The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-29 00:00:00

LONDON ORPHAN ASYLUM, CLAPTON.

The general court of the governors of this insti-
tution was held yesterday at the London Tavern, Bishops.
gate-street, Mr. JAMES CAM, the treasurer, in the chair.
The SECRETABT read the 48th annual repet of the board
of management.
"Since the general meeting of 1860 69 children have
left the asylum ; three hare died—two witile under the care
of their friends, and one at the Asylum • i 5 have been ad-
mitted, via :—one Crimean orphan 'front the Patriotic
Fund, 12 by purchase, and 62 by election. At the present
time, therefore, with the 30 children this day to be elected,
there will be 472 orphans under the protection of the cha-
rity, making the total number benefited thereby 2,629..
As regards the health of the orphans, the medical
officer reported very favourably, notwithstanding the
occurrence of an epidemic (scarlatina) the last half-year..
In the early part of the year the managers were called
upon to oppose the formation of a cemetery on the land in
the rear of the asylum, under the apprehension that the
water of the asylum well might be injured or diminished,
and the health of the children thereby endangered. The
Home Secretary having listened to representations from the
managers and the principal inhabitants, the sanction of the
, government was withheld from the scheme. The following
liciefs have been received :—Baroness de Sternberg
(residue), 125/. ; Louis Sampson, INK., 451; Mrs. M. A.
Worley, 5091. ; Mrs. Ann Beridge, 901. The annual sub-
scriptions were not only fully maintained, but are even 250/.
is advanced the preceding year. The board were not only
mailed to meet existing Dibilities, bat to add 5001. to
capitaL At a recent inspection, the school committee
favourably of the condition of the two schools.
74:1111 report recorded the sanction of the 'tanagers to the
introduction of the study of the Latin and French languages
by the more advanced boys, and it is satisfactory to notify
tied' 58 boy. have made considerable progress 111 both
branches of education. Drawing has been again cultivated
with success. Thirty-five prizes were obtained by pupils
last year from the department of Science and Art, but with
the view of diminishing the prizes the government raised
the standard ; notwithstanding, this year's competition
resulted in 42 prizes. The condition of the, girls' school is
very satisfactory."
The balance-sheet for the year 1860 showed receipts (ia.
eluding a belittles from last account, 365/. Os. 6d.) ; total,
11,423/. Is. 10d. Expenditure, 10,8661. 18a. 7d. ; purchase
of 5421. Oa. Id. New Three per Coats, 500 f. ; balance in
favour of the charity, 261. 3a. 34. ; total, 11,42 M. la. 10d.
Stock standing to the credit of the coon :-2901. Be.
duffed Three per Cent.. • 2,1471. . Consolidated
Three per Cents., and 64,819/. 3a. 6d. New Three per
Cents. Of the above mentioned
_4,0661. 14a. 2d. is held on
aoroald of " presentation fund ;" and 1,5641. 9s. on account
of"savings bank deposits ;* balance in favour of charity,
26/. le. 3d.

SOCIETY POB PROMOTING THE AMENDMENT
OP THE LAW.

This society met last night, at their rooms Water-
loo-place, Mr. Collier, Q.C., 11.1'., in the chair. Several
gentlemen having been elected members of the society, Mr.
Edgar read a paper on some proposed amendments m the
law relating to procedure and evidence in criminal trials..
He especially referred to Lord Chelmsford's indictable
Offences (Metropolitan District) Bill, Lord Brougham's Plea
on Indictments Bill, Mr. Denison's Felony and Minds.
meaner Bill, and Lord Brougham's Law of Evidence
Further Amendment Bill. Of the first of these measures
he entirely approved, considering that its enactments would
be the triumph of common sense over common law, inas-
much as it would do away with the grand jury at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, as a superfluous institution, and one
well characterised as the hope of the London thief, the pre-
liminary hearing before the police magistrate serving all the
of justice aimed at in the grand jury system.
purposes
second and third mentioned measures likewise met his
approval, not only because they substituted for the plea of
not guilty the expression of a desire to be tried, but also be.
cause they went a meat length towards assimilating the pro-
cedure in criminal to that which prevailed in civil causes.
gisheering counsel for the accused to sum ep the evidence
ven on his behalf, and permitting those who objected to
an oath to give their testimony upowan affirmation. Indeed
he hoped soon to see the whole system of oaths abolished,
as it did not secure a greater amount of truth than a plain
declaration would, if those who wilfully gave false evidence
were to be punished as perjurers. He considered it an
error of the law of evidence in excluding from the conside-
ration of the jury all inferior matter, such as the occasional
acknowledgments made to policemen by the per-
son accused. The last mentioned bill would allow the
prisoner or his wife to give evidence in his
exculpation. While he advocated the principle of an unani-
mous verdict, he considered it opposed to htunanity to
keep the jury without food, drink, endinel while considering
thew verdict, or to retain thou in the custody of the sheriff
during a protracted trial. With respect to an appeal in
criminal cases, he considered the best tribunal would ho the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, who would enter.
taro the question on special reference from the Crown.
A long discussion took place upon the several points
referred to in the paper, which, on the motion of Mr. Pope
Hennessy, M.P., seconded by Mr. Cookson, was ordered
to be printed. The proceedings then terminated in the
anal meaner.

