The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-24 00:00:00

SHOOTING A GAMEKEEPER.—Two men, name:l J,.hrt
and Richard Baxter, have been committed to Chester, for
trial at the assizes, on a charge of shooting an assistant
gamekeeper to H. Ackers, Esq., in Moreton. Other men
have since been taken into custody.
On the 20th September the barque Saint Mungo, on
her homeward passage from Calcutta to Newcastle-nn-
Tyne, was wrecked on the Point of Cape L'Agullas, and
ten of the crew were drowned. The loss is estimated at
£25,000.

Three men were suffocated on Saturday night week, at
Dal-land, near Chatham, throuzh a quantity of charcoal
having been placed in their bed room to warm it. From
their appearance when found they must have died instan-
taneously on entering the room. The eldest was only
t wen ty-two.
At the Bury St. Edmonds Assizes, three men were
found guilty and sentenced to death, for the murder of a
policeman on the 30th July. The deceased having beard
cf a robbery intended to be committed by the prisoners
was on the night in question on the watch for them, and
being discovered was shot by them.
THE WOLVERHAMPTON CASE.—On Wednesday, at
Stafford assizes, Jane Railton was indicted for concealing
the birth of her child, and John Sherif and Jas. flildreth
with abetting her in such concealment. The prosecutor's
counsel ffered not to bring any evidence against Miss
Railton if she would be a witness for the prosecution,
but this was declined. The prisoners were actpiitted.
At St,ifford, two youths, 17 and 19 years of age, were
sentenced to death for tin- murder of a young man named
Cooper, who assisted his father as under-garnekeeper,
in
the employ of Sir T. Boughey, at Audley. Tire act ap.
pears to have been instigated by revenge against the elder
Cooper, who had caused the murderers to be imprisoned
for poaching.

