The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-16 00:00:00

CHEATING AT CARDS

At the last sessions, a man who gave his name as Thomas
Rule, but whose real name is Davies, was, it will be remem-
bered, tried, convicted, and sentenced to eighteen months'
imprisonment, for having conspired with another man to rob
a joiner and builder, of Cheethatn-hill, near Manchester, of
a sum of £6l, by cutting at cards at Whitley's public-house,
Manchester-street, in this town. The case, which we re-
ported at the time, showed, even to the excitement of laugh-
ter, the extreme weakness of the prosecutor, in listening to
the improbable story of one of the conspirators, who repre-
sented himself as an ignorant country man, but who was not
then in custody. Since the trial of Rule, that man, whose
name is William Humphreys, was apprehended in Manches-
ter, and was yesterday placed before the recorder. The pro-
secutor repeated his former testimony, and fully identified
the prisoner as the man with whom he had gambled, with a
view to save the money of his antagonist in the contest,
and to restore it to him when he was sober, but in which
attempt he (the prosecutor) lost his own, with which the
prisoner decamped.
Mr. HENDERSON made a very ingenious defence for the
prisoner, contending that the indictment could not he sus-
tained, inasmuch as the statute required it to be shown that
some game at cards was played, whereas, in this case, there
was no playing at cards at all, the act of the parties being
merely cutting them and betting on the result. The RE-
CORDER, however, overruled this objection—holding that
the cutting was in reality playing. Mr. Henderson was very
happy in his address to the jury, in which he did not spare
the prosecutor for conniving at extracting the black cards
from the pack to win the prisoner's money, but in which he
was wofully disappointed. The case was, however, too
palpable to admit of any other verdict than that of guilty,
and the prisoner was sentenced to undergo the same punish-
ment as his comrogue—namely, eighteen mouths' imprison-
ment, without hard labour.

CHARGE OF AN ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN MONEY UNDER

FALSE PRETENCES,

James Dixon and Thomas Crisp, both young men, were
charged with having attempted to obtain the suns of four
shillings, from Mr. Perry, druggist, of this town. We re-
ported the case when itcame recently before the police-court.
Crisp had, it appeared gone to the prosecutor's shop, and
obtained leave to send a box, which he represented as con-
taining valuable clothing, and which he did not like to send
to his lodgings, lest it might be seized for rent due by a com-
panion on the premises. He also mentioned that it came
from Stockport, that the carriage was 45., and that he would
feel obliged if the prosecutor would advance that sum for him
on receiving it. He was told that on seeing the box the
favour would be granted. Dixon took the box afterwards to
the shop, by request of the other prisoner, and was told to
call again for the money. He said it came by his father's
cart, who was a carrier. Meantime the prosecutor smelt a
rat, uncorded the box, and found it to contain nothing but
a quantity of rags, an old Virgil, and other old school-books,
and several bricks. Dixon on returning for the money was
detained and given into custody, and the other prisoner was
afterwards apprehended. The prosecutor was cross-examined
by Mr. Rarnshay for the defence; and having lost temper
under kis drillieg, that gentleman assailed him in humorous
terms with much effect—finally showing that the whole was
a joke or trick by Crisp and another person, with whom
Mr. Perry had been drinking shortly before, and that Dixon
was an unwitting partner, he not being put in possession
of the secret. Witnesses were giving the prisoners good
characters, when the jury stopped the case and pronounced
them not guilty. They were forthwith discharged.
After another unimportant case the Sessions' closed.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE M'NEILE TESTIMONIAL

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

suppose I ought to feel highly honoured by the
notice which your contemporary of the Chronicle has deigned
to take of my humble letter (which appeared in the Standard
of the 29th of November,) by occupying near a fortnight in
its consideration, and then devoting near a column and a
half of his valuable space, as a leading article, to his import-
ant lucubrations upon it. His observations, however, are so
far satisfactory, that, although coming from An avowed ene-
my, he is compelled to acknowledge that the object in which
we are engaged is nothing more than an act of justice to Mr.
M'Neile, and that so far from our having been too precipi-
tate in our movements, we ought to have performed it long
ago ! Hear his own words :

