The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

gfoiioits and irresist
Justin, Esq., C.E.

THRESHING CORN IN SPAIN
?ir bread by making it, and ti

from the common mode of threshing on
air, which is at once Biblical and Horn

side of the villages, in corn-growing districts, a smooth bled to reach the North Pole.
open " threshing-floor" is prepared, with a hard surface, A meeting has been held at Calcutta in honour of the
like a fives court : it is called the era, and is the precise memory of the late Dwarkanauth Tagore ; and it has been
Roman area. The sheaves of corn are spread out on it, resolved to raise a fund, to be called the " Dwarkanauth
and four horses yoked most classically to a low crate or Endowment Fund," for enabling the Hindoo youths to
harrow, composed of planks armed with flints, &c., which complete their educationat theUniversityCollege, London.
is called a trillo :on this side the driver is seated, who The fifth subscription list for the relief of Ireland and
urges the beasts round and round over the crushed heap. Scotland amounts to £115,000. The additional sums ap-
Thus the grain is shaken out of the ears and the straw tri- pended to this list make the actual total above .£120,000.

turated ; the latter becomes food for horses, as the former
does for men. When the heap is sufficiently bruised, it
is removed and winnowed by being thrown up in the air ;
the light winds carry off the chaff, while the heavy corn
falls to the ground. •The whole operation is truly pictu-

Independently of this amount; the subscriptions through
the National Club are nearly £12,000.
An accident of a most lamentable nature, and attended
with the loss of six lives, occurred on Friday week,
at one of the Darley Main Coal Company's pits, at
Worsbrough Dale, about four miles from the town of
Barnsley, and ten from Sheffield.
The Rev. Dr. Wolff has addressed a letter to the free-
masons, which body he has just joined, offering to deliver
lectures in the different towns of England, for the benefit
of the poor in the United Kingdom. The reverend gen-
tleman wishes for no return except his expenses for tra-
velling in third-class carriages.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.—Sir Peter Laurie states
that, during the last ten years, forty lunatics have been
sent from the Penitentiary to Bethlehem, while in the
preceding ten years only fourteen were sent. Sir Peter
attributes the increase to the adoption of the separate
system.

resque and singular. The scene is a crowded one, as
many cultivators contribute to the mass anti share in the
labour ; their wives and children cluster around, clad in
strange dresses of varied colours. They are sometimes
sheltered from the god of fire under boughs, reeds, and
awnings, run up as if for the painter, and falling of them-
selves into pictures, as the lower classes of Spaniards and
Italians always do. They are either eating and drinking,
singing or dancing, for a guitar is never wanting.
_Mean-

while the fierce horses 'dash over the prostrate sheaves,
and realise the splendid simile of Homer, who likens them
to the fiery steeds of Achilles when driven over the Tro-
jan bodies. These out-of-door threshings take place of
course when the weather is dry, and generally under a
most terrific heat. The work is often continued at night-
fall by torch-light. During the day the half-clad dusky
reapers defy the sun and his rage, rejoicing rather in the
heat like salamanders ; it is true that-their devotions to
the porous water-jar are unremitting, nor is a swill at a
good passenger's beta ever rejected ; all is life and action ;
busy hands and feet, flashing eyes, and eager screams ;
the light yellow chaff, which in the sun's rays glitters like
• , •

In a letter to the Jersey Times, Dr. Robert H. Collyer,
of St. Helier's, claims the merit of having first adopted
the plan of producing unconsciousness by the inhalation
of stimulating and narcotic vapours, and of having per-
formed many surgical operations without giving pain to
patients in that state.

VALUE OF THE REFUSE or TOWNS.—" Taking a ge-
neral view of the subject, we may assume a clear revenue
Water of all towns of £1 for each in-
n a direct money return, or partly to the
inhabitants in a reduced price, from the increased abund-
ance of produce."—Evidence of J. Smith, Esq., of
Deanston.

:17iningled with the torch

glare, is almost supernatural, as the- phantom figures,
now dark in shadows, now crimsoned by the fire flash, flit
to and fro in the vapourous mist. The scene never fails to
rivet and enchant the stranger, who, coming from the pale
north and the commonplace in-door flail, seizes at once
all the novelty of such doings. Eye and ear, open and
awake, become inlets of new sensations of attention and
admiration, and convey to heart and mind the poetry,
localsoloun movement, grouping, action, and attitude.—

IN RE DONALD MACLEAN, M. P.— In the London
Court of Bankruptcy of the 27th of January, a further ad-
journment for the surrender of this bankrupt was granted
for three months, on the ground of continued ill health
of the bankrupt, who is still in Italy. It was stated in the
course of the case that the funds in hand were only £lOO,
and that the debts proved were 4:70,()00.

