The Aberdare Times

BISMARCK'S PLEASANTRY! Though the great Prussian minister Bismarck seems to have strong vindictive feelings against states and cities, he appears seldom however to retain anger against individuals, although most things said some- how come to his ears. There was an instance of this at Brunn. The great minister the other day took a promenade with Doctor Gistra, and in the course of conversation he suddenly stopped, and remarked, Do you recollect, doctor, what you once said in the Austrian Diet ?" I have said so many things, your excellency, that it is not easy to remember." I shall Remind you of one of your remarks you said, The toan who goes with Bismarck is not an honest man." The burgomaster looked blank. But my dear burgomaster, here you are yourself now going with Bismarck. And there are a great many greater men will be by and by willingly in the same predica- ment in which you are now," said the Count, with one of his grim laughs.—The following aneodote is also delated of JBismarck :— When the Prussian Corps d'Armee entered Micholsburg there was a considerable exhibition of popular feeling, very different from that said to have characterised the more police reception at Biunn. One man, a Jew, in particular, showed so much insolence in his demeanour and language that he was arrested. Count Von Bismarck, in uniform, 1Pu parsing at the moment, and aiked the cause of the ex- citement, and was told it was caused by the arrest of a man Who htd been abusing the army. c. It is false said the MrugglirgJew J have not said a word against the army It was only Bismarck i abused." "Oh, if that be all," said the count, smiling, "I must beg his release. Hi3 betters have been abusing me for a long time, an 1 it is scarcely fair to punish a poor devil like that. Let him go."

WHEN WILL THEY BE SET AT LIBERTY ? Dr. Beke has sent the following letter to The Timet, Which he has recently received from the Rev. Henry Å, Stern, one of the Abyssinian captives:— Civil Service Club, August 9. Zegieh, Lake Tzana, Abyssinia, May 28. My dear Dr. Beke,—Little did you or I anticipate, When we last met in London that I should be a prisoner, and you the good Samaritan to come to my own and others' release. A Turk would say it was Kismet, but a Christian sees in it the finger of God and the proceedings of an inscrutable Providence. You have probably heard lots of strange stories about my grievous offences; but, believe me, if an angel from heaven had been placed in my position, he would not, after certain occurrences on which I Jnmt not dilate, have got unscathed out of this country. Thanks to Him who is with His servants In the tempest and fire, and who has also almost visibly been with me, and afforded me strength according to iny day. Our future Is still enveloped in mystery. We have been released from our fetters, and enj oy once more the use of our unshackled limbs. When we shall be permitted to leave Abyssinia is still problematical. I have become a regular soured scptic, and do not worry my mind about visionary prospects, which, till now, have always turned out to be phantoms of an excited imagination, or merely soap-bubbles. His Majesty is "kind" to us, and we hope that his favours will not diminish. Our whole party are tolerably I 1VeU, and very likely when the camp moves we shall find in active exercise something to relieve our dis- tracting suspence. I am thankful that my family are "ell. His Majesty was deeply moved by the petition You forwarded, and he has also written a gracious *eply to the relatives of the captives. We have heard wonderful accounts of Mrs. Beke's hunting exploits. Please to give her my best Christian and accept also the same for yourself. That our heavenly Father may be with you and us 18 the prayer of Yours in the bonds of trouble and gratitude, Charles Beke, Esq. H. A. STERN.

IMPORTANT CASE DECIDED. At the Monmouth assizes, the cause of Morgan v. •Nicholl," has been heard, and was an action of eject- ment, brought to recover possession of property in the parish of Mamhilad, Monmouthshire. The plaintiff was one Isaac Morgan, who is in humble cir- cumstances, working as a fawner, ill Clerkenwell, London. The defendant is the Rev. Iltyd Nicbol, a clergyman, and the 80n of a magistrate in Monmouthshire. Two astions had been brought originally—the one against the present defen- dant, and the other against his father, but they had been Consolidated. Estates to the value of between GO.OUOi. and "0,0002 depended upon the title brought in question in this action In 1857 an action was brought by one Jacob Morgan, Who was the son of the present plaintiff, to recover an estate Called Pant-y-goitre, in Monmouthshire, against the same parties, upon the same title, and upon that occasion he testified that his father, the present plaintiff, had died some years before. It appeared that on the 29th of September, 1854, Miss Michel Morgan, an old maiden lady, whose principal residenae was at Pant-y-goitre, died at Clifton without a yiil. She was then in possession as well of the estate at Mamhilad as of Pant-y-goitre, and other property. The de- fendant's father had married a Miss Eleanor Bond, through Whom the defendant claimed to succeed to the property Jipon Miss Morgan's death, and having received by telegraph hnmediate information of that event, took instant steps to Possess himself of her property by taking possession of fant-y goitre ata late hour, and Mamhilad mMStoi-houseon the same evening. The question in the cause was one of Pedigree, whether the plaintiff was entitled to the property, the descendant iu the male line, through one John Morgan worn William Morgan, of Craigwith, who died in 1743, or the defendant, through the female line, from the same William Morgan. Miss Rachel Morgan had lived at Pant-y-goitre With a brother William and a sister Anne, until thsir deaths Respectively, unmarried and intestate. They were the children of John Morgan, of Craigwith, who, with a brother William (who died a bachelor in 1829). had on his brother's oeath succeeded to Pant-y-goitre. He was the son of William Jlorgajl of Craigwith, who had married in October, 1741, Miss Rachel Jones, one of the three co-heiresses of Mr. ones, of Pant, through whom the Mamhilad and Pant-v-goitre estatt a came into the family. He died in 1702. This William tin. on of the common anoestor, William Morgan, of Craigwith. Ü. plaintiff's case was that the common ancestor, William Morgan, had a son, named John, born in 1706, who had J°arritd beneath him Diana Wroth, one of a family of wood- burners, wh> came over with Queen Anne from Denmark, and derived their surname from the red colour of their hair John was allege') to have died in 173), and lelt a son Edmund, Who 'ived at Gros-llan-frau, and died in 1811', 1eavii;oy a si n William, who was the father of the pre*int PMi.tiflf. The defendant denied the existenctJ of any such ■on of the Gotuijjon ancestor as John, and said that William Wa8 his only f pn, t>t*t that he had three daughters, one of Wiom was named Elisabeth, who married and had adau^ht. r ^leaner, who married a Bond, whose daughter married the father of the present defendant, The father of the pre. sent plaintiff was a timber-haulier, and kept pack-horses, ghd farmed a small farm called Bwlch-y-Ghrynt, at JJasalleg. plaintiff's family had always been poor and lowly, and grandfather J»d a small farm at Gros-llan-frau, 1ft Basalleg. The plaintiff himself is now in his 66th year, and lived in his youth more or less at home in Bassalleg, until the year 1839, when, having become mixed up in the Chartist Riots, he went away to Bristol, whence he returned and worked for a short time on the Great Western Railway, and then went to London, where he had been living ever since. For tbe last 14 years he said he had lived in the same house at Clerkenwell, but he had ceased to hold all commu- nication with hi9 family, and he said that he first learattna his sou Jacob was making an attempt to get hold of tne r y- goitre estate two or three months before thei trial. time of the trial he came down to Abergavenny, Aher was met by a friend from Newport He staidI at Aber- gaveJIIIY and the neighbourhood, but did not m with his son's proceedings, having the intention ashesaidif his son recovered the property, to come t^"d t,e advantage of his success, and pay him costsof the tiiaL He now brought the present action through the p^cmirary assistance afforded him by his present employer. The evi- denoe on the part of the plaintiff consisted of conversions related to have takeff place between members of the Craig- with branch of the family with those of the plaintiff s alleged branch in which the relationship was acknowledged, and of various acts indicating kindred. Varipus registers of baptisms at the churches in the parish ot Trevethin, eon- taining entries in the name of John, the son of William Morgan, of various dates between the year 1706 and 1728, were also put in, and an entry of the death of John, the son of William Morgan, in the year 1789. The defendant's evidence consisted of conversations with Miss Rackel Mor- gan and Mrs. Eleanor Nicholl respecting the relationship., and of the production of the original registers, and the de- nial thereupon that they proved the existence of the John Morgan referred to by the plaintiff also, a deed of gift made ia 1741 by William, the common ancestor to William, his son, in which the latter was described as his only son and heir, and a settlement of the same date made on the marriage of William, the son, in which he was desoribed as son and heir of William, the common ancestor; and a will of the common ancestor made in the same year, In which he made no mention of John or hii children, though he made be- quests in favour of other children. In the course of the plaintiff's case a certified copy of an entry in the register of baptism of Llanover parish was put In evidence. It wal in the following form :hn, son of Will. Morgan, April IS, 1706," and it was said that "hn" formed the final letters of the word, John, the rest being il- legible. The original register was produced by the defend- ant, and it was suggested that hn had been written in pentil and that "Will." was in truth "Giles." Powerful glasses were procured and in the result it was admitted that the disputed word was either "Giles" or "GulL" The Solicitor-general having summed up the defen- dant's evidence, and the counsel for the plaintiff having replied, his Lordship summed up, and said that unless the plaintiff satisfied the jury that the John Morgan who was the father of Edmund, the grand- father of the plaintiff, was a son of William, the com- mon ancestor, the defendant was entitled to their verdict. The jury found a verdict for the defendant. The trial occupied three days.

