The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-04-23 00:00:00

Eittraturr. POETRY. l[We quote the following from an excel'enfy-written article in Fraser for this month, entitled Col-nial Tour." To those , of our readers who are personally acquainted with the fearless could truly Protestant Editor of the Shropshire Conservative, the beautiful lines which 're quote will not perhaps convey a - higher appreciation of the talents—we may say genius—of the znan than perhaps already they feel. To the author himself the unprompted tribute cf an able writer must afford sensa ;tons which none bat a poet, and a gifted one, can feel.] From the Church I strolled into the Verein Garten, and fling ing myself down beneath one of the green trees that shaded me from the rich sunlight, but did not obstruct either the view of the landscape which I coveted, or the perfume of the flowers from the neighbouring Bard us. I reflected c, those charming plssages in the works of Ouseley.—a true poet, filled with the true Olympian fire of genius, and destined as I think, one day .to fill a niche next to Shelley, the most poetical imagination since Spenser and Shakspeare "'SUMMER. The full ripe corn is bending In waves of golden light, The new mown hay is sending Its scents upon the night. The breeze is softly sighing, To cool the parched flowers; The rain to see them dying. W, eps forth its gentle showers. The merry fish are playing Adown yon chrystal stream, And night from day is straying, As twilight gives its glea n. And thus manhood in its prime is fu I, and ripe, and str , ng, And is scarcely deems that time can do its beauty wrong; Like the merry fish we play adown the stream of life, Abel we reek not of the day that gathers what is rife. " AUTUMN. The flowers are all fading, Their scents are rifle,: now, And night sends forth her shading Along the mountain's brow; The bee bath ceased its winging To flowers at early morn ; The birds have ceased their singing, The scythe hath mown the corn ; The harvest now is gathered, Protected from the clime, — The eaves are seared and wither'd, That late shone in their prime. Thus when fourscore years are gone o'er the frail life of man, Time sits heavy on his throne, as near his brow we semi; Like the autumn leaf that falls when wind , the branches wave, Like night-shadows daylight palls,—like all, he finds a grave." Already was the summer blending gradually wrh autumn, but it was not this so much as tha train of thought awakened in the great Chuich, which seemed to me so much in unison with the beautiful poetry I have quoted. [ORIGINAL.] " SITTING ON A RAIL." BIT SECOND. "Didn't we laughlaeartily when sitting on a rail in a se cond class, whilst pausing at the Wigan station ? We es pied a drunken old man lifted in by his friends, whose • teeth were gone, and the sands of life had well nigh run their last, as a device occurred to his friend in order to prevent him losing his ticket, he plucked it out of the fumbling old man's hand, and sticking it in his hat, com mitted it to the safe-bind—safe-find guardianship of his hat-band. " There then now, when the guard comes, he'll see thy ticket just like every body else's, and thou'lt have no more trouble about it !" The old man behaved during the rest of the journey as all drunken old men, or drunken young men will, replying when nobody spoke to him, singing to himself, interpolating the conversation around him with interjections, adjectives, and the like, ridiculously droll from their very irrelevancy ; but we shall not take upon ourselves to record either the sayings or doings of this drunken old man, lest ears polite should jar. But didn't we laugh again, more than before I—when, just as the train was starting, a young man standing beside the rail, gave us a parting nod, with apparently no ordi nary significancy of expression, though it struck us at the time he must have the advantage over us in the matter of recollected acquaintanceship, our memory not serving us rightly to the amount of recognition, on our part, of an old friend. We stared—we prepared to look even grate fully upon the features of a fellow-creature, who seemed inclined to bestow upon us this expression of parting in terest and regard ! 'Twas but for half a moment we felt in this suspense, for a whole process of thought can take place in less than the smallest lapse of time ; and just when we were getting up a most proper nod in reply, we were surprised to observe a distinct nod of the fullest recognition power got up and performed by a party who sat opposite .to us!! We speck advisedly when we aver that this was a c:se of the clearest mistake possible on our part—the convergence of the two organs of vision in a focus with the middle line of the face, corresponding to the point of the nose and the tip of the chin, indicating that the visual rays in general naturally establish a " grand junction ter minus" not far off, and enjoy their concentrated focus in sympathy and common with the other adjective features of the countenance. Judging then from these data, which we don't mind the danger of being contradicted in, whilst looking earnestly at the man's three-quarters face, we did feel completely floored at the idea of a nod which was clearly meant for us, being appropriated by any one else, and further that such should be " all right," and the guard again "'beg leave to sit—on a rail ;" puzzling ourselves to make out whether, in the present case. mesmerism had attained so far as to make angles of incidence and angles of reflection, in matters of parting, equal to each other, as in the matter of meeting. We thought of the "Yankee ex periment with the " bowl of treacle," and the " mirror of ink," as reflecting media; but our philoshphy tumbled down from her ideal range, upwardstoward'stheledge of cau sality and comparison, when, on the man turning his face by chance more fully towards the carriage, we discovered that the eye nearest to us " had no connexion with the other concern on the other side of the way !" correspon dence having been mutually declined, we suppose, from the reason we once saw labelled up in an Irish village, over an artisan's door, " El opposition is the life o' trade." Backward we fell in our seat, as far as we could, cramming our handkerchief into our mouth, endeavouring to stifle a huge laughing fit, which immediately assailed us on our discovering that the diagonal of a squint had well nigh un done us! and that we were liable to be tried for poaching in our opposite neighbour's preserve! After progressing along our journey for mile upon mile of jar and rattle—rattle and jar—we were favoured at one of the stations with the company of a little girl, placed un der the care of the guard by some ladies from whom she parted, in the innocent sadness of childhood's simplicity ; but the tears also rolled fastly one after another down her cheek, indicative of sorrow at parting with her friends. Woman's tears at parting moments are not infrequent episodes in every day life; but girlhood's tears are less scarce still, being their ready silver currency whenever golden moments are about to be broken up and exchanged ! Whilst the train slowly increased towards its velocity, our sympathies could not be entirely diverted from our little travelling companion, any more than that of others pre sent, not excepting the iron-faced guard, to whose tender solicitude her juvenile fears had been consigned, a lamb of the human flock ; and to whose guardianship as well, we afterwards observed, a bleating lamb of a less gifted race bad been committed, and which occupied the " locker" under her seat, and which he lugged out, tied by a fore and bind leg together, after a few miles run, having much enjoyed, doubtless, the ride it had " booked" for, its own locomotives being now sick of their strike for work ! What ails thee, young one ? what ? why pull so at thy cord?' Perhaps the rapid motion of the train tends to subdue the activity of thought, and exuberance of restless obser vations, down into the more sober channel of reflection, not less profitable perhaps than the former, either in point of direct mental exercise or habit ; yet we remarked that whilst for some time this state of mind may combine the dslce with the utile, still that after a time the physical condition of being constantly whirl ng on a rail tends to produce a gradually increasing listlessness or vacuity of thought, upon which commonly succeeds a sleepy state — a state not altogether devoid of danger, when the party has passed the meridian of life, and immediately after having made a very full or hasty meal ; apoplexy having in more than one or two instances occurred to such par ties, and that of a fatal character, owing in some cases to the want of sufficiently early discovery,—and medical aid. But in reference to the soporific influence of " sitting on a rail," and whirl, whirl, whirl ; the rapid transit of object after object, in seeming giddy dance, perhaps may be con sidered a semi-mesmeric state, a la mode de Braid, .