The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

BREACHES OF TRUST.

THE new bill of the Attorney-General would enact as
follows :

1. Whosoever, being a trustee of any property for the
benefit, either wholly or partially, of some other person,
shall, in violation of good faith and with intent to defraud,
appropriate, convert, destroy, dispose of, or employ such
property, or any part thereof, to or for his own benefit, use,
or purposes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
2. Whosoever, being a banker, merchant, broker,
attorney, or agent, and being intrusted as such with the
property of any other person, shall, in violation of good
faith and with intent to defraud, sell, negotiate, transfer,
pledge, or in manner convert or employ to or for his own
use, such property, or any part thereof, shall be guilty of a
inisdemean)ur.

3. Any person intrusted with any power of attorney
for the sale or transfer of any property, who shall fraudu-
lently sell, transfer, and convert such property, or any part
thereof, to his own use or benefit, shall be guilty of a mis•
demeanour.

4. Whosoever, being a bailee of any property, shall
fraudulently take cr convert the same to his own use, or
the use auy person other than the owner thereof, shall
be guilty of a misdemeanour.
5. Whosoever, beings director, member, or public officer
of any body corporate or public company, shall fraudu-
lently take or apply, for his own use, any of the money or
other piopeity of such body corporate or public c..nn•
pally, mall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

6. Whosoever, being a director, public officer, or
manager of any body zorporate or public company, shall
receive or possess himselt of any of the money or other
property of such body corporate or public company, other.
wise than iu payment of a just debt or demand, and
shall wilt idly omit to make or cause or direct to be made
a full and true entry thereof in the books and accounts of
such b,sly corporate or public company, shall be guilty of
a misdemeanour.

7. If any director, manager, public officer, or member of
any body corporate or public company. shall wilfully
destroy, alter, mutilate, or falsify any of the books, papers,
writings, or securities belonging to the body corporate or
public company of which he is a director or manager,
public officer or member, or make or be privy to the making
of any false or fraudulent entry, or any fraudulent omission
in any book of account or other document, with intent to
defraud the shareholders, creditors, or other persons
interested in the property or effects of such body corporate
or public company, every director so offending shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanour.
s. Whosoever, being a director, manager, or public
officer of any body corporate or public c onpany, shall
wilfully make, circulate, or pnblish, or concur in wilfully
making, circulating, or publishing any written statement
or account which he shall know to be false in any material
particular, with intent to deceive or defraud any member.
shareholder, or creditor of such body corporate or public
compa•ty, or with intent to induce any person to become a
shareholder or partner therein, or to intrust or advance any
money or property to such body corporate or public com-
pany, or to enter into any security for the benefit thereof,
shall he guilty of a misdemeanour.
I). Every person found guilty of an offence under this
act shall be liable, at the diacretion of the court, to be
kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven
years, or to suffer such other punishment, by fine or
pnsonment, or by both, as thec ourt shall award.

THE ARCHDEACONRY OF Norm-It:if, which became
vacant some time since by the death of the venerable
John Belling field Collyer, M.A., has been conferred
upon the Rev. R. E. Hankinson, M.A. The new
archdeacon was educated at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, and was formerly minister of Well-street
Chapel, Hampstead, near London. In 1847 he was
nominated by the Dean and Chapter of Norwich to
the incumbency of St. Margaret's and St. Nicholas,
King's Lynn, and in 1850 he was presented to the
rectory of Halesworth, and the vicarage of Chediston,
Suffolk, and has continued to hold these benefices
up to the present time,

THE PRESS.

MR. BRIGHT AND PARLIAMENTARY
REFORM.

