The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-07 00:00:00

A MAN STABBED BY HIS BROTHER.--TWO young
men, brothers, living at Swainswick, near Bath, named
Thomas-and Charles Cleverly, both of whom are labourers,
had fallen out about family matters, and meeting each
other in the road on Monday, renewed their quarrel, when
blows ensued between them, and in scuffling together
Thomas stabbed his brother Charles in the left thigh,
and he bled profusely from the wound. He was conveyed
to the Bath United Hospital in a dangerous state, but
hopes entertained that the injury will not prove fatal.
A large county meeting was held at Mansfield on Fri-
day last, for the purpose of devising some fitting testimo-
nial to Lord George Bentinck, as the leader of the country
party. The Duke of Newcastle in the course of his re-
marks said—" I much fear we have no successor to such
a man. Troublesome times are coming on, and we have
no one who will devote his life, as did Lord George Ben-
tinck, to all that may be considered good and tree, in-
fluenced as he was by the noblest patriotism, and by all
that which can impel a brave and honest citizen to stand
up for the rights and welfare of his country."
HORRIBLE DEATH.—On Thursday morning, about four
o'clock, Mitchell, a dairyman, of Shoulder of Mutton-
alley, near the North Country Pink, Limehouse, got up,
as was his usual custom, and went to milk the cows; no-
thing more was seen or heard of him till seven o'clock,
when some men perceived a portion of blue apron project-
ing through the top of a pile of cow dung in the yard.
Upon making a closer inspection they found that it was
the deceased's apron, and that the body was immersed
head first in the soil. With all possible expedition the
deceased was got out, but life was quite extinct, and had
been so for some time. It is supnosed that the unfortu-
nate man was walking along the edge of the shoot, and
that he overbalanced himself and fell head foremost into
the soil.

VERY ODD FELLOWS.—At Alphington, near Exeter,
there existed an Odd Fellows' Society, which latterly has
not been in a very flourishing condition, the effect of
which was that, about tiff, months ago, at a general meet-
ing of the body, a resolution was come to for breaking up
the club and dividing the cash in hand. This amounted
to about £6O, and three of the body were deputed to
draw the money from the bank and place it in the "box,"
preparatory to another meeting, at which it was arranged
the division should take place. The money was obtained
and consigned to the custody of the box, each of the
deputation having a key to three different locks by which
the box was fastened. At the appointed time the meet-
ing took place, but neither of the custodians attended ;
ditto at several adjourned meetings. At length the mem-
bers did what they should have done at first—broke
open the box, but of course there was no money there.—
Bristol Gazette.

CONFESSION OF A HORSESTEALER.— The Rev. G.
Walter, late of Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, and now of
the Rocky Hills Probation station, Tasmania, Australia,
sends home the confession of a convict. In June, 1845,
he hired a horse in York. and, riding it into Lincolnshire,
sold it at Horncastle fair. Shortly afterwards he got a
horse from Mr. Greenwood, at Lincoln, and sold it at
Stagshawbank. Next September Carlisle furnishes him
with a nag; and at Stockwith fair, Lincolnshire, he got a
customer. He then went to Doncaster races, and got a
horse and gig, both of which he sold at Boston. About
the 22nd of October, 1845, he hired a bay mare at South
Shields to carry him to Chester-le-street, hut he rode on
to Huddersfield, and effected a sale. Hardly another
week had elapsed before he secured a pony at Halifax,
and sold it at Newark, and in two or three days after that
transaction he engaged a horse and gig at Grantham, one
of which he sold at Peterborough, and the other at Nor-
wich. Thus, in less than five months, he sold seven
horses and two gigs.

