The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-30 00:00:00

MR. O'CONNELL,

(From the Orford Herald.)
blr.•O'Cunnell is making his annual agitation tour, pre-
paratory to the collection of " the visit." Ile has been rather
more violent than usual this year, but that is easily account-
ed fur, by the decline in the ragged man's" and "starving
man's" contributions. The public ought to thank him, how-
ever, for one piece of very candidly•given instructing of his
former and his present relations to the parliament and to
the English people, he I cringed to them while we
were weak, but I kick them off now we are strong."
These are actually the impudent words of this audacious
and disgustinglpei son. Who can keep any terms with a be-
ing so lost to shame, as well as to honesty?
It is remarkable that this season of preparation for the
collection of Mr. O'Connell's excise—and every similar sea-
so❑ in former years—has presented a comparative repose
from murders and other kindred crimes. The O'Connell-
ites are too busily engaged to find leisure for. their ordinary
pastime of bloodshed.

HANOVER, Nov. 17.—1 t seems that the operation on the
Crown Prince is to be deferred till May next. It is again
reported that the Assembly of the Estates will meet immedi-
ately after the new sear.

Pagers and letters have been received from Caraccas to
the 15th ult. It was stated to be probable that General
O'Leary, now envoy from Venezuela to Rome, would be
named to proceed to this country as commissioner for ar-
ranging with the bondholders on the part of that republic.
The government, it is mentioned, intended punctually to re-
mit the sum allotted, say 80,00 /dollars, in January next, as
their proportion or account of interest on the Colombian
loan•.

EX:TRAORDINA KY SUICIDE.—On Saturday night on of
the most extraordinary and incomprehensible acts of self-
destruction that has, perhaps ever come within our notice,
occurred, under the following circumstances :—At ten o'clock
on the above night a young gentleman named Henry Curtis,
accompanied by two friends named Quenton and Ludlow,
having spent the evening at the Theatre Royal, entered the
oyster-shop, 13, Trinity-street, and called for supper. Hr.
Curtis asked for a bottle of soda-water; it was in the act of
being uncorked, when he leaned his head towards the table
as if drowsy or fatigued. His companions did not take par-
ticular notice of the circumstance, but, at the same moment
the soda-water bottle was uncorked, the explosion of a pistol
was heard, and in an instant Mr. Curtis fell a lifeless corpse
at the foot of the table intended for the festive board. De-
ceased was of extremely handsome exterior and prepossess-
ing, manners, He appeared to be 26 or 27 years old. He
enjoyed an independent fortune of £3OO per annum, and no
visible cause whatever existed for the perpetration of the
horrible act. The gentlemen who were sitting with him at
table had.nrit the slightest notion of his frightful determina-
tion until they saw him drop down dead. He was perfectly
sober at the time, at least as far as regarded the influence of
spirituous liquors, and had been previously as gay as usual
at the theatre.—Freeman's Journal.

LONDON LAW COURTS.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH..-MONDAY.

THE QUEEN v. CALCHAFT.—The prisoner in this case was
brought up for judgment, upon an indictment on which he
had been convicted of an offenee of secreting a material and
necessary witness, who ought to have appeared to give evi-
dence upon an indictment preferred against a man for mur-
der. The indictment was tried at the last assizes for Liver
pool, when a verdict of guilty was returned. The affidavits
now produced disclosed the following facts :—The person in-
dicted for murder was a man named Duffield; the witness who
had been carried off by the prisoner now before the court was
Sarah Duffield, the daughter of the person charged with the
The prisoner himself was the brother of Duffield's
wife, and Sarah Duffield was the only person on whose testi-
mony her father could possibly have been convicted. The
prisoner went, at the desire of his sister, to the house in Man-
chester were Sarah Duffield was in service, said that he came
from her mother, who was very ill, and asked for her to ac-
company him to her mother. Having then got her away he
took her to Nottin.,hani, and she bad never since been beard
of. In consequence of her kbsence her father was acquitted.
The affidavit of this prisone leged, that when he had taken
the young woman to Nottingham, he ceased to have any con
trol over her—that she was 20 vears of age, and might have
returned to Manchester if she had pleased. There were se-
veral affidavits from neighbours of the prisoners, describing
•
his character in the very highest terms.

