The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-13 00:00:00

446

The LORD ADVOCATE remarked that there were
three systems of education between which they might
choose—the secular, the denominational, and the
national. The first was impossible in Scotland ; public
opinion scouted it utterly. The second bad been tried,
and still existed, but was proved to be wanting. There
remained the third alternative, and in the bill now
before the house the attempt was made to create a
strictly national system based upon a judicious union
of religious and secular teaching. The right hon.
gentlemen then adverted to the various strictures
which had been passed upon the measure, and con-
tended that, if it did not satisfy all the conditions
necessary for the solution of a more intractable
problem, nevertheless it promised to do much towards
removing the ignorance which constituted the worst
blot and evil upon our modern society. Moderate
and philanthropic men of all sects in Scotland had
adopted the measure. Its chief opponents were men
who disliked to abolish the tests imposed upon school-
masters, and so surrender the exclusive privileges of
the Established Church. This abrogation of tests
he considered the most important feature of the
bill, and entered into calculations sh owing that they
operated against the great majority of the people in
Scotland, and formed an object of contention which
it was necessary to remove. Mr. Moncreiff then
alluded to other details of the bill, reviewing the
criticisms and suggestions offered on different hands,
and contending that the measure bad been framed
upon moderate principles, successfully avoiding the
extremes on either side.

After a few words from Mr. BumEn the house
divided—
For the second reading .
For the amendment
Majority against the Government ---9
RAILWAY TRAFFIC REGULATION BILL.
The motion for the third reading of this bill was
opposed by Mr. I. Burr, who moved the adjournment
of the debate. Some prolonged discussion followed,
and a division was taken on the question of adjourn-
ment, which was negatived by a majority of 97 to 18
—79.

The motion for adjournment was renewed, but ul-
timately withdrawn, and the bill passed the third
reading.

THE question which occupied the House last
night is a very simple one. By the existing
educational system in Scotland, the parish
schoolmaster must be a member of the Estab-
lished Church, and the minister of the parish
has the right of inspecting the school. The
system is found to work admirably. The
schools are attended by children of all reli
gious denominations, and no objection is
taken to the religious instruction they receive.
The Government bill proposed to change this
system, by removing the control of the schools
from the Church, and by establishing a board
of supervision. Against this change more
than two thousand of the principal landed
proprietors in Scotland, including the no-
blest of her peers and the ablest of her
representatives, had signed a declaration
stating that in their opinion " the present
" system of parochial schools ought trot to be
" interfered with, and that their connection
" with the Church of Scotland ought to be
" maintained." After an animated debate a
division took place on the second reading of
the bill, and the Government, in a full House,
were beaten by a majority of nine.

Yesterday's Moniteur contains a despatch from Ad-
miral Hamelin, dated off Odessa, the 25th ult.,
announcing that the Retrenetion, Descartes, and
Niger had captured fourteen Russian merchant ves-
sels which were sent to Constantinople. Admiral
Dundas had proposed an exchange of prisoners.
The differences which at one moment threatened
to break off the diplomatic relationship between M.
Baraguay d'Hilliers and the Porte have been finally
arranged. Reconciliatory visits were interchanged
between the French Ambassador, the Seraskier, and
Redschid Pacha.
The son of Abbas Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt, has
sent some mo,.t magnificent presents to the daughter
of the Sultan, Minure Sultana, to whom he has just
been betrothed. Two diadems of great beauty and
worth are amongst them—one for the Sultana, the
other for his bride—and five splendid horses for the
Sultan.

General Yussuf, the Arab chief, embarked for the
East on board the Montezuma steam-frigate on the
4th inst. with 1,100 Zonaves and a few officers under
his command.

Letters from Melbourne, Australia, to the Ist of
March, state that extensive new gold diggings, snr-
passing in richness any yet heard of, had been dis-
covered near Melbourne. The commercial accounts
are represented as very prosperous.

THE PRESS.

WRECK OF THE ERCOLANO.

