The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

HUMBOLLOT'S OPINION RELATIYE TO SIR JOHN
FRANKIN.—A correspondent of an American paper,
writing from Berlin, relates an interview with Humboldt
the savant, when the following opinion as to the fate of
Sir John Franklin was accidentally elicited from him ;
" He thought it quite probable that Franklin had not
perished, but was still shut in by the ice, and gave several
facts of voyagers whom he had seen, and who had been
for long seasons so detained in the northern seas. The
Esquirnaux of the cost, lie said, were not at all dangerous;
Franklin was well supplied with provisions, and would pro-
bably yet return to give an account of his voyage. Indeed,
the report that the Esquimaux Indians had said that some
vessels had long been fast in the ice, away off to the
north, seemed to be fully confirmed."
A TRAP FOR A THIEF.—One of the men in Mr. Biggs's
tobacco manufactory, Bristol, having discovered, on Fri-
day morning, a parcel of. about 31bs. of snuff secreted
away under a chest in a room, where it could only have
been placed for dishonest purposes, informed the foreman,
who told him to leave it there, attach a string to it, con-
vey it behind the chest to a room on the second floor, and
tie it to a stick, which served as a sort of float, for the
party hurriedly removing the parcel below, must pull the
string, and give the signal up stairs. As the men were
leaving the manufactory, the ma:. on watch saw the float
dip, and running down stairs, secured the parcel on the
person of a man named George Roberts, and with the
string still attached to it. The act was complete, and the
line of evidence connected. Roberts, who was one of the
workmen in the warehouse, was, brought up before the
magistrates on Monday, and committed for trial.
A MOTHER ATTEMPTING TO DROWN THREE CHM-
DREN.—A woman, named Higgins, the wife of a wheel-
wright in London, attempted to drown her three children,
aged respectively seven years, five years, and five months,
and to terminate her own existence by the same means,
on Monday evening. She was distinctly seen to approach
the water of the Regent's Canal and put her two youngest
children softly into the water, after which she plunged in
herself, dragging the third child with her. A young man,.
named Rollins, who was attracted to the spot by the
alarm, succeeded in saving the lives of all the parties.
The mother. whose distress seemed very great, regretted
that she and her children had not been allowed to perish,
and ascribed her commission of the act to the misconduct
of her husband. She was brought up in custody at the
Marylebone police court, on, Wednesday, and remanded
for a week, preparatory to being sent for trial. The
magistrate praised highly the conduct of the witness
Rollins, who is a painter at 6, Devonshire-street, Lisson-

A BAILIFF'S EXPEDIENT TO EFFECT AN ENTRANCE.
We are informed, upon good authority, of an amusing
circumstance which recently took place in the neighbour-
hood of Nottingham. A bailiff, after several ineffectual
attempts to effect an entrance, for certain purposes, into
the "oastle " of a county surgeon, hit upon the following
expedient to accomplish his end :—After concealing his
men as near the house as possible, he habited himself as
a jolly country farmer, with his face well tied up, as if
suffering from toothache, and thus accoutred, he easily
gained admittance into the surgery of the unfortunate and
unsuspecting .Esculapian. As may be supposed, the suf-
ferer was in no very particular hurry to undergo the very
painful operation which the practitioner wasabout to per-
for and used every expedient to afford his men time to
come up. The doctor, however, was called aside by his
boy, who told him, " Mester, they've done yon ; the men
c.iming towards the house." Upon which the former
returned to his patient, on a pretence to • examine his
mouth, and revenged himself by drawing a sound double
tooth, thus consoling himself for having been so dex-
terously over-reached.—Nottingham Mercury:
TEACHING ROMANISM.—The Brighton Guardian re-
ports an extraordinary meeting of the committee of the
national schools in that town, at which the bishop was
present by invitation, with forty of the clergy and princi-
pal inhabitants, to inquire into a charge made against the
the schoolmaster of teaching Romish doctrine. The pro-
ceedings-were opened by Sir T. Blomfield, who charged
Mr. Daymond that he " Denied that the Church of Rome
was Antichrist,. or Babylon ; that he had expressed an
opinion that it was the duty of Romanists on the •Conti-
nent to remain in that church instead of coming out of her ;
that Christ was with the Church of Rome, not in the same
degreerbut as truly as with the Church of England ; and
fourthly, that the Romanist should enter into the services
of his Church, but not to say ' Amen' to those things of
which he disapproved. He would move, " That the senti-
ments advocated by Mr. Daymond are opposed to the
great principles of the Reformation, to the Church of Eng-
land, and to the Word of God, and therefore the committee
had come to the painful resolution that he was unfit to be
intrusted with the education of Protestant youth." In
consequence of some suggestions, the resolution was
altered by the mover to an expression of Mr. Davmond's
unfitness to remain any longer a teacher in the school.
