The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

THE LITERTOOL STANDARD,

►STEALING ROPES.—A boy, named James Nailor, wa
yesterday charged before Mr. Rushton with stealing, on
the 31st ult., 20Ibs. of rope, belonging to a vessel called
The Royal Mint, lying in the Coburg Dock. He was
committed for trial.

STEALING BUTTER. —A carter, named George Jones,
was charged at the Police-court, yesterday, with stealing,
on the 9th December, a firkin of butter from the shop of
Mr. Moss, in Marybone. He put the keg into his care
and made off. On being pursued and overtaken, he
threw the butter out of the cart, and escaped until Sun-
day, when he was apprehended. He was committed for
trial.

MINT CASE.—A woman, named Sarah Jenkins; was
yesterday charged before Mr. Rushton, with having passed
off, to more than one party, base shillings, in purchasing
small articles, by the old trick of first giving half a crown,
receiving nearly the whole amount back in change ; dis-
puting the same being correct, and on an apparent ad-
justment, offering a bad shilling for the one she had
received. She was committed for trial.

VIOLENT ASSAULT. -An Irishman, named James
Kelly, was charged before Mr. Rushton, with having, on
the 27th ultimo, most violently assaulted, without the
slightest provocation, Patrick O'Brien, in a public-house
in Vauxhall-road. The weapon used was apparently the
spoke of a wheel, and the complainant was carried insen-
sible to the Dispensary, and had since been dangerously.
ill. The prisoner (who had worked with the complainant
in a coal-yard) was sent for trial at the sessions.

At the Police-court yesterday, a young woman named
Ann Lynch, was charged by a woman named Eliza Leo-
nard, with having been concerned in severely assaulting
her, and making off with her bonnet and shawl. The
accused was committed for trial, but afterwards on her
statement being heard after the reading of the depositions,
and another police officer having stated some facts, she
was discharged, the complainant not being, it appeared,
worthy of belief.

BURIAL SOCIETY CASE.—A case affecting a burial So-
ciety, which had before been partially heard, was resumed
yesterday at the Police-court. It appeared that a mem-
ber had made a claim upon the society for £5, in conse-
quence of the death of his daughter • and that this was
refused on the ground that he was a defaulter, he not hav-
ing paid up a week's subscription which was due. The
Secretary produced his books, and also the two cards,
when it appeared (as stated by applicant) that a number
of erasures had been made by that clerk, and other small
sums or cyphers had been introduced, and that in one in-
stance a sum had been credited in the book, and did not
appear at all on the card. Mr. Rushton highly repre-
hended the manner in which the books and accounts had
been kept, and peremptorily ordered the £5 to be paid to
the claimant.

OBTAINING MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES.-Yes-
terday, a man named Wm. Shaw, and another named
Wm. Reynolds, were placed before Mr. Rushton on a
charge of obtaining £5 under false pretences. It appeared
that on the Ist instant, the prisoner Shaw had got a letter
for him purporting to be in the writing of Mr. Phillips,
baker and flour dealer, who has a shop in Brownlow-hill,
and addressed to Miss Taylor, who keeps Mr. Phillips'
other shop, in St. John's Market. This plausibly set
forth that Mr. P. wanted £5 for certain purposes, to be
sent by the bearer, and the money was paid to him ; but,
some suspicion arising in Miss T. 's mind, she sent after
the receiver the shop-boy, Lloyd, with instructions to
follow the man, and if he found that he did not take
the money to the other shop to have him apprehended.
The boy obeyed, and followed the prisoner tdrough several
streets, not leading direct to Brownlow-hill. He accosted
the man, who endeavoured to bribe him by offering him
a treat to a show and a glass of wine, upon which the
youth (who is but 13 years of age) gave him into custody.
The letter was not written by or by direction of Mr.
Phillips. The writing was not clearly shown to be that
of Reynolds, and he was discharged. The prisoner Shaw,
who had received the money, said the other prisoner had
given him the letter to take. He was committed for
trial at the assizes.

DARING OUTRAGES NEAR LIVERPOOL

Bistrirtlils.

