The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-12-18 00:00:00

SALE OF WOOLLEN GOODS

Y arrangements for entering into the Manu-
facturing Business being now completed, I have to in-
nounce to my friends and the public the disposal of the whole
of my extensive Stock of PLAIN and FANCY WOOLLEN
GOODS, and as the time permitted me of thus offering it for
Sale is limited, I have reduced every article to considerably less
than the Maker's price.
Nearly two-thirds of it has been purchased within the last
three months, and for extent and variety it is superior to any
ever offered in this town.

In respectfully soliciting an early inspection, I feel confident
that the quality of the Goods, and the Reduction in Price that
I have made, will be readily appreciated by both the Trade and
the Public.

Shippers and Wholesale Buyers will find the present such an
opportunity as may not occur again.

J. RICHMOND,
I and 3, PARADISE-STREET,

November 2, 1849

FOREIGN,

The West India mail steamer Dee arrived at Mobile on
the 23d ult., with 1,670,000 dollars for England, 339 bales
cochineal, and 33 bales jalap.
_ _

The Cologne Gazette- announces that the military
governor has suspended six of the evening pap rs during
the continuance of the state of siege. The Presse is one
of the six.
The slavery contest between the Northern and Southern
States of America (the United States) is likely to assume
a most formidable character. A great Southern League
has been recently formed. Congress was to assemble on
the 3rd instant, and the demand for a Constitution from
California will, it is believed, bring matters to a crisis.
Is. slavery to be excluded or not ?

Newspapers have been brought from the Cape of Good
Hope to the 21st of October. They show that the
colonists stand firmly to their resolute resistance. The
only outrage which has occurred has been committed not
by but upon the anti-convict party. The colonists, how-

example of perfect self-control." And the exhortation
has been everywhere attended to. A striking instance of
the force of colonial feeling on the subject is afforded by
the fact, that a special form of prayer has been provided
and used in the Jewish Synagogue, in Cape Town, for

the removal of the threatened irruption of convicts.
CALIFORNIA.—We take the following particulars from
the letter of a young Irishman, in California, to his
brother-in-law, in Ireland, giving an interesting and
melancholy description of his land journey to the golden
El Dorado :—" He and his companions, originally num-
bering 36, but afterwards reduced to 22, had to travel
over an arid plain. 32 miles in length, under. a burning
sun and with heavy loads upon their backs. The second
day they were able to make but ten miles, when one of
the party sank exhausted, and they were forced to leave

him to die. The next day their supply of water failed
them ; another man dropped, and while they were making
their way to a river, two more of their number, and the
writer himself was barely able to reach the river and save
his life. On reac' 'he

Wing t, " digging" district, he was
wofully disappointed. it is only, he says, in bars in the
river bed that gold can be obtained, and then only at low
water, and by removing " cords" of big stones, and all
the best places have had the cream taken off last year,

. •
leaving mere gleanings for the fresh corners. He is satis-
fied that emigration must soon cease, unless dishonest
letter-writers keep up the deception, and that not one in
ten who come out but would stay at home if they knew
the real state of the case."

FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE NEAR KILRUSH

IRELAND

EXTRACT ^FROM A PRIVATE LETTER DATED KILRUSII,

DEC. 13.
Yesterday from four to five hundred paupers attended
at the Kilcush union, in order to seek either admittance
to the workhouse or outdoor relief. But alas ! their sup-
plications were fruitless, and after spending the day (a
most inclement one) in a miserable state of suffering,

they were obliged, when evening came, to return unre-
lieved to their homes, some of these being from eight to
ten miles distant from Kilrush.

Within two miles of this town there is a ferry, about
200 yards wide, over which a number of these starving
creatures were obliged to cross. Too many crowded into
the boat, and she sank on the passage, when about 48
men, women, and children perished, five only being saved.
Language fails to describe the sad state of this doomed
union. The guardians have neither funds nor credit, and
are in debt £lB,OOO. There are 13,000 paupers actually

starving

The 'number of bodies found during this day are 33, five
of whom are not as yet claimed by any friend. Many of
the bodies, though not quite 24 hours in the water, are so

mutilated that it was with difficulty they could be identi-
fied. There are 12 others yet missing. The fatal row-
boat has been for many years in the service, and has been
heretofore employed as a horse-boat, but, being found too
weak, was used as a passenger boat. She belonged to a
man named Williams, who has for the last three years let
her at a weekly rents to the boatmen who work( d her,
both parties neglecting her repairs ; consequently this sa-
crifice of human life. The description given by the sur-

69 yards of the beach the boat split from the bows down
by the keel and began to fill with water, when the passen-
gers loaned to the side favouring the swell of the sea,
when she upset with crew and passengers-49 or more
human beings, as the precise number lost cannot be yet
ascertained. There were four persons saved by another
ferry boat's crew. An inquest was held. The verdict
returned was :

" We find that Jonathan Brew and 32 other persons
came by their deaths on Wednesday, the 12th instant, by.
drowning, whilst crossing; the ferry at Comogue, on their
way home from the Kilrush workhouse through the mis-
management of the boatmen and passengers."

The poor-law union boards in Ireland are petitioning
for protection to agriculture.
The first import of Californian gold was brought into
Amsterdam on Friday. The two masses, which together
weighed 600 ounces, contained 883-100 fine gold to
110-000 and 111-000 silver.

