The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-18 00:00:00

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS.

A sale of autographs has just concluded at the
auction rooms of Meters. Puttick and Simeon, of Picca-
dilly, which, though consisting mainly of unimportant
papers, included a few which tieserve notice. The bulk
consisted of letters of statesmen and literary characters of
comparatively modern date, and produced but moderate
prices. The most remarkable document in the sale was
Lot 154, " The Original Act of National Insurrection under
Prince Rakozy at the commencement of the 16th century,
with shout two hundred signatures of senators and nobles,
with their seals, witten in the Hungarian language, on
vellum, handsomely bound in velvet." This interesting deem-
meat was knocked down at 901. We may also
quote lot 173, an autograph of Richard Cromwell, son and
successor of Oliver, whica sold for 51. 12i. 6.1. Amongst
the more modern autographs were the following:—Lot 91,
a letter of Edmund Kei.n, which sold for 2/. ; and the fol-
lowing lot, a letter of G. F. Cooke, produced 21. 6..
Lot 136, a letter of " the procrastinating chancellor,"
Lord Eldon, contained a curious passage—" Now, as
to aelay—that for which I was so heavily abased,
and I think often unjustly the consciousness of
never having decided a case till I was sure I could
gain no further information respecting it." This letter
sold for 11. There were several letters of the Duke
of Wellington, written in his official capacity as Chief
Secretary for Ireland, many of them very bong and inter-
(sting letters, hut they seemed to find little favour in the
eyes of the autograph collectors, and sold at small sums.
One of these, lot 458, was a long and mast interesting
letter on the defence of Ireland, itt which his
Grace writes that " I will endeavour, in this letter
to give you all the informat.on upon it which the attention
which I have given to it has enabled me to acquire." 7'hlA
letter, occupying thirty-three pages, dated May 7, 1807,
sold for 331. One other autograph of the Duke may, in
years to come, be regarded with interest. It occurred in
lot 426, amongst other papers, being a list of forces at his
disposal at the battle of Waterloo. The list is as follows:
British, including German legion, 60,000; Dutch, 30,000;
Hanoverian., 2x,600; Brunswick, 7,000; Nissat., 3,000;
Haase Town, 3,000; total, 127,600." The number ,of
Hanoverians hail been altered by the Duke from 24,0c0 to
25,000, bu,t he had not made the corresponding alts ration
in the total, which should be 128,600. This lut sold
11. 10s.

LEEDS NEW TowN HALL—The Town Hall com-
mittee of the Leeds town council have just opened the 'en-
ders sent in for the erection of the proposed new Town
Hull, thi plans for which have been prepared by Mr.
Brodrick, architect, of Hull. Fifty tenders were stet in,
four of them being for the whole of the works, and the
ethers for separate branches. The highest of: the latter
estimates amounted to 50,260i.' and the lowest to 59,2691.
The tender of Mr. Samuel Atack, builder, of Leeds, was
accepted, the sum being 41,535/, including the extra cost
of plate glass windows. The design for the new hall and
corporate buildings has been altered in some of its details,
according to the suggestions of Sir Charles Parry, and the
material to be used in the building increased by upwards of
20 per cent. W shout teis increase, Mr. Brodrick. the
architect, estimated tle. cost at about 29,000: ; therefore
coneidi ring that the building has been increased es teemed
out, and that the p: ice of labour and materials is, at 1 ast,
15 per cent dearer than when that estimate was made, it
is clear that the architect's calculations neust have been
made with great accuracy. A meeting of the town council
is to be held this week, to seal the contract, aft, s which the
works will be commenced forthwith. The new building
is to be completed by Vic end of 1855, schen Leeds will
pessees one of the ureic splendid public edifices to be found
so the kingdom.
TUE LONDON SUMMER POULTRY SllOW.—Fcr
this exhibition, which is to open about the end of the
month, 1,500 of birds' pens have been entered, exclusive o
the pigeon cluses,which wili give a show.of upwards of 4,000
birds. The pigeon classes will consist of about 300 pens.
The Poultry Show at the Gloucester meeting of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, which has taken plies
during the past week, only consisted of about 300 pens. It
is said that the arrangements which are being made for the
ensuing exhibition will afford a greater amount of accom-
modation to the public than at the winter show of last year,
in consequence of a more extended width of the avenues
than the galleries were enabled to afford. On this occasion
I the managers have excluded rabbits, on account of their
offensive smell at this season of the year.
A NUISANCE NEAR VIE TEMPLE.—. botit. 100
I yards due east from the Temple gardens is an :ilia ~.5 the
Thames ; bounded on theby lay-stalls for all the filth
of the suburbs; on the east by the City of L union gas
works ; and on the north by the unfortunate citizens whose
business obliges Gem to reside there. I have, with two
witnesses, counted, in the space of five yards (et:ginning at
the head), twenty dead dogs, or other animals, all in .5 de-
cemposed irate, which, supposing the same overage tu con-
tinue the
the 100 feet, the length of the inlet will
show 400 animals lyinl in the state described, which at this
season of the year is likely to produce serious consequences.
They seem to forget that this neighbourhood, a few sum-
mers since, was nearly the first that was visited by the cho-
' !era. The inlet, as far as I can ascertain, has been tree to
the public, or, in ether words, a public highway, which I
have only seen cleaned mice in seven years. Why do not
the City authorities ket p this inlet clean ? If the sewer,
which now discharges is If at the head of the inlet, were
i carried to low water mark, and the bar of river refuse and
l sand cornet d (ruin the month, it could be Lept as chin as
I scores of similar 11 tees now in private hands.—Ccerx-
spotident of the Builder.