The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-28 00:00:00

GENERAL

WINTER.—There was a heavy
berland and Westmoreland hill'
A MALE SPECULEN of the s

was taken a few da;

Riding of Yorkshire.
THE JOHANNE CHET STOPHE, a Russian barque, captured
in Grimsby Dock, in June last, has been sold by public
auction for £3,100, to a gentleman from Shields.
DIE OMNIBUS AND CAB DRIVERS of Glasgow have
" combined to do no work on Sunday, except in cases
where life or property is at stake."
A MOORISH BARQUE arrived at Greenock recently, with
a cargo of grain from Alexandria. It is said to be the first
vessel of that nation which has anchored in the Clyde.
A DIABOLICAL ATTEMPT was made at Sheffield, one
morning last week, to blow up a grinding wheel belonging
to Mr. W. Ward ; but the plot was discovered in time to
prevent the intended result.
AT SHREWSBURY RACES, the cup, which according to
custom was placed in front of the grand-stand until it had
been won, was carried off by some unknown individual,
and has not been heard of since.
AT CHELTENHAM, an old man has committed suicide in
order that his remains may be placed in the same church-
yard where his wife was buried, and which is to be closed
this month.
AT a meeting of the Victoria London Dock Company,
held on Tuesday, it was unanimously agreed to lease the
undertaking to Messrs. Peto, Betts, and Brassey, for a
term of twenty-one years, from the Ist January next.
AN ALARMING COLLISION took place, on Wednesday
evening, near the Kegworth Station, on the Midland
Railway, between a passenger train and some cattle
trucks. Several passengers received contusions, but no
lives were lost.
THE OMNIBUS PROPRIETORS of the metropolis, who,
according to their own account, have been losing money
since 1851, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer on Tuesday, praying for a reduction of the
duty. The interview ended in the usual manner, the
Chancellor promising to " consider the matter."
A BRUTAL FELLOW, named Charles Leake, a coal
miner, was charged at the Wakefield petty sessions, on
Monday, with having wantonly tortured a cat, by biting
off its nose. He was ordered to be kept to hard labour

for a mont—.
MR. ALEXANDER GREENWOOD, late managing-clerk
at a brewery in Spitalfields, London, lost his life on
Saturday, in consequence of administering to himself a
quantity of chloric ether, a preparation which he had been
in the habit of taking as a sedative when suffering from
spasms and palpitation of the heart.
THE official Gazette in Wurtemberg published at the
commencement of this month some account of the plans
now rife in that country for emigration to Palestine. A
" Society for the bringing together of God's people in
Jerusalem" has constituted itself, and amongst other pro-
ceedings has prepared a petition to the Bund of Frankfort.
THE HIGH MA.RSTIA.L of the Court of Admiralty made
public proclamation on Monday, on the Royal Exchange,
London, that another Russian vessel, called the Rapide, of
which Brockelman was the late master, had been seized in
the port of Liverpool under simulated papers, and that the
same would be condemned as a crown droit within 20 days,
and sold for the benefit of her captors.
THE EARL OF MORTON (a ,Scotch paper tells us), the
last of the three shutters-up of the public way between
Burntisland and Aberdour, has formally given up the con-
test, and the public right, so long battled for in and out
of the courts, is declared and secured. The question has
been under litigation, in one form or another, since 1846.
PETER JOHN HENRY, an auctioneer, who had been
convicted by two justices of selling by auction out of the
district to which he was licensed, applied to the Queen's
Bench on Saturday to have the conviction quashed; they
had fined him £lO, whereas they should have fined him
£5O. It appeared that the justices had looked-up the
wrong act, and the conviction was quashed.
MELANCHOLY DEATH.—In a fire which occurred on
the premises of Messrs. Arnold and Co., Red Lion-
square, London, on Sunday week, Emma, wife of Mr. John
St. Clare Jones, who tenanted the second floor, was burnt
to death, with one of her children. The remains were
found in the ruins on Monday, and presented a shocking
spectacle.
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—On Monday evening, last
week, Mr. Henry Innes, aged 20, the son of a gentleman re-
siding in the Hampstead-road, on arriving at the Hornsey
station, from King's-cross, got out of the train while it
was in motion, when he suddenly fell between the train
and the platform, and was awfully mutilated before the
carriages could be brought to a stand. Death was
instantaneous.
THE FIELD TELEGRAPII.—Two waggons, each con-
taining twelve miles of telegraphic wire covered with
gutta percha, and with ploughs and the necessary arrange-
ments for laying down the wires, were put on board the
Prince, screw-steam transport ship, at Woolwich, previous
to her proceeding to Greenhithe to embark the 46th
Regiment. As letters announcing the arrival of the Prince
at Constantinople have been received, the instruments
must have been at the disposal of Lord Raglan's staff for
the last fortnight.
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND COMPANY.—A meeting of this
company was held on Thursday, Mr. Cattley in the chair,
to receive the report of Mr. Gibson on the company's
affairs. It appeared from this that the aggregate value
of the lands, houses, &c., was £200,000, and that the
assets in London and in the colony were about £9,500.
He recommended the directors to sell the land by auction
at certain periods, and to lease others for ten to fourteen
years, with right of pre•emption ; also to improve the
harbour of Stanley, and to facilitate steam conveyance
betwixt Launceston, Melbourne, and Stanley. The report
was adopted.
THE MINISTRY.—We are assured that the differences
which originally existed in the Cabinet as to the attitude
which this country should assume on the first indications
of war with Russia, have again broken out ; and that
now, as formerly, Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell,
and the Marquis of Lansdowne, range themselves on the
side of a greater promptitude and energy of action ;
while Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney
Herbert, and one or two others, are still in favour of a
cautious and conciliatory policy.—Morning Advertiser.
A Cußlous PENNY.—A person belonging to Grange-
mouth, in getting change for a shilling, was struck with
something uncommon in one of the pence. On examina-
tion it was found that the obverse and reverse of the coin
was divided, but unitedsfearatewshniticthnlhoge
saoewldfida,nshea
enesadnevreyelaovei
also
penny
Bn.d
yievi
Tinodigfiei
dos
Gp;eeel n e d ,
a halfpenny was enclosed, which also was divided ; being
rate
bo pe
ie
nngel dvo,
penny
ynf aeirds h
theai gi
sa
lawmf
oaa
rub
god
III; date, 1799.

