The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-03 00:00:00

CHESHIRE AND WALES.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the
week ended December 25, 1853 :—Railway : Passengers,
parcels, &c., £2,223 2s. 6d.; goods, £1,671 2s. 3d.;
Steam-boats : £341 17s. 4d. Total, £4,236 2s. ld. In-
crease as compared with the corresponding week last year,
£Bl6 12s. 9d.
THE ANNIVERSARY DINNER of the Woodside Ferry-
men's Benefit Club was held on Monday last week, at the
Liverpool Arms, Birkenhead. The president, Mr. John
Shipton, occupied the chair, and about forty of the mem-
bers and their friends sat down. The wives and sweet-
hearts of the party having been soon after introduced,
dancing was kept up with great spirit until " rosy morn."
SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE.—A few days since a gen-
tleman at Birkenhead was presented with a cow's tongue,
which appeared to be perfect in every respect. After
being boiled, he discovered a piece of sandstone embedded
in the tongue, about three quarters of an inch in length,
half an inch in width, and, a quarter of an inch in thick-
ness.

CREEVELEA IRON MINES.—On Thursday thirty tons of
pig iron, the produce of the mines, were delivered at the
Ballast quay, for shipment to Liverpool. This is the first
delivery of iron`by the company, as the preparatory labours
were of a most extensive and arduous nature, but the
mines are in full working order, and as the supply of iron
ore is unlimited, the shipments may, we learn, be expected
shortly to reach two or three hundred tons a week.—Sligo
Chronicle.

CHRIST enuncu, CLAUGHTON, Rev. Dr. Blakeney in-
cumbent, was purchased in April, 1853, for £3,700, to be
paid for in a limited period, to be vested in five lay trus-
tees. By the strenuous efforts of the congregation about
£2,500 has been subscribed to 31st ult. It was proposed
b; a member of the congregation that the offertory on the
Ist instant, with collections at the doors, should be for the
liquidation of the debt ; the result of this appeal is the
handsome sum of £313 Os. 7d. Before the church can be
consecrated, about £1,200 more will be required; it is
therefore hoped that the friends of evangelical truth in
Liverpool will assist by their contributions to liquidate
this amount during the present year.—Correspondent.
SNOWSTORM IN THE WEST.—Winter has set in with
extreme rigour in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Mon-
mouthshire, and South Wales, and at the present moment
the ground is covered with snow to the depth of nearly a
foot. The snow began to fall on Tuesday, and continued
without intermission until night. It was accompanied by
a biting north wind, which increased occasionally on
Tuesday and Wednesday to a brisk breeze, and has drifted
the snow considerably in exposed places. Tuesday night
was fine, and the thermometer has been ever since Mon-
day night several degrees below the freezing point, and
the sunshine on Wednesday made no impression upon the
snow. The road traffic is much impeded, but the railways
are clear, though the slipperiness of the rails and the
usual incidents of severe weather have caused the trains
to be generally beyond their proper time.
CAUTION TO DRUGGISTS.—An inquest was held at the
Caledonian Inn, Birkenhead, on Wednesday, on the body
of Hannah Ray, eleven weeks old, the child of a farmer,
residing in Cathcart-street. The infant was ill on Satur-
day and Sunday, and was attended by Mr. Vale, surgeon,
who prescribed a medicine to be administered every half-
hour. The servant girl was despatched to the shop of Mr.
Rose, Watson-street, where she was supplied by a female
with paregoric instead of the powder which she had asked
for. This medicine was administered to the child, and
death ensued on Tuesday morning. The jury returned a
verdict to the effect that the child had died from the
effects of several doses of paregoric, given in mistake. Mr.
Churton, the coroner, severely animadverted on the con-
duct of Mr. Rose, in allowing a female, unacquainted with
the Latin names, to dispense drugs.

TEIIRIVIC RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—The Taff Vale Rail-
way has a branch from Merthyr to Dowlais. More than
a mile of this is an inclined plane, rising 400 feet in that dis-
tance. This is worked by a stationary engine. The officials
on Thursday neglected to attach the rope to the mid-day
passenger train before starting it. It consequently dashed
down the incline with prodigiously increasing velocity as
it neared the bottom. The guard leaped off the break soon
after the carriages commenced their descent, and was un-
injured. None of the passengers were, however, enabled
thus to escape, as they were all locked in their compart-
ments, and their shrieks while passing along the bridges
over the roads near the town were most appalling. The
branch joins on to the main line at the bottom of the
incline by a sharp curve. The train abandoned the rails
t this spot, leaped clear up into the air a great height, the
carriages separating into shreds, the passengers bay,.
thrown out, and, with the debris of the train, fallinglike
a shower into the Taff river and on the adjoining cinder
tips. Notwithstanding this extraordinary violence, some
of the passengers were enabled to walk away comparatively
unhurt; others are much injured, and two women are
dying—one having her back broken, and 'the other a frac-
ture of the skull, besides which they 'are frightfully lace-
rated and almost torn to pieces. Had the train been worked
by a proper break, it could have been brought to a stand,
or, at all events, its speed down the incline would have
been so reduced as to avoid the fearful results of the
catastrophe.

