More rain fell in Western Australia in July and August last than within the same period for the last 30 years. The damage it did to bridges, &c.. was estimated at £20,000.
THE WAR IN AMERICA. Another great battle has been fought in Kentucky between the forces of Generals Buell and Bragg, but the dispatches received are unsatisfactory, and represent neither a victory nor defeat. We hear that General Bragg evacuated Frankfort and Lexington, and was apparently in full retreat for the south-eastern part of Kentucky, but the retrograde movement proved to be only designed to gather up the scattered detachments of his army, in order to put them in a strong position at Perrys- ville, a town midway between Danville and H&r- rodsburg, and about twenty miles south of Frankfort. Here he gave battle to General Buell's advance, under General M'Cook, comprising 15,000 infantry assisted by eight batteries of artillery and 2,500 cavalry. At first the battle seems to have gone against the Federals, but as the day waned, divi- sions, which were within supporting distance, came up, and when darkness1 put an end to the con- flict the Confederates had been forced back eight or ten miles, with a loss of two batteries of artillery. Considering the small force engaged on either side, it was one of the most desperate and bloody of the war. The Federals acknowledge a loss of two thousand kiUed, among whom was no less than four brigadier-generals. The next day the battle was renewed at Chaplin Creek. This is said to have terminated in the decisive defeat of the Confede- rates; and the Northern account states that the enemy were in full retreat for Tennessee, with General Buell's army pressing closely after them. So little is said of the Confederate losses in these engagements, that it appears very much as if the retreat from these positions was more deliberate than the Federal dispatches would lead us to be- lieve; indeed, so little credit can, generally, be given to the first dispatches from the Northern camp that it would not surprise us if the details that we shall hereafter receive will not prove the defeat to be a victory. That spirit of dash for which the Confederates are distinguished has received another remarkable illustration. A cavalry force, some three thousand strong, supposed to be under General Stewart, has passed around the right wing of M'Clellan's army, at a distance of about 50 miles, crossed the Potomac at Hancock, and already reached Chambersburg, a town in Pennsylvania, but 45 miles south-west of Harrisburg, the State capital, and 150 miles west of Philadelphia. A deputation went from Chambers- burg, immediately on receiving word of the approach of the invaders," to formally surrender the town, and there the curtain drops. What the ultimate result of this singular movement may be, cannot be foretold but it is hardly possible that it can be anything more than a <l raid upon a large scale. Another floating battery, or iron-clad vessel, of the Monitor class, has been launched at a yard near New York. This one-the Montauk—is 200 feet long, 45 feet wide, 12 feet 6 inches deep, 11 feet draft in fighting trim, and of 1,800 tons. Her turret is 21 feet in diameter in the inside, and it is made of 11 plates of iron, each 1 inch thick—three inches more than are on the turret of the original Monitor. It is designed to have within it two 15- inch guns, which are already made, and ready for service. Her anchor is carried in a well forward, so that it can be dropped or raised without exposing the men. The vessel is bulkheaded, and framed more strongly perhaps than any craft afloat; and her deck beams, which are exceedingly heavy, give 19 inches thickness of nearly sslid timber, which has a shell-proof covering of iron, one inch thick. The sides of the hull are covered with five inches of iron plate-half an inch more than protect the Warrior and it has for backing the entire width of the deck timbers, which extend below the part of the hull which can be reached when the vessel is in action. The rudder and propeller, as in the original Monitor, are not where they can be reached by the enemy. The screw is 12 feet in diameter, has 20* feet pitch, an/1 two boilers provided with a surface con- denser furnish the swam to propyl the engines, the cylinders of which are 40 inches in diameter, and 40 feet stroke. This is the fourth vessel of the nine which the Government contracted for after the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac that are now afloat. One was launched in New York two or three weeks ago, one at Boston, and another at Wilmington, Delaware, since October 1. All these will be ready for service by the middle or latter part of November, and the remaining four are so far advanced that they will probably be finished by January 1. These, with the Monitor, which is un- dergoing repairs at the Washington Navy Yard, the little Nangatuck, which has just been refitted and equipped with a 150-pounder Parrott at this port, the Galena, and the frigate Ironsides, which are off Fortress Monroe, will place at tfte disposal of the Government by the end of the present year no less than thirteen formidable iron-clads, which will be abundantly able, it is claimed, to perform all the defensive work which may be required of them, and to stand guard along the coasts and harbours until time is secured to complete the more formidable K-ams and batteries which are in course of construc- tion. These facts carry their own lesson and teach their own moral.