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. EPITOME OF NEWS.
EPITOME OF NEWS. r'jj\ We understand that a subscription is about to be raised in Kensington for a testimonial to Mr. Wolley, the owner of Camden-house, the burning of which subjected himlo much unjust suspicion, and a lawsuit with the Sun Insurance Office. Notice has been formally given that the next primary or anatomical examination for the diploma of member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England will take place. on Saturday, the 16th of January. The Admiralty has just dispatched Captain Goodenough, R.N., to America, to report on the artillery used in the contest now going on. He is accredited to our Minister, at Washington by the leave of the United States Government he will visit the arsenals of the North, and then will proceed to Charleston. Circassian refugees are arriving at Constanti- nople from all parts of the Black Sea, on the crowded decks of every steamer, at the rate of about a thousand a day. They are'in a state of great distress. As many as 15,000 are expected. The first of the usual course of lectures at Christmas at the Royal Institution, London, has been de- livered by Professor Tyndall; and though these lectures profess to be adapted to juvenile hearers, the majority of those present had long passed the age of boys and girls. The' subject of the lecture was "Electricity at Rest and Electricity in Motion," or what is commonly known as static and voltaic electricity. Among the novelties of the age is a seedless apple. A tree (says a New York paper) has been found in Dutchess county bearing this fruit. There are no blossoms the bud forms, and, without any show of petals, the fruit sets and grows entirely destitute of seeds. In outward ap- pearance the apples resemble Rhode Island Greenings. The crime of incendiarism seems to be greatly on the increase throughout the country. At the late CheMisford assizes Mr. Baron Martin tried six cases. There does not appear to be any motive other than that of malice in the majority of the cases which have been tried. During the last few days policemen have been molesting the "outsiders" of the Paris Bourse, and pre- venting their transactions, a step which occasions much annoyance. One of the recent speculations heard of in London is to getup a company to pluck tea in Pennsylvania, where it now grows wild, and afterwards to cultivate it in sufficient quantities for the English market. We understand (says the United Service'Gazette) that the Secretary of State for War has issued instructions that a separate and distinct record, of the minutest kind, be kept of the expenses of the Crawley court-martial, in order that a clear statement of the expenditure may be forthcoming should any question be raised in Parliament when the esti- mates are under discussion. The Archbishop of Paris frightened a large congregation which, on Saturday, was assembled in the church of St. Sulpice to witness the ceremony of ordination, by falling down in a iit. After an he was able to be moved to his residence. Dr. Fouquier reports, however, that there is no dansrer. Great consternation is felt in Greenock that a person (the word thief is avoided, and gentleman would be preferred, but is not quite possible), having been sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment for theft, has just come into a property of nearly £ 50,000. Cards will be left at the prison, of course, as soon as possible, and a testimonial presented on the first occasion by numerous friends and admirers. The Malta Times says that M. Miani, the Italian who tried to discover the sources of the Nile before Captains Speke and Grant, and failed, is now at Cairo, pre- paring another expedition with the aid of the Emperor of Austria. He denies that the true source has been found, or that Captains Speke tod Grant set the right way to work to find it. During the last week the visitors to the South Kensington Museum were as follows:-On Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, free days, open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., 6,452; on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, students' days (ad- mission to the public, 6d.), open from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m., 1,319—total, 7,771. From the opening of the museum, 4,357,105. The following decree has been voted by the National Assembly of Greece: — The letters of the late king and all papers and writings in general, which by the decision of the Assembly on the 13th of April had been sequestrated, shall be delivered into the hands of the King of the Greeks, the assembly feeling persuaded that such of those documents as concern the public service, affairs, and interests of the State, and generally the interior, will be pre- served at the palace, and form part of the Royal archives." A biU. for legalising the marriage of a man with the sister of his deceased wife has been read a third time and passed in the Legislative Council of South Australia. A letter from Naples says:Vesuvius has become covered with snow, and now presents the appearance -of a sugar loaf. It is a vast cone, quite white from the summit to the base. We have also a wind so cold that it nips the face, and any one might fancy himself at the foot of Mount Viso, in the midst of the snows of the Alps." Great improvements are going on in Paris. The public will soon have a new and splendid square upon the left side of the Rue Lafayette. A large sheet of water, trees, and other luxuries are to be introduced. The' Sultan of Turkey has presented to the Grand Vizier, as a token