The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-08 00:00:00

'LIVERPOOL DISTRICT,

" The Liverpool district shall comprehend all places in-
cluded within, or to be considered as forming parts of the
southern division of the county of Chester, as the same; is
settled and described by the said last-mentioned act ; and all
such places locally situated in the county of Lancaster, as
will not be included in the Manchester district, hereinbefore
described ; and all places locally situated in any of the
several counties in Wales, hereinafter mentioned, that is to
say,
Tne county of Anglesea, The county of Merioneth,
The county of Carnarvon, and
The county of Denbigh, The county of Montgomery."
The county of Flint.

PETER HUGHES.—On Friday, at the Lambeth police
office, this person was again brought up on a charge of ob-
taining a large sum of money (according to his own acknow-
ledgment 100 guineas), by falsely representing himself as the
Rev. Mr. Kavanagh, parish-priest of Ballykenney, in the
county of Wexford, Ireland. The facts elicited on the first
examination we published in the Standard of Tuesday last.
Since the last examination Inspector Donnigan, who has had
the case in band, has received several letters from the heads
of Catholic families in Birmingham and its vicinity, whom
the prisoner has victimized by the same misrepresentations.
The prisoner, who is a fellow of the most plausible manners,
in defence said the whole of the money collected by him
should be appropriated to the object for which it had been
collected, namely, the building of the chapel. He was re-
manded' for three weeks and a few days before the sessions,
when the Rev. Mr. Kavanagh will be in town, to disprove
his representation of his being a clergyman of that name, or
having authority to collect for the chapel.
INSOLVENT DEBTORS.—The following are the arrange-
ments for the spring courts for the relief of insolvent
debtors on the Northern Circuit, 1843 :

YORKSHIRE.-At Sheffield, Friday, February 10.—Wake-
field, Monday, February 13.—At the Town and County of
the Town of Kingston-upon-Hull, Monday, February 20.
—At York, Wednesday. February 22.—At the City and
County of the City of York, the same day.—At Rich-
mond, Friday, February 24.
DURHAM.—At Durham, Saturday, February 25.
NORTHUMBERLAND.—At NewcaAtle-upon-Tyne, Tuesday,
February 28.—At the Town and County of the Town of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the same day.
CUMBERLAND.—At Carlisle, Friday, March 3

WESTMORLAND.—AtAppIeIiy, Monday, March 6.—At Ken-

dal, Tuesday, March 7:
LANCASHIRE.—At Lancaster, Wednesday, March B.—At
Preston, Thursday, March 16.—At Liverpool, Friday,
March 17.
CHESHIRE.—At Chester, Monday, March 20.—At the City
and County of the City of Chester, the same day.
The Commissoner who is to come this circuit is not named,
but as Mr. Reynolds takes the Midland, Mr. Harris the
Southern, and Mr. Law the Home, the successor of the late
Mr. Bowen, who is not yet appointed, will, we suppose, take
the Northern.

GAMBLING ON A " SMALL" SCALE.—A man named John
Sharp was brought up, at the Police.court, yesterday, on a
charge of cheating another, John Joyce, of the sum of £2 19s.
at cards. Both appeared to be working men. The com-
plainant said, that on Saturday he was playing with the pri-
soner, and just when he had lost the sum stated, he discovered
that the prisoner had kept four cards out of the pack in one
of his hands, by which he made successful cuts. By this
means he was "cut" out of his money. On cross-examination
by Mr. Owens, the case assumed a mitigated complexion.
The parties had been playing on a former occasion at pitch-
and-toss, in the Old Haymarket, when the complainant won
s. 9d. from the prisoner, but lost to him a number of pawn-
tickets, which the latter, however, returned to him. On the
last occasion referred to in the co nplaint, the complainant
had gone in search of the prisoner, and had induced him to
come and have a game with him, showing him 10s. which he
had to sport. They went into a cellar in Lace-street,
where whiskey and ale were sold, and afterwards to another
cellar where drink was also sold, and played till five in the
morning.—The sum of £1 IBs. was found upon the prisoner.
—Mr. Rushton said that the prisoner must, under the cir-
cumstances, be discharged.—The complainant applied for
the money, saying he was a poor man with a wife and three
children.—Mr. Rushton said, it was a great shame for him
in that case to go to such places and gamble ; and as there
was no witness to speak to the use of the four cards to de-
fraud him, he must take the consequences, as he (Mr. R.)
could make no order about the money in his behalf.

