The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-23 00:00:00

of a curios

Dublin, yesterday. It appeared that the lady of the Hon.
Captain - lost a Cashmere shawl of a peculiar pattern
some weeks ago. It was supposed to have been stolen mit of
her carriage. After some search was made it was given up
as lost. The lady was driving through Nassau-street on

Thursday, when she observed her shawl on an elegantly
dressed young female. The owner of the shawl ordered her
footman to request the attention of the wearer, when she
made known her loss. The young lady said if they retired to
her residence she could give every satisfaction as to the man-
ner whereby she became possessed of it. The young lady vas
invited into the carriage, and all drove off to a respectable
looking house in Park-street. At this moment two gentle-
men were passing who happened to know the carriage of their
military friend, and having ascertained that his lady was
within a notorious house of ill fame, known as the
Hotel, advised the coachman to apprise the lady of the fact.
The horror of the lady's feelings at receiving the intelligence
may be very well conceived. In the mean time the husband

became acquainted with the affair, and having procured the
assistance of the police, it was ascertained that the shawl had
been stolen and sold to a receiver of stolen goods named
Brown, for 55., who sold it to the landlady of the
Hotel for 108., and she sold it to her " lodger" for 203.
Mrs. Brown was committed for trial for receiving the shawl,
knowing it to be stolen.—London Standard.
A CURIOUS CIIARACTER,7.A.few days ago a man of very

eccentric habits departed this life at his house in Broad-
street-buildings, in the 84th year of his age. His name was
John Yardley Vernon, and he had a fancy for always ap-
pearing about the streets in the garb of a beggarman. He
was, we are given to understand, a stock-broker, having
years ago, and by a careful and industrious course. realised
upwards of £lOO,OOO, and yet he cut such a miserable figure
in the streets that people have dropped alms into a little bag
which it was his custom to carry. He never appeared to be
offended at the mistakes which were thus made by the com-
passionate donors, but he invariably returned the money
with a smile, and the words, " No, no, thank you." The

refusal had always the effect of exciting astonishment, and
the old gentleman walked on in an old pair of shoes, or

rather slippers, not worth a penny. The -parochial officers

•of the neighbourhood in whichhe• resided say that he made
it a rule to walk down to Whitechapel every day to get a
glass of rum and water, in which he soaked some bleat', a
dish in which he took more delight than any other. His old
habits of business were exemplified in his visits to butchers'
stalls, in which he purchased bits of meat, and to brokers'
shops, where he bargained for old pieces of furniture, in
which he could have bad no use, except the philosophical
one of keeping up the excitement which the very show of

• .• •
business seldom fails to encourage. Mr. Vernon attended
church regularly, but never entered a pew. He sat amongst
the poorest parishioners, but frequently put upon the plate
as much as would pay for a suit of the best clothes amongst

the whole congreiation. and there was not a charity in the
ward to which he was not a principal contributor.—Morning.
Herald.

GREAT WESTERN STEAM-SHIP COMPANY.—The annual
meeting of the proprietors of this undertaking was held on
Thursday, at their offices in Prince's-street. Robert Bright,

sq., in the chair

very satisfactory report of the c

tors was read : the following is its substance. It stated, that
since the last meeting, the Great Western team-ship had
made six voyages, the average time of her Assages out hav-
_

. - -
ing been a little more than fifteen days and a half, and thir-
teen days and a half home ; and during the same period she
had conveyed 1057 passengers. Her last arrival completed
her thirty-fourth passage across the Atlantic, since which
she has been docked, and is now reported to he in perfect

condition. The experience of the two seasons in which the
ship had made early voyages had induced the directors to be-
-1 eve that it would be more for the interest of the proprietors
that her first should now be in April, and she will conse-

