The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-03 00:00:00

MARCH 3, 1855.

MR. LAYA RD.
THE member for Aylesbury met his constituents in

public assembly on Wednesday last, and entered into
an explanation of his late conduct as their represen-
tative. Adverting to Admiral Dundas, Mr. Layard
explained the mistake which had led to the publica-
tion of his letter in which the professional character

of that officer had been impugned. Upon the origin
and course of the war, the policy of Russia, and the

probable destinies of Turkey, the hon. member re-
peated the opinions which he had so often urged both
in and out of Parliament. The most interesting
portion of his address, however, was devoted to per-
sonal detail, and acquainted his audience with the
relationships which bad existed between himself and
successive Governments since his first appearance in
political life at home. On these points Mr. Layard
said :

Some time before I became representative for Aylesbury
I returned from the East. I was a member of the diplo-
matic profession, and Lord Granville offered me the post
of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. I accepted
that office, and served for a short time under Lord Gran-
ville in the Foreign-office. The Government of which
Lord Granville was a member—Lord J. Russell's Go-
yernment--was of short duration, and they went out about
three weeks after I had been in the Foreign-office. Of
course it was my duty to go out with the Government.
Lord Derby, however, who succeeded, behaved to me in the
most handsome and honourable manner. He made me
en offer that I should remain in the Foreign-office until
his son returned from India, and said he would then either
give me a positbn in public life equal to that which I then
held, or, if sot, that he would give me a diplomatic mission
upon the Continent. That was a very handsome offer on
the part of Lord Derby—( hear )—which I might have ac-
cepted without compromising my political character. I
could Dot perhaps have joined Lord Derby's Government,
but I might have taken a diplomatic mission abroad, and
served his Government for a time under the circumstances

I have explained. (Hear.) All my political friends thought
I ought to have accepted that offer. Lord J. Russell alone
expressed a contrary opinion. When I knew that, I did
not hesitate for a moment, and I rejected the offer of Lord
Derby. I felt that I could not join his Government since
upon many points I differed from him in opinion, but I
might fairly have accepted his offer since, as a diplomatic
man, such a diplomatic mission was almost the height of
my ambition. (Hear, hear.) When, however, Lord John
Russell gave this opinion, 1 did not hesitate to retire at
once, and to throw myself, as I may say, being then without
a profession, upon the world. Lord Derby's Government
only lasted for a short time, and Lord Aberdeen succeeded
him. Lord J. Russell then said that, having given up office
when his Ministry went out, I was entitled to a position in
the Government then formed, and the Under-Secretaryship
of the Board of Control was offered me. That was gene-
rally understood in London to be the office given to me.
But a day or two afterwards Lord J. Russell sent for me
and said, that a gentleman was unprovided for whose
abilities and long public services gave him claims on
the Government, and he threw himself upon me to with-
draw my claims and to resign my office in favour of that
gentleman. I felt that if any man had greater claims than
myself, it was my duty to the Government and to the public
to give up any small claims that I might have, and ac-
cordingly Sir Thomas Redington was appointed Under-
Secretary to the Board of Control. (Hear.) Lord J.
Russell then offered me a consulship in Egypt, which I
declined on several grounds, but chiefly that after a con-
tested election it would have been unfair to leave my con-
stitents to fight another battle. (Cheers.) On refusing
to accept the consulship, Lord J. Russell promised me the
first place vacant in the Government. It has been said
that I am acting from personal and disappointed motives,
but you will see that the course which 1 have conscien-
tiously taken effectually prevented the possibility of my
holding office, while, if I had chosen to remain silent, the
next office that fell vacant would have been mine. ( Hear.)
Lord Palmerston succeeded Lord Aberdeen as the head of
the Government ; but although there was nominally a
change of Government, yet, as the larger number of those
who had formed the previous Government remained in it,
the new and the old Governments were pretty much the same
thing. (Hear, hear.) On Monday week, a few hours before
I made that speech of which you probably have heard,
Lord Palmerston offered me the Clerkship of the Ordnance.
Now, haiing voted that I had no confidence in the Govern-
ment—that being the interpretation which the Govern-
ment chose to put upon that vote—there were sufficient
grounds why 1 should not accept office under the men who
formed part of that Government. Secondly, I felt that it
is the duty of the Government at the present moment to
put the right men in the right places. (Cheers.) I was
not acquainted with the Ordnance, and I thought I should
be at once betraying my own principles and my duty to the
public if I accepted an office in which I could not serve
the public to the best of my ability. ( Hear.) 1 therefore
refused that offer. On the following day those members
of the Government with whom I had more especially dis-
agreed retired, and Lord Palmerston began to form a new
Government. Last Friday Lord Palmerston sent for me
and offered me the post of Under-Secretary of War. I
made some few conditions—that I should have a certain
u,'luence, and that those ♦iews which I had expressed
iuld be carried 11 I thereupon accepted the office.
- told
offer,

