The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-12 00:00:00

THE NORTHERi':;

AN ABSCONDING BA:241i(114-:-CURIOU:S''

Mr. B. Davis, draper, Ilolywell, lately declareda Bankrupt,
was brought up in custody, at the Police Court yesterday,
informations being sought to be returned against him for not
having surrendered iu conformity with the summons of the
Bankruptcy Court.
Mr. Evans, attorney for the winding up of the estate,
appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Owens for the pri-
soner.

Mr. George Harber, Usher of the Liverpool District Court
of Bankruptcy, was examined, and produced the original
proceedings in the Court of Bankruptcy, against the pri-
soner. The final petition was lodged on the 3rd, and adju-
dication on the sth of last May. The 16th of June was
fixed for the surrender, but the bankrupt did not appear.
Mr. Henry Ayres, clerk to Mr. Gaskett, messenger of
the Liverpool District Court of Bankruptcy, was also exa-
mined, and proved having sent the summons for surrender
to a person-in Holywell, to serve on the bankrupt.
Mr. Bell, Auctioneer, Holywell, then deposed to having
received the summons of surrender, and to having posted it
up in the shop occupied by the bankrupt. On cross-exami-
nation, however, it appeared that the witness had the keys
of the shop and house which had been occupied by the
bankrupt, and that on posting up the summons within the
shop, he again locked up the house, taking the keys with
him.

Mr. Owen contended that this was not a proper service.
If the summons were posted up outside the house, then it
might be a good service ; but it was absurd to say that it
was a good service when the summons was posted so that it
was impossible for the bankrupt to see it. The prisoner was
therefore entitled to be discharged.
Mr. Evans contended that he had complied with the
language of the act, and if that were defective he should
not be held responsible for it. The• bankrupt had left the
house—they knew not where he was, and therefore they
could give him no other notice than what they had done,
and publishing it in the Gazette.
The Magistrate observed that it was quite clear they had
posted the summons where the bankrupt could not see it.
Mr. Evans replied that they could not avoid that. They
had left the summons in accordance with the act, when he
could not be found himself, at the " last known place of his
abode."

The 2lagistrate : Yes, but inside the house, where, you
having the key, it was impossible that the bankrupt could
see it.

Mr. Evans still contended that they had complied with
the language of the act.
The Magistrate replied that, at all events, they had not
complied with the spirit of the act ; for common sense
should have taught them, in the case in question, that the
proper place for posting the summons was outside the house.
The prisoner should therefore be discharged.

