The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THE TRAGEDIES OF LOW LIFE.

•
It is a trite remark, that " truth is stranger than fic-
tion." and would not be so treated as a truism were it
known what fearful, frightful illustrations it receives be-
neath that calm, quiet under-current of common life
which covers so much of secret misery and wasting woe. I
Take the humblest and most wretched haunts of poverty
—track some child of misery to the hovel or the attic
which is called home—trace out the history of that past
which has led to so wretched a present, and there will be
the materials of a tale more moving than aught that the
wildest fiction ever conceived, or the boldest pen depicted.
That this is not matter of imagination, but is sober, sad
reality, our readers can easily be satisfied—a short story
will show them that they, in their daily walks, pass con-
stantly the " heroes" or the " heroines" (mockery of
ideas!) in the tragedies of low life. Not long since, a
poor girl—a mother—and if wife, a deserted one—lost, by
the stoppage of a small theatre, the employment she had
there for some time past received as a ballet girl, and the
manager left in her debt for some arrears of her wretched
pittance. What misery is disclosed in these short facts !
It sketches the shadowy outline of some sad tale, which
fancy will not be slow in filling up with colours, alas !
most sombre. What early errors or early wrongs (and
both, perhaps, were combined in her fate) led her to the
life of the ballet girl ?—the very ability for which, as it
involves the possession of some accomplishments, indi-
cates a once happier state. What lingering wretchedness
must have been hers—deserted, defrauded, deprived even
of her hardly-earned subsistence, a prey to sickening sor-
row, embittered even to agony by recollection, and aggra-
vated almost to distraction by the bitter contrast between
the gaiety of the theatre, with its crowd of well-pleased
countenances, and the gloom of her home ! What a
heart-rending agony must have been hers, poor girl, as
she went through her wearying round of trivial, yet tor-
turing labour upon the stage, amidst her.fond thoughts of
the ' little one," of whom her earnest hope would be that
it slept 1 How little could the crowded spectators con-
ceive of the heart that was hidden under the flimsy tawdry
and the giddy gaiety of the " ballet girl," and what keen
pangs of silent, sharp. endurance were hers, as she " tripped
, it lightly" on the mimic scene !—what a mask for misery
, was the smiling face or glittering eye that sparkled in the
glare of the foot lights." Ah ! all that sparkle and
spangle, all that glitter and glare—what a horrid mockery
of the misery they concealed ! Perhaps a keen observer
might detect beneath it all the wildness, the unnatural
brightness of eye, which betokened the desperation of
despair ! Who knows what the " ballet girl" endured ! '
perchance preserved from the last resource of wretched-
ness only by that slight, yet all-powerful tie, which wound
itself round the mother's heart. But she had more to en-
dure. The iron must enter yet deeper into her soul. De-
prived of her employment, what alternative had she, save
starvation—or worse ? The former, for herself; perhaps,
she would have preferred. But her child—could she see it
starve ? Hearts of mothers, say ! She lodged in a
wretched room, at ss. a week. There she sat, hour after
hour, day after day—brooding over her misery—wasting,
wearing away, in woe. At length nature could endure no
longer ; she put forth her hand and stole—stole an article
from the scanty furniture of her room—stole, that her
babe might not starve. Who shall say what sharp strug-
ples she passed through ere she seized the trumpery thing
which seemed to tempt her to take it, and hurried forth
in the dark to procure a few pence that might stave off
her sad fate some short time—and in that time what might
occur !—she might again have employment—then she
could redeem what she had stolen and restore it. Sad
sophistry ! But ere it be censured too severely, let it be
recollected she was starving. She was detected. The
usual result followed. The picture presented at the bar
of the police court was most touchingly, sorrowfully sad.
" A thin, delicate-looking woman, dressed in faded black"
(death had added its dark shadows to her dismal story),
" with a child in her arms." . . " She said she and
her child were in great distress, and that she took the ar-
ticles, intending to redeem them the moment she could
get a little money. She was engaged as a ballet-dancer at
the Theatre which she quitted about a month ago,
the manager being in her debt; and although she had
made repeated applications for the money, she could not
obtain it. Since she had left the theatre she had been
gaining a scanty subsistence for herself and child by nee-
dlework. Her salary as a ballet-dancer was 6s. a week,
The magistrate (honour to his heart !) sighed over the
poor girl's story (which everything her landlady said con-
firmed), and said " her situation was to be deplored," so
much so that he only fined her 6d., in addition to the va-
lue of the article purloinedrand this her poverty pre-
vented her paying, so she was ' locked up ;" but late in
the day some female friend or relative—perhaps some sis-
ter in misery—paid it for her and procured her release.
Who can wish to weep over imaginary sorrow ; when com-
mon life furnishes such stories of real woe ? Let those
who have leisure for " sentiment" search out some of
these sons and daughters of suffering humanity, and learn
the luxury of relieving them.

