The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-14 00:00:00

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

ROCHESTER POLICE STATION was robbed last week,
upwards of £5 in gold and silver having been stolen from
the superintendent's desk.
HER MAJESTY AND PRINCE ALBERT stood sponsors at
the baptism of the infant daughter of Lieut.-Colonel the
Hon. Alexander and Mrs. Gordon, which took place in the
Private Chapel of Windsor Castle, on Tuesday. The Dean
of Windsor performed the ceremony.
SINGULAR DEATH.—A man was killed the other day
at Leeds by a piece of iron, jerked out of a handcart which
struck against the causeway, the boy who held the shafts
having lost his hold.
A GAMEKEEPER SHOT.—OmMonday morning, one of
the gamekeepers of E. Wilmott, Esq., of Hopton, was
dangerously wounded by a poacher; who was captured in
a few hours afterwards.
"GOOD QUEEN BEss," when she visited Worcester,
borrowed £2OO of the Corporation, which still stands as a
"bad debt" on the town books.
Two HUNDRED MEN from the Ist, and a like number
from the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards, and the same
from the Royal Horse Guards-, have received orders to
hold themselves in readinesto:proceed to the Crimea.

MADAME CAVACAPPA, who had been engaged to sing
with castanets at one of the Paris concert naffs, was
recently charged before a court of justice with "having
of late sung sleepily and grown careless over her castanets.
The judge heard the complaint gravely, and dismissed it.
RIISSIA.N REFITGEES.—Within these• few days, six re-
fugees from Russia arrived in Norwich. They are Jewish
tradesmen, and, to escape the conscription now going on
in the dominions of the Czar, made their way to Memel,
where they lay till an opportunity offered to leave the port
in a British vessel.

KIRKSTALL ABBEY, one of the finest ruins in the
country, situated about three miles from Leeds, had a
narrow escape from destruction by fire on Sunday morn-
ing. The ivy on the walls became ignited from some
cause unknown, but the- fire, was subdued without doing
much damage.
THE ZOITIVES are natives of the French provinces of
Algiers, disciplined and exercised by French officers, and
now forming part of the French contingent employed in
the Crimea and the siege of Sebastopol. They hold
exactly the same relation to the French army that the
Sepoys in India have to the regular British troops.
NUMBER OF SLAVES.—The African Institution of Paris
has recently issued a circular which shows that the num-
ber of blacks held in slavery in different countries is seven
and a half millions, of which 3,096,000 are in the United
States, 3,250,000 in Brazil, 900,000 in the Spanish colo-
nies, 85,000 in Dutch colonies, 140,000 in the republics of
Central America, and 80,000 in European establishments
in Africa.
VALUE OF A PLAID IN BATTLE.—A letter was received
a few days ago by a draper in Inverness, in which occurs
the following curious circumstance :—" The big rough
plaid which we got some time ago for Captain Campbell,
23rd regiment, saved his life at the Alma, as he found
several balls in it after he was carried off the field on the
20th September."—Edinburgh Courant.
MAGISTERIAL RIOT AT CANTERBURY.—At a special
meeting of the Canterbury magistrates, on Thursday
week, held for the purpose of considering the expediency
of indicting the occupier of the Eagle Gardens for allow-
ing a dancing-booth to be erected there, a regular riot
took place among the sapient justices, who applied to
each other the strongest epithets contained in the lan-
guage ; and were on the point of proceeding to blows,
when the Mayor threatened to bind over the disturbers to
keep the peace. •
GRIM and MARIO are still in New York, meeting with
moderate success. Pecuniarily the undertaking is un-
questionably a failure. The New Opera-house, or Academy
of Music, as it is called, has been opened by them. It
will seat 4,500 persons, but to obtain this number the
auditorium is so constructed that the stage is invisible
from nearly half of the house, and in consequence it has
never been more than half filled. Miss Louisa Pyne has
made her appearance in English opera with great success.
A STEAMER UPSET.—A good deal of alarm was created
on Monday (last week), at Black wall by the upturning of
the new screw-steamer, Europa, an iron vessel, upwards of
1,000 tons burthen, built by Messrs. Mare and Co. While
they were fitting up the masts and yards, no care being
taken to balance her, she suddenly toppled over, tearing
down several pieces of the dock wall and injuring several
vessels in her vicinity. The damage is estimated at £l,OOO.
—Globe.

Pious Kiss."—William Cowley, an elderly man,
carrying on business as a hatter at Oak-hill, Ratcliff, and a
leading member of Ebenezer Meeting-house, was sum-
moned before the Thames-street Court, London, on Tues-
day, to show cause why he should not be adjudged!l the
father of an illegitimate child. The pious Ebenezer"
denied being the father of the child, but admitted that he
had kissed the complainant—his own servant girl—on one
occasion • but then it was a "pious kiss," and meant as
such ! The magistrate, however, rewarded his " piety" by
adjudging him the father of the child, and making the
usual order for its maintenance and expenses.
LORD MAYOR'S DAY.—On Thursday, the inauguration
of Mr. Francis Graham Moon, as chief magistrate of the
city of London, took place, the "show" (a name by which
the procession on such an occasion is familiarly known)
being on a scale of unusual magnificence. Mr. Moon is
well known as a very extensive publisher of the works of
English artists, his connection with the fine arts extend-
ing over a period of more than 27 years. To show the
judgment which he exercised in the choice of subjects, it
may be mentioned that upon his retirment from business
the plates and impressions realised upwards of £30,000.
CAUTION TO YOUNG GENTLEMEN.—At the last Brent-
ford petty sessions, Mr. Frederick Wetherall, son of Major-
General Sir Frederick Wetherall, was charged with tres-
passing on the premises of Mr. John Slack, a retired
tradesman, living at Ealing, by knocking at his door on
the night of the Ist inst., for the purpose of delivering a
letter in which he asked the complainant's daughter to
meet him the next Sunday evening. He was fined 40s. or
fourteen days' imprisonment, and was further required to
enter into his own recognisances in the sum of £5O, to keep
the peace towards all her Majesty's subjects for twelve
months, and to Mr. Slack and his family in particular.

FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIREWORICS.—Five lives have
been lost in London at a fire which occurred on Monday,
last week, at Mr. Watson's, firework-maker, Cannon-street,
St. George's-in-the-East. The family had been working
all Sunday night in making fireworks for Guy Fawkes' day,
and the fire arose from a girl, called Elizabeth Ford, allow-
ing a spark to fall from a candle on some composition she
was using. The bodies of three children were found in the
ruins, and the mother and another child have since died
in the hospital. An inquest has been held on the bodies,
which resulted in the jury returning a verdict of man-
slaughter against John Watson, the father.
THE HARVEST AND ITS RESULTS.—Every one had anti-
cipated a cheap loaf—a great blessing in every respect;
but the disappointment has been more than proportionate,
especially as the prices of most articles in general con-
sumption (coals among the rest) have been already
advanced, just at a period when approaching winter tends
much to aggravate the evil. Surprise is expressed by all;
and even the writers of agricultural periodicals appear to
be equally perplexed. In order to throw some light upon
a subject so involved, I venture to extract the following
passage from a letter just received from Scotland, written
by a gentleman who may be justly esteemed one of the
first authorities of the day :—" The present high prices of
grain, after a bountiful harvest, arise from that harvest
following a year of scarcity. The farmers having to secure
their crop, to take up their potatoes, and to plough their
beans and potato land for wheat, have no time to thresh
out their stacks of grain ; and the wants of the people de-
pending upon the new crop (the old one having been
entirely exhausted), there has not been time to supply
their demands. Add to this, the demand of France for
our grain at a time when there is no water or wind to
assist the French to thresh out their own abundant crop ;
there being no steam-power used on farms in France, they
are entirely dependent on wind and water. The prices
must fall whenever rain falls, and the farmers have leisure-;
but they will not be low this season, because we have
begun to consume our new crop at once; and should the
next harvest be a late one, this crop, abundant as it is,
may still be too short for our support. The rule of France
being arbitrary, she comes into our market and buys up
all the flour our steam machinery can make; and our
millers do not care whether or not our people eat dear
bread, provided they can dispose of their flour at a higher
rate to a foreign country. We have had no rain here to
speak of since the harvest, and the ground is so dry as to
prevent the sowinc, of wheat." More might be added, as
the recent French enactments must tend to complicate the
present difficulty..--Agricultural Gazette.
THE NOTABILITIES AT ERISTOL.—The Bristol people
were very gay last week on the occasion of the opening
of the Athenaeum, a ceremony which was honoured by the
presence of Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, &c. The
Bristol Times gives an amusing account of the first
appearance of Sir Robert :—" When Lord John had gone
half through his address, we saw a young fellow with long
legs, a red face, a moustache and imperial, a rose in his
button-hole, and a stout stick in his fist, stalk across the
platform and take a seat, which that interminable but
clever talker, Mr. Commissioner Hill (only less loquacious
and lively than his friend Brougham') had conceded to
him. Soon after Mr. Miles said, " I call upon Sir Robert
Peel to 'propose the next resolution,' and up rose this
long-legged, fast-looking young fellow, still with his stick
in his hand. Every one gazed with curiosity upon the
inheritor of a great name—all that Englishmen so long
associated with high thought and political sagacity.
But what a different figure, air, and manner, from the
staid, distant, and didactic Sir Robert, so long the Chief-
tain of the British Commons ! Nevertheless, the son
won like enchantment upon the audience—' Fluent as a
book,' away he rattled, wanting neither words nor con-
fidence ; and as for action, he must have almost danced a
jig to be more animated. He had a kind of hey presto !'
conjuror's cutting trick, of quickly flourishing his hand—
now towards the audience, now over the table— as he
elicited cheer after cheer, jumping a couple of steps back
with a kind of agility, and drawing himself up as though
he were half inclined to crow. But his Stick ! that, as
Lord Castlereagh would say, was the great feature of the
speech ; he tucked it under his arm, hugged it to his
breast, leant upon it, flourished it, threw it on the table,
and tools it up again, and looked all the while that sort of
a fellow who did not care how soon he seconded his argu-
ments with the shillelah on the head of any gentleman
present. It was so essential to his ease, that I believe if
you took it from him, and stitched up his breeches'
pocket, into which he was ever thrusting his hand, he
could not have gone through three sentences. His maiden
speech in the House of Commons was delivered in com-
pany with this same blackthorn of his, which created as
great sensation as its owner, and I expect he is so fond of
the implement he must take it to bed with him. And yet
it is no beauty after all—no amber-headed clouded cane,
but a very plebian-looking bacultun, such as you may any
day purchase at Donnybrook for two groats. There was
not anything very remarkable in what Sir Robert said,
but it was bold and shrewd enough, and he said it off in a
dashing way, creating a greater sensation by the odd sud-
denness with which he exclaimed, Good gracious, ladies
and gentlemen,' than if he had delivered the peroration
of single-speech Hamilton.' Having finished, he tossed
himself back in his chair with a never-me-care, I'm the
boy for bewitching ye,' air. The ladies all laughed—Lady
John Russell, perhaps the heartiest, while the little Lord
President of the Council himself looking from between his
fingers with a strange expression, at the long-legged,
rattle-brained, warm-hearted son of his great antagonist,
as much as to say, Upon my word, the boy may yet end
by becoming a stateom