The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS. It is impossible to acknowle lge the mass of letters we receive. Their insertion is often delayed owing to a preca of matter, and when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. We cannot undertake to return communications of %bleb we do not avail ourselves. Communications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it inereiuses the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily fur publica tion, but is a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by • remittance or a reference for payment in town. TERNS OF SUBSCRIPTION TOIL b t Vrtss: (STA - 1111:D) Per Annum ... Half Yearly.. quarterly • .. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. .. El 6 0 .. 0 13 0 .. 0 6 6 Subscribers are requested to send their orders through News Apents; if direct to the Unice, accompanied by a remittance. Advertisew.mts also must have a reference or remittance. Money t dire to be wade payable to Mr. ALP/ED I , IC, 110, btrand, Lyndon. 13 x 13 r v 4 11 60+ LONDON, SATURDAY, ocr. 10, 1857. POSTSCRIPT. ANOTHER nirERIAL MEETING. The Paris correspondent of the Times (second editio3) writes : The meeting of the Emperors Napoleon and Francis Joseph, as an outward and ♦isible sign of the renewal of amicable feelings and intercnnrse between the two Courts, is still insisted upon, in quarters well informed, as likely soon to take place. At Weimar, we are told, the Emperor of Russia, who is on excellent terms with his late gallant little antagonist, Piedmont, paved the way for a resumption of diplomatic relations between that country and Austria. The King of Bavaria, we learn, qualified by his friendship with the Emperor of the French and by the projected marriage of his niece with the heir apparent to the Crown of the Two Sicilies, is about to exert his good offices to restore a friendly understanding between the Western powers and the Court of Naples. These are the reports of the day, which we must not too hastily reject as unfounded, or even pronounce to be improbable. THE IRISH GOVERNMENT AND THE ORANGE SOCIETY. Duar.nr, Thursday Evening. A letter appears from the Lord Chancellor stating that, with the concurrence of the Lord Lieutenant, he has directed that in future all magistrates in the north of Ireland on their appointment shall be required to disclaim connection with the Orange institutions. INDIA RELIEF FUND. THE committee at the Mansion-house have passed the following resolution, to which they are desirous of calling public attention : That as the Calcutta relief committee will be furnished by this committee with the means of providing any clothing that may be required by persons arriving at that place in a state of destitution, it will not he advisable to send any clothing from this country. The committee therefore recounnend that contributions should be made in money, and not in clothes, which it will cost mach to send out, and which may be useless when they arrive. Influential meetings continne to be held throughout the country, and every effort is being made to raise a large and liberal subscription for the benefit of the sufferers. The Prince Yogorides, Kaimakan of Moldavia, has forwarded a subscription of 500 ducats, and the German provinces are engaged in raising a subscription. _ _ Lord St. Leonards has written to the Times, deny. ing the charges contained in Dr. Callen's Pastoral Letter against the committee for the administration of the Patriotic Fund. Lord St. Leonards writes : At every step care has been taken to extend the same relief to the widows and children of Roman Catholics as to those of Protestants. But while religions belief forms no element in the claim to relief, due regard has been paid to the religious feelings and education of the Roman Catholics. Some attempt was made to obtain a separate allotment out of the fund, to be managed by a oommit'.ee of Roman Catholic gentlemen, the relief of Roman Catholic objects in Ireland, but this was resisted, and I certainly understood that the arrangements as they now stand satisfied all classes and every denomination of Christians. The Duke of Norfolk upon thii . has addressed a letter to Lord St. Leopards, ie guesting the noble and learned lord in the ensuing session of Perlis 'pent to " move for returns upon the subject, so as THE PRESS, OCTOBER 10, to lay before the public the manner in which the large sums intrusted to the Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund have been dealt with, and thus to show how far Catholic feelings have been respected in their distribution." THE LATE MR. DOUGLAS JERROLD. Tim singular dispute between the late ,Mr. Douglas Jerrold's eldest son and the committee of the Jerrold Fund has been resumed this week. Mr. Charles Dickens and Mr. Arthur Smith write to the Times, that "it is necessary to the clearance of our own good faith and