The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-16 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

The King of Prussia has accorded a renewed grant of
fifty thousand thalers (£7.500) for the completion of the
Roman Catholic cathedral of Cologne. His majesty has,
moreover, dedicated a sum of ten thousand Orders
(£1,500) to the works on the north tower.

At the assizes for the Department of the Seine, E. D.
Cadot, a youth of 18,-was charged with procuring the
murder of his father, a rich banker, by the promise of
100.000 francs to his assassin. The tent ptat'ons were his
father's wealth, and his father's mistress, the latter a
servant girl, to whom both were passionately attached I
Ile son was acquitted—the assasiin convicted.
THE ITALIAN INSURGENTS.—The Gazette of the Two
Siciltes, of the 25th ult. states that five more of the insur-
gents who landed in Calabria have been arrested, and that
all arc now in custody, but the names of only a few of
them are given. A Leghorn letter states that the two
sons of Admiral Bardim a are among the insurgents who
have been arrested in Ca'abria.

It is stated in letters from Turin that the railway be-
tween that city and Genoa, with two branches between
Venice and Milan, has received Royal sanction. It is to
be executed at the expense of Government, and the Coun-
cil of State have given directions that it. shall he immedi-
ately marked out. L' Industrie, Calaisien alludes with
regret to the rejection by the Chamber of Deputies of
the branch line from Hazebrouck to Arras, even on the
second application.
Moaocco.—According to some of the Paris papers au-
thentic accounts have been received of the dismissal, by
the Emperor of Morocco, of the two general officers who
headed the Moorish troops in their late attacks on the
French camp at Lalla Magronia. It is also said that
strong hopes are entertained of a speedy arrangement, as
the French government does not demand the expulsion of
Abdel Kader from the Moorish territory, but his immedi-
ate removal from the Algerian neighbourhood, and the
assitnation of a fixed residence for him under the respon-
sibility of the Emperor, in one of the towns of the most
distant frontier.
QUICK TRAVELLING.—Extract of a letter dated Co-
tome, Monday evening, July B.—" The rapidity of tra-
velling between this place and London is now wonderful
in the extreme. I left the Tower yesterday at eleven
o'clock, and here I actuallv am on the second evening at
Coloo'ne on the Rhine. There has, besides, been nothing
like hot haste' in the matter ; on the contrail • every-
thing has been done quietly and comfortably. You are
aware that I embarked on board the steamer Antwerpen,
having been assured at the office in London that we should
arrive at Antwerp on Monday morning in ample time for
the railway train for Cologne, and I certainly was not
misled. 'We landed before eight o'clock, and all of our
passengers who wished to do so, and they were certainly
almost the whole, including many persons of high rank,
got away by the train and reached Cologne with me after
about 30 hours' travelling. Who -would have believed
this even 10 years ago ?"
NEW ZEALAND CANNIBALISM. The Journal des
Debals publishes the following from A karort, in. New Zea-
land, dated January 28 :—" Probably, before me letter ar-
rives in France, you will have learned that the Mahouris,
a tribe of Zealanders, have killed thirty English of this
colony; but you, perhaps, will not know that the bodies
of these unfortunate men were eaten. This is but too
true. We had been out on a hunting party for a week,
when, one evening, we arrived among the friendly tribe of
Terauparaa, or Mahouris, and found them regaling on
human flesh. We all conceived that they were eating
some captives or slaves of their own nation. As I under-
stood the language I could not resist expressing my indig-
nation, end threatened them with chastisement from the
crew of the corvette. The savages, alarmed, endeavoured
to appease me by saying, ' They are not men of Mabouri
that we are eating, but some Yes, yes,' for it is thus they
call the English. They then showed us the head of their
victims, and among them I recognised that of Captain
Wakefield, one of the distinguished inhabitants of Port
Nicholson, who had ent. veined us at his own house
when ae went to the town to procure provisions. I was
seized with horror at the sight. My companions blamed
me for having risked irritating the cannibals, as we were
only five against two hundred. But they gave us con-
fidence by saying, 0! the Oui, oui, (for so they distin-
guish us,) are good people, but the Yes, yes are very
wicked.' They then related that they had killed the Eng-
lish because they wished to establish themselves in a bay
which they had not purchased, and which the Mahouris
are unwilling to give up. We then retired, withour hearts
full of horror and disgust."
- -

