The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

REPORT

" The committee of the Strangers' Friend Society take the
earliest opportunity of laying before the friends and subscri-
bers the report of the last year's proceedings, as the present
Ixhausted state of the funds calli for the most prompt and
liberal supply, in order to carry on the benevolent designs of
the society, and to prevent the loss of the services of the visit-
ors, which, if even partially suspended, at this season of the
year, may not easily be restored again. So long as the means
are available, by which they may be able, in some degree, to
alleviate the miseries which it is their lot so frequently to
witness, they will cheerfully continue to afford their valuable
services ; and it would beipainful indeed to your committee
to be obliged to interrupt, or even to curtail, the extent of
their usefulness, for want of the necessary means of employ•
ing them in their arduous and disinterested labour.

During the past year there have been relieved about 2700
cases of distress, coinvisin,, probably about 12,000 indivi-

.
Jesides'a very large number relieved by the distribu-
tion of soup, during the depth of the last winter. Of the
cases examined at the office there were about 950 English,
260 Welsh, 1300 Irish, 140 Scotch, and abut 40 foreigners .
amongst these there were a large proportion (about /50) of
widows, who have, in the whole, upwards of 2000 fatherless
children. It is true that the applicants were more than double
this number of cases, but your committee direct those to be
relieved whose emergencies are the greatest ; and here it
would be unpardonable not to record their best thanks to the
Select Vestry, for having taken so many cases for relief into
their favourable consideration, at the recommendation of the
agent and the officers,—cases which, otherwise, must have
been a great burden upon these funds.
" The state of the poor during the last winter was extremely
distressing, but it was liberally and generously met by the
subscribers and donors. The Soup Society also freely sup-
plied the visitors with soup tickets, for distribution amongst
the very poorest of the community, to the extent of upwards
of 10,000 quarts of wholesome, nutritious, and palatable food,
which was, with very few exceptions, most gratefully received,
and no doubt was the means of saving the lives of many, es-
pecially children. It has been, however, a subject of great
regret to your committee, that the treasurer has never been
in circumstances to pay for this supply, though it has been
made at the low charge of one luilfpenny per quart. The
receipts of the society have been distributed nearly as fast as

they have been received, chiefly in bread, oatmeal, coals, and
other necessaries, and now, at the conclusion of the year, in
the commencement of the pressure of the winter season, when
it has been usual to reckon upon a tolerable sum in hand to
meet the exigencies of the same, your treasurer is a trifle in
advance, with a debt due to the Soup Society of £223. The
distresses of the labouring poor are, at the present time, ex-
tremely heavy and pressing ; great numbers of them are dis-
qualified from labour through sickness, even if employment
were abundant; but this is far from being the case, the great
numbers of labourers and handicraftsmen who flock to this
great commercial mart in search of employment, almost al-
ways exceed the demand, great as it may bt. The extent of
destitution and sickness, in some of the poorest neighbour-
hoods and streets of this town, at present, is most appalling,
even to those who are no strangers to such sad scenes. Your
committee are persuaded that no appeal is necessary beyond
this plain statement of the case, but that that long-established
and well-tried society will continue to meet with that support
from the benevolent, which it has never yet, for the last 45
years, had to call for in vain."

Mr. COMER said that there were two causes which had
very materially tended to give increase to the impoverish-
ments of the porn, one of which arose out of the strike of the
bricklayers, in consequence of disputes with their masters,
and the other cause was the operation of the New Poor-Law
in Ireland. The greatest repugnance was felt and expressed
towards that measure, and persons there objected to be sepa-
rated and placed at a distance from their friends in work-
houses. In Belfast and other towns, it was actually a fact,
numbers of the poor were shipped off and sent to this country.
In conclusion, he begged to move that the report be passed.
Mr. BROWN briefly seconded the resolution.
The CHAIRMAN said that he had no doubt the high price
of provisions during the last two or three years had been the
means of contributing largely to the distress prevalent.
Every year the poor were growing poorer, and were parting
with furniture and everything they possessed -to find food
from day to day This was operating throughout the coun-
try.

