The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-26 00:00:00

THE RE LIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY

A meeting of the friends and supporters of the Liverpool
Auxiliary to the London Religious Tract Society was held
at half-past six o'clock, last evening, in Hope Hall, Hope
street There was a very thin a' tendance. The chair was
occupied by Thomas Berry Etorsfall, Esq., M.P., and amour,
the other gentlemen preseat were —.Revs. Dr. Raffles, C. 111.
Btrrell, W. Hanna, W. Graham, S. M. Saffery, (Parent
Society,) &c., &c.
After prayer had been offered up by the Rev. Mr.

Larcae,

The Chairman said : I have very great pleasure in
accepting the honour which was proposed to me, in taking
the chair this evening, because I am day by day more and
more convinced of the great importance of meeting, through
the instrumentality of this and kindred societies, that great
demand for food for the mind, which is the characteristic
of the present day amongst every class of society. I have
no hesitation in saying, so far as I am competent to form
an opinion, I know of no society more calculated to afford
wholesome food than the Religious Tract Society. (Hear,
hear.) And, although there aro those here who will
address you at length, and state to you the details of the
operations of the society, yet I cannot forbear stating, in a
few words, my cordial and sincere attachment to the
principles of it. (Hear, hear.) I admire its con.
stitution—l admire its operations—l admire its
catholic principle. There is nothing sectarian in
its character, It embraces in its members all those who
hold the great truths of the Gospel. From amongst its
Members are selected a committee; that committee appoint
a sub committee, and no publication is issued by this society
which has not received the greatest consideration and
attention—(hear, hear)—to avoid anything that could
infringe eithet upon the catholic spirit of the society,
or that would be at variance with the great
doctrines 'of the Gospel. (Hear, bear) I need not
tell you of the usefulness of this society. There
is hardly a religious association in existence which
does not acknowledge the importance of the Religious Tract
Society. All our missionary societies are assisted by it—
all our schools are assisted by it. It makes grants to seamen,
to emigrants, to colonial settlers, and and many others. Put
perhaps those who heed glreii and ean give the best testi-
ming to the usefulness of the Religious Tract Society, are
those who have undertaken the duties of district visiting, and
I may add to these the agents of the city mission. It was
only last evening that I was conversing with a gentleman
who takes a great ihtereet in the London City Mission,
I happened to mention to him that I was going to take the
chair at the meeting of the tract society tonight. He said,
"It is a most important society, and I will just tell you
what took place, or rather a remark that was made by one
of the City London Missionaries with whom I was Convere
sing the other evening," nit district is in the neighbour-
hood of the Cattle Market, and my friend was rather
complaining of his circulating so many tracts. " Why, sir,"
he said, " I might as well not go at all as go without the
tracts—half my usefulness would be gone." I said there
could be tri better testithony of the usefulness of the
publications of the Religious Tract Society. (Hear, hear.)
It is not my province to take up your time by giving you
opinions of my own. I would rather like you to hear the
opinions of those who have come to address us this
evening, but I must say there is not one colony con-
nected with this conntry—there is not a country on the face
of the earth to which these tracts have not been sent, and
from which Sortie evidence df usefulness has not been received.
(Hear, hear.) With these few remarks, earnestly commend-
ing the society to your attention, I would only just observe
that there are two blanches of accounts kept by the society
—one, I believe, called the sale account, arid the other the
free circulation account. The sale account pays its ex-
penses ; the free circulation account looks to you for support.
I earnestly hope, therefore, that you will kindly give your
attention to the statements which will now be made to you
by those kind friends who have come forward to address us,
and hope the result of their labours will be not only an
increased collection in behalf of the soeiety, but an increas,
ing and continued interest irk promoting its objects. (Ap-
plause.)
From the report, which was read by the Rev, Mr. Graham,
it appeared that 700,000 tracts, of the money value of
£1,122 ss. 61, were distributed by the Liverpool auxiliary
during the past year.
The meeting was then addressed by, the Rev. Mr. Lowe,
Rev. Mr. Saffery, and Rev. Mr. Richardson, the two
gentlemen composing the dvutation. A collection was
made in aid of the funds of the society

MURDER FROM DISAPPOINTED LOVR.—LEICESTER, Mon-
day.—This morning, a man named Wedge, a bricklayer's
labourer, was hrought before the mayor and sitting magis-
trates at the town hall, charged with the wilful murder of
Eliza Bond, by administering poison to her. It appeared
that the prisoner had for some time been paying his addresses
to the deceased ; but, a few weeks ago, she gave him notice
that his attentions would no longer be acceptable, and the
prisoner was supplanted by another party. He then declared
ho svoula pvioou the young ',Yuman. r,asc Naturaay evening
he Walt in her company, and offered to fetch her a bottle of
Scotch ale, to which she consented ; but, immediately after
partaking of it, complained of feeling ill, and died the follow-
ing morning. The circumstances of her death led to suspicion
being entertained of poisoning by strychnine, and the priso-
ner was consequently apprehended. Only the bare facts of
the case were given in evidence yesterday morning ; and the
prisoner, who denied the charge, was remanded. A coroner's
inquest will, however, be held this evening, when medical
evidence will be adduced as to the cause of death.

