The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-19 00:00:00

THE WRECK OF THE SYLPHIDE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
In reply to two letters from Messrs. M'Arthur and Clarke,
I beg to state that it is not true that it was six o'clock when
I went to the wreck of the Sylphide.
It is not true that I was' only one hour there.
It is not true that I said I assisted in towing that vessel.
It is true that 1 found three steamers at anchor doing no-
thing.

It is true that Sherlock said he could have done better
with one steamer and a couple of flats.
It is true that I went in the Seacombe steamer.
I am also certain that had Mr. Abbinett gone down the
morning I went with his slinging apparatus and a couple of
flats, she would have been towed up the following tide, for
the water was perfectly smooth.—Yours respectfully,
JOHN ASKEW.

THE ARCHIMEDES.
TUNE—" Through Erin's Isle."
A sage of yore at Syracuse,
Who dealt in mathematics,
Invented a machine to pump
Spring water to his attics ;
A wondrous screw the water drew,
By spiral revolution,
And did the sage's thirst assuage,
Or serve him with ablution.
And daily they who came that way,
The mighty screw when viewing,
In cup and can all blessed the man,
And drank success to screwing.
Long ages fled, the sage was dead,
May be the pump was rotten ;
The good old screw, its maker too,
Were well nigh both forgotten,
When a youth who sprang from British blood,
One night when he was dreaming,
In fancy crossed the channel's flood
With screws applied to steaming;
And from his dream he took the scheme,
And screwing now his creed is;
So screw along became the song—
Success to Archimedes!
One fine spring morn, at early dawn,
The youth—we couldn't find him ;
He 'd gone afloat in a little boat,
With his magic screw behind him ;
«'e hailed him as we tacked about,
To ask what he was doing ;
Said he, " My mother knows I'm out,"
I'm only going screwing;
And screw along shall be my song,
And, if you doubt the plan, boys,
Get up your steam and try the scheme,
And catch me if you can, boys.
We scanned his craft all fore and aft,
We saw his genius clever;
Three shouts-we gave along the wave,
With—" May he screw for ever !"
With steam and sail of no avail,
'We tried to catch him flying ;
We tried till night, and so we might—
We found 'twas no use trying.
So screw along became the song,
And screwing still the creed is ;
In bumpers true we drink the screw,
And England's Archimedes.
His work is done—his laurel's won—
And, sung through every nation,
The name of Smith must be forthwith
The wide world's admiration.
Philosophy, with Vacant eye,
Is lost in silent wonder;
And theory says, "
Really I
I'm screw'd,.and I knock under."
So screw along shall be the song,
For screwing now the creed is;
In bumpers true we drink the screw,
And England's Archimedes.
Then myriads flocked to see the ark
That held the screw so tightly ;
And Beauty came to bless the bark
That crossed the wave so lightly ;
And bright blue eyes lit up the decks,
Afraid no more of losses,
And screws were hung on ladies' necks,
And worn instead of crosses.
So screw along is still the song,
And screwing now our creed is :
With Europe's fame is wreathed the name
Of England's Archimedes.

.The children belonging to Hackin's-hey daily schools, hi
connection with St. Paul's Church in this town, underwent
the half-yearly examination in their knowledge of scripture
and scriptural truths on Wednesday last. There were seve-
ral ladies present, and the parents of many of the children
attended. The Rev..l. N. Peill conducted the examination,
and addressed, at considerable length, the persons present on
the chapters of the Bible repeated by the children : thus do
the occasional examinations of these schools become in a
manner opportunities for the religious improvement of the
parents, as well as of the children.

Upwards of 20,000 barrels of potatoes and 15,000 barrels
of Foreign wheat have been imported into Wexford in the
last two months.

'ME MAYOR'S GRAND EISTEEDrOD ENTER-
TAINMENT.

Last evening the worshipful the mayor, Joshua Walmslei,
Esq., as, in days of old, the princes and nobiemen of Wales
used to do, gave a grand entertainment in the magnificent
suite of rooms in the Town-hall, to the leading parties in
this national celebration. Among those invited we noticed—
The Mayor of Chester, the Clerk of Chester, the Clerk of
Liverpool, Hon". Lloyd Iviostyn, Captain Denham, R.N.,
F.R.S., consulting marine surveyor, Rev. D. James. secre-
tary to. the Eisteddfod," Rev. H. Parry, Rev. Archdeacon
Williams, Rev. E. Evans, Dr. Hughes, General Sir Love
Parry, Rev. J. Jones, Rev. R. Davies, Rev. J. Jones, Rev.
Rev. Bowstead, H. Hornby, Esq., Sir John Srlisbury,
Rev. David Roberts, Thomas Dick Lauder, Samuel Sand-
bach, of Woodland; Rev. R. Williams, Mr. Cyrus Morrall,
Mr. Shell, Rev. Henry Jones, Rev. T. Price, Mr. H.
Holmes, &c., &c.

