The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-09-11 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

PRIDE OF POVERTY AND INTELLECT.—WO remember
to have met somewhere with an anecdote illustrative of
the pride of poverty and intellect united. A certain clever
drareatical writer, who lived at the beginning of the pre-
sent century, or at the end of the last, was reduced to a
state of great poverty. Like poor Goldsmith, in Green
Arbour-court, his dinners came to be fewer than the days
of the week. He struggled long, subsisting upon a few
casual earnings. When these had ceased altogether, he
began to starve. He was a proud gentleman, end could
not beg ; he was a scholar, and a man of high talent,
consequently he could not write the trash which an infe-
rior person might have written, and have been well paid
for. In this state of things he happened to meet with an
old acquaintance, a rich and benevolent manager, or the-
atrieal bookseller, I forget which. However, he was a
man who, though not witty himself, had the grace of
admiring wit in others. He had a profound admiration
for the genius of our poor author. Discovering the state
in which he was, he sent him a handsome present in mo-
ney, and invited him to dinner the next day. The man
was starving, and as we all know " the prompt nature of
hunger brooks no delay," he accepted the present grate-
fully ; had food at home that day, and on the next went
to dine at the well-appointed table of his benefactor.
Here, as is the wont with men of genius, the past suffer-
ings were for the time forgotten ; his conversation was as
brilliant as formerly, and threw his host into an ecstacy
of admiration. After dinner he endeavoured to strike
out some literary enterprise for his gifted acquaintance.
He went on proposing this and arranging that, when he
suddenly discovered that his guest was in tears. With
kind sympathy for his grief he endeavoured to console
him. " It is all very well," replied the unfortunate man,
" but is it not a dreadful thing, a thing to make one weep,
that a man of genius, as I am, should be obliged for a
dinner to a rich blockhead like you ?"—Sirarpe's Journal.
THE CUTTING UP OF TUE SHARK.—AII hands gathered
round the shark to see him cut up, which was as good as
a play to them, becalmed as we were ; when, to my no
small dismay, I heard Mrs. Brigadier's Brady's loud
voice asking where her dog was ; and the Brigadier him •
self, who seemed more afraid of his wife than anybody
else, kept poking about with his red-faced English butler
to find the animal. " For godsake." said he, in a half
whisper, twenty times over, " haven't ye seen Mrs.
Brady's dog, any of ye ?—she'll rout the ship inside out
for it, captain, if we don't soon ase her mind'." How-
ever, I knew only Miss Hyde was aware who caught the
shark, and as she didn't appear to have told, why of
course I kept all fast, myself. " Here's a 'baccy-box 1"
sung out the big old boatswain, standing astride over the
tail, while the cook and his black mate ripped away from
the tail up. " Hand over, if ye please, sir," said ' ugly'
Harry, " it's mine's, Mr. Burton !" Harry gave it a
wipe on his knee, and coolly bit a quid off the end of his
lost pigtail. The next thing was Ford's hat, which no
one claimed, so black Sambo placed it on his woolly head.
" What's that you've got there now, Sambo ?" said the
boatswain, " out with it, my led !" " Golly !" chuckled
the nigger, rolling the whites of his eyes, and grinning
like mad ; " oh sar, misser Barton ! dis 'ere shark riglar
navligator ! I 'dare to you, sir, urn got chi'ometer
aboard ! Oh gum ! berry much t'ink dis you own lost
silber tickler, misser Barton !" " Bless me, so it is, my
lad !" said the boatswain, as the black handed him a sil-
ver watch as big as a turnip, and he looked at the cook,
who was busy fumbling with his knife. " Sorry as you
was taxed with it, doctor !" said he, doubtfully ; " well I'm
blowed, though !—it only goes an hour and half,—and
here it's a ticking yet !" Here a burst of laughter went
round, and somebody sung out, " Maybe the ould pawn-
broking Judas of a shark winded it up, hisself, jist to mark
the time o' his goin' off the hooks' !" " I say, doctor !"
hailed another, " too bloody bad, an't it, though, to cut
up yer uncle 7" " Ha! ha! ha !" cried the cadets and
writers, looking at the Scotch surgeon, " d'ye hear that,
doctor? I wouldn't stand it! They say you ain't parti-
cular in Edinbro', though ! Some rum mistakes hap-
pened there, eh, doctor ?" The Scotceman got into
a passion at this, being the worst cut they could give any
fellow from a country where they were famous for kindred
and botli-snatching at once—but all of a sudden there
was a " Hullool Shiver my tavesels! What's this ?
