The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

MR. CARDWELL'S SHIPPING BILLS.

Thursday next is the day appointed for the House of
Commons to go into committee on the Merchant Shipping
Bill, and also on the Pilotage Bill ; hut, as the details of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget have not yet
been gone through, the Shipping interest must wait.
Several members have given notice of their intention to
move amendments, so that the discussion on these mea-
sures is likely to occupy some time. ith reference to
the enlistment of Merchant Seamen in the Royal Navy,
Mr. HUTT proposes the following clause :
" Whereas, it is expedient that seamen should no longer
be permitted to desert the vessels in which3,ltah.ey
gaged for the purpose of entering into her are en-
vice, be it enacted, that the fiftieth and fifty-firsttle:tisoenr:
of the act of the eighth year of her present Alajesty, chap.
112, shall be repealed; bud it shall not be lawful for any

5

officer in her Majesty's service knowingly to permit or
encourage any seaman to leave the vessel in which he iS
engaged ; and every seaman leaving his ship and entering
into her Majesty's service shall be liable to all the penal-
ties of desertion, any law or custom notwithstanding."
It is almost needless to remark that such a law would
be a manifest injustice to the seamen, and it may be a
serious detriment to the Royal Navy. Desertion shpuld
by no means be encouraged, but British seamen should
know that they could find protection under the British
flag.

S'''''RAATOER ROSE.

young Moss-rose in a hedgerow grew—
'Twas planted there by a merry child—,
And fairies fed it with limpid dew,
Till Flora's self on its beauty smiled.
The merchant Berry, and soldier Thorn
(The hedge was a little world, you know,)
Uncurled their leaves with a look of scorn,
Like lips that our world can sometimes shew.
The Dog-rose said : lam thrice as gay;'
Despised by all was the stranger thing;
And they twined their straggling boughs away,
As if to touch it some harm would bring !

But the Dog-rose soon with envy drooped,
The butterfly left her quite alone;
And lioney-bees all in rapture stooped
To gather wealth at the mossy cone.
The Berry and Thorn looked now askance,
Despising such creatures' tastes, said they :
But next observed that each maiden's glance
To the mossy flower would fondly stray.
So a conclave met in briery sheen,
To find who the Stranger-guest might be;
But She was dead ere they owned her Queen,
Or Envy's soul could her merit see.

A TRIP TO DUBLIN.

THE GREAT EXHIBITION AND
ITS OPENING.

[FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.]

THE VOYAGE FROM LIVERPOOL TO KINGSTOWN.
THE morning's snowfall has been succeeded by a most
un-Maylike Monday of sleet and wind, chilling market-
gardeners in the suburbs and the blue-tinted cheeks of
city pedestrians—making the " flags" as treacherous as
certain smart detectives whom Liverpool supports, and
causing every street-rivulet to play a noisy tune as har-
monious as the discontented talk spoken by everybody to
his neighbour, but especially rife, towards 7 p.m., at the
Prince's pierhead, where a well-drenched crowd are
wending their way on board the Iron Duke, bound for the
Irish metropolis. We are of the party who have daringly
determined to cross the troubled Channel even for such a
sight as this is, and, like our neighbours, think proper to
be decidedly glum until our stock of ill-humour is sent to
flight by the advent of a band of musical Liverpudlians,
with Mr. Sudlow at their head, each carrying a face as
sadly sombre as the big bass fiddle which brings up the
rear of the Philharmonic army. For a few minutes all is
excitement and bustle on board. No small difficulty has
occurred in getting the couple of monster fiddles safely
housed. A polite old lady in the cabin has in a state of
extraordinary excitement refused the acceptance of a
crownpiece proffered in change by the Company's clerk ;
She pronounces it a new coin of which she is determined
to know nothing, and is not happy till two half-crowns
have supplanted the larger disc, while some smiling coun-
tenances around seem to say—
" How happy could I be with either I',

That favoured specimen of Young Liverpool—the envied
of all on board—has taken an affecting farewell of a
graceful and fair triumvirate, who are really the only
parties that seem oblivious of the weather : how much he
of the gold-girded fingers has to do with the said oblivion
is, we confess, the subject of our profound speculation
as we move away from the pier into the river, and
are suddenly awakened from our reverie by a gentle
rolling which is rife with dismal bodinzs of the future—
Suggesting visions of midnight addresses to the great deep,
and the delivery of solid ejaculations to the fishes, as the
witty Sir Francis Head phrases it. The sky is dark
and cloudy, and is relieved only by a slight rim of light
on the northern horizon, sweeping like a streak of silver
round the Fort, and gradually extending along the Cheshire
shore. About eight o'clock those who have a mind to do
so go down for tea—always so excellently supplied on
board the vessels belonging to the City of Dublin Steam-
packet Company. When we ascend to the deck in an
hour or two, we find the night has undergone a reforms.
Lion—the sky is now radiant with stars, and the lead,'
coloured clouds have passed away. Albeit, now that we
are fairly in the Channel, the swell is apparently aggra-
vated, and it is as much as one can do to keep his per-
pendicular.