FRESH MEAT FROM SOUTH AMERICA. A few days ago Lord Stanley stated in the House of Commons that a report had been received from Buenos Ayres on the various methods used in the country there to preserve meat in an effectual manner for transportation to Europe. If the system should prove as satisfactory as it is hoped, it must shortly effect a complete revolution in our meat supplies from abroad, abolishing the necessity for importing living asimals, and so diminishing the expense of transport. The following is an account of the new process called Sloper's process," and has been lately patented by Messrs. M'Ca.11 and Sloper, and these gentlemen pro- fess to be able to preserve meat in its fresh and raw state, which is to arrive in England, or elsewhere, in the exact condition as butcher's meat just killed, and be able to dispose of it at the rate of 4d. to 5d. per lb. and that, moreover, when taken out of the air-tight tins in which it is to be packed, and on being exposed to the air, it will keep twice as long as ordinary butch- er's meat. The curing process is simple, and is based on the destruction of oxygen from the vessel in which the meat is packed. All bone is extracted from the meat, but the fat is left. From the tins in which it is placed the air is exhausted by means of water forced in at the bottom, which, when it reaches the top, is allowed to redescend and run off, and the vacuum thus left is filled up from above by a certain gas, the composition of which is kept a profound secret. The two holes at top and bottom are carefully soldered down, and the meat is then ready for exportation. The only risk it runs is from leakage, the smallest opening in the tin case proving destructive by allowing the gas to escape and the air to get in. Messrs. Paris and Sloper, the patentees, on their arrival in April last at Buenos Ayres, gave an enter- tainment to the Vice-President of the Argentine Re- public, to the members of the Government, and other gentlemen, with a view to their tasting some samples of beef they had brought out with them from Eng- land, and which they had cured six months previously. The tins on being opened were found to contain joints in first-rate condition, and on their being cooked no difference could be detected from freshly-killed meat. Most sanguine hopes are formed f >r the success of this important discovery, and it is expected that from 10,0001b. to 12,0001b. of beef, now ready and cured on this principle, will next month be despatched to Eng- land to satisfy the promoters of the projected company in London that the working of the process is prac- ticable for although having proved successful in Eng- land, the same experiments have been thought neces- sary to be tried in this country, in order to judge the re- sult on the cattle of South America, and also the effect of the heat of the voyatre and crossing the line on the samples sent. Messrs Paris and Sloper trust, on their return to London, to be allowed to give a dinner at Guildhall on this River Plate beef.

NARROW ESCAPE OF AN ENGLISH OPERA COMPANY. Intelligence has been received at Hong Kong of the total loss of the ship Libelle, while on a voyage to that port from San Francisco, having on board a valuable cargo and specie to the extent of 76,000^. in dollars, and a number of passengers, among whom were Madame Anna Bishop.Miss Ph elan, Mr. M. Schrutz,and Mr. Charles Lascelles, of the English OperaCompany, who, with other artists, were on a musical tour. The ship was cast away on the night of the 4th of March, on an uninhabited and dangerous reef called Wake Island, in the China seas. The passengers remained on board during the night, the osea. breaking fearfully over the wreck all the while. They were all landed with difficulty through the breakers the following day. After an ineffectual search over the island for water for three weeks and suffering much privation, it be- came imperative to take to the boats and endeavour to reach the nearest habitable island friendly disposed to defenceless and shipwrecked people. Several days were spent in finding a suitable and safe point for de- parture, the breakers encircling the. island, which appeared to be some twenty miles in circumference. Taking such previsions and water as were saved from the wreck, the passengers were transferred to the ship's longboat in charge of the first mate, the captain preferring another boat, and on the 27th of March both bJats sailed for the Ladrone or Mariana Islands. To attempt a voyage of 1,400 miles, subject to equi- noctical storms, calms, and a tropical sun, with short rations and an ocean studded with hidden rocks and coral reefs, gave but poor hopes of arriving at a port with life. However, after encountering great dangers and enduring horrible sufferings for thirteen days and nights, the boat arrived off the town off Guam. An error in six degrees longitude had brought them off that place. The lady passengers, and in fact everyone in the boat, were in a pitiable and forlorn condition. His Excellency Francisco Moscosey Lara, Governor of tne Mariana Islands, on being apprised of their landing, directed every help and succour to be afforded them. The poor creatures were loud in their expressions of thanks for his hospitable conduct. Nothing had been heard of the other boat, containing the master and the rest of the crew, up to the departure of the last mail. They parted company on the first night after their de- parture from the island. Unless the boat was picked up by some chance vessel, it was apprehended it must have been swamped, as heavy cross seas were met with that night. His Excellency has sent a schooner in search of the missing boat it ong the islands to the northward, and then to proce < d to the scene of the wreck and recover the 76,000 £ pecie. It had been sived from the wreck, andhvif. security been buried in the Island on the beach.

OLD PLUNGE FOR THE FUTURE LONDON WATER SUPPLY. In addition to minor schemes afloat, and likely to be set afloat, two gigantic proposals are now before the public to supply London with water. In November, 1865, John Fred Bateman, C.E.,tissued an able pam- phlet (with a plan) on the subjectjof a supply of water to London from the sources of the River Severn. His project is a bold one -namely, to bring water from the Welch hills, at a distance of 183 miles, at a cost of 8,000,000?. Mr. Bateman states:— No scheme, in my opinion, is worthy of attention which would bring in less than 200,000,000 gallons cf water per ( day, at an elevation which would supply nearly the whole of the metropolitan district by gravitation without pumping. Another pamphlet (with plan) has also appeared on the future water supply of London, by George Wil- loughby Hemans, C.E., and Richard Hassard, C.E. This project is still more gigantic—it is to turn the Lakes of Haweswater, Ullswater, and Thirlmere, in Cumberland and Westmoreland into great reservoirs, and to convey so vast a body of pure water to London that there would be ample left to supply certain towns in Yorkshire on the road, and the works would begin to pay from their commencement. The distance from London would be 240 miles, and the cost 10 000 OOOl. The authors of this pamphlet state:- Although involving an apparently larger outlay in the first instance than Mr, Bateman's, this scheme will, from the absolute certainty of the rainfall, the extraordinary purity of the water, the facilities afforded by the existing lakes for the construction of immense reservoirs, and from the revenue which may fairly be expected from the sale of water in the districts traversed by the aqueduct, be found the best and cheapest which has yet been proposed, and that ultimate economy would arise from its selection, Mr. Heman's name stands high in the engineering profession, and Mr. Hassard designed the extensive waterworks now being carried out for the city of Dublin, wh'ch will be supplied with water from 'the source of the river Vartry and the lakes in the Wicklow mountains.

SWINDLING "EXTRAORDINARY!" <> tlle commotion caused by one great "defecation or swindle in the United States sub- Bided when a new one equally astounding is developed. Our people are so reckless, and many of them ante such rogues, that the stealing of half a million of do?fars or the betrayal of a public trust is no longer thought a very grave offence. 6 A short time since it was discovered that the Government had been defrauded out of 900,000 dols. at Mempbia by one of its officers, who afrerwards very conveniently "failed." This and similar frauds, how- ever, are dwarfed by painful rumours of troubles in the Treasury Department at Washington which call loudly for investigation. It is announced that a defi- ciency of 30 000,000 dols. has been discovered in the ac- counts of the Treasury when under Secretary C base's ad- ministration. It is alsostated that Secretary Fessenden, Chase'fe successor, resigned on account of the muddle in which he found Chase's accounts, and that Secretary M'Culloch, labour as he will, cannot satisfactorily arrange them. These painful rumours have caused the American press generally to demand an investiga- tion. Other matters equally bad are developed in con. nection with the department. It hall long been noticed that the mori extensive I counterfeiting of United States' notes of all descriptions has been carried on in this country, and the amount of bogus paper afloat is enormous. Some time ago a fraudulent 100 dols. compound interest note was put in circulation in such numbers as to prejudice the entire issue. The detectives in New York lately succeeded in capturing some of the persons engaged in this business, and their trial is now progressing in that city. Various Treasury employes have been on the witness stand, and some of them testified to having been approached by counterfeiters, in regard to taking impressions of the various plates of United States' securities on lead and on paper, and the persons who tampered with their good faith artfully urged that others were cheating the Government, and they might as well have the benefit of doing likewise. Some of the female employu of the department were also placed on the witness stand, and the shocking social condition of affairs existing there was laid bare. Of course, no one criminated himself, but enough was told to show that the fraudulent 100 dols. notes were actual impressions taken from the genuine plates, which had been got out of the Depart- ment in some surreptitious way. There are fraudulent issues of other denominations of notes, and their origin may hare been similar.