There were harpers and minstrels present from both North
and South Wales, which reminded ns of the days of yore,
when, in the halls of Llewellyn and Glyndwr, they urged
their heroes to war and to victory.
The dinner was provided by Mr. Towers, of the Angel
Hotel, in his usual style of excellence ; and to the great
delight of the party, there was introduced, with a flourish
from the trumpet by men in the olden Beefeaters dress, a
baron of beef, according -to the old baNnical custom. Mr.
Towers also provided in great abundance all the delicacies
of the season.-
Among the toasts were—' May the Welsh Language last
till the end of the world."—" The Queen, Go! bless her."
" Prince Albert—" The Mayor of Liverpool"—The Welsh
Bishops and Bishop of Chester"" The Army, and the
Duke of Wellington"—" The Navy," to which Captain Den-
ham ably replied.
The following glees were sung by the parties named in
most excellent style, and all of them were encored:—
Glee—" Trowch y Ta.nt," arranged by Mr. Parry, sung by
Mr. J. Thomas. and his pupils, Mr. Win. Morgan, Mrs.
Ann Rees, and Miss Jane Watkins.
Glee—" Sir Harri Ddu," arraned by J. Thomas, sung
by Mr. Thomas, Mr. Wm. Morgan, Mrs. Ann Rees, and
Miss Jane Watkins.
" Hob y Deri," a Iluet, arranged by Parry, sung by Mr.
Wrn. Morgan and Mrs. Ann Rees Mos Bich).
Glee—" Serch Hudol," arranged by J. Thomas, and sung
by him, Mr. Wm. Mogan, Mrs. An Rees, and Miss Jane
Watkins.

The meeting separated about twelve, after having spent a
most delightful evening.

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

RIBBONISM IN IRELAND, ENGLAND, AND
SCOTLAND.
(Prom the Standard.)

We have copied from the Dublin Evening Mail a
startling, but to us not surprising, account of the ar-
rest of fourteen ribbon delegates in the town of Balli-
namore, in the county of Leitrim. These include de-
legates front nine different counties in Ireland, one
from Scotland, and one from England.
This, we should suppose, is tolerable evidence of
the existence of the conspiracy which has been so
stoutly denied by the allies of the ribbonmen at the
press. Perhaps we shall now be told that these four-
teen delegates are mere creations of the Standard's
imagination, or hear some one of the thousand civil
sneers with which our incredulous contemporaries have
been in the habit of complimenting us.
It will not, however, be so easy to sneer away the
evidence furnished by these arrests although we have
little doubt that much of that evidence will be sup-
pressed. Were the Irish government now to act ho-
nestly and vigorously, we are satisfied that they have the
means of laying bare to the public the entire of the
murderous and treasonable conspiracy which for years
has•stained Ireland with blood, and endangers at this
moment the peace, if not the existence. of the empire.
We cannot, of course, pretend to say that the papers
actually found with the arrested delegates disclose the
entire plot; on the contrary, judging from the usual
tactics on which the affairs of the conspiracy are ma-
naged, we are almost sure that they do not. The great
secret of the policy of ribbonisrn is to keep each grade
of the conspiracy in total ignorance of the superior
machinery of the confederation. But at the same time
we are satisfied that if Lord Ebrington's government
chose to follow up with
.sincerity and vigour the clue
which the present discovery must have afforded them,
they have it in their power to arrive at last at the know-
ledge of the mysterious head of this formidable orga-
nisation, and crush it for ever.

•
That they will do so we do not expect. The dis-
closures which would necessarily follow such an in-
quiry would be of all others the most inconvenient to
ministers. Not only would they pronounce the se-
verest condemnation on their past Irish polio•, and
rouse the honest indignation of the British people
against its authors, but they might perhaps compro-
mise the personal safety of some whom ministers could
not well spare. Our readers have not yet perhaps for-
gotten the affidavits which we published some years
since in the Standard. We confess we look for a re-

petition of the policy of suppression which has been
always pursued by the Whigs in relation to this ribbon
conspiracy—a policy never perhaps more acted in than
the trial of Keenan. by the present Lord Plunkett in
1825.

Justice obliges us to add that this policy could not
have been persevered in if the conservatives had done
their duty. We have the best reason to speak of the
strange disinclination among men of all parties to in-
quire into this conspiracy. The disinclination is not
new. There is the natural reluctance in the human
mind to believe in the existence of such monstrous and
wide-spread wickedness as the supposition of a general
murderous confederacy involves; it requires, too, the
effort of a strong mind to realise to itself the secret
existence of a mysterious society of which no clear in-
dications appear on the external surface of society—no
indications, at least, which it does not require close and
cautious investigation to connect with the agency which
produces them. The human mind is ever satisfied
with the easiest and shortest account of any phenome-
non, and we need not say how much easier it is to re-
fer a murder, such as that of Lord Norbury, to the
faithlessness of a servant than to the agency of a so-
ciety of murderers pervading the country. Whatever
may he the cause, certain it is that in all countries and
ages the greatest chance of the success of conspiracies
has been found in this very indisposition of the gene-
rality of mankind to yield assent to even the strongest
circumstantial evidence of their existence.

