The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

GENERAL MISCELLANY.

On Sunday week the interesting ceremony of baptizing
a converted Jew was performed at St. Thomas's Church,
Bristol.

The harbours of the isle of Man may now be entered,
either for trade of refuge, by all classes of vessels, free of
harbour dues.

A small quantity of Dutch hay has been recently im.
ported into Hull. It is said the article can be purchased
in Holland at £4 per ton.

The King of Saxony embarked on board ber Majesty's
steamer Lightning on Sunday week, and quitted our
shores to return to his own dominions. via Hamburgh.
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE.—On Sunday last, Mr.
Cork, a respectable yeoman, residing at Woodford, Plyrn-
ton St. Mary, South Devon, died in consequence of tak-
ing saltpetre by mistake for Epsom salts.
ACCIDENT AT BIRMINGHAM.—At Birminghom, on
Tuesday, Mr. John Riches, builder, and a labourer in his
employ, were killed by the falling of a wall, in a house in
which alterations were going on.

Joseph Buonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, and
the ex-King of Naples and Spain, died at Florence, where
he had resided several years, on the 28th ult., in the 78th
year of his age.

At Chard, the other day, a man in the employ of Mr.
Pratt, a farmer, took up a gun, not knowing that it was
loaded, levelled it in sport at a young woman who held
an infant in her arms, and shot the infant dead. The nurse
was severely wounded.
MURDER OF A WIFE.—At the Thames Police Court,
on Wednesday, Mr. James Cockburn Belany, surgeon.
was fully committed for trial, charged with the wilful
murder of his wife by administering prussic acid in a glass
of water.

POSTOFFICE ROBBERY.-At the Carlisle Assizes, on
Wednesday, John Nicholson, clerk in the postoffic3,-was
sentenced to ten years' transportation for having embez-
zled a post letter containing two £lO and two £5 Bank
of England notes.

EXECUTION AT LINCOLN.—On Friday week, at twelve
o'clock, Eliza Joice suffered the extreme penalty of the
law on the new drop, for the wilful murder of her two
children, Eliza and Ann Joice, at Boston, by administer-
ing to them laudanum. it being market day, she was
launched into eternity amidst upwards of 5,000 spectators.
THE CONVICT DALMAS.—The convict Dalmas has been
removed from the Milbank Penitentiary to the insane
ward of Bethlehem Hospital, there to be confined during
her Majesty's pleasure as a lunatic. The reports of the
medical gentlemen who have daily visited Dalmas since
his incarceration leave but little doubt of his insanity.

Last week, the North horse-mail to Bristol performed
its last journey. A local paper states, that "in honour
of the melancholy occasion, the horses heads were sur-
mounted by hearse-like plumes, while ne coachman,
guard, and ostler (its only passengers) were decked in all
the funeral habilaments of woe !" The bags are now taken
by rail.

CRICKET.—The return match between the Mold and
Denbigh Clubs was played on Tuesday last, on the Mold
ground,when the Mold club was again victorious, having beat
their opponents by 79 runs. The following is the score :
—Mold—first innings, 111 ; second innings, 55 ; total,
166—Denbigh—first innings, 60; second innings, 27 ;
total, 87.
The Comptroller General of the Coast Guard has di-
rected the crews of all the Government Life Boats in Great
Britain and Ireland, to be furnished with Mr. Carte's Life
Belts. Several vessels in the guano trade have also lately
adopted them, in consequence of the surf on the coast and
islands having already proved fatal to some of the boat's
crews attempting to land there.
THE TWO VACANT SEATS.—Mr. Thomas Wyse, M.P.
for the city of Waterford, has given formal notice to the
House of Commons, that he will move, early next session,
that the two seats recently rendered vacant by the dis-
franchisement of the borough of Sudbury be transferred
to such county or counties in Ireland as shall, from its
population and the present state of its representation, &c.,
appear most fit to return additional members to parlia-
ment. The said two seats have now been unfilled for
nearly three sessions, and, consequently, the number of
members is reduced at present to 656.

DREADFUL FIRE NEAR GRAVESEND.—On Wed-
nesday last, the greater part of the village of Lower
Thorne, near Gravesend, was destroyed by fire. Several
farms, and their offices, stacks, and implements, and
many cottages, were consumed. The hedges on all sides
took fire, and it was only by the greatest exertion the ad-
jacent crops were preserved from the flames. While some
labourers were endeavouring to save the property in
one of the farm-houses the roof fell in, and three poor
fellows were afterwards extricated sadly burnt and bruised.
It was feared that one or two individuals were killed.
THE RECENT CASE OF POISONING AT CASTLETOWN.
—This case has assumed a more serious aspect than was
suspected at first, but notwithstanding that the authori-
ties have taken every step, no clue has been found to the
parties who put the deleterious drug into the pump._i It
now appears that it was arsenic that was found n the
bread and in the water. A portion of the bread, some of
the water from the well, and the bag were sent to Dr.
Brett, Liverpool, for his opinion, and he declares that
they contain arsenic. It is the opinion of the jury that
the baker, and his family, and not the soldiers, were
intended as the victims of this diabolical act.—Manx
paper.

