May 18^ 



brings in its tram ? 

 0*mW?^- v „? lflnd would su 



oftbm 



TD& ncuca <**> — - 



u i.bvp. ceased to be 



that m case 

 The Prince r>« "»-,:-,' ve t 



THE NEWSPAPER. 



[1844. 



And at the close 

 :r from another 



ber ports 



t; , riches Bccumul-icea w — - - — 



T *^i rf«l ceased to be placed in security. 

 would bave ceased to v Qf wa t| 



the 



fft9ic x k stesru «-j ■- Mediterranean. In the latter 



- ChaD ^ "fn and would insure the conquest of 

 France 



AJfien 



L id rei"n and would insure the conquest or 



ace would reign, ana Mediterranean, 



^ ^ nlttipp 1 teamers with the neces- 

 t ibe ( WJI ?. 1 "??/ Slk^u^ wnnld be of little as- 



** r"baTFranceTouid"'be victorious on that 

 without caring for sailing-sl 



*-"• ** ^^ Sand B c J ouJd U 



tary loel, anu . x rance would be victorious on that 



^SS^-old: But fj-tne Atlantic the 



iVreot «—!•■* ^ould in a few hours 



troops on any part of the coast j 

 WdTcstroy Dunkirk, Boulogne, or Havre, be! 



" K - done 



s 



and 



ore 



Even 



""I- Zld b done to save them. Even 

 rtVaJ f of Brest, which were formerly safe, 

 i*.^. %i*™kv of the navigation, but which 



difficulty of the 



f IT ^hJZTiUwemd before "steam power, the 

 -^h .W Tr"- «-' " Thus bT the aid of steam '" 



*'* ""„ !*Ctani£«Ep£ to" reign in the Mediter- 



u. r ; nf ,nfTnll our communications with Algiers. 



En li.' ' n^ float - ThuS i y U a Tf' 



E .?. Since: " England is able to menace all our 



i, which, unhappily, instead of constructing ships, 

 ms only to think of supplying the means of 

 airing a force which, as yet, has no existence. 



inean by cutting off aU our co~.-.~-- -~ - - r 



She could besides effectually and closely b ockade all our 

 coasts, and that from this very day if she likes. And to 

 resist her you have but one resource, but one means- 

 tUt which she uses against us-the establishment of a 

 steam navy M The Prince then shows that the naval 

 force o! ance is not in a fit state to contend with Eng- 

 land. England has 125 war-steamers, of which /7 are 

 armed She has besides a commercial steam-navy which 

 can supply her, in case of necessity, with 200 steamers 

 capable ofcarrying heavy cannon and troops. The French 

 f team r. on the other hand, only dates its origin from 

 1 I, aud'hardly received any increase till 1840. The 

 danger was then perceived, and an attempt was made to in- 

 crease the steam-power by the establishment of trans- 



Atlan 



caiiroa 



whl 



went of steam-p , 



(ton, which, unhappily, instead of constructing ships, 



seems 



rcpairii' , . „ . 



lie goes on then to show the parts which the different 

 portions of the naval force ought to take in defence of 

 the state. "The steam power would be employed to 

 guard the coasts of the kingdom, and to keep up a sur- 

 veillance on the coasts of Great Britain, and to guard 

 and pi ct the conquests of France in the Mediterranean. 

 Sailing ships would, at the same time, be used on distant 

 stations; hut in that case it would be necessary to employ 

 more ships on those stations than are employed at 

 present. At the present time France has only forty-gun 

 frigates, with a crew of 300 men, on stations where 

 England and America have fifty-gun ships with crews of 

 oOO. On each station there ought to be two or three 

 frigates, uuder the command of an admiral, " instead of 

 the small vessels now employed, which are to our 

 diplomatic agents a source of insult, and which, in the 

 very first brush of a war, would be destroyed by the first 

 hostile frigate that happened to fall in with them." And 

 he concludes by saying, he hopes he has established that 

 •t is oiily by a strong steam navy that the power and 

 minify of the country can be supported. 



