The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-02 00:00:00

THE " GAGGING ACT."

Up to Saturday week, when the bill inflicting the penal-
ties of felony on incitements to insurrection received the
royal assent, Saturday had been the regular market day
for treason in Dublin ; but a magical change has been
wrought amongst the Jacobin writers. The Freeman's
Journal, we need scarcely say, is dumb •, indeed that
paltry pedlar in sedition had become as gentle as a sucking
dove two days before the passing of the act. The Nation,
which had been rampant for battle last Saturday week, now
coolly reasons the question, " What if we fail ?" with all
the coolness of a philosopher, and has no stomach for an
attack on any one but poor Johnny O'Connell. Mr.
Duffy says, in a letter extending to nearly five columns,
"A revolution, I know, to be inevitable. No policy and
no force can avert it. * * * I love peace—l fear dis-
order—l hate anarchy. I believe the public opinion of
Ireland to be as well disposed to peace at this hour as ever
it was or ought to become. * * * All Ireland, from
sea to sea, is arming to enforce our natural right to this
island. Heaven send us a peaceful victory. But if not,
my conscience is clear that we are able and entitled to
take it. If we cannot save our country by peace lam for
war." The rest of the Nation is tame and spiritless. The'
fire, if not totally extinguished, seems well nigh raked out.
The United Irishman did not appear on Saturday until
a late hour, in consequence of the parties who printed the
paper declining to continue to do so, as they had been in-
formed by eminent counsel that they could not do so
without the risk of an indictment. For thus accounting
for the delay, Mr. Mitchell says,—" We have been obliged
to submit to the degradation of having our proofs revised
by a lawyer, in order to satisfy the parties before this
number could appear. We can only promise our readers
that no lawyer's pen shall touch our writings a second
time." Mr. Mitchell complains that the " censors" have
ruthlessly erased all the felonious" passages in his
writings, extracting, in fact, the oyster, and leaving the
public nothing better than the pearly shells." A
"leader" in the United Irishmam, ungraced by felony or
treason, is as dull as Hamlet without the principal part.

THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE.—There is at this time in
the conservatory of Alfred Orrell, Esq., of The Grove,
Cheadle, a fine specimen of this extraordinary plant; the
tree, which is of noble dimensions, being laden with fruit
of a rich and delicious flavour.
After a Chartist meeting at Greenock, on Saturday week,
a portion of the mob came in contact with a large body
of police and specials, stationed in one of the streets to
stop the way. The mob made a bold rush against the
police and constables, *ho made a vigorous use of their
batons, and attacked them with such violence that anum-
ber of very serious wounds were inflicted.
" REBECCA " REDIVIVUS.—The agrarian disturbances
which characterised the southern portion of the princi-
pality of Wales in the years 1843 and 1844 have again
manifested themselves in precisely a similar manner. The
new county roads board does not operate in the way it
was intended to do. A new toll-house was finished on a
cross road near Llandilo on the 19th ult., and during the
night of the 21st ult, the toll-house was completely demo-
lished by the Rebeccaites, who literally left not one stone
standing on another.
A FAIR CONFESSION.—Our attention has been arrested
by a sentence of the Economist of Saturday, a paper abun-
dantly infected with the current liberalism of the age, and
little given to mark the superintendinc, hand of Divine
Providence. The effect of present events' on the mind of
the editor, is set forth in the following words :—" The
government of society has long been held up as the high-
est work of human genius ; we begin to doubt, since indi-
viduals and the multitude have alike failed, whether the
task be not beyond the faculties of man."
A SERIES OF ACCIDENTS.—On Monday se'nnight, as a
refractory cow was being driven by Mr. Home to the house
of Mr. Allen, butcher, Brettell-lane, Brierley-hill. the
animal became infuriated, and attacked everything in her
course. A gentleman was thrown out of his phaeton, and
the pony drawing the latter tossed in the air. Her driver
was subsequently thrown into a ditch, and another man
was forced through a shop window, and seriously hurt. At
last, after an attack upon other persons,finding it impossible
to drive the cow to her destination, she was shot in the
road.—Ten Towns Messenger.
EASTER MONDAY.—ANOTHER BESPOICE LONDON
Row I—Mr. Cochrane's second day in Landon, as the
Don Quixote of the poor, was only fit to he recorded by
Punch. The very genius of a row, he specially enjoined
pqace ! It was a failure extraordinary,—with Easter
Mr dl "he - It • Mr. Cod " 'llus-

POST-OFFICE DELINQUENCY.—AR inquiry has take
place during the past week, relative to a packet GS 'orb,
addressed to Mr. James Boodle, solicitor, Cheltenham'
Mr. Coppock, of London, the parliamentary agent for the
petitioners against the return of Sir W. Jones. Mr. C 3
pock sealed the packet and posted it ; on its arrivaliad
Cheltenham Mr. Boodle discovered that the i)elcet tot
been opened. The parcel containing some imporairi
documents relative to the pending election an inq the
was set on foot, when it was .discovered that one of
clerks, a partisan opposed in politics to the liberal PI;
had had an hour's access to the packet by himself. ea
statement of the clerk was, that he found the packet oPthe
in the aunt that he took out the bundle of papers frairaand
envelope, ied the tape with which they were tieoi
read " only the endorsements."
nf the
CHARTIST INTELLIGENCE. —At a meeting' foe,
Chartists, of Newcastle, held on Friday, a Mr. "a;eicl
delivered a long address, in the course of which hedcae
they had determined to agitate peaceably till the ant he
classes were brought round to their views, and th 3 be
gave his vote in the Convention that there shouluthe
synonymous meetings held on Good Friday all overve.,
country. This observation excited roars of laa,g red
when one of the more learned of the Chartists, is° the
at such a display of ignorance, pulled the speaker bY 3ft,
coat, and whispered " simultaneous meetings," and Net
Watson, on resuming his discourse, attempted to cur,
himself by repeating the substance of his last obser
litva
and introducing the term spontaneous meetings. in if
blundering style the Chartist delegate proceeded for nc'ig
half an hour, till, at length, he concluded by Pr°l3°
a resolution which he was unable to road.
DEATH FROM FRIGHT.—Two mischievous boys' cif
ing in Simon's-square, Nicolson-street, for the purilsesge;
amusement, seized a little fellow about eight years oto
who was also resident in that locality and was kn°T. jet?
them, and c:iarging him with some trifling dePrau'aea
from his aunt bound his arms with a piece of cord' Alp
proceeded with him to the police-office at St. Leons7e
Before they reached that station, however, a Passel:oj
attracted by the distressed condition of the boy, re,i` sent
him from the grasp of his bullying companions, and
him away home in a very agitated state. The little,i
low was put to bed, but he became rapidly worse,''if,
during some periods of nervous excitement cried ouo
cut the cord and let him off. Every exertion was Ilea.
in his behalf, but the unfortunate child expired en
nesdav f tl Afect? 4tb -ece'