The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-21 00:00:00

GENERAE. INTELLIGENCE.

THE Rua, OF DERBY has taken the large mansion in
St. James's-square, for many years occupied by the late
Earl of Dartmouth.

DEATH OF RITBINI.—The Italian papers announce the
death of the once greatest of tenors, Signor Rubini, which
took place on the 2nd instant, at Romano, in the province
of Bergamo. He was (10 years of age.
FRENCH WAR VESSELS IN THE TTliE.—The harbour-
masters have received instructions to clear away berths
for two French war vessels, which are expected in the
Tyne, to make arrangements for a supply of steam coal for
the vessels of that nation in the Baltic fleet.

DISCOVERY OF COIL IN GLorcEsru.n.-1n making the
excavations for the sewerage of this city in Worcester-
street, on Thursday, the workmen came upon the end of a
stratum of coal, about six inches thick, at a depth of about
11 feet from the surface.—Gloucester Chronicle.
THE SOUTHERN WHALE FISIEERY COMPANY.-At an
adjourned meeting of this company, held last week, reso-
lutions were agreed to, authorising the directors to wind
up the undertaking, in accordance with the terms of the
deed of settlement, three-fourths of the capital having
been lost.

WHAT NOVELIST would venture to relate that a widow
and a mother, who lost her husband and the father of her
children by an epidemic, and lost a child by death five
months afterwards, took a second husband to her bed on
the day after her child died, and buried it on the day after
her wedding ? Yet this romance has been acted on the
Tyne ;• and one day last week the women had what our
American brothers call an " indignation meeting," and
hooted the bride in the streets.
THE SENDING OF OATS TO AUSTRALIA.—We have
seen a return from Melbourne of a sale of oats for a party
in Edinburgh. A portion of them was sold at B 5 12s.
per qr., the remainder a little below that figure. The
oats were purchased last season in East Lothian at 21s.
per qr., and, after paying all expenses, the shipper had at
the rate of 325. per qr. as profit on the transaction.—
North British Agriculturist.
ADDRESS TO Louis NAPOLEON.—The Town Council of
Dundee have forwarded an address to the Emperor of the
French, in which they congratulate his Majesty on the
union existing between France and England, and on his
marriage with the descendant of an ancient Scottish
family. They express a hope that this event may be
productive of a closer commercial union between the two
countries than has existed in recent times.—Edinburgh
Advertiser.

DEMAND FOR FARMS IN CANADA.—A land agent in
London, Canada West, states that the applications for
farms in the neighbourhood of that town arc so numerous
at the present time that he cannot purchase farms fast
enough to meet the demands of those who are seeking
them. He further says that he has ten or twelve appli-
cations for farms each day. Such will soon be the case in
every part of Canada. Even in the townships now consi-
dered the most remote, when the country is opened up by
railroads, the demand for land will be as great, and land
in such townships as valuable, as it is now in the neigh-
bourhood of our great cities.—Canadian Colonist.
NEW SPIRITUAL PEBR.—The Right Rev. Dr. Jackson,
Bishop of Lincoln, formerly rector of St. James's Church,
Westminster, will take his seat in the House of Lords
forthwith, in consequence of the death of the Bishop of
Salisbury. The act for constituting the see of Manchester
provided that no addition should be made inconsequence
to the number of spiritual peers ; so that, under the new
arrangement, the junior prelate—other than Canterbury,
York, London, Durham, and Winchester, is always with-
out a seat in the House of Lords. Dr. Denison's successor
to the bishopric of Salisbury will not have a seat until
another vacancy on the episcopal bench occurs, such
vacancy not being one of the five just mentioned, who, by
virtue of the act luded to, are not subject to the rotation
applicable to the other prelates of both provinces.
ENGLISH QUEENS AND EUROPEAN WABS.—EaCh of
the Queens that has sat on the English thrones has had
to wage a European war ; though the Roman Catholic
Mary lost Calais, the virgin Queen Elizabeth successfully
resisted the invincible armada ; good Queen Anne brought
the war with Louis XIV. to a close, which procured the
recognition of the Protestant succession,varions territorial
concessions from France in America, Spain's 'resignation
of Gibraltar and the Pillars of Hercules, that stand as the
portico to the Mediterranean Sound. Elizabeth opposed
to the Spanish, Anne to the Bourbon,Victoria to the Mus-
covite universal monarchy—is not that a peculiar ordina-
tion of God ? Victoria !—it is a name that sounds well
in the ears of the nation and of her allies. What cham-
pion does not look hopefully to Victoria ?—Berlin Na-
tional Zeitung.
- - -

