The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-25 00:00:00

FOREIGN POST REGULATIONS. —Postmasters making up
mails for foreign partS are directed to treat as unpaid letters
all those upon which an insufficient amount of postage may
have been paid in postage stamps. In the case of letters in-
sufficiently paid in money, they are directed to surcharge the
deficiency upon the postmaster at whose office the letters may
have been posted, and treat them as paid, and transmit them
as such to foreign destination.
• -

REPRESENTATION OF LINCOLN.—There seems to be every
probability that there will be a strong contest for the borough
of Lincoln, which has become vacant by the death of Colonel
Sibthorp. Sir Montague Cholmeley, Bart., who unsuccessfully
contested the Northern Division of the county at the last
general election, is spoken of as a candidate. The seat will be
contested by Majorf Gervase T. W. Sibthorp, son of the late
colonel, and Mr. Chas. Seely, a wealthy merchant of Lincoln.
MR. RUSSELL and Mr. Angell, of the Post-office, dined with
General Codrington on Thursday. Owing to some strictures
made by Mr. Russell in the Timea ou drunkenness in the
army, and his advising the withdrawal of the soldiers' field
allowance granted by her Majesty, his house was attacked by
the red-coats the other night, and serious consequences might
have ensued but for the prompt arrival of the picket.—Crimean

. .
correspondent of the Morning Herald.
CURIOUS CHRISTMAS CUSTOM.-At Dewsbury, a bell is
tolled on Christmas-eve, as at a funeral, or in the manner of a
passing bell ; and any one asking whose bell it was would be
told it was the Devil's knell. The moral of this is, that the
Devil died when Christ was born. The custom was discon-
tinued for many years, but was revived by the vicar in 1828.
Among the sweet bells of Dewsbury is the famous " Black
Tom of Tothill," which is said to have been an expiatory gift
for a murder.—Bridgewater Times.
- -

