The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-03 00:00:00

THE BA:\.-KICUPTCY OF MR. OLIVER.

A report of the winding-up of the estate of Mr.
Edward Oliver, the Liverpool shipowner who failed
in 1854 for more than a million, shortly after a tes-
timonial of plate had been presented to him for his
services to commerce, has just been issued, and is a
document worth notice. &ate of the largest losses
of the Royal British Bank arose out of the opera-
tions of Mr. Oliver, and the Liverpool Borough
Bank was likewise fatally mixed up with his affairs.
When he stopped he was, of course, to pay every
one in full, and to have a large surplus, and upon a
doubt being expressed whether this anticipation
could be entirely relied on, a protes tsigned by several
leading houses, one of which stopped in the late crisis,
paying 2s. in the pound—was posted on the Liver-
pool Exchange, beldlyaffitming it to be false and
mischievous. As these gentlemen had every op
portunity of knowing the real state of the case, of
course nothing could be said in reply. Time only
could settle thelquestion, and three years and a half
having elapsed we have now the facts for judgment.
Mr. Oliver, at time of his suspension, valued
his ships at 588,60 K but the trustees of his estate
report that even on entering upon their duties they
were at once aware of the utter fallacy of this
estimate. Ultimately it was resolved to sell them
to the holders of Mr. Oliver's acceptances in pay-
ment at the rate of 10s. in the pound, the purchasers
undertaking if the dividend on the estate should
not equal that amount to repay the deficiency with
interest. In this way sales were effected for an
aggregate of 146,1221. The bills of exchange on
hand and doles to the estate were both found, when
they came to be realised, to have been erroneously
reprwented. Meanwhile some of the creditor', re-
solved to make u=e of the terrors of the Bankruptcy
Court so as to get paid in full. The larger creditors,
knowing that under that administration such assets
as remained would he altogether jeopardised, and
having at the same time, it may be presume], no
desire for publicity, raised a fund to buy them off.
The estate was benefitted by the Russian war,
a profit of 35,9851, having been made as freight
upon transports, but some American insurance
offices from whom large sums are due not cnly
neglect to pay, but refuse to furnish even an ac-
count. The result is, that in addition to the first
divideed of 2s. 61. in the p and paid in October,
1855, and the recoud.ef 2s. in the year following, a
third, to the amount of 6d., has now b: en realized,
which will make the total distribution ss. A few
uncollected items still remain, but they are mostly
in litigation, and at the bes are not expected to
bring in an additional 3d. in the pound.

TEE CASE OF ASSAULT Br A CLERGYMAY.

No little interest h►a been excited at Stone-
street, in Waltham, in connection with the recent
attempt of the Rev. S. Smith on the life of Mr.
Leach, at Yate, near Bristol, in consequence of die
wife of the rev. gentleman having been born and
brought up in this place. Her father, Mr. Edward
Mills, kept a small farm, on which he worked him-
self, and brought up his faintly, and where his
widow and two sons and a daughter still reside.
The father was opposed to the marriage of his
daughter to Smith, and would have prevented it,
only that it was ace mapli:-hed before he bad time to
do so. The old geirleman was very much attached
to Sarah Mills (Mrs. Smith), and she way in the
habit of reading to him of an evening. On litr
union with Smith, he was very much affected, and
it is said that that circumstance so much preyed
on his wind as to hasten his death. They were
married at St. Pancras chutch, London, and the
members of the family have always remarked upon
the austere and unkind manner in which the rev.
gentleman treated his wife ; she appeared almost
afraid to move in his presence. A curious circum-
stance occurred shiTily after their marriage. Smith
wanted to apprentice his wife to a dressmaker, and
she went to a shop in the neighbourhood of Bristol
for that purpose, but not liking it, she soon left
and returned to her mother's house. Smith urged
the adoption of that course, on the ground that he
had not sufficient to keep her; he afterwards
wished her to pass as a single woman, and she
was compelled to send home for her marriage
certificate to prove that she was lawfully mar-
ried. Mrs. Smith is well spoken of in tnis
parish as a quiet, unassuming girl, and those
who are well acquainted with her state most posi-
tively their belief that the letters which have been
published were not indited by her, although they
may be in her handwriting. Since thecommittal the
mother has received a most unfeeling I:tt,Jr from
Smith, stating that the children were lett wi, bout a
morsel of bread to eat, and indirectly casting blame
upon his wife. Letters have also been received fi om
Mrs. Smith, and iu one of them was enclosed a letter
from the husband, in which he expressed the
greatest confidence in his wife, urged her to bust
in Providence, and intimated that after their im-
prisonment they should live happier together than
ever they had yet done, as he was now satisfied of
her faithfulness. It is the general opinion among
the neighbours that the woman must have been
coerced to have acted as she has done, and it is as-
serted that the visit between her and Leach, at
Whitstable, referred to in the correspondence was
not of a criminal character, as a si-ter was presen
the whole of the time.—South Eastern. Gazette.

CONFERENCE OF ITALIAN DELEGATES

FRO3I IT iLY.

