The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-04 00:00:00

CHESHIRE AN]) WALES.

BIRKENHEAD CATTLE. FAIR.—The Birkenhead quarterly
cattle fair took place on Tuesday, 26th, on the vacant ground
at the back of the Wellington Hotel, Grange-lane. The show
of cows was rather large, and for the young stock good prices
were obtained. The number of horses, pigs, &c., was small.
There was bat a moderate attendance of buyers. and at three
o'clock in the afternoon the ground was nearly cleared.
SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY POE IRELAND.-011 Thursday
evening, a meeting of the friends of this society took place
in the school-room of Christ Church, Claughton ; the Rev.
Dr. Blakeney in the chair. The Rev. Fielden Oald, rector of
Tattenhall, attended as a deputation, and detailed the opera-
tions of the society, besides giving some interesting particu-
lars of its progress.
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BRUTAL ASSAULT AND ROBB.BRY Olt SIIIPBOARD.—At the
Birkenhead Police-court, on Thursday, John Farlan, Robert
Montgomery, George White, Wm. Kitchen, Charles Johnson,
and Robert Connaught, all seamen belonging to the emigrant
ship Robert Kelly, were brought up charged with assaulting
and robbing four others of the crew. The prisoners attacked
the complainants on shipboard, and after beating them in a
savage manner, broke open their chests, and abstracted nearly
the whole of their wearing apparel. The prisoners were com-
mitted to trial. •

CHESTER Holm AND Hoov FAlR.—This ancient "February
Fair" was held in Chester last Thursday. There were few or
no well-fed beasts ; and hardly more than four or five hun-
dred sheep, of which extremely few pens could be called fat
sheep. Hence the prices obtained were moderate, and scarcely
sustained the advance realised at the last Liverpool market.
The Horse Fair was better supplied : but there was by no
means a superabundance of good horses. The demand ex-
ceeded the supply, both for saddle and draught horses, as well
as for powerful cart horses. Good judges considered there
was scarcely a single first-rate horse in the whole fair; hence
even rather ordinary horses, fit either for saddle or collar,
fetched very good prices ; such figures as £6O or £7O were
given freely. One metropolitan dealer gave £5OO for seven-
teen hack horses, and wanted more. An unusual number
were bought up in the various stables the night before the
fair. The short supply of fine horses is generally ascribed to
the tempting prices—about £37 a-piece—at which the govern-
ment agents have been buying up horses in the adjacent rural
districts for cavalry uses in the Crimea.
SUSPECTED MURDER AT NANTYGLO.—Among the collieries
at Nantyglo, worked by Mr. Bailey, is one called the Balance-
pit. The shaft, which is from 160 to 180 feet deep, is covered
by a heavy lid, which the work people close up at night. A
few mornings back, on going to resume their work, they
were surprised to find that this lid, which was of great
weight, had been slightly moved from its position. On des-
cending the shaft they found at the bottom, lying across the
tramway, the dead body of a man. His jaw was broken, and
his head and face so maimed and disfigured as to render iden-
tification almost impossible. Fortunately, the dress which he
wore and his figure enabled those who had known him to
recognise him as a poor fellow of the neighbourhood, com-
monly called " Rodney," who had been seen near the pit on
the previous night. The ground was slightly covered with
snow, and, on its being examined, slight tracks of blood were
found. Two large bricks which had been placed the previous
night at a few yards distance from the mouth of the shaft
had likewise been removed, and on the ground where they had
been was a clot of coagulated blood. These circumstances leave
little doubt that the poor fellow was murdered, and his body
thrown down the coal-pit ; while, from the fact that it
requires the combined strength of two full-grown men to
remove the shaft lid, it would follow that more than one
person must have been concerned in it. The motive which
led to the perpetration of the crime cannot be conjectured.
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A " DEPUTY-GOVERNOR" IN TROUBLE.—A military-look-
inc. man, sporting a huge moustache, and attired in a suit of
shabby" black, was on Thursday brought up on remand, at the
Birkenhead Police-court, charged with being drunk in the
township on Tuesday night. On being charged on Wednes-
day, before Mr. Jackson, it was stated that the prisoner had
given the name of "Alexander Dignam Bushea, aged 63, de-
puty-governor of the Isle of Man." As the man was not then
sober, the magistrates ordered him to be sent back to bride-
well, and to be fed on bread and water. Upon being removed
from the dock, the prisoner clenched his fist and swore that
he would punish Mr. Jackson by having his name inserted in
the newapapers. At the police-office the " deputy-governor"
stated that he was " Lord William, brother of the Duke of
Argylle, LL.D., M.D., F.R.T.S., &c. On Thursday, on being
placed at the bar, he assumed quite a serious and grave ap-
pearance. Police-officer Fenna said that •he had made in-
quiries about the accused, and ascertained that he was a
phrenologist"—(laughter)—that he had recently arrived in
Birkenhead from the Isle of Man, and had been for a few
weeks residing with Mr. Walker, who, however, had been
obliged to put him away on occount of his drunken habits.
Within the last few days he had been living in Albion-street.
The prisoner was discharged.

