The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-19 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL,

APPEEBIBIBION Or • Coll.LE.CrOlt 701 EMBIZZIA-
MIXT,—The roomers of this paper are already to poeseriou
of the details connected with the Bight of a puson sassed
Thomas Curtis, collector of poor rates and ameassd tuts for
the borough of Salford, neer Manchester, Wing, as it was
said, a defaulter to the amount of two or three thousand
pounds. A considerable portion of the money was in his
possemion when he left Liverpool on board one of the AM.
hiss steamers bound for Boston. Upon hie arrival at last
city ha was accosted b • mon of gentlemanly apprersam
sal address, who, alag that he *kited to proceed
up the matey, stated to give kiln ease inkemation upon
that eabjeet, and .Lo offered to see him sole en board
one of the 'Lamm plying up sad down the river.
He also gave him every assistance relative to his baggage,
but in the coarse of its treatit tram one steamer to another
contrived to abstract the ark box which contained nearly ell
?he money which he (Curtis) had in his pamemice. The
eiromestaace wee not dissevered until the beat. in which
Curtis sad his tastily had smiled, had poesedei abut two
miles on its voyage up the river. As soca as Curti became
aware of the robbery be proceeded no farther, bat returned
immediately with has fully to Boston, where he pve in-
formation to the polios of the cuearreace, bat no tress what-
ever of the thief weld be obtained. Cartis_liading himself
penniless, detensinod upon returning to Enema& by the
first steamer, and, together with his wife and
family, by /001111 means reached Hull fag week
without • shilling ia, their pockets. Before leavinj
Bugles/I, it that Mrs. Cards had
the sun 'of . ia Kenn. Canlife, Brooks, end
Beak, whisk they had omitted to draw before their
departure. When at Hall, and without the means of pro-
rating food and lodes& they wrote to the bank, resumes
the amount to be fornutiel to Bum, which was duly re-
mitted, bat at the same time isfannstima of the Unser
stances was given to the gelid* by the eierha nibs bank. A
warrant wee instediately hued kr the synthesise Cl
Cards, and Mr. ?field, the now segirktendist of pile%
west from Belford to Hall, and egeselnaded hint in had ea
said,:gagadlerup":ll:mord.bit:tthawtiyliiiszli
sanzno...t2' Mwtll.44.Bl.f.thir, ye.;
wwitsrun;lTl:esbabi..f.arytak"The;hel shed.a.ph:
alned this day, at ther.caut Sallord.
RWILICTION • of Mi. O'CoirNon.--Yeatarday
afternoon large tithe walking elates was held in
the outhotidoto, sailed fie OM puree of
hearing ea arouse el Ns. ebrenardaWp daring
tie lets assaint, sod "!n As eiseton end acs-denoes to
reshot bin as Ode Ifserthe." Mr. O'Connor, on'
preeendm w•bine" sheered. He said he nee
there to Mealtime a cart duty ; sanely, at the elan
of **bat einks, M weeder his Iran into the bands of
the einton sal ass heir, sad, alter giving then en se-