A MAN AND HORSE KILLED BY BP.ES.—On Wed-
nesday week a horse belonging to a farmer in Cambridge-
shire, having strayed from his pasture into a garden ad-
joining, kicked down a hive of bees which instantly at-
tacked him with great fierceness. A shepherd, who hap-
pened to be in a house adjoining, went to the rescue of
the tortured animal, when he, too, was attacked, and stung
in every exposed part of his body, notwithstanding every
appliance, such as wet clothes, &c., was employed to
drive away his assailants. The poor fellow died whilst
being conveyed home, and within ten minutes of the at-
tack, and has left several children to lament his untimely
end. The horse died the next evening.

MURDER OF A CONSTABLE BY A ROBBER.—On
Sunday night, the 28th ultimo, James M`Faddon, a
rural policeman, while stationed at Kessingland, near
Exeter, observed some men approaching the farm-
yard of Mrs. Button, and, suspecting them, concealed
himself in a fence. Four broke into the barn, while
the fifth watched. The four came out laden with sacks
of corn, when he accosted them and recognised one of
them as Wm. Howell. This man on being challenged,
raised a gun to his shoulder, and taking deliberate aim,
shot him in the thigh, He crawled to the farm-house
and gave the alarm. On the following morning the symp-
toms became serious, and his deposition was taken. He
died the same evening. At the inquest a verdict of
wilful murder was returned against Howell, who was ap-
prehended, and stands for trial. No clue to the rest of
the gang has been obtained.
MILKING OF
Cows. - A " Small Tenant Farmer" has
forwarded to us the following communication upon this
subject :—" Having read some of the recent works pub-
lished on agriculture; and respecting the management of
dairy cows, I was induced to try tined milking of a cow
three times a day, viz., morning, i-day, and night
and I find that it has answered better hitherto, this dry
hot weather, than under the old system of milking twice
a day. More milk is obtained; and the cream on the
mid-day's milking is twice as thick as on the morning's
milk, and three times as thick as on that milked at night.
Some of my neighbours, who have been farmers all their
lives, prognosticate that my cow will be ruined, and that
next year she will fall off to nothing ; but taking a corn
mon sense view of the thing, and as it is sanctioned l
the Agricultural Society, I shall go on with it. My cow
looks well enough at present, Stafford Advertiser.

PUBLIC WALKS IN MANCHESTER.—A public meeting
of the inhabitants of Manchester and Salrord, and their
vicinities, took place on Thursday last, for the purpose of
taking the preliminary steps towards the purchase of land
for public walks or arboretums, and which was most nu-
merously and respectably attended. The donations. were
of the most liberal kind-11,000, or near to-at sum hav-
ing been subscribed in the room. Among the most libe-
ral contributions were, Lord Francis Egerton. £l,OOO,
Sir B. Heywood, £l,OOO, Mark Philips, Esq , M.P.,
£l,OOO, ditto for the firm £5OO, James Kershaw, Esq.,
(ex mayor,) £5OO.
DESTRUCTIVE Finr.—On Monday night a serious-lire
broke out in the new buildings occupied as merchants'
warehouses, situate in Blaclifriars-street and Parsonage,
Manchester, which were burnt to the ground. The pro-,
perty was known as the " Irwell-buildings." A distress.
ing fatality was caused by the fall of a part of the building..
A man named Irving, a workman on'the premises, anxious
to render all the service he could, had incautiously gone
under a catbead, and it fell upon him and killed him on
the spot. No satisfactory account has yet been given of
the origin of the fire. The aggregate lostvvill not be much
under £20,000, but a large portion of tbs• amount is in-
sured.—On Wednesday night another man. of the name
of Jackson, died in consequence of the injuries-received.
NOVEL BRIBERY.—The Whigs are an ingenious race.
They are very fond of making restrictive laws, which they
themselves are amongst the foremost to violate.• Lord
John Russell's bill for the restriction of bribery is rather
too stringent for their convenience ; but one of them,
yclept Mr. Hill, at Dudley, has devised a new speeizs of
bribery, in lieu of giving money, which he has not hesitated
to proclaim publicly. After Mr. Rawson, the League
Candidate for Dudley, had addressed the electors of.
Dudley, Mr. Hill followed, and said it had been askecli
" Who is Mr. Rawson ?" He, (Mr. Hill) would answer
that he was a large railway proprietor, and, if they suc—
ceeded in returning him to Parliament, a special train:
would be brought to Dudley, and the wives of all the
electors who voted for him, treated with a pleasure trip to
London or Liverpool. If this be not bribery we know-
not what is.

