The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

moods are 25 in number, and have been in my custody ever
since.—Jane West, daughter of Port-Admiral Sir. J. W
sworn : On the night of the 11th of June last my father had
a ball at his house. I wee at the ball. I had, and wore,
a cross of gold, set with diamonds, during the night ; the
cross consisted of thirty-four large diamonds and twenty-
tbree smaller ones. I last it between the hours of eleven ta
the evening of the 14th and one in the morning of the 15th.
The prisoner new present, calling himself Matthew Low,
was an under footman t. my father at that time. I first
mimed the said crass and diamonds in the dining-room. The
prisoner bad been attending in that room. So soon as I be-
came aware of the loss I communicated the same icenerally
to all the servants in the house, and a search was instantly
made for it, which continued for about two hours. The loss
of the cross was afterwards advertised, and a reward offered
for its recovery. The prisoner continued to live as a servant
with my father up to the 10th Dec. last, when he left at his
own request, assigning the cause for so doing to be ill
health. I produce a cross with diamonds which resembles
the cross I have lost and is similar thereto ; I have looked at
the diamonds produced, and they seem to resemble in
rise and appearance the diamonds in the cross I produce, as
also in the one I missed. They are worth more than 501.
Cross-examined by the prisoner: There were other things
missed while you were in my father's employ. You were
never before suspected, neither were you suspected on tke
present occasion.—R. Dominy, jeweller, sworn : I have
looked at the cross produced by Miss West. It contains in
the whole 57 diamonds of different sizes ' • they are all bril-
liant stones of the first water. I have also looked at the
diamonds produced by Mr. Beswick, and they correspond in
colour, sire, and quality, to most of those in the cross pro-
duced, and from their sire and appearance I should think
they originally formed a similar cross to the one produced by
Miss West.—The Mayor committed the prisoner to take his
trial at thescesions.

THE SANITARY REFORM.—The sanitary committee
of the Axminster union recently reported to the board of
guardians as follows:—" The committee refrain front making
any lengthened remarks on the foregoing report', which will
speak for themselves. It is difficult to conceive anything
more wretched than the condition of certain classes of the
poor in many of the parishes of this union; and quite as dif-
ficult to separate from it the grossest vice and immorality.
The subject d. mends the most serious and immediate atten-
tion of the different parochial authorities, whe, although
they may not have it in their power to apply, at once, an
effectual remedy to the entire of the existing evils, may never-
theless greatly mitigate them by vigilant superintendence.
The exterior nuisances spread over the district admit of a
legal remedy, and this the committee strongly recommend
should be immediately applied, without partiality, favour, or
affection. Domestic cleanliness, perfect ventilation, and the
removal of all filthy deposits likely to generate or to increase
the virulence of pestilential miasma, are the best and surest,
perhaps the only, palliatives or preventives, which the pa-
rochid authorities have it in their power to apply against
the expected visitation of Asiatic cholera ; but there is one
which the committee think might be found, in certain cases,
eminently useful, namely, the establishment of reception-
rooms, or isolated buildings, for the temporary accommoda-
tion of tramps and vagrants, as practised in Axminster,
in the year 1832, which was supposed to have been the
principal means of keeping that town free from cholera,
while it existed in other places in its immediate neighbour-
hood." - --

---
LAND DRAINAGE REPORTII.—A mresponaent of
the Gardeners' Chronicle writes ; "In August. 1842, I
bought a farm of about 130 acres, called Marley Hall, near
Ledbury. It was then all pasture but 15 acres, and so wet
from speng water that, in that summer month, it soaked
under foot on riding over it. Anxious to do a little (prepa-
ratory) to all as soon as possible, I got between 20 and 30 men
together, and drained the whole farm by February, 1843,
with 3-inch drainers, laid on flats 2 feet 6 ins. deep, mostly
across the slope, 30 feet apart. In the year 1843 I cut more
hay by nearly 50 tons off 70 acres than my pied cessor had
in 1842 off the whole of the pasture, viz., nearly 115 sus.
It is true I used about three tons of guano (with fine soil
mixed), for manure I had none. My land is very deep, and
naturally loamy, almost all with a many bottom ; hence the
name of the place, I presume. My intention was, if neces-
sary, last year to put in more drain, within the 30 feet in-
tervals; but till last autumn I saw no occasion; all was as
sound and dry as could be wished, and a new character of
herbage was fast appearing, the fruit and other trees were
beginning to lose their mosey coverings, and that which re-
mained readily yielded to the brush and scraper on the
former, all of which were gone over. I have now
eighty acres under the plough all freed from hedge-
rows, superfluous ditches, and timber; indeed, en-
cept externally, all my arable divisions are ideal.
The ground is perfectly dry now, but I found pro-
gressively that the transverse drains did not continue to serve
their intended purpose, and that where the fall was not in
duly regulated and deep proportion to the intervals the
water (eland its way very near, and in some instances above
ground, between the two drains. This led to my removing
moet of them and relaying down the fall, and in other
instances cutting drains down the fall into the transverse
one., making them mains, as it were. This has
proved effectual; but I should say that where I
put in fresh drains altogether, I cut them from three to
four feet deep, and kept them, as previously, ten yards
apart. Tiles are unreasonably dear (355.), and labour by no
means first-rate. The coat I estimate at from 50s. to 31.
per acre, including everything, and I do not think I have
now a wet spot on the farm, though in 1842 it would have been
difficult to find a dry one ; and from being proverbially the
poorest land in the parish, I am (having kept plenty of well
fed cattle, saved and used my liquid manure, ploughed deep,
and dunged freely) often told it is too good for corn crops,
and that I may now challenge most of my neighbours. In-
deed, I last autumn ventured to offir a prize for the
best cultivated farm in the parish, and which was
returned to me for want, I may say, of a competitor.
I am •atisfie+l that true and efficient draining must
be with the fall of the land, and not across—that the
occupier should be the best judge of the intervals, but
that moderately deep, say from three to four, or even five
feet, are preferable to two feet six inches, and that the open
tiles are far more serviceable than pipes, not only as taking
away water quicker, but by the air that circulates in them
during the summer months extending annually the fissures
on each side the cuttings, thus enabling them to act more
freely every year, and that if a just and careful account be
prepared, taking everything into consideration, more par-
ticularly their comparative cost, diminished length, the ne-
cessarily increa'ed number used, the additional cutting and
laying, do., the difference will be found not more than five
or seven per cent in favour of the latter, in prime cut only,
to say nothing of effect.

