24 MAY 1851, Page 4

Cht Xattropotio.

The Metropolitan Local Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of In- dustry gave a dinner to the Foreign Commissioners, at the Castle Inn, Richmond, on Saturday last. Lord Ashburton presided, and was supported by the Earl of Granville and Lord Overstone. Lord John Russell would have been there, but for a bad cold; Lord Stanley and Viscount Palmer- ston, but for pressing engagements. Among the distinguished foreign guests were M. Charles Dupin, M. Dumas, and some other members of the French Legislature, with M. Jules Janin. The health of Prince Al- bert was proposed by the Chairman, with an eulogistic sketch of the difficulties which the Prince had to encounter in bringing the Exhibition to its present shape. "He found the Houses of Parliament indifferent—ready to listen to ob- jections, however frivolous. He found the leaders of parties, leaders of public opinion, shrink from the responsibility of defending it. He found the press hostile ; the Government paralyzed by the thought that if it failed they would have thousands to pay—if it succeeded they would have millions to keep in order. He found the public bewildered ; it knew not what to do, what to wish, what to expect. Who, then, was for it ? No one save the Prince, and the small knot of enterprising men he had associated with him- self, and particularly inspired with his enthusiasm. The fact is, we were not prepared for it. We talked, indeed, of progress ; we enjoyed, like children, to whisk to Exeter in four hours ; like children, we delighted to see Nasmyth's hammers squeeze an orange or crush an anvil ; we admired the physical results of progress ; but the effect of our discoveries on the social and political relations of mankind we all were blind to. We were hire full- fledged birds sitting on the brink of the nest, conscious of fresh powers, but ignorant of the mighty range which their development had brought within our scope. But it was not so with Prince Albert. He felt that God had not given us the genius of discovery, had not intrusted us with dominion over the powers of nature, that it should all end in cheapness. He felt that nations might be broughetogether with their works ; and that through this industrial congress some advance might be made towards that unity of man- kind, that universal peace, which has been the dream of philanthropic men, from Sully to Elihu Burritt. In this faith, in this steadfast faith he got this ark reared—the ark of a new covenant among nations. In this faith he sent forth his missives into all lands; in this same faith the nations of the earth have responded to his appeal ; they have understood his meaning, and have sent you, gentlemen, to represent them in this first great gathering." In proposing the toast of the evening, " The health of the Foreign Commissioners," Lord Ashburton said- " We rejoice in this your visit ;.we are proud of these marks of your con- fidence. When England sent out to tell you that she would raise an edifice of size to contain all that nature had given most precious, all that man had produced most useful, most ingenious, most beautiful—when she offered to your productions equal favour with her own—youtrusted both her power and

her will ; you hastened from the uttermost parts of the earth to contribute your choicest offerings to the shrine of industry ; and gloriously have you done your part. That we had before confessed your excellence, your su- periority in a thousand works, is attested by our factories dotted on your shores, by our merchant-ships crowding your seas. We confess it now in the day of trial, before the world. We apprehend from your success no national impoverishment : for we know that to purchase from you we must have mo- ney, and to have money we must sell something of our own ; and as both those operations are the spontaneous acts of individuals for their private gain, the results of both must be a gain to the nations engaged in the exchange, for the gains of a nation are made out of the gains of its people. Nor in your suc- cess do we see cause for jealousy, for shame, for repining. We see in it the hand of God working for the general good. It has pleased him to give to all nations the same genius of discovery, the same divine spirit, but at the same time to vary the conditions under which it is exercised. Diversity of lan- guage to vary the channelsef thought, of usages to vary men's wants—diver- sities of soils, of climate—all these concur to give to each nation its peculiar excellences in the market of the world ; and those varieties of excellence pro- mote not only interchange of commodities, but of ideas, of experience, of in- ventions, of good services, without which the several states of Europe, with all their boasted knowledge, all their civilization, would sink in a few short years into the condition of China or Japan. It is in this persuasion that we have laboured to promote this Exhibition, that we have hailed your arrival within our shores. But now that we have met face to face—now that we have shaken hands—it is no sense of expediency, but it is a kindly spirit—a spirit of affectionate regard—that bids us raise our glasses to our lips, and bid you all a hearty welcome."

The Foreign Commissioners accepted the toast with an enthusiasm that responded fully to the warmth of feeling displayed by the Chairman : M. Van der Weyer returned thanks for them.

