The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

somewhat unnecessary announcement that, under all cir-
cumstances, he thought he should be the last person to
advise her Majesty to make an alteration in the commer-
cud policy which of late years had been pursued.
We need hardly remark that, in the present instance,
the importation of these foreign goods could in no way
"stimulate the production or exportation" of any kind
of British manufacture whatever. The articles in ques-
tion were sent from Franca, at a time when everything
was unsaleable, and were sold in London for hard cash,
at a heavy discount. Even Cobden need not have grudged
this little encouragement to Spitalfields and Bethnal
Green. He did not sell a yard of calico the less. Gold,
and not shirting, was what the French wanted, what they
bargained for, and what they received. But let us see a
little more of the sympathy of the Leaguers for the poor,,
and respect for the sovereign, who surely might be left, in
matters of this kind, to exercise some discretion of her
own.

Colonel Thompson, representing an exporting con.
stituency, was furious at the alleged interference. "He
would ask whether there was any charity, any humanity,
any policy, any common sense in representing hostility to
one portion of the manufacturing classes of the country,
to come from a quarter of which he was sure no one in
that House wished to speak otherwise than with feelings
of the utmost affection and reverence ?" We are not
sure that we quite understand this outburst of the gallant
Colonel, which we copy verbatim from the columns of the
Spectator, but, as he talks about charity and humanity
with reference to his waistcoat and pantaloon exporting
constituency of Bradford; we take him to mean that that
favoured place should flourish, and Spitalfields utterly
disappear. This is pure Leaguer's doctrine, distinctly
redolent of the Bastile !

Mr. John Bright was also true to his order. The par-
tisan of peace opined that " there was no difference be-
tween driving out workmen, and keeping out their work;
though no order had been issued to exclude foreign work,
yet the effect of the order really given is, that French
silks, which have have been consumed, will not be used,
and English taken instead. It should be known, that
from the late convulsions, the contingent depression of
trade, and the low price of French silks in France, very
large quantities of them have been purchased and brought
to this country. The announcement in question might
there entail great loss on large capitalists, and ruin on
many of smaller means. The kindness to the Spital-
fields weavers would then be done only at a cost of loss
and injury to other classes." Quite right, Friend Bright !
the first persons to be guarded are your speculators and
your capitalists. The poor operative, who is not in your
line, may starve for any thing you care. There is a pro-
tective spirit about this, which absolutely charms us.
We wonder that Mr. Bright did not on a former occasion
foresee that the repeal of the corn-laws might entail great
loss on large proprietors, and ruin on many of smaller
means !

EXTRACTS FROM MR. D'ISRAELI'S SPEECH,
ON WEDNESDAY, IN THE HOUSE OF COM-
MONS.

THE FOUR BUDGETS

Well, Sir, we had at last the fourth budget. (Laugh-
ter.) We had, some time ago, the Government of all the
talents ; this is the Government of all the budgets. (Re-
r ewed laughter.) Alas for this fourth budget ! it came
late, and at a moment when we wanted glad tidings ; but,
unfortunately, it was not characterized by the sunny as-
pect which was desired by its proposers. I shall never
forget the scene. It was a very dreary moment. There
was a very thin house—the thinnest, I suppose, that ever
attended a ceremony so interesting to every country, and
especially to a commercial and financial country like
England. I never saw a budget brought before an at-
tendance so gloomy and so small. I was irresistibly re-
minded of a celebrated character who, like the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, had four trials in his time, and his last
was his most unsuccessful. I mean the great hero of
Cervantes (laughter) when he returned from his fourth
and final expedition. The great spirit of Quixote had
subsided (a laugh) ; all that sally of financial chivalry
which cut us down at the beginning of the session, and
which trampled and cantered over us in the middle, was
gone. (Renewed laughter.) Hon. gentlemen will re-
member the chapter to which I refer, which describes the
period when the knight's delusions on the subject of chi-
valry were being dispelled. The villagers, like the Oppo-
sition (a laugh), were drawn out to receive him ; and
Cervantes tells us, that although they were aware of his
weakness, they treated him with respect. (Great laugh-
ter.) His immediate friends, the barber, the curate, and
the bachelor Sampson Carrasco—whose places might be
supplied in this house by the First Lord of the Treasury,
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade (laughter)—were assembled,
and with demure reverence and feigned sympathy they
greeted him, broken in spirit, and about for ever to re-
nounce those delightful illusions under which he had sal-
lied forth so triumphantly ; but, just at that moment,
when everything was in the best taste, Sancho's wife
rushes forward and exclaims, " Never mind your kicks
and cuffs, so you've brought home some money." (Loud
laughter.) But that is just the thing that the Chancellor
of the Exchequer has not brought. (Cheers.) Such was
the end of the fourth and final expedition, and such is the
result of the fourth and final budget. (Laughter.) The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, during the whole session,
has been bringing home barbers' basins instead of knightly
helms ; and, at the last moment, true to his nature, to
his vocation, and to his career, he finds instead of surplus
a deficiency, and, instead of reducing taxation, he com-
memorates his second year of finance by a second loan.

