The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-15 00:00:00

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL. 1 AMERICA. The Great Western steam ship, Captain Matthews, arrived here on Saturday, having i eft New en York on the 26th ult. ; she made the p:.ssage n betw fifteen and sixteen days. Several vessels bound for England w'th immense car goes of grain had put back to New York and other ports leaking and with pumps choked. Tne Board of Under- Writers had resolved to refuse to insure any vessel bound to a foreign port (excepting only double-decked vessels under 250 tons), carrying more than one half of her re gisTered tonnage in grain in bulk. Thirty vessels were loadieg at N,w York with bread stuffs for England. - WlT:ier was setting ha over the States, snow having fallen in many places. venerable Quincy Adams has been attacked by paralysis. He is, however, expected t recover. With respect to the war in 111exico, we learn that Toliisco had been attacked and bombarded. Commodore Perry set out for Tobasco on the 16th ult.; and. hiving cap ured several prize?, forced the city of Tobasco to dis play a flag of truce, after a long resistance on the part cf the Governer, who was at length induced to yield on strong memorials from the English merchants, that the city might not be ruined. e .„. The accounts from the interior of Mexico are not later than those brought by the West Indian Steamer, a sum mary of which we give elsewhere. The Mexicans appear to he exerting themselves strenuously. Santa Anna was at S..n Suis de Potosi, where Gen. Ampudia had arrived. From the present advices, the war seems, barely, to have begun, and the United States' Cabinet were calling for additional regiments. The operations of the land forces had been few if any. The troops under General Taylor were quiet at NI onterey, and several contradictory statements are put forward as to their future movements. General Kearney was about a hundred and seven-five miles south of Santa Fe, on the Rio Grande, near the place whence he would take a western direction for California, he met a company of sixteen persons, who had been sent forward by Commo dore Stockton, with dispatches for the Government and for General Kearney, announcing that the American flag was flying over every town in Upper & Lower California; Th.,- provinces were occupied by the troops. The Mex ican Governor and force= had been driven out, and were put stied as far as the head of the Gulf of California : they succeeded in escapinf , across the Colorado. Commodore Stockton had five United States vessels with him, and was in entire command of the coast, which he was vigor critslv blockading. Colonel Fremont was provisional Governor of the Californias. The Mexicans captured two Americans, one of whom was Mr. Cowie, of St. Louis. and flayed them In death. No further difficulty was apprehended in California, as the whole country was in vssession of the Americans. In consequence of this infOr , ation General Kearney ordered back to Santa Fe all of the dragoons except one hundred. and availed him self the services of the company that had just traversed the route.. At Santa Fe and throughout New Mexico affairs were quiet, with the exception of Indian irruptions. The troops were in cord health, and previsions were be cornice abundant. The Mormon regiment was to leave Sage;. Fe Id• California on the 17th of Octolnr. The in habitaots of New Mexico were by no means friendiy. COIWNIERCIAL The Cotton Markets had not kept pace with curs on of the Atlantic ; but here (lull, owing, it is sai to th tightness of money at New York, hnd the scarcity of tr-i Opinions still vary with respect to the short ness of the crop. The following estimate of the arrivals was made tin to the 25th ult.:— 1816. 1815. Ree , ipts Exports to Great Britain 34,677 130,504 ~ Sto , ks . Loading for Gt. Britai❑ 72 68 vessels. T hi, shows a f Aling off of 119,471 bales over last year's arrivals. The addition of the Savannah and Charleston mails, which had not arrived, would reduce this deficiency. The market for all bread stuffs was falling, owing to difficulty in procuring freights. W e extract the following from the New York Courier and Enquirer, of the 26th of November : " S.nce the arrival of the last steamer with dates of the 4th in itant our markets for breadstuffs have drooped and are drooping, in the face of falling prices in Europe and increasing stock here. . . " Up to this time the canals have brought down to tide-water in this suite more than 800,000 barrels of flour more than in the previous year, turning the excess of wheat into flour, at five bushels to the barrel. Of Indian corn almost the whole quantity sent to market by this route is a new article of export, and principally of the last crop, the growth of this crop being yet too green to be rarely shipped. The quantity thus tar is about 1,500,000 bushels. There were only 30,938 bushels of this grain brought down last year. " As yet the frost holds off, and supplies pour down. Vessels are i❑ great demand, and male very advantageous freights." WEST INDIES The Tay steam-ship arrived at Southampton on Tues day. - - - - - - - - - - The intelligence brought by the Tay from Mexico is of no great importance. She had vhry little communication on shore. No restriction was put upon her entering any of the ports. The blockading squadron was still lying off Anton Lizardo, and no movement had been made in any shape whatever since the last advices. At Vera Cruz, the Mexicans were still exerting themselves, and adopting every means in their power to defend their favourite cas tle of St. Juan de Ulloa. It was reported that the scurvy had made its appear ance in the American fleet, and that the crews were suf fering very geverely- In chnrt, on. chip bus boon oftnt to the United States with invalids. A movement, on the part of the Mexicans, had been made at Tampico. The whole of the forces were prepar ing to leave when the Tay left, in order to rally ronnd Santa Anna, who was at San Luis , concentrating his army. Every person capable of bearing arms had volun tari,y entered the service, and it was supposed that the force under Santa Anna amounted to upwards of 20,000 men. Their destination was Montery, Zo meet General Taylor. No further intelligence had been received from the seat of war in the interior. It was intended, on the part of the Mexicans, to evacuate Tampico. The cannon was being transported to Monterey, but the ammunition, copper, shot, &c.. were thrown into the river, to prevent their falling into the bands of the Americans. The private accounts from the West Indies represent the crops to be in a flourishing state, and the weather par ticularly fovourable, although a more than usual quantity of rain had fallen. It was very hot in Jamaica, and some little sickness provailed. NEW ZEALAND The Mexican mail has brought letters vid Panama, the dates from Wellington being the 4th Aug. The Governor, with all the disposable troops, was, at the time the ac count left, engaged with the insurgent natives, and no doubt was entertained that the attack would have a suc cessful result. The Ralph Bernal had arrived at Wash ington on the 15th July, and would load for London im mediately on her return from Auckland. The whale fishery has been very successful, and it was expected there would be sufficient oil to form three ships' cargoes for London. PORTUGAL, Intelligence has been received from Portugal, con firming the accounts respecting a battle at Chaves, in the north of the kingdom, on the 6th ult., between the royal troops under Baron Casal, and the insurgents, to the number of 2,000, under Sada Bandeira, in which the latter were routed,—two regiments going over to the Queen, after firing in the air. This aflair is not likely to have much influence on the ultimate result of the contest. Letters from Lisbon, to the 25th ult., state that Mar shal Saldanha still remained before Santarem. It was said that the Junta of Oporto and the Marquis of Louie, were pressing Das Antas to engage the Queen's troops, or that otherwise the cause of the revolution was lost. 6999 tons - of ice were exported from Boston between September 1 and November 11. The death of M. Michelet, announced lately in most of the papers, was not that of the historian, but of his father. The Austrian government forbids every peasant in Gal- Bela to leave his dwelling after sunset, to hold any com munication with his neighbours, or to attend any assem blage; and the whole co Intry is militarily occupied. The Emperor Nicholas has just become a member of the Russian Yacht Club, and has added to its vessels the Victoria yacht, built in England. The Grand Duke Con stantine has accepted the office of