The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-23 00:00:00

THE CONVEYANCE alone of every soldier from this
country to the seat of war costs about £lOO. This seems
enormous, and' contrasts strongly with £5 a-head for
which ten times the number have been carried across- the
Atlantic every year. It contrasts strongly too. with the
£3O for which a nun may be steamed to New York in ten
days, and have the best of everything on the .voyage.
His Mosr FAITHFUL MAJESTY, the youthful Don
Pedro, the fifth King of Portugal and the Algarves, at-
tended by a limited suite, will arrive in this country about
the first week in the ensuing month, on a visit to his
illustrious relatives the Queen and Prince Albert. The
young monarch, who is only in his 17th year, is- second
cousin to her Majesty and the Prince, and'gmnd nephew
•to the Duchess-of Kent. After a brief sojourn in London,
his youthful Majesty will proceed to Brussels, on a visit to
the King of the and thence to Paris and Vienna,
.returning to Lisbon at the close of the summer.
Tus PIOUS FEELINGS OP THE SPANISH' NATION can
hardly fail to be immensely gratified by an announcement
in the Espana, that Her Majesty Queen Isabel has
appointed herself Elder Sister of the religious community
of Our Lsdy of the Rosary of Granada, granting to the
sisterhood the privilege of ringing their bell.from the eve
of the first Sunday in October until sundown upon the day
itself on which the festival is celebrated. This pleasing
and important intelligence was received in- Granada with
peals of bells, firing of rockets, and a Te Deum ! It is
impossible too warmly to congratulate the reverend sister-
hood upon the noisy privilege, and upon this important
and edifying accession to their ranks.
DRINKING THE HEALTH OP THE EMPEROR OF RUS-
SIA.—Last week a dinner was given to the tenants of Mr.
Heatlicoat, M.P. for Tiverton, of which it will be re-
membered Lord Palmerston is the other representative.
After the cloth had been removed various toasts were
proposed, and among the rest was that of " The health of
the Emperor of Russia, and may the war last for seven
years," which was proposed and seconded by two farmers,
named respectively Densem and Hewitt. As might have
been expected, the toast was received with indignation ;
and its proposer has since been taunted by all with whom
he has come in contact. Indeed it was questionable
whether he would not have been mobbed by the women
who assembled on the market day. Such sentiments of
disloyalty, it is scarcely necessary to state, are not
generally entertained by the Devonshire farmers, not-
withstanding their fondness for high prices for their wheat.

SEIZURE OF A GOVERNMENT BARQUE' BY CONVICTS.—
MELBOURNE, FEB. 2.—lntelligence has reached town of
the seizure of the government barque- Lady Franklin, by
a party of convicts, headed by Quinn, Twitty, andßrewer,
who were on their way to Norfolk Island, pursuant to the
sentence passed upon them. It appears that the vessel
was seized on the night of the 28th of December, Captain
Willett having been awakened and overpowered by the
prisoners, who had broken out of the hold, and obtained
complete mastery over the vessel. Three of the crew were
employed in working her, the master and mate being con-
fined in the cabin. On the Bth of January the convicts
ordered the crew to launch the long-boat and cutter, both
of which were fully laden with'provisions. They em-
barked, having previously confined the master and crew,
and leaving a man at the maintop to liberate them when
they made a signal from the boat, and threatened to shoot
him if he descended before the signal was made. The
desperadoes also cut the sails of the vessel and part of the
rigging, so as to disable her from snaking any effective
pursuit. After a fruitless attempt to reach Norfolk Island,
Captain Willett made sail for `'au Diemen's Land, and
arrived in Spring Bay.