Let's see!" and the whole pcopful of us were shoving
together, and jumping on each other's shoulders to haven
look. " Well, we-ell !" said the old boatswain, as he
peered curiously into the mess of shark's bowels—" I'll
be d—d !" " The likes o' that now !" croaked the old
sailmaker, lifting up his two hands, " tan't lucky, Mr.
Burton !" " My eye! them's not young sharks, any-
how !" said one of the men. " What's t'ou think they
be, mun," said the north-country Chips, " but litter o'
yocurig blind poops ? an' here's t ou'd un, see, as deed's
mutton Danz him, but some un's got an' baited t' hook
wi't, there's nou't else in 's guts !" The whole poop was
one roar of laughing, when Mrs. Brady's pug was found
delivered of fcur pugs, inside the shark, since she went
overboard, and two of 'em alive; the news ran fore and
aft in a moment. " Took short she's been, Jack !" said
one. " Beats the profit Joneh !" " I say, mate, them
whelps is born twice over. Blessed if my Sal at home,
now, wouldn't give a year's 'lotment for one on 'cm !"
Peor devil !" said one of the writers, " she must have
been sadly in want of a lying-in hospital !" " Look out,
all hands of ye !" cried some one, " there's the old girl
herself coming on deck ! sharp's the word !" And away
we scuttled right and left, some aloft, and some down one
poop• ladder, as Mrs. Brady, with the Brigadier and his
butler after her, came fuming up the other. The black
made one spring over the quarter as soon as he saw her ;
but the Irish topman, Mick, slipped his foot amongst the
shark's blood, and rolled on his back, while the old bo'sun
made stand in the thick of it behind.- " Son the villains,
I charge ye, Brigadier!" screamed Mrs. Brady, though
he and his man-servant only kept doping the boatswain
round a sort of quagmire of blood and grease, while the
old vixen caught Mick by his red hair and whiskers.
" Where's my dog, ye murdering spalpeen ?" said she,
panting for breath, " what have ye done with my Dianny,
ye monsther ? Spake, or I'11—" " Be the holy eleven
thousand, yer ladyship !" said Mick, " an' it's lost did ye
think she weir ! isn't there five of 'em back ! Whisper !
yer ladyship's riv'rence,—she's laid in, poor craythure,
an'—" " you Irish thief !" roared Mrs. Brady ,
hitting him a slap as he tried to rise, that sent him down
again, " is it that you'd say to —" " No, thin'," sung
out Mick, rubbing his ear, and guarding with one arm,—
" rest her soul ! but I'm innveint ! Av that 'll phase,
mim, och an' I'll swear she died a vargin —" Tug
came both Mrs. Brady's bands through his hair, while
the butler caught a kick in the stomach from Mick's foot.
" Murther !" gasped the poor fellow, " sure 'an' I dun'
know she was ayven a fayni'le ; bad luck t'ye, 'mates,
give uz a hand. Och, an' is this the road ye thrate
a counthryman, mim ?" " Me your countryman !
ye bogtrottin' wretch ye !" screamed the old fury, her
brogue getting worse the more she heated—" take that
—don't rise, if ye dare !" " Faix, thin, yer ladyship
darlin'," said O'Hooney, grinning in spite of his bard
usage, " I tould a lie,—och, lave some o' my hair !—mur-
ther intirely ! I'm " All the time none of us could
stir for sheer laughing, but seeing poor Mick like to fare
hard with the old vixen, who was near as big as himself,
and as strong as a horse, I whispered to the men to run
round and let go the poop awning—so down it came, with
a few buckets of water in it, over the five of them ; and
you just saw Mrs. Brady's sharp elbow through the can-
vass, lifted for the next slap, when we had her all fast,
struggling like a cat in a bag, while O'Hooney and the
boatswain crept out below. " D—d breeze that we've
had !" said the bo'sun, shaking himself on the forecastle.
" Couldn't ye've bowsed over on the old jade's pitticuts,
Mick ?" said one of his shipmateste "and capsized her all
standing ?" " Sorra fut you'd stir yourself, 'mate,""
said he, wiping his face, " wid such a shay grinnydeer r
she'd manhandle ye as asy's twurl a mop !"—Blackwo:.4.

