The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-21 00:00:00

A CELEBRATED PARROT

conversation of the e'

condoleace and confusion for the last twenty-four
Colonel O'Keiy's famous parrot is dead. The •FtOlies
told of this surprising bird have long stretched public cre-
dulity to its utmost extent. But if even the half of what
is told be true, it exh•bited the most singular sazPcity.
Not having been it myself, I can only give the general re.
p.m But, beyond all question, it has been the wonder
of London for years, and however willing John Bull may
be to be deluded, there is no instance of his being deluded
long. The bird's chief faculty was singing, sellom a par-

rot faculty, but its ear was so perfect, that it arquired
tunes with ereat rapidity, and retained them with such re-
markable exactness. that if. by accident, it made a mistake
in the rndody. it corrected itself, and tried over the tune
until its recollection was completely recovered. It also
spoke well. and would hold a kind of dialogue almost ap•
proaching to rationality. So great was its reputation, that
the colonel was offered £5OO a. ye fr by prrsons who in-
tended to make an exhibition of it; but he was afraid
that his favourite would be put to too hard work, and he
refused the offer, which was frequently renewed. The
creature must have been old, for it had been bought
thirty years before by the colonel's uncle, and even then
it must have had a high rerutat on, for it was bought: at

Canons, the parrot, and the horse Eclipse, the most po-
weiful racer ever known in Entland ; superior to every
other horse of his day, that his superiority at length be.

the spirit of vague curiosity, this parrot was opened by
two sureeons, as if to discover the secret or his clever-

nesA; but nothing was seen, except that the must+ aof
the throat were peculiarly strong ; nothing to account for
its death was dibcovered.—From Recollections of a Lover
of Society.

THE CROWN OF. MR. CANNING'S AMBITION.—On the
27th of March Mr. Canning had a long interview with the
King on the anhjec. of a new admias ion. Mr. Can-
trat

ning looked uomi the office of Prime Minister of England
as his "inheritance." He was the last survivor of the
great rare of statesmen who had been cinternporaneous
with Pitt and Fox. As second minister al-o in the late
administration, he had a right upon being thus consulted,
to vindicate in his own person the principles of direct suc-
cession. P..hlic opinion was strongly in favour of his ap-
pointment. It was manifest that the intelligent of all
_

parties looked to him as the only man fit to the
councils of the government. The Tory aristocracy began
to be alarmed—that aristocracy whose pride of place he
had so often had occasion to rebuke. On the 12th April
Mr. C. Wv.nn. rose, in the House of Commons, and made
the following - announcement! "I move for a ntw writ
for the borouo of Newport, Isle of Wieht,the Right Hon.
George Canrung having accepted the office of First Com-
missioner of the Treasury." The announcement was re-
ceived with deafening cheers, which, again and again re-
newed,testified unequivocally the ferrlinga with which Mr.
Cat-mitres appointment was regarded by the popul,r
branch rrf the legislature. Whatever opinion the House
of Lords might entertain on the subject. it was evident be
had the King and the Commons with him. at all events.
It was only now that Mr. Canting's practical difficulties
commencrd. The tone of the opposition throughout the
irregular and intemperate discussions which took place at
diffetent times nri ministerial changes. plainly betrayed
the animus wh:ch lay at the bottom. Mr. Canning was
literally baited in both houses. The attacks which were
made upon him are unparalleled in our pariamentary his-
tory f r personality ; their coarseness, malignity, and ye-
nom, are all of a personal character. It was not against
a system of policy they were directed, nor against special

Nis eminence. his popularity, his talents, made him the
prey of envy and detraction; and this was the ground of
hnail ty u nn which he wns hooted to the death, when
official difficulties were thickeninz round him, and his

suffering. Thev chose their moment well, and u,
mots, lessiy.—Bell's Life of Cannlig.

WATF.R POWER OF THE SHANNOV. The water
power of the Shannon. available tor manufacturing pur-
poQes be ween Limerick and Lough Allen. amounts to
38,000 horse power actually yoino for nothing, while
tens of thousands of tons of coal are burned in England
and Scotland produclne similar agency ; indeed, in either
of those ctuotries such a power would to of in_talculahle
value. At Greenock we recaect a water-wheel, the chef
lion of the place, which the tourists pay sixpence to see,

turned by a small stream brought to less than six miles
rcro•s the countru—supplyilig a pow••r equal to thirty
steam engiors of fi ty horse power! Yet even this Mr,
Scott Russell assures us is obtained from an artificiol
lake cteated in a place where formerly there wete oily
slender mountain rivulets. The internal economy of the
mills d ff rs in nntbing from those of Glasgow. "here
steam is tt,erl. Yet, according to the best authorities,
what is the difference. Each horse power with
..t1

)e watt r

wheel cogs £5 64. 5d., each horse power with steam,
£36 annually leaving the enormous proportion of £3O in
favour of water power. Then, in Lancashire, every
available rivulet is also caught hold of, and the little cur-
rent which pas4es by Bolton and !Manchester. Dr. Kane
somewhat quaintly. stvles_" the hardest worked stream

prohanly In toe worts nave vviinPssen Luc glom.
won lers performed by these rival powers in this particular
locality also, and the economy of water power quite
arnr-zing. In the lit'', river before mentinne for in-
stance, in a fall of 900 feet, not less than 800 are appro-
priated to the uses of mills. Now, the Shannon (wlto.te
total bas'n am, un's to the prodigious area of 4,541 square
miles) falls 147 feet from Lough Allen to Lin crick, the
last fifteen miles ferret Killaloe presenting a d•fferenee of
level of not less than 97 feet ! frr,m returns of the roost
accurate kind trade by the commiss'oriers, the total con-
tinuous power above Killaloecalcullha from K
atttdt'rruntitioceachto-
were bits,n is 4 717 horse power,
Limetiek something about 350 horse power for every
foot of fall, making for 97 feet the immense force
of 33 950 horse power, these
.added together giving
a force in uninterrupted cello!
.day and night. at
every moment of the year. of 38,667 horse power! Yet
with th- exception of a few corn n ills along the Irjet
of the river, this invaluable force continuts day a ter
day going to waste, presenting a singular contrast to
the other rivers we have mentioned, or even to the unpre.
tending lit le Bann, amongst the Mourne mountains
iti
the county of Down—the most beautifully economized
river in Ireland. Dublin University Magazine.