INCOMPETENCY OF MINISTERS.
Having endeavoured to persuade the house that the
alleged causes of the present unsatisfactory state of affairs
are not the real causes, it will be my business to ascertain
what are the true causes. In my opinion it is not difficult
to discover those causes. They are not remote ; they are
not hard to find; nor are they difficult to exhibit. lam
willing to admit that gentlemen opposite, as far as per-
sonal qualities are concerned, need not, upon the whole,
shrink from competition with any body of men in this
house who may reasonably be called upon to administer
the government of the country ; but I must say that, if I
be asked the cause of the great evil at issue—this avowal
of political incompetency in the institutions of the coun-
try—l find the cause there. [The hon. member here
pointed to the Treasury bench amidst the lcudest cheers.]
I see there a body of men who acceded to power without
a parliamentary majority. I think that they were justified
by the exigency of the case in acceding to power ; nay,
that their conduct was in accordance with the practice
and the genius of the constitution ; but though they were
in the first instance justified in taking office without a
parliamentary majority, they are not justifiable in retain-
ing it under such circumstances, and their having done
so has occasioned two results, both of a very serious de-
scription. In the first place, we have a Cabinet which
cannot propose their measures with a conviction that they
will be carried. (Hear.) After all their deliberations—
after all their foresight—after all their observation of the
times—after all their study of the public interest, when
their measures are launched from the cabinet into this
house, they are not received here by a confiding majority
—confiding I mean in their belief in the statesmanlike
qualifications of their authors, and in their sympathy with
the great political principles professed by the members of
the administration. (Hear, hear.) On the contrary, the
success of their measures in this house depends on a vari-
ety of small parties who in their aggregate exceed in
number and influence the party of the ministers. The
temper of one leader has to be watched—indication of the
opinion of another has to be observed—the disposition of
a third has to be suited ; so that a measure is altered, re-
modelled, patched, cobbled, painted, veneered, and var.
nished, until, at last, no trace is left of its original scope
and scheme ; or it is withdrawn in disgust by its origina-
tors after having been subjected to prolonged and elabo-
rate discussions in this house. (Cheers.) This is one of
the great causes of that waste of public time which, in
these days, is as valuable as public treasure.

• THE " BILLS OF MORTALITY."
There had been this session 45 public committees of 15
members each, 28 election committees of five members
each, 14 groups on railway bills of five members, 17
groups on private bills, and 111 committees on private
bills of five members each. The committee on commer-
cial distress sat 39 days • that on sugar and coffee, 39 days;
that on navy, army, and ordnance expenditure, 40 days ;
and that on miscellaneous expenditure, 37 days. There
had, too, been presented 18,500 petitions. Such were
the statistics. Parliament had been summoned at a time of
a great commercial crisis, when famine was upon the land
—when trade was dead—and when the great commercial
dynasties of England were hurled from their high posi-
tions—and Parliament was especially summoned to inquire
into the causes of that distress ; but with the exception
of a desultory debate on the address, and one on the
motion forced upon Mr. Herries-by the conduct of the
government in authorising the infringement of the Bank
Charter Act, the discussions on commercial distress occu-
pied no portion of the house, and could therefore not be
accused of having wasted time.