BAPTISM BY IMMERSION.—A few days since the rite
of baptism was administered by J. Wilkins, Baptist
minister of Ebenezer Chapel, Cottenham, to ten females
and one male, by immersion, in the " Old West" river
near Lockspit Hall Ferry. A number of persons congre-
gated to witness the ceremony. The floating bridge was
covered principally by females. The congregation having
been brought to a high de►ree of excitement, some mis-
chievous boy called out, " the bridge is sinking," and
immediately some of the women, to save themselves as
they thought, ran off the bridge into the river ; others
were forced in by those behind pushing ; so that from
twenty to thirty immersions were witnessed more than
were expected. These were not a whit the cleaner for
their ablutions, as they emerged covered with mud.
A few were trodden underfoot in the river; but the dis-
tance to the shore not being very great, they were rescued
without any serious injury. To many this proved a source
of immoderate laughter ; to others of serious anxiety,
until they were all placed on terra firma.—Cambridge
Chronicle.

THE EXPLORATION OE SOUTH AFRICA..—CAPE TOWN,
27th MAncrt, 1854.—Intelligence has just been received
of Di. Livington, the celebrated South African missionary
traveller. He had penetrated as far northward as 14 deg.
south latitude, where the climate began to be very un-
healthy, both he and his people having been frequently
down with fever. He had met with Portuguese slave-
dealers, and seen slaves led away in companies of eight
and ten to one chain, He had also-met with Arab slave-
dealers who could read and write Arabic readily. The
countries visited by Dr. Livington, in the course of this
tour, are described as splendid, fruitful, and very popu-
lous, but during the rainy season hundreds of miles were
covered with water. The traveller having sailed several
days on the river Choble in native canoes, was proceeding
towards Benguela with a view to discover a road to the
remote interior from the westward. He had not succeeded,
at the time he wrote, in finding a suitable place for a mis-
sion station, owing to the unfavourable character of the
climate, but his expedition promises to be important and
interesting in its results. Mr. Anderson%ad reached the
Great Lake from the west coast, and Messrs. Thompson
and Chapman had been in the same quarter.—Corres-
pondent of the Watchman.
DESTRUCTION OF HER MAJESTY'S GUN BOAT JASPER.
—The Jasper left Plymouth on Sunday week, and all
went well on board until forty minutes past six o'clock
on Monday morning, about fifteen miles off Beaehy Head,
when the officer of the watch suddenly discovered flames
and smoke bursting up from the bulkheads of the gun-
room. It seemed like magic, no notice being given, or
any suspicion of fire, until the vessel was nearly in a
blaze. In a few minutes all hands were on deck ; and
the officers and men exerted themselves to the utmost to
extinguish the flames. No one thought of himself, but
every one thought of his duty. For one hour every
human exertion was put forward, but to no purpose. Mr.
Bate, supernumerary second master on board, assisted by
a few hands, entered the magazine, and with buckets of
water endeavoured to flood it. They could not remain
below long, as the heat was intense, and the smoke suffo-
cating. Mr. Bate did his best, and was scorched in his
retreat to the deck. The fire had taken possession of the
whole ship, and Lieut. Crawley had to consult the safety
of his officers and crew; and finding all further efforts
useless, gave orders to abandon the vessel in the three
boats belonging to her, the party consisting of Lieut.
Commander Crawley ; master, Mr. C. Dyer ;. engineer,
W. Hall ; second, W. Lewis ; third, R. Biddle ; gunner,
John Blellock ; and supernumerary second master, Mr.
Bate ; with twenty-five men and three boys. They pulled
away from the burning craft, and then lay to. They at
this time imagined, by the smoke not appearing so dense,
and the quantity of water they had thrown, and by the
flooding of the magazine, that they might yet save the
vessel. Nearly all volunteered to return to her, when, on
nearing, one of the officers discovered the bottom of the
mainmast on fire, and that the flames were running along
in dangerous proximity to the spirit-room and magazine.
