The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-02-06 00:00:00

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Feb. fl, 1849.

•itcraturr.

VARIETIES

OUR MONETARY LAWS AND THE
PRICES OF corroN.
.L .

4rsinisatohane:raogbfilvg
einaminal circular of Messrs. Barbour
Manchester, just published, the wri-
a statement of the fluctuations in
the Prices of yarns and cotton during the past year,
give the following as the position of the spinners
and
.Inanufacturers at the period named
nere
In November, 1842, when manufacturing interests
Only sgrheatlY depressed, No. 20 water, and 40's mule yarn,
ow d - to
all e a margin of 2}d. and M. per respectively,.
evse.y expenses of spinning, interest of capital, profit,
a whilst in the autumn of 1845, when matters were in
trprosperous state, the same margin was 41d. and 7+d.
o' esPectively, a difference of 90 and 60,per cent. in
the I.!' the spinner in 1845, compared with 1842 ; again,
::::ilgodhn.iptyroalc3ec:f. cotton and the low prices of yarns, in
bein rendered that year peculiarly unfavourable, there
margin of Utd. to 2.1 d. per lb on 20's water,
per Per lb on 40's mule, a difference of 50
eent, adverse to the spinner in comparison with 1845.
varying the past year the margin has also been small,
Ying from 2id. to 2-Zd per lt, on 90's water, and 31d.
4tcl• per th •
pPosition • on 40 s mule. Spinners %ere in a better
oi Lion In November, when yarns were at the lowest
taken than they are now ; the advance that has since
respo P!ace having been more than neutralised by a cor-
Nnthlag rise in the raw material."
Oth °W) we beg to ask whether there have not been
i.„,.5e..r causes at work to create these ruinous'fluc-
.7 jams in the amount of profit derived from ma-
nufacturing operations ? We beg to ask of them
,5 were the rates of interest in 1845 and in
? In the former year money was abun-
, and discounts readily obtainable upon respec-
of .e Paper at 2to 21, per cent. In the latter part
rat and
111. the
d best paper, was ten per cent.; and
hadtig portion of that period it was not to be
-:0 at all. Do these facts not lead to the conclu-
Zan that abundance of money, as well as abun-
ofnes of the raw material, is an important element
in manufacturing prosperity; and that fluctuations
fluenitanufacturing profits are contemporaneous with
wuations in the supply and price of money ?
ever e would ask of our Manchester friends, how-
Iswn°se sentiments Messrs. Barbour and Son
tlie"s Presumed to speak, when they attribute
highsufferings to short crops of cotton, or rather
Lion nPliices of cotton, and other matters, a ques-
and ;z,,,,a.0. In 1846-7 we had a deficient supply,
is 11,-;,::_gb price, of this raw material. But there
hmOtli-Zer circumstance to be noted, as bearing
"c ball the Prices and the supply of this season.f
.otton." Iroported largely the breadstuffs o our
gr,r.°wing brother Jonathan, and our gold
uring-b°l7 out. to pay for these importations. To
on
back this gold, the Bank of England, under.t
accoth-eBent system, was compelled to contract is
price-Modation to merchants, and to raisethe
Eziets-iiac.., the rate of interest—of money. Our
in ford houses, nay all merchants having goods
t
any 7,,zgn markets, were compelled to realize, a
All tVeee,in order to maintain their credit at home.
tupte world knows, painfully knows, the bank-
ord and ruin, and the stoppage of foreign
Wh'ers' from which we have not yet recovered,
sui,ich resulted. Now, is it not reasonable to pre-
Sta-te that the plethora of money in the United
witles, and its scarcity here, had something to do
argbthe high price of cotton, upon which Messrs.
itit,nur harp as the source of manufacturing
forJ ; and also upon the decreased demand since
NV.„ clur goods in foreign and colonial markets.
tici.MaY admit that the crop of 1846-7 was short.
te American grower, by the aid, in a great
measureani of our monetary laws, could hold it back,
demand his own price, whilst our foreign
thelLehants were, by the same laws, crippled in
et,e4" usual operations, and the manufacturer was
euallY at a loss to know how he was to keep up
is Production.
ziaA rather striking proof of the dependence of
nufacturing profits upon monetary abundance
a"; scarcity, is to he observed in the last sentence
which e have quoted. The
tr"aner and manufacturer,e are told, were doing
-h‘e;tttelire
in November than they are at this moment,
°Nwin to the rise in the price of the raw material.
