The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-30 00:00:00

MIDLETON SCHOOLS.

Mr. Jellet, the successful candidate at the late Fellowship
Examinations, and Messrs. Michael and William Roberts,
who held so high a place in the distribution of premiums on
the same occasion, received their education at this establish-
ment. These gentlemen were most distinguished Under-
graduates, Scholars, and first-rank Medalists.
Mr. Woodrolie, who, as a Senior Freshman, and con-
sequently a year before the ordinary time, obtained a scholar-
ship on the 15th ; and Mr. Frizelle, who was equally
successful at the examination of Sizarships on the lith, were
also pupils at Midleton School:—
As were the following gentlemen, to whom at the last
Term Examinations the honors respectively annexed to
their names had been adjudged :
Mr. Levis, a first-rank Honour in Science.
Mr. Sullivan, Do. Do.
Mr. J. Reeves, an Honour in Classics.
Mr. Sullivan, Do. Do.
Mr. T. Talbot, Do. Do.
Mr. P. Talbot, Do. Do.
The two latter gentlemen are sons of Mr. Talbot, ship-
builder of this town.

DEAFNESS CURED.-Our readers have no doubt observed
several notices of cures performed by Mr. Swift, aurist and
surgeon ; one has been communicated to us, which having
occurred in York, gives it a greater degree of interest. Mr.
Ward, of the Turk's Head, in the Shambles, havinz, long
laboured under that unpleasant malady, a confirmed deafness,
for which he had tried the best advice but in vain, at length
put himself under the care of Mr. Swift, who, in the course
of five weeks, restored him to the full enjoyment of the sense
of hearing, and he is now capable of answering the slightest
whisper.—See adv.

AN EXTRAORDINARY EGG.—A black Polish hen, the
property of John Jackson, Esq., of Oldham, has lately pro-
duced an egg of the remarkable weight of four ounces.

EXTRAORDINARY FECUNDITY.—MIS. Whittle, of the
Red Lion public-house, Longton, has a duck which on the
Ist of May hatched, bringing forth eleven ducklings, which
she tended for a short time, and then, like a harsh mother
turned adrift her young brood to provide for themselves.
After laying sixteen eggs more, she again began her tedious
task of incubation, and on the 20th of the present month she
produced sixteen young ones. In eleven weeks she has per-
formed a feat unequalled in the annals of the poultry yard
having in that time brought forth 27 young ducks.—Preston
Chronicle.

The conservatives of Ludlow intend giving a public dinner
in the course of the ensuing month to Viscount Clive and
their new member, Mr. Botfield.
The Pope is said—the fact is hardly credible—to haie sold
the Laocoon and Apollo Belvidere to the Emperor of Russia
for nine millions of francs.

COURVOISIER-THE PRESS-THE BAR AND
THE PUBLIC.

The excitement and curiosity of which the contemptible
wretch, found guilty—irrespective of his " Confessions !"
of the murder of Lord W. Russell, is at this moment the
centre and prime minister, present f.•atures for comment as
anomalous as provoking. The rhEss, it: a great measure,
have reserved their-iire The CLUTii.i, hoWever. have lien
engaged—Juniors and Se,:iors, yonce :o:n the Con,,r-
vative, the Oddfellows and the
and Sciences—theßENCll and the BAR —0:le and ail

been engaged in discussing Courvoisier as a piquant tie:z,'t-rt,
after an ordinary dinner. Between the acts at the Haymar-
ket and Her Majesty's Theatre over the way, " Courvoi-
sier" and the insinuations against the " police" are the
popular interludes which are having a run, by snatches, be-
tween the pieces. Because of the untoward, if not unenvia-
ble, connexion of the name of a clever but flowery-spoken
barrister—who, in the estimate of those whose impressions
are likely to adhere, did greatly and inconsiderately exceed
his commission—the duties of the nArt are tapped and
brought up for judgment in alehouses; and mis-leading arti-
cles, in an apologetic spirit, are tendered in Irish PRINTS,
the reverse of friendly to his real interests as a professional
man, and adverse to his chances of the bench, however they
may be in favour of the sack.

