The Sun. — London, England, 1865-01-21 00:00:00

Patriarchal Engines at South Kensington. In an obscure corner of the South Kensington Museum a collection of Models of patented and other machinery is to be found, packed away for want of space much as goods are packed away at the Pantechnicon or other places for storing furni ture. Products of mental effort—nay, of anguish of mind, unparalleled in any other branch of human I labour are found stacked away one upon another as bricks are stacked away in a builder's yard. We refer to those patriarchal engines upon which 'the greatness of modern England is founded—the tools with which we move _the world, plough the water, traverse the earth, and annihilate space and time; the first steam-engine of Watt, the first engine of the first steamvessel, and the first practical locomotive for goods and passenger traffic. Amid the smaller deer of the inventive mind these great-engines, rude and rough, yet containing the germs of the wonder ful motive powers which have changed the face o f Europe, tower like material giants, and suggest to the mind almost limited ideas of power. At the further end of the room we recognise in the great rocking beam with circular ends hung with chains the old Newcomen engine in what Watt made his first grand improvement, and in fact inaugurated the modern steam-engine. This was the " fire engine". of the old pattern, in which Watt intro duced, after many trials and failures, the separate condenser and air-pump. One cannot look at this formidable-looking engine towering above one's head without feeling that we are in the presence of ideas which separate old from young England—the slow, solid past with the vigorous, rapid England of the present day, which in some sense seems to be changing even the character of her people. At the time Watt introduced his happy idea of withdraw ing the steam from the cylinder and condensing it in a separate receptacle the working of the old Newcomen engine was becoming quite inade quate to master the water in the Cornish mines. The great expense of coal, wasted as it was in these ineffectual engines, in which the cylinder was cooled every stroke by the injection of the con densing water, was fast rendering the working of the mines impossible ; and it was the happy thought that flashed through the mind of this great man, crossing the Glasgow-green—the separate condenser —which alone saved the proprietors of the greater number of them from insolvency. It is just possible that the difficulties with which Dr. Roebuck, the friend and financial-ally of the inventor, had to con tend, just as this improved engine was coming into existence, were the cause of its success. " There would have been no Watt had there been no Boulton" has been well said ; for without the resources of the great establishment at Soho it is doubtful if this engine could ever have been got to work. Its original cylin der was not true in the casting ; the boring engines of those days did not work from a fixed rest, but followed with the hand the inequalities of the metal. It was the happy discovery of Mr. Wilkinson's boring lathes, whichbored from a fixed rest with exact truth, which enabled the inventor to make his engine work with accuracy and economy. This engine was em ployed for many years at Soho in pumping water. At the date of its invention the steam-engine did not pro duce a circular motion. Its rectilinear action was converted into a rotary one in a secondary manner only. The pumped-up water turned a wheel—and thus, at second hand, millwork of all kinds was put in motion. The simple idea of a crank appears never to have been thought of by the earlier im provers of the steam-engine, although it had been in existence from the earliest time. But of this pre sently. The " Old Bess" engine, as this relic of antiquity was called—for what ages seem to separate us from the time of Newcomen, and what prodigies of labour and what mighty changes have been wrought since its creation, and these not mere years in the true measure of time !—was in its day the grand show of Birmingham. The " fire-engine" formed the attraction of many crowned heads and great personages from all parts of Elrope. It turned an organ in the presence of George 111. to show its delicacy of touch as well as great power, and it aided in grinding and polishing the shoe buckles and buttons of the past generation. It was at work until very lately as an auxiliary engine to the more perfect " sun and planet engine," now in the Museum, at the opposite side of the room ; and finally, when it was removed from Soho, it was stowed away under a railway arch at Birmingham, where any person wanting a piece of good old " yron" used to knock off a link of its piston chain. From this slow process of demolition it was rescued by the authorities of the Museum;by whom it was obtained as a gift from Messrs. Branson and Gwyther, the contractors. The patent of this engine was taken out in 1769, but it was then in far from a working condition, and had made no adequate returns to the Soho firm. The terms of the patent were, however, extended in 1775 for 25 years, to enable them to reap the benefit of their long years of labour and great expenditure. Let us now pass from this improved Newcomen engine, which was, in fact, but the steam engine in a state of transition—an old wedded to a young idea, a giant with one arm tied behind him, for the steam only acted on one side of the piston, the weight of the pump rods producing the up-stroke, and only having one motion—to the equally antique looking machine opposite, but one which, in fact, embodies all the principles of a modern engine. The patent for the " sun and planet engine" was taken out in 1782. Watt had long seen the necessity of giving a " rotative" action to his machine. It was while scheming this movement that the great piracy took place, which seems to have annoyed Watt more than anything else in his inventive career, and which caused the application of the particular invention which gave the name to the machine. According to his own account he had made a model with a crank action, but, having neglected to take out a patent imme _ diately, the application of the crank was stolen from him by a workman and communicated to an engi neer named Wasborough, who patented it and ap plied it to a steam rolling mill, which at the time attracted much attention. Watt bitterly complained of this theft, and the fact that the workman, Cart wright, was afterwards hanged seems to have afforded some relief to his mind. "Watt, writing to Mr. Boulton in this year, says the re a l i nven t or of the crank rotative motion,was the man who first con t r ived the common foot-lathe. The ap plying it to the engine was merely taking a knife to cut cheese which had been made to cut butter." Th i s was perfectly true, but it applied to Watt's application of the invention as well as to Wasbo rough's. The latter, though guilty of appropriating Watt's idea, must certainly be credited with intro ducing the flywheel into his engine, the value of which Watt himself did not see at first, but after wards adopted it. Precluded from using the crank, Watt had to scheme some other means of effecting his Purpose. He invented five methods of accom- P lis hing this, of which he selected the sun and planet motio n as the best, and introduced it for the first tune into the engine now in the Museum, t he p atent lOT whi c h bears date 1781. This engine contains various appliances f rwhich at a later date, o patents were taken out the f , such as the parallel motion, patented in 1784 ; and the method regulator or governor balls, sides of the piztono applying the steam on both contains the ger mo a lr i te ta nted in 1782 ; indeed, it with the exception of the CT modern improvements, motion probably being re a t n a k . , the sun and planet because, by its peculiar action of one co retained ed on the connecting r od working into anoth er on the axis of th e fly wheel, two revolutions were obtained for eby the crank action. This engine was known one the l a p engine," and was employed until three years ago in gr i n di ng and poli s hi ng steel good, in the original works at S oho, where it had been left, ex posed to the weather, in a roofless room, after the breaking up of that establishment. The workman ship is rough, and the whole appearance of the en gine, with its rocking-beam, reminds us of ti mes when timber trees were used for that purpose in stead of cast iron; but no Englishman can look upon this machine with its wonderful contrivances without veneration, for in it he beholds the first of its kind. Like the mighty infant Hercules, this creation was dandled by