The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-02-06 00:00:00

Fcb. 6~.1 orn-house of Le Chief Ban°'. dcalledsever in e owner of the ho put to h l . O a i .d to from bIDd y- General, 110 " that the 1 a latitude in to a counsel //W. Another 9 was objeeteu, is Lordship of examination; ,sagreement too: eat, Sir Fred ; be i n trusted i S con duct of LP"' called yes g and min their own di lord, I eanl? (4 00 1 discretion In would not bet Dr any other m' a very in3lol or lordship 0 adjourn this; I cannot :hen a jucig' motive than . ouble you 0 lost inconveni° sorry, sir;, o not feel t!f4 y life. so I,l ' t which 1 bal e ' ith this case 0 in a tone I/ try, " Geol, LI. There 15 54 t at all uncic.'lll lever a ccep t' that it did 1 0 ,1; Alartin bsd. A I" confident tari his lordship.,_o circumsta l3o cession is 10,,, siger makes ffers any. ¢ meant to y nceded to Ole •hich was n°l' is what I lin I wish to 1 1 / that I shill: wever, most the time of tit by putting w ay that I d eve to be P thing of the 31.1• r# had uncl e i . Martin ?!"ti •relevant, both y, this case, i ape that We greater dis jet aspect tow a to id adjourn oi l )e the Pres e e d e box to th e j I to try NO' with 10 ;ranting site e , Perpetv ol ' has been r ors. ned from an d rector, n°' lurches. . e j# td has visit_tC, I at Marg s T e st crowd to. and office ervice. 01, ger 7 . NG. e of the iincumbento ti t bishop of °' ster co m p. es, Congll,oo, es, and cr;dl ion for 700 Cathedra" ml of the W t i i , itanv after „ t ,y t o ultOr ing refuse it i l its infantg ir i that, as th e ' sal, the B. rse. suPPC:' he canon' 11 Bisnorz t 1 zette, _tu t ' h an BishoPJ and Lord ~4 ons, at 90 , d c1e7g)51.4 h of - Digfo annual le 51 is clerg9 l '`: t io; with the IF,d, iat with of the Syrian y [tined. Phof I ' .rers, wt-•_,tl regular i'! s ` . o l ind meal ° I) t person, 11/ 0 until he 011 0 11 .7cordance wo canard;? nce of the alem. coo House of ( 0 neas ures 0 0 s session bl te t sed chaff )duction fl t it expeg . , l° 4 , to inciul l ? :ould be IP,: Df nierabefo ight be _cl7o, Lit some pt might b 4,0 rbject. a o lilted. it. Lt of the l o ll o til the Co strange ; A 0 parties : Rome; 01 1 case of 11 ,0 e kept On e, ction in throw cor`if Mr. Fa ber acc cat, nonstrai'l ervilell ..t ° o lot a C . dng Pia , G o s' one of t1":014, some tid e" Perversion lant 0,1) 1 y turne d et i ih Mersa TANISg' to reale, 0 prayev, s puseyli g r? various fl Ir. J. 14 V 1 curacy. de 'our rea from 0 A a t presen t I to ar o e ,ed to tari 3 9 .rac pt A lard C) tilt, svw ptied 0 0 e Li on of tied ;„t7 Leyan igriculr u t , ;ion or lout 40. 11 Llationt I • n the e , rocee o : l ', filling ay re r° l ol ll o ' corn ; . leavilig _a y .ca ^bef e of out Feb. fl, 1849. •itcraturr. VARIETIES OUR MONETARY LAWS AND THE PRICES OF corroN. .L . 4rs i n isa t o h an e :r a og b fi l vg e in aminal circular of Messrs. Ba r bo u r Manchester, j us t p u bli s h e d, th e wri a statement of the fluctuations in the Prices of yarns and cotton during the past year, give th e f ollowing as the position of the spinners and . Inanufa cturers at the period name d ner e In No vem b er, 1842, when manufacturing interests Only s gr h eatl Y depressed, No. 20 water, and 40's mule yarn, ow d - to all e a margin of 2}d. and M. per respectively,. evse.y expenses of spinning, interest of capital, profit, a whilst in the autumn of 1845, when matters were in trprosperous state, the same margin was 41d. and 7+d. o ' esPectively, a difference of 90 and 60,per cent. in th e I. !' the spinner in 1845, compared with 1842 ; again, ::::ilgodhn.iptyroalc3ec:f. cotton and the low prices of yarns, in bein rendered that year peculiarly unfavourable, there margin of U t d. to 2.1 d. per lb on 20's water, per Per lb on 40's mule, a difference of 50 eent, adverse to the spinner in comparison with 1845. varying the past year the margin has also been small, Ying from 2id. to 2-Zd per lt, on 90's water, and 31d. 4 tcl• per th • pPosition • on 40 s mule. Spinners %ere in a better oi Lion In November, when yarns were at the lowest taken than they are now ; the advance that has since resp o P!ace having been more than neutralised by a cor- N n thlag rise in the raw material." Oth °W ) we beg to ask whether there have not been i .„,. 5 e . .r causes at work to create these ruinous'fluc .7 jams in the amount of profit derived from ma nufacturing operations ? We beg to ask of them ,5 were the rates of interest in 1845 and in ? In the former year money was abun , and disc ounts readily obtainable upon respec of .e Paper at 2to 21, per cent. In the latter part rat and 111. th e d best paper, was ten per cent.; and h ad ti g portion of th a t per i o d it was not to be -: 0 at all. Do th ese f ac t s no t l ea d t o th e c onclu- Za n that abundance of money, as well as abun ofnes of the raw material, is an important element in manu facturing p rosper it y; an d th a t fl uc tuations fluenitanufacturing profits are contemporaneous with wuations in the supply and price of money ? ever e would ask of our Manchester friends, how- Is w n°se sentiments Messrs. Barbour and Son tli e " s Presumed to speak, when they attribute highsufferings to short crops of cotton, or rather Lio n n P l iices of cotton, and other matters, a ques and ;z , ,, ,a.0. In 1846-7 we had a deficient supply, is 11 , - ;,::_gb price, of this raw material. But there h m Otli - Zer circumstance to be noted, as bearing "c ba l l the Prices and the supply of this season. f .ott on. " Iroported largely the breadstuffs o our g r , r . °w ing brother Jonathan, and our gold uring - b ° l 7 out . to pay for these importations. To on back this gold, the Bank of England, under .t a ccoth -eBen t system, was compelled to contract is price-Modation to merchants, and to raisethe Ezi e t s-i iac.., the rate of interest—of money. Our in fo r d houses, nay all merchants having goods t any 7 ,, z gn markets, were compelled to realize, a All tVeee,in order to maintain their credit at home. tupte world knows, painfully knows, the bank ord and ruin, and the stoppage of foreign Wh' ers ' fr om which we have not yet recovered, su i , ich resulted. Now, is it not reasonable to pre- St a - t e that the plethora of money in the United wi tl e s , and its scarcity here, had something to do argbthe high price of cotton, upon which Messrs. iti t , n ur harp as the source of manufacturing f or J ; and also upon the decreased demand since NV . „ cl ur goods in foreign and colonial markets. t i c i . M aY admit that the crop of 1846-7 was short. te American grower, by the aid, in a great measu rea n i of our monetary laws, could hold it back, demand his own price, whilst our foreign th el L eh ants were, by the same laws, crippled in et , e4 " usual operations, and the manufacturer was e ua llY at a loss to know how he was to keep up is Production. ziaA rather striking proof of the dependence of nufacturing profits upon monetary abundance a "; scarcity, is to he observed in the last sentence which e have quoted. The tr"aner and manufacturer,e are told, were doing -h‘ e ; tt t e li r e in November than they are at this moment, ° N wi n to the rise in the price of the raw material. , - ;, ° wi g h occurred since November any cir t;irastanacset t e e r n e ding to enhance the price raj Cotton ? Have we heard of any blights, any ti p seasons, any worms, or other ailments, which ver,,cotton crop "is heir to " ? Was Europe so b much more pacific in its prospects in Novem er than it is now ? None of these causes can be aiged• But money "is easier" ; the Bank will th se°ll nt on lower terms; and the speculator and rawe ernaPaittaleriisat the tender s... t t: a p vin in g , and raise the price of the abide wand. A the manufacturer to nmercies of the law of supply and de to get lir; Y manufacturer knows how easy it is the m r -c es down, and how difficult it is to get u P gain. Which "es us as the most singular blindness ha ve 's ever befallen a class of men, who would 41 us believe them to be most particularly widec ann t aw ake," that our manufacturing classes t e t a ,, °- see the importance to themselves of a mo cou,,Y, sYstem, which would insure to them an a e 'ule rate of interest, and protect them from the eystearious influence of foreign exchanges. Such a syst e en , al ?, 111 ' present obviously is not. Under this e cal tne manufact u rer is utterly incapable of s u b la ting his profits, or anticipating his losse s . gaudoL ° vier in h arves t, as th e b u lli on i s t organ , th e nd on result ' T imes, tell s us , has more effect upon th e ar n 8 of indust r y th an a rev olution i n E uro p e , etan o utbreak i n our own coun t r y. Th e touch prprne °F Briti s h credit, and the guarantee for the e BPeri tY of the industrious British people, is the eo l t il ee in th e coun t ry o f a cer t a i n qua ntity o f a tay -° ditY, of which the trappers of Hudson's taiii and the scum of mankind, are gathering in tish ° rnia as m uc h i n a d a y as an i n d us t r i ous Bri in itnan can earn in a month. Under a system rtic eti `:Q money would possess its only legitimate rlon e n, as a measure of value, we should see kes m , ° I . the disastrous features observable in Ouf a ; s • Barbour's picture of the condition of ma see thing industry. We should certainly not Into lut owner of the raw material of any of our 4tti elp ae,tures enabled to command a price for his manthe working up of which is ruinous to the ta ry acturer. In a word, under a healthy mone not h s Ytena, native industry and enterprise would th e °lle s year in an excess of prosperity, and in Inffe'elng and rzt consigning those dependent upon it to uin. A A ~,,, " er ic, - ,71, 1 A.c1i SERPENT.