The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-01-16 00:00:00

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

FRANCE

The feeling of dislike against the French National As-
sembly in France is fast extending, and " Down with it !"
is almost the general cry. Petitions are being numerously
signed to hasten this event. The people have grown
quite tired of it, and are eager for its abolition. In order
to bring the question to an issue, M. St. Hilaire has given
notice of a motion for its dissolution on the 15th of April.
A proposition, by M. Tinguy, that the Assembly shall
dissolve itself on the 15th of February, after having
passed the electoral law, has been referred to the commit-
tees of legislation and justice.
The National Assembly of France decided on Thursday
evening that the import duty on foreign salt in French
vessels, from the Ist of February, should be lf. 75c. the
100 kilogrammes ; and in foreign vessels, 2f. 25c. '
A coll ?ction was made on Sunday last in all the churches
in Paris for Pope Pius IX.
The new Erench post-office stamp is of about the same
size as the English stamp. The figure upon it is the head
of a female, as representing the Republic. It is neatly
executed, but by no means remarkable as a work of art.
A man named Langlume, working in the quarries of
Romainville, on Saturday, was taken violently ill, after
eating mushrooms which Ile had himself gathered. He
died the same night. Two of his children, who had also
partaken of them, were exceedingly indisposed, but their
lives are not considered in danger.—Paris Journal.
TETE "BEGGING PROFESSION" IN PARIS.—We find,
from the perusal of a case recently tried before c ne of the
tribunals of a correctional police in Paris, that a detesta-
ble system of fraudulent mendicity is equally organized
in that capital. A child of the tender age of ten years
was charged with the offence of begging in the streets;
Lis mother being summoned at the same time, as civilly
responsible for the conduct of her son. It appeared,
from the evidence adduced by this wretched stripling,
whose emaciated appearance and state of semi-nudity
shocked the feelings of all present, that his abandoned
parent was in the habit of turning him out every morning
for the pursuit of his " profession;" and that, unless he
brought home at night at least 20 sous as the result of his
day's " earnings," he was fated to be cruelly scourged
with a thick rope's end or a cow-hide, receiving as many
lashes as there were sous deficient. The only sustenance
allowed the unfortunate boy during the 24 hours was a
small slice of bread, in addition to the scanty morsels
obtained from charitable individuals. When, on the
other hand, the poor child contrived to scrape together
more than the 20 sous " required by law," he was allowed
a little soup as an extra gratification. These facts were
extorted from the child in the absence of the unnatural
mother ; for so great was the intimidation exercised over
him by her menacing looks and gesticulations that the
President was obliged to order her to withdraw before he
could elicit a syllable. The brutal woman, on being in-
terrogated in her turn, of course denied the fact ; but the
tribunal, notwithstanding, sentenced her to six months'
imprisonment, and consigned the child to the care of a
respectable master mechanic present, who most charitably
offered to take charge of him.

GERMANY.—SURRENDER OF PESTII.—The report that
Pesth and Ofen had been taken by the Imperialists on the
sth is confirmed ; the 12th army bulletin of Prince Win-
dischgratz announcing that event having been officially
published in Vienna on the 7th. It is stated in the bul-
letin that no opposition was offered, and that further de-
tails will be given. Kossuth has gone to Debreczin with
his adherents, in order to form a junction with the troops
of General Bern. He took with him the regal insignia of
St. Stephen, the Hungarian King.

It is expected that as many as 100 vessels will be de-
spatched from the various ports of the United States
_ _

Within th

months for California

There are now 60 cardinals, and out of the whole num-
ber of dignitaries only seven belong to Europe and the
world, the rest belonging to the Italian peninsula, includ-

ing Sicily and Sardinia

ROYAL REPORTING.—The Times of Monday publishes
" a hasty translation" of the speech that was to be de-
livered to the Portuguese Chambers, by Donna Maria da
Gloria, " three days after" the sailing of the packet.
The Pope is still at Gaeta, and even he and his personal
ecclesiastic friends are at loggerheads. The latter recom-
mend an immediate recourse to an armed intervention for
the purpose of placing his holiness at the head of civil
affairs at Rome, but to the credit of Pius he has hitherto
resisted the proposition.
It is a coincidence worth noting, that the day of the
flight of the Pope from Rome (the 24th November), was
the anniversary of the foundation of the Papal Sovereignty,
the date of which war 24th November, 800.
Cape of Good Hope papers of the 16th November have
reached us, from which we make the following interesting
extracts. The proposition of Earl Greyito introduce fe-
lons from this country into that colony has excited no in-
considerable degree of alarm, and is likely to be met with
the most determined opposition.
Recent advices from the Cape of Good Hope state that
an association for introducing the cultivation of the cot-
ton plant into Albany and Kafirland had been formed at
Graham's Town, and a committee appointed to carry out
that object. _ _ _ _

It is stated that Mr. Pierce Butler, despairing of suc-
ce3s in his suit against his wife, has made a proposition
for a compromise. The terms are understood to be, that
the parties are to live apart ; Mr. Butler to provide his
wife a suitable allowance, and allow at least one of the
children to live with her.