numberless handmaids while still battling for existence, but to Watt alone is due the calling forth its vigour and its subtle and delicate action. There are many precious things in the adjoining Museum of Art and Science, but we question if there are any to be compared, where re sults are taken into consideration, with these two old rusty fabrics of iron rescued from deserted work- _ rooms and old dry arches by the authorities of the Patent-office Museum. When a proper apartment has been provided for this department of the Patent office a very valuable relic of the great inventor is promised by his great grandson—nothing less than the contents of the little workshop in which he la- boured up to within a few weeks of his death. This shop was next to his bedroom at Heathfield, where, since his death in 1819, they have remained as he left them, no one having entered the room or dis- turbed a thing since his decease until very lately, when Mr. Woodcroft and Mr. Pettit Smith were allowed to explore it. This place, we are told, is a touching memento of the great engineer ; the tools are as he left them ; the lathe at which he was last at work is covered with chips ; the copying or diminishing machine stopped by the hand of death, leaving unfinished little works of art, in which he • had been " searching for beautiful forms into the heart of marbles, andbring- ing them out into full daylight ;" his tools most of his own invention, and numberless contrivances which the world knows little of. There are yet other relics of Watt in the Museum—the model steam-engine which he employed to turn his lathe ; the workmanship is beautiful, and it has all the great improvements. The Commissioners should obtain the very instructive model of the locomotive which Mr. Murdock constructed in 1784 upon the principles set forth by Watt, intended to run upon the common road. Most of our readers will remem ber it in the machinery-room of the International Exhibition of 1851, where they will recollect it was placed by way of contrast upon the magnificent ma rine engine of 700-horse power manufactured by Messrs. James Watt and Co. for the 91 gun screw steamship James Watt. This model is interesting, inasmuch as it was the first ever made by an Eng lishman, preceding that by Trevethic in this museum by many years. Watt, however, always thought thelocomotive on the commonroad was a vain thing, but he clearly foresaw the advent and success of the locomotive engine running upon a rail. In 1813, for instance, before a single public line had been thought of—in fact, in the year when Headley put the first locomotive upon the Wylam Colliery rails, writing to a friend he says, " I have always thought that steam would become the universal lord, and that in time we should scorn post horses. An iron railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road on the common construction." The parent engine of steam navigation stands in a glass case in the middle of the room. What a con trast it presents to the model of the engine of the Great Eastern close at hand. This engine was con structed in 1788 for Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dal swinton, and propelled a vessel at the rate of nearly seven miles an hour on the lake at•his place. How such a speed could have been got out of such a con struction, the cylinders of which are not much bigger than the barrels of a beer-engine, we cannot con- ceive, especially as the rotary motion was very clumsily and wastefully given to the paddlewheels by a chain passing round their axles. As Watt had converted the rectilinear action of the piston-rod into a rotary one seven years before that date, and Wasborough had, indeed, appropriated and patented the crank, it is inconceivable that Symington, its en gineer, should have adopted such a feeble•means of translating motion, unless, in his ignorance, he thought his own patent as good as the others. This, although the first trial to propel a vessel through the water which was ever made, never could have been a success. In the same glass case is Mr. Miller's own model of a double ship, with paddlewheels between them, which he caused to be worked from the deck by capstan turned by men. If Mr. Miller had pur sued his idea of moving boats by steam power, he might, by means of the more advanced ideas on the subject daily coming before the public, have had the honour of introducing the first practical passen ger boat on this system, but he seems to have been content to discard his engineer, and to lay up his engine in his drawing-room as an ornament. Syming ton, however, really introduced the first practical steamboat, as his vessel, the Charlotte Dundas, was propelled by a well-constructed engine, and her first effort was to draw after her two barges, each of 72 tons, and tow them at the rate of three and a quarter miles an hour along the Forth and Clyde Canal. This was certainly a practical test of the value of the steam vessel, and we scarcely see how Syming ton can be robbed of the merit of the invention, seeing that Fulton did not commence running his vessels in America untillBo7, and then after having obtained drawings of Symington's engine, which, with some alterations, were worked out by Messrs. Boulton and Watt at their works at Soho. We do not wish, however, to pursue this vexed question ; it is quite clear that Symington, from adverse cir cumstances, did not follow up his success, and it was left for Mr.. Bell to inaugurate in Europe the first steam passage-boat, the Comet, which plied between Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburg for passengers only. The old engine of a most primitive construe- tion is in the Museum. It has been burnt out ol one place, where it did duty as a stationary engine, and was rescued from a blacksmith's shop in Glasgow by the owner, Mr. Robert Napier, and by him pre sented to the Commissioners of Patents. The con struction of this engine was certainly not so effec tive as Symington's second engine patented 10 years before, but it was started under happier auspices, and continued in operation long enough to establish the principle of propulsion by steam upon the water, which henceforth became general throughout Europe. In a small glass case a very unpretending model of a ship, with a screw propeller cut out of wood, carries the history of steam navigation up to its present condition. To Mr. Pettit Smith, the pre sent curator of the Patent-office Museum, belongs the credit of placing the screw propeller in the dead wood of the ship, the only spot in which it can work effectually, and of asserting the value of the new principle so long and so loudly as to force it upon the attention of the Admiralty. The screw of the Rattler, which in the water tournament so signally defeated the paddle steamer Alecto, is close at hand. With this simple instru ment the inventor may be said, like Gulliver, to have dragged the whole British fleet after him. Were the paddle our only means of propulsion, our naval force would be reduced to a nullity. Hostile gunners would wing a steamer as effectually as a spotsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the world would only render a ship so propelled a mere helpless log upon the water. We wish Mr. Smith had beenbetter treated by the Government. The en gineer of the Napoleon, 90-gun ship, was rewarded by the French Academy with a prize of 30,000 f. for the mere successful application of the invention, which they frankly place to the credit of a "fernier de Middlesex," alluding to the early occupation of our countryman, Mr. F ranc i s P ettit Smith, who, with the exception of a small pension, goes alto gether unrewarded to this day for services which have conferred immense benefits upon the naval and mercantile marine of England. But to return once more to land. What is this locomotive that we see rigged with iron beams and rods, which liken it almost to a ship? This is the premier locomotive—a machine which heralded changes almost as momentous as the steam-engine itself. Compared with one of the splendid engines of the Great Western of Wm. Billy," the brainwork the " W Pa y ffi la n m g Colliery viewer, and thehandiwork the of two Jo termsnathan Foster, the engineer or smith (for were almost synonmous in the year n s l iBp u 1 03) , tof which looks but a poor, bungling piece of workmanship it would seem hopeless to expec., 1 - • any good results. from the day she was Yet this very engine was at work drawing eight waggonloads e o a sin shipping of pow eo n 1 day by day from Leamington taken off work for the set Tyne,rolling ueightnt il milesthe moment distant, this transferred t3c: great features which Museum.the In tthhiespeunrycisse steam blast up the chimney were first appli e d made . locomotive smooth rail and whe e l sufficiency for traction of the engine a ot success uec being c tw es s o and the application of the I l juleY.