The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-06 00:00:00

APRIL 6, 1847.

means of increasing the revenue of the country. If,
however, to this single item of increase we add the
corn duties received during the last six months of
1846, we shall find that we considerably more than
exhaust the whole apparent increase. So that the
Customs receipts for the year, as far as regards the
general trade of the country, and irrespective of there
two items, would exhibit a considerable reduction.
That the quarter just ended should show a slight in-
crease, irrespective of sugar, over the corresponding
quarter of last year, is not a matter of surprise, nor of
much congratulation, when we consider how much
business in all departments was held in suspense
during the first three months of 1846, pending the
passing of the last changes in the tariff. Such was
the state of business during that quarter, that, com-
pared with the corresponding quarter of 1845, the
Customs showed a deficiency of no less than 440,0001.
"The general result of the Customs receipts,
when considered in reference to the whole
trade of the country, and looked to as
an index of its prosperity, cannot, therefore,
be considered so satisfactory as they looked
at first sight. The other great index of national wel-
fare, and of the command of social comforts, the Ex-
cise duties, we fear, affords in the present return no
more satisfactory evidence. It is true that the in-
crease shown upon the year is large, and that that
increase is fairly divided over all the various items
which contribute to the Excise, and which may be
taken as evidence of increased activity in industry,
or of increasel comforts enjoyed by the people. But
while the increase upon the year is 661,5721., that
upon the quarter is only 26,407/. We have here a
palpable proof of a declining state. The high price
of food, and the scantiness and dearness of some of
the chief raw materials of our manufacturing indus-
try, have already begun their work of deterioration.
The complaints from the busy seats of industry
during the last three months, the mills working short
time, the increasing difficulty in obtaining railway
" calls," and the consequent " slackness" of some of
those works, and the difficulty which the labour-
ing population find in obtaining anything beyond the
barest necessaries of life at their present prices; these
facts are all loudly proclaimed in the comparative de-
cline of the Excise receipts during the quarter just
finished. A consequence, moreover, which we fear
will only be further developed as the year advances.
The other general items of the revenue are not of a
character which speak much to the immediate state of
the country, still it is satisfactory to observe that they
show, generally, a considerable increase both on the
year and the quarter. But notwithstanding the in-
crease apparent under all these heads, unfortunately,
when we look to the side of expenditure, we find it
all inadequate to meet the extraordinary demands
upon the Governmedt. Notwithstanding the increase
on the ordinary sources of the Exchequer, and not-
withstanding the addition of 960,0001., as the first in-
stalment of the " loan of eight millions," the result
of the accounts now published is, that in place of a
surplus to meet the various Parliamentary grants for
the public service, amounting last year to 1,783,3081.,
that surplus at the present time is only 628,7811., a
sum altogether inadequate for the purpose.
ADVERTISER.—We publish, in another part of
our paper, a tabular view of the revenue returns for
the years and quarters ending sth April, 1846, and
sth April, 1847 ; and we heartily congratulate the
country on the extremely gratifying results which
they exhibit. Under the head of Customs— the
source of revenue which of all others affords the best
criterion of the real condition of the people, and the
healthy state, or otherwise, of the national finances—
we have an increase, on the year, of 1,132,0021., while
the increase on the quarter is relatively still greater,
being no less than 485,7551., or close on half a mil-
lion. We will undertake to say, that this is an in-
crease far exceeding anything of which the most san-
guine ever dreamt. It is all the more surprising,
when it is remembered, that it only includes, so far
as relates to the quarter, a mere trifle in the shape of
corn duties, the corn-laws having been suspended
early in the quarter. In the Excise there i-
also an augmentation on the year to the extent
of 661,5721., and on the quarter of '26,407/.
The Stamps have likewise proved unusually
productive on the quarter, giving an increase of
131,4141., as compared with the corresponding quar-
ter of 1846. The Property-tax has also proved
unprecedentedly productive, the amount for the year
being 5,464,5811., which gives an increase over the
year ending April 5, 1846, of 379,8401., and of
69,1901. over the quarter ending at the same date.
