The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-03-31 00:00:00

ELJt tin pool kotanbarb. TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 31, 1846. The debate upon the second reading of the Corn Bill, continued during four nights, havt length been brought to a conclusion, and Ministers have succeeded, in this stage, in securing a majority of eighty-eight. But although we have waded through the discussion as patiently as we could, there is one thing which we have not been able to make out from the speeches of any of the Government supporters, viz. :—the precise mode in which the repeal of the protection upon native agriculture is to meet the present crisis of distress, or permanently to improve the condition of the Irish people. The failure of the potato crop, real 'or alleged, and the probable fever and destitution which would result in that country, Sir Robert Peel informed the house, on Friday night, were the urging causes of the introduction of his present measure. True, he had previously been preparing to veer round. • Last session, he said, he had mysteriously hinted at the ultimate necessity of astimilating the laws which regulate the trade in corn to those which apply to other articles of food. But it was the potato rot which concluded - the matter. He might this very session have been utter ing as good protection speeches as any which he has spoken since the commencement of his political career. We would have been spared the necessity of furbishing tin the cast-off arguments of Mr. Cob den and Mr. Bright ; but the murrain got amongst the favourite food of the Irish people, and forthwith the Minister applied .vigourously to the study of those League orations which he has since been reiterating with such laudable perseverance, and with as much apparent self-gratification as if they were original productions of his own, and the cheers which they elicited were the most cutting irony which political tergiversation could earn for itself. How does he make it out, we have still to dis cover,, that this measure is either calculated to meet the crisis for which it has been framed, or perma nently to benefit Ireland ? Admit the potato dis ease. Give him the coming fever in ! Say that all the "apprehended" evils set down in the elaborate piece of scissors and paste work,; recently presented to the House of Commons as a report, are really to take place—what then ? These might be excellent arguments for some temporary measures of relief— a grant of money; the return of customs duties upon imported food to be purchased by such grants, and from private subscription, distributed amongst the destitute peasantry; or the erection of fever hos pitals, accompanied with measures to prevent the recurrence of such destitution, and to compel the land of Ireland to bear the burthen of the support of its destitute poor on occasions of such emergency as the present; but that they are arguments in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws we must take leave to deny. 1\ ay, we could even go further, and prove that such a measure must have a direct tend ency to perpetuate destitution in Ireland, and to introduce into that country a state of things which is fraught with calamity and suffering to the ma jority of its population. Four millions of the Irish population, employed almost wholly in agricultural pursuits, have their principal article of food destroyed, or placed beyond the reach of their means to purchase. So it is alleged ; and, for the sake of argument, we admit it to be so. They have not the ability to procure that coarsest kind of food to which we have habituated them, although daily they are pouring their grain, flour, pork, butter, and other agricultural products into the British markets. And what are we doing to enable them to buy that food to which they must resort as a substitute for the coarsest food—potatoes ? We are admitting at nominal duties, food, the pro duce of Foreign industry, to drive theirs out of the market. We are annihilating the excess of the sale price of Irish produce over rent and other outgoings, which is. all upon which the poor cultivator has to live ! We do indeed promise some temporary supply of employment upon railways and public works, to enable the population of Ireland to get over their present strait. We have set up the Irish government as a sort of cheap shop-keeper, to vend, at some 25 per cent. under cost price, the foods supplied by the nation for Irish use. But all this has no more to do with a repeal of the corn laws than it has to do with the doctrine of traniubstantiation. Shew us that the Irish farmer can better afford to pay rent and employ labour, with the English market price of his wheat and other produce reduced 25 per cent., and we shall be satisfied that this measure is the cure for Ireland's present and permanent social diseases. The attempt to do so, however, has never been made and never will be made. Whatever may be the effect of free trade in foreign corn upon the labourers, farmers, and middle classes in Great Britain, to the same classes in Ireland it must be utter ruin, inasmuch as if that effect is a cheaper loaf—nominally cheaper, mind—it is at the same time a destruction of the very market, whose profits alone afford the means of buying, not a loaf but a miserable meal of potatoes. We must not be reminded of the fact that some English and Scotch farmers are not afraid of being able to meet and sustain the competition of the foreigner. • We must not be told that the impetus to be given to commerce will give increased pros perity to the Irish, as it may possibly give such prosperity to the British farmer. Ireland has no commerce—no home market for her agricultural products. Above all, her social system and her circumstances are totally different to those of the parties who, Sir Robert Peel tells us vauntingly, are ready to Welcome his measure as a boon. The East Lothian or the Lincolnshire farmer, tilling each his thousand or fifteen hundred acres, with abundant capital and improved agricultural implements, can he be compared in ability to produce cheaply with the conatre or the rackrented tenant of a mud hovel and a few badly cultivated acres of half-reclaimed bog or forest in Ireland ? Surely not. It may be Said, however, " improve your system of cultiva tion in Ireland; enlarge your farms; get men of capital and science as your tenants—in a word, resort to-the East Lothian or the Lincolnshire . sys- tern of cultivation." Alas, as applied to Ireland, this means only, " clear your lands of their present struggling population; drag the thatch from the roof : turn out thousands of wretched outcasts to starve on the highways, and convert a whole country into one vast pandemonium of famine, outrage, and blood I" Are there any half-dozen of the smirking gentlemen on the Ministerial or the Opposition benches who tell us of improved modes of cultiva tion, impro ed machinery, scientific cultivation, and other theoretic nostrums, as applicable to enable British agriculture to sustain the competition with other countries to be created_ by this measure, bold enough to betake themselves in person to any county in Ireland and try the experiment? Can they find in three out of the four provinces of Ireland—not unreclaimed bog or moor—any tract of country in which fifteen hundred, a thousand, five hundred, or even two hundred acres can be brought under the cultivation of one tenant, without involving whole families in misery and destitution, and perilling the life of the hardy adventurer ? The notion is an absolute absurdity; and Sir Robert Peel only evinced his usual astuteness when he abstained from even . the attempt to grapple fairly with the Irish part of his case. We are not afraid of being reminded that there are patriotic (1) Irishmen—men of the O'Connell and O'Brien stamp—who support this measure— men who pr Tess to have at heart solely the good of ther fellow countrymen. Such men, however, we suspect, see in it the most powerful instrument by which to bring about their ulterior object—the dis memberment of the empire. More than all, the con cessions which we have made to Irish agitation dur ing the past few years, the advantage reaped by that country from the enjoyment of the markets of Great Britain, have secured the continued allegiance to the British crown of its excitable and misled popula- . . tion. Not the hypocritical appeals of its great de magogue—not the blustering activity of his liveried flunkey—hut the progress of steam navigation be tween Ireland and the markets of