The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

business in France ; but during the Reign of Terror he, in
common with many others, quitted it, and took refuge in
this country. In this country he subsequently attracted
the attention of the royal family, and was soon afterwards
taken into the royal household. His son, by early
pursuits, in consequence of his great proficiency in the
Italian language. was taken into a house in the City, and
his studies might offer an example to the young men
of the present day, and prove to them the advantages
of becoming early acquainted with the modern lan-
guages. He pursued his business for twenty nine years,
when he was selected to preside over a large banking
corporation, and he now stood on the footing of one of the
tirst citizens of London. Besides his occupation in busi-
ness he devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture
on a limited estate, where once a year he invited men of
talent and skill to witness the combined results of capital
and science.

The Lord Chief Baron, in reply, alluded to the
abolition of the office of Cursitor Baron, whose duty
it was to receive the sheriffs :

The act of Parliament had passed too recently to enable
him to make any communication to the authorities of the
city of London as to the arrangements for a substitution of
the proceedings of that day. Finding that an act of Parlia-
ment was passed, and that there was no time to substitute
any other method, or obtain the opinion of the authorities
of the city of London, it appeared to him to be nothing but
en act of proper respect to the corporation of London that
he should himself personally appear, and perform in that
place the office of the lamented Cursitor Baron. He would
take that opportunity of saying that whenever the city of
London required his services in any way he should be
always ready to render them, for he had never spared any
opportunity of showing that the city of London was well
entitled to them.

In the evening the usual turtle dinner took place
at the London Tavern. The Lord Chief Baron, in
proposing the health of the sheriffs, said :

He trusted that Mr. Mechi would continue to exercise
that energy which he so eminently possessed, and con-
tinue in the orbit in which he was at present moving. He
was glad to see any gentleman of enterprise and skill, and
ability and means, direct his attention to the improvement
of agriculture—a theatre whereon perhaps more remained
to be done than upon any of the arenas of practical
improvement in the whole round of science. If, however,
Mr. Mechi intended to give many such dinners as the
present, he would recommend him to direct his attention
to the catching of turtle by steam, the hauling in of
fish by a stroke of electricity, the feeding of cattle, the
collecting of crops, and the chasing red deer by an express-
train. Whatever direction his labours might take,
there could be no doubt that they would be for the good of
mankind.

THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE Com-
menced their winter session on Tuesday. Inaugural
lectures were delivered at Guy's Hospital school by
Mr. T. Bell, F.R.S.; at the London Hospital, by Mr.
Bentley; at Charing-cross Hospital, by Mr. Chowne;
at Westminster Hospital, by Dr. Fincham ; at St.
Mary's, Paddington, by Dr. T. K. Chambers,
F.R.C.P. ; and at the Grosvenor-place school, by Mr.
I'. Spencer Wells, F.R.C.S.
A YOUNG WOMAN, one Emma Garland, threw her-
self off Southwark-bridge on Saturday morning, and
a Mr. Parker did the same thing on Monday. Both
were drowned. One of the moneytakers of the
river boats also drowned himself last week.
A CoLusioN occurred on the North Kent line cn
Monday, near Charlton. A coal train on the down
line was run into by the eleven a.m. passenger train.
Several persons were severely injured. Colonel Tul-
loch, of the Arsenal, was much bruised and shaken.
ONE OF THE LABOURERS employed on Saturday in
repairing the roof of Messrs. Freemantle, Tilney•
street, Park-lane, fell over the parapet, struck his
head against a window-sill, and spiked himself on
five railings. The poor fellow died in a few minutes.
EXPERIMENTAL HANGING is dangerous. A boy
aged eighteen, one Birt, in the service of Mr. Sutton,
21, Halfmoon-street, in the habit of indulging in this
practice, tried it for the last time on Saturday; the
knot slipped from his chin under the ear, and suf-
focated him in a moment.
A PLAN FOR THE PURIFICATION OF THE THAMES
was submitted on Wednesday to the Board of Works
by Mr. J. R. M'Lea, civil engineer. His proposition
was, to do away with the main drainage sewers and
reservoirs on both sides of the Thames, and to con

