The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-08 00:00:00

TEE INDIAN FINANCIAL STATEMENT. I Birmingham, and Nana Sahib would never have
headed the Indian mutiny with his pockets_full of
national paper money.

(From- the Derbyshi?e Courier.)
Let no man in Egland think that he is not in-
terested largely and directly in the state of India.
Our Indian Empire is fast becoming
" Too great to keep, or to resign."

It will require all the efforts of sound statesman-
ship to carry us safely. through our Indian difficul-
ties. Our financial difficulties are great and urgent.
They embrace and involve all other difficulties.
We will-at present offer a few remarks on them.
The statement made in the house, on Monday
last, by Sir Charles Wood, the Secretary for India,
was briefly this :
The mutiny broke out in May, 1858.
In the last complete year of peace, ending April
30, 1857, the debt of India was £59,462,000, the
annual interest £2,525,000, the military expendi-
ture was £12,561,000. In 1857-58, the total ex-
penditure was £40,226,000, and the revenue
£31,706,000, leaving a deficit of £8,520,000. In
1858-9 the expenditure amounted to £48,500,000,
and the revenue to £33,800,000, being -a deficit of
£14,700,000. The deficit, therefore, for these two
years—from May, 1857, to May, 1859—was
£22,220,000. This deficit was provided for by bor-
rowing in India,during these two years, £10,556,000,
and in England,Sll,s62,ooo,altogethe, £22,118,000.
The debt in India, on 30th April last, amounted to
£81,580,000; the increase in two years being, as
stated above, £22,118,000.
Sir Charles Wood estimates the expenditure for
1859-60- at £46,130,500, and the revenue at
£35,850,000, leaving a deficit of £10,280,000. "I
nm afraid," adds Sir Charles, " that beyond that
there may be a further sum." Altogether, with
£2,000,000 additional for railways, there will be at
least a total deficit of £12,500,000 for the year
1859-60.
To meet this, there remains to be received on
account of a former loan in India £,2,000,000, and
£4,800,000 was borrowed in England by Lord
Stanley ; the remainder, £5,700,000, Sir C. Wood
hopes to raise by a new loan, taking power to raise
£7,000,000 to allow of a margin.
The issue of this borrowing will be that at the
end of the year the Indian debt will amount to
£95,836,600, the interest of which will be the sum
of £3,900,000.
The debt which was £59,462,000 in 1857, will be
£95,836,000, in 1860.
" I should deceive the house," says Sir C. Wood,
" if I were to hold out to them that any great re-
ductions can be made in the civil service. To stop
public works would be a suicidal policy. It is in
the military expenditure alone that any great sav-
ing can be made. The military expenditure of
India before the mutiny was £12,000,000 annually,
and it is now £21,000,000, being an increase of
£9,000,000."
Almost irinle the Indian Secretary was speaking,
intelligens, arrived of renewed disturbances in
India, not now among the native troops, but among
the English regiments. This mutiny, for it is
nothing less, has arisen from the parsimonious at-
tempt at saving on the transference of the services
of our European troops from the East Indian Com-
pany to the Imperial Government. We shall have
to do with a bad grace what we might have done
with a good one in the way of recognising the-ser-
vices of our brave troops in India. All idea of sav-
ing in the reduction of the military expenditure of
India must be considered, for the present, hopeless.
We must then, says Sir C. Wood, " if we do not
mean to lose our Indian Empire, be prepared to as-
sist the finances of that country." Mr. Crawford,
the member for the City of London, tells the Go-
vernment that there are " seven millions of Indian
Bonds out payable at one year's notice, and not less
than 15 millions of debentures payable in 1863 and
1864," and that .‘ debentures are overdone—the
last debentures not having been taken up by the
great companies, and other ordinary purchasers of
such stock, but by the Stock Exchange," and that
the speculators having been " bitten" are not likely
to come forward again. Lord Stanley evidently
thinks that an imperial guarantee of future loans
will be necessary.
It comes to this, therefore, that if we determine
to retain India we must make ourselves responsi-
ble for the money necessary to meet the increased
and increasing expenditure of that country. Mr.
Bright, as usual, does the finding fault. He is
against an imperial guarantee, he nibbles at a re-
duction in the civil service, he is opposed to the
necessary military expenditure. There is not one
statesmanlike or practical suggestion of any value
in the vague, inconsequential declamation which
he inflicted on the house. Mr. Bright has already
told his distressed constituents that they had better
emigrate to America, and he is now prepared to tell
the British Government in India that they bad
better emigrate to England.
Let every Englishman reflect that under the
present financial system fyou must ultimately tax
England to save India. If you borrow without a
guarantee you borrow at a ruinous rate of interest,
and you must pay that interest ultimately by in-
creased taxation. British India cannot pay it ; she
must, therefore, repudiate her obligations, or we
must pay it for her. If you determine to borrow
with a guarantee, be assured the sum guaranteed
will be required from us.
With a debt of £800,000,000 at home, and a debt
of £100,000,000 in India, with a general convic-

tion that our national defences require great and
increased expenditure, with France menacing us at
our doors, and the United States jealous of our
maritime superiority and ready to take advantage
of England's difficulties, who can lobk at our finan-
cial future without serious apprehension ? What
Sir C. Wood said on Monday is not the less true
for being trite. "It is not necessary to remind the
Committee of what vital importance to all countries
is the state of their finance. If the financial state
be good, there are no dangers that the country may
not confidently face ; if the financial state be bad,
there are few dangers she can hope effectually to
overcome."
As to Indian finance, both Mr. Crawford and
Mr. D. Seymour referred to the banking system.
Mr. Crawford thought that " the time had ar-
rived when some improvement in the banking
affairs of India might be introduced." Mr. D.
Seymour pertinently observed that it was " inex-
cusable in a commercial people to employ the time
of our soldiers in conveying silver from one end of
the country to the other. Banking was greatly on
the increase in India, and if Russia could find the
means of sending her paper into every corner of
the country, surely it was possible for us to do so."
Now observe, as under the present system, bank-
ing expands, so is the danger of a monetary crisis.
The more you increase banking, the greater expan-
sion you give to credit, and the more you develope
the commercirl energies of -India, the more dreadful
and ruinous will be the financial collapse at the
next monetary crisis in England. We have it in
our power to establish a sound and beneficial mone-
tary system in India. In addition to the inconve-
nient and barbarous money, the silver rupee, or two
shilling piece, now exclusively in use, we might
establish gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, repre-
senting ten rupees and five rupees each. In order
to make this circulation really useful, the gold
money should pass for a trifle more than its intrin-
sic value. By this means it would be preserved, as
other silver money in England is preserved, from
exportation, hoarding, or melting. It would be
retained in the- discharge of its proper office as
money, that is, in the distribution of commodities
from one hand to another, and in the liquidation of
debts. Our silver coins are neither melted nor ex-
ported, because an ounce of silver worth ss. 2d. is
coined into money representing ss. 6d. ; this frac-
tional difference preserves our silver money from
being demonetised or withdrawn from circulation.
The same cause preserves our copper coins. But our
gold coins being intrinsic value to a fraction, being
tied down to the inevitable £3 17s. 100. an ounce,
are subject to be melted by the goldsmith and ex-
ported by the foreigner. And when our gold coins
are withdrawn we all know that our paper m.;ney
is violently contracted, the whole system of cheques
and bills of exchange collapses, ruin paralyses com-
merce, and destitution and famine seize upon the
poor.
John Bull likes to have it so, because
t.,, he " can-
not understand the Currency1
We have again, and again Pointed Out h
better state of things into
it would be to introduce a
India. The financial state of India is so bad that
it can scarcely be worse. Let the experiment be
tried there. It was tried and succeeded in this
country from 1797 to 1815. Improve upon this
system, if
you can, in India. If you determine to,
have an expensive, extravagant, monetary system
adopt gold coinage in addition to silver, with this
essential improvement on our own sovereign, that
you coin the Indian sovereign of fractionally less
weight than ours, and thereby secure it from melt-
ing and exportation.
If you determine to reject the antiquated and
barbarous system of metallic money, which Peel
ignorantly palmed on his ignorant and prejudiced
countrymen, adopt a paper currency, the money of
commerce and civilisation. Let this paper money
%le receivable for the local and imperial taxes. it
N► 111, Of course, buy an elephant, the honour of
na bob, the oath of a Hindoo, and an ounce of gold
---1 it the market price.
But if you stumble at the Pons Asinorum of the
cua Tency question, and protest against inconverti-c
ity, let the Indian Government engage, which
the.. v may safely do, to exchange the notes which
t hey issue into gold or silver at the market price.
g 'hest notes will then be truly convertible, and not
ie vile impostors which our Bank of England
no tee p Ton to be at every time of panic.
guy Fawkes would not have projected the blow-
.
ino. up 4'f the Parliament had he taken his seat for
0

