The Sun. — London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

WANT OF SANATORY REGULA LATIONS IN THE CITY. The following is the substance of observations wli:ch Were drawn up by the late Dr. Lynch, who intended to submit them to the press in a more careful form, if, as was his expectation, the majority of the Court of Common Council persevered in turning a deaf ear to to the petition of the Inquest Juries of the ward of Farringdon Without The memorial has been agreed to by men of all shades of political opinion. Every allegation has been dispassionately examined. I have been selected to present it, because I have been known to have for years endeavoured to improve the locality, and because my daily avocations have made me practi cally acquainted with the wants of the poor. The memorialists discuss the propriety of an outlay of nearly half a million of money by the Corporation in the formation of a new street, which they believe to be of questionable utility. They are of opinion that if the improvements cannot be concurrent, the diminu tion of disease and death, the preservation of life and health, are of primary importance. The memorial states that the ward contains 34,000 inhabitants; that it is principallysituated without the walls of the city, and that it contains courts and alleys of the worst description, to which the poor of the other city parishes resort; that the houses are built back to back, without ventilation ; that the rooms are not more than eight feet in width, and nine feet in length, and that they have on an average six persons in each room ; that the privies are generally under the stair cases, and communicate with cesspools, the effluvium from which is deadly poison to the element in which the unhappy residents struggle to exist ; th•it such hovels are unfit for human habitation, and a disgrace to the city; that most of them are undrained, and that where there are sewers they are untrapped and unflushed, and the sewers thus become themselves the sources of disease and death from the pestiferous gases produced by the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter beneath; that the supply . of water is only on twice a week for two hours each time ; that the poor have no vessels in which to preserve it, and that in the crowded and heated rooms it absorbs the poison contained in the animal exhalations, and becomes altogether unfit for use. This is the picture which the memorial presents, and to the horrors of which the Corporation of London is indifferent. Under such circumstances as the memorial repre sents the most simple diseases become malignant. Scrofula, consumption, and other fell disorders are generated, and a great portion of the labour of the poor is lost in weakness. How frightful is the mor tality in these wretched localities I The average du ration of life amongst the middle classes in London is forty-three years, that of the labouring classes is only twenty-two. Amongst the former the deaths from epidemic disease amount to no more than six, whilst amongst the latter they amount to nineteen per cent. From such places fever is never absent. The number who suffer from that preventible poison is twelve times greater than that of those who die, and the victims are most frequently the heads of families, as it prevails at the productive age of man (from twenty to forty), and the offspring are consequently made burdens on the poor rates. One-fifth of those who receive parochial relief are the subjects of fever. Nothing can more exclusively show the influence which want of air and water has upon the health of any district than the report of the Registrar-General, from which it appears that in the ten healthy districts in which an allowance is made of 202 square yards of space to each individual, the mortality is 1 in 49. In the medium districts, where 102 square yards are allowed, it is 1 in 30; and in the unhealthy districts, where there are only 32 square yards to each person, the mortality is 1 in 30 ; the labourers in St. George's parish die at 27, in St. Giles's at 17 years of age. In the most unhealthy district of Liverpool, the gentle men die at 35 ; the poor .e.t 15. In the last season, the most unhealthy within the memory of man, simple fever was the minister of death. In the quar ter ending March, 1847, 56,100 persons died. In Liverpool there was an increase of 13,034 deaths over the corresponding quarter—in London an in crease of 10,000. The increase in London, out of an equal number of males residing there, was 3 deaths for every 2in the country. The excess in London over healthy districts in seven years amounts to 97,000 persons—the excess of deaths of children in London is 58.000. To prevent the possibility of being met with the cry of exaggeration, or the denial of those statements, I submit the statis tics of Farringdon Without. Of every 1,000 females, taking the average seven years, 28 died in that ward, whilst in Islington, of every 1,000 females only 18 ; and in Hackney, of the same number only 16 died. Thus twelve lives out of 1,000 are doomed to as cer tain destruction as if they were slaughtered in the shambles in Smithfield. It is a most remarkable fact that in Hackney, of the male children under five year of age, 66 die, whilst in Farringdon West 128 die; and that of men in the intellectual prime of life, between the ages of 45 and 55, in Hackney only 21 die, whilst in Farringdon \Vest 34 die. Of 1,000 boys under five years of age in Surrey and Sussex, 48 die annually, whilst in London the number is 93. I adduce these details for the purpose of removing the extraordinary ignorance which prevails amongst those whose duty and condition make that ignorance iniquity. No sneer or clamour can overthrow these deplorable facts, which are written down in that invaluable repository of useful knowledge the Re gistration-office, and from which it appears there is a waste of life per annum of 22,000 lives, by contagious diseaseS, out of four millions of inhabitants ; and that by a little care and attention to sanatory regulations, there might be a saving of 50,000 souls. I felt it to be my duty, after having read in the public papers that most ridiculous of official false hoods" that the cleanliness of London could not be surpassed," to wait upon the foremen of the inquests of each parish, who in the discharge of their duties are obliged personally to inspect the dwellings of the poor. From the following presentments to the City Aldermen this year, it will be evident that the most charitable comment on that statement was that it was made in ignorance and nbt in a wicked or wilful dis regard, or criminal perversion of the truth. The in quest of St. Sepulchre alleges that numerous courts are in the most foul condition, that the habitations of the poor are unfit for beasts of burden, that the houses are dilapidated, that cesspools and open gutters are found in every court, that the privies are common to several houses, that in cellars 14 feet square, eight per sons are lodged, that these nuisances have year after year been presented to the Court of Alder men, without producing the least symptom of correction, and that the labours of the in quest were useless, as their remonstrances were unheeded. In the districts of St. Andrew's and St. Dunstan's the same state of things exists, and their active foremen in vain exerted all his capa bilities. I have visited the parish of Bishopsgate Without, in which the chairman, who made the ex traordinary statement I have repeated, resides. In front, on each side, and at the back of that chair man's house, in Devonshire-place, in Farran s-rents, in Half Moon-street, place, and mews, in Sherrard's buildings, in Thompson's•rents, abominations abound. The evidence of Dr. Porter before the commission exhibits the desolating effects of sanatory neglect in that particular locality, which is one of the worst in London. Yet the chairman declares that, with all those nuisances under his nose, the health of London cannot be surpasse 1. I have been for ten years medical officer of several parishes, and of a large workhouse, and am daily called upon to attend diseases distinctly traceable to the want of pure air, the best and first of God's gifts, and to the want of water, thousands of tons of which are running to waste under their feet. In those filthy masses of bricks and mortar, rotten, tottering with age, built centuries ago, reeking with plague, vapours, and exhaling irremediable infection, as .1 have wound round the wretched stairc ises, I have frequently been called upon to " lay hold of the rope," in order to be enabled to guide my footsteps. Every house had its victim—there you would meet the or phan and the widow, the recipients of the poor-rates. According to the returns ordered under the commis sion, there are in this way pauperised in England and Wales, 47,000 widows and 120,000 orphans. The loss in money in the year's deaths, in round numbers, from the loss of the productive powers of labour, amounts to fifteen millions, and the loss of the East and West London Unions is 146,0001., the greater part of which may be saved to the country by sanatory regulations. In these crowded hovels, in which filth abounds, in which no order can at an exist, where no separation can be male for sex, where darkness, disease, and death are the inseparable com panions of the inhabitants, where the lowest of the animal wants are not supplied, where decency is daily, hourly outraged, where the most loathsome forms of vice are engendered, where poisonous ex halations and moral miasmata fester and react upon each