The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-26 00:00:00

churchyard

Sunday

FUNERAL OF A RECIABITE.—On Monday last the fune-
ral rites were performed to the wife of Captain Robert Mann,
of the Dundee and London trading schooner Courier, by the
• .

abc,..uncz in ,uuuee, or which she was a leading member.
From the circumstance of its being the first funeral in Dun-
dee at which females marched• in procession to the resting-
place, an extraordinary excitement prevailed, and one would
have imagined that it was some great public meeting that
was about to take place. Along Reform-street, the west end
-treet, Castle-street, and at the shore, the crowd
Slanted, so that it was almost imnossible to get

of the High-

was densely

a free passage. After depositing Mrs. Mann's remains in
the grave, hymns were sung, and the crowd dispersed in
quietness. About 200 persons accompanied the funeral to
the burying-ground, of which 150 were Rechabites, and of
these betwixt 40 and 50 were females. They were arranged
four deep. two females leaning betwixt the arms of two men.
The males had a white satin sash over their shoulders, and
the females were attired in black, with black bonnets, sash,
and " weepers."—Dundee Paper.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT. On Sunday: last, James
Younger, a boy about five years of age, son of Wm. Younger,
hind to Mr. Laing, Fernyilats, lost his life in a very distress-
ing manner. He left his father's house about nine o'clock
iin the morning, and was seen for the last time alive, going
about near the premises, about half an hour after. About
eleven o'clock, a girl named Helen Laing, residing at the
same place, while on her way to Letham, discovered the boy
lying under a sowing-machine a short distance to the east of
the house, with his face to the ground, and the box of the
machine resting on the back of his neck. She instantly re-
turned to the house, and gave the alarm ; and Mr. Laing and
the mother of the boy hastened to the spot, which was
reached first by the latter, who, having raised the box, lifted
up her child, a lifeless corpse. It was supposed that the
child had been creeping under the machine picking up the
beans which were scattered about, and that, having touched
the inner end of one of the limbers with his shoulder or
back, had lifted them, and the points being thus raised, or at
.least eased, from the ground, the support which had hitherto
kept the box upright on its hinges was removed, and it fell
forward on the back of the boy's neck while creeping below,
and suffocated him by pressing his face into the ground.—
Scottish Standard.

She stated before
the coroner, that she was an unfortunate woman, was in great
distress, and had no food nor milk for her child, which first
prompted her to make an end of it, which was effected by
throwing the innocent creature into the New River. The
mother was the first person to give information of what she
had done, immediately upon which the river was dragged,
and the body of the child discovered. The poor woman ap-
peared to have been driven to a state bordering on distrac-
tion by continued suffering. She had applied to the reliev-
ing officer of Marylebone, but was refused any relief, though
she gave the age of the child. The jury, after a short deli-
beration, returned a verdict of " Wilful Murder"
the mother.

against

EXECUTION 01

MATTHEW FOWLES .—The execution of
this unhappy man, who was found guilty at our assizes last
week of the wilful murder of Martha Keeling, at Newcastle,
is appointed to take place on Saturday, the 3d of April. We
learn that Fowles displays at present much indifference on
the subject of his approaching awful fate
assert'

-mg his innocence of the crime for which, on the most
satisfactory evidence, he has been condemned to an ignomi-
nious death. He accounts for the possession of the ring of
the deceased woman, by stating that he purchased it with a
view of making a present of it to his sweetheart at Maccles-
field ; and, when asked how it was he did not pay the tailor
for the coat lie purchased the evening prior to the murder,
he states that he bad the money, but the coat required some
repairs at the cuffs ;• he also continues to affirm that the
" tiddler," about whom he has said so much, and another
man, were in the house during the night of the murder. The
evidence,' however, is deemed so conclusive against him, that
3 it is not expected any effort will be made to procure a re-

prieve.—Staffordshiri Gazette,

LIABILITY OF CANALS TO BE ASSESSED TO PAROCHIAL
. .

KATES.—Many of the old Canal Acts contain a clause that
the canals shall be rated or assessed to the poor and other
parochial rates, according to the value of the adjoining land,
and not of the improved value by the making the canals and
works. The later canal companies have had no such ex-
empting clause ; but their canals are, like all other property,
assessed at their improved value. The consequence of this
state of things is, that the township of Marple, through which
the Peak Forest Canal and the Macclesfield Canal pass, the
former for the length of near four miles, and the latter short

of three, a rate of one shilling in the pound produces from
the Peak Forest Canal only £2 Os. 2d. ; whilst the Maccles-
field Canal pays £2O 2s. 3d. The Peak Forest Canal Com-
pany are now in parliament for further powers ; but the rate-
payers of Marple, Disley, 'Whaley, Bugsworth, and Chapel-
en-le-Frith, through which the canal and its railway pass,
have presented petitions to the house of commons, praying
that the bill may not pass into a law without a clause being
inserted to repeal the present mode of rating the Peak Forest
Canal, and leaving it to be assessed like all other property ;
viz., the value at the time it was rated.