---
THE MOCK PEACE.

(From the Times.)
A cold thrill of disappointment ran through the
Italian Peninsula when the outlines of the conver-
sation which passed between the two Emperors at
Villafranca became known. The same southern
exaggeration of mind and feeling which had led
the Italians to see in the French Emperor a species
of military Messiah, who was at length, and after
so many years of weary suffering, to free them
from their worse than Egyptian bondage, threw
them, when he proved untrue to their expectation,
into premature despair. The open looks of love
and veneration which had greeted his onward pro-
gress were converted into glances of hatred and
execration on his homeward path. Once they
came out to bless him, now they cursed him as he
passed by. Bat a few weeks back no name had
been pronounced, from Mont Cenis to the Straits of
Messina, with such passionate fervour of devotion
as that of the Emperor Napoleon; now the name
of " traitor" was coupled with that of Louis Napo-
leon from the Po to the Neapolitan frontier. It
must be confessed even by that ingenious gentle-
man who writes from the Tuileries, and has ever
at hand an epigram to excuse a wrong, that the
expectations of the Italians had been raised to a
point of madness by. the Emperor Napoleon before
he began his campaign. The "Anguish of Italy"
was the motto on his banner, and the pretext of
the war. He would have found Europe in arms
against him had he simply professed that he was
going to Italy for selfish, or even for French pur-
poses. The cruelties exercised by a combination
of the Austrian and Papal systems throughout
the Italian Peninsula had been so extreme, and of
such long continuance, that a man could not look
his fellow-man in the. face and profess to stand
forth as their defender. We might judge the
attempt to redress this miserable state of things
useless or impossible, but we could not do battle
against any man who fought in such a cause.
The French Emperor was well aware of this.
Let us, however, presume that he really was in
earnest when he took the cause of Italy in hand,
—let us suppose, further, that ultimately at Villa-
franca he made the best terms he supposed to be
possible for the Italians—he can scarcely be sur-
prised if he has disappointed the expectations
which he himself had raised. He could not hope
that the wild Italian blood would not be raised to
fury when the terms upon which he had treated
were known. It was not probable that 26,000,000
people, who had been taught by his own lips to
look to him for a perfect deliverance from spiritual'
a.:d political slavery, should quietly acquiesce in a
result which meant, at the best, that they must
work out their own independence for themselves,
and, at the worst, that they were to be handed back
to their former task-masters in more pitiable plight
than before. We desire to put the best, and not
the worst, construction upon the conduct of the
French Emperor. If this be done, the Italians will
in the end be brought to see that if Louis Napoleon
is not a being of supernatural power and benefi-
cence, at lea!t he has shown himself substantially
their benefactor and friend.
All, however, depends upon the course which the
negotiations affecting Central Italy may ultimately
take. We cannot bring ourselves to think that the
Emperor of the French will prove himself so un-
true to his plighted faith as to throw the three
Duchies and the Legations down at the feet of
their former masters, to undergo what extremities
of suffering and cruelty triumphant vindictive-
ness may dictate. The Emperors of France and
Austria could not come to any settlement
upon the affairs of these provinces, for they
were not the seat of war; nor, save so far as
the action of the contingents from the Duchies
were concerned, were they even mixed up with
the war. Tuscany by herself has as good a right
to change her form of government as France.
What is the' value of the Emperor Napoleon's
own title to the throne of France, if the Tuscan
people are not free to choose their own rulers ?
What is true of France or Tuscany is true in
principle of Parma and Modena, the only dif-
ference in the cases being that the military power
of the last named States is comparatively in-
significant. The Papal States were specifically
acknowledged to be neutral ;—France and Austria
have no more right to dictate to the inhabitants
who shall rule over them than they have to parcel
out the British Islands or the United States of
North America, and to appoint their own Viceroys
over the Heptarchies of their own creation. Leav-
ing right out of the question, and considerinc, only
what France will do,it is incredible that the
French Emperor should first lead the inhabitants
of Central Italy to destruction, and then turn his
back upon them. If Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and
the Legations rose in arms, it was because he en-
tered Italy at the head of a French army, protest-
ing that his purpose was to purge the Peninsula of
the Austrians from the Alps to Reggio. It is al-
ready no slight thing to draw back so far as to de-
clare that, at all events, Venetia and the district of
the four famous fortresses are to be resigned to the
old intruder ; but this may be inevitable--it may
be one of the hard necessities of war. This cannot,
however, apply to the provinces of Central Italy ;
and we are bound to admit that if the independence
of these is secured, and Lombardy and Piedmont
are consolidated into a compact and solid kingdom,
the Emperor Napoleon will have been no mean be-
nefactor of the Italians. Allow ten years to pass
over such an arrangement without any fresh visi-
tation from the French or Austrian armies, and
Italy is as much answerable for her own fortunes
as England or France.

(From the Morning Post.)