The Essex Herald says, that so prevalent have been
incendiary fires lately that many of the inhabitants have
been afraid of going to bed of a night, lest theii houses
should be set on fire and they lose their lives.
THE CONVICT lIITCHEL.—The Neptune from Bermuda
has arrived at Pernambuco, en route for the Cape of Good
Hope, having on board John Mitchel. No details are
given relative to the prisoner.
The expelled Wesleyan ministers state that they do not
at present intend to join any church, but that they will
hold a series of meetings, at which they will exhort Me-
thodists to retain their present position.
A woman was charged at the Marylebone Police Court
on Tuesday with being drunk and disorderly, and stand-
ing in the middle of New Road defying an approaching
omnibus to come near her, threatening if it did to knock
it over.

COMPETITION FOR FARMS.—In reply to an advertise-
ment which recently appeared in a local paper, announc-
ing a farm to be let, the agent, a solicitor at Doddington,
had upwards of 20 applications by the next post, and a
large number by subsequent ones.
The cholera has been raging fearfully in Hull. The
total number of deaths in the week, ranging from the 29th
ult. to the 4th instant inclusive, is 252—a number larger,
in proportion to the population of the town, than has been
recorded in any other provincial town.
A boy employed in carrying the letters frun Merthyr
Tydfil to Dowlais has been committed for trial, charged
with opening letters and abstracting their contents.
Nearly 1,000 letters, a great number of which had been
opened, were found in his possession.
The sub-constable of Horbuty, through whose remiss-
ness the Cravens escaped, after being given into custody
for concealing the birth of a child, took the matter to
heart, became insane, and has died of inflammation of
the brain. _ _ _

On Saturday week a drayman named Trigg quarrelled
with a labourer named Phillips, at Kingston, Surrey, when
the former in a rage pulled an iron pin from the dray and
struck Phillips a fearful blow on the head from which he
soon died. _ _

Geo. Hudson, Esq., paid a visit to Newcastle on Satur-
day, and after attending to the transaction of important
business and inspecting the High Level Bridge, returned
to his seat, Newby Park, in the evening. The hon. gen-
tleman was observed to be in remarkably good health and
spirits.
AN ANTIQUARIAN SWINDLER.—A man of gentlemanly
appearance has lately contrived to swindle several anti-
quaries in Kent by selling them false Anglo-Saxon and
early English coins, and has further managed to steal
some coins from one or two collections which he had been
allowed to examine. _ _ _

On Sunday week Mr. John Pratt, of Barnard Castle,
died of cholera after six hours' illnePs, and on the same
evening the same disease carried off his daughter. The
organist of the Roman Catholic Chapel in that town died
next day of the disease. Many other deaths have taken
plaee.
Wheat harvest is over about Bath, and we hear the
most gratifying statements as to quantity and quality,
The barley looks uncommonly well. Oats are a very fine
crop. We saw a sample a day or two since, in this city,
of excellect quality. Potatoes promise to be good and
abundant.

A man, between forty and fifty years of age, named
Roof, visited several of the London places of amusement
on Monday week, and was observed to drink very hard
wherever he went. Early on the following morning,
while still intoxicated, be fell from the box of a cab and
never spoke after.
The King of Prussia has presented the Rev. William
Cureton, of the British Museum, with the gold medal for
literary and scientific merit, as a mark of the high appre-
ciation in which the king holds Mr. Cureton for his recent
edition of " Ignatius." The medal was accompanied by
a letter from the king to the Chevalier Bunsen.
A FATAL RACE.—L•rst week, a man in London laid a
wager to run or jump any man two hundred yards. The
challenge was received by a man who accepted the chal-
lenge and who was drunk, ran against his opponent and
knocked him down. He died the next day from the in-
juries he received from the fall.
A VETERAN IN THE HARVEST FIELD.—John Bidden,
a labourer in the service of Henry Crane, Esq., Hall's
Farm, in the foreign of Kidderminster, and now in his
eighty-first year, mowed on Monday three acres of bar-
ley, and in three days of the previous week ten acres of
the same grain fell before his scythe.
On Tuesday, a man named Lemuel Beglay, a chimney
sweep residing at Lutterworth, about twelve miles from
Leicester, was committed to the Leicester county gaol, on
a charge of murder, the act being perpetrated in a public-
house at the above-named place, on a travelling hawker,
whose name was not known.
