The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THREE RUSSIAN SHIPS, laden with Circassian girls,
have been captured by the allied fleets in the Black
Sea, and taken into Varna.
THE WARDENS 01' THE FISHMONGERS' COMPANY
entertained a distinguished party at their ball on
Tuesday evening with high hospitality. Among the
guests were Earl Fortescue, Viscount Ebrington,
Lord C. Russell, Lord E. Bruce, the American
Minister, Sir C. Wood, Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P.
Wood, the Hon. J. P. Locke King, M.P., Sir D.
Dundas, General Macdonald, Mr. J. Masterman,
M.P., the Governor of the Bank, the Master of the
Goldsmiths' Company, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Mr.
Sergeant Manning, Mr. John Rolt, &c.
THE QUEEN has been pleased to sanction the
immediate erection of the Mauritius and its depen-
dencies into a bishopric. The Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel has appropriated 3,000/. towards
the endowment ; and the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge has voted a grant of '2,000/.
The Rev. Vincent W. Ryan, 8.A., Principal of the
Metropolitan Training Institution (Highbury Cot•
lege), and formerly of the Liverpool Collegiate In-
stitution, is to be the first bishop.
ThE ORDNANCE AUTHORITIES have advertised for
tenders for constructing a basin at the new powder-
magazine at Bull Point, in the River Tamar, about
four miles from Devonport; and also for clearing out
the Devonport lines.
THE following memorandum, dated Woolwich,
July 25, has just been issued :—" A change of uni-
form having been announced to take place in the
army, officers of the Royal Artillery are recom-
mended not to provide themselves wi any unifor
of the present pattern which may no the absolutely m

necessary."
GOVERNMENT ORDERS were received at Southamp
ton on Wednesday to get the Harbinger ready again
immediately, to take out Sir George Cathcart and

staff.
REAR-ADMIRAL CORRY'S retirement from active
service is now certain, The Admiralty have pro-
moted his flag-lieutenant, Mr. Charles W. Hope
(1848), to the rank of commander, on the usual
nomination of the gallant admiral on striking his
flag. Admiral Corry arrived at Sheerness from the
Baltic on Tuesday last in the Dauntless.
THE HALF-YEAR'S DIVIDEND declared upon the
London and North-Western Railway stock is at the
rate of 5 per cent. per annum.
THE average stock of bullion held by the Bank of
England in both departments during the month
caning the Bth of July was 13,804,0401., being an
increase of 1,120,7851. as compared with the pre-
vious month, and a decrease of 4,725,0331. when
compared with the same period last year.
A SECOND Counr-rdAnnia. has been sitting at
Windsor to try Lieutenant J. E. Perry, on four dis-
tinct charges, under the presidence of Colonel Kelly.
The proceedings began on the 28th ult., and on
Thursday, when six entire days had been occupied
in hearing witnesses, the evidence up to that time
had been confined to the first and second charges
only. The first charge is for having sent a letter to
Colonel the Hon. Arthur Upton, the president of the
previous court-martial, in which Lieutenant Perry
alleged that he could get no redress from Colonel
Garrett (of the 46th), who, when he complained,
reproached him, and called him a fool for his pains.
The second charge is founded on the same letter, in
which the prisoner states that the annoyances were
continued towards him until he sent a letter to
Colonel Garrett, threatening to complain to the
general of the district. The charges declare both
these statements to be false. The case promises to
last several days longer, and the evidence adduced is
exceedingly minute and voluminous.
A FRESH SUCCESS has been won by the Early-
closing Association, in the cass of the wholesale
booksellers in the " Row," who, with very few excep •
Lions, closed on Saturday last at five, instead of half-
past seven o'clock, which up to that day had been the
usual hour.
THE UTILITY OF THE METROPOLITAN BATHS AND
WASHHOUSES, and the advantage taken of them by
the labouring classes of the population during the
hot weather, is exemplified by the following return of
one week's business, that ending on Saturday last,
the 29th ult. This table is given on the authority of
the Rev. G. Woolcott
.41 I
Name of Establishment. I(gathers.ulmr°fl‘Waein ".-
Washers.

♦umberof Numborof Total
Name of Establishment 11. Bathers. Washers. Receipts.
The Mtxlel,Whitechapel.. 6,641 625 101 2 7
St. Martin-in•the-Fields .. 4,685 879 79 12 6
St. Marylebone 8,843 589 116 7 2
St. Margaret and St. John,
Westminster .. 5,635 1,800 79 17 10
Greenwich 3,059 96 42 19 It)
St. James, Westminster .. 5.557 929 83 15 11
Poplar . • .. 3,857 120 49 1 6
St. Giles and Bloomsbury. 8,859 791 130 2 1
Bermondsey • • .. 5,932 72 73 8 0
Lambeth . • • . 12,178 192 17 8
George-street, St. Pancras 4,352 2,405 85 19 5
--------- ---
Totals for one week .. 69,598 7,576 1,035 4 6

Totals for one week ..

