The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-26 00:00:00

LOCAL NEWS,

COURT OF PASSAGE.—The Court of Passage for the Bo-
rough. of Liverpool commences on Thursday next, before
Charles Crompton, Esq., assessor. The cause list is rather
hitavy : it contains three demurrers, 65 issues, and three writs
from the superior courts ; total 71.

THE QUEEN.—The Queen continues in excellent health ;
but we understand that her Majesty's accouchernent is daily
expected. On Friday afternoon orders were given by Sir
James Graham for messengers to be in attendance at the
Home-office night as well as day.

ALTERATION OF THE DAYS OF SAILING OF THE ISLE OF
MAN ROYAL MAIL STEAM-PACKETS.—We find, by The
Manx Sun, of Friday, that, on and after the 2d of November
next, the mail packets will sail for Douglas on Tuesdays and
Fridays, and from Douglas for Liverpool on Wednesdays
and Saturdays. The alteration has been made by order of
the Lords of the Admiralty, at the instance of the Post-
master-General.

THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH.—The Wizard will de-
ceive us no more after this week. If it were possible to
-make any body believe a connection with the powers of dark-
ness, ,Mr. Anderson goes far to induce this idea. Not a
night passes but some new and extraordinary trick is intro-
duced; and much as we have seen of conjuration, we must
confess ourselves fairly puzzled to know how some of the
delusions are effected.

WHEAT, BEANS, AND COTTON FROM EGYPT.—We are
glad to learn that the crops of these articles are very large
this year in Egypt, and that the bulk of them will be shipped
to this country, provided shipping can be found. When,
however, it is considered that they can only be brought to
this country in British shipping or Egyptian, it is to be
feared that tonnage will be scarce. It is estimated that of
Beans there will be from 100,000 to 2011,000 quarters, Wheat
from 100,000 to 200,000 quarters, and Cotton, 70 to 100,000
bales, the greater part for shipment to England between this
and next May.

THE SHIP LETTER-OFFICE : EXTRAORDINARY DE-
SPACH.—Between nine o'clock on Tuesday night last, and
one o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, that is to say, in
forty hours, upwards of eighty thousand letters and news-
papers were received at and despatched from the Ship Letter
Department of the Liverpool Postoffice. Instances of de-
spach not less extraordinary are of frequent occurrence at
the Ship Letter-office. In fact, this department of our
Postoffice is most admirably conducted. Nothing but the
best arrangement, combined with great energy, could pro-
Luce results so satisfactory.

THE LIVERPOOL DISPENSARIES.—A town's meeting was
held, a few weeks ago, the Mayor presiding, when the pecu-
niary difficulties of these institutions were laid before the
public. The appeal made at that meeting to the charitable
and humane has been promptly answered by a number of in-
dividuals, whose names, with the amount of their donations,
are published in another column. We are sorry to learn,
however, notwithstanding the donations of the benevolent
and the legacy of £3OO by the late Mr. Shaw, upwards of
£4,400 will yet be required to enable the treasurer to meet
all demands. We trust, therefore, that donations will con-
tinue to slow into the treasury until those demands are met,
and that the annual subscriptions will he so augmented as to
make the annual income of the charities equal to their annual
expenditure.

SIIOCKING COIL PIT ACCIDENT.—On Thursday morn-
ing last, a very lamentable occurrence took place at Black-
brook Colliery, near • St. Helen's, which was attended with
the loss of two lives, and that of a third person was also in
extreme jeopardy, but had a marvellous escape. Early in
the morning the deceased persons, named John Traverse, of
Haydock, and Margaret Wielding, of Billinge, together with
another man, were descending the pit, and, on arriving at
or about the centre of the shaft, the tub which contained
them came in contact with another which was ascending, the
consequence of which was, that the one the parties were in
was inverted, and the unfortunate persons before mentioned
fell to the bottom, a depth of fifty yards, while the other man
clung to a chain attached to the ascending tub, and was.car-
ried safely up the shaft. The two parties who fell to the
bottom were literally dismembered, and of course instantly
died. This is the third providential escape of the sort which
has attended the fortunate person we have alluded to. An
inquest was held on Saturday morning last, at the house of
Mrs. Banks, the Ship Inn, Blackbrook, when a verdict of
"Accidental death" was returned.
MR. ANDERSON'S SCULPTURES.—Three very extraordi-
nary groups of figures are now exhibiting in Trafford-build-
ings, South John-street, representing " Tam O'Shanter and
the Witch Cutty Sark." " The de'il flyin' awa' wi' the
Exciseman"—illustrating Burns' celebrated Poems ' • and
" Watty and Meg," from Wilson's Henpecked Husband.
These groups have been cut out of immense blocks of stone
from the Huntingtower quarries. The architect is a Mr.
Anderson : he has exhibited extraordinary labour, talent,
and perseverance in the execution of them. Every portion
of the dresses, &c., is sculptured with the utmost accuracy.
The shoes, overalls, and corduroys of Tam, are beautifully
chiselled. The expression of the face of the Witch Cutty is
capital, while Tam's terror is famously developed. The
group of Watty and Meg is extremely clever. The artist has
been upwards of three years at work upon these figures. To
the natives of the north these works will be highly interest-
ing ; indeed they must be equally so to all who have a love
for art.