honorary president. The King of Sweden bad a narrow escape for his life last week : a madman, named Platen, went to the palace and demanded an interview with the King. On being questioned by the chamberlain, he discharged a horse pis tol at him, and another at Count Horn, who endeavoured to arrest him. He was secured, but without damage to either, and sent to the lunatic asylum. There has been a new waterfall discovered in the river St. Louis. This cataract falls into the western part of Lake Superior, which has never yet been described by the geographer. It would appear that this new wonder is second only to the Falls of Niagara. The volume of water is immense, and the height of the fall is fifty feet. —La Reveu Canadienne. IRELAND. Lord Shrewsbury has whitewashed Mr. O'Connell — publishing an eulogy of the Liberator's purity of motive in the now vulgar shape of a letter. The play of " Jack Shepherd," which was announced at the theatre at Clonmel, was very properly interdicted by the mayor, as unfit for the audience. The Irish Government has issued a proclamation. against the possession and use of contraband fire=arms, grounded on the 15th and 16th of George III:, c. 21— the Whiteboy Act. . . The Tipperary Constitution says that a priest, on Sunday, in one of the rural parishes, told his fleck " that he would not blame them if they robbed every one they met." _ _ _ . Mr. O'Connell hawing stated last week that the Repeal Association owed him b .£97 l9s. 61, the Dubin Moil nays : " Throw in the odd thruppence Who fears to speak of Ninelli-eioht An attempt was on Saturday made to murder Mr. Ilennessy, overseer under the Board of Works, near Clare Castle; nine swan shots entered his body. Hopes are, however, entertained of his recovery. The perpe tratorslhave not been discovered. MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT, WITH Loss OF THREE LIVES.—On Wednesday morning week, at the kitchen garden house of James levers, Esci, Glenfield, county Limerick. John O'Donnell, wife, and son (the latter a very fine young man) were found dead; the wife and son lying on the floor, and the father, an old man, dead in bed. An inquest wad held on Thursday , an d a pot mortem examination made ; and it being deposed by the medical evidence that death was caused by the respiration and poisonous effects of carbonic acid gas, produced by combustion in a very small and confined bed-room, a verdict was recorded accordingly. GUN PRACTICE BY THE PEASANTRY.—A gentleman residing in the vicinity of this town, a few days back, espied a hat placed on a spade in the centre of a green field, and being somewhat surprised at its location in ground of this description, he watched attentively for a while. His surprise, however, was soon banished, for in a few moments, he perceived no less than seven men kneeling and taking aim at the ill-fated bat. They fired with great precision, and, it is roedless to say, made a riddle of the target !! I The field days are incessant, and " the young idea" is shooting in all directions. The bad work goes bravely on. May it soon have an end, say we.—Tipperary Constitution. DEATHS BY STARVATION.—The Mayo Constitution publishes the reptirts of no less than eight inquests on the bodies of poor people, all of whom, according to the evi dence and verdicts, had perished for want of the common necess,.ries of life. The state of that county is repre sented by trustworthy witnesses to be really appalling ; and, like ether districts similarly circumstanced, the greater the extent of poverty the greater the amount of agrarian outrage. In the same paper which tells the melancholy tale of eight human beings perishing by star vation, there appears a catalogue of crimes perpetrated by miscreants who make the sufferings of their fellow-crea tures a pretext for plunder arid bloodshed. . . . PLUNDER or CORN.—Between one and two o'clock on the morning of Wednesday lest, a band of twenty men, several of them armed with guns, &c., entered the farm-yard of Mr. R. Roberts, of Corbally, near Cork, and plundered the barn of six barrels of wheat and eight of oats. This is in a county in which there is plenty of food, and the people know where to find it. Whether the depredators belonged to the parish or came from a distance is not known. They were heard by a man and a boy, who were deterred from giving the alarm, which would hare been useless, as Mr. Roberts is old, and only his daughters and female servants in the house. The fellows had ❑o appearance of want, and had three horses and butts with them. They intended to take also a fat cow, but on the remonstrance of the boy they left her. A BURGLAR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF.—At the Belfat quarter sessions, last week, John Sloan was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and Frederick M'Cann and Patrick Magee were transported for fitteen years, for a burglary in Belfast. Magee made an extraordinary confession. Sloan and be (he said) had robbed together fifty or sixty houses this year or two. He was a Liverpool man, " I know," be continued, " that I am a thief and a notorious rubber; I acknowledge till toy robberies; but Sloan was with me forty or fifty times in offices in Liverpool, and carried a double.barrelled pistol in Liverpool to shoot any one ,who would hinder him. Ay, and Sloan is wanted now for a robbery in North John-street. There was another robbery in Belfast, but it is not worth talking about. It was Sloan did that. And there was another, too, that has rt , ,t come to light." DEATHS FROM STARVATION IN GALWAY.—An in quest was held on the 30th ult., at ltosshill, in this county, on view of the bodies of Martin Joyce and Michael Joyce, his S.M. It appeared in evidence, that the former was father of six children, and that for the last month they had scarcely any means of support. They were frequently obliged to live on one quart of meal a day between seven in family, and the day previous to their decease, th-v had but four herrings to subsist upon. Having obtained employment upon the public worts, they returned in the evening to their wretched home, retired to rest, without having eaten anything, and before morn ing, exhausted nature sought repose in t e arms of death. A poor man, named Hession, who lately left the Galway workhouse, was found dead in a hut near the bridge of furloughmoor, on the morning of Thurschy Herald. REPEAL ASSOCIATION —The usual weekly meeting was held on Mon ay, Mr. A. R. Sihtch, barrister, in the chair. The attendance was more numerous than it had been for souse time past, for reasans which will afterwards explain themse.ves. It was fully expected that the "Li berator," writhing under the castigation int - Feted upo❑ him by the several spea,ers at the Young Ireland demon straiion, would return the compliment with interest from his own forum. Judge, therefore, the surprise of the un initiated, when, instead of hurling thunderbolts at his youthful antagonists, he actually struck his colours, and laid the basis of a reconciliation, by proposing a con ference between the heads of the two parties, with a view of arranging the preliminaries of a treaty for the suspen sion of hostilities. Mr. O'Connell's supremacy, as the leader of the agitation, is, therefore, virtually at an end, and Young Ireland's victory has been completed. Mr. O'Connell handed in £55, the subscription of himself and family, and the rent amounted to £ll6. PROPOSAL OF THERE'. R.J. WGIIEE FOR THE CON VERSION OF ROMAN CATHOLICS TO PROTESTANTISM. —The reverend gentleman has promulgated a plan to effect this object, of which the following are the heads : To open in Dublin a regular weekly lecture, accessible to the priests of all Ireland ; a reserved platform to be pro vided for them, to which they should regularly be invited, in the kindest spirit, and where the people shall have the advantage of seeing that they always can come. The pro pounder states, that as regards the antiquity of their Church, the tables are turned on them, the Protestant Reformation having been a casting off of novelties, and returning to the ancient Christian creed. He proposes to join the Church of Rome, if the priests can show him that their creed was ever received or heard of as a pro fession of faith in the Christian church before the false reform of the Council of Trent, in 1564. The propo sition of an individual, he says, will produce no effect; but if a large body of the Church clergy and laity would join him in the offer, the Roman Catholic laity would be awakened. and would find. that tl-toy lives deceived, and that the claim of antiquity must be given to the Protestant Church. His second proposal is, that several clergymen should address the priests weekly, giving them instruction in the Gospel, showing the doc trine of justification by the Lord Jesus in contradis tinction to Romish errors, &c., &c.) Here the writer points out the parts of Scripture that show the grand errors of the Romanists.) He concludes as follows I believe in my soul there is no way so likely to lift up the rod from oar land as a diligent discharge of the most important duties of our sphere. And I firmly believe the way to discharge them best, is to have such a faith in the Gospel for our own souls as to lead us to pray that we may be enabled to deliver ourselves from the guilt of neglecting our poor Roman Catholic countrymen." RETRIBUTION.