quently make five vo
company's works are now in a very efncit
entire stock of machinery is in daily and active open
The directors having satisfied themselves that it would be
for the interests of the company to get rid of the paddle in
their iron ship, and to substitute a propeller upon the prin-
ciple of the Archimedian screw, have taken the necessary
measures for that purpose; the slight alterations required in
her frame were easily effected, and at a trifling cost. Had
the last meeting empowered the board to raise temporary
loans, the completion of the company's second ship in 1841
might have been effected, but this without unduly hurrying
her work could not now be accomplished. By this period of
next year, she will, the directors anticipate, be perfect for
service. On the subject of the company's executing work
for other parties, the directors deemed it right to say that
their opinion was still entirely favourable to such an appli-
cation of their works. The period within which this ques-
tion might be most beneficially considered, should not ex-
ceed six months from that time, when, should a determina-
tion be come to not to manufacture for the public, it would
become desirable to decide upon the steps to be taken in re-
ference to the works. By the additions made to the Great
Western last year, her tonnage had been increased from 1340
to about 1700 tons, and the amount being £3,155:.65. 4d.
was added to her cost. The rates of premium paid on the
Great Western in 1838 varied between £lO and £l2 per
cent. ; in 1839 it was eight guineas, and in 1840 six 'guineas
per cent. per annum, and the total consequent charge on the
ship had been £13,606: 16s. The accounts of the past year
accompany the report, and a dividend had been declared of
345. per share for the last half year, being, with that declared
in August last, equal to 58s. per share for the year, or £8 :
18s. per cent. on the cost of the Great Western, £61,671
15s. 10d. The sum of £3,475: 10s. Ild. was carried to the
reserved fund, which now stood at £8,024: 14.5. 6d. The
directors had also reserved out of the profits of the year
(amounting to £9,350: 9a. 11d.) the sum of £430: 13s. in
reduction of the loss sustained on the first voyage made by
the ship, which was nearly £4,0`10, and of the expenses in-
curred in the formation of the company.
The unusual sight of a Sister of Charity brought before the
Correctional Tribunal was exhibited on Saturday. Sister
Sainte Gabrielle, of the order of Soeurs Augustines, whose
family name was Engelskirchen, aged 57 years, 32 of which
she had passed in attending the sick, was arraigned upon an
accusation of having committed homicide, by imprudence.
On the 29th September, a young woman who was a conva-
lescent patient in the Hospice St. Louis, was prescribed a
dose of Glauber salt, but by some negligence unexplained, a
bottle of corrosive sublimate was placed in the medicine clo-
set, under the charge of sister St. Gabrielle, who unwittingly
administered a quantity of it to the patient, instead of the
salt, and of which she died in three hours, after suffering
dreadful agonies. The administration of the poison by the
hand of the prisoner was admitted by her, but she protested
that she was totally ignorant of its nature, and produced evi-
dence to prove that corrosive sublimate was never before
known to be in the same closet, and must have been placed
there through the negligence of the chymist who supplied
the hospital with drugs, or by some other accident unknown
to her. M. Chas. Ledru, who was counsel for the prisoner,

ges only in the present year
state, a

lid, on opening his defence, " In appearing by the side of
this good sister, I have obeyed the express wish of the pro-
cureur-general, who has thusconferred upon me the most en-
sk I ever had imposed upon me in my life." He then
argued with great ability in favour of his client's complete
innocence, and ended his defence thus :—" Condemn her!
No, gentlemen. Permit me to say, without impeaching your
justice, neither am I worthy of defending her, nor have you
in any manner the right to judge her. It is the duty of all
in her presence to say that we unite in rendering one and
the same homage in her person to a being which can merit
only our admiration and regret." The court, after a short
deliberation, acquitted and discharged the prisoner, who had
suffered Severely in mind from the fatal event. She was at-
tended in court by the superior of her order at the hospital,
who, previous to her trial, wrote to the judge, offering to un-
dergo any penalty the court might inflict in her stead. In
her letter she said, " If you impose a fine upon her, I cannot
pay it ; for I have nothing, absolutely nothing, in the world.
My daily revenue is derived from my sick patients, and this
I pay into the bank of the hospice, which does not pay the
interest on the capital. But if my sister is condemned to im-
prisonment, I entreat you to allow me to ask leave of the
Archbishop of Paris to go into confinement in her stead."

DARING BURGLARY AT STAIRFOOT TOLL-GATE HOUSE.
—On Monday morning, about half-past two o'clock, a dar-
ing and diabolical burglary was committed at the Toll-gate
House, situate at Stairfoot, near Barnsley, occupied by two
industrious old people of the name of Oldroyd. It appears,
from what we can gather, that at the hour above stated, some
one came up to the bar, and called out " Gate." Oldroyd,
hearing footsteps about the door at the time the call was made,
supposed it to he only a hoax to get him out of bed ; how-
ever, in a shott time another person came trotting up on
horseback, and called out, lustily, " Gate : look sharp, I'm
going to fetch the doctor to Mr. Micklethwaite, who will be
dead before I can get him there if you don't look sharp."
Oldroyd, on hearing this, and knowing Mr. Micklethwaite
(who lived in a village a_short distarteeoff), opened the door

immediately, but scarcely had he put
hold, when he was struck on the head
which he fell se

foot on the thres-
bludgeon, from
fter this they

less upon the

pulled his night-cap over his eyes, to prevent his secing then
During this murderous attack four other men had rushed into
the house, and made their way up the stairs to the old woman,
who was in bed, and heaped the bed-clothes upon her and
almost suffocated her, saying at the same time, if she made a
noise they would murder her. Whilst two of the villains
were doing this, the others were searching for money, which
they succeeded in finding to the amount of from three to four
pounds, with which they decamped, going in the direction of
Ardsley. The horse on which the villain was mounted was
light grey. During the same morning, one of the labouring
men in the employ of Mr. Harrison, farmer, of Grainge,
getting up to go and look at a cow which was ill, on crossing
the straw yard, saw four men running from the outbuildings.
H. ad they not been detected at the time they were, Mr. Har-
rison would have been minus one of his valuable horses, as
the thieves bad bridled him,
ready for walking off, and got him out of the stable