The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

(lout int (Ostia.

THE Court has remained at Windsor during the
week, where the French Ambassador and Countess
Walewski, and his Serene Highness Prince Ernest of
Leiningen, have been among the guests honoured
with invitations from her Mt‘jesty. The Earl of
Cardigan and Viscount Hardinge dined with the
Queen on Thursday.
Her Mikjesty's magnificent new steam-yacht the
Victoria and Albert, to complete which every artisan
of the establishment has of late been employed from
daylight until ten at night, was launched at Pem-
broke on Tuesday last.
Letters have been received from the Duke of
Cambridge, who is now at Malta, waiting to see what
effect the change of air may have on his debilitated
health. His Royal Highness intends to remain
in the island to try and recruit his health, in order
that he may return to the British army in the Crimea
immediately after its restoration, and will not
hear of coming home until all other means have
failed.
The vacant blue ribbon, according to the Globe, is
to be conferred on the Earl of Aberdeen. _ _ .

On Tuesday, a Cabinet Council was held, which
was summoned to meet at two o'clock, and did not
break up until nearly seven. Lord John Russell,
who had returned that morning from Paris, joined his
colleagues during the progress of their consultation.
Another Council met on Thursday, and sat for three
hours.
His Excellency the Hon. Sir William Temple,
brother to Viscount Palmerston, has left. Paris to re-
_

assume his diplomatic functions at the Court of King
Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies.
The venerable Countess of Carlisle has been
attacked by severe illness, and but slight hopes are
entertained of her recovery.
It will be very gratifying to the sick and wounded
at Scutari to learn that the newspapers and books
which reach them so regularly through the War-
office are the personal gifts of the Queen, purchased
of her Majesty's newsman, according to a list of
which her Majesty has expressed her approval

Her Royal Highness the Countess of Trapini was
on the 7th happily delivered at Naples of a princess,
who has received the name of Maria Theresa.
The Duke of Brabant had left Vienna to make an
excursion in Greece and Egypt. It is expected that
he will stop some time at Cairo, and afterwards visit
Naples and Rome, and return to Belgium about the
middle of summer. The health of the Prince in-
spired no uneasiness to the physicians of Vienna
who had been consulted.

THE COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND REVENUE have
caused it to be intimated that although there is no
express exemption in favour of receipts given for
subscriptions to charitable institutions, but the
board think that where the sum acknowledged to
have been received is a mere voluntary gift, not
entitling the person making the payment to any
advantage, the acknowledgment may be regarded as
not liable to stamp duty. The nature of the gift
should, however, be expressed in the acknowledgment.
THE EAST INDIA RAILWAY COMPANY are stated to
have paid into the treasury at the India-house up to
Saturday last 780,0001. out of the 1,500,0001. re-
quired by the 15th of February. During the current
week they have paid about 000,000/. more, the re-
cent call having been promptly met, while that for
February has in numerous cases been anticipated.
Many shareholders, also, have paid up in full,

JANUARY 20, 1855.

Valiant an Omani.

ACCORDING to the Lithographic News Skeet of Ber-
lin, Major de Stutterheim and several other officers
of the old army of Schleswig-Holstein have signified
to the English Government that they were disposed
to enter the foreign legion forming in England.
NOTICE has been given for the appropriation of
Smithfield as a grand terminus for the underground
railway from Paddington and King's-cross to the
General Post-office, great part of which has been au-
thorised by Parliament.
THE Markets Improvement Committee of the Cor-
poration of the City of London have named the 26th
inst. as the day for opening the newly-constructed
market at Copenhagen-fields, Islington. It is how-
ever by no means certain that the ceremony of inau-
guration will take place on that day, as the Home
Secretary has not, at present, approved of the regu-
lations for the management of the market, as agreed
to by the committee. When his lordship has so done,
be will tlx the day of opening, and from that date
Smithfield will cease to be a market. The new
market will cost the city 320,0001.
liEurrawcr HEWETT, R.N., who 130 much distin-
guished himself in a late instance when attached to
the naval brigade before Sebastopol, has returned to
England with a view to pass the examination involved
by his promotion. It will be remembered that Mr.
Hewett on the occasion of a sudden attack of the
Russians upon the allied intrenchments, when
directed by military authority to spike the Lancaster
gun of which he had the charge, resolutely refused
to obey the order, stating that be was sure it did nut
proceed from his captain ; and, instead of complying,
cleared away the parapet of the battery, and turned
the gun against the advancing columns of the enemy
with such effect as to cause their speedy retreat,
making dreadful havoc in their ranks. Admiral
Dundas, with a praiseworthy appreciation of his in•
trepidity, not only recommended Mr. Hewett at once
for promotion, but placed him in temporary command
of her Majesty's ship Beagle—a position which he
will again assume on his return to the Black Sea, ac-
emu paui ed by the approval of the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty. . . _