other, where health and life are undermined, where youth is corrupted and innocence is destroyed; in those nurseries, those normal schools of crime, in those hotbeds of thieves and prostitutes, your la bourers dwell. Lord Ashley well said, " While such a state of things exists schools and chapels were useless." The malaria from the cesspool, the privy, or the sewer, is a sedative poison, it depresses the energies of body and mind, it saps the constitution ; the poor fly to the gin palace for a stimulus to resist its effects. Intem perance lends the last link to complete the circle of their physical and moral degradation. The parish or the workhouse, or the hospital is the alternative. We read with horror of a certain caste of Africans, whose sympathy for filth is so strong upon them that they preserve the dead until the exudations gradually fill the hut and expel the survivors. In this city of Lon don, for the surpassing health and clean' iness of which the Chairman of the Commission vouches, there is to be found a parallel to the enormous abomination of the savage state of existence to which I allude. I, and other medical men, have seen the dead kept so long in the odious dens, that the horrors of the grave were revealed to the living, until the maggots of putrefac tion have crawled about the fire-place, and under the table at whics the relatives were taking their meals. We read of the tyrant who in the exercisa of an atro cious ingenuity chained the living to the dead. The neglect cf the poor and their necessities assimilate their condition to that of the still breathing corpse, for the cesspool and its appendages are of like chemical decomposition, and prove equally destructive in their effects. All other classes .have improved in their social position—their comforts are consulted by every means which science suggests. For the mess of so ciety—the proJuctive classes, the bees of the hive — nothing whatever has been done. With the increase of the population there has been a diminution of household accommodation, which was greater than it is now 100 years ago. The improvements —the fine streets in other parts of the metropolis—have aggra vated the evil. The philosophic exposition of Mr. Chadwick--whose vigilant humanity is only equalled by the power and the means with which he guides its operations—and the admirable articles which have from time to time appeared in the press, have fully de- monstrated that fact. Some persons may be disposed to impute the pre sent mortality and that of last y ear to the scarcity of food. It is true that an inadequate supply of food has its deleterious effects per se ; but it is still more injurious in bad districts, as, by reducing the powers of the system, it renders the system more susceptible of the noxious influences which surrounded it. Ire land presents a melancholy instance of the fact that famine precedes fever. Scarcity cannot be received as the explanation of the mortality in such places as I have described. For the records prove that the proportion of deaths from epidemics in 1838, in the ward of Farringdon, was 1 in 102, whilst in Cam berwell it was 1 in 262, and in that year amongst children, who, like plants, are sensitive of atmos pheric impurity, the deaths were as 2 to 1, and the excess of deaths in east and west London was above the healthy standard 1,162. Upon the most un deniable statistic calculations the inhabitants lose eight years of their natural lives. Thirty-eight people die of ascertained and preventible maladies every day. The city of London, without the walls, and Whitechapel,are the two most unhealthy of the thirty six metropolitan districts. In Elliott's-court there are eighteen houses, each 'of which has four rooms, which contain on an average thirty people, so that in each house there is an excess of 200 per cent. above the proper number. Smithfield and the Old Bailey abound with such nuisances, as well as Cow-cross, est-street, and Field-lane, with the adjacent slaugh terhouses and knackers'-yards. In Fetter-lane there are 2,600 people in 145 houses, and in the courts of that immediate locality there is intolerable over crowding. In Plough-court there is an excess in thirty houses of 400 per cent. over the healthy stand ard, and in Plum Tree-court, an excess of 360. Fleet-street and Holborn, two of the finest streets, are hemmed in by dense unventilated, unwholesome masses of miserable habitations. The squalor of the courts is strikingly contrasted with the splendour of the shops. There are three times as many people in the worst courts as there are in the better class of lanes. It, however, invariably happens that where sanatory precautions are most necessary they are most deficient. Language would fail to convey any idea of the horrors of the black-holes in the lodging houses of Field-lane. Mr. Payne recently held an inquest upon a man who was asphyxiated in a crowded room, where there was no ingress of air, and the jury expressed their horror of the place, in which males and females, old awl young, were promis cuously lying, and where such was the want of ac commodation since the removal of the dens of St. Giles's, that the indigent stragglers about town paid twopence a night for permission to stretch, or rather to huddle themselves on the staircases. The Corpo ration calls itself the guardian of the public health. It has disclaimed Government interference, and thus incurred a fearful responsibility, which Government ought not, in the present condition of the city, to al low for a moment to exist. But as it seems they are to remain in their. boasted independence of all obliga tion to do good or evil by the favour of their Minis terial representative, and as they disregard the ap peals of their fellow-citizens, I implore them through the powerful medium of the press, which knows well how to administer its bitter corrective, to devote some portion of their enormous funds to the amelioration of the physical and moral evils of the humble and neglected classes to whom they owe everything them selves. I entreat them to insist upon a constant sup ply of water, to cause the sewers to be flushed, and the foul air to be trapped and carried off by the shafts, and to apply immethately to Parliament for the necessary authority to make every house communicate by drains with the sewers, and to abolish cesspools altogether. If they expend half a million in im proving traffic, they can easily contrive to expend one-fifth part of that amount in preserving the lives and administering to the comforts of their fellow creatures. Interest, duty, humanity, economy call upon them to promote the public health. Let them at once avail themselves of the assistance of men of science (for hygienie is not to be learned by inspira tion, and men engaged in _the busy pursuits of com merce cannot be acquainted with it), and all the evils I have enumerated will disappear. They are proud of their historical traditions. Let them achieve the greater glory of raising the condition of their fellow-creatures in the scale of moral and physical improvement. At all events, whatever change may come upon the Corporation as regards the good of their fellow-citizens, it is to be hoped that the Government will acknowledge the necessity which the Corporation have not yet discovered, and so far make amends for their attempt to degrade one of the most able and honest and indefatigable public functionaries in the kingdom, by extending the operation of his enlightened plan to every filthy nook and corner of the metropolis. FOREIGN CORN AND HARVEST. Eight vessels have entered the harbour of Antwerp laden with rye, and one with wheat. Our markets on Wednesday' were not well sup plied, and there were only 250 sacks of potatoes, which were sold at a lower price than at Friday's market. In potatoes there was, as might have been expected, a great fall in the price. The old potatoes did not find many purchasers, in spite of the manwuvres of certain sellers. New potatoes were sold retail at 12 to 14 centimes per kilogramme. Vegetables of every kind follow the general movement in becoming much cheaper, caused by the prospect of the most magnificent and abundant harvest which we have seen for years. The Prussian State Gazette publishes the medium prices of corn during the month of May in the diffe rent provinces of the Prussian monarchy. The medium price of corn was— In the Province of Prussia 77 Posen 17f. Pormerania...l Brandenberg 171. 25c. /7 Silesia . l6l. 25e. Saxe . . l6l. 62c. Westphalia .... 21f. 60c. Ythenish Provinces We thus see that in the Rhenish Provinces provi visions obtained the highest price. COPENHAGEN, JUNE 20.—1 t is stated that a decree is about to be published which will prohibit the sales of standing corn in Denmark. This decree not only imposes heavy fines for every breach, but sets aside all contracts which may have been already made. The ships Hecla and Bellona have returned from Russia, richly laden with corn, and immediately after landing their precious freight, have returned to the storehouse of Russia for a fresh supply. The prices of corn have again fallen. The magnificent appearance of the crops, the continued aids afforded to our poor, as well as the continued free importation and suspension of he mill system, gives us every prospect of a happy 'uture. Shoals of fellows are tramping the county, attempt ing to entrap and deceive the unwary. Some represent themselves as surgeons ; others as broken-down clerks ; others, again, as persecuted and banished schoolmasters from Ireland. In their wake come others who do not assume so lofty pretensions, but content themselves with selling religious tracts to some and dissolute songs to tlerirsnhity. schoolmaster, One others. Th ese f e ll ows are un d ou b te dl y o f th e same fre fello wasw, who recognised represented as be o g onehimself ofas the an London "runners," although he had been, according to his own version, imported only a fortnight. When taxed with the fact, he politely walked away. All would do well to refuse any relief to such vagabonds, who are impostors from London on their summer tour.