The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-19 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL.

LOSPIUMSZA.a.mi•
ADDITIONAL BATHS AND WASH
-HOUSES US about
to be established at Liverpool. The health committee have
recommended the town council to adopt the public act for
establwhing baths and wash-houses, and to raise a sum not
exceeding 25,0001. for the purpows of the act, the council
paying the interest annually, or such portion of it as is not
covered by the receipts of the baths and 'rub-houses to be
erected. There has been no step taken hitherto by the
authorities so beneficial to the industrious working clamm,
and so conducive to the improvement of the health of the
town, as the erection of the existing baths ; and their per-
fect mosses fully warrents the council in erecting, not one
or two adcliticmal in the town, but, if possible, one in each

Ward.
A MOST DARING with
violence of a desperate character, was perpetrated at Dean
Lock, on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, about four miles
from Wigan, on Friday night. At a little put midnight
three men attacked Molyneur, the watchman in charge of
the office and lock, and who, also, at the time, had
under his care a considerable sum of money. For some
nee
an
time he fought with them in a most determined man-
d so far succeeded as to cause rather a hasty
retreat before the office drawers and, desk could be
carefully examined. The thieves having taken possession
of a bag of money were leaving the office, when the
watchman followed them out, armed with a poker. One
of the party here seized an axe, and another cried out,
" Cleave his skull," or words to that effect, when the watch-
man boldly faced and disarmed the villain. The other two,
however, coming to his assistance, Mohnen: was over-
powered, and much beaten, and was afterwards thrown into
the canal, in a deep part, near the mouth of the lock; and
had he not, fortunately, been a good swimmer, he must have
been drowned. The villains then escaped, and Mohnen:,
after swimming some distance, got out of the water. The
thieves, in their hurry out of the office, left behind them a
bag of gold of mere value than the one taken, and which,
had &careful search been made, could not have escaped ob-
servation. A boat had passed the lock only about fire
minutes previous to the attack; the parties in charge of it
heard a noise, but conceiving it, as they said, to arise from a
man and his wife quarrelling, they proceeded without taking
any notice.
A FIRE broke out at the cotton factory of Messrs.
Brims and Dean, manufacturers, Dukinfield, on Sunday,
which completely destroyed one pinion of the mill, and ha
rendered the other inoperative for some time to come. The
estimated damage, it is said, will not be Ices than 8,0001. or
10,0001., the machinery destroyed being all new. The pro-
perty is insured. By this fire upwards of 200 workpeople
will be thrown out of employment for some time.
WARWICKSHIRE.
FRAUDS IN THE PRECIOUS METAL TRADE.—At the
. police-881os at Birmingham yesterday, George Whiston, the
, young .man whose remand from Saturday on the charge of
" obtaining money under false pretences,4 in the manner to

be hereafter described, has been already noticed in the
Express, was spin brought up for The
premises on which this somewhat ingenious series of fraud
was discovered were those of Messrs. Alston and Macferline,
refiners and bullies. dealers, who are, it is supposed, losers
by them to the amount of several thousands of pounds. The
prisoner is a young man, also a refiner and his dealings with
the firm have extended over a period of about eighteen
months, but under an assumed name. The fraud was dis-
covered from the circumstance that the metal when
refined would not loosely come up to the standard
according to which it had been valued and paid
for: four bars weighing from 37 to 103 ounces.
which had been sold by Whieton, were examined and
re-assayed. The result turned out to be so far from satis-
factory that Whist= was at once given into the custody of
the polio,. From the evidence adduced before the magis-
trates, it appeared that the fraud was practised in the fol-
lowing manner :—A bar of very fine metal was sent to
Meters. Alston's, for sale, generally in the morning ; the
weight was ascertained, and the workmen in the assay de-
partment cot two pieces from the bar, which was then
stamped with the instil'', of the firm, and the bar returned
to the prisoner until the assay had been made. Whig' ton's
practice, however, appears to here been, so soon as he re-
ceived the bar beta into his possession, to cast another bar of
base metal exactly similar and of the name w. ight, at
the same time cutting out two pieces from it
and stamping it with an exact fac-simile of Mans.
Alston's Initials. A few hours afterwards the pri-
soner, in the regular course of business, would send the
bar hack to Messrs. Alston's, when there being no suspicion
of what had been going on, the bar thus composed of base
metal was paid for according to the value of that which had
been sent in the morning. By this means ;the prisoner was,
in one instance, paid as much as 14s. en ounce for that which
was really not worth more than 2s. ; to such an extent has
this been carried on, that within the hat few weeks, it is sup-
posed Whitton has received 1501. for metal ; the real value
of which was little more than a fifth of that sum. There is
a very strongcase spinet the prisoner, inasmuch asthe punch
with which the initials of the firm were imitated was found
on his premises, es well as a chisel exactly fitting the marks
on the imitation bars. He was fully committed for trial, but
bail for his appearance wan accepted to the amount of 4001.
HAMPSHIRE.
COMMISSION BY THE LORD-LIECTENANT. —O.
&later, Gent., to be Cornet in North Hants Yeomanry
Cavalry.

