The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

A GREAT INUNDATION has taken place at the town
of Krems, on the Danube, the terrific character of
which may be conceived by the fact that eighty per-
sons have been missed, and forty corpses found. The
loss of property has been enormous, and many
thousands of human beiugs have been driven from
their homes to seek for shelter in the open country.
Lord George Manners, third surviving son of his
Grace the Duke of Rutland, Captain of the Royal
Horse Guards, and M.P. for Cambridgeshire, is to
be married to Lady Adeliza Howard, daughter of the
Duke of Norfolk, at the end of this month or early in
the next.

TILL lately it was thought that nitrate of soda was
unfit for the manufacture of gunpowder, wanting the
expansive power of saltpetre. A clever chemist has,
however, discovered a process by which this defect
can he remedied. Under such circumstances he
went, about four weeks since, to Hamburg and
bought up all the nitrate of soda there—a large
quantity, five or six thousand tons—and it is now—
ay, even now, whilst the Prince of Prussia is at Bal-
moral—being transported through Prussia to Russia,
where the said chemist will make gunpowder of it for
our enemy, the Russians.

SERGEANT BRODIE, late of the First Royal
Dragoons, appeared on the parade of the Invalid
Depot on Wednesday morning, with a number of
others who are discharged from the service, for the
purpose of being informed the amount of their pen-
sions ; and as the case of Sergeant Brodie was one
of considerable interest, not only amongst the
officers, but also with many gentlemen of the neigh-
bourhood, they were very anxious to hear how the
Government intended to deal with him after what
had taken place. On the previous evening large
bets were made that the Horse Guards could not
and would not give him less than what he was en-
titled to—namely, two shillings per day, for the ser-
vices he has rendered, and the very excellent
character he has borne for the last nineteen years he
had been in the regiment, seventeen of them as a
sergeant. Such service alone entitles him to the re-
ceipt of nineteenpence per day pension. To the
great surprise of all parties, however, he is only
allowed the pittance of one shilling per day, besides
the loss of his position and business, whilst the ad
jutant who ordered the troopers to knock him down,
who was the principal and prompter of the duel, has
been allowed to sell his own commission and pocket
the money, and rewarded with a captaincy in the
Turkish Contingent, worth 6001. a year.
THE RIGHT REV. W. VAUGHAN, D.D. was elevated
to the titular see of Plymouth on Monday morning,
at the Church of the Holy Apostles, Clifton. Cardinal
Wiseman officiated as the consecrator, assisted by

the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, Roman Catholic
Bishop of Birmingham, and the Right Rev. Dr.
Brown, Roman Catholic Bishop of Newport. A
large number of clergy also took part in the cere-
mony. The church, which was decorated with ever-
greens, was well filled with spectators, and comprised
a large number of the Roman Catholic families with
which Clifton and the neighbourhood are now so
thickly peopled, as well as many Protestants, whose
curiosity attracted them to witness the comparatively
novel spectacle in this country of the consecration of
a prelate of the Romish Church. The prices of
admission varied from 2s. ad. to is., the former sum
securing a seat in the nave, and the latter one in the
aisles of the church.

MR. SHAW, the English contractor for the Central
Portuguese Railway, has stopped the works, the
directors having refused to pay him the certificate
for work done and materials delivered during August,
amounting to about 15,0901. For some time the
directors, it is stated, have shown a desire to get
possession of the works ; but, the terms offered to
Mr. Shaw to relinquish them being inadequate, they
have failed in their object. Whether the refusal to
pay his certificate has originated in a desire to force
him to give up the works the next, mail from Lisbon
will probably indicate; that such, however, was the
intention is rendered the more likely from the follow-
ing telegraphic despatch which has been received
from Madrid :—" The Government and directors and
lawyers of the company have taken possession by
force of the shops, dee., at Xabregas and Sacavem, at
four o'clock on the 9th inst., by soldiers with drawn
swords."

AN AUSTRALIAN VENTURE was made in 1852 by a
gentleman who sent from Scotland, among others, a
package of goods worth 281. to Melbourne, fondly
hoping for a good return. During last month
(August, 1855) ho received an account sale of his
goods, amounting to 41. odd, the 281. worth of goods
having realised 111. 106., and having been subjected
to charges amounting to 71. odd. On applying for
payment of the balance in the account sales, he was
thunderstruck to find that outward freight and
charges were still to be deducted, and that, instead
of receiving any money, he was indebted 1/. ss. 7d.
A COLOSSAL STATUE of the celebrated archteologist,
Count Carlo Castiglione, has just been inaugurated
in the court of the Palazzo Brera, at Milan.

SATURDAY,

SAW aub Volta.