of his warm appreciation and regard, a superb diamond ring, weighing thirty-four carats, and valued at about LM sterling. The county" of Middlesex is to have its oricket club. Preliminaries have shown the strength of the desire, and the matter is as good as settled. The next thing is to beat All England." A fine opportunity will shortly be offered in London to speculative people, as a lot of Melbourne land— say a quarter of a million acres-is to be sold at 7s. 6d. an acre. This would be also a fine opening for any person re- quiring a. farm of a quarter of a million of acres to cultivate on high-ifarming principles. All-night omnibuses are going to be established in Paris. It is said that the number of night travellers in this city is about 500,000, so that a great profit is anticipated from those who are at present without conveyance. It must be remembered what Parisians call night is still early times for a Londoner, and that rats flourish in the streets at two o'clock. Among the odd notions of the day is that of a professor of gymnastics, who sets every proceeding to music, in order to give grace to the movements. What next ? A pauper in the Uckfield Union, named William -Novies, aged eighty-two. was charged before the magis- trates with, refusing to work. The poor old man, who had lived twelve years beyond the threescore years and ten allotted to man, said he was unable to work but their wor- ships thought differently, and sentenced him to twenty-one days' hard labour. Earl Russell has been elected Rector of Aberdeen University by a majority of 98 votes over Mr. Grant Duff, :M.P: His lordship has intimated that he will visit Aberdeen in April, to be installed into office. The' late Signor Begrez, formerly a singer of -some celebrity, has just bequeathed £1,000 to that excellent institution the Royal Society of Musicians, coupled with the desire that the bequest should form the nucleus of a fund for the foundation of a college for decayed musicians similaj- to the Rpyal Dramatic College. The Rev. Professor Lightfoot, Fellow and late Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, has offered dE200 for two annual prizes, to be given to students of King Edward's School, 'Birmingham and Mr. Thomas Short, jun., has offered £100 for an annual prize in the English department of the some school. The Provost and Fellows of Eton College have presented the Right Rev. James Chapman, D.D., Fellow of Eton and late Bishop of Colombo, to the rectory of Wootton Courtney, near Dunster, Somersetshire. The vicarage of Thurlby, near. Bourne, Lincolnshire, in the gift of the Pro- vost and Fellows of Eton, has also become vacant by the death of the Rev. Charles Pennyman Worsley, M.A., who was presented in 1827. The benefice is worth £450 a-year, with It house. Mr. BlOod, of Dublin, and formerly secretary to one of the gas companies of that city, has been appointed secretary to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, in place of Mr. Trouson, who retires on being appointed to the management of a well-known East India film. Another great firv and destruction of farm produce has taken place at Lewisham, where three wheat ricks, two oat ricks, and a. straw rick were oonsumed by fire. ThEfwiud was high, which caused the flames to spread; but the property, we understand, is insured fully up to the loss. •> £ Government emigrant ship Peerless, 1^005 tons, Captain Thomas Flairn, belonging to Messrs. Dixon and Wynne, Liverpool, and which sailed from the Mersey on the 23rd June last, arrived at Sydney on the 23rd September, having on board 29 married couples, 131 single men', 131 single women, 21 boys and 23 girls between the ages of one and twelve, and 14 infants, numbering in all 378 souls, equal to 342 statute adults. Six births and four deaths took place on the voyage. The 23rd was the last day for the deposit of printed .copies of all private bills for next session. The number far exceeded the deposits at the Board of Trade hewre plans were required to be lodged. Advices from Spain state that the cold is now more severe in Catalonia. than is usual at this season. The thermometer has for several days been as low as freezing point. An enormous skate-a fish of the thornback species-was caught off Portland last week. It was seven feet long and six feet wide. It is stated that Lord Lyons is not in such perfect health as his friends and the country would wish. His post at Washington is irksome and onerous, and his attention to his duties is unremitting. A gentleman informs a contemporary that during last week a partridge was shot on his ground, from which a full-grown egg was taken; and that on the borders of a neighbouring county the crows in several instances have begaa to build their nests and produce eggs. < The prices of wheaten bread in the metro- polis are from 6 id. to 7d.; of household ditto, 5U1. to 6d. Some bakers are selling from 4id. to 5d. per 41b. loaf, weighed on delivery. On Saturday night, a little before nine o'clock, the ship-keeper of a vessel in the Bramley-Moore Dock, Liverpool, fell overboard into the water, and was drowned. On Christmas Day, in the neighbourhood of Exeter, primroses, ripe wild strawberries, and a number of spring and summer wild flowers, were gathered in the hedge- rows. The season is astonishingly mild in Devonshire. Private advices received at Portsmouth state that a serious accident occurred on board the Phaeton in a recent gale, during her voyage from Halifax to Bermuda. It appears that one of the yards gave way when the ship's company were employed on deck, and killed six of the sea- men on the spot.
