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of the Creole and the money . The reply made was , " We have no force , and the invaders will not give up the money . " The Spanish commander then offered to put himself and his entire force under the command of the civil authorities at Key "West , for the purpose of taking the Creole and the money . This was declined , a promise being made that the money would be returned by order of the United States Government to the Cuban authorities .
A "Washington letter states that at a council of the United States Cabinet held in that city , it was resolved to hold the authorities of Cuba rigidly accountable for their treatment of all American subjects , and to carry out that determination a special agent was to be at once despatched with the necessary instructions to Havannah . Private letters from Havannah give full details in reference to the unsuccessful Cuban expedition and to the present state of the island . It appears that the adventurers who went over did not exceed 500 or 600 altogether , of whom 170 were taken in two sailing vessels ( a bark and a brig under the American iiag ) , by the Spanish admiral , who was on board the war steamer Pizarro . These letters state that
General Lopez is a native of South America , who was formerly in the Spanish army and for some time resided in Havannah , receiving pay from the Spanish Government , but being addicted to gambling he became deeply involved and thought it expedient to take leave of his creditors and proceed to the United States , where he spoke loudly of his undying love for freedom , and persuaded various persons that an expedition to Cuba , having for its object annexation to the United States or a declaration of independence , would meet with sympathy from the inhabitants . In this he was assisted by some discontented persons who had been
obliged to leave the island from various causes . Instead , however , of finding aid or sympathy from any class , Lopez experienced the most determined resistance , and . found it necessary to reembark before the arrival of any troops from Havannah or Matanzas . It is said that Lopez gained possession of Cardenas by promising liberation to the slaves if they would join his standard . To this they agreed , but were no sooner set free than they turned upon the invaders . The prisoners taken were brought into Havannah on the 26 th ult . by the Spanish brig-of-war Habanero . The Captain-General of Cuba declined giving any account of the names of the prisoners to the
American Consul or the senior or naval officer of the United States' squadron , nor would he permit any interview with the prisoners . General Lopez was formerly implicated in a conspiracy and condemned to death by the political tribunal of Cuba . At the date of the last accounts the island remained perfectly tranquil , and it was not thought probable that any further attempt would be made . The Government had declared the island subject to military law , but the measure was expected soon to be revoked . Merchant vessels were subject to some scrutiny upon arriving in Spanish waters ; but if pursuing a lawful traffic and having their papers in order they would suffer but little inconvenience .
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THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE , NOTTINGHAM . Some short distance up the acclivity which leads from the market-place of Nottingham , in the direction of the Derby road , and not far from the massive and sombre entrance to the public cemetery , stands a cluster of buildings which the passer-by , if strange to the locality , would in all probability take for a collegiate or monastic establishment , with its concomitants of chantries , chapels , and refectories . A close inspection , however , shows a great variety of styles of architecture in this mass of brick and stone work . The Saracenic , the early English , the perpendicular , or florid Gothic , have each their representatives ; and an enquiry into the objects to which the fabrics are
devoted would show a diversity of no less marked a character . The grand but somewhat gloomy church , whose plan and proportions reveal the hand of Pugin as having been busied in its construction , the monastic buildings around it , the nunnery , with its lofty walls and barred narrow windows , and the scriptural group sculptured over the poor-box at the gate—all belong to the renascent faith of the Middle Ages , and generate ideas of authority , submission , humility , ascetism , and seclusion . The chapel in progress of erection , with its high pitched roof , of somewhat slender dimensions , but elaborately ornamented , its oak-stained stalls , its painted windows , its stone carved pulpit , and spacious baptistery , bring thoughts of strange accordance in { Esthetic points between the ancient and the modern faith . It is to be devoted to
the spiritual wants of a Baptist congregation . And that Moorish-looking edifice on the left—is that a mosque where the worship of Allah , as prescribed by his prophet , is offered up ? Is undoubting deference to authority and to fate taught within those walls ? and does the muezzin summon the faithful daily to its teaching ? That fabric has a widely different purpose ; it has been raised by public , stimulated by private , munificence , for the promotion of free and unshackled education—for the fostering of that spirit of enquiry , and that culture of the
understanding which is most opposite to blind submission and to sectarian exclusiveness . The People ' s College , which is the name of this handsome but somewhat inconvenient building , was erected some five years back , on a piece of land given by Mr . George Gill . The same most liberal benefactor has contributed no less than twelve hundred pounds towards the cost of the Institution , besides the site , which is valued at seven hundred pounds ,