The Indian papers, brouebt by the last overland mail,
record a shocking instance of mortality in a " Cooly ship,"
employed to bring back from Mauritius a number of
Coolies whose time had expired. When she left Calcutta
to go to the Mauritius with 210 Coolies (the full number
permitted,) she only lost three of them, including a wo-
man, who died in child-birth. When she returned, she
brought 270 Coolies—nearly a third more than her per-
mitted number—and of these she lost 17. To the fact
that so much more than the proper number were carried,
do the local writers, who take the humane view of the
question, attribute the increase of mortality, and the
melancholy event gives them an opportunity of contrast-
ing the conduct of the public authorities at the Mauritius
with that of the authorities at Calcutta, to the disad-
vantage of the former. At Calcutta, as we have seen,
no more than the right number could be shipped, and
there are at the same place a variety of regulations
concerning the supply of provisions for the voyage.
At the Mauritius, on the contrary, no such regula-
tions seems to exist, or, if they did exist, they are
completely inoperative, and the assertion is well borne
out that afti r the engagement of the Coolies have expired
all concern for their welfare ceases. There appears to be
no necessity for providing medicine or medical attendance,
and all that the captain is bound to furnish is a pound and
a half of rice daily, two pounds of salt fish per week (which
is found positively injurious) and some salt and wood,
with accommodations for cooking. No regard is paid to
the number of Coolies put on board, and the owners may
cram their vessels as much as they think fit. Thus; while
every precaution is taken on the voyage from India to the
Mauritius through the humane exertions of the Bengal
authorities, the very reverse is the case on the voyage
back. The Government of India is totally powerless in
this matter, and the local writers urgently call for inter-
ference of the home government. In two ships,it seems,
no less than 61 persons have perished.
EXECUTION BY THE GUILLOTINE.—On the Bth inst.,
Pierre Lescure, who was accused of the murder of his fa-
ther, but not brought to trial for want of sufficient evi-
dence, and who has since been condemned to death for
making away with his uncle, was executed at Thom (Puy-
de-Dome.) The circumstances attending the execution
were most horrifying. Being a man of herculean strength,
he was bound in prison with an unusual weight of chains.
It required at least half an hour for thiesmiths to unrivet
them. Lescure was much weakened by his confinement;
and assistance was offered to him in walking to the
scaffold ; but he declined it and went .forward, nod
even ascended the ladder with a firm step. Fearing
resistance, the executioners of St. Fleur and Moulins
were called in to aid the executioner of Riom. When
Lescure appeared on the platform, his tall and athletic
person towered above them and the priest who attended
him. Unfortunately he was not bound with suffiejett force
to the swing-board, which was also too short for hn length,
FO that his neck went beyond the groove, and the axe,
when loosened, fell on the wood of the frame, and only
wounded its intended victim. Upon this, the.executicner
from St. Fleur get astride on the head of Lescure, but
the convict struggled from the grasp, and breaking his
bands, rose again, with his shoulders and breast covered
with his blood, his face flushed, and his eyes haggard,
uttering cries that s,ruck terror to the breast of every
spectator. The priest approached the wretched man,
and, presenting to him the image of Christ on the cross,
succeeded by hiy exhortations in prevailing on him to again
submit to be bound. Again the axe fell, and sgain
missed its mark, only enlarging the first wound. Lescure's
cries became st 11 more astounding. 'the people shouted
with indignation, and, pressing round the scaffold, were
on the point of overcoming the Gendarmerie in attend-
ance, while the priest, whose surplice was covered with
blood, embraced and did all in his power to console the
mutilated man. The three executioners were for a time
paralysed ; but at last one of them mustered resolution
to fix the devoted head in a proper position, and the axe,
already streaming with blood, fell a third time, and com-
pleted its task. The three executioners are, it is said, to
be dismissed from their offices.—Galignani' Messenger.