Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-03 00:00:00

THE NOIItHERN TIMES.--LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, NOVEMB.ER 3, 1857.

THE BANKRUPTCY OF MR, MARE, THE

SHIPB TJILDER.

On Saturday, in the London Court of Bankruptcy, a meeting took
place to consider a proposal made by Mr. Mare to pay a composition
of 4a. in the pound to his ere liters, with a v:ew of super_eding the
bankruptcy Under the act it is necessary that nine• seethe of the
creditors of a bankrupt shall agree to ►he offer before the court
can make the order for winning the fist. It appeared that 388
creditors, representing an amount of upwards of £151,000, had
proved their debt', exclusive of Mr. Reit. Of this number 2 8
creditors, representing 892,162, had dace the b inkrup icy sold
their debts to Messrs. Quitter an i Ball, the accountants, at prices
varying from 55. to 103. In the pound, leaving 170 creditors, whose
debts amoaated to aboue 867,838 dependent upon the ass is to be
realised. The propcsal now made had been accedted by more than
nine-tenths of these creditors.—Mr. Lee, the Obi 1 assignee, now
stated that the assets would probably yield Is. or Is. 61. in the pound
beyond the Is. 6d. which had already been paid ; bat he could not
state the exact am mat, since mach would depend upon a settlement
of the preferential claims made by Mr. Rolt for occup tion rent, and
the Commercial Bank for money advanced to complete some Govern—
ment contracts. The creditors who had assent d to the proposal
now made represented 8160,009, while those who disputed scarcely
rea:hed £2,000. Mr. Walter, on behalf of Messrs. Clayton and
Shuttleworth, of Lincoln, engi: eers, opposed this application cn the
ground that the preliminary meeting of creditors rendered necessary
under the act was illegal upon technical grounds ; that the proposal
for a composi ion was ma 'e in caejuection with Mr. Rolt, which was
not consistent with the act; that a an'Ecient number of creditors had
cot Wonted to the proposal, for that those who had sold their debts
had di Tudified themselves from a ;scnting and that various
measures had been resorted to for the parpo•e of inducing the
creditors to se:l their debts in order to extinguish the opposition.
The commissiane • overruled these objections, ar d said he weuld
tale care that the composition should be paid through the officers of
the con t. The order for effecting the composition was then made.
After that is completed, an order will be passed to annul the
bankruptcy.

TIM WATERLOO BRIDGE TRAGEDY.

Nothing whatever has trannp'red which will affsrd the slighte s
clue to the perpetrators of th's frightful murder. The inquiry before
the coroner, which resulted in a verdict of *Kul murder against
some person or persons unknown, confir.-t,s the opinion which we have
throughout expressed, that these bane; and remains of human flesh
so strangely disco 'eras', a e p srtions of the body of a man who had.
been most fouly murdered. The notion that the placing of the bag
on the aba'ment of the bridge was the wank of same medical students,
who desired to perpetrate a most repel-ive hoax, could not be recon-
ciled with the various facts connected wits the finding of the bag,
and the appearance which its contents presented. the off dal report
of Professor Taylor, was a most ela' orate and able one. It com-
pletely exhausted all that could be said on the subject, and distinctly
proved that the man had come to his death by visleat means. There
is an Absurd rumour atio a, to the effect that som s person has been
missing for trme time from Montagris—a place the name of w..ich is
i timitely associated with the career of a wonderful dog--and that
these portions of the human body which have been found have been
brought over to England from France for the purpose of being
thrown over Waterloo Bridge. Why a Frenrhamn ah ,nld choose a I
vis't to England for the puroo3e of c smses'ing these preo's of his
crime it is net easy to see, and his partiality for Waterloo Bridge, is
sti 1 more extraordinary. But the most carious cireurnstanee of all
wou'd be, that he should be able to pass the carpet bag aui its
contents through the examination of the Ca stom-h use officers. He
must be a mere than nasally gallant Frencliman if s,e wants el im a
bag with such contents, eel offer it for the inspection of a cus'orn-
house offi .er. It does not a;spear vari probable that the Montag -is
story is any nearer the truth titan the thousand on &Is which are so
industriously circulated on the. subject. It is certainly a most
remarkable thing, that with all the pnblicil which has beet given to
the affa'r, no one has come forward with any well-substantiated case
of a missing indivi iu sl, corresponding lawn degree to that of the
murderedman. The number of pc-sons who in England have neither
friend nor acquain'ance must be small indeed, an lit wou'd appear,
from all that is known up to the present time, that the victim must
hare been one of this very limited class of unknswe persons. It is
rta 'erstood, now that the jury hate returned their verdict, that the
reward of .4330 , or ginally offered by the Government for the
discovery of the guilty parties. wi'l be ins eased to a larger amount.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE AGAINST A
MAGISTRATE, AND COUNTER CHARGE
AGAINST A MER CHANT.

