The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-11 00:00:00

YESTERDAY

ACCIDENT AT THE TRAFALGAR DOCK.—On view of
the body of William Southern, a labotiring man, aged
about 30 years. Yesterday (Monday) morning, deceased
was in the act of coming on shore on a stage from the
Countess of Lonsdale steamer, lying in the Trafalgar
Dock, when he missed his footing, and fell into the water.
A rope was thrown to him, but he did not get hold of it,
and he sank in a very short time. The grappling irons
were procured, but he was not found until half an hour
afterwards.

On the body of Edward Watson, a child, son of Wil-
liam Watson, who resides in Cheapside. On Sunday
morning, deceased was put into bed, apparently well, and
in three hours afterwards was found dead. He died front
convulsions.

On the body of Charles M`Farlane, aged five years, who
resided with his parents in Ben Jonson-street. On Fri-
day morning, the clothes of deceased caught fire in a room
to which he had gone by himself, and he was so severely
burnt about the head and neck, that he died on Saturday.
On the body of Richard Jones. aged 60. Deceased
240-

~aged in Grosvenor-street. On thu n of last month,
he slipped in the street, and broke his right leg, of which
injury he died on Saturday last, at the Northern Hospital.

Distrat nrlvs.

NEW MAGISTRATES.—Thos. Taylor, Esq., and Henry
Woods, Esq., of Wigan, have been added to the com-
mission for the county.

ORIENTAL VISITORS.—H. E. the General Eathem Bey
and son, from Egypt, are staying at Manchester, and
viewing its manufFctories.

A young man at Oldham, named John Seville, on Sun-
day last, "to prevent accident," discharged a loaded
pistol which he had in his bed-room, out of the window,
when the bullet shot a little girl, named Haigh, twelve
years of age, on her way to the Sunday school. _

A few days since, as al boat plying on the canal between
Chester and Ellesmere was proceeding to the former town,
it caught the side on entering the locks, and was upset.
The captain and his wife were at the helm, and their two
children asleep in the cabin. The suddenness of the jerk
upset the boat, and the cabin filling with water, the chil-
dren were drowned before they could be extricated.
DIVISION OF LANCASHIRE FOR COUNTY PURPOSES.—
On Wednesday, at the annual session of magistrates,
Mr. Joseph Brooks Yates, of Liverpool, gave notice of a
motion for the sth April next, to the effect that, in fu-
ture, every alternate meeting of the annual session shall
be held at Newton ; and that the sanction of parliament
be obtained to such arrangement as early as possible.
Mr. Yates, while he declined to venture further in ex-
tending his motion, intimated his own conviction that it
would be quite necessary to consider very shortly the
question of the separation of the county, for the transac-
tion of its business, into North and South Lancashire ;
and on this matter he thought legislative interference
must soon take plane.
STATE OF EMPLOYMENT IN MANCHESTER.—The in-

crease of employment during the past week has been very
satisfactory. Within the borough of Manchester 2,400
hands have been added to those hitherto engaged on full
time ; and in the districts about Manchester, including
Ashton, Oldham, Rochdale, Todmorden, and other
places, the improvement has been equally agreeable.
The weekly official return, showing the state of employ-
ment of the whole of the operative classes in Manchester,
gives the following results :—Last week the number of
hands working full time was 27.469 ; in the present week,
29,869. The number in the past week engaged on short
time was 6,394, and in the present week 4,013. The
number of hands wholly out of employment continues
nearly at the relative numbers of the past week. Last
week there were 10,320 hands wholly out of work, and

In the present week the number is 10,373.
Wuo IS EARL ELLESMERE ?—Sir Ralph Egerton, of
Egerton, Malp s, Cheshire, left a son, who became Lord
Chancellor of England, and was created Viscount Brack-
ley; and from him descended the noble House of Bridge-
water • to the immense property of which the present
Earl Of Ellesmere—formerly Lord Francis Gower, and
afterwards Lord Francis Egerton—succeeded. Virtute
non armis fido. Ellesmere (Baron) Egerton, created 1603
as a peerage, became extinct in 1829. The present Earl
was the nephew for the late Earl Granville, ambassador
for so many years at the French Court, and in the familiar
habit of visiting in that city, and in company with the
oldest soldiers in Europe. Lord Ellesmere has also been
a cavalry officer ; and as younger brother of the Duke of
Sutherland, as well as on account of his own wealth and
high connexior.s, has had the advantages of consulting men
of military science and experience, in all the courts of
Europe, and his statements, therefore, on the defences of
the country are entitled to great weight. _