Liverpool, London, Bristol, and Glasgow, have been the " head pacifi cators." Destroy this powerful link of union be tween the two countries, involve the Saxon owner and the Celtic cultivator of the soil in a struggle for supremacy ; place Ireland in the position of the alien, instead of that which she at present enjoys of being favoured in the British markets over the alien, and we shall find that the long-deferred period, for which so many of her hot spirits are panting, will have ar rived, and we shall have to enter into a struggle, the results of which cannot he contemplated without sorrowful arid even fearful anticipations. Our neighbours of the " Ancie t City" of C-hes= ter, are troubled with an intermittent hallucination, upon the subject of their being destined at 'some nameless period to become once more a commercial people, which appears to produce a most unhappy t . effect upon their equanimity. The ancestors of the • present generation were favored by Providence with the possession of a noble river, capable of being made the channel of our vast traffic with the Western world. By the exercise of ordinary saga city and forethought on the part of its citizens, Chester might perhaps have been the modern Tyre, and Liverpool have been doomed to remain the ob scure fishing hamlet of two centuries ago. These qualities, however, existed in a negative quantity on the banks of the Dee. The Cestrians were not sharp people, such as we find busy in creating ports and building towns in our own locality in the present day. They slept at their posts. In an evil hour they allowed the most necessary commodity for a great port, water, to be abstracted from them, their noble estuary to be dammed up into a mise rable canal, and obstructions to be erected upon their river, whose effect is to cause the rapid silting up of what remains to them of a navigable channel to the sea Since the commission of these fatal 1 oversights, they have been afflicted with periodical awakenings, not for the purpose of lamenting past neglect, but of indulging in the day dreams of once more converting land into water space, and seeing fleets of merchants vessels floating where sheep and cattle are now grazing in pasture or in clover. During the past month, we have observed one of these awakenings, caused by the attempts of some naughty railway people to interfere with a river, which Chester has so signally displayed its inability to employ for any useful purpose to the great com mercial interests of the country. The great mi neral proprietors of Flintshire and North Wales, re cognising the important effect of railway communi cation in developing the resources of the country, and facilitating the approach to the great marts of export and consumption, have taken up the project of crossing the Dee at King's Ferry, and carrying a railway to the river Mersey; and Chester is forth with in arms to resist the incroachment, although the line in question—the Mold Junction—effects a saving of nine miles to all who travel from this port to Ireland via Holyhead. The Board of Admiralty is appealed to, engineers are called in, and meetings are being held to declare, in effect, that the produce of North Wales must not approach the markets of Liverpool and the manufacturing districts, without paying tribute to the "ancient city." More than this, our neighbours are very profuse in their impu tatims of unworthy motives against - those who, so very naturally, propose to effect for themselves what Chester has never seriously attempted to effect \for them. One of its local organs, we observe, refers to the promoters of one of the railways proposing to cross the Dee as " parties who have personal and pecuniary objects solely in view, and care nothing whose interests they sacrifice if they can serve their own." This is really very childish, and the imputa tions unworthy of serious notice. The inhabitants of Chester, in stickling for the unimpeded naviga tion of their river, contemplate the very same " per sonal and pecuniary objects" which they hold to be a crime in others. They say, we have railway com munications, of which Chester is the centre, to the Potteries, to Manchester, to Liverpool, and Birken head; and we want you to use them and aggrandise our city. Their opponents say, we had rather go direct, if you please. The animus of both is alike; but in pursuing it Chester is inert, whilst the pro moters of the Mold Junction and other lines across the Dee are active. It certainly appears to us that, in approaching the board of admiralty to press their retarding efforts, our neighbours have a singularly unfortunate case to present. We should be the first to deprecate injurious interference with any tidal river. But, in the case of one at least of these railways, we can see no injurious effect to be feared ; and the interference of the admiralty now would come too late, and ought to be viewed as a calamity rather than otherwise. There is no merchant traffic at present going up the Dee to Chester, with which a well constructed hri-ige at King's ferry would interfere. The Marquis of Westminster himself admitted at the meeting held in Chester to petition the admiralty, that the dtpth of the channel, contracted by the Dee company to be kept at fifteen feet up to the city, is now only twelve feet ; and we know that little beyond flats now use the passage. That board, alive as it is to matters connected with the preservation of our tidal rivers in a state of efficiency, but yet regarding the important objects to he advanced by opening out the mineral districts of North - Wales to Manchester and Liverpool, will surely not interpose to humour the empty dream indulged in by the citizens of Chester of opposing the operations of nature herself, and converting into a port what is fast becoming an in land and very unimportant town. Schemes of great public utility must not thus be obstructed. A little local soreness may be looked for and pardoned, and perhaps a few passing explosions of vituperative humour... The mere interests of Chester, however, are not to be balanced against those of an entire country, even to indulge a community to whom their once noble river has been, for a century past, like a• court sword by the side of a 'prentice boy, embar rassing rather than useful. THE HARRINGTON WATER WORKS BILL. We subjoin the most important clauses of this bill which is at present before parliament, and against the pas sing of which the most strenuous exertions are now being made. A requisition to the mayor to call a public meet ing of the inhabitants, to consider the measure, is now in course of signature, and parties approving of such meet ing may sign the rcquisiion at the Standard Office. When our readers have perused the proposed clauses, they will, no doubt, agree with us that the bill ought not to be a!- lowed to pass. The Highway Board have instructed Mr. Hawkesly, the eminent engineer, to value the works of the Harrington Company, with a view to their ultimate purchav, and that gentleman has estimated the concern at £270,000. An offer, with a liberal advance on this ap praisement, has been made to the company, and it now remains to be seen whether the public will support their local authorities. The following are the chief features of the Harrington Bill: First: the preamble recites that the company have expended in the purchase of lands and stations, and in the construction of works 4190 710 18 5 Additional expended and due on bonds 420.927 9 5 4211,683 7 10 The first sum expended, namely, £10,718 18s. 5d., is assumed as the capital of the company, and taken on four hundred Shares, would give an average of 4476 15s. sd. The original capital under the act, the only amount actually paid by the corn pany, namely, 495,324 10s. id.. gives au av, rage of 4238 6s. 2d., which, being denucted from the above, leaves £238 ps . 