,-;,°wigh occurred since November any cir-
t;irastanacset teerneding to enhance the price
raj Cotton ? Have we heard of any blights, any
tip seasons, any worms, or other ailments, which
ver,,cotton crop "is heir to " ? Was Europe so
b much more pacific in its prospects in Novem-
er than it is now ? None of these causes can be
aiged• But money "is easier" ; the Bank will
thse°llnt on lower terms; and the speculator and
rawe ernaPaittaleriisat
the tender s...tt:apvining, and raise the price of the
abide
wand.
A the manufacturer to
nmercies of the law of supply and de-
to get lir; Y manufacturer knows how easy it is
them r-ces down, and how difficult it is to get
uP gain.
Which "es us as the most singular blindness
have 's ever befallen a class of men, who would
41 us believe them to be most particularly
widecann t awake," that our manufacturing classes
teta,,°- see the importance to themselves of a mo-
cou,,Y, sYstem, which would insure to them an
ae'ule rate of interest, and protect them from the
eystearious influence of foreign exchanges. Such a
systeen,al ?,111' present obviously is not. Under this
e
cal tne manufacturer is utterly incapable of
sublating his profits, or anticipating his losses.
gaudoL °vier in harvest, as the bullionist organ, the
ndon
result ' Times, tells us, has more effect upon the
ar n 8 of industry than a revolution in Europe,
etan outbreak in our own country. The touch-
prprne °F British credit, and the guarantee for the
eBPeritY of the industrious British people, is the
eoltilee in the country of a certain quantity of a
tay-°ditY, of which the trappers of Hudson's
taiii and the scum of mankind, are gathering in
tish °rnia as much in a day as an industrious Bri-
in itnan can earn in a month. Under a system
rticeti`:Q money would possess its only legitimate
rlone n, as a measure of value, we should see
kesm, °I. the disastrous features observable in
Oufa;s• Barbour's picture of the condition of ma-
see thing industry. We should certainly not
Intolut owner of the raw material of any of our
4ttielpae,tures enabled to command a price for his
manthe working up of which is ruinous to the
tary acturer. In a word, under a healthy mone-
not hsYtena, native industry and enterprise would
the °lle
s year in an excess of prosperity, and in
Inffe'elng and rzt consigning those dependent upon it to
uin.

A A ~,,,
"eric,-,71,1A.c1i SERPENT.—A correspondent of the Cum-
eon, 7' .t'acquet says,'that a man named George Wilkin-
°l°,o;lo.l the service f Mr. Graham, of W. ythop-mill,
tuilnß that ail animal, six inches in length, its nody resehmad-
`4 i ""at of an eel, with a fish's head. Wilkinson .
8 x
~_4lll, ihrn?hthS past suffered pain in the stomach, espect-
nielii. tne mornings, but we understand he has
an on.
lat is better since heparted with his unnatural coma .
~,,e(tiliectured that Wilkinson had swallowed the cr
it-
4'14 E;it.e•ii Very small, whilst. drinking water, and that
, I"'„lned its present size in his stomach.
it down, a few
xelips -""TRUCTIBILITY OF CORK.—In taking . a
eau
2f, theak, in Prance, some portion of the ancient chmtt_es
pres:"t th Nue d'Ondres, it was found that the extre
perfectlyii
oak girders, lodged in the walls, weredtave
neeti-'Yed, although these timbers were suppose hof thin their places for upwards of 600 years. Thep°whole
Ivraphese extremities buried in the walls were
an a 1 round with plates of cork. When demolishing
thtilte,lent Benedictine church at Bayonne, it was foatedn
inid r ",. Whole of the fir girders were entirely worrn-
I°,liiel(t)4:a,.Nvith the exception, however, of the bearings,
t'teteh;
Capped°stH the case above-mentioned, were also com-
l. ,Log, round with plates of cork.
