The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-21 00:00:00

EXCISE INFORMATIONS,

ILLICIT SPIRITS.—An information was yesterday laid, at
the police-court, against Mary O'Brien, alias Pownie, by
two excise officers, for having in her possession a quantity of
illicit spirits. An inspector of police said, that on Friday
night, the 4th of March, he observed the prisoner coming
from the direction of the docks with a basket which appeared
to be heavy, and on going up and examining it, be found it to
contain a jar with five quarts of whiskey. She then refused
to tell her name or residence. She, however, told him next
morning that it was O'Brien, and also named her residence.
On going to the place pointed out by her he found it was a
cellar, half-filled with water ! The delinquent had not
since been seen. An officer testified to the contents of he
bottle, and Mr. Rushton imposed the legal fine of £lOO.
SMUGGLING TOBACCO.---Patrick Sweeny, and Ann
Sweeny, his wife, were next called, but neither of them ap-
peared. Mr. Davenport was employed for the defence. Mr.
Sherriff, excise offier, stated that from information he had
received he, on the 10th of February last, went to the small
shop kept by Sweeney in Key-street, and found Mrs.
Sweeny there. She seemed to be fluttered when he entered.
There was a basket behind the counter, which she endea-
voured to conceal by covering it with her apron. He en-
deavoured to obtain possession of it, and she obstructed
him. He, however, at last succeeded in getting it into his
hands, and saw distinctly that it contained three or four
pounds of negro-head and Cavendish tobacco. Mrs.
Sweeny then called out, as if some one were robbing her,
and her husband came and forcibly took the basket. Some
other parties were by, and he could not again find it. Sweeny,
he said, used the most violent language towards him, and
flourished a stick over his head, defying him to find anything
wrong. Three police-officers were. soon afterwards called in.
In cross-examination, it was admitted by the witness that
lie had gone in and asked fora pound of negro-head tobacco ;
that Mrs. Sweeny had said she had none, nor did she know
where any such article could be got ; and it was also ad-
mitted that on witness producing his commission showing
that he was an excise officer, Mr. Sweeny admitted him
willingly, to search the premises. Witness asked for the to,
bacco he had seen, but nothing was found. The defence was
somewhat ingenious. Several witnesses were brought for-
ward, with a view to show that Sweeny was not the man who
took away the basket with the tobacco, and that he did not
arrive until some time afterwards, but this defence failed.
A question also arose as to the identity of Sweeny, as being
the man who carried off the box, and as Mr. Davenport
showed no reluctance to produce him, that he might be sworn
to by the excise-officers, he was sent for, but was not to be
found. There were two informations against him ;—one for
obstructing the officer in theperformance of his duty, and the
other for " harbouring" the tabacco. The full penalty in
each case was £2oo—in all £4OO. Mr. Rushton imposed in
each ease the mitigated penalty of £so—in all £lOO. The
collector stated in his behalf that he had learned that he was
a poor man with four children.

RAILROAD MORTGAGES.—The Bank of England has lent
£400,000 on railroad mortgages.—Globe.
A number of stone coffins, recently opened at the Cathe-
dral of Lincoln, contained bodies all enveloped in the coarse
hair cloth shirts of the Catholic times.
The Postoihce receipts for the month ending January sth,
1840, under the fourpenny rate was £103,623, and for the
month ending January sth, 1842, they amounted to the sum
of £103,383 3s. 4d.
A first dividend of five shillings in the pound has been de-
clared payable out of the estate of the Berwick Bank of
Batson, Berry, and Co. The total amount of debts proved
up to this period is £246,000.
The united vicarages of North Newnton,and West Knoyle,
Wilts, 22 miles distant from each other, have, for the inter-
ests of religion, been disunited by an order of her Majesty in
Council. The livings will therefore henceforth be distinct
benefices.

