The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-03-13 00:00:00

DESTRVOTIVE STORM.—During the recent gales great
havoc was done among the woods in Scotland. Upwards
of 2,000 trees were blown down at Darnaway Castle, near
Forres, one of the seats of the Earl of Moray. A Letter
just received from the same quarter informs us that, since
that time, there has been a succession of hurricanes, and
that 3,000 more trees have been blown down on Lord
Moray's grounds ; that on one estate alone, that of the
Earl of Seafield, near Inverness, upwards of 12,000 have
been thrown down.
THE DESPAIRING TAILOR.—An inebriated tailor, of
Nottingham, fearful of a curtain lecture from his wife,
resolved to escape the dreaded infliction by taking arsenic.
He purchased a dose and swallowed it, but some of his
friends, to whom he communicated the dreadful intelli-
gence, forced him off to the infirmary, where the stomach-
pump brought away, mixed with quart after quart of the
previously imbibed beer, a nuantity of white powder,
which, on examination, turned out to be flour; the wily
druggist having sold him the wholesome farina instead of
the deadly dose, which would probably soon have ter-
minated his existence.
THE NAPIERS.—At this moment the acting chiefs of
our Mediterranean fleet and of our Indian army are both
Napiers. Sir Charles leads the one, and his cousin Sir
Charles has accepted the command of the other. A.
Napier is just the man for a dilemma. The family ac-
quired their name from the circumstance that one of its
old members was a man unequalled for his dexterity and
courage in helping the State when the latter was in diffi-
culty and danger. Of such a man an old Scottish K;ng
was wont to say that he had " nae peer." The ancient
reputation still holds, with a difference ; for, if the Napiers
have their equals, it must at least be acknowledged that
they have not their superiors.
EMBEZZLEMENT.—The following case of extensive
embezzlement was finally investigated at Bow-street, on
Tuesday. The delinquent, named Russell, has been a
clerk in the service of the directors of the Westminster
Fire and L;fe Insurance Office, and stood charged with
embezzling divers sums of money, amounting to £BOO,
received by him on account of his employers. The pri-
soner also held the situation of collector of the paving-
rates for the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster. Mr.
Hatcher(' stated that on the 6th of December, last year,
he went to the Westminster Fire-office for the purpose of
paying the sum of £l6 45., being the amount of a policy
of insurance and the duty. The person to whom he paid
the money signed the receipt produced, in his presence,
and handed it to him ; but he could not identify the pri-
soner. —Mr. J. Padmore, chief clerk, said that on refer-
ring to the private cash-book, and also the office cash-
book, neither of them contained any entry of the amount
in question.—Other parties deposed to sums that had been
paid by them to the prisoner, entries of which did not
appear in the books. The prisoner was fully committed
to Newgate for trial.
NEW PRINTING TELEGRAPH.—We yesterday had the
pleasure of privately examining a new printing telegraph,
on the hydraulic principle, the invention of Mr. W. H.
French, of Cardiff, which, for simplicity and certainty, is
far superior to any other, either hydraulic or electric, that
has yet come under our notice. The invention being as
yet unpatented, we cannot, of course, go into any de-
scription of it; but we may state that, without the use of
any arbitrary signs, or the necessity of receiving answers
from the various stations as to whether or not a message
can be understood, a communication can be made, at the
will of the operator, to one, two, three, or a dozen sta-
tions on the main line or branches of a given district of
country. which will be legibly printed on a slip of paper,
something like the column of a newspaper, to any length,
or a conversation can be carried on on the same paper
between two points—the intermediate stations, by a sim-
ple contrivance, being thrown out of the line of commu-
nication. One advantage of this system is, that the tele-
graph becomes the registrar of communication, and pre-
vents any dispute as to its real import; while another,
and perhaps the most important, is, that should an at-
tendant at any station be absent from his duty, he will,
should any message be given in the meantime, find it on
his return legibly printed in the ordinary character, a bell
continuing to ring from the commencement of the com-
munication being made, until observed by the attendant,
and, to use a familiar expression, thrown by him out of
gear. Morning Post.
PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.—On Wednesday Lord Ernest
Vane, youngest son of the Marquis and Marchioness of
Londonderry, a remarkably fine youth, scarcely 12 years
of age, had a most providential escape from instant death
while riding with his tutor in the vicinity of Bath, where
his noble parents are at present sojourning. Lord Ernest
left the stables, mounted on his pony, the tutor selecting
for himself a high-spirited animal from Lord London-
derry's stud. After riding some distance, the tutor al-
lowed Lord Ernest to mount the larger horse, which, as
soon as he felt the lighter weight, dashed off at full speed,
and galloped four miles beyond the turnpike at Beckford's
Folly, on the downs above the city. The courageous boy
all this time kept his feet in the stirrups, and clung to the
neck of the animal, which successively cleared all the
ditches and low walls that intervened, until it arrived at
one of those deep rocky declivities with which the vicinity
abounds. No power on earth could here have saved the
life of the youth had not the horse slipped up, and, com-
ing in contact with a sharp projecting stone, cut his hind
thigh to the bone, and thus disabled him from proceeding
further. Lord Ernest was thrown violently by the fall of
the horse; and, on recovering sensibility, his lordship
discovered the horse at some yards' distance, moaning
and unable to rise. Although suffering from great pain,
and nearly covered with bruises, Lord Ernest went to the
spot, and, taking the bridle, the horse, after many plunges,
got up. The gallant youth then led the mutilated and
wounded animal five miles back to the stables, where it
arrived only to be shot. Lord Ernest was found to have
sustained no very material injury.
EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF JEWELLERY.—At Aylesbury
assizes, on Wednesday, Benjamin Isaacs was charged with
having feloniously received thirteen watches, one hundred
brooches; one hundred seals, one hundred keys, and other
articles, to the value of £2OO, the property of Edwin Re-
vell, of Slough, well knowing the same to have been stolen.
In December 1847 the shop of the prosecutor was broken
into, and the property stated in the indictment was stolen.
No clue was found to the robbery until about six months
after, when two notorious thieves, the one at Wakefield
Gaol and the other at Milibank, both under sentence of
transportation, confessed that they had been concerned
in a very great number of the worst burglaries in the
country, and that they returned to town and disposed of
the property to Isaacs, who always managed to make the
best of the bargain, and encouraged them to go forth on
their depredations, even promising to send money to them
into the country, if they would convey their pickings to
him in Petticoat-lane, London. He had given them only
£l5 for the produce of the Slough robbery, although the
property was worth £2OO. Their evidence entirely coin-
cided (although unheard by each other) even in the mi-
nutest particular. His lordship, during the opening ad-
dress of the learned counsel for the prosecution, observed
on the fact that none of the stolen property was found in
the possession of the prisoner ; for unless there was strong
corroborative evidence to bear out the evidence of con-
victed thieves, no London tradesman would be safe a
single day. For the defence a number of London trades-
men were called to testify to the previous good character
of the prisoner. The jury retired, and after half an hour's
consultation, gave a verdict of not guilty. The prisoner,
however, was detained, having forfeited his recognizance
of £5OO.

