The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

THE BROAD AND NARROW GAUGE

We have already published the result of the experimen-
tal trip on the broad gauge, when, it will be remembered.
the Great Western party ran experimental trips with
weights, exclusive of the engin e and tender, of 814 tons,
714 tons, and 61 tons respectively, and with those weights
attached the greatest speed attained were a mile in 61,
58, and 59 seconds. The narrow gauge, on Thursday,
aexperimentalized with a train of only 50 tons weight. The
engine selected was a new one, uilt by Mr. Hobert Ste-
phenson, with six wheels. The driving wheels, 6 feet 6
inches in diameter, were behind ; the top of the boiler was
about 7 feet 4 inches above the rhil, and the cylinders
were outside. It had not been running above a week, and
had bees engaged only on experimental trips.

Before entering more into detail relative to the speed
attained, it may be well to observe, that had it really been
so great as that which was achieved by the Great Western,
the experiment could not be regarded as a fair parallel,
owing to the difference in the weights carried : since, in
the case of the narrow gauge, the gross weight was ten
tons lighter than the lightest attached in the case of the
broad gauge. Mr. Brunel, as well as Professor Barlow,
expressed surprise that a weight of only 50 tons should be
applied to the engine. Mr. Bidder, however, stated that
he was desirous of showing first what could be accom-
plished on the narrow guage with light trains; afterwards
he would experitnentalize with heavier ones. All the
preliminaries having been arranged, and the carriages,
eight in number, having been attached, the train started
from the first mile post at 12 minutes 17 seconds past 9
a.m. It arrived at the 44th mile at 26 minutes 10 seconds
past 10, having performed the whole distance of 43 miles
in 1 hour 13 minutes and 53 seconds. The shortest time
occupied in performing a single mile was 68 seconds.
The return trip was made in 1 hour 23 minutes 53
seconds, a delay of some four or five minutes having oc-
curred half-way in taking in water ; and the average speed
not being so great as that of the down trip.
From the above it will be seen that the utmost speed
attained at any time, with the train of only 50 tons, was a
mile in 68 seconds, and that even that pace was not main-
tained for above one mile. On the Great Western a
speed of one mile in 61 seconds was attained, with a train
of 81 tons attached, whilst the general average was con-
siderably al,ove that of Thursday's work. In extenuation
of this disparity in speed, it is only fair to state that a high
wind prevailed. It blew a perfect hurricane from the
west, and beat with immense violence against the sides of
the carriages. This, of course, materially retarded the
progress of the train. Indeed, the difference between the
speed on embankments and on cuttings was perfectly pal-
pable. When on an embankment, wholly unprotected by
hedges or side slopes, the wind was so powerful that little
more than a mile in two minutes was the result; whereas
the instant a train descended into a cutting, where the
slopes protected it from the wind, the speed increased
to a mile in 68 to 70, to 90 or 100 secones ; and it is but
just to observe, that the Great North of England line
seems to have been constructed with very little cutting,
and that iris consequently much exposed to wind.
Mr. Bidder estimated the high wind as an additional
weight of 100 tons added t' the train. The engine, he
said, consumed as much water, generated as much steam,
and employed as much power,:as had been consumed, ge-
nerated, and employed on the Great Western, with the 81
ton train, and the superior speed. What, he argued, had
become of that power, if it had not been employed in
overcoming the extra resistance of the wind ? When the
advocates of the narrow gauge were regretting that the
wind should have caused them such a retardation, Mr.
Brunel turned round, and humorously observed, " You
can't complain ; it's Hudson's fault ; he's the fellow that
raises the wind."

