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

NEWCASTLE REPRESENTATIVE.—PCIIding the issuing of
the writ, the conservatives have not thought proper to make
any public avowal of their intentions and proceedings ; but it
is generally understood, that, in the event of Mr. Miller de-
clining to become a candidate, Mr. John N. Gladstone, the
late member for Walsall, and the brother of the Vice-Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade, will consent to be put in nomi-
nation.—Tory paper.
A HINT TO SIVITHS.—The cutting of bars of iron or pipes
with the chisel is a laborious and tardy process. By the fol-
lowing mode the same end is attained more speedily, easily,
and neatly :—Bring the iron to a white eat, and then, fixing
it in a vice, apply the common saw, which, without being
turned in the edge or injured in any respect, will divide it as
easily as if it were a carrot !
Poon. LAWS IN SCOTLAND.—We see from the Glasgow
papers, that a public meeting of the inhabitants of that city,
called by the Lord Provost, is to be held on an early day, to
consider the propriety of memorializing her majesty's govern-
ment on the subject, and praying for such revision and adap-
tation of the poor-laws to the altered circumstances of Scot-
' land as may seem necessary.
THE SUNDERLAND MAGISTRATES.—HOSTILE MEET-
ING.—A hostile meeting took place at Marsden, near South
Shields, at Saturday at noon, between Mr. Richard Spoor,
of Whitburn, one of the Sunderland borough magistrates,
and Mr. Joseph John Wright, of Sunderland, solicitor. It
is understood the point of difference arose out of Mr.
Wright's allusions to Mr. Spoor, in a letter addressed by
Mr. Wright to the Marquis of Londonderry, and which was
read by that nobleman in the House of Lords on Monday
evening last ; and the parties exchanged shots without effect,
when the seconds interposed : an explanation took place, the
parties shook hands, and left the ground with their friends.
Mr. Spoor was attended by Mr. Crawford, son of the late
M.P. for London, and Mr. Wright, by Dr. Millar. This
occurrrenee has caused a great sensation in Sunderland and
the neighbourhood.—Times.

STEALING NEWSPAPERS IN THE PosT-oFricE.---At the
late sitting of the Glasgow Circuit Court of Justiciary,
Daniel Peddie, sorter of newspapers in the Post-office, Glas-
gow, was accused, on six charges, of stealing, embezzling,
or secreting, or of wilfully detaining or delaying in course of
conveyance, or delivery thereof by post, printed newspapers
without covers, or in covers open at the sides. The prisoner
pleaded guilty to two of the charges, and was sentenced to
six months' imprisonment. It appeared that the papers so
abstracted were principally those directed to foreign parts,
upon which the postage had not been paid, and which the
prisoner ought to have transmitted to the " Dead Letter-
office."

SINGULAR DEATH.-Mr. Wakley held an inquest on
Tuesday, at the George and Dragon, Buckingham-street,
Fitzroy-square, London, on the body of Mary Ann Stacey,
aged three years. The parents of the deceased reside at
No. 33, Cirencester-place, in the above neighbourhood. On
Wednesday last deceased was walking backwards in the
kitchen, drawing a toy after her, when, coming in contact
with a pail of boiling soapsuds, she fell over head foremost
into it. On being extricated a surgeon was sent for, who
rendered every assistance, but she lingered till the next day,
when she expired in the greatest agony. Verdict—" Acci-
dental death."

IMPROVED MACHINERY.—Amongst the many improve-
ments in machinery which are daily taking place, we notice
with pleasure the introduction recently, at the harbour works,
of a self-acting machine for driving piles. The moving power
is taken from a cylinder connected with the engine erected for
pumping out the water in the dock. We have not a sufficient
acquaintance with mechanics to be able to give a particular
description of the machine ; but it does its work in a most
admirable manner. There are two other pile-driving ma-
chines, wrought by manual labour, in operation alongside of
it, requiring nine men to each ; and this self-acting machine,
attended by one man, gives seven strokes for every one that
the others give—so that it does the work of 63 men. It can
be extended in the same proportion to any power. It is the
invention of Mr. James Milne, engineer at the dock—a young
man of very considerable promise.—Montrose Review.

DEATH OCCASIONxD BY EPSON' SALTS.—An inquest was
taken at Sawtry, on view of the body of Daniel Cox, a
labourer, who died on Wednesday night. It appeared that
the deceased was drinking at a public-house on Tuesday,
and was rather intoxicated, when some persons in the room
put a quantity of Epsom salts in his beer, which acted so
violently upon a constitution enfeebled by habitual drunken-
ness, as to occasion death on the following night. The jury
returned a verdict of manslaughter against Thos. Staynton,
William Ashbridge, Mary Scotney, and William Newton,
the foolish persons who administered the salts. The three
former were held to bail to answer the charge, and the latter
has not been taken into custody.—Stockport Advertiser.
EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHT OF BlRDS.—During the high
winds that prevailed on Sunday last, our harbour and float-
ing docks were visited by large flights of a rare and beautiful
species of bird, the " Sterna Arctica," or Arctic Tern. The
birds were assembled in such vast numbers, that two or three
hundreds were killed with stones and other missiles, whilst
several were caught alive; and so tame were they, that many
were observed to pitch on the backs of passers by. This tern
as its name indicates, is a native of the higher Arctic regions,
and has been met with in all the late expeditions to the Polar
Seas. It is a summer visitant to the coasts of Scotland, and
the north of England, but is rarely met with more southerly,
and until the present, there was no instance on record of a
specimen having been obtained in this neighbourhood. The
appearance of such vast flights of Arctic birds, rare as a
species, in the very heart of a large city, is an occurrence as
remarkable as it is interesting. Flocks of these birds were
also observed the same day at Clevedon, Weston, and other
places along the Channel coast.--Bristol Mirror.
The family of the Rev. F. C. Johnson, of Whitelackington,
near Ilminster, Somerset, are plunged into the deepest dis-
tress from the untimely death of the rev. gentleman's eldest
son, which has taken place at Palermo, in a duel with the
Due de Calabritti, a Neapolitan nobleman, with whom he
had a quarrel, and whom Mr. Johnson struck in the face,
knocking out two of his front teeth. The combatants were
placed at fifteen paces' distance, pistols being the weapons
used. The first took place without effect ; but, unfortu-
nately, notwithstanding every attempt was made to reconcile
the parties, a second fire was insisted on, when, horrible to
relate, Mr. Johnson was shot dead on the spot, his own shot
wounding his antagonist in the face so desperately as to carry
away part of the nose, disfiguring him most probably for life.
The seconds are all in custody, and will probably be dealt
with very severely.
On Monday evening the usual annual meeting of the St.
Ann's Society's schools was held at their Institution,. at
Brixton Hill, Surrey. The Archbishop of Canterbury pre-
sided. After prayers had been offered up by the Rev. David
Laing, his grace addressed the meeting, and presented re-
wards to those girls who had been educated in the institution,
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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 calm,
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 wit-
nesses for the defence, the danger was great, although those for
the prosecution did not believe 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 ()Ns 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 bop 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
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 serifs
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
I 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, apparently
in great alarm, into his dwelling, exclaiming, much to the
gratification of his cora sposa, vulya, old " _
woman," That
That
he'd be domm'd if he did na gie up the cursed licker 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.