The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

etntral fftisrellanv.

The total amount paid and to be paid for completing
the new houses of parliament, is no less than £1,400,000.
Notice has been given that the business of Messrs.
Sanderson and Co., bill brokers, will be shortly resumed.
On Thursday, a boat, with seven men in, was run
down by a steamer on the Tyne, near Shields, when four
of them perished.
Nelson's monument, on the Calton Hill, at Edinburgh,
has been let at a rent of £BO, to a person who intends to
devote the lower part of it to the sale of refreshments.
Some barrels of plaintain flour, made from West Indian
plaintains, have been imported into London by a ship
which has arrived from the West Indies.

Major-General Goodday Strutt, one of the retired
officers on the list, and Governor of Quebec, died on Sun-
day at his seat in Sussex, aged 85.
The erection of the new houses of parliament now oc-
cupies 1,399 men, of whom 776 are employed on the
building, 120 at the quarries, 355 on the joiners' work
and wood carving, and 168 on miscellaneous works.
Such is the distress in Paisley, that 6,230 persons, in-
cluding those dependent on the recipients, are now daily
furnished with rations of soup from the soup kitchens, at
a weekly expenditure of £3OO.
A post-office clerk, named Eagle, was committed on
Tuesday from Bow-street. He had been observed to
secrete two letters, one of which was addressed to a lady
at Chertsey, and contained Roman coins of the reigns of
Gallienus and Claudius,
Last week Thomas Harris was sentenced to transporta-
tion for seven years, for obtaining under false pretences
£lO from Cymric Lloyd, a gentleman who owns race-
horses. The prisoner said he could divulge a conspiracy
to poison race-horses. _

A. young man, named Walter Noak, formerly of Droit-
wick, has been committed for trial, charged with embez-
zling various sums, amounting in the whole to £2,000,
from a Mr. Parker, an extensive coal-master, of West-
bromwich.

Two sons of Mr. Burland, of Bradley House, near
Wootton-under-Edge, were out shooting a few days since,
when the gun used by one of them accidentally went off,
and the contents lodged in his brother's leg, from the
effects of which he died soon after.
The directors of the Bank of England have, it appears, in-
stituted legal poceedings against certain parties in the City of
London who became guarantees for the payment of large
sums of money advanced by the Bank to firms which have
subsequently failed.
A wealthy company of commercial men have it in con-
templation to erect blast furnaces at Wolsingbam, in
Weardale. The neighbourhood abounds with first-rate
iron-stone and coals, and great facilities for shipment are
afforded by the Wear Valley Railway.
It is stated by the Morning Herald, en the-anthority
of a return from the select committee on public petitions
brought up on the Bth instant, that there was then a ma-
jority of 128 petitions, with 4,451 signatures, against the
removal of Jewish disabilities.

Mr. Josiah Gibson, a respectable shipowner, belonging
to North Shields, was in the office of the Brandling Junc-
tion Staition at South Shields on Thursday, February 3rd,
and in the act of shaking hands with a gentleman, when
he suddenly expired.
LAUNCH.—On Thursday week, a ship of 490 tons was
launched from the building-yard of Mr. Scott, Greenock.
She is named the Investigator, and is to proceed immedi-
ately to London, to be fitted up as one of the fleet that is
to be dispatched in search of Sir John Franklin.
On Tuesday, a person engaged as the foreman of the
joiners at the viaduct, Calder Vale, Burnley, accidentally
missed his footing and fell from the scaffolding used in the
erection of the viaduct, and a piece of timber alighting
upon his head, he was killed on the spot.
On Wednesday, a public meeting was held in Glasgow
convened by the Lord Provost, to consider the Currency
Laws, when resolutions were past condemning the Bank
Charter Act of 1844, and the subsequent acts regulating
the issue of joint stock banks, as unsound in principle.
A desperate affray with poachers took place a few days
ago at Raby Castle, Durham, the Duke of Cleveland's
seat. Shirley, the whipper-in, was shot in the arm, and
was fearfully bruised about the head, and was left for
dead. He remains in a dangerous state. Three poachers
have been apprehended and committed for trial.
A WOMAN LOST IN THE SNOW.—A poor woman,
named Hannah Colling, wife of Thomas Colling, of
Leatholm Bridge, near Whitby, shoemaker, was lost one
night last week, upon the moor near to Danby Beacon,
and perished among the snow. The body was not found
for two or three days.
HIGHLAND DESTITUTION.—A correspondent having
excellent means of information, states to us, as an un-
doubted fact, that although many persons on the west
coast of Ross-shire are starving, they have refused to
work for eighteen pence a-day, and they will not work
under two shillings and sixpence.—Scotsman.
SINGULAR AND FATAL ACCIDENT.—OR Wednesday
night week, as a man in the Cwmavon employ was return-
ing home, when near the Balance-pit, the wind, which
was exceedingly high, overcame him, and blew him down
the pit, when he was killed on the spot.—Hereford
Journal.

