The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The royal yacht first steamed out close to the
floating batteries, and then entering the double line
of gun-boats at a tremendous pace, followed by the
Vivid and Imperatrice—but without her faithful
Lords and Commons, or any of the official dignities
who were to add solemnity to the scene—swept
down between the ranks of the tiny fleet amid the
hearty cheers of the crews, and on entering the
easternmost point wore round, and at a steady pace
majestically moved up between the column of line-
of-battle ships, the gun-boat squadron weighing in
succession, and following in the wake of the royal
yacht. As the Queen passed up, the ships manned
yards and rigging, and gave out their heartiest
cheers.

As soon as the yacht had arrived at the end of the
line, Admiral Dundas and Sir George Seymciir were
signalled to come on board and arrange the re-
mainder of the day's proceedings. During the time
the gun-boats occupied in steaming past, the yacht
hove to, and at length, about three p.m., when the
whole flotilla had passed the flag• ships, the royal yacht
steamed out to the pivot ships off the Nab Light, the
entire fleet weighing in succession, and following
under steam at the rate of eight knots an hour.
The scene was now a most exciting one. All the
passenger vessels, with their freights of passengers
and eager sightseers, joined in the general race, and
every captain did his best and every stoker stoked his
hardest. But the yacht distanced the swarming host
that followed after. One of the South -Eastern and
one of the South Western boats made a splendid
race, but the victory was justly with the South-
Eastern. Then came the Atrato, striding along like
a huge giant, and evidently not putting out all his
strength, lest he should be guilty of the disloyalty of
beating the royal yacht ; the Admiralty tender, one
of the fastest little craft afloat, also went along easy,
evidently from the same reason. The royal yacht
at last took up a position about four cables eastward
of the pivot ships, and in a few minutes the huge
forms of the Duke of Wellington and of the Royal
George rounded the London and Rodney, the
Wellington to port, and the Royal George to star-
board, each followed by the vessels of its own
squadron. The ease with which these huge line-of-
battle ships and frigates were handled, the smart-
ness with which they rounded the pivot ship,
was of course the theme of general admiration
As each ship made the turn, the side towards the
royal yacht was manned and the crews, with their
usual heartiness and sailorlike devotion, cheered
her Majesty, who stood upon the bridge of the royal
yacht. As soon as the larger ships had passed the
pivots they returned towards their former anchorage
at Spithead. Her Majesty did not wait until the
whole of the screw-corvettes and paddle-steamers
had performed this evolution, but proceeded towards
Fort Monkton, and a move in the ofEnp showed that
something was about to come off. When she got
within about a mile of the fort the yacht steered for
Southsea Castle, where the gun boats, now formed
opposite the castle in squadrons, suddenly opened
fire on that Kinburn of the occasion. Limited to six
rounds a gun, the attack was soon over, and the
royal yacht steaming slowly through the fleet as the
ships returned to thair anchorage received a parting
salute, and, standing in direct for the harbour, con-
cluded the review.

The day was magnificent, and the crowds of per-
sons enormous, but on the whole the review fell flat.
There was not half the enthusiasm exhibited as in
'54, but the scene was of course more grand and im-
posing.
The arrangements made by the private com-
panies were unexceptionable—everybody got away in
their steamers in good time and saw everything ;
while the arrangements made by Government for the
officials and Legislature were of course as bad and
unsatisfactory as might have been expected. Her
Majesty's faithful Lords and Commons saw little of
the review, and arrived on the scene just in time to
make a promenade to the Nab Light and back
again . _

At nine at night, without any previous intimation,
the whole fleet, upon the firing of a signal rocket,
burnt blue lights at each yardarm, and hung a
lanthern at every port, thus for twenty minutes
showing one of the most brilliant illuminations—six
miles in length—it was possible to conceive. From
the usual mismanagement of the authorities a few
chance sightseers were alone lucky enough to wit-
ness this beautiful display.
As for the getting home or getting to bed that
night, it was a pleasant delusion which the practical
experience of the station and train speedily eradi-
cated. Lords and Commons, peers and peeresses,
were shovelled out wholesale at the Waterloo-station
at ail hours during the night and next morning, and
thus ended the Great Steam Review of 1856.

THE DUKE or BR RANT, heir-apparent to the Bel-
gian throne, and a bigotted Roman Catholic, last
week refused to permit The Jewess to be performed
in his presence at the Brussels theatre, as cardinals
were introduced upon the stage.

SATURDAY,

Volitttal.

THE COMMITTEE OF THE COURT OF ALDERMEN
have published a lengthened report upon the
Corporation Reform Bill. The first paragraph of
the report " regrets that her Majesty's Ministers,
under the guise of a bill for its better regulation,
should have thought it necessary to bring in a bill of
pains and penalties against this ancient institution."
The report then objects to the abolition of the
judicial powers of the aldermen, on the ground that
these powers have been hitherto respectably exer-
cised, considers the confiscation of the tourpeuny coal
dues, without compensation or compromise, as uncon-
stitutional, unprecedented, and unjust, and concludes
with the following paragraph