THE following letter has been received by Mr.
Alexander Lang, Hawick, in acknowledgment of
certain resolutions of sympathy with Messrs. Cobden,
Bright, and Gibson, on the result of the Hudders-
field and Manchester elections, passed at a meeting
held in that town some weeks ago. A letter on the
subject from Mr. Cobden has already been pub-
lisbed _ _ _

Geneva, May 17, 1847.
Dear Sir,—Your kind note, inclosing a copy of the
resolution passed at a public meeting of the inhabitants of
Hawick, reached me only last evening. I lose no time in
writing to say that I am very glad to find that in your
town the cause of reform, free trade, and retrenchment
has so many warm friends, and that you have understood
and approved the policy which Mr. Cobden, Mr. Gibson,
and myself have supported in the House of Commons. In
the question of free trade little progress has been made for
some years past ; as to retrenchment, the word has become
almost obsolete, and the military expenditure of the
country is now nearly double the amount which the
Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel thought neces•
nary in In), although we have no more territory to
defend, and although a large army is no longer necessary
to maintain tranquillity in Ireland. As to reform, while
almost everybody professes to be in favour of it in some
shape, the preparation of the particular bill to be brought
forward next year is left in the hands of a Minister whose
hostility to every proposition for reform since the year
183.2 is notorious and undeniable. Whether on these
three points to which your resolution refers the country is
in a satisfactory position I must leave the friends of free
trade, reform, and retrenchment to decide.
With regard to the promised reform, let me warn you
to look not more to the question of franchise than to the
other arrangements of the measure. It would be easy to
double the number of electors and at the same time to in•
crease the aristocratic influence in Parliament. To give
votes without giving representatives in some fair degree in
proportion to the votes is but to cheat the people ; and to
give a large increase of votes without the security of the
ballot will subject increased numbers of our countrymen to
the degrading influences which wealth and power now
exercise so unscrupulously upon the existing electoral
body. A moderate measure, and an honest one so far as it
goes, is far more to be desired than one of great preten•
sions with some fraudulent scheme for defeating the
wishes of the nation. A dishonest apportionment of
members may effectually destroy a representation ; and
any trick to obstruct the flee action of majorities, such as
that proposed in Lord John Russell's last bill, should he
strenuously resisted, as calculated to undermine the very
basis of representative institutions, and designed only to
cheat the people of' that increased power which the bill
would profess to collier upon them.
Whether I shall ever again in Parliament support the
policy you approve is extremely uncertain, hut 1 shall
always retain a grateful senso of the kindness which I have
received in past times, and at the present time, from the
intelligent community on whose behalf you have written to
me.—Believe me to be very sincerely yours,
To Alex. Laing, Esq., Hawick. JOHN BRIGHT.

BURNING OF AN AUSTRALIAN TRADER.
INTELLIGENCE of the destruction by fire of the fine
ship Joseph Somes, while on ber voyage from London
to Melbourne, reached Lloyd's on Monday. The
passengers and crew were all saved, but, considering
that among her cargo she had 250 barrels of gun.
powder (in all 18 tons) and an immense quanhity of
spirits, their escape was marvellous. The Joseph
Some: was a teak built ship, 780 tons register, corn
manded by Captain Elms►on. She sailed from the
East India Docks, Blackwall, for Melbourne on the
15th of last December, with a cargo on board valued
at 80,000/.

•
The following details of the loss are extracted
from a narrative written by Mr. Goodall, late a mem-
ber of Lloyd's, who with his wife and family were
passengers on board :
On the morning of the 25th of February we came
in sight of the cloud capped peak of Tristan d'Acunha,
and by two o'clock p.m. were near enough to the north
side of the island to lower the lifeboat. Captain Elmston
having invited me, I accompanied him with six hands on
shore. %'e pulled into a beautiful sandy bay, bounded
nearly from po'.nt to point by bold bluff cliffs, rising like
a huge wall some 3,000 feet perpendicularly from the shore.
The captain made arrangements for coming ashore on the
following day with the water casks. We then returned to
the ship, which had stood off, and was now some seven
miles distant. We rowed a considerable distance, and
through a heavy sea, when we saw her go about and stand
in for the land. The sun was just setting. We had
noticed with some astonishment how badly the ship
steered, and 1 joked the captain upon what I thought the
smoke from the galley fire, for we had not dined. A
minute more my heart was in my throat, for a cry was
raised, " The ship it on fire !" The smoke was coming up
about the main hatchway, where we knew the powder
magazine was. Captain Elmstou was never more alive.
He seemed as if he would spnng from his boat into the
ship. He exhorted the rowers, " Pull for your lives!"
and as we neared I saw quite sufficient to convince me
that it was a hopeless case. The moment our boat reached
the ship Captain Elmston leaped on to the main chains,
and in a second was on board in time to order all the
r assengers forward immediately, for the flames were rush.

