The Sun. — London, England, 1870-02-03 00:00:00

TLIE PUBLIC JOURIVALS. The Times has often expressed the belief that a settle ent of the Irish Land Question on equitable principles an and will be effected, nor do we anticipate any for midable party opposition to such a bill as Mr. Gladstone is likely to introduce. But will such a bill satisfy Ireland, and does not the state of Ireland at this moment warn us to put no faith in conciliatory measures? Mis givings like these will force themselves at times even on unprejudiced minds, and the most will assuredly be made of them by enemies of the new x lrish policy. Let it, then be admittei at once that no bill founded on reason and justice will satisfy the Fenian or the extreme Orange party. There are already symptoms of a disposition on the part of certain popular leaders in Ireland to attempt this ma,meavre—to secure all that can be obtained from the Imperial Government, and afterwards to represent it as worthless, unless the edifice be crowned by national in dependence. No land settlement, however comprehensive, would satisfy these wild aspirations, but it might do much to check their spread; and, whatever Irish Nationalists may think, we are firmly persuaded that a goo ..1 Land Bill will help to consolidate the Union. In the meantime we hold it to be the imperative duty of Government to crush the agrarian terrorism which, en couraged by atrocious articles in the National Press, has reached so fearful a height during the past year. If the existing law is found inadequate eitho: to prevent murder in broad daylight, or to detect the guilv parties, the aid of Parliament should be invoked. Let us not deceive ourselves. While the regeneration of Ireland is being wrought out by the slow operation of social forces, aided by remedial laws, the Executive Government must be:pre pared to govern in a sense whieh is scarcely understood in England. That Parliament will consent to strengthen its hands, if need be, admits of no doubt whatever; but it is for the Irish members, above all, to speak out with no uncertain voice on the necessity of restoring security of life and property to Ireland. Mr. Gladstone declared on a famous occasion that he would recognise none as national spokesmen except the duly-elected representatives of Irish constituencies, and their silence or equivocal speech in Irish debates has often done irreparable mischief. Let the Irish members exhibit a truly patriotic independence it. Parliament, and Ireland, like Scotland, will - have no reason to complain of her position in the councils of the empire. Tho Daily News observes that a remarkable memorial has been addressed to Mr. Gladstone upon the subject of the indelibility of Holy Orders. Between thirty and forty clergymen unite to point out to the Prime Minister the hardship under which men labour who have %Icon holy orders, and who wish to retire from the ministry of the Church of England for reasons valid to themselves, "whether they are disinclined to accept its form of government, or its relation to the State, or its dog matic teaching; or whether, from any change in the cir cumstances of their lives, they are no longer able conscien tiously to discharge the duties of their office." Among the names appended to the memorial are some of the most eminent in the scholarship and in the higher intellectual literature of England Protestants recognise the mischief and iniquity cf the doctrine of irrevocable vows. What is the difference in principle between it and the indelibility of orders in the English Church ? How is the position of Mr. NV. 0, Clark, who desires to lay aside his clerical character, and cannot do so, to be distinguished from that of Father Hyacinthe, who, do what he will, cannot cease to be a monk ? In one respect, the English clergyman is at a disadvantage compared with the French Carmelite. He is the subject of disqualification by statute. It is monstrous that. because Horne Tooke was politically odious to the Govern ment of the day, all future clergymen should remain under civil disabilities. The policy and justice of the demand, that all clergymen not engaged in the active discharge of clerical duties should be exempted from disabilities not imposed on other subjects of the Queen, are evident. We cannot suppose that a Liberal Parliament and Govern ment will allow the grievance to remain unredressed. The Pall Mall Gazette considers the provisionary reten tion of Lord Cairns for the leadership of the Lords to be the wisest step possible. As between Lord Cairns and Lord Salisbury, although we think that the first took the wrong and the last the right course at the crisis of the Irish Church legislation, we still hold that Lord Cairns is a more satisfactory depositary of the singular powers of the Conservative leadership in the Lords than the nobleman who is supposed to compete with him for them. If we say that Lord Salisbury has been greatly over-praised, we merely mean that he has received a great deal too much of that essentially insolent eulogy which is poured upon every member of the aristocracy who gives signs of talent, which really proceeds upon the assumption that a noble man is ordinarily born a fool. Nobody can doubt that ho is a man of real ability, but it seems extra ordinary that anybody who has watched his career should infer from what has hitherto been its character that he is remarkable for discretion or self-control. As to the pre spnt Lord Derby, it will be time to consider his claims to the Conservative leadership when experience has shown that the Conservatives of the House of Lords will follow him. That his temperament is of a kind which makes bird a genuine Conservative . of a certain sort, it seems to U 3 absurd to doubt ;. but the temperament is not that of the older Conservatives of the present day. and it is emi nently not that of the younger men. All a Liberal is entitled to ask for is that form of prudence which, by influencing a great hereditary assembly, may save us from a convulsion ; and there is no Conservative peer in whom this can be snore readily presumed than in Lord Cairns, who, as a practitioner at the bar, was above all things dis tinguished for his good sense and self-command. The Standard thinks that Lord Granville's recent arswcr to the Emigrants and Colonists' Aid Corporation, who prayed for aid from the Government in the shape of grant 3 of land in the colonies, and in other ways, is a capital illustration of the spirit in which the present Ministry have interpreted their duties to the people of this king dom. It is now pretty nearly manifest that neither by direct nor indirect means will the Government of Mr. Glad stone give any aid to the development of our colonial empire. Passing from the purely Crown colonies to the ethers, let ets consider for a moment all the bearings of the extraor dinary position laid down by Lord Granville—that, because the management of the Crown lands has been surrendered to the colonies, therefore it `is out of the power of the Imperial Government to interfere in L espect to these lands. This is the first time such a declara has been openly made by any Imperial Minister, and we venture to say it is the most decisive step yet taken towards severing the bond between the mother country and the colonies—in other words, towards depriving the people of the British empire of their in heritance. The doctrine proclaimed by Lord Granvillle brings us to this somewhat startling conclusion, that England has no more right to claim a share either in the Australian continent or it the North American provinces. There can be no doubt that, in future, it will require great tact and dexterity on the part of the Colonial Office to interfere in the management of the Crown lands in the colonies. But the task, though it has become difficult in consequence of our past blunders, is by no means impossible. Tho position for which we contend is, that the people of the British empire have never parted with the fee-simple of their colonial estate—that the waste lands in the colonies are not the exclusive property of those British subjects who happen to reside within their bounds, but are the general property of the whole B r iti s h people--that there fore the Imperial Government in the name of the Crown, has a right to have a voice in their management, and that it has never given up that right, and that it ought to exer else it whenever the public interest shall demand. If the Bishop of London's Fund has not done all that was hoped from it by its zealous founder, it has accom plished, says the Post, much which he and his successor and all who have either promoted or aided it, have great reason to regard with satisfaction. Looking back to the five