The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-03-20 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

AN ORIGINAL VERDICT.—In a recent trial in the
Court of Exchequer, respecting the price of some gas
lamps and pipes laid down by an old gas company at New-
bury, and alleged to have been sold by them to a new
company, the foreman of the jury delivered the following
verdict : "My lord, you have put us rather in a queer
street. We find for the plaintiffs for the sum claimed,
though we think the valuation at £2ll ss. 4d. is a calcu-
lation and not a valuation ; but it will teach them not to
make foolish bargains. They made no objection to the
valuation of £525 for the Speenhamland works ; and, as
they took the first part of the meat, they must take the
shinbone."

A MEMBER FOR LIFE, IF NOT A LIFE MEMBER.—The
N. Y. Day-book is responsible for the following capital
story :—A young gentleman who was more fond of ladies'
society than good sermons, invited a daughter of one of our
millionaries to attend church with him to hear a sermon,
by a distinguished divine of the orthodox faith. It so
happened that the eloquent preacher preached that after-
noon what is called a charity sermon ; and our young
gentleman not having " come prepared" for such an
occurrence, called upon his fair companion for a loan of
the wherewith to respond to the call of the " contribution
box." " Have you any money ?" said he to the miss,
" and if so, will you lend me a trifle ?" " I have a bill,"
said the lady, offering him a bank note, which he suddenly
took and dropped into the plate. The next day he called
upon his fair creditor to pay up. " How large a bill was
that you gave me yesterday ?" said he, as he drew a one
dollar note from his wallet. " Fifty dollars," was the
reply. Mr. H—'s hand fell upon his lap, and for
about three minutes, he looked steadily into the lady's
face without uttering a word. At length he gave a long
low whistle—rose slowly from his seat—bid the lady good
night—said he would call again—and left for home. Now
fifty dollars to Mr. H— was no trifling sum, for he
was " only a Clerk" on a small salary, but he " scratched
round," raised the money, and paid it over. That was
the last contribution he has ever made to any charitable
fund, and as for charity sermons, they are his abhorrence.
He considers himself a " life member" of every bencvo-
lent institution in the country.

MORALITY OF THE PROFESSION, IN KNOWINGLY
UNDERTAKING THE ADVOCACY OF A BAD CAUSE.—It is
not in civil causes, where the rights of p .rties depend so
much upon technical and conventional rules, but in cri-
minal cases that the chief odium is incurred by the pro-
fession. And if the license which we sometimes see boldly
challenged on its behalf, to sacrifice every consideration to
the one object of enabling a client to escape conviction,
were necessary for its exercise, it is not easy to see how
the odium could be repelled. Such a license all right
thinking men must repudiate, and it tends only to the
dishonour of a noble calling to represent it as requiring
and justifying the use of trickery and falsehood. The
principle is as clear as noon day, that no man ought to do
for another, what that other cannot, without moral turpi-
tude, do for himself. The advocate stands before the
tribunal to plead the cause and represent the person of his
client, utimur enim fictione personarurn, et velut ore
alieno loquimur, but he cannot possibly by virtue of his
agency acquire rights greater than are possessed by his
principal. He may not assert that which he knows to he
a lie. He may not connive at it, much less attempt to
substantiate, a fraud. He may not avail himself of the
wretched sophistry of Paley, and say, " that there are
falsehoods which are not lies, that is which are not crimi-
nal : as where no one is deceived, which is the case in
* * * * a prisoner's pleading not guilty
—an advocate asserting the justice, or his belief of the
justice, of his client's cause. In such instances no confi-
dence is destroyed, because none was reposed ; no promise
to speak the truth is violated, because none was given or
understood to be given." Every man is under an obliga-
tion to speak the truth if he speaks at all, and virtually
promises to do so every time that he opens his lips. " For
there is in mankind," says Jeremy Taylor, " an universal
contract implied in all their intercourses ; and words being
instituted to declare the mind, and for no other end, he
that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him,
that, as far as I can, what I speak be true, for else he by
words does not know your mind, and then as good and
better not speak at all." If an advocate does not expect
to be believed when he asserts his conviction of the inno-
cence of his client, why does he volunteer the assertion at
all ? His only object must be to persuade the jury, by
throwing into the balance the weight of his own assevera-
tion, in order to make it incline in favour of a verdict of

