The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-13 00:00:00

The marriage announced between the Right Hon. Henry
Labouchere and his cousin Miss Baring, daughter of Sir
Thomas Baring, will be solemnised during the Easter recess.
It is the intention of government, at the earliest possible
opportunity, to take the conveyance of the English mails to
Alexandria out of the hands of the present French con-
tractors.

There will be a musical festival, on a very extensive scale,
at Birmingham, in the autumn ; also the triennial one at
Hereford. It is not yet quite determined whether there will
be a meeting at York.
The marriage announced between the Hon. Captain Ber-
tram Wodehouse and Miss Macdonald, niece to the Dowager
Lady Suffield, will take place at the close of the present
month.
Within the last six weeks the number of vessels pur-
chased for the port of Dundee make an addition to its
tonnage of from 3000 to 4000 tons. Several of the newly
purchased vessels are large and splendid.
The late Duke of Bedford's wines, which were brought to
the hammer a few days since, felt tolerably high prices. A
quantity of Hock, which bad turned sour, however, sold for
the low price of 10s. a dozen. It was stated that some of
his grace's old rum had been in the cellars, at Woburn,
nearly a century.

LORD DURHAM.—We regret to learn from reports cur-
rent in well-informed quarters, that his lordship's health is
in a very precarious state; so much so, indeed, as to give
great cause of uneasiness to his immediate friends.
DISTRESS.—In Stockport union the total expenditure of
the last quarter is £3,060 16s 44d, and for the quarter end-
ing December 25, 1838, £5,695 lOs 3d; being also an increase
of nearly one-half of the expenditure one ,year ago, £965 6s
lid.

It is in contemplation—indeed, already determined on—to
raise two fencible regiments, to be located with.a small grant
of land each, on the frontier of Canada. The men to be sup-
plied from soldiers of long and good service, at present serv-
in Canada.

A SINGULAR CHARACTER.-011 Friday last, an old sol-
dier named William Lee, died in Healey Hall, in the 80th
year of his age. In his younger days he enlisted and joined
the army, and coming home, after an absence of seven years.
he found the same warp in the loom which he had left, and
set to and finished it.—Blackburn Standard.
MANCHESTER. SAVINGS' BANK.—The trustees of this bank
have come to the resolution to erect new offices for the daily
increasing business of the establishment. The edifice will, it
is said, be splendid rather than otherwise, the official parties
having near £lO,OOO to expend on the erection, should they
see fit.

INLAND BONDING COMMITTEE.—The following mem-
bers are nominated to serve on the committee of the inland
warehousing bill, by Mr. Labouchere :—Mr. Labouchere,
Mr. Goulburn, Mr. M. Philips, Lord Viscount Sandon,
Mr. Baines, Sir Walter James, Mr. Lascelles, Mr. Henry
Berkeley, Mr. Ward, Mr. R. Steuart, Mr. M. J. O'Con-
nell, Sir R. Peel, Mr. Denistoun, Mr. W. Patten, and Lord
Worsley.
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SHAMEFUL HOAX.—During the past week, the friends of
Mr. John Whitehead, hatter, of Dronfield, nine in number
(eight of them residing at Manchester, and one at Worksop),
were summoned to attend the funeral of Mr. Whitehead,
which was to take place at Dronfield, on Thursday last, as
stated in the communications sent to them. It is needless
to add, that when the parties arrived at the place, instead of
finding a house of mourning, they discovered that they had
been cruelly imposed upon ; and that their relative was still
alive, in the enjoyment of good health. This abominable
hoax is attributed to a rejected fair (?) one.—Shetfield pqper.
At the meeting of the Edinburgh Royal Society, on Mon-
day, a paper was read by Sir Charles Bell, on sudden death
produced by air drawn into the circulation. It is only at a
recent period that the fact has attracted attention. It ap-
pears, that when a wound occurs which lays open certain
arteries, the air sometimes rushes in with a hissing noise,
and the individual falls dead, as if by 'a thunderbolt. This
result has sometimes followed the amputation of an arm, or
a wound in the neck ; but it is rare. Sir Charles referred to
the experiments of the French medical men; but, in opposi-
tion to their opinion, held that the fatal effect is produced
through the action of the vertebral arteries upon the medulla
oblongata. Professor Syme dissented from this conclusion.
RARE SHOT.—On Thursday week Mr. F. Crossfield, of
Arnside, killed at one shot, on these sands, nine wild grey
ducks, out of a flock of 16. About six weeks ago the same
person killed 40 seapyes at one discharge. He is provided
with a small boat and large gun for fowling. One day last
week the same person killed a goosander, a beautiful bird.
The goosander is a very rare bird in this part.—Lancaster
Gazette.