3d. as profit, created by the rates paid by the public, but not the least part cf which has come frrm the pockets of the corn any. The second clause empowers the company to raise, by the creation of new shares, 4200,0(10. in addition to the 4193.710 18s. 51. above set down ; the company to fix the value, and the present shareholders to be allowed to take a proportion thereof. according to th it respective interest in the joint stock ; and, if declined, then to be offered to the public. The fourth clause defines the price to be put upon the new shares created. This is to be the • four.handredth part of 4100,710 18s ad., or, as stated. above 4476 lbs. sd. The ninth clause empowers the company to raise 430,000, on bond, in addition to the 430 Ai, under the former act. The eleventh clause enables the colepany to consolidate the present and fnrnre shares into capital stock. The sixteenthclause provide th ttoft rplyment of in•ere toi t the bond uebt. the company are to takes per cent. on the am, on expended under the farmer acts, that is, on 4190,710 155. scl. which would be more than 10 per cent. on the original capital; and further, that the company may divide not more than ten per cent. on theri future capital The seventeenth clause assumes a new ground, by deferring the Corporation interest until after the company have divided 10 per cent. on the former and newly.created capital; and pro vides further, for a contingent fund of e .o,coo after the com pany and corporation have been paid. The eighteenth clause provides for a reduction of the price of water after the -el ft,' 00 has accumulated ; and, in audition. sti. pulates that that amount must form a sort of standard for th • regulation of the rates, so that, when the income does nut meet a❑ the requirements before recited, the rates are to be again raised, and so from time to time, as often as such case may occur. CHURCH EXTENSION. The London Gazette of Tuesday contains the following recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners:— " We therefore recommend and propose that the patronage or the said new district of. Cast e- Hall, in the pari h of Stocu port, shall he assigned i❑ perpetuity to the Wo.shipful Henry Raikes, chancellor of the diocese of Chester; the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. of Liverpool; Andrew Hamilton, Esq., of Streatham James John Cummins, Esq., of Brixton; and the Honourable Francis Maude, of Gloucester Terrace. Regent's Park; as trustees duly nomin ated to us, and such future trustees as shall be nominated in place of those who shall die, resign, or become incapable of acting." This is the second scheme which has been gazetted at the instance of the Church Extension Fund. But besides these two, which have already appeared in the London Gazette, we understand, says the Record, that grants have been made from that fund, in aid of five or six other plans for new churches now in progress in various parts of the country : all of which will be invested in approved trustees. In fact, nothing hinders, save the want of suf ficient funds, the raising a hundred new churches, in the course of the next five years, with the same security as to the present and future patronage. ALL FOOLS DAY. —Yesterday morning, the walls were plentifully besprinkled with placar.ls announcing that " Don Edward Henson" would ascend on an aerial ex petition from Chyton-square, by meats of "aerial pro p-nets," on Wednesday next 1 The day of the month, April the Ist, is carefully kept in the background, in or der that the simple might not discover the hoax. We suppo-e Claston-square was the spot fixed upon for this senseless tti.,k, es it is a region famous for the delusions propagated in it by Reform and Free Trade spouters, from the glorious days of Col. Williams to those of Henry Vincent. i.oral anb Vrobintial gttuff. The Great Western steam-ship arrived here on Sunday from Bristol. The screw-propelled steam-ship Massachusetts has ar rived out at New York after a passage of forty-two days. She experienced very boisterous weather. The masons who struck for wages three weeks ago, at Preston, have returned to work. At the meeting of the Highway Board. on Thursday, it was resolved to petition against the Harrington Water Company, On Wednesday, police-officer 73, was suspended ft .r lodging two respectable, females in brideweil, who were trying to escape from a drunken man. A fire occurred on Thursday, at the works of Messrs. Garnett and Moore, in William-street Great Howard street, but the damage was inconsiderable. SMUGGLING.—A seaman, named Thomas Layton, was yesterday brought before Mr. Rushton on a charge of smuggling a quantity of cigars, on board of the ship Joseph Cunard. The prisoner, who was chief mate of the vessel, was fined £5, or to be imprisoned for a month. MANSLAUGHTER.—On Friday, at the Police-court, Chas. Gent was committed on a charge of manslaughter. It appeared that he was riding in a cart without reins, at Moorfields, and run over a child. The foundation stone of a new chapel, for the Wesleyan Methodist Association, was laid last week, by Mr. Samuel Holme, at the Potteries. The building will be erected on land given by Messrs. Holme, Lace, and Tomkinson. On Tuesday, John Hankey, was committed by Mr. Rushton, to the sessions, for forging the name of Mr. Thomas Witter, joiner, Islington, to an order for some lead. The prisoner obtained the lead, and on presenting another forged order, was apprehended. ATTORNEY V. SOLICITOR,—A JUDGE'S OPINION.— Mr. Justice Patteson said, the other day, to a witness who called himself a solicitor, " I cannot understand why the term ` attorney' is avoiied. It is a more honourable name than that of a ' solicitor.' " The joiners at the Queen's Theatre, (now the Adelphi) anxious to assist the widow of a fellow-woikman who was killed on the premises, released his tools from pawn, when they found that the pledged articles belonged to themselves, and had been stolen by the deceased. Tne committee of the Exchange News-room have issued a placard stating that they have determined to publish, on the Ist, of April, a list of those pe , sons who have been constantly in the habit of frequenting the room without becoming subscribers. DEVONSHIRE CREAM.—This far-famed luxury, the choicest production of the dairy, is now to be had in Liverpool, and from its being conveyed from Exeter, a distance of 300 miles, in 9 hours, arrives there in the highest state of perfection. A course of lectures on " Scriptural Truth as main tained in the Church of England, in opposition to Romish and other Errors," is now in course of delivery in St. John's Church, Blackburn. Dr. Tattershall will deliver the lecture on the 2d April, the Rev. T. Nolan on the 7th May, and the Rev. Hugh M•Nrile on the 28th May. DEATH FROM A FALL.—On Thursday, a man named John Baines was employed at a house in course of erec tion in Everton, and in incautiously crossity , a plank near the top of the building, which he had no nee d ' to attempt, the timber gave way, and he was precipitated to the bot tom, a depth of four storeys. He was so much injured that he died in about ten minutes afterwards. At the council meeting to-morrow, Mr. Lace will bring forward a motion "That the members of Council now constituting the Joint Sub-Committee of the Watch and Health Committees, on the bill of Lord Lincoln, and the proposed Sanitary Bill of the Council, be appointed a spe cial committee on those bills, and any other bills which are or may be introduced into Parliament on the several im portant subjects therein proposed to be provided for." NOVEL FEAT.-Mr. Brown, the clown at the Amphi theatre, took his benefit on Wednesday night, and on this occasion he gratified the audience outside the building by a feat of an extraordinary description. Many thousand persons assembled in Lime-street to witriet.s the clown walk, or rather trot, on a barrel, as it rolled from the rail way station in Lime-street to the theatre door in Roe street, a feat which he performed to the great astonish ment and amusement of the immense crowd. At the annual vestry meeting for the township of Bir. kenhead, held at St. Mary's Church, on Thursday, E. G. Willoughby, Esq., in the chair, the following gentlemen were recommended to the magistrates as proper persons to be appointed officers for the ensuing year :—For over seers of the poor, Messrs. Wm. Watson, John Eastwood, Watson Peck, John Shore, A. S. Walter, Joshua Lane, and Robert Hughes; as assessors, Messrs. Henry Wood, Watson Peck, A. A. Dobbs, David Appleton, R. L. Gos sage, T. B. Golborne, and Jas. Stephenson. TOWN SHIP OF BOOTLP.—The annual meeting of the ratepayers of this township was held in the national school on the 25th instant. The accounts exhibited fur nished an additional proof of the diligence and industry of Mr. Donally, the surveyor, the whole of the rates having been collected except the sum of 255., and every account against the township liquidated. Mr. Donally was una nimously elected surveyor of the highways for the ensue ing year, at a salary of £BO, accompanied by an expres sion of his efficient services. EXCISE — CONVICTIONS.—Ann Cosgrove, alias Bradley, a lodging-house keeper, was convicted of having a bladder containing three quarts of smuggled whiskey in her house. It was stated to be her third offence, and she was fined in the sum of £loo.