The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-02 00:00:00

About ten or twelve months ago, the Sieur Clodomir Fre-
nois, a rich merchant of the island, was found dead and fright-
fully disfigured in his own habitation. His body was disco-
vered lying on the floor, with the head and face mutilated by
means of a pistol, and all doubt as to the cause of the catas-
trophe was dispelled by the discovery of the fatal weapon by
the side of the corpse, and also of a paper in the handwriting
of the deceased. This_paper contained the following words :
—" I am ruined !—ivillain has robbed me of twenty-five
thousand livres sterling ; dishonour must be my portion, and
I cannot await or survive it. I leave to my wife the task of
distributing among my creditors the means which remain to
us ; and I pray that God, my friends, and my enemies, may
pardon my self-destruction Yet another minute, and 1 shall
be in eternity ! (Signed) CLODOMIR FRENOIS."
Great -was the consternation caused by this tragic. event,
which was the more unexpected as the loss alluded to in the
note had never been made public. The deceased had been
held in great esteem over the colony as n man of strict ho-
nour and probity, and was universally lamented. His at-
tached widow, after endeavouring faithfully to fulfil his last
wishes, found her grief too overpowering to permit her longer
to mingle with the world, and took the resolution of conse-
crating her-remaining days to the services of religion. Two
months after the sad end of her husband, she entered a
convent, leaving to a nephew of the late husband, a physician,
the distribution of the effects of Freuois among his creditors.
A minute examination of the papers of the defunct led to
the discovery of the period at which the unfortunate mer-
chant had been robbed ; and this period was found to corre-
spond with the date of the disappearance of a man named
John Moon, long in the employment of Frenois. Of this
man, on whom supicion naturally fell, nothing could be
learned on inquiry ; but shortly after the division of the late
merchant's property, Moon reappeared in the colony. When
taken up and examined respecting the cause of his flight, lie
stated that he had been sent to France by his master to re-
cover certain sums due to the merchant there, in which mis-
sion he had been unsuccessful ; and he further averred, that,
if Clodomir Frenois, in his existing correspondence, had
thrown any injurious suspicions upon him (Moon) the whole
was but a pretext to account for deficiencies of which the
merchant himself was the sole cause and author. This decla-
ration, made by a man who seemed to fear no inquiry, and
whose worldly circumstances remained to appearance the
same as they had ever been, had the effect of silencing, if it
did not satisfy, the examinators ; and the affair soon fell, in a
great measure, out of the public recollection.

Things remained for a short time in this condition, when,
one morning, Mr. Win. Burnett, principal creditor of the
late Clodomir Frenois, heard a knocking at his gate at a very
early hour. He called up one of his servants, who went
down and opened the door, and immediately returned with
the intelligence that a stranger. who seemed desirous of keep-
ing his person concealed, wished to speak with Mr. Burnett
in private. Mr. Burnett rose, threw on his dressing-gown,
and descended to the parlour. lie saw there a stranger, of
tall person, seated in an cask and familiar attitude upon a
sofa, with a number of the Morning Post in his hand. The
back of the visitor was turned to Mr. Burnett as he entered.
Rather surprised to see a stranger conduct himself so like an
old friend of the house, Mr. Burnett said aloud, " Sir, may
I beg to know your business with me ?"

Tlie stranger turned round, and advanced to salute his host
warmly and courteously. Mr. Burnett started back, and ut-
tered a loud exclamation of :surprise and alarm. Well he
might ' • for before his eyes stood his friend and debtor, Clo-
domir Frenois, whom he had beheld, nearly a year before, a
mutilated corpse, and whom he himself had followed to the
grave !
What passed at that interview between Mr. Burnett and
his strange visitor, remained for the time a secret. Mr.
Burnett was observed to issue several times, pale and agi-
tated, from his dwelling, and to visit the magistrate charged
with the conduct of the criminal processes of the colony. In
the course of that day, while John Moon was regaling him-
self with tea under the palm-trees of his garden, along with a
Circassian female whom he had bought some time previously,
he was arrested and taken to prison by the officers of justice.
On the following day, he was brought before the criminal
court, accused of robbing the late Clodomir Frenois, the
crime being conjoined with breach of trust and violence.
Moon smiled at the charge; with all the confidence of a man
who had nothing to fear. The judge having demanded of
him if he confessed the crime, the accused replied, that the
charge was altogether absurd ; the clear testimony was ne-
cessary to fix such a delict upon him ; and that, so far from
there being any such evidence producible, neither the widow
of the deceased, nor any one person in his service, had ever
beard the pretended robbery even once mentioned by Frenois
during his life.
" Do you then affirm your innocence?" repeated the judge
gravely, after hearing all that the other had to say.
" I will avouch my innocence," replied Moon, " even be-
fore the body of my late master, it that be necessary. [Such
a thing often took place under the old colonial law.]

