The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-28 00:00:00

THE COURT.

WINDSOR, DEC. 25.—The Queen and the Prince, the
Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and Princess Alice, the
la dies and gentlemen of the Court and the domestic house-
hold, attended divine service this morning in the private
chapel of the Castle. The Duchess of Kent was also at the
service. The Hon. and Rev. G. Wellesley officiated, and ad-
ministered the holy sacrament.

His Highness Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg and suite
arrived at Mivart's Hotel, on Saturday, from Germany, en
route to Windsor Castle, on a visit to his illustrious relatives,
the Queen and the Prince Consort.
The Earl of Clarendon returned to London on Saturday,
from Windsor. Castle.
It is reported that either the Earl of Radnor or the Earl of
Albermarle will succeed the Duke of Norfolk as Lord
Steward, his Grace's health not being equal to the duties.
The Earl and Countess of Derby are seeing company at
Knowsley. The health of the noble earl has of late greatly
imprcved.
The preliminaries for the union of the Hon. Harriet Han-
bury, eldest daughter of the late Lord Bateman, with George
Dashwood, Esq., late Captain in the 71st Foot, and second
son of Sir George Dashwood, Bart., of Kirtlington Park,
Oxfordshire, have been completed.—Hereford Tunes.

On Christmas-day, the boys in the Blue Coat hospital
school, were each regaled with their usual treat of mince-
pies ; and yesterday, a holiday was given them, when a
gentleman belonging to the committee liberally presented
a plentifully supply of fruit. For this kindness, the boys
expressed their grateful acknowledgments.
MIDNIGHT MASS.—Amongst the numerous cases brought
before the magistrates yesterday, under the charge of being
" drunk and disorderly," was Mary Jackson, who, it was
alleged, had created a disturbance at Copperas-hill Catholic
Chapel, during the midnight mass, which took place there
on Saturday night. The defendant, in her defence, stated
she went to the chapel for the purpose of attending the ser-
vice, but as th ey oontanaoa Oonic ILLUIIey sue refused- to give
tt to: hear the word of God, and was given into custody.
The magistrate fined the defendant 5s for annoying the con-
gregation, upon which she said she would never attend such
a place again.
CHRISTMAS CHEER TO THE POOR IN MANCHESTER
WORSHOUSE.—On Christmas day the inmates of the Man-
chester workhouse, to the number of about 1250,were plenti-
fully regaled with an excellent:dinner of roast beef and plum
pudding. To each person a moderate supply of ale was
sere ed out, and all seemed to enjoy to the utiriost, and with
the most grateful feelings, the repast provided for them at
this festive season by their considerate and philanthropic
benefactors.
The Ursula ship left the Mersey yesterday for Para,
having on. board 40 male passengers, including four en-
gineers, who are to be employed on the railway about to be
constructed at Para. They were all on board. on Sunday,
and there partook of a substantial Christmas dinner,
upplied from the Mans ion House Hotel.
CAPTAIN NORTON—RIPLE-SHOOTING.—ThiS gentleman,
who had laid claim to the invention termed the Minie rifle
ball, writes the following challenge through the Cork papers :
—My late experiments, with my elongated rifle-shot, rifle
percussion-shell, and rifle fire-shot or spinster, fired from my
rifle canon, were so successful, that I now challenge to the
contest all spherical shot and spherical percussion-shells,
however great the " secret" of the latter, and I have no
doubt but that I shall beat them in the three great essentials
of range, accuracy of flight, and certainty of explosion on
striking the object. Also, that my rifle fire-shot, or spinster,
will beat the rocket, bombs, and carcasses, as well as all the
other projectiles for incendiary purposes. The three abeve-
mentioned projectiles are forwarded to the U. S. Institution,
Scotland-yard, London.
GUANO DEPOSITS.--Dr. Peacock, F.R.G.S., of South-
ampton, who has visited the shore of Peru exploring the
guano deposits supplies the following information which
seems more favorable than that of the admiral on the sta-
tion :—I estimated in 1844 that the quantity remaining on
the northern island alone, was at least ten million of tons;
although it had been worked by the Indians from time im-
memorial, and although a very large quantity had been
removed since the permission of its first exportation to
Europe in 1841, besides the immense quantities that had
been used by the Peruvian farmers since the conquest. At
this time (1844) I measured the cliff of pure guano lying in
a north-east and south-west direction, where it had been
worked in upon from the north-west verge of the rocky
basement towards the middle ridge of the island, I found it
to be 85 feet perpendicular, and I calculated that by the
time the workings has reached the summit or crown of the
hill it would be at least 100 feet in section to the rocky
base, all pure guano. I did not examine the other two
islands, merely landing on them, the deposits there not
having at that time been opened upon ; but Senor Villa,
who examined them in 1842, declared that they contained,
in his opinion, considerably larger quantities than the north-
ern island, the middle oue being the largest of the three.
A rough estimate was formed that from 40 to 50 millions
of tons existed on this group. Senor Don Francisco de
Rivera, the late charge d'affaires of Peru in London,
found that valleys filled with guano to the level of the sur-
rounding hill of this material, upwards of 120 feet in depth,
existed in the Chincha group, and that the quantity might
be said to be inagotable, or practically inexhaustible, during
the present generation. lam therefore inclined to think,