—Robert Plummer was charged on two informations with selling adulterated tobacco. Mr. Snow ball, who appeared for the defendant, admitted the offence, but pleaded in mitigation of the penalty, that there bad been no previous imputation upon his character. It ap peared that the adulteration had been to the extent of one fifteenth ; and a penalty of £5O was in eac;l case imposed. QUACK DOCTORING —CAUTION TO THE PUSLIC.— On Tuesday, a man, who has been in the habit of prac tising as a quack doctor in Liverpool, and who gave his name Isaac Firer, was brought before Mr. Rushton, on a charge of having reduced Robert Rawlinson to a dying state, by the application of the contents of a bottle to his hand, which contained a liquid purporting to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to, but which produced serious in flammation of the arm, tending to mortification. Mr. Chalmers and another surgeon were examined ; but as they were unable to state that the application, whatever it was,; had been the immediate cause of Rawlinson's de bility and illness, the prisoner was ordered to be dis charged. DOCK COMMITTEE, Tit URSDAY.—Aletter was received fr3m the Secretary of the Trinity Board, stating that an additional buoy had been placed on Hoyle Bank.—Ttie receipts at the port of Runcorn for the last month showed an increase of 36 vessels, 1884 tons, and £l4 Bs. 2d. over the corresponding period of the previous year.—The Chairman stated that the Dock Bill had substantially passed through the committee of the House of Commons, the only alterations being as to one or two matters rela tive to the landing stages ; there had been a strenuous opposition on the part of the Birkenhead people, but their clause was thrown out, and an extension of time had been given to the Dock Trust, namely, twelve months from the passing of the act. CHARGE OF ASSAULT.—A case, which excited some interest in court, came on for hearing, before Mr. Rush ton, en Tuesday. The plaintiff in the case was Mr. Perry, formerly a solicitor in Liverpool, now, we believe, of Birkenhead; the defendant, Captain Sharp. It appeared from the evidence that the plaintiff was crossing in the steam-boat to Woodside, when he was accosted by the defendant, about a letter he had written relative to the settlement of some accounts. Smart words ensued, and Captain Sharp eventually struck Mr. Perry on the jaw. One of Mr. Perry's witnesses said that one party seemed as much excited as the other, aed both used language which they would not have used in their calmer moments, which was also admitted by Mr. Perry on cross-examination. After the case had proceeded some time, Mr.,Rushton said that he thought both parties had used language, and though he did not wish to stop the case, perhaps an arrangement might be come to. This, however, was not accomplished, and ultimately Captain Sharp was bound ovrrin his own recognizances of 1:300 to keep the peace. WEST DERBY UNION.—At the meting on Tuesday, the assistant commissioner, Mr. 4ustin, was present. The question of appointing relieving officers for the dis tricts into which the union has been divided was again brought before the Board, when it was determined to elect Mr. Tristram to the centre or No. 2 district, and to re commend to the commissioners to raise the salary they had proposed from £lOO to £l3O per annum. Mr. Austin coincided in the course proposed, and the election was made unanimously. Mr. John Shearson, of Great Crosby, was, on the motion of Mr.. Leatherbarrow, seconded by Mr. Williams, elected to the third or more northern dis trict. A letter from Mr. Harbord was read, acknow- I- dging, in grateful terms, and accepting the tender made to him of his former appointment of medical officer of the southern district of Toxteth-park, at the increased salary of £BO per annum. THE NEW NIGER EXPEDITION.—It will be remern bered, that about two years since Capt. Beecroft and Dr. King left Liverpool in the steamer Ethiope, on another experimental trial to open commerce with Central Africa. Letters have been received from those gentlemen by a Dutch ship which arrived in the Channel, dated Fernando Po, Nov , . 9, announcing the return to that island from the Niger six days previously. The vessel had been upon that river for a period of three months and a half. Unhap pily, in consequence of deaths, feuds, and wars amongst the chiefs, the aspect of, matters in the interior had been found materially altered, and Rabbah, the largest and most flourishing town on she river, in 1840, is now de serted and in ruins. Owing to this disordered state of things the missean had not been so successful commer cially as was expected, though not less so than Dr. King had anticipated under such circumstances. TRIBUTE TO WORTH.—On Tuesday evening, a meeting of the letter-press printers of Liverpool was held at Chalk's Commercial Hotel, St. John's-lane, for the purpose of presenting a handsome skeleton lever watch to Mr. Jas. Inman, in testimony of the esteem in which he is held by his brethren in the profession, for his long and arduous services, in furtherance of their common weal, as Secretary to the Liverpool Society. The chair was ably filled by Mr. Charles Smith, who, in presenting the testimonial, dilated upon the various abilities of Mr. Inman, and said the greatest compliment he could pay to his worth was by stating, that i n th e i n d e p en dent fulfilment of the duties of his office, no one had ever yet impeached his integrity or aspersed his justice. Mr. Inmaa, on rising to return thanks, was warmly applauded by the meeting. He deeply felt the honour which had been conferred upon him, the more so, as from his boyhood upwards, he had always been the advocate of the principles which, in his official capacity, he had endeavoured to carry out ; and he hoped, ere long, to see the members of his profession, placed in that position in society to which their education and at tainments so justly entitled them. After other well-direct ed remarks applicable to their present position and future prospects, he sat down amidst the plaudits of the assembly, and the harmony of the evening continued until a late hour. The following was neatly inscribed on the inside case:— "Presented to James Inman, by the Letter-press Printer s of Liverpool, in approval of his valuable services as th e ir Secretary. March 1846." THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. Mr. Guiball, who has held office in the long room of the Liverpool Custom-house for the almost unprece dented period of fifty-eight years, has been superannuated without any solicitation. FATAL ACCIDENT IN A SHIPBUILDER'S YARD.—On Friday, a youth named Andrew 'Hannah, seventeen years of age, was at work at a vessel in the yard of Mr. Jones, shipbuilder, Brunswick Dock, when a bowsprit slipped off the rail of the vessel, and struck him on the head, fracturing his skull. He died in a few minutes after wards. The spar in question had been slung from the mainmast bead, by a rigger, named Thomas Jones, who had taken away the tackle and left it in a dangerous position. He narrowly escaped a charge of manslaughter. Verdict, " accidental death," with a deodand of £6, the value of the spar. TOXTETH PABIC.—At the annual meeting, on Thurs day, of the ratepayers, the overseer's account showed that at the commencement of their year of office the town ship was in debt about £4.500, that this sum had been paid off, and that There was now a balance to the credit of the township of £1,359. A poor-rate of one shilling in the pound. and a watch. rate of four pence were laid. Mr. Appleby and Mr. Bolderstone were appointed over seers for the ensuing year. In answer to a call froc- the chairman, Mr. Williams stated, that the plaintiffs in the indictment against Mr. Vernon's shipbuilding yard were proceeding with their action ; and that it would be tried at the present assizes. Ile considered that such an esta blishment was more desirable than otherwise, giving. as it did, employment to seven hundred or eight hundred working men, whose earnings, which amounted to about £1,200 weekly, were expended principally in Toxteth park. But for such establishments the poor-rates must have been much higher, and would, therefore, have pressed severely upon the poorer classes, who are the least able to pay. The toe nship received a very large sum in the shape of poor-rates from this establi hment alone, and he had no doubt but that the Park would be a very flourish ing place, in despite of any such opposition that was at tempted on the present occasion. Commerce would spread. He announced that a petition had been got up, praying that the plaintiffs would not proceed with their action, ana exhorted all present to sign it. Mr. Royden observed, that the plaintiffs, in effct, stated that the com merce of the port should be confined to its present circle ; but he ventured to predict that, before many years over, wee even Knot's-hole, Dingle, would be covered with timber. All present, with the exception of one, signed the petition. EVKRTON.