The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-03 00:00:00

FtnnuAny 3, 1855. Volitttal anb (Omni. THE AUSTRALIAN MAIL which has just arrived is the last that is expected via India and Marseilles until new arrangements are made, or the old are resumed. A CONTRACT has been entered into by Government for the supply of a large number of cavalry sabres and cutlasses for the use of the navy ; the last. mentioned weapons are vastly superior to those at present in use in the fleet. They are rather lcnger, with a slight curve, similar to those worn by naval officers. The formation of the hilt and guard will also give a much firmer grasp to the person wielding it. The cutlasses and sabres are to be manufactured of the best-tempered, mild steel, and Will be severely tested before they are accepted. IN order to guard as much as possible against accidents by the breaking of railway carriage or loco motive aaletrees ' and so forth, the Berlin Govern ment has o ff ered a reward of ten thalers, to be paid to each or any railway employe who may discover cracks, fissures, or defects, whereby accidents may be entailed, and by timely report prevented. THE FINE ESTATE KNOWN AS WENTWORTH'S, situate in the picturesque vicinity of Virginia-water, Wind sor-park, has recently been purchased as the future residence of the celebrated Carlist chief, General Cabrera. The general married Miss Richards, an English lady, the daughter of a banker residing at Englefleld green, and the property stands in the parochial rate-books as belonging to her, under the Spanish title. It is understood that the purchase money was about 22,000 i. THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS has an- I nonnced its intention to open in April next its seventh exhibition of patented inventions. The want of a gallery of inventions, showing the various steps which have been taken to improve all classes of machinery, has long been felt. In its absence the council of the society, in 1847, considered that it would be both interesting and instructive to bring together, tempo rarily, as far as possible, models, drawings, and descriptions, illustrative of the inventions of the year. Succeeding councils have followed out the idea, and the result has been that the public has had placed before it, in a definite form, the mechanical and scientific arrangements which have been proposed for effecting improvements in those departments which have occupied the largest amount of public attention. THE last return of the Registrar-General shows that the high mortality announced in recent reports has undergone a further increase. In the Amt three weeks of January the deaths registered in London were 1,404, 1,466, and 1,549 ; in the last week they rose to 1,630. In the four weeks that ended January 27 the mean weekly temperature was 45.5 deg., 39.3 deg., 28.9 deg., and deist week) 29.3 deg. In the corresponding weeks of Vie years 1845-54 the average number of deaths was 1,102, which if raised in proportion to increase of population becomes 1,212. Hence it appears that there were recorded last week 418 deaths more than the rate of mortality that pre vailed in the fourth week of the last ten years would have produced. PIRACY IN THE CHINA SEAS.—Despatches from Rear-Admiral Sir James Stirling, commander in chief on the East India and China station, have ap peared in the Gazette, giving an account of the mea sures adopted to repress piracy in the neighbourhood of Hong-Kong. The operations proved very success ful. Lieutenant Fellowes reports that nine piratical vessels were destroyed, the, stronghold of the pirates razed to the ground, and from forty to fifty men killed. Captain O'Callaghan reports the destruction of nineteen Chinese junks, armed with twenty-five guns of various calibre. On another occasion thirty eight guns were taken and destroyed. In a state ment made by Captain O'Callaghan of services per formed by the Encounter, Barracouta, Styr, and other vessels, between the 2nd and 17th of November, 1854, it appears that sixty-seven junks were destroyed, and 115 pirates taken or killed. In consideration of the services rendered on these occasions Lieutenant Charles Fellowes has been promoted to the rank of commander, and Mr. William Ormonde Butler, mate, to the rank of lieutenant. ON the demand of the Mayor of Valenciennes supported by M. Nienwerkerke, director of the Imperial Museums, the French Government has just accorded to the town of Valenciennes a fine block of Marble for the statue of Froissart. M. Lemaire, who has been charged with this statue, has been ordered by the Government to make a second, which is intended to decorate the external part of the Louvre. COLONEL T. GORE BROWNE, who has administered the affairs of St. Helena for the last three or four years, has been appointed governor of the important colony of New Zealand, vacant by the removal of Sir George Grey to the Cape of Good Hope. Colonel Browne arrived in England last week, having quitted St. Helena amidst the regrets of the inhabitants of the island. THE PRES ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF His Royal Highness the Duke of Cam rived on Tuesday at Dover from the Crimea. The Princeee Alice steam-packet had been despatched to Calais, expressly to convey the noble and gallant duke across the channel; and long before the hour of his expected arrival the pier and surrounding quays were crowded with persons anxious to obtain a glimpse of a