The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

902 Valitual an titittral. THE prospectus of a new joint-stock association, to be called " The London and Western Districts Cemetery Company," which is introduced under the new Act of Limited Liability, has been issued. The site secured by the promoters of the undertaking is at Parkhill, Isleworth. The capital of 50,0001. will be distributed in 5,000 shares of 10/. each, with a deposit of 21. per share, pursuant to the provisions of the said act, by which means this company will have obtained the advantages of full incorporation, with a seal, independently of the expensive process of going to Parliament for a private act. Faom the Ist of January to the Ist inst. the number of vessels which sailed from the port of Limerick to Quebec was but ten, and the number of emigrant passengers 1,135. During the same period in 1854 forty one vessels left for the same destina tion, and the number of passengers was 5,796, showing the striking decrease this year of no less than 4,461. THE sales of blood stock at Doncaster last week realised 10,309 guineas. A yearling brown colt (brother to Lord of the Isles) was sold for 1,800 guineas, and a brown filly, by Touchstone out of Marian, for 810 guineas. These belonged to Mr. A. johnstone's lot. The colt was bought by Stirling Crawford, Esq. IT is said that on a certain occasion the Earl of Aberdeen (confidentially) confessed to Sir James Graham that he "knew not how to manage the Irish members." "Doas I do with the corporation of Carlisle," said the Knight of Netherby. "How's that ? " asked Aberdeen, "Oil them well—oil them well," was the reply of Sir James.—Kendal Mercury. A NEW Cutraca is to be erected in Coventry-street., Haymarket, between Rupert-street and Princes street. Her Majesty has subscribed 500/. ; Mr. Egerton, M.P., 301.; Viscount Sydney, 251.; Bishop of London, 1,000/. ; besides several other noblemen and gentlemen. Two TROOPS are to be added immediately to every Cavalry regiment in the United Kingdom ; and besides the British cavalry depot already formed near Constantinople, another cavalry reserve is to be stationed at Genoa. The officers from the 10th Hussars and 12th Lancers, as the Indian " break," will have their augmentation appointments in the reserve Dragoons. THE GOVERNMENT intend to send on foreign service a few more of the Scotch militia regiments. Already there are no regiments in the lonian Islands, save militia, and last week the Forfarshire Militia, on being asked to volunteer for foreign service, did so almost en mane, more than five hundred men having stepped forward. The destination of the regiment will he Gibraltar, for which place they will embark from Fort George in the course of a month. INTELLIGENCE has been received in Birmingham of the death of Lieut.-Col. Unett. This distinguished officer was reported " severely wounded " at the late assault upon Sebastopol; and on Saturday night his family in Birmingham received information of the fatal result. The gallant colonel was much beloved by his regiment. THREE MONSTER SHELLS have been landed on the Arsenal Wharf at Woolwich, from the Lowmoor foundries, each having a diameter of three feet nine inches, and weight one ton six cwt.; an experimental gun, it is said, has been founded at Liverpool for projecting these enormous missiles. . It weighs no less than twenty tons. _ _ THE New York Picayune has the following :—" It is said that Long Island, in the neighbourhood of Northport, is sinking at the rate of four inches per day. We do not wonder, when we recollect how many delinquent subscribers we have in those parts." MR. SYLVESTER, who was Second Wrangler at Cambridge in the year 1837, and who had already made for himself a name in the world of science, before he entered at the University, has just been appointed Professor of Mathematics, at Woolwich. Mr. Sylvester, some years back, obtained much cele brity by disquisitions on abstruse branches of mathematical analysis, and has a passionate love for the science, which he has cultivated for so many years. Az the Exeter Police-court, last week, the mayor said he bad received a communication from New South Wales that the heir-at-law of Johanna Lot Whitfield, who left Exeter in 1790, and went to Australia, was entitled to 1,200 acres of land if he would claim it. .. _ THE MORTALITY OF LONDON, as shown by the re turns for last week, differs little from the average for the second week of September, or from the mortality that has prevailed in the previous three weeks. The number of persons who died in the week that ended on Saturday is 1,033, of whom 523 are males, and 610 females. About a half of the entire number died under twenty years of age; forty had lived eighty years, or had attained a greater age ; and one person, a female, is reported to have reached the ego of 1016 THE PRESS. A GREAT INUNDATION has taken place at the town of Krems, on the Danube, the terrific character of which may be conceived by the fact that eighty per sons have been missed, and forty corpses found. The loss of property has been enormous, and many thousands of human beiugs have been driven from their homes to seek for shelter in the open country. Lord George Manners, third surviving son of his Grace the Duke of Rutland, Captain of the Royal Horse Guards, and M.P. for Cambridgeshire, is to be married to Lady Adeliza Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, at the end of this month or early in the next. TILL lately it was thought that nitrate of soda was unfit for the manufacture of gunpowder, wanting the expansive power of saltpetre. A clever chemist has, however, discovered a