— Brighton Gazette. The Observer of yesterday gave a folio column of particulars connected with the splendid preparations in progress at Cambridge up to 8 o'clock on Saturday evening; four folio columns of literary notices, including the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and Westminster Reviews, also Biackwood, Fraser, and Bentley' s Magazines, &c. ; summary of the quarter's revenue; second critique of the exhibition of the works of art at Westminster Hall, to the extent of three folio columns; a folio column of Marylebone election, 100 miscellaneous advertisements, and twenty•six folio columns of foreign and domestic news, chiefly original. Price of the Observer, sixpence. Published at 170, Strand, by Mr. Clement, junior. SOCIETT FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. —At the last general meeting of this society the bishops of Cape Town, Adelaide, and Newcastle were present, and acknowledged the gr,.nts recently made by the Board towards promoting Christian knowledge in their several diocese:. The whole sum lately voted by the society in behalf of its objects in these dioceses, and that of MelLoarne, amounts to 10,000/.; previously to this the society contributed 10,000/. towards the Colonial Bishops' Fund, The issue of books and tracts during the yt ar was stated to be nearly 4,000,000. We understand that Mr. Labouchere will enter upon the office of President of the Board of Trade im mediately before the dissolution of Parliament. The Right Hon. Gentleman will be succeeded by Sir William Somerville as Secretary for Ireland. ELIZA COOK'S POETRY. (From the Dispatch ) MR. EDITOR ,—You have favoured your readers with a good likeness of Eliza Cook ; hut there exists a far better portrait—sketched, though unconsciously, by herself; and delineating, not indeed the external, but the mental features of the popular poetess. Her truest portrait is in her lyric compositions ; and while thousands are receiving with delight, and treasuring with care, the excellent engcavin' which makes her at home in their dwellings, I would stimulate them to make her at home also in their minds and memories, and to read her works not only for the enjoyment of particular songs and passages, bill. so as to realise the intellectual and moral companionship of the writer, and understand and appreciate her character. This is, indeed, the noblest work of literature. It gives us, not only lessons of wisdom, but the friend ship of the wise. No product of the mind is to be compared with the mind itself from which it flowed. The emanation is insignificant compared with its source ; but it leads us towards that source. Even a solitary ray of light guides the gaze to the sun. The perception of individual character in a work is the best good we derive from the best work. It renders an isolated gratification of taste subservient to the widest and noblest influences on the heart and life. This philosophising, which almost every reader practises, in a greater or less degree, though often without being aware of it until the critic comes with his explanation, is our compensation for the change introduced by the Press—the one small evil in the vast ocean of good created by that invention. A book is in itself a cold thing. To have Plato's Dia logues in print is poor work compared with gathering round the Sage in the groves of Academe, and catch ing from his lips the living accents. " I sing," says the modern Bard, speaking to the eye alone, by the help of type-founders, papermakers, compositors, ink balls, folding, and stitching. Of old, the Bard struck no figurative lyre, nor chaunted with fictitious voice; but his fingers drew forth real melody to the en chanted ear, and his inspired tones went thrilling to the heart. The song and the singer were one, as they have rarely been in later times. For the charm thus lost, we must make up, as well as we can, in other ways. The painter's and graver's art does something • the reader's mind must do the rest. It is to stimulate the minds of readers to such an opera tion that these criticisms are appended to the portrait bestowed upon your subscribers. Eliza Cook is just the writer to be at home with. and to make at home with ourselves. The spirit of home pervades her compositions. Every household object has its song ; from the kitchen to the garret, and every flower of the adjoining garden, or of the field beyond. True, her imagination will sometimes soar with the lark above the clouds • or skim the ocean, in calm or storm, to bask in the golden light of oriental regions ; but her " heart untravelled, fondly turns" to home ; and like the lark, from the loftiest flight, she drops into her nest. Yes, there she is ; in " the Room of the Household ;" you may see her by " the Rushlight ;" in the " Old Arm Chair ;" the " Grandfather's Stick" is by, a sacred relic ; she has been gathering " Buttercups and Daisies," or " Blue Bells in the Shade," or sporting with " Old Pincher ;" and the "Murray Plaid" is thrown by, with the " Old Straw Hat," and she is musing on childish times, when she swung on the " Farm Gate," or wore " Bed Shoes," and played at "Tom Tiller's Ground." People send their cards with Mr. and Mrs. Such-an one at home, on such a night ; but Eliza Cook is always at home, and every where, with all who de serve it. The reader that has no relish for her songs ought not to have a home, and has no proper concep tion of the meaning of the word. Her card or motto might be " Poetry at Home." Perhaps it was one of those pieces whose subjects have just been enumerated that suggested to a critic in a splenetic mood the not very felicitous sarcasm of calling these lyrics "Dunstable stuff." And yet the appellation was better than its author intended. The straw hats of Dunstable are very serviceable for a long country ramble. On a warm summer's da'y they are very pleasant and familiar things ; and they wear very well to the last. If that be a sneer, what would be praise ? False criticism, like the false prophet, unwittingly blesses where it meant to curse. The poetess may sing defyingly, And if one bay-leaf falls to me. I'll stick it firm and fast in thee, My Old Straw Hat. There are vulgar smatterers who will think such themes "shockingly low." They can reciprocate no sentiment in a less costly attire than silks and satins. They feel neither poetry nor pathos beneath the Peerage. The muse, as they suppose, only " dwells in marble halls." Everything about her must be Eastern or antique. They are in raptures with the bulbul, and scorn the skylark. In the Cymar they make shift to see more than in English costume. They are profoundly classical in taste, and know the Latin for a three-cocked hat. Any weapon more modern than a spear is spurious in verse. In vain are such people told, but it is the fact, nevertheless, that the wellsprings of all poetry is in the common human heart. It may gush forth and overflow upon the most familiar articles of cottage furniture. All the great poets of classical antiquity were homely. Virgil poetized his farm-yard; with Homer we sit down to heroic cookery and feasting, which show that fingers were made before forks. Transfer this dandyism to the East (of the world, and not of Temple-bar), and Orientalisms are no longer rich and rare. All subjects are elevated, on which poetry alights, and leaves the radiant traces of its footsteps. A song on Irish lumpers may have higher inspiration than one on old Olympus. The poet," , says Byron, " can make a silk purse out of a sows ear." And if it be asked, why select such topics, when there are many with dignified associations, the reply is ready. The choice is a championship of human nature, in its most frequent mode of exist ence. It ministers to the millions, and feeds them with Angel's food. The divine is brought to the cottage-door; and tarries there, like celestial guests of old, in the Patriarch's tent. Put an Eliza Cook, by her portrait and her poems, in the homeliest abode, and you give new feelings, a new sense, to its inmates. They look around ; they sing, they weep, they sympathise, rejoice, and hope ; and a glory unperceived before plays over all the fa miliar objects of their habitation. Monsieur Jour dain (in Moliere's comedy of the Bourgeois Gentil honzme) was astonished that he had spoken prose all his life without knowing it. The millions find that they have breathed an atmosphere of poetry with like unco nsciousness. The writer who works this wonder is a public benefactor. The multitude harmonized by song, which comes home to their business and bosoms, realise the fable of Orpheus and the brutes. The homeliest themes are not the least favourable, perbaps the most of all, to true delicacy and refine ment of feeling. Miss Cook's published works may be confidently referred to in proof of this fact ; she is never mawkish, affected, or what is called sentimental. The emotion she expresses or excites is always sound and healthy, It has a clear tone, and rings like a bell. There is a sturdy morality in it, often made tender, but never weak, by susceptibility. Happily