When the nations of the civilized world, responding to the appeal made by Prince Albert, had sent over the richest products of their industry and art, they all knew that they were upon safe and solid foundations, and their confidence was grounded on their knowledge of the sound sterling qualities of the English people—on their respect for order, property, and law: but they had not anticipated, perhaps, that every class of society would vie with each other to give foreigners arriving in London the warmest reception ; and that the noblest hospitality, in all its most graceful and touching forms, would be shown to them; and that every Englishman would feel it his duty not only to greet and welcome them, but to perform every possible act of kindness and attention, so as to make them perfectly at home in this country. Those only, indeed, who had resided in England for some time might have expected all this, and have anticipated the cordiality and confidence that would exist, under circumstances such as these, in which on the one hand the best feel- ings of the human heart are revealed, and on the other hand some of its worst feelings ashamed to show themselves.

M. Charles Dupin added, in French, a special acknowledgment on the part of his countrymen. He paid an emphatic tribute to the high impartiality manifested by the Royal Commission between England and foreign countries : especially he marked the fact that " elle a loyale- ment, gen4reusement prefers pour sa plus grande medaille rceuvre d'un artiste stranger—r oeuvre d'un Francais" ; and further, that " elle nous a demands de choisir nous-meme un de nos graveurs quo fat digne de re- produire stir eette meditate r auguste et gracieuse effigie de la plus reverse des Souveraines." M. Dupin concluded by proposing that his colleagues should drink, " avec enthousiasme," the health, " si hien meritee," of the Royal Commission and its Royal President. The Earl of Granville acknowledged the toast with tasteful dexterity : attributing any momentary difficulties which may have occurred, (al- though in truth he was hardly aware of any,) to accidents on our own side—" especially our East winds, and above all our audacious attempts to speak their respective languages."

Mr. Horace Greeley, of the United States, proposed the health of Mr. Paxton ; parenthetically excusing the sober display by his country—" as we have everything for ace, we had little to send for show." Mr. Paxton vented his philanthropic delight at having been the means of bringing " not only the works but the men of all the nations of the world together."

Universal interest was felt, among many distinguished circles of the Metropolis, especially the "upper circles" of literature and taste, in the opening of the lectures announced by Mr. W. M. Thackeray, "Michael Angelo Titmarsh," author of Pendennis and Vanity Fair ; and when the course began, at Willis's Rooms, on Thursday last, this interest was proved by the gathering of a numerous audience, remarkable for its high and various character : -visitors were drawn from every quarter of the town, and even from the Exposition itself. For a sketch of the lecture we cannot have a better than that already supplied by the animated re- porter of the Morning Chronicle ; who is one of the first, however, to testify that it gives but a faint and incomplete idea of the original. "The room was filled by a brilliant and distinguished audience ; before some of whom any man, whatever his genius, might have been justified in displaying some nervousness at commencing a critical essay. The gathering included representatives of all classes, not forgetting the accredited repre- sentatives of the people. Literature, fashion, nobility, beauty, all assem- bled; and Mr. Thackeray was listened to with an earnest attention, inter- rupted only by the plaudits of his hearers. At first he was pardonably ner- vous ; and he will allow us to hint, that at few periods of his lecture did he make himself so audible to the whole room as we are sure he will do on Thursday next. We speak for the outsiders,' having been fortunately so placed as not to lose a word. Mr. Thackeray's taste in delivery is what might be expected from him : his intonation is admirable, there is not a vestige of affectation or effort, but he speaks as a gentleman, addressing an audience of ladies and gentlemen. We will only ask him to address them a little louder, for Willis's room is larger than he imagines. " We will not attempt to follow Mr. Thackeray through his lecture. Any- thing like a report of it would, we think, be unfair to himself, though the temptation of enriching our columns at his expense is considerable. We will only say that after a brief exordium, in which he deprecated the idea of treating 'humorously' the lives of our great humorists, he entered upon an examination not of the writings, but of the character of Swift ; whom he described as the greatest of all the men with whom he intended to deal. He indicated the principal incidents in Swift's life, and then proceeded to dwell upon its most interesting passages, deducing from their details a general idea of the character of the Dean. His sketches of the stately household of Sir William Temple—of the young Levite in a cassock, which was only not a livery,' listening to the pedantic citations of his employer, and venting his own rage at the second table—were most acute and forcible. His references to Swift's biographers were very happily made, especially to the kindly Scott, and to the sturdy, honest Johnson, who admitted all the man's genius but would not shake hands' with one whole principles he believed so unworthy. He described Swift as a sort of literary bravo, who would, if you made it worth his while, stab, smite, and slash your enemies, blow your trumpet all over the town, and fancy he made amends to himself for his servitude by keeping on his hat before your wife and daughter, and talking coarsely in your drawing,room. But he made a fair and philosophic allowance for the low tone of society prevalent in Swift's days, when everybody was buyer or seller, or both. He described Swift as thoroughly English, both in habit of thought and of style, and though really a poet, afraid to be either poetic or eloquent. On the more delicate point of Swift's religion, Mr. Thackeray spoke out manfully ; declaring his conviction that the man was a sceptic, and that the Bishops who dissuaded the Government from giving him the mitre did what was perfectly right in them ; yet he added, that Swift's own nature was far from undcvout, but that he was strangled and smothered through life by the bands and gown which he felt he had assumed without a conviction of what they implied. His necessary hypocrisy reven,,,oed itself upon him by driving him into raving when hypocrisy was no longer necessary. Mr. Thackeray went at considerable length into the Stella and Vanessa story; dwelling upon its melancholy details with exquisite grace and ten- derness, brightened by an occasional playful glance at woman's nature. And to the lock of hair found in Swift's cabinet, with the inscription, Only a woman's hair,' the lecturer alluded in a way which drew tears from many eyes around him. Only a woman's hair.' rhose were the words in which Swift had sought to disguise from others the intensity of the feelings which had caused him to treasure that token—all that remained on earth of love, devotion, fidelity, and misery. We should do injustice to Mr. Thackeray's eloquent language did we attempt to record the passage, which was one of the most beautiful in his admirably-written lecture. The conclusion was very striking ; and the applause of the audience—of so choice an audience as a lecturer has rarely the perilous honour of seeing around him—was en- thusiastic as Mr. Thackeray retired. Nothing could be more brilliantly suc- cessful than this initiative address."