On Thursday, an engine with four carriages, engaged
on these trips, left the York station, and on reaching a
point about half a mile beyond the Thirsk station, (being
a distance from York of about 22 miles,) the engine
leaped off the railtl, owing, it is supposed, to too high a
pressure, it being proceeding at the time at the rate of
about 70 miles an hour. The consequence was, that all
the carriages were broken to pieces, and the stoker was
so much injured that there is little chance of his recovery.
Ail the other parties with the train escape •) without seri-
ous injury.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENTS BY DROWNlNG.—Melall-
choly to relate, a boat from Gaily Cove, with six men to
the west of Crookhaven, on Tuesday went out to fish,
and she was struck by a heavy sea, and all hands lost.
Five men were drowned in the hatbour of Sneem, county
Kerry, last week, while returning to she shore; the boat
sunk from being overloaded with herrings.
DISTRESSING CASE OF BIGAMY.—A few days ago the
daughter of a highly respectable citizen, who is connected
with a public establishment in this city, was married to a
gentleman, a native of Galway, and after the ceremony
proceeded with him to France ; but the previous marriage
of the gentleman with a lady by whom he has children,
transpired after their departure, and the unhappy parents
of the deluded girl have been obliged to resort to the laws
to punish the offender. For this purpose a warrant has
been issued for his apprehension.—Dublin paper,
POTATO ROT AND PRIESTCRAFT.—By a letter from
Anamoe, in the county of Wicklow, we learn the gratifying
fact, that in that neighbourhood the disease has made
little progress, and that the loss is but trifling. This in-
formation is accompanied with a further account of the use
to which priestcraft has turned the disease in that quarter,
and which lamentably elucidates the intellectual state of
our poor popish peasantry in these enlightened days. We
learn that from the adjoining county of Wexford holy
water is brought a distance of twenty or thirty miles, and
that the priests of Wicklow, not willing to leave all the
profits to the Wexford worthies, who have th,. holy water,
take care to sell, at a very high price, some blessed salt,
which, being m'xed with the water, the charm is complete,
and to this cause the cessation of the disease is attributed
by the deluded Romish peasantry. It seems, moreover,
that they are persuaded the benefit in this case of the
charm cannot be extended to the potatoes of heretics, but
that it would lose its purifying virtue if sold to, or touched
by Protestants. What a hopeful task it is to ameliorate
the condition of a country by multiplying, at the public
expense, priests of fraud and superstition, who trade in
practices like these.—Dublin Sqilesman.
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION.—The chair at the meet-
ing on Monday was taken by the head pacificator, whose
appearance in the hall, after his protracted absence, was
the signal for most uproarious cheering. .The Chairman
returned thanks for " the high honour" conferred on
him, in his peculiar etyle of pomposity and magnilo-
quence, and congratulated them on the progress of their
peaceable agitation—that " sublime " and " tremendous
engine." whose mighty influence had induced the adher-
ents of Joseph Sturge and the Anti-Corn-Law-League
in England to adopt it as Ike model for their system of
political agitation. The minutes of the last day's pro-
ceedings were read by the secretary, and a letter from
•• that most useful " Irishman, Wm. Smith O'Brien, re-
peating his call for no compromise, and regretting the
necessity which obliged them to eject from parliament
so many otherwi,e excellent non-Repeal representatives,
in order to procure the election of the required seventy
members of Concisiation Hall. The Liberator then in a
speech of an hour and a half's length, proceeded to no-
tice the last letter of the Times' Commissioner. He en-
tered into a wearisome recapitulation of the statements
respecting his property, charging the " two gutter Com-
missioners " with the suppression in their reports of
many important facts which tended to viodicate his cha-
racter as a landlord, and in some instances with having
wilfully asserted the most " arrant falsehoods." The
two commissioners were held up to the ridicule of the au-
ditory, and the most vituperative terms heaped upon
them with characteristic liberality. Mr. Russell, whom
he denominated " liar the second," was visited with espe-
cially indignant denunciations, for having sustained the
allegations of " liar the first," Foster went down de-
termined to view everything with an eye of malignant en-
mity; and Russell worked in harness with him—" an ug.
lier pair of beagles never hunted game "—(laughter). He
asserted that the letters of Messrs. Fitzgerald and Butler,
and the testimony of Mr. Hamilton, approving of his
conduct as a landlord, had not been the least invalidated,
while his own statements, made on a previous oscasion,
remained all uncontradicted. The amount of rent col-
lected during the past week was declared to be £2,371
3s. Od.

