The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-03-12 00:00:00

FAILURE OF A CHARGE OF ABDUCTION ON A POINT OF
LAW.—At the Newcastle assizes, before Baron Rolfe,
W. Blyth was charged with abduction. The prosecutor
was a hawker at Long Town, Cumberland, and occa-
sionally travelled to Berwick-on-Tweed. He had a
daughter named Mary Ann, about 15 years of age. On
the 13th September last, the prosecutor was at Berwick,
and on sending his daughter out on an errand, the pri-
soner induced her to go with. him, and she was away a
night and day. The case, however, was stopped by his
Lordship in consequence of the prosecutor not being able
to tell the exact age of his daughter. The prisoner was,
therefore, acquitted.
BLINDNESS OF A CHILD CAUSED BY BEATING.
the County Court of Cornwall, on Tuesday week,
action of damages was brought against William Brabyn,
a schoolmaster in Withiel, by a boy named Nicholas
Lobins, nine years old, who, in consequence of a beating
inflicted on him by Brabyn, had lost his sight. The wit-
nesses proved that the defendant had struck Robins
several times on the head with a stick, and that the boy
had been ill ever since, his health having been remarka-
bly good previously. The medical gentleman who had
attended the plaintiff stated that, when called in, he found
the boy labouring under symptoms which led him to sup-
pose that there was pressure on the brain. These symp-
toms were succeeded by blindness and deafness. The
jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages £2O.
FICKLE AND FAITHLESS.—At Marlborough-street the
other day, a fair one applied to the magistrates under the
following circumstances :—On Ash Wednesday she was
to have been married, and had arranged to meet her in-
tended on that day at the church, St. George's, Hanover-
square, for the purpose of going through the ceremony.
Owing to some mistake as to the time, the clergyman
could not marry them on that day, and Cie}, were obliged
to postpone the ceremony till the following Sunday.
Her intended went down to Reading, where he lived, and
on Saturday last he was married to another woman. The
applicant produced the license which she had received
from her faithless admirer, which was in the names of
James Wickens and Elizabeth Draper, widow, and wished
to know whether she could not have some redress tor the
injury she had sustained ? The Chief-clerk said, if she
estimated the damage she had sustained at less than £2O,
she might proceed against the man in the County Court ;
if at a higher sum she must consult an attorney. She
thanked the chief-clerk and left the court.
AN ORNAMENT TO SOCIETY.—At the Thames police-
court, on Wednesday, a respectable-looking man, named
William Harvey, and described in the sheet as an outfitter,
residing at 58, King-street, Stepney, was brought up
amongst the drunk and incapables. A constable named
Sheridan found him on the previous night in Jubilee-
place, wholly incapable of taking care of himself. Mr.
Yardley.—How is it, Mr. Harvey, that a man of your
appearance should be found in so disgraceful a position ?
Mr. Harvey.—lt is all the consequence of my superiority.
I am the ornament of the society to which I have the
honour to belong. Look here, sir (taking out a hand-
some silver snuff box bearing an inscription), I had this
as a token frcm them that I'm an ornament to my society
(loud laughter). Mr. Yardley.—Your position in the
dock is not very ornamental, in any point of view, social
or individual (renewed laughter.) Mr. Harvey.—That
may be, and yet it is all owing to my superiority. The
fact is we were discussing some nice points in the society,
and I carried my arguments against all my opponents.
The consequence was, that those whose views I sustained
gathered. round me, and I must have a drop with one, and
a drop with another. Mr. Yardley.—Until at last vou
had a drop on the pavement (loud laughter). Well, Mr.
Harvey, you may go. The ornament of his society then
left the court, with a most self-satisfied air.
THE EXPERIMENTAL BALLOONS.—The largest of the
balloons despatched from the Admiralty on Friday last,
carrying with it 2,500 slips or messages, has been very
successful. The first lot of slips were liberated over
London, at an elevation of between 3,000 and 4,G00 feet,
and some of the slips fell in Lower Thames-street, some
in Bethnal Green Cemetery ; others were found on the
Surrey side of the water, and down the river side to near
Greenwich, affording evidence that the first lot were
scattered over an area of several miles. From the nume-
rous slips of paper returned to the secretary of the
Admiralty, from different places, the balloon appears to
have taken the direction of Woolwich, Gravesend, and
Rochester, and then crossed for a short period into Essex,
and again altered its course for Maidstone, Cranbrook,
and Dungeness, which it left in the direction of the French
coast. In travelling to Dungeness, according to the time
it was seen there, it had dropped 1,200 of the slips, and
1,300 remained for further distribution. Some of the
parties who have returned the messages to the Admiralty
have particularly requested to be informed whether "it
is all right," or "if some person has not been playing a
joke mein them." One lady states that her daughter
found the slip of paper in her garden,
.and she was confi-
dent it was not there the night before; bet how it came
there she did not know.—Times.
THE ARCTIC SQUADRON.—As so much public attention
is absorbed in the cruising expedition of Sir John Franklin,
and the ships now in search or about to proceed in search,
of the gallant officer and his companions, it will be
interesting to learn the number of ships and men engaged
in the Arctic service. They are as follow :
Ships. Guns. Men. Commanders. Route.
Erebus 3 CO Capt. Sir J. Franklin. North-west.
Terror 3 68 Capt. Crozier. Ditto.
North Star 2 63 Mr. Saunders, R.N. Ditto.
Enterprize
Investigator
Plover 4 52 Commander Moore. Ditto.
Resolute 4 CO Capt. Austin, C.B. Fitting for N.W.
