The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-05 00:00:00

eORRESPONDINC:E.

BIRKENHEAD HOSPITAL.

TO T 1 EDITOR or THE• DAILY 'MIES

We arc told, " Patients may send for their own cler-
gymen." A kind permission, when they are too ,ill to
think for themselves. And observe,— Who is to take
the order?—who is to go ?—and who is to redress any
complaint from the patients ? At present there is no
one. The committee-room is shut against all com-
plaints of the patients. Subscribers and new members
are rejected; consequently, it will inevitably end in the
committee and the proprietors of the public works---
who are most concertted--.having to support the Hos-
pital themselves, if the rules ate trot to be changed.—l
am, sir, A VFBITOR.

The Pope hassent a sum of 2,000 f. to the subscription
which has been opened for Mdlle. Trochu, descendant
of Racine.

THE CHOLERA IN MALAGA.—The following is from
a mercantile letter from Malaga, under the date of the
22nd ult.:—."We have the cholera here, from fifty to
sixty persons dying daily: It is expected, however,
that it will not spread, but soon be over." The writer
adds, " This is a present brought us by the troops that
have returned from Africa."
PRIZE POEM ON A SACRED SUBJECT.—The judges
at Oxford appointed to decide the best composition for
the prize for an English poem on a sacred subject, on
Friday awarded the same, " The Waters of Babylon,"
to Mr. David Mitchell Alexander, M.A., of Brasenose
College. The subject for next year's prize is, "St
John at Patmos."
NUTRIMENT IN APPLES. Chemical researches by
Ur. J. H. Salisbury, of Albany, show that good valieties
of the apple are richer in those bodies which strictly go
to nourish the system than potatoes are ; or, in other
words, to fotni muscle; brain,. nerve, and, in short,
assist in sustaining airl building up the organic part of
all the tissues of the animal body.—zninbs's' CUriesities
of Science, Second Series.
A GOOD REASON.—"Mother," said little Xezhie, one
morning, after having fallen from his bed—" Mother, I
think I know why I fell out of bed last night. It was
because I elept too near the place where I got in."
Musing a little whßef as if in doubt whether he had
given the right explanatioit, he added, "No, that was
not the reason; it was because I. slept too near where I
fell out"

THE LATE RIOT AT HAMILTON.-FATAL RESIIII.

Sergeant M`Leod, who was fearfully maltreated at
Hamilton Barracks by the West York Rifle Militia, died
of his injuries on Thursday. Deceased was only about
twenty-two years of age. A court Of inquiry is being
held in the Castle of Edinburgh by General Cameron
and the' conirna'nding officers of the different regiments
quartered in that district. The inquiry is conducted in
strict privacy.
ComAtirraL POR MURDER.—Our readers will remem-
' ber that in March last; a soldier at Gosport, named
Hughes, stabbed a Mrs. Shein, the keeper of one of the
vilest dens of iniquity in that place. The woman died
last week, and Hughes, who had been in custody ever
since to await the result, has been committed to Win-
chester Gaol, on the coroner's warrant for wilful
murder.
Litt TROUT CAUGHT IN EDINBURGH CASTLE.—
Oa Thursday last the water in the large tank in the
castle having been run off for the purpose of executing
some repairs, one of the workmen, engaged in removing
the silt from the bottom, caught a live trout six inches
long. This trout must have come through the pipe
from the reservoir at the Pentland Hills ; and as the
tank has not been cleaned since its erection seven years
ago, the fish has probably passed several years in solitary
confinement.

DEATII OF THE EARL or STRArronD.—We regret to
announce the death of Field-Marshal the Earl of Straf-
ford, colonel of the Coldstream Guards. The venerable
and gallant noblepan expired at his residence, in Lower
Grosvenor-street, on Sunday evening, at a quarter past
eight o'clock, from an illness which only attacked him at a
late houron Saturday night. Lord Strafford, who was the
third son of Mr. George Byng, of Wrotham-park, Mid-
dlesex, and grandson of the Hon. _Robert Byng, third
son of the first Viscount Torrington, had reached the
advanced age of SS years, and, with the exception of
_ _ _

Lord Sinclair, was the oldest member of the House o

Peers. His lordship is succeeded in the earldom by his
eldest son, George Stevens, Viscount Enfield, born June
8, 1806.
AN INGENIOUS EXPEDIENT.—Some time since one of