ANNUAL COUNTY SESSION.—Iie adjourned annual
session was held at Preston, on Wednesday ; T. B. Ad-
dison, Esq., chairman.—Applications from several dis-
tricts, for additional police, were agreed to.—The com-
missioners for the three lunatic asylums were re-appointed.
The new rules for prisoners committed under the Small
Debts' Act were brought under discussion, and its future
consideration postponed.—A resolution to extend the
number of newspapers in which county notices are adver-
tised, was brought before the bench by Mr. Thompson ;
the matter was eventually left in the hands of the Finance
Committee.—Notice was given of an intention to bring
forward a motion, at a future session, that the annual
sessions be held alternately at Newton and Preston.—Pe-
titions were presented from various places, praying the
magistrates to relieve them from the great pressure of the
rates. A long conversation succeeded, and the subject of
the county expenditure was very 'warmly discussed, but
without any resolution being come to respecting it.—For
the general purposes of the county, a rate of fel. was
imposed.
MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT.—On Tuesday
Mr. Ainsworth shot a sparrow and gave it to one of his
little boys. In the afternoon at about half-past four or a
quarter to five, he was in the kitchen playing with his
children, when his youngest girl asked him to shoot a bird
for her. Tie replied he was afraid he could not, as they
would all be gone to roost ; but he would try. He then
took down a gun and having loaded it, he went into the
plantation beside his house. lie had been absent but a
few minutes when a female servant heard a person groan
as if in pain ; and on going out she saw her master, who
had just come through a small gate leading to a plantation,
in the act of falling to the ground ; his coat and waistcoat
on his left side being on fire. She ran to support him,
when he ejaculated, Oh ! Ellen," to the servant ; and
assistance having been procured, he was instantly taken into
into the house, where died in about ten minutes. It would
seem that being unable to find a bird to shoot, the unfor-
tunate gentleman was returning through the gate with the
undischarged gun in his left hand, when the trigger must
have caught some part of the gate, and the gun immedi-
ately exploding, the contents were lodged in his left side.
Mr. Ainsworth, who was about 36 years of age, has left a
widow and four children to lament his untimely fate.—
Blackburn Standdrd.
PASSION OF THE LANCASHIRE OPERATIVES FOR
GARDENING.—Most of the cottages at Heywood, if not
all, have patches of garden ground attached or within
easy reach. As in most other parts of Lancashire, the
occupiers of these small gardens are passionately fond of
flowers and a few simple, but highly cultivated fruits.
Chiefest of these in their care. anxiety, and I may say af-
fection, is the gooseberry. I had seen evidence of this
elsewhere, and now I listened to an informant, who,
knowing the people around us well, told of how they rose
in the early mornings of spring and summer to have an
hour among their garden favourites before going to the
factory; how, with half an hour to breakfast, they mea-
sured the time of breakfast by a few minutes, ran to the
gardens to see the flowers and the gooseberries, and again
at the dinner hour, and once more at the half hour for
afternoon tea ; and in the evenings When the day's work
was done, they spent the last hours of sunlight and twi-
' light in the society of one another, and of their cheriShed
plants. Some would go far up the dells by the rivulet
banks with kettles, or such like domestic utensil, to get

.•
some choice sand' of sharp quality, or fresh earth, and
fetch it home on their heads, and lay it to the roots of the
plants of their affections ; others would go out to botanise
and gather rare specimens in the woods, where they would
meet those excellent specimens of mankind, the humble
botanists from Manchester, who travel .to these distant
glens to hold communion with Nature, to gather tha
plants which the hand of God has planted and made curi-
ous ,and marvellous to lead them to inquire ; to gather the
blossoms which the eye of God has looked upon and made
beautiful that they and all mankind might admire and be
devout.—" The Whistler," in the Manchester Examiner*