The Post-office still continues, though gradually, to
augment the national resources, yielding, as it
does, 52,000/. more than last year, and 4,0001. more
on the quarter than on the corresponding quarter
of 1846. Under the head of Miscellaneous, we
have an addition, on the year, of 129,2731., though,
on the quarter, the increase is only 1,0711. The
only departments in which there is a falling off
are those of the Taxes and Crown Lands. The
deficit is trifling in either case. Under the first
head it is only 15,250/.; and under the second,
8,000/. The total increase on the year is, 1,538,1681.,
and on the quarter 403,6321. This, we repeat, is a
most gratifying state of things. So far from expecting
so large an augmentation, there were general appre-
hensions of a defalcation. Nothing could more con-
clusively prove the solid foundation on which our
commercial and monetary edifice is based. The ime
provemt'nt in the revenue which it is thus our pleasing
duty to record, as having taken place in a period of
unexampled destitution in Ireland and part of Scot-
land, will, there is every reason to hope, go on pro.
gressing for months and years to come. If, indeed,
Providence should bless the land with an abundant
harvest, we may confidently calculate, considering the
extensive trade with America which is now opening
up to us, on a period of commercial and financial
prosperity wholly unparalleled in the history of the
country.
HERALD.—We have before us the official state-
ment of the national revenue for the year and the
quarter which ended yesterday evening. If any evi-
dence were necessary to prove the vitality of British
vigour in resisting the results of a new-fangled system
of legislation, which must have proved destructive to
the interests of any country whose innate strength
had been less positively confirmed by the considerate
policy that was formerly the principle of action by
which British statesmen were guided—if any testi-
mony were requisite to show the elasticity of British
resources in repelling the heavy load of depression
which recent Acts of Parliament have heaped upon
them, and which projected measures promise to aug-
ment—we have the proof before us in the abstract of
the net produce of the revenue of the country, to
which it is our duty to refer.—(!) In every
department whence we derive our ordinary
revenues, save two, there is an increase for the
year ended yesterday, compared with the year
which ended on the sth of April, 1846. The two
items which exhibit a decrement on a comparison of
years are Stamps and Crown Lands. Let us now ex-
hibit the condition of the whole revenue of the
country for the year and the quarter, as compared
with that of the previous year, and that of the cor-
respondingthereis
from
m the quartercusotfo
Customs
n elrnessteheef plr, s3e2n,tooyr
2ela.
from the Excise an increase of 661,5721. The de-
crease on Stamps,:as we have already mentioned, is
32,6931. The increase from Taxes for the year is
33,1191.; from the Property-tax an augmentation has
been derived amounting to 379,840/. ; from the Post-
office it is 52,0001. The Crown Lands, as we have
stated, exhibit a decrease of 18,0001., whilst, from
Miscellaneous resources, we have procured an increase
of revenue which has placed in the national coffers
129.273/. In the quarter's receipts, as compared
with those of the April quarter of last 3 ear, we
find an increase from Customs of 485,755/. ; from the
Excise of 26,407/. ; from Stamps of 131,4141.! ! the
decrease on Taxes is 15,250/. • the increase from
the Property-taxis 69,190/4 irom the Post-office
it is 4,000/. ; with reference to Crown Lands, the de-
crease is 8,000/. ; from Miscellaneous resources there
is an increase of 1,071/. Now, in dealing with these
various items of oar income, to-day, our observations
must necessarily be brief—our comments upon these
items few. We deal only with those sums which
form the ordinary revenue of the nation. The other
portions of the account, embracing " advances," " im-
prest and other monies," &c., we leave intact for re-
mark on a future day. In reference, then, to the
year's ordinary revenue, there is a net increase over
that received up to the sth of April, 1846, which
amounts to 2,387,8061. The net ordinary revenue
for the quarter ended yesterday, shows an increase
over the receipts for the same quarter of the previous
year, amounting to 717,837/. Let us at once ask
these questions—Has the value of menufactured stock
become augmented during the past year, or during the
past quarter ? Has the condition of the manufacturing
operative been improved, or the position of the agricul-
tural labourer been made better during the same period .
