31Iistrllantfino.

The Fifth Report of Mr. Cardwell's Committee, appointed to consider the principle of Amalgamation as applied to Railway or Railway and -Canal Bills, was issued early in the week. It states that it appears to the Committee to have been established in evidence, that competition fails to afford the public the same security in respect of railway accommodation which it gives in the transactions of ordinary trade. The report reviews at considerable length the evidence given before the Committee on various subjects relating to the management and working of the railway system, and concludes by stating the general views of the Committee thereon. For the purpose of carrying into effect these views, the Committee re- commend—

" 1. That the mode in which Railway Bills are now dealt with in the House of Commons should be revised, with the view of securing, by the institution of a Committee of a character more permanent than has hereto- fore been the practice, a comprehensive review of all schemes submitted to Parliament in every session. That to this Committee the Railway Depart- ment of the Government should afford all the advice and assistance which the Committee may desire.

"2. That, for the investigation of contested hills, the Committee should divide the whole country into districts; should decide questions of principle, and make arrangements for the decision of questions in which more than one district might be interested; and should so direct the investigation of schemes within the several districts as to secure for the public, within each of them, the utmost advantage which might be derived from a judicious com- bination of new lines with those which already exist ; they should also make provision for facilitating the passing of unopposed bills.

"3. That no scheme should be investigated without security being taken that, in the event of its passing into a law, the works will be actually made. 4. That the practice of locus standi should be adapted to the necessity which exists for trying in a direct manner, and with a comprehensive re- gard to the general advantage, the public issue involved in any scheme ; and that provision should be made for the payment of costs in cases where the proceedings of any party shall appear to have been illusory, vexatious, or un- warranted.

" 5. That working arrangements between different companies, for the regulation of traffic and the division of profits, should be sanctioned under proper conditions and for limited periods; but that amalgamation of com- panies should not be sanctioned, except in minor or special cases, where it clearly appears to the Standing Committee that the true and only object of such amalgamation is improved economy of management, and consequent advantage to the public. "6. That running powers should generally be discouraged on the score of danger, and conceded only in cases where the public object of free transit from one system to another cannot practically be insured by other means. "7. That every railway company should be compelled to afford to the public, in respect both of goods and of passengers, the full advantage of con- venient interchange from one system to another ; to afford to every class of traffic, including postal communication, just facilities ; and to observe all statutory provisions, especially those requiring equal charges under the same circumstances; and that where complaint arises that any company has vio- lated any of these obligations, provision should be made for the hearing and decision of such complaint in open court, with power to make use of the interference of the Railway Department, for the purpose of ascertaining by what specific and detailed arrangements such complaint may be effectually redressed.

" 8. That where any dispute arises between two or more railway or canal companies, and the companies agree to refer it to the Board of 'trade, that Board should be empowered, if it think fit, with a view to the public interest, to entertain the reference, and its decision should be valid and binding on the companies. ", Since the general principle of increasing the stringency of the criminal law in England, so as to render liable to prosecution persons guilty of culpable negligence tending to the risk of human life, even in the cases in which no fatal consequences ensue, is under consideration in a Select Com- mittee of the House of Peers, to which a bill embodying such a provision has been referred, your Committee, having already stated their views upon this subject, now recommend, that for the better management of railways it will be desirable- " 9. That every board of directors should be required to register with the Railway Department some one person, to whom should be delegated the chief authority over all the external discipline of the company and its servants; also, for 'every part of the line, some person should be registered as resident engineer ; and for every portion of the locomotive stock, sonic person as loco- motive engineer.

" 10. That the general regulations of each company, from time to time in force, should be transmitted to the Railway Department; and that the inspectors of that department should have power at all times to examine the books in which the arrival and departure of the trains from the several sta- tions are registered, and the books in which the particulars of the moving stock of the company are recorded ; also, in cases of inquiry into the causes of accident, to examine the servants of the company. " 11:That provision should be made for enforcing the means of constant communication between all the servants, to whom the safety of the pas- sengers in any train is intrusted."

The Head Mastership of the Durham Cathedral School, vacated by the removal of Dr. Elder to Charterhouse, has been filled up by the election of the Reverend Henry Holden, 11.A. of Balliol College, Oxford, and Head Master of Uppingham Grammar M.A., The new Roman Catholic Church at Brook Green, Hammersmith, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was consecrated by Cardinal Wiseman on Tuesday, St. Anne's Day.

An old and distinguished soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel David England Johnson, died recently, at St. Helier's in Jersey, after forty-six years' service. He was decorated with a medal and nine clasps, won in tho Peninsular campaign, and was present at Roleia, Vimiera, Lugo, Corun- na, Busaco, Redinha, Sabugal, Fuentes d'Onor, El Bodon, Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Salamanca, twice wounded, and once shipwrecked and taken prisoner. - Lord Carlisle, Lord Edward Russell, and several other "Franks," were present at the Bairam, the grand feast of the Turks : they met with no molestation.

Sir James Stuart, Chief Justice of Canada, long a leading man in Ca- nadian politics as well as law, died at Quebec on the morning of the 16th July.

The New York Crystal Palace was opened on the 14th July, in the presence of General Pierce and General Scott.

Throughout the recent negotiations on the Turkish question, M. Drouyn de Lhuys has been suffering from a painful malady in the eyes.