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A YOUNG WOMAN. An inquiry was hsld by Mr. H. Raffles Walthew, the deputy-coroner, on Thursday, respecting the death of Hanbah Brooks, aged eighteen. Mrs. Hannah Brooks, Bridge street, Blackfriar3, said that deceased was her daughter, and for the last twelve months had lived With John Archer, a lighterman's appren- tice, as his wife. They lived happily until three months ago, when Archer became jealous of her. After- wards ho beat her. On last Friday week deceased dame to witness and said she had procured continuous employment, which would enable her to separate from Archer, and so end her misery, and that she saw her way to be happy again. It was then ten o'clock at night, and witness saw her no more. The next morning Archer called upon witness and said that at twelve o'clock on the previous night deceased had drowned herself at Paul's Wharf-pier, He stated that she asked to go on board a barge he was minding, and that he refused, as 'the barge was not his. She then got over the iron gates kt the pier, and said, You shall see me no more." She looked up and down the river, and then ran along the dummy barge, stooped under the chain, and plunged into the water. He juaiped in after her, and she caught him by the coat. He swkm with his right hand, but, finding that she was being sucked in under a barge, he was Obliged to let her go. Witness received information that a boy had seen Archer beat deceased on the wharf in the middle of the night in question, and that she re- proached him for the black eyes and other injuries he 'had inflicted on heron previous occasions. Quarrelling and cries were heard. William Turner said that on Monday morning he found the body of the deceased floating in the river off Bell Wharf-pier, Lower Shad- well. Jatnes Hurley, a little boy, having been examined the coroner said that he should adjourn the court for the production of further evidence, and he considered that in the meanwhile the police ought to interfere and dotain the man. at
Awiully Sudden Death in Drury-lane.— On Wednesday morning last a woman named Mrs. Watkins, wife of a blacksmith, residing in Denham-yard, Drury- lane, who bad been t wenty-one days in prison for break- ing her furniture and otherwise acting violently whea a distress was put into the house, completed the term of her -sentence. On coming out she commenced drinking ex- cessively, drink being a luxury she had been for three ,weeks deprived of, and she wrought herself up to a pitch almost amounting to madness. On Wednesday morning, while the effects of the drink were still on her, she was talking to her husband and some friends at the corner dfvhite Hart-street, Drury-lane, in the neigh- bourhood of which she is very well known, and in the cohrse of conversation she made use of the expression, ■" God strike me down dead," when, almost before she, had got the words out of her mouth, she fell on a heap of stones in the street, and on being picked up life was was foond to be extinct. The body waa conveyed to her own hMLM, where it at present awaits an inquest.
BRUTAL MURDER OF A GIRL. George Hope, the returned convict, now in custody on the charge of having abused and murdered the girl, Mary Corbett, was convicted at Hereford, in December, 1850, of stealing fowls, the property of Mr. Skerrett, at Ullings- wick, and of housebreaking and robbery at the same place, for which he was sentenced to seven years' trans- portation. He has since been twice convicted of mis- demeanour, and of using threatening language, for which he has suffered terms of imprisonment. It now appears that Mrs. Skerrett, a respectable farmer's wife, living in the neighbourhood, finding some of the necessaries of housekeeping getting rather low, and would not, in all probability, last until she visited Hereford market on Wednesday, sent the deceased to the Drainer's Arms public-house, to which a shop for the sale of groceries is attached. The girl, Mary Corbett, was a remarkable specimen of the ruddy-complexionea damsels of Herefordshire, and was an exceedingly fine and powerful girl for her age. When she entered the Drainer's Arms the first time, about eight or nine o'clock on Monday night, the prisoner was drinking with others in the kitchen. The prisoner asked her to drink with him, which she prudently de- clined to do. This circumstance had, perhaps, some- thing to do with her return to the house a second time, she having forgotten some candles she had been instructed to bring with her. On her second appearance the prisoner repeated his importunities, and went so far as to order a glass of beer for her, which she had also the prudence to leave behind her. However, immediately on the girl leaving the house he was observed to get from his seat and follow her, leaving behind him some beer, which he did not return to drink. Nothing further transpired to indicate the nature of the offence that had been committed until Mrs. Skerrett, in her state of uneasiness at the absence of the girl, gave information to her husband's workmen, by whom it was immediately spread, and the facts that had transpired at tha Drainer's Arms became a matter of common conversation. This at once threw suspicion upon Hope. Inquiries having been set on foot, it was observed that at a certain point in the road a struggle had taken place, which had been followed up to a bank by the way- side. It was here observed that the knees of a man, having a peculiar kind of cording in his trousers, had made indentations in the turf and mould. Here, too, was found by the prisoner's own brother, who had joined in the search, a frail which the prisoner had with him at the Drainer's Arms on Mon- day night; also, the net which had been torn off the head of the poor girl. The prisoner did not return to his lodgings