TRADING WITHOUT A LICENSE.—At Northampton,
oa the 20th ult., Charles Saint, who is one of the peram-
bulating parties with numerous stocks of silks, shawls,
&c., was summoned before the justices, and charged with
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being the imposition of a fine of £lO upon the defendant.
Another information was then laid against Saint, for that,
on the 11th of Feb., under colour of his license, he pub-
lished a certain handbill, in which his name, number,
and such other particulars as were contained in his license
were not set forth in distinct. and legible roman capitals,
according to sec. laulmn.
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haaj wunadmk
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Licensingp(
hand-bill was produced, and was certainly a curiosity in
itswords
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mystery,
sh
Licensedriet e wno
describe it) without any spaces between the words, or any
attention to punctuation. The attorney on behalf of the
prosecution put it to the bench whether this was a com-
pliance with the act of parliament. The bench affirmed
that it was not, and accordingly Saint was mulcted in
another £lO penalty. An appeal was once over talked of,
to which of course the magistrates did not object, pro-
viding Saint could enter into recognizances himself, and
find two sufficient sureties in respect of the appeal. This
was a poser for the man possessed of property which he
could find " no shop in Northampton sufficiently large to
contain," and being unable to find bail, the penalties
_were_ on__tha ,Il* *ha
"assignees, with t eir immense stock," quitted a
town in which they had met with nothing but disasters.
Saint is described as " a youngish man, dressed elabor-
ately, and with mustaches carefully cultivated down either
side of the mouth a la Chinoise."

At the Durham Assizes William Henry Gibson was
sentenced to ten years' transportation, having pleaded
guilty to a forgery upon Sir John Kirkland and Co., the
army agents in Pall Mall, under the following extraordi-
nary circumstances :—The prisoner was originally an ap-
prentice to a surgeon, in Union-street, Spitalfields, and is
a married man, with three children. In June last the
daughter of the prosecutor was staving with a lady at
Scarborough. The prisoner was likewise staying at Scar-
borough, passing as Lieutenant Gordon, of the 16th
Lancers, and wore ribbons on his left breast, which he
called " Indian honours." He was introduced to the
lady by her lover, whom, however, the prisoner sup-
planted, after paying his addresses for two weeks. On
the 20th of July he prevailed on Miss Wright to go to
York with him, under pretence of getting a license ; this
she did, Miss Steabler, a cousin of the lady's, accompa-
nying them. They went to the Black Swan, at York ;
there they dined, and after dinner the prisoner went out,
and returned, saying that the license was all right, and
that as it was a special license, the usual marriage cere-
mony was dispensed with, and the consequence was that
he effected the ruin of the lady, Miss Steabler having left
them previously. The prisoner, becoming short of cash,
took Miss Wright to see her friends at Sunderland, and
in the mean time had the following inserted in the York
Herald :—" On Thursday, the 20th, at York, W. H.
Gordon, Esq., Lieutenant Wallallajab Light Dragoons,
(one of the three officers of that corps who survived the
fearful slaughter at Bhurtpoor), son of Lieut.-Colonel
Gordon, of Danesbury-park, to Frances, youngest daugh-
ter of Thomas Wright, Esq., of Sunderland." The day
after they arrived in Sunderland the prisoner called upon
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A few days after he persuaded the prosecutor to cash a
cheque upon Kirkland and Co., for £3O, which, of course,
when presented for payment, was dishonoured. As soon
dvictim t
o Hull, that the check
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had been se n t
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and committed for trial.