—A correspondent of the Cum eon, 7' .t'acquet says, ' that a man named George Wilkin °l°,o;lo.l t he service f Mr. Graham, of W . ythop-mill, tuilnß that ai l animal, six inches in length, its nody resehmad `4 i "" a t of an eel, with a fish's head. Wilkinson . 8 x ~_4lll, ihrn?hthS past suffered pain in the stomach, espect nielii. tne mornings, but we understand he has an o n. lat i s better since he parted with his unnatura l com a . ~,,e(tiliectured that W ilkinson had swallowed the cr it- 4 ' 14 E;it. e • ii Very small, whils t . drinking water, and that , I"'„lned its present size in his stomach. it down, a few xelips -""TRUCTIBILITY OF CORK.—In taking . a eau 2 f , the a k , in Prance, some portion of the ancient ch m t t _ es pres:"t th Nue d'Ondres, it was found that the extre perfectlyii oak girders, lodged in the walls, weredtave neeti-'Yed, although these timbers were suppose hof t h i n their places for upwards of 600 years. T he p ° whole Ivraphese extremities buried in the walls were a n a 1 round with plates of cork. When demolis hing thtilte,lent Benedictine church at Bayonne, it was fo ate d n i nid r ",. Whole of the fir girders were entirely worrn- I°,liiel(t)4:a,.Nvith the exception, however, of the bearings, t'teteh; Capped°stH the case above-mentioned, were also com l. ,Log, round with plates of cork. Now-A-MPBELL' CLIENT.—Lord Campbell tells the 1 , 1. ‘ %,ing anecdote in s his lives of the Lord Chancellor :-- f c " fi ri si- 4ft er I Was called to the bar, and had published -e/Itliriti",:inni u mber of my 'Nis i P ius Reports,' while de co r v Sing " Prisoner in the Crown Court, I had occasion to &s ett pal, client, and I went to the dock, where _I cwonas 'inked;'?r a minute or two. I got him off, and t h Pattie 'atell' dischard But my joy was soon , d . is dis turb ed; t tv i t cireilinitYjiand into m . y pocket to pay the junior ' of tl l 7 gon e ' ( 1 - 1 Y quota for yesterday, I found that my purse ~ 't (la containing several bank notes, the . currency of I ,` ° ,,lnre t , 3 ::. The incident caused much merriment. It was - Pi (1 4 1 ; 1 e ,._te.,d to the Lop:1 Chief Baron Macdonald, h lli lii k th at '''nge, who said, ' What ! does . Mr. Campbell elf:, „TX) one is entitled to take notes in court except v. it , i ; r et 9 . l 9atez?"_ OF THE ORLEANS . . FAMILY.—M. Varill, th, cr . to the'leneral of the ex-Civil List, has addressed a 4 bl: iL lio„,, n ws . pape rs , to recommend the creditors of th,yter.rts.:Lciaamily not to cede th i e s u.' debts on unfavour fully convinced that b4„11 th'''4lejentutkalley' bleiedar: tre e d in full. He adds that ti e°ll Ut 'l'3l'tlY be able istC disc h a r ged a rather large sum on il l e , c4 re iheM• D upinllas also pay itten to the journals to thwOrlea, s p in e thing. lie says that all the members of ' l r PC ' is laniily leave granted the power of mortgaging ire poPerties, and that even the Princesses consent to tiovrtie,,airit);(llltihaill:s:s I : ifti f a tl r‘ t - o e ll s d h il ' il e t e rn; l a t lr a e in i ,ir P e rivileges with the respect thereto secured s contracts. M. Vavin adds that he I).a Posal of the Liquidator-General all the which were in the treasury of the private t() e " for th" 'Rat he will pass to his order the bills to be 'Net Et e erd-inary cuttings of wood in 1818, in order PaYroent to the creditors, FORCE OF HABIT.—Lord Campbell, in his " Lives of the Chancellor," says that Lord Tenterden, the celebrated judge, expired with these words on his lips—" Gentlemen of the jury, you will now consider your verdict." The last words of Lord Hermand, the Scotch judge, were equally striking and professional—" Guilty, but recom mended to the mercy of the court." MILLY.—Mrs. William, like Mr. William, was a sim ple, innocent-looking person, in whose smooth cheeks the cheerful red of her husband's official waistcoat was very pleasantly repeated. But whereas Mr. William's light hair stood on end all over his head, and seemed to draw his eyes up with it in an excess of bustling readiness for any thing, the dark brown hair of Mrs. William was care fully smoothed" down, and waved away under a trim tidy cap, in the most exact and quiet manner imaginable. Whereas Mr. William's very trousers hitched themselves up at the ankles, as if it were not in their iron-grey na ture to rest without looking about them, Mrs. William's neatly-flowered skirts—red and white, like her own pretty face—were as composed and orderly, as if the very wind that blew so hard out of doors could not disturb one of their folds. Whereas his coat had something of a fly away and half-off appearance about the collar and breast, her little bodice was so placid and neat, that there should have been protection for her in it, had she needed any, with the roughest people. Who could have had the heart to make so calm a bosom swell with grief, or throb with fear, or flutter with a thought of shame ! To whom would its repose and peace have not appealed against disturbance, like the innocent slumber of a child !—Dickens's Haunted Man. WHAT WILL REVOLUTIONS DO ?—Let not France de ceive herself. Nut all the experiments she may try, not all the revolutions she may make or suffer to be made, will ever emancipate her from the necessary and inevitable conditions of social tranquillity and good government. She may refuse to admit them, and may suffer without measure or limit from her refusal, but she cannot escape from them. We have tried everything—republic—empire —constitutional monarchy. We are beginning our expe riments anew. To what must we ascribe their ill success? In our own times, before our own eyes, in three of the greatest nations in the world, these three same forms of Government—constitutional monarchy in England, the empire in Russia, and the republic in North America — endure and prosper. Have we the monopoly of all im possibilities ? Yes ; so long as we remain in the chaos in which we are plunged, in the name, and by the slavish idolatry, of democracy; so long as we can see nothing in society but democracy, as if that were its sole ingredient —so long as we seek in Government nothing but the do mination of democracy, as if that alone had the right and the power to govern. On these terms the republic is equally impossible as the constitutional monarchy, and the empire as the republic; for all regular and stable Govern ment is impossible. And liberty—legal and energetic li berty—is no less impossible than stable and regular Go vernment. The world has seen great and illustrious com munities reduced to this deplorable condition ; incapable of supporting any legal and energetic liberty, or any regu lar and stable Government; condemned to interminable and sterile political oscillations from the various shades and forms of anarchy to the equally various forms of des potism. For a heart capable of any feeling of pride or dignity, I cannot conceive a more cruel suffering than to be born in such an age. Nothing remains but to retire to the sanctuary of domestic life, t.nd the prospects of re ligion. The joys and the sacrifices, the labours and the glories, of public life, exist no more.—M. Thiers. CLAIMS AND OBJECTS OF RAGGED SCHOOLS.—We entreat all persons very seriously to consult how small a sum will be adequate to effect a very great good. Seven pounds a year for each child will nearly supply every pos sible requisite. Let us suppose that thirty thousand is the number of those who, in London alone, demand this special assistance ; a sum, then, of two hundred and ten thousand pounds a year—a sum that would barely cover the national expenses for crime in two months--would go far to balk the jailor of his prey, and turn the jails them selves into school-houses or factories. Many people run away with the notion that so degraded a class is beyond the reach of reformation or influence. Now, strange as the assertion may appear, we at once affirm that we enter tain more hopes of fruit from the miserable than from the easier ranks; of that fruit, we mean, which is seen in the development and nurture of the feelings of the heart. Our difficulty does not lie in eliciting the affections of these neglected children, but the finding fit employment for the quantities we impart. Those born and placed in safer circumstances may withstand the temptations to which the pupil of the ragged school might eventually yield ; but, for the mere detail of teaching, we prefer the wild to the demurer class. Oppression and sorrow have, of them selves, taught to many submission and endurance. It may be seen in several incidents, trivial, perhaps, in their nature, but illustrative of their habits of mind. " You must wait," said the missionary to a boy, at one of those tea-parties, where, once in twelve months, the appetites of these novices learn what it is to approximate to a full meal—" you must wait, and then you shall be fed." " Oh, I can wait," said the boy, his teeth actually chat tering with hunger, " I am more accustomed to that than to the other !" Nor has suffering failed in its frequent though not invariable result, an interchange of sympathy. We saw a gratifying instance in the school at Broadwall, One boy, of the most lawless life and insolent behaviour, was, after repeated expulsions, considered incorrigible. He was sentenced, therefore, to be finally dismissed. His circumstances, no doubt, were very deplorable ; and much, it is true, could be said in extenuation, drawn from the misery and sinful neglect of his earliest and latest years. A public example was, however, necessary. But the six principal boys came, in a body, to the master, and made intercession for one more trial, engaging to use all their influence, and be responsible for his future conduct. The request was granted, and the lad was saved by the efforts of his ragged companions, who, only a few months before, neither knew nor cared to discern the difference between right and wrong !