At the Mansion House, London, Mr. Edwin Ward Jackson, a
county magistrate, residing at Cravan 11 11 Gardens, Bayswater.
appeared upon a summons, charging that he crd, on the 17th October
last, maliziously write and publish a certtin scanda'o is and
defamatory libel, of and concerning Mr. Benjamin Co'eman, of 28,
Poultry, merchant, against th stat ste Gth and 7th Victoria, c .p. 96,
sec. 5. Mr. Tinaal Atkinson appeared in support of the summaas,
and Air. Serjmnt Parry for the defendant. Mr. Atkinson, in opening
his case, said that In 1815 the complainant was in business in Liver-
pool with a Mr. Told as stockbrober, and did some business for
defendant in railway shares, which resulted in a loss of £1,200,
which loss not, being made good by defendant, had, according to the
rules of the Stock Eachause, to be_ borne by complainant. Since
that time laJth patties had quitted L'verpoA, and negociations for the
setU,ment of the debt between them had taken place. The libel
alleged to hays bean published and written by the defendant was
containel in the Lllowing letter :

" Sir,—Thera is a deep-dyed sc!undrel a'Hont town, who is trying
various dodges for the purpose of ext_rting money. His practice is
to use every occasion to scr,ps acquaintance with gentlemen (as with
myself and others), and get to knOW their history, and the.i by simu-
lated tales and perverted stat smeats to threaten exposure. He has
cely been trying his hand with a member of the Stock Exch.nge,
ald a respectable merchant, bat has failed in the attempt. Having
heard him boast of numbering y u among his ptrso. ai friends, I
deem it my duty to inform you that. yon may be on your guard
against his desigaiag plaaaible Jew, whom I have discovered to bs a
most cunning, unscrupulous man, W..0,,e vocation seems to be to
tip up the unguarded and to ensnare his benefactors. His name is
Coleman.— I am, &c " A CITY AfEilCil.ll,lT."

" P.S. —I obviously cannot give my name in a letter which has to
pass through the post, bat whl tell yon all abut it when I next see
you." _ _ _

o' Mr. Benjamin Coleman extmined—l belong to the firm of Coleman
and Roberts, 29, Poultry, dealers in railway plant. In 1815 I was
ca-rying on baciness at Liverpool, with Mr. Todd, as a stockbroker.
the defendant also resided at . iverpool at that time; and although
we welts not his regular brokers, we did some business for him,
which resulted In a loss of £1,200, against which the defendant
claimed a : et-off of et 900. For tha. 9)o he brought an action, but
stopped it, a❑d ultimately he war posted on the Stuck Exchange as a
defaulter. I offered to testa the dispute bet nee as to arbitration, an
()Mx which he declined, and &bolt that time defendant lett
Liverpool. About twelve months after that, he came to oar office in
a very imdoverished condition, with the bu tons off his coat, and out
at elbows, and asked me to accept £2OO in liquidation of his d_bt of
1 20d. The receipt proclacsd was the resin of that interview.
[the receipt was read. It was dated ep:ember 10, 1816,
and was for £2,eo in fall and absolute liquidajou of all
demands on the p rt of prosecutor's firm ; and, beside), cents ned a
wedge that they would exert themselves to contradict all reports oa
the Stork Exchange, detrimental to defendant's character.] For
eight years after that I lost sight of defendant, who had, I believed,
retired to Yorkshire, and first met him about two ye re ago in the
street, near my preoent office in London. He stopped me, asked me
if I lived in London, and said ha si.ould be moat happy to Krve me.
I told him that I did so, and that the beat service he con d render me
would be to pay me the balance doe to ra e according to his solemn
promise. I ciao told him wher3 ray office was, and a day or two Wier
he celiedithwe, and asked m 3 what I thought of his becoming a
thrector of a projected bank. I advised him not, on account of I.t
antecedents. Mr. eerjtant Parry objected to this mode of examina-
tion, and lactated that the publication of the libel ought to b 3 proved
before other matters were gone into. Alderman Wire ruled teat ties
course should be adopted. Examination resumed r—On the 171 h
inst. I received by poet the letter end envelope produced. lam
sccetaiated with defendant's han 'whiles, and believer the word
.‘ Colemais" in the letter to be in his handwriting disgaised, and
the date most posit.vely is his. The writing on the inside
of the envelope, to the brat of my belief, is in the hand-
writing of hie friend, Mr. Jar !is, the solicitor. he letter
previously read by Mr. Atkinson was then put in as evidence].
When defendant called oil me in London, and I toll Ism it would be
batter fir bin not to be a bank director, because of his antecedents,
he argued that on'y one gentl marl hi London, besides himself, knew
of his aetese tents. Ha saw that gentleman about it, and two mon hs
subsequently the London and Paris Rank was brought out with
_ _

