The Chester Courant and Advertiser for North Wales

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MR. WYNDHAM ON EMPIRE. ) Mr. George Wyndham, M.P. (Under Secre- tary of State for War), was on Wednesday | evening the principal guest at the annual dinner of the Premier Habitation in Kent of » tha Primrosa League, which waa held in the Town Hall, Dover. Responding to the toast of Her Majesty's Government," Mr. Wjnubam said there was one misrepresentation which th y ust earnestly seek to avoid, namely, a possible misunderstanding abroad. It was held some- times abroad t-hac the awakening on. our part to the obligations of Empire denoted a new spirit of antagonism in this country towards the legitimate aims and aspirations of European Powers. That, however, was not so. It denoted tbat wo would fulfil our part of world-wide duty, as it was incumbent upon other nations to fulfil their part. The spirit in which we took up our portion of that task was not one of antagonism, but was a spirit of generous emulation to see which of the favoured nations of the world could do most in the shortest time to perform the duty owed by them to the countries still oppressed by savagery, barbarism, or imperfect civilisation. (Cheers.) The spirit was embodied in the Anglo-German agreement which had been made between the Emperor of Germany and her Britannic Majesty the Queen of England. The Government were under no delusion. They were taunted by soma of their critics that they were heaven-born administra- tors. (Laughter.) Well, that was not their foible. (Laughter and cheers) It hardly lay in the mouths of their chiefs to resent* that charge—(renewed cheers)—but he, as a follower of them, did resent it, and he said the country would find it impossible to discover the alterna- tive for Lord Salisbury, the doyen of European diplomatists, and the survivor of the great men of the past, such as Bismarck and othe s. (Cheers.) He would go further, and say that no country that was not inhabited by madmen would seize out of the bauds of Mr. Chamber- lain the task which he had taken up-the task of bringing our Colonies into closer union and touch with the Mother Country. (Cheers) The Government existed, not because they were heaven-born legislators and administrators, but for tha simple reason that they represented the will of the people that we should dally no longer with the dead, but that we should embrace the living and the future. (Cheers ) It was an unworthy libel to say that ^°yonists mistook the du'y of fulfilling their obligations, and confounded it with mere music- nail rejoicing. They were right in welcoming r?. J0? and gladness our own soldiers— Miuaa, Volunteers, and Yeomanry—and they would be right also, when, at no very distant dat-e, they welcomed five thousand of the Colonial soldiers of the Queen. Their hearts went out to all who bad suffered ia their country's cause, and especiaUy to the Royal Princess who bad sustained a loss which was also a loss to the Army, which so sorely needed now the help of young, energetic, and brilliant officers. They could sympathise, perhaps, with a deeper touch of pathos wheu they remembered that the Princess Christian had, perhaps, done more than any other woman or man to alleviate the sufferings of those at the front. (Hear, hear.) I

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THE LATE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER. + A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Abbey Memorial Fund was held on Thursday at 1, Great College-street, Westminster. In the unavoidable absence of the Bishop of London (chairman of the committee), Mr. Alfred Water- house, R. A., presided. It is proposed that this memorial shall take the form of a stained-glass window. It was announced at the meeting that among the latest subscriptions received were: The Duke of Cambridge, £10 j the Marquis of Salisbury, 250; LordBrassey, £ 50; the Duke of Devonshire, £ 25; Earl Cowper, £ 25; the Marquis of Zetland, 910; Mr. Victor Van De Weyer, 925; Mr. James Purdey, £ 25; Mr. H. T. Boodle, £ 25; Messrs. Tattersalls, £ 50; and Lady Frederick Cavendish, X10. In order that the committee may be in a position to make arrangements for the commencement of the work without delay, a hope was expressed that all further subscriptions would be forwarded as soon as possible to the hon. secretaries of the committee at 1, Great College-street, West- minster.

