The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

Vo!Hun!.

A CABINET CouNcm was held on Saturday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury
in Downing•street. The Ministers present were
Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl
Granville, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of
Harrowby, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Clarenden,
Mr. Secretary Laboueliere, Lord Panmure, the Chan-
eellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, the
Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley of
Alderley, the Duke of Argyll, and the Right Hon.
M. I'. Baines.

A BALLOT MEETING was held in the Free-trade
Hall at Manchester on Wednesday evening to sup-
port Mr. Berkeley's motion for the ballot. Mr. George
Wilson was in the chair, and the meeting was ad-
dressed by the Hnn. F. H. Berkeley, M.P., Mr.
Nicholson, from Melbourne, Mr. Whitehurst, of
London, Mr. Archibald Prentice, and others.

THE HUDSON'S BAY HOUSE OF COMMONS COM-
MITTEE has sat during the week. Colonel Lefroy,
Dr. Rae, and Sir James Simpson have been the
witnesses examined. They all admit that a vast
amount of rich land capable of cultivation does exist,
but that from the uncertainty of the climate, the
severity of winter, and the brevity and heat of the
summer, the crops were scanty. They were of
opinion, also, that to preserve the fur trade it must
remain a monopoly, for, it the trade were open,
tral pers would kill the finer animals at all seasons
and destroy the race entirely.

Mn. 11VMPHREY BROWN, M.P., has this week been
presented by his friends at Tewkesbury with a hand-
some silver centre-piece, engraved with the appro-
priate motto, " Perseverantia omnia vincit." Mr.
Brown, in responding upon the occasion, generally
denied the statements against him with regard to the
British Bank, and a certain sum of 70,000/., but
regretted that circumstances should prevent his
giving a detailed statement which would entirely
clear his character. Mr. Brown then made a rather
remarkable statement :

Although he had never given a party vote in the house
of Commons he was much respected there, and to provo
that such was the case, it was only necessary for him to
relate a circumstance that occurred to him very lately.
When a dissolution was expected, a member of her
Majesty's Government met him in the lobby of the House
of Commons, and said to him, " Brown, you have never
been of our party, but I like your honesty of purpose and
impartiality ; and if you want a qualification I will give you
one with great pleasure."

In conclusion, he begged once more to say that, how-
ever much they maligned his character and held him
up to opprobrium, the time would come when he
would return to Tewkesbury, and they would find ho
was much illused. He had passed sleepless nights
and wretched days, but the day was near when his
innocence would be established and his enemies'
treachery made apparent.

THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING A REPEAL OF THE
TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE held a meeting on 'Wednesday
at SL Martin's hall. Sir J. Paxton, M.P., opened
the proceedings, and said that previous to the meet
ing of Parliament he had hoped that this would
have been but a formal meeting held to congratulate
themselves on having received an assurance from
the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the tax on
paper should be repealed. But from what had since
transpired he was afraid that they would have to
meet on many future occasions before the object they
had in view was accomplished. In making his
financial statement, instead of indicating any inten-
tion on the part of the Government to take off the
tax, he rather indicated that they were in favour of
it, though he was afraid in the prevent temper of
the country to say so in as many words. The right
hon. gentleman divided the tax under three heads—
the tax on paper for printing, the tax on paper for
writing, and the tax on heavy paper for packages,
which latter, the right hon. gentleman admitted,
was somewhat burdepsome, but, on the whole, ho

FEBRUARY 28, 1857.

said that he considered paper a proper article for
taxation :

In the interview which the deputation from the society
had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer previous to the
meeting of Parliament the right hon. gentleman clearly
showed by the questions he asked that he was completely
ignorant of the bearing and incidences of this duty—its
effect on the manufacturer and the bookseller—and the
extent to which it enhanced the price of books. It was
not the tax at its commencement that constituted the
whole of the evil, but its bearing throughout the various
ramifications the paper had to go through—the wholesale
stationer, the printer, and the bookseller—before it came
in the shape of a book into the hands of the purchaser of
the book. The tax was imposed originally in 1712 u a
war tax, and an it bad remained ever since.

Mr. Ingram, M.P., stated that the paper trade was
sensibly diminishing in this country. In the United
States of America there were 750 paper mills, pro-
ducing 270,000,0001b5. of paper a year. In Englund
the production of paper was 166,000,0001b5., only
155,000,0001b5. of which werefor home consumption.
Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P., said that the original
object of the paper duty was not revenue. The
journals of Parliament proved that the intention of
imposing a duty was to prevent the circulation of
cheap newspapers and to check the diffusion of
knowledge among the people. Printers in those
days were considered the natural enemies of peace
and order :

He was not making his assertion without book ; ho
could refer to the journals of the House of Commons as
his authority. In 1711 a message was sprit by Queen
Anne, complaining of the scurrilous libels which were
being published against her Majesty's Government, and
calling upon the House of Commons to find a remedy
equal to the mischief. Well, Parliament talked of a cen-
sorship, and of other plans for restraining the press. At
last some member hinted that perhaps a tax might accom-
plish the same end, and not bear the odious name of
censorship; so they agreed to impose three heavy taxes
upon the press.