-wherein the fatigue of the organ of vision seems capable of inducing a corresponding state in the brain; at least, to such class of phenomena it seems to us not altogether wide of the mark to refer the state alluded to. Whether or not we should very soon, in that not very particularly attractive part of the country, have fallen a ready prey to this act-of-parliament mode of carrying out mesmeric experiments by wholesale, we don't undertake positively to guess, nor would it much concern our reader whichever way we might have ultimately concluded ourselves to have been tested. No doubt the engineer would have done his best to have had us asleep like many of the rest ; but " returning to our sheep"—orlamb rather—this unlock ing of the crystal sluices for the relief of overwrought sensibility, even in a child, is a subject tbat was at once calculated to awaken the curiosity of the guard and our self, prompted perhaps by a corresponding flow of the tnilk of human kindness in our not-altogether-obdurate breasts. Surely we might take credit for the former as a qualification of benevolence rather than anything else, seeing that the joys and sorrows of childhood, as they , ebb and flow, may be said never to appeal in vain to the sympathy of those around them, be they old or be they young. If old, they read before tbem the transcripts of their own youthful hours drawn to the real life, in unso phisticated naivete of character. Childhood's smile is reflected from their own matured features, almost, we may say, with the faithful portraiture of youthful origi nali y : the tears of childhood have called forth, before now, a correspondent welling up of tears in the eyes of old age, or of ordinary indifference to human passions. This is matter of trite remark, which every one can make, even the most superficial observer of mankind ; but is it as generally observed how beautiiul and passing wise are the arrangements of Providence, whereby age shall syre pathise with youth in stronger and more intensely glowing interest, because, as Wordsworth says in one of his beautiful lines, " ' The child is father of the man ; because age lives again its joyous hours of innocence, w hen the sunny face of childhood irradiates its fading Paths ; and because the tears of childhood's grief again the old man's tears of childhood flow, at the me mory of bygone troubles, proportionate in their magni tude to melt the tender passions of the infant breast, and whose very contrast with the after stein realities of life is sacredly written down in characters of hallowed joy ; for the whole drama of childhood's chequered hours is to the fostering memory of age but one many-coioured joy, associated there with the tender reminiscences of the en• deared past, when the path of life had more flowers than thorns to every one of human race. We think the joys and piers or the child we look upon are but so many mirrors of our own witching past —gone, gone —never to return! Tuis is the real secret of that close sympathy between the extremes of life, when reciprocated by age towards childhood, in commemoration of our once many coloured joy—our fresh and budding springtime. Thus again we could " talk of sunshine - and of song; And summer days, when we were young; • Sweet childish days. that were as long AS twenty days are now." Such reflections, as they stole upon our mind, almost amounted to pleasing sadness, and we treasured up what appeared to us the philosophy of the subject before us — viz., the moving sympathy of the old iron-faced guard towards the' child before him, expressed in the language of truest significance —by the suffusion of each eyelid with a tear. The picture drawn thus to. out corporeal and mental vision seemed a cabinet gem, and we accordingly framed and hung it up in the treasury of our recollec tions! In the course of a short mile or two another element in the field of our curiosity presented itSelf. The train stopped—hardly so the girlish tears. A little boy, redo lent with heath, buoyant with animal spirits to bursting —he was a boy full of boyishness in every sense of the word—awaltedourstopping,whilst some carting trick of fun must be let off against the party who handed hicr. into the carriage, and placed him opposite the tearful one. She was expecting him to join her: the meeting was ope of mutual affection : be might 'be two years older than her self, perhaps eight years old : smiles were interchanged, and a hasty kiss as well, by these little lovers, somewhat abashed at the presence of strangers ; whilst the train again gradually broke into its accelerated speed. The thing was natural: smiles and tears, and tears and smiles, chequer the countenance of youth, like April showers and sunshine ; and everybody knows this—and everybody knows, too, that children's sympathies are keen and quickly excited. It was quite proper that smiles should be exchanged for tears when a little sister greets a little brothel from whom she may have been separated for months, and so too with children of a ,larger growth under similar circumstances ; and it was .quite natural, too, that the brother's ever-smiling countenance should kindle with brighter glow on regaining his long-lost sister, and that a touch of tenderness should gravitate from his beaming eye down through laughing features : all this was as it ought to be. Perhaps they were both returning from school, whither they had been sent, for the time, to be estranged from the endearments of home. So it was in reality a fact, which our benevolent euriosity learned and gathered as its reward. But again —the little episode of greeting joy being passed —a transient sunbeam through a watery sky—again the 'ears commenced afresh to pour down the untur•rowed cheeks of that little sister, and this though she was returning hack to her home ! We cannot account for it, neither could she; therefore the old guard and ourself were !Awed to the necessity of•" booking" them - as tears of joy ! Highly wrought indeed must be the tone of that infant mind which has no other mode of expressing . the thrilling and rapturous notes of joy but in the secret and unaccounted-for—yea, mysteriously-wrought —ca dences of sorrow ! Though this occur in numberless instances every day, yet no less striking because common is this passage in human sensibility ; nor less exquisitely balanced and' faithfully true must be those tones of sym pathy from the heart of affection, because it has been and ever presents itself a matter of common-place occurrence, in which note answers for note in harmony and full ac cord, whether the keys of joy or sorrow are struck, or struck alternately. The harmony of love must respond : one chord must answer to its fellow and ❑one other, be that sounded high or low. or both successively. We have all heard that if two stringed instruments, placed together, and if a chord in one instrument, be struck, the corresponding chord will vibrate its responsive echo of unison, provided they were both of perfect tune. Thus, though we were at first a little surprised, yet the reflec tion of a moment or two struck out the analogy we have alluded to, as a satisfactory explanation of the interesting psychological problem that followed it; for as both these little creatures had smiled together in greeting joy, so the joy of greeting, through the bond of sympathy, as was actually the fact, must bid their tears together flow ! Were not their hearts in unison? Did not the chords respond? There could be but one pulse, then, flowing in but one stream from separate hearts. God grant it may be ever so ! If but we bad possessed an artist's pencil, we would have sketched, as well as noted in a book, the embodi ment, the living portraiture of that sweetest of human passions, that sensibility par excellence, whose natural study was before us—the crown-jewel of human dignity. The majesty of human nature rose before us, to assert the loftiest prerogatives of its crown. What a study ! How did that picture travel on with us, rivetted on the field of our organ of reflection ! When the little joy -twins stopped, our musings went on ; till at last we pulled up short at the end of our trip, the pretty little port of Fleetwood,—and just on the eve of swallowing the body and bones of a proposition conjured up by our imagina tion—almost an absurdity, perhaps quite so—viz., that Joy and Sadness were born twins, severed by the vulgar mind, but blended in the " ideal," so as to become—dare we utter it ?