The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-22 00:00:00

more minute inquiry, before any one of the Polytechnic Society I
would venture to say it would be prudent to adopt the scheme. I

. . .
But though we are not, perhaps, as a society, or individually,
prepared to endorse the estimates as they have been presented
to us, yet it is within our province to recommend the scheme
on every.other account to the Dock Committee, or any public
company, whichever may be considered best to carry it out.
Some of-the most important details of the case may be profit-
ably discussed, but which have nothing to do with the great
question now before us as, to whether we approve of the scheme
or not in its main points.

On this my own opinion is most decided, and, as a member
of the Polytechnic Society, it is my duty to say I most cor-
dially support Mr. Grantham on the main question, without
being bound to his details.
I must beg respectfully and with deference to differ with him
as to the mode of working the proposed railway. My own im-
pression is, that the plan lie proposes of propelling the trains
by several fixed engines and several endless ropes—which has
been proved in the Blackwell case to be too expensive—and,
having the required rope in short lengths, is not an improve-
ment upon the Blackwell system, and would be found too ex-
pensive in practice. And as to locomotive power, it has been
presumed would be too dangerous for the purpose. In this I
am disposed to agree, and on this account I shall propose ano-
ther plan, which I think will commend itself to general ap-
proval, because it is not only less expensive than .any other
.plan, being altogether free from loss by friction, but readily
applicable to work the discharge and loading of ships. My
belief is, that by the plan I shall endeavour to explain it could
be worked by two powerful engines—one fixed at the north end
and the other at the south end of the line. Now, the principle
I am about to introduce to your notice is not the atmospheric
of South Devon that proved so disastrous, nor that now at
work between Kingstown and Dalkey, which has continued to
.worlr so well ; but what I shall recommend to your notice is
that of Cunningham and Carter's patent, by which you have a
perfect tube, and not that of the longitudinal valve and slide.
It will be difficult to convey the plan to you in words. I will,
however, attempt to explain what I mean—which, as Cunning-
ham and Carter say—a sound air-tight main pipe of sufficient
size, extended throughout the line beneath the sarface, and a
partial vacuum maintained therein by the stationary engines
placed at each end of the line. In a double line of railway three
wheels are fixed horizontally on the road above the rails, and
at right angles with them—one wheel being placed within and
filling the centre space, and the other two, say 6 feet in diameter,
outside the rails. Each carriage is provided with traction or
friction rails attached outside its wheels, and extending its
whole length on both sides. Propulsion is caused by these
rails being brought into contact with the peripheries of the
horizontal wheels, which at the proper moment are made to
revolve with the required velocity by the simplest machinery,
acted upon by the vacuum through branch pipes connected
with the main, the action ceasing when the train has passed.
The vacuum being maintained, trains may be started at any
moment, and the amount of power used proportioned to the
train and speed required. The arrangements for starting,
stopping, backing, and crossing the line, are simple and effec-
tive; and authorised persons on the roadside may be em•
powered to stop the trains, independent of the conductor.

. . ..„ _.........,—..
This mode of propulsion is a saving of a very large propor-
tion of working expenses, and in wear and tear of rails and
road. Besideithis, the same power can be applied with the
greatest facility to the use of ships next to the railway for hoist-
ing and lowering cargo as may be required, and with the
greatest safety. The economy in the application of this power
would, no doubt, be very great, and at least worthy of the best
consideration of the town.

I trust my remarks may at least provoke discussion.—l am,
Sir, yours, respectfully, - WILLIAM ROWEIT.

♦
DESECRATION OF THE LORD'S DAY.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—As I was passing along Scotland-road yesterday morn-
ing, a little before ten o'clock, the congregation was coming out
of St. Anthony's Romish Chapel, and my attention was directed
to a crowd collected close by its gates. On crossing the road, I
found a man vending tracts at the price of one penny each, and
announcing the title-page at the top of his voice. The publi.
cation in question was (as far as I could gather from the state.
ment) "a full and correct account of the conversion of Lord
Charles Thynne from the errors of Protestantism unto the
bosom of the glorious and Holy Church," and met with a brisk
sale, principally from the congregation as they emerged from
the chapel. A little distance lower down was another man ex-
posing for sale a large sheet of coloured woodcuts, the principal
of which were a portrait of his Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth,
a representation of our Saviour on the Cross, and the Adora-
tion of the Virgin Mary. The previous Sunday I witnessed
similar proceedings.

