The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-06 00:00:00

THE UNIVERSITY BILLIARD MATCI-L

The annual meeting of the representatives of the
rival Blues round the board of green cloth forms one
of the features of the boat race week. To-nigh, at
eight o'clock, the double match is to ba played at St.
James's Hall, the competitors being—for Oxford,
Messrs. J. Lascelles (Pembroke), and F. Haygarth
(New) ; for Cambridge, Messrs. H. A. Richardson
and F. Edwards (of Trinity).

DESTRUCTION OF THE BOYS' HOME
REFORMATORY AT WANDSWORTH.

This morning a fire happened in the Boys' Home
Reformatory, situate on Wandsworth-common. It
commenced, it is believed, from the wilful act of
some of the boys, in the workshop, a building 190
feet long. The workshops were quickly in a blaze
from. one end to the other, and the flames seized upon
the Wesleyan Chapel on East-hill, and could not be
extinguished un►il the ifistitution was destroyed.

THE CHARGE OF COWARDICE AGAINST A
COASTGUARDSMAN.

The Admiralty have given their decision in reference
to an inquiry recently held at Padstow into certain
charges brought against Mr. Tregiddo, the chief officer
of the Coastguards at New Quay. The Austrian barque
Suez was wrecked in Watergate Bay last December ; and
Mr. Bryant, the receiver of the wreck at Padstow,
charged Mr: Tregiddo on that occasion with (among
other allegations) not assisting him iri the execution of
his duty, with cowardice at the time, and with breach Of
duty in not attempting to get evidence against the water-
men prosecuted for obstructing Bryant. The Admiralty,
in their decision just given, fully exonerate Mr. Tregiddo
from all blame.

There is no foundation for the rumour of the
Lord Chancellor's retirement.

The- remains of General the Hon. Charles Grey
were removed from St. James's Palaco to-day and conveyed
to Howick Castle for interment on Friday next in the family
vault at St. Michael's, Howick.
Lady Herbert of Lea and Lady Mary II Tbert
arrived at Lisbon at the end of last week, in consequence of
the alarming illness of her ladyship's son, the lion. Regi-
nald Herbert, R.N. Mr. Herbert, who had been in a pre-
carious state from measles and congestion of the lungs, is
pronounced out of danger.
A conference was opened this morning at the
rooms of the Society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, with
reference to the representation of the Fine Arts in the
forthcoming series of annual international exhibitions, the
first of whioh is to be held at Kensington next year. His
Royal Highness Prince Christian; presided.
Sir Alexander Milne will not resign the Mediter-
ranean command on promotion, but will remain out at least
until the expiration of the usual summer cruise.
The death is announced this morning of the Hon.
and Rev. William Wodehouse, youngest son of the first
Baron W odehouse, and great uncle of the present Earl of
Kimberley.

The annual changes of quarters of the Household
Cavalry Brigade ars being made to-day. The Ist Life Guards
remove from Regent's Park Barracks to Knightsbridge and
Hyde Park Barracks. The 2d Life Guards remove from
Hyde Park to Windsor ; and the Royal Horse Guards from
Windsor to Regent's Park Barracks.
The four-oared race of the Beaufort Boat Club,
from Putney to Battersea-bridge, has terminated in favour
of A. Salter, W. Heuches, F. Berry, W. Laws (stroke), R.
Laws (cox).
The modern French comedy-drama, entitled "Frou
Frou," which in Paris and New York has filled the theatres
for months, will be produced at the Olympic Theatre-on Sa-
turday, April 16.
The trustees of the Georga Hudson Annuity
Fund have invested a further sum of £7OO, in addition to
£4,000 originally converted into a life annuity for Mr. Hud-
son. Upwards of £6OO per annum is now s:cured to that
gentleman.

The telegraph wires between Limerick and Ennis
were maliciously cut near Clare Castle yesterday. The ob-
ject of the act is not known, and no arrest has yet been made.

The very extensive Distillery now being erected
at Belfast, with all recent improvements for the manufacture of
Irish whisky, by Messrs. DUNVILLE & Co., who have gained
a world-wide celebrity for their fine old Irish whisky, is to be
called "The Royal Irish istillery."

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Morning. Evening
WEDNESDAY
TituRsDAY ,40 miu past 5 0 min past 6
FRIDAY ... .. ......... .15 miu past 6 4O miu past 6

SATURDAY.., 5 min past 7 40 min past 7
SUNDAY 10 min past 8 52 min past 8

MONDAY 35 min past 9 20 my' past 10

TUESDAY 2 ruin Past 11 42 min past 11

MR. CHARLES DICKENS AND THE
NE WSVENDORS.

