The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-04-27 00:00:00

The Nationztr contains a paragraph which asserts that the
telegraph transmitted from the Srrasburgh on Thursday a report
that the King of Prussia was at the point of death..
CHINA —Aecordin, to accounts from Canton to the 2d_ofJa-
nuaty, another edict had been issued by the governor respect-
ing the opium smugglers, who are menaced to be made exam-
ples of. Business was said to be proceeding.very
STATE OF THAI/E.—There was a decided appearance of im-
provement in our market yesterday. The demand for yarns,
and for most descriptions of printing cloths, was better than for
some weeks past; and a trifling advance on previous rates was,
iu some cases, realised. The general opinion appeared to be,
that prices have at length seen their lowest, and there was con-
sequently a much more healthy feeling than has prevailed for
sou►e considerable time.—Manchester Guardian.

THE. IRON TRADE.-At the late quarterly meeting of the
ironmasters, it was determined that there should not be any ad-
vance in the price of iron for the ensuing quarter. Although
the demand st►ll continues good, it was thought more advisable
to continue at the present prices than to attempt an advance.
A banquet will be given by the Goldsmith's Company on.
Saturday next at their splendid hall to the Duke of Wellington,
Sir R. Peel, Bart., Lord Lyndhurst, and a numerous circle of
conservative noblemen. Alderman Copeland will preside on
the occasion.

QUICK TRAVELLING.—We understand that the carriage of
Sir Edward Mostyn, of Talacre, left London, per railroad tc.
Hartford, at half-past six o'clock on the morning of Tuesday:
last; and at halt past four the same afternoon, it was standing
before the Royal Hotel, in this city.—Chester Gazette.
CHESTER CHEESE FAIR.—The attendance in both the balls
yesterday of factors, from every part of the United Kingdom,
was numerous ; and the quantity of cheese pitched exceedet
that of any other fair we have witnessed. The greatest portion
was sold at prices loner than last fair, the first quality averaging
625. per cwt.; middling, 545. per cwt.: and skim, 40s. 4y cwt.—
Chester Gazette.
CHESHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—It is with feelings of
great satisfaction that we learn that the " Chief of Men" are
bestirring themselves in forming an Agricultural Society in this
county. A committee has been formed, and several influential
persons have already given in their names as subscribers. Im
whatever light we view this undertaking, it appears to us, above
all other things, best calculated to promote the interests of the
landowner and farmer, and therefore it shall meet with our
hearty endeavours to promote its formation and establishment.
Chester Gazette.

PREVENTION OF SMOKE.—Although an Act of Parliament
has been for some years in force, making it imperative on the
proprietors of steam-engines to construct their furnaces so as to
consume the smoke they occasion, yet, up to the present time,
but little progress has been made in effecting this object; it is
true that the evil has been mitigated in several instances, by the
application of partial improvements; but as very much remaims
to be done to remove effectually a so great a nuisance, we learn
with pleasure that Mr. Ivesou, manager of the silk mills lately
erected in the vicinity of this city, has at leng'h discovered a
method so efficient, that even when additional fuel is put into
the fire no smoke whatever can be perceived to issue from the
chimney top. 11 also combines the advantage of a considerable
saving in the consumption of coal, an important object to all
large manufactories and the proprietors of steam-boats. We
trust that the public as well as the patentee will soon reap the
benefit of his invention.—Edinburgh Paper.
EFFECT OF MIRAGE NEAR MARSEILLES.—I have already
remarked a very singular effect of mirage since my arrival here.
These rocks, which are at a considerable distance from us, seem
occasionally, on a bright evening, to approach sufficiently near
to enable a strong man to hurl &stone against them. There is
something strikingly majestic and solemn in their aspect at
these moments. You almost expect that they will move on-
ward until they overwhelm you; and this delusion is encourag-
ed by the fact, that you can then trace every chasm and fissured
with the utmost distinctness, although at other times you see
only a huge and frowning mass too distant to allow you to dis-
tinguish any of its details.—Miss Pardee's The River and the
Desert.