YOUNG MAN AND SCHOOL GIRL. « SCENE AT SANDIWAY. A tall young man, named Samuel Cork, about 21 years of age, of no fixed abode, was put in the dock at Frodsham Petty Sessions on Wednesday, to answer a charge of stealing five apples, valued at 2d., from a little girl named Gertrude Holland, aged 10 years, who resides at the Blue Cap Inn, Sandi- way, near Weavorham. The case had been previously heard at Northwich, and in her evidence there the girl "had said she left the Girls' High School, Northwich, of which she was a scholar, at three o'clock in the after- noon of October 29th, and when she got to Mr. Rowland's gate, near the Tower Lodge, she met the prisoner, who put his arm around her and said, "I have got you now." He then asked her for some apples. She was eating one at the time, and, being frightened, she gave him two. Prisoner dragged her to the side of the road and made her sit down on the grass by the hedge. Cork sat down by her side and asked her to give him a kiss, and she, being afraid of him, did so. He also made the girl put her arms round him (the prisoner), and then she tried to get away from him, but he would not let her go until he saw three boys coming from towards the Tower Lodge. Prisoner then walked in the direc- tion of Hartford,and she (prosecutrix) went home. She afterwards pointed the prisoner out, as the man who had stopped her, to Mr. Buckley and Mr. Warburton.—Wm. Warburton, commission agent, residing at Sandiway, near Weaverham, said. about five o'clock the last witness, who was his wife's niece, came to him crying. In consequence of what she told him he went in the Chester road, near to the house of Mr. Geo. R. Davies, and waited for the prisoner to come down the drive, a man named Ernest Buckley being with him. On the prisoner's reaching them, Buckley, in the prisoner's hearing, said I to him This is the man." He (Mr. Warbur- ton) then asked prisoner what he had been doing to a girl in the road. He replied I Nothing, further than lifting her off the road out of the rain," and afterwards stated that the girl was lost." He (witness) sent for the prosecutrix, who was in his house, and she identified Cork as the man who had interfered with her. Prisoner then went in the direction of Hartford, and he followed him to Hartford Station, where he met P.C. Bell. The three of them then walked in the direction of Sandiway, until they met P.C. Bithell, to whom he (witness) reported the matter. P.C. Bithell took the prisoner into custody. While he (witness) was walking with the prisoner close to Mr. Davies's house towards Hartford Station he saw the prisoner take an apple out of his pocket and throw it towards the wall. He (witness) picked it up.—P.C. Bithell said he questioned Cork as to his conduct and charged him with the theft of apples. Prisoner replied" Nothing of the sort." Witness locked him up at Northwich.- Prisoner now stated that it was raining very heavily when he saw the girl on this particular afternoon, and he took pity upon her and placed her under a tree out of the wet and left her there. (Laughter.) He denied having put his arms around prosecutrix, who gave him the two apples—not five apples as the constable said- without being asked for them. He told the girl to stay under the tree until it as fine, and then she would be all right. (Laughter.) At the time he was proceeding in the direction of Northwich to look for work in the ,stables. The Chairman said they (the magistrates) had decided to commit prisoner to gaol for two months, which might seem a rather severe sentence for stealing two apples, but as prisoner behaved in the way he did towards a defence- less girl they considered he fully deserved the punishment. He (the Chairman) would caution prisoner to be more careful in future, and not to continue his bad career.—Superintendent Nield said there were four previous charges 1 against prisoner in the book.

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TARVIN GUARDIANS CRITICAL. » JUSTICES JUDGED. At Tarvin Board of Guardians on Satur- day morning, Mr. R. O. Orton, the chairman, referred to the Tarporley case of shocking family neglect which came up for hearing at Eddisbury Petty Sessions on Monday. He thought the sentence imposed was hardly severe enough. The charge against the woman, Mrs. Agnes Harding, for instance was dismissed, although it would be obvious to all that she was more responsible for the welfare of the children than the father, who was sent to prison for a month. It was the most shocking case he had ever heard of.—Mr. Roger Bate said he was on the bench at Eddisbury on Monday, and he might tell them that the magistrates, considering the fact that the woman was in weak health, and therefore not in a fit condition to look after the children properly, dismissed the charge against her, the prosecuting party also agreeing to this course; while in the case against the man the magistrates thought a month's imprisonment would be a fair sentence, taking into considera- tion that he was a workingman, and was obliged to earn a living.—The Chairman con- sidered this explanation satisfactory, and the matter dropped.