—mutually convertible terms! SELECTIONS. " SPEAKING OUT;" OR FLOW TO SETTLE THE YANKEES, SHOULD THEY DECLARE, OR PROVOKE, A WAR WITH ENGLAND. In " Uncle Sam's Peculiarities," just published, and briefly noticed in our last, we have the following dialogue, at an oyster refectory, between the author and a Major of Philadelphia, one of the Most - intelligent and libe ral Americans, though still tinctured with anti-Anglican prejudices, the former had met with during his sojourn in the States. After successfully combatting the Ameri can assumption, that the Yankees beat the British in the last war, the navy of the former, as well as their troops, being in great part Britons, the Major proposes a toast— " I'll give you one you won't drink. In the next war between John and Jonathan, may the most powerful whip the other.' " With all my heart. But do you really suppose you would have Any chance of whipping the English, if we were, during the war, at peace with The rest of the world, so that we might concentre one-half of our means against you? Why, you are the most naked nation in the world. You have two thousand miles of sea board—with towns worth attacking—to defend." " We have: and you have Canada to defend against us." " Shall I inform you how we should make war against you (heaven forbid it!) if compelled to make mar at all ?", " Let me hear it." • 1 We should bring one-half of the naval power of Eng land against you in two divisions. One would have a powerful army on board destined for Long Island, of which we could take possession in defiance of all the mi litary volunteers of the Empire State, with those of Mas sachussetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey at their back. This army should be marched to the west of the Island and plant two hundred field pieces, fifty mortars, and fifty howitzers, with a park of Congreve rockets, at Brooklyn." " Where we beat you in the war of Independence." " Granted, but these proposed operations would be as different to our former pitytul ones, as the present times are different to '76. The army would be brought over the Atlantic in a hundred and fifty war steamers, only ten of which would go to the bottom. A mere trifle." " Go a-heal." " We should keep possession of Long I4and until the other diiision of the navy, which would be sent to the south, reported progress, and compelled Congress to sub mit to any terms of peace we might propose, which of course would include payment of every cent due by the Slates fo the British subjects, and payment also of the cost of the war." You're joking." Not a bit of it, my deer sir. As soon as we arrived out here, we should offer ten per cent better wages than you give, (and for three years service only, to all the Bri tish seamen serving in the American service. Your fleet would then be denuded of half its strength, and have a few sham fights with ours." " Now I see you're poking fun. You are a comical fellow ; that's a fact. And what would your other grand division in the south be at ?" " The other division would be sailors and marines, and three black regiments from our West India Islands. The marines would have two thousand petty officers, picked from all the non-commissioned officers in the English ser vice, and on board the transports there would be three hundred thousand stand of arms, with munition to corre spond. The black regiments, the marines, and the two thousand extra officers would be landed in Georgia, and arming as many of the slaves as might be found deserving of freedom, march along the coast under the protection of the fleet, and carry the servile war from thence to the banks of the Potomac. During this campaign Canada should merely be called on to defend herself. New York. and through her the whole of the United States, would receive a terrible lesson, which would prevent future quar rels ; three millions of slaves would be made free, and you would be compelled to be honest and pay your debts in spite of yourselves. Now, major, I'm much obliged for your attention, for I have eased my mind and spoken freely for once. I begin to believe that bragging is infec tious, and that I have taken to it, suddenly." LORD BROUGHAM A HI ND . THE CHIEF To Lord Brougham every one pointed, directly it was known that the above judicial dignity was vacant, as one of the most eager, if not the most s uccessful, of candidat es. The activity of his friends may be judged of by the fol. lowing testimonials, that were immediately sent to the treasury : TESTIMONIAL NO. I, FROM EARL GREY. The bearer, Henry Brougham, was in my service a short time. I found him a very useful person while he rzmained with me, but he was unsteady, and always wish ing to better himself. Having been out of place a long time, I think he will be found to have got over this de fect. At all events, I would suggest that there could be no harm in trying him. (Signed) GREY. TESTIMONIAL NO. 2, FROM THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. My dear Peel,—l think you know Brougham almost as well as myself. I think something ought to be done for him, for he has really shown himself a very useful fellow for our purposes. It is true that the Chief Baronship of the Exchequer requires a cool head, a temperate manner, and a few o th er things which our friend is not remark able for; but P ar k e i s a steady hand to have at his side , and will keep hi m f rom going very far wrong. My only ob jection to Brougham is, that I'm afraid public opinion would pronounc e us " too b a d" f or g i v i ng him the ap pointment, for it is already said that it is rather " too good" of Brougham to ask for it. If the Privy Council business is not quite off, perhaps it would be better to-let him have his own office of his own creation; for it is so difficult to find out what he really wants, that perhaps his own hill will be the best guide to his wishes. However, do what you think best, and believe me always, yours, WELLINGTON. TESTIMONIAL NO. 3, FROM LORD LYNDHURST. My dear Peel,—For Heaven's sake, give Bro•igham the chief baronship-if you can. I find him such a bore on the woolsack, that I 'Shall lose all patience with him, and say something that will make an enemy of him. 7 Yours in haste. LYNDHURST. • TESTIMONIAL NO. 4, FROM LOUIS PHILIPPE. know Henry Brougham, and think he would be a very good judge it he accepted the Chief Baronship of the Exchequer. Loots PHILIPPE. TESTIMONIAL NO. 5, FROM LORD MELBOURNE: • Henry Brougham is, in my opinion, a very fit person to be appointed chief baron, for he is always sure to look at both sides, and adhere to that which can give him the best and weightiest iettsons for doing so. MELBOURNE. TESTIMONIAL NO. 6, FROM BARON NATHAN. Mr. Baron Nathan presents his compliments to Sir Robert Peel, and feeling that he, Baron Nathan; is likely to clash with the pretensions of another baron, begs leave to resign, in favour of Baron Brougham and Vsux, all claims to the Chief Baronship of the Exchequer. Mr. Baron Nathan is sure that his brother, Baron Brougham, can have no other competitor that can at all be put in comparison with him but Baron Nathan, who flatters himself, therefore, that by resigning, he at once settles the question.--Punch. QUEEN-TREES.--II may not be generally known that some of the queens of England have been in the habit of choosing a fine and thriving oak or beech tree in Windsor Forest, to which they have given their name ; which, with the date of the month and year of the selection, is engraved on a brass plate, and screwed securely on the tree.' Thus, in one of the most beautiful and retired parts of the forest, Queen Anne's oak may be seen, the oak of the amiable wife of George 11., Queen Caroline, the oak of Queen Charlotte, the oak of the excellent Queen Ade laide, as well as that of her present Majesty : they have seats around them.—Jesse's Country Life. THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL AND THE CANAL DU MIDI.-It would be difficult to imagine a greater con trast than the origin and ' progress of the Bridgewater Canal presented to that of the Canal du Midi. No turgid ' proclamai ion heralded the former, " written"—as A ndre ossi avers of that of Louis XlV.—" in that elevated style, and bearing the impress of that firm and noble cha racter which marks alike the projects and the productions of the 'age of Louis the XIV." There was no Cothert (to find the funds, no Riquet to receive the magnii entailed reward of the profits, no Corneille to furnis. :h-• battery. To these, and such as these, armed with a, paraphernalia of maps and sections and calculafin i.:, Louis gave audience in his sumptuous chamber at Ver sailles. Round the humble hearth of the black and white manor-house of Worsley, or, of the still humbler village inn, three hard-headed men, of simple manners and attire, discussed a project unnoticed by Governments, and deemed hopeless by the few besides themselves who gave any at tendon to the matter. To fill the place of a sovereign, the uncontrolled master of vast revenues, there was an English nobleman, proprietor of extensive but somewhat encumbered estates; and- if to conceive and direct the work there was a greater genius than Riquet or Andreossi, that genius could scarcely read or write, and was hired in the first place at 2s Gd. a day. Such at least is the state ment of one who had enjoyed opportunities of informa tion—Francis Egerton, the last Earl of Bridgewater, who died at Paris in the odour of eccentricity. He adds, that Brindley offered to engage himself exclusively to the Duke for a guinea a week—but a slight increase on the former sum. If this be true, it confirms the French proverb, that the vrai is not always the vraisemblable.