The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

Volittral.

SIR GEORGE GREYS CORPORATION REFORM BILL
was the subject of an animated debate in a Court of
Common Hall, held on Tuesday, under the presi-
dency of the L'rd Mayer. Mr. J. Laurence charac•
terised the bill as only another measure of that great
system of centralisation which threatened to de-
stroy the liberties of the people, to deprive them of
the power and the right of managing their own
affairs, and to absorb in the central power that which
had hitherto remained in the local institutions of the
country. Mr. Laurence concluded by proposing the
following resolution :
That the bill lately introduced into the House of
Commons purporting to be for the better regulation of the
corporation of the city of London, although professing to
abolish such customs and privileges as injuriously affect
trade, ignores the wnole body of the livery, 4 destructive
of its priv.leges, extinguishes its municipal 'listener, and
is otherwise subversive of the ancient rights, properties,
and liberties of the corporation, and that this common hall
determines to give the moat earnest opposition to the
passing of such bill.
Mr. Finden seconded the resolution. Mr. F. Ihn-
noch proposed, as an amendment :
That the bill lately introduced into the House of Com-
mons for the better regulation of the corporation of the
city of London is wise and moderate, and this common
hall determines to give its most earnest support to secure
the passing of such bill.
Mr. BaPeman ,seconded the amendment. Amidst
much noise and confusion Mr. Bennoch denied that
the bill destroyed any single privilege of the livery.
It might destroy the corporation, but it was salvation
to the livery. The way in which the corporation
managed the revenue of the City was unseemly, in-
decent, and extravagant :

The city of London had a population of 129,000. How
much money did they suppose was expended in the admi-
nistration of the affairs of the corporation itself? It cost
the taxpayers, through the corporation, 114.030/. in the
mere administration. The revenue of London was rather
under 400,0101., and it cost those who lived in London,
and paid taxes, 114,0001. to administer that sum of money.
In Liverpool, with a population of 37 1,000, a fund was
annually administered of close upon 600,0001., the cost of
the administration being under 30,0001. In Manchester,
which had a population of 320,000,a revenue was expended
of 485,00111., the cost of the administration being 8,7501.
He wanted to know whether some portion of the 114,000/.
expended by the corporation might not as well be saved,
and asked whether it was their desire to get rid of so
large a sum as that for doing what could be better done for
20,0001.
Mr. Alderman Sydney said the bill abroga•ed the
rights of the livery, and he should most fervently
support the original motion. The amendment was
then put anti lost, and the original motion carried
almost unanimously. Other resolutions against Sir
George Grey's bill were pr and passed, and a
petition t • Parliament in ac. ordance with the resolu-
tions agreed upon and drawn up for presentation by
Mr. M 113 Lerman.

gittropolitan.

369

THE AMERICAN MINISTER AT
THE MANSION-HOUSE.

HIS EXCELLENCY MR. DALLAS, the new American
Minister, was entertained by the Lord Mayor, at a,
grand banquet, at the Mansion-house, on Thursday
evening. The Lord Mayor in a complimentary
speech proposed the health of the guest of the eve-
ning, Mr. Dallas, who, on rising, was received with
such enthusiastic cheers that, in his acknowledgment
of so warm a reception, he expressed himself as
" almost bankrupt in the language of thanks." With
reference to the result of the questions now pending
between this country and the United States, Mr.
Dallas observed :

There are some objects on which it would be ill-timed,
and more enterprising than wise, for me to touch on this
occasion and in this presence. Indeed, my arrival is so
recent that I scarcely can pretend to know the subjects
which would be most acceptable to you. 1 dare say, how-
ever, I should incur but little hazard if I venture, accord-
ing to a provincialism natural to a Western tongue, to
" guess " that the spirit and purpose of a new corner may
have excited at least some little curiosity. Well, my lord,
let me say that I am not authorised to feel, and do not
feel, any desire other than that of giving my exertions and
energies unreservedly to the restoration of the moat har-
monious sentiments and friendly relations. Animated by
this spirit, and aiming at such a purpose, if I fail—and
may fail—it will be because of some inexorable, overruling
State policy, or some foregone conclusion not to he undone
by uniform, steady, persevering, frank, and honourable con-
ciliat ion.