years during which the Fund has been in existence, it shews a result of sixty new parishes created and provided with churches, sixty new schools esta blished, upwards of a hundred clergymen sup ported from its resources, and nearly as many more out of other resources through its agency. The Bishop of London's Fund is the most recent instanoe on a scale of magnitude of the extent to which religion can be subsidised by the zeal of individuals. The creation of sixty new parishes and schools in five years is a, proof that the religious sentiment of the nation is sound; and we may take this opportunity of observing that the re sources of the fund are so impartially distributed that the board of management are often ignorant whether their grants are subsidising High Church or Low Church. But the fund has not only been the agent of increased religious activity directly; it has stimulated the zeal of persons who had no connection with it, and who are in cluded in the acknowledgement of the Bishop and the committee that there have been several remarkable in stances of individual benevolence where gentlemen have come forward and built churches or schools at their sole cost, or have largely contributed to the promotion of par ticular works. We may reduce all this to the simple formula that as bad example is contagious, so also is good example. The Telegraph, in referring to the alarming report respecting Dr. Livingstone, observes that just when all minds were at rest about the safety of the brave explorer —when we were saying to each other that it could not be long before we should hear of him upon the Congo, the Nile, or the Zanzibar coast—the sinister and disheartening report arrives. Is it true, as the gallant Captain of the Peterel believes ? Is the dust of the goo d and God-fearing explorer now blown by the unconscious wind about some barbarous village of the African Lake country—his noble soul gone to its repose, his body reduced to ashes by fire ? Has he perished, after so many dangers, when the ultimate secret of the very heart of Africa lay in his possession; when his eyes had seen and ids feet traversed the mysterious regions east of the Tanganyika w a t er, an d th e map of the dark continent was et last made complete? In that ease what shall we not have lost? —and desponding Science answe::s Treasures which cannot he gathered again. ri3h facts of ,r s :cogya: , 7ly and call-I°lo7y I!tterli a stove of inforulou about those hidden I)lReea of the earth, which 'vein; loc'etl up in the kn ow l edge of the murdered traveller,' or their record dest-royed. along with Lint by tho ferocious and 'gaurant barbarian: leaves geographers and learneu,..inen " poor indeed," and postpones for genera tion.;iv probably, the civilisation of Central Africa. For-our own part, we have a better hope ;we refuse to "give up Livingstone" upon inch dubious hearsays, unless further particulars shall clear away these many elements of suspicion, and make it palpably in van to doubt. The bravo discoverer has been killed so often, and has so often turned up safe and sound, that we will not despair about our illustrious wanderer on the strength of a pieco of gossip from the ' s l ave s h e d s on the Congo. It as possi ble, alas ! and the ways of God are not as the wills of men, yet if over there lived an Englishman on whom we might thpend not to die before his time, David Livingstone, who walked always ...in t,40 strength of ..bL- ..,Itrastor," seems to e that man. DR. LIVINGSTONE. The general weight of opinion is against the truth of. the rumour that Dr. Livingstone has been murdered Many reasons make it an improbable story. These are all summed up in a letter to the Times by Sir Roderick Mur chison—the highest authority certainly upon the subject The veteran savant writes :—" Having been successful hitherto in disproving the various accounts of the death of of my friend Dr. Livingstone, I beg to send you a few lines expressing the grounds of my disbelief of the last of these stories, as given in the Times of this day. In his letter to Mr. Doherty from the West Coast of Africa, of the 9th of January, 1870, Captain Cochrane states that a Portuguese trader had brought (to what place is not said) the.information that when Livingstone was on the lakes at the head of the Congo, 90 days' journey from (the mouth of ?) that river, he was killed and burnt by the natives. Now, let us compare this statement with the facts and dates in our possession regarding the move ments of our great traveller. Livingstone wrote from Ujiji on the 20th of May, 1869, to Zanzibar, expecting to be supplied with a number of boatmen and goods to enable him to proceed to the north of Lake Tanganyika, and, as he expressed it, " to connect the soures I have dis oovere'd with the Nile of Speke and Baker." Dr. Kirk, in his dispatch to Lord Clarendon of the 2nd of October, 1869, states that he would lose no time in procuring and sending the supplies demanded. Granted that these requirements were forwarded in a week or two from that date, they could not have reached Livingstone before the middle of December, as it takes two months to communicate between Zanzibar and Ujiji. How, then, can Livingstone have had time to organise his expedition to proceed to the northern end of Tanganyika, and then round it to the as yet unknown lakes at the head off the Congo, by the date required to verify this new rumour of his death ? For the death, as will be perceived, must have happened 90 days before the news reached the Portuguese settlements on the West Coast. Even with the incredible supposition that Livingstone started alone and destitute as he then was at Ujiji, without waiting for the men and supplies he had written for, there would not have been time for him to have penetrated the totally unexplored and extensive region lying between Ujiji and the head waters of the Congo. Not but that I think it quite pos sible, as I have already expressed it to the Geographical Society, that if foiled in connecting Tanganyika with the Nile, he might eventually return by way of the Congo and the West Coast of Africa. I may be permitted to refer to the report of a meeting of the society contained in the Times of the 14th of December 1869, where it will be seen that I stated that in this case we should have before us a long and anxious period of suspense regarding our traveller. I will conclude by hoping that your readers will agree with me that this last rumour may vanish, like all the previous accounts of the great traveller's death." This confidence of Sir Roderick will be all the more buoyed up by a letter from " Grant, Brodie, and Co." They give details of the " Portuguese trader's " story, and shew that it is improbable. Captain Cochrane must have had the same information as the friends of " Grant, Brodie, and C 0.," at Loanda. They have the very letter on which the rumour is founded. The epistle is in Portuguese, and runs as follows ;—" After a tedious jour ney I crossed the Congo near the town of the Chic f Katende, on a bridge of trees, and three days after wards I took the direction S.S.E., calculating by the sun, until I reached the town of the Chief Manguan gua, in 12 days' march from the Congo, and 95 days' from Malange (in Angola). Two months after my arrival-- the 15th of June, 1863—1 received intelligence of the arrival at the town of the Chief Chinde on the other side of the Zambesi of a great embassy from Muata- Cazembe, who were going with tribute to Muata-Janso. Curiosity impelled me to send for the ambassador, who came with all his following about 500 persons. Entering into conversation with him as to the routes to Mozambique, the idea occurred to me to inquire about Dr. Livingstone. He replied that it was not right to speak about such a "fetish man.' I feigned alarm at his answer, and allowed some days topass without touching ou the subject again. As we daily became more friendly, I decided one night on inviting him to my tent, and there I had ready for him two jars of cacollo—a drink made from honey—and then after causing the servant to retire, he told me with every appearance of secresy the fallowing story. The Calunga,' or Dr. Livingstone, was a great fetish man —he spoke every day with the sun—he never slept in a house—he did not fear the wild beasts—he always tra velled with an animal in a box which never ate anything, and he was always talking with it, and asking the way from it, as he never asked it from any person. Occasionally he opened papers and talked aloud to them ; he passed rivers without a canoe, and did many other wonderful things. On his return from Loanda he had already the reputation of being a - wizard, and no one cared to meet him. Some days after he passed on that journey there died a son of a chief residing at twenty days' march from the place whey: they were then conversing. Believ ing that Livingstone had bewitched his son the chief pur- sued him, but failed to overtake him. After some time had elapsed, learning that Livingstone was approaching his ter ritory, he sent out to meet him, and gave him muange, or drink for testing fetish workers, and as soon as its deadly effects manifested themselves they quartered and burnt his body. Such is the information which Fumo Aimee., ambas sador of the Chief of Cazembe, communicated to me when I met him on the banks of the Zambeza from the 15th to the 25th of June, 1868."