octant of hisetewardship, to ask a renewal of their 030fide1100.
Thus he canted into practical operation two main points of
the charter--ansual parliaments and universal oulfrage: It
was almost oat of the power of man to give ea amount of
the iniquity neatened daring the late session. Whilst the
six poise of the abattoir had been repudiated, fin gagging
bills had been mask which he had opposed in every
stage, and almost dose. Thom measures had been pared
principally to catch him (Mr. O'Connor) ; but he was Mere
yet. He said at the time they were being decanted that to
stop pablie seeder weld have the east of meeting secret
—t-'-tiers, whisk had tossed mat to be the ere ; sad the
fiery mom who would have formerly led the shorting on to
death or eletory had turned infamies, and 'unsigned some
of their best Meads to prison. In 11136 a sitsatioa of 3001.
a sear wee offered to a spy if be mild get the rope round
his (Mr. O'Coanor's) neck. This did not succeed ; and,
although much more would now be gives, he was not to be
caught Notwithstanding a peokedoommittre in the House
of Commons, sotwithsteadin6 a mereenuy press, he would
yet see them all located on the land ; and nuke the poor man
the but customer of the manuteeturer and the shopkeeper.
As iota as Lord John Russell met parliament% again, he
would be unseated, for all the monied men and emulators
were and of him. Lord Johaand the whige, in opposition,
would soon offer them two points of the charter—Sir It abets
would outbid them by offering six, and ask them if they re-
quired anj thing more. This was the west parliament this
country ever had, for it had devoted ell its attention to the
benefit of capital, whilst all other eoeatrice were otensideriug
how to benefit 'shone. Whist all other men ware gracing
after money, some fighting for a shilling a day, others cut-
ting their throat. because thy =met get it fast mough.
he cared not for money on his own account, but if he lied
six millions he would not use fifty pounds •on
his own account, but would devote it all to
thr service of the people ,• and it he could
make money, no matter how Yazd the labour news-
any, he would devote his life to making money for the
people. (Applause.) If they asked him what he thought
of toe House of Commons, he would say, in the wove of
Sheridan, " Tantarara, ell rogues, every one of 'em." There
was not one amongst them who could go amongst his Ma-
stituents, and ask for a renewal of confidence as he did; far if
now only a avail minority could be found to raise their
hands against him ho would willingly resign hie post as their
representative. Mr. O'Connor then, having Mond and
defied the press, sailed upon his followers on no account to
enter into secret amociatiene, for if they did, as in London.
Oldham, and other places, they would be certain to be vie-
thinned. Notwithstanding the long minion, he felt as
strong as ever ; but he was mach amused at some of the
moneymongen and government olladele in the home,
for he meld compare them to nothing but a pair of old
leather breeches well soaked in hot water. In answer to
gantioas, Mr. O'Connor explained the reason why be voted
against the whigs on the reduction of the sugar duties, and
why he was not present in the house when the Framework-
Heinen' Protection Bill was Drought forward —On the PIO.
unait
tie of Mr. Sweet, seconded by Mr. 0. Harrison, a vote of
confidenes was th:
Ltakewengsrm, end Mr. O'Connor was "re-
elected" by a large majority.

W 'Mni
A MODERN BITTINGTON. 1E Richard i
once Sheriff of London, relates in his " Pertain Tour
through the United Kingdom," published twenty des ago,
that when he was in Nottingham he fell in with a pain
elderly gentlemen, en ancient reader of the Leicester Herold
—a paper printed by the garnaloas knight in the days of his
youth, which he abandoned in 1795, on exchanging
Leicester for London. The old man, hearing that Sir Richard
was in Nottingham came to him with a certain number of
the Herald ID hia hind, to receive the solution of a mystery
therein contained which had perplexed the " constant
reader" and his neighbours, at intervals, for the greater
part of half a century. Casting his eve in the direction
indicated by the inquirer's S oar, the tourist saw a column
of type, headed " Dutch Mall," and proftssing to be printed
in "original Dutch." Very "original" Dutch it undoubtedly
was. The sight of it brought to Sir Richard's mind a lorg
forgotten passage in hie Leicester experienoes. On the
eve of one of the publication days' when all was hurry-
ninny "to catch the mail," that mercurial soirit, the
"printer's devil," made choice of the inauspicious moment
for a frolic with the men, and a column of types fell a seen-
flee to the sport The mail would be gone before the ml..
chief could be repaired, bat it se reser that mother
column of types pialt:d up from the office floor and arranged
at random—technically called " pie"—some letters topsy-
turvy, often ten or twelve consonants in succession, as many
vowels next, and then halt a dozen commas end other stops
in close company--stood temptingly at hand ; so the dir
incited editor, glad of any refuge from the anger of his
country readers, gave orders that the pie should be served
to them, with the following explanatory introduction:
Jun as our paper was going to press, the Dutch sail
arrived ; and so we had no time -to make a translation, we
have inserted its intelligent* in the original" Off went the
pie, as original Dutch, into Derbyshire and Nottieghamshire
In a few hours, other matter, in plain English (says Sir
Richard), suppliei its piece for our local publication. Of
course all the linguists, schoolmasters, highbred village
est their wits to work to translate my Dutch ;
and I once had a collection of letters containing speculations
=htne subject, or demanding a literal translation of that
appeared so intricate. How the Dutch could read it
was incomprehnnible! My Nottingham quidnunc was one
of the number; and it appeared that at times, for above fi.ur-
and-thirty years, he had bestowed on It his anxious atten-
tion. I told him the story, and he left me, vowing that as I
had deceived him, he would never believe any atsripsper
rain. The entre of this mischief was not an rant to the
press. He forsook it early—perhaps when (and because)
his master forsook Leicester • and he afterwards became
connected with the manufactures of his native piece. In-
du/trims, persevering, end sagacious, the small shop which
he first occupied as an employer gradually grew into a
manufactory; and warehouses were added of vast extent and
singular converenes, so as to become one of the weeders of
the borough. The shallow and the thoughtless called him
fortunate, a lucky msn. Others, with more junior. regarded
him as a wise and prudent man—one who, to superior skill
and intelligence, united those moral and religious gunnies
which minister larg.ly tn success in an honourable career.
On the passing of the Menial* Reform Bill, the doom of
the council chamber, beton nosed to the liberal and die-
seater, were thrown open to him. Chosen a councillor by
his follow burgesses, the council elected him, first to the
°Mos of alderman, and then raised him to the son of the