* The sufficiency of the * It is but fair to state that the invention of the steam blast is claimed by the builder of the Sanspareil, and was said to have been first applied to the Royal George, built in 1827; but how this can invalidate Mr. Headley's claim for the same appliance to the Wylam engine in 1812 we cannot conceive. smooth rail and wheel for traction was, indeed, the great principle the establishment of which rescued the locomotive from oblivion. The only means by which heavy loads could be drawn by locomotive power be fore Headley's time was by the employment of the toothed wheel and the racked rail, as employed by Blenkinsop and Trevethick, but the " pull" tore up the racked rail, and consequently this system had to be abandoned for horses. It was in the year 1812, when the price of corn and all kinds of horse pro vender was so dear, that the necessity of substitut ing mechanical power for living muscle again thrust itself upon the attention of the Wylam viewer. Unless some saving could be made in the working of the colliery the works must be closed, and himself and family thrown out of bread. Thus stimulated to exertion, he brought out his plan of weighting the engine and of coupling the wheels so as to pre- vent any of them slipping. He proved this could be done experimentally . by constructing a waggon, weighting it with iron, and then propelling it by the power of several men seated upon it and working winches. The carriage thus weighted drew several loaded waggons well enough. In order to prove that it was the weight which caused the wheels to bite, in place of the iron load, he substituted a num ber of men who, at a given signal, left off working at the winches and jumped to the ground, when the wheels immediately began to slip round. The model of this experimental waggon, with the connected wheels, which thus solved the problem of making the smooth wheel adhere to the smooth rail, or, to use thelanguage of Stephenson, of making 4‘ man and wife" of them, is in the Museum beside Puffing Billy, and fully establishes the claim of William Headley to the discovery of this all-important principle. It does seem extraordinary that engineers should have taken it for granted that the wheels must necessarily slip up to the time of this experiment, and thatbefore Headley's time no experiments should have been made. Surely, the weighting an engine to produce sufficient friction for the purpose was a very simple idea that ought to have occurred to our engineers. We suspect, however, that even so late as the year 1813 the knowledge of our practical en- gineers was limited to rule of thumb work. The Wylom engine is certainly an extraordinary looking machine, as rude and rough-looking in appearance as could well be conceived, and placed as it isbeside the Rocket, the premier engine on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, i 1 looks like a collier beside a gentleman. But it must be remembered that between the dates of construction of those two engines 14 years have elapsed, a period during which the locomo tive had grown from childhood to manhood, if we may use such terms to inanimate objects. The Rocket which, in the most momentous race the world has ever seen, wrested the £BOO prize from the Sans pareil and the Novelty was the production of a loco. motive factory which Stephenson, with the aid a Mr. Pease, had established four years before at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Mr. Stephenson, when he introduced the locomotive to public notice on the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway a few years before, saw clearly enough that it was not sufficient to establish sound principles of work ing, if the means of carrying them out were defi cient. Good engineering principles, like good laws require good machinery to give them effect, and colliery millwrights and smiths were clearly not up to the work of making locomotives the good working of which depended upon the accuracy with which their • parts were fitted. The es tablishment of the locomotive factory did more, perhaps, towards establishing Stephenson's fame than anything else. If it could be said that without Boulton there would have been no Watt, with still greater truth might it be said that without Pease there would have been no Stephenson. It was the accurate workmanship of the Rocket, resulting from the trained hands in the Newcastle Locomotive Works, that stood Stephenson in such good stead on the day of trial. Both the Sanspareil, which by some was considered as good an engine as its successful rival, and the Novelty broke down in the course of the trial at Rainhill through some small defect in workmanship, and in the eyes of the whole - world Stephenson's name henceforth became mainly associated with the locomotive. The Rocket presents very little difference in outward appearance from the engines of the present day, except in its small size. All the rods and working machinery, which heretofore, even in the Darling ton engines, were carried high in the air over the boiler, were now placed lower down on either side of it near the centre of gravity, the cylinders being plpeed o ,t, an angle of 45, and acting directly upon the driving wheels, the spokes and fellies of which, strangely enough, are of wood ! The Sanspareil, built by the late Timothy, of Darlington, has only just arrived in the Museum, having been presented by his son, Mr. John Hackworth. This engine, after its defeat in the great trial, was purchased by the Leeds and Manchester Railway Company, and was afterwards employed in the conveyance of pas sengers and general traffic on the Bolton and Leigh Railway until the year 1844, when, being found short of power for the rapidly increasing traffic, it was removed to Mr. Hargreaves's colliery at Cappul, near Chorley, where it was used as a fixed engine in winding and pumping. This work it did most satisfactorily until the end of the year 1863, when it was removed in consequence solely of the pit being exhausted. The engine is very similar in appear ance to Mr. Headley's old Wylam engine, but ithas one great improvement—the coupling of the wheels, instead of being accomplished by the cog-wheel arrangement underneath the boiler, was produced by a simple coupling-rod fixed upon the two wheels. In the perpendicular position of the cylinders, high up over the boiler, it resembled the Wylam engine, but the pistons worked from their undersides, and in fixed slides, being a grand improvement on the complicated system of rods in that old engine. Pos sibly the Novelty, which was driven on the occasion of the trial by the present Sir Charles Fox, may also come here. The Commissioners then would only want Stephenson's first Killingworth engine and No. 1 Darlington engine, at present on a pedestal at the Darlington Station, to possess the most inte resting group of locomotives in the world. There is one feature in the old Wylam engine which is worthy of notice. The fire-tube doubles upon itself, the chimney coming out beside the furnace door. This length of heating surface gave it an immense ad vantage over all previous colliery engines ; indeed, neither Stephenson's Killingworth engines, nor those that worked the Darlington line were so constructed, and consequently were so far deficient in powers of getting up steam. In the Rocket, however, Stephenson, on the suggestion of the secretary of the Liverpool and Manchester line, adopted the tubular boiler, a plan of rapidly producing steam long before known, but which was now in a happy moment again employed with the best effect. It seems to be expected that the visitor who stops to inspect this interesting engine will be more struck with the fact that it killed Mr. Huskisson, of which he is informed by a written ticket attached, than that it inaugurated the first great passenger railway line, as if it were a more momentous feat to kill a great statesman than to annihilate space and time. Under a glass case is a small model of a loco motive intended for the common road, patented in 1802 by Richard Trevethic and Andrew Vivian. This is supposed to be the first model in existence zu Pa o t t e iv nt e -O o ffi f e l e on a g t P pri aris or t da he t r e e , of a locomotive. But in the museum of the n o n o g in model an ofa adjoining is and a church, now appropriated as a kind of hospital for old decayed engines, is the original locomotive that actually ran upon the road, but • d • oing so killed a man, and subjected the inventor to imprisonment. In this case, however, the engine came to the man, and not the man to the engine, as was the case with Mr. fluskisson. Scarcely less interesting than these great carriers of the cotton goods of Manchester is the group of worm-eaten old spinning-machines invented in 1769 by Richard Arkwright, the introduction of which, having caused such an enormous increase of the cotton manufacture, may be said to have led to the introduction of the improved locomotive upon the Livt?rpool and Manchester line. The greater part of tlese machines are made of wood, now so rotten and decayed that they can scarcely hold together. The first machine was made by a watchmaker named. King, of Warrington, and it is recorded that he hesitated long before he undertook the employ ment,. 