" By the margin of Zurich's' fair waters," as the
song says, the Conference in re Italy is to assemble
this day to give effect, if that be possible, to the
bases of peace agreed upon at Villafranca. We are
not very sanguine as to the results. The parties to
those bases assumed rather hastily the consent of
Italy to their adoption, whereas neither the peace
nor the conditions of it have given satisfaction to
the Italian people. The belief that the hour of
Italy's emancipation had come prevailed through-
out the peninsula. It raised the hopes of the
captive in the dungeon, it lighted with
promise the cottage of the poor, it brightened the
prospects of the merchant and trader, it shook
the nerves of the tyrant of Naples, sealed the abdi-
cation of the Austrian Dukes, and carried an uneasy
mis6iving into the innermost sanctuary of the
Vatican. As the French army swept all before it,
and by a succession of brilliant victories gave free-
dom to Lombardy and strung Venetia to the tightest
tension of yearning suspense, there was not an
Italian who did not believe that Heaven had at last
avenged his country's wrongs, and that by the
rising star of Napoleon he and his fellow-patriots
would be led forward to a pitch of social and poli-
cal nnovation which should compensate them for
years of endurance, and gift them with liberty and
independence for all time to come. Like sudden
death on the eve of a bridal, or shipwreck in sight
of the desired haven, was the news of a hasty
peace to the expectant people of Venetia and the
hopeful subjects of Central Italy. Probably the dis-
appointment would have been less had not their
previous expectations towered so high. But they
counted, in their enthusiasm, upon receiving their
liberty at the hands of France, and suddenly they
find that Austria is to be a party to their future,
not as a defeated foe, but on equal terms with their
deliverer. Knowing as they did the heartless
enmity of that Power, it is not surprising that hope
died and sullen discontent took the place of buoy-
ant expectatipn. We speak of Italy as a whole.
Lombardy, indeed, has cause enough to rejoice over
what the fortune of war has given her. But her
exultation is painfully balanced by the gloom that
has settled like a cloud of hopeless impenetrability
over the sister province of Venetia. If the one has
gained freedom, the other is but more helplessly
confirmed in slavery. These two equate each other,
and the rest of Italy is where it was.
And it is about the rest of Italy that the diffi-
culties of the settlement will arise. We do not wish
to throw cold water on the Conference. We shall
be glad if it can adjust matters out of hand to the
satisfaction of all parties. But we cannot help
seeing probabilities, and it is a part of our vocation
to examine them. When the Treaty of Villafranca
was given to the world, we pronounced that, with-
out great modification, it would not work. We are
still of that opinion, and we fully expect that
the deliberations at Zurich this week will confirm
us in those convictions. We will assume th it there
will be no difficulty about, the annexation of Lom-
bardy
, to Sardinia. But upon other points there
Iwill be, there can be, -nothing but difficulty. Take
the question of the return of the Dukes of Tuscan4.y.
them has formally abdicatedin
and Modena and the Duchess
the
peopleo t others
themselveshave t off a Parma.vour of
h?snsemoi ~
simplyo rstoreabolish
fled. It remains fin: the
orn
whichdirectionthese
th dynas-
ties.the.
There is no doubt i
princes maroement runs ; and,
, popular feeling at the pm ent
people
eitnhinagt
deevteert-
although the fugitive
Inerve to rule once more over the
I
against
part their
o f 'etthoat
them, the chances are altogether
reinstate those
suc-
cess. What becomes,
gthedeu,no
of t
treaty that proposes their restoration ? France and
alike pled
vi et arias. The
royal personages people of those
three Duchies are
Austria are
now voting on the
question' and
that an
it is more than probable immense prepon-
derance will be found
in
favour
of union with
Piedmont. There arecogent political reasons why
.
1 this should be ; and if
Piedmont
is prepared to ac-

cept this responsibility, it would be hard to find
reasons wly such union should not take effect.
Supposing this to happen, or the three Duchies to
be formed into one new constitutional kingdom,
there would next arise the still harder question of
the Italian Confederation. To this proposal the
consent of the existing Powers of Italy will be neces-
sary ; but it is hardly likely to be given. Sardinia
is not likely to consent to a confederacy of which
Austria is a member ; while the Pope and the King
of Naples will scarcely consent to one in which she
is left out. To withdraw foreign troops and elimi-
nate in perpetuity the influence of Austria would be
to hand Italy over to the gradual influence of reviving
liberty, and pav6 the way to her ultimate elevation to
the standard of the other free nations of Europe,
which is the last thing that Francis IL and Pio
Nono desire to see. Austria is now the only obstacle
to Italian reforms. Make Italy self-supporting, self-
contained, and self-governing, and nothing will
stand against her advance. The legitimate influence
of the people will in time prevail, and the day of ab-
solute Sovereigns will have for ever passed away.
But as long as Popes and tyrannical Kings take
refuge from their subjects in the protection of
foreign troops, popular freedom will have no chance.
Here, then, a serious obstacle will arise. The Con-
ference cannot force a Confederation on Italy ; and
if it be positively refused, a very large part of the
Italian question will be precisely where it was last
January. It will be next to impossible to admit
Austria into an Italian Confederation, and quite as
impossible to cut off Venetia from the rest of Italy.
What, then, is to be done ? The Plenipotentiaries
at Zurich must answer that question.
Then comes the crowning difficulty of the posi-
tion and prerogatives of the Pope. It might be easy
for two Emperors to agree between themselves that
the Pope should be the honorary president of the
Confederation, but itis quite another thing to effect
that design. The success of that part of the pro-
gramme involves conditions most unlikely to be
consented to, and which it will be quite impossible
to enforce. First and chiefly, it involves a reform
of the Government of the Papal States, and this in
its ultimate stage involves the abandonment by the
Pope of his temporal sovereignty. This is a very
improbable concession, not only because the Pope is
sworn to defend the temporalities of the See, but
still more because those temporalities give him a
place among Sovereigns that he would not other-
wise possess, entitle him to send legates to foreign
courts, and furnishthe supplies of the system which
enables him to exercise so powerful an interest in all
parts of the world. If the Pope refuses to secularise
his Government, the Conference will again be non-
plussed. It is hardly likely that the Roman
Catholic Powers of Europe will compel his submis-
sion. Indeed, it is more probable that by the
greater number the proposal will be looked on with
great disravour, and we may expect to see the rank
and file of the priesthood busy everywhere in mov-
ing public opinion against it. If then, there be no
voluntary concession and no external c: ercion,
there will be,no Roman reform, no honorary Presi-
dent, and no Italian Confederation, and so another
article of the treaty must fail.
We need not pursue.the difficulties further, for
the more we follow them the greater is their entan-
glement. We only notioe some of the most obvious
of them by way of cautioning our readers not to
expect too much of the Conference. Most heartily
do we wish the plenipotentiaries well through their
work ; most happy shall we be to chronicle their
success, and to be able to tel.] the world that the
Italian question is solved— that the parties who
made war have been able to make, a satisfactory
peace, and that there will be no need for any action
on the part of the neutral powers.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)

The idea of an Italian Confederation, as fore-
shadowed by the programme of Villafranca, meets
with the most energetic resistance from the reap
Liberals of Piedmont. The mere fact that the Pope-
is to be " Honorary President" of this precious
league suffices to condemn it in the eyes of all free
thinking men. A Diet of Italian envoys, assembled
at Rome, with a cardinal as chairmtn, and with the
Pontiff as supreme authority, to what result could
it possibly lead but to an extension of the political
power of the Roman Church over the only State in
Italy that has emancipated itself from the priestly
yoke. The glory of the Constitutionalists of Pied-
mont has been, since 1848, their struggles to pre-
serve the basis of representative government, and
their combats against clerical encroachments. Un—
happily, their efforts, we are sorry to say, have to:a
great extent been weakened by the self-delusion
vith which, under the leadership of Count Cavour,
they entered into an alliance offensive and defensive
with the worst enemy of European freedom. But
if they were now to consent to the formation of the
Italian league under Napoleonic and Papist aus-
pices' they would effectually destroy whatever
might still remain of Piedmontese liberty. Sar-
dinia, in consenting to despatch an Envoy to the
Diet at Rome, would be offering her own hands to
be fettered. She would encounter at that Diet the
reactionary influence of Austria and Naples, the
theoretic designs of hierarchy, and, last but not
least, the despotic influence of France. whose ruler
would be virtually Protector of the Confederacy so
long as the " Honorary President" is kept in
his chair in the Eternal City by force of French
bayonets.

THE SERPENTINE.

