The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-13 00:00:00

THE FATAL FIRE AT GREENWICH.

Richard Roper, corn chandler, was placed at the
bar of the Greenwich Police-court, before Mr.
Traill, for final examination on a remanded charge
of arson and attempting to defraud the Kent Fire
Insurance Company.
Mr. Scudamore, solicitor, and Mr. London, secre-
tary to the company, appeared for the prosecution ;
and Mr. Ingle, solicitor, of Hibernia Chambers,
London-bridge, defended the prisoner.
Mr. Trail observed that he proposed to take the
depositions of every witness necessary for the pro-
secution, but the evidence was exceedingly volu-
minous, and a considerable portion of that adduced
at the coroner's inquest would not be required.
It was necessary to present the case to the jury
divested of all superfluous statements.
The depositions of the various witnesses were
then formally taken by the chief clerk, Mr. Boustcd,
when Mr. Ingle reluested that the letter received
from Bedford, purporting to be written by a person
who paid the prisoner £2 on an agreement to take
his business, should be put in evidence.
Mr. Traill—How can I do that ? I shall take no
notice of that letter, because if there was any
weight in it, its effect would be against your client.
Mr. Ingle—Will your worship express some
opinion respecting that letter, to the effect that you
consider the writer should come forward ? It is
thought that he is deterred from coming from the
fear that he may get into trouble.
Mr. Traill—lt is undoubtedly my opinion that
the man who wrote the letter ought to avow him-
self; but at the same time I consider it strange
that any man who actually paid £2 on account of
the business should not have come forward long
before this, as he might liave legally claimed to be
repaid the amount.
Mr. Ingle—During the present week we have
received information that the man is to found, and
is residing in the neighbourhood of Maldon.
The prisoner, who declined speaking in his own
defence, was then fully committed for trial on the
charges of arson and attempting to defraud the
Kent Fire Insurance Company.

REFORM ASSOCIATION IN BIRMING-
HAM.

Yesterday morning a meeting of the Reformers
of Birmingham was held in the Committee•rcom
of the Town-hall, for the purpose of determining
r the best mode of rendering assistance to Mr. Bright
in preparing and introducing a Reform Bill irit)
Parliament. Mr. Muntz was in the ckair, and the
room was well filled. The chairman, after alit din 3
to what had taken place in reference to rtforai
since 1828, expressed his opinion of the propriety
of intrusting Mr. Bright with the ,talk
of framing a Reform Bill. It had been said (:tida3
the chairman) that they ought to place con-
fidence in the present Administration, and wait to
see what they were prepared to do. Some objeeted
to this, and asked what was to be expected of men
of their antecedents. Now, being an oldish man,
he (the chairman) could remember Lord Derby
being a member of Lord Grey's Cabinet, and in
correspondence with Thomas Attwood and the
Political Union of Birmingham. He could remem-
ber another very prominent member of the Govern-
ment, who was desirous of being one of the last
members of the great O'Connell's tail. There were
in the present Government other gentlemen who had
been accustomed to veer with the political weather-
cock just as the wind blew, and who could tell
whether, if a good stiff breeze blew from the north,
it would not influence them. (Hear, hear.) But
as it was doubtful how the present Government
might act, he thought the Reformers of England
should be prepared for the worst, and prepared to
support Mr. Bright in the measure he was . going
to bring forward. (Cheers.) Before concluding, he
(Mr. Muntz) might advert to one very singular
style of remark indulged in some of the metropoli-
tan and provincial press with regard to reform.
The Times, for instance, statedthat they wished they
could find one man who honestly wanted reform for
anything but a hobby. Now, he did not know what
the large meeting before him felt, but he knew at
least one man who did want reform, and that not
for a hobby. He believed he might say of all pre-
sent, as he did of himself, that if he were to consult
his interests, or his comfort, or his inclination, he
would never again enter into the turmoil of politics.
(Hear.) But he did not understand how any man
possessed of the slightest generosity'of feeling could
stand aloof and take no part in a movement which
the interests of his country so obviously required.
(Cheers.)—Mr. W. Lucy said the resolution he had
to submit was a very general one, containing no de-
claration of principle whatever. It was well under-
stood that not only would an extension of the franchi: e
be sought for in the proposed bill, but also that
which would be more important still--a better dis-
tribution of the electoral districts. If a great
stand was made upon this point, much benefit
must follow. Having requested the gentleman
who probably stood foremost in England at
this moment to prepare a measure and take charge
of it, they had now an opportunity of uniting to
support a bill which, if at all good, would pro-
bably be refused neither by the House of Com-
mons nor the House of Lords. No man defended

