The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-26 00:00:00

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

MISS JANE LANGTON, the god-daughter and "dear
Jenny" of Dr. Johnson, died recently at Richmond, aged
77. And with this lady has passed away the only survivor
of ail the persons mentioned in Boswell's biography.
THE -PRINCIPAL WHOLESALE BREWERSolßristol and
Bath have resolved on reducing the price of beer commen-
surate with the recent decline in the price of malt.
ISION,AND Woos.—Out of 110 steam-packets now em-
ployedin conveying mails, 54 are built of wood, and 56 of
iron ; 98. are propelled by paddle wheels, and l 7; by screws.
Only 21 out of the 110 steamers have lightning conductors
fitted to them.

„..-
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT celebrated his 85th
birthday on the 14th. The illustrious philosopher is in
the enjoyment of full bodily health and intellectual vigour,
and continues, as heretofore, to devote himself with
wonderffil activity to the interests of science.
'POSTAGE TO ArsTuALlA.—Arrangements have been
made by the authorities of the General Post-office, to
extend, after the Ist of October next, the uniform 6d. rate
of postage, so far as regards the correspondence between
the United Kingdom to New South Wales, Victoria, and
South Australia.
EXTENSIVE FIRE AT LYONS.—On Friday evening an
extensive fire occurred at a wadding manufactory in the
city of Lyons, which extended to buildings containing
tar, and other combustible materials. The fire was ulti-
mafely got under, but not until damage to the extent of
200,000. francs was done.

ANE ROUTE to the continent has been opened via"
Harwich, by the establishment of a steam-packet service
from that port to Antwerp, in connexion with the express
trains on the Eastern Counties Railway. Passengers will
be enabled to leave the Bishopsgate Station at a quarter-
past eight in the morning, be taken in the railway carriage
to the pier, and the whole voyage from London to Antwerp
will be completed in about twelve hours, little more than
half the time occupied in the passage from the Thames.
GUN COTTON TOE ARTILLERY.—A letter from Vienna
says :—Some very interesting experiments have recently
been tried here by the artillery With " exploding cotton"
instead of gunpowder, and they have succeeded so com.
pletely that cotton will in future be used. New six-pound-
ers have been cast, which weigh six cwt. less than those
formerly used, and they answer the purpose—if exploding
cotton is employed instead of gunpowder—perfectly well.
A GUASTLY FBEIGIIT.—Captain Klockgether, of the
Bremen ship Hindoo, while on his passage to New York,
picked up a boat in which were four human skeletons.
The boat was full of water, but, being of light construc-
tion had continvwl • • -
iouna, but nothing to give any clue to the un-
fortunates. _ _

AN ORIGINAL IDEI.—A few days ago, a respectable
tradesman at Orewkerne was waited on by a needy man,
requesting a favour of him. The inquiry was immediately
put, " What favour do you want ?" " I want," he re-
plied, " to buy a donkey, and I was thinking that if I
could get some one to write a letter to the Queen she
would give me something towards it !"
Tin WILL of the Hon. and Right Rev. Richard Begot,
D.D., Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, has been proved
under £14,000 personalty, which he has left to his widow.
.CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—At the meeting of the com-
pany on Thursday, a dividend at the rate of £4 4s. per
cent. per annum was declared on the preference shares,
and at the rate of £3 per cent. per annum on the consoli-
dated stock of the-company, both less income-tax.
Miss CLABA'TIIORNIIILL, a ward of the Court of Chan-
cery, has become the purchaser of the magnificent estate
of Rushton-hall, Northamptonshire, at the sum of
£165,000. The estate comprises 8,000 acres, contains a
mansion of great beauty, surrounded by a finely wooded
park, with plantations, and no fewer than 36 acres of
richly dressed garden.
MORE TROUBLE FOR TUB OFFICERS OF TUE 46T11.-
On Monday summonses were served upon Major Maxwell
and Adjutant McAlister, at the suit of the next of kin of
the boy Simms, to appear at the next County Court, and
show cause why they should not compensate the boy for
false imprisonment and the legal expenses of his defence.
The damages were laid at £5.
THE NILE.-By the latest intelligence we learn that
the Nile has been rising very rapidly, and there is now no
fear of short crops for next year. The Mahmoudieh canal,
connecting Alexandria with the river, has been so much
neglected that, although much water has been let in, there
has been such a deposit of mud that large boats can
scarcely come down. . _

yv
A NEW CITY.—The commission to seek a new site for
the city of San Salvador, destroyed a short time since 'by
an earthquake, have selected the plain of Santa Tecla, four
leagues distant from the old site, and six leagues from the
old port of Libertand. The entire population would re-
move to the new city, which wi i
ll be n the midst of a
beautiful country, abundantly supplied with pure water
from the cascades of the neighbouring hills.

•
FALL OP A RAILWAY TUNNEL.—An alarming accident
took place on Tuesday on the Leeds Northern Railway.
The Bramhope tunnel, about five miles from Leeds. fell in
upon a passenger train ; two carriages full of passengers,
in the centre, were buried, while the carriages behind and
before got detached. The carriages before went on ; those
behind, the place being an incline, ran back, and came into
collision with a truck full of Irish reapers. The guard of
the train was injured rather severely by the collision, but
the passengers escaped without injury. The " buried"
carriages were extricated after a considerable time, when
a lady was found to have her leg broken ; but no one else
was hurt.

FRIGIITFUL MORTALITY.—Did we lack warnings at
home to put our houses in order, one comes to us from
across the Atlantic. Seventeen persons have lost their
lives in a tavern known as Lamer's stage station, fifteen
miles east of Galena, on the Chicago road, United States.

