The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

THE LIV ERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER. COMMERCIAL 4ir MOJVETARY NEWS. MONDAY NIGHT. THE monotor w of the week was suddenly broken in upon on Fri( lay, by the announcement that the Coalition had b egun to split by the resignation of LordPALmnas roN. The news bad, however, so little effect upon the Public Funds, that they . experienced ' a slight adva ace ; but the upward tendency was 'checked b 3 re ports from the East of further re 'verses to the ' Turkish forces, both on sea and land. Money has be ;en in increased demand, which is not 'unusual at tb is period, when the financial quarter, -drawing to a close, the revenue payments become ilarger. The returns of the Bank of England, -published in the London Gazette, on Friday, show ' :an increase in Bullion to the extent of £248,727. The other changes are an increase in the Public Deposits of about two-and-a-half millions, while - the Private Deposits have increased about half .a The reports from the Manufacturing districts -show a gradual but steady improvement in busi ness, though checked in some degree by the re ports of more active hostilities in the East. This 'improvement is chiefly in the lower descriptions of goods, and accounts for the rise in the inferior qualities of Cotton in this market, while the finer sorts are, comparatively, dull. The cessation of labour, owing to the number of operatives out on strike, and other mills working short time, must have had considerable influence in lowering pro hduction, and thereby easing the market of any redundant supplies. In the Woollen districts trade is also reviving, and prices have experienced a corresponding advance, notwithstanding the more :abundant supplies of the raw material. The recent large arrivals of Gold, not only from Australia, but from America, with the advices of --still further shipments, and' the accounts of new discoveries brought by the last mail, have not been without their influence upon our markets, and 'in the tendency to restore that feeling of confidence which is indispensable to commercial prosperity. It will be remembered that when the intelligence was first received of the discovery of enormous dis iricts of gold in our Australian Colonies, an apprehension was gravely entertained that such an influx of the circulating medium would seriously derange our monetary transactions, and produce evils, against which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to provide. We then stated that a long time must elapse before any sensible impres sion would be created, inasmuch as the additional demands for circulation would prevent any incon venient accumulation ; and the results as yet have more than justified the correctness of our opinion. Indeed, so far from having suffered from a plethora of gold, the fear has been one of a totally opposite character ; and the stock of bullion in the Bank of England has since, with but few exceptions, been gradually diminishing ; and a length of time must still elapse, with continued receipts, before the Bank coffers will be as full as they were before the new supplies began to be received. In the mean time, however, commercial affairs may be con sidered on a satisfactory basis, as there has been no over speculation to lead to apprehensions of any serious reverse, while the rise in prices of most articles in general consumption has been gradual, and subject to very slight fluctuations. Our SHAW& 314arcEr has been extremly quiet all week, but very firm ; and although there has not been an amount of business to cause much varia tion in prices, the tendency has been and is decidedly towards improvement. In the settlement just passed, stock has again been scarce, and there has been a fair amount of real buying for the account now current, the public appearing quite uninfluenced by the unsettled state of politics at home and abroad. We annex this day's prices : Caledonians, 281 ; Lancashire and Yorkshire, 68*; Lancaster and Preston, 55p ; Ditto Three-fourths, 49p ; Ditto Twelfths, 9+ ; Ditto £ll shares, llp ; London Stock, 1031 4 ; Midland Stock, 641 ; Dover Stock, 19 3-16 + 3-15 ; York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 161; Poltimore Copper and Gold Mine, ip ; St. Helen's Railway and Canal 6 per cent. pref., 126 • Shrewsbury and Chester 8 per 9 cent. pref., 16 • lloyal Insurance, 1 15-16 p. The return from the Bank of England for the week ending the 10th of Dec., gives the following results, when compared with the previous week : Public depohits £10,027,163; 1ncreme£2,367,242 Other deposits ... 10,910,077; Decrease 570,085 Re3t 3,181,817; Increase 0,191 . . On the other side of the account-- Government securities £15,043,730; Increase £1,421,691 Other securities ... 16,525,237; Decrease 61,581 Notes unemployed ... 7,575,175; Increase 374,385 The amount of notes in circulation is £21,015,460, beinc , a decrease of £1.60,340 ; and the stock of bullion in both departments is £15,341,294, showing an increase of £248,727, when compared with the preceding return. ISSUE DEPARTMENT, Notes issued ... £28,620,635 Governmt. Debt £11,015,100 iOther Securities 2,984,900 Gold coin & bu11'n.14,620,635 ;Silver bullion ... £28,620,635 £28,620,635 BANKING n Prop. Capital ... £14,553,000 Rest ... 3,181,817 Public Deposits 10,027,166 Other Deposits 10,910,077 7-day & other bills 1,192,741 :PARTMENT. Gov. Securities £15,043,730 Other Securities 16,525,237 Notes ... 7,575,175 Gold & Silver Coin 720,659 £39,864,8011 £39 3 864,801 COTTON.—The business during the week has been to a large extent, the amount up to Friday being no less than 55,700 bales, of which 35,910 were sold to the trade, 15,860 to speculators, and 3,930 for export. Prices of good ordinary and middling sorts were about 1-16th dearer, whilst the better grades being in better supply, in conse quence of the new arrivals, are without change. On Saturday the sales were 7,000 bales. To-DAY the advices per Canada were received, but had no other effect than to maintain the firmness which previously existed. The sales were 8,000 bales, of which about 2000 were on speculation and for export. The following is a comparison of present rates with those of the correspending, period last year : New Or] leans, middling Uplands, , fair middling fair ... 5 9-16 d 6kd. s'd. ... 6 d. I I SALES. 1 I IMPORTS. DESCRIPTIoN.IPRICES. Week Prey]. Week r STOCK ending ously ending This Dec.l6. this yr. Dec.lG.l Year. Dec.l6 Sea Island llO/@25 180 19200 i .... Stained I 5 9 30 1750 1 2497. 517032 Boweds 1 3 61 9610 473056 J 2806 . 30 Mobile 1 1 41 62 1 4270 279460 2247 934606 '• • • New Orleans .) 3/ 9 16350 967840 .... Pernams, &c. 6/ 81 889 65040 672 61079 16970 Bahia, &c. Maranham Demerara, Atc ....1 720 .... 572 520 Egyptian 5l 10 3380' 125616 .... 103931 80930 Corn. W.l.c. ....1 11820 .... 8032 3620 Surat t } .... 311868 184050 Madras Bengal 3 —120 l .... 7421 3480 ---,-- --, 55700 2197330 5416 2011085 597560 T. SIMON'S CHURCH SCHOOLS. PHILHARMONIC. HALL. cTIRISTMAS PERFORMANCE OP HANDEL'S ORA roruo OF THE MESSIAH, THIS EVENING (TuESDAY). THE 2(lirtt INSTANT, AS A TESTIMONIAL TO MR. WILLIAM SUDLOW, WHEN THE MAJESTIC CHORD OF HANDEL Will be brought out by the united strength of the past and present members, numbering THREE HUNDRED PERFORMERS, Surpassing any. Previous Performance in this town. Tickets to be hed at the Office, Exchange. court. Ibtrpoot FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT. MONDAY MORNING. LOAD PALMERSTON'S secession from the ABERDEEN MmStl7, and the almost hourly expected withdrawal of the Marquis of LANSDOWNE from the Coalitionists, who form her MAJesry's state-advisers, are the great political features of the week. It was not until Friday morning that the fact of PALMERSTON'S resignation became generally known ; but soon after seven o'clock, on Thursday evening, the salons and library of the Reform Club tingled with mysterious rumours of grave Minis terial differences. From dinner hour, as the Club gradually became better attended, those rumours assumed a somewhat more tangible and less visionary form ; and at eleven o'clock all doubt, misgiving, or misapprehension on the subject were removed, by the entrance of one of the junior Lords of the Treasury, who was in a position to state, authoritatively, that Lord ABERDEEN, late on Wednesday night, had received from Lord PALMERSTON a communication, tendering his resignation of the office of Secretary of State for the - Home Department; and requesting, that with all practicable expedition his resolve might be laid before the QUEEN, with the view of obtaining Her MAJESTY'S assent to his release from the cares and responsibilities of a Cabinet Minister. The announce ment did not cause that surprise within the walls of the old Reform mansion which one might have expected. I happened to be in the great cen tral hall when the junior lord, fresh from Downing street, communicated to a circle of some thirty or forty Whig-Radical friends, and one or two colleagues in office, " the startling intelligence," as an old member of the House of Commons instinctively characterised the news, and, with one or two exceptions, there was no ex pression of astonishment at the steps taken by the suave and crafty old member for Tiverton. Indeed, the contrary feeling appeared to pervade the minds of.those who, tinder the haffuence of the three hours' previously circulated strange and extraordinary gossiping,s, hastily rallied round the Treasury official, to learn from his Jilts an authentic exposition of the Ministerial difficulty or dislocation. "It is just as I anticipated," said one. " PALIMRSTON merely went in to upset the coach," exclaimed another. "Throwing down the gauntlet to Lord Joas," murmured a fourth. " A repetition of the Militia-bill dodge," angrily