"Penny reading rooms" have been opened in Cheapside. They pre- sent a supply of newspapers, including the London daily journals, the leading Parisian and German, as well as the English, Scotch, and Irish provincial newspapers.

The Exchequer Chamber, sitting in appeal, has reversed the copyright- law laid down by the Superior Courts in the leading case of Boosey ,versus r- day. The reversing ease is that of Boosey versus Jeffreys ; the plaintiff in the former case and in the present appeal case being the same person. The question was thus mooted afresh. The opera La Sonnambula was composed by Bellini, at Milan, in February 1831 ; Bellini was an alien, re- sident at Milan ; when the work was complete it was legally assigned to Ri- cordi, also an alien. Iticordi came to England, and assigned to Boosey, the plaintiff, who is an Englishman born, the copyright of the opera "for and in Great Britain." Boosey published the opera on the 10th June 1831 ; and there had been no "A publication either in this country or abroad.. The defendant pirated 'A Cavatina from the opera of La Sonnambula by Bellini," thus published ; and the plaintiff brought his action. On the authority of Boosey versus Purday, Baron Rolfe, now Lord Cranworth, directed the Jury to find a verdict for the defendant ; a bill of exceptions was tendered ; and the matter was brought into this court of error.

Lord Campbell delivered the judgment of the Court, establishing the right of an alien author to acquire a British copyright, by first publishing his works in this country. lie observed that both the old mooted point of the common-law right, and the right as it has existed since Queen Anne on the foundation of statute-law, have been argued : on the first point the Court was strongly inclined to agree with Lord Mansfield and the Judges who sided with him in favour of the common-law right of authors ; but, leaving that point, they rested their decision on the statutes of Anne and George M.

" The 8th Anne, c. 19, is entitled ' An Act for the Encouragement of Learning,' by vesting the right in printed hooks in authors. Assuming the Legislature intended this necessarily for the encouragement of learning in Great Britain, may it not be highly for the encouragement of learning in this country that foreigners should be induced to send their works here to be first published in London ? if ltapin and De Lolme had written their valuable works without ever visiting this country, could it be contended that they should be debarred from assigning their property to the pub- lisher? It would ill become us to offer opinions upon the policy of introducing agri- cultural produce or manufactures, hut, looking at the statutes, we may without im-

