The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-27 00:00:00

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE COMMISSIONER of the London Insolvent Court, on
Friday, ordered the discharge of Mr. J. P. Somers, late
M.P. for Sligo. He had been in prison since the Bth of
March.
RISE IN THE PRICE or NEWSPAPERS.—Daring the
last few months the price of paper has been augmented
upwards of six per cent. In consequence, a movement
has been originated in Glasgow to raise the price of news-
papers• by one halfpenny each. The Birmingham Jour-
nal has already added. the halfpenny to its price. The
New York Herald has raised its price from two to
three cents a copy, and the Tribune intends doing so.
WINDSOR COUNTY COURT.—His Grace the Duke of
Newcastle was sued in this court, on Wednesday, by Mr.
Parkyns, of the George Inn, Eton, for Be, being the value
of one dozen of champagne, supplied some two or three
years since at the Eton Regatta. The claim was opposed
on the score of excessive charge; and his Honour reduced
the amount to £5 with Court costs.
AN ACCIDBNI that might have proved serious occurred
to the Bishop of Oxford, as he was riding, with his son,
in a Hansom cab to the Eton festival. A carriage, run
away with by two horses, frightened by the falling of the
splinter-board, came in violent collision with the cab.
His lordship saw what was about to happen, and he and
his son opened the doors and jumped out of the cab just
before the collision occurred ; the driver also showed great
presence of mind, got down from his perch, and secured
his horse from plunging. Both the cab and carriage were
considerably injured by the collision.
BABY SHOW.—At a recent baby show, at Bytown,
Canada, there were but two babies presented, one sixteen
and the other seventeen months old, each of whom received
a prize. After some appropriate speeches by the judges,
one of the lucky mothers made the announcement that
" she should have another baby to show at the same time
and place next year, if there was a premium to be given,"
which caused rounds of applause.
MURDER:—A young farmer of the neighbourhood,
named Samuel Adcock, was found on Sunday morning, last
week, lyingin a ditch beside the Leicester <and Hinckley
turnpike-road, murdered by a pistol-shot wound behind
his ear through the head, and his pockets rifled. The spot
is a lonely part of the road, but two miles from the
deceased's farm-house, where he lived with his brother
and sister, and three miles from Leicester. The deceased
was six feet high, and from the upward direction of the
wound, the murderer is supposed to have been shorter. No
clue, as yet, appears to the murderer.
ATTACKING A JUDGE.—In the Marine Court of New
York, on the Ist inst., Judge Phillips, who looked pale, and
bore evident marks of having met with some illtreatment,
on ascending the bench announced that the business of

the court would be adjourned until the following day,
stating that he had been attacked that morning by six
ruffians, who severely beat him as he was on his way to
the court. This announcement caused considerable excite-
ment, which was greatly increased when a legal gentleman,
named, Busteed, stated that some men, answering the
descriptioh of those who had assaulted the judge, had at-
tempted to get into his house at a late hour ou the pre-
vious evening. It is supposed that the assault on the
judge originated from a decision in a case on the previous
day. Before leaving the court his honour armed himself
with a revolver.

DEPLORABLE SCENE.-Mr. Godwin, who has lately
published some of his experiences of London homes, tells
that, when visiting one miserable room, he by chance
opened the cupboard, and was startled to find upon one
of its shelves, shut up with the bread and the tea-pot, the
uncoffined body of a child. The little limbs were decently
disposed, and covered with a cloth, and on a shelf above,
as they put over a peer his coronet, or a warrior his arms,
there was the little house-fairy's cracked mug, with its
golden label : ➢lary Anne. She lay there till her coffin
could be earned. Not many weeks before, the mother of
that household had- perished, and had been kept in the
room for a fortnight; the work-room, eating and sleeping.
room of the widower and a family of children

NEW Russre LOAN.—On Monday, an announcement
was made that a new Russian loan of 50,000,000 silver
.roubles, or £7,000,000 to £7,500,000 sterling, is proposed
for subscription in Holland, under the auspices of Messrs.
Hope, of Amsterdam, and Messrs. Steiglitz, of St. Peters-
burg. The subscription price is fixed at 93 per cent., in a
five per cent. stock, to be paid up in full on or before the
30th July, without deduction for interest. The sinking
fund is to be 22 per cent. per annum, and the bonds are
to be drawn by lot for redemption, if the market price be
above par. The interest, it is proposed, shall be paid in
April and October in St. Petersburg and Amsterdam, at
the rate of 37d. per silver rouble. Of course no English
capital can flow into, nor will the English market be open
to, this loan, the object of which is to enable the Czar to
persevere in his course of unjustifiable aggression.
THE GODIVA. PROCESSION, COVENTRY.—This triennial
spectacle took place on the 19th with the utmost eclat.
To please the " most fastidious," it was announced that the
Lady Godiva should appear in robes in place of the tigh
dress and skirt as heretofore. So many, however, were i
favour of the original costume, that a second lady was prep
vailed upon to attend from the Royal Academy so attired
and the most rapturous applause greeted her in all
directions. It was impossible to take exception to her ap-
pearance in any respect, and it was admitted on all hands,
on no previous occasion has this spectacle taken place in
so correct and orderly a manner. This lady was preceded
by a splendid banner, bearing the words—" With the pure
all things are pure." Both ladies sustained the character
admirably, but the one who adopted the original costume
was most unmistakeably the belle of the day. The weather,
with the exception of the first half-hour, was propitious,
and everything passed off as pleasantly as could possibly
be desired.

