The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1846-09-01 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

SHOCKING SUICIDE AND ATTEMPT TO MURDER.—On first adoption and establishment of Popery by a ProtestThursday morning great sensation was created in the ant parliament ; the plea being, that it would pacify and neighbourhood of Ancoats, Manchester, by a man who tranquiltze Ireland. had cut his own throat attempting to destroy also the :life 2. If this act were displeasing to God, as we firmly beof his wife. The man's name is Abraham Ashworth, and lieve it to have been ; and if he thought fit to rebuke and it is stated that soon after 7 o'clock on Wednesday morn- punish us fcr it,—what kind of a visitation might we ing the wife was awoke by his untying the strings of. her expect ? night-cap, and perceived to her great horror that her hus- When David sinned against the Lord, a pestilence was band had cut his throat, and was attempting to reach her sent among the people. Yet this visitation both grieved own with the same razor. It is said that she instantly and rebuked himself; the latter as shewing that the great rose from the bed and ran into the street, pursued by the populousness of his realm, on which he prided %himself. husband, where some passers-by interfered, and the as- might be made to vanish in a night, by one breath from sailant was easily disarmed, having suffered considerably the mouth of God. from the loss of blood. A surgeon was sent for, but the Ireland was to be pacified, tranquillized, and made unfortunate man, who is supposed to have been labouring happy, and thus Sir Robert Peel's "great difficulty" was under insanity, was dead on his arrival. Jealousy is sup- to be removed, by the Maynooth endowment of last posed to have been the primary cause of excitement in the summer. Was the result realized ? deceased's mind. He was a weaver by trade, and only 18 A new and unexpected calamity quite frustrated this years of age. His wife is only 16 years old. hope. Within a very few weeks after the enactment of MEETING OF THE HIGHWAY CommtssloNees.—On that "healing measure," a strange and portentous visiteTuesday, the usual weekly meeting of the Commissioners tion came upon Ireland, rendering her government " a of Highways was held at the Parish-office Mr. John difficulty" greater than ever. Holmes presided. The following members were present : An unknown, unforeseen, and hitherto incurable, dieWhitby, Denton, Walthew, Leyland, Kilshaw, Tinne, ease, appeared among the growing crops of that producMorris, and Lawrence. Mr. Duncan reported that the tion of the earth on which the people of Ireland chiefly walls of the engine-house in Green-lane were nearly up to depend. And thus before parliament, " after tranquilliztheir height, but that there was a want of stone for going ing Ireland," had separated more than a few weeks, the on with their works. At the suggestion of Mr. Mason, state and condition of that unhappy country became more the board sent a written communication to the Dock alarming than it had been for a quarter of a century. And Committee to know when the dock-works at Wapping surely we ought not to overlook the fact, that it was not would be commenced. A letter from the Bootle Water- a drought, or a wet season, cr any other of the common works office announced that one of their pipes had been mishaps, that came upon Ireland, but a visitation altobroken by the town-water-works in Litherland-alley. Mr. gether new, inscrutable, and baffling all human skill exDuncan made the following report on this subject : erted fur its prevention or removal. "The iron pipe referred to above cannot, in fairness, be The remaining fact to be seriously thought upon is this charged to the commissioners. I can prove that it was of —that this new and strange calamity, which no man mulct so defective a character, and so injured by some chemical foresee or prevent, had this important result, that it desagent, that I actually cut a portion of it with my knife. troyed the Government which passed the Maynooth EnThe Bootle Water-works Company ought rather to pay dowment Bill. the commissioners for finding it oat. "At the suggestion Sir Robert Peel's Administration was a successful one, of Mr. Lawrence, a water report, handed by Mr. Simp- and his government appeared unassailable by any human son, to the parliamentary committee some time since, force. He was gradually and prudently relaxing commerWas ordered to be laid on the table. The board soon cial restrictions, and would have pursued the same course. after adjourned. with certain success and popularity, had not the alarm of