EXECUTION OF ALICE HOLT AT…
EXECUTION OF ALICE HOLT AT CHESTER. Dreadful Scene on the Scaffold. On Monday the extreme sentence of the law was carried into effect on Alice Holt, at Chester gaol, for the murder of her mother by poison. The evidence at the trial before Mr. Justice Willes, on Dec. 8 and 9, showed that the prisoner, her mother, and a man named Holt, with whom she cohabited, lived together at Stockport. In February last the deceased, Mary Bailey, was taken ill, and the prisoner insured her life for £ 26 at a premium of 6d. per week. She induced a woman named Betty Wood to personate her mother before the doctor, telling her that the agent said "any one would do." The proposal was accepted by the Wesleyan Assurance Society, and from that time the mother became worse. Prisoner called in the parish surgeon and the infirmary visiting officer, both of whom were ignorant of the others' visits, and complained of their medicine not being given. On the 25th and 26th prisoner bought some arsenic, -Jib. each time, which she put in a jug with some boiling water, and sprinkled it about the room where her mother lay, to kill vermin. The night of the 26th deceased had some brandy, and complained of "grounds" being at the bottom. Prisoner said, You ought to have drunk up grounds and all." Mary Bailey died in the morning with all the symp- toms of arsenical poisoning, and was buried. The personation came to the ears of the office, and the body was disinterred on June 12, when it was found perfectly but "saturated with arsenic," of which no less than 160 grains were found in the stomach and adjacent parts. The unfortunate woman was not tried at the summer assizes in consequence of her being enceinte. The child has since been adopted by Holt's uncle, the only person who has visited her. During the whole of her imprisonment she has been sullen, and strongly protested her innocence. On Sunday, the 27th, the prisoner made the following statement: On the Monday before mother died I brought the insurance papers home, insuring my mother's life for £2ô and mine for £28. He then proposed I should get some charcoal and put it under mother's bed alight when she was asleep, and she would never wake more. On Wednesday night Holt and T- never went to bed. He said it would be a great releasement if she was in her grave, and he would buy some stretchnine (strychnine) if I would give it her. I said, Thou'lt be found out." He said, "They cannot find it out by that." I said, "Thou hast brought me to destruction, and now thou want to bring me to the gallows." He then beat me. In the beer of which I spoke I saw, after my mother ha,d drunk it, a quantity of blue arsenic grounds. I said, "Thou hast given my mother arsenic." He said, If thee tell aught I'll have thee up for defrauding the insurance," and said, "No- body will believe but what thou hast done it thyself." This was the only arsenic my mother ever had. Another statement was afterwards made by prisoner to this effect George Holt offered mother some beer, in which the arsenic was put. Mother was sick, and could not take it, and set it on the mantelpiece, and went out. I said, Mother, canst not sup this gill of beer ? She then took it from my hand and supped it. When I looked at the jug I saw the blue arsenic at the bottom. There was lioz. left in the jug as much as would fill a smelling bottle. I put the jug on the top shelf of the cupboard, and thought of taking it myself. When Ann Bailey cleaned the cupboard out it was washed out. She says, "This is arsenic. That's the jug thy mother had her beer in." I said, Yes, and I didn't know how it had gotten there." Betty Wood then came in, and our discourse was dropped off. Both these statements were signed. In the middle of the night of Sunday she was removed from the county to the city gaol, accompanied by the chaplain, the Rev. J. M. Kilner, the city sheriff, R. Little, and the governor of the gaol. On her arrival she partook of some toast and coffee, and listened attentively to the exhortations of Mr. Kilner, joining audibly when in chapel in the prayer for murderers introduced into the BuriaLService. The execution took place at 8.10. When nearing the drop her courage failed her, and she was half dragged, half carried to the scaffold. The weather was bitterly cold, with a slight fall of snow, yet an excited mob of some 2,000 or 3,000 people were gathered in front of the gaol. As soon as the criminal stepped upon the platform of death a subdued murmur ran through the crowd, which was followed by a deathlike silence for a few minutes, broken only by the piteous wailing of the culprit. The cap and rope having been adjusted she fell upon her knees and prayed that her infant child might be spared a similar fate, and that her death might be a warning to others. She then rose and in the most piteous manner begged the executioner to make haste with his dreadful work. Calcraft then withdrew on one side and pulled the bolt, but the drop would not fall. A second time the attempt was made, but with the same result. All this time the doomed woman was heard exclaiming Make haste!" and each time she heard the bolt withdrawn she gave an agonising shriek. Calcraft went through his work with the coolness of a praetised hand, and the third time, with the aid of some of the gaol officials, the drop fell with a dull heavy thud. The woman fell with a violent jerk about three or four feet, and the prayer upon her lips was left unfinished. She struggled hard, and her suf- ferings were aggravated by the incomplete adjustment of the rope, as well as from her being a very light and slender woman. Calcraft almost immediately went in front of the dying woman and strapped her legs more tightly. A few more groans, and a few more struggles, and all was over. The condemned woman was thinly and poorly attired.