HIGHWAY ROBBERIES IN EDGE-LANE.—The vicinity of
Edge-lane has recently been infested by a gang of footpads,
who have carried on their operations with much brutal
daring. About a fortnight ago, Miss Turner, who lives at
the top of Edge-lane, was, while on her way home after
dark, violently assaulted by two men and robbed. On Mon-
day night last, about seven o'clock, as a gentleman was on
his way from Liverpool to the Old Swan, by the way of Edge-
lane, when near Jackson's rope-walk, a man rushed out of
the hedge and passed him, saying, " How far away ?" Im-
mediately two other men dashed out of the hedge and made
towards the gentleman, who, however, turned and ran to
wards the town. The fellows pursued him till he met a
shandry, when they stopped and made off. The next night,
(Tuesday,) Mr. John Kilshaw, who resides at Broad Green,
was returning home about seven o'clock. He was in Edge-
lane, not far from the ropery above-mentioned, when he
was stopped by two men. One of them stood in front and
presented a pistol at his face, while the other quickly rifled
his pockets, robbing him of what money he had about him.
Recovering his presence of mind, Mr. Kilshaw called out,
when the villain who held the pistol immediately fired. The
muzzle of the pistol was at this moment resting against the
side of his jaw, past which the contents glanced, fortunately
without inflicting further injury to the face than what re.
stilted from the explosion of the powder, by which, however,
the skin and eyes suffered severely. The charge carried
away the collar of Mr. Kilshaw's coat, and tore away other
portions of his apparel. The moment the shot was fired the
villains made a precipitate retreat. Shortly before this oc-
currence, a gentleman passed the spot where it took place.
He heard footsteps behind him, and was presently accosted
by a tall man dressed in fustian clothes, who overtook him,
gave him a sort of " good night," and passed on. Shortly
afterwards the same man turned and met him, and again
passed him. In a few moments he met a gentleman whom
he supposes was Mr. Kilshaw, and but a very short time
elapsed after they passed each other when he heard a cry of

" murder!" and words, which he believes to have been
" don't—oh don't," followed by the report of a pistol. The
police-officer on Jackson's rope-walk heard the shot fired,
and in a short time arrived to the assistance of the wounded
man, whom he accompanied home, but he saw nothing of
the robbers. The servant of Mr. Haywood, who resides in
the neighbourhood, also heard the shot. It is stated that
another gentleman was stopped in Edge-vale, the same
night, by two ruffians, who presented a pistol at his head.
He made an outcry, upon which the villains darted off with-
out attempting to rob him.
NUISANCES.—No fewer than six informations were yes-
terday laid against a person named Alexander Smith, for a
series of nuisances committed by him, on the 12th, 18th,
25th, 26th, and 31st ult., and the Ist instant: Mr. Shuttle-
worth, deputy town-clerk, said that the defendant occupied
a small yard in Banastre-street, in which he boiled the
entrails of animals—often when they were in a state of
putridity—in order to extract the oil. A most offensive and
noxious smell arose from the process ; and complaints having
been made to the common council, the matter was investi-
gated, and the nuisance being found to exist as stated, these
informations were laid. As he saw Mr. Davenport in at-
tendance for the defendant, he would state that if his client
consented to plead guilty, and withdraw from the trade, he
(Mr. S.) would not press for the penalties.—Mr. Davenport
advised with the defendant, who, however, would not consent
to this proposition, saying, the complaints made all originated
in spite and malice.—Mr. Shuttleworth then called Inspector
Morley, who said, that in consequence of the complaints made
to the council (by petition from several of the neighbours),
he had visited the yard of the defendant, in Banastre-street,
on the 18th October, at nine in the morning, being specially
appointed to do so. He found in the yard a quantity of the
entrails of animals (pigs and sheep, he believed), and also
some in one of two copper boilers. The smell reached him
iu Marybone and Garden-street, and was so bad that it made
him sick. There were houses all round the yard.—Mr.
Davenport cross-examined the witness, but did not elicit
anything particular.—Mr. Rushton read the clause in the
bye-law affecting nuisances, by which it appeared that the
making of any nuisance, noxious, or offensive gases or
vapours, militating against the health and comfort of the in-
habitants, constituted a nuisance which subjected the party
to fine, not exceeding £5 each separate offence or time.—Mr.
Shuttleworth said that even if it affected the " comfort"
alone. it was a nuisance.—A number of witnesses who lived
in the immediate neighbourhood, or a short distance from it,
were then successively called, and gave testimony of the
nuisance of so strong a nature, that we must be excused
nauseating our readers by giving the details. Suffice it to
say that the stench of the steam and the stuff used was
stated to be intolerable; that it frequently made them and
their families sick and ill, deprived them of appetite for food,
and prevented them from sleeping at night. The materials
used were garbage, most offensive in odour, and the steam
from the boiling of them was still worse. One shopkeeper
who lived 200 yards off, said the smell was even there very
noxious, affected his own and his family's health, and that
his customers complained of it. Mr. Davenport called two
or three witnesses, whose noses, it appeared, were imper-
vious to the effluvia, but as they lived in cellars where it
could not so easily descend to them, their evidence did not
affect that in chief.—Mr. Rushton said the defendant was
clearly out of court. Mr. Shuttleworth said he would re-

