Star.
London, England, 1824-01-26 00:00:00

CAST-IRON CHURCH. -

St. George's Church, Liverpool, is an object of consi-
derable architectural interest for its taste, and as having
been neatly the first cast-iron church erected in the
kingdom. The whale of the frame-work of the win-
dows, doors, pillars, groins, roofs, pulpit, and ornamen-
tal enrichments, ate of cast-i:on. The length is 119
feet the breadth 4.7. It is ornamented by a splendid
cast window of stained glass. The tower, raised to the
height of 96 feet, and standing on a hill, the site of an
ancient sea-beacon, is elevated 34.5 feet above high
water-mat k, and commands one of the finest views of
the kingdom, comprehending the town and shipping
of Liverpool, the estuary• of the Mersey, the level sur-
face of Lancashire, as far as the eye can trace the pi n-
spect, with die craggy hills of \Vales towards the west,
and towards the north-east the distant mountains ot
Cumberland aad We:tworland.—lbid.

ALPHABETICAL Ctrntost•rtes.—ln the Nine Monthly
Magazine, the scholiasts upon that ode of Anacreon
which describes Cupid's being stung by a bee, state him
to have been at that moment learning his letters ; and
that, in perpetual remembrance of the pain inflicted by
his winged asailant, he decreed that the alphabet should
ever afterwards commence with A B. The precedence of
B to C has been explained upon the principles that a
man must be befo:c he can see. But for the ingenuity
of recent investigators, we should never have known
that the letter S was of most essential service at the
siege of Gibraltar, by making hot shot ; that the letter
N is like a little pig, because N makes a sty, nasty ;
that the letters U and V can never go out to dinner,
because they must always come after T; that the letters
co, a, s, T, are like toast without tea (1.); and that a
barber may be said to fetter the alphabet because he ties
up q q (queues), and puts two p's (toupees) in irons !
These most important additions to our philological
science ate a happy foretaste of what may be accom-
plished by a chartered company, expressly instituted
for the encouragement of letters."
Friday se'nnight, a melancholy accident occurred on
the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal. While Cap-
tain Reid, of the sloop Lord Bruce, of Lime-kilns, was
getting his vessel out of NVyn.tham-lock, at the moment
the horses straightened the lin; Mr. Reid unfortunately
came in contact with it, and was thrown up several feet,
and, lighting on his head, hi, skull was so severely t►nc-
tured, that lie lingered in great pain till Saturday, at
five o'clock in the morning, when lie expired.
A person in the town of Maidstone has a lobster three
feet three inches long, with the claws extended. It has
been brought from Hudson's River, Noah America.—
' The same person has also two violet crabs, brought from
the Caribbec Islands, the singular habits of which are
detailed by Goldsmith and other naturalists.
Wednesday, as some men were digging stones in a
field in the parish of Cumnor, near Oxford, they disco-
vered a, human skeleton, about five feet ten inches in
height, lying on its face, only a foot below the'surface
of the earth. Close to it was the blade of a case-knife,
corroded with rust, and apparently of the manufacture
of fifty or sixty years ago. From the position of the
skeleton, the head having been forced forward that the
hole might contain the body, and from the knife being
with it, we may naturally conjecture that the unfortu-
nate person was murdered.
Friday se'nnight, a fire broke- out in a stable belong-
ing to Mr. Charles Saunders, of East Donyland, near
Colchester, which was burnt to the ground, and a valu-
able horse destroyed.
4 fire took place in October last, in the Illinois Pri-
mes, United Stiles, which burnt some days, destroy-
ing the grass, Com, and other produce Ihich remiined
in the fields.

MR. SOANF.'S DINNER.

Saturday a dinner was given at the Freemasons Ta-
vern by-the veteran Architect, Mr. SOANE, who for up-
wards of half a century has been the pride and ornament
of this branch of the Fine Arts. The dinner was in com-
memoration of the completion of the new works at the
House of Lords, and the party invited consisted of the
artists and tradesmen who had been principally engaged
under .the direction of Mr. SOANE, in carrying his plans
into execution. Several scientific friends of Mr. SOANE
and many literary Gentlemen connected with the pe-
riodical Press, were also present. The Chair was filled
by JOHN BRIT rox, Esq. F.S.A. in the absence of Mr.
SoANE, who had been unexpectedly summoned to at-
tend his MAJESTY at Brighton.
After the health of his MAJESTY, the Royal Family,
the Duke of SUSSEX, &c. had been drank, the Chairman,
in an eloquent speech, proposed the health of Mr.
SOANE, which was drank with grat enthusiasm. The
next toast was prosperity to the Mechanics' Institute,
which called forth a most eloquent reply from Dr. Br RIC-
BECK. Mr. GRAHAM proposed the health of the.
Chairman, and dwelt in terms of appropriate and just
comendation on the services he had rendered to the Arts,
particularly in rescuing the architectural antiquities of
the country from the dust and oblivion in which for ages
they had been enveloped. Several other appropriate
toasts were drank, and the meeting, which was an in-
tellectual one, did not break up until a late hour. The
dinner consisted of every delicacy, including great pro-
fusion of turtle, which, though out of season, had been
preserved by a culinary process, that fotmsone of the most
recent discoveries of the age. The wines were excellent.