a .
defendant's name at a directo'. I rterwa,ds received a letter from
Mr. C .senove, which I showed to defendant, and asked him what
reply 1 shou'd make to It. Mr. Sergesut Parry again protested
against the line of examination pursued, as being in'ended merely
for the annoyance of defendant, and insisted that as there was no
proof of the publication of the libel by defen 'ant since com-
.plainant hid swo n to the best of his belief that the en elope
wa in the handwriting of Mr. Jarvdt, the case ouht to go
no further. Mr. Atkinson admitted that he was not then in a
positio a eont.lasively to prove the publicat oa of the libel
by defendant, but hoped to be able to do so if the case was
adjourns 1. Mr. Serjeant Parry objected that there was no ground
for adjournment. Alderman Wire said the evidence was quite
insu t cleat to supp tin the charge. and even contra dated the state-
ment upon which he had issued the summons. Ile cou d not,
therefore, consent to an ej ournment, but should dismiss the CaS3 at
Sarjeent Pavv—Well. the , as this case is now at an end, I
am pr pared to g've Mr. Coleman into custody far writing threatening
le:tsrs to Mr. Jackson, with i. tent to extort M 3 .ey ; and I will da
so um:ler the third section of the very Act under which the present
summons was taken out. Upon the a .thosity of Mr. Jackson, lam
prepared at on .e to give him into custo ly, or I wi.l apply for a
summons if Mr. Coleman wilt- undermke to a pear. Aldtrmati
Wire-1 think the lob-tt way will he for the parties to submit he
matter to some mutual friends and let then settle what shoal be
done Setjeant Parry—Oh, there is no u.ntnal friendship in the
matter, I assure your worship. If allowed to go Into the matter at
once, I that. have no difficulty in proving three separate att moptt at
extortion during September s•nd October, upon the past of Mr.
Coleman Alderman Wiro -If you have any charge to make against
Mr Coleman, let Mr. Jackson make a statement in writing, as was
done in V e present eise, and if I find a prima face case in that
statement, a summons will of course be issued. Mr. Atkinson—l take
it that my learned friend's talk of price d ngs against Mr. Coleman
is mere v 'pouring. Serjeant Parry—Oh, no, for I tell you, if the
alderman had allowed me, I should, upon my own opinion as a
lawyer, and on the authority of Mr. Jackson, have given Mr. Coleman,
into cus'ody, so V. at you may see it Is not mere vanourin,;. After
some further conversation, It was arrangel that a private applicat on
for a summons against Mr. Coleman should be nude at some future
day, en a written statement, and the parties then lilt the cow t.

* THE HULL FORGERIES.

The examination of Mr. H. S. Bright, chtrged with forgeriesto a
large amount was resumed at hull, on Thursday. and cittinned
on
Friday oefore Air. Travis, stipendiary rnagisiratei Aldermen
Gresham and Blyth, and Thomas Ward, Faq. Mr, . Thompson
appeared for the pioseentiofi ; and Mr. Wells for the defence. At
the clo.e of the investigation Mr. Travis inquire I if the pris,mer had
anything to say in answer to the charge. The prisoner said be was
perfectli and entirely innocent, awl that the shares were transferred
with the privity of hi= late partner; but that was done to obtain ad-
vance in order to enable them to carry on railway opera ions entered
into with the knowledge of Mr. Taylor's son. It was, he said, also
wit in the knowledge of Mr. Robert John Taylor that after his father's
death, h , ont of regard for Mrs. TtayLr and her Cattghters, with
a hone ha had been brottrht up as a son and brother, took upen his
shoulders .he insolvency of the concern, and towards the nominal
balance which vpearei due to the lat 4 Mr. Taylor, he had since paid
is nearly .49,001; and he wished to say farther, the principle
contained in these rem ar,:e w.s known to the momcsers of Mr.
Tay'or's family. Mr. Travis then corn/UW.Od the prisoner fur trial at
York. On the application of Mr. Wells the other cams were adjourned
owing to ,he illness of the prisoner.

