The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

enteral ,iiiiiszellanp.

By the death of John Barneby, Esq., M.P., a vacancy
is caused in the representation of East Worcestershire.
The convict Barber, is about to receive a tree pardon,
on condition of not returning to England.
In 1845, there was not a single stock or share-broker
among the bankrupts; in 1846 there were thirty•six.
The Vice-Chancellor has granted an injunction, at the
suit of Mr. Spottiswcode, to restrain a man named Clark
from publishing an imitation of the Pictorial Almanac.
Tlie Morning Post denies positively that any morning
paper is about to pass into the hands of the Roman Ca-
tholics.

At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, the
Copley gold metal was awarded to AL Le Verrier, on
.... _ __ . .

i;half it was received by Sir J. Herschel

The Morning Herald asserts " with the utmost confi-
dence" that the Government has no intention of " pro-
posing any scheme of National Education."
There is a rumour that Lord Morpeth, on the part of
the Government, is negotiating the purchase of the house
where Shakspeare was born.

The average price of wheat, according to the Gazette,
at the present time, is only two shillings per quarter
higher than at the same period last year.
..

It appears that 37,500 'tons of china-clay are annually
shipped from the neighbourhood of Poole, Dorsetshire, to
the Potteries, and that the value of this export must
amount to nearly £50,000.
The step taken by Lord Ponsonby, of paying his re-
spects to the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, after
refusing to attend the public levee, is said to have been
disapproved of in high quarters.
A few dAvs since, an old lady, at Clerkenwell, who was
engaged in a law-suit, suddenly fell down and expired.
She had given way to a great depression of spirits, and
the jury returned a verdict, that the deceased had died from
over anxiety of mind. _ _ _

At the Salford sessions, on Monday, James Seddon,
the lad who was charged. and acquitted for the murder of
the " blacking-boy " at Greenheys, near Manchester -
found guilty of felony, and sentenced to ten years' trans-
portation.

Mr. Markham, whose violent attack on a fellow-pas-
senger, and extraordinary escape from a railway train
while labouring under attack of brain fever, recently at-
tracted so much of public observation, is now restored to
perfect health, and has left town to rejoin his family.
His Excellency the Count de St. Auliare, the French
Ambassador, arrived at his residence in Manchester-
square on Monday, from the Continent.—[This puts an
end to a dispute that has been going on between the morn-
ing papers, as to whether the noble count was to be su-
perseded.] _ _ _ _

The Rev. Hobart Seymour, in a letter to the Morning
Post, reiterates his assertion respecting the offer of secrecy
made by Mr. Lisle Phillips to Mr. Merewether in the
event of the conversion of the latter to Rome, and also
that respecting the " thirty clergymen " prepared for
perversion.

The village of Upton, near Blewbury, Berks, fise had
an awful visitation by the spread of a contagious fever. It
first manifested itself about a month ago, in a cottager's
family, and such has been its rapid and extensive spread
since, that up to Saturday last no fewer than thirty-two
deaths had arisen out of a village population of 150. The
disease, we regret to add, is still raging.
Captain Warner's long range was officially tried on the
estate of the Marquis of Anglesey, on Wednesday, when
the experiments failed. The object against which the
missiles were to be projected, was a solitary tree, at the
end of a valley eight miles long. On no occasion did the
shell reach three miles. The object was, of course, out
of sight, but its bearings were given to Captain Warner.
This much-agitated question is therefore set at rest.
Last week, a wag entered a small village in Oxford-
shire, and informed the inhabitants that he was a govern-
ment barber, sent from London to cut all the poor people's
hair, gratis, it having been ascertained to be the most
effectual way of keeping off the cholera, which had already
made its appearance. The fellow succeeded in carrying
away with him sufficient hair to make several wigs, and
the deluded people were obliged to set to and make warm
caps to defend their bare heads f:oaa the cold which set in
nexi day.
DISMISSAL OF THE CHAPLAIN OF CHESTER CASTLE.
—At the Cheshire adjourned sessions, held at Knutsford,
on Monday, a report was read in reference to an investi-
gation that had taken place respecting the Governor of
Chester Castle. The Chaplain, Mr. Eaton, it appears,
had preferred seven charges against Mr. Dunstan, the
governor; but being unable to sustain them, the report
recommended the chaplain's dismissal. A long conver-
sation ensued, but the report was eventually confirmed.
A motion was then made to dismiss the governor, but it
could not be entertained without notice.