tCONTINENTAL CHECKS ON POISONING.—In France the
chief safeguard is a restriction upon the sale of all medi-
cines to properly qualified pharmaciens, who must prove
a regular and general standard of proficiency before they
receive their license. In Austria all powerful medicines,
though not commonly considered as poisons, are marked
with a dagger (t) in the Pharmacopoeia, and such medi-
cines cannot be sold legally without medical authority.
Throughout Italy the sale of medicines and poisons is
strictly limited to the licensed farmaeista. In Prussia,
the smaller German States, and Sweden, the Government
exercises a direct control over the manner: in which the
pharmacies are conducted and poisons sold. In Switzer-
land it is one of the functions of the Board of Health to
take precautionary measures against the sale of poisons.
The wholesale supply of poisonous drirgs and preparations
is permitted to properly qualified retailers, but the latter
are obliged to keep such substances in a separate part of
the premises, and are not allowed to sell them without the
written authority of a medical man, a mayor, or a police
officer. The name of the purchaser must be entered in a
book, and a label must be attached to the poison bottle or
paper, stating " the name and quality of the substance,
the name:and address of:the vendor, the quantity sold, and
the purpose to which it is to be applied.' The purchaser
must sign his name in a book, or have his mark attested,
and this register, with the written order for poisons, must
be preserved and produced on the requisition of the
authorities.--Ifedicca Times and Gazette.

IRON LATTICE BRIDGE FOR TETE EAST INDIAN RAIL-
wAy.—A bridge of a somewhat novel construction is now
being made in this country for the East Indian Railway.
It is intended to cross the river Soane, one of the tribu.
taries of the Ganges, and when completed will be nearly a
mile in length. There will be 29 piers, and the span from
pier to pier will be 150 feet, being about 26 feet more than
the span of the arches of the High Level Bridge at New-
castle-upon-Tyne, Like that structure, it will consist of
two roadways, the upper one for the railway, the lower
one for foot passengers and palanquin bearers, the height
from the lower to the upper way being 26 feet. The
peculiarity of the construction is that the two roadways
are fastened together, and 'supported by latticework of
wrought iron, combining great strength, with a light and
elegant appearance. The bars are of channel iron, and
cross each other diagonally, being firmly riveted together
at each crossing. One complete arch has just been con-
structed at the Eli wick Engine Works, Newcastle, by
way of experiment, and the result is satisfactory. The
entire weight is one hundred and twenty tons. It was
made with a slight curve, two inches higher than a dead
level, and when tested with a weight of 362 tons, it only
went down two inches below the level, or four inches
altogether at the centre. The separate lengths or arches
will rest at each end on five rollers of cast iron, to allow
of expansion and contraction, according to the variations
of the temperature. The engineer engaged in the con-
struction of this bridge is Mr. George Rendel, of London.
As soon as the bridge is completed it will be taken to
pieces, in order to be shipped, and will be re-constructed
in India.
SALE OF SLAVES AT NEW ORLEANS.—The .Neta Orleans
Bulletin of the 20th October, says :—Passing through the
Arcade Saloon, we noticed at one of the auction stands a
negro girl up for sale, and around a closely-packed crowd
that appeared to be deeply interested in what was going on.
Curiosity led us to pause and inquire what was the cause of
the apparent excitement. The bids were going on in a
spirited manner, and generally at an advance of only 5 dols
a bid, and at every bid the eyes of the crowd would quickly
turn in the direction whence the bid proceeded, the in.
terest and excitement being in the meantime upon the
increase. The girl, a bright, intelligent mulatress, about
14 years old, was evidently not indifferent to what was tran-
spiring. There was a moisture in her eyes, but they
assumed an expression which indicated that she felt some
anxiety in regard to the result of the sale, which is not
generally the case. As the bid reached near a thousand
dollars the excitement became intense, and as that figure
was called a spontaneous hiss was heard from one end of
the room to the other, followed by a vehement shout of
" Turn him out !" ‘. Turn him out !" A rush was made
for the door ; the hammer had fallen, and the girl also,
into the arms of her mother, who had become her purchaser.
The explanation of it all was that the woman had been
freed by her owner, and had earned money enough to buy
her child, the mulatress in question, who, being a very
valuable servant, several persons were anxious to obtain
her, but they, with one exception, had pledged the mother
that they would not bid against her, and they honourably
kept their faith. It was the conduct of this one, who was ,
bidding against the mother, which so excited and ex- ;
asperated the crowd on this occasion. The man made
good his escape—fortunately so for him, we think, as we
heard sundry expressions about lynching, &c., as the crowd
camemneh back to
o tbaylkthoo joy of
over thehamviantgter. The mother was so
possession of her child that she
Swooned
succeeded
away, andta ini nagscarried out of the saloon. We may add that the sale was a
succession sale, and was not designed to be anything more
in retaining
than nominal, and nobody intended that the mother should
be deprived of her child.