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* m& THE 1 EADIR [ No . " 295 , Satubdat ,
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DEATH OF LORD TRURO . This eminent lawyer expired on Sunday evening at his town residence in Eaton-square in the seventy-fourth year of his age . Dropsy and disease of the heart , from which he had long suffered , were the causes of his decease . Thomas Wilde was of legal descent , being the son of a London attorney . He was called to the bar in 1817 5 became Solicitor-General and a Knight in December , 1839 , Attorney-General in 1841 under the Whig Administration , and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1846 ; received the Great Seal , and was elevated to the Peerage in July , 1850 , but only held that office till the fall of the Russell Administration in February , 1852 . The following summary of his public services appears in the Times : —
" He appointed a commission to inquire into the jurisdiction , pleading , and practice of the Court of Chancery . They recommended , among other measures that the services of the twelve masters should be dispensed with altogether . Lord Truro had great doubts on this point , but , after the question had been discussed in Parlimaent , yielded , and bills were prepared according to the recommendation of the commissioners . . Lord Truro quilted office before they could be curried , but ho supported them in Parliament , and they were passed . They had the effect of reducing by 20 , 000 / . the amount of fees of the Court , which before was 179 , 500 £ ., collected by ninety different officers , over none of whom was there any check . By another act , some offices in
Chancery were abolished , others consolidated ; the practice of receiving fees by officers for their own use was suppressed , and an effective pli . n was devised to keep a check on those still received for the maintenance of the Court , while the salaries of the Judges were charged on the consolidated fund . The estimated saving to the suitors by these measures is G 0 , O 0 OJ . per annum . Another reform of Lord Truro was that which relieves the Lord Chancellor of some of his judicial labours by the appointment of the Court of Lords Justices . This enables the Chancellor to attend ( o his duties in the House of Lords and his other functions as a member of the Administration , without interruption to
the business of the Court of Chuncory . Another legal chunge we owe to Lord Truro ia the reform of the procedure in the Courts of Common Luw ; the Act by which it wub effected having heon prepared under his direction . Wo believe tho last-named change has beon fully appreciated by tho public ; but tho Chancery reforms , felt only by a small number , have not affected the mode of procedure , or much expedited tlio progress of suits . —the incredible bIowuous of the Court buing the great evil . They have , therefore , not perhaps gained Lord Truro ao much credit us the profession muy consider he doacrved . Curtain it is there is much loft to be done . "J
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THE MANCHESTER OPERATIVES . The self-acting winders and piecers in the cotton factories at Manchester have given , notice to the public that their employers are contemplating a reduction of wages at the present time , * ' when the price of the necessaries of life are exceedingly high , " equal to 10 or 12 per cent . They go on to say : —" Before , however , any proposition of a reduction can be entertained , it is right not only that the workpeople , but the public , should be satisfied of its necessity , and that it would be a remedy for the evil complained
of . The facts of the case appear to us to be these ,- — that the price of tho raw material ia high , and the demand for goods and yarns may not be such as to yield the usual profits , when the present stute of the money-market is considered , but that a reduction of wages is a remedy for these evils we most emphatically deny . If the cotton is dear , let tho consumption be diminished . If the cotton trade is not remunerative , the evil to be remedied is over-production , the remedy for which may bo expressed in two short words—short-time . Let the masters adopt this obviously prudent course , and we will go with them ; but we never can consent to advise our fellow-workmen to listen to any reduction of their bard eurnings , inasmuch as it would only aggravate the evil which it professes to remedy . " An address from the operatives to their employers
contains the following passages ; — " You have thought proper to give us notice or u reduction in our wages . Before thut notice expires wo beg respectfully to suggest tho expediency of adopting another course , viz ., a temporary reduction 111 the time of working , suy from sixty to forty hours in tho weeic Wo are fully aware thut your trade liu . s , generally , beon unprofitable during tho present , year , and uro quite willing to join you in any measure that niuy bo calculated to alter this Btate of things , but wo submit thut 11 reduction of wages is not one of them . " It is remarkable that whilo you proposo to relieve yourselves by a reduction pf wugea , which , however iw-
