The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

EXPLOSION OF THE BOILER OF THE LUCIFER

PLEASURE YACHT

I here about half-past nine on Sunday
morning, for a trial trip to Mostyn, with a party of eight
ladies and eight gentlemen. and on her return. throuzh

noon, touching the bank as she came through, the sand
got into the feed pipe, and before the fires could be drawn,
or other precautions taken, an explosion took place, by
by which the boiler anti middle part of the vessel were
torn to atoms. There were five females on the bow of the
vessel when the accident took place ; these fell into the

water, nut were saved by the bdat belimging to the vessel
by the exertions of Mr. M`A.rdle and one or two more,
who kept the ladies up till another boat came to their as-

all aft, clear of the boiler, and by this means were safe, as
this part of the vessel touched the ground, and conse-
quently was above the water. The ladies were taken to
the hotel at Hoylake, where they were immediately put to
bed, and received every attention. Greater hospitality
could not, in fact, have been shown by the landlady and
her daughter. We are happy to add that not one of the

is about 27 tons register burthen, and is'a very fast and
beautiful vessel. She will, no doubt, be immediately re-
paired and refitted. The accident was one of those which
we must place in the category of events which are often
beyond the control or preconception of the most talented
of even those who are conversant with steam. Mr.
M`Ardle, who had command of the boat, and is, we may
add, proprietor, has had a practical experience, as a me-
chanic and engineer of steamers, for nearly a quarter of a
century, and but for the casualty of the sand getting into
the feed-pipe, all would have been as safe as in any
steamer afloat. He deeply laments the occurrence, as it
necessarily produced great alarm on board, and is thankful
to Providence that no loss of life, or injury beyond that
above, accrued from the casualty.

The United States steam-ship brought £6,000 in specie.
She met the steam-ship. Hibernia, which left Liverpool
on the 25th ultimo, going into New York, on the Bth
instant.

DESPATCH.—The ship Fantuil Hall. Captain Bangs,
from New Orleans, with a cargo of 2,083 bales of cotton,
consigned to Mr. Wm. Moon, arrived on Tuesday, com-
menced discharging at one o'clock, p.m., and had all her
cargo passed through the scales at half-past five on Thurs-
day, occupying only the space of fifteen hours for the total

discharge

The lledusa and Merlin, lately employed as steam-
packets between Liverpool and Dublin, and now under
the orders of Sir Charles Napier on the coast of Ireland,
are ordered to Portsmouth as soon as they can be spared,
where they are to be refitted. They are each 889 tons,
and 320-horse power. The Medusa is to be detached
first, and the other is to follow.

APPROACH OF SPRlNG.—Swallows made their appear-
ance in this neighbourhood on Sunday week, the 16th,
and on Thursday last, the 20th, the sweet notes of the
cuckoo were heard in our suburbs, and have been con-
tinued morning and evening since. These arrivals are
both about ten days earlier than last year. They are
generally considered harbingers of fine weather, which we
sincerely hope now to have.

AN AFFLUENT BEGGAR.—An Irishman was brought
before the magistrates yesterday, charged with being found
in the street, the previous day, begging. He was seen in
the Haymarket exercising his profession, and on being
taken to Bridewell and searched, the sum of 10s. lid. was
found in his pockets. Mr. Rushton said the prisoner
must go to gaol for a month, and the money found upon
him appropriated to his maintenance.

A TiEAT.—We may be excused reminding our readers
that the astronomical lecture by Mr. Fisher, in aid of the
valuable schools attached to Christ Church, will be de-
livered this evening, at the Concert-hall. Every one pre-
sent will receive some valuable and interesting informa-
tion, and will also contribute towards liquidating a debt
which presses on the benevolent exertions of the com-
mittee of the schools.

