The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-29 00:00:00

ttropolitan.

THE METROPOLITAN Bosse OF WORKS elected
their chairman on Saturday last. The meeting at
Burlington house was fully attended, and that por-
tion of the apartment given to the public crowded
with numerous visitors. The principal candidates
for the chairmanship were, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. liar
risen, Mr. Zebb, Mr. Thwaites, and Mr. Turner,
Previously to the business of the day being proceeded
with a letter was read from Sir John Shelley, with.
drawing his name from the list of candidates. Th♦
different candidates, ten in all, haviug been duly pro,
posed, explained their views seriatim—Mr. Roebuck,
m doing so, making allusion to his long previous
services at the bar and in the House of Commons.
The election was imenediate'y proceededwith, the show
of hands being taken seven times, and the contest
lying between Mr. Thwaites, Mr. Harrison, and Mr.
Roebuck. Mr. Thwaites throughout carried the
majority, and was finally elected chairman. Mr.
Thwaites is well known as the most active and ener-
getic member of the Commission of Sewers. At the
conclusion of the proceedings Sir John Shelley in•
umated that he should withdraw entirely from the
board. On Tuesday next the new law on the local
management of the metropolis comes into active
operation. The new Board of Sewers will con
mence their duties on the Ist., and, with the exten-
sive powers vested in them and in the Board of
Works, great improvements will be looked for.
CARDINAL WISEMAN concluded his series of lectures
on the Concordat on Sunday last at Moortields
Chapel. The point of this final lecture was to prove
that the Emperor of Austria had acted) from pure
religious feeling, and from no desire of consolidating
his power in Italy, or from oppressing the people of
Germany; that the Concordat gave an entirety new
constitution to the Church of Rome, removing all
obstacles which impeded its efficiency, and permitted
it, that freedom arid power so necessary, and corre-
sponding to the state of things most to be desired.
Ma. WADDINOTON, chairman of the Eastern Coun-
ties Railway, has issued his reply to the charges
brought against him by the Investigation Committee.
The document is of an extremely lengthy character,
and replies seriatim to every charge propounded,
entering upon all points and into the must minute
details, and apparently giving a full and satisfactory
explanation of some charges, a refutation of others,
and a denial of the rest. With respect to the divi-
dend of 37,0001., of which the committee declare
t3e,000/. has been improperly charged to the credit
of the company, Mr. Waddington explains that this
36,000/. was charged to the credit of the company as
the amount of claims not made when the half-yearly
accounts were rendered. Against the main oharge,
the state of the permanent way, Mr. Waddington
explains that Mr. Ashcroft, the superintendent of
ways and work, in whom the board v,'st.•d every
responsibility, reported from time to time that the
entire line of railway was in excellent repair; and
that on Mr. Ashcroft the responsibility must rests

1238

On Mr. Ashcroft's resignation, Mr. Peter Bruff, an
engineer of great ability, was appointed, who repre-
sented the state of the way to be unsatisfactory, and
called for an expenditure of 150,000/. But of this
sum Mr. Waddington explains 50,0001. is required
for the erection of new and permanent works, while
the expenditure of the remaining 100,0001. is to be
spread over ten years. In reply to the final charge
of fraud with respect to the stores, Mr. Waddington
explains that a stores committee of the board con-
fided too much in Mr. Williams, the storekeeper, who
neglected his duties, and was ultimately dismissed ;
that the frauds were discovered, not by the committee
of investigation, but by Mr. Waddington himself,
who detected the plunderers, and had them tried and
sentenced to transportation at the Old Bailey. As to
the amount lost in stores, Mr. Waddington denies
that it even reaches 10,0001., much less 40,0001., and
concludes his explanation with an energetic appeal
for a fair hearing, and a promise, if his views are
carried out., of the line paying five per cent. within
five years.