EIGHT MEN OF WAR COMMISSIONED.—On Saturday
eight British men of war were commissioned :—The
Actaeon, 26, frigate; Racehorse, 18; Persian, 16; Acorn,
16, sloops; and Ranger, 6, brie, at Devonport—Lily, 16,
sloop, at Portsmouth—Comus, 18, sloop; and Fantome,
16, sloop, at Chatham. It is probable that the English
navy never was in such an efficient state as at present.
THE SHORTEST DAY.—The shortest day this year
was not on the 21st December, but on the following one,
the 22d. On the 21st the sun rose at Bh. 6m. and set
3h. 51m.: on the 221 it rose at Bh. 7m. and set at 3h.
51m. ; consequently the 22d was one minute shorter than
the 21st, the commonly called shortest day. The sun
set 2 minutes earlier on the 17th than on the 21st.
At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, Hew Burn,
the captain of a barque called the Himalaya, was tried and
found guilty of a misdemeanour under the provisions of the
Merchant Seamen's Act, the sth and 6th of William IV.,
chap. 19, and fined in,the sum of £2O, for unlaw-
fully having forsaken and abandoned, at Port Nelson, in
the island of New Zealand, George Robert Roe, a seaman
on board a certain vessel of which the defendant was the
master and commander.
THE STOCKTON FORGERS.-011 Thursday last, at the
Durham Assizes, Russell and the two Watsons, father
and son, were tried for forging notes of the Stockton and
Durham Bank. The younger Watson having pleaded
guilty to the charge was called as Queen's evidence for
the prosecution, and the jury, without much hesitation.
after a long trial, found the prisoners il, d they
were sentenced to twenty years' transportatguionty. an
Buglass_,
who was tried for uttering five pound notes, was sentenced to be transported for fifteen years.
SINGULAR CASE.—A good-looking woman, aged 23,
was tried at York assizes for bitamy. It appeared that
she was married five years ag e when only 18 years of
age, to a man named Vvoodhead, who, at the commence-
ment of the present year, off.:red her for sale in the public
market at Leeds. She was purchased by William Idle, to
whom she was shortly afterwards married. The first
husband was in court. The jury found the prisoner
guilty, but strongly recommnnded her to mercy. She
was sentenced to be imprisoned one month.
FIRE AND Loss OF LIFE.—On Saturday last a fire
broke out in the residence of Mr. T. Fairy, Guildford_
street, Russell-square, London. The house was soon
enveloped in flames, and the interior, with all its valuable
contents, was destroyed. When the fire was subsiding,
two constables entered the hall, and were about to try to
make their way to an interior apartment, it having been
stated that some of the inmates were missing, when, at
that moment, the floors fell in with a tremendous crash,
and the unfortunate men were buried in the burning
ruins. Two other men were a'so killed.
DEATH OF MISS CLARA WEBSTER.—In our last we
gave an account of a deplorable accident, by burning, which
happened to this young lady while performing at Drury
Lane Theatre. The hopes entertained of her ultimate re-
covery have proved to be fallacious, as she expired at about
three o'clock on Tuesday morning. At ebout six o'clock
on Monday evening it was apparent that a change for the
worse had taken place; she became delirious. She talked
incoherently, and was continually counting " one, two,
three, one, two, three," until death put a period to her
sufferings.
CARELESSNESS.—On Wednesday last, at Exeter, be-
fore Baron Alderson, Humphrey Harvey was indicted for
having killed William Hale, by shooting him with a gun.
It appeared that the prisoner had drawn the charge of
the gun, but, unknown to himself, had left a few shot in the barrel. He put the gun over a hatch-door and dis-
charged it. He immediately discovered, to his great
grief, that he had shot a boy, who was standing in the
road. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, but not of
malice aforethought, Mr. Baron Alderson : " Gentle-
men, there is no such charge. If it is not carelessness
for a man to fire a gun across a road with a child before
him, the sooner I get out of Devonshire the better, for I
should not be safe. With the punishment you have no-
thing to do." The jury then found the prisoner guilty,
and he was sentenced to be imprisoned one month.
LOST BANK NOTES.—The amount of Bank of En-
gland notes lost and destroyed, and for which the bank
will never probably be called upon to pay, is estimated at
nearly £700,000. The following digest of a recent re-
turn to parliament shows the exact amount and descrip-
tion of these notes. No bonus has ever yet been divided
to the proprietors of the bank for the notes lost or de-
stroyed. Between the 4th of March. 1843, and the sth
January, 1844, a total amount of £695,571 was excluded
from the returns of notesin circulation as lost or destroyed;
of which, the sum of £126,321 was represented as notes
of £5 and upwards, and £269,257 as notes of £1 and £2.
The total amount of notes which the directors estimate
as lost from the establishment of the bank, in the year
1694, to the sth January, 1844, is £507,279. All the
notes comprised in this total have been outstanding for
more than 30 years. The additional sum of £188,299,
which makes up the total of £695,578 mentioned above
excluded from the returns, has been outstanding for more
than 15 years, and is therefore considered to be out of
circulation ; but the bank, of course, is liable to pay every
note that has been issued.
DREADFUL Conetsrost.—On Tuesday afternoon, as
the Sylph steamer, 50 tons, was proceeding down to
Woolwich during a dense fog, she was struck and nearly
cut in two by the Orwell (Ipswich steamer), 150 tons.
Immediately on the Orwell receding from the Sylph,
three of the cabin passengers were carried to the surface
by the rusls of water thus created. They were picked up
by the boats in attendance, as well as the crew of the
..371ph, and numerous deck passengers, who had been
washed overboard. One of the officers of the Orwell
rushed on board the sinking vessel, with an axe in his
hand, and rescued two persons who were wedged in be-
tween the broken timbers and the vessel's side. These
were also taken on shore. Some children were picked
up, and taken on board the Orwell. One person had his
skull frightfully fractured, one eye knocked out, and a
leg and an arm broken ; he is since dead. Another man
and three young women were taken on board the Hospital
Ship, with wounds and severe contusions. The man has
since died, but the women, having had their wounds
dressed, were sent home. Several other women and chil-
dren, more or less hurt, as well as being immersed in the
river, were taken to different public-houses. The Sylph
is of course sunk, and only her funnel is visible.
GREAT BOAT RACE.—The great boat race between
Robert Coombes, the champion of the Thames, and
Henry Clasper, the champion of the Tyne, took place on
Wednesday last, at Newcastle, but ended in a dispute.
The match arose out of the great four-oared cutter con-
test on t'. :e Thames last season, in which a crew of the
Claspers (brothers), though beaten in the first instance
by the Coombes's and others, beat the second picked lot
with apparent ease, and it was thought that had their
steerage been better kept they would have defeated both
parties of London men. The present match was to run
five miles on the Tyne, for a stake of £lOO on the
Coombes, and £BO from his opponent, with an addition
of £lO allowed by the latter for expenses. Coombes took
with him from London a beautiful wager wherry, weigh-
ing under 401 b, while that of his opponent resembled the
cutter in which the Claspers rowed at the Thames regatta,
and almost as light. Money in London had been laid
out. at 5 and 6 to 4 on Coombes; but at Newcastle, a few
days previous to the race, there was but a trifling call in
favour of him. Coombes claimed the prize as won easily,
but the other party refused on Wednesday afternoon to
give up the stakes, alleging that a London waterman made
a signal to him. The decision of the referee was given on
Thursday, and was in favour of Coombe,.
EASTER IN 1815.—The Rev. G. D. Wheeler, vicar of
Walford, thus simply, but clearly, reconciles the alleged
discrepancy between the calendar and almanacs on this
subject. He says, ".True it is that the full moo, may
fall on the 23d of March, and that the rubric is correctly
quoted, and yet the almanacs are correct in their asser-
tion that the 23d of March is Easter-day ; the reason
being, that the pascal or ecclesiastical full moons do not
always fall on the same day of the month as the teal full
moons, a circumstance referred to in the Prayer-book, in
the table to find Easter, from the year 1900 to the year
2199. In order to explain this briefly, it must be stated
that the day on which the pascal full moon will fall is
fixed by the metonic cycle or golden number ; but that
cycle being framed on a calculation slightly inaccurate, it
follows that after a course of years the difference between
the time of the full moon as found by the cycle and its
real time will amount to a whole day, and that difference
will on some rare occasions produre the variation of a
whole week in fixing the proper day for the festival of
Easter. To obviate the necessity of remedying this inac-
curacy by continual changes of the cycle, and to secure
at the same time uniformity in the observance of Easter,
it was ordered by an act of the 24th of George 11., that,
during the present century, those days in the calendar,
between the 21st of March and the 18th of April, against
which the golden numbers are set, should be held to be
the dal s of the pascal full moon by which Easter is go-
verned, as indicated in each year by the golden number
for that year. Now, the golden number for 1845 is 3;
and that number in the calendar stands against the 22d of
March, which is consequently to be taken as the pascal
full moon, and Easter will fall upon the following Sundaiov,---,_
according to the rubric; that is, on the 23d of MaiONN.,z :N..:
stated in the almanacs. L.`
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