We understand that the Liverpool Church Missionary
anniversary will be held this year on Sunday, May 21st,
and following days. The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel,
the Rev. G. Smith, and the Rev. H. Powell, with others,
will attend as a deputation. Mr. Smith is the well known
author of an excellent work on China, in which country
he was lately a missionary. Mr. Powell was formerly a
missionary in Ceylon, and has been recently appointed
District Secretary for Lancashire.
THE PUBLIC BATHS.—We are glad to find that the
receipts at these establishments in Paul-street have been,
during the present month, nearly thirty per cent. above
those of the corresponding period of last year. The more
they become known, the better are they attended, and the
more highly are their benefits appreciated. Among the
parties who used the baths this month, gratuitously, were
956 children in the Corporation School, 607 children from
the Ragged School, Naylor-street, and 614 soldiers.
LIST OF CABIN PASSENGERS per packet-ship Isaac
Wright, Capt. A. C. Marshall, from New York :—Mr.
Alexander Rankin, lady, two children, and servant, New
York ; Mr. Joseph F. Sunger and lady, Miss Sunger,
Brooklyn ; Mr. Godfrey Pattison, lady, five children and
servant ; Dr. Grenville Pattison and lady ; Mr. Henry
K. Skilding, lady, and Miss Elizabeth H. Skilding ; Mr.
John Gillelan ; Professor William A. Norton and lady,
Delaware Cottage; Mr. Black, Mr. Denniston, Canada;
and Mr. White.

CAPTURE.—Amongst the passengers by the steamer
United States, which arrived here from America on Sa-
turday, we notice Mr. Byron, the agent to the bankers
and merchants of Great Britain. He was despatched to
America last autumn, with instructions from Messrs. For-
rester, of the Mansion-house, London, to search for and
apprehend four men who had defrauded certain banks in
Yorkshire and Scotland. He succeeded in tracing and ar-
resting them at different places in the backwoods, 1,400
miles in the Western States.

STEALING A SACK OF OATS.—Yesterday, a man named
John Day was brought before the magistrates, charged
with stealing a sack of oats. The property belonged to
Messrs. Earle and Co., and was stolen on Wednesday last
from a warehouse in Crooked-lane. It was proved that
the prisoner removed it in a cart, and took it to a house
in Redcross-street, where it was found. The prisoner
was apprehended at his own residence. He admitted the
offence, and said he had been led into it in consequence of
intoxication. He was committed for trial.

ROBBERY OF WEARING APPAREL.--Yesterday, a man
named Wm. Furlong was brought before Mr. Rushton,
charged with stealing wearing apparel from a man in
Marybone. The complainant alleged that he came from
Newton to see his friends, and got into the company of
the prisoner at a public-house in Marybone, where he was
robbed of his money and a bundle of wearing apparel.
The prisoner was carrying the bundle for him out of kind-
ness. It did not appear that the prisoner had taken any
active part in stealing the money. He was remanded for
further inquiry.
SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS.—Yesterday, three youths,
named John Lambert, Thomas Henry Anders, and John
Harlow, were brought before the magistrates, charged on
suspicion of attempting to steal articles from shop doors.
It appeared that on Saturday evening the prisoners were
observed passing through several of the principal streets
in the town, and examining goods that hung at shop doors,
police officer Toole followed them, and knowing they were
persons of questionable character, took them into custody.
The prisoners had been several times convicted of felony.
They were committed to gaol for three months.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES.—In another column we
have stated that the two men convicted at Chester fol
murder made an important confession. We learn that
they have acknowledged that they were the parties who
committed the robbery on the Rev. Mr. German, at Prest-
wich, near Manchester, on the 15th January last, for
which Dan. O'Brian and Michael Connolly ware tried at
the late Liverpool Assizes, and sentenced to fifteen years
transportation. The depositions were sent to Sir George
Grey on Friday night, and Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Camp-
bell Leigh are instructed to apply for the discharge of the
two latter convicts.

JUVENILE HIGHWAYMEN.—Two little boys, apparently
about ten years of age were yesterday placed at the bar on
a charge of stealing a loaf from another boy about their
own age. The complainant, it appeared, was passing
along Netherfield-road on Saturday night, with the loaf
under his arm, when the prisoners made an attack upon
him, knocked him down, and endeavoured to take the
loaf, but were unable to succeed. The boy who had
charge of the loaf stood nobly in his own defence, and
eventually succeeded in getting away, when he gave in-
formation to the police. and the prisoners were appre-
hended. One of thew had been previously before the
court.—Mr. Rushton ordered them to be sent to the
overseers.