RATING OF RAILWAYS.—IMPORTANT DECISION.—At the
late meeting of the bench of magistrates at Croydon, a
question of very grave importance to every parish in the
kingdom in which railway works are in operation, was brought
forward, and should the decision come to by the bench prove
correct in law, it will be found to affect their interests most
materially. A claim was made upon the directors of the
London and Brighton Railway for the sum of £l6 12s. 41d.,
the amount of a poor-rate assessed upon property in their
occupation in the parish of Croydon. The solicitor who
appeared in support of the rate contended that, as the com-
pany had purchased the land which was formerly assessed to
the poor-rate, had laid down rails, and used locomotives upon
them to convey soil, bricks, &c., they enjoyed a beneficial
occupation, and it was not at all necessary that it should be
profitable. Mr. Sutton, on behalf of the company, contended
that, until the works were completed, there was no beneficial
occupation, and, consequently, the railway could not be as-
sessed to the poor-rate. The bench, having deliberated upon
the matter, decided upon disallowing the rate.

SERIOUS AFFRAY IN BETHNAL GREEN.—Between 9
and 10 o'clock last night, the neighbourhood of Mape-street,
Bethnal-green, was thrown into a state of great alarm by a
report that two persons had been killed by % Chartist. On
inquiry it appeared that a man named Charles Groom, a
dealer in marine stores, living in Mape-street, had cut a lad
named Joseph Biddle on the hand with a short heavy sword,
which, from its peculiar formation, when examined by the
police, was unanimously pronounced to be one of those
awkward unfinished instruments with which the Chartists in
this quarter were well known to have provided themselves at
the time of the Newport riots. The circumstances attend-
ing the assault made by Groom are somewhat curious, as it
appears that he was a "new comer" in Mape-street, and
that the mother of the lad Biddle, hearing a person iuquire
for a man named Bannister, sent her son to inquire at
Groom's house if that was his name, when Groom, who
alleges that he supposed that Biddle was come to rob him,
rushed out upon him with the weapon we have described,
and struck him on the hand, and was about to repeat the
blow, when the grandmother of the lad interfered and re-
ceived a cut from Groom on her hand. Another woman
rushed to the assistance of the Biddies, and Groom was dis-
armed and given into the custody of the police, by whom he
was locked up. The old woman and the lad were taken to
the London Hospital, where their wounds were dressed, and
they were afterwards able to return home.—London Standard
of Monday.

SHOCKING OUTRAGE, NEAR BACUP, LANCASHIRE.—
On Monday morning last, about one o'clock, the family re-
siding at the Derpley Inn, a lonely public-house on the
moors, about two miles above Bacup, were subjected to the
following most atrocious outrage, involving at least robbery,
and perhaps murder. At the time mentioned, two men
called for admittance; which not being readily granted, they
broke two squares of glass in one of the windows, in trying,
as they alleged, to awake the inmates. The family consisted
of an aged couple, James Simpson and his wife, and a young
girl who lived as servant with them. The old woman, after
some delay, came down stairs and let the men in, and they
asked for a noggin of gin, which was filled to them, and they
threw down a half-crown for payment. At this time the old
man came down and gave them change, but stopped out of it
tenpence for the broken windows. They objected to this,
and words ensued, and one of the villians set upon the old
man and beat him with a stick about the head, until he was
senseless ; the other overpowered the old woman, and rifled
the drawer in the bar. When the disturbance began,' the
girl escaped by the back door and alarmed a son of Simpson's,
named James, who lived at a house at a short distance, and
who immediately hastened to the assistance of his parents.
He arrived just as one of the fellows was coming out of the
bar, putting something into his pocket. James laid hold of
him, threw him down, and speedily thrashed him so that, as
he said, "he could know him again." The other then came
up, and said if James would not let his comrade go, he would
shoot him. James refused; and the villain then presented
a pistol and fired ; and a ball or a slug passed through the
young man's body, from side to side. Of course the contest
was then over, and the villains made their escape across the
hills towards Burnley. The young man is expected to re-
cover, unless inflammation should set in and carry him off;
the ball, or whatever it was, having, it appears, traversed
beneath the skin, without touching any vital part. .The old
man, on Monday, was reported to be dangerously ill, and re-
maining entirely blind from the wounds on his head. A cir-
cumstance, calculated to add, if any thing could, to the af-
fliction of this family, occurred only the previous day. A
married daughter of the old couple (the mother of eight •
children) hung herself, at a place called Old Clough, near
Bacup.

