Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-10-26 00:00:00

THE GREAT EASTERN.

Under date of Holyhead, October 22, the Globe of last
night says :—" It is questioned by many whether the
ship will yet go round to Southampton or to Liverpool
to have defects made good. If the object be to have the
ship repaired efficiently and economically, Liverpool
certainly is the place, and as for anchorage, the
Sloyne in the Mersey is as secure as Southampton
water. The risk of taking the Great Eastern
round to Southampton is also a consideration.
The decks are reported to be condemned by the sur-
veyors soon after the explosion. It was to be expected
that the decks would require a thorough caulking, but
every person knows that it is difficult to keep the decks
of iron steamers tight, owing to the contraction and
expansion of iron, and the only course is to double the
present decks with 2 inch plank laid diagonany.
With respect to the cabins, they must all come down,
and the ship be divided into strepts or avenues of
cabins, to obtain ventilatiQll arid light ; an avenue at
least nine feet wide must run on each side her whole
length, and the cabins built inside and not next to the
skin of the ship. The Great Eastern should be moved
into the inner harbour, where the ships of war anchor,
and a meeting of shareholders held to receive the re-
port of the surveyors and that of the directors Wore
the ship starts from Holyhead to either Southampton or
Liverpool."

TRADE AND NAVIGATION RETURNS.

The following are the amounts of the principal
articles of commerce exported from England in the
month of September for the last three years ;

1857. issB. 1859.
Apparel and slops . . . £190,928 £163,592 £183,618
Beer and ale . . . . 108,376 96,755 102,973
Coals and culm. . . . 332,205 311,748 318,713
Cordage and cables . . 18,176 13,538 16,452
Cottons, calicoes, mus-
lins, &c.
Cotton yarn. . . ,
Earthenware and porce-
lain 123,578 96.449 119,359
Haberdashery, &c. .
Hardware and cutlery
Leather, unwrought .
Ditto, wrought. . .
Saddlery and harness.
Linens (cloths of all kinds
and cambrics) . .
Linen yarns 149,017 175,989 148,800
Steam machinery . .
Other machinery . .
Metals-Pig iron . .
Bar iron
Railway iron . . .
Wire iron
_ _

Cast iron
Wrought iron .. .
Steel, unwrought . .
Copper, unwrought .
Ditto, sheets and nails
35:986
351 11
337:313
966 12
4637;898
91
Lead
Tin, unwrought . .
Tin-plates
16
Oil
seed 60,304 76,699 82,701
Painters'
Pickles and sauces :
34,654 34,391 24,701
Plate, plated ware, jewel-
lery and watches .
Salt
Silk manufactures (silk

Other articles of silk.. 39,169 34,
with other materials 7507,,213105 5397:944 28,674710403 53572
00934
only)
Silk manufactures mixed
Silk, thrown • . . . 38,888 47,951 37,406
Ditto, twist and yarn
Soap
Soda
Spirits (British) . .
Stationery
Sugar, refined . . .
Wool 104,740 89;541 34,951
Woollens (cloth) . . . 256,519 213.795 273,954
Flannels (mixed, stuffs,
carpets, &c.) . . . . 301,533 298,281 342,197
Worsted stuffs . . . . 300,849 362,323 377,227
Woollen & worsted yarns 345,196 308,306 347,154

5 -

/ CORRESPONDENCE.

[We do not hold oursrlres responsible for the opinions of

our correspondents.]

THE EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT.

WHY IS IT OUR EDUCATIONAL APPLIANCES

ARE NOT MORE 'SUCCESSFUL ?

?—Lord John Russell.
p pursuitsass aw a
and
"It is, I think, one of the greatest evils of this country
that toil has become so 'excessive that all consideration of
health—all attention to intellectual improvement, is lost in
that excess of labour which the people of this country are
compelled to undergo. Why is it that one generation after
consumed
without in
the this
meanss ilO pofe ems;
aannbwosoattile,er,is
in to
such

TO TILE EDITOR OF TILE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.
Saturdaynleags
lt, on one of
ed of all
cte
SIR,—We have for some time now, taken no slight
interest in your excellent leading articles, drawing the at-
tention of your readers to the many social subjects that
now agitate public opinion, and with them we have been
much pleased, but with none more so than with the
social subjects of improvement, viz., the Early Closing
Movement ; and taking, as we do, a great interest IR
tfehaerle mssosatrticle
the same, we trouble you with a few words, believing
in
important, your
issue
yet still fthe
most
that it is intimately connected with most of the
educational questions of the day.
'Veil do you call the attention of your readers to the
fact of the. great benevolence and philanthropy of our
wealthy citizens, in providing by their means, and over-
looking and directing by their experience, the many
educational appliances of our town, for which they de-
serve, and we tender them our best thanks.

Yet—with all our free libraries, our lectures, evening
classes, literary societies, and so forth—how is it that so
few of our youth patronize or support them ?
We have it deplored that mechanics' institutions do
not pay ; and more, are not attended by the class that
they are provided for ; nor more, by the next class, our
shop assistants. It is not very singular to hear of these
institutions, of classes, of lectures, &c., being relin-
quished, as the committees frequently say, through the
apathy and want of support they receive from those for
whom they are intended, viz, the assistants in our large
establishments, the youth of our large towns.
You truly write, when you say that—" We are apt in
this as well as in otter matters connected with social
improvement, to overlook the class which, equally with
that of the mechanic and the artizan, should engage our
attention, a class which forms an important integral
portion of the community, and for whose special benefit
lectures are delivered and libraries are formed." Yet
when any movement on their behalf is made, we are met
by the cry, they care not for such things--they want
not to improve their intellectual capacities, they like
pleasure better than learning. This, in their name, we
emphatically deny ; in this very town we know numbers
of young men who wish to attend the evening classes at
the various institutes in our town, so as to develope that
knowledge they received in their schoolboy days ; others
we know who desire to attend the course of lectures now
being delivered in this town ; others wish to become
members of literary societies, which, for a town such as
Liverpool, as far as numbers are concerned, are in a very
backward state.

If they wish to attend these educational places, why
do they not do so, and thus make them successful in
their efforts?
We will just see the "reason why." Evening
classes, lectures, &c., commence at seven or half-past
seven in the evening and close at nine or half-past, and
in our principal streets even, a very few establishments
close at this hour ; and even if they close, that does not
mean that the assistants are released, for too often they
are detained some hour or so after the "shutters are
up ;" in the Park, as also London-road, Paddington,
Brownlow-hill, &c., it is well known that the trade is a
night one ; of the north end of the town, that is all
streets north of Dale-street, we have a statistical account,
authenticated as correct, of the time of closing the
principal shops only, in the principal streets of business
in that part of the town, which is as follows, on
Sept. sth, 1859-128 Shops closed at 8.0 o'clock.
ff 27 If ff 8.30 ~
330 „
If ff If 9.0 ),
If fl 78 fl ~ 9.30 75
15 If 332 „ 10.0 7/

895
Thus, out of 895 shops in one part of this town only—
we have 155 closing before 9, whilst we have 740
closing at 9 and later.
With the above facts before us, how can we blame
the assistant tradesmen of our town ? They have not
the opportunity of self-improvement, and the fault is
not theirs—that they have not it. What availeth the
benevolence and philanthropy of our citizens, when it
is like the sour grapes in the fable—beyond our reach ?
Late closing, we believe, is the cause of failure of our
educational appliances. Here we leave the question for
a while, for the consideration of our brother-citizens.—
Yours obediently, B. H. G.