A Ibis Gum err EDlNDUROH.—Precisely at 1
o'clock p.m on Saturday, the citizens were startled by a
boom from one of the Castle guns. People on the streets
waited in wondering expectancy for the next shot, while
those within doors hastily turned up their ahuanacks, but
looked in vain for any royal anniversary at the date. The
expected succession of peals, however, did not meet the
ear ; the salute, if such it were, was eiklendy not a royal
one in the ordinary sense, and people not in the secret be-
came more puzzled than ever. But the feeling of suspense—
proverbially undeasint—was not of long duration ; and be.
fore many minutes, we believe, the great bulk of the inhabi-
tants—by reflection, by communicated information, by
intuition, or by some other more or less obscure process of
ratiocination—had arrived at the eoadusion that the gun
which they had heard was the first report of Mr. Hewat'e
audible time signal. Further inquiry elicited that this con-
clusion was nearly correct, and the precise circumstances we
understand to have been as follows:—About noon on Satur-
day, a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce met by
appointment with Sir John Douglas, the Adjutant-General.
and Colonel Maui, the Commander of the Artillery in
North Britain, to arrange about firing the time signal. The
deputation was accompanied by Professor Smythe, the astro-
nomer-royal; Mr. Davidson, superintendent of the Telegraph
Company ; and Mr. Ritchie, of Messrs. Ritchie and Son,
watch and clock makers, Leith-street, who, it may be here
said, have liberally offered to
provide,
apparatus for discharging the gun, free of expense, the
and also the requisite
circuit-break at the top of Nelson's Monument. The depu-
tation was most cordially received, and after the necessity
arrangements had been talked over, Colonel M'lean pro-
posed at once to proceed to the Castle and fix upon the most
suitable site for the gun. A gun was accordingly tired as
as experiment as nearly as possible simultaneously with the
falling of the time-hall on Nelsoe's Monument ; and to-day
(Monday) one will be fired hourly, beginning at 10.30 a.m,
and ending at 3.30 p.m. The charge at 10.30, 12.30, and
2.30 will bepioui
az pounds of powder, and at 11.30, 1.30, and
S." eight . The object of these experiments being
merely to ascertain the size of gun and the position which
are beet adapted to convey the sound most widely, they
must of course not be receved as any test of accuracy of
time,—Scotraion.
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J'ARMONIUMS—NEW MODEL.—
mom,. alum awl Co.. tn, Zoginit-streel

CM erareOgi.

TO CORZESPONDIINTS.
laysifliwaroto latetabal for ••ID. Lopreoo" London Kooning
Jrtw. aotO be at Oat oaf* IJ, boatorle.atrert, by Two
fitt ea %Ns diky of publication.

MATMAXICIT.
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pr mid.. awl Work4une. M 1 Fanny .11r1Inz.—And QUEEN
LALPYMIRD AND HER CHILIPFJ:N. or. IlarioNnin nowt a lbw.)
M Me. than Luis. TheLeckaroyo. Ma V. % right, %Ts* L

filLINC161(111.

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JAyrrs.

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lUMAXNIA.

