The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-19 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN QUESTION.

MR. ROEBUCK has been so often praised for the
course which he has taken on particular questions,
that he has begun to assume an air of infallibility and
the tone of SIR ORACLE, as though his assertions were
the emanations of profound wisdom which it would be
folly to dispute. Accordingly, on Friday he indulged
the House of Commons with a statement of his par-
ticular views on the questions of difference with the
United States, and took the Ministers to task for not
elevating the quarrel into one of serious importance.
We are no willing eulogists of Lord PALMERSTON,
but he is certainly entitled to credit for the rebuke
which he administered to the self-sufficent member for
Sheffield. A breach of the good understanding which
now exists must be deeply deplored by the people of
both countries, because it would inevitably lead to the
most serious loss, without the most remote prospect
of the slightest advantage; and when it is well-known
that an amicable settlement of the questions absurdly
raised by PRESIDENT PIERCE would be promoted by
delay until his successor had been elected, it is
folly or something worse on the part of Mr. ROEBUCK
to endeavour to precipitate a quarrel by inconve-
nient explanations. The delay in choosing a Speaker
by the House of Representatives at Washington has
happened fortunately, because it has prevented the
feeling on the subject being excited by premature dis-
cussion; our own Government has very prudently pre-
served silence on the matter ; and as the only desire on
the part of this country must be to maintain that dig-
nified position which will only concede claims founded
in justice, we may well be content to wait until we
obtain a more formal declaration from the United
States than the very ambiguous Message of the
President, which has not been received by the body
to whom it is addressed.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.—A meeting of
this society took place last night, at the Royal Institution, in
Colquitt-street; R. McAndrew, Esq., F.R.S., the President,
in the chair. After the routine business, William Ihne, Esq.,
read the second part of his paper on the Emperor Tiberias, at
the conclusion of which thanks were voted to him, and the
meeting broke up.
MARRIED.—On the 16th inst., at Huyton, by the Rev-
Oswald Masters, Frederick George, son of Guido Dominico
Vedova, Esq., of Smyrna, to Frances Jane Airey, grand niece
of the late Admiral S. Martin Colquitt, and Admiral Sir
Richard Bickerton, Bart., K.C.8., and General of Marines,
and only child of Mr. W. Willcock, Poplar•bank, Huyton.
ON Saturday morning, a number of the boys and girls
belonging to the Cornwallis-street Evening Ragged School
were.kindly permitted to visit the Derby Museum. The
children appeared to be astonished and delighted with all they
saw, while their deportment in going through the place excited
the admiration of the officials in charge of the museum.

HONOURS AT THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.—Another
pupil of the Upper School, Mr. Webster, has just obtained dis-
tinguished honours at Cambridge, being first in the first class
of the moral science tripos. This is one of the new triposes
lately established in the university. The subjects of examina-
tion are modern history, political economy, moral philosophy,
English jurisprudence, and international law.
Towic DrrEs.—A preliminary meeting of the ratepayers of
St. Anne's Ward was held in the Queen's Arms, Queen Anne-
street, on Friday. The object of the meeting was to protest
against the proposed abolition of the town dues. Mr. Robin-
son moved the first resolution, which was as follows :—" That
this meeting views with regret and alarm the Local Dues on
Shipping Bill, introduced into the Commons House of Parlia-
ment by Mr. Lowe, whereby it is proposed to deprive this bo-
rough of its property in the town dues without compensation,
and hereby resolve to use every legitimate means to prevent
its being carried into law."—Mr. Gilbert seconded the resolu-
tion, which was carried unanimously.—Mr. Fairhurst moved
the next resolution, as follows :—" That, with the view of car-
rying the previous resolution into effect, this meeting forms
itself into a ward committee, for the purpose of promoting a
requisition to the Mayor to convene a public meeting of the
inhabitants to protest against a principle so subversive of all
established rights in property."—Mr. Brewer seconded the
resolution, which was carried unanimously.