LAUNCH OF THE GMAT EASTERN.

On Saturday the directors of the aistern Steam
Navigation Company decided, on the advice of Mr.
Brunel, the engineer to the company, that the launch of
the ship should commence to-day (Tuesday.) The
process of launching will be commenced at eleven o'clock

in the forenoon, and is expected to be continued for.two

days. Up to the middle of the day on Saturday it was
uncertain whethe.r the launch would take place so early,

or whether it would be postponed for another month.
Mr. Brunel hal stared most di4tinctly that he could not
he induced on any account to give his consent to the
launch unless he was completely satisfied that all the

arrangements which he desired were satisfactorily gem-

pleted• A careful examination of the whole of the
arraugements jastifie.d Mr. Brunel's fixing to-day (Tues..

day) as the day. A limited nurn‘r of tickets have been
issued for the accommodation of visitors in the yards of the

company, but the gradual process of lowering the monster
ship into the water may be witnessed distinctly from
many parts of the river, more especially from the
opposite side.
The mode of launching the ship will be entirely different
from that adopted in the case of other vessels. 0 wing to

her extreme length, the width of the river would not

..-. -
permit of her entering the water stern foremost, as in the
case of other vessels, and she will therefore be lowered
with her broadsida to th 3 water. As regards the

.•
preparation for the launching, it my ba useful at the
present time to repaat the general plan on which the
launching " ways" have been constructed, over which the
_ . .

huge structure will glide into the water. Two launching
" ways,".or broad and powerfully built tramways, have

been constructed by the railway contractors,,Treadwell
and C , running from under the fore and aft portions of

the vessel down into the river at low water spring-tide
mark. Each of thtse " ways" is 300 feet long by 120
wide, and the distance between the two is also about 120

feet. To guard against the shifting nature of the river

mud both the " wayb" are constructed with unusult
solidity and strength. The found•itio❑ of each is formed

upon seven rows of piles, the four outside rows being
driven at three feet intervals, and the three inner rows
at six feet. These piles are all forced ham to the gravel
of the river bed, so thit they graduate from a length

of 32 feet under the ship's bottom to 10 feet at the low

'ater mark.
TJ both sides of the heads of the rows of piles strong
mbers, 12 inches by 12 inches, are securely bolted, and

the whole area of the way covered with a concrete to a
thickness of two feet. Above the concrete longitu Hata
timbers of great strenath are secured at intervals of three

feet six inches from centre to centre, and run the entire
length of the way. Over these again are placed transverse
timbers of the same solidity, but only three feet apart,
which are bolted together and 'again bolted (bwn to the
wailings to keep them fixed under the pressure they will
have to bear, and prevent them floating at high tide. On
these transverio timbers, but running straight from the

vetsel to the water's edge are screwed railway

etals at intervals of 18 inches apart. They are
the ordinary solid bridge rails used by Mr. Brunel on
the permanent way of the Great Western Railway, ani

