The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

CAUTION TO SMOKERS.—On Wednesday last, Captain
Stewart, of the. ship Celia, appeared before Mr. Rushton,
at the Police-court, and was fined ss. for smoking a cigar
on the quay of George's Dock.
STEALING CARPETING.-011 Friday, at the Police-
court, Matthew Morton was charged with stealing a roll
of carpeting from the warehouse of Mr. Hutton, No. 22,
Byrom-street. Constable Burnie, 272, deposed to having
apprehended the prisoner with the carpet in his possession
about seven o'clock on Thursday evening, as he was making
his way along Cheapside. Mr. Wm. Dixon, assistant to
Mr. Hutton, identified the carpet, and stated, that he
missed it from the warehouse about six o'clock on Thurs-
day evening. Committed to the sessions.
ROBBING A TlLL.—James Taylor, a well-known thief,
was brought before Mr. Rushton on Friday, charged with
having stolen 16s. out of the till of a shop in Forbes-
street, kept by a person named Cubbin. The fellow
watched his opportunity, and seeing Mr. Cubbin leave
the shop, rushed in and abstracted the money from the
till. He was seen by a girl, who identified him. This
occurred on Saturday week ; and on Tuesday evening last
he was detected in a similar depredation in the shop of
Mr. M`Millan. Mr. M`Millan having occasion to go out
on the evening in question, left his shop in charge of his
daughter, a mere child. Taylor came into the shop, and,
after striking the little girl with a stick, ran off, taking a
lump of butter. He was committed to the sessions.
AN IMPOSTOR.—Patrick Shaughnessy, an Irishman,
was brought up on Friday, charged with begging on
'Change the previous day. The man had been exceed-
ingly importunate, and was repeatedly cautioned to leave
the town before he was taken into custody, but without
effect. After being put in bridewell, it was found that he
had £6 in the Savings Bank in this town. A letter was
also taken from him, by which it appeared he was pos-
sessed of money in Ireland. Upon Mr. Rushton saying
he should be sent to prison, the fellow became greatly
alarmed, and, in a whining tone, begged for mercy. The
magistrate said it was a gross case, in which advantage
had been taken of the public sympathy in a time of great
distress, and ordered him to be imprisoned for one month.
Two grown-up lads were brought before Mr. Rushton,
on Thursday, on a charge of having created a disturbance
at the house of Mr. Rowland, one of the assistant over-
seers of the parish, the night before. Mr. Rowland stated
that they were in the habit of coming to the Parish-office
daily, and making it a sort of rendezvous—that they re-
fused to remain at the Workhouse; and that one of them
had broken the windows of the London Mansion-house
some time ago, because the lord mayor refused to relieve
him. Five of them came to his (Mr. Rowland's) house
the night before, supposing that he was busy at the
Parish-office at the time, and had he not, fortunately,
been at home, they would, in all probability, have pro-
ceeded to extremities. Mr. Rushton ordered them to
find bail, themselves in £lO, and two sureties in £5 each,
or to be imprisoned two months in default.

FELONY iN BOLD-STREET.—On Saturday, two females,
named Anne Akehurst and Margaret M`Gill were brought
before Mr. Rushton on a charge of having been concerned
in a robbery of Mr. Thomas Smith's glass and china es-
tablishment, 54, Bold-street. It appeared that the felony
was found out through the instrumentality of Officer
Bates, one of the detective force. On Saturday morning
he observed the prisoner Akehurst, who is a policeman's
wife, knocking at Mr. Smith's kitchen window. In the
course of a very short time she was admitted into the
house by the other prisoner, M` Gill, who acted as Mr.
Smith's servant. On coming out she was pursued and
apprehended by Bates, in Berry-street, and in a basket,
which she carried under her shawl, were found some'can-
dies. 'On searching her lodgings Bates discovered four
china cups and saucers, an amber-coloured phial, a cream
jug, and other articles of glass and china, which were all
identified by Mr. Smith as his property. There was very
little doubt, from the evidence, that M`Gill had given the
property to the other prisoner, as she had access to the
ware-room, which adjoins the kitchen. Both the prisoners
were committed for trial.

