The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-05 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL.

A NEW LUNATIC HOSPITAL is erecting by the
trustees of the Manchester Infirmary at Stockport Etchells
(about eight miles from Manchester), of which the founda-
tion stone was laid on Wednesday afternoon, by Thomas
Townend, Esq., treasurer of the infirmary. The old lunatic
hospital was in the Manchester Infirmary, but in 183.5 ar-
rangements were made for enlarging the latter building,
and as the site of ground on which it stands in the centre of
Manchester does not admit of extension without great cost,
it was thought desirable that by separating the two institu-
tions, two very desirable objects might be attained—the one
a considerable extension of accommodation to the patients
suffering from accidental injuries and bodily diseases, which
require immediate attention ; and the other, the advantage
of purer atmosphere for lunatics, whose complaints (being of
the mind and not requiring such speedy attention, but
merely restraint, lengthened care, and soothing) would
admit of their being removed to a distance without danger.
Under these circumstances, an arrangement was made by
I the infirmary board to give the committee managing the
lunatic hospital upwards of 13,0001. for the building and
land hitherto occupied as a lunatic hospital in the
Manchester Infirmary, and with this and some slight addi-
tional funds they are now erecting the new hospital,
from designs by Mr. Lane, the architect, which have the
merit In the eyes of Dr. Conolly, Mr. Gaskeli, and other
gentlemen accustomed to the management of patients suffer-
ing from this unfortunate malady, of being singularly suited
to the main objects desirable to be secured in such cases.
The principal of these merits is, that whilst the building will
have the requisite conveniences of strong wards and places
of security for such persons, it will also more resemble a
private rural residence, than a prison, or place of confine-
ment, and he more suited to the exercise of soothing in-
fluences—the appearance of restraint operating, it is said,
where the lunatic has been a person of sensitive mind,
and in certain stages of disease unfavourable to a cure.
About sixty of the leading gentlemen of Manchester were
present at the ceremony, including Joseph Brothertou, Esq.,
M.P. for Salford ; Jas. Heywood, Esq., the new member
for North Lancashire ; Jas. Heald, Esq., the new member
for Stockport, the Mayors; of Manchester and Salford, Dr.
Cottony, Dr. Lyon, and Dr. Bardsley. The hospice: is in-
tended tor persons of the middle ranks of life—a class which,
according to Dr. Usually, have been much neglected hitherto,
whilst the lower class have had suitable buildings, and the
I rich can afford to purchase every ears.

YORKSHIRE,
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.—
Yesterday morning, as the porter and station master of the 1
Woodlesford station, the first station about five miles south
from Leeds, were engaged in removing • truck waggon,
which had been left by a passing train just before, from the
main line into a siding, the train of the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Company, which leaves Leeds at half-past seven,
rapidly approached, and before the waggon could be get
clear it was struck by the engine of the approaching train,
and the porter, Henry Doncaster, was killed on the spot, his
bead being severely crushed. The deceased was a steady,
sober, and cautious man, and has left a wife and young
family. It is due to the engine driver to state that the Lan-
cashire trains never stop at Woodlesford, and that he teo is a
I cautious and experienced man.

MILITARY OUTRAGE.—On Friday night last, be-
tween eleven and twelve o'clock, a picket of the 60th Rifles
were pursuing a prisoner through St. Thomas-street, Portaea,
the man turned into Oyster-street, and the corporal, suppos-
ing he had entered the house of a Mrs. Fennell, insisted on
entering it also. A neighbour, who had observed the trans-
action, told the corporal that the fugitive had passed on,
that he had not entered the house, and, moreover, that the
inhabitants consisted of only four quiet, respectable, inoffensive
females, who had, doubtless, long since retired to rest. In spite
of this information and remonstrance,ordering his men to draw
their swords, he broke open the door, and, together with his
myrmidons, not ooly entered the house, but the bed-chamber
of the alarmed females, demanding that the man of whom
he was in pursuit should be given up to him. Terrified by
this indecent and forcible entry the women cried aloud for
help; the police had been sent for, and in a few minutes
Inspector Way was in the house. He insisted upon the im-
mediate departure of these midnight intruders, and took
them to the main guard. He then expressed his determine-
tion to take the parties into custody if their names were not
given to him • subsequently this was done, and he left the
guard-house. 'The sergeant of the mined said, he had a right
to enter any dwelling in pursuit of a prisoner, end he would
search the house again. Inspector Way, however, said he
would prevent it. We believe a second attempt was made
but through the determined conduct of the inspector was
prevented. At one time there could not base been less than
ten or twelve persons—strange and noisy men—in the sleep-
. .
• whole

ing apartment of the startied women. During the
time it appeared the prisoner had been standing under a
doorway immediately opposite. It appears the affair is to be
" hushed up." We (Hants Guardian) shall be told that the
offenders have been punished in barracks. This will not ea.
tidy the public ; the offence was against civil rights, and
calls for punishment from the civil magistrate.

OPPOSITION TO TUE INCOME TAY.—On Tuesday a
meeting took place at Seuthsea, to consider the income tax,
and the arbitrary manner in which it is enforced. Mr. Ald.
Scale was called to the shale. He said he had seen the ad-
vertisement, and came in consequence of his dislike to this
arbitrary and unconstitutional tax. This odious impost
would not have been required if the government had lessened
some of ita wasteful expenditure.—Dr. Rolph proposed the
first resolution. He admitted that he was in favour of direct
taxation, it was the most straightforward and honourable.
Taxes were required for the support of the state, and what-
ever he had to pay he paid most cheerfully; but it was the
duty of a government to make the burdens as little onerous
as possible. The income tax was inquisitional, arbitrary, and
unwarrantable. He said, if we offer a constitutional resist-
ance we shall secure its repeal. It was the bounden duty of
every man to come forward to aid in this matter, irrespective
of party; and if to enthusiasm were added determination,
we should soon teach the government a lesson. lie re-
minded them that " lie who endures oppression shares the
crime ;" and concluded by proposing,
That this meeting deeply deplores the nerneitty there was for the
government for the time levying an income tax, and regrets that the
persons appointed to ear ry its provisions out, have not carried them
out in the .pirit of the act (vie.), in levying on actual income, but
have rated it on supposititious circumstances, aot based either Is truth
or justice. . .