AMUSEMENTS AT THE AGRICULTURAL-HALL.
AMUSEMENTS AT THE AGRICULTURAL- HALL. The Agricultural-hall, at Islington, was opened during the Christmas week for equestrian and other performances, such as has been rarely witnessed in this country. On entering the building from the Liverpool-road the amphitheatre is reached. The 1 entire area of the hall is capable of affording seat accommodation for no less that ten thousand persons; and arrangements have been made in the permanent galleries, set out as promenades, by which some six thousand more can have an opportunity of witnessing the performances. The space between the galleries, and running the whole length of the building, is the hippodrome, in the centre of which is a movable "cirque." The eastern end of the hippodrome is formed by the reconstruction of the grand orchestra, with Willis's noble organ in the centre. Thecomyany engaged comprises upwards of three hundred and fifty performers, and the horses are one hundred in number. The performances commenced with a variety of clever equestrian evolutions in the cirque. But the most sensational and astounding part was the appearance of Mr. Crockett in his den of lions, and immense applause greeted the daring "Lion King" when he had finished the performance and emerged from the den. The command which Crockett appears to have over the brutes is astounding. He not only compels two full-grown lions to stand on pedestals without moving a muscle, like statues, whilst he puts others through various performances, such as making them jump through hoops over his back and legs, but he lies dowr. on a large full-grown lion, places the whole of his face in its mouth, and winds up with a combat between himself and the largest of the brood. When the lion, with a roar, stands upon its hind legs, and places its heavy paws on to the shoulders of his master, the pigmy proportions of the latter, although Mr. Crockett is a large man, are brought out much to his disadvantage, as compared with the broad body and ponderous limbs of his supposed antagonist. The grand and crowning event was, however, the tourna- ment, which commences with a procession, headed by the band, composed of at least three to four hundred performers and one hundred horses, comprising knights and squires fully caparisoned, archers, maidens, flags, banners, drums, and trumpets; the king on a magnificent charger, clothed in purple and gold, with his attendants; the queen and her at- tendants, also richly mounted, and a triumphal car drawn by six highly-comparisoned horses, on the summit of which is a globe bearing a chair of state, in which is seated the Queen of Beauty." The com. pany having taken their places the lists were opened, A and the sports of the tilting jousts and the tourney I commenced, interspersed with the antics of a large company of jesters. Some very clever equestrian feats were then performed, and at its conclusion there was a general conflict and grand denouement; the procession being reformed and marching off the victor on his proud steed, and the vanquished knight and his slain and faithful courser carried on the shoulders of their respective vassals forming part of the retiring procession. The exhibition is a novel and entertaining one, and appears popular.
A ROMANTIC STORY.
A ROMANTIC STORY. Extraordinary Infatuation of a Devonshire Heiress. Gossip has been busy for some weeks past with an instance of infatuation on the part of a young lady, which bears out the old saying that truth is stranger than fiction. The names of the parties in question (says the Western Morning News) are known to us, but the object of withholding them will be obvious, although the correctness of the incidents narrated is guaranteed. Miss Nemo, as we shall call her, is the daughter of a clergyman and a doctor of divinity, not long dead, and who resided at his rectory in the county of Devon. Nemo is about 25 years of age, good looking, and accomplished, and it caused no small trouble to the family some time previous to her father's death to find that she had formed a clandes- tine acquaintance with a stonemason to whom was en- trusted the repair of her father's chureh. On this discovery Nemo was sent to Exeter to reside with a brother, that there might be broken the tie she had formed. Only a short time afterwards she eloped with her lover of low degree to H-, where she re- mained with his friends until the marriage pre- liminaries could be arranged. On the morning fixed for the wedding, the bridegroom not being forthcom- ing at the appointed time, the lady went in search of him, when, to her astonishment, he informed her he was in no particular hurry, and should not marry yet. On finding herself thus deceived, the unfor- tunate girl ran away, and waded into a sheet of water waist high in her wedding dress, from which pre- dicament, however, she was luckily extricated by two labouring men, taken back to where she had been staying, and eventually home. A few days afterwards the stonemason lover called at her residence, but was refused an interview by her brother. He then went to another of Nemo's relatives—a lady of wealth and position, with whom he endeavoured to turn his heartlessness to pecuniary profits, offering to marry somebody else if a hundred pounds were given him, adding the interesting information that three other ladies were already in love with him. This extortionate demand was refused; but the mercenary man was offered a handsome present if he became the husband of either of the three candidates he had mentioned. This, it seems, did not suit his book," and, fortu- nately, his cupidity effected that which nothing else could do-determined Nemo to throw him off alto- gether, the result being that he is now a presiding and unmarried genius in a common public-house. A short time after this the father of Nemo died, leaving her a very respectable income; but, in order to prevent her from forming a connection with anybody beneath her, the receipt of this income was made to be contingent on her remaining single, to revert to her