130 doubtful was the appearance of the inven- lim SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 21, 1865. tive Bolton barber. The group of primitive-looking machines, the parts of which remind one of the works of a Dutch clock, include the original rap-wheel, the drawing-frame, the carding-machine, and the two spinning -machines, all of which were patented in 1769. The stupendous changes brought about in the cotton manufacture by these crazy-looking engines are almost inconceivable. The present pro sperity of the spinning community of the north may be said to have beenbuilt up by this man. Although, perhaps, the least inventive of the many men who have given their minds to our great textile manu factures, he managed to combine the inventions of others into a more perfect series of machines than had ever before appeared, and to establish the spinning trade upon its present gigantic basis. He may have been a robber, as he is often termed, but, at least, he managed to rescue the ideas of others from the oblivion into which they were fast falling, and to give them in combination to all posterity. What a pity these interesting machines are not supplemented by a model of Samuel Crampton's famous mule ! As this cannot be obtained, the saw with which he worked in making the model of his machine is hung up in the Museum as a memento of his skill, just as the palette and brush of Wilkie are hung up at the base of his statue in the National Gallery, as implements rendered sacred by his genius. Whatever may be the fate of the heteroge neous collection of patented and other inventions that crowd and encumber the present limited Museum, there can be no manner of doubt that the patriarchal engines we have noticed must form a portion of the new museum to be attached to the Patent-office, whatever may be the principle on which it is established. "It is very difficult to get the first of anything," was the very sensible remark of one of the witnesses examined on the Patent office Library and Museum Committee. We have here the first of these great engines which have moved the world, an interest attaching to them which all mankind can understand. The nation having once possessed them, they must remain the great attractions of any collection of machinery, patent or otherwise, Parliament may see fit to establish.—Times. Vacancies, Promotions, and Appointments in the Civil Service. (From the Civil Service Gazette.) Foreign Office.—The Consulship at Frankfort-on-the Maine has become vacant by the death of Mr. Robert Koch- Law Department.—A mastership in the Court of Queen's Bench has become vacant by the death of Sir A. D. Croft, Bart. COurt of Probate.—A vacancy has occurred in the depart ment of the Clerk of the Calendar, in consequence of the death of Mr. Edward Riddell, second assistant clerk, de ceased. A vacancy has occurred in the Record Keeper's Department, in consequence of the resignation of Mr. Fre derick Cope, assistant for Scotch and Irish grants. Mr- Henry Layton, of the Stamp Office, copying department, has been promoted to be a reader to the Senior Examiner of Wills for the Inland Revenue. Customs.—Mr. Rd. Blacklin has been appointed an out door officer, West .Hartlepool. Mr. John B. Brown has been appointed an out-door officer, West Hartlepool. Mr. Henry Gibson has been appointed an out-door officer, West Hartlepool. Mr. George T. Sedman has been ap pointed an out-door officer, West Hartlepool. Mr. Edward Turnbull has been appointed an out-door officer, West Hartlepool. Mr. James H. Wallace has been appointed an out-door officer, West Hartlepool. Mr. William Park, extra clerk, has been promoted to a clerkship in the long room, London. Mr. Isaac L. Meyers, extra clerk, has been promoted to a clerkship in the warehousing, &c., depart ment, London. Mr. J. S. Walker has been promoted from the second to the first class of out-door officers, Grimsby. Mr. Frederick Jillott has been promoted from the third to the second class of out-door officers, Grimsby. Mr. J. C. Watson has been promoted from the second to the first-class of out-door officers, Newcastle-on -Tyne. Mr. C. Sawyers has been promoted from the third to the second class of out-door officers, Newcastle-on -Tyne. Mr. A. Nevens has been promoted from the fourth to the third class of out-door offiers, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. P. Ormond has been promoted from the fourth to the third class of out door officers, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. T. Walton has been promoted from the fourth to the third class of out-door 'officers, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. W. Ayres has been pro moted from the fifth to the fourth class of out-door officers, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. W. S. Crawford has been pro moted from the fifth to the fourth class of out-door officers, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. T. Armstrong has been promoted from the fifth to the fourth class of out-door officers, New castle-on-Tyne. Mr. J. Cranston has been promoted from the fifth to the fourth class of out-door officers, Newcastle- on-Tyne. Inland Revenue.—Mr. John M. Hole has been appointed a clerk in the Fire Insurance Office, Somerset House. Excise Branch.—Mr. John Carnegie, officer, Edinburgh, 2d division, Edinburgh collection, has been appointed officer of Liverpool port division, Liverpool collection. Mr. James Fraser, officer, Pitlochry, Ist division, Perth collec tion, has been appointed officer of Crieff division,Perth col lection. Mr. Alex. Scott„ officer, Campbelton, sth division, Campbelton collection, has been appointed officer .of Pit locluy, Ist division, Perth collection. Mr. Donald Mac- kenzie, preventive man, Oban preventive station, Oban district, has been appointed officer of Campbleton, sth divi sion, Campbleton collection. Mr. John Davies, officer, Wem ride, Shrewsbury collection, has been appointed officer of Burton, let ride, Lichfield collection. Mr. Michael Molony, officer, Whitchurch, Ist ride, Shrewsbury collection, has been appointed officer of Wem ride, Shrewsbury collection. Mr. Edwin Jenkins,sll o first ti class assistant, Bromley, 2d divi sion, Middlesexbeen appoi n t e d officer, ee c has Whit church, Ist ride, Shrewsbury collection. The East Indies.—Mr.F. T. Trevor has been appointed a member of the Council of the Lieutenant -Governor of Bengal for making laws and regulations. Mr. E. D. Kilburn has been appointed a member of the Council of the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal for making laws and regulations. Mr. G. S. Fagan, second judge of the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, has been appointed to officiate as assist. -secretary to the Government of Bengal in the legislative department. Mr. W. Masters, professor, Dacca College, has been appointed a professor in the HooghV College. Mr. C. Martin has been appointed a professor in the Dacca College. Mr. C. H. Tawney has been appointed an assistant professor in the Presidency College, but to officiate as a professor during the absence on leave of Mr. E. B. Cowell, or until further orders. Mr. J. 11. A. Branson, judge of Small Cause Court at , Cal cutta, has been appointed to officiate as s en i or mag i strate o f I police, Calcutta. Mr. J. Munro, joint magistrate and deputy collector of Sarun, has been appointed to act as magistrate and collector of Patna. Discontinuance of Oxford Races, For the last two years the Oxford race committee has met with considerable difficulty, in consequence of the question having been raised as to whether the freemen of Oxford, to whom Port Meadow belongs, or the town council, who are trustees of the city property, have juris- I diction over it. To keep peace with both, the committee took the precaution of obtaining the sanction of the town council, and also of the freeman's committee, appointed by the freemen assembled