The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-08-06 00:00:00

THE. ARMY.

The next five regiments for foreign service are the Ist rifle
brigade, 42d, 78th, 88th, and 97th.
The 34th depot, from the Cove of Cork to Chatham.
The 7th fusileers, from Kilkenny, and the 38th, from Ennis-
killen, are to replace the 81st and 82d, at Gibraltar.
The 25th regiment, from Devonport, for Canada.
The 94th depOt from Chester to Bristol.

The 29th regiment—head quarters, Weedon.
Government have approved of an addition of £1 bounty
money to recruits for cavalry and infantry.
The 25th regiment replaces the 15th foot, and the royals
the 11th, in Canada. The 11th and 15th return to England.
The 81st and 82(1 replace the 56th and 67th; the 56th,
from Jamaica, and 67th, from Barbadoes, replace, the 66th
and 73d in Canada, which return to England.
The 32d depot, rom Fermoy to Wexford.

The 11th regiment of light dragoons, at Canterbury, are to
relieve the 12th at Brighton—the latter proceeding to the
north of England.
The 78th Highlanders, from Glasgow, are to replace the
royals in Edinburgh.
The embarkation of the Ist battalion of the royal regiment,
for Canada, has been suspended for the present.

IMPORTANCE OF A COMMA.—A very lovely girl, named
Smith, hung herself at Dayton, Ohio, when her parents were
absent from home. On returning, they found her dead. The
Cincinnati Republican says " she was found, strangled by her
father and mother."
CURIOUS AND VALUABLE DISCOVERY.—A manufacturer
at Paris has invented a composition much less oxidable than
silver, which will not melt at less than a heat treble that which
silver will bear ; the cost of it is less than 4d. an ounce.
Another improvement is in steel : an Englishman at Brussels,
has discovered a mode of casting iron so that it flows from
the furnace pure steel, better than the best cast steel in Eng-
land, and almost equal to'that which has undergone the pro-
cess of beating, The cost of this steel is only a farthing per
lb. greater than that of cast iron.
THE HYDE CHARTISTS.—On Sunday forenoon last, about
1.000 chartists attended St. George's Church, Hyde, pre-
occupying the pews of the owners, till the edifice was crowded :
and many frequenters, and chartists, too, were obliged to re-
tire for want of accommodation. The Rev. Mr. Alkin, the
respected incumbent, delivered a most appropriate and signi-
ficant discourse, which we trust will be productive of good
upon the hearts of thedeluded and discontented auditory.
The chartists, as in this town, behaved themselves well, and
dispersed peaceably and quiet,—SSockport ildvertiser,

THE LATE LADY FLORA HASTINGS.

(From the Christian Lady's Magazine.)