MAJOR NORCOTT, of the Rifles, has published an in-
teresting report on the Minie rifle. Many vague and
general statements have been made of the superiority of
this arm over every other of the kind, but until now we
have never seen anything like a full and reliable report
founded upon close, frequent, and extensive practice. The
report proves that the rifle is perfectly safe—not an ac-
cident with it is on record. Its capacity over the Bruns-
wick rifle is vast ; the range is much greater ; the accuracy
of the ball's flight remarkable; and it is loaded with
greater rapidity than the Brunswick. At 300 yards 33
men, out of 59, put 7 out of 10 shots each from the Minis
rifle into the target ; whilst from the Brunswick only six
men out of 70 put in more than half their shots at a dis-
tance of 150 to 200 yards. In the discussion on the army
estimates allusion was made to the Minie rifle by Mr.
Sidney Herbert, who stated that he had heard from an
.offieer, who had seen the practice at Hy the, that two or
three non-commissioned officers had placed 77 shots in the
target out of 100, at a distance of 800 yards. He had also
seen at skirmishing 40 shots out of 50 put into the target.
CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY.—The sixth quarterly
meeting was held at Freemason's Hall, on Wednesday,
Viscount Ranelagh in the chair. The report recorded
the continued progress of the society, notwithstanding
the menacing aspect of the political horizon. The disposal
of the estates amongst the members had not been affected
by the serious public events during the past quarter; arid
the receipts up to that day justified the expectation that,
by the 25th instant, the end of the quarter, the returns
would be the largest since the foundation of the society.
The estates in immediate preparation for allotment are—
the .St. Margaret, Richmond ; the Seven Sisters' Road
Estate, Tottenham Green ' • Oatlands Grange, Weybridge,
West Surrey ; West Malven, Worcestershire; and the
second portion of the Brighton estate. The report an-
nounced a great accommodation to members desirous of
borrowing money on their allotments. Hitherto it has
been the practice only to lend three-fourths of the £5O
share, and so on in proportion for every portion of a share,
being at the rate of 88 per cent. A drawing subsequently
took place for one hundred rights of choice, and it was
announced that fifty would be added by seniority.
CONVERSIONS FROM ROMANISM.—A most interesting
ceremony took place in St. John's Church, Manchester-
' road, Bradford, on Sunday evening last week. Six per-
sons—three men and three women--who had been mem-
bers of the Church of Rome, and whose families number
in all fifteen individuals, conformed to the Protestant
faith. The order of evening prayer ended, the Rev. Henry
de L. Willis, incumbent of the church, proceeded to the
communion-table, and the persons to be reconciled stand-
ing without the rails, the short but solemn service of the
admission of converts from the Church of Rome—as com-
piled by Archbishop Tenison—was gone through, the
choir chanting at intervals portions of the 115th and
119th Psalms. When the service had concluded, and the
penitents had retired to their seats, the Rev. Dr. Burnet,
vicar of Bradford, delivered a sermon from Jeremiah vi.
18—" Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."
Towards the close of his sermon, the preacher addressed
himself, specially and with much earnestness and affec-
tion, to the converts, and after exhorting them to a still
more diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, commended
them to the sympathy and prayers of the congregation.
On the same day, two adult converts from omanism
were publicly received into the Church of England, at
Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, by the Rev. W. Palmer.
A CONSTANTINOPLE TRAGEDY.--The Constantinople
correspondent of the Times, writing on the 16th ult.,
gives the following account of a murderous outrage :
Yesterday evening, while the select of the Pera popula-
tion were assembled at a gay ball, in the palace of the
French ambassador, a most barbarous and cruel outrage
was being perpetrated in a house not many hundred
yards removed. Mons. Perrei, a highly respectable French
merchant, went to the ball, leaving his wife at home, con-
fined to her bed by illness. During his absence, a party
of three villains effected an entrance into his house (pro-
bably using false keys), and proceeded to rob Madame
Perrei of her rings and other personal ornaments. The
unfortunate lady screamed, and was instantly stabbed by
one of the ruffians. The maid rushed to the rescue, and
was stabbed in the arm, when, a struggle ensuing, the
light was extinguished ; she maanged to pitch one of
them down stairs, and they decamped in all haste. This
morning one of the three (it is supposed) was found lying
dead near the house, with a knife wound below the heart.
How he met his death is as yet a mystery ; but it is sup-
posed
that one of his companions in the scuffle and dark-
ness mistook him for the master of the house or some
other person coming to the rescue. The unfortunate lady
died to-day. The dead man appears to be an Italian, but
as yet has been unclaimed, and suffered to lie in the
streets like a dead dog. The state of the law here in such
cases is more curious than happy. Instead of leaving all
such criminal cases to the Turk (who exercises the police
function), all sorts of varying and complicated courts of
trial are established (by treaty), resulting in the occasional
acquittal of the guilty. The administration of justice
depending upon so many conflicting interests, conviction
is rare, and the place harbours a gang of unpunished
scoundrels of all nations."

