The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-08-26 00:00:00

MISC

0118

The best needles pass through 70 different processes in
the course of mar,ufacture.
Steamers aro about to begin to ply fortnightly on the
Nile, between Cairo and the first cataract.
The chest of a pauper, near Perth, was examined las
week, when upwards of £5OO was found therein.
The exportation of pauper emigrants to America and
elsewhere is now carried on on a large scale by the guar-
dians of the Clare Unions.
Another ascent of Mont Blanc has been made by a party
of Englishmen, one of whom was Mr. Albert Smith, the
comic writer.
The property of the late General Sir Willoughby Gor-
don, Quartermaster-General to the Forces, has been at-
tested under X 270,000.
On the Hawarden estate, the tenants of the Right Hon.
W. E. Gladstone, M.P., have been allowed a reduction of
16 per cent. on their respective rentals for the half-year.
His eminence Cardinal Wiseman, it is said, will, as
trustee for certain funds, sustain heavy losses by the
failure of Messrs. Castelli and Co., of London.
The Newcastle Courant says,—ln a small village in
Cleveland, the clergyman has been blessed with sixteen
children, the clerk nineteen, the sexton fourteen.
The orchards this year are yielding in abundance.
There will be plenty of prime cider, and we should ima-
gine at a moderate cost.—Bridgewater Times.
Mayo journal's announce that numerous farms are being
taken in the west of Ireland by Scotch and English gen-
tlemen, and that already large droves of stock may be seen
on the " fruitful hills."
A child, named Mien Purvis, died a few days since at
Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, in consequence of having
pricked herself with a needle, a piece of which ultimately
penetrated her heart.
The Aberdeen Herald states on Tuesday week a vessel
named the Mary Balfour arrived at Peterhead, from Ice.
land, with a cargo of ponies, the first that has ever been
imported into Britain from Iceland.
A cloud of small flies, with light-coloured wines. passed
over the north-west side of the town of Stamford on Wed-
nesday week, and myriads of them were left in some of the
streets.
As the venerable poet James Montgomery will have
completed his eightieth year on the sth of November next,.
a subscription has been opened in the town of Sheffield
for the erection of a bust or statue.
Mr. Peto has gone to Norway to construct the first line
of railway in that country ; which will connect Christiana
with Copenhagen, and bring St. Petersburgh three days'
journey nearer London than it is at present.
A music hall is about to be built at Bradford, which, '
when completed, will be in many respects without a rival
in the kingdom. It will be exactly the same as the famous
great room at Exeter Hall ; but considerably deeper,, and
capable of accommodating 1,000 more persons.
7 Farm labourers are now so scarce in the south of Ire-
land that agriculturists have to pay them seven shillings a
week, with diet, for cutting hay alone, while ; in some in-
stances, they demand nine shillings for saving the corn
crops.

A new planet has been discovered by the celebrated
Neapolitan astronomer, Signor de Gasparis. This is the
fifth we owe to his successful exertions. At present the
planet has the appearance of a star of the ninth or tenth
magnitude. It has not yet received a name.
The various foreigners registered as visitors to Wool-
wich Arsenal, last 'reek, were in the following propor-
tions :—French, 357 ; Prussians, 199 ; Belgians, 100;
Austrians, 41 ; Bavarian, 26 ; Dutch, 21 ; Saxon, 22 ;
Americans, 18; Hanoverians, 18; Swiss, 14; Wurtem-
bergers, 12; Sardinians, 15.
Excursion and return tickets are now issued by which
persons can visit Maderia, or any of the places included in
the West India Mail Packet scheme, in the company's
packets, and if they embark on board any of the home-
ward packets within six months from the date of issue of
their passage tickets a considerable saving is effected.
RUMOURED CONVERSION OF THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.
—lt is currently reported that the Duke of Norfolk has
renounced the errors of the Romish Church, and become
a Protestant. It is also stated that it is to the preaching
of the Rev. Dr. Cumming that the conversion of his grace
is to be attributed.—Sun.
The beneficial effects of the removal of the window tax
are already perceptible in the new buildings at Bristol;
for instance, in several houses in Gloucester-row, Clifton,
in lieu of narrow circumscribed windows are now substi-
tuted others of handsome appearance and spacious dimen-
sions.

We are informed that a satisfactory arrangement has
been concluded between her Majesty's Government and
the patentees of the screw-propeller, and that similar ar-
rangements have been effected with other parties; we
have, therefore, a reasonable hope that the mode of pro-
pulsion will become as universal as it is econorniaal and
efficient.—Morning Chronicle.
SERIOUS COLLIERY EXPLOSION : THIRTY-FOUR LIVES
LOST.—A dreadful explosion took place at Washington,
in the county of Durham, twelve miles from Newcastle-
on-Tyne, on Wednesday morning, by which no less than
thirty-four miners perished. Several of the bodies have
been recovered, and, as might have been expected, great
sensation throughout the country has been caused by the
accident.

