The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-15 00:00:00

I SEPT. 15, 1855. Xatu alo Volta. JANE GIBSON, a Scotchwoman, until recently a nurse in St. Thomas's Hospital, was charged at Southwark l'olice-court with having in her possession an immense quantity of property belonging to the Crimean Hos pital and the Patriotic Fund. The prisoner has been apprehended by a constable named Smith, who searched her lodgings, and found four boxes, con taining a large mass of articles which had evidently belonged to the hospital service or the Crimean Army Fund. On being questioned, the woman asserted that the property had been given her. It was stated that in December last she accompanied Miss Stanley to Constantinople, and from thence to Scutari and Balaklava, and remained at the latter place until June last, when she was discharged for drunkenness, and sent home in disgrace. Soon after her arrival in London she obtained a situation in St. Thomas's Hospital, but returned to her drunken habits, and a short time since she was dismissed : Mr. SECKER : What property did you find in her room? Constable: When she opened the boxes she first pulled out tw t very tine linen shirts. I asked her where she got them, as they evidently belonged to some military officer. She replied, " Oh, Miss Nightingale gave them to me." After that she col , !acted herself, and said they were her husband's, who went with her to the Crimea. I believe she has no husband. She next took from the box three Hue new linen sheets. Those she said belonged to herself, but I have reason to believe they belong to the camp hospitals. I next found a book entitled " Memoirs of Father Ripa's Travels in China." It is marked officially on the titlepage, " Australian Royal Mail Steam-packet Company," and underneath that " Presented to the Royal Patriotic Fund for the use of the Sick." She said a soldier gave it to her. Prisoner Yes, sir; I got it at Balaklava to read on my voyage home. I have an immense quantity of others of a similar nature, and others published by the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, which have been sent over to the army in the Crimea, but L have not them in court. I further searched her boxes and found two large linen tablecloths, one marked " 5.0.8." and the other marked " B." One chemise marked "7 8.," one " E.5.E.," one " E. 5.5.," and one " E.S.E." I asked her where she got these things from, and she said that Miss Nightingale. Miss Bracebridge, and Miss Stanley had given them to her. I also found a large thick flannel shirt marked " A.W., No. 2 ;" three napkins marked " F.A.5.1.Z., 36, E. 24, 1842." Two pair of army hospital shoes marked on the soles with the broad arrow, quite new. In another part of her room I found a feather pillow marked "Scutari Hospital, from Finsbury-square." Prisoner: I got that given to me at Balaklava, when I went to attend the sick and wounded there. As to the shoes, they were delivered out to me by the purveyor at Balaklava, for my own use, as well as a pair of thick Russian boots, to stand the in3le rneney of the clizrate. In fact all the things were given to me. Miss Bracebridge was very kind to the nurses, and when 1 was coming home she told me to take anything I wanted. I accor dingly took them. Miss Bracebridge ordered her housekeeper to give me a good supply, and she gave me the flannel, sheets, and table-cloths. Miss Stanley gave me the others, and saw me pack up my boxes and go on board ship. Inspector Moore: The prisoner told me that if the goods were wrung Miss Nightingale gave them to her. We have nearly a cartload of property in the station-house of a similar description to those produced, and I ask for a remand to enable me to com municate with the Government and Mrs. Sidney Herbert. The prisoner was then remanded for a week. Ar the Petty Sessions held at Stony• Stratford, Buckinghamshire, yesterday week, a man named Levi Henson was charged with firing off a gun within eighty feet of the turnpike-road. The evidence was very conflicting. The defendant was employed in a field, and had been ordered by his master to shoot the birds if they touched the wheat. He had, it ap- pears, shot a jay, and his master, having measured the ground, found that the spot was above eighty feet from the road. The magistrate, however, told the defendant that he stood convicted " upon the clearest evidence they had ever heard," and fined him It., with 17s. Bd. costs. Tae. Tribunal of Correctional Police of Brussels was last week occupied in the disposal of a case of much interest to shareholders in Anglo foreign rail way companies, and more especially to three gentle men well known in business circles in the city of London—namely, Mr. John Ashwell, Sir William Magnay, and Mr. John Masterman, directors of the Luxembourg Railway, on the charge of swindling. Mr. Ashwell alone appeared, the other two gentlemen being tried by default. The substitute of the Procu rier du Roi explained that the charge was based on the allegation that the three gentlemen had appto priated the greater part of 10,500 shares, and of a sum of 35,750 f. which had been confided to them for secret services, in promoting the interests of the company, or, to use the expression employed, " in procuring influence in Belgium." In support of the charge, it WAS stated that Mr. Ashwell, for his part, had received 0,500 shares to distribute on behalf of the company, but that a long time after wards he was found to be in possession of most of the shares, and receiving the interest on them. It was also alleged that the sum of 35,750 francs had been confided to him for the same purpose, but that he could only account for the employment of 2,000 f. of IL As to Sir W. Magnay and Mr. Masterman, it was asserted that they had severally received 