and an annual subscription of fifty . His example has been followed by the generous and publicspirited of the town and neighbourhood : and the result of their exertions , beside the material fabric which we have described , is seen in the daily attendance on the different classes of an average of 100 students , of whose progress an adequate idea may be formed from the following extract from the last annual report : —
" On the 15 th of June last , Mr . Reid invited the Directors and a few strangers to an examination during the usual school hours , with respect to which the Directors are happy to lay before their constituents the following remarks—the first from one of the official visitors—the others , the spontaneous testimonies of gentlemen unconnected with the institution : — ' The answers to the questions in mental arithmetic were very correct , and given with a promptitude which , to a person unacquainted with the matter , would be very striking . Their sound knowledge of geography , too , showed that they had been taught something more than mere facts ; the grounds of
those facts and the different phenomena connected with our system , seemed to be well understood . The methods of teaching in all the classes examined seemed well calculated to inform the mind , and powerfully to exercise , expand , and strengthen the intellect . '— ' Great credit , indeed , is due to the teachers , for the solid and extensive attainments exhibited by the pupils in all the departments . '—• An astonishing development of the reflective powers of youth , the result of wise and judicious treatment . The pupils sustained a long and rigid examination with remarkable credit to the teachers and themselves . The examination , taken as a whole , spoke volumes in favour of the system of tuition adopted . ' "
The subjects of instruction are reading , spelling , English grammar , writing , arithmetic , and geography . History , popular science , and drawing are taught to the more advanced ; while the highest classes of all learn book-keeping , Latin , and mathematics . There are also evening schools for both sexes , and a day school also for girls . On this the report says : — " Following out the original design of the founders , the Directors have resolved on opening a Girls' Day School ,
in the upper room of the College , immediately after the ensuing Christmas holidays . The charge will be 9 d . per week , and the school will be conducted on the same general principles as the boys' day school . The directors trust that the subscribers and the public generally will respond to their efforts to promote the progress of improvement in the education of a class hitherto much neglected , and on whose information and intelligence the right training of the young so much depends .
" In the male evening school , the number now on the books is eighty-two ; the nightly attendance varies from twenty to thirty . It occasionally reaches thirty-five , and sometimes falls so low as fifteen . Instruction is afforded in such branches of general education as the pupils may consider they stand most in need of . A class for the study of logic has recently been opened at the request of a number of the students , in which they appear to take
much interest . The conduct and progress of those in regular attendance is highly satisfactory . " The nightly attendance at the girls' evening school averages about thirty-three , but is very irregular . An assistant has been engaged and the school is now in a state to afford very efficient instruction to those who attend regularly . The conduct of all the pupils has been exemplary , and the progress of many of them highly satisfactory . "
The terms for the boys' day school are 10 s . per quarter , those for the girls ' , 8 s . Gd . for the same term . For the male adult evening school , 5 s . or 3 s . 6 d . per quarter , according to the attendance , and for the female evening school , 4 d . per week . The education given at the People ' s College is purely unsectarian ; but white the speculative dogmas of no particular sect are insisted on , the recognition of the Universal Father in whom " we live and move and have our being , " and the general principles of Christianity are included in the course of instruction . A librarv is being built , which will be open , when
completed , for the use of the members and students . The government of the college is perfectly popular ; being vested in a body of directors , of whom four go out by rotation yearly , four being elected in their place by the members at an annual meeting . A yearly subscription of 10 s . constitutes a member . Among the directors there is a fair proportion of the working classes . . . The students in the day schools have hitherto tor the most part been the children of smaller tradesmen , clerks , and the better order of mechanics ; the working nlnssns . strifit . lv ro called , havinc chiefly availed
themselves of the evening schools . As the operatives become more fully convinced of the benefits of education , it is expected that they will , to the full extent of their means , meet on behalf of their children the longer payment necessary for attendance on the daily classes , or , which is highly desirable , that tho subscriptions will be increased , or an endowment provided by which those payments may , to a great extent , be lessened .
Meanwhile , great service has already been done by the People ' s Colleges , in setting an example of a more active , energetic , intellectual , and unsectarian system of education than any class whatever of the inhabitants of Nottingham have hitherto enjoyed . We have given an impartial account of its principal features , as we shall subsequently do of similar institutions in Sheffield and in Norwich . From a comparison of the different systems pursued in these establishments , and their efficiency as evidenced in the number and advancement of their classes , it will be easy to come to a conclusion as to the principle which should guide the promoters of secular education in . any practical measures which they may hereafter set on foot .
