The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-11 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

WORKING DOUBLE TIDES.—When the writer was lieu-
tenant, superintending- the Eastbourne district of the coast
blockade service, he became acquainted with the family of
Mr. Longshaw, a gentleman of fortune, who had hired a
house for some months at that place. From some unaccount-
able cause, Mr. Longshaw's valuable carriage horses became
gradually so lean and sluggish, that they were unable at times
to draw the phaeton up a hill,and upon one occasion actually
stood still on the way to church, which was only two miles
distant. The oats were changed, hay chopped, beans added,
mashes administered, bandages applied, feet stopped, and
sea-bathing practised, without producing the least improve-
ment. To use the expression of a celebrated whip, there
was—" No go in the brutes ; they were always picking up
seven-shilling pieces along the road ; and they wore out three
breechings to a trace." Veterinary practitioners were con-
sulted, which of course made matters worse, since they nearly
succeeded in producing a disease where there was none be-
fore. The poor animals were bled, blistered, and physicked,
secundem artcm, without either mercy or amendment. Mr.
Longshaw was at his wits' end—his bays were not worth a
button—he would have sold them for a song—or " spared
them to a friend" without much solicitation. The writer,
however, happening to observe considerable intimacy between
the coachman and some of the " fair traders," an investiga-
tion was instituted, which ended in the coachman's contes-
nis thut he had I.lcyn tcmptcd to biro ot.t tko " oc•c-o*"
per night to one George Hetherington, a notorious smuggler,
who came for them after the family had retired to rest,
worked them hard all night in conveying contraband goods,
and brought them back to their stable, soon after daybreak,
to be groomed for their ordinary labour ; a systeni, as the
reader will admit, not particularly well calculated to improve
either their speed or their condition.—Mr. Longshaw's as-
tonishment and indignation may be imagined, when he ascer-
tained that only twenty-four hours previous to his making
this discovery, his favourite bays bad been employed in work-
ing a cargo of foreign spirits at Seaford, ten miles from home ;
and that they escaped being seized, condemned, and sold,
only by a desperate feat of Hetherington, who swam them,
heavily laden, across Cuckmere river at midnight.—United
Service Journal.

MEDICAL DUELS.—Dr. Baillie was rejected at the Col-
lege. He called the next day on Dr. Barrowby, who was one
of the censors, and insisted upon his fighting him. Bar-
rowby, who was a little puny man, declined it. "I am only
third censor," said he, " in point of age—you—must first call
out your own countryman, Sir Hans Sloane, our president,
and when you have fought him, and two senior censors, then
I shall be ready to meet you."—Many medical duels have
been prevented by the difficulty of arranging the "methodus
pugnandi." In the instance of Dr. Brocklesby, the number
of paces could not be agreed upon; and in the affair between
Akenside and Ballow, one had determined never to fight in
the morning, and the other that he would never fight in the
afternoon.—John Wilkes, who did not stand upon ceremony
in these little affairs, when asked by Lord Talbot " How
many times they were to fire ?" replied, " Just as many as
many as your lordship pleases ; I have brought a bag of bill-
lets and a flask of gunpowder with me. '—Physic and
Physicians.
dARRICK AND DR. STONHOUSE.—Dr. Stonhouse is said
to have been one of the most correct and elegant preachers
in the kingdom. When he entered into holy orders he took
occasion to profit by his acquaintance with Garrick; to pro-
cure from him some valuable instructions in elocution. Be-
ing once engaged to read prayers and to preach at a church in
the city, he prevailed upon Garrick to go with him. After
the service, the British Roscius asked the Doctor what par-
ticular business he had to.do when the duty was over?
" None," said the other. " I thought you had, (said Garrick)
on seeing you enter the reading-desk in such a hurry."
" Nothing (added he) can be more indecent than to see a
clergyman set about sacred business as if he were a trades-
man, and go into the church as if he wanted to get out of it as
soon as possible." He next asked the Doctor " What books
he had in the desk before him ? " " Only the Bible and
Prayer-book." "Only the Bible and Prayer-book (replied
the player), why you tossed them backwards and forwards
and turned the leaves as carelessly as if they were those of a
day-book and ledger." The Doctor was wise enough to see
the force of these observations, and ever after avoided the
faults they were designed to reprove.—Countess of Hunting-
don's Life and Times, 2 Vols.
