The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-11 00:00:00

POLICE STATISTICS

The Watch Committee have published statistical tables,
giving a comparative view for the last three years of the
general opera' ions of the police force, also a statement of
the strength of that body, and the annual expense of their
maintenance, &c. From these we abstract the following
principal particulars, referring to 1844 (to the end of
which the acconnts are made up), and in some points to
1843 :

The number of thieves known to the police last year
was 986, and in 1843, 931. Of this class 88 were trans-
ported in 1844, and 119 in 1843. Imprisoned in 1844,
2,967 ; in 1843, 2,427. In custody on charges of felony
4,582 in 1844 ; 4,961 in 1843. The following refer to 1844
alone :—Men, charged with drunkenness, 4,964 ; women,
2,682; public-houses fined, 235; beer•houses ditto, 260;
offences against the bye-laws (town division), 4,124;
ditto (dock division), 2,929 ; beggars apprehended, 510.
The number of brothels same year was 547 ; the number
of prostitutes residing in them 2,366—a small reduction
on the former year.
The committee, anxious to improve the police manage-
ment, have merged the office of commissioner into that of
bead•constable, thus making one officer responsible for
the entire direction of the force. To carry this out they
appointed three superior officers,—a superintendent for
the indoor duties and the detective force, and one to each
division of the police (there being now but two,) who ex-
ercise a constant supervision of their respective districts,
and are responsible for the prompt execution of all the
rules and regulations; and from these arrangements the
committee anticipate advantage to the force as well as to
the public.
The strength and pay of the force may be thus briefly
enumerated :

IN THE PREVENTIVE FORCE :—Head-constable, salary
£650 per annum, with £5O for keep of a horse, free house,
&c., two superintendents, at £2OO each ; seven ditto, at
£150; foreman of fire-brigade, £120; thirty-eight in-
spectors, at 30s. a week ; a chief clerk, £l5O ; four sta-
tion clerks at 30s. a week ; a clerk and store keeper at
265. ; 491 constables, at 18s. ; 61 ditto, firemen, at I9s. ;
61 ditto (extra), at 16s.
IN THE DISTRICT OFFICE.—An in-door superintend-
ent, £200; clerk, £7B; billets, £2O.
BRIDEWELL.—Main keeper, £140; clerk, £7B ; nine
constables, at 21s. ; six lock-up house keepers, at 21s. a
week; six ditto assistants,—making in all 702 men, at an
annual cost of £36,536 45., to which clothing being added,
£4,500 per annum—the total annual cost of the force is
£41,036 4s.
FIRE POLICE.—One table shows a decrease in the num-
ber of fires during the past year, as compared with the two
preceding ones; as also the amount of property destroyed,
as follows :

Number

Amount of
Property
destroyed.
£24,390 19 6
119,584 8 0
517,927 12 6

1844
1843
1812

Fires,
.. 100
.. 111
.. 140

The committee last year added to this department four
new powerul engines, and a quantity of new hose. They
have this year added eight new water-carts.

GENERAL MISCELLANY.

Lord Ellenborough has subscribed £lOO towards a
public monument to the late Sir William Nott.

The Town-council of Sunderland have undertaken the
supply of the town with water.
The Sunderland ship-carpenters have had their wages
raised sixpence a day—they now receive 245. per week.
It now appears that the poor women ejected by the
recent law from the coal-pits have been numerously at
work in them in men's clothes.
The manufacturers of plate glass are already issuing
circulars to the trade, offering their commodity at a re-
duction of 25 per cent. on the present prices.
On Sunday week Mr. Jos. Cameron, a respectable
Wesleyan preacher at Gateshead, died suddenly in the
pulpit, after his sermon, whilst the congregation were ex-
pecting the benediction.

The Medical Times mentions the case of an ostler who
died the other day with all the symptoms of hydrophobia,
supposed to have been occasioned by the bite of a healthy
horse three years old.
Lord Sandon, Sir Howard Douglas, Sir W. James,
Sir .T. Hanmer, and a deputation from the manufacturers
of turpentine, had an interview with Sir George Clerk on
Wednesday, at the office of the Board of Trade.
Lord Lonsdale has stated, in the House of Lords, that
the number of newspapers returned to the dead letter
office, from the loss of their envelopes and addresses
amounted to 456,000 in a year !
THE SALT-HILL MURDER.—The trial of John Tawell,
charged with the wilful murder of Sarah Hart, at Salt-
hill, on New Year's-day, will take place next week at
Aylesbury.
A woman named Tedcastle is in custody at Lockerhy,
charged with the murder of her own son, by giving him
arsenic from time to time, mixed with his food and me-
dicine.