ex claimed an irate peer, as he laboured to console himself with copious potations of steaming brandy and water. There was no regret whatever manifested at loasn PAL MERSTON'S sudden desertion from the ranks of the Minis try,—l men regret so far as affects his personal identifica tion with the ABERDEEN Cabinet. But some long headed members of the legislature evidently appeared to apprehend that his retirement from the service of the Crown, at a moment of such importance to the interests of the nation, might possibly lead to most disastrous and disheartening results. Out of doors, generally speaking, Lord PALMERSTON",I resignation has been regarded with exultation, but this may mainly be attributed to the complexion which the ministerial organs, in announcing the " blow up," gave to the entire affair. According to the authority of those printed conduit pipes, Lord PALMERSTON rested his ina- Why to remain connected with the present Cabinet, and to share in the responsibility of the measures of the ap proaching Session, solely, distinctly, and exclusively, on the ground of his decided opposition to the projected measure of Parliamentary Reform, which has been pre pared by Lord Joms RUSSELL, and assented to by the other members of the Government. The cause, quoth the same oracular organs, is unconnected with the foreign policy of the Government; it has not arisen out of the difficulties of the Eastern question, nor is it true that dif ferences of opinion on that subject have manifested themselves with such force as to lead to the retire ment of any member of the administration. Lord JOHN ha; manufactured an out-and-out scheme for extending the franchise, disfranchising corrupt boroughs, increasing the so-called " popular" influence, and puri fying the representative system. Lord PALMERSTON, who it is now discovered never sincerely and firmly attached himself to the principles of that Liberal party from which he has effected an abrupt separation, is op posed to Reform in any shape. He takes exception to the RUSSELITE scheme, and on this plea alone vacates Downing-street. Now, such an explanation is unques tionably calculated to lower Lord PALMERSTON in the estimation of your franchise-ft-antic middle and lower classes ; and hence the extent of the exultation which his secession from the ABERDEEN Cabinet has occasioned. But the story is the merest moonshine—the veriest delu sion. PALMERSTON and RUSSELL differ on the details of the Reform Bill ; but, had there been no Eastern ques tion, that difference would not have left the Home Depart ment without a Secretary of State. Thorough and un mitigated disgust at the cowardly policy sanctioned by Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues, is the actuating cause; the Reform Bill the ostensible motive for Lord PALMER STON'S resignation. He said as much himself, I am assured, on Wednesday last, before he went down to Bowood, the Marquis of LANSDOWNE'S residence; and I understand he will be prepared to state more in that direction when the embarrassments of the Ministry come to be discussed before the constitutional tribunal of Parliament. Both Sir GEORGE GREY, Lord PANMURE, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL are spoken of as Lord PALMERSTON'S successors. Earl GREY'S name is also favourably mentioned; but I believe no name has yet been selected for the QUEEN'S sanction, each section of the Cabinet battling vigorously for their respective favourites. Who the Peelites have put forward still remains secret. The Council which sat on Saturday remained in deliberation from two o'clock until six, the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, as well as PALMERSTON, being absent; and it is said that the conference was not one of the most remarkably peaceful character. PALMERSTON Came to town late that night, and at the clubs they circulated that his resignation had not been accepted by the QUEEN, and that he was to remain in the Cabinet until the settlement of the Eastern question, on the understanding that no measure of Reform, such as Lord JOHN RUSSELL had prepared, would be submitted to Parliament so long as he continued his connexion with the Government. I need hardly assure you, that I don't attach the least credence to this "latest state of the Ministerial crisis ;" but I am well inclined to prophecy that before four months the existence of the ABERDEEN administration will have closed through the immediate instrumentality of Lord PALMERSTON, and that he, the once expelled, and the now resigned minister of the Crown, will be Premier of England, working cordially with DISRAELI and young STANLEY, and moving around him a compact and formidable party, not the least interesting feature in which will be the moderate Conservative and progressing element. In the centre of the obscurest and smokiest part of London, there is a house of education and benevolence, — it may be of charity, the latter; though Tom SUTTON, as he was familiarly called upwards of two hundred years ago, so chroniclers mention, meant it no charity at all. The house I refer to is very old—older than the two cen turies stated. Go in and look at it; they are very civil people there. The fine old open hall,—Norman of aspect, —big and wide fire-place ; theyrequired more room for cook ing then than we do now ; for utilitarianism, like a " var mint," has crept into the sanctuary of our kitchens — Cooking ox whole by gas ! oh monstrous improvement ! The house I am to speak of contains much learning, much money, much poverty, much hilarity, wit, humour, and all the "del ma' care" feelings which fill the silken sails of life, contra the ballast,—sorrow,—which most of the seniors in that old house have had their ships freighted Withal ! That house is Carthusian, an ancient brother hood--Charter-house School, to ears polite ; for the " poor scholars" of Tmomis Surrox are "gentles all." Fine-look ing fellows, se v e ra l I h ave k nown, an d good scholars. The !ellolars are, they say, limited to forty ; they were in the original parchment called "poor boys ;" on the foundation there were also to be double the number of „,Poor brothers." Now we come to realities ! Take one, Theatre- - P x oxcurEF, once the stipendiary poet of Drury-lane I l long since blind yet Tom used to laugh at • ° jag produced a pair of spectacles at the T. R., D. L., P n me Year, thoug there was a cataract in one of them. " I r eferred to " the cataract of the Ganges." Poor Carthusian brother, he has had enough of cat arac t s i n b2l,ehas s now. R ebellious c ß ebellious sons are these same " poor they sit at night in their rooms, talk,—how th e e y ni wi l. l talk ! They commune : it is pleasant to be with 7'erY• " Here we are ; the income of our house is with " , '? a-Tear : you and I and all of us have only £25, 7,a; dinner every day—barring our holidays—with a Candles" cloak every two years ; bread and butter and set ul „(len:, hear, hear). Ah, but recollect yon were poli r er, "lloaeas. You had, the first day you entered, nera le o ° el, an ' iron fender, and a pair of bellows ! (a . 11„ 5/04 , 8 jtrassllcoft brothers, burn the bellows !'—burn 'brothe r% and so on for some time, until the winded!) 4 - `,te,a find their own bellows rather short " It is to o b`a'd77 le t on, a respected brother loquitur,— have done so - 1 1 7,1 n 8 petition for a little They and LoNpol, a n d p v : "ad t h i r 44 ' _ pe.....0n. CANTERBURY, judge CRESWEL L , 4 the petition with i tRE, with th a t mee k and learned ne or t wo o th er governors met -..ie t , Could not consistently with ,theiz duty." What is done with the £30,000 a-year ? why not make the old fellows more comfortable ? they have " troops of friends,"— they are all now gentlemen, to " the manner born,"—they hunger after comforts which they have not—but shall : if the good Archbishop can't, the QUEEN and PRINCE ALBERT, the loyal Carthusian Brothers believe, will answer their petition in the affir mative. The SOVEREIGN and the PRINCE CONSORT are the "head and front" of the Carthusians. Let me set the reader down in the centre of Smithfield market ; time, three o'clock on Monday morning; weather, foggy in the extreme ; occasion, the last grand cattle show ever to be held in Smithfield. Fact ! It was the last ; it had an ominous look about it ; the very brutes appeared to bellow, bleat, baa, and squeal for more room, and sorry am I to say that worse brutes than they bellowed and swore, in voices horrid with bad gin, and colds caught " one a'top a' tether." Sure such a sight was never seen ; hundreds of Enk boys running about in the narrow thoroughfares which divide the "pens" made the . scene visible and picturesque. Many gentlemen, at the above early hour, were present ; several foreigners, probably graziers from Belgium, Holstein. &c.