The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-05 00:00:00

Oct. 5,154'

' On Thur Atty, John Hutchings, a cooper of Deptford,
was tried for the murder of his wife, by poisoning her with
arsenic. There was no direct proof that Hutchings had
administered the poison, but he had been heard to threa-
ten the woman ; on the 27th August he had broken open
son's drawer, and had taken out a bottle of arsenic;
he was seen to throw some into the fire, and he gave the
phial to one of his children to fling away ; the wife was
taken ill on the same day. Mr. Baron Platt summed up
favourably to the accused ; and the jury deliberated for
nearly two hours ; but the verdict was " guilty," and sen-
tence of death was pronounced.
FREE TRADE. —The evidence furnished bvthe Jamaica
Despatch accounts at once for the suspension of a house
engaged in the sugar trade, even were it twice as sound as
that of Reid and Irving. The very difference in the price
of sugars between this year and the last, would swamp the
firmest house in London, gild break its credit, were it
twenty times secured. We have done little indeed for
the labouring population of England, and have wrung
from the colonists such despairing and momentous confes-
sions as that which follows :—" We surrender at once.
We cannot and will not waste health and means in the
fruitless endeavour to turn to good the legislation for evil
which you have so recklessly and blindly forced upon us.
Unless we have some protection or some guarantee against
our losses, there is no alternative left to the West Indian
but to throw up his property, and to appeal to the world
against the tyranny and injustice which have beggared
him."

PORTUGUESE CATTLE.—We have to record a very re-
markable arrival from the south of Europe. The vessel
Falcao, of Portugal, which has arrived at the Brunswick-
wharf, Blackwell, from Lisbon and Oporto, has brought,
in addition to a cargo consisting almost entirely of fruits
and other productions of a seasonable character, 130 oxen,
the produce of Portugal. By the vessel arriving at the
Blackwall wharf, we presume it to be a steamer, which
has been employed to facilitate the arrival of the perisha-
ble fruits and live stock at their destination ; and we do
not think that any previous instance has occurred of a
steamer belonging to that state having been employed to
traffic with merchandise to the British metropolis. That
feature in this arrival is, therefore, worthy of especial
notice. With reference to the supply of live stock, vve,
believe we may state that no previous arrival of the kind
has taken place from Portugal into London.
THE LATE CAPTAIN STIRLING, OF THE TIMES•-•-'
Captain Stirling, late one of the leaJer-writers of the
Times newspaper, died at an advanced age, a few [lO
ago, at his residence at Knightsbridge. This gentlematt'S
leaders obtained for the Times the names of the " Thun-
derer." They were full of vigour, and always to the
point. The late Daniel O'Connell was his principal
target, and the arrow of Mr. Stirling never missed the
bull's eye. The mortality of the Times office in a very
short space of time is worthy of notice. It has of late
years lost by death, Mr. Thomas Barne , the principal
editor, whose talents as a writer were well known ; Mr.
Bacon, the sub-editor, a very clever writer; Mr. Alsager,
whose city article was so much admired and sought for;
the next was the great pillar of the establishment, Mr. J.
Walters, whose biography appeared in the Times a few
days since. His most intimate friend and companion at
sickness, Captain Stirling, did not-survive him above a
month.

Mr. Grantley Berkeley has got into hot water in
another quarter. It seems that some private friendo
wished to present a sword to Mr. Balme, who had been of
great service as recruiting sergeant to the Berkeley troop
of Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (yeomanry,) but Mr.
Berkeley put his veto upon the matter as contrary to the
rules of the service, and moreover stated that Mr. Balms
had often pleaded ignorance of his duties as an extenua-
tion of his faults.—ln reply Mr. =I. repudiates the idea of
being made a " Berkeley serf," denies that he has done
anything contrary to the rules of the yeomanry service.
and back to Mr. Grantley Berkeley a haunch 0`
venison which he has received from him, " the only ob-
ligatory compliment," ever experienced at his hands.
He declines to return his kit "not knowing who is his
commanding-officeruntil he hears fro m the Horse-guards.'
Thus we have a prettier quarrel than that between the
two brothers. There is not, it appears, any military canon
which interdicts Mr. Balme's personal and private friends
from presenting him with a sword at any time and any
place when he is not on service or amenable to military
law.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.—At an agricultural meet-
ing last week, one of the speakers said, "It was his pri-
vilege to live in a district where the labouring population
were well taken care of and formed objects of deep inte-
rest to all around them•; but he had a letter from a friend
who lived in Devonshire, who stated positively that at the
time of the greatest scarcity he had seen labourers sitting

