The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-03 00:00:00

CHESHIRE AND WALES.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the
week ended December 25, 1853 :—Railway : Passengers,
parcels, &c., £2,223 2s. 6d.; goods, £1,671 2s. 31.;
Steam-boats £341 17s. 4d. Total, £4,236 2s. id. In-
crease as compared with the corresponding week last year,
£81,6 12s. 9d.
TrEE ANNIVERSARY DINNER of the Woodside Ferry-
men's Benefit Club was held on Monday last week at the
Liverpool Arms, Birkenhead. The president, Air. John
Shipton, occupied the chair, and about forty of the mem-
bers and their friends sat down. The wives and sweet-
hearts of the party having been soon after introduced,
dancing was kept up with great spirit until " rosy morn."
SINGULAR CIRCUXISTANCE.—A few days since a gen-
tleman at Birkenhead was presented with a cow's tongue,
which appeared to be perfect in every respect. After
being boiled, he discovered a piece of sandstone embedded
in the tongue, about three quarters of an inch in length,
half an inch in width, and a quarter of an inch in thick-
ness. _ _ _ . _

CREEVELEA. IRON MrivEB.—On Thursday thirty tons of
pig iron, the produce of the mines, were delivered at the
Ballast quay, for shipment to Liverpool. This is the first
delivery of ironr,by the company, as the preparatory labours
were of a most extensive and arduous nature, but the
mines are in full working order, and as the supply of iron
ore is unlimited, the shipments may, we learn, be expected
shortly to reach two or three hundred tons a week.—Sligo
Chronicle. -

CHRIST CIIIIREIf, CLATIGIITON, Rev. Dr. Blakeney in-
cumbent, was purchased in April, 1853, for £3,700, to be
paid for in a limited period, to be vested in five lay trus-
tees. By the strenuous efforts of the congregation about
£2,500 has been subscribed to 31st ult. It was proposed
b; a member of the congregation that the offertory on the
Ist instant, with collections at the doors, should be for the
liquidation of the debt ; the result of this appeal is the
handsome sum of £313 Os. 7d. Before the church can be
consecrated, about £1,200 more will be required ; it is
therefore hoped that the friends of evangelical truth in
Liverpool will assist by their contributions to liquidate
this amount during the present year.—Correspondent.
SNOWSTORM IN THE WEST.—Winter has set in with
extreme rigour in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Mon-
moqthshire, and South Wales, and at the present moment
the ground is covered with snow to the depth of nearly a
fa .. The snow been to fall on Tuesday, and continued
without intermission until night. It was accompanied by
a biting north wind, which increased occasionally on
Tuesday and Wednesday to a brisk breeze, and has drifted
the snow considerably in exposed places. Tuesday night
was fine, and the thermometer has been ever since Mon-
day night several degrees below the freezing point, and
the sunshine on Wednesday made no impression upon the
snow. The toad traffic is much impeded, but the railways
are clear, though the slipperiness of the rails and the
usual incidents of severe weather have caused the trams
to be generally beyond their proper time.
CLEVION TO DRUGGISTS.—An inquest was held at'the
Caledonian Inn, Birkenhead, on Wednesday, on the 'body
of Hannah Ray, eleven weeks old, the child of a farmer,
residing in Cathcart-street. The infant was ill on Satur-
day-and Sunday, and was attended by Mr. Vale, surgeon,
who prescribed a medicine to be administered every half-
boar. The servant girl was despatched to the shop of Mr.
iese, Watson-street, where she was supplied'by a female
viith paregoric instead of the powder which she had asked
'for. This medicine was administered to the child, and
'death ensued on Tuesday morning. The: jury returned a
verdict to the effect that The child had died from the
effects of several doses of paregoric, given in *mistake. Mr.
Churton, the coroner, severely animadvertea on the con-
duct of Mr. Rose, in atoning a female, unacquainted with
the Latin names, to dispense drugs.
TERRIFIC RAILWAT ACCIDENT.—The Taff Vale Rail-
way has a branch from -Merthyr to Dow'lais. More than
a mile of this is an inclined plane, rising 400 feet in that dis-
tance. This is worked:by a stationary engine. The officials
on Thursday neglected to attach the rope to the mid-day
passenger train before starting it. It consequently dashed
down the incline'with prodigiously increasing velocity as
it neared the bottom. The guardoleaped off the break soon
after the carriagescommenced their descent, and was un-
injured. None of the passengers were, however, enabled
thus to escape, as they were all loomed in their compart-
ments, and their shrieks while passing along the bridges
over the roads near the town were most appalling. The
branch joins en to the main 'line -at the bottom of the
incline by a sharp curve. The train abandoned the rails
at this spot, leaped clear up into the air a great height, the
carriages separating into shreds, the passengers bring
thrown out, tied, with the dc%bris of the train, falling like
a shower into the Taff river and on the adjoining cinder
tips. Notwithstanding this extraordinary violence, some
of the passengers were enabled to walk away comparatively
unhurt; others are much injured, and two women are
dying —one -having her back broken, and the other a frac-
ture of the skull, besides whiei they are frightfully lace-
rated and almost torn to pieces. Had the train been work&
by a proper break, it could have been brought to a stand,
or, at all events, its speed 'down the incline would have
been so reduced as to avoid the fearful results of the
catastrophe.

A U.ERISTMAS BALANCE-SHEET

(FROM THE HAMM( CHLTECHMAIT.)

