The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-12-21 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL DECEMBER SESSIONS

The sessions for the trial of prisoners in the Borough
Gaol commenced yesterday, before Gilbert Henderson,
Esq., the Recorder. The calendar contained the names
of 132 prisoners for felony. and 15 for misdemeanours.
Of these, 67 could read and write imperfectly, 20 could
read imperfectly, 8 could read and write well, and 52
could neither read nor write. The following gentlemen
'were sworn in to constitute

THE GRAND JURY.
Charles Ellis Ashton, stock and share broker, Liver-chambers,
Tithebarn-street.
Edward Pellew Arthur, merchant, New Quay.
John Beckwith, broker, Virginia-buildings, South Chapel-st.
Thomas Brancker, jun., commission agent, Rumford-place.
Robert Lewin Bolton, merchant, Brunswick-street.
Richard Bevan, wine-merchant, Virginia-buildings, South
Chapel-street.
Charles Cusack, corn-merchant, Brunswick-street.
Charles Frederick Came, merchant, Water-street.
James Currie Dancan, merchant, Exchange-chambers, Tithe-
barn-street.
William Joseph Myers, broker, Exchan re-alley North.
John Marriott, cotton-broker, Exchange-buildings.
James Hardy Macrae, cotton-broker, Tithebarn-street.
Duncan M‘Viccar, cotton-broker, Thaw-street.
Daniel Powell, commission merchant, Matthew-street.
Thos. Rowlandson Robinson, wine-merchant, Hatton-garden.
Thomas Rees, corn-merchant, Shaw-street.
Henry Romilly, merchant, 7, Water-street.
Thomas Jevons, iron-merchant, New Quay.
The proclamation against vice and immorality having
been read,
The learned RECORDER, addressing the Grand Jury,
said :—I regret, gentlemen, that you have a very heavy
calendar to dispose of. It is not, however, my intention
to make any observations upon it, on the present occa-
sion ; and I shall dismiss you at once to those duties
which you so well know how to discharge.
Some true bills having been found, the trials proceeded,
but presented no feature of peculiar interest.

It is understood that the amount of bills falling due on
the 24th, 25th, and 26th instant is extremely heavy. It
may therefore be desirable to remind parties in the coun-
try that the two latter days being Christmas day and
Sunday, the whole must be provided for on Friday, the
24th.

From the county of Longford there is the sickening
intelligence of a brutal murder fully accomplished, and
an attempt in the adjacent county of Leitrim to assassi-
nate a man in his own house, and in the presence of
his servants, who, almost as a matter of course, looked on
without making the slightest effort to save the life of
their master or stay the hands of the murderers.

NARROW ESCAPE OF WM. RATHBONE, ESQ.—At the
election yesterday this gentleman had a narrow escape
from accident. When the company were about to leave
Newton, he stopped for a moment to shake hands with one
of his principal supporters for Vauxhall Ward, when the
signal was given for the train starting. Away ran the
venerable councillor, and jumped on the step of one of
the carriages. He then discovered that the train he had
attempted to get into was not the special one conveying
himself and friends, but it had acquired such velocity that
it was impossible for him to leave with safety. The worthy
councillor for a moment appeared confused, but was im-
mediately rescued from his perilous position by some kind
hand inside, who seized him by the collar and pulled him
into the carriage. We have often seen the worthy gen-
tleman play the harlequin on the platform, but we little
dreamt of being eye witness to such pranks in a railway
train. He, however, disappeared—not like his prototype,
through the door, but bead first through the window;
we are happy to add, without the alighted injury,