It may perhaps be useful to some parties to know that
by a recent Act of Parliament, on and after the 10th day
of October next, the commif:sion of 7 per cent. hitherto
allowed on the purchase of receipt stamps will be diseon-
inued. The allowance of 5 per cent. on Patent Medicine
Labels will also be discontinued, except where tl►e pur-
chase amounts to £5O.

A rumour has beea prevalent in the moneyed circles of
the metropolis during the last two or three days, of the
monetary embarrassment of a very old and well-estahliehed
banking firm on the other side of the Channel. It is un-
derstood that the house alluded to has been under the
necessity of asking its creditors for a temporary delay, in
order to the liquidation of its liabilities.
Mr. Claridge. who some years ago wrote a work on Hy-
drepetliy, has come forward in the daily papers to declare
the " cold water cure " a specific for the cholera. He tells
us that Priessnitz, the discoverer of the hydropathic sys-
tem of treating the disease, was engaged in 1832 from '
morning till night in attendance upon cholera cases, and
that he never lost a patient.
On Wednesday, Dr. Adams, resident physician in the
Clyde-street Hospital. Glasgow, having occasion to make
use of a quantity of chloroform, took several doses him-
self to try its strength, but without any serious conse-
quence ; however, having on Thursday afternoon repeated
this dangerous experiment, and incautiously increased the
dose to a very large degree, he no sooner applied it to his
lips than he immediately fell back and expired.
PATRIARCHAL MINISTER.—On Sunday, after a lapse
of sixty-seven years, the same minister of the Gospel (Dr.
Enfield) revisiting Newcastle, ascended the pulpit (which
he had occupied upwards of sixty years), and opening the
sacred volume read (without spectacles) the 22d chapter
of St. Luke's Gospel in a firm and audible voice. He then
took for his text the 41st and 42d verses, and preached to
a congregation not one of whom had heard his first dis-
course from that pulpit.
DREADFUL ACCIDENT.—Jonas Worthington, Emanuel
Fulwood, Thomas Milky, and Solomon Bankes, four men
employed at the Bishop-Wearmouth Iron Works, went to
sea on a pleasure excursion from Sunderland harbour on
Monday, in a small boat, being at the time in a state of
intoxication. The boat was picked up at sea on the fol-
lowing day, bottom upwards, by a steam boat, and towed
into the river. The body of Fulwood was washed ashore
on Wednesday. The bodies of the others have not yet
been found.. Bankes has left a wife and two ehildien,
Fulwood a wife and one child ; and Worthington and
Milley were immarried.
CURIOUS OCCURRENCE.—On.the 29th June, Mr. John
Millyard, farmer, Hartfield, Sussex, left home to visit a
daughter, and called at the house of a friend or two on
his way, but he has not since been heard of. A few days
since a gamekeeper was shooting in the neighbourhood,
when he discovered a small bundle, which he at once
conjectured was the property of the missing farmer; and
prosecuting his search he found a skeleton lying on the
back, in a thicket growing near a " gill," or stream, run-
ning through the forest. His left arm was raised on his
breast, his right was raised towards his head, and the
money which he took with him was in his pocket. Mr.
Wallis, surgeon, examined the skeleton, and found no
marks of violence on it. The fresh was gone. The in-
ference drawn by these parties was, that the oIC man had
strayed into the wood, lost his way, arid night coming on
. he could not find his-way out, and had died.
CURIOUS AND FATAL OCCURRENCE.—On Wednesday
Joseph Kirkby, gamekeeper of the Duke of Hamilton, I
was found lying on the Balantyne-road, near Glasgow.
quite dead, with blood flowing from a wound in his breast.
He had been seen a few minutes before, and it is supposed
thot he lost his life through the discharge of a poacher's
gun, the contents of which were intended for the game-
keeper's dogs, which it is said flew at the poacher. There
are no marks of a scuffle on the road, and the shot must
have been a close one as part of the deceased's clothes
were scorched. It is worthy of remark that when the
body of deceased was found, his two dogs stood over him.
moaning piteously, as if conscious of the calamity which
had occurred, and they would not allow any one to touch
the body until some of the assistants of their deceased
master, who knew them, were sent for and called them
off. The poacher has been taken up, and his clothes bear
marks of having been torn by the dogs, and it is possible
the gun may have gone off accidentally in the onset.
