The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-15 00:00:00

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1856

not to charge the consumer more than 4s. 6d. per
thousand feet, without telling us at what pressure,
or the illuminating quality, at which light is to be
supplied. The Corporate Committee appointed to
enquire into the whole subject, reported in favour
of the union of the contending gas manufacturers,
but having, subsequently, discovered that they had
laboured under a variety of delusions, they con-
vened a meeting, and passed a resolution, call-
ing on the Council not to sanction the amalga-
mation. Then commenced the Oriental pastime of
juggling, in which balls and cups, plates and
civic swords, inexhaustible bottles, and many well-
known tricks of gas conjurers were resorted to
with triumphant success. Everything was talked
of and attended to but gas—that is, its quality, cost
of production, raw material employed in its mani-
pulation, waste or leakage from engineering
defects and bad management, mode of distribution,
and construction of measures, commonly called
" meters," or conjuring boxes, through which light
is supplies to the public.

Mr. SALISBURY was anxious for an amalgamation.
His party supported his behests. The citizens
either knew nothing about gas, or were most
strongly opposed to the proposal ; but Mr. SALIS-
BURY'S influence prevailed, and the people of
Chester are to pay 4s. 6d. a thousand for light,
which may be equal to only eight candles, delivered
through " meters," which, like those of Liverpool,
may be from five to fifty per cent. against the
consumer, or at a pressure which may
make a slow measure, as bad for the public
as one of the Lancashire gallopers. But before
the Chester Corporation ventured to give the
subject their consideration, and bestow their
sanction on a proposal of such importance to their
constituents, we think they ought to have entered
into the discussion commercially, and satisfied the
gas consumer that the vendors of light do use
strictly honest measures, are not made to pay for
more pressure than is required for illuminating
purposes, and are dealt fairly with in
every other respect. Unless the Chester Council
have done this, they may have given their
" sanction " to the most glaring abuses ever
recorded, even in the history of gas lighting.
Chester may have " meters" ten per cent. fast in
construction, and many rendered ten or twenty
per cent. faster still by " repairs." Mr.
CLEOG, the father of gas engineers, may
be consulted to advantage as to the
possibility of one, and Mr. ALFRED KING, of the
United Liverpool Gas Company, respecting the
extraordinary transformations which take place in
gas measures while undergoing " repairs."
But assuming that the Corporation of Chester
have dealt with the gas question as men of busi-
ness ought, and that they are perfectly satisfied
that the citizens have nothing whatever to
complain of, that their gas is equal to eighteen or
twenty candles, the meters and pressure as honest
as they can be, why should they " sanction" the
town of Chester's paying 4s. 6d. for light, when
the street lamps of London are lighted for 2s. 3d.,
the houses of Bolton for 35., and those of Liverpool
for 4s. per thousand ?—and while we have before
us at this moment the estimate of a gas Engineer
of many years experience, for lighting a place in
the immediate neighbourhood of this Borough for
2s. 9d. the thousand, the consumption being
reckoned not more than 17,750,000 feet per
annum ? If the Chester Council were ignorant of
the whole question, as they evidently were, they
ought to have handed Mr. SALISBURY, with the
whole of his co-amalgamationists, over to men more
capable of dealing with them, and bringing before
the ratepayers and consumers generally, the exact
position in which the public and monopolists
stand to each other. The Chester people are
paying for cannel gas, while the Corporation do
not pretend to deny that their gas is made, for the
most part, from common pit coal ! This, surely,
is not right to begin with ! There are some pit
coals quite equal to cannel for gas purposes ; but
it may be that the Chester manufacturers are using

THE Chester Corporation have decided that the
people of their ancient city are to be the victims
of a Gas monopoly, and have positively " sane-
imation of the the two " rival
inderstanding that they are

" tinned" an am

the very worst description of common coal. If
that be the case, what must be the quality of their
light ? The consumer may be compelled to have
two, three, or four burners, where one would
suffice, if the fluid was of a good standard quality.

It is all in vain, however, to hope for anything
like amelioration in gas lighting, until the legisla-
ture are convinced of the gross injustice to which
the whole community are exposed at the hands of
light monopolists, who are encouraged and sus-
tained in all their worst tricks by the powers con-
ferred on them in their Acts of Incorporation.
Parliament are as much in the dark with respect
to this discription of light as they were forty years
They know nothing beyond what they hear
from engineers, gasholder, pipe, and meter makers,
coal owners, landed proprietors, secretaries, diree-
tors, town-councilmen, and other local function-
aries; and until we can get either the House of
Lords or Commons to take the matter up, and
pass some comprehensive act, embracing all the
injustice now so loudly complained of, we can
hope for little more than being able to
keep the subject alive, by giving publicity
to all the cases of hardship which come under our
notice. The House of Commons is at this moment
legislating on a number of gas bills, and Mr.
BROTHERTON, the member for Salford, has now
an opportunity of showing the country how far his
liberalism extends in dealing with the pockets of
the trading and industrial classes. That honour-
able member has an instinctive horror of Town
Dues, and we will wait to see whether he has the
same antipathy to extortinate gas bills, and on
what grounds he would justify a maximum of Os.
per thousand in one town, and 3s. 61 in another !
Such things have been done repeatedly in the
course of one session of Parliament, if not by one
committee, and when the people neglect to bring

their representatives to account on this question,
we shall have no redress, and that which, for moral,
sanitary, and all other domestic uses, ought to be
next in cheapness to the light of Heaven, will be
dealt out to us through fraudulent measures, and
by the hands of tricksters who have been allowed
to batten for so many years on the credulity of their
millions of victims.

companies, on tn

TIM NORTIIERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 18S6.

MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY EVENING

There has been very great activity in the Liver-
pool Cotton Market to-day, and a large business
has been done; the sales amounting to 30,000
bales, of which 20,000 have been taken by the
trade, and the remainder for speculation and
export. Prices must be quoted id per lb higher
than on Friday last.
The Liverpool Share Market opened buoyantly
this morning, and continued to improve until the
afternoon, when it again became more quiet, and
prices rather easier. The closing quotations were
--Aberdeen, 131 134. Chester and Birken-
head, 154 164. Caledonian, 301 303. Chester
and Holyhead, 16a 164. -Eastern Counties, 1011
101. East Lancashire, 19i 191. Great Northern,
23a 231. Ditto A, 94 101. Great Western,
64 65. Lancashire and Yorkshire Stock,
89 891. Liverpool, Crosby, and Southport,
17 171. London and North Western
Stock, 1014 1011. Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincoln, 29 291. Ditto Pref., 113- 111. Ditto
New 6 per cent. Pref., 7-16 9-16 p. Midland Stock,
75 751. North British, 84 81. North Stafford-
shire, 651 d. South Eastern and Dover, 214 22.
York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 191 194. York
and North Midland, 28k 281. Leeds Capital
Stock, 154 16. Buffalo and Lake Huron, 14 2p.
Dutch ;Rhenish, 11 14p. Ditto New Shares, 31
3;p. Great Western of Canada, 251 26. Ditto
New Shares, 34 3 3-16 p. Ditto 2nd issue, 31
3 3-16 p. Great Luxembourg, 74 7*d.
Letters from Copenhagen mention that the
report stating that the English government had
refused to sanction the capitalisation of the Sound
dues is incorrect. It ap.pears that they merely
wished to modify the proposition. The Cabinet of
Copenhagen has communicated the particulars of
the counter proposition on the part of the British
government, which stipulates that the sum of
35,000,000 thalers demanded by Denmark as their
proportion of the capitalisation, be paid in fifteen
or twenty instalments of two millions or one and
three-quarter millions each.
Accounts from Russia state that the prohibition
of exporting gold and silver is to be maintained;
although there are other modifications in the tariff
of a free-trade character. It is mentioned that a
convoy has just passed through Nischui Novgorod
on its way to St. Petersburg from Siberia, with 61
poods of gold (about 310,000 ounces, and 320 poods
of silver (about 153,000 ounces). The official
report of the quantity exported from the RuFsian
dominions in 1854 was 1,490 poods 181bs, 72 solot-
nicks and 44 doli, against 85 poods, 411bs, 23 solot-
nicks, and 43 doli in 1855. This return does not
include the quantity raised in the mines belonging
to the Emperor.
Accounts from Trieste state that wools are in
great demand there, in consequence of a large de-
mand for the English market. Holders of stocks
have stood out for an advance and obtained it.
Sales of 1,050 bales white Albanian realised from
32 florins to 341-, 340 bales from Scutari of lambs'
from 48 to 50 florins, and a lot of coarser quality
from Bosnia brought from 37 to 41 florins.
The remarkable defeat of the directors of the
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, at the meet-
ing on Thursday last, has led to the resignation of
the entire board, which comprises Messrs. Thomas
Baring, Russell Ellice, C. E. Mangles, John
Masterman, and other gentlemen of eminence.
A meeting is to be called for the election of new
directors as early as possible. In many quarters,
however, an impression prevails in favour of the
re-election of the present directors.
The business of the week closed on the Paris
Bourse with a fall of 20c in the 3 per Cent Rentes
for Money, while other national securities re-
mained unaltered. There has been very little
doing in the French Funds during the week, as
capitalists and speculators have been directing
their attention chiefly to Railway Shares. The
market closed with a rise in Orleans of 25f ; East
of France (Old), sf; Ditto (New), 10f; Lyons,
27f 50c ; Mediterranean, 15f; Geneva, sf; and a
fall in North of France of sf, and West Swiss of 20f.
Bank of France Stock closed with a decline of
150 f, making a total fall of 300 f during the week
on the previous rise of 550 f. Credit Mobilier
Shares were in demand at an advance of 10f.

