The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

lisallatuns.

MR. BAYLIS, manager of the Unity General Assu-
rance, has resigned his place, and published a
pamphlet. The explanation be gives of the cause of
his resignation is, that the directors agreed to a dis-
creditable compromise he refused to sanction. The
details are simply these. In December last an as-
surance for 2.0001. was effected, through Mr. Wieland,
the company's agent at Glasgow, on the life of a
lady resident. This lady enjoyed an income of
5001. a year, which died with her. Her health was
delicate, and six years were added to the life. In
April, 1856, the lady's husband, firding that the
policy in her name would at her death go to her re-
latives and not to him, wrote to know it' it could be
so altered as to make him the insurer. On the
15th of June a new policy was granted, and sent to
Mr. Wieland, who finding that the lady was now
" very ill," put the policy in his drawer, and wrote to
Mr. Baylis, suggesting that as she seemed likely to
die, an excellent opportunity was offered of getting
rid of the engagement altogether. To this Mr.
Balis replied on true indisputable principles :

If any suppression as to health has taken place, it will
be well to establish it at once, challenge the husband with
it—always assuming the fact is established beyond die-
pate—and thereupon to return the premium and to refuse
to receive others, leaving him to his remedy.
On the 30th of June the lady died, and Dr. Lloyd,
the medical officer, started at once for Glasgow.
An examination into the circumstances of the lady's
death convinced Dr. Lloyd that no foul play bad
taken place, but the suddenness of her death and
the possession of the policy by Mr. Wieland appears
to have been too good an opportunity to lose. The
husband was cross questioned, and closey examined,
the threat of a post mortem examination was held
over him, the body of his poor wife was boxed about
first there then here, long consultations took place
with different doctors, till at length, by the " clever "
management of Mr. Wieland and Dr. Lloyd, Mr.
agreed to compromise his claim for 7501.
The money was instantly paid over, and Dr. Lloyd
started for town with Mr. 'a surrender of
claims. For some days all went well ; Dr. Lloyd re-
turned to town and took great credit to himself for
his clever tact in arranging the affair. Poor Mr.
Wieland was forgotten, no resolution of approval
passed the board for him, no thanks and no bounty.
On the 15th of July he wrote an indignant letter to
Mr. Baylis, protesting against Dr. Lloyd taking a I
credit to himself in this well-managed affair, and
threatening to press for a settlement of his commis-
sion claims. Mr. Baylis then became aware of the
details of this compromise, and at the first board-
day protested against the whole affair, and recom
mended the payment of the 1,2501. at once, as Dr.
Lloyd had written Mr. a letter, admitting that
Mrs. had died from " natural causes," and
that the company were perfectly satisfied with his
conduct. Mr. Baylis says he also statei " that the
whole affair was very discreditable, and that the policy
being indisputable, except in cases of personation
which could not be proved, Mr. -- was legally
entitled eon could recover the money." The board
refused to pay the money, approved of the compro-
mise, and Mr. Baylis resigned.
THE REV. WILLIAM Nix!), M.A., Senior Fellow of
St. Peter's, Cambridge, while staying at the Hotel du
Monde, Paris, was alarmed last Monday night with
the cry of "Fire." The unfortunate gentleman
jumped out of his bedroom window and was killed
on the spot.

THE GOLDEN LECTITHESHIP is at length vacant, by
the resignation of Mr. Melvill, appointed to a canonry
residentiary in St. Paul's Cathedral. The lecture.
ship is in the gift of tho Haberdashers' Company,
who will proceed to the election of a successor in the
course of a few weeks.

Tin AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS for the emTent
year, give 3.545.7211 acres under cultivation for
1856 against 3.530,0681 for 1855. The number of
occupants is 42,919. The returns show an increase
in wheat against a corresponding decrease in oats
and barley. The total amount of stock was, in 1855,
6,981,295; in 1856, 7,096,637. Of these the increase
is principally in horses, milk cows, and other cattle.