Mr. COMER remarked that there had been less work going
on this year than ever known ; some men who at times could
get a day and a half, had been many weeks idle.
A conversation then ensued respecting the propriety of the
society distributing tickets during the inclement season.
The TREASURER said, in the low state of their credit, he
did not see how it was to be done.
Thanks having been voted to the Chairman, the meeting
separated.

VEGETABLE CHIMNEY ORNAMENT.—In winter an ele-
gant chimney ornament may be formed by cutting the head
or thick end of a carrot, containing the bulb, and placing it in
a shallow vessel with water. Young and delicate leaves unfold
themselves, forming a radiated tuft of a very handsome ap-
pearance, and heightened by contrast with the season of the
year.—Recreations in Science.

HOUSE DECORATING.—We were gratified a few days
ago with the sight of the drawing-room, in the house of
Henry Paul Fleetwood, Esq., which has recently been de-
corated in an elegant and perfectly novel style, by Mr. IL
Richardson, of Mr. Walmsley's establishment, Avenham-
street. The ceiling is divided into six compartments ; in
the angles are groups of allegorical figures representing the
four seasons, and in the centre pannels are figures of morn-
ing and night. There are a number of figures in each com-
partment so admirably designed, that you cannot spare one
without leaving a blank in the general representation ; nor
can imagination suggest another which would be necessary
to supply additional spirit to the grouping. The groups of
winter and night, are highly poetical and delicate ; the har-
monious floating lines which the different figures form—their
buoyancy, and transparency, and the fine arrangement of the
light which illuminates them, cannot be too highly praised.
The more sombre appearance of the cornice, and the deeper
hue of the wood work, give a full relief to the aerial beauty
of the figures ; and the fine appearance of the imitation
watered crimson silk of the walls, is novel, ingenious, and
tasteful, and presents a proper contrast to the bright atmo-
sphere in which the figures are supposed to more. The doors
and all the wood-work are in imitation of English oak, and
present a beautiful specimen of the great perfection to which
this artist has brought imitation of woods in this country.
The decoration of the room is in good keeping with the fur-
niture, and highly creditable to the skill of Mr. Richardson.
This style of house decoration forms a new era in our arts,
and is, we trust, a certain prelude of their increased practa•
cal value in public catituation.—Presleic Chronicle.

COLLISION BETWEEN 11. M. MAIL STEAM=SHIP
MERLIN AND A RIVER STEAMER.

(From our Second Edition of Tuesday.?
This morning, about eighteen minutes before seven o'clock,
as H. M. mail steam-ship Merlin was coming down the ri-
ver on her way to Dublin, and the Earl of Bridgewater
steamer was on her way up from George's Basin to the
Duke's Dock, the two vessels came into collision, and both re-
ceived considerable damage. The Bridgewater had at the time
just passed under the stern of the Windermere steamer, then

rising at anchor. The precise cause of the vessels' thus
corning into contact has not transpired, but from what we
can learn, the collision—the light being imperfect—was in
all probability entirely accidental or unavoidable. The
Merlin immediately backed her engines. The men on. board
the Earl of Bridgewater, thinking the vessel might sink,
made their way on board the Merlin, while they were
foul of each other, with the exception of two, for whom
Captain Tudor, the commander of the latter vessel, imme-
diately sent one of his boats. The Earl of Bridgewater had
her starboard paddle-box and wheel completely smashed up.
One of the paddle-beams was broken, and there was some
slight breakage of the engine. She was, however, got safely
into the Duke's Dock with the same tide, and is there afloat,
though leaky. The Merlin sustained such damage in her
head-works, that it was deethed advisable not to proceed to
sea until the vessel had been overhauled, and she was accord-
ingly docked immediately in the Coburg. The mails were,
of course, despatched by another vessel. The prompt assist-
ance given by Captain Tudor and his officers and crew, the
moment the accident occurred, was, we learn, most praise-
worthy and seaman-like. No one was, in the slightest de-
gree, hurt in either vessel.

