The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-27 00:00:00

THE BRITISH QUEEN.

We subjoin a copy of a letter which has been received in
this town from Mr. M`Gregor Laird, respecting the arrival
of the above vessel :

" London, 25th December, 1839,
Blackwall, 3 p.m.
" Dear Sir,—The " British Queen " is now safely anchored
at her moorings, having sailed on the 2nd, and encountered
the most severe hurricane, which has done great damage,
carrying away deck-houses forward, and some of the boats.
Particulars you shall have afterwards. I am happy to say
her engine and machinery behaved well, and the captain can-
not speak too highly in praise of his vessel. She brings
about 40 passengers, all of whom are loud in her praise.—
I remain in haste, yours truly. M'GREGOR LAIRD."
J. R. Pim, Esq.

GRAND SERS.'CRIPTION CoNCERTs.—WC perceive from
the advertisement that the first of the Grand Subscription
Concerts for the season is to take place on Monday evening
next, at the Theatre Royal. A host of musical talent has been
engaged for the occasion. From the programme we have no
doubt that this concert will pass off with echit. The com-
mittee have provided a rich and varied entertainment for the
musical public, and we trust their spirited exertions will not
pass unrewarded. The names of the various performers enu-
merated in the advertisement will prove a powerful attraction.
THE PRESIDENT STEAM-SHIP.—The President may be
expected round from the Thames early in the ensuing year.
She will take in her machinery in the Trafalgar Dock, which
she will be enabled to enter with a high tide.
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH.—The advowson or perpetual pre-
sentation to the living of St. George's Church, has been
purchased from the corporation by John Fletcher, Esq. of
St. Michael's, in the Park.
WHITEHALL, DEC. 17.—The Lord Chancellor has ap-
pOinted Henry Bell, of Liverpool, Gent., and Robert R.
Derbishire, of Liverpool, Gent., to be Masters Extraordi-
nary in the High Court of Chancery.
The United States, intended as a companion to the Liver-
pool, the property of the Transatlantic Steam-ship Company,
is nearly ready fir launching. She will, it is expected, take
her place in the line to New York on the 20th April.
We understand that Mr. Cunard's line of steam-ships. be-
tween Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston, will commence plying
in the month of May. These steamers will keep up a com-
munication, once a fortnight, between Europe and America.

ClinisTm as DAY.—Wednesday being Christmas day, was
observed in this town with the usual solemnities. Nearly
all the shops were closed, and business in general was sus-
pended. The Mayor, Joshua Wahnsley, Esq., presented to
each debtor confined in the Borough prison, a donation of
gibs. of beef, 21bs. of bread, 2lbs. of potatoes, and one quart
of ale. The prisoners on the criminal side of the gaol,
amounting to 557 in number, also received a portion of the
Mayor's bounty, in a plentiful supply of bread, beef, and po-
tatoes.—The inmates of the Workhouse sat down to a plen-
tiful supply of old English fare, beef, plum pudding, &c. A
considerable number of visitors were present on the occasion,
and expressed themselves much pleased with the good order
and general appearance of comfort which prevailed.
PMSENTATION OF A GOLD SNUFF Box.—On Saturday
evening last, at the Brunswick Hotel, upwards of forty highly
respectable inhabitants of this town presented to Mr. Gas-
kill, the agent for the nmes, a magnificent gold snuff-box,
as a tribute to fits exertions fivr having been the means of
bringing the Times. to Liverpool by four o'clock in the after-
noon. John Threlfall, Esq., of Manchester, occupied the
chair. Among the company present were Mr. Councillor
Jones, Mr. M. J. \Vhitty, the high constable, Mr. W.
Craig, of Manchester, Mr. Thomas Watson, Mr. Odell, Mr.
Hindle, Dr. Thorburn, Dr. Donlevey, and the Rev. Mr.
Thorp. A letter was read from Mr. Charles Wilkins, the
eminent barrister, stating that he had been suddenly taken
ill by an attack, which, for half an hour, had placed his life
in jeopardy, otherwise he should have had great pleasure in
attending. It was stated, that, in consequence of Mr. Gas-
kill's exertions having put himself and the Manchester news
agents to a great expense by receiving the papers in parcels,
instead of by post, that the Grand Junction Railway Com-
pany liberally intended to reduce the impost on the Ist of
January. The company was a very influential one, and the
occasion must have been exceedingly gratifying to Mr.
Gaskill.