Now, it occurs to me that as the police have particular in-
structions to prevent the vending of oranges, apples, &c., in
the streets on a Sunday, even when unaccompanied by a dis-
sertation upon their merits, they ought also to be instructed to
prevent the sale of such publications as I have described. The
same rule which applies to apples ought to apply to books; or,
if there is to be an exception at all, it ought to be in favour of
the fruit, seeing that most people agree in opinion as to its
good qualities, while the two prints referred to are at least
questionable as to their character.—l am, Sir, yours, most res-
pectfully, J. R. B.
Liverpool, March 21, 1853.

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH RAGGED SCHOOLS,
HODSON-STREET.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SlR,—The Rev. W. B. S. Mathias, curate of St. John's
Church, in a letter inserted in last Tuesday's Standard, says :
It is a " mystery" how the compiler of the tabular statement
of the attendance at the various places of worship in Liverpool
obtained his information as to the above-named schools.
Will you kindly allow me, in the same public manner, to
state that I obtained the information from Mr. Parsonage, the
clerk of St. John's Church ; that before the publication of
the letter in question, Mr. Parsonage informed the Rev. W. B.
S. Mathias that he had furnished me with those particulars;
and that also, before the publication of the letter, the Rev. W.
B. S. Mathias had censured his clerk for giving so small a ,
return. The " mystery" is not as to who gave the particulars,
but how a clergyman, under the circumstances, could so far
forget himself as publicly to pretend ignorance on a subject on
which he had been privately fully informed.—Yours,
21st March, 1853. JOHN CALDERWOOD.

P.S.—I ought, perhaps, to state that, on Friday last,
I attended the Ragged Schools in Hodson-street, when the
number present was 101. The return complained of gave the
average attendance at 80. The clerical and lay superintendents
say the average is 150 to 180.

THE REV. DR. 31`NEILE AND HIS REVILERS.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Eighteen hundred and fifty-three has scarcely
dawned, when the Papal flag flaunts over Liverpool.
The chapel bell summons the faithful, to gladden their
sight with the spectacle of ecclesiastics about to constitute
themselves into a secret synod—a synod now held for the
first time in England since the Reformation. As the
crowd swells in the busy thoroughfare, lo ! a wide space
is cleared for the approaching carriage, to which all eyes
are directed. And now, descending from those downy
cushions, see his most serene Eminence, the Pope's Car-
dinal in England—sleek and oily in body as he is in
tongue and hireling-written pamphlet. Rags and tatters'
bow at the feet of the rotund Red-stocking, who, through
massive spectacles, complacently looks down, and blesses
his dear children—a sweltering mass of sanitary sweetness.
His Eminence has journeyed hither to view the Romish
institutions of a community among whom the meek and
gentle Cahill sheds his active goodness. Inflated with
visions of the future, he ascends a height which overbrows
the city, and, as his eye twinkles from spire to tower and
tower to spire, he turns to the band of cowled conspirators,
and breathes the hope into their greedy ears, that ere long
England will be as she was in days of old—ruled by the
Bishop of Rome, and that they shall have possession of
those goodly sanctuaries which have been wrested from
them by the heretic ! And this man, who breathes the
pious wish—who has outraged the British law, and merits
the hulks—rolls grandly through our streets ; and the
people—those people blessed with the free light of Pro-
testanism—stand smiling by, while the air is rent with
shouts for the bloated emissary of the Papal power.
" Thanks to the improved tone of public feeling," the
smiles and cheers of free men salute this Cardinal—he who
sets our laws at defiance—the leader of a rebellious
faction—the appropriator of titles which the Crown of
England only can bestow—the sower of sedition, and the
prime propagandist of the Pope. Yes, " thanks to the
improved tone of public feeling," says the Journal, pan
dering to the Papist for his pence.

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE FROM
AUSTRALIA.