-"
There is nothing in the idea of such a thing either to ex-
cite astonishment or to awaken ridicule. We have long
wondered at what has appeared to us to be the backwardness
of the Low Churchmen and ultra Tories in raising some such
evidence of their regard for their mighty champion."
But what must we think of the principles or consistency
of this writer, when, after thus admitting the call for the
duty, and blaming us for our tardy performance of it, the mo-
ment we set about it, he tries to awaken an ungodly jealousy
in tilt) rest of our clergy, as if we, by paying a just compliment
to an individual amongst them, were thereby attempting to de-
preciate the rest, in the public estimation! Sir, the ministers
of the established church, generally. I am happy to say, and
especially the highly respectable body of clergy in Liverpool,
are by their birth, education, and habits, of too gentlemanly
minds and dispositions, to be influenced by such base and
degrading feelings. So far from it, Sir, they have them-
selves been frequently amongst the foremost, in availing
themselves of, and doing justice, to Mr. M'Neile's services,
particularly on various occasions connected with Scriptural
Education and the Church Building Associations; when our
worthy Rectors have alternately occupied the chair, and have
gladly sought and acknowledged his powerful advocacy—so
that We do not say of Mr. M‘Neile, (in wishing to show him
the proposed mark of our esteem, as the Chronicle " slan-
derously affirms") that "ALONE he did it;" for we thank-
fully admit that, on many occasions, the clergy, as a body,
were " fellow workers together with him ;" but what we do
say, and thankfully claim for him, without fear of contradic-
tion, is, that he was the " Instrument", raised up by " THE
AUTHOR and GIVER of every good and perfect gift," at the
time these questions required to be publicly agitated, " to
stir up their pure minds' (2d Peter, 3c. 1) to engage with
him in the contest, in the hearty manner, which enabled
them to achieve the glorious triumph, which, through God's
blessing, was at last so nobly won. Away, then, with all these
base and grovelling notions of the Chronicle!

This writer further endeavours, in the outpourings of his
spleen, to revive amongst us the foolish cry of " high and
low church ;" to which it must be confessed that the Tracts-
rian party, at Oxford, has of late given but too much encou-
ragement. But I have searched THE BIBLE in vain, Sir, for
any such distinctions there: on the contrary, I find it ex-

pressly written, in that blessed book, that ;; Whosoever ex-
alteth himself shall be abased ; and he that humbleth him-
self shall be exalted ;" and that" God resisteth the proud but
giveth grace unto the humble;" all that I can further say on

this subject, therefore, is, that as MY MASTER. was " meek
and lowly of heart," so, if such vain and unscriptural dis-
tinctions are still to be kept up, to vex and divide the church,
I pray that my lot may be always cast with " the humble
and the lowly," both for time and eternity.
As to the Chronicle's attempts at wit, (although he admits
that there is nothing in the subject to " awaken ridicule,")
we will let that pass. It is enough for our encouragement,
in the work in which we have engaged, that it is admitted,

even by our enemies, that " SOME TESTIMONIAL IS CER-
TAINLY DUE TO MR. WNEILE." Whether it shall be car-
ried out by founding a PRIZE ESSAY (as I ventured to sug-
gest), or to whatever other object the funds may be applied,
is a matter of perfect indifference to me. I merely threw
out that hint, because it seemed the most likely mode of
permanently connecting Mr. M'lsleile's name with the town
of Liverpool and the Collegiate Institution, as well as with
the Protestant cause, of which he has so long been the fear-
less advocate. But, of course, that is a matter which will
be most properly left to the judgment of the committee. My
only desire is, that whatever it may be, the subscribers may
be able to say, individually, whenever it shall be accom-
plished—

" Exegi monumentum (ere perennius."
Yours, &c.,
A CATHOLIC (Buz. NO ROMANIST).
P.S.—The Chronicle's sneer at the poverty of our opera-
.ive friends, and his shrewd question, " Don't you wish he
may get it 1" were best answered by the hearty manner in
which so many of them came forward, with their half sove-
reigns and crowns, immediately after the late meeting on
Monday.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—I shall feel much obliged by your inserting, in your
paper to-morrow, the following simple statement of facts,
in answer to the remarks that fell from Mr. North, in his
speech in council, on Wednesday last.
Extract from the committee-book, page 183, October 25,
1841 :
Average attendance at the schools during the past month.
North. South.
386 .. 235
284 • • 191
205 164