PRESENT CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The House of Commons as it is now conducted, is a
great committee, sitting on public affairs, in which every
man speaks with the same right, and most of us with the
same weight. No more the disciplined array of tradi-
tionary influences and hereditary opinions—the realised
experience of an ancient society and of a race that for
generations has lived and flourished in the practice of a
noble system of self-government. Nothing now of this,
and we are to be compensated for the future by other
qualities—the conceits of the illiterate—the crochets of
the whimsical—the violent course of a vulgar ambition
that acknowledges no gratitude :to antiquity, and to
posterity no duty—until at last this free and famous par-
liament of England is to subside to the low-water mark
of those national assemblies and those provisional con-
ventions that are at the same time the terror and ridicule
of the world. Sir, I trace all these evils to the disorgani-
sation of party. The system which is now pursued is a
system opposed to those party and traditionary influences
which hitherto have been the life-blood and spirit of the
House of Commons. lam not charging the gentlemen
opposite with a departure from that spirit, but I charge
them with adopting a system of which they may be the
unwilling administrators, but they are no less responsible
for its consequences. If you persist in this system, the
consequences will be, that you will realise events such as
no revolution ever succeeded in accomplishing—such as
no conspirator in any of those midnight conclaves which
you have of late disturbed ever had the audacity tadevise.
Iknow of no political combination that can long withstand
these deleterious and sapping influences, and it appears to
me that those public men who have hitherto administered
the fortunes of the country will be swept from the public
scene. For my part, I protest against this system. I
denounce it even at the eleventh honr. I call upon the
country to brand it with its indignant reprobation. But
whatever may be its consequences, I have had the satis-
faction of attempting to place in a clear aspect before you
the causes of this great national evil.. I have more—l have
had the consolation of justifying this great assembly,
wherein it is my highest honour to hold a seat, and vin-
dicating in the face of Englund the character and conduct
of the House of Cignmons.—(Loud cheers.)

&neat 2%llordlawn

Mr. Justice Coleridge has described the new Court at
Bristol as " the perfection of inconvenience."
Among the members initiated into the Orange order at
Bradford was Lord Melgund, an officer of the army.
A new Roman Catholic Chapel at Thurnhaus, near
Kirkham, was opened on Tuesday.
The quantity of malt charged with duty in the twelve
years ending 1845, was 306,195,758'bu5he15.
Mr. Easam, of Sutton-upon-Trent, has found that
mustard sown amongst wheat is an effectual cure for the

