Yartrapnlio.
The three great Dock Companies have bills before Parliament, the ob- ject of which is to extend their powers "with regard to the levying of rates in respect of lighters and other craft frequenting or using the docks, basins or locks of the companies, and in respect of goods received or dis- eharged from such lighters or craft, and to repeal all provisions of former acts, whereby such lighters or craft, or the goods received or discharged therefrom, are now exempted from the payment of rates to the said com- panies." At a'meeting of the Court of Common Council, on Monday, the Thames Navigation Committee reported against these -bills; urging that, if passed, they will injure the trade and commerce and harbour service of the port of London, and also the wharf property of the Corporation; and asking for power to oppose the bills in Parliament. Mr. Harrison, putting the ease of the Dock Companies, moved that the report should lie on the table ; but, after a considerable discussion, this motion was re- jected, and the report was adopted by a large majority.
The Vestry of Marylebone appointed a deputation to carry an address of congratulation to Sir De Lacy Evans, so long a resident in the borough. Headed by Mr. Nicholay, those gentlemen waited on the Crimean hero on Wednesday, at his house in Bryanstone Square, and presented their address. In reply, Sir Do Lacy, after warmly thanking them, made some observations on public affairs The present contest, he said, is even more momentous than that in which England engaged after the French Revolution ; and in all his military career he had never been more arduously employed. It was not his desire to touch upon political questions; but at the some -time, hemust say, he had lament- ed le see a -man as Prime Minister' who, although he bore a -most unexcep- tional character in other respects, was wholly and entirely unqoalified -to perform-the duties of that office so as to insure a properand energetic con- duct of tile-war. It -was therefore with-no small amount of gratification that he found' teehange of Government had taken place. He was not one of those who thought that any very great advantage would be obtained by the removal of the War Minister. -He thought, amongst his class, there was to be found very few better men than the poor Duke of Newcastle ; who, in Sir De Lacy's opinion, had been somewhat 'victimized. They had, however, now at the head of the Government one whose energy was well 'known, and one to whom, he thought, it would be the duty of the Parliament and -the publics to give their moat cordial support.
The condition of the poor in St. Pancras Workhouse has attracted the attention of the Poor-law Board ; and an investigation by Mr. Inspector Hall has resulted in a report which shows that the house is shamefully overcrowded,—in one instance forty-six men ad boys sleeping in a ward twenty-one feet by twenty-two ; that some of the straw beds were swarm- ing with vermin ; and that there has been no attempt to classifythein- mates —a neglect productive of much suffering. The Poor-law Board .has celled upon the Directors of the parish at once to put an end to this state of things. At a meeting of the weekly Vestry, the interference of the Poor-law Board was resented, and a majority decided against re- ferring the letter of the Board to the House Committee.
The action brought by Mr. Adrian John Hope against the Count Aguado, to recover damages for criminal conversation with Mrs. Hope, partly heard at. the sitting of the Court of Queeffis Bench in December, was resumed on Monday, continued on Tuesday, and terminated on Wednesday, with a verdict for the plaintiff—damages 2001. A vast number of witnesses were examined on both sides; and the evidence extracted from them was commented on at great length by Sir Frederick Thesiger for the plaintiff, and by Attorney General Cockburn for the defendant. The witnesses for the plaintiff, it will be recollected, spoke to the improprieties committed by Count Aguado and Mrs. Hope at Paris, Havre, and Folkestone. One alleged that he had fre- quently driven Mrs. Hope to meet Count Aguado :at No. 3 Rue Monceau:, and at No. 20 Rue Labordais, near the Bois de Boulogne; another, 'specifying the roomsinhabited by the patties, said that she had witnessed the Count
leave Mrs. Hope'a room early in the morning in Frascati's Hotel at ; and a third, that, in 1850, she had seen-the Count and Mrs. Hope bathe to- gether in the sea. It wee-alsa alleged, that daring her stay at Folkestone, Mrs. Hope received Count Aguado in her husband's absence ; that on one occasion, saying she was going to London, she went really to France ; and that on a subsequent visit to Folkestone she engaged two rooms connected with each other by folding doors, and occupied one herself while the Count occupied the' other. It was also sworn that the door was found bibken open' and that the Count, while dressing, waeseen to' enter the room, where the lady was dressing also. These allegations were met by counter-allege- tiona, imprinted on oath by witnesses—that Cennt.Aguado never did hire a room at 3 Rue- Monceaux ; that not he but his brother hired the hook in the Rue Labordais ; that daring his stay at Frascati's the Count did not oc- cupy the rooms specified by the witnesses as the scenes of improper familiari- ties; that Mrs. Elope could not swim, and therefore could not have bathed with Count Aguado. A respectable witness, Anne Rowse, however, deposed that her mistress began to learn to swim in 1846. It was stated that Mrs. Hope could not, as alleged by Mr. Howe, have met the Count by appoint- ment at Reigate, in 1848, because the Count was at that time in Italy. The Couiit's valet deposed, that when his master occupied the next room to that of Mrs. Hope at Folkestone in 1851, he did not quit him at all in the night,. as the Count was ill ; and that the folding doors were not opened. But tles witness had previously deposed, in his affidavit, that the. doors had bec, opened, and that he had passed through them. Several of the witnesses. were obviously unworthy of credit; but there was nothing to shake the tes- timony of Ann Rowse, and she deposed that one morning in the summer of
1 Mr. Hope having at-the request of his wife gone out for a walk, the children having been likewise sent out, and Ann Rowse ordered down attire, Count Aguado visited Mrs. Hope in her bedroom.
