The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

" We carved not a ►ine, and we raised not a stone ;

But we left him alone with his glory 1"
ST. SIMON'S CHIJRCIZ, GLOUCESTER-STREET.---On Sun-
day last, sermons were preached towards liquidating the

debt still existing on this church in several churches, arid the
following collections were made : at St. Jude's £5O ls. 10d.,
Christ Church £2O 10s., St. Mary's, Kirkdale, £lB, All
Saint's £lO 10s. We cannot too strongly recommend this
interesting church to the liberality of the public.

It is probably known that until very lately the building b
longed to the Independents, and being advertised for sale
was purchased by some friends of the establishment, and
vested in five trustees, of whom the liev. Fielding Ould is
one. The debt still outstanding, notwithstandir'r the col-
lections on Sunday, amounts to nearly £9OO, and we
trust some effort will be made to remove such an in-
cumbrance on the efficiency of the minister (Rev. J. R.
Connor), a truly devoted, zealous, and persevering man. The
district allotted to the church comprises a most degraded and
lamentably neglected portion of the population of the town,
as the following statement evinces. Out of 1462 inhabitants
of four small streets, which are by no means the worst in the
locality, 1280 never profess to attend a place of worship, 95
only go there occasionally, and but 87 attend regularly.
THE WOOL OF THE LAMA.—(From a correspondent.)—
A gentleman of the name of Woolaston, who has resided for
some years among the mountains of Thilhet, has lately dis-
covered a species of the lama, the colour of which is perfectly
black, and its hair as soft as silk. The latter, be says, is
capable of being woven into shawls and other cloths of a
similar description with much advantage. As a staple com-
modity lie remarks that it does not possess the properties of
wool, it being moth more fine than is the latter material ; but
it would admirably well suit the fine shawl trade, as it is
carried on in the manufactories of Glasgow and Paisley. The
hairs run upon an average 12 inches in length, and are of a
jet black colour, so that they do not require dyeing to enter-
tain a darker shade. A. large quantity of twist, which has
been turned in the hills, has already been bought up by the
French merchants on speculation, and sent to France, where
it has realized as much as from 12s. 6d. to 14s. per pound,
while the raw unspun material has met a ready sale at 2s. 5d..
to 3s. per pound. The Indian shawls, which have ever been
eeid in high estimation, are manufactured from the fine soft
hairs which forms the under coat of the Cashmere hill goat,
and the above animal, the " Alpaca," (for such is the name
under which it is known by the natives), affords a hair equally
as soft and as long as that which is furnished by the former
creature. The black Cashmere shawls have always fetched
higher prices than any other of a similar descpiption in the
market ; and it is not at all improbable but that the beautiful
silky hair of the " Alpaca" is used largely by the Cashmere
weavers in their manufacture of the latter very valuable as
well as profitable article of commerce.
CURIOUS ROBBERY.—On Lord Mayor's Day, as the pro-
cession was passing the Mansion House, the thieves were,
as might he expected, very busily employed. Amongst the
persons robbed was a French gentleman. The way in which
the robbery was committed had a good deal of coolness and
comedy about it. The gentleman had his watch, to which
there was a guard, in one waistcoat pocket, and a purse con-
taining 15 sovereigns in the other, and he kept his arms
down so as to protect the property in both pockets. As he
walked along a well-dressed person, who had noticed him for
some time, said to him, " Oh, sir, if you carry your arms in
that way you will have your pockets picked as sure as You
ever were born." " Ah," said the French gentleman,
" sare, I shall thank you let me know how I carry my arms."
" Why," this way to be sure," replied the polite adviser ;
and, taking hold of one of the Frenchman's, raised it up,
and, with amazing quickness, whipped out the purse, while
the grateful foreigner passed along, saying " Sare, I thank
you vera much for showing me how not to be robbed." The
gentleman did not ascertain that he had lost anything till he
got into Wood-street, where he visited a family and men-
tioned the adventure pretty nearly as it is stated above. The
statement of this robbery at the Mansion House brought to
mind an impudent robbery which was committed on Ludgate-
hill in the mayoralty of Alderman Thompson. Upon that
occasion a little elderly, dressy man, who had a diamond pin
in his shirt, stood out of the crowd upon the steps of a ball
door, and was enjoying the procession with great dignity.
The sparkling gem in his shirt, however, soon attracted the
attention of a gang of thieves, who went over to the place on
which be stood, and held him by the arms, while one of the
fraternity quietly took the pin out of the little fellow's shirt,
and fixing it in his own, said, " I say, old fellow, dont it
look a precious sight better where it is now, eh ?" It was in
vain the loser cried out. The gang drowned his voice by
their vociferations ; and, getting among the crowd, proceeded
in their work without any interruption from him.
LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND COMMERCIAL INSTITU-
TION.—On Friday evening, Mr. Thomas Venables com-
menced, at this institution, a series of lectures on " English
Minstrelsy and the National Music of England." The mat-
ter of the lecture itself was very interesting, and displayed
great learning and research ; the illustrations, too, were apt
and well performed. This, the first lecture, was for the pur-
pose of proving that England has a national music entirely
distinct from that of Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, &c.
To prove this, numerous illustrations of the melodies of
these nations were brought forward, many of them very an-
cient and also beautiful ; for instance, as a specimen of Eng-
lish music, " Down among the dead men,' was given by a
gentleman amateur, in a manner worthy of this beautiful
composition ; and also, by Miss Sarah Venables, " Shall I
go walk," from Queen Elizabeth's Virginal book. and " the
King shall enjoy his own again," " From merciless invad-
ers," &c., &c. As a specimen of the melodies of Scotland,
" Ye banks and braes" was sang beautifully by Mr. and
Miss Venables. The peculiar music of Italy was illustrated
in the Polacca " Son Vergin," splendidly sung by Miss
.Venables. The rollicking joyous music, as Mr. Venables
styled it, of Ireland, was exemplified in " Rory O'More ;"
and its pathetic melodies in the " Last Rose of Summer."
Besides those we have enumerated, there were a great num-
ber of other illustrations of the lecture, both vocal and in-
strumental, amongst the most beautiful of which were " Chevy
Here's a health unto his
Chase," by Miss Venables,—"
Majesty,' written for Charles ll.—the march played before
Mary of Scotland when proceeding to execution—and " Fare-
well Manchester," performed by the troops of the Pretender
in '45, when making their retreat. Mr. Venables is evi-
dently master of his subject, and an enthusiast in his art.
His lecture was full of anecdote, and was, together with its
illustrations, a great treat. We cannot in justice close this
short notice without returning our sincere thanks to Miss
Venables for the pleasure she afforded us by her exertions.
Galignani's Messenger contradicts, on authority, the state-
ment that Lord 'and Lady' Holland • were perverted to the
Roo:um-Catholic faith.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD AND THE ART
UNION.

As our contemporary the Chronicle has condescended to
reply to the following silly paragraph which appears in this
month's Art Union, we cannot allow another publication to
pass without some comment upon it.
"The Liverpool prize has been awarded to Thomas Web.
ster, Esq., A.R.A., for his picture of `The Boy of many
Friends;' a work of rare merit, and unquestionably entitled
to the distinction conferred upon it. We are unable, this
month, to notice the Liverpool Exhibition, but shall do so in