The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

Eittrature. SKETCHES OF A TRIP TO THE CONTINENT, ITALY, AND EGYPT. BY EDWIN KEET, ESQ. No. XVII. (Written for the Liverpool Standard.) The climate of Italy, to which the Rev. L. Sterne bore testimony a hundred years since in the following eulo gium, must convince the most incredulous valetudinarian what a blessed change it is from this cold, foggy island, to sunny Italy. Sterne says—" I find myself infinitely bet ter than I was, and hope to have added at least ten years to my life by the journey to Italy. The climate is hea venly, and I find new principles of health in me, which I have been long a stranger to " Nor is this all ; for not only is the air more balmy and congenial to delicate con stitutions, but you have more life-giving warmth and hap piness in one year there than you can have in two years in this cold, wet, and ungenial island. As my time was short, and I found it difficult to get to Syracuse or Cata nia without posting, I determined to see, if possible, the ruined temples of Sigeste and Agrigentum. Having so recently and in so novel a manner ascended Vesuvius, I felt little disposed to go through the cold and fatigue of climbing the snowy and cinder-crested Etna! The island of Sicily, from its triangular form called Trinacria or Triquetra, is 210 miles long, 133 miles broad at its widest part, and 600 miles in circumference. The strait of Messina varies in width from two to fifteen miles. The rocks here, and the rapid violent currents, form the ancient and fabulous Scylla tAid Charybdis. When the Carthaginians took Messina, the Sicilians swam the pas sage over to Italy. What a theatre of change this island has been from its first inhabitants, the powerful races of Cyclopes and Lestrigones, who occupied the country around Etna. Diodorus describes the Secani as the most ancient inhabitants of the island. Among these set tled the Trojans, after the capture of their city. Then came the Phocenses, followed by Greeks, Romans, Car thagenians, until the Saracens, who got footing on the island, were expelled by the Normans. What a strange medley of occupants : pirates from Cumw, Greeks, barba rians, Chalcidians, Samians, lonians, Rhodians, and Cre tans, the invincible warriors called Marmatini,--all by turns got possession of parts of this fertile island, contain ing corn, wine, oil, fruit, mulberry trees, tobacco, cotton, medicinal roots, and sugar-canes. But the Greeks built most of the cities ; and their simple, grand, and sublime temples yet exhibit ruins worthy profound admiration and reflection from the traveller. Six hundred years B.C. Phalaris the Tyrant got pos session of the city of Agrigentum, and every common wealth in the island felt the tyranny of the usurper. The story of Phalaris is well known. Banished from Crete, he took refuge in Agrigentum, and by craft got the supreme power. His name is known only by his cruelty. Perillus, a brass-founder from Athens, made the tyrant a new mode of torture, in the shape of a brasen bull : the wretched criminals were placed inside this bull, a fire kindled un derneath roasted them slowly to death, and their dying cries, from the construction of the throat, caused a re semblance to the roaring of a bull. Tippoo Saib had a tiger as ingeniously constructed, to punish English sol diers, prisoners in India, which tiger I have seen in the India House. The inventor of Phalaris' bull was made, for his skill and pains, to be the first victim ; and Ovid relates that the tongue of Phalaris was cut out, and that he was then roasted alive in the bull. But Cicero states that he fell by the just vengeance of the Agrigentines. Great names are associated with Sicily—Archimedes, Theocritus, Gorgius, and Charondas : the learned, often bore away the palm for learning and art from the mother country. Gero, Hiero, and Dionysius, were remarkable as princes and rulers. Agothocles, the tyrant of all Si cily, son of a common porter, thief, soldier, centurion, general, and pirate, the defeater of the Carthaginians, both in Sicily and Africa, forced to fly his camp by his re b e l soldiers, who cut the throats of his children ; he then relieved:Corfu, burnt the Macedonian fleet, and after ravaging the sea-coast of Italy, was poisoned by his grand son 290 years before Christ. This Agrigentum, now called Girgenti, I was most an xious to see, because of its many ancient Greek and Etruscan antiquities, and its celebrity on the page of his tory ; and there beinc , no steamer for several days to go round to Messina, Syracuse, b and Catania, our Bostonian hired horses to go direct from Palermo to Girgenti. I must here acknowledge the kindness of Doctor Barlow, who finding me complain of feverishness, want of sleep, and headache, gave me a little prescription, and mildly dissuaded me from venturing across the island without go ing in a Latiga, particularly, as he looked at the Bostonian (whose brusque manners struck him as not very compa nionable), he added, with a stranger. Still, however, fate ordered it so to be ; for after one or two vain attempts to get seats to Catania in the diligence, the horses were brought to the door of our hostelry. Upon coming slowly down to the door, Ratkins was mounted upon the best horse, with the easiest saddle, well and comfortably pad ded with goatskin ; the muleteer guide lashing our luggage on to the next best horse, soon mounted, and the wretched back, badly caparisoned, was left for me, or none. What " cannot be cured must be endured," says the proverb. Off we set ; and, oh ! what a journey ! Tife heat was ex cessive, the roads intolerable, my wretched horse con stantly stumbling ; it was just the merest shade better than walking. The guide kept with his Yankee companion, from a quarter of a mile to half a mile a-head. Thus in misery I travelled—no halt, no refreshment—until two in the afternoon, when weary, fevered, exhausted, we sat down to nothing but cold meat, bread, and wine ; and, after one hour's repose, onward was the word. Again we traversed, up hill, down dale, through half-cultivated and barren fields ; one dried-up river, with glaring, hot, huge smooth white stones, we crossed eleven times : this hot, pebbly bed in the winter contains a rapid, foaming stream, and the travellers are guided with long poles and athletic guide . s over the fordable parts of this river, called the Passa Fondata. We came to pass the night at a miserable village. I was so restless, had such a dread of the night, that I begged, for God's sake, my American fellow-traveller to go and buy me a little laudanum ; to protect himself from disturbance he did so, but my sleep was unnatural and fe verish, dreamy and restless. No coffee in the morning— to horse at daybreak—" we should meet with some on the road." In vain did I beg on the way a little milk or tea, or anything to assuage my burning thirst ; they were both, guide and Bostonian, obdurate to my calls, to my distress. Many times did I alight to drink at wells of water covered with insects, to lead my horse down steep declivities, with scarcely strength to remount. On the unfeeling brutes went, regardless of my cries for a little delay, or help to tie my broken reins, girth, &c. And thus was I compelled, pale as a ghost, and all but dead, to follow the Sicilian and the Bostonian into the city of Girgenti, to a beggarly pub lic-house. Never shall I forget their barbarous conduct : the Sicilian might have got something by my death—my watch, my rings, my purse, my clothes ; but nothing can ever palliate the conduct of this little hare-lipped Bosto nian, when he must have thought I was in the arms of death. When the muleteer came and whined over me, smoothing down my limbs as Mrs. Gamp might those of a departing patient, even then did that American come and taunt me for not paying the whole of my journey, when the first half to all appearance was costing me my life. Oh ! I have heard of slave-captains, the callous hearts of traders in human blood ; but that cold-blooded, hare-lipped little man, or demon of Boston, would have out-lago'd them all. I pray God his fellow-townsmen may see this relation of his conduct, and that it may pre vent his recommittal of such atrocious cruelty as he dis played to me in that memorable crossing on horseback from Palermo to Girgenti, by the longest and most diffi cult route, in two days. After three days' confinement to my little room, attended only by an old Sicilian guide, who nursed me as if I had been his brother—(he was the good Samaritan after my Bostonian Pharisee had left me, with threatenings of re venge for fancied grievances and imaginary insults ; the little malevolent cur barking at the dying lion was gone for ever, and I breathed more freely)—l was led out and helped to dress by my old white-haired