The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

Vrobinttal.

THE OXFORD COMMEMORATION held this week was
most brilliant. On Wednesday the usual " row " took
place in the Sheldonian Theatre. Lord Palmerston's
bishops appeared to be particularly unpopular.
Political characters were not forgotten, and rounds
of cheers followed the names of Lord Derby, Lord
Stanley, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Cardwell. Mr. Glad-
stone appeared to have lost ground, for his name was
received with mingled cheers and hissing. Lord
Palmerston seemed to have a scanty force of ad-
mirers, and Cobden and Bright elicited only laughter.
The army and navy were done justice to in every
possible way ; and the mention of Sir W. F.
Williams of Kars in particular, and of Major-General
Sir Colin Campbell and Sir John M‘Neill, served as
the signal for concentrated rounds of applause.
Among those admitted to the honorary degree of
D.C.L., were Dr. Livingstone, Sir Cohn Campbell,
Sir Fenwick Williams, and Robert Stephenson.
LORD STANLEY, M.P., last week attended a great
meeting of the fanchester Cotton Supply Associa-
tion, held in the Town-hall, Manchester. The noble
lord, in supporting a resolution moved by Mr. J. A.
Turner, M.P., that it was indispensable to develop
the resources of Great Britain's colonial possessions
for the production of raw cotton, said the precarious
nature of our supply of cotton involved some political
considerations which were sufficiently obvious :

Without wishing to overstate the case, be considered
that our almost exclusive dependence on the United States
for our cotton was neither desirable nor safe, however
improbable it might be that the supply would he inter-
rupted either by war, by a social disturbance in the
Southern States, or by a failure of the crop. This state
of dependence was of comparatively recent origin, and it
was increasing year by year. In considering how we were
to remedy the evil, he by no means recommended exclu•
sive attention to one part of the world ; but,
after all, whatever we could do elsewhere, it
was to British India that we must chiefly look.
The two great Indian requirements with which it was in
their power to deal practically, were the want of commu-
nication and the want of irrigation. The native sove-
reigns of India, as there was evidence to show, had been

JUNE 27, 1857.

fully alive in past times to the fact that " water was
money " in their country, and had undertaken vast works
to supply it. When we spoke of the wants of India, the
answer of the Indian Government was simply, " We know
all this; we know how desirable are the works you speak
of ; but where is the money to come from for their con-
struction?" He believed the question of roads and water
might be detached from every other, and that to be dealt
with effectually it must be dealt with by loans. Loans in-
curred for war were losses to the country, but it must be
borne in mind that what in one case was a dead loss, was
in the other case an investment. And although he knew
that financiers had great objections to such a plan, he
thought that loans fur such a purpose, it being certain that
they would yield a return which would more than pay the
interest, ought not to be charged on the community for
ever, but converted into terminable annuities, and paid off
at the end of a reasonable time. If the Indian Govern•
ment were to wait to open up the resources of India till
it could be done out of the year's income, it might wait
for ever.

SIR JOSHUA WALMSLEY has been presented with
a handsome piece of silver plate and an address,
signed by 7,000 ladies and 6,000 electors, with a view
to soften his recent defeat for the borough of Lei-
cester.

THE DESTRUCTION OF GROUSE, through a dis-
graceful traffic in moorfowl eggs, which calls for
immedive investigation, is reported to an alarming
extent this year. Whole districts of country have
been swept of the entire nests.

A COAL MINE, at Cobridge, Stafford, was last week
worked up to within five feet of the bottom of a
large and deep pond. Suddenly the roof of the
coal mine gave way, and the water fell through like
a cataract, and although the men working in the pit
rushed up the levels at once, one was struck down
and unfortunately drowned.