IT would be well if, atethis season, we were to prepare,
seriously and individualtez, a Christmas balance-sheet,
which -should exhibit on the one side our duties, ark on
the other our deeds. Spiritually and morally, perhaps, we
shoteld all of us find em-selves nearer to insolvency than
our self-complacency weeild lead us to believe; but the
knowledge of our true position would, or should, exercise
a wholesome influence vea)n our thoughts and actions in
the sensing year.
',dais-glance for a moment at our indebtednessesoeially
speaking, as co-operators of a great community, bound to-
gether by ties of bloodeand race, and language. What do
we owe to it, and whatrZerelictions of duty are chargeable
upon each of us who is 'fortunate enough to possess means,
influence, intelligence, and a recognised position ? We owe
to it the- erialication-Offtrime, ignorance, and titter desti-
tution. It may chargers with having punished all'three,
withaet having first :employed the means of preventing
any. Are the lust,- avarice, malice, cupidity, envy, hatred,
and-revenge of the law-breaker, entirely chargeable -upon i
himself, or have we same participation, as accessories, n
the- &nue ? Have -we :placed within reach of the wrong-
doer,-when he wcs mat accessible to beneficial influences,
the Ministrations of religion, the lessons of morality, the
restraints of education, and the powers of a good example?
Or -have we -establisheifi penal settlements when we ought
to have built churches, erected prisons when we should
have opened schools,' banished poverty to reeking cellars,
undridned courts, aridlever-poisoned alleys, when we Might
here even it a 'cleanly and cheerful home, and have -sur-
rounded it with all 'tie appliances necessary to morality
and health ? If, week after week, we are fated to read-the
hideous details of ' brutalised husbands maltreating their
wivesesith a ferocity-almost incredible, have we no portion
in the -offence ? If such men are brutal, ignbrant,
temperate, what - was their warning ? How were 'they
taught ? Whose was the neglect ? If woman, forgetting
the instincts of maternity, crushes the love of her 'own
offspring out of her breast, and destroys the child of her
bosom gnat she may‘obiein from the burial clubs, in which
death was insured, the means of subsistence, or, more fre-
quently, riotous debauch, are we guiltless of any partici-
pation "-in her appalling crimes ? Follow that red-handed
murderess back to• her :childhood, and ask yourself what
could he hoped from early days so wild, untaught, -audit-
ciplinedeunreguLated, and depraved ? If for many conse-
cutive months, tens -a thousands of operatives abandon
their industrial occupations, and league themselves in an
unwise -combination against their employers, upon whom
they endeavour to impose conditions incompatible with
the permanent prosperity-of either, who is to blame that
these men are ignorant otthose social and politico-econo-
mical laws-which govern the relations of labour and eapinel,
and which, if understood, would prevent them from sub-
sisting in ddleness upon -the industry of their fellow
operatives ?
But this enumeration of the protean forms of crime and
error, in which the intelligent, the influential, and the
well-to-do classes of society lave a copartnership of re-
sponsibility, -might .be indefinitely prolonged. The evil,
in so far as it. affects the- dangerous classes" of the pre-
sent day, is, to-a certain extent, irremediable. Prevention
is too late ; we:-can only ensleavour to reclaim. But for
those who are growing up mound us—the young, the
plastic, and tlielinspressible—we may manifest a thought-
ful care and a prudent foresight, and in that particular
amend our Balance-Sheet another year.
Individually, in-our own households, in our own imme-
diate circle of friends and dependants, in our own sphere
of influence and usefulness, we have also to prepare a
'mance Sheet of deeds and duties. Is there no deficit
here? No difficult -adjustment-of assets and debits ? no
long array of claims Alusettled, audof duties unperformed?
Some duties there are—minor duties. if we like to ac-
count them such—which the season appears to impress
upon us with peculiar force : Compensation , for wrongs
'...nfilicted, for harsh weeds and imehatitable thoughts, the
healing up of old feuds, the magnanimous admission of
,our own error, (whereinsoever we have erred,) and the
frank and generous forgiveness of our enemy, if the fault
rest with him ; help for the destitute, pity for the weak,
sympathy for the solitary, and toleration towards all ;
gentle words of comfort for -those who are in sorrow, a
charitable oblivion of bygone occasions of bitterness, a
moreeigid censure of our own feelings, and the exercise
of a -more kind and lenient judgment -upon those of our
neighbour.
So shall we honour Christmas in a Christian 4pirit, and
so shall -the pealing bells which welcome in the New
Year's birth

A' Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart. the kindlier hand,
Ring out the darkness of the laud,"

110.RTICULTURE.

STOVE, CONSESVA.TOEY, AND GEEENTIOI7SE. The
temperature of these houses should be maintained the
same as indicated in our last. As a matter of course, the
snow will be removed from the tops of the houses. Many
persons allow it to lay on the vine borders, outside the
vineries; this, however, should not be. They ought to be
covered with straw, and over it a tupauline ; but an accu-
mulation of snow would be injurious, when thawing, from
the dampness it would cause ; therefore, the snow, which
slides off the glass roofs, should be removed from the
borders. The Dutch and other bulbs now showing flower
will be much improved by an oeessional watering with
weak, clear. liquid manure. The same may be given to
Camellias, Orange trees, Coronillss, Daphnes, and other
ornamental hard-wooded greenhouse plants now coming
into flower. The snow-fall has, of course; suspended all
out-of-door operations.

PARTS.—The Emperor is anxious to make the Barriere
de l'Etoile the finest entrance to a city which ever existed in
ancient or modern times. It is proposed that the space
around the Etoile shall be traced in a periphery of 172
metres, and the Avenue de Neuilly (situate before the
Etoile) shall receive a breadth of 180 metres, and a length
of 180 metres, up to the arch of the Etoile. This im-
mense space, longer than the former Quarrtr in the
Chumps Elysee, now occupied by the Paris Chrystal Palace,
is to be devoted to public festivals and military manceu-
vres. The present barracks of the &solo Militakeyill be
nlarsgd and CQMPleted•