The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-09 00:00:00

ME CIT t' OF LONDON UNION.

Yesterday a communication was received from
the Poor Law Board by the guardians of the City
of London Union touching the position of the Rev.
F. P. Pocock, their workhouse chaplain, and his
connexion with certain annuity societies, as
recently disclosed at the Thames Police-court.
Since that disclosure the Poor Law Board. at the
earnest request of the guardians, have instituted,
through Mr. Farnall, one of their inspectors, an
inquiry into the truth of certain allegations made
by the guardians with regard to Mr. Pocock, the
first and principal of which was stated by them to
be his intimate connexion with two annuity
societies, which, as reported in The 82171 of the 18th
and 19th of June, were designated by Mt. Selfe,
one of the magistrates at the Thames Police-court,
" a swindle and a sham." The investigation by
Mr. Farnall lasted two days, in the course of which
the chaplain was afforded an opportunity of defend-
ing himself; and at a meeting of the guardians
hold yesterday week, subsequent to the inquiry, it
was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Rock—
" That the evidence taken by Mr. Farnall, the Poor Law
Inspector, although restra;ned to very slight limits, and
conducted with veiy great advantages to the chaplain,
having sully confirmed the opinion of this Board that the
Rev. F. P. Pocock is a most unfit person for the chaplaincy
in this Union, this Board directs that the roaster do in-
sLruct the porter at the house at Bow to prevent the said
Rev. F. P. Pocock from entering the gates, and that on the
Bth of August the clerk be directed to gave the master the
necessary directions to carry this resolution into effect."
This resolution was communicated by Mr. Bowring,
the clerk to the guardians, to the Poor Law autho-
rities in Whitehall; and yesterday a reply was re-
ceived from Mr. Gilpin, M.P., their secretary,
stating the Board consider it necessary to be in
possession of the report of the accountants on the
annuity societies with which Mr. Pocock has
been connected, in order to enable them to come
to a satisfactory decision upon the charges
which have recently been made against him. The
Board further directs Mr. Gilpin to state that they
much regret to learn that the guardians should
have determined to adopt the extreme and, as it
appears to the Board, illegal course notified in the
resolution of the guardians of the 31st ult., (given
above), the more particularly as the Board has not
as yet, owing to the absence of the report of the
accountants, been able to decide finally upon the
charges against the chaplain. He then points out
to theta that the adoption of the course proposed
by them would not deprive the chaplain of either
his office or his right to enforce the payment of his
salary, while it would deprive the inmates of the
workhouse of the spiritual consolation and instruc-
tion which he has been in the habit of rendering
Ito them. The Board trusts that the guardians will,
upon reconsideration, not think it necessary to give
the directions to the master of the workhouse re-
ferred to in their resolution, but will await the
decision of the Board, which will not be delayed
longer than it is absolutely necessary to enable
them to ascertain the true facts and to come to such
resolution as in their judgment the justice of the
case may require. At the meeting of the guardians
yesterday, at which Alderman Abbiss presided, the
letter of Mr. Gilpin having been read, Mr. Digance
moved aid Mr. Yerbary seconded :
" That the action upon the resolution of the previous
Tuesday, in reference to closing the gates of the workhouse
against the chaplain, be deferred until Tuesday, the 21st
inst."

On the question being put to the clerk whether
he would instruct the master as directed, he stated
that in the absence of any decision from the Poor
Law Board he did not think it consistent with his
duty to direct the master to carry the resolution
into effect; he must, therefore, respectfully decline
to instruct the master as directed in the resolution,
but when the decision of the Poor Law Board was
known he should be prepared to advise the Board
thereupon. The resolution was carried by a large
majority, and so the matter stands at present.

BRITISH FISBERIES.