—" We think {says the writers), there can be no question that the foregoing story is the same as Captain Cochrane has picked up, and seeing that Dr. Livingstone was at Cazembe's town in July, 1863, and at Ujiji in May, 1869, cr, if the Arab reports are correct, as late as July, 1869, there need be no alarm felt about the present rumours." THE EARL OF CLARENDON.—The Earl of Claren don, almost by inherent right, holds the portfolio of the Foreign Office, and most naturally so, in the eternal fitness of things. He commenced his diplomatic career half a century ago, and still his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated. He was only twenty when he went out as attach 6 to St. Petersburg, and he is now, for the fourth time, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The singu larity is that it is not for the fifth time; but Lord Pal merston passed him over in his last Ministry, and he had an interregnum of four years before ho reposed on the soft inglorious cushion of the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord Gran ville, indeed, made an admirable Foreign Secretary. Save for one recalcitrant peer, he might, in 1859, have been Premier and formed a Ministry. It is well understood that there is considerably loss competition for the seals of the Foreign Office than for any other great office; but in their party Lords Clarendon and Granville would be far away the best men, Earl Russell making a bad third, or, rather, being incompetent. Lord Granville had an advan tage which Earl Russell certainly never possessed, of being able to speak French with a perfection which has visibly astonished and delighted Frenchmen. Never was foreign statesmanship turned to a better account than when Lord Granville gave such vigorous and important aid to the first Great Exhibition of 1851. But in the accumulated experience of the Foreign Office, at least since Palmerston has left us, Lord Clarendon is hardly rivalled. And yet he had to stand the fearful ordeal of the Crimean war. It was under his guidance that we "drifted" into war, and it was Lord Clarendon himself who employed and gave currency to the phrase. But it was well understood that he had wisely, manfully, and patriotically done his duty; and the late Lord Derby, in endeavouring to form a ministry, desired nothing better than that he should be able to retain the services of Lord Clarendon as Foreign Secretary. Lord Clarendon had the happiness of concluding the Crimean war in 1856, although in the following Conference at Paris he showed almost to as much disadvantage as Lord Russell at the Conference at Vienna. Among the great services which Lord Clarendon has done for the country, it will be remembered that he was Lord Lieute nant of Ireland in those doleful years after the failure of the potato crop had forced Free Trade on Sir Robert, and the gaunt shapes of famine and fever forced emigration on the Irish Colts. It was an ungracious, anxious, bitter time; and after he had done the work, the reputation of it was eclipsed by the brilliant reign of the chivalrous, magnificent, and gay-hearted Eglinton, who won Irish hearts as they were never won again, except, perhaps, by the Duke of Abercorn.—Landon Society. The men on strike at the Tinsley Park colliery, South Yorkshire, have agreed to submit their case to arbi tration. The proprietor of the collieries (Mr. Huntsman) is to be waited on to obtain his acquiescence. The new Bishop of Manchester (Dr. Fraser) will in all probability be consecrated in York Minster on Thurs day, the 24th inst., being the Feast of St. Matthew. He will be enthroned iu Manchester Cathedral immediately afterwards. The BiE:hoprie of the Ozaoge River Free State will be forthwith (leclured vacant, in consequence of the refusal of Dr. T wells to appear Lefore the coot of Bishop Gray, the Metropolitan of South Africa, to answer grave charges which have been alleged against him. It is expected that Archdeacon Merliman will be the new bishop. The DlNuke Adverister says that the Rev. James Daily, of t: at city, - who is •spoken of as "an able and e'equent CougrtgaticnaliA minister," has resigned his charge in consequence of feeling himself unable to teach, without conscious hypocrisy, the doctrines believed by big flock. The greater part of the workmen on strike at the cotton spinning and weaving mills of Messrs. Thomas Taylor and Brother, at Wigan, have roturncd to their work the masters having omised that they will return the 10 per cent. taken away a short time age, as soon as an Ina' proved atat© _ of 4040 warrants it. " THE. SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY' EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1870. LAW AND POLICE, TEE VOYSEY CASE. —According to the printed list of sittings, the appeal of the Rev. Charles Voysey from the Chancery Court of York, for alleged heresy, was to be heard yesterday, but it has been postponed sine die, and, from the peculiar circumstances of the position of the bishops who are Privy Councillors, there will be a difficulty in forming a court, as one of the right reverend prelates must be on the committee. The Archbishop of Canterbury is unable to attend, the Archbishop of York cannot sit on appeal from his own court, and the Bisho of London issued the commission of inquiry. The case therefore stands over for some time. LIABILITY OF RAILWAYS WITH " RUNNING " POWERS. — In the Court of Queen's Bench on Wednesday the case of "Thomas v. the Rhymney Railway Company" raised a novel point with respect to the liability of a company which has "running " powers over another company's line. The plaintiff, it appears, took a ticket on the Rhymney line to go to Cardiff, and when the train was on the Taff Vale Company's line, over which the Rhymey had running powers, a collision occurred between it and a Taff Vale mineral train. The occasion of the accident it was admitted, was negligence on the part of the latter company in not displaying proper lights, and a jury at Swansea found a verdict to that effect. A rule was obtained; and the question came on now, as to which company should be liable for damages. The Court held that though they thought the Taff Vale Company ought to bear the cost, yet they were bound by ,a former decision, which held that the company issuing the ticket was responsible for the safety of its passengers. JUDICIAL CENSURE OF A COMMISSION AGENT. — On Wednesday in the Court of Queen's Bench the case of " Turner v. Thomas " was hdard, The defendant had been engaged as a commission agent at Cardiff by the plaintiffs, a firm of greese and oil merchants at Millwall. He grossly misused the trust placed in him by taking large orders for his employers goods in different parts of South Wales, and accounting for them at a much lower figure than the sums he received. He thus pocketed the difference, which in the casts leyis of the present action was very considerable. Mr. Justice Blackburn, in directing the jury to find a verdict for the plaintiffs said that the defendant had laid himself open to a criminal indictment for embezzlement. Courts of equity had a hundred times over decided that an agent was bound to recoup to his principals every farthing he received in any transaction. If such conduct as that of the defendant was not punished, it would be impossible to carry on the trade of the country, as between agents and the firms they represented. The judgment would be for the plaintiffs, the defendant repay ing the amount of loss sustained by them. THE CASE OF Ex-GOVERNun EYRE.—The action brought by Mr. Phillips, of Jamaica, against Ex-Governor Eyre for assault and imprisonment at the time of the Jamaica rebel lion, is now under consideration by the Court of Exchequer Chamber. The Court of Queen's Bench when the case was before them, decided in favour of Mr. Eyre, on the ground that he had been indemnified by the Colonial Legislature, and also by an Act of the Imperial Parliament. The judges of the Common Pleas and Ex chequer are now called upon to review this decision, and the case is proceeding. DEFRARDING INSURANCE COMPANIES.