IT is, it seems, the fashion at Antwerp to have the tomb of
Rubens periodically opened. The last opening took place a
short time back, in presence of a "select party." The interior
of the tomb is said to have presented a frightful spectacle—
nothing was seen but fragments of coffins and mouldering
bones. Thirteen persons, besides Rubens, were buried in the
same vault, and the exact spot in which he was deposited is
not precisely known ; but four coffins are slightly elevated on
iron rails, and it is supposed that three of them were occupied
by the great painter and his two wives.—Literary Gazette.
THE TICKET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM.—The grand jury, sitting
at Winchester, have presented a memorial to Baron Parke,
"earnestly urging on the Government the pressing necessity
of abstaining for the present from issuing any further tickets
of leave to convicts, except in cases where the most satisfactory
proofs of reformation are given, and of taking the earliest op-
portunity of submitting to Parliament some comprehensive
plan for enforcing the punishment of offenders sentenced to
transportation or penal servitude, either by the establishment
of a new penal colony, or by adult reformatory establishments
within the United Kingdom."
THE Italian journals have frequently described , in terms
of enthusiasm, the performances of a blind Sardinian shep-
herd, named Picco, on an instrument they call the tibia-pas-
toral—to wit, a half-penny whistle of the rudest and most
primitive construction, with only three holes, and its length
not exceeding that of a finger; yet upon this barbarous instru-
ment he has performed at the San Carlos and La Scala, and
the Neapolitan and other papers affirm that the blind musician
draws sounds as dulcet as those of the sweetest flute, and
that his execution upon it is still more marvellcns. The
poor Italian ministrel has arrived in Paris to perform at the
Italian Opera.
THE LATE SAMUEL RoGzas.—We have, within the last
dozen years, heard Mr. Rogers describe how he had seen
Marie-Antoinette dance, and illustrate the same by himself
walking a minuet. There is also an anecdote of his having
left an early poem at Dr. Johnson's door only a day or two
before the doctor's death. Till an accident confined him to
his chair, Mr. Rogers continued to be an attendant at the
opera, the Antient Concerts, and, when these died out, at the
Exeter-hall oratorios. Till a very late period he might be
seen at midnight feebly hurrying home from these on foot—
no matter what the weather—thinly dressed, and as resentful
of the slightest offer of attendance as was " the Duke " when
he was scarcely able to mount his horse. This passion for
pleasure did not forsake him till a very late period. Only a
few years since, a street accident, caused by this imprudent
manner of wandering home alone, sentenced him to a chair
for the rest of his days.—Athenceum.
THE CANADA LAND COMPANY.—A meeting of this com-
pany was held on Thursday, Charles Franks, Esq., in the
chair. The statement of the operations from the Ist of Janu-
ary to the 23rd ult., showed, (that the sales of land comprise
3,302 acres of Crown reserves at 275. 9d. per acre, and 1,413
of the Huron tract at 275. 6d. The leases included 19,11 G
acres at 41s. 11d. of Crown reserves, and 4,740 acres at 61s. ld,
of the Huron tract. The land leased converted into freeholds
was 13,203 acres, at 16s. ld., and 53,001 at 15s. 3d. per acre.
The receipts during the above period were £129,659 2s. 4d.
currency, against £164,614 in 1854, showing a falling off of
£34,955 17s. id. The funds in hand were—balances at bank-
ers, £4,513 ; loans at interest, and interest thereon, £58,800 ;
and short bills, £11,100; making a total of £74,413. As re-
gards the liabilities, they are very small, viz., £7,500, of which
£3,269 was for debentures unpaid, and interest thereon. The
report, which recommended a division of the assets, to the ex-
tent of £7 a share, payable in January next, was then agreed.
to. A resolution was adopted for the introduction of a bill
into Parliament for enabling the directors to divide the assets
half-yearly. A vote of thanks was passed to the chairman
and directors, and the meeting adjourned.
POSITION or PRUSSIA.—The Berlin correspondent of the
Times writes :—" Prussia is just now at the head of Germany,
as regards giving the tone of political feeling ; neutrality
towards without and reaction towards within are the order
of the day ; the advantages of neutrality are exemplified, says
this party of the Kreuz Zeitung, by the sacrifices and
losses of the belligerent Powers, the necessity of reaction is
felt in the conseionsness of the danger and disgrace of the
revolution just put down. England and France are the
incarnation and radiating point of revolution, and all that
trouble the repose of the world. England and France are the
belligerent Powers, and are suffering for it in their fearful
sacrifices of men and money. Ergo, down with revolution
and everythin- movement. Avaunt England and France,
that would dragif2ussia into sharing their sufferings. These
are the sentiments of the Kreuz Zeitung men, and which
are every day spreading further and further like a leaven
through the various strata of society, and to this end the
course taken by our diplomacy and by our press has contri-
buted very largely."
THE prospectus has been issued of the General London
Omnibus Company, established in Paris under the French
law as a soeiW en commandite. The capital is to be
£1,000,000, in shares of 100 f. or £4 each, but the first issue•
is to be limited to £BOO,OOO. The gerants are Macnamara,
Carteret, Willing, and Co., and'the London managers are to'