The annual report of the Commissioners for the
British Fisheries has been presented to Parliament.
This is a very important branch of industry ; in
the year 1859 12,802 boats, manned by 43,062
fishermen and boys, were employed in the herring,
cod, and ling fisheries, and the estimated value of
the boats, nets, and lines is £739,096 ; besides
which, these fisheries also furnished employment to
9,267 seamen, and no less than 49,022 other per-
sons, making a total of 101,351, independently of
927 seamen in foreign boats. The herring fishery
was remarkably short in its produce on the east
coast, and the quantity cured has not been so
small in any year since 1837. No cause can
be assigned for such fluctuations in the take,
but it is hoped that the time is not far dis-
tant when the migrations of the fish will be
explained. The quantity of herrings cured
during the year was 491,487 barrels, branded
158,676, exported 272,979 ; the quantity cured
was 117,488 barrels less than the average of the
three preceding years—a very great falling off. Of
the export 203,349 barrels went to the Continent,
68,882 to Ireland, and 748 to the colonies. The
branding is voluntary, and a fee is now charged for
it, but eminent foreign houses prefer to carry on
their dealings by it, and nearly one-third of the
whole quantity cured was presented for branding,
the fees realising £2,644. The estimate taken by
the Commissioners of Inquiry of the cost of brand-
ing was £3,380, and, if the fishing had proved
equal to that Of last year, the amount would have
been realised. This is the first year of the fee, and
the proportion branded is equal to the average
brandings of the previous 12 years, when the brand-
ing was given gratis, so that the imposition of the
fee has not affected the demand for the brand. In
the cod and ling department the year's returns
show an increase ; 118,383 cwt. were cured dried,
and 5,362 barrels in pickle, and the quantity ex-
ported was 35,923 cwt. cured dried. The extensive
improvements at Dunbar are proceeding success-
fully ; such is the stormy character of that coast,
that though the new sea wall is 22 feet above the
level of high water of spring tides, yet, in bad
weather the spray frequently rises upwards of 50
feet above the cope of the wall. The report enters at
some length into the disputes respecting trawling for
herrings, which is prohibited, but the prohibition is
too indiscriminate and difficult to be enforced.
The Lord-Advocate has been passing a bill through
Parliament upon the subject. Of the intellectual
condition of the fishermen and their families a very
unfavourable account is given by Mr. Middleton,
inspector of schools, in his report this year upon
the north-eastern division of Scotland. He expresses
his belief that the average school attendance of
fishermen's children, when they do attend school,
is not more than three months in the year. The
conditions of existence among this class of our coun-
trymen, he says, do not require much aid from the
schoolmaster ; and their migratory habits, caused
by the herring fishing drawing them (often with
their whole families) from their villages to a few
central points for three months in summer, together
with the limited ideas and limited earthly hopes of
the parents, their continual struggle with the in-
constant sea, which necessitates the labour of old
and young in fine weather, the feast in prosperity,
the fast in adversity, combine to cause such neglect
of schooling as is equalled in none other of the in-
dustrial classes. They are almost a distinct people
everywhere, and nearly as exclusive in their mar-
riages as the Jews ; rarely is there an exception to
the rule of fisherman to fisherwoman.

THE JEWS' ACT.—The Act passed on Monday to
amend the Jews' Act was issued on Wednesday. It is now
provided that whenever the House of Commons shall order
that any resolution agreed to pursuant to the let section of
the 21st and 22d Victoria, cap. 49, in the'same Session shall
be a standing order of the house, any member professing
the Jewish religion may thenceforth be sworn pursuant to
such standing order, so long as the same shall continue in
force ; and it shall be lawful for such member, in taking
and subscribing the oath which, by the recited Act, was
substituted for the oaths, to omit the words " and I make
this declaration on the true faith of a Christian ;" and the
taking and subscribing by such member of the oath so
modified shall, so far as respects the title to sit and vote in
the house, have the same force and effect as the taking and
subscribing by other members of the said oath in the form
required.
[ADVERTISEMENT.] Pills and medicine invariably ag-
gravate and perpetuate diseases ; their annoyance, dis-
appointment, and expense may be avoided by persons
in indifferent health sending only their address to E.
S. Barry, Esq., 77, Regent-street, W., London, and they
will receive gratis and free by post the " INvAtins' Owx
GUIDE," or Natural Restorer, without medicine or ex-
pense, of perfect digestion, strong nerves, sound lungs, and
refreshing sleep, to the most enfeebled, insuring the removal
of indigestion (dyspepsia), constipation, liver complaints,
nausea, epilepsy, paralysis, debility, nervousness, palpitation,
cough, asthma, consumption, dropsy, flatulency, diarrhoea,
dysentery, biliousness, fevers, sore throats, catarrhs, colds,
noises in the ears, rheumatism, gout, impurities, eruptions,
hysteria, neuralgia, irritability, sleeplessness, acidity, palpi-
tation, heartburn, headache, despondency, cramps, spasms,
sinking, fits, bronchitis.—" Unquestionably the safest Guide
to health."