— j Quarterly Review. . NORWEGIAN SEACOAST SCENERY.—The entire skar gord, or sea coast of Norway, from the Nase to Frederick shall, where the Alexander of the North received his death-wound, and from the North Cape to the Nase, is one uninterrupted chain of granite rocks. Innumerable fissures present themselves, and on some parts of the coast the sea rolls through in a hundred plades within the space of a league. Occasionally it forms a vilc, or arm, of con siderable depth ; but more frequently the opening barely admits of the passage of a vessel. This general disruption of the shore has produced many, fantastic groups of rocks, and spots where romance might dwell. Sometimes the scenery assumes an aspect of grandeur, and even sublimity. It is delightful, within bow-shot of the ocean, dashing and roaring in its g i an t s t reng th, to gu id e th e skiff into a tiny haven, where the sparkling water (and nowhere are the waters more pellucid than on the Norwegian coast) is without a ripple, and the fish may be seen disporting fathoms below the surface. The evergreen pine grows on all sides down to the water's edge, covering the surround ing rocks to their summits, forming unrivalled ampi theatres ; and here the blackbird sings, and the woodpecker makes the hills echo and re-echo. Small as the haven is it is studded with islets, where the eider duck sits brood ing on her nest, and the sea-gull rests with his finny prey; there the juniper shows its unchanging green, amidst which the red cranberries are studded like gems, and the de licious wild strawberry tempts the intruder's visit. The only sounds that fall on the ear are the sea-bird's scream, and the splash of his wing as he settles down or skims over the water, and the roar of the ocean outside the rocky barrier. Seawards, widely different is the scene that pre sents itself. Its characteristic is a gloomy, barren grandeur. From the summit of the rock to its perpendicular base, a height of several hundred feet, not a trace of vegetation is apparent. Half way down, the bold ea,tle. has his eirie; and in fine weather the sea-gull rests on its angles. At its foot the sea raves with fearful violence; even in calms immense waves dash against the rocks, into which they have eaten fissures and caverns of great. extent and eingn- lar conformation: High as the elevation is above The ocean, its spray wets the cheek ; and as the frightful waves surge up,.a thought is apt to arise that they may ovehop the summit. —Bentley's Miscellany. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NEW rORK.—The spires and towers of the churches are immediately recognised to be timber painted white, and being all as like each other in shape (architecture would be a term misapplied) as casual design could well make them, that city b. ars a disadvan tageous comparison with the stately and imposing granite piers and lofty stone steeples of the town of Liverpool. * * The impression respecting New York received at landing was entirely lost sight of, and an improved one obtained after traversing the principal streets—" Broadway" and " the Bowery" yielding nothing in comparison to Ox ford-street and Tottenham Court Road in London, wh Ist some of the new ranges of private dwelling-houses, faced with polished white marble and bronzed iron -work, have a truly magnificent appearance; 'fffiralttiough the sizes of the houses bear no proportion to the lordly buildings abounding in the modern metropolis of Great Britain, their substantial appearance, combining grandeur (on a small scale) with extreme elegance, outrival in solidity the splendid stuccoed palaces of the iegent's-park. There is no domestic manufacture of the United States that ex cites so much surprise to an Englishman as the iron-work with which the exterior of the dwelling-houses of New York and Philadelphia are ornamented. In this particu lar those two cities outrival the English towns and Lon don itself, which is not a little extraordinary—the mate rial of which this elegant work is composed being im ported from England. The most classically shaped urns, pillars and other devices of lofty size and excellent work manship, with railing, tastefully tormed in the shape of vine and oak sterns and leaves, compose the exterior iron work of all the principal houses. This, combined with a marble flight of steps (sometimes intruding' upon the pavement in a very unwarrantable manlier), marble pil lars and facade, and lamps of bronze and plate glass, makes a very imposing eterance to the house of a re publican aristocrat.—There are but few things which ar rest the eve of an Englishmen perambulating New York, different from those to which he has been accustomed. Tile" niggers ," speck I ng the aepect of society without form ing part of it except among themselves, are certainty not the most pleasing felture of contemplation ; the total ab sence of street-be.tg irs, however, more than counterba lances the eye-.ore, and even the rank odour caused by the numerous coloured population. In summer will be noticed the straw hats and 1 nen jackets, the ice vans and charcoal carts, the portable lemonade fountains at the corners of the streets, the cart-loads of pine-apples, me lons, and peaches ; the auctioneers selling their goods under the awning of an umbrella, bawling and guessing ; • while the real black chimney-sweeper-chants out his vo cation, and some other Diggers are crying from their wheelbarrows—" hominy" and " hot corn." Add to these a carter standing up and driving. his vehicle like an ancient charioteer, two or three tradesmen sitting at their doors reading newspapers, and several piles of wood in the street, which some niggers are industriously sawing into " sizes for firing" at their cross-legged mills. To carry out the picture we must add six pigs with right of com mon gutterway, three or four miserale dogs with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, soda troop of newly arrived " jim of the ocean" pisantry around a pump, while some " military" volunteers must be seen in the distance, and the ladies opening the windows to obtain a peep at the heroes—" sobliers in peace, citizens in war." The military are for a minute obstructed by six gaudily painted covered carts filled with merchandise, which, their owners, the " western merchants," are carrying home ; one—" fresh spring -water" locomotive from Long Island —an " American ginger champagne" waggon—and a dirty cart carrying the mail of" U. S."—Uncle Sam or United States. The placards on the wall are—" Ameri can Theatre. Native Talent!"—" American Museum"— " American Fire-grates" —" American Blackine" " American Paper-hanging," and two political bills— " Strike for Freedom Caucus meets on the 10th instant. Jackson-men, do your duty !" " Democrats,--anti- Masons,—Whigs,—beat George the Third, 1776—heat tyrant Jackson, ir-. Elective monarchy—ruin,—des potism. Rouse to the fight, or slaves for ever.—Beat the British." The picture will now be complete with the ad dition of a grocery store, on the outside of which is printed the following thirsty announcement :—" French Brandy, London Gin, Monongabela Whiskey, 'Jamaica Spirits, Yankee Rum, Pine-apple Cider, Albany Ale, Philadelphia Porter, Saratago Spring-water, Congress Water, Sarsa parilla Soda, Ginger Champaign, Sling, Toddy, Sangaree , Sherry C o bl er, Mi nt Julep, Apple Jack."—The winter picture is different in many respects. The snow is on the ground from four to twelve inches deep ; business is at a stand-still ; the wheeled vehicles disappear , and " sleighs" (sledges) of all descriptions, some of them very handsome an d d rawn by from one to four horses with bells round their necks to warn passengers of their other wise noiseless approach over the snow, are used in their stead; th e r i vers and canals are blocked up, an d t h e ice houses repl en i s h e d ; the theatres and ten-pin alleys (nine pins being a p ro hibi ted game) fill to overflowing ; a nd those who h ave sweethearts cake them out on " sleighing frolics," cov ere d up i n bear-skin wrappers, in w hi c h th e warmest courtship is carried on over the ice and snow. The winter season is peculiarly propitious to Hymen in the United States, as time is not then so valuable to men of btisiness as it is in summer.—Uncle Sant's Peculiarities. THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. To the naturalist the month of April is one of the most interesting in the year. At the beginning, the willow wren and the black cap make their appearance. The swallow, the harbinger of summer, arrives about the mid dle, and the house-martin about a week later. At this time the sand-martin, the white throat, the sedge war bler, the cuckoo, and numbers of. other birds of passage pay their annual visit; and the groves arid woods now echo with the songs of their musical inhab tarts and are rendered gay and animating with the 'cheerful" blaszoms of " numerous wild flowers. EMULATION AMONGST SONG BIRDS.