under a hedie at their dinners provided out of wages of is-
a-week, themselves and' children dining on Swede turni9s4
which they had obtained, with or without leave, mixsal
with a little 'meal, and, by way of improving it, with 0
infusion of fat. Their drink had been half a bottle of sour
cider. They might imagine what must be the condition
of a family having such food and fare. It was related
'as an anecdote, that Mr. Chadwick, the able secretary
of the Poor Law Commissioners, having been on 0
visit to a friend in D.vonshire, had seen a labourer 'car` •
appeared to be taking very little interest in his work—tut
fact, none at all. On making a remark to the man ‘l9,
he did not sweat at his work, the poor fellow replied, i"
a-week beant sweating wages."
ad...
poor
At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday,
Irish girl, named Mary Doyle, was indicted for tletencer
tion of her infant child. The prisoner, in heSentlemall
said she had been in respectable service with '"`""
holiday' ~
in St. Pancras, and some time ago, having 'a """
went in the boat to Greenwich, and during the journey'
she got acquainted with a young man, who succeeded
seducing her, and the result was the birth of the child!' •
She knew nothing of the father, and could not findera?
and for a considerable time she paid 4s. a-week to a poor
woman to keep the child for her, but, finding herself:un-
able to continue the payment, she applied to St. Pancras
parish for assistance. They, however, refused to do any-
thing for her, and, although she offered to pay half her
wages if they would keep the child and enable her to re-
main in her situation, they refused to do so, and she was*
in consequence, driven to commit the act with which she'
was now charged. On inquiry her story was found to b 6
correct, and she was recommended to the merciful consi-
deration of the court. The jury in strong terms expressed
their indignation at the conduct of the authorities of
Pancras. It being understood the girl's master was Nird"
ling to take her back into his service, judgment was res.-
pited till next session.
SCULLING MATCH.—On:Wednesday, a sculling match
between Coombes and Newall for the championship of the
Thames and £2OO took place on the Thames. Coombes
took his station, having won the chance, on the Fulham
side of the centre arch of Putney-bridge ; his opponent be-
ing at the next on the Surrey side, to row thence to the
Ship at Mortlake. The men started themselves at nine
minutes to five o'clock, and never did men go away 1e
a finer manner. It was as even a start as ever was wit-
nessed, and the pace something like a mile in four minutes.
For the first twenty or thirty strokes it was diffi-
cult to detect the slightest advantage, but in the next
two minutes, opposite the Half-moon, Newell had got
the nose of his boat about four feet in advance of his or
ponent. The next half-dozen pulls brought them again
as level as at the moment of starting, and the dozen
strokes that followed, as quick as lightning, placed the
bow of Coombes's boat in front. Another minute served
to give him the increased advantage of half a length
abreast of the Crabtree Coombes went like a shot clea' and
r of
his adversary, and took his water almost immediately af-
terwards. After this, stroke by stroke, Coombes went
further in advance, and won by about one hundred and
twenty yards, accomplishing the distance of four miles
one furlong in twenty-three minutes and thirty seconds-
Newell rowed a most gallant stern wager, but his opP°-
nents's pace was too great for him.
• of
IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN THE PREPARATIOI`.
AGRICULTURAL SEED.—At the late annual' meeting of the
West Suffolk Agricultural Association, the Chairman, the
Rev.. D. Gwilt, stated a most important discovery had been
made and patented by a, scientific professor of chemistry,
in Belgium, involving the preparation of seed—wheat ancL
other grain, turnips, &c.—which had resulted in produc—
ing fine crops, free from grubs, and that too in the poorest.
lands with a small quantity of manure, and in rich lando
without any manure at all. He had tried it on his own
farm for fifteen months with complete and extraordinao
its
'infancy, and considered that when the system, yet in
infancy, was matured, it would be found to be a greatn.s"
tional advantage.. The manner of preparing the seedll
yet kept secret by the discoverer, so that we are left to the
mere conjecture that it is a chemical process. A company
has been formed, and they are desirous to have a certain
number of acres for trial, on different farms, in the-coin-
ing year, say 5, 10, or 15 acres, of gentlemen who would
be assured that the experiment would not be a losing one-
The gentleman alluded to sent some seed to Belgium to
be prepared, both wheat and turnips, and he said " the
parties sent nearly all the turnip seed back to him, keep-
ing some of it to try in Belgium. Both there and at lus
own English farm the crops were the finest in their re-
spective-neighbourhoods. He also grew wheat from the
prepared seed on land so poor that he was laughed at, in
the beginning, but the harvest was abundant. His rye
from prepared seed grew six feet high. The cost of pre-
taring is stated to be about 30s. per acre, and the mate-
rial employed is extremely simple. We wonder whether
the system could be applied to potatoes, so as to restore
that valuable root to its pristine health and vigour ?
THE ASIATICCHOLERA.--The approach of the Asiatic
cholera is beginning to cause some little apprehension in
the minds of those who have been marking its steady pro'
gress for many months past, from the plains of Seinde
towards western Europe. Rather more than two years
ago, it ravaged the banks of the Indus with frightful
severity, inflicting serious loss upon the British troops at
Kurrachee and Hyderabad. About the same time, or
little later, it raged in Affghanistan ; spread from thence
into Persia, which it traversed from east to west, spread-
ing to the northward into Tartary, and southwardly into
Turkish Kurdistan and the pachalic of Bagdad. Early 10
the present year, it made its appearance to the west of the
Caucasian Mountains, and committed great ravages in the
Russian army acting against Circassians. About a mole
ago, accounts reached this country of its appearance 10
Europe ; having broken out at Taganrog, Marianopols'
and other ports on the westerly shores of the Sea of Awl,
and we now give, in another column, details of its pre:
gress through Central Russia, where it has manifested
itself at Kief, Smolensk, and it is said (but the statement
seems to need confirmation) that the disease has appeared
on the shore of the Baltic, at Riga. Great alarm has
consequently been felt in Poland ; and the authorities al'
Warsaw have been busied in preparing hospitals, 110,'`
making other arrangements to meet the coming
In its former progress towards Europe, in the years IS3u
and 1831, the general course of the pestilence has been
nearly due north-west ; and seems so far, to have Or
yelled at about the same rate as on that occasion. In 183
it made its appearance on the shores of the Baltic (:
Riga, Dantsc, and Memel), in the month of May ; 9:
Vienna and Berlin, in August; at Hamburg, in OctobeL'
and reached England in the beginning of November, -
Nanchelter Guardian,