A London ministerial journal positively denies that there
is any disagreement amongst the members of the Govern-
ment with reference to the policy of the country, either at
home or abroad.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL. —Mr. Gibbons, of London-
road, is again preparing his celebrated confectionery for
the commemoration of Christmas. Those who have tried
the Royal Athol cakes, the Pitcaithley Bannocks, or the
short bread, know their excellence, and to those who have
not they cannot be too strongly recommended.
THE HUDDERSFIELD RAILWAY ROBBERIES.—At York
Assizes, on Friday, four men were sentenced to seven
years' transportation, and a fifth to 18 months' imprison-
ment, for stealing, at Huddersfield, a truss containing five
pieces of woollen cloth, the property of the Lancashire
and Yorks:lire Railway Company. There were altogether
eight or nine cases against the prisoners.
TANN'S PATENT SAFE AND DETECTOR LOCK.—W.;
have been invited to an inspection of a new patent fire-
proof safe, by Messrs. Harrison and Co., of 15, Lord-
street, who have just opened a branch establishment for
the sale of Tann's safes, chests, and boxes ; and detector
locks- Their safes combine durability and strength, with
the desideratum of complete resistance to fire; they are
moreover most conveniently fitted up in the interior, and
exceedingly well finished off. The detector lock is quite a
specimen of mechanical skill and workmanship.
EXPENSE AT FUNERALS.—The example set by the
late Queen Dowager is taken advantage of by the Times
for a general recommendation to persons of high rank to
provide by "a simple clause in the will," a remedy
against the prevailing extravagance at funerals, which,
useless at all times, is in many cases a serious inconve-
nience to survivors. Our contemporary, with his usual
smartness, illustrates his positions by an undertaker's bill
selon la regle, contrasted with a picture of " the gentry
who, when the funeral is over, are to be seen kicking their
heels on the top of their mournful vehicle, divested of the
nodding splendour of its sable plumes," and, with appa-
rently little consciousness of the sad ceremony in which
they have been engaged, " cracking their jokes on their
return home outside the lugubrious omnibus, which had
so lately been employed in conveying the remains of a
human being to the grave."
THE NATURAL HARBOUR OF LIVERPOOL—WhiIe the
port of Chester was thus going to decay from the ruin of
the harbour, Liverpool, which possesses an abundant
depth of water for all the purposes of commerce, conti-
nued to rise. Liverpool being within two or three miles
of the sea, bad not to contend with the same difficulties
as ports like Chester, situated twenty miles from it. In
addition to its proximity to the sea. Liverpool is favoured
by the form of the entrance to the river, which is narrow
compared with the higher part of the estuary, and is there-
fore constantly scoured out by the rushing of the receding
tides. The width of the Mersey at its entrance is only
one-fourth of the width of the Dee; it is turned north-
ward, and so protected from the direct influence of the
Atlantic ; and it is further sheltered by the peninsula of
Wirral, which rises like a great bulwark between the sea
and ocean. A similar form of river and land has kept
open the port of the Wyre, whilst the Ribble and the
Dee, which are open to the full action of the tides and
winds, have long since been ruined as ports. The follow-
ing extract from " The Coasting Pilot of Great Britain,"
drawn up by Captain Grenville Collins, in the reign of
William and Mary, shows what was the state of the en-
trance to the river Mersey before any efforts had been
made to improve it ; and also what was the nature and
extent of the accommodation which this port afforded for
ships, previous to the construction of the magnificent line
of docks which now form the safest, the most commodiot. s,
and the most extensive artificial harbour in the world :
" Being at the back of Hyle sand," says Captain Collins.
" bring the mill (Bootle) and wood, one on the other, and
run in, keeping close along Hyle sand, and so into the
Hyle Lake, and anchor. Here the great ships that belong
to Liverpool put out part of their lading, till they are
light enough to sail over the fiats into Liverpool. There
is a channel near Formby to go into Liverpool, where
there is three fathoms at low water on the bar, but this
place is not buoyed or beaconed, and so not known. The
ships lie aground before the town of Liverpool. It is
bad riding afloat before the town, by reason of the strong
tides that run here, therefore ships that ride afloat ride
up at the Slyne, where is less tide." Such was the na-
tural entrance, and such the amount of accommodation,
afforded by the port of Liverpool one hundred and fifty
years ago. Since that time, the passage near Formby has
been buoyed, and a new and better passage than either of
those mentioned by Grenville Collins had been disco-
vered, by means of which vessels three times as large as
those which were used for commercial purposes in his
time enter the harbour without discharging any portion
of their cargo. A succession of brilliant lights, some
afloat, others placed on hills and head-lands. render the I

approach to the river as safe by night as by day.
within the. Mersey, numerous docks are open to receive
vessels, in which they lie as safe as in the smoothest and
most land-locked harbour in the world.—Baines's Hi.-
tory of Liverpool.

WHITNALL'S C.
AT THE MISS
THEATRE ROYAL-OLASTNCERT NIGHT

This interesting lady appealed again to the musical
public last night, on which occasion she introduced to us
once more Madlle. Sontag, with Signors Calzolari, F. La-
blache, Viatti, the celebrated violoncello player, and Mr.
Percival, flutist. The house, although not positively full,
was an excellent one, the boxes and stalls containing the
elite of our merchants and leading tradesmen, with their
families. The programme was admirably selected, and
the whole went off most satisfactorily. Of such a treat it
is difficult at the late hour at which it concluded, and hi
the small amount of time we have now at our disposal, to
speak at any length, or to do it ordinary justice. We
must, however, express our admiration of the chaste and
beautiful singing of Signor Calzol iri, who possesses a tenor
voice of excellent quality, and the fine violoncello playing
of Signor Piatti, which enraptured the audience. His
accompaniment added greatly to the attraction of Madlle.
Sontag's " Lied de Lachner "; and both his solos—the

first especially, introducing some of the musi

Wilis-

-ere tieautiful

When