The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-09 00:00:00

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

The commemoration of the 50th anniversary—the firs
jubilee—of the above society was held yesterday ir.
Exeter-hall, and attended by a very numerous meeting
of the various religious denominations, among which
many of the Society of Friends' were observable. The
proceedings of the day were opened by the Rev. Mr.
Mellar reading the 61st chapter of Isaiah. The chair
was taken by the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, upon whose right the Rajah of Coorg attracted
much attention. The Eastern prince was attired in a
close-fitting surtout of blue cloth, richly embroidered
with gold lace, and wore a small blue cap of the same
materials. Upon the left of the chair the Right Hon.
the Earl of Carlisle and the Bishop of Winchester were
seated. After the meeting had commenced his Grace
the Duke of Argyll entered and took his seat to the right
of the Rajah. The noble chairman read a letter from
the Chevalier Bunsen, the Prussian Ambassador, ex-
pressive of the sorrow of his Excellency at his unavoid-
able absence, and referring to the approaching celebra-
tion on Sunday next at Berlin of the jubilee of the
Prosian Foreign and Bible Society. The noble earl
the'li proceeded to detail the rise and progress of the
British society in a speech which was subsequently
characterised by the rev. prelate on his left as rising to
the exigencies of the occasion. it transpired that from
the first institution of the society in March, 1804, after
years of anxiety and labour, upwards of 8,000 societies,
including Colonial, Irish, and Foreign branches, had
been established. The criptures had been translated
into no less than 148 languages and dialects, of
which 121 had, prior to the establishment of the
society, never appeared in type. Upwards of 43,000,000
of these translated copies had been disseminated
among ,it was computed, not less than 600,000,000 of
the human race. Of the languages into which these
copies had been rendered, upwards of 25 had existed,
hitherto, without an alphabet, and merely in an oral
form. This society was essentially " a Free-trade
Society," a "Peace Society," and a " Defence Society,"
—one, too, affording a " cheap defence to nations."
The resolutions were then proposed and seconded by the
various distinguished visitors stationed upon the plat-
form, the most important being the one for the establish- 16'
ment of a jubilee fund to aid the further proceedings of St:
the society. A voluminous extract from the report of 20
the society, circumstantially detailing past progress and 14
future auspices, was read, and listened to with much 50
attention. Letters from many of the presidents and 20
vice-presidents of the local societies were read, contain. 111
ing apologies for unavoidable absence—among the 10
rest, one from the Earl of Roden, president of the St.
Dublin society, was read by the noble chairman. The
speakers were generally received with much applause, 2010
more particularly the Earl of Carlisle and the Rev. St.
Hugh Stowell. The Rev. Lord Bishop, the Rev. Mr. 60
James, and the Rev. Dr. Duff met with much applause 40
in their several modes of dealing with the topic in hand. 25
This, of course, mainly referred to the propagation of 25
the gospel, but general reference was likewise made to St.
those subjects which, thOugh secular, still had more or 8i
less close relation to the principal subject of discussion.
The despotism, anarchy, and Romanism of the Con- 50
tinent were the principal subjects adverted to, and were 25
freely handled. Allusion was likewise made to the sla- 100
very of America. Considerable eloquence was displayed St,
by those who addressed the meeting, and the alternations 6
from the peculiar oratory of one to the other upon the 25
meeting was marked in its effect. The former presi- 50
dents of the society, and particularly Lord Bexley, had a 20
tribute of respect and esteem awarded them, as did
likewise the former secretaries and other officials of the
society. The noble earl in the chair was much eulogised
for the support he had given the society, and his strenu-
ous efforts generally for the diffusion of knowledge and
the amelioration of the intellectual condition of the work-
ing classes. Great respect was evinced for a Mr. Hughes,
an itinerant preacher, formerly well known in the North,
whose expression, while propagating a provincial Bible
society, of the feasibility of making it one common to
the whole empire, had been the germ of the present so-
ciety. The temporal, head of the Church was often
alluded to with unfeigned respect, and the Rev. Dr.
Duff described her gracious Majesty as having entwined
herself into the deepest recesses of the hearts of her sub-
jects by her unswerving piety and Christian devotion.
The subscriptions above 501. to the proposed fund
were then read over. Two sums of 5001. were contri-
buted by Mr. Thomas Mines, M.P., and Mr. John Re-
mington Milnes, respectively, besides one or two others
to the same amount. Two sums of 1,0001. by Mr.
Farmer and Mr. James Foster, and an additional sum of
1,0001. from an individual who wished for the present to
be anonymous.
The SECRETARY, in bringing forward the list of sub-
scriptions, stated that he had come prepared to ask the
meeting for a sum of 7,0001., but he was happy to say
that sum had been already exceeded by the munificent
donations above-mentioned and he would, therefore,
merely express the hope that it would reach the sum of
10,0001. in the result of that day's proceedings.
After a few more speakers had addressed the meeting,
it broke up, at about half-past four, after the observation
of the usual formula.

BATTERSEA PARK.