SATURDAY,

FROM a series of parliamentary returns obtained
by Mr. Disraeli it appears that during the period
from the 7th of April to the Bth of July the amount
of deficiency bills issued and charged upon the
revenue accruing during that quarter was 5,852,0481.
Is. Id.; of Consolidated Fund bills, payable during
the current quarter, 500,0001.; and deficiency bills,
also payable this quarter, 3,623,1961.35. Bd. Of the
latter sum, 1,201,190/. 3s. Bd. had been redeemed,
leaving the amount outstanding on the 12th ult.
2,802,0001. The balance in the Exchequer at the
Bank of England on the 6th of July was 3,658,291/.
Os. 5d., the amount received frcm revenue 392,4451.
12s. 6d.' and the amount received from subscriptions
to the Exchequer Bonds to the same date reached
999,1651., making the total amount of the balance
in the Exchequer on the sth of July 5,040,9011.
12s. Ild.
THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—The new terminus
of the Great Western Railway at Paddington being
now finished, the whole of the arrival trains are
enabled to come into the new premises. By the com-
pletion of this handsome terminus to one of the
greatest and most important lines of railway in the
kingdom, it is brought fully half a mile nearer town
than it was before. The company have made ar-
rangements by which passengers on arrival can
enter their new and magnificent hotel from the
platform, without going round through the street.
SIXTY-THREE ROMAN CATHOLICS have renounced
Popery in St. Paul's, Bermondsey, since the last pub-
lished account of 27th April.
THE management of the ventilation of both
Houses of Parliament, the committee-rooms and
other chambers (except the library of the House of
Lords), will be placed under the superintendence of
Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney. The alterations lately
made by him in the ventilation of the House of
Commons appear to have given general satisfaction.
The cost of lighting the two houses is as follows
House of Peers, with its lobbies, 18s. Md. per hour;
Ise of Commons, with its lobbies, 365. 11d. per

hour.
A Pusue MEETING was held in the Egyptian-hall
of the Mansion-house on Monday for the establish-
ment of an asylum for the permanent care of those
who by disease, deformity, or accident are hopelessly
disqualified for the duties of life. 2,0001. was sub •
scribed as a commencement for the new charity.
THE WOOL FAIRS recently held in Wales have ex-
hibited a declining tendency. The quantity of the
material shown for sale has not been large, and
mountain sheep wool, which last year ranged from
ls. 6d. to ls. Bti. per lb.,has this year only commanded
from 11d. to Is. id. The long wool last year realised
Is. 4d. to Is. 5d., but this season only 9d. and 10d.
has been obtained.

Sail AO Voila.

THE ENGLISH COPYRIGHT IN BELLINI'S OPERA, La
Sonnambula, has been litigated for several years
past, and the case, after repeated trials and conflict-
ing discussions in various courts, came at last before
the highest tribunal, the House of Peers, where final
judgment was given on Tuesday last. The parties
to the action, who have appeared alternately as plain-
tiffs and defendants, were the music-publishers,
Boosey and Jeffreys. The former claimed a title to
copyright in the work, which he alleged that Mr.
Jeffreys had infringed; and the first suit brought to
decide the question was tried before the present Lord
Chancellor in the year 1850, when judgment was
given against Mr. Boosey, whose title was thus de-
rived in the original pleadings, which were substan-
tially repeated in all the subsequent actions :
The opera of La Sonnambula was composed at Milan, in Lore•
hardy, in the month of February, 1861, by Signor Vincenzo
Bellini, an alien, then domiciled and residing at Milan, and by
the law of that city entitled to the copyright in the opera and
the musical composition. On the 19th of February, 1831, by an
instrument in writing, signed and executed according to the law
of Milan, the said Vincenzo 13ellini assigned the said copyright
to one Giovanni Ricordi, also an alien, and then domiciled and
resident at Milan; whereupon such copyright and the right of
assigning it, according to the law of Milan, became invesutbdi ng
te in
Ricordi, who, on the 9th of June, 1831, in England (be
then an alien, and domiciled and resident out of the British
dominions), duly signed, sealed, and executed an indenture be-
tween himself and the plaintiff Boosey, by which he assigned the
copyright of the opera of La Sonnambula for publication in Great
Britain and Ireland. The plaintiff accordingly published the
opera of La Savants:Lida in London on the 10th of June, 1831.
There had been no prior publication of the opera, or of the mu-
sical composition in question, either in the British or in any
other country ; when on the 10th of June,lB3l, he made the usual
entry at Stationers'-ball in respect of the opera, and deposited
copies in the British Museum and other institutions, as by law
required ; and on the 13th of May, 1844, he made a further entry
at Stationers'-hall, under the bth and oth Victoria, c. 45.
The chief point dwelt upon by the Lord Chancellor,
when reviewing the case in the House of Lords, was
that, as the Copyright Act was passed for the benefit
of Englishmen, a non-resident foreigner could not
possess or assign any title under it. He accordingly
decided that M. Ricordi could not make over to Mr.
Boosey any valid rights. Lords Brougham and St.
Leonard's concurred in this decision, and judgment
. was pronounced against the plaintiff, annulling the
copyright.