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.—The following account is vouched
for as true, and many particulars not here related would be
given by the editor to any person likely to give a clue to the
solution of the mystery. A gentleman of elegant manners
and address, calling himself Captain Henry Maxwell, and his
sister Miss Maxwell, took up their residence in a town near
this city. Wanting a house, they called 'upon a widow lady
who had one to let, where Captain Maxwell saw and ad-
mired her eldest daughter, an accomplished and beautiful
young woman, 24 years old, to whom he made offers of mar-
riage. He stated himself to be connected with Sir Murray
Maxwell, and the nephew of a gentleman of fortune of his
own name, near Cork, in Ireland, on whom he depended
principally for an income. They were married, and Captain
Maxwell, after going to London with his bride, when he
seemed to shun being seen about the streets, left her for a
short time to go to Hanover, where he held a military ap-
pointment. On his return they went to reside at Bolougne,
where the husband received a letter from Ireland, on which
he told his wife that his uncle was dying, and that he would
leave her to go home under the care of his sister, who would
join him at their uncle's in Ireland. A fortnight after the
young lady's arrival at the house of her mother she received
a letter from .Miss Maxwell, dated from Mount Maxwell,
near Cork, informing her that Captain Maxwell had died
eight days after his uncle, in a high fever, and that the
uncle, displeased with his marriage, had altered his will be-
fore his death, leaving him nothing, and that his own pro-
perty, being only a life-interest, ceased with his death.
Letters were sent to Cork addressed to Miss Maxwell,
making the requisite inquiries about Captain Maxwell's
death, and these were returned with the notice from the post-
office that no such place existed as that from which Miss
Maxwell dated her letters, nor was any family of the name
known in Cork or the neighbourhood. All inquiries have
failed in producing any elucidation of the strange mystery.
Captain Maxwell told his wife he was known to the Duke of
Wellington, the Marquis of Douro, a son of the Earl of
Wemyss' Captain Marryat, the author, with whom he sailed
on board of his ship; that he was with a Mr. Fitzroy in
Hanover; was related to the Marchioness of Donegal, Mr.
Colthurst, and General Gillespie. He had £7OO with him
when he left his wife, besides a large chest of plate, &c.
There were many books and other things which might have
led to a knowledge of who he was, which the sister most
cunningly possessed herself of.—Exeter Flying Post.

FIRE IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ASHTON.—About half-
past eight o'clock on Sunday morning last a person whose
duty it is to ring what is called the quarter hell at St. Mi-
chael's Church, Ashton, observed some pieces of burning
wood fall from the upper part of the tower, within the steeple.
Upon examination he found that the roof of the belfry was
on fire. He immediately made an alarm, and Armitage, the
sexton, went to call the firemen, whilst some other person
went to the police office. Some other officious person went
to the place where the engines were kept ; and having broken
open the door, one of the engines was taken to the church
yard. The Rev. Mr. Quirk, the junior curate, and several
other persons, repaired to the spot ; and a large number of
water cans having been procured from the neighbouring
houses, water was handed up the steps of the tower—men
standing upon every fourth or fifth step, and handing the
cans or buckets of water from one to the other. To the ex-
ertions of these individuals are the parishioners indebted for
the safety of the church ; for, had the flames descended much
lower than the apartment to which they were confined, one
end of the church must have been destroyed, as one of the
engines was disabled immediately after its arrival at the
church. The hose was attached to the engine, and the at-
tendants commenced working the engine before the pipe had
been hoisted up into the steeple; and the consequence was
that the host burst, in consequence of its having been bent
when full of water, and the engine was useless.. Such a scene
of confusion we have seldom witnessed. There was no per-
son to direct the operations of the firemen and bystanders,
and even the churchwardens were absent, until the fire was
extinguished. The fire took place in consequence of the lead
pipe which conveys the smoke through the steeple from the
church stove being filled with soot, which caught fire, melted
the lead pipe, and set fire to the dry timbers of the roof. We
believe it is just 20 years since the church was on fire be-
fore.