AN UNFORTUNATE FAMILY.—A boy named Edwards
died last week at Bridgnorth, through falling against the
fire. One child of this unfortunate family was transported
a few days ago ; another was killed by falling from a tree ;
and another had his hand crushed and fingers cut off, a
few months ago, by machinery.
Joseph Ady was summoned on Wednesday by the
Post-Office, for the repayment of above sixteen pounds
as postage for returned letters. It was stated, that this
procedure of the Post-Office will put an end to his impo-
sitions on the public. He was allowed a week to pay the
money. _ _

A new kind of machine called an " idolator," is used in
Leicester gaol for tho omplymonto of rogues and vaga-
bonds committed to hard labour; and it is said to be
much dreaded by them, as it accurately registers the
amount of labour performed, and is susceptible of exact
adaption to the bodily strength of the person who
works it.

WILD SWANS ON WINDERMERE.—There have for a
a week back been six swans on Windermere, and hundreds
of " divers" of various descriptions, and great has been
the slaughter made by the long gun" men. Two of
the swans have been shot by Mr. E. Alemby, with a com-
mon fowling gun, right and left, which he came upon
when feeding on the shore.
FATAL COLLIERY EXPLOSION.—On Thursday an ex-
plosion took place in the Heathfield Pits, near Birming-
ham, the property of the Earl of Dartmouth, by which
four men were killed, two were so dangerously burnt that
little hopes were entertained of their recovery, and about
twelve more or less injured. The cause of the explosion
has not been ascertained.
SUICIDE.—On Friday week, Mr. Jervis, schoolmaster,
of Hambleton, near Preston, put an end to his existence by
hanging himself in his school-room, while in a temperary
fit of insanity. He had been for some time past much
much depressed in spirits. He had filled the situation of
school-master for many years, and was much esteemed
for his great mathematical abilities and his exemplary
conduct.

An aged couple in Ratcliffe, named Witham, lately died
within three days. They had no children ; and, after the
death of Mrs. Witham, the husband almost in a state of
unconsciousness, was induced to make a will, leaving his
property, worth £lOOO, to the nurse. No surgeon was
called in to either patient. In consequence of suspicions,
an inquest has been held, and matter identical with hem-
lock found in the stomachs.
THE MURDER AT ST. JAMES'S PARK.—The unfortu-
nate young man, Henry Ducker, was youngest son of
Roger and Margaretta Ducker, now living at East Retford,
and where he was born on the 18th April, 1827. He was
an exceedingly good-looking young man, and was the
youngest of nine children. He enlisted into the Cold-
stream Guards, at Sheffield, in February 1845. His father
was formerly in the army, in the 82d Foot in which re-
giment he was paymaster-serjeant fifteen years, and was
ultimately discharged as an invalid on a pension of is.
per day. He and his family have resided in Retford ever
ince 1819, and have through life borne 1119:s$ excellent
sharacters.