the present system. No man possessed of com-
mon sense, or common knowledge could be found
who would say, " Let us stand still where we
are." If the measures now proposed were too •
sweeping, they might fail ; but of this he had no
fear. One thing was certain, that the more the
popular feeling was resisted the more it would
ultimately demand and have. (Hear.)—The resolu-
tion, which was seconded by Alderman Lloyd, was
unanimously agreed to.—On the motion of Mr.
George Edmonds, it was also agreed that an asso-
ciation should be formed, to be called the Birming-
ham Reform A.soc tion for the purpose of co-
operating with Mr. Bright, and of watching over
any bill on the subject of reform introduced into
Parliament. A committee was appointed to carry
the resolution into effect, and a subscription was
commenced. A sum of about £3OO was promised
by those present.

SOCIAL SCIENCE.

A large meeting was held at the Festival Ccncert
Room, York, on Thursday evening, in advocacy of
the Institute of Popular Science and Literature.
The Rev. Canon Iley presided, and among the
noblemen and gentlemen present were Lord
Brougham, Earl Fitzwilliam, the Hon. and Very
Rev. the Dean of York, Colonel Smth, M.P., and
Mr. H. Pease, M.P. for South Durham.
The CHAIRMAN, in his opening remarks, said, he
rejoiced particularly that there was present an illus-
trious man (Lord Brougham), to whom the cause of
education and the cause of general knowledge in
England owes a deep debt of gratitude. (Cheers.)
Ile referred to the palmy days of his lordship as a
barriser of
.the Northern Circuit, when his voice
was so often heard in the assize courts at York, and
to the circumstance of his having represented the
whole of that great county in Parliament, and to
his being afterwards called to occupy the highest
station to which a subject of her Majesty can be
called. (Applause.)
Earl FITZWILLIAM then moved, " That in the
opinion of this meeting the general diffusion of use-
ful knowledge is essential to the moral and physi-
cal well-being of the people." (Applause.)
Mr. H. PEASE, M.P., seconded the resolution in
a practical speech.
Lord 'BROUGHAM, on rising, was greeted with
loud cheers. He said,—Let me begin the few obser-
vations I am about to offer you by expressing the
hearty pleasure, the real, entire, cordial satisfaction
which I have in once more finding myself among
my old constituents. (Cheers.) I never can
come to York without being lost in admiration of
those splendid monuments of antiquity which it
contains and which surround it—monuments of an-
tiquity of the classic age of the world which are to
be found in no other part of this island. .But
it is not because York is amongst the most ancient
—1: may say the most ancient city of England—it
is not because it was the birthplace of Constantine,
and at that time the centre of the nortion portion
of the :Roman Empire—it is not because it contains
the most magnificent monuments of architectural
genius ve;rich are to be found in all England—and
it is not because most fall of taste—most admirably
judicious—vf the planting out of the gardens of
which these ,-emains of Roman times are surrounded
and intertwit•ed—it is not on these accounts, or
any of them, tkl-at coming to York is now so inte-
resting to the aserver. That does not form the par-
ticular interest which I feel in coming here. But it
is because of such .a meeting as I now see gathered
before and around ine—it is because in York there
is to be found a body of your fellow-citizens of all
ages and of both sexes', who are bent upon carrying
forward the best of ph'ns, and for the most sacred
of purposes—the elevatian of the human mind—the
development of the human character by the pro-
gress of sound knowledge. (Cheers.) This it is that
now gives York an interest which it never had in
times bygone and past, and that it is which will,
by the increase of those exertions—by the greater"
energy with which they are conducted—by the
greater success with which they are attended—
renders, and will still further render, a visit to, and
a residence in York, both interesting and edifying.
(Cheers.) It is said that ingratitude is a worse sin
than witchcraft. We don't believe in the existence
of one of those sins; we hold its existence to be im-
Possible. Would to Heaven I could say as much for
iNe other, and as there can be no witchcraft, so let
there be no ingratitude. I shall not be one to prac-
tise that sin, and show ingratitude to the people of
York. for I owe to their kindness—l would say un-
connected as I was with the county—l owe to their
peculiar personal kindness towards me that which
I ever have regarded, and to my dying day' I
shall regard, as by far the greatest honour
which I have ever in my life received—(cheers)—
an honour from which I was severed most reluc-
tantly, and when I was so severed from that high
and highly prized honour, it was with a bitter pang
that I gave it up. I would to -Heaven I had the
means of testifying that gratitude more than by
mere expressions to which I attempt to give utter-
ance. But I think it goes a certain way towards re-
paying the never-to-be-repaid, but as far as I can
repay it—repaying that debt which Yorkshire im-
posed upon me by that act of kindness, by making
one or two observations of apurely practical nature
onnected with the object of our present meeting,
; Ind enbnected generally with the interest of the
•reat county of York. And, now, I shall begin with
th‘c last first, that I may get out of the way, as it
de, not particularly apply to our present meeting.
We have lately had a most happy change in the
posts tie of our affairs in the East—l mean not
merel.v by the suppression of that unnatural and
execraNe but ever deeply to be deplored rebeltion,
which aqsfigured the face of our Indian possessions,
but by opening up relations with a part of the
world further towards the rising sun than that
—I mean Cr ina and Japan, where the curtain has
been raised,' the former, it may be said, interposing
itself between- our commerce and those empires. I
won't repeat 1-h e advice which a noble friend of
mine gave the d ay' before yesterday at the Guildhall
on this subject—.S( mad, excellent advice, not merely
. fit to be followed, at necessary to be followed—not
that I need repeat ; because you probably have
read it—and that adWce was, that it behoves those
who are going to trade with those countries which
are open to our comme.-ce for the first time—that it
deeply behoves them to h. ware of the character and
habits of the agents who aru employed in conduct-
ing their business ; that rce xt it behoves them, not
only through their agents, but all agents of Govern-
ment and others in those perts, commercially and
otherwise—that it deeply behoves them to beware
how they interfere with the rights and the feelings,
and even with the prejudices of tie natives, and
treat even those ignorant prejudices with all possible
humanity and tenderness. (Applause.; But what I
go upon is a step beyond that sound, end fit, and
proper advice. The besetting sin of Eu,glishmen,
the besetting sin of English traders, the I.sesetting
sin of speculators, in foreign traffic, and oftentimes
in home traffic, always is a reckless disposition to
speculation and overtrading. (Cheers.) lam not
now speaking in the West Riding or in the East
Riding of this great county ; but, assuming that
there may be some here from those great commer-
cial districts to hear my words, to them I give this
advice :—Beware of that reckless spirit of over-
trading which has often, as new sources of traffic
have been presented to the English public, been the
ruin of many, and well nigh often operated in pro-
ducing general and wide-spread devastation in the
commerce of this country. (Applause.) If it is pos-
sible to prevent that consequence from arising on
any new scene of commercial speculation being
opened, I only hope and trust that the next time I
have the happiness of meeting my old constituents
in any part of Yorkshire, I shall find that this ad-
vice, ;N:hich I humbly but confidently tender to
them, has not 'been thrown away. (Applause.) And
now, ladies and gentlemen, let me come to what
forms the prominent object on the present occasion.
The resolution which is put into my hand states
that, in the absence of any thorough and complete
System of national education, it becomes more im-
peratively necessary to resort to such a course as
this institute follows, and to give all manner of in-
struction by mechanics' institutions, apprentice
libraries, working men's libraries, all such means of
instruction as can be afforded. I Wing() one further