The marriage of the Duke of Brabant with the Austrian Archduchess Maria Henrietta has been fixed for Sunday the 21st August. The Duke and his brother the Count of Flanders have been visited with the royal epidemic of the season—the measles.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany has commuted the sentences on Guerrazzi, Petracchi, and Valtancelli, into perpetual exile from Italy. It is under- stood that they will be allowed to return to Tuscany, on condition that they apply to the Grand Duke. They had left Leghorn for Marseilles on the 16th July.

Usener, the principal witness against Mr. Hale in the rocket case, has been arrested at Coblentz. One report states that he was on his way five: Russia. Another, however, gives out that he was on his way to Switzerland.

Dr. Barlow recently went to Berlin with a regular passport in accord- ance with the regulations of the Foreign Office, which do not require the vise of a Prussian authority in London. Nevertheless, Dr. Barlow was arrested at the railway station, and for three hours "kept in durance vile among a set of itinerant vagabonds " ; after which he was liberated, and told to go where he liked. He has complained to Lord Blomfield, and Lord Clarendon has "demanded full and complete satisfaction."

We are sorry to hear that the potato disease has again appeared in several parts of Herefordshire; where, till within a few days, the haulm exhibited the greatest luxuriance. The potatoes at present, however, are by no means generally affected; and whilst we may expect the disease will show itself in some localities, we hope the great breadth of ground which has been planted with this useful vegetable will not disappoint those who have carefully attended to the cultivation.—Hereford Journal.

A notice has been issued from the General Post-office, stating that the next mails for Australia will be forwarded under contract, by the Vimiera sailing- vessel, on the 5th August. "The packet-rates of postage will be chargeable on letters transmitted by the Vimiera, but no charge will be made for news- papers. The mails to be conveyed by this packet will be made up ha Lon- don on the evening of the 4th August, and at Plymouth on the morning of the 5th August." The Cresar, a 90-gun screw-steamer, was to have been launched at Pem- broke on Thursday sennight; but, from some unforeseen and unknown cause, her progress into the sea was arrested before she got clear of the cradle and the shore : a steamer was employed to haul her into deeper water; but the hawser broke several times, and the ship remained fast. At high-water on Friday morning another fruitless attempt was made; and again in the evening, and on Saturday morning : three steamers and great manual power

failed to move the ship. It was clear that she had settled down by the stern into some very soft and yielding material : the probable cause of the mishap is generally considered to be that the ground underneath the framework of the ways is unsound at the spot where the vessel stopped in her progress. The Caesar is 207 feet long between the perpendiculars, 66 feet broad, and the hold is 23 feet 4 inches deep: tonnage, 2761.

The ship has now been propped and shored up to relieve the strain on her as much as possible, till another attempt to launch her can be made at the next spring-tide. The stern portion of the vessel, which is unsupported, has been much bent ; and some suppose that the ship's "back is broken."

Pio Nono recently intrusted Monsignor Paces with two crowns intended for the brows of the image of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus in Notre Dame de Paris. Judge of the fright of the Pope when he received a missive from the trembling Pacca, stating that the crowns had been stolen while in the Marseilles customhouse !

It appears that the fund collected to defray the expense attending the trial of Dr. Newman in the Achilli case has exceeded the amount required by 36001. This balance has been handed over to the fund for the projected Roman Catholic University in Ireland.

A dog got imprisoned in a drain at Kelhead, near Dumfries, and remained without food for twelve days; but when rescued he was alive, and speedily recovered strength when fed.

A merchant in Michigan sent an order by telegraph to New York for "one eight-dollar blue shawl "; the message delivered in New York substituted "one hundred" for "one "; and a hundred shawls were sent to Michigan : of course the merchant returned ninety-nine. The shawl-dealers brought an action for damages against the telegraph company. The company denied their liability generally, and pleaded specially that the directions given at Michigan were "obscure." The fact of the obscurity was not made out ; and the Judge overruled the general plea. The Jury gave a verdict for 118 dollars.

M. Jullien, of monster-concert celebrity, started with his family, for Ame- rica, on board the Baltic, on Wednesday.

A German paper states that the Russian gamblers at Baden Baden on the night of the 16th, broke the bank ; the winners carrying off 30,000 francs. No fewer than 62,265 pilgrims entered Aix-la-Chapelle on the 17th July, on a visit to the relics. This is stated on the authority of a local journal. A Mr. Cooke, of Leicester, has announced an excursion by railway to Scot- land ; and as this is the first of the kind, he offers to stop the train for a time at Gretna for the convenience of those "about to marry" in the Scotch mode.

Emma Verdier, a young woman who ascended with a balloon from Mont- de-Marsan, has been killed at Montesquieu, sixty miles distant, by falling from the car : it is supposed that on her attempting to descend, the grappling-iron caught in a tree, and that the rope broke, causing a jerk which pitched the unfortunate young woman out of the wicker basket; while the balloon floated away. Mr. James Rostern, of Manchester, has been killed at the Powerscourt Waterfall. He was on a tour with a friend; they visited the waterfall; and Mr. Rostern would climb up the South cliff; in attempting to descend, he lost his footing, and was dashed to the bottom ; where hisiriend found him dead.