AT the approaching meeting of the Crystal Palace
Company it will be announced that the receipts have
been sufficient to give, if it were deemed expedient, a
dividend to the shareholders. As, however, all the
receipts have been appropriated to extending and
improving the enterprise, the directors wisely abstain
from paying a dividend out of the capital—a principle
which, it is to be hoped, will not be departed from,
either in this or any other public company.
THE COURT OF DIRECTORS of the East India Com-
pany have appointed, as a temporary measure, the
Right Hon. Sir James Stephen, K.C.8., LL.D., Pro
fessor of History and Political Economy at
Hailey-
bury College.
A PETITION against the return of Messrs. Mowatt
and Adair (for the borough of Cambridge) will be
presented on the first day of the reassembling of
Parliament. The petition will pray for the seats on
behalf of Lord Maidstone and Mr. Slade, Q.C., as
well as to avoid the return of the present members
on the ground of bribery and treating at the former
election.

AT THE MEETING OF THE COURT OF SESSION OR
Wednesday, Mr. Craufurd presented the Queen's
letter, appointing him a judge in the room of Lord
Rutherfurd. After the usual probationary trials, he
will take his seat on the bench to Lord Ardmillan.
Mr. T. Mackenzie also presented his commission as
Solicitor-General, and was sworn into office.
GENERAL BEATsoic, who is in Constantinople with
a large staff of Indian officers, charged by the Go-
vernment with the formation of a body of 4,000 ca-
valry, is about to proceed to Thessaly, for the pur-
pose of raising that force from the population of
those provinces.
REAR.ADMIRAL HOUSTON STEWART, having become
second in command of Sir Edmund Lyons' fleet in
the Black Sea, Rear-Admiral Montagu Stopford will
succeed him as admiral superintendent at Malta.
THE GOVERNMENT, it is said, is about to organise
a baggage and transport corps. The officers will be
selected from the East India Company's army, and
will rank with officers of her Majesty's service. Colo•
nel M'Murdo is to have the command, and he, with
some other officers and men selected from the metro-
politan police, will sail next week for Constantinople.
The policemen will form the nucleus of the corps,
which will then be completed at Constantinople by
Turkish recruits.

THE POPUIATION OF LONDON now suffers, as ap-
pears from the last returns, a high rate of mortality.
Last week the deaths of 1,466 persons (743 males,
and 723 females) were registered, showing an in-
crease on the previous week, in which the number
was 1,404. In the ten corresponding weeks of the
years 1845-54 the average number was 1,203, which,
when corrected for the increase of population, shows
that the present mortality is 143 in excess of the de-
cennial average.

THE PRESS.

saw and Volta.

A irDMIENT waa given on Monday by the Lord
Chancellor, in an appeal of great importance to the
body of Wesleyan Methodists. The case arose out
of an information on the part of that governing body
among the Methodists known by the name of the
Conference, the object of which was to exclude the
trustees of a chapel at Birstal, in the West Riding of
York, from appointing their local preachers, on the
ground that the appointment of such preachers by
the Conference was a necessary part of the constitu-
tion of Methodism enjoined by John Wesley, and
imperative on his followers. The question is of the
last importance to the unity of Methodism, as there
are very many chapels whose trustees claim the same
independence of action in the selection and nomina-
tion of their preachers :

The information was filed originally in the Vice• Chancellor's
Court, at the instance of John Middlebrook and William Beau-
mont, tws member. of the Wesleyan body at Biristal, and it
prayed a declaration that the chapel was held iu trust for the ge-
neral body of Methodists, and that the preachers should be
appointed by the Conference, in conformity with the true con-
struction of the provisions of a deed of trust of 1761, which
gave the appointment to John Wesley and his brother Charles,
and their nominees. Iu support of their prayer fur relief, the
relators entered into a history of the origin and progress of
Wesleyan Methodism, and the erection in 17610 f a chapel for the
district of Birstal, through the exertions of one John Selson,
who was nominated by Wesley to be the preacher. The infor-
mation set forth the deed vesting this building in nineteen
trustees, who were to permit Wesley, his brother, and one Grim-
shaw, to nominate the preachers; and • further deed of 1783,
which was followed in 1835, on the purchase of new property, by
a declaration of trust which recognised its provisions as differing
from those of the deed of 17A, by giving the trustees an autho-
rity to appoint the preachers alter the decease of the Wesley..
The information prayed the removal of the trustees who objected
to the coutrollingpowers of the Conference. that the chapel and
all the buildings be declared subject to the provisions of the
model deed of 1751, and it also prayed a scheme for future regu-
lation of the chapel. The Vice-Chancellor, after much considera-
tion, upheld the deed of 1751 as the true declaration of trust, and
declared the property acquired since that time to be held under
the trusts of that deed, and not under the trusts of the deeds of
1781 or 1836. His Honour also held that the powers given to the
trustees to appoint preachers after the death of the Wesley.,
however express and definite in their terms, were inconsistent
with the present rules and regulations of Methodists, and that
the nomination necessarily belonged to the Conference, whose
appointed preachers ought to enjoy the free use and benefit of
the trust premises. His Honour, however, refused to remove the
dissenting trustees, because the provisions for that purpose bed
not hitherto been strictly carried out, and he gave them the costs
of appearance.

