The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION Standard-office, Two o'clock. LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE.—Turs DAY. We have to report since i day week moderate arri vals only, coastwi6e and from Ireland, except Malt, of viaich the 2upp:y is liberal ; those from abroad consisting chiefly of a tolerable quantity of Wheat and Indian Corn, with 21,834 barrels of Flour from the United States and Canada. At an advance of (Id. per 701 b. on Wheat, 3s. per brl on Flour, ss. per quarter on Indian Corn, Is. to 2s. per quar ter on Beans and Pease, 3d. per bushel on Oats, 3d. per bushel on Barley, Is. to 2s per load on Oatmeal, we have had a good brsiness done to-day, notwithstand ing the demand has been much checked by the increased requirements of holders. ARRIVALS OF CORN, From the Ist to the 7th September, inclusive IRE. COAST- ISECANADA U.STATS LAND. W AND AND ,TOTAL. . COLONIS EUROPE. ....—......-.. ---...... ......--,-.. 'Wheat.. ... Ors. 1497 435 2306 3321 75*g Earley ...... Qrs. , 106 f 106 1 4 .1 a 1 t Qrs. : 31 4,60 , 4091 Oats Qrs. , 2840 255 ; 630 3725 !Eye • Qrs.; Beans Pease Qrs. I 275 I 423 , 423 ShelledßarleyQrs. Indian Corn. Qrs. ; ; 3913 3903 Oatmeal .. Loads' 313 624 927 Flour. .... Sacks ; 1433 s, 1433 , Ditto EXPO liTS.—Foreign. Wheat,— qrs.; Barley,— qrs.; Pease, qrs. ; Oats, qrs.; Indian Corn, qrs.; Oatmeal, sacks ; Flour, 7 brls.—lreland Wheat, 2221 qrs. ; Bar ley, qrs.; Beans, 5 qrs ; Oats,- - qrs ; Indian Corn, 5843 qrs. ; Oatmeal,—sks; Flour, 20 sks 4667 brls —Coastwise. Wheat, 137 qrs. ; Barley, qrs. ; Malt, 12 qrs.; Oats, 12 -qrs.; Beans, 410 qrs. ; Pease, 2 qrs. ; Oatmeal, 165 sacks ; Indian Corn, 165 qrs. ; Flour, 293 sacks 4569 brls. Average prices of Grain, for the week ending Aug. 29, 1846, 474.1vd. I Barley 294. le.. I Oats 236. Od. Ryc 315.10 d Beaus.. 59i. 9d. j Pease.. 386. 6d. Aggregate average of the six weeks ?beat 465.113: Barley 2;s. 5,1. J Oats.. 235. sd. Rye 30s. Id. Beans.. 398. 7d. I Pease.. 36 . 8. 6.1. Duty on Foreign Produce this week . Wl3eatlOs ad I Barley 45 03 I I Oats . Is 63 Rye.. 4s Od Beans 48 03 I Pease .. 4s Od Ind. Corn Os Od Flow 1363 Od Duty on British Colonial. rePTeat.. Is. Od. 1 Barley.. Is. Od. Oats. Is. Od. Rye... Is. Od. Beans.. Is. Od. 1 Pease.. Is. Od. Flour. 4irl. cwt. Liverpool Averages, week ending Aug. 25, 1846. Wheat, 393 qrs., price 4)s 4d; Barley, qrs., price Os ed. ; Oats, 152 qrs., price 255. 7d.; Rye, qrs., price Os. ed.; Beans, 20 qrs.. 465. Od. ; Pease, qrs., price s. Od. Duties paid in Liverpool, week ending Sep. 3. Foreign.—Wheat, 189 qrs.; Barley, qrs. ; Malt, 1.75. ; Oats, 782 qrs. ; Rye, qrs. ; Beans, 220 qrs ; Pease, 147 qrs.; Indian Corn, 51:59 qrs.; Oatmeal, loads; Flour, 481 barrels. Colonial.—Wheat, 68 qrs.; Pease, 385 qrs.; Indian Corn, qrs. ; Flour, 3IN brls. #.l tfraturr. POETRY. NIGHT-FLOWERS. "W;:' • the Liverpool Standard. Many a perfume hreath'd From plants that wake while others sleep ; From timid jasmine buds that keep Their odors to themselves all day; Fut when the daylight dies away, Ler their delicious secret out To every breeze that roams about. —Lolla Rookh. 'Es faded—the day-monarch's lingering smile. And the joy-winged hours that enchanted erewh , le ; The night winds are moaning where zephyrs have play'd, And darkness sits throned on the fore't glade. And the voices of joy, from the insect hum To the triumph peal of the lark, arc dumb; Day's pageant of glory has pass'd, and the light From all beauty is qucnch'd in the shadows of night. save where yon frail flowers, lone vigils are keeping, in smiles and in tears, while their kindred are sleeping; With bosoms uncover'd and petals outspread, In coldness and darkness their fragrance is shed. When solemn, but lovely. through evening's grey veil, Shines dreamlike and fitful, each beautiful bell; As virtue's mild graces beneath the thick screen of prejudice, here but in glimpses are seen. Unciarm'd by the gladness, the glory of June, The morning's soft breath or the kindlings of noon, Turns away fr.:m the bee and the butterfly's light, And wocs the lone ear of the pensive night. Is It pity ye feel ye devoted of flowers, And yet bloom to console the disconsolate hours. Like the wound healing balm born of sympathy's breast, Ora dark dream that breaks o'er the sleeper's unrest ? To me ye are types of mysterious things Of our spirit—deep tones from the bosom's strings • 4 The friendship that lives through adversity's gloom; fifer love that ne'er sleeps, but lights on to the tomb. Atli gracefully picture, with dcw-soften'd gleam, The meek eye of patience, anti mercy's dear beam, The bright tear taught sympathetic to flow; The sigh that is given to our mortal woe. And (sweet is the thought) in this dark world, yet A pure baud shines, on woe's hemi , pliere set, Who weep with the mourner, deep echo the voice Oi their spirits' joy, when the glad rejoice. Like you they watch on thiough the long night of grief, To pleasure's soft voice of seduction quite deaf; Uright angels of peace, Hope's comforters nigh Where the mourner sits weeping o'er buried joy. Would friendship's delights love's endearments forego, But one wrinkle to chase from anxiety's brow, Or sooth some lone heart : the Samaritans, kind, Touring balm on the wound of the troubled mind. O Charity blest are thy children—thy hearth Has a halo above it not kindled of earth ; The widow to succour, the orphan to lead — This, this is Religion, Religion indeed 1 SAMUEL HUGGINS. Brunswick -road, 1846. NOTICES. Simple and expeditious method of instruction in reading and writing. By Baron de Sepres. Popular Record. office, Strand, London. The mode of teaching recommended in this little work deserves eminently the attention of mothers and precep. tors. Its principle is, that the learner should be taught from something—a prayer or a fable—which he already knows, which should be gone over to familiarize him with the words and syllables by which it is represented. The writer has seen it tried both upon children and adults with surprising success. Baron de Sepre9 Solution of French Participles. London: Hatchard and Son. We regard this as one of the most useful education :1 works which have lately issued from the press, as affording a clear and concise rule for determining one of the greatest difficulties which presents itself to the learner cf the French language. The examples given of its application are conclusive as to the correctness of the writer's solu tion of what has always hitherto been regarded as an all taut insurmountable problem. VARIETIES. MARCH OF LUXIIRY.—(Scene, a pothouse.)—Cus trouser : Hi! James. Polboy : Now then, what is it ? Customer: Just pop my arf-an.arf in the Hice a minnit, that's a good lad. AN ILL-USED BACHELOR.—A bachelor is published in the papers of Porkpolis for having refused to pay his washerwoman's bill. He publishes a card stating that be refused to pay because she washed all the white out of his shirts.—Yankee paper. A SURGICAL COBIILER.—A cobbler of Widmerpool has lately put a paper over his door bearing the following inscription : " Surgery performed here upon old boots and shoes, by adding to the feet, making good the legs, bind ing the broken, healing the wounded, mending the con stitution, and supporting the body with new soles.—Not tiugharn Journal. A DEDICATION. —The Hindoo, Mohan Lal, Esq., knight of the Persian order of the Sun and. Moon, has recently written a book, which he dedicates to her Majesty and Prince Albert. He prays—" that as long as the oceans are filled with water, and the heavens 'decorated with the sun and moon, the gracious shadow of your Ma jesty and his Royal Highness the Prince Albert may never he diminished from the beads of your British and Indian subjects." SPANISH MONASTIC DOINGS IN THE NINETEENTH CSNTURY.