The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1848-08-22 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE PROTECTOR UMBRELLA.—The novelty of this invention is, that by unscrewing the handle the umbrella is fastened so as to prevent its being used by any person but the owner.  Mr. George Cornwall Legh, M.P., has accepted an invitation to a public dinner at Macclesfield, on the 13th September. The Lancaster Guardian says that Lord John Russell offered to M. T. Baines, Esq., M.P. for Hull, the UnderSecretaryship of the Home Department, but the honour ryas declined.  Parsnips sown in September, will produce an abundant crop, be fit for use early in June, and of superior quality to those sown in Spring, and would be found an excellent substitute for the potato. While the labourers were employed digging a reservoir in connection with the railway station at Holyhead, they found the remains of an elephant within a few feet of the surface. The bones were in a good state of preservation. So severely cold has the weather been this week in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, that there was ice formed, and seen and broken on Monday morning between six and seven o'clock, round the edge of Duddingstone Loch, opposite and near the manse. A rural tailor, on a visit to Newcastle on Monday, got tipsy, and rambled about until he found himself at home, and, pulling off his clothes, lay down in a pig-stye. The police finding the garments next morning, smelled a murder, until they found the naked man among the swine. BlLBERRlES.—Bilberries have been more plentiful this year than they were ever known to be. Upon the moors of North Dean, Yorkshire, gangs of women and children of sixty and 100 each have frequently been seen gathering this wild fruit.  It is the intention of the Lords of the Treasury to place the business of the Stamps and Taxes under the Board of Excise, by which arrangement the salaries of a chairman, deputy-chairman. and commissioners will be saved to the public purse. A few days since two monster casks of sherry, containing together 900 gallons, and the value of which, duty paid, would be about £l3OO, arrived from Cadiz at the St. Katharine's Docks. The usual size is about 110 gallons. The first of the new decimal coins, in conformity with the plan of the present Master of the Mint, has just been completed. It is a two-shilling piece, bearing the profile of the Queen on the obverse. On the suggestion of Prince Albert, it is be called a " florin." The policeman who in part caused the late fatal accident on the rail at Shrewsbury, by making the signal all clear when the line was obstructed, has been tried and found guilty of Manslaughter. Sentence—three months' imprisonment.  The two chairs used by her Majesty and Prince Albert, on the occasion of their visit, two years since, to the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe, were bought at the sale for the Marquis of Chandos, considerably below their value, at 8 guineas each. The extensive and beautiful estate of Copgrove, including the mansion house, near Boroughbridge, the property of the late Thomas Duncombe, Esq., was last week sold to James Brown, Esq. of Leeds, an opulent clothier, who, a few years ago, purchased, for about £lOO,OOO, the Rossington estate of the Corporation of Doncaster.