The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-07 00:00:00

THE GREAT BRITAIN.

The following letter relative to the Great Britain,
steamer, was exhibited in the Underwriter.' rooms to-day:—
•'
Doodrum Ith October.

t'Tuov is CIPVIt; Est.—ttut: The Great Ilritainrt lIIJiIIS on the
shore, alter every effort made Lust night by geuni Pius, :cc. We
su.svedill in heaving Uw v,sel stern rout I, Inure by the S.E. Ibb
d :r it has blown a gale from the S.S.E., which prevent.' every At-
te:lll'i to lustre her DS. The steam tugs voult not apprtrich the shore,
mot are now out la the ening. The vessel is uninjured.
•• Tours, Sze.,
_LLOSARU ,rmnx."

Lr. ITER FROM CAPT. Ex:-1 he following isaysthe
Lirerpool Standurd) was r caved this day ut uuon by
Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.:—

..Grant Britain, Steam-ship, 4th October, ISBI.

I am very wirer that I cannot continue my
cheering amounts of yesterday. •Lot night, or rather early
tl,la morning, it came on to blow Irian the touthwaril,
which has thrown the Map farther in, losing all that we hot
gained. Tetterilay morning'. unit night's tit ft, had it continued
modarate, I fully believe, we shnuld have got uff t hit morning. The
peition of the ship it decidedly better, at the it now more hint on,
and nil fairer ground, cansisquently will not strain ut all. 'the tug..
wire obliged to have the buoys early this morning, and lam off and
on, till alter high water, when that a min went out, and I have are
Inn for shelter ramowliere, a. it 'looks very dirty. To But time
(2 o'clock, we tame bad nu caminuntraton with the shore, but that
soon, in time to %oar the pear, at at lon water we can walk whore.
A. I have fmyientiy a I depends upon the weather. Nothing
can hold her against cacti who and sea IP we now have. Three
bower anchors with chain cables, and Bove *ma'am an.hors, with
hemp cables, some of tam well bunked, and all w.-11 laid out, cannot
hold her at all.-1 um, dear air a per'svery traly, (Signed) Jahn:.
EN.—Me-srs. Giblet, Bright, and Co.
it. son al hay, MONDAY, II o'CIAK-ii, A.31.—.4+ I anticipated, icy% a
corretpunikut of the Lave/0.4.V. smbtrri, in my communication tam
evening, the Gate of the weather prevented the two steam-tugs from
coining near the Great Britain, by last night's tide. 'they hay, nut,
in fact, come within sight of the shore, ',Wee they left lea about main.
yesterday. No attempt Mart her foe wu., conanpumtly, made last
night; anti she it, tole morning, as might be expected, tauch further
on the hash—l shuukl ray (nut ..t) to 22 fret—than when 1 saw
her tart evening. I came to Vas shore °micelle to hi r talia morning,
shortie after clear day, and although she hat approa.hed the Lull by
what I have already ttated. she has materially shifted mutat. Her
bow has turned moat:treat:4y towards the Avow-v(1, and her beanng
it. I should think, at the present, w nearly as possible,
W.N.W. and E.S.E. Whether this alteration of her bear-
ing
w ill hate the effect of leaving her in a mere favourable posit
tiun for getting oa or not, is a question about which there mists
dithatenec of opinion • but the fact of her having conic farther upon
the lata at ran harly'bc said to be in her tayour. She now tits in
+nth a position, that it Ls impsieitac, from any point Mang the Aare,
to catch a glimpse of her larboard Mile; but I can perceive, by the
motions of those on the deck, that the work of throwing over her
diteontinued. The .posit by which the water is diacharged
by the pimps lies above the tide, anti I can olovrve a goodly column
•ut water pnweeding front that outlet. This circunittanee lemi me to
believe, that the moat be flu iking more water that she Mil on
yisterilay. About an hour and a half ago, the fore and
aft gilt, and 11w square mainsail on her third mast or
that innuediately abaft her funnel were set; but fur what purpose it
ew. at the ingenuity of those en thane to divine. Tar wind it
now blowing mi nearly as may be from the east anti it ;s thought the
laming of the sail-. I have mention,' will rather have the effect of
forging her further on the beach, than of turning lay bow to the
tout be the only Imaginahle oi.je:t the veinal:mai r could have in haying
them art. The weather during the night wan mon• moderate than
apayinewiet :Mout ihok seemed to Oahe rte. 'lie breeze about tint
time In pretty freth, and the sum: is very strong in the buy. The tide
fa now neatly ut its height, and only the very top. of the rocks near
the Mora are visible. The Great Brit an, however, is no tie, that
scarcely a Man btu:ging " is wrivittillie. A large tteanum
with three matts and funnel, has made her appearance in the
offing, but Mir keeps am a goodly dimanee. She is inippOseil to be
the Si•J Nyrooh, one of the meamera on the Warrenpoii: an I
Liverpool station, which Ws. expected heir to render a--
sistatice, by this tide. From the height of the waway in the bay, how-
ever, and some indication which have been diservell, Mace rte wore
in tight, it it thought improbable that the will enture in near maul&
for ;me good. I shall not Mow my despite, till I WC the result.
Some idea may be fonned.of the bin:arrow. appearance of the bay,
from the fact, that it Wil• found imaili 'amble to launch a bait fir
the conveyance of the letter-bag of the Great Britain ashore taut
morning. (Me of the crew of the ve4sel, a !mart tettow, named
Corney, centered out, end imam ashore with it I. hit very burnt-
nem peril. Ile state. that hr was repeatedly utmost stunned, by the
beating of the wave!, against his breast while elaaing acract. There are
a great number of lamming collected on the beach, and a good array
of vehicles, public and private. 'flair curiosity, however, Is no: at
all MAI• to be gratified in seeing her free again; and, us the last of
the high tide. will take glace ht-morrow, if the weather du not, in
the meanume, moderate, and that very considerably, it is not ut all
likely she can ever be citric drat.
Ott. tit Lava, P.M.—The steamer, Bea Nernpb, ha, Iwo. mired off,
Mating it luipraLicable to come in. Thi Great Britain is much
?rarer the shore now. The new• full tide will aat midnight.