step and say, without any such qualification, that
even if there had been happily, as I trud we shall
soon live to see estzblished, a national -system of
education—of what is called elementary education,
a good system of school-teaching--I will say that
even if there had been such, this institution and
institutions of the like kind are not the less neces-
sary, but perhaps are the more wanted, because our
worthy chairman has most justly observed, if you
put the means of instruction into the hands of young
People by teaching a course which is learnt at school,
that even then it becomes absolutely necessary to
urge them and to help them to go further, and to use
the tools you have put into their possession for in-
structing and improving their minds by the pursuit
of works
eial
tending to raise their moral, their religious
se
and their character—tending to make them
better men, better icitizens, and better Christians
from that instruction. (Applause.) Lord Brougham
then alluded to the t.formation of the Association for
the Improvement of Social Science--an association
which, he said, had been formed upon the model
and
which a right rev, most esteemed friend of his
istev.
then present (the . Canon Harcourt) had the
ishin
greatest hand in establ* cr—he Meant the British
Association for the Advance%iet of Science. His
Lordship also referred to the Aettle that he had an
hour or two before partaken of hospitalities at
Bishopsthorpe, and then proceeded
as follows :—I
hope and trust that this new association will be as
perfect as the other which has latterly (as I stated
in my opening address at Birmingham) gone a little
further than physical science, and carried it a little
within the bounds of social science. Nevertheless,
as has beenVelt, it has been necessary to go a step
further, and to make a more general and systematic
association, which has been happily established
during the last two years. Great is the advantage
resulting from these ; and, though great errors have
been committed and many mistakes have gone abroad
respecting what was done and what Was left 'undone,
vast good has been effected, and still greater good
is in course of being accomplished. But there have
been objections made of omissions in the many papers
which were discussed a few weeks ago in the great
town of Liverpool. One objection made was this,
that we did not sufficiently deal in any of those
papers on that prime virtue to all classes of the com-
munity, but most especially to the working classes—
that prime virtue of temperance. No w, it is not cor-
rect to say that that important subject did not occupy
our attention. We dwelt upon it • over and over
again,
as absolutely.necessary for the improvement