in common hall, for permission to hold the races on Port Meadow, and let the ground for stands, boothg, &c. The race committee by way of compensation, paid to the free men's fund a certain annual charge fixed by the free men's committee. At the last races in August the ground was let as usual by auction, and a freeman named Marsh hired a certain piece amounting to £27. That ground he occupied, and underlet at a good profit, and then refused to pay anything for it, on the ground that he was a free man, and had a right to use PorOleadow as a portion of his freehold. The auctioner sued him for the amount, and the case was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench on Dec. 23 last, when the judge (Mr. Justice Shee) ruled that the plaintiff had not proved his right to recover, in consequence of which his counsel elected to be non-suited. The application for a new trial was heard on Saturday last before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Shee, Black burn, and Mellor, when the Court granted a rule nisi. From what, however, fell from all these judges on that occasion the race committee did not feel disposed to risk again the glorious uncertainty of the law. Accordingly a special meeting of the committee was held last evening, every member being present, when the following resolution was carried uananimously : " That in consequence of the difficulty and expense to which the Oxford race - committee have been subjected, as well as the prospect of being involved in further litigation touching the right of holding the races on Port Meadow, and letting the ground for the same, the carrying on of these races in future is abandoned by this committee." Thus, through the obstinacy of one man, the Oxford Races, which have proved a great success, and were in creasing inimportance every year, are at an end. In coming to the decision which they did the race committee felt that they ought not to be involved in an endless and costly litigation, and probably have to fight a similar battle with the town council, the burden and responsibility falling on the racing committee alone. [ADVERTISEMENT.]-11olloway's Pills and Ointment. — Happiness round the Hearth.—With the sore trials, temp tations, and accidents daily endangering health and life in large cities, it is most i mportant t o aye at hand some means of stopping the budding evil, for the longer it is neglected the more wide spread is the generation. Hollo way's medicaments supply this great want ; they are inex pensive, purchasable everywhere, can be readily used, are safe in inexperienced hands, and perfectly reliable as healers and purifiers. Holloway's ointment and pills cure inflammations, abscesses, and ulcerations with a facility hitherto unknown. Holloway's noble remedies will give relief to sufferers from skin diseases of the most revolting character, for which, in bygone days, a dangerous mineral Was often administered with_fatal consequences. RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE. MANCHESTERy SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLN. The report of the directors of this company has just been issued. It states that the accounts of the past half-year show a total revenue from all sources of £490,836, a total expenditure of £217,053, and a balance of net profit of £273,783, which, with the balance of £1,249 brought from the previous half year, gives a totol sum of £275,032 avail able for interest and dividend. The debenture and other interest chargeable against the revenue of the half year amounts to £65,348, the canal annuities to £14,142, the dividends on the various classes of preference stock and shares to £88,213, and the South Yorkshire interest and dividends to £56,666, making a total charge against the net balance of £224,371, leaving a balance of £50,661, out of which the directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 21 per cent. per annum on the ordinary stock of the com pany, leaving £1,660 for next account. The dues, wharfage, &c., of the Grimsby docks amounts to £5,740, against £5,454 for the corresponding half of 1863, showing an in crease of £286. The company's share of the net profit of the South Junction Railway amount to £8,969, as against £8,957 in the corresponding period last year. The directors regret that the traffic of the South Yorkshire Railway and Navigation shows a very small increase as compared with the corresponding period of last year. The lock-out, which continued nearly half a year, is now completely at an end, and the collieries are all in full work, and considering the loss of revenue caused by the long interruption of business the directors consider that the amount of traffic earned under such difficulty may justify confidence in the deve lopment of the coal trade in that district. The accounts for the present half-year includes the loss which has arisen under the South Yorkshire lease for the whole year 1864, in consequence of the consolidation of the accounts, and working from the Ist of July. The directors, have in conjunction with the Great Northern Company, made an arrangement with the Midland Company, by which that company are to take one-third interest in the lines west of Manchester, including Garston and Liverpool and Liverpool Central Station. The repayment of capital involved will enable this company to accept one-third of the capital of the Liverpool Central Station, without adding to the general capital account. It is right to mention that a part of the arrangement with the Great Northern Com pany is that the contingent and reciprocal running powers, which, under the agreement of 1860, exist for the term of that agreement, viz., 50 years, shall be exchanged in per petuity. In the year 1855 an agreement was entered into be tween this company, the London and North Western, Lan cashire and Yorkshire, and North Eastern Companies, in reference to the interchange of traffic, between the respec tive system and in connection with the large traffic exist ing between the Mersey and the manufacturing districts of Lancashire with the Humber. This agreement terminated at the end of last year, and negotiations were entered into between the parties, which have resulted in the renewal of what. is termed the " Humber Agreement" for the term of three years. The expenditure on capital account during the half year amounts to £203,908, of which £87,066 is for subscriptions to other companies, £67,399 for works and stations, and £28,212 for rolling stock. The total capital expended to the 31st Dec. last amounts to £10;631,180, leaving:a balance of £48,156. COLCHESTER AND STOUR VALLEY. The report of the directors states that the balance avail able for dividend is £4,688. After providing for preferen tial charges to the amount of £857, a balance remains of £3,831, out of which the directors recommend a dividend at the rate of £3 6s. per cent. per annum, absorbing £3,773, and leaving £5B to be carried to the next account. Since the last half-yearly meeting a vacancy has arisen at the Board. The directors do not consider it expedient that the vacancy should be filled up, and they recommend that their allowance should be reduced from £lOO to £5O per annum, and the auditors' salary from £2l to £lO per annum. The expenditure on capital account to the close of 1864 was £286,222, and the receipts were 5286,198, leaving a balance of £24 due to the account. RAILWAt RILLS. Yesterday the examiners declared the standing orders of Parliament had been complied with in the following cases : Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire.—For a railway from the South Junction and Altrincham Railway to Child wall, in junction with the Garston and Liverpool Railway. Additional capital, £750,000 ; loan, £250,000. Furness and Yorkshire Union.—For a lino to unite those railways. Capital, £150,000; loan, £50,000. Lugg Valley.—For an extension from Presteign to the Central Wales Railway, in the parish of Llangunllo. £100,000; loan, £30,000. Banbridge Extension.—To make railways to Dundrum and Newcastle, and to extend the time for the compulsory purchase of lands. Increase of capital, £175,000 ; loan, £58,000. Nantlle—To authorise the widening and extension of the line ; to raise additional capital to the extent of £213,000 on shares and £71,000 on loan. Beddgelert.—For a line from Portmadoc to Beddgelert. Capital £lOO,OOO ; loan, £33,000. Perth General Station.—To enable the Scottish Central Railway Company to make additional lines in and near the General Station at Perth, and to improve and extend that station ; power to raise £15,000 and borrow £5,000. Alexandra Dock.