•
At Worship-street police- ofhce, London, on Friday last,
a respectable-looking young woman, who refused give her
real name or address, was charged with dashing pepper into
the eyes of a shopman, and stealing a card containing 41
gold wedding-rings from the house of a silversmith and
jeweller in High-street, Shoreditch. When called upon for
her defence, the prisoner said " I should not have done it,
had it not been for being involved in great distress, and
have nothing more to say." The prisoner was committed
for trial.

About a fortnight ago a man was summoned to the
Bristol County Court for rent. It appeared that he had
occupied the ground for one year, and had never paid a
farthing, nor answered the letters of the agent. No de-
fence was offered, except that he was a poor man. He
was ordered by the court to pay the debt (Xl5) by instal-
ments of sixpence a week. It will take him thirteen years
to pay it. The plaintiff's solicitor was informed that the
Bristol County Court has a certain scale, and that this
mode of payment was regulated according to the case.
The Secretary of an eccentric and incomprehensible so-
ciety, called the " North-west London Anti-Enclosure
and Social and Sanitary Improvement Association," hav-
ing, as he himself says, taken up the case of Mrs. Hicks,"
wrote to the Duke of Wellington, requesting his Grace to
" take it up" also. The Duke sent the following reply:—
"London, August 16, 1851. F. M. the Duke of Welling-
ton presents his compliments to Mr. Griffiths; he has re-
ceived his letter and the inclosed printed paper. The
Duke declines to have any epistolary correspondence with
the secretary of any private society as to the subject of the
performance of his duties to the public.—Mr. H. D.
Griffiths."

DESPERATE HIGHWAY ROBBERY AT BRISTOL.—A
man, named John Williams, has been apprehended at
Bristol upon a charge of highway robbery, accompanied
by circumstances of considerable atrocity. Mr. Godwin,
who is 75 years of age, and resides at Auburn-villa,
Cotham New-road, was taking a walk for the benefit of
his health, and was in the carriage road which passes
beneath the pleasure-grounds of Redland Court, when he
was suddenly attacked from behind by some powerful
man, who grasped him round the face with his bands,
closed his eyes and his mouth, kicked his legs from under
him, threw him down, and then threw himself upon him.
When he was on the ground he was kicked in the head
and stunned, and upon his, to some extent, recovering,
he missed his watch and appendages, which had been
stolen from him. The ruffian was seen by a lad, and
was that evening apprehended.

ALARMING OCCURRENCE AT BRISTOL.—On Thursday
morning, about 12 o'clock, as a lady, residing at Beaufort
Cottage, Duke-street, King-square, was sitting in her
parlour with her family, they were suddenly alarmed by a
large black and white dog, in a rabid state, plunging
through the window of the room, which was shut at the
time, and knocking down the flowers outside. The poor
animal rushed across the room to a window opposite, foam-
ing very much at the mouth. While he was endeavouring
to escape through it. the city scavengers, who were passing,
fortunately came to the assistance of the family, who were
much alarmed. On their entering the room the dog seized
one of the men by the frock he wore. and with much diffi-
culty he succeeded in knocking him down, when two other
men came to his assistance, and after some time were en-
abled to get him out of the room, and ultimately to destroy
him in the garden. ft was afterwards found that he had
bitten the daughter of the lady slightly on the right hand.
A FACT FOR NATURALISTS.—RecentIy, as Mr. James
Wilson was walking out without his coat in the Debden-
hall gardens, which he occupies, a swarm of bees came
round him, and whilst he was standing still, he found his
hat, by degrees, become intolerably heavy, till at last the
weight was so great that he steadily knelt down, leaning
his head and hat against a tree ; when he found that the
principal part of the swarm had completed their settle-
ment, he very gently, but with some difficulty, took off_
his hat, then, giving it a gentle tap against the tree, he
hived the whole without receiving the slightest sting,
although his neck and face were completely covered with
bees ; his neck was so much so that his niece, with a
small hand brush, swept the remaining insects from him,
when they also joined their companions in the hive. Mr.
Wilson, who is in possession of several hives in the gar-
den, states that it was the largest swarm of bees that he
has had for some years ; and the weight of them on his
bead was so excessive, that he would not have been able
to stand under them longer. His niece, who described
the swarm, while on her uncle, as assuming the form of a
sugar-loaf, escaped with only a slight sting on the arm,
where one of the swarmers had dropped, and as she in-
cautiously gave him a nip, he returned the compliment.--
Essex Herald.