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

THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD.—The following order was
sent to a tradesman in a town not twenty miles from. Liver-
pool, a few days ago :—" Box lice oles, Two peneth cacocon
cold, once ounce of therad ;" which, being translated, is—One
box lace holes, twopennyworth cotton cord, one oz. thread.
THE gas consumers in Manchester are complaining just
now of annoyance from an offensive and sickening smell which
has been for some weeks emitted from the gas burners or

pipes, and the cause of which no one has yet satisfactorily
accounted for.

Aaroxek the patents sealed during the week ending the 19th
instant, is one to Mr. William Henry Lancaster and M. James
Smith, both of Liverpool, for consuming smoke, and for gene-
rating and diffusing heat in furnaces, and in furnace and
other flues.

COAL IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.—Messrs. James Baines
and Co. have received intelligence from their agent in Hobart
Town, that coal as good as Whitehaven coal has been found
by Williams, the celebrated chartist, near that place; and he
advised that no more coal be sent to the antipodes.
AMERICAN COTTON Fon Russie.—The Russian consul at
New Orleans, Mr. Jones, has forwarded to the " Economic
Society," in St. Petersburg, various samples of American cot-
ton, and invites the society to endeavour to aim to avoid for
the future drawing the supplies of this needful material from
either London or Liverpool ; but rather to obtain it through
American agency. This is mentioned in the Russian journals,
as a proof of the good intentions and friendly sympathies
manifested in the United States !

PICKING A LADY'S POCKET.—Mary and Jessie M'Guffy

(mother and daughter), and Anne Johnson were charged at
the Police-court, on Friday, with picking Caroline Greaves'

pocket of £lO. Mrs. Greaves, who keeps a cigar shop in
Houghton-street, stated that, on Wednesday last, the three
prisoners came into her shop and asked if she could let them
have lodgings, arta in the conversation the prisoner, Jessie
M`Guffy, picked her pocket. Jessie M`Gaffy was sent to gaol
for three months, but the others were discharged, as there

was no evidence against them.
11BANTA Comm=Es.—At the weekly meeting, on Thurs-
day, a deputation, including a number of ladies, had an
interview with the committee relative to an alleged nuisance
from a slaughter-house kept by a person named Clarke, in
Plumbe-street. After some discussion, during which Mr.

Gladstone recommended the entire removal of every slaughter-
house from within the borough to some place at a moderate

distance from the town, Mr. flaydeck gave notice that, at the
next meeting, he would move that the license of Mr. Clarke's
slaughter-house be withdrawn. Mr. Beckwith called the

attention of the committee 'to 'the letter of Mr. Alderman

Toulmin which appeared in the Weekly Mercury respecting
the reported proceedings Of the Health Committee. A !mak-
.ened explanation ensued, in the course of which several gentle-
men affirmed the accuracy of last week's proceedings.—The
Medical Officer reported an increase of mortality for the 'week

ending SaturdaY;the 19th instant, as a consequence of the
cold weather which prevailed from the 9th to the 16th inst.
The deaths from all (causes, which in the previous week were
228, rose last week to '262, the corrected average of the same
week of former years being 24 less than the mortality is
accounted for bythe increased number of deaths from diseases
of the lungs, whieh were 98 against 66 in the reams week.
During the q-aarter ending the 29th DeceMber,:223l deaths
were registered 'in the borough, including 157 On which in-
quests were held. This number is 100 less than the average
of the same ,quatter of the preceding eight years corrected for
increase of poptilation. No death was registered from cholera,
being the second quarter in which this has occurred during
the last eight Tears. Diseases of the lungs caused 871 deaths,
being 285 more than in the preceding 'quarter, but rather
below the .oresage of the corresponding period of former years.
ALLEGED MURDER ON THE HTGN SEAS.—On Thursday,
an inquest was held on the body 'of Williasn Henry Barnes,
late an American seaman on board the ship Driver. The de-
ceased died in the Northern Hospital, on Wednesday, having