REPORT ON PUBLIC HOUSES IN SCOTLAND.
The Select Committee to whom was referred, on
the Lord's day observance petition of the General Assembly,
the whole question of pu dic-house certificates (and by im-
plication, spirit licences) in Scotland, adopted a series of
resolutions which they embodied in their report to the house,
of which the following is an abstract:
The committee state, that in their opinion the number of
houses iu Scotland licensed for the sale and consumption of
spirits, is excessive, and that the evil is increased by the
loose character of such houses ; that the facility of transfer-
ring licences from one publican to another adds to this evil,
which is further enhanced by the combination of the trade
of spirit selling with those of groceries, &c., prevalent
in
Scotland ; and, lastly, the committee report that the system
of granting Hectic:is at one period, whilA the occupation
term commences at another period of the year, is productive
of great inconvenience. The rem dies sucgested by the
committee to cure these evils are as foilow That the
justice+ of the peace of every county in Scotland shall, on the
30th of April, form a committee from amongst thenyelves,
which committee ',hall have the power of prospectively an:
arbitrarily fixing the number of pubiie hous:sin each distliet
of their county, for a certain number of years; and th'st the
same justices of the peace shall have the power of Apr/doting
local committees fur the purpose of granting or renewinF
rtilicates iu the various districts of their count;es, the deci-
sions of these general and local committee+ to be final; but
that no new cenificate is to be granted until the number of