EXECUTION OF A MURDERER.—DREADFUL OCCUR-
RENCE.—The awful sentence of the law upon William
Saville, aged 29, for the murder of his wife and three
children at Colwick, received its fearful consummation on
Wednesday morning, at the drop erected in front of the
County-hall, Nottingham. The crowd on the occasion
was unprecedentedly large, and, in consequence, a most
shocking accident occurred. The place where the execu-
tion took place is in a street called High Pavement, be-
tween twenty and thirty feet wide, and at the distance of
about 100 yards is an avenue, called Garner's-hill, a very
steep descent, with five or six steps on the top. As soon
as the drop fell, the crowd rushed violently along the
High Pavement, and hurled a number of persons down
the steps. Eight were taken up dead from suffocation,
four have died since, and a large number of others are
seriously injured.

AMNESTY TO THE POLISH REFUGEES.—During the
recent visit of the Emperor of Russia to this country,
several of the Polish refugees in London and Paris pe-
titioned his Majesty for permission to return to their
native country. They received no reply to their petitions
until the3lst ult., when eighteen or twenty of the number
now residing in London received a notice to call at the
office of the Russian consulate. They attended accord-
ingly, and were handed sealed letters from the Russian
ambassador, the purport of which was, that they might
return to Poland, but under certain conditions. The
conditions are, that they are first to proceed through
Holland, and thence direct to Kowno, in Russia, there to
undergo an examination for alleged state crimes ; and un-
less any charge other than a mere participation in the
insurrection is proved against them, they will be at once
set at liberty. Many of the Poles, however, have not
accepted the terms.
THE THIEVES' DEN.—Some sensation has been occa-
sioned by the discovery of two strangely-constructed
houses, (said to have been once the residence of Jonathan
Wild,) in West-street, Smithfield, on the west side of
Fleet-ditch, which buildings have, it appears, been long
occupied by a gang of thieves and receivers of stolen
goods. One of these houses, it seems, was fitted up as a
shop, but there are trap-doors behind the counter, cellars
for the reception of property, in one of which was found
a skull and human bones, nooks and recesses of all de-
scriptions, as well as the means of conveying goods " up
the spout," and of facilitating the escape of persons over
the adjoining houses. That such a place should so long
have existed in the heart of the metropolis without detec-
tion, is extraordinary, and the spot has been visited and
explored by noblemen, gentlemen, and others, as a great
curiosity.—The place is to be pulled down for improve-
ment.

SELLING A WIFE AT LEE .DS —On Saturday afternoon,
one of those disgraceful scenes of selling a wife took place
in the market, used for the sale of butter, poultry, &c.
Leeds. The persons engaged in this illegal transaction
came from a small village in the neighbourhood of Wake-
field, and had been married about five years, but the wo-
man we understood had been living in service for the last
three years in consequence of the ill treatment she had
received from her husband, and it was stated that she had
been married about six months ago to the person with
whom she had been in service. The two claimants to the
hand of the female, who is about twenty-five years of
age and of good appearance, having met in company, it
was agreed that the first husband should sell her and that
the other should become the purchaser for the sum of five
shillings, on condition that she should be publicly sold in
the market place at Leeds. There being no other bidder
she was handed over to the individual who had come pre-
pared to purchase her, with a halter round her neck. The
populace who had assembled to witness so rare an exhibi-
tion in Leeds, was about to proceed to handle him roughly,
bad he not made his escape into an adjoining public-
house.—Hull Herald.

