The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1848-12-05 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN COMMERCE BY MEANS OF RAILWAYS.—On Tuesday, a meeting of merchants and manufacturers, and others favourable to the prosperity of India, took place in the Town-hall, Manchester, the mayor in the chair. Several resolutions were passed in favour of the growth of cotton in India, and especially of proper means being provided for its conveyance to the ports. The chairman having said a few words in support of the objects of the meeting, Mr. Thomas Bazley, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, moved the first resolution. He said India was much behind the intelligence of the age in having no railway or other efficient means of internal communication. He might take a rapid survey of the trade between this country and India. Having a population of 113,000,000, though our exports had increased within the last few years, they only amounted to 15d. per head per annum ; turning to Brazil, however, they amounted to 6s. per head. India was, therefore, far below the standard it should oetttpy in the scale of consuming powers, an evil increased by want of efficient means of bringing cotton from the interior to the coast. The remedy to he proposed was a railway to communicate with Bombay and the other ports, from the interior, and especially from the cotton districts.  ELOPEMENT' ErrItAORDINARY.—AiI elopement of an extraordinary character has taken place in this neighbourhood, which has afforded abundant food for Chorley gossip. It is well known that about two years ago, Burgh Hall, which is about a mile from the town of Chorley, became licensed as a private asylum, under the superintendence of Mr. Seed, surgeon, formerly of Lancaster. Soon after its establishment, a Miss Durie, from Astley, near Manches• er, was placed there as an inmate, where she hAs continued reside ever since up to the period of Saturday last. On  that day, however, at an early hour in the morning, she made her escape by the window of her bedroom, by means of a ladder which had been placed against it. For some  • __ time after the lady's disappearance all inquiries' on the part of Mr. Seed as to the direction she had taken were fruitless ; but on a rumour reaching him that a person named Ellis Norris, servant to Mr. S. Potter, of Bickacre, had also disappeared, a hue and cry was raised, and the police put on the qui vire: The consternation at Iliirch Hall, and the excitement caused by the event, cannot be described. There were no tidings of the fugitives until Monday morning, when they received a most untimely visit at the breakfast table in the good old city of Chester -iarties  of very  Preston Chroniete.—The Man.: ' thus contradicts the on unquestionable authority  e authority fo  rtificate of two of ti  Dee. 5, MS.  had seen the whole of the family, with the exception of Mr. Jermy sen., in the drawing-room, the windows of which fronted and were almost on a level with the lawn. Mr. Jenny, jun., was met by the assassin at the porch of the principal entrance, and ran round to another entrance adjacent to the servants' office, which was generally open, and by which he entered into the body of the house, when, meeting with the villain again, he was shot dead. The murderer then proceeded into the drawing room, expecting to meet with Mrs. Jermy and her daughter, but they had, for some minutes previously, retired into the dining room. Hearing the second report of fire arms, Mrs. Jermy ran out and saw her husband lying on the floor. The assassin fired at both mother and child, but providentially with little effect. The terrified lady ran to the corpse of her husband, and was in the act of kneeling to ascertain his real condition, when the wretch fired another pistol or gun, which wounded the lady's maid. Mrs. Jermy was then hastening to take refuge up stairs, when she was shot at and wounded. The ruffian then left the house, ffrst throwing down a paper, on which was written —" There are seven of us, all armed, two inside and five out. You servants keep in the servants' hall. If any of you attempt to follow you will be shot dead. We are come to take possession of the estate.—Signed, Thomas Preston, the rightful owner." It may be remembered that Mr. Jermy changed his name from Preston, on tho accession of a large fortune.  A number of rabourers were employed in emptying the moat which surrounds the mansion, in the hope of finding the fire-arms used by the murderer.