—The measure of 1845 (the Maynooth endowment) passed amid cheers and congratulations ; and its opponents were greeted, on all bands, with gibes and taunts for their stupid bigotry. But they could not know that while statesmen were smiling and exulting, and they were trembling, the destroyer had already gone forth, and a plague had begun which was speedily to shake all the national reliances. Still less could they foresee that the first and most singular result of this visitation would be ; not so much to plague or punish the people, as to confound and break up the strong but presuming govern ment. The mere alarm of famine threw the Minister on a course which, whether wise or unwise, ended in break ing up the strongest government which England had seen for fourteen years. Such was the first result of the , Divine judgment. Meanwhile, however, the peculiar infliction went on its course. A disease affecting espe cially " the Irish root" spread and increased. The men of science have now had it under t :eir consideration for more than fifteen months ; and after all their study, they can neither enlighten us as to its cause, its nature, nor its remedy! Our statesmen, however, saw nothing of the hand of God, nor did they " repent, to give God the glory." They would speedily set all things to rights by altering the customs' duties ! They have fully tried this course, and what is the result ? The ports were to l e thrown open, and then food was to be made so cheap, that we might laugh at the idea of famine. The ports have been thrown open, but food is not cheaper, and famine is actually devouring its hundreds and thousands. By the relaxation of our commercial code, trade and manufactures were to receive such a❑ impetus as to create a high tide of wealth and prosperity. The commercial code has been relaxed ; but instead of art increase of trade, we find all our manufacturing towns suffering an unusual depression and stagnation. By our " boon to Ireland " we were to have attached the people of that country per manently to the empire. Instead of which we now see them generally arming ; the ho-tile tenor of which pro ceeding it is impossible to doubt. Meanwhile, all is trouble and uncertainty at home. We have a weak government where, in 1811, 1812, and 1843, we had a strong one. Of its endurance, even through a single session, no one entertains any confident expectation ; yet no one can surmise in what way a stronger cabinet can be formed in its room. Thus famine, fear of civil war, commercial gloom, and weakness at the seat of govern ment, combine to make our prospects unusually gloomy ; and yet men—even religious men—are found to express a doubt as to whether God has a controversy with us.— , Record. RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE. The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway will be opened throughout on Thursday next. Not one railway plan has been deposited this year with the clerk of the peace for Newark, and only eight for the county. Last year there were between thirty and forty. LIABILITY OF PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE. Friday, in the Courts of Exchequer and Common Pleas, several Provisional Committee-men were successfully sued, principally for debts arising from the insertion of advertisements for their several schemes. The same sealing composition which was used for closing the longitudinal valve on the Croydon Atmospheric Railway, during the extreme heat of last summer, has passed through its first freezing ordeal with great success. Many persons prognosticated that a contrary result would ensue. The trains were all run with the greatest punctuality, and the valve composition appeared perfectly soft and plastic, and wholly unaffected by the frost. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ON THE NORTH-WES TERN —lt has been determined to carry the electric tele graph from the terminus at Euston-square to Liverpool and Manchester. The wires have been already placed as far as Watford. It is also intended to complete the tele graph from Manchester to Liverpool. The cost of laving down the wires, &c., amounts to £l4O per mile. When the apparatus is complete the entire distacce to Liverpool, wires are to be laid down from the terminus at Euston square to the Royal Exchange. EXTENSION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TO I3ou- LOON E.—ln consequence of the great success which has attended the experiments with Messrs. West and Co.'s sub-marine telegraph, the directors of the South Eastern. Railway are making preparations for the extension of the electric telegraph from Folkstone to Boulogne. They have already extended their wires round the Custom house at Folkstone, where it will form, by means of the submarine telegraph, a communication between London and Boulogne. THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. UNIVERSITY 4- CLERICAL NEWS. The Lord Bishop of Lichfield has given £lOOO to the Lichfield Diocesan Church Building Society. The Rev. W. D. Long, of this town, has been ap pointed perpetual curate of St. BartholomeW's district Birmingham. LAMENTABLE MORTALITY.—The Rev. Robt. Brown, vicar of Kirk Bradden, Isle of Man, died on Saturday week under melancholy circumstances : " For some years past," says the Mona's Herald, " the 'Vicar has been nervous, and inclined to epilepsy ; so that any ex citement, or sudden emotion, unfavourably affected him. On the 7th of October last, a son of his, aged 26 years, died abroad, at New Providence, of which event he got intelligence in November. On the llth of November another son, aged 14 years, sickened and died at home. These severe domestic afflictions were keenly felt by the sensitive and affectionate father, and were a terrible shock to his infirm constitution. Another son of the deceased, who has resided in England since August last, hearing of the decease of his brother abroad, hastened home to sus tain and comfort his afflicted parents ;—but what was his anguish of feeling on his arrival home, to find the corpse of his younger brother lying in his father's house! This son continued with his parents until last Saturday even ing, when at six o'clock he started, in company with a younger brother, for Douglas, to take the steamer for Liverpool. Within an hour atter the sons bad left, the anxious father observed that the wind was rising, and he started on foot for Douglas, to dissuade his son from taking a passage that night. He had been gone about an hour and a half, when his man-servant and a neighbour, ' returning from Douglas in a cart, found the deceased [ling upon his back, in the highway, about 150 yards from his own door. He was still warm, and breathed a few times after the servant came up; but the weather being extremely cold, the lamented pastor was a corpse before he could be removed into the house." PAROCHIAL ASSISTANT ASSOCIATION.