The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

Coat SO jastpn.

Her Majesty the Queen remains at Osborne.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales arrived
at o,borne on Wednesday from the Lakes.
The Hereditary Duke of Saxe Aleiningen and
Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar visited her Majesty
on Thursday.
His Royal Highness Prince Alfred is hourly
expected at Osborne from Germany.
State balls and concerts will be given on the return
of the Court to town.

The christening of the infant Princess will take
place in the middle of next month, the sponsors
being their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent,
the Princess Royal, and Prince Frederick William of
Prussia. The Princess will receive tha names of
Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore.

His Excellency the Ambassador of France and the
Countess de l'ersigny have returned to town from
Paris.

filer Majesty's Ministers will give state banquets
upon the 26th inst., in celebration of her Majesty's
birthday.

Volittr al.

A CABINET Couscrr, was held on Wednesday
afternoon at the official residence of the First Lord
of the Treasury in Downing•street. The Ministers
present were Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chan-
cellor, Earl Granville, the Earl of Harrowby, Sir
George Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Secretary
Labouchere, Lord Panmure, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon. It.
Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley of Alderley, the Bight
lion. M. T. Baines, and the Duke of Argyll.

THE CONVOCATION of the Prelates and Clergy of
the Province of Canterbury was on Wednesday pro-
rogued in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, by
the Vicar-General, Dr. Travers Twiss, under a
commission from his Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Primate and Metropolitan, to Friday,
July 10.
A PUBLIC MEETINU was held at Paisley last week
to discuss the question of the " armed interference
of foreign powers" with Italy. Mr. David Murray,
Professor Nichol, and other gentlemen, addressed
the meeting at great length in favour of the law of
non-intervention. Professor Nichol justified the
attempts of the Italians to secure their independence,

and declared his belief that if a great and united
Italian empire were established, it would secure our
position in the Mediterranean, but that the tres;nt
condition of Italy was a source of serious alarm to
Europe, and would inevitably lead to another great
war. Several resolutions in accordance with the
object of the meeting were passed, and a petition to
the house agreed upon.
AN ANTI-TURNPIKE DEPUTATION, consisting Of
Lord Robert Grosvenor, Mr. Herbert Ingram, and
several other gentlemen, waited upon Lord Palmers-
ton on Wednesday, to urge upon the noble lord the
adoption by Government of a measure for the re-
moval of all toll gates within a radius of six miles
from Charing cross. Lord Palmerston said the
subject was doubtless one of great importance, and
one on which he should not like to give a hasty
opinion :

He should feel obliged if the members of the deputation
would transmit to him, as early as possible, a written
statement of facts and arguments, and he would give it his
best attention. At present he could not pledge her Majesty's
Government to any decided course of operation in reference
to the matter.

THE EQUALISATION OF POOH RATES was discussed
at a public meeting at Fulham on Thursday. The
chairman of the local Board of Guardians explained
that the poor rates in the parish had risen in four
years from 11,4171. 4s. to 10,0071. 1 ls. Mr. Gilbert,
another speaker, alluding to the poor in London,
stated that the population of Whitechapel had
increased from 68,903 in 1821 to 78,271 in 1851,
whilst during that period, for various improvements,
there were destroyed 1,743 houses, causing the
ejection of about 11,000 workmen. By a parliamentary
report, published in 1854, he saw that the amount
paid by the St. Katherine's Docks for the relief of
the poor was only 4141., whilst the London Dock
Company, being in another parish, paid 10,6481.
The increase in the six eastern parishes of Shore-
ditch, Stepney, Poplar, Limehouse, W'hitechapel, and
St. George's in-the-East, for poor rates in four years
ending 1856, was 64,342/. Resolutions embodying
the sentiments of the parishioners were unanimously
passed, and a petition on the subject prepared for
Parliament.