POLICE INTELLIGENC'E.

BOW-STREET.

Jiseph and William Manson, the two brothers, artiits, charged
on Wednesday last with having been concerned, with another bro-
ther, in stealing: upwards of £lOOO worth of jewels, &c. from the
house of T. P. Macqueen, Esq. M.P. were again placed at the bar,
together with their brother Jones, who voluntarily gave himself up
on Friday evening, and the following evidence ssas given against
Ehem:—ll. Pritchard, shopman to Messrs. Nate, pawnbrokers, of
Duke-street, Manchester-square, produced tsttelve line shifts which
were pledged at their shop on the 19th and Witt of December last,
by Mary Thomson, which Ann Smith, Mrs. Mactpteen's femme de
chambre, swore were the property of her mistress, attd sere missed
from a wardrobe in a room iu which the prisoners Were at work,
am! which Mary, sister to the prisoners, swore, were brought to
her by Joseph, who requested her to pawn them.
Another pawnbroker produced a large quantity of coats, trowsers,
waistcoats, silk handkerchiefs, &c. pledged with hint by the prisoner
.lames, on Thursday and Friday last; but none of them were iden-
tified as the property of the prosecutor. Among the property stolen
was: a I lighland dirk, with a Cairngorm hilt ; and it was deposed
at the last examination, that the prisoner %%Wm hid pledged,
and afterwards redeemed, a similar dirk at the shop of Mr. Har-
rison, in Wardour-street. Mr. Macqueen now produced a tartan
doublet,. vith Cairngorum buttons, to match the stolen dirk, and
Mr. Harrison's nephew deposed, that to the best of his recollection,
they matched exactly with the dirk pledged by William. Williant
said the dirk he had pledged was his own, hut he could not produce
It, because be had since sold it to a Jew whom he did not know.
James said there was no evidence to affect him, 'and he trusted he
should be set at liberty. " And what have you to say about the
shifts that have been traced to you ?" said the Magistrate to Jo-
seph. To which he replied (laughing), " the less said the sootier
mended." 'hey were all three committed for further examination
on Saturday next.

QUERN-SQL:A
Custence Augusta llarnet was charged with getting a piece of
:fish linen and some silk handkerchief:, under a false pretence, from
.11r. Siincock, a linen-draper in Bridge-street, I.lmbeth. This wo-
man commenced dealing with the " Tiny-matt,- Air. Simcock, ih
September last, and up to the 10th initanr. Site obtained goods in
that manner to the amount of poi. and at length site got the goods
in question from the xbopman on pretence of shewing them to a
person, upon condition, if they suited, to bring back the money, if
not the goods ; instead of which she pledged thent.—The Magistrate
held that it was merely a debt, and discharged the prisoner ; ob-
serving, that the tally business was a mode of forcing trade most
discreditable to shopkeepers.

SPORTING INI'EL L IGE X CP..

CRIMINAL OIFENCES.

happens by a List of the Commitments, Trials, an.'
Convictions, for London and Middlesex, that out of
the whole number of prisoners committed by the County
Magistrates. above 42 per cent. %%ere acquitted or dis-
charged.—The relative proportion of acquitted or dis.
charged was smaller out of the committals by the Ma-
gistrates of the City of London ; but still this proportion
amounted to more than one person in four, viz. about
27 per cent.
Of the whole of the prisoners committed to Newpte,
nearly the half were released at the end of tie Sessions,
It seems, therefore, that either the Magi•trates frc-
quently commit prisoners on evidence ina equate t./
procure a conviction; or else that the means el en.
forcing the attendance of prosecutors and wi messes we
not competent to the purposes of justice. In either cased
it would certainly be desirable that some measures
should be adopted to lighten the expense to the Public:
and with regard to the prisoners, that the innow.t
should he protected, and the guilty more effectually
broaght to justice. It is in the details of practice, and
not in the general principles of law, that our judicial
system appears capable of essential improvement.