Boys..
Girls..
Infants,

61° • • 590---Total.. 1465
Extract from the committee•book, page 242, November
30, 1842:

Average attendance
North. South.
80p5...... 252 .. 212
Girls ...... 207 .. 133
Infants.... 184 .. 180

--
643 .. 52.5—T0ta1.. 1168
I am, Sir, your most
Jbedient servant,
OHN H. TURNER

Rodney-street, December 15, 1842.

[Mr. Turner must remember that the first extract in his
letter appeliessysttoenithfeoartstie:dyaenacres,a
at
nthdetshcahtotohles
latterafter tohneeorpeeferars-
to the state of the same schools when there had not been a
twelve moat/Itrial of the present course of instruction ;
and it must also be borne in mind, that from the moment it
was determined f:0
to
ado
pt
scriptural education, to the present
hour, heads been the most sedulous exertion on the part
of e
oppouents of that education to keep the attendance at
the schools
as low as possible ; whilst it is a well-known
fact, that the Popish priests have issued a command for the
withdrawal of all Roman Catholic children. The number of
children has, we believe, gone on progressively increasing
since the present system of instruction was commenced;
and after it has been in operation for the same period as the
former course, we anticipate a much more gratifying state-
ment than our opponents were able then to exhibit. The
number of children on the books at the schools, on the 27th
January, 1842, was only 536, whilst on the 30th ult. it
amounted to 1,581, or an increase of two-thirds in ten
months. Surely this is satisfactory and encouraging.—En.
L. S.]

STRANGE STORY.—The following strange story appears
in the Journal de Mayeuae :—.‘ A lady, fashionably dressed,.
and speaking with tine greatest propriety, descended from
the Laval diligence, at Mayenne, and, with a light parcel in,
her hand, proceeded to the station of the Gendarmerie. and,
besought the officer in command to arrest her as a vagabond,
without papers, and unknown. The officer, who was much:
embarrassed at such a demand, at first tried to persuade her
not to act so strangely ; but, as she insisted, he took her to the
Procureur du Roi. That functionary complied with her de-
mand, and she is now in one of the rooms of the prison,
where she appears perfectly. contented with her situation..
She declares that her name Is Bretagne, sad that she conies.
froi Brest.",

THE PRESS : what is the Press ? I cried ;
When thus a wondrous voice replied :
In me all human knowledge dwells ;
The oracle of oracles.
Past, present, future, I reveal,
Or in oblivious silence seal :
What I preserve can perish never—
What I forego is lost for ever.
I speak all languages; by me
The deaf may hear, the blind may see,
The dumb converse, the dead of old
Communion with the living hold.
All lands are one beneath my rule,
All nations learners in my school ;
Men of all ages, everywhere,
Become contemporaries there.
What is the Press ? 'Tis what the tongue
Was to the world when Time was young,
When, by tradition, sire to son
Conveyed whate'er was known or done ;
But fact and fiction so were mixed,
That boundaries never could be fix'd.
What is the Press? 'Tis that which aught,
By hieroglyphic forms of thought,
Lore, from the vulgar proudly hid,
Like treasures in a pyramid ;
For knowledge then was mystery,
A captive under lock and key,
By Priests and Princes held in thrall,
Of little use, or none at all;
Till the redoubted Alphabet
Free their own great deliverer set,
At whose command, by simplest spells,
They work their mental miracles.
What is the Press ? 'Tis what the pen
Was thrice ten centuries to men,
When sybil leaves lend wings to words.
Or, caged in books, they sang like birds ;
But slow the pen, and frail the page—
To write twelve folios ask'd an age ;
And a pet babe, in sport, might spoil '
The fruits of twenty authors' toil.

A power was wanting to insure
Life to works worthy to endure—
A power the race to multiply
Of intellectual polypi:
It came, all hardships to redress;
And Truth and Virtue hail'd the Press !

