The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-07 00:00:00

DAYLIGHT REFLECTORS

TT having come to the knowledge of C. TROUPEAtT,
the Original Inventor, and sole Patentee of the
DIURNAL REFLECTOR, manufacturer by
.Appointment
to Her Majesty, that one of his late servants, viz.. Chappuis,
is infringing his patent in some large provincial towns, and
the said Chappius having been formally declared an un-
principled defaulter to Charles Troupeau, as the subjoined
extract from the award of C. Hance, Esq., barrister and ar-
bitrator in the matter of Troupeau v. Chappuis, proves :
Charles Troupeau, relying on the utility of his invention and
his own integrity, respectfully solicits the patronage of the
Public, in the conviction that they will not countenance
fraud in any shape or mode, or by whomsoever practised.
EXTRACT:

" In an action in her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, the
said arbitrator has awarded and ordered, viz.:
" Ist.—That full payment be made by Chappuis to Ch.
Troupeau, of the moneys received and wrongfully detained
by Chappuis on balance of account, viz., £175.
"2nd.—The restitution of the Diurnal Reflectors, metal,
frames, various fittings and goods, wrongfully detained by
the said Chappuis, to the extent, in the aggregate, of 1746
square feet,. _ _

3rd.—That £5O Damages be paid by Chappuis to
Charles Troupeau, for certain breaches of duty, and breaches
of promises, committed by the said Chappuis, while acting
as Agent to Charles Troupeau.
" 4th.—That the whole costs of the proceedings and of the
award be paid by the said Chappuis."
Head Office at London, Chas. Troupeau, 22, Middle-row,
Holborn. Head Office at Paris. 4, Cite Trevise.

Prospectuses, and all particulars, free of charge, on appli-
cation to William Bennett, Manager, 55, Mount Pleasant,
Liverpool

Wednesday, November 2

Commarfal /mitt

TUESDAY

On account of whom it may concern

On Tuesday next, the Bth instant, at the Corn Sales-room,
Brunswick-street, at half-past One o'clock,
About 10,168 Bushels WHEAT,
more or lass damaged by sea water, ex " Conti nen t," from
New York. Apply to Mr. JOHN DOHERTY, Merchant, or
WILLIAM GARDNER & Co., Brokers

Modern and genteel HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, Gas
Chandelier, Dinner Service, China, Glass, Timepiece, and
Effects of a Lady declining Housekeeping.
MR, GRICE will SELL by AUCTION, this day, Mon-
day, October the 7th instant, at Eleven o'clock prompt,
on the Premises, 17, St. Anne-street, the whole of the
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, comprising, in the Dining-
room and Parlour, two sets of modern chairs, a capital sofa,
one ditto with spring seat, mahogany sideboard in very fine
order, cabinet and bookcase, chiffionniere, handsome chimney
glasses, Brussels and Kidderminster carpets, Turkey rugs,
fenders, fire irons, oblong 100 tables, a round ditto, of very fine
wood, capital telescope dining table, on massive carved legs,
easy chair in leather, one ditto in hair cloth, chimney orna-
ments, china, glass, dinner service, gas chandelier, &c. The
Bad-chambers are furnished with massive mahogany four-post
bedsteads and hangings, several half-tester, French, and nur-
sery ditto, prime seasoned feather beds, mahogany winged
wardrobe, handsome tray glasses, pair of mahogany dressing
tables and stands, Lair and wool mattresses, and the appropriate
Painted chamber articles; Kitchen Utensils; - very handsome
hatstand, stair carpets, oil cloth, meat safe, spring dial, and
other articles of doniestia use. _ _ _ _ _

May bo viewed 747 Z; morning of sale, and catalogues had
foul Mr. Chico, 40i-Iftlitech4Po, -

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1853

THE Mersey has already beaten all her rivals in
ocean steam navigation. A screw steam ship built
on the Mersey, and the property of a Liverpool
company, has performed one of the longest ocean
voyages in the shortest space of time. This is a
victory. The Braziliera has won it, and to beat
her is what her rivals have to accomplish. This
noble vessel sailed from this port on the 24th of
August, and has accomplished the passage to Buenos
Ayres and back, a distance of 14,000 miles, in the
short space of seventy-three days including stop-
pages. Her average speed coming home was 240
miles per diem, but she has run as many as 286
miles in the day. What will our neighbours of
the Clyde think of this? Our American friends
must also improve their hands at screw-steam navi-
gation before they can equal the Braziliera in an
ocean voyage. The fashionable waters of South-
hampton must be stirred by a Mersey screw, if
their pretensions to patronage and favour are to be
sustained.