Dr. Nicholson, an English Archbishop of the Roman
Catholic persuasion, and coadjutor to the Most Rev. the
Archbishop of the lonian Islands, has arrived in Malta,
and is at present located in the palace of his Excellency
the Governor.—Times [The Bishop of. Gibraltar who
is also in Malta, and is a Protestant, has not the honour
of being noticed by his Excellency, Mr. O'Ferral.]
DECLINE OF PROPERTY.—III the St. Lucia papers re-
ceived by the West India packet, the sale of the Marquis
estate in that island is announced for the sum of £3.600.
This same property, comprising 3,000 acres, 2,000 of
which even in the present depressed period are under cul-
tivation, fetched £50,000 seventeen years back, and was
then considered to have sold only at a moderate price.

ORDINATION IN THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.—The Echo
des fralWes gives particulars of the ordination at La Tour
of six candidates to the ministry in connection with the
Vaudois Church. The moderator of the synod presided
upon the occasion, and preached a sermon from Rom. x.
13, 15. After undergoing an examination by the pastors,
the candidates, on the morning of their ordination, signed
an engagement, which they afterwards ratified, in the
presence of an assembled congregation, to teach only
sound evangelical doctrine, as professed by their ances-
tors, and contained in the Holy Scriptures.
HORRIBLE TRAGEDY.—At New York, on the 22nd ult..
a German, named Francis Geiger, went into the apartment
of a tailor, named Frederick William Marks, who resided
in a room over a crockery store at the corner of Grand
and Walnut-streets, with a large two-edged dirk knife in
his hand, with which he stabbed Marks in two or three
parts of the breast, nearly cut off one of his arms, and
divided his left hand, from the wrist completely in two.
Marks then rushed o t of the room and ran down stairs,
and fell dead in the hall. As soon as Marks left the
room, Geiger immediately attacked a woman who lived
with Marks, as his mistress, and cnt off part of her breast,
and stabbed her in several places until she fell to the
ground. He then stabbed himself several times in the
region of the heart, fell to the ground, and almost imme-
diately expired.
JAMAICA.—A fact has recently transpired which incon-
testibly proves the fearful crisis of the affairs of this
colony. It is this, that the value of exports for the last
parliamentary year did not reach £900,000, whilst the
imports exceeded £1,100,000; thus showing a balance of
trade against the island of £200,000. During the last
two years, also, the public expenditure of Jamaica has
exceeded its revenue by £60,000 per annum. We cannot
here help quoting an article under this head from the
Jamaica Dispatch:—" The House of Assembly has
rejected the Imperial loan as inexpedient under the pro-
visions which restrict its application. The house has
thus done good service to the country. It has refused to
sanction an addition of £lOO,OOO to the public debt of the
colony to be jobbed away in road commissions and road
allotments. Indeed, it is hardly possible to view this
portion of the government scheme in any other light than
as a deliberate insult to the colonies."

Punch, looking to the flight of Louis Phillippe, Ferdi-
nand, Metternich, the Pope, &c. &c. &c., during the lase
twelve months, decides that 1848 is entitled to be called
" the flightiest year on record."

RAILWAY

AFFAIRS

The traffic on the Chester and Holyhead Railway for
the week ended the 6th inst. was—Coaching, £759 Is.lld. ;
parcels, £25 lls. 3d. ; goods and cattle, £l6B 12s. 2d. ;
steam boats, £93 13s. 6d.: total, £1,046 18s. 10d.
The. Atmospheric System, so far as the South Devon
Railway is concerned, has vanished into recollection only,
and the Locomotive is henceforth to snort its triumph
along the beautiful coast of Devonshire.
Mr. Creed, who filled for upwards of ten years the se-
cretaryship of the London and Birminghrm and London
and North Western Companies, has been elected to a seat
in the direction of the latter company, in the room of
Mr. Benbow, M.P., who has resigned.
On Thursday a seaman fell from a carriage on the
Blackwall Railway, owing to the door not being properly
fastened, and being precipitated on the line, all the car-
riages passed over him, and mutilated him in a frightful

manner.
The embankment and sea-wall of that portion of the
South Wales Railway which extends across the sands
lying between the Llanelly harbour and Buryport,
contracted for by Mr. Joseph Douglas and others, has
been almost entirely washed away by Thursday's spring
tide, which rose to an unusual height.
A-Mrs. Cargill lately brought an action against the
Dundee and Perth Railway for damages sustained in con-
sequence of the death.of her husband, caused by an acci-
dent on the Dundee and Perth line. The deceased was a
farmer, living near Newcastle, and the accident took place
on the 22nd of July, 1847. The damages were laid at
£5OOO. After the trial had commenced, a compromise
was come to—the comi?miy agreeing to allow Mrs. Cargill
an annuity of the
for). lite.
TRANSMISSION OF A NEWSPJS.PER REPORT BY TELE-
GRAPH.—During Wednesday night last, a report of the
meeting in the Free-trade Hall, Manchester, that night,
occupying a column and a quarter of the London Times,
was transmitted to the metropolis, and appeared in the
Times of the following morning, long before most of the
speakers and hearers at the meeting had quitted their
beds. The meeting terminated about a quarter past
eleven o'clock, and the last page of the manuscript,
transcribed at the central station of the electric telegraph
in London, reached the Times office about 245 a.m. We
notice this telegraphic effort, as the greatest yet achieved
in England ; but undoubtedly much remains to be done,
even before the speed of the American electric telegraph
attained here.