—Ragged School Magazine. _ THE " BEGGING PROFESSION."—The Times has com menced a crusade against beggars. The following is from one of its leading articles : There is scarcely a man with a decent coat on his back, or a lady who ventures to put her foot across her own threshold, in London, but is importuned by many unquestionable assailants for charity. Sometimes it is a pale and destitute widow sitting upon a door-step, with two little infants clasped in her arms, and who, rather by her attitude and her expression, than by any direct solicitation, obtains pence and sixpences from the passers-by. Who could button up his pocket, and, leaving such misery unrelieved, quietly pass on to his own comfortable fireside ? And yet that woman is an impos ter. The poor children, the innocent actors in the tragi comedy, have been hired out at so much a day. The sixpence bestowed to alleviate the seeming misery has gone to perpetuate the system, and encourage similar per sons to undertake so gainful a traffic. See that little palid, sickly child, crouching under the wall of St. Martin's Church. The time is midnight, and the storm is pitiless. Is it possible to see a being so helpless, and not do what you can to relieve her misery ? Thirty times a month the child will be found in the same attitude, and at the same place, at the same hour, and a watcher is doubtless at hand to receive at once the donations that compassion may fling into her lap. So of others ; each quarter, and every street of the town, has its well-known beggars, and familiar forms of simulated affliction. The fact is well known. It has been ascertained, and made public, that the professional beggars prepare themselves for their ap pearance in public as carefully and cleverly as actors for the stage. The public are aware of this, and yet the sys tem of promiscuous almsgiving, prolific as it is of so much real misery, continues in unabated vigour. If you take a sane and really merciful and humane view of the ques tion, you are exposed to the immediate denunciation of those in whom charity—that is almsgiving—is an impulse, and reflection'an impossibility. You are told, with a look of puckered self-importance, Ah ! I had rather be im posed upon than become hardened, like you, to human sorrow and human suffering.' If this were merely a question between the giver and the non-giver of alms to imposters, there might be something in the argument. Unfortunately, every sixpence wrongfully bestowed calls up more claimants for more sixpences. The money dis honestly gained is recklessly spent. The weakness of the giver and the viciousness of the recipient re-act upon each other. The streets and the road swarm with beggars, and the police could best tell what becomes of those persons when off their beats; and they are squandering their ill-gotten gains in low haunts of de bauchery, drunkenness, and vice." THE TWO SPANISH PAlNTEus.—While Velasquez, at the height of his glory, was painting his magnificent Cru cifixion, a young lad was displaying hasty sketches and immature daubs to the venders of old clothes, pots, and vegetables, the gipsies and mendicant friars that frequen ted the Feria, or weekly fair held in the market-place of All Saints, in the beautiful and religious city of Seville. This was Bartoleme Esteven Murillo, who, having studied for Qom* *imo nn.lnr Tilan vial C'Qatilln, nn flint master's removal to Cadiz in 1640, betook himself to this popular resource of all needy Sevillian painters. Struck, how ever, by the great improvement which travel had wrought in the style of Pedro de Moya, who revisited Seville in 1642. the young painter scraped up sufficient money to carry him to Madrid, and, as he hoped, to Rome. But the kindness of Velasquez provided him a lodging in his own house, and opened the galleries of the Alcazar and the Escurial to his view. Here he pursued his studies unremittingly, and, as he thought, with a success that excused the trouble and expense of an Italian pilgrimage. Returning, therefore, in 1645 to Seville, he commenced that career which led him, among the painters of Spain, to European renown, second only - to that of Velasquez. The Fransiscans of his native city have the credit of first employing his young genius, and the eleven large pictures with which he adorned their convent-walls at once estab lished his reputation and success. These were painted in what is technically called his first, or cold style ; this was changed before 1650 into his:second, or warm style, which in its turn yielded to his last, or vapoury style. So warm indeed had his colouring become, that a Spanish critic, in the nervous phraseology of Spain, declared his flesh-tints were now painted with blood and milk. In this style did he paint for the chapter The Nativity of the Blessed Vir gin, in which the ladies of Seville admired and envied the roundness of a ministering maiden's naked arm ; and a large picture of St. Anthony, of Padua, which still adorns the walls of the cathedral baptistery. Of this famous gem some curious stories are told : Don Fernando Farfan, for instance, relates that birds had been seen attempting to perch upon some lilies in a vase by the side of the kneel ing saint ; and Monsieur Viardot (Mus‘es d' Espagne, p. 146) informs us that a reverend canon, who showed him the picture, recounted how that, in 1813, the Duke of Wellington offered to purchase it for as many gold onzss as would cover its surface; while, in 1843, Captain Wid drington was assured that a lord had expressed his readi ness to give £lO,OOO for the bird-deluding picture. The belief in the gullibility of travellers is truly re mar k a bl e and wide-spread ; thus, at Genoa, in 1839, our excellent cicerone gratified us with the information, that, sixteen years before, the English Duke of Balfour had in vain offered £l6OO for Canova's beautiful basso-relievo of the Virgin clasping the Corpse of our Saviour, which graces the ugly church of the poor-house in that superb city,— Blackwood's Magazine. THE TIDES IN THE GERMAN OCEAN.--A striking example occurs to us of the happy Tsri ,at nexion of theo . ry the Ft 3 must exist with observation, in the prediction Al point of an area a spot in the German Ocean—the cents , mutual action of of rotation, produced by the meeting anti two opposite tides—where no rise of tide ,wht?tever could Oaf, Ain He . wett in occur; a prediction actually verified by 1839, without any prior knowledge that such . a point had been supposed to exist. This is one amuritt ie the many triumphs of like kind achieved by modern A- Quarterly Review. this We have had a vast deal of comic literaturnsica country during the last dozen years ; quite a torrent 01 cetite, a surfeit of slang and puns. One or two potnifts, humourists gave the impetus, and set a host of imitatorg , sliding and wriggling down the inclined plane leadg from wit and humour to buffoonery and bad taste. The majority reached in an instant the bottom of the slope, and have ever since remained there. The truth is, the funny style has been overdone ; the supply of jokers has exceeded the demand for jokes, until the very word " co mic" resounds unpleasantly upon the public tympanum. —Blackwood. CRITICISM OF ART.—A small crowd gathered before a window recently, to admire the figure of a cat that was there, as if for public inspection. Nearly every one was delighted with its likeness to life. " But still," said Augustus, " there are faults in it : it is far from perfect ; observe the defect in the fore shortening of that paw, now : and the expression of that eye, too, is bad ; besides, the mouth is too far down under the chin, while the whiske. - s look as if they were coming out of her ears. It is too short too." But, as if to obviate this defect, the figure stretched itself and rolled over in the sun. "It is a cat, I vow," said a bystander, " It's alive !" shouted an urchin, clapping his hands. " Why it's only a cat, after all," exclaimed Mrs. Partington, as she surveyed it through her specs : but Augustus moved on disap pointed that nature had fallen so short of his ideas of per fection in the manufacture of cats. But Augustus was quite as competent a critic as many others whose judge ment of painting leads the town.—New York Observer. A GENERAL IN PETTICOATS.