502

He would show the reasons why they had no literature in
the colonies, and why it was not likely that they would
have it for many years to come, and that was no great loss.
The colonies, in fact, were too busy clearing the forest and
building cities, laying out roads, bridging rivers, and pro-
viding shelter for the ticket•of•leave gentlemen. Literature
required the academic leisure of learned and well•endovFed
institutions, such as Oxford. The colonies were too young
to afford the time, and if they had the time they could not
afford it either. There were however, other obstacles—
there were obstacles in the way not merely of the colonies,
but of the United States; nit that he put the colonies
behind the United States, but rather before them. The
United States had difficulties to overcome; they had not
the institutions of England, and although it might appear
paradoxical. they were, in fact, too free, and, above all, too
equal, to have a sterling literature. There was no literature
in the colonies, because they had had no past, no infancy,
no youth. They bail grown up suddenly—they had no
settled institutions, no nobility to look back upon, no
etudes that told tales of glory—that formerly were the
strongholds of rapine and oppression. They had no names
to their rivers—they had no fairies—no superstitions—and
no legends to their streams or mountains—indeed they
were plain matter-of-fact hard men, and as such even the
works of a poet would not be valued amongst them. In-
deed there could be no poets where there were no
memories, no imagination where there were no legends.
But the time would come when they would have their
memories and their legends, and then they would have a
literature, in acknowledging the toast of which he had now
only to thank them in anticipation. He hoped, however,
their literature would continue to be the literature of the
empire ; that the literature of the colonies would be the
literature of England ; as by their literature the mother
country and the colonies would have the strongest bond of
union which could possibly exist between them, and that
they would long continue in the enjoyment of one common
prosperity.

The toast of the evening, long postponed for the
Earl of Granville, was briefly proposed by Mr.
Thackeray. Other toasts followed, and the pro-
ceedings of the evening were shortly concluded.
The subscription list returned upwards of 1,200/.,
nearly double the usual amount.

THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS held a
special meeting on Tuesday, Mr. J. Thwaites in the
chair, to consider a report from the Committee of
Works and Improvements on the estimate made by
the superintending architect as to the probable cost
of removing Middle-row, Holborn. The superintend-
ing architect was of opinion that the improvement
might be made for 50,0001. Mr. Wright moved a
resolution, that it was advisable to remove the
buildings forming Middle-row, Holborn, at the
earliest possible opportunity; and that the architect
and solicitor be instructed to endeavour to make
conditional arrangements for the purchase of the
property, goodwills, and other rights and interests, in
order that this bosrd may be enabled to effect the
contemplated improvement, without the expense of
going to Parlitenent; the ultimate purchase to
depend on the financial arrangements with the
Government being satisfactory to this board. Amend-
ments were proposed by Mr. D'lffanger and Mr.
H. L. Taylor, but on a division the original motion
was carried by 13 to 5. The board then adjourned.
THE ADJOURNED TRANSPORTATION MEETING of
yesterday week was resumed on Tuesday, when Mr.
Pearson, Mr. Cruikshank, and Mr. Payne addressed
the meeting at some length. Mr. Armstrong criti
cised that part of Mr. Pearson's plan which advises
the erection of large prisons with walls inclosing
1,000 or 2,000 acres of land, and characterised it as
benevolent but impracticable." He also recom-
mended the transfer of our convicts to the colonies
for life, and suggested that a prospective interest in
the land they tilled should be held out to them as
an incentive to good conduct. Sir Thomas rancred
next advised a separation between the punitive and
reformatory elements in our prison discipline.
Transportation should, in his judgment, be the
ultimate reward offered to reclaimed criminals, who
outht to be sent out, after expatiating their sentence
at home, as free men. Several other speakers suc-
ce riled, whose views were singularly discordant. At
le igth two hours and a quarter of discussion was
br night to a termination by another adjournment.
THE ADJOURNED INQUEST upon the bodies of the
six persons killed by the fall of houses in Tottenham-
court road has been resumed this week, and the
evidence given goes far to prove that the party-wall
between the two establishments was well known both
to Mr. Hunter and Mr. Maples to be in a dangerous
condition. Mr. Hunter was desirous of taking the
wall down ; but Mr. Maples said that as the wall was
rotten on Mr. Hunter's side, he should rather build
it lip. Mr. Redding, the surveyor, said thet in his
ci,eninn the accident occurred entirely from " the
• -ry improper way " the works were being executed
on Mr. Maple's premises. A seventh sufferer has
since died.