SATURDAY,

ing up the skylights and out of the cuddy doors, so that
in a few minutes their retreat would have been cut off
entirely. The fire was discovery? :•v the captain's little
black servant, Cassim, who with de steward got amen the
companion-hatch into the store, and was engaged
is
searching for the source of the smoke when the alarm
became general. Mr. Vaughan, the second officer, had
joined them in the search, and at length discovered the
flames along the ship's side close to the gun deck, For
some time every one considered that the buckets of water
which were freely administered would subdue the fire, and
no very great alarm was felt at first; but a few minutes
served to dispel this illusion. Mr. Stokes, the chief
officer, who in the captain's absence had the command of
the ship, seeing the increased danger, gave orders for all
hands that could be spared from the working of the
ship to open the magazine and throw the gunpowder
overboard. Mr. Bernal (a passenger) rushed to his
cabin for an axe, which was of considerable use in
teanng up the hatchway. The third officer, Mr. Pye,
got to his cabin, where three barrels of powder had
been stowed for want of room, and these, with the
remaining 249 barrels in the magazine under the
main hatchway, were handed from hand to band and
thrown overboard. The fire had disappeared from the
store-room as soon as the main hatchway was opened ;
there being then a new and greater draught, tha
fire was making rapid strides to this deadly mine, charged
with about eighteen tons of gunpowder. At last the lower
tier of barrels was actually hot—almost too hot to hold.
This was no fancy, every man was intent upon his work.
These were minutes of agonising suspense. The weaker
sex never seemed to have lost their presence of mind, and
it was a remark of admiration made subsequently by the
crew that not a scream was heard from any one. The
steward, Alfred Marsh, acted with great bravery and device
tion ; three times he made his way through the dense
smoke into the cuddy to the cabin in the stern, and saved
the captain's chronometers, desk, watch, and other
valuables. Cassim, the black servant, also got through
the caddy into the cabin to save some of his master's
things, but his retreat was cut off by the increasing smoke
and flame, and he was drawn up half suffocated, through
the quartervallery window on to the poop. The pinnace
being lowered, the captain stood guard and saw all the
women and children handed down before he admitted
others to jump in to make up her complement. The re-
mainder of those on board eEcaped by the lifeboat, in
which the captain had returned from the island. The
satisfaction that was felt when the last barrel of gun.
powder went overboard gave all on board that comparative
cool less and belief that the worst was past, without which
feeling in all probability many lives would have been
sacrificed. After all the crew were in the boat the captain
had a struggle to get a large Newfoundland dog of his over
the ship's side, but, finding it impossible, he seized a rope
and swung off into the boat. He was the last to leave the
ship. From the time of the first alarm to the time of
leaving the ship an hour had not elapsed, and as we cleared
her the flames rushed up in all directions. She had an
immense quantity of spirits on board—in fact, the great
hulk of her cargo was brandy and gin—which accounts for
the extraordinary rapidity of the ignition. The gig, which
had put off with five boys, was lost sight of, hut we neared
the pinnace, and were hailed to lighten her of some of her
freight, for the water was fast gaining upon them, and
they had little room to work their oars. We got alone-
aide, and took Mrs. Elmston and two women into our
boat, which made up our number to thirty. I had only
time to hail my wife and child, and tell her to be of good
courage, when the boats parted, and darkness completed
our separation. On turning our eyes to the burning ship
we saw the fire run up her new rigging with innumerable
flickering jets, like a brilliant gas illumination, and her
main and wizen masts went over the side with a fearful
crash. The foremast and bowsprit stood a short time
longer. We pulled straight in for the land, so as to get
under its lee and avoid the swell. On approaching the
stupendous cliffs the rollers and roar of the surf, tuned
into a deeper note by the great boulders rolling over each
other, gave us timely warning not to draw too near. A
last, after five hours' pull, we rounded a point and made
the sandy bay where the captain had landed on the pre-
vious (lay. The settlers had kindled a fire on the sands,
and as we neared the shore we gave a cheer, but the echo
from the overhanging rocks was the only response, and
not the least striking scene of that night's drama was the
landing on those black sands by the light of a clear
bright are and not a soul to meet us. The good islanders.
had retired from their watch at midnight in great doubt of
our safety. On climbing up the cliffs we found the
islanders up, from whom we received the greatestkind-
ness. At the break of morn the hull of the far distant
ship appeared like one bright speck of flame, paling its
light before the rising sun, and a dense volume of steam
and smoke hung like a pall for some hours before she went
down. Onr great tear all night was thst the gig with the
boys, the eldest only twenty and the youngest nine, must
have been lost ; but in the course of the morning, to our
great joy, we found both pinnace and gig had come ashore
on a sandy beach.
The island Tristan d'Acunlia is in long. 11.43 W.,
lat. 37.8 S.. about fifteen miles in clicurnierince,
and some 1,300 miles from the nearest land. From
March until October a ship near the latitude of the
island is a rare sight. A few days previous to the
loss of' the Joseph Somes the inhabitants of the
island had been considerably lessened by fifty ci.f
them, accompanied by their pastor, the Rev. n.
Taylor, leaving the settlement in her Majesty's
ship Geyser for the Cape. Although the islanders
left did all they could to relieve the wants of the
shipwrecked people, their small supply of provisions
gage them but a very inadequate fare, and for nine
days they endured considerable privation. On
Friday, March 6, a ship was descried to the leeward.