GENERAL MISCELLANY

Lord Metcalf is improving since his arrival in London.
Primroses were gathered the other day, in the neigh-
bourhood of Doncaster.

The Great Wester❑ Railway Company have subscribed
£3OO to the Ascot Race Fund.

Upwards of 600 sail of vessels put into Milford Haven
for shelter during the late gale.
The Oxford and Cambridge Review has an article by
Lord John Manners, advocating free trade.
MINING IN FURNESS.—A valuable discovery of iron
ore has recently been made on a range of hills called
Ricket Hills, by Messrs. Town and Rawlinson, of Dalton.

Tne Rev. W. Gresley has pronounced the glorious re.
volution of 1688 to be a transaction, "false in principle
and pernicious in its results !"
It is generally believed that in the event of a dissolution
of Parliament, John Bowes, Esq., does not intend again
to offer his services to the electors of South Durham.

lt is said that Mr. Cardwell, at present Secretary to the
Treasury, is to succeed Mr. Hope, as Under-Secretary to
the Colonies.

A fine dish of white currants was gathered on Christ-
mas-day in the garden of William Ford, Esq., of Yeo,
near Yealhampton.
The wheat plants are looking very promising, and there
has seldom been a better prospect at Christmas for the
ensuing harvest than this year.
Mr. S. E. Cayley, M.P., says :—" That a duty of 15s.
per quarter on wheat only adds one farthing and 1-16th
to the price of a quartern loaf."
On Saturday evening a young author, Mr. J. Christian
floss, destroyed himself at a coffee-house in Aldergate-
street, by taking prussic acid, in consequence of the re-
jection of one of his articles by a popular magazine.
A " High Change," similar to those of London, Liver-
pool, and Manchester, has lately been erected at Bristol,
which has heretofore been deficient in this convenience for
merchants.

The driver of the Portpatrick and Dumfries mail having
slipped, the other day, as he was about to mount his box,
the horses started off without attendant, and ran upwards
of three miles without accident.

The good service pension of £3OO per annum, which re-
verted to the Admiralty on the death of Admiral Sir C.
Rowley, Bart., is conferred on William Hotham,G.C.B.,
Admiral of the White.
On Thursday last a chi nney was blown down at 1311-
last Hills, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The bricks fell
through the roof and killed an infant that was sleeping in
a cradle. _

A short time since a dog, at Cardiff, seeing his portrait
exhibited to some gentlemen, sprung at the painting in a
rage, and, before be could be prevented, partially defaced

• 11••
An American ship arrived in St. Katherine's Docks,
last week, with a large cargo of potatoes from the United
States. The potatoes appear to be of excellent size and
quality.
It is a curious circumstance, that, during the five days
that Lord John Russell was supposed to be in power, not
a voice was raised in the " famine cry," nor a word said
upon the " potatoe disease."
The duty on the importation of foreign wheat has this
week advanced to 15s. per quarter. The grain markets,
generally, have become animated, and prices have ad-
vanced in a moderate degree.
Qutcx JUSTICE.—In the Sheriff's Court, Red Lion-
square, London, on Friday, at the commencement, the
Jury were sorn four times, four causes tried, and four
verdicts recorded in twenty minutes. _ _ _

The Reverend Librarian of Lambeth Palace, Mr.
Maitland, at one. time acquired the soubriquet of the
Clerical Fox-hunter, from his zeal to pick out every error
to be found in the ponderous ♦olumes of the honest
mart yrologist. _ _ _