Somz details of the loss of the Ercolano have been com-
m unicated by Captain Townshend, M.P., to the Hertford
Mercury, as he received them from the lips of Sir R. Peel.
Captain Townshend :Ailed upon Sir Robert, to congratu-
late him on his almost miraculous escape and safe arrival
in England. In the course of the conversation which en-
sued Sir Robert gave a narrative of the circumstances
connected with the loss of the vessel. Sir Robert said
that, feeling ill from the motion of the vessel, he was sitting
in his carriage—which had been moved to midships on
account of the heavy rolling of the sea--smoking a cigar,
when suddenly, and without the slightest warning, a cz.illi-
sion occurred. A large vessel (the Sicilia) came upon
them at the rate of eleven or twelve knots an hour, run-
ning for eight or nine feet into the Ercolano, and literally
doubling her up." The collision was so sudden, death
so imminent, that there was no time for consideration.
Sir Robert had just time to spring out of his carriage be-
fore the funnel of the steamer and the apparatus of the
galley fell against it and threw it overboard. To take off his
coat, trousers, and boots was the work of a moment. His
servant was standing by him—an old and valued servant,
much attached to him—and in that awful moment Sir
Robert found time and calmness enough to say a few
words to his faithful servitor " Good by ! God bless
you! Nothing can save us ! In a few minutes we shall
be in the other world." The man said he would never
leave his master; but Sir Robert, feeling that there was
no chance for either of them, except in prompt and indi-
vidual activity, exclaimed, " You cannot help me. Do the
best you can. I shall jump into the sea ; " and then he
took a strong leap to escape the eddy caused by the sink-
ing vessel, which he happily cleared. In the sea Sir
Robert got hold of something which he supposes to be the
bowsprit of the Sicilia, which was carried away at the mo-
ment of the collision. Then he got hold of a chain, and
finally of a piece of the wreck, to which he found three
other persons, one of whom he thinks was his old servant,
were clinging. In this position he remained, the sea
rolling heavily, for three quarters of an hour. One by our
his companions relaxed their grasp on the floating wreck
and dropped exhausted into the sea ; and at last he alone
remained, holding on till he was picked up by a boat
belonging to the vessel which had run them down. Till
that moment Sir Robert never lost consciousness or self-

command, but once on board the boat he sunk into a state
of insensibility, from which be was restored in the engine-
room of the Sicilia. Sir Robert says he heard the cries
of people in distress from the Ercolano before she sunk,
and he thinks that lives might have been saved if proper
means had been taken. Mr. Halsey and his family, and
many other passengers, he believes were below in the
cabins, in all probability asleep, at the time of the collision;
and the doubling up of the vessel would preventthem from
getting on deck. But Sir Robert thinks that if the Sicilia
had remained about the spot till daylight she might have
picked up some of the passengers who would probably
have been washed out and found clinging to the wreck.

THE WRECK OF A LARGE SHIT, which had gone to
pieces on the New Jersey coast during a terrible
north-easter, was announced in the previous intel-
ligence from the United States. Subsequent tidings
convey the particulars of this melancholy catastrophe,
which has resulted in the loss of probably more than
two hundred human beings. The unfortunate vessel
was the Poichattan, of Baltimore, filled with emi
grants from Havre, and bound to New York. She
struck on the bar of Long Beach on Saturday night,
the 15th ult., and was first discovered on Sunday
morning by Captain Jennings, wreck-master. Her
decks were thronged, and the sea was making a clear
breach over her : the waves, which were mountains
high, and the wind of fearful violence, twisted her
about in a frightful manner. By one wave only at
least a hundred persons were washed overboard. All
this was within 100 yards or a little more of the main
beach. Captain Meyers, commander of the Powhat-
tan, conversed with Captain Jennings with his speak-
ing-trumpet, and asked him to save as many of those
washed ashore as he could, but Captain Jennings
had to reply that they were all dead. A number of
men who had been sent to the Government station
some miles off, and across inlets, lagoons, d:c., did
not return with apparatus and a mortar until the next
morning ; and such was the severity of the storm
that two of them had well-nigh perished. At 7 p.m.
on Sunday the Pozrhattan's masts went by the board.
Instantly the hull broke to pieces, and all on board
were launched into eternity, leaving Captain Jennings
during the whole night a lonely watcher on the
beach, the dead bodies being continually rolled up by
the surf to his feet. Of all on board, the captain
included, not a soul was left alive to 'tell the tragic
tale. The vessel was about 900 tons burden, and it
is thought that there might have been about three
hundred persons, passengers and crew. At the last
accounts there had been nearly two hundred bodies
of men, women, and children washed ashore. At the
same time two large schooners went to pieces, and
all hands perished save one, who was resuscitated
with difficulty. Nearly one hundred bodies have also
been washed ashore on Absecom and Brigantine
beaches. And here is a mystery; for there were
few or no traces of any ship having been wrecked on
that part of the coast, though it is probable that a
vessel might have foundered in the gale. The bodies
were chiefly Germans and Scotch, judging from their
appearance.