:he Strathspey "men," or lay preachers, held a meeting

in the open air. Crowds of people flocked from all parts
of the surrounding districts to hear what they believed
was superior to anything coming from a pulpit. The
heat of the day was oppressive, and all that the preacher
could say was .not sufficient to keep the bulk of the
hearers awake. Much chagrined at their supineness,
and seeing that neither law nor gospel could rouse them
from their lethargy, ho at last hit upon the following
expedient. Stopping suddenly in his discourse, after a
pause, he bawled at the top of his voice, clapping his
hands, " the Raven's Stone has fallen !" alluding to a
large abrupt rock immediately above. The people, as
if by magic, sprung to their feet. On seeing that the
bait had taken, the preacher exclaimed, " Oh, you chil-
dren of the devil ! I was all the day preaching the truth
to you, and you would not believe me; but the only lie
1 told you that you believed at once without a moment's
hesitation."—Lteenvss Courier.
THE VOLUNIEER AND THE TAILOR.—A Mr. Glennie,
a member of the South Middlesex Volunteers, brought
an action last week in the Bail Court against Hill, a
military tailor in Bond-street, to recover damages for
an assault. The plaintiff had ordered his military suit
of the defendant, but when made it did not fit.
He sent it back, and told the defendant that it (lid not
fit. The defendant looked at it and said it did tit,
and that it was made according to the regulations.
The plaintiff persisted that it did not fit him, and
the defendant made use of very abusive language.
seized the plaintiff by the collar, and pushed him violently
out of the shop. The coat was afterwards tried on
before the adjutant and other officers, who said the coat
must have been made for some other person. The- de-
fendant said he was responsible only to the committee
and to Lord Ranelagh. Did not use any improper
language to the defendant. Did not call the defendant
a low blackguard. For the defendant, it was stated
that this was the first time any complaint had been made
against him ; that it had been found impossible to
please the plaintiff, wlao had called defendant a "slop
tailor." Defendent went to him, pointed to the door, and
said, "These are my premisesi walk out, sir." Plaintiff
walked ten yards towards the front door, and said,
" You are a low blackguard, and I'll make you pay for
it." Was not sure he might not have touched him to
direct his attention to the door ; nothing more. Defen-
dant's foreman corroborated the defendant's statement,
but believed defendant called plaintiff a humbug. The
learned judge, in summing up, said if the defendant had
laid his hand upon Mr. Glennie in the mode described
by the witness called by defendant, that amounted to an
assault in law, but of a very mild kind ; but then arose
the question, was that done because Mr. Glennie refused
to leave the shop? and was it done merely for•the pur-
pose of directing his attention to the door, that he might
leave the shop ? It was a question of credit—which
side did they believe? The jury returned a verdict for
the defendant.

stliiceilhiaonrrsiballae erstuaetletdiesi
nofthtehepatinphe.
TORTURE. IN NAPLES.--Some detailed and circum-
sNtaanptlieast
towardsut thes of
pamphlet
of M. Charles De la Varenne, "La Torture en Sicile."
Some of the cases in this narrative are too horrible for
publication in a newspaper :—" Maniscalco, the director
of police, an old gendarme, and a son of a waiter in a
Naples hotel, has been for some timo the real ruler
of Sicily, and under his auspices a system of tor-
ture has been perfected, which is the consummation of
diabolical cruelty. 'Every commissary, every jailer,' says
M. de la Varenne, 'has his own mode of applying torture.
It is revolting to come to details, but they are unhappily
exact and confirmed by official authority. The famous
Pontillo owes his reputation to the species of torture
which he applies in his own commissariat, making the
victim sit down in a railed arm chair set with razor
blades, under which is placed a-pan of burning coals.
The inspector, Louis Maniscalco, the namesake of the
general director, applies to the accused little iron hands
provided with a closing screw. This is called, in the
language of the police, 'the angelic instrument.' The
jailer, Bruno, belonging to the police commis; iriat of
the odious Omega (there is a prison in each commis-
sariat), tortures by stripping the victim of his clothes
and binding his head between his legs. Others employ
the torture of the tourniquet, drawing. a cord with a
stick inserted in it tight, round the head of the accused
till the eyes start out of the head and the skin cracks.
Others have recourse to starvation, to blows, to the
privation of light and breathable air. But the one
satellite of the director-general, who outstrips all the
others, is the notorious Captain Chennici,
born a peasant
in the village of Belmonte, a robber by profession, and
now an officer of police and a rich proprietor."

Da. Jane's TRUE: SAK4AtAKILLA A.,0 DANDELION nus.--
Portland-place, Leamington, Dec. 3, lam. Sir,--When in
London. two months ago, I theught 1 would try some of your
arsaparilla and Dandelion Pills, for indigestion, weak stomach
and torpid liver, occasioned, as my medical gentleman in-
formed me, by impure blood, which brought on great debility
and biliousness, and on my return home.' commenced taking
them as directed, and found, in the course of three or four
weeks, my general health much improved, appetite decidedly
better, and, indeed, I am quite another being. Yours obe-
diently, R. W. Fortnum. To Dr. Jebb. Wholesale Depot,
T. Babb, 2, Whitefriars-street, London, E.C. sold by all
Patent Medicine Vendors. In bozos 4 js. lad., 2s. 9c1., Is. 6d.,
and Ils.

gin,—L-A letter has appeared intended as an answer to
the question of "Why the Birkenhead Hospital was to
hava rules of its own, Cati,dsiverf by the governors of all
others at variance with terlkacttility, morality, or,
order?" The same old reply: "It hat l'..v4rr so for
twenty years, and has worked well."

Since the resignation of the late respectable mattee
and head of the establishment., those who will take the
trouble to investigate will find nothing can be worse or
more disorderly. Is it true that a man is now the head,
and performs all the offices of nurse,—the wife being
perfectly unfit, in every way, for that situation? Is it
true that she is en an equality with all the servants, so
that there can be no order ?