Now-A-MPBELL' CLIENT.—Lord Campbell tells the
1,1.‘ %,ing anecdote ins his lives of the Lord Chancellor :--
fc" fi risi-4fter I Wascalled to the bar, and had published
-e/Itliriti",:inni umber of my 'Nisi P ius Reports,' while de-
co r
v Sing " Prisoner in the Crown Court, I had occasion to
&sett pal, client, and I went to the dock, where
_I cwonas-
'inked;'?r a minute or two. I got him off, and
th
Pattie 'atell' dischard But my joy was soon,d.is disturbed;
ttvit cireilinitYjiand into m. y pocket to pay the junior' of
tll7 gone' (1-1 Y quota for yesterday, I found that my purse
~ 't (la containing several bank notes, the
. currency of
I,`°,,lnret,3::. The incident caused much merriment. It was
-Pi (1 41;1 e,._te.,d to the Lop:1 Chief Baron Macdonald, h
lliliik that'''nge, who said, ' What ! does
.Mr. Campbell
elf:, „TX) one is entitled to take notes in court except
v.it,i;
ret9.l9atez?"_ OF THE ORLEANS. . FAMILY.—M. Varill,
th,cr. to the'leneral of the ex-Civil List, has addressed a
4bl:iLlio„,,nws.papers, to recommend the creditors of
th,yter.rts.:Lciaamily not to cede thiesu.' debts on unfavour-
fully convinced that
b4„11 th'''4lejentutkalley' bleiedar: treed in full. He adds that
tie°llUt 'l'3l'tlY be able istC discharged
a rather large sum on
ille,c4re iheM• Dupinllas also payitten to the journals to
thwOrlea, spine thing. lie says that all the members of
'lr PC 'is laniily leave granted the power of mortgaging
ire
poPerties, and that even the Princesses consent to
tiovrtie,,airit);(llltihaill:s:s
I:iftifatlr‘t-oellsdhil'iletern;latlraeini,irPerivileges with the respect thereto secured
s
contracts. M. Vavin adds that he I).a
Posal of the Liquidator-General all the
which were in the treasury of the private
t() e" for th" 'Rat he will pass to his order the bills to be
'Net Et e erd-inary cuttings of wood in 1818, in order
PaYroent to the creditors,

FORCE OF HABIT.—Lord Campbell, in his " Lives of
the Chancellor," says that Lord Tenterden, the celebrated
judge, expired with these words on his lips—" Gentlemen
of the jury, you will now consider your verdict." The
last words of Lord Hermand, the Scotch judge, were
equally striking and professional—" Guilty, but recom-
mended to the mercy of the court."
MILLY.—Mrs. William, like Mr. William, was a sim-
ple, innocent-looking person, in whose smooth cheeks the
cheerful red of her husband's official waistcoat was very
pleasantly repeated. But whereas Mr. William's light
hair stood on end all over his head, and seemed to draw
his eyes up with it in an excess of bustling readiness for
any thing, the dark brown hair of Mrs. William was care-
fully smoothed" down, and waved away under a trim tidy
cap, in the most exact and quiet manner imaginable.
Whereas Mr. William's very trousers hitched themselves
up at the ankles, as if it were not in their iron-grey na-
ture to rest without looking about them, Mrs. William's
neatly-flowered skirts—red and white, like her own pretty
face—were as composed and orderly, as if the very wind
that blew so hard out of doors could not disturb one of
their folds. Whereas his coat had something of a fly-
away and half-off appearance about the collar and breast,
her little bodice was so placid and neat, that there should
have been protection for her in it, had she needed any,
with the roughest people. Who could have had the heart
to make so calm a bosom swell with grief, or throb with
fear, or flutter with a thought of shame ! To whom would
its repose and peace have not appealed against disturbance,
like the innocent slumber of a child !—Dickens's Haunted
Man.

WHAT WILL REVOLUTIONS DO ?—Let not France de-
ceive herself. Nut all the experiments she may try, not
all the revolutions she may make or suffer to be made,
will ever emancipate her from the necessary and inevitable
conditions of social tranquillity and good government.