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tfeeevenkig of the catastrophe , the lather and son ¦ ti&&bem in' company , at their own house , -with T > r Buee , a fellow-countryman . They had been playing chess ; their' conversation had been tranquil ; there was no quarrel between them ; and , although thedoctor had always regretted his son ' s desire , to go to sea , he ' had lately consented to it . After retiring to rest , it would seem that the son had been reading one of Sir Bulwer Lytton ' s novels till he fell asleep ; and every circumstance indicated placidity of mind on the part both of parent and child . Mr . Reeve adds : — ¦ " We learn from Dr . Carter ' s evidence that , on entering the bed-roon 3 , ' the deceased soa was found lying on his back on the bed—his face livid , and a silk scarf ( or rather black-silk handkerchief ) very firmly knotted in bows , but not very tightly fixed , round his neck . ' Two fingers could be introduced between the neck and the . handkerchief , which was not tied in a running knot , but in a bow , and the witness added , as a surgeon , ' that it was so lightly tied that he did not believe the stricture so caused could produce death . ' It is evident that nobody intending to take away life would merely knot a silk ' cravat in a bow lightly round the neck , nor , indeed , is it easy to conceive bow strangulation could so be produced , either by the hand of the deceased , or by that of another person . The suggestion I submit to the consideration of persons qualified to pronounce on such subjects is , whether it be not possible that , supposing the . young man to have retired to rest with a silk handkerchief thus strongly tied round his neck , the effect of sucli a stricture round the throat might not have Been to choke him while the body was recumbent , the head low , and the neck relaxed by the influence of sleep ? He probably slept ( as is not uncommon in Germany ) in the shirt he had worn during the preceding day , and without taking off his cravat ; otherwise it must be imagined that the cravat was put on and tied in a bow while he was asleep . Had it been put round his neck for any sinister purpose it must have presented a very different appearance . I apprehend that a degree of pressure which would be innocuous to a man awake and erect might become dangerous , if not fatal , to a person spending a night in heavy sleep and under the gradual influence of this pressure ; for to use the words of Dr . Carter , sliyht pressure on the surface and veins , by retarding the flow of venous blood from the brain and stopping the afflux of arterial blood to it , would have the effect of poisoning the brain with impune and carbonized blood . ' It is a common observation that , when any cause exists to surcharge the vessels of the brain with venous blood , a very slight . presstire on the throat may caoke the patient ; find the first measure taken in such case is to loosen the IHMIIllI ¦ ¦» ^ A Ml ¦ «***• Dr . Forbes Winslow signifies his agreement with Mr . Reeve , and thus sums up : — ; «• I am inclined to believe , from an attentive consideration of the facts of the distressing and remarkable case under review , that Dr . Franck ' s son died a natural , but a sudden death , and that , if the body were exhumed and a post mortem examination instituted , such would be found to be the fact . The father , I think , destroyed himself while in a paroxysm of temporary delirium , frensy , or mental aberration , induced by the mental shock consequent upon tne appalling discovery of his son ' s awfully sudden death . " Dr . Winslow , however , grants the possibility of Dr- Franck having killed his son " while under the influence of a nocturnal vision , or some horrid phantasy originating during a troubled dream ;" f tqd he quotes some cases in point , of a very singular nature : — "A person has been suddenly roused by a frightful dream , and whilo under its influence has been known to take Away human life . Suicide has been committed tinner analogous circumstances . * A person apparently well has gone to bed without manifesting the slightest tendency to self-destruction ; ho has wakened suddenly and deatniyed himself . An old lady residing in London awoko in the middle of the night , went down stairs , and threw herself into a cistern of water , where she was' found drowned . It is supposed that the suicide was the result of certain mental impressions conjured up ^ in the mind during a dreaai . Dr . Pagan refers to the following interesting case to prove that murder may bo committed by a person when under the effects of a frightful vision t—Bernard Schedmaizig suddenly awoke at midnight . At the moment he saw a frightful phantom , or what his imagination represented as such—a fearful spectre . He twice called out , ' Who is that ? ' and receiving no answer , and imagining that tho phantom was advancing upon him , and having altogether lost his self-possession , he raised a hatchet which wus besides him and attuukod the spectre , and it was found , alus 1 that A ® hud murdered his wife . A pedler , who was in tuyiialnt of walking about the country armed with a eworu stick , was uwakened ono evening while lying asleep pn the high road by a man suddenly seizing him and shaking him by tho shoulders . The man , who was wfelttiife < % with * some companions , had done this
slew his son under the influence of temporary insanity . He suggests that the father , upon retiring to rest , may have lain brooding upon the hardships and premature death which possibly await his son on going to sea ( a thought perhaps encouraged and maintained in the mind by " the monotonous "war of the billows as they wasted themselves upon the beach hard by "—it will be recollected that the tragedy occurred at Brighton ); and that from this condition of brain insanity may have arisen .