wire worm.
The number of lives lost by the wrecle of fishing boats
during the late gale on the eastern coast of Scotland was
upwards of a hundred.
On Friday night and Saturday morning there were no
fewer than eleven fires in London within six hours ; but
fortunately no persons sustained any bodily injury.
The Sicilian Government has forwarded orders to Eng-
land for several hundred large rockets, on the plan of Mr.
Hale, by which they are fired without a staff.
The Parliamemtary Committee of the Council on Edu-
cation have resolved to devote £30,000 for workhouse
schools.
A man has been fined forty shillings at Marlborough-
street police-court for pulling down some voting papers
from the door of St. James's Church, Piccadilly.
After an exciting and extremely well-played gamer the
Salop Cricket Club beat the Liverpool Club on Tuesday,
on the Shrewsbury race-course, by 16 runs.
The execution of the convict Kelly, who shot a woman
in the barrack-yard, Newport, took place yesterday week,
at Monmouth gaol.
Dr. Ullathorne was, on Thursday, enthroned bishop of
the new Roman Catholic diocese of Birmingham, in
terms of the rescript received from the Pope.
At the petty sessions lately held at Swindon, a distress
warrant was ordered to issue against the Great Western
Railway Company, for the non-payment of poor-rate, in
the parish of Highworth, amounting to £9O.
Mr. Maurice Bright, a member of the Sheffield Town
Council, committed suicide on Tuesday, by cutting his
throat. The death of a son, the illness of his wife, and
the depression of trade had unsettled his mind.
Some Bokbara clover, nine feet in height, is now grow-
ing in a garden in the nighbourhood of London, and some
Surrey farmers propose to attempt its cultivation on a con-
siderable scale.
LIEUTENANT MUNRO.—It is said that this officer will
very shortly be restored to the rank which he formerly
held in the army, but with the understanding that he
forthwith dispose of his commission.
Last week, Mr. Haffiade, a farmer, of Hathfield, Sus-
sex, went into his garden and ate a ripe plum, in which
was, what afterwards proved to be, a wasp, which stung
him in the throat. He died in three quarters of an hour.
On Friday week, the wife of Mr. John Ford, master
cooper, of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, destroyed herself
and her infant child, by first cutting its throat and her
own, with a razor.
The great heraldic lantern in the north hall at Stowe,
which was sold on Wednesday for 32 guineas to a hotel
keeper at Tunbridge Wells, cost the Duke of Buckingham
one thousand pounds !
The Ebberston estate, consisting of a residence, small
park, farms, woods, and a large tract of waste moor-land,
the whole 12,600 acres, between York and Scarborough,
has been sold to W. W. Caley, Esq., for £190,000.
Mr. William John Hancock, for a considerable time
an Assistant poor law commissioner and inspector, died on
Wednesday last, at Sutton, near Howth, of typhus fever,
caught in the discharge of his duties.
Two swallows have built their nests under one of the
paddle-boxes of a steamer which plies between Yarmouth
harbour and Yarmouth roads, and the hen has already
laid three eggs in this singtilar place.
In the course of a single day, at the beginning of last
week, there arrived in London no fewer than 89 vessels
wholly or partly laden with foreign corn ; and the total
quantity of grain imported on that day is estimated to
have exceeded 50,000 quarters.
COMPETITION !—At a meeting of the Monmouth
Town Council, held on Wednesday last, tenders were
received for a trifling job of plastering and repairing some
houses in St. Mary-street, the highest of which was
£l4 17s. 6d. and the successful one £4 15s

A fearful thunder storm passed over the metropolis on
Thursday night, which drove some of the inhabitants of
Kingsland out of their houses in terrible alarm. The rain
fell in torrents, and the roads were in many places rendered
impassable, except for carriages.
Some few days since, a youth, working at the Pentwyn
Works, Pontypool, after completing his daily toil, amused
himself by flying a paper kite, and while walking back-
wards, viewing his aerial machine, he fell into a coal pit,
and was killed.

Fifty-eight Chartists, who have been in. custody some
time, were, on Tuesday, committed for trial by the Bow-
street magistrates. First and foremost was the valiant
Cuffey, who was so prominent a member of the National
Assembly ; he laughed during the whole of the time he was
in court, and treated the matter with the utmost indif-
ference.

Four Chartists, James Bezer, Snell, Crowe, and Bryson,
tried at the Central Criminal Court, London, for sedition,
were on Monday sentenced to be imprisoned in the House
of Correction for two years, to pay a fine of £lO each to
the Queen, and at the expiration of their imprisonment to
enter into their own recognisance in £lOO, with two sure-
ties in £5O each, to keep the peace for five years.
The Wheat Harvest is over around this neighbourhood.
A large portion of it has been damaged by long exposure
to the weather; but in some situations, where the opera-
tions of the reaping-hook did not commence until lately,
the labours of the field have been lighter than elsewhere,
and the produce less affected by the untoward season.
The Turnip and Mangold Wurzel crop is everywhere very
bountiful, and the pasture lands are full of grass.—Taun-
ton Courier.