THE TRIAL OF MESSRS. PAUL, STRAHAN, AND
BATES was fixed to take place on Wednesday, at the
Central Criminal Court, and true bills were found by
the grand jury on the indictments in the course of
Tuesday. When the prisoners were placed at the
bar, however, an application was made to postpone
the trial until next sessions, which, after some con-
sideration, was granted. It was also arranged that
the final examination of the prisoners in the Bank-
ruptcy Court should be postponed until after the
conclusion of the criminal proceedings against them.
The sureties for the three defendants have been re-
newed, and amount to no less a sum than 60,0001.
On the last examination at Bow street, the six sure-
ties for the appealance.,of the defendants increased
their recognisances from 3,0001. to 5,0001. each,
making 30,0001., and each defendant increased his
recognisances from 5,0001. to 10,0001., making the
three 30,0001., and with the bail 60,0001., for their
appearance to take their trial. Alluding to this case
in his address to the grand jury, the Itecorder, the
Hon. S. Wortley, made the following observations
respecting some legal points which have already
excited much controversy:—

These three persons were charged with what was undoubtedly
a moat serious offence; namely, that of having disposed of va-
luable securities intrusted to them for safe custody, in their
position as bankers, for their own purposes, and thus defrauded
the owners of the securities in question. Although this act un-
doubtedly contained all the moral characteristics of felony, still,
as the possession of the property was, in the lint instance,
parted with by the owner, the law originally held that the act of
parting with property so deposited did not amount to felony, for
that reason; but in consequence of a similar case to the present
that occurred a good many years ago, and which, at the time,
caused a great deal of interest, an Act of Parliament was passed
purposely to meet such a case. By this Act it was enacted that
if any banker, broker, attorney, or agent, should dispose of any
chattel or valuable security placed in his charge for a specific
purpose, and apply it to his own use, lie should be guilty of mis-
demeanour, and, being convicted thereof, should be subject to
certain punishments mentioned in the Act. Any banker, there-
fore, who, contrary to good faith, disposed of any valuable
security intrusted to his charge, or made use of it In any manner
for his own purposes, brought himself within the provisions of
this statute, and the charge against these three prisoners was,
that in the cabs of a gentleman named Griffith, who had in-
trusted to them for safe custody a large amount of Danish and
Dutch bonds, they had unlawfully applied these securities to
their own purposes. Be did not observe that the matter was
attended to in the depositions, but he thought it right to make a
few remaika in reference to a suggestion that had been thrown
out in the course of the proceedings iu this case, that the pii-
goners had exonerated themselves from the present charge by
their having complied with a subsequent provision contained iu
the statute, by making a full statement of their proceedings in
reference to the securities in question, and which, in fact,
amounted to an admission of their guilt. The statute un.
doubtedly did contain a clause whereby it was enacted that,
under certain clrcumetances, where a full disclosure was made

by the parties in whose hands securities had been placed, as to
the manner in which they had disposed of them, that they should
be exempt from criminal responsibility ; but he was at present
far from coming to the conclusion that this woulu apply to the
case now before them, and he should therefore request them, in
case such a point should be brought forward, not to give any
effect to it. lie should certainly require the question to be
argued before he came to the conclusion that the point was an
available one; and he confessed he should be slow to believe
that the Act of Parliament wou:d be so perverted as to render
it totally inapplicable for the purpose for which it was passed,
and that persons guilty of so grave an offence should by such
means be enabled to escape punishment;

TRomss CLARKE was indicted on Thursday, at the
Criminal Court, for stealing a letter containing a
sovereign, the property of the Postmaster-General :

The circumstances of this case were of rather a peculiar cha-
racter. It appeared that the prisoner, who had been for more
than ten years in the service of the Post-office, was engaged as a
sorter, and that in consequence of some suspicion that had been
created in the minds of the Post-office authorities with regard to
his proceedings, a letter, iu which a marked sovereign was tixed
in a card, was posted, and afterwards delivered to the prisoner
on a tray with a number of other letters, for the purpose of being
sorted, on the 14th of August last, and two persons, nan ed
Forbes and Smee, received instructions to watch his movements
after the letter came into his possession. There is a contri-
vance, by means of an iron grating, by which all that goes on in
the sorting-room may be observed, and, accordingto the evidence
of these two persons, the prisoner took up the letter in question,
examined it closely, and then pressed it with both his hands, and
after doing this they represented that he raised his hands over
his head and appeared to put something into his mouth. He was
taken into custody at once and searched, but no trace of the coin
could be discovered; nevertheless, upon the positive testimony
of the two witnesses in question, he was committed to take
his trial upon the present charge, and would have been tried
at the last session, but the trial was postponed. Upon the
supposition that the prisoner had swallowed the marked sove-
reign, means were taken during the period that he was in cus-
tody to see if it should appear, but nothing was seen or heard of
the missing coin until the 4th of the present month, when it ar-
rived at the General Post-office, inclosed in an anonymous letter
addressed to the Postmaster-General, the writer stating that the
marked sovereign was inclosed in order to save the innocentfrom
punishment. There was no evidence whatever to show by what
means, supposing the prisoner had really swallowed the coin, it
could have passed into the hands of any other person, and it ap-
peared in the course of the evidence that the letter in question
would have passed through several officials connected with the
Post-office before it came into the possession of the prisoner.
The jury returned a verdict of, Not Guilty.