The Admiralty have ordered several first and second
class steam frigates with screw propellers, instead of the
unwieldy paddle-boxes and paddles. One first-class fri-
gate steamer is to have a screw prOpeller of 800 horse
power.

CHIMNEY SWEEPERS.—A chimney sweeper, eight
years old, was suffocated at Bridgenorth on Friday week,
whilst ascending a chimney. A young man, who sent
the boy up the chimney, has been committed for man-
slaughter.

We have advices from the various Dutch ports to the
effect that upwards of 7,000 beasts are actually feeding by
the distillers, for shipment to our market ; while the
graziers are making extraordinary efforts in this respect.
—Farmers' Magazine.

The whole of the curiosities of the Adelaide Gallery
exhibition which were said to have originally been pur-
chased at an expense of £20,000, were sold by auction,
last week. The auctioneer asked £2,000 for the collec-
tion, which was ultimately knocked down for 490
guineas.

A RELIC.—At a sale of the works of art forming part
of the cabinet of M. Revil, on Friday last, in Paris, the
sketch of Wilkie's " Rent Day," marked " D. Wilkie,
1807," and described on the catalogue as having been
bought at the sale of Lord 111ulgrave's pictures for 60
guineas, brought nearly 1900 f.

The iron trade is reported from Wales to be in a state
of full activity, and orders for railroad iron are not taken
unless at higher rates ; some houses demanding an ad-
vance so considerable as to embarrass the calculations of
parties connected with the present extensive projection of
these works at home and abroad.

The total amount of the naval estimates for the year
1845.6 it £7,151,555, an increase of £901,433 compared
with the preceding year. The number of men and boys
proposed is 40,000.
The Watch Committee of Hull have resolved upon the
establishment of a library for the especial use of the police
force of the town, which will in great:part be supported
by the contributions of the men at ld. per week.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Thursday, James
Tapping, aged 22, was found guilty of the wilful murder
of his sweetheart, Emma Whiter, by deliberately shoot-
ing her. He was left for execution, and exhibited
throughout the proceedings an indifference to all that was
passing.

THE STEAM NAVY OF GREAT BRITAIN.—We have
actually afloat 107 steam-vessels of all classes, with a
power exceeding that of 20,000 horses. Engines to the
amount of 10,000 horse power are ordered, and engines
and vessels to the extent of more than one-half of this
power are nearly ready.
AUCTIONS —We learn from a parliamentary paper that
the gross amount of auction license duty (the rate of duty
being £ss. ss. per ann.) received was, in 1842, £21,026;
in 1843, £20,763 ; and in 1841, £20,784. The gross pro-
duce of the auction duty amounted in 1842 to £297,146 ;
in 1843, to £284,555 ; and in 1844, to £308,442.
SALE OF GUANO AT PORT-GLASGOW.--011 Tuesday
last there was a public sale of this valuable manure at
Port-Glasgow. It consisted of the cargo of the Margaret,
from Ichaboe. The attendance of farmers and others was
large. but only a few lots were disposed of, at £7 12s. 61.
to £8 per ton. The proprietor, it is said, refused £7 10s.
for the remainder of the cargo.
A brutal murder was committed on the mm ning of
Thursday week, near the village of Smailholun, between
five and six miles from Kelso. The suspected murderer
is an Irishman, named Wiiliam Murray, and the deceased
was his wife. They had been at Kelso together, and were
returning home, and the murder was committed on the
turnpike road, along which tile murderer had dragged
his victim nearly two miles from the spot where the first
blow appears to have been struck.
BREAD MONOPOLY.—On Monday evening upwards of
150 master bakers met at the Green Dragon, Fleet-street,
London, for the purpose of inducing millers or flour fac-
tors not to supply any baker with flour, who sells his
bread under a stipulated trade price, and pledged them-
selves, individually and collectively, not to support or
deal with any miller so transgressing. A committee was
appointed to see their resolutions carried into effect, and
delegates elected to communicate to the various millers
in the environs of the metropolis the purport of their
meeting.