She may refuse to admit them, and may suffer without
measure or limit from her refusal, but she cannot escape
from them. We have tried everything—republic—empire
—constitutional monarchy. We are beginning our expe-
riments anew. To what must we ascribe their ill success?
In our own times, before our own eyes, in three of the
greatest nations in the world, these three same forms of
Government—constitutional monarchy in England, the
empire in Russia, and the republic in North America—
endure and prosper. Have we the monopoly of all im-
possibilities ? Yes ; so long as we remain in the chaos in
which we are plunged, in the name, and by the slavish
idolatry, of democracy; so long as we can see nothing in
society but democracy, as if that were its sole ingredient
—so long as we seek in Government nothing but the do-
mination of democracy, as if that alone had the right and
the power to govern. On these terms the republic is
equally impossible as the constitutional monarchy, and the
empire as the republic; for all regular and stable Govern-
ment is impossible. And liberty—legal and energetic li-
berty—is no less impossible than stable and regular Go-
vernment. The world has seen great and illustrious com-
munities reduced to this deplorable condition ; incapable
of supporting any legal and energetic liberty, or any regu-
lar and stable Government; condemned to interminable
and sterile political oscillations from the various shades
and forms of anarchy to the equally various forms of des-
potism. For a heart capable of any feeling of pride or
dignity, I cannot conceive a more cruel suffering than
to be born in such an age. Nothing remains but to retire
to the sanctuary of domestic life, t.nd the prospects of re-
ligion. The joys and the sacrifices, the labours and the
glories, of public life, exist no more.—M. Thiers.
CLAIMS AND OBJECTS OF RAGGED SCHOOLS.—We
entreat all persons very seriously to consult how small a
sum will be adequate to effect a very great good. Seven
pounds a year for each child will nearly supply every pos-
sible requisite. Let us suppose that thirty thousand is
the number of those who, in London alone, demand this
special assistance ; a sum, then, of two hundred and ten
thousand pounds a year—a sum that would barely cover
the national expenses for crime in two months--would go
far to balk the jailor of his prey, and turn the jails them-
selves into school-houses or factories. Many people run
away with the notion that so degraded a class is beyond
the reach of reformation or influence. Now, strange as
the assertion may appear, we at once affirm that we enter-
tain more hopes of fruit from the miserable than from the
easier ranks; of that fruit, we mean, which is seen in the
development and nurture of the feelings of the heart. Our
difficulty does not lie in eliciting the affections of these
neglected children, but the finding fit employment for the
quantities we impart. Those born and placed in safer
circumstances may withstand the temptations to which
the pupil of the ragged school might eventually yield ;
but, for the mere detail of teaching, we prefer the wild to
the demurer class. Oppression and sorrow have, of them-
selves, taught to many submission and endurance. It
may be seen in several incidents, trivial, perhaps, in their
nature, but illustrative of their habits of mind. " You
must wait," said the missionary to a boy, at one of those
tea-parties, where, once in twelve months, the appetites
of these novices learn what it is to approximate to a full
meal—" you must wait, and then you shall be fed."
" Oh, I can wait," said the boy, his teeth actually chat-
tering with hunger, " I am more accustomed to that than
to the other !" Nor has suffering failed in its frequent
though not invariable result, an interchange of sympathy.
We saw a gratifying instance in the school at Broadwall,
One boy, of the most lawless life and insolent behaviour,
was, after repeated expulsions, considered incorrigible.
He was sentenced, therefore, to be finally dismissed. His
circumstances, no doubt, were very deplorable ; and much,
it is true, could be said in extenuation, drawn from the
misery and sinful neglect of his earliest and latest years.
A public example was, however, necessary. But the six
principal boys came, in a body, to the master, and made
intercession for one more trial, engaging to use all their
influence, and be responsible for his future conduct. The
request was granted, and the lad was saved by the efforts
of his ragged companions, who, only a few months before,
neither knew nor cared to discern the difference between
right and wrong !—Ragged School Magazine.
_

THE " BEGGING PROFESSION."—The Times has com-
menced a crusade against beggars. The following is from
one of its leading articles : There is scarcely a man
with a decent coat on his back, or a lady who ventures to
put her foot across her own threshold, in London, but is
importuned by many unquestionable assailants for charity.