Sicilian guide. I crawled down to the Consul, who, with his lady, shewed me great kindness. He invited me to spend an evening, when better, at his beautiful mansion, which I accepted ; he also recommended me to a very kind, excellent man, a Mr. Williams, who got me medicine, paid every attention in his power, and, as he was coming to Palermo, we joined i n a Litiga together as fellow-travellers. How happy, how grateful to God was I when I met with this good man ; so truly humane, so kind, so considerate, and he was only engineer and superintendent of a sulphur mine, and Rat kins was an American gentleman. It was in very deed Hyperion to a satyr. Daily I gained strength, and often looking from Mr. Williams' apartment, situated on the highest part of the lofty Girgenti, I inhaled the life-giving breeze from the glittering sea, looked at the ruined tem ples that studded the plain leading down to the sea through his telescope, and was soon, by Mr. Williams' a ttention and kindness, able to walk down personally to inspect and thoroughly examine those vast relics of ancient tombs, temples, and altars. The modern town of Gir genti contains 15,000 inhabitants, and but one street fit for carriages to pass. There are but few antiquities in the town : a Latin inscription of the time of the Antonines— part of the old Roman wall, now built upon, once part of the temple of Jupiter. In the cathedral down in the val ley is a font made out of a sarcophagus, the basso-relievos of which are still beautiful. There is also in this cathe dral an Etruscan vase of rare size and beauty ; also two antique gold paterw. Near the monastery of San Nicolo is part of the palace of a Roman praetor. It is a most lovely stroll down the mountain upon which Girgenti stands, amongst wild fig and almond trees, into the vast plain, like another but more fruitful Compagna of Rome, and to have your fevered brow fanned by the sea-breeze, as you examine, gaze upon, and measure the spoils yet left by all-destroying time. Here is the tomb of Thero ! the Temple of Concord ! that also of Castor and Pollux, and the vast one to the Olympian Jove ! with its gigantic statue prostrate on the grass. Large columns only remain of the once-beautiful temple of Juno Lucina ; that of Her cules is yet more huge and fragmentary. Out of these ruins, where wild foliage flourishes on the decayed archi tecttire, the hawk now flits forth, and wild birds scream. Sublimely yon ocean rolls ; the wind rustles among the trees, reclining among fallen columns, once supporting lofty temples, crowded with worshippers. How frail do all the works of mortal man appear ! how lasting, t rue , sublime, and beautiful the works of God Talk of anti quities left by mortal men, why they are in comparison but things of yesterday. The sun, moon, stars, moun tains, oceans, rocks — these are the only true antiques ! The eternal yesterday, to-day, and for ever, sweep away all other frail memorials of monarchs, cities, temples, tombs and altars : great names indeed are nonentities. " Pyramids, arches, and obelisks, are but the irregularities of vain glory and wild enormity of ancient magnanimity. 'Tis all one to lie in St. Nicholas' church-yard as in the sands of Egypt—to be content with six feet anywhere as if covered by the moles of Hadrian. The Egyptian mum mies which Cambyses bath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummy is become merchandise, Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharoali is sold for balsams. Darkness and light di vide the course of time. Oblivion shares with memory.' NOTICES. The History of the Hundred of Wirral, with a Sketch of the City and County of Chester, compiled from the earliest authentic records. By William Williams Mor timer. London: Whittaker and Co. Birkenhead: Law and Pinkney. Chester: George Pritchard and Edward Parry. Had it ever been the case that there had previously been extant anything like a history of that now important por tion of the county of Chester, which is comprised in the Hundred of Wirral, this volume, detailing as it does, the vast changes which the locality has sustained during the past ten years, would have deserved to be regarded as a valuable addition to our stock of topographical literature. Hitherto, however, no such history has existed, the only notices, very brief, of Wirral being to be found in county histories, by far the best of which—that of Mr. Ormerod —having been published by subscription, the larger size for fifty guineas, and the smaller for twenty-five, with a very limited number of copies indeed, is now almost shut from the sight of all save the few gentry in the county, in whose libraries it is to be found. Other historians, whose works are more easily to be got at, confine themselves almost entirely to notices of the city of Chester, and other important localities in the county, the northern portion of Wirral, at the time they were written, not having emerged from obscurity. Indeed the only attractive portion of its history, or of the enquiries suggested by it—viz., the fact whether the present peninsula of Wirral has always existed in its present shape—belonging quite as much to the his tory of the port of Liverpool as to Cheshire, the history of the few hamlets which it contained excited little or no interest. The application of the powers of steam to the propul sion of vessels, and the appearance of a steam boat on the Mersey in the year 1821, for the first time, imparted im portance to the northern and hitherto neglected portion of the Hundred, facing the port of Liverpool. Birken head from this time commenced its onward progress, gradually at first, but with the certainty of continuous in crease. The strand from Bebington to Liscard became a favourite resort for our mercantile classes and their fami lies in the summer months; and neat houses for their ac comodation began to diversify the hitherto neglected country in the interior of the peninsula. The project of forming a handsome town at Birkenhead was first enter tained in 1824, by the late Wm. Laird, Esq., and a por tion of Hamilton-square was erected, and the streets im mediately adjacent were laid out. The same gentleman directed his attention to the capabilities of Wallasey Pool; and in 1827 the entire property was purchased by him, in conjunction with Sir J. Tobin, and surveyed for dock purposes by Messrs. Nimmo, Telford, and Robert Stephenson. In the following year it was purchased by the Liverpool Corporation; and the idea of its conversion into docks being abandoned, the locality seemed fated to remain in its comparative insignificance for another half century, and certainly would not for some time to come have called for any great notice from the antiquarian or historian. The rapid progress, however, which it has made during the last ten years, have again changed the face of things; and the thousands, now congregated along the whole eastern shore of the Hundred, must feel a na tural interest to learn the past condition of the soil upon which they have located themselves, the names, titles, and conditions of its old families, the history of the frag ments of antiquity—of the monuments of the industry and power of the generations which have gone before them, and which the hand of modern improvement is fast sweep ing away,—and to trace the process by which the solitary wastes and the barren strand have been subdued and con verted into the busy resorts of commerce or the luxurious homes of modern wealth. With them we hail the ap pearance of the present volume. We know of no man more capable than Mr. Mortimer of producing a work of the kind, requiring as it does the exercise of great industry and research, together with an extensive acquaintance amongst those county families, from whose old records so much calculated to throw light upon the past is to be de rived. With respect to the recent progress of the Hun dred, and especially of Birkenhead, he has witnessed the whole proceedings; and, indeed, of some of their details he may say with Eneas "quorum pars magna fui." We must, however, proceed to give a brief description of the arrangement of the work. The opening chapter, from page 1 to page 50, is occu pied with a brief sketch of the history of England, from the earliest ages of which we have record, to the division of the soil amongst the Norman followers of the Conqueror ; and although the author apologizes for the length of this chapter, yet such length has been plainly rendered neces sary to enable the reader to comprehend thoroughly the position of the country at the period from which the prin cipal families in the hundred date their titles. The re trospect is also interesting from the fact that Chester, its capital, was a city of note both in the time of the Romans, and as having been in the time of the Saxons the