Oh, mistaken scribes ! Ye of the Many-faced Mercury,
and the Tolerating Times, and the Jesuitical Journal:
Know ye not that the Pope and the Press cannot agree
MELniounNE, JAN. 2.
except where Romanism is less rife than the Christian re- The individual digger is gradually becoming less for-
ligion. Only when they are not in power do the priests tunate. The prizes are not so inviting as they appeared
become your cordial, obliging, and most courteous some months ago, and hence people remain at their own
friends, and your most ready paymasters. But he who occupatians in preference to trying their luck at those
would restore the Pope to England would put out the golden nooks of the colony whither so many fortune-
Press; or, if it were permitted to live, it would only be hunters have been attracted. Bendigo and Mount Alex-
under a thraldom the most abject, a degradation the most ander are the most prosperous places at the present time:
thorough, arid a prostration the most complete. Ye would last week, fully 30,000 ounces of gold were brought from
find an unpleasant priestly police, and not the public, them to Melbourne. I have the authority of a most in-
would then be the gods of letters. Ye would then suffer telligent couple of young Scotchmen, who are both in
martyrdom—not a brief, easy, and profitable imprison. business at Bendigo, that the " claims" there are very far
ment in the well-ventilated gaol at Lancaster; but the from being exhausted. The Ovens gold-fields are rising
martyrdom of an unknown dungeon, mayhap an untold in popular esteem. I have heard from a scientific friend
death—alleviated by not even the prospect of the sym- who has gone thither, that the even distribution of the
pathy of a public permitted to criticise the law or find precious deposit is a great advantage; for, although rich
fault with those by whom it is wrongly administered. " claims" are not so frequently found as at Bendigo, and
The Times would no longer thunder from Printing-house- few great nuggets are forthcoming, still every one shares
square—its Liverpool namesake would be no more ; the alike; and, if you cannot achieve a fortune at once, you
tedium of railway journeys, or the dulness of the dullest may always have what is better than nothing. I think
homes would alike be unrelieved by the merry Fleet- that this way of gathering gold, while much more corn-
street hunchback; the Martyr-Editor of Liverpool would fortable to the entire body of labourers, must at the same
not, alas ! be seen gleaning gossip from the lips of talkers time promote a steadiness of character and a moderation
on 'Change ; the Mercury would be a thing of the past; of desire which will do much to raise the morality of the
and the conductor of the nines would awaken some fine Ovens above that of Bendigo or Mount Alexander. It is
morning to find his innocent antiquarian works honoured a total mistake to suppose, as some people do, that
by the Pope with a place—in the Index Expurgatorius. the sun of our golden prosperity is setting, and many
WhY, then, even for present gain, make yourselves clac- capitalists, actuated of course by selfish motives, congratu-
quers and pimps to the harlot who sitteth on the seven lated themselves with the anticipation that the emptying
hills ? The priests will serve you and fawn to you only of the gold fields will throw a vast amount of unemployed
till the time comes when they may persecute and extin- labour into the market. So that these philosophical and
guish you. You laugh right merrily, ye drivers of a patriotic capitalists, in the anticipated decline in the
roaring trade, ye artful aervera of two mutest) ao diggi. labour market, are pleased to see the beginning of a happier

nothing to depend upon but their labour, don't take up
these ideas at all ; with far different notions did the majo-
rityday for the colony. Then men and women who have
of them come hither ; and I am not at all disposed to
think that they will be disappointed. Rumours have
been rife of late as to the discovery of new gold fields, and
now when a party of diggers-to-be are about to start on
their travels, it becomes a difficult matter to decide ur
what direction they shall go, so numerous are the
fields already in operation and those reported to have been.
discovered. During the past week about 2,000 ounces of
gold have been received here ; and, if the production,
therefore is slightly on the decrease, it is accompanied by
a more than corresponding fall in the price of provisions,
Flour is much cheaper, though the villanous bakers,
with iron hardihood, keep their bread at the old price. It
I speak by my personal experience, I should say that
the matter of house-rent, if there is any change in Mel-
bourne, it is in favour of the landlord ; but in Victoria
you may live much more comfortably, and for less money-
Though one or two building societies have been sei on
foot, few buildings are being constructed--the speculators
in that line exercising an amount of caution which is quite
remarkable. Hard by where I live, on the banks of the
meandering Yarra,—the Yarra, which has been inwoven,
with much pleasant prose and rhyme by your good
English poet, Richard Howitt—a complete city of tents-
has arisen. Some people have brought houses with them
—tents of most peculiar construction—and these are now
alive with life. I should think that some thousands-
of men, women, and children are reposing under
these tents while I pen these lines. Without ranch
regard to propriety or artistic rule, each new comet
has pitched his temporary dwelling on the first
piece of vacant ground he could find—straightway
possession has been taken, and next day he and his
family look as if they had lived there all their lives.-
Happy, and so far contented to all appearance; having
great difficulties to struggle with, but determined silently
and bravely to overcome them ; such seem the feelings of
these dwellers in " the canvass city," as it is called.
As to the crime of the district, it is pleasing to relate--
that during the year 1852, only 475 criminals were tried'
before the Supreme Court. As we have no minor court
like the quarter sessions of the mother country ; the
offenders were charged with all the gradations of crime—'
from the pettiest charge against a runaway seaman to the
crime of murder. Now, it is pretty clearly decided that
Victoria, with the daily-extending capital, contains at
least 200,000 inhabitants; so that the small proportion
of crime is highly creditable, indeed, to a colony, which
so many, even of our Sydney neighbours, are pleased to'
picture as a God-forsaken land, the scene of rapine, rob-
bery, and murder.
On New Year's Day I went to the grand metropolitan
steeple chase—a most exciting scene ; the ground, though
flooded with heavy rains, was capital ; and there were
altogether twenty-four rasping fences to clear. It was
somewhat remarkable to see the turn-out of many eques-
trians, whose appearance " in their best" betokened that
they had been but little used to ride their own horse to
the races. In the crowd I saw many ladies on horseback
who seemed to enjoy the snort, although it poured inces-
santly the whole time. Some calculate that twelve or
fourteen thousand people were present. The winning
horse received £3OO and the second £5O, enough, even ill
the land of nuggets, to tempt a keen competition.
It has been discovered that an organised system exists
here by which new arrivals and parties proceedinc, to the
diggings are plundered of their property by a set
of people
professing to be carriers. One party receives the money
for the carriage in Melbourne at a high rate, and consigns
the goods to a fellow conspirator at the diggings, hiring a
third party to take the goods up at half the price charged.
On arrival at the diggings, the other " firm" receives the
goods, and takes good care that they do not leave his
possession until " sweetly" paid for.