—The lovely family of the Emperor Nicholas were brought up from the cradle by English nurses and governesses, under the superintend ence of an old Scotchwoman, who was under-nurse to the present Emperor in his infancy. This individual holds the rank of a general officer (for everything in Russia is measured by a military scale), and has been decorated with the Order of St. Andrew, ennobled and enriched. Some five-and-twenty years ago she came a servant girl to Russia with a Scotch trader's family, who turned her adrift in St. Petersburgh. A lucky chance procured her the situation of under nursery-maid in the Emperor Paul's family, where she was placed about the person of the present Emperor, to teach him to speak English. His attachment for her was so great, that when he mar ried he raised her to the head of the nursery establish ment, where she has honourably gone through all the mi litary gradations of rank to her present one of general. I suppose she will die a Field-Marshal !—Mrs. Romer's Bird of Passage. _ _ PEARLS AND MINERALS IN CALIFORNIA.—PearI-fish ing is the chief employment of the inhabitants about the bay (of La Paz,) and the pearls are said to be of a supe rior quality. I was shown a necklace, valued at two thousand dollars, taken in this water. They are all found by diving. The Yaque Indians are the best divers, going down in eight fathom water. The pearl shells are sent to China, and are worth at La Pas one dollar and a half the arroba, or twenty-five pounds. * * The mountains in the vicinity are said to be very rich in minerals. Some silver mines near San Antonio, about 40 miles south, are worked and produce well. La Paz may export one hun dred thousand dollars a year of platipina. Gold dust and virgin gold are brought to La Paz. The copper and lead mines are numerous and rich. * * The island of Carmen, lying in front of Loretto, has a large salt lake, which has a solid salt surface of several feet thickness. The salt is of good quality, is cut out like ice, and it could supply the world. It has heretofore been a monopoly to the governor of Lower California, who employed convicts to get out the salt and put it on the beach ready for ship ping. It is carried about a quarter of a mile, and is sent to Mazatlan and San Blas. A large quantity of salt is used in producing silver. * * In the vicinity of Los Angeles there are a number of warm springs which throw out and deposit large quantities of bitumen or mineral tar. This substance, when it cools, becomes hard and brittle, like rosin. Around some of these springs many acres of ground are covered with this deposit to the depth of several feet. It is a principal material in the roofing of houses. When thrown upon the fire it ignites imme diately, emitting a smoke like that of turpentine, and an odour like that from bituminous coal. This mineral, so abundant in California, may one day become a valuable article of commerce. * * Mr. Faxon showed me spe cimens of lead ore from which he moulds his bullets, taken from an inexhaustible mine in the Tular valley, some fifty miles distant from the mission of St. Ynes, It is cer tainly the richest ore I have ever seen, appearing almost like the pure metal.—Bryant's Tour in California. THE RAILWAY TOWN'AT CREWE.—About a hundred yards from the establishment we have just left, there stands a plain, neat building, erected by the company, containing baths, hot, cold, and shower, for the workmen, as well as for their wives and daughters, the hours allotted for each sex being stated on a board, which bluntly enough explains that the women may wash while the men are working, and vice versa. For this wholesome luxury, the charge for each person is IN. ; and, although we do not just at pre sent recollect the exact price of yellow soap per bar, of sharp white sand per bushel, of stout dowlais towelling per yard, or the cost of warming a few hundred gallons of water, yet, as we stood gazing into one of these baths, we could not help thinking that if that Hercules who works the steam hammer can, on Saturday night, after his week's toil, be scrubbed perfectly clean and white for three halfpence, he can have no very great reason to com plain, for surely, except by machinery, the operation could scarcely be effected much cheaper ! To a medical man, the company gives a house and a surgery, in addition to which he receives from every unmarried workman ld. per week ; if married, but with no family, 11d. per week ; if married, and with a family, 2d. per week ; for which he undertakes to give attendance and medicine to whatever men, women, children, or babies of the establishment may require them. A clergyman, with an adequate sa lary from the company, superintends three large day schools for about 300 boys, girls, and infants. There is also a library and mechanics' institute, supported by a subscription of about 10s. a-year, at which a number of very respectable artificers, whose education when young was neglected, attend at night to learn, ab initio, reading, writing, and arithmetic. There is likewise a vocal and instrumental class, attended by a number of workmen, with their wives and daughters. The town of Crewe con tains 514 houses, one church, three schools, and one town hall, all belonging to the company. Not only are the streets, which are well lighted by gas, much broader than those of Wolverton ; but the houses are, generally speak ing, of a superior description, and although all are new, yet it is curious to observe how insidiously old customs, old fashions, old wants, and even old luxuries have be come domiciled. Many of the shops have large windows, which eagerly attempt to look like plate glass. In the shoemakers' shops, contrasted with thick railway boots and broad railway shoes, there hang narrow-soled Wel lingtons and Bluchers, as usual scarcely half the gauge or breadth of the human foot. The company's workmen be gan by having a cheap stout dancing master of their own; but the aristocracy of Crewe very naturally requiring higher kicks, we found a superior and more elegant artist giving lessons in the Town Hall—a splendid room, capa ble of containing 1,000 persons.—Quarterly Review. CAMPBELL'S BOYISH TRICKS.—WhiIe the young phi losopher cautiously avoided all further skirmishing, he was unhappily not proof against temptations at home, which convinced him in the end that political intrigue is sometimes even worse than open warfare. The trap was set by a wily hand ; and as that hand was a brother's, Thomas never suspected that the well-known waggery of Daniel was to be played off upon himself. " My mother," says he, "had a cousin, an auld bedrid lady, of the name of Simpson, about whose frail life she felt great anxiety ; but, being herself a martyr to rheumatism, she was unable to visit her personally. She therefore sent, every day, either my brother or myself, a distance of nearly two miles, to inquire ' How Mrs. Simpson had rested last night, and how she felt herself this morning.' One day," he continues, "that I was sent to fetch the bulletin, which would have kept me from a nice party that was to go out for the gathering of blackberries, I complained, with tears in my eyes, to my brother Daniel, about this deil of an auld wife, that would neither die nor get better. Tut, man,' said my crafty brother, ' can't you just do as I do ?" And what's that ?" Why, just say she's better, or worse, without taking the trouble of going so far to inquire.' This seemed a piece of excellent advice; but a philosopher under 13 could see clearly that some untoward event might throw discredit on the bulletin. Daniel, 110vveker, with hi. tibuwi gravity, prosed to demonstratioi that there was no risk whatever in the plan, or why should be have carried it on so long. ' Well, thought 1, ' there was something in that.' It would certainly be a great saving of time,' said Daniel. I said I thought it would ; so having adopted the plan as a great means of saving time, we continued to report in this manner for weeks and months; and finding that a bad bulletin only sent us back earlier next morning, we agreed that the old lady should get better." These favourable reports of her dear cousin's health, were very gratifying to Mrs. Campbell. No sus picion whatever attached to the bulletins, as they were reported every morning :—" Mrs. Simpson's kind compli ments to mamma : has had a better night, and is going on very nicely." And thus the poet and his brother took advantage of every " nice party" that was made up, either for picking " blackberries," or any other play of equal interest and importance. But the pleasing deception could not last much longer; truth, that had been so in geniously defrauded, was about to make reprisals upon the young culprits. This, too, was at the very moment when they were starting to spend a long day in the coun try. " But, wae's me," says Campbell, "on that very morning on which we had the audacity to announce that ' Mrs. Simpson was quit,' recovered,' there comes to our father a letter, as broad and long as a brick, with cross bones and a grinning death's head upon its seal, and in dited thus : Sir,—Whereas Mrs. James Simpson, relict of the late Mr. Andrew Simpson, merchant, in Glasgow, died on Wednesday, the 4th instant, you are hereby re quested to attend her funeral on Monday next, at ten o'clock, a.m.' " Never was evidence more conclusive. Both the culprits would have gladly confessed the trick, and implored pardon, but they were speechless; and in as much consternation as if the grimly ghost of Mrs. Simpson herself had delivered the fatal message. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell looked at the letter, then at their two hopeful sons, and then at one another ; but such were their grief and astonishment, that neither of them for some minutes could utter a word, "At last," says the poet, " my mother's grief for the death of her respected cousin vented itself in cuffing our ears. But I was far lees pained by her blows than by a few words from my father. He never raised a band to us ; and I would advise all fathers who would have their children to love their memory, to follow kris example."—Beattie'" Life of Campbell. Ylll LITIIPOOL STANDAR& etwat The Mayor of Norwich has presented Jenny Lind with a handsomely bound copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. Tuesday was the two hundredth anniversary of the de capitation of Charles L, at Whitehall. One day last week, a journeyman miller at Whitstable was killed by the mill sail. An innkeeper at Sowerby, near Halifax, announces that he has iiivented a machine for ringing church bells, and blowing the bellows of church organs, by steam. The " Messiah" will be performed in February, at Exeter-hall, when the soprano part will be sung by Jenny Lind : who has gratuitously offered her services. It is said that Prince Albert will visit Grimsby on the is ,,, `h April, for the purpose of laying the foundation of the nett xl' docks.nt 'a of £2OO has been lately made to Mr. Edward William Lane, the well-known a uth or o f th e " M o d ern and of a very a cc u ra t e t rans l a ti on o f th e " Arabian .t.rights." The emigres. Egyptians, " tion from the Clyde in the course of the has bcen greater than during any previous year 1 total was 10,035, o f w h om 612 were ca ~, d 9,423 st eerage passegers . uyepaornl record.B4B Th, m hkct Society" exists a t Ch e lt en h am , b T i h n e pa ~s A s en n t g i e . hr s, ~u and the members held their annual dinner on Tuesday. The test of admission is, the unreserved adoption of the motto " No humbug." At the Lambeth police-Office, on Thursday, Ann Walsh, a middle-aged woman, dressed as a widow, was c:iarged with stealing nine pennyll, - orth of beef-steak. On her person £9 Bs. in gold and silver were found. She ' was fined £5. The deceased Brigadier-General Cureton was a native of Hordley, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, His first public service was an ensign in the Shropshire militia ; he after wards entered as a private in the 14th Light Dragoons, under the assumed name of Roberts. THE TOOTING INQUIRY,—An application was made on Thursday to the judges presiding at the Central Criminal Court, for a postponement of Mr. Drouet's trial until the next sessions, the prosecutors not having had sufficient time to prepare their case, The application was granted. A gamekeeper of the Earl of Ripon, named Harrison, who watched the preserves near Ripon, was found, on Thurs day week, lying dead in a plantation, with a dreadful wound in his breast. A poacher, named Matthews, has been committed for the murder. On Saturday week, a fine boy, nearly four years old, lost himself on the moors near Bradford, and was not found till Wednesday, when, on the snow disappearing, the poor little fellow was found prostrate on the heath, of course a lifeless corpse. UPPINGRAM.—A rumour of a most painful nature is afloat in this town, implicating the character of a Rutland gentleman, who enjoys a high position in society. Dis closures of a grave nature, affecting the integrity of his conduct as a director of a savings'-bank, are likely to be made in a few days.—Lincoln Herald. On Wednesday last, a furious ox forted its way up the stairs of a house in Glasgow, until at last it became so jammed that it could neither ascend nor descend, and was ultimately shot by some butchers, who had vainly at tempted to extricate it alive, as the animal fiercely endea voured to kick or gore every one who approached. A POACHER'S RUSE.—Some years since a man who lived near Wedmore was suspected of poaching, and re ceived a summons to appear before the magistrates. Puzzled what to do, his wife took out the baby from the cradle, and rocked him in it : he then went before the magistrates, and swore he had not touched a gun or wire since he was rocked in the cradle, and got clear off. CALIFORNIA. — We have been furnished with a copy of " The Californian," a newspaper published at San Fran cisco. It contains no material particulars respecting the gold-finding in addition to those which have appeared in our paper, but it fully confirms the most sanguine accounts which have been received on the subject of the quantity and quality of the gold in that country.—Bath Paper. THE STANFIELD HALL MERDERS. --- MTS. Jermy is re ported to be still in very bad health, and her servant, Eliza Chestny, to be also in a precarious condition. These facts, together with the pregnancy of Emily Sandford (alias the Widow James) renders it probable that some of these witnesses may not be able to appear in court during the trial of Rush at the approaching assizes, At a wedding last week, at Nigg, in Ross-shire, John Monro, the bridegroom, who happened to go out at the door of the house where the bridal was being celebrated, was seized by three stout men, and carried four or five miles over fields and ditches. When he was missed all was dismay in the gay party, and the poor bridegroom did not reach home till six o'clock in the morning, wet and weary. DREADFUL ATTEMPT AT SELF DESTRUCTION.—On the 19th inst., the lady of Sir John Pole, of Shute-house, precipitated herself frci'm her bedroom window, on the third floor, and sustained contusions of such a character that will render her a cripple for life. Various rumours are i❑ circulation as to the cause which could prompt a lady in her elevated station, to contemplate such an act.— Devonshire Chronicle. The original floor of the ancient refectory at Durham has been discovered. About a foot and a half below the joists was a uniform surface of rubbish, on removing a portion of which, to the depth of about thr ee feet, the workmen struck upon the floor of the ancient refectory. It is composed of plain red encaustic tiles, about ten inches square, and of much rougher composition than is now deemed requisite. An awkward blunder has been discovered in tbe "Removal of Nuisances act," which will in some degree retard sana tory progress till an amendment be obtained. By the English act nuisances on all highways are illegal ; but from a decision by the sheriff substituie of Perth, it ap pears that in Scotland they are illegal only if on roads supported by rates ; on turnpikes they may offend sight and smell with impunity. Louis PHILIPPE.—A paragraph, apparently authorised by the royal party alluded to, appears in the Times, con tradicting a statement that has appeared in one of the Paris journals of the past week, to the effect that a com munication had taken place between the ex-King Louis Phillippe and the President of the French Republic with respect to the conditional return of the ex-Royal Family to France. A COOL ASSERTION.—The bail!' News, which last week abandoned the threepenny-halfpenny price, as utterly ruinous, remarks that the whole of the morning papers, with the exception of the Advertiser and itself, are " crushing and annihilating every liberal sentiment." This is rather a bold assertion, seeing that every really liberal measure of late years has been carried under the auspices of a conservative ministry and a conservative press. A WOMAN'S AFFECTION.—.A.bout the end of Decem ber last Edward Howe, publican, of Cowbridge, was, on the information of a suspected poacher, who received a reward of £5, committed to Cardiff gaol for three months for receiving game, improperly obtained, in exchange for beer. His wife was immediately taken ill of brain fever, induced by her husband's committal, when several ma gistrates used every effort to obtain his release, but with out effect. Mrs. Howe, the poor wife, lingered on, and on Friday week expired, leaving six children in a desti titute condition, and the bereaved husband still in gaol. DEATH FROM SWALLOWING A SWORD.—On the 24th instant, Thomas Rams Samee, the celebrated Indian juggler of that name, was attempting to perform the trick of swallowing the sword, which he executed in the usual way until it arrived about six inches in his tesophagus, when he felt an obstruction, and forcibly, though inno cently, pushed it four inches further, instead of with drawing it, as is usual when difficulties occur. He fell back, and had injured himself so far that inflammation set in, and he died the Friday following. His father first introduced the feat, having commenced with a piece of cane a few inches long, and gradually increasinc , it until he could swallow a blunt instrument twelve inches long. THE ATTEMPTED POISONING AT BRISTOL.