of the people—as that without which all our
efforts at teaching, whether in primary schools
or in lectures, or giving them the means of
instruction by opening libraries and reading-rooms
to them—that all these availed nothing if the beer-
shop and the gin-palace spread their pestilential
lures around them, and opened their doors to cor-
rupt them while we were opening our doors to re-
claim them and instruct them ; and without incul-
cating the absolute necessity on all ranks, but on
the working men especially, of temperance, we go
absolutely and positively nothing. (Cheers.) One
remark was made—a most important one—in a
paper which I read in the author's absence—viz.,
a paper written by that eminent philanthropist Mr.
Commissioner Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham
a paper in which he gave the result of his inquiries
during the last summer on the continent, in Munich
and in Baden ; and the result of those inquiries
proved, as stated in that paper, that in one of those
great prisons every one of the culprits, without ex-
ception, was in confinement, says the great gover-
nor—that most eminent governor Overmirc, the
governor of a prison which presents one of the
brightest instances of wise humanity—that the
many scores of prisoners under his care were in
confinement entirely swing to beer and wine. The
prison in Baden gave nearly the same result, but
the one in Munich was the more remarkable case.
The gaol was much more crowded, and there was
there no exception to the fact that all the crimes
committed was traceable to intemperance. It was
a great accident that no report was made of this
paper, but I must say the reports were most accu-
rate of the great Congress at Liverpool. Another
objection has been taken, and it has been taken by
persons,including some on the continent of the
highest rank of all—l mean some upon the throne
—ladies filling that high station—that we did not
sufficiently attend to the wrongs and hardships of
women in that congress at Liverpool ; and of the
two branches to which our attention has been
directed by those who chide us for the omission—
of the two branches to which they particularly
point, one is somewhat cultivated in this country,
and one, I grieve to say, is not attended to at all.
The one that has been cultivated is the establishment
of what the French call " sisters of charity" among
us—persons who in that country, being a Catholic
country, are nuns, and are bound by vows which
are disliked in this country ; but in Protestant
countries, where there are no vows at all, the same
institution has taken place, and with the samemost
happy—l will add, the most blessed result. They
arc a great consolation in the prisons as well as in
the hospitals—they are the persons who make up
and distribute all the medicine—they are, as I can
answer from my own knowledge practically in the
inatter;as well acquainted with the cbymical pre-
parations as the professional men themselves, and
they devote their time, neglecting rest, and utterly
regardless of reward—for reward they have none,
and cannot have by the rules of the institution—
all their time, by night and by day, is thus devoted
• to the pious performance of these most pious works.
(Applause.) I will say that this has not been alto-
gether neglected in this country, though, unhap-
pily, our attention at the congress at Liverpool
was not specially directed to it ; but it has been
well discussed in a most able tract by Mrs. Jame-
son, which she has printed and circulated very
lately. Another objection has been taken with
reference to a subject which, I am sorry to say, has
received no !attention whatever in this country,
though abroad it has produced the happiest effects.
Nothing is so lamentable as the fortune of unhappy
lathes—gentlewomen even of considerable station
—upon the death of a parent, they by the accidents
of life not having been married ; or upon the death
of a husband, whence they come into widowhood
without ample provision—nothing is so wretched,
as those high authorities say, and they say justly,
as the lot of unhappy gentlewomen of that descrip-
tion. Well, then, they have established chapters
abroad, sometimes in Catholic countries, but just as
often in Protestant countries, and sometimes upon
Royal foundation, sometimes by the gift of
charitably-disposed humbler individuals, sometimes
by subscriptions judiciously levied, and sometimes
by a kind of insurance during the life of the parent,
or during the life of the husband, those ladies are
provided for at his decease. A presentation is
secured, and an entry into the establishment is pro-
vided. The happiest results have come from these
admirable establishments, and we at our congress
have, from these high quarters, been chid for not
having turned our attention thitherward. My I
answer has been, that no sooner was it suggested
than I made it my duty to attend to it. I have
acted lately in my sovereign capacity as president,
but my noble friend Lord J. Russell has been ap-
pointed my successor, or, at all events, as a kind of
Regent. I wished to abdicate, but I was not
allowed to abdicate, and therefore I speak still
as president of that institution. (Applause.) The
chapter is receiving these communications from
abroad, and I deem it my duty to lose no time in
bringing the subject before my brethren, and I
hope very soon something like a plan will be drawn
up. Knowing the great difficulty that arises in
various quarter s, and among others from the nature
of our admirable countrywomen, who in some re-
spects are no better natured than any other women
—knowing there is a kind of self-will about those
who are in those establishments, as we of our sex
have occasion to know—(laughter) we don't
always find when we experiment on a small scale—
the managers have not found it always perfectly
easy to make them live entirely well together.
(Renewed laughter.) Those difficulties we don't
disguise, but we endeavour to meet them in the
front, and with the blessing. of Heaven on our endea-
vour, we seek to give this great benefit and boon
to our countrymen. (Applause.) His lordship
then remarked, with respect to this institution, that
he felt deeply grieved to perceive that there was
one class who had not taken the full benefit of it.
He then showed the small charge that was made
per annum for membership, and referred to a con-
versation a friend of his had had with one of his
constituents at Sheffield, whom he urged to lay by
as much as would pay £lO per year, in order to
enable him to have a vote, but he found the man's
objection was that every penny of that kind would
come off his beer. Lord Brougham then stated the
delight he bad experienced in hearing a working
man at Liverpool state that if a man (-tees not choose
to stint himself of his beer to a small aoount by
the week, in order to obtain the elective fray chide,
it is a proof of one of two things, either that he
does not value the franchise, or he is not to ecjoy it.
Lord Brougham next urged that the members of
such institutions as these had no right even to
study for their own advantage and that of others
unless they had previously fully discharged their
duty to their employers, and he gave his own case
as an example, observing that he had never devoted
himself to study until all his professional duties
had been to the last tittle fully, faithfully, and
zealously performed. Lord Brougham concluded
his address as follows :—lt were needless for me to
say one word in vindication of all those means that
are taken to elevate the human character, to raise
it by instruction, by improvement, by every species
of education that can be offered for the wholesome
acquisition, I hope, of sound knowledge—it is
needless to demonstrate a thing which is as clear as
the light at midday. .What is it that raises and
makes us what we are, that raises us from the
level, I may say, almost of the lower animals? It
is not merely the outward form of man. As
Cowper,.one of the greatest of our poets, has said—