INFANTICIDE IN THE PUNJAB.

(FROM THE FRIEND OF INDIA.)
ANOTHER chapter in the black history of Indian crime.
It is not the least among the many obstacles in the path
of the Indian Government that it is called upon to con-
tend with crimes which have become almost national
customs. Founded, like Suttee, upon superstition, like
infanticide, upon a social prejudice, or like Thuggee,
upon the mere love of plunder, they have spread in the
course of years over whole races, and have become part of
the daily life of orborganized communities. It is not that
the strength of the 'Government is unable to cope with
them on account of their magnitude, for Government
could have exterminated the Thugs in a twelvemonth.
The difficulty is the utter impotence of the ordinary aids
to authority. It receives no information, for the entire
people is guilty. It can gain nothing by treachery among
the criminals, for, in the people's idea, there is nothing
to betray. Its European experience is of no value, for
the European theory supposes that natural affections are
stronger than social prejudices. Its European agents are
at fault, for the proofs of good character and of heinous
crime are often united in the same person. The respect-
able, well-born, intelligent Rajpoot who governs his
estates with an ability which extorts the admiration of
the collector, has murdered his female children, and
would have assisted to burn his mother alive but for the
law. The wife who would kill herself rather than allow
a European to see her face, and towards whom her sons
express the deepest respect and affection, has consented
to the slaughter of her own children. The manner in
which a native retains occasionally, amid great virtues, a
criminal side to his character might form one of the most
curious chapters in psychology.
We make these observations, which many of our Indian
readers will consider somewhat trite, because it is the
dogged adherence to English ideas which renders our sys-
tem so unintelligible in England. To proceed to facts :
Late in the year 1851, Major Lake, Commissioner of
Goordaspore, in the Punjab, became aware of the exist-
ence of infanticide among a class in his own district. He
reported the facts to the Board of Administration, and in-
quiries were immediately commenced. All the commis-
, sioners received orders to report upon the prevalence of
the crime within their respective jurisdictions, and to sug-
gest measures for its removal. Considerable delay appears
to have .occurred in collecting the information required,
but at last it was obtained, in a form which enabled the
Judicial Commissioner to report upon it. It was found
to prevail more or less in the LTmballa, Ferozepore,
Jullundur, Hooshearpore, Lahore, Mooltan, Jhelum, and
Lela districts—in fact, over a tract of country as large
as a European kingdom. It was not, however, prac-
tised by all the inhabitants. It is confined chiefly to the
Bedees or descendants of Nanuk Gooroo, men generally
of great wealth and influence, and to the Rajpoots,
generally poor, but among whom the custom is one of
immemorial antiquity. The Khetrees, however, some
Bramhuns, and even several of the Mussalman tribes,
maintain the practice, and the higher the rank the more
! certain are the female branches of destruction It is be-
lieved, also, by the most experienced officers, to have in-
fected all classes in a greater or less degree, and we may
' readily imagine that even where the motives which influ-
ence the highest class were absent, the lower orders would
acquire from their example a degreeof carelessness for their
children's lives. The motive for the crime differs among
the different classes. With the Reboots of the Punjab, as
among the Rajpoots everywhere else, it is simply pride.
They must marry their female children, and they must
marry them to their equals. This is qccasionally difficult,
and they slay them to avoid the inconvenience. Then, even
if they find bridegrooms, they mustgivea dower more than
proportioned to theirmeans. Theirextravagancesometimes
reaches a point which is almost incredible among a parsimo-
nious people. One chief gave his daughter 17 Ines of rupees,
another expended 10 Ines, and a third gave a lac to his niece
married to a poor Bramhun of the plains. Their insane
pride, to which that of the Highland chief is almost humi-
lity, forbids them to diminish its amount. It is a question,
as Major Edwardes has observed, between the father's wealth
and the daughter's life, and the life is taken and the
wealth retained. Then, again, in some instances, it is
regarded simply as vmeans of proving the purity of their
race, a mere habit of imitating the upper classes. The
Munha Rajpoots, for instance, when in the hills, are the
lowest of their tribe, and their children are consequently
safe. But in the plains they become the highest; and, in
order to prove that they are such, they slay theirrhildren.
Yet the Rajpoots are the noblest of the Indian races.
The same causes are in operation among the Mnssalmans.
The highest tribes, jealous of the purity of their lineage,
are jealous also of their wealth, and the female children
are sacrificed to save them from an unequal marriage, and
their fathers from too liberal donations. Added to all this
the principle of consanguinity is pushed to the wildest
extreme. Almost every Rajpoot is the relative of every
other ; all who are descended from one common ancestor
consider themselves blood relations after the lapse of cen-
turies, and, down to the last degree, marriage is forbidden..
Every Rajpoot Campbell considers himself not only the I
kinsman of the Duke of Argyll, but within the forbidden
degrees. It is among the Bedees only that a different set
of motives appears to come into operation. They are the
descendants of Dhurm Chund, the grandson of the great
Nantik Gooroo, and consider themselves of the priestly
caste—the Levites of the Punjab. They murder on the
strength of tradition, and add occasionally a mocking
ceremony to the crime. The child is buried ; a piece of
coarse sugar is put between its lips, and a hank of cotton
in.its hand, and the father cries:—
" Eat your goor and spin your thread,
But go and send a boy instead."