THE INFIRMARY CONTROVERSY. DR. ARCHER'S REPLY. TO THB EDITOR. Sir,—I am unwilling to continue the con- troversy re John Williams, who was admitted to the Chester Union Hospital on October 12th, from the General Infirmary, suffering from fractured thigh, but from the report of the con- clusions arrived at by the committee of investigation at the Infirmary in the Courant," and which seem to impugn in some respects my evidence on oath at the inquest on October 22nd, I am reluctantly compelled in self-defence, and also as a protest against the way this man was treated, to take notice of them. The committee are satisfied-(l) That the patient was rightly transferred from the Infirmary to the Workhouse, in accordance with a practice which has prevailed between the two institutions for years past, namely, that as the rules of the Infirmary do not contemplate the reception of patients who are proper objects of Poor Law relief, such cases, whether admitted on an emergency or otherwise, should in due course be removed to the union." Let us compare this with para- graph 5 of the report, which says The committee do notfeel called upon to repudiate thesuggestion that any distinction is made at Chester Infir- mary in the treatment of rich and poor; such a course is entirely f)pposed to the spirit in which the institution is governed." Two things occur to me when comparing these two para- graphs. (1) Was John Williams a proper object of Poor Law relief ? (2 ) Is it to be understood that because a person may be an object of Poor Law relief that therefore he is to be turned out of the Infirmary regardless of his condition ? To my mind the instincts of common humanity forbid the hypothesis of John Williams having been anything else but the object of the most extreme care, rest and good nursing, considering his great age, the nature of his injury, as a result of which he was in a condition of great weakness, and was uncon- scious and delirious at the time of his removal, and that he died as the result of the injury he received. In the first paragraph, the report says be was rightly transferred." I may ask is it right" to send a man 79 years of age, with a fractured thigb, on the 12th day, a distance of a mile in a sitting posture in a cab over tram- lines and bad cobbles with his leg stretched out on a fracture board, and no attempt made to fix the limb either by any arrangement of splints, or even by bandaging the legs together and putting on a back knee splint ? I was asked by the coroner did I consider him fit to be re- moved ?" I said, "I did not." This, of course, is a matter of opinion; I adhere to mine, and there it must rest. The jury gave their opinion, and others can form theirs as they please. I am informed that John Williams was the occupant of an almshouse, and that he was a member of a Court of the Foresters' Friendly Society. If this is so, in what way was he a proper object of Poor Law relief, and therefore to be turned out of the Infirmary in the state he was in ? (2) It is acknowledged in surgical practice that splints are not adapted to cases of impacted fracture." This is aratherdogmaticandsweeping expression of opinion, but in the present case it is a mere quibble. Surely some form of splint- ing would beadvisable to fix the limb in moving a case of recent fracture in a cab a distance of a mile to avoid risk of unnecessary suffering It does not follow that because this humane action might have been adopted that splinting was necessary when he was in bed and quiet, especially when we were told at the inquest that he had no pain except when one tried to move him I said at the inquest it was inhuman and cruel" to remove a man in his condition, and I say so still. 11 The injured limb was kept from jarring and friction by means of a pillow and blanket." I am informed by the superintendent nurse at the Workhouse that she asked for the pillow out of the cab to put under his head on the stretcher while he was being carried to the ward, and that as there was no pillow in the cab she had to send to the ward for one! The Master also informs me that he could not find the pillow in the cab, and that he fetched the pillow from the ward to put under his head! I was asked by the Coroner if I thought removing him accelerated his death ? I said I did think so, and I still adhere to that opinion. (3) No one at the inquest tried to make out that he died the morning after his admission to the Workhouse, although I would not have been surprised if he had done so. I certainly con- sidered him in a dying state when I saw him at eight p.m. on the night of his admission, and considering that he had a quick flickering pulse, was in a semi-comatose, semi-delirious, unconscious state from the time of his admis- sion on the 12th till his death on the 19th, I am at a loss to know what state this is if it is not a dying state. (4) The allegation that the man was in a filthy condition when Dr. Archer first saw him would suggest that he had been received from the Infirmary in that state." I would call attention to the use of the word allegation" here as applied to my sworn assertion of his dirty state, which I myself saw when I first examined him, and swore on oath was the case as a matter of fact, and I consider this must have been the state he was in when admitted from the Infirmary at 4 p.m., and no uncontrollable accident happening between his admission at 4 o'clock and 8 p.m., when I saw him, could possibly account for hia filthy condition and bed sores. I am borne out in this by the three trained nurses who attended to him in the Workhouse. There was a large bruise on the front of his right hip, extending some way up the abdomen, which was difficult to see on account of the dirty condition of his skin. How a sworn state- ment of fact like the above can be accurately and fairly described as an allegation I fail to see. In the report we are told the case "has been carefully investigated by a special committee, consisting of the weekly committee and the members of the honorary medical staff of the Infirmary." While evincing the greatest respect for the investigations of a committee so composed, I respectfully submit that this was an enquiry conducted in private, where only one side was allowed to be heard, and where the witnesses were not sworp. Such an euquiry cannot be considered in any way to controvert the evidence given on oath by both sides at the inquest, and on which, after a careful considera- tion, the jury came to the unanimous verdict that death was caused by shock from a fractured thigh, and they were also of opinion that the deceased was not in a fit condition to be removed from the Infirmary on the day he was brought to the Workhouse, and they con- sidered if it were absolutely necessary to remove such patients proper appliances should be provided."—I beg to remain, yours obediently, ARTHUR M. ARCHER, M.D., &c.. Medical Officer Chester Union Workhouse. Nov. ht., 1900.

