The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

AUGUST 16, 1856. A YOUNG. CONVICT, named Priest, effected his escape last week from Oxford Gaol. Cutting one of the bars of his window, he squeezed himself through a space of 10f by 71 inches, made a rope ladder of his bed rug, shirt, and blanket, and filling a bag he had made of his bed-cover with stones, fas tened it to his ladder, flung it over the gaol wall, scrambled up, and got off in his drawers. HER MAJESTY'S VASE was sailed for on Saturday, over a course of fifty miles, by the Royal Yacht Club, and won by Mr. Gee's Gloriana, beating the Viking, Urania, and Lalla Rookh. The contest lay between the Gloriana and Lalla Rookh, the former winning by two minutes and five seconds. SUNDAY MUSIC IN THE PARKS ♦T MANCHESTER, in consequence of the resolution passed by the Man chester Town Council, on Wednesday week, has been stopped. The committee for providing Sunday music for the people have given notice that they will the present withdraw the Sunday bands from the people's parks. THE GREAT BELL, for the new palace at Westmin ster was successfully cast at Norton, near Stockton on-Tees, on the morning of the 6th inst. Messrs. Warner, the metal-founders, for the last six weeks have been employed in the preparation of the mould and furnaces. The whole of the night pre vious to the operation the men were busy at work, and early in the morning of the 26th ult., the furnaces having attained toe requisite heat, the doors were opened, and the operation of charging or putting in the metal commenced. The latter opera tion occupied about an hour, and in loss than two hours and a half the whole of the metal required, eighteen tons, was in a state of perfect fusion. At a given signal the furnaces were tapped, and the metal flowed from them into a pool prepared to hold it, before being admitted into the bell mould ; the shutter or gate was then lifted, and the metal allowed to flow. In five minutes the casting of the bell was effected. ANOTHER FRIGHTFUL DEATH FROM MACHINERY occurred last week at the Norton Iron Works. While making some alteration, a joiner, named Benson, was caught by the fly wheel, and whirled round with fearful velocity two or three times, till his body was so compressed and mutilated that lie died almost immediately. The bowels were scattered in all directions, the lungs forced through the mouth, the head nearly severed from the body, and almost every bone in the back broken. in & inquest was held on the mutilated remains on Friday evening, and a verdict of " Accidental death " eturned. A SCOTCH CORRESPONDENT OF THE Timms last week drew a lamentable picture of the state of the Highlands owing to the whim of Highland pro prietors to preserve red deer at the expense of the population. This week " A Tenant of Crathie and B-a near," the district particularly indicated as utterly depopulated, writes : I have known the district and every man and woman in it for thirty years, and I pay more money to the revenue than all the district put together, and am also a tenant, and have been so for the last ten years. In that period I have known only one man who emigrated. Instead of hundreds of removals, which would be inferred from your correspon• (lent's letter, I do not think there have been six the last thirty years, in all cases occasioned by their own wish to benefit their circumstances. Mn. JOHN FROST made a public entry into New port on Monday. He arrived in the packet from Bristol, and on landing was immediately handed into a carriage and drawn by a number of his friends and brother chartists into the town. On arriving at the wide space of ground opposite the Westgate-hotel, tie scene 'of the conflict in 1899 between the populace and the military, a general cheer was given. They then proceeded along Commercial_ street and down Llanarth-street, and ultimately stopped at, a temperance hotel, from the window of which was suspended a flag with the portraits of Frost, Williams, and Jones, with inscriptions to the effect that these persons were the subjects of Government persecution. Soon after alighting Mr. Frost presented himself at the window and addressed tie crowd; he denounced the Government in the usual language of the chartists, spoke of his suffer ings during his penal servitude, and declared his belief that the work►ng classes would never get their grievances redressed till they got the charter. He had returned to his native country after a fourteen years' banishment unimpaired in bodily health and vigour of mind, and he was determined to devote whatever talents he had for the good of the people. The town was perfectly quiet, the more respectable portion of the inhabitants taking no part in the pro ceedl ng s. MR. - W. FERRARD, of Harden grange, Bingley, states in a public letter this week that his fine breed or mountain sheep, which gained the prize at the late Yorkshire Agricultural Show, are a cross be tween the common Louk ewes and Southdown tups. 'lle breed is new and pronounced remarkably fine. 