The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-10 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE

MANCHESTER Dec. S.—The depression in this market
continues without the slightest relief, and prices of goods
and yarn generally continue gradually to decline. There is
some demand for very low counts of water twist for the
Levant, and perhaps a little more inquiry for good 27-inch
printing cloth for the United States ; but generally the
market is exceedingly flat, and sales are effected with diffi-
culty, even at lower prices. We regret to hear, that the last
advices from New South Wales announce a number of
serious failures at Sydney, where business is represented as
being in a most wretched condition. There has also been a
failure of a Brazilian house at Rio, the engagements of which
are from £30,000 to £40,000; and we regret to learn, that a
portion of the loss will fall upon houses in this town.
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, DEC. 6.—There has been
a better demand for flannels to-day, but no improvement in
prices. The wool market still remains dull, and prices
stationary.
HUDERSFIELD MARKET, DEC. 7.—This was a more ani-
mated market than for some weeks past, there being more
buyers than usual. The demand was very varied ; but
orders were exceedingly small, and prices drooping, or, at
any rate, not improved. In fancy goods, a few favoured
articles are doing well ; but the great mass of tradesmen
have to struggle hard against the almost unparalleled long
depression in the staple articles. Wools are firm in price ;
and warehouse business is a fair average for the season.

The Great Western has crossed and re-crossed the Atlan-
tic for three years without once missing her day or meeting
the slightest accident.

SHOCKING DEATII OF THE HON. LUCY FORTESCUE.—
We have to record the melancholy death of this lady, which
took place at Brighton on Friday morning last, in consequence
of injuries caused by her clothes taking fire. The circum-
stances under which it took place will be gathered from the
following evidence, which was given at an inquest on the
body, held at the City of Hereford Inn, Brighton, on Satur-
day, before Mr. J. F. Gell, coroner, and a respectable jury :
Sarah Cooper deposed—l was maid to the deceased, who re-
sided in Charlotte-street, Brighton. She was a single lady,
and was in her 78th year. On Thursday morning, the 23d
of November, between 9 and 10 o'clock, I had dressed her
all but her upper garments, and then left her, and retired into
an adjoining room, as was my custom, until she washed. In
about half an hour I heard a noise as of the stamping of feet.
I opened the door immediately, and found the deceased in
the middle of the room enveloped in flames. I went up to
her and got a carpet and put it over her, and then rang the
bell. I screamed loudly. The two female servants and the
nurse came up immediately. The servants threw water upon
her and extinguished the flames, after which we put her to
, bed. I then discovered that her left arm and thigh, and
round her throat, were much burnt. She was not able to
speak much. She asked me how it happened, but I was un-
able to tell her. There was a fire in the room, but there was
no guard on it. The flames appeared to me to have caught
the lower part of her clothes. Medical assistance was imme-
diately obtained, but she died about half-past two o'clock on
the night of Thursday. I had been accustomed to leave her
in her room with a fire in it. I had left her gown before the
fire to warm it. Mr. R. P. Phillpotts, surgeon, Devonshire-
place, Brighton, deposed—l was called upon to attend the
deceased on the morning of Tuesday, the 23d ult., in conse-
quence of her having been burnt. Being out, my assistant
went before me. On my arrival I found him dressing wounds
of considerable magnitude on the left arm of the deceased.
Her chin, throat, and left thigh were also very much burnt.
I continued to attend her up to her death. She died of fever,
the consequence of injuries to the skin from the burning.
She was unable to give any account as to how it happened.
The jury immediately returned a verdict of " Accidental
death." The deceased was sister to the late and aunt to the
present Lord Fortescue.—Standard.
DEATHS AT LEIGH SINTON FROM POISON.—The inquest
on Thomas Jones, the father of the unfortunate children
whose deaths were mentioned in our last, was held before
Mr. Hughes, on Wednesday, and adjourned to Friday, on
which day the investigation terminated. The following de.
tail of particulars in the history of this remarkable and tragic
occurrence completely overturns the hypothesis of the cause
of death given in the preceding account, and irrefragably
proves that this lamentable loss of life has ensued from
poison—that poison being arsenic, and coming in the way of
the doomed family in a manner which, though purely acci-
dental, will we hope operate as a terrible warning against,
we must say, the very culpable negligence with which it ap-
pears that great quantities of this most deadly poison are
suffered to lie exposed about farm-house. Mr. Pierpoint
stated, that from his first view of the body, he was of opinion
that the man had died from the effects of arsenic, and that
the description given by the other surgeons of the symptoms
under which he laboured, strengthened that opinion. After
the post mortem examination, that gentleman, along with
Mr. Morison, went to the chamber where Ann Jones, the
mother, was lying, and, after some time had passed in mak-
ing inquiries, she expressed a desire that the nurses should
leave the room, which they having done, and the only parties
present being Messrs. Pierpoint and Morison, the ailing
woman's father, and her little boy, the fifth sufferer, but who
is now convalescent, she said that a thing had occurred to
her in the last night which she had forgotten to tell the
doctor (meaning Mr. Morison) in the morning, which was
that her husband had brought home from his master's an
old watering pan. There was a number of rags filling up
the holes in the bottom. She had washed the pan and drawn
the water used in the house on Monday and Tuesday in it
from the well; it was now lying in the well, the string hav-
ing broke, and she was afraid it was in such pans they mixed
the arsenic for the seed wheat. The poor woman, in reply
to further inquiries, stated that she had found something
adhering to the bottom of the pan, like bean meal. Having
obtained this clue to the appalling calamity, no time was lost in
searching the well ; in it the old watering pan was discovered,
and Mr. Rowberry, who manages Mr. Essex's sowing, being
on the jury, at once identified the pan as one in which for
years he had mixed the arsenic for the seed wheat liquor,
but which he had laid aside last year as worn out. The
mother of the ill-fated family still lives, but remains
dangerously ill. We are glad however to say that one life,
that of the boy, may now be considered safe from this fright-
ful visitation • and we earnestly entreat the attention of
farmers to the necessity which this fatal history shows of
their dealing more carefully with so mortals poison than it
appears they are now in the habit of doing.