—FIIIIICiS Brown, the fishmonger at Gravesend, who stands charged with forgeries and frauds upon various marine insurance offices, has been convicted at the Central Criminal Court and sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. It was stated that in the course of 1869 he had effected five fictitious insuranoes with different offices, amounting to £1,350. A youth of 17 who had assisted in - one of his frauds, was sentenced to six months' hard labour. Both pleaded guilty. ATTEUPTED MURDER AT SEA.—At the Central Criminal Court a sailor named Smith was charged with brandishing a knife, and threatening to kill the captain of the ship. The captain drew his revolver and fired two shots. The captain had been charged before the Consul at San Salvador with feloniously shooting. The sailor was acquitted. THE " DEPTFORD SPEC."—Alexander Morris and Thomas Morris surrendered at the Central Criminal Court to re ceive judgment. They pleaded guilty last year to the charge of carrying on an illegal lottery, known as the '_Deptford Spec." They were allowed to go at large upon their undertaking not to repeat the offence. Having broken that eugagemert, they have been called up for judgment, and fined £lOO each, and to be imprisoned until the fine was paid. TILE SILK ROBBERY CASE. William Davies, who pleaded guilty to the great silk robbery at Messrs. Leaf ,nd Co., he being a confidential employi of the firm, has been sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. The young woman Greatham, for whose sake he committed the clime, was found guilty of pawning the goods, and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. The magis trate severely reproved her for the thorough heartlessness which she had displayed throughout the whole affair; but she appeared to be indifferent to her sentence. The prisoner Davies was so much affected through the trial that he had to be assisted from the dock. THE " Bow BANDITTI "—Three men, who were said by the police to belong to what is called the Bow Banditti, have been found guilty at the Middlesex sessions of stealing chest of tea. It seems this gang are a terror to the neigh bourhOod, and several of the sixteen who originally com posed it are now undergoing penal servitude. These worthies were sentenced respectively to eighteen months' and two years' hard labour, and seven years' penal servitude. That was a triumphant appeal of an Irishman who was a lover of antiquity, who, in arguing the supe riority of old architecture over the new, said, " Where will you find any modern building that has lasted so long as the ancient ? " The Liverpool ',Corporation supports several churches at a cost of some thousands of pounds annually. At the meeting of the Town Council on Wednesday, Alderman Wood drew attention to the miserable way in which the churches were attended, describing it as a dis grace both to the churchmen of the town and to the in cumbents of the churches. JOE Goss CHARGED WITH ASSAULT.—At the Wolverhampton Police-court, on Wednesday, Joe Goss, the prizefighter, was charged with having committed a violent assault upon a young man named James Purnell. The assault was proved, and Goss was fined £3 and costs. LADY ELPHINSTONE.—The death is announced of Lady Elphinstone, the mother of Sir James Elphinstone, Bart., M.P., at the age of 88. Her ladyship was the widow of Sir Robert Dalrymple Horn Elphinstone, the first baronet, who died in 1843, and the daughter of the late Colonel David Hepburn, of Keith Mareschal, East Lothian. The death is also announced of the Coti.ntess Antoinette, only daughter of the late Count John and the Lady Jemima Bentinck, at the age of 84. TILE SAME SALARY, BUT A BROADER CHURCH. —The American papers report two facts of some significance concerning the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. One is that he has " decisively declined" an offer of his Church to raise his salary from 12,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars per annum, on the ground that he has enough for his needs, and is satisfied. The other is, that for the sake of " Uni versalists and other unorthodox Christians," the old Con fession of Faith will not hereafter be offered to now mem bers for subscription. The church of Mr. Beecher is called the Plymouth Church, and when it was built a small bit of the famous Plymouth rock was placed in it GOOD ADVICE.—Sir Charles Lyell, when in the United States, received the following advice from a friend: —" When you are racing with an opposition steamboat, or chasing her, and the other passengers are cheering the captain, who is sitting on the safety-valve to keep it down with his weight, go as far as you can from the engine, and lose no time, especially if you hear the captain exclaim, Fire up, boys—put on the resin !' Should a servant call out, Those gentlemen who have not paid their passage will please go to the ladies' cabin !' obey the summons without a moment's delay, for then an explosion may be apprehended. 'Why to the ladies' cabin ?' said I. Because it is the end of tho boat, and they are getting anxious for the personal security of those who have not yet paid their dollars, being, of course, indifferent about the rest. Therefore, never pay in ad vance, for should you fall overboard during the race. and the watch cries out to the captain, 'A passenger over board !' he will ask, 'Has ho paid his passage?' and, if he receives an answer in the affirmative, he will call out, `Go ahead!'" THE REDUCTIONS AT CHATIIAII.—The work of reducing the establishment at Chatham Dockyard goes en steadily (says the Times), and while a number of hired men are discharged every Saturday, the superannuation of men above the new limit of 59 years,or those who arc pro nounced medically unfit to do a fair day's work askrequirecl under the Admiralty order, continues. A number of the workmen have thus been just discharged with pensions ac cording to their positions and length of service, and an order has arrived for still more to be pensioned. The men discharged will receive the following sums yearly : J. H. B. Harris, single station shipwright, £49 lls. id.; F. Mariner, painter, £3l 195.; T. Tester, storehouseman, ..£27 7s. 9d.; T. Oliff, sawyer, .£2O 9s. Ed. ; W. Camfield, metal-worker, £29 Cs. 10L; T. Crandlo, joiner, £25; W. Abbotson, labourer, £l3 19s. 11d.; and H. Rose, caulker, £ll 14s. 9d. Of course, all these men who receive super rinnuations are "established" hands ; the unfortunate " Wred"--.some of whom ha'o beon for years in the yard - a 4 nothing when dismissed. MISCELLANEOUS NEWS A GOVERNMENT EDUCATION BILL. The Telegraph makes a sort of semi-official an 4 nouncement that the Government will attempt to deal with the Education problem this year. A. Inea,sure will be brought in and will have all the dig nity and consequences of a Cabinet piece of policy. The arrangement was to have been settled, in a tech nical sense, at the Cabinet Council yesterday after noon. Virtually, however, the mind of the Govern ment was previously made up. or Ton, and until I read yotitWitT did not liiew that it came from any society, as it was presented, and not read. The few words which I uttered were meant to endorse a supposed welcome from the people of York. If I had been informed of the nature of the address I should not have been able to take part in the presenta tion." This disposition to explain matters is not con fined to the York prelate. On the other hand, the complaints of certain persons who did not receive the Greek Archbishop are very outspoken. " A Nonconformist" says that though the visitor may be an excellent man, he is an alien, and " a priest of the most corrupt Church in Christendom." Yet he is allowed to pronounce the benediction. over the Primate of England, whilst an English Nonconformist Minister may not avail himself to the full extent of British universities, churches, and burial grounds. BISHOP OF LONDON'S FUND. general meeting of the board of management of the Bishop of London's Fund has been held to • receive the annual report. The Bishop of London, who presided, said that last year when they met he was comparatively a stranger to them, so much so that doubts had ob tained currency as to whether ho would continue to fill the office of his predecessor in connection with this fund. Ile thanked the Executive Committee for their services, and enumerated some of the great results which have been achieved by the fund. The report chews that since the work commenced—five years ago—no fewer than sixty churches have been raised by it in the metropolis, capable of containing 46,000 persons, and an equal number of schools, providing instruction for 112,000 children. A. sum of £400,000 has passed through the hands