with all due deference to Admiral Moresby's report, that
Mr. M'lntosh may be mistaken in his calculation. However,
independent of these immense deposits on the Chincha
Group, the Lobos, Guanape, Huaura, and other islands
upon the north-west coast of Peru were estimated by me
to contain some five millions of tons of it, at the least;
whilst that truly wonderful sugar-loaf shaped peninsula,
the Pavilion de Pica, in- the province of Tarapaca, still
contains some four millions of tons : and whilst the
Huanillas, Chipana, Punta Lobos, and other known guaneros
on the south coast of Peru, between Iquique and the river
Loa, contain some four or five millions more amongst them.
Thus, independent of the Chinchas, there are some thirteen
or fourteen millions of tons of this invaluable manure still
known to exist, and I am therefore of opinion that the
holders of Peruvian stock need be under no apprehension
of their guarantee falling. short whilst the demand for this
indispensable article remains practically inexhaustible, as I
firmly believe with Senores Rivera and Villa, it to be. It
may be said that some of these deposits cannot be worked,
owing to the difficulty of approach from the constant rolling
swell of the Pacific, but while in Peru, I invented machinery
called "a flying railway," purposely for shipping guano
from any one of the deposits enumerated, which was practi-
cally tested in 1840 and in 1845. One of these railways
has been recently prepared in London, nearly three-quarters
of a mile in length, under the superintendence of Messrs.
Liddell and Gordon, engineers, Westminster, and sent out
to the coast of Peru.
INQUEST.—BRUTAL CONDUCT.-_A coroner's inquest was held
on Monday, at the Wheat Sheaf, Wakefield-road, Bradford,
on the body of a male child, belonging to Mary Hollins, a
married woman. From the evidence it appeared that about
one o'clock on Saturday morning last, as police-constable
Holmes was on duty in Queen-street, Broomfields, he met a
woman carrying a bundle, and inquired what she had got in
it. She at first refused to tell, but upon his insisting, she
related a tale of wretchedness and misery sufficient to cause
the blood to curdle in one's veins. She informed him that,
while at the lodging of a friend, she had been taken in labor,
and delivered of a male child, which the brutal occupant of
the house, named John Ball, threw out into the street, and
immediately after drove herself out also. Holmes then
informed Sergeant Laycock of Mrs. Hollins' statement, and
set out immediately for Ball's house, which was a perfect den
of filth. After some searching the body of the child was
found covered with mud and dirt. A surgeon was then sent
for, who did all in his power to alleviate the sufferings of the
poor woman. He examined the body of the child, and, in
evidence at the inquest, stated that in his opinion the child
had been still-born, and that was the result of priva-
tion and want. The jury returned a verdict in accordance
with that opinion. The husband of Mrs. Hollins, it appears,
left this country for America in June last, and she has never
heard anything of him since that time. •He left her in com-
plete want, and she has since continued in that state having
been scarcely able to "keep soul and body together" by the
scanty earnings she occasionally made as a charwoman. She
had applied to the board of guardians on Friday week, to be
admitted into the union workhouse, but was refused any
assistance. The poor woman, at the point of starvation and
on the eve of her confinement, having been thus rejected by
them whose duty it was to relieve her in her critical and
delicate situation, turned away to beg a pittance from some
of her acquaintances ; and it was in the lodging of one of
them, a niece of her own, that she was delivered of her child.
We do think that guardians might sometimes look into cases
of this nature with some degree of care so that the narra-
tion of distressing occurrences of this kind might be spared
the ears of the inhabitants of a civilised and Christian country.
TIER MAJESTY'S VISITS TO PA RLIA 111 ENT. THB
ROYAL SA L UTE. —lt having been determined that in future,
on those occasions when her most gracious majesty shall viei
tho House of Parliament for the purpose of inaugurating the
session, or for the prorogation of the sittings, that the royal
salute shall be fired in St, James's Park, the necessary ar-
rangements were yesterday completed for conveying the signal
from the lobby of the Victoria Tower to the lodge facing the
Horse Guards by electricity. The submarine telegraph cent.
pany having been applied to, they have carried out the neces-
sary operations for connecting the two pdints. The wires run
from the Park to the foot of the staircase leading up to the
royal gallery in the House of Lords. The instrument by which
the telegraph is worked is here placed in a niche, while in a
chamber below are deposited the batteries necessary for pro-
during the current of electricity. There will be two signals
given—one to make ready as her majesty approaches the house,
and the other to fire as she enters. The royal salute is usually
fired on the Queen setting foot in the house, and hitherto it
has been discharged from the yard of Mr. Serle, the boat-
Wunder, on the opposite side of the river. The system of
signalling was then found to be very unsatisfactory—one party
!laving to be stationed in the lobby, who communicated with a
second at the foot of the Victoria Tower, who in turn signalled
a third person placed on the summit of the tower, by whom a
flag was waved, and thus an intimation was conveyed to the
gunners in the boat yard. To obviate this unnecessary delay,
and occupation of so many persons, the agency of the electric
telegraph has beau called into operation.