The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-01 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH AND
UNFOUNDED RUMOURS.

A most painful feeling was excited here on Thursday
last by the report put in circulation of serious outbrpaks
in the south of Ireland, the details of which we have given

elsewhere,

The effect of the report, however, was not confined to
Liverpool, for it unfortunately was telegraphed early in
the same day to Manchester and other
_places, which did
not possess the same facilities for testing i-s probability,
where its circumstantiality of detail made it very generally
believed, and where it might have been productive of very
serious results. Of course by this time its falsehood will

be generally known ; perhaps it may do good by urging
upon the public the desirableness, at such a crisis as the
present, of listening with great doubt to flying pieces of
gossip from Ireland or elsewhere, and at the same time of
taking some steps to secure a guarantee that so powerful

•
an engine as the electric telegraph shall not be made the

vehicle for their circulation. How the report in question
originated, or from whom, whether as a very mischievous
hoax, or from other and interested views, is not well ascer-
tained ; but it is clear that the authoritative sanction,
which is supposed to attach to information by telegraph,
ought not to be allowed by the Company to be given
until they have fully satisfied themselves of its correctness.
And perhaps, in any case, where such serious interests are
at stake, and so much excitement of public feeling exist-
ing, the prudence may be doubted of conveying such intel-
ligence at all, except to the authorities, civil or military,
who have confided to them the preservation of the peace.
We much question, indeed, whether such an engine of
communication ought to be accessible at all to parties
capable of using it for their own selfish purposes. Of
course we are very far from attributing to the Company
themselves, or their servants, any practices of this descrip-
tion ; but they are not unlikely to be occasionally misled
into committing themselves. And the public will not
absolve them from any evil consequences which may occur
when it notices the singularly suspicious fact that in Man-
chester their offices are in the same building as the Stock
Exchange ! Some of the " Bears," no doubt, made a
good thing of it on Thursday.
We had written thus far when in glancing over the
Times, of Saturday, we found the following paragraph
corroborative of our remarks :—" A special meeting of the
committee of the Stock Exchange was summoned this
afternoon, with the view of discovering if any of the mem-
bers were implicated in the fabrication of the telegraphic
announcement of yesterday. Several persons were exa-
mined, and some persons from the Eleetric Telegraph
Company were also in attendance ; but the statements
elicited led to a clear conclusion that no one connected
with the Stock Exchange had in any way participated in
the affair. At the same time we can fully confirm a
remark in the Standard of this evening that a strong feel-
ing exists in the city of the impropriety of permitting a
power like that of the electric telegraph to remain in the
hands of a private and irresponsible body. A similar view
was expressed during the panic in October last, when the
name of one of the most eminent and prudent firms in
London was transmitted to the provinces in a list of fail-
ures."

THE LIVERPOOL. HOAX

England and Ireland have been reciprocating the com-
pliment of monstrously lying about each other. Thurs-
day morning startled the good city of Liverpool out of its
seven, or seventy-times seven, senses, with news that the
rebellion had actually broken out in Ireland ; that the
fighting in Clonmel and other places was terrific ; that the
troops had been outmatched, and, which was worse, that
they were exhibiting symptoms of disaffection ! Con-
sternation might well seize the inhabitants; and for a
time business was paralysed. Soon, however, those who
were most capable of thinking in this hour of alarm, be-
gan to inquire how this news had come : no history of its
transit from the Irish coast could be ascertained ; the
Dublin papers of the preceding evening had no word about
the alleged outbreak ; the latest arrived travellers knew
nothin., of it. But it transpired that there must be some-
thing about a Queen's Messenger in theibusiness ; where-
upon the Mayor of Liverpool communicated by electric
telegraph with Sir G. Grey, and received for answer that
no such messenger had arrived. Hence it was proved
that, at any rate, the report did not come on the authority
it professed ;and, in short, though its rapid course from Li-
verpool to London and to other parts of Great Britain
were discernible enough by the excitement and alarm it
created as it flew, the track of its anterior course was not
to be found ; of the attempt to trace it back to its source,
it might be said, with the learned Dr. O'Toole, " vestigia
nulla retrorsum :" in fact, there was no finding an end of
the beginning; like that of the Irishman's rope, it was
put off. The arrival of the mail steamer in the evening
put an end to the already pretty well discredited rumour,
which appears to have been fabricated in Liverpool, but
whether for stock-jobbing or political purposes, or as a
"jolly good hoax," remains unknown. The magistrates
are taking steps to discover, if possible, the mischievous
and heartless authors of the lie.

On Thursday, the subject was alluded to in both the
Houses of Parliament. _ _ _

But, although the rumour turns out to be a wicked
fabrication, we cannot help agreeing with the Times that
" it is only too vraisemblable," that it " anticipates only
by one little step the daily reports of thd Irish papers,"
that " the leaders and populace are running a race, each
goading on the other, and goaded in return," and that
"it seems quite a matter of chance whether Messrs. S.
O'Brien and Meagher will be pushed into an overt act of
rebellion, or some furious mob assume the initiative."
An accident may plunge the people into civil war and
wrap the whole country in flames.
As we have hinted, rumour in Ireland was no less busy
and false about England, than on this side the water she
had been about Ireland. At Thurles, where, according
to the Liverpool report, the railway station was on fire
and the rails torn up for miles, the only event of any ex-
citing kind was a report that an outbreak had taken niece
in Liverpool, and that 500 of the police had been killed I
Similar absurd rumours were hatched and flew about in
other parts of Ireland.