THE PRESS.

representative and a more efficient member of Parliament.
But the present is a great national emergency, and it ap-
peared to me that I should be betraying my own princples,
and should be false to you, to my country, and to myself,
if I took an office for which I was not capable, if there were
one which I was more capable of fulfilling. (Hear, hear.)
At the same time, in declining this office I told Lord Pal-
merston that if I found his Government merited the confi-
dence of the people and my own confidence I would give
him every support in my power. I trust that in so acting
I have not been unfaithful to those principles which I have
always professed. ( Cheers. )

EFFECTS OF COLD ON THE HEALTH.
REsPitcmat the influence of the late inclement
weather upon the health and mortality of the metro-
polis, we find the following remarks in the last
official report of the Registrar-General :

The season of extreme cold has now, we may hope,
passed over, and its effects have been seen in the tables of
the last six weeks, when the deaths of 0,408 persons have
been registered. These deaths exceed the average by
1,968; which appear under various diseases, and were the
indirect results of the low temperature.
The temperature of the six weeks was 28.4 deg. on an
average, and the deaths were nearly 100 weekly to every
degree of depression below the freezing point of water.
The cold affected persons very differently, according to
their age ; for in the five weeks that ended on Feb. 17, at
the first age of manhood (20 to 40) the cold did not des-
troy 2 in 10,000 ; at the age of 60 to 80 it was fatal to 38
in 10,000. At the soldier's age, with the shelter that
London affords, the mortality from cold is inconsiderable.
If the average deaths at each of the live ages are sub-
tracted from the deaths in the five weeks of cold weather,
the numbers that are left representing the deaths by cold
are 367 children and youths under 20; 159 young meu
and women of 20.40, 200 middle-aged persons of 40.00,
561 of 60.80, and 173 of 80 and upwards. Upon dividing
these numbers by the persons living of the corresponding
ages, we find that the mortality by cold in the 100,000 was
at the rate of 35 under the age of 20, and 18, 64, 382,
and 1,749 at the four subsequent ages.
The temperature of the blood is about 98 deg., at which
it is sustained with some slight variations even when the
body is immersed in an atmosphere of 21) deg., or of a
still lower temperature. But the heat that is lost by the
lungs and the skin is so great, that is is not supplied with
sufficient rapidity in the young and the old ; who, to use
a common expression, do not " stand the cold " so well as
men in the prime of early manhood. The above numbers
show that the power of cold on life varies according to de-
finite laws. Thus the mortality by cold is (81) twice as
great under the age of 20, as the mortality (18) at 20-40;
but after that turning-point the power of resisting cold
decreases every year, and men of 90 and men of 30 have
suffered from the cold that we have experienced in the pro-
portion of 1(X) to 1 (or of 1.749 to 17.5). The general
result is, that the danger after SO of dying of cold is
doubled every nine years of age; for out of the same num-
bers living to one death by cold at the age of 30, there are
two at 30 ; four at the age of 48 ; eight at the age of 57 ;
16 at the age of 66 ; 32 at the age of 75 ; and 114 at the
age of 84. This series at least expresses very nearly the
relative mortality by cold at the respective ages during five
weeks among two and a half millions of people.
Exercise, ample supplies of food and clothing, and arti-
ficial external warmth, mitigate the effects of cold in Lon-
don, and by sustaining the temperature of their sleeping-
rooms the danger of the aged is much diminished.
Cold is less fatal than dirt in the air and water of Lon-
don, through which the cholera, dysentery, and other
matters that induce zymotic diseases, are diffused ; thus,
while intense cold killed 1,604 persons in the five. weeks
preceding the last, cholera destroyed 7,222 in five weeks
of last year; and while cold killed 159 men and women of
the age 20-40, cholera killed 1,909 at the corresponding
age.

LIEUT.-COLONEL THE HON. HUGH PERCY arrived
at the Earl of Beverley's mansion, in Portman-square,
on Monday, from the Crimea. This gallant officer
has been through the whole of the campaign, and
was wounded both at the Alma and at Inkermann.
FELTED CLOTH.— A novel process of woollen
manufacture, producing a fabric which possesses
many advantages over woven cloths, is now in active
prosecution at some extensive mills near Bath. The
invention has been patented by Dr. Kennet, and is
worked under his superintendence. Its principle is
that of felting together, or, to use the inventor's own
words, "interlocking and dovetailing," the woollen
fibres through a thin foundation either of wool or
cotton. The process is accomplished by aid of very
ingenious mechanism, by which the cloth is produced
at the rate of one yard per minute. The resulting
texture can be made of any required thickness, from
that of material for a light overcoat to a stout carpet,
and, besides the rapidity of manufacture, consumes
a far less proportionate weight of wool, and, on both
accounts, can be fabricated at a much cheaper rate
than the ordinary woven tissues. Another curious
property developed by the aid of a separate me-
chanism is the ease with which severed edges of this