Sometimes it is a pale and destitute widow sitting upon a
door-step, with two little infants clasped in her arms, and
who, rather by her attitude and her expression, than by
any direct solicitation, obtains pence and sixpences from
the passers-by. Who could button up his pocket, and,
leaving such misery unrelieved, quietly pass on to his own
comfortable fireside ? And yet that woman is an impos-
ter. The poor children, the innocent actors in the tragi-
comedy, have been hired out at so much a day. The
sixpence bestowed to alleviate the seeming misery has
gone to perpetuate the system, and encourage similar per-
sons to undertake so gainful a traffic. See that little palid,
sickly child, crouching under the wall of St. Martin's
Church. The time is midnight, and the storm is pitiless.
Is it possible to see a being so helpless, and not do what
you can to relieve her misery ? Thirty times a month the
child will be found in the same attitude, and at the same
place, at the same hour, and a watcher is doubtless at
hand to receive at once the donations that compassion
may fling into her lap. So of others ; each quarter, and
every street of the town, has its well-known beggars, and
familiar forms of simulated affliction. The fact is well
known. It has been ascertained, and made public, that
the professional beggars prepare themselves for their ap-
pearance in public as carefully and cleverly as actors for
the stage. The public are aware of this, and yet the sys-
tem of promiscuous almsgiving, prolific as it is of so much
real misery, continues in unabated vigour. If you take
a sane and really merciful and humane view of the ques-
tion, you are exposed to the immediate denunciation of
those in whom charity—that is almsgiving—is an impulse,
and reflection'an impossibility. You are told, with a look
of puckered self-importance, Ah ! I had rather be im-
posed upon than become hardened, like you, to human
sorrow and human suffering.' If this were merely a
question between the giver and the non-giver of alms to
imposters, there might be something in the argument.
Unfortunately, every sixpence wrongfully bestowed calls
up more claimants for more sixpences. The money dis-
honestly gained is recklessly spent. The weakness of the
giver and the viciousness of the recipient re-act upon
each other. The streets and the road swarm with
beggars, and the police could best tell what becomes of
those persons when off their beats; and they are
squandering their ill-gotten gains in low haunts of de-
bauchery,
drunkenness, and vice."
THE TWO SPANISH PAlNTEus.—While Velasquez, at
the height of his glory, was painting his magnificent Cru-
cifixion, a young lad was displaying hasty sketches and
immature daubs to the venders of old clothes, pots, and
vegetables, the gipsies and mendicant friars that frequen-
ted the Feria, or weekly fair held in the market-place of
All Saints, in the beautiful and religious city of Seville.
This was Bartoleme Esteven Murillo, who, having studied
for Qom* *imo nn.lnr Tilan vial C'Qatilln, nn flint master's
removal to Cadiz in 1640, betook himself to this popular
resource of all needy Sevillian painters. Struck, how-
ever, by the great improvement which travel had wrought
in the style of Pedro de Moya, who revisited Seville in
1642. the young painter scraped up sufficient money to
carry him to Madrid, and, as he hoped, to Rome. But
the kindness of Velasquez provided him a lodging in his
own house, and opened the galleries of the Alcazar and
the Escurial to his view. Here he pursued his studies
unremittingly, and, as he thought, with a success that
excused the trouble and expense of an Italian pilgrimage.
Returning, therefore, in 1645 to Seville, he commenced
that career which led him, among the painters of Spain,
to European renown, second only -to that of Velasquez.
The Fransiscans of his native city have the credit of first
employing his young genius, and the eleven large pictures
with which he adorned their convent-walls at once estab-
lished his reputation and success. These were painted in
what is technically called his first, or cold style ; this was
changed before 1650 into his:second, or warm style, which
in its turn yielded to his last, or vapoury style. So warm
indeed had his colouring become, that a Spanish critic, in
the nervous phraseology of Spain, declared his flesh-tints
were now painted with blood and milk. In this style did
he paint for the chapter The Nativity of the Blessed Vir-
gin, in which the ladies of Seville admired and envied the
roundness of a ministering maiden's naked arm ; and a
large picture of St. Anthony, of Padua, which still adorns
the walls of the cathedral baptistery. Of this famous gem
some curious stories are told : Don Fernando Farfan, for
instance, relates that birds had been seen attempting to
perch upon some lilies in a vase by the side of the kneel-
ing saint ; and Monsieur Viardot (Mus‘es d' Espagne, p.