— This iS the designation of the projected Ecclesiastical Town Mission. It is designed to extend not only throughout Liverpool, but to West Derby, Birkenhead, and the neighbourhood. Gentlemen are to be selected either by the Bishop or the sub-committee; and, after examination and approval by the Theological Professor, they are to be admitted as gra tuitous Agents. and, except in particular cases, are to live together in an Institution near to, and under the eye of, the Professor—under whom, in return, they are also to be receiving, gratuitously, a course of preparation, both theological and practical, as candidates for Holy Orders. It is understood that the class of agents con templated, are young men of education, but not possessed of pecuniary means for graduating at the Universities. Archdeacon Manning affirmed, that it is now generally admitted, that the Universites do not and cannot supply enough candidates for orders,—so vastly increased, of late, is the demand for working clergy. Hence, either for lay assistants under clerical training, or for assistants in minor orders, many—both low churchmen and high char chmen—have long felt the expediency of such auxili ary Institutions as this. The Bishop of the diocese will be the Visitor. The Rectors of Liverpool and Walton, and the Incumbents of West Derby and Birkenhead, are to be the Presidents. The committee will consist of all Incumbents, within the specified districts, who join the Association. The sub-committee, of twelve clergymen, are to be annually selected from the general committee, including the several presidents. The parochial services to he rendered by each Agent will be, to assist the re spective Incumbents in visiting, their districts in such a manner as each Incumbent may desire ; and in case of difference of opinion arising, the Bishop is to decide. As the success of this measure materially depends on general and cordial co-operation, it augurs well for its accepta bility and usefulness that the Bishop has appointed the Rev. Joseph Bavlee, the indefatigable Incumbent of Holy Trinity, Birkenhead, to be the Theological Professor. THE SALT MONOPOLY. (From the Asiatic Journal.) We already witness tie commencement of an earnest, well-continned movement against the East India Com pany's salt monopoly. And with what potency of argu ment the cause is sustained ! Fifty millions of human beings whose food is pulse, rice, or vegetables, and to whom, consequently, salt is of the greatest moment, not merely to render the insipid diet palatable, but to protect the body from loathsome diseases, are compelled to pay for the indispensable condiment the enormous price:of twopence per pound ! Of the,e fifty millions, one fitth or ten millions are kbourers whose several incomes do not exceed fifty shillings per annum; and as each labourer has, on an average, a family of five persons to maintain, and each person requires at the lowest computation twelve rounds of salt per annum, it follows that one fifth part of the fruits of the poor man's industry must be applied to the purchase of salt alone! Yes, upwards of ten weeks of hard work under a burning sun only suffice to produce a scanty portion of one of the commonest necessaries of existence! _ _ In such a state of things the purchase of clothing is quite out of the question. Equally impossible is it for the labourer to improve his circumstances by the application of a few pence per annum to the growth of sugar, or of any other article.which might he at once a source of do mestic comfort, and a means of sharing in the trade of the country. Arid all this, that the East India Company may enjoy a revenue of one million and a half sterling, to waste on costly establishments and plunge into useless and un just wars! We shudder at the picture, so startling in its general effects, so frightful in its details, and we are filled with loathing and disgust when it is demonstrated to us, that by a simple act of justice to British trade the whole scene might be converted into a picturesque grouping of pros perity and contentment, of fertile fields and smiling peasants. All that is required to dissolve the present hideous view is, that the monopoly of the manufacture of salt by the East India Company should be abandoned, and that the government should seek its equivalent reve nue (for its claim to revenue in some shape is incontesti ble) in an import duty upon salt sent out from Cheshire and Worcestershire, and an excise duty upon salt that may be manufactured by the natives themselves upon the spot. The British salt can be laid down at Liverpool for 20s. the ton—the freight and other charges will cost 365. more—making 565. for 2240 pounds, or one halfpenny per pound on its arrival in India. The imposition of a duty of one halfpenny a pound will reduce the price of salt to the native of India exactly one half, giving him a surplus of five weeks' labour, or ss. per annum, while upon the rough computation that only salt enough for the fifty millions of people at 12Ibs. per head finds its way to India, the government will realise a revenue of one million and a quarter sterling. But this, though a pleasing, is after all, hut a contracted view of the great advantages necessarily flowing from such an alteration in the method of supplying Bengal and Be har with salt. On the universally recognised principle of political economy that reduction of price invariably pro duces increase of demand, there is every reason to believe that the consumption of salt instead of being limited to twelve pounds per individual will be augmented to the ex tent of fifteen to twenty pounds for domestic purposes alone ;*—that salt will be applied to agricultural and scientific purposes; that the native farmer will give it his cattle with their food when living, and cure their hides fur exportation when their carcases have been sold to the butcher. Freed from several weeks of extra labour for the procuring salt alone, and provided with a surplus of ss. per annum, the native, to whom clothing is the great est luxury, will, in all probability, apply his saving to the purchase of British piece goods, which form the ordinary materiel of his garments—and here we begin to perceive how essentially England is commercially concerned in relieving the wretched Indian of his present burthen. Mr. Aylwin, to whose interesting work we have made fre quent reference in the course of our enquiry—shows that even if each ryot in the salt monopoly districts became a customer for only one yard of long cloth, an extra demand would be created for nearly fifty millions of yards ; but other writers who have examined the question in a more sanguine spirit, go beyond Mr. Aylwin in their computa tion of results. Taking, however, the minimum estimate, we have in prospect a clear demand for two millions and a quarter sterling's worth of Manchester goods above the present consumption! For the conveyance of these goods to India, and for the carriage of the salt from London, Liverpool, Bristol, Gloucester, &c., a demand is created for one hundred thousand extra tons of British shipping. The additional production of sugar in the East Indies, the increased value of the hides—both resulting from the reduction of the price of salt—open the door to an augmentation of our imports from India and the improvement of homeward freights. Then the additional employment given to the steam engines of our cotton factories and salt works in• creases the demand for coal ; the operatives find occupa tion for all their working hours ; the sugar refiner, the leather dresser, and so on down to the grocer and the shoemaker, are supplied with an accession to their busi ness, and consequently their profits, and all the various trades and occupations more or less connected with these are indirectly made participators in the blessings of the extended free trade. . . * The East India Company ration their sepoys and other ser vants at these rates and the allowance in English workhouses is framed upon a similar scale. DUTCH RHENISH RAILWAY. In the month of September last, a committee of inquiry was appointed h y the shareholders in this important un dertaking, in order to ascertain its actual position, and how far the flattering promises of its original prospectus were likely to be realized. This committee has hitherto calmly and quietly, but zealously, pursued their labours; and having made themselves to a great extent masters of their subject, they felt they were in a position to request an audience with the London directors, in order to arrive at a more perfect understanding on several matters both of policy and practice, which bad become points of debate. This audience was granted with the greatest courtesy b y the board, and W. Chaplin, Esq., Mr. Uzielli and Mr. Walters, together with the secretary, Mr. Janson, ar . rived in Liverpool on Tuesday evening last. The committee, consisting of the chairman, Charles Holland, Esq. and the • honorary secretary, Mr. Beloe, together with Messrs. I3ouch, Harbord, Harrison, T. Moss, B. Poole, Andrews, Unsworth and Forwood, (Mr. E. Mayley and Mr. A. Maggregor being unavoidably absent in London,) assembled at the Adelpbi Hotel at twelve' o'clock on saturday, and were introduced to the directors by Mr. Thomas Moss. The points for discussion having been briefly mentioned by Mr. Holland, Mr. Beloe was requested to read a series of questions which had been prepared for the occasion ; and it is gratifying to be enabled to state, that the answers received were not only most ample and candid, but that in most cases they were deemed highly satisfactory. The Committee endeavoured to press upon the attention of the Directors the propriety of using eve ry effort for an early completion of the line, the more frequent running of trains on the part already opened, the impolicy of retleern ing at the present moment auy further amount of the bond debt of the