The Press. — London, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

JUNE 6, 1857. train was found lying between the rails at Breutford dead. He is believed to have fallen from the roof of the last carriage, the wheels of which passed over him and killed him on the spot. His wife was tra velling by the train, and knew nothing of the acci dent till she arrived at her destination. On the Great Western another train, on Wednesday, ran off the rails on the curve coming into Windsor; but happily no lives were lost. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY have lately bought a piece of ground at the end of Charles-street, Drury-lane, which for some years past has been vacant, on which it is intended to erect a building for schools, and to be called "The Schools of Com passion." The cost of their erection, it is stated, will be upwards of 10,0001. AN ESTATE EXCHANGE, for the convenience of auctioneers and land-agents, and for creating faci lities for the transfer and sale of land, &c., has been opened in the City. The commemoration dinner was held on Thursday at the London Tavern. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week exhibit a further decrease in the mortality. The deaths of last week numbered only 915 ; the average number would be 1,069. The births for the same period reached 1,436. Vrobintia THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ♦ PROTESTANT ASSOCIA nor; AT LEWES was considered last week, and a public meeting was held in the Corn Exchange, Lewes. Paul Foskett, Esq., W. H. Peters, Esq., Bev. J. Dunlop, and other gentlemen spoke, and a committee was appointed to carry out the object of the meeting. A SAD ACCIDENT occurred to three miners, at the Northumberland pit in New Backworth, last week. They had been coming up the shaft in a corf with another workman from their work, and had got to the pit's mouth, when, upon their companion stepping out of the corf on to the platform, the hook of the corf, which bad not been properly fastened to the rope that had hauled them up, slipped, and the three poor fellows were precipitated some hundreds of feet down the pit and literally dashed to pieces. A PETITION TO PARLIAMENT against the bill now before the house for consolidating the docks at Liverpool and Birkenhead into one estate, and praying for the abolition of the " town dues" altogether, if they are not required for the mainte nance of the docks and the conservancy of the river Mersey, was agreed upon last Saturday, at the weekly meeting of the Leeds Town Council. A GREAT Loss OF LIFE took place on the Lancaster and Ulverstone Sands during Friday night or early on Saturday morning last. A party of more than a dozen persons, who had been living in service at Poulton, Heysham, and other places on the Ulver stone end of the sands, left Kent's-bank on Friday night, intending to be present at the Whitsuntide hirings at Lancaster on Saturday. Their route was along the swirls by the edge of the bay, being the same that is taken by the over-sands coach between Ulverstone and Lancaster. The party spent some time drinking at Willcock's Kent's-bank Hotel, and they started in two light one-horse carts. According to the tide-table it was high water at Ulverstone on Saturday morning at ten minutes past four o'clock, and in order to cross the sands in safety and avoid the tide the journey should have been commenced at either end at forty-one minutes past nine o'clock on Friday night; but this party, besides being intoxi cated, are understood to have started later by an hour or more. Some who intended to have crossed with them declined to do so because of the time they started, and so saved their lives. Nothing more is l i known of the party until the bodies of some of them were washed ashore the next day. Two conjectures are hazarded as to the way in which the accident may have occurred, which no one is left alive to explain. One supposition is that the carts were floated at one of the streams that have to be forded Another conjecture is that the whole party had fallen asleep, that the horses had been left to take their own course, and that they actually followed the tide until the sleepy occupants of the carts were fatally immersed. The appearance of some of the bodies has led to the supposition that suffocation took place during sleep. It is more probable that the whole party were very drunk, and attempted a short cut across the sands to make up for lost time. THE CRUMLIN VIADUCT, one of the great triumphs of modern engineering skill, was formally opened to railway traffic on Monday, in the presence of many of the principal engineers in the country, and a vast number of spectators. THE NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL just built outside the town of Plymouth, fell in on Wednesday afternoon. The accident is attributed to the defects of the Bath-stone used in building, which, proving too weak for the weight it had to sustain, split in several places, and before the defect could be reme died, the four southern arches with the great eastern arch tell in together, Fortumitely the workmea had THE PRESS. time to escape, and no lives were lost. The cost of repair is estimated at little less than 1,0001. THE FOURTH OF JUNE, on Thursday, was kept with all the accustomed honours at Eton. His Royal highness the Prince of Wales, with a brilliant and distinguished company of visitors, were present in the school, and after the delivery of the speeches assembled at the Brocas to witness the regatta. The boats were soon manned, and in fine style pulled up to the Cobbler, and then, leaving Windsor for Old Surley, passed the Brocas. On arriving at Staley hall, the crews partook of an al fresco repast, to which they did ample justice, nor forgetting to drink their loyal and collegiate toasts. The boats returned at nine p.m., and the day's amusements closed by a brilliant display of fireworks. Sab3 an Volta. MR. ALGERNON STUART AUSTEN, a merchant in the City, and resident at Headley, Surrey, was convicted on Tuesday at the Reigate Petty Sessions of attempt ing on the 12th ult., while travelling by the South- Eastern Railway, to take improper liberties with the lady's-maid of Lady Charles Hervey, when the train was passing under the Merstham tunnel. The court sentenced Mr. Austen to three weeks' impri sonment. The prisoners counsel entreated the bench to inflict the highest penalty. He would give 50/. to any charity if they would mitigate the penalty. " To send the defendant to prison," said the counsel, " would be disastrous to his character. His wife was " even waiting for him at an hotel in the town." The chairman remarked that, if Mr. Austen were a married man, his offence was more discreditable to him, and ordered him to be locked up at once, pre paratory to being removed to Wandsworth Prison. A YOUNG INFANT, at Worcester, was poisoned by arsenic last week under singular circumstances. The mother, a Mrs. Norman, sent for some white lead dust to apply to the child's skin. The chemist's boy sent her arsenic powder in mistake. The child was " dusted" with this, excessive irritation of the skin supervened, a wound formed, and the child died in great pain. He was, in point of fact, burned to death. At the coroner's inquest a severe animadversion was passed upon'the local chemist for his carelessness and neglect. MR. SALMON, THE FALKIRK BANK DEFAULTER, hanged himself on Sunday in the stable of the Harp Inn, at Conway, North Wales. The circumstances of the discovery of Mr. Salmon's well-contrived abstractiou3 from the bank till, and his immediate escape, are fresh in the public mind. A PLEASANT FAMILY PARTY was suddenly broken up on Monday by one Symonds, a sawyer, being placed at the Clerkenwell bar, before Mr. Corrie, charged with brutally ill-treating Sarah Ricketts. The woman, who presented a horrible appearance from the ill-treatment she had suffered, stated her case, when the following took place in court: Robert Lambert, 135 S, said that when he went to serve the warrant he found the defendant in bed, drunk. The room was bespattered with blood in several places. He found that the prisoner, his wife, and the complainant all resided together on the same floor. The wife of the prisoner had been ill for some considerable period, and the woman had done the household duties, and had also had two children by him. Mr. CORRIE : What ! The man cohabit with the woman in the same room as the wife was lying ill ? Defendant: We all lived together. The complainant was in the habit of getting drunk. Mr. CORRIE remarked that it was quite shocking to hear of such a state of immorality. How many children were there? _ _ _ Complainant : I have two alive by my former husband, and two since I have cohabited with the defendant. His wife has been ill for a long period, and I have lived with them. The prisoner, in defence, said that be hoped that his worship would be lenient on account of the illness of his wife, and because he was the sole support of the children. The woman got drunk and spent his money, and that very much aggravated him, and, therefore, having had a little drink, he certainly did hit her. He was now very sorry, and said that nothing of the sort should occur again. Complainant : I do not wish to hurt him ; all that I want is for him to keep the peace. I have been struck by him before. ➢lr. Corrie said that this case was very bad in every point