DEATH OF A BIRKENHEAD GENTLEMAN.—Mr. George R. Clover, of Birkenhead, head of the firm of Clover, Clayton and Co., shipbuilders, succumbed to typhoid fever at Llandrindod Wells, on Monday night. Mr. Clover, who was only in his fifty-fifth year, was educated at Parkgate, Wirral, and it is not a little due to his enery and enterprise that Clover's shipyards are so widely and so favourably known in the shipping world. He was a Conservative in politics, and a borough magistrate.

SERIOUS TRAP ACCIDENT. » ■■ WELL-KNOWN FARMERS INJURED. About noon on Saturday a trap accident occurred at Handbridge, involving, we regret to say, grave injuries to two of the most widely-known and best-respected .farmers in the county-Mr. Richard Fearnall. Lea Hall, Pulford, and Mr. George Lewis, The Bank, Malpas. The two gentlemen were driving in Mr, Fearnall's trap to Chester, and while passing through Hand- bridge the horse took fright at the discharging of a cartload of bricks. The animal shied and collided with the kerbstone. The trap upset and the occupants were pitched out, and thus sustained injuries which necessitated their removal to the Infirmary. When medically examined at that institution, it was found they were suffering from severe fracture wounds and broken ribs. We are glad to know, however, that their condition permitted of their removal home. Much sympathy is expressed locally for the sufferers who, it is trusted, will soon recover from their injuries.

THE TARVIN GUARDIANS AND IMBECILES. 0 At Tarvin Board of Guardians, on Satur- day morning, Mr. R. O. Orton presiding, the Clerk (Mr. H. Grant Bailey) read a communi- cation from the Northwich Union, relative to the accommodation of imbeciles in workhouses. A committee, it appeared, which had been appointed by the Northwich Board to consider the circular from the Local Government Board on the subject, thought that imbeciles should be removed from workhouses, and that the Local Government Board should be urged to promote without delay whatever legislation may be necessary to effect this, which might be done either by providing separate wards at the existing county asylums, or by building separate institutions. As to which course was preferable, the committee did not feel able to express an opinion. The committee agreed with the views expressed by the Select Committee in its report, that the duty of making adequate provision should be imposed on the County Councils in the same way as the? provision for lunatics. The Northwich Board considered that the recommendation of the committee that the duty of making adequate provision for imbeciles should be imposed on the County Councils" was one calling for the united action on the part of the Boards of Guardians in Cheshire. That Board had decided to memorialise the Local Government Board on the subject, and their clerk (Mr. Algernon Fletcher) was directed to suggest to the other Boards in the county that a similar course might be adopted by them with advantage. The Chairman said the matter was a very important one, and he believed it was receiving attention in Parliament at the present time. The question had previously been before the County Council, but no settlement had yet been arrived at, although various suggestions were considered. He thought the cost of maintain- ing imbeciles in a special institution would be much smaller than by the present arrange- ments, as they were now kept in asylums and workhouses. Mr. Cathcart Smith thought it was very dangerous for imbeciles to walk about the public lanes as they sometimes did under exist- ing arrangements. If they built another building for the accommodation of imbeciles only, the practice would most probably be done away with. Mr. Roger Bate referred to the fact that an asylum was now in course of erection at Park- side, and when that was completed, he thought it would meet their requirements for a few years. When the asylum was full it was time to take up the question. The Chairman advocated the establishment of a separate building for imbeciles, but it was eventually decided to take no action in the matter at present.

MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL'S ESCAPE. THE TRUE STORY. In the Great Hall, St. James's, Regent-street, London, on Tuesday night, Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill, M.P., delivered his first public lecture on The War as I saw it." The hall was filled to its utmost capacity. Viscount Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief, presided, and among those present were the Duke of Marlborough, Sir Howard Vincent, M.P., Sir Squire Bancroft, Mr. Butcher, Q.C., M.P., and Mr. and Mrs. George Cornwallis West. Viscount Wolseley briefly introduced the lecturer as the distinguished son of a dis- tinguished father-(hear, hear)—who had served in the Army, and who had now entered public life. (Cheers.) The lecturer in a racy narrative described many stirring incidents of the war, and told the story of his escape from Pretoria. Various tales had been related about the means of his escape. This he told was the true one, and had never before been told to a public audience. He climbed over the wall which surrounded the school at a place where a tree threw a great dark shadow when the electric light was used. He walked through the streets of Pretoria, and was not interfered with because he was wearing an ordinary suit of clothes. He need hardly mention that he did not interfere with anyone. (Laughter.) He made his way to the railway and boarded a train, hiding himself in a truck. The next morning,4 fearing detection, he left the train and took to the veldt. He spent the day in a wood with a vulture. He had been seriously taken to task about this vulture, and one individual had even taken the trouble to write to a great newspaper to pay that there were no vultures in South Africa. (Laughter.) He should leave that statement to be verified by the troops who had been fighting in the country. When it was dark he resumed his journey. He felt very lonely, hungry, cold, and miserable, and he could not help thinking of tha strange position in which he was, while life in London was just the same. At last he saw some lights and he made for them. He found that they were at a coal mine, and that there were twenty or thirty houses near. He knocked at one, and the answer came back, Hullo." That was very satisfactory, for a Dutchman awakened in the middle of the night did not usually say Hullo." (Laughter.) He found that he had struck the home of a Britisher, and he was taken in and fed by Mr. Herbert Howard, the manager of what was then the Transvaal Colliery, and was now the Imperial Colliery. He (the lecturer) was put down the coal mine and lived there for four days. He amused himself by killing white rats, who wanted to eat his food, and reading the Standard and Diggers' News." In that journal he read every day of his capture. (Laughter.) At the end of four days he was put in a bale of wool and loaded on a railway truck which took him to Lourenco Marques. (Cheers.) Lord Wolseley, in moving a vote of thanks to the lecturer, said he had been intensely interested in Mr. Churchill's description of the Spion Kop attack. In reference to Mr. Churchill's testimony to the conduct of British officers, he would say that he believed the British officer to be the finest specimen of humanity and the finest fighting man in the world. Lord Wolseley went on to speak of the Boers as a race of born soldiers, by which he meant that they were always fighting-if not with men, then with wild animals and with Nature herself.

