The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-04 00:00:00

RUNCORN

"PAYING THE PIPER."—At Daresberry petty sessions,
on Tuesday, Mr. Francis Rigby, of the Egerton -Arms Inn,
Runcorn, was summoned before Sir Richard Brooke, Bart.,
and Peter Jacson, Esq., to answer an information, charging
him with permitting drunkenness and disorderly conduct at
his house on the morning of Friday, the 9th November. Wm.
Harding, a constable, stated the facts of the case. On the
morning named in the information, between one and two
o'clock, he heard a fiddle playing, and some persons dancing
in the back part of defendant's house. He afterwards called
Mr. Phillips, one of the constables of the town, and they went
together to the defendant's house. Harding pulled the win-
dow down at the top, and saw a number of persons dancirig,
and two fiddlers on a table playing. Some of the persons
were drunk; one of them could not stand. He requested
Mrs. Rigby, who was in the room, to let him in. She said
she would let no person in, and that her house was hercastle.
The fiddlers wished them to be let in, and threatened to split
their skulls. A sofa was then placed against the door to
prevent the constables entering the room. Mrs. Rigby af-
terwards let them in. She said it was only a treat see was
giving to the waiters and servants after the wakes. There
were several strangers in the room, amongst whom were
some girls; they were making a great noise. He did not
see any chink in the room, but it was evident, from the state
some of the company were in, that they had been thinking.
Mr. Philfilw corroborated the evidence of Harding, and said
Al'. Rigby had requested him to see Harding, and get the
matter arranged. Mr. Rigby, in defence, said that on the
night in question, his wife had given the servants a treat after
the Runcorn wakes, and the persons found in the house by
Harding were his own servants and their friends, and that
no liquors were sold. The bench reminded the defendant,
that this was not the first time he had to answer the charge
of misconducting his house; and after advising him to be
more circumspect for the future, inflicted the penalty of 40s.
and costs. Mr. Rigby expressed his intention to appeal, as
he considered the information had been laid by Harding
through ill feeling.