of the treasurers, and altogether the magni tude of the operations of the fund, and the visible results already obtained, are very satisfactory and encouraging to its promoters. INDELIBILITY OF HOLY ORDERS. The law that binds a man for life to a practice or profession which his conscience or reasonable con venience may render it necessary for him to forsake, is meeting with much opposition. A number of gentlemen who have taken orders in _the Church of England, and by the existing laws are prevented from leaving that body, have addressed a memorial to Mr. Gladstone praying for a relief from this grievance. They call attention to the fact that the Act of 1801 was avowedly passed to overrule former constitutional precedents, and to exclude a particular clergyman who was obnoxious to the Government of the day, but who had long resigned his office, from the House of Commons. Apart from grounds of public policy and natural justice, the memonalibts hold that the circumstances under which the Act was passed are a strong argument for its repeal. The mischievous effects of this principle, they add, may be seen in the growing reluctance of younger members of our universities to take orders supposed to be irrevocable. An immediate removal of all disabilities which affect any of her Majesty's subjects by reason of their calling or profession is requested. A NEW LINE. The network of railways is daily being made more complicated. New lines are opening in all directions. On Tuesday the Midland opened a branch bring ing Sheffield straight into communication with Lon don. The new line commences at Chesterfield, and runs-for about twelve miles into Sheffield. By this arrangement the Great Northern , Company will have to compete with the Midland: The former ought to be most patronised by pleasure seekers, as the country it runs through is more beautiful; that of the new line is manufacturing, black, and de pressing. THE PLETHORA OF CAPITAL. Judging by the eagerness with which foreign loans are subscribed for, the signs of a revival of commercial enterprise are not delusive. Chili asked for a little over a million, and seven times as much has been given her. The Russian loan was for twelve millions, and the subscription reaches above fifty. Really Ecuador and Spain might try their chance under the c i rcums tances. Concerning the Russian loan the Times says it is understood that the pro rata system of allotment will not be adopted that is the twelve millions will not be distributed in even proportions amongst all the subscribers to the fifty. The system has been. found demoralising. "It tempts capitalists who can manage to obtain sufficient temporary com mand of the discount market to apply for millions in order that they may have the certainty of getting a few thousands, while at the same time it brings into the vortex of speculation masses of people of no business repute or standing, who endeavour to scrape together a few pounds for the deposit money, and who rely on the fact that their applications will receive the same treatment as those of habitual in vestors or persons of known means." SPECULATIVE A CTION S. At a meeting of the Dublin Corporation, Councillor Donnelley, J- 1-3 -, Cave notice of a motion w mr.i. wolves an example that corporation in England might be wail excused for following. The councillor complains of the great annoyance to which the ratepayers have been long subjected by the system of sham actions, or actions rounded on frivolous complaints permitted to be brought before the superior courts. lie says that although in the overwhelming majority of instances the verdict has been for the defendant, yet, as no costs could be recovered from a pauper plamtill, the pecuniary loss, in addition to the annoyance, must have been in such cases very considerable. He gives notice of his intention to move, therefore, that the attention of the Government be called to the fact, with the view of a remedy being provided. Few, who witness, term after term, in our Westminster and London courts, the immense waste of time caused by p rotracted investigations of the most trivial matters, will not wish that the spirit of good might move some English philanthropist as it bath in the Irish council moved 11Ir. Dennehey. PALLISER V. WHITWORTII. The Pall Mall Gazette gives its opinion on the controversy concerning the merits and demerits . of the artillery systems of the rival inventors, Major Palliser and Sir Joseph Whitworth. It says that the stock argument against the service sys tem is that the pointed Palliser, when striking obliquely, will not penetrate, while the flat headed Whitworths will. Now the former have over and over again penetrated at an angle, and have always proved superior to flat-headed projectiles, whether for direct or oblique fire. But there are men who will not accept an argument of facts, but take refuge in the formulae of theorists who have never seen a shot fired. Beyond this, even theory as well as practice has shown the pointed-headed shot to be more effec tive than the fiat-headed shot. A. Russian artillery officer of great talents proved some time ago that a projectile with a flat head, when penetrating a plate, heaps up and pushes before it the matter through which it is passing, thereby increasing the thickness it has to traverse, whereas the " energy" of the pointed shot is not wasted in this way ) but wholly devoted to penetration. THE LICENSING SYSTEM Dr. R. Martin writes to the Daily Telegraph on one or two points connected with the principles of the Licensing Amendment League, of which ho is the honorary secretary. lie explains that whilst the League advocates the closing of places for the sale of liquor from 10 or 11 p.m. till 7 or 8 a.m., and during longer hours, or the whole of Sunday, it does not propose that such changes should be made com pulsory over the whole country. What it asked was that the measure should be of a permissive cnaracter, and act tentatively. With regard to the proposal that liquor should not be sold till 7 or 8 a.m.. Dr. Martin says it is well-known that some public houses are open as early as five o'clock. These places, he observes —warm, dry, cosy, brilliantly lighted—induce many a poor fellow to step in to have a glass, the one growing to two, and the two to four. Unfortunately, he adds, working men are unable to resist the temptation. Endeavours, there fore, he argues, should be made to defend them from such traps and pitfalls. THE EDMUNDS SCANDAL. Our London correspondent recently stated that the Edmunds scandal would soon come before the courts again. In his prediction be was right ; the case has already been placed in the hands of the lawyers, and has assumed a new and startling form. Mr. Leonard Edmunds has noti fied that he intends to apply next term to the Queen's Bench for leave to file a criminal infor mation against Mr. W. E. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. James Stansfeld, and Mr. George A. Hamilton, who signed the Treasury minute branding him as a ' public defaulter.'" It the case is tried it will be, indeed, a cause celebre; it is as near a State trial without being one as can be imagined ; a Premier charged with libel, uttered in an official capacity. The de tails of Mr. Edmunds's case, however, are so uninteresting, so mixed lip with dry statistics, tint the action, except as regards its results, will hardly be engrossing. AIENDICITY SOCIETIES. A fundamental principle has been enunciated at Newcastle with regard to mendicity societies, which lays it down as a rule that such societies, with the object of the suppression of mendicity, cannot but fail when unaccompanied by a relieving office. Blackheath was an example, said one of tha speakers, where such a principle had been applied with success. Other towns were taking up the scheme, such a course being rendered absolutely necessary, by the flooding of certain localities by beggars. In England at present there were no less than 30000 vagrants, and it was hi g h time that some method should be adopted to get people to cease giving indiscriminately, and direct charity into the proper channels, UNIVERSITY TESTS. The movement for the abolition of University Tests has made very considerable progress in a short time. The Premier no longer , halts; and the Con servatives are ready to surrender at discretion. In the Universities themselves a very strong feeling has manifested itself in favour of abolition. The question, therefore, is likely very soon indeed to be settled. Two Conservative Privy Councillors—Mr. Hardy, the member for the University of Oxford, and Mr. Wal pole, the representative of Cambridge—have, it is stated, advised their friends to submit upon the main principle, and to fight