new his offer not to push for the penalties if the defendant
would plead guilty to the other five informations, and give
up the trade. This was finally agreed to on the part of the
latter, and a fine of £5 on each was levied, (£3O in all,) on
the understanding that if the nuisance was instantly abated
they would not be levied, and a week was allowed to, the de-
. . .

feuilant to remove his materials, &c. On the defendant and
his wife leaving the court, they came into contact with some
of the witnesses, and the wife struck one of the females, and
the defendant one of the police-officers. A regular fracas
ensued at the door, and the aggressors were brought back in
custody, and immediately placed in the dock. The case
being proved, the woman, who was the principal and original
offender, was fined 40s. and costs, or one month ; and Smith
ss. and costs, or seven days.

TitICKS OF THE TRADES OF LIVERPOOL.

No. I

"JERRY BUILDER."

The world at large, and many, even, of the community to
whom the following remarks are addressed, may require to
know what is the description of a tradesman whom we desig-
nate as " the Jerry builder." We will endeavour, as briefly
as we can, to illustrate the meaning attached to the term in
question.

You cannot pass through any of the modern portions of
the town of Liverpool without your attention being called to
piles of buildings, prematurely old—decayed before age can
have had any legitimate right to injure brickwork or wood-
work—" situate and being," as the lawyers would say, in

ill-paved and ill-sewered streets—with puddles, broken win-
dows, windows glazed with paper, leaky spouts, and other

gnia of want of finish and poverty, in front, and narro

courts, dirty passages, and unsightly objects of every imagin-
able kind and degree behind. These, you may rest assured,
are " jerry built " houses. Again, go into streets of still

more modern erection, in the outskirts of the borough. You
will see, perhapsl a lot of houses exhibiting externally an
infinite amount of pretension ;—verandas in front—perhaps
Elizabethan in style, or villa-form—stuccoed or rough-cast—
with superb door-way and fan-light, and a magnificent ex-
panse of door-step. So much for outside. Knock at or

open any door, and when'you imagine that you are entering
a palace you will be amazed to find yourself in something

more nearly approaching to a piggery. There is a lobby,
paltry in dimensions, and a staircase little less steep and
narrow than the ascent to a hayloft. The front parlour is
three yards by four, or thereabouts, and is papered ; but, the
substratum of plaster being bad, it is blotched in parts, and
manifests symptoms of peeling off by a yard at a time.
There are window-shutters ; but they either do not fasten
when up, or are not so ambitious as to go up at all. There
is a cupboard, with a sideboard top, by the fireplace, with a
lock which will not lock, because it never had a key. There
is a bell-pull, but it does not ring, because it never was
attached to a bell ; a chimney-piece, upon which you must
not lay your watch, lest it come down with the weight ; a
grate with the coves falling down, and a hearth which saves
you the trouble of carrying out the ashes, because they can
be more expeditiously disposed of by sweeping them quietly
through an interstice at the back into the cellar below !
There is a back parlour of similar crazy construction, cellar
kitchens, drawing-room, and bed-rooms "to match." The
whole are painted, but you mustn't wash the paint lest you
have only the wood left. This is a modern—a new—'
built " house