—To authorise the construction of a dock and railway at Newport, on the western side of the river Usk. Capital, £600,000 ; loan, £200,000. Devon and Somerset —For an extension to the North Devon Railway and Ilfracombe. Capital, £30,000 ; loan, £lO,OOO. Railway Traffic Returns for the Week Mlles Opened. Receipts. __ ._ Railways. - o ----- -----r -1864. 1863. 1864. 4, Z Z Belfast and N. Counties 136 136 1,901 1.831 Belfast and County Down 49 49 639 6,6 Blyth and Tyne 2B 28 2,172 I,' 07 Bristol and Exeter 1215 1216 5,309 5,070 Caledonian Cambrian Cork and Bandon 2O 20 279 339 Cork, Blackrock, & Passage 6l si 101 117 Cork and Youghal ... 325 325 434 425 Cornwall 6 5: 651 1,2 1.277 Deeside l7 17 283 223 Dublin & Belfast Junction.... 63 63 ~272 1. 60 Dublin and Drogheda........ 75 75 1,4 5 1.424 Dublin and Meath Dub. & Wicklow and Wexld 9ll 911 2,163 2.064 50 5 r 2,634 2,874 Furness, &c Glasgow & South - Western 30, '5l 28.083 6,513 7,468 Gt. Eastern,Nrik.,&E.Un ion 387 353 33.523 31,637 Great Northern Great North of Scotland ti t. N orthn. & Wes tn. (Irel.) 7ll 711 427 390 rit.Southn. & Westn.(lrlnd.) 3875 3734 6,786 7,290 Great Western 1225 118 5 59,254 55,6E8 Hull and Hornsea l3 I nve rness & Aberdeen Juno— 1174 1061 Inverness & Perth Junction 1191 1195 Irish North-Western 145 145 Kent Coast 27 27 Lancashire & Yorkshire 403 902 Limerick and Emits... 244 244 Limerick and Foynes 261 26/ Llanelly 461 461 Llynvi Vallty London & North-Western London and Blackwall 5l 51 London & South-Western Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast 2674 2011 London, Chatham, & Dover 721 721 Do. Metropolitan Extension 111 105 Lon., Tilbury, & Southend Man.,Sheffield,& Lincolnsh blanch. S.J un.dt Altrincham 9l 91 Maryport and Carlisle 2B 28 Metropolitan Midland (Inel. N.-Western) 6631 611 Midland Gt.Westn. of hind 262 2505 Monkland 715 715 Monmouthsh. Rail. & Canal 44 44 North British, Edin., Perth and Dundee N-Eastern and Stock. & DarL 1095 1093 North London 9 9 North Staffordshire 254 251 Rhymney 195 195 Scottish Central Scottish North-Eastern. Somerset and Dorset 66 66 South Devon South-Eastern 3OB 306 Taff Vale 57 57 Ulster 1055 1055 Vale of Clwyd. Vale of Neath 434 431 Waterford and' Kilkenny 3l 31 Waterford and Limerick 77 77 West Cornwall 276 274 W.Hartlepool Harbr.&ltail 521 624 W'haven,Cleator,& Egrmnt lO 10 Whitehaven Junction l3 13 Whitehaven & Furness Jun 35 35 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL. Austrian B2B Bahia and San Francisco Belgian Eastern j unction 266 Bombay, Baroda, & Cen. India 185 1 Detroit and Milwaukie lB9 Dutch Rhenish lOB4 Eastern of France 1176 Eastern Bengal East Indian Grand Trunk of Canada 1377 Great Central of Belgium 223 Great Indian Peninsula 553 Great Luxembourg 134 Great Southern of India Great Western of Canada 345 Madras Madrid, Saragossa &Aiicant 6BO Northern of Canada ... . 91 Northern of France ...... Norwegian Trunk Ottoman Paris, Lyons, & 3lediterrn 1967 Paris and Orleans 1616 Pernambuco 105 Scinde 776 1,086 1,053 1,287 1,141 1,017 1,680 500 300 31,575 34 250 1&1 136 129 78 f (3 588 377 &5 97,416 90,7'2 1,775 1,5 61 18,768 17.136 14,936 12,860 4,501 4,1 5 1,600 773 I,' 91 1,042 15,912 16,077 1,330 1,218 1,387 1.25 0 2,140 1,861 44,523 42,260 4.163 4,168 1,547• 1,599 2,703 2,585 20,580 19,451 49,781 98,517 3,315 2,853 8,139 7.875 98J 880 4,827 4.4z,7 4,990 4,688 729 50t 3.1 77 2,986 2P,301 17,753 5,712 5,589 2,330 2.479 13$ '55 2,394 2,311 446 398 1,303 1,300 663 664 3.684 3.663 4 . 4 562 854 939 799 897 31,963 22,713 601 - 316 301 3,134 3,019 5,488 4,010 4,632 4,044 21,600 - 27 615 23,785 25,390 22,5:)4 t,356 4,886 14,472 8,068 3,988 3.3'37 '503 653 12,011 10,339 5,577 6.792 13,775 16 . 219 94 928 19,063 10.333 I,OVB 1,058 481 1781 1814 133,342 124,510 61,322 64.202 934 708 2,158 2,'.35 BREAKFAST BEVERAGE.—Homoeopathic practitioners, and the medical profession generally, recommend cocoa as being the most healthful of all beverages. When the doc trine of homceopathy was first introduced into this country, there were to be obt fined no preparations of cocoa either at tractive to, the taste or acceptable to the stomach ; the nut was either supplied in the crude state, or so unskilfully manufactured as to obtain little notice. J. Epps, of London, Homoeopathic Chemist, was induced in the year 1839 to turn his attention to this subject, and at length succeeded, with the assistance of elaborate machinery, in being the first to produce an article pure in its composition, and so refined by the perfect trituration it receives in the process it passes thro.,gh, as to be most acceptable to the delicate stomach. For general use Epps's Cocoa is distinguished as an invigo rating, grateful breakfast beverage, possessing a most deli cious aroma. Dr. Hassail, in his wo,k, "Food and its Adulteration s," says —"Cocoa contains a great variety of im portant nutritive principles—every ingredient necessary to the growth and sustenance of the body." Again: "As a nutritive, cocoa stands very much higher thin either coffee or tea." Directions—Two teaspoonfuls of the powder in a breakfast cup, filled up with boiling water or milk. Secured in tin-lined alb., Ob., and Ilb. labelled packets, and sold by all grocers, conleotionera, and ctemleta.—[ADvT.] SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS 0 TIMES.-It is a strange and unhappy illustration of a well-known proverb that so soon after having announced the loss of one of her Majesty's ship's by sinking, we should now have to report the total loss of another by fire. Years may pass without the oc currence of one such calamity, and now we have two within little more than a month of each other. It was on the 4th of last November that the Race- horse struck off Chefoo Cape, and on the 14th of December the Bombay took fire near Montevideo. The two disasters are almost equally complete, and, for the present, equally unaccountable. As far, in deed, as the crew is concerned, the calamity of the Bombay is not quite so lamentable as that of the Racehorse. In the latter case only nine men were saved out of a crew of 107. In the present instance 93 of the crew are, indeed, missing; but from the letter of the Admiral, which we publish this morn: ing, we may, perhaps, hope that - some of these will prove to be safe. " The boats having been picked up," he says, "by vessels proceeding to different places, we cannot as yet get a correct return." As far, however, as the ship is concerned the disaster is complete. She burnt With extraordinary rapidity, and in five hours after taking fire she sank in eight fathoms of water. The Bombay was a screw steam- ship of 67 guns and 2,782 ton - s, and was the flag ship of the Admiral commanding on the south-east coast of America. Until the morning of the 14th of December she was at Montevideo, but on that morn- ing the Admiral transferred his flag to another ship, and she left the anchorage under sail. At five o'clock in the afternoon of the same day the admiral received news that she was on fire about 13 miles from his station. Although, however, at such a com paratively short distance, the aid which he despatched was utterly useless. Long before he could reach the scene of the disaster the vessel was deserted, and the sinking of the ship was the only thing yet remaining to complete the calamity. As in the case of the Racehorse, we are h‘tre also obliged to put up with a hurried and imperfect account of the disaster, and that not from the officer in com mand of the ship. The barest facts are all that have reached us. These, however, are sufficient to con- vey to the mind a picture of unusual horror, and to indicate that even among the terrible examples of the destruction of ships by fire the present instance must occupy a conspicuous place. The struggle with the flames appears to have been completely over in half an hour, and when the contest was then abandoned as hopeless, there remained barely time enough to snatch the ship's crew from the terrible fate which threatened them. "At 3.35 in the after- noon," says the Admiral, " the fire was reported. At 3.52, finding . the fire was quickly gaining, the boats were hoisted out." Ten minutes more were sufficient to render it impossible to continue even this operation, and the boats which had been suc cessfully lowered had even then but a quarter of an hour in which to get clear of the ship before the mainmast fell. After that, it must be presumed, all would be over. Those for whom the boats had no room would have to be left to their fate, and nothing would remain to them but the terrible choice of being devoured by one element or swallowed up by another. In such a terrible disaster there can be but one consolation alike for the relatives of those who are lost as for those who are saved and for their friends—that