—A gentleman of my acquaintance had an American mocking-bird in such health and vigour, that it either constantly sing ng or . else imitating the various sounds it heard. In or der-10 try the power of this bird, its owner purchased a fine sky-lark. When placed in the same room with the mockime bird, the song of the former was found to echo through the ho use a s if it were c h ant i ng, " on fluttering wing," its well e known welcome to the rising sun. Th e mocking-bi r d was silent for some time but at last burst forth in the strains of.the " aerial songster, " but louder and clearer, as if mounting and stretching its wings test larget h e towards heaven. The l ar k was s il en t f rom t h at moment, p o pricew e rs o was f the gi emocking-bird fora nor was . a joyous no t e ever h ear d f rom i t afterwards. Wishing to blaek stillbiran black-bird, further, unusually cele brated for its vocal powers. It was placed in the same room with the mocking-bird ; early in the second morning its song was resumed, and its charming notes were war bled forth with all the sweetness and modulations which may be heard in, its native " thorny brakes." The mock ice-bird listened, and was silent for some time, then all at once the black -bird's notes were heard to issue forth, but sweeter and louder than these of the we() lland songs ster. The poor blackbird heard them, felt, that it was conquered, remained silent, drooped pined, and died," From the above facts emulation would seem to he one: of the causes of the songs of birds.—Jesse's Scenes and Tales. CATCHING TURTLE. — Here, off Mitylene, no turtle have to-day made their appearance. Should tle y but foolishly come to the surface, the heat Of an October sEgean sun (so genial that we use nor shoe nor stocking) must soon induce sleep. There is much sport in catching turtle. as well as gastronomic pleasure in devouring them. The crab-tailed victims rise and float on the service, and then fall asleep; the boat is cautiously sculled up to then —silence is the order of the day—care is taken to approach by the rear, so that if they open their heavy eyelids no thing but sea may meet their drowsy glance. They are generally too lazy to turn their heads, although as quick as lightning in diving and escaping if sufficiently disturbed. But " slow and sure" is the rule to be acted on. The boat at the " nick of time" advances ; two anxious bow. men lean over her side; a sudden grab is made by one or both at the turtle's fins ; he struggles, attempts to bite— bat it won't do! " Shelly" your "paw" is in the fist of a ruthless tar, and soon shall the cook's coppers receive you ! Flags are now shown from the ship, indicating " pull to starboard," or ."pull to port," "go further a head," or " look astern." Each signal is obeyed ; and in a very short time, though some few turtle may succeed in baffling their pursuers, many others find themselves floun dering in the bottom of the boats. Flushed with success, the happy mariners soon regain their vessel, looking for ward to an aldermanic meal., whereby the monotony of beef and par's, and then pork and beef, is to be broken through. Another dish is " for the mince" to smoke upon the board.—Nautical Magazine. THE POETRY OF A STEAM ENGINE.—There is, to our thinking, something awfully grand in the contemplation of of a vast steam-engine. Stand amid its ponderous beams and bars, wheels and cylinders, and watch their unceasing play ; how regular and how powerful !—the machinery of a lady's Geneva watch is not more nicely adjusted—the rush of an avalanch is not more awful in its strength. Old Gothic cathedrals are solemn places, preaching solemn lessons, touching solemn things ; but to him who thinks an engine room may preach a more solemn lesson still. It will tell him of mind—mind wielding matter at its will —mind triumphing over physical difficulties—man assert ing his great supremacy— 'intellect battling with the ele ments.' And how exquisitely complete is every detail t —how subordinate every part to the one great end ! how every little bar and screw fit and work together !: Vast' as is the machine let a bolt be but the tenth-part of an inch too long or two short, and the whole fabric is dis organised. It is one complete piece of harmony—an iron essay upon unity of design and execution.—there is deep poetry in the steam-engine—more of the poetry of motion than the bound of an antelope—more of the poetry of power than. in the dash of a cataract. And ought it not to be a lesson to those who laugh at novelties, and put no faith in inventions, to consider that this complex fabric— thus triumphant of art and science—was once the laughing stock of jeering thousands, and once only the waking phantasy of a boy's mind as he sat and in seeming idleness, watched a little column of vapour rise from the spout of a tea kettle ?—llluminated Magazine. AMERICAN LINERS.—It is almost impossible to praise these ships too highly. Their superiority to any similar number of vessels, of any other nation, must be conceded by every candid mind; and they appear to approach as near the impossible quality, perfection, as human inge nuity has 'any power to attempt. If the same praise could justly be given to the American steam-boats, there would be a great leaving of human lives, now annually de stroyed, on the inland waters, by the bursting of steam boilers. It is absolutely humiliating to an Englishman's national pride to be on board a New York " liner," and pass (with sovereign contempt from captain, mate, and all the Americans on board) two or three English vessels proceeding out of the Bay of New York. One of the ships' we thus went a-head of was a large hulk of a thing which, as our cap tain informed me, had brought out two hundred souls in a passage from England of seven instead of four weeks. On my Compiimeotissig-4 he captain. in aimitar terms to those I have repeated, respecting the vessel under his command., and the New York packets generally, he replied in the fol lowing characteristic manner. My compliment was une quivocal, and yet be wished me to imagine an American vessel that might be an improvement upon those I was considering as of the best possible build. This opportu nity may be taken to state, that the captains of these packets are, in appearance and manners, fully equal to the highest cilasses of American society. Indeed they are in- diVidually connected with the highest class. They are ge nerally the sons or relations of merchants ) and usually own a considerable share in the vessels they conduct. " This is all very well, sir ;" said the captain, " consider . ably .smart. Everything first-rate. But the sailing ! Why, I was once mate of a vessel that beat this in every thing except the gilding, the silk damask curtains, the piano, and the provisions for dinner. Such a schooner ! She had a long, low, black, rakish, sharp-looking hull, with taunt, tapering, slanting masts ; so clipperish and so slipperish (as they say) that she could, with her two toes, out walk, out sail, and out fly any of the walking, sailing, or flying tribe in creation—or art. Very singular to say, now, we couldn't at first find out the trim.of that vessel, but at last we discovered that it lay in the coals of the stove. When the stove was empty then we couldn't keep her to it, but when it was loaded with coals, then, by Ere- bus, we streaked along like lightning 1" The captain in tended to express that his vessel was exquisitely propor tioned for fast sailing, and required the gfeatest nicety of management in loading, so as to give free play to her qua lifications, and he therefore invented the supposition that even the weight of a stove load of coals would make some difference in her sailing !—Uncle Sam. SOUTH LANCASHIRE.