process by which this defect can he remedied. Under such circumstances he went, about four weeks since, to Hamburg and bought up all the nitrate of soda there—a large quantity, five or six thousand tons—and it is now— ay, even now, whilst the Prince of Prussia is at Bal moral—being transported through Prussia to Russia, where the said chemist will make gunpowder of it for our enemy, the Russians. SERGEANT BRODIE, late of the First Royal Dragoons, appeared on the parade of the Invalid Depot on Wednesday morning, with a number of others who are discharged from the service, for the purpose of being informed the amount of their pen sions ; and as the case of Sergeant Brodie was one of considerable interest, not only amongst the officers, but also with many gentlemen of the neigh bourhood, they were very anxious to hear how the Government intended to deal with him after what had taken place. On the previous evening large bets were made that the Horse Guards could not and would not give him less than what he was en titled to—namely, two shillings per day, for the ser vices he has rendered, and the very excellent character he has borne for the last nineteen years he had been in the regiment, seventeen of them as a sergeant. Such service alone entitles him to the re ceipt of nineteenpence per day pension. To the great surprise of all parties, however, he is only allowed the pittance of one shilling per day, besides the loss of his position and business, whilst the ad jutant who ordered the troopers to knock him down, who was the principal and prompter of the duel, has been allowed to sell his own commission and pocket the money, and rewarded with a captaincy in the Turkish Contingent, worth 6001. a year. THE RIGHT REV. W. VAUGHAN, D.D. was elevated to the titular see of Plymouth on Monday morning, at the Church of the Holy Apostles, Clifton. Cardinal Wiseman officiated as the consecrator, assisted by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, and the Right Rev. Dr. Brown, Roman Catholic Bishop of Newport. A large number of clergy also took part in the cere mony. The church, which was decorated with ever greens, was well filled with spectators, and comprised a large number of the Roman Catholic families with which Clifton and the neighbourhood are now so thickly peopled, as well as many Protestants, whose curiosity attracted them to witness the comparatively novel spectacle in this country of the consecration of a prelate of the Romish Church. The prices of admission varied from 2s. ad. to is., the former sum securing a seat in the nave, and the latter one in the aisles of the church. MR. SHAW, the English contractor for the Central Portuguese Railway, has stopped the works, the directors having refused to pay him the certificate for work done and materials delivered during August, amounting to about 15,0901. For some time the directors, it is stated, have shown a desire to get possession of the works ; but, the terms offered to Mr. Shaw to relinquish them being inadequate, they have failed in their object. Whether the refusal to pay his certificate has originated in a desire to force him to give up the works the next, mail from Lisbon will probably indicate; that such, however, was the intention is rendered the more likely from the follow ing telegraphic despatch which has been received from Madrid :—" The Government and directors and lawyers of the company have taken possession by force of the shops, dee., at Xabregas and Sacavem, at four o'clock on the 9th inst., by soldiers with drawn swords." AN AUSTRALIAN VENTURE was made in 1852 by a gentleman who sent from Scotland, among others, a package of goods worth 281. to Melbourne, fondly hoping for a good return. During last month (August, 1855) ho received an account sale of his goods, amounting to 41. odd, the 281. worth of goods having realised 111. 106., and having been subjected to charges amounting to 71. odd. On applying for payment of the balance in the account sales, he was thunderstruck to find that outward freight and charges were still to be deducted, and that, instead of receiving any money, he was indebted 1/. ss. 7d. A COLOSSAL STATUE of the celebrated archteologist, Count Carlo Castiglione, has just been inaugurated in the court of the Palazzo Brera, at Milan. SATURDAY, SAW aub Volta. THE TRIAL OF MESSRS. PAUL, STRAHAN, AND BATES was fixed to take place on Wednesday, at the Central Criminal Court, and true bills were found by the grand jury on the indictments in the course of Tuesday. When the prisoners were placed at the bar, however, an application was made to postpone the trial until next sessions, which, after some con sideration, was granted. It was also arranged that the final examination of the prisoners in the Bank ruptcy Court should be postponed until after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against them. The sureties for the three defendants have been re newed, and amount to no less a sum than 60,0001. On the last examination at Bow street, the six sure ties for the appealance.,of the defendants increased their recognisances from 3,0001. to 5,0001. each, making 30,0001., and each defendant increased his recognisances from 5,0001. to 10,0001., making the three 30,0001., and with the bail 60,0001., for their appearance to take their trial. Alluding to this case in his address to the grand jury, the Itecorder, the Hon. S. Wortley, made the following observations respecting some legal points which have already excited much controversy:— These three persons were charged with what was undoubtedly a moat serious offence; namely, that of having disposed of va luable securities intrusted to them for