MAY 30, 1857.

A signal of distress was hoisted on a prominent
point of the island, and the sail came so near that
they were enabled to read her name on the stern,
" Lydia." It was thought she was bound to Bombay.
Instead, however, of her heaving too, she bore away
on her voyage. On the same day, providentially ( for
the circumstance of two vessels coming near the
island so close after each other was almost unheard
of among the settlers), another ship bore in view.
She proved to be the Nimroud, Captain H. Tilman,
from London, for Kurrachee. Seeing the boat that
had given chase after the Lydia she bore down to it,
and received Captain Elmston and one passenger on
board. Captain Tilman, on learning their sad tale,
at once, without the least hesitation, offered to take
the whole of the shipwrecked people on board. The
Nimroud was brought to and received the passengers
and crew on board, and, having gone several hun-
dred miles out of her course, safely landed the
whole of those belonging to the Joseph Somes at
Table Bay on the 20th of March, when the Govern-
ment authorities took charge of them, and a public
subscription was opened for their relief. Captain Elm-
ston attributes the fire to spontaneous combustion
among the cargo. The ship is understood to be in-
sured.

jortign antr lotunzai ]ntelligente.

FRANCE.
THE NEUFCHATEL QUESTION.

The plenipotentiaries appointed to arrange the
Neufchatel dispute met in conference on Monday and
Tuesday. The result of their deliberations was
announced as follows in the Moniteur of Wed-
nesday :
The plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain,
Prussia, Russia, and Switzerland assembled yesterday at
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and signed a treaty regu•
lacing in a definitive manner the Neufchatel question by
the renunciation on the part of the King of Prussia of the
sovereign rights which treaties had given him over that
Principality, and by engagements entered into by the Swiss
Confederation, which are of a natare to respond to the deep
solicitude of King Frederick William for the inhabitants of
Neufchatel.

The text of the treaty will be published after the ex-
change of the ratifications, which is to take place
within a delay of twenty-one days.
The Imperial Court, accompanied by the King of
Bavaria, will leave the Tuileries for St. Cloud to-
morrow. The Emperor will shortly proceed to
Lyons, and from thence accompany the Empress to
Biarritz.

With respect to the elections, the Republican
party has resolved on putting forth in Paris &certain
number of candidates. These belong to what used
to be called the Blues, or Moderate Republicans, and
are General Cavaignac, MM. Havin, Goudchaux,
Bethemont, Lasteyrie, Carnot, Gervais (de
Caen), and Gamier Pages, several of whom were
members of the Provisional Government in 1848.
M. Gamier Page will also be proposed at Valen-
ciennes and Douay, M. Jules Favre and Dr. Henin
at Lyons, and M. Maillard. It is not said whether
all or any will, in case of election, take the oath of
allegiance to the Emperor.
M. D'Argout, the Governor of the Bank, has re-
signed. M. Magne, it is believed, will fill the post.