THE BURNS FESTIVAL.—The proceedings of the great
national demonstration, on Tuesday, in a field near Alio-
way Kirk, Ayrshire, in honour of the poet Burns, went
off most successfully. Three of Burns's sons, Mr. Robt.
Burns, Colonel Wm. Nichol Burns, and Major James
Glencairn Burns, as well as Mrs. Begg, the sister, and
Mr. and Miss Begg, the nephew and niece of the bard,
were present to receive the welcome home to the Banks
o' Doon, from a multitude of admirers of their illustrious
sire and relative. The Earl of Eglinton presided at the
banquet, Professor 'Wilson acting as vice-president, and
amongst the company were—Henry Glassford Bell, Esq.,
Sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire; Rev. Cuthill, Ayr;
Mr. and Mrs. Thomson, of Dumfries (the Jessie Lewars
of the bard); Sir John M'Neill, Bart., late Plenipoten-
tiary to the Court of Persia; the Right Hon. the Lord
Justice-General ; the Countess of Eglinton ; Sir D. H.
Blair, Bart., of Blairquhan ; Archibald Alison, Esq.,
Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and author of the " History of
Europe ;" Colonel More of Caldwell, author of " Travels
in Greece ;" \Vm. Aytoun, Esq., Advocate; A. Hastie,
Esq., M.P. for Paisley; James Oswald, Esq., M.P. for
Glasgow ; Sir James Campbell, Glasgow ; Provost Miller,
Ayr; James Ballantine, Esq. of Castlehill ; James Camp-
bell, Esq. of Craigie, &c. &c.
THELATEHURRICANE ATSEA.—lnformation has been
received of a dreadful hurricane having visited the dif-
ferent ports on Saturday and Sunday week, which was at-
tended with a great sacrifice of life and property. At
Tenby it commenced blowing fearfully from one o'clock
in the morning from the south east. About five o'clock
a.m., the Richard, Captain Cooke, of Sunderland, from
Cardiff for the port of London, was, owing to the vio-
lence of the hurricane, driven from her anchors, whilst
riding in the Caldy Roads, and the captain, NI, illiam
Cooke, was drowned, and also three of the crew. The
vessel went to pieces soon after she struck, and she has
become a complete wreck. A fishing-smack called The
Four Brothers, during the gale lost two hands. The Jane
(another smack) was driven on shore on the Penduce
Tands, and it was feared would become a wreck. The
yacht Rose, belonging to Mr. Roper, of the same port,
drifted ashore, and has become a wreck. Fortunately all
on board were saved. At Newport the storm commenced
at about the same time, with heavy showers of rain, and
continued with little intermission until eight o'clock,
when it abated a little. The most disastrous intelligence
is expected from this port. At Torbay and Teignmoutit
the gale was equally severe. At Bristol the hurricane was
tremendous, with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning.
The shipping, however, escaped with trifling injur • At.
Llannelly, on Saturday morning, the Friends, a fine' ves-
sel, belonging to llfracornbe, was totally lost on the Cey-
fen Sands, in Carmarthen Bay. The captain, his wife,
and the whole of the crew were drowned. The Briton
steam-tug parted from her moorings, and sank near the
harbour.

PoST-oFFick ESPIONAGE.—The reports of the several
secret committees of the two houses of parliament have
been delivered. They will disappoint the hunters after
grievances. On an average of 21 years, the number of
warrants for opening letters have been, in Great Britain,
about eight annually; of these, about six have been issued
upon the representation of magistrates for the purpose of
bringing criminals to justice, or to assist in the recovery
of stolen property. About two have been annually issued
upon political considerations, to find the means of obviat-
ing sonic public danger. In Ireland, the number of war-
rants issued has been about two in a year, almost exclu-
sively for the purpose of tracing criminals. On the
whole, it appears that the power has been generally
exercised with great frugality, and never for any private
or party object. And so ends Mr. Thomas Slingsby
Duncombe's " bottle of smoke." The following is the
most material portion of the report :—" It may seem that
the issue of six or seven warrants annually, in proportion
to the 30,000 or 40,000 committals which take place in this
kingdom, cannot be an efficient instrument of police; but,
on the other hand, the issue of six or seven warrants upon
a circulation of 220,000,000 of letters cannot b regarded
as materially interfering with the sanctity of private cor-
respondence, which, with these exceptions, there is not
the slightest ground to believe has been ever invaded. The
committee have examined into the case of the petitioner
whose petition has been referred to them. It is true that
Mr. Mazzini's letters were for about four months stopped
and opened, under the warrant of the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, and inspected by the Secretary
for Foreign Affairs, upon an apprehension that he was
engaged in a correspondence having for its object designs
which might be injurious to the tranquility of Europe.
Certain parts of the information thus obtained were com-
municated to a foreign government, in so far as such a
communication appeared to be warranted, but without the
names or details that might expose any individual then
residing in the foreign country to which the information
was transmitted to danger. The committee are bound,
in conclusion, to state, that having looked back to the
proceedings of several secretaries of state during succes-
sive administrations for more than twenty years, they
have found the practice has been nearly uniform, that the
Dower has been very sparingly exercised, and never from
personal or party motives, and that in every case investi-
gated it seems to have been directed by an earnest and
faithful desire to adopt that course which appeared to be
necessary, either to promote the ends of justice or to pre-
vent a disturbance of the public tranquility, or otherwise
to promote the best interests of the countrN%"