'IRE BISHOP or LONDON has, under the provisions f the Act for the Better Enforcing Church Disci. Me, suspended the ltev. William Lambert, M.A. THE PRESS. perpetual curate of Christchurch, Ealing, from officiating in the church or district, or elsewhere within the diocese, and from receiving any of the profits of the living for three years, and has directed that such suspension shall (at the expiration of the three years) further continue in force until a certifi• cate is lodged in the registry of the diocese, signed by three beneficed clergymen, satisfying the bishop that the suspension may be properly relaxed. Sin MORTON PETO suggests, in a letter to the Times this week, the propriety of Government per mitting soldiers stationed in the rural districts to assist in harvesting operations at the current rate of wages. The plan is usually adopted in France, and the high prices now offered for harvest labour sur pass those given for railway labour, and have com pelled the contractors to cease all but the most pressing works. THE REV. GEORGE WILKINS, incumbent of Wix, in Essex, was reprimanded by the Bishop of Rochester last week, for unbecoming conduct in the pulpit on May 4th last, in having replied to an accusation of falsehood, made by Eagles, a parishioner, in coarse and vehement language, giving rise to a disgraceful altercation. ROCHESTER NEW BRIDGE, a handsome iron con struction, with granite piers, and three arches of 170 and 140 feet span, was opened wi'h great ceremony ou Wednesday. The bridge is 1,200 feet long and forty wide. The ADJOURNED CORONER'S INQUIRY into the origin of the late terrible explosion at the Cymmer Collieries, Glamorganshire, when no less than 114 out of the 130 men at work were killed, has been re surned during the week, and some very rema►kable evidence adduced. From the statements of the few survivors it appears that the pit was, and had been for some time, in a dangerous condition. There were no safety-lamps; the pit was worked with naked candles; and the signals of danger were simply a shovel and pickaxe placed in a peculiar position at the entrance of the heading ; the air in most head ings was considered by the men only "mitldling good ;" and, in Charles's Heading, one witness, Jones, said he had seen " a cap of gas at the end of his candle half an inch high," yet the firemen had not pronounced this heading dangerous. The daily inspection of the mine also appears to have been greatly neglected since February, the man Grey appointed to the duty only going underground once every fortnight; and for fourteen days previous to the explosion no inspection had taken place at all. The inquiry is proceeding. A COLLIERY EXPLOSION, resulting in the loss of ten lives, occurred on Wednesday at Oldbury, near Dudley. Taking a naked lighted candle into the pit against advice was the cause of this lamentable accident. THE FIRST PILLAR of the Manchester Exhibition building was raised with great ceremony on Wednes day at Old Trafford. Mr. Thomas Fairbairn offi ciated, and the ceremony was followed by a dejeuner, at which the usual complimentary and anticipatory speeches were made. ittlattb. THE GREAT ANNUAL CATTLE SHOW AT ATHLONE opened on Wednesday. The exhibition of stock is described as unusually tine. The Lord Lieutenant arrived the day previous at Lord Castlemaine's seat in the neighbourhood. His Excellency attended the Agricultural Society's banquet on Wednesday. Lord Carlisle in the course of his speech alluded to the general progress of•lreland in agriculture, and quoted statistical returns in proof:— _ _ - Since 1848, 178,000 acres have been drained by the Board of Works, and I imagine more than double that area by private hands. The deep draining and surface draining on mountain lands have followed with results of a like benefit to the upland farmers and graziers. Within the last twenty years more than a million of Irish acres have been reclaimed from waste. In 1841, to eight mil lions of people there were thirty millions of cultivated acres in Ireland; now, perhaps, more than one million has been subtracted from the population, and more than a million of acres has been added to our cultivated area. (Applause.) Comparing this year with the last, there is a decrease of some amount in the growth of oats and barley, but there is an increase in the growth of wheat of 8:4,683 acres. The increase in green crops amounts to no less than 114,774 acres ; and though I must admit that potatoes keep by far the largest item, yet I am in hopes that pota toes themselves are grown now somewhat more as a far mar's crop than with a view to the exclusive subsistence of the country people. ( Applause.) The increase in flax, which I am especially glad to learn, covers 9,000 acres; and the increase of the whole extent tinder tillage this year, as compared with the last, amounts to 65,578 acres. So with respect to live stock—the increase in the number of horses amounts to 18,000; on the head of cattle, to 35,000 ; on the number of sheep, to 90,000. There is a very large decrease observable in pigs, amounting to no less than 250,000 head ; but it is thought by those who are charged with the collection of these returns that this is owing to their having been made up at