been stabbed in the abdomen while 'the ship was off Cape
Clear, bya boy named Peter thnnolly,- a native of Liverpool.
In the hospital the deceased made the fallowing declaration :
" I bellevel am dying. I think it.wasen last Friday we ar-
rivedkore. When we were-a,bout twenty-two days at sea, one
morthlng, about four o'clock, we made'Cape Clear. The third
matt:gave orders to loose the standingiib. I went and loosed
it, which I thought this Peter ouglitzto have done. When I
cause on deck I asked him if he nrecut to loaf on me. He
said, None of your dammed business.' I said, If you give
me any of your cheek, I will small your face for yon: I
Slapped him: back-handed across the mouth. He then stabbed
me with a knife, which Ite took from a sheath by his side. I
saw him strike me with the knife. I staggered and went aft
te the cabin door, and•called!for the ship's doctor. While the
-doctor was dressing nit theTaptaincame out of the after part
-cf the cabin, and said 'to You-son of a bitch, have you got
4unother button-hole in you:-?' captain, have mercy on
"me until I get over this. '''Yes,' said he, for two pins
-would tie you up and/log -you inttwo minutes.' The day we
-docked I sent for Poter to conmilewn and see me, bat he did
not come. Ido not know what he shipped as, but he is net
an able seaman. He belongs to Liverpool." The prisoneris
about sixteen yearg' old, round:faced, stout-built, and pock-
marked. His height is abouti6 (feet 4 inches. The prisoner,
after being cautioned in the' usual way, said the deceased
kicked and abusedaiim•very much, and that he had two 'wit-
nesses to prove it. He also ,said that the deceased ,had
threatened to kill Um before, and he was afraid he would
carry out that threat. The jary returned a verdict of man,
slaughter" against the prisoner,mho was committed rtrial.