The labours of the committee are concluded—the Tariff is
finished, aud, so glad were the members to get rid of its dry
details that some of them, we are told, actually danced down
the house with joy ! It is a new scene in the Commons, and
must have been amusing enough to those who witnessed it.
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.—A deputation from the
committee of the Church Missionary Society, consisting of
the Earl of Chichester, Sir T. D. Acland, Mr. W. Evans,
Sir R. H. Inglis, Mr. J. P. Plumptre, Sir G. H. Rose, the
Rev. R. Davies, and Mr. D. Coates, had an interview with
Lord Stanley on Friday, at the Colonial-office.
`Ting WAR IN CHINA.—A return has been issued of all
moneys repaid by her Majesty's government to the East
India Company on account of the war in China, since the
commencement of the war until the present time. The total
amount is £573,442.

GREENLAND WHALE FlSHERY.—Captain Blain, of the
Perseverance, arrived at North Shields from Stettin, reports
having passed in the voyage a whale ship from Greenland to
liamburgh, with a full cargo. This is the first intelligence
from the Greenland whale fishery this season ; and it is to be
hoped that the other vessels prosecuting the fishingat Green.
land, of late years very unsuccessful, have been equally for-
tunate.
- -

There is at present residing at Seaville a young girl who
can boast of having four mothers living, viz., her own
mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother, and her
great great grandmother. Even the eldest of these mammas
is in good health, and they all reside in the parish of Home
Cultram.—Carlisle Patriot.
From the return to the House of Commons, the number
of officers and men constituting the effective yeomanry of
Great Britain and Ireland, during the years 1810 and 1841'
it appears that they amounted in the former 835 officers
and 13,450 men ; for the support of whom parliament granted
a sum of £92,993, which was exceeded by an expenditure of
£233 14s. 7d. In the following year the officers numbered
840 and the men 13,034 ; for whose support a vote of
£82,266 was granted, over which an excess of expenditure
has taken place of £lO3 6s. ld.
Numerous meetings of chartists have of late taken place in
Lancashire ; on Sunday week between 2000 and 3000 indi.
viduals congregated at Pendle-hill, a wild and mountainous
spot, and the highest point in the county. Every Sunday
also, for the last few weeks, encampments of chartists have
been held on the hills and other parts of the manufacturing
districts. One speaker stated, " that if they were resolved
to have recourse to physical force, he would undertake to
lead them on, if he could only see one hundred men, twenty-
one years of age, ready and united.".

REVOLTING MUTILATION OF THE BODY OF
A STILL-BORN INFANT.

Yesterday, Charlotte Babbington (on view of the muti-
lated'body of whose infant child an inquest was held yester-
day week at the Workhouse when a verdict of " still-born"
was returned) was brought before Mr. Rushton, at the Police-
court, she having been detained on the charge of concealment
of pregnancy, until her health was sufficiently restored to
enable her to undergo a second harrowing investigation.
The prisoner still looked pale and feeble, and she was ac-
commodated with a chair within the bar. - An extraordinary
degree of painful interest was excited amongst the crowded
auditory, from whose marked observation the prisoner ap-
peared to shrink, holding her head down, so that her coun-
tenance, which betrayed much anxiety, could be but rarely
and partially seen.
The evidence was nearly the same as that adduced at the
inquest, reported in our paper of Tuesday last ; and as it is
altogether of a revolting nature, we shall repeat only the
heads, supplying also some few additional facts elicited by
the magistrates, and bearing more exclusively on the charge
of concealment.

Nancy Friel, the wife of Stephen Friel, said the prisoner
had lodged with them twice in Crooked-lane. On the first
occasion she remained two days. She was afterwards absent
a fortnight, and returned on Saturday week. She (prisoner)
had a bulky appearance, but witness imputed it at the time
to her dress. The prisoner never told her that she was in
the family way. On Thursday week, prisoner, on coming
down stairs in the morning, complained that she had been
poorly in the night, and that, being in the dark, she had
soiled the floor. Witness went up into the bedroom, and
found the bed (which had been turned) and the clothes and
floor stained with blood. She told the prisoner she had
done a bad job for her. The prisoner continued sitting up
all that day. In the afternoon witness found two pieces of
flannel cloth in the petty, both stained with blood, and
washed them, thinking they might be of some use. She in-
formed her husband what she had discovered. She after-
wards saw the little hand and arm of a baby, which her
husband had lifted out of the petty with a pair of tongs;
she subsequently saw the remaining arm, the legs, body, and
head of a child. There was no other female lodger sleeping
in the room or the house, and none of the rooms were let off
to other parties.