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Miss I►uWy Mr► W. Cr./gni...AM A MEMAGE
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WON WATICI AT LONDON IIIWO&
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ToaatioN—llerNies, al. 4h. aw

LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 29.

Sii eti. people, li ing outside of Lancashire, have
been purriml for years put by a phenomenon which
is now to some extent explained. For twenty
years, and more especially for the last ten,
reflecting men have wondered what the Lancashire
manufacturers could mean by their apathy in
regard to securing a supply of the raw material
of their manufacture. Vigorous as they have
shown themselves in action on other matters, muni-
ficent, united., self-reliant—the very body of men
to carry any point of social importance, they
have been so apathetic as to be really
obstructive in the ease which of all others should
have been the most important in their eyes.
We are now told that they have been trusting
to the law of demand and supply. Is it possible
Can such men have supposed that demand and
supply would for ever act in correct response in
such a case as that of a product grown in one
place, under conditions of extreme precariousness

• -
Demand must sooner or later go famishing till
supply could recover, unless some alternative
were provided : and what wore we, with our huge
cotton interest, to do in the interval ? It would
have been as reasonable for .lusts n to have
trusted to the law of demand and supply in
Egypt after knowing about PHARAOH'S dream.
He might as well have been apathetic about how
the people were to be fed in a lean year, as our
Lancashire gentry about how their neighbours
were to be employed whenever the time should
conic which must come, when the crisis of Ame-
rican slavery should have to be got over. For
eleven years the American revolution has been
known to be in progress ; for five years we
have been aware that a Presidential election
would be the occasion of the crisis ; yet it
has been impossible to get either attention or
money from this zealous and opulent class of citi-
zens for an object which they should have taken
into their own hands. At last they seem to per-
ceive that a supply of cotton will not pour into
Liverpool at a moment, in answer to their call,
unless they see to its production. If they had
applied to this enterprise five years ago a million of
the money they have spared to fancy investments,
it would have been a blessing to the people of our
own country and of many others. They perceive
this at last ; and we may trust to their energy and
liberality, when once rowed, to take care that the
law of demand and supply has a fair field to work
in, and with all speed, so that millions may not
starve while the supply is being created.
The purpose being formed, the capital asked for,
and the existing machinery of the Cotton Supply
Association destined to be enlarged and strength-
ened, it is necessary, in the next place,'
that the object should be definite, and the'
conditions of the case thoroughly understood.
There is no time now for trying experiments about
where cotton will grow, and indulging in specula-
tions about whom we may civilian by setting them
to grow cotton. Such questions may be taken in
hand by those who feel a special interest in them ;
but they must not at this moment be mixed up
with the pressing business we have now to attend
to. We know where cotton will grow, in various
parts of our own empire : and we quite under-
stand what the requisites of a good supply actually
are. To those parts of our own territory, then,
we must turn, and not allow our attention to be
diverted from them till the plant is growing well.
3loney must be invested for securing the asoomary

and well-understood conditions in India and
Australia, in the first place ; and if in the West
Indies, eo much the better. We shall gladly buy
all good cotton that may appear from any part of
the world, grown by anybody ; the market is open to
all; butthe capital subscribed, and the effort devoted
to create a fresh and reliable supply, mutt be directed
to those fields which will most certainly yield
what we want. In order to this directness of
aim, it will be well to get rid of some notions
which hang about and obscure a good many
minds among us ; and especially the association of
negro labour with the production of cotton.

There is nothing in cotton culture which pre-
vents white labour being the best, as it is
wherever it is tried. The best cotton sent into
the muket from America is that which has been
raised, picked, and prepared by German, Irish,
and other settlers, in Alabama as well u in
Teas We are told, on high Southern authority,
in statistical reports, that one-ninth of the labour
employed in American cotton-growing is white,
the number of white labourers being, two years
since, about 100,000. The enormous waste from
bad tillage and bad picking by negroes has thus
become known to us ; and we hare learned that
the best and cheapest supply is to be obtained by
uniting the superior labour of the white settler
with the resources of the planter in the way
of extensive management—machinery, males,

de. We need hardly explain that oottott
does not, like rice sad sugar, require a
swampy soil and tropical heat. It grows
best in sea air, on the one hand, and on table
lands on the other. It has been found, by HUM-
SOLIer and others, flourishing in its natural state
at four, five, and nine thousand feet above the,
level of the sea. Within our own territory, we
know that the table land of the Dekkan is as fine
a field for cotton growing as cat be had. Bfs is