FUDGE.—The word Fudge was hardly enough for our
great lexicographer to notice. It was known, however,
to our language long before his friend, Goldsmith, made
such ample use of it in his " Vicar of Wakefield ;" for
D'lsraeli says that in " Remarks upon the Navy," pub-
lished in 1700, is the following anecdote :—" There was,
in our time, one Fudge, captain of a merchantman, who,
upon his return from a voyage, how ill so ever his ship
was fraught, always brought home his owners a good
cargo of falsehoods ; so that row, aboard ship, the sailors
when they hear a great falsehood told, cry out, ` You
fudge it.' "

STRANGE PROBABILITY.—There still exists a lineal
descendant of Zingis, and the Tatar khans of the Crimea,
in the person of Katti-Gheray Krim Gheray. He was
born among the mountains of Caucasus, and his acquaint-
ance with Scottish missionaries led him to examine, and
his researches to effibrace, the religion of the Saviour : he
is well known in this country, having studied at Edinburgh,
where he found his way to the heart of a daughter of a
north Briton, who loved him for the dangers he had past,
and accompanied him to the Crimea in order to ensdre
him happiness for the future. A curious event may fol-
low this marriage. Should the prophet be pleased to call
Abdul-Medshid to the bowers of paradise and the bosoms
of the houris, and the male line of Turkey become ex-
tinct, the thronei falls by right to the family of Gheray.
Such an event is not impossible ; and, if the grasping
hand of Russia be not extended to prevent it, we may yet
see, and smile at the recollections it will recall, the des-
cendants of the chief of a Tatar horde and the wandering
daughter of a private Scottish gentleman, seated together
on the throne of the Paleologi.—Church of England
Review.