PROFESSOR LEONI LEVI on Friday last closed his
series of lectures at the King's College upon what
may be called the " Learning and Literature of
Commerce " by a final lecture upon " Bankers'
Cheques," a topic to which considerab'.e interest was
given by the recent decision of Lord Campbell in
the case of Bellamy v. Coutts. The learned profes-
sor entered minutely into the system of giving and
receiving cheques, the law respecting their presenta-
tion and payment, the object of the clearing-house,
and the duties of bankers. The lecture-room was
crowded, and at the conclusion of the proceedings
Dr. Jell, the head master, and Mr. Gilbert, the
banker, addressed the students with reference to the
advantages they derived from having the laws of
commerce so ably expounded to them by Dr. Levi.

Mn. LOCKE KING has this week addressed a letter
to the Times upon the subject of "Law Reform."
In the course of his remarks Mr. Locke King, allud-
ing to the Court of Chancery, brings forward the
case of one of its victims, of which he observes, "if
cases of this kind were common, and were generally
known, revolution must be the result." The facts
appear to be m follows :—A grandfather leaves by
his will several thousand pounds, and a moiety of a
business worth several hundreds a year, to his grand-
children, believing that their father, his son, had
died in a foreign country. The son not being dead,
on his return to England after his father's death
finds it necessary to place his children under the
protection of the Court of Chancery. He files a bill
to recover from another party that portion of the
property which bad been bequeathed to his children.
Judgment is given in a most marked manner in his
favour :

But (remarks Mr. Locke King) in spite of the law, in
spite of judgment and of justice, in spite of everything
being directly in his favour, his unfortunate family,
through the law, through expenses of law, through the
merciless way in which victims are allowed to be plun-
dered, finds itself in an almost worse condition than if
nothing had been left to them. Nearly the whole of that
which was their undoubted right is swallowed up before
their eyes.

The suit ran on for nine years, and then became so
inextricably fixed in the meshes of " Chancery
chicanery " that the family were utterly ruined by
the law expenses, and ultimately forced out into the
streets:—

On a bitter winter's day (says the sufferer, in his appeal
quoted by Mr. Locke King) down came four or five
officers from the Chancery Court, and turned me and my
family, destitute and houseless and homeless, into the
streets, and put a padlock on our door, our only asylum ; I
had but a few days before buried one child, brought to a
premature grave by hardship and privation My eldest son
was then stretched on a bed of sickness and suffering from
rheumatic fever ; he, however, was brutally turned out of
his bed, and literally limped and crawled and groaned with
us into the streets, not knowing whither to directour steps
or where we should lay our heads. The Chancery brokers,
. ; they piteously corn-
obedience to orders, and
they were obliged
a few shillings
extreme distress.

at once in this
ly would have
tothing could be
than the judg-
_ defeated, not
opposed to justice,
who have no right
,hole of it, in an
mode."
PALACE CoM•
shareholders,
prospects of the
palace as a specu-
iticipating, " with
the capital ex-
.; first raised as
the subsequent
first to there

THE PRESS.

being no positive data from which the real value of
the shares could be atcertained, and secondly to ex-
tensive holders having on the first panic thrown a
large number of shares on the market, and still con-
tinuing to realise their securities at such prices as
they could obtain. The scheme of exchanging
shares for life tickets, Mr. Anderson regards as a
mere design of large speculators to enhance the
value of shares for a time, in order to enable them-
selves to sell out with diminished loss. With respect
to the palace having proved a failure as a remunera-
tive enterprise, Mr. Anderson denies the fact, and
appeals to the dividend of nine per cent. for the
time the palace has been open in support of his
view. In conclusion, while Mr. Anderson admits
that the Exposition at Paris and the want of a con-
venient mode of access from the West-end have
proved serious drawbacks, he anticipates a most suc-
cessful ensuing season, when the waterworks will be
finished, the West-end railroad completed, and various
new arrangements for the exhibition of the finest
objects of art and manufactures from foreign coun-
tries arranged.
THE MISSING ENGINEER OFFICERS, lost since the
14th from the Brompton-barracks, are supposed to
have been drowned in the Medway. On the 15th
the three officers, Lieuts. M'Donald, Eden, and Bat-
tini, stopped at Rainhaml and took some slight re-
freshment, leaving the inn shortly after half-past
four, p.m., from which time to the present nothing
further has been heard of them. A deserted boat,
half full of water, with her sail set, has been found
on the banks of the river, and an officer's regimental
cap, bearing the initials of Lieutenant Battini, has
also been picked up. It is feared that, having made
the sheet fast, a sudden squall struck them and par-
tially capsized the boat, threw them out, and
drowned them, no assistance being at hand.