For some time past it has been the intention of
the partizans of the Constitutional Party in Italy
to hold a conference, to consult on the best means
of bringing more prominently before the public
the present position of Italy, and to endeavour to
revive the agitation for a National League of a
Confederation of Stases, subject to the correction of
a central Power. Tile projectors of the conference
intended i o have held their first meetings at Turin,
but owing to the late attempt made on the life of
Ithe Emperor Napoleon, and the stringent measures
adopted by different Powers to guard against any
future acts of a similar nature being concocted by
the refugees residing in their several dominions,
it was thought best a meeting should take place
at once in London. The first meeting was held
last Monday evening in Newman-street, and was
composed, with the exception of a single refugee,
of delegates from various parts of Italy, including
Milan, Venice, Turin, Genoa, Padua, Brescia,
Parma, and Rome. The following resolution was
agreed to unanimously :
That we, the delegates of the National CAistitu-
aerial League of Italy, have viewed with deep sorrow
the late attempts made on the life of the Emperor
deploring Nap ol e t h
Napoleon bey
injury several
suchf
designsonr e umn tursyt_mheanv,e
in br
ed and,
Ili
ge
made b
into disrepute the effortehno
utterlyeof ourasingly
country, we
the repudiateidea
giving dfreiseinrdesattothae samedvan time incet hee interests
to
giving countenance to acts which, far from exciting our
sympathy, call forth our strongest indignation."
At the meetine,b yesterday the following resolu-
tion was agreed to "
That we, the delegates of the National League, and
ex
Ponenis of Italian nationality, do, before we break up
generally a our take proper steps to,
lay before the public
proper exposition of our views andwishes,
and, thus, by so doing, make manifest the
moderation
and justice of our principles."
The melting the adjourned.

AUTOMATIO RAILWAY SIGNALS.

Several scientific gentleman assembled on Satur-
day at the works ofMessrs. Collings, the engineers,
in Lambeth, to witness a trial of a new system of
railway signals, which have recently been patented
under the title of " Martin's Patent Automatic
beR a iilnwtar
yoduced experimentally on
some of the star
Signal Apparatus," and which is about to
tions of the Great Northern Railway. The ins
vention combines three great requ;sites for a p
gna er-
feet system of railway signalling—simplicity, self
action, and, as much as possible, certainty. Its
purpose is to perform all the duties of the ordinary
semaphore signals without the aid of signal-men,
by means of the trains themselves. The apparatus
consists of a wrought-iron lever, fixed to the
insidend er
of the rail at the signal station, which communi-
cates by means of an axle to cranks passing u
the rails with the semaphore. On the train passing
over this lever, it presats it down, and its action
upon the iron-work beneath, and the crankraises
the semaphore arm, which it retains in its place
until the train has p tssei the next station, when
the same operation taking place there, lowers by
means of hydraulic presure the signal arm at the
previous station, and shows that the line is clear.
Probably the scientific public will better under-
stand the apparatus from the description given by
the patentees themselves, which we therefore sub-
join :—" Inprinciple it is the same as the ordinary
pump, but in a.ition the reverse ; for general illus-
tration we w,lt instance the reporting of a train
each mile of its progress ; one mile from the
terminus is fixed an ordinary signal post, and
so on at each mile, say from London to Li-
verpool •, the train on leaving the station raises
a signal by means of a lever fixed at the side of the
rail, whvh is operated upon by the rim of the wheel
passing over it, at the same time raising a piston in
a cylinder, filling it the length of the stroke with.
fluiq (not affected by heat or cold), the valve con-
nected with it at once closing prevents the piston
returning until the train arrives at the next signal
post, when the same operation is performed, but
the fluid this time raised is drawn by means of a
tubs or pipe connecting it with the previous cylinder
underneath its piston, thereby allowing it to fall
and lower the signal, but the time at-which shall
fall is controlled by the weight fixed on the lever,
and the proportion between the size of the cylinder
and the pipe or tube. In the apparatus now con-
structed for the Peterborough station of the Great
Northern Railway, the cylinder is three inchbs
diameter ; the tube three-eighths of an inch. These
sizes, with a weight of 1001bs., will lower the signal
in 100 seconds; but as it is necessary in this instance
that the signal should remain five minutes after the
train passes the next signal post, a proportionably
smaller weight is employed. In a similar way the
signal arm at the second station is lowered when the

train arlives at the third station, and so on thus
throughout the whole lengtli of the line when this
apparatus is applied. Whenever a train passes
a signal station a signal will be raised at that
station, and this signal will not be lowered until
the train arrivel at the next signal station ; hence
it will be seen that the engine-man and
guard of the train, in coming up towards a
signal station, will at once ascertain whether the
preceding train has passed the next distant signal
4ation ; for night trains or foggy whether it will
act by operating on the whistle, or, if found
necessary, cutting off the steam ; thus allowing
trains, under all circumstances, to pursue their ordi-
nary speed ; it is also particularly applicable to all
station signals, at junctions of lines, by a reverse
action in signalling an approaching train, and to
every pesitian where a signal is required. From
the Parliamentary returns the chief cause of loss of
life and limb arises from collisions ; these, in the
majority of instances, arise from insufficient
ling : the approach or passing of a train can be re-
ported by itself with a greater certainty and exac-
titude than by human vigilance, liable to err from
many causes. In a pecuniary point of view, to
railway proprietors, it effects by its first cost an
immense annual savingin the salaries of signal-men
alone ; in its construwion •care has been taken to

avoid 'complication or ligly ness in any of its parts,
and it may be said to be as durable as the rails, and
as little or legs likely to derangement." As far as
experiments condacted within the limited area of
an engineer's yard in London affords an oppor-
tunity o' judging, this system appears to approabh
as near pet fection as possible, and that was the
opinion expressed by several gentlenien of the engi-
meting profession acquainted with the practical
working of railways who were present. The paten-
tees assert that distance is no object, and that the
vparatos will work with equal certainty whether
the signal stations are 100 yards or four miles
apart ; the only difference being that in one case a
Itrger amount of hydraulic pressure has to be em-
ployed than in the other, and this is effected merely
by increasing the slze of the tubular aqueducts from
half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in bore,
and so ad ling to the volume of the fluid. It is but
tight to add that the experiments of Saturday were
confined to the day signals, the absence of the prin-
cipal agent in the night signals, the locomotive
it,elf, rendering it impossible to test how far the
statements cf the patentees as to the efficacy of
their apparatus foraignalliug in the dark are borne
out by actual results.