CAGLIOSTRO.—The last and perhaps the most renowned
of the Rosicrucians, was, according to a historical insinua-
tion, implicated in that notorious juggle of the Diamond
Necklace, which tended so much to increase the popular
hatred towards the evil-doomed and beautiful Marie-An-
toinette. Whether this imputation were correct, or whe-
ther the Cardinal Due de Rohan was the only distin-
guished person deluded by the artifices of the Coun-
tess de la Motte, it is certain that Joseph Bal-
samo, commonly called Alexandre, Count de Caglios-
tro, was capable of any knavery, however infamous. Guile
was his element ; audacity was his breastplate; delusion
was his profession ; immorality was his creed ; debauchery
was his consolation ; his own genius—the genius of cun-
ning—was the god of his idolatry. Had Cagliostro been
sustained by the principles of rectitude, he must have be-
come the idol as well as the wonder of his contemporaries ;
his accomplishments must have dazzled them into admi-
ration, for he possessed all the attributes of a Crichton.
Beautiful in aspect, symmetrical in proportions, graceful
in carriage, capacious in intellect, erudite as a Benedic-
tine, agile as an Acrobat, daring as Sccevola, persuasive as
Alcibiades, skilled in all manly pastimes, familiar with the
philosophies of the scholar and the worldling, an orator, a
musician, a courtier, a linguist,—such was the celebrated
Cagliostro. In his abitities, he was as capricious as Leo-
nardo, and as subtle as Machiavelli ; but he was without
the magnanimity of the one or the crafty prudence of the
other. Lucretius so darkened the glories of nature by the
glooms of his blasphemous imagination, that he might
have described this earth as a golden globe animated by a
demon. Fashioned in a mould as marvellous as that
golden orb, and animated in like manner by a devi-
lish and wily spirit, was Balsamo the Rosicrucian. Be-
tween the period of his birth in 1743, and that of his dis-
solution in 1795, when incarcerated in a dungeon of San
Leo, at Rome, Cagliostro rendered himself in a manner il-
lustrious by practising upon the credulity of his fellow-
creatures. Holstein had witnessed his pretended suc-
cesses in alchemy. Strasbourg had received him with
adulation, as the evangelist of a mystic religion. Paris
had resounded with the marvels revealed by his perform-
ances in Egyptian freemasonry. Molton gold was said to
stream at pleasure over the rim of his crucibles • divination
by astrology was as familiar to him as it had been of yore
to Zoroaster or Nostradamus ; graves yawned at the beck
of his potent finger ; their ghostly habitants appeared to
his preternatural bidding. The necromantic achievements
of Doctor Dee and William Lilly dwindled into insignifi-
cance before those attributed to a man who, although ap-
parently in the bloom of manhood, was believed to have
survived a thousand winters. Accident had supplied
Cagliostro with an accomplice of suitable depravity. , In
the course of his eccentric peregrinations among the con-
tinental cities, he had formed the acquaintance of a female
remarkable for her consummate loveliness and her bound-
less sensuality. Married to this Circe, the adventurer
began to thrive beyond his most sanguine expectations.
It must be remembered, however, that in his nefarious
proceedings, Balsamo was aided by a faculty of invention
almost miraculous in its fruitfulness, and occasionally al-
most sublime in its audacity. By these means, he ulti-
mately became the most astonishing impostor the world
had ever beheld, with the solitary exception of Moham-
med. As a forerunner of a disastrous revolution, the ap-
pearance of this fantastic personage in the capital of civi-
lisation was at once dismal and prophetic. Uncon-
sciously, he was the prophet of disaster. Unconciously,
he was the prelude, half-solemn, half-grotesque—of a
bloody and diabolical saturnalia. History, both profane
and inspired, tells us that when the Euphrates forsook its
natural channel, and the hostile legions trampled under
its gates at nightfall ; when the revellers of Belshazzar,
drunk with the prolonged orgies and haggard with the
shadow of an impending doom, staggered through the
marble vestibules and out upon the marble causeways,
rending their purple vestures in the moonlight, there was
weeping among the lords of Chaldea,—" Wo ! svo ! wo !"
was wailed in the streets of Babylon. A similar destiny
awaited Paris, but as yet a very different spectacle was vi-
sible ; as yet the carousals of the metropolis were at their
zenith ; as yet the current flowed in its ancient channel ;
as yet the woes of the empire were not written on the
wall of the palace. Festivities were never conducted with
more magnificence than immediately before the downfall
of the monarchy and the general desolation of the king-
dom. The pomps of religion, the •,,ageantries of the court,
and the munificence of the nobility, were never before
characterised by so much grandeur and profusion. The
church, the sovereign, and the oligarchy were crowning
themselves for the sacrifice.—Blacktrood'i Magazine.

Oentral AliOrtllanp.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has, it is raid, agreed
to postpone for a month the payment of the hop duty by
the growers of Kent.
TITHES.—The corn averages for regulating the rent-
charges for the present year are, wheat, 7s. Ozd. ; barley,
4s. ; oats, 2s. 8&d.
Chartley Hall, near Stafford, the seat of Earl Ferrers,
was destroyed by fire on Tuesday morning. The furni-
ture, library, and armoury were all destroyed.
The Government Emigration Commissioners have ap-
pointed a vessel to leave Deptford, for Port Adelaide,
South Australia, with 130 emigrants, on the 22d Nov.
On Saturday week, Lady Ashley was presented at
Bradford, by the short time committee, with a fine paint-
ing of her noble husband.
A verdict of manslaughter has been returned at Hull
against a man named Cunliffe, for killing a man named
Hall. The two had quarrelled, and Hall, during a fight,
received great injury, of which he died.
At a late meeting of the Cleveland Agricultural Society,
at Guisborough, Yorkshire, the Earl of Zetland stated
that on his Scotch estates he had not one tenant with an
acre undrained.

