The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-03 00:00:00

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRISONER

THE ATTEMPT ON SUNDAY LAST

From the inquiries we have made we are enabled to state
that an attempt on her Majesty's life was made by the mis-
creant, John Francis, on Sunday, the day previous to his
apprehension, and to his second crime, as the Queen and
Prince Albert were returning from attending divine service
at the Chapel Royal. St. James's Palace. Mr. Pearson, a
wood engraver, who has not been long in town, and who is
residing at No. 7, Castle-street, Holborn, has furnished our
reporter with the following statement on the subject :—lie
states that on Sunday afternoon, about two o'clock, while
walking in St. James's Park, he saw the royal carriages con-
taining her Majesty, Prince Albert, and suite, approaching
from the direction of the Chapel Royal, and when near to
the little gate, leading out of the drive into the Green-park,
he saw a
Young m
back to the rails,paanll who hpiostwolasoasttanoknigs nbereaarsht,ima,adwiaths
thhies
anytQh Queen's e
hn e'
rates
pulled
the carriagep tsht
pistol
adsis d triggeredn,o pt rigieoes eocr iffot
a:tadhnednw eon
to a weapon
ni
taei tvr
eihlt
ya,
dbs
the
hyt
e. w hAe
car-
riage passed than the individual returned the weapon to his
breast. Mr. Pearson having unfortunately a most serious
impediment in his speech may account, in some measure, for
his not having raised an instant alarm. He admits, also,
that he at first considered the exhibition of the pistol was
out of a frolic, and not seeing any policeman near, considered
the party would be out of sight before he could make persons
understand his meaning.
the
the
same prisoner,
pistol.y
whenwhichh
he
e had expressed
seen
On Monday nTigohtitlliahffiteeridthseßrerimdcolvval en,of Fmrr.anpeis earfsroonm
wthe
as
home-office to
ntht
as above described, and yesterday
morning, individual pull out
hshisowfinralthbeelpieifsttohliattakitenwaos
well, and shown the
morning, on being taken abouthe niminme
eod'icaltoeclky
itdoentthiefießdrhidiera--
prisoner,
to be the person.

CONDUCT OF THE PRISONER.
Lieutenant Tracy, the Governor of the Tothill-fields
bridewell, to which prison the attempted assassin, John
Francis, was conveyed from the Home-office, after his re-
mand on Monday night, has kindly furnished our reporter
with the following particulars of his conduct while in that
establishment :—On his admission he was, as is customary.
formally asked his name, address, and occupation, when he
said that his name was John Francis, that he lived at No.
105, Great Titchfield-street, Oxford-market, and that he was

FURTHER PARTICULARS.
(From the Herald of Yesterday.)
The following particulars have been obtained since yes-
terday :
The prisoner had, it appears, for some weeks prior to this
event, formed the idea of entering into business, and the
snuff, cigar, and tobacco line was considered by him to be
the most eligible for that purpose. Accordingly, he waited
upon Mr. Charles Johns, of No. 13, Hanover-street, Long-
acre, a gentleman whose business principally consists in fur-
nishing and fitting up chemists' and tobacconists' shops, and
requested to know for what sum he would supply him with
such articles as were required for carrying on the latter bu-
siness. Mr. Johns was rather struck with the juvenile ap-
pearance of Francis, not looking more than 19 or 20 years of
age ; but as young men of a similar age are frequently placed
in small shops in this line by their friends, he made no re-
mark upon the subject. Mr. Johns, in answer to Francis,
said the cost of the fittings would entirely depend upon the
size of the shop, and could be only ascertained by an inspec-
tion of the premises. Francis then gave as the place, " No.
63, Great Mortimer- street," and a messenger was despatched
from Mr. Johns to make the neceesary inquiries, and on his
return an agreement for the supply of the articles was drawn
up, with the conditions of payment, which was signed by
, Francis, and of which the following is a copy :
' " Specification of sundry fittings, &c., for Mr. Francis,
63, Mortimer-street, from C- Johns, 13, Hanover-street,
Long-acre. (The articles and fittings aie here enumerated.)
" I hereby agree to pay the sum of for the above-
mentioned work, pounds to be paid on the delivery of
the goods, and the residue on completion of the work.
" JOHN FRANCIS.