ATTRACTION IN WALES.—WaIes presents many attracti-
ons to the sportsman. The disciples of Izaak Walton find
numerous rivers well stored with fish ; it is, however, an
amusement which never took my fancy, therefore I cannot
descant upon it. There are several, very agreeable little
racing meetings; and those of Abergavenny, Monmouth, and
Pontypool, although situated in Monmouthshire, being prin-
cipally supported by the same parties who send their horses
to the meetings in the principality, and being within a short
distance, may be,considered within the same district. The
lovers of the trigger have in most parts sufficient scope for
their exertions. Ex.cept in some favoured places, game is not
strictly preserved ; consequently is not so abundant as might
be wished ; nevertheless a fair sprinkling may be found, and
amongst other kinds the woodcock appears in due season, the
pursuit of which most assuredly ianks highest in the estima-
tion of the knights of the fowling-piece. As for hunting,
there is plenty of it ; and if the establishments are not sup-
ported with ostentatious grandeur, yet they cannot fail to
gratify those who are really fond of it. The merry harrier
will rouse your heart if you can be content while hare hunt-
ing, and is a goad substitute in mountainous countries for
the fox-hound. Even with the latter, those whO enjoy hunt-
ing merely for the parade of riding to covert, or of riding a
hunting steeple-chase when they are there, must not resort to
these quarters ; such, however, are not sportsmen, conse-
quently are not gratified with the legitimate character of field
sports which sportsmen only can appreciate.—Old Sporting
Magazine.

DEATH OF LORD CHESTERFIELD.—" I saw my dear and
valued friend (says Lady Huntingdon) a short time before
his departure. The blackness of darkness, accompanied by
every gloomy horror, thickened most awfully round his dy-
ing moments. Dear Lady Chesterfield could not be per-
suaded to leave his room for an instant. What unmitigated
anguish has she endured, but her confidential communica-
tions I am not at liberty to disclose. ' The curtain has fallen
—his mortal part has passed to another state of existence.
Oh ! Inv soul, come not thou unto his end." Lord Ches-
terfield's infidelity is too well known to require much corn-
ment.—Countess of Huntingdon's Life and Times, 2 Vols.
RAPID EXTENSION OF MANCHESTER.—In the year 1744,
according to the census then taken, the parish of Manches-
ter contained 41,032 inhabitants ; according to the parlia-
mentary census of 1831, it contained a population of 207,961.
Eight years have elapsed since that period, and it may fairly
be presumed that the present population will amount to at
least three hundred thousand souls ! Such an increase to
take place in a period within the memory of many individu-
als, is perhaps unparalleled. There are many old inhabi-
tants living who recollect the town when very circumscribed in
its limits. They remember a time, for instance, when Ard-
wick Green, now connected with the town by contiguous
houses, was a long country walk—when the site of the pre-
sent substantial warehouses in New Market Buildings was a
pool of water—when the present handsome sheet of water
in front of the Infirmary was a stagnant pool—when Oxford
Road and Lower Mosley-street, and all the districts beyond
were yet fields and gardens—when High-street and Cannon.
street, and the upper end of Market-street, and St. Ann's
Square, were private dwellings. They can recollect the first
factory erected in the town, the one in Miller's-lane, and the
crowds of people that flecked to see the high chimney be-
longing to it, when it was in progress of erection—they re-
member Strangeways, when a public house, its bowling green,
and the pile called Strangeways Hall, were the only encroach-
ments on green fields and pastures stretching even to Bunt's
Bank—they tell of the time when a coach to Liverpool
started at six o'clock in the morning, and reached its desti-
nation at the same hour in the evening. To the present ge-
neration the reminiscences of these not very aged individu-
als seem marvellous, but their accuracy is unquestionable.
It is within the last sixty years that Manchester has multi-
plied its population by seven, and has risen from compara-
tively a small town; to be one of the most populous and im-
portant places in the world.—Manchester as it is,

SALT WATER.—Mr. Miller, employed in the inspection
of the Greek manuscripts of the Royal Library of Paris, has
stated, in a communication to the academy, that the ancients
were acquainted with various methods of making salt water
fresh ; and they make mention, among other ways, of dis-
tillation, and of receiving the evaporation on sponges, the
water expressed from which is perfectly sweet.