An appeal having been brought against his Honour's
decision, the case was argued at great length during
several days in the Court of Chancery at the end of
last Michaelmas Term. The Lord Chancellor then
reserved judgment, which was finally pronounced on
Monday. His lordship entered minutely into the
circumstances of the case, recapitulating the tenor of
a variety of trust-deeds, and examining the conditions
under which the Birstal chapel stood with relation to
the general body of Methodists as organised by Wes-
ley. The chief point at issue was this—whether the
chapel should be managed by trustees appointed
under the provisions of sundry deeds, executed when
the edifice was built or enlarged; or whether the
circumstance that its founders and congregation had
from the beginning belonged to the body of Wesleyan
Methodists sufficed to overrule all special deeds, so
far as they related to the appointment of trustees, by
subjecting the chapel to the control of the Conference
established by Wesley for the management of all
places of worship appertaining to his connection.
The Chancellor's judgment finally reversed the deci-
sion of the court below, and sustained the validity of
the special deeds relating to the trusteeship and con-
trol of the chapel. The effect of this decision will
be to withdraw a very large number of Methodist con-
gregations from their connection with what has been
considered the parent stock.
Two DUTCHMEN, named William Kopps and An-
thony Joseph Steyne, were brought up on Tuesday
by a detective policeman, charged with having been
found possessed of 1,200 thalers stolen money, for
which they could not lawfully account :
It had been telegraphed from Cologne a few days before that
the servant of a gentleman had disappeared. after having received
a considerable sum of money fur his master, and the Com-
missioner of the City Police forthwith gave directions to some of
his principal officers on the subject. The result was that Haydon
astonished the two prisoners in Fenchurch-street just as they
were about to exchange some foreign for English money at the
premises of one of the bullion dealers, and took them into
custody. The officer then ascertained that Kopps bad robbed
nib master of LW) dialers, and invited hteyne w, accompany
him to America, where they were to divide the spoil, and to start
in business together, and that the passage to New York bad been
already paid. The prosecutor soon afterwards arrived from
Cologne. Ilaydon found iu Kopps's possession 1,200 thalers, and
applied for the amount of the passage money to America, so that
it was probable that almost the whole of the money would be
soon in the possession of the rightful owner.
Mr. Ludowic Kinricb, the prosecutor, said: I live at Cologne.
Kopps was my servant. I know nothing of the other man. I sent
Kopps with a note to the post-office to fetch 1,500 thalers to me.
He never returned. The papers found upon Kopps are of the
description I ought to Lave received from the port-office. It was
telegraphed to Cologne that the prisoner, who committed the
offence, was in London.

Alderman ROSE said he had no jurisdiction in the
case, and discharged the prisoners without making
any order about the money, which was subsequently
Landed to the owner.

AT the Liverpool Police-court on Wednesday John
Bevan Donaldson, late collecter at the Liverpool
Mercury office, was committed for trial for embezz-
ling several large sums which he had collected, the
property of the proprietors of that journal. It it
said his defalcations reach over 1,0001.
JOHN JONES, a respectable-looking young man,
whose father was stated to be an auctioneer in Par-
liament-street, was sent to the House of Correction
for a month on Wednesday for stealing a book enti-
tled " The Man of the Times," valued at Bye shillings,
from the Leopuld Coffeehouse, Old Kent-road.
LADY BOUGHTON has been fined 1/. and costs at
the Brighton Police-court, for assaulting her lady.-
maid.

SPRING CIRCUITS, 11455.—Oxford, Lord Campbell
and Baron Martin—Norfolk, Lord Chief Baron and
Justice Wightman—Northern, Baron Parke and
Justioe Cresswell—Midland, Baron Alderson and
Justice Coleridge—Home, Justice Maule and Baron
Platt—Western, Justice Erie and Justice Crowder—
North Wales, Justice Williams—South Wales, Jus-
tice Crompton. Chief Justice Jervis remains in
town.