personage whose name has been so honourably connected with the sanguinary but glo rious struggle that has been waged in the Crimea. A guard of honour of the Staffordshire Militia, under the command of Major Inge, was in attendance, besides the Mayor, William H. Payn, Esq. Notwithstanding the extreme severity of the wea ther, a great number of ladies had assembled, and their greeting formed not the least interesting of the demonstrations that were so generally displayed. The Duke of Cambridge was accompanied by the following members of his staff :—The Hon. Colonel Macdonald, and Colonel Tytwhitt ; and Dr. Gibson (his Royal Highness's physician) and suite were also in attendance upon his Royal Highness. The Mayor and corporation having presented an address to His Royal Highness, expressive of their gratification at his safe arrival, the Duke replied to the following effect : Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,—l thank you for the gratifi cation you hare rendered me in presenting me with the present address. I assure you that any inconvenience or discomfort which I have experienced in the Crimea has been amply repaid by the bravery of the troops. All a general can do is to lead, and my humble services have been given cheerfully; but it has not been a war of gene ralship—the campaign has been a soldiers', and nothing but a soldiers' campaign. Led on as they have been by their indomitable courage, these troops have performed prodigies of valour; and I can assure you a finer set of fellows do not exist in the world than the men who are fighting the battles of Britain in the Crimea, and who have done everything in their power to sustain the honour of their country. Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, I again thank you. (Loud cheers.) The deputation then withdrew. His Royal Highness arrived at his residence in St. James's-palace abont half-past six o'clock the same evening. Obituttl. DR. ANDREW CRICHTON died in Edinburgh last week. As an author and member of the periodical press, the deceased had long been before the public. His "lives of Converts from Infidelity," " Translation of Koch's History of Revolutions," published in Constable's Miscellany—his " History of Arabia," published in the Cabinet Library—his "Lives of Blackadder and Colonel Gardiner"—his edition of the " Life of John Knox "—his " History of Scandinavia," may be taken as examples of his Eterary labours. Before his death, Dr. Crichton was engaged upon, and had nearly finished, a work on Russia, stow pass ing through the pres s . He was long an office-bearer in the church of Scotland, and sat repeatedly in the General Assembly. We regret to have to announce the death of the REV. R. JONES, for nearly twenty years Professor of Political Economy and History at the East India College, Haileybury. After having been mainly in strumental, conjointly with the late Mr. Drinkwater Bethune, in constructing the scheme of compromise for the commutation of tithes, which has conclu sively settled the tithe rent-charges throughout England and Wales, the deceased was appointed one of the chief commissioners for carrying out the pro visions of that important measure. Mr. Jones sub sequently held for a short time the office of secretary to the Capitular Commission, until his administrative talents were again required by the Government for a more responsible office. He was lately appointed one of the chief commissioners of the Charitable Trusts Commission, which office he retained at the time of his decease. As an anthor, Mr. Jones is well known in the science of political economy by his " Treatise on Rent" IN consequence of representations made to the Government of the great suffering and inconvenience experienced by the troops before Sebastopol from the absence of all convenience for cooking the rations served out to them, several hundred cooking-stoves of a novel yet simple construction were on Tuesday shipped from the Tower wharf for conveyance to Balaklava. The manner of using these stoves can be discovered at a glance; Compartments are in each for boiling, baking and stewing, the upper sur face may be used as a hot plate for frying, &c., while over the furnace space is left for broiling. The entire apparatus stands about three feet high, and is about thirty inches square ; round its sides are hooks whereon to hang coffee and tea boilers ; and it is calculated that, with regular order, each stove will eook for forty men. M. ALPHONSE DE ROTHSCHILD, eldest son of Baron James de Rothschild, has been nominated one of the regents of the Bank of France. A wnitsan of colliers of Also money and notes escaped in September last from the fortress of Rcenigstein, iu Saxony, and established themselves in Saxon-Switxerland on the summit of a mountain, 1,300 feet in height, called the Pfatienstein. There they worked incessantly in fabri cating Wee paper money iu a cavern sixty or eighty feet from the summit of the rock. To this cavern access could be only obtained by descending a rope—a perilous operation ; but one man was always left on the summit to keep watch and let down provisions. The notes which the gang forged, and which purported to be dale Austrian and Hessian banks and of the Governments of Kcethen and Dessau, were put into circulation by accomplices in the adjacent villages. A few days ago a detachment of the Saxon gendarmerie climbed up the mountain, and at the peril of their lives succeeded in arresting