The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-12-09 00:00:00

GENERAL MISCELLANY.

The sale of the autographs of Gray, the poet, which took
place on Monday last, realised upwards of £l5OO.
There are 30,000 miles of turnpike-roads in this coun-
try, and there are at present 6,000 miles of railway.
On Monday, the fishermen of Sidmouth, while out
with their herring nets, captured a shark eight feet long.
Samuel Quennell was, yesterday week, fully committed
for trial for the wilful murder of Daniel Fitzgerald, in
Lambeth, by shooting him deliberately with a pistol.
The rebuilding of Lord Francis Egerton's mansion, in
Cleveland-square, formerly belonging to the late Duke
of Bridgwater, is to be commenced early in next March.
The notorious Barnard Gregory, of the Satirist, opened
the Strand theatre, London, on Tuesday night, in the
character of Shylock. The uproar was tremendous.
Dwarkanauth Tagore (attired in the native Indian cos-
tume) attended and spoke at the meeting of the Peninsu-
lar and Oriental Steam-packet Company on Friday.
The schooner Williams of Perth, c,al-laden, struck at
the mouth of the Tay, on Saturday week, and was
wrecked. The captain and an apprentice were drowned.
PROPERTY TAX.—Many tradesmen in Worcester have
been surcharged this year, because they have given dinner
parties, and lived in better style than last year.
Kegworth was last week literally ransacked in search of
an unemployed labourer to do a day's work, but without
success.—Leicestershire Mercury.
John Harrowbin has been committed to Newgate,
charged with the manslaughter of his mother, aged 67, by
blows inflicted during a quarrel.
In anticipation of the calling out of Militia the " Mili-
tia Clubs" for providing substitutes have commenced
making arrangements for their re-organisation.
On Saturday night, Mr. R. Avery, of Walworth, had
his coat-pocket picked of 685 railway shares, near the
Elephant and Castle, Southwark. Two women are sus-
pected.
A few days since a poor man at Hull was ordered by
the magistrates to pay ls. 6d. per week for the mainte-
nance of his grandchildren. The father of the children had
been transported.
Ellen Parry, spinster, late a farm servant at the farm-
yard of Plasnewydd, in the parish of Llanedwen, Angle-
sey, has been committed for trial, charged with the mur-
dor of her twin children.
The Lord Mayor of London has refused to call a public
meeting in compliance with a requisition, respecting the
opening of the ports, but he has convened a Common
Council to consider the subject.
Cooke's Circus, Saltmarket, Glasgow, lately used as a
minor theatre, was totally destroyed by fire on Tuesday.
The building, which was of wood, was insured for £BOO,
and the scenery, &c., for £3OO.
A Treasury order has been issued, allowing all articles
legally importable into the Isle of Man, and not enume-
rated in the table annexed to the Act Sth and 9th Vic.,
c. 94, and upon which the duty of £l5 per cent. is im-
posed, to be imported into the Isle of Man duty-free.
At a meeting of the Edinburgh town council on
Thursday the freedom of the city was presented to Sir
Charles Napier, M.P., who has been residing there for
some time past Sir Charles made a long rambling
speech on the occasion, but there was nothing in it.
The coroner's jury, at the inquest on Police-sergeant
Stubbs, who, with one of the commissioners of bank-
ruptcy, lost his life by the collision on the Midland Rail-
way, have returned a verdict of manslaughter against the
engine driver.
Mary Ann Taylor, aged 33, died in London, last week,
from an effusion of matter on the brain, arising from an
abscess on the bone, through constantly pricking the ear,
—a remarkable propensity which she always showed when

excited.
INCENDIARY FIRES.—The Nottingham Journal of
Friday contains accounts of three destructive fires in
Nottinghamshire, which have taken place within the last
few days, and by which a large amount of corn and other
farm property was destroyed.
At the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, William
Carney was sentenced to transportation for life, and Ben-
jamin Barnett and Wm. Lewis to fifteen years' transport-
ation each, for cutting and wounding a police constable
while in the execution of his duty.
In consequence of the Privy Council having allowed
the plea of exemption from serving the office of Sheriff of
Suffolk for the ensuing year to William Mills, Esq., he
has signified his intention of presenting the sum of £4OO
to each of the county hospitals at Bury and Ipswich.