2,000 shares on behalf of the company, but, instead of distri buting them, had retained them in their own hands, and had received interest on them. It was further alleged that the grant of the shares and of the 35,750 f., instead of being regularly mentioned in the books, was recorded under the head of "purchases of land," or of "engineering and law expenses." Finally, it was stated that, in obtaining shares and THE PRESS. money for secret purposes, the defendants had de ceived the shareholders, inasmuch as no secret ne gotiations were necessary, either to obtain the con cession of the railway from the Government, or to procure from it the guarantee of a minimum of inte rest, which was subsequently accorded. Mr. Ashwell, in answer, declared that he had distributed the greater part of the shares confided to him in a manner which he thought calculated to promote the interests of the company, and that the remainder were kept in reserve to be distributed as occasion might re quire. He could not, he said, without violating confidence, state to whom the shares had been given, but amongst the gentlemen who had received some for services rendered were M. Drouet, who bad 1,000; M. Pierre, member of the Chamber of Depu ties, who bad 100; and M. Perrot, proprietor of the Independance Belge, who had 150. As to the charge that he had received the interest on the shares, he admitted that it had been paid to him, but only on behalf of the owners. With respect to the 35,750 f., be declared that he had employed the greater part of the sum, and that the portion unemployed had been returned to the cashier of the company. Lastly, he showed that all that he had done had been approved of by the directors and sanctioned by the share holders at their general meeting; also, that when complaints had been made by some of the share holders, a special committee was appointed to examine into the whole matter, and that it had approved of what had been done. On behalf of Sir W. Magnay and Mr. Masterman no defence whatever was offered. In the course of the proceedings, it was stated that what the defendants were accused of doing was constantly done in England—namely, on the formation of a railway company, to distribute shares or money amongst the owners of land through which the line is to pass, and to persons who might be in a position in any way to promote its interests ; and it was added, that the cost of such distribution was always entered in the accounts as "parliamentary expenses." The Tribunal decided that, as the acts of Mr. Ashwell which were complained of took place more than three years ago, they were covered by prescription, and that the complaint against Sir W. Magnay and Mr. Masterman was not sufficiently proved. The complaint was consequently dismissed. THE CASE of MR. T. W. LAWFORD, nephew of Mr. Edward Lawford, late of Drapers' hall, and solicitor to the India Company, was finally adjudicated on Monday in the Bankruptcy Court at Bristol. The debts of the bankrupt amounted to 60,0001., and the assets scarcely exceed a shilling in the pound. His first deficiencies occurred between the years 1840 and 1849, when, as solicitor and farmer, he became insolvent to the extent of 12,0001., but their subse quent growth seems to have been accelerated by the facilities of the loan system carried on by various in surance-offices, several of which are understood to have suffered heavily. At the commencement these loans were contracted apparently to enable the bank rupt to struggle on with his speculations, Mr. Edward Lawford, the uncle, being security ; but subsequently they seem to have been made indiscri minately for the purposes of nephew and uncle, until at one time they reached a total of 80,0001. Of this amount 36,0001. only was repaid, leaving 44,0001. due at the time of bankruptcy in September last. The operations of the nephew were of a singular and varied character. Without any knowledge of agriculture, or the possession of capital, he embarked as an experimental farmer on the largest scale, and likewise engaged in speculations for hatching chickens by steam and supplying London with grapes from Carmarthenshire. He was therefore gazetted as a market gardener; but he had also joined a mining concern in Prussia. No books were kept, and the transactions of the two parties were evidently carried on without any view in prospect but a hopeless stoppage whenever the arrangements with the insurance companies could be kept up no longer. According to a statement made to the Court, the in come of Mr. Edward Lawford was at one time 18,0001. a year. The Bankruptcy Commissioner, who had been greatly pressed by favorable memo rials on the bankrupt's behalf, arrived at the conclu• sion, that his errors " were caused rather by an over sanguine temper and extreme infirmity of judgment than by want of rectitude," although it was felt to be a ditty to suspend his certificate for twelve months, and to order that it should then be of the lowest class. THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE has at length been Com pleted in the case of Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and Bates, for the misappropriation of certain securities intrusted to their safe keeping by one of the cus tomers of the bank, Dr. Griffith, and all the three part ners were on Wednesday fully committed to take their trial at the ensuing sessions of the Central Criminal Court. The bail has been extended from 3,0001. to 5,0001., and the personal recognisances of each partner to 10,000/. Sr. PETERSBURG JOURNALS announce that an Exhi bition of Fine Arta will be held in that capital this year, in spits of the War. CAPTURE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SNAKE. THE Buffalo Daily Republic gives a curious account of the capture of a huge