The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-16 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

LEEDS.—We have no material alteration to note in the
demand for woollens. The markets since our last have been
full as dull as those of the previous fortnight, but still there
is, on the whole, a fair business doing. Prices continue
much the same, and it is not improbable that those who are
looking out for a decline will experience a disappointment.
BRADFORD MARKET..—There was a fair demand for ma-
nufactured goods in the Piece Hall here on Thursday, and
prices continued much the same as last week. In the yarn
market the sales effected were more extensive than on Thurs-
day week, though there was no material variation of terms.
The wool market was firm, and there was a fair business
done, principally in super and good fine Hog wools. For
wools of superior quality better prices were generally ob-
tained.

WAKEFIELD. WOOL. MARKET, APRIL 12.—The quota-
tions of both long and short wool are nominally the same,
but there have been few buyers in since our last report, and
a degree of dulness has pervaded the market for both,
through the week. Fine noils are an exception, being in
request and rather dearer.
SADDLEWORTII.—The woollen cloth trade is moderately
brisk. The accounts from America are as good as can be
expected, and there has been a deal of business done both in
the home and export trade. Plaid shawls and fancy goods
are in particular request. Hands have full employment,
and wages are moderate ; but manufacturers complain of the
high prices of the raw material. - Very fine broad cloths and
fancy stripes are in particular request for home consump-
tion,

SILK TRADE.—The silk trade of every description con-
tinues unusually brisk, and many of the manufacturers can-
not get hands sufficient to meet their demands, especially of
the finer satins, which can only be worked by the best of
weavers ; but the goods are rich-looking' articles, and chiefly
light-coloured.
COTTON FACTORIES.—In some of the neighbouring towns
round Manchester, the trade in cotton factories is rather
better this week, and at some places the hands have com-
menced to work full time,—yet at many of the mills they are
restricted to four and five days per week, but this is only at
those places where they spin fine numbers for export, and is
by no means general.
COTTON HAND-LOOM WEAVING.—There are no kind of
work people worse paid for their labour than the cotton
hand-loom weavers, yet things are better than they were last
year at this time, but still there is very great distress, as the
cotton hand-loom weavers on an average cannot earn more
than from 4s 6d to 6s 6d per week.

LIGHTHOUSES.

In 1834 a committee on lighthouses was appointed by the
House of Commons, which sat through the whole session.
The different systems of lighthouse illumination, as 1...1
toe continent, were very fully examined.
In the report of this committee, the light from lime was re-
commended, if possible, to be made practicable for light-
house purposes. As far as the management of the light was
concerned, the practical difficulties were soon removed ; but
there remained an elementary objection, of serious impor-
tance, namely, a want of magnitude or quantity, as techni-
cally called. In the Catoptric system, practised in our light-
houses, a light of seven-eights of an inch in diameter is placed
in the focus of a parabola, which light gives 15 degrees of di-
vergence, and consequently each reflector illuminates 15 de-
grees of the horizon. In the Dioptric system, as practised
on the French coast, a light of three and a half inches in dia-
meter is necessary to give the required divergence. The lime
light, though one of great intensity, gives no divergence :
when placed in a parabola, it throws parallel rays, and when
placed in the centre of the Polysonal lens, could not be made
to give one degree of divergence. In the spring of 1835, Mr.
Gurney proposed, by combining oxygen with the flame of
wax or oil, to obtain a light of great power, to which these
objections would not apply. This proposition was immedi-
ately entertained, and the new light was put under experi-
ment at the Trinity. House.. In explanation of this light, we
must first observe the well-known fact, that oxygen increases
the brilliancy of burning bodies to a very great extent : thus,
sulphur, which burns in atmospheric air with a pale blue and
scarcely visible flame, when put into oxygen gives out a very
intense light ; and phosphorus, when so surrounded, gives
out a light so intense that the eye cannot bear it. The same
happens with charcoal, and with the flame of oil, wax, or
other bodies which contain it. Dr. Priestley proposed to
supply a common argand burner with oxygen instead of com-
mon air, and made a long series of experiments, with a view
of producing a light of this description. All flame is hollow,
or, in other words, consists of a thin film or bubble of ignited
matter, which surrounds and contains a quantity of the de-
composed body supplying it. In the flame of spirits of wine,
the interior of the film is chiefly filled with hydrogen ; in that
of oil or wax, it is filled with separated carbon—olefiant gas.
Dr. Priestley applied oxygen to the outside of the film or
bubble, or rather in the argand lamp which he used, double
cylindrical films. The outside portion of flame consists, in
its burning state, of half consumed carbon in the act of com-
bination with the atmosphere. The oxygen, therefore, in
Dr. Priestley's arrangement, met with carbon in a half state
of combination, and produced only a brilliancy in proportion.
Mr. Gurney proposed to introduce the oxygen into the inte-
rior of the bubble, and to strike the film on its inside surface,
where the carbon was pure and uncombined. He did so, and
succeeded. In the construction of this light for the Catop-
tile system, there are four small flames in a line of about
three eights of an inch in diameter each.. • The oxygen is in-
troduced by a small jet : the light from each jet is equal in
quantity to two and a half, making in all ten ordinary argand
burners. The divergence of it in a parabola is fifteen degrees.
The light for the polyzonal lens consists of a circular series
of seventeen films or bubbles of flame, and struck on the in-
terior by as many jets. The diameter of the whole is 31
inches, the same as the French lamp. It gives the same di-
vergence, with a power equal to sixty argands. The French
lamp gives only ten. Mr. Gurney's light is cheaper than
the French, iu the proportion of twelve to seventeen, taking
all wear and tear into the account. Oxygen is obtained' by
heating black oxide of manganese, which is found in large
quantities in Cornwall and Devonshire.—Athenaum.