propriety eV; observe Zr= the uniform Parliament introduced the importation on by Caxton in the time of Edward IV, when an act passed to restrain fo- reigners from carrying on trade here, a provision was added by section 12, that that • act should not extend to prevent any trader, of whatever nation he might be, from bringing into this country any books written or printed. It is admitted that a foreigner, if he composes a literary work here, may acquire a copyright, and Mr. Peacock would not deny that if a foreigner, being here for a temporary purpose, while here wrote a poem, he might publish it and acquire a copyright in it here. If he had com- posed teitfiirsnth:isino:,v La re iofl.n, zaaln,ncl,rltrtoeint brought titaolLeork in hinisanmuesmc memory .anweldivcItutead, eitintee any difference as to his rights ? Can his personal appearance within our realm be essential to his right as an author, if he does that by an agent which is not disputed lie might do in his own proper person ? The right is to acquir,e, aimonopoly in Ewnitgi-i

do by __then

s,J)Zstoon..4:toiVrt, hChmehay he elnensio Where, then, can be the necessity of crossing from Calais to Dover before giving in- structions for the publication of his work and entering it at Stationer's Hall ? ,The law of England will protect his property, and recognize his rights, and ...we him re- dress for wrongs inflicted upon him here. In the 0th of Henry VIII, the Common Pleas held that aliens residing in France might maintain an action of debt here, al- though aliens can have no land. It has been held that an alien, although he had never been in this country, might maintain an action for an injury to his reputation contained in a libel—and that great judge, Chief Justice Tindal, had observed that it would create in foreigners an unfavourable opinion of our laws if we held that aliens could not maintain an action of this description; and my brother Maule likewise points to the fact of our Courts going further in allowing actions to be brought by foreigners for running down ships upon the high seas. If Gibbon, after writing the Decline and Fall at Lausanne, hail published it there, could it be doubted that, while domiciled there, he could, having caused his work to be published in London, acquire the same right as an English author ? For such a purpose, what difference can it make whether the author be an alien or a natural- born subject ? In the present case I suppose it would be admitted that the defence would have been done away with if Bellini had been naturalized by act of Parlia- ment. For these reasons we think that if an alien, residing in his own country,

were to compose a literary work there, and should continue to reside there without publishing his work, but should cause it to be published in this country, he would be an author for the encouragement of learning, and might maintain an action against any one who should pirate his work. We wish to be understood as speaking of the rights of a foreigner first publishing his work in England ; but, if a literary work is once published, an author can only claim a copyright by the law of the country in which it is first published. This is the doctrine of our Courts, and the Legislature must be considered as having adopted and sanctioned it by the enactments of inter- national statutes."

The Court holds that Baron Rolfe ought to have directed the Jury, that if they believed the evidence they should find a verdict for the plaintiff: there- fore let there be a new trial.

William Day has been tried under the Bishop of Oxford's Act for the Protec- tion of Females. Harriett Newman, a girl under twenty-one years of age, told the tale of the prosecution ; to this effect. She was induced to go to a certain street by receiving letters purporting to come from one Roberts, her sweet- heart ; -there she was met by Day, who said Roberts had sent him ; Day forced her into a cab, and renseaered her insensible holdin a handkerchief over her mouth and. nostrils nd when she recovered she was in a strange house.

She defended herself against the attempts of some "gentlemen" with a knife given to her by a woman ; and eventually was put out of the house into a cab, and deposited on some door-steps, where the Police found her bloody and almost insensible, with a paper label in her hand inscribed with her direction. This extraordinary narrative was corroborated in several par- ticulars. The defence was an alibi, which broke down. Verdict, " Guilty "; sentence, imprisonment for twelve mouths.

The City has been the scene of two very fatal disasters : on Saturday morning a building fell down in Gracechurch Street, killing or wounding many persons; and during the night four people perished by a fire in Love Lane.

For some months past, Messrs. Bell and Corbett have been erecting on the site of the Old Cross Keys a very extensive building intended for chambers and offices, and containing one hundred and five apartments. The building was four stories high, and reached the whole length of Allhallows Church Passage ; it was to be " fire-proof," and the floors were made of iron girders; the spaces being filled in with concrete. Such progress had been made that the roof was soon to have been commenced. On Saturday morning, the usual number of workmen, from seventy to eighty, were employed ; a little before eleven o'clock, a snap was heard, the centre of the structure sank into a ruin, and drew with it the Southern walls. Some of the workmen escaped on to the reef of Allhallows Church, others on to adjoining houses; six Irish- men slid down the gable-end of the building by means of the bits of iron stays projecting from the wall; one leaped into the street through a window thirty feet high, and was saved harmless by alighting on a heap of sand ; but a great many were buried under the falling masses.