IMPORTS.—In a letter in the Times of Saturday, signed
" Spectator," it is stated that the value of corn and flour
imported into Great Britain during twelve months is no
less than twenty-five millions of pounds sterling.
The office of Lord Provost of Edinburgh goes a-begging ;
and efforts are being made to induce the present provost
to remain in office, though he has already exceeded by a
year the triennial period for which he was elected.
The " separate system," which obtained so much favour
in the recent congress on penal discipline at Brussels, is
the system which will be adopted in the new gaol in
Leeds, as well as at the House of Correction in Wakefield.
Her Majesty, " in consideration of the piety, eloquence,
and learning of the late Dr. Chalmers," has gr nted a
pension of £5O a year to his widow, an.l £25 a year to
each of his five daughters.

The Corporation of the city of London on Thursday re-
solved to present the freedom of the city in a gold box to
James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, in testimony of his ser-
vices to commerce and civilisation.

A farm at Andover was, on Friday night, set on fire by
a fire-balloon, which a lighted on one of the barns. A
large quantity of produce, several buildings, and many
trees were destroyed.
The Leeds Intelligencer states that, " incredible as the
thing may appear, the liberal town council have declared
that they will not elect any man for alderman who was
guilty of the high crime of voting in favor of state-assisted
education."

The academic visit of Lord John Russell to Glasgow is
to be taken advantage of by the Lord Provost and magis-
trates, for the purpose of resolving as to the best means
of bringing the state of the money market under his lord-
ship's notice.
DOING BUSINESS.—A culprit from Dundee, who at
Perth was tried, convicted, and sentenced to banishment
last Wednesday evening, officiated on-the previous morn-
ing in Dundee, as hangman's assistant, at the execution of
Thomas Leith. He had £5 for his services, of which he
gave his counsel £2 to defend him on his trial.
JUNENILE OFFENDERS.—It appears that there were
561 prisoners tried for felony at the West Riding Ses-
sions during the year 1846. Out of this large number
there were only twelve who, on account of their age,
would have come within the operation of the Juvenile
Offenders Act if that statute had then been in existence.
MURDER OF MAJOR WALDSTETTEN.—The three mur-
derers who strangled Major Waldstetten, with the con-
nivance of his own valet, have been taken. They have
confessed their crime, which they committed for the
purpose of obtaining possession of the large quantity of
cash which ,he major had in his possession. The three
men are brothers.

FORCE OF THE SEA.-The force of the waves at the
Bell Rock during the late gale from the south-east, as in-
dicated by the marine dynamometer (records of which are
daily registered), was 28471 b., or upwards of one-fourth of
a ton, per superficial foot, being the greatest result ob-
tained since October, 1844, when a nearly similar force
was indicated.—Caledonian Mercury.
HORSES KILLED BY EATING WHEAT.—Two valuable
horses. the property of W. De Capel Brooke, Esq., of
Market Harborough, died a few days since from having
eaten a quantity of wheat which had been left in sacks in
the straw yard, to which the horses had access. Two
others that also partook of the wheat narrowly escaped
the same fate.

The Birkenhead iron steam-frigate, Commander In-
gram, is having the damages caused by her•collision with
the brig Horatio repaired in dock. She seems to have
had her starboard sponson stove in, and a 'portion of the
wheel next it carried away. The Birkenhead is receiving
a coat of composition to prevent the adherence of rubbish
on her bottom.

SHOCKING ACCIDENT, WITH Loss OF LIFE.—A poor
woman, who lives at Tollpuddle, near Blandford, Dorset,
left an infant, six months old, in the cradle while she went
a short distance. During her absence a ferret got into
the cradle and picked out the child's eyes, and hit the
tongue off. The consequence was the death of the child
within an hour.

