The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-29 00:00:00

IN the Court of Common Pleas, lately, an action was
brought to recover £32 10s., the price of a hundred thousand
snowdrops. A verdict for the plaintiff was returned.

ME Bristol Mirror asserts that about ten days before
Christmas a Cochin China fowl was lost at Bath, and was
found alive, after a fast of 22 days, in an empty barrel.
LIB priory of Holy Island, familiar to the readers of Mar-
mion as Lindisfarn, is in process of restoration to the appear-
ance it presented in ancient days.

Tin Times says Sir George Grey has advised Her Majesty
to remit the remainder of the sentence of twelve months' im-
prisonment, passed upon Mr. Jackson, of Doncaster.
IT is said that in future tickets-of-leave will only be granted
to convicts on condition of the licentiate absenting himself
from the county of his old domicile and practices. • His re-
appearance in which infers his apprehension and return to
the hulks.
TICE Messager du Midi states that surveys have been
ordered for the extension of the railway from Paris to Cler-
mont as far as the Mediterranean. The new line is to traverse
the Gard and join the Montpellier railway at Marseilles.
IT is stated that the new decree of the French government, •
which substitutes fixed duties by weight on the importation
of wool for ad valorem, amounts to a-reduction of duty of
about one-half.
- -

A. LETTER from St. Petersburg says, that in the course of
the last campaign in Asia more than 60,000 images of saints
were despatched from that city for the edification of General
Mouravieff's army.
Ox Wednesday morning there was another general fall in
the price of bread in London of one halfpenny in the 4 lb. loaf,
the best wheaten bread being 9d. and in some places W.; and
the full-priced bread 101 d and 11d.

THE STEAMER BELGIQUE has put back to Southampton,
with one boiler burnt, and five feet of water in her hold. She
had proceeded 700 miles west of the Lizard, when compelled
to return. The passengers and crew worked day and night to
keep her afloat.
THE Leeds Chamber of Commerce has now under discussion
the propriety of forming trade associations in connexion with
the chamber, the particular objects of which shall be to watch
over the interests, and regulate, to some extent, the customs of
the respective branches of trade in the district.
THE arrangements on the Egyptian railroad give great sa-
tisfaction. The railway carriages are very superior; each one
costs £4OO. The Egyptian Transit Administration realised a
profit of £75,000 last year, and this sum is likely to increase
when the railway is made use of for the conveyance of
Egyptian produce from the interior.
A QUEER FISII—A codfish about 181 b. weight was caught
a few days ago in Brodick-bay, Island of Arran, by Andrew
Hamilton, a seaman, and in its gullet was found a thick silver-
plated spur with leather strap attached. This unusually
strange circumstance has excited no little surprise, and even
consternation, among some of the natives.
IN 1851, 5,000 widowers were married to spinsters, 2,400
bachelors to widows, and 2,700 widowers to widows. More
than 7,000 widowers stand here by the side of rather more
than 5,000 widows. In one case, a widower of 90 was married
to a spinster of 80. The youngest widower was 20, the
youngest widow 16.
LORD ASHBURTON has placed himself in communication
with the committee of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' In-
stitutes, and offered to engage a gentleman at his own expense,
for one year, to deliver a series of lectures before the members
of the Yorkshire Mechanics' Institution, on subjects of interest
to them, and to place him under the direction of the committee
of the Union.

