The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-03 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.-It iS DOW thought tha
parliament will not rise till the 10th or 15th of August.

ADMIRAL TATHAM.—We are at length enabled to an-
nounce that Friday next the 3d August is positively fixed for
Admiral Tatham's entry upon his patrimonial estate.—Lan-
caster Guardian.

LANCASTER Assizxs.—these assizes will commence on
Saturday next, August 4th. There are very few prisoners for
trial, principally for petty offences. The judges appointed to
this circuit are, as we have already stated, Baron Alderson
and Justice Williams.

The Birmingham grand dahlia show, which is open to all
England, is fixed for the 12th and 13th of September next.
Nearly £lOO will be awarded in prizes; the first prize is to be
a splendid silver cup. This show is looked forward to by grow-
ers from various parts, and thec ompetition will no doubt be
considerable.

ROCHDALE PARISH Cituacx.—lt has been a long esta-
blished custom, at this place of worship, to keep hearses for
the purpose of letting them out to hire. These vehicles have
generally been purchased and kept in repair by monies raised
in the shape of church rates from the parishioners. The low-
est charge that is made for the use of one of these hearses is
sixpence; others of a more showy kind are rated higher, in
proportion to their original cost or quality. This year, for
the first time, the hearses have been made chargeable to the
assessed taxes; and the churchwardens have been called upon
for the payment of the tax, but have resisted the demand. By
this decision of the wardens, the collectors of the assessed
taxes must now either levy upon the hearses for the money
claimed, or forego their dernaud.—Manchester Guardian,
Wednesday.
-

ATTWOOD V. THE BRITISH IRON Co AIPANY.—This cause
excited considerable interest, and came on for trial lastweek,
at Stafford assizes. It was an action brought by Mr. John
Attwood against the British Iron Company, to recover interest
upon the purchase money of the Congre ayes estate. Mr
Sergeant Wilde was specially retained for the plaintiff, and
Sir William Follett for the British iron Company. It ap-
peared that the British Iron Company had paid Mr. Attwood
the simple interest upon the purchase money secured to him
by his contract with them ; but that, in consequence of some
delay in the payment of that interest, Mr. Attwood consi-
dered himself entitled to recover interest upon interest. The
question, therefore, fur the court to decide was, whether the
conduct of the British Iron Company towards Nlr. Attwood,
bad been such as to entitle bins to receive the interest which
he sought to obtain. The court, as well as the jury, were of
opinion that Mr. Attwood had failed to make out his case
against the company, and was not,i therefore, entitled to a
verdict.