" John Moon,".said the judge, in a voice broken by some
peculiar emotion, " It is before your late master that you
will have now to assert your innocence; and may God make
the truth appear !"
A signal from the judge accompanied these words, and
immediately a door opened, and Clodomir Frenois, the sup-
posed suicide, entered the court. He advanced to the bar
with a slow and deliberate step, having his eye calmly but
sternly fixed on the prisoner, his late servant. A great sen-
sation was caused in the court by his appearance. Uttering
shrieks of alarm and horror, the females present fled from
the spot. The accused fell on his knees in abject terror, and
shudderingly confessed his guilt. For a time no voice was
heard but his. However, as it became apparent that a living
man stood before the court, the advocate for the prisoner
gained courage to speak. He demanded that the identity of
the merchant be established, and the mystery of his existence
explained. He said that the court should not be biassed by
what might prove to be a mere accidental likeness between a
person living and one deceased, and that such an avowal as
that of the prisoner, extracted in a moment of extraordinary
terror, was not to be }held of much weight." " Before being
admitted here as accuser or witness," continued the advo-
cate, addressing the resuscitated merchant, " prove who and
what you are, and disclose by what chance the tomb, which
so lately received your body, mangled by bullets, has given
up its tenant, and restored you to the world in life and
health !"

The firm appeal of the advocate, who continued steadfast
to his duty under circumstances that would have closed the
lips of most men, called forth the following narrative from
Clodomir Frenois :—" My story may be soon told, and it
will suffice to establish my identity. When I discovered the
robbery committed by the accused, he had then tied from the
island, and I speedily saw that all attempts to retake him
would prove fruitless. I saw ruin and disgrace before me,
and came to the resolution of terminating my life before the
evil day came. On the night on which this determination
was formed, I was seated alone in my private chamber. I
had written the letter which was found on my table, and had
loaded my pistol. This done, I prayed forgiveness from my
Maker for the act of despair I was about to commit. The
end of the pistol was at my head, and my finger on the lock,
when a knock at the outer door of the house startled me. I
concealed the weapon, and went to the door. A man enter-
ed, whom I recognised to be the sexton of the parish in which
I lived. He bore a sack on his shoulders, and in it the body
of a man newly buried, which was destined for my nephew,
the physician, then living with me. The scarcity of bodies
for dissection, as the court is aware, compels those who are
anxious to acquire skill in the medical profession to procure
them by any possible secret means. The sexton was at first
alarmed at having met me. ' Did my nephew request you
to bring this body ?' said I. ' No,' replied the man ; but I
knew his anxiety to obtain one for dissection, and took it
upon me to come and offer him this body. For mercy's
sake,' continued the sexton, do not betray me, sir, or I
shall lose my situation and my family's bread.'
While the man was speaking, a strange idea entered my
mind, and brought to my despairing bosom hopes of conti-
nued life and recovered honour. I stood for a few minutes
absorbed in thought, and then, recollecting myself, I gave
two pieces of gold to the resurrectionist, the sum which he
had expected. Telling him to keep his own counsel, and
that all would be well, 1 sent him away, and carried the body
to my cabinet. The whole of the household had previously
been sent out of the way on purpose, and I had time to carry
into execution the plan which had struck me. The body was
fortunately of the same station as myself, and like me in
complexion. I knew the man ; he had been a poor offender,
abandoned by his family. " Poor relic of mortality !" said
I, with tears in my eyes, " nothing which man may do can
now injure thee; yet. pardon me if I rudely disfigure thy
lifeless substance. It is to prevent the ruin of not one, but
twenty families ! And should success attend my attempt, I
swear that thy children shall be my children ; and, when my
own hour comes, we shall rest together in the tomb to which
thou shalt be borne before me !"
At this portion of the merchant's narrative, the most lively
interest was excited in the court, and testified even by tears
from many of the audience. Frenois thus proceeded :—" I
the❑ stripped off my clothes, and dressed the body in them.
This accomplished, I took up the pistol, and with a hand
more reluctant than when I had applied it to my own person,
I fired it close to the head of the deceased, and at once caused
such a disfigurement as rendered it impossible for the keenest
eve to detect the substitution which had been made.

