The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

'Da indictment against Williams and others for a
conspiracy U) defraud in connection with the Leman
Estate Fund, in the Court of Chancery, has been
removed by certiorari to the Court of Queen's

Bench.
THE NATIONAL FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY have
just issued their fourth annual report. The receipts
of the last year were 50 per cent. more than those of
1852, and nearly equal to the total receipts of the
previous three years. The land sold to the members
during the same period was 150 per cent. more than
in the year preceding, and exceeded by 9,0001. the
amount of all the land that had been previously
wild from the formation of the society. The new
shares issued in the 17 months ending Oct. 31,1850,
were 5,010 ; in the year ending Oct. 31, 1851,
9,831; in the year ending Oct. 31, 1852, 22,251 ; and
in the year ending Oct. 31, 1853, they were 29,742.
The sums received in the same four periods of time
ascend in the following consecutive and progressive
order :-21,2571., 96,1371., 102,071/., and 295,1541.
The society has issued in all 66,843 shares, and re-
ceived 601,6201. Its lots sold amount to 229,672/.
The balance available for dividend is ascertained to
be more than sufficient to pay the usual rate of
profit ; and consequently, for the past year, a divi-
dend of Si. Ss. 4d. per cent. per aunnr has been
carried to the account of all uncompleted shares not
advanced. The balance of profit realised from
estates, and which forms the guarantee fund, is now
estimated at the amount of 1'2,448/.
THE GLASGOW AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY have offered
a prize of 501. for the best essay on the most effective
and economical means of collecting, storing, convey-
ing, and distributing the sewerage of Glasgow, so as
to adopt it for manure.
FROM a return of the emigration vessels which
have left Liverpool under Government inspection
during the past year it appears that 59 ships sailed
for the various Australian ports. These were dis-
tributed over the four quarters of the year GS
follows :—For the three months ending March, 19
ships, 17,948 tons, 7,267 passengers; for the three
months ending une 16 ships, 15,304 tons, 5,740
passengers ; for the three months ending August, 12
ship s, 13433 tons, 4,164 passengers ; for the three
monthsending December, 12 ships, 14,015 tons,
3,015 passengers; total number of ships 59, tonnage
60,700, passengers 21,080. Of these 20,318 were
steerage passengers, of whom 10,634 were English,
3,846 Scotch, 4,064 Irish, and the remaining 1,870
were foreigners. The number of vessels which have
taken their departure, under Government inspec-
tion, for the United States, British America, and the
East Indies, during the year, were 480, of 531,987
tons burden, and carrying 203,720 passengers. The
gross total of emigration is, therefore, for the year
1853—T0 Australia, 21,067 ; United States, British
America, &c., 203,720; total, 224,787. In the con-
veyance of these emigrants a fleet of 539 ships, of
an aggregate tonnage of 531,087 tons, has been em-
ployed.

PAALIAidENT was on Tuesday again prorogued with
the usual formalities. The Lord Commissioners
who officiated were the Lord Chancellor and the
Duke of Argyll, and the new term of prorogation was
ordered to extend to the 31st inst., when the Legisla•
ture is to meet " for the despatch of divers urgent
business."

THE Independence of Brussels states that no
Belgians or other foreigners can now enter France
from Belgium without having their passports visid
at the French Embassy at Brussels. Several
travellers who have lately neglected this formality
have been compelled, on reaching Valenciennes, to
return to Brussels, the orders on the subject being
imperative.
AN IMPORTANT REPORT AND TABLES concerning re-
ligious worship, as exhibited by the census of Great
Britain in 1851, have just been issued in pursuance of
the order of Parliament. The volume has reference
to England and Wales. It appears that there are in
England and Wales thirty • five different religious com-
munities or sects--twenty-seven native and indi
genous, and nine foreign. The latter include all the
bodies which have assumed any formal organisation.
There are, it is stated, in addition, many isolated con-
gregations of religious worshippers adopting various
appellations, but it does not appear that any one of
them is sufficiently numerous and consolidated to be
called a " sect." Taking the population of England
and Wales at 17,927,009, there was present at the
most numerously-attended services on Sunday,
March 30, 1851, the number of 2,971,258 members of
the Church of England, 3,110,782 Protestant dis-
senters, 249,389 Roman Catholics, and 24,793 of
other bodies. Of all denominations the number re-
turned as present on the Sunday mentioned is
6,356,222.
THE English merchants who have entered into
contracts for the supply of coal to the English
squadron in different points of the Black Sea have
received notice to prepare themselves to execute
their contracts within a very short delay. The depots
of coal are to be established at Sinope, Trebizond,
and Varna.

