The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

APRIL 7, 1855. Corrtspnianut, GENERAL VIVIAN'S APPOINTMENTS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—l cannot doubt that you will have the fair ness to give immediate insertion to this letter. You have published an anonymous letter, dated March 15, which rttacks two officers of the Turkish contin gent. Of one case intended, I know nothing. Of the other I know a good deal, and feel it my duty not to be silent. I published a pamphlet indicating the character of the officer in question, at the end of July last (which is to be had at Messrs. Upham and Beet's, late Rodwell, New Bond-street), and from which your correspcndent may become acquainted with the case. If he has any pretension to the word with which he subscribes his letter—" Honos"— he writes in perfect ignorance of the pule. This officer was restored, after a long course of cruel and unmerited treatment. His recorded achievements are before the public; and he is, thank God, still an honour to his profession as a soldier and a gentle man. It is not true that he has had the advantage of Directorial patronage ; on the contrary, it is to that quarter that his protracted misfortunes are to be attributed ; for they originated in mistake, and in that quarter only was the power of correction. If you wish to know whose sentiments have vindicated his honour and innocence, and now establish his pre tensions to command a regiment of cavalry in the approaching campaign, let me tell you that they are the sentiments of Lord Hardinge, Sir Charles Na pier, Sir Harry Smith, Sir George Pollock, Sir John Littler—names illustrious before the world—to which let me add, the Governor-General and Council of India. The sentiments of these and many other distinguished men have been pronounced, not in the spirit of indulgence, but as the fruit of honest inquiry by upright minds. I shall shortly be in London, and any man with a name who wants information *ball have it from me. I leave this place to-morrow. I have reason to believe that, in stead of officers being, as insinuated, shy of con sorting with the distinguished man who is thus at tacked, there has been the greatest desire to serve in his regiment. If your correspondent succeeds, as he hopes to do, in finding " a Conservative member" to move in this matter, he must look out for one as ignorant of facts, as I must in courtesy presume him to be himself.-1 am, Sir, your very obedient servant, WILLIAM JOHN LAW, Her Mikjesty's Chief Commissioner for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors. Nice, March 27,1855. THE WORCESTER MILITIA. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—l am in a position to confirm the remarks of your correspondent last week upon the subject of the Worcester Militia. See how shamefully the Government is trifling with the only defences left to a country, and its de pendencies almost drained of their ordinary military resources. Here is the enthusiastic ardour of a lino regiment destroyed by the ill-judged rules and wretched bunglings of amateur Ministers of War. The prestige of the thing is gone, and the martial spirit which once beat so high is at a miserable dis count. Why were not the services of the Worcester Militia at once accepted when they volunteered for garrison duty in the Mediterranean ? Because an arbitrary and exceedingly high number was fixed upon as the minimum for every regiment to furnish if it left these shores. So the services (we will say) of these five hundred volunteers are to be slighted and rejected bec use the Ministerial complement is deficient by forty men !—I remain, sir, your obedient servant, April 3, 1855. E. S. ON Wednesday morning 400 of the Grenadier Guards, 300 of the Coldstreams, and 300 of the Scots Fusiliers, marched into the panicle in front of the Wellington Barracks, in order to be inspected by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, &c., previous to de parting to the seat of war in the East. Prince Albert and the Duke of Cambridge arrived shortly after ten o'clock, Prince Albert wearing the tunic, or new dress of the regiment of which he is the colonel. He was received by the troops with full honours, the bands playing " God save the Queen." His Royal Highness, accompanied by his suite, walked through the ranks, and minutely inspected the men, and expressed his approbation of their apparent efficiency. By desire of the Prince the troops were at the close of the inspection ordered to march to Buckingham Palace, in order to be reviewed by the Queen, and having passed under the front archway of the Palace they marched round the bands stationed in the centre of the courtyard in front of a window occupied by her Majesty. THE PRESS. PATRIOTIC FUND.