The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-17 00:00:00

DOMESTIC.

The recent rains will prove very beneficial to the crops
of late potatoes and to the growing turnips. In the hill
country of Radnorshire, &e., there is still a large breadth
of oats and barley outstanding, which must have suffered
in some degree, but the benefit in other respects will ex-
ceed the damage. Hop-picking bas partially commenced
in this county, and will soon be general. The produce is
considerable, and much of it good in quality.—Hereford
Journal.

INTERESTING RELIC.—A gentleman residing at Wo
)l-
wich has recently become possessed of a manuscript of
extraordinary interest—the rough draught of Bonaparte's
celebrated letter to the Prince Regent on his surrender to
the English, in 1815. In this manuscript there are two
or three verbal alterations : in the sentence " M'asseoir
sur la cendre Britannique," the words "la cendre" are
erased, and " le foyer" substituted; and in the last sen-
tence, " the most powerful, the most constant, and the
most generous of my enemies," the words " the most con-
stant" are interlined, being probably an a terthought of
the Emperor. In a note appended to it, General Gor-
gaud states that it is the " rough draught of the letter
which thP, Emperor sent me to carry from the Isle of Aix
to the Prince Regent of England on the 14th of July,
1815." The present possessor of the manuscript contem-
plated forwarding it to one of the museums in Paris, but
on second consideration he has deferred doing so for the
present.
SERIOUS ACCIDENT.—As William Turner, Esq., of
Flaxmoss House, near Haslingden, was returning in his
carriage from the Annual Sessions at Preston, and when
descending the steep hill at Hud-hey, near Haslingden,
the pole of the carriage broke, and the horses, both fine
and spirited animals, commenced kicking in a highly
dangerous manner; and having broken the splinter-bar
completely away, set off at full gallop down the hill with
the pole and bar dangling after them. When the horses
parted from the carriage, it twisted round and was dashed
with great force against the wall on the roadside. Mr.
Turner was thrown with considerable violence against the
s'de of the carriage, and had his hands cut with the win-
dow glass, and forehead bruised. The coachman was
uninjured, and followed the horses. He found one lying
in the road, and the other down in the field at the un-
fenced place below the Hudrake Toll-bar. The traces
&c., were cut, and the horses released; but both were
much hart. Mr. Turner was able to walk home, and was,
we are happy to say, on the Haslingden bench, as usual,
the following day.—Blackburn Standard.

GILT AND JEWELLERY WORK. —At a meeting of
operatives and others interested in the gold, gilt, and
black jewellery trades, held on Tuesday evening, in this
town, it was resolved to present to his Royal Highness
Prince Albert specimens of the above trades, humbly re-
questing him to patronise the same.—Birmingham Ad-
vertiser.

SUCCESSFUL VILLAINY.--A bold fraud has been
committed on the Bank of England by Mr. Burgess, a
c!erk with the aid of a confederate. Mr. Burgess first
took steps to have it believed in the Transfer-office (where
he was known as being employed in another part of the
establishment) that a Mr. Oxenford, the holder of stock
to the value of £B,OOO, was a friend of his and meant to
sell out. Then, having obtained leave of absence for a
few days, to facilitate his scheme, he procured a man to
personate Mr. Oxenford; vouchei for his identity when
he went to the Transfer-office to effect a fraudulent sale
of the stock ' • and they were wild in gold for. the whole
amount, and have made off with it.

MACADAMIZING ON A NEW PRINCIPLE.—The sur-
veyors of the highways in Manchester have now for a few
weeks past been introducing a new mode of macadamizing
the streets of that town. In addition to the laying of
broken stone, the surveyors have also introducd a profuse
mixture of gas tar therewith, with the object to cause a
quicker consolidation to the granite, as well as to prevent
the top water from penetrating the surface of the road,
and thus ensuring, it is thought, a longer duration of the
ordinary material. It will require a little time. no doubt,
for the trial of this novel experiment, before any positive
opinion can with confidence be given, as to its durability,
as compared with the common method; still, judging
from appearances, it is highly probable that the experi-
ment will prove a successful one ; if so it should be, there
will be an extensive demand for this kind of tar, and may
prove a considerable item in favour of our extensive gas
works.

WONDERFUL PRESERVATION.—On Tuesday week a
young woman, of weak intellect, aged twenty-two years,
residing at Bonsai!, lost her handkerchief down the shaft
of a coal-pit, twenty-two yards deep. The loss effected
her in an extraordinory degree, and it appears that, in
attempting to descend the shaft, she fell to the bottom.
As she did not return to her home, her distracted mother
sought her in every direction. At length, on Monday
last, nearly a week after she fell down the shaft, her mo-
ther was passing the spot, when, remembering the loss of
the handkerchief, she called down the pit, and her daugh-
ter immediately answered. Assistance was procured, and
the miners descended the shaft and found the girl ; she
was naked to the waist and nearly dead from exhaustion.
They soon hoisted her to the surface. She would give
but little account of her mishap, save that she believed
the shaft to he but a few yards deep, that a rotten peg bad
broken, and that she had found her handkerchief. She
had suffered greatly from thirst, and had eaten part of her
under garment. She was put to bed, and, light nourish-
ment having been administered to her, she is doing well.
WooncocKs.—A few days ago the proprietor of Gully.
hill, C. D. Airston, Esq., received by an Edinburgh
coach, from his estate in Stirlingshire, a box of game, and
upon the top of it, what is exceedingly rare in August, a
beautiful woodcock, the best of the three varieties de-
scribed by Latham. The stranger so early in the season
must either have returned to Scotland prematurely, or
have been of a brood that remained at home over winter.
In the books it is stated truly enough that the woodcock
is migratory, and during the cycle of the seasons visits a
vast variety of climates. Generally, it leaves the coun-
tries bordering on the Baltic, late in autumn, on the ap-
pearance of winter—arriving not in flocks, but dropping in
singly, but at most in pairs, from the middle of October
till the end of December. It is a great mistake, however,
to suppose, as Bewick does, " that they do not remain
near the shores to take rest longer than a day, but com-
monly find themselves sufficiently recruited to proceed
inland to the same haunts they left the preceding season."
So far from this, woodcocks in the first instance betake
themselves to the hill and moors, where we have repeat-
edly seen them in so exhausted a state that it would be
easy to seize one by placing a hat over its seat. Tor-
pidity, or an approach to it after so long a flight conti-
tinues nearly a week ; rest is then the great requirement,
although something may be got from picking heather
bushes ; and it is not until after this period of probation
that woodcocks wing their way to the marshes and bosky
dells below, situated at some ten or twenty miles distance,
—Dumfries Courier.
ANTIQUE CURIOSITY.—Last week, while some work-
men were engaged in cutting a main drain through a
marshy or boggy piece of land in the parish of New
Monkland, they dug up, at eight feet below the surface,
a metal jug or drinking vessel, which is evidently of great
antiquity. The vessel is a very handsome one; stands
upon three feet, with a taper neck and handle and spout—
the latter resembling the bend of a serpent's head. It is
of bell metal, weighs 6lbs. 60z., and has capacity for three
English pints. Around the body of the vessel are two
lines containing an inscription, believed to be in rude
Saxo-Norman, and giving it a date, of course, posterior
to the conquest. So near as can be deciphered and ren-
dered in Roman characters, the words are as follows
IC : SVI : AP ELLIE : LAWR
IR : SERF : TVT: PAR: A3IVRCP :
A gentleman of this city, of considerable experience and
success in deciphering these rude legends, thinks that the
Saxo-Norman inscription may be rendered thus :
.le snis appellae Lawr.
Je serf to (or tut) par amour.
Or in English—

I am named Lawr.

I serve all (or you) for love.
If this interpretation be correct, it must be assumed that
the jug was honoured with the name of Lawr ; but whe-
ther it was employed to replenish the wassail cups of the
barons of old, or was used by the priesthood of the ancient
faith in their religious observances, there is nothing left
upon which to hang a conjecture.—Glasgow Mail.