The annual dinner' in aid of the funds of the News-
vendors' Benevolent and Provident Institution was
held last night at the Freemasons"favern. Mr.
• Charles Dickens presided.
A fter the usual toasts were given and responded to,
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast of the even-
ing, said:--Ladies and Gentlemen,—You receive me
with so much cordiality that I fear you believe that
I really did once sit in a Lord Mayor's coach.
(Laughter.) Permit me to assure you, in spite of
the information received from Mr. Alderman Cotton,
that I never had that honour. Furthermore, I beg
to assure you that I never witnessed a Lord Mayor's
show except from the po:nt of view obtained by the
other vagabonds upon the pavement. (G rear laughter.)
Now, ladies and gentlemen, in spite of this great cor-
diality of yours, I doubt if you fully know yet what a
blessing it is to you that I occupy this chair to-
night—(more laughter)—because, having filled it
on several previous occasions for the socie,y on
whose behalf we are assemblel, and having
said everything that I could think of to say about
it, and being, moreover, the president of the institu-
tion itself, 1 am placed to-night in the modest posi-
tion of a host who is not so much to display himself
as to call out his guests—perhaps even to try to
induce some among them to occupy his place on
another occasion. And, therefore, you may be safely
sure that, like Falstaff, but with a modification
almost as large as himself—(laughter)---1 shall try
rather to be the cause of speaking in others than to
speak myself to-night. Much in this manner they
exhibit at the door of a snuff shop the effigy of a
Highlander with an empty mull in his hand, who
having apparently taken all the snuff he can carry,
and discharged all the sneezes of which he is capable,
politely invites his friends and patrons to step in and
try what they can do in the same line. (Loud
laughter.) It is an appropriate instance of the
universality of the newsman's calling that no
toast we have drunk to-night—and no toast
we shall drink to-night—and no toast we
might, could, should, or would drink to-night, is
separable for a moment from that great inclusion
of all possible subjects of human interest which he
delivers at our doors every day. (Hear, hear.) Fur-
ther, it may be worthy the consideration of every-
body here who has talked cheerfully to his or her
neighbour since we have sat down at the table, what
in the name of Heaven should we have talked about,
and how on earth could we have possibly got on, if
our newsman had only for one single day forgotten
us. (Hear, hear.) Now, ladies and gentlemen, as
our newsman is not by any means in the habit of
fargettiug us, let us try to form a little habit of not
forgetting our newsman. (Hear, hear.) Let us
remember that his work is very arduous; that it occu-
pies him early and late; that the profits he derives
from us are at the best very small; that the services
he renders to us are very great ; that if he be a master,
his little capital is exposed to all sorts of mis-
chances, anxieties, and hazards ; and if he be a
journeyman, he himself is exposed to all manner of
weathers, of tempers, and a.l manner of difficult
and unreasonable requirements. Let me illustrate
this. I was once present at a social dis-
cussion which turned upon the question what was
the most absorbing and the longest-lived passion in
the human breast. A daily editor of vast expe-
rience and great acuteness, who eves one of the
company, considerably surprised us by saying with
the greatest confidence that the passion in question
was the passion of getting orders for the play. (Loud
laughter.) There had recently been a terrible ship-
wreck, and very few of the surviving sailors had
escaped iu au open boat. One of these on making
land came straight to London, and straight to the
newspaper office, with his story of how he had seen
the ship go down before his eyes. That young man
had witnessed the most terrible contention between
the lowers of fire and water for the destruction of
that ship and of every one on board. He bad rowed
away among the floating, dying, and tue sinking
dead. Ile h id floated by day, and he had froz n by
night, with no she:ter and no food, and, as he told his
dismal tale, he rolledhis haggard eyts about the room.
When he had finished, and the tale bad been noted
down from hie lips, he was cheered and refreshed,
and soothed, and asked if anything coil Pd be done for
him. Even that master passion was so strong
wi,hin him that he immedia:ely replied he should
like an order for the play. (Roats of laughter.)
My friend the editor certainly thought that was
rather a strong case ; but he said that during his
many years of experience he had witnessed an in-
curable amount of self-prostration and abasement
having no outer object, and that almost invariably
on the part of people who could well afford to pay.
(Great laughter.) This made a great impression on
my mind, and I really lived in this faith until some
years ago it happened upon a stormy night I was
kindly escorted from a bleak railway station to the
little out-of-the-way town it represented by a
sprightly and vivacious newsman, to whom I pro-
pounded, as we went along under my umbrella, what
was the one all-absorbing passion of the human soul.
He replied, without the slightest heeltattion, that it
certainly was the passion for getting your newspaper
in advatice of your fellow-creatures—(laughter)--
also if you only hired it to get it delivered at your
own door at exactly the same time as another
man who hired the same copy four miles off ; and,
finally, the invincible determination on the part of
both men not to believe the time was up when the
boy called. (Laughter.) Ladies and gentlemen, I
have not had an opportunity of verifying this ex-
perience with my friends of the managing committee,
but I have no doubt from its reception to-night that
my friend the newsman was perfectly right. Well,
as a sort of beacon iu a sufficiently dark life, and as
an assurance that among a little body of working men
there is a feeling of brotherhood and sympathy—
which is worth much to all men, or they would herd
with wolves—the newsvendors once upon a time
established the Benevolent and Provident Institu-
tion, and here it is. Under the Provident head,
certain small annuiti s are granted to old and
hard-working subscribers. Under the Benevolent
head, relief is afforded to temporary and proved
distress. Under both heads, I am bound to
say the help rendered is very humble and
very sparing, but if 3 ou like it to be handsomer you
have it iri your power to make it so. Such as it is,
it is most gratefully received, and does a deal of good.
Such as it is, it is most discreetly and feelingly ad-
ministered ; and it is encumbered with no wasteful
charges for management or patronage. You know
upon an old authority, that you may believe anything
except facts and figures--(a laugh) but you really
may believe that during the last year we have
granted £lOO in pensions, and tome £7O in tempo-
rary relief, and we have invested in Government
securities some £4OO. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
that the ;newsman's work has greatly increased, and
that it is far more wearing and tearing than it used
to be, you may infer from one fact stated in Mit-
chell's "Newspaper Press Directory," that during
the last quarter of a century the number of
newspapers which appeared in London had more
than doubled, while the increase in the num-
ber of people among whom they were dissemi-
nated was probably beyond calculation. Ladies and
gentlemen, I have stated the newsman's s:mple case.
I leave it ire your heeds. Within the la-t year the
institution has had the good fortune to attract the
sympathy and gain the support of the eminent man
of, letters I am prow I to call my friend, who now re-
presents the great Republic of America at the British
Court. Also it has enrolled upon its list of donors
arid vice-presidents the great name cf Longfellow. I
beg to propose' to you to drink " Prosperity to the