WHEAT FROM VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.—The vessel,
Lydford, arrived in the St. Katharine Docks, from Laun-
ceston, Van Diemen's Land, has brought, besides a cargo
of wool, and other merchandise, 2710 bags of wheat ; and
the Sydney, from the same place, has brought 720 bags of
wheat and 50 bags of flour, the production of that distant
colony.
ESCAPE FROM PRISON IN JERSEY.—On Thursday,
two porters took into the prison a new bureau bedstead,
and brought out an old one, in which a debtor named
Wake, son of Sir Wm. Wake, was secreted. They car-
ried their load into the heart of the town, without excit-
ing any suspicion, and the prisoner got clear off. He
escaped to St. Malo by the steamer.—Jersey News.
NAVIGATION THROUGH A FOG.—The Direct Ferry
Company at Shields have made trial of a plan for the
guidance of their steam-boat across the river
.in a fog.
Fire-lamps are placed in small boats that are moored on
the line of transit, and the flames are mirrored in the
water. The reflection is made from a considerable dis-
tance, and serves as a guide to vessels. The device has
proved successful.
The steamer Vanguard, on her trip from the Clyde to
Dublin, on Sunday week, came in collision with the Mi-
nerva steamer. The latter had her stem completely de-
molished, and the Vanguard was dreadfully shattered in
the starboard bow, the iron plates of the hull and the
timber works of the gunwale being stove in as if they had
been sheets of pasteboard, and great part of the fore deck
being carried away.
THE DECIMAL COIN.—The first of these new coins,
agreeably to the plan of Mr. Sheil, will be a two-shilling
piece. The design has been completed by Mr. Wynn, of
the Royal Mint, and displays great chasteness and artis-
tical taste. The obverse will display a figure of her Ma-
jesty, the head being surrounded by a wreath of laurels.
The reverse will be a gothic design, but until the coin is
completed any detailed descriptien would be premature.
POULTRY.—In Aylesbury the sale of ducks realises
£15,000 a year; in Norfolk and Cambridge the small far-
mers pay their rents with the product of their poultry.
Mr. Bayley stated at a meeting lately held in St. Alban's,
that in nine years he sold £Bl,OOO, and that in the same
period he and his father sold conjointly £200,000 worth
of poultry, and also that during those nine years he paid
£3OOO in wages. In Kent and Surrey £300,000 is received
for poultry.
POOR OLD ENGLAND.—The following i an extract
from the London Times of Wednesday :—" It cannot
thee
pleasant to any one whose heart is of the common ma -
nal, to go on day after day expostulating with sufferers on
the folly of their demands, and announcing that the na-
tional agony must have its course, but honour will admit
of no other alternative. Sorry are we to say it, but the
truth must be spoken. The country is poor; England is
actually poor, in the grossest and most tangible sense."

DESPERATE ROBBERY IN WESTMINSTER—DEATH OF
THE SUFFERER.—A murderous attack was made on Mr.
Bell Chambers, who was found about six o'clock on Mon-
day morning week, in a dreadful state, on the pavement,
in Westminster, with his pockets ransacked. He lingered
for a few days, but died on Monday. An inquest was
held on the body on Tuesday, and adjourned in conse-
quence of two men being in custody, against whom there
is a strong suspicion.

THE JESUITS IN BRISTOL.-It is reported that the order
of Jesuits are about shortly to assume the management of
church matters amongst the Roman Catholics in this city.
They have undertaken to liquidate the existing debts on
the Roman Catholic places of worship ; and likewise to
advance the necessary funds to the Bishop of the " Western
District," for building a," Cathedral" in Bristol, for which
the purchase of a site has already been concluded.—
Bristol Journal.

A SECOND CHATTERTON.—On Sunday last, William
Rawlinson, a lawyer's clerk, aged 17, at Westminster,
poisoned himself• with prussic acid. He has been for
some considerable time studying chemical works, and
other philosophical matters, and was in the habit of lock-
ing himself up in his room, for the purpose of preventing
his friends molesting him. his inattention to his business
was so great that he was discharged on Saturday, and his
father had threatened to destroy all his books.

