The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-13 00:00:00

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE GO-AHEAD AGE.—The railroads of the United
Kingdom are now carrying passengers at the rate of fifteen
hundred million miles a-year--equal to eight times a-year
to the sun and back again !
GREAT MORTALITY and consequent distress prevail in
Ramsey. Scarlatina is carrying off the children, and
English cholera many adults. A soup kitchen has been
opened.
BELGRA.VIA was, on Tuesday night, suddenly enveloped
in darkness • to use the words of a cabman—" The lamps
vas lit, and Ll at vunse they vent out like vinkin." No
explanation is given of the awkward occurrence.
THE CABINET, it is understood, is now busily em-
ployed in preparing its promised measure of Parliamentary
Reform, and not even the pressing interests and
harassing perplexities of foreign politics will prevent its
being brought forward early in, the session.—Economist.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Glasgow Free Press states
that whilst Mr. Sheridan Knowles is lecturing and preach-
ing with great vehemence against. Popery, his son, Mr.
Richard Brinsley Knowles, " a gentleman of high character
and great attainments," has become a Roman Catholic.
THE MASTER OF THE Roixs, on Friday, ordered the
sum of £250,000 to be transferred to Mr. Mackinnon,
M.P. and family ; and, also, that the additional sum of
£60,000, and estates in Lancashire and Surrey, should be
transferred in the same manner, on or 'before the first of
May next.
Isrumus OF DA.RIEN.—We understand the most gra-
tifying intelligence has been received respecting the pro-
gress about being made in perfecting Sir Charles Fox's
plan for crossing the Isthmus of Darien. The English
government is to lend the most ample assistance ; America
has promised its entire co-operation ; and Sir Charles Fox
is now in France, in fill expectation of obtaining the
approval and patronage of the Emperor.—Mining Jourual.
PRESERVATION OF STONE.—I think the publication of
the following recipe for preventing frost from acting on
newly-used Bath and Caen stone would be of service
to the architect, builder, and operative. I have tried it four
winters, and found it successful :—Take fresh burnt lime and
mix it to the consistence of whitewash : to one gallon of
this add one pint of common salt and a quarter of a pound
of alum. This is to be used similar to whitewash, and is
to be put on as soon as the lime is run, while it is yet
warm, and is then to be dragged off in the spring. I have
found this to answer well on blocks of stone fresh dug,
which usually feel the effects of the weather first when
they are equally exposed.—Correspondent of the Builder.

DIE NAWAB OP SURAT.—Among the passengers by the.
Ripon with the India and China mail, were several per-
sons belonging to the suite of the Nawab of Surat, who
came from Bombay to Suez in the East India Company's
steamer Ackbar, and, in order to shorten the sea voyage to
England, proceeded from Alexandria to Trieste in the
Austrian packet, accompanied by several of his friends
and servants. The rest of the suite came home in the
Ripon. Surat was the first place at which the Mogul
Emperors allowed the English to establish a factory in
India. The principalpersons in Surat were fire worshippers.
The Nawab's servants were dressed in the picturesque
costume of their country ; one of them spoke English
fluently and grammatically. They cooked for themselves
on board the Ripon. The only thing they would eat which
had been touched by Christians was bread. They killed
the fowls they ate, and cut the throats of the sheep which
furnished flesh for their own table. The Nawab's object
in visiting England is to prosecute some claim which he
has on the British Government.
PROPESSIONAL PERJURY.—A man fell down stairs and
killed himself at Stow-on-the-Wold some time since,
and a surgeon named John Mageniss gave the following
evidence on the inquest :—" I was called in to the deceased
at two o'clock in the morning of Thursday last, and found
him dead, lying upon his back on the bed, dressed. The
body was cold. There were no marks of violence. I knew
deceased when in life, but never attended him profession-
ally. From my knowledge of him, the circumstances
as detailed in evidence, and having seen him after
death, in my opinion the cause of death was a disease
of the heart, probably accelerated by the fall, and the state
he was in." It subsequently transpired that this surgeon
had not seen the man at all. The coroner remonstrated
with him for volunteering such a false statement upon
oath, but the surgeon replied that he had got his guinea
for his evidence, and he meant to keep it. A warrant was
then issued to apprehend him on a charge of perjury, and
it was satisfactorily proved before the magistrates that he
really had never seen the deceased. The defence set up
was that he was drunk. He was committed for trial at
the Gloucester assizes.
THE WONDER OP THE AGE.—CASSELL'S WEEKLY
ILLUSTRATED PAPER, price One Penny, containing eight
pages, the same dimensions as the " Illustrated London
News." Number 1., though bearing date December 31,
will be ready for delivery December 14. It will be pub-
lished thus early to afford the public an opportunity of
purchasing what will be unhesitatingly confessed the
greatest achievement in the history of cheap literature.
Notwithstanding the low price at which this paper is pub-
lished, the first writers and artists will be engaged upon
it. No. I. will contain "The Arctic Crusoe : a Tale of
the Polar Seas," by Percy B. St. John ; with a splendid
Engraving of Young Robinson and Stop in the Cave, from
a Drawing by G. F. Gilbert—" Christmas and its Asso-
ciations," with two large characteristic Engravings by H.
Linton, from designs by Kenny Meadows—" Joel Kirk-
ham's first Experience in the American Backwoods," by
William Howitt —Portraits of Prince Menschikoff and
Prince Paskewitsch, with brief Notices—" The Russian
People," with engraved costumes of the various- orders—
Engraving of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets—ditto of
the Sultan's State Barge—History and Curiosities of
Almanacs, with Engraving—Chess, with engraved Prob-
lem—" HQW Young Newman was Cured of a Water-
cure''—bcientinc Miscellanies, &c. Orders for this re-
markable paper should be immediately given to any
bookseller or newsvender. _ _ _ _