capital of the kingdom of Mercia, and its chief defence for many centuries, both before and after the conquest, against the hostile incursions of the Welsh. The second chapter, pages 51 to 134, a most interesting one, is devoted to a history of the city of Chester, from its early obscurity to the time of the Romans, by whom it was used as a place of great resort and strength, and an important and flourishing port, and subsequently through the Saxon era up to the present day, when it has almost ceased to merit that title. We have in this chapter de tailed the share taken by its citizens in the various rebel lions and wars of the Saxon monarchs, in their resistance to the Normans, in the civil wars of the Roses and, later, the sufferings of the city from its loyal adherence to the royalist cause, from which time its prominence ceased, as we do not find that the citizens interfered in the attempt to re-introduce the Stuart dynasty, after its expulsion from the throne by the Prince of Orange. The ecclesi astic history connected with Chester is also luminously traced. _ _ _ . . Pages 135 to 170 are occupied with a general descriptive account of the hundred, the state of its climate, roads, cultivation, &c., together with a very interesting inquiry into the probable condition of the estuaries of the Dee and Mersey in early periods. Pages 171 to 304 contain sufficient notices of various parishes and places in the hundred, with the antiquities to be found in them ; and page 304 commences a history of " Claughton and ancient Birkenhead," which is traced from the Norman conquest to the present day, and necessarily occupies a considerable portion of the work extending to page 405. The past his tory and present condition of the now important town of Birkenhead, together with every particular connected with its general and financial affairs, form one of the most important features of the work. We have al ready spoken of the peculiar fitness of Mr. Mortimer for this part of his task ; and only feel bound to say here that he has executed it with great judgment and fairness. It may appear singular to a reader of this notice, not con versant with the affairs of the locality, that we should use the latter word in speaking of such a publication. The initiated, however, will understand us well ; and for those who are not so it will be sufficient to explain that this portion relates to the proceedings of, and has been written amongst, a community which unfortunately is greatly divided at present, and yet that it cannot be said to have any leaning of praise or dispraise towards either. The work concludes with a most interesting appendix, con taining extracts from some of the authorities who have been consulted. It is also interspersed throughout with valuable notes ; and contains a map of the hundred and several illustrations. We congratulate Mr. Mortimer upon the manner in which he has executed his arduous task, and trust that his work will meet the extensive sale which it deserves. The Drawing Room Magazine for September and Octo ber. London : Houlston, and Stoneman, and Bogue. This monthly publication, in addition to devoting a considerable portion of its columns to articles of choice literatire, affords much information interesting, and we may almost say in the present day, indispensable, to ladies, on the subject of fancy needle work. Each part contains a number of beautifully executed coloured drawings of ornamental and useful articles, which are accompanied with ample directions for their manufacture. In the number for October are given engravings of a knitted shell mat, crochet cheese doyley, neck tie in. Grecian netting, and crochet couch or chair cushion. The design of the cover of the magazine is the most chaste and delicately beautiful one we have ever seen. Hogg's Weekly Instructor contains much that is valu able and entertaining , and is enriched with a beautifully engraved portrait of Professor William Allen, whose name was very prominently identified with the cause of slavery abolition, and of whom a well written biography is given in the pages of the number before us. Where so much is excellent we are slow to find fault, but we think the style and sentiments of the articles entitled " Reminiscences of a tour to England," by the Rev. G. Gilfillan, are not, on the whole, creditable to that gentleman, though portions of them may be impartial and graffic. The half-yearly volume of Sharpe's London Magazine offers an extraordinary mass of excellent matter, as in structive as interesting, and is embellished with six large exquisitely fine engravings. An attempt to enumerate the contents of this volume is utterly vain, but they are not the less valuable in kind, notwithstanding. The new editor promises in the preface of this volume to render his pages still more attractive by " introducing a higher and purer style of writing than has hitherto been observable in the pages, and to make perceptible in the tales and stories a deeper and more elevated tone of feeling." He also announces his intention of giving more frequent no tices and reviews of new publications. Religion and Poetry. Nisbet and Co, London. This work consists of a considerable number of selec tions from the poetical works of the Rev. R. Montgomery, who, as our readers well know, has devoted his genius and talents to the service of Christianity, and done all in his power to cement the alliance of poetry and religion. The compiler has classified the extracts under their appropriate heads, and seems to have culled the most interesting passages from the author's poems. A very effective and elaborately written criticism, on the poetry of the rev. gentleman, is given in the volume in the shape of an in troductory essay. The writer of it is Archer Gurney, the author of " King Charles the First," &c. The critic's opinion will no doubt be read with some degree of inter. est, since, as he well observes, " there are few subjects on which more conflicting opinions have been expressed than the degree of merit attributable to Mr. Montgomery's poetical works." VARIETIES. Liverpool has become one of the first, if not the first, corn ports in Europe. THE TONGUE.—By examining the tongue of their patient, physicians discover the diseases of the body ; and philosophers, the diseases of the mind.—Poynder. INGATESTONE, ESSEX. —This word, in Saxon, signifies " The One God's stone," having been anciently so called by our Saxon invaders, who found there the Christian cross erected in opposition to the many false gods of their idolatry, THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. SIA',COND EDITION. Standard-office, Two o'clock. LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE-THIS DAY, Having a tolerable number of vessels into this port since Fri. day, the arrivals of the week comprise a rather better supply of grain coastwise and from Ireland than of late, with a fair increase of Wheat and other Grain from abroad, and of States Flour 20,737 barrels. Although we had a good attendance of country millers at this morning's market, the trade for Wheat was exceedingly dull, losing the advance of Friday, and prices settling rather below the rates of this day week. For Flour also there was rather less activity in the trade, at prices rather over those of Tuesday last. Barley Is. to 2s. per quarter dearer, with a fair demand. Malt unvaried. Pease scarce, and dearer. Oats Id. per bushel cheaper; Oatmeal steady in value, with a moderate demand. Indian Corn in mode Tate request, at a decline of is. to 2s. per 4801 b. Indian Meal in fair demand; no alteration in price, C I t, • t:i ti C:1 9 m B',q .-.; --.4, .„ 4t ., 1 nntr,l ~ 2m ~1..‹ gP,m 0 cgil §la. g 5; ~. ..T, •0 (14.:, vd .3 ' , 2' , ';2t , T, ' At' ~„ d) 0 0 En ~, ii i . ~3 ,;,, P-....x. -4.0 , ' z.,: , = 0 tv . ii F . .. CD I 9... 0 too r 7 el „D. 9, ,, "0 0x...-d ni., 0 oR oa„. „, Et) F . F . ..g y. 24 07454 , P, , ,,. ' m c'. ~ 5 . 5 . ~,i4 c4,4i . .9.' n t.';' 7 2 ,: . x .=. ca 0 = 2,='m ' - =.9* 8 ,=, e?. °gr. ' 4 . ; n, Pm ~.11 . = .0 ~,I CD .. ' P a . R.T, la 1 4 ,, i; g g ." a 41 .l. ~..``' 9 ...0 - 0 . 0 a: i r- 2 ;:'• g.' =.. ~ 0. p. c. 5' 7, 1 = a• 9 ,-,-, '.. 4- p*, -Z' n n M 1 , 2 g . P 1 9 • 4 't ,C r: Ei 23 2 .„ ~. :,..., `•C ~,,,* e, 7 2 ''' ~7. : 'i i . Et ° c ,d4 : : • r: f .,* ..--, • .t. i, ... P. : • ,0,0 • • 0, 0. • •CTCa • C. 3 40 . ..4 • 00 • • 47) .f.. C. .1• ciD • C., • 4 ....• ='• . . ... C . aC. • . • 0.. co • C 3 ~..2 • 4 , D 0 mac. Ca • 0 P • ... 1I 0 , . p: CO tZ r . M tri 1. 1 • • • : : : 4LI ~, : t r , :; 5 : l e, Qo IC F.,. c oc, I _ 2z : ca :3 § : . . . I s o F_D, .1.0 e-.• c ; 9l .v.. 2 NUTRIMENT IN COFFEE.