The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-17 00:00:00

Sr. Snas's,Cntruen.—On Wednesday last, the congre-
gation of St. Silas' held their annual meeting in the boys'
school-room, which was densely crowded. The proceed-
ings were of a- very business-like and practical character,
and seemed.deeply to interest the persons assembled. An
hour was allowed for tea and friendly conversation ; after
which the Rev- Samuel Minton, the incumbent, gave a
detailed statement of their progress during the past year,
and threw out several suggestions as to future plans.
This address occupied an hour and a half ; and was fol-
lowed by short speeches from the Rev. W. I 1 Duck and
the Rev. 11. Gough, the late and present curates of St.
Silas', and also from several gentlemen of the congrega-
tion, the meeting being closed with prayer for the divine
blessing upon their future labours. The report stated
that £1,220 had been contributed or raised, during the
past year for various local and public charities, including
£6OO for the purchase of Oakes-street Ragged School;
about half of which was made up of donations from mem-
bers of the congregation.
MISADVSNTUILE AND DESTITIITION.-011- Thursday,
a group consisting of an old woman sizty years of age,
named Mary Ader, and two young men named respec-
tively Richard Wintringham and Abraham Batten, applied
to the police magistrate for aid under the following cir-
cumstances, which were stated by Wintringham, who
said that they left New York on the 7th of December in
the ship Prince, Albert, bound for London. The ship
was said to be leaky when they started, and when she had
proceeded until within 800 miles of the port she sunk, and
the passengers and crew were taken off by the barque
Norfolk. This vessel fell short of provisions, having been
a long voyage, and they were reduced to half a biscuit a
day for eight days. They had to make their escape just
as they stood, and he had lost his tools and all that he was
possessed of in the world. The poor old woman also had
nothing left but what she had on, and had been without
a change of raiment from the day they were shipwrecked.
They put into Queenstown and applied to the magistrate,
who obtained them a passage to this port in the steam-
ship Trafalgar, for which half-a-crown was paid. The
other passengers who came with them had money, and had
proceeded to their various destinations ; but they, being
completely destitute, had adopted the present course to
keep them from starvation. The magistrate ordered an
officer of the court to see them provided for, and inquiry
to be made at the captain of the Trafalgar as to the cor-
rectness of their statement.

DUPING A. SCOTCHMA.N.—Patrick Sweeney, attired as
a sailor, and one of a gang of duffers and ringdroppers,
who have for years infested this town, was charged, on
Wednesday, with obtaining money under false pretences
from William M'lntyre, a native of the north of Scotland.
The complainant said the prisoner met him in the street,
and represented himself as a sailor belonging to a ship
bound for Bristol. He produced a waistcoat piece, which
he said was satin, and a shawl, made of camel hair, which,
having been smuggled, he could afford to sell to the com-
plainant a bargain he succeeded in beguiling his dupe
to make a purchase, and a bargain was struck for .E 2 2s.
6d. The articles had been valued at Frisby, Dyke and
Co.'s, and the waistcoat piece, represented as satin, turned
out to be watered moreen, and was said to be worth Is. 2d.;
the shawl, which, if it had been camel hair, would have
been worth five or six guineas, was valued at 4s. 6d. In
reply to the magistrate, the prisoner said he had a license,
which he took out on the 14th of August last, and on
selling the articles to the complainant, he did not say the
shawl was camel hair, but as line as camel hair, and was
worth at least gl, there being at least Bs. worth of silk in
the flowers, which were worked upon it with a needle.
There were many shops in town in which shawls were
sold as Chinese pongees, which had never been in China.
The prisoner said the prosecutor had made an agreement
with him, after he had purchased the articles, to meet him
at eight o'clock that morning, to purchase 14 lbs. of to-
bacco, which he (the prisoner) had agreed to obtain for
him by breaking open the captain's chest. In reply to
Mr. Wybergh, the complainant said he was going to Aus-
tralia, and it was intimated to him that he might perhaps
get more for the goods there than he had given. The
magistrate remanded the prisoner for seven days.

