The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-19 00:00:00

FRIDAY 310RAING, MAY 19, 1843.

We have always maintained—because we know the
party—that the agitation, got up professedly against
the educatioNal clauses of the Factory Bill, was, in
reality, directed against those clauses which restrict
the hours of infant labour. That the great portion of
dissenting millowners care one straw about the con-
sciences (!) of the poor little creatures who toil in their
factories is, to any one acquainted with the social con-
dition of the manufacturing districts, about as pre-
posterous a notion as can well be conceived. Why,
we doubt whether one in ten of the millowners know
even the persons of their own workpeople ! And as
for any extraordinary care for their moral welfare, or
their peculiar religious opinions, we are quite satisfied
that the state of repair of the least important wheel or
shaft which drives their spindles or power-looms, is
looked to with infinitely more anxiety than the health,
moral or physical, of the human beings whose hands
tend its revolutions. The increase or decrease of the
payments noted in the wage-book is an object of tender
interest ; but the increase or decrease of the sum of
happiness of those employed does not, we fear, enter
into the contemplation of two out of three of the very
philanthropic people who are just now professing such
anxious solicitude for—their religious liberties ! The
religious liberties of factory children (1)—of the poor
slaves of the loom or the spindle, who have scarcely a
knowledge that there is a God, who made them and
who died for them !
That we have not been in error as to the real nature
of this opposition to Sir James Graham's measure,
notwithstanding the sectarian cant in which it has been
clothed, will not be greatly doubted by our readers,
after the perusal of the following, which fell from the
lips of an eminent Leaguer and Quaker, at a meeting
of millowners, held in London last week :
" He had heard much of the agitation about the factory
question. He could say it did not prevail in his district.
He recollected a person connected with those who desired
legislative interference with factory labour visited it, and
called a meeting upon the subject. The room in which it was
held was, however, not half filled, and the lecturer himself
was laughed at. He begged to say there was not that agita-
tion in the manufacturing districts which the accounts in
the London journals would lead many to believe there was.
At one meeting at Manchester the chairman was a porter on
the railway. In his neighbourhood they did not want any
tinkering legislative interference. Legislative interference
in the matter had hitherto been Injurious, and it was looked
upon as no better than political quackery. He thought that
the majority of either house of parliament were among the
very last fitted to bring forward any sensible plan for the
settlement of a question on which they were necessarily
ignorant. He was opposed to a ten hours' bill, and believed
all legislation on this subject was wrong."

This gentleman does not want any " tinkering legis-
lative interference" between the employer and his
wretched and demoralised slaves ! This exemplary
Quaker, so emphatic in his appeals to Scripture when
denunciating the iniquity of the corn laws, esteems
" all legislation wrong" which goes to prevent greedy
capitalists working children of tender years for fourteen
or fifteen hours per day in the heated atmosphere of
their factories ! It is " tinkering legislation" to say to
a millowner—You shall not work the eyes, the bones,
the sinews, the blood, and the very souls of infants into
cotton cloth ! It is " wrong " (!) that these Liberal
gentlemen should not be permitted to buy and sell
little children, and build more factories and more villas
out of the gains of a traffic so inhuman !
To the credit of the millowners and others, before
whom this speech was delivered, we observe that it
was received with pretty general disgust—so unequivo-
cally expressed, indeed, that any gentleman less sensi-
tive than the utterer, must inevitably have felt the
unenviable nature of his position.
" Mr. Kay was surprised at such language. He must say
that factory legislation had done a good deal of good, and
those who bore in mind that 13, 14, and 15 hours' work
daily had been endured by those employed in factories, would
admit this." (Hear, hear.)
" Mr. Walker also deprecated•the remarks. Surely it was
too much to call that tinkering legislation, which sought to
promote the eternal welfare of the factory children." ( Hear.)

" Mr. J. Milne, of Oldham, had never heard a speech
from hie friend with more pain than the one he had just ad-
dressed to them. He did not expect such a speech from
him."

Pretty decisive condemnation this, when it is con-
sidered that the utterers of it are millowners.

And yet, it is to the leading of such men as this
asserter of the right of employers to work their infant
labourers without restriction as to time, that men of
religious professions, and many, no doubt, of religious
conviction, are content to commit themselves ! The
plea of conscience it is, forsooth, which is set up ! The
real question at issue is, whether the children of our
working classes are to be sacrificed, body and soul, here
and hereafter, to manufacturing cupidity !

