The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-24 00:00:00

club, of wili

society was speedily framed,
club should be limited to 3u tnernb

pap2r,

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.-EIGHT PERSONS DROWNED
TWO FISHING-BOATS LOST.--:MONTROSE. Oct.

is our painful duty to record the loss of eight fishermen
belonging to Ferryden, this morning,, between two and
three o'clock, about 18 miles off the land, in consequence
of the wind. which was-gently at N.E. by N. having, in
an instant, chopped round to S., whence it blew with ter-
rific fury, and capsiz"d two fishing-oats, from which
five men out of six belonging to the first, were rescued by
another boat which was close by at the time ; but the se-
cond crew, consisting of seven individuals, all met a
watery grave. They have left nineteen orphan child-
ren and fourwidows. In the last mentioned boat was
James West, master, his son. and a young man, who was
to be married next week to West's daughter.

NARROW EscAPEs.—On Monday evening, the 16th
of October, d ring a severe gale from the south-west, the
smack Yeoman's Glory, belonging to Mr. Gill, M.P.,
Plymouth, went to Mevagissey Bay fur shelter. Having
no ballast on board, her crew possessed little control over
her, and she unfortunately ran into the fi thing-boat Mary,
However, the fluke of the smack's anchor hooked the
boat's gunwale and enabled the owner, John Andrew,
aged 63, and his mate, Thomas Lee, 78, to get out just
before she went down. The smack conveyed the poor
men to Plymouth the next morning, when they were re-
ceived by the offiurs of that useful institution, the Ship-
wrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Society. O❑ the even-
ing, of the 17th John Andrew, who is a a stranger to Ply-
mouth, fell over the Custom-house quay, but the tide
being low, the water reached only,to his waist, and he
thus escaped death by drowning a second time in twenty-
four hours.

GALVANIC ELECTRICITY.—The galvanic apparatus
made by Messrs Kemp, of the South-bridge, was oh Fri-
nay last again successfully asplied to the simultaneous
ignition of a number of shots for the purpose of disinte-
grating a large mass of stone in the quarry of Itosyth
Castle, about two miles above the Queensferry. The shots
were arranged in a line along a ledge of rock 70 feet long,
9 feet broad, and between 7 and 8 feet thick. Being loaded
with moderate charges of gunpowder, and connected by
the conducting wires with a large and powerful galvanic
battery, and all the other preliminary preparations effected,
immediately on completing the galvanic circle, 11 shots,
which had been charged with about 35 b. of gunpowder,
were instantaneously fired, and so great was the concen-
trated power of the simultaneous explosions, that the
whole mass in front of the bores was instantly separated
from contiguous rock ; the separated portion containing a
mass of not less Orin 3,780 cubic feet of stone, and weigh-
ing upwards of 260 tons.—Edinburgh Witness.

ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE ON LONDON BRIDGE --On
Thursday afternoon a most desperate attempt at suicide
was (Dade at London-bridge, by a soldier belonging for-
merly to the Royal Artillery. He precipitated ~imseif
head foremost from the parapet. In his descent he came
with his breast first against the buttress of the bridge, and
fell into the water, nearly into a boat which was passing
at the time, in which was a custom-house officer. The
soldier rose to the surface, and was immediately seized by
the person in the boat, and brought ashore. He was
taken to St. Thomas's Hospital, when he was able to
state that his name was John O'Brien, and that he for.
merly belonged to the 7th battalion of the Royal Artil-
lery, but that ten days since he was discharged for mis-
conduct. He was immediately examined by the surgeon,
who discovered that his breast-bone was broken, and that
his face was greatly contused. On Thursday evening he
was in a state of delirium, and was not expected to live
through the night.

WHAT IS THE END OF CORN-LAW AGITATION?—The
following very happy ex uosition of the fraudulent fallacies
of the Anti-Corn-Law Leaguers, was lately made by
noble lord at an agricultural meeting in Suffolk—Lord
Rendlesham—who so justly represents one of the divisions
of that county. His remarks were to this effect :—" I
cannot for the life of me understand to what end the corn
law agitation is directed. Is it to raise the price of corn, or
is it to reduce it ? If it be the object to raise the price of
corn, where is the Bain to the manufacturer? If it be the
object to reduce the price, why tell the farmers that free
trade will undoubtedly give them a higher price for their
coin, and their labourers better wages? If the price of
corn be raised upon one class, it must clearly be raised
upon all. How are the labourers to gain except at the
expense of the farmers, and how are the farmers to gain
at the cost of the community ; and how are manufacturers
to gain any thing by a free trade in corn, if the effect of
such change is to benefit the farmer and to raise the price
of corn !"

JUNCTION OF THE ATLANTIC AN PACIFIC OCEANS.
—The contract entered into by the Borings, of London,
with the republic of New Grenada, for the construction of
a ship canal across the isthmus of Darien, provides for
ceding to the company the line for the projected work,
with 80,000 acres of land interior. These princely mer-
chants du not appear in this transaction as the agents of
the British government officially ; but they are British
subjects, protected by the government, and, doubtless,
many important advantages will he secured to Great Bri-
tain, both political and commercial, by the completion of
the vast work here projected. The completion of a ship
canal between the two oceans thus projected will mark an
era in the world's age. The event will stand forth to give
a distinctive charac►er to the Century. it is to be a five
years' work to endure for ever. The whole aspect of com-
merce will be changed by it. It will accelerate the revo-
lution now going on in China more rapidly and more
thorougly than all the force of British armament, and not
there only will it work changes, but in all Polynesia and
Australasia, and the western coasts of South America,
which are uow reached by doubling Cape Horn.—Balli-
more paper.