The PUBLIC have been placed, as usual, between two fires ;
and Courvoisier has not met " their kind interest" in that
spirit of frankness which was confidently looked for. The
convict, like a ferry architect, has built two stories, which
the courtesy of polite usage has designated " Confessions ;"
and which confessions, in the essentials of their construction,
are so diametrically opposed to each other, that plain people
must be guilty of fabrication who pretend that they believe
eithernne or both, as far at least as Courvoisier himself has
had anything to say or unsay in the matter.
The situation of part of the press and the Conjecturalists
would be amusing, but that facetiousness itself cannot forget
or forgive that human blood has been shed by a gratuitously
vile wretch, with the irremoveable brand of Cain upon his
forehead. The murderer's contradictory confessions have so
far divided public opinion, that, as a Yankee Judge, in a
cause powerfully argued pro and con, admitted, so the press
and the quidnuncs, like his Worship aforesaid, are prepared
to fall in two.
Beset as the case is with mystery, horrible shuffling and
prevarication, there can be but one opinion meanwhile enter-
tained by the reflecting. But for a jury unanimously finding
this pilfering thief guilty of " wilful murder," charitable
doubts might have been entertained of his guilt—because
confessed by Courvoisier. A wretch with such perVerted
feelings is not to be believed under present—perhaps not un-
der any circumstances whatever—as affects his deportment
on this side of eternity. To use the strong language of Scrip,-
tare, the truth
.is not in him. By his own " confessions '
he is equivocating and lying still, and may, as Other wretches
have done, equivocate and lie with his head in a halter, and
while the hangman's chilling fingers are running the knot of
death under his ear. We are justified iu recording this, irre-
spective of what the ministerial papers, and the great Globe
itself, may affect in the shape of their being privy to the mur-
derer's variously unburthened conscience. What reflecting
person can believe such a fellow's unsupported statements ?
Even if a hopeful sense of his all but God-forsaken situation
dawn upon him at the eleventh hour, and a repentance not
to be repented of, there and then befriend him, the self-in-
vited evil is, that he has put it out of thinking people's power
to believe him : nay, in tardy truth, he may lie like truth,
and seem a greater fabulist than ever.
We. are of a large majority who discredit the whole ten-
dency of everything that Courvoisier has " confessed"—ex-
cept that be, and he only, is the murderer ; and that he did
the deed, of which evidence imperfect as it was, perfectly
convicted-him, needed not such a one's suppressed admis-
sion to give it weight with the discerning. No ; that was
not what was wanted. Bad as he is, it was in his power to
show contrition for his crimes, and to evince a poor, uncostly
respect for the outraged feelings of society, by telling not a
part, but the whole of the truth, and nothing but truth.
That he has yet to do this is on the face of what he has twice
" confessed !" _ _ _

With some corrupt and depraved hearts, the fear of man
is greater than awe towards God. Yes : the dread of the
temporary execration of such poor creatures as the best of
us at best are; is more dreaded, and tends to engender and
keep up a catalogue of lying and acted misrepresentation, to
the utter exclusion of penitential reverence and awe for the
atoning sacrifice of the Redeemer OF ALL, on which, and
through a prayerful sense of which, alone, can the chief of
sinners, with the brand- of Cain on his brow and the lie of
Judas on his tongue, either hope for or mercifully have
mercy.
It may be miserable vanity, or it may be through beini
actuated by some other characteristic of " fallen nature,'
that Courvoisier has appended a tale of lies to the admission
of the head and front of his offending. He admits the fact
that he murdered •, but has he told the truth, the whole
truth, truth, and nothing but the as to how the murder was
thought of and done ? That he has not, is our considerate
and only belief. He sets out with a truth on the threshold,
and, under the specious medium and cover of a supposed
" confession," forthwith shuffles and lies the reader into the
inner temple of a combination of falsehoods.
We disbelieve what he has caught at, namely, the over-
zealous insinuation of his ingenious but misled counsel, and
to which he appears to adhere as if to " get up" some shred
of " sympathy," perhaps of " pity" for his compromised life,
and so qualify the utter execration of his species. We disbe-
lieve what he would now assert—that the police, or the hands
of any perjurers, to swear away his life, placed the gloves
and handkerchief one of his shirts. _