FOREST CREEK, OCT. 31.
My dear Friend,—We had a most beautiful passage,
and a not very long one either, having got within the
bar and anchored on Tuesday, the 28th September,
being ninety-four days. The next day we beat up toe
anchorage at the foot of the river Yarra, at William's
Town, where we remained until the Ist of October.
We had then to land at our own expense, which was
rather heavy to me, or any one in the same circum-
stances—but, never mind, that's over. It cost us four
shillings each for the steam-boat to Melbourne, and
twenty-seven shillings for wharfage ; then seven shillings
for carting our luggage about four or five hundred yards,
to my friend G. N.'s, a wealthy merchant in the town of
Melbourne, who received us as kindly as it was possible
for any one to have done. It was fortunate T found such
a friend, as my brother lives nine or ten miles out, and
it was night before we got all put by at Mr. N.'s ware•
house, and we were completely worn out. My brother's
cart was in town next day, and we went out with it and
found every thing as comfortable as I could have wished,
much less expected. Brother looks quite as old as he is.
but he is healthy, and hearty, and comfortable, and
making money fast just now, and that in the way that he
seems to have most pride in. He has a most beautiful
house in the prettiest country I ever saw, and it is nicely'
furnished, the principal piece, of course, being his wife..
I am sure, if you could hut see Jonathan's place, you
would loose conceit of all your favourite haunts about
Cumberland, more especially Workington. He has
2,640 acres of land in farm, on lease of seven years ; he
is now in his second year; his rent is £3OO ; he sublets
off 1,640 acres, and that almost clears the whole ; he has
consequently 1,000 acres of fine arable and pasture land as
can be, as beautifully laid out as art could do it, and every
article of produce at present at most enormous prices ;
instance a few—hay at £2O per ton, butter 2s. to 2s. 6d.,
eggs 2s. to 3s. per dozen. Cows, that would, two or
three years ago, have sold for 10s. or 205., now worth
£lO or £2O; horses, that would in England sell for £3O,
would fetch here £lOO, or £lO5 ; in fact, any price for
any thing a person wants is the go here now. The roods
are dreadful bad in winter—in fact, impassable. if he
could get his milk into town, he says, it would be worth
£l5 per day to him ; so you may judge what his butter
will be. He has 26 fine milch cows at present, with
lot of calvers in the bush, which he intends bringing in to
calve ; they are little or no trouble, as they go out all the
year round. He keeps a number of pigs—from 20 to 40,
as it may happen ; they get nothing but milk beside what
they pull for themselves, and pork sells for about 10d.
per lb. I have been gardener for him since I came ; he
has about an acre and a half in the front of his house very
nicely laid out and planted with fruit-trees, such as an-
English garden. He had the old stands of bees when
came, and he got three swarms the day before I left ; so
1 suppose, before the season's out, he won't have less
than forty hives; and I suppose they make a quantity of
honey, which is sold at about 6d. per lb. The cattle
here are much larger than I expected to have found them;
in fact, they would be a credit to my brother John's stock,
and you know what they are. Horses are better than 1
thought they would have been, but not so much as the
horned cattle. I left Prospect Hill on the 20th October;
Margaret remains with them for a while ; I think if we
had not had brother to turn to when we arrived, she
would have fairly given up. It certainly is a sad place at"
present ; no such thing as getting a bed in Melbourne
now at any price except at an hotel, which must be
bespoke and paid for according to the times. Wages are
high ; labourers 10s. per day on the roads ; their board,
&c., 30s. per week, which leaves 30s. clear ; but men
won't stay at the work until they have had a turn at the
diggings, and if fortunate they remain ; if not, why they
can then take the other. I shall now endeavour to tell
you something about myself. lam engaged on trial to
Messrs. H. B. and Co. Mr. B. is from Middleton-place,
near Bootle, and is a grocer in Melbourne, and I am a
store-keeper for them in the gold diggings. Yes, my
dear friend, on the very ground they are digging up gold,
a place between two hills, called Lever Flat ; and around
me there are some thousands of people digging, and not a
house, except wood huts and canvas tents to live in,
of which there are hundreds here, and in the neighbour-
ing creeks or flats. lam to have £2 per week for the
first month, with board and. lodgings. They are not of
company, from the refined gentleman to the
the most comfortable, I admit ; but when I see no better
amongst my rieighbonrs, why I am proud to find myself
amongst the heads of the town ; and I do assure you they
motley company,
of all countries—En
German,
.French, American, and every other
nitleven China. In this establishment of ours
are the manager, Mr. W., myself, and a Cumber-
glish, Irish, Scotch,
cltea‘ahneuemedrnlaemstmirm'oyan, from Carlisle, who acts as cook and man of all
work, and we get on first-rate so far. The diggings
here are not doing so well as they have been doing, and
parties are leaving faster than new comers are turning in
so much so, that if it continues so another week, it is
very likely that we shall have to leave also, and it is not
improbable but I may be up at the Ovens, as they call:
them. It is a distance of 130 miles from this ; lam now
about 82 miles from town. If I go there I will have-
some money before I go down again, either by store-
keeping or by digging, and I don't much care which. It
is quite a lottery : some men just before our door are
making £3 per day ; whilst others, eight feet from them,
don't get a speck for weeks : but gold is gold when they
get into the vein of it. I know this to be the fact, be-

