The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-07-01 00:00:00

YESTERDAY

BEGGING IMPOSTORS. Several Irish beggars were
charged with having been detected in plying their vagrant
occupation, on the preceding day. On the person of one
fellow 2s. 6d. were found. He consented to be passed to
Ireland. A woman having the larger sum of 4s. 3d. in
her pocket when taken, was sent to prison.
MORBID CCRIOSITY.—A decently dressed woman,
having en infant in her arms, and whose name was given
as Phoebe Cowley, was charged with being drunk and
disorderly. An officer stated that he saw her in the
streets at a late hour, and advised her to go home, or he
should be under the necessity of taking her to bridewell.
Upon this the lady intimated that that was a treat she
greatly desired, having never seen the interior economy
of that public institution. Her wish was accordingly era-
tified ; though it appeared a very short survey sufficed,
as she was eventually bailed out.

DARING STREET ROBBERY.--On Saturday night a man
named Vance was robbed by a party of fellows, near the
Waterloo Dock, of a sovereign and a 'Waterloo medal.
The medal was offered at Harris's pawnbroker's shop, and
led to the detection of a man named James Canovan, who
was seen to take a part in the robbery. He was summarily
convicted in two months' imprisonment.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.—George Alcroft, and Jas.
Williams, two boys who have been in custody almost
innumerable.times, on d'fferent criminal charges, were
sent to prison for three months for attempting to pick
pockets in the vicinity of St. John's market.

SERIOUS AssAtn.i.—James Phillips was charged with
having stabbed John Davies and Mary Evans. On the
night of the 28th ult. Davies went into a public-house in
Fazackerly-Qtreet ; he was followed out by the prisoner,
between whom and himself words arose, when the pri-
soner stabbed complainant twice in the body. The woman
Evans rushed to his protection, when the ruffian turned
upon her and stabbed her twice in the knee. The injuries
sustained by Davies in particular were very serious
Fined £5, .or two month

1)k(111)16M.

PRESENTATION TO THE REV. D. JAMES.
The Ancient Order of Druids of the Huddersfield dis-
trict have for trme time pest had in contemplation the
presenting the above rev. gentlecian with some memento
of the high regard and esteem they entertain for him as a
member of their highly respectable order, and for the very
valuable services he has rendered to the cringe by his lucid
exposition of the true principles of British Druidism. For
this purpose a delegate or committee meeting from the
various lodges in the dis'rict was held a short time since,
at which it was unanimously resolved that the form of
testimonial should consist of a selection orstandard
works. And on Monday evening week the same were
presented,to him at Al ilnesbridge-house, the residence of
his father-in-law, and the highly esteemed chairman of
the Huddersfield bench of magistrates, Joseph Armi-age,
Esq. The present consists of a splendidly bound (in mo-:
rocco) folio volume of " The English Hexapla," of the
New Testament, in six different translations, viz., Wicliff
1380, Tyndale 1534, Cranmer 1539, Geneva 1557, Rheims
1582, and the authorised 1611. Hallam's " European
Middle Ages," in two volumes, with a third volume of
explanatory notes; Hallam's " Literature of Europe,"
in three volumes ; and Hallam's " Constitutional History
of England," in two volumes. The whole of the above
works are splendidly got up in green calf and gold; their
value being upwards of ten guineas.

