The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-06-26 00:00:00

ties of Europe should still render her a less prdfitgble
neighbour, we have now a new world, as Canning said, td
restore the balance of the old."

Our first comment shall be upon the remarks of
the Albion ; and all that we need say is to ask the
question—ls it a healthy state of things that a ple-
thora of gold in the coffers of the Bank of England,
and a corresponding amount of unemployed money
in the hands of our local bankers, should lead to
the enhancement, without any other cause, of one
of our leading staples of manufacture, of sugar,
or any other commodity, not produced by the
industry of our own people? Nearly the whole of
this enhanced price is enjoyed by the foreigner. We
have not a penny more for spinning or weaving a
pound of cotton, and not a pound of sugar more
brought to the table of our working masses, because
of our present abundance of currency. On the
contrary, we suffer from such temporary abundance.
We pay the planter of America and Brazil a penny
a pound more for his supply of cotton and sugar,
because of our redundant currency giving facilities
to the speculator, without the slightest assurance
that our own exports will command a correspond-
ing return in foreign markets.

The remarks of'ihe Times are singularly unfor-
tunate. There are no sensible people in this
country who "are now at their wits' end to account
for the fact that there is a flow, not an ebb of the
metallic stream." Our contemporary himself would,
perhaps, be at his wits' end to account for there
being two months ago an ebb, instead of a flow, of
the same metallic stream. He would be equally
puzzled to tell us why we ought to care about either
ebbs or flows of that commodity. " Foreigners,"
he says, "are investing in our funds from a sense
of their greater security and steadiness. In so doing
they contribute to the capital of this country."
They do no such thing. The Times writer does not
seem to know the difference between capital and
currency. He proceeds :—" We have no objection
to see all Europe crowding to our Stock Exchange,
and, by that channel, to our railroads, our manu-
factories, and our ports." We have every objection.
When a man's chairs and tables are mortgaged to
the auctioneer, it is no great sign of his solvency;
and as little is it a sign of prosperity when a nation's
securities and property are held by foreigners.
Besides, our contemporary forgets what will be
the consequence when, Europe having returned to
a state of tranquillity,her capitalists withdraw their
money to be invested in its ordinary channels. We
shall then have a repetition of that drain of specie
which, in October, 1847, nearly resulted in a
national bankruptcy.

THE arbitration measure of the visionary Cobden
needed only to be presented in all its indefinite and
hypothetical characteristics to the country, to meet
with the fate that awaits all impractical theories—
oblivion. Discussion and debate on such an insane
topic would be an aggravation of mockery. But
admitting that the propounder of such shallow
dogmas ought not to escape quite free from retort,
it must be confessed that the letter of Sir C. Napier
to Lord J. Russell is a sufficient and well-merited
castigation for the hon. member's presumption in
advancing views on subjects, the details and bear-
ing of which he is totally unacquainted with. And
the punishment is all the more severe because not
administered directly. It must certainly have
added considerably to Mr. Cobden's chagrin, re-
sulting from the public contempt of his dreamy
philosophy, to find that, without the slightest
intention on the part of the writer of combatting
his theories, a letter had been addressed to the
Premier which cruelly dissipated them into the no-
thingness from which they came. Sir C. Napier is
too well acquainted with the transactions going on
around us, and knows too well the mould in which
the French, Russian, &e. character is cast, to give
one moment to the consideration of the question
"to fight or not ?" He is alarmed, and justly so,
at the imminence of our danger, in our present im-
becile state, brought about by a series of Whig-
Radical measures, clenched by a direct blow at our
maritime power. The graphic picture of a conti-
nent possessed from one extremity to the other by
belligerent spirits, with a small spot of territory at
hand, undefended, on which only the signal was
wanted to induce them to seize, is truly a cutting
rebuke to him who would maintain, under such
circumstances, that the people of the latter country
should deem themselves secure against the day of
battle, in the power of their eloquence. The re-
sponse to Mr. Cobden's plea for arbitration should
be an active and energetic movement in our dock-
yards and arsenals, to prepare for a storm that—
God forbid it should—may break over us without
a moment's warning.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE-A RELIGIOUS SECT--
NOTTIDGE v. RIPLEY AND ANOTHER.