Tithe Commission.— The following report has been pre- 

 sented to the Secretary of State, signed by Messrs. Bia- 

 «ire, Buller, and Jones, the Tithe Commissioners :— 

 lithe Commission Office, April 2, 1844. Sir,— It is our 

 uty to report to you the progress of the commutation 



IW w England and w ales, to the close of the year 

 13. We have-received notices that voluntary proceed- 

 ings Have commenced in 9555 tithe districts ;" of these 



rerr a Tr o- re received durin S the year 1843. We have 

 183 1 k a 2 reements > and confirmed 6492 ; of these 

 year Uui \\ Reived, and 281 confirmed, during the 

 iuomA t i. notices for making awards have been 



We hi . h 836 were is ^ed during the year 1843. 



«onfira!ed r 2 C r Wed 2G81 dfaftS ° f com P" Isor y a ™ rds > aod 

 559 rnnfi j °^ tnese &?$ have been received, and 



i25 1 , ' durin S the y ear 181; *« AVe have received 

 hare jT ortlonm ents, and confirmed 6831 ; of these 1074 



1843 t F 5f? vcd » and U8G confirmed, during the year 

 above st t tltbe distric ts, as will be seen from the 



Wj hew, r* C n t ' the rent - ch arges to be hereafter paid 



confirm! i y e8tabli s^ed by confirmed agreements or 



»«uurm,ea awards vr„ u « - i 



Ury arr aius - >> e have m cur possession volun- 



firmed 3 lK em k ,US 1 and drafts of ***«**. ^ vet uncon- 

 1 ml* W include 894 additional tithe districts ; 



k jjjjSf a total ' w ^en completed, of 9558 districts 

 ^Peat th tUhes are commuted. We have to 



* k ie to ei assurance whicU we have happily been 

 tttofcotfth? ^ eVery re P° rt » that the whole process of 

 The district 1 f % proceedi . n S tranquilly and harmoniously. 

 ce Ption. As°f ? Utu ^ a!es may appear to form an ex- 

 ' rr esponden ^' , wever » as we can judge from our own 

 * tt k discont ' u ° Ur otner means °f information, very 



fo **tttation th - XiSted beUTeen tbe real T arties t0 the 

 ^occuDvin t 1S> l ^ e landowners and titheowners. 

 ^^PUiut in tenautr y» nowever, have found grounds of 

 00 ^ pay 'rent*! 11 ' Caaea not nureasonable; they are called 

 Jgreedtob T th , rgeS ' the ^aJ "*! of which have been 

 ?*** •wtrJed h ! andlords ' though a smaller portion have 

 : ,ar, J low, and y Us * Th ose rent-charges are very pecu- 

 Uuih of the rent a , avera §e do not greatly exceed one- 



10 0ne -tenth of tk r ° the net valae ' instead of amounting 

 me gross value of the produce. Still, low 



I 



as they are, these rent-charges somewhat exceed the com- 

 positions which the tenants calculated ou paying when 

 they hired their farms and fixed their terms with the land- 

 lord. The task of apportioning still goes on more 

 slowly than it was calculated it would do when the 

 Commutation Act passed ; but it continues to be effected, 

 as it has all along been, with much less difficulty and 

 irritation than it was supposed would accompany it. 

 Much of the work which remains for us to do begins to 

 assume a character which makes it advisable to draw 

 your attention to some of its peculiarities and difficulties. 

 In many parishes in which the great bulk of the tithe- 

 have been commuted on inclosure or otherwise, farm or 

 district moduses have been left, which in the present 

 state of the law it will become our duty to convert iuto 

 rent-charges ; and we must, partially at least, map and 

 apportion on the lands subject to them. The expenses 

 of such apportionment to the landowners will first be 

 extravagant, when cojnpared with the amount of the 

 sum apportioned, and then the expenses of collecting 

 will make the rent-charge valueless to the tithe-owner. 

