The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

658 larity of labour, employers would, by granting the half-holiday, get back more than they would lose. Several resolutions in accordance with the object of the society were then moved and agreed to, and the meeting terminated. SIR WILLIAM WILLIAMS of Kars was entertained by the Lord Mayor at a banquet at the Mansion house on Wednesday evening. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Gough, Sir William Napier, Sir Colin Campbell, Sir Harry Jones, Sir John Burgoyne, the Duke of Newcastle, Lord John Russell, Sir James Graham, and a distinguished party of noblemen and gentlemen, were present on the occasion. The Lord Mayor, on proposing the health of the guest of the evening, alluding to his distinguished services, said : It is important that we should make much of such a man, because, who knows that there may not be persons to whom his example may be of service when tney are placed in a position of difficulty, and who may, by display ing the same qualities, if not raise themselves to his eminence, render to their country services of great value ? I will not in an after-dinner speech enter into details which must he known to most of you. I invited General Wil liams in order to introduce him to my fellow-citizens, to enable them to become personally acquainted with him, and to express our respect for his character and our appre ciation of the manner in which he has supported the honour of our country. Besides, lie is the youngest burgess of this great city. I have to congratulate my fellow-citizens on his having just been made a free citizen of this great city. He also appears before us as the youngest member of Parliament. He has just been returned for the borough of Caine, and, although I believe the House of Commons does not want for many of the high qualities which he possesses, yet I am sure that a man like him is no incon siderable acquisition even to that assembly. Sir William Williams expressed his high sense of the honour conferred upon him, and promised to make every endeavour he could to keep up the efficiency of that army just returned from the Crimea. Sir J. Burgoyne, in returning thanks for the army, ex pressed his belief that the qualities which General Williams had displayed were not exceptions to, but examples of, qualities possessed by many officers in her Majesty's service. The Duke of Newcastle and Sir James Graham acknowledged " The Lords and Commons," while Lord John Russell replied for the City members. THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL this week carried by a majority of 54 to 18 a motion to introduce into the House of Commons a bill to extend the franchise for Ward elections. Mr. Deputy Hale, in moving that the report of the committee be adopted, said that the bill, if introduced, would receive the support of Lord John Russell, and that after the prorogation of Parliament the court would proceed to frame certain measures to meet other public requirements. PROFESSOR OWEN, F.R.S., who for nearly thirty years has been connected with the Royal College of Surgeons as Conservator of the Hunterian Museum and Professor of Comparative Anatomy, has just re signed his appointments, and entered on a more ex tensive scene of usefulness at the British Museum, as Superintendent of the Natural History Depart ment. THE BOARD OF WORKS held a meeting on Wednes day to consider Sir Benjamin Hall's refusal of the Plurnstead drainage plan. Mr. Bazalgette, the en gineer, proposed to extend the main outtall sewer from Woolwich Arsenal to Halfway Reach, three quarters of a mile beyond the metropolitan area, and three miles above Frith. The estimated cost of this extension was 70,0001., and the increased annual cost for pumping, 1,280/. After some discussion it was determined, by a majority of 20 to 13, that the sub ject of the point of outfall should be adjourned until the next meeting. Mr. Bazalgetto then pro duced a report on the subject of the embankment of the river, in explanation of the paragraph on the subject contained in his report of the 22nd May last. The report having been received, the resolution that a deputation wait upon Lord Palmerston was, after a I , mg discussion, carried by 18 votes to 2, and the board then adjourned. A FESTIVAL, under the auspices of a committee formed for the purpose of promoting a reduction of the duties in foreign wines, and at the same time advocating a mutually advantageous system of tariffs between France and England, especially in relation to the Potteries, was held at the Crystal Palace on Wednesday. About 400 gentlemen sat down to a banquet in an extempore dining-room in the south wing of the building, under the presidency of Mr. Oliveira. Several addresses were delis ered, and at nine o'clock the proceedings terminated, and the company returned, after spending a very agree able day of mixed business and pleasure. A DEPUTATION OF THE EARLY-CLOSING ASSOCIA TION had an interview with the Lord Mayor, on Monday, at the Mansion-house, with the view of ob taining from his lordship the closing of Guildhall on Saturdays at two p.m. The Lord Mayor said he was certainly favorable to the p r i nc ipl e of early closing, but he doubted whether two o'clock, or, indeed, any other hour arbitrarily fixed upon, could THE PRESS. be adopted universally. He thought that whatever was dune should be effected gradually and with caution, and that earlier closing most, of course, involve earlier openings. His lordship, however, promised that the subject should receive his