The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-12 00:00:00

TRIAL TRIP OF THE STEAMER " HOPE."

A trial trip of the African Mail Steam Company's ship
Hope, recently launched from the building yard of Mr.
John Laird, at Birkenhead, was made on Saturday,
through the new channel, beyond the Bell-buoy, and
realised the most sanguine anticipations.
The Hope is the third of the African Steamship Com-
pany's vessels that has been built and fitted out at this
port. She is a sister vessel to the Faith, Captain Parsons,
is 922 tons, builder's measurement, and has direct-acting
engines, of 200 horse-power, by Messrs. Geo. Forrester
and Co. The peculiar nature of the service for which
these vesseN•are intended, requiring great capacity, com-
bined with light draught of water,.and well-ventilated
berths for passengers, officers, and crew; has been pro-
vided for by constructing the vessels of greater beam
than usual with screw steam-ships, and the erecting of a
deck-house eight feet high, almost the whole length of
the ship, and fitted with slate-rooms for the officers and
passengers, and a handsome dining-saloon and elegant
ladies' cabin—a plan which for tropical climates has great
advantages over any other. The dining-room, s' eeard's
pantry, and cook's department are en :mite, and r 3 nearly
the centre of the vessel as possible, which is another
favourable peculiarity in the arrangements of the Hope.
The Hope, which is commanded by Captain W. H.
Bowen, who has had considerable experience in steam-
ships, proceeded on her trip a little before noon; and at
the time the screw-steamer Osmanli was steaming out on
her passage to Australia. She soon passed the latter
vessel, which was deeply laden, and was-consequently not
in a condition to compete with her. During the whole
of the trip she had more steam than she required, " she
engineer's pennant" being exhibited throughout the day-
Her smart man-of-war appearance male her the object of
general admiration, owing in a considerable degree to her
neat rig, which has been executed under the superin-
tendence of Captain Henderson, formerly of the barque
Shakspere, of Liverpool.
f3he passes the Stock Light at 12 7, p.m., with a slight
flood tide and a stiff head wind against her, and made the
Crosby Lightship at 12 37j, p.m. ; the Formby-lights at
12 53, p.m.; and the Bell-buoy at 1 10, p.m., being an
average speed of about twelve miles an hour- against the
wind.
During the return trip, which was- most satisfactorily
performed under a considerable pressure of canvass, in
addition to steam, Mr. Macgregor Laird, the originator
and principal contractor of the line, entertained a number
of gentlemen to an elegant dejeuner, served in the saloon.
Mr. Macgregor Laird occupied the chair •. Mr. Hamilton
Laird, Captain Birch, R.N., and Mr. 'Henry Parsons,
brother of Captain Parsons, of the Faith, filled the vice-
chairs ; besides whom were Mr. Hadfield, secretary of the
South American Steam Navigation Company; Mr. C.
Hislop (W. A. G. Maxwell and Co.) ; Mr. Douglas
(Stewart and Douglas;) Captain Ward; Mr. Hughes,
Admiralty engineer; Captain Green, of the South Ame-
rican steamer now being built at Me. John Laird's; and
Messrs. Norman, Jackson, F. B. Jones, R. Rayner, Dou-
glas Hebson, John Holme (Holrae, Slater and Crook),
J. Andrew, John Conway, &c.—The usual loyal toasts
having been given from the chair, Mr.. CONWAY, in a few
appropriate observations, gave " Success tot the Hope."
—"The Army and Navy," coupled with the name of Capt.
Birch, having been given from the chair, Mr. HENRY
PARSONS gave " The health of the.-originator of the cora-
pany."—Mr. MACGREGOR LAIRDy in responding,acknow-
ledged that he experienced great pride in having originated
the African Mail Screw Steam-ship Company, which, he