—M. Rayen, from elaborate experiment, shows that coffee slightly roasted is that ' which contains the maximum of aroma, weight, and nu trition. He declares coffee to be very nutritious, as it contains a large quantity of azote : three times as much nutriment as tea ; and more than twice the nourishment of soup (bouillon). Chicory contains only half the nu ' triment of coffee. M. Rayen has also succeeded in ob taining from coffee an extract in the form of a white crys talline substance, capable of giving a deep green colour to 5,000 times its weight of water or spirit. A REMARKABLE INCIDENT. — The late Chamberlain of London (Mr. Clark) told ,the narrator that he well re membered in 1746 (his father then residing in the Mino ries) seeing the glittering of the executioner's axe in the sun as it fell upbn Mr. Radcliffe's neck. He was the brother of Lord Derwentwater, who had been beheaded before (in the Rebellion of 1715). Mr. Radcliffe had himself been convicted of treason, together with his bro ther, and had then effected his escape; but finding exile intolerable, and making his appearance so many years after, in the vain expectation that he should escape de tection, it became very difficult to identify his person ; which probably would never have been done, had not the barber, who had formerly shaved him in the Tower (as many as thirty-one years before) positively sworn to his person !—Poynder's Literary Extracts. TREATMENT OF BLIND CHILDREN. — Every day, and almost every hour, reminds the blind child of its priva tion; and its discipline is so severe, that almost any de gree of indulgence in the parent would be excusable, .if it were not clearly the first duty to consider the ultimate welfare of the child. It is natural to the sighing mother to watch over its safety with a nervous anxiety, to go before it to clear its way, to have it always at her knee, and to make everybody and everything give way to it. But she must remember that her child is not destitute, and for ever helpless, because it has one sense less than other people. It has the wide world of the other four senses to live in, and a vaster mental and moral world than it will ever learn fully to use : and she must let it try what it can make of its possessions. She will find that it learns like others that fire burns and that bruises are disagreeable, and that it can save itself from burns and bruises by using its senses of touch and hearing. She will encourage it in the cheerful work of shifting for it self, and doing, as far as possible, what other people do. The wise and benevolent Dr. Howe tells us of the chil dren who come to the Blind School at Boston, that for the first two or three days they are timid and forlorn— having been accustomed to too much care from their mo thers, who will not let them cross the floor without being sure that there is nothing in the way. But they presently enter into the free and cheerful spirit of the house, use their faculties, feel their way boldly, and run, climb, swing, and play as merrily as any other children. That school is a little world of people with four senses—not so happy a one as if they had five, but a very good one, ne vertheless ; sufficiently busy, safe, and cheerful for those who use heartily such powers as they have. Miss Mar tineau in the People's Journal. MR. MUNTZ, M.P. FOR BIRMINGHAM. — Looking at the exterior of Mr. Muntz, one would be far, indeed, from believing that he is so sensible a man as, his vagaries of dress set aside, he really is. Of all the oddities in Parlia ment, he is the one who. especially goes out of his way to make himself an object for laughter, by flying in the face of all ordinary custom as to dress and manners. How he could have at first brought himself to adopt the semi-bar barous costume he wears, it is almost impossible for any man of ordinary habits of mind to conceive ; but he cer tainly has persisted in it with a steadfastness, and has de fied public opinion with a bravery, worthy of a better cause. Mr. Muntz is naturally a man of herculean pro portions : he has a large head, large body, large limbs. But he is also what is called a " heavy" man, especially in his gait. He has, however, a handsome countenance, and a well-formed person ; and, with a very slight attention to the choice of his dress, he would be universally regarded as a very fine and striking exception to the usual forms of humanity in these days of degeneracy and effeminacy, when men seem to think that they approach the nearer to the highest standard of gentility the more they adopt the habits and manners of women. Rubens would have glo ried in Mr. Muntz for a model. Forget his outre dress, and you might think you had before you some magnificent old feudal baron, with nobility and command in every look and gesture. But the Mr. Muntz whom you see in the House of Commons, or whom you meet in the street, - stalking along with the strides of a Seven-league-Boots,— like an ogre, with club in hand, seeking his breakfast,—is a very different person. His face is almost covered with an enormous mass of dark hair ; his coat large and loose, might fit a giant ; and his trousers are two sacks, joined at the hither end. At each long stride he disposes of nearly a yard of ground, and he bears in his hand, where with he strikes the ground, as if with a paving-rammer, something between a stick and the trunk of a tree,—a sort of gigantic club, or shillelagh, the like of which, for size, you would not find in Tipperary. Surely it is Fee-fi-fo-fum come out for his morning walk ! Or, fancy a Cossack dropped in London, and straying into the Minories, fitting himself out at Moses and Son's, hap-hazard, with the largest clothes he could find ! Lately, Mr. Muntz visited a continental capital, famous for the enormous beards of its male inhabitants, where the hair, in fact, is gaining such an ascendancy, is encroaching so, on the nobler fea tures of the face, that, ere long, it will leave but the eyes ungarnished, so that a man will literally look like an owl in a bush. Well, here, one would have thought, Mr. Muntz might have expected to be athome—to pass unno ticed, among the hirsute monsters who abound. But, no. What was the fact ? You heard him spoken of only as " the Englishman with the beard 1 2! This was the sole name by which he was known. And the most singular part of the matter is, that this propensity for outrd dress appears to run in the family. Occasionally, you may see in London, and often in Birmingham, three living things, walking abreast in the street, that make you think invo luntarily of a certain establishment in the Regent's Park. They belong to no order known to naturalists, yet are evi dently of the same species. The largest of the three is as we have described him. There is then a second, with not quite such a large club, and not quite such loose dress, not quite so elephantine a stride ; and on the other side, there is a third, a young specimen of the species, not fully deve loped, but rapidly approaching the hirsute state. They naturally excite great interest in the passers-by, who, at first somewhat alarmed by. this fierce looking trio, soon become reassured when they discover that they are singu larly mild in their habits, and that there is an orderly effect produced by their striding simultaneously, and rap ping their clubs on the ground in exact time. This at once removes all idea of wildness or ferocity, and wholly dissipates fear.—Praser's Magazine for October. BURIALS IN THE EARLY AGES OF CHRISTIANITY. — Christianity has the great merit of having discovered the poesy of the grave. From the outset it abhorred the Pa gan custom of burning the dead ) and faithful to its Jewish origin, and mindful of Christ'S.burial, it renewed the old Roman custom of interring the departed. This was the origin of the catacombs. The, early Christians loved to be deposited with, or near the Martyrs, and grounds for bu rial capable of receiving a large number of the dead were wholly wanting. The population of Rome, Naples, Alex andria, and Syracuse was so great, that there was scarcely room enough for the living. To find new receptacles for the dead became an urgent, necessity. It is true, that digging into the bowels of • the earth for the purpose of, entombing the bodies of the dead was no new operation.. Egypt and Etruria had in their time set the example. The one idea of immortality, led to similar results in different. creeds. The early Christians found their cities of the dead already prepared for them., Paris, in our own time,, stands upon a soil which is hollowed throughout. The limestone upon which Paris stands was taken from beneath to supply the wants of the builders. Rome, in likoman ner, has a second and subterraneous town of vast extent, with its streets and squares in endless number. Nor it is without its inhabitants. In this town did Christians seek refuge from Pagan persecution, and here did they likewise inter their dead. The caves and passages