—A meeting of the ratepayers of this town ship (more numerously attended than on any former occasion) was held on Friday, for the purpose of trans acting the annual business of the township. Mr. T. E. Cartwright in the chair. Mr. Wilson Ledger, one of the overseers, presented a printed summary of the accounts of the highways, by which it appeared that the sum received during the past year was £2,062 16s. Id., and the expendi ture £2,183 Is. 3d., leaving a balance due to the surveyor of £l2O ss. 2d. Mr. Wilson Ledger and Mr. Henry Edwards were appointed overseers, Mr. William Shaw, surveyor of highways, and the stipendiary officers were re appointed, with the addition of Mr. Joseph Robinson, as assistant-collector of assessed and property taxes. Messrs. T. Taylor and Co., 20, Dale-street, were elected printers, the votes for them being 27 ; for Whitty and Ellis 18 ; and for J. Kellett, 17. A committee was then formed to watch the progress of the Liverpool Sanatory Regulations Bill, with power th employ counsel, if necessary, to defend the rights of the township. Mr. Shaw announced his resig nation as a collector of taxes, and, in a very impressive manner, thanked the ratepayers for the good feeling which had always existed between them for the long period of twenty-six years; though no longer a collector, he would assist his successors with the beet advice which his expe rience might enable him to give. Mr. Ledger explained, at considerable length, the very strict orders given by the commissioners for the more speedy collection of taxes, and urged upon the ratepayers the absolute necessity of greater punctuality. If any one should hereafter feel himself ag grieved by the expense of legal proceedings, let him not impute blame to the collectors, who were bound, under severe penalties. to obey the orders of the higher powers. EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS.--OH Monday the loiterers in the precincts of our Town-hall were put on the qui vire, by the arrival of a meesage to the Mayor, the object of which, according to rumour, was to solicit the interference of his authority in an apprehended at tempt, on the part of the Rev. John George Ifounsfheld, accompanied by a party of " sappers and miners," forcibly to enter Wadsley-house, the residence of Dr. Holland. As the dwelling in question is beyond the limits of the borough, his worship could not interfere; our chief con stable, Mr. Raynor, however, and a posse of armed police men, proceeded at once to the spot—and along with them, as may be supposed, scores of lo , kers on. On our arrival at Wadsley, about three miles north-west cf Sheffield, we found that the door had been already broken open, that the leader of the attack was reposing on a sofa within, after his exploit, in the easy dishabille of dressing-gown and cap, and accompanied by his wife; while the mansion was apparently in possession of the mob, who evidently regarded it—as some of them said the invader had called Liberty Hall." In fact, ingress and egress ap peared to be enjayed by all. Soon after our arrival, how ever, a person, evidently in liquor, who carried a stout sapling in his hand, and had threatened what he would do, wished to gain admittance into the kitchen. He was at first gently remonstrated with, and after wards, on becoming unruly, was taken into custody by the policemen on duty. Within a few minutes after the removal of the man into the house, Mr. Hounsfield appeared at the kitchen window, and addressed the people in the yard, recommending his "friends" to keep peace able, as there were parties who wished to kick up a row to serve their own purpose. " What right," said he, " h d the police there ? As much right as you have ; nay, you have more—tor you are my friends—come here to protect me—but I beseech you to keep quiet. Who are to pay these men think you ? are the expenses to come out of the rates? You, I say, are come to protect an honest man. It shall always be my endeavour to do you good ; but, above all things, I beseech you be orderly." This address was received with cheers and exclamation, " Ah, he's a trump !" Whilst this was teking place, and persons were walking in and out of the kitchen as they chose, it was rumoured that Mr: Raynor had gone to Sheffield to fetch a magistrate—that on his arrival the riot act was to be read—that the soldiers were in readiness, and would he there directly ; and certainly at this moment the sate of things looked sufficiently awful. Nothing less than a regular row was apprehended—this appeared the more likely, as the feeling of the mob was evidently in favour of Hounsfield,—" They'd see him righted." At length a warrant for the apprehension of the active parties arrived from Sheffield ; Mr. and Mrs Hounsfield were taken into custody, placed in a hackney coach with two or three policemen, and sent off to the Town-hall ; three men of the name of Hall were also des. patched in cabs, and, when starting, were surrounded by an escort of about thirty members of the force, armed with cutlasses. This is a brief outline of the more obvious fea tures of the case, which is, of course, one of dispute about ownership and possession. Hounsfield has only just been liberated from York Castle, where he had long been in custody as an insolvent, this same Wadsley-house having been taken possession of, along with other property, by his creditors. Dr. Holland is only the tenant. Mrs. Hounsfield was liberated, as it was considered she acted under the influence ef her husband. Mr. Hounsfield and the three men named Hall were bound over to the assizes. —Sheffield Mercury. The never-failing effects of BLAIR'S GOUT AND RHEU MATIC PILLS in curing every description of Gout and Rheurnati,m, have secured to them a celebrity unequalled by any medicine of past or present times. They not only give relief in a few hours, where the patient has been driven nearly to madness by the excruciating tortures of this disease, but restore to perfect health in an inconceiv ably short space of time. They are equally speedy and certain in rheumatism, either chronic or acute, lumbago, sciatica, pains in the head or face, and indeed for every rheumatic or gouty affection; in fact, such has been the rapidity, perfect ease, and complete safety of this medi cine, that it has astonished all who have taken it, and there is scarcely a city, town, or village in the kingdom but contains many grateful evidences of its benign influ encc. Sold by all medicine vendors. Price 24. 9d. per box. Observe the name of " Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, London," on the government stamp. INDIAN CORN BREAD.—Though the importation of Indian corn has of late been enormous, and though se veral valuable treatises have been published proving its powerfully nutritious qualities, and its excellence as an article of human food, we were not aware until yesterday that any effort had been made to introduce it into Eng land as a general article of food, when Mr. Gibbons, of London-road, laid before us samples that fully prove the success of his experiments. The bread produced is course or unpalatable, but it is perfectly white and of fine flavour. It is, however, only partially Indian meal—the proportion being about one to three of ordinary wheaten flour—but it is so decidedly excellent and wholesome that there can be but little doubt that, through this one enter prising effort,it will become an article of general food, and as Mr. Gibbons has increased his stablishment by the addition of the adjoining shop, which he devotes entirely to the confectionary trade, he has an opportunity of pur,uing the manufacture of this bread on a large scale. The million should try it. ALTCAR COURSING MEETING. The SEFTONeii" was won by Mr. King's Baron, beat ing Mr. Craxen's Clarina. The MOLYNEUX PLATE was won by Mr. P. Taylor's Vandyke, being Mr. Craven's Cassius. The CROXTETH PURSE was won by Mr. Arderne's Matchless, bearing Mr. S. Standish's Shoveller. The A LTCAR STAKES, 16 dogs, was