RATHER PREMATURE.—On the morning which had
been fixed upon for the execution of Burton, at Hunt-
ingdon, a packet of tolerable size arrived at the station in
that town, directed to some one unknown : as it was not
called for, at the end of ten days it was opened, and
found to contain a large quantity of the " last dying
speech and confession of Charles Burton," ready for im-
mediate circulation, but which the respite which he had
received rendered of no service.

An " Irish Row" occurred at Leicester on Sunday
night. It arose out of a quarrel between an Irish reaper
and a shoemaker. It is estimated that nearly 100 Irish-
men took part in the fray. A strong body of police were
despatched to the scene of the fight in Abbey-street, and
37 men and two women were taken into custody. A ser-
geant of police was severely wounded in the thigh by a
sickle, and another was struck on the face with a brick.
Various weapons were taken from the prisoners, or picked
up after the fray.

DREADFUL MURDER OF A LITTLE GIRL BY HER
BROTHER.—Lucy Game, four years and a-half old,
daughter of Wm. Game. servant to Mr. Greg, of Coles-
park, West-mill, Herts, has been most cruelly murdered
by her brother, William Game, nine years old. The lat-
ter was left in the house to take care of the deceased and
two younger sisters, whilst their mother and an elder sis-
ter were gleaning; and because deceased would not stay
in the house whilst he went to look for his mother, the
boy William got a loaded gun, shot his sister, then struck
her body several times with a stick, and afterwards muti-
lated it with a bill-hook.

At Guildford Assizes, William Harris, aged 27, was
tried for the murder of his mother, by beating her and
casting her on the ground. Mother and son were a dis-
solute pair ; in March last, they left a public-house in
Guildford, at night, intoxicated ; next morning the wo-
man's body was found in a shed near a limekiln, bruised
and covered with blood. From the evidence of men who
slept that night in the limekiln, it appeared that Harris
had been beating his mother, and had repeatedly thrown
her on the ground. The Counsel for the prisoner urged
that he had assailed his parent in a moment of excite-
ment, and that his offence did not amount to murder.
The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter only.
At the Central Criminal Court, Thomas William Snape
was indicted, by direction of the Lords of the Treasury,
for having unlawfully induced William Jacobs to promise
him £2OO for the use of his influence in obtaining a
Government appointment. Mr. Jacobs advertised,
offering £6OO for a post under government. Snape was
a junior clerk in the office of the Queen's Remembrancer ;
he answered the advertisement, and required that £2OO
should be paid down for " preliminary expenses ;" but
this was not done. Snape had no influence, apparently,
by which he could have obtained a situation for Mr.
Jacobs. The prisoner pleaded guilty. In consideration
of his being discharged from his post for this misconduct,
he was sentenced to be imprisoned for one month only,
and no fine was imposed- _ _

The Montrose Standard publishes a statement to show
that the forgeries with which Lord Arbuthnott is charged
were the work of an insane man. The grand jury at
Stonehaven, who returned a true bill for forgery, made a
representation to the Lord-Advocate of their belief that
the offender was insane : they had wished formally to
inquire into the point in their capacity as jurymen, but
the clerk of arraigns told them that they could only con-
sider the matter of fact, and on that they found a true
bill. It has been the conviction of his intimates that
insanity had been making advances on Lord Arbuthnott
for many years. It is traced to an accident in 1829, when
he was thrown from his gig, and his skull fractured, so
that pieces of the frontal bone had to be removed; a
surgeon then foretold the ruin of the mind.
AUTOGRAPH MSS. OF Loup BYRON.—A few interest-
ing autographs of Lord Byron occurred in a sale which
took place on Saturday at the rooms of Messrs. Puttick
and Simpson, the auctioneers, of Piccadilly. We extract
from the catalogue the following lots :-863, " The Curse
of Minerva," 13 pages 4to, entirely autograph, sold for
£4 4s. 865, The poem. " Waterloo," from the French,
4 pages 410 entirely autograph, sold for £4 15s. 866,
Lines written on a cup formed of a skull, 2 pages 4t0.,
entirely autograph, sold for £7. 867, Lines on the Elgin
marbles, 2 pages folio, sold for £3. 809, Three leaves,
being the opening lines of " English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers," sold for £5. Amongst the other MSS. in
the sale were some illuminated missals. Of these the
most worthy of notice was :-855, An illuminated missal
exhibiting a combination of French and Flemish art,
which sold for 80 guineas.
CONSIDERATION FOR A BAN KRUPT.—III tho case of
Stephen Davies, a collector of taxes at Southwark, it was
urged to Mr. Commissioner Fane that the bankrupt's
certificate ought to be suspended, as he had been a bank-
rupt before, and consequently ought to have been more
cautious in his trading transactions, whereupon the learned
commissioner made the following observations :—" It is
not because a man has been a bankrupt twice that I should
punish him. I shall do no such thing, for surely it is
mini more difficult for a man who has been a bankrupt to
struggle through the world than one who has never failed,
and therefore can more easily obtain credit. I think a
trader once having become a.bankrupt is the more likely
to fail again. I am, not to be told that a man because he
has been a bankrupt is not to try to obtain his livelihood,
and that he is to lie down on his back, open his mouth,
anciAilut his.eyes,.and see what God will send him.,"