The marriage of Miss Stephens with the Earl of Essex may
be looked upon as a sort of theatrical event. It has been an-
nounced as having taken place on Thursday, but a rumour of s
private union was current at least three weeks or a month ago,
and it was then stated, as now, that the noble Earl had settled
a very handsome income upon bis new countess—some say
£3,000 and others £5,000 a year. We do not know how the
public is concerned in these private arrangements, and we have
made no inquiry as to the truth of one statement ur the other.
The late Lady Essex was in very bad health for many years,
and it has been long known that, if she died before the Earl,
his lordship would raise Miss Stephens to a rank fur which she
is well qualified by the possession of all the virtues which make
private life respectable. She has considerable property of her
own, and, if we are not misinformed, she has already provided..
for her nearest relatives.—Observer.

At a Bible Society Meeting of the Exeter Ladies' Associa
tion, held at the Friends' Meeting-house, a most interesting
specimen of what may be attained by perseverance was exhi-
bited, namely, of a pour blind girl who had been taught to read
by her fingers ; and, to the astonishment of all present, after
only six weeks' instruction, she read two verses from the third
chapter of St. John, not taken in rotation, but promiscuously.
It appears that a Christian lady of Heavitree, out of sympathy
to the blind, taught herself the method of instruction invented
by a Bristol gentleman, (Mr. Lucas,) and has undertaken to
follow up her benevolent intentions at least for three months,
by a daily attendance of some hours in Paragon-ylace, South-
street, Exeter, to give lessons to persons labouring under the
privation of the blessing of sight. By an application to the pa-
rent Bible Society. a grant has been made of several copies of
the Gospel of St. John, printed with a raised or embossed type,
for the use of the blind. It appears to be a
,very costly publica-
tion, and occupying considerably more space than the ordinary
type and Roman character, the single Gospel of St. John being
of the size of a large pica Testament.—Plymouth Journal.

REMARKABLE CH ANGES.—The Swedish city of Gottenburg
is built principally of stone from Aberdeen, and it is a well-known
fact that the dust-heap which was wont to grace the to of Gray's
Inn Lane is now a component part of the city of Moscow, to
which it was exported as a material for brick-making, after the
conflagration of that city. Greater changes than these are daily
brought about b • our extended commerce. The first mile out
of London and ingsland Road is actually macadamized with
i
Chinese stdne ; fart which appears incredible until it is ex-
plained that the material was-brought over in the shape of bal-
last in the ships of the East India Company, and disposed of to
the road-contractor at a cheap rate. In return for this, it is said
that the Chinese are indebted for a part of the materials for their
porcelain to the English ships, which take out in a similar way
the fine chalk of Northtleet and its neighbourhood, which is
found to be particularly well suited for the purposes of the manu-
factures of the Celestial Empire.—Mechanics' Magazine.

ARRIVAL OF THOMAS WILLIAMS, ES9.—On Wednesday
evening week, Thomas Williams, Esq., arrived at the Penrhyu
Arms, Bangor, (on his way to Brynbras Castle,) where he was
joined by Mrs. Williams next morning, and throughout the day
they received the congratulations oft their friends. On his de-
parture, he was escorted out of town by a considerable con-
course of the populace, by whom his progress was loudly cheer-
ed. Flags were exhibited from some of the windows. In Car-
narvon his reception was of a more 'enthusiastic description.
having been met near the hotel by the populace, woo took the
horses out from ihe carriage and drew it to the Sportsman
Hotel, amidst loud hums, waving of handkerchiefs, firing of
guns, &c. Here Mr. Williams addressed the crowd, thanking
them for their reception. Cheers were then given for MU..
Williams and her servants, which were courteously acknow-
ledged by the lady and her maid, Ellen Evans, after which the
procession set out for Brynbras Castle.—Chester Gazette.
GASEOUS STATE OF THE EARTH.—Though the mind, unac-
customed to philosophical inquiries, may find it difficult to com-
prehend the idea that this planet once existed in a gaseous state
this difficulty will vanish upon considering the nature of the
changes that all the materials of which it is composed must con-
stantly undergo. Water offers a familiar example of a substance
existing on the surface of the • globe, in the separate states of
rock, fluid, and vapour, for water consolidated into ice is as
much a rock as granite or the adamant; and, as we shall here-
after have occasion to remark, has the power of preserving for
ages the animals and vegetables that may be therein imbedded.
Yet, upon an increase of temperature, the glaciers of the Alps,
and the icy pinnacles of the arctic circles, disappear; and, by a
degree of heat still higher, might be resolved into vapour; and
by other agencies might be separated into two invisible gases—
oxygen and hydrogen. Metals may in like manner be converted
into gases; and in the laboratory of the chemist all kinds of
matter easily pass through every grade of transmutation, from
the most dense and compact to an aeriforna state. We canuo't
therefore refuse our assent to the conclusion, that the entire of
our globe might be resolved into a permanently gaseous form,
merely by the dissolution of the existing combinations of matter.
—Maniell's Wonders of Geology.