the tendency of her compositions is not matter of mere speculation. The transported convict, weeping over his tattered copy of Our Native Song," super sedes or silences a thousand criticisms, and is a nobler trophy than warrior ever won. After that anecdote (vide Preface to " Mellia,") it may be said, as Dr. Johnson said of the "Elegy in a Country Church yard," "Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain to blame, and useless to praise him." Gray did not often write like the Elegy; Eliza Cook always writes like " Our Native Song." How delicious is that cluster of reminiscences which makes poetry of an accumulation of ballad titles in the lines on "Old Songs,"— Old songs, old songs, what heaps I knew, From " Chevy Chase" to " Black-Eyed Sue," From " Flow thou regal purple stream," To Rousseau's" melancholy " Dream." I loved the pensive " Cabin Boy," With earnest truth and real joy ; My warmest feelings wander back, To greet " Tom Bowline" and " Poor Jack;" And, oh! " Will Watch," the " smuggler" bold, My plighted troth thou% ever hold! I doated on the " Auld Scot's Sonnet," As though I'd worn the plaid and bonnet; I went abroad with " Sandy's Ghost;" I stood with Bannockburn's brave host, And proudly toss'd my curly head, With " Scots wha lute wi' Wallace bled." I shouted " Comin' through the rye," With restless step and sparkling eye; And chased away the passing frown With " Bonnie ran the Burnie down." Here was inspiration. The enjoyment was the pres tige of power. Appreciation was the herald of pro duction. Old songs! old songs! ye fed, no doubt, The flame that since has broken out; For I would wander far and lone, And sit upon the moss-wrapt stone, Conning " old songs" till some strange power Breathed a wild magic on the hour; Sweeping the pulse chords of my soul, echo lyre" st t was mine, and I was bl est . As winds o'er sleeping waters roll. _ twa w s myv own. ealed. 'Twas done—th e vo l ume was unsea l e d— The e , hallowedrted mission as re Old songs c a ll e d up a ki n d re d tone; Au Joy, pride, and ri c h es swe ll'd my b reast , Th Rightly was the vocation construed ; and its real worth and nobleness were justly understood. Oh ! who shall say the ballad line That stirs the heart is not divine ! And where's the heart that would not dare To place such song beside the prayer? I have dwelt chiefly on the songs of Eliza Cook, because they are her most characteristic compositions; and those in which she renders the most peculiar and valuable service to our popular literature. England is not, like Scotland, or Ireland, a land of song. Our poverty, in this respect, has been obvious and de- plorable. Anterior to Barry Cornwall, the prince of English songsters, the name of Dibdin is the mot conspicuous. And Dibdin profaned his powers to make himself a recruitirr, officer for the navy. lie var nished over the foul oppressiuns and crucl:ies which at that time (the Service is wonderfully improved since) made a sailor's lire, to thousaods, scarcely endurable, and rendered many a man-of-war a " floating hell." The cajolery of' Dibdin co-operated with the violence of the pressgang. If the discre pancy between the song and the ship be now mu ch less than it was, we may thank the influence of such prin ciples and feelings as are exhibited in the volumes before us. They have made the old sea songs come true at last. And if it have long been known that " the earth hath bubbles as the water 'lath," the songs of Eliza Cook, by the side of those of Dibdin, show that the earth also bath pcetry as the water hath ; nor will the land service yield to the marine in all that constitutes the lowliness and power of song. Poetry began her work in the world by chaunting oracles and laws, assuming to be the voice of God to man, dictating his politics and religion. And then she sang of savage wars, the shock of battle, and the slain dragged at the victor's chariot wheels. From scenes of blood she sought relief in the pastoral strain, piping to listening flocks the artless love of shepherds. in minstrel guise, she entered baronial halls, reciting legends of the feats of feudal chiefs. Half turning from the banquet, she crowned the revellers with flowers, that wine and luxury might be restrained from excess by dainty phantasies. Her inspiring voice has ever and anon sounded the march of patriot ism for the assertion of right. And now, thanks to such writers as the one whose likeness we contem plate, she sojourns in cottages and lowly homes, ma , (hating them by her presence, which, in its influences, makes them, though all the winds of heaven may • whistle through their walls, fairer than fabled bowers, statelier than the palace, grander than the castle, and ; holier than the temple. P IJBLICOL A. THERE'S NOTHING IN VAIN. Oh! priz not the essence of Beauty alone, And disdain not the weak and the mean in our way, For the world is an engine—the Architect's own, Where the wheels ofleast might keep thelarger in play. We love the fair valley, with bloom in the shade, We sing of green hills—of the grape and the grain; But be sure the Creator did well when he made The starkdesert and marsh—for there's nothing in vain. We may question the locust that darkens the land, And the snake, flinging arrows of death from its eye; But remember they come from the Infinite Hand, And shall Man, in his littleness, dare to ask why? Oh ! let us not speak of the "useless" or " vile," They may seem so to us—but be slow to arraign: From the savage wolf's cry, to the happy child's smile, From the mite to the mammoth, there's nothing in vain. There's a mission, no doubt, for the worm in the dust, As there is for the charger with nostrils of pride; The sloth and the newt have their places of trust, And the agents are needed, for God has supplied. Oh! could we but trace the great meaning of ALL, And what delicate links form the ponderous chain ' • From the dew-drops that rise, to the star-drops that fill, We should see but one purpose, and nothing in vain. ELIZA COOK. COURT CIRCULAR. The Queen held a Court on Saturday afternoon a, Buckingham Palace. His Excellency the Duke de Broglie had an audience of her Majesty, to deliver his credentials as Ambassador Extraordinary from his Majesty the King of the French. His Excellency was introduced by Viscount Palmerston, G.C.8., her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and conducted by Coloi:el the Hon. Sir Edward Cust, K.C.11., her Majesty's Mus ter of the Ceremonies. The Queen gave audience to Viscount Palmerston. Her Majesty was attended by Lord Byron, Lord in Waiting, and Sir Edward Bowater, Groom in Waiting. The Queen and Prince Albert rode out on horseback on Saturday, attended by the Hon. Miss Murray, Colo nel Buckley, and Lieut.-Colonel Seymour. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, and their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar, visited the Queen and Prince Albert on Saturday, and partook of luncheon with her Majesty and her Royal Consort. His Royal Highness Prince Peter of Oldenburgh vi sited the Queen on Saturday. His Royal Highness Prince Waldemar of Prussia, at tended by Baron de Lauer, Count Oriola and Count Groeben, visited her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians on Saturday, at Buckingham Palace. His Majesty the King of the Belgians, attended by Dr. Carswell, returned to Buckingham Palace from Claremont, at half-past five o'clock on Saturday after noon. The Queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, honoured the performance at her Majesty's Theatre with their presence on Saturday evening. The Royal suites con sisted of the Countess of Desart, the Countess Vander straten, Lord Byron, Major de Moerkerke, Colonel Buckley, and Lieut.-Colonel Seymour. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, accompanied by their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of San Weimar, and Prince Peter of Oldenburgh, honoured the performance at her Majesty's Theatre on Saturday evening, with her presence. Her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses were attended by the Countess of Sheffield, the Countess of Assenburg, Hon. William Ashley, Count de Beust, and Baron de Ziegesar. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, attended by Baron Hammerstein, also honoured the performance with their presence. Their Royal Highnesses Prince Alfred and the Prin. cessAlice, accompanied by the Dowager Lady Lyttelton, took a carriage drive on Saturday, and their Royal High nesses the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal took pony and walking exercise. Yesterday the Royal chit lren took their usual airings. The Queen and Prince Albert, the King of the Bel gians, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the domestic household, attended Divine service yesterday, in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace. The Hun. Marlboroug h their Royal oyal H H i o g u h s n e e . sses the and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay officiat ed. Their Maje s ti es th e Ki n g and Queen o f the Bel g ians visited her Maje s ty the Queen Dowag er y esterda y , at Her Royal Hi g h ness the Duchess o f Gloucester and Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duch ess o f Saxe Weim ar, visited their Majesties the Kin g an d Queen of the B el g ians y esterda y . Her Majesty th e Queen Dowage r, and his Ro y al Highness the hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar, attended Divine service yesterday in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. Th e p ra y e rs were read by the Rev. J. V. Povah, and the lessons by the Rev. T. Helmore. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Wesley, from St. Luke. chap. 8, verse 2. The anthem was " 0 Lord give ear" (Green). The sacrament was adminis tered by the Rev. Dr. Wesley. e d B i. t h a e r f y " field d ler M and ajty t e h s eH w n a n s attended Abyshtileiye.Colu,nnteeshe Countess of Grand Duke was attended by Count de Beust. e t e e s rc ; u The Bishop of N o r w ich, Clerk of Beust. u was in waiting. Among the nobili t y p resent were Ladies Fo e r fort, the Marq u i s e s of Anglese a, Ormonde, and Win hCawdor.e,LWoridltsonß, aannddoSnt: St. Ger mans, Wilton, and G e rmans, the Duke of Beau - The Duke o f Wellington, the Duke and Duchess of St. Albans, and the Marquis of Anglesea, attended the early service, yesterday. iu the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The Rev. Mr. Haden officiated, and preached the sermon. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge yis a i r te lh d e hrneurghHouse. Majestythe Queen D owa g er, on Saturday, at Marlborough The Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary at tended Divine service, yesterday, in St. Michael's Church, C m h e e rs s t t e e i r n -s N qre v u e a re B in wa a i r t o in n g ii n n n e s t e h b e s i k it and nye B l H a i r g o h n n e e s s s s m . The Duke of Cambridge attended Divine service, yes terday, in Grosvenor Chapel. Sir William Davison was in waiting on his Royal Highness. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, at tended by Baroness Hammerstein, honoured Viscountess Palmerston with her company on Saturday evenin g , a t her residence in Carlton-ardens. His Royal Highness Prince Waldemar of Prussia, at tended by Baron Laner, Count Oriola, and Count Groe ben, visited the Exhibition of Drawings of India and the . ss Prince Waldemar of Prussia Punjaub, by the Hon. Charles Hardinge, ou Saturday, at at dinner, on Saturday, at his residence in Mr. McLean's hohnioiusrcßdotyhael Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian Minister, with Mr. Bond Cabbell, M.P., and Colonel Reid, had an interview with Sir George Grey on Saturday, at the Home-office. H g I g l h e r n y e , The French Ambassador visited Viscount Palmer ston on Saturday, at the Foreign Office. Sir Benjamin Brodie, Mr. Hammick, and Mr. Ed ward Rushton,had interviews with Sir George Grey on Carlton Myise.terrace. Saturday at the Home Office. LONDON TO PARIS.—The Brighton and Continen tal Stearn packet Company have co mme nced running their new - packets from Shoreham Harbour to Dieppe in five hours, and from Shoreham to Havre in six hours. They are remarkable for speed. Madlle. Rachel arrived in London on Saturday from Ostend. Taglioni was also a passenger in the boat. Madlle. Rachel commences her engagement et the St. James's Theatre this evening, in the tragedie of Les Boraces. ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL QARDENS.—A novel and most attractive exhibition took place in these gar dens on Friday and Saturday. The Siege of Gibraltar, which is attracting all classes to witne ss it, was repre sented by daylight, for the gratification of the juvenile visitors. The idea was a happy one, and we confess that we had our doubts as to the effects that could be produced —we :Were most agreeably surprised. We cer tainly m i g ht have refl ecte d t h at as fir as fact was con cerned the advantage was in favour of a day light repre sentation, and we feel assu r ed t h e propr i e t or ma y, from the success which has attended the first attempt, repeat the same with the like gratifying result. On the 28th ult. serious disturbances took place at G r oningen, m Holla n d, on account o f th e ex cessive clearness of food. The troops had to be called out. They made use of their arms, and, it is said, killed four persons and wounded twelve, some of them very seriously. Most of the wounded persons had taken no part in the disturbances , having been present only as spectators. On the morning of the 29th order was re-established. At Amsterdam, durin g th e l as t e i g ht days, the price of the four-pound loaf has been reduced five cents, about ' 15 centimes. PORTUGAL. PLYMOUTH, JULY 3. The Dublin Stenna-packet Company's steam-ship Duke of Cornwall, Captain Rob .rt Kemisstone, which has been these tat three months in the service of her Majesty the Queen of Portugal, came in this afcernoon for coal, bound to London. She left Lisbon on the 28th of June, Oplrto on the 30th, and Vigo on the 30±. She brings English passengers—Mr. Burnett, Mrs. Appleby and daughters, Miss Barry and Mr. Ottley, with dispatches for ae Admiralty, and letter bags from her ialajesty's ship*America, tier Majesty's brig Nautilus, her Majesty's ship Gladiator, and her Majesty's steamer Jackal. At Lisbon—Her Majesty's flag-ship Hibernia, 104, Captain Peter Richards ; her Majesty's ship Trafalgar, 124, Captain John M. Knott; her Majesty's ship Su perb, 80, Captain A. L. Corry ; her Majesty's ship Canopus, 84, Captain F. Moresby ; her Majesty's sloop Amazon, 19, Captain James J. Stopford ; her Majesty's steam-sloop Bulldog, Commander A. C. Key; her Majesty's steam-sloop Phcenix, Commander James S. A. Dennis ; her Majesty's steam-frigate Sidon, Captain William H. Henderson ; her Ma jesty's steam-frigate Terrible, Captain Ramsey. At Oporto—Her Majesty's ship America, 50, Capt. Sir Thomas Maitland ; her Majesty's brig Nautilus, 10, Commander \V. T. Rivers • her Majesty's steam vessel Gladiator, Captain Robb; her Majesty's steam vessel Jackal, Commander George Western. The Queen's authority has been fully established at and near Lisbon. The prisoners taken by the British forces have in great numbers volunteered into the royal service. The rest are sent to their homes. The Government had issued a decree to the mer chants, in expectation of raising a loan on payment of the duties at Oporto, but money was very scarce. The harvest is promising. There is no fruit for shipment. The ships Royal Tar, Mindello, Oporto, and Eighth of July, captured inLthe employ of the insur gents, were all given up, and are now recommissioned by the Portuguese Government. The Spaniards, under General Concha, were vir tually in possession of Oporto. A skirmish took place at Villa Nova, to the south of that city, on Sunday last, the 27th ult., between the Queen's forces and the insurgents, when about fifty on either side were killed. The insurgents there are ready to lay down their arms and surrender when they know who is to pay their arrears for past service. The English residents are respected and protected at Oporto. At Vigo the English ships which have been de tained by blockade were about to sail, on the 30th ult., for Oporto. THE SPANISH INTERVENTION IN PORTUGAL. BADAJOZ, JUNE 22.—Notwithstanding that the civil war in Portugal may be said to be at an end, the Spanish Government have not desisted from their determination to interfere, and, in consequence, the division of the army of operations which belongs to the district of Es tremadura will this day cross the frontier, and march on Ylves and Estremcz. The force of this division is about 4,500 infantry, three battalions of artillery, and 400 horse, to which may be added a few detached bodies of infantry and cavalry which had crossed the frontier several days ago, as I mentioned in a former letter, and now occupy Ylves, Campo Mayor, and other cantonments on the high road to Lisbqn. The motive assigned for this division penetrating into Portugal is, that the Government of the Qaeen Donna Maria has asked for a force of the Spanish army to occupy the principal fortresses and towns of Alemtejo, over which are now dispersed the disbanded forces of Sa Bandeira and the Count Mello, to secure the public tranquillity fur the present, and give time to the Government of Lisbon to re-organize the administration of the country, at present in a state of the utmost confusion. The Captain-General Nozagaray, who commands this force, has to-day published a proclamation to the army inculcating the utmost order and discipline in this move ment, and promising the severest punishments to those who attempted in the least to injuro or ill-treat the Por tuguese inhabitants. The detached parties of Spanish troops which have already entered Portugal from this place, and which were thrown forward as feelers to ascer tain the state of feeling of the people, were very well received; and no doubt, should the main body of the division which this day marches on Ylves conduct them selves in a temperate and orderly manner, they also will be well received, because the peaceable inhabitants only seek for security for their lives and property, and gladly receive any force which will secure them, for the present, tranquillity in their homes. Several Portuguese refugees have entered Spain along the line of frontier. A depot is ordered to be formed at Merido, on the road to Madrid, for their reception, where there are given rations for the men, and a small allowance, according to rank, to field-officers and subal terns. From everything I can learn from Portugal I can safely assure you that it will be the presence of a foreign force which can alone preserve order and tranquillity there for the present, and that it would be utterly impossible that a Government of any party could re-organize the administration of the country if left to depend on its own resources to insure peace and order. I follow the army to Ylves and Estremoz, and I shall detail to you, on the spot, the features of affairs, after so long and violent a political struggle as that which has ' 1 just ended.