On the 25th ult. a cook in the service of a gentleman at
Taunton was poisoned by taking two ounces of " black
drop," which her fellow-servant had procured from a drug-
gist. The servant was directed to get that quantity of
" black draught," but made a mistake in delivering her

message.
John Snowden, who lost his watch upon the moors of
Northumberland, in the year 1836, found it again last
week, and after winding it up it resumed its movements,
and has since kept time with great regularity, although it
had lain nine years exposed to the winter's pelting storms
and the scorching rays of the summer's sue.
Mr. Justice Coleridge, during a recent trial at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, made the following remark :—" It
seems to me to become the practice that the moment a
person is presented in a witness-box, he is to be treated as
though he were tied to a stake, to be baited by every one.
Such shall not be the case where I preside."
Three houses, in the course of erection and nearly com-
pleted, in Cavendish-place, Wandsworth-road, London,
fell to the ground on Tuesday night last, and Oliver Car-
roll, aged 20. the son of the builder of the houses, was
killed by the fall. Several workmen and a brother of the
unfortunate deceased, had narrow escapes.
At a Mint prosecution last week, Mr. Powell, the Mint
solicitor, detailed several instances wherein parties charged
with " smashing" had swallowed both good and count r-
feit coins, and from which the delinquents paid the penalty
of their lives. In one case four half crowns were found in
a man's stomach.
A boy named Nicholson was killed in a mill at Keigh-
ley, last week. He had been ordered by an overlooker to
hold a belt while he put it on the pulley. The belt twisted
round the shaft, which drew the lad up and down forty to
fifty times before the machinery could be stm.ped. He
died the same night.
RISE IN THE PRICE OF BREAD. On Wednesday
the bakers of the east end of the metropolis increased the
price of the best bread from 81d. to 9Ad. per 41b. loaf;
seconds ditto, 7d. to Bd. On the Surrey side of the river
the price of the best is from 9d. to 10d.; seconds from
71d. to 84d. for the 41b. loaf.
Messrs. Deighton, of Cambridge, have withdrawn their
names as publishers of the Oxford and Cambridge Re-
view, and it is stated that, had not the exposure been
made of the article which appeared therein, written by a
Papist, though a Protestant publication, Mr. Ward was
engaged to contribute an article for the number.
QUEER MISTAKE.—There was one of the largest con-
gregations ever known at a village church, not twenty
miles from Ipswich, a short time since, during a visit of
Sir Robert Peel at the seat of a gentleman in the parish.
The rural population went with the full expectation of
hearing the Premier preach, having been informed that
he was the first minister.
The case of the Queen v. Serva and others, for murder
and piracy on board the Feliciade and the Echo, was
argued before the judges on Wednesday. Their lordships
have not yet given their decision, but it is understood by
the bar that it will be that the finding was bad, and that
consequently all the ruffianly murderers will be dis-
charged.
A meeting at Gateshead, yesterday week, called by the
Mayor, turned out a complete failure. The Newcastle
Advertiser, a free-trade paper, says the attendance was
extremely limited. There was very little speaking, the
same print attributing the want of animation in the pro-
ceedings " to an unwillingaess to argue a question already
settled, so far as reason is concerned."
FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT.—On Thursday, as Mr. Lewis,
of Maldon, was riding on horseback, accompanied by his
man, be was overtaken near Orsett, on the road to
Brentwood, by a farmer named Stephens, whose horse
was running away with him, and came in contact with
that upon which Mr. Lewis's man was mounted. Such
was the violence of the collision that the man was thrown
from his seat, but fortunately he escaped unhurt. Mr.
Stephens was also precipitated to the ground, and his
horse lolled over him. He was much injured upon the
hip, and greatly bruised. The poor animals fella sacrifice
to the casualty, the one rode by Mr. Lewis's man
expiring, from the effects of the shock, in about five
minutes ; and Mr. Stephens's being so much injured that
its sufferings were necessarily put an end to with the
knife half an hour after the occurrence.
HORRIBLE OUTRAGE NEAR LLANYMYNECH.—We
recently gave an acc.unt of the horrible treatment which
ayoung girl named Elizabeth Rider had received from
her mother, who, probably in a fit of madness, rushed
upon her and beat her with such brutal violence that her
life is not, even now, considered out of danger. On Fri-
day week the prisoner was brought before a bench of ma-
gistrates, and her daughter, who was in a most deplorable
condition, was accompanied by the surgeon and nurse.