Ford's Gatherings froits-Spain

Feb. 9, 1847.

On Friday night, George Hampson and Susan Morton,
who had been betrothed for about three years, tied them-
selves together with four handkerchiefs, threw themselves
into the Barnsley Canal, near Wakefield, and were
drowned. No reason is alleged for the wicked act, which
has thrown two respectable families into a state of the
deepest distress.

Dr. Charles Henry Lovell and Mrs. Hope Betts, were
tried on the coroner's inquisition, (the grand jury having
ignored the bill preferred against them,) at the Central
Criminal Court, before Mr. Justice Cresswell, for the
manslaughter of Martha Hobbs by the hy dropathic sys-
tem. The evidence was very weak against the prisoners,
and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
The Duke of Cleveland is making extensive improve-
ments in the garden; at Raby Castle, Durham, and under
the direction of Mr. Roberts, his grace's head gardener, a
very spacious range of vineries have been erected, the bor-
ders of which embrace five thousand feet, and which have
been planted with the choicest grape vines, to be culti-
vated on the system
.so successfully practised by Mr.
Roberts.

On Wednesday, a remarkable accident occurred at the
Tunbridge station of the South-eastern Railway. The
Maidstone noon up-train had just arrived at the station,
and the engine went forward to take in a supply of fuel
and water ; while the engine was passing over the turn-
table, the table split, and a large piece separated, throw-
ing the engine off the rails, and stopping all traffic for a
time, but happily causing no personal injury.

ELOPEMENT TO GREiNA iREEN.—On the 23rd ult.,
Mr. William Hope, son of Lomax Hope, Esq., of Boholme
Cannoby, was married, at the above place, to Miss Jane
Donaldson, daughter of the Rev. James Donaldson, of
Cannoby Manse. The fair lady, it would appear, had
been narrowly watched, or rather confined to her room,
for some weeks, but " love laughs at locksmiths," and
she effected her escape.—Carlisle Patriot.
A curious hoax was played on a &mei near Bridgnorth
last week, by some neighbours spreading a report that he
had given leave to the poor of the town to gather turnips
from one of his fields. The consequence was, that a fine
field of Swede turnips was densely thronged by parties
availing themselves of the opportunity ; and it was not till
full two acres had been cleared of the crop, that the owner
was apprised of what was going on, and enabled to stop
the appropriation of his roots.
IMPROVED SIGNS OF THE TIMES.—At the weekly
meeting of the board of guardians for the Nottingham
Union, on Tuesday last, the returns showed a decrease of
70 inmates of the workhouse within the previous seven
days, and the number of applications for relief was very
much fewer than on the preceding Tuesday. Corn had
dropped 4s. per qr. The people had become more gene-
rally employed, and signs of improvement were becoming
decidedly manifest.

THE LATE SEVERE WEATHER.—A correspondent at
Harewood, in this county, informs us, that in carelessly
looking at an old wall, at Harewood, he saw therein a
small hole and drew from thence four tom-tits, one hedge-
sparrow, one robin, and one wren, which birds he sup-
posed were driven into companionship by the severity of
the weather, and had perished from the cold. The
circumstance is the more remarkable, as the pugnacious
disposition of the robin towards other birds is well known.
—Hereford Times.

An qiiquest was held last week in Middlesex, upon a lady
named Potts, whose delight was not only to take all the
medicines she could obtain, but to compel others to do
the same. When she visited a sick friend she would empty
the physic bottles and pill boxes. Aloes constituted her
favourite physic, and a physician stated that he had pre-
pared in twelve months as much aloes for her as would
have supplied the town' of Uxbridge. Amongst those
whom she induced to take medicine was a boy, to whom
she paid a shilling to allow her to salivate him.

A more novel, but equally successful application of the
inhalation of ether is recorded in the Edinburgh Journal.
Professor Simpson had administered it in a case of difficult

se patient was deformed, and on a former oc-
casion had suffered dreadfully in labour during three or
four days : on the present occasion the patient was deli-
vered in as many minutes. A remarkable circumstance
pointed out in the case by Dr. Simpson was, that, whilst
breathing the ether, the labour-throes continued, and yet
the mother was unconscious of pain.
At an inquest held on Saturday, in St. Giles's, Mr.
Wakley told the jury that he had discovered a manufac-
tory of oranges, at which bad oranges could be made into
)u-, I apparently_ good ones. The process pursued was the sub-

extreme pressure of destitution and actual famine must
be considered as now really endured by upwards of sixty
thousand souls, in these districts of the Ili&hlands and.
Islands. And it cannot fail to be observed, how near the
full pressure of destitution, in most of the districts, is
apprehended to be."