that of the gentlemen associated with us " to produce the following proof of their previous assertions : We have before us, under date the 2nd of this present month, a letter from the solicitor to the late Mr. Jerrold's estate gentleman well known in his profession, Mr. Ashurst, of the Old Jewry), in which, after mentioning that there is a lite assurance of 1,090/., which is Mrs. Jerrold's absolutely, and which the estate cannot claim, be informs the correspondent to whom his communication is addressed " that he cannot understand Mr. Blanchard Jerrold's reason for writing this unfortunate letter;" that he thinks " ho and his family ought to he set right on the matter ;" and that, if a certain claim be nrged of which he has received the particulars, " the facts and figures show that the estate will be absolutely insolvent." We quote this later with its writer's permission, and we have now done with this subject for ever. FOUNDERINGS AT SEA. Two lamentable cases of foundering at sea are re ported this week, and in each a vast loss of life is to be deplored. Certainly, if huge vessels enjoy special advantages, the risk is in proportion ; and if an acci dent happen, the loss of life and property is enor mous. In the case of the Central America, New York steamer, reported this week, no less than 419 persons perished ; while the Russian liner, Lefort, carried to the bottom 826 human beings. By these two wrecks, occurring within a few days of each other, upwards of 1.201) persons were drowned. This loss of life is appalling. It surpasses the losses of the bloodiest battle, and inflicts a more bitter re morse; for, in both the cases here reported, ordinary care and precaution should have prevented the calamity. Where is the advantage of these huge ships, if they cannot withstand the fury of the winds, and the raging of the waves ? The Central America left Ilavannah on the Bth of September, and in sixty hours she was a helpless wreck drifting in the trough of the sea. The gale appears to have set in on the 9th of September ; the ship soon after sprang a leak, and the water gained so rapidly that the boiler fires were put out, and the ship fell into the trough of the sea. An effort was made to reduce the amount of water. The men were formed into baling parties, and did their work manfully. When they tired, even the women came forward to help the work of salvation. Steam was again got up, and an effort was made to rig the donkey engine so as to clear the hold. The effort was temporarily successful, but the engines (or the pumps) soon got out of order and ceased to work. The sea all this time was running at a fearful height and dashing against and over the help. less vessel. Alter in vain attempting to again get up steam—for it was got up only to be lost again for ever—it was found that the water was hopelessly gaining upon them in spite of all baling and pump ing, and in spite of all eflbrts to stop the leak. The hold was by this time filled, and the water was in the lower cabins—warm water, heated at times by the boiler as the vessel careened over, so as to be almost unbearable. The women and the children, driven from their own cabin, had gathered in the men's saloon. The rough California miners, who made a large part of the passengers, and who at first had gathered together their gold-dust, the savings of years, and bound It about them in belts, now dashed their gold upon the deck, and prepared fur the struggle with death. On the afternoon of Saturday, the 12th, when hope was about departing, the brig Marino, of Boston, hove in sight, and, although herself disabled by the gale, rendered such assistance as she could. 'To the honour of human nature, those rough miners stood peaceably by, while the women and children were put Into the boats and transferred to the Marine. The captain himself superintended the lowering of the women into the boats. It is one of the noblest examples of self-sacrifice on record, that of these rough men, unused to restraint, and accus• tomed to selfishness, permitting the helpless women and children to be the first to pass from danger to safety. When the last boat had gone with the women, a terrific sea broke over the steamer. She gave one rod, lurched lorward, and sank. Then ensued a scene surpassing all the horrors of shipwreck. The waves, as they rose and fell, re vealed a crowd of human heads. Those unfortunates who had lost their lite-preservers or planks while under water, owing to the force of the whirlpool, were frantically awatchiag at the broken pieces of 1857. the wreck, which, breaking from the ship us she con tinued to descend, leapt above the surface and fell back with a heavy splash. Their cries (writes a survivor) mingled into ono inarticulate wail, and then the lustier and less terrified shouted for assis tance to the bark Marine, but she was far beyond hailing distance, and night was rapidly