The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-22 00:00:00

THE FITZWILLIAM ESTATES.—The Irish estates of
Lord Fitzwilliam, producing £30,000 a-year, are about
to be sold in the Encumbered Estates Court. A petition
for this purpose has been filed by the noble lord himself.
PIERCE MAHONY, ESQ., Clerk of the Crown, died on
Friday. Already a crowd of applicants for the situation
are before the Lord Lieutenant. Mr. Mahony was the
author of the celebrated " Leinster Declaration" of 1830,
which, according to Lord Anglesey and his back-stairs
adviser, Lord Cloncurry, stopped the first agitation for
the repeal of the union started by Mr. O'Connell.
IRISH POVERTY.—At Waterford guardians' board, Mr.
Carroll said—" Although there is a famine in the country
-among the poor, and many farmers barely existing, still
in Waterford no less than £1,200 was paid last year for
macassar oil, for the nourishment of the curls and
whiskers of the ladies and gentlemen of the city ! "
PAPAL MOVEMENTS IN THE WEST.—The priests have
identified themselves in all the cases of assault and
violence against what are called Jumpers and Scripture-
readers as much as they possibly can. They make these
acts their own. It is, therefore, in a very proper sense
not particular individuals that are to be brought to trial
in these melancholy cases at the ensuing assizes, but the
Church of Rome in Connaught. Collections were made
on last Sunday in most, if not all the chapels in this part
of the country, to defray the cost of defending those out-
rages at the coming assizes. This is a matter that must
not he lost sight of.—Mayo Constitution.
HONORARY FREE BURGESSES.—It is stated that a re-
cent decision of the Irish Court of Exchequer in favour of
the claims of honorary free burgesses, even when non-re-
sident, to be placed on the Parliamentary registry roll,
will affect the following boroughs, by adding the numbers
attached to each to the new electoral rolls, the additions,
being, it is added, in nearly all cases Conservatives :
Armagh, 13 ; Athlone, 15 ; Bandon, 13 ; Belfast, 14 ;
Carlow, 13; Carrickfergus, 41 : Cashel, 18; Clonmel, 20;
Coleraine. unlimited ; Cork, ditto ; Drogheda, ditto ;
Dundalk, 17; Dungannon, 13; Ennis, 13; Enniskillen,
20; Galway, unlimited; Kilkenny, 55; Kinsale, unlimited;
Limerick, 39 ; Londonderry, unlimited ; New Ross, un-
limited; Portarlington, 15 ; Sligo, 13 ; Tralee, 13 ;
Waterford, 49; Wexford, 24 ; Youghal, unlimited.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE.—The case of Henry and Rose
Morton v George Birch was tried a few days since in the
Court of Queen's Bench, Dublin. It was an action of
trespass, for assaulting the female plaintiff, with intent to
debauch her. The damages were laid at £5OOO, and the
defendant pleaded not guilty. It appeared that the female
plaintiff was the natural daughter of the late Edmund
Kelly, a solicitor of great wealth, by a member of a res-
pectable family with whom Mr. Kelly used to associate,
in the county of Roscommon, and towards the end of his
life he married a Miss Kelly, with whom the defendant
was closely and intimately connected, and was even said
to have been privately married to her. The plaintiff, be-
fore her father's marriage, was sent to a celebrated school
in Brighton, where £3OO a year was paid for her education.
She remained in that school for a few years, until 1829 ;
but about that time the connection had been formed be-
tween Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, and the presence of his child
becoming disagreeable to her, the plaintiff was removed
from Brighton, and sent to a more inferior school at Bath.
While there a proposition was made to her to go to Ame-
rica, which she declined ; and it would appear that in
1836, while at school, she was visited by a gentleman
whose name was believed to be D'Esterre, her father's
agent, with whom she had had correspondence, but had
never seen. He was accompanied by a female that he
represented to be his sister, and the child was kidnapped
from school before she was fifteen years of age, and
went through what she thought was a marriage cere-
mony with the deceiver, D'Esterre, who afterwards took
the name of Hamilton. From this unhappy connec-
tion her life was one of misery and suffering, and
she became a mother before she was seventeen. Her
father became estranged from her, and she was enabled to
obtain only one interview with him, at which he exhibited
all the affection of a parent, but from that hour she never
saw her father again. The plaintiff having been cast off
by the adventurer, Hamilton, employed her talents as a
governess, and for several years remained in that capacity
in families of distinction. In 1848 she was married to her
present husband, who was a native of England, and the
plaintiffs having been informed of the litigation in a case
of Thewles v. Kelly, relative to the will of the late
Edmund Kelly, came over to Ireland. Accord-
ing to the recommendation of the judge, Mrs.
Kelly was advised to make some provision for the
next of kin of her late 4iusband, and Mrs. Morton
waited on Mrs. Kelly in Baggot-street, but saw not her,
but the defendant, her agent, who, the plaintiff having
previously heard Mrs. Kelly speaking in a loud voice
to him, intimated that he had not been successful in his
mediation, but asked the plaintiff to call on him at his
office, intimating that he might eventually obtain for her
some pecuniary assistance. Mrs. Morton, however, did
not call then, but left for the Isle of Wight, where her
husband was lying ill. While in England they heard of
the judgment in Thewles v. Kelly, setting aside the will
of Edmund Kelly, and having received a communication
from Miss Thewles, they came to Ireland again in the
latter end of 1851. Mrs. Morton called on the defendant
to obtain some settlement from Mrs. Kelly ; he directed
her to call at his office on Aston's-quay, and from time
to time she did so, until the 24th of July, 1852, when,
having called, the defendant's manner suddenly changed
to her—he called her his dear girl, and addressed her by
her Christian name ; he drew his chair over very closely
to hers, and then proceeded to commit an assault on her
with a criminal intent, adding that there could be no great
harm in the crime, as he pretended that she was not mar-
ried to her present husband. The circumstances of the
assault having been deposed to by Mrs. Morton, as also
the false marriage with Hamilton, and the defendant
having made a statement in which he represented the cir-
cumstances of the case as regarded his intercourse with
the plaintiff as very different from the account given by
her, while he entirely denied the assault, the Chief Justice
briefly charged the jury, and said that the issue was a very
simple one—Did they believe the plaintiff, Mrs. Morton, or
the defendant. The jury ultimately returned a verdict
for the plaintiff—damages £2OO and 6d. costs.

