Star.
London, England, 1824-11-17 00:00:00

THE MARKETS.

CORN-EXCHANGE, MARK-LANE, NOV. 17.
The boisterous state of the wind keeps back supplier, and there
is very little Corn fresh at market to-day, Wheat fully maintains
last quotations. Barley is rather dearer, as it is now fully under-
stood that the ports cannot open for this article. Beans are unal-
tered. 'There is hardly a sample of Peas at market to-day. Oats
are dearer, and obtain rather hither prices.—Arrivals English
Wheat 3800 qrs. Barley 4500 qrs. Oats 560 qrs. Irish Wheat
320 qrs. Barley 80 qrs. Oats 570 qrs. Foreign Oats 2G3 qrs. Flour
2600 sacks.

(FROM THE LONDON PRICE CURRENT, NOV. 105)
COTTON WOOL—The market has returned to its former
quiet state, the sales of last Week consisted of 1850 !nu.
180 Madras -61 d. to 64d. per lb. in bond.
300 I'ernams 11 id. to 110.
700 Surats - Sid. to 64d.
100 Betigals - sid. to 7d.
100 Bowed - Rd. to
50 Orleans - 944.1. to 90.
400 Bourbon - Pd. to 104 d.
20 Egyptian - 9,td. - - duty paid.
RAW SUGAR.—There was a steady demand ror Sugar to-day,
at former prices, viz.—Ordinary brown Jamaica 535. to 565. for
good brown; 565. for middling, to 645. for good middling; fine
continues very scarce; 120 casks Barbadoes sold today at prices
fully equal to Cornier sa!esb viz. 575. to 671. 6d. per cwt.
COFFER—To-day 60 casks Plantation sold by public sale at
prices Is. pet cwt. lower, viz. It consisted principally of foxy good
ordinary Jamaica, and sold at 545. to 575. per cwt.
SA LTPETRR.—The consumption of this article is very great •
the Company sold 655 tons out, of 1000 at 61. to ls. 6d. above the
taxed yrices. _ _

SPIRITS.—There has been much life in the Rum market since
our last; considerable business dote; and the quotations are fully
realized. Higher prices are anticipated by the importers, who are
in general very firm.—Brandy and Geneva unaltered.
HEMP, FLAX, and TALLOW.—The demand for Hemp has
been dull this week. Flax inquired for.
TOBACCO.—Tobaccos of good and fair quality are scarce, and
fully command firm prices; but in the inferior descriptions a reduc-
tion has been submitted to.

OlL—The accounts from the Davis Straits Fishery still continue
favourable; one ski, has arrived at this port with tiCi casks. Prices
must be considered nominal, as there is very little business doing in
the market. Sperm and other Oils stationary.
PROVISIONS.—The prices of Butter continue to advance;
they are quoted 2s.aper cwt, higher.—With respect te Bacon, the
trade hesitate to give the present high prices, consequently little
doing in that article. Cheese continues to support its former price.
TIMBER, DEALS, &c.—The arrival ut the ship Columbus
has produced no change hi the Wood market, as prices of Timber
and Deals continue fully to maintain former rates.
FRUIT.—Two public sales were hrought forward, and sold at
the following prices :—Red Smyrna Raisins at 50s. Turkey Figs
545. to 655. Sultanas 665. to 675. Black Smyrna Raisins 41s. New
Currants, slightly damaged, 975. to lOts.
HOPS.—Since our last, prices of Pockets have further advanced.
Bags are also much higher.—Duty supposed £140,000.

The late destructive fires have fallen heavy on some
of the Insurance Offices, as the property was very valu-
able, and insured to a great amount. The Alliance In-
surance Office has been so fortunate as to escape
entirely, although the policies effected at this exterl:ive
Establishment are numerous, and to a vast ainotit.t.

James Hill,'the Brecon letter-carrier, has been com-
mitted to the prison of that t 0.% n, under a ch.u4e of
feloniously altering the post-mark of letter flora 81,
to Is. 4d. and appropriating the BJ. to his own use._
The prosecution is ordered by the Postmaster GeLicral

IMPROMPTU

ON MI Nib► C:NONCN, ♦T zsynnascrrox, IMO PLACID ON TUN WTI
• 7011212RLY DM ItON SIZCITTIONS.