were not dug by Christian hands, but were discovered already made,. They date from the last century of the republic, when the clay upon which Rome stands was required by the mania then raging for extensive and fnagnificent structures. The Christians took possession of the hollows and enlarged them ; the work, was by no means difficult,, for the clay was soft and plastic. It was after the time of Constantine that the catacombs came into more general use. Martyrs were more revered subsequently to the reign of this. Em peror than before it, for martyrdom became less easy of achievement.,The chief martyrs had found a resting-place in the catacombs. Churches rose above their remains, from which, secret and sacred doors led, into the City of the Dead, the cemetery of the saints. Itwas at the pe riod to which we refer that the regularly-formed spacious catacombs- were first fashioned—a fact established by the date of the coffins, all of which belong to a time later than that of the Emperor Constantine. The wealthier mem bers of the community constructed small chapels in the catacombs for the reception of the bodies of their relations and friends. These chapels are for the most part situated at the crossing of passages or at the end of them, in which latter case the chapels forms the termination of one parti cular passage. They are most important as indices to the development of art. Besides the curious character and beauty of the architecture, they afford specimens of the most ancient grave paintings that we know of. Their walls and ceilings are covered with a thin crust of gypsum, upon which the colours were laid. Not unfrequently we find ornaments of stucco and marble. Altars and stone seats, too, are found in these chapels. An astonishing number of skeletons have been discovered in the passages by which the chapels are connected r, it was not the cus tom, as now, to bury the dead beneath the floor and to cover the grave with a stone slab. The bodies were placed in niches of from three to six feet in length. Sometimes four and six together, one above the other. The corse of a departed brother was thrust into one of these niches; a lamp and some tool, explanatory of the trade he had fol lowed in life, were placed beside him, and then the aper ture was walled up, and lastly covered with a thin marble slab, bearing an inscription and the particulars of the life and death of the departed. Church service was frequently performed in the catacombs, yet not in the days of perse cution. It was after Constantine that these tombs were used for such a purpose. On Sabbath days they were open to the public and were much visited. Devotion, love for departed relatives, and mere curiosity, carried vast numbers to these silent halls. Saint Jerome tells us of his having often 'explored them with his comrades whilst he was still a student in Rome ; and he lived some three hundred and fifty years after the death of Christ. The catacombs were but badly lighted at first, light being ad mitted by a few apertures only in the roofs of the chapels. At a later period, great care was taken to prevent visitors losing their way amidst the labyrinth of passages. The guardianship of the catacombs was confided to a certain body of the clergy, who went under the name offossores, or gravediggers. It was their office to inspect the cha pels and passages, to point out the places where new pas sages might be formed, and to portion out and sell the spots in which burials might take place. The water in the wells of the catacombs was subsequently found to possess the virtue of healing to a marvellous degree. Nay, even the use of the drinking-cups found in the catacombs was sufficient to cure several diseases.—srackwoo4' B 411-ay• tO .4.• --I C.., . 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" • . . : t` , 0 •-• • : N :• • - .87 P •-,, • b., ••• • . cr. g. i 3 • • • • • —• • 0, •• • - cr. f,' F 6 1..1 t.. 1 ••••I C. 7, 0 • 0 -L- '. 5 . • 0 . .1 . . . . • . • . • I • • I . .• 1 • • • _ CA C, --T • ••-T 811 : ta : !.4.• • o• • g P CONTINUED ADVERSITIES .—As hot-mettled horses require severer discipline than those of the ordinary class, so the strong corruptions of some individuals render more powerful remedies essential in their management ; and it will accordingly be found, that they themselves are among the first to justify the wisdom of the divine procedure by acknowledging, with gratitude, in their better moments, the absolute necessity of such a course of treatment. — Poynder's Literary Extracts. LORD ROSSE'S LEVIATHAN TELESCOPE.—To the frame of this vast instrument is fixed a large cubical wooden box, about eight feet wide, in which there is a door, through which two men go in to remove, or to replace, the cover of the mirror. To this box is fastened the tube, which is made of deal staves, and hooped like a huge cask. It is about 40 feet long, and 8 feet diameter in the mid dle. The Dean of Ely walked through the tube with an umbrella up ! Dr. Scoresby, who has- viewed the moon through this huge telescope, states that every object on the moon's surface, 100 feet high, may be distinctly seen. There are craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks, and num berless masses of stones : but there are no signs of habi tations—no vestiges of architectural remains—to show that the moon is, or ever was, inhabited by a race of mortals similar to ourselves. It presents .no appearance which can lead to the supposition that it contains any thing like the green fields and lovely verdure of this beautiful world of ours. There is no water visible ; not a sea, or a river, or even the measure of, a reservoir for supplying town or factory ; all seems desolate.— Sharpe's London Magazine. ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH ON A WEEKDAY.—That distinguished Christian philosopher; Robt. Boyle, amongst other pious acts, thou must know, founded lectures in this church of St. Mary-le-Bow, for the defence of natural and revealed religion. They are eight in number, to be preached on as many Mondays in the year ; and they are delivered on the first Monday in each month from January to May, and from September to November. This was the first of the autumnal course ; and, wilt thou credit it, there was but a congregation of some four of us to hear it l 0 tempora, 0 mores ! A Boyle lecture in the parish church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, in the midst of one of the densest crowds of this densely crowded Chris tian city of ours—a lecture in defence of the Christianxe ligion in a city where, above almost all other cities of Christendom, the Christian religion most needs to be de fended. if only against the abuses of it by those profess edly Christian citizens themselves—and there can only be found four persons to listen to it, out of probably some four hundred thousand who live and move within sound of the church bells ! Independently of the sermon, or lec ture, there was the morning prayer. But even this rare opportunity of enjoying the privilege of public worship on a week-day morn was slighted by the hordes of Christian men, and churchmen—or people calling themselves such, at least—who were swarming in all directions around this open sanctuary ! Can the church be in a healthy state — can her clergy be exerting themselves as they ought to do —where such contempt for sacred things prevails ?: Im possible !—Oxford and Cambridge Review. POWER OF ENGLAND.—It is a suggestive fact that Eng land did not become a colonising and commercial nation until Protestantism was established, and the Bible trans lated for dissemination in distant lands. A maritime and mercantile nation appears to have been specially chosen by the Supreme Disposer of Events for this hallowed pur pose. The English language is now more extensively spo ken than any other in the world, and in due time will most probably be the medium of communication among all na tions ; the British sovereignty is more widely spread than that of any known empire ; the richest plains, the loftiest mountains, the largest rivers, the most capacious lakes, the best-placed islands, the securest havens, and the strongest fortresses, are all within the dominions of your Majesty ; the commerce and wea lth of this empire haveno parallel in ancient or modern record ; enterprisf, skill, and capital, have brought the most d is t a nt regions of the earth, by steam navigation , within constant, speedy, and certain communication : and the blessings of civil and re ligious liberty—of political and moral freedom—are firmly established throughout an empire on which the sun never sets. Such have been the glorious results of the princi ples established and inculcated by the regal predecessor of your Majesty, Queen Elizabeth ; their, operating effects were manifest in the foundation of colonies—in the exten sion of commerce—and in the dissemination of a pure Chri4ianity, to which colonies and commerce have largely contributed. Yet the British empire is but in the infancy of its power, and we have scarcely commenced the moral and spiritual duties for which dominion has been granted. —Montgomery Martin's China. THE. MEMBER FOR LINCOLN.