is, to know that the officers and crew did their duty ; and this consolation we have no doubt will be afforded when we receive more com plete details. From the report before us there is every reason to anticipate this melancholy satisfac tion. In the lace of a conflagration of such fright- ful rapidity it cannot but have required the utmost coolness and discipline to save so considerable a proportion of the crew ; and, when we read of the sick having been passed into the boats in the first instance, we are reminded of the spirit which was displayed in the case of the Birkenhead, and cannot but believe that both officers and men must have displayed an equal courage and self sacrifice. It is, perhaps, impossible for there to be a higher test of courage than is afforded in the de struction by fire of a ship at sea. ,The extreme probability that a certain number of the crew will have to be sacrificed to the safety of the rest must make every man feel that he stands in the very jaws of death, and the horrible nature of the destruction which threatens him is sufficient to un nerve any but a very high or a very habitual sense of duty. A great fire is by common assent one of the most terrible of catastrophes even on land, but it is hard to imagine anything more dreadful than a fire at sea. All the terrors of two elements are com bined in one scene of destruction, and the desolation of the one and the fury of the other are beyond all the horrors which men have elsewhere to meet. As to the cause which produced the disaster, and the rea sons which rendered it ,so uncontrollable, the present report fails to give us sufficient information. The fire broke out in the afterhold, and from the uncon trollable rapidity with which the flames spread the Admiral inclines to think that it must have broken out close to the spirit-room, " and that the spirit casks must almost immediately have burst and ignited." He assures us that the discipline which had so soon to be exerted in deserting the ship was first displayed in endeavouring to save her. " The fire-bell was immediately rung, and with the greatest order and promptness an abundant supply of water was obtained." We trust, therefore, that the cala mity will prove to have been as much beyond con trol in its origin as it was in its progress, and that it may be a very long time before we have again to record so terrible a disaster to our navy. HERALD.—In certain countries where beasts of burden are scarce, and horses are but seldom used for draught, the natives are accustomed to associate strange yokefellows. A bullock pulls lazily by the side of a mule ; a pony tugs away in company with a melancholy foxhound ; a donkey brays in discor dant unison with the growl of a Cuban mastiff in reduced circumstances. They agree as well as the radical difference in their natures will allow. Pull together in a certain way they must ; but they don't like the companionship, and now and then a bark, a kick, -a savage glare of the eye, or a sudden and obstinate halt on the part of one shows the tenor of his feelings towards the other. A similar incongruity of association may tometimes be observed in the features of a zoological exhi bition. In the cage of a lion, perhaps, may be seen a suspicious watchful retriever, over and anon cast ing a quiet eye upon the lordly beast's huge stride, his fierce roar, the hungry clashing of his jaws, and the unpleasant way in which he shows his terrible incisors. The dog seems to say, "I am here, it is true; I and my noisy shambling friend are asso ciated together by the necessities of representation ; but I am non-content ; and I don't approve of my company." We all know how the birds and the beasts get on in a " happy family." When the cat makes a spring the mouse shifts uneasily, though he can't run away ; when the porcupine erects his quills the sleek guinea-pig turns what would be tail if he had any ; when the hawk flutters the hedge-sparrow hops into obscurity. The harmony of the associa tion is not actually disturbed, but distrust and mental disagreement are chronic, and while the delighted spectators look on and applaud the unfor tunate objects of interest are contemplating the miseries of their awkward fellowship. It is just thus with Messrs. Scholefield and Bright, the lion and the lesser animal who are kept together in the Bir mingham cage. At certain periods they exhibit in the Town Hall of the great midland city ; and, as it happens, the senior member of the joint exhibition is the feebler and the less ferocious one. He has first to go through his performances, the lion all the while couchant beside him, awaiting his share in the interesting proceedings. The mayor initiates the business. He introduces the performers. In vulgar parlance, he " stirs them up ' with the long pole of his office. Then the fun commences. The lion's colleague speaks according to his nature, his pro clivities, and the traditions of his being. Upon one or two points he may agree with his honour able and formidable friend. He wants parlia mentary reform, he deprecates extravagant expen diture on the army and navy, and he objects to intervention in the affairs of foreign countries. But there the agreement with his leonine asso ciate ends. The great point that the lion holds strong opinions upon is where the split takes place. The monarch of the platform is all Federal—even more than Alfred Tennyson assumed Englishmen to be " all Dane." But his colleague is all Confederate. Possibly, not without some trepi dation, Mr. Scholefield—to drop for a moment the zoological allegory—expresses by implication his opinion that England should officially recognise the Southern States of America. It is then that the lion has his triumph. He knows that his friend has done wrong in the eyes of the audience. He feels that, sitting there as the representative of Federalism, an opposition to his views has been started that looks like Birmingham treason ; and the hisses that follow the pro-Southern avowal confirm him in his position as lord of the entertainment. Thus ends the first part of the performance ; and the second—which is the exciting part--is about to commence. We know that after some well-graced actor leaves the stage the eyes of the audience are idly bent on him that enters next. But at Birmingham the position is reversed. The well-graced actor—that is, the more popular one—is Mr. Bright ; and instead of idle at tention, the hon. member is greeted with " several rounds of cheers." What he has to do is of the large, sweeping, rotund order. The gentle ambling of his predecessor is as the light comedy that precedes the vigorous pantomime. Mr. Scholefield has placed before his hearers an entree merely, and one that does not altogether agree with them. Mr. Bright comes on with the piece de resistance, which they all like. With a plunge, in mediam rem, he seizes upon the political pabulum with his teeth, and tears it to pieces. Happily, hig first spring is in complete is agreement with his honourable friend. It s' tour de force upon the subject of non-interven tion : He bounds and swoops upon the question with true, _ leonine vigour. He finds that the Govern ment e has been feeble and the Opposition foolish. Twic d he revels in this discovery, and then, with a tai swing of mane and a triumphant lashing o f ta p ' he light upon our military and naval expenditi.lirrl " What the Duke of Wellington and Sir Bl e h ` e Peel thought necessary twenty-five years ag° does not disdain to refer to; and having made happy discovery that Government, a Opposition, l , all people soever but John Bright and his politiewe believers, are wrong, he turns for a moment in till direction of North .merica, and sings a brief pae al over the virtues of the Stars and Stripes. But, PI sibly, out of charity to his lesser though senior eel : league, he forbears to do more than glance at th • " flag," and then turns to the great subject that,; are told, is to be the feature of the session. It feeding-time. " Tories, and those Whigs vale al : like Tories," constitute ' the lion's meal ; and at th eir ,. bones he crunches with all the gusto of the Wain' Radical. Somewhere in the hands of Mr. Gladstone/ or Mr. Baines, or Mr. Locke King; he sees a Re' form Bill, or part of a Reform Bill ; and with r. e cr ; gard to this he tell us, the Tories, and the Win% who are like Tories, " entertain uncomfortable fee '. ings which approach almost to a shiver." They . l ie r alarmed at the proposition to give a £lO vote '° counties, and a £6 vote for boroughs ; but, h e j i; forms us, they would have "repented in sackelot and ashes if they had given a vote against E al Grey's Reform Bill." Like many other