EXTENSIVE THEFT FROM A BONDED WAREHOUSE.—
Yesterday, two young men, named Thomas Beezley and John
Herdman, were brought before the magistrates, on remand,
charged with having, on the night of the 6th or the morning
of the 7th instant, broken into the bonded warehouse of
Messrs. Harbord, in Suffolk-street, and stealing a large quan-
tity of tea, sugar, and spirits, the property of Messrs. Sprigg
and Co. From the evidence it appeared that, on the afternoon
of the 6th, the warehouse was locked up, and secured by Jas.
Gibney, a locker in the Customs' service. On the following
morning, Gibney, on going to the warehouse, discovered that
the government lock, and also the merchant's lock, had been
forced off the door, and, on entering,he found that an inner door
had also been broken open. Robert Bond, warehouseman to
Messrs. Sprigg & Co., on going into the warehouse saw that
a quantity of various kinds of goods had been stolen. A half-
chest of black tea had been emptied, and a quantity of green
tea, in all about 114 lbs., had been carried away. Four loaves,
or about 65 lbs. of refined sugar, were also carried away ; to-
gether with 36 bottles of gin, 12 bottles of brandy, and two
gallons of brandy, and a bottle of wine, all of which had been
in the warehouse when it was shut on the previous day.
Several witnesses proved that the prisoners took quantities of
brandy to different places, and gave portions of it to various
individuals to drink. The prisoners and several of these in-
dividuals got drunk on the liquor. The prisoners also sold
about 100 lbs. of tea, and somewhere about 60 lbs. of sugar.
The bottles of brandy were wrapped in whity-brown paper, as
those seen in the prisoner's possession. They were committed
for trial.
CHARGE OF EMBEZZLEMENT AGAINST ONE OF MR.
ROSE'S OVERSEERS.—SamueI Bingham, one of the overseers
employed by Mr. Rose, the contractor for cleaning, was yester-
day, charged with having obtained money under the false
pretence of payment of wages, for two men who had never
been in Mr. Rose's employment, a practice which Bingham
was alleged to have carried on for upwards of twelve months.
' When taken into custody by Povey, the detective-officer, and
told of the nature of the charge against him, Bingham ad-
mitted the imposition as to drawing the money, but said he
had done so on the suggestion of Mr. Cottam, Mr. Rose's
inspector. On being charged before the magistrate this was
denied, and David Codrigley, cashier to Mr. Rose, proved that
he had been in the habit of paying money as wages to men
whose names were entered in a time boOk, and the sums were
paid in proportion to the time the men had been represented
in the time-book as working. That book was prepared by
Bingham, and was understood to be checked by Cottam. The
book contained the names of two men, named Brown and
Evans, who were represented as not having been employed by
Mr. Rose. Several of the men employed proved that on
various occasions they had drawn money as wages for two
men named Brown and Evans, whom they did not know, and
which money they gave to Bingham, amounting to about
£1 14s. a-week. Mr. Rose gave the prisoner a good character,
and expressed great sorrow for the situation he was now
placed in. The prisoner was remanded till this morning.
A VERT SUSPICIOUS CASE.—A young man, named William
Brown, was brought up, on a second remand, before the police
magistrate:yesterday, on an allegation of having stolen a passage
ticket for a passage in the British and North American royal
mail steamer Canada. The prisoner was apprehended on
board the Africa, which sailed hence for Boston on the 2nd
instant, under the following circumstances :—Mr. Bates, the
private criminal officer, being on board on some professional
business, took Brown into custody on suspicion of having
picked the pocket of a lady, on board, of a purse, containing
five sovereigns. On being searched, a small pocket-book was
found in his possession, which contained the passage ticket of
Mr. A. Parry, who had been over, as a commissioner from
New York, at the Paris Exhibition, and who had sailed hence
for Boston, in the Canada, on the preceding Saturday. When
asked how he came to be possessed of this, the prisoner gave
many conflicting accounts of it. In one he said he found it
on the top of a coach in the west of England; in another, that
he found it in Water-street, while, according to a third state-
ment, he had got it in a present from a gentleman, whom he
did not know. In consequence of these very discrepant state-
ments, it was conjectured he had stolen the passage-ticket,
which would have entitled him to a passage in the Canada on
her next voyage, and on this suspicion he was detained to see
what Mr. Parry had to communicate on the subject. On his
being brought up yesterday, it turned out that Mr. Parry had
lost or had been robbed of the ticket in question ; but there
was no evidence to connect the prisoner directly with the theft
of it, although it was proved that he had been surreptitiously
on board the Canada at the time of her departure, and had
been landed by the pilot-boat, He was discharged.