that night, nor does it appear that he slept in any house. His own statement is to the effect that he slept in a barn, which upon examination does not show any trace of his having been there. It was also observed that, on Tuesday morning prisoner washed a portion of his clothes and had blood upon his forehead, which it is probable resulted from his struggle with the girl against the bank by the wayside. From this point steps were traced to au orchard some few hundred yards distant, where the corpse of the poor girl was found placed up in a sitting posture against an apple-tree. At the inquest, the following evidence was given— William Weaver: I am a thatcher, and live in Ullingswick. I have known deceased since she was a child. I also know Hope; On Monday night I slept at George Hope's, a brother of the prisoner. William Hope does not live with him. It rained heavily, and when I went out to wash, at seven o'clock, I found the deceased under a tree in a field at the back of the house. I could see it was a person as if covered over with a black shawl. I called George Hope, and said there was something lying under the hedge. We both went to see what it was. I saw it was a female, quite stiff, and George Hope put his foot to her. She was in a sitting posture, her head hanging over her right shoulder. Her clothes were down. Her face was covered with mud and blood, and her hair was in a disorderly state all over her face. The shawl was, thrown, over her up to about her face. The shawl was dirty and wet. She had the appearance as if she had been rolled in mud and blood. The shawl produced by the police is that which covered her body. Mrs. Skerrett was recalled, and identified the cloak and shawl produced as deceased's. Witness continued: George Hope unfastened the gate, and went to her. Only found some heel or toe marks near the body. I went to fetch Insole, and then went after the constable. When bringing her up here, I found the place where the struggle had taken place. In a corner, on the side of the road, I picked up the net now produced, which I gave to the constable, Frederick Pugh. The net was as near as I could tell to where her head was on the lump of dirt where the struggling took place. Had no thought it was a native. Inquired it any atranger had been seen about. It seemed like a murder, and we took care not to disturb any foot- marks. George Hope I am a labourer, married, and occupy a cottage near. Weaver slept at my house. In the morning he went through the back door. I followed him out in a fey minutes, and he told me there was something under a tree. (The coroner here read Weaver's evidence as to the finding of the body, which this witness testified to the accuracy of.) I did not know her when I saw her, for she did not appear any thing like what she had been when alive. She was brought away in a cart. I saw the net on the turf where the scrobble" had been. After I came up Herbert Skerrett said there was a frail in the little plock, and I went to the corner of the little orchard and brought it away. The frail now produced was in a corner full of turnips. The cord was then attached to it as now.. I brought it up here, and Simpson had it. I fancy it was my brother's frail, but I cannot swear that it is. My brother does not live with me. Sarah Prosser said: I am the wife of James Prosser, a sawyer, and live in Ullingswick. I know W. Hope, who had lodged with me four weeks. My rule was that Hope was to be in at ten, or be locked out. We never locked him out before Monday night. I went to bed at half- past nine. If he had come at ten I should have let him in. He did not come. I saw him on Tuesday morning, about half-past seven, when he said he was going to work for Mr. Hill, of the Green. I had not seen him from Monday morning until that time. He then came for his breakfast. Did not observe how he was dressed when he went out. When he returned he had his short sTop on and trousers in which he usually works. Did not see him go away from the house. He had not much change of clothes. I cannot say whether the frail produced is prisoner's, but he had one similar to it, which used to hang at the back of the house. Never noticed whether there was a cord attached to it. He used his frail to carry his food. I did not see the frail on Monday. My husband has a frail, which is hung up there now. We call the place a loek up," though we only link it. I was not down- stairs when prisoner came there on Tuesday morning. I have not seen his frail slung up since Monday. I never saw Corbett and prisoner together. She never came to my house. Witnesses were then called to prove the impressions made in the soil, comparing them with th3 cord trousers the prisoner was in the habit of wearing, and which was found to correspond in every particular. Great stress was also laid upon a frail that was found in an adjoining field,, and proved to have been in possession of the prisoner previously. Amongst other witnesses was the fol- lowing :— Thomas Simpson said: I am a police-constable. On Tuesday morning, at nine o'clock, Herbert Skerrett came to me, and said what had happened. I found the deceased at his house. I took possession of the frail, &c., and, -from inquiries made, I apprehended prisoner while on a pear-tree, shaking the fruit down for Mr. Wood. I told him I apprehended him on a charge of wilfully murder- ing deceased, Mary Corbett. I cautioned him, and told him that whatever he might say would be uaed againt him. He said, I shall say nothing." I brought him to the Prince of Wales, and produced the frail full of turnips. He voluntarily said it was his frail. Along with Super- intendent Harwood we went