- ' stalwart fellows they were, looking out from a forest of hair ! I need not state that the " beast" (always pronounced in the singular by practical men) were of the United Kingdom breeds; not bat that plenty of foreign " tariff" cattle had been landed during the previous week. Poor creatures ! they were discreetly kept out of sight; sent down among the marshes of Essex to pick up some flesh. A sea voyage at this season has a most deteriorating effect 'upon foreign cattle ; many of them appear to require tarpauling to keep their flanks together. In that space called " Smith field Market," in the very heart of the city, within a few yards of an'hospital, never without its hundreds of sleep less patients, there were on Monday morning 7,037 head of horned cattle, 25,830 sheep, 253 calves—a most Mused or discontented people, if I judge from their plaints,—and 295 pigs—a merry roystering set they were • heedless, ! because ignorant, of the butcher's whittle already sharp -ened for - their wea.sands. Let us see, all these make a total of 33,415 head for human food, independently of nearly 5,000 head of foreign cattle. As Dominie Vamp- Jon said, " Prodigious !" And this has nothing to do with the feathered tribe now arriving, not in leashes, but in thousands, from the tender lark —his singing at " Heaven's gate" forgotten ; now, alas ! skewered at a shilling a dozen—to the stately pheasant. Our club epicures are all rejoicing at the great abundance of " small game"—the wheatear, woodcock, teal, and so forth. At no period in the history of our belles-lettres, since' the leviathan of literature—the great lexicographer and . moralist, SAMUEL JOHNSON, wrote in Bolt-court, and there is no use going further back,—has literature of all sorts, periodical and permanent, been in a more healthy state in the metropolis than it is at present. Authors and authoresses are also healthy. Mrs. °PIE, the charm ing novelist of the last age, like a sheaf in full season, has been gathered to her fathers ' • and Miss MARTINEAU, who wields a plume of another description, though thick of hearing—thanks to " mesmerism,"—(ha ! ha !) she says she is all right : and I think she ought to be, for she is going to have a night not with MENDELLSOHN, but with Doughey," the baker ! What is here meant ? HARRIET MAE'E!NEAU is to give the journeymen bakers a turn; for which purpose, like a judicious writer —a writer from facts,—all writing else is fudge, fancy, or bosh ; she has had Hotted to her for one night the bakery of a " full-priced" master of the plastic art, to see, with her own eyes, the modus operandi —the hardships of poor knock-knees —the ;journeyman baker. She is to walk into the shop without previous intimation - stay all night, see the " sponge set," and not leave till " hot rolls" come forth at eight o'eloek. A droll notion for a female. But to my thread : It is a curious fact, and augurs well for our sanitary condition, that in the memory of the oldest secular and sacred reaper, there never, at one period, pro ceeded from the metropolitan press such an array of sound religious works as at this present writing. I could enu merate about one hundred and twenty, either on the stocks or launched—if the mixed metaphor be permitted. The three great heads under which mere secular litera ture is usually ranged—Fiction—History—and Travel — put together do not come within a century of the sacred portion of works now published. They pay well too. Bat what pays best of all is our light literature ; MA CAULAY gets his three or four thousand pounds sterling for a volume of his history, This is almost the work of a lifetime. I remember Bos SOUTHEY being paid two hundred pounds for two or three hours' writing in a quarterly about—the Arabs ! MACAULAY, last autumn, had to fly to the Swiss Alps, for a mouthful of the only air he liked, to bring him round to health ; so did not ALBERT SMITH, who was at Chamounix at the same time. With SMITH as an example, " pit" his in come, from his easy no-thought entertainment, against that of the great historian's terse and elegant periods. IS ALBERT SMITH a cleverer man than BABINGTON MACAULAY ? No, no ! but he can do half a dozen clever things that BAB. cant : he can draw a tooth and a half crown at the same jerk ; play the cornet-fl-piston, touch the piano-forte, sing a song, tell a story pretty well,—all together. Then again, another remarkable man, SAMUEL LOVER, living in prime style, and whose "sons and sayings" are promised to entertain us in town at Christ mas. Does literature, alone, do all this ;or is it that SAMUEL can paint the prettiest miniatures; in ballad writing is second only to his old friend, Tom Moons ; sings and plays ; writes prose, as an Irish humorist only can. These attainments, you will say, are enough to ensure comfort and respectability—if well directed. Be it so. Who is that rather good-looking man, neither young nor old ? He began literature as a living, or means thereof, little more than twenty years ago ;—look at his equipage and those macaronies of ponies—that's HAR RISON AIN SWORTH. Literature has done something for him, I warrant. I could go on in this heedless way a long while ; but won't. Literature and literary men are ever slatting ; some of the latter go to India. There's young Blanchard off to Agra next week to edit a paper; the proprietor of which just went to India, like the lad BLANCHARD, some years ago,—made a fortune, and kept a sound liver, and now leaves the younger to work. BLANCHARD is to have a large sum per annum; lots of servants at his beck ; and so on with other literary men, not now to be named. It is said that BEN Wsesren, late of the Haymarket, now Adelphi, has become a news paper proprietor. I sincerely hope he won't burn his fingers—again. I learn that the remission of the adver tisement duty has done the Metropolitan papers very little good. The fact is, as far as regards the London journals, advertising people will advertise—whether cheap or dear—because they find their account in it. In short, advertising is trade's thermometer ; and withdraw £5O only in advertising, the trader 'loses R 100; and so on in a " sliding" or backsliding scale. In the recent history of English husbandry, the name of Mr. MECIII, of Tiptree-hall Farm, Essex, and Leadenhall street, London, has been intimately associatedwith its inte rests, as well in regard to the legislation which the parlia mentary leaders of the Agricultural party combined their exertions to defend, as to the undoubted advantages which spring from improved implements, and scientific processes of tillage. For a number of years past, this gentleman has been labouring to convert the poor land of Tiptree into a valuable and productive soil, and the success with which his efforts have been crowned, abundantly attested by his balance sheets, confers upon them all the charac teristics of superiority which entitle them to be regarded as constituting a system of model fanning. The impa tience with which (not unnatural under the pressure of legislative misfortune) men listened to his teachings, has now nearly died away ; and the state of the labour market, amongst other causes, has operated wonderfully to teach agriculturists that their only hope lies in making friends with the machine makers, and proceeding by a better rule than that which, in the poverty of language, has been styled the " rule of thumb." Mr. MECHI has never flinched from the text with which he set out, after the experience which he acquired with a little rational enter prise, and he now, as strenuously as ever, urges the neces sity of employing larger capital and greater skill. During the past week, he communicated the results of his farming, during the past working year, in the shape of a paper which he read before the Society of Arts, on Wednesday evening last. It would be wholly out of place to go into the numerous and minute details which he gave on the occasion ; but, in the existing state of agricultural matters, I have good reason to believe that a general knowledge of his views and experience will be useful. In the first place, he insists upon the importance of a larger employment of steam power upon a farm in proportion to horse power. The reason is sufficiently obvious. A horse wastes a considerable portion of his energy in moving his own weight, generally about 15 cwts., and the dynamometer shows that about 4 cwts. is all that he transmits as effective moving force. Comparing this with steam power, we have this result. A loco motive engine, with its tender, weighing together only 38 tons, moves an express train, to which it imparts a moving force equal to that of 1,000 horses. If the 1,000 horses were substituted for the machine, they would weigh collectively 750 cwts. Besides transmitting, therefore, a much larger power in proportion to their weight, steam engines are further advantageous in occupying less space, and consuming no food when not at work. As regards the great principle of his farming, it consists in liquid manure irrigation. Liquid, in preference to dry manures, is attended with numerous benefits, and the failure, pro bably within ten years, of the existing supplies of guano, as announced by Admiral Thoresby, will hardly leave room for choice a few years hence. It has been observed as a curious phenomenon in the physiology of plants, that the spongiose portions of their roots reject all particles in tended to assimilate with their system, unless presented to them in a liquid state. This observation seems to decide that in a liquid or a gaseous form the manure should primarily or ultimately be applied to the plant. Employing liquid manure, however, the dread of the farmer that the subsoil will be turned up to the surface, need no longer be enter tained. It is a proof that dry manures are almost confined in their assimilating action to the extreme upper surface of the soil, that the subsoil lying at a depth of only six inches yields no crop when brought to the surface, and hence the farmer's fear. Liquid manure, however, by fer menting the superior and softening the inferior strata, entirely removes all occasion for such apprehension. It is important that the manure should be in a state of extreme dilution, or the effect produced will not be good, perhaps, even injurious. Mr. MECHI obtains his manure by the means of a large vaulted tank, 20 feet deep by 30 feet in diameter, having a narrow opening at the top, into which dead animals and other refuse of the farm are thrown. A large quantity of water is admitted to this vessel, in which decomposition is allowed to take place. By means of a steam-engine, and underground pipes and force-pumps, the manure is conveyed to distant points of the farm, from whence it is discharged through a hose, with a nozzle at its extremity, and thus spread over the whole of the farm land which needs t$ The result of this system has been to cover a soil with fine green grasses, feeding cattle satis factorily, and producing an abundance of butter and milk, which formerly, as Mr. MECIII describes it, " resembled bird-lime in winter and cast-iron in summer." Mr. Mecur's balance-sheet exhibits a profit of £6OO during the past year, exclusive of items which, in their result, will swell the next year's account. The process, in its nume rous details, is eminently worthy of the study of all who are directly or remotely interested in land, and is of para mount importance as a matter of public concern. In this little sketch I cannot pretend to give but a very slight summary of the subject, strongly recommending members of the agricultural community in Lancashire and else where to make themselves masters of the facts which Mr. MECIII has made public. THE limit SHERIFF for the ensuing year is Richard Fert, of Read Hal, Clitheroc,—Lancaster Gazette. PRODUCE.