nun tins...ruomstn.r..
OUR ARADERB RAT RECOLLECT that a few months
sines a very extensive fire occurred at the village of N ceding-
worth, in this county. Boon alter its occurrence a fund was
raised by.subeeription, for the relief of the indigent sufferers,
and the circumstances connected with this subscription are so
honourable to the neighbourhood and to the public generally,
that they are worthy of record. Ina very short time upwards
of 1,2.501. were collected, which was found to be a larger sum
than was required, and the committee of management have
just issued a circular to the subscribers, stating that the
amount of subscriptions being more than adequate to meet
the exigencies for which it was raised, the committee have
resolved oa returning five shillings in the pound to each sub-
scriber of one pound and upwards. All subscribers not
claiming their dividend before the Ist of February next will
be considered as consenting that the same be added te the
funds of the Huntingdonshire Infirmary." It may be added
that to prevent imposition every case where relief was
afforded was strictly investigated by a committee of gentle-
men in the neighbourhood, it being considered of the utmost
importance that white the truly necessitous were assisted in
their difficulties, nothing should be done which could by any
means constitute a premium oSEXn incendiarient.
ES.
FIRE AT BRAINTREE.—AbOnt four o'clock on Sa-
turday morning a fire broke out at Mr. West's brush manu-
factory, in the very heart of the town, and adjoining an ex-
tensive candle manufactory. The fire engines were soon at
the spot, and, although the flames rifted with great fury,
and threatened for some time the destruction of the candle
manufactory, and much other valuable property contiguously
situate, the exertions of the inhabitants were successful in
confining the mischief principally to the brush manufactory
and other property belonging to Mr. West. The damage is
roughly estimated at 4,0W1. Mr. West's loss is said to be
severed by insurance.