SUICIDE IN PRISON.—On Monday last, a most deli-
berate suicide took place in Linlithgow prison. A person
was incarcerated there on a charge of housebreaking,
preparatory to his transmission to Edinburgh, and when
the turnkey was in his cell, he took possession of the
keys, locked himself and the turnkey in, and berore the
gaoler could get in, or the turnkey out, he had managed
to hang himself with the aid of the window stancheons.
He had been previously detected in an attempt to kill the
gaoler by a stone secreted in a stocking.—Glasgow Con-
stitutional.

DREADFUL EXPLOSION.—On Wednesday morning a
most dreadful explosion happened at the works of Messrs.
Samuda, at Blackwall, at which upwards of a hundred
men are employed, and we regret to state that at least
three men have met with instant death, while several
others have been seriously wounded. It appears that a
stationary engine is used for the general purposes of dril-
ling the iron, &c., and the boiler of which exploded, de-
stroying everything in its immediate vicinity, and causing
the destruction of numbers of windows for a considerable
distance. One part of the boiler, of nearly a ton weight,
was carried to a distance of 150 yards from the place
where the explosion took place. One of the unfortunate
men was carried across the creek. It will be remem-
bered that a few months since, Mr. J. Samuda, one of
this firm, was killed, along with several others, by a boiler
explosion on board the Gypsey Queen steamer.
INGENIOUS THEFT.—At Marlborough-street, on Wed-
nesday, John Green, a shabby-dressed man, between 30
and 40 years of age, was charged with burglariously
breaking the shop-window of Mr. Charles Wright, of
Lisle-street, Leicester-square, watch and clock maker,
and stealing therefrom a case containing three gold
watches, of the value of between £5O and £6o.—The
prosecutor stated that about a quarter to eight o'clock in
the evening, as he was sitting in his shop, he heard one of
the panes of glass in the window break, and saw a man's
hand inside, amongst the watches displayed for sale. He
instantly rushed to the shop door, but could not get out,
as it had been tied with some twisted string to the scraper.
He was seen running, however, by the policeman, and
being pursued, was captured in Green-street, having in his
flight thrown the case and watch into some excavations,
where they were afterwards found. The prisoner, who is
a well-known thief, was fully committed.
BOLD AND INGENIOUS ESCAPE FROM PRISON.—A
few nights ago a man named Young effected his escape
from Tain prison. tic occupied a strong cell, closed by
an iron-grated door, secured on the outside by an iron
chain, and locked with two padlocks. It would appear
that he broke the two substantial locks of his cell by a
board taken from his bed, and afterwards another strong
lock which secured the room in which the keepers slept.
Having thus got access into the gaoler's apartment, he
changed his clothes, and managed to find the key of the
door that leads to the bartizan. He then tore up the
blankets of his bed, and, knotting them together, tied
them to an iron bar in a narrow slit in the turret, on
which he slid down, and alighted in the old court-house,
the windows of which look into the high-street, and are
secured by deals, which he managed to break and leap
into the street. Officers were despatched in all directi-
ons in search of him, and he was recaptured near Fowlis.
EXTRAORDINARY.—An individual, supposed to be of
the feminine sex, was buried at Tooting on Friday. She
was 83 years of age, and for the last half century had
passed for a very pious woman, constantly receiving the
sacrament, and was equally punctual in her devotions.
She was for thirty years in the service of a lady at Toot-
ing as cook, having been engaged when she was 27, and
leaving her service at the age of 57, to marry Mr. Welch,
the parish clerk. The old couple appeared to live in har-
mony for a period of six years, when Welch died. From
that time she had been mainly supported by the charita-
ble
contributions of the neighbouring gentry, and of late
years she has been lodging in the same room with an aged
single female. No suspicion of the sex of this person had
ever been entertained ; but upon laying out the corpse,
the astounding fact was discovered that the pious Ann
Welch was, in fact, a man ! [This story is related with
great confidence in the Observer, but the incumbent of
Tooting has published a letter, in which he says there is
no ground for the reports.]
ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.—At Carlisle, George Hard-
ing, a grocer, was sentenced to two months' imprison-