—If, in the year 1835, St. Bernard could have accompanied us on our visit to the monastery of Beruela in the Moncayo, surely he would have been indignant, and would have chastised the monks ; surely he himielf would have solicited the extinction of his order. Out of thirty monks, very few confessed, and only two or three knew how to preach ; every one breakfaste.l and said mass just when he thought proper ; by nine in the morning they might be seen wandering about the neighbouring country and gardens, or shooting small birds near the gates of the monastery ; at eleven, they as sembled in a cell to play mond with visitors from the neighbouring towns and vil lages, winning and losing thousands of reels. During dinner, instead of having some grave and proper book read aloud to them, one of their number relating obscene stories for the amusement of his companions ; at dessert the finest wines were served, the monks played upon the piano, and sang indecent songs. The siesta passed away. the afternoon, until, towards evening, these self-denying anchorites roused themselves from their slumbers, and re sumed their favourite amusement of birding and tale telling. At nightfall the green cloth was again spread, and the cards were in full activity ; sometimes six or eight of the monks got upon their mules, and rode & distance of two or three leagues to a ball, dressed in the height of the fashion. The writer of these pages once asked the prior to let him see the paintings executed by the brotherhood ; he was conducted to the apartments of the abbot, and in the most secluded of them was shown a wretched daub, of which the subject was shamefully coarse and disgusting. * * Many of the women of the neighbouring village of Vera went by the names of the monks; and so great became the scandal, that, on one occasion, when the na.: tional guards were sent upon an expedition; the alcalde issued an order prohibiting their wives to walk in the di rection of the monastery. One woman, who disobeyed the injunction, was made to pay a fine, and narrowly escaped having her head shaved in the public market-place.— Caiello's History of the War in "Irragoti and Valentia. AN OLD (From the People's Journal.) When I was first built, I commanded a prospect that extended for miles across the open country on one side, while on another I surveyed London and its river with out being unplea , antly neghboured by its hubbub. I had a rich garden of my own, which increased my consequence, like a fine lady's page. Now—l frown from all my win dows at the affront—l stand in a crowded, feculent court, down which no decent inuividual hurries without holding his nose. The habitations of the poor have sprung up, fungus-like, around roe. I am buttressed by vile tene ments. The hinges of all my doors creak at the foul abomination. You will observe, that in the depth of my reverses my notions are still genteel. 'Pon my— I was about to swar by tapestry, forgetting that it disappeared whole generations ago. Well, on the word of a dwelling that once entertained Old Rowley within its walls, I would make an effort even now to be respectable, if you could give me the faintest hope of success. But you cannot. No. lam doomed to end my days in what my owners—especially the mad bloods of itowley's time—would term shocking vulgarity, unutterable degra dation. At least, then, let me be wholesome. Let the untainted breeze of heaven visit me, as of yore. Purge me of•the foul odours which my thresholdl every day snuffs up. I hear my inmates—the horny-palmed—say that the Press, now-a-days, can accomplish what it pleases. If the assertion be correct, I trust to you for the purification of the neighbourhood in which I have had the misfortune to grow old. My age and experience, not to speak of my having seen better days, are my apology for thus taxing you. Not to trespass too long upon your space, 1 will relate an incident which occurred in one of my apartments only the day before yesterday. The child of an honest journeyman, in the bell-hanging trade, had fallen ill, and was unable to quit its little bed, though its weekly earnings were of sufficient importance to the family to make its health a matter of some consequence towards the attain ment of a due supply for their wants, independently of all tender considerations. He was a very young child to be already a labourer in the rough paths of the world. When he first came to dwell under my roof, I beheld his pretty pale face with an interest that I never felt before. I saw the angel looking through his eyes. Oh, that his lot had transported him to the Antipodes, rather than that he should have been brought vi inhale the noxious miasma of this terrible spot. . . He was very meek, and displayed towards his parents, and his brothers and sisters, an attachment which I con termilatecl with admiration. The feelings it occasioned thrilled my rafters. On no former occasion have I expe rienced equal emotion. I observed him sink by slow de grees, and grow more and more to resemble the dead that I saw borne from my door at the time of the Great Plague. Strange, that I could note what his parents had not eyes to see. He went to his work regularly yet—day by day. At night he crawled to his home more enfeebled than when he set forth in the morning. The final change was coming on—hour by hour it was drawing nigher. Death, the de liverer, had kissed his cheek. " You must get a doctor for the boy," remarked the occupant of the adjoining room, a leciter match vendor. The child's parents shook their heads—" He will soon be bette ." they said ; •' poor folks like us can't afford to hav•• a child ill." Ant still he declined—still grew worse and worse. One morning, about a week ago, he turned his beautiful eyes upon his mother, and said plaintively—" Mother, dear, I cannot get up to-day." " Not get up to-day !" The woman was alarmed. She bent over him. She had tra vailed for that Child and he was dying. She saw it now, and cursed her short-sightedness and selfishness. Dying, and but the other day she refused him a doctor, lest they should lose the weekly stipend he earned, by his having to absent himself from work ! " I do think, ma , her," he said, " that it is elos room, and the nasty smells that come from ihe court be low, which have made me ill." I thought so too, or rather I knew it. He died the day before yesterday. And bow many other human beings, adults as well as children, has the fetid atmosphere around me hurried to a premature grave. Mortality is so frequent in this court as to occasion no surprise; yet a man &lid jestingly on my threshold this morning—" No old people die here." He was right; for none live to grow old. It I might be permitted to ex press an opinion, as a house of grave character and con siderable exp'ricnce, I would suggest that there must be something frightluily " rotten in the state of Denmark," as Will Shakspetue says. • But you know best. Perhaps it is apart of the economy of governments to kill off their poor as rapidly as possible. I would ask one question, however. May not the fevers, and other contagions diseases, begotten in my vicinity, spread to the dwellings of the wealthy, and breed sad havoc there ? Altogether, I must beg leave to doubt the policy of such legislative neglect. The very first thing which I would do, if I had the power, would be to im prove the dwellings of the poor; and wouldn't I look after the drains and sewers ? and wouldn't I widen the narrow thoroughfares, and pass an act for the abolition of courts and alleys. By my—my tapestry again! I would invite the sweet breath of Heaven to visit the poorest chamber in the metropolis, without risking its pollution by. the allowed presence of any typhus-engendering filth. Perhaps government may be contemplating something to this end. You know best. DEFENCE OF THE GOOSE.—II is a great libel to accuse a goose of being a silly bird. Even a tame goose shows meaty instinct and attachment ; and were its habits more closely observed, the tame goose would be found to be by no means wanting in general cleverness. Its watchfulness at night-time is, and always has been proverbial; and it certainly is endowed with a strong organ of self-preserva tion. You may drive over dog, cat, hen, or pig; but I defy you to drive over a tame goose. As for wild geese, I know of no animal, biped or quadruped. that is so diffi cult to deceive or approach. Their senses of hearing, seeing, and smelling, are all extremely acute; independ ently of which, they appear to act in so organised and cautious a manner when feeding or roosting, as to defy all danger. Many a time has my utmost caution been of no avail in attempting to approach these birds; either a care less step on a piece of gravel, or an eddy of wind, however light, or letting them perceive the smallest portion of my person, has rendered useless whole hours of manceuvring. —Wild Sports of the Highlands. GENERAL MAREY'S DOMESTICATED LION.—Was magnificent animal, two years old, and full grown all but his mane, which, although only a foot long, made, never theless, a respectable appearance ; he did not seem to care about our being strangers, but walking about the room like a large dog, permitted us to take liberties with him, such as patting him, shaking a paw, and making him exhibit his teeth and claws. He showed, however, a marked predilection in favour of his old acquaintances, and laying down before them, turned on his back to be scratched. After a scratch or two, he began to yawn, and was fairly settling himself for a nap, when a cigar was puffed in his face—a proceeding he evidently did not ap prove of—rising in a hurry, caning up his lips, and wrink ling his nose, he exposed to view a splendid set of teeth — a sure sign. that he was not pleased. A hearty sneeze seemed to restore him to good temper; and bearing no malice, he returned a friendly pat, bestowed upon him by Captain Martenot, who had been the aggressor, by rub bing his head caressingly against his knees.