Lord Stanley, M.P., in acknowledging the toast of
the " House of Lo. ds," said :
I rise with great pleasure to return thanks for one
branch of the Legislature, though not that branch with
hich lam actually and at present connected. My Lord
Mayor has spoken in terms of courtesy of the House of
Lords. On behalf of that body I would say that institn-
tions do not form the national character, but follow it ;
that the training of au English gentleman is the same,
whether he happens to be a member of the peerage or no ;
and that thus, among those who set as legislators by prescrip-
tive hereditary right, there are not a few who are in feeling,
and in fact, though not in law, representatives of the
people. My lord, it is a bold thing to act as spokesman
for the Legislature ; but there is one ides which at this
moment predominates in all our minds, and on that sub-
jectl believe I may speak the sense, the unanimous sense,
not only of those who make the law, but of those for whom
laws are made. I thank you, my Lord Mayor, for having
given us an opportunity of expressing here the deep, the
earnest, the almost passionate desire which prevails
among intelligent Englishmen that, be the changes and
chances of political events, what they may, England
may reta'n inviolate that alliance and that friendship
of which we have present amongst as the living
representative—an alliance formed, not by men, but
by nature—an alliance whose duration rests, not on
the precarious life of any single ruler, but on the im-
perishable existence of two mighty nations—analliance

which depends, not on fluctuating considerations of
political expediency, but on common blood, common
language, common laws, common energies, common aspire.
tions—even, if we must confess it, on that remarkable
family likeness which may be traced between the two na-
tions in regard of their faults and failings. England
separately, America separately, are great powers ; united,
they constitute the hope of mankind and the future of the
world. It is mere matter of computation—supposing each
people to advance at its present ate—that, within a cew
ttiry from this date, the earth will be inhabited by 300
millions of the Anglo-salon race—a race the most ener-
getic that ever tilled its soil. I say, then, that on the cor-
dial union of that vast multitude of our descendants the
human family must rely for the advent of that future to
which far-sighted men look forward—which rood and
earnest men would even give their lives to hasten—which
bad and dishonest men, we may be sure, will do their ut-
most to retard : a future of weliordered freedom and tem-
perate progress : a future in which the knowledge of men
shall be widened, their power over nature augmented, sod
their material sufferings lessened by an increased com-
mand of the appliances of civilisation. It .s in the bands
of England and America to accomplish that result ; it is in
- _ . _
•- here—sod, if
Parliament—
the - in-
' to
of

their hands alone ; and feeling that, I say
need were, I would repeat it in my place in .
whoever utters one word, does one act, hostile to
terests of America. proves himself by that word or act
be the enemy of England. My lord, I have said Hide
those whom I rose to represent. This excuse, at hut, I
have—that the words which I have uttered woi Id, I
believe, be echoed by every member of the HoLoe of
Lords.

POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH

AUSTRALIA.

AN important public meeting was held on MI miser
at the London Tavern, for the purpose of detrimint-
in.; on the best steps to be adopted to insure the
immediate re establishment of our postal atean re-
lations with Australia. The Lord Mayor etc% ied
the chair. There were also present the Earl al'

370

Hardwicke, Lord Stanley, M.P., Mr. her Seymer,
M.P., Mr. .italins, M.P., Mr. J. Macgregor, M.P., Mr.
Wentworth, late member of the House of Legisla-
ture, New South Wales, and other gentlemen con-
nected with the Australian colonies.

The LORD MAYOR opened the proceedings, and in-
troduced

Mr. WENTWORTH, who said he had passed the greater
part of his life in Australia, and he could conscien-
tioously say that there was but one feeling of indigna-
tion and disgust in reference to this question preva-
lent from one end of the Australian colonies to the
other :

Steam communication was officially promised to the
colonies in 1148. and that promise, tardily made, was
reluctantly fulfilled in 1852—six years afterwards; and
then. in-tead of giving the service to one competent public
company, it was split into two parts, and the one assigned
to the General Screw Company, and the other to the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, and both of which
failed to do the service under sixty-four and eighty-four
days. At the breaking out of the war it was decided to
carry on the steam communication with China twice a
month, and to drop the Australian service altogether.
Since that time they had had what was called a clipper
line, one of which clippers had been out 110 days ; so that,
bad as the postal communication was carried on by the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, it was certainly better
than it was under the clipper service, for those clippers
had been 81i days on an average in going out, and 931 days
on an average in coming home.

The Treasury minute now proposed, instead of the
immediate renewal of postal steam communication,
a reference to the colonies, in order to ascertain the
exact amount of money each colony was willing to
contribute to the cost of a postal steam line—a delay
he considered vexatious in the extreme. As to the
shortest route he was satisfied that it was that via Suez
and the Indian Ocean. Mr. Wentworth then moved
a resolution to the effect " that while the long con-
tinued interruption of all postal steam intercourse
with the Australian colonies had been productive of
serious discontent and detriment to them, it had
been in a still greater degree injurious to the com-
merce and finances of the United Kingdom.
Mr. RIVENSHAWE seconded the resolution.
Carded unanimously.