On Thursday, a bunch of hawthorn in full leaf at the
lower part, and with buds about to burst forth and leaves
at the upper extremity, was plucked-from a hedge at Pen-
dleton, near Manchester.

HOOTON HALL.—We regret to observe, from recent
proceedings in Chancery, that our popular neighbour, Sir
Wm. Massey Stanley, is in difficulties. A receiverof the
rents has been appointed.
DEATH FROM A SILLY WAGER.—On Wednesday last,
a private of the Ist Royals, named Robert Rogers, died
at Warrington, from the effects of internal injury sus-
tained in nonsensically attempting to swallow a stick two
feet long, for a wager. He got the stick eighteen inches
down his throat, when he was choked.
It is not n little extraordinary, that while the accounts
from Manchester continue to announce an absence of
demand for cotton manufactured goods, and the conse-
quent rapid accumulation of stocks, that a number of the
millowners have set on foot an agitation for the purpose
of applying to parliament to repeal the Ten Hours Act
passed last session, and to replace it by an Eleven Hours
Bill.

THE DISSENTERS AND THE CHURCH. —Great exer-
tions are now making in Manchester and elsewhere, to
arouse dissenters to an agitation against the church.
Amongst the steps taken, with this object in. view, is a
letter from Richard Potter, Esq., in the Manchester
Guardian last week, and as (

he says, " It has happened, fortunately for the cause of
constitutional reform, that Sir Robert Peel, and the more
enlightened leaders of the Conservative party, appreciated
the justice and the full sliTagth of the anti-corn law
movement. They yielded in time to save the country
from the violence of a great party contest. The present
position of the„Church of England, her relation to the

ais§enters, is very much the same as'was the position of
the landed interest to the commercial and manufacturing
classes in the earlier stages of the anti-corn law move-
ment, and before the organization of the league." We
always said that the anti-corn law agitation was only a
prelude to a move against the church, and here it is proved.

ABDUCTION.-The Manchester Guardian gives the fol-
lowing corrected account of an alleged " elopement "
from Bolton. The young gentleman in question was
not on a visit to the family, but on his return from Cam-
bridge, for the Christmas vacation, in company with a
college connexion, rather advanced in years, and who was
apparently the adviser and director of his youthful com-
panion. In passing through Bolton he called upon the
family, but did not see the young lady, and it was con-
cluded that he had proceeded homeward. On the even-
ing of Friday, however, the young lady was induced, by
the representations of one of the servants, to go to the
garden door, where the youth was waiting. She was then
immediately seized by him with the intention of forcing
her away. In this, however, he failed, owing to the
young lady's resistance, and he then called to his com-
panion, and by their united exertions she was forced into
a chaise and driven away, not through the town, but by a
circuitous route, with a view, evidently, of preventing pur-
suit. The young lady had not even a covering for her
head, nor any protection from the inclemency of one of
the most stormy nights of the season. It was the inten-
tion of the party to go upon the Manchester railway at
the first station out of town, but when there the young
lady attempted to call for assistance, when a handkerchief
was placed to her mouth, and the carriage was ordered to
be driven forward to Manchester. Considerable time
elapsed before any clue could be traced of the route of the
fugitives, and it was only ascertained on the return of the
chaise by which they were conveyed to Manchester. The
young lady's brother and a clergyman immediately pro-
ceeded after them, and succeeded in tracing them to the
Leigh Arms Hotel, at Newton, where they found the
young gentleman, his companion, and the young lady, in
a sitting room, waiting the arrival of the next train to the
north. The young lady was, of course, immediately res-
cued. The young gentleman is of a respectable family,
and well connected. On the following day, the young
gentleman and his companion were taken into custody,
when they gave bail in £2OO for their good behaviour for
twelve months.

