The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-16 00:00:00

A lIBzIRTLESS ROBBERY.

At the Southivaalc pollee court, on Saturday, a respect-
able young man, named William King. a butcher, late in
the emrloy of Mr. Self, in the Walworth road, was charged
wit 11 s' ealing two sovert igns and four shillings, the propert7
of Martha Gordon. The prosecutrix, a pretty dark haired
girl, who acknowledged to have strayed from the paths of
virtue, stated that on Monday last she came from a small
village near Aylesbury, in Buckinharashire, where her
father resided, having in her pocket handkerchief two
sovereigns and four shillings, which she recolved of him to
pay some trifling accounts in London. She came from
the railway station at Paddington in an omnibus,
and alighted in the Camberwell road. As she was
walking along, the prisoner accosted her, and being very
late, she consented to accompany him to a house in ibe
vicinity of the New Kent Road, where they took lodgings
for the night. Previous to retiring to bed witness• placed
her handkerchief, in which were tied the two sovereigns
and four shillings under her pillow. At six o'clock on
Tuesday morning she missed the prisoner, and on looking
under the pillow, she discovered that her handkerchief
and money were gone. She :tressed herself directly, and
gave information to the police, and after considerable
trouble and enquiry she saw the prisoner on the previous
day at the butcher's shop, when she at identifiedonce him
and gave him into custody. Grace Fosdyke, the
keeper of the house in Popler Row, New gent Road,
said she recollected last witness and the prisonei hiring a
room in her house on Monday night last, also that
the prisoner left in a hurried manner at six o'c:!lek
on Tuesday morning Shortly after that the prd•
secutrix came down stairs to her, and told her she bad
been robbed of her handkerchief and two pounds four
shillings by the prisoner. Mr. Edwin was first instructed
to state that the prosecutrix was mistaken as to the
prisoner's identity, but the evidence being so clear, and
the magistrate directing that he should go for trial, unless
he liked to plead before him under the New Criminal
Justice Act, he hesitated for a short time and pleaded
guilt v. The magistrate told him there could be no doubt
as Co his guilt, and he considered it a very heartless
robbery, for which he should sentence him to six months ,
hard labour at Wandsworth.

SOULAGES COLLECTION.—In covsequence of the recent
finarcial discussions, we understand th:et the Chancellor of
the Exchequer has declined to accept the offer of the gen-
tleman who purchased this collection, with the view of
securin7 it for the country.
Lord Clanricarde has served legal notice upon the liessry.
Ashworth, to dispute their right to a several fishery ,ctd.
lacent to his Galway property, and intends to fish tbd
waters for salmon and trout, in order to bring the matter
to issue.—Limerick Observer.
RECENT SUSPENSION OF GREEK Housas.—lt is stated
that Messrs. Fustana and Co., Greek merchants, of Liver.
po.d, and Messrs. Caluts, Brothers, of Manchester, will be
able to pay 20s in the pound, and that the creditors, at a
meeting on Wednesday, agrees to allow two years for this
purpose, the debts being liquidated by half yearly instal-
ments of Ss in the pound.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed Mr. George
Scharf, jun., to the post of permanent secretary to the
National Portrait Commission, under the presidency of
Lord Stanhope. As Mr. Scharf's engagements in pre-
paring the collection of ancient pictures at Manchester will
occupy him until the beginning of May, Mr. William Car.
penter, jun., has undertaken to discharge the duties up to
that perod.
DEATH OF AN AFRICAN EXPLORER —lt is with regret
we have to record the reported death of another 'ictim in
the cause of African explo-ation. liVlieence has Meet;
this week received at the Foreign office, from our British
consul at Tripoli, of the assassination of Dr. Vogel, whose
arrival at Kuka, on the borders of Lake Tsad, in the best
heUth and spirits, we announced in our impression of June
3 1854. The letter received at Tripoli is from Corporal
Maguire, one of the sappers sent out ith Dr. Vogel, and
is written from Knka. Dr. Vogel had departed from that
place c moaratively alone, on a most rerilons journey
eastward, with the view of reacb in g the Nile. He is said to
have advanced through Birgirmi into Waddy, and to have
been there murdered. The Sheik of Bornu has promised
to forward particulars to our consul at Tripoli, as soon as
they have been ascertained.—Literary Gazelle.
hirLANcHoLY Stumm—A very melanch&y occurrence
took place at the village of Clooneen, Kilmeena, :est week
by t`,e self-destruction of a respectable and aged an
named Jennings. It eppeers that early in the week the
unfortunate man, while in a deranged state of intellect,
attempted to hang himself ; but, notwithstanding the
watchfulness of his friends, he succeeded in concealing a
razor, with which he cut his throat, causing instantaneous
death. What readers the untimely end of this poor man
peculiarly distressing is the fact that his weakness of intellect
has been considerably increased by cleric it denunciation,
his son having brought an ejectment against the Parish
Priest of Kilmeena, since which the terrors of the church
has been fulminated against the parties. The peasantry
superstitiously point at the suicide as the result of "inter-
fering with the Priest," but we cannot envy the feelings of
any one who have been accessory to such sad results,—Mayo
Constitution. _ _ .