On being carried into court weak wine and water was or-
dered for her, and shortly afterwards the miserable look-
ing prisoner took her place at the bar, not at all concerned
at her awful situation. She stated that she locked the
door to prevent her mother from wandering, when
the old woman flew upon her, tried to strangle her,
and, not succeeding in this, tore the hair from her head,
beat her first with a broom-stick, and next with a bottle
till she broke it; she poured boiling water over her from
the kettle, and then seizing a potato-masher, and subse-
quently a rolling pin, beat her about the head and face
with them till she was nearly insensible. The prisoner is
then supposed to have made use of the billhook, for the
poor girl resumed her evidence by saying, " I held on the
broom hook with one hand, when my mother could only
work with the point at my head ; I was not then insensi-
ble, for I quite recollect my mother working at me till I
was covered with blood ; the blood ran from my head
down into my mouth, and almost smothered me." To
a question as to whether the mother, when using the roll-
ing- pin, did also strike with the billhook, witness said,
" I suppose that after she beat me a good while with the
rolling-pin, she must have taken up the broomhook when
I had lost my senses ; 1 strove against my mother and
kept the hook from me as long as I could ; the blood was
after I was struck with the rolling-pin ; I was insensible
for a little while and then came to myself again, and was
again insensible; when 1 came a bit to myself my mother
was lugging me into the pantry ; she had hold of my two
arms, and my head was against her body ; I think she did
not lug me long by my arms, but that she pushed me by
my legs ; does not know how far into the pantry ; I was
then somewhat sensible; as she saw I was not dead she
began to beat me about the head with the heel of an old
shoe, saying, You're a tough 'un, but I'll finish you!'—
(Great sensation.) The shoe was an old one of my own,
and had nails in the heels; after that she fetched the
broom, and began to purin me about my legs and thighs
with the stail." The remainder of the evidence is unfit
for publication. It made all who heard it shudder. The
young woman does not consider her mother to have been
in her senses. Other witnesses having been examined,
the prisoner was committed to Shrewsbury gaol, to await
her trial at the next assizes.

Last week, at the Court of King's Bench, Henry
Needham Scrope Shrapnel, who pleaded guilty to four in-
formations, charging him with writing letters to parties
having the patronage of offices in the East India Com-
pany's service, inducing them, by promises of a corrupt
consideration to themselves and wives, to exert their in-
fluence to obtain him an office, was sentenced to four
months' imprisonment. .

SUICIDES.—We gave last week the particulars of a
melancholy suicide at Huddersfield. Since that unhappy
event we regret to say that a rumour prevailed, that on
Friday or Saturday last, two other attempts at self-de-
struction have occurred there, the one of a professional
gentleman, the other of a most respectable tradesman,
both, it is alleged, from railway speculations. Happily,
both attempts were frustrated.
WHAT NEXT ?—The servants in the post-office depart-
ment may well complain of being overburdened with em-
ployment in these cheap transit days. On the 25th ult.
a grindstone of rather unusual dimensions was sent
through the post, from the quarry of Mr. Deighton,
Stockeld, near Wetberby, Yorkshire, to a respectable
firm, carrying on business as spindle-makers, at Burnley,
in Lancashire, a distance, by the mail-route, of more
than 50 miles.—York Courant.

On Monday, a communication was made to the town
council of Doncaster by E. Denison, Esq., M.P., ex-
pressive of the wish of his Grace the Archbishop of York
to give the sum of £5OO, if that amount could be met by
an adequate sum on the part of the council and the inha-
bitants of the borough; to raise an annuity for the vicar of
the parish. in order that the annual Christmas collection
made for that reverend gentleman may b.: rendered unne-

cessary.
On Sunday, Miss Francis Heath, aged 50 years, of
remarkably strange habits and weak intellect, died from
the effects of injuries received on the 28th of September
last. On that day she precipitated herself from one of
the windows, and in her descent fell on several iron spikes,
which entered her head, causing an extensive laceration
of the scalp and concussion of the brain. On being
questioned as to what induced her to jump out of the
window, she said, " The devil came and rang the bell
three times."