SATURDAY,

AT ROME, on the 21st of December, the novel cere-
mony of consecrating an English abbot was per-
formed by Cardinal Wiseman, at the Church of St.
Gregory. Dr. Burder, the abbot elect, abandoned
the Church of England about eight years ago, and
entered the new Trappist monastery of St. Bernard
in Leicestershire, where he rendered himself so ac-
ceptable to his brethren thatat the end of three years
they elected him their superior. The provincial-
general of the order, however, would not ratify the
election on account of the short time the doctor had
served in the monkish ranks, and he was therefore
obliged to content himself for four years more with
the secondary dignity of prior. On the day above
named, however, Cardinal Wiseman installed him in
his full rank, as Abbot of St. Bernard's, whilst a full
choir repeated an impressive Te Deum. Another
English Trappist monk took part in the ceremony,
acting as the cardinal's deacon. Dr. Manning
preached upon the occasion.
THE DEATHS IN LONDON registered in the week
that ended last Saturday amountod to 1,650. The
mortality has been raised principally by the severity
of the weather. In the ten corresponding weeks of
the years 1843-52 the average number of deaths was
1,160, which, if raised in proportion to increase of
population, becomes 1,276. There is an excess in
the number actually returned above the calculated
amount of 3MO.
AN ALARM Nu Murnev occurred on board the
Winchester, the flag-ship of Sir Edward I'ellew,
admiral on the East India station, upon the oth of
November. The Winchester was then lying at Hone-
Kong, and the crew asked for some hours' leave to L•a
given them on shore, as they had not had any for a
long time. This, it is stated, the admiral re-
fused, and a mutiny ensued, for on piping the
hammocks down not a man obeyed; and the drum
was beat to quarters with the same result. The
marines and officers were then armed and sent
between decks, where the utmost confusion pre-
vailed, the seamen rolling shot about and throwing
missiles. Before any kind of order could be re-
stored, seventeen of the crew had been wounded by
the officers ; ten of the wounded were sent to the
hospital next morning. The captain, Fitzgerald, re-
ceived a wound over one eye, which was supposed to
to accidental, as he was very popular with the
crew.
MOST energetic efforts will be put forth imme •
diately by our dockyards to create and tit out a
powerful North Sea squadron, to be ready for service
as soon as the ice breaks up. The push will be for
steamers, of which the supply in harbour is getting
rather short, so many having been commissioned in
103.
THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT has refused a con.
cession to a company of English shareholders for
tl•.e construction of a railway from Hamburg to the

Hague.
THE REV. W. 11. ANDERDON, M.A., lately vicar of
St. Margaret's, Leicester, was admitted into the
priesthood of the Church of Rome, on Saturday last,
at St. Mary's College, Oscott, by the "Bishop of
Birmingham." One other priest was ordained at the
Fame time, and eleven persons were admitted to the
diaconate and inferior orders of the ministry.
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON has addressed a letter to
the lords lieutenant of counties on the subject of the
mess expenses of subaltern officers in militia regi-
ments. His lordship is of opinion that the mess
charges in the militia should not exceed the average
charge in regiments of the line, which does not ex-
ceed 2s. 6d. per diem. The Home Secretary recom-
mends that the same limit should be applied to
militia messes, with a view to enable subaltern officers
the better to meet their mess expense.
THE parliamentary estimate of Mr. Remington, the
engineer for making the proposed new dock, basin,
and other works at Greenwich, is 200,0001., including
purchase of land and contingencies.
SERIOUS APPREHENSIONS exist that any long con-
tinuance of inclement weather will entail a total
failure in the supply of gas for the metropolis. The
condition of the river below London-bridge has been
such that the colliers could not discharge their
cargoes, the barges being frozen in or so jammed up
as to render it impossible to carry on the ordinary
operations. The directors of several of the leading
gas companies met on Wednesday for the purpose of
determining what was best to be done under the cir-
cumstances. No decision was arrived at, and the
only hope expressed was that the severity of the
weather might moderate. The price of coals continues
to be enormous.
THE Edinburgh Advertiser mentions a report that
Rear-Admiral the Hon. George Crofton will hoist his
flag at Leith in a station-ship, as it is expected he
will procure a great number of young Scotebmen for
the service.
Is accordance with the law enacted last May, all
the Prussian manufacturers and proprietors of work-
shops who employ children of under sixteen years
old are required to prove before the authorities that
they oblige each of such children to attend school
. for at least three hours a day.

I

111

JANUARY 7, 1854.