A PHILOSOPHICAL BAKER.—Mr. Mathews, of Bristol,
author of a tract, " The Philosophy of Bread-making,"
has been lecturing in various places on that subject, to
crowded audiences. He illustrates his theory by making
a loaf, and baking it in a glass oven, heated by common
gas, on the lecture-table, and then dividing it amongst his
audience. The loaf is made in about a minute, by mixing
a small quantity of his baking powder in the flour, and
adding cold water. The baking process takes about half
an hour.
A PURCHASE OF MONEY.—One of the motives for the
visit of Baring to Paris has been ascertained to be the
buying up the English gold and notes held by the Banque
de France: The coffers of money, every changer and
banker, have been ransacked ; and it was said yesterday
that, save in the pockets of our countrymen, not a single
bank-note or sovereign could be found in all Paris. The
effect of this razzia was so unexpected, that, in four-and-
twenty hours, the value of English gold had risen six per
cent., a phenomenon unexampled since the war.—Paris
correspondent of the Atlas.
In the Registration Court, in London, on Wednesday,
the revising barrister animadverted most severely on the
bills of expenses sent in by overseers and vestry clerks,
and refused to allow them, as a robbery of the public. As
an instance of his cutting down we give the following :
" St. Botolph, Aldgate ; registration, 1847 ; preparing list
of voters (740), £7 Bs. ' • paid printers £l7 •, lists of claims
(71) and objections (217), £2 18s.—Total, £27 65." In
handing this bill to the vestry clerk, the barrister said
that, instead of £27 65., he should only allow 20s. (Sen-
sation.) Most of the remainder were served after the
same fashion, the revising barrister holding that vestry
clerks were already paid for their services and had no fur-
ther claim and that overseers could only claim what they
actually disbursed.

DEPLORA•BLE CMCCURRENCR.—Mr. Wm, Yarworth,
brother of Richard, who was Itts,t at Piff's Elm some
years since, undrortutiately fell into the river at Usk on
Friday se'nnight, and was drowned. A sad fatality seems
to attend this family. Richard was shot; George, his
brother, was killed about three years back by his wagon
going over him; and now the present lamentable affair;
they were three very fine young men, and the feelings of
the wife and aged mother on the sad occasion are most
distressing.—Hereford Journal.
DISTRESSING ACCIDENT.—A. son of Mr. Alfred Power,
late the Assistant Poor Law Commissioner for this dis-
trict, and now commissioner in Dublin, shot his sister
dead last week. An attempt having been made to break
into the house, Mr. Power loaded a brace of pistols in
case of further attack, and put them in what he considered
an " out-of-the-way place." His little son found them,
and, having no idea they were loaded, called out to his
sister, " Mind your eye, or I will shoot you," drew the
trigger, and the ball went through her heart.—Worcester
Chronicle.

LAND RECLAIMED FROM THE SEA.—A few days ago
were offered for sale, by the Nene Outfell Commissioners,
at Wisbech, 950 acres of land, in 27 lots, being their por-
tion of between 3,000 and 4,003 acres that have been
gained from the sea by the completion of their great work.
The lots varied from seven acres to 180 ; and the reserved
bid for the several lots varied from about £45 to £BO per
acre; and though none of the lots were actually sold at
these prices, above £6O per acre was bid for lot 24, con-
taining 103 acres, and for some of the smallest lots higher
prices were offered.
ANNIVERSARY OF THEBATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.—MOD-
dav wasthe forty-second anniversary of the great victory of
Trafalgar, at which Nelson fell, and by which the com-
bined naval armaments of France and Spaiji perished. The
last signal which Nelson made has become immortal,—
" England expects every man to do his duty." It is a
curious anecdote, not so generally known, that as he first
proposed the signal, it was, "Nelson expects every man
to do his duty.' Sir Thomas Hardy, devoted as he was
to the glory of his chief, suggested the emendation, which
Nelson at once adopted.

INSTANCE OF PAPIENT INDITSTRY.—The Nottingham
Journal states that Mr. John Monro, of Paisley, a tailor,
has completed a bed or table cloth, eight feet two inches
square, and composed of 3,570 small pieces of fine cloth
of different colours, very tastefully and ingeniously joined
together in a variety of national, emblematical, and fancy
devices. Mr. Monro devoted three hours a-day after his
ordinary work had been finished, for five days in each
week, during eleven years and four months, in the patient
prosecution of his self-imposed task. Two hundred pounds
have been offered for the cloth, and refused.
MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT ON WHITTON SANDS.—On
Saturday evening last, about five o'clock, as the sloop
Ashton. Johnson, master, was proceeding from this port
up the river, she grounded on Whitton Sands, when Mrs.
Johnson, being on deck at the time with an infant in her
arms, was thrown overboard, and both child and mother
met a watery grave. Captain Johnson caught hold of her
gown as she was falling, but could not rescue her, as from
the weak texture of the garment the piece came out in his
hand. He also caught hold of her foot, but, unfortunately,
her shoe came off, when she sank. She has left a family
of nine children to lament her untimely end.—Hull Adv.

