The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

1004 As he had been speaking of the Emperor of the French, he might just say that that individual had recently been making war against the English newspapers, and although he (the speaker) had seen many abuses made of the li- berty of the press, he would say he would rather have it exist with all its mischief than suffer it to be controlled one iota. They must tell the Emperor of the French that before he puts down the English press he must put down the English people, for they should be fighting not merely for their own interests but for the interests of all civilised Leings in the world. He thought there was no man in the House of Commons better able to direct the affairs of the nation at the present time than Lord Palmerston, who was the right man iu the right place. TILE annual dinner of the Woodbury (Devonshire) Agricultural Association was held on Wednesday week at the Globe Inn. Mr. W. H. Peters, of Hare field-house, presided, and there was a large number of the agriculturists of the district present. "The Health of Mr. Palk, M.P. for South Devon," who was present, was cordially received. Mr. PALK, in responding to the toast, alluded to the high price of wheat of late years, and to the sneers of the Liberal press against the agricul• turist There is an old adage, and a very true one, that before you give advice to others you should be careful to wash your own dirty linen at home ! Now, gentlemen, the Timeit is always abusing —not abusing exactly—but always criticising the agriculturists, and insinuating that they know very little of their profession, and that they—the Times—are very much better farmers than we are. Now, the first thing in agriculture is to obtain manure for your fields ; and one would think that in a country like this, where the policy is that all the necessaries of life should be as cheap as they can be possibly grown, every obstacle in the way of agriculture should be removed, and every thing that can benefit agriculture should be carefully pre served by the country at large. Week after week we see this sort of writing I have referred to in the Times ; but I have looked again and again for powerful articles demand ing on the part of England commercial treaties with those countries which supply manure. But if you come to cheap ness, I would ask you what good it would not do if guano were just half the half the price; whether it would not double the cultivation and increase the production of your fields? But, if we are told that it is impossible to obtain this boon from foreign countries, we say that the means of proper sewage, and those sanitary measures which large towns so intimately demand, are neglected, for at this moment there are various plans for conveying the sewage of London—where ? Not to the agriculturists, who would turn it to advantage and make it the means of increased production in our fields; but one engineer is proposing to take it to Long Reach, and, as I understand, the tide washes it to that place, and the tide which comes up the Thames washes it back again, leaving it at the mouth of the Thames, when, by proper regulations, that manure could be chemically engaged, and be placed in a way to he carried to your fields—perhaps the proper term is deodorised—and it would thus become second only in degree to guano, and would be of immense advantage to you. Sir, when I see those things so essential to the benefit of agriculture, which are poison to the crowded in habitants of London, and which could be made so valuable on the fields, allowed to run waste, I cannot but think that those criticisms who find such fault with agricultu rists should take a little trouble and wash their dirty linen at home. Mr. Palk then briefly reviewed the session, and vin dicated the conduct of the Opposition: it had been conducted on great and patriotic principles. He ex pressed himself in favour of competitive examina tion, and of safe and constitutional progress. On the question of foreign policy he was opposed to intervention : We have it from the mouth of one of the Ministers that our relations with foreign countries are at this moment in a very precarious state. On a matter which is so much involved in darkness it would be impossible for me to say much, but this much I lay down as a rule—that it is not England's business, it is not England's policy, to meddle with the affairs of our neighbours. We enjoy a free con stitution, where the press is unfettered, and where every man may speak his opinion without fear or favour. We possess a Church free from superstition, and in which we delight. We possess a Queen whom we honour, and who is herself a model of every virtue which can grace the female sex. Let us deplore the fate of those who live under a despotic Government, and whose hands and speech are fettered and tied by soldiers and police. Let us hope that the progress of civilisation and the blessed truths of that Gospel which my friend here so earnestly preaches will ere long dawn upon those benighted nations ; but do not let us send the best blood of England, do not let us send the yeomen and aristocracy that are our pride to force our institutions upon nations that are unable and unworthy to appreciate them; but let every nation wash its own dirty linen at home. Let England's course be pure and undefiled ; let her maintain civil and religious liberty ; let her give the guidance of her press and the example of her institutions to those who are willing to accept them: but I do implore you, be