A COACHMAN IN TROUBLE.—The coachman of Lord
Hastings, on Wednesday week, was directed to drive a
gentleman from his lordship's residence at Melton Con-
stable to the railway terminus at Norwich, about 20

Milting Of-unripe and inferior oranges to the action of
steam, or parboiling them. This made them swell, filled
out their rinds, and made them thin, the usual external

sign that the fruit was good. To give them the last po-
lish, and heighten the outward attraction, they were
rubbed with a greasy piece of flannel, or with something
mnre nhiPetinnsthlp

On Tuesday last a most difficult case of aneurism of
the femoral artery was performed by Mr. Lightfoot, sur-
geon, of Newcastle, in the presence of Mr. Frost and
Mr. Annandale, whilst the patient was under the influence
of ether. The incision was nearly two inches deep and
five inches long, and during the whole of the operation
the patient did not evince the slightest sensation of •
or feeling, and I • "h

a Is since declaredth it he was quite unCon.
,cious of any such operation having taken place ; the
only thought he had was that he had been attending a
lecture. —Newcastle Courant.
PROVISIONS (IRELAND).—A return of the aggregate
amount of provisions imported from Ireland into England
in the last three years, ending January, 1847, shows that
the quantity of corn (of Irish growth) so imported,
amounted, in 1844, to 2,801,206 quarters ; in 1845, to
3,251,901 quarters ; and in 1846, to 1,825,394 quarters.
The quantity of wheat, flour, and oatmeal amounted re-
spectively, in 1844, to 839,567 cwt., and 1,150,976 cwt.
in 1845, to 1,422,379 cwt., and 1,150,976 cwt. ; and in
1846, to 723,562 cwt., an 553,148 cwt. The number of

259,257 sheep and lambs ; 480,827 swine.

•
SUDDEN ACQUISITION OF .bo,ooo.—An extraordinary
and unexpected instance of good fortune has recently oc-
curred to an elderly female, named M'Cormack, who has
for some time resided in Coppice-row, London, a few
doors from Clerkenwell Workhouse, where she has con-
trived to maintain a decent maintenance by vending in
her small shop various articles of confectionary. The old
lady, who is upwards of sixty, on Saturday received a let-
ter from a solicitor, announcing to her the death of an
aged relative, who had resided near Aberdeen (of which
place Mrs. M'Cormack is a native), and also that she had
been bequeathed property to the amount of no less a sum
than £30,000.

The following are

-grown wneat which have
e 290 towns which furnish

and young family living at Lenwade, a village about mid-
way from Melton to Norwich. Having no one to drive

there, putting up his horses at Lenwade-bridge Inn. Un-
fortunately he did not keep sober in Norwich, and started
from Norfok Hotel, in a somewhat questionable state,
, 1 a • lA ,1

ie appears to

fallen asleep, and the horses turned into a tie-lane, which
led into a field. Here they seem to have wandered about
with Haylett sleeping on the box, the track of the wheels
the next morning showing that the carriage, on one occa-
sion, passed within a few inches of the edge of a deep
marl-pit. However, they found their way out of the field
attempted to ford a wide stream, and were carried

away by it. At this time Haylett appears to have been
asleep upon the box, and when he awoke, about four in
the morning, he found himself in the midst of the water,
both the horses being drowned, and the carriage severed,
the fore from the hind wheels. His screams brought as-
sistance, and the horses and carriage were got out. Hay-
lett was in the greatest distress, and would probably have
done himself some mischief but for the police, who strictly
guarded him. The horses were very valuable, his lord-
ship having a few days before been offered £l5O for one.
FOOD PROSPECTS.—Corn has evidently seen its tole
price. • The opening of the ports produced the first effect.
But the reduction was slight. A falling market, hevvev'er,
supplied. And the quantities brought for-

