The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-03-25 00:00:00

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The present worthy propriety of llooton is at present at
Rome making extensive purchases of works of art.
A French vessel laden with wheat and flour arrived in
Preston on Wednesday.
A thunderstorm passed over Wigan on Thursday even-
ing.
According to the Manchester papers, the sum of
£8,572 has been subscribed for the formation of a free
library for that borough.
The Earl and Countess of Wilton are entertaining a
succession of visitors at Egerton Lodge, Melton Mowbray.
The earl and countess and family come to town for the
season shortly after Croxton Park Races.
At Ormskirk, three fellows have been committed to trial
for the attack on the house of Mr. Tyrer, of Simons-wood,
last week, and firing at the inmates. They were identified
as being implicated in several other similar outrages.
A child has died at the Grey Mare Inn, Rochdale, from
the bite of a monkey, which its father had recently pur-
chased. The animel suddenly sprang at the child's head
and bit it before it could be removed. It has since been
destroyed.
During the night of Saturday last the keepers of the
Ribble Lighthouse, Lytham, captured no lees than 100
birds. It is only on foggy or hazy nights that they are
taken. They are attracted by the light, and fly against
the glass lantern. Some come with such force that they
instantly kill themselves, others disable themselves, but
the greater number receive no injury, and keep fluttering
about outside till they are laid hold of.
DISTRESSING CIRCUMSTANCE AT LEA.—Early on
Thursday morning last, as a poor Irishwoman was walk-
ing from Liverpool to Chester, she was taken with pains
of labour, and was delivered of a fine dead child on the
midden-stead of a most respectable farmer, in the pre-
sence of his wife and others. The poor woman was de.
posited in a cart on straw, and forwarded to Chester work-
liouse, where she is, now doing well.

MARRIAGES OUT OF THE DISTRICT.—SeveraI persons
have publicly asked pardon of the Vicar of Rochdale, for
having conspired to deceive him, by representing that
they were residents of Todmorden, when in fact they were
resident at Walsden. The object of the misrepresenta-
tion was to enable some of the party to get married out
of the district. The vicar was about to prefer an indict-
ment against the party, but in consequence of their sub-
mission be has abandoned his intention.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.*--OR Thursday, just before
the closing of the business of the Borough-court, Man-
' chester, an intelligent-looking little girl was brought be-
fore Mr. Maude charged with shoplifting. It appeared
she had visited a boot and shoe shop, in Oldham-street,
td purchase a penny boot-lace, and whilst the person who
served her left the shop for a moment to get change, she
was seen to steal two pairs of women's boots, which she
slipped under her mantle. She was of course detained
and a policeman sent for. when the officer at once re-
cognized her as an old acquaintance. Snbsequently it
was ascertained that young as she was (only between thir-
teen and fourteen years of age) she was keeping house
herself, and that by her skill as a thief she not only paid
the rent, 3s. 6d. per week, and supported herself, but also
contrived to maintain a young brother, eight years old,
who lived with her. When her house was searched a
large quantity of property was found there, which there is
little doubt she had stolen, consisting of drapery, in great
variety, ribbons, silks, laces, &c.
FEARFUL EXPLOSION. —On Monday evening a
dreadful boiler explosion took place at Stockport, by
which much property was destroyed, and many
lives lost, at the Park Cotton Mills, beside the river
Mersey, the property of Mr. Henry Marsland. The boi-
ler that exploded was nearly a new one, of about 40 feet
in length, and 10 to 12 feet in diameter, being an immense
cylinder, perforated with fire-place and two flues. About
half-past five o'clock in the evening, whilst the mill-hands
were all at work, the boiler was observed suddenly to rise
from the immense bed of brick-work in which it had been
fixed, and taking a north westerly direction, it shot with
the rapidity of an arrow along the narrow part of the
quadrangle, and burst through the wall of the lofty por-
tion of the mill, destroying a large portion of several of
the lower floors,. and then setting fire to the remainder.
The noise of the explosion was terrific. The weight of
the boiler is from 11 to 12 tons. The worst part of the
calamity is, that a nun.ber of the workpeople were buried
in the ruins of the portion of the mill destroyed, and
killed. The hands in the upper part of the lofty building
were placed in imminent danger. Upwards of 80 persons
were in this part of the mill, out of about a thousand em-
ployed in the entire works. Some let themselves down
from the windows by straps and cords into the yard. A
number of them escaped by leaping- from the windows into
the river Mersey. A man and boy, who were in the sixth
story, happily escaped, this way without injury ; but ano-
ther man fell on his head, and was killed instantaneously.
The engineer escaped, but the fireman was killed imme-
diately the explosion took place. The cause of the ex-
plosion has not been ascertained. The damage is esti-
mated at about £5,000. The boiler which exploded was
of 30-horse power, constructed on the high-pressure
principle, and calculated for a pressure of 301bs. to the
square inch, but at the time of the accident was only being
worked at 241bs. pressure. No fewer than twenty lives
were lost, and as their bodies were dug out of the ruins,
the grief of the bystanders was indescribable.
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE UNION OF MECHANICS'
INSTITUTIONS.—The annual meeting of this Union was
held in Chester on Wednesday, J. Aspinall Turner, Esq.
president, in the chair, and delegates from the various
institutions in the two counties were present. After a
few introductory remarks, the chairman called upon the
secretary, Mr. Thomas Hogg, to read the report. Under
the head of " New institutions" the report stated
that " During the past year, new institutions, with fair
prospects of success, had been open at Ormskirk, Waver_
tree, Pendleton, and Denton, in Lancashire, and at Tar-
porley, in Cheshire ' • and the establishment of others was
in contemplation at Radcliffe Bridge, and at Crawshaw
Booth, Rossendale." The committee strongly urged the
amalgamation of similar institutions existing in the same
town, whereby it was thought that much wasteful expendi-
ture of money and energy might be saved. With regard
to the number of members in the various associated insti-
tutions it had , in the aggregate, decreased during the year.
The greatest decrease was perceptible in the large towns,
and was to be attributed in great measure to the increase
of supplies of knowledge in other ways. It was stated
that " At the close of the present year, there will be, in
Lancashire and Cheshire, buildir

erected express
entif

for the use of mechanics' and other literary and s.,
institutions, at a cost of £55,500. Six of these have been
erected during the past ten years, and, from the efforts
now making, there can be little doubt that as great a
number will be erected during the next ten years." Of
lectures the committee reported that 196 had been de-
livered at sixteen institutions, but the attendance was
neither satisfactory nor encouraging. A portion of the
revenue hitherto devoted to this purpose might,
thought, be with great propriety now devoted to libraries,
to which great attention had been paid in all the institu-
tious during the past year. Newsrooms, with a large sup-
ply of papers and periodicals, were found indispensable.
The suggestion to form preliminary savings banks in con-
nection with meckanics' institutions had been tried in
Lancaster and Manchester. In the former, the number
of accounts opened was 320, the average number of de-
positors each week 150, and the sum deposited £4; in the
latter place the experiment could not be considered suc-
cessful, the number of accounts opened being only 136.
The Treasurer's accounts were then read, showing a ba-
lance in favour of the Union of £7. 7s. 6d.--A meeting
was held in the evening, presided over by Mr. William
Wardell, Esq. banker.

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