not carried away by the thirst of glory, or by the triumphs which your soldiers have so nobly won, to mingle in the troubles and turmoils of continental disputes, which to us are nothing. Let us keep clear of all those quarrels, and, first and foremost, let every man whom I n ow address bear thi s i n m i n d, t h at a l t h oug h a Liberal Government such as we now possess may be, in the opinion of many, a guarantee of progress and of the impro vet:tient of comm erce an d of agr i culture, yet, if a Minister is to . be %maintained in power so l e ly by li v i ng i n hot water w ith our neighbours—by keeping fleets on the THE PRESS. shores of America, by fleets in the Mediterranean, and by organtsgtions of soldiers, by diplomatic notes, by protocols, and by all the wonderful things known only to the initiated, then we purchase things too dear—then I say I prefer peace and plenty for old England to all the honour and glory that may be achieved by war, THE RIGHT HON. M. T. BAINES, M. P., visited Leeds on Monday and Tuesday last, and had an in terview with the Leeds Chamber of Commerce with respect to the existing state of the law of partner. ship and the bankruptcy law. Mr. Baines listened attentively to all the suggestions made to him, and received the memoranda offered on the various ques tions. He promised that they should all receive careful attention in the proper quarters. Among other topics discussed were the heavy French duties on Engiish linen yarns, fire insurance duties, the duty on paper, and local dues on shipping. After an interview of more than an hour the meeting broke up._ . MR. EDWIN JAMES, Q.C., has issued an address to the electors of Hull as a candidate for the vacancy created by the promotion to the bench of Mr. Watson, Q.C. Mr. James declares that his opinions are essentially Liberal. Vote by ballot, extended fran chise, no Church rates, &c., are his principles. Had he been in Parliament he would have voted for the bill. Finally, he says, " I should support the Govern• ment of which Lord Palmerston is the head." Mr. COBDEN'S RETIREMENT, at the next election, from the representation of the West Riding, is con sidered certain. Lord Goderich is mentioned among the Liberal party as their man. Mr. Cobden, we are told, thinks he can be as useful to his country as the representative of a smaller constituency, where local matters will not press so constantly on his time and attention." LtlttroDolitan. Mn. SPURGEON, on Sunday forenoon, resumed the occupancy of his own pulpit in Park-street Chapel, Southwark. A great many persons were admitted by tickets 1)k-fore the doors opened to the public, and when the preacher entered every nook and corner, as well in the body of the chapel as in the galleries, was densely crowded by an eager auditory. Mr. Spurgeon was conducted to the pulpit by the deacons of his chapel. He appeared quite recovered from his recent indisposition. After the usual service, Mr. Spurgeon referred to the accident at the Surrey gardens : It might not have arisen so much from the malice of men as from some simply wicked intention to disturb the congregation. I cannot entertain for a moment the thought that there was any intention to murder those fellow•ereatures whose lives were sacrificed on that melan• choly occasion. God forgive the instigators of that horrid scene. They have my forgiveness from the depths of my soul. Tt shall not, however, stop us ; I shall preach there again yet—( suppresed sounds of approval )—and God shall give us souls. Satan's empire shall tremble yet more and more. God is with us. Who shall be against us ? Under the circumstances I have mentioned I have chosen for my testa highly comforting and consoling passageof the Scrip. tares, and one which alone enables me to appear here before you this morning, and which has brought comfort and consolation to my still oppressed spirit. It is selected from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, chap. ii., v. 0, 10, 11. Mr. Spurgeon gave an eloquent exposition of the text for more than half an hour. The discourse was almost entirely free from the strange metaphors which have rendered this gentleman's preaching so notorious. THE I,IW AMF.NDMENT SOCIETY held the first general meeting of the fourteenth session on Tuesday last. Mr. Collier, Q.C., M.P., occupied the chair. The report of the council was read. It merely indicated the various questions connected with law reform likely to occupy the Attention of the society during the ensuing session. The questions of judi- cial statistics, legal education, the appointment of a minister of justice and a public prosecutor, the state of the criminal law, and the consolidation of the statute law, were earnestly impressed upon the attention of the society. THE QUARTERLY RETURN OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL up to September 30th shows a low average of deaths and marriages, hut a high average of births. 