of view. He could not be lenient, but must pass upon the defendant such a sentence as would be a terror to other evildoers. He should send him to the House of Correction, with hard labour, for six calendar months. He would allow the woman Bs. per week for one month. He supposed the wife would have to go to the workhouse. The prisoner, who seemed rather surprised, was then re moved. GEORGE BAN E, the seaman convicted of murdering the corporal of marines, on board the Slaney gun boat, was hanged at Maidstone on Thursday. The prisoner bore the character of a first-rate seaman, and when he was transferred from the rivard, to 555 which vessel be formerly belonged, it was with the understanding that he was to receive promotion, and the disappointment to his hopes in this respect no doubt led to the fatal catastrophe which resulted in his being thus brought to an untimely end. THE ADJOURNED INgUEST upon the men killed by the fall of the houses in Tottenham-court-road was resumed and concluded on Thursday, when the jury found the following verdict : That the deaths of Frederic Bing, Ann Driscoll, John Garnett, Richard Turner, James Kivil, and Joseph Taylor, were caused by the falling of the houses, Nos. 146, 147, and 148, Tottenham•court•road. That cutting the boles in the wall 147, 148, was the immediate cause of the accident; the party-wall 146 and 147, being very indifferent, requiring more than ordinary caution, which in this case was not observed. That the cutting away of the party-wall between 147 and 148 was done in an unskilful and improper manner. This jury cannot separate without expressing their strong condemnation of the present conflicting state of the law as to the district and police surveyors, whose duties appear to be quite independent, and even antagonistic ; and this jury sincerely hope that an immediate alteration will be made in the Building Act as at present constituted. ONE OF THE SERVANTS OF THE CLARENDON HOTEL decamped this week with a large quantity of gold and five twenty-pound notes. SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY AFTERNOON. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. Lord Elgin, according to the latest intelligence, was at Cairo, with the gentlemen attached to his mission. He was to embark at Suez as on June 5, and proceed direct to Singapore. Le Nord states that intelligence has been received from Constantinople to the effect that after a meet ing of the representatives of those powers which signed the Treaty of Paris, the Porte had decided upon addressing to the Kaimakans of Moldavia and Wallachia a strong recommendation to conform themselves strictly to the text and spirit of the imperial firman. The representatives of France, Russia, Prussia, and Sardinia at Constantinople are represented as holding opinions diverse to those maintained by England, Austria, and the Porte. Intelligence from Brussels to the 4th June states that the conduct of the mob at Jemappe and Verviers was most violent. The monastic institu tions in each town were attacked and sacked, and the whole of the property destroyed, the priests barely escaping with their lives. By the interference of the troops order was at length restored. The Moniteur states tint the treaty concluded between France and Spaiu for settling the frontier lines of the Pyrenees has been approved by_the Senate. The Archduke Maximilian embarked at Leghorn on the 4th inst., on board the Austrian frigate Elizabeth, for Lisbon and England. Marshal Radetzky is not dead, though his situation is precarious, symptoms of inflammation having ap peared. The Grand Duke Constantine arrived at the Hague on Wednesday evening. Lieutenant-General Sir William Herries, colonel of the 68th, and one of our oldest Peninsular heroes, has died, after a long life of devotion to the service of his country and his Sovereign. i THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT LISMORE died on the 31st ult., at Shanally Castle, in the 83rd year of his age. By his lordship's marriage with the Lady Eleanor Butler, daughter of the Marquis of Ormonde, he leaves two surviving children, the Lady Dunalley and Hon. George Ponsonby, present viscount, married to Mary, second daughter of the late Mr. John George Norbury, and has two sons, Hon. Gerald, born November 3, 1847, Hon. Wilfred Ormonde, born November 14, 1853. Viscount Lismore succeeded to the barony on the decease of his father in 1797, acquired the viscounty by letters patent in May, 1806, and was created a baron of the empire in 1838. His lordship has ever been a most consistent supporter of the Whig Government, though from his age and increasing infirunties he bas for many years booimottble to attepd rigiowtoat,