DREADFUL FIRE.—On Wednesday, a fire broke out
at 31, Calcraft-terrace, New-cut, Lambeth, known as the
Exhibition of Nature and Art, the property of a Mr. Fer-
gusson. Although there was an abundant supply of water,
the exhibition was of so inflammable a character, the
figures being composed principally of wax, that the build-
ing became fired from the ground floor to the roof before
a drop of water could be discharged into the place. A
female dwarf named Robertson was burnt to death, and
it was feared that a daughter of Mr. Fergusson's house-
keeper also perished. The loss is calculated at £lOOO.
EARLY CLOSlNG.—Several meetings were held last
week in favour of this object. At one of them resolutions
were passed to the effect that the early closing movement
had now become a national question, which it was in-
cumbent on the assistants to keep alive by agitation, and
that, in order to agitate the subject effectually, and place
the assistants on a firm and lasting basis, it had become
necessary that greater support should be secured, in order
to which the meeting pledged itself to raise the sum of
one hundred pounds, for the double purpose of discharging
its liabilities and keeping the subject continually before
the public. This certainly is the only way of securing
success.

A basket, which had been sent from Nottingham to
London by railway, some time ago, and returned to the
former place, as no owner could be found, was opened at
the parcel office, at the Nottingham station, on Friday
week. It was found to contain a dead infant. Under-
neath the infant was a quantity of clothes and straw, and
a letter addressed to " W. J. Smith, Esq., Suffolk." The
letter was in a decent handwriting, and from a young fe-
male in a village within six miles of Nottingham, and af-
ter requesting that the father of the infant would take care
of it, warned him against seducing any one as he had done
her. The basket, with the child and letter, were imme-
diately handed aver to the police.

DIABOLICA.. ATTEMPT.—About five o'clock on Sunday
morning week, a most diabolical attempt was made to
blow up with gunpowder the house of Mr. Thomas
Bertwistle, carpenter and house-builder, Bolton-street,
Bury, and also a cottage at the back. It appears that a
few minutes previous to the explosion, Mrs. Bertwistle,
hearing some persons under the window, awoke her hus-
band, who immediately got out of bed, and, throwing up
the slide, saw three men run from near the window ; in a
short time afterwards the explosion took place. The
premises are in a dreadfully shattered condition, the back
and front windows being blown out; the parlour floor
and flags in the lobby were also blown up, together with
all the furniture. Providentially no lives were lost, al-
though there were fifteen persons in the two houses. The
outrage is supposed to have been committed by turn-out
sawyers.

COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF A CLERGYMAN.-On
Wednesday, the 18th ult., at half-past nine o'clock at
night, as the Rev. W. Powell, of Ragland, was sitting in
the parlour at his vicarage, he was alarmed by one of his
servants rushing in and screaming violently that two men
had forced themselves after her into the ball. He seized
the poker, and went to demand what they wanted, when
they commenced an attack upon him with their clubs;
but he parried the blows levelled at him with so much
firmness, that though be received a severe cut on the tem-
ple, was knocked down, and severely bruised on the
hands, shoulders, and knees, he succeeded in getting them
out of his house. The cries of the females attracted the
neighbours to their assistance, though a quarter of a mile
distant ; and as soon as the rev. gentleman was a little
recovered they searched the premises, and discovered the
ruffians had left a hat, a hedge-stake, and a large club be-
hind them, and that a considerable quantity of blood was
sprinkled over the hall in different places.—Hereford
Journal.

A controversy has been going on in the Times, having
relation to the Abbess of Minsk, a lady who, with her
whole conveat, was said, some months since, to have un-
dergone many barbarous cruelties at the hands, and by the
order, of the Emperor of Russia. Lady Dufferin wrote
some very pretty lines about the matter, in the " Book of
Beauty." Thereupon sprung up a lop controversy be-
tween two gentlemen, one signing himself " LL.D.,' and
the other putting his name at full length, " Howell J.
Philips." One of these gentlemen denies that there does,
or even did, exist any such person as the Abbess of
Minsk ; while the other retorts with asseverations of so
determined and sweeping a character that one is almost
dinned into the belief that, so far from there being none,
there are, as in a declaration in trover, twenty abbesses,
twenty nuns, twenty abbeys, twenty emperors, and twenty
LL.D.'S., so wonderfully mixed up and jumbled together,
that out of pure spite, and merely to relieve the eye from
the perpetual sore of the Minxes and Minskes, you throw
down the paper. The Hon. Mrs. Norton, as editor of the
book, has also defended her contributor.
BANKRUPTS.—The Companion to the British Al-
manac, for 1817, gives an analysis of the bankrupts in the
year ended the 2nd of November, from which we select a
few of the trades and professions, in which there have
been the largest numbers of bankrupts :
Apothecaries 2B I Ironmongers 25

Brewers
Builders

Carpenters
Chemists and druggists

Linen drapers,
Merchants ...

