The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-20 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL POLICE.

WEDNESDAY.—(Before WILLIAM EARLE, Jun., and EDWARD
CROPPER, Esqrs., Magistrates.)
• THE KING v. EDW. MURPHY.

This was an information preferred .by the direction of the
commissioners of his Majesty's customs under the act 3d and
4th William IV., c. 5.3, against the defendant, which charged
him with being concerned in carrying and conveying on the
11th instant a large quantity, viz , 88lbs. weight of foreign leaf
tobacco without payment of the duties of customs, for which he
hart incurred a penalty of E
Mr. H. Brooke, solicitor, attended on behalf of the customs,

and called John era,,vfurd, who proved that he was a car driver
in the employ of Mr. Simpson,.of Everton. On the 11th inst.
he was on the stand near to St. George's Church. About nine
o'clock in the evening a man came up and engaged him to go
to Lancelot's-hey, and from thence to Copperas-hill. Witness
accordingly drove off with him in the car, and on arriving at a
marine store in Lancelot's-hey the man got out, and the de-
fendant and another man brought out a large package and put
it into the car, and got into it themselves, and witness drove off
towards. Bolton-street. On arriving near the Adelphi he beck-
oned to a police-officer, who immediately followed the car into
Bolton-street, where witness stopped; the defendant and the
other man got out of the car, and witness helped them to pull
the package out, and the police-officer then came up and stop-
ped the defendant, but the other man made his escape. The
police-officer got the defendant and the package into the car,
and witness drove them off to Bridewell; the package contained
tobacco.
Joseph Pullein, police-officer, corroborated the latter part of
Crawford's testimony, and also proved that he left the defendant
and the tobacco in Bridewell.
George Greaves, night-constable at Bridewell, proved that the
defendant and the tobacco were left in his charge until Mr.
Prichard, tide-surveyor, arrested the prisoner, and seized the to-
bacco on the same evening.
Giles Prichard, tide-surveyor, proved that he arrested the
defendant, and seized the tobacco on the 11th instant; the.to-
bacco weighed 881bs.
The witnesses underwent a strict cross-examination by Mr.
Crewe, who attended on behalf of the defendant, but their tes-
timony remained unshaken.
The magistrates convicted the defendant in the penalty of
£IK but he not being prepared to pay it, Mr. Brooke applied
foe-a warrant of commitment, and he was accordingly commit-
ted to the House of Correction at Kirkdale.

PUBLIC V. PRIVATE WATcHnierg.L—On Wednesday, at the
Police Office, one of the regular nightly police whose beat is in
Castle-street and the neighbourhood, charged a 'brother officer
who is employed as a private watchman in the same neighbour-
hood with breaking the peace and assaulting him on the previous
evening. It appeared that both of these guardians of the night
had been atttempting to rival each other in proteCting, one
of his majesty's subjects who had the misfortune to be
drunk, and in doing so, angry words ensued, and ultimately
blows; upon which, the public watchman called for assistance,
and the unhappy private was conveyed to durance vile. The
magistrate, after reprimanding the latter, and expressing his
determination to protect the police in the discharge of their
duty, discharged the prisoner.
Boa BURL-A. prostitute named Smith was yesterday charged
before the magistrates by the captain of a vessel, a Frenchman,
now lying in the Prince's Dock, with picking. his pocket of six
sovereigns and a pocket-book, which contained cheques and
French Bills of Exchange to the value of upwards of £3OO ster-
ling.. From what the complainant said, it appeared that the
prisoner had pursuaded him on Monday evening to accompany
her to a house in Birchatl-alley, Hackin's-hey, and on the way
there had robbed him of the sovereigns and the pocketbook
mentioned. The book was found yesterday by a carter, near
to the alley where the parties had been, and contained all
the bills, &c. which the prosecutor had lost. The six sovereigns,
however, were not fotind. The prisoner had nothing to say in
her defence, and she was committed to take her trial at the en-
suing quarter sessions.