Lady Flora Hastings had always been of a strong consti-
tution, and vigorous as any other young person in her rank
of life. Of late she had felt the progress of some disease
affecting the liver, but not so as to occasion great uneasjness.
She placed herself at length under the medical treatment of
Sir James Clark, her Majesty's physician, and was by him
ordered strong tonibs with a very generous diet. A slight
external swelling had become perceptible, of which, if any
one noticed it, Sir James could satisfactorily state the cause,
and explain the appearance. On one occasion, never to be
forgotten, he entered the apartment of his patient, and with-
out circumlocution addressed her in these words, " It is sup-
posed you are.with child."
Astounded, shocked, at an announcement, the grossness of
which could only be paralleled by its frightful injuriousness,
the noble lady warmly repelled the charge; adding that her
accuser would not have ventured to address such language to
a woman in the streets. The assertion was, however, re-
iterated ; and she was told that the ladies of the court would
not be satisfied without a medical examination. Leaving
this shaft to rankle in the bosom of the victim, the messen-
ger departed; and a communication was forthwith made to
the Duchess of Kent, in the name of the Sovereign, forbid-
ding the appearance of Lady Flora Hastings in public, until
the step alluded to should have been taken. The Duchess
warmly vindicated her young friend, and protested that no
such degradation should be inflicted on her; but this ob-
jection was overruled. by the Lady Flora herself.
Immediately on being left alone, she reviewed the position
in which her own reputation was placed, together with the
solemn duty which she owed to a noble brother, to a family
of beloved sisters, to a widowed mother, to whom such an
aspersion on her child would be a death-blow, and to the
memory of a father whose gallant deeds had given him a
claim of no common magnitude on England, and on Eng-
land's monarch ; and above all to the. honour of that name
which many knew that she devoutly professed. Like a
frightened dove she looked around for shelter, but found
none : her mother's bosom was the earthly resting-place she
would have flown to ; but far away in her native north that
dear mother abode, unconscious of her child's piercing dis-
tress : her brother was nigh, but she trembled to arouse the
spirit of a Hastings with such an appeal : her sisters—she
was the elder, and to her they looked for the continuance of
all they had hitherto revered in her. No, she had no refuge,
and with a magnanimity, before. which every vaunt of female
heroism shrinks into nothingness, this maintainer of a
family's honour declared herself ready for the degrading,
disgusting, infamous outrage which she was informed must
be submitted to on the following day.
Mothers! I would appeal to you; but what mother's heart
could brook the bare idea, as she looks on her own gentle,
modest, girl, shrinking even from the eye of man; and pic-
tures such a proceeding, enforced far from her sheltering
arm, among strangers and enemies ; ay, and with that very
person appointed to officiate, whose coarse address bad so
wantonly harrowed the feelings, while it aimed a mortal stab
at the fair fame of the maiden !

The terrible hour approached ; and who do my readers
think was chosen by her to be present as a female com-
panion? Did she ask to lay her agonized head on the kind
bosom of her maternal friend, the royal Duchess? Did she
seek the- comforting and soothing presence of her dear
brother's wife—of a married sister of her, own—or of any
among the hundreds of noble British matrons who would at
a word have flown to supply the place of the absent mother?
No, this consistent lady, receiving strength from on high to
offer up self in every shape on the altar of duty, selected as
a witness one of the two ladies of the Queen's court, who
were already identified as the originators of this inhuman
calumny—one of the ladies who had expressly demanded
what no female can think of without shrinking with
horror—she chose Lady Portman ; and Lady Portman was
an eye-witness of the insulting degradation to which they
had among them doomed the innocent Lady Flora.
Another titled physician of the same name was associated
with Sir James Clark, who strongly protested against carry-
ing the test beyond verbal inquiry, and who was deeply
affected and agitated throughout the scene which followed.
This was the death-blow : all the bursts of public sympathy,
respect, and warm approval that greeted Lady Flora from
that day forward were agony to her delicate mind; she
secretly connected them, as perhaps no other did, with the
barbarous indignity she had suffered, to enable the Queen's
doctor to certify to her Majesty, " that the Lady Flora
Hastings was not, nor ever had been, enciente." And so the
well-meant acclamations that burst from manly hearts and
honest lips served evermore to open afresh the wound her
modesty had sustained. A most heart-rending prod was
given towards the close of the tragedy, how deeply this had
rankled within, though in words she never had alluded to it
till then. For two days before her departure, Lady Flora
suffered under a degree of mental wandering; not amount-
ing to delirium', but approaching it : while in this state she
saw the medical men who anxiously attended her dying bed
entering the room ; and in a hurried, alarmed manner ex-
claimed, " Here come the doctors to see whether I am a
married lady."
There never was a tale so calculated to burn out the
blushes of modest shame with the far deeper blushes of
wrathful indignation. There never was such a blot on the
heraldic honours of England's nobility since England's
nobles emblazoned a crest, as must for ever cleave to the
escutcheons of those who perpetrated this fearful deed.
Who they were it belongs not to me to decide : Lady Flora
forgave them all, on the occasion of her receiving the sacra-
ment from the Bishop of London. She authorized that ex-
cellent prelate to declare how fully and.freely she forgave
them : and we too must look compassionately on the offenders,
while we loathe the offence.