Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1888-05-26 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

VICTIMS OF OFFICIAL ZEAL.  Till now forgers have generally confined their efforts to attempting to counterfeit the 1001. or the 501. bank note, but a large number of forged 5001. Bank of France notes have just been put into circulation in Paris. According to the experts the imitation is so good that it is extremely difficult, even for an experienced eye, to detect the forgery. Nevertheless, when one of these counterfeit notes is placed beside a good note its defects become apparent. The public has been put on its guard against these forged notes by an intimation sent by the Bank of France to the Haves Agency. It appears that the first of these counterfeit notes was presented at the Bank of France some days ago. The banks and hotels were immediately warned of it, but the public was kept in ignorance of the fact, in the hope of the prompt arrest of the forgers, ' and it is possible that nothing would yet have been said had it not been that the police, in their over.anxiety to dii.cover the authors of the forgery, arrested at the Longchamp Races a rich and well-known barrister of Orleans, M. Julien Dumas, the Count de la Rochefoucauld d'Estissac,and M. :Vallier, a retired military captain. M. Julien Dumas, wanting change to bet a few napoleons on a rac?, went to the exchange office and presented a 500 f. note, which he had received the day before at a fashionable restaurant out of a 1,0001. note with which lie had paid his addition. Ile had scarcely received the gold in exchange for his note when lie was seized by two detectives. Be was hurried along to the Police Commissary's office in spite of, his protests, and. without being allowed to give any e'-planation. Count de la Rochefoucauld d'Esti,.sac• and M. Vallier, having tried to explain to the detectives that they had made a mistake were also arrested. The police commissary explained to them that the note presented by M. Julien Duinas was a forged one ; but, after having receiving proof of the identify.of the Persons wrosgly atrested, he liberated them.  THE NAVY AND NATIONAL DEFENCE•  At a meeting at the Royal United Service Institution Admiral Colomb delivered a lecture on "The Naval Defences of the United 'Kingdom." He thought there was nothing so likely to protect the line of our merchant ships as close blockade; and close blockade on St. Vincent's system, with a reserve squadron at home, did away with all waste in fixed defences. If our blockade was effective our coast could not be insulted; but if the blockade was not effective it was incumbent on us to make it so, in order to protect our commerce. He considered that the privateers, which did enormous damage in 1810, would be sure to re-appear in another war : and our defence, to be effective, muss be naval, and so numerous that he did not see how the regular navy could possibly undertake it. He believed that, given local effort, a complete guard of our territorial waters could be established by the volunteer system, using chiefly the selfsame class of vessel which might be brought against us. As to the question of the strength of our fleet at present, he had not made any estimate, but he considered that in war even with France alone we were little prepared, and would have to fall back on Lord Howe's system,. which would mean practically the abandonment of our commerce, though our, shores would be perfectly sedure. A long discussion followed, most of the speakers dissenting from the views expressed by Admiral Colomb. Admiral Sir George Elliott said he did not believe in blockading the enemy's ports, and thought that ships would not be beneficially employed in such an operation. It would require 80 ships outside to blockade 42 ships in a harbour of France. We never could, in the second place, rely upon a stationary fleet off the shores instead of having land defences, because the moment a fleet of the enemy appeared the coast fleet would be sure to be ordered off to meet the enemy, and our coast would then be open to the descent a our foes. Admiral Sir R. Hamilton advocated our having a fleet of such force as should be abla to fight Russia and France combined. We ought to;have a naval policy irrespective of party.—Captain Bowden Smith said France had lately weeded out obselete ships from her fleet ; and those which remained were not at all obselete. In comparing the armoured fleets of England and France, he found that we had 55 capable ships, while France had 52, and of unarmoured ships France had 49, while we had 54. This comparison was dot favourable to England. Admiral Sir E. Fanshawe mentioned that in former great wars England had double the number of ships which France possessed, while Colonel Sir Charles Nugent adversely criticised the views expressed by the lecturer. He called attention to the fact that in the last 25 years fifty millions had been spent on war-ships— twenty-two and a half millions of which was spent on armoured or partially armoured ships; and what did they find now? That there was no battle-ship in foreign waters older than the year 1876, so that about ten millions of money bad been thrown away.  At the last meeting of the School Board for London the chairman announced that he had received a cheque for £25 which had been collected by school children in New Zealand, for the purpose of assisting in providing meals for the poorest school children in London. It was decided that the thanks of the Board should be sent to New Zealand.  On Friday _a shocking suicide occurred at the Vic toria Park Hospital for Consumptive Patients. An inmate named Christopher 'Wheeler, aged 48, was observed by some of his fellow inmates to get out of bed and slash his throat with a table knife. An attempt was made to prevent him further injuring himself, but he slipped away and jumped from the window, alighting on the ground with a frightful Fresh. When picked up life Vres" found to be extinct.