STABBING.—A ferocious looking fellow named Jones was
brought before the magistrates. yesterday, charged by the first
and second mates of the New York packet-ship Virginian with
stabbing and cutting them on the previous evening. It. ap-
peared that the prisoner was one of the regular hands employed
on board the Virginian, which arrived at this port on Wednes-
day night from New York; and upon being requested by the
first mate to do something in the vessel, be refused, and made
use of some improper language. In return the mate ordered
him to go below, which he would not do ; and, drawing a large
knife from his person, ran towards the first mate with au inten-
tion to strike him, when the latter called the second mate to his
assistance, and seized a handspike with which he struck the
prisoner, who immediately stabbed him in the thigh, and cut
the second mate across the face and the right hand. Inspector
Charles Tyrrell was immediately sent for, and the prisoner was
taken into custody. In his defence the prisoner said he was
drunk, and therefore did not know what he was doing. The
magistrates ordered him to be fined 40s. and costs, or, in de-
fault of payment be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for one
month.

THE GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE.

[This notice was unavoidably excluded from our last pub
[cation.]
TO TEE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL S'TJIND✓IRD.

SIR,—As the eclipse of yesterday excited such general atten-
tion in this town, which solicitude was increased by the fineness
of the day, I beg to state to you the following particulars, which
occurred during the progress of the eclipse. Being provided
with a good reflecting telescope and the Liverpool mean time to
within three or four seconds at the farthest, 1 found that the
beginning and ending of the eclipse happened as follows :—The
first contact of the two limbs took place at IH. 344 m., and the
separation at 4H. 13-151. The greatest darkness was about three
o'clock, when the cold, arising from the diminution of the sun's
rays, was very perceptibly felt. Venus was distinctly visible to
the naked eye for above twenty minutes. The above observa-
tions were made 11 miles (of longitude) east from the Exchange.
Yours, &c., T. B.
Liverpool, May 16, 1836.
We are indebted to another correspondent for the following
communication on the same interesting subject :
On Sunday we visited a friend in the country who has a good
telescope, and had a most gratifying view of the eclipse. There
was less darkness than we had expected, but the dull grey
threatening aspect of the sky was extraordinary, and hut an
exciting effect on our feelings.
At two o'clock two thermometers were brought out from rooms
in the house to the, terrace in front of it, one of which was placed
in the sun, and the other in the shade, and we annex a note of
our observations, at intervals of five minutes, which may interest
some of our readers who were similarly employed. The coinci-
dence of the lowest point of the thermometer in the sun, at the
minute of the greatest obscuration, 311.10 m., is very remarkable.
About 2H. 50m., and for at least a quarter of an hour after-
wards, our friend, who is noted among his acquaintance for the
perfection of his vision, saw Venus with the naked eye, which
was more than we could do; but when he directed the telescope
to it, -we saw it most distinctly. On Saturday an astronomer
told us we should look for this planet about the meridian, at a
considerable elevation, and there we foUnd it : we could not
make out Jupiter.

VARIATIONS OF THE THERMOMETER.

Hour. In the sun. In the shade.
2 0 83 61
2 5 91 66
2 10 91 67
2 15 92 66
2 20 91 66
2 25 96 67
2 30 94 65
2 35 93 6-1
2 40 89 62
2 15 85 61
2 50 81 60
2 55 79 58
3 0 75 55
3 5 73 55
3 10 71 55

Hour. In the sun. In the shade.
3 15 72 54
3 20 72 55
3 25 74 55
3 30 76 56
3 35 79 55
3 40 81 54
3 45 84 55
3 50 86 55
3 55 89 56
4 0 91 57
4 5 93 57
4 10 95 57
4 15 96 57
4 20 98 57
4 25 99 57

(FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.)

THE LATE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN—was observed in the pri-
vate observatory, at No. 9, Duke's-place, by two different ob-
servers, with powerful orchromatic telescopes (one of Dolland's,
48 inches focal distance) to end at 4 hours, 23 minutes, 18 se-
conds and 4-tenths of a second : Liverpool, mean time. Six-
teen spots were obesrved on the sun's disc, and the largest one
was surrounded by a dim halo, the breadth of which nearly
equalled the semi-diameter of the spot. The moon's edges
plb.mly appeared slightly serrated, and at the instant of emer-
sion, a point (probably the summit of a lunar mountain) ap-
peared to linger nearly half a second on the sun's limb at the
commencement of the eclipse. The barometer stood at 30
inches 85-hundredths, the attached thermometer 71 degrees,
two thermometers in the open air at 68 degrees, at the end the
barometer 30 inches 31-hundredths, attached thermometer 68
degrees, and those in the open air had fallen to 68j degrees.
J. P. S.