The decision at which the House of Commons,
under the auspices of Mr. Fitzroy, has arrived with
regard to the purification of the 'Serpentine is most
unsatisfactory. On the whole, it may well be
doubted if it would not have been better to leave
things as they were, for so in time the very mag-
nitude of the evil would have worked its own cure.
The result of the present scheme, even if the most
sanguine anticipations of its promoters are rea-
lized, can he but a half cure, and in certain re-
spects must necessarily be wholly abortive. There
are two great evils resulting from the Actual
condition of the Serpentine which we desired to
abate.' First, there is the stench which issues my-
der the influence of the hot summer sun from this
reservoir of liquid filth. Secondly, the water is of
very unequal depth, in some parts being very shal--
low, in others very deep. Fatal and frequent acci-
dents to bathers and skaters are the natural conse-
quence' and the suggestion was that the bottom
should be levelled, leaving an even depth of water
of about five feet, more or less, throughout. Mr.
Fitzroy's scheme does not even profess to touch
this second evil, and yet it is a very serious one.
Money is freely spent upon baths and washhouses,
and rightly so; but here is the givat natural bath
of London in so dangerous a condition that it can-
not be used without imminent risk to the thousands
of young and inexpert bathers who seek refresh-
ment there in the evenings of the summer days.
The ground now covered by the filthy Serpentine
was, we believe, in former days a set ies of gravel
pits, and at present it presents to the drowning boy
nothing but a system of deep holes and mud traps.
When once his incautious foot passes from the
higher level, and he sinks down into one of these
pitfalls, with the first mouthful of the poisoned fluid
he swallows there is an end of him. Even expert
swimmers caught with the cramp perish in the
same way,'for few can resist a good dose of Serpen-
tine water exhibited in August. Suiely it was a
point of the utmost importance to the health and
comfort of the town to obviate this evil ? The
thing, too, has been so well done in the Ornamental
Water of St James's-park, although there the lives
of skaters only were considered,—and how many
days are there in the year in which skating is a
possible amusement ? -
So far we have only spoken of the secondary
point, but undoubtedly the greater evil is the
poisonous effluvium. The Serpentine will surely
contribute its quota to the victims whenever we
may suffer again under the visitation of an
epidemic disease. Of course, this little lake
cannot attempt to compete with the polluted
Thames in the grandeur of its results, but it can
do a good deal. It was notorious among medical
men acquainted with the neighbourhood that even
the hole at the top of th€ Green ?ark—now happily
filled up and turfed over—was a fruitful cause of ill-
ness and disease. The Serpentine is far worse. Not
only does it lie in the centre of a rich and populous
neighbourhood, but fashion and custom have decreed
that its banks shall be throughout the season the
daily resort of the Upper Ten Thousand as well as
of the hard-worked professional men who seek a
gulp' of fresh air after the toils of the counting-
house and the law courts. Could the lake have
been thoroughly purified, it would have been one
of the greatest improvements—as far as the upper
classes are coneerned—ot which the metropolis is
susceptible. Why should we not, for once in a way,
be permitted to say a won' for them ? There is no
lack of sensibility or sympathy for the sufferiugs of
the poor. If a man is rich he need not be poisoned ;
and, besides, the bulk of those who frequent the -
banks of the Serpentine are emphatically working
men—men who work with their brains and their
nerves, and with an expenditure of vital energy
which would shrewdly astonish most of our build-
ing friends now out upon the " strike " if they en-
deavoured to make corresponding exertions. As
far as Mr. Fitzroy's plan is concerned, it is nothing
but a palliative, which can never reach the real
difficulties of the case. The water of the Serpentine
is to be pumped up by means of steam-engines
from one end to the other, and then passed through
filtering beds—this process to be in continuous ope-
ration. Thus by degrees, although very slowly,
all the water in the Serpentine, as it is hoped, will
be gradually purified. Mr. Fitzroy, however, seems
to have lost sight of the faet that the filthy basin
I into which he is about to pour his purified water

will soil it much faster than he can -cleanse it.
We- are not speaking of results which may be
attained in a thousand, or even in a hundred years
—for they are points of small concern to any man
now living, to his children, or his children's chil-
dren---but of those which will be appreciable in
our own time. .We will not attempt to deter-
mine how often the Serpentine must be filled
and re-filled, filtered and re-filtered, before it is
pure. Taking the idea even at the value of its pro-
moters, it only represents an infinitely slow and
infinitely costly method of doing that which could
be done in a far speedier, far cheaper, and far more
effectual manner upon the simpler plan. Why deal
with the effect instead of the cause Why filter
the water a thousand times over, returning it to
the filthy basin at the end of each process, to be
again polluted, when the basin might be rinsed out
once for all Mr. Fitzroy has recourse to the filter-
ing-bed rather than to the atmosphere and to the
hand of man. He is in love with the fable of the
Danaides, for there is a certain similarity between
the process of emptying a lake by the help of sieves,
and that of cleansing the water of a lake by throw-
ing it back time after time upon the muck and filth
from which it had been originally drawn. Mr.
Fitzroy speaks of his own scheme as certain in its
effect, while the other—the usual one—is uncer-
tain. The balance of probability is entirely the
other way. In point of fact, the usual process is
certain in its results, thougha greater original out-
lay is incurred. We are very sure, however, that
the inhabitants of London, and more particularly
the inhabitants of the districts adjacent to the Ser-
pentine, would not refuse to bear a share in the
expenditure necessary to make what workmen call
a "good job" of the purification of the Serpentine
in place of this half and half scheme.-2'imes.

THE TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND

CHINA.

The following is the full text of the recent treaty,
concluded on June 1, 1858, at Tian-Tsin, between
ItnSan and China :

" Art. 1. By the present treaty are confirmed the
peace and friendship always existing between his
Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias and his
Majesty the Bogdykhan of Daissin and their re-
spective subjects.
" Art. 2. -The anterior right of Russia to send
Ambassadors to Pekin whenever the Russian Go-
vernment may deem it necessary is confirmed anew.
The relations betweeil the chief of the Russian em-
pire and that of the Chinese empire shall be co n-
ducted, not by means of the Senate on one part,
and on the other of the Li•san-iouan, as was
done • previously, but by that of the Russian
Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the head
of the Supreme Council of the empire, or
of the Prime Minister, on the footing of
perfect equality. Ordinary correspondence be-
tween the abovementioned personages shall be con-
ducted through the funtionarics of the frontiers.
When the necessity occurs of sending a despatch
on an affair of importance, a special functionary
shall be nominated to carry it into the cpital, or to
enter into explanations on the subject of the des-
patch with the members of the Council of State or
the Prime Minister ; immediately on his arrival
this functionary shall present the despatch through
the intervention of the President of the Chamber
of the Ceremonies (Li-bou.) A perfect equality
shall be equally observed in the correspondence and
interviews of the Russian Envoys or Ministers
Plenipotentiary with the members of the Council
of State, with the Minister of the Court of Pekin,
and with the Governor-General of the frontier or
littoral provinces, and other functionaries of the
respective boundaries of the two empires. If
the Russian Government find it necessary
to nominate a Minister Plenipotentiary to re-
side in one of the open ports, that Minister
must-.be regulated in his relations. verbal or
epistolary, with the local authorities and the Minis-
tefs a the Court of Pekin by the general rules
actually established for all foreign nations. The
Russian envoys in repairing to Pekin may follow
the route of Riakhta by the Ourga, or that of Daga
at the mouth of the river Pei-ho, or another road
from other Chinese towns or ports open to foreigners.
Upon being previously advised, the Chinese Govern-
ment engages immediately to take measures to pro-
vide both for the rapidity and convenience of the
journey of the envoy and his suite, and for the
honouyable reception to which he has a right in the
towns, as well as for all that concerns their lodging
and necessary materials of all kinds. The expenses
incurred by these various objects are charged to the
Russian and not to the Chinese Goverment.

" Art. 3. The commerce of Russia with China
may i encaforth be carried on, not only by land on
the frontier localities previously specified, but also
by sea. Russian merchant ships may to this effect
enter the following potts--Shanghai, Ningpo, Foo-
Chow-FOO, Amoy, Canton, Taiwan-Foo in the
island of Formosa, Kian-Chow in the island of
,K.hainan, and in the other localities open to foreign
Commerce.

" Art. 4. On commerce by land there will exist
henceforth no restriction relative to the number of
persons who engage in it, or as to the quantity of
merchandise introduced, or to the capital employed.
In commerce by sea, and all details of its operation,
such as the presentation of the manifest, the pay-
ment of anchorage dues, and the established Cus-
toms' dues, &c., the Russian merchant ships must
conform to the general regulations in force with
regard to foreign commerce in China. In case of
contraband the Russians are liable to the confisca-
tion of the goods landed.

