The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-09 00:00:00

GLASGOW, PAISLEY, AND AYR RAILWAY.

It will he seen from the half-yearly report of this railway
(published in-our last. number) that the directors have re-
solVed on completing* the whole of the thorough line from
Ayr to Glasgow in the first instance, by which means an iin-
mediate dividend will arise, and the whole expense of con-
struction will, owing to the economical arrangements of the
directors, not amount to above '£350,000, or certainly under
£400,00.. The first 15 miles will be opened next simmer at
£B,OOO per mile, including all expenses; the next 14 miles
will probably cost about £lO,OOO per mile; the most expen-
sive part, but that also on which the most traffic will be found,
is the piece for three miles from Johnston to Paisley, and
thence seven miles to Glasgow : even on this last, however,
the cost will not exceed £29,000 per mile. It is to he ex-
pected as a necessary consequence of opening this railway,
that the whole of the Liverpool, Belfast, and Highland
steam trade will flow into Troon and Ardrossan, and the
mails and passengers will he landed at Troon 61 or 7 hours
sooner than at Glasgow. The passage by the railway will
be made in little more than an hour, giving a saving of
at least 51 hours. It will then be possible to dine at Glas-
gow, breakfast at Liverpool, and dine in London, within
the 24 hours—and vice versa. An immense advantage
will accrue to Glasgow and Lancashire from this ar-
rangement, by which two of the most populous and prin.
cipal manufacturing districts in the United Kingdom will be
brought within less than twelve hours of each other. It
will probably be some years ere ,the Carlisle and Glasgow
railway is made; but until that is done the next best thing
in our opinion is the adoption of a line of fast steamers from
Troon to Liverpool. This port, as well as Ardrossan, is ac-
cessible at all times of the tide, and has sixteen feet at low
water. The Duke of Portland has been continually at work
to improve it, and has excavated a spacious wet dock in the
solid basalt, one of the finest things in the kingdom. Ar-
drossan is also an excellent harbour, and the large sums ex-
pended on it by the late Earl of
.iglinton have only failed
to render it profitable from the want of a communication to
Glasgow, which will he now supplied by the railway. Both
these ports will be brought into notice as the points of arri-
val and departure from England by the opening of this line,
which will also, in the event of a grand communication by
Carlisle, become the channel along which all the traffic will
flow past Kilmarnock and Dinnfries. We understand the
works are proceeding rapidly and satisfactorily. This line
only requires to be known and appreciated in order to be-
come one of the most popular investments in the kingdom.
—Railway Magaiine ' for October.—[Messrs. Flarford, Davis,
and Co., of Bristol, have got the contracts for 500 tons of
11-75 rails for part of the joint line to Paisley, and Messrs.
Blair and Robinson, of Glasgow, for 200 tons of chairs;
blocks grow like mushrooms in Scotland, spontaneously
there
there is plenty of basalts, granites, &c. to be had for quar-
rying. With these prospects before them, we cannot but
congratulate our Scotch friends on the importing advantages
their rising country will derive from the establishment of
railways, which will now be constructed on the most ap-
proved principles.

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS.

