The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-11-06 00:00:00

EXAMINATION OF 'MASTERS AND MATES.—At a
meeting of a Board of Examiners, on Tuesday, Mr. Geo.
Green, late seaman on board the "Cicely," of Liverpool,
was found qualified for a second-class mates' certificate ;
and on Friday, Captain Thomas Dawson, late master of
the " Galway Ark," of London, was found duly qualified
fora first-class masters' certificate. _ _

_ . .
LECTURE ON HISTORY.—We perceive that the talented
and respected incumbent of St. Barnabas, the Rev. Tho-
mas Nolan, is to deliver a lecture on History, at St.
James' School-room, this evening, (Tuesday) for a cha-
ritable purpose. The subject is in itself sufficiently at-
tractive to bring an overflowing audience, but when we
add the lecturer's name and fame, and state that it is pro-
bably the last occasion on which he will be heard in
Liverpool, out of the pulpit, previous to his removal to
the important sphere of his appointment in London, we
feel assured many of his friends will be rejoiced to avail
themselves of this opportunity of hearing him.
THE ANSWER TO PRAYER.—It is matter of history
how little success blessed the most zealous medical efforts
before our partial National Humiliation, compared with
their remarkable success after. Shortly after, we read of
2000 cases of diarheea, and nearly 70 of them verging on
collapse, occurring within a single week in one London
parish; yet not one of all those cases proved fatal ! It is
said, we know not how correctly, that from and after the
local fast day there has not been a single fatal case at the
Cholera Hospital for West Derby Union. The least ob-
servant gratefully regard these undeniable proofs of Pro-
vidential interposition.
THE CORPORATION STEAMERS.—WC stated last week
that the new Corporation steamers had each been dis-
abled by accident. On Wednesday evening the Cato ran
into a tug-boat, and nearly cut away her stern. The
Cato's paddle-box and wheel were also severely injured.
Some of the passengers were thrown on their faces, and
the Cato was totally disabled. On Thursday evening the
hired Corporation steamer Jenny Lind, came into collision
with the Tranmere steamer Britannia, and severely
damaged her paddle-box, by which she was rendered
quite useless. This makes three steamers disabled in one
week.