only if she became a widow. Her brother having succeeded her father in his ecclesiastical office, Nemo resided alone at lodgings in Exeter up to the middle of last summer. One morning, however, she was seized with a fit of infatuation, which surpassed even that which we have already narrated. While sitting at her open window she saw on the opposite side a man begging from door to door. She rang the bell for her servant, and ordered the man to be fetched. He was intro- duced into her room, served with refreshments, during, or after which, Nemo requested to hear his history. [ The beggar informed her that he was connected with a very high family in Ireland, from whom he ran away when he was fourteen years of age, and had not re- turned since. He travelled in foreign parts, and eventually enlisted in a foreign army, where he struck his superior officer, and was sentenced to be shot. That punishment, however, was subsequently mitigated to hard labour for life at the mines. He underwent some years of his punishment, which was the cause of deformity on his right side, one shoulder becoming considerably lower that the other. After some years he succeeded in escaping from the mines, returned to England, enlisted as a soldier, but having deserted from his regiment, he was taked up, punished, and turned out, branded with the letter D on the shoulder, which mark he showed our heroine. Since that he had been compelled to earn his livelihood as a beggar. This pathetic recital seems to have moved the sus- ceptible heart of Nemo, for she forthwith interested herself for him with various contributors to the Strangers' Friendly Society, and rigged him out with linen and outer garments, brushes, combs, and other articles necessary for the proper performance of his toilet. This done, she visited him at a notoriously common lodgir-g-house, in a back lane, but being disgusted with that habitation, she obtained lodgings for him at an eating-house, where, when he was duly installed, she visited him, exchange visits being made by the gentleman at the lady's lodgings. Not content with these marks of fayour, she purchased for him a handsome ring, receiving one made of his hair in return, the latter, as well as the former, being of course paid for by Nemo. Thus matters continued up to a short time ago, when, on being remonstrated with on the impropriety of such a connection, she ab- sented herself suddenly without leaving the slightest notice of her whereabouts being entertained, until her return, when it transpired that she had gone off with the man to Devonport, and been married at a dissent- ing place of worship, the interesting office of bridesmaid having been performed by an old woman, a sextoness at one of the Exeter churches, whom Nemo had taken with her. Money by this time was getting short, and the pair returned to Exeter, the lady visiting her friends, and informing them of the high respectability of her husband's connections, and eventually so softening their anger that they agreed to give her' money, and fit her out for Ireland, to which county she said her husband intended to take her. He was consequently admitted to several in- terviews with the family, and no end of dresses were provided for Nemo befitting her entrance into polite Irish society." Sufficient money was given her to enable them to visit her relatives in London, while bheir boxes in which was her portion of the family plate, &c., were forwarded to Liverpool to await the pair when they reached that port en route for.Ireland, rhey were received kindly by their London friends, whom they visited often during a week, when the lewly-made husband took it into his head one evenina1 to go down into a kitchen of a friend's house to smoke a pipe," and not returning in what his wife considered reasonable time, she went in search of him, but searched in vain. With some misgiving, Nemo proceeded to their lodgings, when she found her boxes broken open, and that every article of value they contained had dis- appeared. Without delay she sought aid, and searched the metropolis for days-her efforts being eventually II crowned by finding her husband in a low pot-house, every penny he had taken from her having been squan- dered. Nemo induced her degraded spouse to go with her to the railway station, when, on making the names of her relatives known, she obtained a pass for both to Exeter, but on their arrival there they were entirely discarded by all their former friends. Having by some means obtained a little money, the couple proceeded to Plymouth, and only a few days since were located in anything but a first class house, in one of the Three Towns. An offer was sent the lady by her friends to receive her again, if she would leave the man who had treated her so badly; but this, Nemo, with womanly heart and head, peremptorily declined. She will shortly become a mother, and she has expressed her determination to beg, cr even starve, with the husband of her rash choice. It will occasion no surprise to the reader to learn that it has been found by a letter from Ireland, couched in a peculiar diction, that the man's high connections there are a myth. So ends for the present this remarkable and painful episode in the life of an accomplished Devonshire heiress. ♦ The New Archbishop of Dublin.—" A Celt" writes to the Daily Express as follows:—" I do not think it is known, as it ought to be amongst us, that the present Archbishop of Dublin (designate) well nigh lost his life in behalf of Old Ireland. During the famine year he came over to this country to minister to the needs, and alleviate, as far as he could, the suf- ferings of his poor countrymen. On his return to his work in England he carried with him the seeds of the fatal fever, which at that time prevailed so much, and lay for weeks hovering between life and death. He now returns to us again to spend the rest of that spared life in our service. With all our faults we are not an ungrateful people. Surely, then, on his coming, he will be greeted as he so well deserves with a truly Irish welcome."