Assistance ...
2 30 Lieut. Osborne. Ditto.
Intrepid
Lady Franklin 2 25 For North-west.
Sophia 2 25 Tender for ditto.
Thus it will be seen that there are no less than twelve sail
(exclusive of boats and men and travelling parties in the
Hudson's Bay Company's territories) engaged in the
Arctic service; and in which the lives of more than 600
officers, seamen, and marines, of the royal naval and
merchant service, are perilled. The Plover, we believe,
is to be surveyed in the Pacific, and, if found defective,
will be sold on the station, and the officers and men sent
home, or taken on board the other ships.
Ai ELOPEMENT.—Gossip has been busy for the last
few days with the story of a young lady's elopement from
our town with a gentleman, who, until lately, held a
commission in Her Majesty's service, and whose depriva-
tion thereof has been the subject of a good deal of news-
paper and pamphlet discussion. The circumstances, as
far as we have been able to collect them, are these :—On
Monday, the 25th ult., the young lady in question, during
the absence of her father at Berkeley Castle, whither he
had gone on a visit to Earl Fitzhardinge, left her home
unknown to her family, who did not discover her absence
until late in the evening, when instant application was
made to the proper authorities. Through the exertions
instituted by the police, it was next morning found that
the fair inamorato had taken shelter for the night at the
residence of the ex-Captain above alluded to, whence she
was conveyed back to her own home. Here she con-
tinued until Saturday, early in the morning of which day
she again eluded the vigilance of her family and house-
hold, and went off a second time, nor had she down to
yesterday been heard of since. It is generally thought
that, as the object of her supposed affection had left Chel-
tenham for London on the Thursday, the young lady's
journeyings have taken the same direction, and on this
presumption her father proceeded thither in quest of his
daughter. What success has attended his inquiries we
have not yet heard.—Cheltenham Chronicle.—[lt is said
that the parties in question are Captain Douglas and a
daughter of Mr. Elliott, of Cheltenham.]
CASE OF POISONING.—Some weeks after Christmas
last an old man, named Samuel Tunnicliffe, formerly a
weaver, and who resided in a small cottage of his own at
Bullerton, went to reside at Swinscoe, near Ashbourne,
with a young man named William Chadwick, who had
married his nephew's daughter. Not feeling comfortable
in his new situation, he intended returning to his cottage
at Bullerton, but he became unwell, and died after eight
or ten days' illness. After the old man's decease, Chad-
wick, instead of employing a joiner or undertaker to
provide a coffin, took the dimensions of the body himself,
and had the coffin made to order. He then screwed
down the lid with his own hands, and had the deceased
buried in the churchyard of Blore. Immediately after
this he started for Bullerton, and claimed the old man's
property, which consisted of a dilapidated cottage and
two plots of land, valued at about £6O. Tunnicliffe had
nearer relatives, who at the time were in possession of the
property, and circumstances had raised a suspicion that
be had been foully dealt with, the body was exhumed.
and the stomach and intestines subjected to a chemical
analysis, the result of which allowed that the deceased
had been poisoned. On the inquest which ensued, be-
sides the preceding facts, it was proved that Chadwick
had asked for arsenic at the shop of a druggist in Ash-
bourne, shortly before the old man's death, stating that ,
he wanted it to poison rats and mice. It was also proved
that when Tunnicliffe was dying, Chadwick pressed him
to sign a deed, which, however, he did not do, and that
during the illness of deceased, Chadwick gave him his
drinks. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful
murder against Chadwick, who is in custody. He is a
remarkably tall man, with a heavy sluggish expression of
countenance, and his occupation is that of a labourer.
He betrayed no emotion during the proceedings, but is
said to have made statements since, calculated materially
to strengthen the evidence against him.

SCENE BETWEEN MR. RAMSHAY AND MR. BARON
ALDERSON.—In a trial at Lancaster last week, for an
alleged robbery of a man by an abandoned woman, a
stormy altercation arose between Mr. Ramshay and the
learned judge, of which a Lancaster contemporary gives
the following account :—A question asked by Mr. Ram-
shay, of the prosecutor relative to the place whither he
accompanied the prisoner, his Lordship characterised as
" studiously ambiguous," and this formed a series of
wranglings until the case was completed. His Lordship
asking Mr. Ramshay, " for Heaven's sake to go on or else
go out of court," and Mr. Ramshay rejoined that he bad as
" much right in that court as his Lordship, and he would
not go out," as well as a perfect chaos of " I have my
rights as well as your Lordship," " now go on Mr. Ram-
shay," "not while I am interrupted, my Lord," ensued,
In addressing the jury for the defence, Mr. Ramshay
alluded to the allegation of "studiously ambiguous ques-
tion," and denied that he had ever asked a question of
that character in his life, and he felt called upon, as a bar-
rister of some standing on that circuit, to repel the impu-
tation. Mr. Baron Alderson said he did not intend to
use the word offensively. Mr. Ramshay—lt cannot but
be offensive. His Lordship—Well, if you won't take any
explanation, I can't help it. Mr. Ramshay, in continuing
his address, said that a person who could use " studiously
ambiguous" questions was unfit to move in society. Re-
verting to the case, and the question which had provoked
the expression, he remarked that his Lordship and Mr.
Milne might rake up the filthy details of the case, but he
would not.—Mr. Baron Alderson (repeating the words,
" his Lordship may rake up the filthy details of the ease") :
You have no right to insult me. I beg to say that I will
not submit to any such insults.—Mr. Ramshay—lt was
not intended your Lordship, as an insult, but a proper