It is a feature of the English character to be very
familiar with strangers—in the dark. You share a cabin-
sofa with a gruff specimen of John Bull, and, as the small
hours wag wearily along, you grow wondrously commu-
nicative and friendly : in the morning there is a nod of
recognition, perhaps not even that, and you are, in the
light of day, silent as mummies. But, on board the Iron
Duke, we were a sociable, friendly company ; and the
evening talk of course related chiefly to the coming event.
The idea seemed to be that there is perhaps no tow❑ in
England than Liverpool whose duty it more decidedly is
to extend a ready and cheerful support to the great enter-
prise originated by the noble-minded William Dargan—
he of whom the genial Slingsby has sung as
"The man with his hand in his pocket,"

and who, in the erection of the Industrial Palace, which
now graces 3ferrion.square, has proved that he can put
his hand in his pocket to most excellent purpose, and
that, although the architect of his own fortune, he is
guided by a higher principle than that of self, and has at
heart the prosperity of his native land. The talk in our
cabin was, further, to the effect that there are a variety of
reasons why Liverpool should make a pilgrimage to
Dublin in the summer of 1553. In the first place, there
was the pecuniary benefit derived by the Queen of the
Mersey from the trade with Ireland, so well illustrated by
the significant fact that it is nownearly a score of years since
the value of the Irish cattle and sheep brought into our
port amounted annually to three millions sterling. Then,
secondly, a large number of the population are from the
sister country, and among their ranks are some of our
most useful citizens. Lastly, there is our proximity to
the Emerald Isle, and our position as the chief link in the
chain of communication between the two countries.
By midnight our talk was over, and all but one fast
young student, who was deep in the mysteries of Soapey
Sponge, were seeking, ineffectually, to snatch a little re-
pose. Sunrise and the beautiful Irish mountains came
with tidings of a glorious morning, and at seven o'clock
our party disembarked at Kingstown, and were conveyed
in a trice to Dublin by the nicely-appointed little railway,
running amidst the most delightful scenery, already fra-
grant with hawthown-blooms, and which provides second-
class carriages, almost equal to our English first, at
the rate of about a penny a mile. We have seen a more
troublesome crowd of loafters at an English port than
those by whom we were assailed at Kingstown ; and
altogether, both that town and the railway must impress
the stranger with the idea that the most of what composes
his first view of the Green Isle might with great advan-
tage be transferred to England— the railway, where no
accidents occur, and where elegant accommodation is
cheaply supplied, the attractive villas which skirt the sea-
shore, and the sweet bills in the back-ground, rising
gently against the sky.

DUBLIN BEFORE THE OPENING.
On entering the metropolis, signs of the approaching
event were everywhere visible. Under the direction of
the authorities the bronze statue of William 111., in front
of the Bank of Ireland, was being newly painted. Small
tavern-keepers were having new faces put upon their
premises, and the number of " Exhibition hotels " gave
presage of a supply of accommodation which will have

the effect, probably, of preventing the system of fleecing
which prevailed in so many London establishments during
the Exhibition of 1851. Crowds of the citizens were
flocking to Merrion-square ; and in the groups wandering
on foot through the streets, or jauntily scampering along
in the cars for which Dublin is famous, one might per-
ceive that a large proportion were strangers—not a few,
indeed, being from the Continental countries. Thousands
of visitors arrived during Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, by the steamers from Liverpool and Holyhead,
from the Clyde, and also from Belfast and other Irish
ports. Men of note made their appearance hourly. For
some time back Hogan, the sculptor, Grieve, the famous
scene-painter, Jones, the popular litterateur, and Hall,
the editor of the Art Journal, have been busy in the fine
art department—each of them fired with an enthusiasm
which has accomplished a vast amount of labour in a
wonderfully brief space of time. On Tuesday the proprie_
tor and conductor of the Athourunt, Mr. Charles Went-
worth Dilke, one of the royal commissioners of the Ex-
hibition of 1851, arrived in Dublin, preparatory to the
issuing of a royal commission, similar to that. deputed by
Her Majesty to the World's Fair at New York, under the
direction of the Earl of Ellesmere, to examine the Irish
Exhibition and report upon it. From the public papers
it appears that a considerable amount of dissatisfaction
exists in the city with regard to the decision—that the in-
augurative proceedings shall not be opened with prayer.
'Several Protestant clergymen have suggested that the
AfbislloP of Dublin, or some clergyman of the Esta-
blished Church, should open the proceedings by invoking
God's blessing; the Roman Catholic Archbishop, or one of
his clergy, to Close the proceedings by pronouncing the
apostolical benediction. " A Dublin Curate," writing in
Wednesday's Saunders, brings to bear upon the question
a passage extracted from the recent pastoral of a Popish
Archbishop in France, who says finely that "religion
should regulate and sanctify industry." The spectacle of
this noble palace being opened without a solemn prayer
to God for his blessing to riensdteeudp,obnethae
muneldaenrethakoilnyge,xi-f
it should take place, will,
ample of the disadvantage under which Ireland exists as
the seat of strong religious dissension.
Among the miscellaneous attractions for the visitor
already come to hand we have Mr. Sims Reeves and other
eminent vocalists nightly at the Rotunda. The antient
concerts are being prosecuted with great vigour, and the
two principal theatres have made an effort to be attractive.
Guide-books are Plentiful as blackberries, only they are
very ill arranged. Cars are to be had in abundance ; and
to those who have a little time to spare after visiting the
Exhibition and the city "lions," we recommend a ride to
,Ilaynooth by the sylvan banks of the Liffey, a drive 1