—There has been an improved de mand for Sugar at full prices. In Tea and Coffee a quiet business. Oils less in request and Tallow dull. To-DAY there has been a very good inquiry for Sugar, chiefly . for refining purposes, the bu siness since Friday comprising 500 bags white Benares at 38s. to 395., 1,000 bags brown Bengal at 305., 100 bags Dates at 325. to 335. 9d., 2,500 bags brown Madras at 295., 5,000 mats Mauritius at 335. 6d. to 345. 9d., besides a floating cargo of unclayed Manilla, (13,000 bags,) the price and des tination not reported. There is nothing to notice in Molasses, Rum or Coffee. The Tea market re mains quiet, but no decline can be quoted. Of Rice, 1,300 bags Madras have been sold, to arrive, at 13s. 101 d., and a small parcel of Bengal, on the spot, at 14s. to 15s. 6d. per cwt. for low to fine middling. We have also to report 120 bags Salt petre at 265. 6d. per cwt., for 114 d. per cent. refraction, and 20 tons Ceara Fustic at £7 ss. to £7 7s. 6d. per ton. WooL.—The improved feeling in the Wool market, noticed for several weeks past, still con tinues to characterise this market ; but as staplers and manufacturers are unwilling to increase their stock until the turn of the year, the business of the week has not been quite so extensive. There is a good demand for long shafty Foreign Wool, free in staple, for the Yorkshire market, but not much offering here. A sale of damaged Wool took place here on Thursday, when about 1,400 bales were offered, consisting of Alpaca, Peruvian, Egyptian, and East India. There was a good attendance of the trade, and for Alpaca and Egyptian there was much competition, prices ruling Id. to ld. more than on a similar occasion in November. Imports for the week 977 bales. MR. PElimn, late master of the Hereford Workhouse, committed suicide on Friday morning week. He was found in the hay loft, his head being held in a cord tied to a beam five feet from the ground, and his body in a re clining posture. Death, however, had not resulted from hanging. Deceased's hands were bloody, and it would seem that, finding his attempts at self-destruction in that way were not effectual, he inflicted so deep a wound in his throat with some sharp instrument as to sever the wind pipe and all the large blood-vessels of the throat. Tin annual meeting and festival of the congregation of 'St. Simon's Church, in support of the schools, was held ,last night in the Concert-hall, Lord Nelson-street, which :was very gaily and tastefully decorated for the occasion, with flags and banners, evergreens, and flowers, arranged in devices and appropriate mottoes.i Tea was laid on 'tables, not only in the body of the hall, but also in the galleries, while some members of the school, with really sweet voices, formed a juvenile orchestra, and sung the grace before and after meat. The Rev. John R. Conor, M.A., the incumbent of St. Simon's, was in the chair, and upon the platform were the Rev. James M'Alister, the -.curate of St. Simon's, Rev. Ormsby Powell, Rev. T. C Cowan, Rev. H. Marten, Rev. Sheldon, Rev. J. J. Butler, Rev. D. Barry, Rev. S. B. Sutton, Rev. Dr. Hume, &e. At the conclusion of the repast, after an anthem by the choir, The CHAIRMAN addressed the meeting, and stated that having had two tea-meetings that year, it might be sup posed they were fond of tea-drinking. They had, how ever, work to do, and when they wanted funds for a school or any other good purpose, they had a tea-meeting. He alluded to the exertions which had been made not only by collecting cards, but by farthing contributions from the children, which amounted to £7 6s. 31d., and boxes at the church, in which the amount received was £7 is. 10d. He had added up the various sums which had been con- 1 tributed by members of the congregation, and found that £316 had been received, and with promises would amount to about £7OO ; but they wanted between £2,000 and £3,000. It had, however, been a bad year for begging, for they had elections in 1852 and 1853, and petitions which cost money ; but he hoped they had an end of them. Their funds were in a bad state, for on the Ist of Oct. they were in debt to the treasurer £2l 4s. 6d. ; since then he 'had £22 7s. 71-d., leaving only £1 3s. 14d. out of which to pay salary and the quarter's rent, to say nothing of the other expenses. He, however, relied upon their assistance to enable him to face the difficulty. The Rev. T. C. COWAN gave credit to the Chairman for the honesty with which he acknowledged that they had not enough to pay the next quarter's bills. He was sorry to say that the burden which too often weighed upon the minister, was the difficulty of maintaining the schools ; and it was a state of things which ought not to exist, and would not much longer be submitted to, for the poor must do something more than they had hitherto done, towards the education of their own offspring. He was told a short time since, that, in a certain district, the wages of working-men had been raised to thirty-six shillings a week, and on expressing his satisfaction at it, he was assured that the effect was no improvement on the condition of the working-man, who only worked three days a week, and spent the rest of his time at the public house. He rejoiced to be able to refer to the prominent lead which the Church maintained in the instruction of the people in the truths of Christianity. The CHAIRMAN said he feared at one time that they were not so numerous as on the previous occasion, but on looking round he was glad to see that every space was filled. The Rev. Dr. Huux addressed the meeting, and en larged on the importance of education in training the habits, thoughts, feelings, and inclinations of the people. He alluded to the distinction between the education of the intellectual faculties and the training of moral habits, and related several anecdotes, illustrative of the distinc tion and also the advantages from the application of learn ing. Much had been said of the genius of Protestantism for education, and the tendency of Romanism to keep the people in ignorance. He could tell them that great exer tions were made by the Romish Priests in this town, and that in a few years, if they progressed at the same rate, they would have almost all the poor under their influence. Upon the clergy were thrown the burden of education, and it was one which was greater than they ought to be expected to bear, but he trusted that Parliament would shortly throw the burden upon the shoulders of all, in the shape of a rate ; so that they would pay for instructing the children of those who could not pay for themselves, in the same way as they now paid rates for water, poor relief, and other purposes. The Rev. J. J. BUTLER, of the Sailors' Home, next addressed the meeting, and said that so long as Mr. Conor had such friends around him, and relied upon his heavenly Father being at the helm, there was no fear of his being able to weather the storm and surmounting all his diffi culties, to attain his desired object; He said that as the time for collection was drawing near, he would tell them a tale of a tea party, with which he concluded amidst loud laughter. A collection was then made in behalf of the school funds, after which the Rev. DA.VID Runty addressed the meet ing. The children then sung the anthem, " Lord of all power and might." The other speakers were —the Rev. Henry Marlen, Rev. S. B. Sutton, and the Rev. 0. Powell. The refreshments, which were excellent in quality and abundant in quantity, were supplied by Mr. Milburn, of Clarence-street, and gave general satisfaction ; the hall was well filled, and the whole affair passed off with great success. ONE OF THE HORSES in a Garston omnibus fell down suddenly on Saturday, and died, opposite the Aigburth Hotel. PRIZES.—In Dr. Fisher's educational establishment the various prizes were awarded, on Saturday last, to the suc cessfultcompetitors in Classics, Mathematics, Science, and Commerce. ANOTHER SUDDEN DEATH.—Yesterday a man, named John Hughes, a smith, employed in Messrs. Neill's works, in the Park, after eating a hearty dinner, when he had tea over himself, by which he was so severely scalded as to cause his death on Saturday last. An inquest was held yesterday on the body, and a verdict of accidental death returned. IT will be seen, by advertisement, that the annual sale of clothing, made by the Scottish poor, takes place this week. The proceeds of these sales, we are glad to learn, go to relieve distress and furnish employment to poor females during winter. DEATH BY SCALDING.—John M'Clusky, a child eleven months old, residing in No. 11 Court, Smithfield-street, with its parents, on Tuesday, the 29th ult., white sitting on its mother's knee, pulled a vessel containing boiling just resumed work, fell down and instantly expired. SUDDEN DEATH.