The number of children in the Metropolitan Police dis-
trict at large and living in idleness, without education, and
apparently neglected by their parents, of the lower cla.ses,
who arc generally in the receipt of wages, amount, as near
as can be ascertained, to 20,641 under 15 years of age.
IMPORTATION OF GuANo.—There has been an increase in
the importation of guano. It appears from returns just
printed, that in the month ended the 10th October last there
were 5,159 tons imported, against 3,590 in the preceding
month.
How CIGARS ARE MADE.—In the Lancet of Saturday, a
report of the analysis of cigars is given. The general
mass of cigars examined had no adulteration," but some
samples are thus described ;—" Made up in the centre with
sweepings, probably of the warehouse. It contains dust,
dirt, fragments of mortar, pieces of apple pairing, and much
broken and refuse tobacco-leaf. Purchased of a hawker in
Whitechapel-road—These cheroots were made up of two
twisted wrappers or layers of thin brown paper, while the
interior consisted entirely of hay, not a particle of tobacco
entering into their composition."
HORRIBLE ATROCITY AT NEW YORK.--During the
past week the most intense excitement has been manifested
in consequence of a rape and murder perpetrated on the per-
son of Catherine Quickley, a very interesting girl of four-
teen of fifteen years of age. The parents of the girl are
natives of Ireland, and came to this country some two years
and a half ago. On Sunday Catherine went to school in
the afternoon ; and her non-arrival at home exciting alarm,
the whole of the next day was spent in making search.
About sun-down the body was found in a pond near Jamaica.
A meeting of tho citizens was called, a vigilance com-
mittee formed, and subscriptions amounting to five hundred
dollars were obtained, and offered as'a reward for the de-
tection and, conviction of the guilty parties. The governor
of the State has also offered a reward of one thousand dol-
lars additional. On Monday, a roughly dressed Irishman,
who is said to have been prowling about in the woods for
the last day or two was arrested. The prisoner was brought
to Jamaica, his clothing examined, and on his linen were
found spots of blood, mid in other places of his clothing
traces of blood, as if water had been applied in endeavours
to wash it out. A legal investigation is now going on.—
Xew York Weekly Herald.
TUBULAR LIFE-RAFT.—On Wednesday an exhibition of
Mr. Parratt's tubular life-raft took place on the Serpentine,
in the presence of several persons of nautical and scientific
knowledge and experience, including Captain Washington,
R.N. ; Captain Ward, imspector of life-boats ; Mr. Lewis,
which
which attracted much attention, and was very narrowly ex-
ambled by the gentlemen present, is composed of vulcanized
india-rubber tubes, enclosed in canvass cases and nettings,
so arranged and lashed to cross spars as to form, when extend-
ed, an excellent contrivance not only for floating on the
water, but being rowed like a boat, and capable of being
conveyed with ' safety through a surf or heavy sea. The
object of the inventor, 'when he turned his attention to the
subject, was to provide an apparatus, which, in the case
of disasters at sea, could be made quickly available for
the saving of human life, which could be easily lowered
into the water, and when there capable of sustaining a
great number of persons, without danger of sinking.
This end Mr. Parratt's invention seems well calculated to
attain. He proposes that on board ship the raft should
be so constructed as to occupy the interior of a long-boat,
or of any ordinary boat carried on a ship's davits ; that
the tubes should be always kept 'inflated, so as to be ready
at a moment's notice, and that it should be either lowered
in the boat or extended to its largest dimensions on deck,
by lashing a spar across the longitudinal spars (the work
of two minutes), and then dropped into the water, without
the use of any machinery whatever. Alf danger of
swamping is avoided by the buoyancy of the material,
and such is the nature of its construction that, even should
the raft capsize, it would still offer a large surface on which
shipwrecked persons might rest with safety. The capabilities
of the raft were on Wednesday tried in a. variety of ways,
and successfully so, though, of course, the circumstances of
the experiments being made on the calm surface of the
Serpentine, and not in a storm at sea, must, as in all similar
cases, be fully considered. In order to test the strength of
the tubes used, and to prove how easily one of these life-boats
or 'rafts might be launched, a "tubular collapsing boat,"
invented by Mr. Parratt, was carried upon the bridge over
the Serpentine, and thence thrown into the water below.
It sustained not the slightest injury, and, though it fell
keel up, so to speak, it nevertheless presented, as it floated
away, sufficient breadth to hold a large number of people.
This collapsing boat consists of tubes lashed round a frame-
work of a boat-like shape, with three " thwarts," which
shut up like a purse. The bottom consists of nettings to
enable the water to have a free course' and the thwarts are
kept expanded by means of what are called moveable fishes.
By this peculiarity of construction the boat will occupy
very little space on board ship. Two other inventions, of a
somewhat different kind, attracted the notice of the com-
pany. One was a tubular ice-raft, for the saving 6f life
when endangered by accidents on the ice—a very simple
and ingenious piece of mechanism. The other was a pon-
toon bridge or raft, easily portable, and designed for the
conveyance of troops over streams in remote and unfre-
quented districts. Altogether the exhibition was a satis-
factory one; the principle of Mr. Parratt's inventions ap-
peared to be generally approved, and he readily gave ear
to one or two suggestions by which it was thought the
construction of the raft might be amend Ail
THE DISMISSAL OF THE REV. PROFESSOR MAURICE FROM
KING'S COLLEGE.—In compliance with a special demand
made by Mr. Maurice, Dr. Jelf has prepared the whole of
the correspondence which passed between himself and the
professor relative to the charge of unsoundness of doctrine
which led to his recent dismissal. It appears that the cor-
respondence commenced as far back as July 8, on which day
Dr. Jelf addressed a letter to the professor, in which he
stated that his attention had been called by high authority
to the conclusion of the last of Mr. Maurice's theological
lectures, lately published, and proceeds as follows:—" It is
alleged that you therein deny the eternity of future punish-
ments. I have read the essay with attention, and confess
that it appears to me to bear that interpretation ; at least,
the impression it gives seems to • throw an atmosphere of
doubt on the simple meaning of the word eternal, and to
convey a general notion of ultimate salvation for all. I am,
of course, most anxious to ascertain your real meaning." To
this letter Mr. Maurice replied on the next day, stating that
he believed in the doctrine of eternal punishment, or death,
in that sense which seemed to him most consistent with the
other uses of the word " eternal" in the New Testament ;
but that he did not believe in the doctrine in that sense
which is given to it, or seems to be given to it, in many
popular discourses and theological treatises, and that he
repudiates that sense as inconsistent with the Gospel. lie
adds —" To state my convictions on this subject was a duty
which I felt that I owed to thousands of young English-
men whose faith in the redemption of Christ, even in the
being of God, is at stake. I could not but tell them, be-
cause I believe it is true, that the statements which have led
them to identify the God and Father of our Lord with the
evil spirit, are not derived from the orthodox faith ; that
they are a strange product of Galvanism and Locke philoso-
phy, and of the morbid consciousness of individuals." On
the 14th of July Dr. Jelf wrote to state that the professor's
views filled him with the most intense alarm, and intimated
that as the rev. gentleman's letters were, he presumed,
official ones, he should lay them before the clerical members
of the council, and if need be before the council itself. At
length Dr. Jelf decided that the ultimate decision mustpass
into other hands than his own, and Mr. Maurice was re-
moved from his professoiship under circumstances with which
our readers arc already familiar.