BOARD OF TRADE RETURNS.—These returns for the
month ending the sth of August present results of a still
more satisfactory description even than those which have
been steadily shown. during each month of the present
year. The increase in the exports, as compared with
August, 1848, is not less than £2,012,500; and while
considerably more than half of the increase has arisen
from the activity of our cotton, linen, silk, and woollen
manufactures, there are few articles which do not also
appear largely on the favourable side, and likewise that
there is scarcely one on the adverse side which is not for
an insignificant amount. Amongst the adverse items
machinery still makes its appearance, and furnishes con-
tinued evidence that from the neglect of mechanical im-
provements in foreign manufactories, caused by the dis-
turbances of the past eighteen months, a start has been
given to our own productions which will probably not ho
recovered by our competitors for many years. The total
increase in exports during the first seven months of the
present year, as compared with the seven corresponding
months of 1848, is £5,754,113, and as the decrease of the
first seven months of that year was not more than
£4,747,588, we have now not only entirely recovered
from the check which was then sustained, but are en-
abled to point to an increase of upwards of a million
on the first seven months of 1847, when, notwith-
standing the commercial convulsions of the period,
no decline in our exports had yet been experienced.
As regards imports, grain and flour continue to ex-
hibit a very large increase, and in wheat the consump-
tion has again been greater than the supply. In the
consumption both of coffee and sugar a considerable
decline is observable, not only in the month, but
throughout the year ; while in tea, cocoa, wine, and
tobacco, there has been very little variation. Indeed,
amongst articles of luxury generally, spirits alone
show any considerable increase, and as this appears
principally in brandy, it may be attributed to the cholera
rather than to any other cause. The absence of expendi-
ture which is thus evidenced in the midst of increasing
trade, may be due to the diminution of the indulgences
amongst the labouring classes which were a consequence
of the general employment upon railway works, and also
to the economy which the disasters connected with those
speculations has induced amongst the general population.

Last week, when the workmen WOO employed in re-
pairing the interior of Chelsworth Church, near Biddle-
stone, a fine fresco painting, in excellent preservation,
was discovered just over the chancel arch. The painting
represents the Day of Judgement, with the Saviour on
his throne, having on one side the Virgin, and on the
other St. Peter, leading the wicked to receive their final
sentence from the Supreme Judge.
A FAITHLESS LOVER.—Alfred Smith. a Scotch jour-
neyman baker, was brought up before Mr. Hardwick, at
the Marlborough Police-court, on a cearge of obtaining
about £BO, and a gold watch, watch-chain, a pin,.and a
diamond ring from Maria Foster, under false pretences.
Prisoner had made proposals of marriage to prosecutrix,
and obtained the above goods from her by stratagem, and
then made off with them, but could not evade the vigilance
of the police.
TLe Marquis di Spineto expired on Sunday week, at
his residence at Cambridge. The deceased came to Eng-
land at the outbreak of the war in Italy, after the first
French revolution; and was very well known to the
world as the Italian interpreter at the celebrated trial of
Queen Caroline. He had resided for a long ,•eries of
years at Cambridge; as teacher of the Italian language at
that University, and was highly respected by a numerous
and learned circle. He was in his 76th year.
Some activity is now visible in London in reference to
sanatory matters. The Board of Health has commenced
shutting up the most offensive of the churchyards within
the metropolis; and other efforts are making with a tardy
diligence, although officials, as well as professional men.
are very much at sea respecting many things recommended
to be done, as there seems reason to suspect that some of
the cleansing and flushing operations have a tendency
rather to aggravate than to abate the pestilence.
ARRIVAL OF MRS. HEALD (LOLA MONTES).—Mr.
and Mrs. Heald, veto have been on a continental tour,
arrived in. London on Friday night. It is confidently
expected that Mrs, Heald will make her appearance at the
Marlborough-street Police-office, this week. Owing to
the short period that has elapsed since the first examina-
tion took place, it will be almost impossible for any evi-
dence to be adduced from India, where Captain James, the
former husband of Mrs. Heald, is with his regiment.
EASY METHOD OF DETECTING FORGED BANK NOTES.
—A. few days since a gentleman from the Bank of England
explained the following simple but unerring test : He took
from his pocket a genuine note, and placing it alongside a
forgery, damped both in a part where the water mark was
clearly visible, and in an instant the difference is quite
perceptible. In the genuine note the moisture rendered
the water-mark more conspicuous and distinct, while on
the forgery it became almost wholly obliterated.