—Algeria and Tunis in 1845. - ....... ... ........ ST. WINIFRED'S WELL.—We would recommend any 1 strangers to the spot to visit it, should an opportunity offer, and judge with their own eyes of the lightness and beauty of the tall pointed arches and the flying buttress that adorn the exterior, and to decide whether the interior is not even more worthy of notice. The well into which the miraculous stream pours forth its astounding body of water is polygonal ; the columns that rise above it are singularly beautiful, and viler many serpentine wander ings meet and form a canopy worthy of the water-king, who, doubtless, frequently holds there his court. The legend, of the saint, and beautiful carvings in stone, are scattered around, but they appear to have been placed 'there to do honour to the house of Stanley, and not to the saint,—by no means an astonishing circumstance, for the saint had been long dead, and was, probably, tired of working miracles; and the Stanleys were living, and will ing to bestow munificent gifts, of which this building and the chapel above it remain memorials to this day. But to return to our travellers, who are still standing on the same spot, where Mr. Parry left them ; a crowd around a small spring close to the road prevented their advancing. At length the crowd began to disperse, but many aged per sons remained seated on the brink of the well, who bathed their eyes with the water with one hand, whilst with the other they dropped a crooked pin into the spring, mutter in at the same time a spell, but in so low a voice that the w ds were not intelligible. These poor deluded creatures i r be icved that the dimness of age, or any other disease that had attacked their eyesight, would be washed away by the miraculous powers of the water of this well, when used with faith on the 22nd of Jnne.—Llewelyn's Heir, or North Wales during the last Century. Tux PorAro CHOLERA.—Much is said, and has been said, concerning what are termed o' Years of Famine," but it is not generally known, that since the introduction of the potato into this country,.no year has ever passed which, in some remote locality or other, has not been such to the unfortunate inhabitants. The climate of Ire land is so unsettled, its soil so various in quality, and the potato .o liable to injury from excess of either drought or moisture, that we have no hesitation in stating the start ling fact of this annual famine as one we can vouch for, 1 upon our own personal knowledge, and against the truth of which we challenge contradiction. Neither does an autumn pass without a complaint peculiar to those who feed solely upon the new and unripe potato, and which, ever since the year '32, is known by the people as the po tato cholera. With these circumstances the legislature ought to be acquainted, inasmuch as they are calamities that will desolate and afflict the country, so long as the potato is permitted to be, as it unfortunately is, the staple food of the people. That we are subject, in consequence of that fact, to periodical recurrences of dearth and dis ease, is well known and admitted ; but that every season bringsits partial scourge of both these evils, to various remote and neglected districts in Ireland, has not been, what it ought long since to have been, an acknowledged and established fact in the sanatory statistics of the coun try. Indeed, one would imagine, that after the many terrible visitations which we have had from destitution and pestilence, a legislature sincerely anxious for the health and comfort of the people, would have devoted it self, in some reasonable measure, to the humane consider ation of such proper sumptuary and sanatory enact men t s , as would have provided not only against the recurrence of these evils, but for a more enlightened system of public health and cleanliness, and a be tter and more c omfortable provision of food for the indig ent a nd p oor. As it is at present, provision dealers of all kinds, meal-mongers, forestallers, butchers, bakers , and huxters, comb i ne i to gether, and sustain such a general monopoly n food, as is at variance with the spirit of all law and humanity, and constitutes a kind of artificial famine in the country ; and surely these circumstances ought not to be permitted, so I long as we have a deliberative legislature, whose duty it is to watch and guard the health and morals of the people. —Carleton, in Dublin university Magazine. THE LIVERPOOL STANnARD. Toe CARDINAL SPIDER.—A large breed of s e iders ate u dle I've palace of Hampton Court. They are called there " Cardinals," in honour, I suppose, of Cardinal Wolsey. They are full an inch in length, and many of them of the thickness of a finger. Their legs are about two inches long, and their bodies covered with a thick hair. They feed chiefly on moths, as apperirs from the wings of that insect being found in great abundance under and amongst their webs. In running across the carpet in an evening, when the light of a lamp or candle has cast a shade from their large bodies, they have been mistaken for mice, and have occasioned no little alarm to some of the more nervous inhabitants of the palace. A doubt has even been raised whether the name of Cardinal has not been given to this creature from an ancient belief that the ghost of Wolsey haunts the place of his former glory un der this shape. At all events, the spider is considered as a curiosity, and Hampton Court is the only place in which I have met with it.—Jesse's Gleaninos in Natural History. A FESTIVAL OF THE AISAOUA.—I saw some of these fanatics roll enormous serpents in the hollow of their tambourines, while livid adders reared their hideous heads from the hoods of their bernous, and, dropping to the floor, glided over the marble as cold as themselves. In spite of the horror which I felt at this sight, curiosity got the better of my disgust, and I remained. I must con fess, however, that my heart beat violently; the dim ob scurity, the infernal music, the women, shrouded in their white veils, appearing like phantoms risen from the grave, all prepared my imagination for the festival of the A isaoua. Now calling for red hot iron, small shovels, the broad part the size of the hand, with long iron handles, were given to them. Seizing each one, these enthusiasts, plac ing one knee on the ground, applied their hands, and even tongues, to the red-hot metal. One of them, more madly excited than his companions, placed the brightest portion of the instrument between his teeth, and held it in that position for upwards of thirty seconds. Let not the reader think that I exaggerate ; I witnessed all that I re late ; and, in order to impress the scene stronger upon my memory, the performer of this last act placed himself directly opposite to me with a lighted taper in his hand. It is impossible for me to give a reason for what I saw, but I cannot disbelieve it; I smelt the stench of burnt flesh, and when I afterwards touched their hands and feet, I found only a fresh and uninjured skin. The sight of ore old man, nearly sixty-five years of age, gave me great pain ; he grasped the red-hot iron, and placing it on his leg, allowed it to remain ther until a whitish smoke arose, which filled the whole house with its poisonous odour.— Algeria and Tunis in 1845. CABRERA'S SANGUINARY REPRISALS.—In Valdero bles, on the 20th of February, Cabrera received intelli gence of his mother's death. Its first result was a fero cious proclamation, by an article of which be decreed the death of four women, one of them the lady of a Christino colonel, then in his power. Had be shot them at once, in the first heat of anger and heaviness of grief, the act, however barbarous and severe, would have been palliated by circumstances ; but for seven days he dragged those unfortunate women with him on all his marches, compel. ling them to wander barefoot over the rugged mountains of Arragon. So great were the sufferings of these poor creatures, that even Cabrera's aides-de-camp, albeit not very tender-hearted, interceded for them with their chief. At last, on the 27th February, having returned to Valde robles, three of the women were released from their misery by a violent death. This execution was followed by many others. Seven and twenty national guards, taken prisioners at Liria, were kept alive two or three days, and then massacred at Chive. On the 17th of April, the ferryman of Olva, who acted as spy to Cabrera, and who was shot after the war, in the year 1841, brought information to the Carlist camp that two companies of Christino soldiers, quartered in the hamlet of Alcotas, kept but a careless watch, and might easily be surprised. Cabrera immediately set out, the ferryman acting as guide, and fell upon the Christinos before they were aware of his approach. They defended themselves bravely; but, their ammunition being expended, and themselves sur rounded, they capitulated on promise of quarter. Ca brera's chaplain, Father Escoribuela, was the person who prevailed on them to surrender, solemnly assuring them that their lives should be spared. A few hours later, this same priest heard the confession of the officers pre viously to their execution. To the soldiers, even the last consolations of religion were refused. Unshrtven, they were shot to the last man.