public houses is reduced within that fixed upon by the ge-
neral committee as sufficient for the district; nor coca when the
number is so reduced, is there to " be mere than one new
certificate granted in any one district in any year." In
order to correct the evil arising from the low character of the
pubic-houses, the committee report that the aferemid local
ecenalittees shall have the power of fixing the lowest amount
of r.nt which shall entitle the occupant of a public-hence to
a ceititiere; which decision is to ire unalterable save by the
general committee; aid, mu coier, theee certLicetee ere to
be divided into two classes, s ix. : fur the sale of beer, teller,
or perry ; and for the talc of spirits • ' in both cases consumedi
on the premixes. That no liceese of this chess is to he granted
to grocer,, eke. unless by special permission endorsed on the
certilieate; that no certificate is to be granted Olive to pe C-
oons of gual character, such being satisfactorily attested;
that there shall he scpsrate licenses for the retail of spirits con-
sumed ou and off the premix s; that no certificate email in the
latter case be required to eolith.' the dea'er to a epirit lie. toe ;
and that the period of grant'ng licensee shall be al tied
by the Excise to that of mem pence, or from Octob:r to Whit-
suntide. Thet no teethe ate eh all be granted to a tall-house
keeper, unless the genteel committee shall so rmolve, or un- ,
less the re be no public-Louse within two or three miles of
the place.
Tne evi :once upon whic'a the select committee came to
the suru.nary and etriagent resolutions above reetpitalated
coas;e:s of two distinct classes, viz.: that furnished by w'd-
liesses summ sited for the purpose. and that, supplied by docu-
mentary evidence, borrowed front the l'oor-law (Scotland)
Lottery it port.
It is hit the rise r,re pertion of this evidence, as ap-
pended to the report, with which it is alone necessary to deo;
and it must he otwerved in the tied place that the whole of
the people ef *mined were represented—ten an occasion which
deeply etfects their morals, their p reonal habits, on I ecru
freedom of thin, their int, rests and their national eharac-
teristies—V no mo:e thnu lice gel.tlemen svltl thieve p c-
tire ly anti mtecooively describe themselves: Sheriff of the
County of Ellinbureh (O. Spices, I),* Provo-t of Dundee
(4. Brown, 1'23): Magistrate of the City of Ed'ithureh
(W. Duncan, 171); Sheriff. Substitute fur Lenie. kehire
(H. 0. be.l, tie.i); and, lastly, Clerk to the Comm *sinners
of Simply in I)uinhartonshire, and cx 3.1'. (R. D. Macken-
zie. 479, 440.)
The snider ce of each of these gentlemen is valnalge, in so
fir as eel:deb to their experience of are evils which the alert
Committee was appointed to inquire into ; but that experi-
ence is limited to the nureoweet bounds ; nee does it rear
that the extent of surface or amount e. popalisieu in Son land
affected be their eat m nts, exceeds more than a very 'twit
fraction at the whole country or population.
Mr. Graham Spier and Mr. W. Duncan speak alone of
Ediuburgh district and city ; Mr. Brawn can only testify to
the &tin' °hien-able within the town of Dundee • Mr. fila•-
ford Bell's knowledge is confined to Glnseow; anti Mr. R. 1).
Mackenzie limits the information which he has to oiler
almost exclusively to Dlitobartenshire (543, 581, 5S know.
ing nothing of the t rattier or effects of granting +pier. licences
beyond his own county or the lierderieg roes.
With respect to the rettelittions emieshed in the report
there appears, from an analysis of the teideuce of the five
witnesses., to lot en unanimous opieion upon the first, and
principal one, namely, es to the evils reeultine
from the alleged excessive number of houses where
spirits are retailed for consumption on the premise*.
One witura (R. D. Mackenzie) gives a curious instance to
what in his (spinier. constitute- a gnat evil in the sale of
spirits by grocers and small dealer.: " The wile of a labour-
in_ man goes to a grocer's shop to but provisions ; she would
be ashamed to be eeen perhaps in a house exclusively devoted
