The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-05-15 00:00:00

BIRD RESTING EXTItAtiItDINARY.- Oil the morning
of Saturday last, between the hours of seven and eight
o'clock, an adventurous youth desirous of obtaining *le
nest of a bird which wus deposited in a chimney be
longing to a currier's warehouse, in Davis-street,
'mounted the top of the building, from which he clam--
sered to the chimney mouth,in order to pursue his loves—
:tigatiom The boy inserted' his' head into the chimney,,
:but it had not been long there before he overbalanced
;himself, and was precipitated head-foremost into the
(chimney; and after numberlessineffectuat attempts to free
jhimself from the very lofty and'uncomfortable position
whieli he occupied, found that ha was immoveable from
the shoulders downwards; his regs-anly were visible to the
gaze of the wonder-stricken crowd which had collected to
lbok at' the singular-looking phenomenon. After the
boy's visible parts had gone throughnumerous evolutions,
it becttme apparent that he was-- in, danger. A young
chiteney-sweep was despatched aloft; who succeeded in
releasing the bird-nest seeker from his perilous situation.
He was found` to be severely bruised; and greatly disco-
loure&—l-lia Advertiser.

11TIMIY LONDON.—In the parish of cripplegate,
London, there aim. 13,000 inhabitahts.;l6oo'of whom never
enter enlace of worship, and are n%iserably poor. How
they exist 'they' cannot even thernsel7estell. To the town
missionaries curious answers were often given to the in-
quiries made of the numbers of individualS in family.
The two fellewing instances may serve as examples :
I 'Well, and how many are there of yozehere ?" I asked
as a dcor. was' opened. "Three legs- and a cripple,"
was the reply: Three legs and as cripple," said I,
" how many. does that make ? What del. y3u, mean ?"
" Wby, my•mate has a wooden leg and a,sound one, and
I've got two ; :isn't that three legs an&a- cripple ? And
my two world scarcely carry me to the-docks-this morn-
ing where I've gone, and gone, and cannot get a job."
In another place r was answered by a ledger; who said,
" At present there 'S a wife and four children, and 0,
husband hos.zone to make clay." Not immediately -
ceiving the meaning of this latter phrase; ilsaid,
will make si;;cin-fdmily, then." "In my warof reckonn,
I think it will'Make live, sir." " Did you-not say''
was a man ancbwife arid four children ?" _
you he was gone to make clay. He's de
RAPACIT7 07CROWS.—A curious in

Biti I told

mouse, a weasel, and two crows, were the performers,
occurred at Skiprigg, ;mar Raughton Mad, a few days
ago. A young :min was ploughing in a field,. over wbieh
4 •

two crows kept.soaring, now and then desneuding to par-
take of a feed of4worms; the ploughman: coming in con-
tact with a laud =House, it immediately teoldto its heels ;
and the crows- espying poor mousey, eagerly pounced upon
it, tearing it barb 'from limb. In about;a-iquarter of an
hour after this worry,. the ploughman turned out a-weasel ;
the crows still', maintained their soaring position, bat
discovering the weasel giving leg bail, down again they
dropped, but zot'vvith equal success. The poor weasel
would not submit to be killed outright; be put himself in
a fighting position; similar to that of a cat-pouncing upon
its prey, and mane a desperate spring at thethroat of one
of the crows, by vrhieli he held fast, to the-apparent an-
noyance of " blackey." The bird took fiight ; - the weasel
kept its hold ; and the contest lasted for a=heiglit of about
leo feet; when the weasel, either of his own accord or at
the will of his antagonist, quitted his grasp and came
lead foremost to-the ground. The weasel immediately
made his exit, and the crows flew away.— Carlisl4 paper.
EXTORTIONS IN•GRAIN AND MEAT.—The following
paragraph, which appears in the Mark Eane- Express of
Monday, is very significant :—" The oldest frequenter of
zis (Smithfield) market has no recollection of such de-
pressed markets as-those we have had to- report during
the last three week& The primest Scots-have sold with
difficulty, since our-last, at very little 0ver441,. and the
"Jest old Down F.tfitep,. out of the wool, ad. These prices,
we need scarcely say, leave a loss to the graziers of fully
twenty •per cent.; :yet the butchers are mostly still charg-
ing,high rates to their customers. The latter class must
be realising immense profits, and which -will' be evident
when we state thht. we have known both beef and mutton
to have returned the retailers from forty to forty-five per
gent: upon the prime cost." So, it appears that free
trade in cattle has, been established, netior the benefit of
the• consumer, but for that of the butcher. The same
thing -takes place in corn. The greater part of the reduc-
tion of prices ispocketed by the miller and- haker. Far-
mers and graziers-are ruined, in orderthrtmillers, bakers,
and-butchers may be enriched. Precisely the same effect
took place somnyears ago, when the duty on- leather was
removed; no human being got his shoes a farthing cheaper;
but the bootmaker reaped all the benefit, and does so

