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

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civil engineer, writing to the Times this week, thinks
that coal may be found at a depth of 2,800 feet under
Highgate—almost too deep for profitable working—
but expresses a strong belief that coal will be found
at Horsham only 1,700 feet below the surface. "Post
the Coal," another correspondent, comments upon Mr.
Burnell's letter, and frankly admits that he has
discovered coal close to London. " I did not,"
he writes, "begin, like the learned geologists men-
tioned by Mr. Burnell, by looking for coal through a
probable 1,800 feet of sandstone, new or old, but
went to a valley where an old watercourse—in a4es
gone a river, now a mere brook—had cut through all
sandstone for me—where I bad to clap my hand only
under a surface peat to bring out first fine unctuous
clay, then a green mixed clay and sand, then blue
clay ; this leads down to the 'jacket' and the shale.
My coal discovery lies within 2(X) feet of the surface,
if not nearer. It is, however, not under London, nor
even at Blackheath or Hampstead, where fond tradi-
tion still clings to its possibility. lam a practical
man, and I can assure your correspondent that I do
not intend to make any mystery about it, but hope
soon to have it in my power to give public proof of
it to a general assemblage of reporters round the
pit's mouth."

A DISPUTE has arisen between the Commission o
Sewers and the New River Company as regards the
supply of water for public purposes. Mr. Haywood,
the engineer, has reported to the commission :
That for many years the New River Company has
afforded water gratuitously for public purposes; that in
the belief that it would continne to be gratuitously given,
the commission has arranged the means of cleansing the
sewers, ifcc., and that this was done with the full knowledge
of and with the cooperation of the company.
In consideration of these things the commission has
remitted rates levied on the pipage of the company,
and has made other concessions. The New River
Company now gives notice of its intention to be paid
in future years at the rate of 6d. a thousand gallons
for all the water that might be required for public
purposes, that rate of charge being the highest
which by its act it can make, and the same as the
charge to brewers and large consumers, who it may
be assumed make profit by the use of the water they
buy. The commission must at present depend upon
the New River Company alone for the water needed,
as no other company has pipage within the City. The
engineer recommends that the question should be
speedily settled.

SIR Cur.wr. EARDLEY this week, in a letter to Os
Times, defends continental Protestantism from the
charge that it is a religion founded on the exclusion
of the Bible. As chairman of the Evangelical Al-
liance, the first article of which association recognises
" the Divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency or
the Holy Scriptures," he forwards a letter from the
Prelate Kappff of Stuttgardt, announcing that, at a
conference of 160 ministers held at Stattgardt on the
Ist Oct., 152 -toted in favour of the Evangelical
Alliance. Prelate Hapff observes :
I had scarcely ventured to hope that so many of my
Wurtembnrg brethren would have shown themselves so
favorable to the Alliance. It was put to the vote twice,
and this result fills me with gratitude to God, and this
favorable disposition of my countrymen towards the Evan-
gelical Alliance is the more important inasmuch as we
belong to a Lutheran Church, and faithfully adhere to the
Augsburg Confession. But in Wurtemburg we are almost
unanimously of opinion that, however decided we may be
in matters of belief and ecclesiastical confessions, we must
be large-hearted enough to embrace with true Christian
love all true Christians, in whatever Church they may be
found With regard to the Church of Wurtemburg,
have remarked, both from ancient as well as later times,
that the closer her members were united with Christ the
more powerfully were they driven by the Spirit of the Lord
to adopt, as a vital article of our faith, " the communion of
saints." While all other countries of Germany have had
to contend with rationalism, there have flourished in War
temburg nearly 1,000 associations of vital Christians,
which every town and almost every village has one or more
There are societies of Christians numbering 20, 40, On, 100..
These associations, which contain about 50,000 members,.
are for the most part in favour of the union of all true
Christians, and a narrow mindedness as it is to be found
among the strict old Lutherans would never appear among
them.

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THE INCREASE OF CRIXE, from drunkenness and
ignorance, is alluded to by the Chaplain of Manches-
ter Gaol in his annual report. He writes :
Last year, out of 2.114 individuals committed, there itre
1,149, or more than half, set down as'` idle and drunken."
Out of 2,114 individuals committed in the course of the
year, 1,319 could not read, and 522 oould read imperfect] y
—in fact, only reading by a painful and laborious effort—
so that it turns up that there are nearly 2,000 out of 2.114
persons the majority of whom could not read at all, and
the minority hardly. lam aware that this doesnot account
altogether for crime. I know that there are many honest
workmen who cannot read or write ; but, to say the least,
in the absence, it may be of daily work or a comfortable
home, or the little resources of a book or a paper to while
away an hour or two before bedtime, there is a great tempta-
tion to the illiterate to throw himself into the beerhouse for
companionship and talk.

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