—Blockwood's Magazine. OUR CONNEXION WITH ANTIQUITY.—We are ac customed to look back opon the old world and its people as if they belonged to us little more than another planet and its inhabitants who have no more connexion with us than swimm ng round the same sun. But every now and then some link glitters, in the polishing up of our know ledge, which discloses to us, in a startling way our con nexion with the past. "It is a singular fact," we are told, " that the pattern now most common upon Paisley shawls, and which has always been a great favourite, was in use among the Hindoos three or four thousand years ago." In an Egyptian vase, 2,844 years old, discovered in a mummy pit, were found, among some dust a few peas. Three of these were planted at Highgate in a soil resembling that of the banks of the Nile. Of the three, one sprouted, producing nineteen pods; and from these has grown a plentiful crop of seed. Thus, an Egyptian of nearly 3,000 years ago has directly handed over to us a harvest of peas, and we seem brought face to face with him. Among the picture writing of the Egyptians, there are records of the curative use of mesmerism by the priests—the physicians of their time. It is believed that printed calicoes were worn at the date of some early por tions of the Old Testament : and that the self-moving vessel in which Ulysses traversed the sea was nearly re lated to our steam-boats; and there are some of our countrymen to be met with in London, who have seen medallion likenesses of the Pharoahs who knew and did - not know Joseph; and of the lady to whom Solomon's song was addressed. These things are useful, as well as curious, to ponder: They make us descend humbly from our proud position as tenants of a very old and wise world to inquire whether we are not, in fact, yet in the infancy of the race, with almost everything that is most weighty yet to learn, Putting together what we know, and our deep instincts of what we do not know, such might ap pear to be our rational conclusion.—Harriet Martineau. in the People's Journal. HERRING FISHING is Wicx.—But by shooting their nets just before nightfall, the herrings, in their nocturria I rambles do not detect the wily " suspension and interdict" which has been taken out against them, and is every where hanging out for their destruction in these their watery heavens. When a shoal thus meets a net under the obscure cover of the night, it cares little and fears less; and so pushing forwards, every fish with a view to get on in life (in the midst of which they are in death) presses his snout and head through a mesh, an inch square, too small to admit his shoulders, but, alas! too small also to permit the withdrawal of the thoughtless head,—for the sharp edge and opening action of the gill-covers pre sent obstructions which the most high-minded herring struggles in vain to overcome. By the grey of the early twilight we fcund ourselves in the very thickest of the fight. Many crews were making large captures, hauling up their long extended nets, glittering with fish "as the dew of the morning," or as one of our sailors expressed it, " going over the gunnel like a white horse." The sur face of the sea seemed at this time dotted over with small dark spots. These were the boats with their sails pulled down. As the nets are hauled they are also shaken, so as to cause all those fish that are loosely meshed to drop into the boat, the Test being disentangled when they reach the harbour. While the boats lay at anchor by their nets, they looked like motionless specks upon the water, and the effect was singular and very striking, when they sud denly hoisted their canvas, as if emerging from the bottom of the deep, and shot away towards the shore, covering the now brightened surface, far and near, with a multitu dinous array of sombre-coloured sails. The same law re gulates the morning as the evening fishery, and they are not allowed to cast again after sunrise. We then re turned to Wick bay, and for an hour or two enjoyed the sight of the countless boats returning, laden with their scaley treasures, in much the same order as that in which we had seen them depart outwards the preceding evening. —Miami's Voyage round the Coast of Scotland. DOING PENANCE AT ST.WINIFstEn'sWELL.—HoweII hastily bad her good bye, and once more joined his friend. Herbert had with some difficulty pushed his way through the dense crowd of pilgrims which surrounded the bathing well, and was gazing with deep interest on a scene that to him "was strange and new." Pilgrims of both sexes, of all religions and ages, were standing around the well, im patiently awaiting the departure of those who were already in possession of it ; whilst numbers might be seen setheil on the steps that led down to it, bathing a sounded foot or injured arm ; and the centre was occupied by devout pil grims, who stood immersed to their chins, and so had stood for several hours, mnttering Ave Marias, and drop ping bead after bead on their rosaries, totally regardless of the icy coldness of the water. One man having quitted the well somewhat suddenly, was stopped, just as his foot was on the last step, by his father-confessor, who asked him somewhat sternly, " if he had not omitted an Ave Maria or a Paternoster ? for if such were the case hisepen ance would be of no avail; and that so far from the water having washed away his sin from his heart, it would only have spread it over his whole body." The poor, drip ping, trembling wretch assured the priest that he bad re peated fifteen Ave Marias and fifteen Paternosters. " Re member your penance is but half accomplished; it must be repeated to-morrow." The man bowed low, and the crowd around the well made ample room for him to pass. "Of what crime has that man been guilty ?" asked Her bert, of a group of Englishmen who were standing near, and shaking their heads most ominously at the half drowned sinner as he passed them. "Sir," was the an swer, " he has been guilty of a great sin ; he caused the worthy Father yonder to cat and drink on a fast-day. Father James,—all the saints bless him !—had been jour neying from house to house on a rigid fast-day, preachi ng most unwcariedly the crime of breaking the fast till the clock had struck twelve. It had just sounded the hour of eleven when the holy man entered the house of yonder sinner : he was weary and hungry, and threw himself down and exclaimed " Twelve o'clock struck as I entered the house ; supper will doubtless soon be ready : " " Now, the carnal-minded man did not tell the holy priest he had mistaken the hour, but hastened to the k i tchen . and or dered the supper to be placed on the table instantly, an d an excellent supper soon made its appearance; and poor Father James, little dreaming of the sin he was guilty of, ate of every dish, and drank of every jug of ale that was near him, for he was thirsty as well as hungry. At length the clock struck twelve ; but there was much talking going on at the instant, and no one heard it but the mistress of the house, who started from her seat and exclaimed, " The Virgin Mary preserve us! we have broken the fast by eating our supper an hour too soon I" I was present, and oh ! I wish you could have seen the look the good Father cast on the man ; and then so great was his distress of mind, that before he could speak to him, the Father was obliged to empty a large jug of ale that stood near. He then, in a voice of thunder, commanded him to do penance in this well."—Blackwood. CHANGEABLE PLANT.—Theliebiscus mutabilis,a plant growing in the West Indies, is in the morni ng of a pale French-white colour ; tat noon, a delicate pink ; and in the evening, crimson. A MONEY-DIGGER.—An inquisitive Yankee, seeing a labourer digging on a retired spot, inquired what he was digging for. " Money" was the reply. The fact was of course heralded to the curious in such matters, and the money-digger was visited by three or four credulous fel lows, when the following dialogue ensued :—Visitors— "We are told you are digging for money ?" Labourer— " Well, I aint digging for anything else, and if you're wise you had better take hold also." Visitors—" Have you any luck ?" Labourer—" First-rate luck. It pays well." No sooner said than done : the four fellows, thanking the generous delver for giving them an invita tion to share in the golden harvest, off coats and went to work in good earnest, throwing out many loads of earth, till at length, getting very tired, the following colloquy took place :—" Visitors—When did you get any money last?" Labourer—" Saturday night." Visitors—" How much ?" Labourer—" Four dollars and a half." Visi tors—" Thrit's rather small business." Labourer—" It's pretty well ; 6s. a day is the regular price for digging cel lars all over town." The visiting loafers dropped spades and vanished, quite put out with the man who dug money at the rate of 63. a day. WHAT ROME OFFERS FOR THE NEWMANITES.