Where once severest Junto: spoke,
Now bizarr takes its place;
And, for the Lases avenging stroke,
The GOSPZL whisper; peace!

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE.

PROM A CORRISPONDENT.
The late fires, together with the numerous accounts
we have lately heard of want of water, want of en-
gines, &c. &c. have deeply impressed me with the ne-
cessity there is that the Magistrates should adopt some
more general plan to organise the people in cases of
fire, than has yet been acted on here. Under this im-
pression, I venture to address you at this moment, when
the public mind must be alive to everything connected.
with the subject, less, however, with the hope that any
thing which I may have to propose will be deserving of
public notice, than that I may be instrumental in direct-
ing attention to the most necessary points.
The want of water, arising from a deficiency of it in
the mains, of which there have lately been complaints,
seems, I am happy to say, by the notice taken of it in
the public journals, to be partly remedied. I was pre-
sent soon- after the fire broke out in Fleet•street, and
can assert the supply of water was ample. From the
Case reported in your Paper to-day, it would seem,
however, that there is not always a proper person at'
hand to turn the cocks, and get at the supply. I would
have this remedied, Sir, as tar as possible, by placing
the keys of the cocks in the possession of certain watch-
men in every district. The one who was stationed
nearest the cock shouldkeep the keys for the night,
and he should be responsible for the water being turned
on the instant there was an alarm of fire in his district.
If the Water Companies object to entrusting this to any
but a confidential servant of their own, they should be
obliged to place these confidential servants in some
well-known and accessible places, and every watchman I
within the district should have a knowledge of the 11
dwellings of the turncocks.
1 conceive, however, it is preferable, as I see no
'motive the watchmen can have to turn the water to
waste, to entrust them with the keys; and, if necessary,
to instnict them in the method of turning the water on.
Fire-escape ladders and parish engines are already, I
believe, in their custody, and why should not the water
be ? During the fire in Fleet-street, two or three streams
of gas were seen burning in the midst of the other
flames, defying the firemen to put them out, and adding
to the fury of the blaze. As I would have the supply
of water under the watchmen's care, I would also en-
able them for the night to cut off the supply of gas
going towards any house which might be on fire. They
should be brought where the stop-cocks are placed, if
there are any, and if not, there ought to be some placed
on every branch, and they should be constructed to cut
off the communication of the gas the instant any alarm
of fire was given. Any person who witnessed the fire
in Fleet-street must have seen the necessity for some re-
gulation of this kind. These are, however, only trifling
amendments: what is most essential, is a system of or-
ganization. I have lately seen two fires break out be-
tween dusk and bed-time, and the confusion which en-
sued by people, useless people, women, and children,
both boys and girls, crowding to the spit, was greater
than I could ever have supposed. They stop up the
street, decay the engines, impede the firemen and do
every sort of thing except assist to extinguish the fire.
Tnere is no doubt that a great fire is a sublime spec-
tacle, even in its terrors. Pe4ple do not think of its
devastations, and they behold its splendour. It is, in a
large town like this, an attractive curiosity. Every ra-
tional man who was near Bridge-street, on Monday even-
ing,must have seen, from the manner in which the people
all rushed to get a sight of the fire, the necessity, the
absolute necessity, of preventing the crowd from hurry-
ing about the spat. Not a few even of the spectators
implored for a military force to preserve order, and
protect them from the ill effects of their own curiosity.
Had I been a Magistrate, last night, Sir, I‘should
have felt myself warranted in requesting the Secretary
of State to send three regiments of soldiers into the
City for the protection of property, and to allow the
firemen room to work. Either the inhabitants must be
organised, or the military must be called out. I, for
one, am for the fanner, as more agreeable to the rest of
our institutions; and, 1 will add, more efficacious.
Time are no means of keeping away the mob but by
means of the mob themselves. Its Paris, I believe, the
service of firemen is entirely a matter of police; and a
large corps of sappeurr- to pull down houses, &c. and
• pompiers to work engines, are scattered in detachments
through That city. The gendarmes are instantly at
their post; all access to the place on fire is cut off,
. except to the firemen, who can thus calmly pursue their
work undisturbed by the rushing and the intrusion of
the crowd. The system is, I believe, admirable ; but not
that I should wish to see it imitated. In Germany
there is also a regular system of fire organization est*.
bliled in all the large towns. The inhabitants have,
different duties assigned them in different places; and
in case of fire breaking out, every man, to a certain ex-
tent, has a definite duty to perform. One of these du-
ties, which is, I believe, nowhere omitted, is to prevent
idle people approaching the spot. Something of this
kind should be adopted in London. From the Fire-
offices bearing all losses, there is a carelessness as to fi:
not to say a temptation sometimes to cause it. I have
heard it remarked, in fact, that insurance creates fires.
Such a protection against loss is likely to beget a hike-
warmness as to taking precautionary measures, particu-
larly as they must be attended with privations and
trouble. But in addition to the saving of property by
preventing plunder, every precaution which reduces the
risk of destruction, lessens the premium of insurance,
and may thus supply a motive, even to the most care-
less, to submit to some trouble for their own good, as
well as the good of the public. Independent of this,
some lives would be saved, and all would have a greater
sense of security,which I hold to be more valuable, from
its permanency, than two or three narrow escapes.
The body of firemen, as now existing, and the system
of engines, are both well organised ; and, as long as
insurance is in the bands of different Companies, cannot
perhaps be altered. I would, therefore. leave it as it is;
but it is indispensable, for their exertions to be effectual,
for property to be safe, that the promiscuous crowd,
should be prevented from approaching the spot. The
que,tion is, how can this be effected ? Must we have
guard-houses at every corner, bands a soldiers in ever,
street; or will the citizens hemselves take their own
safety into their own keeping.? To do the latter, which
is mo* manly, most patriotic, most independent, and