closing iu : The waves dashed them ono against another at first, but speedily they began to separate, and the last farewells were taken. One man called to another in our infor• manes hearing, " If you are saved, Frank, send my love to my dear wife," but the friend appealed to answered only with a gurgle of the throat. He was washed off the plank, and perished as his companion spoke. Many were desirous of separating themselves as far as possible from the rest, being fearful lest some desperate struggler might seize hold of them and di aw them under. Others, afraid of their loneliness, called to their neighbours to keep together. Generally, they strove to cheer each other us long as they remained within hearing, and .when the roar of the waves drowned all but the loudest shouting, the call of friendship or the cry of despair was heard iu the distance, and infused confidence or increased dismay in many a failing bosom. And thus they lay the night long at the mercy of the waves, one by one washed off his plank or sinking exhausted with their struggles against the fury of the storm. When daylight broke, scarce one hun dred survivors were picked up by a friendly vessel. Such is a brief outline of this lamentable wreck ; and from these datails two points are made clear to us—first, the enormous responsibility incurred by sending these large vessels to sea is an unseaworthy state ; and, secondly, their utter incapacity to carry boats equal in size and number to save the lives of their passengers in cases of emergency. With respect to the loss of the Russian liner, nothing more is known than that, in company with a Russian squadron working up from Revel to Cron stadt, she was caught in a squall and went down. The following is the official account : At daybreak, Sept. 22, we were near the island of Grand•Tuters. The fleet was on the starboard tack, the Imperafries Alexandra a little to windward, and the l'ludi. mir in the wake of the Lrforl, with four reefs in her topsails. At a distance of five miles from Tuters we veered ; during our maumuvre the Lefort appeared to us as if wishing to veer ; suddenly a violent squall laid her on her side. Though her sails were let go, she leaned over so much to larboard that we expected her masts would go, but she continued gradually to lean over till she foundered in the short time that the Vladimir took to tack about. Tne keel of the Lefurl appeared once, and was then swallowed up in the waves. Exclusive of the commander and I'2 officers, the vessel had on board 743 seamen, t 3 women, and 17 children; all perished. atu anb Volta. THE MURDER IN CHESHIRE. THE adjourned inquest upon the body of James Henderson, farmer, of Braman, Cheshire, who was shot in his bed on the morning of Wednesday week last, was resumed this week, and con• eluded with a verdict of "Guilty of Wilful Murder" against James, the eldest son of the mur dered man. Before detailing the circumstances of the case, it may be as well briefly to describe the fa• ruhouse in which the murder has been committed, and the position of the different sleeping rooms Hardy's farm consists of about two hundred acres of land, rented from Colonel Davenport, of Braman hall, Cheshire, about a mile distant. The house is a good•sized tenement, with a garden and small lawn on the south, and an entrance from the garden by the trout door, and also a second entrance from the farmysrd at the back by the kitchen. Mr. Hender son slept in a front bedroom on the first floor, near the head of the stairs ; his eldest son, James slept in the front bedroom to the left of his father's, on the same floor ; and Mrs. Henderson, the wife, who has been some time in ill health, slept with a married daughter in a back bedroom on the right. A younger ion, Thomas, aged twenty-six, slept with a servant•man and a boy in an attic, and a female servant slept in an attic also ; two Irish hum labourers, who had been working on the farm from June last, slept in a granary over the kitchen, having an en trance from stone steps outside the house, at the west end. As the trial will come on shortly, it may be as well only to give a brief outline of the case as it stands at present. On Tuesday week the family retired to bed at their usual hour, James, the eldest son and prisoner, sitting up. He was heard coming up to bed late. Suddenly, at two in the morning, the household are aroused by the report of firearms ; a second shot is heard, and the cries of the eldest son that robbers are in the house. The scuffling of feet is beard, and the whole family at once get up to discover that Mr. Henderson has been basely murdered while asleep. The story of the prisoner, James Henderson, is. that he was w eked at about two o'clock in the morning by tLe discharge of a pistol in his father's room, and, getting out of bed, Le took down a double-barrciled gun thitt was in Lis own bedroom. On opening his 990