What am I, then? lam a power
Years cannot waste, nor flames devour,
Nor waters drown, nor tyrants bind ;
I am the mirror of man's mind,
Int *hose serene, impassive face,
What cannot die on earth you trace—
Not phantom shapes that come and fly,
But like the concave of the sky,
In which the stars. by night and day,
Seen or unseen, hold on their way.
Myself withdrawn from mortal sight,
I am invisible as light—
Light which, revealing all beside,
Itself within itself can hide;
The things of darkness I make bare,
And, nowhere seen. I'm everywhere.
All that philosophy has sought,
Science discover'd, genius wrought;
All that reflective memory stores,
Or rich imagination pours;
All that the wit of man conceives;
All that he wishes, hopes, believes ;
All that he loves, or fears, or hates ;
All that to heaven and earth relates ;
These are the lessons that I teach
By speaking silence—silent speech.
Ah ! who like me can bless or curse ?
What can be better, what be worse,
Than language framed for Paradise,
Or sold to infamy and vice?
Blest be the man by whom I bless;
Accursed he who wrongs the Press;
The reprobate in prose and song,
Who wields the power of right for wrong—
Wrong, to ont-last his laurell'd tomb,
And haunt the earth till crack of doom !

LITERARY NOTICE.

Eglinton Park Meeting.

We noticed in our paper the week before last the poetica
abilities of Mr. John Ramsay, Kilmarnock, as displayed in
the above work, and promised on a future occasion to give a
short extract. We have since perused the book, and feel de-
lighted with the many very beautifully descriptive scenes,
so true to nature's self, which the poets of past ages might
in reality have been proud of; while his other styles of com-
position lack nothing. The following is an extract :
In radiant majesty the source of light
Arose, and walked the chambers of the east,
And bade the seas and rivers sparkle bright,
And cheered afar the lonely monntains' breast,
Whose shaggy top was veiled in vapours white—
Where soared, sublime, the eagle o'er her nest,
By dreary cairn ;—th' unconscious lamb and ewe
Grazed, 'mong red heath, wild thyme, and harebell blue.
And on a rock, coeval with the earth,
Where time had toiled till with his toil turned grey,
The shepherd sat, and eyed, in all her mirth,
Nature rejoice along life's flowery way—
From blossomed thorn the mavis warbled forth,
The linnet from the broom and birchen spray,
The cushat mourned, and as the bass to all,
Loud thundered o'er the rock the mighty waterfall.

Descending then along the misty plain,
On rapid wing, the raptured muse surveyed,
Rich lawns, extending even to the main,
Ana svorp. and tralpc in climmar'e pnmp sirravori
And waving woods, now lost, and now again
The broad bright river in his strength displayed,
Proud aristocracy's bedazzling bower,
The lone sad remnants of the feudal tower.

Far other features showed the city's face,
Buildings on buildings piled unto the sky,
The vagrant curs about the market-place,
The high slow-moving wain, the driver's cry,
The bawling sweep, the tippler on the chase,
Of stunted form, pale cheek, and heavy eye ;
Toils various tribes unto their tasks repair,
The drunkard to his den of frenzy despair.
0, Heaven ! what means this vortex we behold
Of human passions, human joys and woes,
Of vast extredies, and much that is untold
In life's retreats ? For ever onward flows
Time's tide, in which we rise but to be rolled
As wrecks, with all our transports and our throes,
Down to that deep impenetrable gloom
That hangs o'er all that lies beyond the tomb.

VARIETIES.

It is enough for the present state of things that men ac
well. Of their motives none but God can judge.

" I'll be blessed if 1 do," as the girl said when her lover
asked her to be married.

A correspondent of the Picayune paper has such a cold in
his head that he can't wash his face without freezing the
water.

A young lady writes from Ohio, that commercial affairs
are so bad, that the young men are insolvent, and can't pay
their addresses.

