The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-04-02 00:00:00

A CHURCH BURNT.—About eight o'clock on Friday
morning, St. Anne's Church, Limehouse, was discovered
to be on fire. In a short time the whole building was en-
veloped in flames. The efforts of the firemen were of
little avail, as shortly before eleven o'clock the steeple
and roof fell in. The church is entirely gutted, but it is
said that the communion plate, parish register, and re-
cords have been saved. The loss is estimated at between
£20,000 and £30,000. The church is understood to be
insured, and it is thought that the fire was caused by a de-
fect in one of the chimney flues. It was one of the most
splendid edifices in the metropolis; was about 120 feet
long, and nearly 70 feet wide with a lofty belfry and
steeple. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren.
A CLEVER TRICK.—Early one morning about a fort-
night since a boat was rowed under the Hoe, when the
crew hoisted out a chest, not unlike one of those "last
mansions of mortality," yclept coffins. Some of them
proceeded with it towards the town, when a by-stander--
and rumour states attired not unlike a preventive man—
was asked, " Which is the way to the burying-ground in
Westwell-street ?" The by-standers, like the quaker,
answered the question by asking another, "What have
you got there ?" The reply was, " Oh, one of our ship-
mates is gone off, and we are going to bury him !" The
road to the burying-ground was then pointed out ; but by
a dodge, the chest was taken to the railway station in time
for the early train, and in a few brief hours the chest was
" far north." Those who laugh the most at the hoax, say
the chest was full of cigars, aye, real Havannahs !—Ply-
mouth Journal.
A ROMANCE IN MINIATURE.—A young Scottish pea-
sant has been enacting the romance of bold Lochinvar.
He loved the daughter of a farmer in one of the isles of
west, to whom he had been sent for initiation into the
mysteries of agriculture, and she loved him. But a fac-
tor, of riper age and ample weans, stepped in and won
the hearts of the girl's parents by his display of worldly
wealth. The youth was, by advice of a rich uncle of the
girl, ordered away, but he returned in a few days, and
placing the lassie in a boat, boldly rowed away with her.
The pair were driven by a sudden storm to the island in
which lived her uncle,—that cruel uncle ! He seized her
and locked her up. The youth wrote to a relative at
Syke, and in a short time a boat, manned by fourteen
stalwart Highlanders, appeared. They in a body de-
manded the girl, and, on refusal of their wishes, took her
away by force, she, however, being a very willing partici-
pator in the abduction. They made the main land, were
forthwith married,' and are now enjoying their honey-
moon in Edinburgh.
SINGULAR CHARGE.—On Wednesday, at Marlbo-
rough-street Police-court, London, Mr. Reuben Amiss,
tailor, Conduit-street, was summonad for an assault on
Mr. J. Cunningham, a gentleman of fortune, residing at
Kentish-town.—Mr. Wontner, who appeared for the com-
plainant, characterised the charge as one of a novel and
extraordinary character. The complainant, it appeared,
on the 6th of the present month, went to the defendant's
shop to see his nephew, who was in partnership with the
defendant. The nephew was not there. Complainant
waited in the shop, and saw a man whispering to the de-
fendant. The defendant came to him and told him be
should not wait any longer; he then drew a damp hand-
kerchief over his mouth and nose, and pushed him into
the street. The handkerchief smelled as if it had con-
tained putrid meat. Complainant had hardly reached
Regent-street before he felt an extraordinary sensation
in his head. He partially lost his senses, and how lie got
over the road he was unable to tell. He was put into an
omnibus by a friend, and when he reached home his eves,
nose, and mouth, were discharging profusely. He fa: as
if he had been severely salivated. His mouth broke out
into sores on both sides, and he had been ill ever since.--
The defendant denied the charge in Coto.—The case was
postponed till Wednesday.
MEDITATED EMIGRATION OF FARMERS.—Bell's
Weekly Messenger says," We have a letter at this moment
before us from a Herefordshire farmer, who states that
many occupiers of land in the counties of Hereford, Wor-
cester, and Gloucester, have it in contemplation to raise
a fund of £6OO, by subscription, and more, if required, to
pay the expenses of two scientific men, who thoroughly
understand the:quality of soils, and can be depended upon,
to take out young men to make a survey of the Western
States of America, in order to purchase one million acres
of land ; to allot it in different sized farms, according to
each man's capital; the locality to be in a congenial cli-
mete for corn growing, and for breeding sheep and cattle,
and to be worked after the same course, or shifts, ►as in
England, near a navigable river, so as to export their
corn and provisions to the best markets. They are induced,
he says, to adopt this course, because they see no other
prospect, if they remain in England, but the loss of the
whole of their capital, which they are not contented to
submit to, any more than they are willing to spend their
last days in those Union houses, for the buildiug of which
they have paid their hard-earned money, in the shape of
accumulated poors' rates. It is useless for the merchants
and tradesmen of this country to treat this intention of
multitudes of the agricultural interest as Utopian and
foolish, or so absurd as to be most unlikely of prosecution.
They ought to know better. The stagnation of business
at this moment tells them the truth, if they would but
listen to it—that their ruin is involved in the prostration
of this great interest. Already have symptoms become
apparent, that a considerable reduction in the prices of the
articles in which they deal has been determined upon in
many districts."