The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

VroVintial.

Mr. CARDWELL, M.P., at the dinner of the Man-
chester and Liverpool Agricultural Exhibition last
week, alluded to the subject of agricultural statis-
tics :

Its simple meaning was the wide diffusion of knowledge,
as to which the tenant farmer was the person particularly
and specially concerned. It was his interest to know at
the close of the harvest what was its true state, in order
that he might consider whether he ought to carry his
newlygarneree. crop to the first market, or whether, from
a right appreciation of the circumstances of the time, he
should reserve its sale for a more favorable period. The
merchants could obtain that knowledge. For that

SATURDAY:

purpose the corn merchants of Liverpool had almost
elaborate arrangements, always making journeys through
the country for the purpose of ascertaiuing first the
prospects and then the state of the harvest. The tenant
farmer had no such agency. He must be dependent upon
some knowledge to be otherwise acquired. He told them
emphatically that it was the interest of the tenant farmer,
far more than of any other person, to have such knowledge
diffused.

There were two opinions as to the way in which these
agricultural statistics should be obtained—whether by a
compulsory enactment, or by the voluntary aid of the
tenant farmer. It was his privilege during the short time
he held office to co-operate with the tenant farmers in a
voluntary arrangement for the purpose of obtaining statis-
tical information ; and the result of that experiment, with
regard to the shrewd, intelligent, and far•aeeing tenant
farmers of Scotland, was that almost without exception
there was, from one end of Scotland to the other, universal
and unmixed success. By a voluntary co-operation of the
tenant farmers, they knew the whole acreage of ground
under every kind of crop, and the state of the crops prior
to harvest; and at an early period after the harvest had
been gathered in, an estimate was formed and published by
the authority of Government, which by experience had
been found to be reliable in regard to the quality and value
of the crops.

FLOODS IN LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE have lately
been very severe. The lowlands in the vicinity of
the Irwell were completely flooded on Saturday
night, and all traffic stopped on the turnpike roads.
The Manchester and Sheffield Railway, in the
neighbourhood of Woodhead, was also flooded, the
rails carried aw ay, and the trains compelled to return
to Sheffield or stop at Hadfield; one or two lives
have been lost. The Yorkshire reservoir on Holme
Stynes was the subject of greal anxiety, for fear of
its disruption from these floods.

THE MASTER CUTLER AND COMPANY OF SHEFFIELD
were on Friday week presented with the gold medal
of honour awarded to the town for the excellence of
its manufactures by the Paris Exhibiticn Commis-
sioners. The presentation took place through the
mayor, at the Cutlers' -hall. The Master Cutler, in
reply to the congratulatory address of the mayor,
said :

There had no doubt been great improvements within the
past few years in the manufactures of France and other
countries, but they had been unable to cope with Sheffield,
and if he knew his fellow•townsmen aright, they would
continue to improve as heretofore, and, with the inherent
industry proverbial to English manufacturers, maintain
the rank and position they had achieved. He was satisfied
that the material of the articles manufactured in Sheffield
was now as good as that employed thirty years ago, while
the workmanship was better.

The gold medal, which was exhibited to the meeting,
is very handsome and massive. It has been
mounted in the centre of a plate of silver, and
inclosed in an ebony frame. It is profusely orna-
mented, and bears an inscription stating that it was
awarded to the town of Sheffield for the excellence of
its manufactures displayed at the Exhibition of All
Nations, at Paris, and that it was received from the
hands of the Emperor of the French by Mr. Fawcett,
the Mayor, and presented by the exhibitors to the
Cutlers' Company.
SEVERAL CASES OF DROWNING have occurred lately.
Mr. J. W. Winslow, of Trinity College, Dublin,
was drowned at Dover last week. It appeared that
he went out in a machine, undressed, jumped into
the water, and nothing more was seen of him. When
the machine was pulled up it was only then disco-
vered that he had not returned. Several hours
afterwards the body was found on the beach, but life
was quite extinct. Mr. Winslow was only twenty-
one years of age, and had given early promise of
great distinction. An inquest was held on the body
on the 7th inst., and a verdict of "Accidentally
drowned " returned. A correspondent writing to Cue
Times on the subject says the bathing ground at
Dover is so abruptly deep and dangerous that every
non-swimming bather runs the greatest risk, and in
case of accident could obtain no immediate help
from a man in the machine, as the machines are let
down the incline by ropes—the ground being too
dangerous for horses. At Southport, Bristol, last
week, two young men, Mr. Hutstein and Mr. Jack-
son, were drowned while bathing. Mr. Robert
Stavert, the head of a Manchester German
house, was drowned on Tuesday morning, off
Scarborough, while bathing. He was drowned
within sight of many persons on the beach, but no
assistance could be rendered him from want of boats;
and at Brodrick, near Glasgow, two gentlemen, Mr.
Burrell and Mr. M'Dermod, were capsized while
sailing in a small boat, and drowned.
A YOUNG WOMAN who contemplated suicide and
yet had not the courage to commit it was saved from
death in a peculiar manner last week. She designed
to throw herself over Shakespeare's Cliff, but pre-
ferred walking down the cliff so far as she could,
taking a dose of laudanum, and lying partly on the
edge of the cliff to go to sleep and trust to falling
over before she awoke. In this position she was
seen by some Coast Guardmen, who immediately got
ropes, went down, and rescued her. She struggled
hard when roused, but was ultimately brought up in
safety. She has since been restored to her friends.