— Times. THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION. On Friday night, at eight o'clock, a meeting of Mr. C. Lushington's general committee was held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand, on the business of the election. Mr. Henry George Robinson, of St. George's parish, in the chair. Mr. G. HUGGETT, the secretary, said that since the last general meeting several sub-committee meetings had been held, and that gentlemen connected with various parishes had come forward volunteering their services to canvass their respective districts ; that some parishes had been almost entirely gone through, and the result of the canvass was most satisfactory.—(Hear.) Mr. HEALEY observed that some persons had been threatened with actions, in consequence of the circular emanating from the society. It would be well, perhaps, to consider what course the committee should pursue in the event of Mr. C. Cochrane taking legal proceedings. Mr. LEWIS, jun., said that they would hear enough of law proceedings during the election, after which they would hear no more. He would suggest to those who had received letters to keep them in their pockets. Mr. PEOUT said it was stated in the report given in the Morning Advertiser of that day of the meeting held at the Hanover-square Rooms the previous day, that if only one-tenth part of the allegations in the circular were true of that with which he had bum charged, that he ought to be scouted from all decent society. What ever the committee had published in their circular they would prove to be true. Mr. GUTHRIE observed he was happy to hear the observation, as it would leave a strong impression upon those who had been induced to give their promises to Mr. Cochrane. The meeting separated, measures having been taken :o carry on the canvass. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The Queen and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, accompanied by their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, honoured the performances at this theatre on Saturday with their presence. The royal suites included the Countess of Desart, the Countess Vanderstraeken, Lord Byron, Col. Buckley, Lieut.. Colonel Seymour, and Major Moerkerke. Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, accompanied by his Imperial Highness Prince Peter and the Princess Olden burgh, and by their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar, and attended by the Countess Assenburg, the Hon. Miss Eden, the Count de Beust, the Baron Zeigesar, Captain Taylor, and the Hon. William Ashley, were also present. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at tended by the Baroness Hammerstein, the Baron Knese beck, and Mr. E. St. John Mildmay, occupied her Royal Highness's box. Amongst the general company were his Royal Highness Prince George, the Duke of Wel lington, the Prince Louis Napoleon, the Duke and Duchess of Cleveland, and Lady Augusta Paulett, the Duchess (Dowager) of Cleveland, the Marquis and Marchioness of Douglas, the Marquis and Marchioness of Camden, Marquis and Marchioness of Ailesbury, Mar quis and Marchioness of Douro, the Marchioness of Westminster, Marchioness (Dowager) of Sligo, and the Ladies Browne, the Marquis of Clanri carde, the Baroness Brunnow and Madlle. Olga de Lechner, the Earl of Falmouth, the Earl of Cardigan, the Earl and Countess of Caledon, the Earl and Countess of Jersey and Lady C. Villiers, the Earl and Countess of Leven and the Ladies Melville, the Countess of Chester, field, the Earl of Munster, the Earl De Grey, the Earl and Countess of Wilton,:the Earl and Countess of Glen gall, the Earl of Aboyne, the Earl and Countess of Harrington and Lady Jane Stanhope, Viscount Somer ton, the Viscount Canterbury, Viscount Middleton, Viscountess Dungannon and Miss Irvine, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Lord and Lady Marianne Alford, Lord. Southampton, Lord Sandy s, Lord Saltoun, Lord Ribbles dale, Lady Willoughby d'Eresby, Lord James Stuart, Lady Meux, Lord Forester, Lord Macdonald, Lady Braybrooke and the lion. Miss Neville, Lord Burleigb Sir P. P. Acland, Sir G. and Lady Houston, Sir A: thony and Lady Rothschild, Sir Andrew Barnard, Sir H. Willoughby, Sir Henry Meux, Lady Foulis, Sir G. Wombwell, Bart., Baron Koller, Baron Nicolay, Baron and Baroness Lionel Rothschild, Baroness Rothschild, Count Koudriaffsky, Miss Burdett Coutts, General t lion. A. P. Upton, Captain the Hon. James Macdonald, h Chief Justice Doherty and Mrs. tai and d the D herty, o lion. Mon. Colonel and Mrs. Anson, Captain an M s_! Mrs. Ryder Burton, Mr. and Lady Augusta Wentworth, buthnot, Hon. Mrs. Hon. Mrs. Ru,hout, Tollemache, Hon. C. Ill'oorne.steWr,. cAlronel Bailey, Colonel Mtl'oor Buckley, Mr. Mon- Gardiner, Colonel Campbell, tague Gore, Captain Smith, C j aptain Reynolds, Mr. Brereton Trelawney, Mr. 'l'. S. Duncombe, M.P., Mrs, and Miss Trelawney, Mr., Mrs., and bliss Williams, ' Mr. Uzielli, Mr. Barr., Baldwin, M.P., Mr. arid Mrs. Hodgson, Mr. Errington, Mr. Broadley, Mr. Hubert De Burgh, Mr. C. W. Packe, M.l'., and Mrs. Padre Read ing, Mr. Mildmay. Miss Fitzroy Somerset, Mr. and Mrs. Huxley, Mr. Askew, the Rev. Gerard Wellesley, Miss S. L. Fox, Hon. G. Byng, Captain Duncombe, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. and Mrs. E. Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Grimwood, Mr. W. Smith, Mr. Majoribanks. T HE DEVONSHIRE RIOTERS. Several persons were tried at the Exeter Quarter Sessions, last week, for the late food riots in that district, and those who were found guilty were mostly recommended to mercy on account of the dearth, and discharged on their own re cognizance% NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. PORTSMOUTH, JULY 4.—The Vestal, 26, Captain Charles Talbot, arrived this morning from the China and East India station, whereon she has been employed the last three years and a hale, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker and Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane. She left Hong-Kong on the 4th of March, arrived at the Cape of Good hope on the 27th of April, and lift on the sth of May, bringing the latest news from that colony; passed St. Helena on the 23d of May, but did not communicate, neither did she call at Ascension. She has brought mails from the Cape and squadron employed on that station, under Rear-Admiral Dacres, the Commander-in-Chief, whose fiag-ship, the President, 50, Captain Stanley; the Conway, 26, Cap tain Kelley; the Nimrod, 20, Commander Dacres; and the Medea, steam-sloop, Commander T. H. Mason, were all in Simon's Bay when she sailed. The Helena, 16, Commander Sir Cornwallis Ricketts, sailed from Sitnon's Bay for St. Helena, Ascension, and England on the 30th of April. The Conway, 16, Captain Kelly, was to sail on the Bth of May (three days after the Vestal) for Eng land. Tlit Rosamond steam-sloop, Commander Foote, left Simon's Bay on the 4th of May, with a levy of Hottentots for Waterloo Bay. Squadron all well. The other ships not mentioned were cruising. One of Green's fast sailing ships, the Stag, Capt. Parish, sailed out of Simon's Bay on the 29th of April for Eng land. The Vestal has expetienced a very long suc• cession of fine weather, has never had double-reefed topsails but twice, and did not take in her royals for 5,000 miles. She came up to Spithead under royals and flying jib this morning in most gallant style, and shortened sail and furled very smartly. The ship ap peared to us to be in admirable order, the effects of ex cellent discipline and system being everywhere visible. She saluted the Commander in Chief with 17 guns. Mr. King, late Master Commanding the store-ship Minden ;at llong•Kong, has come home passenger in the Vestal, the only officer from the squadron. The Commandertn-Chief, Admiral Sir Charles Ogle, returned from his inspection of the Channel Islands just before sunset on Friday evening, when he changed his flag from white to red at the main on board the Victory, and all the ships at the port under his command changed their ensigns accordingly. It is 10 years since the flag of an Admiral of the Red has flown in this har bour, the last occasion being that of the late Sir Philip Durham, when Commander-in-Chief of this port. We are happy to state that Sir Charles Ogle enjoys excel lent health, and is beloved by all who know him. While the courts-martial on the officers of the Lily were yet pending, the Admiralty sent down orders for her immediate paying off. Yesterday morning, however, this order was superseded by one, by electric telegraph, to say she is not to proceed with preparation to pay off. The Rifleman and Sharpshooter steam•gun vessels, both propelled by the screw, arrived at this port on Fri day from Woolwich, the former shortly after five o'clock, and the latter an hour afterwards. Both vessels are from the same design, by Mr. Fincham, master-ship wright of this dockyard, the Rifleman having been built of wood under that gentleman's superintendence, whilst the Sharpshooter is of iron, and built by Ditchburn and Mare, of Blackwell. The engines of each vessel are of the collective power of 200 horses, and so arranged as to be several feet under the water-line. They are the pro duction of .Messrs. Miller and Ravenhill, of London, and have been constructed on precisely the same plan. In order to get the machinery thus low in the vessel, the cylinders are placed on their sides, similar to those of a locomotive engine, and the connexions made to the driving wheel are also effected by a like arrangement. From the trials that have been made between the