—They must make their prayers to God in the names and at the altars of the saints, and thus hare many Saviours and many crosses instead of one. Ignorance and superstition, the fetters of the mind, are highly prized in the commu nion where they have gone. Money there can be paid for sins, and a price can be named for the commission of any act, which is very different from the priceless blood of the Redeemer for the sins of the world. Purgatory there is a bank of usury for man's merits, and out of these pre tended and all unprofitable things a human dispensation is framed for the pardon of sin, which overthrows the truth of eternal condemnation in one state, and makes the Judge to have more than one left hand at the last day. They must place their hearts with all its secrets, known best and only to God, in the keeping of another man's knowledge, who is often inferior in delicacy and mind to the penitent. The absolution we can give is rational, and founded on the voluntary act of contrite confession as a separate sinner, without payment. Whereas in Rome, the penance is the price of the absolution, and the desire of cleansing the soul without a change of heart, by the mere act of verbal confession, leads to intolerable abuses, and a repetition of crime. There everything is sold for money, and you may know the price of pardon for the deepest vice, and ransom the most costly of all things, the human soul, as well as buy a string of trumpery beads on which to say your prayers. They unite themselves to a church which parades the relics of the dead as visible me morials of good and holy men before the eye, with all the pomp and circumstantialities of a real spiritual being who is supposed to be present by the ignorant, in dust, and ashes, and timber, and nails. They give up their wives and basterdise their children, if they retain their holy orders in Rome. Are the wives of the English clergy prepared thus to brand themselves with dishonour, and stigmatise theiroffspring? Shall the most exclusive of all rituals in the Mosaic church command the priesthood to be married, and in defiance of common sense and the New Testament, and the example of St. Peter and other apos tles, will a childish affection for the religious seductions of a pompous ritual induce English women thus to em barrass their pnsition and family affections.—Hollings worth's Folly of going to Rome for a Religion. FANCY STATIONERY.—The art of writing letters is pretty nearly as old as the hills ; but, till within the last twenty years, there was no such thing as a tastefully-got up epistle. There was a deficiency in the mecanique of letter-writing. In Norway, at the present day, when a person wishes to write a note, he cuts a piece from a large sheet of paper: and something of this sort was prevalent in Eneland forty or fifty years ago. It was consi lered a great advance in taste when a paper-maker at bath got up what he called his " Bath post"—a smooth yellow paper, quarter size, with a small stamp in the corner of the sheet. Matters remained at this point till a comparatively recent period, when the whole business of the stationer under went a rapid and most extraordinary change—the estab lishment of the penny post alone caused the introduction of many new auxiliaries to epistolary correspondence. It cannot but be interesting to know who has led this great movement—who has filled the ladies' writing-cases with finely-tinted note paper—who has given to the world the envelop, the enamelled calling card, and the numerous other elegancies which now fill the shop-window of the stationer. Different active spirits have contributed their respective inventions in this useful department of art. but the master-mind has been that of Thomas de la Rue. Mr. De la Rue is a native of Guernsey. and was bred to the business of a printer. He afterwards abandoned this profession, and was engaged for a number of years in Lon don as a manufacturer of straw hats. In consequence of the successive changes in fashion, which ended in the general disuse of straw for bonnets, this ingenious person was several times ruined ; but, possessing a boundless buoyancy of temperament, and with inexhaustible inven tive faculties, he always alighted on some fresh novelty, and recovered his former position. Finally, driven from straw, he fell upon the idea of making bonnets of embossed paper. This was a great hit ; but ladies soon discarded paper hats, and Mr. De la Rue, forever abandoning bon nets, took up the card and paper trade. He had now a wide field before him, and, in the preparation of various little articles, excited and cultivated the public taste. At the end of twenty years, we find him the elder member of a company, with which are associated two of his sons. What was once a small and obscure concern is now the largest of the kind in the world. At one time Russia was one of the best customers in Europe for playing-cards ; but this trade is now at an end, in consequence of that country having engaged in the manufacture itself; nor, judging from the quantity it makes away with, does this ' step seem unreasonable. In Russia, card-playing is a universal amusement, and will in all probability continue to be so while the people remain illiterate, and political speculation is attended with danger. To supply the de mand for cards, the Government took the fabrication of the article into its own hands, and with much liberality not only purchased from Mr. De la Rue a knowledge of the manufacture, but induced his brother to take the entire charge of the establishment in which the cards are made. The quantity of cards thus made annually for Russian consumption is a million of packs, the profits on the sale of which are devoted to charitable purposes.—A day at lie la Rue's. GENERAL MISCELLANY. Sir George Grey has appointed Mr. Crowder, Q.C., Recorder of Bristol, in the room of Sir Charles Wetherell. The King's Head Inn at Chard, and six small houses adjoining, were destroyed by fire on Sunday week. A few days ago, the nest of a Guinea hen, containing 113 eggs, was found in an outhouse at Clitheroe. On Tuesday last the act of parliament, to abolish deo dands, came into overation. Last week two young ladies, one from Penrith, and the other from Clifton, eloped to Gretna with two navigators. The income of the corporation of London amounts to £223,000. The total amount of the national debt is now about £770,000,000. On Thursday week a Roman Catholic church and con.- vent were consecrated at Hanley. Mr. Wilderspin is said to be labouring under very se rious indisposition. THE COBDEN TESTIMONIAL FUND, we believe, now amounts to above £70,000. _ _ The sum expended in the purchase of pictures for the National Gallery, up to the present time, is £114,804 16i. On Saturday, Elizabeth, the wife of Mr. Wm. York, ropemaker, Easingwold, gave birth to three fine children, two boys and a girl. Two of the children have :duce died. Eight non-commissioned officers have been presented with commissions in the army during the month of august, and have received £lOO each for outfit. __ --- --- A farmer, near Northallerton, lately pulled a single stem of oats, of the Tartary kind, on which there were 210 food seeds. Mr. Robert Duncombe Shafto, of Whitworth, is named as a candidate for North Durham, at the next general election on the free trade interest. _ The Rev. John J. Plumer, of Baliol College, Oxford, son of the late Sir Thos. Plumer, formerlyiMaster of the Rolls, has conformed to the Roman Catholic Church. The hideous story about the body of a child sent in a pie to a baker's, in Nassau-street. London, turns out to be an entire fabrication. On Saturday not a single potato was exposed for sale in Appleby market. Not a field in the district has escaped the contagion. THE LARGE SWIMMING-BATH, for working men, was opened at Bolton on Saturday week. The charge for bath, dressing-room, &c., is three-halfpence. POTATO SUBSTITUTE.—A Swiss journal states that the bulb of the dahlia, when dressed like potatoes, affords an excellent article of food. A verdict of '• manslaughter for gross and criminal negligence," has been returned at the coroner's inquest, against John Hillard, for selling poisonous berries to the children in the metropolis, two of whom have died. A VETERAN.