THE NEW ACT ON PUBLIC HEALTH. The Act to amend the law relating to the Public Health, which has just received the Royal assent, has been issued. It contains sixty-nine sections (with two !!chedulel), and at the present period the new law is attraeling public attention. The Act is to be cited all" The Sanitary Act, 1866." There are four partll in the statute:- The first part relates to the amendment of the Sewage Utilization Act of I860, and is to be construed as one with the recited Act. Any sewer authority is empowered to form committees, and where the sewer authority of a dis- trict is a vestry or other body, may, after notice, form part of the district into a special drainage district, for the purpose of the Sewage Utilization Act, and a number of inhabitants, not being less than twenty, may by petition to the Home Secretary bring the matter under his con- sideration. Any owner or occupier of premises within the district of a sewer authority, is to be entitled to cause his drains to empty into the sewers, and the sewers may be used beyond the district. Provision is made as to the drainage of houses, and the supply of water and wells, kc. belonging to any place are to vest in the sewer authority. The second part relates to the amendment of the Nuisances Removal Acts. In any place within the jurisdiction of a nuisance authority, the police may enter a house for the removal of a nuisance by the warrant of a justice of the peace. A requisition of ten inhabitants is to be equivalent to a medical certificate as to a nuisance. The word nuisances is to include any house or part of a house so overcrowded as to be danger- ous or prejudicial to the health of the inmates, or any factory, workshop, bakehouse, &c. A nuisance authority is to make an inspection of the district, to ascertain what nuisances exist calling for abatement, under the powers vested in it, and to enforce the provisions. A nuisance authority, on the certificate of any legally qualified medi- cal practitioner, may order premises to be cleansed or otherwise disinfected, anil to provide means of disin- fection. Carriages may be provided for the conveyance of in- fected persons. "If any person, suffering from any dangerous infectious disorder, shall enter any public con- veyance, without previously notifying to the owner or driver thereof that he is so suffering, he shall, on convic- tion thereof before any justice, be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5; and shall also be ordered by such justice to pay such owner and driver all the losses and expenses they may suffer in carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; and no owner or driver of any public convey- ance shall be required to convey any person so suffering until they shall have been first paid a sum sufficient to cover all such losses and expenses." Sick persons suffering from any dangerous contagious or infectious disorder being without proper lodging or accommodation, or lodged m a room occupied, by more than one family, or being on board any ship or vessel, may be removed on a certificate of a medical practitioner to a proper place. Places for the reception of dead bodies may be provided at the public expense, and places for the reception of dead bodies during a post mortem examina- tion are to be provided. Power is now given to remove to hospitals persons brought by ships. A nuisance authority may require payment of costs and expenses from owner or occupier, and the occupier paying is to deduct the same from the rent. In the second part of the Act, entitled miscellaneous," in cities and boroughs or towns the Secretary of State, on the application of a nuisance authority, is empowered to make regulations as to lodging-houses, in fixing the number of persons who may occupy a house, or part of a house, which is let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family, &c. Cellars used as dwelling. places may be closed by the nuisance authority. Hos- pitals may be founded for the sick. There are two pro- visions in the Act which require immediate publicity. By the 38th section it is enacted that any person with an infectious disorder, wilfully exposing himself, or any person in charge of sick persons causing such exposure, is to be liable to a penalty of 51., and by the next section, for letting houses in which infectious persons have been lodged without properly disinfecting such place the offender is liable to a penalty of 201. There are other provisions to enforce sanitary regula- tions as to local boards, burial boards, and other matters to be adopted for the preservation of the public health. The fourth part of the statute is to be applied to Ireland, and certain modifications are made for its adoption in that part of the United Kingdom. The first schedule has reference to Ireland, and the second schedule shows the statutes repealed by the present Act. It came into force from Tuesday, the 7th of August inst., when it received the Royal assent, and may be generally adopted as the Sanitary Act" of the Session of 1866.

WHAT WILL THEY WANT NEXT! We have no sooner come to know the efficiency of breech- loaders than an inventor steps in to neutralize them. The Rame of guns versus armour, which has been played !l0 long on a great Icala, must henceforth be transferred to the case of smaller fire-arms. We write thus on'the authority of a report furnished by Le Nord of aremakablji test to which the invention of a light coat impenetrable to musketry fire has been subjected, the inventor being M. Charles Bernard, w1th wholle invention rumour has for a few ween been busy. According to Le Nord the trial took place a few days ago at the Belgian Tir National, in the presence of M. Dailly, president of the competition, and of a great number of marksmen. The experiment was made with a cavalry carbine, charged with three grammes and a-half of powder and the conical ordinance ball for that arm. The carbine, after having been tested and regu- lated, was placed upon a stand pointed at the level of the breast, M. Bernard, placing himself at the dis- tance of 100 metret, commenced by taking off his coat, and showed that between his breast and his capote there was absolutely nothing but his shirt and his waistcoat. He then put on his eapote, which is a flow- ing garment falling to the ground, and covered his head with a steel casque. The shot was then fired. The pub- lic were greatly moved when they appeared to see M. Bernard stagger and fall. Happily he had only made a false step in stooping to pick up the ball, which had struck him a little above the waist and to the left side. The ball, deadened against the stuff, had fallen at his foot, and he came running towards us to show it. At a short distance he threw the ball to the marksmen, crying to them not to approach. Not yet having taken out a patent, M. Bernard absolutely refused to let the garment be examined by which he obtained so marvellous a result. The ball was only slightly beaten out of shape, and bore on its point the impress of the stuff. The inventor offered to renew the experiment; but, in presence of the result obtained, those present declared a new experiment unnecessary. The coat is said to weigh very little, so that there can be no objection to it on the score of burdensomeness. Are infantry henoeforth to be useless agaill8t each other, unless they are armed with heavier weapons, which it will certainly be Il. novelty to introduce after all the desire of military men to han the lightest possible weapon ? But tkere will be no help for it if it i. possible, by increasing the weight and power oftbe infantry soldier s weapon to make the necessary defensive armourl even with the advantagell of the present inventionl too heavy.

AN ENGLISH JEWEL SWINDLE. Apropos of the account of a "Jewel Swindle" which went the rounds of the papers last week, a correspondent of the London Standard tells the following story, and winch 15 com- municated by one signing himself "A Man about Town": — Abeut eighteen months ago, be the same more or less, a London jeweller received a letter purporting to be signed by one of the officials who is known to act occa- sionally as secretary to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, requesting that a number of watches should be sent for his Royal Highness's inspection, as he was desirous of making some presents of the kind. The package, said the writer, was to be forwarded to Marlborough House, but no name was to bo put on the outside, as the intention of making the presents was to be kept secret. Accordingly the jeweller forwarded a large and valuable assortment of watches in the way indicated, and natur- ally, as his Royal Highness was out of town, thought that a few days would elapse before he received any reply. However, in a day or two, on looking over his stock he found some watches which he thought even more calculated to please his Royal Highness than those already forwarded, so he made up another package, which he himself took to Marlborough House, with the purpose of explaining why all had not been sent at once. On his arrival in Pall-mall, he found that the officials there knew of no package of jewellery, or of any similar package, being sent to his Royal Highness in the country. What then," inquired he, "became of such and such a box?" "Oh," was the reply, that was not intended for the Prince, but for the Hon. Mr. who wrote that it had been sent here in mistake, and desired that it should be sent to him at —— Hotel, —— street." At once the jeweller set off in pursuit, reaehed the hotel, saw the landlord, and asked him if the Hon. Mr. -was there. The landlord answered in the negative, but said he was on the point of sending to that gentle- man two parcels which had arrived, and which the Hon. Mr. —— had intended to call for on his way through town. Being more hurried than he had expected, and being unable to call, the Hon. Mr. —— had begged that the package or packages might be forwarded to him at the railway station, Cambridge. The detectives were at once communicated with, and Cambridge station was watched, but without any result. The Hon. Mr. knew nothing of the order; the writing, whether to the jeweller or to the landlord, was certainly not his; and no suspicion attached to him as the author of the attempted swindle. Being thus at fault, the inquiry naturally arose, what was in the other package? There was no outward mark upon it, except what tho landlord had placed there and ultimately it was opened, when several thousand pounds' worth of the richest and rarest jewel- lery was found inside, along with an inventory from a prominent West-end firm, who, on being communi- cated with, identified the goods as theirs, forwarded under the same circumstances as the watches of the City house. From that time to this every effort has failed to trace the swindler, or the hoaxer, for the detec- tives inclined to the idea that it was only intended to teach jewellers a lesson not to part with their wares so readily.