I STEALING FROM THE CHANCELLOR OF THE Ex-
CHEQIIER.—At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday,
Joseph White, aged 60, described as well educated, was
indicated for having stolen 41b. of coal, value 2d., the
property of the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone,
M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer :—" Christopher Fors-
ter, a footman in the service of Mr. Gladstone, at his
establishment in Downing-street, said the prisoner was in
the habit of going there twice a week to receive soup
which was given to him out of charity by direction of Mrs.
Gladstone. It was noticed that every time he called he
went into the cellar ; and on his calling on the 25th ult.,
witness hid himself behind the cellar door to ascertain

what the prisoner wanted there. The prisoner entered,
and witness saw him fill his pockets with coal. He stop-
ped him, and made him empty the coal he had taken on
the floor. He then gave him into custody. The jury
found the prisoner guilty. A witness named Woodman,
who said he was a Scripture reader, gave the prisoner a
good character. Mr. Witham thought this a bad case.
The prisoner went to receive charity, and repaid the kind-
ness shown him by taking au opportunity of committing
petty thefts. Such conduct shut the doors of charity
and he did not think he should be doing his duty if he
did not sentence the prisoner to six months' hard
labour."

THE ALKALI TRADE.—The manufacture of alkali has
become a most important branch of industry on the banks
of the Tyne. There are several large firms engaged in its
manufacture upon this river, under whom many hundred
men find employment. In consequence of the present

state of Europe, it seems that the manufacturers in Ger-
many, and the other countries receiving their supply of
soda from England through the Baltic ports, are in a very
depressed condition, and in consequence of this state of
afthirs, the price of soda has fallen 20 per cent. on the Tyne
since the declaration, and most of the large houses have
heavy stocks in their warehouses. The prices of soda have
also fallen in New York, the entrepot of soda of English
manufacture with the western hemisphere. Some time
before the declaration of war a Tyne house entered into a

contract to make a large quantity of bleaching powder for
St. Petersburg. In the present state of things the contract

cannot be completed.
NEW REGULLTION ON EXCHEQUER-BONDB.—In the
act of parliament which has just received the Royal assent,
new regulations are made as to Exchequer-bonds. For
£2,000,000, the Treasury, in the first instance, may issue
Exchequer-bonds bearing interest from the Bth of May
last, at £3los. per cent. per annum, to be paid off at par
on the Bth of May; 1858, to any person who may have
subscribed for such bonds at a price not less than £98155.
per centum, to be paid at the rate of £lOO ls. if in money
or in Exchequer-bills at par for every £lOO so subscribed,
and all such Exchequer-bills so subscribed shall be deli-
vered up to be cancelled. Such parties, their executors,
&c., as have subscribed for any such Exchequer-bonds, and
shall have made a deposit of £lO per centum on the Bth,
9th, or 10th of May, 1854, and shall pay the further instal-
ments in completion of the price at the following times—
viz., "L3O per centum on the 9th of June next, £2O per
centum on the 11th July next, £2O per centum on the Bth
of September next, and the remaining £2O on the 17th of
October next," BMA.= completing such subscription, be
entitled to the bOndo for which they have severally sub-
scribed, and interest at the rate of £3 10s. per cent. from
the day of payment up to the respective days on which
the instalments fall due shall be paid to such parties as

shall pay the instalments at an earlier period, and, unless
such parties so subscribing shall pay the whole of such

instalinents, the deposit and insialinents actually paid
shall be forfeited, and no bonds shall be issued on account
of such subscription. The act received the Royal assent
on the 16th inst., when the 9th had expired—the first day
of payment.
THE LAST Or CANVASS-TOWN.-It would be
.almost

%.0,13.4i• • •.• •• .• •
useless to attempt to convey to the English reader's mind
any correct conception of the utterly squalid appearance
of this place. If he remembers the crime-teeming quarter
of St. Giles's before its filthy courts and alleys were swept
away, he may form some conception of the locality. Can-
vass-town has latterly borne to Melbourne pretty nearly the
same relation. But even then there are some nuisances,
incapable of description here, that leave its illustrious
rival far behind in the race. It is a small town of tents,

situated upon the declivity of a slight hill, in dry weather
piled over with dust, and in wet embedded in mud. In
many of these canvass dwellings, with only one room,
three roost, as it were, two or three families, both sexes
being huddled promiscuously together. It has its own
stores, its eating-houses, and its boarding-houses, each ex-
hibiting a kind of noble emulation as to the amount of
squalor with which they should be enabled to disgust the
passer-by. In the morning may be seen before the va-
rious tents clustering swarms of half-dressed women and
children busy cooking their breakfast at their small
stoves ; while around them are gathered all the accom-
panying features that mark the hovels of an Irish village.
But the worst feature of the locality is, that it has long

been the very nesting-place for the hatching of much of
the crime of Melbourne. Every second tent almost was

a sly grog-shop, where the rough inhabitants went to
spend their ill-earned gains—the fruit of criminal plans
first matured here. Thenco used to emanate those night
prowlers whose trade it was to stop and rob the wayfarer,

quietly returning to his home at night. In a few days
this nuisance will be no more, since it is to be removed by
the Ist of April, and many of the owners have already
cleared off their tents in consequence of a notice from the
government to that effect. It is true that there have

seen always dwelling in Canvass-town some persons ply-
ing a regular respectable business, and a few unfortunates
actually driven there for shelter. But, with the increas-
ing accommodation that the colony now offers, the neces-
sity for the existence of such a place has been utterly
swept away. For some time past houses have become
plentiful, and those who were forced six months since to
fix their residence in this wretched spot—the centre of
loathsome scenes, and the haunt of vile characters—may
now secure a comfortpile lodging at sk cowparatively rea•
unable rate,—/INtrourne Argus,