THE POTA'T'O CROP IN ScorLANn.—A gentleman has
just travelled upwards of 400 miles through the Highlands
of Scotland without seeing or hearing anything of the
potato disease, the crop being largeand flourishing. In
the Lowlands the disease has manifested itself to some ex-
tent, but it is by no means general.
SWARM OF BEES IN A DRUGGIST'S SHOP.—On Mon-
day last, a large swarm of bees entered the shop of
Messrs, Walker, druggists, High-street, in this town,
and took entire possession of the window. An attempt
was made to hive them, but as the queen-bee was not
with the swarm, that object could not be accomplished.
It was ultimately found necessary to destroy the whole
swarm.—Doncaster Gazette.
Mr. Adams, late banker at Shrewsbury, came before
Mr. Commissioner Daniell, at Birmingham, yesterday
week, for certificate under his bankruptcy. His honour
refused the application, observing that the bankrupt had
lived in wilful extravagance, spending for years £4OOO per
annum of the money of those persons who deposited with
him for safety, and no consideration of family or station
in life ought to• have induced him to have so spent the
money.

SIfaRING HORSES.—At a meeting of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society, Professor Sewell remarked that he had
found old horses shod with a layer of leather, forming an
artificial sole, between the shoe and the hoof, recover
from the severe affections causing injury to the hoof—such
as contractions brittleness, sand-cracks, or disease of the
foot itself—as thrushes, canker, corns, &c., and perfectly
regain it original elasticity and firmness. The mode in
question had been practised by Professor Sewell for the
last thirty years.
EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF POISONING. At the
Central Criminal Court, on Monday, two respectable
women, mother and daughter, both married, were tried,
on the Coroner's inquisition, for the wilful murder of the
child of the younger prisoner, whose death, as it trans-
pired on the trial, was occasioned by the mistake of a
surgeon's apprentice, who compounded arsenic for calo-
mel, as was evident enough from the testimony of two
chemists, who in the post mortem examination found the
poison in the stomach, but not the calomel as prescribed.
Mr. Baron Platt said it was useless to proceed any further
with the case. They were not sitting there to justify
medical men, but to justify the poor women at the bar.
His lordship then, with considerable warmth, said there
did not appear to be the slightest ground for the charge,
and it only showed what might be done by a coroner's
jury. A verdict of Not Guilty was at once returned, and
the learned judge ordered the prisoners to be immediately
discharged.
SCOTCHMEN V. IRISHMEN.—The following letter,
bearing the signature of "An Indigent Highlander,"
appeared in The Times of Tuesday :—ln your paper of
the 18th current a comparison is made between the re-
bellion in Scotland of 1745 and that of Ireland at the
present time. In the latter case 5000 are said to have
run away from 50 policemen ; in the former case 2,500
not only gave battle to a regular army of more than their
own numbers, but totally defeated them with the loss of
their artillery. An attempt is also made to show that the
two people (Celts), are in other respects the same. Most
unfounded notion. Look to the potato famine, it was
nearly alike in both countries ; many millions were spent
in Ireland to feed an ungrateful people ; in Scotland
scarcely any claim was made on government, and of the
charitable subscriptions not one-half (apportioned to
Scotland), was called for; in fact, the great mass of
Scotchmen still retain a portion of that laudable pride
which makes a man feel that he would rather " die at a
dyke side than be dependent on charity."
THE POTATOES.—In the House of Commons, last
week, Lord John Russell said " with regard to the potato
crop in Ireland and the crops generally, the Government
had received reports, both through the Poor-law Com-
missioners and the constabulary. * * In some instances,
where it was supposed the potato crop was gone, it had
returned, and he believed he might say that a very con-
siderable part of the crop appeared to be good. That ex-
pectation, however, might be disappointed, and therefore
they must just wait the course of events. Still he be-
lieved he was entitled to say that the state of the crop ap-
peared to be more favourable now than it was a short
time ago." This is highly satisfactory. And so is another
fact, elicited by Sir C. Burrell, who asked whether the
amount of land planted with potatoes this year in Ireland
was eight times greater than the year preceding. Lord
John Russell did not own to quite so large an increase in
in the space under cultivation, but he nevertheless " be-
lieved the increase to be in the proportion of eight to
three"'

