The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-12-02 00:00:00

The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint the
Hon. Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.C.8., now her Majesty's
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
King of Sardinia, to be her Majesty's: Envoy Extraordi-
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of the
Netherlands.

Sir William Cubitt, upon whom her Majesty has been
pleased to confer the honour of knighthood for the im-
portant part which he performed in the erection of the
Crystal Palace, is another example in which the path of
distinction is in this country open to the humblest orders
of society. In the yard of Messrs. Ransome, of Ipswich,
he worked as a wheelwright.

At Nottingham, a man named John Rockley has been
committed for trial at the assizes, on his own confession,
of having set fire to a number of corn-stacks, at Radcliffe-
on-Trent, of the value of £9OO, which were entirely con-
sumed. The prisoner's only motive seems to have been
to partake of the bread and cheese and ale distributed on
such occasions to those who assist in extinguishing the
flames.

A distressing case of attempted suicide was brought
under the notice of the Thames magistrate last week.
Joseph Roberts, a young man of good address, swallowed
laudanum, and narrowly escaped with life. He was out
of work, and his dependence on his father and young sis-
ters for bread preyed on his mind. His father had been
an engraver ; but, unable to get work in that line, he now
makes lucifer-matches—he and five daughters earn from
ls. to ls. 3d. a day by their united labour. The young
man expressed sorrow for what he had done. Mr. Yard-
ley pointed out to him the unmanliness of the attempt
on his life to escape suffering ; and on discharging him,
ordered ss. to be given to the distressed father.

ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A ROMAN
CATHOLIC PRIEST.
.c.

One of the most extraordinary attempts at murder that
have been made of late years in England occurred on
Tuesday evening in the very heart of the metropolis. For
the last fortnight a mission has been held at the Roman
Catholic School-house, in Leopard's-court, Baldwin's-gar-
dens, Gray's-inn-lane, London, for the Italians resident in
the neighbourhood, and two Capuchin friars, who arrived
from Rome about a fortnight ago, officiate every day in
their full canonicals. On Tuesday night, about eleven
o'clock, after the congregation had dispersed, the Rev.
Mr. Ferrati, an Italian clergyman, who had been assisting
the Capuchin friars in officiating, while leaving the chapel
was attacked by three ruffians, supposed from their garb
to be Italians, who knocked him down ; one of them stab-
bed him with a long stiletto, and the others beat him
about the head with their fists in a most brutal manner.
His cries alarmed the inmates of one of the houses in
Leopard's-court, who threw up a window to ascertain the
cause. This, no doubt, saved the life of the rev. gentle.
man, as the noise alarmed his assailants, and they made
their escape. The rev. gentleman was picked up in an
insensible state, and taken to a surgeon's, where it was
found that the wounds he had received were not so severe
as had been anticipated. The instrument with which the
attack was made seems to have grazed along the left jaw.
bone, and, instead of entering the side of the neck, as was
doubtless intended, entered the back part of the s!ioulder,
and struck against the bladebone, inflicting a flesh
wound. His face was greatly disfigured. After his
wound was dressed he was removed in a cab to the resi-
dence of the Rev. Mr. Kyne, in Alyddelton-square, Rosa-
mon-street, Clerkenwell. It is supposed that the attack
was made in consequence of some passages in a sermon
delivered by the rev. gentleman at Rosamon-street
Chapel on Sunday last. Great prejudice against the
school appears to have existed in the minds of some Ita-
lians for some time past, and one or two attacks of a
brutal nature have lately been made on other persons
connected with it, of which the two following are in-
stances :—On the arrival of the two
.Capuchin friars in
London the Rev. Dr. Faa, an Italian clergyman, to whom
they were known, engaged lodgings for them in Dove-
court, Leather-lane, and on calling to see them a few days
afterwards he was knocked down by two or three ruffians,
who violently assaulted him. On that occasion, as upon
this, the delinquents escaped. Some few days previously
one of two ladies (Sisters of Mercy) who teach at the
Leopard's-court School was also attacked in the vicinity
with such violence that she burst a blood vessel, and now
lies in a very precarious.