The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-04 00:00:00

14Nstrat Drllls.

Last week a fine sturgeon, measuring seven feet, and
weighing 1 cwt. was caught in the river at Runcorn.
A new Protestant church is about to be erected at
Ormskirk, A few parties have already subscribed up-
wards of £l2OO.

Sir Robert Peel, during his recent visit to his estates at
Oswaldwisle, near Blackburn, forwarded £5O towards a
new organ for the church in that township.
Tim NEW CHURCH AT WORSLEY.-During the late
gales, the stone cross at the top of the spire of the new
church at Worsley, was blown over, so as to fall on one
side, upon the scaffold ; and the upper part of the spire it-
self, for about six yards from the top, appears to he so
split or broken, that it is said it must be taken down, if it
does not fall. The upper portions of the scaffolding, being
those parts most exposed to the fury of the gale, had to be
staved in all directions, by strong ropes made fast to trees
and posts, so as to prevent the whole from being blown
down.

A NEW " KIND OF PRODUCE."—On Friday, at the
Wigan market, a large quantity of " Nettles," imported
from Warrington, were offered for sale in baskets, at 4d.
each, (not the basket, included), which quantity might
very easily have been put in a person's coat-pocket; ne-
vertheless, the newly-invented article of agricultural pro-'
duce met with a ready sale. This is the first importation
of this staple article of food in the Wigan market, but
judging from the success it obtained, we venture to pre-
dict that others will be inclined to follow with the same
article, and cause a little competition, whereby it will be-
come reduced in value.

FACTORY TRADE AT WIGAN.—It is our painful duty to
have again to revert to the exceedingly depressed state of
the trade in Wigan and Hindley. In the former place,
Messrs. Eckersley have, during the past week totally
stopped a considerable portion of their looms, and as the
work comes off, other hands are being thrown out of em-
ployment ; and besides this, notice was posted through the
mill, stating that on Monday the mill would commence
running only three days per week. This arrangement is
at present only expected to continue one month. Messrs.
J. Woods and Co., of the Sovereign Mills, are working
only four days a week, as also Messrs. Brierly's. Mr.
Tipping's mill, in Chapel-lane, runs only three days, and
it is stated, that if trade is no better in a short time, it will
be closed altogether. Mr. Bullock's mill, Wallgate, has
been stopped several weeks. It is also stated that many
of the other owners of mills will be compelled to adopt the
short time system. In Hindley nearly all the mills are
on short time. With these facts before us, and a proba-
bility of trade being worse, we are quite at a loss to ima-
gine what will be the ultimate issue. Hundreds of poor
people are now upon the very verge of starvation.
THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS IN WEST LANCA-
SHIRE.—Wheat has not been so thin upon the ground for
many years as it is this year, in the Fylde country in
fact, many fields in Lathom,-Burscough, &c., have been
ploughed up, and sown with barley. What oats have
brairded up have come up remarkably well. . The rain
which fell on Sunday and Monday nights will be of great
benefit to the various crops, and to none more than the
grass crops. The bright green of the fields this week
affords an agreeable contrast to their former bleak ap •
pcarance. We have bad very high winds since Monday;
indeed, on Tuesday it almost blew a hurricane, carrying
the dust from the roads in clouds into the air. It is
feared that it will have done serious damage to some of
the carrot crops sown upon sandy. soils, by blowing the
seed along with the dry sand into the reins and ditches.
The bloom upon fruit trees, too, will suffer very much :
gooseberries and currants, also, have been blown from the
trees in great quantities. The farmers have almost
finished planting early potatoes, and are busily engaged
with the winter crop. An average quantity, or perhaps
more, will be planted ; but upon the stiff soils in the
neighbourhood of Mawdesley, where the disease was very
severe last year, not so many will be planted—the high
price of seed being a serious obstacle to procuring sets.
Early potatoes are springing beautifully, and appear per-
fectly free from disease ; but the winds have blighted those
in exposed situations almost as bad as frost.
MANCHESTER NEW RACE COURSE.—The formation of
the Manchester new race-course, Broughton Meadows, is
rapidly approaching towards completion. The ground, a
few days ago, could be compared to nothing but a bee-
hive, so numerous were the hands employed to mould it
into form and fashion. When completed, it will rank as
the first race-course in Great Britain. The ground is
perfectly flat, and on the east and northern sides of it
nature has formed a rising ground, forming a most splen- 1
did amphitheatre, capable of containing half the popula- 1
tion of Manchester. The approaches are hastening to
completion • the permanent sods have been laid on the
whole of the course, and it has been most substantially
railed off wherever it is requisite to be done. There are •
to be three different stands, all of which are built very
substantially. These stands will accommodate above
9,000 people. The course will be as solid as box, (as the
saying goes),—at least, if the most ponderous roller almost
ever seen can, by a diligent working of it, accomplish that
object. The lessee of the ground has erected a toll-bar
just at the entrance, at which both pedestrian and eques-
trian will have to contribute. Bets are now making that
the bar will realise £1,500 or £2,000. That a large sum
will be raised there is no doubt; curiosity alone will, it is
supposed, bring its tens of thousands to the scene. There
will be three general approaches to the race course, for
carriages, horses, and pedestrians ; one from Pendleton,
one from the Crescent, Salford, and one from Higher and
Lower Broughton.
PROTESTANT MEETING.—On Thursday, the annual
meeting of the Manchester and Salford Protestant Refor-
mation Society was held in the Free Trade Hall. The
immense hall was crowded by a highly respectable assem-
blage of ladies and gentlemen. Amongst the gentlemen
present on the platform, we observed Colonel Sir Digby
Mackworth, hart. ; Mr. Augustus Stapleton (formerly
secretary to the late Mr. George Canning), and Mr.
Richard Nugent, who attended as a deputation from the
National Club for promoting the Protestant principles of
the constitution; Rev. Hugh Stowell, Rev. H.W.M'Grath,
Rev. J. H. Maguire, and an immense number of the clergy
and gentry. The chair was taken by the Rev. Hugh
Stowell. The following resolutions, moved and seconded
by the Rev. J. H. Maguire, Rev. W. Huntingdon, Rev. R.
Nugent, and Sir Digby Mackworth, were unanimously
passed : That unity of purpose and consentaneous action
amongst the friends of Protestant truth being most impor-
tant, the Manchester and Salford Protestant and Reforma-
tion Association resolve to communicate and co-operate
with the National Club; at the same time, retaining their
own independence of existence and proceedings." "That
the meeting is deeply impressed with the solemn and cri-
tical position of our national Protestantism at the present