A CUNNING ROGUE.—A clerk, going down Wall-street to
make a deposit, had his bank-book peering and peeping from
his coat pocket; while he stopped to gaze at the numerous ca-
ricatures near the new custom-house. A well-dressed rogue
came up behind him quietly, and, while winking and smiling
to the mob, and inviting them by signs to look at a neat trick,
•he slipped the bank-book out of the pocket of the clerk, took
oat the notes, and returned the book to the pocket without
disturbing the clerk, who was still gazing at the pictures.
The byestanders, believing him to be an intimate friend of
the clerk, were highly tickled at the trick, and laughed and
chuckled at the anticipated surprise of the clerk. The rogue
walked slowly a-head, turned smilingly to the crowd, put his
finger to his lips to enjoin silence, and actually disappeared
with a large sum in bank notes, thus obtained openly, while
hundreds were looking on. No one knew who he was, nor
has the money been recovered. It was a bold and yet most
dexterous robbery.—American paper.
COST OF MR. MAGA ULEY'S INDIAN CODE.—However pro-
blematical the success of the attempt to frame a code of laws
for India, the expense is quite certain, and also certain to be
enormous. We shall attempt to estimate it. The Legisla-
tive Councillor, or President of the Law Commission, besides
£l2OO for passage money, has £lO,OOO. a year. Each of four
members has £5000.; and there is a Secretary with £3000,
which in bare salaries is £33,000. per annum. Then come
house-rent, office-rent, clerks, stationery, and printing, which,
to be within bounds, we shall only estimate at £7OOO. Here
then is a net annual expenditure of £40,000. Let the ex-
pense be first tested by "the penal code." The proposition
of the mere project,—for it is not yet law, and most likely
never will be,—took, as is stated by the Commissioners them-
selves, two years and two months. The project of the penal
code, then, cost upwards of £86,000.; every one of its twenty
six chapters cost upwards of £3300.; every octavo page of it
near £1300.; every clause of it £177.; every line of it on an
average £26.; every word in it a couple of guineas. Draco's
code was said to be written in letters of blood; without the
least reference to the merits or demerits of Mr. Macaulay's,
it may be said to have been written in letters of gold.
NEW ORDER OF " TERTOTALISTS.'!—The Warrington
police committee have issued an edict, forbidding any of their
officers drinking spirituous or other intoxicating liquors,
while in the discharge of their duty. No doubt the order ori-
ginates from the best of motives, but it is one that will be
frequently broken. A man who is a drunkard is unfit for the
duties of a constable, yet some allowances ought to be made,
as officers frequently over a glass of ale obtain information
which they cannot get in any other way. Friend Crosfield's
plan of paying the landlord for giving information to the police
or assisting in bringing delinquents to justice twopence for
the use of a room cannot, if put to practice, be looked upon in
any other way than a very complimentary act towards the
whole body of licensed victuallers. In all probability, the
effect of the new rule, if rigorously carried into force, will be
the placing _of the police under the thumb of the publicans, in-
stead of making them, as they ought to be, the terror to all
except those who conduct their houses properly, and keep
proper hours. It is at all times desirable to prevent crime,
but, in the police,
_ the "detective as well as the preventive"
powers must lie brought into play.
A bill is at present passing through the house of commons,
for altering the duties of customs on Amboyna wood, apples,
pears, cherries, chip hats, &c. Its object, in some cases, seems
to be to change an ad valorem into a fixed duty, by weight or
number, or vice versa. In other cases the rate is altered.
The duty on asphaltum, for instance, is reduced from £4 per
ton to ls.; on cochineal, from £2 16s. per cwt. to ls. On
cherries, the duty is changed from 18s. Bd. per cwt. to 5 per
cent. on the value ; on pears, from 7s. 6d. per bushel to 5 per
cent. ; on tulip wood, from 21) per cent. to £2 per ton. Al-
terations of this kind, which have been made to a lesser or
greater extent almost every session, show the attention paid
by Mr. Poulett Thomson to the constantly changing phases
of trade Asphaltum, for instance, was used formerly only
for some few few purposes, with which a heavy duty would
not materially interfere; 'Jut it has recently been employed
in Paris, in combination with lime, to pave footways, and
even horse-paths, and is found to answer admirably. Half a
score of companies have, in consequence, been formed in
London, to pave streets with these materials; but it was, of
course, essential to the success of the improvement, that the
enormous duty of £4 on asphaltum should be abolished or
greatly reduced. It has accordingly been reduced to Is. per
ton, which may be considered as merely nominal. The high
duty has never yielded £l,OOO per annum.—Whig paper.
THE LONDON ANDBIRMINgIiAM RAILROAD —The di