ment, the last month solitary, under the new Bankruptcy
Act, for having fraudulently obtained goods in contem-
plation of Bankruptcy.—Thomas Robertshaw, a quack
doctor, who had killed a patient named Culthard, by ad-
ministering to him a dose of jalap and corrosive sublimate,
was sentenced to four months' imprisonment. The fol-
lowing are specimens of this worthy's prescriptions :—" 2
scrouples golep, and gros of suflenent." The latter item
supposed to be " corrosive sublimate." Here is another
prescription for rheumatic pains :—" pans salvalatly
ether asadfaddy snakrot lavender, all tinktrs, on tea spon
ful in gen."—At Oxford, Thomas Jennings, a game-
keeper, was convicted on the clearest evidence of the
murder of Eleazar Jennings, his own child, by poisoning
it with arsenic. The jury recommended him to mercy,
on no conceivable ground but that of an objection to ca-
pital punishment, but the judge sentenced him to death,
without holding out the slightest hope that the recommen-
dation would be attended to.—At the Glamorgan assizes,
on Monday, John Harries, aged 22, miner, was convicted
of the manslaughter of Evan Jones, collier, near Merthyr.
Christopher Long Batcocb, aged 28, miller, was convicted
of feloniously killing and slaying Wm. Eynon, gate-
keeper, Gower. Sentences deferred.
EXTRAORDINARY FEAT OF A SHEPHERD'S DOG.—
Mr. John Marsden, of Sykes-in-Rowland, had been shep-
herding on the Sykes Fell, and he had creased a hare
track in the snow, a mile from his house. When he ar-
rived at home lie mentioned the circumstance to his man
Jack, and asked him if he thought it possible to bring the
hare into the house without he or his dog touching it.
Jack thought it so impossible that he offered to bet his
master five shillings that he and his dog could not do it.
The wager WAS made, and Mr. Marsden and his dog im-
mediately started to the fell. In about half an hour Jack
beheld, with no small chagrin, his master coming down
the hill, and the dog driving the hare after him, in the
same manner as if it had been a sheep. It was very amu-
sing to see poor puss when she was foiled in all her twist-
ings and tvvinings, turn round and sit on her hind legs in
a pugilistic manner, showing all the science of a first-rate
boxer; but when the dog came near her (after all her
bluster in the boxing line), she showed that she had only
got the heart of a hare, for she immediately took again to
her natural weapons, her heels. Mr. Marsden walked
into the house and seated himself in his big chair, and the
dog, after many miles of zigzag work, fairly drove the
hare into the house after him. Puss, as if conscious of
her inferiority, seated herself behind the big chair, while
the dog with all the self importance of a victorious com-
petitor, took his seat in front of his master, first eyeing
his master and then poor puss, as if asking for further
commands. Jack swore that poor puss ought to be roasted
alive, for losing him his five shillings.—Lancaster Gaz.
SINGULAR ADVENTUILES.--The adventures of a
second Robinson Crusoe, in the person of Charles Good-
ridge, who has family connexions in Colchester, have just
been published, and present one of the most singular nar-
ratives ever recorded. The author, with his fellow-ship-
mates, were wrecked when on a sealing voyage in 1821,
and cast ashore upon one of the Crozet Islands in the
South Seas, uninhabited by any human being, and with-
out a tree or shrub growing upon its barren soil. A part
of the crew landed upon another island some miles distant ;
each party believing the other to have perished. In this
situation they furnished themselves with such accommo-
dation as pieces saved from the wreck afforded, subsisting
on birds, the sea-elephant, and fish. After the lapse of
about two years they were rescued from their situation
by an American schooner, the captain and mate of which
afterwards quarrelled upon the voyage, and the former
determined to leave the latter upon one of the numerous
islands in those seas, and abandon him to his fate. The
mate's situation met with sympathy from these who had
been so recently released from their captivity, and our au-
thor, with eight others, declared they would accompany
the mate in his exile if the captain persevered in his de-
termination. The captain did keep his word, and so did
the others, and all were left together upon an uninhabited
island by the inhuman captain. After a lengthened so-
journ here, and after passing through many scenes of pri-
vation and suffering, they were taken off by a vessel,
carried to Van Dieman's Land, and eventually returned
to England. The truth of the narrative is well attested.
—lpswich Express.

THE THAMES TUNNEL.—The proprietors of this un-
dertaking held a Gen ral Assembly at tie London Tavern,
on Tuesday last, Mr. B. Hawes, sen., in the chair. The
report stated the works to he in excellent condition, and
Lk, lv to last for many hundred years. The number of
foot passengers, who had passed through the tunnel in the
year ending 31st December last, was 1,473,100 ; and the
total rec,,:pts of all traffic, including rents of stall keepers,
was £15,686 15s Sd. Notwithstanding all economy, the
Directors have reduced their own allowance from £lOOO
to .4.:200, it was announced there was no prospect of a di-
vidend. The sum advanced by government is £246.000.
It is proposed, on a plan of the late Mr. Samuda, to
construct a railway through ore passage of the tunnel, for
carts and carriages.

BREACH OF PROMISE.—At the Chelmsford Assizes on
Wednesday an action was brought by Mary Elizabeth
Howard, to recover compensation in damages from a man
named Scudder, for the breach of his promise to marry
her. He was a corn-merchant and baker, carrying on an
extensive business at Rayleigh, and the plaintiff was a
young woman (32) very respectably connected, and whose
friends resided at South Minster. In 1843 the wife of
the defendant died, leaving two young female children ;
and, shortly afterwards, through the instrumentality of a
gentleman named Clark, who was acquainted with the
plaintiff's family, the plaintiff entered the family of the
defendant as housekeeper, and to take charge of his
children. In less than two months afterwards the de-
fendant first made her an offer of marriage ; but the
Plaintiff refused to marry him until a decent period had
elapsed, when alone she could appear in public with pro-
priety as his wife. The offer was afterwards renewed,
and things went so far that the ring and the wedding
clothes were actually purchased, when the defendant on a
sudden declined to fulfil his promise. Verdict for the
plaintiff. Damages 1:20.

INCITING TO ADMINISTER POISON.-At the Glamor-
ganshire assizes, last week, John Rus and Ann Williams
were tried for having incited Richard Edwards to ad-
minister poison to Thomas and Mary Vaughan. Mr. and
Mrs. Vaughan kept a public-house near Newbridge, and
possessed some property. Anne Williams, a natural
daughter of Mr. Vaughan before marriage, lived with
them, and Rus was a lodger. The latter became more in-
timate with the g:rl than was agreeable to Mr. and Mrs.
Vaughan, and he received notice to quit. Sl;oitly after-
wards he absconded with Anne Williams, and they lived
together as man and wife. In May last they bribed a man
named Richard Edwards, who is of weak intellect, to go
over to Vaughan's house, giving him two packets of
white powder, which he was to mix in some beer and in-
vite Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan to drink, at the same time
avowing that it was their intention to " send them to the
devil." Tile man divulged the whole affair to Mrs. Vaug-
han, and the powders, on examination proved to be ar-
senic. The prisoners were tried, at the last summer as-
sizes, before Baron Rolfe, and sentenced to transportation
for life, but, the learned baron being of opinion that the
charge could not be sustained under that highly penal
statute, they were now tried for the misdemeanor and
found guilty. They were sentenced to two years impri-
sonment and hard labour.

A REFoRNI AGENT AT FAULT.—At Clerkenwell Po-
lice-office, London, on Tuesday, Mr. Reuben 'Wright
Davies, a respectable-looking middle-aged man, agent to
the Liverpool Reform Association, and residing at York-
buildings, Queen Anne-street, Liverpool, was charged
with embezzling £lO, the property of the above associa-
tion, and with attempting to destroy himself. At one
o'clock en the previous day, the prisoner went into the
chemical shop of Mr. Lye, Pentonville, and asked for six
pennyworth of poison. Mr. Lye, perceiving him to be in
a highly excited and agi'ated condition, refused him the
poison, and sent for a constable. Police-constable 33 G
came, arrested and conveyed him to the station. He ad-
mitted that he intended self-destruction, and said his
aunt, Mrs. Stevens, lived in Camden Villa. Inspector
Penny sent him thither with the constable, when it was
found he had made a false statement, no such person as
Stevens residing there. He was then taken back to the
station-house, and when about to be locked up he said,
" I may as well tell the whole truth. I am agent to the
Reform Association, in Liverpool, and have robbed my
employers of £lO, which I spent since Friday last, when
I came to London." Mr. Combe observed that among
the papers found on the prisoner was the following docu-
ment, signed by Mr. Thornhill, treasurer to the Liverpool
Reform Association :—" Mr. R. W. Davies is authorised
to receive subscriptions and donations for the Liverpool
Reform Association," also a letter to his wife announcing
his determination to destroy himself. [The letter com-
menced with " My dear Margaret," and contained the
usual amount of trashy sentimentalism to be found in such
productions.] The prisoner acknowledged that he was
the person represented in the d,cuments, but said if the
magistrate would set him at liberty, he would make it all
right with the association. He had a regular salary, which
was paid to him by Mr. John Hartley, the secretary. Mr.
Combe directed the police to communicate with the asso-
ciation and with his wife, and remanded the prisoner fora
week.