The funds to-day were rather quiet, especially in
the afternoon, business remaining dull, and
attention chiefly directed to the settlement of the
account in shares and foreign stocks. The decline,
however, did not exceed 8 per cent, the closing
quotations being 931 93a. The market is chiefly
regulated by the continued dearness of money and
by the steady creation of stock. The tendency of
speculation, however, continues in an upward
direction. At Paris to:day the three per cent
rentes closed at a fresh decline of to 4 per cent
owing to a preponderance of speculative realisa.
tions. • The Blackbird, from Melbourne, with.
87,284 ounces of gold on freight, put into Pernam-
buco on the 11th Maich, and sailed again on the
14th for London On Saturday the rates of insur.
ante on this vessel had risen to 5/ 5s per cent at
Lloyds. In Mark-lane to-day, English wheat
ruled 3s to 4s lower than on Monday last ; in foreign,
the decline was 2s to ss, in flour 2s per sack. The
French markets are generally reported lower, owing
partly, to large sales of American produce. The
railway shares to day was, generally, well supported.
The closing quotations of Railway Shares stood as
follows :—Caledonian, 61 61i. Eastern Counties,
10 1-16 10 3.16 East Lancashire, 76 78. Great
Northern, 94 941. Ditto A, 782 791. Great Western,
64k 65. Lancashire and Yorkshire, 888 89k.
London and North Western, 1011 102. Man-
chester Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 29 292.
Midland Stock, 74f, 75k. North British, 35 352.
South Eastern and Dover, 721 73k. York, New-
castle, and Berwick, 782 79g. York and North
Midland, 562 57.

LADIES' COLLEGE, 13 LACIEBITRNE HoUSE.—A lecture on
Modern German Poetry will be given by Dr. Carl Retslag,
to-morrow afternoon, at ten minutes past three.
COMMUTATION OP SENTENCE.--Wall and Carr, the two
men left at Liverpool to be hanged for the murder of a
seaman by strangulation, have had their sentences commuted
to transportation for life.
NEW WESLEYAN ASSOCIATION MISSION.—The annual
public meeting of this association was held last night in the
Russell•street Chapel. Addresses were delivered by th•
Revds. J. Nicholas (New Connexion Minister), W. Patterson,
T. Newton, &c., &c. _

THE PASSAGE OF THE PERSIA.--It appears that the
passage of this splendid vessel was only nine days twelve
hours and seven minutes, she not having left New York
until forty five minutes past three P.M. on the 2nd, instead
of at twelve o'clock noon the usual hour.
FATAL AccmENT.—Yesterday about one o'clock a poor
old woman was crossing from the Adelphia Hotel towards
Brownlow-hill, when shy was ran over by a shandry, and
killed on the spot. The driver was taken into custody, and
awaits the inquiry this day h _fore the coroner.

AstERICAls'Mh-aLs.—The United States steamer, Ericsson,
with mails, &c., will sail for New York to-morrow.
Letters, &c. will be received at the General Post Office up
to half-past six, and with late fees to half-past seven in the
morning. The box at the Landing-stage will be open for
letters, with late fees, up to half-past eight o'clock.

THE PoaT OF LIVERPOOL.-.-Moit conclusive evidence of
the wonderful increase in the commerce of this port is
afforded by the fact that, on Saturday last, there were dis-
charging in the docks, from foreign ports, 229 vessels,
whose united measurement amounted to 168,304 tons, or an
average of 735 tons per vessel. This return (which we have
obtained from official sources) does not include those vessels
which arrived on Friday and Saturday, nor in the Birken-
head docks. The number of vessels there discharging
amount to ten—representing 3,052 tons.
ACCIDENTAL AND SUDDEN DEATLIS.—On Saturday even
ing a child, named Thomas Culbert, aged five years, was
ran over in Park-road by a car, driven by a man, named
John Pickersgill, and died from the effects of the injuries.
Bernard Morgan, a labourer, fell into the hold of a ship,
and died from the effects of the injuries received. Elizabeth
Fenwick, the wife of an eating-house keeper, who resides
in Park-lane, died suddenly yesterday in Scotland-road. It
appears that the deceased did not reside with her husband,
and that she went to visit a friend in Scotland-road yester-
day, when she was seized with a fit and died. Inquests will
be held on the above cases this day.
ARREST OF AN ESCAPED FEMALE CONVICT IN LIVER-
POOL.—On the 19th February last, Mary Leonard, a
female convict in Ilorsemonger-lane gaol, London, con-
trived, by the exercise of much boldness and ingenuity, to
elude the vigilance of the officials of the prison, and to
effect her escape from it. She was tried and convicted in
August, 1855, for robbery from the person, and was
sentenced to six years' penal servitude, and, at the time of
her escape, was undergoing the term of her punishment in
the above prison. She delighted in a number of aliases,
and, under the shelter of one of them, came to Liverpool,
to enjoy her newly gained freedom. Unhappily for her,
our Liverpool detectives are too lynx• eyed, and she was
arrested while in bed yesterday morning, in a house in
Mill-place, Hill-street, Park, by Inspector Murphy, of
the detective force, by whom she will be taken back to
London to day. She is 29 years of ago, and a native of
Sheffield,