SUICIDE of A YOUNG FEMALE.—A melancholy and
disastrous occurrence, calculated to give rise to most pain-
ful feelings, occurred on board the Laurel steamer, during
the passage, on Friday night, from Glasgow to this port.
From the account of the occurrence which has reached us,
it appears that a person, who has attained some notoriety
for keeping a house of an abandoned character in Queen-
street, engaged passages, from Glasgow, for six or seven
unfortunate young females on the occasion referred to.
During the course of the voyage the party indulged rather
freely in wine, and their conductor, perhaps apprehending
that some accident might occur, succeeded in inducing
them all to retire for the night, with the exception of one
of the females, named Elizabeth Nixon, belonging, it is
said, to Holywood. She had been in the cabin saloon for
some time, and in consequence, it would seem, of repeated
requests that she should go to rest like her companions,
she went on deck between eleven and twelve o'clock, while
the vessel was off Ailsa Craig. She was followed on deck
by the female who had the party in charge, and while the
latter was requesting the intervention of an American
gentleman, who was on deck, in order to induce her to go
below, she suddenly caught hold of a portion of the rigging
at that part of the vessel, and flung herself overboard into
the sea. The vessel at the time was going at full speed,
and all exertions to rescue the unfortunate creature, who
thus met an untimely and premature end, were entirely
fruitless.—Belfast Northern Whig.

SECURITY FOR TILE WORKING-CLASSES.—lnstances
are of almost every-day occurrence, by which the families
of industrious artisans are plunged into deep and often
irremediable distress, through the destruction of their
little property by fire, occurring either in the factories
where they work, or in their own dwellings, where they
are much more exposed to risk from the carelessness of
inmates or near neighbours. Hitherto the poor man has
not had an opportunity of protecting himself against loss,
by having recourse to Fire Assurance Societies, owing to
the tables of risks not being calculated below a certain sum:
so that a mechanic who might desire to insure his house-
hold furniture, or the tools employed by him in his trade,
say to the amount of twenty or thirty pounds, could not
do so without paying as much as his rich neighbour for
insuring two or three hundred pounds. This is the true
cause why the working-classes have not largely availed
themselves of the benefits of fire assurance, so widely
extended amongst the wealthy. We are gratified, there-
fore, to perceive, by a prospectus of a plan from the
Athenaeum Fire Office, that the directors of that office
have resolved to extend the advantages of fire assurance,
so as to enable the poorest man to protect himself from
loss by effecting a small insurance at an insignificant cost.
Some idea may be formed of the inexpensiveness of the
means of security, when we say that for a quarterly pay-
ment of sixpence (less than one halfpenny per week) an
assurance may be effected with the Atheneum Fire Office
for £3O, upon household furniture, or for a quarterly pay-
ment of one shilling the assurance will include a sum
upon a workman's tools. We have great confidence in
this plan, which, we doubt not, will be taken up eagerly
by those classes for whose benefit it is designed, based as
it is upon sound commercial principles, and a philanthropic
regard for the protection of the working-classes.—Sunday
Times.

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS CATTLE SHOW in London
commenced on Tuesday. It was only " less splendid"
than that of last year, but in usefulness, and in an im-
proved character on points of real importance, a decided
advance was discernible. The short-horns were the prin-
cipal features of the show, and carried off two gold medals
competed for in the cattle classes. The attention of the
visitors was early directed to one huge animal, which
towered about two feet higher than all his neighbours—a
five-and-a-half-year-old ox, bred by Sir Harry Verney
from the stock of Mr. Hayter, of Linslade, near Leighton
Buzzard. Much had been said beforehand of the extraor-
dinary qualities and symmetry of this animal, but it is
fair to say that a comparison of his appearance with that
of other animals in the exhibition did not bear out the
praises. His proportions were on a colossal scale, it is
true ; the ordinary specimens of the breed seemed quite
dwarfed in his presence ; but, on the other hand, there
was an absence of all those " points" which are so much
desiderated by connoisseurs. Instead of the rotund,
barrel-shaped farm, which is esteemed the perfection of
good feeding, this animal presented ridges of bone,
his skin being flabby about his loins, and there was
an absence of symmetry which must have struck
the most superficial observer. As might have been
expected, no prize was awarded. A very different
picture was presented in a red and white ox, exhi-
bited by Mr. Stratton, of Broad Hinton, near Swindon,
Wiltshire, aged three years and nine months, to which
was awarded the first short-horn prize and the gold medal,
as the finest ox in the exhibition. It is remarkable that
Mr. Stratton has also gained the first prize in the class of
steers a year younger, and that last year he was equally
successful in carrying off the gold medal, the first prize in
the first, as well as the first prize in the second class of
short-horns ; awl that the animals which gained the
prizes in the two years were all by the same sire." The
Devons made a fair appearance, but the Herefords were
fewer in nuriber and deficient in quality. The muster of
Scots were, unusually poor ; there were, however, some
really excellent first crosses. Among the sheep, South-
downs clime first, the other pure breeds being scarcely up
to the average. The pigs were as fat as usual ; Mr. John
Coate, of Hammoon, and Prince Albert dividing the
Pl'l Les. A show of roots by the Royal Dublin Society
v ere especially noticed, as showing the luxuriant green
crops produced by the fertile soil of the Emerald Isle.
The collection was magnificent, embracing all the different
varieties of mangold-wurzel, turnips of various kinds,
sugar-beet, parsnips, white and red carrots, potatoes,
. field
onions, flax-seed, and several remarkable specimens of
field-cabbage. Some of these roots were. curte.3ities. in
their way.