 It seems to us that, in these cases, a permission to re- 

 deem these payments for money, and thus to avoid the 

 expenses both of apportionment and collection, would 

 be advantageous, and indeed is requisite to protect both 

 parties. The managers of Queen Aune's Bounty cr 

 willing, we believe, to receive the redemption money ; 

 and if they are directed to apply it as they do augmenta- 

 tion moneys, it may partially and gradually be invested 

 iu land, if that seems desirable for the tithe-owner. The 

 operation of such a measure might, perhaps, usefully be 

 somewhat extended. In many cases of vicarial tithe, the 

 individual payments are so minute as to couvert the col- 

 lection of them into a loss. We have even been requested 

 to strike a mass of them out of rent-charges, because, as the 

 tithe-owner will be taxed upon the gross amount of them, 

 and be certain not to receive them, the nominally giving 

 them to him is substantially mulcting them. The 

 redemption of such small payments would clearly be 

 a boon to the tithe-owner, and as the liability to them is 

 often felt to be a disagreeable incumbrance by the owners 

 of property, the power of redeeming them would be, in 

 very many cases, also considered a boon. The slate of 

 the law, as modified by 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 100, com- 

 monly called Lord Tenterden's Act, impedes our pro- 

 gress, and, unless cleared up, threatens to protract the 

 close of our labours. In some hundreds of cases, and, 

 indeed, in an indefinite number, we cannot give i isions 

 as to the contested fights of parties with any confidence 

 that, those decisions are correct. Uur own k-ul ossiat- 

 ants are divided in opinion, and we are told that this 

 division of opinion extends even to the superior Courts ; 

 at any rate, no decision of those Courts on the cases now 

 before them has been obtained. We are led to hope that 

 some distinct decision may be given before the close of 

 this year ; if this is not the ca*se, we may be driven to 

 request the assistance of the Legislature. Whatever the 

 law may turn out to be, those cases will many of them 

 be obstinately litigated, and if our dealing with them is 

 much longer postponed, the delays of issues and new 

 trials, and of the apportionments which must follow 

 them, may postpone what would otherwise be the term 

 of our labours. In the case of parishes containing 

 open fields, where the tithes have been commuted and 

 the rent-charges apportioned before inclosure, the re- 

 apportionment of those rent-charges on the inclosed 

 lands newly appropriated to individuals is always de- 

 sirable, and, indeed, almost indispensable. We have 

 no power to sanction this at present. We think 

 such a power might conveniently be given us. The 

 exercise of a similar power, after the close o( our 

 commission, may be provided for by an Act, which, for 

 that and other purposes, it will be necessary to pass 

 before the tithe commission ceases to exist. In a number 

 of parishes, heretofore inclosed by Act of Parliament, we 

 have reason to believe that the provisions for extinguish- 

 ing tithe have been in some cases wrongly, in others im- 

 perfectly, carried out. If tithe litgation and titne are to 

 cease with the commission, some provision must be made 

 for correcting the errors, or completing the deficiencies 

 of these inclosure transactions. Some of the railroads, 

 one of the most extensive in particular, that is the Great 

 Western, refuse to pay the rent-charges apportioned on 

 the lands over which they pass. It is illegal to seize 

 and carry away the rail, so that the titheownefs remedy 

 by distress is nugatory, unless there is a station in his 

 district. His remaining remedy is to take possession of 

 the ground over which the road passes ; but as it is illegal 

 for him to stop up a public way, his possession is useless 

 to him, unless he resorts to the doubtful benefit of a suit iu 

 equity, to compel an account of the profits made on the 

 portion of railroad in his legal possession. We think 

 that the owner of the rent-charge should not be driven to 

 this experiment, but that whenever a rent-charge is 

 clearly due from the railroad company, it should be re- 

 coverable by distress on the property of the company, on 

 whatever part of the line found. This would not iucrease 

 the legal liability of the company. They might still, by 

 replevin or otherwise, dispute the legality of the rent- 

 »arge ; only, when they did not so dispute it, they 

 would be compelled to pay the owners of rent-charges in 

 districts where there is no station, and where those owners 

 have no other remedy than a suit in equity. — ^e have 

 the honour to be, &c. 