FRENCH "NAVVIES" IN ENGLAND. There are few European countries which English capi- talhas not familiarised with English engineers, English contwctori, and English navvies; and wherever En- glishmen have gone they have usualW been well re- ceiyea by the xuftive population, and have met with all treasonable protection and countenance from the local authorities. Bearing thin in mind (says the Pall Mull Gazette) we record with feelings of shame a riot which took place last week in the vicinity of the village of Cowden, where some French labourers are employed in the construction of the Surrey and Sussex line of railway. The wages of an English navvy are rather more than 6s. a day, those of a French navvy rather less than 4s. a day, and in consequence of the difference Messrs. Waring Brothers have engaged some 500 Frenchmen to labour on their works. The English navvies appear to have resented the introduction of these foreign labourers, and late on Saturday night they went in a body to the Frenchmen's quarters, ronaed them out of bed, and turned them and their families naked into the streets. One poor woman who had been confined but a fortnight previously, pleaded hard to be allowed to remain with her babe; but she was brutally ejected with the rest of her compatriots. No further damage than the destruc- tion of several huts which had been erected for the foreigners took place on Saturday night, but on Monday morning the English navvies returned in force, apmed with bludgeons, a.nd drove the French. men in herds before them to the Edenbridge station, where they were fortunately met by about sixty police; for the Frenchmen had armed themselves with knives and were preparing to use them. An account of what had occurred was sent to the Home Office, and we hope to hear that Mr. Walpole has dealt vigorously with the ruffians. j Since the above appeared in print, Messrs. Waring have sent the following letter in explanation:— We shall feel greatly obliged by your stating that the foreign workmen, who, however, are mainly Belgians and not French, receivj the same rate of wages as the English workmen, and no English have been discharged from our works to make way for the foreigners; on the contrary, many more labourers are required, and English and foreigners are employed at the same wages indiscriminately as fast as they present themselves. The Belgian workmen state that after paying the cost of their living and expenses in this country they can save as much money out of their earnings here as is equal to the total amount of wages they receive in their own country and it is obvious that. having the opportunity afforded them, they will sell their labour in the dearest market; and in doing so they ought to be protected from the savage assaults of the English navvies so long as they conduct themselves with propriety.

TRIAL OF AN INCENDIARY. At Liverpool assizes o. Saturday, the court was densely crowded from an early hour to hear the tdal of Thomas Henry Sweeting on the charge of setting fire to Compton Houle, the largest drapery warehouse in Liverpool, having excited a great deal of interest. The building, it will be remembered, was entirely destroyed by the fire, and a loss of upwards of 200,0002 involved. The prisoner, a young man of respectability and good family, is about twenty years of age, and was an appren- tice of Messrs. Jeffery, the proprietors of the warehouse. There were two indictments against him, one for stealing the property of the firm, and the other for arson. He WB.8 arraigned, how- ever, only upon the latter charge:- The prisoner, though he had previously made and signed a written confession as to the crime, now pleaded "Not guilty." Mr. Aspinall, having briefly opened the case on the part of the prosecution, called Mr. Watts, one of the partners in the firm of Jeffery and Co., and the chief superintendent of the establishment, who was examined at considerable length. He stated that after the fire (and the removal of the business to other premises), having a suspicion that Sweeting had been stealing some property, he called him into the office on the 2nd June, and had a long conversation with him. Witness hinted to Sweeting that he had a strong suspicion that he had caused the fire, and urged him, for the sake of his conscience and peace of mind, if this was the case, to confess. Sweeting hesitated and equivocated for a considerable time, but ultimately did confess to Mr. Watts that he set fire to the establishment by throwing a match amongst some goods in the cellar; that he could not account for the act; and that it was done under an uncontrollable impulse. The prisoner, in answer to one of Mr. Watts's questions, said he had no unkind feeling towards the firm, who had always been exceedingly kind to him, and that in fact he had no motive whatever for setting fire to the premises. A written statement to the same effect as this evidence (which had been written and directed to Mr. Jeffery), was then put in. Mr. Jeffery was then examined, and stated that he also had a conversation with the prisoner, similar in effect to that which had been described by Mr. Watts. At first Sweeting called Heaven to witness" that he had not set fire to the premises; but next day, when witness and his brother (Mr. W. Jeffery) and Mr. Watts had another conversation with the prisoner, he dictated to them a statement confessing his guilt. Several other wiinesses, persons employed at the ware- house, were examined, and one of them stated that on the evening of the fire (but before it took place) the prisoner came to him and said, How would you like to see this place on nre ? I have often thought I should like to see it, and wonder it has not occurred where so many differ- ent characters are employed." Mr. Temple, for the defence, urged that the confession brought forward by the prosecution was no confession at all. The document produced was merely a statement of facts, and was quite consistent with the supposition that the prisoner had no guilty connexion with the trans- action. Mr. Temple called particular attention to this passage :—" I had no ill-feeling to anybody; on the con- trary, Mr. Jeffery and Mr. W. Jeffery have always been very kind to me;" and also to a passage to the effect that had it not been for the kindneiil of his masters he could not have passed the local college examinations. This showed that the prisoner had no motive, and it might be that the throwing of the lighted paper upon the goods was only an act of carelessness. It was merely a suggestion and guess that this taper caused the fire; and if the prisoner set fire to the premises accidentally and WIthout motive he was entitled to an acquittal. The confession had been evidently made when the prisoner was in a frenzied state of mind, and after he had been tortured by the injunctions and urgent appeals of Mr. Watts. His lordship said the question for the jury was, did the prisoner knowingly and wilfully throw the match or taper with the intention to set fire to the material amongst which it was thrown. The statement of the prisoner himself must be taken as a whole, and if the jury believed it to be true they must find him guilty. A malicious deed within the meaning of the act was any wrongful act done intentionally, and without just cause or excuse. The jury found the prisoner guilty. Mr. Jeffery hoped his lordship would pass as lenient a sentence as possible, having regard to the prisoner's youth. His Lordship said that it was very kind of Mr. Jeffery to interfere on behalf of the prisoner. He intended to pass what might be considered a very severe sentence, as the destruction of property was enormous, and it was ab- solutely necessary to protect the public. He would son- suit his brother Lush on the subject, and in the meantime sentence would be deferred.

BRITISH ENTERPRISE. Here is an authentic story about a worthy countryman, strongly illustrative of the Anglo-Saxon's contempt of obstacles when bent upon a meritorious ol ject, writes the correspondcmt of the Daily Telegraph :— An English medical man—M.E.C.S.—belonging to the north of England, son of a wealthy banker, in a renowned seaport town, read in his newspaper, one evening about a month ago, a statement to the effect that surgeons were badly wanted in the Austrian army—Englishmen preferred. N.B.—No Sardinians or Prussians need apply. No sooner read than done; his preparations were promptly made; and the very next morning he left his native land for Vienna. Now, this good gentleman, doubtless thoroughly skilled in the art of healing, was not equally so in the knowledge of foreign tongues: to be explicit, he under- stood not a word of either French or German. However, doubtless relying upon the Latin language as a medium of conversation, he arrived safely in the Kaiserstadt, and proceeded to seek out a means of introduction to the powers that be. After some trouble a friendly livery-stable keeper, conversant with theEnglishlanguage, and mighty in aback- stairs' influence at head-quarters, procured him an inter- view with a medical officer high in authority, who received him very courteously and finding that he was innocent of the slightest acquaintance with any one language of the empire, and could not even converse with his confreres in French, informed him that there were great difficulties in the way of his obtaining immediate rank, and, not liking to crush his ardent aspirations by too sudden a disappoint- ment, gave him what is familarly called an "evasive answer." During a fortnight our persevering country- man was referred backwards and forwards, from pillar to post, until at last an official, with deep irony, said to him one day, But, well-born-and-highly-scientific sir, if you cannot speak our German, perhaps you can, however also it correctly write ?" This was^too much. In despair' and, let us hope, at length comprehending the magnitude of his Quixotic bevue," our disconsolate surgeon packed up his traps, bade farewell to his official godfather, the livery-stable keeper, and left Vienna in disgust; but not to return to Yorkshire—oh! no. Resolved to be of use somewhere, he went to Berlin, there to proffer his services to the Government, persuaded, no doubt, that all the Prussian soldiers understood English, at' least those of the Crown Prince's division. How he has fared I have not heard; but am filled with admiration of his enterprizing character, and of his fine old British belief that English is, after all, the only language worth speak- ing, and that the foreigners ought to understand it if they don't.