—EXHIBITION OF WATER COLOUR DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS. Am exceedingly interesting exhibition has been opened at 121, Pall mall in aid of the Patriotic Fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of the British officers who fall in the war. The contribu Lions are all gratuitous, and the proceeds of their sale and of the exhibition are to be devoted to the fund mentioned. The donations have been sent in so rapidly, and the number of works now so far ex ceeds anything that was contemplated, that much difficulty is found in obtaining space in the small room which has been engaged. Bearing in mind that the works are purely those of amateur artists, • remarkable facility of execution and correctness of drawing is in general displayed, while many works are characterised by the most refined feeling, power of colour, and considerable skill in detail. The juvenile and other members of the Royal Family exhibit productions which possess a special interest, but the Prinzess Royal in her "Battle Field "—a wife lamenting over the dead body of her soldier-husband—baa certainly carried away the palm from her royal competitors. We have not space to enter into the varied excellencies of the other works exhibited, but Nos. 103, " Villa of Mectenas," by Miss Blake ; 163, " Cathedral at Ulm," by the Countess of Clarendon ; 698, "The Red Cloak," by Miss Severn ; and 692, " Mouth of the Bosphorus," by Lady Clementine Villiers, display remarkable talent. The gem of the exhibition, however, is a framed series of six etchings by Miss Fraser, pur chased by her Majesty. The exquisite delicacy of touch, the intense feeling expressed, and the genius displayed in the composition, undoubtedly render this work worthy the special honour it has achieved. Among other contributors we must not omit to mention a patriotic cabman, who zealously sent an oil sketch of his own cab horse, priced at two guineas ; nor among the clever and apropos drawings neglect to call attention to No. 1,000, two sketches of a " Cavalry Officer in the Crimea," the wretched horses here shown being those of General Torrens, sketched on the spot. Her Majesty and Prince Albert visited the exhibition at an early hour yesterday morning and made several purchases. During the day, we need hardly observe, the room is crowded with all the rank and fashion ,of the metro polio. THE REV. J.W.WEEKS, incumbent of St. Thomas's Church,Waterloo-road, Lambeth, has been appointed by her Majesty's Government to the bishopric of Sierra Leone, rendered vacant by the death of Dr. Owen Emeric Vidal. The diocese consists of the coast between twenty degrees north and twenty de grees south latitude, comprising the colonies of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast. The annual allowance to the bishop is 900/. a year, namely, 5001. a year as colonial chaplain, and 4001. from funded property. The new bishop belongs to the Evangelical party. The bishopric was promised to him by Mr. Sidney Herbert during the short time he held the seals of the Colonial office, and the appoint ment has been ratified by the present Secretary of State for the Colonies. Tun Boat]) OF TRADE RETURNS for the month ending the sth of March furnish the strongest evidence yet presented of the rapid contraction of business throughout the country. As compared with the corresponding month of last year, the declared value of our exports shows a falling off to the almost unprecedented extent of 2,470,4961., the aggregate not having been more than two-thirds of what it was at that period. The exportations for the first two months of the present year amount to 10,197,4601., against 12,480,5261. in the correspond ing period of 1854, showing a diminution of 2,698,242/. THE Government Ordnance Factory for the manu facture of muskets and small arms at Enfield Lock having been found very inadequate to the extensive supply at present required, is about being increased to a very considerable extent. In consequence of the large number of workmen now employed, the Eastern Counties Railway Company have estab• lished a new station about a quarter of a mile from the factory, thereby saving the workmen a walk of at least two miles. THE Sherborne Journal corrects a paragraph which has been going the rounds of the papers re garding Lady Charlotte Guest's marriage :—" Mr. Schreiber (not Rev.), the intended bridegroom of Lady Charlotte Guest, is her junior by sixteen years. He is not in holy orders, but till within the last few months has been tutor to the present baronet, Sir Ivor Guest. Mr. Schreiber is 27; Lady Charlotte, 43. Sir Ivor Guest is 20 next August, and not 21, as stated in the papers. The marriage is to take place on the 10th." THE LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY have decided that entries of foreign seamen for a continuous service of ten years in the navy shall for the future be discon tinued. They will, however, be permitted to volun teer for short periods of six or twelve months to serve in the Baltic and White Sea fleets. atth Oftbuts. ACCOUNTS reached Dublin on Thursday of a me lancholy