The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-28 00:00:00

EfOtrtrt Attns.

An explosion of fire damp took place on Wednesday
last, at Strangeways colliery, Hindley, by which four men
are said to have been killed, and others seriously injured.
MANCHESTER PROTESTANT OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION.
—The annual meeting of this important institution is an-
nounced to take place in the Town Hall on the 7th of
next month. Dr. Cumming of London is to be present.
On Monday week the stage coach running between>
111verston and Lancaster, became fixed in the sands ; the
horses were loosed, the passengers carried out, and the-
coach left to be floated out next tide by means of some
empty puncheons_ fastened to.it.

On Friday, Edward John Gerrard, the infant son of
Mr. Gerrard, grocer, Hindley;.was drowned in a mug of
buttermilk. The child was only about a year and a-hal
old, and had been left for a short time playing in the
shop. He was found with his- head down at the bottom
of the mug, and his legs sticking up.
A BEAST.—On Sunday week, a man named Dutton,_
at Stockport, died from excessive drinking. It appeared
that on Saturday night, he had undertaken to drink a
dozen gills of ale in ten minutes, but after swallowing the
eighth, he became so stupified as to be unable to com-
plete the wager, and was taken home. He resided alone
in the house, and the next morning he was found a

corpse

LIRE AND Loss OE LIFIL—On Monday night, the
house of James Crowther, in Irwell-street, Bacup, was
discovered to be on fire. The premises were speedily
consumed, and James Crowther, and his wife, Mary
Crowther, the inmates of the house, were burnt to death,
their bodies being shockingly. disfigured. The fire was
caused by the ignition of some naptha which was kept in
the upper part of the house.

JOBBING ix JUSTICES.—The prevailing subject in
Stockport is, the appointment of a batch of politica/
magistrates which has just been granted by the Lord

unancelior to Air. uoppocic, tOB late town clerk, in spite
of the town council, in defiance of the borough bench,
and in utter contempt of the voices of the burgesses.
through their local legislature, and the definite represen-
tations of the deputations sent to London on the subject..
Messrs. Thomas Labrey, Scholes, and Co., tea dealers,.
Newell's Buildings, Manchester, have had for some time
two Chinese young men, employed as counter-men, in
which occupation, both are exceedingly attentive and
active ; while their placid, quiet manners soon allay the
apprehension which ladies often manifest at first, on be-
ing served by a " foreigner," and their docility and teach-
able dispositions have rendered them favourites.
A Goon SIGN.—At the New Bailey, on Wednesday,
there was not a single prisoner to be examined, nor a
summons to be heard, nor an application made. W.hen
Mr. Trafford took his seat at the usual time there were
scarcely half-a-dozen persons in the court, and they were
there from curiosity rather than business. On Monday.
the whole of the business done was the hearing of an ap-
plication for a summons ; and yesterday the court was
again almost empty, all that passed being the hearing of
two or three applications for summonses.—Manchester
Guardian.
DEPLORABLE STATE OF THE NECV W The

dAVERS.-1
late reduction of wages at Wigan together with the increa-
sed lengths of the warps that are now delivered out by
some of the employers, has comparatively brought these
weavers on a par with the out-door pauper. According
to a statement of the weavers, some of their warps are 70
yards to a piece, for which they receive ss. 6d. for weav-
ing ; out of this they have to pay, if a journeyman, Is. for

shop-room, 11d. for winding, 6d. for candle;, and 2d. for
other materials : thus leaving the weaver 2s. lid. for his
week's work. This is one cause of so much vagrancy at
Wigan.

TARVIN HALL SouooL.—On Friday week the pupils
at this excellent establishment gave a concert for the
benefit of the poor of the township. The Rev. Chancel-
lor Raikes presided on the occasion ; and at the close said
that he had much gratification in expressing, on

oehalf of
himself and those present, their obligations to Mr. Brind-
ley for his praiseworthy endeavours in behalf of the des-
titute poor. He was sure all must feel pleased with the
extremely interesting manner in which this Institution
was conducted, and he trusted the Divine blessing would
rest upon it that it might long continue to diffuse its ad-
vantages amongst the rising generation.
BRUTAL ASSAULT AND HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On
Monday, a young man of the name of James Stockley
was brought up before the magistrates at the Town-hall
Wigan, on a charge of having committed, along with an•

other person, a violent assault upon Nathan Talbot, a
labourer on the new line of the Liverpool and Bury Rail-
way, and robbing him neckerchief,
between 12
i-uuntenanee of the
—..c that he had been severely
„..0 eye being almost entirely swollen up, and
had other severe cuts upon his face. The prisoner is
committed for trial, and the next day another man was
committed.

-•-•• LLIVIIC V
tobacco box, and dog muzzle, that morning
and 1 oclock_ Prim, +1,,, A:.

A. NOVEL UNDERTAKING AT CONGLETON. —Last
Christmas, Messrs. William and Samuel Bull, silk throw-
ater-a, bought a large silk factory, forty yards long, nine
yards wide, and four storeys high, which had been built
upwards of twenty years. The upper story had been bent
or jutted out by a strong wind soon after the factory was
erected, so that the top of the front wall projected over the
centre of the building fourteen inches. The brick work
in the top storey being in some parts in a very decayed
and dangerous state, induced the new proprietors to decide
on lowering the factory one story. How this was to be
effected required some consideration. To take off the
roof, which was estimated to weigh fifty tons, and replace
it on the third storey, would not only be very inconve-
nient and likely to injure the machinery in the lower
rooms, but would cost an immense sum. This difficulty,
hewever, was overcome by Thomas Shepley, an ingenious
mechanic, who had long worked for Messrs. Bull. He
undertook, with assistants, to take out the top storey and
lower the roof, without removing it off the building. In
the first place, be made two inclined planes, with four
long planks on the edge, supported by poles outside the
building, and had waggons to slide down the bricks, &c.,
the full waggons to pull the empty ones up by means of a
rope and pulley. tie then lifted with long levers, alter-
nately, the beams which supported the roof, and sup-
ported them with small blocks of wood, whilst he lowered
the walls one course of bricks at a time, so that the roof
was gradually and. imperceptibly Lowered about eight feet
to the top of the third storey, without the least accident
occurring, or without the breaking of a single tile, or crack
in the roof, to the astonishment of many who saw the
work in progress, and of others who, although passing fre-
quently, had no idea of what was going on, so gradually
was it brought to its resting place. When completed,
people could scarcely " believe their own eyes," that so
large a factory should have been reduced from four to
three storeys, as though it had been effected by magic.

MIRACULOUS RESTORATION OF HEALTH BY HaLO.•
WAY'S PILLS !—Miss Ellen Knight, 36, Stanhope-street,
Regent's-park, a young lady of the most delicate consti-
tution, had suffered for years from overftew—of bile and
bad digestion, causing palpitation e&tlle heart, with great
difficulty of breathing ; t;dvl9ll-lhe least ascent, was im-
practicable : the best m cal advice had been obtained
in London, Birmin m, France, and other places, but
in vain; nor did e receive permanent relief until she
took a course Holloway's inestimable Pills, and she is
now by t • use enjoying the blessings of health that for
44z previ us eighteen years she had been a stranger to.