THE PORTE has issued a notification to capitalists,
inviting proposals for constructing a railway from
Constantinople to Belgrade. Six months are allowed
for the receipt of the tenders. It is stated that 41
per cent, will be the maximum interest allowed, and
that the term of the concession is to be ninety-nine
years. The company will also be authorised to build
villages along the line.

NI in

ww-

SErr. 22, 1855.

glaibatts anb Offnuts.

A BRUTAL MURDER Was perpetrated on Monday in
Artillery-lane, Bishopsgate•street, by a man named
Lordon, the victim of his brutality being his own
wife. The deceased and her husband are persons
whose drunken and dissipated habits have become
painfully notorious to the inhabitants of the district
in which they resided. They were constantly
quarrelling, which often led to the most brutal
violence towards each other. The woman formerly
kept a fruit-stall at the corner of the Mansion-house,
but in consequence of her improper conduct the
police authorities were compelled to order her re-
moval. A few moments after the horrible deed was
committed Lordon gave himself up to a policeman,
by whom he was conveyed to the station-house,
where he made a full confession of his guilt. The
prisoner was detained while an officer went to the
house in which the murder was committed, which is
situate in Parliament-court, Artillery-lane. There he
found the murdered woman, her death having been
occasioned by several severe wounds in the neck. It
appears that the murderer is the second husband of
the deceased. He is a Spitalfields weaver by trade,
but has latterly worked in the docks. There are six
or seven children, but none very young.
A LETTER from Florence gives very terrible accounts
otthe ravages of the cholera. No less than 11,000
persons have, it is stated, been carrit d isifin the month
of August. The population of the city, which is on
an average 100,000, is now reduced to 00,000 by
death and flight. The Grand Duke, it must be said
to his credit, has set a noble example. Although his
family has left, he remains himself, and, clad in the
black veil of the Fraternity of Mercy, be sometimes
assists in the burial of the dead. It is positively
affirmed in this letter that ten persons were lately
buried alive. The horrible fact was brought to light
in this way :—An Italian warehouse-keeper in Palaz-
zuolo (a fauborg of Florence) was buried for dead in
the Trespiano cemetry, with many other supposed
corpses, in a common grave. He awoke to a sense of
consciousness, and so thin was the covering of sandy
earth above him that he made his way out to the
surface. Still weak, be lived for three days on roots
in the forest which surrounds the graveyard. At
last he recovered strength sufficient to reach his
house, where he startled his family, who were in
mounting for him. He assured them that he dis-
tinctly felt the bodies of numerous people interred
with him moving about. The grave was conse-
quently opened, and it was found that many (ten in
number, as before said) had stirred, and several of
them had bitten their fingers in agony, and other-
wise injured themselves. They were all dead when
the investigaton was made. The utmost excitement
prevailed on the subject among the population.
THE ADJOURNED CORONER'S INQUEST on the body
of the girl Melinda Payne, whose murdered and
mutilated remains were discovered on the 19th of
August, buried beneath a heap of stones in a path-
way of the Blackrock-glen, was resumed and con-
eluded on Tuesday last. The coroner (Mr. Grindon)
said that since the jury had last met very great exer-
tions had been made by the police-officers, and by
many citizens who had taken an interest in the dis-
covery of the murder, but up to the present time
nothing of a tangible character had been discovered,
and the jury therefore returned the following ver-
dict :—" That the deceased was wilfully murdered at
the parish of Clifton, on Saturday, the 18th of August,
by some person or persons to the jurors unknown."
LAST WEEK, at the Halifax Borough Court, John
Thomas, a sawyer, was charged by Mr. Jennings,
relieving officer, with having left his wife and family
chargeable to the Union. The relief given had been
after the rate of 7s. Bd. per week. The officer pressed
for a conviction on the ground that there were no
fewer than five hundred deserted wives within the
Bradford Union, with 1,017 children, involving an
annual expenditure in relief of nearly 20,0001.
MR. JOHN Moarr, the Government; receiver of
Inland Revenue at Chester, has been discovered to
be a defaulter in his accounts to the extent of 4,0001.
The offender has been apprehended by a detective
officer from London. At the local police court, Mr.
Hostage, who appeared for the accused, applied for
a private heanng of the case. The mayor was
averse to this step, but as Mr. Earwaker, for the
prosecution, did not oppose the application, the
Bench consented. It was understood that the result
of these preliminary proceedings would be a remand
to this day (Saturday), when the examination will he
in public. The nature of the case is simply this:—
Mr. Moah's books are perfectly correct, and show a
balance of nearly 5,0001., which ought to be in his
hands. When applied to at the proper time for pay-
ment of this large sum, be intimated that he had no
money in hand, and that he had spent it. The pro-
secution was then commenced.

A RAILWAY ACCIDENT of a novel bnt very shocking
character took place on Tuesday night on the Dint-
ing Viaduct of the Manchester and Sheffield Railway,
across the river Etherows near Oloasor. A train from