At the Central Criminal Court, on Friday, in the
course of trials for passing bad money, it was elicited that
in order to detect this description of offenders, the police
assume various disguises, such as cobblers*, itinerant
green-grocers, and costermongers. The Recorder in-
quired whether the practice was permitted by the Com-
naissimers of Police. The answer was, that it was.
The persons so disguised did not belong to the body
called " the detective force," but were entered on the
" plain clothes" list. The choice of disguise was left to
their own discretion.
German sheet glass of very large size may be delivered
in London at 4d. per foot, of sixteen ounces on an ave-
rage ; and Belgian glass of the quality of the best English
" crown," of similar sizes, at 31131. a foot, provided pur-
chasers take the boxes in the rough, as they are received,
and cut their squares for themselves. Such glass has
been used, of both qualities, in a greenhouse lately con-
structed in the garden of the Horticultural Society at
Turnham Green, where every one can see it who procures
admission from a Fellow of the Society. This price will
be reduced by three farthings a pound in October, 1846.
—Gardeners' Chronicle.
WILL OF EARL SPENCER.—The will of the late Right
Hon. John Charles, Earl Spencer, has been proved by
his brother, the present earl, the sole executor. The per-
sonal estate within the province of Canterbury was sworn
under £160,000. His lordship has devised and appointed
all his manors, &c , freehold, copyhold, or leasehold, in
the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, and York, to his
brother, the present earl, (heretofore the Hon. Frederick
Spencer,) subject to and chargeable with the payment of
the legacies and annuities, and in exoneration of any
mortgages or other incumbrances. He has left to the
Rev. Christopher Nevill, and to his brother, George
Nevill, Esq., £lO,OOO each.
GALLOPING MATCH AGAINST TIME.—Ors Thursday
afternoon a galloping match against time, for a stake of
£lOO, came off on Sunbury Common, Mr. Cannon, a
farmer, of Maidenhead, having backed his horse, nine
years old, and a little more than 15 hands high, to gallop
20 miles within the hour. The distance gone over was
five miles out and five miles in. The first ten miles were
run in a shade over half an hour, which appeared to the
knowing ones (and those supposed to be in the secret) to be
anything but winning. The result was that the horse lost
the match by 1 minute and 35 seconds. The horse,
throughout the 20 miles and up to the finish, appeared to
be not in the least distressed.
ANOTHER MURDER IN LONDON.—Martha Browning,
a young woman, apparently about twenty-five years of
age, is in custody in London, charged with the murder of
Elizabeth Mundell, an elderly woman, with whom she re-
sided. It appears that shouts of Murder" were heard
proceeding from the room in which the deceased resided,
that the prisoner was in the room at the time, and that
the body was afterwards found at the back of the door,
with a cord, as thick as a finger, twice round the neck,
the knot being tied on the right side. The prisoner,
when taken to the siation said, " I did it; I did it ; Lord
have mercy on me." On Wednesday, the case was par-
tially heard, and adjourned till Monday, in consequence
of the state of the prisoner, who remained in a senseless
condition in the dock during the proceedings.
POLITICAL RUMOURS.—A variety of rumours have
been current in political circles with respect to the move-
ments and intentions of the ministry. It is confidently
said that at the cabinet council on 'Wednesday, Sir Robt.
Peel intimated that if his colleagues refused to support a
proposition for the total and immediate repeal of the corn-
laws, he should feel it necessary to resign office. This
intimation is said to have overcome the opposition of the
Duke of Wellington, who, at length, gave his reluctant
assent to the Premier's proposition. It is said that the
resolution of the majority of the cabinet is likely to lead
to the resignation of at least three of its members—Lords
Wharncliffe, Stanley, and Ripon. The name of Lord
Haddington has also been mentioned as one of the pro-
bable seceders.—Morniny Chronicle.
'1 HE NATIONAL CLUB.—A general statement of the
objects of this important Association has been published.
The objects are, to maintain the Protestant principles of
the Cons itution in the administration of public affairs.
To uphold a system of National Education based on
Scripture and conducted by the ministers of religion.