The bustling week we had last week obliged us to neglect;
the exhibition of paintings. We now resume our notice. •
No. 64. "Italy." This is a good painting of a fine buret
of extensive landscape. The idea of the painting is taken.
from the following lines :
But now the Alps are passed, that
Turbulent chaos; and the promised land
Lies at my feet in all its loveliness.
To him who starts up from a terrible
Dream, and io! the sun is shining, and
The lark singing aloud for joy, to him
Is not such sudden ravishment as now
I feel at the first glimpses of fair Italy.
The foreground represents the rugged Alps and, rich luxuriant
verdure at the base. In the distance is an extensive lowland
landscape, which is drawn with fine effect.
Nos. 65, " The Fisherman,"-66, " Goats anit—Dmilt-ey;'-
-68, "Cattle,"—and 69, "Sands, with Distant View of
Folkstone," are small, good paintings of what they each
represent.
No. 67. "Meg Merrilies." This is one of the many con-
ceptions of Meg Merrilies which have appeared, and de-
cidedly does nut rapk the last in merit. It is a small paint-
ing by Clater. Ste is represented in a cave, sitting over
some burning embers. It is well drawn and exceedingl-,
richly coloured.
No. 70. "The Shocking Tale," by C. Runciman, is the
representation of a laughable idea. A milk girl, who has
put down her cans, is relating to her companion some shcck
rug accident, which has resulted in the renting of her gown,
which she is holding out to the admiration of her companion.
It is well drawn, but the colouring is pale, sketchy, and
almost like that of a water-colour painting.
Nos. 71, "View on the Thames. with Barges,"—and 72,
"Careening a Boat," are both good river scene paintings.
No. 73. "Devil's Point, with Port of Mount Edgecombe,"
is one of Seaforth's sea views, and is distinguished by bril-
liant colouring and fine and distinct outline. There is a
truth to nature in both drawing and colouring in all Seaforth's
paintings, which at one stamps a value upon them.
No. 74. " Rithard and Kate going to the Fair," by C.
Itunciman, is the fellow to No. 70. The idea may be gathered
from the following quotation:—
"Once passing by this very tree,
A gotch of milk I'd been to fill,
You shoulder6d me, then laughed to see
Me and my gotch spin down the hill."
It represents au antiquated old farmer and an old woman on
.the brow of a hill, passing a tree. It possesses all the cha-
racteristic faults of its fellow without its redeeming humour.
No. 75. "The Feast of the Gipsies," by David Maclise,
A.R.A. The commencement of a critical notice of .this pic-
ture is no slight task. It embodies so many beauties and ex-
cellencies, not unmixed with many faults, it is so great a
picture, is so full of incident and character and expression,
that pages might be written concerning, it, and would require
to be written, to go adequately into the detail of its merits
and faults. The idea of the painting is taken from the fol-
lowing quotation : •
" Far away from your cities, our gay hordes alone;
In the place we love best, make a town of our own;
When the day's tramp is o'er and the sun is declining,

How joyous eve are, on the sweet grass reclining! .
To the quick, seething cauldrons our forage we fling,
And make merry and love, and we dance and we sing;
T. the life of a gipsy, what is that of a king ?" -
The foreground of the painting is to the extreme left
facing the spectator, and represents a fresh arrival of gipsies
to the encampment, with donkeys loaded with provisions,
women, and children. In the centre of the painting, in the
back ground, fresh troops of gipsies, with their donkeys, are
seen arriving. In the immediate foreground to the left, two
gpisies are killing a kid, and proceeding to cut it up,
and two rough haired dogs are anxiously watching the pro-
gress, expecting to come in for a share of the provision. lit
the centre of the painting, in the foregrouud, there is a sort
of bacchanalian group. One or two are playing tambou-
rines and other instruments, some are dancing, others drink-
ing, and-some romping together and rolling about. Behind
this group a large number are engaged in some sort of dance.
In the back ground to the right of the picture, there are
several small encampments and cauldron fires, with groups .
around them amusing themselves in various ways; others are
attending to the cooking. In the immediate foreground to
the right, a kind of "plighting. of troth" is going on between
a handsome gipsy and his sweetheart, to whom he is pre-
senting some stolen ring, and extracting from -her a coyly
grenLed promise of, to him, an equivalent. Behind these, a
large party is arranged in a circle, whetting their knives and
their teeth, at the sight of- a large joint and sundry fowlS,
which appear to be just taken out of the cauldron, and are
being handed to them by an old ,gipsy woman, who appears
to be officiating as cook. The individuals of this party
are characterized by every variety of attitude and expres-
sion. To the extreme right another old woman is lifting a
reeking joint out of the boiling cauldron. We have- now
given a tolerable outline of the subjects of the picture. :In
speaking of the merits of the painting, the left of the picture
has been made the point of view on which the artist has be-
stowed his chief care. To give the artist a fair chance of
having his production rightly appreciated, opportunity should
have been afforded of seeing the painting at this point at the
proper focus of sight. At present the spectator is brought
too near upon it, and the right of the picture is brought
equally prominently forwards, which in some degree, destroys
the proper light, and renders prominent many slighting faults
in the picture. Great care is manifested in the drawing and
'fiinish of the group to the left in the foreground, where the
artist has bestowed all his skill. The painting of the grey
donkey, from the fault of position, just alluded to, appears
flat, and wants relief; the dogs are exceedingly well draivn
anti painted, and are full of character. The varioua little
scenes which are shown in lifting the women from the den-
keys are very clever. There appears, however, to us, to be
one reigning fault with all the. young gipsy women in the
painting, and which we have elseW here seen noticed, namely,
that they are ladies, not gipsies. The delicate refinement of
figure, and expression, and feature, which the at tist has given
to some of them, is the very opposite to the natural coarseness
of the gipsy face. As we get to what is more properly the
background of the picture—to the centre . and the
,right---
the painting of the various figures is .slighted; there; iv.
pears to be a hasty and slurred-over sort of finish. The dra-
pery of a girl in the foreground, dressed in a red gown, is
very sketchy and roughly finished, as is also the yellow
jacket of a man seated near. These faults, in a picture-of
such magnitude—so crowded with incident,. ought not -..t0 ,be
too severely criticised; but there is not a doubt but they de-
teriorate from the merit and value of a painting. Loul:".iug
at the painting as a whole, it is truly a great painting:;. the
amount and diversity of character, expression, and grouping
in it, is enormous. It is a painting which requires consi-
derable study even to find out all that is in it. As a produc-
tion of art, it is characterised by bold, free drawing. •Irt
some parts the colouring is coarse and unfinished; but gene-
rally it is judicious and effective.