I COBDEN AND THE TIMES."
COBDEN AND THE TIMES." The following is the closing correspondence between Mr. Cobden and Mr. Delane, the editor of the Times: Midhurst, Dec. 18. Sir,-For the first time you now disavow having imputed to Mr. Bright and myself the design of pro- moting by violent, illegal, or immoral means a redis- tribution of the land of this country. Had you con- tented yourself with this simple disavowal it might have passed in silence; but you have invented for us another theory, that of the equal testamentary division of land, for which you have no better foundation in anything that ever fell from us than for the former and heavier aspersion. You now ask my acquiescence in a process of reasoning by which you attempt to show the connection between your former language and your new accusation—against which grammar, logic, and common sense at once rebel. I will not allow you to divert me from the real question at issue into a new discussion as to the com- parative merits between the equal division of real property, as it exists in France and a great part of the Continent, and the custom of primogeniture as it prevails here. That is a subject fairly open to discussion in our Law Amendment Societies or the Social Science meetings, and as it can affect the pocket of no living proprietor, it is not likely to lead to a very impassioned debate. But I must point out to you how impossible it is to reconcile your present plea with your former language. You now profess only to impute to us the design of favouring the equal division of landed pro- perty among all the children at the death of a pro- prietor. But this will not correspond with your reiterated charge that we contemplated a division among the poor of the land of the rich. What you now affect to consider to be our object is the division of the land of the rich equally among the children of the rich. I must bring the question to the test of your own language. In your leading article of December 3rd you alleged that the small States of the Continent regarded a Congress with the satisfaction with which the poor might regard Mr. Bright's proposition for dividing among them the lands of the rich." I now infer from your new interpretation that I am asked to construe this as meaning only the satisfaction with which the children of rich landowners would regard a proposi- tion of a division among them of the lands of their fathers. Again, in your letter to me of December 7th you stated, These speeches are discussed elaborately in two leading articles on successive days, and in each of them certain passages are interpreted as recommend- ing a repwrtition of the land among the poor." Now the word partition or repartition means simply a division, and not a bequest or inheritance, a,nd yet with our dictionaries at hand, you now ask me to interpret the "repartition of the land among the poor" as only meaning to say that Mr. Bright and I wished to compel rich landowners at their death to leave their estates equally among all their children. And in your letter to me of Decem- ber 11, you "repeat" the assertion that "certain passages of our speeches "bear no other interpreta- tion than that ascribed to them." Now, up to that date you had put no other interpretation on those speeches than that they advocated the division of the land of the rich among the poor. The poor we are now told to interpret to mean only the children of rich landowners! Then, I suppose, we must altogether agree to forget that you coupled us with Gracchus and the agrarian system of Rome. No; in the teeth of all these proofs in plain un- mistakable English to the contrary, I should be sacri- ficing truth to courtesy were I to affect to concur in this new version of your language, which does not admit of two meanings. I note your recantation, but repel the attempt to raise a fresh issue to cover your retreat under a fire of minor accusations. I will con- clude this correspondence with merely remarking that the blow which was dealt at the frame of Mr. Bright and myself has missed its mark. How far the recoil of the weapon may affect the hand that levelled it time will show. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. T. Delane, Esq. R. COBDEN. P.S. I cannot compliment your political economy. You reproach me for having made the "concession" to France of undertaking to levy no export duty on coals. Sir Robert Peel had abolished the export duty on coal for the benefit of England a dozen years before the French treaty, and all I engaged was that for ten years more we would not be so foolish as to put any impediments in the way of our exports. As for the paper duty, it is the interest of the British public to buy everything in the cheapest market. If foreigners put foolish restrictions on the export of rags, it is an additional reason why we should take their paper. rhis may-and I am sorry for it—for a time, but only :or a time, be injurious to our own manufacture of that article, in which I believe you or your family are argely engaged. The difference between you and me n 1860 was, that I was looking to the public interest md you