'Be the motives what they may, it is certain that in
Inndreds of families in the Ps jab there has been no
daughter born for generations. It is certain that in
thousands infanticide is a custointo which no member of
them probably would hesitate to allude; that, all over the
lPuniab, there is a disproportion- in the number of female
!birtlh. not to be accounted for by ordinary causes, and
• that in certain districts this disproportion rises to a height
,which implies the extinction of the female sex. The evil
must be remedied, and the authorities have resolved upon
the means. They are utterly opposed to English ideas.
1 London magistrate would redouble the vigilance of
the police, and, if possible, increase the certainty of punish-
ment. Such measures by themselves would be useless iu
India. It is the social police which in England prevents
crime, and we have no social police, The authorities,
[guided, we imagine, by Mr. Itaikes, whose success at
Mynpoorie has given him a European reputation have
attempted to strike the evil nt its root. They have taken
[-wivantage of the dawning alhorrence of the crime among
the people themselves, and have endeavoured to induce
I, them to remove the temptations to it. The people are to
I'be distinctly informed that the practice is regarded by
-their new rulers is a crime ra census is to he drawn up,
Idistinguishing the male and female children ; and lastly,
a great meeting has been (Ailed of the chiefs of districts,
4iided by the Commissioners of the Jullundur, Lahore, and
o.ls-Sralej divisions, and prekided over by the Chief Com-
missioner. All the native .Chiefs who can be expected to
;attend will be invited, and new rules for marriage and
other ceremonies will, it is hoped, be formally adopted.
The meeting is to take place on the 29th and 31st of
o^tober, in the holy city of the Sikhs, and can scarcely.
fall to produce the result htended—viz., an unanimous
declaration of opinion against the practice.

'THE COUNTESS DU CATLA--The heirs of M. Birc'hey,
dentist, yesterday brought an action before the Civil
Tribunal against the Princess ,de Craon, as heiress of:the
late Countess du Cayla, who was so famous in the Restora-
tion for her beauty and wit, to recover 20,000 fr., the value
of twelve sets of teeth, supplied to the countess from 1841
to 1.652. In support of the demand, several letters, writ-
ten by the Countess to M. Birchey, about her teeth, were The princess resisted the claim, on the ground
that as the countess had declared in her will that her debts
were-mot considerable, (thouglfin reality they exceeded a
million,) she had most likely paid M. Birchey for -his
services, especially as she was very particular about her
teeth l and that M. Birchey 'had only made his demand
when he found the countess hail-not, as she, according to
his account, had promised, left him a legacy. The prin-
cess further represented that the demand could not be
maintained in law, inasmuch as 'the plaintiff had allowed
more than a year to pass withobt claiming it. The Tribunal
held that the last objection was ,valid • and it therefore
dismissed•the case, subject, however, to the Princess de
Craon taking oath that she does not believe the sum of
20,000 fr. to be really due.—Galignani. •

THE LIVE U POOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL CON

THE CHARITIES.—(IFeekIy Reports.)

INDUSTRIAL RAGG SCHOOLS, Sono-ST.—Dec.2B.
On the books, boys 89, girls 52; average attendance, boys 84,
girls 47 ; sick list, boys 1, girls 0 ; obtained situations, boys 0,
girls 1.

ROYAL INFIRMARY. Dec. 31.—AmtirrEn : In-patients,
36; out-patients, ; casuals, 21.—DISCHARGED: in-patients
cured, 13 ; relieved, &c., 8; made out-patients, 7; irregular,
I ; dead, s.—ltetnaining in the house, 156.
NORTHERN HOSPITAL, Dec. 31.—ADMITTCD: Acci-
dents, 46; Medical and Surgical Cases, 14; Total, 60.-
I)isco.% RGED : Cured, 17; relieved, &c., 5; out-patients, 30;
irregular, 1 ; died, 2.—Remaining in the Hospital, 102.

THE LONDON GAZETTE.

LIVERPOOL SHIPPING.

TUESDAY, DEC. 27.-V

hod N.N.E., moderate.
V E D.

ARRI

Demosthenes, Brazino Milli! Leie, Breton Santander
Mercurius Rotterdam Ann, Nance St. Michael's
Covenanter, Hood Bombay Carl August Dantzic
Archibald, Edmondson Achnelle, Evtrt, Ditto
Tatmagouche becima, Bask Amsterdam
Balbec (s.s ), Simpson I Diana, Haack Ditto
Constantinople Hymen, Knoggs Drammen
Lisbon Caroline, Hansen . Skein