LIVERPOOL MENTAL IMPROVEMENT
SOCIETY'S ANNUAL SOIREE.

On Thursday evening last, the annual soiree of the
members and friends of the Liverpool Mental Improve-
ment Society, was held at the Royal Assembly Rooms,
Great George-street, and on no previous occasion do we
remember to have seen that capacious apartment present
a more pleasing appearance. The number present would
amount to nearly three hundred, and amongst them was
a fair proportion of those " gems of nature," the ladies—
whose presence gave a cheerful and enlivening tone to
every proceeding. On the platform we observed Mr. G.
Holden and Mr. H. H. Singlehurst, delegates from the
Literary and Scientific Society of the Mechanics' Insti-
tution ; Mr. J. F. Turner, Mr. Leake, and Mr. Barker,
of the Essay and Discussion Class of the Manchester
Athenaeum ; Mr. Samuel, Mr. Hogg, and :many of the
leading members of the society.
At about seven o'clock the chair was taken by
Dr. Honcsorr, who in opening the business of the meet-
ing, stated his reasons for supporting societies of the kind.
He said—The first thing that strikes me is the improving
associations to which they lead. At a time of life when
need of society is granted, and is most felt, it is surely im-
portant that the bond of union should be of an elevating,
note
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and surely we must feel that, were here likely to arise,
eistervonely by way of pre-
witretestß.. couragement. Nor is their spirit merelyore
good dispositions which each brings with him are s'trength-
ened by sympathy and combination ; each shares in the
good of all, alternately giving and receiving good. Tlya
good resolutions, which in soitudotinight have languished
mid died away, are here conjoined into consistent habits
by the silent power of example and unanimity of feeling,
compared with which the most serious and solemn
didactic exhortation is but a sorry teacher of morality.
,Good of every kind becomes animated with congenial
thoughts and pleasing recollections ; it is a part of enjoy-
ment, not a check on enjoyment; and becomes uncon-
sciously but powerfully the rule of life. And further, we may
be assured that the only friendships which endure through
life are those which are based on good. Evil divides not
less than it corrupts; alienation succeeds to such friendship
as exists among the vicious ; and even when the yoke is
shaken off, there is a bitterness not to be escaped in the
remembrance of confidence misgiven, time wasted, and
powers abused. Friendships, on the other hand, which
have taken root and sprung up will not fail to blossom
and bear fruit through after life. Again, by such societies
as these a purpose and an object are given to private
reading and study. Persons designed for certain profes-
sions, such as the bar, have a definite course of study
marked out, from which they must not depart ; but to the
great majority of young men who are designed for busi-
ness life, the whole field of literature is open—the whole
world of thought is before them, where to choose, " but
without a Providence to guide." Or if the lighter sorts
of literature be not systematically preferred—if history,
and biography, and philosophy, find not unwilling stu-
dents, the reading is sure to be desultory and discursive,
having no point at which to aim. It thus becomes, at
best, an intellectual dissipation, a higher order of trifling,
a literary lounge, a shelter from one's own tedium, a sup-
port for one's own weakness—which, again, it tends to in-
crease, not to diminish. Very different is the effect of
systematic and continuous reading on a given subject, for
a certain time, and for a certain purpose. The mind is
more acute, and active, and on its guard ; it sifts and
compares statements which before it might have received
implicitly or rejected without inquiry ; it adds fact to fact,
and thought to thought, in an orderly and close connec-
tion ; and the ideas are no longer an undisciplined rabble,
but a compact,welharmed, and well-drilled phalanx, ready
for action at the time of need. Reading thus becomes a
mental gymnastics, and ceases to be a pleasant dream, from
which one wakes with a chaos of confused andindistinct im-
pressions. But again—the power of uttering thought, so as
to transform it into the mind of another, or still better,,
so as to stimulate another's independent thought, is a pos-
session which it is. as important as it is difficult; to ac-
quire. Practice—practice—practice is the only. recipe.
He who will not speak till he knows precisely. how. to