The Earl of HMI DWICKE for the present
would prefer that the route from Men to King
George's Sound should be rather by the Mauritius
than by Diego Garcia, until a lighthouse was erected
on that island. He concluded by moving that it was
impoi,ant that immediate steps should be taken to
re-estaolish a postal communication with the Austra-
lian colonies suited to their vast commerce and
growing importance.
Mr. KFR SEYMER, M.P., seconded the resolution,
and remarked that a meeting like the present was a
fit lever to overcome the via inertia of Government.
Agreed to.

Lord STANLEY said that nothing but a conviction
of the culpable carelessness of those in power in a
matter de •ply affecting the interests of an important
portion of the empire would have induced him to
appear in the matter. The complaints now made by
the colonists anti by people at home were threefold—
first, that the steam communication between the
colony arid the mother country was superseded with-
out necessity .

He would not ask how many steamers were lying idle in
the harbours of Btiliklava and Constantinople when the
suppression of this postal communication with Australia
took place. At that time the Duke of Newcastle—and lie
wished to speak of him with all courtesy as a gentleman
eminently fitted for private life—was in office; and it was
rather remarkable that at that time when every order that
emanated from that department of the public service went
to the wrong Jerson or the wrong place, and when every
a -t was either left undone, or, if done, was done sir nq nth 4
a'ter it was directed to be put in force, the one act th t,
*at well and effectually done was that of stopping toe
Aus r liin postal service.

They next complained that, communication having
been interrupted, no rains were taken to re-
store it. In a moment of emergency the Government
might require the service of every steam-vessel on
which they could lay their hands :
But no single step was taken for replacing that
which in a moment of temporary exigency they
had taken away ; a fact which could only be
explained by a reference to that inveterate habit of poll-
ticians of the old school of giving a disproportionate share
of attention to questions affecting foreign Courts or ques-
tions of diplomacy, and overlooking the more important
interests of the British colonies.

The third complaint was that, when restoration
waq propose], the boon was clogged with an unpre•
cedenten condition :

He was not going to pledge himself to any opinion with
reference to the question of subsidy. He would only ob-
serve that if England and Australia obtained a mutual
benefit in this matter it was only fair that the colonies
should pay their share of the expense. But the hardship
was that the colonies had shown they were prepared to
/fly 73.00:11.—that sum was available for the purposes of
th communication—and it behoved the Government at
on .e to declare they would enter into a temporary arran.:e•
moot to carry out the great object, leaving the permanent
arrangement to be settled at a future time. But in the

THE PRESS,

Colonial Department of the Government those in power
were too apt to treat the affairs of the colonies as if they
were negotiating with hostile or at least neutral parties,
and not with friends.

The noble lord concluded by moving a resolution to
the effect that it appeared to the meeting that, pro-
vided the usual postal speed of tea knots, or
nautical miles, per hour be adhered to, the trans-
mission of letters to Australia may easily be effected
in forty-four days.
Mr. HARRY GORDON seconded the resolution,
which was carried unanimously.
A petition to the house was then agreed upon, and
the meeting separated.

THE ADMISSION OF JEWS TO PARLIAMENT, and the
disendowinent of all religious sects in Ireland, were
considered at a public meeting, held on Thurs•
day evening, at Myddelton-hall, Islington. There
w.ts a large attendance. Mr. James Ball, M.P.,
who presided, having opened the proceedings,
a resolution, pledging the meeting to support
Mr. Milner Gibson's Abjuration Bill, was pro.
posed by Mr. Williams and unanimou,ly adopted.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Massie, supported by
the Rev. Basil Cooper, a petition to Parliament was
adopted in support of Mr. Nliall's motion for a con.
sideration of the temporalities of the Irish Church,
and of the pecuniary provisions for religious teaching
and worship in Ireland. The Rev. Basil H. Cooper,
Mr. Carvell Williams, Mr. R. S. Braden, and Mr.
Riddell, were then appointed delegates to attend the
triennial conference of the Liberation of Religion So-
ciety, after which the proceedings terminated.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE DISPLAY OF PEACE FIRE-
WORKS IN HYDE AND THE GREEN PARKS are com-
pleted. In Hyde park the site selecttd is the high
ground near the magazine guardhouse, the front
of the building facing towards Park-lane ; in the
Green park the building has been placed contiguous
to the site of the old reservoir, fronting to Bucking-
ham-palace. A considerable space of ground has
also been inclosed to keep the public out of danger.
Upwards of 500,000 pieces of fireworks will be dis•
played in each park. There will also be balloon
ascents.