to the spot, but in con- sequence of the rain and a great number of persons having trampled about, we could not distinguish any footmarks. I conveyed him to Bromyard, and I have since had the jacket handed to me. Thomas Lawrence, who lives at the Moor of Boden- ham, said: I was at work on Monday last, and went down to Sarah Evans's public-house, where I saw Wm. Hope drinking. I drank with him, and left about seven o'clock in the evening. He had a frail with him when he came out, at whfSii time he had a dark coat on with a slop under it, dark trousers, and had a hat upon his head. The frail produced is that which prisoner had with him. He said he was going to Pagh's. I know the frail by the cord, and the one handle being cut. Prisoner declined to say anything further. The jury, without hesitation, returned a verdict of M Wilful murder," and the prisoner was committed for trial at the next assizes. -♦—
THE DISTRESS IN LANCASHIRE. On Thursday Mr. Alderman Reginbottom, Mayor of the Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne and a local magistrate Mr. Henry Gartside, the Town-clerk the Rev. F. H. Williams, M. A., incumbent of Christ Church and Mr. Thomas Heginbottom, a cotton manufacturer, being a deputation from the General Relief Committee for Ashton-under-Lyne and its neighbourhood, waited upon the Lord Mayor, by appointment, at the Mansion-house, London, to bring under his notice the state of the cotton operative population there, and the local organisation for relieving the prevailing distress, and to ask for a grant of money from the fund at his disposal com- mensurate with the emergency. Mr. Gartside, the Town-clerk, said the committee represented by the deputation was composed of men of all classes of the local community, and their operations were not confined to the "Parliamentary borough only, but extended also to a large outlying district, in which great numbers of the operatives were scattered about in small villages, ana had not of themselves either the means or opportunities of forming relief committees. Their principle of action was to dispense their funds as far as possible in return for work, and so to consult that manly spirit of independence and honest pride by which the Lancashire people in general were distinguished, and which still animated them in this time of calamity. One great object with the committee was to gather young women, who formed a large pro- portion of the mill-hands, from the streets, where they were exposed to temptation, and to form them into sewing-classes. They had given occupation in that way to nearly l,100young women, in classes in various parts of the town, who received 8d. a day, or 3s. 4d. a week of five days; and he was the bearer of a message from those 1,100 girls, each of whom represented a family once in comfortable circumstances, butnow in a state of destitution, expressive of their gratitude to the London committep for tho timely aid it had ren- dered them. It that way the committee which the depu- tation represented were expending about j6230 a week, and the number of applicants for admission far exceeded the present means of accommodation. He handed in a list of the committee, about 40 in number, comprising clergymen, magistrates, manu- facturers, bankers, merchants, farmers, professional men, and tradesmen in addition to whom was a sub-committee of ladies, who took upon themselves the superintendence of the sewing-classes. They had also an executive committee of 21 gentlemen, of whom he (Mr. Gartside) was chairman. A new relief committee had been set on foot in the town, composed of 45 members, 38 of whom were all of one class-namely, cotton spinners, with a small executive committee of seven, to whom the whole relief management was intrusted. The General Relief Committee, of whom the deputation were members, were recognised by the public at large at Ashton and it& neighbourhood, but not by the Manchester Central Committee, who refused to grant money to two committees in the same town. On the other hand, not a single donation had been made to the Cotton Spinner's Committee by the local community at large, beyond its own members; the chief object of the General Committee so far had been to establish and maintain sewing- classes and industrial schools, though they did not confine themselves to that. The General Committee, commanding as they did the confidence of the public at large in Ashton, did not at aU consider themselves as a rival to that of the cotton spinners. They were also the first in the field, though not then so nume- rous as now. Colonel Wilson Patten had stated to him (Mr. Gartside) that the circumstances of the Cotton Spinners' Committee having raised locally a sum of about £6,000, had great weight with the Manchester Central Committee in selecting them as the channel of their relief to Ashton-under-Lyne. But how was that £6,000 being applied ? It did not go to a general fund for the mitigation of the general distress. On the contrary, each contri- butor distributed his subscription among his own mill hands, and that on the principle of a percentage on the amount of relief given by the guardians, which it went to supplement', f-aiaermku n:egai- bottom said that he knew that was so of his own knowledge.] Mr. Hugh Mason had represented to the London Committee that a sum equal to 15s. in the pound, having regard to the property now able to pay rates, was now being expended in relief at Ashton- under-Lyne. He presumed Mr. Mason meant the sum expended from all sources, including that by the guardians. However that might be, the poor- rate for the union of Ashton-under-Lyne in 1858 was Is. 6d. in the pound; in 