Cunrous CusToac.—ln the Canton of Basle, in Switzer-
land, there is a law which compels every new married couple
to plant six trees immediately after the ceremony, and two
more on the birth of every child. They are planted on Com-
mons, frequently near the high roads ; and the greater part
of them being fruit trees, are at one and the same time both
useful and ornamental. The number planted is said to
amount to ten thousand yearly.
NATURAL FirOWERS IN WINTER.—TO produce them,
some of the most perfect buds of the flowers it is wished to
preserve, such as are latest In blowing and ready to open,
must be chosen. Cut them off with a pair of scissors, lea-
ving the stem about three inches long ; cover the end imme-
diately with Spanish wax, and, when the buds are a little
shrunk and wrinkled, wrap them up separately in paper, and
place them in a dry box. When it is desired to have the
flower to blow, take the buds over-night, cut off the sealed
end of the stem, and put the buds into water, wherein has
been infused a little nitre or salt, and the next day you will
have the pleasure of seeing the buds open and expand them-
selves, and the flowers display their most lively colours, and
breathe their agreeable odour around. '
Da. WOODWARD.—Dr. Woodward was expelled the coun-
cil of the Royal Society, for an insult offered to Sir Hans,
then Dr. Sloane, the secretary. Sir Hans was reading a
paper of his own composition, and Woodward said some-
thing greatly insulting about it. Sir Isaac Newton was in
the chair when the vote for expulsion 'was agitated. Dr.
Sloane complained that he had often affronted him by
making grimaces at him ; and upon that occasion Dr.
Arbuthnot got up to ask what degree of distortion of the
muscles of a man's face it was that constituted a grimace?
Woodward, however, was expelled ; and somebody having
pleaded in his favour that he was a good natural philosopher,
Sir Isaac Newton remarked, that in order to belong to that
society, a man ought to be a good moral philosopher, as well
as a natural one.—Physic and Physicians.
TRIALS OF THE CLERGY .—Old John Berridge, writing to
Lady Huntingdon for a supply for his pulpit, says, " But
whom do you recommend to the care of my church ? Is it not
one Onesimus, who ran away from Philemon ? If the Dean
of Tottenham (Whitefield) could not hold him in with a
curb,- how should the Vicar of Everton guide him with a
snavel? Ido not want a helper to stand in my pulpit, but to
ride round my district ; and I fear my weekly circuits would
not suit a London or a Bath divine, nor any tender Evange-
list that is environed with prunello. Long rides and miry
-roads in sharp weather ! Cold houses to sit in, with a very
moderate fuel, and three or four children roaring and rock-
ing about you ; stiff blankets like boards for a covering ; and
live cattle in plenty to feed upon von ! Rise at five in the
morning to preach ; at seven breakfast on tea that smells
very sickly; at eight mount a horse, with boots never
cleaned, and then ride home, praising God for all things."
—Countess of Huntingdon's Life and Times, Vol. 11,
DR. CAnciaaN.s---This physician, who was at one time in
indifferent circumstances, married a rich old lady, over
whose wealth he had an entire controul. Like most mer-
cantile marriages, it was not of the happiest kind. The lady
had a suspicion on her mind, that the doctor would one day
poison her with his physic in order to get her out of his way ;
and feeling ill, on one occasion, she exclaimed that she was
poisoned. " Poisoned !" said the doctor to a number of his
wife's friends who were present, " how can that possibly be ?
Whom do you accuse of the crime ?" " You," replied the
indignant wife. " Gentlemen," said the doctor, with consi-
derable non chalance, "it is perfectly false. You are quite
welcome to open her at once, and you will then discover the
calumny,"—Physic and Physicians.
TEMPERANCE SAVINGS.—Suppose a young person, at the
age of 20, was to place Is. 6(1. a week in the savings' bank,
instead of spending it in drink or in folly, the amount saved
at the end of one year would be £3 18s. to which, if he
added 2s. he would be entitled to interest on £4. Let them
thus add £4 every year to his savings, and continues to do
so till the age of 40—that is to say, for 20 years—at the time
he would find that, though he has placed but £BO in the
savings' bank, he has become entitled to upwards of £l2O ;
in fact, that the interest (which he has not taken out, but
put back into the bank as it became due to him) has
amounted to above half as much as the whole sum he had
saved. If a man of 21 years of age begins to save 4s. a
week, and puts it to interest every year, he will have at 31
years of age, £l3O 15s. Id. ; at 41, £371 7s. ; at 51,
£735 14s. llid. ; at 61, £1,22958.2*(1. ; at 71, £2,296 Os. 41s1.