-011 Sa turday, Henry Evans underwent a final examination at Bristol charged with administering poison to his wife. An assistant in a druggist's shop at Bristol deposed that on the previous Saturday morning, the prisoner came to his employer's shop and asked for a pennyworth of white " cippity" powder. He said "it was for the children's heads." Witness went to the dispensary and weighed him out one scruple. He put a printed label upon it, on which was inscribed " poison." Herapath, the analytic chemist, was examined, and deposed to facts strongly pre sumptive of the prisoner's guilt, and he was fully com mitted on the capital charge. _ SECRET POISONING.—X horrible case of secret poison ing has been brought to light at Yarm. The murderer is a railway labourer, named George Howe, whose wife on the 11th of November last died rather suddenly after her accouchement. She left behind her the infant she had given birth to, and a boy about four years of age. Three days after her death Howe went to live with a person named Bray, whose housekeeper was a widow named Wood. During his residence there, it was ascertained that he was paying his addresses to a woman who had about £3OO in the bank. He had frequently expressed a wish that the infant would die, as he could then marry the woman who had the money. He has since been committed for the murder of the infant, by administer ing to it oxalic acid. CANINE SAGACITY.—A striking case of canine sagacity occurred recently on Widemouth Down, near Bude. A sheep had been lost by Mr. Pethick for some time, and its recovery had been given up as hopeless. Last week, however, as Mr. Pethick, accompanied by his dog, Shep herd, was going his usual daily round, the animal went over the cliffs, but quickly returned to his master, wagging his tail and howling to attract attention. His master at first took no notice, but the dog's gesticulations being re peated, he was at last induced to follow the animal to the place which it indicated, in the side of the cliff, and dan gerous to approach, being only reached b' ropes. The sheep was there fowld between two parallel pieces of the cliff, a considerable distance below the edge, where a small stream passed through. The sheep was immediately ex tricated from its stone-bound prison, in which it had been confined a month and three days, subsisting on the water alone. It was muck reduced, but is still living and doing well.—Exeter Gazette. COURT MARTIAL—SINGULAR CASE.—At Devonport, on Wednesday and Thursday. a court-martial was held on board the Caledonia, 120 guns, upon Commander George Sprigg, late of the Ferret, 8, for having upon the 18th of June, 1848, put eleven men of the Brazilian schooner Castro the Third into a boat, and directed them to steer to the western coast of Africa, many miles off, without being properly provided with food, &c. This vessel, which was a slave-ship, had been captured by the Ferret. The evidence went to show that the crew of the Castro. when captured, were equal in number to those of the Ferret, and consequently that it would have been dan gerous to keep so many as prisoners ; that the boats' crew had not far to steer; that they were supplied with Bologna sausages and other food and water ; that the sea was calm, and that they landed safely. The decision of the court-martial, however, after a very elaborate defence from the accused, was, that Commander Sprigg be repri manded and admonished, a result which occasioned great surprise. On Thursday, the queen's speech was transmitted from the central station at Lothbury to Liverpool, Manchester, York, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Derby, and other places, and was posted at the various subscription rooms and exchanges in considerably less than one hour after its delivery in the House of Lords. The speech would be in Dublin, Guernsey, Jersey, and Paris the same evening. MR. BALFE'S CONCERT.—JENNY LIND.—On Monday night, the large room in Exeter-hall was crammed to suffocation on the occasion of Mr. Balfe's concert, which, among many other attractions, offered that of Mdlle. Jenny Lind's second appearance in this great popular arena for musical entertainments. The programme was chiefly made up of those light and brilliant morceaux which appeal to the general ear, without reference to the extreme refinements of art. Nevertheless, the execution was in almost every particular so admirable, that it lent an interest to the performance wholly indepeident of the materials of which it was composed. Mademoiselle Jenny Lind was of course, the cynosure of attraction. She sang no less than five times, which, with three encores, made eight. The appearance of Signor Lablache, who had just returned from Paris, was the signal for the most enthusiastic applause. EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—The Derby Mercury states that Colonel Gawler, formerly governor of Australia, delivered a lecture in that town, on Monday evening, upon the subject of emigration, "in consequence of the great number of candidates for emigration, who have for some time past literally thronged the residence of Colonel Gawler seeking for information respecting the above colony." Upwards of 200 operatives and other persons, with their wives and grown-up persons, were present. The lecture was illustrated by maps, and the physical and other advantages of the country were well explained. Colonel Gawler concluded his observations by some excellent advice as to the cultivation of habits of industry, temperance, economy, and religion, as the sure and certain means of happiness, prosperity, and success in such a country. At the close of the lecture, a vote of thanks was proposed to Colonel Gawler, and subsequently a similar vote to Mrs. Gawler for the kind and lady-like spirit she had shown in furthering the wishes of those who were about to emigrate. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM'S EMBARRASSMENTS. —Mr. Forster, the editor of the Stowe Catalogue, throws much and curious light on the causes of the Buckingham family embarrassments, which appear to have begun fur ther back than the public have had a notion. The first proximate one mentioned definitely is the burning of Wotton, one of the family seats, twenty-eight years ago. The late duke's reception of the exiled royalty of France, at the close of last century. was also another great cause ; as was likewise the magnificence with which the present duke, during his father's lifetime, kept up his position at the head of the agricultural party ; and, lastly, the im mensity of the sums requisite to discharge his own and his parent's liabilities, when his grace succeeded to the title. The contents 9f Stowe were valued to the present duke at £245,000, and he paid probate duty on that sum. After having added £lOO,OOO worth of fresh property, the whole sold at the late sale for £75,000, though the prices were deemed excellent. The recent royal visit to Stowe, Mr. Forster shows, had nothing whatever to do with the ruin which has since followed, contrary to a general belief that prevailed as to the overwhelming costliness of the occurrence. THE DUCAL HOUSE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. — The re luctance which the Percy blood has always shown to flow in other than female veins is very remarkable. If at any time more male births have taken place than have barely sufficed to keep up the descent of the title from father to son, they have usually proved unproductive. Indeed, this has been uniformly the case, with one very recent excep tion, for more than three centuries, to go no further back. The seventh Earl of Northumberland, who succeeded to the title in 1537, left only four daughters. His brother, the eighth earl, besides three daughters, had eight sons ; but all of them died either unmarried or without issue. The ninth earl left two sons and two daughter; out of the sons only the eldest had issue. The tenth earl, had six daughters, and only one son ; and that son, who became the eleventh earl, left only one child, a daughter. That daughter, the second heiress of her house, besides six daughters, had seven sons ; but of them all, only the eldest had issue ; and he again left only a daughter, once more and for the third time to transfer the stream of descent to a new channel. Her eldest son, the second Duke, left two sons ; but the elder of the two, who be came the third duke, died without issue ; and the present duke, who is the younger, has no family. Of the second son of the first dtike, IVoWever, who succeeded his father as Baron Louvaine, and was afterwards created Earl of Beverley, the posterity in both sexes is very numerous. — Romance of Me Peerage. GREAT FLOOD AT INVERNESS.—The river Ness, on Thursday morning, was flooded to an extent never equalled in the recollection of the oldest residents in the town. The old stone bridge, once the glory of the town, has been completely carried away. The old stone bridge, likewise, was in a tottering state, and fears were entertained for its safety. Only a few persons were per mitted to pass at once. The water was so deep in Tomna hurich-street that the people residing there had to be taken from their houses in boats. They had also to use boats in the Haugh. Some families were obliged to escape from their houses by ladders from the upper storey win dows. At the Little Green, the water was up to the thatch of the houses. An old house next to the bridge, on the east side of the river, was, at the time of the de spatch of the mail, being washed away stone by stone. Gordon-place was in great danger. All the residents on either side of the river were leaving their domiciles. Ness House, likewise, was vacated by the inmates. The scene from Castle-hill, on Thursday forenoon, was awful in the extreme. The wind was blowing tremendously, and the rushing waters presented a sight which bids defiance to description. On Wednesday, all the canal officials pro ceeded, under the direction of the engineer, to Doch garroch. It was feared that the banks would soon give way. Should this happen, the consequences will be most disastrous : it is distressing to think of the result. The Spey also has overflown its banks, and the whole of the adjoining lands are flooded to the extent of several feet. The damage done to property must be immense. THE GREATEST IMPOSTOR IN LONDON.