two vessels the speed has been in favour of the iron vessel, which is supposed to be owing to some difference in the form of the vessel in the immediate neighbourhood of the screiv aperture. In a trial of speed which took place during their passage here the Rifleman was beaten by the Sharpshooter apparently at the rate of one mile per hour, but in consequence of the former having had the spare gear and stores of both vessels on deck, be sides all the masts, spars, and rigging of the rheenix, weighing together not less than 30 tons, she cannot be said to have had a fair trial with her competitor. We understand that both vessels were considerably detained during the night owing to the unsteady state of their compasses. The Rifleman is to be docked immediately with the view of making an alteration to the screw aperture, which will, perhaps, when completed, render her speed under all circumstances quite equal to that of the iron vessel. Both will be commissioned at this port by lieutenants. They were tried yesterday in the mea sured mile in Stoke's bay. The Vengeance, 84, Captain Lushington, was sud denly ordered out of- harbour yesterday morning, and out she went accordingly, and joined the squadron at Spithead, but is not yet placed under the orders of Sir Charles Napier. The Royal yacht Victoria and Albert was brought down from her moorings yesterday morning to a buoy opposite the Clarence yard, and preparations are mak ing for sending her to Woolwich. Tho boilers and part of the machinery for the Ajax, 56, steam guard-ship, arrived on Friday in two merchant vessels. On of the boilers was put on board the Ajax yesterday. All the ships composing Sir Charles Napier's squadron are to take on board five months' provisions and water, and to be ready on the 10th at Spithead. The following aro the promotions and appointments for the past week:— PROMOTION. Mate—Philip Saumarez (1845), to the rank of Lieu ,enant. APPOINTMENTS. Commanders—Henry G. Shute, G. A. Halsted, and George Morrett, to the Coast Guard Service. Lieutenants—Lumley W. Peyton, from the Penelope, to the Favourite, Nice Strangways, invalided; R. A. Powell, to the St) x ; John Parsons, to command the Crane packet, vice Lewis; E. H. Lambert, to the Mate—John P. Miller, to the Vixen. Naval lnstructor—G. H. Mackay, to the Odin steam. frigate. Midshipman—Henry Decie, to the Raleigh. Clerk—George A. Eversfield, of the Prometheus, to be acting Paymaster and Purser of the Favourite, vice Wilson. Naval Cadets—F. L. Barrington, to the Odin; W. T. W. Hambly, to the Belleisle ; A. C. R. Eckford, to the St. Vincent. Master's Assistants—J. DliNiel Dyer, to the Thetis ; Charles Williams . and 2 T. B. Miller, to the Caledonia ; David Brown, to the Victory. ROYAL MARINES.—Second Lieutenant A. Ellis, to the Chatham Division. MARINE CADETS.—The following young gentlemen have been appointed by Lord Auckland Marine Cadets to the Excellent, gunnery ship, to study for commissions in the corps of Royal Marines :—Mr. Whylock, son of Major Whylock, of the Royal Marines ; Mr. Lock, grandson of Admiral Lock ; Mr. Travers, son of Sir Eaton Travers, Bart., and Mr. Savery. WOOLWICH, JULY 3.—The Garland steam-vessel, Captain Sznithett, is expected to arrive at Woolwich on Sunday from Dover to convey the Kin. , and Queen of the Belgians to Ostend. Their Majesties intend to embark at Woolwich on Monday on their return to the continent. The Athol troop-ship, Master Commander Pearn, is hourly expected at Woolwich to embark two companies of the Royal Artillery for Ceylon, and will take out large detachments of the 7th Dragoon Guards and 73d Regiment of Foot, to join the head-quarters of their respective corps at the Cape of Good Hope. 2 cornets, 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, 1 trumpeter, and 50 privates of the 7th Dragoon Guards; 2 ensigns, 1 sergeant, and 42 privates of the 73d Regiment of Foot, arrived at Wool wich on Monday, and will remain in billets until they embark in the Athol. The report credited and promulgated by many re spectable persons of the finding of a number of doubloons in a box in the Royal Arsenal proves to be incorrect on inquiry of those who have the best means of knowing officially all that takes places in the establishment. CHATHAM, JULY 3. On Friday, the 2d inst., the Royal Marines of this division, comprising about 700 men, including non commissioned officers, were inspected in the square of the barracks by Major-General Thomas William Brotherton, accompanied by the Commandant, Colonel John Wright, K.H., and Colonel Charles Menzies, K.H., second in command of the division, which was drawn up in line at eleven o'clock. The line was then opened, and the Major-General, attended by his Aid-de-Camp, Lord de Ross, and Colonel Sir John Owen, K.H., Deputy-Assistant-General of Royal Marines, and Captain Logan, of the Royal Ma rine Artillery, passed up the front line and down the rear, and inspected each company minutely. The clean and soldierlike appearance of the men, who are nearly all recruits, being in excellent order, gave great satisfac tion. The Inspector-General then proceeded to inspect the barrack room, and the non-commissioned officers' mess-room, containing a most excellent library, and then the boys' and girls' school, containing about 80 children, who underwent an examination, and the ready answers given by them proved that great attention had been paid to their instruction by their master, Sdergeathne ie . _ s on most William Maxwell, who was highly comp occasion, and the Inspector-General expressed bi regularity perfect satisfaction at the good ord:r o . and jo i n r G e e c n t r o r r a l 1 andpoethrveardoiffingeeresvearyt• trepacrotnmeel conclusion The selthed the p erfor pro ceeded to the gun-battery and wit ; ' it es on board the mance Excel of the great gun exercise, as ta_ug s The nereorddeirreoeftedfirib7Caanpdtatilnie J. T. lent nceu v a r t i n P g o r o t f s m t h o e u t g h u . Brown. At the conc lusion, the Major-Gen era l, a f ter paying a ju st . tribute to the Commandant, proceeded to a- Maidstone to inspect the troops there. OLD DISATiI OF AN ANGLER fly DROWNING.—A few aged angler, nam e d Willi am W ooton , who had ago lived nearly early a century of years, while pursuing his darling avocation on the banks of " soft flowing Avon," near Pershore, by some :mischance fell into the treacherous stream, and being unobserved, was drowned. The veteran was at the river side as early as eight o'clock in the morning, and on a person going about noun to fetch him to dinner, his basket was found on the bank, and his hat being observed on the surface of the water, the river was s, arched, and the body of the de ceased was found. Mr. Best, coroner, held an inquest on the body, when it appeared that the deceased had been subject to fits, and as there could be but little doubt that he vs as so afflicted when he tell into the watern,ais verdict to that effect was returned.—Gloucester J h t J our nal. Captain ± '‘I 7 EST InDla PINES.—The Trinity yacht,lndies, Hounsell, has arrived in 25 days !rem the V consisting of 35,000 pines, a portion of in consigned to Keeling and Hunt, bringing ftitlesniirniroe cargo, w br i e li u e g h h „ t h e e m y tv‘h,eerdeeocrkigoifnatlltlye. vrelsasnleetle_,tdgr.opws_ oy g in the soil in I House yes- Hens, on a visit to terday afternoon for Hatfield , I The Duke of Wellington , early our this morning for will leave Hatfield at an the Marquis and Marchioness o to f Salisbury. chambridg e, ll to is b G e r p a r c e e_ house, his Ronal Highness Prince sent at the installation of Hertford, and go by nay . Albert. IRELAND. THE ELECTIONS. DUBLIN, JULY 2.—The contest for the county of Cork may be said to be virtuaily at an end. unles4, indeed, th© Conzervatives talc lieu: and rta , .l:•• a ntly f,)7.• ttzir car &date ere it is too late. At the close of the poll yester day the numbers on the gross poll stood thus : Power 712 Leader Majority for Power —2ll FALL IN THE PRICE OF GRAIN. The corn market to-day showed a still further ten dency to downward rates, and the " re-action" which was Expected to have set in at least a month before the present time, appears to have tow actually com menced. The splendid weather of the last week has, of course, mainly contributed to reduce prices to their ordinary level. The Corn Exchange report of this day says : " The continued favourable weather and the very de-, pressed state of the English markets have influenced our market considerably ;to-day; even the best wheat and oats were offered at a reduction of 2s. on the former and ls. on the latter; but only the most trifling retail business could be done. Prime Indian corn was held at nearly the prices of Tuesday, but buyers generally re fused to purchase. Other descriptions of this grain were unsaleable, though a very smart reduction would have been submitted to. White wheat, 435. to 485.; millers' red wheat, 40s. to 455.; barley, 245. to 265.; oats, 17s. to 225.; oatmeal, 225. to 245. 6d.; second flour, 245. to 263.; Indian corn, 355. to 495. (per 4801 b.) ARRIVAL OF THE EARL OF CLARENDON. JULY 3.