Mr. C. Pearson, M.P., has been lecturing in various
towns on prison discipline. His plan is to employ pri-
soners at work, chiefly on the land—to enforce the silent
system—to make the duration of punishment, and the
quantity and quality of their fond depend upon the amount
of their labour, having regard to age, sex, and strength,
and to make it a fundamental and inexorable lex loci that
an able-bodied prisoner shall do more bodily work or less
bodily comforts than the same amount of work would pro-
cure for him in the condition of a free labourer.
SWINDLING ADVERTISEMENTS.—Announcements are
often appearing in public jou, mils, for obtaining " profit-
able callings for £5," and allured by these promises, many
persons are induced to part with their money. when they
obtain " information" of no earthly good, and, of course,
hear no more of their money. Such an advertisement
appeared in the Times of the 2nd of July, directing the
'oney to he sent to J. W. Reed, Mirtield. A stranger,
calling himself by that name, went to the Postoffice to
receive the remittances,—some three or four hundred,—
with which he decamped, and has not since been heard of.
THE CHARTIST LAND SCHEME.—We hear that an in-
vestigation into the state of affairs at Snigsend, Glouces-
ter, has been going on. The state of affairs there arid at.
Lowlands is bad. A number of the wretched " allottees"
from the north, who were reduced to pauperism last win-
ter, have left their cottages and returned to their native
districts, having in several instances succeeded in inducing
some of the local peasantry to become occupiers in their
room. Mr. Feargus O'Connor was at Snigsend last week,
and has preferred a claim for rent against these persons ;
in one instance, perhaps more, a distress has been put in.
Mr. O'Connor very suddenly departed.
FEMALE MODEL LODGING-HOUSES.—The Society for
Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes have
opened a model lodging house in Hatton-Barden, London,
for unmarried females of good character. The premises are
done up in a style of comfort which is surprising, consi-
dering the moderate charge-2s. 4d. a week, payable in
advance—for which the accommodation is provided.
There is accommodation for about sixty females, each
having a separate bed in a separate compartment, and
light, fire, washing, and the use of culinary utensils;
everything, in short, which could be had in a private
house, except their food, which each inmate provides for
herself. There is also a good sitting-room and a library.

MISS CATHERINE HaYgs.—The-Herald, in its notice
of the Birmingham Festival, says, " Miss Catherine Hayes
produced a thrilling effect by her very artistic reading of
the several suljects ; and in the air, " I know that my
Redeemer liveth," she evinced a just appreciation of her
author, and infused an intensity of feeling into the inter-
pretation of this exquisite composition. After Sontag she
undoubtedly bore away the palm of snperiority." Ano-
ther critic says that on this occasion " she so far enraptured
her auditory that they encored her in defiance of an
express injunction by the president and committee against
that practice—an extraordinary compliment in such a
place and under such circumstances. She seems to have
been received there as another Killington or Storace—as
par excellence the English oratorio singer ; and they
ought to be tolerable judges-of such matters there."
ELOPEMENT OF A WIFE AND SUDDEN DEATH OF HER
HUSBAND.—The inhabitants of Walworth-road, London,
have lately been much scandalised by the conduct of Mrs.
Bryan, the wife of a respectable tradesman residing near
the Elephant and Castle, who has been for some time
past openly carrying on an intrigue with a youth named
Ward, whom her husband had taken into the house from
motives of charity. A week ago Ward was observed by
the police blowing a railway signal whistle under the
windows, and shortly afterwards to pick up something
thrown aut to him and walk away. He was taken into
custody, and three purses with money were found upon
73im. His abandoned paramour appeared next day at the
police court, and by acknowledging that she had given
.him the money secured his liberation. At length, on.
Saturday night week, Mrs-Bryan absconded with £6O, the
property of her husband, and neither she nor Ward have
!since been heard of. The most melancholy part of the
tale remains to be told. On Tuesday afternoon Mr.
Bryan was seized with cholera, and, notwithstanding the
best and most skilful treatment, expired at an early hour
on the following morning. While the hand of death was
on him, Mr. Bryan, who was some years the senior of
his wife, sent for his attorney, to whom he dictated his
last will and testament, and to disposed of his property
that his wife cannot touch it.
