The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-08 00:00:00

BEFORE MR. AIRIN

SMOKE NUI3ANCB.—Mr: M'Gowan appeared to prose-
cute at the suit of Mr. Wignall, the inspector of smoke
nuisance, Mr. E. Willoughby, the proprietor of. the
Birkenhead ferry steamers. The inspector stated that
since last February four notices had been served on the
defendant, and in December 1855, the boat Cato was
fined £5, and the charge which he now preferred was
for smoke on the same boat, on the 26th December last.
A fine of £5 was recorded. The magistrates suggested
to the defendant the necessity of doing something with
tha stokers, in order to prevent the smoke. Mr. Wignall
said the m tchinery was in good order, and attention
would remedy the matter clearly enough. The same
inspector summoned Mr. Thomas 011 is, senior, of the
stetm saw mills, Richmond row, for an infringement of
the act. A fine of £2 and costs was imposed, and a
Jerson who appeared for the defendant promised to
remedy the defect in the chimney.
DEALING WITHOUT A LICENSE.—Thomas Hughes Was
charged by detective officer Povey for dealing in marine
stores without a license. Mr. Muck defended the pri-
soner, and got him off by an ingenious defence.

THE SCREW STEAMSHIP VIGO

TO THE EDITOR Ot THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—You will oblige me by inserting in your
paper the enclosed copy of a .report made on the
screw steamship Vigo, by Mr. Jordan, sutveyor to
the Liverpool Underwriters.
I also requested Mr. Jordan to make a minute
examination of the Vigo; with a view to her classi-
fication by the Liverpool Underwriters' Committee,
and the result of his survey and report was so
satisfactory that the committee, yesterday, granted
her a certificate of the highest class that they can
award to iron ships.—Yours, &c.,
Birkenhead Iron Works; JOHN LAM.
Birkenhead, 7th January, 1857.
SURVEYOR'S CERTIFICATE.
Underwriters' Rooms, Liverpool,
January Ist, 1857.

The undersigned having been requested to survey and
report upon the screw steamer Vigo, in conscuence of
her having returned to Liverpool without having accom-
plished her intended voyage from llavre to New York,
and being reported to be making water.
Upon examination, while the vessel was discharging in
the Birkenhead Dock, on the 29th December, 1856, could
discover no signs of straining or weakness in any part of
the vessel. The waterway seams, and the seams round
the various hatctes quite perfect.
. The butts and seams in the bunkers alongside the
engines tight, and all the rivets sound as far do vn as
could be examined; the keelsons quite unmoved, and free
from any appearance of working, and the beam end
fastenings the came.
On the 30th December, 1856, attended while the water
was leaving the vessel, and narrowly examined the plates,
butts, and rivets is the bottom and keel from end to end,
and also the pipes and holes in the bottom for the engines
and boilers, and could discover no signs of straining, the
butts and rivets being quite sound, there being at the time
three feet water in the engine room.
On the 31st again attended and examined the vessel on
the gridiron, and was confirmed in the opinion formed the
previous day, namely, that the water inside the vessel had
not got there by leakage through the sides.
On examination in the engine room found the various
cocks and valves communicating with the bottom of the
vessel all right except the feed cock to the donkey engine,
which cock lam of opinion was turned the wrong way,
and allowed water from the outside into the bilges.
I am also of opinion that large quantities of the water
shipped on board the vessel, found its way down the
scuttles into the coal bunkers, :and that] the engineers
finding water in the bilges, set on the donkey to pump
them out, and in mistake turned the feed cock the *roust
w ay.
I am, therefore, of opinion, that the vessel is fit to take
in her cargo and proceed on her destined voyage, after
clearing the limbers and pumps from the coal dust and
ashes, and fixing or altering the feed cock, so as to prevent
mistakes occurring with it again.
(Signed)

JOHN JORDAN,
Surveyor of Iron Ships for the Liverpool
Under writers' Association.

CANADIAN RAILWAYS.

The subjoined extract practically illustrates the
enormous benefit the traffic of the country will
derive when the Victoria Bridge is completed.
Until the ice bears, all intercourse is cut off, and
the railway traffic impeded :
We have been ♦isited by a heavy fall of snow, and the
weather is the coldest we have yet had. At noon the
thermometer stood at 2 degrees below zero; a strong west
wind is blowing, and the river is filled with floating ice.
The American mail due here at half past ten a.m., had
not arrived at two p.m. The Post Office Inspector has
been telegraphed that it is on board the Iron Duke, at St.
Lambert, but that till the wind moderates, It will
be impossible to cross. The conductor with the Quebec
mail took three hours to cross to Longucuil. The quantity
of produce arriving at the Grand Trunk, Point St. Qharles,
is much greater than the sheds will accommodate, and
carters have brisk times bringing it into town. When the
ice takes, large quantities of produce will doubtless have
have to be sleighed from Point St. Charles to St. Lambert
and Longueuil, but at present there is no outlet for what
arrives, and business is very dull.—Montreal Witness.