most secure, something like the following plan might
be adopted :
Each parish should be divided into certain districts,
as it, in fact, already is; at the boundary line of each
district, the inhabitants of a certain number of houses
on each side of every street that leads to or from the
district should be guards. • Their duty should always
belong to the houses, whoever might dwell in them.
For every district there should be a.distinct and particu-
lar fire-signal, such as ringing a bell a certain number
of times, striking a gong, firing a small gun, letting off
a sky-rocket, Etc. The instant this signal was made,
the inhabitants of the boundary houses should take
their station, and they should be sufficiently numerous
to resist the crowd; and they should not allow a single
person to pass the boundary, nor to enter the district
in which the fire was, bat firemen, with their engines.'
All those within the district might go to the spot if they
pleased ; but I would endeavour to organise them so as
to render them assistants to the firemen. My remarks
on this part of the subject must, however, remain till
another opportunity, and till I am quite sure, by
seeing them in print, that you think these worthy of
public attention. NAUTICCS.

DISCOVERY OF ANOTHER CAVE WITH

FOSSIL BONE&
An immense assemblage of fossil sbones has recently
been discovered in Somersetshire, in a cavern of the
Lime Stone Rock, at Banwell, near the west extremity
of the Mendip Hill, on the property of the Bishop of
Bath and Wells. The circumstances shish led to this,
discovery are as follow :—Some miners engaged is
sinking a shaft in search of calamine, intersected a steep;
and narrow fissure, which after descending eighty feet,'
opened into a spacious cavern 150 feet long, and about
thirty feet wide, and from twenty to thirty feet high.
From the difficulty of descending by this fissure, it was
lately judged desirable to make an opening in. the side
of the hill, a little below, in a line which might lead
directly to the interior of the cave. This gallery had
been conducted but a few feet when the workmen sud-
denly penetrated another cavern of inferior dimensions
to that which they were in search of, and found its flow
to be covered, to a depth which has not yet been ascer-
tained, with a bed of sand, mud, and fragments of
limestone, through which were dispersed an enormous
quantity of bones, horns, and teeth. The thickness of
:his mass has been ascertained by a shaft sunk into it,
to be in one place neatly forty feet. Many lasge
baskets full of bones have already been extracted, be-
longing chiefly to the ox and deer tribes ; of the latter
thete are several varieties, including the elk; there are
also a few portions of the skeleton of a wolf, and of a
gigantic bear. The bones are mostly in a state of pre-
servation equal to that of common grave bones, but it
is clear from the fact of some of them belonging to the
great extinct species of bear, that they are of very re:
mote origin. In the rocf of the cave there is a large
chimney-like opening, which appears to have commu-
nicated formerly wi,h the surface, bat which is choked
up with fragments of limestone, interspersed with mud
and sand, and adhering together imperfectly by a
stalagmitic incrustation; through this aperture it is pro-
bable the animals fel into the cave and pet ished.
The immense quantity of the hones shews the number
of indis iduals that were lost in this natural pitfall to
have been very great. In this manner cattle are now
