The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-01-20 00:00:00

BANKRUPTCY COURT, YESTERDAY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Perry.)
♦

Re John Johnson : This bankrupt was brought up
for his last examination. Mr. Evans, on behalf of
the assignees, opposed the granting of the certificate,
on the ground of the loose principle on which the
bankrupt had carried on his business. His balance sheet,
which commenced from April 24th, 1847, showed that
there was owing to various creditors a sum of
£2,558 15s. 5d., to meet which the assets could be valued
at the utmost as only £1,325 ss. 2d. The bankrupt had
begun with borrowed capital, and had several places of busi-
ness in the town. There were eight acceptances put down
from a man in bankrupt's own employment, which were
not very satisfactorily explained. The bankrupt had
placed in the hands of one party, as security for their
account, a title deed, which was in reality not worth a
farthing. Mr. Thorburne, for the bankrupt, contended
that there was nothing to show guilty intent on the part
of his client, and :argued that all: he had done was with
the view of gradually reducing the amount of his liabili-
ties. His Honour reserved judgment until to-day.---Re
Pryde, Jones, and Co.: An adjourned meeting of the cre-
ditors in this case took place this morning, when there
was a large attendance of both tradesmen and merchants.
His Honour inquired why there was no balance-sheet
ready, and ordered one to be prepared and filed before
the 6th of February, the examination to be adjourned till
the 18th of February. Several proofs were handed in
from creditors. Sir George Stephen then proceeded to
examine Mr. Butler, of the firm of H. and J. Johnston,
bankers, London, relative to some transactions he had
had with Mr. Pryde. The examination lasted several
hours, but nothing of public interest was elicited, and
the whole of Mr. Butler's evidence was not gone into.
It will be resumed on this day week before Mr. Com-
missioner Stevenson.

&PPREIIENSIONS, LAST NrunT.—Two parties, named
Michael Cain and Samuel Gale, were last evening lodged
in the lock-up here ; the former charged with bur-
glary at West Derby on Sunday evening last, and the
latter for housebreaking in Tarlton-street, in this town.
Cain is supposed to be connected with a party of thieves,
who were before the bench yesterday.
A FIDDLER IN A SCRAPE.—On Saturday, about mid-
night, as Mr. Denis Mealy was returning homewards after
delighting " a select circle" with the dulcet strains of his
violin, in an open air concert, he was set upon in Edge-
hill by four or five men, who insisted on satisfying them-
selves as to the exact number of chords Mr. Mealy gene-
rally performed upon, and how many " strings" there
were to his " bow." The disciple of Paganini resisted
their "overtures," when one of them, named Edward
Hughes, struck —not a " note," but—a blow, upon Mr.
Mealy's " wind instrument," better known, perhaps, as
his nasal "organ," which had the effect of making the
fiddler produce a very plaintive melody, in the shape of a
call for " police," who were fortunately at hand, and took
the assailant into custody. He was brought up at the
police-court yesterday morning, and sent to prison for two
months as a punishment for assaulting the musical artist.
OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES.—The recent statements
which have been put forth regarding the inefficiency of the
army and navy, appear to be taken up by the military
authorities, at the Horse Guards, if we may judge from
the bustle and activity which now prevails among the
several recruiting parties stationed in this town. Yester-
day their rendezvous, at the bottom of Shaw's-brow, pre-
sented a very active appearance, and judging from what
was going on, we should, to use a mercantile phrase, say
" that a large business was done," and that numbers of
fine healthy daring young fellows took " the shilling," as
an earnest of their desire to serve their Queen and coun-
try, and defend them from all aggression. As an induce-
ment to the aspiring and unemployed youths of the
district to take to the profession of arms, and become the
bold sons of Mars, the recruiting parties are pretty liberal
in the supply of drink.
AUSTRALIA IN THE LlGHT.—Picture to yourselves, in
the midst of the ocean surrounded with precipitous rocks,
and nearly opposite to England, a vast forest diversified
with mountains and valleys; innumerable places without
a tree ; rivers, some of these consisting only of a chain of
ponds ; others of them, after running for hundreds of miles
through extensive tracts of fertile soil, suddenly disappear-
ing in the midst of arid sand ; while others of them roll
their majestic streams for a thousand miles, until they min-
gle their waters with the ocean ; here and there, like
an oasis in the wilderness, a solitary patch of cleared land,
with a hut constructed of slabs and bark in the rear ;
a tribe of naked blacks, carrying their weapons of war,
roaming across the distant plains; large tracts of open
forest land, resembling a gentleman's domain in England,
but occupied by only the kangaroo and the emur, which
'seem to claim and enjoy hereditary possession ; lofty
ranges, covered with the most beautiful verdure to their
very summits ; extensive lagoons, darkened with legions
of wild ducks and teal, the property of any man who may
choose to shoot them ; innumerable birds of the most
beautiful plumage, chirping on every branch around you ;
flowers, of every hue and shade of colour, strewing your
path wherever you go ; above you an Italian sky, without
a cloud or speck, and the air you inhale pure and balmy ;
a fearful silence pervading the forest around you, and
vividly impressing your mind with the idea of solitude
and desolation—that is Australia.—From Mackenzie's
Ten Years in Australia

AUSTRALIA IN THE SHADE.—Picture to yourselves,
nearly opposite to England, a colony, a large proportion
of whose population are convicts or transported felons ;
where bands of armed robbers or bush-rangers are daily
committing depredations ; where one hundred and six-
teen sentences of capital conviction have been passed
within one twelvemonth ; where swindling and drunk-
enness prevail ; where the churches are half empty ; where
a large proportion of the settlers, shopkeepers and mer-
chants, have gone through the insolvent court, and paid
their creditors with sixpence in the pound ; where the
bank directors discount scarcely any bills, except their
own, so as thus to monopolize all the tea and sugar in the
market; where selfishness, and the cursed love of pelf,
have destroyed all the fine feelings of human nature ;
where the inhabitants are day and night tormented with
legions of mosquitoes ; where the crops have often failed
through excessive drought; where the navigable rivers
are very few in number ; where the interior is, in most
cases, badly watered ; where a large proportion of the
soil is only a miserable scrub, scarcely yielding sustenance
for goats ; where the timber is as hollow-hearted and as
notorious for obliquity as the inhabitants ; and where, on
looking amid the rural scenes for the evergreen, you see
only the nevergreen—that is Australia.—Mackenzie's
Ten years in Australia.

LIVE AND LEARN.-Sir J. Perry says it is quite a mis-
taken idea to suppose that sugar injures the teeth. No
persons have whiter teeth than the negroes, particularly
during crop time ; and it is equally absurd to suppose that
the use of sugar produces worms in children. Worms
arise from an insufficiency of salt and bitters in the food
of infants; provided those tonics be given, the more
sugar is given to a child the greater will be its health and
strength.