The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-14 00:00:00

IRONMASTERS' QUARTERLY MEETING

DUDLEY, SATURDAY EVENING.
The closing meeting of the ironmasters of this district
for the current quarter has been held this evening at the
hotel. The attendance was less numerous than usual,
and with the exception of a few contracts for pigs, and
some transactions in ironstone, little business was reported.
For the former, quotations' are as firm as at Birmingham
and Wolverhampton; .€4 5s is the top price for hot-blast
pigs, the bulk of the sales this quarter having been at
£4 2s ad. which is rather more than 5s lower than the
trade price for bars. But at the quotation given there
has been a large amount of business done; sufficient to
take the make of all the furnaces for a time, whilst some
of the pig masters have got contracts for three months'
make; and as there is a tendency to increased firmness in
the trade, it was intimated that it is not improbable
additional furnaces will be blown in. With respect to
manufactured iron, few ot the usual large contracts
remained for confirmation after the Birmingham meeting,
the bulk ot consumers having apparently no feeling that
by waiting another month they would be able to purchase
particular brands lower than they can at the present
time ; and as but few of the largest consumers had other
than small stocks on hand, they have preferred support-
ing the trade by ensuring for themselves a regular
supply to meet their requirements during the quari.:T.
rather than take the chance of prices giving way undo.'
the Influence of an unfavourable money market; indeed,
the manufacturers generally prefer fixity or prices, and as
matters stand there is not much prospect of any con-
siderable departure from those current of the day. It has
been reported that some of the second class establish_
ments have sold bars lately as low as £8 lOs per ton, but
in the strict sense of the word this cannot be regarded as
underselling, the difference :in the quality, and the favour
with which certain brands are held, both in the home and
foreign markets, being always sufficiently marked to
account for any discrepancy of this kind. A cause some.
what similar prevents the smaller establishments having
at any time so full a complement of orders as the large
houses ; the former are less known abroad ; their make of
iron has been less used, and is consequently not so much
sought after. At the present time most of the large houses
are full, and the others have at least an average quantity,
quite sufficient to keep the works in active operation, as
is further evidenced by the healthy state of the labour
market • all persons engaged in the iron and coal trades
being fully employed.
The meeting this evening was generally regarded as a
satisfactory one, and such has been the character of the
series.

The :Canadians are much excited at the existence of
American lottery agencies in Montreal.
VICTORIAN WINE —From an article in the Geelong
Advertiser of Feb. 12, on the manufacture of wines in
Australia, we extract the following :—ln 1854, there
were produced in a portion of the county Grant, 9,100
gallons of wine, 100 gallons of brandy, and 80,5801 b of
grapes were sold. In 1855, 6,000 gallons of wine were
manufactured in Belperoud's vineyard, about 2,000 gals.
on Pettavals, 200 gallons on a very small vineyard at
Fyan's Ford, being upwards of 8,000 gallons from those
vineyards only; but were B equet's and other important
vineyards calculated (so f4r as their wine produce is
concerned) with the eh we-mentioned ones, a total of
from 16,000 to 20,000 gallons might be set down as the
year's return of native wine; and great as the quan.-ity
appears this season, should the weather be propitious,
which at present is the case, a great increase will be made
on the number of gallons produced last year.
DISCOVERY OF THE REHAINS OF SCOTTISH REBELS.—
Within the list few days a curious discovery has been
madebehind York Castle. A number of excavators were
employed there to dig a drain, when they turned up the
remains of about twenty human bodies, but the skulls of
three or four of them were wanting, and the bones ap-
peared mixed together in such an unusual manner as to
excite the curiosity of all who saw the positions in which
they were found. The conclusion formed respecting them
is, that they are remains of twenty one Scetlish rebels who
were executed near York, ten of themon Saturday the Ist,
and the remainder on Sunday the Bth of November, 1741,
when they were hanged, drawn, and quartered ; the local
paper which was in existence at the time stating that " the
whole was conducted with the utmost decency and good
order l." As a further "terror to evil doers," the heads of
two of the culprits were publicly exposed on Micklegate
Bar, in York, and the head of another was put into a box,
in order to be sent to Carlisle; the •bodies of the whole
of them being buried behind the castle, in which they had
been confined. This, together with the disposal of the
, three heads, as we have just named, is a strong confirmation
that the remains in question, minus that number of skulls,
are those of the unfortunate rebels who forfeited their lives.