AUGUST 16, 1856.

A YOUNG. CONVICT, named Priest, effected his
escape last week from Oxford Gaol. Cutting one of
the bars of his window, he squeezed himself
through a space of 10f by 71 inches, made a rope
ladder of his bed rug, shirt, and blanket, and filling
a bag he had made of his bed-cover with stones, fas-
tened it to his ladder, flung it over the gaol wall,
scrambled up, and got off in his drawers.
HER MAJESTY'S VASE was sailed for on Saturday,
over a course of fifty miles, by the Royal Yacht
Club, and won by Mr. Gee's Gloriana, beating the
Viking, Urania, and Lalla Rookh. The contest lay
between the Gloriana and Lalla Rookh, the former
winning by two minutes and five seconds.
SUNDAY MUSIC IN THE PARKS ♦T MANCHESTER,
in consequence of the resolution passed by the Man-
chester Town Council, on Wednesday week, has
been stopped. The committee for providing Sunday
music for the people have given notice that they will
the present withdraw the Sunday bands from the
people's parks.
THE GREAT BELL, for the new palace at Westmin-
ster was successfully cast at Norton, near Stockton-
on-Tees, on the morning of the 6th inst. Messrs.
Warner, the metal-founders, for the last six weeks
have been employed in the preparation of the
mould and furnaces. The whole of the night pre-
vious to the operation the men were busy at work,
and early in the morning of the 26th ult., the
furnaces having attained toe requisite heat, the doors
were opened, and the operation of charging or
putting in the metal commenced. The latter opera-
tion occupied about an hour, and in loss than two
hours and a half the whole of the metal required,
eighteen tons, was in a state of perfect fusion. At a
given signal the furnaces were tapped, and the metal
flowed from them into a pool prepared to hold it,
before being admitted into the bell mould ; the
shutter or gate was then lifted, and the metal allowed
to flow. In five minutes the casting of the bell was
effected.
ANOTHER FRIGHTFUL DEATH FROM MACHINERY
occurred last week at the Norton Iron Works.
While making some alteration, a joiner, named
Benson, was caught by the fly wheel, and whirled
round with fearful velocity two or three times, till
his body was so compressed and mutilated that
lie died almost immediately. The bowels were

scattered in all directions, the lungs forced through
the mouth, the head nearly severed from the body,

and almost every bone in the back broken. in
& inquest was held on the mutilated remains on
Friday evening, and a verdict of " Accidental death "
eturned.

A SCOTCH CORRESPONDENT OF THE Timms last
week drew a lamentable picture of the state of the

Highlands owing to the whim of Highland pro-
prietors to preserve red deer at the expense of the
population. This week " A Tenant of Crathie and
B-a near," the district particularly indicated as utterly
depopulated, writes :
I have known the district and every man and woman in
it for thirty years, and I pay more money to the revenue
than all the district put together, and am also a tenant, and
have been so for the last ten years. In that period I have
known only one man who emigrated. Instead of hundreds
of removals, which would be inferred from your correspon•
(lent's letter, I do not think there have been six the last
thirty years, in all cases occasioned by their own wish to
benefit their circumstances.
Mn. JOHN FROST made a public entry into New-
port on Monday. He arrived in the packet from
Bristol, and on landing was immediately handed into
a carriage and drawn by a number of his friends and
brother chartists into the town. On arriving at the
wide space of ground opposite the Westgate-hotel,
tie scene 'of the conflict in 1899 between the
populace and the military, a general cheer was
given. They then proceeded along Commercial_
street and down Llanarth-street, and ultimately
stopped at, a temperance hotel, from the window of
which was suspended a flag with the portraits of
Frost, Williams, and Jones, with inscriptions to the
effect that these persons were the subjects of
Government persecution. Soon after alighting Mr.
Frost presented himself at the window and addressed
tie crowd; he denounced the Government in the
usual language of the chartists, spoke of his suffer-
ings during his penal servitude, and declared his
belief that the work►ng classes would never get their
grievances redressed till they got the charter. He
had returned to his native country after a fourteen
years' banishment unimpaired in bodily health and
vigour of mind, and he was determined to devote

whatever talents he had for the good of the people.
The town was perfectly quiet, the more respectable
portion of the inhabitants taking no part in the pro
ceedl ng s.

MR.-W. FERRARD, of Harden grange, Bingley,
states in a public letter this week that his fine breed
or mountain sheep, which gained the prize at the
late Yorkshire Agricultural Show, are a cross be-
tween the common Louk ewes and Southdown tups.
'lle breed is new and pronounced remarkably fine.
'IRE BISHOP or LONDON has, under the provisions
f the Act for the Better Enforcing Church Disci.
Me, suspended the ltev. William Lambert, M.A.