The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1861-01-16 00:00:00

THE SYLPHIDE SCANDAL,

The following letter has been sent by the
by the Marquis of I)ownshire to the Evening

Herald :

you publish this, my distinct akd emphatic
denial of a paragraph which has lately appeared in the
newspapers, (copied, I find, from the Manchester Guar-
dian,) purporting to contain an account of an occurrence
which took place on board this yacht. The whole state-
ment is a wilful and deliberate lie) totally and entirely
devoid of a vestige of foundation; and the person who
wrote it, whether he is an Englishman or a foreigner, is
a wilful liar and slanderer, and whom I will punish, if
I can discover him, by all the means which the law will
give me.—l beg to remain, Sir, yours faithfully,
R.Y.S. Sylphide, Naples, Jan. 8, 1861.

DowxsuxllE.

FOUNDERING OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP

CAMILLA.

ADMIRALTY, Jan. 14.

From the accounts received at the Admiralty by the
last China mail, there seems to be little doubt that Her
Majesty's ship Camilla must have foundered at sea.
It appears that she left Hakodadi on the Ist of Septem-
ber, for Kanagawa, the port of Yeddo, and that between
that day and the 9th of September, the day on which
the heavy gale passed over Yeddo, light southerly winds
prevailed, so that she had not probably made much
progress to the south when lost. Her Majesty's steam
vessel Berenice, of the Indian navy, proceeded along the
coast from Kanagawa to llakodadi, and back, between
the 24th of September and 11th of October, but failed
in procuring any intelligence of the Camilla from the
numerous fishing boats, or in discovering any portion of
the wreck. A report had reached Vice-Admiral Hope
that the unfortunate vessel was seen from a Prussian
vessel of war to strike on a rock in a fresh breeze and
go down. This report would be traced to its source,
but the Admiral is firmly convinced that she foundered
at sea in the typhoon which prevailed on the Japanese
coast on the 9th of September.

THE GOSPEL VERSUS THE STAGE.—The movement
which began in London a short time ago, of converting
the theatre into a church and preaching therein on Sun-
day, bas already been adopted in many provincial towns.
The experiment is now being tried in the small theatre
at Birkenhead, and we.believe with moderate success.
THE WEATHER.—The severe weather has not been
without its effects upon the poorer classes at Birkenhead,
but we are happy to say that means are being taken to
provide for immediate wants. At Oxton and Claughton
about 800 persons have been relieved from the relief
fund, :Ind there is still a surplus in hand to provide for
further necessities.

FATAL ACCIDENTS.—On Monday night, about 11
o'clock, a fatal accident took place at Great Howard-
street, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. A
platform gave way near Fulton. street when some engines
were shunting, and the engine fell through, when a man
named Turner was killed and another man named
Pasquil very much injured. Au inquest will be held
this day.—On Monday a man named James Curry fell
in to the hold of a ship and was killed.

Even so far south on that continent as Melbourne,
Victoria, latitude 37 deg. 49 min., the lowest tempera-
ture recorded in the winter month of July, 1855, was
29.7 deg. and the highest 60 deg. ; the adopted mean
being 48.3 deg. In January, 1856 (summer month) the
adopted mean temperature was 67.9 deg. The highest
temperature recorded in.that month being 98 deg., and
the lowest 49 deg. As we proceed northward, however,
towards New South Wales and Queensland, these favour-
able conditions improve.
In the United States, where the temperature of the
winter months is very much lower, it has been observed
as a general rule that the magnitude of the crop depends
upon the length or shortness of the period between the
spring and fall frosts. There the average time between
the latest and earliest frosts is about seven months. In
Australia it is fully ten months ten months—thus giving
a season of three months' longer duration for the growth
and development of the plant.

It is admitted that the Australian cotton is the best
in the world.

On the 23rd of January, 1854, Messrs. Hollinshead,
Tetley, and Co., of Liverpool, reported on a sample of
Australian cotton as follows :

" It ranks with the highest class of Sea Island cotton
and free from the few spots of stain, is worth 3s. per lb.
in this market.

"It is superior in fineness and evenness of staple,
though a little inferior in strength of staple, as com-
pared with Sea Island.
"We return you the sample, as you may not have
retained any, and send you a small bit of Sea Island,
worth to-day 2s. 6d. per lb.; and another purchased
to-day at 2s. Pd., both inferior to your sample iu our
opinion, and in the opinion of the buyer of the 2s. 9d.
lot."