SATURDAY,

sporting.

CHESTER RACES—TUESDAY.
The GROSVENOR STAKES of 10 soya each, with 40 added.
Mr. T. Parr's Rataplan (Haman ) 1
Captain 1). Lane's Epaminondas
Eight ran.
Betting: 5 to 2 against Rataplan, 4 to 1 against Epami-
nondas. Won cleverly by a length.
The PALATINE STAKES of 15 BOYS each, with 100 added;
three-year-old fillies.
Mr. J. M. Stanley's Mishap ( Charlton ) 1
Mr. Bailey's I.urley
Mr. R. Jones's Adelaide 3
The CHESTERFIELD STAKES, a handicap of 10 SOVS each,
with 100 added, for three-year-olds.
Mr. Mather's St. Clair (Carroll) 1
Lord Chesterfield's Communist 2
Lord Eglintou's Erycina 3
Fifteen ran. Won cleverly by half a length.
The MOSTYN STAKES of 10 soya each, with 100 added, for
two-year-olds.
Mr. T. Powell's Flatterer (Yates) 1
Mr. J. Osborne's Lord Alfred
Lord Chesterfield's br f by Epirus :1
Trojan
Warrior, following also ran: Saticebox, Gipsy King,
Warrior, Lily, Moor of Venice.
Betting : 7 to 4 on Flatterer, 6 to 1 against Lord Alfred
Won by a head.
SwEsesrAsies of b soya each, with 30 added.

Brother to King of Troy 1
Surgeon General
Uncleared
Seven ran.
The WYNNSTAT HANDICAP.

Domino
General
Won easily.
WEDNESDAY.

HELTER SKELTER HANDICAP Of 3 BOYS each, with 30
added.

Mr. W. K. Walker's Cimicina (Bearpark) 1
Mr. Taylor's Game Chicken 2
THIRD YEAR Of the SF.COND TRIENNIAL PRODUCE STAKES,
for four-year•olds.
Mr. T. Parr's Defiance (Flatman) w. o.
The TRADESMEN'S PLATE of 200 soya, added to a handicap
sweepstakes of 2) soya each. Two hundred and
fourteen subs.
Captain 1). Lane's Eparninondas (Fordham) 1
Mr. Morris's Indian Warrior
Lord Derby's Acrobat .. 3
MEMBERS' PLATE of HO guineas.
Mr. T. Parr's Defiance (Flatman) 1
Mr. Osborne's Helena..
Mr. Gibbs's Monimia 3
Betting: 5t02 on Defiance. Won by a neck.
SCRAMBLE HANDICAP.
Rridekirk
Jupiter
Five ran.
QUEEN'S PLATE.

Rataplan 1
Bourton
THURSDAY.
The DEE STAND Cur.
Mr. J. Osborne's Helena (J. Osborne) 1
Mr. Waller's Octavio. 2
Mr. J. Armstrong's Sabra
CHESHIRE WELTER Cur. Gentlemen riders.
Mr. Cornish's Captain Cornish ( Mr. J. H. Peart) 1
Mr. G. Hawkes'a Milk Boy (G. Whitehouse) 2
Mr. T. Bell's Lord Lieutenant (Captain Lane) 3
Betting : ti to 4 against Captain Cornish, 5 to '2 against
Lord Lieutenant. A fine close race from the distance
with the first two ended in favour of the Captain by a
head.

The DEE STAKES, for three-year-olds. Sizty-one subs.
Mr. Howard's Scythian ( Wells) 1
Mr. Osbaldeston's Champagne
Mr. Peck's Arthur Wellesley :1
Betting : 7 to 4 against Champagne, 2 to 1 against
Scythian, who won by a head.
FIRST YEAR Of the FOURTH TRIENNIAL PRODUCE STAKES,
for two-year-olds.
Mr. J. Osborne's Lord Alfred JL Osborne) w.