1859, 60, and 61, Is. 4d. in 1862, Is. (3d. up to the 1st of Oc- tober, and a new rate was being made of Is. 6d. Mr. Gartside then read a letter which Dr. Lees, one of the principal physicians in Ashton had ad- dressed to him on Wednesday last As a medical officer of the Ashton Union (he so.iv!) I have daily experience of the prevailing misery and want. In- crease of sickness is the natural result. Fever, measles, scarletina, rheumatism, pulmonary andother diseases are rapidly increasing, and I fear there will be great mortality during the winter, for the poor people have neither money nor credit, and are des- titute of the common necessaries of life, many of them subsisting on Indian meal and other cheap articles. Some families have no bedding or blankets, and huddle round the fire ac night, or cover themselves with their day clothing, which is very scanty, and fast diminishing. My district includes the north side of the borough, and adjoin- ing villages. You will understand the ratio of increase when I report 300 cases for the last four weeks, as compared with only 54 cases for the corresponding weeks of October, 1861. JS. 6d. a-head is not sufficient to recruit the strength of sick people, who are wasting for want of proper food, and a form of typhus fever is setting in which will spread through the country and affect the rich as well as the poor." Thousands of people in Ashton were anxiously look- ing for the result of this application to the Mansion- house Committee, whose considerate generosity on this occasion had made a deep impression throughout Lancashire. The Rev. F. H. Williams said the disappearance of wages, consequent on the cessation of the cotton manufacture in the borough of Ashton alone was estimated at £6,000 a-week, exclusive of the large outlying districts. There was a vast amount of wretchedness equally beyond the capacity both of the guardians and the Cotton Spinners' Committee to relieve. At a large meeting of working men held at Ashton, on Wednesday night, cases of distress were related which were trulv heart-rending. One family was mentioned who had long been without change of clo, hing, and who, seven in number, old and young, male and female, lay on one bed of straw litter, with no covering but what they wore in the daytime. He himself knew small shopkeepers in the town, rated on a rental of j618 a-year, who were now in a state of beggary. The Lord Mayor said, assuming on the authority of Mr. Gartside, that a large proportion of the mill hands, probably two-thirds, were women and girls, his mind was satisfied that to assemble those two- thirds together at an occupation by which each indi- vidual could, earn 3s. or 4s. a-week, carrying it home to be spent in the family, was a very desirable thing in the face of the existing calamity, even though it did not cover all the necessities of the case. Bv providing, in fact, for the women, they were miti"- gating the distress to a very large amount, and that, too, in a manner which gave them work without pauperising them, of which they had so wholesome a dread. [Mr. Gartside Exactly so."] He was much impressed with some of the statements he had heard, and with the desirableness of assisting them from the public fund at his disposal. A meeting of the Mansion-house Committee would be held to- morrow, and, after that, he hoped to be able to give them a satisfactory answer. b Mr. Gartside incidentally referred to the sympa- thising spirit in which the subject of the distress had been taken up by the Times, and to the space which it daily devoted to its elucidation, adding that he had reason to know that among the operative classes, especially in Ashton-under-Lyne, in common, he believed, with those in the rest of Lancashire, the services of that journal were gratefully appre- ciated, and would ever afterwards be inseparably associated with the recollection of the calamity. The Lord Mayor could well believe it, and for himself he would say that the Mansion-house Com- mittee owed much, if not aH, their success in the work on which they were engaged to publicity and to the faithful and judicious manner in which their proceedings had been given to the world. A correspondent of a contemporary writing Lom the impoverished districts states that :— c Most of those which have been at work for any length of time have now pretty well got to the bottom of their purses. Within the last fortnight the five towns in Which the distress is deepest, and has been the longest felt, have applied to the Man- chester committee for aid. The Blackburn com- mittee reported that they had zC840 in hand, or about a fortnight's expenditure, the Wigan com- I mittee had £ 540, and the Stockport committee had X500 At Preston the balance had been kept up to £ 2,851 by two grants of £1,000 each from London and Manchester and though the Ashton fund has promises to the amount of < £ 3,550 in the shape of monthly instalments, tin actual cash in hand was only £ 567- At Staleybridge, where there are but 2,179 out of 11,300 operatives working full time, the balance is £567, with a promise, however, of £3,550; and at Dukinfield, where there are but I 537 full-timers out of 16,000 operatives, the fund, which was originally composed of £ 1,200 from Manchester and London and Y,500 of local sub scriptions, had sunk down to £452. In a word, of pretty nearly every committee which has existed long it may be said that its local funds are by this ti ne exhausted, and that they depend mainly on foreign aid for keeping their doors open. I could point out several towns where the local sub- scriptions for the last six months have not exceeded R300 or £400, and the first