company, until the whole question had been fully considered and the method to be adopted respecting its final extinguishment determined upon. The appoint ment of a❑ English managing Director, and such an alter ation of the statutes as would secure to Liverpool a proper representation at the General Board, together with a more complete control of the railroad to English shareholders generally; and, in conclusion. the Committee strongly pressed the Directors to attend a public muting in this town in order to allay the fears and restore the confidence of the shareholders resident in this neighbourhood. The Directors, in reply, pledged theiriselyes not only to give various points, above mentioned, their serious consi deration, but to further the views of the committee to the utmost of their ability ; and with respect to a public mee ting, they suggestel that it would be better on every account, to dellr such a meeting for a few weeks, in order that they might obtain the presence of the Treasurer, Mr. Leo Leppman ; and that such a report should be previ ously prepared, as would convey to the shareholders the most ample information on every point that had hitherto formed a subject of debate or dissatisfaction. The Meeting, which lasted four hours, and which was further attended by John Moss, Esq., the resident English Commissary, seemed to give great satisfaction to all parties ; and Mr. Holland having proposed a vote of thanks to the Directors, which was carried unanimous ly, the meeting separated. SOCIAL POSITION OF THE BRITISH JOURNALIST. The position of the journalist in this country is one of the most anomalous character. No man can, in the pre sent day, refuse to admit the fact that the press has, within the last few years, made vast strides both in influ ence and in respect ibility. It has become a powerful en gine, not only in the woild of politics, but in the world of literature. Some of the soundest scholars, the deepest thinkers, and accomplished writers are to be found upon the columns of the daily and weekly metropolitan jour nals ; and many who would have been accounted stars of the first magnitude, as contributors to the periodical li terature of the last generation, are looking on individually unheeded and unknown in our provincial papers. The age has passed away in which the newspaper was the mere record of idle gossip, or personality ; the commentator only upon the doings of statesmen or communities. Of most of the great movements of the present day, whether political or social, the press takes the initiative, the sug gestive. Statesmen may imagine that they can stand alone ; parties may still exclaim when they contemplate their successes, " Quorum pars magna fuimus''; but it is the press which has moulded public opinion—it is the journalist in his closet, whose vigorous intellect, whose storing appeals or argumentative pleading, has ripened the fruir, which other hands step in to pluck. The un known and obscure literary labourer has sown the grain; but the shallow appropriator of his ideas it is who reaps the harvest. With all this acknowledged power and vast responsibi lity, the journalist has no standing in society, no place as signed him in the social scale. "Journalism,'' remarks an able writer in Frazer's Magazine for the present worth " Journalism has by a combination of events been raised to the rank of a profession. By a concurrence of conspiring circumstances, it has gained influence over the hearts and intellects of tne people. It has dratted into its ranks education, information. and ability. It has exhi bited earnestio ss, eloquence, and brilliance. It has alto gether fulfilled its mission with dignity and integrity. It has used power beneficially where it might have abused it. It has remonstrated with factious license and popular passion, where it might have ministered to the one and pandered to the other. It has rarely forgotten the great interests of the country or the duties of the legislature. It has spoken out fearlessly against oppression, against cruelty, against cant. It has been, in almost every in stance, truly national." Yet, what is the consideration in which the journalist is held by the community for which he has done, and is do ing, so much ? Has the most talented writer of the most talented morning or evening journal the same standing as the merest official hack or the petit aitre of the world of letters? The author of a tenth-rate novel, or the perpe trator of a doze❑ pages of doggrel, is counted in every co terie, whilst the journalist, whose labours are devoted to direct public opinion, and to whose critical fiat the petty literature looks with trembling anxiety, is driven to de pend for his position in society to some extraneous claim upon the public. The most insignificant member of the legislature, who lives by pirating his thoughts and retails his opinions as his own, would hesitate before admitting the journalist, as such, into his private circle, or acknow ledging an intimacy in public. Even a vestryman or a councillor looks down upon the man, whose advocacy has raised him to the enjoyment of official existence, as his inferior in station or i❑ worth. This is not the case in other countries. The same writer reminds us that : " The journalist in Fran le has a station which is recog nised, because it is impossible riot to recognise the work ing of his talents and the operations of his intellect. But the French journalist often exercises a fatal and pernicious power. We, as a nation, have had reason to complain of partial statements, inflammatory doctrines, and sectarian jealousy. The French journalist addresses men of quick feelings, not of sober judgment. He seeks to excite and to please, not to convince or to conciliate. Instead of assuaging he provokes evil passions ; instead of Consult ing the interests, he ministers to the prejudices of his countrymen. But the French journalist is in the best society. He is flattered by the homage of the rich and the attention or toe fair. Ills name is mown 1n un poli tical circles with advantage, in his own with fame and honour. He is sometimes a peer, always a celebrity. His violence is described as zeal, his asperity as eloquence, his encouragement of war as nationality. But to hi English compeer, who neither condescends to vulgar abuse, or deals in the fermentation of wretched prejudice, there is no place assigned in the social circle. As for po litical rewards, except of the lowest kind, such things are never dreamed of. Occasionally, indeed, a clever writer steals into a nondescript office, without a name and al most without a salary, to exert on behalf of an ambiguous and unintelligible minister the cleverness and the vigour which he had displayed in the columns of The Times or The Chronicle. But what English minister would ever dream of holding the conductors of those two journals in the same consideration in which the editors of La Presse and the Debats are held by MM. Thiers and Guizot ; or such writers as Mr. Everett and Mr. Webster, by the government of the United States ?" Undoubtedly this is a state of things which must ulti mately right itself. The respectable portion of the con ductors of the press have only to pursue the even tenor of their way; and their power must ultimately be recognised and themselves estimated justly. In the mean time, however, it cannot be denied that the conduct of public men towards the press is productive of infinite evil and most dangerous. We cannot expect that the journalist can at all times preserve his loyalty under circurnstinces so discouraging as those to which he is at present sub jected. He is only human after all. The most serious impediments are thrown in the way of his usefulness by the state of isolation in which he is held. One of these is his want of access of the best information, by which he is sometimes led to make wrong statements or to draw false inferences ; and it is only wonderful that, when he has, as it were, to grope darkling for the truth, and to weigh the thousand conflicting statements which are ever forcing in upon him, his errors are so few and comparatively inno cuous. Let not our public even blame him for any inadver tences into which he is led. They have the remedy within their own reach ; and might materially lighten their diffi culties and give increased correctness to his record of passing events. The following are the concluding remarks of the writer, from whom we have already quoted : " Instead of the public taste having elevated the style of newspaper composition, the newspaper writers have raised the standard of the public taste. We believe that at this very moment a coarser and rougher kind of com position would be better understood and more