The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-08 00:00:00

as they are called in L

Preston Chronic

DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT
Eastern Union Railway, the early morninx
ceeding between Thurston and Elmsw_
flatchwell, the Bury St. Edmonds Station
Mr. J. Walton, the Thurston Station mast_ ,
the top of one of the carriages higher than the h
when they were warned of their danger, but
paid no attention to the caution.
under the fourth bridge from the Th
rate of 14 miles an hour, their heads came in contact wit..
the arch'of the bridge. Mr. Hatchwell was twisted violently
round, and fell off the carriage a corpse, while Mr. Walton
was thrown on the luggage, and expired without a groan.
Balbry, the porter, immediately called to the driver
of the engine, and the train was stopped as quickly as
possible. He then went back and picked up the body of
Mr. Hatchwell, which presented a sickening sight. Being
placed in the truck van, the train was backed to Thurs-
ton station. They were both about 33 years of age.
Mr. Bruff. the engineer of the line, informed the coroner's
jury that neither of the deceased had any business on the
roof of the carriage. It was a breach of discipline, and
both of the unfortunate men had subjected themselves to
dismissal for leaving their stations without order. After
a short consultation the jury returned a verdict of " Ac-
cidental death." Both the deceased had been in the ser-
vice of the company since the opening of the line in 1840.
They have left widows and families.
COMMISSION OF LUNACY.—On Thursday a Commis-
sion was opened at the Sheriffs' Court, Red Lion-square,
London, before Mr. Commissioner Barlow, one of the
Masters in Lunacy, and a special jury of eighteen, to in-

—On Friday, on tt

As the train s-a:ep

.stop Station, at

_
quire into the state of mind of James Fermor, EQq., of
No. 6, Fitzroy-street, Fitzroy-square, an aged gentlemai
of large fortune. The Commission was issued upon tin
petition of the Earl of Sefton, the Marquess of Dellforce
of the Republic of France, in right of his wife and Lad
Maria Massey Stanley, as next of kin. It was propos
op behalf of Mr. Fermor to limit the period of

pacity to within four or five years, it bi-ing admitted now,
It appeared from the evidence that the unfortunate gen.
tleman, who was 76 years of age, was guilty of all sort!
of ridiculous and trifling actions. In conversation he hat
aiset form of answers, which was, " She is holy, she is
holy, she is Catholic and Catholics) ;" and when saying
this.he would cross himself. He was generally in liquor
He frequently asked why his brother was burning in hell
He once received an anonymous letter, relating to thi
death of his brother, warning him that he would die a
ha hiail livarl in drink ana +Ma la4l,as. h,

was continually ;repeating aloud, as well as some of the
most beautiful passages in Scripture, and concluding with
a " hip, hip, hurrah !" He had an uncle who died a lunatic
under a commission. He once put his fingerinto a red-

hot tobacco pipe, and seemed quite astonished when told
that he would burn himself. He was not cleanly person-
ally, and was generally considered of unsound mind.

After the evidence !lad &en taken, the lunatic was brought
into Court. He appeared to be in no way conscious of
what was going on, and he could not be made to under-
stand questions addressed to him. The inquiry not
having terminated at five o'clock, the Court adjourned.

OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH AT SAN FRANCISCO.
—The intelligence of an improved state of public morals
at San Francisco, received through various sources, is con-
firmed by the following extract from a letter of the col-
porteur of the American Tract Society at that place. He
writes :—" We are beginning to witness the fruits of
Christian effort here. Gamblinc, horse-racing, and bull-
baiting on the Sabbath seem to oe thoroughly suppressed.
But very few places of trade are open on the Sabbath, and
Sabbath amusements are mostly discontinued. Our Total
Abstinence Society, and public worship, and bibles and
tracts, and religious books, and personal efforts, with the
consequent improvement of public sentiment and city
ordinances, under the blessing of God, have wrought
wonders in promoting temperance and religion, and in
suppressing vice. The Spanish population are not only
accessible, but they plead for Protestant books. Had all
my publications been Spanish, I could have sold every
book before this. Such instances as the following are not
uncommon :—I went into a Spa:Ash settlement and gave
a boy, lounging on a sand-bank, a tract; he uttered an
exclamation of delight, and soon more than twenty men,
women, and children rushed from a neighbouring tent,
and swarmed around me like bees, holding out their
hands for libros ,espanol.' On receiving them, they
began reading aloud, and such a Babel I never witnessed
before. In a few minutes I had a congregation of thirty
or forty, and I talked to them in my broken Castilian as
I best could. Had you witnessed 4he eagerness and
delight of these poor Mexicans and Chilians, you would
not delay the shipment of a large supply of Spanish books
and tracts."—New York Pool.