TESTIMONIAL OF ESTEEM.-011 Tuesday last a deputa-
tion from the committee of the Everton and Kirkdale Floral
and Horticultural Society, waited upon Mr. Skirving, of the
Walton Nursery, at his residence, and presented him w th a
very elegant silver snuff-box, as a testimonial of their high
estimation of his skill and talent as a botanist, arboricultu-
rist, and horticulturist, and as a token of their gratitude to
him for the very efficient aid which he has conferred on the
above-mentioned society since its commencement. Amongst
the individuals comprising the deputation were Messrs. M.
Ashcroft, Robert Jones, jun., H. Leatherbarrow, and Heys
Pyke. The box is of exceedingly chaste and elegant design,
but it will, of course, be more highly prized by Mr. Skirving
for the feeling of which it is an indication, than for either its
mere bullion value, or the beauty of its workmanship. Mr.
Pyke presented the box with a brief speech, conveying the
sentiments of the society. Mr. Ashcroft added a few ob-
servations expressive of the high esteem in which all con-
nected with agriculture held the gentleman to whom this gift
was presented. Mr. Skirving replied in an exceedingly ne It
and pointed address, in the course of which he assured the
deputation of the great satisfaction which it had given him
to mark the rising prosperity of their society, and of his o..vn
determination to continue his aid to it in every way in his
power.

Owen, the socialist, it is said, has been a visitor at Lupse-
Hall, near Wakefield, the hospitable mansion of Daniel Has-
kell, Esq., for some time past, where (as we hear) he has
been giving lectures to private dinner parties. No doubt
the fellow will find some hearers, if a good dinner is the
" bait" for his " fry."
EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW RAILWAY.—The operations
at the west end of this railway, though seemingly to the eye
going on but slowly, are in reality proceeding with great
spirit. The immense labour attendant on cutting the tunnel,
a great part of which goes through the solid rock, renders
the progress of the workmen necessarily slow ; but when the
obstructions to be overcome are taken into consideration, it
is greater than might have been expected. At tl.e " eye,"
on this side the Lunatic Asylum, the tunnel has now advanced
upwards of three hundred feet northwards, and the workmen
have begun to carry it southwards, to meet those employed
at the entrance in Bell's Park, where a considerable bore has
now been made. At the spot first mentioned, visitors will
find an inspection of the work highly interesting. The tun-
nel, so far as cut, has a most spacious appearance, and not
unpicturesque, the darkness throughout being partially
relieved by the lights of the miners, who are at work at its
farthest extremity. The operation of " blasting" is going
on with little intermission ; and there is something really
grand in listening to the report of each successive explosion,
as it thunders along the huge subterranean vault—the visitor
being safely guarded from the projected fragments by en-
sconcing behind a wooden erection raised for the safety of the
workmen. It is understood that a very little north of the
point where the miners have already penetrated, the rock
dips so much, that this obstruction will be no longer felt,
and an arching of stone, as in the other parts of the tunnel,
will then commence. About one hundred tons of stuff are
at present taken daily out of the tunnel at this part of the
works. At the " eye" to the northward of the Lunatic
Asylum the tunnel has been arched for about ninety feet
towards the canal, and an opening, to facilitate still farther
the operations, is now making immediately on this side of
the canal, while another will shortly be made at the termi-
nus of the tunnel beyond it. Six months have already been
employed upon this tunnel, and we believe other six months
will be required for its entire completion.--Seuttish Guar-
dian.

EXTRAORDINARY SHEEP.—On Saturday last was killed
by Mr. Hayward, a two year old Kent.wether sheep. It
weighed on the day it was killed 28 stone, and four days after
27 stone 51b, and was allowed by competent judges to be of
the most perfect symmetry, and the heaviest two year old
wether sheep killed in the county of Kent in the memory of
man. This sheep was shown at the last Canterbury cattle
show (as extra stock), but not one who saw it rightly judged
its weight. It may be satisfactory to the intelligent grazier
to know the precise manner this sheep was treated, with four
others, from the time it was weaned at fourteen weeks old,
to the day it was killed. When weaned it fed on grass only,
with the lambs of the owner, and in no way noticed from the
rest, till July in the following year, when it was fifteen months
old ; it was then put with the aforementioned four sheep upon
five acres of the best grass the owner had, and fed till Mi-
chaelmas with oats and cut sanfoin ; their food was then
changed for hog pease, cut hay, and good grass through the
winter, but never sheltered night nor day from any weather
that might fall, from the time they were lambed down till
they were slaughtered ; and for the last three months the five
sheep had every day, one and a half oil cake, in addition to
the above. The four averaged in weight 22 score 51b.—Ken-
tisk Gazette.
KING OF HOLLAND'S MARRIAGE.—The report of the in-
. tended marriage between the King of Holland and Mdle.
d'Oultremont is revived by the Commerce, which says that
persons well informed assert positively that it is to take place
by proxy, the Count de Leidekerke, Dutch minister at the
court of Rome, being his Majesty's representative. Mdle.
d'Oultremont is not to have the title of Queen, but is to re-
ceive an appanage suited to her position.
LORD SEATON AND THE WESLEYANS.— Lieutenant
General Lord Seaton was recently waited upon by a deputa-
tion of Wesleyans, consisting of eminent ministers and lay
members, who thanked his lordship for the valuable assis-
tance which he furnished to the ' society's missionaries in
Canada, and congratulated him on his elevation to the
peerage.