The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-20 00:00:00

CONFIDENCE IN Silt R. PEEL.—Addresses from the fol-
lowing places have, within the last few days, been forwarded
to Sir Robert Peel, expressive of entire confidence in her
Majesty's present government :—From Dumbarton, signed
by Peter Denny, Esq., Provost, and bearing the common
seal of the burgh. From Plymouth, signed by above two
hundred and fifty inhabitants of the borough, in public meet-
in.. assembled. From Stockport, signed by the chairman of
the Stockport Operative Association, Mr. G. Worsley. From
Hereford, signed by onehundred and four inhabitants. From
Derby, from the Derby Operative Conservative Society,
with more than two hundred signatures. From Ayr, signed
by four hundred and sixty-four inhabitants. From Kirkin-
tilloch, signed by the chief magistrate, and six hundred and
sixty-six inhabitants of the burgh and parish. From Brad-
ford, (Yorkshire,) signed by eight hundred and twelve mem-
bers of the Operative Conservative Association. From Roch-
dale and neighbourhood, signed by seven hundred and sixty-
eight inhabitants.

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR PARIS.—The Natione
publishes several additional details relative to the sufferers b)

the late catastrophe on the Versailles Railroad. Five more
of the mutilated corpses, remaining uninterred in the church-
yard of Mount Parnasse, had been recognised, amongst
whom was a barrister named Leapontai, his brother, and
his niece. Two deaths had occurred—one at the Hospital
Neckar, and another at the Hotel Dieu. Of nine persons
who left the Hotel du Cheval Blanc, Rue de Beaubsurg, for
Versailles, not one has since been heard of. No trace can be
found of a family of five persons residing in the Chausee
d'Antin. La Presse states, that a young lady, whose name
has not been ascertained, called on the second engineer, who,
although severely wounded by the accident on the Versailles
Railroad, escaped with his life, and handed him 500 f., say-
ing at the same time, " You have saved him whom I love;
he is horribly disfigured, but you have restored him to me.
You are the father of a family ; you have suffered severely by
this dreadful calamity. Receive, I pray you, the widow's
mite." The engineer refused ; and the widow, having
placed 500 f. in gold on his bed, withdrew.

FEARGUS O'CONNOR AND MR. ROEBUCK.—The Con
,ntion, and Mr. O'Connor himself, having conceived tha

he offensive terms, " That the petition had been drawn up
hy a cowardly and malignant demagogue," used by Mr.
Roebuck in reference to the national petition presented by
Mr. Duncombe, were intended to apply to Mr. O'Connor,
a deputation was appointed to wait upon Mr. Roebuck for
an explanation or a retraction of these words. Mr. M'Douall
and Mr. Phelp, the members of the deputation, met Mr.
Roebuck and demanded the required explanation. To which
he replied that be made it a rule never to give any explana-
tion of words used by him in the House of Cummons, add-
ing, " I have nothing to do with Mr. O'Connor or Mr.
O'Connor with me." Mr. O'Connor then had an interview
with Mr. Duncombe for the purpose of ascertaining from
him whether the member for Bath applied the offensive terms
to him (Mr. O'Connor). The member for Finsbury said
that the facts were not quite correct, as Mr. Roebuck had
rather left the impression than given the information. Mr.
O'Connor has been since on the look out for Mr. Roebuck,
and has written a long letter to the chartists upon the sub-
ject, which he concluded with the following words :—" I shall
ever, in despite of legal bond and obligation, conform to those
rules which society requires for its government. My friends,
I am neither braggart, bully, nor coward ; I never seek the
battle, nor shun it when it comes."

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL FOR MANSLAUGHTER.—A
singular case, which, we believe, is the first of the kind that
has ever been tried in a court of justice, either in this coun-
try or America, has been heard before Judges Baldwin and
Randall, in the United States Court, at Philadelphia. The
prisoner, A. W. Holmes, one of the crew of the ship William
Brown, stood charged with manslaughter on the high seas.
The vessel sailed from Liverpool for Philadelphia, on the
12th March, 1841. On the night of the 19th of April, when
about 253 miles from Newfoundland, she struck. as is sup-
posed, on an island of ice, and sunk in an hour. Thirty-one
persons, who had remained on board, perished. Of the re-
mainder of the passengers and sailors, 42 had got into the
long-boat ; and the captain, with eight of his crew and a pas-
senger, were in the jolly-boat. On the following morning,
the boats separated, to make the best of their way to land;
and so crowded was the long-boat, that the mate, at parting,
said to the captain that he saw no alternative for them but to
cast lots who should go over. Although the sea was cairn,baling was constantly necessary ; but at night the wind
freshened, and the rain was violent ; the boat leaked, and
the waves were dashed into it, so that according to the
those for
wit-
nesses for the defence, the danger was greats although
the prosecution did not beliebe it to be imminent. It seems,
however, to have been admitted on all hands (at least it was
not denied by the witnesses for the prosecution), that the
boat was sinking, and that the gunwale was within two
inches of the water's edge. In this extremity, the awful ex-
pedient of lightening the boat by the throwing over of four-
teen passengers was resorted to, and on the following morn-
ing two others were thrown over ; but by whom does not ap-
pear to have been satisfactorily proved, some swearing that it
was one individual, some another. The case was warmly
argued on both sides, the prosecution contending that no case
of inevitable necessity had been made out ; and that the law
applied to cases much more extreme than this. The defence
alleged, that they had fully established a case of inevitable
necessity ; and there was every presumption to believe, that,
if they had not resorted to the melancholy alternative of
throwing some overboard they must all have inevitably pe-
rished. Here the case rested, when the judge charged the
jury that the obligation of the captain and crew to carry the
passengers safe extended to a case even of such imminent
danger ; and they were bound to sacrifice their cm n lives, if
necessary, for the preservation of the rest. The jury, after a
consultation of twenty hours, found Holmes guilty, but una-
nimously recommended him to the mercy of the court.—
Judge Baldwin said that their recommendation should have
the most respectful consideration.—The punishment, by the
United States law, is five year's imprisonment; but there is
to be an application for a new trial.