—During last week a brickmaker, named John Moss, eighty-six years of age, made the incredible number of 15,000 bricks. About 16,000 is considered a fair week's work for an active young man. BLACKBERRIES.—This wholesome, but often despised, fruit is very abundant this year. The wife and children of a labourer on one farm collected as many as sold for seven or eight pounds in the Manchester market. The total amount of the contracts for the high level bridge across the Tyne, at Newcastle, and viaducts, is £304,500; Messrs. Hawks, Crawshaw, and Co.'s con tract for the iron-work amounts to £112,000 of this SIM. HEAVIEST GOOSEBERRY. —The heaviest gooseberry brought to the recent country shows, was one exhibit:A at Nottingham, which weighed 18 dwts. 3 grs., and was of the kind known as Brown's Wonderful. The Scottish Guardian states that the estate of Dal beith, about three miles to the east of Glasgow. corn prising upwards of twenty imperial acres, has been pur chased for the purpose of establishing a Roman Catholic College. A. match at chess, by correspondence, between the clubs connected with the Mechanics' Institution of New castle and the city of Chester. which has been in progress since October last, has terminated in favour of the former players. The cash-box at the Norwich Railway was carried off on Tuesday, containing upwards of £BOO in gold and silver. The robbery is supposed to have been committed by some parties connected with the office, but the affair is yet involved in mystery. A FINE OF THREE THOUSAND P OU NDS. --At a spe cial Court of Commissioners of Sewers for the liberty of Westminster, held on Friday, a builder was sentenced to pay the large fine of £3,000, for setting the orders of the commissioners at defiance. Captain Richardson, for the forgery of a £5OOO cheque, underwent a further examination on Tuesday at the Mansion House. Corroborative evidence was produced, such as that he was the last person in whose hands the original check for £lO was seen. The clerks at the Bank of England speak positively as to his identity, and cash to the amount of nearly £4OOO has been found in his house. He was remanded till Wednesday (to-morrow). A CONTRAST.—LateIy a child, five years of age, as sisted in the delivery of letters at Stockwith. A few weeks ago this child was unfortunately drowned, but has been succeeded in his office by his grandmother, upwards of 80 years of age. Lord Hardinge is not likely to return very soon from India. In a letter just received from his lordship he says " You are all so generous in your distinctions and rewards that I must not abandon any nost whilst my duty is wi per formed." Miss Agnes Strickland, in a letter to the Times, pub licly accuses Lord Campbell of transferring to his " Lives of the Chancellors" her biography "Eleanor of Provence," consort of llenry 3d, and adroitly passing it off as his his own, whilst his lordship " transposes the language a little here and there to disguise the fact." The bodies of three of the children of Sarah Chesman, who has been committed to prison on a charge of poi,on ing the infant of a stranger, have been exhumed, at Cla vering, in Essex ; and an examination of the viscera was made at Guy's Hospital; arsenic was found in the sto machs of all three. The Committee for promoting the 'establishment of Baths and Washhouses for the labouring classes in the Metropolis have already received subscriptions amounting to £12,000. Among the donors are, the Queen. £2OO, Earl of Eldon, £2OO, the Corporation of London, £2OO, the Bank of England, £2OO, &c. Two tablets, commemorative of the exertions of the Times newspaper to expose a remarkable fraud on the mercantile public, were formerly inaugurated last week, by the Lord Mayor of London and a deputation from the Common Council, one at the Royal Exchange, the other at the Times office. IMPORTATION OF TORTOISES.--9 ship calledlthe Caro line arrived in the St. Katherine's Docks from Carthagena and Mogadore, brought from the latter place, among other articles, the large number of 1560 tortoises. So large an importation of this curious animal, alive, is most unusual. In London, on Wednesday, a pedestrian named Lang, undertook, for a wager of £5, to pick up 100 eggs with his mouth, within the hour, the eggs being a yard apart, each to be taken up singly, and carried to a tub of water placed at one end. He performed his undertaking in 54 minutes. THE BERWICK BANK ROBBERY.—Mrs. Thompson, the wife of the manager of the Branch North of England Joint Stock Banking Company, at Berwick-upon-Tweed, has been committed for trial, charged with the robbery of the bank, at the next assizes for the county of Northum berland, which will be held at Newcastle in March next. We have been given to understand that only four ships have arrived from the Southern whale fishery this year, bringing together less than 400 tons of oil. The estimated loss to the owners of these four vessels will exceed £20,000, and none of them have been refitted for tne service. Nawithstanding the shyness of partridges, and the most obscure parts which they generally select for a nest and hatching of young birds, yet it has this year become a subject of common observation, that many partridge nests have been made and young broods hatched on the banks alongside railways. PROFITS OF " PUNCR."—It was stated in the exa mination of a bankrupt of the name of Mayhew, who is well known in the literary world, that the profits of _Punch were estimated at £lO,OOO a-year. Thtt bankrupt claimed £l,OOO from the estate of the Iron Times. for one year's salary in lieu of notice. The British Association commences its annual meeting this week at Southampton. The directors of the South- Western have not only placed all their available rooms at the service of the Association for its meetings, &c., but they have very liberally subscribed £lOO towards the Reception Fund, being nearly one half of what has been subscribed for this purpose. Mr. O'Connell has given notice of the following mo tion, to be submitted to the House of Commo ns e ar ly i n the next session of parliament :—" To move for a com mittee to inquire into the circumstances under which the Union was carried ; its effect on the condition of the Irish people; the causes and best preventives of agrarian dis turbances and murders." All the county votes, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, obtained by the purchase of freehold property through the agency of the Anti-Corn-Law League, are objected to.—[Very proper too, si n ce no authority, howe ver high, can justify the unconstitutional system which purchases freeholds for the purpose of voting for a parti cular object, and that none other than aiding the efforts of a confederacy against the government.] PAWNBROKERS' SHOPS.—A new act for regulating pawnbrokers' shops directs that after the 29th of this month no pawnbroker shall take any pledge before eight o'clock in the morning, or after seven in the evening, be tween September 29 and March 25 ; or before seven in the morning or after eight in the evening for the remainder of the year. The former exceptions for Saturday nights and the eves of festivals are continued. __ A RARE FAMILY.—There is now residing on Wool wich-common an aged couple, named Shepherd. The man is 90 years old, and his wife 88. They cultivate an acre of ground at the back of the Royal Military Aca demy, which was but lately taken from the common. They both enjoy good health. Mr. Shepherd's mother reached the age of 110 years, and was recently burnt to death at Norwood. His father also reached the age of 105 years. The rest of the family attained very great ages. MATRIMONY. - -Mr. Austin, of Peel's Coffee-house, London, has written to the Manchester Guardian respect inz a matrimonial advertisement in that paper, the adver tiser having directed that communications from young ladies who may desire to be united to him are to be directed there. Mr. Austin declares, that if any letters are addressed to the advertiser, at his house, they will be opened, and, if possible, forwarded to the friends of the writers. A NOVEL BIRD TRAP.—On Sunday week, a family in St. Clernent's•lane, Dundee, placed a cage of canaries outside the window, to afford the birds the enjoyment of sun and wind. Shortly after, an unusual noise was heard at the window. On examination it was discovered that a hawk had made a descent upon the cage, and had en tangled his foot botween the bars, thereby rendering it impossible for him to depart when he found that his visit was to be unsuccessful. The marauder was immediately secured and placed in confinement.—Dundee Advertiser. HORRIBLE AFFAIR.