°LIGHTING OF THE TOWNSHIP OF TRANMERE.—On Thurs-
day evening, a meeting, of the inhabitants of the above
township was held at the Queen's Arms Inn, for the purpose
of deciding whether the provisions of a certain act, relating to
the lighting of the township, should be adopted and carried
into effect. The meeting was convened by the overseers.
Mr. E. G. Willoughby was called upon to preside. Mr. Jones,
the assistant overseer, read the notice convening the meeting,
which, with great minuteness, detailed the boundaries pro-
posed to be lighted, which included the whole of Upper and
Lower Tranmere. Mr. Stuart then proposed the following
resolution : " That the provisions of the act 3rd and 4th Wm.
IV., chap. 90, so far as relates to lighting only, be adopted and
carried into execution in the district, as set forth in the
placard calling the meeting." Mr. Routledge, in seconding
the motion, said the time was come when something must be
done towards the lighting of the township. He said the cost
for the first year would be about sd. in the pound, and for
the next year it might be about lid. After a considerable
deal of squabbling, a division took place, when it appeared
that there were 42 votes fog the motion, and 16 against it.
The Chairman, therefore, declared the motion carried. Mr.
Gill then proposed that the following gentlemen should be
appointed as inspectors, for the purpose of carrying out the
provisions of the act :—Messrs. Willoughby, Lightbound,
Sam. Jones, Routledge, Ley, W. Stuart, Hopley, Houghton,
and Cumming. This having been seconded by Mr. Walker,
was unanimously adopted. On the motion of Mr. Guy, se-
conded by Mr. Motram, it was resolved that the inspectors be
empowered to call upon the inhabitants for the sum of £l5O,
in order to carry into effect the foregoing resolutions. The
meeting soon after separated.
BIRKENHEAD, LANCASHIRE, AND CHESHIRE JUNCTION
RAILWAT.—The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders in
this company was held on Friday, at the Monks' Ferry Hotel,
Birkenhead, for the purpose of receiving the report and the
half-yearly statement of accounts. Wm. Atkinson, Esq., chair-
manof theboardofdirectors,presided. The report stated that for
the past half-year there had been expended on capital account
the sum of £13,328 I6s. 3d., of which £5,135 6s. 7d. had been
laid out in reclaiming the foreshore of the Monks' Ferry pro-
perty, additional sidings, &c., at Rock-lane, Bebington, and
Frodsham stations ; for the erection of hydraulic machinery
for supplying water and working the cranes ; and the sum of
£8,193 9s. Bd. on the new warehouse, offices, basin, cranes,
&c., now in course of construction at the Bridge-end Station,
the want of which had greatly retarded the increase of traffic.
On rolling stock the sum of £650126.10d. had been expended
in providing new waggons, &c. The receipts for the half-year
ending 31st December, 1855, are £36,060 ls. 11d. for passen-
gers, and £31,143 4s. 11d. for goods, being an increase over the
half-year ending 30th of June, 1855, of £7,224175. 10d. A
considerable saving had been effected in the working charges
of the company under each head of expenditure. The total
charges as compared with the half-year ending 31st Decem-
ber, 1854, show a saving of £4,817 19s. 11d., and with the
half-year ending 30th of June, 1855, of £1,041 Os. 7d., thus
showing a decreased expenditure on an increased traffic. The
new works at the Bridge-end station are approaching comple-
tion. A satisfactory arrangement has been concluded with
the London and North-Western railway company in settle-
ment of all matters of dispute relating to the occupation by
this company of the Manchester and Warrington stations ;
also, for an interchange of traffic, by which this company is
secured the Man chester and Yorkshire traffic toChesterandNorth
Wales, passing over the Cheshire junctinn line. The directors
have felt the importance of making Birkenhead the shipping-
port, for the iron trade of the Mersey, and are prepared to
afford satisfactory accommodation for efficient storage and
transhipment. The Great-Western company having deter-
mined to exercise their running powers, commenced working
between Chester and Birkenhead on the second of this month,
and the question of payment to this company for the use of the
line and stations has been referred to arbitration under the
act of parliament. The balance available for dividend, as per
account, amounts to £21,157 13s. 2d., out of which your
directors recommended a dividend of two per cent. to be paid
to the shareholders, leaving a balance of £2,270 Bs. Bd. The
chairman briefly referred to the position of the company,
which he regarded as more prosperous than formerly, and
also to the increase in traffic, since arrangements of an ami-
cable character with the Great-Western company had been
carried out. He alluded to the various improvements which
were being made at different points on the line, and as ihe
Birkenhead docks were drawing towards completion, he was
in hopes that there were prosperous days before them. With
regard to the Great-Western company, some matters were
under the consideration of arbitrators, and as to Liverpool,
they would not say a word about their dues, &c., for it was
hoped that Birkenhead would be looked upon as Liverpool,
and that they would all work well together. It was proposed
to raise £40,000 to purchase rolling stock, and for making up
all deficiences in their machinery, which had in some measure
kept their traffic down. It was also proposed to establish a
depreciation fund, to cover which they had a great deal of
valuable surplus land, which would be disposed of advan-
tageously. After some discussion, the report was carried—a
dividend of £2 per cent. was declared, and a resolution was
passed authorising the borrowing of £40,000, &c., after which
the meeting separated.