ARCHDEACON DENISON has issued a circular, in
which he states that the renewal of the proceedings
against him, arising out of his holding and teaching
the doctrine of the "real presence," compels him to
make an appeal for assistance, to enable him to
meet the necessary expenses of the defence.
THE APPROACHING CONVOCATION will be petitioned
for a restoration of the lay element. A petition to
the Archbishop, bishops, and clergy of Canterbury,
is now in course of signature by the general clergy
and laity, praying that " some provision be made for
the due expression of the mind of the faithful laity
in matters affecting the welfare of the Church."
THE FUNERAL OF THE LATE MR. ROGERS took place
on TLursday morning. The remains of the venera-
ble dilletante were conveyed to the family vault in
the graveyard of the picturesque little church at
Hornsey. The funeral was strictly private, and
attended only by a few of the oldest literary friends
and relatives.
THE COUNCIL OF LEGAL EDUCATION have issued
their rules for the public examination of law students
in Hilary Term, 1850. Studentships of fifty guineas
per annum have been founded, to be conferred on
the most distinguished student at each examination,
while the three next best candidates on the list may
dispense with two terms previously to their being
called to the bar. The Bth, 9th, and 10th of Jan.,
are fixed for the examining days in constitutional law,
legal history and equity, common law and the law
of real property, and jurisprudence and civil law.

A NEW COMPANY has just bean registered, under
the title of the "River Thames Esplanade, Railway,
and Sewage Company," for the purpose of construct-
ing river walls on both sides of the Thames, from
London to Westminster-bridge. Under the arches
of the esplanade, which is to run parallel to the river,
a railway is also proposed to run from Hungerford to
London-bridge; while another feature of the scheme
is to purify the river, by entrapping the sewage at
the mouths of the present sewers, and conveying it
from the heart of the metropolis to convenient spots,
where it may be deodorised and converted into
manure for agricultural purposes. The promoter of
the scheme, Mr. Wieland, of Glasgow, is of opinion
that the economy of the employment of the ground,
by raising upon it three distinct classes of buildings,
would yield a ground rent more than sufficient to
cover the interest upon expenditure, whilst the sew.
age and railways would be both sources of consider-
able profit. The promoter is of opinion that Parlia-
and the Government might not be adverse to grant-
ing a guaranteed interest upon the capital expended.

A NEW POSTAL CONVENTION has been concluded
between the Governments of France and England,
and arrangements made which will materially assist
our means of intercourse, not only with that country,
but with all places to which correspondence is for-
warded via France. The rates of postages on books
and printed matter, and on newspapers and periodical
literature, will be reduced on the Ist of January next,
and at the same date a rule will come into operation
requiring the entire postage to be paid in advance.
Practical regulations on this subject have been
issued by Mr. Rowland Hill.

SATURDAY,

Tisz SOCIETY OF ARTS held a meeting on Friday
last, to resume the discussion upon Mr. Bailey
Denton's paper "on the under-drainage of land."
Mr. Bazalgette, and several civil engineers of high
standing, addressed the meeting at great length in
favour of 'eep drainage.
THE NIGHTINGALE FUND has been the subject of
a meeting at the Mansion-house on Wednesday,
over which the Lord Mayor presided, and at which
the names of many of the most influential merchants,
bankers, traders, and manufacturers, were announced
as having consented to become members of an
auxiliary City committee, to aid this most laudable
object. A circular inviting contributions, which is to
be addressed to the working classes, is in the course
of preparation, and application will be made to the
principals of large establishments to receive dona-
tions. _ _

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week
showfa mortality of 1,257 against 1,522 births—about
the average rate of London in the third week of
December.

oinntial.