acquittal.—Forsyth's Hortensius.
A CHINESE FARM-HOUSE.—The farm, however small,
is not so much the estate of an individual proprietor as
the home of a family or seat of a clan, many generations
of which, under one acknowledged head or patriarch, are
often congregated in the same dwelling. As the farm-
houses in general differ but little from each other, except
in size, I will endeavour to give the reader a description
of one. In a small island, formed by a moat for the sup-
ply of water and the rearing of ducks and geese, well
sheltered by bamboos and other trees, and nearly hid
py from view, stands the house, consisting of one floor only,
built, when possible, of stone, in other cases of brick (of
so superior a quality as to become an article of commerce
with this country, and to find its way to Liverpool), or of
wood. In the centre is a large hall called the " Hall of
Ancestors," common to all the family. In it are arranged
the household gods (among which are invariably the Ta-
ouist divinities presiding over hearing and sight) and re-
lics, such as an ancestral picture, in the most conspicuous
part of the wall, on each side of which is an aphorism of
Confucius, and in front of a table bearing incense-burners
and fruits, as offerings, and ornamental porcelain vases,
&c. The hall also serves for a drying-room for their
seeds, and a depository for the smaller implements of
husbandry. It is the scene of their entertainments, many
of their festivals, and the adoration of the gods, hut never
used for culinary purposes. This forms the nucleus of
the building, around it are the dwelling-rooms of the
different divisions of the tribe, and as often as a marl iage
takes place. an apartment is added for the newly-wedded
couple, and, in time, the whole presents rather the ap-
pearance of a village than a single dwelling-house. The
furniture of each family consists of a bed, highly orna-
mented, in many cases carved and richly inlaid with
ivory ; a few high-backed chairs, often of bamboo ; a
plain-polished round table, washing utensils of brass,
and, in one corner of the room, cooking utensils, consist-
ing of a block fire-place, in which a few round pans are
set with masonry, though in the larger establishments
the kitchen is a separate building. Around the room are
several red varnished cabinets, and in these apartments
the females are employed in the household duties of
needlework, spinning, &c. ; a spinning-wheel and loom
forming necessary appendages to each farm-house in those
parts where cotton is grown. Nearly everything for the
use of the family is home-made : agricultural implements
are home-made and repaired ; cotton is grown, and spun,
and made into clothes; silk-worms are reared, and all
the process of winding and weaving done by the family ;
flour is ground, cakes are baked, and sam shoo is distilled
from rice, and as much as required stored ; the rest, and
whatever other produce not wanted for home consump-
tion, is either exchanged for other necessaries amongst
the neighbours, or sent to some town in the vicinity to
find a market. In Kiang-tsu, where that species of cloth
better known under the name of nankin is made, the
drapers, who are proprietors of large houses in the cities,
hire stalls outside the walls, and meet the farmers on the
road and buy their cloth, paying in bills drawn on their
own houses. The live stock consists of a liberal supply
of fowls, ducks, geese, goats, and pigs. and a dog or two
(scarcely any family, however poor, is without one or
more of the latter two), together with one or two bullocks
and buffaloes, according to the labour required. The
buffalo is almost an amphibious animal, being constantly
in the water. The implements are very simple and pri-
mitive ; I may almost say barbarous.—Lieut. Forbes's
Five Years in China.