be Messrs. Wilson, Barber, Hartley, and Trevett. The Collt•
pany state that complete regularity of service is to be estab-
lished; that tine-tables are to be published monthly and
traffic returns weekly ; that indicators are to be used, as in
Paris ; and the contracts have been entered into for the pur-
chase of the greater number of the 810 omnibuses now work-
ing in London. In their financial representations they men-
tion that each omnibus, under the present imperfect system,
gives an average profit of £lOO a-year, which, on 810 omni-
buses, would yield £Bl,OOO, and consequently a return of ten
per cent. In Paris, however, the result of amalgation was an
increase of Bs. per day in the profit of each-. omnibus ; and,
assuming an increase of ss. in London, the annual profit
would be raised to £150,000. The dividend now paying by
the Paris company is stated to be at the rate of 15 per cent.
THE AUSTRIAN CONCORDAT.—THE PROTESTANTS OF THR-
EMPIRE.—The new laws relative to the future position of
the Protestants in Austria are now before the Council of the
Empire, and they will probably be less unsatisfactory than the
world is inclined to believe. People here profess not to care
for public opinion, but you may be assured that the storm of
indignation to which the concordat has given rise in Germany
and other countries has made them feel extremely uncomfort-
able. Indeed, there is proof positive that such is tile case ! The
draft of the new marriage act or law, which has been made by
the Archbishop of Vienna, will, instead of being at once ac-
cepted, be referred to the crown lawyers. The following ex-
tracts from the pastoral letter of the Archbishop of Milan will
suffice to show that the Italian prelate is already inclined tO
go beyond the concordat :—" The concordat not only gives
the bishops the right to prohibit bad books, under the menace
of ecclesiastical punishments (?) but also to prohibit their
being read by the faithful. The co-operation of the state to
prevent their promulgation is promised. All law matters re-
lating to the matrimonial tie belong to the church alone (?)
By the concordat, the immaculate bride of Christ (the Roman
Catholic Church) has acquired freedom, power, and glory,
throughout the vast empire. Cast down is every barrier
which had been an impediment to her ' giant steps,' broken
is every fetter which impeded her action. The church has the
right to oppose all kinds of error and temptation, as well on
the stage as in the press. The concordat is a work which
gives a brilliant example of religious feeling on the one side,
of moderation on the other, and of the perfect prudence and
wisdom of both parties.— Times' Vienna correspondent.
EASTERN COUNTIES' RAILWAY.—Mr. Waddington has
issued a reply to the report of the Committee of Investigation.
He sums up his view of the question in the following sen-
tence :—" How comes it that I have encountered the hostility
revealed in the report of the Committee of Investigation ? It
is, I repeat, because you have, in your complicated direction,
an influence which, if permitted to prevail, must permanently
injure your property. You have three directors less interested
in increasing your traffic than in forcing it into other chan-
nels. You have there men who will profit much more largely
by making you pay a toll than by participating in your divi-
dend. Look at the whole tenor and character of the report,
concocted principally upon their evidence, and under their
influence. What are the points specially assailed ? Loiestoft
harbour; the coal traffic which has been developed; the
steam-packet traffic which we have endeavoured to create on'
the ports of the east coast; the East Suffolk line, which, how-
ever undesirable for us, would undoubtedly assist that coast;
the Hackney-wick branches, which form so important a con-
necting link between our Flit= system and the North and
South-Western lines of railway; our advances for the pur-
poses of the Norfolk and East Union lines, and the additions
to capital for working those and other railways. A moment's
reflection will show you that this apparently scattered hos-
tility has but one aim and one object. That aim is to sup-
plant our eastern system by a northern system—to substitute
the East Anglian for the Norfolk line—to make Lynn the
thief port of your system, and thereby to subject your ear-
nings to a toll which will go, without benefit to you, into the
pockets of the East Anglian shareholders, and which will
enable them to depreciate your stock and raise the value of
their own when the time for compulsory fusion arrives in
1861.

TO MESSRS. COBDEN AND BRIGHT

WHERE, where is the big loaf, Messrs. Cobden and Bright,
Which you promised to all, when Free Trade came to light P
Where, where is it Cobden ? where, where is it Bright ?
In vain do we ask you from morning till night !
The bellows of Anti-protection you blew,
And sounded the horn of the "LeagnP' bitter crew !
Down,_ down with Protection, and up with Free Trade;
Let the big loaf on every one's 'table be laid.
False prophets you've been, and that with a vengeance,
And every one sees it from Ber.,Ti,ey to Penzancetfiegrhbtiintingc ?
AAns dif ythosutkLitownilitfolkelsl,abtutthseairyloatviesstfkiase
Then if with our army we'd done as you wished,
John Bull would have been most assuredly dished ;
You'ld have left us no troops worth talking about,
And navy in readiness for a " turu out."
But hurrah for Old England, tho' peace we delight hi,
We'll keep up our army all ready for fighting ;
So that if with proud boasters we " come to the scratch,"
They'll find, to their cost, we are more than their match.
December 1855. A. B.