FURTIILR PARTICULARS

Since writing the abovd, our reporter has visited the Mer-
lin, in which the effect of the collision is peculiarly remark-
able. The end of the paddle-beam of the Earl Of Bridge-
water (which is apparently of tough American elm, and from
8 to 9 inches square) has been driven clean through the lar-
board bow, about a foot from the stem, and about two feet
and a half from the water's edge. It has broken some of
the bow timbers, torn up the ceiling inside, and projects
nearly three feet into the interior of the vessel ! It appears,
indeed, as if it had been fired from a gun. The paddle-beam
(as above stated) was broken in the collision, and the end of
it on the starboard side being thus firmly fixed into the Mer-
lin, that vessel, in backing off, no doubt drew Out the re-
maining portion, probably 12 or 14 feet in length, which,
together with some woodwork and part of the iron machi-
nery attached, is now sticking in her bow, not unlike the
wreck of a boat. So tightly is the beam driven in, that no
daylight is admitted by any part of the perforation made ;
and were
,the portion of the wreck outside sawn off, that
driven in would remain fixed, perhaps water-tight, in the
nature of a plug in a gunshot perforation. On one side of
the beam driven in, there is a strong plate of iron. Neither
the stem of the Merlin, nor her figure-head, are injured, and
the damage sustained may be readily repaired.

AWFUL FIRE AT DUNDEE.-THREE CHURCHES
BURNT DOWN.

[The following appeared in our second edition on Tuesday,
and was the first public announcement of the unfortunate

occurrence. J

A respectable gentleman of this town has furnished us with
the following extract of a letter which he has just received
from his son, who is a pupil at a school in Dundee :
" Last Sunday morning, January 3, three of the Dundee
town churches, being connected, were burnt to the ground,
and the tire raged so furiously that it was considered neces-
sary to remove several of the snips in Earl Grey's Dock for
safety. The fire, which broke out about four o'clock a.m.,
is supposed to have originated from an overheating of the
stoves. In the afternoon the drummer and bellman gave
notice through the town that sermons would be preached in
the seminaries and infant schools."

(From the Times of Wednesday.)
DUNDEE, SUNDAY MORNING, Jan. 3.—This morning,
about five o'clock, a fire was discovered in a portion of the
venerable pile of buildings which have for many centuries
been the pride and ornament of our town. The alarm was
immediately given to the police. the fire engine and fire
brigade hastened to the spot, the alarm bell pealed forth to
rouse the inhabitants, and thousands were disturbed from
their rest to witness the entire destruction of three of the
churches, and one of the most sublime spectacles which ever
took place in Scotland. The fire originated from a stove in