•
A legal gentleman, who lately paid his addresses to the
daughter of a tradesman near Holborn, was forbidden the
house, for which he sent in a bill of ninety-one pounds thir-
teen shillings and fourpence, for two hundred and seventy-
five attendances advising on family affairs.
RULES FOR CHOOSING A HORSE—HINTS FOR NOVICES.—
To define a perfect horse is nearly impossible; to tell you
where to buy one so completely so. As a purchaser it is im-
material where you go, whether to Hyde Park Corner,
Newmarket, Smithfield, or Newcastle, you will most proba-
bly he taken in wherever you go; however. I shall endeavour
to describe such outward beauties and active qualifications
as are requisite; and if you meet with such an one keep your
eye on him. The height of a horse is of little consequence
provided he is higher behind -than before. Nothing is more
pleasing to a traveller than the idea of continually getting
forward. Let him carry his head low, that he may have an
eve to the ground, and see the .better where to set his feet.
The less he shifts his feet the easier he will move for his rider,
and (important qualification in a roadster) he will. brush all
the stones out of his way, which might other Wise throw him
down. If he turns out his toes as well as be should do, he
will then disperse them to the right and left, and avoid the
trouble of kicking the same stone a second time. A bald
face, wall eyes and white legs, (if your horse is nut a grey
one,) is to be preferred, as, in the night, although you may
ride against what you please, no one will ride against you.
His nose cannot project too much, for by keeping a constant
tight rein on him, you will sit as firm as if you were held on.
Mr. E. G. WAKEFIELD AND CANADA.—There appears, in
the last number of the Spectator, a letter, signed
Wakefield," referring to some statement of Mr. Roebuck's,
in a recent letter to the same paper. The tone and spirit of
Mr. E. G. Wakefield's letter is not calculated to weaken ti .e
interest with which politicians of all parties, and the people
who are not ordinarily politicans at all, are waiting the dis-
closures that must succeed to Lend Durham's re-appearance
upon the stage of parliament. Mr. Wakefield, whose talents
have acquired for him some weiglo, and authority in the party
to which he belongs, as a laborious and unflinching inquirer,
hints at disclosures to come, relative to the dispute between
the two great Canadian parties, that will make " many won-
der at the depth of their previous ignorance." He whose
opinions and sympathies in favour of the party who took up
arms to obtain a redress of their grievances were of the
strongest character, has been forced to abandou them. His
"deep-rooted conviction" availed him nothing, it appears,
when he came into actual contact with the Canadians them-
selves, and became a personal examiner Of their grounds of
contest. " I believe now," he says, " that I was blinded and
misled, as many others have been, by a cou we of rnisrepi esen-
tat ion—a regular system of delusion, to whit % I was once (how-
ever uniuteutionally, as Mr. Roebuck still is) au active party,
and which while it occasions the most erroneous views here
as to the motive of the dispute iu Lower Canada, has a still
more mischievous effect in deceiving the French Canadians
as to the state of feeling in this country with respect to their
position and objects."
Tire TEA. PLANT.—At the first meeting of.the Medico-
Botanical Society fur the season, held last week, Sir James
M‘Gregor, Bart, in the chair, Dr. Sigrnontl commenced by
delivering a lecture on the cultivation and medicinal effects
of the tea plant. The learned professor commenced his dis-
course by adverting to the great mystery in which the system
of the Chinese in preparing tea had been for some centuries
enveloped, and then proceeded to explain its culture. It was
well known that the tea plant produced the principal beve-
rage of the inhabitants of the Celestial Eintere, and was
found beneficial and nutritious in every quarter of the globe.
When the time of picking the finer sorts arrived, it appeared
that the labourers employed were compelled to avoid gross
food, and adopt the purest diet; and, moreover, that they per-
formed the operation. in gloves, The authorities quoted
shower' that this extreme delicacy was for the purpose of pre-
venting the slightest injury to the leaf front the breath or
skin. lt would be as well if this example of cleanliness was
followed by the tea dealers of England. The spots adapted
for the cultivation of fine teas were very limited, but those for
the coarser descriptions abounded; and there was as much
difference in the flavours of teas known under the same names,
as between the sherry drunk at a carabet and that selected
fora gentleman's table. The Chinese who could afford it,
drank their tea strong, and they had a proverb by which the
poverty of the individual was implied, who "drinks weak tea
and eats insiped rice." That the Hong merchants used not
generally to deliver for exportation their finer sorts, there was
no doubt; for it was proved by the fact, that since the open-
ing of the trade many new varieties had been brought to Eng-
land. The flower of the China tea plant had a fine and fra-
grant aroma, and differed its the form of, the blossoms from
the lately discovered Assam tea shrub. He contended that
the plant which produces black tea, and those front which
green tea was obtained, are of a different species. In exem-
plification, he exhibited a specimen of a black tea and one of
a green tea plant, received from Mr. Loddiilge. The leaves
were different in size, thickness, and general appearance
There was, however, some small mystery practised by the
Chinese in converting the damaged inferior black teas into
green, which were then sold to Europeans for genuine green
tea. Unce, however, a European had contrived to get admit-
tance to a dishonest manufactory, when he detected the labour-
ers engaged in this fraudulent process. The proprietor of the
establishment seemed to be conscious of the imposition he was
about to practice. When the European endeavoured to gain
admission into other establishments, the doors were immedi-
ately closed. The process was first to allow the tea to be heated
with turmeric over a charcoal fire, which gave a yellowish
hue to the leaves, and the fine bloom seen on the superior
green teas was added by the application of a mixture. of
Prussian blue (known to contain, prussic acid) with gypsum.
This was the only kind of green tea deleterious to the con-
stitution. The doctor then refuted the assertion, that copper
was to be found in unadulterated green tea. The eater of a
sandwich, or the drinker of coffee, had more to fear from the
effects of copper, which had been proved to exist in those
articles, than the person who drank green tea, even to an
excess. The learned professor, in the course of his disserta-
tion, ably illustrated his observations on the planting, gather-
ing, and other processes observed in the manufacture of tea,
by elegant paintings, the property of Mrs. Morrison.