there has been an universal holding back for some time.
Should this be the case, prices will fall yet lower. And if
so, the " regraters" will be as severely punished ns even
Lord George Bentinck could desire. We have noticed,
for two weeks past, the large quantity of wheat held back
in Wakefield. Accounts from most of the principal corn-
markets concur in stating the same fact. On Endo'
week a granary in Glasgow fell down with the enormous
weight of its contents. Persons whose business has called
them to visit or pass through the agricultural districts,
also describe the corn stacks as being more abundant than
usual at this time of the year. The farmers have been
holding back, it is said, even in some cases the wheat of
1845. And it will be seen by our market reports, that in
many cases they left large stocks on hand in last Satur-
day's country markets rather than submit to the slight
fall which then occurred. The subsequent fall in Mark-
lane of ss. on Monday, and another shilling on Wednes-
day, may be expected to change their tone.. At Colchester
wheat has undergone a depression of 7s. a quarter; and in
Suffolk, and Essex a fall of Bs. on barley is noticed. The
prospect of supplies from abroad is also much brighter.
The relaxation of the navigation laws will open to our
temporary use the Dutch ships in the ports ofAinsterdani
and Rotterdam. Three have been already chartered for
America, wher6 they can carry Java coffee free ;—and
the Bankers' Circular states, that in the most prolific
corn yielding district of Holland the farmers have sold
scarcely any of their last crops. The arrivals of grain in
Liverpool are already enormously great, exceeding in the
two past weeks 580,000 barrels of flour ; 200.000 bushels
and 10,000 quarters of wheat ; 390,000 bushels, 43,000
sacks, and 12,000 quarters of Indian corn ; and 45,000
barrels of Indian corn meal.

CARRYING BUSINESS—MEETING IN BIRMINGHAM.'
A numerous and influential meeting of the merchants,
traders, and manufacturers of Birmingham was held oil
Tuesday, at the public office in that town, for the inured
of considering whether any, and what, measures should be
taken for averting the monopoly in the carriage of goods
by railway companies, and for preserving and improving
the means of canal communication.—Mr. J. Browne pre-.
sided. In stating the objects for which the meeting had
been convened, he commenced by observing, that of!

withuir-da rib veay:icvCiennv;
lo;;;ileie:c7o4nevYey;;Linsircieedof goods by canal nt
eper
canners,
a
hebboedlyie believed, dm,
egnr etaot injusticewhom,
it had
needless to say, the tradesmen and merchants of Bir-
mingham beeno t er
done wi .
to Atth
were particularly indebted for the great consi-
deration they had ever given to their wants, wishes, and
convenience. It was then moved and carried unanimouslY,
" That
monopoly in the carriage of goods by railwaY,
companies ought to be averted."—Mr. W. R. Lloyu
said he well knew how the interests of the merchants,
traders, and manufacturers of Birmingham were involved
in the question,—parties of greater influence than himself,
—but he might be allowed to say that freightage was
very important article in his trade. Having seen the iv-,
portance of railways in extending the trade and traffic ol
Birmingham, he was extremely anxious that they shoal('
cont'-- but '

amen , he was at the same time an advocal
for competition. He need not remind any gentler;
present that many trades were fostered, if not absolti

created, in iiirnungbam, by the low price of freightage'
Already, the cost of carrying some descriptions of heaq,
goods td the coast was greater than the cost of carriage
across the Atlantic. The speaker proceeded to allude
the amicable arrangement likely to take place between tlitt
London and North-Western Railway companies, 11
which he contended that, having " laid their heads Loge"
ther," they would be enabled to divide the plunder be-
tween them, to the great injury of the carrying, trading_,'
and manufacturing interests. When such a monopoly a"
this existed, or in all probability would exist,—a mono
i
poly which over-rode Queen, Lords, and Commons,--1
was then time that the public should interfere. After di-
lating on the injustice to the public of all railway mono;
polies, he proposed the following resolution, which vta
carried unanimously, " That the serious attention of tla)
Government should be directed to the fact of the eller;
pther, which are, in the opinion of this meeting,
OW;
mous amalgamations of railway companies with
matteri
of grave importance, not only to merchants, traders, o',
manufacturers, but to the public at large, inasmuch ~
such amalgamations tend to create an absolute monop?'?1,
by placing under the absolute control of the few indov
duals composing the direction of a railway company t;01
only existing means of support, both of passengers a',
goods, and without the possibility of competitioil;,.
After a few words from Mr. Blewes and Mr. Whilloc;l7,
it was resolved, " That such being the opinion of t!ao
meeting, it is expedient that strenuous exertions be 10:0
to maintain the canals of the kingdom, and to pre,'sf
canal companies, amalgamating with railway compaa7il
in all cases where the canal forms a link in a chain of t'„,4,
communication." The fourth, fifth, and sixth resolutgre,
all of which were carried nem. dis., condemned the._``,..
quality of tolls carried by canal companies, as being
rious to their interests, and recommended that the sPte
.oi.
tion of canal proprietors should be directed to the co'oit
deration of the best means by which the traffic and trgkilg
on their lines might be improved ; and after depreealtio
the loss and inconvenience incurred by the public, Woo,
unsafe and irregular manner in which goods were
veyed on railways, pledged themselves to encouraf,e,r
every means in their power the employment of wat'
preference to railway carriage for such purposes..