This case was before the Court of Exchequer on Saturday,
and was an action to recover damages for the incarceration of
the plaintiff (a lady) in a lunatic asylum, under the pretence
that she was of unsound mind at a time when she was perfectly
sane. Mr. Cockburn opened the case. The plaintiff-was a
maiden lady, and had been incarcerated from November,
1846, to January, 1848, when, by a miraculous course of events.
she made her escape. She had a large sum in the funds, and
had three married sisters equally wealthy. To two of them
she was affectionately attached, and went to visit them in
autumn, 1846. The husbands of these sisters, Mr. Price and
Mr. Cobb, had adopted peculiar notions as regarded religious.
duties and observances. They attached themselves to a
community which had been known as " Lampeters,"
who resided in a village called Charlidge, near Spaxstone.
and called their residence " Agapemone." The plaintiff
was living there with one of the sisters of the body
when the outrage was committed. The defendant Ripley
who lived in London, was brother-in-law to Miss Nottidge,
and he, with two other gentlemen, proceeded to the cottage
where she was living, and, getting in by the back, dragged her
out, forced her into a carriage without her outward clothing,
and finally forced her into a madhouse near London, kept by
Doctor Stillwell. There she remained 14 months. Mr. Cobb
was informed, and was proceeding with her by rail to a plaee
of safety, when, at one of the stations, one of the keepers of
the madhouse insisted on reconveying her to that establish-
ment. Thither Mr. Cobb accompanied her, hut he was thrust
away and not allowed to enter. Her relations then applied to
the Commissioners of Lunacy, and they, after enquiry, had
her instantly released. For the horrid incarceration she had
endured compensation in damages was now sought. A
number of witnesses were then called, from whom strange evi-
dence was elicited regarding the " Agapemone," or " Abode
of Love" ! At the top of the building was a lion and a lamb,
with the inscription. "Oh hail, holy Love !" The forcing
away of the plaintiff was spoken to by several parties ; but
the disclosures relative to the establishment were most curious.
It was admitted by Sir F. Thesiger that the defendants were
the parties who had taken the plaintiff away. The house at
Charlidge was considered as that of a " private family," not
an association. One witness said, " God is the head of our
family, and no one else under God." Several of the males had
been formerly ministers of the Church of England. The money
required to establish the house was got by the respective mar •
riages with the three Misses Nottidge ; and all the marriages
took place on one day. Mr. Rouse, an attorney, was ene of
the family. Sir F. Thesiger remarked, "Oh l then you must
have a lawyer even in your abode of love.' The " family"-
consisted of 50 or 60. They bad horses and carriages, and
lived in style. They had money in the bank. Mr. Price, when
called, said, " We abjure prayer altogether, and we never pray
as a religion, but we pray by offering up prayers to God, by
following a life of goodness to God, and by outward manifes-
tations, such as singing, and by healthy exercises, and 'hockey'
is one of them. (Loud laughter.) I consider that all we do is
to the glory of God.' That is the commandment of God. 1
consider that we are glorifying God when we eat and drink.
Every one does as be pleases on the Sunday. We make no
difference between that day and any other day. All of us play
at hockey,' females as well as males, when they like.
Each of the Misses Nottidges bad £6,000. The plaintiff
was once written to by Mr. Prince for money, and she gave
The plaintiff, when she got out of the asylum, made over all her
money to Mr. Price, for safety, and it was in the bank in his
name; but she could have everything she wanted ! Blocd-
hounds were kept at the establishment. All their singing was
evening hymns. They take all their meals in the same roam.
I was ordained a priest of the Church of England,.and had a
curacy in South Wales. Prince, after he left Charlidge, was
curate of Stoke, in Suffolk. near to Mrs. Nottidge's. The
Bishop dismissed me from my curacy. I cannot tell of my
own knowledge that Prince was also dismissed. Mr. Thomas
(another brother') was ordained a deacon of the Church of
England. and Mr. Starkie was the rector of Charlidge, but he
has ceased to be so for some years. We at length established
the family' at Charlidge, in the lAgapemone.' I had no
money, nor had the others any, until we married the Misses
Nottidge. My curacy was in Wales; it was £7O a year."
The following were amongst other facts deposed to :—" There
are two or three of 'the family' who write very much alike.
Mr. Prince uses the name of Amen,' and frequently puts it to
the end of a letter, and no other signature—but I don't mean
that he puts it there as a signature. He puts Amen' at the
end of his letters, but I cannot say that he does so as a signa-
ture. The plaintiff has been at the Agapemone' ever since
her return from the asylum. When she came back she made
over all her property to Mr. Prince, to protect it from any other
persons, and from the defendants. I knew from tier that her
property was in the bank in her own name. I cannot tell whe-
ther Prince has it is his own name in the bank or not. I did
not know that Miss Nottidge bad had a note signed 'Amen,'
stating that the Lord had need of £5O for His glory.' She
gave the money though. We have all our separate properties.
The expenses are paid by the managers, Mrs. Cobb. sometimes,
and several others. Whoever wants money can have it.—
Sir F. Thesiger—Dear me, what a pleasant establishment
Is there any vacancy? (Laughter.) The plaintiff pays the
expenses of this action. Her money is in the bank, in the
name of Mr. Prince (loud laughter), and she can have anything
she likes. We have bloodhounds in the establishment, and we
take them out when we like. They were not loose when the
attorney's clerk was. there. The doors were not locked to pre-
vent him from coming in, any more than against any one else.
I don't know that the subpoenas were thrown over the wall.
The plaintiff does not play hockey,' but she sometimes
rides out in the carriage-and-four. When Mrs. Prince was
living at Waterman's, Mr. Prince was at Weymouth. We do
not all kneel down in a circle round Mr. Prince, and venerate
him."
After other curious evidence, the case was adjourned until
yesterday.

THE BRITANNIA. BRIDGE.—The accidents during the
great trial were few. One man broke his thigh, and two
pitched headlong into the water were recovered. A piece
of iron suddenly detached from some part of the works by
a swing of a rope, cut a man's nose clean off at the
bridge. Had the tube, the only fear. jilted over, it would
have fallen on some 50 men, on the pontoons, who must
inevitably have been killed. A number of lift belts were
provick4 ia case of accident,