thing to be done, there- fore, is to make a. further appeal to local resources, and to ascertain definitely how far the wealth of Lancashire can actually be relied on for meeting the emergency. No one can longer deny its gravity'; there is no further excuse for hanging back who- ever means to give ought to give at once, for it is of the utmost consequence that those who have the practical conduct of the work of relief should know at the earliest moment on what they can count. The manufacturers, who complain of having been misre- presented, ought to be glad of the opportunity of setting themselves right before the world. Those who have meant to discharge their responsibilities when the necessity really arose may now without fear carry out all their geod intentions, and those who have been doing good by stealth all along should overcome their blushes, in order that their contributions may be reckoned among the avail- able resources. Blackburn, where we are told there was a great deal of this celata virtus, but which, nevertheless, has been very perse- vering and successful so far in its application for foreign aid, has at last set a good ex- ample to the rest of Lancashire. A public meet- ing was held there to-day, and £9,000 subscribed at once, which, it is to be hoped, will soon rise to an amount still more worthy of the prominent position which Blackburn holds among manufacturing towns. The same exhortation to quick giving may be addressed to the rest of the country. Neither the I.ord Mayor's nor the Manchester Fund, large as they seem, are at all adequate to the claims which will be made on them. Neither of them can alto- gether cut its coat according to the cloth in hand, but must leave something over for future necessities. It is this uncertainty as to the future which compels both to be careful in apportioning their grants. The Lord Mayor has given away now over £40,000, and, with the handsome remittance from Bombay, has probably about £40,000 more in hand. Adopting the basis of the Manchester committee, that provi- sion must be made for the next five months, this gives £8,000 a-month, and unless new subscriptions «nmi» in rapidly his lorrl«hip will not be bl,- tn hoop up his present expenditure, much less meet new calls. The other funds up to this time are the Bridgewater-house Fund, of £54,000; the Liver- pool Fund, £33,000; the Manufacturers' Relief Fund (the balance, I am told, of an old sub- scription list raised in London as far back as 1828), of £ 5,000; and the miscellaneous sub- scription list to the Manchester committee, JE56,000 total about £ 150,000. The distri- bution of this amount is intrusted to the Manchester committee, at the rate of £8,000 a month from the Bridg water-house Fund, £4,000 a month from the Liverpool Fund, and £1,000 a month from the Manufacturers' Relief Fund. £25,000 of this has already been spent, and there remains at present to be distributed f 125,000, or, as I have said, X25,000 per month for five months. Taking all these funds together—London, Man- chester, local and poor rates, which last is, of course, to a certain degree elastic, and will be compelled by the force of circumstances to extend gradually, according to the additional pressure put upon it, -to say that they will not abie much longer to keep their present pensioners at the rate of Is. 6d. per head all round without further help will not be an unfair estimate of their present powers. But when we come to look at the additional calls which are likely to be made on them the neces- sity for increased subscriptions becomes more striking still. It is impossible at present to cal- culate these exactly. Of the 400,000 operatives engaged in the cotton manufacture, perhaps 100,000 may continue to find employment during the winter, but at the very least we must look for- ward to seeing 300,000 hands, or 600,000 persons, entirely dependent on charity for subsistence, and that, too, in a very short time. I believe this is a very low estimate, but I wish to steer clear of any- thing like exaggeration, and I take no account of the mechanics and others who depend entirely on the mills, and who are thrown out of employment along with the hands, still less of the calico printers, colliers, and others, and other such callings who are affected by the stagnation of trade, and if it con- tinues much longer may become applicants for relief." The correspondent next refers to the absolute necessity during the winter months to raise the present rate of relief, and that a larger outlay would be required for clothing, bedding, and firing. Davin^ the terrible storms of the last four or five days the suffer- ings of the poor have been very severe. However, he con- tinues, Alarge store of clothing andmaterials, which increases every day, has already been accmmulated, and the distribution of it will commence next week. To those who are disposed to contribute in this way I may repeat what I have said before, that lengths of calico, flannel, and such materials are the most valuable offerings they can make, as they serve for clothing, and give employment at the same time to 'I the sewing schools. No provision as yet seems to have been made on a large scale for winter firing beyond the apportioning the handsome gift of 5,000 tons of coal made by Mr. Blundell. The actual dis- tribution commences next week, and each district which receives a share will be debited with the amount at the rate of 3s. per ton. On all these points, however, I shall havs occasion to touch more at length in a future letter. I may add that from all quarters there continues to come the satisfactory report that crime is not on the increase."