PRINCELY PRESENT.—Sir Bellingham Graham, the
Vice Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, has pre-
sented one of his yachts—the Medina—to his late sailing
master, on his quitting his service. The Medina, 44 tons,
is well found and fully equipped for sea, and cannot have
cost Sir Bellingham much less than a thousand pounds
within the last eighteen months. His other yacht, the
Flirt, of 132 tons, is being lengthened in the bows in Mr.
Joseph White's yard ; she is to be ready for a voyage up
the Mediterranean in January. The Fairy schooner, of
143 tons, Sir Hyde Parker, Bart., and the Ariel schooner,
of 118, Almon Hill, Esq., are both fitting at Cowes, for
the same destination._ _ _

TIIE ETARVEST IN KENT.—So bountiful have been the
crops of wheat in the neighbourhood of Faversham from
the late harvest, that in many instances as much as eight
quarters an acre have been reaped ; and the respected
vicar, the Rev. Mr. Collins, in a very eloquent, discourse
on Sunday last, stated that as much as ten quarters of
wheat had been grown on a single acre of land, and
fourteen quarters of barley on a like portion. That the
above are not solitary instances may be known by the
fact, that from a single acre selected from a field of wheat
on the farm of Mr. Collard, at Reculver, ten quarters and
three bushels were the amazing produce, which was proved
with great care for the purpose of deciding a considerable
wager.—Kentish Observer.

THE MAURITIUS.—The arrangements of 1825 which
admitted sugar the produce of the Mauritius to English
consumption at the same rate as that of the West Indies
gave an enormous stimulus to production in the island.
Thus the total exports of that article in 1825 amounted
only to 21,793,7661 b. from the Mauritius ; in 1845 its
exports of sugar to Great Britain alone were 80,218,0961 b.
In the face of production thus unnaturally stimulated, and
the measures of 1846, there has been a gradually decreas-
ing stock of labour in the colony, and the necessity for
instantly confronting the competition of slave countries.
The Mauritius has lately proved the ruin of everybody
connected with it, as the list of recent failures too mourn-
fully testifies.
STATISTICS OF PAUPERISM.—The population of Swe-
den amounts to about 3,500,000 souls, and has only three
mendicants in every 400 persons, while in Norway they
reckon 5 out of every 100 ; in Denmark, 4 ; in Wurtem-
berg, 5 ; in Switzerland, 10 ; in Italy, 13 ' • in France, 15 ;
and in the British Islands collectively, 17, although in
England separately there are only 10. In France the
number of foundlings supported at the expense of the
state was, in 1844, 123,394, demanding an annual outlay
of 6,707,829 f. 12c., or 54f. 6c. a-head. In Paris the cha-
ritable establishments afford relief to 95,000 paupers. At
Berlin the number of mendicants has become doubled
between 1822 and 1846; the number of families in that
capital supported by charity has increased from 2.990 to
3,445. In London, it is computed, there are 25,000 per-
sons who daily practise mendiciiy or robbery.
The report of the Parliamentary committee on Sunday
trading in the metropolis has just been issued. It esti-
mates that about 5,000 tradesmen, with about 15,000
journeymen and boys, out of the metropolitan population
of a million and a half, are deprived of the benefits of
the day of rest." It finds that the present law, which
only punishes on proof of an article actually sold, is prac-
tically a nullity ; and that the present observance of the
Lord's Day is, therefore, the effect of public opinion or
good feeling. Still they consider this feeling inadequate
to protect that portion of the community, who, by cir-
cumstances and situation, are placed within the tempta-
tion to buy and sell on Sundays ; and they recommend
that exposure for sale, and not the actual sale, should be
the criterion of legislation. Necessary food they, how-
ever, advise should be allowed to be exposed at certain
hours.