—At Guildhall, on Wednesday, an Irishman, named John M'Cormack, who, to all appearance, was in great suffering, was ex amined on a charge of street begging.—Speck, one of the city police, stated that he saw the prisoner, whom he knew to be a begging impostor, following his occupation in Moorgate-street, and the better to excite sympathy, he had round his head a white cap, fastened under his chin, so as to show only his face, and which gave him the ap pearance of having recovered from a severe fever, and that he was greatly debilitated : while, on the contrary, he had a fine head of hair, and was not at all the object of pity he pretended to be.—At the desire of the Alderman, the officer took out the pin from under the chin, and re moved the cap, when the appearance of the prisoner was as instantly altered as if he had received the touch of a - Harlequin's wand ; for instead of the pale face and wo begone looks, a fine crop of black hair set his countenance off to advantage, while on unbuttoning his outer coat, which appeared to be much the worse for wear, it was found that he was warmly and comfortably apparelled, and, in fact, it was evident he made a trade of begging. The removal of the cap created laughter.—The officer said he had known the prisoner for the last seven years ; he and his wife sometimes went about with five or six chil dren, and at other times by themselves, asking alms. In short, he was one of the greatest impostors in London. — The magistrate sentenced him to one month's imprison ment, leaving it to the doctor to report whether he was most fit to receive a whipping or be worked at the tread mill. WA." CONFESSION OF MURDER.—An extraordinary confes sion was made on Thursday by a young woman, an in mate of the Kingston poorhouse (Portsea Isiand Union), of two most cold-blooded acts of infanticide committed about ten years ago. For some time past the woman, whose name is Mary Anne Skinner, had been leading a most wretched life from poverty and other causes ; she had latterly become an inmate of the above-mentioned union, where, on Thursday, finding death approaching, she raved and called for one of the guardians to come to her. Sae called for her sister also, apparently a well educated and respectable young woman, and then made a statement, which one of the guardians (Mr. Marks) took down in writing from her lips, that she was seduced by a gentleman, a member of the legal profession, then and now residing at Gosport; that the first fruit of their inter course she, with his cognizance and persuasion, murdered ; that about twelve months afterwards she again became enceinte by her seducer, who took her to Portsmouth to a ball, where the pains of labour were brought on ; he took her back to Gosport, where she was confined the same night, and a fine child was born alive ; the child was sent for by the seducer, taken away in a pocket kerchief by his clerk, and disposed of as the first had been (a skeleton was found some years after In the very spot mentioned by the woman in her confession) ; that the man gave her money (£5) to assist her to obtain her wants, and to keep secret the transactions. Other circumstances of infamy and atrocity are detailed in the confession. Major Tra vers, one of the justices of the peace of Portsmouth, was sent for immediately by Mr. Marks to take down officially the statement of the woman, but when he arrived the woman was either so terrified or so exhausted, perhaps both, that she could not again recount the story. Death terminated her sufferings on Friday. EDUCATION. - At a meeting of the subscribers to the public library at Tamworth, on Friday wee l ;, Sir Robert Peel appeared in the character of a liberal promoter of middle class education. He presided at the meeting, and took the opportunity to announce that he had just corn-. pleted a plan for remodelling on a more extended scale the public school which his father endowed at Tamworth. It had struck him that the very general attention now turned by the public to education was limited to the benefit of the poorer classes ; what were called the middle classes—on the individuals of which the burden of well educating their children fell with very heavy pressure— were somewhat overlooked in the movement. He propo sed to provide in his father's school the means of a first class education—not classical, but one embracing geogra phy, natural philosophy, history, and science in its diffe rent branches—for the benefit of the middle class who reside in Tamworth or its neighbourhood. He would provide an endowment for a master of first-class attain ments ; namely, £7O a year, and £lO for a house till one was provided, in addition to the liberal allowances made by the Privy Council—for the school should be placed under the Privy Council inspection. The present foun dation arrangements should remain, and should be for the benefit of the poor. The scholars of the new endowment should be admitted on a very small annual payment—X2 a year and their expenses of books, &c. The produce of these payments should go, if the school were encou rage d, towards enlarging and benefiting the original foundation. If necessary he would build a new school-room twice the size of the present. A treasurer should receive all monies, and the schoolmaster none. He had obtained a master highly recommended, and would carry out his plans forth with. The announcement was received with much ap- Mause. After the meeting Sir Robert di n ed w ith the ayor and Corporation of Tamworth. THE DAUGHTER OF A LIBERATED SLAVE.—Among the audience et the anti-slavery meeting in this city on Thursday week was Miss Crowther, the daughter of the Rev. Samuel Crowther, the converted native African, who has been ordained by the Lord Bishop of London, and is now engaged in extending the knowledge of the Gospel in his own country of Abbeokuta. Miss Crowther, who is also a native of Africa, felt great interest in the proceed ings, her father having been rescued from a slave ship by one of the British cruisers, to which event is owing his present career of usefulness to his countrymen and the Church. On leaving the meeting Miss Crowther energe tically expressed to those who had conducted her thither her satisfaction at what she had heard, and only regretted that she could not tell the meeting how grateful she felt to the English people for what they had done, and urge them to renewed exertions in so good a cause.—Devon shire Chronicle. MR. CLOSE AND THE "TIMES."—In a recent num ber, the Times inserted an indignant denial by Mr. Close, of a false calumny about him, and in noticing that denial, the Times says, "If there be no reply, Mr. Close is entitled to judgment. Let us wait and see." Well, how have they waited ? What have they done to set ins clear light, and not leave in obscurity, their own charges against Mr. Close, and the far more infamous allegations of their base correspondents ? The directors of the Chel tenham hospital requested that their resolution, which disposed of the part of the charge which had reference to the charity, might appear in the Times. The Times takes no notice! Several hundred of Mr. Close's pa rishioners transmit a paper to the Times,uniting in the state ment that the infamous allegation of the Times corre spondent is " absolutely false," arising fromfeelings " wicked and malignant.' , What does the Ti mes d o with this document, and with Mr. Close's reply ? They ex clude them both ! The great interest they express in Mr. Close's good name exhibits itself in a very remark able manner. This is persecution, and it is persecution for the truth's saks. EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.