The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-10 00:00:00

Vrobintial.

SIR JOHN PAIIINGTON, as Chairman of the Worces-
ter Quarter Sessions, in his address to the grand
jury this week, referring to the increase of the local
police and of local crime, said he thought it an error
to attribute this increase of clime to the ticket of-
leave system. It was not the system but the errors
of its practice to be condemned. Remission of sen-
tences had been too indiscriminately granted. So
far as transportation was concerned, he doubted
whether it was possible to readopt it to such an extent
as formerly. The question at issue was really
whether our great criminals should be discharged
at home. The whole theory and practice of our
criminal law (concluded Sir John Pakington) must
have a thorough revision with the view to their
speedy alteration.

A COOPERATIVE COTTON-MILT. was opened at
Rippenden on Saturday last. The mill, a spacious
six-storeyed building, is the property of 170 share•
holders (chiefly operatives), holding 300 shares, at
10/. per share. It is intended to run it on the co-
operative principle. The engine and boiler are
already set up, and the remainder of the machinery
will be added in the course of this and next month.

LocAL BOARDS OF HEALTH have proved quite a
plague to some provincial towns. At Rotherham
and Worksop, for instance, the boards, in their zeal
to drain and water the towns, largely exceeded their
borrowing powers, trusting to obtain from Parlia-
ment increased powers. In this they were disap-
pointed, and so the Rotherham board, after boirow-
ing and expending 40,0001. on the works of the
town, has been sold up, and all the water and
drainage works of the town are now held by indignant
creditors. At Worksop the board have suffered a
seizure of their offices and furniture.
A MYSTERIOUS MURDER was committed last week
at Merthyr, in the house of the coroner, Mr. Morgan,
who, on his return home, one evening last week,
found his housekeeper cruelly murdered lying in the
kitchen. The woman's husband has been arrested
on suspicion.

THE Tomas OF WALLER .iND &awl: being in the
church at Beacoir-field, will probably prove an effi-
cient aid to the Rev. John Gould, the rector, who
has made an appeal in behalf of the sacred edifice,
now in a most dilapidated condition. A committee
has been formed for the purpose of collecting funds
to restore the church and preserve the tombs of the
illustrious dead.

A MANCHESTER CATTLE DEALER, one Mr. Sutcliffe,
last week lost a bag containing upwards of 3,0001. in
bills and money. The bag was picked up by a young
woman, who gave it to her lover to take car 6 of. lie
found out the right owner and returned it to him.
Mr. Sutcliffe, it is reported, " rewarded " tl.e young
man with three sovereigns, and the young wo man
with 10s.

SIXTY TONS OF PIG IRON were recently used at
single casting of engine bottoms, by Mr. Neilson, of
Glasgow. The Glasgow Herald, commenting on this
great feat, observes :

Let our readers imagine this mass of iron thrown into
the mould, sixty tons in all, pouring in a torrent which is
exhausted in one minute furty-tive seconds, and they will
have sielie idea of a work which all the ironworkers in
England refused, the like of which none of the ironmasters
in England ever saw, aul which was accomplished under
the superintendence of Mr. John Neilson, ou Tuesday,
December 30, 1810.

Messrs. Grissell has since written to the Times deny-
ing this statement, and adding :
The Glavow Herald knows nothing of English iron-
workers of English ironinasters. We could easily had
him fifty workers and masters who would make but a
light question of the task Mr. Neilson has no doubt so
ably performed; and that, among many others, it was not
refused by, because not offered to, Yours very respectfully,
H. AND M. D. GRISSELL.

A BED OF MARINE FOSEILS was discovered the
other day on the farm of Mr. Greaves, of Tingewick,
Bucks. Mr. Stowe, surgeon, of Buckingham, exam-
ined a great number of them, and ;pronounced
them to be marine vegetables, fungi, and algte, and
fitci, which had either grown where they were found,
or had been washed out of the Chiltern chalk range,