—The Lord Lieutenant and the Countess of Clarendon and suite arrived at Kingstown at a quarter before six o'clock this mornicg, and having disembarked proceeded by special train to the Westland•row ter minus of the railway, where carriages were awaiting his Excellency's arrival. The Viceregal party reached the Lodge in the Phoenix Park at seven o'clock. Tile following is from the Evening Post:— " This morning his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, the Countess of Clarendon, and their four children, Ladies Alice, Mary, and Emily Villiers, and Lord Vis count Hyde, arrived in Kingstown harbour shortly before six o'clock. His Excellency was attended by Mr. Corry Cornellan, Private Secretary, and the Hon. Gerald Pon sonby, Assistant Private Secretary, Captain Henry , Ponsonby, A.D.C., the Hon. Captain Daly, and Captain Willis, Gentleman Usher. On coming ashore his Excellency was received by Major Turner, Master of the Horse, and Mr. Fitzgerald. A.D.C. under a royal salute of 21 guns, immediately after which his Excel lency and the Countess, accompanied by their children and suite, proceeded to the railway station, where a special train had been in waiting to convey them to Westland-row; on arriving at which place, private car riages being there to receive them, they drove off to the Viceregal Lodge, where his Excellency and the Countess and suite are staying. His Excellency and the Countess of Clarendon have already become the patrons of Irish manufacture. When coming ashore this morn ing his Excellency and the Noble Countess wore several articles of Irish fabric, and their patronage of Irish artisans having been reduced to practice at this early stage of what we hope will be their lengthened career in Ireland, the most beneficial results may be anticipated from so auspicious a beginning." THE ELECTIONS. _ _ The Repealer has won the day in Cork. The gross poll at the close yesterday stood thus— Power .... B3l Leader 550 Majority —2Bl The Cork Examiner says : " It is stated that Mr. Leader has sent in his resigna tion to the Shei:if, and that Dr. P., , xer will be conse quently declared elected this evening." The lion. Vesey Dawson (Whig) is positively to be one of the candidates for the county of Monaghan, and it is said that no doubt is entertained of his success as well as that of one of the present Members (Mr. C. P. Leslie.) The rumour is again revived that Viscount Jocelyn, who is extremely popular in Ireland, intends to solicit the suffrages of the electors of Dundalk, in succession to Mr. Daniel O'Connell, whose re tirement has been already notified. There is some pro bability of a contest for the borough of Carlow, although as yetsMajor Layard is the only candidate who has ad dressed the constituency; but it is stated that Mr. John Sadleir, of Ems, a gentleman of independent fortune, has commenced an active canvass upon Liberal princi ples. The Carlow Sentinel says— Mr. Sadleir is a non-repealer, and declares his inten tion to maintain the interests of the country without reference to party or Governments. Of the precise nature of Mr. Sadleir's principles we are not informed, but we suppose upon this point we shall not be long in ignorance, as he has taken the field in earnest. The ' Liberal' electors were, canvassed on Thursday last with the view of ascertaining the precise number of suppor ters both gentleman could calculate upon, and if the ma jority were favourable to Mr. Sadleir, Major Layard would be called upon by his friends to resign. This was done, we apprehend, to prevent a division of the 'Liberal' interests." Nevertheless, there is scarcely any doubt of the re election of the present gallant and popular representative. THE GREAT BRITAIN. TYRELLA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30.—The weather for the last few days has been remarkably fine, and the wind light, consequently the tides have at length ebbed out sufficiently to allow all the work outside and inside the ship to be proceeded with, but the boxes not being all up, and none of them having been filled, no attempt has been made to raise her higher; the springs did not rise to the calculated height. By . the next springs, it appears by the progress made, 14 boxes being in places, and two more on the move, that their power will be tested. The small spars have been radidly disappearing from off the breakwater, and are used up as shores to the upright bulks, or the boxes themselves; and many have, under Mr. Bremner's direction, been brought down to the rock, in a line of four or five yards—abreast of the engines, remarkably close together—between and beyond the hoses, spars, thereabout, to which they are attached by a stout beech tree, resting on the top, and abreast of them smaller ones, and about six feet high. This, at first, gave an idea they were intended to sustain the spars against the sea, should a sudden gale come on from • the southward; but Captain Claxton kindly ex plained to us that they were intended for a fulcrum, on which the large spars of the breakwater were to rest with their butts under the bilge keel, at an angle of 45 degrees; and at the upper ends of these trees weights were either to be suspended, or ballast laid on stages—it is presumed in bags, so as to act like ballast-levers. The large spars of the breakwater were, a good many of them, taken down yesterday, and a dozen or two are being placed to-day on this fulcrum; as they are more then 50 feet long, and as the butts will touch the ship at about seven or eight feet from the fulcrum, the leverage will be very great, it is said, equal to 200 tons, and as a set of American elm bulks are being braced together on the strand for a similar purpose, at the stem of the ship, probably the power will be &AIWA, while the 20 boxes, it is said, will be good for 800 or 1,000 tons. An officer of the Royal Engineers, whose name we could not learn, came down to the ship with Captain Claxton on Mon day, and passed some hours on the foundation of the breakwater and afterwards in the ship. Yesterday he was to be seen taking notes and making measurements with Mr. Bremner and Captain Claxton; he is still here. Since my last communication nothing could be much worse, as far as the ebbing out of the tides went, for the operations. For nine whole days the poor fellows who had contracted to remove the still remaining portion of the breakwater were unable to perform a stroke of work upon it; and Mr. Crew, the head man of the smiths or boilermakers, said he had not been able to do anything further inside; all hands, however, since Monday, seem to have had their hands full, and are making the most of the smooth water. The interest seems to increase, if one may judge by the numbers of carriages, cars, and visitors; and, as she will be probably raised on the com ing springs (about ten or twelve days hence), it is not likely to fall off. A large lot of stones has been col lected to place under her, after the plan adopted by Cap tain Claxton, which has succeeded in keeping her up nearly five feet. It is said Mr. Bremner has contrived a very ingenious mode of assisting this operation, but I I have not been able to learn the process; by my next hope to do so, as all connected with the ship are civil, obliging, and communicative.—Newry Tckgraph. f M m aj o e u st n yis E b d o g x ec w u a ra s b o:c a u n p d ie m d by isa ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN. the Hon. Mrs. Anson, Macdonald,the Right Hon. Fox Maule, the lion. Col. a E d . am A e ns V on Li E d s e q" Wey l There • er, the Duchess of Major-General Bow es. w ere present the Belgian t O h n e ESaatrulrdaanYd evening Countessheor Beaufort and Lady Blanche Somerset, the Duchess of Phipps,hiiste rGaenodrgive Hamilton, the Duchess Dowager of Bedford and Lady R a chel Russell, the Marquis of Douro, Marchioness of Bristol, Earl and Countess of Fingall and the Ladies Emma and Henrietta Plunkett, the Countess-Dowager of Essex and Miss Johnston, the Earl of Cawdor, Viscount Clifden, Viscount Dupplin, Count Metaxa, Viscount Maynard, and the Hon. Misses Maynard, Lady William Poulett, Lady Suffield, Lord Ernest Bruce, Lord Othu Fitz Gerald, Lord Wallcourt, Lord Henry Lennox, Lord Alexander Lennox, Lord and Lady Car rington, Lord Suffield, Lord George Manners, Lord Bateman, Lord and Lady Templemore, Lord Macdonald, the Hon. Sir Edward and Lady Butler, Hon. Mrs. Ba thurst, Hon. T. Byron, lion. Henry Chichester and the lion. Misses Chichester, Hon. P. Barrington, Sir Wm. and Lady Georgiana Codrington, lion. E. Fane, Hon. George O'Callaghan, Hon. C. Neville, Hon. Mr. Carew, Hon. Colonel and Mrs. Fitz Gibbon, lion. Mr. Plunkett, Hon. Miss Stanley, Hon. John Fortescue, Hon. Mr. buncombe, Hon. Mrs. Ives, Hon. Geoffery Browne, Sir W. de Bathe and Captain de Bathe.Sainrdltancly . Lady Wilson, Lady Chantry, S r. Lady A i l kinson, Lad) Y J Mol odre e ll, worth, Sir Jasper and Lady Macfarlane, Sir S. an d Lad • Scott, Baron n Para )Sir 11 11 R. H. eux Sir vicini, Sir Bellingham Gra ham, L 3 nch Blosse, Si r John Campbell, , and Lady Campbell, Sir c Thomas Bare, Sir C. Kent, Lady W hych c Sir John and Lad y Jervis, Lad y Wilso n, Sir C. Mtaer' s hall, Lady Maclean, H. Baring, Esq., M.P., Sir Offiey Wakeman, Bart., Colonel Rolleston, M.P.. and Mrs. Rolleston, W. 11. Gregory, Esq., M.P., C. P. L es lie, Esq., M.P., John Stanley, Esq., M. Rebell°, Forbes Campbeil, Esq., Mrs. and Miss Whitbread, John Dennistoun, Esq., M.P., and Mrs. Dennistoun, Miss Burdett Cuutts, Frank Mills, Esq., S. J. Lushington, Esq., Captain Baillie, Mr. Ridded, Charles Wemyss, Esq., Dudley Carleton, Esq., Windham, Esq.. Colonel Knox, Colonel Blanc, Mr. and Mrs. Bates, Miss Howard, Charles Greville, Esq., Mr. and Mrs. Coghlan, E. Delafield, Etq., Arthur Webster, Esq., Lloyd Clayton, Esq., Henry H. Clayton, Esq., the Misses Byrne, &c. GREENWICH HOSPITAL.—We understand that the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital, vacant by the death of Sir R. Stoplord, will be conferred on Sat Edward codrington. V. are 0, 6 , To THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY