The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-29 00:00:00

@rural zffitsriellany.

It is stated that 10,000 tons of potatoes have been sent
from Wisbeach by railway only this season.
We are sorry to hear that Mr. Richard Oastler, " the
Factory King," is dangerously ill.
The American steam-ship Washington would leave
New York on the 20th instant for Southampton.
Nottingham coals are advertised in London at 255. per
ton, and are.said to be the best in that market.
SWANS ON ESTHWAITE LAKE.—A number of these
birds are, through private liberality, likely soon to orna-
ment this beautiful water.

Mr. Hawksley has been requested by the Earl of Lons-
dale to report on the practicability of obtaining a good
supply of water for Whitehaven.
011 Monday night, Stephenson's biscuit manufactory at
Wapping, London, was destroyed by fire. The river,
for miles, was most brilliantly illuminated.
It it stated to be a fact that there are persons employed
in Christian England in casting idols for the Indian mar-
ket.

The destruction of farm property by fire is reviving in
the northern part of Essex. Five or six fires of this de-
scription have occurred in that district within a short
period.
A Dumfries paper mentions that a mouse's nest, con-
taining. a litter of dead young ones, was lately found in
the interior of part of 'a bun, which had been placed in a
covered jar, by a jeweller of that town, some time before.
AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.—The vessel Harpley, arrived in
the docks from Launceston, Van Diemen s Land, has
brought 2,599 bags of wheat, the produce of that distant
colony. _

At Colesford, Gloucestershire, John Ravenhill, farmer
and horse-doctor, has been committed for the man-
slaughter of James Fox, which he undertook to cure of a
bad leg. . _

The-pro-papist and latudinarian government has recently
caused each Roman Catholic soldier in her Majesty's ser-
vice to be supplied with a neat edition of the Douay muti-
lated Bible.

Mrs. Hills. wife of Mr. Bills, Dryburn-cottage, North-
umberland, died a few days since in consequence of having
taken a quantity of oxalic acid, which she kept for cleaning
bonnets, and which she mistook for Epsom salts.
On Wednesday, Mr. Wakley held an inquest on the
late Mr. " Romeo" Coates, who died on Monday from
injuries received by being thrown down by a cab. The
driver MISTIOZ-beei 111 m-uss
of " manslaughter" against some person unknown.
A " tin " whale, which measured 46 feet in length, and
25 feet in girth, and which was estimated to weigh four
tons, was found dead on Saturday week by some Kentish
fishermen, who towed it into Folkestone, where they sold
the carcase for the sum of £l4.

An Oxford correspondent of the Athenceum states that
he has succeeded in transferring drawings made on paper
with lithographic chalk to zinc pipes, which may be made
by means of the anastatic press, to produce impressions
that cannot be distinguished from lithographs.
THE GROWING ,WHEAT.—At Wakefield, Newton,
Stanley, Altofts, Noimanton, Warmfield, Crofton, Meth-
ley, Castleford, Pontefract, and Yorkshire generally, the
growing wheat was never known to look better at this
time of the year, than it does at present.
A love affair, which very nearly had a fatal termination,
has occasioned much gossip at Frampton-on-Severn, and
Newport, in Gloucestershire. The young lady threw her.
self into the Berkeley Canal, but was got out after sus-
taining a sad ducking.
Foxhunting seems to be declining in Leicestershire, for
the number of horses belonging to members of the Mel-
ton hunt now stabled in that town is only 204, or 70 less
than the number shown by an average for the last five
years.
The moveable feasts, namely, Easter and Whitsuntide,
this year happen almost as late as they can ever occur:
the one being on the 23d of April, and the other on the
10th of June, the first day of Lent being on the Bth of
March.

Six men were drowned in the Tyne on Tuesday. They
were workmen employed preparing the coffer dams and
erecting the gears for the high level bridge across the river
at Newcastle. They had only been engaged at the works
within half an hour of the accident.

the bachelors gave a very grand fancy-dress ball, at
the Assembly Rooms, at Cheltenham, on the 22d inst.,
which was attended by all the fashionables there and in
the neighbourhood. The most magnificent Circassian
costume ever introduced into this country, from Kizliars-
kaja, was worn by Mrs. Cox, of Harwood Hall, Essex.
At the dinner of the Royal Society of Musicians, on
Tuesday, the patriarch Braham contributed the once fa-
mous " Hearts of Oak " with prodigious vigour and
energy, although on the threshold of eighty years of age!
Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which the old
man was greeted on all sides.

Point MEN SMOTHERED.—The sloop Mary, from Shiel-
daig. of Applecross, with a crew of four, was boarded on
the 13th instant by two sailors, who, on looking into the
forecastle, were horrified to observe one man dead. On
further inquiry it was found that the whole crew. con-
sisting of three other persons, were dead. The cause of
death was suffocation from smoke.—Rosshire Advertiser.
ROBBERY OF A BANKER'S PARCEL CONTAINING X 2585.
—At the Guildhall. York, on Friday, a man named Dob-
son, in the service of the York and North Midland Railway
Company, was charged with having extracted from a ban-
ker's parcel, which had been given him to deliver, notes
amounting to £2.585. The greater part of the notes were
recovered, but £126 was still deficient. The prisoner, who
acknowledged having cut open the parcel, and extracted
the money, was fully committed for trial. He subse-
fluently stated that he had stolen maney from other par-
cels, which was ascertained to be true.
A. large seizure of secreted goods was made last week in
• -.ham on premises formerly occupied by a hatter
murflnb '
'e, who lately applied to the London Court of
named'.hae, h' for protection from process. The vaults
Bankruptcy .
'— were found had not, apparently, been
where the goons
nnths. The cases there found con-
entered for some no.
nperty of the value of upwards of
tamed hats and other pi.
£l.OOO. They were directo..4 "T. Bate, Birmingham,"
-nened. The articles were
and had evidently never been o, residence of Mr. Bate,
forthwith removed to the present..
ecreted somewhere,
and as it is expected other goods are tt...
an active search is being made.
DESTRUCTION BY FIRE OF THE PARISH t.7:..4URCEI OF
Answers' LEIGH.—On Sunday, soon after the afte."Pooti
service, a fire broke out in the chancel of the aforesaid
churzh, and, notwithstanding every exertion by the vil-
lagers, the devouring element very quickly mastered the
edifice, which is completely gutted. We are happy to
add that the tower escaped with little injury, as also two
of the principal monuments, viz., one to the memory of
Sir G. Norton, who afforded an asylum to King Charles
IL, and that lately erected to the memory of P. J. Miles,
Esq., at a cost of 1000 guineas. The fire originated by
the foulness of the flues used in heating the building,
which became ignited.
SOYER'S PAROCHIAL MODEL KITCHEN.—M. Soyer
having been appealed to by several benevolent gentlemen
whose sympathies were excited by the distress prevalent
in Spitalfields, caused one of his model kitchens for the
poor to be erected in the most populous district, and since
Saturday week last it has been in full operation. All who
are destitute or infirm are supplied with a quart of soup
or food, and nearly halt' a pound of bread for one penny.
On the first day the kitchen was opened, M. Soyer made
a most excellent peas, panada, and meat soup in less than
one hour and a half, at. a very moderate expense (great
quickness and saving being effected by his new steam
apparatus) ; and the food was distributed to 350 children
selected for the purpose, without any confusion, in less
than twenty minutes. The remainder was given away to
many poor families in the neighbourhood.
CAUTION.—An advertisement appears in some of the
newspapers, from a party in London, containing a long
list of patent and celebrated medicines, and promising to
send on receipt of twelve postage stamps, the recipe for
preparing any one of them. The advertisement also sets
forth that the party leas one of the largest scientific and
chemical libraries in the kingdom, and promises to supply
any required information on the same moderate terms.—
We should think few people are so simple as to part with
"twelve postage stamps " on the faith of any such pro-
mises; nevertheless, we may as well state, that the ad-
dress to which the stamps are to be sent is an inferior sort
of house —where all inquiries are answered by a woman,
who says, " she don't know where the person lives who
advertises these secrets, but that he calls sometimes at
night for any letters that may be left for him," she refuses
to give any further information.
A MINE OF GUANO IN ENGLAND.—The Gardener's
Chronicle announces the important fact that beds of fos-
sil phospates—the most fertilising of manures—have been
discovered in Surrey, along the lower edge of the chalk
formation. Liebig has already predicted their existence
in the following words : " Tn the remains of an extinct
animal world England is to find the means of increasing
her wealth in agricultural produce as she has already
found the great support of her manufacturing industry in
fossil fuel." The fulfilment of this prophecy is due to the
exertions and rzsearches of Mr. J. M. Payne, of Farnham.
That gentleman having noticed that a certain portion of
his estate, remarkable for the green tint of the soil, was
exceedingly prolific, sent some of the earth to a chemist
for analysation without any conclusive result, but after-
wards forwarded to Professor Way a box of marl dug out
of a pit sunk in the same sort of soil. This proved, on
analysis, to possess great fertilising power, which was very
materially increased when washed and selected.

DREADFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION.-011 Wednesday
evening, an awful coal-pit explosion, took place at the
colliery of Messrs. Swire and Lees, Duckinfield, known
as the Victoria Pit. The colliers were at work, 'about
five o'clock, when some of them had got into sonic old
workings, with a lighted candle, not taken the usual pre-
caution of using a safety lamp. The foul air, which ap-
pears to have been deeply impregnated, exploded, causing
the instantaneous death of four men, and a number of
others are seriously burnt, three of whom are not expected
to live. Two of the young men killed are brothers; and
their father, who is said to have had the naked candle in
his hand which was the cause of the explosion, is also
much burned, and but little hopes are entertained of his
recovery. The pit where the accident happened is the
deepest in the neighbourhood, and more lives are said to
have been lost in it than in all the others put together.
Great pains have been taken to prevent the men working
with naked lights, but all the attempts hitherto made have
failed,—the miners, apparently, choosing to run the risk
of their lives rather than work with their Davy lainp..;.
APPLICATION OF CHLOROFORM IN TETANUS.—A man
servant in the household of Lady Dorothy Elizabeth
the--Rectory, Enfield, cut off the tip of his thumb. In
ten days trismus (locked jaw) came on, attended with
difficulty of swallowing, resembling hydrophobia : in
three days more tetanus set in. affecting all the muscles of
the body with painful spasmodic contractions and extreme
rigidity, the head, neck, and lower extremities being bent
backwards. In this case Mr. Asbury, her ladyship's
medical attendant, saw that death must take place in a
few hours, unless some powerful remedy were applied with
success. Mr. Asbury determined on chloroform, with
purgatives. The first application was on the second day
of tetanus, when sleep was procured for eighteen minutes ;
the third day it was applied twice, and procured sleep for
twenty minutes each time. The chloroform has since
been administered daily with the same success for twenty-
four days. The young man can now walk alone and masti-
cate food. The chloroform vapour was also applied to
the wound, when, in two minutes, the thumb, being stiff
and extended, dropped into the hand. The vapour was
also applied to the blistered surface on the back with equal
success.

SHOCKING MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS.—in accord-
ance with an Admiralty order, a mariner, named Michael
Fitzpatrick, was on Saturday delivered into the custody
of the governor of Newgate, for trial at the next sitting of
the Central Criminal Court, for the wilful murder of a
fellow seaman, of the name of Walter Jenkings, on the
high seas. The unfortunate deceased and the prisoner
were fellow apprentices on board the brig Sibson, of the
port of Blyth. On the 24th of last December, the vessel
was in the Mediterranean, making a voyage from Kertel,
in Russia, and about eight o'clock in the morning of that
day both parties were in the forecastle, with several other
seamen. The prisoner, it appeared, had been using a
pannakeen belonging to the deceased, and had left a quan-
tity of slops in it. Deceased complained to him of his
neglect, and seeing that his caution had but little effect,
the unfortunate man threatened to strike the prisoner
with a piece of rope as he was leaving the forecastle with
the utensil to chat). The prisoner was then heard to say,
" I will have your life if you touch me again," upon
which the deceased remarked, " You will, will you ?" at
the same time attempting to strike him. The prisoner
had a knife in his hand, and, in pushing Fitzgerald along,
plunged it into his abdomen on the right side. The poor
fellow immediately fell, and cried, " I am killed." He
was conveyed to a berth, and treated as well as those on
board could prescribe, and the prisoner was placed in
irons. On the following day the vessel arrived in Tunis,
and the wounded man was removed to the military hos-
pital, where he died in great suffering.
LEGISLATIVE BLUNDERING.—The Bill for promoting
Public Health provides in various clauses for the suppres-
sion of nuisances, and for this purpose autliorises regula-
tions for slaughter-houses, and restrictions as to the sale
and exposure of unwholesome meat. By the 45th clause,
the inspector under a local hoard is to inspect "any shop
building, stall or place kept or used for the sale of but-
cher's meat, or as a slaughter-house, and to examine any
animal, carcase, meat, or flesh, which may be therein ;"
he may also seize such as may be found unfit for the food
punish the parties from whom any carcase, meat, or flea:
is taken, by penalty. Thus is provision wisely made for
placing within reach of law an offensive practice with re-
gard to animal food ; but, as if the framers of the Bill
never conceived that any such aliment as fish was made
use of, or if they did, that there was no such thing as its
becoming stale and unfit to be eaten, and in that state
offered for sale, they have carefully omitted all allusion to
such a probability, while it is well known in all large towns,
that the puhlichealth is often more endangered by the stench
and other ill effects ofunwholesome fish than by the exposure
of bad meat. It might be thought by some, that the
terms "animal, flesh. or meat," are intended to compre-
hend the piscatory class of food, but the restrictive terms
" kept or used for the sale of butcher's-meat, or as a
slaughter-house," altogether preclude the inference, al-
though in the interpretation clauses, the latter word is
made to include "knackers' yards, or any building used
for slaughtering cattle, horses, or animals of any descrip-
tion." As fish die without this kind of " slanghtering,"
of course the term is totally inapplicable to the trading
in this article of consumption : and some of its vendors,
who are not particular as to the date when it has quitted
its native element, may continue to poison the air with
impunity.
MATCH AGAINST THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—In a
cottage not very far from the well-known village of Eccle-
fechan, which can:boast of more bridges than even the
metropolis itself, there woos a gudewife who is now in
her 92nd or 93rd year, and is able, notwithstanding, to
read without the aid of spectacles, and use her legs with
more vigour than many who are their juniors by a couple
of scores of years. From her cottage she commands a
view of the Caledonian Railway for nearly five miles, and
often amuses herself with watching the trains careering
along, speculating on the unto' changes which have taken
place since the days of her girlhood. While discussing
matters the other day she laid a bet of a crown piece with
her son that she would start from her house, whicn is
three-quarters of a mile from the line of railway, as soon
as the mail train came in sight, and reach an accommoda-
tion bridge which it crosses, before the train came up.
The proposal agreed to, she kilted up her petticoats as
soon as the locomotive shewed its fiery nose, and away
she ran, three-fourths of a mile against four and three-
quarters ; but for the one a very elderly pair of legs, for.
the other the steam steed rushing along with more than
the velocity of the racehorse. For once, however, even,

steam was too slow„ and with wind in very fair order, the
nonagenarian gained the bridge, ran below, and back
again. ere the ponderous train whizzed above the arch.
During the race she met a younger female acquaintance,
who wished to speak to her. " I hae nae time the noo—
eh, eh—l'm rinnin' a race wi' the train, ye see,—eh, eh—
unless—eh, eh—ve keep up wi' me," This her friend
attempted to do, but soon found she had bellows to mend,
and was forced to give in. The winner went home tri-
umphantly, pocketed the stakes with great gusto, and was
so little the worse for her exertions that she offered to run
the same distance against her son, who, after the specimen
he bad just had of his mother's powers in the racing line,
very prudently declined the proposal. There is evidently
no great need of sanitary reform among the braes of
Annandale.—Dumfries Courier.