—On Saturday Henry Bolton, aged 23, a joiner, in the employment of Mr. Major, ship-builder, Brunswick Dock, while engaged in carrying some planks, in company with another man, was observed to spit blood, when he requested to let down the load. He sat down, and almost immediately expired, after vomiting a large quantity of blood. A verdict of died from natural causes was returned at the inquest yesterday. STEALING CANVASS.—Mary Jones was brought before the Police-court yesterday, charged with stealing a bolt of canvass, containing forty-one yards, from the premises of Messrs. Coltart. It appeared that Jones went into the warehouse in the morning on some frivolous pretext, when, watching her opportunity, she seized the canvass, and was making off with it. She was taken into custody with the property in her possession. She was committed for trial. Previous to which, on being questioned as to what she had to say, she denied having stolen the canvass, and said while in the warehouse an old man who was in charge of it made an improper proposal to her, whieh . she resented, and while she was in conversation with him, some other person came in and attempted to take the property, for which she was taken hold of. Ireland COURT OP CHANCERY: ex parte NEILSON, in re ED MOND, Bankrupts.—This appeal was argued on Tuesday. The petitioners are brokers, at Liverpool, and the defen dants are the assignees of Messrs. Edmond, for whom the Messrs. Neilson sold a number of shares in the Royal Insurance Company previous to their bankruptcy. Mr. W. Edmond, the subscriber for the shares, had not at the time of the sale executed the deed of settlement, although he did so afterwards ; and the question was, whether, under the true construction of the 26th section of the 7th and Bth Vict. c. 110, the brokers could establish the legality of the sale and claim against the assignees to have the shares they had sold, and which they had made good to the purchasers by other shares, transferred to them after the bankruptcy. On Thursday the Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce decided that the transaction was contrary to the policy of the law, and affirmed the order of Mr. Commissioner Skirrow, who refused to grant the peti tioners the relief they asked. FATAL ACCIDENT AT TEE NEW DOCIC.-011 Sunday, Martin Dimond, a man about 4,0 years of age, was employed in taking down a wall on the edge of the Old King's Dock, a part of the wall having been previously removed, and some of it still standing in a dangerous condition. He was cautioned to keep out of the way, to which he care lessly replied, " Oh, there's no danger," when the wall gave way, hurling him to the bottom of the dock, a depth of thirty feet. He was extricated as speedily as possible, and conveyed to the Southern Hospital, where he died at a little after seven o'clock, being two hours after the period of his admission. An inquest was summoned for yesterday and adjourned till to-day. During the investigation it was stated as a reason for having the work continued on Sunday, that the wall had been ordered to be removed on Saturday ; but the men refusing to work after dark, operations were resumed on Sunday, to prevent the cer tainty of a great number of men and horses being thrown idle on Monday. THE ARCTIC SniPs.—Letters for officers, seamen, and marines serving in the undermetitioned ships, will be in time to be forwarded, if sent to the Admiralty on or before the Ist of January, 1864:—Her Majesty's ship Enterprise, Her Majesty's ship Rattlesnake, and Her Majesty's ship Plover. ROBBERY IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.—A lady, who arrived in Glasgow, on Saturday, by the five o'clock train from Edinburgh, had a bank check for £2,000 abstracted from a leathern reticule which she carried along with her. The reticule was slung over her arm, and was locked, but the thief had most adroitly cut it open with a knife, and extracted the document without her being aware of it till some time after. The check has been stopped at the bank on which it was drawn, so that fortunately the thief will be disappointed. —North British Daily Mail. Ix PARIS, they have now an " Umbrella Great Coat," which is intended to serve as a great coat and an umbrella at the same time. It is made of any impervious material, and has, running along the lower edge, an airproof tube. Under the collar is a little blow -hole communicating with this tube. The wearer applies his mouth to this hole, and with a few vigorous exhalations, he inflates it with air. The tube takes the cons istency of a hoop, the great coat takes the form of a diving bell, and the drops fall a long way outside of the wearer's feet, S uc h i s P reve l' s um b re ll a great coat. It has one immense advantage—no one would be likely to borrow it. NEAPOLITAN MERCY. — We —; find the following in a letter dated Naples, Dec. 4:— I am sorry to inform you that Baron Poerio, who has now worn the chains of a galley slave for more than four years, is su bj ec t t o fresh severities, which, if continued, will er e long r e mov e hi m from the troubles of this world. H itherto the police authorities have permitted.the ex-Minister to spend ten ducats (£2) per month for such necessaries as his state of health demands. Orders have now been issued th a t h ence f or th he will be permitted to receive from his family only one car lino (441.) per day. Now the prison in which the victim of the Neapolitan Constitution is confined at Montefusco, is so exposed that without fire the prisoners would perish of cold, and the 4d, per day w ill scarcely pay for wood ; in dependent of which M. Poerio is in such a wretched state of health as to require many . comforts ; such as are ac corded to the very worst cr imi nal are refused to the late friend and adviser of his Sicilian Majesty." ; LORD PALME_RSTON' S _RESIGNATION ON FILIDAT, the two morning organs of .the Coalition Ministry startled the town by the intelligence that Lord Palmerston had tendered his resignation. "It was rumoured List night," said the Chronicle, in conveying the doleful intelligence, "and we fear with too much truth, that Lord Palmerston has taken a step which will excite the deepest regret on the part both of his col leagues and of the public. This distinguished statesman has, it is reported, tendered his resignation of the office which he has so ably filled since the formation of Lord Aberdeen's administration ; and it is stated that the Premier's present visit to Osborne has reference to the lamented withdrawal of one of the most popular members of his Cabinet" The Times, more certainly informed, it would appear, went right to the point : —` Viscount PALMERSTON has tendered his resignation of the office of Secretary of State for the Home Department, and has therefore ceased, within the last forty-eight hours, to form a part of her MAJESTY'S Government, if that resignation has been accepted by the Crown. Upon the receipt of a communication from Lord Palmerston, announcing the resolution he had been led to form, the Prime Minister left town for Osborne House, yesterday, for the purpose of laying the resignation of the Home Secretary before the Queen." The Earl of Aberdeen, the Duke of Newcastle, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the members of the Cabinet who met at Sir J. Graham's official residence, at the Admiralty, on Friday night, did not separate until 2 o'clock, a.m., on Saturday. Sir James Graham had an audience of the Earl of Aberdeen early on Saturday forenoon, at Argyll-house. The Earl of Aberdeen, soon after his arrival at his official residence in Downing-street, received Lord Pan mure, with whom the noble Earl remained closeted upwards .of an hour . The resignation of Lord Palmerston and the summoning of the Cabinet Council, on Thursday last, has prevented several of the members of the Cabinet from proceeding on visiting tours. Lord Granville left London only on Wednesday, with the intention of being absent four or five weeks. His lordship returned to town on Saturday from the seat of Earl Bruce, in Wiltshire, and arrived at the Foreign-office soon after two o'clock. Sir Charles Wood had only recently arrived at his seat near Don caster, and returned to London early on Saturday morning, and was present at the meeting of his col leagues. Mr. Sidney Herbert arrived in town early on Saturday morning, from Wilton-house, Salisbury, and attended the Council. The Marquis of Lansdowne is entertaining, at his seat, Bowood, Wilts, a large circle of distinguished guests. Lord Palmerston was among the number from Thursday until Saturday, when the noble viscount left for London. The Marquis of Lansdowne did not travel from Bowood on Saturday to attend the Council. On Thursday morning summonses were issued to the Ministers to attend a Cabinet Council, on Saturday, at the Foreign-office, Downing-street, One o'clock was the hour appointed for the meeting, and soon after that time the following members assembled, namely :—The Lord Chan cellor, the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Aberdeen, the Earl of Clarendon, Sir James Graham; Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Sir C. Wood. Lord Granville arrived soon after two o'clock, having travelled to town from Marlborough in order to attend the meeting. The Ministers remained in deliberation until near six o'clock. The Duke of Newcastle, Sir James Graham, and the Earl of Clarendon had audiences of the Earl of Aberdeen on Sunday, at Argyll-house. Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston and his Excel lency Count Walewski (the French Ambassador) arrived in town on Saturday, at half-past three, from Bowood, the seat of Lord Lansdowne. Sir James Graham left town yesterday, on a visit to her Majesty at Osborne, and will return to-morrow (Wed nesday) morning. With reference to Lord Palmerston's successor, the Times of yesterday says :—We understand that, upon Lord Palmerston's resignation, Lord Aberdeen offered the Home-office to Lord John Russell, and we regret to hear that the offer was declined, mainly from the fear that his acceptance of it might be misconstrued. The office has now been offered to Sir George Grey, and awaits his acceptance or rejection. Whoever is destined to be its future occupant will, we trust, be prepared to advocate and carry through a fair and substantial measure of par liamentary reform, and to consider his official situation as a great trust held for the benefit of the country, neither to be undertaken rashly nor flung. aside hastily, and least of all when the welfare of the state exacts every sacrifice in order to preserve in the presence of foreign nations the appearance of unity and harmony in our councils. The Morning Herald says that Sir George Grey will probably be the new Home Secretary. It is known there is a serious difference between the Whig and Peelite sections of the cabinet, and that each party held a separate meeting in the course of yesterday. Two messengers have been sent to Lord Lansdowne from Osborne. COURT AND FASHION. SIR THOMAS REDINGTOIf, K.C.8., has been appointed to the permanent Secretaryship of the Board of Control. LITERARY PENSIONS.—Her Majesty has conferred upon Mr. Alaric A. Watts a pension on the Civil List of £lOO a-year, "in consideration of services rendered by him to literature and the fine arts." M.-GENERAL GODWIN, C. 8., died at Simla on the 10th of October. He was in the army since 1799. The last number of the Gazette contained his appointment as K.C.B. and colonel of the 20th Regiment. LIEUT.-GENERAL CATHCART, at presentcommander-in chief at the Cape, has been appointed to succeed Lieut.- General Sir George Brown as adjutant-general of the forces. TILE EMPEROR or HAYTI'S SON has recently arrived in England. It is said that he will shortly place himself under a clergyman in Dawlish, for the purpose of com pleting his education. The prince is described as a most intelligent and gentlemanlike person. DR. HARRINGTOI , T, principal of Brazenose College, Oxford, died on Tuesday rather suddenly. He was com paratively a young man, (about 62 or 63,) and had always been known as one of the most active and hardworking of the heads. LORD PAGET declines to come forward as a candidate to supply the vacancy recently created in the representa tion of the southern division of Staffordshire. There are, however, several " eligible liberals ready, if solicited ; amongst whom are the Hon. F. Calthorpe, son of Lord Calthorpe, Sir Frances Scott, Bart., and the Hon. Arthur Wrottesley." TILE HoN. CHARLES FITZWILiIAM was elected member for Malton during his absence in America, where, it ap pears, he had gone to hunt bears on the Rocky Mountains; but his family were unacquainted with his movements, and at last became seriously alarmed. Recent letters from the United States, however, bring intelligence of his safety ; he having reached Fort Laramia, in a bear skin, on his return from California. LORD ADOLPHUS VANE was presented, on Tuesday, by the ladies of Durham, with a snuff-box and diamond ring, at the Exhibition-rooms. The snuff-box bore the following inscription on the lid, surmounted by the city arms : " Presented by the ladies of Durham to Lord Adolphus Vane, December, 1853." On the bottom were the family arms of the noble lord. It is presumed that these gifts, which amount in value to 270, are intended to console the noble and gallant guardsman for the loss of the representation of Durham. MARRIAGE.—On Saturday, the nuptials of William Lowther, Esq., nephew to the Earl of Lonsdale, with Miss Parke, daughter of the Right Hon. Sir James Parke, were celebrated at St. George's, Hanover-square, in the presence of a distinguished circle, including the Earl of Lonsdale, Lord and Lady Powlett, Sir James Parke and Lady Parke, Hon. Colonel H. Cecil Lowther, M.P., Captain H. Lowther, M.P., Lady Theresa Lewis, Countess of Listowell, Mr. and Miss Mennen, &c. THE COUNTESS Or &MIN GTON died at Eglington Castle, early on Saturday. Scarcely three weeks ago her ladyship became alarmingly indisposed, suffering from a dangerous fever, which she passed favourably through, and had almost been restored to her wonted health, when she was suddenly deprived of the power of one of her arms which resulted in her death. The deceased was married to the Earl of Eglington in 1841, at which period she was the widow of Richard Howe Cockerel, Esq., and leaves issue by her second union, four children. THE MARCHIONESS WELLESLEY, widow of the elder brother of the late Duke of Wellington, died on Saturday, at her apartments, at Hampton Court Palace, after a short illness. The deceased Marianne, Marchioness Wellesley, was a daughter of Mr. Richard Caton, and when the late Marquis Wellesley married her she was widow of Mr. Robert Patterson. She was the marquis's second wife, to whom she was united on the 29th October, 1825. The late Marchioness was for many years Lady of the Bed chamber to Queen Adelaide. Her Ladyship was sister of Lady Stafford. THE COURT.—On Monday, the Duke and Duchess of Brabant left Osborne, on their return to Brussels. On Thursday the Earl of Aberdeen had the honour of dining with Her Majesty. On Friday Lord Aberdeen returned to London. There are no visitors staying at Osborne, the Queen and the Prince continuing in retirement, owing to the recent death of the Queen of Portugal, and the same cause prevents the issuing of invitations to the royal din ner-table, the circle being limited to the lady and maid of honour in waiting, and to the equerries and gentlemen in waiting to Her Majesty and his royal highness. The Queen and Prince Albert, it is at present arranged, will leave Osborne on Thursday next, for Windsor Castle, there to pass the Christmas holydays. THE ELECTION FOR CLONMEL has been delayed by a strange mistake in the writ, which directed the election of a burgess " in the room of the Hon. Cecil Lawless, raised to the peerage, in consequence of the death of Lord Cloncurry !" The Hon. Cecil Lawless, who died shortly after his father, was the second son of the late Lord Cloncurry, and it was the demise of Mr. C. Lawless that created a vacancy. The Hon. Edward Lawless, the eldest son of the late peer, who succeeded to the title of Baron Cloncurry, had not a seat in the House of Commons. There were other informalities in the writ, which, of course, could not have been acted upon. The Speaker will have to issue a new one, and the election, in any case, cannot take place for ten days. ILLICIT DISTILLATION.—On Tuesday evening, Mr. Shells, supervisor of excise, accompanied by excise officers Sugars, Sessions, and Nixon, proceeded to the premises lately occupied by Mr. James Coey, jun., in Bally macarrett, immediately adjoining the terminus of the Bel fast and County Down Railway, where they discovered the process of illicit distillation going on on a somewhat extensive scale. The scene of the operations was under ground, and a most ingenious provision against such con tingencies as that which has now occurred consisted in a bell hung there, the handle of which was so placed at the entrance door above that the person opening it, in case the visitors were such as to excite apprehension, could easily and imperceptibly, by pulling this bell, signify that sus picion to their subterranean friends. Accordingly the excise officers, on their arrival below, found the ball utterly deserted, but bearing all the marks of very recent occupa tion. The birds had flown by another passage, but behind them they had left all the machinery of their art, and a large quantity of the manufactured article, both of which were destroyed. The police soon afterwards suc c eeded in arresting a man, named Hugh Stirling, who, being in the upper story of the concern, had not enjoyed the benefit of the warning bell—Be(fast News Letter. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1853. THE RESIGNATION SCENE. (Exclusively reported for the PRESS.) LORD PALMERSTON (to Me Council) : I have now, my dear lords and gentlemen, explained my chief reasons for objecting to this Reform Bill. My objections, as you will have noted, are those of principle, and may be summed up in two words. Your bill was not wanted by the country, which demanded that existing corruptions should be purged away, not that its constituencies should be swamped by a new-fangled desire for throwing political power into the hands of a single interest, to the exclusion of those who are above and beneath them. Therefore I can't assent to the measure. To occupy you with objections to its details is unnecessary, but I may be excused for saying that it is about as bungling a piece of handiwork as was' ever put together. Lord JoicE RUSSELL : I deny that. Lord PALMERSTON (milling) : I retract, and:, beg to except your last Reform Bill. LADSTONE : Levity is at all times objectionable, and the subject is now too momentous to be enlivened by a display of dialectic pyrotechnics. Lord Palmerston, awakened, it is not for me to say by what agency, to a sense of the advantages of Conservatism, opposes this measure as too democratic. Lord PALMERSTON : I oppose it mainly on the ground that it is uncalled for and unnecessary, and legislation of that class appears to me to be the worst form of political quackery. Sir C. WOOD: But you see, my dear Palmerston, this is where the shoe pinches. Russell promised, don't you see,--- Two or three voices (impatiently): Please, Wood, hold your tongue. Lord PALMERSTON : I do not know why Wood should be silenced. He has hit the right nail on the head. You were in a mess, and, in your eagerness to extricate your selves, Russell did promise to introduce, at an early period of the session, an ample measure of reform. I admit all that ; and, remembering