MARQUIS OF WESTMINSTER'S PLATE.
Lord Eglinton's Vanderdecken (G. Waddington)
Mr. Morris's Indian Warrior
Mr. Johnstone's The General
Eleven ran.
The SCURRY HANDICAP.
Mr. E. R. Clark's Dear Me (G. Waddington)
Lord Clifden's Anteverta
Nine others ran.
The SELLLNO STAKES.

Galantlms }llly
liridekirk

Six ran.
MATCH : 50 sovs.

Orpheus
Lord Hill
Won by a head.

Gmarn, a young well-sinker, who was buried by a
fall of earth at Ecully, on the 14th ult., was got out
alive on the 3rd inst., after nineteen days' inhuma-
tion, and in a state which inspires no alarm for his
life. There was never before an instance of a man
being saved after so long an imprisonment in the
bowels of the earth, and under such dreadful cir-
cumstances. The Empress, who had taken much
interest in the preservation of the man, has granted
him a pension of 600 f. a year.

MAY 13,1854.

ittraturt.

Supplement to Vacation Rambles. By T. N.

Talfourd. London: Moxon.
WE took up this volume with every desire to
be pleased. We knew Talfourd well. Who
was there that did not? And, in common
with the rest of the world, we esteemed him
for the many excellent qualities he undoubtedly
possessed. We were disposed to remember
rather the virtues or amiabilities of his cha-
racter than its weaknesses. The time has
scarcely yet arrived for a fair estimate of his
literary talents; and, as this book greatly re-
sembles his previous continental sketches, we
should, but for some passages in it, have dis-
missed it with due praise of the author's
appreciation of the pleasant and picturesque.
His observations on Sir William Follet, how-
ever, force us to inquire what were his quali-
fications for sitting in judgment on the most
eminent of his legal contemporaries. His
character of this distinguished lawyer is so
disparaging and so essentially unjust that it
would be unfair to allow it to be supposed
that the sagacity and candour of the critic
are above question.
Mr. Justice Talfourd was totally wanting in
those higher powers of intellect which would
have enabled him to understand and appre-
ciate a mind like Follett's. His mental, like
his physical, temperament was flaccid. He
had none of those strongly-marked peculiari-
ties which violently attract one class of men
and violently repel another. He had much
sensibility, but it had no deep root. The
fleshy form, the warmth of manner, the fluent,
bubbling speech, inclining to hysterical effort
when he became excited, were characteristic
of the man. He had been educated in the
" gushing, genial " school of Charles Lamb
and Leigh Hunt, and had the good fortune to
live to witness a very superior development of
it in Charles Dickens. He was strongest in
sentiment; but his sentiment was not of that
kind which, as in the case of Rousseau, wholly
possesses and masters a nature. In Talfourd
it was judiciously tempered with worldly pru-
dence, and found convenient expression in
rhetorical flourish. Generosity belongs to a
different order of being from his ; but he was
kindly, and meant to be just. He.was very
willing to do good—very unwilling to do harm ;
still life has it necessities, and the path which
a sergeant-at-law has to tread is not free from
sinuosities and thorns.

Luckily for his reputation he was affection-
ately regarded by a large body of friends, to
whom the chance of the day committed a great
share of the power of directing public opinion
through the press. That he well merited this
personal attachment every one must allow, but
it is a mischievous error of criticism which
confounds personal traits with intellectual
merit, and turns " troops of friends " into co-
teries of flatterers. His works are full of
prettiness, but we look in them in vain for
any evidence of power. We recognise great
cultivation, great industry, great fluency, con-
siderable art, but no originality. In his prose
works, and particularly in these " Rambles,"
his descriptions are smooth, but not graphic.
The ut picturapoesis is nowhere to be found,
and there is in them a vein—becoming too
prevalent in our literature—of bringing the
writer, his associates, connections, and friends
always before the eye. It is well known that
he formed an extravagantly high opinion of
his own productions, and that he was induced
to rank literary success much above legal emi-
nence.

The notice of Follett is suggested by an
entry of his name in the innkeeper's book at
Naples, mid as the record is read there occurs
a reflection on " the desolation of his rayless
" grave." When Follett was in his last illness,
honours such as no mere lawyer had ever re-
ceived before were lavished on him. A frigate
was placed at his disposal to bring him home
from Naples ; the Queen was constant in in-
quiries after his health ; he tendered his resig-
nation of the office of Attorney-General, but,
although he had been incapable of discharging
its duties for more than a year before his death,
the Prime Minister refused to accept his resig.