" Witness, J. Johns, May 20, 1842."
[The above document is in the possession of Mr. Johns ;
so that any inclination that may be expressed by any parties
to compare the writing of the letter
.that was thrown into
the royal carriage on Sunday, with his witnessed signature,
will he readily acceded to.]
The articles were duly deliverel; and from the represen-
tations made, and the unassuming and artless manner of
Francis, not a doubt existed but that his motives were honest
and his story true. He had represented that be was entitled
to considerable property under the will of his grandmother,
which he daily expected to come into possession of, and that
he was only waiting for the signatures of the executors to
establish his claim. Francis opened the shop on Wednesday
last, and, in virtue of the agreement, Mr. Johns, jun., waited
upon him for the instalment agreed upon on the delivery of
the goods, when the foriner said he expected the executors
to call upon the following day, at noon, when the necessary
forms of his grandmother's will would be complied with,
which would put him in possession of several thousand
pounds, and that he would then pay down the whole amount.
Accordingly Mr. Johns and another person called at the ap-
pointed hour, when Francis told thin that the obstacles that
had hitherto prevented the will being properly signed, still
stood in the way, and that he was unable to discharge the
whole of the debt according to promise; " but," added he,
rather than you should lay out of your money, I will borrow
£3O of the old man (meaning his father), which I will pay
you."
On making further inquiries, it appeared that no money
whatever had been left him, nor had he any expectations ;
and as to getting £lO from his father, it was an entire and
palpable untruth, being at enmity with each other, and the
father totally ignorant of his having taken the shop, or that
any one could be found to trust him with the stock.
The whole of the fittings have been seized by the landlord
for rent.
The statement which has appeared that Francis was recently
employed at the English Opera House is destitute of founda-
tion, although several persons engaged there knew him
perfectly well, and never saw him exhibit anything of a
vicious or political feeling.

THE IPSWICH ELECTION.—The nomination took place
yesterday (Thursday), and the polling was fixed for this
morning.

On Monday afternoon, about two o'clock, a respectably-
dressed man, who appeared to be between thirty and forty
years of age, was observed by several persons to get upon
one of the seats on the Surrey side of Waterloo-bridge, and
gaze upon the river. He then took his•hat off and put it
down on the stone; in a moment after a voice was heard to
say, " Good bye to you all, I am off," and the man imme-
diately threw himself into the Thames between the second
and third arch, and was drowned.

INSTRUMENT FOR. BRANDING DESERTERS.—A circular
has been issued from the Horse Guards, recommending that
the marking of deserters shall hereafter be conducted on an
uniform system throughout the army, and directing atten-
tion to au instrument recently invented. This instrument,
which is of brass, is shaped at the end into the form of the
letter D, from the outline of which is protruded, by means of
a spring, a series of needle points, which are regulated by a
screw at the end, and by turning which their length may be
increased or diminished. By pulling back this nut, after the
points are regulated, they recede into the box, when the in-
strument may be considered charged. A slight pressure on
a small brass lever delivers the needle points,
.inflicting a
Puncture on the skin the exact shape of the instrument.
These punctures, on being rubbed with a marking fluid,
leave an indelible D upon the arm or band of the deserter.

CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SOLDIERY AND BLACKS OF
CUBA.—DEATH OF FIFTY NEGROES.—The Jamaica Dis-
patch of April 1 states, that a conflict between the soldiery
and the black peasantry had taken place in Cuba, in which
fifty of the latter had been killed. It appears that a number
of runaway negroes had established themselves among a range
of hills, about fifteen or twenty miles from St. J ago de Cuba,
where they formed a settlement somewhat similar to tha
formed among the backwoods of Trelawney, near Dromilly,t
some years ago. It would appear that a knowledge of the
existence of this community had not been known until within
a short period since, when the authorities directed an attack
upon them by the military, which ended in the result as
stated above. The remainder of the fugitives dispersed, and
from the communications which they had formed among the
labourers upon the various estates, anti the corresponding
symptoms which were manifested by them, it was strongly
apprehended that a general rising would ensue. Considerable
alarm had, in consequence, been excited, and all the inhabi-
tants are represented as being on the qui vine; and the
restrictions imposed upon black and coloured persons, but
more particularly those from the island of Jamaica, were
more stringent than formerly.