TILE PEACE SOCIETY held their annual meeting on
Tuesday, at Finsbury Chapel. Mr. C. Hindley,
M.P., presided, and the meeting was attended by
many reverend gentlemen. Various resolutions in
accordance with the object of the meeting were
prop:geed and carried.

THE PRESS.

A VISITATION OP THE LONDON CLERGY took place
on Tuesday morning, at St. Sepulchre's Church,
Snow•hill. There was a very large attendance. The
Archdeacon of London, in addressing the clergy, said
it had been usual at such visitations to deal with
ecclesiastical subjects, but he should depart from
that rule on the present occasion, and invite the
attention of the clergy to a scriptural topic, namely,
the Mosaic cosmogony as related in the first chapter
of Genesis. (The clergy present seemed astonished
at this announcement—the subject being looked
upon as a somewhat extraordinary one for an
archidiaconal visitation.) The archdeacon proceeded
at considerable length to show that in respect to the
creation, revelation and science were not contradic-
tory or irreconcileahle, and that while both were true
they served to confirm and illustrate one another.
The archdeacon laid down many broad and occa-
sionally some startling propositions, which, however,
he argued out with great learning and ability. He
brought the visitation to a close by thanking the
clergy for their very numerous attendance, and for
the attention with which they had listened to his
observations.
A SAD ACCIDENT OCCURRED AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL
on Saturday afternoon, as the Blue•coat boys were
engaged in their usual sports, two of their number
at'Mmpting the dangerous but frequently accom-
plished feat of scaling the wall of the playground
which abuts upon Giltspur•street. One of them
descended in perfect safety ; but the other, a fine
youth of about sixteen, evidently ignorant that a line
of pointed iron rails attached to the premises of Mr.
Gilt uth, baker, were beneath him, dropped upon the
spikes, where he was impaled for several minutes,
until his affrighted companions gave the alarm, when
he was extricated from his horrible position, and the
best surgical aid from Bartholomew's Hospital was
promptly on the spot.
A JOINT DEPUTATION from the Vestry and Board
of Guardians of Marylebone waited cn Tuesday on
Sir B. Hall, at the offices of the Board of Works,
relative to the alleged " aggression of the Poor-law
Commissioners upon the right of local self. govern-
ment." The deputation was intro:laced by Mr.
Nicholay, churchwarden, who said that, finding them-
selves in " a difficulty " with the Poor law Commis-
sioners, with respect to a threat of legal proceedings
for the expulsion of the Government inspector, Mr.
Farnell, from the Board of Guardians, they were
anxious to secure the right hon. baronet's good
offices with the Government in extricating them
from it, and wished for his advice in the matter. Sir
B. Hall, in reply, went at great length into the
details and correspondence connected with both the
flogging of the women in the workhouse and with
the report of the Lunacy Commissioners relative to
the state of the wards for the insane, and said that
they so established the charge of mismanagement
against the guardians that it was impossible for the
commissioners not to interfere. He was sure the
Poor-law Board had no inclination to interfere with
their right of local self-government:—

And (concluded Sir Benjamin) as soon as you show me
that the matters complained of are remedied, or that they
are actually in active course of remedy, I will with the
greatest pleasure represent the case to the Poorlaw
Board, and endeavour to prevent any further interference
in those matters.