AT THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF
ARTS, on Wednesday night, Colonel Sykes in the
chair, a paper was read by Mr. F. Bennoch on
"Thread ur Fibre Gilding," in which the processes
employed in the manutacture of gilt wire, and its
application to the plating of silk or cotton threads,
and the formation of gold tissues, were described in
detail. After a concise sketch of the simple manual
methods used in India from a very remote period in
the preparation of gold thread, Mr. Bennoch pro-
ceeded to describe, in greater detail, their later
developments in the more refined mechanical pro•
cesses at present employed in Great Britain ; illus-
trating his remarks, in many instances, by th,: actual
exhibition of the wire in its different states of pro-
gress, from the rough lump of unrefined silver to the
almost callillary gilt thread, and the richly finished
artic:e of apparel. In conclusion, he expressed his
opinion that some form of electro-gilding would soon
supersede the tedious and complex processes at
present in use.

THE ANNUAL FESTIVALS of the various charitable
societies have been held during the week. The
Sestnan's Hospital Society held its thirty - fifth
anniversary on board the Dreadnought, last Saturday.
Sir Charles Wood presided, and stated that the
Admiralty were about to replace the Dreadnought
as a hospital - ship by a three•decker, H.M.S.
Camperdown, in order to afford greater accomodation
for seamen.—'t'he Turkish Missions Aid Society held
its second annual meeting on Monday, at Willis's•rooms.
The Earl of Shaftesbury took the chair, and explained
that the present mission proposed to work through
the agency of the American one, which bad already
established numerous churches and schools near
Constantinople and converted between six and
eight thousand Turks to Christianity. Dr. Sandwith
of Kars also addressed the meeting, and insisted
that the only regeneration for the Turk was through
Christianity.—The Royal Humane Society and the
Orphan Schools have also held their annual festivals,
under highly satisfactory circumstances.
THE HACKNEY CARRIAGE PROPRIETORS have
decided upon starting their cabs as metropolitan
stage carriages. A better return upon their invested
capital is anticipated.

A BAZAAR under distinguished patronage will be
held at Willis's-rooms, on the 15 h and 16th May,
in aid of the funds of the Royal Naval Female
School, at Richmond, Surrey. The Duchess of
Northumberland, Lady Colchester, &c. dec., have-con-
sented to hold stalls.

A NEW PICTURE BY MANTEGNA of "The Virgin
and Child," has been added to the National Gallery.
There is, we believe, no doubt of the authenticity of
this picture. The Turner pictures, now the property
of the nation, will soon be made over to the trustees
of the National Gallery; but until the new building
at Brompton is concluded we may not hope to see
even a selection exhibited,

~=

SATURDAY,

SIR RODERIDK MURCHISON'S annual geological
report has been published. It appears that, in the
why of geological survey, the total fieldwork executed
during the past year extends over nearly 1,700 square
miles of Great Britain. In the ensuing year it is
expected that the mapping of the southern districts
of Hants and Sussex will he concluded, and that
:.hen the survey of the London basin will be com-
menced. The present drain upon the coal-fields of
the country is set down as above 54,000,000 tons a
year. Some interesting experiments relate to the
analysis of certain ancient bells—such as those of
York Minster and Lincoln—with a view to ascertain
the best composition of metals to be employed for the
great bell of the new Houses of Parliament.
A DEPUTATION OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
had an interview with Mr. Bouverie, on Tuesday, for
the purpose of pressing on the attention of the Go.
vernment the necessity of qualifying the female
inmates of workhouses to attend upon the sick
during epidemics. Mr. Bouverie admitted the impor
Lance of the subject, and promised as soon as he had
collected Liformation on the point to communicate
with the society.

THE REGISTRAR- GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week
show 1,115 deaths and 1,684 births. The rate of
mortality, allowing for the increased population, is
less by seventy-two than the average for the last ten
years.

NUMEROUS FIRES have occurred in the metropolis
this week. Among the principal may be mentioned,
first, the entire destruction on Sunday evening
of the Vauxhall railway-station. The fire broke
out about eight o'clock, while passengers were
in the act of booking themselves for a down train,
and spread with such rapidity that in a few
minutes it had crossed the line and caught the
down station. In little more than an hour the
whole station was burnt to the ground. Two trains
passed through while the station was burning, but
the remainder were shunted off to the Nine Elms
station. The permanent, way was cleared for traffic
by Monday morning. On Tuesday a tremendous
fire broke out on a tallow•chandler's premises at 55,
Albany-street, Regent's-park, completely destroyed
the house, and severely injured the houses imme-
diately contiguous ; and on the same day a fire broke
out in the Lavender Dock, Rotherhithe, and de-
stroyed a whole range of buildings used as a pitch and
sailcloth stores before it was subdued.

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