The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

over the river, and that such street be commenced
without delay." Several gentlemen having addressed
tho meeting, it was further resolved that it would be
the best means of carrying out the object of the
first resolution by commencing a street in Blackfriars-
road as nearly as possible opposite Stamford street,
and terminating near the termini of the Brighton
and Dover Railways at London-bridge.
THE ST. PANCRAS RATEPAYERS held a meeting on
Wednesday to consider the recent enormous expen•
diture for the maintainance of the poor and other
local purposes. It appears that the newly elected
vestry had proposed to increase the expenditure
some 6,500/. per annum, that they were now 11,5001.
in debt, and that they were still carrying out a most
ill-judged and pernicious system of jobbery in the
management and expenditure of the rates. Various
resolutions in support of the Ratepayers' Association—
formed to check an injudicious expenditure of the
rates—and reprobating the conduct of the present
vestry, were proposed and unanimously passed before
the meeting separated.
THE SURREY GARDENS COMPANY held a meeting
on Wednesday to consider the half-yearly report.
The suggestions of a freer exit from the hall, lately
made by the coroner in connection with the recent
accident, were considered, and it was determined to
make the steps more square at the small ends, but
not to alter the means of egress.
PADDINGTON-GREEN appears to be a favorite resort
of the " garotteers." "A. C. C.," in a letter to a
contemporary, gives the following account of an
agreeable adventure which befell him the other
evening :

One evening last week I happened to be returning home
between eleven and twelve o'clock, and I had to cross
Paddington-green in order to get to my residence in St.
John's wood. I hail net got further than the middle of the
green when four men attacked me, kept my arms tight
behind, plastered my mouth, and gave me a blow which
made me quite insensible for the time. They took my
watch and chain and a considerable sum of money. I
could not recognise their appearance nor dress. No one
unfortunately was passing the green at the time, and even
a person outside the green would not observe anything
very startling in four or five people together—they (lid it
so quietly, and in two minutes. Before they left me they
gave me a severe blow in the stomach, which prevented
me from calling out. Su they got away in safety.
THE FIRST SECTION OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE
WEST-END LINE OF RAILROAD WAS formally op2ned
on Thursday. The section extends from the Palace
by Norwood and Streatham to Wandsworth common.
The remaining section, from Wandsworth to Bat-
tersea-park Bridge, it is anticipated, will be finished
by July next.
THE Tut:Tagil MISSIONS AID SOCIETY held a
meeting at Exeter-hall on Thursday evening. The
object of the society is not to originate any new
mission, hut to raise funds in aid of existing evange-
lical missions in the Turkish empire. The more
immediate and special purpose of the meeting was
to take leave of the Rev. Dr. Hamlin, for twenty
years a missionary to the Armenians, on his return
to Constantinople. Among the gentlemen on the
platform were—The Hon. A. Kinnnird, Colonel Sir
Henry Rawlinson, K.C.8., the Rev. Dr. Cyrus
Hamlin, missionary for Constantinople, the Hon.
and Rev. Baptist Noet, the Rev. Dr. Bliwkwood,
LL.D., chaplain from Scutari, &c. Various resolu-
tions in accordance with the object of the meeting
were proposed and carried.

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS show TO
increase over the present low rate of mortality : 060
deaths and 1,716 births were registered last week.

Vrabintial.

VISCOUNT GALWAY, M.P., at the last annual meet-
ing of the Worksop Labourers' Friend Society, in re
plying to the toast of "The County Members," made
a few remarks upon agricultural statistics and other
political questions :
He was opposed to these statistics being taken, as
many of them must be aware, because he could not see
that they would be of any good. His objections to the
measure were founded on these views. It a farmer were
asked to state what land he had in cultivation it might be
done at once ; the return night easily be made on the
tax-paper—so much land in barley, so much in wheat, and
so much in oats. There could be no objection to that;
but it was proposed to empower the Poor-Law Board to
appoint valuers to say what the worth of the crop was.
Now, he would appeal to any one to say whether that
would be a else piece of machinery. It was so flagrant a
job that he made up his mind to vote against it. It was
thrown in the teeth of him and his friends that they were
opposed to all statistics. That was not so ; but he did not
believe these would be of any use. Besides, there was the
expense of collecting them. Supposing it cost 30,0tX11.,
would the information be worth the money? He should
vote against the proposal again, unless it was a simple re-
turn such as he had described. He had the clause of the
bill by him in which it was proposed to give the Poor-Law
Board power to appoint valuers to fix the value of the
crops; and any one who knew the real facts knew that such
a thing was impossible.