chief . Councillor—alderman—mayor—what re-
mained btat that, on Saturday morning last, the nturning
officer (who has run, himself, a precisely simi,ar course)
should hail him on the public hustings, on behalf of a unani-
mous constituency, " Richard Harris. Esq., member of Par•
liament fur Leicester 1" The Gateshead Observer, which
tells this story, adds, " Long may Old ELgland continue to
furnish such bright examples of enlightened enterprise and
stomata industry."

THE " COYHYAETIN SILVEB Mliers."—The silver
lead mines in the village of Combmartin, Devon (probably
the oldest mines in England), which have been worked at
intervals from the time of Edward 1., and of which men-
tion is made by Camden, who says that the expenses of the
war in Francs, in the reign of Edward 111., were partly
defrayed by the salver extracted therefrom, have been aban-
doned within this month, with the exception of the upper
levels, where three or four men are still employed. Why
this abandonment has been resolved upon we do not know,
the yield being from 60 to 260 canoes of silver to the ton of
lead-ore, which is considered a profitable return for the
working, de. There are, besides the lawns namationed in
Camden SOON curious histories' circumstances connected
with theis mines. A cup, weighing 137 comas, mad* of the
silver smelted from the ore found In them, we. presented by
Queen Baseborn to Sir B. Martyn, Lord Mayor of London.
This cup was, in 1830, melted down end made into three
tankards which form part of the plate of the civic corpora-
tion of the met:opal.. The ancient cup bore a quaint and
appeopdate Inscription, thus:
la Martin's Ossiehe I leas lay hid.
Oboe" &peed, with grafter anti Debased, snob mixed, bad,
'DU iiSiMir came, whose dull and toy!
Reddened ens so pure and edema, •
As Marc nowhere des Is seen.
A letter from Charl. s 11. to Lewis Incledon, of Buoklande,
county Devon, dated October 26, 1648. is still extant, from
which i: ■ppeass these mines were held in high estimation,
and considered of importanee Ia those days. Her present
aje ty Queen Victoria has various article nitnulatured
by Etas. Ellis, silversmiths, of Exeter, in her possession,
and in the cabinet of Prince Albert there are some fine up►
clams of the ore of these mines. Masers. Ellis have par.
aimed the remainder of the silver smelted preeiondy to the
late suspension of the work', which it is to be hoped will
shortly again be in operation.