The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-31 00:00:00

ANOTHER ARCTIC EXPEDIT/ON.—Dr. Rae, of the
Hudson's Bay Arctic Expedition, had an audience with
Sir James Graham on Tuesday, at the Admiralty, on the
subject of his discovery of the probable fate of Sir John
Franklin and his companions. The interview occupied a
considerable time, in the course of which, we understand,
Sir James Graham announced the intention of the Govern-
ment to send out, early in the ensuing spring, an expe-
dition, in order to make further search for the remains
spoken of by the Esquimaux, and the command of the ex-
pedition was offered to Dr. Rae.—Shipping Gazette.
ORIENTAL VISITORS.—Among the passengers by the
Indus, which arrived at Southampton last week, with
the India and China mail, were Shokim Abdouslah Nabber
Khan and Seidah Gelat Khan, with eleven native ser-
vants. The two above-named individuals are distin-
guished personages belonging to the staff of Rajah
Narinda Sing, a rich and powerful prince in the Bengal
district, who will arrive here in great splendour, and his
officers and servants, who have arrived in the Indus, are
mere avant couriers, who have come over to engage a
palace for him, and to make other preliminary arrange-
ments.

THE NURSES FOR Scummt.—A correspondent of the
Times says, he was staying at the Hotel des Bains, at
Boulogne, when the 37 nurses selected by Government to
accompany Misss F. Nightingale to the hospitals at
Scutari passed through on their way to Paris, under the
care of Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge. The fisherwomen con-
veyed their baggage to the railway, free of charge. Mr.
Mesureur, the proprietor of the Hotel des Bains (to which
place a telegraphic message had been sent from London
directing that a dinner should be prepared), provided a
sumptuous banquet ; and requested that they would order
anything more they might desire, but that they must ac-
cept everything under his roof as a token of his good
wishes for the enterprise. The waiters and the chamber-
maids were profuse in their attentions to them, but were
unanimous in refusing remuneration.
ADVENTURE IN Hor BBTTING.—A citizen of Canter-
bury, in company with a few friends, met and undertook,
for a certain wager, to " set" the hop duty for 1854. The
gentleman referred to, anticipating a high duty, was de-
termined to be what is generally understood by hop
betters an "outsider," and fixed his statement £250,000.
He inadvertently omitted one figure, 0, reducing it to
£25,000, and several bets were offered him by persons
seeing the sum he had, in error, put down, that he would
not be the winner. All were accepted, and, on discovering
hisr eror, he was desirous of correcting it ; this was not
allowed, and our citizen, from this circumstance, has be-
come a large winner by being the lowest in the several
sets, to the mortification of many who considered at the
time they had the advantage from the error committed.—
Kentish Gazette.

MICIIIELMAS TBH3I.—On Tuesday the long vacation
terminated, and the lists of rules in the common law
courts for the approaching Michaelmas Term were
exhibited. Term commences on Thursday next, with
"arrears" of a remarkable character. The three courts
number only 46 rules and demurrers. In the Queen's
Bench there are 22, consisting of 3 rules for new
trials which had been standing over for other pro-
ceedings. In the special paper there are 14 matters (in-
cluding demurrers) for argument, and the enlarged rules
number 5. In the Common Pleas there are 5 rules in
the remand paper, and 1 new trial rule referred. 3
cases are for judgment, and only 3 demurrers were
entered. In the Exchequer the number is precisely the
same-12 ; comprising I rule in the peremptory paper, 4
in the special paper, 3 new trial rules for judgment, and 4
for argument. Formerly the arrears of the courts ex-
ceeded X2OO.

MELBOURNE POST-OFFICE.—The following are the de-
tails of work transacted at the General Post-office, Mel-
bourne, on the occasion of the receipt of the Overland
mail, per Norma, on the 12th of July instant, and on the
two succeeding days :—There were received, on the 12th,
per Norma, 31,961 letters, 550 registered, 72,542 news-
papers (in 230 boxes) ; per other ships, 1,450 letters, 11
registered, 1,193 newspapers ; and per Inland mails, 4,751
letters, 275 registered, 1,024 newspapers. Total received
that day, 38,162 letters, 836 registered, 74,759 newspapers.
Of these were distributed on the two following days
Delivered by letter-carriers, 12,008 letters, 1,051 news-
papers ; delivered by merchants' boxes, 11,743 letters,
18,000 newspapers ; sorted for general delivery, 8,900
letters ; despatched by Inland mails, 5,502 letters, 14,428
newspapers. Total, 38,162 letters, 33,479 newspapers.
Showing a distribution of all the letters, and leaving
41,280 newspapers to be disposed of by the letter-carriers
and general delivery branch, both of which operations are
already in course of active progress. This return does not
include the receipts and despatch of town letters, nor that
of arrivals on the two days, the 13th and 14th, inclusive.
—Melbourne Argus, July 17.