only as regards the details. These gentlemen, however, are both in the House of Commons, which has several times declared itself for the main principle; it is the House of Lords that stops the way ; and here Lord Cairns requests his followers to pass a bill. Whether total abolition will now be made or only partial, whether Parliament will itself decide the question or leave it to the several colleges, are points which will have to be settled between the two Houses. O'DONOVAN ROSSA. It is a hard matter, that of our M.P. for Tippe rary. What can we do with him ? He has won a distinction we are loth to confess, and we want to ignore him as much as possible. Is he an M.P. ? for if he is he must be expelled ; if he is not, the only thing that is needful is to order the new writ. That it would be better to act in the latter manner is admitted ; only we must be sure it is constitutional. The Daily News argues that it is, and quotes Lord John Russell's quotation of the lawyers in favour of that view. In the debate in the House of Commons upon Mr. Smith O'Brien after his conduct for high treason. Lord John said :—" All writers upon constitutional law, from Lord Coke downwards, have declared that it is the law of Parliament that a person guilty of high treason or felony is incapable of sitting in this House. The consequence is, therefore, that William Smith O'Brien, having been convicted of high treason, is a person who is civilly dead. He cannot be elected to this House, and he could not held a seat in this House if elected." In conformity with this doctrine O'Brien was not expelled ; he was treated as no longer a member, as ceasing to exist upon conviction. In the same way, the Daily News argues, we should treat O'Donovan Rossa: the seat which it is said he fills must be dealt with as vacant. WATERFORD ELECTION. The unseating of Sir Henry Barron at Waterford, plunges the constituency again into the excitement of an election. For the second time we are promised a contest; and again between two Liberal candidates. Of course Mr. Bernal Osborne will come forward once more. He is already on an active canvas, and, if zealous labour is to be repaid, ought to be returned. Who is to oppose him is not yet settled. The " party" man mentioned is Mr. Benjamin Whitworth, who unsuccessfully contested Stafford at the eneral election. The Conservatives are undecided. NOMINATION DAY AT MALLOW. The Irish generally save us all trouble in estimating the value of the wisdom.propounded in their nomi nation speeches. Most commonly there is such an uproar that it is well if the reporters can treasure up the candidates' orations for the use of posterity. At Mallow the town was pretty quiet, but, to make amends for this discredit to Irish politics, " the Court-house was crammed with a mob armed with bludgeons, and including. a considerable number of women, who contributed more than their fair share to the general uproar." Mr. Munster's supporters had a decided majority amongst the mob, and consequently neither Major Knox, nor his proposer nor seconder, could obtain a hearing. He gallantly vowed that he would stand until morning rather than succumb to clamour. For a lone time Mr. Munster appealed in vain on behalf of his opponent, who at length was allowed to utter a few sentences, the burden of which was that he (Major Knox) was au Irishman, whilst Mr. Munster laboured under the insuperable disadvantage of being an Englishman. Mr. Munster was con strained to admit this afflicting disqualification, "but tie believed that to be an advantage to him and to the borough, for the relation of the intolerable injustice under which the Irish tenant laboured would have more weight coming from an English man than from an Irishman." Whether English or Irish, Liberal or Conservative, both candidates were lavish in their promises. They ()tiered everything that the mob could wish—release of the Fenian prisoners, the " rights " of farmers and labourers, and the rest of it. All of -which probeedings furnish one more instinctive comment on the blessings of nomination day. Can anything for instance, be neater than to procure a mob " armed with bludgeons" to drown the voice of your antago nist, and then charitably appeal to the tender mer cies of the crowd for a bearing ? The Times publishes a letter which gives us a liyely picture of life in the North of Ireland in this very highly civilised generation. It could hardly be paralleled, except in some white habitation in a dis trict of savages. The writer describes what he saw returning from a ball in passing the dwelling of a gentleman whose life had been threatened. This gentleman—a landowner—had once been shot at while in his carriage. His coachman was killed instead of himself. "In consequence of this (says the writer of the letter), his house was now garrisoned by a dozen constabulary, and is barri caded from top to bottom. I happened to come across the old gentleman going out for a constitu tional, and a pretty sight it was in a civilised land. First came a brace of policemen armed with carbines, who kept a sharp look out round all the hedges and other places that might hide a murderer in them. At a distance of some twenty yards or so came the old gentleman and his son, each with a double-bar relled gun over his shoulder, and flanked by other policemen, with two more in the rear. Nobody dared to stop at his house for the ball, lest they should be shot at in passing to and fro." Truly an exciting place for lovers of adventure. POLITICS AT BEADING. The Oddfellows of Reading do not seem to have benefited by much enlightenment on political affairs from the members of Parliament who spoke at their dinner in the Town Hall. Sir F. Golsmid spoke very vaguely on edu cation. Mr. Shaw Lefevre excused his reticence on the Irish Land question, on two grounds—becauso he was a member of the Govern ment, and because he was ignorant of the measures contemplated. The latter reason might have sufficed for his not speaking on the subject. With regard to trade, we were justified in now looking forward to a brighter future. Mr. J. Walter, referring to the measure which would dispense justice between man and man in Ire land, hinted at assimilating the system of land tenure in that country with the English system. A. Government that had dealt with the Irish Church would not find any insuperable difficulties with the laud question. It was time that Government stepped in between the parties contending on the subject of national education, and introduced an effectual mea sure, in accordance with national traditions. Mr. Walter announced his intention of recommending a change in the present system of electing coroners, and gavo a short exhortation on temperance. THE PARISIIIONEIO3 RIGHT TO HIS CHURCII. It is proposal to introduce a bill into Parliament in the course of the coming session, declaring and enacting the law as to the rights of parish ioners in respect to their parish churches. The bill, which has been drawn by Dr. Swabey, affirms in its preamble that according to the ancient law the entire area of every parish church in England and Wales is intended for the equal use of all the parishioners without regard to their degrees or qualities. It further affirms that this law has been disregarded in many parishes by a system of appropriation of seats and pews to the injury of the majority in number, especially the poorer classes of the parishioners. The bill provides that the entire area of every parish church shall be open to all so far as the accommodation will allow. No seats are to be allotted, assigned, or appropriated. THE BISHOPRIC OF ST. ASAPU. All the speculation and controversy about the Bishop of St. Asaph has come to nothing. There was a chorus of congratulation at the excellent choice Mr. Gladstone had made in selecting Archdeacon Jones, a Welshman, and a divine of learning and posi tion in the Church. The IS ' pectator thought that the Premier had pleased all parties concerned, it:cluding itself and the _Record. Ent one little diffi culty now presents itself. The Bishop of St. Asaph has not resigned. At least, the Chester Guardian is authorised to make the contradiction. THE GREEK ARCIMISIIOP. Our illustrious visitor from Syra is causing some little trouble. Complaints aro heard that the welcome given to this dignitary has gone too far, and some English Churchmen who have taken part in the reception are anxious to show that nothing more than courtesy wa intended. Archbishop Thomson is somewhat astonished to find in a report of the Greek prelate's visit to York that an address from the " English Church Union " was presented to the distinguished guest. " The address was described to MR as n address of welcome from some inhabitants RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE. BRISTOL AND EXETER. The directors of this company intend .to pro pose a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum for the past half year, leaving a balance of £2,000. NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. The directors of this cotn[any recommend a dividend at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum for the past half year, carrying forward a bal ance of £1,500. LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST. The half yearly general meeting of this company was held yesterday at the International Hotel, London-bridge Station. Mr. S. Laing, the chair man, presided. The report, an abstract of which appeared in The Sun, was taken as read. The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, referred at considerable length to tto results of the unfor tunate accident that had occurred on the line at New-cross. if they had not had that accident the directors would have been enabled to recommend a dividend of £1 2s. 6d. per £lOO ordinary stock. It was two and a half years ago when the present directors came into office. At that time the com pany was in a state of bankruptcy, and had £2,300,000 of liabilities to meet. Since then the solvency of the company has been restored, and the liabilities on capital account had been so far reduced that it could be closed. After pay ing all expenses on revenue account, the preference dividends were fully assured. The expenditure that had been forced on them by the accident and charged to the past half-year was £45,000. That had an important bearing on railways generally as to what they might have - to pay as compensation. 'The accident was caused by a goods train having passed by three signals intended to arrest the progress of a coming train, and having run into a passenger train. There were also the usual distant signals. Those signals were devised by the united wisdom of their own officers as well as those of the Board of Trade. The driver of the train was an old and trusted servant, and had been 20 years in the ser vice of the company. It was purely an accident; and he thought it hard on railway companies that accidents in the streets, on the water, and in coal mines should frequently occur without compensation being demanded as in the case of railways. The licensed victuallers had been conveyed to a fete at the Crystal Palace, and on the return of the train there were 600 pasiengers in it, and although the collision by the goods train did not break any of the carriages, 360 claims for compensation had been made. The first object of the directors after the accident was to find out the bona fide injuries to individuals. A medical man of the highest talent had engaged for the company three surgeons to attend those who were injured as soon as possible, and the company offered to settle claims by arbitration. Notwithstanding all their efforts, 126 law suits were carried oa against the company, involving considerable ex pense. A system of proceedings had grown up among professional men in the hopes of making a profit out of accidents on railways. There was dietiect evidence of 13 or 14 cases being got up by one firm, who pushed matters to the extreme, and brought the cases into court. The claims for medical attend ance in some cases were ten times the usual charge, and one of those claims, for £291, had been reduced to £29. As regarded some of the cases, one claimed £5,000, and the jury awarded £10; another had £125 awarded ; another claimed £15,000 and £lOO was awarded ; iu another case £l,OOO was claimed, and less than £5OO was awarded ; and a claim of £5OO was awarded £5O. The tendency of juries was to award heavy damages, and two of the Judges before whom cases were brought had expressed themselves strongly as to the heavy damages awarded. The present system of awarding damages in case of accidents on railways was condemned, not only by those who knew the merits of those cases, but by the Judges. One man got a verdict for £330, but an accomplice who was promised £5 and did not got it gave information which resulted in its being most clearly proved that the man was never in the train at all, and in consequence he was now iu respect of the £45,000 paid by the company ex ceeded £150,000, and were it not for the great ability and energy of the legal gentlemen em ployed by the company he believed the compensa tion would have amounted to double the sum the company had paid. When it was considered that the sum paid for conveying the 600 persons to and from the Crystal Palace was only £l7, leaving a profit, perhaps of £8 or £lO, the amount of com pensation was out of all proportion to the sum re ceived by the company. He thought in cases where persons were conveyed at a material reduction in the fares that the compensation should be limited to a fixed sum, and that where the full rates were paid the compensation should be much more. It was the interest of the public that they should be carried at rates below the maximum fares. Par liament had fixed a maximum rate of charge in each case, and he thought they might fix a maximum amount of compensation, and if persons wished they should have power to assuce with the com pany a larger amount in case of accident. Where the rates charged were very low, he thought that £2OO for a third-class passenger, £3OO for a second class, and £4OO for a first-class passenger would be sufficient liability. He was of opinion that a stand ing tribunal, consisting of five or six first-rate men, to investigate all the cases of an accident, would be much more competent to deal with such matters, and he believed the decisions in such a case would be more satisfactory to the company and the in jured persons than the verdicts of 20 or 30 different juries. With regard to the falling off in the traffic receipts, he thought that the long continued depression had more , to do with it tha n any alterations in the fares. The directors had done their best to exercise economy during the last two and a half years, in working the traffic without having had any aid from capital. He confessed that if any one told him two years ago that the working expenses could be reduced to 50 per cent., a nd to 3s. per train mile, he w ou ld have g possible in so sh ort a t i me. Ha that result, he was not quite not vno t obtained ined it satisfied, and would endeavour to do better. He stated that they had reduced the fares by express trains to Brighton from 19s. 3d. to 17s. 6d. ; by ordinary trains, first-class, from 15s. 6d. to 145., by seeond-class from 11s. Bd. to 10s. 6d., and by third-class from 7s. 4d. to 6s. 6d. They had also reduced the price of season tickets on the suburban lines. They had made return tickets to Brighton available from Friday to Monday, instead of from Saturday to Monday. They had 18 suburban work men's trains, the return fare being 4d. for 16 miles. They had five third-class trains a-day to Brighton at fares of 4s. 2d., and the return ticket for the same day 6s. 6d. for 100 miles. It was the depression of trade that affected their receipts, and not the reduc l i - tion of fares. The receipts from Goodwood Races had fallen off 32 per cent. in the past two years. He saw by the returns of coal traffic to London brought by sea and railways that the quan tity was 500,000 tons less in consequence of the depression of trade during the past two years ; the increase in the fares bad failed to increase the re ceipts, as expected. They found that raising the return fares had failed to give the company the ad vantage expected. On the Ist of January they had reduced the fares on the suburban lines for 15 miles round London. The price of third-class return tickets had been nearly two fares ; they had lately re duced them to one fare and a half, but the reduc tion had not been long enough in operation to form a n opinion as to the result. With the revival of trade, economy in every department, and the closing of the capital account—(hear, hear) —they would soon find themselves in a much letter position. The South Eastern and South Western lines had also felt the effects of the depression of trade. The company was burdened with a mass of useless capi tal. They had expended £18,000,000, of wiiich 19,000,000 was uselessly expended, and the oel ) chance they had was to incur no further liability, and to abandon the Surrey awl Suss, x and other lines which woul:I not pay their working expenses. They were already losing £35,000 a year by work ing 100 miles of railway that had cost them between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000. The London and Hastings traffic was about £90,000 a year, and they got one-third of it under agreement with the South