The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 9, 1867.

necessary step towards elevating the opirkin of
Society about it. How this can beat be done is
a question for statesmen, but as a matter of
practical detail it might be easily settled when the
determination to settle it had been come to. Even
to forbid the periodical publication of the poll,
and to keep the voting secret until the official
promulgation of the numbers, would take away
half the excitement, and more than half the temp-
tation, which now exists. But an impression
prevails among persons who take an active
part in elections, that the abolition of canvassing
is the real remedy for bribery. They have seen
with much satisfaction that the conveyance of
borough voters to the poll is now made illegal,
and one opportunity of corruption thus removed ;
and they believe, as all men who have had expe-
rience in the matter perceive, that it is only by
removing the temptations to bribery that the evil
is to be overcome. When these temptations are
lessened to manageable proportions the opinion of
Society will fully sanction the enforcement of
penal laws against it, and Electoral Corruption may
become as much a thing of the pmt as that yet
worse corruption which in the evil days of the
Restoration defiled the throne, which • hundred
years later was still common in Parliament itself,
and which has now sunk to the lowest stratum of
our political constitution preparatory to its fins,
expulsion from our political system.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

the Erfurt.

BALMOB.AL, Ocr. 7.

The Queen, Prince and Princess Christian,
Princess Louise, and Prince Leopold, attended Divine sm.
vice in the parish church, Crathie.
The Rev. M. Taylor, minister of Crathie, officiated.
Sir Stafford Northoote and Mr. Mowbray had the
honour of dining with the Queen and Royal Family.

A Committee of the Lords of her Majesty's Most Hon.
Privy Council eat yesterday at M nitehell, on the subject
of the cattle plague. The lords present were Lord Stenley
and Lord Robert Montagu.
Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial-office
to the Governor of the Falkland Islands.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge left
Knowsley yesterday morning, and the rest of the guests
departed during the d►y, exoept Lord Barrington, who is
stay '.g a few days longer. Doling the duke's stay at
Knowsley there has been some exoellent sport on the pre-
serves, the shooting party being made up of the
Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of Ellesmere, Viscount Bar-
rington, Lord Colville, Lord Hyde, the Hon. F. A. Stanley,
M.P., Lord Delamere, and Colonel Tyrwhitt. The prin-
cipal sport was on Monday, when the Duke of Cambridge
and his party took the Roby beat. At the close of the
shooting the duke's bag numbered 104 ; Lord Bari :ngton's,
111 ; Lord Ellesmere's, 87 ; Colonel Tyrwhitt's, 104 ; total,
406. The party in charge of the Hon. Mr. Stenley took
the Simondswood beat, and at the close his bag Ger nted
133 ; Lord Colville's, 151; Lord Delamere's, 108 ; Lord
Hyde's, 129; total, 521. The last bag included a splendid
quail. Considering that she duke's party had the most
"populous " part of the preserves, their shooting, in com-
p►rison with that of Mr. Stanley's, is rather below the
average. In the noun* of yesterday the Hon. Mr. Stanley
left Knowsley on ► visit to the Duke of Marlborough, at
Blenheim.

HEALTH or LORD DERBY. —The health of the
noble earl is so far restored that his lordship was able on
Monday to witness the sport enjoyed by his distingrAed
guest the Duke of Cambridge.

. -
Earl Russell arrived on Monday night at the
County Hotel, Carlisle, by the Portpatrick route from Bel-
fast. His lordship is in excellent health.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Headfort passed
through London last week from Baden-Baden, on the;v way
to Inland, to be present at the nuptials of Lord li(112liS and
L►dy Alice Hill, at Hillsborough Castle.
The Earl and Countess Amherst and Ladies
Amherst have been on a tour of visits in Ireland.

Viscountess Clifden and family, after passing
several months at Gowran Castle, are on their way to
Northamptonshire.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Dovrnshire are
surrounded by • large party at Hillsborough Castle,oounty
Down, assembled for the marriage of Lord Kollin!, eldest
ion of the Earl of Bective, M.P., and Lady Alice Hill, the
Marquis of Downshire's only daughter, which takes place
to-morrow.

