LONDON LETTER IN THE NELSON EXAMINER.

Evening Post, Issue 91, 25 May 1865, Page 2

LONDON LETTER IN THE NELSON EXAMINER.

There has been a spirited controversy between Mr. Newdegate and Dr. Ullathorne, Bishop of , the law forbids me to say what. Mr. Newdegate, had asked for a committee to inquire iuto the increase of conventual and monastic institutions in Great Britain. The committee was refused, but Mr. Newdegate had mounted his hobby ; and he entertained the House with some stories which had caused a sensation in Birmingham some fifteen years ago, about a nunnery then recently built in the neighbourhood, provided with numerous cellars, fitted with extra strong bolts and bars — of course, says Mr. Newdegate, for the imprisonment of refractory nuns, and for other unholy purposes. Dr. Ullathorne replies by challenging Mr. Newdegate to accompany himself and another . gentleman on a visit of inspection to the suspected house. But it never would do for the Protestant champion to run the risk of losing the advantage of the mystery ; so he slips out of the challenge, preferring to fight in the dark — where I think we may leave him. The papers have been full of an unpleasant business, popularly known ns " the Edmunds scandal." Mr. Leonard Edmunds, late Roading clerk to the House of Lords, at a salary of £1,500, and holder of two clerkships in the Patent Office, worth £1,000 between them, was compelled last summer to resign the latter in consequence of the discovery of grevious irregularities in his accounts — some people call it by a plainer name. It means that he had to pay over between £7000 and £8000 due from him to the office. He had also to resign his clerkship in the House of Lords, but applied for a pension. This seems to have been granted without question; and the vacant office filled by the Honourable Slingsby Bethell, Lord Westbury's second son, This is scandal the first—it being stated

that he was induced by the Lord Chancellor to make room, as it appears, for his son, on promise of pension. The other scandal'itfEects the character of a former Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham who gave Mr. Edmunds the first of the clerkships in the Patent Office, on the condition, Mr. Edmunds alleges, of his appropriating £300 a year, three-fourths of his salary, to the payment of the interest on a mortgage on Lord Brougham's property. In oher words, the appointment was to stand instead of the payment on the interest. It appears certain that Mr. Edmunds' family did lend money on mortgage to Lord Brougham and one of bis brothers. But it is far from appearing at present that there is anything to implicate Lord Brougham in th c transaction. His friends positively declare that the contrary can be proved. It is not very clear what is Mr. Edmunds' object in making th. se allegations, and damaging the characters of two Lord Chancellors. For, even if they could be substantiated, they would be no justification to him ; but would only show that .others besides himself had dealt with these offices with unclean hands. Another scandal has come to light, through one of less importance, as only affecting a single private nobleman, previously unknown to fame except through certain rather discreditable transactions. Miss Ackford sued Lord Iluntingtower for breach of a covenant to pay her an annuity of £60 for the support of herself and five children, to be reduced to £30, when the children died or married or attained their majority, and to be discontinued altogether if ever the plaintiff in any way molested or annoyed him. The defendant pleads, first that the plaintiff is his wife, being so constituted by having passed as such in Scotland, and having claimed to be Lady Huntingtower ; and so that she cannot sustain an action against her husband ; secondly that .she h.id broken the conditions of the covenant by molesting him. The Lord Chief Baron admitted the validity of; the first plea subject to the opinion of the Court, as to the validity of the Scotch marriage ; but decided in favour of the plaintiff on the second plea. The first plea is about the most injudicious that could have been put forward ; tor if the validity of the Scotch marriage be affirmed, it is certain that Lady Huntingtower can claim a much larger allowance than £60 a year for the support of her five children > and also, as there is another recognised Lady Huntingtower, that the hnsband of these two ladies has been guilty of bigamy. The Marriage Law Commission will probably soon put an end to the anomaly of three different laws for the three parts of the kingdom, and so deprive Lord Huudngtower, Major Yelverton, and other men of Sultanic propensities, of their present facilities for multiplying wives. I told you of the trial of Mogni for the manslaughter of the man Harrington, for whose murder another man, Pelizzioni, was already sentenced to death. Mogni was found guilty, and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. But, of course, the verdict upon each destroyed the other. The judges and juries who tried them are each satisfied of the fairness of the verdict after the evidence heard before them. So it remains to have a third trial to decide the real merits of the case with the increased information now at hand. The Yelverton case is now, I suppose at an end. To satisfy the public in the matterj a telegram was sent from Edinburgh on the night of Friday, the 10th, to say that " the first division of the Court of Session to-day refused Mrs. Yelver ton's application that Major Yelverton should appear in Court, and be examined on oath." There has been a great local calamity in the failure of an old-established bank at Birmingham, that of Messrs. Atwood, Spooner, and Co. It is said to have been really insolvent for years, owing, in the first instauce.lo the withdrawal of large sums from the bank by one of the Atwoods, for private speculation. It of course involves terrible loss to an enormous number, and actual ruin to most of the smaller depositors, of whom there was a large number. The other banks have come forward very handsomely to provide temporary accomodation for the sufferers. The Commissioners appointed for that purpose have just completed the investigation into the disgraceful riots at Belfast last August. They find that contrary to their expectations, the reality surpassed the reports The Protestant and Catholic mobs were about equally brutal, and equally culpable. But, in a population three-fourths Catholic, the remaining fourth being naturally the more

wealthy and influential part, the police are nearly all Protestant, some even Orangemen/ and with strong local sympathies. So that f . there is not only no security for fair dealing tf on their part, but not even a probability of it.' ( The authorities, too, from similar defects in '. the constitution of the Council, are strongly biassed ; and there is everything to promote the recurrence of those disgraceful scenes on the first opportunity. The principal improvement recommended is the introduction of a strong body of constabulary from a distance, who will be uninfluenced by loca* feeling. The Malt Tax abolitionists have tried their strength in Parliament, and failed. Their chosen champion, Sir F. Kelly, brought on his motion, on the 7 th—-" That, in any future remission of indirect taxation, the House should take into consideration the duty on malt, with a view to its early reduction and ultimate repeal." Mr. Milner Gibson's answer seems complete — " that beer has no special claim over alcohol in other forms ; and that it would be unfair to exempt the drink of England, while heavily taxing those of Ireland and Scotland." It would not be worth while to mention such a matter, but that it was! made a party cry by the Tories last autumn ; which being the case, it looks awkward for the party, losing the measure by a majority of 251 to 171.