Pheasant shooting commenced on Monday reek with a
prospect of good sport. The birds are said to be tolerably nu-
merous, strong, and in good condition.

The London attorneys have fixed the attendance of their
clerks to be from ten in the morning till six in the- evening.
\Ve recommend the example to the profession of Liverpool.
About 30 years ago the name of a very affected lady of
fashion was publicly mentioned, who always left town for
the country, to he absent on Michaelmas-day, because the
metropolis smelt so abominably strong of roasted geese.
THE Coat. TRADE AT MARYPonT.—The coal trade is now
very brisk, there being a great demand for them in Ireland.
The vessels belonging to Marypcirt are seldom more thin a
Week over the voyage. The price at Belfast is from.l3s.-6d. to
141 per ton—Carlisle Patriot.
. -
Calais is now entirely lighted with gas, and possesses the ad-
ditional attraction of handsome and commodious sea-baths
erected on the dunes, with saloons attached fur balls and even-
ing reunions.
.
At Caen and Verdun, the itinerant venders of female finery
have adopted an irresistible method of attracting customers.
They announce that a magnificent shawl—un chafe d'hnnneur
—will be daily presented to the handsomest wonian who may
grace their sale rooms with her presence.
LITERARY COTTAGE.—It is a remarkable fact that Home
wrote his tragedy of Douglas, Dr. Blair composed his `• Lec-
tures," and Dr. Robertson compiled his "History of Charles
V.," in the same small white cottage, still to be seen at Burins-
field Links, in Scotland.

Sir Gilbert tleathcote has had a severe loss in his stable.
A fine filly foal, own sister to Amato, (who won the Derby
so cleverly this year,) was seized with internal inflammation
last week, and died in twenty-four hours. Sir Gilbert would
not have taken 1003 guineas for the foal.
The dahlia is now become quite a valuable flower: there
are many instances of seedlings being sold this autumn for
thirty, forty, and even sixty guineas. Mr. E. Davis, of this
city, sold a fine yellow to Messrs. Brown, of Slough, at the
Bath show, for forty guineas.—Bath Journal.

SHIP BUILDING•IN SUNDERLAND.-A paragraph has Ap-
peared in the Sunderland Herald, stating that there are 105
ships at present building on the banks of the Wear. We ha-v 3
made inqu►ry on this subject, and are gratified to learn;that,
instead of 105, there are no less than 118 ships at present on
the stocks in this busy and enterprising port.—Sunderland
Beacon.

Though, according to Mr. Whittle Harvey's account, his
new office entails a :load deal of labour;at first, there seems