Has the character of our monetary exchanges, com-
ipmmaaraargdne
t ofha
that
an e
na amount oaubnr to
ace:
duringhom e-
a corresponding amount of exports, or has it even
tchr e
at ha
eadt
imo of
rottsh ehra v
ec
bo
euennt rie s
derived,wwhence b
iotue
dr
several past years? These questions are easily re-
solved by facts.
opLeroaolttivteolthese:rkicfeosr ctuhrerenptosiftoironthoef
returns paid for our manufactured produce! Look
to the mills out of work, for
edielfYems teerdc
ht ha
ne d
iesxe peogrut eat, i ot
on
the condition of the
manufacturing

PRICE SD.

the agricultural labourer (notwithstanding the efforts
of his employers to promote his comparative prospe-
rity, despite the sacrifices made by landlords and land•
holders, and the advances made in agricultural
science) —seek for this in the daily tale told by the
provincial press ! seek for it in the hopes of the Irish
landlord from the new Poor Relief Bill ! Notwith-
standing these facts there is an increes3 upon the
year and the quarter from the Customs revenue!
The consumption of imported produce, used in lieu
of grain, of course has something to do with this ;
but the energy and untired, not worn-out activity
and resources of Great Britain have dealt much
more largely with it. Taking our course
through the other items of receipt, we are
compelled to stop at " Stamps." What a
tale is told by the official development of
the condition of this department of the revenue.
The increase for the year is only 32,6931. The in-
crease for the quarter is 131,414/. ! What has caused
this increase ? Has it been an augmentation of the
legitimate trade of the country ? Did our legitimate
imports, or has an augmentation of our internal—our
home traffic in the manufactures of Great Britain,
rendered such an accession to our national income
the probable result of such a salutary process ? No !
whilst there has been a great decrease in the Excise
receipts of the quarter, as compared with those of
the year, the Stamp Duties' receipts exhibit an
increase of 400 per cent. more upon the quarter
than they do upon the whole year. Here is
the result of Sir Robert Peel's Corn Bill ! here
is the effect of the gambling and speculation
which were to have been destroyed and deter-
mined by the damage done to the cultivators of
the soil of Great Britain and the sister kingdom !
here are assets derived in a great degree from ccrn
accommodation bills ! We have neither time nor
space to dwell at greater length to-day upon the
official document before us. It is to us matter for
hearty rejoicing, that, under so many circumstances,
which in any other nation must havecauseal a decrease
of revenue, we have an increased income as the
subject for our remarks.

OPENING OF THE BIRKENHEAD

DOCKS.

This event is looked forward to with considerable
interest, and every arrangement is in progress for
conducting its celebration with becoming splendour.
The extensive warehouses, the opening of which will
be a striking feature in the day's prcceedings, are
twelve in number, and will each hold 4,000 bales of
cotton. The extension line of railway runs in a
diagonal line, by means of an open excavation, across
the town, from the Grange-lane station, through
Oliver-street, Conway-street, Price-street, and Cleve-
land-street, to the dock warehouses ; having branch
lines communicating with the docks, so that goods
may be at once hoisted from the vessel's
side on the railway trucks, and dispatched
into the interior, or from the ship into the
warehouses, without the least hazard or
delay from exposure on the quays. After the cere-
mony of opening the dock, the company will proceed
to the d6efiner, and this part of the proceedings
being completed, the next object of interest will be
the opening of the new park, which has been com-
pleted at a cost of 127,7781. The celebrated proprietor
of the magnificent marquee, which is fitted up on pub-
lic festivals in Greenwich-park, will there pitch his
refreshment tent, 170 feet long ; and various other
booths, camps, &c., will be erected. Cricket, foot-
ball, and other athletic games, rural sports, and
divers amusements, will occupy the holiday throng
in that vast and picturesque arena. The beau-
tiful new market, on which a sum of 26,0001. has
been expended, will likewise present its attractions.