WHITEWASHING EXTRAORDINARY.—The Rev. Mr. Wil-
liams, whose return to the South Seas was noticed a few days
ago, gives, in one of his narratives, a laughable account of the
effect produced on the natives of one of the islands by a success-
ful attempt which he made to coovert the coral of their shores
into lime. After having langhed at the process of burning,
which they believed to be to, cook the coral for food, what was
their astonishment when in the morning they found the mis-
sionary's cottage glittering in the rising sun white as snow !
They danced, they sang, they shouted, they screamed for joy.
The whole island was soon in commotion, given up to wonder
and curiosity. The 7.ion ion immediately voted the whitewash a.
-
cosmetic and a Kr,:iydor, and superlatively happy did many a
swarthy coquett:a consider herself could she but enhance her
charms by a (I.ab of the white blush. And now party spirit ran
high, as it %/ill do in mote civilized countries, as to who was or
who was not entitled to preference. One party urged their su-
perior rank and riches; a second had got the brush, and were
netrAmined at all events to keep it; and a third tried to over-
ti.an the whole, that they might obtain some of the sweepings:
They even did not scruple to rob each other of the little share
that some had been so happy as to procure. But, soon new.
lime was prepared, and in a week not a hut, a domestic utensil,
a war-club, or a garment, but was white at SIIOW Ito%
bitant but what had his skin painted with the tr.ost grotesque,
figures ; not a pig but what was similarly whitA,ed;, 444 even,
mothers might be seen in every direction
as faun-
-3,,y themselves
Their c-4r,oriag witti,extra y-.
vagant gestures, and yelling with delight. At thea4vpdor beauty,
of their whitewashed infants.
THE ENGLISH
IW
YEoAN.—Ttonte is no clas&ofonen, if times.,
are but tolerably good, that e,,
ers ; they are little kings; an much'
'
a corner, as those of the,w
to Qou4erns.are nut huddled into,
tradestnen are. In town manya
man who turns thou,,auds of poundspar week is hemmed in;
close by buildins:s,.
and cuts no figure at all. A narrow shop.,
a contracted w.„,rehouse,
in, on any baud, without without au inch of room besides to turn a, yard,.an out-house, 'or stable, of any
descriptiurf, perhaps heisted aloft up three or four pair of dirty;
stairs, is all theroont the wealthy tradesman often eau bless him-'
self with; and there, day after day, mouth after month, year
alter year, he is found, like a rat in a hole in a wall, or a toad,
in the heart of a stone or a oak tree. Spring and summer and;
autumn go round, sunshine and flowers spread over the w0r.14„
the sweetest breezes blow, the sweetest waters murraor a,1,64g
. the vales; but they ale all lost upon him t. he is a prisemer of
Mammon and so he lives and dies. The farmer would. not take
the wealth of the world on such terms his concerns, however
smalk set ead. themselves out in pleasant amplitude, both to his
eye and heart; his house stands in his own pleasant solitude ;
his office and out-houses stand around extensively, without any
stubbern and limiting contraction; his acres stretch over every
hill and vale; there his flocks and herds are feeding, there his
' labourers are toiling; be is kind and sole commander there ; be
lives amongst the purest air, and most delicious quiet. Often
when I see those healthy, hardy, full-grown sons of the soil
going out of town, I envy, them the freshness and the repose of
the sports which they are going to. Ample. old-fashioned.
kitchens with their chitaney corners of true projecting-beamed
and seated construction still remaining; blazing tires in win-
ter, shining on suspended hams and flitches. Guns supported
on hooks above; dogs basking on the hearth below. Cool
shady parlours in summer, with open windows, and odours from
garden and shrubbery blowing in. Gardens wet with the purest
dews, and humming at noontide with bees; and the green fields,
and verdaons trees, or deep woodlauds, lying all around, where:
an hundred rejoicing voices of birds or other creatures are heard,
and windS blowing to and fro full of health, and life, and enjoY
went. liow enviable do such places seem to be to the fretted •
spirits of towns, who are compelled not only to
,bear the burtheu
of cares, but to eater daily into public strife against selfish,
evil, and over spreading corruption. --liewOrr Book of the
kleasois.