pharmacopmia. This is an evil which can be remedied only by the combined efforts of the medi cal authorities of England, Ireland, and Scotland, to whom the subject should, without delay, be referred. glisallantous. A NEW INVENTION, to prevent steam-boiler explo sions, has just been patented by Mr. Routledge of Manchester. The apparatus consists of an elbow pipe connecting the furnace with the side flue, and is fixed just below the water level in the boiler. This pipe is perforated with a number of holes, about half an inch in diameter, so placed as to be subject to the immediate action of the furnace fire. In these holes are metal plugs, more or less fusible, according to the working pressure of the boiler. The moment the water in the boiler, from neglect or otherwise, is below the level, and leaves this pipe bare, the heat from the furnace acts upon the plugs, which melt, and the steam escaping through the holes imme diately relieves the pressure in the boiler, and in a short time extinguishes the furnace fire, thus pre venting at once any possibility of the boiler bursting from want of water, or injury to the boiler from the action of the fire arm the plates bare of water. Au 803 experiment tried on Monday at Mr. Routledge's works was very suxessful. In less than one minute after the water was let off, so as to leave the pipe in the boiler just bare, the plugs melted away and the steam escaped through the holes. The pressure of steam in the boiler at that moment was forty pounds, and in about ten minutes it was down to twenty-five pounds. There was no inconvenience caused in the furnace, as the steam, after acting for a few moments upon the fire, can be turned off through the regular channel. The apparatus can be refitted with plugs, and the boiler be at work again in two or three hours. The principle is said to be quite new ; for, though fusible plugs have long been applied to boilers, they have generally proved a failure in con sequence of depending upon the temperature of the water (which, after all, is no criterion of pressure) to act upon them. In this invention the fusible plugs have the immediate action of the fire upon them, and the instant the water is below the level of the pipe, plugs and pipe must melt. The expense of the apparatus is very trifling ; the elbow pipe can be fixed at any elevation, and can be applied to every description of boiler. THE REV. WILLIAM CURETON, Canon of Westmin ster, and one of the chaplains to her Majesty, has just had conferred upon him by the University of Halle, and under the auspices of the King of Prussia, the degree of D.D., as some acknowledgment for the services rendered by hint to the cause of religion, by his publication of the genuine remains of St. Ignatius in the original Syriac, from MSS. in the British Museum, as well as for his other services rendered to the cause of religion and learning. Mr. ROBERTSON GLADSTONE lays down his views of diplomacy in a letter to the mayor and citizens of Philadelphia, in reply to a recent friendly address from those officials. As chairman of the still exist ing Financial Reform Association, Mr. Gladstone says : In these days of steam and electricity, there is no occa sion for resident Ministers of State in foreign countries. They are intriguers at best, and too often nothing better than spies vested with official immunity. The ordinary intercourse of friendly nations can be carried on much better without than with them ; and for special occasions, special Ministers, chosen for their intelligence, practical knowledge, honesty, and particular aptitude for the busi ness in hand, ought to be deputed. " A LONDON LAWYER" in a letter to the Times on Tuesday states that the Au.trian Embassy in London refused to vise his Foreign-office passport, because he was supposed "to belong to a family which had shown 'des sympathies avec la props gande Italienne !'"— I do not pretend to know in what this charge consists (says the correspondent), but I at once admit that I number among my friends several of the Italian refugees in this country. Comment on the above is scarcely needed. The pettiness of this system of espionage is a fitting pendant to the oppression of the Government of his Most Apostolic Majesty. THE AUTHENTIC NATURE OF THE CIAIKS Of the family of Henry Cort (whose inventions in the manufacture of iron have been a great national benefit), a correspondent of the Times this week thus sets forth : Forty-one firms in 1811 subscribed to a resolution, thanking the deceased Henry Cort for his two great inven• tions, and contributed a sum in relief of the distress of his widow and nine orphan children. It is true the contribu tion amounted to only 1.20 th part of a farthing in the pound upon the profits these inventions had then realised to them, but it was at least a fair and open acknowledg- ment of the obligation and the debt. The profits which these manufacturers have since that date realised by pud dling and rolling have been ten times greater than in the previous twenty-five years, and cannot fall much short of thirty millions sterling. A subscription of only the same amount as that of 1811, which would be at the rate of 1.200 th part of a farthing in the pound on the whole profits, would alleviate the immediate distress of the inventor's aged and only surviving son, and give time and ease to bring properly before the Legislature in the next session his unparalleled claims upon the gratitude of the nation at large. A MILITARY DINNER PARTY fifty years ago, given by Lord Romney to the Kent Volunteers, when. George 111. reviewed them near Maidstone, on August 1, 1799, affords a model for similar entertain ments at present. The tables, amounting to ninety one in number, wore seven miles and a half long, and the boards for the tables cost 1,5001. The en tertainment, to which 6,500 persons sat down, con sisted of sixty lambs in quarters, two hundred dishes of roast beef, seven hundred fowls (three in a dish), 220 meat pies, three hundred hams, three hundred tongues, 220 fruit pies, 220 dishes of boiled beef, 220 joints of roast veal. Seven pipes of port were bottled off, and sixteen buts of ale, and as much small beer was also placed in large vessels, to supply the company. After dinner his Majesty's health was given in a bumper by the volunteers, all standing uncovered, with three times three, accompanied by the music of all the bands.