A New BANK.— We are informed by a correspondent
that the prospectus has been issued of a new banking com-
pany, to have its head quarters in London. The prospectus
contains the names of a number of respectable gentlemen,
among which are two members of parliament. The style
and title of the bank will be " Tae National Savings Bank
Aseociation," and the guaranteed capital is noted at £lOO,OOO
iu shares of £1 each. This institution is intended to be
conducted on the principle of issuing small loans to the
working classes, a facility of operation which the present
sayings bank system does not afial, and it may therefore
he termed emphatically a bank for the working classes. It
is contemplated to establish a branch in Glasgow.—Olasgoto
Taper.
A RuNaway CONVICT.—At the Central Criminal Court
on Tuesday Wm. Brookfield, alias liurkenshaw, aged 22,
was charged with being feloniously at large before the ex-
piration of a period of transportation to which he had been
sentenced. The prisoner pleaded guilty. Mr. T. Atkin-
son, who appeared for the prosecution, informed the court
that the prisoner was convicted In 1855, of wounding and
inflicting bodily injury dangerous to life, and sentenced
to transportation for life. He was removed to Woolwich
pursuant to his sentence, and contrived to make his
escape from that place, and was apprehended at Wands-
worth. The Recorder sentenced the prisoner to one
month's prisonment and ;hard labour, and then to be
transported for life.
THE NEW AMERICAN PRESlDENT.—Physically he is a
large, pewerfally built man ; indeed, neither physic illy,
morally, nor politically, is there anything little about him.
He is above six feet high, large limbed, and of fair com-
plexion, and although past sixty years of age, still shows
that he was in earlier days what the other sex, who must be
allowed to decide in such matters, cell a handsome man.
Hellas the habit (that historians attribute to Alexander the
Great) of holding his head somewhat inclined to one side,
and sometimes partially closing one eee, as if to prove,what
was undoubtedly the case during his ti:',sion to this country,
that he could see a vast deal more witl, half an eye thou all
our ministers when they opened theirs to the fullest extent,
as they had to do more than once, if all tales be true, dur-
ing the course of their " transaction of business.' with Mr.
Buchanan. Ile is hale and vigorous, of regular and active
habits, and unexceptionable moral conduct ; conscientiously
religious, a Presbyterian, with more indulgence for those of
other creeds than is sometimes found in persons of that
persuasion ; kind hearted, generous, and charitable, as many
instances reported by those who know him will prove ; much
beloved by relations and dependents; distinguished for
great prudence and sagacity in making his decisions, and
for firmness in their execution when taken.—New Quarterly
Review.
EATING FORTY Docrons.—On the old road from Con-
stantinopole to Batne, half way between the points, there
exists a mosque called Jema-el-bechira. The learned men
who inhabited it, fifty in number, had brought up a young
lion which had been caught by the Arabs, which, however,
disappeared suddenly at the end of a year. Soon atter
the douars established in the vicinity of the mosque were
attacked by the same lion. One evening, the chief of the
brotherhood of Jema-el-bechira was not to be found
amongst the faithful at the hour of prayer. Next day, one
of his companions disappeared in his turn ; and so during
forty consecutive daws,t he number of members belongi ig to
this learned assembly was regularly diminishing by one.
The lion had, in fact, chosen his ambuscade near the foun-
tain of the mosque, and had seized them one by one every
evening at the moment when they went to perform their
ablutions. It was only after the fortieth had been de-
voured (a whole academy devoured by one lion) that the ten
survivors emigrated, and the mosque remained deserted.
Our gourmand, allured and excited by all this human
flesh diet, took next to highway robbery, and began to
attack travellers on foot or on horseback with so much
spirit that for several years no Arab of the district dared
to travel even by day. At last he disappeared, finding, no
doubt, the solitude ho had created round him rather
wearisome, and since that time the Elbeehria-road has
been frequented by all in perfect security.—Life and
Adventures of Jules Gerard, the Lion Killer.—[lt is to be
regretted that some such lion does not take up his resi-
dence near Canning's monument in Palace.yard, and
devour the latest speakers one after the other.]