prohleni makers, Mr. Bright takes his " six million s the people," and imagines what would happen if t be twelve million eyes belonging to them were to the fixed " with an intense look on the doors of t'ai House of Commons." The idea is large, it is gr an ,, it is something like Napoleon's forty centuries loe a ing down from the Pyramids on the Frency arnlY inciting it to plunder and conquest. Nothing , are told, would be able to resist the united glal l ' l , of this six millions of people. Not the mace nr, the table of the House ; " that bauble " would 1 71 its sanctity as though another Oliver Cromweir had appeared at Westminster. Not the " hundred easy gentlemen who lounge in and o , ll r of that decorated chamber ;" they would O il , j e i from the glance of the six million eyes as tht to another " Pride's Purge " had counted' t am 11 all out. Not the " dozen gentlemen who e3to themselves statesmen ;' they would have slink away to the seclusion of the Chiltern 01-1 ' ; dreds. And—here comes the awful myste r Y, e , " not even a power more appalling and 0 1 et te , ing, • that has its lodgment higher up Al w hall." Mace, politicians, statesmen, army and nano all would have to yield to Mr. Bright's six milli is pairs of eyes ; and to bring about such a res ult apparently what the hon. member for Birminr,,, i , wants to effect by the aid of parliamentary re' ° , 1 4r, This is very plain speaking on the part of , Bright ; and, although his idea about these si-lci n o f lions of people fixing their eyes upon the doors or the House of Commons may be nothing more no less than an optical illusion, we at least know IL'O he means and what he would have. He tells us L'i,4 " Conservatism," be it Toryism or Whi g fa " the true national peril" the country has to sl and we tell him that the country's true nat i°lj ae , peril is such a state of things as he pictures with 0. light—the mob law that he sets above mace, u ° o , mons, Government, and Horse Guards. What this ducement does he offer us to agree with him ili n t matter ? What magnificent spectacle does he r.„, c o, to as something that we should emulate ? Aw e ' f. of course, supplies us with thething we should 10 Seventy thousand men, he tells us, voted • in,..p s ; State of New York at the last Presidential elee,ilibe and, altogether 4,000,000 votes were given, wi t ,', l l ,o , result of placing Abraham Lincoln in the PresSg , tial chair for another four years of possible " Yiet ging away." If this is not infatuation ofthe bull sort we should be glad to know what infatuati oil If this is not pointing out something we &f to r o , avoid, then let us seize upon thevilest lessons el Iv litical life, and embody them in al text-book frays political instruction of the people. America, 0% 04 America, for Mr. Bright's model! Happily, ~1 33rp the blind course of exhortation Mr. Bright suppli,ePoce, antidote of the bane he proffers for our accePl His opinions may be unwholesome enough, bull the reasons are such as the mind revolts at. And a' one time by his side sits Mr. Scholefield, his co l . l , e 'ild The Birmingham cage holds them both, an" p er' the .one roars the other listens. It is a strang e U lu;' formance truly ; the starred and stripped lien/ t i s , e, tant with Yankee examples ; the quieter cligi o o. Southern to the back-bone. It is a queer coali` COUNTRY MARKETS LIVERPOOL.—FRIDAY. qtt he We have not had a large attendance of buyers day's market., but we have to report a fair conet" t es° business in wheat of all descriptions at the extreme l' o t last Friday. Flour is not very saleable, but , * , ,_, l3 ,, Ti fet e ' bought any cheaper. Although Indian corn to ;1 sellers, the demand is not sufficient to enable thellitoe, cover Tuesday's reduction of 3d per qr. Oats an d , °.„ ifit" maintain late rates, as also do beans, peas, and bole." a fair retail inquiry for each. Market closes steady' • LINCOLN.—FurDAY. t ie There was a fair average quantity of wheat fr ° " r iceg' farmers to-day, and sales were made at extrem e foie o Oats were in short supply, and a heavy sale at lower 4 Beans supported their value-36s to 43s per qr. os p e ', ' New white wheat, 40s to 42s ; new red, 36s W ; n il:4 11 7 o stone. Barley for malting, 30s to 33s per qr ass 26s' to 28s per 30 stone. Oats, 20s to 245. Bea'"' 40s per qr. WAKEFIELD.—FRIDAY. .4ces' Wheat meets -a retail demand at last Friday , 'A 5 i) e t Fine barley firm ; other sorts slow. No alteration ill " articles. The following are the averages for the week e -9141 Jan. 16 :—Wheat, 3,003 qrs., at 40s ; barley, 1,7- at 28s ; oats, 87 qrs., at 22s ld ; beans, 86 qrs., ' 3kl ; peas, 35 qrs., at 355. ST. There was an average sho MFORD w of wheat .—FRIDAY at our mar ke d day, and with a fair demand prices remained witho o i i portant alteration. The supply of oats was moderate, previous rates were realised. Beans unaltered. , )j o New white wheat, 40s to 425; new red, 368 to 22 r, S e , stone. Barley, finest samples, 34s ; other sorts' s tov per qr. Oats, new, 21s to 24s ; oln, 25s to 28s per Beans 38s to 42s per 38 stone. Peas as heretofore' BRISTOL SUGAR.--FRIDAY. 0 011 The demand continues very limited, and onlYil:footifo business has been done, at prices fully is per elvt• A 6cl of buyers. Refined goods are dull of sale, 5 13- cheaper. Rum—the sales are small at late rates Lon dron : Pri tedand Published by W IL lA 4f i c e, of No. 112, St rand, Pi inter, at r fia surr a"; 00 0 " `' Strand, in the P rec i nc t o f th e savoy, in t Middlepex, —Saturday, January; 21, 180. Foreign Mail Packet List. .... 4. ---- - Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton ...... ~3 4110 : 15 ',. Ditto, via Marseilles ......................... • t, c p. '.,. Brazil and Cape Verds, by British packet .......... .' .., P .. 16 ' • IP Ditto, by British packet . ........... .00. Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena. • •• F ., 4 0 .../' China, Penang, and Singapore, via Sou' hampton• 0" _.,, r" PP' ~ Ditto, via Marseilles JO /' Falkland Islands ......... Gibraltar, via Southampton India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.... 0 0 . J Ditto, via Marseilles ... ... P ' 0 India (Bombay), via Southampton. ................ P a o. „l It Ditto, via Marseiiles . Feb' 6' Mauritius, via Southampton .................... • • 1) , J e 1 Ditto, via 3larseil e 3. .................. ... .. • ' 1) , ye 1, Newfoundland .......... . Fo p, Portug , 1 . ... Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon .... 1 ~, n. , United States and British North America, by Br' J t o. " tish packet . • ......... • • Ditto, by United States packet, via Southatur tcn 0 Ditto, via Cork • • • ..lifr I ° ' Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry. ..o. West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe ...... ' o i, West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, cubs , to , ' tl , and Mexico .................. .. .................. •' I) , ' Bahamas, via New York. ........................... 1 7, c t,, 11. Bermuda, ditto ................ :.................. "'," Cuba and Mexico Births. Sc'' `) BIITLER.—On the 19th inst., at 13, Onslow-scill 3re 'P i r Kensington, the wife of C. E. Kingstone Butler' e 0 0 1 a son. d 4 e BRIDGER.—On the 18th inst., at Bri g hton, 'l'idijit ill, Charles Bridger, Esq., Captain Royal Sussex J , a son. of WOOTON.—On the 19th inst., at Ealing, the VI I° 0' 1 : Wooton, Esq., of a son. tig e' WYNDRAM.—on the 19th inst., at 44, BolgraVe -- 1 Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham, of a son. ta jl: Marriages. 6 th 9 6, 14 1 BRUCE—MERCERON.—On the 19th inst., at St: ~6tll , t , on-Sea, Courtenay William Bruce, Esq., gal ) ',Afir goon Guards (Carabiniers), to Mary Ann Birc 4 ,l3o o ' , daughter of the late Henry Merceron, Esq, cu . ill 00 1 green. All 1- P ' 4 ,l PERREAS — CRUSE.—On the 14th inst , at - to 14 Knightsbridge, Edward Charles Perre . an, Ems" P" Barnard, the eldest daughter of Edward Ca s e ' Bach House, Brighton. 1 Deaths. ift Eel'"'' ANDREWS.—On the 18th inst. , at Guildford, '' t or e Andrews, aged 57. 54 c ,•34 BAYLEY.—On the 19th inst., at 25, Cambrl " l - P . Hyde-park, Charles Bayley, Esq., late of the b ad' aged 85. t . CO ) DAVIDSON.—On the 19th inst., at The Eetrell- / Thomas M. Davidson, Esq., aged 74 • • es-5 11 HAWARDEN.--On the 19th inst., at 5, Prol e ,ig South Kensington, the Viscoutess Havrarderl'cio Y LEGARD.—On the sth inst., at Madeira, Sir Fir ot o' l b Legard, Bart., of Ganton, Yorkshire, ageta 3= :l3 o t i fig p NEELsoti.—On the 18th inst., suddenly, •Tio ,n ,;,, e lcco' • Neilson, Esq., of Queenshill, Stewartry of 1 , -" . " 1 the inventor of the H o t Bl ast, aged '7:3. /.4' ..-.4.,P