WRECK OF THE QUEEN VICTORIA
DUBLIN STEAMER.

-WE announced last week, in a second edition, the report
which had just been received by telegraph, of the total
wreck of the Queen Victoria steamer, which left this port
on the Monday afternoon, for Dublin. The particulars of
the calamitous shipwreck, as far as they can be collected,.
are as follows :

The Queen Victoria, Captain Church, commander, be-
longing to the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company,
started from Liverpool for Dublin, at half-past three
o'clock on Monday afternoon, with a general cargo, and a
crew and passengers amounting altogether, it is supposed,
to about 120 persons. Of these twelve were cabin pas-
sengers, and about ninety steerage and deck passengers,
the latter including a large number of cattle dealers, re-
turning from the Liverpool market. The Queen Victoria
was a first-class vessel, and a few years ago had been em-
ployed carrying the mails between Kingstown and Holy-
head. Captain Church was an officer of great experience,
high in the confidence of his employers, and had been
more than twenty years in the service. The following
are some particulars, abridged from the DublinpapT.a

. ,
From the moment that the vessel left the dock at Liver-
pool, up to half-past one on Tuesday morning, all went
well ; the wind was N.E., the weather favourable, and
she was making a rapid and easy passage, but about that
hour some heavy falls of snow took place, which retarded
her progress a little. No material abatement, however,
took place in her speed, and about two o'clock the first
mate and some of the passengers perceived the Kish
Light. An anxious look-out was kept for the Bailey
Light, and, for a few minutes they did see it,.but the snow
coming down in a heavy, dense, impenetrable cloud, com-
pletely shut out the view. Under these circumstances. the
obvious course was to have slackened speed, and whether
this was effected to any extent or not. we are at present
without any distinct or satisfactory information, some as-
serting that the vessel continued to go at full speed, and
others that her " way" had been considerably reduced.
However this may be, it is but too clear that the land was
hugged too closely, and the first intimation those who
happened to be on deck had of their impending danger
was a hurried and agitated cry from the first mate to stop
the vessel. The mate, who was on the look-out, was hor-
rified to perceive, looming dimly through the snow cloud,
at a distance of not more than twenty yards, the dark and
rugged cliffs of llowth, a little to the north of the Bailey
Light. I.le immediately gave the order to stop, but it was
too late, and the next instant the doomed vessel went
headlong upon the rock, with a fearful and appalling crash.
The captain was instantly upon deck, and gave orders to
reverse the engines. This was done, and the vessel being
released from the rocks, backed out into deep water, when,
finding that she was rapidly sinking, the captain attempted
to run her ashore. In the meantime a scene of the most
melancholy and heartrending description ensued.
The cabin passengers were, of course, in bed, and,
being awakened by the shock of the collision, rushed
upon the deck, when, to their horror, they found the ship
fast going down. The captain, the first mate, and the
other officers preserved their presence of mind, and endea-
voured to keep order, so that the passengers and crew
might have a better opportunity of effecting their escape;
but such was the alarm and excitement, and so short the
period that elapsed between the collision and the final
destruction of the vessel that their efforts proved quite
unavailing.
The starboard quarter-boat was immediately filled by a
number of the wretched passengers ; but in the hurry and
confusion of the moment, proper care was not taken to
sacure the ropes, and the great weight caused the boat to
slip from her davits into the sea, when she instantly
swamped, and all in her perished. The larboard quarter-
boat was then lowered, with more success. It contained
17 persons. On reaching the water, however, it was
found the boat was leaking fast, and must have gone
down in a short time were it not for the presence of mind
of a lad, who, having searched with his hand, found that
the plug-hole was open, and immediately thrust his fin-
gers into it. At the time the boat was almost immediately
under the side of the sinking ship, the bulwarks of which
were crowded with passengers, whom the captain was
seen endeavouring to quiet and pacify. They had no idea I
at that moment that the vessel was so near her final
destruction, but in a few minutes afterwards she went
down bodily, bow foremost, and nearly all who remained
on board were lost.

Up to the latest moment the captain was seen upon the
deck endeavouring to calm the agitation of the passengers,
and to direct their exertions into the proper channel for
the preservation of their lives ; and it is supposed that
when the vessel took her final plunge he went down with
her, together with the first and second mates, who clung
to their ship to the last. In the meantime the boat,
which could not hold another person, shoved off ; the
water was baled out with a hat, and, after severe exer-
tion, ultimately succeeded in landing fourteen persons on
the rocks, about half a mile below the wreck. Unde•
terred by the dangers of the enterprise, and intent only
on saving as many lives as possible, two of the passengers,
named Ralph and Kegg, and the young lad, who stilluoutiuurd to stop the plug-hole with hie finger, rowed