FRAUD UPON THE ADMIRALTY.—At the Bow-street
police, London, on Friday, William J. R. Smith and John
Chappel Bouchier, said to be an officer in the army, were
charged with a novel fraud. The prisoner Smith, it was
stated, had been a clerk in the Admiralty, and had learnt
there, among other matters, that it was customary to pay
the masters or agents of vessels bringing home distressed
British seamen from the colonies an allowance of Is. per
head per day during the voyage. In the present case, a
document purporting to be written and signed by the se-
cretary to the governor of Ceylon, and another document
signed by Walter Bevis. as master of a vessel, had been
presented at the Admiralty to substantiate a claim for
£53 155., by a person who represented himself as the
agent of the vessel. These documents were sworn, by
those who knew the handwriting of Smith, to be appa-
rently written by him. The man who presented them
was followed by a police inspector, who was set to watch
him, into Chancery-lane,, where he met Smith, and
shortly after they were joined by Bouchier. Smith and
Bouchier were soon after apprehended; but the third party,
who had applied at the Admiralty, escaped. There was
no evidence to implicate Mr. Bouchier in the fraud, and
he was therefore liberated on his own recognisance, and
the case remanded for a week.
THE TAILORS.—The public are now pretty well aware
that there is a fearful amount of injury committed against
the working classes thrcughout the kingdom, not by their
rulers, nor by the owners and distributors of wealth, but
chiefly by persons who have sprung from their own class,
and who tyrannise over them by wringing from their toil-
worn hands a portion of their fair wages, that these harpies
may spend it in luxury. Among the tailors this is espe-
cially the case, and mach exertion is now making to bring
about a reform of this system. A public meeting, presided
over by the mayor, was held in the Tailors' Hall, Bristol,
on Wednesday evening, which filled the Hall to the very
court below, which:was crowded by men vainly endeavour-
ing to gain admittance; some of the most respectable
master tailors in the city attended, to countenance and
assist the workmen by taking part in the proceedings,
which were conducted in a manner most worthy of com-
mendation. Those laborious, long-suffering, and as we
cannot doubt, ill-used men, appeal to the public and to
Parliament to rescue them from the grinding tyranny by
which they are kept to hard work, and steeped in hopeless
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DISTURBANCE AMONG THE WESLEYANS.—A terrible
disturbance took place on Tuesday night, at the Langton-
street Wesleyan Chapel, Bristol. It would seem that the
Rev. Messrs. Dunn and Griffiths, two of the expelled
Wesleyan ministers, having made preparations for preach.
ing in that city, the Rev. the President of the Conference,
Mr. Jackson, invited the members of the Bristol South
Circuit to meet him at the Langton-street Chapel, with a
view to hearing from him an explanation of the matters in
dispute, and a vindication of the Conference policy. The
admission having been by ticket of membership, the full
particulars of what occurred within the walls of the sacred
edifice have not transpired, but it is known that there was
a very great disturbance, in the course of which (as some
contend prematurely) the police of the Bedminster division
were sent for. As soon as the president and some of the
ministers ascended the platform, they were assailed with
loud cries for the admission of Mr. Dunn. The president
attempted to speak, but not a word could be heard from
the incessant clamour of the majority of the congregation,
who demanded the admission of the expelled ministers.
Other ministers tried to get a hearing, but with no more
success, while Mr. Griffiths, a brother of the expelled
minister, who applied that he mislit be admitted to hoar
the charges against him, was beard with tolerable patience,
as were some other parties who spoke on the same side.
The president and others at length declared the meeting
dissolved, and left the building, having previously given
notice that a meeting of the North Circuit, announced for
the following evening, at Ebenezer Chapel, would not be
attempted. On Tuesday night Mr. Dunn preached at
Bridge-street (Independent), and Mr. Griffiths at•Ledge-
street (Independent) Chapel, both of which places were
crammed.
ADVENTURES OP A STRAY SHIP.—It will be in th
re"ollection of our readers, that on the 9th of' January,
the Talbot steamer, plyiag between Bristol and Carmar-
then, when off the Sker Point, ran foul of the French
vessel L'Hirondelle, laden with a valuable cargo of oil.
The vessel was left in a sinking state (as was then ;impo-
sed), and the Talbot, after receiving her crew on board,
proceeded on her voyage. From the 9th to. the 30th ult.
no trace of the missing vessel was discernible, but on the
last named day, intelligence was published in Lloyd's
list, that the still floating hull of the lo!Hirondelle had
been discovered between the Smalls and Bishop's Rocks.
In the meantime, however, the Talbot was seized by an
agent of the Admiralty, on behalf of the ow:.er of the
L'Hirondelle, and the directors of the company were
compelled to enter into a bond of £l,OOO compensation
for the loss of vessel and cargo. This procedure stimu-
lated the energies of the directors to make diligent search
for the vessel. Their agent, Mr. North Rees, did this,
and made a rigid investigation in all the ports from Mil-
ford northwards throughout Cardigan Bay. During this
week, Mr. Rees was informed that a vessel somewhat
answering the description of the L'Hirondelle, had been
seen beating about outside Cardigan bar. He was ulti-
mately successful in coming up with this fugitive of the
ocean, finding her hull high and dry on Towyn sands, in
Merionethshire. Her masts and sails were all gone, but
the hull had received scarcely any damage. Sixty-four
hogsheads and pipes of oil were landed, which bad not
received any injury, and eight more which were partially
damaged. Mr. Rees also found two watches in the
cabin, together with the men's wearing apparel, and a
number of chains, cables, anchors. &e. It would thus
appear that this vessel had alone, unguided, undirected,
drifted about for at least thirty days,, exposed to the vari-
ous storms which
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