To preserve the Church of England and Ireland in its
truth and integrity. To use every effort that the govern-
ment of Ireland may be conducted according to the
principles of the British Constitution ; and for the esta-
blishment, in Ireland, of civil and religious liberty. To
communicate with all who hold these principles, and to
diffuse them, by forming Local Associations for these
purposes, and by presenting in the metropolis a central
place, where all who hold the same views may meet, and
may devise the fittest means of promoting their common
end. The Duke of Manchester is the chairman, and
amongst the vice-chairmen are the Dukes of Marlborough
and Newcastle, the Marquis of Downsbire, Earls Cherie-
vine, Erne, Mountcashel. Roden, and Winchelsea, Lords
Hill, Lorton, O'Neill, Kenyon, &c. The committee
consists of first-rate protestant gentlemen, comprising
twenty members of parliament. The annual subscription
to the Club is five gunieas except in the case of clergymen
who are to pay one guinea.
MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE.—On Saturday night
week, as two men were going over the new iron bridge at
Laverstock, near Salisbury, they heard distant groans,
but the night being stormy they were long before they
could ascertain the precise spot whence the sound pro-
ceeded. Having gone a little further, they came to a
water-carriage, which they crossed, when they heard the
voice of a woman, who was struggling in the stream, very
nearly breast high. Owing to the darkness of the night,
it was a considerable time before they could ascertain the
identical spot where she was; but, at last succeeding,
they plunged into the stream, and, with great difficulty,
owing to the depth of the mud, rescued her from her
perilous situation. When taken out, she was entirely un-
conscious how she came there. The men, with some
considerable trouble, then conveyed her across the water-
carriages into the main road, thence to the police-station
at Salisbury. By this time she was a little revived, and
could say her name was Maria Wheatley, of Wilton ; but,
she added, that how she came into the river she could
not tell. She must, she supposed, have lost her way
going home to Wilton from Salisbury, whereas Laver-
stock lies quite in the opposite direction. She was then
conveyed from the police-station to Bugmore Hospital,
where she received every attention. The next morning,
the unhappy woman seemed quite recovered, and very
anxious to quit her new lodging, and actually put on her
wet clothes and made her escape. Had she fallen in
higher up the stream and then been washed down under
the bridge to the spot where found, she must have been
drowned, and how she could cross the water-carriage
seems still a greater mystery. It has been ascertained
that she is in the employ of, a respectable tradesman of
Salisbury, and has, by some heartless villain, been seduced.
EARL STANHOPE AND THE CORN LAWS.—Lord
Stanhope having been invited to attend the dinner of the
Cambridgeshire farmers, in January next, has declined
the honour, and, in a letter to Mr. Twiss, the secretary,
says,—" The free trade policy of the present Ministers,
who would never have been restored to power if their new
corn laws and their new tariff had been expected by those
who supported them at the last general election—the base
and treacherous and unprincipled conduct of so many of
their adherents, who, by an utter disregard of their pro-
mises and professions, have covered themselves with inde-
lible disgrace, and justly incurred the hatred and contempt
of their fellow-citizens—the indefatigable exertions and
reckless attempts which are made by some enemies of the
corn laws, and the culpable supineness of the agricultural
community, which seems at present to be quite benumbed
and paralyzed—all these circumstances concur in placing
this country in a state of the utmost danger, from which
it could be rescued only by that which I have so often, but
so ineffectually, recommended—by energy and union.
Patriotism and public spirit appear to be almost extinct.
I am aware that in some parts of the country there are
farmers who, without being misled by the misrepresenta-
tions and falsehoods of their enemies, began to view with
indifference a repeal of the corn laws, as they suppose that
it is inevitable, and that it would be ess injurious to them
if it were immediate, than it would be after their capital
had been entirely exhausted. If, indeed, that measure is
to be considered inevitable, from the zeal and perseverance
of those who oppose corn-laws, and from the lamentable
torpor of those who ought to support them, I do not, like
Lord Ashley, wish or seek any compromise, in order, as
he expresses it, ` to break the force of an inevitable blow.'
On the contrary, if free-trade is to be applied with respect
to corn, the same principle must also be applied with re-
spect to all other articles of general consumption, and to
all the other products cf British industry, and in such a
case let the repeal of all protective duties be immediate
and entire. Under such circumstances, I say again, as I
did in the House of Lords, I throw down the gauntlet,
and dare you to the attempt.' The effect would be so vio-
lent and so sudden, that even those who are the most su-
pine would be compelled to act, that even those who are
the most prejudiced would be convinced, and there would
probably be produced a ' pressure from without' which no
government would be able to resist."