At a public meeting in Manchester on the 28th of
September, 1859, Mr. Bradley, M.P., speaking of Aus.
tralian cotton, said :

"The soil and climate of Australia were capable of
producing 6001bs. of this exquisitely fine cotton yearly
per acre. He valued this cotton at Is, 3d. per lb.,
which would be equal to £4O per acre. This was no
over-estimate, for he held Australian cotton for which
he had given ls. 7d. and is. Bd. per pound."
In May last Mr. Dunlop, engineer, of Manchester
the manufacturer of Dunlop's patent cotton gin, told me
that the best cotton he had ever ginned was Australian.
A few months ago a friend of mine, who devotes him-
self to the subject, received in this country a sample bale
of cotton grown on his lands a little to the north of
Sydney. I know that this cotton had been neglected,
and should have been gathered much earlier yet it was
valued by the brokers in Liverpool, and by Mr. liazley,
M.P., at Is. 6d. per lb.
With such facts as these before us, there is no reason
why we should not very soon become independent of
America for our supplies of raw cotton. Why, then,
are our capitalists so apathetic on this subject

Capital and labour properly directed would very soon
make cotton the agricultural staple of Australia. That
it will ultimately become so, I have no doubt; and I
look forward with confidence to the time when cotton
from the Eastern sea-board of the Australian continent,
between Sydney and Moreton Bay, will be as important
an item of import into this country as Australian wool.

AIIERICA.—The Liverpool, New York, and Philadel-
phia Steam-ship Company's screw steam-ship Etna,
New Captain
York. Kennedy,she will
callleave a
at the hcle
LlAelecarssteoyiv h itse
edma yb
afrokr
passengers and despatches.
LIVERPOOL ROYAL INFIRMARY.—The annual meeting
of the trustees of the Royal Infirmary was held in the
board-room of the institution do Monday morning. The
chair was occupied by Mr. Edward Gibbon. During the
year there had been 2,170 patients admitted into the
house; which number, added to 149 who were in the
institution at the opening of the year, made a total of
2,319, which was about 10 per cent. in excess of the
previous year, 1859. There had been discharged,
cured, 1,104 persons ; relieved, and discharged at
their own request, 661 ; made out-patients, 157 ;
irregular, 50 ; died, 180 ; and there remained in
the house, on the Ist of Sanitary, 177. In the
Lunatic Asylum there were on the Ist of January,
1860, 61 patients; admitted since, 27 ; and of those 88
persons, twelve had been cured ; nine had been relieved
and sent home to their friends ; returned to their
friends, not cured, 4 ; 5 had died ; and there remained
in the asylum on the Ist instant 58 patients. In the
Lock Hospital there were 29 patients at the beginning of
last year; admitted during the year, 238 men, and 153
women, making 391 admitted, and the total number
of inmates 420. Of this number 293 had been cured;
relieved, and at their owa request discharged, 55; sent
home to their friends, 14 (all females); sent to different
benevolent houses and institutions, 11 ; irregular,
14 ; died 1; remaining in the hospita, 32. Mr.
Hutchison was sorry to say that the expenditure
for articles of consumption had been £6,147 in 1860, as
against £5,380 in the previous year, showing an increase
of nearly £BOO. That was accounted for by the fact that
there had been a great increase in the value of many
articles, more particularly in butchers' meat, meal and
flour, butter, and potatoes; in those items there had been
a very large increase over the previous year. There had
been au expenditure of £1,070 for a wash-house and the
drainage of the Lunatic Asylum. The latter had occu-
pied the attention of the committee for several years,
and it had become absolutely necessary to carry it into
operation buriug the past year. The committee found
themselves compelled, by the requirements of the
sanitary act in force in Liverpool, to expend £2OO
in draining the asylum. The donations had been
£1,155, which was fully up to the average of former
years. The subscriptions had been estimated last year
to produce £2,500, but they had been close upon £2,700.
The balance against the institution at the close of 1859
was £1,768; and it was now £3,700; but the increase
was he believed he had shown to be unavoidable, and he
had no doubt that if a proper appeal was made, the
public of Liverpool would respond and aid the com-
mittee in carrying on the institution as efficiently as it
had hitherto been conducted. There was a large increase
in the amount of subscriptions—amounting to nearly
£4OO ; which he believed was solely attributable to the
great exertions of the treasurer,