' -M.06Z1rr1NN11....01.110,1

PLANTING POTATOES IN THE AIITUMN.—Mr. Jones, 8
ieedsman, of Shrewsbury, planted some potatoes in the
autumn, called " Summer Manly," they have been in the
ground, four inches beneath the surface, (luring the late
severe frosts, and are perfectly souud. Tho ze planted
deeper are in good condition, but those nearer the surface
were injured, and those just covered with soil were en-
tirely destroyed. We are informed that it is best to so f
potatoes in November or December, nine inches deep,
with a little dry straw placed over them, and then the
earth to follow. Before planting, dust the seed with slack
lime, finely powdered.

. .
SUBSTANTIAL SOUP AND PORRIDGE FROM FISH:"
A gentleman writing to the Cork Constitution says, that
as beef and veal may become scarce, an excellent substi-
tute, one which would give vast employment and remu-
nerative wages to thousands, may be found in the article
of fish ! Some years since past, he says, being wind-
bound in my yacht in the Clyde, I became the guest of a
Scotch gentleman, who gave me every day for dinner
capital soup of different kinds, in which a particle of meat
was never used. It was made of all kinds of fish as they
Came to hand. The fish being washed, and the entrails
removed, was cut into junks and boiled in a digester until
the bones were dissolved. The skin and oil being skimmed
off, salt, pepper, onions, peas, meal, Scotch Barley,
bruised carrots, or whatever pleased were added. And
excellent soup of different kin* was the result. Fish
boiled into mummy in a digester affords rich gelatine,
which added to " beans' meal, bruised peas, rice, and a
small portion of commissariat biscuit," according to Mr.
Barry's receipt, would make nutritive soup.
A POET IN DISTRESS.—On Saturday, a boot-closer,
70 years of age, preferred a complaint at the Mansion-
house, London, against a relieving officer. The applicant
said his name was Thomas Mills, his age upwards of 70,
and his profession, poetry. He had written a great deal
of verse upon subjects moral, rural, and lyrical, and he
had received the highest praise for his compositions, which
were in every respect calculated to serve as well as to
amuse society. In consequence of some particular cir-
cumstances, which it was unnecessary to detail, but which
arose from his attachment to the muse, he had been
obliged to leave, temporarily, in the possession of a sta-
tioner, at Bethnal-green, 1000 copies of verses, which he
felt assured would make him independent. He applied
to a relieving officer to advance him £2 to release them,
but the applicant was met by an exclamation of " such
nonsense," and the offer of the Shoreditch Workhouse.
Mills expressed to the lord mayor a strong conviction
that if his verses were released, and he had a fair chance
of writing, he could in future make £l5OO a-year. One
of his pieces was on the uses and beauty of the granite
stone, and others are on the uses of steam and gas. The
lord mayor, after a conversation which only the more ex-
hibited the disorder of the applicant's mind, intimated
that he could not interfere.
HIGHLAND DESTITUTION.—From a report just issued
by the committee in Scotland for the relief of the desti-
tute in that country, we make the following extract :
" It will be found, from the above statement of facts, and
while some of the most distressed districts are not in-
cluded, such as both the Uists, Harris and Barra, not to
speak of the whole of Orkney and Shetland, that a popu-
lation of 145,331 are involved in the destitution ; and of
all of these, by far the greater number—indeed the Whole,
with but few exceptions—must now be suffering under
the calamity. The number of cottar families in the same
districts fall to be considered as already entirely destitute,
being in number about 7000, and representing a popula-
tion of nearly 35,000 souls. It must also be considered
that in many of the returns the number of these is not
specifically given, and accordingly not included in the
above summation of the cotter class. The number of
families reported as actually destitute of food, at the dates
of the several returns, was nearly 3000 ; and taking the
omissions made in this department also in many of the
returns, and where, at the same time, in accompanying
communications they are represented as numerous, the