—From Liverpool to Manchester the land is generally level, and is almost wholly applied to agriculture; but in traversing the country from Marches ter to Tocrrnorden, which is on the extreme northern verge of the-district, probably not one mile of continuously level ground will be passed over. Betwixt Bury on the western, and Oldham on the eastern, verge, some com paratively level tracts are found—as those of Radcliffe, Whitemoss, and Failsworth ' • but they are small as com pared with - the distance ; and all the remaining parts of the northern district are composed of ups and downs, hillocks and dells, bent, twisted and turned in every direction. Take a sheet of stiffened paper, for instance, crumple it up in your hand, then just distend it again, and you will have a pretty fair specimen of the surface of the northern part of South Lancashire. The hills are chiefly masses of va luable stone and coal : on the north, some heath lands overlap them ; but their sides are often brilliant with a herbage that yields the best of milk and butter ; whilst of all the valleys, you shall traverse none, where a stream of water does not run at your side, blabbing all manner of imaginary tidings, and asking unthought-of and unan swerable questions. To be sure, during six days out of the seven, the brooks am/lowland waters are often turgid and discoloured with the refuse of manufactures ; but, steal along one of these quiet dells on a Sunday morning', go over the shallows, where the loaches used to lie bask ing, and look into the deeps, and quiet pools, and shady spots, where the trout were wont to be found, creep under the owlers, and through the hazels, when their golden blossoms are hung in the sun ; go plashing among the willows, and over the hippin-stones, and along the gravel beds, where the pebbles lie as white as hail turned to stone. Go maundering ' solitary, and thoughtful, for an hour or two, amid these lonely haunts, and you shall con fess that our country is not reft of all its poetry, and its fairy dells, and its witching scenes. Then, the meadows and fields spread fair and green betwixt the towns. Clean, sleek milk-kine are there, licking up the white clover and tender grass. Small farms are indicated by the many well-built and close-roofed homesteads, contiguous to which are patches of potatoe, corn, and winter food for cattle. A farmer's man is never met with here, whose cheek does not show that he lives far above want ; and that, if he dines not on delicacies, be feeds on rude plenty. The smoke of the towns and manufactories is somewhat annoying certainly, and at times it detracts considerably from the idealty of the landscape; but, bad as it is, it might have been a great deal worse ; for we may observe that the smoke only goes one way atone time; that the winds do not divide and scatter it all over the land; it sails far away in streams, towards the north, east, west, or south ; and all the remainder of sky, and hill, and vale, are pure and cloudless. From the top of one of the moor•edges, Old Birkle, for instance, on a clear day, with the wind from the south-west, we may perceive that the spaces betwixt the large towns of Bury, B olton, Manchester, Stockport, Ashton, Oldham, Roch dale, Middleton, and Heywood, are dotted with villages, and groups of dwellings, and white detached houses, and manufactories, presenting an appearance somewhat like that of a vast city scattered amongst meads and pastures, and belts of woodland ,• over which, at times, volumes of black furnace clouds clouds go trailing their long wreaths on the wind. Such is the appearance of the country to the east and south of where we stand (Old Birkle), whilst the aspect of that to the west and north is more strongly marked by nature, being ridged with high moorland hills, dark and bleak • and furrowed by deep valleys and preci pitous dells, which are swept by brooks and mill-streams, and enlivened by nooks of evergreen pasture, and groups of cottages, and far detached dwellings. Here also is ge nerally found, the eternal money-making mill, the heart work, the life-organ, the bread-finder, and the deformity of the place,—Bamford's Walks in South 4ancashire‘ RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE. GLASGOW, DUMFRIES, AND CARLISLE RAILWAY. A meeting of the county of Ayr was held on Friday, the 12th current, to con , ider the proposed railway via Dumfries to Carlisle, and to resolve what means should be taken to promote its success. The area of the Court house was crowded by an audience comprising some of the most influential gentlemen in the county. On the motion of Mr. A. Oswald, M.P., seconded by Mr. Alexander, of Southbar, the Earl of Eglinton and Winton was unanimously called to the ehair. The requisition calling the meeting was then read; after which The Earl of Eglinton rose, and having recalled to the remembrance of the mee , ing the course taken by the in habitants of the county upon the first starting of the Gies govi and Ayr Railway, and the extent to which their exp , ctations of advantage had been realised, expressed briefly his opinion of the great benefit which the Glasgow, Dumfries, and Carlisle Railway would confer upon the west of Scotland, in comparison with that to he derived from the' success of its formidable rival, the Caledonian line. They would, however, be better able to form a judgment after hearing the able statement of Mr. Logie, whom he should.introduce to them ; but before doing so he would read letters'of apology which had been received froth Mr. Campbell, of Uraigie, and Colonel Smith Neill, of Swindrigemuir. ' The letters of these gentlemen, who had travelled over the two lines of road, were then read, giving a decided preferment to the Dumfries route. Mr. Logie then rose, and after a few preliminary ob ser.ations proceeded to state that they were all aware that three lines of communication with England had been pro posed. There was, first, the Eastern line, which was to connect Edinburgh with Newcastle, one-half of which might he said to have already secured the sanction of par liament. • But what was the fact? The !emit given to the government commissioners was not a remit to consider what was the best line to Scotland, but what was the best line to connect Edinburgh, and Glasgow with England. The other inhabitants of Scotland were not c ,, mmitted to that report. That central line, after reaching 'yming ton, was intended to branch off to Glasgow in the one di rection, and Edinburgh in the other. The whole distance from Carlisle to Glasgow was 101 miles. This was no doubt the shortest route to Scotland ; but the Caledonian Railway had departed from the line recommended by the government commissioners. They did not branch off at Symington, but proposed to carry forward the single line to a point near Lanark ; after which, instead of tAing the direct line by keeping the south bank of the Clyde, they intended to cross that river, in ord3r to gain the advantage of some small mineral railways in Lanarkshire. They had given no plan by which their distances could be checked ; but it was evident that the circuitous route which it was now their intention to adopt, would tend to lengthen the distance considerably. The total distance of the Glasgow and Dumfries line was 125 miles ; therefore, if it had been the Glasgow, Dumfries, and' Carlisle line, versus the Government Commissioners' line, there would have been a difference of 21 miles in f+vour of the latter But since the Caledonian Company had departed from that, he could not exactly state the difference between the two lines, but he was of opinion it would not he above "fifteen or sixteen miles. (Applause.) The speaker pro ceeded to show that from the more favourable nature of the country the journey would be accomplished in a shorter time by the Dumfries than the Caledonian line. He then referred to an opinion given by Mr. Locke, the present engineer of the Caledonian line to the Directors of the Grand Junction Railway in 1836, in which the line of country taken by the Dumfries line, and the advantages to the towns and districts through which it passes, are very highly spoken of, and contended - that when Mr. Locke was employed by the Grand Junction Company, in 1836, it was for him to report as to the best line from Carlisle to Glasgow. 1 his he reported to be by way of Nithsdale, for reasons which are unanswerable; and when the question again resolves itself into which is the best line to Glasgow only, the same causes which rendered the Nithsdale line the best in 1836 make it the best still. What, therefore, has deprived us of his ad vocacy now is the desire to secure for the Grand Junction Company the traffic not only of Glasgow and the west of Scotland, but of Edinburgh and the east. As the engi neer of the Grand Junction Railway, he has, naturally enough, been led to look to what would be the best feeder to that company; and if he could get 'only one line to Scotland, by way of Carlisle to Glasgow and Edinburgh, it was clear that that would be the best line for the Grand Junction. But when the hcrpe of getting the Edinburgh traffic was gone by the making of the line from'Edinburgh to Glasgow, then the central line became useless, and the necessity for a Western or the Nithsdale became obvious. The speaker then went on to compare the benefits to the county of Ayr to be derived from the two lines. The Ca ledonian railway would. be of no service to that county, neither would it benefit the Stewarty of Kirkcudbright, or the adjoining county of Wigton. There would be no saving of time in 'the whole route to set off against these` obj-ctions, owing to the gradients of 1 in 75 for ten miles on the Caledonian, which, notwithstanding the advanced state of engineering., would still be difficult to overcome. Besides, upon that line there' was no mineral wealth to develope, and no rich agricultural wealth -to open out ; whereas, by the Dumfries line, they would have the traffic of the enterprising tOwn'of Dumfries, the rising seaport of Annan, and, in Ayrshire, extensive sources of mineral wealth, which only lequired a railway to bring them into immed'ate productiveness. It was quite clear that one line passing through a comparatively uninhabited country could be of little advantage compared to two lines, which. while traversing totally opposite directions, passed through rich and populous districts. 