Let those who spend shilling after shilling in drinks which
do them no good, but, on the contrary, inflict serious in-
juries on their constitution and character, diligently ponder
the above statement; and let the moderate drinker, too, see
how much he might save by giving up his little drops.
POROSITY OF COTTON.—FiII a common -glass tumbler, or
other vessel, completely with some spirituous liquor, so that
a few drops more would cause it to overflow. This done,
you will find no difficulty in introducing into the tumbler, so
filled, a whole handful of raw cotton. * * * Spirits an-
swer better than water, for trying the experiment, from the
rapidity with which they are absorbed by the cotton. Seve-
. ral theories were started .by persons who tried the experi-
ment ; such as, that the filaments of cotton occupied the va-
cancies between the globules of water; or that by its capil-
lary action the cotton subdivided the globules, and caused
them to occupy a less space, &c. To me, however, it ap-
pears to be accounted for more satisfactorily, by supposing
the fluid to insinuate itself between the filaments of the cot-
ton, and thus permit the latter to occupy no more space than
is due to their actual solidity—Journal of Franklin Institute.
MAKING COFFEE, By DR. RATIER.—Take four ounces of
good coffee, properly roasted and ground. Dilute it in two
glasses of cold water, with a spoon. Let it steep all night,
covering the vessel which contains it. Next day pour this
pap with care on fine linen placed in a glass funnel in a bot-
tle. You have an extremely strong infusion, of which a sin-
gle spoonful, poured in a cup of boiling milk, is sufficient to
give the whole a delightful perfume. One part of this infu-
sion and two parts of water, put on the fire until it boils,
-gives a water coffee of a superb colour and perfect taste. It
may indeed be conceived, that coffee, treated cold, may not
have parted with every portion of its aromatic principle.
N 0..., can cold water draw from coffee all that can be obtain-
ed from it ? answer yes: approvea by expe•ri....enec. iva
I have tried the process related above with boiling and with
cold water, and I have assured myself by comparison,- that
the powder, drained by the cold water, and treated then with
boiling water, gave nothing but a water slightly tinted with
yellow, and devoid of odour and flavour. It is besides pro-
per to pass an equal quantity of water to the first, over the
grounds, in order that the second water may serve for new
powder. There is thus both economy of fuel and time, since
the operation is done at once, and constantly succeeds if
done is the same manner. This process is not spoilt in the
boiling, nor can it frequently overflow, as in the apparatus
called Marize, and others which answer the purpose well, but
are expensive to purchase, and require repairs. As for my-
self, two small decanters of glass, and a funnel of the same
material, compose all my apparatus. One of the decanters
contains the prepared coffee, and has a ground stopper. The
other, in which the funnel is placed, receives the second
Water, and in its turn contains the coffee, and thus both are
used in succession : all the care required is in passing a little
water through them at times. Every person who has tasted .
my coffee, whether made with water or with milk, has found
it of a superior quality. I am astonished that so simple a
process has not been adopted. For the coffee houses it would
have the great advantage of always having coffee ready made,
not by adding water to the milk, which contains enough
already, or making the coffee from hand to mouth, but in a
manner which none of the qualities sought for by true ama-
teurs are lost. I .may here mention, that the process was
au sgested to me in reading a memoir of M. Boullay, apothe-
cary at Paris,•upon the preparation of tinctures ar d extracts
by a method' which he calls " deplac,ement."—Quarterly
Journal of Agriculture.