The incredulity as to the Catiline conspiracy at
Rome was the chief difficulty that Cicero had to en-
counter in crushing it. But for the sagacity and
firmness of Cicero, but for his indifference to the sneers
of the wise conservatives of his day, that incredulity
would have left Rome, at the mercy of the conspirators.
The very same incredulity in 1863 left the Castle of
Dublin, in spite of repeated and disregarded warnings
to the government, almost at the mercy of Emmet and
his associates. While government were laughing at
the men who warned them of the danger, while they
were actually replying to these warnings by boasts of
the tranquility of the country, the conspirators were
butchering the. Chief Justice of Ireland within a few
hundred yards of the spot where the incredulous
Chief Secretary was denying the possibility of insur-
rection. The delay which was occasioned by their
stopping to commit this murder gave time for the
loyalists to rally and save the castle and the country.
Of the existence of a formidable treasonable con-
spiracy, with ramifications in both countries, we should
suppose no rational man can really doubt. We can
only pity those whose wretched avocation obliges them
to affect a doubt which they can scarcely feel. The
ribbon conspiracy can no longer be disregarded. We
believe the time is not far distant when it will make its
presence fearfully known—it is not improbable that
the delegates of the different counties which met at
Ballinamore, were actually discussing, the propriety, or
forming the plan of a general insurrection, an insur-
rection of which certainly•the loyalty of the Protestant
people of Ireland would make short work—but at
what expense of valuable life we dread to think. It
Lord •Ebrington now does not exterminate this mur-
derous conspiracy, and if a sanguinary massacre break
out, he will be in the sight of God and man responsible
for the blood that will be shed—a responsibility the
most fearful of all those that whig policy entails upon
him. The spoliation of the Protestant church is bad
enough ; so is the encouragement of traitors ; a con-
nivance at plans for the murder of loyalists is a step
beyond them both, although a step in the same direc-
tion. " Sint sane quoniain ita se mores halient
liberales ex sociorum fortunis ; sint misericordes in
furibus wrarii ; sanguinem nostrum illis largiantur."

The Sheridan brought the following passengers :—Mrs.,
Miss, and Mr. H. W. Moncure, Richmond, Virginia ; Mr.,
Miss, Miss C., Mr. A., and Mr. W. Van Rensselaer, Mrs.
De Pcyster and two children, Mr. W. B. and Mr. A. C.-
Binniger, Mr. S. J. Spence, Mr. S. L. Schrage, Mr. L. C.
Motz, Mr. J. H. Hansler, and Mr. A. Graham, New York;
Mr. H., Mrs. Mary, Miss, and Master J. H. Messchert, and
Miss M. Griffith, Philadelphia ; Mr. and Miss Shirreff,
London; Mr. Gidney and two children, Manchester; Mr.
Richard Dickson, Norfolk, Virginia ; Mr. J. M'Cance,
Belfast ; J.vlr. B. Blandy, Granville, Ohio ; Mr. J. D. Dutton
and Mr. P. Wilson, Maryland.
PROVIN CI AL MEDICAL SOCIETY.—The annual meeting of
the members of this Society was held at the Legh Arms
Hotel, Newton, yesterday. A reporter from the LIVERPOOL
STANDARD applied for admission, with the view of serving
the objects of the Association by publishing such parts of the
proceedings as might be interesting to the public generallY•
In reply, the Secretaries addressed a note to him, stating that
a reporter had been specially engaged, who was responsible
to the Society, and that, therefore, the services of any other
reporter wc.re declined.
ABOLITION OF TonTunt.—The surest sign of the progress
of civilization is the abandonment of the barbarous practice
of subjecting accused persons to " the torture," in order to
compel them either to plead or confess ; and yet, in this age
of refinement and intellect, how many, either by their igno-
rance or prejudices, impose on themselves prolonged and
excruciating tortures of the worst kind. How many victims
of Gout and Rheumatism endure sleepless nights, and days
of agony, when by a timely recourse to Blair's Pills they Can
insure relief from the most painful of maladies to which
mortality is subject.—See Advt.
A RUSSIAN TABLE D'HOTE.—Every dish at table was
served in the Russian style—not less, 4 dare sav, than one
hundred, and all peculiar to the country. To make the mat-
ter complete, la maitresse d'hotel, dressed in gold embroi-
dery and diamonds, sat at the head of the table, with her
face, neck, and arms painted like a doll. This sort of paint-
ing is a national usage, and has been so ever since Russia
was in existence. Our attendants, to the number of forty,
were bearded men, dressed in yellow, purple, and parti-co-
loured shirts, tucked up at the wrists, so as to leave half of
their arms naked, and without coats or waistcoats. There
was a boy who played on the organ, and who, for the per-
mission to do so, paid the master of the tavern several hun-
dred rubles a-year, which shows how much the tavern WS'frequented, and how music here is considered a neceoarryo- our
life. After coffee, a group of gipsies was brought f
as
hmouusledme
re,nat
n,
ddwreistshedea
ear-rings
n_rigngolsdfobrimvecdadoefd
vsahraioAuiss
c onHoonwe
the dancing figures of trcu a-
calling to one's recollection ,otleds.
iii:h(ancles,
beautifully they danced the Bohemian and Egyp
ti
neum 1-3,feinaire of the Princess Duehkorv.