safe custody, in their position as bankers, for their own purposes, and thus defrauded the owners of the securities in question. Although this act un doubtedly contained all the moral characteristics of felony, still, as the possession of the property was, in the lint instance, parted with by the owner, the law originally held that the act of parting with property so deposited did not amount to felony, for that reason; but in consequence of a similar case to the present that occurred a good many years ago, and which, at the time, caused a great deal of interest, an Act of Parliament was passed purposely to meet such a case. By this Act it was enacted that if any banker, broker, attorney, or agent, should dispose of any chattel or valuable security placed in his charge for a specific purpose, and apply it to his own use, lie should be guilty of mis demeanour, and, being convicted thereof, should be subject to certain punishments mentioned in the Act. Any banker, there fore, who, contrary to good faith, disposed of any valuable security intrusted to his charge, or made use of it In any manner for his own purposes, brought himself within the provisions of this statute, and the charge against these three prisoners was, that in the cabs of a gentleman named Griffith, who had in trusted to them for safe custody a large amount of Danish and Dutch bonds, they had unlawfully applied these securities to their own purposes. Be did not observe that the matter was attended to in the depositions, but he thought it right to make a few remaika in reference to a suggestion that had been thrown out in the course of the proceedings iu this case, that the pii goners had exonerated themselves from the present charge by their having complied with a subsequent provision contained iu the statute, by making a full statement of their proceedings in reference to the securities in question, and which, in fact, amounted to an admission of their guilt. The statute un. doubtedly did contain a clause whereby it was enacted that, under certain clrcumetances, where a full disclosure was made by the parties in whose hands securities had been placed, as to the manner in which they had disposed of them, that they should be exempt from criminal responsibility ; but he was at present far from coming to the conclusion that this woulu apply to the case now before them, and he should therefore request them, in case such a point should be brought forward, not to give any effect to it. lie should certainly require the question to be argued before he came to the conclusion that the point was an available one; and he confessed he should be slow to believe that the Act of Parliament wou:d be so perverted as to render it totally inapplicable for the purpose for which it was passed, and that persons guilty of so grave an offence should by such means be enabled to escape punishment; TRomss CLARKE was indicted on Thursday, at the Criminal Court, for stealing a letter containing a sovereign, the property of the Postmaster-General : The circumstances of this case were of rather a peculiar cha racter. It appeared that the prisoner, who had been for more than ten years in the service of the Post-office, was engaged as a sorter, and that in consequence of some suspicion that had been created in the minds of the Post-office authorities with regard to his proceedings, a letter, iu which a marked sovereign was tixed in a card, was posted, and afterwards delivered to the prisoner on a tray with a number of other letters, for the purpose of being sorted, on the 14th of August last, and two persons, nan ed Forbes and Smee, received instructions to watch his movements after the letter came into his possession. There is a contri vance, by means of an iron grating, by which all that goes on in the sorting-room may be observed, and, accordingto the evidence of these two persons, the prisoner took up the letter in question, examined it closely, and then pressed it with both his hands, and after doing this they represented that he raised his hands over his head and appeared to put something into his mouth. He was taken into custody at once and searched, but no trace of the coin could be discovered; nevertheless, upon the positive testimony of the two witnesses in question, he was committed to take his trial upon the present charge, and would have been tried at the last session, but the trial was postponed. Upon the supposition that the prisoner had swallowed the marked sove reign, means were taken during the period that he was in cus tody to see if it should appear, but nothing was seen or heard of the missing coin until the 4th of the present month, when it ar rived at the General Post-office, inclosed in an anonymous letter addressed to the Postmaster-General, the writer stating that the marked sovereign was inclosed in order to save the innocentfrom punishment. There was no evidence whatever to show by what means, supposing the prisoner had really swallowed the coin, it could have passed into the hands of any other person, and it ap peared in the course of the evidence that the letter in question would have passed through several officials connected with the Post-office before it came into the possession of the prisoner. The jury returned a verdict of, Not Guilty. THE PORTE has issued a notification to capitalists, inviting proposals for constructing a railway from Constantinople to Belgrade. Six months are allowed for the receipt of the tenders. It is stated that 41 per cent, will be the maximum interest allowed, and that the term of the concession is to be ninety-nine years. The company will also be authorised to build villages along the line. NI in