How THE POOR EXIST. —The following extracts from
the reports of intelligent parties will serve to show how
England is deprived of her strength—the flower and
beauty of her youth. " I was called," says Dr. South-
wood Smith, " to a room in Whitechapel, so dark, that in
broad daylight I was obliged to have a candle to see the
patient; the closeness and stench of the room gave me
the instant feeling of sickness. The weather was very hot,
and yet the patient was lying with a parched tongue in a
burning fever. Think what it must have been to pass a
night in that room—a night of fever." Those who will
not listen to the living may not refuse the testimony of a
voice, speaking as from the grave. Mr. John Johns, who
died from fever, caught in visiting the sick in Liverpool,
says, " In one small cellar, without a window, I saw 18
persons in fever lying on wet dirty straw. In one house I
counted 81, in another 61, in every stage of fever, on filthy
straw in the corners."

A meeting—convened by the mayor in compliance with
a requisition—was held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on Satur-
day, in order to pass a vote of confidence in the existing
banking establishments in that town. The speakers
showed that all the existing banks in the town were in
possession of ample funds to discharge the whole of their
obligations, and that the effects produced by the with-
drawal of deposits would be felt, not by the banks, but
by the commercial classes, merchants, and tradesmen
generally, who look to the banks for that accommodation
which they have been accustomed to receive in transact-
ing their business, and which has been necessarily cur-
tailed of late, in consequence of the pressure of the times.
Confidence and credit are the wings of commerce. With-
out confidence in his ability to dispose of the manufac-
tured article no man would devote his energies to its pro-
duction ' • and his means of disposing of it would be ex-
tremely limited indeed did he not possess the power which
credit affords of transferring his productions to other
markets than that which his own limited locality might
supply.
DREADFUL MURDER.—For some days, a man named
William Wilson, a marine-store dealer, Gravesend, had
been quarrelling with his wife, to whom he had only been
married a short time. The quarrel, it appears, com-
menced on Monday morning, when, after abusing his wife
for some hours, he left the house, and did not return un-
til midnight, but, after going to bed, he continued his
abuse, which induced his wife to leave the bed, and she
sat up the rest of the night. The murderer did not get up
until 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning, when, after par-
taking of breakfast, he left the house, and did not return
till half-past 12. He was then " rather fresh," but not
intoxicated. His wife remonstrated with him upon his
conduct, and high words again ensued, which continued
for nearly two hours, when, upon his wife saying he was a
disgrace to society, he took up a large stick, and said,
" Now we will see who shall be master," upon which he
aimed a fearful blow at her head, which took effect imme-
diately under the left ear. The poor creature immediately
fell down, exclaiming, "lam a murdered woman." Me-
dical assistance was immediately procured, but the poor
woman soon died.
DARING BURGLARY AT BOROUGH FEN.—Between the
hours of one and two o'clock on the morning of Saturday
week, the dwelling-house of Mrs. Hilliam, at Borough
Fen, near Crowland, was entered by three ruffians. They
effected an entrance by taking out the pantry window, and
proceeded up stairs to the bedroom door,. which was
locked and bolted. The noise made by forcing open the
door awoke the graund-daughter, who was sleeping with
Mrs. Hilliam, and is very infirm. The villains having
made their way into the room masked, and having a
lighted candle and cudgels with them, began to pull the
bed-clothes off the bed. The young woman screamed
out, when one of the fellows seized her, and swore he
would cut her throat if she did not hold her noise. The
pulling off the bedclothes awoke the old lady, and made
her conscious of her situation, when she at once got out
of bed and ran down stairs, with the intention of alarming
the neighbours. The fellows missing the old lady, one of
them followed her and seized her by the throat as she was
unlocking the front door, and threw her down, swearing
that he would murder her if she made any alarm, and
there held her until the others had plundered the bed-
room of ten sovereigns, twenty shillings in silver, a quan-
tity of copper coin. two teaspoons marked " E,' one
tablespoon marked "A. G." a pair of silver-mounted
spectacles, a hunch of keys, same writing, &c.--Lincoln-
shire Chronicle.