ARITHMETICAL REFUTATION OF HUME'S
ARGUMENTS AGAINST MIRACLES.

According to Hume, our belief in the unvaried constancy
of the laws of nature is founded in experience ; so likewise is
our belief in the truth of human testimony. Whenever,
therefore, these two are opposed to one another ; that is to
say, when human testimony is opposed tq, the unvaried con-
stancy of the laws of nature in any particular instance, it be-
comes altogether a question of comparative probability ; in
other words, we are to consider whether it is more probable
that the testimony should be false, or the interruption of the
laws of nature true. For example, suppose the world to be
6000 years old, and that the whole co-existing population
during one generation is 1,000,000,000; then reckoning 30
years to a generation, there will have been 200 generations,
and 1,000,000,000 multiplied by 200, gives 200,000,000,000
of persons against an interruption of the laws of nature. The
improbability that such interruption should occur, is thus, a
priori, expressed arithmetically, 1 in 200,000,000,000.
This appears a formidable amount of probability ; yet such
is the value of distinct concurrent testimonies, such is the
force of testimony when given by separate independent wit-
nesses, that we are bound by all the laws of probability, I
may say mathematically constrained, to yield our belief to
the interruption of the laws of nature, provided it be vouched
by a sufficient number of moderately honest and competent
witnesses. In this very town I am sure we could, without
any difficulty, pick out twelve men, who would tell the truth
nine times out of ten. The improbability, therefore, that one
such witness should state a falsehood, is Ito 10. That two
such witnesses, unconnected with each other, should agree in
a false statement, is Ito 100. That three such independent
witnesses should agree in a falsehood, is 1 to 1000; and so
on we may express in general terms the improbability that
any given number of such independent witnesses should con-
cur in a false statement, by 10, multiplied by itself, a number
of times equal to the given number of witnesses. For in-
stance, in the case supposed there are 12 such witnesses;
therefore 10 is to be raised to the 12th power, arithmetically
expressed thus 10 12, which is equal to 1,000,000,000,000 ;
from which it appears that the improbability that twelve mo-
derately honest independent witnesses should concur in a
false statement, is 1 to 1,000,000,000,000 ; that is in words
ten hundred thousand millions. But we have seen that the
improbability that the laws of nature should be interrupted,
is only two hundred thousand millions. Great as is this im-
probability, therefore, it is five times more improbable that
twelve competent independent witnesses should be wrong.
Now, it is justly observed by the celebrated and profound
Bishop Butler, that " probability is the very guide of life. A
greater presumption on one side, though in the lowest degree
greater, determines the question even in matters of specula-
tion, and in matters of practice will lay us under an absolute
and formal obligation, in point of prudence and interest, to
act on that low probability."—Correspondent of the Chelten-
ham Chronicle.

IMMENSE BULL.—A bull, bred by Sir John Ramsden,
Bart., of Byram Hall, and sold in Wakefield market, last
week, by Mr. Petty, a butcher from Pontefract, weighed the
enormous weight of 189 stones, of 141bs. to the stone. Mr.
Petty has purchased of the same Baronet five heifers, equally
well fed.—Doneater Chronicle.