The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-11 00:00:00

ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.

Mi. John Brougham made his first appearance here
last night. The house was rather. empty ; but if we
may judge from the amount of laughter evoked, and the
repeated bursts of applause elicited from the audience,
his performance was a ,great success. "Romance. and
Reality" is the product of his own pen. It is a sort of
Irish parody of Shakespeare's "'Taming of the Shrew."
Apart from Mr. Brougham's acting as Jack Swift, there
seems to be little or nothing in the piece. But certainly
it is so arranged as to make this a very amusing repre-
sentation. " Ould Ireland is my Darling" was sung
by Mr. Brougham with great comic effect, and was
encored. This clever actor was repeatedlY called before
the curtain to receive the applause of his admirers.
To-night, doubtless, there will be a fuller house, when
the fame of this actor's talents has got wing. Miss Laura
Gray had little to do; but that, as usual, she did well.
Mr. Cooper, Mr. Blakely, Mr. Neville, and the other
members of the company filled their parts with zeal and
ability. The second piece was the " Cricket on the
Hearth," which also went off with credit.
To-night, Mr. Brougham again appears as Jack Swift,
in " Romance and Reality ;" and we recommend all to
see it—to be followed by "'Family Jars " and "Shock-
ing Events."

THE VOLUNTEER .10VEMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TIMES.

Sin,—ln the Mercury a few days back I noticed, in,
the answers to correspondents, that a " Broker's Clerk"
thought that Liverpool ought to have a Brokers' Clerks'
Rifle Corps ;—in the papers of ,to-day is an advertise-
ment calling upon all "watchmakers to hand themselves
together and form a corps ;"—it is also rumoured, in
Toxteth Park, that the tailors are about to form a corps
of their own. Now, really, this is the right way to go
about spoiling that movement of which every English-
man is proud—viz., the Volunteer Movement; and I
trust that the lord-lieutenant will abide by his present
intention, and not recegnise any more corps—at least in
this town, for -I believe there are more broken rifle
corps in this town than in any other in the kingdom.
When a new corpi is organised the old ones must
suffer. This I can prove ; for more than one corps has
been redhced to a skeleton through this absurd non-
sense. • •
Mr. Editor, I pray that through your columns, which
are ever ready to assist in this noble cause, you will
endeavour to repress this most suicidal bumbug of certain
persons wishing to be made officers. Trusting you will
give this a place in your paper, I remain, yours, &c.,
AN OLD VOLUNTEER.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY.

The fifth ordinary meeting of the above society was
held in the Royal Institute, Colquit-street, last evening.
The chair was occupied by the President of the society,
the Rev. Henry H. Higgins, M.A. Cantab, and there
were , about thirty persons present. The following
gentlemen were elected members of the society :—Mr.
James Alexander,. the Rev. Dr. 'Barr, and Mr. Joseph
Leyland,; and the Rev. Mr. Macnaught, Mr. H.
Benjamin Roberts, and Mr. David Anderson, of Egre-
mout, had made application for membership. The
following books.were presented to the society, for which
.thanirs were Eiceorueu .--A (Jame ..41
Literary and Philsophical Society, Hull ; Vol. VIII.
of the Journal of the Geological Society of
Dublin; Vol. XII. of the Transactions of the HisteriC
Society of Lancashire and Cheshire ; and a Journal of
the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania for the Pro-
motion of the Mechanic Arts, Mr. Moore read a
portion of a letter from Mr. S. Archer, H.E.1.C.5.,
dated from Cashmere' and formerly of Rodney-street,
in this town, in which it was stated that he had
frequently met in that remote country, a butterfly
known in England as the " Clouded Yellow." The
literary and philosophical intelligence was curtailed
somewhat, in consequence of there being two important
papers to be read. Dr. Collingwood read a defence
of the remarks of Professor Louis Agassiz, on
" Darwin's Theory of. the Origin of Species." He
maintained that Agassiz was strictly sound in his reason-
ing, and had brought forward some most important
physiolOgioal qUestions which no person had previously;
thought of, andnfterwards entered into the remarkable
facts known as "alternate generations," in order to show
that they were not of the same character as the changes
undergone by butterflies and rooks. , He also concurred
in the assertions of Agassiz concerning the similarity of
embryos; illustrating his remarks by diagrams. A
paper Containing some valuable hints was likewise
read by Dr. Nevins on " Life Insurance." The
speaker gave a most explicit exposition of the system
of life policies, and the nrofit to be derived by effect-
ing an insurance at a certain age, and the amount
that might also be lost under some circumstances. He
also dwelt upon the difficulties that were to be contended
with by an insurance company in order to make the
policies pay ; and stated that from the close of the year
1844 to the beginning. of the year 1860 no less than 146
insurance companies wound up' their affairs. The
meeting was concluded by votes of thanks to the gentle-
men who had contributed towards the pleasure the
audience had been afforded during the evening.

FELONY,—At the Birkenhead Police-court yesterday,
an elderly woman named Bridget Finnegan, was brought
up charged with having stolen three lbs. of beef from a
marine store dealer in Birkenhead. At the request of
the police officer who ;preferred the charge the prisoner
was remanded till next Thursday.
COUNTY COURT, YESTERDAY.—(Before W. A. Milton,
Judge).--GOLDMAN V. STANRIE.—This case, which was
one of considerable public interest, inasmuch as it con-
tained an important "caution" to the jewellery buying
portion of the public, was tried yesterday in the County
Court. Mr. Wilson appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr.
Blackhurst for the defendant. From the opening state
ment of Mr. Wilson, it appeared that about two years
ago the plaintiff, who is a travelling cigar dealer, noticed
in the window of the defendant's shop, a gold pin,
topped with a large Australian nugget. He entered
the shop, and asked the defendant how much the article
was worth. The defendant replied, that as a piece of
gold alone it was worth £4 10s., and he would only.
charge ss. for its manufacture, making the cost alto-
gether £4 15s. Mr. Goldman agreed to purchase it for
this sum ; but not having the money by him, gave. the
defendant instructions to send the pin to Mr. Levi; who
would pay for it. Plaintiff received the pin a day or
two after, and wore it for a considerable time. After
some months, however, he was told by a friend that
instead of being Australian gold, it was merely a compo-
sition. Upon this the plaintiff went to Mr. Stankie,
and charged him with having sold it under false pre-
tences. Mr.. Stankie denied that he had sold the nugget
as gold, and told the plaintiff lie could do as.he liked.
Mr. Goldman, when in the witness box, corroborated
the above story, and Mr. Abrahams, after examining
the pin, said it could not possibly be mistaken for real
gold by a person having any acquaintance with dealing
in gold. It was only a composition,
dirt, and a little gold;
its value would not exceed 30s.
of copper, silver,
The defence was that the pin had not been sold to the
plaintiff at all, but to Mr. Levi. His honour, in onour, 1R ,„
judgment, said he had no doubt that the defendant
knew at the time ,he sold the pin it was not gold, and
that being the case, he must return the amount over-
charged, A verdict was then entered for £3 ss.