cause we are gold-buyers, and have it through our fingers
from so many, that I know now. The present price is
£3 6s. per ounce. We take a great deal of money for
very little goods here, prices are so high. Flour and oat-
meal Is. Gd. per lb. ; sugar, raisins, currants, and soap,
Is. 9d. ; tea and coffe, 3s. ; tobacco, 10s. ; rice, Is. 3d. ;
pepper, 4s. per lb. ; bread, 2s. Gd. per 2 lb. loaf ; a pair
of boots the same as I wore, that cost me 6s. 6d., are
here 335. ; Wellingtons, £4 ; and all sorts of clothing in
proportion. Clothes such as I wore in Liverpool are of
very little use, except what I wore in the hide warehouse.
lam now in a woollen shirt and cabbage-tree hat, and
quite like an Irishman. It is my opinion that perseverance
will ultimately succeed at gold-seeking—but it requires
that ; and the aid of £lOO or so is a great acquisition to
those who use it properly; but many, I fancy, throw it
away in trying foolish experiments ; and when they have
lost their all are thrown upon their own resources, and
worse off than those who had nothing to begin with. I
think the great body of what are termed unfortunate
make a fair day's wages in the long run ; but taking care
of it when it is plentiful, I find is a secret here as well as
at borne. 'Workmen are coming in here hourly, and
calling for a stick of tobacco, to pay for which they will
pull out a roll of notes, like a hanker, and they are
actually lying about the roads frequently. It is a very
horrible place here just now though ; and men are struck
up, as they call it, and robbed of all they have on them,
almost at their own doors. We are all armed to the
teeth, as it is termed, at our place; we have each a brace
of loaded pistols for bed-fellows, and can't take off our
clothes for fear of being disturbed through the night. We
are rarely without six or ten hundred pounds on the pre-
mises, temporary though they are, and a stock of perhaps
two or three thousand pounds. You will think
they are large sums; but when you take into considera-
tion the price of eoods and the material we deal in (gold),
you will admit it must require a great amount of cash.
The purchases go from here once a clay to what we term
the main store, where my employer stays on the premises ;
the place is called Forest Creek, about a mile and a half
or two miles from here. They have stores at a place
called Golden Point, and Fryer's Creek, and also at the
Bendigo Diggings, so that you see we are in a large vraY-

DISTRICT Ciluncins.—A petition, signed by upwards
of eight. hundred incumbents, pointing out the very unsa-
tisfactory state of the district churches at large of the
country, is to be presented, after Easter, in the Lower
House, by the Marquis of Blandford ; and in the Upper,
by the Earl of Shaftesbury.

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