At the Town Council, to morrow, an Alderman will be
appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
Mr. J. S. Leigh. _ _

It was expected that the bridges for the landing-stage
would have been fixed yesterday. but the operation has
been postponed for a fortnight. . . .

Mr. Councillor Parker ;ill submit a motion at the
Council meeting to-morrow, for the return of all the
money expended or to be expended in the Rivington
Pike Scheme. _ _ _

Messrs. B. Slater and Son, the proprietors of the Saw
Mills, have publicly denied the statement that "pikes"
have been ground at their establishment, and they say
that they have no grinding apparatus on their premises,

The members of PrOviident Clerks' Association, the
best of life assurance, benefit, and benevolent societies,
intend dining together on Thursday next, at the Adelphi
Hotel. T. B. Horsfall, Esq., the Mayor, has consented
to preside, and a happy and interesting meeting is anti-
cipated.
The steam-ship Acadia, Captain Stone, sailed on Satur-
day for Halifax and Boston, with the usual North Ameri-
can mails and a fair complement of passengers. The
steamer Caledonia, Captain Leitch, with the homeward
mails, &c., may be expected to arrive in the river on
to-morrow. She would leave New York on the
19th instant, and Halifax on the 22d. 41'
LADY SMUGGLER.—OR Wednesday the Tynwald ar.
rived in port, and was visited by the Custom-house offi-
cers, who arrested a respectably dressed female, on whose
person were found four bladders containing aboutzeven-
eighths of a gallon of spirits On the following morning
the lady was brought before Mr. Rushton, who imposed a
fine of forty shillings.
DEATHS FROM FALLS.—On Saturday week James
Dodd, a mariner, living in Back Parliament-street, went
to bed between eleven and twelve o'clock, leaving his
wife up. He was awoke by hearing moaning, and on
going down found his wife lying there. She had fallen
down stairs and so injured, herself that she died on Friday.
—On Saturday, George Gurnell, a man, forty-two years
of age' living in Hawke-street, Brownlow-hill, was stand-
ing in the street, in a state of intoxication, when a man
named Lawrenson, with whom he lodged, gave him a

,ush and

he fell vi

fently to the ground

His head was

;riously cut, two or three ribs were broken and he

on Thursday

POOR LAW REMOVAL

—To day (Tuesday), the new act
hP nrneminre in ro.snpnt of nrriprs

It contains
13 clauses. The preamble declares that the communica-
tion now by law required to be made by the overseers or
guardians of any parish seeking to enforce an order for the
removal of a poor person to the overseers or guardians of
the parish to which such poor person is intended to be re-
moved of

a copy of the examination upon which such
order has been made, has been found to produce such
expensive and use less litigation upon points of mere form,

upon the merits. Instead of the copy of an examination,
the notice shall be accompanied by a statement of the
grounds of the removal. The documents may be amended,
and parties making frivolous or vexatious statements of
the grounds of removal or appeal are liable to nay the

costs of the proceeding. Orders of removal may be
amended, and by the seventh clause decisions of courts of
sessions are to be final, and no writ of certiorari or man-
damus is to be allowed. No appeal allowed, if notice of
the same be not given within 21 days of the chargeability.
The act is to be construed as one with the 4th and sth
William IV., and all other acts amending the same.
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.—In the course of the pre-
sent week all the school operations at the institution will
have re-commenced. The lending library, we understand,
is being increased by the addition of a thousand volumes,
involving, of course, a very considerable outlay, but one,
we doubt not, which will be fully compensated for by the
increased eagerness with which that department of the in-
stitution will in consequence be resorted to. In the
arrangements for the lecture-hall the same spirit and libe-
rality have been exercised,. the syllabus for the session
commencing on Friday evening being peculiarly attractive.
Mr. J. Quincy Wetherby leads the van with six lectures
on musical expression, written expressly for the occasion ;
and among the succeeding courses are six on physiology,
by that most popular of scientific lecturers, Dr. Pettigrew ;
four on knowledge, poetry, and the writings of Shakspere
and a man, we have
beenCgeirvveannttoesUnblerEsiaNna,DenofvnerYys'origipnl genius ; four on
the flute, its improvement and capabilities, with illustra-
tions, by R. Carte, Esq., a course which, from its novelty,
as well as the popular nature of the instrument and the
reputation of the player, cannot fail to prove highly inte-
resting ; four on the comic writers of England, by C.
Cowden Clarke, Esq.; and six
.on popular music, with
vocal illustrations, by an established favourite in Liver.
pool, George Bucklondi gsq.