A NARROW Escarp.—We learn from the Montpellier
Journal, that on Saturday last, a young Savoyard, sent by
his master from Cette to Frontignan with his box, blacking,
and brushes, to polish the boots and shoes of such of the in-
habitants as wished to be smart on Sunday, overcome by
sleep on his way, laid himself down on the railraid between
the rails. About ten o'elock a train of waggons with goods
came along. The men in charge saw that something was in
the way, and stopped the action of the locomotive, but net
in time to prevent the impetus from carrying the engine, its
tender, and four or five of the waggons, over the poor boy.
When the train stopped, the men hastened down in great
alarm, not doubting that the lad was crushed to atoms ; but
on drawing him out they found that, although the box was
broken, the young Savoyard had not even awoke from his
sleep. He was taken to the station at Frontignan; and ex-
amined by a surgeon, who could discover no other injury on
the boy's person than some grazings on his legs, which were
of no consequence. On Sunday morning he was at his usual
station in the market-place at Cette, with a new box, actively
employed as if nothing had happened to him. He owed his
miraculous escape to his having laid himself down in a hollow
in the middle of the road of just sufficient depth to allow the
engines and vehicles to pass over without touching his
body. The slight hurts on his legs were from the wheels.—
Galignara's Messenger.
ABOLITION OF TILE SLAVE TRADE IN TRIPOLI.—The
British Consul-General, Colonel Warrington, in his late visit
to the Gulf of Sidonia, to confer with the Arab chiefs as to
the abolition of the slave trade, met with every possible suc-
cess, so far as promises may be relied upon ; but these were
in some instances, conditional ones. The Arabs complain
bitterly of the Pacha of Tripoli, and profess themselves
ready and willing to enact the most rigorous laws against
slave dealing, and carry out the views of the British govern-
ment, provided the latter relieved them from the Ottoman
rule, or rather intercede with the Sultan that one of their
own chiefs be named governor of Tripoli. Indeed, on this
condition alone will they renew their connexion with Tripoli ;
and Colonel Warrington, who, with the officers of the locust,
explored some fifty miles inland, reports the country to be
rich in gold-dust, ivory, and other equally costly articles. The
Arabs the willing to submit to a heavy annual tribute to be
relieved from the Ottoman rule. It is stated that the Arab
chiefs delivered a petition in duplicate to this effect to Col.
Warrington, requesting him to forward one copy to the
British government, and another to the Sultan ; and a know-
ledge of these proceedings has so incensed Askur Ali, the
Turkish despot governing at Tripoli, that he has bad torn
down the printed appeals which the Consul caused to be
posted up, touching the abolition of slavery. Not content
with this, he has thrown into prison and inflicted the basti-
nado on an old Arab for having been seen in conversation
with a son of the Consul.—Malta paper.

A FEARFUL RIDE.—The Ithaca and Owega Railroad, as
it comes into this village, descends in less than half a mile
nearly 500 feet by means of two inclined planes. The cars
on their arrival at the upper engine-house are detached from
the locomotive and permitted to descend to the lower engine-
house under the control of breaks. From the lower engine-
house, which is at the top of the first inclined plane, the pas-
sengers are brought to this village by stage. This is done
because of the great steepness of the lower inclined plane ;
it descends 450 feet in the distance of 1750, or, nearly at an
angle of 45 degrees to the horizon. No person of sane mind
would venture his neck by going down this inclined plane,
as in case of the car becoming detached in descending, it
would inevitably be dashed to pieces. On Saturday last the
car, containing 11 passengers, was detached as usual at the
upper engine-house, but it was found that the break did not
operate, and that the car was hastening with constantly acce-
lerated rapidity toward the brink of the lower inclined plane.
The forward breakman leaped from the car for the purpose
of throwing it off the track by means of a beam, but he
stumbled and failed in his object. The other breaksman sat
at his post like a hero, calling to the passengers to jump and
save themselves. On went the car with dreadful rapidity,
and one by one the passengers threw themselves out. The
Hon. Amassa Dana leaped from the car as it passed through
the lower engine-house, and there also the breakman sprang
for his life. One man only was unable to escape before the
car, which was already outstripping the wind, made a plunge
down the lower plane. The whole length of this was tra-
versed almost in an instant. About 100 feet from the bot-
tom the car left the track, dashing to pieces the iron wheels
on which the engine-rope plays, and splintering the beams
which bound the tracks together, until it reached the font
of the plane, where it was clashed into a thousand frag-
ments. One of the car wheels was shivered to pieces, the
heavy iron axletree broken, and scarcely any one piece of
the body left entire. We saw the wreck, and if a bomb-
shell had burst in the car it could not have more completely
demolished it. In the midst of the fragments the man who
descended with the car was found, his arm broken above and
below the elbow, and his head severely fractured. Medical
assistance was at once rendered, and there is some hope of
his recovery. During the delirium occasioned by the blow,
the wounded man kept constantly repeating words as if en.
deavouring to stop a team of horses. Judge Dana was but
slightly hurt, although several of the passengers who sprang
from the car were severely but not dangerously injured.--
From the Ithaca New York Journal.

The thistle is a biennial plant, and consequently, if the
seed of every thistle on a farm were to be kept from ripen-
ing for two years, the whole race would be eradicated. It
would pay well, therefore, in pastures to employ an old man
and a boy, during the month of June, one to cut off the
thistles, just below the crown of the root, and the other to
place a table-spoonful of common salt on the root, which is
thus destroyed at one operation, before the seed has been
ripened or scattered abroad. If the same expense were ge-
nerallyincurred in catching thistles, the mischief of which
plant is almost incalculable, as in catching moles, which do
probably no more mischief than is balanced by their useful-
ness, thistles would soon be as scarce as moles. To effect
this, however, there must be no thistles left in the hedge-
rows, or on roadsides, to scatter their baneful seed over the
neighbouring land.

AN ACCOUNT OF CATTLE IMPORTED
Into Liverpool, from the 24th to the 30th ult. inclusive.
'Rom IRELAND.
Cows. Sheep. Pigs. Horses. Mules. Calves. Lambs,
1476 2591 4206 55 __ 9 686
Prey.. 18180 21826 82365 383 33 80 3288
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