His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant will return
to Dublin Castle from Baronscourt to-morrow, and will be
present at the conferring of degrees 4u the Queen's Uni-
'remit; on Friday.
A marble statue of the late William Smith
O'Brien has just been completed by Mr. Farrell, the scalp.
for ; and on Monday the Dublin Corporation was asked to
grant a site for its erection. The site selected by the core.
mittee appointed by the subscribers to the statue is a
vacant space at the south side of Carlisle-bridge. The ap-
plication was referred to one of the committees.

_
The Duke of Argyll opened the Glasgow Young
Men's Christian Association on Monday night with an ad-
dress on " the Nature and Obligation of Religious Tolers-
tion"— which he declared not to be founded on scepticism
or indifference, on the notion that theological error is of no
oonsequence, or in the denial of a moral element in belief,
but on oar inability to judge how far and how little our
knowledge and reception of truth in others has been
affected by tendencies of mind and character worthy of
censure and reproach, and our ignorance whether or not we
perms pure truth. These principles his grace went on to
apply to the existence of various religious sects, and to
their movements in the churches.

The Ritualist paper, the Church News, says in its
" Notices to Correspondents :"—" Cranmer was not only
an apostate, traitor, perjurer, robber, and persecutor—so
far be merely shared with Ridley, Latimer, Jewell, Bale,
ko.—but he was a cow►rd and time-server also, and there-
fore ranks even lower than they."

The session of the Congregational Union Con-
ference opened in Roby Chapel, Manchester, yesterday
morning, with an address from the president, Dr. Campbell,
of Bradiord. In the evening, the annual general meeting
was held in the Free-trade Hall, under the presidency of
Mr. Samuel Morley. After a brief speech from the chair-
man, the Rev. Dr. Vaughan delivered an address on
" English Congregationalism in its relation to the Churches
of the Put and Future," and the Rev. Dr. Halley also
spoke.

The annual meeting of the Metropolitan and Pro-
vincial Law Association was held in Manchester yesterday.
At the morning conferenee various legal subjects were e4s-
missed by the members, who assembled from ail par ta of Eng-
land. In the evening a banquet was given by the Manches-
ter Association to their professional brethren. Amongst the
guests was Mr. Robinson Fowler, the stipenclimy magis-
trate of Manchester, who received the thanks of the as-
semblage for the manner in which he had presided on the
bench during the recent examination of the Fenian pri-
soners. In response, Mr. Fowler said he felt that the
charges of partiality and injustice which had been brought
against him were untrue ; but as the inquiry was a poli-
tical one no amount of insult would make him call upon
the prisoners' advocates to desist or leave the Court.

A curious point came before the Revising Bar-
i:ster at Warrington yesterday. An election agent, in
sending in en objection, did not sign the notice in the
usual way, but stamped a fee-simile of his signature upon
the paper. This, it was contended, was not a signature
within the meaning of the act, but the Revising Barrister
decided that it was sufficient. The matter, it is stated,
will be carried before the superior courts.

A letter from Lucerne says :—" The summit of
Mount Pilate is covered with snow. The price of mules at
the foot of the Rigi has fallen 50 per cent. below the ordi-
nary quotations. The hotel-keepers are growing extra civil
as their last guests depart, not soon to return. The ills.
minators and pyrotechnist. at the Giesbach have ceased
from their disreputable work, and for a time the picturesque
falls will be allowed, by night as by day, to preserve their
native beauty, without once being degraded to the level of
a painted water-fall in a pantomime, or of a coloured foun.
taro at Cremorne. Switzerland is beginning to look na-
tural, but it is also getting very cold. The season must
be really at an end, for I have just seen one of the prin.
cipal guides hurrying to the railway station in company
with a young lady whom he calls 'so con naisaaner,' and to
whom he gallantly proposes to show the wonders of the
Paris Exhibition."

