The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-11-12 00:00:00

OBSERVATORY COMMITTEE

Mr. BLACKBURN said, it would tiWessary to appoint
another permanent Committee for the Observatory which it
had been determined to erect. He moved, that it consist of
nine members. The following gentlemen were appointed to
constitute the Observatory Committee :—Messrs. Leathom,
Roskell, Case, Platt, G. H. Lawrence, W.*Lassell, H. Sand-
bach, Carson, and Blackburn.

The TOWNICLERK said,i;e gad received a report from
Mr. Whitty, in which that gentleman recommended that
certain clauses in the Metropolitan Police Act should be in-
troduced into the new local acts of Liverpool.
The TOWN-CLERK submitted, that the meeting on Extra-
ordinary Expenditure should take place on Wednesday, the
20th inst.

The Council adjourned at four o'clock, to Wednesday
morning, the 20 instant, at eleven o'clock.

INQUESTS.

On Friday, an inquest was held 'before P. F. Curry, Esq.
coroner, touching the death of a labouring man named Pat-
rick Fishburit. It appeared from the evidence, that on Sa-
turday afternoon the deceased, with others, was engaged in
the loading of the steamer " Mermaid." There was a stage
erected from the quay to the steamer, and, wllilst Fishburn
and others were engaged in putting a case of machinery,
about a ton weight, down the hatchway, the stage.slipped off
the horse, and crushed the unfortunate man up against the
case. He died almost immediately. The jury returned a
verdict of accidental death.

SINGULAR CASE.
An inquest was held on Friday afternoon, to inquire into
the circumstances attending the death of MargaretCheetham,
a married woman.

Mary Ann Wilson stated that she was the daughter of
Henry Wilson. The deceased, who was her aunt, resided
with her father, in Houghton's-buildings, Dale-street. On
Tuesday night last, witness and the deceased fell asleep by
the fire-side, there being then no one else in the room. Wit-
ness was awakened by a blaze coming in her face, and then
saw the deceased in flames. She went up stairs immediately,
and called her grandfather, who went down to the deceased.
Witness remained up stairs. The husband of the deceased
was in bed. The deceased used sometimes to take a glass,
and had been out that day ; but witness could not say whe-
ther she was sober or not. She and her husband never used
to quarrel.

William Wilson, a weigher in the customs, said that the
decased was his daughter, and she and her husband lived with
him. About eight o'clock on Tuesday night last he went to
bed. Some time after he had been in bcd, the last witness
came up stairs and cried out that the house was on fire. He
went down stairs immediately, and found the lower part of
the house on fire, and the deceased crawling about on the
floor. He tried to get the door open, but the smoke was so
great that he could not find it. A policeman came and got
the door and window open. He carried the deceased out
into the yard, and put the fire out. The deceased was not in
the habit of drinking, and she and her husband lived on very
good terms. The husband of Mrs. Cheetham was up stairs
in bed, but witness could not waken him, he was sound asleep.
There was no other man in the house but himself and the hus-
band of the deceased. He (witness) was the first to find the
deceased after the alarm of fire, and he never left her until
the officers arrived. The deceased was about forty-one years
of age.

Air. John Hustead deposed that he was a confectioner,
and resided in Dale-street. The front door of Wilson's
house faces the back door of witness's house. He (witness)
generally goes out into the yard every night, before going to
bed, to ascertain that all is right. In doing so on Tuesday
night, about half-past, eleven o'clock, he heard a singular
sort of noise proceeding from the house of the deceased. At
first he thought the noise proceeded from some persons fight-
ing, and he heard an exclamation of " Good God ! Damna-
tion l" which was repeated several times in the course of a
few minutes. Fancying that all was not right, he went round
towards the door, and heard the same noise. He then went
for a policeman, followed him to the door, and found the
lower part of the house on fire. The policeman went for
further assistance. He (witness) saw the deceased when she
was brought out by the policeman, and she was then one
mass of fire.

William Brockbank, the police-officer who was called by
the last witness, said that he had been up the court about
20 minutes previous to having been called by Mr. Hustead,
and all was then quiet. He went up again, and found the
door open, and the deceased lying on her back on the floor,
with her head close to the door, all in flames. He saw a
man standing near to her, who did not appear to be doing
anything to extinguish the fire. He went to the bottom of
the entry, and knocked for further assistance. On return-
ing, he found a man whom he believed to be the one who
described himself as the father of the deceased, standing on
the outside, having on nothing but his short. A doctor was
called in, and, the fire having been extinguished, the deceased
was sent to the Infirmary.
Mr. John Nottingham, surgeon at the Infirmary, said that
the deceased was brought there on Tuesday night, severely
burnt all over, from head to foot. She only lived till the
following morning.
The verdict of the jury was to the effect that the deceased
died of scorching and burning, but how or by what means
her clothes caught fire, no evidence appeared.