best consideration, and suggested that in the case of the Guildhall possibly three o'clock might prove to be the more convenient hour. 1h,,. VrOrincial. THE MANCHESTER ART EXHIBITION of 1857 is ex citing much interest. His Royal Highness Prince Albert lately addressed the following letter to the Earl of Ellesmere, pointing out some important ends which the exhibition might be made to serve : My dear Lord Ellesmere--I was very sorry not to see you with the deputation from Manchester that came to me yesterday upon the subject of the exhibition of art treasures which it is proposed to open in that cit) in May, 1857. Lord Overstone, however, as well as the other members of the deputation, left nothing to desire in explaining the objects which they have in view. I could not fail to admire the public spirit which has prompted the people of Manchester to enter upon so large and magnificent an undertaking. We had a good deal of discussion upon its general principles, upon the soundness and fitness of which much of its future success must necessarily depend. Manchester enters upon this undertaking at a certain disadvantage. It has been preceded by the Exhibition of 18-51, that of Dublin in 1853, and that at Paris during the last year. That a mere repetition of what has thus gone before would fail to attract sufficient notice and public support, appears to have been felt by the committee ; and they most wisely gave a distinctive character to their scheme, by making it an exhibition of what may emphati- cally be called the art treasures of this country. How to succeed in collecting such treasures, fondly cherished as they are by their owners, who are justly jealous of their safety, is the problem to be solved. In my opinion the solution will be found in the satisfac tory proof of the usefulness of the undertaking. The mere gratification of public curiosity, and the giving an intellec- tual entertainment to the dense population of a particular locality, would be praiseworthy in itself, but hardly suffi cient to convince the owners of works of art that it is their duty, at a certain risk and inconvenience, to send their choicest treasures to Manchester for exhibition. That national usefulness might, however, be found in the educational direction which may be given to the whole scheme. No country invests a larger amount of capital in works of art of all kinds than England; and in none, almost, is so little done for If the collee: tion you propose to form were made to illustrate the history of art, in a chronological and systematic arrange. ment, it would speak powerfully to the public mind, and enable, in a practical way, the most uneducated eye to gather the lessons which ages of thought and scientific re search have attempted to abstract ; and would present to the world, for the first time, a gallery such as no other country could produce, but for which, I feel convinced, the materials exist abundantly in private hands amongst us. As far as painting is concerned, I inclose a catalogue exhibiting all the different schools, with the masters who illustrate them, which able hands have compiled for me, and which was communicated to the National Gallery committee of 18,53. and printed by them with the evidence. If such a catalogue, for instance, were filled up with the specimens of the best paintings by the different masters enumerated in it, which exist in this country, I feel certain that the committee would come with very different powers of persuasion and a very different claim to attention to their owners, than when the demand for the loan of certain of their pictures were apparently dependent upon mere acci dent or caprice. A person who would not otherwise be inclined to part with a picture would probably shrink from refusing it if he knew that his doing so tended to mar the realisation of a great national object. The same principle might be adopted with regard to the other branches of art, extending even into the field of ma nufacturing industry. Whatever may be the decision of the committee, I assure you that it will give me the greatest pleasure to give you any feeble assistance in support which I may be enabled to render. And I may at the same time repeat to you the assurance of the Queen's best wishes for the success of your labours.—Ever yours truly, ALBERT. Buckingham Palace, July 3, 18513. SOME VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS for the prevention of crime were thrown out by Mr. Recorder Hill on opening the Birmingham Quarter Sessions on Mon day. Mr. Hill, in the course of an address to the grand jury, observed that he saw no amelioration in our treat ment of criminals so far as adapting it to reform them : There are ninety-five prisoners for trial (continued the Recorder), and with regard to more than one-half of the number, they are persons who have previous convictions recorded against them, and who consequently have notbeen deterred by the fear of encountering punishment from repeating their offences, or reformed by the discipline to which they were subjected. Now, gentlemen, the main reason why the latter object is not attained is this, that they are not under the control of the prison authorities for a sufficient length of time. How can you expect a person, old or young, to undergo any decided change of character during a confinement of a fortnight, a month, two months, or three months ?