THE STATE OF THE NAVY. The Times in a leader on Monday, remarks that the Government of Prussia, which has just been triumphant in a mighty war, and is remodelling all Germany for its own advantage, expends upon the total require- ments of the State less than we spend upon our army and na.vy alone. It ought to follow that we may expect some proportionate means of security and strength, but notoriously this is not the case. As to our navy, instead of being as strong all all the world together, we are numerically not in the first place. Alliances might easily and even naturally be formed by which all our effective fleet could be outnumbered to-morrow. The position we have always vindicated for ourselves has been occupied by the Americans. They really have, or believe they have, a navy superior to all the navies of Europe, and their pre- sumptions are not without plausible grounds. True they have not attained this position without commen- surate expenditure, but for this they have, at any rate, an equivalent return. Their iron-clad fleet alone numbers 75 vessels of various rates, and they have upwards of 500 fighting ships beside. The fact is we have a navy, but it is a sham. We have ships enough, but they are mostly useless. The Navy List tells us that we have nearly 600 men-of-war' the First Lord of the Admiralty tells us that nine-tenths of these are dummies. We have spent vast sums in patching up useless ships, and vast sums again in searching for perfection in a new model. That per- fection we have never discovered, nor has any other nation discovered it; but other nations have been contented with something short of the ideal, and so have got navies proportioned to their charges. The Americans took the turret principle for better or worse, just as the Prussians took the needle-gun on similar term". The result has been a most formidable navy in one case and an irresistible army in the other, while we are left to apply the lesson in discreditable haste, after a profitless expenditure of money which might have brought us all that we could now desire. Taking the last six yeans together, the Americans have only spent about 80,000,00$, OD. their navy. -f We, during the same period, have spent between 60,000,000 £ and 70,000,000?., and have nothing like so much to show for it. Vigorous reform, therefore, does not by any means imply the necessity of additional expenditure; it is required only that the same money should be better spent.

"MURDER WILL OUT!" At the Liverpool assizes, before Mr. Baron Martin, Thomas Grime has been charged with the wilful murder of James Barton, at Haigh, on the 2nd of January, 1863. This was the case of the" Wigan murder," which has created very great interest through- out the district, In consequence of the peculiar atrocity of the crime and the mystery in which it continued to be so long enveloped. The following are the parti- eulars James Barton, with his sons, was an engine-tenter at the Bawk-house Colliery between Wigan and Chorley, aud working the Dight shift alone en the night of the 2nd of January 1863 the pumping engine only being at work. He went to hi; work at six o'clock in the evening, being met on his wa1 by his Ion John, who was then leaving work, and he was never seen alive again. At half-past three in the morning, when James Watman went to relieve the deceased, he was unable to find him anywhere about. He found the furnaces low, the cabin adjoining empty aud iu darkness, and the fire tbere nearl1 out. Be Wall not im- metliately alarmed, but on knocking up the fire in the cabro his attention was attracted by part of a burut muffler on the floor, and on looking further, he found a crowbar with blood upon it, and splashes and finger-marks of blood upon the floor and walls. He then went to seek the assistance of the deceased'* son James, and together they made a further search. In the first furnace they found the ashes very white, as if a quantity of wood had been burnt in it, and among them a thigh bone, arm bonll, and part of a skull, aud the ashes themselves were greasy aud glued together by some substance which an analytical chemist afterwards pro- nounced to be bloùd. There were also found some burnt buttons shoe-nails, a waisthand-buckle, such as the deceased was in the habit of wearing, and two brace buckles. There was also blood upon the dead plate of the furnace. It was proved that Barton was wearing a watch that night at his work. These discoveries being made, it was clear that Barton had been murdered, but, although a reward and free pardon to any accomplice, (not the actual murderer) were offered by Govern- ment for a very long time, no dlle to the guilty persons was obtained. After the lapse of a year, however, in consequence of a statl/ment made by a person named Walton (called also Stepper") that if the canal were dragged the watch would be found there, further notoriety was drawn to the caile, and after that had been fruitlessly performed, a minute description of the watch, with the number and name of the maker, was published in the newspapers. Uponreadin.g this. a brother of the prisoner James Grime, at once recogDlsed It as a watch which had come into his possession and been dealt with by him in the following way, and he at once took steps to recover possession of it, and deliver it to the polioe. It appeared that Grime, the father, James, and the prisoner lived together at Chorley, and worked in a factory there. A few weeks after the time of the murder the prisoner produced to his brother James a watch wrapped in a handkerchief, and, saying it was one for which he had suffered twelve months at Liverpool, asked him to pledge it for him. The maker's name was Robert Cross- kill, Liverpool," and the number 1784.4. The watch was pledged by him in the Dame of John Walworth," on the 7th of April, and some time after the prisoner asked his brother for a stop ticket, he having lost the original ticket. This ticket being also lost by the prisoner he told his brother that he might get the watch out if he could, and keep it, and James Grime got it and sold it to a man called Akers. Upon reading the published description of Barton's watch he at once recognized it as the one he had sold, and getting it back from Akers, delivered it to the police. It was proved beyond question to be the deceased's watch by the watchmaker who had repaired it for him, and who had the name and number in his book. The father of the prisoner was also able to lay that on the night of the murder the prisoner returned home 0 Chorley between 5 and 6 in the morning. Upon obtaining these clues an officer of the Lancashire police named Peters presented himself at the Dartmoor prison, where the prisoner was then serving a sentence for another felony, and charged him with the murder at the pit. The prisoner said nothing then, but on bemg brought back lD the railway he made the following statement I met William Thompson about a fortnight before the murder of Barton near my parents' house at Eaves lane, Chorley. He said, Wilt thou come with me to murder Mr. Barton!" We had some ale together in the day, and during the day he asked me if I would go out a-poaching with him. We met Joseph Seddon the same night near the Castle Inn, Chorley. Seddon and me refused to go with Thompson that night to Bawk-house pit in Haigh. Seddon, Thompson, and me, met together again ahout hal1:past nine at night near Richard Hammill's factory, Chorley. We then came forward to Cowley lane, and then went up the canal bank to Red Rock bridge. We then went over Red Rock-bridge through one of the lord's farmyards, and came up to the tram-road which goes to the Bawkhouse pit. On getting to the pit Thompson said he would do the old Barton haa denied him oftaking game and ordered him off the premises, and Lold him if ever he came again he would do him. Thomp- son went in the cabin; and at this time the engine was running, pumping water. I was on the pit brow, close to the cabin, and Seddon a few yards further off. Barton was laid down on the form in the cabiu. Thompson took a crowbar, laid hold of it with both hands, and raised it up to his shoulders, and said, Now you old I'll do you." At the same time he struck him on the forehead with the crowbar, and I heard Barton groan. Thompson said" He is not dead," He then gave him another blow with the bar. After he struck the second blow he never moved. Thompson then got hold of him by the legil and dragged him out of the cabin and chucked him down the slack- hole. I moved about six yards further back. Thompson shouted Is there anybody coming ? Thompson said to Seddon," What should we do with him?" Seddon never spoke. Thomp- son then said, "We will put him in the firehole." Thompson then said to me, He will never be seen no more." Thompson laid, I'll chuck about ten shovels of slack on him." He threw in the slack and closed the doors. I was all of a tremble. We all three, Thompson, Seddon, and me, crossed the field and went on the high road that goes up to Tupper's-hill, and goes on Blackrod-road. Then vre came up an old lane. Then we came into the turnpike road and through Adlington to Chorley, and got there about five o'clock iIi the morning. My father asked me where I had been. I did not tell him. My father said to me at night when he came home (Saturday), "Keep out of that Thompson's company." He said Thompson was a blackguard. Thompson had several times been in our house, and my father had ordered him out. After Thompson had killed Barton he took Barton's watch and chain and put it in his pocket I had a verge watch of my own. Thompson said if I would give him my watch and 10s. we could divide Barton's watch between Seddon and me. I re- fused to do so then. Thompson kept Barton's watch a week. He then gave it to Joseph Seddon to pawn. Seddon pawned Barton's watch in the name 8f "John Walworth," and got a sovereign on it. Thompson got 10s. of the money, and myself and Seddon got 5s. each. We then all three went and had a quart or two of ale apiece. Seddon said to me, The murder will be found out before long." Thompson then said, It never will be found out except some of us splits." Two days later the prisoner again appplied t8 Peters, and said, "I want to speak to you Mr, Peters. Where is Stepper, because he was with -us when the murder was committed ? Thompson and me about three or four days before the murder was committed wali poaching beside the paper-mill. Stepper, sometimes called Hopper, was with us. Some calls him Patten. He has an iron patten under his foot. Stepper was in the cabin when Thompson knocked him down. Stepper helped to drag him across the pit brow to the fire-hole. Seddon said,' What must we do with him 7' and Stepper and Thompson shoved aim into the fire-hole." Wheu before the. magistrates the prisoner made a statement for tlte most part repeating the ahove, and saying, Thompson WkS the very first man that ever mentioned murdering anybody. Well, I was present when he murdered Mr. Barton, and no other person mur- dered him but him." Walton, or Stepper," implicated in this statement, was charged with this murder jointly with the prisoner, but in accordance with a suggestion made by his Lordship, it was determined that he should take his trial separ- ately, in order that he should not be prejudiced by the reading of these statements, which are not, of course, legal evidence against him. Sendon was in custody, but died in gaol, and Thomplon, against whom no corroboration of these charges could be found, is at large. For the defe1?-ce, Mr. Pope said it was impossible to fathom the motives of the human mmd leading to the confession of crimes which, in some instances, had never even been committed. Possibly there might have been some motive of this description (such as a desire to be a criminal of a very notorious kind) working upon the mind of the prisoner, and that his statement in this case was altogether false. It was a curious fact that three men had made confessions, and the prisoner's was the only one which had been acted upon, the others being obvi- ously false. It might be, therefore, that the prisoners's story was also false, especially remembering the offer of the reward and pardon. But even if taken to be true, it did not implicate him to the extent of making him an accomplice; and if he took no part in the deed, but merely stood by, dastard though they might think him not to have interfered to protect the deceased, and criminal not to give infor- mation it did not amount to making hIm an accom- plice. If the jury were not satisfied by.the confession that the prisoner was actually a partaker ill. the m1irder, they would not, in acquitting, be delivering a weak verdict for the purpose of saving hlID, but they would be maintaining those principles of law which are so valuable in our Constitution. His Lordship, in Bumming up, said that he had heard, in the last day or two of the assizes, some very startling statement with respect to the regard to be paid to confessions. There might have been ona or two extraordinary cases, but they were exceptional. Supposing the jury believed the prisoner's statement, although it was true that a person merely standing by and taking no part. was not an accomplice, If the statement led them to believe that he went out with the actual perpetrators with a common design, and afterwards shared the spoil, he was just as guilty as the others. The jury almost immediately turned round with a verdict of Guilty, and his Lordship pronounced lientence of death, with but httle preface, saying that he had no desire to inflict unnecessary pam on the pnsoner or on himself by dwelling on the details of the crime. It was as satisfactorily approved to hIS. mind as If he had seen it committed by the prisoner with hts own eyes, and If punishment of death was ever to be mfhcted never had ther occurred a case more worthy of it than the present. He, therefore, held out no hope of a respite, and warned the prisoner to do his best to make his peace speedily with God. Later in the afternoon the counsel for the Crown stated that ,they had determined to abandon the prosecution against Walton, on the ground of an insufficiency of evidence to implicate him in the murder, hlS own confes- sion being one of a very dubious kmd, made when he was drunk, and contradicted by himself as soon as he became sober. A verdict of Acquittal was, therefore, taken.