THE ORDINANCE OP BAPTISM.-It is base of Mr. Noel
to accuse us vehemently on mere ex parte statements.
Thus, he says we hold baptism to be actual regeneration.
What says the Article ?—it calls baptism " a sign of re-
generation I" Till, then, a sign or symbol of a thing is
the thing itself, and till Mr. Noel says the signs in the
bread and wine are the actual Body and Blood, he has no
reason to call that the substance which our Church calls
merely " a means whereby we receive the same, and a
pledge to assure us thereof." Nothing can be more bril-
liantly correct and scriptural than the twenty-seventh
Article on baptism, saying, " The promises of forgive-
ness of sins, and of our adoption to be the sons of God
by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed : faith
is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto
God." It also says, " They that receive baptism RIGHTLY
are grafted into the Church." The word " rightly" is
altogether emphatic, allowing that there might be a wrong
and merely lifeless administration of the ordinance : such,
however, would not be the Church's celebration. Will
Mr. Noel deny that the baptism service first recognizes
man's lost estate by sin ; then prays for the .child's de-
liverance from guilt; then recites the promise of Christ,
" Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not;" then grasps and appropriates the promise in
the prayer of faith : executes the ceremony of baptism
with water; and then, in a triumph of realizing faith,
declares that the gift of the Spirit is consigned to the
child ? Will Mr. Noel say the prayers for the Spirit to
come are all to go for nothing. If the prayers are true,
the Church's triumph is " true and no lie !" Hence,
afterwards a child is justifiably made to say of baptisM,
" Wherein 1 was made a member of Christ ;" not whereby,
but " wherein ;" i.e., instrumentally : for it is what the
child ought to wish and trust for itself, as well as what
we ongbt to wish for it, the exceptions against the good
old words being as weak and vain as if one was to say that
to make a child in a Sunday-school read the verse, " I
was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the
house of the Lord," when the child would rather go home
and play than go to a place of worship, would be putting
a lie into the child's mouth ! Or like as we teach child-
ren to pray good prayers before they understand them, so
we teach children to say that there was gained for them
in baptism, through prayer, that which might have been
the case, and ought to have been the case. The child's
having had so much pains taken religiously with it, as for
it to have been made to learn the very words, themselves,
amounts to a partial proof the truth of the words, that
God's Providence has begun to treat the child as His own,
else it never should have enjoyed this means of grace.
The acquisition supposed, we say, is a possible one. A
child can have such a portion of the Holy Spirit : if it
has any, it has begun a new life. A child needs this, If
so, we may ask for it: if we ask, we shall have : if we
have, WE MAY SAY WE HAVE. This is our Chinch's
position :it is only beauteous faith Our Church formu-
laries certainly bear this sense without the least straining ;
and it gives to the word "regeneration" the full and
highest sense that it is capable of having in connexion
with a child. There is no "opus operatum" in such a
view. It is all faith, and prayer, and the Holy Ghost.
This is, I think, the plain, obvious purpose of our Church
in baptism. Ido not say that all Churchmen must take
up my hypothesis ; but I say that many, if not most, do
take such a view. Ido beg to affirm that the articles and
baptism service can fairly bear the above Protestant,
Scriptural, and eminently spiritual acceptation.—Gill-
mor's reply to Noel.

etneral liatOrtllanv.

Sir Charles Napier, the new Commander of the Forces
in India, left London for Portsmouth on Thursday..

The steamer Bombay, engaged to carry out troops and
stores for the insurgents at Palermo, was on Friday seized
by the custom-house authorities at Blackwall.
Lord Gough has held the office of chief in command in
India since March 15th, 1843, so that he has occupied it
for a period of six years exactly.
The wooden beacon erected on the sand banks near the
mouth of the river Esk, below Ravenglass, was blown
down during one of the recent heavy gales.
A fever, said to be of a typhoid character, prevails in
the Lincoln gaol to such an extent as almost to make it
necessary to postpone the assizes.
An act has just been passed which dispenses with the
obnoxious term of Exciseman. They are to be distin-
guished for the future as "Inland Revenue Ofcers•"
A few vessels have been freighted at Sunderland to
bring wheat from the Baltic ports to the east coast at
rates from three shillings to three shillings and sixpence
per quarter.
A subscription has been commenced at Glasgow, for the
purpose of awarding prizes to the poor of that city and
its suburbs, who whitewash their houses and keep them
in the cleanest state.

A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.-At Fnlwood, Wm. Rankin,
a private of the 53d, has been married to Miss Maclaurin,
heiress to £15,000, who was given away by her father.
The bride is 26, and the bridegroom 30 years of age.
An infant, with two full-sized teeth in front of the
lower jaw, was born on Wednesday, at Leicester, and five
of its mother's seven children are said to have been born
with the same dental appendages.
It is intended to station a squadron of reserve steamers
at Greenhithe, where they will be advantageously posted
for the defence of the river Thames, and will be ready to
proceed to sea at a moment's notice.
Gecrge Butcher, formerly employed as a collector for
the Waghorn Testimonial, and other public objects of the
same kind, has been committed to prison for three months
for having obtained money under false pretences for the
former testimonial.