CAST IRON, STEEL, &c.—ln a paper read at the late
meeting at the British Association, at Birmingham, " On
the relative combinations of the constitutents of cast iron,
steel, and malleable iron," by. Dr. Charles Schafhaeutl, of
Munich, the author stated that pure iron could not be wel-
ded ' • that the welding power of iron depended on its alloy
with the carburet of silicon, and also that the good and vari-
ous qualities of all the wrought irons depended on the alloys
of pure iron with other metallic bodies ' • and that the presence
of most of the electro-negative metals had been generally
overlooked in the existing analysis of iron. The presence of
arsenic in 'Swedish steel, when forged red-hot, could be ascer-
tained by its smell, as well as in the Low Moor iron. The
usual solution of iron under analysis, in order to separate
those metals from the iron, must be, for the necessary cor-
rection, divided into two parts,—one to be treated with a
current of sulphurettecl hydrogen, the other part dropped
into sulphydrate of ammonia, and carefully digested. A small
quantity of siliCa was more difficult to separate from a large
quantity of iron, than generally seemed to be believed ' • and
the whole amount of carbon could only be ascertained by
Berzelius's method of burning iron in a. current of oxygen,
or mixed with chlorate of potash and chromate of lead in a
glass tube, used first by Berzelius for analysis of organic
bodies. The author maintained that steel vas entirely me-
chanical production of the ferge.hammer, which tore the
molecules of certain species of white cast iron out of their
original position, into which the forces of attraction, in
respect to the centres as well as to the position of the mole-
cules, had arranged those molecules by the slow action of
heat. Steel, as it came out of the converting furnace or the
crucible, was nothing more or less than white cast iron, of
which Indian steel, called Wootz, was the fairest specimen.
The author finally gave an analysis of two specimens of cast
iron and one of steel. The first specimen was French grey
iron, from Vienne, department de l'lsere, obtained from a
mixture of pea-iron with red hematite by means of coal
from Rive de Gier. and heated air, specific gravity 6.898.
The second iron was Welsh iron, from the tin-plate manu-
factory of the Maesteg Ironworks, near Neath, in South
Waits, obtained from a mixture of clay iron-stone and Cum-
berland red ore, by means of coke and heated air. It was
silvery white, without signs of crystallization ; specific
gravity 7.467. The third specimen was the fragment of a
razor forged in the author's presence, in the workshop oLMr.
Rodgers, of Sheffield, of the. specific gravity of 7.92. Seve-
ral gentlemen, among whom were some connected with the
iron trade, expressed a high sense of the value of this com-
munication, from which it appeared that the peculiarities of
Swedish iron, in a great degree, depended on the presence of
arsenic, and those of Russian iron on the presence of phos-
phorus,—Athenaeum.
A SMUGGLER'S SCHEME.—Soon after another ingenious
scheme was hit upon by the " fair traders" of Eastbourne.
Disguising themselves like shepherds, who are accustomed
to employ the time during which their flocks are grazing upon
the Downs, by descending the precipicessssnot, as Shakspcare
says, " to gather samphire," but to Obtain the eggs of sea-
birds, or to rob the falcon of its young—the smugglers, un-
observed, dug a platform in the face of the cliff immediately
under Beachy Head. Two of them laboured for seven suc-
cessive days in excavating and levelling this spot, at a height
of 300 feet above the sea ; and as this operation was carried
on by day, without any attempt a concealment, and there
was no means of approaching, or even of getting a view of the
place, except by being lowered 200 or 300 feet over the pre-
cipipe, it was supposed that they were engaged in collecting
eggs, and no further notice taken of the matter. Having
therefore completed the work, three or four of the gang de-
scended unobserved to the platform, where they remained
perched till dark ; and at high water, when the blockade sen-
tinels left the beach, a boat rowed to the foot of the precipica
immediately under the platform, to which her cargo was lei-
surely transferred by pulleys ; and the smugglers, lowering
each other by the same means into the boat, went off to East-
bourne with their comrades, leaving their contraband goods
securely stowed upon the platform. During the whole of
this proceeding, the preventive men were unconsciously
pacing the edge of the cliff above, at too great a height to
hear what was doing, even if they had entertained suspicion
of the stratagem ; and when the tide had receded sufficient
to admit of their descending to the beach, the boat, with
every other trace of the transaction, hid disappeared. The
platform, being composed of chalk like the cliff itself, was al-
together invisible either from the summit or the base cf the
promontory, and the smugglers having also taken the pre-
caution to paint their precautions white, they could not be
distinguished from the chalk at any considerable distance.
The risk of discovery, therefore, was trifling ; and on the
following night the smugglers could, without any interrup-
tion, hoist_ their goods from the platform to the summit of
the cliff, merely taking care to accomplish this at low water,
when the preventive sentinels were stationed along the beach
below. In this manner several valuable cargoes were im-
ported, nor would the plan, perhaps, have ever been de-
tected, but by a direct information which the writer derived
from one of the smugglers, who had quarrelled with his com-
panions. Fifty-six tubs of brandy were found upon the
platform when it was thus detected and demolished.— United
Service Journal.