were advocating the interest of a class. Midhurst, Friday Evening, Dec. 18. Sir,—I am compelled reluctantly to resume my pen after having sent to the post which I had hoped was my final communication. But this morning's Daily News, which has just reached me, contains a state- ment which cannot with honour be passed over, either by you or myself, in silence. In the first leader of that journal, I have read for the first time the follow- ing passage, which purports to be an extract from a leading article in your journal of the 26th of Novem- ber, or the following day, commenting on the speeches of Mr. Bright and myself at the Rochdale mooting "This language, so often repeated, and so calcu- lated to excite discontent among the poor and half- informed, has really only one intelligible MEANING. Reduce the electoral franchise; for when you have done so you will obtain an Assembly which will SEIZE on the estates of the proprietors of land, and DIVIDE THEM GRATUITOUSLY AMONG THE POOR.' It may be right to reduce the franchise, but certainly not as a step TO SPOLIATION." I sincerely trust there is some inaccuracy in this quotation, which is not only a libellous outrage upon two members of the House of Commons, but a aire insult to millions of honest and industrious English- men. If it be a correct extract from your leading article, which I have no means of verifying at the moment of writing, it is in direct contradiction to the statement made in your last letter, that you never im- puted to Mr. Bright and myself the contemplation of any more violent means of dividing the land than by a change in the law of succession. Assuming the words to be correctly given, you charge us distinctly with aiming at the SEIZURE of the landed property of the country for GRATUITOUS division among the poor. You will at once see that, unless this language be unreservedly recalled, it makes the statement in your last letter simply a mockery and an untruth.-I am sir, your obedient servant, R. CoBDEN. J. T. Delane, Esq. 16, Serjeantsf-inn, Dec. 21. Sir,-I received your second letter, dated Friday evening, December 18," only last night. The quotation you take from the Daily News is so tar inaccurate that it does not convey the same mean- ing as the whole article from which it is taken does. I inclose that article and that which appeared on the following day. I add an extract from another, which has been published since; and, having now given you all the means necessary for obtaining that redress which purported to be the object of your first letter, I beg to retire from the personal part of this controversy. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN T. DELANE. Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P.
.THOSE CHRISTMAS BILLS.
THOSE CHRISTMAS BILLS. THOSE Christmas bills, those Christmas bills! The thought my mind with horror fills Those lengthy ones, and not a few, Which shortly will be coming due. They are the worst of human ills, Those aggravating Christmas bills. Those Christmas bills, those Christmas bills, With frequent hints of hungry tills, Of large accounts, that must be met," Which ask prompt payment of your debt. I feel so queer about the gills When thinking of those Christmas bills. Those Christmas bills, those Christmas bills! r Confound my tradesmen and their quills What can I do to drive away The thought of what there is to pay ? i. i (U I'll fold them all up into spills, •' 11 > s And so II make light" of Christmas bills !| ,'ioi —Fm,
,EXTRACTS FROM " PUNCH " &…
EXTRACTS FROM PUNCH & FUN. (From the Almcmacks.) Those Evening Belles. Those evening belles, those eveningboiles How much they incommode the swells With such a vast extent of skirt And hoops, whereby the shins are hurt. How oft the crinoline repels ■ True lovers of those evening belles. Those evening belles, those evening belles! Their dress requires such countless ells, That he who stands on wedlock's brink, Is oft compelled to stop and think If he can pay the bill that swells As vast as skirts of evening belles. Those evening belles, those evening belles Their wide circumference compels Their husbands on the box to ride, Because there is not room inside; For broughams are solitary cells, That only just hold evening belles. Professional Poems of the Affections. THE LAWYER. Oh Ann, with eyes that glisten, A suitor's face I wear, i, Though you've refused me, listen To this petition's prayer. | I pardon your denial, j And now that you are cool, '• I I move for a new trial, Oh! may I take a rule ? TEE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. Dear girl, I feel quite out of order And shan't revive, I feel aware, Till you recall me from Death's border With oft-repeated cries of Chere!" W THE STOCKBROKER. ,1.1. Oh! maid, with lips of ruby, a Behold your broker fond My only love shall you be— Mine is no Turkish bond. 1 No money-market tightness ■■■" i '.i .-•-i • Your happiness shall bar: I ■,7 Give me some consol-ation Then I'll go up to Pa! Plain Truths for Plain People. Chess is nothing unless it is played on the square. Small talk is like small beer—a little of it goes very great way. Pure milk, unlike the pure truth, is good for nothill when drawn from the well. You may depend upon it, but no man of the namo of Smith likes being joked about it. CURIOUS FACT :N NATURAL HISTORY.