LITERATURE.
Borneo and tlw Indian Archipelogo . By FRANI 8. MAIM
ItYAT. 1848.
Sarawak; its Inhabitants and Productions : being Notes
during a residence in thou country with H. H. the Rajah
Brooke. By ticon Low, Colonial Secretary at Lebow.
This work of Mr. Low is very complete and
trustworthy. The author enjoyed ample and more
favourable opportunities for scientific investiga-
tion of the natural productions of the territory vi
Sarawak, and for observation and comparison of the
various characteristics of the native inhabitants—of
both Malay and Dyak race—than any other European,
perhaps not even excepting Mr. Brooke; and the so-
count to which he has turned them is in these pages.
Altogether, Mr. Low was in Sarawak and about the
northern and western coasts of Borneo, for thirty
months. At first he was engaged simply as a natu-
ralist—collecting seeds and plants. This pursuit led
him further into the interior of the country than any
Englishman had previously penetrated, and enabled
him likewise to observe the habits and feelings of the
people in their more ordinary aspect—gnawed by
Rower, unconstrained by the presence of their masters.
Subsequently he was appointed secretary to Mr.
Brooke, and in that capacity added to the informa-
tion which ho had gleaned as a private observer
what we may call an official knowledge of the
country and its manifold resources. Besides all the
advantages of position, Mr. Low appears to have
i brought to his chosen task a good deal of natant
shrewdness, some acquaintance with the ethnology
and natural history of the Eastern Archipelago, a
keen eye for the contrasts and coincidences of tribual
character, an analytical turn of mind, and a generous
sympathy with the fate and prospects of the human
subjects of his investigation. These qualities—which
are prominently conspicuous throughout the work—
eminently fit Mr. Low for the task which he has
undertaken; and the result of his labours is a consi-
derable addition and a more methodical arrangement
of our stock of information respecting Borneo, and the
principality of Sarawak in particular. In fact, the
work before us is a manual of our knowledge of the
country—of its mineral, vegetable, and animal pro-
ducts—which is not altogether without its interest for
the general reader, but is more especially addressed,
and will be useful to, the merchant, the missionary,
and the legislator.
1 Borneo abounds in the most valuable minerals.
Gold is found in considerable quantities; and that pre-
cious metal forms a large article of export from Bana-
-1 wak. It is found in three situations—in the suedes
of limestone rocks, in the beds of rivers, sod IR ea
I alluvial soil. It abounds moat in Sarawak, Baraboo,'
Saugon, and Bonjar. The idle and listless Malays
prefer to search the soil, as being the easiest though
not always the moat profitable method of finding the
precious ore. On the sides of the limestone rocks are
found small holes, continuations of which penetrate
the hill for a distance of forty or fifty feet. Into
these the miner descends—the bottom opens in-
variably into a cave covered with earth of a loamy
nature. This is brought up, and when washed, yields
about one and three quarters of an ounce of gold to
each bushel of earth. This is exceedingly profitable
employment, and is carried on by all the poor and
lazy classes of the Sarawak community; the wages
of agricultural labour are consequently very high—
and it is exceedingly difficult to hire men at all for
ordinary work. How the gold could have been de-
posited in these caves is a curious question for the
geologist and mineralogist to discuss—the merchant
and the politician must deal with the fact as they
find it, and be prepared for the effect which such a
circumstance must necessarily produce upon the state
of the labour market in the principality. The more
laborious but certain methods of gold finding are
carried on by the more industrious Chinese—who
work in association, being all members of the great
kung-si, or company, the officers of which manage
all their affairs.
A more valuable product still is found in Borneo. Its
diamonds have long been celebrated as equal in size and
beauty to those of India or BraziL Irons also found in
quantity ; and it is supposed that formerly the Chinese
smelted it and cast it into cannon ; but the quality of
the metal is not good, and it would hardly yield a
profit to the European capitalist. Tin and nickel also
exist in abundance, and offer a more tempting field
for mining operations. The tin is of the kind called
stream tin—so abundant in Malacca and the Malayan
peninsula—the nickel is found combined with iron
and cobalt: it has not yet been worked. Silver, of
course, is not found there, any more than elsewhere
in the east in similar latitudes. Mercury is
known to exist, but it has not been yet ob-
tained in sufficient quantity for the purposes of export.
But as yet the most useful and profitable mineral ob-
tained in Sarawak is the antimony ore—being of a
Tither and more valuable kind than that obtained in
Europe. It was the discovery by the natives of the
value of this ore which produced that insurrection of
the Dyaks which resulted in the elevation of Mr.
Brooke to the rajabahip, and laid the foundation of
the permanent influence of England on the island.
Soon after the establishment of the settlement of
Singapore, the rajahs of Borneo finding that the anti-
mony of Sarawak commanded a ready sale there,
forced the unfortunate Dyaks to work the mines, and
exercised their cupidity and power with each wanton
cruelty that the rebellion ensued—the putting an end
to which was the price of the cession of the territory
of Sarawak to Mr. Brooke.