IFlnt
MR. BARRY'S OCTAGON COURT AT THE NEW
lioUete.—The visitor to the new Houses of Parliament
should make a point of inspecting the roof of the octagon
court or central ball of Mr. Barry's great work. The task
is rather a dusty one, but, mason: dust forgotten, the ascent
is by easy enough scaffolding, and the sight is really won-
derful. Conceive two hundred and fifty tons of atone'
fashioned into one roof, and that one roof containing seventy-
two bosses, and each boss when unnerved (u they were when
we saw them) of the size of an ordinary millstone ! The
roofs of Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, and
King's College Chapel at Cambridge, supply a world of
wonder to strangers ignorant of the principles of architec-
ture ; but here the wonder mast still be greater when they
see the enormous masa of masonry which Mr. Barry has built
like a heaven over head. These vast bosses will be fashioned
into roses and portcullises, and, when seen from the ground,
will be at the distance of about ninety feet. This octagon
court is as striking an illustration of the magnitude of the
works now in progress at Westminster as any we could find
about the whole building.

ltbr Drama.
IFIATMARKEV.—A new five-act play, by Mr. Lovell,
the author of " The Provoet of Bruges," " Look before you
Leap," and other successful pieces, was produced at this
theatre lest evening ; end, at the same time, Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Kean re-appeared, after an absence of five years
from London. This new play is calculated to sustain the
reputation which Mr. Lovell has gained from his former
In its subject and incich ats it partakes of the melo-
drama ; but the conception of the principal characters, and
the vigour and beauty with which it is written, entitle it to
be regarded as a work of high and legitimate art. The
action of the piece is laid in England in the middle
of the seventeenth century. Sir Walter Amyott, a
colonel in the parliamentary service, is expected
by his lady and servants to arrive at his family
mansion on the coast of Dorsetsbire, he having ob-
tained the military command of the district. His wife,
Lady Eveline Amyott, is of a Cavalier family, and her bro-
ther, Lord Arden, has followed the sailed king to France.
She is in her chamber, with her maid. when they are startled
by the entrance of a stranger by the window. It is her
brother, who, having landed in England with a few friends,
in order to attempt a rising in favour of the king, has alone
been able to escape, and is seeking shelter from his pursuers.
Lady Ereline desires to inform her husband, but this her
brother will not permit, and insists, u the condition of ac-
cepting her aid, that she shall swear to keep his secret. The
sound of her husband's arrival is heard ; and there is barely
time to conceal the fugitive when Sir Waller eaters. The lady,
on the hint given by Maud, her quick-witted attendant, pro-
poses to change her sitting apartment, alleging that it has be-
come disagreeable to her from the long and melancholy hours
spent in it during her husband's absence. This is done, and
Lord Arden is installed in the deserted chamber, of which
Lady Eoeline keeps the key. There is an old steward,
Jabez Sneed, who, under an exterior et surly honesty, is a
consummate knave, and who hates his mistress because he
knows that she has detected his peculations in his master's
absence. This man suspects that there is some mystery
about the locked chamber, and discovers the disappearance
of the wine and provisions, which are secretly conveyed to
the prisoner. His suspicions being strongly roused by
Mauls over.anxiety to account for the suspicious appear-
ances, and by her refusal to get for him the key of this
room, he bethinks himself of peeping in at the window
t
and discovers a stranger within. He informs Sir Wafter or
what he has seen, and a scene of much beauty take a
place between Sir Walter and Lady Eveline, in which tk
husband, strong in his rooted confidence in his wife's honor
refuses even to admit into his mind a suspicion agar est
her. She retires, leaving the steward baffled for the •mo-
ment • but be persists in his assertion, and offers his ear uter
ocular demonstration of its truth. It is night. He coo ducts
his master beneath the window of the chamber, whet., they
see within, the lady conversing affectionately with estranger
Cavalier The unhappy husband falls senseless,
red nird
scene closes. In the next scene he is diseove in b tptiets,
overwhelmed with despair, while the villain, with essiir _
sough honesty, is =demerit% to sow Inns to ae, 9t
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