The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

Bistrirt Rtbio.

The strike still continues at Ashton-under-Lyne, and
on Friday fears were entertained for the preservation of
the peace. Nothing however occurred. The operatives
parade from mill to mill, and it is feared that an attempt
will be made to-turn out the hands from the mills at work.
RIPE STRAWBERRIES IN NOVEMBER.—On the 2d inst.,
a very fine dish of Alpine strawberries, quite ripe, and of
good flavour, grown in the open air, was gathered in the
garden of Mr. Michael Delaunay, of Crumpsall, near
Manchester.

MAMMOTH• MACHINERY.—We noticed the transit
through the town of an immense wrought-iron shaft, ma-
nufactured by Messrs. Peel, Williams, and Peel, of the
Soho Iron Works, and destined to be used in the con-
struction of the Wapping tunnel, at the Liverpool termini
of the Liverpool and Manchester section of the London
and North Western Railway. This immense mass of
wrought iron, upwards of ten tons in weight, is, we be-
lieve, the longest ever constructed, being 31 feet long,
and 15 inches in diameter in the centre, and 17 inches at
each end. There was also a large three-sheave pulley of
16 feet in diameter, and weighing upwards of 10 tons, in-
tended for the same destination. —Manchester Courier.
THE BOILER EXPLOSION NEAR ROCHDALE.—The in-
quest on the people destroyed by the explosion was con-
cluded on Thursday week. The jury brought in a verdict
that " John Leach came by his death accidentally, from
the explosion of the steam-boiler, caused by an undue
pressure of steam ; that the safety valve was defective in
construction, and neglected in condition ; and that it ap-
peared the mercurial steam gauge was plugged with an
iron plug, and, consequently, useless." The jury also
expressed their opinion that Richard Booth, the engine-
tender, was incompetent for his situation, and that great
blame was attached to those who employed such incom-
petent persons. Similar verdicts were returned in all the
other cases.

INFANT MORTALITY AT MANCHESTER.—The Regis-
trar-General reports that, in the last quarter, the epidemic
of fever has been more fatal in Lancashire than in Lon-
don. In Manchester, Salford, and Chorlton, 4,154 deaths
were registered from all causes. Diarrhoea and fever were
the prevalent diseases. Typhus carries off men and women
in the prime of life. Diarrhea destroys more children,
and becomes dangerous to adults in the form of cholera.
The Registrar of Deansgate, Manchester, says—" More
children have died in the district during the last quarter
under the age of five years, than in most other quarters
there have been deaths at all ages. This is an astounding
fact, yet perfectly consistent with prior observation ; if
the general mortality be large, the infant mortality will
ever be found to bear its duo proportion, and the causes,
in such a district as this are perfectly obvious. In the
calamitous season just passed, manufactures have been
at a stand still; food has been unattainable by the poor,
for employment they had none ; famine made her dwelling
in their homes, and her attendant horror, typhus, relent-
lessly swept his victims to the grave. During the sickness,
which either terminated in death, or rendered the removal
of the poor to the fever hospitals necessary, their offspring
have been neglected and uncared for; some have sunk
under the malady of their parents—others, deprived of the
nourishment nature had supplied, have pined and wasted
away, the victims of inanition, their glands diseased, and
incapable of assimilating the incongruous food supplied to
them. The disease of autumn s also done its work
fearfully amongst them, no less than 103 deaths, almost
entirely of children, being recorded from diarrhea, under
the drain of which the exhausted frames of the little suf-
ferers rapidly sunk. In the close, ill-ventilated, and
densely-crowded rooms where the poor hive together,
contagious disorders make rapid progress, extending from
one to another, and acquiring increased virulence from the
filth and noisomeness with which they are nourished."
SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE FROM MANCHESTER OF THE
CELEBRATED T. P. GILMOUR.—During the last fortnight
this city has been honoured as the residence of a man by
no means unknown to fame, having for that period been
selected as the abiding place of T. P. Gilmour, alias Parr,
&c., &c., &c. Long known in Liverpool as a most con-
summate artiste, we suppose he must have found his lau-
rels getting somewhat tarnished, and, bent upon proving
that honesty is not the best policy," he must e'en come
to Manchester to put his notions into practice. Unfor-
tunately for him, Fame, which is trumpet-tongued, had
conveyed his name here, and simultaneous with his arri-
val in this city, the agency of steam brought the police
some two dozen copies of his portrait, from the easel of a
distinguished artist. A brief memoir of his life also ac-
companied these kindly souvenirs of his friends the police,
with a caution to their brethren in Manchester that he
was by no means to be trusted too far. Acting on such
kindly suggestions, the distinguished visitant to our city
was silently honoured by the police with a deputation to
meet him at the Railway Station. and, without overwhelm-
ing him with any oppressive demonstration of welcome,
they saw him safely located in, or rather watched him to,
his lodgings in Stock-street, Cheetham. Safely enscon-
sed there, Mr. Beswick, the chief superintendent of po-
lice, did not neglect to provide him with a suitable number
of attendants, who, like the Magi described in the Ara-
bian Nights, waited upon him unseen. As the gentleman
issued forth day by day, to distribute his orders amongst
unsuspecting tradesmen, two clever officers of the detec-
tive
police accompanied him in all his rambles. Fast as
he gave his orders (which he did with a liberal hand) a
policeman followed after, and apprized the parties who he
was, so that the orders he gave, which varied from a pair
of boots to £lOOO worth of yarn, were never executed.
Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Gilmour would no doubt
have remained here, in the hope that some fish would
have come to his net; but on Thursday, whilst seated at
Mr. Brown's eating-house, in Deansgate, he was disagree-
ably surprised by a visit from Mr. Beswick, who had
learned the old gentleman's whereabouts, and paid him a
special visit. With his characteristic politeness, Mr.
Beswick addressed him as an old friend, and to convince
him how highly he esteemed him, he showed him his por-
trait, handsomely done in bronze and gold, telling him,
in a cautionary way,-that there were sharks about, and
advising him to leave the town, and return to Liverpool
as soon as possible. At first Mr. Gilmour took this ad-
vice in high dudgeon, no doubt deeming it anything but
friendly ; but ultimately he admitted that it would per-
haps be the best course, and he promised to leave Man-
chester the next day. " Here," said Mr. Beswick, " you
will find it no go, we are not to be done in Manchester,"
and accordingly, true to his promise, Mr. Gilmour de-
parted on Friday, finding that credit without substantial
reference was an indulgence not afforded here, especially
in such suspicious times as the present.—Manchester
Courier.