SATURDAY,

At the next session many important questions must
come before Parliament :

There would be the great question of education. He
did not consider this a party question. The leaders of the
party to which he belonged were divided in opinion on this
question. Mr. Henley was in favour of voluntary educa-
tion Ito which opinion he himself inclined), while Sir
John Pakington was for making it a moreLcornpulsory
matter. But, whatever their opinions might be, they had
only one object in view—to provide for the better educa-
tion of the people ; and there could be no doubt it would
be advisable for them to be prepared to give votes on the
question, not from any party principle, but from what they
thought to be the good of their country. He felt that he
could not in his conscience give way to what was called
secular education without religion. He might offend per-
sons by saying so ; but lie could not see his way to voting
for any scheme of education in which religious instruction
was not comprised.

Connected with education was the question of
juvenile reformatories and the lefot niation of
criminals :

It was a national question, and most important to the
well-being of the whole community. He thought it a
matter that ought not to be entirely left to private
benevolence. Large sums had been collected by sub-
scription in many counties for the establishment ofjuvenile
reformatories ; but he thought the nation was bound, as a
nation, to defray some of the expense of endeavouring to
perfect a system by which these unfortunate young crea-
tures might be preserved from ultimate ruin.
There was a great difficulty about sending old offenders
away to penal settlements. Though some persons thought
the ticket-of-leave system beneficial, he believed these
liberated convicts were at the root of half the thefts and
robberies in England at this moment. He was ready to
listen to any statistics on this subject, but they could not
take up a newspaper without finding the mischievous
doings of the ticket-of-leave men recorded. It was evident
that this must be so. The liberated convict cannot get
employment. The moment that it is learned that he is a
ticket-of•leave man he is discarded. He cannot starve, and
he takes to his old trade as a matter of necessity. He was
afraid the system would prove a failure. He should be
glad to be wrong, but that was his opinion.
The Hon. W. E. DUNCOMBE, the colleague of
Viscount Galway in the representation of East Ret-
ford, in the course of some remarks in answer to the
above toast, referred to the improved condition of
agriculture, and the general prosperity of the agri-
cultural interest. The farmers of England ought to
be grateful for this ; and he thought they could
show their gratitude in no better way than by
endeavouring to raise the condition of the labouting
classes :

The labouring classes were the bone and sinew of the
country. Let them try to raise the condition of the
labouring classes, and teach them that they were not mere
machines, to do the work of a farm, but creatures respon•
slide for the moral and social duties of life. These were
words which by some might be considered claptrap; but
he believed that, come what may, amid their prosperity
and amid all their pleasures, that which would give them
the greatest satisfaction was the thought that they had
benefited their fellow•creatures.

THE BRADFORD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE have
lately forwarded a memorial to her Majesty's Minister
at Brussels, calling attention to the late revision of
the Belgian tariff, by which British worsted goods
are virtually subjected to an ad valorem duty of
twenty•nine per cent., while the French goods are
admitted at twelve per cent. This error has arisen
from a false calculation of the relative value of goods
in the grey and goods dyed and finished, the French
merinoes only coming up to the value assumed by
the tariff:—

The calculation of the value is based (says the memo-
rial) upon the assumption that goods in the grey are worth
1,500 f. per 100 kilos, and that the same goods, when dyed.
are worth 2,500 f., showing a difference of 661 per cent. of
the value for dyeing and finishing. The affidavits show
that the highest average price paid for dyeing goods, such
as are exported into Belgium, amounts to 2s. 4d., and the
average value of each piece being, according to the affidavit,
11 7s. 6d., the dyeing and finishing amount only to shout
el per cent. of the actual value of the piece, instead of 661
per cent. An average drawn from the affidavits shows that
a piece of worsted goods weighs about fifth., or 3 kilos, and
consequently a piece of dyed and finished goods, calculated
at 300 f. per 100 kilos, would have to pay ff., whereas the
same piece in the grey, at 150 f., would be admitted on pay-
ment of 41f., thus creating a new protection to the dyer of
215 per cent., which would be altogether at variance with
the principle upon which the tables have been constructed.
Your memorialists, therefore, earnestly and respectfully
request your lordship to lay these facts before the Belgian
Government in order that the tariff about to be revised may
be at, framed as to carry out the intentions of that Govern-
ment, and that no error which would create a greater duty
than 12 per cent, ad valorem on the goods referred to in
this memorial be permitted to remain in the tables sub-
mitted to the Belgian Legislature.