CCLGNEL Tnuoca.—This gallant officer, replying to a
communication from the Merchants' Company of Elinburgh,
recognising the value of his services as a commissioner to
the Crimea, writes : " The support which we have received
so generally throughout the country will afford the best
encouragement to those who may hereafter be similarity
employed to discharge their duty on all occasions honestly
and manfully, in the hope of gaining the confidence and
approbation of their fellow countrymen, which has been so
warmly manifested in our favour on this trying occasion."
A SUBSTITUTE FOR SILKWORMS.—HappiIy, there would
seem now to be little need of the eria, or the Chinese
silk worm, or of the cocoon;of commerce, for the production
of silk will ere long in all probability be derived not from
the worm, but the leaf on which it has hitherto existed.
It is now not the breeding of the insect, but of tio3 mulberry
tree—that species which was its only food, and *hitt%
from that circumstance gave the savant the cue that led
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course of last year fully ascertained that a silky sub-
stance could be procured from the bark of the mulberry
tree, and that by maceration good silk,- and paper also,
could be easily prepared therefrom. The savant in ques-
tion, ruminating, it is said, on the circumstance of the
silkworm living on one description of food, came to the
conclusion that „the silky substance must lie not in the
animal, but the vegetable matter" which supported if.
He therefore "analysed the composition of the mulberry
leaf, and, by boiling it to a thick paste, produced every
description of silk in immense quantities: Such a sub-
stance being obtained from that, species of leaf, it is not at
all unlikely that from the Chinese oak and the castoroll
plant a somewhat similar result might be obtained. Be
that as it may, and the truth of the other being shortly
corroborated, neither Moreton bay need sigh for the
introduction of the cotton plant, nor the northern and
southern States of America shed their blood for the
suppression or in the defence of slavery, nor England
much longer play the hypocrite by condemning that
accursed "institution" with one breath and with another
admitting the expediency of, at all hazards, strenuously
upholding it. This is the land—every land within the
temperate zone is, more or less—favourable to the rear.
ing of the vine, the mulberry, and the olive. Every
one, therefore, the possessor or occupier of a small
spot of ground therein, may rear the great substitute
for cotton, and, in so doing, weaken more and more
this lamentable and apparently indispensable adhesion
to slavery. He may " put money in his purse ; ''and,
clothing his family and himself in "silk attire '—such as
Imperial Czeiar had not dared to wear—drawn from the
brunches that give him shade and refreshing sustenance
by day and by night afford him the sleep of contentment,
he may well thank Heaven that he is permitted to reap
the fruits, though he have shared not the labours, of the
thoughtful and perhaps ill•recompensed analyser of the
enigmatical phases of nature. lie may cheerfully and
confidingly believe thenceforth that in the varied produc-
tions that she surrounds him with, lie hid the main causes
of the world's progress, and the renewing sources of peace
and goodwill to men.—Sydney Empire.