Carried unanimously. Ultimately the meeting was adjourn-
ed until Thursday neat.

PRESENTATION TJRR.IIOE-B-Ca AT 14TM-A nu-
merous body of the friends and supporters of Mr. Roebuck,
soon after his regretted defeat, resolved to present him with a
testimonial of the respect which they entertained of his ser-
vices as their past member, as well as of their high regard
for his personal character, and his firm and undeviating
attachment to the principles which had first commended
him to their notice. The presentation took place yesterday
at the Guildhall, in the presence of 2,000 citizens of all
grades. The learned gentleman on arriving at the terminus
I from London was met by a body of his late constituents with
a band of music, and was conducted from that place to the
woe of presentation, where upon his presenting himself on
the platform be was received with the moat deafening plaudits,
which lasted for some minutes. The chair was taken byAdmirsl
Gordon, and an appropriate address having been read, the
presentation was made by the gallant admiral. The tiresen-
I cation consisted of a cabinet of oak, most elaborately carved,
together with 600 sovereigns in gold, and 1,000 pence, the
gilt of the operatives of Tiverton. Mr. Roebuck returned
thanks in a long speech, in which be gave a summary of his
own political history, and took a comprehensive view of the
present condition of the country. The proceedings concluded
with three cheers for Mr. Roebuck and three for purity of
election.

KENT.

THE HOP DUTY AND •
TILE ADULTERATION OF
BEEIL-At a Meeting of the Town Melling Agricultural
Association, T. L. Hodges, Esq., M.P., said there was a sub-
ject which was of very great importance to the people of this
county, to which he wished to draw their particular atten-
tion ; not with a view of exciting any discussion, or of
eliciting any expression of opinion, on that occasion ;
but rather with the intention of throwing out the sub-
ject for consideration at their market and other meet-
ings he meant, the present hop duty. He did not
speak with reference to what had recently occurred on
this subject, but with respect of the merits of the tax
itself. The duty was first laid on hops in the reign of
Queca Anne, as soon as it began to be found out that
hops could be profitably cultivated in this country.
Before the reign of Anne the hops consumed in England
were mainly imported from Flanders, there being no duty.
When it was found that the soil of England would grow
hops, and that Englishmen managed them as well as the
foreigners, and thus superseded the necessity for their
importation, money being wanted at that time to carry
on the wars in the Low Countries, the government im-
posed the duty upon home-grown hops. Now, there was
just as good reason for that as there would ha►e been
for imposing a duty on their cherries, their filberts, or
their apples, or any other home-grown produce. That step
was felt to be very bard upon the growers, and two or three
years afterwards the duty on foreign hops was imposed.
The duties continued through the different subsequent
reigns, being increased from time to time, until the early
part of the present century. All present at that meeting
felt in time way the weight of this tax. He knew that
many gentlemen fancied that this tax was paid as the
penalty for enjoying a monopoly of the home-market, and
comforted themselves with the reflection, that if they still
continued to pay this penalty, they would keep on the im-
port duty, and thus prevent foreign hops from coming in.
This opinion he believed to be quite illusory. The duty
was first laid on British-grown hops to raise money,
when hop growing began to be a thriving trade, and the
import duty was laid on as a protection ; but he would
take leave to say that that protection was almost a delusion.
Sir Robert Peel had some time sines reduced the import
duty to about 41., but supposing that the duty gave pro.
tection, it only gave it to the extent of 31., as, if there
was no import duty, the planters could afford to sell them
nearly I/. lower, in his competition with foreign hops. It
mieht be said that if hops ever again rose to the prices
which they had once sold for, foreign hops would come in,

notwithstanding the dut They would find, however, that
had
a new branch of trade arisen, principally out of the
occasional high prices of hops. Whenever a duty raised
the price of any article beyond the reach of the ordinary con-
sumer, the amuguler stepped in, and adjusted the matter u
between the duty and the consumer. The smuggler, how-
ever, could not do this in the case of hope ; but this was done
in the new branch of trade to which he had alluded, and
which now had increased to an enormous extent—he meant
the brewer's druggist. Whenever the price of hops was
high, the brewer's druggist stepped in and adjusted the mat-
ter between the planter and the consumer, by substituting
for hops other ingredients, on which there was no duty
whatever. To supposesthat the import dut7 operated as any
protection against the foreign hops, was, in his opinion, a
perfect delusion. What he had himself seen on the conti-
nent had convinced him that unless the prices of hops ranged
very high, they had nothing to fear from the foreign grower.
SUSSEX.

ANOTHER DEATH FROM THE IGNORANT CARELESS-
NESS or A GROCER-DRUGOIST has just occurred. The
Brighton Gazette, of yesterday, says :—" Wm. Freeland, a
labourer of Brightlioy, has lost his life through the mistake
of a grocer, who also sells drugs, in giving him opium in-
stead of assalictida. The inquest, which was held before
the coroner for the Rape of Hastings, resulted in a verdict of
Accideatally poisoned.' "