CALEDONIAN ASSOCIATION. An air gun shooting competition was the attraction at a meeting of this association at the Oddfellows' Hall on Friday, prizes being presented by the President (Mr. D. Robertson) and Mr. Jenkins. The first competition resulted as follows :-1 G. Miller, 2 W. Burness. A couple of sweepstakes were afterwards shot for, with the following result :-1 W. Burness, 2 C. Cooper, 3 D. Robertson. 1 Walter Forgusson, 2 G. Miller. SIR. JOSEPH VERDIN AND NORTHWICH.- On Thursday night at a meeting, which was representative of the Northwich Council and district, arrangements were made for presenta- tions to Sir Joseph Verdin, Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire, in recognition of his splendid services and public gifts to the salt district. Sir Joseph, who has left Northwich and taken up his residence at Carstone Castle, Hereford, will be made the recipient of an ebony, ivory and gold walking-stick, an absolutely unique illuminated address, in which are embodied water colour sketches of Verdin gifts to Northwich, viz., baths, park, infirmary, techical schools, &c. The presentations will be made at Carstone Castle.

ROYAL ALBERT ASYLUM. « On Tuesday the general annual meet- ing of the Royal Albert Asylum was held at the Town Hall, Durham, the Rev. Canon Tristram, L.L.D., F.R.S. (chairman of the Durham County Committee), presiding. The adoption of the annual report, which we published in our last issue, was moved by Sir John T. Hibbert, chairman of the insti- tution, and seconded by Sir George H. Philip- son, M.D. A resolution adopting several alterations in the rules so far as they relate to the name ef the institution, and taking as the official title simply "The Royal Albert Asylumf' with a descriptive sub-title" a training insti- tution for the feeble-minded," was moved by Mr. W. E. M. Tomlinson, of Preston, seconded by Dr. W. Wingate Saul, of Lancaster, and carried unanimously. Other resolutions were also passed, thanking the Lancaster members of the central committee and the members of the ladies' associations for their effective ser- vices, appointing auditors, and fixing the holding of the next annual meeting at Lancaster.

THE FAILURE OF A PECKFORTON FARMER. 0 A SCHEME OF ARRANGEMENT. At the Crewe County Court on Tuesday his Honour Judge Yate Lee adjudicating, Mr. F. Turner, on behalf of Mr. E. Brassey, solicitor, of Cheater, applied on behalf of Albert Victor Nield, of Peckforton Hall, Tarporley, a bank- rupt, to approve of a scheme of arrangement with his creditors, and to annul the bank- ruptcy.—The Official Receiver as trustee in the bankruptcy was represented by the Deputy Official Receiver (Mr. C. F. Larab).-The judge was informed that the total debts amounted to 92,205, but from these claims amounting to R,1,888 had been withdrawn. They were debts due to Nield's relatives, and they had been withdrawn unconditionally under seal. This would leave E317 as provable debts, and in discharge of these the debtor's friends came forward with an offer of 10s. in the £ .—Mr. Lamb remarked that although the Official Receiver technically opposed the discharge, he supported the application, for the reasons that the creditors would not otherwise get anything, as there were practically no assets. If it were not for the friends of the bankrupt coming for- ward and releasing the family debta, and finding the proposed composition, the creditors would not have received anything at all.—His Honour pointed out that a great many offences were mentioned in the report which had been fur- nished to him by the Official Receiver.—Mr. Turner admitted that there were, but said they were for the most part of the ordinary character. Scarcely any farmers, he observed, kept proper books of their business transactions. His Honour said the debtor started in business with practically nothing of his own, and was financed by his friends. Though practically carrying on farming, he had been really only the figure- head. Other people had found him the money which he had sunk in the farm. Those persons had withdrawn their claims and had signed a release. Under the circumstances it was not a proper case for him to punish the bankrupt in the interests of public morality. His friends had oome forward and had offered a composition of lOa. in the L, and he thought it was a grand thing for the creditors. It was a case in which he considered the court ought to sanction a scheme which had been agreed to by the creditors, and he sanctioned it.

OLDEST WELSH CHORISTER. The oldest church chorister in Wales lives at Llanrug, Carnarvonshire, viz., Mr. R. Thomas, who has served in the choir of the parish church for eighty-cne years, fifty-three of which he spent as leader of the choir, and his vocal powers have lost none of their charms. Mr. Assheton Smith, the squire of Vaynol Park, has given a substantial pension to the venerable singer.

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