" Choosing the plainest habit I could get, I then dressed
myself anew, shaved off the whiskers which I was accustomed
to wear, and took other means to alter and disguise my ap-
pearance, in case of being subjected by any accident to the
risk of betrayal. Next morning saw me on board a French
vessel on my way to a distant land—the native country of my
ancestors. The expectations which had led me to the execu-
tion of this scheme were not disappointed. I knew that John
Moon, the man who had robbed me, and who now stands at
the bar of this court, had formed connections in this island,
which would in all probability bring him back to it as soon as
the intelligence of my death gave him the promise of security.
In this I have not been disappointed. I have been equally
fortunate in other respects. While my unworthy servant
remained here in imaginary safety, I bane been successful in
discovering the quarter in which, not daring at first to betray
here the appearance of wealth, he had lodged the whole of
the stolen money. I have brought it with me, and also-suf-
ficient proofs, supposing his confession of this day to be set
aside altogether, to convict him of the crime with which he
stands charged. By the same means," continued Clodomir
Frenois, with a degree of honourable pride in which all who
heard him sympathised, " will I be enabled to restore my
family to their place in society, and to redeem the credit of a
name on which no blot was left by those who bore it before
me, and which, please God, I shall transmit unstained to my
children's children.

John Moon, whose guilt was thus suddenly and strangely
laid bare to the world, did not retract the confession which
he had made in the extremity of his terror; and, without
separating, the court sentenced him to confinement for life
in the prisons of the colony.
The news of Clodomir Frenois's reappearance spread
rapidly, and the high esteem in which his character was held
led to an universal rejoicing on the occasion. He was ac-
companied from the court to his home by a dense multitude,
who welcomed him with prolonged shouts. It would be
vain to attempt any description of the feelings of the wife,
who thus saw restored to her the beloved being for whose
sake she had quitted the world. She was released from her
ecclesiastical vows, and rejoined her husband, no more to
part till the grave really claimed one or other of them as its
due.

BIRNENGIIAM, SATURDAY.-Mr. Phillips, the vocalist,
was violently assaulted and robbed in the neighbourhoOd of
the town, on Wednesday evening. Ills services not being
required in the performances at the theatre that evening, lie
was enjoying a walk between eight and nine o'clock, at a
place called Sparkbrook, in the direction of the Loudon-
road, when he was met by three men, who, from their dress,
appeared to be " navigators" or labourers employed upon
railways, who jostled against and knocked him down. Mr.
Phillips being possessed of considerable muscular power, on
recovering from the blows, succeeded in beating two of the
villains off, but the third tripped him up and placed his knee
upon his chest, while the others succeeded In rifling his
pockets, from which they took a purse containing about six
sovereigns, and instantly decamped. Mr. Phillips had on a
military frock coat at the time, tightly buttoned to the throat,
the breast of which was torn open. The robbers did not
succeed in obtaining possession of a valuable watch which he
had about him at the time. It is gratifying to be able to state
that Mr. Phillips was able to attend the performances on Fri-
day morning. No trace has since been discovered of the
robbers.

(From the Devonport Telegraph.)
At half-past four this morning, (Sunday,) an alarm was
given to the superintendent of the dock-yard police, Lieut.
Williams, that the Talavera line-of-battle ship, in the North
Dock, was on fire. All hands were instantly on the spot,
with the engines ; but so terrific were the flames as to give
proof that the total destruction of the ship was to succeed.
The fire-bells were then rung, and the workmen, with the
military, called in. The tide was high, and plenty of water
consequently at hand ; but nothing appeared to subdue the
fury with which the fire extended southwards, the direction
in which the other docks and building-slips lay, as well as
the rigging-house, sail-loft, and all the store-houses. At a
quarter to five o'clock, the Talavera was one mass of
flame, which, communicating with the shed over head,
threatened to carry the fire to the extremity of the yard.
The Minden line- of battle ship, lying at the stern of the
Talavera, which took fire a-head, at one time appeared in-
evitably doomed; but the wind shifting a point, and by the
most strenuous exertions of the engines, the progress of the
flames astern was stopped ; but what appeared to be the cause
of the prevention of this danger only carried it in another
direction, as the roof of the shed adjoining took fire, and the
dense volumes of smoke for a time appeared to choke the
flame. Beneath this shed were kept the figure-heads of some
of the ships,which, having borne the brunt of the battle, were
after the peace broken up; and these slight remembrances of
their achievements were kept with a degree of pride. At the
eastern end hung the flag of our never-to-be-forgotten naval
hero, Nelson, under which he fought the battle of Tra-
falgar; and opposite, the flag of Lord Exmouth at the battle
of Algiers. An attempt was gallantly made by a young man
to save them, but the fire was too fierce, and the attempt was
given up for the safety of the party who made it. Speedily suc-
ceeding the firing of this shed,the one adjoining also took flame,
in which was the Imogene frigate. This was also completely
destroyed. To subdue the flames here appeared to be fruitless,
and an attempt was made to prevent a furtler extension by
playing the engines upon the building opposite, but without
success,. and the whole range, together with a large pile of
timber under a shed, were in flames. Eight o'clock.—The
fire is still burning, but will now be confined merely to the
consumption of the timber and materials. The loss, at a
rough estimate, is said to be from £400,000 to £500,000 ;
this appears to be an extreme amount, but that the destruc-
tion is immense there can be no doubt. No account can yct
be collected as to the origin of the fire ; no party has been at
work on board the ship in which it originated for several
weeks ; at four o'clock there was nothing like fire seen, and
at half-past five the ship was in a flame fore and aft. The
strictest inquiry will no doubt be instituted as to the cause,
and, for the credit of the executive, it is to be hoped that no
want of caution from a false economy has led to this severe
national loss.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