—Once for all, let it be observed, that however much one may be tempted to laugh. from time to time at Colonel Sibthorp, he is not to be regarded, as many persons who see him for the first time are inclined to regard him, as a person simply ridi culous. There is a method even in what seems to be on his part sheer folly. It is impossible to avoid laughing at his grotesque figure and attitudes, or at his simulated gravity, when assailed on all- sides by the merriment of his audience ; nor is it without an admixture of that pity which is not the most flattering to a man's amour propre, that one sees the imploring yet half-despairing glances he casts from time to time from under his shaggy eyebrows, up towards the gallery appropriated to the press. But these oddities are constantly redeemed by the sound sense and forcible, if rather rude, truth of his observations. Nor should we forget that Colonel Sibthorp has done something. He is one of the few " private" members of the House of Commons (" private", that is to say; as distinguished from the leaders or direct servitors of party) who have defeated a government. We need hardly re mind the reader that we refer to that memorable motion of the gallant colonel, the result of which was the reduc tion of the proposed Ate to Prince Albert of £50,000 a year to £30,000. This was a great triumph for Colonel Sibthorp—the grand event of his life. It was at a time when the Whigs, if not still in the plenitude of the power they purchased by the Reform Bill, were, nevertheless, the dominant party in the House of Commons. In spite of strenuous efforts they were defeated ; and their annoy ance was the more acute, because the disgrace came from a quarter where it involved ridicule also. It was then that Colonel Sibthorp was a study. Not Sir Robert Peel himself, when the government was within his grasp, co could be more confident of success, or more proudly n scious of his position. His bearing, his air of grandeur and self-importance, were the very sublime of the mock heroic. To see him one would have supposed that, anti cipating the result, he already contemplated a mission from Windsor or Buckingham Palace, with her Majesty's commands to form a new ministry. But the best part of the affair consisted in the patronising airs he assumed towards the Conservative leaders. Translated , they said, as plainly as gestures could speak, " You, Sir Robert and Lord Stanley, the great Conservative statesmen of the age, have been striving in vain for years to g et a ma j orit y of the house; but 1, Colonel Sibthorp, who never have held, and never would hold, a g overnment office, have but to come forward, and I succeed, even with the com bined influence of the ministers and the Queens name against me !" Much of the license of speech since ac corded to Colonel Sibthorp is to be trace d t o this suceess4 —J'raser, THE LIFE OF OYSTERS.—Oysters lead, on the whole, ' as is known, a tolerably quiet life ; but even they cannot get through this world, it appears, without their troubles. Now they are attacked by a kind of star-fish that lies watching till they open their shell to take in fresh water, and then darts in its long tough arms, kills them, and ! consumes them in a fresher state than they have ever yet been enjoyed by any epicure; now their sorrows proceed from within, in the shape of a small worm that destroys them ; and sometimes, according to the testimony of the people of Sylt, they are attacked successfully by a bird called thence an oyster-fisher, who disturbs their tran quillity whenever he can find an opportunity of introdu cing his long sharp beak. When this may be, however, does not seem very clear. There are also various diseases by which they are occasionally attacked; but those who are so fortunate as to escape these dangers, pass their time comfortably enough, for thirty or forty, or even up to a hundred years, unless fate has allotted them the more honourable destiny of being dredged up, packed into barrels, and sent off to Copenhagen, Berlin, Ham burg, or St. Petersburg, where their merits are duly ap preciated.—People's Journal. FATE OF ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE BANK.—Mr. Michael Godfrey, to whose exertions, with those of Wm. Paterson, may be traced the successful establishment of the Bank, met with a somewhat singular fate in 1695. Previously to this year, the allied armies had retreated before the wisdom of Louis and the bravery of his soldiers. The funds supplied by the new corporation changed the scene but the transmission of specie was difficult and full of hazard, and Mr. Godfrey left his peaceful habita tion to visit Namur, then vigorously besieged by the Eng lish monarch. The Deputy Governor, willing to flatter the King, anxious to forward his mission, or possibly imagining the vicinity of the Sovereign to be the safest place he could choose, ventured into the trenches. "As you are no adventurer in the trade of war, Mr. Godfrey," said William, " I think you should not expose yourself to the hazard of it." " Not being more exposed than your Majesty," was the courtly reply, " should I be excusable if I showed more concern ?" " Yes !" returned William, " I am in my duty, and therefore have a more reasonable claim to preservation." A cannon-ball at this moment answered the " reasonable claim to preservation," by kill ing Mr. Godfrey, with several officers near the king, and it requires no great stretch of imagination to fancy a sa turnine smile passing over the countenance of the mo narch, as he beheld the fate of the citizen who had payed so heavy a penalty for playing the courtier in the trenches of Namur. Tradition states that Mr. Godfrey's remains, which were buried in the churchyard of St Christopher le Stocks, were disinterred to make room for the enlarge ment of that prosperous establishment in which he once felt so deep an interest, and in the service of which he may be said to have fallen.--History of the Bank of England. • THE OXFORD COLLEGES AT THE LATE ELECTION. — Mr. Round's stronghold was St. Edmund Hall. Forty one members of convocation from that society recorded their votes in his favour, while four only were found to uphold his adversary. Next to Edmund Hall, he was most successful at New College, where the votes were more than two to one onn his side. After New College, Jesus was his best friend, giving him a majority of about seven to four. Worcester' voted for him in the ratio of about three to two ; Magdalen Hall, Wadham, and Mag dalen College, in that of five to four. Even, however, where he had a preponderance of votes, it was seldom that the foundations were at all decidedly in his favour. At Jesus, where the balance in his favour was the great est, while nine Fellows, with the Principal, took his side, six voted for his adversary. At Worcester, where he had the votes of eight Fellows with the Provost, again six are found opposing him. At New College the balance of Fellows was but nine to eight in his favour ; at Magdalen it was actually against him, fourteen Fellows voting for Mr. Gladstone, while Mr. Round had but eleven on his side. Wadham abstained as much as:possible from pro nouncing an opinion. According to the official returns, it would appear that only four Fellows out of fifteen recorded thei2 votes, and of these one declined to pronounce be tween the rival candidates. Of the other three, two voted in Mr. Gladstone's favour ; one only, with the Warden, took the side of Mr. Round. Thus it would seem that there is not a college in Oxford which can be said, so far as its governing body is concerned, strongly to prefer Mr. Ronnd's to Mr. Gladstone's principles. A few second rate (not to say third-rate) colleges, and one or two halls, do, so far as the members not on the foundation are con cerned; strongly sympathize with Mr. Round and Pro testantism. A considerable number,of the most respec table colleges are pretty nearly balanced as respects the whole body of voters, the governing portion favouring, by a larger or a smaller majority, Mr. Gladstone and church principles. The leading colleges are with Mr. Gladstone decidedly. His great strength lies in Christ Church, Exeter,.and Oriel. To the two former colleges his elec tion must be considered as owing. Had they been evenly divided,. and the other colleges voted as they did, Mr. Round would have been returned by a majority of thirty four votes.