THE MAYOR OF WOLVERHAMPTON ON RITUALISM.
—The Mayor of Wolverhampton (Sir John Morris) pre-
sided on Monday at a lecture delivered in the Corn
Exchange in that town, by the Rev. Samuel Coley, Wes.
root " Books, and how to read them." Sir
John, in introducing the lecturer, said :—" It appears re-
merkable that at the close of the great congress I am so
soon paced among that section of nonconformists towards
who nso much anxiety was shown at that meeting.
There appeared a professed yawning for the followers
of John Wesley to return to the bosom of my church,
which church I love, in which I was born, and in
which I hope to die ; but in saying this. I mean her
faithful adhesion to the principles of the Reformation.
I love her order ; I love her sonptural character ; I love
her recognition of seasons in the Christian year ; in a
word, I believe the church of England in her evangelical
aspect may be the greatest power for good o► any system
known. I should, indeed, long to see not only you, but all
evangelical nonconforming bodies one with my church. I,
however, fear we cannot fully hope to see you rejoin us,
while men in this very town—avowed members of the
church of England—are buoy trying to establish an
order of the holy cross. They speak out in their
pamphlet, for they boldly deny the Protestant character
of the church of England. They say our forefathers expe-
diently submitted to protestanterroron account of the wild
violence of the protestant faction. I therefore do feel
that before we can be united there must be some d'stinet
avowal that these gentlemen are not the intepreters of
the doctrines and practices of the church of England.
The matter really appears to be assuming such propor-
tions as must make this become a political question, and
Ido say I would ten time rather vote for an honest
Roman catholic. I have every respect for an honest
Roman catholic. We lies in critical times, and we must
do our duty, regardless of the praise of men. I would
now ask you when is oar time for action in vindicating
our principles ? I know you will reply with me, when our
principles are attacked. Then is the time we should show
our colours. If we do not do so, we are guilty of cowardice
in the sight of God."

LAW IN TELLIGENCE.
(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Kr. Oommianoner Window.)
IN RE PETO, BETTE, AND CHARITON.

The bankrupts in this case were the well known
firm of Sir Samuel Morton Peto, Bart., ILP., Edward
Ladd Betts, and Thomas Russell Crampton, de-
scribed as of Great George-street, Weattnimster,
trading as Pete, Betts, and Crampton, contractors for the
construction of public works and builders. The adjudica-
tion was made on the 3rd of July, on the petition
of Messrs. Joseph Warden, of the Railway Iron
Works, Birmingham; and the bankrupts at once
surrendered and obtained their protection. At the
first sitting, on the 24th of July, the following
gentlemen were chosen assignees :—Mr. Richard Fothergill,
of Aberdare, Glamorganshire ; Mr. Peter Rolt, of St.
Michael's-home, Cornhill ; Mr. Thomas Fenn, of 3, Royal
Exchange-buildings; and Mr. T. C. P. Cunliffe, banker,
Leadenhalletreet.

The amount of proofs then admitted was comparatively
small—not above half a million—and those principally
spinet the estate of Pete and Betts ; but an enormous
claim was put in by Mr. linklater on behalf of the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway, for not lees an amount than
6,661,9411. 19a. Id. This staggering amount was thus com-
posed: Dr.—To cash from tbe contractors of the company, and
payments made by the contractors on account of the com-
pany, 2,171,3361. 18e. 7d. ; to works per certificate of the
company's engineers, 2,993,2641. 14s. 3d. ; to cash received
from the public for Metropolitan Extension stock and de-
bentures taken by the contractors, 4,171,453/. ; to
balance due by the contractors, exclusive of ',tenet,
6,661,9411. 19s. Id. ; total, 15,997,9931. lb. Ild.
Cr.: By 'nab from company to the contractors, and pay-
ments made by the company on account of the contractors,
4,403,4421. ; stock and debentures taken or realised by the
contractors, 11,594,5511. Ds. I Id.—total, 15,997,9931.
lls. 11d. The claim was adjudged for cocuddemtion.
This was the sitting for examination and discharge ;
but since the last meeting, on the 24th of July, no accorets
have been Sled, and the only addition appealing on the
proceedings is an order which was made some weeks ago,
at the instance of the assignees, authorising the purchase
of certain Exchequer bi"s to the amount of about
30,000/.