The mortality is accounted for by the condition of the
cellar beneath. The bottom, it is said, was covered with
water in a putrid condition, in which were floating cut
pieces of meat, decayed vegetables, and other refuse that
will gather in such places. Over this mass the meat con-
sumed by the family was hanging, and through it the
disease—whatever it may have been—is supposed to have
been communicated to the sufferers. It is said that every
person wlui took dinner there on Monday is now in the
grave. The hostess and four children, two servants, two
stage-drivers, the bar-keeper, the physician, who attended
the first sufferers, and the man who made their coffins,
were amongst the victims.
RA.TnEn Coon.—We last week recorded the escape of
a prisoner from the custody of Police-constable Furminger,
by jumping out of the train while passing through the
Lewes tunnel. The runaway contrived to effect his escape,
and, in spite of all the efforts made, has as yet avoided re-
capture. On Saturday however, tidings of his" where-
abouts" reached' the constable, in the shape of a
small but heavy parcel sent from Croydon per rail. On
the parcel being delivered, and 6d. for carriage having
been duly paid, Mr. Furminger opened it with considerable
curiosity, whence discovered a pair of handcuffs, with a
polite intimation from his runaway prisoner that lie had,
with many thanks, returned the " bracelets," which were
" rather too small"--a matter, however, which he, the run-
away, had "no doubt they would make all right the next
time they met !" Poor Furminger's mortification at the
receipt of this "cool" missive may be easily imagined.—
Sussex Advertiser.
THE" GOLDEN SQUARE" ov NAPLES.--At Naples, in
a small and filthy street, called Vico del San Sepolcro,l43
out of 146 inhabitants have been carried off one after the
other by cholera. The authorities caused the three sur-
vivors to be removed, and placed sentinels at the entrances
of the street to prevent persons from visiting it. This
place of death has been since appropriately designated the
Tombo del San Sepolcro.
STRIKING THEIR COLOURS.—On Her Majesty Queen
Victoria passing the Forfar Railway station on Friday, en
route for the north, the magistrates and town-council,
being refused admission to the platform, gave immediate
orders to lower a flag which had been planted at the rail-
way buildings in honour of the visit, to mark their estima-
tion of the slight cast upon the authorities in not allowing
them to look upon royalty.
EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.--A few days ago, Mr. A.
Maylor, a respectable farmer, aged 50 years, living at Ful-
Sutton, near York, came to his death by a singular cir-
cumstance. Whilst superintending a 'minter of reapers
in the harvest-field, one of his eyes, which had been pre-
viously injured, came into contact with an ear of corn ; in-
tense pain was followed by mortification of the brain, and
he died in four days after the accident.

SERPENT FASCINATION.—A few weeks since a little
boy, who was known to be frequently absent from
school, was noticed in the neighbourhood of Privet by a
shepherd in the employ of Martineau, Esq., to be very
busily engaged in the road. He approached nearer, and
was surprised to see him feeding.two adders The boy
having crumbled the bread in his satchel, spread it out in
his-pinafore, and the adders came and ate the food from
his lap, picking up the crumbs with great dexterity. After
feeding them he lay on the ground and played with them
all three seeming to enjoy the sport. But if the little
urchin rejoiced in their company the shepherd did not,
for with much difficulty he killed the adders, to the great
distress of their little playmate, who wept bitterly at their
destruction.—Wiltshire Mirror.

Ax AWKWARD MISTAKE.—The borough of Barnstaple
was for two years deprived of its Parliamentary represen-
tatives, in consequence of the bribery which was practised
at the last election ; and, although the election took place
nearly a month since, the gentlemen who were returned

havenot yet been dazetted. This has arisen from the
mayor, who was the returning-officer, having made an in-
formal return to the: clerk of the crown. •The error, it is
true, was afterwards amended, but the clerk of the crown
could not correct it without the sanction of Parliament,
and the result is, that Barnstaple is almost as badly off as
before for members. By this irregularity the mayor has
rendered himself liable to a penalty of £5OO, under the 2d
and 3d of William IV., chap. 45, sec. 76.
THE PINCH OF WAR IN RIISSIA.—The Russians not in
their own country, and travellers arriving from the do-
minions of the Emperor Nicholas, give but a sorry picture
of the situation in which the Moscovite nation now is.
The nobles, from inability to sell their corn, are sadly dis-
tressed, and are mortgaging their property to a great
hypothecary establishment, and the government is a cus-
tomer at the same time. The cereals now stored up in
the southern ports of Russia are estimated at not less than
16,000,000 of hectolitres. 'Not being able to export them,
the owners are selling them at the lowest prices. The
Russian government is obliged to take from the proprie-
tors what is required for the keep of the troops, informing
those from whom they take that the value of what is taken
shall be deducted from their contributions. Nevertheless,
this indemnification is not conceded at present.—lnde-
pendance Belge.
TIIE WRECK OP THE MYRTLE.—We understand that
the second mate of the steamer Myrtle, recently wrecked
off the island of Sauda, has been indicted to stand his trial
at Inverary before the ensuing Justiciary Court. The
culpable negligence under which this fine vessel was lost,
in open day„ and with scarcely a ripple on the breeze, will
be fresh in the recollection of our readers, and it is high
time that an example was made of those who so recklessly
endanger the lives of passengers and destroy valuable
property.—Greenock Advertiser.

APSLEY HOUSE is undergoing repair and alteration
The iron shutters on the west side, facing Hyde Park
have been opened for the first time since the mansion
was attacked by the mob on the passing of the Reform
Bill, nearly thirty years ago. The broken panes of glass,
and shattered window frames having remained undisturbed
from that time to the present, have attracted large crowds•
amongst whieli were many who took part in the demolition,