Since the fall of oak trees last spring, English bark has
risen at least 100 per cent. in price—holders refusing even
to sell at that immense advance. It is expected that more
oak trees will be cut down this year than has been known
in any previous years since the termination of the last
European mar.
BANK OF ENGLAND.—At the meeting of Bank proprie-
tors, on Thursday, the directors proposed the half-years'
dividend at 5} per cent., clear of income-tax. The pro-
posal was received with acclamation, and was immediately
carried. The " rest," after payment of the dividend of
5i per cent., will be .Z 3,430.000. _

IMPORTANT TO ODD FELLOWS.—The members of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows will be interested to
learn that the Government have ordered the evidence
taken before the committee of the House of Lords, with
Lord Beaumont's report thereon, to be published, and
issued to the public.
John Remington and Charles Remington, brothers, the
former 24 and the latter 20 years of age, whose family
connexions are highly respectable, have been committed
for trial, in London, charged with having broken open
several trunks belonging to a lady named Indell, who
lodged in the same house as the prisoners did, and stolen
therefrom a quantity of wearing apparel, bed linen, &c.
A HARDENED WOMAN.—On Saturday, at the Salis-
bury assizes, Mr. Justice Williams sentenced a woman to
a month's imprisonment for stealing, on which she stooped
down, took off her shoe, and then said, " Thank you, my
lord, take that;" and threw her shoe at the learned
Judge's head. It, however, fortunately fell short of the
bench, and did no mischief.
There has been a riot at Leicester. It originated with
the frame-knitters, who we mentioned some time ago as
having struck for an advance of wages. One of the fra-
ternity accepted the reduced rates ; he was maltreated,
his effigy shot at and burnt, and his windows smashed,
and other atrocities committed. Thirteen of the offenders
were committed for trial.
At Salisbury, Samuel Stratton was sentenced to ten
years' transportation for breaking into the dwelling-house
of the Rev. Mr. Briscoe, at Coombe Bissett, and stealing
a quantity of plate. John May and Robert Woodford
received a like sentence for stealing a quantity of silver
articles from an iron chest at the Swindon station on the
Great Western Railway.

At York, George Home was tried for the murder of his
child, Eliza Amelia Howe, whom he killed at Yam by the
administration of oxalic acid. The motive for the crime,
it will be remembered, was stated at the time of his com-
mittal to be, that he might marry a widow with £3OO,
who would have objected to take charge of his infant.
He was found guilty and sentenced to die.

THE HEIRESS AND THE ELDER.—The Scotsman con-
firms the statement which
.appeared in our last of a
wealthy young lady having married a poor man, and adds
that the lady is heiress of a large estate and beautiful seat
in Selkirkshire. The young lady is twenty-three, the
other party about double that age. The first bond of
connexion between them was of an ecclesiastical char-4
the lady being somewhat of a religious re-'
ject of her affections a Free Kirk elder

SUPPOSED REMAINS OF MARTYRS IN SMITHFIELD.—
On Wednesday. during the progress of excavations in
Smithfield Market, opposite the entrance to the church of
St. Bartholomew the Great, for the formation of a sewer,
when about three feet below the surface the workmen came
upon a heap of unhewn stones, blackened as if by fire,
and covered with ashes and human bones charred and par-
tially consumed. The remains thus discovered are sup-
posed to be those of martyrs burnt at the stake
bones were carried away as relic

On Monday, Lord Denman, at Salisbury, sentenced to
death John Smith for the murder of Eleanor Lawrence,
a poor woman, who was killed on her way to take their
dinner to some labourers by the brute, who knocked her
down with a large stone and then kicked her. He was
subsequently taken prisoner for assaulting the Rev. Mr.
Hadow, at Everleigh, by throwing stones at him, because
he refused to relieve him. Prisoner's counsel contended
that Smith must be insane, as there was no attributable
reason for the murder. The jury, however, paid no atten.
tion to the suggestion. _ _ _ _ _ _ _