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DESTRUCTION OF LIFE A ND PROPERTY BY ICEBERGS . Some weeks ago vessels from America brought intelligence of an enormous field of ice , some 150 miles in length , which was said to be drifting about in the Atlantic , and great fears were entertained lest serious damage might accrue from its presence in those low latitudes where it was floating . This alarm , was not without foundation . Within the last fewdays the loss of a large number of vessels amidst the floating icebergs has been reported ; and among the
number , we regret to add , was one from an Irish port , with between eighty to one hundred persons on board , every soul of whom is supposed to have gone down in the unfortunate vessel and perished . Great quantities of ice are generally looked for by the traders in the western latitudes about the months of April and May , the result of the break up of the frost in the Arctic Seas . The masses that have appeared this season exceed anything of the kind that has for years been met with , and there is too much reason to fear that the losses related form a very few of the mishaps that have occurred : —
" The ill-fated vessel in which so many are believed to have perished was from Londonderry , bound to Quebec . On the 27 th of April the Oriental was beset in the ice , together with two other vessels , and perceived some ten . miles to the westward . She was in a most perilous position , evidently stove in by the ice , and sinking . Signals of distress were hoisted without the remotest chance of gaining assistance . For two days she was seen in the same forlorn condition , when she suddenly disappeared ,, and very little doubt is entertained of every soul havinggone down in the foundered vessel . Subsequently , a great many bodies were seen intermingled with the ice , together with some portion of the cargo : the latter led
to the discovery of the port to which the vessel belonged and her intended destination . The Oriental was eleven days before she got clear of the ice . Another similar catastrophe was witnessed on the 29 th of March , about twenty miles to the westward of St . Paul ' s , by the ship Signette , M . Mowatt , from Alloa , for Quebec . The vessel was apparently an English brig heavily laden , with painted portholes . She had got fixed in the ice , and had been cut down by it to the water ' s edge , admitting a rush of water into the hold . Her crew were observed working at the pumps , evidently in the hopes of keeping her afloat , in the expectation of assistance arriving . She soon sank , however , and all on board met
with a watery grave . The exact number who perished was not learned . Letters have been received communicating the total loss of the Ostensible also in the ice . She was from Liverpool , bound to Quebec , with several passengers . Up to the 5 th of May she experienced heavy weather , when they fell in with an enormous field of ice , and got fixed in it for five days and nights , in the course of which her hull wat pierced by the huge fragments , and she became a lost vessel . Pumps were kept going till the arrival of the brig Duke , Captain Welsh , also for Quebec , which , after considerable working , succeeded in making through the ice to the sinking vessel , and rescued the whole of them from an inevitable death . The Ostensible went down within twenty minutes after . Two
other vessels from Liverpool—the Conservator and the Acorn—were both lost near the same time . The former was on a passage to Montreal . She got pinched by the ice within three days after losing sight of land , and , filling , immediately went down : the crew were lucky enough to save the ship's boats , in which they were picked up . The Acorn met with her destruction within thirty miles of St . John's , Newfoundland : the crew were saved by the Blessing schooner , of Sunderland . Among the other losses in the ice reported , are enumerated—the Hibernia , from Glasgow , for Quebec ; the British schooner Collector , from St . John's , Newfoundland , for London ; the brig Astree , of Weymouth ; the Wilhelmina , of Aberdeen ; the Gosnell , of Newcastle ; the Sylph , of Leith ; and three others , names of which are unknown . With the exception of the latter , the crews were saved . Most of the unfortunate vessels were heavily laden , and their losses in total cannot be far short of £ 100 , 000 . "
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WATERLOO DAY . The anniversary of the battle of Waterloo was celebrated at Portsmouth , on Tuesday , by the inauguration of the statues of Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington , which took place amid a great display of military pomp and parade . About three o ' clock the Fairy steamer , with the royal party on their way to London from Osborne , passed at a slow rate along Southsea , within view of the statues , while the assembled troops fired a feu dejoie , presented arms , and gave three cheers . The Waterloo banquet took place at Apsley-house on Tuesday evening , when there was a numerous attendance of the companions-in-arms of their noble entertainer . His Royal Highness Prince Albert honoured the banquet
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June 22 , 1850 . ] tRffC & ££ & £ ? + 29 ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 22, 1850, page 295, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1843/page/7/
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