"Art. 5. In each of the before-mentioned ports
the.Rassian Government has the right of nominat-
ing-Consuls according to its desire. To maintain
order among the Russian subjects residing in the
open ports of China, as well as the authority of
the consuls, she can send to those ports ships of
war. The arranging of relations between consuls
and the local authorities, the granting of land for
the construction of churches, houses, and stores,
the purchase of land by Russians from Chinese by
common agreement, and of other analogous objects
concerning the competence of consuls, will be regu-
lated by general rules in force in the Chinese em-
pire with regaril to foreigners.
"Art. 6. In the case of a ship of war or merchant
vessel being wrecked on the coasts of Chip, the
local authorities are bound to act immediately for
the safety of those ship VS reeked, the materials, cargo,
and the ship itself. They must also take every
measure to forward those shipwrecked, with their
property and the cargo. to the nearost port open to
commerce, or where there is a Russian Consul, or
agent of any nation friendly to Russia, or even to
the frontier, if that can be done ,conveniently. All
expenses thus incurred will be repaid accordiing to
the measures employed, by the Russian Govern-
ment. Id case of Russian ships of war or merchant
vessels being forced in course of navigation on the
Chinese coast for repairs, water, or fresh provisions,
they can for such objects enter into Chinese ports,
not open to commerce, but buy all they require at
prices voluntarily stipulated without hindrance
from the local authorities.
" Art. 7. The examination of matters in litiga-
tion between Russian and Chinese subjects in places
open to commerce can only be entered into by a
.Chinese official after communication with the Rus-
sian Consul or with the representative of the Rus-
sian Government at the place. In the case of a
Russian being accused of any delinquency or crime
he shall be tried by the Russian laws ; in the same
way a Chinese accused of delinquency, or atteipt
on the life or property of Russians, shall be tried
by the laws of his qwn country. Russian subjects
who have penetrated into the interior of China, and
who have committed crimes or delinquencies, must
be conducted, to be tried and punished according
to Russian laws, to the frontier, or to the open
ports where a Russian Consul resides.

tlie
engagesexercise
of onlyt
" Art. 8. The Chinese Government, acknowedg-
ing that Christian teaching aids the establishment
notot. peace
earns
edc
uconcored
saumb
joencgt s mfoern
he
duties of the Christian faith, but also to protect
them from those who profess other tolerated creeds'
in the -Celestial Empire. Acknowledging Christian
missionaries as good people, who seek not their own
interest;- the Chinese Government permit 3 them to
spread the Chi :stian faith among its subjects, and
will not oppose their penetrating into the interior
of the empire in all open places. For this purpose
a certain ~number of missionaries will be provided
with certificates delivered by the Russian Consuls,
or the authoprities of the frontier provinces.
" Art. 9. The undefined part of the frontiers be-
tween China, and Russia will, without delay, be
surveyed by delegates of the two empires, and the
arrangement. concluded between them' relative to
the frontier line will form an additional article to
the present treaty. After the boundaries are de-
fined an exact description will be made, and maps
annexecrof the frontier localities, which will in
future serve for both Governments as Ndisputable
evidence in all that concerns the frontier.
" Art. iO. in place of residing at Pekin, accord-
ing to an. ancient custom, during a definite period,
each member of the Russian rehAious mission can,
according to the convenience of the supreme autho-
rity, return tai Russia by Kiukhta or any other
route at any time, and in the.placo of the members
leaving others can be appinted by the mission of
Pekin. All expenses for the keeping of this mis-
sion will henceforward be paid by the Russian Go-
vernment. and the Chinese Government is com-
pletely relieved front the expenses incurred hitherto
sp:ct. Expenses incurred on the journey
by members of the mission, by couriers, and other
persons sent by the Russian Government from
lii!aklitet, or from open ports of China to Pekin, and
vice versa, will be paid by ,Russia. The Chinese

local authorities are bound on their side to assist by
all and every means in the rapid and convenient
transport of the above-mentioned persons to their
destination.

" Art. 11. For the regularity of relations between
the Russian and Chinese Governments, u,s well as for
the service of the religious mission at Pekin, a rapid
monthly postal communication is established be-
tween Kiakhta and Pekin. The Chinese courier
will leave Pekin and Kiakhta every month at a
fixed thy, and ought in 15 days deliver his letters
and despatches. Besides, every three months there
will be a carriage post from Kiakhta and Pekin,
and vice versa, carrying passengers and goods,which
should accomplish the journey in one month. All
expenses for the.quick post and the carriage post
will be divided equally between the Chinese and
Russian Governments.

"Art. 12. All rights and privileges, political, com-
mercial, and others, which may hereafter be con-
ceded by the Chinese Government to the most fa-
voured nations, will be equally acquired by Russia
without the necessity on the part of the latter to
enter into treaty for that purpose. The remainder
of this, the last article, refers only to the exchange
of copies and time of ratification.
" Count EUTHME POUTTATINE.
" GYI-LIANE KHOUACHENE."

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.-CROYDON, AUGUST 5.

(Before Mr. Justice Crowder and a Common Jury.)

FRAY V. FOSTER.
This was an action to recover damages from the
defendant, who is an attorney, for having negli-
gently conducted certain legal proceedings for the
plaintiff.

- Mr. Robinson was counsel for the plaintiff; Ser-
geant Parry and Mr. Joyce were for the defendant.
This case arose out of some proceedings that have
been frequently before the public. The plaintiff,
Miss Rosanna Dupin Fray, is a very respectable
young woman, and she was formerly in the service
of Lord and Lady Zetland, as lady's maid ; but, in
the year 1854, in consequence of some disagreement
in the establishment, she was suddenly dismissed.
The plaintiff then brought an action against Mrs.
Potter, the housekeeper of Lord Zetland, for slander,
and a second action against Lord Zetland, and both
these actions stood for trial. The first only was
tried, and it resulted in the jury giving the plain-
tiff a verdict, with £lOO, damages. The action
against Lord Zetland was postponed, and in the
meantime a rule was granted for a new trial in the
action against Mrs. Potter, and both these actions
again stood for trial. The solicitor for the plaintiff
in these proceedings was a gentleman named Voules,
and it appeared that he made a compromise, accord-
ing to the case for the plaintiff, entirely without her
consent, under which he received a sum of £3OO to
settle both actions. The plaintiff,it appeared, only
received £5O of this money, and she was required
to sign a paper which she thought was only a
receipt, but which turned out to be a promissory
note, and she was afterwards sued upon this note
by Mr. Voules, but he failed in his action,
and the tnote was ordered to be impounded
by Mr. Justice Erle. The plaintiff then, it
appeared, brought an action against Mr.
Voules for negligence, the present defendant, Mr.
Foster, acting as her attorney, and, according to
her testimony, he buoyed her up for a long time
with the idea that she was sure to succeed, and
that she would recover £5OO damages at least. As
the trial approached, however, she represented that
he changed his tone, and advised her to compro-
mise ; but she refused, and at length the case went
for trial, and the result was that she only obtained
a verdict. upon one count in the declaration, and
became liable for all the costs, and the present
action was brought against Mr. Foster for alleged
negligence in the manner in which he had con-
ducted the action against Mr. Voules.
The plaintiff having deposed to many of the
above facts, she was cross-examined at very con-
siderable length, and from her answers it was evi-
dent that she was under the impression that every-
body connected with .the case had conspired to
prevent her from getting justice. She complained
very much of Mr. Hawkins, who was her counsel
in the action against Mr. Voules, and said that he
had dared her to mention the names of Lord and
Lady Zetland, and said that he would ruin her
case if she did. She also said that after he had
opened the case he immediately left the court, and
the trial; which she expected would have lasted
two days, was over in an hour. She likewise de-
clared that Mr. Hawkins advised her to compro-
mise, and told her that none of the judges would
go against a nobleman, and that Lord Campbell,
who tried the case, in particular, would not do so.
(Loud laughter, in which the learned judge joined.)
The plaintiff admitted that Sergeant Wilkins, her
former counsel, strongly advised her to compromise
the original action, and that another attorney whom
she had consulted in the matter refused to take up
the case. It ,also appeared that, in the action
against Mr. Voulcs, Lord Campbell said he appeared
to have acted honourably and properly, and that
an offer was made to pay her £5O and all her costs,
and that she was strongly urged to accept the
offer, and in the result the defendant obtained a
verdict upon the counts for negligence, and the
five guineas damages were upon a count in troves
to recover some medical prescriptions, and Mr.
Voules consented to a verdict for that amount ; but
she was liable for the whole of the costs. The
plaintiff, likewise, stated that she had not paid
Mr. Foster a single farthing for costs during the
time he had been acting for her, and although he
had obtained a judgment against her, he had not
taken any steps to enforce it. The plaintiff, in the
course of her examination, said that her 'object
throughout these proceedings was to vindicate her
character, and that it was impossible for her to do
so unless she went into the whole of the particulars
connected with the conduct of Lord and Lady Zet-
land, and the manner in which she had been
treated by them ; but she had never been allowed
to do so.