keenly re lished by the mass of general readers, than that which the leading journals of London (and may we not add of the provinces ?) have adopted. Is this a slight praise ? Is it a small thing to have sacrificed a lucrative and ' tel ling' acerbity, an ud captandum vehemence, a popular abusiveness, to a severer and more honest criticism ? Is it nothing to have introduced the more delicate and pointed weapons of political controversy in place of the harder and more vulgar arms once in use ? Is it nothing to lead instead of following, to correct instead of pander ing to public feeling ? Is it nothing to have preserved a national sentiment in the midst of sectarian jealousies— an English loyalty in the infectious atmosphere of class contests and antipathies ? Is it nothing to have resisted with success the prejudices of a rich proprietary, or to have overcome the capricious bigotry of editorial igno rance ? Ile men who do these things deserve something more than neglect and obscurity, yet they are neglected and obscure. No honours await them, no position is awarded them. Even the fame which they may have at tained in this department, may preclude success in their ostensible and ' more respectable avocations.' We said before that this evil must cure itself in time ; men of ta lent and learning will not long tolerate slight, contumely, and obscurity. The nature of things is against such a presumption ; but the means by which such an end may i be accomplished is a question of vast imp ortance. It sno trivial social calamity for a nation to possess a number of clever, discontented, and unscrupulous men. Discon tent soon darkens into vindictiveness , and vindictiveness is seldom scrupulous. Men who think their fair claims are neglected or overlooked, will set abo ut their own way of preferring them ; and no men have such an obvious facility of building their own fortunes on the basis of pub lic tumult and class-disaffection as your " strong writers." There are in this country, unfortunately, too many per sons with a command of capital, .who would be ready enough to invest it in the diffusion of their own repub lican doctrines, who would pay largely for clever hands' and ' powerful pens.' That this known temptation has been so strenuously resisted, is more creditable to the honour and pride of individual writers than to the good sense of statesmen and politicians. What reward was ever bestowed on the men who fought the hard and doubt ful fight of Conservatism in the columns of the press through the memorable years of 1832, 1833, 1834, 183 D, and 1836 ? If any one force more than another destroyed the 'Whig ministry in 1841, it was the press, and yet how has it been rewarded ? The men whose unceasing exer tions stamped odium and disgrace upon the Whigey"sed wholly unnoticed by those whom they substituted in their places. The egotism of Sir Robert Peel was as ungrate ful as the nepotism of his predecessors. And FO it will continue to be till every politician in parliament, from n the premier down to the youngest lordly expectant, is convinced by facts too startling to be paltered with, that there is some danger in contemning a power which has already virtually abolished military flogging, and bids fairly to abolish the New Poor-law." CORRhSPONDENCE. ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF SOME PARTS OF LIVERPOOL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. LETTER XXI Property has its duties as well as its rights." THE DAMP, FOUL STATE OF DWELLINGS, AND THE HASTY OCCUPATION OF N EW-BUILT HOUSES, SOURCES OF DANGER—(continued). The last case, then, was one of the list of preventible diseases. The many weeks of interrupted attention to business, were so many sacrifices to the selfishness of society and the ignorance of the dupes of that selfishn-ss. The following are so many more instances, only further enhanced by the greater poverty of those called upon, or obstinately willing, to become the prey of causes of dis ease removable or mitigable. I shall less minutely par ticularise some of the following facts, and venture, upon the slender stock of credit I may have earned, to call for a little exercise of faith, therefore, upon the reader's part. A. shop and back room, which served as house-place and bedroom, are situated upon one of the very highest elevations of the ground upon which this town is built; therefore so far removed from the prejudicial operation of those causes to which the lower levels of the town are exposed. This house-place and bedroom are built upon a large water-tank, the aperture of which is closed by a large iron slab, which is under the only bed, for which latter there is but that one at all suitable or npable cor ner, owing to the unfavourable position of the door, win dow, and fireplace. The tank supplies with water a house above of three stories at least, if not four. The floor of this room is otherwise slabbed with stone. The flour is, therefore, from its being the ceiling in eff, et of a water chamber, always more or less damp and cold. The fire fails to render the floor temperate, or the air of the room generally comfortable. There seems no mediate transla tion between roasting at the fire or shivering with the cold. I happen to know, as I think, rather intimately, the natural history of this cold chamber. It is now about three or four years since I attended an occupant (perhaps the first) of this room—a poor woman and her husband, struggling for an honest livelihood. She was confined in this place. in a bed over the iron-mouthed teak. I do not remember the particulars of her recovery; but the child lived, whilst in the course of a short period the poor mother sank in pulmonary consumption. The infant was sent away into the country to be nursed, and was living and well but a few weeks ago. In the course of time, 1 was also called upon to visit the successors of the first family in the same place—another industrious pair In this instance, too, I was present at the wife's confine ment. She recovered, but with some drawback from a supposed ordinary cold. She eventually rallied, and yet often was the subject of cold and feverish heats. My mind was not so much attracted to the dangers of our Liverpool population then as since. She again expected to become a mother, but her health was prejudiced by a succession of colds; in fact, she could hardly ever be said to be free from them. She was confined, and after strug gling with a ri,rumatic attack and some kind of disorder of the feet, she recovered. During these attendances upon both her husband and self for heavy colds with coughs, I used to remonstrate earnestly with them, her self especially, against remaining in such unhealthy apart ments. I reasoned with her upon the folly of staying at the imminent risk of health, if not of life. It was of no use. The apartments were otherwise suitable for busi ness; the locali y had the command of a certain custom, and blind obstinacy determined a deaf ear to my oft repeated warning. The. conviction grew upon me that such must prove fatal to some or other member of the family. At one time I did apprehend consumption in the husband, but he rallied. 1 left them with a death note for my prophecy of the future. I have since been excused attending, perhaps because my hygienicnotions were not agreeable. I heard some time since, from a near relative of the family, that two of the children had died of hooping cough. . . fleave this history without one additional observation. I turn to the next. A family recently arrived in Liverpool, the father of which had recently got a situation in one of the public offices. They took a new house before it was completed, in a locality once covered frequently with water, on a plain recently sewered in something like a proper fashion. They had not been long housed before the mattresses grew mouldy ; the father got a rheumatic attack ; one child became deaf, another had its legs crippled with rheuma tism, and a third I attended in consumption until it died. The latter illness was admitted to have been threatening, or perhaps bad actually seized upon its victim, before they came; yet undoubtedly the last chance of its youthful struggle with this remorseless malady was taken away by the imprudence of entering a new damp house. The next house has been inhabited eighteen months, by parties who took to it green—the wife is now in consumption. Numbers of persons are now awake to the risk of damp new houses, and are anxiously trusting that the legislature will inter fere early to save future victims. Of the next case I have only brief notes, but I do not bring forward a single case which was not attributed by the parties concerned, their medical attendants, or my