are of course of the strongest kind. The rails complete
the ways, which, thus resting on a bed of piles and
concrete, form a massive road of crossed and re-crossed
timbers, stretching from under the Great Eastern to low
water mark at an inclination of lin 12. Down the
railway metals on these ways, then, the ship will be
slowly lowered into the water on the cradles which are
constructed under her. The cradles are, of course, of the
same width as the " ways" over which they are to run.
They are made of large balks of timber, wedged and
driven in with a ponderous machine like a batteritn4
ram, so as to perfectly fit the ship's bottom. The timbers
are principally laid athwartships, with longitudinal
beams, and shores fastened to the outsides. All are
rivetted together with iron bolts and screws, and loaded
with iron ballast to prevent their floating with the vessel.
The bottom of the iron cradle consists of iron bars seven
inches wide anctan inch thick, placed at intervals of a
foot apart and with their edges carefully grow d off, so
as to offer no resistance to the railway metals of the ways
over which they will Jeave to pass. Both launching ways
rise slight'y at the centre, where the pies are driven at
wider interva's in order to allow for the depression which
is certain to be produced by the passage of such an
enormous weight over their surface. Before the 1 treacle.
all the metals of the ways will be thickly elated with a
composition of talbw and black lead, so as to offer no
obstruction from friction.
The chief points on which the energies of Mr. Brunel
are now concentrated are, first, to overcome the mo-
mentum of such a mass down an inclined plane of 1 inel2,
and prevent her, when once in motion, dashing entirely
away ; secondly, if stopped from any cause upon the
" ways," to overcome the resistance co! her enormous
weight and provide sufficient purchase from the water to
pull her slowly into motion agaM. The latter is quite a
secondary consideration, for it is upon the streng h and
good working of the check tackle that everything will
depend. As far as human ingenuity and skill can forsee
the strain which is to come upon this tackle, danger has
been provided against, and the whole apparatus forms the
.0303 t ponderous system of check tackle that has ever yet
been constructed. We have already explained what the
cradles are, and how the timbers of which they are com-
posed are wedged in by means of a hugh battering Tarn
till the whole is crushed into one compact mass, holt‘el
together with massive iron rods. To the centre of each
of these cradles is fastened the iron sheaves to
which the check tackle is attached. These sheaves
or pulleys have been especially made for this work; they
are of solid cast iron, and weighing five tons each.
One sheave will be fastened to each cradle, and wrought
iron chain cables of the largest size connect these with
two other sheaves, each of which is secured to a drum,
which pays out the chain, and in fact regulates the whole
operation. These drums and the framework on which
they rest leaving to bear the stroll of the whole mass in
motion. extraordinary precautions have been taken to
render them as massive as they could be made by any
known combination of wood and iron. The shape is that
of an ordinary reel, the axle of which is formed by beams
of timber and strips of wrough• iron bound together so as
to form a drum about 20 feet long, and 9 feet in diameter.
At each end of the cylinder ate the wheels of the drum or
discs, 16 feet iu diameter, ete.;o- st solid iron, and weighing
upwards of 20 tons, so that to %eight of each drum is
more than 60 tons in all. The ax the disc is set in a
frame of iron, while around its outs .ve passes a band
cf wrought iron to work in the men of a frictioe
clutch or break. This, with the, aid strong iron
levers, 20 feet long, brines such a pressure to bear
upon the discs of the drum as to lower its
revolutions, or entirely stop them in case the chain is
being paid out too fast. Our readers, however, may,
naturally ask what retains these drums themselves.
Well, then, the 'came in which they work is set in a solid
bed of timber formed by drivine, down a mass of piles
forty feet aqua-e, and going down to the gravel Toe
whole of this is bound together with iron, and strong
shores pals from the cube of pies to the bed of the piles,
on which the launching " ways" are built. So that, in
fact, no matter what the strain, it would be impossible
for the setting of the drums to give, unless the whole
river's bank gave way with them. One of these drums
is built opposite each cradle—ft:o chains to be used
between them and the cradles are the ch tin cables of the
Great Eastern itself, which are 21 inch in diameter, or
about 601 b. the link.
These are the appliances for preventing the monster
run ring down too fast, but a powerful apparatus has also
been devised to act in a contrary manner—namely, to
pull her off the "ways" in case of the,cradles sticking fast
on them through any unforeseen contretemps. For this
purpose four large lighters are moored in the tide way,
about 100 yards from the shore, which are fitted up with
the crabs and sheaves used by Mr. Brunel in the recent
raising of the viaduct over the Tamar at S dtash, and in
building the celebrated railway bridge at Chepstow.
Each of these crabs, worked with a win Mass, gives a
strain of 60 tons ; and this force, if necessary at all, is to
be applied amidships. Two lighters will also be moored
at the stem of the ship and two at the stern. The chains
passing from the ship to these latter will return again on
shore so as to be worke 1 with a double purchase. Small
stationary engines of 20 horse power will be used to haul
in these chains, so as to make the whole force available
to pull the v: ssel off upwards of 600 tons. The pro-
cess of knocking away the shores from under her were
expected to be completed on Saturday, when the v.,ssel
will rest only on the two cradles, fare and aft. Before
the lest of these, however, are removed, care will be
taken that the massive check tacl:le to hold back the ship
is properly hauled taut, for when the vessel is left on the
cradles. and the cradles on the sloping ways, the launch
might take place at any moment in the most abrupt and
unexpected manner. The way ire which the supp wti•rg
shows and struts have to he removed, is as peculier as all
else connected with the monster. It is nearly four years
since these beams were put to s epport the sides, since
which the iron shell has grown into the dimensions of a
city, and pressed its supporters so firmly to the earth that
it was found almost impossible to remove then. The
difficulty has been overcome by employing hydraulic
j tcles, of 60 tons power, by applying watch to the beam
or strut the earth in which it rested was compressed by
immense force till it sank two or three inches when the
beam was loosened and gently withdrawn.