that you were under great diffi culties when you made the pledge, I have, contrary to my own feelings, endeavoured to render your measure as little mischievous as I could. But certain individuals here successfully opposed my view, and I cannot be party to the derangement of our constitutional system in order to redeem a pledge given simply to keep a Ministry in place. Sir JAMES GRAHAM (mildly) : I never impute motives, but I should like to know what advantage Palmerston purposes to himself from embarrassing us. LORD PALMERSTON (quietly) : Graham's way of putting things is so truly charming and natural, that it is impossible to quarrel with it. He has first a reputation to lose, and then a reputation to gain ; and the sooner both are done the better, as he is not precisely a boy. Now, I have made a reputation which will quite answer my purpose, and I can afford to serve the country accor ding to my own ideas of honour. I don't often talk to you in this tone, but our dear Graham is a little urgent for truth, so I give it to him. Mr. GLADSTONE : Again we are diverging. I would entreat Palmerston's attention to one or two considera tions. They are not so much connected with the measures as with the position of Government. As regards the former, I admit that other courses were open to us; and my own Conservative antecedents are evidence that I should not, without necessity, sanction such a measure as that now proposed. But I see no option if the Coalition Ministry is to stand. If we face Parliament with a feeble measure, down we go. A tolerably good strong one is our only chance. Do you see this, Palmerston ? Lord PALMERSTON : Perfectly, my dear Gladstone. Nobody can put things more clearly than yourself when you choose. And supposing that the great end of all things were the keeping the Coalition in place, and sup posing (slily) that, as certain friends of—somebody's—do suppose, the end justifies the means, I should be prepared to keep in office, by a bad measure, a Ministry which in tends to introduce others, and good ones. Mr. GLADSTONE : I have convinced myself that such a Ministry as ours is the only one which can benefit the country. (Applause.) Yes, but I do not mean mere selfishness and self-assertion. The principle of compro mise is the only principle compatible with the interests of society. Lord - ELLMERSTON : I believe nothing of the kind. There are such things as right and wrong. Sir C. WOOD : Certainly. There's a right lobby and a wrong lobby, and that, I think, is about all a good sup porter of Government need remember. Lord JOHN RUSSELL : The bill before us is by no means what I desire. Lord AI3ERDEEN (eagerly) : Nor I. Duke of NEWCASTLE (quickly) : Nor I. Duke of ARGYLL (snappishly) : Nor I ; nor could any bill be, unless I prepared it. Sir W. MOLESWORTH (smartly) : Nor I, for reasons which I need not- Sir J. Gs AM (kindly) : You need not. Now for my part, I think the bill a most admirable bill, and I in tend to defend every line and letter in it, and contend for its plenary inspiration. LORD PRESIDENT (significantly) : We understand that. Lord J. RUSSELL ; The - point f"was going to urge on Palmerston is this have said—you all have said—that none of us likes the bill as a whole. I consider it damaged by every departure from my own bill of last year. But if every one of us can waive his strong personal objections to the measure, for the sake of a common object-- Lord PALMERSTON : Common and unclean ? Lord J. RussELL : Not at all. I say that it argues great self-sufficiency in Palmerston to stand out against the sense of his colleagues. What I myself can do, and Lord Aberdeen can do, and others can do, in order to retain office, and serve the country, I think Lord Palmerston might do. Lord PALMERSTON : Lord Palmerston doesn't think so, that's all; and happens to be able to afford to think for himself. But I will offer no further obstacle—here—to the introduction of this great measure, which is entitled, I hope, " An Act for Amending the Position of the Present Cabinet." Lord J. RUSSELL : If you don't do it here, where can you do it ? Lord PALMERSTON : In my place in Parliament. Lord J. RUSSELL : What ! as Home Secretary ? Lord PAL3iERSTON : No ! as member for Tiverton. Didn't you know I was a member of Parliament ? Lord J. RUSSELL (terrified) : You never mean that you will resign of f ice ? Lord PALMERSTON : I see no other course. I leave you the means of preserving the Ministry, as Gladstone says, and I also preserve my own convictions and con sistency. Sir C. WOOD (piteously) : But, Palmerston, if you go out, the country will say we are breaking up. Lord PALMERSTON: My dear Wood, the country will soon say that, whether I go out or not, I give you very few months, and I am an old hand, and know the look of the political weather, (To Lord Aberdeen) : Dirty ahead, Captain ! Sir JAMES GRAHAM : And, believing the Cabinet in danger, you resign, in order to escape the fall you con sider inevitable. Lord PALMERSTON : " Think so, if so thou art re solved to think," but I don't imagine that is the line which I have taught people in general to accuse me of taking. Lord ABERDEEN (uncomfortably): The country will believe that you go out on the Eastern question. Lord PALMERSTON : And I am afraid that, after the way you have used your organ, the country will not be in a hurry to believe their contradiction of the supposition. But I beg that you will give the necessary instructions that, for once, the truth shall be told. I go out on the Reform Bill, and because some persons who term them selves my Conservative colleagues are too decided Demo crats, in the narrowest sense, for my own predilections; and, my dear lords and gentlemen, you will do the same thing—only a little later. (Saws) Weepnot for me, my colleagues dear, . That I no longer meet you here; The game is played, as you may see, — So, wait awhile, and follow me." (Exit jauntily.) ALL : The ice is cracking !—what's to be done ? (In consternation.) ON SATURDAY EVENING, a fire broke out in the paper mills of Mr. Healing, on Twickenham Common, and con tinued to rage all night. ME Cambridge Independent prints a circular, which has been sent to the leading Dissenters, inviting them to subscribe for a testimonial to Professor Maurice, whose dismissal by the authorities of King's College has, excited so much public notice. SHERIDAN LITERARY SOCIETY. — From an advertise ment it will be seen that the annual soiree and ball in connexion with this society will be he in the Royal Assembly-rooms, Great George-street, on Friday, the 30th instant. From the prestige acquired by the society, a highly intellectual and gratifying party may be anticipated. BELGIAN POLICY.—A diplomatist assures me that as long as Louis Napoleon displays any wish to visit England, some part of the family of the King of Belgium will re main there. "It appears to me that King Leopold is playing a bold me," says my informant.— Vienna Cor respondence o ft he Times. A Boir GOLD-DIGGER.—A little ragged urchin, the son of poor parents, suddenly disappeared from Greenock, not long ago. He had got stowed away to sea ; and the next thing his friends heard of him was that he was dig ging among the gullies of California. A few days ago his mother was delighted at receiving a letter from him, en closing a draft for £2O. AiiiiticA AND THE SULTAN.—A letter from Berlin says :—" A piece of curious news is circulated here as authentic, but the truth of which it is impossible to ascer tain at Berlin. Namik Pasha has not succeeded at Paris in negotiating a loan. This was to be expected. But what could not be foreseen is that the United States of America have (so it is said) offered a very considerable sum to the Porte, on the condition that some small island in the Archipelago shall be ceded to them. Hyn u o prroß Lc—The Frilrrg Gazette says :—A woman of Bodjan has just been attacked with hydrophobia, from having used a pocket-handerchief with which she had a year back wiped away the foam from the mouth of a child who had been bitten by a mad dog. The child died in terrible convulsions, but the woman, not apprehending any danger to herself, felt no alarm at that circumstance. She was quite unexpectedly attacked in her turn a few days back, and expired in great agony. MARSHAL NEY.—Because the Bourbon Restoration shot Marshal Ney, the Bonapartist Restoration erects a statue to his memory. Few men have less deserved an apotheosis ; for Ney, like most of Napoleon's lieutenants, was a hero of the most vulgar type, n o t even f a ithf u l t o the master who drew him from obscurity and loaded him with titles and honours. Nor would his memory be popular in any army accustomed to couple inseparably the notions of honour and duty. But it is a peculiarity of Louis Napoleon, and charact er i s ti c o f hi s p er ti nac i ous temper, to cherish a sort of personal quarrel against a generation who have been twenty years in their graves. To be even with them, as far as he can, is an object of his life. So the old Imperialist shot by Louis XVIII. rises again in white marble, and his eulogium is pronounced by a Minister-at-War, who passes for the least respectable among the soldiers of fortune of his day.—Guardian. CHARITY IN JUDGMENT.—It behoves: us always to bear in mind that, while actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of right and wrong,the judgments which we pass upon men must be qualified 1 :)3 7 considerations of age, country, situation, and other acci dental circumstances; and it will then be found, that . he t who is most charitable in his judgment is genera ll y " least unjust. —Southey. ' THE UNION of the three Courts of Austria, Bavar ia, and Saxony is about to be still more c l ose ly cemented the intermarriage of a Saxon Prince with a sister of the Emperor of Austria's fianee'e, a daughter of Duke 31a1 2, milian of Bavaria, and of a son of this latter with a Satu te Princess. It is probable that the f ianca ill e s will t.a,,l' in this month, when the Emperor of Austria will be s Bavaria to spend the Christmas with his future ErnP res i e MARio.