Betsey Hall, a woman occasionally employed by Mrs.
Friel in charring, said that she saw the prisoner at the house
on Monday week, and she appeared to be bulky for a person
of her appearance. She thought her in the family way, and
so expressed herself to Mrs. F. There was now a great al-
teration in the prisoner's appearance. She was not so broad
in the waist.

Stephen Friel corroborated the first witness in the former
part of his testimony. He did not take particular notice of
the prisoner's appearance when she came back after being a
fortnight absent. On Saturday night week he found some
clothes in the soil in the necessary, lie searched again on
Sunday morning, and found a piece of black cloth, and drew
from under it the hand and arm of an infant. Ile went for
a police-officer.
Police Inspector Appleton said he went and searched the
petty ; he found a dark. coloured cloth, and a piece of a white
one, and found under them the other arm and hand of the
child, and, subsequently, the two legs, then the body, and,
finally, the head--all of which had been dissevered. He
searched the room where the prisoner slept, and found a
white bedgown [produced] stained with blood, which the
prisoner afterwards owned. A phial was also found in the
room, labelled " black hellebore." He also found a pair of
scissors in the room stained with blood. _ _ _

Mr. Id' Clellan, house surgeon of the South Dispensary,
repeated his evidence, with some few additions as to the state
of the remains. It was the dissevered body of a full-grown
female child, and could not have been many days born.
There was slight decomposition of the chest, head, and ab-
domen. He examined the person of the prisoner, and found
that she had recently been delivered. He particularly exa-
mined the several parts of the child, and opened the chest.
He found the lungs were high up, and on trying them they
sunk in water. He was of opinion that the child had never
breathed. Children might breathe, and afterwards die in the
birth, in which case the lungs might partly float, or might
not ; hut he considered the test in the present instance quite
conclusive that the child was still-born.

Mrs. Friel, being recalled, said the prisoner never men-
tioned anything to her about her peculiar situation ; and no
baby clothes were found, nor any preparation made for the
expected birth of a child.
A female, who had acted as nurse to the prisoner since she
had been in the workhouse, (after her apprehension,) said,
that on the Sunday afternoon after she came there she ad-
mitted that she had borne a child.

The prisoner declined throughout to put any questions to
the witnesses ; and on being asked, at the conclusion of the
inquiry, if She wished to say anything, replied that she had
nothing to say. Mr. Rushton said that she must stand com-
mitted for concealment of pregnancy to take her trial at the
nest assizes. She was then taken down. Mir. M'Clelland,
at the request of Mr. Rushton, afterwards examined the pri-
soner as to her health, with a view to ascertain whether she
were in a fit state to be removed to Kirkdale Gaol. On his
return from the Bridewell, he reported that she was suffi-
ciently recovered to be received into the hospital of that place.
The prisoner, we learn, was the wife of a Mr. Babbington,
formerly a shopkeeper in Whitechapel, in this town, and
now deceased. We have further heard that she has two
children by her late husband, both now at school in Stafford-
shire ; that subsequently she was in the service of Mr.
Bibby, at Linacre Marsh, as housekeeper, but had left his
employ in consequence of his giving up housekeeping ; that
she thence went into the service of Lord Walscourt, (or
Waliott,) in 'lreland ; left that place in April last, owing to
incapacity arising from weakness, and then came to lodge at
Mr. Friel's for the first time. During the fortnight she was
absent (as stated) from her lodgings, it appears that she, was
residing at Wigan. She has been, it is added, respectably
brought up, and writes a good hand. She had no legal ad-
viser in the court, or at the previous inquest at the work-
house.