NATIONALITY.—In the production of the military
drama of the battle of the Alma, at Bristol theatre, the ma-
nager experienced the greatest difficulty in inducing par-
ties to personate Russians. The soldiers employed in the
spectacle would not listen to the proposition, and the
ordinary "supers" either flatly refused, or begged to be
allowed in preference to fill the humblest position in the
allied army. Mr. Chute explained to them, with the best
eloquence he could use, that they were but Russians in
"jest," and some of them at length yielded to his impor-
tunities, but he wholly failed in prevailing upon the full
number on which he reckoned.
ANCIENT MSS.—A few days ago the workmen engaged
in the demolition of the tower of St. Jean de Latran,
opposite the College de France, found a number of parch-
ments, which M. Van Cleemputte, the architect, carefully
collected and deposited at the Hotel de Ville. They were
found *belong generally to the 13th and 14th centuries,
but there is one receipt of the 16th century. It is thought
that other manuscripts may be discovered, and orders
have been given that they are to be carefully preserved,
and after being classified at the Hotel de Ville, their con-
tents are to be communicated to the Minister of Public
Instruction.
THE FREEHOLD FRANCHISE.—In the case of Astbury
v. Henderson, in the Court of Common Pleas, on the 24th
inst., the Conservative Land Society, which have fought
for the principle of the franchise being extended to all
persons who have purchased plots of land, proved to be of
the value of 40s. per annum, have gained the unanimous
decision of the four judges (the Lord Chief Justice Jervis,
and Justices Maule, Williams, and Crowder), in their ap-
peal against the decision of the revising barrister at the
Putney Estate, who refused the right of voting to seventeen
allottees on the ground that the land was not let, and did
not yield 40s. per yeal.. This important judgment decided
that a plot of freehold land may be had of the value of 40s.
per year, and thus confer the county franchise, notwith-
standing that this land may not be actually let on building
lease or otherwise, and is for the time unoccupied and
wholly unproductive.
ENGLISH GROWN Sruic.—Many persons in England, as
a matter of entertainment, have kept a few silkworms,
which have produced cocoons. No further result by them
has been contemplated ; but we have heard of a gentle-
man (Mr. Hutton) in Cornwall, who has followed out the
growing of silk so successfully as an amateur, that he has
at length arrived at the conviction that silk-growing
might be profitably carried on in this Country. We have
seen some hundreds of cocoons in an establishment near
Manchester. The gentleman calculates that an acre of
mulberry-trees would suffice to produce 601 b. weight of
silk, and that the ground would yield a profit to the far-
mer of about £3O an acre. Dr. (now Sir John) Bowring,
when in Manchester, said that the mulberry-tree was in-
digenous to every climate, and that nature had so favoured
us as to give a species suited to every country.—Man-
chester Examiner.
GRowni OF RUSSIA.—In 1722, the Czar, then Peter
the Great, only swayed 14 millions of boyards and serfs ;
but Russia was even then beginning to learn the art of
robbing her neighbours--"obtaining material guarantees,"
the wise call it ; and, 40 years later, in 1762, she had
"conveyed" to herself six millions more subjects, making
20 millions ; by 1795, Catharine, " the Semiramis (and
Messalina) of .the North," had raised the number of 36
millions; in 1818 it was 45,500,000; and, in 18284, under
the virtuous Alexander, it had grown to millions.
Nicholas has not been less lucky than his predecessors,
and, as mentioned above, the 27 years of his great and
gloriods reign has added 16 millions to the muster-roll of
his devoted subjects, or one-seventh more than the whole
population over whom Peter the Shipwright exercised his
iron rule. Whence all these Millions ? Let Poland, Fin-
land, the Crimea, Bessarabia, Cherson, the Caucasus,

Armenia, answer.
RIGHT OF WIVES TO CONTRACT DEBT FOR LUXURIES.
—ln the Court of Bankruptcy, London, on Tuesday, a
claim was made by a draper against a bankrupt chemist
for goods supplied to his wife to the amount of £350. The
debt was contracted between February and December, last
—Two

up of items like the following

brocaded robes, 17 guineas.

in March ; two ditto, 17 gui