The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-10 00:00:00

THE SNOW STOR3f.

Fos a considerable time past we have had indications of
the approach of severe winter weather ; and so long since
as the beginning of the week before last a smart frost set
in, which continued for several days ; the morning of Tues-
day, the 27th ult., being ushered in by a considerable fall
of snow, and that, at this season of the year, unusual
phenomenon of a very loud peal of thunder, accompanied
by a brilliant flash of lightning. The frost, on that occa-
sion, though sharp, was not of unusual severity, and on
Thursday, the 29th ult., it gave way to a partial thaw,
succeeded, however, the same night, by a frost of much
greater intensity than the preceding, which continued
fluctuating till Sunday morning, when a very severe frost
set in. After night-fall of that day, snow began to descend,
and before morning the ground was covered to a consider-
able depth ; from this period up to the end of the week,
the frost was intense; the extreme limit of cold being
reached betweeen Monday night and Tuesday morning,
when the thermometer indicated a temperature of 20'1,
that being lower than has been marked in Liverpool at
any period within the last eight years. During the night
sf Tuesday snow again fell heavily, and at dawn the ground
%splayed a white coating six inches thicker than that
it wore at sun-down on the previous day. On the after-
noon of Wednesday, at a little before dark, snow com-
menced descending, and continued to fall without inter-
mission for many hours, under the influence of a strong
easterly wind, drifted in many of the streets to a great
depth, and, on Thursday morning, the ordinary street
traffic was maintained with much inconvenience and no
small amount of difficulty. From that time until Satur-
day morning, no more snow fell, or, at all events, what did
fall was of very trifling amount; but after several chop-
pings and changings of the wind during the course of
Thursday and Friday, thaw set in on Saturday morning,
accompanied by a south-easterly breeze, and a tempera-
ture, which, speedily converting the surface of the snow
into an uncomfortably pulpy mass, rendered the chief
thoroughfares almost impracticable to the ordinary con-
veyances ; and which, but for the prompt and judicious
measures adopted by the authorities, would have rendered
pedestrian progress almost an impossibility.
While great inconvenience was experienced in con-
ducting the local traffic of the town, on account of the
snowy impediments which the streets presented, a source
of still greater anxiety displayed itself in the threatened
freezing of the Mersey,—a continuous coat of ice, of no
inconsiderable thickness, stretching from the north towards
the south shore,—the stream being studded by masses of
floating ice, thickly covered with snow; and a still
increasing intensity of frosty influence being manifested
in the frozen canals and other still waters of the neigh-
bourhood. The, street traffic, more particularly in the
busy vicinity of the docks, was frequently brought to a
stand-still, from the accumulations of snow, notwith-
standing the very general employment of double teams.
The various omnibuses, in defiance of extra horsing, had
great difficulty in maintaining even an approximation to
regularity in their trips, and most of the cabs and cars
were forced to employ extra horses.
By far the greatest source of annoyance and loss,
however, was found to result from the entire stoppage of
intercourse with the metropolis, and, indeed, with all
distant parts of the kingdom, whether by rail or, horse
conveyance. On Wednesday and Thursday, Liverpool
was entirely without communication by any of the leading
railway lines, and neither letters nor newspapers from
London, or along the lines converging towards it, were
received. Towards the south the snow had drifted into
and filled the cuttings at Crewe, in the neighbourhood of
Stafford, at Tring, and in the vicinity of Warrington.
The line to Derby became impassable on Thursday ; and
a train despatched by the authorities of the North-
western Company, for the purpose of endeavouring to
force its way by the united power of two engines, was
soon stuck fast, and six engines were required to extricate
it from entanglement, and drag it back to the station.

Many accidents occurred to foot-passengers from the
very slippery state of the footpaths, none of them, fortu-
nately, as far as we can learn, occasioning very serious
injuries.

SNOWBA.LLING ON TM? EK0116.31G8.

Among the incidents arising out .oT:the snow storm,
not the least interesting or amusing was a mimic
war, suddenly improvised in the Bagged area of the

Exchange-buildings, on Thursday afternoon ; in carrying
out which, some two or three hundred members of the
Exchange engaged in an arduous though innocent and
friendly strife with snowballs. So far as can be learned,
the declaration of hostilities wad rapidly responded to,
war being waged between the 'cotton brokers and the
members of the stock exchange. The caucus belli has
not as yet transpired, although it 'has been hinted by
parties deeply skilled in such diplomacy, that the restless-
ness produced by having " nothing else to do " was
mainly instrumental in causing the outbreak, the hostile
inclination being further influenced by an almost un-
limited profusion of such military stores as were required
being temptingly displayed before the belligerents. What,
under the circumstances, could be more natural than the
friendly rencounter to which we now refer ? No advices
as to profitable or unprofitable business—no newspapers
to while away the idle hour, save such as had been perused
and re-perused, thumbed and re-thumbed—" learnt and
conned by rote," and oceans of the ill-pervading snow,
the immediate cause of all the difficulty, lying temptingly
in the way, "to cast into each others' • teeth "—human
nature, or, at all events, such stirring human nature as
members of 'Change are made of, could stand it no longer,
and to work they went
In earnest mood, but yet of gentle mind.

The battle raged with much spirit, and with varying
success, for nearly two hours, victory now hovering over
the ranks of the cotton champions, and anon winging her
wayward and uncertain flight to that ground on which
the stock-brokers stoutly maintained their position.
With fluctuating fortunes the combatants continued to
wage no unequal strife, when Captain Greig, head
constable of police, on the request of the Mayor, who,
we understand, had been specially solicited by Mr. Bate-
son, chairman of the Newsroom Committee, to have the
contest terminated, interfered to stay the conflict, which
it was feared might speedily extend itself to the active
agency of combatants not swayed by such pacific and well
regulated dispositions as those who had begun it. Here
the only unpleasant part of the affair arose. The gentle-
men of the Exchange, and the members of the police-force,
under the guidance of their chief,misunderstood each other,
and, for a time, a real war seemed likely to ensue between
the parties. The police were very roughly handled on the
one part, and several gentlemen were taken into custody
on the other. Ultimately, however, both parties disco-
vered their error mutual explanations were followed by
expressions of satisfaction and good feeling, and the affair
was terminated as all such sportive ebullitions ought to do,
in good humour and forgiveness.
As the unpleasant, not to say unprofitable, state of our
internal relations were, in a great measure, owing to the
anomalous condition of our means of communicating with
our friends and neighbours in the immediately-adjoining
and more distant localities, a glance at these becomes an
indispensable supplement to the preceding brief sketch ;
and first for those great circulating systems by which the
current of domestic and commercial intercourse is main-
tained in healthy action,