NOVEL COMPLIMENT TO A JUDGE.-Mr. Macdonald,
marble-mason, Monkwearmouth, who was acquitted on a
charge of feleny, preferred against him at the recent Dur-
ham assizes, for blowing up an erection with gunpowder
which the prosecutor, Mr. Allison, the brewer, claimed
as his, but which Macdonald contended was built upon
his ground, took a novel way of manifesting his gratitude
to Baron Alderson for directing the jury to acquit him.
On his arrival at his own home, where his triumph was
greeted by a great number of his friends, he had a large
flag stretched across the front of his house, bearing the
following inscription :—`• Long life to Judge Alderson,
the friend to truth and justice." The exhibition attracted
hundreds of spectators.
FAITH IN FORTUNE-TELLERS.-At West Looe, Corn-
wall, on Thursday, a woman named Mary Vincent, died
at an advanced age. This woman had for a long time
carried on a very lucrative business, in that town, in "tel-
ling fortunes." Great numbers have, for the last 30 years
or more, from near home and from long distances, applied
to this impostor, believing she could reveal their future
destinies ; and to " get rid of the witchcraft." Such was
the request for the old woman's services, that on the day
she died two young ladies, from the neighbourhood of
Fowey, called at her house to have their fortunes told ;
and on the following d,y two well-dressed middle-aged
females, from the neighbourhood of Herodsfoot, called to
have advice relative to a bewitching case. Both parties
left the house rather crestfallen on finding they were too
late.

THE BRISTOL MURDER.—The coroner's inquiry into
the barbarous murder of the old lady, Mrs. Jefferies, at
Bristol, has closed. Sarah Thomas, the girl who lived
with the deceased, and in whose possession, at her
mother's house, some money, plate, and trinkets, belong-
ing to the deceased were found, states that she was not
the murderer, but that the inhuman deed was done by a
girl who lately lived with the deceased, out of revenge for
the deceased not giving her a character. Thomas, how-
ever, admits having received 30 sovereigns from the other

girl, after the murder, the money having been taken from
some of the desks or drawers belonging to the deceased.
Her story seems unfounded, and she has been committed
for trial for •' Wilful murder."
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE.—On Saturday week, a
gentleman named Robertson, a student at St. Bartholo-
mew's Hospital, and residing in Upper-terrace, Islington,
and a fellow student, Mr. T. W. Hairby, in company with
a young woman, Hannah Murray, living as domestic at
Robertson's lodgings, went to the River Lea. They
hired a pleasure-boat at the Jolly Anglers, and had pro-
ceeded as far as the horseshoe point, when Hairby leaned
over the boat to secure the rudder lines. The woman
fearing his precipitation into the water, suddenly left her
seat, which caused the boat to turn keel uppermost, when
all three were immersed in the water. While in the act
of sinking, Hairby clung to Murray. The melancholy
catastrophe was witnessed by a bargeman, who promptly
used his hitcher, and brought up the body of the woman,
when animation was restored : but half an hour elapsed
before the body of the two young men were got out.
PAPISTS AND QUAKERS AT CHURCH MEETINGS.—We
notice An unjustifiable interference of a Roman Catholic
priest and a Quaker at a church meeting lately held at
Hereford. The parish of St. John the Baptist in that
city, consisting of 1300 souls, has had no place of worship
since the restoration of the cathedral at Hereford was
begun—that is, for seven or eight years past. The pa-
rishioners hare, in the mean time, and for many years,
occupied a portion of the cathedral which served as their
church. They have, in fact, been for the time specified
without church or minister—there being no curate ap-
pointed to the parish, and the incumbent being also the
incumbent of another parish in Hereford, which he serves
without any assistant in the duties. And yet when an
attempt is made to increase the efficiency of the church,
even under circumstances of such spiritual destitution as
this, the parties alluded to oppose the attempt.
SHOCKING DISCOVERY.—On Friday, the workmen em-
ployed pulling down the houses for the formation of the
new street from Walbrook to Queen-street, Southwark-
bridge, London, on entering the house No. 1, Castle-
court, for that purpose, to their horror, found in one of
the upper rooms the corpse of a woman, with three chil-
dren crouched around it, the eldest apparently not ten
years, all seeming on the point of death; the fetid odour
that issued from the apartment for the moment compelled
the men to retire; on returning they questioned the chil-
dren, but all they could glean from them was, that they
were starving. Information was immediately forwarded
to the Police-station in Bow-lane, and the children who
had scarcely a vestige of clothing, and were literally co-
vered with vermin, were removed to the city workhouse in
Cannon-street, where they received every attention, but
from the dreadful state of exhaustion of the two youngest
they are not expected to survive. The corpse of the un-
fortunate woman is merely covered with a ragged gown,
no clothing, furniture, nor bedding was in the room, and
it is supposed, that finding the house empty, she, with her
children, crept in for shelter, and they are believed to have
betn there for some days, totally without food.,