Mr. Robinson called for the production of the re-
cords in the diff6rent actions, and also the briefs
that had been delivered to the counsel who had
been retained.

Sergeant Parry said that Mr. Foster had only
been subpoenaed to appear and give evidence, and
he was in attendance for that purpose. He was
quite willing, however, that all the papers and
everythinc, connected with the case should be be-
fore the Court, and he had despatched a clerk for
the papers, and he would no doubt very speedily
return with them.

The plaintiff said it would be impossible for the
jury to understand her case unless all the papers
were before them.
Mr. Justice Crowder said that under these cir-
cumstances he thought it would be better to post-
pone the trial until the papers were produced.
At a late hour of the .day the case was again
called on, when all the papers were put in, but
none of the matters contained in them appeared tc
have any material bearing on the inquify.
At the close of the case for the plaintiff,
Sergeant Parry submitted that the evidence
failed to make out the averments in the declaration,
and after a long technical argument,
His Lordship decided in favour of the objection,
and directed a nonsuit.
Sergeant Parry said he thought it was only due
to his learned friend, Mr. Havvkins, to state that
ne was in attendance, and would have been exa-
mined as a witness if his evidence had been re
quired, and he would have positively contradicted
the plaintiffin many of the statements she had made.
The plaintiff was then nonsuited.

AUGUST 6.
(Before Mr. Justice Crowder, and a Common Jury.)
HUGESSEN V.
VINCENT AND OTHERS.
The plaintiff in this action
defendants were Ad-
on was Mr. Hugessen,
M.P. for Sandwich, and
h
miral Vincent and severs
brought to recover da-
aother electors of the
borough, The action wa
mages for a libel that bad been published by the
defendants, and which imputed to the plaintiff that
he had been guilty of bribery and intimidation at
the election for the borough in April last.
The defendants pleaded not guilty, and also a
ju4ification.
Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., and 1111.. Prentice were
for the plaintiff. Mr. Bovill, Q.C., and Mr. W. G.
Harrison appeared for the defendants.
Mr. James said that the plaintiff in this action,
Mr. Edward Hugessen Knatchbull Hugessen, was
the son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, who had for a
great many years represented the county of Kent
in Parliament, but who had taken the name of
Hugessen, and the defendants were Admiral Vin-
cent, a retired admiral, and several other respect-
able gentlemen, electors of the borough of Sand-
wich. The action was brought to recover damages
for a libel that had been publishecl and signed by
them, and he would very shortly state the circum-
stances under which the proceeding arose. At the
general elcction in April last, Lord Clarence Paget
and Mr. Hugessen were candidates for the borough
of Sandwich. They were opposed by Sir Jamw
Ferguson and another gentleman, but in the result
the plaintiff and Lord Clarence Paget were
elected. A petition was presented to the House
of Commons against that return, on the ground
that there had been bribery, intimidation, treating,
and undue influence on the part of the successful
candidates. This petition, however, did not come to
anything, for before any proceedings could be taken
in relation, to it the change of G.-nernment took
place, and Lord Clarence Paget was appointed Se-
cretary to the Admiralty, and Mr. Hugessen was
created a Junior Lord of the Treasury. The first of
these appointments not being one in the gift of the
Crown, it was not necessary that Lord Clarence

Paget should vacate his seat, but Mr. Hugessen,
upon accepting the post of Junior Lord of the Trea-
sury, was compelled to give up his seat and to go
down to Sandwich to be re-elected. At this time
the petition charging Mr. Hugessen with bribery
and corruption at the former election remained be-
fore the House of Commons, but nothing had been
done in it, and the jury were probably aware that
in a case of this kind, where a Member had been
petitioned against on the ground of bribery, if the
charge had been substantiated, lie"would have been
ineligible as a candidate at a future election, and
any votes that were given for him would be thrown
away and void, and it bad been customary to give
a notice to such effect to the electors. The defend-
ants, however, had gone much further than this,
for on the 25th of June a placard, printed in the
Conservative colours, was published, and which
concluded with the following statement :
" Notice is hereby given, that by reason of the
bribery, treating, corruption, intimidation, and un-
due influence practised by the said Edward Huges-
sen Knatchbull Hugessen, his friends, agents, and
partisans, and other persons in his behalf, at his
said former election in April last, as set forth in the
allegations of the said petition, signed by the said
John Ralph and Henry Langley, he, the said Ed-
ward Hugessen Knatchbull Hugessen, is disquali-
fied, ineligible, and incapable of being elected and
returned for the borough of Sandwich during the
duration of this present Parliament."
Mr. James proceeded—This placard was signed.
by Admiral Vincent and several other elec-
tors, some of whom he believed were pilots, and
it was the libel complained of. He had before
said that in a case where bribery had been
proved against a candidate, it was legal to give a
notice to that effect to the electors ; but in this
case there had been no evidence to support the
petition, and the law would not permit the circula-
tion of a libel of this kind under the pretence of
giving such a notice to the electors. It was a most
serious imputation upon the character of Mr. Hu-
gessen, and the proceeding on the part of the de-
fendants was quite unjustifiable. The defendants
had pleaded originally that the statement con-
tained in the placard was true, and that Mr.
Hugessen had been guilty of bribery and corrupt
practices, but that plea had since been withdrawn,
upon a learned judge making an order that the de-
fendants should state the particulars of the acts of
bribery that were to be relied upon, and the time
when they occurred. His learned friend Mr. Bovill
would now, lie believed, state that the defendants
were not justified in the course they had taken and
he would consent that the plea of justification should
be withdrawn. The question was one of very great
importance to Mr. Hugessen, because it had been
slated in the Times and other journals that the
petition had been compromised, and was withdrawn
under some arrangement, but there really was no
foundation for this suggestion. A good deal of lati-
tude might be allowed during the excitement of an
election, but when such serious charges as these
were made against a gentleman in the position of
Mr. Hugessen, he had no alternative but to come
before a jury and give them an opportunity of de-
ciding whether there was any evidence to support
them.