A PRUSSIAN COLLIER blew up at Cardiff on Monday
morning. She was lying in the West Bute Dock.
The crew on Saturday night had closed the hatches.
About half past five on Monday morr.ing the coal-
trimmers were coming to work on board her. One
of the crew brought a lighted candle into the hold,
when in an instant the confined carburetted hydro-

NOVEMBER 1, 1856.

gen gas caught fire and exploded, literally blowing
the vessel to pieces. Her stem, stern, and sides
were blown out, and her deck and masts blown high
into the air. One of the crew was killed on spot,the
three others died a few hours afterwards, six others
were severely burnt and injured, the first mate was
blown into the dock and saved, and the second mate was
blown bad and all out of his bunk through the ship's
side, and landed on the quay with a broken pelvis.
The concussion was tremendous, and some notion of its
force can b' formed from the fact that the barque's
35-cwt. bower anchor was blown over the forestay
some fifteen feet into the air, and fell into and sunk
a barge alongside. A falling spar killed the chief
mate of a vessel lying close by. Great apprehension
was excited at first that the flames would spread
over the crowded dock, but happily they were got
under in a short time, and the vessel sunk in about
twelve feet water. An inquest was opened on Tuesday
and adjourned for a week.

FOUR BODIES have been recovered from Bryn-
Malty Mines at Wrexham. Three out of the four
had not been drowned by the inundat►on, but killed
by choke-damp. An influential meeting was held at
the Town-hall on the 24th, and a collection for the
sufferers resolved on. Upwards of 8001. have been
contributed.
THE DANGER OF OVERLOADING A WAREHOUSE
FLOOR was shown on Monday at Tewkesbury. Mr.
Rice, of that town, had stored about 1,000 bushels of
corn upon the first floor of a rickotty old warehouse
on the quay. About two p.m. his son, Mr. Henry
Rice, entered the lower storey of the building. A
foreman labourer, Wm. Newman, was in the same
room, with another labourer named Scott. White, a
boy, was in the room above, on the top of the wheat.
Scott was sent out by Mr. Rice on an errand, and he
was just leaving the building when the first floor fell
in with a tremendous crash. He was struck violently
on the arm, and driven clear out of the door by the
falling wheat. Mr. Rice and Newman were com-
pletely buried in the wheat, and the boy White came
sliding down on the top of the grain towards the door.
Scott extricated him in an instant, and made such an
alarm that a considerable number of labourers, boat-
men, and others were immediately collected, and they
set about digging out the two unfortunate persons
who were buried beneath the wheat and the ruins of
the floor. In about ten minutes they extricated
them, both dead. Blood was flowing from the ears
of Mr. Rice, and Newman had as evidently died from
suffocation. The floor had about twenty-seven tons
of grain upon it, and this was heaped the highest
about the centre of the room. The beams, though
apparently strong and sound, were in a bad condi-
tion. At the inquest a verdict of " Accidental death "
was returned.

LORD GIRLIES, the son and heir of the Earl and
Countess of Galloway, attained his majority on the
21st ult., when on that and the three following days
a succession of dinners, halls, and general rejoicings
among the tenantry took place at the family seat in
Galloway. The noble earl end countess also gavo
a grand ball specially to their tenantry on the
23rd ult.
A CURIOUS AND CLEVER ROBBERY was effected
near Cambridge last week. The foundation stone
of a county lunatic asylum was laid on the 30th of
September last, and the works are now in rapid pro•
gress. Some rogues, tempted by the reputed value
of the usual deposit cf coins, &c., in the foundation•
stone, in the course of last Saturday night pulled
down the brickwork, lifted the stone by means of the
shores and gear left standing, and then coolly ab-
stracted the deposit of coins, vellum scroll, &c. The
value of the coins was only 21. ls. Bd., but the injury
done to the brickwork is between 201. and 301.

THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., is at
present engaged at Liverpool in investigating into a
matter in dispute between the London and North-
Western and the Great Northern Railway Companies.
Mr. Gladstone has undertaken this duty at the
request of both parties interested, and who have
agreed to abide by his adjudication.

DEER STALKING AND DEPOPULATION IN BRAEMAR
is the heading of a letter signed John S. Blackie, in
Monday's Times. He writes :—The whole Braemar
district, if not systematically cleared in any part,
according to the Sutherland model, has been, from
some cause or other, very extensively depopulated.
The statistical account of 1845, written by the parish
minister, shows that the population of the united
parishes of Crathie and Blamer was—in the year
1755, 2,671 souls ; 1794, 2,251 souls; 1831, 1,808
souls; 1841, 1,712 souls—a diminution of nearly
1,000 souls in a single century, at a period when the
country generally was rapidly increasing in pro-
sperity and in population. The only set off against
this appalling amount of local decline is the fact that,
according to the last population returns in 1851, a
small increase is reported, the then population being
given as 1,788 souls. What strikes a stranger most
in the Braemar district, atter he has recovered from
his first stupendous admiration of mountains and
pine forests, is the great number of ruined houses
that is everywhere prominent in the glens ; that, in

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