In defence of his client, the Attorney-General dwelt Much on the compla rative ages of the parties in 1846—the Count being only twenty, and Mrs. Hope being twenty-eight; and he argued that it was absurd to suppose she could have been seduced by a mere boy. She was a lady 'fond of pleasure and extravagance ; her husband was retired, fond of stuay, -and:penurious : hence arose irritation, unhappiness, and -strife. He read long and painful extracts from Mr. Hope's affidavits, which, together with those on the other side, showed that their married life had long been interrupted by scenes of strife, bickering, and blows.
In summing up, Lord Campbell went carefully over the evidence ; and pointed out several instances of concert and contrivance on the pert of Mrs. Hope to place 'herself in communication with the Count,—such as the con- trivances described by Ann Rowse ; the sending of Young from Folkestone to Boulogne M fetch Count Aguado in the absence of Mr. hope; .the_secret visit Mrs. Hope paid to Boulogne when she gave out that she was going to Lon- don. What could be the object of that concert, if it were not to carry on illicit intercourse ?
The Jury did not occupy half a minute in ,delivering, a verdict for the plaintiff—damages 2001.
It is very much the custom to asset& that workhouse-officers are all Bumbles, while the paupers they tyrannise over are meek and patient suf- ferers. Proceedings at Lambeth Police Office, on Tuesday, show the other side of the picture. Amelia Mott, an inmate. of Camberwell Workhouse, was sent to prison for a aeries of moat violent outrages—disgusting threats, assaults on paupers, and a fierce attack upon the Master, who was nearly strangled—all without provocation. Five young and strong women,lrom Newington Workhouse, were ordered to be imprisoned for rioting, refusing to work, and threatening to .break the windows : they also made an attack on the Master. William Morgan, a sturdy yaueg fellow, was sent to prison for three months for breaking twenty-four squares of glass, because he was- refused a holiday : he wanted to get out to hear -the charge against the
young women, with two of whom be had formerly lived. •
The Clerkenwell Magistrate has also sent four young women to prison hr. outrageous and wanton -misbehaviour in St. Pancras Workhouse.
There is dire distress in the East end of London, in the waterside districts, caused by many thousands of men being deprived of -work on the river by the frost. The Thames Police Magistrate strives to alleviate it as well as he can with the limited funds at his disposal. The other day he ordered a loaf of bread to be given to each poor applicant, and a hundred were thus re- lieved: the mews spread ; next day, three thousand applicants besieged the office : the Magistrate was compelled to refer them to the relieving-officers of the union.
In the Lower 'Road, Islington, on Sunday evening about nine o'clock, a loud noise was heard, followed i by olouds of dust, at first supposed to be smoke : part of a v se ery old house the road had fallen in. The conductor of a fire-escape hurried to the scene of the supposed fire : he discovered-a man, his wife, and two children, at the second-floor window, whose escape had been cut off by the, fall of' the centre of the house ; he promptly as- cended the escape and rescued -these people,—just in time' for the front Wall quickly gave way. A number of persons were known to be in the rains. -While Policemen and workmen strove to extricate them, some more of the building gave way ; and Policeman Stoker, who was trying .to rescue a woman, was overwhelmed with the rubbish. Willing hands soon began -to remove the ruins, spite of the perilous nature of the work. Unhappily, they found nothing but corpses. The Policeman was found first---;quite dead ; lad named Hodges, son of the man rescued by means.of the fire-escape, was next found ; then, 'Glover, a shoemaker; a second son of Hodges was dug out next ; and finally Mrs. Glover and her child, and Mrs. Lane. Three other Policemen narrowly escaped Stoker's fate; all were bruised, and ofle had to force his way through the rubbish to the upper part of the remains of the house, whence -he was taken down by means of a ladder. From the evidence 'given at the first sitting of the Coroner's jury, on Wednesday, it would.seem that the rickety state of the house had been no- ticed, and that the attention a Fownes, the landlord, had been called to the position of a beam, the thin wall which supported it-having bulged out.
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