POSTAGE TO THE EAST INDIES.—From the Ist of Febru-
ary the postage upon letters forwarded to the East Indies, via
Southampton, will be reduced to a combined British and
Indian rate of 6d. the half ounce. Letters forwarded via
Marseilles will be liable to the same rate, with the addition of
a French transit rate of sd. per quarter ounce.
AT Castle Eden the other day, in an assault case, the Rev.
Mr. Park, in announcing the decision of the bench, addressed
the defendant in the following manner :—As the assault is
not proved, we will dismiss the case on your paying the costs,
but, if you refuse to do so, then we shall fine you for the
assault !—Darlington and Stockton Times.
FROM statistics given by the Cornish papers, relative to the
profits of mines during the past year, it appears that on every
£5 share in the Buller Mine, there has been paid for the year
just ended a dividend of £l3O, and the market value of' a £5
share is now £650. Similarly, on a £sk share in the Basset
Mine, £137105. has been paid, and the shares are selling—or,
rather, would be purchased—if offered, at £4lO.
EDUCATION OF PAUPER CHILDREN.— A circular has been
issued by the Poor-law Board relative to the education of out-
door paupers' children. It gives an abstract of an act passed
in the last session on the subject, and, without requiring the
guardians to carry into effect the provisions of the act, re-
commends them not to lose sight of it. The guardians are
empowered to defray the expense of schooling for children of
recipients of out-relief so long only as the parents are
' chargeable, and the cost is to be placed to the same fund as
the parents' allowance is charged. Orphans and deserted
children may also be sent to school by the guardians. The
selection of the school or schools is left to the discretion of the
guardians.
THE NEW BILLS OF EXCHANGE ACT.—At the judges'
chambers a decision of considerable importance has been given
under the new Act on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes.
A plaintiff named Smith issued a writ in one of the superior
courts against a defendant named Evans, on a promissory note
for £l3 6s. and costs. The defendant's attorney took out a
summons to stay the proceedings upon the payment of the
debt without the costs, on the ground that the parties resided
within the same county-court district. The application was
opposed, and it was urged that the new act authorised all
actions on bills and notes to be brought in the superior courts,
irrespective of the amount. Mr. Justice Crowder was of
opinion that such was the law, although he thought with
others of the judges that there had been an oversight or omis-
sion in the framing of the act. The plaintiff's attorney sub-
mitted that it was very important that a decision should be
given on the point in reference to other cases. The learned
judge decided that the summons must be dismissed, thereby
establishing the principle that in all cases on bills of exchange
and promissory notes under the new law the proceedings may
be by writ of summons in the superior courts. By the new
rules, costs are allowed in all cases under the act.
A RAILWAY ROMANCE.—A singular affair occurred on the
Wear Valley Railway (Durham) the other day. A gentleman
from Birmingham found himself seated in a first-class carriage,
his vis-a-vis, and the only other passenger in that compart-
ment of the carriage, being a blooming lady, answering to the
alliterative description of "fat, fair, ann forty." The train
had scarcely moved a hundred yards from the station before the
lady suddenly leaped from her seat and exclaimed to the other
passenger, How dare you, sir ! What do you mean ?" The
gentleman, astonished, replied that he did not understand; he
had done nothing to harm her. Again and again she sprang
from her seat in apparent terror and rage, and declared with
vehemence that her neighbour was a villain, and she would
have him taken into custody at the next station. The gentle-
man protested his innocence, and asked what he had done;
but the eccentric lady still kept leaping from her seat, raving
against his treatment, till the gentleman decided that she was
mad, and resolved, on the arrival of the train at the next
station, to give her into custody. As her eccentricity did not
abate, he, on the arrival of the train at one of the stations,
was about to carry his resolution into action, when she sud-
denly sprang to the door, and screamed out " Guard, guard,"
at the top of her voice, and presently collected not only the
guard, but a crowd of people around her. She then com-
menced her accusation in words both loud and deep, protest-
ing that the gentleman had improperly pinched her legs, and
the gentleman, horrified at the charge, protesting with equal
vehemence his perfect innocence. At this juncture, when
matters looked serious for the gentleman, the guard happened