A foreman at the Laboratory Department of Wool- wich Arsenal has been discharged by order of the TV sr Department after a full investigation of charges made against him of having received sjums of money foni workmen under the promise that they should be retained notwithstanding the great reduction now taking place. It appears that he had requested a workman to give him his watch on a similar promise, but the man's wife informed Colonel Boger Superintendent of the Labora- tories, and this led to 'an inquiry which fully prove that tha foreman bad obtained numerous douceurs I although receiving a salary of X2 123, per week.
DISEMBARKATION OF HER MAJESTY AND THE ROYAL FAMILY. A telegraphic communication was received at Wool- wich Dockyard on Sunday morning, informing Commo- dore Superintendent Sir F. W. E. Nicolson that the Royal steam yacht and the Vivid, Admiralty steam vessel, having on board her Majesty, the Royal family and suite, had anchored off Greenhiihe, and that her Majesty would arrive at Woolwich about noon, and dis- embark at the dockyard. A party of workmen were immediately employed to make the necessary prepara- tions for her Majesty's reception, and within one hour the landing gtage was wofed over, the floor covered with scarlet cloth, and a numerous body of the Dock- yard police under orders for duty along the line of road from Woolwich to Greenwich. After breakfasting on board the Royal yacht, her Majesty, with Prince Leopold, the Princesses Helena, Louisa, and Beatrice, attended by Lieutenant General Grey, Lady Churchill, and Lady A. Bruce, embarked on board the Admiralty, steam vessel Vivid, which proceed >.d up the river, under the command of Captain Seymour, and arrived off the dockyard about twelve o'clock. Three carriages for the conveyance of the Royal party and four vans for the luggage, &c., had previously arrived from Buckingham Palace; and, as the Vivid neared the landing stage, it was found that the water was too shallow to admit of the disembarkation taking place without using the Royal barge, which had been towed up from the Victoria and Albert yacht to meet such an ic emergency. The whole of the heavy luggage was, how- ever, removed from the Vivid, and conveyed to the wharf in boats And the vessel, thus lightened, was enabled to come close to the landing stage, when her Majesty, the Royal fami:y, and suite immediately walked from the deck to the stage, and were met by Viscount Sydney, Lord Chamberlain, Commodore Superintendent Sir F. W. E. Nicolson, Colonel Maude, R.A., and Mr. Norton. Her Majesty, who wa3 attired in mourning, and looked well after her voyage, briefly conversed with Lord Sydney and the Commodore, and the Royal party immediately entered the carriages. As the Royal car- riages entered the dockyard by the main gate, a large number of persons assembled in order, if possible, to catch a glimpse of her Majesty as the cortege passed z, out; but in order to preserve the strictest privacy as directed, the carriages left by the factory gate, thus avoiding the crowd. Just as the Vivid arrived with her Majesty a telegraphic message was received by Commodore Nicolson to the effect that the Admiralty steam vessel Black Eagle, Master-commanding Whillier, having embarked his Royal Highness Prince Arthur, left Ostend on Saturday morning and anchored in the Downs during the night, and that his Royal Highness would arrive at Woolwich and disembark at the Arsenal Pier in the next afternoon. The Black Eagle arrived at tha pier at 2.15, and his Royal Highness having disembarked was received by Commodore Nicolson and other officers, and left imme- diately by the North Kent Railway. The Black Eagle had a boisterous passage, and from the severity of the gale her windlass was carried away and other damage sustained. The royal steam yacht left Greenhithe at three o'clock for Sheerness, to coal, and proceeded thenee to Portsmouth.