RAVAGES OF THE CHOLERA IN LONDON. A letter addressed to the Lord Mayor of London and the Cholera Committee by some members of the 80cit:ty of Friends in Spitalfields was read at a meeting last Saturday. The letter stated that tbe cholera had attacked that populous district, and especially the destitute parts of it. It appeared with virulence on tbe night of the 1st of August, and many her. and there were struck down. A young Friend, they said, who visits among the people in connection with the committee of the First-day Evening Meeting," which is held there, found, as she went her accustomed round, that out of the few who were in one way or other under their care some were already tolead and others in great extremity. Up to First- day Evening" seven had died and eight more were struck down by the fearful disease. Of the destitution and misery that prevail, and of the discouragement and consternation of the poor creatures who are thus they said, sitting in the shadow of death, it was not possible to give an adequate idea. At 49, Gray Eagle- street a house containing 43 persons, nine had been sick, of whom four had died and two were dying. This was on Monday Jast, 13, Great Pearl-street '• an old couple, the woman beeu ill for two days; utterly destitute; all the food she had taken was a half. penny herring. 70, Gray Eagle-street; a poor woman without anything in the house remarked to the visitor, If it takes us what chance have we ? There is nothing inside us.' She fell ill that night, but by timely help and medicine was in a fair way of recovery." At 72 in the same street a Quakere88, well known and respected, died after eight hours' illness. At a house in a court leading out ot the same street lay a girl of 17, brought back from the Lendon Hospital because there was no room. She was on a bedstead without an7 covering, i.the people abõu. \1 (it utterly paralysed, and no help given to the sufferer. Nothing but a bottle of medicine in the house. Necessaries were at once procured by the visitor, and there is good hope she may recover. There had been many even more aggravated cases which had been witnessed by others, and in this pressing emergency some young members of the Society of Friends had undertaken the management of an Invalid Kitchen, which had already commenced operations. There they are providing well-cooked, nourishing food, and are taking it to the sick; visiting them from house to house as far as their means will allow. Sinee the Cholera Fund has been started in con- nection with the Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association, about three weeks ago, upwards of 10,000/. has been received, and is being ably and judiciously applied. The Bishop of London, who is president, remains in town and attends the committee meetings daily. Certain members of the committee take it in turn to attend at the office, 21, Regent- street, S.W., from 11 till 4 o'clock each day, to give information and to receive subscriptions. Grants have already been made to give relief to the suffering in some 60 of the parishes or districts visited by cholera.

THE JEWS ESCAPING THE CHOLERA. It is a subject of remark that the Jewish in. habitants of the East-end of London, have es. caped almcst unscathed during the outbreak. In Petticoat Lane and its immediate neighbourhood only three or four cases of cholera have taken place, and the cases of diarrhoea have hardly exceeded those of an ordinary summer. A similar exception was observed in 1849, when the Hebrew community only lost about 1 in 2,000 as compared with 6 in 1,000 of the general population of Whitechapel, and 29 in 1,000 of the Christians of Rotherithe. Then, as now, the immunity was ascribed to certain observances and habits inculcated by the Jewish faith. For example, the houses of all Jewa undergo a thorough cleansing once a year, and every room is lime-whited at least as often: more than one family never occupy the same room (two or three or more families sometimes occupy a single room amongst the lower orders of the sur- rounding population); considerable care is taken with respect to the quality of the food used, tainted provi- sions being proscribed, and all flesh meat being in- spected by a religious officer before being consumed; and, finally, the power members of the community are liberally cared for through the benevolence of the rich, applications for workhouse relief. not being ale lowed.

GARDENING OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK. (From the GARDENERS' MAGAZINE.) Leeks may still be planted out, and those already grown to good size may be earthed-up to Lblanch them. Peas lately sown must be supplied with water unless favoured with much rain. It commonly happens that late-sown peas become hopelessly infested with mildew, and make no return. We have explained on several occasions how to prevent this by sowing in shallow trenches which admit of frequently flooding them with water. Where they have been sown on the level in the usual way, they must of course be earthed-up slightly, but it would pay well for the little trouble occasioned to make a channel on each side of the row to receive and hold a liberal allowance of water. Spinach must be sown now for winter. The common prickly spinach is an excellent variety, but the true Flanders is far better. Turnips may still be sown to stand the winter, but it will soon be too late to sow any kind of seeds for winter crops. Celery to be earthed-up with care after heavy rain or a good watering; take care the mould does not get into the hearts. Auriculas require repotting to remove offsets, and secure a good bloom next season. The 3oil should be full of fibre, and in a sweet and fresh condition. Put the offsets in thumbs, singly, in a sandy mixture, and shut them up close for a week; this is better than inserting them round the sides of pots, as they can be allowed to fill the thumbs with roots, and then have a good shift at once. Bedding plants to be propagated without delay for next year. To save trouble both now and during winter, select a few strong plants of verbenas, tropaeo lums, petunias, and lobelias, and pot them in large pots, with one-third of drainage in the pots, and shut them up in a frame and keep shaded for a week; then let them be exposed to all weathers till the probability of frost requires them to be housed. Keep these to force for cuttings next spring, so as to be free of the necessity of propagating any of them now. The whole stock of geraniums and calceolarias for next year's bedding should be struck this season—geraniums at once, calceolarias within a fortnight, in a moist shady pit. Save seed of cineraria maritima, if you want anything new in the way of silver edgings. Cerastium may be left out all winter, so no need to propagate that now. If thought desirable to propagate verbenas now, in order to have an eayly bloom next year, take the points of growing shoots about three inches in length, and strike in pans of sand, and from these shift—not into pots, but into shallow boxes of any convenient form and size, in which they will winter better, and occasion less trouble in watering. Hollyhocks require plenty of water to open their top buds well, and all choice kinds on which it is de- sirable to have a few good blossoms to the last should be disbudded. Take off first every other bud all the way up, then remove a few more on the side farthest from the walk, on what may be called the backs of the plants, and then go over them again and remove a tew buds wherever they are crowded; finally, top the stems to uniform heights, if the plants form a compart- ment of themselves; when they are scattered about there is no occasion to top them. Thrip.—Tobacco-water will do something to render the flower-buds and young tops of dahlias unpalatable to this insect,^and that is the only chemical agent we can recommend. In every case where plants are in- fested by thrip, we consider it of the very first import- ance to give abundance of water at the roots; this will do wonders. In some places the beds of geraniums and verbenas are almost eaten up by thrip, but these will immediately recover if liberally watered. Herbaceous plants may be divided now, and many may be raised from seed for next year. All the low- growing tufted plants, such as Aubrietia purpurea, Arabis, &c., may be parted so that each little tuft has a few fibres; if shaded and kept watered for a week, they will soon make new roots, and form nice tufts to remove frrom the reserve ground to the borders and beds in early spring. It is not too late to put in cuttings of that best of all spring flowers, Iberis sem- pervirens. We have destroyed our whole stock of common white Arabis, in order to substitute this for it; the flowers are produced so much more abun- dantly, are so much more beautiful, and the plants are green and lively all winter. See to this and other such things, and make a list of all you have.