AN INFLUENTIAL MEETING was held at Brighton
on Friday last, presided over by his Grace the Duke
of Richinone, to consider the question of establishing
a reformatory school for Sussex. The noble duke
expressed himself strongly in favour of such institu-
tions, and believed that in so important a county as
Sussex every effort should be made to reform the
young criminals. The meeting was addressed at
some length by the Earl of Chichester, the Earl de
la Warr, and by several gentlemen connected with
the county, and various resolutions were passed, propc.
sing the foundation of a society for the reformation of
juvenile offenders and the establishment of a reform-
atory school in the county.
AN ACCIDENT by which several persons were
seriously injured occurred on the North Kent Rail
way on Christmas-day. The 10.50 down train on
reaching Stroud, by the unaccountable negligence of
the switchman, ran into a siding, and, coming into
violent collision with several empty carriages, the
engine-tender and some carriages were thrown off
the line. The switchman, Edward Kington, was im-
mediately taken into custody, and on Wednesday
brought before the bench at Rochester. It appeartd
from the evidence of the station-master and the ion-
man of the locomotive department that the prisoner
had not only neglected to keep the p ints in proper
order so that they might work easily, but had not
gone to attend them at the moment of the arrival of
the train. A certificate was handed in, stating that
one of the passengers lay in a most precarious state
from concussion of the spine, and the bench at the
conclusion of the evidence committed the prisoner
for trial.

THE BELLS OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, after a
silence of twenty-five years, rang out a merry peal on
Cnristmas-eve. The present peal consists of ten bells,
which have been rearranged upon a strengthened
framework, while an effective corps of ringers has
been organised by the dean and chapter.
Mr. T. HASTINGS INGHAM has written to the Times,
in reply to some remarks made by their assizes re-
porter connecting the number of garrotte robberies
in Yorkshire with the non-existence of a rural police.
Mr. Ingham states t. at the West Riding magistrates,
so far from being sparing of expense, in using every
preventive to crime—precaution necessary for so
large a district—are willing to spend 30,000/. a year
on a new police force. The erection of reforma-
tories in the county, he admits, does not at present
meet with much favour among the magistracy. In
conclusion, Mr. Ingham compares the statistics of
crime between Lancashire and Yorkshire in the
last assizes, showing a result much to the advan.
tape of Yorkshire, although the calendar for York-
shire extended over a period of fully a month more
than that of Lancashire.

AT ACCRINGTON, IN THE NORTH, a scene occurred
last Sunday week which may well challenge our
boast of civilisation. Two young men, Hacking and
Riley, early in the forenoon, met in the presence of
an immense crowd, on the public common, at Ham-
bleton, to have a wrestling-match. With the excep-
tion of their stockings, they both stripped naked, and
" went to work." For an hour and five minutes the
struggle continued, till exhaustion forced both men
to retire. Their bodies at the close of the struggle
are said to have presented a frightful spectacle; the
blood was running freely, and in many places the
flesh was torn from the bones, and hung like meat
on butchers' hooks. The crowd, while this barbarous
work was going on, were shouting and urging on the
combatants in every way. It is difficult to believe in
so disgusting an exhibition in these days, and this
example is another proof for the necessity of provi-
ding proper enjoyment for the people.
THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS have re.
ported in favour of a division of the diocese of Dur•.
ham, but have kept for further consideration whether
the new see shall be established at Newcastle or
Hexham.

however, felt and acted like men • they
miserated our situations, pleaded obedience
asked our forgiveness for the brutal part the
to perform, and they made a collection of
among themselves to help us in our extren
Had an unjust decision been given a
ease, says Mr. Locke King, the famil;
been infinitely better off, but while not
more clear and decided in their favour t
ment of the judge, yet justice was
because " in this instance law was oppc
but because the law allows those who
to the estate to take and absorb the whi
indirect, technical, and mysterious mod
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CRYSTAL
PANT has addressed a circular to the
explaining the present condition and pi
company's affairs, denying that the pall
lation has failed to pay, and antici
good management," a fair return on tl
pended. The sanguine expectations
to the profits of the enterprise, and tl
depression, Mr. Anderson attributes