juncture, and look forward to the coming election as sure,
under God, to determine the destiny of this Christian
country ; they would, therefore, call upon all who love the
truth of God to unite in fervent prayer, and prompt and
energetic effort, with a view to that crisis." Mr. Augustus
Stapleton delivered a very powerful address to the meeting.
MOST DISTRESSING CASE.—On the 20th instant, an
inquest was held before H. Churton, Esq., coroner, at
Nantwich Workhouse, on the bodies of Catherine, Mar-
garet, and Mary Kelly, a mother and her two daughters,
who died under the following lamentably distressing
circumstances :—The deceased woman, with her family,
lately arrived from Ireland, among other unhappy wan-
derers, in a state of great distress. They took up their
abode in some empty houses at Beam Heath, near Nant-
wich, but having been forcibly ejected from this tempo_
rary shelter, the poor woman, on the 11th instant, under
the combined pressure of want and delirious fever, threw
herself into a pit, where they would probably have been
drowned but for timely succour, which was obtained by
some youths who saw the bodifs in the water. The
children were taken to Nantwich Union Workhouse, and
the mother to the lock-up, charged with an attempt to
murder; here she remained till the following Friday,
when, on her examination before the magistrates, Mr.
Williamson, surgeon, deposed to the alarming state of her
health, and she was also removed to the Nantwich Work-
house. On the 18th instant, after dreadful sufferings
from a raging fever, the mother died ; on the previous
day her child Mary died, and on the 20th instant, another
child, Marcaret, died also. The other little sufferer still
survives. The jury returned a verdict that "the deceased,
Catherine, Alargaret. and Mary Kelly,elied from the effect*,
of typhus fever, consequent upon exposure to the in-
clemency of the weather, and from the want of proper
food." The jury also took the opportunity of recording
their "regret that the deceased were admitted into the
Nantwich Union .Workhouse in a state of fever, thus en-
dangering by infection the lives of the inmates."—Ches-
ter Courant.