(From the Devonport Telegraph of Sunday, the 27th.)
The fire is still burning in the remains of the hulls of the
Talavera and Imogene, but there is no fear of its spreading
further. An inquiry has been instituted into the rumour of
two persons having been seen by the sentry to leave the Ta-
lavera after the working hours of the yard. The whole of the
guard have been examined by the authorities of the dock-
yard, and it is ascertained beyond doubt that the persons
seen were the officers of the yard, whose duty it was to see
everything safe before leaving the establishment in the even-.
ing. Their report was delivered " all satC." The post of
the nearest sentinel was within thirty yards of the bow of
the ship ; be was not sensible of any smoke near until the
alarm was given by the police. A second rumour has gained
ground since noon that a person who was early on board, saw
marks on the deck as if discoloured by the explosion of a
train of gunpowder.
Two despatches have, during the day, been sent off to the
lords commissioners of the admiralty. •

Admiral Superintendent Warrenjhas not left the spot for
the day even to take refreshment.

The greatest precautions have been taken to prevent a
second outbreak.

SEPTEMBER 28.—The tire in the Arsenal was not entirely
got under until late last night, and the engines are now (half-
past eight, Monday morning) being brought out. It is im-
possible to say the amount of damage—certainly not so great
as stated in my letter of yesterday, as the Talavera was an
old ship, and the estimate of her worth, if sold by auction,
the usual mode of disposing of ships when unserviceable, is
not above £20,000, though to replace her with a new ship of
the 'tame class would be from £70,000 to £BO,OOO. The
other vessels must be eAintated in the same way, but the loss
of stores is immense. The sheds, covered as they were with
painted and tarred paper, cost from £lO,OOO to £12,000
each ; the cost, when covered with copper, is from £30,000
to £lO,OOO each. The granite facings of the docks are split
to pieces. The fire was providentially stopped at the very
point where the destruction would have been the greatest, as
property amounting in value to upwards of £5,000,000 was
deposited in the very building adjoining that where its pro-
gress was terminated. Those best informed are yet disposed
to place the act to the account of an incendiary. It is ex-
pected one of the lords commissioners of the admiralty will
come down to hold a court of inquiry.

It appears by a correspondence published in the London
papers, that Messrs. Coutts and Co. are about to assume the
banking business of Messrs. Hatnniersley and Co. whose
transactions have been suspended owing to the decease of
the only surviving partner of the firm.
The Rev. W. Crotty, of Birr, (formerly a Roman catholic
priest, but now a minister of the presbyterian church in
Ireland), has been deputed by the presbytery of Dublin, to
visit the presbyterian congregations in the south of Ireland,
and to make some importantstatetnents relative to the originand progress of the reformation at Birr.
The radicals of Leicester have obtained permission of the
magistrates to allow a deputation of their hody to visit Vin-
cent, Edwards, and Sherrard, the chartists in Gakharn Gaol,
and to present them with a flitch of bacon. These prisoners
have five months longer to remain in gaol.

Frogmore Lodge, which was the private property of her
Majesty the late Queen Charlotte, was left to her Royal
Highness the Princess Augusta for her life, and at her death
was to become the property of the Princess Mary, now
Duchess of Gloucester.