trusted, would be of great service to this country in deve-
loping the trade of the coast of Africa. He had been
criticised by someof his friends :or not starting the line from
Liverpool. He knew, however, that Liverpool was not the
place at which to start a new steam navigation company ;
and this was evident in the fact that, out of the 240 share-
holders of this company, the only support they had found
in Liverpool was one gentleman whose interest was
repzesented by £lOO. He did not blame Liverpool for
this, because its inhabitants had greater opportunities of
losing their money. (Laughter.) in London, if any
promising speculation was originated, there were plenty
of rich people ready to employ their money ; but the mer-
cantile and commercial community of Liverpool were so
energetic and pushing that they could employ their money
to greater advantage. He might, however, state that ho
never intended this scheme to apply exclusively to Lon-
don. Liverpool was. naturally the great seaport of the.
African trade, four-fifths, of which belonged to her. After
getting in the small edge of the wedge, he proposed that
Liverpool should have a share of the African Mai! Screw
Steam Company's trade. And he was now in a position to
state that, on the 10th of October, they would start a vessel, from Liverpool, which would be able to carry sufficient
palm oil in her bottom to pay her own expenses, irrespective
of the Government contract. The Cneiamaeenext gave
" The African trade from Liverpool, which had been carried
on with such signal energy and success," coupled with
the names of Mr. Douglas and Captain Ward, who briefly:
returned thanks. The health of Captain Bowen was
drunk and duly responded to. " The Builders of the Hope"
was given by Mr. R. RAYNER, and Mr. W. LAIRD,
responded. Among the other toasts were " Mr. Hamiltoet
Laird ;" " The Ladies;" " The Press," which was responded
to by Mr. BLAKE, of the Liverpool Str,ndard ; " IVlessz'3-
Forrester and Co. ;" " Mr. Hebson, the chief engineer;"
" The Palm Oil Trade ;" " The Timber Trade," ree
sponded to by Mr. JOHN HOLME, In giving ", The
Palm Oil Trade," the CHAIRMAN expressed an opinion
that, in twenty years hence, when commerce had been
extended to 150 miles in the interior of Africa, the palm
oil trade, great as it now was, would be exceeded by the
trade in vegetable butter, which would become the great
article of export from Africa. By means of these steam
vessels the coast of Africa was now brought within three
wxreoe
and they would find that this
p
the principal staple article of
P
Aoltme'e, in responding to the toast, ob-
servedwhen the palm oil trade
was first opened, the tonnage of ships engaged in it was
5000 ; it was now 20,000. Yet he- was persuaded that
the trade was still in its infancy, and that it would in-
ed:urstc'
product
- that sail
export.—Mr.
lo wMfdS
twentyTEbi Ne England,er
years ago,
in-
crease to 100,000 tom
The Hope went into the halt-tide dock yesterday, in order to receive the final inspection, and is expected to
leave the port this day (Tuesday).
The Charity, the fourth steamer of the company, is to
be launched from Mr. John Laird's building-yard on the
23rd. Her engines are rapidly progressing at Messrs.
Forrester and Co.'s. The Northern Light, the steam-ship
intended to open the line between this port and the Coast,
on the 10th of October next, is in a forward state, along-
side the Charity. She will be 1400 tons register, and
calculated to carry 1000 tons weight of palm oil. The
Southern Cross and Pleiades, which will be of larger tone
nage, will complete the Liverpool line. It is probable
that the line will be extended to St. Paul de Loanda, call-
ing at Gaboon, River Congo, Ambrez, and other intere
mediate ports, in the course of the ensuing summer.