MURDER NEAR CIRENCESTER. On Friday a painful state of excitement was created at Cirencester by the news that a barbarous murder had been committed at the pleasant village of R-^ndcombe, about four miles from that town, on the Cheltenham « road, the victim being a young woman named Sarah Moss, and the murderer a man named William Mealing who was engaged to be married to her. The murderer, William Mealing, is about 26 or 2 years of age, and is an agricultural labourer. He is a tall, thin young man, with a stupid expression of coun- tenance and ungainly appearance, and with a stooping gait. His father and mother are labourers in the same parish, and bear a respectable character. Sarah Moss, the victim of this dreadful crime, was about 32 years of age, and had been ior some time staying at the cottage of her father, which is situated in a secluded part of the road, near the vicarage. She was formerly in the service of the Rsv. Mr. Bloxsome, of North Nibley, and while there she formed an ac- quaintance with a young farmer in the neighbourhood, which resulted in the birth of a child, which has since bsen affiliated, and the father contributes Is. 6d. per week towards its maintenance. The caild is now three years old. The mother of Sarah Moss was burnt to death some years since, and the household, until about last Christmas, consisted of the deceased, her child, and her father, au inSrm. old man of about SO, and verr deaf. Shortly before Christmas last the prisoner left his father's cottage, and went to live at Moss's house, cohabiting with the deceased, and the woman was at the time of the murder very near her confinement. The banns of m irriagebetween the parties had b8"n put up at the parish church, and the wedding was to have taken place immediately. The deceased had saved X6 or 27 for the occasion, and she asked Mr. Riddiford, the superintendent of police at Cirencester, to intercede for her with the father of her child, and try and get him to give her IZ5 more. Mr. Riddiford, it appears, was in the habit of receiving her chdd's money from its father, and handing it over to her. On Saturday week the parties quarrelled, and Mealing returned to his father's house, where he stayed until Thursday, the night of the murder. On Thursday even. ing he went back to Moss's, and his mother and other persons were present. A reconciliation apparently took plac, and Mealing and his victim went to bed, her child sleeping in the same room. About three o'clock on Friday morning Mealing went to the house of Timothy Tarraut, the village blacksmith, who is also the parish constable, and having aroused him, informed him that he had killed a woman. Tarrant at first was incredulous, but at length went to Moss's cottage, and there he found that it was too true, the poor woman being quite dead, with her throat cut and her child crying, as if it could realise the dreadful facts of the case. An alarm was treated, and the prisoner, who had gone to his father's house, was placed in safe charge. Information was sent to Cirencester, and some constables were soon at the scene of the tragedy. The ill-fated woman was found lying on the left side, with her arms crossed, and her throat literally cut from ear to ear. The bed was saturated with her blood, which was running through the floor into the room below. From the calm and tranquil appearance of the body, and the absence of blood on her hands, it would seem that the murder was suddenly committed, while she was asleep. The prisoner, after murdering the poor woman, stole her purse and money. This money, consisting of six sovereigns, one half-sovereign, a threepenny piece, and three pennyworth of coppers, he gave to his mother, from whom Mr. Riddiford received it. The dreadful news was attempted to be communicated to the aged father of the deceased, but he appeared to persist in believing that she had only been confined, for which he was prepared, but the real facts he could not be made to comprehend. The prisoner was removed to the police- station at Cirencester, where he appears to be in a most dejected and miserable plight, and evidently fully alive to the horrors of his position. His face and hands were blood-stained. On Saturday the prisoner William Mealing was taken before the magistrates at the constabulary office, the magistrates present being T. W. C. Master, Esq. (chair- man); F. Cnpps, Esq.; Rev. T. Maurice; and T. Warner, Esq., when, after hearing the evidence, which fully bore out the facts already stated, they committed him for trial at the next Gloucester Assizes, on the charge of wilful murder. J. G. Ball, Esq., coroner, also held an inquest on the body of the murdered woman on the same day, when the 'I jury also returned a verdict of Wilful murder against Mealing, who was conveyed to Gloucester by train.
The Fens.-No step of importance has been taken to secure the Smeeth and Fen drain since the construc- tion of the dam and cradge banks, by which the fifo recently successfully excluded. On Friday morning there was a 20 foot tide, which to some extent over- flowed the cradge on St. Mary's Church side, and a serious settlement is taking place in the sluice. If it gives way another adjoining sluica will be seriously endangered, as the bank between the two will be prejudically affected. This bank i3 also being injured by extensive slips, and there is consequently soma apprehension that unless great care and precaution are observed the country may be again exposed to risk. Altogether nine syphons have now been erected over the famous dam across the Middle L?vel drain, and they are found to act efficiently although s .me doubts are expressed whether they will be efficient—even when their number is increased to fifteen, as contemplated- to carry off all posssible accumulations of water in the I drain. This ia a problem which can be solved by ex- perience alone, but the calculations made on the object S by the able engineers employed seem very car.. Y.d and comp ete.