ATTEMPTEa MURDER.—At Banbura, on Monday, a
desperate attempt was made by a man,. named James
Layton, to murder his wife by sheeting her, and after-
wards cutting her throat. The parties-are both natives of
Banbury, though for some time past resident at Learning-
ton, where the husband was a bnikler,,and had accumu-
lated some property, being the owner of nine or ten
houses in that place. They have a-family of six or seven
children ; and a son of the wife, ,born previous to her
marriage with Layton, resided with-them. There appear
to have been recently some disputes. about this property,
and Layton accused his wife, her eon, and one of her brit-
tilers, at Neithrop, with conspiring to defraud him of it.
On Monday he set off with his-wife to walk to Banbury.
They were seen together upon the road six or seven miles-
from thaatown. One man who saw them thought they.
were " sweethearting," as Layton had his arm over hs
wife's shoulder. When they.x4ached the spot above re-
ferred to, Layton put a pistol, close to his wife's forehead,
the poor woman says he put it quite under her bonnet,. and
fired its An oblong piece of-lead with which it was:loaded
struck. her on the foreheads., and the powder burnt her
face; he then took out a large table knife, with whicla he
cut her throat, and also wounded her hands. She
screamed, and several persons being within hearingf.they
ran to her assistance, and several of them went in pursuit
of Layton, who ran into.the fields. He was captured,
and taken to Great Bourton, to which place also. its wife
wee conveyed. On Tuesday one of the county. magis-
trates took the deposition of the injured wornaa,,and the
accused was remanded.
SUICIDE OF AN lIMPERGRADUATE AT CAMARIDGE.—
On Wednesday moaning a jury was empannalled in the
Combination-room of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, to
inquire into the circumstances attending the death of
Edward Hayman,, a sizar of that College. Elizabeth
Barton, bedmaker, to, the deceased, deposed to finding
him, at half-past four on Tuesday afternoon, lying upon
the floor, bleeding from a wound in his- throat. Mr.
Hough, surgeon,, stated that the deceasedavas in his bed-
room, quite dead, when he was called in. On a high
reading-desk in the sitting-room a sheet of writing paper,
with blood on it, was found, bearing the words hastily
scrawled; " God bye, father. Thank, you, dear Henry,
for—" There was a pool of blood near this desk, and a.
pen stained with blood, upon the table. A large nool of
blood was observed near where the body was found, as
well as. on the dressing-table, drawers, and looking-glass
in the bed-room. John Marshall Hayman, undergraduate
of St John's College, stated that he was brother of the
deceased. He produced some correspondence between I
deceased and another brother in London, which went to
favour the idea that the unfoetunate young man had, gone
wrong in his mind on religious topics. Witness then
said—l saw the deceased on the Thursday or Friday
before he passed his " Little go." He came te my rooms
on the Sunday evening before the examinations, his object
being to satisfy me that it was impossible for him to pass,
and that he ought to have a medical certificate to excuse
him. It is clear that be was labouring .under a delusion,
because he went in, and, as I am informed, passed a most
satisfactory examination, being well prepared in all the
subjects. My brother's spirits had been very low during
the past fortnight, and I frequently noticed an appearance
about his eyes as though he had been crying. Thomas
Mayer Nixon said—l was a friend of the deceased. In
the middle of last week he sent his bedmaker to say he
wanted to see me. I went to his room. He was un-
dressed in his bee-room. He said he was very unhappy,
that had committed a great crime, and wanted some one
to comfort him. He then said he had been guilty of
gluttony the day before, and that he had smoked a cigar
overnight in his rooms, for the first time in his life. I
tried to laugh the matter off, and deceased said he wanted
to be comforted and not laughed at. I could not persuade
him that he bad not committed a serious offence, and by
his desire we went into the sitting-room, and there read
the church prayers together, and some passages of Scrip-
ture. He seemed better.--The jury then returned a
unanimous verdict of ". temporary insanity." He was the
sap of a gentleman la Somersetshire, and was about
twenty-one Ye4K4 q esea

A
CHILD KILLED BY A. CAT.—A correspondent known
to us by name and address, records the following painful
circumstance, which occurred fully a week ago, in a house
situated about six miles to the north of Moffat, on the
road leading betwixt Dumfries and Edinburgh : —The only
inmate of the dwelling at the time had gone out, it appears,
to draw water from a spring about a hundred yards dis-
tant, leaving her child, a few months old, safe, if not
asleep, in the cradle. And scarcely had she shut the
door when a large cat, which had never exhibited symp-
toms of violence before, attacked the infant, and inflicted
so many wounds on the head and upper parts of the body,
that, although medical assistance was speedily procured,
the unfortunate victim to feline ferocity died shortly after-
wards.—Dumfries Courier.
STRANGE SUICIDE.—Mr. Richard Nicholson, a direc-
tor of the York and North Midland Railway, and brother-
in-law to Mr. Hudson, committed suicide on Tuesday.
It appears that at half-past eight o'clock that night, the
unfortunate gentleman left home putting on his great coat
and informing his servant that as he had an engagement
in the town, he might probably be detained, and therefore
be need not sit up for him. Nothing more was heard of
him until about ten o'clock, when some watermen disco-
vered a hat in the water, and on pulling up to it found
Mr. Nicholson, the hat having fitted tight to the head.
Life was quite extinct. It is conjectured the deceased had
thrown himself from the bridge across the Ouse, where
the Scarbro' line crosses. A coroners's inquest was held
on the body, and a verdict of " Found drowned" returned.
Heavy' railway liabilities, and a dread to meet the com-
mittee of inquiry, before which he was summoned to ap-
pear next morning, are said to be the muses of the rash act.
A FENAZE M.P.—We have just heard a most extraor-
dinary fact; and one which, however amazing it may ap-
pear, is, we are assured, literally true. person was re-
cently buried some few miles from Edinburgh, under very
singular circamstances. The death and attendant cere-
monies were chit), chronicled at the time in our paper.
The individual had sat for some time as a member of par-
liament for an English burgh, and was well litiown as a
highly respectable landed gentleman. Now,. it would
appear, in consequence of certain disputes amongst the
heirs-at-law, that the title of the party to the/nate cha-
racter is doubted, andlthat notwithstanding the diffieulties
connected with the peculiar kind of interment chosen by
the deceased, the body is to he disinterred, in order to
prove the sex of the defunct M.P. We are familiar Ttith
cases of females acting- as sailors, navvies, and is-other
employments ; but the case of a female member of par
liftmen t is, in common phrase, "altogether uiaprec
derrted."—Edinburah