a passage betwixt the Steeple and South Churches ; and when
we arrived at the scene of destruction, the flames were
bursting out of one of the windows, situate in an angle of
the latter building. Nothing could equal the frightful vehe-
mence of the devouring element ; it ran with the speed of
lightning along the galleries of the church, the pulpit was a
mass of fire, and in a few moments was entirely consumed • an
intense white flameburst through the roof, while from the back
part of the church an overwhelming volume of massive fire
moved towards the front, and, gathering force as it proceeded,
burst with irresistible fury out of the beautiful window facing
the street, driving the assembled populace backward by the
intensity of the hear. At the same moment the venerable
cathedral, which has for 700 years weathered the storm,
caught fire, and the sympathies of the spectators were much
excited at the approaching destruction of the noblest rem-
nant of antiquity of which our town can boast. Meanwhile
the Cross Church, f ,rining a limb of the cross in which the
churches are built, and situate immediately behind the
South Church, which was first on fire, was one mass of flame.
About half-past six the conflagration was at its height. The
three churches, from the base to the highest pinnacle, were
wrapped in the devouring element. The sublimity of the
spectacle may be imagined, not described : its astound-
ing grandeur paralysed every effort of the fire-brigade,
the military, and the police. All seemed to feel at once
the hopelessness of any attempt to check its fury, and
to ponder upon the feebleness of man's efforts in com-
parison to the awful ravages of the flames. While all
this was going on below, the ancient tower, which rises to
the height of 150 feet, and is attached to the Steeple Church,
the only one not in flames, rose Phoenix-like Above the ter-
rific contention, and the peal of the alarm bells from its in-
terior added to the grandeur of the spectacle. The utmost
efforts were made by the firemen to prevent the fire spreading
to the Steeple Church, and happily this was effected by di-
recting the hose to the door communicating with the lobby
• Between it and the part of the edifice in flames. Thus both
the steeple and church were preserved. The utmost alarm
prevailed for the safety of the old buildings to the east and
south-east—the sparks flying in these directions in showers
resembling the thickest hail, many of them of considerable
size—but we are happy to say the destruction was confined
to the churches. The buildings are almost entirely ruined.
The East Church, or Cathedral, is a complete wreck ; the
fine Gothic arches, with their supports, are destroyed, and
the only articles rescued were the silver communion service,
and the records of the Presbytery of Dundee ; a valuable
library composed of many works of the fathers of the church
in Greek and Latin is entirely lost. The fire spent its fury
before nine o'clock in the morning, and all leers for the
safety of other buildings had subsided. The damage done
to the churches is estimated at betwixt J.:30,1100 and 110,000,
and the event has occasioned great and universal regret in
the minds of our townsmen, the great mass of whom are
warmly attached to the church of their fathers, and to the
venerable edifices themselves. No lives have been lost, nor
have we heard of any casualty.

We regret to learn that Dr. Olinthus Gregory has suffered
a paralytic stroke, and remains in a very precarious state.

It is not saying too much to designate thls.excellent man as
the great Christian philosopher of the day.—Leicestershire
Mercury.

The circumstance of the alleged blossoming of the Glaston-
bury thorn on Christmas Day has generally been accounted
a fable ; we are, however, assured that this thorn, which had
not a single blossom on it on Christmas eve, was in blossom
next day.—Hereford Journal.

REPRESENTATION OF MONMOUTHSHIRE.—Mr. Tracy
has replied to the requisition, and expresses his readiness,
whenever the present member, Mr. Williams, shall relinquish
his seat, to stand forward as a candidate for the representa-
tion of the county of Monmouth.—Ministerial Paper.
A WHITE HERON.—A fine specimen of this bird, now
nearly extinct in this country, was seen a few days ago neap
Port Carlisle. The cautious manner in which it made choice
of a feeding place, and its general shyness, precluded the pos.
sibility of approaching it within 200 yards. A number of
white swans have also within the last few days, visited the
Solway, near Port Carlisle. These birds are considered the
certain precursors of a severe winter.— Whitehaven Herald.
FIRE IN THE VICTUALLING-YARD, DEPTFORD.—About
five o'clock on Sunday morning a fire broke out in the Vic-
tualling-yard, Deptford, which created considerable alarm
amongst the officers and men employed at the establishment.
Information of the fire was dispatched to town, when the
Southwark Bridge-road, Morgan s
-lane, Waterloo-road, and
West of England engines started for the spot. On the ar-
rival of the engines the fire was fortunately out, owing to the
exertions of the men employed in the yard. It appears that
by some accident a quantity of rice or sugar bags had caught,
and when discovered they were in flames. The damage done
is but small.

MINISTERIAL PROSPECTS.—WaIsaII would appear, from
the last accounts, to be decidedly lost to the Ministerialists.
Manchester also still expects an election, immediately on the
sitting of parliament, and Mr. Gibson's chance cannot be a
good one. In Monmouthshire too, despite the schemes of
the great whin landlords, an opposition is talked of, and if a
Morpn should enter the field, the manceuvrers may be dis-
appointed. The possible, therefore, and not improbable, loss
to the ministry may extend, including Carlow, to five votes,
counting 10 on each division. Such a loss, we need hardly
say, must decide the fate of the government,—Correspondent
of the Times.