struct a conduit capable of conveying the whole sew-
age of the metropolis from the pumping station at
West Ham, passing through the agricultural dis-
tricts of Essex to a point on the seashore between
the estuaries of the Crouch and the Blackwater, this
conduit to be made available for the purposes of
sewage irrigation throughout its entire length, until
it reached the German Ocean. The sewage of the
whole of the southern district might be collected at
a pumping station near Southwark•bridge, and be
carried by means of pipes (2 feet 6 inches in diame-
ter) over the river to the Aldgate sewer, through
which it would flow to the proposed main conduit.
The expenditure for this work from West Ham to
the outfall would not exceed 1,600,0001.
THE Baum, 01 LONDON formally resigned on
Wednesday last.
THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week
show a small increase in the mortality-1,106 deaths
against 1,535 births being registered.

SATURDAY,

Vrobincial.

A POWDER Mum at Mansfield, near Lewes, blew
up yesterday week, and killed one workman. Fortu-
nately the rest were away at breakfast.

THE HEAVY S.E. GALE OF SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
NIGHT last proved very destructive to the shipping
in the Channel. Several vessels have been totally
wrecked. The Ida steamer, outward bound for
Sierra Leone, was driven on shore to the eastward of
Dungeness on Sunday morning, but happily the
passengers and crew, with the exception of one life,
were saved. At Dover the railway works for some
fifty yards were washed away. On the Cornwall
coast several wrecks occurred. The gale was also
severely felt in the Irish Channel and on the coast
of Scotland.

A FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM is about to be
erected at Liverpool. About two years ago Mr. W.
Brown, M.P. for South Lancashire, made the libcral
offer to the corporation of Liverpool of 6,0001.
towards the erection of a suitable building for the
Liverpool Free Library and Museum, on the con-
dition that they provided a suitable site, and took
measures for obtaining sufficient funds to complete
the structure. The council soon afterwards inti-
mated that upwards of 2,000 yards of land on Shaw-
brow, near St. George's-hall, should be devoted to
this purpose ; and they subsequently obtained powers
to borrow 20,0001. for the completion of the building.
It was then resolved to advertise for designs, plans,
and specifications, a premium of 150 guineas to be
given to the successful competitor, and 100 guineas
to the second best design. The number of designs
sent in was no less than 115, and the Library and
Museum Committee on Wednesday, at the meeting
of the town council, recommended that the first
prize be given to the architect signing himself " Con
Amore," and the second to the competitor whose
drawings bear the name of " Alma." Who these
gentlemen are will not be disclosed until the council
have made the final selection. " Con Amore's"
design is a splendid specimen of classic style, and
will not suffer by comparison with St. George's hall.
Miss NIGHTINGALE replied lately to an address of
congratulation on her return home, voted by the
inhabitants of Christchurch at a public meeting, and
forwarded by the mayor :

I wish (she observes in her reply) it were in the power
of words of mine to express the grateful pleasure with
which I have received the mark of your sympathy with
the recent labours of my companions and myself. Little
as I am able to say what I feel, I yet greatly regret that
my absence from the home where your kind communica•
tion was addressed has caused so long a interval to elapse
befure I could return the acknowledgment which I now
beg you to accept, and to convey to the gentlemen whom
you represent. To know, while engaged in a distant land,
that there was for us an intelligent sympathy at home, was
our most cheering support under many difficulties. To
receive this feeling of expression of it on our return
cannot but greatly enhance to all of us the happiness of
home.

FIVE MEN were killed last Friday while descend-
ing a vat full cf carbonic acid gas, in the Worcester
distillery, Worcester. The men went down into
the vat one after the other, and were each suffocated
as they descended, and fell to the bottom ; when they
were taken out they were quite dead. An inquiry
was held, and a verdict of " Accidental death " re-
turned. A subscription is being raised for the families
of the deceased.

THE DANGER of purchasing wine-bottles second
hand was shown last week at Woodham, near
Chelmsford. An inhabitant of the place, one Lynn,
some two years since, purchased some wine-bottles,
filling them with home-made wine. Last week he
treated his friends to some of this wine. They all
became ill and sick at night, and Lynn himself died
in a few days. One of the empty bottles was ex-
amined and found to contain the sediment of an
arsenical preparation for a sheep wash.
THE BRYN MLLLY MINES near Wrexham were
flooded on Wednesday, and upwards of twenty men
drowned.