We have quoted from the commissioners' report an ob-
servation to the effect that the corporation will be left with
" abundant means not only for purposes of public useful.
ness, but for the exercise of decent hospitality and splen-
dour." This expression, which is somewhat equivocal, re•
quires an additional comment to that which we have
already bestowed upon it. Estates and property have been
left to the corporation by aldermen and others in ancient
times for the express purpose of providing for our public
banquets. A difference of taste may apply different mean-
ings to the expressions used by the commissioners. One
thing is certain, if this bill should pass (without making a
heavy county rate upon the citizens, from which they are
now exempt), there will be no surplus over indispensable
expenditure for either purposes of public utefttlness "or
decent hospitality and splendour." Common Halls are to
be annihilated by the bill ; the Common Council of this
great metropolitan city is to be drafted down to the dimen-
sions of a country corporation ; and the Mansion•house
and Guildhall banquets must have an end.
A crowded meeting was held under the presidency of
Sir James Duke on Tuesday evening, at the Sessions.
house, Old Bailey, and resolutions condemning the
Government bill as unconstitutional and objection-
able, supported by Mr. Gresham, Mr. Mesterman,
and others, were unanimously carried. . _

A DEPUTATION OF METROPOLITAN MEMBERS waited
on Sir Benjamin Hall, M.P., on Tuesday for the
purpose of considering certain objections to the
Local Management Act, and its proposed amend-
ments. From the statement of the deputation it
appeared that the parishes had no objection to the
system of representative vestries being continued
under Sir Benjamin Hall's act, if powers were given
to the ratepayers upon the suffrage provided by that
act to elect annually their churchwardens and over-
seers, and make poor rates and Church rates. To
which Sir Benjamin Hall replied, he would consent
that the present system of election of vestries should
continue, and that compound householders should
vote, but that ha would not deprive the elective body
of the sole tight of making a poor rate. He did not
pledge himself to these alterations. The conference
lasted for nearly three hours.

APRIL 26, 1856

prove—
that forms of expression are of far more con-
sequence to the purity of the language than persons
are willing to admit, and illustrated at great length
this principle by contrasting as example of his
meaning many wholesome sterling old English words
against the vapid modernised terms now in use;
such as "neighbourhood" against "vicinity," "out-
skirts" with "environs," "philosopher" against
philosophe, "churchyard " against "cemetery " and
6-necropolis," " child-murder " against " infanticide,"
kc. tko. The use of these modern terms the Cardi-
nal insisted was a serious injury to the English
language, and not only affected the perspicuity of
the language, but in such terms as related to crimes,
by refining them down as we did in the present day,
we divested the expression of half its horror
and helped Ito deprive the crime of half its guilt.
The Cardinal was received with warm applause by a
cx)wded audience.
Sr. MARTIN'S SAVINGS-BANK was last Monday
subjected to a run, and until a Government cerufl-
ou3 was posted up informing the people of the
satisfactoiy state of the funds the panic continued.
The origin of this affair was traced to reports pur-
posely spread about by lately discharged servants.
H.R.H. Prince Albert is president of the institution
THE METROPOLITAN CEMETERIES IN THE EAST do
not appear to be any improvement upon the old
intramural churchyards. Dr. Sutherland's and Mr.
Holland's report to the Home-office on the subject
disclose facts connected with the cemeteries at
Bethnal.green, Stoke Newington, Cambridge heath,
and Victoria park, which appear really incredible
in a civilised city lik> London. At the Victoria-park
Mr. Holland saw thirty or forty coffins thrust into
graves uncovered :

One quarter of the cemetery appears to be a mass of
putrefying corruption, consisting of several thousand car-
cases, contained in coffins immediately contiguous in the
same graves, and separated from those in the adjoining
graves by a few inches of soil only, which are heaped up
on each other partly below, partly above the natural level
of the ground, and covered only by a few feet of open
gravel. The quantity of putrid gas given off by such a
mass of corruption must be far greater than the soil can
absorb or decompose.
THE REGISTRAR GENERAL'S RETURNS TOR THE
'SEEK show a declining mortality as the temperature
rises. The deaths of the last week fell from 1,234
and 1,115 of the previous weeks to 1,043. The
births amounted to 1,887, a number above the
average.

A GOOSE RACE between Mr. Herring and Mr.
Garrett, the well-known clowns, took place on Mon
day, on the Surrey canal. The race was for five
hundred yards, in washing-tubs, drawn by four geese.
Mr. Garrett got capsized at starting, while his adver
sary went off and won—with feathers to spare.
TUE PRINTER'S PENSION SOCIETY held its usral
anniversary at the London Tavern, on Tuesday even-
ing, under the presidency of Sir R. Murchison, who,
in proposing the toast of the evening, laughingly
alluded to the typical errors sometimes imposed upon

Very few were aware of the extent of distress into which
he was often plunged by no fault of his own; but as the
necessary result of his occupation. In the first place, as
an old soldier, he wrote not very plainly; and next he
wrote in an antediluvian language, which scarcely the most
enlightened classes would comprehend. He believed. for
his own part, that he had given more trouble to the printer
than any other man in the country.
M. Kossura delivered a lecture last week at the
London Tavern, on the Austrian Concordat. His
peculiar view of the object of this great State act is
that it was concluded by Rome mainly for the pur-
pose of striking a fatal blow at Hungary, of all
European States the one ever foremost in opposing
the dangerous policy of the Vatican.