—A gentle- man residing in the neighbourhood of Bayswater pos- sesses a piano of such excessive delicacy, that it has been known, when its owner was in difficulties, to go to a broker's and instantly fetch £ 20. Good Thing to say when about to Abscond:— Though for a life-long holly-day I go, I've no idea where to mizzle-toe. HEAR BOTH SIDES—Masters and mistresses arc fond of calling servants the greatest plagues of life." We are extremely curious to know what servants are in the habit of calling their masters and mistresses ? Depend upon it, it is something extremely endearing! New Nursery Rhyme. There was a young lady of Tottenham, Her boots were much too tight to trot-In-'em; One day in the street, She said, Oh, my poor feet! How foolish was I when I got in 'em." SUPERFLUOUS PHILANTHROPY.—The idea of im- parting polish to Japan is like that of carrying coals to Newcastle. TALKING of dogs, the 'late Mr. Job Caudle was wont to remark, in his jocular moods, to his children, that Ma's tiffs were utterly destructive of Pa's time. THE TRAVELLER'S TROUBLE.—The hardest of hard lines are the contents of Bradshaw. A COMMERCIAL TRUTH.—Money, like a boot, when it's tight, is extremely trying. THE BEST THING TO DO WITH A KNOT OF RUF- FIANS.—Tie them up. Useful Family Recipes. To Dish a Bore.—Invite your bore to dinner, and as an additional inducement for him to be sure to come, just drop a casual hint that you intend to have some turtle. This you will be careful to forget to order and if you tell your cook to send up nothing in its place, and then let your bore sit down to a cold shoulder of mutton, with no pudding to follow, you may rest assured that he is very nicely dished. To make Strawberry Jmn.—Take two score of straw- berries, British queens, if you can get them, and the biggest you can find. Pick them carefully from their stalks, and place them on a clean dessert-plate. Sprinkle them with fine white sugar, powdered in a mortar. Then take a dessert-spoon, and, if you are wise, proceed to eat thirty-nine of them; after which, by simply placing the fortieth in the crevioe of an open door, and violently slamming it, you may make jam of your strawberry to your heart's content. A Story from Suffolk. 5 Hodge to the Squire's once went to dine, And drank his fill of beer and wine, Next day, being asked how he had fared, (. Says he, D'yow know I aumurut stared ..i That arter guttlin' soup an' fish, An' wenson in a silver dish, Plumpooden, an' sich things as these, They browt me in plain bread and cheese Ode to My Wife's Milliner. Dearer to me than I dared to think! Dearer to me than the flowering Pink! Dearer to me than the many I've known '1fJ: Of the little Milliners now full blown. Ah when she came for her bill to call, Then, then I found she was dearer than all! Street Morals. The Cabman, who about to start, Asks you Where's that, Sir ? hopes to cheat; Answer, Find out! As straight as dart He'll drive you to the given street. CURE FOR BALDNESS.—Onions rubbed frequently on the head are said to restore the hair. They will certainly make it grow strong. To PLUCK A GoosE.-To do this you have only to send your goose to college, and the chances are that, when he-is examined, you will find him plucked. To REMOVE CORNS.—Cut away as much of your ,orns, as you are able, then place your kitehen poker in he fire, and, when it is white hot, apply it pretty freely to each corn in succession, until you feel quite certain that they are all removed.
A Pudding in Poetry,
A Pudding in Poetry, (From the Comic Pfetot.) <•; Take a pound of sweet suet--oh, let it be fresh, And oh, let it also be beef: And mince it as small as the blisses of life, Which, as every one knows, are so brief; Then a pound of best raisins with oare you must clean. And with patience remove every stone For the presence of those crunching nuisances nought Can to pudding devourers atone! Next a pound of picked currants, and also a. pound Of the very best superfine flour, As white as the hand of the girl you adore, Or the lily fresh washed in a shower. Then the odorous peel of a lemon you'll grate, And the half of a nutmeg delioioug; And then half-a-dozen fresh eggs you must add, As well-beat as the son of Benicia's. Then an ounce take of orange-peel candied, and half Of lemon-peel ditto, cut fine; "tal A pound of brown sugar, a teacup of cream, And of brandy one glass (i.e. win-e). Mix well the ingredients—ah, who does not know How we mingle our bitters and sweets In this plum-pudding world f—next tie-up in a clot"I. And then feel you've accomplished a feat. Put into a copper of water that boils, And there let it for seven hours remain, And then, having made some sweet sauce in a boat, Take it out of the copper again. O'er its noble brown brow some white sugar you'll grate. Pour on brandy (which light with a spill), 'I Stick a holly-sprig into-the top; and then eat, And I think you'll most likely be ill!