THE SEA SERPENT.—One of the greatest difficulties
on the face of the narrative, and which must be allowed
to destroy the analogy of the motions of the so-called
" Sea Serpent" with those of all snakes and anguilliform
fishes, is that no less than sixty feet of the animal were
seen advancing a fieur d'eau at the rate of from twelve to
fifteen miles an hour, without it being possible to per-
ceive, upon the closest and most attentive inspection, any
undulatory motion to which its rapid advance could be
ascribed. It need scarcely be observed that neither an
eel nor a snake, if either of those animals could swim at
with the neck elevated, could do so without the front
part of its body being thrown into undulation by the
propulsive efforts of its tail. But, it may be asked, if the
animal seen by Captain M'Quhae was not allied to the
snakes or to the eels, to what class of animals could it
have belonged ? To this I would reply that it appears
more likely that the enormous reptile in question was
allied to the gigantic Saurians, hitherto believed only to
exist in the fossii state, and, among them, to the Plesio-
saurus.
SINGULAR HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—As Mr. John Frost,
watch and clock repairer. of Crich, was returning ho:ae
from Ripley fair on the 23d ultimo, and when near the
Old Brewery, Ripley, he was attacked by four men, two
of whom " blufted" him with a handkerchief, and held his
arms backwards, whilst the other two rifled his pockets.
They took from him his watch, and a few shillings in
silver, and instantly disappeared. What makes the cir-
cumstance more singular is, that on his recovering him-
self from the fright which the attack naturally caused, and
when about proceeding on the road, one of the robbers
returned to him, and asked him if he had not been robbed.
Mr. Frost answering in the affirmative, the robber held
the watch up to his face, and asked him if that was his
watch ; he replied it was, and that he should like to have
it back, as it was a family watch. The robber then in-
quired of him if he had any more money ; he replied
" not that he knew of," supposing that they had taken all
that he had. During his conversation with the man, two
more of the robbers came up, when they seized him a
second time, and again searched his pockets, but finding
nothing, they gave him his watch, and again wished him
" good night." On his arrival home, Mr. Frost had the
good fortune to find two half-crown pieces in one of his
pockets, which had escaped the robbers' notice.—Derby
Reporter.
A PREMATURE INTERMENT.—On Saturday evening,
not long ago, a man who had been making a little too free
with " John Barleycorn," had to pass through the Taxal
churchyard, where a deep grave had been dug (for an in-
terment on the morrow) close to the footpath over which
the jolly fellow had to pass on his way home ; and being
rather unsteady in his gait, and not quite aisle to maintain
his true perpendicular, he unfortunately fell into the grave,
and being unable to get out again, he quietly resigned
himself to his fate, and went to sleep. Shortly afterwards
one of his boon companions, in passing the same way,
had the misfor' une to fall into the same grave and rouse
the first occupant from his sleep, who, feeling himself
at the intruder's visit, muttered out in angry growl, " It's
strange one cannot lie quietly in the grave." These words
being uttered in a somewhat ghostly tone, so frightened
the intruder that he quickly scaled the walls of the clay
tenement and scampered away as fast as his legs could
carry him to the friends he had just left at the public-
house, to whom he told the story of his misadventure•,
the recital of which roused the people's curiosity, and
they resolved to go in a body to the grave, and, if possible,
ascertain from whence sprung the apparent supernatural
voice which had so terrified their informant. Accordingly,
with fear and trembling, they proceeded to the grave, and
found it tenanted by a faithful pot companion that had
lately left their company, whom they quickly liberated
from his cold dormitory, to the infinite amusement of all
present.—Derby Reporter.
A LADY ACCIDENTALLY POlSONED.—Considerable
excitement has existed in Romsey, Hampshire, and its
neighbourhood, since Tuesday, in consequence of the
death of a lady, the wife of Sergisson Smith, Esq., of
Jermyn's House, near Romsey, and grand-daughter of
the first Lord Gardner, by poison. It appears that Mrs.
Smith, for some slight illness, obtained a prescription
from her Southampton physician, and sent to a Romsey
chemist to have it made up. A portion of the prescrip-
tion, as it was ordered, was three grains of salicine, which
is the essence of the willow bark. It seems that the che-
mist was in the habit of keeping his salicine and stryhy-
nine side by side in some particular part of his shop.
The latter medicine is well known as a deadly poison,
being the active principle of nux vomica. When used as
a medicine, there is never more than the sixteenth part
of a grain given in a dose. The prescription was made
up in the dusk of the evening, and most unfortunately
the chemist took three grains from the strychnine instead
-.of from the salicine bottle. The consequence was fright-
ful. The unfortunate lady expired on Tuesday, in about
twenty minutes after taking the prescription, and endured
the most intolerable agonies. The description given by
Mrs. Smith's lady's maid of the singular effect of the
poison on the frame. and the sufferings of her mistress,
was of the most terrible description. The unfortunate
lady was a very beautiful woman, about 35 years of age,
and was the mother of five children. The chemist, when
he accidentally saw, from the position of the salicine and
strychnine bottles, that she must have used the latter, was
horror-stricken, and immediately pronounced that Mrs.
Smith must have been poisoned. —Local paper.

BENEFITS FROM THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON
EDUCATION.—It is evident from the minutes presented
to Parliament at the close of 1847.8, and from the time
which has elapsed since those minutes, were laid on the
table of the House of Commons, that at the present mo-
ment, at least two thousand pupil teachers have been ap-
prenticed under the sanction of the Committee of Council
on Education ! This involves for the current wear an ex-
pense to the country of £20,000 for the stipends of pupil
teachers, and £B,OOO for the gratuities of the teachers who
educate them. These stipends will rise by the end of five
years in annual instalments to £40,000. It is probable
that in September, 1849, the number of pupil teachers
will be augmented to at least four thousand ; in which
case the immediate annual charge will be £56,000 for sti-
pends to the pupil teachers and gratuities to the masters—
which charge will increase by annual instalments to
£96,000, at the end of five years. The Committee of
Council on Education must also, by the time these pages
have passed through the press, have granted certificates to
about four hundred teachers of elementary schools, in-
volving a fixed annual charge (for their increase of salary)
of not less than £B,OOO ; which may on an average be ex-
pected to last fifteen years. If four hundred teachers in
like manner obtain certificates in 1848-9, another annual
sum of £B,OOO will be added to the education estimates.—
lt is impossible to calculate the cost that will be occa-
sioned to the Government by their liberal proposals for
supplying elementary schools with books. This cannot,
however, be estimated at less than £lO,OOO per annum ;
promoting an annual outlay in the country at large of
£30,000 in school books.—lf to all this be added the
annual grants to training schools, which must increase
from year to year, and which, when Queen's scholars
enter the training schools, will provide for a large part of
their expenditure, it is evident that the parliamentary
grant for the years 1849.50, must be raised from its pre-
sent amount of £125,000 to at least £IBO,OOO or £200,000 ;
and that in the years 1850.1, or 51.52, a quarter of a
million must be annually voted for this great national ob-
ject. This calculation has respect only to the present
ratio of expenditure necessarily arising out of the existing
plans now in operation : should that ratio of grants be
extended—especially in respect to training schools, at
least in their first formation—a much larger outlay may
be antieipated.—Mr. Close's Pamphlet.