OUR Foon PROSPECTS.—Thanks to the undeserved
bounty of Providence, an agreeable change has taken
place in the weathar. Sunshine, accompanied with a brisk
drying wind, has been the characteristic of almost every
day last week. The effect upon the crops, the harvest re-
ports, and the markets has been most cheering. The corn,
(the greater part of which had been cut,) has been very
largely stacked. The upward tendency of prices has been
checked. And the farmers report both wheat and potato
crops more favourably than the apprehension and gloom of
the past month had allowed. In Mark-lane, on Monday,
a rise of only 3s. a quarter was established ; and on Wed-
nesday prices were the turn downwards. At Liverpool,
Leeds, and Hull, on Tuesday, a check was given to higher
prices. At Boston, on Wednesday, prices fell from Is. to
2s. for old, and 3s. for new, which is described as being
"in fair condition." At Birmingham, on Thursday, a
similar fall is recorded. And at Wakefield, on Friday, a
fall of Is. was realised. The newspaper reports of the
weather and crops published during the past week are si-
milarly gratifying. Even in Ireland, favourable accounts
are now given of the crops ; and it is even anticipated that
there will be a sufficiency of food for the people throughout
the approaching winter and spring.
MODE OF EXTINGUISHING FIRES AT SEA.—Dr. Reid,
of London, in a letter to a metropolitan contemporary,
has made some suggestions for the extinguishing of fires
at sea, which would seem to be worthy of attention. Dr.
Reid says,—" Flame or combustion cannot go on where
there is carbonic acid gas. This is one of the elementary
principles of chemistry. The production of carbonic acid
gas is completely at our command, for on adding dilute
sulphuric acid to chalk, we can set at liberty, in the space
of two or three minutes, enormous volumes of the so-called
fixed air. The cost of material for a ship of 1,000 tons
would not exceed, at the utmost £l5 or £2O sterling. By
means of tubes proceeding from the upper deck in con-
nexion with a cistern containing the dilute sulphuric acid,
to the quarters below where there is most likelihood of
danger from fire ; or moveable hose (made of gutta percha),
which can be introduced into any part of the vessel—the
oil of vitriol, previously diluted with water, can be at once
poured over the chalk (which is thrown down in the place
where the fire rages), and immediately, the carbonic acid
being set at liberty, the fire is extinguished ; for combus-
tion cannot go on in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas.
I have been much occupied experimenting on this subject,
and find that from five tons of chalk as much carbonic
acid may be obtained as will be sufficient to completely
fill a vessel of 1,000 tons burden. The expense of laying
the tubes will not exceed thirty or forty pounds, and once
laid, there is no further trouble or expense. Lightning
conductors are provided for ships—surgeons, also, to teke
care of the health of the crew—assuredly no expense (and
it is but a trifle) would be grudged to secure a ship and its
passengers from the contingency of such a melancholy
mishap as that of fire."
THE POISONING AT Wrx.—The inquiry into the crimes
with which Mary May, who was hanged last week, was
supposed to be connected, has not been permitted to die
with her. On Wednesday, the body of Thomas Ham, a
native of Wix, who died about seventeen months ago
under suspicious circumstances, and was buried at Tender-
ing, was exhumed by order of the coroner, who proceeded
to hold an inquest for the purpose of ascertaining whether
death was caused by poison. The grounds for this pro-
ceeding, as far as we can learn, are these. May was very
intimate with the deceased's wife ; in fact their maiden
names had been the same. Mrs. Ham, it is stated coha-
bited with a man named Southgate before her husband's
death. The two women being thus intimate, and Ham,
who was known to have money, dying suddenly, and his
widow immediately marrying Southgate, when the crime
for which May was executed came to light, suspicion was
awakened by the former case. This was caused from the
manner of Ham's death, which exhibited symptoms of
his having taken mineral poison, and from the close friend-
ship that was known to exist between the woman who
has suffered for her crime and Mrs. Ham (now Mrs.
Southgate.) The body Ham, as before stated, was ex-
humed on Wednesday, and identified, and the usual mea-
sures taken for testing by careful analysation the presence
of poison. The inquest was then opened at Tendring,
when the servant-maid and other witnesses were examined,
whose evidence tended to implicate Mrs. Southgate. The
inquest was adjourned for the purpose of allowing time for
an analysis of the stomach. This has been made by Pro-
fessor Taylor, and sufficient poison has, it is said, been
found to account for Ham's death. It is stated that the
body of another man will be eihumed, May being in that
case also intimate with the wife, and the husband having
died under like circumstances of suspicion.

