The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-18 00:00:00

FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

FRENCH NEWSPAPERS are forbidden to publish that
portion of Sir James Graham's recent speech at Carlisle
in which he spoke of " forty millions of people lying
prostrate in the dust at the feet of a single man. _

AGES OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.—FrankIin Pierce
is the youngest man who has ever been elected President.
He is 48 years of age. Washington, John Adams, Jeffer.
son, Maddison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Van
Buren were each 58, Jackson 62, Harrison 68, Taylor 66,
and Polk 49.

INSULTS TO THE EMPEROR.—Two journeymen cabinet
makers have been convicted of an insult to the person of
the French Emperor, by defacing his image upon a sf.
piece. This offence is very prevalent. The prisoners were
sentenced one to six and the other to two months' im-
prisonment. _

•
MOUNT ETNA.—The eruption which had nearly sub-
sided, recomme.iced with renewed vigour on the 9th ult.
Accounts of the 14th and 15th state that violent detona-
tions occur from time to time, and that the lava increases
daily. A shock of earthquake was experienced at
Zafferana on the 11th.

PoisoNous WATER-COLOURS.—At Danzig a child re-
ceived a box of colours as a Christmas present, and began
colouring in the usual way of children, moistening the
brush in its mouth. It was taken suddenly ill, and died
in a few hours, when it was found that the cake of green
was composed of copperas and arsenic.
BULL FIGHTS IN PARIS.—A prospectus has been
issued by a Spanish Company, a serious, bond fide com-
pany, of known names, proposing to the French govern-
ment to found in Paris a cirque for the celebration of
bullfights, which they assert by no means dangerous,
inasmuch as that men are very rarely killed in them.
SMUGGLING.—A curious sort of smuggling was practised
last season between Lombardy and Piedmont, large flocks
of sheep having their wool on being driven over the fron-
tier, and returned a few days after completely shorn. The
Austrian Minister of Finance has now directed that in
such cases the duty upon the exportation of wool shall be
charged upon the flocks at their return.
THE ERICSSON.—The machinery of this caloric ship
has been tried in New York, and works admirably. She
will shortly be in a condition to make a trial trip, but it is
not expected that her speed will equal the paddle-wheel
steamers, though perhaps she may make the voyage to
Europe in as short a time as most of the propellers. Her
great advantage is economy.
MESSRS. COUTTS AND CO. have become possessed of
the splendid domain of Chantilly, which was formerly the
property of the Duke d'Aumale, and which Louis Napo-
leon confiscated by his decree of January 22, 1852. The
price to be given for it is 14,000,090 f. It is said that the
purchase money has been made by the house of Orleans
and its partisans, and that the property will still remain
in the former.

SPECIFIC REMEDIES.—A. fatal instance of the danger
of popular cures and remedies occurred recently at Naum-
burg, near Halle. A boy, 15 years of age, being attacked
with a violent cutaneous eruption, the father consulted a
quack, and was recommended to place his son in his warm
bakehouse oven, the heat of which would cause intense
perspiration, and throw off the disease. The father ac-
cordingly thrust the youth into the oven, closed the door,
and retired to rest. Upon opening the oven next
morning the boy was found a baked corpse.
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES.
—The average of each inhabitant in the States is $856.
The distribution is as follows :—Alabama 5532, Arkansas
$215, Connecticut .$475. California 5239, Delaware $260,
Florida 8'475, Georgina $640, Illinois 5184, lowa $123,
Indiana 5205, Kentucky 5391, Louisianna 5857, Maine
.B'2ll, Mississippi .8'732, Massachusetts .8'577, Maryland
.8'450, North Carolina W 391, New Hampshire 5326, New
York, 5316, New Jersey 5475, Oregon Territory 5381,
Pennsylvania'S'3l3, Ohio 5255, Rhode Island 5546, South
Carolina 8'1,017, Texas 5341, Tennessee 5254, Vermont
5294, Virginia $4ll, Wisconsin $l3B.

NEW ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.—The steamer Alba-
tross was to leave New York the first week in January,
for Vera Cruz direct. It is understood that this is the
pioneer steamer of the company formed to carry out the
grants made to Colonel Ramsay by the Mexican Govern-
ment, for the transn ortation of all foreign mails across
the territory of that Republic. The mails can be trans-
ported by land from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, a distance of
450 miles, in threa days. thus effecting a saving of half
the distance on the Pacific Ocean, between Panama and
San Francisco. These gentlemen speak confidently of
transmitting letters between New Orleans and San Fran-
cisco in thirteen days, as soon as their arrangements are
perfected, which they hope to accomplish in the cjurse of
this month. On the supposition that malls can be carried
from San Francisco to Acapulco in seven days, and in six
days more to New Orleans, the telegraphic wires will be
extensively used in transmitting intelligence from New
York to California.