I Queen:limn' in Australia, where British labourers
can work as well a 1 at home. The occupation is
itself not more toilsome than ordinary agricultural
labour at horn*. This consideration is important
in many ways ; but to us, at this moment, it is
particularly so as turning our attention from negro
labour altogether, as a condition of production.
If the negroes of the West Indies will extend
their cotton cultivation, so much the better. They
seem to be willing ; and it will be worth some
effort to enable them to grow more : but what-
ever they produce will be in their capacity of
residents on a good soil, and not as negroes.
The same may be said of the people in
India. It is not as Hindoos or other
dark people that they will send us more
cotton (any more than flax), but as the inhabitants
of a good cotton•producing country. The time
will conic when there will be hundreds of thou-
sands of white men raising cotton in America, and
of negroes in the West Indies and in Africa, and
of various coloured races in India, and of whites,
and possibly Chinese in Australia, because the
work comes naturally to them all, on the proper
soil, through a wide range of climate.
This ought to be understood, that we may not
be led into the mistake of relying for our raw
material, more or less, on the chance of the migra-
tion of free negroes to Africa. All sensible and
liberal-minded mon must desire the civilization of
the African races, and particularly the introduc-
tion of trade and encouragement of industry, to
the exclusion of barbaric wars and the slavery
they are made to subserve. Let us have
as much cotton from Africa, and as much
of every other African product as can be
obtained from the natives to their own great
advantage ; but, if the introduction of free negro
immigrants really is necessary (as we hear from
Liberia) to the effective and steady production of
cotton, we must build no expectation on that
chance. It is thoroughly well known to all who
are practically acquainted with the free negroes of
the United States, Canada, and the West Indies,
that nothing can induce them to go to Africa.
Those in the British dominionschoose to live under
British rule. Those of the United States consider
their honour, loyalty, and attachment to their race
involved in this matter. We need only point to their
annual Conventions, with the regular resolutions
against expatriation, and to the failure of all
efforts, for forty years, to tempt or drive them to
Africa, for evidence of their purpose to stay where
they are. They know that the way to perpetuate
the slavery of their race is to remain a despised
class, from which the able and enterprising are
weeded out, and thrown upon the barbaric shore
of Africa; and they choose to remain in America
as Americans, and make themselves respected
there. Their children are now in the common
schools of Massachusetts, among the whites ;
their sons and daughters are at colleges,
open to students of all complexions ; they
have among them clergymen, physicians, and
opulent merchants, owners of houses and ships.
Why should they migrate to a barbarous country
to grow cotton for us, or anything for anybody
When we hear, therefore, as we now do from
Liberia, that we shall be supplied with avast quan-
tity of cotton whenever free negroes shall migrate
thither, with due skill and capital, in proportion to
the number of raw labourers on the spot, we must
leave that prospect out of our account as one not
to be depended on. There is every ground for
hope that Africa will, in course of time, supply
every manufacturing country with large quantities
of raw material ; and no effort bestowed in en-
couraging native industry is, we believe, ever
thrown away; but at present our affairs are urgent,
and we must look to those quarters from which we
may expect the most immediate and probable sup-
ply. A large capital first : a great effort made
in India (which may as well include flax, while
we sre about icin those parts of the Punjaub
which are to send us the flax wo want, sooner or
later) ; a strong pressure upon the Minister and
Government of India to urge forward such public
works as will affect the production of cotton ; a
ready acceptance of the good will of the Govern-
ment to encourage the settlement of Queensland
for the benefit of our cotton manufacture ; these
are the ways for us to proceed without the loss of
a day. It is well that somebody has had some
foresight. Mr. BAZLIY and a few fellow-workers
have prepared the way for action, and if the Lan-
cashire manufacturers will now supply the requi-
site capital with a liberal hand, we may suffer as
little as is now practicable from a liability which
we ought to have escaped altogether.