Mr. Pugin, the Romish architect, lives at Ramsgate,
near to the spot where St. Austin is said to have first set
his foot on English ground. He has commenced, at an
estimated cost of £lO,OOO, the erection on this spot of a
church, school, and cloister.
NOVEL IDEA OF INDEPENDENCE.—The English
Churchman, in announcing itself to be " in an indepen-
dent position," suggests to its subscribers the doubling of
their annual subscription, by which means, it says, " the
loss on the paper would be entirely got rid of.
STOVES IN CHURCHES.—On Sunday week Stanwix
church was nearly burnt down, owing to the fire in the
stove communicating with the woodwork of the pews. The
pulpit, with several pews in the neighbourhood, was de-
stroyed, and the organ materially injured.
Dr. Polli, of Milan, known to the medical world by his
remarkable researches on the blood, has just communi-
cated to the Scientific Congress at Naples, a proceeding
to render salt water drinkable by means of electricity.—
Medical Times.
A well-sinker has been suffocated at Market Weston,
by incautiously descending a well without having first
tested the state of the air by means of a candle. In the
course of the previous hour a stratum of carbonic acid gas
had formed for a depth of thirty feet; and as soon as he
went down, the man fell senseless.
Lord Lyttleton has sent circulars to his tenants caution-
ing them against disposing of their corn at injurious prices,
at .d offering such accommodation as may be necessary to
enable them to hold their stocks. The noble lord says
Ora the present reduced price of wheat is the result of
the recent political changes, but that' prices are certain to
go up again ; and if his tenants cannot pay their tents now
due, they have only to apply to his agent, and time will be
afforded to enable them to retain their c.rn until the
roarke's resume their former stability.

HOW. TO MAKE A CDURCH.—A service took place on
Tuesday, D cember 23d, in the Adelphi Chapel, Hackney-
road, to organise a Christian Church in this newly-erected
place of worship. After suitable exhortation and prayer,
the members received the right hand of fellowship, and
were recognised and declared to be a Church of Christ.
The recuguition was then confirmed by a participation in
the ordinance of the Lord's Supper with the ministers
and members of other Churches.—Nonconformisl.
SUICIDES OF MILITARY OFFICERS.—On Saturday
week Col. Gurwood, the distinguished officer and author
of " The Wellington Dispatches," destroyed himself at
Brighton by cutting his throat with a razor. The medical
gentleman gave it as his opinion that the act was induced
by the relaxation of the nerves consequent on the comple-
tion of the work above referred to, and on which the mind
of the deceased was intently fixed.—The last intelligence
from India details the distressing suicide by poison of
Ensign Wm. Miles of the sth regiment Bombay Light
Infantry (Native.)
PROBABLE INCREASE OF THE INCOME-TAX.—We
hear on good authority that orders have been issued from
the Treasury for official returns to be made of the res-
pective amounts that would be realised by the different
heads of " lands," " professions," " salaries," &c., on an
income tax of five per cent. instead of the present rate of
sevenpence in the pound. This would seem to countenance
the rumour that it is in contemplation to charge some
branches of local taxation on the Consolidated Fund.—
Britannia. [This, it will be remembered, corroborates
pro raters our announcement of last week. The New-
castle Journal seems to think our information will be
found correct ]
NOVEL INTERMENT CASE.—On Monday last, pursu-
ant to advice given by c,unsel, the Board of Guardians
caused the child, to which the Vicar of Leigh had refused
interment, to be prssented at the church-yard for burial.
An order had been served on the vicar, and on his refus-
iog, notice of intention tc bury the corpse was served on
the vicar, the clerk, and the sextoness. Several hundreds
of persons assembled on Monday afternoon to witness the
proceedings, and at four o'clock the funeral procession
arrived, and, as was expected, found the gates locked, and
their admission refused. They stood at the gates half an
hour with the child, and afterwards returned to Bedford
with the corpse.
POISONING—A man named Farrer, a butcher, near
Tadcaster, died on Sunday week very suddenly. He was
out at dinner with his sister, Mrs. Prout, and, before the
cloth was removed, Mr. and Mrs. Prout, Mr. Farrar, and
other members of the family became alarmingly ill. Me-
dical assistance was promptly obtained, and in the case of
the several individuals of Mr. Prout's family the treat-
ment was successful in averting any immediate fatal re-
sult. Mr. Farrar died in two hours from the time he sat
down to dinner. It appears that a boy had been sent in-
to the garden for some horse-radish, and in mistake ga-
thered some portion of the root known as Monk's Hood,
with which strong poison the gravy had become impreg-
nated.—Leeds Paper.
CURIOUS.—WhiIe a gentleman was looking at the
salmon essaying to pass Powick weir the other day, his
dog (a bitch of the Newfoundland breed) discovered a
very curious magazine. She began scratching and sniff-
ing violently at a rat-hole situate under a beam at the ex-
tremity of the weir, and some couple of yards from the
water ; guessing there was something extraordinary there,
it was examined, when it was found to contain nineteen
lamperns all alive and in good order, which some fisher-
men insisted had been stored there by the rats. As the
water had not reached the spot for a long time previous.
the lamperns clearly had been carried there by some
means, and the fishermen say that the rats are continually
in the habit of robbing their putcheons.—Hereford
Paper.
SOMNAMBULISM•—REMARKABLE PRESERVATION.—
About five o'clock on Friday morning as constable Parry
was on duty near Eign-brook Chapel, in this city, he
heard something fall heavily, and immediately made
search, and in the street, close under the shop-window of
Mr. Algood, discovered what he thought was the body of
a man with nothing on but his night-dress. Upon raising
it up, however, he found that it was an aged female, in a
state of utter insensibility, or as be at first thought quite
dead. She was taken into the house, and placed in a bed,
and it transpired that her name was Mrs. Evans, and her
age between 70 and 80 years. The solution of the occur-
rence is, that she had risen in her sleep, and that, getting
out of the window, she first fell upon the ledge of the
shop-window of the house where she lodged, which broke
her descent to the groucd, a height of many feet, or she
would certainly have been killed. We are happy to learn
that Mrs. Evans is going on favourably.—Hereford Jour-
nal.