—and until public opinion, instead of complaining of harshness when prisoners are committed for long periods, is led to perceive that it is a kindness even to the offenders, to place them under Mr- SATURDAY, cumstances by which their character may be reformed, and that it is a false notion of kindness to desire that they should be speedily liberated—l am afraid that until this conviction forces itself upon the public mind, the duties of the grand jurors will year by year become more onerous. I believe that commitments for short periods are a sort of education in crime. A prisoner discovers that imprisonment can be better borne than he imagined, and finding, when he cornea out of prison, that the dif ficulties of maintaining himself by holiest means are greatly increased, having lost his dread, of the gaol, and, what is worse than all, having lost his friends in the lowest classes of society, and acquired them among those who looked favorably upon him in proportion as he became more unprincipled, sinks still lower into the depths of iniquity. Sentences must be passed in accordance with public opinion, and it is often impracticable to resort to such as would be very humane and sanctioned by law, because the principle on which they would he based is not generally recognised, and its partial operation would engender the feeling that offences were punished not ac cording to their magnitude, but to the distinction with they were committed. Every year, the public are becoming more and more sensitive on this subject, and punishments are becoming lighter and lighter. lam now an old man, and have been engaged in the duties of my profession nearly forty years, and when I contrast the state of punish ments, as I first knew them, with what they now are, the change is enormous. In many respects the change has been for the better, but I think that we are now running into a dangerous extreme of an opposite kind, and that, if the system of light punishments is to be persevered in, we had better have no punishments at all. They neither deter nor reform, whereas they have the bad effect of bringing poor creatures into contact with those who are worse than themselves, and teaching them to pursue a life of crime. A Cotrims between two Liverpool steamers occurred on Sunday night, just off the mouth of the Mersey, the Excelsior steamer, en route to Belfast, running stem into the Mail, coming in from Dublin. The Excelsior struck the Mail on the port bow near the bowsprit, and tore her way through the spar deck as far as the foremast. In the forepart of the Mail, under the spar-deck, lay a number of deck passengers, Irish labourers, coming over for the harvest. They lay asleep, with their heads close up to the bows of the ship. Six were killed as they lay, and nine others were dreadfully mangled, one of them dying soon after the collision. The scene under the spar-deck was of course heartrending. The mangled bodies of the dead and dying covered with bloo I, the wounded crying loudly for help, some of them being jammed up against the windlass, and unable to extricate themselves, while one poor fellow (named Martin Howes) lay across the windlass, pinned by the bowsprit of the Excelsior. His screams were fearful, but it was impossible to free him, and he writhed and struggled for a full quarter of an hour till he fell dead on the windlass. Fortunately, the bulkheads of the Mail remained firm, and the vessel, though thus cut down to the water's edge, kept afloat. The stem of the Excelsior was so firmly imbedded in the wreck that it took upwards of an hour to get her free, and then not until the Excelsior left her anchor and nearly all ber chain-cable entangled among the debris of the Mail. The affair was partially inves tigated on Thursday at an inquest in Liverpool on the bodies of the sufferers. Joseph Bailey, master of the Mail, deposed that their lights were all right, that as they rounded the Rock Light a steamer was seen coming down at full speed on their port bow, and at about a mile distance. The Mail immediately ported her helm, thus giving the vessel more room to pass on the port side. The chief officer then re ported a ship at anchor right ahead, and witness had the helm steadied. After clearing this vessel they ported their helm again, and witness lost sight of the red light of the approaching steamer, by which he knew that she had starboarded her helm. He at once called out to the engineer to stop, and heard his chief officer hail the other vessel to port her helm. In about a minute the collision took place. AN EXPLOSION OF FIRE DAMP occurred last week at the Deep Coalpit, in the Blania Valley, Wales, by which eleven men were killed. An investigation is being held into the circumstances of this deplorable case. It is asserted that the men descended the pit with a naked light in hand. THE GALE OF MONDAY NIGHT was very severely felt on all parts of the coast. Off the Mersey and the Welsh coast and Northumberland and Hull it blew very heavily all night ; several vessels were driven on shore, and some severe losses sustained. Many coasters and fishing boats are believed to have been lost. How is it that such things as "barome• ters " are not supplied to the fishing towns ? Would it not be worthy of the Royal Humane or Lifeboat Societies to devote some portion of their funds to supplying a good barometer to every fishing village on the coast? SUNDAY MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE has lost its cause with the Salford Town Council, a large majority of whom, on Wednesday last, voted for the expulsion of bands of music from the Peel park on Sundays in future, and ordered public notices to that effect to be issued. The committee having the management of