On the east quay of the new docks, facing the river,
six pieces of ordnance will be placed, for the purpose
of firing salutes; the guns being under the manage-
ment of a detachment of the Royal Artillery from
Chester Castle, kindly granted by their commanding
officer, Major Robe. As we intimated last week
there will be no procession, but the quays of the
docks will be lined with pensioners, clubs, and socie-
ties of various kinds, with flags, music, &c., and after
the docks have been opened, they will repair to the
park to be in waiting to receive Lord Morpeth. Four
of the warehouse rooms, each 140 feet long and
50 wide, are beautifully and most tastefully fitted
up for the festival with pink and white drapery, by
Mr. Shaw, upholsterer, of Birkenhead, under the
direction of Mr. Hornblower and Mr. Brine, archi-
tects, who kindly give their services on the occasion,
and are most indefatigable in promoting the arrange-
ments. The suite will include reception, withdraw-
ing, ball, and banquet rooms; in the former of which
a magnificent cascade will throw forth its silvery
streams, amidst a profusion of choice conservatory
plants, flowers, and other decorations. The defamer
and supper will be provided by Mr. Hillier, of the
Monk's Ferry Hotel ; all the orders have been given,
as it is proper they should be, to Birkenhead trades-
men. After the ball there will be a special train to
Chester, and the Woodside boats will continue run-
ning during the whole of the night. All the work-
men employed at the docks (2,000 in number) are to
have the gift of a day's wages, and the various con-
tractors have come forward most liberally as regards
this part of the proceedings. Mr. J. Laird has given
his men leave to take part in the festivities, and they
will be paid their wages for the day. We understand
that all the principal builders will give their men a
holiday, and the day is expected to be one of general
rejoicing.—Liverpool Mercury.

OPENING OF THE DOCKS.
Yesterday was a memorable day on the banks of the
Mersey, having been chosen for the triple purpose of
opening the new docks at Birkenhead, the splendid new
park, and the extension line of the Chester and Birken-
head Railway to the docks. The docks to be opened on
this occasion were the Woodside and Bridge-end, the
joint accommodation of which is equal to the Prince's
Dock at Liverpool.
Immediately adjoining these docks are the extensive
warehouses of the Birkenhead Dock Company ; twelve
of which, each capable of storing 4,000 bales of cotton,
are already completed. These warehouses are two
stories in height, and when finished will form three long
tiers, running rectangularly from the shore.
The extension line of railway to the docks affords
facilities and advantges which few railways or docks
enjoy. From the main line branches run along each
side of the warehouses: one side will be made available
for the storing of goods by vessels just arrived—the
other for conveying goods to vessels loading for sea.
The rails run so close, that the goods can be hoisted
direct from, or lowered into, the trucks, and thus all
confusion and necessity for carting will be avoided ;
neither will there be delay nor hazard from exposure on
the quays.
The docks were opened in person by Lord Morpeth,
Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests. His Lord-
ship arrived in Liverpool about ten o'clock in the fore-
noon. A special train, with Lord Lincoln, Lord Mont-
eagle, and other visitors, left London about six o'clock
in the morning, and arrived in Birkenhead at twelve
o'clock. Shortly after that hour the Lords Commis
sioners, with other distingushed guests, the Birkenhead
Dock Commissioners, the Birkenhead Improvement
Commissioners, the Directors of the Birkenhead Dock
(Warehouses) Company, the Directors of the Birken-
head, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Railway, and
the Directors of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway,
embarked at Monk's Ferry, on board the Lord Warden,
a handsome new iron steamer. Six pieces of artillery
were posted along the quays ; and the steamer, which
was beautifully decorated, started amid music, the roar
of cannon, and the cheers of the spectators. After
steaming about a mile up the river, the boat returned,
and, similarly saluted in its progress, slowly entered the
new docks, and moored alongside the south wall of the
Bridge-end Dock ; after which the party repaired to the
new warehouses to partake of a dejeuner, at which 800
ladies and gentlemen sat down.
The weather was serene ; flags and streamers floated
from every available spot ; the ferry steamers were
crowded : Liverpool poured its throng to the opposite
bank. A more animating spectacle than the river pre-
sented it would be impossible to conceive.
Four of the warehouse rooms, each 140 feet long and
50 feet wide, were beautifully and tastefully fitted up
for the festival with pink and white drapery. The walls
and roofs were lined with fluted drapery. The recep-
tion-room was adorned with a magnificent cascade,
which poured out a crystal jet amidst a profusion of
choice conservatory plants and flowers.