Mr. Norris, the American engineer, has shipped five loco-
motive engines from New York to England, for the use of
the Gloucester and Birmingham railway. These engines
have greater power than the. English, and cost about £lBOO
each.— Worcester Chronicle.
COMMITTAL OF TDB EARL OF CARDIGAN BY THE
WANDSWORTH MAGISTRATES.—On Wednesday, the ma-
gistrates of the Wandsworth bench entered into a further in-
vestigation of the charge against the Earl of Cardigan, Capt.
Douglas, and Capt. Wainwright, of having committed a
felony, the former as principal, and the two latter gentlemen
as accessories, the felony being the act of shooting at Capt.
Tuckett, with intent to murder him. Mr. Adolphus attended
for the defendant, and after an inquiry which lasted several
hours, the chairman said, it was their painful duty to commit
all the gentlemen to take their trial. Upon the application
of Mr. Adolphus the court consented to admit Lord Cardi-
gan to bail, himself in £2OOO, and two sureties in £lOOO
each. The other two gentlemen were ordered to enter into
personal recognizances of £5OO each, and two sureties of
£250.

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.—On Saturday morning
last, upon the arrival of the mail-train at the Paddington
terminus of the Great Western Railway, a considerable ex-
citement was created by two persons of highly respectable
appearance desiring the conductor, immediately on their
alighting on the platform, to open the door el one of the first-
class carriages, which they asserted contained a man who had
shot at and wounded his uncle, a wealthy gentleman, resid-
ing at Dorchester, in Oxfordshire. The request was speedily
complied with ; and on the suspected person leaving the ve-
hicle with the rest of the passengers, he was rushed upon by
his two pursuers, who held him until the arrival of some
constables, when a severe and desperate struggle ensued.
The accused was overpowered, and properly secured ; and on
his being searched by Collard, the chief officer of the com-
pany's police, there were found in his possession two horse
pistols, heavily loaded with powder and ball, a sword stick,
and about 30s. in gold and silver. Collard explained to him
the nature of the charge preferred, and after cautioning him
with regard to anything which he might then state being
hereafter used as evidence against bins, he, in a few words,
asserted his entire innocence. He was handcuffed, and
shortly afterwards conveyed away in custody. The facts of
the attempted assassination are these :—The prisoner, whose
name is William Davey, and whose appearance is that of a
military officer, has, since attaining his majority (he is now
ouly 23 years of age), squandered away a good fortune,- and
has constantly been living at a large and fashionable hotel in
the vicinity of Bond-street. About a fortnight back he ar-
rived at Dorchester, and, after importuning his uncle, Mr.
John Davey, for money, the latter presented him with £4O,
at the same time giving him some good advice as to his fu-
ture conduct. On Friday evening last, between eight and
nine o'clock, as the uncle alluded to, who is a guardian of
the poor of his parish, was returning to his house through
his own garden, having attended a vestry meeting at a short
distance off, he heard a noise which he imagined to be the
explosion of a percussion cap, and almost at the same mo-
ment a pistol, or some other description of fire-arms, was
discharged at him, and some hard substance struck with great
force against his breast. • He was not wounded, although se-
verely bruised; but had he been walking with his face to-
wards a laurel tree, behind which his intended assassin was,
to the best of his belief, concealed, he would, in all probabi-
lity, have been killed upon the spot. In a state of great
fright, and imagining at the moment that he had received
some serious injury, he ran in doors, crying, " Murder,
help ;" and on the circumstance being detailed by him to his
brother and a neighbour, the most diligent inquiry was
promptly instituted by them, from which they learned that
a person answering the description of the prisoner had, on
the same evening, been seen to come from the direction of
his uncle's premises: Suspecting that he would make his
way up to London by the railway, Mr. Davey's brother and
his friend went in pursuit, and on their arrival at Reading,
found him in the act of stepping into one of the first-class
carriages, his boots and trousers indicating. by their dirty
condition, that he had walked many miles. Deeming it pru-
dent not to capture him then, owing to the confusion and
bustle that prevailed, they took their seats in another car-
riage, and on reaching Paddington gave the prisoner into
custody, as previously stated. Collard conveyed him away
by the next down train, and on the same evening he under-
went an examination upon the charge of " shooting at with
intent to kill," before Mr. Ashford (chairman of the Oxford
quarter sessions), at the residence of the intended victim :
and after an inquiry which lasted several hours, he was re-
manded till Saturday next. At ten o'clock on the same
night Collard lodged him in Oxford Castle Gaol. The pri-
soner is heir-at-law to the uncle, at whose decease he would
be entitled to a very considerable property.