decided in favour of Mr. King's f d Eclipse, by Wisdom, out of Minua, being run up by Mr. Webb's Havoc. THE WEST DERBY STAKES fell to Mr. Ridgway's Ratoon ; Nimble ran up. The LANCASHIRE STAKES were won by Mr. Swan's Secretary. by Stork, out of Sister to Solomon, being run up by Maid of Kars. NOTICE. History of the Kings and Queens of England, in verse, from King Egbert t) Queen Victoria. By A. Rossen dale. London : Suuter and Law, 131, Fleet-street. This is a pleasing little work, very neatly got up. The writer has very briefly versified the history of our kings and queens, so that it can be committed to memory by the young, and thus serve the same purpose as the very useful, and, to many, almost indispensable, rhymes— " Thirty days have September," &c. It has also the ad vantage of being set to music, and may be either said or sung. A genealogical descent of her Majesty, a chrono logy of our kings and queens, and correct versions of the National Anthem and Rule Britannia, are added. The remark of the poet, "dulce est di,ipere in loco," is nerve more pleasingly fulfilled, than when we see a writer of evi dent talent unbend himself, like the author of this trifle, to confer instruction and amusement upon the young. We have pleasure in recognising in the writer a res pected clergyman of the Church of England, and one who efficiently labours in our immediate neighbourhood. CORRSPONDENCE. ON THE SANITARY STATE OF SOME PARTS OF LIVERPOOL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. LETTER 111. FREEMASON'S ROW. DEAR SIR,—A house was entered by us, the land ing place of which had a plank of the footing broken, and covered by a loose slate. A child's leg might have easily slipped through, if not the foot of an adult. The front parlour was shut up, which the woman was unable to let, from its untenant able con dition, it being infested with rats, &c. The back room had several holes in the floor, some of which were loosely covered with bits of boarding, temporarily placed there. The whole flooring was very thin, and yielded to a moderate pressure of the foot. The tats came up, even whist the inmates wet ein the room. On descending in to the cellarage, which consisted of aback and front com partment, there was found accumulated a very large heap of soot in one corner ; another coiner, on a former visit, was occupied by sweepings and refuse, though now cleared away. The accumulation of soot appears to be not an uncommon thing in the cellars, and there is a pre valent o;:inian that this practice is rather conducive to health than otherwise. Rats were reported to be nume rous and troublesome. The front cellar had a dry well direetly opposite the front door entrance, loosely covered by planks. It was full of water, which, when stirred up, stunk abominably. In another house, the tenant stated that the cellar was flooded, and that it had been recently closed up by her husband, to prevent parties from continuing to throw in all sorts of refuse matters. The floor was covered with double oil-cloth, to keep out the damp and currents of cold air, which otherwise came through the chinks in the floor, so as to render the room completely uninhabitable. It is impossible to suppose, considering the cellar con tains a large accumulation of impure water, that currents of air could be conveyed from it into the upper apart ment, without carrying with them noxious effluvia, in the highest degree prejudicial to health. Some cellars, though not apparently containing water, yet seemed the recep tacles of a variety of filthy deposits. The condition of other cellars, which were not open to inspection, may be fairly inferred to have been similarly circumstanced. A passage, one of the " declining ways" hereafter alluded to, ended in a regular slough, the result of a choking-up of a drain or drains, and the consequent accu mulation of filth from three separate sources—as many yards contributing their streams to this focal point of con centrated muck. Over this slush, the dour of one of the back yards was laid across, to form a bridge for the pur pose of a ready exit from one of the houses. Formerly, in the exercise of professional duties, having been accus tomed to visit the worst part of the city of Dublin, viz., that called " The Liberty," I can state that 1 never ob served any condition of things worse than that above re faried to. From all the information that can be gathered, there is reason to suppose that scavengers do not visit this locality so often as ought to be. BA NASTRE STREET. Near to one end of this street was a privy common to seven houses, which was cleaned by the the night scavengers. It was in the most abominable condition — or, as the neighbours described it, "scandalous and shameful." A trap-door was formed in the floor, just fac ing the door, and a heap of straw was strewn over the floor. This trap-door was for obvious purposes ; hut, from neglect of being closed properly, had, according to the neighbours' account, eventuated more than once in becoming a man trap, in or.e of which cases death by asphyxia appears nearly to have ensued ; and, in another instance, the rescued wretch loaded the rescuer with abuse, charging such person with having placed a trap on purpose. Fleas and rats, and such like vermin, are said to have infested the adjoining premises. A court in this street deserves no•ice specially. The approach to it is by a step descent from the street, and presents the frequently to be met with covered arch way, in passing along which stooping is a sate posture. This leads into a court containing six or seven houses, and, before landing in the court, you are met by an over flow of dirty stagnant water, resulting from the blocking up of the drain, as stated by the inhabitants. On inquir ing how long this state may have existed, a period of about twelve months was alleged for its duration, and the land lord appears to have disregarded the request of his tenants to have this nuisance rectified. They themselves had done what they could, from time to time, to remedy the matter, and even, as they said, had taken up the flags all the length of the passage, and cleaned it out with their own hands. This shews that the inhabitants of these locali ties are not averse to making some efforts at improving their sanitory condition. The police had been more than once notified formally of the persistence of the nuisance, but with unsuccessful issue. Now, what has been the consequence of this neg!eet, from the testimony of the residents of the court. Fever, as might have been natu rally expected, made its appearance in the court, and one entire family were seized, of which the head of the house hold, the father, fell a victim. " AnotLer family had two or three children down with it." This single specimen, of which there can be no doubt, is a very common occurrence in the regions of LIVERPOOL PROPER., requires not a word of comment. But the tact of the passage running on a lower level than that of the street, is a very unfavourable circumstance in all attempts at imprOving the sanitory condition of the court. The fact of several courts and their entrances being consider ably lower than the street level, is a common thing, either in the shape of an abruptly sudden fall, or of a gradually declining transition-from the footpath, Freemasons'-row presents several of the latter, and there are the remains of one of the former modes near the North Dispensary end of the street, which was formerly a passage to a privy and ash-pit for the houses fronting the street. It was four or five stone steps down from the level of the pavement. and so cramped was the archway, that the key of the arch scarcely rises above the level of the footpath itself, so that it must have been a task of no inconsiderable adroitness to effect an entrance, without striking the head against the archway,andforalmost acertainty,any hator other covering worn upon it. In fact, I cannot imagine how they ever did avoid suds a mischance in getting down such a scram bling hole. The flood-tide of accumulations, operating upon these circumstantial disadvantages, has at last re sulted in approximating the ash. pit, & c , to the street, and now it presents the curious aspect of an ash-pit under two front houses, having the ornament of four or five use less steps descending to it, down which the ashes are now shot, in place of human footsteps. The interested resi dents complain loudly of it, but are in despair at present of any remedy. The fact-of these declining ways are not particularized in the excellent report of Dr. Duncan, " On the Physical Causes of the high Rate of Mortality in Liverpool," be cause he confined himself to a general outline of non sani'ary modes of building. I must stop for the present, and remain, Yours, &c., G. C. WATSON. DIVINE SERVICE ON EASTER EVE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. Sirt,—Nest week is the solemn season of Pasbion Week, and in many of our churches there will be Divine Service every evening up to Good Friday ; but why should not the service continue to the end of the week ? why not on Saturday evening as well as on the other evenings of the week ? Surely the eve of our Lord's Resurrection is a very appropriate time for the hallowed occupation of worship. The practice has been occasionally purbued at Edge H ill Church. I shall be very glad if the hint cause the adoption of the practice at all the churches where the:3 is service on the other days of the week.