146) informs us that a reverend canon, who showed him
the picture, recounted how that, in 1813, the Duke of
Wellington offered to purchase it for as many gold onzss
as would cover its surface; while, in 1843, Captain Wid-
drington was assured that a lord had expressed his readi-
ness to give £lO,OOO for the bird-deluding picture. The
belief in the gullibility of travellers is truly remarkable
and wide-spread ; thus, at Genoa, in 1839, our excellent
cicerone gratified us with the information, that, sixteen
years before, the English Duke of Balfour had in vain
offered £l6OO for Canova's beautiful basso-relievo of the
Virgin clasping the Corpse of our Saviour, which graces
the ugly church of the poor-house in that superb city,—
Blackwood's Magazine.

THE TIDES IN THE GERMAN OCEAN.--A striking
example occurs to us of the happy Tsri
,at nexion of theo.ry
the Ft 3 must exist
with observation, in the prediction
Al point of an area
a spot in the German Ocean—the cents,
mutual action of
of rotation, produced by the meeting anti
two opposite tides—where no rise of tide ,wht?tever could
Oaf, Ain He.wett in
occur; a prediction actually verified by
1839, without any prior knowledge that such . a point had
been supposed to exist. This is one amuritt ie the many
triumphs of like kind achieved by modern A-
Quarterly Review. this
We have had a vast deal of comic literaturnsica
country during the last dozen years ; quite a torrent 01
cetite, a surfeit of slang and puns. One or two potnifts,
humourists gave the impetus, and set a host of imitatorg,
sliding and wriggling down the inclined plane leadg
from wit and humour to buffoonery and bad taste. The
majority reached in an instant the bottom of the slope,
and have ever since remained there. The truth is, the
funny style has been overdone ; the supply of jokers has
exceeded the demand for jokes, until the very word " co-
mic" resounds unpleasantly upon the public tympanum.
—Blackwood.

CRITICISM OF ART.—A small crowd gathered before a
window recently, to admire the figure of a cat that was
there, as if for public inspection. Nearly every one was
delighted with its likeness to life. " But still," said
Augustus, " there are faults in it : it is far from perfect ;
observe the defect in the fore shortening of that paw,
now : and the expression of that eye, too, is bad ; besides,
the mouth is too far down under the chin, while the
whiske.-s look as if they were coming out of her ears. It
is too short too." But, as if to obviate this defect, the
figure stretched itself and rolled over in the sun. "It is
a cat, I vow," said a bystander, " It's alive !" shouted
an urchin, clapping his hands. " Why it's only a cat,
after all," exclaimed Mrs. Partington, as she surveyed
it through her specs : but Augustus moved on disap-
pointed that nature had fallen so short of his ideas of per-
fection in the manufacture of cats. But Augustus was
quite as competent a critic as many others whose judge-
ment of painting leads the town.—New York Observer.
A GENERAL IN PETTICOATS.—The lovely family of the
Emperor Nicholas were brought up from the cradle by
English nurses and governesses, under the superintend-
ence of an old Scotchwoman, who was under-nurse to the
present Emperor in his infancy. This individual holds
the rank of a general officer (for everything in Russia is
measured by a military scale), and has been decorated
with the Order of St. Andrew, ennobled and enriched.
Some five-and-twenty years ago she came a servant girl
to Russia with a Scotch trader's family, who turned her
adrift in St. Petersburgh. A lucky chance procured her
the situation of under nursery-maid in the Emperor
Paul's family, where she was placed about the person of
the present Emperor, to teach him to speak English.