Mr. Alfred Smee, the surgeon to the Bank of England,
has announced, that by a test, which he terms electro-
voltaic, he has discovered that the termination of the
censor nerves are a positive pole of a voltaic circuit, whilst
the muscular substance is the negative pole. The sensor
nerves are the telegraphs which carry the sensation to the
brain, and the motor nerves carry back the volition to the
muscles, The brain he infers to consist of five distinct
voltaic circles, which, upon theoretical grounds, he be-
lieves to be sufficient to account for mental phenomena.
Should these researches be fully confirmed by other inves-
tigators, they must be regarded as most important phy-
siological discoveries.
EXTRAORDINARY LEAP.—On'Monday, a man in the
employ of Mr. William Parke, of the Feathers Inn, Holt,
went into a turnip field, with a ware in a tumbrel, which
he loaded with turnips. When he got into the pen where
the stock was he left the mare, to close the hurdle he had
removed to pass through, when something frightened her,
and she started off in a gallop towards the gate next the
road (the field inclining down towards the same), which
she cleared, covering a space of 26 feet, carrying the cart
and turnips over with her. She took the gate rather
obliquely, which caused one of the wheels to go o❑ the
fence side of the post, and the axletree of the cart went
over it, it being about 4 feet 6 inches out of the ground.
The velocity with which the cart came over caused it to
upset, and when the mare was taken out she got up with-
out a scratch. Incredible as the story may appear, the
occurrence was witnessed by others.—Norfolk Chronicle.
AWFUL DEATIL—On Friday, an inquest was held at
Kenilworth, near Leamington, on the body of Miss Ann
Stewart, aged 16, a daughter of General Stewart. It ap-
peared that John Pugh, coachman to the General, heard
one of his master's horses making a strange noise in the
stable, and on going to the spot he found Miss Stewart
under the horse. The animal was standing close by the
side of the stall, and the deceased was doubled up under
it. The blood was issuing from the deceased's head, and
there was a large pool of blood in the stable. The de-
ceased used to caress and feed the horse occasionally, and
it was remarkably quiet, and seemed sensible of her atten-
tion. In the opinion of the witness the deceased was
feeding the horse, when he, in play, knocked her bonnet
off, and it fell on the ground ; that he then became fright-
ened, and knocking her down, kicked her on the head, as
he found her bonnet on the floor of the stable, and the
off hind heel of the horse was covered with blood. When
he extricated deceased, life was quite extinct. _

MOTHER AND SON DROWNED.—Considerable excite-
ment has been caused in the neighbourhood of Martock,
Somerset, in consequence of Mrs. Rakes, of Clithorne,
and her son having been found drowned. She had been
visiting her relatives on Wednesday week, and was re-
turning in a vehicle drawn by one horse along the road
from South Pentherton towards Martock, when the
brook which runs alongside the road was swollen by the
heavy rains which had fallen in the morning, and, it is
supposed, by some accident they got into the brook,
which is very deep in that part, and were drowned. The
body of Mrs. Rakes was found at some distance from the
spot, her clothes having been caught by some roots in the
bank ; the body of the lad was found about three-quarters
of a mile from the place where the accident occurred.
The most singular and unaccountable part of the circum-
stance is the fact that the horse was found loose, and the
harness in the waggon. How this could have happened
is not known.