.erence of the level between London and Birmingham is
215 feet; to obviate which, there is a gradual ascent of road
from London, of about sixteen feet in a mile, or one-tenth
of an inch in a yard. The total lei,gth of the line is
114 miles. The width of the railway, on the embank-
ment, is twenty-eight feet, and in the excavations thirty
feet, the addititionat two feet being allowed for drainage.
The line is furnished with two pair of rails, laid down with a
space of six feet between each pair. The rails are divided
into lengths of fifteen feet each, and weighing from three to
three and a .half cwt. The total weight of the rails and
chairs which support the rails are frequently inserted into
Kyanized sleepers, or beams of timber, where the line is em-
banked; but in excavations, the chairs are alway inserted in
stone blocks, of which there are 21J0,000, of four cubic feet
each, and 75,000, of cubic feet stone, weighing together
about 105,000 tons. 'There is also stone used in the con-
struction of bridges .and stations, the weight of which it is
almost impossible.correctiv to ascertain. In the coure of the
line there are seven tunnels, three tunnel bridges, 125 brick
bridges of one arch, twenty brick bridges of three arches,
and one bridge of two arches—making altogether, across the
route of the line, 150. The width of the embankments at
the base varies according to their height, two feet of base
being allowed fur one foot of perpendicular. The quantity
of earth excavated is abOut sixteen millions of square yards.
—Wyld's Guide.
LIABILITY OF RAILWAY PROPRIETORS.—At the York
Assizes, last week, a gentleman named Vint brought' an
action against the proprietois of the Leeds and Selby Rail-
way, under the following circumstances:—On the 6th of
September, 1836, the plaintiff secured a place by the railway
from Leeds to Selby, in one of the third-class carriages,
which are open at the sides. He left with the morning train,
which proceeded as far as the first station in safety. The
plaintiff had taken his seat in the fourth carriage from the
engine. The rate of travelling at first was about twenty-five
miles an hour, but the pace was slackened as they got near
the station. At this place there are two or three lines of
rads. The engine took one of the lines, but owing to some
error or obstruction in the switches or rails, the tender took
a wrong line. The consequence was that the engine and
tender parted, the carriages being attached to the latter.
The first three carriages were overturned, and the fourth, in
which the plaintiff was seated, came with such violent force
against the third carriage, that the plaintiff was thrown out
between the carriages. One of his feet was caught, and was
so dreadfully bruised and injured, that the surgeons, on ex-
amining it, advised immediate amputation as the only chance
of saving his life. The plaintiff, however, was averse to this
remedy, and had recourse to other advice, and he slowly
recovered, but will be lame for life—one leg being consider-
ably shorter than the other. He was cohfined to his bed for
many weeks, and was for eight or nine months unable to
attend his business. For the defence it was contended that
the plaintiff had himself to blame for the injuries he had re-
ceived. All the other passengers, it vs as stated, escaped
without hurt by keeping their seats; but the plaintiff, it was
alleged, in his agitation leaped out of the carriages, and in
that way was injured as stated.—The jury found for the
plaintiff—damages, £4OO.
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RAILWAY 'CARRIAGE. Electro-
magnetism promises to become the most important scientific
discovery that has hitherto been rendered subservient to the
wants of man. 'Eighteen years have scarcely elapsed since
Professor Oersted discovered the effect of an electric current
on the magnetic needle—which discovery first directed atten-
tion more particularly to the connection subsisting between
electricity and magnetism—and we have already two impor-
tant contrivances depending on the action of this principle,
each of which is calculated to produce momentous improve-
ments in the means of communication; the one almost
brought to perfection, and the other in a promising state of
advancement. The electro-magnetic telegraph, now exhi-
biting in Exeter Hall, we have previously noticed, as an-
swering most completely the object in view, nor does there
seem any obstacle to its being immediately put into operation
on an extended scale. The in,vention we have now to notice
is a locomotive engine, propelled by the same power. As
soon as the means of cominunicating a rotatory motion by
the action of electro-magnetism were discovered, numerous
scientific men directed their attention to the subject, with a
view to apply this power as a substitute for steam ; but the
very minute distance to which the attractive power of electro-
magnets extends operated, and continues to operate, as a
serious obstacle to their labours. It was at length announced,
that Mr. Davenport, a mechanist of the United States, had
constructed an engine of one-horse power, worked by electro-
magnetism. This statement was regarded for some time with
little credit, though much interest was excited respecting the
merits of the invention. Mr. Davenport has at length grati-
fied the curiosity of the English sceptics to a certain extent,
by sending over a model of a locomotive engine, which is now
exhibiting at the Adelaide Gallery, in the Lowther Arcade,
worked on the same principle as his larger stationary engines.
This carriage runs on a circular railway, and draws after it
two other carriages, which move by the aid of two small
galvanic batteries, at the rate of about three miles an hour.
The weight thus propelled is nearly 801 b., and the carriage
containing the apparatus is about one foot square. The
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secret for the present; btit the principle on which the appli-
cation of the power depends is weil known, and the chief
superiority in Mr. Davenport's invention consists in his
having, by some peculiar contrivance, brought into exercise
a greater amount of power within a given space and weight,
than has been hitherto accomplished. Though we do not
anticipate that Mr. Davenport's invention, as exhibited in
the working model, would be found applicable on a large
scale, with any practical advantage, yet what he has accom-
plished is sufficient to show that important results may be
expected from future improvements in the application of the
same principle. We are informed by an American gentle-
man, who has recently arrived in gnglancl, that he wit-
nessed a two-horse-power electro-magnetic engine, of Mr.
Davenport's construction, employed in
printing a newspaper
at New York, and that it performed the work most satisfac-
torily. Whether or not, however, this was done at a cheaper
rate than the same power might be obtained from steam, we
were not able to ascertain.—London Paper.