EXTRA.ORDIITIiFir .POISOKFKG CASES AT MAKCSIMSTER.--
On Wednesday, three men mere placed at the bar of the Man-
chester City Court-house, before Mr. Rickards, Mr. Roe, and
Mr. J. A; Turner, magistrates, on a charge of poisoning,
which, in some of its main features, resembles the Rugeleys
case. The prisoners were Thomas Bull Holland, a surgeon,
James Monaghan, arida man named Barry. A man named
Edward Dunn is: implicated in the same charge, but has been
convicted foranother offenee;andis serving a period of imprison-
ment. Mr. Bratilengh appared on behalf of the Diadem In-
surance CoMpany, as presenter. It is understood that the
prisoner Heiland, who is a surgeon, has made a confession or
statement to Mr. Bradleugh, revealing the whole of Lis trans-
actions with the,ether prisoners, which statement is :to the
effect that, being surgeon to the Diadem Insurance Company
for the district, the prisoners had applied to him to pass John
Monaghan (the,prisoner Monaghan's father) as a _good life,
and that subsequently they were-in his surgery when lie was
mixing a solution of white lead with water, and asked him if
it could not he done without assuming a milky colour. He
then shewed them that it could be mixed with whiskey so as
to be colourless. There was reason to believe that some of
this mixture was:iven to the old man Monaghan, who died
some months age, when the prisoners and Dunn applied for
£3OO, the sum for which Monaghan's life had been insured,
but were refused:the money. His disclosures had also led to
the belief that two other persons had been similarly poisoned.
Mr. Bradleugh stated that the charge against the prisoners,
along with Dunnt(who was in prison for embezzling money
belonging to an insurance company,) was for having destroyed
the life of one John Monaghan, the father of the prisoner
James Monaghan, to obtain the sum of £3OO from the Diadem
Life Insurance Company. His first application would he to
the bench to liberate Holland from the dock, so that he might
be examined as a Witness. There was reason to believe, from
the disclosures helrad made, that he was willing to further
the ends of jnstice,,and his evidence, was of great importance
towards establishing the charge against the other prisoners.
The magistrates' having consented torthe application, Thomas
Bull Holland was removed from thadock to the witness-box,
and subjected to a long and painful examination of some hours.
The examination was most painful to:listen to, because Hol-
land prevaricated to an extent which rendered it almost im-
possible to get half-a.dozen consecutive sentences from him
without the grossest contradictions. :Probably this was to
some extent in consequence of a warning from the bench that
he was not bound to answer any question that might crimi-
nate himself. Eventually the magistrates determined on
granting a remand.—Acase was under investigation on Wed-
nesday afternoon, at Manchester, in addition to the above, in
which two children in akturial club, and whose parents would
be entitled to £6 each on their death, are ,-suspected to have
been poisoned.
DOCK COMMITTEE.—The weekly meeting of the Deck
Committee was held on 'Thursday, Mr. Turner in the chain
Mr. Mondel brought the subject of telegraphic communication
with Holyhead formally before the committee an the following
resolution :—" That it is now expedient that a system of electric
telgeraphic communication' be established alougthe line of coast
to Holyhead, and that the same be carried, out under the
direction and at the cost of the Dock Trustees, and that a
sub-committee be appointelte obtain estimates." Mr. Mondel,
describing the origin of the present Semaphoreline, said that
the act was obtained in 1825, and, in 1827, the line (comprised
.of eleven stations, including Liverpool) was in operation. In
the year 1849, the line was re-organised and improved at con-
siderable expense. The systemadopted was perhaps the most
perfect which was extant at that time, and it did ouilice very
well in clear weather, and during the day; but it was useless
in thick hazy weather and at night. If the committee, thirty-
one years ago, felt themselves empowered to carry on:a system
of telegraph which had been maintained at a cost of £1,500
per annum, from a time when the tonnage entering this
port was only 1,200,000 tons per annum, surely they ought to
keep pace with the times, and at once improve their commu-
nication with Holyhead. The question had recently been re-
ferred by the general committee to the Marine Comniittee,
who endeavoured to make an arrangement with the Electric
Telegraph Company, which would answer the purposes of the
port; but the terms asked by the company were so high that
he was convinced that it would be much better and cheaper
for the dock trustees to establish a line of their own, along
the coast, to Holyhead. Such an accommodation was posi-
tively required by the commercial community of Liverpool, by
whom he did not mean the merchants and underwriters
merely, but ineluded with them the mariners frequenting the
port, the pilots, and the passengers and emigrants sailing from
Liverpool, who had really a greater interest in the matter than
even the merchant and the shipowner. It was of vital import-
ance in the case of vessels sailing from the port, to know the state
of the weather at Holyhead ; and yet, during the last year
there were more than sixty days, during which no [semaphore]
telegraphic communication could be held in consequence of the
fog. During the month of December, last year, no communi-
cation could be held for ten days; and, of the twenty-four
days of the present month, sixteen or eighteen days were days
upon which there was no communication. 'Now, it happened
that this very foggy weather was the most favourable to ves-
sels quitting the port, as the wind which generally pre-
vailed then was from the south; but it also frequently hap-
pened that when this description of weather prevailed near
Liverpool, a furious gale was blowing in the Channel, which
caused sad havoc amongst the ships which had been thus
tempted to quit the port, ignorant (on account of the useless-
ness of the semaphore during fog) of the state of the wind at
Holyhead. From this cause several wrecks had occurred
within the last few days. It was under such circumstances
that the Tayleur sailed; and numerous other cases in point
might be cited. The dock trustees maintained a life-boat
establishment, at a cost of £2OOO per annum ; but accidents
might occur at night or during fog, comparatively close to
the port, and yet the men be unaware of them. The Ocean
Monarch was lost within sight of Ormshead; but, if a tele-
graphic communication had existed along the coast, a fleet of
steamers might have been despatched from Liverpool, which
could have saved the whole of the 200 persons who perished
by that disaster. In conclusion, Mr. Mondel urged that his
proposition should be adopted, even upon economical grounds,
as a large number of " repeating stations " would be ob-
viated, and the expenses of the line greatly reduced by the
use which would be made of the electric line in conveying
private messages.—Mr. Smith seconded the motion.—The
Chairman did not see how, even were the telegraphic line
established, they could dispense with the semaphore for sig-
nalling purposes.—Mr Mondel thought the semaphore might
be dispensed with altogether.—The subject, the great import-
ance of which was admitted by nearly all the members of the
committee, was referred to the Marine Committee.—After a
short conversation, it was arranged to add Mr. Gladstone and
Mr. Hubback to the committee, and the general business
then terminated.