to selling whisky ; she is thus exposed to a strong tempta-
tion, if she has inclination, to take spirits and to hate it
debited as groceries, and thus the Tippling Act is evadrel.
Iler n• ighb mum do not see her, nor dues her hueliand dis-
cover it, Cite." (575 ) It will probable occur to the 'scree
who reflects no this statement, that the quantity of Spirits
thus clandeetioely col:newel 'nest be very trifling, far teere
is no habit that so won betrays itself as the one here retltrresl
to, awl upon the sloping. tl. general prevelence of which
amongst a very large crass the committee have based
their resalutione. With respect to the itdempereuee
of the Scottish peep'e, Mr. Spin says that " there is ns
much drunkenness on Sunda:, as there is on any other day
of the week " (101); and Mr. Brown states that the people
" are le.s temperate now " (165) than they were twenty or
thirty years ago. Thee: statement; involve a meta., tSk 1.
ceutradictiou. It tietorieue that Sunday was wont t
peculiarly dbetinguiehed in Seutland by the excessive .y
of drunkenness, fir beyond that observable on the week
days. James Hogg, Waller Scott, Mr. Loc'ehfue himself,
could hare turnished ample proofs of this fact front their
own widely-extended exeerience of Scottish manners twenty
or thirty years ago; and consequently, if the extent of Sun
ty drunlonnees only equals and deice not now exceed that
of the week days, ti.e Scotch must not ouiy be prunoumiced
temperate noun, but also to have greatly proarewell
towards teetotalism within the period that Mr. Proves'.
Brown averts them t have gone in a contrary dir.effea.
With respect to Sunday tippling, it would appear that the
megietrates in Sentinel elrea4 possess the power of regu-
lating the hours at which public-houses Plied first tepee on
that der. Mr. Provost Brown states in answer to a queetion
from Mr. Duncan, as to tic magistrates pnwer of clueing
public-houses at inewasoualge hear, that three had been
some difficulties ; but Le adds, " that the last time the magic-
trate. granted certificates, we entered into a resolution to con-
sider unseasonehle hours' after 12 o'clock at night, or be-
fore 6 o'clock in the morning on week days, and before
I p.m. nu Sun lays." (1694 And Mr. Brown further etates,
in answer to the question, whether the police were euabled
to enforce t iese rule., under time sanction of the magistrates.
"Yes: we intend to do so; there have net been any VlVl-
plaints against any individual id,.Ce that time ; it is about
two or three w eks since we enacted that regulntien."
(1711.) So that it would seem the megieracy throughout
soeland, a:rea.ly pomeea a power more etriegent than that
exclusively conferred em the rnetroptiliimi niametrecy of this
country by Mr. B. Hawes's act. The latter does not interfere
with the lie ere of public-houses opening'-on a wick Jay, and on
Sunday night pl ace■ 110 rrsuictiun wLatcecr Up,lll the pub-
lican; the only restraint being fr em 12 pen. on Saturday to
) 1 p.m , and from 5 to re pen on Sunday.
With regard to the mode I y which the committee pm-
poses to reduce the numbers of the public-hueses and to 1 mit
them in future, it would seem that the reimiutious to this
effect (6, 7,8) stand principally upon the es Mime of 7%ir.
Mackenzie, who suggests the remedies enalsoliesl in the rem-
lutione referred to (351, 5.27, 60.1, 613). It meet be obeereed,
however, that the recommendation of the committee re•pcct-
ing the future number of pubic-houses is very vague, as
not determining upon the immediate suppression of all super-
numerary puhliedionses. The original wont. of the reeolu-
tion for fixing limits to the duration of the prospective term
were •• three or live years." Mr. Hodes m propoo.-el as au
amendment, to insert the words, " a certain neender," in-
stead of '• three or five," which was agreed to. The sentence
t herefore so teeniest, ran thns, " fix the it umber Corea& district
for a certain number (of) years prospectively,"—the omission
of the neceseare proposition, " of," being reined'ed by its in-
sertion in the report as drawn up by the chairman.