to recollect that he had placed a basket under the seat of the
carriage containing a live goose, and, pulling it out, the mys-
tery was explained, the bird being the criminal, and having
caused the lady's fears and the gentleman's apprehensions.
This explanation was received with perfect good humour and
satisfaction by the parties concerned, and the train renewed
its journey amid the convulsive laughter and applause of the
assembled multitude.
A MEMOIR OF WILLIAM PALMER.—It appears that Mr.
William Palmer is a member of a very wealthy family, and
is now in his 34th year or thereabouts. He was educated for
the medical profession, was a pupil at St. Bartholomew's,
recived the diploma of the College of Surgeons in 1846, and
settled at Rugeley, his native place. He seems, however, to
have paid more attention to the " turf" and what are com-
monly called sporting pursuits than to his own profession, and
to have confined his practice to his own family and friends.
His name appears in the London and Provincial Medical
Directory of 1851, and again in 1855, as that of one of the
persons who had neglected to inform the. editor of that work
of the nature of their qualifications • hence it has been hoped
that his claim to be considered one of ourselves was not a just
one. But his name appears in the list of the College of
Surgeons ; and we may suggest, in passing, that it will be
necessary for the future to be cautious in assuming the exist-
ence of no qualification, merely because none is recorded in
the Directory. He married in 1847, Anne, the natural daughter
of Colonel William Brookes and Mary Thornton, his house-
keeper. Colonel Brookes, who, after quitting the East India
service, took up his residence at Stafford, died in 1834, leaving
considerable property, and more than one natural child. To
Anne Thornton he bequeathed, by a will dated July 27, 1833,
nine houses in Stafford, besides laud, and the interest of
20,000 sicca rupees, for herself and her children, and ap-
pointed Dr. Edward Knight, a highly respectable physician
of Stafford, and a Mr. Dawson, her guardians and trustees.
To Mary Thornton, the mother of Anne, the Colonel be-
queathed certain property, which was to pass to the daughter
at the decease of the mother. Mary Thornton departed this
life, it is said, while a guest at Mr. Palmer's house, in 1848
or 1849. Now,although the will of Colonel Brookes would seem
clear enough to any one who was ignorant of the law, and al-
though, in the present state of the law, as we are informed,
it would be sufficient, yet it was discovered by the legal
fraternity some years since that the language conveying the:-
bequest to Anne Thornton was not sufficiently forcible to con-
vey it to her absolutely, but only to give her a life interest in
it; insomuch as at her decease it was liable to be claimed by
the heir-at-law to Colonel Brookes. Under these circum-
stances, there was nothing unnatural or unusual in the idea
that Palmer should insure his wife's life, in order to protect
himself from the inevitable loss which must ensue in case of
her decease; and, since her property consisted of 17 acres of
land, valued at between £3OO and £4OO an acre, besides nine
houses, and the interest of the sicca rupees—probably alto-
gether worth at least £4OO per annum, upon which he had
borrowed largely from his mother—there could be no doubt
of his having such an interest in his wife's life as would jug•
tify insurance. Accordingly, in January, 1864, he insured
her life for £3,000 in the Norwich Union, and in March in the
Sun for £5,000 ; there was also an insurance in the Scottish
Equitable for £5,000. It appears that proposals for insurance
were made to other offices ; but there seems nothing unusual
in this, for be might only have had in view to obtain the best
terms, unless, indeed, such proposals were made after the full
value of his wife's property had been covered. To proceed:
Mrs. Palmer died on September 29, 1854, under circumstances
which we shall proceed to examine, leaving only one surviving
child, a boy of seven years ; and, as if to justify the husband
in effecting an insurance, an action was brought within a
month by Colonel Brookes's heir-at-law to obtain possession
of Mrs. Palmer's property. Palmer brought up the life poli-
cies on the Sun and Norwich Union on the 16th of October,
1854, and employed Mr. Pratt, the solicitor, to obtain the
money from the offices. Mr. Pratt, who seems to have acted
with entire bona fides, and the caution usual among lawyers,
required to be furnished with evidence of the husband's pecu-
niary interest in his wife's life, took counsel's opinion on every
step, and obtained the £B,OOO from the offices on the 6th of
February, 1855 ; strangely enough, the £5,000 from time Scot-
tish Equitable was paid through a banker, unknown to Pratt.
—Medical Times.