THE HISTORY OF HYDE PARK. Notwithstanding all claims and reclamations, it does not seem probable that the questions of the property of Hyde Park will come before the courts of law. The three eminent counsel who gave an opinion favourable to the absolute rights of the Crown are still the authori- ties on one side, and the mob which pulled down the rails the authority on the other. Prima fade, nothing can be clearer than the rights of the Crown. The Acts of Parliament which ordered the sale of the Crown lands after the execution of Charles the First excepted Hyde Park from its provisions, and it became the subject of a special resolution of the 1st of December, 16õ2," That Hyde Park be sold for ready money." The park at that time contained about 621 acres, and the sale realized 17,068?. 2s. 8d. The purchasers of the three lots were Richard Wilson, John Lacey, and Anthony Deane; but we know no record of the mode of resumption of the estate by the Crown after the restoration, nor are we aware whether any portion of the ready money paid was recovered by the respectable merchants who made the investment. The transaction, indeed, was so entirely ignored that it was assumed that the Earl of Holland would, if he had been living, have been in full possession of his rights as Ranger, and that the reversion to the Earl of Newport, which he had obtained from Charles I., would have been valid but for a deed of surrender executed in 1660. These claims, therefore, having expired, the King appointed his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, to the office and its emoluments. Prince Henry held it only two months, and after his death it was granted to James Hamilton, one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber, whose name survives in Hamilton-place. These and other houses about Hyde Park Corner had been erected during the protectorate by the then proprietors, and it is uncertain what compen- sation or tenant-right they obtained for the outlay. At that time the park was open ground, with the exception of such fences as were put up for the purposes of pasturage, but in 1664 the Surveyor-General observes, in a report, that the King was very earnest with him for walling Hyde Park, as well as for honour of his palace and great city as for his own disport and recrea- tion." Ten years after a portion of it was so well fenced in as to be replenished with deer. In 1642 a large fort with four bastions had been erected at *Hyde Padk Corner, and another to the south, called Oliver's Mount, the memory of which remains in Mount-street. This latter work was erected by popular enthusiasm; the ladies of rank not only encouraging the men, but carrying the materials with their own hands. In a note by Nash to the second canto of the second part of Hudibras," Lady Middlesex, Lady Foster, Lady Anne Wallar, and others were celebrated for their patriotic exertions as serious volunteers in this emergency. Since that period the military performances [ n Hyde Park have been of a mimetic character. The vicinity of a corner of the park to Tyburn caused it to be appropriated to military executions of an impor- tant character. In an old plan of the park, a few yards from the present Marble Arch, is the place of the stone against which the culprit to be shot was posted. When the level of the ground was altered some years ago, this stone was embedded in the soil, and disappeared. There is only one execution by hanging in the Park on record, that of Sergeant Smith, in 1747, a very clever fellow, who had been a condottiere in several services from which he had deserted, but ended by being taken prisoner in the Pretender's army, and put to death for his fidelity to the Jacobite cause. Minor ceremonies of military justice also took place here; amongst others, two poor fellows were flogged nearly to death in 1716 for wearing oak- boughs in their hats on the 29th of May, and were afterwards ignominiously drummed out of the army. But it is to popular diversions and military spectacles that Hyde Park has mainly been devoted. The races, once common, have long been disused, and the more simple and orderly forms of recreation have contented the people. How'far these are consistent with the occa- sional occupation of the park by large masses of men excited by political objections is a question now practically set before the community. Taken by itself, on its own merits, the subject is one deserving of all consideration. The rifht of Englishmen to meet peaceably even for so va ue "a purpose as demonstration is not to be gain- said and this right may carry with it by inference some pro- vision for its exercise. If there is no other place fit for such concourses but Hyde Park, it may have to be given up to them. Bot the practice and the pretensions novel; right and custom are against them the public paid for admission to the park during the British Republic, and they have never entered it without certain conditions and restrictions in all periods of the Monarchy.

The following in connection with Hyde Park is ex tracted from Chambers's Book of Days case which attracted some notice and created some amuse ment iu 1851, serves, although trifling in itseU, to illustrate t- tenacity with which riglitt of any kind are maintained in England- During a period of several years, strollers in Hyde Park. 1'1:i,:u larly children, were familiar with the "White Cottage," a smf structure near the east end of the Serpentine, at the junction I several footpath*. In this cottage Anu Hicks dispensed applet nuts, gingerbread, cakes, ginger-beer, &c. It had grown up froti. a mere open stall to something like a Imall tenement, simpiy through the pertinacious applications of the stall-keeper to persoir. in oflice Until 1843, there was an old conduit at that spot, one. connected with a miniature waterfall, but occupied then by Ani Hicks for the purposes of her small dealings. This was pulleu down, and her establishment was reduced to a mere open stall. Ann Hicks, who appears to have been an apt letter-writer, wrote' to Lord Lincoln, at that time Chief Commissioner of Woods ami Forests, stating that her stall consisted merely of a table with a osu- va;) awning, and beggingfor permissiac to bave some kind of look up into which she could place her wares at night. She was there fore allowed to make some such wooden erection as those which have long existed aear the Spring Garden comer of St. James's Park. She wrote again, after a time, begging for a small brick enclosure, as being more secure at night than one of wood; this was unwillingly granted, because quite contrary to the general arrangements for the management of the park; but as she was importunate, and persuaded other persons to support her appsal permission was given. Ann Hioks put a wids interpretation on this kindness, for she not only built a little briek room but ahe built a little window as well as a little door to it She wrote again, saying that her locker was not laive enough; might she make it a little higher, to afford space for her ginger-beer bottles? Yes, provided the total height did not ex- ceed five feet. She wrete again, might sh8 repair the roof, which was becoming leaky? Obtaining permission, she not onlr it* paired the roof, but protruded a little brick chimney throuim it and advancing still further, she made a little brick fireplace whereou she could conduct small ceoking operations. She wrote again stating that the boys annoyed her by looking in at the littlewhs. dow: might she put up a few hurdles to keep them at a distance? This being allowed, she gradually moved the hurdles further and further outwards, till she had enclosed a little garden. Thus the opeu stall developed into a minature tenement." Lord Seymour came into office as chief commissioner in I860 and found that Ann Hicks had given the officials as much trouble as if she had been a person of the first oonsequenoe. Preparations were at that time being made for the great Exhibition of 1851, and it was deemed proper to remove obstructions as much as possible from the Park. Ann Hioks was requested to remove the white cottage. She flatly refused, asserting that the ground was her own by vested right. She told a story to the effect that, about a hundred years earlier, her grandfather had saved George II. from peril in the Serpentine; that, as a reward, he had obtained permission to hold a permanent stall in the park; that he had held this during a long life, and then his son, and then Ann Hicks and that she had incurred an expenditure of 130J, in building the white cottage. After due inquiry, no evidenoe could be found other than that Ann Hicks had Jong had a stall on that spot. Lord Seymour, wishing to be on the right side, applied to the Duke of Wellington, as ranger of Hyde Park; aDd the veteran, punctual and precise in small matters as in great, caused the whole matter to be investigated by a solicitor. The result [was that Ann Hicks's story was utterly discredited, and she was ordered to remove-receiving, at the same time, a small al10wance for twelve month. as a recompense. She resisted to tbe last, Bnd became a source of perpetual annoyance to every, one connected with the park. When the cottage was removed, and the money paid, she placarded the trees in the park with accusations against the commissioners for robbing her of her rights, She pestered noblemen and members of parliament to intercede in her favour, and even' wrote to the Queen. 8be gradually gave up the pretended vested right, and put in a claim for mere charity. • Nevertheless, in July of the following year, when the Exhibition was open, tbe case was brought before parliament by Mr. Bernal Osborne. Full explanations were given by the government, and the 'agitation died out. Many foreigners were in England at the time, and the matter afforded them rather a striking proof of the jealousy with which tbe nation regards any supposed infractions of tàe government of the rights of private persons_ven to so small a matter B.8 a* apple-stall.