DICKENS'S NEWSPAPER.—The first number of the
Daily News will appear in a fortnight. Its peculiar feature
will be, that the literary body, so long second to the com-
mercial in the daily press, will be in the foreground.
They are committing a treat mistake in avowedly starting
on the extreme Liberal interest. Bradbury and Evans
are the proprietors. Dickens, it is now said, will not be
the editor, as stated in a paragraph going the rounds of
the press, but Foster, the literary editor of the Examiner.
They have decided on giving their reporters seven instead
of five guineas a week, for their annual engagements.
The proprietors of the Morning Herald, which has lately
been drawing an enormous revenue from advertisements,
the price of the column formerly £l2, being now £3O,
intimated the other day, to their Bombay and Calcutta
correspondents, the increase of their salaries from £l2O,
which is paid the former. to £4OO, and from £lOO, the sa-
lary of the latter, to £3OO per annum. The foreign cor-
respondents of the morning journals are paid from five to
ten guineas a week; and the express India mail, fort-
nightly, stands the Times and Herald each £BOO a month.
The principal editor is paid at the rate of 30 guineas a
week, and the subs., of which there are six or seven to
each paper, (not to speak of the managing editor, whose
services are recompensed with 12 guineas per week,) re-
ceive from eight to ten guineas weekly. The parlia-
mentary reporters to each paper ♦ary from sixteen to
twenty, at the salary above stated, irrespectively of
which there are nine law reporters. at from three to five
guineas a week, nine cehers who attend the police offices,
at no fixed salaries, besides supernumeraries, who pick
up a trifle in the accident and occurrence line.