" I am happy, Ned, to hear the report that you have suc-
ceeded to a large landed property." " And I fun sorry,
Tom, to tell you that it is groundless."
If you wish success in life, make Perseverance your bosom
friend • Experience your wise counsellor; Caution your
elder brother ; and Hope your guardian genius.
Prayer is the silence of the soul, the calm of the passions,
the contentment of desire, and the union of our will with the
Divine.

What we have done is worthy of nothing but silence and
forgetfulness ; but what God .has done for us is worthy of
everlasting and thankful memory.
Riches, honour, and pleasure are the sweets which destroy
the mind's appetite for its heavenly food ; poverty, disgrace,
and pain, are the bitters which restore it.
Alexander Gun, an excise officer, being lately dismissed
from his employment for misconduct, an entry was made in
a book, kept for the purpose, as follows :—" A Gun dis-
charged for making afalse report."
A FAUNcn Bum..—The Commerce publishes the following
extract from M. Jacqueminot's address to the electors of
Paris :—" Gentlemen, I have shed all my blood for my coun-
try, and I am ready to shed it again."
A. shock of an earthquake was felt on the evening of the
21st ult., at St. Aubin, Suages, and Vaumareus (Switzerland).
It was sufficiently violent to alarm the inhabitants, several of
whom were attacked with violent headaches immediately
afterwards.

An elderly gentleman travelling in a stage coach was
amused by the constant fire of words kept up :between two
ladies. One of them at last kindly inquired if their conver-
sation did not make his head ache?—to which he replied,
no, ma'am ; I have been married twenty-eight years.
A landlord threatened a poor Irishman, the other day, to
pnta distress in his house if he did not pay his rent.—" Put
a distress in, is it you mane?" said Pat; " Och, by St.
Anthony'e Sew, but you had better take distress out, here's
too much in already, by the mither that bore me !"
The works Oti the Paris and Tours railroad have begun in
the department of the Loir et Cher. Last week 50 workmen
in
commenced operations the- commune of Onzain, where a
great number of landowners have accepted the terms offered
by the Government.
LACONIC CORREAPONDENCE —We find the following cor-
respondence in a southern paper Son,—Come home ;
a rolling stone gathers no moss.—Lucy Muggins " To which
he replied :—" Dear Mamma,_ Come to Texas ; a setting
hen never gets fat.—John Atin'7
ggins."—American Paper.
We understand, that Lieut.-General Sir Maurice Charles
O'Connell, K.C.fl., commanding the forces in New South
Wales, is to succeed to the coloneleY of the 81 regiment, va-
cant by the decease of the late Lieut.-General Sir John
Waters.—United Service Gazette.
A TENDER-HEARTED LADY.—A lady who made preten-
sions to the most refined feelings went to her butcher to re-
" How," said
monstrate with him on his cruel practices.
she, " can you be so barbarous as to put little innocent lambs
to death?" Why not, madam," said the butcher, " you
would not eat them alive, would you
In the county of Carmarthen, several Whigs have
come
over to the Conservative ranks, and enrolled their names as
supporters of Mr. Saunders Davies,cand;
as yet the only
date. It is stated that one of the gentlemen who have left
the " Reform" party recently declared that " it was no longer
respectable to be a Whig."
REMEDY FOR CHILBLAINS.—A common remedy for chil-
blains among the peasants in Russia is the rind of p_erfectly,
ripe cucumbers, dried with the soft parts attached, and placed
with the inner side, previously soaked in warm water, over
the sore parts. Dmitriefsky confirms the efficacy of this re-
medy.—Annals of Chemistry.
The following caution is published in a local paper:—" To
Dorcas and Provident Societies.—Ladies! Thougb you can-
not command what the poor shall buy, you can control what
shall be sold at your rooms. Do not permit any calico pina-
fores or skirts—those tinder coverings for burning children—
to be sold; but sell woollen skirts !—Pcrhaps you may re-
ceive some useful hints from the Polytechnic Society."
Give no entertainment to the beginnings, the first motions,
and secret whispers of the spirit of impurity. For if you
otally suppress it, it dies; if you permit the furnace to
breathe its awoke and flame out of any vent, it will rage to
the consumption of the whole. This cockatrice is soonest
crushed in the shell; but if it crows, it turns to a serpent,
and a dragon, and a devil.