Garibaldi has addressed the following letter to the editor of the Milan GazetteSir, I beg you to rectify an error committed by one of your Florence correspondents, which I see in the Genoa Gazette. In the name of all my companions in arms I have thanked Baron Bicasoli for net accepting the armistice, but I have not expressed my satisfac- tion. as your correspondent says, to the prealdent of the ministers, at the conclusion of an armistice which does itt!e honour to Italy." William Mayhead, a signalman at the Ford junction signals on the Portsmouth line of the Brighton Railway, had clambered on to the whaling of the bridge where the railway crosses the river Aran, and whilst in the act of spearing & fish he overbalanced himself and fell into the water, and although every exertion was made the body was not reco- vered for about eight hours. A parliamentary return relating to the deeds regis. tered from the 11th of October, 1865, to the 11th of April, 1866, inclusive, has been issued. The number of deeds of assignment was 1,219, the gross amount of unsecured debts, 3,213,7142 the number of composition deeds was 1,191, the gross amount of unsecured debts, 2,125,079i.; the number of deeds of inspectorship 37, the gross amount of unsecured debts, 678,8282. Letters from Valparaiso announce the arrival in that port of the Veneta, the Prussian corvette stated by the Vienna papers to have been defeated in an eacounter in Mexican waters by the Austrian corvette Danaolo. The Yeneta had no hostile engagement during her voyage, and had not even visited the Mexican seas. The sum of 1,5812. has been received at Vienna from London for the benefit of the wounded Austrian soldiers. The first message sent by the cable gave the news in America of the preliminaries of peace being signed by Prussia and Austria; and it is a curious coincidence that the first message sent by the old cable announced that peace had been signed by China; and soon after we heard that it had gone tø pieces. Four young men, on their return home from a boating excursion on the Orwell, near Ipswich, on Sunday, had their boat capsized by the careless standing up of one of their number. Three were drowned, and one was ssTed by clinging to the upset boat until a man got to him. One of the first, if not actually the first, public tele- grams dispatched from this side by the Atlantic cable, was an order from an eminent firm in London to their agents in New York to purchase a cargo of petroleum. The season, says a Dublin correspondent, has nearly parsed over when the potato crop is usually struck with blight, and the reports from all parts of Ireland agree in describing the present indications of the disease as few and unimportant. The Scottish Guardian reprints a translation of a strange paper attributed to Napoleon, and first published in France in 1841—a sort of Eketch of an argument respect- ing our Lord, anticipatory in some vague kind of generaf way of the line taken in Ecce Homo." It is certainly curious, and probably genuine. The Cincinnati Union says they have a shoemaker in that oity, a returned soldier, who having lost both of his nrms in battle, does the finest quality of sewed work with his toes. One of the "unknown prizes" shot for by the St. George's Rifles, on Saturday, turned out to he a thousand of bricks." What the lucky winner oil with them h not recorded. The following details will give an idea of the sacri. fices required at the hands of the citizens of Vienna during May and June. In May, 58 generals' quarters, S55 stall officers', and 3,902 officers'; expenses for conveying 123 023 men through the town, rations for 42,894 men, sleeping places for 178,865, and forage for horses to the astonishing amount of 169,226 portions, were required in Vienna. More than half the cost of all this was defrayed by the corporation. In June the list was as follows 18 generals' quarters, 118 staff officers', 3,872 officers'; transport expenses for 56,111 men, rations for 59,776, sleeping places for 122,966, and 48,000 portions of forage. At the Liverpool Assizes, Thomas Thorpe, late the manager of the North-Western Loan and Discount Company, Liverpool, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for embezzling the funds of the office to the extent of 7o01. and upwards. It was shown by the evidence that the books which the prisoner kept were in a state of great confusion, and incommenting upon this Baron Martin spoke very strongly of the loose manner in which the affairs of the society must have been managed. He also made some severe comments upon the conduct of limited companies in general, remarking that the directors did not in some cases seem to care foa the actual management of the business so Ion, as they got their fees.

LESSONS FOR THE HORSE GUARDS.—Look what Prussia has done with eighteen millions of people (says The Army and Navy Gazette). Look at the system, the economy, the foresight. Our fighting apparatus, neither by sea nor land, is not to be com. pared for one moment in point of organization with hers. Here was a state with two-thirds of its avail- able force actually engaged in the avocations of peace. Suddenly the drum beats and the bugle sounds, and scores of thousands quit their peaceful toils—and lo! there is a magnificent army. Why is that? Because there was a framework in which to put this host taken from the plough, the desk, the factory, the forest. Nor only a framework in which to put them; there was a skilled staff, carefully trained and selected, to command them. There were ample means provided to feed them in quarters and the bivouac, an excel- lent machinery for keeping them supplied with ammunition, a very efficient corps to pick up stragglers by the way, and bear the wounded from the battle field. Our dashing and sharp.sighted young officers with the Prussian army will, no doubt, bring home most useful reports of all they have seen. The interior of the Hprse Guards ought to be wrinkled all over a month or two hence. The authorities will know exactly how all these things are managed by our German cousins. But when they know, they will probably sigh over the superiority of Prussian organisation to our own, fold up and docket the excellent reports, and put them in pigeon-holes, there to lie until the next war, or the day of judgment. Better fate ought to befall them. But we know too much of the modus agendi in this best of all possible countries to believe it.

THE MARKETS. MARK-LANE, MOMAT. "Fresh up to our market to-day the arrivals ofhome grown wheat were very moderate. The supply of new produce was small, and mostly of but middling quality. The finest samples realised about 53s per quarter. For old wheat the trade was slow. at last Monuay's currency. The market w^ moderately supplied with foreign wheat. In all description sales progressed slowly at late rates. Floating cargoes ot grain met a slow sale, at late Prices. The supply 0f barl'.y nnTale was only moderate. The trade was steady fnJ °*jftions Malt was in slow request, at late rat'.« 1S2 supply o £ oats on sale was tolerably large. Good and to! navels were firm in price; otherwise the trade was S1OW™b2 about late prices. A sample of new grey peas was on th2 gtands. F.our moved off slowly. In prices no cha^e, took place. METROPOLITAN CATTLE MAHKliT, MONDAY. There was a large supply of foreign stock on offer in to- day's market, in fair average condition. The demand for it was somewhat heavy, and prices had a drooping tendency. The arrival of beasts fresh up from our own grazing districts was moderately good, and, for the most part, of good quality. The receipts irom Ireland and Scotland were very limited. The primest breeds were in fair request, at full prices, Otherwise the trade was somewhat inactive, at a decline 1q the quotations of 2d. per SIb. The top figures were 5s. 4d. to 5* 6d. per 81b. The arrivals from Lincolnshire, Leicester- shire, and Northamptonshire amounted to 1,500 shorthorns, &c. from other parts of England, 500 various breeds; from Scotland, 10 Scots; and from Ireland, 12 oxen, &c. Wit." sheep we were well supplied. Downs, half-brads, Linco' „ J and Liecesters sold steadily at full currencies; but- other breeds declined 2d. per 810. A few very ,n Downs realised 6s. 4d., but the general top quot»'„i0n w7™c per 81b. Lambs were in fair average supply ar^d sluroish » quest, at late rates—viz., from 6s. 8d. to 7S> c r 'J" Tne veal trade was inactive, on former terms In ilt « little business was transacted, at previous currencies. POTATOES. These markets are fairly supplied with DoUtAA. iv. j mand for which has fallen ott compared with lV 2" Prices are rather easier. English Snaws. tJ^LWee1^ Regents, 80a. to I10s. pet ton. 7ua- to 90s., and HOPS. There is a good demand f<r w,^ pies are held for more mon^n'i' ffS." weather the arrinnt. ». Ovhng to the unsettled Tble As v^t W. U0m the Plantations are less favour- slielit 1? AJ j 1 the damage done to the plant is 0{ warm sunshiny weatlier wouiu, in all probability, restore it to its former vigour. The import mto London last week was connnod to eleven bales irom Boulogne WOOL. In colonial wool the transactions have been to a fair ex- tent, and late rates have been well supported. l'he EctUstt wool trade is firm, at very full prices. Last week's London import consisted of 2,020 bales from Sydney; and 41* ttalea from Mossel Bay