TEE PALACE OF WESTALIESTBR.--A return has been
issued showing the progress and expenses, past and future,
of the decoration of the New Houses of Parliament with
works of art. The estimate of their cost is as follows :
" House of Lords, fresco painting, £4,800; metal statues,
£4,680; upper waiting-hall, fresco paintings, £3,500; St.
Stephen's Hall, statues,
,£8,600 ; the Prince's Chamber,
statues, £3,836 ; bas-reliefs, £750; portrait of Henry VII.,
£5O ; the Queen's robing-room, £4,800 ; the Peers' robing-
room, £9,000 ; the Peers' corridor, £3,050 ; the Commons'
corridor, £3,650 ; sundry works, £220 ; and adding £5,800
expended in premiums in the exhibitions of 1843 and
1847, and for the purchase of two cartoons exhibited in
1846, the total cost of what has been undertaken will
amount to £53,335, of which the sum of £29,660 has been
already paid." The remainder will only be required by
degrees, since a large proportion of the works are not
completed. The Peers' robing-room, for instance, is not
yet built ; but a sum of not less than £9,000 is devoted to
the nine fresco paintings which are to be placed in this
apartment; and which the artist, Mr. J. R. Herbert, was
to have nine years from April, 1851, to complete :—" They
are to have Scripture subjects, the illustrations to `have
reference to the idea of justice on earth, and its develop-
ment in law and judgment.' The subjects selected are
Moses bringing down the tables of the law to the Israelites,
the fall of man, his condemnation to labour, the judgment
of Solomon, the visit of the Queen of Sheba, the building
of the Temple, the judgment of Daniel, Daniel in the
lions den, the vision of Daniel. None of the eight paint-
ings for the Peers' corridor have been begun ; they are
to indicate the heroic virtues displayed on both sides
during the civil war, and the Commons' corridor is to
continue and complete the subject. The commission have.
determined that in the corridors or halls connected with
the central hall, the chronological order of:subjects or of
personages shall begin from that hall."

THE DITC/IY or PArma and the Government of Sardi-
nia are both raising; limns.
WESTMINSTER-BRIDGM—We understand that the ten-
ders received for the construction of Westminster-bridge
are aS follows :—Meyers, £305,000; Crawahay, £275,000;
Mare, £2ol,ooo.—The Builder.
THE THEATRE at Jassy, in Moldavia, aided by a con-
siderable subvention from the Russian treasary,is getting
up the drama of the "'Naval Victory at Sinope,' which
will shortly appear on the Jassy stage. 1
THE SITE of the Great Exhibition, in Hyde-park. is
now entirely covered with grass, and has been re-opened
for the use of the public-. It presents no traces of the
ravages effected for the time by the erection of the Crystal
Palace.
ROBERT SCHAMAAN.—We hear that this celebrated
German composer and musical critic has become insane.
A violent attack of delirium tremens is said to have
brought on this dreadful affliction.
A LINE OF STEAMERS has been advertised to run from
Hull to the Prussian port of Pillan, in the Baltic, taking
goods for Memel, &c., with the view of carrying on the
trade between England and Russia. It is to consist of
screw propellers of about 700 tons.
ENLISTMENT OF MILITIAMEN IN THE LINE.—The re-
striction against militiamen entering the line is now
removed, and they are at liberty to join the regular army,
upon paying back, out of the Queen's bounty, what they
have received from the militia, about 10s.
CAPITITLAR ESTATES.—The Marquis of Blandford's
Episcopal and Capitular Estates Bill is put off till Wed-
nesday, the 29th of March, when Sir William Clay will
move that it be read a second time that day six months.