His attachment for her was so great, that when he mar-
ried he raised her to the head of the nursery establish-
ment, where she has honourably gone through all the mi-
litary gradations of rank to her present one of general. I
suppose she will die a Field-Marshal !—Mrs. Romer's
Bird of Passage. _ _

PEARLS AND MINERALS IN CALIFORNIA.—PearI-fish-
ing is the chief employment of the inhabitants about the
bay (of La Paz,) and the pearls are said to be of a supe-
rior quality. I was shown a necklace, valued at two
thousand dollars, taken in this water. They are all found
by diving. The Yaque Indians are the best divers, going
down in eight fathom water. The pearl shells are sent to
China, and are worth at La Pas one dollar and a half the
arroba, or twenty-five pounds. * * The mountains in
the vicinity are said to be very rich in minerals. Some
silver mines near San Antonio, about 40 miles south, are
worked and produce well. La Paz may export one hun-
dred thousand dollars a year of platipina. Gold dust and
virgin gold are brought to La Paz. The copper and lead
mines are numerous and rich. * * The island of
Carmen, lying in front of Loretto, has a large salt lake,
which has a solid salt surface of several feet thickness.
The salt is of good quality, is cut out like ice, and it could
supply the world. It has heretofore been a monopoly to
the governor of Lower California, who employed convicts
to get out the salt and put it on the beach ready for ship-
ping. It is carried about a quarter of a mile, and is sent
to Mazatlan and San Blas. A large quantity of salt is
used in producing silver. * * In the vicinity of Los
Angeles there are a number of warm springs which throw
out and deposit large quantities of bitumen or mineral
tar. This substance, when it cools, becomes hard and
brittle, like rosin. Around some of these springs many
acres of ground are covered with this deposit to the depth
of several feet. It is a principal material in the roofing
of houses. When thrown upon the fire it ignites imme-
diately, emitting a smoke like that of turpentine, and an
odour like that from bituminous coal. This mineral, so
abundant in California, may one day become a valuable
article of commerce. * * Mr. Faxon showed me spe-
cimens of lead ore from which he moulds his bullets, taken
from an inexhaustible mine in the Tular valley, some fifty
miles distant from the mission of St. Ynes, It is cer-
tainly the richest ore I have ever seen, appearing almost
like the pure metal.—Bryant's Tour in California.

THE RAILWAY TOWN'AT CREWE.—About a hundred
yards from the establishment we have just left, there stands
a plain, neat building, erected by the company, containing
baths, hot, cold, and shower, for the workmen, as well as
for their wives and daughters, the hours allotted for each
sex being stated on a board, which bluntly enough explains
that the women may wash while the men are working, and
vice versa. For this wholesome luxury, the charge for
each person is IN. ; and, although we do not just at pre-
sent recollect the exact price of yellow soap per bar, of
sharp white sand per bushel, of stout dowlais towelling per
yard, or the cost of warming a few hundred gallons of
water, yet, as we stood gazing into one of these baths, we
could not help thinking that if that Hercules who works
the steam hammer can, on Saturday night, after his
week's toil, be scrubbed perfectly clean and white for
three halfpence, he can have no very great reason to com-
plain, for surely, except by machinery, the operation
could scarcely be effected much cheaper ! To a medical
man, the company gives a house and a surgery, in addition
to which he receives from every unmarried workman ld.
per week ; if married, but with no family, 11d. per week ;
if married, and with a family, 2d. per week ; for which he
undertakes to give attendance and medicine to whatever
men, women, children, or babies of the establishment
may require them. A clergyman, with an adequate sa-
lary from the company, superintends three large day
schools for about 300 boys, girls, and infants. There is
also a library and mechanics' institute, supported by a
subscription of about 10s. a-year, at which a number of
very respectable artificers, whose education when young
was neglected, attend at night to learn, ab initio, reading,
writing, and arithmetic. There is likewise a vocal and
instrumental class, attended by a number of workmen,
with their wives and daughters. The town of Crewe con-
tains 514 houses, one church, three schools, and one town
hall, all belonging to the company. Not only are the
streets, which are well lighted by gas, much broader than
those of Wolverton ; but the houses are, generally speak-
ing, of a superior description, and although all are new,
yet it is curious to observe how insidiously old customs,
old fashions, old wants, and even old luxuries have be-
come domiciled. Many of the shops have large windows,
which eagerly attempt to look like plate glass. In the
shoemakers' shops, contrasted with thick railway boots
and broad railway shoes, there hang narrow-soled Wel-
lingtons and Bluchers, as usual scarcely half the gauge or
breadth of the human foot. The company's workmen be-
gan by having a cheap stout dancing master of their own;
but the aristocracy of Crewe very naturally requiring
higher kicks, we found a superior and more elegant artist
giving lessons in the Town Hall—a splendid room, capa-
ble of containing 1,000 persons.—Quarterly Review.