—Oxford Review. RAILWAY AFFAIRS. Owing to the delay in perfecting the post-office ar rangements, the Trent Valley Line will not be available for postal matters until the middle of November, if then. Mr. G. Woodhouse, the chief agent of the Chester and Holyhead Contractors, has been presented with a service of plate, to commemorate the completion of the works. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE AND CARLISLE.—An inter mediate dividend has been declared for the half-year end ing the 30th of June last, of £3 per whole share, and in proportion for the quarter shares, such dividend to be paid free from income tax, on and after the 22nd instant. LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER, AND' NEWCASTLE JUNC TION RAILWAY.—At a meeting of the shareholders in this company, held at Manchester, on. Friday, a committee was appointed, to consult with the directors as to the propriety of staying proceedings for the present. At Redcar, on Saturday, at the railway terminus, the goods' office, at a cost of not less than £2OOO, was rapidly approaching completion, when it was visited by fire, and in less than an hour the interior of the building was nearly all destroyed. GREAT WESTERN,—The express trains of this company are now provided with an officer, called a travelling porter, whose, business it is to ride on the tender, and keep a constant look-out ; and on an accident to any of the car riages, a signal from the guard, or any other sufficient cause, he is to communicate with the driver, and stop the train. It is also his duty to see that the carriages forming the train are in every respect fit for. travelling. The arrival platform at the Euston-square station, which is upwards of 900 feet long, and will be covered throughout, will now admit of several trains coming in and despatching their passengers- without the least delay. The departure platform is also to be covered. The diffi culties experienced in starting the trains will be effectually surmounted by the employment of a second booking office and a second departure platform. From official returns it appears that the amount of traffic for the last week, on upwards of 3,152 miles of railway, was £202,320, thus accounted for :—.£107,204 for the conveyance of passengers only, £49,021 for the carriage of goods, and a remainder of £46,095 for pas sengers and goods together, not respectively apportioned ; being an increase of £29,314 ever the corresponding week of last year,__ when the mileage was about 2 , 525 . THE " RAIL" AND THEADEICULTURAL INTEREST. — On Tuesday, seventeen trucks, containing between five and six hundred sheep, and about a dozen oxen, passed, through Lancaster to Manchester by rail, from Sedbergh, in Yorkshire, being about , the weekly average consign ment from that quarter. Before the Lancaster and Car s r I Biite i nnea s rrt l ad e tsaltate ß aocyw did ld l ve w een a kmo y taownficathnhs child, o_ dt p ,h e Lne n ia: e n an d wc ; eaaBdy t h tAte e orn nG a mulvae Manchesterri l n dl ii v aa m n in b . s e , o o m f s s h e e d e b e p a ..11 g h A IHaInLdD singularGl omu ßUßNED eansntee rr T , O lu D il E twh A ae T y DOosNcokmAeß B ranchAt burning La o L A i n D ceo . — ko ef Y ht e has had her death fallen on the line ; the child ran to look at it, when its clothes caught fire,, and it was burned to death. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, accompanying it with a recommendation to the company to the effect that no engine should be used on the branch without an ash box attached to it. In a letter to the Mornini Chronicle, Mr. W. F. Spackman rebukes the " practical" men connected with railways for not helping themselves at the present juncture —"Do the shareholders in railway companies want to limit, restrict, or suspend the calls ? Nothing is easier. The law gives to the shareholders in all companies formed since 1845 the power to call extraordinary meetings, and to controuL and regulate the acts of the directors. If, then, the shareholders in any particular company are con vinced of their folly—if they are unable to pay the calls, or carry out the works—let them meet and apply the remedy : but let them cease to complain of a burden which their own supineness only renders intolerable." EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY.--An extraordinary meeting was held at Bury, on Wednesday, Mr. J. Grundy in the chair, to borrow £232,000, under the provisions of their various acts. The report stated., that although calls have been made upon the shareholders to a large extent, up to the present time the total number of calls in arrear (exclusive of the call now in course of payment) does not exceed £26,000, and that the capital already raised, and authorised by the existing acts, will, it is anticipated, be sufficient to complete the whole of the undertaking, as authoriser.: by parliament. Another call would probably not be made till November, or the end of the year. The resolution was carried. THE NEXT DIVIDENDS. --A correspondent has analysed the receipts of twenty-nine railways, for the week ending September 25, present year, as compared with the cor responding week of 1846, the result of which shocis that there is, so far, no prospect of a diminished dividend. He has shown that the tncrease of receipts is about pro portioned to the increase of mileage in the week selected ; but he has also shown that this week is under the average of the weeks elapsed since the closing of the last half aoafdciffouerresnec, e w a a d s e t e o re b r e se ex a p a ec th t e ed y , e a ar s theye a half year's a s ki accountsngsan and advances. However , i f the additional workin g s be done more eponomically in prop ortion to the excess of distance, as we presume they will be, it will tend to raise the profits. —Herapath. .theTehxacte, EFFECT OF RAILWAYS ON TURNPIKES.—On Thurs day a general meeting of the trustees of the Surrey and Sussex roads was held at the Sessions-house, Newington, for the purpose of letting the tolls arising from the gates and bars at Newington, Camberwell, Kennington, Vaux hall, Kingston, Croydon, East Grinstead, &c., which were put up at the sum of £32,350, for which they were let on the previous year. Much interest was excited on this oc casion, as, in consequence of the extension of the line of the South Western Railway from the Nine Elms to York road, which will cause a loss of revenue of about £6OOO per annum, it was thought that a reduction would be pro posed to that amount. The tolls were put up, but there was no offer for them, and it was stated, in the course of the sale, that during the last four weeks there had been a falling off of £lOO per week in consequence of the rail ways south of the Thames, Oct. 12,184 x. IRISH COMPENSATION CASE.-=-A mud cabin having been purchased to make way for the works of the Navan branch, the tenants at will made a claim of £2O for their interest. On the claim coming before the magistrates. last week, evidence was given that the fee simple of the cabin was worth £B, but £5 would amply compensate the parties (who were only tenants at will) for any trouble they might be put to. The magistrates awarded the claimants £8 for their interest, thus giving them an amount equal to the value of the freehold. Some of the Irish companies are suffering fearful extortions in this way. AMBERGATE RAILWAY. — We mentioned last week that something was on the tapis, and we can now say that de putations from this company and the Great Northern met yesterday, and, we believe, came to a good under standing to arrange terms. Some parts of the Am' bergate line will be abandoned, being those which are most expensive and of bad gradients, going to places . already served by other railways. By this means the capital would be reduced from £2O per share to about £8 per share, and no call made for a very considerable time. The Great Northern to take the line on lease on advantageous terms, a guarantee in perpetuity, with the option of taking Great Northern shares at par when that line is opened from London to York.