the whole of the gang. THE COST OF PLAC►NG ♦ MONUMENT IN ABBEY depends on its size. The following is a list of the expenses of putting up statues to the eminent persons named :—Sir Wm. Follett (13ehnes), 3101.; Francis Hor ner (Chantrey), 2101. ; Sir note! Buxton, 2201.; Sir S. Ratites (Chantrey), 2101.; S. Wilberforce, 2101.; George Canning ( Chantrey), 2101.; Lord Holland (monument by Bally), 9001.; Telford (monument by Bally), 3001.; T. Campbell (Marshall), 210 i.; and others In proportion. HIGSWAY ROBBIRY is perpetrated in Australia under the slang name of " putting up,' and is thus described in a recent letter from the colony :—" The ' old lags ' juin, and form a party of four or more ; one watches up the mid, one down the road. When the intended vtetini reaches a point between the two armed men who have been ' planted ' to keep a good look-out, he is met face to face by a ruffian armed with a ' revolve r.' Perhaps a whistle or some other signal gives the victiM a painful conviction that lie is stfr rounded by unseen revolvers. The rtrMaft tells him to hold up his arms, or he will have his ' nob scalded.' He is further threatened with having his brains blown oat s (or tins). A low whistle pockets of the rigtim are cite. Sometimes robbery is .. great hopes . and on the vast number of strangers to Paris by it. Tine Baton Atlas proclaitni the fact that America Is re presented in Spain by a Frenchman, in Portugal by an Irishman, in Italy by an Italian, at the Hague by &German Jew, and at Naples by a Scot. A New Esrantisnatzwr has been opened in Neuwied, on the Rhine, which is ocenpied exclusively in slaughtering cattle for the eventual consumption of our troops in the Crimea. THZ cutting down of dead trees on the inner and outer boulevards of Paris, and on the roads of the department of the Seine, and the planting of others in their stead, has been of late going on rather actively. On the boulevards alone upwards of 2,000 are to be replaced. Ix the Champ. Elysies lately, an elegant sledge, drawn by two large dogs, *as driven up and down several times, and attracted great attention. The dogs had been brought from the Crimea by an sneer on sick leave. They have long ears like the Danish dog, and a sharp muzzle. They carry the head high, have large eyes fall of ire, and seem very intelligent. THERE are living in the small village of Leyton, Essex, four persons of the name of John Swan, not at all related, and all with wooden legs, although not one has been in the army_ or navy. THE RESULT 011 THE SEPTENNIAL ATERAOES /OR CORN, &c., to Christsttes last, as deduced frota the tetutus pub lished in the Gazette , is as follows :—Whest, aid. per imperial bushel • ' barley, Ba. ijd.; and oats, 2 a. 6 d. On each nominal 1001. of the tithe rent-charge, accordingly, the net payment for the year 1855 will be 891. 15s. Bfd. REMARKING on the German fondness for decorations, the writer of a letter ' • Berlin '-" " The other day a old, asked a German slice of ribbon replied, ' You garters are cut worn by gentler my wife child; ' g. 117. CAMBRIDGE. I risttlianta. Cambridge ar- if he attempt to lower his arm - . (or fins). A low whistle brings up the ' and the poets of the vietim are rifled. TM, 11 the mildest cite. Sometimes robbery is accompanied by violence." THE ENORMOUS Nuunta OF RIBTAMIATIpritS constitutes at this moment one of the most noticeable features of Path. It is a regular invasion, more agreeable than one of Cos- sacks to be store, but still one which menaces a formidable revolution in domestic habits. The rage for building— the beautiful structures that hare risen on the, ruins of gloomy and tottering edifices with such rapidity—the large space produced by the sweeping away of filthy lanes and courts, at once the hotbed of disease, the repeir of crime, and the centres of insurrection—bat, above all, the coming Exhibition, are the causes of this extraordinary movement in the rictitilling department. Hardly a can be found in the " good city of Paris," as the C . :e kire of France loved to call their capital, in which thole are ant two, three, or tsar restaurants, and the Boufsvard des Italiens and Montmartre may be traversed without seeing a single house in Which the res de shames& has not been converted into an eating-room. It seems seta" the pre- mature advent of the happy days predicted Fourier, when for the domestic hearth, or rather the dothestle bY_ room, was to be substituted one general refectory, at whose tables were to partake of equal rations the h t i t ilp=zens of Harmony . A stranger worth/ suppose the establishment of an many eating-hotnies the domestic hearth was but poorly provided, or that a total change had taken place in the habits of the people. All this, however, is explained by the great hopes fo unded on the Exhibition, and on the vast number of strangers that will be attracted a letter from Berlin tells the following story : her day a little English girl, some eight years ed a German councillor whet the party-coloured ribbon in his button-bole indicated; to which be ' You must know that in our country ladles' we cut up in shreds on their marriage night, and gentlemen as talismans. This is a remnant of s garter.' Dear me, how funny,' replied the that accounts for your lady's stockings always loose." A Prussian lady observed, on the same that " persons without decoration' looked so coil ed, it wiui p o sitively indeetid:6. hanging tu., subject, that and naked, ' I I