—At a recent meeting in Durham, Mr. Wharton told the following marvellous, but no doubt, from the high respectability of the narrator, true story :—At a village not far from Bishop Auckland, there were several small land sale collieries, and about 25 years ago a man was standing upon the settle board at the top of one of those pits, and by some accident or other he walked over the settle-board, and fell from the top to the bottom of the mine, which was 42 fathoms deep. Now, he believed that the summit of the middle tower of the Cathedral was 212 feet high from the churchyard ; and by multiplying 42 fathoms by six it gave them 252 feet, and it thus appeared that this man fell 40 feet higher than the summit of the middle tower of the Cathedral—upon his legs, and walked away from the bottom of the pit. It was difficult to imagine that any person could fall from the top of such a place to the bottom without being dashed to pieces ; and the question was, how did he escape ? He described his sensations in his descent. His first sensation was of indescribable horror, but after that he seemed to have lost all his senses. There was a common and vulgar notion that when a man fell from a great height and was dashed to pieces, he died long before he got to the bottom. This man had not much time for reflection in going down the pit, but when he got to the bottom the first thing which occurred to him was that some body might be fol lowing him, and he had better get out of the way as quickly as he could. (Laughter.) He did not, however, well explain to what his preservation might be attributed. He (Mr. W.) was greatly interested in the incident, and on descending the shaft himself, he found the bottom of the pit was exceedingly contracted—the upper part was 7 feet in diameter and the bottom part was not more than 4k or 5 feet. The man seemed to have had on a large loose jerkin, and he had no doubt but in his progress this garment expanded, and that in the lower part of the pit the air was compressed under him, and that this com pression of the air buoyed him up and saved his life. There was no other possible way to account for this pre servation, than by supposing that his jacket acted as a sort of parachute, and thus saved his life. The fact of his having gone down the pit was indisputable; he (Mr. W.) had seen the man, who had not a broken bone, and he spoke of the accident with the greatest glee. ROMANTIC STORY.—We can vouch for the accuracy of the following facts :—Years back Mr. E., a respectable inhabitant of Brighton, who carried on the business of a plumber and glazier, died, leaving behind him a widow and a daughter. Mrs. E. gave up the business and re moved to another part of the country—London, we be lieve. At all events, a few months back she was in the great metropolis, on a visit to some friends, with her daughter, now a very beautiful young woman. As the mother and daughter were passing one day through the Strand, they were overtaken by a violent storm of rain, which compelled them to look around for a place of shel ter, and none presented itself more opportunely than the porch of a large mansion, the nature of which at the time was not known to the fair refugees, but which was, in fact, the banking-house of S. S. and P., one of the most wealthy firms of London. Here the ladies took their station, but had not been there long before the door of the bank opened, and a young man of genteel appearance presented himself, and begged that they would step in until the violence of the storm had passed. The ladies accepted the offer, and were escorted by their polite con ductor into an inner room of the establishment. What passed here it is not in our power to say. The conversa tion, we may presume, turned upon the ordinary topics— the weather, the amusements, the incidents of the day; but, whatever the subject of the conversation, it was agreeable to all parties. At length the storm subsided, the rain ceased, and the ladies rose, and with many thanks to their young host withdrew, but not before he had suc ceeded in drawing from them the address of their London residence. Nor was it long before he availed himself of this information, called, and obtained permission to re peat the visit, which he did again and again, until, after a certain time, the young man declared his attachment, made proposals for the hand of the young lady, and was accepted. The parents of both parties were - favourable to the union, and a few days . ago the London papers an nounced to their readers the marriage of the eldest son of Sir John P. of the firm of S. S. and P., to Miss E., the daughter of the late Mr. E., of Brighton. The days of chivalry may be gone, but those of true gallantry and disinterested love will last while the human heart beats. —Brighton Herald. ATTEMPTED MURDER AND ROBBERY IN LEEDS.—On Wednesday, two labourers, named Rawson and Spooner, were placed at the bar of the Leeds court-house, charged with having, with two other persons not in custody, formed a plan to commit a murder and robbery, and which plan Rawson and one of the other persons had at tempted to carry into effect. The following particulars have transpired :—The person against whom the design was formed is John Sims, coal dealer, of St. Peter's-street, St. Peter's-square. On Wednesday, the l'ith ultimo, the prisoner Rawson and a man not in custody met at Spooner's house, and it was agreed that they should mur der Sims and rob him of all the money he had in his house, as they had been told that he had a hoard of about £l5OO in gold which he usually kept under the pillow of his bed. The result of the conference at Spooner's house was an agreement to meet at six o'clock next morning, to carry their object into effect. Accordingly, at that hour on the morning of the 18th, Rawson and another man went to Spooner's, when the latter was heard to say to his wife, in an under tone of voice, " Tell them I won't go. for I think one of them is soft, and will give information." Rawson and the other man then left Spooner's and went to Sims's house, pretending that they had gone for half a hundred weight of coals. He was in bed, and told them to come again in an hour. They never went again that morning, but postponed their next visit to nine o'clock at night. Sims had just got his supper, and being given to understand that they wanted some coals he admitted them into his house. While he was in the act of stooping down to get the coals, Rawson placed a cloth over his mouth, and struck him a violent blow on the head with a large hammer. He fell upon the coals, but, partially recover ing himself, he grappled with his assailant and a struggle ensued. Rawson's companion, immediately after the blow was given with the hammer, rushed up stairs; but upon hearing the struggle, and fearing that their intended victim might prove too strong for Rawson, which indeed was likely to be the case, he returned without searching for the expected booty, and both he and Rawson ab sconded, leaving the hammer behind them. The police were informed, and apprehended the prisoners. Spooner confessed that the crime was to be committed, and that he lent Rawson the hammer. Rawson also confessed that he struck Sims with it. They also confessed to a highway robbery. Sims lives alone in hishouse. Another man impli cated has been since captured. They were all remanded. THE COST OF REFORMING CRIMINALS.—We have something like 120,000 persons in prison annually, for terms longer or shorter. This number will give us a per manent average for a gaol population of more than 20,000 persons. For these, and a margin beyond —say, altoge ther, 25,000—prison accommodation must be found. This number is about the total of - what is called the " criminal " ' population" of this country _let is, of England and Wales. Scotland and Ireland, with the islands of Guern sey, Jersey, Man, &c., probably furnish about an equal number. But, for the moment, let us only take England and Wales as an example. To build prisons in various parts of England and Wales for the accommodation of 25,000 prisoners on the separate system, would require an extravagant sum. See what Reading cost. The num ber of cells as given in the last gaol returns is 248. The prison cost in round numbers £50,000. A palace for 248 unfortunate persons, with various conveniences not to be found in the houses of the middle classes, cost the rate payers of Berks an insignificant trifle under £50,000. That is, about £202 for the apartments of each individual. If the general magistracy of England and Wales were to follow the example of their brethren of Berks, they would require from the taxpayers, for building alone, not less than £5,000,000. But it may be said that Reading gaol is unnecessarily expensive. We don't want a " collegiate, castellated Gothic, or Tudor style," as Mr. Field describes his prison to be of. Then let us go to the " model" for all England—Pentonville. It holds 500 persons, and, in the first instance, cost £90,071 155., th a t is, for each pri soner's accommodation, £lBO 3s. But since then consi derable cost has been incurred in addition, and the price of the land-is entirely left out. If these two items were added to the amount of the outlay rendered in the official report, we have doubts whether the average per cell would be much below that of Reading. If a difference were to appear, the " collegiate and castellated" principle would be sufficient to account for it. A sum of five millions ! But this is not the worst feature of the case, even as to the simple question of expense. The cost of carrying on the system merits no less serious an attention. The ex penses of Pentonville for 1847 amounted to £19,343 ss. 9d. ; prisoners' earnings and sale of old stores amounted to £1,144 17s. 6d. ; leaving the balance of expenses against the prison of £18,198 Bs. 3d. for the year. To this must be added 5 per cent. on the outlay, —say on £100,000,--05,000. These sums added together make £23,198 Bs. 3d. as the total dead loss to the community for the ,s separat e management of a daily average of 457 prisoners. In other words, each prisoner has cost the country, over and above At the produce of his labour, nearly fifty guineas a year 1 Reading it is still more.—Daily Nam