WONDERFUL, IF TRUE.—On Monday last a boy in the
service of Mr. Robert Grange, of Willgrove, in Kent, who
was employed in tending sheep on the waste lands bordering
on a rather extensive tract of woodlands, known as the
" Fells," came running in a state of breathless haste and
alarm to the residence of his master, and gave the following
extraordinary account :—He was lying on the ground, he
said, watching the sheep, near to the hedge which separates
the wood from the waste, when his attention was attracted
by hearing a crackling noise in the hedge, and immediately
afterwards a large snake darted out, and made a spring at
one of the lambs. The lamb, however, according to the
boy's statement, gave a jump and ran away, and the snake
then coiled itself up and lay at the foot of the hedge. The
lad described the reptile as being as long as a hop pole,
usually from ten to fifteen feet, and he further stated, that
he threw a stick at the snake, upon which it retreated to the
wood and twined itself round the stem of a sapling on the
borders of the copse. On hearing the boy's account Mr.
Robert Grange, jun., although somewhat sceptical of the
accuracy of the statement, accompanied him to the spot, and
to his great surprise he beheld twined round the tree at the
place pointed out by the lad a large brown-looking snake,
Mr. Grange threw a hedge-stake at the reptile, and which
evidently struck the snake, for it instantly uncoiled itself
I and made for the recesses of the wood. Mr. Grange then
sent the boy to the house for a gun, and on the lad's re-
turn, accompanied by two of the workmen, the party entered
the wood, when the snake was again discovered endeavouring
to make its way through the underwood, upon which Mr.
Grange fired, when the reptile twined itself round the trunk
of a tree, writhing as though in agony. A discharge from the
second barrel of the gun, directed at the creature's head,
brought it down to the ground, where it commenced a series
of violent struggles, writhing and twisting itself into a variety
of positions, and crushing the decayed underwood, and
even green branches of a considerable thickness, with fear-
ful violence. At length the struggles of the reptile being
somewhat abated, the party ventured to approach the spot,
when they discovered the snake lying with its jaws distended
and quite dead. It was immediately drawn from the close
cover to an open place, and on being exposed. fully to view,
its size excited the astonishment of the captors, the creature
measuring 6 feet 4 inches in length, and being nearly a foot
in circumference at the thickest part. The snake has since
been pronounced by a gentleman who has had frequent op-
portunities of examining the species to be a young boa con-
strictor, but by what chance the reptile became a denizen of
the " Fells" remains a mystery. The most probable con-
jecture is that the creature made its escape from some tra-
velling exhibition. No visible remains of food were found
in the snake's viscera, on being examined after the skin had
been stripped off, preparatory to the process of stuffing, it
being the intention of Mr. Grange to preserve a resemblance
of the snake for the inspection of the curious.—London
Paper of Wednesday. The conjecture concerning the
extraordinary appearance of the boa constrictor, lately killed
in the wood at Wellgrove, turns out to be correct, the snake
having on the night previously to its destruction made its
escape from a travelling collection of wild beasts, &c., which
had been exhibiting at Carnfield, upwards of two miles from
the spot where the reptile was killed. On Tuesday the
owner of the exhibition made his appearance at Wellgrove,
and was somewhat indignant at the slaughter of his protige,
for which he said he would not have taken 20 guineas. He
claimed the skin of the defunct snake, which was of course
given up to him. It appears that the snake, in its gambols
had forced out a part of the partition of its empty cage, and
then crawled into an adjoining cage. which being empty the
door had been left unfastened. From thence it made
its way to the open space in the caravan, and effected its
escape through an open window. The owner of the exhibi-
tion declares that there is no doubt but the reptile made
an attempt to seize the lamb, as before mentioned
in a former account, having been near its usual
feeding time, and its gastronomical powers were such that it
has been known to gorge dogs of considerably larger di-
mensions than is usual with lambs at this season of the year,
after having crushed the animals within its deathly folds, and
duly prepared them for the process. The following rather
laughable incident, connected with the appearance of the
snake, will show that the rambles of the reptile had not been
altogether unobserved by another individual, a farmer of the
neighbourhood, somewhat notorious for his devotion to the
" jolly god," who having been spending the best part of the
night with some kindred devotees, happened to be wending
his way homeward shortly after daybreak on the Monday,
when, in passing along a lane skirting the " fells," he Was
startled by observing a dark-looking object waving to and
fro, open mouthed, amongst the bushes of a hedge by the
road side. The sight of this singular object, it appears, partly
brought the farmer to his senses, for he rushed,exc apparently
"
in great alarm, into his dwelling,laiming, much to the
gratification of his cara spate:, vulga, `'old woman," " That
he'd be domm'd if he did na gig up the cursed Ticker altoge-
ther, for that he had seen the devil in the shape of a fiery sar-
pent, wiggling waggling his head at him most awful."—
Morning Herald of Thursday.