ANTI-REFORMATION SERVICE ROOKS. An attempt
is made in certain quarters to reveve the use of Service-
books anterior to the Reformation. A new " Companion
to Confession and Communion, translated and arranged
from the Ancient English Offices of Sarum Use," has
been published, and it has been laid down that it is " the
duty of clergymen who receive formal confessions to
adhere to the Sarum Manual, " till some further order
be taken in the matter."—John Bull.

A RUNAWAY " RANTER:"^-Last Friday morning,
John Bayliss, an itinerant Primitive Methodist preacher
and class leader, at Loughborough, absconded with a large
sum of money. On Saturday ho was found by two
Loughborough ministers at Derby station about to take
his " departure to the north," and from thence to his sons
in America. The money he had upon him was given UP
to his pursuers, and they and he returned to Loughborough
together the same afternoon. Bayliss had been a Primitive
Methodist many years, and for several years past had been
treasurer (4 " the cause" at Loughborough,--/yquinuhe
Journal,

per share for a time to be hereafter named, and subse-
quently at the rate of £2. 10s. per cent. ; that, after 1894,
they should be redeemable; and, lastly, that these bonds
should not exceed £30,000,000 in amount. The bonds
would be exchangeable with exchequer bills, from which
he anticipated paying the reduced rate of interest. Exche-
quer bonds might be sold by government, and the pro-
ceeds invested in the purchase of stock, for the purpose of
cancelling it ; and there were various reasons for expecting
that these would prove a popular security. The next
point was the voluntary conversion of the three per cent.
stock at any time between the passing of the act and the
10th of October next to exchange them into exchequer
bonds at par, or into a new 31 per cent. stock, at the rate
of £B2 10s. of the latter for every £lOO of the former,
which would give a permanent income of £2 17s. 9d.,
instead of £3 ; or it would be open to them to take, for
every £lOO stock, £llO of a 21 per cent. stock guaranteed
for forty years. But it was intended to limit the extent of
this option. The objection to the last alternative was that,
in order to reduce the annual charge of the debt, the
capital or principal would be increased ; but Mr. Glad-
stone argued that, taking the creation of this stock in con-
junction with that of the 31 per cent. stock, posterity
would suffer no disadvantage. On the contrary, posterity
would enjoy a reduction of the annual charge for the debt.
By the original draft of the resolutions it was left to the
option of all the holders of the great three per cent. stocks
to exchange into the new 21 per cent. stock. This might
have entailed an increase of the nominal capital of the
debt to the extent of £50,000,000, and he did not think
the risk of so large an increase should be incurred, It
was intended, therefore, to limit the amount of three per
cent. stock to be commuted to £3o,ooo,ooo,saecording to
priority, the holders of three per cent. stock having still,
however, the option of exchanging it for 31 per cents. or
exchequer bonds. The utmost nominal addition that
could be made to the capital of the national debt would
consequently be something more than £3,000,000.--
In the course of the discussion which ensued, Mr.
Alderman THOMPSON said he had never heard so bold a
proposition for the reduction of the national debt. He
approved of parts of the scheme; but he thought it ought
not to be further proceeded with until the house had had
time to consider the resolutions.—Sir F. KELLY thought
that the three proposals for the conversion of the three
per cent, stock amounted to nothing at 'WILSON
argued that the whole thing took the shape of an annuity,
as the holder could only demand payment of his stock at
the end of forty years; while the government alone could
propose the repayment at any intermediate period.—Mr.
DISRAELI complained of the alterations which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer had made that day in his scheme,
which now only dealt with thirty millions, instead of five
hundred millions of the three per cents. The whole ob-
ject of the resolution was to invest a two and a half per
cent. stock. The plan did not propose to do much, and
he believed it would do less than it proposed ; and be
must say that a vast amount of ingenuity had been vvastcd
upon a measure of very limited utility. The resolutions
were then agreed to.
THE SIX-MILE .13/611;GE AFFAIR.—A resolution moved
by Lord A. VANE, to the effect that the exposition of the
law set forth by Mr. Justice Perrin, in his charge to the
grand jury of the county of Clare, with reference to the'
duties of soldiers employed in the suppression of riots, is
at variance with the opinions of former judges, opposed'
to rules of military act and civil forces, and antagonistic
to the principles and orders of the Mutiny Act, and the
Queen's regulation; and that it is the opinion of this
house that the conduct of the soldiers employed at the
Six-mile Bridge was thoroughly justifiable, and necessi-
tated by the position they were placed in, was, after
some discussion, withdrawn.