It appears strange how these articles came to be there ;
but it may be easily and sufficiently explained. We believe
that the murderer alone placed the gloves, where they were
found after he was committed. Why he subsequently put
them where discovered is another question. He did so, let
us assume, for one or other of two purposes. He knew his
trunk had been searched. Well, it probably occurred to him
that it was less likely (and so it was) that such articles could
be found if secreted subsequently where search had been,
made, than if allowed to remain elsewhere, to be ferreted out
by eyes and hands eagerly and systematically devoted to a
prosecution of the search.
Or again

A fellow who has evinced considerable powers of con-
trivance, and a skill in plausible combination, which, if laud-
ably directed, might have gained him fame and fortune in
making Geneva watches, toys, and machines, for old and
young—such a machinist, aware of what police and others
have been charged with, and aware of his all but certain com-
mittal; before being removed from the house, he may have
put the articles where they were found for the deliberate pur-
pose which he and his counsel tried to make of their sus-
picious discovery, namely, to create doubts in the breasts of
an English jury, of which he would have the benefit when on
trial. Be it remembered, the articles were not discovered
until, in obedience to his own request, a change of linen was
sent for, when he had been committed and was engaged in
concocting his defence.
It is most improbable that he has told the truth as to his
not washing his hands—but merely wiping them on the
towel, that in the same breath he says, he stuck into the
gash on his yictim's throat. As every surgeon and old leech-
woman knows, of all blood human blood from its sizy or
" sticky" nature is peculiarly difficult of. removal, and that
a disagreeable and peculiar smell remains for some time
after all traces to the eye have been effaced by industrous
ablution.