TRH IMPOSTOR, who some time ago pretended to be
Dr. Hook's daughter, was a few days ago observed by the
passerst-by seated on a door-step in a street of Lutterworth.
She pulled out a Bible as if to read it, but was apparently
taken ill, and seemed to be fainting. The " poor thing '
was asked into the house of a tradesman, where she told
her history. She had an income of g2oCia year, but had
fortunately escaped from a nunnery, where her cruel
"pa," a gentleman of some £1,300 a year, had confined
her against her will. With open arms was the fair
fugitive received; she became one of the family. Her
every want was supplied by her kind benefactor, who even
hired a piano with which to amuse and solace her.. Her
true character was eventually found out by means of the
gentleman she last imposed upon; and she has been
brought before the local magistrates. It is said that the
wretched woman is the illegitimate child of a barrister,
and the daughter of a lady who was burnt to death in
her own lodgings in Regent-street, in 1836.

ATTENDANCE OP WITNESSES.—Among the common
law reforms of last session is an act to compel the attend-
ance of witnesses out of the jurisdictions of the courts of
common law. It is entitled " An Act to enable the Courts
of Law in England, Ireland, and Scotland to issue process
to compel the attendance of witnesses out of their juris-
diction, and to give effect to the service of such process in
any part of the united kingdom." The act is likely to be
enforced at the forthcoming sittings of the courts. It is
stated in the preamble that great inconvenience arises in
the administration of justice from the want of a power in
the superior courts to compel the attendance of witnesses
resident in one part of the united kingdom at a trial in
another, and the examination of such witnesses by com-
mission is not in all cases a sufficient remedy. It is
therefore enacted that witnesses shall attend, and a state-
ment is to be made at the bottom of the writ that it was
issued under a special order. Witnesses making default
in attending are to be punished by the court of the county
in which the process was served, but persons are not to be
punished unless it is shown that sufficient money to pay
the expenses of coming and returning has been tendered.
The act is not to prevent the admissibility of evidence
where now receivable, nor to prevent the issuing of a
commission to examine witnesses.

EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT.—A New York paper
says :—" Mr. Railing, of New Hampshire, was among
the victims of the last railroad accident between Brighton
and London. His heirs, after having paid him the cus-
tomary funeral honours, did what all heirs do in similar
cases—opened the will of the deceased, to ascertain what
share each was to have in his posthumous liberalities.
As he had never given a penny to either of his relatives
during his lifetime, they expected to be the richer now
that he was no more. One may imagine the surprise
caused by the first line of the will This is my testa-
ment. I give and bequeath all my goods, present or future,
moveable or immoveable, in England or on the Continent,
to that railroad company on whose road I have had the hap-
piness to meet with death, that blessed deliverance from
my terrestrial prison. Further on, the testator gives his
reason for his bequest. The idea had taken firm possession
of his mind that he was destined to die a violent death, and
the most desirable one in his view was that caused by the
explosion of a locomotive. He travelled, therefore, con-
stantly on the railroads of England, Belgium, and France.
There was not a station where he was not known. All
the conductors were familiar with his peculiar costume.
He had narrowly escaped death several times. Once he
was shut up in a car under water, another time he was in
the next car to the one that was shattered, and he described,
with the greatest enthusiasm, those terrible accidents,when
he saw death so near without being able to obtain it. Dis-
appointed in Europe, he went to the Uuited States. He
made frequent excursions on the Ohio, the Mississippi, the
Ontario, the Niagara, but notwithstanding their frequent
explosions he returned with a whole skin. He was destined
to be crushed under a car of the mother country. It is
said that the relatives will attempt to break the will on the
ground of insanity, but it is probable that the railroad will
win the suit in spite of the proverb, that " the murderer
never inherits from his victim."

GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION AT BALLINASLOE.-At seven
o'clock, on Monday evening, the town of Ballinasloe was
greatly alarmed by an explosion of gunpowdero which
took place in the stores of Mr. Frederick A. Harper, in
Dunlo-street. It appears that a quantity of damp gdn-
powder, which had been kept for a length of time above
the ironmongery department, had been brought down by
Mr- Elliott, the superintendent, and placed in the cask
under the counter in the office or counting-house, with a
view of having it dried, it having been for eight or ten
years in stock, and supposed by Mr. Harpur to have
lost its explosive powers. A number of the operatives
were being paid their wages, and at the time there were
six individuals in the office, including two children. One
man, lately employed as a labourer, named John Reardon,
carelessly snuffed the candle on the counter with his fin-

gers, and threw the smouldering remnan
behind him, which fell on the old gunpowder, now par-
tially dry. In a few moments a whizzing sound was heard,
and instantly a terrific explosion, which rent the walls of
the building, and blew off the roof. For a time all was
smoke and confusion. The shock rent the ground, and

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