A deodatidn consisting of delegates from the numerous
lodges were present, as were also several clergymen, gent.
lemen and ladies. After the presentation had taken place,
the Rev. D. James replied as follows :—Gentlemen, I ac-
cept this haodsorne present with feelings of lively satisfac-
tion and deep gratitude. Your distinguished order, bas
not been content to have for its object the providing a
fund in the usual way for the relief of distressed members,
but has also directed its attention to the study, and de-
velopment of those sublime maxims of wisdom, virtue
and piety with which the Druidic name is intimately con-
nected, hence the importance which through Out has been
attached to my humble efforts in bringing those maxims
to light, and in return for which I am now honoured with
this pleating testimony of steem and respect from the
members of the order in the Huddersfield district. To
you gentlemen, and those whom you represent, I have
reason to be doubly obliged, for I will not conceal from
you the fact, that my mind received its first impulse to
enter on the study of Druidical Antiquities, for 'the cir-
cumstance of being asked to preach a sermon to your fra-
ternity, at the parish church of Almondbury, in the year
1835. With a request so congenial to my feelings 1
readily complied, and I made the best preparation the in-
terval permitted. The sermon was preached on the 26th
of December in that year, and those who heard it were
pleased to express their approbation by requesting that it
might be printed. I however proposed in preference to
write a book on the subject, as the results of my investi-
gation could not be compressed within the limits of a dis-
course. I entered on my task con amore, but before a
single
whichin e
the
es pennedden I
andpurchased
Leeds
catalogues every work
offered
Druid-
ismre
d for
sale at that time. I looked carefully into their contents,
and then put the great majority of them on the shelf for
ever, convinced that the authors knew little about British
Druidism. For I had already discovered that Druidism
was not that idolatrous, and superstitious thing which his-
torians had represented it to be as a matter of course ; b
only another name for that revealed religion which pre-
vailed among the earlier patriarchs, and which their de-
scendants carried with them at their dispersion into all the
world. A section of Japbeth's family introduced it into
Britain on their first arrival in these islands. Moreover
it became equally evident to my mind that there was no
foundation for charging the British Druids with the crime
of offering human victims on their altars. The charge
originated with an enemy of the Druids, who sought their
utter extirpation ; whereas their own literary remains
which have descended to us in thelform. of " triads" con-
tain no trace of any such custom, but on the contrary

aoouna vim] maxims which forbid the thought. I there'.
fore ventured to vindicate the character and religion of
the British Druids from the misrepresentations of histo-
rians, and of the historical school-books used in this king-
dom. The promised work was published under the title
of A Manual of Ancient British Druidism," in the year
1836. It was printed in your own town of Huddersfield.
One thousand copies were taken by the members of your
order; and one thousand more were gradually sold to the
public. In the course of a few years the

work became
extensively known. The undue severity with which it
was reviewed in the pages of the Atheneum and of
the Christian Remenibrancer, contributed to its circula-
tion. Parties unknown to me to this day, residing in the
South of England, were induced by the extracts given in
those publications to order the work, and were so highly
gratified with its contents that they sent for my ac-
ceptance two parcels of books on collateral subjects.
I also received several letters from distinguished antiqua-
ries, asking for further particulars respecting the princir
source of my information—" The British Triad- --
I readily supplied. sdiiin.

," whic

'Lie names or the booksellers of
whom portions of theta might be obtained in an English
dress. There was nothing to conceal, the '' Manual" was
a production as honest in its purpose, as it was new in its
contents. The result of all this has been, that other
authors have since followed in the same track, and the
unpretending volume which led the way in the vindication
of Britain's A nci-nt Druidism has now taken its place by
the side of more ponderous tomes as a standard work on
the subject. I have been drawn into these datails con-
nected with the origin and subsequent fortune of this
work, by the special allusion made to itin your, gratifying
address. I feel sure you will not deem them devoid of
interest. Before 1 conclude, allow me again to express
my deep sense of the honour which you Lave conferred
upon me. I feel grateful tiot only for these goodly volumes
of which Vim now become possessed by your generosity,
and which I shall highly prize to my last day, but also for
that feeling of affection which you assure me accompanies
them from your fraternity. Gentlemen, I gratefully thank
you, and may the Divine blessing r.,st upon
you and yours,
and upon the order to which you belong.
The Rev. Gentleman laboured under very intense feel-
ings during the whole time of delivering his address.
On Sunday week the members of the various lodges of
DI uids, to the number of several hundred, walked in pro-
cession to the Parish Church, which was filled to over-
flowing by a respectable congregation, to whom a sermon
was preached by the t5,„.,1,_ _ •

Kirkdale

...,11. n y
otiincumbent . It
referring to the, scriptural nces of theor religious worship
of the patriarchs, the preachershowed that the authorised
version translated by the word "
plain" or (in the mar-
gin) " plain. ~ .1.. ..,._ _