Mr. Bovill said that the first election for Sand-
wich was no doubt hotly contested, and party spirit
ran very high. The party who expected to succeed
did not happen to be successful, and as the defeated
party very often did, under such circumstances,
they fancied that certain things had taken place,
and that the result of the election was owing to
proceedings of which they thought they had a right
to complain. A petition was in consequence pre-
sented against the return of the successful candi-
dates, but before the merits of that petition could
be tried or the matter could be at all entered
into a new election happened. The old petition
still remained pending, and if the allega-
tions contained in that petition had been substan-
tiated, Mr. Hugessen could not have been re-
elected, and his election would have been void. It
was a very usual course under such circumstances
to give a notice to that effect to the electors, and
the placards in 'question were merely printed with
that object. His learned friend had stated that
some of the defendants were pilots belonging to the
town, but the fact was that Admiral Vincent was
the chairman of the Conservative candidates' com-
mittee, and he and all the other gentlemen took a
leading part in the election ; but all they did they
did bona fide, and believed they were justified in
doing; They thought they had a right to publish
this placard; and if the statements contained in
the original petition had been true there was n o
doubt that Mr. Hugessen would have been dis-
qualified. The defendants were now, lhowever,
aware that they had done rather more than the law
allowed, and they would, therefore, consent to a
verdict for five guineas, which would entail other
consequences upon them, and this result would no
doubt be perfectly satisfactory to the plaintiff.
Mr. Justice Crowder—The plea of justification,
I understand, is withdrawn ?

Mr. Bovill—Oh, certainly, my lord.
Mr. Justice Crowder then addressed the jury, and
said he was of opinion that the case had been
treated very properly. What had been done by
the defendants was very probably intended to be
done according to law, rbut they had overstepped
the law. By the plea of justification they had
alleged that the plaintiff had in point of fact been
guilty of bribery at the election in question, and
while that plea remained there was no doubt that
it cast a very serious imputation upon Mr. Huges-
sen. That plea had now, however, been withdrawn,
and he thought a very satisfactory conclusion had
been arrived at, and all they were called upon to
do was to return a verdict for the plaintiff for the
sum that had been mentioned.
The jury accordingly returned a verdict for the
plaintiff. Damages, five guineas.
CROWN COURT.

(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)
Elizabeth King, 29, was charged with the wilful
murder of her male child.
Sergeant Ballantine and Mr. Hurrell conducted
the prosecution for the Treasury, and the prisoner
was defended by Mr. Sharpe.
The prisoner it appeared was a married woman,
and the child in question was born during the ab-
sence of her husband, who is a seaman, upon a long
voyagp. It was found dead shortly after its birth,
and apparently had been suffocated ; but there was
no distinct evidence that the child was born alive.
The charge of murder was eventually abandoned,
and Mr. Sharpe consented to a verdict of conceal-
ing the birth, and the pi isoner was sentenced to six
months' hard labour.

Richard Cole, the soldier who was convicted on
Friday of robbing a clergyman of his watch, at
Guildford, was brought up for judgment, and as it
appeared he had previously borne a good character,
the learned Judge only sentenced him to eight
months' hard labour.

The whole of the special jury cases will be tried
by Mr. Justice Crowder, except under particular
circumstances ; and the common jury cases will go
before Mr. Justice Blackburn. The criminal busi-
ness is not yet concluded, so that this learned judge
will not take civil business before the middle of the
day on Monday.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—BODMIN, Aug. 6.
The commission was opened on Thursday after-
noon by Mr. Justice Crompton, later in the day
Mr. Baron Bramwell arrived, and in the evening
attended divine service.
Stephen B. L. Bell, 53, surgeon, was indicted for
the wilful murder of James Caddy, at Falmouth, on
the 23d June.
Mr. Cole and Mr. Cox prosecuted, and Mr. Cole-
ridge defended the prisoner.
The facts lie in a very short compass. It ap-.
peared that the prisoner had been practising at
Weston-super-Mare, and was in difficulttes in a
pecuniary point of view. He had received assist-
ance from his mother, a very aged lady, residing
near the Middle-terrace, Falmouth, but it appears
that his applications for further aid had been de-
nied. On the evening in question he unexpectedly
presented himself at his mother's house, and de-
manded money, which was refused. , He became
very violent, and his sisters, alarmed at his threats,
sent across the road to Harriet-place, to request
their friend CapL Caddy to come and protect them,
Capt. Caddy immediately came over and expostu-
lated in vain with the prisoner, and threatened to
fetch a policeman. The prisoner now became so
violent that one of his sisters escaped through the
window, and on Capt. Caddy attempting to leave
the house for the police, the prisoner seized an In-
dian spear which hung as an ornament in the pas-
sage, a most formidable weapon, and struck him in
the upper part of the thigh, completely severing
the femoral artery. The upfortunate gentleman
staggered to the porch where he supported himself
for a moment and fell dead.
The witnesses examined were the prisoner's two
sisters. The poor ladies were deeply affected, and
from this circumstance, and a natural unwillirigness
on their part to inculpate their brother, there was
considerable difficiiltv in obtaining evidence on
some of the main facts of the case. They and their
brother were the only persons who witnessed the
cause of the deceased's death. Their mother, a very
infirm old lady, was, at the time of the melancholy
occurrence, up tairs in bed, and wholly unconsc
ous of the proceedings below, whilst the servant, a,
female, was at the time absent from the house. The
evidence of Charlotte and Mary Ann Bell (pri-
soner's sisters) having been taken to the above effect,
Mr. Coleridge made an admirable address for the
defence. He argued that the charge of murder was
far from being made out, and the wound the unfcr
tunate Mr. Caddy received was the result of an
accident. _

His Lordship having summed ui), thr; jury, after

half an hour's deliberation, returned a verdict of
Manslaughter.
The prisoner, on being asked whether he had any-
thing to say why sentence should not be passed, ad-.
dressed the Court in a lengthy oration, in which he
attacked almost every one who had given evidence
against him, and repeatedly called upon "the Al-,
mighty and His dear Son to witness his innocence."
His lordship, in passing sentence, remarked that
it was a fortunate thing for the prisoner that the
jury did not hear his.remarks before the delivered
their ver&et, for if they had the probability was
that the black malignity he had exhibited towards
the witnesses would have induced them t• have
found him guilty of the more serious crime of mur-
der. His offence was as close to murder as it could
be, and his punishment must be next to death. ths
lordship then sentenced the prisoner to penal ser-
vitude for life.