Eastern Company. The Surrey and Sussex line was projected to get half the Hastings traffic—or say £45,000 a year gross traffic. The company had now £30,000 of it, and if that line had been made by preference capital the utmost they could have got in addition to the present traffic would be £15,000 groan towards paying £120,000 a year on the requisite capital at 5 per cent. The least they could expect Parliament to do would be to release them from such lines as the Survey and Sussex. If they could have protected themselves as other traders they would have amalgarnattd with the South Eastern Company, and the result would have been that the shareholders would have had 20e. added to their dividend, and that would have added £1,360,000 to the value of their ordinary stock. Parliament had refused to sanction the amalgamation with the South Eastern unless certain conditions were com plied with, which the South Eastern rejected, and so the Amalgamation Bill was withdrawn. The' company paid £50,000 a year for poor rates, from which they derived no advantage, and yet Parlia ment had withheld from them that measure of jus tice. He would be happy to answer any questions, and concluded by moving the adoption of the report. Mr. J. LEVY seconied the motion. Mr. SAMUDA contended at some length that the management was not so good as it ought to be; that the increase of traffic in the past year was only £4,000, while on the South Eastern the increase had been £54,000, and on the South Western £64,000. He complained that the solicitors' bills amounted to £7,000, and recommended that a law clerk should be employed, as was done by the Lon don and North Western Railway Company. Mr. WOOD proposed a resolution to the effect that a petition be presented to both Houses Of Parliament, fraying the adoption of the recom mendations of the Royal Commissioners iu their report of 1867 that the liability of railway com panies be limited for each class of passengers to certain amount. He said that it would be more favourable to the company than the amount sug gested by the chairman. The liability would be reduced to a fixed sum of £lOO for those who paid ld. per mile, and to £3OO for those who paid faros of 3d. per mile. Mr. C. LnGG said he would second the motion. He wished to know how it was that the outstanding accounts amounted to £156,000, while the whole of •the goods traffic amounted to only £144,000. After some observations by Mr. Wilson, Mr• Cohen, Mr. Adams, and other shareholders, The CHAIRMAN replied that if ever a question of want of confidence in the directors were to present itself seriously, the whole of the Board would be willing and anxious to take the opinion of the share holders. But as long as they foitnd they had the support of a decided majority of the shareholders they would continue to carry out their policy. The law charges for the past half-year amounted to £8,104, and for the five years preceding the ap pointment of the present Board the law charges amounted to £250,000, or £50,000 a year, but now an arrangement had been made with Messrs. Baxter, Rose, and Co. for a fixed sum, including every thing but actual disbursements. It embraced the cost of looking after the rating and prosecuting appeals. The amount of outstanding accounts was £145,000 of which £45,000 was a claim against the London, Chatham,'and Dover Company for divi sion of traffic and part of the Parliamentary ex penses of last session. There was another consider able sum unsettled with the South Western Com pany in.'respect of the Wimbledon line, making , together, about half the amount outstanding. TO block system was being introduced over their lines and had been iu operation some time at importan t places. Resolutions were passed adopting the report ; declaring a dividend of 103. per cent. for the pa= t half-year ; authorising the conversion of the 4 :i per cent. £2O preference stock; confirming the forfeiture of certain shares; re-electing Mr. S• Laing, Lord G. G. Lennox, M.P., and Mr. G Wythos, the retiring directors j ancl also Mr. ( 74514 tne retiring aucutor. the petition to both Houses of Parliament, pro" posed by Mr. WooD, was approved. The meeting was then wade special, and, on the motion of Mr. C. CHILD, the consideration of the agreement between the London, BrightJu, and South Coast Railway Company and the Sot-It'l l Eastern Company for a division of competitive traffic was postponed for a month. The agree' 'neat for working the East London Railway iv 3g approved. Resolutions were also passed approving a bill to enlarge the powers of the East London Railway Company and to raise further money ; and also E 1 bill to authorise th e L on d on, Brighton, and Soo t° Coast Railway Company to abandon the Sorrel and Sussex Junction Railway, to improve the COra' munication to Eastbourne, and to sanction agreemeats between them an d th e S out h E astern way Company. The proceedings concluded with a vote of that o to the chairman. The Bank Returns. The Bankers' Magazine furnishes the returns of the cir culation of the public and joint-stock banks in Englan d and Wales for the four weeks ending Ist of Jan., 1870 : These returns, combined with the circulation of the Scot ch and Irish banks for the same period, and the average culation of the Bank of England for the four weeks eado,4 the 29th of Dee (the nearest date furnisbed by thei r returns), will give the following results of the circulatil of note s i n th e U nited Kingdom when compare d w ith tl i previous month : Dee, 4, J a n. 1 , , 1809„ I 1870. .Increase. Decreal/e' Bank of England l'rivate Banks Joint , stock Banks 23,181,1901 22,706,752' 2,751,719 i 2,66 .1 2,3.8,73'di 2,281,11)9 Total in En g land Scotland Ireland 28,301,648( 27,650,040 1 5,287,153:4,975,047 , 7,3540.03 7,Q50,266 United Kingdom. 40,943,269! 39,681,373 And as compared with the month - 40 474, z 599 1 87, 5 ' 1 6 ,1.6 1 1 312, 0 " k 97,94 1,261, 896 )nding tho 2D' Dec., 1869, the above returns show a decrease v £412,119 in the circulation of notes in England, and e ; decrease of £50,413 in the circulation of the Uuitea Kingdom. On comparing the above with the fixed issues of th e several banks the following is the state of the circulation : ' The English private banks are below their fixed issue ... £1,380,0 6 Tho English joint-stock banks are below their 457, 441 fixed issue ... . Total below fixed issue in England £1,83 7, 1 The Scotch banks are above their fixed issue... 2,22 5, ' The Irish banks are above their fixed issue 701,7 u The average stock of bullion held by the Bank of Bair land in both departments during the month ending 2901 of Dec. was £19,091,239, being an increase of £648,033: as compared with the previous month, and an increase a' £906,873 when compared with the same period last year. The following are the amounts of specie held by Scotch and Irish banks during the month ending the le" of Jan. : Gold and silv er held by the Scotch banks £3,08 7 , 6 1 Gold and silver held by the Irish banks 2,757,b° £5,844, 961 being a decrease of £79,689 as compared with the Pr e , vious return, and an increase of £314,579 when compared with the corresponding period last year BIRTHS. GREVILLE—On th© Ist inst., the wife of Captain Stepletoll Greville, R.N., 01 a son. LANGRISII —On the 31st ul.. at Wyck, Alton, Mr'• Langrish, of a daughter. MA RRIA G ES. ob , AnEy the Ist inst , Margate, ~ .d Caddy, Esq., of Lausann e H ouse' . to Harriet Marv, surviving daught er o f t h e late C.S. Lewis, Esq., iibtlr eP field House, Margate. DIC BY—GROESBECK -On the 27th ult.. at Cincinnati, ()hie,' U.S., Kenehn Tho mas Digby, M.P. for Queen's Coupt?T' Ireland, to Elizabeth, s econ d d aug hter of the 1179- , Groesbeck. DEATHS. of HARDING—On the 31st ult., William liar ding, E 6 cl" Copeloy near Birmingham, aged 92. of VALENTINE—On the let inst., Mr. Geo. Valentille , Lansdowne-plaei, S. Lambkh, aged 56. _.... Loudon: Printed and Published by WILLIA3I ANDBP' of No. 12, Strand, Printer, at THE Sim Office, 0. 112, • 41.°: ,„, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of Middlesex' Thursday, February V, 1870. k Th s eel( Pri q-1 , 1 in the Agents 8, C MUT 14, RU , vAN(T old or Lc `e week' F .ms fro 1 4 -I STA The n fessional weekly bine(' wi establish This e nixed by and it ii Lady LI Caroline All in ten or pf Subic. Treasta, 'plIE I J 1 receive and DI Pupils, The manual A pul Nrhen t nessed. Appli other pi Till The Fire 13( The ml Bonus! value render, leave it thirty TH.. road. Upv this H, The enable IltlllloT heiple: stroet t Under where] Girls o the kit The ish ad sad lei wise r snitabl Wal NA The e atirel 051 c It FUN G Th aatab free_ Ba *eel Soo., L' Prey( , CC mes s Mon( Roar Live 'IEA anu rity E ye 9 110 E dig n3T stl for foc VCri