SIR J. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH attended the distribu-
tion of prizes at the St. Mary's Hospital Medical
School on Wednesday, and after the ceremony
addressed the students. He commenced by re•
ferring to the effsct produced on the young student
by his first introduction to the dissecting room and
his being familiarised to the contemplation of the
great mystery of life and death. Ho traced the pro
gress of the student through the various stages of his
education, and, referring to the admirable arrange•
ments of the great hospitals in Europe, expressed
his opinion that a hospital ought to be a place where
the patient would not only be cured of disease, but
by the example of all those he saw around think of
what his duties and his responsibilities were. He
showed how the tendency to materialism, which the
first introduction to the science was likely to produce,
was to be overcome, and drew a picture of what a
physician of eminence ought to be. He pointed out
the share the medical profession hit•l hitherto con-
tributed to the social development and civilisation of
mankind, and showed that on their exertions the
proper working out of many great social problems
now depended. The physician shove all others was
called on to take his share in this great work; and
although to every man it might not be given to
accomplish great things, yet those who applied them-
selves to the work in the proper spirit of their calling
would at least have satisfied the great yearning of
their nature, not to have lived in vain, and no pro•
tession, not even the spiritual, had in its power to
confer greater boons on mankind. The address is to
be printed.
THE BRITISH ANT) FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY, the
Aborigin. Protection Society, and the Voluntary
School Association, have held their annual meetings
this week.

SATURDAY,

-
THE BROMPTON CONSUMPTION HOSPITAL. SOCIETY
held their anniversary dinner on Wednesday, at
Willis's rooms, St.J antes's. Lord Stanley, M.l'., was in
the chair, and among those present were the Rev. Sir
H. Foulis, Bart ...the Hon. Captain Pakenham, Colonel
Buldero, M.P., air. H. S. Thornton, Dr. Cr. H. Roe,
Dr. R. Quoin, Mr. John Bull, and the Rev. B.
Marriott. The usual loyal and patriotic toasts having
been given and duly honoured, the chairman gave
the toast of the evening, " Prosperity to the Bromp •
ton Hospital." In proposing this toast the noble
lord stated that of 45,000 deaths which occurred
yearly in the metropolitan districts, 5,600 were caused
by consumption ; thus, excluding infantine moitality,
about one•fifth of the deaths arose from this disease.
Since the establishment of this hospital it bad re-
lieved 5,586 in-patients and 36,030 out patients; its
income had in one year amounted to 19,0001., but
had averaged between 7,0001. and 8,0001. If the
hospital were well-managed it was certainly deserving
of the support of the public, and that it was well-
managed these and other facts stated in the report
would undoubtedly prove. The toast was responded
to by Mr. S. C. Hall. During the evening subscrip-
tions were announced amounting to upwards of 1,0001.,
of which the noble chairman gave twenty guineas,
and the Earl of Derby thirty guineas.
THE CONSECRATION OF THE BISHOP OF NORWICH
will take place in the parish church of St. Maryle-
bone, of which the bishop has been for some years
past the rector. The consecrating prelates will be
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of
London, Winchester, Carlisle, and Ripon. The
Archbishop of Canterbuty has appointed Thursday,
June 11th, for the consecration.
THE EARL OF CARNARVON was duly installed on
Wednesday last Master of the Westminster and
Keystone Freemasons' Lodge. After the ceremony
upwards of 200 of the brethren adjourned to a ban-
quet, at which the Earl of Zetland, Lord Paninure,
and many distinguished noblemen and gentlemen
were present. The proceedings were prolonged to a
late hour.

TIIE SUBSCRIPTION for a testimonial to Mr. Mas-
terman, on his retirement from the representation of
the city of London, already exceeds 1,1001., and will
speedily be increased, as many leading commercial
men have signified their desire to enrol their names
on the list of subscribers. The form of testimonial
has not yet been determined upon ; but it is not un-
likely that the funds thus raised will be applied to
the foundation of a scholarship in connection with
the City of London School.

THE REGISTR.IR•GENERAL'S RETURNS exhibit
favourable condition of the public health. 1,050
deaths and 1,682 births were returned for the week
ending Saturday the 16th inst.