He may have worn gloves while doing the deed, and
have subsequently cleaned or washed them. As to his story
of having given all his gloves away previously to entering on
his victim's service, is ridiculous in its tendency even if so
far true. Does he mean to say, he wore no gloves as Lord
William's servant? or if of a different sort, he could have re-
tained or otherwise obtained one or more pairs—or the very
pair found under circumstances, and used in a way respect-
ing which he has yet to tell the truth.
As drowning men clutch at straws, rogues condemned to be
hung catch at incidents. To aid his cause as an injured
piece of excellence, it is said, but needs corroboration, that
he pretended to one of the sheriffs, that reading the novel of
Jack Sheppard put the idea of robbing and murdering his
master into his head ! What next!!! But Courvoisier, for
those credulous enough to believe it, may say anything;
nothing can be too mendacious or incredible. But is it not
sickening rubbish and loathsome CANT for journaliststo feign
credence to and for the public to believe such a "representation"
of the educational power of the drama; which, if we are to
credit what that impudent blustering stroller Yates said,
dialectically, when his piece was nearly damned the first
night, by the Hen-pens of Liverpool, although cheered by
the Cockneys of London—that it had been patronised by
" thee Dook an' Dechess of Cambridge and thee Princiss
Augustar, without a blesh !!" Part of the press has min-
gled its crocodile tears of hypocrisy and immoral cant, how-
ever, with Courvoisier's pretence ; though, by his own show-
ing, he is a thief, a murderer, and a perseveringly inventive
liar. No one can deny the evil tendency of Yates's version
of Jack Sheppard ; or of the piece as a novel for the draw-
ing-room or the hack kitchen, or as a drama of gallery gut-
ter-bred predilections, whether seated as paying supporters
of their own exposure in pit or boxes ! In trumping up this
fetch, Courvoisier is appealing to SOCIALISTS and fellow-in-
fidels whose easy apologies for indulging incrime and vice, and
swearing to the law of their members in justification of their
atrocities, Shakspere and other moralists have exposed un-
answerably and religiously in several passages of his plays.
Socialists, Courvoisierists, and Jack Sheppardists, may ga-
ther and surmise. Against such self-hypocrites and pre-
tenders, Shakspere says—" 'Tis in ourselves that we are
thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
wills are gardeners ; so that if we will plant nettles and weed
up thymp,'&c. &c., the power and corrigible authority of this
lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one
scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and
baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposte-
rous conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging mo-
' tions our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts ; whereof 1 take
this (pretence) to be a graft or scion. It is merely a lust of
the blood, and a permission of the will." Courvoisier may
or may not have read, or dipped—as reviewers do—into the
pages of the novel; but he stole before the book was writ-
ten, or the incidents dramatised. Nemo fuit repente turpis-
simus : no man is all of a sudden wicked. As Mr. Adolphus
well said, when foreigners rob they generally murder. W
C
charitably, in true charity, refuse to give Courvoisier the be-
nefit of his pretence and pretext. The truth is not in him.
Shakspere had Socialists in his time, the days of Essex
and Queen Elizabeth, as we have in ours, of Melbourne and
Queen Victoria. In contrasting the hypocrisy of Regan
and Goneril, with the candid villainy of the basely born Ed-
mund, Shakspere points a moral and adorns a tale. Edmund
is no self-hypocrite. His irreligion is without CANT.
ThiHe
was a villain and knew it—confessed it to himself A
is the. beauty and truth of dramatic soliloquy. - er ft
deluding his father against Edgar, and persuading hint of
the depravities of the times, and trying (like a socialist) to
s
account for them (falsely) by references to extraneous influ-
ence ; (his Jack-Sheppardism !) when alone and his dupe
gone, he " confesses' the truth (to.himself) thus. " This is
the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in
fortune—often the surfeits of our own behaviour—we make
guilty of our disasters the sun and stars, as if we were
villains on necessity—fools by heavenly compulsion—knaves,
THIEVES, and treacherous by spherical predominance—drun-
kards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience ; and
all we are evil in, by a DIVINE thrusting-on !An admirable
evasion of whoremaster man to lay his goatish disposition on
the charge of a star !—Tut ! I'd have been what I am had
the maidlenist star in the firmament twinkled on my birth!"
We live in appalling times. Lisbon and whole cities were
swallowed up by earthquakes ; Sodom and Gomorrah were
destroyed by wrathful visitations of tire. This is a despe-
rately wicked age; and, in some awful lesson against the
devil's flattery implied in our National Boasting instead. of
national watchfulness and God-fearing humility, we too
may be oa the eve of some shrieking catastrophe speak-
ing trumpet - tongued, or as intelligibly as the hand-
writing on the wall. But, as the subject which elicited this
article is Courvoisier in connexion with the Plus's, the tp,n,
and THE. PUBLIC, WC may conclude thus : Courvoisier and
Gould, (Arcades ambo !) when taking their respective drop,
in front of Newgate and at Norfolk Island,
,may exclaim,
with Jaffier and Pierre, in " Vice Preserved,
" We have deceived the Sheriffs ! "

ly
Gould.—Hh! ha, (dying " game" as it is blasphemously
called.)
iece of the " Clandestine Marriage"
will be supposed to be meant for Lord
Wherever the old P
is played, Lord OgiebY
William Russell—Scrub for Ellis in the scene were lie pro-
tests against " foreigners being admitted to his privaey"--
Mrs. Heidelberg for Madame Piolane—and Canton for
Courvoiser the Swiss Valet.

We have heard that Mr. Charles Kean is in .treaty for
Drury-lane Theatre. Mr. Butler, it is said, is:also a eandi-
date. ; !

IL

I