an earlier period than usual ; Iseauae I believe the farmers generally like to have their breeds of pigs to feed when they have the largest quantity of the farm produce to give them. LORD CASTLEROSSE was re elected for Kerry last Saturday without opposition. AN APPLICATION was made on Monday to Master Murphy, by the official manager of the Tipperary Bank affairs, for an order in the case of James Sadleir, to direct payment by the contributories in the schedule of the balance due on their 401. shares. The order was granted. Mr. Melden then made soma remarks with respect to the "private" exami nation of Mr. Sadleir, protesting against any blame for such a proceeding, but at the same time acknow ledging himself ready to accept the blame if any existed. Master Murphy said that he did not think blame attached to anyone, and that every one would have grossly neglected th e ir duties if they had not insisted on a private examination. falai an 4 His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief re viewed the Royal Artillery on Woolwich-common on Wednesday. Four divisions, with six field batteries of 0-pounders, one battery of 24-pound howitzers, one battery of hi-pounders, and one battery of 32- pound howitzers, with three ball-cartridge brigades, were on the ground, and performed the usual field. day evolutions. His Royal Highness the Commander: in-Chief dined in the evening with General Williams and the officers of the Ro3 al Artillery. Ono hundred and fifty officers sat down to dinner. Major G. B. Rodney and Captain D. Blytb, of the Chatham division of Marines, were presented on Wednesday with the Cross of the Legion of Honour, for distinguished conduct during the late war. Major Rodney and Captain Blyth are the only officers of the Chatham division of Royal Marines who have been decorated with this honour. The method invented and introduced by Mr. Wetherhed, an American, for superheating steam has at length assumed a practical form. H.M.S. Dee, fitted with an improved apparatus, has made a voyage to the western coast of England. The appa ratus was at work the whole voyage, as far as Land's End point and back to Woolwich, and the result exceeded anticipation. The average economy realised in tuel amounts to about thirty-five per cent., and an increased speed of two knots an hour was obtained. The apparatus consists of a number of iron pipes being carried along the front of the tube-plate, and extending into the chimney into which the ordinary steam passes, and which gradually becomes super heated to about five hundred degrees. It is then alloyed, or mixed with the ordinary steam, in about equal proportions, bringing the temperature of the mixed steam to about 340 degrees, in which state it is applied to the purposes of the machinery. The Duke of Cambridge will probably visit Col chester, for the purpose of reviewing the German Legion, at the end of the present week. The Ist and 3rd Regiments of Light Infantry, encamped at Brown down, and the Ist and 2nd Regiments of German cavalry, now at Aldershott, are expected at Colches ter, and will, with the six regiments of infantry already encamped, make a total of 9,500 men of the German Legion. Jut, Guards' dinner takes place in the Surrey gardens on the 25th instant. An Austrian steam-frigate, Radetsky, 31, Captain Preu, arrived at Spithead last Saturday morning, and saluted the national flag and the port admiral, which compliments were duly acknowledged by Vice- Admiral Sir George Seymour and Major-General Breton, to whom the chief officers were presented by M. Vandenbergh, the Austrian Vice-Consul at Ports mouth. The frigate is a very fine one, English built, by Wigrain, of Northam, mounting twenty six 82 pounders, four 80 pounders, and one 48- pounder. Two French corvettes and gun-boats are also at Spithead. The commodore of the squadron, attended/11)y one hundred of his midshipmen, who have been specially sent over to inspect the naval establishments, visited the dockyard at Portsfitout4 on Saturday, and received every attention from Admiral-Superintendent Martin and staff. The Lords of the Admiralty, from the hesitation o seamen to volunteer for ships the destination of which is not stated, have decided in future on any ship being commissioned to announce her destination. Should any alteration take place (except for secret service), the alteration is to be immediately made known. _ _ _ Tile authorities at the Horse Guards having deter mined on organising a fiehl equipment corps, to be attached to the corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, extensive additions are being made at Bromptoa barracks, Chatham, for the accommodation of the horses and men, it being deemed desirable to have the men quartered as near their horses as possible. The following notice is substituted for that which appeared i❑ the Gazette of Friday, the Bth inst. : War Department, Whitehall-gardens, ♦ugust 8. Notice is hereby given that the officers and men in hse Majesty's army nawed in the supplement to the Low..* Craiette of Friday, the Ist inst., as having receivel Majesty's permission to accept and wear the insignia of