'ln looking at the map they could not fail to see how beautifully Scotland would be en- circled in an i ron chain by tiraf connexion betweenEdinburg' and Newcastle on the one side,and by thatbetweenGlasg,;7 and Carlisle via Dumfries on the other. Mr. Logie then referred to the case of purchasers from the English mar kets, who, if they came by the Caledonian line would scarcely ever think_ of going farther than Edinburgh or GlasgoW, because they could not get to Dumfries without taking the coach or some other expensive mode of convey ance; whereas with an east and western line they could come down to Scotland by the one and return by the other, making their purchases along both. (Applause.) The speaker having referred further to the benefits to be de rived by the people of Ayrshire by the formation of the Dumfries line, proceeded to remark upon the fact that whereas the projectors of the Caledonian having been first in the field, had secured the valuable as sistance of the Marquis of Queensbury and other influen- tial parties, and yet . had been three years in taking up the subscriptions necessary, their own line had only been agitated two months, and be had much pleasure in inform ing them that by that day's post he had received notice that 50,000 shares had now been applied for, leaving only 2000 shares to complete their entire capital. (Applause.) He mentioned this only to urge those resident in the western counties to 'bestir themselves and enable the pro visional commitree to secure, what was so veryadvanta- geous, an extensive local interest in the allocation of the shares. Sir D. H. Blair having moved the resolutions in an ex cellent speech, in which he announced the important fact that Lord Queensbuty had deserted the Caledonian and would now lend his influence to this line, Mr. LOGIE said, perhaps he might be permitted to mention one argument in favour of the Dumfries line which he had overlooked in the statement he had already submitted to them ; and it was this, that it was well known among those best informed on. the subject, that _ _ the black baiid of the Monklands, would not list above four years : It was therefore quite clear, there not being another district in which bla . ck band could be so easily got as in Ayrshire, that this county would, ere long, some the Afonklands of Scotland. It was an invariable result of a railway passing through a fertile country that, as the trade and profits of the railway increased, the views of the directors began to expand; and whenever it be came lucrative, branches would spring up in all direc tion., so that they would ultimately have all the great mineral fields of Ayrshire supplied and collected in one unbroken chain of communication. (Applause.) The resolutions were then briefly seconded and carried, and after a few words from Lord Eglinton and a vote of thanks for his conduct in the Chair the meeting broke up. The railroad between Brunswick and Hanover is to be opened on the Ist of June next. The total cost of the intended Chester and Holyhead Railway is estimated at £2,100,000, of which the London and Birmingham Company subscribes £1,000,000. Speculations in railway shares have become so excessive in Paris that it has been determined that there shall be two settling days in the month. A contemporary journal states that the Great Westxrn Railway Company have now in contemplation to make a branch line to Frome and Warminster, embracing. the towns of Melksham, Bradford, and Trowbridge. A line for the three latter was provided for in their first act. Among the new projects of railways is one for con structing a line of road from Edinburgh through Fife to Dundee, with a junction to Perth, which has the support of the most influential and wealthy people of the Scotch metropolis. £BOO,OOO is to be the capital. A Newcastle paper, in adverting to the great railway movement which had arisen throughout Scotland, antici pates that, in the course of two or three years, persons will be enabled to leave Newcastle-upon-Tyne m the morning, and dine at Aberdeen, or even Inverness, the same day. A. general expectation gains ground amongst railroad directors and speculators, that the present session of par liament will relieve third class carriages from the tax of five per cent., and will regulate and enforce the principle on which railways ought to be assessed in the relief of the poor. This expectation is not, so far as we can learn, the result of any communication had with government, but is based on the reasonableness of the concessions anticipated on the general tone and language which Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone have adopted in the House of Com mons during railway discussions, and on the almost uni versal response made by the house to the friendly disposi tions of the Premier and the Trade Minister.—Morning Herald. BIRMINGHAM AND DERBY JUNCTION RAILWAY,— A special general meeting of the shareholders in the Bir mingham •and Derby Junction Railway was held in the board room of the station last week, for the purpose nowof coningbefore s a i i t d te hs e e.a r parliament principle former o hr a t ne n e d a r ofrrt special ihwve the amalgamation o a n saamr amalgamation not very ana a draft vmmge arayottifoonnnt of uhomhef having vtrchioon t eum h gsN e pl byao benraeityt been Midland, the Midland Counties, and th e D er b y R ailway . l . Beale, Esq., ch a i rman o f the board of directors, tsC p See r aont e rntmd s l i e i dean e i d. A resolution was moved to the effect that the bill be approved. On this an amendment was proposed, which was negatived by 15 to 3, and the original motion was carried. April 23, 18U. BRIDGE ACROSS THE SEVERN.—A number of scientific gentlemen have been employed during the past week in making surveys, &c. of the Severn, near Fulton Passage, on the Lidney side, preparatory to a report on the practi cability and usefulness of a 'bridge across the Severn at that spot ; thus connecting the a hole of South Wales with the metropolis and m anu f ac t ur i ng di s t r i c t s , through the medium of the Gloucester and Bristol Railway. RAILROAD SPECULATION IN ,FRANCE.—Some doubts are thrown by the Paris pavers of Thursday, upon the safety of rail-road speculations, which were _proceeding ° an extent in France beyond all precedent. The Ze ational observes, " that speculations in railway shares have be come so excessive, that the stockbrokers are determined to have two settling days in each month : we fear a Me lancholy conclusion to this rage for speculation." CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—At a special general meet ing, held in the Black` Bull Hall, of the proprietors of the Wishaw and Coltness Railway, it was resolved to use every exertion in promoting' the proposed Caledonian Railway, in connexion with this comp iny's line; and with this view, the committee of management was authorised to subscribe, for beboof of the company, a Qum not ex ceeding £25,000 to the proposed undertaking, a nd to Cur' respond with the provisional committee of the Caledonian line as to the junction with the, Wiahaw and Coltnes s Railway. SOUTH WALES ANL SOUTH OP IRELAND RAILWAY' —An important line of railway is to be laid down trots Stonehouse, on the Great 'Western line, across the river near Purton to Carmarthen. The route will be through the Forest of Dean, o p en i ng th e vas t m i nera l resource s o' , that district, to Monmouth, thence down the vale of Usk , to beyond Brecon, and afterwards by the river Tow/ 0 Carmarthen. Although South Wales is so mountainoUs, in character, nature se ems t o h ave prov id e d a l eve l li n e 01 country for a railway. Twn great interests will be mate rially benefited by the projected line, viz. :—the Great Western railway a n d th e m i n i ng property on " the hills." The traffic on the former will, of course, be extensivell ncreased.— Cardiff Advertiser. The formation of a direct railway from London to York, by way of Lincoln, for the purpose of connecting the north of England and Scotland with the metropolis , has been decided on. Prospectuses have been issued , together with maps, explanatory of the mode of proceed ing intended. It appears that the proposed line i s to commence near King's Cross, in the New Road, and in: dependently of any other line, is to take its course throng , ' Hertford, Bedford, H untingdon, Peterborough, Stam ford, Sleaford, and other important towns, to Lincoln and York, the distance, by the adoption of this I,inn • being less, by n ear ly f orty m i les, than it can be trtevem , ° — 'by any existing railway. The capitsl required 1 . 