Joseph Bailey, jun , Esq., M.P., occupied the chair ;
John Land and William Potter, Esqs., the vice-chairs.
After the toasts—the Queen, the Queen Dowager,
Prince Albert, and the rest of the Royal Family, the
Army and Navy, the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese,
and the Lord• Lieutenant of the County, had been given,
with the usual :immure,
The CHAIRMAN proposed the health of Lord 'Viscount
Morpeth. Ile thanked the Noble Lord, not only in the
name of the two boards of directors and the dock com•
missioners, and those who had taken a direct interest in
the prosecution of these works, but also in the name of
the public, for having given his sanction to the pro-
ceedings of that day by his presence. The Noble Lord's
public career had now been of some consid:rable
duration, and his public character was so well known
that it would be needless for him to enlarge upon
it. His private worth was also as conspicuous
as his public virtues, and he felt great pleasure in
doing honour to them.—(Hear.) It might not be inap-
propriate to remark, as they were on the shores of the
Mersey, that the Noble Lord had recently visited a
country which was the most intimately connected with
es by commerce, and from which we were now drawing
largely our necessary surplies of food. In that country
the Noble Lord had had the opportunity. of witnessing
the energies of that great people the Americans—(Hear)
—of seeing the fertility of their soil, and of judging to

what extent our commercial relations with them might
be carried. He honoured the Noble Lord for having
devoted his leisure in that most useful field, instead of
in visiting countries, no doubt interesting in'thenaselves,
but not so important to be known to a man who was a
servant of the Crown and a British Statesman.--I(Hear,
hear.) The presence of the Noble Lord, who had more
than once enjoyed the:confidence of his Sovereign, and
was now a Cabinet Minister, stamped the works on the
shore of Wallasey Pool, on the west banks, with that .
degree of nationality which their warmest friends
claimed for them, but which the public at large might
not be willing to concede.— (Hear, hear.) Those
works were not undertaken for the benefit of a few
individuals merely, but partook of a national cha-
racter. When they adjourned from that room it
would be to open the Birkenhead Park ; for such a
duty no more appropriate person could be selected than
the Noble Lord. Knowing the warm interest he had
toafketnheinpeothpel'irnatory condition, the health and
caolntnalc.>srt and the improvement of towns,
he was sure the Noble Lord would feel gratified to see a
park devoted to the health and recreation of the people
in the midst of those piles of buildings which were ex-
tending in every direction around it.—(Hear, hear.) On
an occasion like the present, when no political feeling
interfered, but where men of all parties were met toge-
ther to celebrate the opening or a great national work,
he was sure they would all unite to doing honour to the
toast.—(Hear, hear.) It was his misfortune to sit on
the opposite side of the House of Commons from that •
occupied by the Noble Lord; but neither be nor any
other gentleman who sat there could fail to pay to the
Noble Lord's character that respect to which it was en-
titled.—(llear, hear.) He gave them " The Right Hon.
Lord Visct.unt Morpeth."
The toast was drank with three times three. The
cheering having subsided,
Lord 1113EPETII said—Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gen-
tlemen, I assure you that I feel most sensibly the more
than kind and cordial manner in which this toast has
been received.—(Hear.) Ever since I have been called
to the office I have now the honour to hold, and which
connects me with the property of the Crown, I have
felt the strongest interest in the rising fortunes of Birk-
enhead; nor it is unnatural that I should do so, for you
are probably aware, that besides the general parental
interest which the Crown may be assumed to tape
in the welfare of all that are represented by the ab-
stract idea of its subjects, it has &so. motives not so
peculiarly abstract or disinterested for wishing well to
the port and town of Birkenhead. I avow this the more
readily, because it is quite obvious that the proportion
in which the undertakings here Set on foot can become
p-ofi!able to the Coen MU' t be according to the degree
in which they are made valuable fur the accommodation
of commerce and for the public gcod.—(Hear, hear.)