This case concluded the busine§s of the assize.
The business on the civil side was of trifling im-
portance.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—MONMOUTH, AUG 6.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Willes)
THE WIFE MURDER AT NEWPORT.
Matthew Francis, a tailor and haullier, aged 26'
was indicted foa feloniously killing and murdering_
his wife, Sarah Francis, by cutting her throat With
a razor, at Newport, on the 12th of March last:
Prisoner, who was below the middle stature, and
lame, looked very pale, and appeared to be suffer-
ing from mental depression. He was arraigned and
pleaded not guilty at the March assizes, but 11!
trial was postponed until the present occasion, villei",
the spacious and well-appointed court was crowded
to excess to hear the trial.
Mr. M'Mahon and Mr. Matthews prosecuted,,
and the prisoner was defended, by Mr. Kettle and
Mr. Sawyer.
Mr. M'Mahon, in opening the case, said the pri-
soner, who resided at Newport, had been inarried to
the unfortunate woman for two years. On Monday'
the 21st of February last, they appeared to hay.e,
quarrelled, according to the prisoner's statement
before the magistrates, about breakfast. Words rose_
high, and they came to blows, and the deceased
ultimately left her husband and went to the house
of Thos. Hawkins, a plasterer, in Temple-street;
Newport. Prisoner saw her there several times and
endeavoured to persuade her to -eturn and live With
him, butshe constantly refused, and even went r
far as to take a summons out aainst him for the
assault of the 21st February, but which was na'i.
pressed. This and her invariable refusal to be re-
conciled, seemed to have exasperated -him greatly'
and on several occasions he threatened to take her
life. On the day preceding the murder he again.,,
*came to Hawkins' house, when his conduct to in;
wife was so violent that a policeman had to be fetched
to make him leave. What occurred the next oat
will be best described in the words of the prisoner
own statement before the magistrates, as follows
" I went there next morning and stood in the
room where she was. She-told me to go out again;
she did not want to se-i me. She began to curse
me. I told her not to put herself in a bad way, Old
sat down alongside of her. I again asked her to
come home. She refused me again. There was
knife on the table, and I said to Mrs. Jones, Lend
me that knife, and I will kill her withit.' I rubbed
it along on the edge of the pan on the table, and
then touched my wife on the back. She said,
Don't put your hand on me,' and then she called
me many disgraceful things. I went out of the
house to the water-closet, and sat down and began
to cry. Then I thought to myself about the raze!
I bad in my pocket. I was not thinking about it
before. I brought it out that morning with the
intention of having it ground. Then I took the
razor out of my pocket and tied a piece of thread
had in my pocket around it. Then I wetit into the
house again, and again begged her to come home
and not to make a fool of herself and me too. Then
she still refused, so I rose up and told her I Was
fully determined to kill her before I left the house
if she would not come home Width me. She began
to sing a song. I told her not to sing songs—she
had better sing hymns ! She laughed aloud when
I said that. Then I caught her by the forehead;
and said, Now, Sarah, will you come home or not.'
She said she would not. I said, ' What, never conie
home ?' She said, 'No never,' and then I drew
the razor across ber throat. She caught the
razor in the palm of her hand. She let it go•
again, and caught my wrist, and drew down 01
hand across her neck. She heaved her arms 1113,:
and caught me round the neck, and pulled my file'
down to her, and kissed me. I told her I had mut"
dered her, and was willing to die for it.. The last
words she spoke were, " Oh, no ; you shan't die.
I suppose she did not think it was done to the
purpose. That is all. -
Evidence confirmatory of the above facts having
been given,

,
Mr. Kettle, for the defence, contended that the
prisoner had received strong provocation, and that
the offence only amounted to manslaughter.
The Judge having summed up,
The Jury retired, and after a quarter of an hour '
absence, returned into court with a verdict of guilty.
The Judge put on the black cap, and passed sew
tence of death in the usual form.
The prisoner, as he was led down from the dock;
wiped the perspiration from his pallid brow, and
exclaimed, "Itis a just sentence. I &save it. ,
am willing to die."

COUNTRY MAREBTS.

CHELIVISFORD---At G. 5. '
A small attendance to-day at the corn-exchange, and s
very limited business transacted. The few sales passing
were at late rates.
Wheat, white 43s to 52s Peas, Partridge ..43s to
Chevalier `ql-1
red 41s to 498 ' White 42s to ir.
Dun
Barle
....348 to 41s 328 to 40s B oiling 43s to 40,,,
40s to 4-46
Grinding 26s to 34s Beans, Tick ....400 to 4,41
Malt 63s to 68s Harrow Ticks 41s to li:,
Chevalier 638 to 69s Mazagan 40s to 44'
Oats ........... 258 to 34s

DERBY—Atm. 6.
There was a moderate show of wheat, which met an
active demand, at about late rates. White wheat,. 481
53s ; red, 44a to 48s per 36 stone. Spring corn
in a112.,70
supply. Oats were from 28s to 32s per 24 stone. 13°""
firm, at 48s to 52s per 38 stone.

OXFORD—Auo. 6.
There was a very small supply of wheat at our market to-day, and but few sales took place, at about late rate'
Several samples of new wheat offering at 40s to 48s per (Ifi
Old wheat 42s to 50s. New barley 355. New oats realis;
from 27s to 31s. New whiter beans 40s, and peas 39s
425. Flour 32s to 33s per sack.

STAMFORD—AuG. 6.
There was a fair supply of wheat yesterday, w—hich
~
sold slowly, at no advance on late rates. Little or no b
ley on offer. The trade in oats was slow, at about bare
currencies. Beans in meagre supply, anti the prir
fully as high, and firm. The best samples of new bole,, offered to-day realised 42s per qr.

LEICESTER—Auo. 6. •
There was a fair supply of wheat to-day, with a mode
•
rate show of other grain. Prices—White wheat, 46s to k
per 36 stone ; red, 42s to 48s; new red realised 48s per clr;'
barley, 33s to 38s per 30 stone ; the oat trade was foe'
at quotations ranging from 28s to 34s per quarter. Bee
were active, at 48s to 54s per 38 stone.

DUBLIN—Ama. 5.
Our market was extremely dull, and we note wheat and
oat` Gd per qr lower on the week. Barley, though soarep.
;,;
barely supported its price. There was one sample of u°
wheat in to-day which was sold at 255. Several lots of neA
here, oats, and rapeseed. The condition of all new c°""
good. Nothing doing in Indian corn.

s. d. s. d.
►Vheat, white 26 0 to 27 0
Do., red 24 0 to 25 6
Do., new 23 0 to 26 0
Barley
Oats
Do., black.... 14 0 to 15 0

l•
s. d. 0. g
Do., new l2 6 to lo '-
13 6
Bere l3 oto •
Rapeseed
0
Oatmeal l4 610 16 •
Bakers' flour
Indian corn

BIRTHS.
BOND.—On the 30th ult., at Paris, the wifo of F. W. /4
Bond, Esq., M.P., of a daughter.
•
CUBITT.—On the sth inst., at Denbies, Dorking, the 'Ofo
of George Cubitt, Esq., of a son.
FIELD —On the 4th inst., at Limerick, the wife of MaPt
Field, R.A., of a daughter.
POWER.—On the sth inst., at the Parsonage, lirorthia'
the wife of the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A., of a daughter.

MARRIAGES.
FOSTER—DOLIII7.—On the 4th inst., at St. George's, 01'n;
over-square, John Foster, Esq., Gentleman of her tor
jesty's Chapel Royal, to Sarah Amy, youngest daughter
of the late Mr. Samuel Dolby.
TOWNSEND—CADOGAN.--011 the 4th inst., at Thorobl,
thu aree Rev. S. T. Townsend, of
Harley-place, Cavento sqenry,
Cadogan, Esq, to Eliza F. Cadogan, eldest daughter of the '-
H

DEATHS.
ARMSTRONG.—At Lewisham, of diphtheria, uather—;o-.
Annie, aged 9 years, and Alfred Richard, aged six Yefir4
children of Richard Armstrong. •
Asti-Hr.—On the sth inst., at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
Sarah Elizabeth, infant daughter of G. C. Ashby,
of Isleworth, Middlesex.
D.
BARRYMORE.—On the 4th inst., at Amesbury, „ :it.
A. Barrymore, Esq., of St, Alban's Hall, Master 01 th
6
Grammar School at Amesbury, aged 42.
GORING.— On the 4th inst., at Leamington the Rev. C 1311:•
Gcring, eldest surviving son of the late Sir Chas. Gorilla,'
Bart., of Highden, Sussex.
PArtsex.—On the 2d inst., at Hildersheim, Hanovevr'
Lucie, the third daughter of Mr. I'Anson, of Bushey
Herts, aged 17.
SALMON —On the sth inst., at Stoke Ferry, NorfolQr.
John Drew Salmon, F.L.S., of 164 a, Strand, ag•ed

LONDON : Printed and Published by MURDO Y 0 "2,
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The Sub Office,l "' f
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the ctuntY
Middlosox, Monday, August 8, 1859.