" The doctor is a learned man , and his books have taught him how to take away the jewel of life without injuring the casket . Madness has now possession of the doctor ' s faculties , and renders him the more acute in obeying its murderous suggestions . It were but to constrict the veins , and gentl v press upon the sleeper ' s neck . There is contagion in the thought ; so— 'tis done . He has destroyed bis darling child ; but the demon of insanity demands yet another victim . He rushes from the bedside , throws himself headlong from the window , and the tragedy is complete . "
Dr . Arnold Ruge has written to the Times to say that it was the boy ' s constant habit to wear a handkerchief round his neck at night , on account of suffering from a relaxed throat . He adds that a post mortem examination has been made , and that all the symptoms are those of a person who has died a natural death .
jocosely , 'The pedler suddenly roused from his sleep , drew his sword and stabbed the man , who soon afterwards died from the effects of the wound . He was tried for manslaughter . His irresponsibility was strongly urged by his ' counselj on the ground that he could not have been conscious of his act in the 'halfwaking state . He was , however , found guilty , and subjected to imprisonment . " Mr . J . K- . O'Grady believes that the father
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BOILER EXPLOSION IN RATCLiFF HIGHWAY . A TEMtiFic boiler explosion occurred on Monday afternoon at the manufactory of Messrs . Hall and Boyd , sugar-refipers , St . George's-street , better known as Ratcliff-highway , in consequence of which four persons have lost their lives , and several others have been injured , The boiler which exploded had been erected four months previously , and was constructed by Messrs . Miller , Ravenhill , and Co ., of Blackwall , with a view to comply with the Smoke Prevention Act . About sixteen of the workmen—all , with one exception ,
Germans—had just returned from dinner , when a tremendous motion was observed in the roof of the furnace , followed by two violent explosions in rapid succession . The plates of the boiler were ripped up like , so much paper ; the bricks in which it was encased were torn into large fragments , and hurled several yards , many of them ascending to the roof , and breaking the tiles ; and the whole building was filled with scalding steam and dust . The greater number of the workmen employed at the place ( amounting to about one hundred and seventy ) were emplo 3 'ed at the time in the lower
part of the manufactory ; and these escaped on hearing the explosion . As soon as the hot steam had cleared away a little , Inspector Gunn , accompanied by several policemen and assistants , entered the building . Seven persons were found struggling in the ruins , and the steam had scalded them so dreadfully that in some cases the flesh of the poor fellows came off in the attempt to pull them out of the debris . One of these men died in the arms of a policeman while being conveyed to the hospital ; another expired immediately after entering the hospital , and two more died in the course of a very few hours .
After removing the sufferers , a careful examination was made of the premises , when it was discovered that the whole boiler , some tons in weight , had been lifted out of its bed , and forced eight or ten yards in the direction of the opposite boiler , its progress only being arrested by a large heap of coals , which were ground almost to powder by the force of the blow . The whole of the end of the boiler was ripped up , and in some places
the iron plates had been reduced to shreds , while a piece weighing at least two hundred weight had been completely blown off by the violence of the explosion . The remains of the boiler were surrounded by a heap of bricks and dust , mixed up with pieces of iron , the copper coating , and portions of the pipes ; but , from the fact of the principal damage being at the end , the great connecting steam pipe was untouched .
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• A enso of Buicido illustrating tho truth of this obmrvntlon will bo found reported in nnothfcr port ol' our tlilu wcok ' u ringer — Kd . JLeaihr .
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 1098, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2115/page/6/
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