The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-06-19 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT KNOWSLEY.-011 Monday morning, at an early hour, one of the servants of the Earl of Derby was found in his bed, in one of the offices attached to Knowsley-hall, with his throat cut in a most shocking manner. The alarm of the inmates of the noble mansion was, as might be expected, very considerable, and the unfortunate as was apprehended, man, or victim, on being questioned, was able to to say, that during the night two men, one of them short and the other tall, entered his bed-room by the window and demanded his money, watch, &c., and on his refusal to comply with they request, they drew what he thought was a razor across his throat, and inflicted all but a fatal wound. At first his statement excited no doubt whatever of its truth, and messengers were dispatched to Prescot and Liverpool for the police. Mr. Earl, however, on having search made, and the butler having further questioned him, were led to think that the act was that of the individual , himself, and not that of robbers or assassins. 'They were confirmed in this opinion by finding that no robbery had been committed, and that there were no traces of any one having entered the apartment. His watch and money were all safe, but one of his razors was missing. This Was subsequently found covered with blood behind a chest in the room, and upon its production the unfortunate man confessed that there was no truth in his first statement, but that the attempt on his life was made by .himself, He has been a well-conducted man, but eccentric in his habits, and it is a great relief to the inmates of the hall that- he has confessed the fact, for had he not done so, room. would have been left for most distressing suggestions and reports. The unhappy man is attended by a surgeon from Presoot, but he is by no means out of danger.—[Our Prescot, correspondent has furnished us with the following particulars in reference to this distressing case :—" The Courier of to-day. contains an account of the occurrence at Knowsley, and as far as I call learn the acount except that I believe it is now very probable will recover. If, however, it should turn out that the correct,aTi otherwise, I will transmit you an account of the inquest. It is something remarkable that Mr. Hnline, (brother of the person in question) who is also a servant at Knowsley, cut his own throat some years ago ; but he recovered, and is still alive."]  Lieut. the Earl of Mulgrave, of the Scots Fusilier Guards, has been appointed Aid-de-Camp to Lieut.-General Sir R. D. Jackson, K.C.D. commanding the forces in Canada.  GENTLEMEN,-It has always been a source of regret to the class of conservatives to which I belong—the tradesmen's body—that we are condemned week after week to have our characters, our principles, and our objects misrepresented by a base whig-radical press, which meets us at every turn, and whose libels we have no means of refuting. It is true we have conservative papers, conducted with talent, and possessing information infinitely superior to those of our opponents ; but from their very character, these papers find no circulation amongst that class of our fellow-townsmen, by whom low and scurrilous attacks upon private character, and fraudulent perversions of the principles of public men and measures, are the most greedily swallowed. The poison spreads into every alley and every pothouse throughout the town. It is vulgar and nasty, and therefore fitted for such localities. But the antidote, however powerful, rarely reaches the wound which has been created. We are opposing a rapier against the bludgeon of a ruffian, and fight at as great odds as a gentleman in ball-room costume meets when resenting_ an insult offered by a nightman, fresh out of a " sough." There must be some reasons for this great inequality in the respective power of whig-radical and conservative press to serve their party. There must be some reason for the fact that whilst the one press—the whig-radical—thrives and laughs, the other can barely keep above water, and not always do that. The circulation of the whig press is much greater than that of the conservatives ' • but why is this so ? Are conservatives so niggardly as to hesitate between the trifling expense of supporting a respectable and constitutional press, and allowing their opponents to libel and laugh at them with impunity ? Shame if they be so. The real reason of this inequality, I can believe, is, that the whig papers contain a greater quantity of advertising intelligence than the conservative, and are, therefore, bought and read, from business necessity, by thousands of good conservatives. To the conservative gentlemen of Liverpool this is not a creditable fact, because I know that a great portion of the property and trade of Liverpool is in the hands of the party to which they belong. Let these gentlemen advertise with their own party, and the conservative tradesmen of Liverpool will support their press, instead of one from which they reap nothing but insult and slander in return. The tradesmen and operative conservatives support you, gentlemen of Liverpool, in your parliamentary and municipal struggles—support them, by giving them a powerful press ; we have already a talented one, to defend our characters from the attacks of our opponents.—l remain, gentlemen, respectfully, your obedient servant, A