GIPSY FESTIVAL.—The twelfth anniversary of the meet-
ing of the reformed and wandering gipsies, at Spring Hill
House, the residence of the Rev. James Crabb, whose phi-
lanthropic endeavours to improve the condition and habits of
that extraordinary race have procured him the appellation of
the " Gipsy's Friend," was held on Tuesday last. The at-
tendance of visitors who assembled to witness the interest-
ing scene was exceedingly respectable and numerous, amount-
ing to 200. There were about 110 of the wandering tribe
present, but few of the reformed were amongst the number,
as several of them are in service, and others, who are living
in a creditable and respectable manner, we are informed, are
now ashamed to associate with their former companions.
After a religious service, and an address by the Rev. Mr.
Orger, minister of St. James's Churh, Shirley, during which
the quiet and attentive behaviour of the gipsies was remark-
able • a collection was made in aid of the benevolent designs
of Air. Crabb, which we are glad to learn was productive of
a considerable amount. A good dinner, consisting of the
old English fare—beef and plum-pudding—was then set be-
fore the gipsies, who did ample justice to the provision. Two
of the families present expressed their desire to abandon
their wandering habits. Their case will be investigated, and
if approved of, assistance will be rendered them, to accom-
plish their laudable object. After the dinner every family
was furnished with a blanket, a pair of stockings, &c., for
each member, and a copy of the Scriptures was presented to
every family who did not possess one.—Hampshire Indepen-
dent.

THE. YEAR.—January, for new year's gifts; February, for
pancakes and valentines ; March, for leeks in Wales ; April,
for fools ; May, for milk-maids and their garlands ; June, for
green peas and mackerel, beans and bacon ; July for hay in
the country ; August, for corn ; September, for oysters ;
October, for brewing good beer; and November, for drinking
it. After all these have passed, some for work, but all for
meat and drink—after all, comes December, with the barns
full of corn', the larders full of beef and pork, the barrels full
of beer, the ovens full of Christmas pies, the pockets full of
money. the masters and mistresses full of charity, and the
young men and maids full of play.—From an old almanac.

. -
CURIOUS ANTICII.ATION.In the works of Roger Bacon,
who wrote in the 13th century, may be found an anticipation
of the invention of the steam-boat, locomotive engines on
railroads, the diving-bell, the suspension-bridge, and, it might
almost be said, of the recent events at St. Jean d'Acre. His
own words are these:—" Men may construct for the wants
of navigation such machines, that the greatest vessels, di-
rected by a single man, shall cut through the rivers and seas
with more rapidity than if they were propelled by rowers ;
chariots may be constructed, which, without horses, shall run
with immeasurable speed. Alen may Conceive' machines
which could bear the diver, without outeLanger, to the depth of
e
waters.
instruments, M encould invent
as
bridgesmultitude of other engines
arid
such useful
broadest rivers wany ithnut intermediate stuhpaptosrht.allAspaanhaththe
its thunders more terrible than those of heaven. A small
quantity of matter producesda horrible explosion, accom-
paniedairf)y bayaatybroirgil.tniillshtb;o6l3. thif,imay be repeated' so as to
1031.,

Alexandria, on the 17th ult., and had an interview with the
Paella on the 19th, and placed the Hydra at his service to
convey his dispatch to Marmorica on the 22d ult. Sir
Charles left Alexandria in the Great Liverpool. Serious
sickness had prevailed at Acre. The storm that visited the
coast of Syria with such violence on the 2d and 3d ult. had

produc

A Beyrout

nd in the moun-

i governor had recklessly stop-

riving, and the mountaineers were

sioii with the authorities by des-

ained that the Porte will be able
at the population is re-armed.
ag batteries and exercising his
1 given notice to the National

bat they were to consider themselves
time he was making prepa-
don of his private estates, and had
son, Abbas Pacha,

he sair

ators in separate districts

HUSAN

(From the Bombay Times.)

fore our readers the following ex-