—Apropos of Mario, he has been in Fl9ren looking as much like a fine Titian as ever ; lade being one of those classically beautiful countenances, PS!,. taking largely of that antique type perpetuated by tn! stag i e , great masters. In Italy, Mario ceases to be actor, and is restored to his proper s phere, being in ra n , a duke, son of a fo r m e r go v e rn o r of Nice, and, treated with the highest distinction. Florence has rejoicing bees . over him as the man she " delighteth ho.nouir; particularly as he has flattered the vanity of the city MT purchasing a splendid villa, formerly occupied hY . 31 Vansittart, just out of the Porta San Gallo, under the shadow of the beautiful orange-terraced hill of Fiesole, crowned, as with a mural diadem by the ancient Etruscan capitol. Although Mario's visits are generally brief, se at splendid fetes were given in his honour. I was present - one given at our great English banker's, baron ' as such, is so well known and esteemed as the Torlonia of Florenc e : The whole of the superb appartments of the Pala Corani were thrown open to the beau monde, who carat shoals, hoping and expectin g t o h ear Mario sing, whi c i strange to say, he never has yet done in Italy. The glI; tenore was too much fatigued by a rapid journey• gratify the company ; and although he looked blot with health and in the highest spirits, and kept provolv ingly hovering about the piano, not one note did we heat of his honey-like voice. The Pope's Nunico at the nor" Court, after being introduced to him, added his solicita tions to the others, but was alike refused.—New Moot** LATEST INTELLIGENCE. MONDAY EVENING, Dscmunat 19, BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TIIE MINISTRY.—No later news. After business hours on the Stock Exchange, Con ga° were at 941- I. On 'Change to-day, Tallow higher--• 575. 3d. for P.Y.C. on the spot, and 58s. for Februarl delivery. Scotch Pig Iron, 795. Coffee an d Pe p per held for higher prices. THE EASTERN WAR. No later telegraphic news. The Times' Vienna corres pondent writes on the 14th, that in diplomatic circles it is affirmed that the renewal of the diplomatic relations he' tween the Four Powers on the one side, and Russia and the Porte on the other, was mainly owing to the exertions of the Earl of Westmoreland, who, in obedience to in' structions received from home, represented to Cou pt Berol and M. de Meyendorff that it was necessary to the very existence of the Aberdeen Cabinet that something should immediately be done towards a settlement of the Russo-Turkish differences. (From the Second Edition of the Times.) VIENNA, TUESDAY EVENING.—Count Valentine Ester hazy had been appointed Ambassador Extraordillarf from Munich to St. Petersburg. PIRATICAL CONDUCT OF VTR RUSSIANS. The Times' Paris correspondent says, " The imports ° fact seems now to be ascertained that the conduct of tbe Russians was more that of pirates than anything e lse ' . It is positively stated that the flotilla of Osman Pasha 0 ' nothing whatever to do with the Circassians. It its ° Mustapha Pasha who had succeeded in landing mill stores at Batoum. Two accounts state that the Russis i* had the English flag hoisted until they were ready to l e : their fire, and this was also a reason for the slowness Wl' which the Turkish batteries fired.." The Times' correspondent trusts that this report 15 gild founded. TATTERSALL'S BETTING.—Ting DAY. CHESTER Cur.-50 to 1 sget Tom, late Mountain fla. A. 66 to 1 agat Newminster, taken; 40 to 1 agat Virago, Want`` DERBY, 1854.-9 to 1 agst King Tom, taken; 33 tO 1 Want` Andover, taken; 40 to 1 agst Meteora, taken. FUNDS, STOCK, AND SHARE MARKET. The English market displayed remarkable steadinesg , Consols experienced a slight advance. The continual reunt tances from America, and the opinion of the Moniteur thld the good understanding between France and England ' , Vi t . not be impaired by Lord Palmerston's resignation , Insla influenced the prevailing firmness. Railways quiet / _ 6 4. towards the close exhibited a Slight improvement. Lou' s : Bank, and Mining descriptions generally, at !fist quot ation _ Sales effected in British American Land ut a decline. F orei firm; Russian a shade stronger. CLOSING PRICES. Consols, Account .. 944 a' Bank Stock 220 1 no r Do. Money.... I I Excheq. Bills, L.& S. 2 Three &Qr per Cents.. 95i 6 FOREIGN STOCKS. Mexicans 244 a Spanish Passives 4l 5 Do. Threes ..... Russian . • ll2 14 Spanish Deferred .... 22 Swedish •• • • -- Do. Threes 464 RAILWAY SHARES. Lam,London & Western 10 , 01 „t 1 ,Nottinl ..... and E: Junction... Bristol and Exeter .. Caledonian Do. Preference .. East Anglian Eastern Counties ..., 13/ East Lancashire 65 7 Eastern Union A Ditto B and C Edinburgh & Glasgow 61 6 Great Northern -- Do. doas 8. B. Weetern .Manches., Sheff., and 24i a • Lincolnshire Midland Stock Midland Halves . — North British 321 9 Norf 4 t p o o ll s P re ference 107 North Staffordshire Shrewsbury and Bir mingham Do. L. & N. W _guar : , 56 Do. B Great Western Lanc. and Yorkshire. 67/ Do. Fifths — I Leeds Northern l3* f! London, Brighton, and South Coast MINING IS. Eastern and Dover York, Newcastle, and Berwick . 64 * Do. Extension Do. Preference a 'York and N. Midland 46 Do. Preference. SHARES. Nugget B. Australian Freehold Australasian Colonial Mariposa MARRS. IPeel River ISouth Australian N. B. Australian Noveau Monde Rettistered Cordeliera Ave Maria Carson's Creek Port Philip LAND Australian Agricultural 45 7 S. Australian Invest. If i B. American CORN MARKET. t; of The show of English Wheat is scanty, and the suPlN.,„'eted Foreign Wheat and Oats are yr oderate. The trade or at or firm, at an alvance of 3s. per quarter for both Englis'', l 9o. Foreign Wheat. Town-made Flour not yet put up by 01 , 1 , a ref , Barley, Beans, and Peas, are fully 6d. per quarter ut:, c e. The Oat trade very firm, at Is. to Is. 6d. per quarter 0' 1 1 0 '44 Seeds are dull. The Corn trade was firm towards the c_, te r and Wheat advanced 3s. to 4s. per quarter; even a fr o 7 A de enhancement is required for floating cargoes. Tow l ; ea rer Flour is steady ; American and French 2s. per sack ir ar er. Oats are fully Is. higher. Barley is 2s. per sack Li' Beans and Peas Is. to 2s. higher. English. Irish. Foreign Wheat Barley 5675 408 4720 Oats 3932 1544 2203 0 Malt 6270 53 Beans Peas — Flour ... 1635 -- X 1438 5947 131 PRODUCE MARKET. 40 0 Sugar: Several parcels of Foreign sold at full prices ;101 Havana 225. to 265. in bond. Refined is in good de,11.04 brown lumps 445. Coffee is firm, and in active de T ea ie Native Ceylon 48s. to 48s. 6d. • Plantation 58s. to 7 6 e• e IS S dull ; ordinary Congou Is. 2d'. to Is. 2id. Rice: The r _ t pre' large business, at very full rates. Cotton sells (Nell vious terms. - _ TALLOW MARKET. ale' welt 19 la st The demand for Tallow is brisk, and prices are tim e tained. Stock, 46,128 casks, against 49,548 some t ime la 3 ear. Deliveries, 1,269 casks, against 2,123 Woo year. CATTLE MARKET. 0 4 The Beast trade is dun, at Friday's prices . s beeP 0 Beef better. Calves 2s areAd in to 4s demandl I SVeal 6 t ° i d 5s to 69 - Mutton..... 3s 2d to 5s 4d Pork 3s Isu Beasts 3580 Calves ............ ..., Sheep ARRIVALS. 4 0° Norfolk and Suffolk Beasts ........ , . . ..... Cambridge, Leicester, Lincoln, and North- 200 0 ampton Beasts l 2O Scotch Beasts Irish Beasts Holland Beasts Do. Sheep Do. Calves Do. Pigs Spanish Beasts Do. Sheep French Beasts CS' MANCHESTER STOCK EXCE A ca l e donia nS, Birkenhead and Cheshire Junction, 101 ' 28 ; Sheffields, 25} ; Dovers, 19 1-16. • • 99 0 • 9 LEEDS STOCK EXCITAN: m ood, 6 4 P l a l n vas, s North Westerns, 82; Eastern Counties , Caledonians, i 2 a B c 4 t . ive, at 2s. per -- GLASGOW CORN M AR T ' - an W e dnesday' l l l e , d h o e n a i Flour ls per barrel dearer. Barley 15. to - 8 .,,,r_,„ s a nd re"' and a speculative demand. Oats dearer. "u'''''' unaltered. - 'ET. GLASGOW PIG IRON MARK The market closes pretty steadily, nominally 795. NCE. LATEST SHIPPING INTELLIGE fro ARRIVED AT GRAVESEND DEC. 18.—The Clydesdale, the Mauritius. Almirante (le Cayo, Oerf, arrived at OP °lt °' quarter Oa I, is ashore GALATZ, DEc. s.—Tanfield, from Live rpoosaved if. 3rd Dec. ; struck after crossing the har . and in agO the Bar; the cargo is expected to be ARRIVED AT ERTHOLEUS DEC. 5. Twee Trezinde, to d $ fromquaLdonerdmoir‘lhner .. ante tress, bound to England. Id d'• an d Witte — w recked on a atrand ; crew la: e . car go EGERSUND, EC. s.—General Rye from the C1yd e, ,, 11 4 55 iS IO H D rs be WHlT ing saved BY DEC. .. . . . The Petrus, from COpellbage"' , wrecked ; crew saved. . ai , Invincible, wrecked near Algier.' GIBRALTAR, DEC. ~. - full of water. tOP l e ° ‘. ELSINORE, DEC. 15.—Jane White put in here to s 00 e, Isabella, of Mo,trose, and Litna, put in damaged. I. of Glasgow, cleared the 13th, after being ashore. ic e 0 fat HAMBURG, DEC. 16.-1 he Elbe is covered ivith as Grasbrock. o °l ANyvvEnr, DEC. 17 . — The navigation of the riveran„ ~a stopped. Louise, for Liverpool, lost two anchors 1:..e. as h or e yesterday : will proceed, apparently without dar"%,o LOWESTOFf, DEC. 19.—The Gadabout, from Shields' " ass i s t e d in here very leaky. was P . se d 00. ST. ÜBES, DEC. 19.—Tbe AVeDir, for Suez, al J ose the Bth very leaky ; part of her cargo overboard, sou discharge. ------•-•"". LIVERPOOL: , tbe Printed and Published every Tuesda y Mornings N Proprietor, ROBERT PEARSON THACKERn /. 0 1 iNt; Percy-street, at the STANDA RD GENERAL 1'R1N,‘,..., OFFICE, No. 4, S. GEORGIeS CRESCENT, LiVerPOw Tuesday, December 20,1853,