ANTIQUITY OF THE CROSS AS A SYMBOL.—The cruci-
fix was not common till the end of the eighth century.
The Greek church never publicly accepted it, although it
Appears in the quarrel, about images, but used the simple
It was not general in the Latin church until tl

,arlovingian. - torn the disciplina arvani and the early
prohibition of images by the Synod of Elvira (305), an
early use of the crucifix may be supposed, as it referred
immediately to 'the first Christian dogma. At first the
simple cross was sufficient—crux immissa or capitata ;
crux decussata ; and crux commissa—the lamb standing
under a blood red cross. The addition of the Saviour's
bust at head or foot of the cross while the lamb lay in the
centre was the next step towards the crucifix ; and after-
wards Christ himself was represented clothed, his hand
raised in prayer, but not yet nailed. At last he appeared
fastened to the cross by four nails (seldom by three), and

on the older crucifixes alive, with open eyes ; on the
later ones (from the tenth to the eleventh century,)
sometimes dead. Christ was often clad in a robe, having
the regal crown on his head ; more recently the figure
wore a cloth round the loins, and the crown of thorns.
This representation was continued, and the crucifix
regarded as an indispensable attribute of churches and
altars. The number of them increased, as they were
particular objects of veneration ; and large ones of wood
or stone were placed at the entrance of the church. The
altar crucifix was generally of gold or silver, adorned with
pearls or precious stones.—Art Journal.
WANTED, CAPITAL AND LABOUR AT THE CAPE.—
Cape wants are neither peculiar nor numerous. Captain
Smoke, in Jerrold's comedy of Bubbles of the Day, con-
fides to his friend, Lord Skindeep, that he is " terribly in
want of a thousand pounds." The reply is, " You may
take it as a general rule, Captain Smoke, that every man
wants a thousand pounds." As with men so with colo-
nies. The sun never sets upon one of the dependencies
of Great Britain, young or old, which would not be the
better for a thousand pounds. Our colonies feel, how-
ever, another want—it is something to which the Smokes
of the old country show a very marked aversion, and that
is labour. " Capital and labour" is a cry which reaches
us from every corner of the earth. The demand does not
sound so loudly perhaps from the Cape as from other and
newer colonies; but the want of the first necessities of
enterprise, civilization, and progress is not the. less felt.
Any sort of European labour (except convict labour), any
kind of capital is welcome in our South African depend-
encies, and in the long run " pays." As to capital, men
with from £2,000 to £lO,OOO, will find plenty of most
profitable employment for their money. The colony has
innumerable resources—amongst them I may mention
her fisheries and her mineral treasures. The former pro-
duce a large revenue even now, though carried on, from
want of enterprise and capital, in the most unsystematic
and slovenly manner. Of minerals there is abundance;
ore, in many places actually lying on the surface. The
assegais (or spears) of the Kaffirs are all made of iron,
smelted and welded by themselves ; whilst recent travel-
lers from the northermost extremity of the colony bring
accounts of innumerable implements in use among the
savage tribes there, formed of iron of their own manu-
facture. Copper and lead have been discovered within
15 miles of Algoa Boy.—Dickens's Household Words.
VOYAGE TO INDIA IN 1772.—1 n the spring of the year
1772 Robert Lindsay embarked for Calcutta on board the
Prince of Wales, East Indiaman, commanded by Captain
Court, a peppery Welshman, with only one arm ; the
other he had lost in a duel with one of his passengers, on
a former voyage, regarding a young lady to whom they
were both atti.ched. The first move of the young writer
was an excellent one. In these times, the boy-civilian
goes on board, with a capital cabin on the upper deck,
secured for him by Messrs. Grindley orßarber, and elabo-
rately fitted up by Maynard or Silver. He has not to
struggle for a place or to rub shoulders with his associates.
His patrician sensibilities are not disturbed by any dread
of gregarious publicity. He enjoys the privacy of his 12
feet by 10. It is his castle, his domain. He is " like a
star, and dwells apart." He can shed tears, or disgorge
his dinner, in absolute exclusiveness ; may write sonnets
to Albion, practise on the flute, study Hindustani, or revel
in the midshipman's holyday of overhauling his kit, with-
out an intrusive eye to mark his doings or interrupt his
meditations. Threequarters of a century ago every different
state of things obtained on board our Indiamen. The
young writers and cadets had to fight for their berths in
the steerage. First come, first served. Ever with his
eye to the main chance, Robert Lindsay determined to
be first in the field. Whilst the other young men were
staring about them, he quietly slipped below the decks
with a piece of chalk in his hand, selected the best berth
in the writer's quarters, and wrote his name upon it.
The other passengers remonstrated, and proposed to draw
lots ; but possession was nine points of the law ; and
Robert Linisay kept his berth throughout his voyage,
which was a slow and not a very pleasant one. The
passengers were badly fed ; and there was a pack of
hounds on board, who drank the water, and nearly brought
on a mutiny. When the party disembarked, the chief
officer told them that they " would stow away better
homeward bound ;" " and too truly," adds Robert
Lindsay, " was this verified, for, upon embarking for
Europe eighteen years afterwards, and on looking over
the melancholy list, I could only trace the names of five
of my fellow-passengers in existence."—Lindsay in
India ; Calcutta Review*