N ewsvendors' Benevolent and Providentlnstitution.'
(Cheers.)
The toast was duly honoured, and followed by
the. toast of "The Lathes," proposed by Mr. CIIAS.
DICKENS, junior.
Subscriptions to the amount of £550 were an-
nounced in the room.

CENTRAL CHAMBER OF AGRICULTURE.

TUESDAY.

A council meeting of the Central Chamber of Agricul-
ture was held at the Salisbury Hotel, Salisbury--square,
Fleet-street, this morning. The chairman of the council,
Colonel Tomline, M.P., presided.

. _
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business, said that they
were constantly increasing in numbers, yet they had prac-
tically done nothing. They were endeavouring to accom-
plish three most important and difficult tasks—to obtain
freedom of trade in agriculture, equal rating and
representation, and taxation in the shape of county
financial boards. These were the three points which
they were seeking to obtain. But they had not ad-
vanced one step. A short time ago their Minister in
China carried out a treaty with the assent of the
Government, and brought it home with the idea
that it could not possibly be objected to. It took
away all the transit duties in China, but added 2i per
cent. to the import duties into that country, and
Lord Clarendon wrote a paper in favour of
it. But one or two Chambers of Commerce who did not
approve of it, took steps actively to oppose it. They
went to the Minister, and, in spite of the assent of the
Gevernment, and the long and able paper of Lord Claren-
don in its favour, they gained their point. That was
what he called action, and formed a striking contrast to
that which they had done. When they went home, they
would do well to reflect on the reason of such
rapid success and the cause that they (the Chamber of
Agriculture) had not yet obtained such success.
Mr. PELL, M.P., brought up the report of the Com-
mittee on Local Taxation, which stated the various steps
which had been taken since the last Council meeting. It
also expressed the great regret and sympathy of the com-
mittee at the sad event which had caused the absence of
Sir Massey Lopes, chairman of the committee.
On the motion of Mr. READ, seconded by Mr. RUSSO',
it was agreed that a petition, signed by the chairman,
should be presented to Parliament in favour of the deci-
mal system in weights and measures.
A vote of thanks was given to the Chambers which
have lately given increased subscriptions to the Central
Chamber.
Captain CRAGIE re--opened the discussion on the subject
of the Elementary Education Bill, which stood adjourned
from the last council meeting. He said that the bill did
not now stand in the position in which they left it on the
last occasion. It had passed its second reading. Therefore,
the principle of the measure had been approved by the
House of Commons. Not only had the principle been
approved, but there had been a promise of very int'
portant amendments on the part of the Government,
and various suggestions thrown out which might
be agreed to in committee. Then they had
to look at the state of public business, which was so con-
gested, he heard, as to render it in some degree doubtful
whether the bill would pass into law this session. After
Some criticisms on details, Captain Cragie moved a resolu-
tion to the effect that the actual attendance of children at
schoolbetween the ages of 10 and 12, as approved in a resolu-
tion passed at the last meeting of the Council, wouldbebest
obtained by requiring a certificate of efficiency from every
child employed in agriculture. He thought there ought
not to be a hard and fast line as to the number of atten-
dances at school. It did not matter how the child
acquired the standard so long as he did acquire it.
The Rev. Mr. BOTFIELD seconded the resolution, and a
discussion followed, which was generally in favour of the
proposition.
Mr. GARFIT moved as an amendment—" That the
Council considers that no compulsory attendance should