851

A CORRESPONDENCE between Dr. M'Neile and Mr'
Conybeare, with reference to certain expressions used
by Mr. Conybeare alainst the learned and rev. doctor
in an article in the Edinburgh Review, and republished
by Mr. Conybeare in the late edition of his essays, has
been published this week. Dr. M'Neile calls upon
Mr. Conybeare to retract certain statements, without
specifying tnem, but which he characterises 1111 a gra-
tuitous fabrication. Mr. Ginybeare declines to re
tract the statement that he, Dr. M'Neile, was the
leader of the extreme Evangelical party, " as it is
unquestionably true," and declines all furtber corre-
spondence. Dr. M'Neile replies that the statement he
referred to was that in which Mr. Conybeare called
him the leader of a party who teach "the worthless-
ness of morality," and says in his reference to the
first correspondence on the subject :
I requested you to support your a'sertion with even an
appearance of proof, expressing my willingness—nay, my
anxiety, to remove it if such existed. You supplied none.
After a long time you repeated the statement, without any
attempt at proof or any reoognition of my remonstrance.
Such conduct fully justified me in calling the statement a
gratuitous fabrication, and daring you to the proof of it.
Still you attempt no proof, and yet you refuse to retract
the statement.

Talents high and unquestionable may be exhibited at
too high a price, and reputation u a clever writer may
prove but a gilded monument erected on the ruins of repu-
tation as an accurate and truthful man. I hope this
exposure may be attended with one good result, in making
reviewers either more sparing in their personalities or
more cautiously accurate in their allegations, or both.

M. Lotus BLzue has addressed a second letter to
the Times this week upon the subject of the French
political prisoners in reference to the statements of
our contemporary's Paris correspondent :
The question (M. Louis Blanc observes) is not between
the French Government and myself, but between the
French Government and those who atone by the most
awful agony in the swamps of South America for the
crime of having defended the laws of their country. I
cannot but be painfully surprised at your correspondent
questioning my candour, because I drew from his own as-
sertions the conclusion that, in French Guiana, men of
rank and intellectual culture, like the ex-Mayor of Beziers,
and common convicts are herded together. The lamentable
reality of the case is no way affected by the cireumetanoe
that these common convicts, after having undergone their
pnnishment, came again within the green of sneh political
tribunals as were established for the rarticular purpose of
backing the coup•d'etat of the And of December. Is there,
indeed, any legal proof that all those had taken part in po-
litical plots and risings who were sent to Cayenne in oat:-
sequence of sham trials, or without trial ? In such confu-
sion and horrible darkness were the proceedings of the
French Government at that time involved, tbat ordinary
criminals are likely to live, at Cayenne, side by side with
the most irreproachable men, without the latter being
aware of the fact. That " there are cases where recourse
to exceptional tribunals may be justified by extraordinary
circumstances " is an opinion which I cannot possibly
share, and I wonder how it can be held by any Englishman,
in this our age. Laud and Strafford used the same argu-
ment when the Star Chamber was instituted ; but, fortu-
nately for England, the days of Charles I. are gone by, nor
is it to be hoped they will ever revive.

Ma. JIMEM /imam, with reference to Mr. Bes-
semer's new process, writes to the Times this week :

I vas the first to originate and carry into suocessfnl
practice the system on which Mr. Bessemer's process is
founded,—namely, the passing of a blast of gaseous sub-
stance up through the molten crude iron for the purpose
of thereby converting it into the malleable state, and at
the same time dispensing with the greater part of the
manual labour hitherto employed in the ordinsry process
termed " puddling." In my process ald ..t of d 7 s'e Iln
is the agent employed, which n upward wave
through the mass of molten crud - iron out onlv effects
the requisite agitation, but also, b coming resolved into its
constituent elements, the liberated oxygen of the decom-
posed steam carries off the carbon of the crude iron, while
the hydrogen in like manner removes any sulphur or
other such impurities that the crude iron contains, and a
quantity of malleably iron results of a very superior kind,
and that in a much shorter time produced than by the
ordinary laborious process. Mr. Bessemer has with great
candour publicly admitted be'Or. the members of the
mechanical section of the British Association, at the
late meeting at Cheltenham, that it was my process of
passing a blast of steam up through the molten crude iron
that led him to his admirable process.
GENERAL CHESNEY, as Commis-ioner of the Eu-
phrates Valley Railway Company, accompanied by
Sir John M'Neill, the enrineer-in-chief, and a staff
of engineers, left town on Wednesday night, en route
for Constantinople and Syria, to obtain the Amman
for the concession for the railway, the preliminaries
having been previously arranged with his Highness
the Grand Vizier when in this country. The mission
has secured the sanction and concurrence of her
Majesty's Government, and is assured of the coun-
tenance and support of the British Ambassador at
Constantinople. From the advanced stage of the
negotiation, it is expected that General Chesney and
Sir John M'Neill will only be detained a few days in
Constantin pie, and that they will proceed rith
the engineering staff to make the necessary surveys
of the line between the Mediterranean and the
Euphrates.