The .Braziliera has, in fact, to be equalled and
beaten before we shall cease to claim for this port
that consideration to which it is entitled. We have
here a ship built in our river and sailed by a Liver-
pool company, which is little more than a private
firm, unaided, unpatronisecl, and unsustained by
exhorbitant contracts or favours of any kind, and
yet they have by private enterprise, as it were,
produced a vessel capable of doing more than any
of the mail steamers are able to perform.
In doing this, the owners of the Braziliera have
confirmed the high enterprising spirit of our towns-
men, while the builders of their noble vessel have
established the superiority of our port in many of
those high qualities which have defeated the
genius of every other portion of the British empire.
If we feel a just pride in recording such an
achievement, what must the South American and
General Steam Navigation Company feel in being
entitled to hoist the flag of triumph at the mast-
head of the noble Braziliera.

If a vessel which embodies all the recognised
defects as well as advantages of the present
school of construction and propulsion, can touch
an average speed of, say 9 knots an hour on an
ocean voyage, what may we not hope to see accom-
plished when that enterprise and science which has
done so much, shall apply itself still further to the
work of overcoming the great practical difficulties
which surround the all-important subject of steam
navigation ;—when undulatory and oscillating ac-
tion shall be encountered and successfully over-
come; when immersion shall be no longer a pre-
vailing source of danger and disaster, and when
the propulsive force of the screw and paddle shall
equal the power exerted by the piston ?
To accomplish these immense and obviously
necessary improvements, is the task set before our
professors of marine architecture and nautical
engineers. The Mersey, to be great, must be first.
No pigmy effort will meet the giant demands of
this progressive era. The Clyde has carried away
a vast trade which belonged legitimately to this
port. The time she has occupied in the study of
improvements, both in the construction of vessels
and marine propellers, has hitherto given her a
great, advantage ; but in all that they have done as
yet we have but little to apprehend for the future.
The Braziliera's fame will spread far and wide. to
answer the most distant inquiries for ships of the
first class.

The arrangements which have been recently
made by our leading ship builders, to carry on
an enlarged trade, will be a great advantage to

our port. The increased demand for shipping
has doubtless led to this commencement of busi-
ness on an extended scale, and all we shall, ere
long, have to lament, is that the initiative was not
taken some years' ago. As for the success of what
is now about to be done, there is not the smallest
room for doubt. Ships of the largest size are re-
quired, and in vast numbers. The statistics of
British shipping, which have just been published,
show that the size of our ships has been increasing
yearly.

In 1814, the average capacity of all the ships
constructed in the United Kingdom, was 122 tons;
while in 1852 the average capacity had nearly
doubled, it being set down at 235 tons. Here,
although the aggregate of new tonnage has nearly
doubled, the figures being 86,075 tons in 1815,
against 167,491 in 1852, the number of vessels
built every year has remained nearly the same—
the total being 706 in 1815, and 712 in 1852. In
the returns of colonial-built ships, the demand for
vessels of increased tonnage is still more obsery
able, the average capacity having been 84 tons
only, in 1815, against 207 tons in 1851. The
colonies, however, have not only shared with us in
the demand for ships of increased capacity, but
they have also built a much greater number. In
1815 they only built 131 vessels, with an aggregate
capacity of 11,069 tons, while in 1851 they built no
less than 680 vessels, with a total capacity of

The number of vessels belonging to the several
ports of the British empire, in 1814 was 24,418,
with an aggregate capacity of 2,616,965 tons, em-
ploying '172,786 men and boys. Last year, the
number was 34,402 vessels, with a tonnage of
4,424,392 tons, employing 243,512 men and boys.
During the interval of 39 years, therefore, the
increase of vessels was equal to 41 per cent., of
tonnage to 72 per cent., and of men to 40 per cent.,
the increase in capacity, and partial improvements
in construction, causing a slight economy in the
number of persons employed. The number of
foreign ships purchased by British owners since
the repeal of the Navigation Laws, was—in 1850,
57, with a capacity of 10,499 tons; in 1851, 26,
with a capacity of 6,049 tons, and in 1852, 28, with
a capacity of 6,724 tons.
If Liverpool had bestirred herself in time, our town
might have participated, to a large extent, in this
most remunerative branch of trade. But the
building of ships is not the only advantage which
accrues to a sea-port. The number of hands to
which ships give employment, is a matter of
paramount importance. It is impossible, therefore,
to over - estimate the benefits likely to arise
from achievements such as those of the Braziliera.
Increased speed, and burthen-carrying capacity,
are the desiderata of the age, and the port which
can offer the greatest share of either or both, will
take the lead, and trade also in ship-building.