„
Mr. Wightman addressed the court in mitigation of punish-
ment. After the conviction that had taken place, be could
not possibly deny that the prisoner had been guilty of the of-
fence charged, and that it was one of a very grievous kind;
but there were some circumstances of mitigation connected
with it. The prisoner had not acted from a base or sordid
motive; he found himself placed in circumstances too pain-
ful to think of. The young woman was the daughter of his
own sister. She was the only person whose evidence could
have convicted her father, and if he kad beets convicted, his
life would must certainly have been forfeited to the laws of his
country. The prisoner was called on by her mother, by the
wife of the man charged with murder, to take away his daugh-
ter, on whose evidence that charge could be made out. The
mother was at that time suffering from illness, on account of
this charge—an illness which nearly terminated in death. No
wonder, then, that the prisoner had acted as he had done.
These circumstances almost confounded our notion of right
and wrong, and almost made them rejoice that the public were
spared the exhibition of a father biought to destruction by the
evidence of his own daughter. There was one other circum-
stance which ought to be mentioned. The prisoner had been
in decent circumstances: since this affair he had been driven
from his home, and in consequence of this prosecution had
wandered up and down the country and was now a ruined
man. His trial had once been put off, and when it did come
on he had in the mean, time become so poor that he could
afford neither the expense of counsel nor witnesses. No
blame whatever was attributable to the proaecutors on that
account, but such was the fact, and the consequence was that
no appeal could be made to the jury, who might otherwise
have given a recommendation in his favour. He should not
trouble the court with any further observations. Their lord-
ships knew the circumstances of the case, and would, no
doubt, give every proper weight to them.
Mr. Starkie, in aggravation of punishment, admitted that
the circumstances of the case were of a painful stature, but
the prosecution was one which one of the judges of assize,
had directed, and which the corporation of Liverpool had
therefore undertaken.

Mr. Justice Matteson, addressing the prisoner, said that be
had been convicted at the last assizes at Liverpool upon an
indictment, which charged him with having secreted a wit-
ness whose testimony was material and necessary to prove a
charge of murder against another person.' It appeared that
she was the daughter of the person charged with the murder,
and that the prisoner was brother to her mother. The pri-
soner stated, that the mother being ill, he had assisted in
taking her daughter from Manchester to Nottingham to see
her. That when the daughter arrived at Nottingham, she
being '2O years of age, might have returned to Manchester if
she had pleased, for that she was perfectly her own mistress,
as soon as she had arrived at Nottingham. That might be
the case, but it was clear that the prisoner had assisted in her
going away in the first instance, and that her doing so was
with the purpose of avoiding giving her evidence in a court
of justice. The court took into its consideration all the
circumstances stated in the prisoner's affidavits; but it must
be understood by all persons whatever, that the offence
which the prisoner had committed was oue of a most serious
description. The prisoner had assisted in producing a per-
version of justice, and his object had been to prevent a
person from being tried for, and convicted of, a foul and
atrocious murder. Every body must be aware that it was the
duty of every subject in the kingdom, nut only not to take
any person away out of the reach of justice, but to use all
his endeavours to bring all offenders to justice. It was true
that this was a painfuCcase, in some respects, as the person
secreted from being a witness was the daughter of the man
who was charged with the. murder. It might not, therefore,
surprise any one that she-should want to go away, and that
the prisoner, being her relation and the brother of her mo-
ther, should wish to remove her; but still he ought to have
resisted his own inclination, and done his duty in forwarding
the ends of justice. The court had been informed that he
had already suffered in circumstances, and had undergone
some imprisonment; and in the hope that the example which
his present condition afforded might prevent all other per-
sons from imitating his offence, the sentence would be but
comparatively light. The sentence of the court was, that be
should be imprisoned in Rutland Gaul for two calendar
mouths.