• The figure refer to the questime iu the e‘ideLee anr.e%el to the
retort.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN. OCT. 5..

GOVERNMENT Sr EPORT TO IRISH ItAILWATs. Tice
Etc salty Mail, just issued, has the following announcement:
Loess-We anaderotand the governaiwnt rove deter-
mined to divide all :gapleatiao, tor panto for railway purist«w under
three heads, including:-l. Incorporated companito entitled to bor-
row, by the aurioutat a. their paid up capi' al ; the,: are to ts; rekrred
in touts to the Exchequ,r Bill Commissioners 2. Intorporated
companies not so mulled; to thee, loans are to he oven lathier the
&laid' Act, ii sums hate been presented for them by the bar sties -
the loon to be secured 011 Alell pre.sentments. 3. tampon not in-
corporated, but for which presentments have been male; ouch cases
are to hr referred to the ltailleav Puard. It is not naakely that a, an.
okleroble mischief will ha indicted upon existing railway property by
those ix° colours. The slowness anal ineupacity of the direttors of
some of the working cempauito, combined with the rash indocility
of the government, attire' good promise of mischief.
REPEAL ASSOCIATION—CONCILIATION HALL.
The usual meeting of the liverl Association was teid
Mr. R. D. BROWNE. :M.P., in the choir. The hoe. gen-
tleman addressed the meeting at some ienpth.
Mr. It et-, having then read the minutes of lost day's
proceedings. laid before the meeting the following letter
tram Mr. O'Connell:
Darrynane ttbev, Caberelveen, 2nd Oct., 1814.
My dear Itay-1 once again attempt to excite ;mane ..ttention
to the:absolute veers-icy of forming in I atalgio a ceatral bets, bo..rJ,
or association, from Rummest the lanthsl proprietor. of Ireland, to
take ilto considerati an the present state and future pros arts of the
in order t a sugzast and v.ary out memo of meeting the hr r.
rib'. emergency in which the country is Involved. lam fully eon.
canted that intlividoal applications to government or to l'aracameat I
will never be sufbehntly etheacioits. Such applicatimu mar pro. I
duos a mitigation in partieular kw:tittles but they can never pro.
dace anything Ilse u urnverial remedy for the giant evils by which
we are starrouniasl ;OT for the still more Trifle calamitien which
mint (11411 C from the total destruction of this year's potato
erop-unic« full local knowledge of every pan of Ireland,
and perfect acquaintance with the nature of Irish tenures of
Land, anal with the disposition and eharaLer of the la ish moils be
combined in some one hotly entitled to the full resist:et of the govern-
ment, and to the entire vonlidence of the Irish natio'. To some, nay,
to many nay plan still apisears visionary and impracticable: but
I almsdy eon assert that an iinprissiant has been mule in an impose-
tint way, and there are already versals canvas-dug the to; is with a
view to work out so. e plan like mine; the re alsu arc personoeugaged
In this matter who, twelve months ago, won d Louth to urn the ides
of an Irish National tosnrnittee of landed proprietors, noblity, and
gentry, sitting in Dublin, to aid the people and the prove nment in the
mar.agenent of Irish dist, so. Foe any part, I shall not conclude, with
this letter, my urgency to Roe +some such body as I allude to formed
in Dublin. f will bring the subject again and again to the attention
of the public; the motto of an, political life has been ' perseverance,'
and 1 will persevere upon this subject until the matter is
distinctly umlerotood by all classes of Irishmen. The ab-
solute necessity of a *concentration of the Irish landed pro-
prietors appears to be quite obvious. Never was the coun-
try involved in snob a frightful calamity as the present. Suppose
that, which in unhappily not quite clear-namely, that the Irish
].ogle escape from toe total loss of this year's crop, and, with the aid
of a paternal government, are kept alive for the current year, what is
to be done fur the next tear'-and what for the year otter! It is
impossible to think that the calamity will end with the present year.
Supper the crop next year shall be untainted by blight-au event,
ulas . not prohuble-where are the means of procuring seed for the
potatoes, on for cultivating any grain, on a sufficiently extensive'
scale to feed the Irish people! All these questions raise problems to
be solved exeluoiva ly by a central body of Irish kuallaolh'en meeting
in Dublin, and conferring with a I parts of Ireland, as well it. with the
government of the day. Frau such a body all irritating and party
polities should be carefully melts's:el, anal relagioun differences be never
heard of. The safety of the people of Ireland to be their sole anal ex- '
elusive object. Dow fortunate it is that lam able to make each a
prodooal as this in the preoent awful crisis, and to men who have
hitherto considered political associations an tending to revolution and
bloodshed : it is true I disolaimed the tend nay, but that alio:Lamer
was not believed until the Tonic Irelandero, luckily, pave us the op-
portuuity of demonstrating that nothing could intim,. the Repeal As-
, sociation to seek for the alteration of any law by foible means, or
by any other but peaceable and moral means. We have given this
goarantee in the most unequivocal manner, and the AMOCIROOR must
take the moat perfect care not to allow our sincerity to be impeached
or nu-peeled. Our chsuwe of political salvation toe Ireland depends
upon the perfect filth with which we are understood to hold out the
olive branch iat Iwo to and moral means alone to those who hitherto
have been uppreliensive of force and violence. Blmsed be !leavens