RAPID TRAVELLING.—As the Caledonia would, it was ex-
pected, be the bearer of important intelligence from the United
Staes and Canada, and as the Britannia had been delayed to
give the government an opportunity of receiving and answer-
ing despatches, the postmaster-general ordered Mr. Banning,
our respected postmaster, to send her letter bags by an ex-
press train, should they reach the postoffice after the depar-
ture of an ordinary mail train, so that not a moment might be
lost in the time of their reaching London. On Tuesday night
the bags were placed in a railway carriage at the Edge-hill
Station. All being ready, the train, consisting of the engine
and one carriage only, which bore two gentlemen, one of
whom had come ;by the Caledonia, a messenger for The
Times, and the postoffice guard, started at 10h. 45m., and
reached Birmingham at lh. 35m., having completed the dis-
tance, 97 miles, in 2 hours and 57 minutes. From this time
must be deducted, however, 15 minutes lost in waiting till a
luggage train was moved off the line ; so that including stop-
pages to take in coke and water, the journey was accom-
plished in 2 hoursand 35 minutes. The train left Birmingham
at 2h. 5m., and arrived at the Euston Station, London, at 511.
30m., thus completing the distance, 112 miles, in 3 hours
and 25 minutes, including the time lost in replenishing coke
and water. The whole journey from Liverpool to London
was thus accomplished in less than SIX HOURS, at an average
speed of THIRTY-FIVE MILES per hour. though on certain
parts of the line, the speea must have been, at least, SIXTY
MILES :71the hour ! The news conveyed so rapidly by this
express was printed at full length in The Time:, copies of
which were in Liverpool by seven o'clock on Wednesday even-
ing, just twenty hours from the time the news was despatched
from the Edge-hill Station !
COURSING EXTRAORDINARY, OR INDEED PER STEAM !
—The Liverpool train that left for Manchester, on Wednes-
day evening, caught a very fine hare by the hook of the
coupling chain, (every carriage having two and a shackle),
between two of the second class carriages, about the middle
of the train. The bit of game was not discovered until the
carriages stopped at Manchester, when the porter, whose
duty it was to uncouple the carriages, found " poor puss "
still warm, suspended through the hook, the point of the
lower hook (two feet from the ground) being in the body
part, the back completely jammed into the hook, and the four
legs hanging down. It can only be supposed that the hare,
being alarmed at the noise of the " flying chariots" of mo-
dern times, made a jump across or along the line, and thus
most remarkably met death. Thompson (if the writer mis-
takes not), in his " Seasons" (Autumn), written in 1730,
dedicated to Mr. Onslow, says—" Poor is the triumph o'er
the timid hare," destined in the October of 1841, to be
hooked, not cooked, per steam.

RODNEY-STREET WARD.—A meeting of the radicals took
place on Friday evening at the Adelphi Hotel, for the pur-
pose of nominating a candidate for the representation of the
wardat the coming election. The attendance was meagre in
the extreme, the room not being more than one-third filled.
Mr. S. T. Hobson was called to the chair, and passed an
eulogium on the character and abilities of the candidate
about to be proposed. Mr. Lewin nominated Mr. Charles
Holland, and the motion being seconded by Mr. Downey,
was carried without opposition. Mr. Holland then entered
the room and addressed the meeting at great length, declaring
himself the enemy of religious intolerance and commercial
monopoly, and urging his attachment to the usual revolution-
ary doetrines of his party. On sitting down, he was questioned
by an elector as to whether he would give his support, if
elected, to the formation of public parks for the health and
recreation of the people, but he declined to pledge himself
on the question; stating, however, that he was favourable to
that object, if there were disposable funds that could be
made beneficially available for that purpose. A resolution
was then agreed to, pledging the meeting to support the
election of Mr. Holland ; and another appointing a com-
mittee. The other principal speakers were Mr. T. Harvey,
Mr. Alderman Evans, and Mr. Shiel. The latter entered
into a long exposition of his views on public parks, appa-
rently with a view to show that no suitable sites could be
found; and that the project was a cunning scheme of the
tories, who alone would derive any advantage from parks, in
which they would 101 l in their carriages, while to the poor
they would be quite inaccessible owing to their being too far
distant from their dwellings. Thanks were voted to the
chairman, and the meeting dispersed.