jcrry

But still you will say—what is the Jerry builder? Why
he is the builder of just such tenements as we have described
—of temporary erections—shells of houses—patches of brick-
work and woodwork, put together just sufficiently to be called
houses, and, like Jew watches, to be taken for spew. As a
matter of course, the " Jerry builder" is seldom more than
the temporary owner of the houses which he builds. He buys
a piece of land and he covers it with houses, as a Brummagem
dealer covers his dolls with flaring calico. His object is to
sell, or to let, apiece of land covered with a house. Neither
land nor house is the absolute Property of the man who lets
it you as his own, but belongs to some lawyer or other party
as mortgagee. if you want a repair, your ostensible landlord
can do nothing, and the real landlord will do nothing. The
former is reaping all he can before his mortgage is foreclosed,
and his property lapses into other hands ; the .latter is quietly
waiting for the consummation which the other anticipates.
Let us, briefly as we can, describe a jerry-building specu-
lation. Tom Styles, a joiner or a bricklayer, with twenty
pounds in his pocket, or a share or two in a building society,
and an understanding with Timothy Nokes, plumber and
painter, and sundry other people of equal reputation in the
world, purchases from some speculative land agent or lawyer
a plot of land. We shall not enter into the question whether,
at all, or how it is paid for. The first step towards covering
it with houses is the sinking of the foundations and cellars
and that operation is performed by contract, by Patrick some-
body or other with a euphonious name, and his gang of
" soughers." The said Patrick realises a pound or two on
paper, and his Helots potatoes and herring, and mayhap a
drop of " illicit" by the transaction. The cellar floors are
then laid, the cellar walls rise, and the beams are laid for the
first or ground floor ; and then comes that most mysterious
of operations—" a draw."

But we are going too fast. The question has first to be de-
cided between Tom Styles and Timothy Nokes, which of
them is trustworthy enough to receive the said " draw."
This is a highly interesting controversy, watched with great
anxiety by Patrick the " sougher" and his men, two or three
hod-carriers, and the workmen of the controversialists.
The question is at length decided. Tom Stiles, as having the
greatest stake (?) in the speculation, receives " the draw,"
and forthwith draws out of the affair, leaving his colleague
to battle out the claim of Patrick and others as well as he
can. This affair settled or temporarily smoothed down, the
next story rises under the superintendence of Timothy
Nokes ; is in due time completed, and then comes another
" draw." Now Timothy happens to have been recently en-
gaged in building half a dozen cottages for John Snooks,
who keeps a provision shop, and who has not been able to
pay him off, unless he will take shop goods—soap, bread,
candles, pepper, mustard, cheese, and other similar com-
modities—instead of cash. Timothy, moreover, has himself
a bill for lead to meet, for which the "
presents itself very opportunely. The proposition is made
that the workmen employed should receive part of their
claims in money, and the remainder in goods from the shop
of the beforementioned John Snooks ; and after a council of
war or two, held at the neighbouring public-
sity" it is found " has no law," and the proposition is
acceded to.