As a well wisher, then, to tfe public, and as a servant
of tl'e Crown, rs an admirer of courageous enterprise
and tucce-sful perseverance—(Hear, hear)—l find a
combination of claims upon me for doing, in combi-
nation with my colleagues by whom I am most will-
ingly and zealously seconded, aid in pur.uance of
that toclmple which has been set to me by my pre-
decessors in the same office—(Cheers)—all that in us
lies to promote, on all legitimate ;;rounds, the perma-
nent prosperity of Birkenhead.—(Cheers.) With there
feelings, then, you may judge with how keen a relish,
with what lively emotion, I partake in all the pro-
ceedin;:s of this day.—(Loud cheers.) We hear some-
times of the old gala days of Venice, when the Doge went
forth in his golden galley to plight his faith to the wave
which bathed his pslaces, but we have seen some-
thing this clay beyoial even the dreams of Venice. For
instance, such an array of steamers as has to-day graced
the Mersey, never could have been witnessed in Venice -
and though perhaps a steamer, when viewed by itself,
may not be so picturesque an object as a gondola, I may
yet remind you that even in the palmiest days of her
pomps and argosies, Venice never could have sent forth
a message which in ten days might reach those harbours
and roadsteads of the New World where her flag never
waved. A pleasing omen I shall think it, if amongst the
first uses of that ample basin into which our vessel to-
day has been the first to glide, surrounded by all those
striking specimens of engineering skill and admirable
masonry, we should apply those works to the admission
of the surplus harvests of more favoured regions, and
make provision for the bread which keepeth alive.—
(Hear, hear.) Next in the progress of time—l hope in
the course of this very autumn—you will be able to bear
your part in accommodating the timber trade. I will
not proceed further in those long vistas of usefulness, of
enterprise, and of success, which, I trust, will stretch
out before the future prospects of Birkenhead, and to
which I hope the proceedings of this day will have given
an auspicious commencement, and a powerful impulse.
—(Hear, hear.) I would just express a hope in pass-
ing, that the best feeling and the best understand-
ing will always prevail between you and the great
city immediately opposite you.—(Great cheering.)
Liverpool divides with London the supremacy of the
commerce of the modern world, and as London could
only feel benefited by the expansion of Southwark,
Liverpool can never have cause to repine at the growth
of Birkenhead. Believe me, gentlemen, and I hope all
on the other side of the water will believe me too, that if
ever your own wide Mersey was thoroughly walled by a
double wall of docks and warehouses, there will not be
more than room for the corn, the cotton, and the forests
of the western hemisphere.—(Hear, hear.) And I trust
you have this day forged a new and an abiding link to
that chain of amity which ought ever to connect Eng-
land with America. I feel this is not the time to dilate
further on these points. It is well known the attrac-
tions of Birkenhead are nut limited to its water frontage,
and that if the genius of a Randall has complettditt
docks, the skill of a Paxton has laid out its-pleieure-
grounds.—(liCar,-' hear.) Nor will my Teat -recent
occupation permit me to forget that this is one of the
first places which has begun a systematic .attention to
the physical comforts of the vast numbers of workmen it.
calls together, and the important subject of public health.
With this assurance about us and around U 3, I feel that
the pageant of to-day, even when its gaieties shall
have passed away and its shouts are silent, will still
give us grounds for remembrance that it has not been a
triumph which gathet s its trophies from the strife of na-
tions and the arts of destruction—that it has not been a
mere unmeaning sacrifice to frivolity and dissipation, but
that it has struck its roots deep in public usefulness, and
will bear rich fruits of peace and progress through
coming ages.—(Cheers.)
The next toast given was, " The County Members."
Sir P. EGERTON, M.P., returned thanks. Two years
ago only he had attended the preliminary proceeding on
the commencement of the works which they had now
assembled to open to their uses. He had not expected
so soon to asitness the fulfiiment of their hopes, though
he had never been influenced by those who said that
they might as well propose to build docks in the air as
at Birkenhead. He congratulated the Commissioners
upon having, while providing for the commercial im-
provement of the town, been equally attentive to the re.
ligious instruction, the health, and comfort of the poor.