EXECUTION.—A man named Durand, condemned some
time ago for having violated a girl eleven years of age:
and then cut her to pieces, has just been executed at
Melun. Up to the last moment he treated with contempt
the exhortations of the priest, and as he walked to the
scaffold gaily sung different airs. On reaching the Ple?r.
of execution he cried, "Ah, ah ! we shall see; what fun
With much persuasion he was induced to kneel near the
fatal block, and to recite some prayers after the priests
but he did so in a tone of bravado. When, in the widet
of them, the priest extended the crucifix to him, he pusheo,
it aside, and said, " Let me be quiet ; I will embrace it al;
termards !" Placed on the block, the executioner present
him with the cross—he kissed it, and the knife fell.
French paper.
KIDNAPPING A BRITISH SUBJECT.—H.M.S. Vestal;
26, Captain Hamilton, was cruising in the neighbourhood
of the Havannah, where considerable excitement Pre,.:
vaned, owing to a British subject, Plassy Lawrence, vw
had been kidnapped from the island of Nevis, and sold
into slavery at Havannah, having contrived to make het
escape, and take refuge on board the Vestal. Application
had been made by the British government for the releael
of the poor woman, but in vain. Her children were sole
into slavery, and the marks of the most savage flogging
were evident on her back, when she went on board the
ship. The Vestal was under the guns of the batteriet
and surrounded by the Spanish fleet, but her gallant
captain would not listen to any proposal for giving her
back to her inhuman masters, and she remains safe under
the protection of the British flag.—Morning Post.
THE WEATHER IN PARIS.—The chesnut-tree called
" The 20th of March," in the garden of the Tuileries, i 5
nearly in leaf ; in the garden of the Luxembourg al
are several rose trees in full bearing as in the spring ; ne
at the Jardin des Plantes some of the almond trees are :„
flower. The mildness of the present winter renders the
following enumeration of mild winters of some interest
In the winter of 1172 the trees were covered with leavees
and in January the birds were seen to build their neat,'
In 1289 there was no winter ; the temperature was
springlike at Christmas that the young girls at Cologne
wore violets and spring flowers during the festivities of that
part of the year. In 1481 the trees were in flower in
March and the vines in April. Ripe cherries Wel
gathered in May. In 1558 December and January hehe,_,
the gardens variegated with bloom. In 1572 the leac.T
appeared on the trees, and birds built their nests 1:
February. In 1585 the same phenomena were seen st 3;
same season. In 1607, 1609, and 1617 there was sesl7
any winter. In 1659 there was neither snow nor 10,9
In 1722 the month of January was so warm, even in the
north of Germany, that there was no occasion to lig°,
the stoves, and all the trees were in flower in the month
of February. In 1807 there was scarcely any winter.
THE NIAGARA SUSPENSION BRlDGE.—lmagine a ell
800 feet in length, forming a straight hollow beam 20 fee
wide and about 18 feet deep, with top, bottom, and sided
There will be an upper floor to support the railroad an
cars, 20 feet wide between the railings, and suspended ,
two wire cables, assisted by stays. The lower floor,
feet wide and 15 feet high in the clear, is connected to 9‘•
upper floor by vertical trusses. The cohesion of good Rot;
wire, when properly united into cables or ropes, is form!
to be from 90,0001 b. to 130,000ib. per square inch, accord'
ing to quality. The lime-stone used in constructing the
towers will bear a pressure of 500 tons upon every squay",
foot. The towers are 60 feet high, 15 feet square at th&
base, and 8 feet at the top. When this bridge is covers
with a train of cars the whole length, it will sustain :
pressure of not less than 405 tons. The speed is suppose
to add 15 per cent to the pressure—equal to 61 tons. The
weight of superstructure added—estimated at 782 tone
makes the total aggregate weight sustained 1,273 We'
Assuming 2,000 tons as the greatest tension to which the
cables can be subjected, it is considered safe to allow fille
times the regular strength, and providing for a weight 0i
10,000 tons. For this, 15,000 miles of wire are required'
The number of wires in one cable is 3,000 ; the diameter.,
of the cable about 9} inches. The bridge, we believe, P
the longest between the points of support of any in the
world.