They quickly pulled away from the danger, and not too
soon. The fire licking up the water, had reached the
combustibles, and the ship blew up and sunk, spreading
a shower of shells and pieces of timber to a great distance,
fortunately without injury to the officers or crew. A
vessel was now perceived to bear down upon them, which
turned out to be the Vanguard, of Liverpool. The only
conjecture as to the origin of the fire is, that soot might
have remained in the flues, have made them red hot, and
so communicated to the bulkheads, and being already
heated, it must have been like spontaneous combustion.
DEGRADING IGNORANCE AND INRUMANITY.—A shock-
ing case of filial ingratitude, and revolting inhumanity,
has just occurred in a family residing in. the village of
Shade, near Todmorden. The story is a terrible one. An
old man named Thomas Holt, above seventy-five years old,
lived with his two sons, John, aged about forty, and Tho-
.mas, aged about thirty-five, in a cottage in the middle row
at Shade. The old man had long been a widower, and
the sons were unmarried, so that they lived in a deplora-
ble state of dirt and discomfort. They were all weavers
formerly, but for some time had followed the occupation
of labourers, and all three were hale, strong fellows. All
of them would drink when they had the means, and the
discomforts of their wretched home appear to have been
.vastly increased by the result of intoxication and bad tem-
per. They often quarrelled and kicked each other with
their clogs, and only about three weeks ago the old man
declared to a neighbour woman that he was so much ill-
treated he thought lie should drown himself. She pointed
out to him the consequences to himself, when beyond the
bounds of time, of rushing into the presence of his Maker
by his own act, and her observations seem to have sunk
into his mind, for on Thursday week he used them in re-
ference to a man who had committed suicide by cutting
his throat. He and his sons retired' to rest the same
night, and the report of the neighbours is that they were
more than usually quiet, the old man slept in a small" turn-
up" bed in the "house," or kitchen, and the sons slept
together in a bed up stairs. About five o'clock on Friday
morning the younger son got up to Foto his work, accord-
ing to his own account, and found his father's bed empty
on which he shouted to his brother, "This mon's gone.
All his clothes were strewn about, except his trousers, and
finding his stockings hanging over the oven door, " Tum,"
as he is called, pulled one within the other and threw them
to the bottom of the stairs, remarking " Them 'ill be
wanted na mare." They then lighted a tire, got some food,
including a collop of bacon, turned up the bed, folded up
their father's coat and waistcoat, and put them into a
drawer, and having taken food for dinner, shouldered
their spades, and left for their work. When asked by the
jury where they thought their father was, the younger son
replied "We thought he wur i'th navvy," meaning the
Rochdale canal, which was within a few yards of the house.
The inquiry naturally followed, "Then why did you not seek
for him P" to which he replied, wur ower glad he wur
gone; he didn't go a minute too som ; he punced (kicked)
me till I wur black and blue," When some one pointed
out to the brute what a fearful thing self-murder was, he
coolly replied " A felly as would do that wur better gone
nor kept ; he lynx a fool for his pains." With the belief
that their unfortunate parent had drowned himself in the
canal, they departed for their work, actually crossing the
canal-lock a few yards from where his body was. Some-
thing led Thomas to return home that morning and on
his way he encountered his uncle, who, hearing of the ab-
sence of his brother, urged Thomas to give information to
the police. The fellow seems to have walked straight to the
police-office, and accosted the officer in charge with, "Well,
what's to be done ; th' old felly Mr navvy." When some
more distinct statement was got from him, drags were
procured, and on searching the canal, the body of the old
man was found, dressed in a shirt and trousers, and with
a napkin bound about his forehead. This the sons ex-
plained was a practice of his, "because his brains were
rather lowse," and they wanted binding up. A jug was
empannelled and the death of old Thomas Holt du y en-
quired into. When they Went to see the body, they ffound
that the brothers had slept all night in the same room
with it ; and as they entered, it being eleven in the fore-
noon, young Thomas Holt was leisurely drawing on his
stockings. But. there was no evidence to show that there
had been any foul play, and Thomas Holt was arrested
hour. The jury returned an
only to be liberated in an
I open verdict of " Founds drowncd.7