African Guano.— The Liverpool Standa restates that 

 the ship Britannia, Captain K. Wylie, left lchoboe, on 

 the west coast of Africa, whither she had been for tfiano, 

 on the 7th February, and arrived at that port on Sunday 

 week with a cargo of that article. The captain reports 

 that on the 17th January, a M mummy " was dug out ot 



the guano, and close upon it there was a common Oalc 

 stave, with the inscription "Columbus Delano, 1791," 

 cut apparently with au ordinary scribe for marking wood. 

 It was found only four feet below the surface, and no 

 idei could be formed of the depth at which it had 

 originally been buried ; so that supposing it to have been 

 merely covered under the then level, the accumulation of 

 the guano over the intermediate period of 53 years, could 

 not have much exceeded two-and-a-half to three feet. 

 It is remarkable that the body was in a state of perfect 

 preservation, and equally so was the canvass in which it 

 was inclosed, being perfectly fresh and strong. 



Currents of the Atlantic. — On the 15th May, 1838, 

 the Andromache, 2tf, Captain Baines, en her passage 

 from Plymouth to Quebec, threw a sealed bottle over- 

 board, in lat. 47 N., and 35 W., about half-way between 

 Ushant and New York. After floating about for five 

 years and ten months, it was recently picked up in the 

 port of Isabella, in the island of Porto Rico. 



Phenomena of Sound. — Many remarkable sounds in 

 nature are produced by repeated reflection from surfaces. 

 Iu some situations the sound of a cascade is concentrated 

 by the surface of a neighbouring cave, that a person acci- 

 dentally entering it is startled at the uproar. In the gar- 

 dens of Les llochas, once the well-known residence of 

 Madame de Sevigne, is a remarkable echo, which illus- 

 trates finely the conducting and reverberating powers of a 

 flat surface. The Cm iu des llochas is situated not far 

 from the interesting and ancient town of Yitre. A broad 

 gravel walk on a dead flit conducts through the garden to 

 the house. In the centre of this, on a particular spot, the 

 listener is placed at the distance of about ten or twelve 

 yards from another person, who, similarly placed Idresses 

 hi n in a low, and, in the common acceptation of the term, 

 inaudible whisper, when u Lo ! what myriads ri§e! M for 

 immediately from thousands and tens of thousands of in- 

 visible tongues starting from the earth beneath, or as if 

 every pebble was gifted with powers of speech, the sen- 

 tence is repeated with a slight hissing sound, not unlike 

 the whirling of small shot passing through the air. On 

 removing from this spot, however trilling the distance, 

 the intensity of the repetition is sensibly diminished, and 

 within a few feet ceases to be heard. Under the idea 

 that the ground was hollow beneath, the soil has been 

 dug up to a considerable depth, but without discovering 

 any clue to the solution of the mystery. On looking 

 rouud for any external cause, the observer who has sup- 

 plied this description says, " I felt inclined to attribute 

 the phenomenon to the reflecting powers of a si'micir- 



cular low garden wall, a few yards in rear of th.°! listener, 

 and in front of the speaker, although there was no 

 apparent connexion between the transmission of sound 

 from the gravel walk and this wall. The gardener, how- 

 ever, to whom I suggested this, assured me that I was 

 wrong, since within his memory the wall had been taken 

 down and rebuilt, and that in the interim there was no 

 perceptible alteration in the unaccountable evolution of 

 these singular sounds." — Morning Post. 



HaiD. 



Judicial Commiitbb of Privy CovxciL. — Piggoftv.Bear- 

 bluck an I Scwmnn.— This v. as an appeal from the Arches' Court. 