NARROW ESCAPE.—At Manchester, on Monday, two
men, named William Hatfield and Mark Clegg, the former
an engine driver and the latter a fireman in the employ of
the London and North-Western Railway Company, were
brought up before the stipendiary magistrate, charged
with drunkenness and gross negligence in the discharge of
their duty. It appeared that the prisoners had charge of
the night mail from Liverpool to London on Saturday.
The number of carriages and passengers was not stated,
but the pointsman at the Warrington junction was sur-
prised to hear it coming at a very rapid rate. He had been
preparing to turn the points, in order to shunt the train
on to the Warrington junction, but, anticipating great
danger if he should turn the points, he determined upon
letting the train take its course. Most fortunate was it
that he exercised so much judgment and sagacity; for, in
consequence of the acuteness of the curve at the Warring-
ton junction, and the tremendous rate at which the train
was proceeding—not less than forty miles an hour, instead
of five, the regular speed—it does not appear that anything
could have prevented the train being overturned, and a
frightful sacrifice of human life. Meantime, the train
continued its frightful progress ; but the mail-guard per-
ceiving that it was going on towards Manchester, instead
of staying at the junction, signalled to the engine-driver
and fireman, but without effect. He, at very considerable
risk, passed over from carriage to carriage till he reached
the engine, where he found both the prisoners lying appa-
rently insensible, from the effects of liquor. He was
unable to bring them to a sense of their duty and their
peril until they were near to Patricroft, a distance of four-
teen miles from Warrington ! This again appears to be
almost a miraculous circumstance ; for, at the Patricroft
station, on the same line as that on which the mail train
was running, was another train, containing a number of
passengers, who thus escaped the consequences of a colli-
sion. The prisoners were immediately given into custody
and conveyed to the New Bailey prison, while other assist-
ance being obtained, the train was taken back again to the
Warrington junction. After some consultation, the bench
appearing to be of opinion that some negligence had been
exhibited at the office in Liverpool. or the men would not
have been allowed to have left there in such a state of in-
toxication, sentenced both prisoners to two months hard
labour.

TEA.—On Tuesday, a meeting was held in the Town
Hall, Manchester, for the purpose of considering the
effects of the duty on tea. There were upwards of one
hundred gentlemen present interested in the welfare of
the district. The Mayor presided, and the meeting was
addressed, amongst others, by Wm. Rathbone, Esq., of
Liverpool; Thomas Bazley, Esq., Chairman of the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce; Aspinal Turner, Esq.,
Chairman of the Manchester Commercial Association ;
Mr. Fielden, on behalf of the Blackburn Chamber of
Commerce • Robert Gardner, Esq., of Manchester; and
John Bright, Esq., M.P. The following with other reso-
lutions were unanimously adopted :—" That it is notorious
that the trade with China has been for some time in a
very unsatisfactory position'—`that the result of our ex-
tended intercourse with that country has by no means
realised the just expectations which had been naturally
founded on a freer access to so magnificent a market'—
' that on a great proportion of the trade the loss, taken
both ways, i. e., on the manufactures sent out and on the
tea brought home in payment, may be fairly stated at
from thirty-five to forty per cent.'—' that the difficulties
of the trade dg not arise from any want of demand in
China for artiaPs of British manufacture or from the in-
creasing competition of other nations, but the sole diffi-
culty in providing a return.' That we must look to tea
mainly and to an increased consumption of tea for the
means of even maintaining, still more of extending, a
profitable trade with those vast regions, and that for such
an extended consumption we can only look to a reduction
of the duty, it being only through the duty that a reduc-
tion to the consumer can be effected sufficient to stimulate
consumption in so sensible a degree as to lead to a healthy
and extended trade. That while the duties on coffee and
cocoa have been repeatedly reduced since 1821—by which
the consumption of the former has been stimulated 500
per cent., and that of the latter by above 1,000 per cent.,
there has been no reduction on the duty on tea, and the
small increase which has taken place in the consump-
tion of that article is attributable to the reduction
in the bonded price, which has materially added to the
disastrous losses of the importers. That as the foregoing
resolutions are founded upon, and expressed mostly in
the very words of a Report of the Select Committee' ap-
pointed in the last session of Parliament to consider our
commercial relations with China,' a committee be ap-
pointed to arrange a deputation to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and the Chairman of this meeting address the
Chancellor with a copy of these resolutions, requesting
him to fia an early day for receiving such deputation."