Some resolutions in accordance with the object of
the meeting were duly proposed and carried.

Mttrapolitan.

THE HOUSELESS POOR OF LONDON have lately
attracted the attention of the Lord Mayor, who, ac-
companied by the Rev. J. B. Murray, Mr. Under-
Sheriff Anderton, and Mr. Bunning, visited the
Refuge for the Houseless Poor in Whitecross-street
on Monday night. Upon arriving at the establish-
ment they found men, women, and boys applicants
for admission. The fact was apparent to the visitors
that all these persons would have been applicants for
admission to the casual wards of the unions if the
same facilities for admission to them were there
afforded as were found at this establishment. The
visiting party then proceeded to the City of London
Union at Bow, where they found only nine persons
in the ward for the reception of the casual poor. It
was admitted by the officials that numbers that even-
ing had applied for admission, but, not having an
order from the relieving officer in Fenchurch-street,
they could not be taken in. According to the exist-
ing practice the casual poor are obliged to get a ticket
in Fenchurch•street before they can obtain shelter
and food at Bow, the distance between the two places
being three miles.
THE UNEMPLOYED assembled in large numbers at
Smithfield on Wednesday and Thursday. Mr.
Osborne and others addressed the meeting on the
advantages of emigration, and the remarks of the
speakers were favourably received. Resolutions to
the effect that the meeting should proceed en
masse to the offices of the association in Clerkenwell
green and sign the petition to the Houses of Parlia-
ment were carried, and the meetings on each occa-
sion dispersed.
A NEW ARCTIC EXPEDITION is not to be under-
taken. In consequence of the adverse decision of
the Admiralty in the House of Commons on Tuesday,
a decision so little anticipated after a suspense of
many months, during which the subject was under
consideration, Lady Franklin is under the necessity
of undertaking, on her own resources, the comple-
tion of the search for her husband's expedition. The
late period at which this decision is made known
renders it impossible to make the requisite prepara.
tions for proceeding by the east. The western route
by Behring's Straits will, therefore, be adopted.

THE PEOPLE'S MONDAY EVENING CONCERTS.—
The Lord Mayor has forwarded, through Mr. Under-
Sheriff Anderton, a donation of 5/. in aid of the fund
now being raised for defraying the expenses incurred
in establishing the cheap concerts for the people at
st. Martin's-hall.
WHITFIELD'S TABERNACLE in Tottenham-court-road
was burnt to the ground last Monday morning. The
flues had been overheated on the previous day.

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the
week exhibit a satisfactory state of the public health.
The deaths have decreased from 1,368 in the first
week of the month to 1,243 for the last week. The
births amounted to 1,873,

THE PRESS.

r inc z I.

A DARING ATTEMPT AT BURGLARY was made last
Saturday morning at the house of the Rev. J. Nodder,
Ashover, near Chesterfield. The rascals broke into
Mrs. Nodder's room first, from the outside. Mrs.
Nodder, who was up attending her baby, snatched
the child from its cot, and rushing out of the room,
locked the door on the outside, and fled to her bus
band's bedroom. The burglars, four in number, soon
broke out of Mrs. Nodder's room, and entering the
room of a Miss Heeley, the niece of the rev. gentle
man, so frightened the young lady, that she jumped
out of the window before they could seize her, and
ran in her night dress, without shoes or stockings, for
more than a mile, into the village. Meanwhile, the
burglars reached Mr. Nodder's door, and forced it
open ; when the rev. gentleman, who was up and pre-
pared, after giving them due notice that the first man
who entered would be shot, fired the moment the
first man made his appearance, and shot him in the
abdomen. Of course they all ran away, leaving their
masks, tools, and lanterns behind them. The next
morning a wounded man was picked up by a butcher
a few miles off by the roadside. The butcher drove
him to the Chesterfield station ; the man took a ticket
for Derby, and from thence to Birmingham. The
police tracked him in the course of the day, and
Inspector Glossop, of the local force, set off at once,
and on reaching Birmingham paid a friendly visit to
a woman leech-bleeder. She had bled a man that
very day for a gunshot wound in the stomach. That
was quite sufficient for the inspector; and before
Monday evening had passed, the keen police-officer
had hunted down his game, and captured it in the
shape of a suffering and exhausted ticket-of leave
man. The other three men are supposed to belong
to a Nottingham gang. Miss Heeley is still suffering
severely from the effects of her fright.
AN ACCIDENT happened to Earl Fitzhardinge on
Monday last. When hunting with his celebrated pack
of foxhounds in the Berkeley-vale, Gloucestershire,
his horse threw him at a fence. His lordship was
conveyed in a carriage to Berkeley Castle, and medi-
cal aid was promptly at hand ; the injuries, however,
which his lordship has sustained are serious to a
person at his advanced age.
COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS appear to be having a run at
present. The inquiry into the cause of the frightful
accident at the Lund collieries, near Barnsley, was
opened on Monday, and was adjourned for a week.
There was no evidence of much importance adduced.
This horrible tragedy has been followed by a severe
explosion, on Tuesday, at the Ridsgrove pits, in
Staffordshire. Two men were killed, several most
severely burned, and others seriously injured.