'continually lost, by falling into similar apertures in the
limestone hills of Derbyshire. These is nothing to in-
duce a belief that it was a den inhabited by hl znas like
the Cave of Kirkdale, or by bears like those in Ger-
many ; its leading circumstances are similar to those of
the ossiferous cavities in the Limestone Rock at Oreston.
near Plymouth.
The Cave at Banwell has within these few days been
examined by Professor Buckland, and operations have
been commenced for the purpose of thoroughly investi.
gating its history and contents. The Bishop has already
sent collections of the bones to the Museums of Oxford
and Cambridge, and intends to provide a similar sup-
ply for all the principal public institutions in this country.
ORGANIC REMAINS IN SussEx.—The workmen em-
ployed in forming the tunnel under the road at Kemp
Town, near Brighton, discovered numerous teeth and
bones, which were at first supposed to be parts of human
skeletins, but upon being examined by a Gentleman
conversant with such subjects, were ascertained to be-
long to the horse and elephant. Similar organic remains
are commonly found in chluvial beds, like that on
which Brighton is situated, and ate evidently the re-1
mains of those land animals which were destroyed by
the Deluge. The town is built upon an accumulation
of water-worne materials which fill up a valleyof the chalk.
—A short time since, if rib of a very large an'mal, sup-
posed
to be that of an elephant, was discovered in the
bank on the west side of Suoreham harbour. Mr. Mantel
has discovered in the iron sandstone of this county, the.
teeth of an herbivirons reptile of a gigantic magnitude.
This animal approaches nearer to the Iguana of isarbas
does, than to any other recent lizard, and it is proposed-
to distinguish it by the name of/guano-saurus. Detached
parts of the skeleton, as vertebrae, thigh bones, Scs-. have
also been found, of which a particular account a ill be,
laid before the scientific public. Mr. Mantell has part'
of a thigh bone in his possession, which there is every
reason to conclude is referable to this animal; its size is
so great, that, upon a moderate computation, the imlis
visual to which it belonged must have equalled the
elephant in height, and been upwards of sixty feet long.
ire, I

Tuesday se'nnight, while the Lord Byron steam-boat
-was passing Bowlings, on her way to Glasgow, a sudden
squall burst one of the sheets, and a flap of the loose
sail knocked Mr. CAMPBELL, Master and part owner
'of the boat, into the Clyde. The moment the accident
was observed, one of the hands threw a rope, which
Mr. CAMPBELL, being an excellent swimmer, followed
some time, in the hopes of catching ; but the wind being
high, and the vessel having got a great way on at the
time, he was left far behind, and made for the shore;
but his strength being neatly exhausted by his previous
efforts, he sunk to iise no more.

ItowLEY, the player and dramatist, is mentioned by
a writer of the Olden Tyme, in a b"ok very little known, as the
constant companion of Bee Joesox and Roamer flisalce. in all
their -said:tight revelries and tavensjonsketengs. and was one of the
triumvirate whom lissaick includes in the following well-known
stanza, from an ode in the Hesperides
" Ah, Baia !
Say how or when,
Shall we, thy guests,
Meet at those lyric feasts,
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Tun f
Where we such clusters had,
As made us nobly wild, not mad ;
And yet, each verse of thine
Out-did the meat, out-did the Leslie wine."