aquatio serpent, whose pre sence in a lake near a place called Perry Village had for a long time formed the subject for much specu lation. The narrative is contained in a letter from that village, dated August 13th. The writer says . This part of the country is wild with excitement. The immense snake is at length captured. Daniel Smith, an old whalemau, came here about two weeks since, after hearing of the appearance of the creature, and had the good fortune to see him. He immediately sent to New York fur an old shipmate and his " irons," and on Friday last both arrived with everything necessary to catch a monster. Many strangers stopping at the Walker-house laughed at them for their pains; but they kept on with their preparations, in spite of sneers and jeers. Boats have been stationed all over the lake for upwards of eight days, and the two whalemen had a sharp look-out kept all the time, besides watching themselves. On Sunday he came to the surface, displaying about thirty feet of his long, sinuous body. On Monday morn ing everything was on the alert. About nine o'clock the animal moved his appearance between the whaletnen's boat and the shore, revealing twenty or thirty feet of his length. He laid quiescent upon the surface, when the whalemen's boat made slowly towards him, Mr. Smith, of Covington, poising in the air a patent harpoon. When they had got about ten feet from the animal, the iron whistled through the air and went deep into his body. Inja moment the whole length of the monster was lashing in the air. at a bound re vealing his whole enormous length. Then he darted off in another direction towards the upper part of the lake, the suddenness of his movement almost dragging the boat under water. Line was gradually given him, and after the space of half an hour, it was plain that his strength was almost exhausted. The whalemen then came ashore and gradually hauled the line in, amidst the wildest excite ment and tumult ever known in the vicinity of Silver Lake. Four or five ladies fainted upon seeing the mon ster, who, although ashore, was lashing his body into tremendous folds, and then straightening himself out in his agony, with a noise and power that made the very earth tremble around him. The harpoon had gone en tirely through a thick muscular part of him about eight feet from his head. The snake is fifty-nine feet five inches in length, and is a most disgusting-looking creature. A thick slime covers his hideous length, a quarter of an inch thick, which after being removed, is almost instantly replaced by exudation. The body of this creature is variable in size. The head is about the size of a full-grown calf's ; within eight feet of the head the neck gradually swells up to the thickness of a foot in diameter, which continues for fifteen inches and then tapers down the other way, constantly in creasing in size, however, as it recedes from the head, until the body of the monster has a diameter of over two feet in the centre, giving a girth of over six feet. It then tapers off toward the tail, which ends in a fin which can be expanded in the shape of a fan until it is three feet across, or closed in a sheath. Along the belly, from the head to the tail, are double rows of fins, a foot in length— not opposite each other, but alternately placed. The head is a most singular affair. Tho eyes are very large, white, staring, and terrific. Attached to the edge of the upper and lower lids, which are like those of a human being, • transparent film, or membrane, is seen, which, while it protects the eve of the animal, does not interfere with its vision. He has no nostrils or gills, apparently. The mouth of this serpent, or whatever it may be, is under neath—is almost a counterpart of the mouth of the fish called a sucker, possessing the same valvular power pursed up—but it can be stretched so as to take in a body of the diameter of a foot or a foot and a half. No teeth can be discovered. A hard bony substance extends in two parallel lines around the upper and lower part of the head. His colour is a dusky brown on the sides and back, but under neath the belly it is of a dirty white. It is sinuous like a snake, but has along its back on each side a row of hard substance, knob-like in shape—the largest raised four inches from the surface of the body, extending from head to tail. The animal still has the harpoon in him. He lies in the water, an ingenious contrivance of ropes having been placed on him while he was on shore, keeping his body in a curve, preventing him from getting away or proving dan- gerous. He can use but his head and tail, with which he occasionally stirs up the water all about him for rods. He keeps his head under water except when he rears it up as if looking around, and presents a most fearful aspect. When rearing he expands his mouth, and exhibits a cavity blood red, moat terrible to look upon. As he does this, air rushes forth with a heavy, short puff. SIR JAMES HUDSON, British ambassor to the Court of Turin. has sent 500 f. to the committee of the fund for the Piedmontese troops in the Crimea. THE Neptune, 120, Captain Hutton, and the St. George, 120, Captain Eyres, C. 8., have sailed from Portsmouth, their destination being the Bay of Naples. The ships, however, will proceed to Lisbon, where they will salute the King of Portugal, in honour of his Majesty having attained his ma jority. DIE. accounts from the northern provinces repre- sent the harvest as having made immense progress during the past week. In the south it would appear to be nearly complete. The estimates which are formed as to the expected yield are very conflicting, but there seems to be no reason for apprehending that it will in any district be much under the average, while in some it is spoken of in the most sanguine terms.