•The following proposal from Mr. Thomas Cubitt, the
eminent builder, has just been made public in a Parlia
mentary return:--
_

3, Lyall-street, Belgrave-square, Feb. 11.
Sir,—By the report in the Times paper of the 18th De-
cember last, Mr. Disraeli, then Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, made some very strong observations, in his speech on
the previous night, with regard to Battersea-park; and as
this park was suggested by me, I cannot help feeling much
hurt by the way in which he spoke of it. I have always
considered that that park was a proper subject for the
Government to take up, and had it been carried on with-
out so many years' delay and so much loss of time, I am
quite satisfied that it would have been a means of pecu-
niary profit, as well as of greet advantage to the metro-
polis.. _

Perhaps, however, this may not be the opinion of the
present Government, who may not think it a subject worth
prosecuting with the vigour that public works require to
make them successful • but whatever may be the inten-
tions of the Government, I fear there will be no person
who will, during so important a political juncture, think it
a matter worth his answering ; and so that part of Mr.
Disraeli's speech will be left to work upon the public mind.
I now beg to make the following proposition, which I
shall be glad to have accepted ; and it will, I think, show
that my confidence in the success of improving that part of
London is not altered.

I therefore propose that, if the Government is not satis-
fied with the scheme, I will take the whole of the land
that has been agreed to be purchased, whether it be paid
for or not paid for, off their hands, at the cost price, though
I do not know what the amount will be P • I will, also, if
they desire it, take the bridge at the cost price, with its
new approach, nor do I know what that may be ; the
country will only then have to lose the interest caused by
the delay, and the law and professional expenses ; but in
return, the public will get an immense improvement to
the district, which is likely soon to become a very im-
portant part of London.—l have, &c.
(Signed) THOMAS CUBITT.
The Right Hon. Sir William Molesworth,
Bart., M.P.

RETURN OF THE HON. COLONEL BOYLE FOR THE
BOROUGH OF FROME.—This gentleman, who was re-
turned for Frome at the last general election, and was
unseated on a petition by Mr. Hall Dare, as hating held
an office of profit under the crown, the electors not being
aware of the fact at the time of election, was again re-
turned for this liberal borough on Monday without
opposition.

- METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. Yesterday was
printed a Parliamentary return, to the effect that the
incumbrauces on the London-bridge approaches fund,
on account of the metropolitan improvements, were
753,000/., some of which was borrowed at 34, 4, and
some at 5 per cent. The arrears of interest now due
amount to 296,302/. 7s. lid.
EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY IN MANOHESTER.—At 20
minutes past one o'clock on Monday. Mr. Howard, the
keeper of a small jeweller's shop at the corner of Mar-
ket-street and Corporation-street, in Manchester, went
to his dinner, leaving hisdaughter Miss Fanny Howard
a girl about 18 years of age, in charge of the shop
during his absence. He had not been gone more than
five minutes, when a gentlemanly-looking fellow walked
in and asked the price of some article in the window.
Miss Howard told him, and he then asked her for one
of her father's address cards. She gave him one, and
on looking at it he discovered that it did not name the
street in which the shop was situate, and he requested
Miss Howard to put it upon the card. She retired
behind a counter, crossing the shop into a retired corner,
followed by the man, who impudently lifted up a portion
of the counter and went and stood looking over her
shoulder. While he was doing so a second man entered
the shop, on which the first fellow put his arm round
Miss Howard's neck, and one hand upon her mouth,
and sa strangled and gagged her that she could not give
an alarm. The second man then stripped the window,
or nearly so, of its contents, consisting of a large quan-
tity of jewellery. Having effected this, the man hold-
ing Miss Howard threw her down, and left the shop
with his companion, who had the booty in his pockets.
They hailed a cab as soon as they got into the street,
and were soon on their way to London. They have
since been appreehhenea,s valueddrediT at somehepropertyw hundredshichwas o
foundf
upon them, W
peaunds. Mr. Howard was so much affected when he
rd the news-(this being the second time within twelve
h
monthse that he has been robbed), that he is now in the
Faodrtuhneaentelryeamcoayseedcofrnotaminitnhge
fwhoainnnrdddos
owozfetnah
amdti a
memd iocorann
ildnmrg
not get them.iannt
og.
s beh cleaned, and the thieves did
Home office, sat on Satur-
day, by an order from the
SANITARYofDr STATEArnot oanFdCMROrT.D.
ThomasON.— con-
sistingcpomagme,iscsi.oEn„ap
ddai
tyio,
nfoorf thehe firsttow nti.meittofromnt o thethe
evidencesanitary
thencon-
given by several householders, that the drains were in
a most defective state, and emitted noxious and intoler-
able stenches by which the health of their families had
appearedinquire
been seriously affected, and numerous cases of fever
caused ; that the filter-house erected at the bottom of
the town for carrying away the sewage produced
considerable annoyance to the neighbours, whilst the
river was also polluted by the drainage of the sewers
into it. The discharge. had been so bad three times
during the last week that the men employed upon the
mills had been obliged to leave off work. The water
could not now be used for any purposes. Some of the
witnesses attributed the increase of effluvia to the system,
although Health. he On
acknowledged
other hand,
the
of drainage brought into operation by the Board of
hMadr.staCtleosoef,
thae
drainage,
thought the present system of surface drainage had
nothing to do with the recent feverleases. He had been
Health,
rseoemawel
tte.h.l
TTafhnoher
mde
netehcirwelutceiw-raeeaa
ssihne
adjourned.o
ndtoldsewrr
eaedhe tl neoeffosensn
sWni
ees
in many houses both before and since the operations of
ls
i
tsmchiddaeoenurifoesfsftoH. Boardr i
ogoTufhhe.