—Yours. &c. CONSISTENCY. Liverpool, March 30, 1846. MOLD JUNCTION RAILWAY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. SIR,—You are probably aware that there is a bill now before Parliament for making a railway from Mold, in this county, to the Hooton station of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, called the Mold Junction Railway. The object of this railway is to give to a very. valuable mineral district the most direct communication with Bir kenhead and Liverpool ; and in order to attain this ob ject, it is necessary to cross the river Dee at King's Ferry, following. in fact, precisely the same route as the passengers from Flintsbire and Denbighshire take at pre sent. I cannot give you a greater proof of the importance of this railway than by stating that it will enable the Mold district, which has neither railway nor canal at present, to deliver coal and lime at Birkenhead at a cheaper rate than any other district in the kingdom ; and that as to the pub lic generally, it will effect a saving of nine miles of dis tance to all who travel by railway between Liverpool and Ireland vid Holyhead. No sooner was the Mold Junction Railway announced, than it received such an amount of support from the land owners and gentlemen resident on the. spot, as it seldom 'falls to the lot of any railway to obtain. This success was viewed with no little jealousy by certain busy inhabitants of Chester, who augured little less than destruction to the interests of that venerable city from the loss of the Mold traffic, which traffic, by the way. it does not possess now, and never can have, for the Welsh passengers, rather than go ❑ine miles round, will still continue to cross the Dee at the ferry, whether there is a railway to Sutton or not, and, by so doing, they will effect a saving both of money and time, as compared with the more circuitous route through Chester. This alarm, therefore, of the Chester interest, as to the loss of passengers travelling to Birkenhead and Liverpool, from North Wales, is wholly groundless, while, as respects minerals, I would ask, for what reason consumers of coal and lime at Birkenhead and in Lancashire are to be charged for nine miles of extra distance by railway ? Such an additional charge, in these days of cheapness end intense competition, cannot be jus tified for a moment, and it is something too much that the public are to be taxed to this extent merely to please the Chester people. But no ! Ido them injustice ; the inha bitants of Chester, as a body, care nothing about the mat- - ter. The opposition to the Mold Junction Railway is confined to a small knot of shareholders in a rival railiCay, resident in Chester ; and I beg leave to tell them that that opposition is to the last degree selfish and untenable. Can it be contended for one moment that Mold has not as much right to a direct communication with Birkenhead for its passenger and mineral traffic as Wrexham or any other town ? " Oh, but," say these Chester gentlemen, " the navigation of the Dee will be ruined; you cannot have a direct road to Birkenhead without crossing the Dee, and that must on no account be permitted." Why the very same argument was used years ago, against improving the ferry over the Dee at King's Ferry, and the city of Ches ter was defeated in that contest, and the right of the Welsh public to the shortest communication with Liver pool was fully recognised by Parliament. This outcry about the navigation of the Dee is really ridiculous, when we consider that there is no intention on the part of the Mold Junction Company of interfering with the traffic of the river. They believe, and will be March 31, 1846. prepared to prove at the proper time, that it is perfectly practicable to cross the Dee without inflicting the slightest injury upon its traffic. It may suit the purpose of their Chester opponents to make the navigation of the river the ostensible ground of objection to the railway, keeping the real motives of their opposition out of sight; but this misleads no one, and certainly will not succeed. The Chester Chronicle may rail on, but the Directors of the Mold Junction Railway, confident of the justice of their cause, will, I trust, persevere to the end ; and that success may crown their exertions is the sincere wish of, sir, your most obedient servant, AN INHABITANT OF FLINTSHIRE. Mold, March 24th, t 816. CANADIAN MATTERS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE COLONIAL GAZETTE. Glasgow, 23d March, 1846. SIR,—Yon are quite mistaken in supposinv, that I have insinuated that, compared with the population of any county in England, in the same circumstances, the people of Canada would be found less loyal. I believe, on Vie contrary, that the people of Canada are more intelligently !oval than the population of any county or town in Great Britain and Ireland. S i sincere, indeed, is my admiration of the Canadian . character, in this respect, that your advocacy of it hag already laid me under obligations to you, and certainly made roe overlook the personalities which you have in dulged in against me. A disloyal man, talking of a colony of doubtful loyalty, dare riot have used the plain languaee I have done. Had I descended to particulars, I must have more grie vously offended those parties in the province for whom alone your correspondent has the slightest right to speak. But for more active loyalists than thim, Toronto would have fallen in , o M' Kenzie's hands on the night of the 4th December, 1837. I speak confidently, as having been on the spot, and under arms ; and I appeal for corroboration to Sir Francis; Bond Head (now in London), who is the last man to do injustice to the brave population of Cam.da. . . You may depend that the whole population of Upper Canada will deeply regret Sir Robert Peel's measure, ex cept a few Republicans and their newspapers, who will re joice, knowing that the introduction of Free Trade into England is just the breaking down of the colonial system, and the dissolution of the tie between the mother ciuntry and the colony.—l am, sir, you obedient humble servant, ISAAC BUCHANAN. CHESTER AND BIRKENHEAD RAILWAY COMPANY. At twelve o'clock. on Wednesday, the half-yearly general meeting of this company was held at the Claren don-rooms, South John-street. The meeting was nume rously attended. William Jackson, Esq., presided. The CHAIRMAN commenced by reporting that the re ceipts for the last eleven weeks had averaged I:105 a week more than they did this time last year, and by stating that it was the intention of the Directors to make a consider able reduction in fares, and to open the new road stations as soon as possih!e. The retiring Directors—Messrs. Bentham. J. S. Jack son. and Burt, were re-elected, and Mr. Cochrane was appointed a Director in the room of Sir Joshua Wahnsley, resigned. Upon the motion of the CHAIRMAN, the following re solution was unanimously adopted : " That as consider able inconvenience will be occasioned owing to the last call on the new £5O shares in this company not being pay able until January, 1849, resolved, that the call thereon would become due acd payable on the 6th day of July next, be £2 per share, the whole amount then due." The CHAIRMAN then craved the indulgence of the meeting tor a few moments, while he alluded to a matter of a personal nature. The proprietors were aware that at . . the general meeting held on the 29th of January last, a charge was brought against him of having forstalled din Company in the purchase of some land, by which he re alised a large profit. He was taken by surprise on that occasion ; and when the following meeting was held, and he was prepared to render an account of his stewardship, his mouth was stopped in consequence•of Mr. M'Gregor Laird having given notice of his intention to commence a suit in Chancery. Since then, Mr. Laird had published a circular, in which he left the whole matter in the bands of the Proprietors. He (the Chairman) therefore felt himself at liberty to state the circumstances under which t:te land had been purchased ; for hitherto he bsd met all the attacks made upon him in leading articles in railway periodicals, and circulars (and all by the same hand) with a simple denial of the charge. As an instance of the mode in which he had been attacked, he had received a letter from his son, who was at Harrow School, a lad only 14 years of ace, in which he stated that a copy of one of the fiercest attacks which had appeared against him (his father) in the public prints had been enclosed to him. (Cries of" Shame.") He (the Chairman) treated such attacks as he would a wasp—he brushed them off, and bad done with them. The circumstances under which ha purchased the land were these !