" The outward form of man bespeaks control,
It borrows all its grandeur from the soul ;
Hers is the state, the empire, and the throne,
An intellectual kingdom all her own."
(Cheers.) That kingdom which we avow ourselves
to be some of us the subjects, others the ministers
of, and it is that kingdom which makes the distinc-
tion from the grovelling man—the mere human
being without mind—the man who is almost on a
level with the lower animals. (Cheers.) His Lord-
ship finally thanked his auditory for the attention
with which they had listened to his remarks.

Colonel SMYTH spoke of the useful reforms which
Lord Brougham had accomplished, observing that,
as Lord John Russell said at Liverpool, in every-
thing that pertains to the well-being of the people
they could not go a step without seeing the hand
of Brougham. (Cheers.) He fervently hoped that
his lordship, who cut asunder the chains of slavery,
might long be spared to this country, to help those
who guide public affairs °and preside over the
destinies of the nation, by his experience and by
his counsel. (Renewed cheers.)
The Rev. Canon Harcourt, the Rev. Canon
Robinson, the Lord Mayor, and others, also ad-
dressed the mecing, and a cordial vote of thanks to
Lord Brougham, Earl Fitzwilliam, and the other
gentlemen who had taken part in the proceedings,
was carried amid enthusiastic cheering.
Lord BROUGHAM, in returning thanks, referred
to the struggles of Wilberforce and others for the
that
abolition of the slave trade, and then spoke to the
mea, tire
following effect :—I cannot' make this reference to
borne by my without feeling that his name,
right rev. friend the most able and
posed—l
eloquent Bishoprldeeply of Oxford Oxford, has lately been ex-
insult, but to an grieveatt to say—l won't say to
this country, and thoughenl it
insult, in one part of
splendid and most effeetivetesisms put down by the
me great
of my right
rev. friend, yet it gave
great gratification
men, both laymen and
clergymen
thoaft leading
tiieDissentin g
congregations"
to please
whom that absurd effort was made, were
the first
to pssin
to
writing their abhorrence and disgust
of
thex rtie•eatment he experienced. (Applause.) It
e
put me in mind of what mv, venerated friend once
said on a similar occasion when he had been attacked
in the same way by utterly false statements, by
fabrications which had not a shadow of foundation