—Herapath. GLIMPSES THROUGH THE PRESENT GLOOM. — The more general good to be expected from the universal weakness that seems to have disabled the railway body, ig one that we had almost ceased to hope for while its powers continued in full vigour. The debility, we trust, may act as depletion sometimes will on the human subject—bring it, namely to a cooler state, and subdue the quarrelsome tendencies, and over-swelling ambition which have been distracting it of late years, and which, indeed, are one cause of its present diseased state. It may, at least, be expected that we shall have a pause in the career of rivalrY and strife between neighbours, to which many of the bur dens they now find it hard enough to bear are solely due. That which might have been suggested by wise reflection and reasonable views, will surely be gathered from the strict lessons of adversity. We may look to be spared the annoyance of seeing Parliament, for the next session at least, converted into an arena for the members of the railway body to worry each other in. If they have not been taught by hard experience to repent of this pugnacitl, they will, at all events, one may presume, be compelled , by mere want of power, to keep the peace awhile. If not, the country will most certainly " bind them over." The motion going on in all quarters against the outlay of rail way capital already pledged—in cons id era t e as it i s in many respects, and in its sweeping design especially —may have this proportion of good amidst a great deal of error, 66' it will insure a strict eye being kept upon the rash engage ment of new funds in other schemes hereafter. The anxiety now expressed and felt may insure a hearing, tour to certain truths as to the wasteful manner in which " competition " in railway making has been invoked, which have been vainly urged by sensible persons, while the mischief was being applauded by men claiming the title of statesmen. The public will now perhaps consent to be taught that it is not in any way for the interest of the country to spend three millions in making two rival lines for a traffic that could be i ,amply served by one at the cost of one half the money. And it will be pro Per to point out how much of the outlay, now so loudly com plained of, has been promoted solely by the determine' tion of the public, of Parliament and of the Governmen t to hear no reason on this point, but to follow, through thick and thin, the formula and watchwords of certain would-be philosophers. The times are apt for reading some lesson on this head,—not that anything new remoial to be said, but because what has formerly been said and disregarded may now be listened' to, in the presence m the events that illustrate its truth but too dearly.—Bail way Chronicle. RAILWAY ] The following are the receipts that is to say, up to the date t, are made RECEIPTS. t week . s of railways for the P o which the res p e cti v esreturn RAILWAYS. Week ending 1847. Amount. 1 S4G wt. ------ Amiens and Boulogne Arbroath and Forfar Chester and Birkenhead Dublin and Drogheda Dublin and Kingstown Dundee, Perth, and Aberdeen Edinburgh and Glasgow Eastern Counties and N. Eastern East Lancashire Eastern. Union and Ipswich and Oct. 1 Sept.3o ;Oct. 5 Bury Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr Glasgow and Greenock Great Southern and Western Great Western Lancashire and Yorkshire Lancaster•and Carlisle London and North-Western London and Blackwall London& Brighton, South Coast London and South-Western Manchester and Leeds, &c. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin- colnshire Maryport and Carlisle Midland, Bristol, and Birming- , , ham - I Midland Great Western (Ireland) Newcastle and Carlisle Newcastle, Berwick, and North Shields Norfolk North British Paris and Rouen Rouen and Havre Shrewsbury and Chester South-Eastern and Branches South Devon Taff Vale Ulster Whitehaven Junction Sept. 26 ,Oct. ti - 1-1 s. d. 801 0 0 222 2 8 795 10 10 923 1 1 1173 17 1 0 0 0 4126 1 0 12447 13 11 1045 9 11 1199 5 0 2909 1 2 1206 14 1 2135 15 6 22384 0 1 10902 19 11 1633 16 6 46711 15 4 1019 2 1 11665 7 0 10212 4 4 2280 1 8 628 6 4 York, Newcastle, and Berwick, York and North Midland, &c., 25823 16 11 903 7 5 2446 15 11 2046 is 11 2724 6 111) 9000 3222 0 ° 683 2 4 12049 11 7 1736 18 7 /724 19 0 98? 1511 220 14 1 12040 0 10202 12 29 6 , 812 805 124 0 416 420 6 100 34 4 63 . 43 0 2463 103 6 88 2 20 486 03u', COURT AND FASHION. • 439 53 10 77 1 1009 7747 111053 1° 3 ,1 1 7 44 7 7€41 Her Majesty, Prince Albert, and the Court anive d Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, after an a bsence in four months. The inhabitants thronged the long walk, the park, and greeted her Majesty with a most enthuse astic welcome after so long an absence. It is stated that the court, after a sojourn at the cast le of not more than three weeks or a-month, will proceed Osborne for a short period, returning to Windsor to spen the Christmas holydays. It is also stated that her Majesty will probably Pa p shortly shortly a brief visit to Claremont, to enable the Yr in . Consort to enjoy a few days' shooting over the we ll stocked preserves of the King of the Belgians. The Earl of Auckland arrived at the Admiralty on Ss' turday from Knowsley. The Earl of Ellesmere and the Bridgewater Trustees have commenced the re-building of Bridgewater House e" a splendid scale. The noble Earl and Countess, and the Ladies Egerton, have left Worsley Hall for Harrowga The Earl and Countess of Wilton closed their visit vu the Duke of Wellington, at Walmer Castle, on Thurst: The Countess proceeded to Brighton to join her Yew' fig famil ei niary, and the noble Earl came to town. Grand The Queen Dowager, accompanied by the Duchess Ida and the Prince and Princess of Saxe or Gos left Marlborough House on. Saturday morning b o ard port, where her Majesty embarked that afternoon on the Howe (man-of-war),. for Madeira. THE REPORTED MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE AND ISWg' Bof an i 5 that the stated id u e p a o o n f the th e m authori ty arriac e of the " Hero of a Hundred Fights " to Miss Bur4r, Coutts originated in the domestic ci rc le o f royalty. 744,- great Duke, having received a royal command to dine the Queen, the conversation, amongst other topics, l 'wq ' dentally turned upon the r i c h hei re ss, in the course 0 , which her Majesty, struck by a sudden thought, joculali: suggested that Miss Burdett Coutts and the Duke of,`' lington would make a good match. This singular node' caused a hearty laugh, and is the real foundation .of till reports relative to the anticipated marriage of these w e ° known personages.—A correspondent of the Augsburg Gazelle gives a rather more plausible origin ta the ru mour. He says that Sir Robert Inglis, who stayed ther e a few days, flatly. contradicted the report of the approach: ing marriage. The whole rumour, said he, originated in mere joke. Miss Burdett having called upon the Dukf , with a large sum of money for the erection of•Churehes the colonies, the Duke praised her generous liberalitY' adding, playfully, " You deserve to be a Duchess," t o which the Marquis of Douro, who was present, remarket;l " You see, Miss Burdett, my father makes you an offer. LAW INTELLIGENCE. The judges, clerks, and other officers connected wit h .. the county. courts are henceforth to be paid by salari es instead of - fees—the amount of which, in each case, is t ° „ be fixed by an order of her Majesty in Council. This is a highly necessary alteration, if, coupling with it , scale of fees to suitors be also reduced, among who? we have as yet heard but one complaint as to the exorbl tancy of the demands. It is necessary not only to rende r ` justice speedy and safe, but also•cheap. ATTORNEYS' PRIVILEGE. IN THE NEW C 0 1.34 1 Z r COI-MTS. — The first decision on this point is reported u` the Law Times of Saturday. It was given in the Thompson v. Harding, heard at Solihull, Warwickshir e ,,.' before John Barker, Esq., barriste r - a t-l aw , i n th e absern of Mr. Trotter. The decision was, that an attorney, su e „ in the County Court is entitled to his privilege of beit sued in the superior court of which he is a member. rt i honour, after referring to th e 67th sec ti on of the De County Courts Act s decided notwithstanding the langue of that section, the pri v il ege o f attorneys was not thereof taken away, nor c ou ld it b e t a k en aw ay by any aet h , Parliament, unless attorneys were therein, mentioned clear and express words. SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. CHESTER RACES. T he On Thursday the Mostyn Stakes were won by A - , Spaniard, beating Vale Royal, Wiseacre, and Free TracLe r e a Free Handicap of 10 soya. by Ellerdate, beating b 9 Sailor and Brown Fly ; the Saracen's Head HandicaP, Hector, beating Christopher and four others ; and t'‘7 Selling Stakes by the Rhine, beating Vesture and three others. On Friday the Leviathan Stakes were won b ) : Swallow, beating Sagacity, Philosopher, and Delorainej the Grand Stand Stakes by Ribaldry, beating Jest al. five others ; and the Chester Handicap Stakes by gag Downes, beating Romance and three others. LYTHAM COURSING MEETING.—The first cour97, meeting fop the season took place at Lytham on Wedoe.,, day and Thursday last. The following is the return Derby Cup for Puppies won by Mr. A. Graham's Ec;., 1 " . „, tion ; Mr. Jebb's Toxins running up. The Clifton won by Mr. Eden's Euterpe ; Garvin's Gladist°,o running up. The Talbot Stakes, won by Mr. Ridefbe Old England ; Mr. Hulton's Lucifer running Lytham Stake, won by Ni. Garien's Grisi ; Mr. .bu e- Eleus ruuniug up.