be required after ten years of age, and that after a certi-
ficate of proficiency in reading and elementary writing at
any age no further attendance should be required." -
Mr: HERMON BIDDELL seconded it.
The members who spoke expressed different views as to
the advisability of compulsion in elementary instruction.
Upon a division 18' voted for the amendment and S
against it. It was accordingly declared to be-carried.
Professor BUND moved the adjournment of the discus'
sion on the subject, which was carried.
The next business was—" That in the opinion of this
Council the application of capital to agriculture is die"
couraged by the following causes :-1. The undue amount
of local taxation upon capital invested in land and its im-
provement. 2. Uncertainty of tenure. 3. Absence of
compensation of unexhausted improvements. 4. Unneces-
sary restrictions upon courses of cropping. 5. The over-
preservation of ground game." -
After some discussion it was decided to take the ques-
tions seriatem.
Mr. WHITAKER said that the great object of this
association and of the Agricultural Chambers throughout
the kingdom, was to endeavour to get rid of the in-
creasing burdens which were being placed on real
property. This first resolution—" The undue amount of
local taxation upou capital invested in land and its
improvement"—affected alike every man who held real
property. He begged to move its adoption, and would
conclude by recommending that the Local Taxation
Committee should receive greater support.
Mr. GENGE ANDREWS said he thought this was the
question in which the country and the Central Chambers
took the deepest interest. By reducing taxation they
would extend the area of land which could be
cultivated. Under the present system the- occu-
pier was greatly interested, collaterally, although
in the abstract the tax was solely on the soil.
The heads of the Poor-law expenditure, which, he con-
tended, were imperial charges, and not merely local,
were:--For the relief of the poor, £6,959,840 ; payments
towards county, borough, or police rate, 2.511,511; con-
stables expenses, and cost of proceedings before justices,
£38,132; registration fees, on account of the Regis-
tration Act, 274,239.; vaccination fees, £44,815 ;
parliamentary municipal registration, 239,637.
Highway Board expenditure, £595,699 - proceed-
ings at law and equity (lawyer's bill), 226,999
surveys and valuations, £54,522 ; other expenditure nP
discriminated, £559,779 ; total, £10,905,173. Receipts iii
aid from the Consolidated Fund, £388,523 net am0unt5;210,516,650. The county expenditure in 1864 amounte
to 1,958,981. There had been an increase of expenditure
in the three years between 1864 and 1867, under the head
of county expenditure of £552,530.
Professor W. BUND suggested as an amendment, that
the resolution should read " the undue and uncertain
amount of local taxation upon capital invested in' the
improvement of land.
. The original resolution, however, was carried on
division.

•
Mr. RUSSON proposed clause 2 and 3.
Mr. LEMAN seconded the resolution.—Mover and
seconder agreed that if they had a proper compensatil
for unexhausted improvements, they would as soon sPel, •
money on improved cultivation without a license, as sviv''
one.
Captain CRAGIE moved as an amendment the omissi°ll
of the words in clause 2—" the certainty of tenure
and in clause 3, after the words "absence of, ' the insertion
of the words "of leases or well regulated systems o'.
the compensation for unexhausted improvements.
Mr. GENGE ANDREWS seconded it.
Mr. WHITAKER suggested, as a poor landlord, that ther
consent of the landlord should be obtained in writing f°
the improvements before they were made.
The amendment was lost by a large majority, and 00
resolution agreed to.
Clause 4 was carried without discussion. Clause 501
passed in a like manner.
A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the business.

tution.'

wed by
CIIAS.

ere au-

URE.