Early on Thursday morning week, Mr. Cripps, M.P., who
had been for some time asleep at his mansion near Cirences-
ter, was awoke by a feeling of suffocation, when he found his
bed and bedroom in flames. The hon. gentleman jumped
out of bed, and called assistance, and the fire was fortunately
confined to that room. Mr. Cripps had fallen asleep whilst
reading in bed, and the candle had set light to the hangings.
—Cheltenham Gazette.
MERCHANT SEAMEN.—According to a return made to
the House of Commons, the total number of apprenticed
seamen, registered from the 31st of July, 1835, up to the
14th of February, 1840, was 27,722. Of that number the
indentures of 3374 have expired, or their death been ascer-
tained, leaving the total number of apprenticed seamen now
existing 24,348. The total- number of registered seamen
serving in British vessels up to the same date was 202,160.
PETERBOROUGH.—We are happy to hear that Lord Fitz-
william is recovering from his late serious accident. His
Lordship, it appears, was enjoying the pleasures of the chase
upon a spirited, and not very manageable horse, when, in
taking a fence, he came in contact with the lateral branch of
a tree, with so much violence as to break his breast bone, and
to render him insensible. In this state he was conveyed to
Miton, much injured about the face and the lower extremi-
ties ; but, by the speedy application of able medical and sur-
gical aid, and the vigour of an excellent constitution, his
Lordship is now in a fair way for complete recovery.—Cam-
bridge paper.
On Sunday morning, as the Misses Ruth and Eliza Con-
greve, who were on a visit to their brother, Mr. D. Congreve,
at Deeping High Bank, were crossing the river Welland in a
skiff, for the purpose of attending church, the wind came on
to blow very high and splashed the water into the side of the
boat. The young ladies incautiously shifted suddenly to the
other side, when the frail vessel instantly upset, and both of
them were drowned. The boy who was rowing swam to the
shore and was saved. Both young ladies were distinguished
for their personal charms; and the elder of the two was en-
gaged to be married on the week but one following this me-
lancholy event : the bodies were recovered in 20 minutes
after the accident, but life was quite extinct.—Lincoln
Chronicle.

REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCE.-At Bradford fair, on
Tuesday, a person called Benjamin Seed, of Low Moor, had
two horses to show, worth together between £6O and £7O.
He took them into the stable of the Horse Sboes Inn, and
gave them a very large feed of bean meal and chopped straw,
in order to swell them out and give them a more showy ap-
pearance. After eating till they left off with satiety, they
had water given. Very shortly after the horses became ex-
tremely ill, and Mr. Byron, veterinary surgeon was sent for,
but his assistance was of no avail, as they both died within a
short period. There was strong suspicion that the horses
were poisoned, and in order to ascertain this they were
opened, when it was found that both their stomachs had
burst.—Leeds Intelligencer.
CONVERTS TO PROTESTANTISM.—A poor woman, named
Mary Casey, who lives at Tuogh, went on last Sunday to
Adare chapel to mass. When the service was over she im-
mediately made her way to the chapel gate to go home, but
when she reached the gate it was locked, and his reverence
refused to let her pass unless she gave him something for the
O'Connell tribute, which she peremptorily refused to do.
His reverence still persevered in his demand, whereupon she
told him she never would enter the chapel again. He then
let her out, and she went the same evening to the lecture
held by the Protestant minister of the parish, and publicly
read her recantation against Popery. There is a report that
a young man in the neighbourhood of the same town, who
was brought up to be a priest, read his recantation also.—
Limerick Standard.