BAN KAU PTCY.—The total number of bankruptcies that
have occurred in and up to a late period of the expiring
year is, 1,028 and, it appears that there were 7 apothe-
caries, 1 attorney. 9 auctioneers. 7 bakers, 5 beersellers,
18 booksellers, 21 shoemakers, 14 brewers, 11 brick-
layers and masons, 3 brickmakers' 18 brokers, 33 builders
19 bu!chers, 15 cabinet-makers, 4 calico printers. 10 car-
penters, 1 carpet manufacturer, 7 carriers and carmen, 3
carvers and gilders, 8 cattle-dealers, 7 cheesernongers, 21
druggists, 2 clothiers, 2 cloth manufacturers, 1 cloth
merchant, 3 coach makers, 3 coach and omnibus pro-
prietors, 19 coal merchants, 18 commission agents, 2 con-
tractors, 1 cook and confectioner, 15 corn merchants, 6
cotton manufacturers, 2 cotton spinners, 12 curriers, 3
cutlers, 4 dairymen, 5 dealers, 33 drapers, 11 dyers, 3
earthenware dealers, 3 coffee-house keepers, 9 engineers,
1 engraver, 8 farmers, 4 farriers, 4 fell-mongers, 2 fish-
mongers, 2 fruiterers, 6 glass merchants, 59 grocers, 6
batters, 11 hosiers, 44 innkeepers, 8 ironfounders, 14
ironmongers, 2 jewellers, 2 lacemen, 3 leather sellers, 1
limeburner, 18 linen drapers, 1 livery-stable-keeper, 1
lodging. housekeeper, 7 machinists, 5 maltsellers. 2 mar-
ket gardeners, 4 mercers, 40 merchants, 4 milliners, 8
millers, 6 money-scriveners, 5 musical instrument makers,
8 oil and colourmen, 5 painters, 4 paperhangers, 6 paper
makers, 1 pawn broker, 20 plun,bers and glaziers, 8 prin-
ters, 2 print and musicscllers, 8 provision dealers. 2 sad-
dlers, 1 sailcloth manufacturer, 3 shipb okers, 3 ship-
owners, 3 shipwrights, 4 silk manufacturers, 3 smiths, 1
soapmaker, 9 stationers, 6 surgeons and dentists, 16 tail-
ors, 4 tallowchandlers, 11 teadealers, 5 timber-merchants,
2 tobacconists, 3 trimming-makers.'9 upholsterers, 63
victuallers, 12 warehousemen, 8 watchmakers, 4 wharf-
fingers, 5 wheelwrights, 36 wine and spirit-merchants, 3
woollen-drapers, 7 woollen-manufactur, rs, 1 woolstapler.
3 worsted-manufacturers, 1 worsted-spinner, and 57 of
various occupations.

HORRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCE.—A WOMAN EATEN BY
RATS.—On Friday week, Mr. Jewison, Coroner, held an
inquest at Tong, on view of the body of Sarah Holds-
worth, a woman St years of age, who was found dead in
her house. The old woman resided in a hovel somewhere
in the neighbourhood of Dudley Hill, and though so far
advanced in life resided alone. For two days previous to
her death she had been confined to bed, having no one to
attend on her but a step-son nearly as old as herself. On
Wednesday night, at eight, he left her in bed, and re-
tired for the night ; next morning be found her laid on
the floor dead, and presenting a most horrible spectacle.
Her right eye was nearly eaten out, her left eye was eaten,
her forehead and nose were gnarled, and the edges of a
sore on one arm had also been gnawed. It appeared that
the residence of the deceased was infested by rats, which
bad become so bold that they had on former occasions
actua ly eaten the old woman's chemise as she lay in bed,
likewise her other clothing and the bed clothes, into holes.
To keep them from attacking her person she had been ac-
customed, as was the case on Wednesday night, to have
aistick laid on the bed. Nothing had been heard in the
night in her ccttage. It is believed that the vermin, more
ravenous than usual, had attacked her as she lay, and
that to escape them she made an effort too great for her
feeble state, a fit had come on, of which she died, but
that the rats made their horrid feast before life was ex-
tinct. The unfortunate old woman was in the receipt of
3s. a-week relief from the union, and but a short time
ago it was sought to take her to the workhouse, but her
opposition was so great that the relieving officer was
obliged to desist. She paid 6d. a-week rent for her hovel,
and when found had 6s. 74d., which she bad saved up to
pay her rent. In connection with this little hoard a
simple but affecting incident was related. On Wednes-
day her step-son, who appears to have been a tender,
affectionate nurse, gave her some some tea without sugar
or milk, and a piece of dry, coarse bread. The poor old
woman said she could like something nice, the addition of
milk and sugar to her tea, and of butter to her bread,
would probably have been quite a luxury ; but though 90
ill not a word was said of dipping into the rent fund.