accident, resulting in the loss of four lives, which occurred on the previous morning on Lough Gonna, between the counties of Cavan and Longford. A boat, in which was a party of eight gentlemen, was by some mismanagement upset, and four of their number drowned. Their names are—Mr. John Popping, stipendiary magistrate for the county of Cavan ; Lieutenant Levin, of the revenue police ; and Messrs. Fox and White, both in the Longford Militia ; the former is the son of the county mem ber, the latter the son of Colonel White, Lieutenant of the county of Longford. The remainder of the party were with some difficulty rescued from the fate of their companions. ON Thursday morning, at eleven o'clock, a dread ful fire happened at a large timber yard, in Feather stone-street, Bunhill-row, which consumed many thousand pounds' worth of property, and more or less damaged several adjacent tenements before the conflagration could be subdued. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL'S stables at Roseneath were destroyed by fire yesterday week. It is said that 300 bolls of wheat, 300 bulls of oats, and 300 bolls of seed potatoes were completely consumed. THE MANUFACTORY OF MESSRS. CROOKES, AND Co., at Sheffield, was the scene of an explosion, not the result of accident, but of design as malicious as it was cunningly executed. About nine o'clock in the evening Mr. Richardson, while alone on the premises, heard a smothered explosion at the base ment of the building which shook the edifice to its foundation. The authors of the mischief had taken care to retire, hut their work was sufficiently appa rent. The instrument used to effect the explosion was a sort of hand-grenade, a very strong steel canister firmly and elaborately bound together with wire, and having the remnant of a fuse attached. The size of the canister was eighteen inches deep, and the same in circumference, the capacity being sufficient to hold a very formidable charge of powder. Apparently the vessel had been tied to the iron stanchions of an unglazed window at the front of the building. 'Trough this aperture the fuse had projected, so that it could be ignited at the outside, after the person had deposited the powder and got safely off the premises. Had the apartment been a confined ono the destruction would undoubtedly have been very extensive. But for tunately the expanded air obtained vent at two windows, and another outlet was afforded at the door, which was blown open. Nevertheless, so great was the force of the explosion that the wooden floor of the room above was lifted up several inches towards one end ; while at the opposite end, imme diately over the canister and powder, an anvil and stock, weighing about half a ton, was dislodged and lifted out of its place. All the goods in this ware house were thrown into confused heaps, the doors were forced open, or twisted out of the pt-rpendicular, the door-frames disjointed, and the walls cracked here and there, as though the foundation had been shaken by an earthquake. Still, by reason of the powder not being tightly pent up, there has been no extensive damage to the building or other property. How the perpetrators obtained access to the premises is not known. It is supposed in Sheffield that this is a trades union affair. A FEW days ago, at Manchester, Major Ffarington, of the 51st Regiment, fell down in the barrack-yard, and expired almost instantly. The cause of death was the rupture of a bloodvessel near the heart. He had but recently purchased his majority, his commission bearing date 18th of February last. LETTERS FROM SIDNEY state that a vessel, name unknown, has been wrecked on Bampton Shoals, and five hundred Chinese passengers and a portion of the crew were lost. The master and eight men only were saved. These made for Cape Dennis in a boat, and on landing were attacked by the natives, and five of them killed. AN EXTENSIVE ROBBERY of gold watches, gold rings, diamond pins, and other articles of jewellery, took place at the residence of Mr. A. Stewart, N 0.13, 13elgraveaquare, last Saturday week. It appears that Mr. Stewart, who holds an official appointment at the Irish Viceregal Court, was in Ireland, but Lady Isabella Stewart, his wife, remained at the man sion, which is at the corner of Halkin street West. The property stolen consisted of nearly one hundred different articles, packed in two separate boxes, which were seen by the butler about half-past eight o'clock. Shortly after ten o'clock, on some of the articles being required by Lady Stewart, it was found that the boxes were missing. The value of the pro perty stolen is estimated at about 1,0001. The police state that no admission was obtained into the house by means of skeleton-keys, and that the only entrance conld have been by the area steps, or through tho trapdoor at the roof of the house, if, in fact, the thieves came from without. None of the property has been traced. 16113111 3Q7