CHEAP LODGINGS.—Lord Shaftesbury, at a recent
meeting of the London Industrial School Association, said
he knew a boy, 12 years old, who slept every night
during a whole winter in the great iron roller in the Re-
gent's Park, and got a friend to keep him company.
A Wzra4.E of the finner species, measuring between 70
and 80 feet, has been captured in the North Sea, by two
smacks. It vas towed into the Humber on Saturday
morning, and was an object of considerable interest.
A CENTENARIAN PLOUGHMAN.—A boon ploughing
was, last week, given to Mr. Kirkby, who has lately
entered upon a farm near Garstang. The first man in the
field was a ploughman 100 years old, who considered it
was his duty to do to a new neighbour, as he had always
done all his life, first as a plough driver and afterwards as
a ploughman.
MONEY ORDERS.—On the Ist of April and thencefor-
ward increased facilities will be afforded in procuring
money-orders and obtaining payment *them when such
payment is to be made through a bank. The Postmaster-
General has directed that some of the precautions required
for the security of ordinary money-orders shall in these
cases be dispensed with.
A PRACTICAL JoKE.—On Friday, while Mr. Justice
Cresswell was "administering justice"_ in the Crown
Court, at Durham, some audacious scoundrel actually en-
tered his lordship's retiring-room, immediately behind the
bench, and carried off his luncheon: Next day the pre-
' cious meal was, by order of his lordship, guarded by a
sturdy bailiff.—Gateshead Observer.
Du= or ConsfwALL.—The accounts of the duchy for
1853 have been made up. The year's receipts, with the
balance of £5,253 in hand at the beginning of the year,
amounted to £57,158. After dednctinc, the amount of
salaries, repairs, and other expenses, and leaving a balance
of £6,000 in hand, the sum of £37,225 was paid over to
the trustees and treasurer of the Prince of \Vales, who is
Duke of Cornwall. •
Pooß-LAw MEDICAL OFFICERS.—There are 3,151 me-
dical officers in the Poor-law Unions of England and
Wales, at salaries amounting to £165,549. For this an-
nual sum they take charge of the sick poor of a population
of 17,335,099 scattered over an area of 34,473,538 acres.
There is one salary as high -as £270, it is that of the
medical officer of the Leighton Buzzard Union and Work-
house ; the population is 17,141, the acreage 37,980.
There are two salaries as low as £2 ; the population in
each case is about 400. At Todmorden, a gentleman, who
is paid per case, received only .1:7 12s. last year, upon a
district containing a population of 11,428.
CIIILD STEAMING BY A GIPSY AT BARNSLEY.—A gipsy
girl, about nineteen years of age, who gave her name
Sarah Clitheroe, was brought before Thomas Taylor, Esq.,
on Monday week, at Barnsley, and was charged with run-
ning away.with a little boy four years old, son of Mr.
Thomas Wainwright, surgeon, of Barnsley. The girl had
decoyed the little boy from a garden occupied by Mr.
Wainwright, on the Cockerham-road, by telling him she
had a donkey for him in the lane. The child was disco-
vered by some persons who heard him crying near Smithy
Bridge, and saw the gipsy girl flogging him. They took
the child from her, and Mr. Beardsall, whose house was
close at hand, afforded protection to him till his mother
was sent for. The unfeeling gipsy had been at the house
of Mr. Tyas, solicitor, Belle Vue, to beg some clothes for
the child, for which purpose she had taught him to say,
"We have walked a thousand miles." A portion of the
child's under-clothing had been sold by the girl for 3d.—
Leeds Mercury.
AFFECTING INCIDENT.—The clergyman who officiated
on Sunday in the interment of the dead in the gri veyard
of All Saints' Church, Oxford-road, witnessed an alfecting
scene. During the week there died in Hulme two females,
one married, the other single—of whom it was known
that as in life they had been bosom friends, in death and
the grave they were not divided. They had both been
educated in the George-street Sabbath-school, Hulme, one
of them having risen to the post of teacher, and the other
belonging at her death to the select class in that school.
They were both young, neither haying completed her 23d
year, and there was but the difference of a year between
them. They had been friends for a long time, and in that
relation their communion had been of the sweetest and
most tender character, uninterrupted by ajar, and distin-
guished by self-denial and the display of sincere affection.
One died of consumption, and the other succumbed to a
fatal attack of fever, and but a day divide'l them in their
death. They repose side by side in the same tomb, and
the children of the school to which they formerly belonged
attended them to their interment, under the conduct of
their conductors and teachers, as a mark of respect to their
memory.—Manchester Courier.
POISONED WELLS.—Mere filtration does not purify
cesspool refuse, though it may cause the water to look
" bright and sparkling." Dr. Angus Smith has analysed
the water from scores of wells within and near towns,
cesspools, and graveyards, and never found one specimen
of water untainted. Many waters, regularly used, were
found, on evaporatton, to leave a residuum, the smell of
which was " awful ;" and some waters, said to be "very
good," were " positively poisonous with matter from
graves, cesspools, and drains." I have personally in-
spected hundreds of instances where wells and cesspools
are sunk in alluvial deposits of sand, gravel, &e., and have
heard the owners of such wells and cesspools maintain, in
the most positive manner, that no better water could be
found than their particular pump produced ; although
they would acknowledge that the cesspool had received
the contents of one or more waterclosets, as also all the
house slopwater refuse, and had never required emptying
for twenty years. This had been set forth as matter for
special congratulation, and as proof positive that sewers
and drains of transmission were not required, and that
a public water-supply, from a pure source, was not needed.-
—Correspondent of the Builder.
ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE.— A frightful
event took place in Birmingham on Monday, last week.
A young man, named William Taylor, a shoemaker, re-
siding with a widowed mother, after attempting to take
the life of a young woman, named Walton, cut his own
throat, and almost immediately afterwards expired. Mrs.
Taylor and her son were the weekly tenants of Mr. Wal-
ton, and it was the cnstom of Miss Walton to collect the
rent every Monday. The Taylors were creditable people,
and met their weekly payments regularly; nor does there
appear to have been any cause of disagreement between
the parties. Between ten and eleven o'clock on Monday
morning Miss Walton called as usual, and Mrs. Taylor
discharged the rent. The son was pacing the front room
of the ground floor, and 'Miss Walton, who was seated on
a chair behind the door, knowing that he had been labour-
ing under indisposition, asked if he was any better. This
inquiry had no sooner been made than Taylor, armed with
a razor, dashed upon her, seized her round the neck, and
drew the razor across her throat and face. The mother
immediately ran to the rescue, but did not succeed until
the young lady had received severe wounds on the face,
arms, and body. A large gash, no doubt intended for the
throat, extended across the lower part of the face, and so
fierce and determined had been the attack, that Taylor
had succeeded in cutting through the stays, and inflicted
several severe, wounds on the body. Mrs. Taylor herself
was severely cut about the arms and wrists, and, before
she could prevent him, her son had inflicted a long and
deep wound upon his own throat, which caused his death
in a few minutes. Miss Walton is expected to recover.
FUNERAL OE THE LATE C. S. lox, ESQ.—The funeral
of this lamented gentleman took place on Tuesday last,
and was characterised by every circumstance which could
express the high esteem in which be had been held by his
fellow-townsmen and the universal regret which his death
occasioned. The clergy of the borough, with a large
number of the respectable inhabitants of Macclesfield, as-
sembled at Christ Church School, from whence they pro-
ceeded, with the teachers and scholars of the Christ
Church Day and Sunday Schools, to the entrance of Sum-
mer Hill, the residence of the deceased. The procession
then formed in the following order