Mr. Lawrence appeared for the bankrupts, and stated
that no acominte had been filed, and it was impossible that
they should have been, looking at the magnitude of the
transactions in which the bankrupts had been engaged.
At the last sitting it had been perfectly understood that
further adjournment would be necessary, and that no dis-
cussion or examination should now take place. Messrs.
Coleman and Co., who were engaged in the preparation
of the accounts, had been also engaged under the deed
of inspection, and great facility would thus be derived.
was proposed to take an adjournment till the first week
in January—the transactions being so vest that it would
be utterly impossible to present satisfactory accounts
much earlier ; and it was proposed that the accounts should
be filed a month before the day fixed for the
last examination. Another reason for taking this ex-
tended time was that certain questions were pending
elsewhere between the London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway Company, and the bankrupts ; and under those
proceedings Sir Morton Peto had been ordered to carry
back his accounts to December, 1863. Those accounts
would show beyond all question th►t Sir Morton was at
that time a man of colossal fortune.
The commissioner—l imagine the accounts cannot well
be filed until the settlement of the questions in dispute
'between the bankrupt and the London, Chatham, and
Dover Railway.
Mr. Lawrence said that when the matter came to be in-
vestigated there would not be so much difference in
figures. The question, if question at all, between the
parties would be one of principle or legal liability
r►ther than one of amount; and when the bankrupts had
given ►ll the information which it was in their power to
supply, they hoped that the court would then pass their
examination and grant their orders of discharge. It would
be a serious injury to them were they compelled to wait
the determination of questions which really did net
affect their position before this court.
His Honour was understood to say that that would be
matter for further consideration. Probably the aisignees
might require some time to examine the accounts.
Mr. Denton, representing the assignees, ounsentad to
the proposed adjournment, but said that it would be ne-
misery for the assignees to h►ve the assistance of an
accountant in investigating these enormous accounts. It
was suggested that Mr. Bishop, of the firm of Coleman and
Co., should be appointed.
After some discussion Hs Honour said he did not think
the appointment of an accountant for the assignees was
necessary, as Messrs. Coleman and Co. had been appointed
to prepare the accounts for the bankt opts.
Mr. Linklater, Mr. Chidley, Mr. Cunningham, and
several other professional gentlemen appeared and tendered
proofs.

- An adjournment was then ordered till the 17th Jimmy
next, for the last examination Only.
The whole of the bankitipts were in attendance during
the proceedings.

THE POLICE COURTS.
(THIS DAY.)

BOW-STREET.
TAMPERING WITH A PRISONER.

Joh» rnmsor, a tall, powerful-looking specimen of the
London Irish " rough," was charged by Theophilus Red-
stall, the gaoler of the court, with assaulting him in the
execution of his duty, and also with using threatening
language ; and Margaret Murray, an ill-favoured woman
of the same class, was charged by William Lynch, one of
the warrant officers of the court, with attempting to rescue
the other prisoner.
It appeared from the evidence that the assault occurred
through an attempt of the prisoner Connor to pass "•
bottle of spirits to a prisoner named Bryant as the latter
VIM getting into the prison van. A scuffle ensued in which
Redstall was pushed by the mob and further assaulted.
The magistrate said that Connor, for the assault,
must be imprisoned for one month, and must then find
two sureties of 10!. each to keep the peace for three months.
He then inquired as to the character of the woman Murray,
who, it seemed, had been repeatedly in custody for assaults.
The magistrate committed her for 14 days.