SOIREE MUSICALE. The Philharmonic Society is
about to give a performance of vocal and instrumental
music under this designation. The object is to afford
amateurs on the piano-forte an opportunity of hearing the
performance of compositions of various styles, both
ancient and modern, in those pieces which come under
the denomination of chamber music. The programme is
of the most recherche character. The practice at Willis's
rooms and other celebrated places of metropolitan esteem
has formed the basis of the arrangement for the impend-
ing soiree ; and whilst the instrumental performers are
eminent for ability, several new compositions will be per-
formed, including a quatuor, by Mendellssohn, for the
piano-forte, violin, viola, and violoncello.
ACCIDENT TO ONE OF THE SEACOMBE STEAMBOATS.
—Since the partial closing in of the Wallasey Pool by
the Dock Commissioners, the loss of the tidal influx
and reflux on the Seacome side of the pool has caused a
constant accumulation of sand between the wall of the
Seacombe cover of the works and the ferry slip, which
has had to be removed from time to time by the Messrs.
Parry, at a very considerable outlay, to prevent its stop-
ping the working of the auxiliary stage. More recently
an attempt has been made by the commissioners to pro-
vide a scour for this purpose from the inner side of the
wall, which, however, has been very inadequate in its
operation to the purpose for which it was constructed.
At low water of spring tides it is necessary to ground a
boat at the edge of the stage, over which the 'passengers
embark or land ' • and on Thursday last at the usual time, a
spare steamboat, the Liverpool, proceeded to the usual
place for this purpose. On endeavouring, however, to
lower the stage to her, it was found that its wheels were
impeded by an accumulation of sand on the rails; and
that the steamer had grounded upon a portion of this
bank, extending a little way beyond the end of the stage.
A " list" towards the centre of the river became more
and more apparent as the tide receded ; and from her
position a strain in the timbers of the boat ensued, causing
a heavy leakage. Although every effort was made to keep
her afloat she filled rapidly • and, at length, her chimney
and mast having fallen, she heeled over several times,
and sunk bottom upwards. She was ultimately got up
on Friday, but will have to be broken up. Although old,
the Liverpool was one of the strongest built boats on the
river. We learn that a beautiful new boat—the Sphynx—
will be put on the station in the course of the week.
The operation of the tides, caused by the new dock
wall, upon the Seacombe ferry is very disastrous, and
calls urgently for prompt remedial measures on the part
of the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners. It is obvious
that if some effective counteracting agency be not resorted
to, the complete silting up of the ferry is inevitable.
FUNERAL OF THE LATE REV. DR. BYRTH.—On Satur-
day the remains of this lamented divine were deposited in
the grave. On the occasion the ceremonies were pecu-
liarly affecting. The cavalcade started from the residence
of the deceased at half-past nine; composed, besides the
family and immediate relatives of the deceased, of the fol-
lowing clergymen and other gentlemen :—Rev. T. Tobin,
Rev. J. Roberts, Rev. J. Judge, Rev. F. Barker, Rev. R.
Davies. Rev. W. W. Ewbank, Rev. F. Parry, Rev. J.
Lister, Rev. Dr. Raffles, Rev. J. Kelly, Sir EdwardCust,
Mr. George Grant, Mr. J. C. Ewart, Mr. H. Winch, Mr.
J. North, Mr. W. Mann, Mr. D. Neilson, Mr. Mawds-
ley, Mr. T. Bouch, Mr. W. Hall, Mr. P. Wright, Mr. S.
Johnson, Mr. J. Halliday, Mr. Parr, Mr. Thos, Murray,
Mr. Logan, Mr. R. Bateson, Mr. D. Buchanan, Mr. W.
Peers, Mr. Chambres, sen., Mr. Chambres, jun., Mr. T.
T. Glazebrook, Mr. H. Glynn, Mr. Whitewick, Mr.
James Skipper, Mr. H. Meadows, churchwarden, Mr. T.
Molyneux, Mr. John Ripley, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. W.
Atherton. There were also present a number of the resi-
dents of Wallasey and the neighbourhood, who were de-
sirous of paying the last tribute of respect to their much
valued and estimable pastor. Mrs. Byrth, supported by
her eldest son, Stuart Byrth, her two other sons, and four
daughters, and Miss Byrth, sister, with Mr. Alfred
Raynes, nephew of the deceased, followed the body to the
grave. The Sunday scholars, many of the villagers and
parishioners, as well as ladies, were present on the occa-
sion. The body was received at the gates of the church
by the Rev. J. Tobin, incumbent of St. John's Church,
Liscard. It was thence conducted to the church, when
the funeral service appointed to be read at the grave side
was read in a very solemn and impressive manner by the
Rev. W. W. Ewbank, and during the mournful ceremony
the majority of the spectators were subdued to tears. At
several houses in the village flags were hoisted half-mast
high, in token of the mournful event, and the people ge-
nerally seemed impressed with the great loss they had
sustained in the decease of one who was to them a devoted
pastor, a judicious adviser, and a faithful friend.
THE SPARKLING LIVERPOOL WATER.—A very intelli-
gent correspondent of a contemporary demolishes utterly
the statements of Mr. Spencer, that our sandstone water
is bad, because it is so bright and sparkling. That gentle-,
man says that the " superior brightness " of the Liver-
pool water is due to the "impurities chymically combined
with it, and which increase its powers of refraction." The
writer first alluded to, proves the complete fallacy of this
as follows :—" Perhaps, by the terms bright' and
' sparkling,' Mr. Spencer means the amount of trans-
mitted light. If so, it is equally untrue that bodies
are bright or sparkling in the degree of the power
they possess of refracting light.' Chromate of lead—a
dark red mineral, not even transparent, but only translu-
cent, and that generally only on the edges, and therefore
not bright' or sparkling' in the second sense—
has twice the refractive power of the clearest rock
crystal. Bodies, then, are not ' bright' or ' sparkling'
in ante sense, ' in the power they possess of refracting
light.' If, therefore, brightness is not dependent on
refractive power, which I have shown it is not, it
must be erroneous to affirm, as Mr. Spencer does,
that PURE Hotham-street' has ' its superior bright
caused by those very impurities which are chemically com-
bined with it, and which increase its powers of refraction.
Well, indeed, may PURE! ! ! Hotham-street' stand in
three-fold astonishment at the infliction of this paradoxi-
cal libel on its purity. Neither is the proposition correct
which states that 'the density of our Liverpool water is
increased by those bodies it bolds in solution, and thereby
its angle of refraction undergoes a corresponding degree of
increase.' The angle of refraction' of a body bears no
known relation to its density. Carbonic acid has a density
twenty four times as great as hydrogen, whilst its refrac-
tive power is only one-seventh of that of the latter body.
Alcohol has a considerably less density than water, but a
greater refractive power. Sulphuric acid has a density
two and a quarter times that of oil of turpentine, with a
less refractive power. In no form of matter, then—solid,
liquid, Tor acriform—would increasing the density of a
body necessarily increase its refractive power. The con-
dition on which refractive power depends is not known.
Sir Isaac Newton supposed it to be connected with com-
bustibility, and predicted the combustibility of a diamond
from its refractive power. This prediction was only a
lucky guess, and not a philosophical deduction for the'
fact of chromate of lead being wholly incombustible, and
yet one of the most highly refracting bodies known, shows
that refractive power does not depend on combustibility.
The chemical test of hardness, so ostentatiously appealed
to by the Rivington advocates, is a ruse. Hard water
may be healthier, cieteris paribus, than soft. Soap is
cheaper than medicine, and good health at least as desi-
rable as clean linen."