Formerly there was a couplet—
From Birkenhead to Kilbreo
A squirrel may hop from tree to tree.
Ere long he hoped they might read it thus:—
From Birkenhead to Kilbree
A ship may sail from Mersey to Dee.
The Earl of LINCOLN proposed the next toast—" The
commerce of the Mersey," a duty which devolved upon
him in consequence of the absence of Sir T. Fremantle,
the Chairman of the Customs. his Noble Friend had
said that Liverpool and London divided the commerce of
the United Kingdom. Ile believed the commerce of the
Mersey, as represented by Liverpool, not only equalled,
but by the most recent accounts exceeded that of Lon-
don itself.—(Hear, hear.) And from this auspicious
date that that increase would go on until, in a few years,
the port of Liverpool would be equal to any two or
three in the kingdom, London included. He had been
informed that coals had been that day sent from Wales
by the new railway to be shipped on board a steamer
already lying in these docks. An American vessel, too,
he understood, was now in the port, principally laden
with guano, the cargo of which would be sent back by
a
the same railway, and probably, ere nightfall, be spread
over the fields.—(Hear.) He could not but express
fervent hope that the introduction of this fertilizing agent
on this occasion might be taken as an auspicious omen of
an abundant harvest. The Noble Earl, after some more
eloquent observations, formally proposed the toast, which
was drunk with enthusiasm.
The other toasts were—" The Mayor of Manchester;"
" The Chairman," proposed by Lord Morpeth ; " The
Birkenhead Docks ;" " The Dock Warehouse Company ;"
"The Guests of the Day ;" "Mr. Rendall, the engineer,
and Mr. Paxton, the designer of the New Park;" " The
Railway Interest connected with Birkenhead ;" "The
Cheshire Witches," Sec.
After the &joiner, Lord Morpeth, accompanied by
several distinguished guests, proceeded to open the New
Park, which has been formed with a wise foresight to
the future wants and sanitary condition of the popula-
tion of Birkenhead, at a cost of 127,7751.
The park was during the day the scene of great re-
joicing and festivity, and in the evening he
a as a holi-
day;e
and indeed partly at Liverpool, was observed
gorgeous display of fireworks. The day ttßirrkenh.aseada
u ber. each received a days wage. Later in the
and the workmen at the Birkenhead Docks, 2,000
appropriately fitted up for the
I resent the
ietis-ennitrig' a ball and supper took place in the Dock ware-
house,
majority of the
oc
oc
ua
ss
ei
, o
n
,
whicht whhadichbeewn,,ree
principal persons who hi,d attended the previous pro-
ceedings.

The Lords of the Admiralty will have to extend
their tour, on their next visit of in-pectioni to the various
dock yards The Royal Surrey Dock Yard now assumes
suchlipr
a formidabletat
b attitude that Prince Joinville will, in
u
feel compelled to write another pamphlet.
Wct and dry docks are exemating, first-rates and frigates
building, and all the bustle and activi!y of a dock yard of
the first magnitude on the eve of a war. Seriously, the
preparations making at the Royal Surrey Zoological
Gardens, fi ir the siege of Gibraltar, are oa such a gigantic
I scale few persona have any conception of, and we are
warranted in asserting that the forthcoming representa-
tion will exceed anything yet attempted.
Tan L lITERS ON THE FAST DAY.—The
lamplighters of Manchester, resolving, at the suggestion
i of their superintendent, to turn to some account the late
general fast, made a small subs...riptien through the force,
areeuntinzg• to I/. is. 61, with which they purchased
twenty-two dozen soup tickets, and distributed their
several proportions amongst the destitute pour in their
different localities. Thus were they enabled, at a trifling
sacrifice to themselves, to afford temporary relief to at
least 100 of their less fortunate and suffering brethren.
'rhis is a gratifying illustration of the good that may be
effected, even on a small scale, where there is a disposi-
tion, and an example worthy of imitation.—Guardian.
The cost of a passage in the forecastle from Cork
to America is raised to 4/. 10:z. and 51., that is 20s. to 30s.
over the usual charge.
The Northern Whig states that Antrim is the only.
county in Ireland which has not touched bOirtlung of
Government money.