25* e time of the census there were more than
teachers in Sunday schools instructing, every
Sunday, in religious knowledge as many as 1,800,000
children. The total number of scholars on the books
of the schools was about 2,40(1,000, giving an average
of about two teachers to every fifteen scholars.
THE CONVOCATION FOR THE PROVINCE OF CANTER-
BURY was on Wednesday further prorogued, in pur-
suance of the royal writ, until the Ist of February,
the day after the meeting of Parliament. The
Primate performed the ceremony of prorogation,
which took place as usual in the Jerusalem Chamber,
but was of merely formal character.
THE SILK TRADE IN 1853, according to the com-
mercial circulars, presented in China silk un in-
creased import of 7,000 bales, and an increased
delivery of 9,000 bales ; in Canton silk, an increased
import of 1,200 bales, deliveries as last year ; in
Bengal silk, a diminished import of 2,000 bales, a
diminished delivery of 2,000 bales ; in Italian silk,
au increased import of 1,9(X) bales, an increased
delivery of 1,200 bales; in Brutia silk, a diminished
import of 900 bales, a diminished delivery of 900
bales ; in Persian silk, an increased import of
.2,800 ballots, and an increased delivery of 1,000
ballots.
THE EXPORTATION OF MACHINERY AND MILLWORK
has experienced a great increase during the past
year. In the first eleven months of 1853 the declared
value was 443,2541. of steam-engines, against 310,4951.
in the previous par, while of all other sorts the value
was 1,308,0271. in 1853, and 850,5711. in the preceding
year.
AN ASSOCIATION OF CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS has
just been instituted for the purpose of establishing a
college of pharmacy. This society designates
itself the British Association of Chemists and Drug-
gists ; and, in an address to the chemists and drug-
gists of the United Kingdom, it states their number
at somewhere about 10,0(X), and that, in order to
confer upon this body—respectable in social position
as in numbers—a professional status, the committee
proposes, in the first instance, a complete and recog-
nised registration of all duly-qualified chemists and
druggists, and that the functions of this association
shall be limited to the granting of certificates of
qualification, to maintaining a complete register of
all persons possessing such certificates, and to the
proper discharge of the duties of a board of examiners.
The committee state that they have already received,
from many members of the medical profession, their
approbation of the proposed plan, and propose to
confer upon their associates a diploma or certificate
of qualification, as issued by direction of the British.
Association of Chemists and Druggists.
THE INDIAN AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS which were
despatched on Wednesday by the Ripon were un-
usually bulky, the total number of boxes being 390,
and weighing 33 tons. Nevertheless, the despatches
for India were considerably reduced by the frost and
snow, which had delayed an immense number of
letters from Liverpool and the north intended for
transmission by this mail, but whose arrival in South
ampton was protracted until long after the Ripon had
sailed.

VICTORIA, of which Melbourne is the capital, is to
be the head-quarter station of the troops serving in
Australia, in place of Sydney. According to the
Melbourne Morning Herald, a private letter received
in Victoria states that the now governor is to be Lord
Marcus Hill.

NINETY-SEVEN PERSONS have renounced the emirs
of Popery in St. Paul's, Bermondsey, since the last
published account, issued on the 30th of September
last,

THE patronage of the Church of England, accord-
ing to the parliamentary volume on religious wor-
ship, is thus distributed :—Of the 11,728 benefices in
England and Wales, 1,144 are in the gift of the
Crown, 1,853 in that of the bishops, 038 in that of
cathedral chapters and other dignitaries, 770 in that
of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the
Colleges of Eton, Winchester, &c., 931 in that of the
ministers of the mother churches, and the residue, in
number 6,092, in that of private persons.
THE directors and promoters of the new Mecha-
nics' Institution in St. Helen's, near Halifax, have
invited the Right Hon. the Lord Stanley of Knows-
ley to preside at a monster meeting, to be held in
the Town-hall on or about the 14th inst., for the
purpose of aiding and furthering the objects in con-
nection with this promising institution. Great pre-
parations are making to give his lordship a cordial
anti worthy reception.

UPWARDS of 3,500 persons attended on Wednesday
se'nnight at the Carr Mill dam (one of the most
beautiful lakes in Lancashire, belonging to Sir John
Gerard, Bart-). to witness a grand skating match for
101. between Chisnall, of Blackbrook, and Gee of
Bißinge, three times round, or about twelve miles,
which was accomplished in eighteen minutes, Gee
beating Chisnall cleverly, although Chisnall beat him
last year. The match was very exciting, and a great
number of nobility and gentry from the neighbour-
hood were present.