The labourers who had escaped, the Police, and the passengers, imme- diately attempted the recovery of those in the ruins ; and in a little time between twenty and thirty were got out. The search was then stopped, from fear that the rest of the building would fall ; and it was not till the evening that the search could be renewed. It would have been stopped again at dusk, but the Great Central Gas Company promptly laid down pipes and lighted the ruins with fifty or sixty burners. Soon after midnight a corpse was found, and at a subsequent period two others were recovered. Of those removed to the hospital two died in a short time.

It was necessary to close Allhallows Church on Sunday ; for as the windows overlook the ruina, it was feared that crowds might enter the church merely to gaze upon the wreck.

On Monday afternoon, a number of the Corporation authorities inspected the ruins, and made search into the origin of the calamity. It seems there was not a wooden beam in the whole structure, but a vast number of iron girders, sixteen feet long, and weighing nearly two tons each, all secured to other girders embedded in the walls. The floors were formed of twelve inches of concrete. The girder that broke was twenty feet long, and two tons in weight. At the inquest on the five bodies, on Tuesday, Messrs. Bell and Corbett, some labourers, the contractor, Mr. Montague the district surveyor of build- ings, and architects and surveyors unconnected with Messrs. Bell and Cor- bett, were examined. With slight exceptions, the testimony was concurrent as to general sufficiency of the building and workmanship. All the blame was fixed on the girder which was seen by the workmen to snap first. In that girder there was found a cavity of two inches, coated with dross and scoriae ; and Mr. Bell considered that if properly proved the girder must have broken under the proof. Mr. Corbett produced the contract by which Mr. Ford had bound himself to supply cast-iron girders which had baen tested to bear six tons in their centre ; and also a certificate from Inverkeithing Foundry in Scotland stating that " certain girders therein referred to had been tested at that foundry." This vague testimony was all that was pro- duced on this apparently cardinal point. The Jury, after an hour's considera- tion, returned the following verdict- " We find that Timothy Donohue, Matthew Connor, James Harrigan, Murtagh Cronin, and Joseph Handley, met their deaths from the falling of a part of the build- ing erecting on the site of the late Cross Keys Hotel, Gracechurch Street, which it appears from the evidence has been caused by the accidental breaking of one of the iron girders." Of the persons still in St. Thomas's Hospital, all are going on very favour- ably, with one exception—a hopeless case.

The Rose and Crown tavern in Love Lane, Lower Thames Street, the scene of the second tragedy, was a very ancient structure; it is said to have escaped the Great Fire. Very early on Sunday morning, a Policeman saw smoke issuing from the windows of the front bar. Ile knocked at the door and sprang his rattle ; but it would seem that the inmates were so dead asleep that a considerable time elapsed before they were aroused. In the mean time, the lower part of the house became a mass of fire. A man ap- peared at the third-floor window, and called for a ladder ; but he then dis- appeared. Screams were heard by the neighbours. Elizabeth Chambers, a servant, leaped from a back window ; she fell upon the skylight of the kitch- en of the White Hart tavern in Botolph Laue, and was so seriously hurt that she could not move, while the flames played round her. At length two men managed to drag her through a window, and she was conveyed to the hospital. The firemen could do nothing to save the Rose and Crown ; and all their efforts were directed to preserve the adjoining houses from destruction, as the flames had taken hold of four of them. When the fire was subdued, a search was made in the ruins, and the charred bodies of four persons were found—three in the attics, and one on the second floor. The sufferers were Mr. Richard Harvey, the landlord ; Mrs. Elizabeth Gray, his mother-in- law ; Abraham Clark, a lodger ; and George Hare, the pelinan. Mrs. Har- vey had gone to Barking with her child for a few days, the child being un- well; and her mother had come to town to take charge of the house during her absence. Mrs. Harvey expected her husband at Barking on Sunday morning ; but received, instead, this terrible news.

At the inquest begun on Tuesday, no information was obtained as to the origin of the fire. It would seem that the fire-escapes were soon on the spot, but the flames were already pouring from the windows so fiercely that it was impossible to use them. As the maid-servant was still in Guy's Hospital, the inquiry was adjourned till the 2d of June, to allow time for her recovery that she might give evidence.

The great foundry of Messrs. Pontifex and Wood, extending from Shoe Lane almost to Farringdon Street, was discovered to be on fire during Wed- nesday night. Engines were soon on the spot, but the lead and brass cast- ing-shops were destroyed.