Two—Mntes.
The Christ Church Scholars, with their respective Masters,
Mistresses, Superintendents, and Teachers, attired in
mourning—four abreast.
The Wardens of Christ Church, with their staves.
The Clergy of the Borough.
The Mayor, several of the Magistrates, and a large number
of the gentry and tradespeople of the town.
Undertakers' men.
THE BODY.
Four mourning coaches, containing the Clergy of Christ
Church, the Minister of Macclesfield, the Medical
Attendants of the deceased, and the Pall Bearers.
Three private carriages, with the Mourners.
The procession was a very long one, and included a depu-
tation from the Committee of the Macclesfield Dispensary.
An immense throng of people lined the streets ; and along
the route, the shops were closed and blinds were every-
where drawn down. Indeed, notwithstanding that it was
market day, business was in a great measure suspended,
and every token of respect paid to the deceased thmughout
the town during the interval of the interment. It was
remarked, by those old enough to remember that event,
that the obsequies of the late Mr. Whittaker, founder of
the Macclesfield Sunday School, was the only parallel to
the display of public feeling on this occasion. It was
estimated that a concourse of not less than ten thousand
persons were assembled. All along the line any observer
could witness evidence of sorrow and regret, as though
_each had lost a kind friend, while many wept for the de-
parture of a real benefactor. The aspect of the schools
was especially touching—the majority of the young people
were in deep mourning, even the poorest of them came in
the habiliments of woe, and the feeling manifested, spoke
plainly of their regard for the deceased. In accordance
with a custom observed on the death of Mr. Roe's an-
•cestors, the splendid peal of bells in the tower of Christ
Church sent forth their plaintive chime on the previous
evening and the morning of the interment. These bells
had not been heard for nearly twenty years, and it was
curious to observe how many, who recollected their tone,
lingered about the neighbourhood in the stillness of the
night to listen to their deep musical notes. As an instance
of the great concern which the late patron of Christ
Church took in its welfare, it is said that provision is
made by his will, not only that its interests shall not
suffer by his removal, but may even be in a pecuniary
sense bettered by it;—Maceleeeld Courier. [Mr. Roe
was connectect.. with several iulluential families in the
I neighboukh9od of Liverpool.]_