0 1 the execution of the work is estimated at £4,000,000, the length of line being one hundred and eighty mites. RAILWAYS IN DENMARK.—ii ' letter from Copenhagen , April 2, says Railroads are beginning to excite atten tion here, and within the last mon It the king has autho rised different societies for the construction of the follow ing lines:—l. One trom Copenhagen to Elsineur, oboe thirteen French leagues in length. 2. Another to cross the island of Zealand in its whole length, running from Copenhagen by Rothschild, Hingstead, and Slagelsee, to Corsoer, the length of which will be about thirty-one leagues. By this line all communication between Open. hagen and the east of Denmark, as well as the rest of Eu rope during the period that steamers cannot ply in the Baltic, will take place. 3. Six branch lines in the duchy of Holstein, from the main railroad now in construction between Kiel and Altona, which will unite th e p r i n cipal towns of Holstein together, and the North Sea with the Baltic." i` EDINBURGH AND NEWHAVEN RAILWAY.—Since Fri' day, workmen have been employed in opening the gronnd, in the front of C a n a l- s t ree t, t o comp l ete t h e d r if t tunn el of this railway, already carried as far as Prince's-street; and within a few yards of the proposed terminus. A fen . days' work will thus open the bore through and throughi a d the bui ding of the tunnel may be expected to be pro ceeded with immediately. So soon as the Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the North British Railway bills are passed , we may expect to see the whole of the. area under the bridge speedily transformed in appearance, and its various buildings removed in order to its conversion into a termi nus of railway communication, by which the east and west coast of Scotland will be connected with each other, and both again with the metropolis of Britain.—Edin: burgh Evening Post. ART-UNIONS SUPPRESSED. The Art-Union lotteries, after having been tolerated and encouraged for eight years, have been brought to a termi nation by an interdict from the Attorney-General to the Art-Union of London. The following is a copy of the notice sent to the secretaries : " Treasury, April It 1844- " am commanded by the Lords Commissioner s of her Majesty's Treasury to acquaint you, that an insti tution, called the Art-Union of London, having for its object the chance distribution of prizes of works of art : has been brought under the notice of their lordships ,d that they are advised that it is ill ega l ; an d I em also acquaint you, that the further continuance of the same will render all parties engaged in it liable to prosecution. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W. R. REYNOLDS. " To G. Godwin and Lewis Pocock, Esqrs., 4, Trafalgar-square, Charing-cross.' The committee immediately met, and a memorial was addressed to Sir R. Peel, setting forth the nature of th e association. The memorial was accompanied by a lette r from the honorary secretaries, asking for an interview: Sir G. Clerk, on the part of Sir R. Peel, having appointed to receive the committee, Mr. Godwin and Mr. Pocock, with several members of the committee, attended at Downing-street. Mr. G. Godwin, on the part of the committee, stated that the Art-Union of London, since its establiThment in 1837, had distributed about X 36.000, independently of the present year's receipts, in the purchase and preparation of works of arts. The assoriatiur had correspondents not ' merely throughout the enited Kingdoffi, but in our In dian possessions, Nova Scotia, Hobart Town, Mexico, and New York. The society had now been in operation for eight years, increasing in usefulness, and the com mittee were confirmed in their views of its legality by numerous facts. Her 11/b.jesty the Queen vine patron of more than one such association, and his Royal Highness Prince Albert had very recently ex pressed to the Committee of the Art-Union of Lon don, through Mr. Eastlake, his approbation of its ()Watt several of the judges. The comm i t t ee now f oun d then' Among the vice-president s of th e I r i s h A r t - U n i on were several with £14,000 in thei r h an d s, a l arge i ncrease over f the subscription of any f ormer year, on t h e very eve - o the distribution. All the elaborate arrangements conse quent on the largeness of the body acted for had beer made; artists had filled the exhibitions about to be o peneet and great distress and em b arrassmen t wou ld b e t h e r esult of their not being able to complete their present schemes. In addition to the Art-Union of London, there were avas t t number of similar in, tutions throughout the countrYt upon whom the fiat of the law officers would operate larly. They prayed, therefore, earnestly that they shan't' at least be protected in completing their existing engage" ment s. Sir a Clerk said that the attention of the Treasury having been directed to the subject, they had submitted a case to the Attorney and Solicitor-General, and, in their opinion, the whole of the as,otiations referred to were il legal, and it was thought due to the committee to give the early intimation of the fact. Sir R. Peel could not interfer e in the matter—all he could do was to inform them of th e law. He was himself a subscriber, as were many.otherS connected with the Government ; still for the Treasury t°, give any sanction for further proceedings is quite out 01 the question. The most prudent course he thought , would be to postpone the meeting. giving the sub,eribers notice to that effect, and suspend proceedings until i t could be ascertained whether the Legislature would pro tect that and similar societies. The deputation then withdrew. The committee have thought it iesirable to postpone the general meeting; t.t the same time they assure the subscribers that their interests will not be allowed t° suffer. DUELLING.-THE NAVY. The following order, contained in the Admiralty in structions, is certainly a step in the right direction, which the public will be gratitiei to observe. We trust that similar course will be pursued by the authorities at the Horse Guards : "1. Every office r serv i ng on b oar d any s hi p or v essel of Her Majesty's fleet i s h ere by po s itiv e ly ordered neithe r to send nor accept a c h a ll enge t o fight a duel with anY other person of the fleet. privy to any 2 i n . te E n v t e io ry n o o f ffi o c t e h r er of o officers rs fl eteot fight, on baecdcume reason to believe that such is likely to occur, owjng o f. circumstances that have come under his observut i° ,,, r e knowledge, is hereby ordered to take every 03 es! if within his power to prevent such duel, having recour necessary, to the captain or commanding officer. no " 3 Every officer of the fleet is hereby ordered in - manner or degree to evince dissatisfaction with or to braid another officer for refusing or not sending a ch a , lenge, and all officers are strictly enjoined neither to re c " • • a fa nor advise the rejection of, a reasonable proposal° the honourable adjustment of differences that may h al : Ig or lia.ir t tg unhappily occurred. "3. Any officer of the fl ee t w h o may be called OTh to . a act as second or friend t o an officer intending to fig ht duel, is to consider it to be his imperative duty, and he op hereby ordered, strenuously to exert himself to effect to ,. adjustment betwe en th e a d verse part i es, on terms e?ag sistent with the ho nour o f each, and should he fail, oe fl on s to the determinati on o f th e offended parties not to ae e t io honourable terms of acc omo d a ti on .'h e mus t re fer to second paragraph of this order. " As obedience to orders is the essential and gove. - 0 - principle of the naval service, those officers may re s . t a itf sured of the suppor t an d appro b at i on o f t h e Admit o r who, having had the misfortune of giving offence T o io, baying inj ure d or i nsu lt e d o th ers, s h a ll f ran kly o P u ipg apologise, or offer redress for the same, or who, ° B- so lt bad the misfortune of receiving offence, injury, or don , from another, shall cordially accept frank explae' la apology, or redress for the same, or who, if such Or or nation, apology, nr redress, are refused to be made" tn cepted, shall submit the matter to be dealt with a o ; captain or commanding officer of the ship or fleet, and every officer who shall act as hereinbefore dire° dee roee consequently refuse to accept a challenge, will be „ a i3ite to have acted honourably, and to have evinced a r e i 4 e . oo o° obedience, not only to this order, but also to the P of the Queen." used Great activity prevails at present in the west of _ . c n , a tic#o' in the building of steamers for the Clyde nr.Ti c hed , When the steamers now in course of erection are the number added this season will exceed twentY land Ch e few 511 0 holt Iran play little 11,3; Di Rye, Bad Sc lii Oats. 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