—On Saturday morning week, between two and three o'clock, Mr. Richardson, lime burner, at Chatham, was disturbed by the barking of his eog, and, on looking out of his bed-room window, he saw a female approach one of the ovens and drop something in. He retired, under the impression that it was only a tramp in the neighbourhood, but in the morning was hor rified to find some burnt human bones, and, from subse quent medical examination, that it was a child, either alive or dead, which was thrown in. LONDON BATHS AND WASHHOUSES.—The committee of these excellent institutions in the metropolis have an nounced that since the opening, on the 3rd of August, to the week ending 29th, 12,815 men and women have bathed; also that 746 women have washed 18,7 S 3 articles of wear ing apparel in this establishment ; and they hope the benevolent public will continue to support their useful ef forts by remitting contributions as early as possible, be ing compelled to refuse admission to between two and three hundred persons daily, from want of funds to com plete the accommodation originally designed. ABSENTEEISM. —The city of Oxford was never so much the victim of absenteeism as at present. Everybody is gone to the Isle of Wight, and as our townsmen meet each other there they fancy themselves in Oxford. It has been proposed to take an accurate account of the residents in Oxford, as the late census appears wholly inapplicable as a guide to our present possible numbers. When that was taken we were about 25,000: now it is doubted whether 2,500 remain. Oxford should be built upon the principle of expansion and contraction, so great is the fluctuation in the number of residents.—Oxford paper. A CAPITAL NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPR. — Among the anecdotes of the Queen's last trip one has transpired, which accounts for a supply of small fishing gear having been issued from the dock yard to both the royal yachts; it is that the Prince of Wales, on Monday, while the Queen and Prince Albert were on shore at Guernsey, caught a great eel ; but, being unable to haul it on board, had to shout for assistance from one of the crew, and, on the circumstance being told to her Majesty and Prince Albert on their return, orders were given for its being dressed for dinner, which was accordingly done on Mon day. This is the first piscatory achievement of his royal highness. THE SMOKE NUISANCE.—Mr. Cubitt, the great builder, in an examination before the House of Commons, quoted by the Sanitary Report, this expresses himself : " With respect to manufactories, here are a great number driven by competition to work in the cheapest way they can. A man puts up a steam engine, and sends out an immense quantity of smoke ; perhaps he creates a great deal of foul and bad gas ; that is all let loose. Where his returns are £lOllO a month, if he would spend £5 a month more, he would make that completely harmless ; but he says, lam not bound to do that,' and therefore he works as cheaply as he can, and the public suffer to an extent beyond all calculation." DREADFUL RENCONTRE.—On Sunday morning last, between four and five o'clock, as the under-keeper named Cook, in the employ of Mr. A. Fountaine, of Narford, was crossing a turnip field, near the Scoots, he saw a dog take a hare, and presently a man started up with a view to seize it, but, seeing the keeper, he made cff. The lat ter pursued the dog, which travelled rather slowly from the weight of the hare, and at length he secured him. This brought the poacher up, who demanded to have his animal released, but th , s the keeper refused. The result was a scuffle, and at length they drew their knives, and with these weapons they fought dreadfully for half an hour. At length the weapon of Cook entered the side of Mason (that being the poacher's name) and lie fell. The keeper then wrenched fyom him the knife and threw them both away, keeping his man, howev er , penne d to t h e ground, and calling lustily for assistance. Mr. Spanton, s en., happened to be up, and h a st ene d to t h e spot f rom which the cries came. They all proceeded towards the house of the latter, but they had not gone far when Mason complained that he could walk no further, as his bowels were protruding. They undid his clothes, and this was found to be actually the case. Mr. Spanton then pro cured a horse and cart, and sent them both on to Swaff ham under a proper escort, both men being so dreadfully wounded that it was not thought they could survive many hours.l'ook's face was literally hacked to pieces, so much had the poacher the 'vantage ground. of him in the onset of the affray. The last informeiion we received was, that both men are still alive, and that Mason has been remanded.—Lynn Advertiser. BAD LEGS AND WOUNDS OF ALL KINDS CURED BY HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT AND PILLS.—If these valuable medicines be used together, according to the directions given with them, there is no case, however obstinate, bad, or of long standing, but may be shortly cured by their surprising efficacy. Thousands of persona who had been patients of large hospitals, and under the care of the greatest surgeons of the day, without the least benefit, as a last resource use Holloway's Ointment and Pills, which always cure them. and frequently in as little time as a cut finger would require when treated in the usual way. Sept. 8,184 d. .SINGULAR WASPS' NEST.—Mr. Hall, a gentleman residing at Latchford, having observed an unusual num ber of wasps about his domicile this season, was curious to know the cause of attraction. He at length discovered their place of resort was the lock of his desk which stood in the parlour, the entrance to which they gained through the key-hole. Singular to say, however, having mislaid the key, he took off the lock, when, to his astonishment, he found it full of kell, and containing six or seven full grown baits. A poor Italian boy was brought up at the Thames Police-court, on Tuesday, charged with stealing an upright piano-forte, the property of a person residing near London, who, it appeared, employed a number of lads to play music through the streets. Ihe prisoner said that he took the instrument home, not with the intention of stealing it, but because he was afraid to go back to his master's house, not having obtained the amount of money usually ex pected. The practice was, for the boys to go out at nine o'clock in the morning, but as he had been severely punished on the 13th ult., and kept without food, he got up at five o'clock on the ensuing day to try and mend his fortune. Though travelling about the town until a late hour of the night, he was only able to procure twopence, and being apprehensive of similar maltreatment, he was afraid to go back. The magistrate dismissed the charge, saying he was more an object of pity than punishment. Some extensive shoplifting took place in Edinburgh last week. No less than four shops were successively pil fered within a few hours. The plan pursued in each case was the same. Two respectably-dressed females—one of them with a child in her arms—entered the shop, and having asked to see some light but expensive good's, such as silks, they proceeded to examine them, and to dilate on the quality and price, when in stepped one gentleman, and then another; and as both of the latter requested differ ent articles, and wished to be served without delay, the attention of the shopinen was taken from the females, when they rcade the best use of their time in secreting the goods about their persons, and thus evaded detection. The two ladies were discovered by the police in another shop. The gentlemen were loitering near, with a bundle which was found to contain the whole proceeds of their robberies. ROBBERY OF £BOO AT THE NORWICH RAILWAY TERMlNus.—Considerable interest was excited on Mon day by a robbery at the terminus of the Norfolk Railway. It appears that immediately after the arrival of the first down train it was discovered that the cash-box of the company, kept in the office attached to the station, had been emptied of its contents, amounting to upwards of £BOO in gold and silver. The key was still remaining in the lock. The necessary alarm was given to the principal officials of the company, and information of the depreda tion was promptly forwarded to Mr. Yarrington, the chief constable of the city, when a most active search was in stituted ; a large number of his force were !meted in all parts with a view of tracing the plunderer, but up to a late hour not the slightest clue could be obtained. A ge neral opinion seems to prevail that the robbery must have been committed by some party connected with the office. DANGEROUS FRACAS ON A LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE-- On Saturday week, when the 6.30 a.m. mixed train from Bristol was between Steventon and Didcot stations, on the ()treat Western Railway, a quarrel arose between Temple, the engine-driver, and Poole, the stoker. A fight ensued on the engine, and, if both had fallen off the consequences must have been dreadful, as the train was going at the rate of nearly thirty miles an hour, and there was no possibility of the guards getting to the engine to stop it, the high third-class carriage being between them; nor were they aware of the fight until Temple, finding himself worsted, stopped the engine to endeavour to throw Poole off, when the guardsalighted, and succeeded in obtaining a cessation of hostilities until their arrival at Didcot, when they were repotted to the superintendent, who gave them into custody of the guards of the fast train, and conveyed them tai Paddington, where their conduct will be investigated by the directors. Their places were supplied by others at Didcot, and the train reached Pad dington in safety. A FREE-TRADE PlE.