Stock and Share brokers
I Tailors

Coal merchants
Corn merchants and dealers 27 \Vine and Spirit merchants 32
Drapers 4l I Woollen manufacturers .... 21

Grocers..
We have given every trade and business in which more
than 20 bankrupts have been gazetted during the year.
The total number of bankrupts in the year ended the 2nd
ultimo was 1326,—a larger number than in any year since
1842. In the year ended November, 1841, there were
1330 bankrupts; in 1842, there were 1373; in 1843, the
number was 1168 : in 1'44, the bankrupts were 1064; in

1845, the number etas 1028: and in the year just ended,
1326, being nearly 300 more than last year, and 262 more
than in the year ended November, 1814.

DREADFUL WRECK AND Loss of LIFE. —On the
20th and 21st ultimo, the town of Milford, and adjacent
coast, were visited by a terrific gale. A schooner, which

subsequently proved to be the Victoria, from Youghall,
Wheeland master, bound up the Bristol channel, laden
with pit-props, was observed going up St. Bride's bay, on
the former day, with her sails split to tatters, and a signal
of distress flying. No boat could get out to her assis-
tance, and she ran for a place called Porthwen, be-
tween New Gale and Solva. The crew got out a
boat, but a sea struck and upset it, and one man
was drowned. The shore was near at hand, and one
man attempted to land by swimming, but was drawn
back by a surf, and also perished. The rest remained
on board, and the vessel neared a rock, to which,
four of the crew succeeded in establishing themselves ;
but a woman, supposed to be a passenger, in making the

on by a rope for some time, but went down. One of the
crew made a bold attempt to swim from the rock ; he no-
bly contended with the surf for a long time, but the con-

and return to his little foot of land—

together wiih

his forlorn companions, to suffix a brief reprieve from the
greedy sea. The flood• tide soon commenced an invasion
of their temporary abode, almost every wave washing over
them. Their cry, " Can you do nothing to save us ?" was
distinctly wafted to the ears of those on the beach. Just
at dark, three were observed on the rock, one having fal-
len into " -- The rising sea

he sea about an hour before
soon covered the rock, and numbered its trembling tenants
amongst its victims. Every effort that could be devised
to save them was long pursued, but without effect. The
crew, eight in number, have nearly all left wives and fa-

THE SHORT TIME MOVEMENT.—Yesterday week, a
crowded meeting of the advocates of a Ten Hours' Bill
was held in Leeds, the Rev. Dr. Hook, the Vicar, in the
chair. He expressed his belief that the present system
of long hours Vl7llB physically and spiritually injurious to

the factory population.—Dr. Lees argued on behalf of
short hours ; deprecating that grasping spirit of Mammon
which would sacrifice both the bodies and souls of men.

wt. .11.1.11.1311-loua,us, bpuice
eloquently. One of the evils of the factory system of
which he complained, was, that it destroyed the moral
principles of the masters themselves, tendering them
callous to the spiritual welfare of thnir fellow creatures;

nd he demanded, in the name of religion, that it should
not continue. He went on to show that the system had
been a prolific source of crime, and that the evil could
not be removed but by an act of Parliament. It was a
fact, that the physical character of the people bad greatly
, deteriorated in all the factory districts ; and well might
I the prime minister of England exclaim, `• let the trade

of England perish rather than it should flourish at
the expense of the women and children of the land."
The reverend Mr. Hill pointed out the necessity of giving
the working classes more time to cultivate their minds
and attend to their spiritual duties.—Mr. Ferrand, M. P.
deprecated the present system, and said if there was one
thing that disgusted him more than another in connexion
with this question, it was to see the opposition manifested
against it by the present Sir Robert Peel, who was in-
debted fur all his wealth and power to the working classes.
The fact was, however, that the hon. baronet was bound
by cotton-lord influence in the House of Commons,
which he dare not oppose. But, considering his great
wealth and power, he thought that out of gratitude, Sir
Robert ought to vote for a Ten Hours' Bill. He urged
all who heard him to persevere, and assured them of ulti-
mate victory.—A number of resolutions were then passed
in accordance with the sentiments expressed, and it was
nearly midnight before the proceedings terminated.