CAMPBELL'S BOYISH TRICKS.—WhiIe the young phi-
losopher cautiously avoided all further skirmishing, he
was unhappily not proof against temptations at home,
which convinced him in the end that political intrigue is
sometimes even worse than open warfare. The trap was
set by a wily hand ; and as that hand was a brother's,
Thomas never suspected that the well-known waggery of
Daniel was to be played off upon himself. " My mother,"
says he, "had a cousin, an auld bedrid lady, of the name
of Simpson, about whose frail life she felt great anxiety ;
but, being herself a martyr to rheumatism, she was unable
to visit her personally. She therefore sent, every day,
either my brother or myself, a distance of nearly two
miles, to inquire ' How Mrs. Simpson had rested last
night, and how she felt herself this morning.' One day,"
he continues, "that I was sent to fetch the bulletin,
which would have kept me from a nice party that was to
go out for the gathering of blackberries, I complained,
with tears in my eyes, to my brother Daniel, about this
deil of an auld wife, that would neither die nor get better.
Tut, man,' said my crafty brother, ' can't you just do as
I do ?" And what's that ?" Why, just say she's better,
or worse, without taking the trouble of going so far to
inquire.' This seemed a piece of excellent advice; but a
philosopher under 13 could see clearly that some untoward
event might throw discredit on the bulletin. Daniel,
110vveker, with hi. tibuwi gravity, prosed to demonstratioi
that there was no risk whatever in the plan, or why should
be have carried it on so long. ' Well, thought 1, ' there
was something in that.' It would certainly be a great
saving of time,' said Daniel. I said I thought it would ;
so having adopted the plan as a great means of saving
time, we continued to report in this manner for weeks and
months; and finding that a bad bulletin only sent us back
earlier next morning, we agreed that the old lady should
get better." These favourable reports of her dear cousin's
health, were very gratifying to Mrs. Campbell. No sus-
picion whatever attached to the bulletins, as they were
reported every morning :—" Mrs. Simpson's kind compli-
ments to mamma : has had a better night, and is going on
very nicely." And thus the poet and his brother took
advantage of every " nice party" that was made up, either
for picking " blackberries," or any other play of equal
interest and importance. But the pleasing deception
could not last much longer; truth, that had been so in-
geniously defrauded, was about to make reprisals upon
the young culprits. This, too, was at the very moment
when they were starting to spend a long day in the coun-
try. " But, wae's me," says Campbell, "on that very
morning on which we had the audacity to announce that
' Mrs. Simpson was quit,' recovered,' there comes to our
father a letter, as broad and long as a brick, with cross-
bones and a grinning death's head upon its seal, and in-
dited thus : Sir,—Whereas Mrs. James Simpson, relict
of the late Mr. Andrew Simpson, merchant, in Glasgow,
died on Wednesday, the 4th instant, you are hereby re-
quested to attend her funeral on Monday next, at ten
o'clock, a.m.' " Never was evidence more conclusive.
Both the culprits would have gladly confessed the trick,
and implored pardon, but they were speechless; and in
as much consternation as if the grimly ghost of Mrs.
Simpson herself had delivered the fatal message. Mr.
and Mrs. Campbell looked at the letter, then at their two
hopeful sons, and then at one another ; but such were
their grief and astonishment, that neither of them for
some minutes could utter a word, "At last," says the
poet, " my mother's grief for the death of her respected
cousin vented itself in cuffing our ears. But I was far lees
pained by her blows than by a few words from my father.
He never raised a band to us ; and I would advise all
fathers who would have their children to love their
memory, to follow kris example."—Beattie'" Life of
Campbell.