FRAUDULENT CORN AVERAGES.—Amidst the innume-
rable frauds, to which farmers are subjected, few are more
severe in their operation than those which spring from the
system which now prevails, of taking the averages. The
corn-factors in various parts of the kingdom, whose object
is, of course, always to extend the sphere of their operations,
by keeping the duty on foreign corn as low as possible, are
notoriously in the habit of securing high averages by a sys-
tem of fictitious sales. The same parcel of corn is frequently
sold a dozen times in one day, each time at an apparent ad-
vance in price, while the corn in question never leaves the
hands of the first seller or of his confederates. The conse-
quence is, that the farmer appears to be receiving much
higher prices than he really does ; while the duty on foreign
corn is lessened in direct proportion to the seeming rise of
price. The system is infamous. It must be put a stop to ;
and it can be put a stop to by no other method than by
requiring of every farmer who brings grain to market, an
exact return of the quantity, and of the price at which he
sold it. The average would then, in fact, be struck by the
farmers themselves—not by men who have the deepest interest
in ruining the farmers.—Farmer's Journal.
YEARLY FALL OF RAIN.—At a late meeting of the Hor-
ticultural Society, a statement was made of the quantity of
rain which fell, and the number of wet days in the last six
months of the previous year and the first of the present year,
with a comparison of the averages (for the same period) for
the last fourteen years ; from which it appears that the near-
est approach to last winter was in the year 1836, when the
quantity of rain that fell was 19.29 inches, and the number
of wet days 119 ; in the last year the number of wet days was
122, and the quantity of rain which fell 20.09 inches.
PUBLIC MEETING OF ATTORNIES AND SOLICITORS._A
most respectable public meeting of the attornies and solici-
tors of the metropolis was held on Monday, at the Freema-
sons' Tavern, Great Queen-street, for the purpose of consi-
dering what steps (as a body) they ought to adopt in conse.
quence of the House of Commons imprisoning Mr. Howard
for acting in the discharge of his legal duty. At a quarter
past one o'clock Mr. Shadwell, of Gray's Inn (brother, we
believe, to the Vice-Chancellor), was unanimously voted to
the chair. A resolution condemnatory of the proceedings of
the House of Commons was passed by a large majority.
THE 'BREATHING CORPSE!—A correspondent has sent
us the following marvellous story, for the truth of which he
vouches :—Being at Huddersfield on Thursday last, curiosity
led me to Deighton, about two miles from that town, to visit
the breathing corpse ! The facts are these :—Thos. Bradley,
aged 22, was lying in a trance in a small bed, on the first
floor, at the house of his parents, situate in the above village.
He fell asleep, as his anxious mother gave the account, on
the 6th of last November. His hands and forehead were
warm—his breathing perceptible—the eyelids occasionally
trembled, sometimes shewing a little of the pupil, which, as
far as could be observed, was anything but dull. A spoon-
ful of warm gruel every day, is his only food. His limbs are
very flexible, and in whatever position they are placed, re-
main so until changed. It is about seven years since he had
a similar attack, which then lasted six months, reducing him
to—as indeed he now is—a complete living skeleton. Pre-
vious to the present melancholy affliction, lie had, in a great
measure, recovered his former healthy, and even handsome,
appearance. The room is perfectly clear of any objection to
which the olfactory nerve is peculiarly susceptible ; and, but
for the pale and somewhat unearthly features of this unfor-
tunate youth, nothing indicating disease at all appears.
Many hundreds have, of course, been to see him, including
some of the most celebrated of " the faculty" both far and
near.—Manchester Chronicle.