MORE ABOUT SHIRT MAKING..__. At the Worship-
street, (London) Police-court, on Friday, Sarah Ladd, a
middle-aged seamstress, was charged with unlawfully dis-
posing of six calico shirts. A married woman, named
Sarah Lyons, whose appearance was scarcely less wretched
than that of the prisoner herself, stated, that having re-
ceived the materials for making up a number of calico
shirts from a person in the employment of Massrs. Moses,
the outfitters on Tower-hill, she was induced from mo-
tives of charity to engage the prisoner to assist her at the
work, and the latter undertook to finish and return six of
the shirts on Monday last. She, however, did not do so,
and acknowledged, when v it less sought her out at her
lodgings, where she was lying on the bed, that she had
pledged them. Witness had herself a large family de-
pendent upon her, and as she would be compelled to make
good the loss of the shirts by the person who employed
her, she was obliged to give the prisoner into custody as
the only chance of procuring their restoration. In an-
swer to a question from the magistrate, the witness stated
that the price paid by the warehouse for making the shirts
was only ls. 6d. per dozen, and that she herself was paid
at the rate of ls. Bd. per dozen ; but, although, out of
that she had to provide the needles and thread for the
work, she allowed the prisoner the same amount as she
received. The constable who captured the prisoner said
that upon going to the house where she lodged, he found
her in a miserable attic. entirely destitute of either furni-
ture or food, and still stretched upon her bed, which con-
sisted of a heap of rags in one of the corners of the room.
She was evidently very wretched and in the last stage of
destitution, and handed him a duplicate for the articles,
which she said she had pledged to save herself from star-
vation. When asked if she wished to say anything, the
prisoner who was very much agitated, assured the magi-
strate that what she had stated to the officer was the fact.
With even incessant application, she could not make more
than three shirts per day, which only produced her 3d.,
and as she found it impossible to exist upon that, she was
obliged to pledge the work, upon which she obtained
3s. 6d. Mr. Arnold said it was certainly a very distres-
sing case, but as the charge was pressed against the pri-
soner he had no alternative than to remand her upon it,
and she must be brought up again next week.