HEALTH OF THE Towar.—The medical officer of health
reports that the extreme sevarity of the weather has had
its usual effect in increasing very largely the mortality
from diseases of the lungs, and of thus raising the general
mortality of the borough to a higher point than in any
week of the previous 17 months. The deaths in the
tpoatrai
ls ho
fw2eBroe, 2aoog.ai,
ns andt a
nm the
average
out-townshipsof 223 i t
hB,
e 0 samem k ig a
weekn
of the six preceding years. From diseases of the lungs
the deaths were 145, about 52 per cent. of the entire
mortality, and more than in any week since December,
1847, when epidemic influenza prevailed in Liverpool.
The average mortality from this class of diseases in the
corresponding week of former years was 75, or little more
than half the mortality of last week. Zymotic diseases
caused 55 deaths, against an average of 57. Of these
there were from hooping cough, 19 ; typhus, 10 ; measles,
5; diarrhoea, 4; cholera. 4; smallpox, 2; chicken-pox, 1;
scarlatina, 1. One man and two married women died
from the effects of intemperance. The mean temperature
of the week was only 31 2.10 degrees, about 94 degrees •
lower than the average of the same week of former years.
On Tuesday the daily mean was nearly 15 degrees below
the average, and on the same day the thermometer marked
a lower temperature-20 1-10 degrees—than was ever
previously recorded at the Observatory. The reading of
the barometer was unusually low throughout the week,
the mean being only 29.15 inches. The wind was chiefly
from the south-east. One-fifth of an inch of rain fell on
Saturday ; and on Monday and Wednesday snow fell to
the depth of 14 inches.
PUBLIC LIBRARY AT ORICSKIRK.—A public meeting
was held on Wednesday, in the Town-hall, Ormskirk, for
the purpose of taking into consideration the best means of
establishing a public library in that town. The chair was
occupied by Lord. Stanley. There was a large attendance
of gentlemen from the surrounding district, as well as of
the inhabitants of the town. Lord Stanley, in opening
the proceedings, alluded to the population and prospects
of the locality. The population in the district was about
10,000 persons, of whom about 3,000 would be likely to
avail themselves of the benefits of the library. In referring
to the condition of the people, he believed that the average
of individual prosperity was higher than in at least three-
fourths of England. But they had no means whatever of
instruction or amusement. Elsewhere, mechanics' and
other institutions were formed to the number of 700 or
800, and these would shortly be increased to 1,000, all of
which had a library attached. His lordship then referred
to the free public libraries established in Liverpool, Blan-
chester, Salford, and elsewhere. He congratulated them
on the success which had attended these institutions. He
then alluded to the principles upon which such institutions
should be carried out, so as to avoid a political or sectarian
bias, and to guard against popular neglect. For this pur-
pose, it was better to keep the library separate and inde-
pendent from any other educational institution. As to
the selection of Woks he advised them to exclude all
works on theological controversy, and all works bordering
on party politics. He recommended that, in the first in-
stance, it should be a lending library only, and at a future
time a reading-room might be added, if adequate support
were forthcoming. They would require, at least, £4OO for
the purchase of 1,500 or 2,000 volumes, selected from the
best standard libraries of the country, to begin with, and
yearly subscriptions to the amount of 440 at least, and the
library should be open without restriction to all who
choose to apply. If sufficient funds were not voluntarily
subscribed, they should have a low rate of subscription,
not exceeding 4s. or ss. a year. This plan had been suc-
cessfully adopted in Prescot. He concluded by announc:
ing that £320, or four-fifths of the amount required in the
first instance had been subscribed. The list of contribu-
tors was then read. It included the names of Lord
Stanley £lOO, Sir G. J. Hesketh £25, Rev. J. A.`Kershaw
£25, Mr. W. Brown, M.P., £2O, &c., the total amount sub-
scribed being £322. A provisional committee having been
appointed, with power to add to their number, a vote of
thanks to Lord Stanley terminated the proceedings, three
hearty cheers having been first given for the noble lord.
A band paraded the town during the day, the occasion be-
ing greeted by the inhabitants as worthy of public re-
joicing.
ILLVI TII ARTS 11BABP/TBD BY ROMATISM.--On
Tuesday evening the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, principal of the
Lancashire Independent College, and editor of the British
Quarterly Review, delivered a lecture at the Sunday
School Institute, the subject being " How Romanism has
used the Arts of Design ?" After a few introductory re-
marks, the lecturer said, Cardinal Wiseman had favoured
the public, both in Manchester and Liverpool, with dis-
courses on art. The professed object in Manchester was
to show the relation of the arts of design to the arts of
production; in Liverpool, to show the connexion of the
arts with commerce. Both very legitimate objects, if the
matter had ended there ; but enough came out in Liver-
pool, still more in Manchester, to make clear that the in-
tention of those discourses was, consciously or uncon-
sciously, to suggest that there was one relation of the arts
more natural, more significant, more deserving of attention
than any other—namely, their relation to Romanism. All
knew that this was a favourite idea with Romanists, and
that some weak minds among Protestants were greatly too
much affected by the false idea that the faith of the Vati-
can had shown itself eminently favourable to the culture
of taste in all things. To obtain a just impression, it was
necessary that we should look at the whole truth; and his
first observation was, that Rome had never done anything
for the arts of design in the way of invention. Romans
could only imitate the designs of others ; and when bar-
barous Rome became Christian Rome, the change was a
change of name rather than of form. The Pagan temples
were made into churches, the niches, filled with images of
the old superstition, were filled with saints and martyrs
from the new—the seasons which had been sacred to Pagan
worship had been continued as seasons separated to Chris-
tian uses—and the processions, festivities, and the entire
manner of heathen Rome were taken up and perpetuated
as so much Christian ritual and usage in Christian Rome.
Rome was labouring in the beaten path of imitation, and
inventing nothing. To do what had been done before was
its highest point of aspiration. To realise the grand or
beautiful in any way for itself did not enter into its
thoughts. It was not the ecclesiastical, but the commer-
cial cities of Italy that ever excelled in any of the arts
and sciences. Dr. Vaughan then drew attention to what
he termed the cold, haughty, aristocratic, and heathen
element in Roman art, which did not spring spontaneously
from the people. Virgin Marys, figures of wood and wax,'
from five feet high downwards, bedecked and betinselled
in barbarous fashion, and having pendant about them vo-
tive offerings of every description from their worshippers ;
pictures in churches, with their canvas curiously cut
through to receive metallic crowns or glories over the
heads of Virgin mothers, saints, and martyrs, which he
himself had seen in that very Rome of which he was
speaking ; crucifixes hung up in the public way, so savage
in workmanship and colouring that some Mexican Indian
of centuries since might have been the artist. In fact,
the arts of design had been used generally to drug religion
rather than purify it—to intoxicate the public mind rather
than to make it wise. The reverend lecturer then pro-
ceeded to show that, in one respect art so applied had
signally failed, awakening as it did in the vulgar breast
not reverence, but fear. If Rome had favoured the arts
of design, it did not follow that she had shown herself the
friend of civilization and humanity. She might have
erected grand edifices, and done so only to subdue the
people to her will by these emblems of her power. The
lecturer's next observation was on the manner in which
Rome had used the arts of design in relation to the image
and picture worship, and after an eloquent peroration he
resumed his seat amid general and hearty applause.—Ou
the motion of Mr. Picton, seconded by Mr. 11'Fie, a vote
of thanks was passed to the Rev. Dr. Vaughan by accla-
mation.