—The inhabitants of Denby Dale commemorated the accomplishment of Sir Robert Peel's free-trade measure in a somewhat singular manner on Monday last—not by the erection of a colossal statue, but by the raising of a gigantic pie, which was placed on a waggon, and drawn through the town, and thence to Sissett, amidst the enthusiastic cheers of thousands of spectators, and the enlivening notes of three bands of music. On the return of the procession to Denby Dale, the pie was cut in due form, and portions of it freely dis tributed to all who desired to partake of it ; particularly among the working classes, for whom it was originally designed. This immense pile of culinary architecture— the device of woman's art and skill—measured 8 yards in circumference, 7 feet 10 inches in diameter, and 10 inches in depth. It was composed of two sacks of flour, which is equal to 34 stone 41b ; 100 lb of suet, 201 b of butter, 161 b of lard, 4 sheep, 1 lamb, half a calf, 2 geese, 2 couple of ducks, 5 couple of rabbits, 5 hares, 5 brace of par tridges, a pheasant, a dozen of pigeons, 5 fowls and sundry smaller birds.— Wakefield Journal. THE GROWTH OF POPERY.—The Morning Post—a journal fully possessed by the Netrmania—devotes nearly five dense columns of its last number to a laborious and inflated report of the opening of a Popish chapel in Staf fordshire, when " the mass," quoth the admiring jour nalist, " was, for the first time, sung within its walls with extraordinary pomp and solemnity." We have no idea of following our cotemporary through the scenes o f ostenta tious superstition which be describes, nor the sentim ents of stupid adoration with which he commends the idola trous rites observed on the occasion. Suffice it to ob serve, that whatever evil arises from the re-establishment of the Popish worship, and the revival of those sympathies which threaten to undermine the Protestant faith, are to be ascribed—as with justice they have been, on this very occasion, ascribed—to the Tractarian movement at Ox ford. Thus, Dr. Gillis, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh—on whom devolved the improvement of the occasion, in the form of a sermon—not only insinuates the obligation, but sends forth an ardent expectation, that the time may come when Oxford, and through her all Eng land, shall be not merely in part, but altogether, restored to the bosom of the church of Rome. PROMOTIONS IN THE ARMY.—Sixty gentlemen have been gazetted as cornets or ensigns in the army during the preceding month, twenty-five only of whom have pur chased their commissions. The following non-commis sioned officers have been presented with commissions during the month, and have also received the bounty of £lOO to assist them in their outfit as commissioned offi cers :—Sergeant-major J. Croker to be quartermaster in the 6th Foot ; Sergeant-major Thomas Knott to be ensign in the 4th Foot ; Quartermaster-sergeant G. Pollard to be quartermaster in the 6th Foot ; Sergeant-major P. Car roll to be quartermaster in the 97th Foot ; Colour-sergeant R. Fortune to be quartermaster in the 23d Foot ; Sergeant major J. Harvey to be ensign in the Cape Mounted Rifles; Sergeant-major J. Gough to be quartermaster in the Rifle, Brigade; Sergeant-major 4. Taylor to be quartermaster in the 71st Foot. Thirty-six ensigns have been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, seventeen without purchase, and nineteen by purchase. Twenty-two lieutenants have been promoted to the rank of captain, eight without purchase, and fourteen by purchase. Eight captains have been promoted to the rank of major, three without purchase, one by brevet, and four by purchase. Two majors have been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, one without purchase and one by brevet. Thirteen assistant surgeons have been promoted to the rank of surgeon, and fourteen medical gentlemen have received commissions as assistant-surgeons. The Standard of Friday gives a curious correspondence which took place in June, 1845, between Lord Ripon and the Rev. Mr. Crowther, curate of Dnnston. His lord ship, in offering the rev. gentleman the use of a pony and covered cart, puts him " on his guard as to any intercourse with Mr. and Mrs. Newton. Such intercourse would be sure to be the cause of considerable difficulty and embar rassment to Mr. and Mrs. Crowther." The rev. gentle man, in reply, thanks his lordship for his kind offer, but makes no allusion to the other subject. Lord Ripon then writes again, and observes that Mr. Crowther has not re ferred to the " caution." In reply, Mr. Crowther writes as follows :—" My lord, I persuade myself that you will perceive that I could not, as a minister of peace, have un reservedly adopted your lordship's unfavourable opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Newton, until I had acquired some knowledge of the circumstances which had influenced your judgment. Any concurrence with your lortlship's censure, proceeding from one-sidedness on my part, could neither have gratified you nor have contributed to your favourable estimation of my character. Previous to the receipt of your lordship's monition, we had accepted those civilitie s which Mr. and Mrs. Newton offered, and we have recom mended to them a governess. Sentiments of respect is your lordship, and a sense of your obliging arrange:oe; tor our personal accommodation, will always induce toe defer to your lordship's judgments as far as may be con- • sistent with my office of curate. The duties of this situa tion dictate to me great impartiality, and that I should think no evil, but, as much as in me lieth, live peaceably with all men. I n the humble hope of accomplishing this course, it must be my care to avoid even the appear ance of partisanship in any unhappy differences of the pa rishioners." THE BRIDE'S BROOCIL—An awkward discovery was made last Sunday, at Barcombe church, by the parish clerk Mr. James Funnell. The clergyman was performing the marriage ceremony for a young couple named Fanny Page and Thomas King, when the clerk contemplating the bride's attire was struck with the appearance of a brooch in her costume which irresistibly reminded him of one worn on a similar occasion by his wife, who died about a year ago. Still he gazed as the service proceeded , and every moment became more assured that the brooch was actually one which he had missed from his late wife's wedding dress about the 13th of last January. The happy pair were in a short time united, and had left the church door, accompanied by a merry party of their friends, and the morning service brought to a close, when Funnel' , whose suspicions by this time amounted to certaintyspoke to Weston, of the constabulary, on the subject o f recovering his lost property. That officer, reckless of dis turbing the soft dreams of the blushing bride, instantly made the awkward inquiry, " Where did her brooch copse from ?" Kieg at once avowed it was a love-token front hem to his sweetheart during their days of courtship, bu t was not equally communicative as to the party from whel ) he had himself received it. They then proceeded to the residence of Mrs. Sopbia Skinner, King's sister, and eh e ,, admitted ha v i ng g i ven it t o he r brother, but alleged the . she had bought it ten years ago at Brighton. Mr. Funnel', however, persisted in his claim, and Weston accordingly took Sophia Skinner into custody, to the utter constern non of the wedding party. On the following day the pri soner was brought before Mr. J. W. Woolgar, at Len'e ° l when the prosecutor positively identified the brooch, be d notch, and also stated that the prisoner had been emplOY in his house from the 26th of December to the 30th 0 January, when she left, and that a few days afterwards! on looking over the house, the brooch and several oth!r,. articles were missed. The prisoner alleged that she b ou g ht the brooch at Brighton ten years ago when she lived " Mr. Attree ; she was held to bail in two sureties of , A. each to appear and take her trial at the sessions.—Suf ge: Express.