self, to the cause or causes I herein assign. A young man, a cripple, aged 25, went with his family into a new house, and in half a year died of dropsy. It may be said he was weak, and prone to the disease which carried him off. This argument, if good, tells for me as much as against ; for his weaker frame, if it were so, ren ders him soonest obnoxious to the prejudicial influence cf new houses. I have a note of rheumatism in a housekeeper, attri buted to entering a new house which was damp ; another to tho dozopocz•o of a acr, another of a most severe form of sore throut, cough, &c., ending asthmatically. These cases are peculiar and re cognisable again by those who have ever seen them, as a congestive form of attack of the lining of the windpipe. and not unknown to the Romans, as the erudite medical editor of our health of town's advocate has pointed out. The other day 1 went int, a house to visit a patient. I happened to make some passing remark, whilst waiting, and found the young woman I was conversing with, had been lately married, and was going to commence some line of business along with her husband, for which pur pose they were going to quit a comfortable house, and to enter upon a new house, which she acknowledged was not yet completed as to the building, and of course which stood no chance of being dry and tenantable. Had it even waited until the finishing touches had been put to the entire, it would yet have been a matter of risk ; but as it was, the argument might be certainly urged a for tiori. She had at the time a heavy cold with a cough upon her, and I felt it a duty arising out of the casual acquaintance with the facts, to warn her emphatically of the great danger to which she was about to be exposed. She took my officious kindness, if it could be construed into such, in the same good part in which it was given ; and, thanking me, replied that they had commenced their rent, and must make the best of their bargain. A day or two after, on my calling, I inquired if she were gone. It was true she had gone to brave all the dangers, probably eventually to rue the rashness of her haste. Can it be said, after such a case as this, and others corresponding which 1 have already brought forward, that the people can protect themselves, or should be left to look atter their own interests, without legislative in terference ? Surely no one who knows the industrious classes would say that they have the knowledge or the forethought to enable them to reckon correctly upon the future, in such cases, where sanitary laws are not under stood or appreciated. A stringent law is required to an tagonise the rapacity of a builder for his return of inte rest, and the recklessness of ignorance in tenant-candi dates for new houses—na;, for three-quarter houses ! I trust that, in future general sanitary measures, provision will be made for surveying new houses when completed, and certifying thereupon as to their fitness for being in habited. Many a life would be saved to the state and to society, and for God's ulterior purposes, were such a power granted to authorities. Many of my readers will recollect a striking instance of serfdom to a builder, published by an " Ex Parish Doc tor," some months back, in the columns of this paper, where a builder was reported to have urged some workman employed by him to go and warm a new house, one of a number he had built for sale, and for which it was of the greatest importance, in order to effect a good sale, that they should be already tenanted—that is, beginning to return interest for the outlaid capital. The poor fellow got a very severe attack of rheumatism—lost his property, through loss of health and working strength —lost his employment, through loss of the former—and gained a hospital refuge, a desolate hearth, and found out the utter selfishness of his fellow-man, in the person of a jerry builder ! In what essential particular does such a state of dependence upon cool, calculating selfishness, with a full stop at sickness in the shape of hospital relief and lost situation, differ from the serfdom or villainage of the feudal ages, or of Russia Proper at the present age ? What worse is the slavery of the southern part of the United States, or the West Indies previous to emancipa tion, in all their human outrage, than such instances as this ? The feudal lord or the slaveholder was compelled to maintain his serf or slave in sickness as well as in health—" for richer for poorer"; and though tyrannical and brutal often, yet not always so, nor universally so. But here an employer places his victim in danger, breaks him from the ranks of the self-maintaining, ruins him, and then casts him and his upon the charity of fellow , townsmen, whose alms are clubbed together to enable such a calculating man-monster baying bought his serf in the cheapest, to sell him in the dearest market; and having got all, to throw him up a burthen upon society— an enormity suited to the 19th century, but never refined upon in the medtraval ages to the same shrewd extent. I end for the present with this cursory glance at the villainage of the 19th century, where free-will has sup planted hereditary bonds but to heighten the torture of the victim, whose ignorance, credulity, and want ratify the suicidal deed. . . The present rate of multiplying new houses unsewered is wretched. Though bright with the last finishing touches of the various workmen and artisans, they are yet " unclean "—absolutely unclean for the purposes of life, because unprepared for habitation. An unsewered house is ready to the eye and inviting, but disease lurks in its precincts. The gin -palace, with its luring invita tion, and the newly-built but unsewered house, are twin brothers, whose mission is armed with malevolence and destruction, to wield the unseen stiletto whilst saluting with the accents . of invitation and friendship. But as for entrapped families, entrapped with their eyes open, they might and ought to have inquired about the sanitary po sition of the house they were about to enter, as much called for as inquiry about water, and if taxes and rates were paid up by previous occupants, &c. Let the public get into the habit of asking these questions, and the landlords will sewer and drain without the compulsory clauses of act,: of parliament. I am, Sir, yours truly, G. C. WATSON, Nov. 28, 1846. Dec. 15, IS4B. DREADFUL DESTITUTION AT TENIPLE- CRONE TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD DEAR SlR,—Your insertion of the accompanying statement will greatly oblige me. It comes to me with a priva'e letter from the Rev. Mr. Griffith, curate of the distressed parish, whose name is attached to it along with others. lle is known to me, and I feel safe i❑ vouching for the truth of the painful record. He entreats me to send them even a trifle to relieve their misery. lam most anxious to do something to aid them ; and perhaps some of the Christian, public will sympathise with me in this wish, and practically evidence their pify. Any sum received shall be carefully forwarded, and duly acknow ledged in your paper Yours very truly, W. M. FALLOON December 14th, 1346. The following i 3 the substance of the statement referred to by Mr. Falloon A circular, dated Dongloe, County Donegal, signed by the Rector of Templecrone, by the Protestant officiating Minister, by the Roman Catholic Priest, by a rnag:strate, by the Inspecting. Officer of Coast Guard, and the Medi cal Superintendent has been sent, appealing to the benevo lent in behalf of the famishing population of Templecrone, tha details of which are truly appalling. It appears that the locality and remoteness of the parish is such, hem m ed in on one side by bleak mountains, with road:: scarcely passable, and on the other by a dangerous coast, subject to all the vicissitudes of the Atlantic, that from these circumstances, the prevalent distress has almost remained unknown. The government have overlooked the district, which renders this appeal the more urgent. The follow ing are sotne of the details of the distress, and the gloomy prospects in view :—The parish contains 53,0110 acres, none of which has ever been ploughed, being divided into small holdings, and the population is 10,000. dispersed through wild mountains and thickly inhabited islands. The people have been obliged to consume their oats, ex cept that portion required for seed, and if they are com pelled to go to the latter, they cannot crop the land at all next year, even if they be spared to survive the famine that threatens them. The people, too, have ever been peaceable, orderly and patient. :Vluttril charity so pre vails amongst them, that neighbours allow each other to dig and partake of the blighted and even " ro'ten" crop of potatoes, by which hunger [is but slightly mitigated, and some are turning over the land a second time in keen search for a chance root, that might have been left on the first digging. The government have announced that sup plies need not be calculated upon until the new year; and unless aid is derived from other sources in the meantime, life cannot be preserved. Disease, the effect of destitu tion, is -Ist) prevalent. The Rev. W. M. Falloon, of 1, Newsham-street, Low hill, will, we are happy to hear, receive and forward sub scriptions, and we sincerely hope his benevolent effort will be liberally responded to. [Any contributions which the benevolent of Liverpool may make towards their relief, we shall gladly, if paid to us, acknowledge, and forward, through the Bev. Wm. Falloon, to Sir James Dorobrain, Custom-house, Dub lin, who will remit the same to the rector of the afll cted parish.