77,431 marriages took place, 1,801 less than in the spring : 157,033 children were regis tered as born alive—the greatest number of births ever registered before in the corresponding quarter of the year, and exceeding by 2,700 the births of the same period in 1855. The deaths amounted to 91,330, leaving an increase to the population of 66,303. The emigrants amounted to 50,228, of whom 19,225 were English. The Registrar-General in concluding his report dwells forcibly upon the general insalubrity of country villages. He ob serves : The germs of insalubrity are scattered about in every village : for the rational laws of health are violated alike in the cottage and in the farmhouse. The dwelling•hou6es sometimes rest on damp undrained ground; they lie ofteu SATURDAY, at the bottom of pitlike depressions of the earth, insterd of standing on the sides of the higher grounds, from which the water flows away naturally, end the decaying “rganic emanations are dispersed and decomposed by the %%Inds. The farmhouse is often close to the farms •1 on a low part of the farm, and is surrounded by buildings, ricks, and trees. In the yard, or near it, the refuse of the house and of all the animals is kept month after month under. going fermentation, and giving off noxious vapours. Into the pond out of which the cattle drink the ammoniacal liquor falls that should find its way over the land. And it happens that if the air is stagnant for some days, if the temperature is high, if some sick person or diseased animal enters the place which is surrounded by salubrious fields, the farm becomes a scene of suffering, the cattle perish by pleuro-pneumonias, the children are attacked bZ scorlatinas, the wife has low fever, or the farmer himself dies, and his name, at a premature age, is enrolled in the registers of deaths. About 6,426 English farmers die in a year, and of them many are young ; 2,605 are under sixty live years of age. Alluding to the general cleanliness of farmers in the interior of their houses, he continues : They have only to render the air which they breathe about their houses pure to become, with those around thew, the halest people in the world. To place any of the new farmhouses and cottages to be built on certain eleva• tions is the first point; to carry out and to cover with earth all the refuse of the house and yards daily would prevent the escape of the ammonia, the most precious part of the manure, and at the same time rid the atmosphere of the fatal malaria that surrounds the farmhouses and cottages of the country. These matters well deserve the attention of English landed proprietors, as they are gene- rally much better informed in sanitary matters than their agents, and can at once give effect to improvements beyond the reach of the small proprietors of other countries. In conclusion he observes:— What we want must now be distinctly understood ; we want pure air and pure water about our dwellings, and the refuse, which infects the air, and makes man poison man, to be restored directly to the soil. THE CAST IRON PAVEMENT, constructed after an American patent, and laid down some months since in Leadenhall-street, opposite the Church of St. Katherine Cree, having exhibited certain unmis. takeable symptoms of looseness end want of tenacity and endurance, owing to the bad foundation, has recently been taken up, preparatory to being relaid. THE HEADS of all the med ical corporations of England, Scotland, and Ireland have, it is said, at last agreed upon the terms of a new Medical Reform Bill. A NEW FIRE -ESCAPE, on the telescope principle, was tested with great success in Black;riars on Mon day. The escape is raised and lowered with great rapidity in almost every direction, and at any distance from the burning premises. The operation of reaching a window forty five feet high can be per fumed ten times in less than two minutes. Several persons, including a female, were ntised and lowered to and from the top of a house with perfect safety. THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS DEPUTATION had an interview with Sir Benjamin Hall on Wed nesday for the purpose of submitting the Main Drainage Scheme to his notice. Mr. BazAlgette having entered into lengthy explanations, Sir Ben jamin Hall promised to give the question his best attention. On the deputation submitting to Sir Ben jamin Hall the Covent•garden improvement plans, the President of the Board of Works complained of the delay which had occurred in the preparation of this and the plans for the Southwark improvements. On the Bth March the board received the plans, and a final reply, involving an outlay of 300,0001. was only returned on the sth November, thus leaving only five days to decide upon the proposal. THE LORD MAYOR ELECT WM duly presented on Monday to the Lord Chancellor for her Majesty's approval. The Recorder entered into the usual de tail of the Lord Mayor's rise and success in business, and the Lord Chancellor replied expressing approval of the selection by the aldermen on behalf of the Queen. A LAUGHABLY EXPERT ROBBERY at the house of the Assistant Judge was effected last evening week. In the course of the evening, a man presented an official looking letter at the residence of Mr. Pash ley, Q.C., the Assistant• Judge, in Manchester•square, and said he was to wait for an answer. As the bell rang, the footman was bringing the tea service down stairs, and he placed it on a table in the hall while he went to the door. He took the letter up to Mr. Pashley and when he came down the man was gone; so were the teaspoons, the sugar-tongs, tea-pot, and sugar-basin, and an umbrella. The thief got clear away. SIR CULLING EARDLEY, and a deputation from the neighbourhood of Erith, waited upon Sir Benjamin Hall on Thursday, to protest against the proposed drainage outfall being at Erith. Sir Culling Eardley pointed out that the proposed outfall was only seven eights of a mile from the metropolitan boundary. Sir B. Hall promised to give the matter his most anxious consideration. MISS FLORENCE NIORTINOLT.E was on Thursday unanimously elected by the committee to an honorary life governorship of Middlesex Hospital.