to be every probability that when the licenses are all granted,
it will become a comparative sinecure, and may be executed
either at the .-tamp-office or the police offices, without 'en-
tailing upon his constituents the loss of Mr. Harvey's valuable
services in parliament.
PosTaon.—.lt is not, peahaps. generally known, that by
the Act, 1 Viet. cap. al, sect. 2, it is enacted that in all cgs. s
in which it shall be so required by the Post-office Acts, or Ly
any regulations made by the Postmaster-General in. pur-
suance thereof, the- postage shall be paid by the senders on
delivering the letter to the post-office; in other causes it shall
be optional with the sender to pay the postage on delivering
the letter to the post-office; and if the postage shall, not have
been paid by the sender, it shall be paid by the person to
whom the letter is addressed, on the delvers thereof to liirn ;
but, nevertheless, if the letter be refused;- or the party to
whom it is addressed shall be dead or cannot be found, the
writer or sender shall pay the postage ; and this enactment
applies to every packet, newspaper, and periodical publica-
tion, and every thing whatsoever chargeablejwitb postage,
which shall be transmitted by the pest.
MARRIAGE DISAPOINTMENT.—On Thursday morning
novel scene was presented at St. Pancras' church. At the
usual hour of ten o'clock several parties arrived to be united
in matrimony, attended by their friends. One respectable
looking party suddenly halted in the porch, and when- the
beadle directed their way to the altar, a young man an-
swered—" No, I have changed my mind." This individual
turned out to be the intended bridegroom ; expostulations
were of no avail—he persisted in committing "a breach of
promise," and walked hastily away, followed by his fair " in-
teuded," who, with apparent mingled feelings of disappoint-
ment, shame, scorn, and contempt, (the latter prevailing,)
threw the golden symbol of matrimony at him, and . then re-
turned to her friends. The cause of this strange conduct did
not openly transpire.
IMPORTANT TO TIIE TRADING CLASSES.—Court of Banh-
olTtcy, Oct. 3.—Yesterdav and tp-dao- several affidavits were
lodged in court, under the Bth clause of the new act forabolish-
ing iinprisonineot for debts, which enacts, "that if any single
creditor, or any two or more creditors being partners, whose
debt shall amount to £lOO or upwards, or any two creditors
whose debts shall amount to £l5O or upwards, or any three
or more creditors whose debts shall amount to £2OO or up-
wards, or any trader within the meaning of the laws, now in
force, respecting bankrupts, shall file an affidavit or aflidirvits
in her Majesty's Court of Bankruptcy, that such debt or debts
is or are justly due to him or them respectively; and, that
such debtor as he or they may verily believe is such traderas
aforesaid, and shall cause him to be served, personally, with
a copy of such affidavit or affidavits, and with a notice it
writing requiring immediate payment of such debt or debts,
and if such trader shall not within 21 days after personal set-
vice of such affidavit or affidavits and notice pay such debt or
debts, or secure or compound fur the same to the satisfaction
of such creditor or creditors, or enter into a bond in such sum,
recovered action or actions which shall
and with such two sufficient sureties as a commissioner of the
shall approve of, o
sumsCour t
as of
shalll3 a Bankruptcy uito ea), such sUnlor
shall
lhls costsuch have
Caboseue rnt shaltoorrbmewagivitvhebi
within
have been been brought, or shall hereafter be brought, forthe
i;t,hor,.
siguhte.ethhpearreatwei-
Action
practice
in the same, as to render him-self to the custody of the gaoler,
recoverying
borfotuhitehcourt,
oi the
di
such time ani in such manner as the said court, or' any judge
thereof, may direct, afterjudgenient shall have been recovered
in such action, every such trader shall be deemed to .hare
committed an act of bankruptcy on the 22,1 day after service
of such affidavit or affidavits and notice,
provided a fiat in
hankruptcy shall issue against such trader within • •
n two calen-
&sr months front the filing-of such affidavit or
affidavits,
-but
not otherwise." This order, it is generally believed, will much
increase the business of the court.

SECOND EDITION.

Standard Office, Three o' Clock.

LIVERPOOL MARKETS.

CORN EXCHANGE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9.
We had a fair supply of new Irish Wheat at our market
to-day, the•quality of the greater part being very indifferent;
the millers and dealers purchased sparingly, at a reduction
of 3d. to 4d. per 701bs. on last week's prices ; for old Foreign
there was a moderate sale, at Id. to 2d. per 701bs. reduction.
New Flour sold at a decline of Is. per 2801b5., the quality
of most of it is good, and averages in price from 50s. to 555.

There was little demand for Oats ; and Oatmeal was pur-
chased at 6d. per 2401b5, under last week's prices.—lrish
Barley sold at 4s. 6d. per 601bs.
The week's supply of Irish Butter is 11,5.92 firkins. 'We
have a limited demand, at our presenkprices: the consumers,
anticipating a reduction, purchase sparingly.