STABBING.—A seaman named Robert Jones wasbrought
before the magistrates, yesterday, charged with stabbing
one of his shipmates—William Rogers. Both parties be-
longed to the ship Andrew Foster, and it appeared that on
Friday night the prisoner was ill-using a man at a board-
ing-house ; the complainant remonstrated with him on
the impropriety of his conduct, and gave him a push,
when the prisoner drew a knife and stabbed him in tne
breast. The wound was not considered of a dangerous
character. The prisoner in his defence alleged that he
had been first assaulted, and drew the knife in his own
defence. He was fined £5, and in default of payment to
be imprisoned two months.
1 ;CURTAIN LECTURES IN STORE.—An Irish emigrant, in
going in a boat, on Saturday, to get on board the ship in
which his wife and family were going with him to the
United States, being slightly elevated with whisky, drop-
ped his purse, containing forty sovereigns, into the Dock
Basin. His own wailing over the unfortunate occurrence
was, of course, sufficiently loud, and the language addressed
to him by his fond partner was anything but complimen-
tary. Epithets were showered upon him unfit for ears
polite to hear, and as, his passage being paid, he proceeded
in the vessel, the journey is likely to be the reverse of
pleasant. The grievance will most likely keep too, and
form the subject of many an evening's lecture and morn-
ing's salutation, in the land to which the poor wretch has
departed.
FATAL ACCIDENTS. On Friday morning Richard
Morrow was driving a horse drawing a loaded waggon,
along the railway of the North Dock works, for the pur-
pose of emptying it, when he stumbled and fell down
lengthways on the rails. He caught hold of the chains,
and was drawn some distance along the road, when, un-
fortunately, his body was thrown across the rails, and
two of the waggon wheels went over him and fractured
both thighs. He was taken to the Northern Hospital,
where he died of his injuries the following day.—About
three weeks since, Henry Davies, a lad, 15 years of age,
who belonged to one of the Duke of Bridgewater's floats,
was playing in a timber yard at the Potteries, when, in
endeavouring to get a stick from under some deals, which
were piled up, three of the deals gave way and fell upon
him. He was taken to the Southern Hospital, where it
was ascertained his skull was fractured, of which injury
he died on Friday last.
Parties wishing to purchase or rent country houses will
meet with opportunities by applying to Mr. Williams, _of
Ranelagh-street.

MRS. BUTLER'S READINGS FROM

SHAKSPEARE.

This talented lady presented us, last night, at the Col-
legiate Institution, with the first of a series of six dramatic
readings which have attracted so much notice in the me-

tropolii. The prices of admission to the institution were
raised on the occasion, to meet the considerable expense
attendant upon such an engagement. The audience, how-
ever, was a most numerous and fashionable one, shewing
at least that, if amongst a large portion of the inhabitants
of Liverpool, stage performances are not encouraged, it is
not from any want of appreciation of the mighty genius
of our great bard. The attention throughout the reading
was most marked, and the applause of the audience meted
out from time to time with great discrimination.
The play chosen for the first of the series—Macbeth—
is one, the delineation of the leading characters in which,
by the sole remaining dramatic scion of the Kemble
family, possessed peculiar interest, from the circumstance
that, as with respect to others of the plays of Shakspeare,
a difference exists amongst both critics and actors as to
the true meaning of the poet ; and that amongst the latter
are ranged the uncle and aunt of Mrs. Butler—John
Kemble and Mrs. Siddons—whose delineations of their
respective characters are opposed to the reading of the
leading tragic actress of the present day, Miss Helen
Faucit. The Macbeth of John Kemble, though a fine
impersonation, as every character in his hands must have
been, was yet but a cowering and irresolute tool in the
hands of his wife, who, as pourtrayed by Mrs. Siddons,
was a strongminded, imperious woman, void of conjugal
affection, and seeking only the gratification of her soaring
ambition. The Lady Macbeth of Miss Helen Faucit is a
totally different character ; and to meet the requirements
of the piece, her husband must be differently regarded.
We shall, perhaps, best describe the views of the latter
lady by quoting the following argument from Fletcher's
Studies of Shakspeare," a very talented critical work,
recently published, the writer of which appears to have
closely studied and appreciated Miss Faucit's admirable
reading of the play :

" It has been customary to talk of Lady Macbeth as of
a woman in whom the love of power for its own sake not
only predominates over, but almost excludes, every human
affection, every sinpathetic feeling. Had Shakspeare in-
tended so to represent her, he would probably have made
her the first contriver of the assassination scheme. It is
true that even Coleridge, in his " Literary Remains," de-
sires us to remark that, in her opening scene, ' she evinces
T hus-