draw" in question

house, " neces-

We have said nothing, thus far, of the grievances and hard-
ships to which the poor workmen and labourers are sub-
jected—of the penniless Saturday nights, the dinnerless
Sundays, and the weekdays of almost famine. We have said
nothing of the various minor " contractors," whose inge-
nuity, and too frequent rascality, are put in requisition during
the progress of the erection. The window-sashes and door-
frames, perhaps, are contracted for by one, and the doors by
another; and, as they are to be put together at a trifle more
than the cost of the timber, the timber merchant or the
working joiner employed is victimized or gets but half paid.
Then plastering and slapdashing and painting are to be done ;
and are managed in a similar fashion. They are got through,
as a seamstress would say, " with long stitches"—are slurred
over just sufficiently to pass muster until pay-day—until there
is a " draw," with very often a " bolt" at the end of it !
But proceed we, more seriatim, to the last story—to the
roofing, slating and internal finishing. Suppose the building
up—walls, roof, chimneys and all. Then should come the
final draw. But first the work must be surveyed—aye,
there's the rub ! The land-agent, or the lawyer for some
mortgagee, has all along furnished the money for the various
" draws" which have preceded. He wishes now to examine
his security; and we will, if the reader permit us, accompany
him in his survey and his calculation. Imprimis then, it will be
remembered, we have never said that the land has been paid
for. In fact it has not. It has never even been conveyed!
Tom Styles and Timothy Nokes had originally a contract of
sale, it is true ; and they secured the owner for the cost, by
the bricks and timber and work which they have put upon
the land ; but they have received money since to enable them
to pay—so far as they can be said to have paid—for those
bricks, that timber and labour; and the transaction must
now be placed en regle, by a deed of mortgage, previous to
receiving the "final draw." Our reader, however, if he be
a man of the world, will readily guess that mortgagees
do not ordinarily advance the full cost of the land and build-
ings erected upon it; and the surmise will naturally present
itself, that the poor expectants of their cash, for the erection
of the last story, and the inside finishing, have a tolerable
chance of being made to whistle awhile for their demands.
And such, in too many instances, is the case. The mort-
gagee will not advance another shilling—how, as a prudent
man, can he ?—and the builder must either place the pro-
perty in the hands of a collector, who can put it into mode-
rately tenantable condition and deduct his outlay fi-om the
rents, or he must sell. In case the first alternative is
adopted, we pity the unlucky tenant. In case the second,
we pity the unlucky buyer. The former takes a house, re-
puted tenantable, which smokes, which has leaky spouts and
a leaky roof, is but half finished, and, though a new house,
threatens daily to tumble about his ears, unless be is fool
sufficient to prop it up at his own cost. The latter buys a
house—or what he fancies is a house, but which is in reality
only the framework of one—and must, unless he wishes it to
be removed the first high wind into the adjoining street or
township, lay out upon it some three or four years' rent, in
order to make it such a house as a decent family can reside
in. In either alternative, we pity the poor workmen and
tradesmen who have put together this wretched abortion of
bricks, wood, and mortar. Their Christmas-day will be a
sorry one ; and the chances are, that not a few of them are
seen petitioning for their discharge from durance vile at the
first hearing of the Insolvent Court.

In conclusion, and before taking leave of this distinguished
character, whom we have thought it our duty to place at the
head of these sketches, we cannot but record our conviction
that to the doings of no class of tradesmen in our town is to
be attributed a greater amount of the misery and deteriorated
condition of our labouring classes, than to the doings of
" THE JERRY BUILDER."

PORT 'co.—The amusing theatre now established at this
place of public resort is nightly attracting the curious. A
change of performances will take place to-night, when many
novelties will be brought forward.

The metropolitan police have just received information of
i
another robbery from the person resembling n its circum-
stances the case of Mr. Marquis, who, as our readers will
recollect, was robbed of £2,000 at the Preston Guild by a
female, who has since been transported for seven years. It
appears that a Mr. George Jordan, a horsc-dealer, residing
at Thames, Oxon, attended Marlow fair, and whilst there a
dashingly dressed woman, about 40 years of age, got into
conversation with him, and succeeded, during the time the
pleasant converaation lasted, in easing him of a purse con-
taining two bills of exchange for £5O each, one accepted by
Mr. James H:11, Little Lisson-street, Lisson-grove, London,
and the other by Israel Tarle, Newbury, Berks; also £2OO
in notes, some of which were of the Bank of England, and
others of the Reading, Newbury, and Andover banks.

BANK OF MANCHESTER.-SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE SHAREHOLDERS.

Yesterday,

ecial meeting of
ter was held at 1

shareholders in the
ward's Hotel, Man-
rig notice, issued by

October,

of Manchester.—Notice is hereby given, that, in consequent._
of its having been ascertained by the Board of Directors of

this bank, from the communications made by the managing
director, on Friday, the 7th instant, that the whole of the
surplus fund, and more than one-fourth of the capital of the
Company actually paid by the shareholders, had been ex-
hausted by losses sustained in carrying on the business of the
Company, a Special General Meeting of the proprietors will
be held on Monday, the 7th day of November next, at twelve
at noon, at Hayward's Hotel, in Bridge-street, Man-
, in order to submit to such meeting a full i;nd gene-