EFFECTS OF OVF.RCROWDTNG BURIAL GROUNDS.—On
Tuesday, Mr. Wakley held an inquest on the body of a
young woman who, it was believed, died in consequence
of the malaria from Spafields burial ground. One of the
witnesses said that in the ground, which measured 72 feet
by 72, there had been lately buried, at several depths not
far removed from the surface, at least 3,000 bodies. Each
grave contained seven or eight bodies. How space was-
made for new corners he could not say, unless by the
destruction of the bodies and coffins. He was aware that
coffins had been made away with. In consequence of the
effluvia - from the graveyard he had been compelled to send
his children to boarding-schools, and remove the other
members of his family. It was well known that the same
grave had been 50 times opened for bodies, and by the
systematic destruction of bodies and coffins room was
easily made for new corners. The witness did not know-
what became of the bodies, hut it was stated some years
ago that they and the coffins were burned. Mr. Dove,
whose house abuts upon the graveyard, corroborated the
above evidence. Six of his children had been poisoned
by the effluvium from the graves. His wife and himself
had been seized with diarrheeafrom the same cause, and
he was obliged to remove his- family to save their lives.
Fifty thousand bodies had been buried there, and the
ground' Sad been raised to the-level of the wall, siz.feet
high.
BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FP.STIVAL.—The 26th anni-
versary of this great triennial musical meeting, which was
established in 1773, in aid of the funds of the General
Hospital, began on Tuesday, under brilliant auspices. As
far as the artistes engaged, and the number of important
works were concerned, the programme of the present
meeting yielded to no previous one in magnitude and in-
terest. Mendelssohn's glorious oratorio of " The Elijah"
formed the subject of the opening performance. The ap-
pearance of the hall was in the highest degree animated
and enlivening. Almost all the entire area was- appro-
priated to reserve seats, and not a seat was observed to
be vacant. There must have been upwards of 3,900 per-
sons present, including the hulk Of the midland aristocracy,
and many others from the most remote parts of the king-
dom. On Wednesday, Mendelssohn's music to Racine's
" Athalia" was performed as an oratorio. On Thursday.
morning 'lenders oratorio of "The Messiah'^ was per-
formed. The band consisted of 22 first violins, 16 violas,
16; violincellos, 15 double basses, 4 flutes, 4 oboes, 4
clarionets, 4 bassoons, 4.,trumpets, 4 horns, Itrombones,
1 ophicleide, 1 serpent, 3 harps, and a drum of every class.
The chorus comprised 80 trebles, 75 altos, 71 tenors, and
83 basses. Hence the band and chorus, with the assist-
ance of the principal singers, gave an orchestral total of
460 performers. The leader was M. Costa, and the prin-
cipal vocalists were Piachek, Mario, Sims Reeves, Luckey,
Machin, Madame Castellan, the Misses Williams, and
Miss Stevens. On Friday, there were two miscellaneous
concerts. The receipts from these festivities amounted
to £8.840.

A PORCINE BABY.—At the Mansion-house, London,
Sarah Prime war charged with having committed a rob-
bery. The prisoner, who is a young woman, was met by
a policeman near Leadenhall Market. The prisoner had
in her arms what appeared to be a child, and would have
passed for such if she had not betrayed much dread of the
policeman, who thereupon took the liberty to inquire into
the nature of her bdrden. " Sure isn't it my babby ?"
said she. " Ah, then, don't be so cruel as to wake him,
for he's been very tinder in his bowels." The policeman,
however, was so cruel as to try to awake the baby ; but
on stripping it to the skin, be. found it to be a very fine
leg of pickled pork. Alderman Gibbs—Did she carry it
as a woman would carry her child ? The policeman—
Certainly, my lord, and she spoke to it when I went up
to her as a mother would do to keep it from crying.
(Laughter.) Alderman Gibbs—Well, prisoner, do you
choose to give any account of the manner in which you
became the mother of this leg of pork ? (A laugh.) The
prisoner—Please your lordship, I never said it was a child
until he axed me whether it wasn't one, and I thought I
wouldn't satisfy him by telling him that it was ; for as
paid for it, I might call it what I liked. (Laughter,)
Alderman Gibbs—You certainly hit Upon a very ingenious
name, at the same time that it proved to be a very
awkward one. There can be no doubt that you stole the
meat, and you must go to bridewell for one month. The
prisoner—Faith, thin, I didn't steal a morsel of it.—
Committed.