FEW can doubt but that our social system is, in
many respects, materially defective, and essentially
needs, if not absolute changes, at least consider-
able modifications. Several of the evils which
afflict society, have grown upon it unawares ; and
have been induced by an unavoidable necessity.
The labouring classes in large towns, for instance,
are compelled to herd together like brutes, in
low, filthy neighbourhoods, where the light of
HEAVEN scarcely penetrates—where the air is im-
pregnated with mephitic exhalations,—and where,
consequently, Typhus and Cholera, with all their
" demon horde," hold perpetual carnival! And
why? Simply because better habitations cannot
be had at the price the labourer can afford to
pay, and in consequence of his being obliged
to reside contiguous to his work. Again; with
respect to what is called the " long-hour system;"
excessive competition and active trade, have im-
perceptibly led shopkeepers to adopt this prac-
tice, until it has attained, not only to an estab-
lished custom, but to a frightful injustice. The
proverb says that, " prevention is better than
cure ;" but, unfortunately, there are instances
when its applicability is sheerly impossible.
This should not, however, render us either in-
different or inactive in labouring to remove, an
evil, although established usage sanctions, and
the public connive at it.
The habit of keeping houses of business open
until late at night, thereby prolonging the hours
of labour unduly, deserves to be rebuked with
unmitigated severity. It is impossible to describe
the train of evils which such a system induces ;
and our chief astonishment is, that any one should
be found weak or wicked enough, upon any pre
text, to justify so daring a wrong. That the
perpetuation of such an iniquitous practice is
beneficial to the employer, we most emphatically
deny. -On the grounds of X. s. d. alone, he
certainly is no gainer. Let him deduct from the
annual returns arising out of night gain, the cost
of gaslight, and the amount of damage sustained
by his light goods, therefrom, and we venture to
predict, that the item of profit which would remain
he could not, with decency, place on the plate
of his parish-church on the next charity sermon
day! _

But the employer is a loser m anotner respect-.
His assistants, naturally enough, being continually
overworked, cannot perform that degree of service
which they otherwise could and would ; so that he
becomes necessitated either to engage additional
labour, or else have much of the business of his
concern left undone altogether, or performed most
negligently. Thus young people, through sheer
fatigue and ennui, are unable to present themselves
before purchasers so agreeably as the former may
desire, or the latter expect. Hence fewer purchases
are probably made; and the parties never set foot
within the concern again, but lay out their cash at
the rival establishment of JONES'S opposite ! who
adopts the Early Closing principle—and finds him-
self much the gainer from the change,—as unques-
tionably he is.
But apart from these low, mercenary views,
there
exist high moral and social reasons why such a
practice as we now condemn should be imme-
diately discontinued. " A righteous man," we are
told, " regards the life of his beast ;" but surely
the obligation which forbids cruelty to our species
is more imperative than any which binds us to ex-
ercise mercy to the lower animals. The confine-
ment of young persons, for an undue number of
hours, in a heated and unhealthy atmosphere is
productive of the direst evils,—evils, unhappily,
which many shopkeepers do not appear to recognise,
or are not sufficiently instructed to know. But we
much fear that hard work and long hours are but
a portion of the misery which young men, who
serve in shops, are necessitated to undergo. Some
time since Mr. WILLIAMS, M.P., a retired London
tradesman, in advocating, on a public platform, the
Early Closing principle, entered into a partial his-
tory of his life, and stated that when, in early man-
hood, he was a draper's assistant, he had frequently
to sleep under the counter at night, after a weari-
some day of toil ; and, addressing the numerous
young men present, he remarked :—" Now, I dare
say, many of you do the same thing, but you are
ashamed Lu 4.7,otaktob 1.6 !" We chcrula by -v-cry sorry .
indeed, were this story in the slighest degree ap-
plicable to the town of Liverpool.
Man's physical constitution, can with safety,
but undergo a certain modicum of labour. Should
this be 'exceeded and prolonged, incalculable in-
juries must inevitably result to the whole organi
zation. Young people especially, whose systems are
immature, are the more easily affected, and con-
sequently, the first to suffer. With respect to this
class, the Register General's Reports tell, but too
often, a melancholy tale ! It fairly puzzles us to
know, how shopkeepers can reconcile themselves
to this iniquitous custom, and withal make pro-
fessions which but ill accord with their practices.
We truly pity their ;ignorance, if they are insuffi-
ciently acquainted with the laws of physiology not
to know the mischiefs they are quietly inflicting
upon those who are helping them to live in the
ease and comfort of a London Alderman ! But if
this practice arises from desire of gain, we spurn
them for their unholy ambition. They then become
the very LEGREE'S of Society ; and those they em-
ploy may, without much exaggeration, form a sub-
ject for an English Mrs. STOWE to exercise her pen
and lavish her sympathies upon.
But the truth is, the employers in such a case
are greater slaves than the • employed ; for as LA
BRUYERE wisely observes, " a slave has but one
master, whilst the ambitious man has as many
masters as there are persons whose aid contributes
to the advancement of his fortune."
Of all cants—and they are Legion—practised in
this canting world, we know of no cant to be corn
pared with that which, on the plea of moral (?) expe-
diency justifies the continuance of the late hour