SLEEP.—The poet Young says, " Sleep is great nature's
second course—the balm of hurt minds." Johnson says,
"It is the parenthesis of human woe." Sleep being thus
appreciated by mankind, how desirous ought we to be that
all should tranquilly enjoy " sweet repose," the general
obstruction to which is through an unhealthy action of
the liver or other viscera. A little attention to the " young
disease," by having recourse to.a mild aperient, often pro-
duces the most salutary effect, and for such purpose
Frampton's Pill of Health stands prominent in public
opinion.

*Among the many discoveries that characterise the pre-
sent age, nothing has contributed so much to the comfort
and ease of the community, nor conferred such a boon
upon suffering humanity, as that important discovery and
never-failing remedy for gout and rheumatism, Blair's
Gout and Rheumatic Pills. Thousands would join in the
observations of an elderly female, as made to Mr. Foggett,
the agent at Thirsk, " That she would rather be without
butter to her bread and sugar to her tea, than Blair's
Pills." This important medicine is sold by all medicine
vendors. Price 2s. 9d. per box. Observe the name of
" Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, London," on the govern-
ment stamp.

IMPORTANCE OF AUSTRALIA.

(From Blackwood's Magazine.)

Within the last quarter of a century, discovery has
turned to the islands of the Pacific, perhaps the most
favoured region of the globe. Our great continental
colony of Australia, its growing population, and its still
more rapidly growing enterprise—its probable influence
on our Indian empire, and its still more probable supre-
macy over the islands which cover the central Pacific, from
the tenth to the forty-fifth degrees of south latitude ; have
for the last thirty years strongly directed the observation
of government to the south. And a succession of ex-
ploring voyages, from the days of Vancouver to the
present time, have been employed in ascertaining the
character of superb shores, and the capabilities of vast
countries, which will perhaps, in another century, exhibit
the most vivid prosperity, cultivation, and activity, of
any dominion beyond the borders of Europe.
Australia has an importance in the eyes of England,
superior perhaps to all her other colonies. The climate is
obviously more fitted for the English frame than -that of
Canada or the West Indies. The English settler alone is
master of the mighty continent of New Holland ; for the
natives are few, savage and rapidly diminishing. The
Englishman may range over a territory of two thousand
miles long, by seventeen hundred broad, without meeting
the subject of any other sovereign, or hearing any other
language than his own. The air is temperate, Lough so
nearthe equator, and the soil, though often unfertile, is
admirably adapted to the rearing of sheep and cattle.
The adjoining islands offer the finest opportunities for the
commercial enterprise of the Englishman ; and its direct-
ness of navigation to India or China, across an ocean that
scarcely knows a storm, give it the promise of being the
great eastern depot of the world. Van Dieinan's Land,
about the size, with more than the fertility of Ireland, is
said to resemble Switzerland in picturesque beauty; and
New Zealand, a territory of fifteen hundred miles in
length, and of every diversity of surface, is already re-
ceiving the laws and the population of England.
The distance is the chief drawback. Sydney is, by
ordinary ship's course, sixteen thousand miles from Lon-
don, and the voyage, under the most prosperous circum-
stances, has hitherto occupied about four months. But
better hopes are at hand.
On the 20th of last May, a charter was obtained by a
company for establishing a steam communication with
Sydney, which proposes to make the whole course within
about two months. The route is as follo A s,—making
twelve thousand seven hundred and thirty miles in sixty-
four days :—From England to Sincapore, by Egypt, eight
thousand three hundred and ninety miles. From Sinca-
pore to Port Essington, by Batavia, two thousand miles.
From Port Essington to Sydney, two thousand three
hundred and forty miles ; the rate being one hundred and
ninety-nine miles a a-day. The first portion occupying
forty-two days,—the second, ten,—and the third, twelve.
The subject was, for a considerable time, before govern-
ment, and various plans of communication had been sug-
gested.—A route by the Isthmus of Darien, and the route
by the Cape with a branch to the Mauritius. The route
by Egypt and India has at length been chosen, and the
most sanguine hopes are entertained of its success. The
steam establishment will have the further advantage of
shortening the distance by one-half between Calcutta and
Sydney ; and reducing it to thirty days, or perhaps less.