—Edit. Standard.] -~~ DISTRESSED PROTESTANTS IN IRELAND. Tyruhe, Dec. 9. MY DEAR M. GROVES,—I have received J.:5 each from the Bishop and Chancellor of Chester, and with God's blessing, hope to prosper. I have now, between men, women and children, twentv-nine persons at work— some of them 'Rotnanists—whom I took in, having re ceived an humble letter of request from the Priest. At a quarter to nine every morning, my own men and house servants are wont to come to prayers in my study. Of course the invitation was extended to all, and now the room is crowded—two rows of forms all round, filled— and quite a little chapel. Almost all the Romenists at tend, as also their wives, who bring their breakfast, which they take at a fire in my harness room. At one o'cl,ck they are supplied by us with a liberal feed each of strong good soup, full of meat and vegetables, which does ;hem till they go home at dusk. They take all their money on Saturdays in meal, which I give them at about three fourths of what it costs me. lam getting, to-day, a load of Indian meal, at their own desire. I have expended a few pounds *n clothing. How thankfal we feel to you and your friends, I cannot express. Within the last week, I found two families all but in starvation— the father of one being unwilling to break his engagement with a farmer with whom he was hired until May, a n d all his receipts being his own food, while his family were starving, all but literally. I was here enabled to step in and take into my employment a grown girl and a little boy, and by giving them meal at an extra reduced price, I afford food to five young children and a mother. I have also clothed the father, and got Lim to church the first time last Sunday since I came. The other case is a widow with two little boys, both of whom I have given employment to. You may imagine my case a petty one compared with Connaught, and no doubt it is as far as numbers go; but I am certain that hundreds here are as destitute as any people could be ; and as to my own im mediate neighbourhood, when I applied to you the pe o ple were sustaining life on one meal a day, and that turnips perhaps, or cabbage, or bad potatoes gathered over the country, and not fit for pigs. Had I not taken the step I did, and you and your friends not so warmly responded, I know not what would have been their present state. You have now the comfort of feeling that your exertions are now affording sustenance to snore than a hundred PROTESTANTS, besides a few Roman Catholics ; and that where sorrow and want prevailed, joy is now diffused.— I shall (D.V.) soon again report progress. [Mr. Groves. of Rumford-place, we are informed, will be happy to receive subscriptions.] RECEIPT STAMPS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. Stn,—A great boon was conferred on the public, parti cularly the mercantile or trading portion, by the equali zation and reduction of the rate of postage. A much greater relief would be experienced if en uniform receipt stamp duty of Id. or 2d. was levied on all commercial transactions, instead of an increasing scale (according to the amount received) now in operation. I have scarcely a doubt that this mode would eventually be more produc tive, and that the revenue would be a gainer from the chap to ; for in numerous instances an evasion of the law is effected, to the detriment of government, by dispensing with stamps altogether. The annoyance so frequently ex perienced, by the dread of an information and consequent penalty, would thus be removed. If I am correctly informed, I am given to understand that this tax is unproductive, and leaves little or ❑o sur plus after the expense of collecting. To ensure the use of stamps, at the reduced cost, it might be provided that no other receipt should be bind.. ing in a legal point of view, and that parties not furnished with the same should have no protection from a suit for the recovery of any sum or sums not acknowledged in the form or manner aforesaid.—Your obedient servant, GULIELNIUS. Liverpool, 7th December, 1846. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. SlR,—Allow me to call the attention of your numerous readers to the destitute state of their fellow-countrymen in the Highlands of Scotland. According to a statement in the Inverness Courier, fully 50,000 people are nearly at the point of starvation ; and if help be not soon sent to them, great must be the misery that will befall them. Surely an urgent appeal [Lade to the people of Liverpool, for sympathy and pecuniary aid, will not be made in vain. " Blessed is he that considereth the poor ; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." It would be highly important to call a meeting, to lay the case of the poor Highlanders before the public; but, in the meantime, the benevolence of charitably-disposed persons need not be restrained, as I observe that Archi bald Bonar, Esq., Banker, Edinburgh, is Treasurer of the Fund in connection with the Free Church raising in Scotland, on behalf of their suffering Highland brethren. To show how the distress prevailin g in the northern parts of Scotland is viewed, an d th e kindly feelings of Christian people responded to, in Scotland, I may state that the Edinburgh Witness of the 9th inst. gives a list of contributions by the friends of the Free Church to the amount of £3,253 6s. 61d. ! of which sum £452 15s. Bd. was a Sunday collection in the Rev. Dr. Candlish's Church, Edinburgh. I understand that collections are to be made, for the same commendable object, in several of the Presbyterian Churches in this town, next Sabbath. The call is an urgent one, and deserves immediate attention. Yours respectfully, A FRIEND TO THE HIGHLANDERS. December 14th, 1846. POLICE DISTURBERS. To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD. SIR,-1. have the misfortune to reside within a short distance of the domicile o f several policemen, who, I a n , sorry to observe, have no regard whatever for the unbro ken slumbers of their neighbours. I am generally awoke about five o'clock in the morning, and in case of fire, at all hours of the night, by a tremen dous knocking at the door, and bawling, at the highest pitch of the lungs or voice, to awaken the dormant polies man to attend his duty. This, Mr. Editor, you must acknowledge to be a griev ance of no ordinary description, particularly to an invalid. I should think some other method might be adopted ; what I would suggest is, that the man in attendance for this purpose be furnished with a snap key to obviate the noise and disturbance alluded to. THETA. December 10th, 1846. LIGHT GOLD TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD SlR,—The annoyance, to say nothing of the actual loss sustained by the public from the continued cir culatian of light sovereigns and half sovereigns, is almost beyond en durance. It seems to operate as a perpetual blister on the trading portion of the community, and is a constant source of irritation and vexation. I cannot divine how it occurs, so long after the government proclamation calling in the light gold coin, that it should still be tendered as a legal payment. Is the proclamation to remain a dead letter ? Bankers and tax collectors are particularly scrupulous in rejecting any deficient in weight, or obliging their cus tomers to allow for the deterioration in value. Query, I Are they equally so in giving them out again ? 1 main tain it to be their duty not to reissue them, but forward the same direct to the mint, and get an exchange for a supply of the present coinage. There is vlso great necessity for a fresh noinsge of six penny and shilling silver pieces, it being very deficient and defective, from the wear and tear consequent on long usage, the mint stamp being nearly obliterated. I ate, sir, &c. LEOPOLD KRAUSS. 111 h December, 1846.