DREADFUL CALAMITY.—CROMER, OCT. IL—This
morning, at about one o'clock, a gale suddenly rose, and
at two it increased to a perfect hurricane. In the after-
noon of yesterday, as the weather was exceedingly fine
and calm, a number of fishing boats, each containing a
crew of four or five men, left Cromer in search of fish,
and, as the elements were highly favourable, there is no
doubt they went off to a gre, t distance, for in such cases
they often push their voyage to an extent of forty or fifty
miles. Many of these boats are open and undecked, and
not more than twenty feet long, and the largest afford but
very slight protection against the weather or other casu-
alties. This morning none of the number that went out
were in sight, and, up to the present hour, two o'clock,
p.m., nothing has been seen or heard of them. There is
one melancholy exception—a boat which contained five
men has been washed ashore at Back ton, near Minsley ;
one body only has been found, and there is not the least
doubt but that the whole crew have found a watery grave.
One poor fellow has left a wife and six children. It is
difficult to ascertain the number of boats absent, but it is
commonly said about twelve or fourteen. Their fate is,
of course, doubtfty, but very serious apprehensions are
entertained on account of them. Some vessels ate in
sight, and one, apparently a large brig, has a signal of
distress (a flag in her main rigging) flying. Messengers
are sent out along the coast, and it is feared dreadful ac-
counts will be brought in in the morning. A vessel, the
Friendship, from Goole, laden with chalk, has also come
ashore at the same place, with a smaller kind of craft
called a billybuoy, which was run ashore, and the mate, a
Cromer man, lost his life.

PRINCE ALBERT'S FARM.—Some two or three years
since the Prince Consort purchased of the executors of
his late Royal Highness the Duke of Glocester an im-
mense tract of land, extending over several thousands of
acres, consisting principally of heath land, in the immediate
vicinity of Bagshot, with a farm attached, known as the
Rapley Farm. Upon this extensive property it is the in-
tention of his Royal Highness to try the experiment of
breeding and rearing the blackcock, or cock of the woods,
which is extremely plentiful in various parts of Scotland.
The splendid live birds which were forwarded to the
Prince as a present from the Duke of Hamilton about two
months ago have been sent to his Royal Highness's do-
mains at Bagshot, where there is every probability that
the experiment of rearing and breeding them will be as
successful as can be desired. The blackcocks which were
presented to the Prince were bred by the Duke of Hamil-
ton upon his Grace's estate in the Isle of Arrar, in the
Frith of Clyde. On Monday afternoon, immediately after
luncheon, her Majesty and Prince Albert left the Castle
in a carriage and four for Swinley, about three miles from
Bagshot, where the saddle horses had been previously
sent from Windsor, and the Queen and the Prince pro-
ceeded from thence to Rapley on horseback, and rode over
a considerable portion of his Royal Highness's property.
The game was found to be extremely abundant, especially
hares, not a gun having been fired on the Prince's estate
during the season. Her Majesty and the Prince returned
to Swinley, and from thence to the Castle in the royal
carriage and four. It is the intention of Prince Albert
to inclose and cultivate a considerable portion of his large
property in the neighbourhood of Bagshot.
Two INFANTS DRUGGED TO DEATH BY A SERVANT.
—On Saturday evening last, a young mother was deprived
of two young children by the culpable, and indeed crimi-
nal, conduct of a servant. TLe facts are shortly these :
Mrs. Rogers, of Bangor-street, Carnarvon, wife of Mr.
Rogers. commercial traveller, being engaged in the shop,
had entrusted her two female infant children, one eighteen,
and the other four months old, to her two female domes.
tics, and, in the course of the night was much alarmed by
one of them being in strong convulsions, and the other
in a dying state. Medical aid was called in, and the ser-
vants subjected to a rigid examination, when one of them
named Ellen Griffith, in whose charge the children were
more immediately placed, stated that she bad given to
them a small portion of gin, in order to make them sleep,
and that was all the explanation that could he extorted
from her. In the course of the night both the children
died. On an investigation before the Coroner, it turned
out that the girl Griffith, in order to keep the children
quiet, had given them nearly a pennyworth of laudanum,
which she had purchased of a druggist. The jury re-
turned a verdict of manslaughter agatnst Ellen Griffith
and she was committed to the county gaol to take her trial
at the next assizes. Circumstances have transpired, in
connection with this event, to establish that the practice
of servants drugging infants committted to their charge,
prevails to a very great extent in Carnarvon, and the
neighbourhood, and particularly on Saturday nights, the
usual time for courting, according to the custom of the
country, One druggist made the degrading confession,
that he generally dispensed laudanum to fifty or sixty set--
ram girls on a Saturday night.