—ln the month of July, 1844, a young man, with whom he had been acquainted for years, called upon him and stated that he was desirous .) of having a shop built at the corner of Argyle and Con way-streets, Birkenhead ; and he was asked to build the shop for him. Negociations were accordingly opeald with Mr. Cole, the agent for Penny and Watson, for the purchase, and he (Mr. Jackson) went so far as to cause plans to be drawn nut for the erection of shops upon the land. He had bow , ht it for a fixed purpose, and at a time when the Railway Company had no power to purchase it. Nine months afterwards the Company obtained the power, and it was subsequent to that time the Board agreed to run the Extension Line through the land, and to re purchase it from him (the Chairman). He assured the meeting that when he originally entered into the contract, he had no knowledge that the Board would ever require it ; and he also assured them that the price he obtained from the Board was the real value of the land. Mr. BENTHAM corroborated the chairman's statement as to the land having been originally purchased with the view of erecting shops thereon. He informed the meet" ing that M r. DI `Gregor Laird held but a very small interest in the Birkenhead line, and that, in tact, his last half" yearly dividend only amounted to 6s. 81 He pitied the motives which had dictated the present attack upon the chairman. Mr. M'GREGOR LAIRD denied that he had ever written anything in railway periodicals to which be had not affixed his name. He confessed that he felt considerable surprise at finding that Mr. Jackson had been paid X 4 a yard for the land in question, when no such price had been paid for land similarly circumstanced. He contended that long before Jackson made the purchase from Penny and Watson, it was well known that that very piece of Jana would be required for the railway extension. Moreover , Mr. Jackson had purchased land at both sides of the street, and it was impossible for any engineer to extend the line without taking it through some portion of that land. :Mr. Laird went on to contend that the case made out on a former occasion had been proved ; and he re• minded the meeting that though he had heretofore asked for a committee of inquiry, that committee bad not been granted. A discussion of an hour and a half's duration folloWed' in which several directors and proprietors took an an►• mated part. The CH AIRMAN then stated that he was apaious for in' quiry into the general, but not into the particular question. Mr. M. LAIRD, after an ineffectual attempt to have the inquiry particular, as well as general, at length agreed to have an inquiry under any circumstances. Much conversation took place as to who should foil the committee; whether proprietors of the Birkenhead board, or gentlemen wholly unconnected with the coin' pany. The CHAIRMAN objected to the Cheshire Junction Di' rectors nominating any of the committee, and after muck' contention upon this point The CHAIRMAN nominated Mr. George Stephenson as his arbitrator. Mr. M. LAIRD nominated Mr. Robertson Gladstonea s his arbitrator. _ —.— It was understood that, in case of disagreement, the a r ' bitrators should call in an umpire, and report the result to the general meeting of the Company in July next. A good deal of personality was indulged in throughout ; 1 1 i NrE 13J pa Val at./ , An ,o w ‘lard kai„ ul 4 , V I Ikt 10 N T 1 0 14Ltu most of the proceedings, and were attributed. A young lady, a widow, who describes herself as young and handsome, has been advertising in the Frenc h newspapers her desire to be married. A few weeks ag another young widow, who also described herself as beau' tiful, and, moreover, declared that she had £2,000a-Ye a r ' „ with the prospect of baying £2,000 more before long, " likewise compelled to certify her desire, in a public adve r ' tisement, to take unto herself a husband. MESMERIC CLAIRVOYANCE.—A few years ago the very existeel of mesmeric agency was, in this town as in most other parts of ,74 kingdom, treated by some as an idle fable, and by the majoritY the public its most curious phenomena were regarded as thef: r duction of imposture acting upon credulity and excited isna.-. 1 .., tion. The various professors, however, who .have visited o ' 44 g Lafontaine, Braid, 'Collier Spencer Hall, and others—have j 0 ago `convinced all but the obstinately blind that the human sr_of and senses are capable of being operated upon by the aFeaci s i t e mesmerism or magnetism animal o" o th erw i se , e nd various . 44 4 gular effects produced, such as the cataleptic, the clairvoyant, ~ito ther states. We had never, however, as yet, in Liveritool, e ye t nessed anything approaching to that highest state of power 00 the part of the professors, or susceptibility, on the part of patients, 541 ,1 first description of which on the Continent threw discredit lic e odium upon the discoverers, and in a darker age might. fe' brought upon them the imputation of sorcery. We w e 'ilerf voured on Saturday evening, by the polite invitation ef, .. 4 04 V. Goennern, with an opportunity of testing the claine/ powers of his lady Fran V. Goennern ; and we are inclin ed, o l, what we witne•sed of those powers, to believe that they ar e , the ficiettly perfect to be applied to medical purposes. Indce.,„ol, testimonials shown to us from parties of influence in Lively , t re bearing witness to the efficacy of their application in this~~"'lYStinß of themselves evidences against wh eh we should hesitate in 'OlO, up our own opinion, were it even opposed to theirs. Thele., will no doubt have other opportunities of judging of the P°,,"ing t`' this lady ; and whilst we should be very sorry to offer anY t n iv idic e influence their judgment, we should stningly advise that Pry e0 0 1 : 1 ; and obstinate incredulity, such as that with which the firs tl 3 ' strations of the magnetizers was met by our savant, should instance be laid aside. Depend upon it, it will be found that •• There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt o in our philosophy." woo Mr. Lover, the bra c edcel author of Rory O'More. I'Vorg e : during the past week, at the Assembly Roams, Great. street, two new entertainments —" The Queen's Vis":_boi o land." by anticipation, and the •' Outla, sor Erin ; ch ore' ch ore i o which are replete with that genuine Irish humour which e tc tenses hthers of his productions. The songs are ex" .00' so .much have they been admired, that the first e nter , . 00 was repeated last night. Q . the o , MR. HENRY RUSSELL'S ENTERTAINDIENT.- - Da" . " n d i OI ne week. Mr. Henry it u , sell, the distinguished vocalist a thre e f table pourtrayer of the Negro character, has given deed ett-,to. ceits, at the Assembly Roams, Lord Nelson.strt et!_ de ed r e , which not a single seat has been lett unoccupied... T empt l i b el dreds have been unable to obtain admission. To „i e ss.., A , view of his songs or sketches would be perfect,' u „','" us trat" t i tO are diversified, effective, and amusing, and are so are glo_,g, human nature, as to be pleasing to every ear. W e learn that two other entertainments are to ne g. ; v 0 4. As Mr. ltusse l's fame is universal, the probability i s .:. s itiale . 0 1 he long before he has again an opportunity 00 0 ' Those who have not heard him should not let this pass., ' I 13; for to u lip the }la S I 16h or tikrt wry Ze 1 4 , Caen , Se _ oi tk , thi, 14 t rorri ti ed, kt e, v ii Pi: 4 . 'Tr A le At ~..... tS i A l it , o t .....ik