 In that court Mr. Pi tt, an inhabitant of Komford, i x, was 

 proceeded against by Messrs . Bearblock and Newman, church- 

 wardens of i hat parish, for the recovery of two sums of 3s. 4</. and 

 .., assessed upon him for the support of the parish church, and 

 the payment of expenses relating thereto, by two church-rates 

 made in 1339 and 1S10. Piggott, who is a poor shoemaker, applied 

 to be permitted to defend hi elf tfi forwtA paup/.ris, but this 

 application was rejected by Sir H. Jenner fust. Piggottthcn de- 

 fended hh. If personally; but Sir II. Jenner Fust Ultimately de- 

 cided against him, condemning him in the payment of the two 

 rates, with costs. From this de on Piggott pros .ted the pre- 

 sent appeal, also in person, but at the hearing was assisted by Mr. 

 Roebuck and Mr. Mellur, of the common law bar, against Dr. 

 Addams, who defended the judgment of Sir H. Jenner Fust. After 

 hearing Counsel, Lord Brougham gave judgment reversing the 

 decision of the Court below, on the ground that the payment out 

 of the rates of money previously borrowed, or expended, was 

 illegal, and would vitiate those rates. An illegal payment of an 

 amount, however small, would have that effect. In Hampden s 

 celebrated case the illegal amount was but a lew shillings ; but, 

 even take the accounts you would, the sums objected to consti- 

 tuted a sixth of the whole rates. The case of " Queen v Dursley 

 was conclusive; for if the mandwnus had been granted, it would 

 have been equivalent to a declaration that the r, in question 

 would be good ; but the mandamus having been refused, coBj 

 elusion was equally clear that the rate would be bad 1 he Ceurt 



in that case did not i or lay ri,wn any J'^V* V,^f rltro 



clared the law as it existed before the statute, that if retro- 

 spective the rate was bpd. Upon this ground, therefore, their 

 Lord idps had come to the conclusion that they had no option but 

 to reverse the judgment appealed from, including, of course that 

 part o whicl, condemned Mr. I t to the payment : of costs in 



the court below ; but as he had d« 1 himself and therefore 



curred but trilling expenses on his own account, their Lordships, 

 Srt^circiimstences, had not the t it necessary to make 

 any award of c< to him. J ent of the Court below was, 



therefore, reversed, but no costs given on either side. 



Col-rt of Exchequer.- £«?**« Prosecutions. -The Attorney^ 

 Gene.al v. Cole. -This was an information charging defendant 

 with having in his posse n a quantity of malt combings for the 

 purpose of adulterating tobacco. Mr. Jervis stated, that this was 

 a case in which the Crown sought to recover penalties under the 

 statute 3 & 4 Victoria, c. IS, the 11th section of which enacted 

 that no person should cut, colour, stain, or manufacture any leaves 

 of trees, herbs, or plants whatsoever, not being tobacco leaves or 

 plant, into the form of, or to imitate or resemble, tobacco, on paui 

 of forfeiting 100/. Defendant was a tobacco manufacturer, resid- 

 ing at Bradford, iu Yorkshire, who now appeared in person to dis- 

 pute the lity of thrc cizures of malt combings, which had 



en made in July, August, and October, 1841, and in respect oi 

 which, as was contended by the Ext . he had incurred the penalty 

 above mentioned. The fact's were undisputed, the defendant never 



ving denied that the articles in question were his proper,}, « 

 the purpose for which he had manufactured them ; UUi £.'JJ^Jb- 

 derstood that he rested his defence on a at of law, ^."fjjJJcrip- 

 teudedby him that malt combings came neither under -nj. »-~ ^ 



,n of leaves of trees, herbs, or plants ; and that a* ^ 



them was expressly prohibited bj ibseou ™ urpofe Iy 



G Victoria, it might fairly be in red that they , * however , 

 omitted in the former one. These "malt como ^ ^ ^^ 

 ! were " plants." They were the £» cut off from ike 



which are first encouraged and then t m «*» 