We observe that a correspondent of the London
Times, remarking upon the recent seizure of goods
belonging to Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co., sug-
gests that considering " the serious loss experienced
by our manufacturers from the bonding of foreign
goods, and their exportation hence in our ships to
South America and our colonies," the goods com-
prised in the shipment in question, previous to their
being given up by the Customs' authorities, " should
be stamped United States manufacture,' as a guard
against their being purchased abroad as of English
make." And he adds, that " the grand evil of foreign
goods exported in bond from this country, and pur-
porting to be of British fabrics, has been long and
seriously felt."
We have no fault to make with this suggestion ;
but, we may ask, would it not he well for British ma-
nufacturers and traders themselves to commence a sys-
tem of honesty with respect to the brands and de-
scription of their goods ? It is scarcely possible to
pass along our own streets without seeing the most
palpable deceit attempted to be practised, by the ven-
dors of all descriptions of commodities; and, were an
uninformed person to judge from marks and descrip-
tions merely, he would inevitably arrive at the con-
clusion that nothing that is English is fit to wear or
eat ! Our boot and shoemakers are selling French
boots and shoes—made in Northampton ; our hatters
Parisian hats, made not a hundred miles from Oldham
or Stockport; our drapers French silks, which have not
even the advantage of having been smuggled ; French
gloves which no contrabandist has imported ; and
French ribbons, the bulk of which Coventry has the
questionable credit of having fabricated We call this

' a very disreputable system—very unworthy of a Bri-
tish tradesman, and very prejudicial to our character
as a manufacturing people—inasmuch as it is an in-
direct confession that our boasted productions are in-
ferior to those of other nations, and such as we do not
condescend to use ourselves !
But we are told that the imitation, by foreigners, of
our dishonest example, and the branding of their goods
with English brands, "has long been felt as a great
evil." In some descriptions of goods, no doubt, this
may be the case. We doubt whether, in cotton goods
—plain cottons, at least, such as those referred to—the
reputation of being " English " would be a recom-
mendation. If it is for the purpose of securing for

such goods the advantages of our colonial markets,
that such a course is adopted, we admit the evil—the
fraud'upon the colonial revenues being a portion of it.
But is it a fact, we ask, that the American manu-
facturers can, upon any thing approaching to equal
terms, compete with us in these markets? Can the
manufacturers of Lowell, sending their goods by the
.
circuitous route of Great Britain, undersell us in South
America, or the East or West Indies ? It would ap-
pear that they can ; and we ask, with all proper
deference, whether, if such be the fact, it does not
Present to us a new feature in the anti. corn-law con-
troversy which is raging around us ?
With a system of free trade in corn and sugar we
can expect, of course, no exemption in favour of our
goods from the duties levied in our colonies upon the
goods of other producing countries. The United
States manufacturer will no longer have occasion to
send his goods round by Great Britain, in order to
procure their admission into a British colonial market.
How, then, are British manufacturers to be the better
enabled to meet their opponents in these markets, un-
less it be that cheap bread and cheap sugar are very in-
timately connected with CIIEAP LABOUR? It may
serve the purpose of our anti-monopolists to protest
that no such connexion exists—that they have no such
operation in view. They may juggle a few dupes by
their protestations; but we defy them to convince any
reasoning men of their sincerity ! LET THEM TRY.
Our contemporary of the Manchester Guardian, if
no other champion step forward, will, no doubt, be
able to reconcile this matter to his own perfect satis-
faction, if not to that of the rest of the world. We
observe that, in his last publication, he has got hold of
what he conceives to be a convincing proof that cheap
corn and cheap labour are not at all connected with
each other. The proof in question consists in the fact
that, the price of bread being low at present, a certain
firm in Bolton—Messrs. Hornby and Co.—are ad-
vancing their rate of wages. Ergo, maintains the
Guardian, the price of food has nothing to do with the
price of labour. In the abstract, we certainly never
said that it had. Cheap bread, the result of productive
harvests, we have always conceived to be more likely
to advance than to reduce the price of labour. But
cheapness of bread, produced by any policy which is
calculated to increase the supply of labourers,—cheap-
ness of food, produced by the destruction or diminution
of agricultural employments,—will not only reduce the
price of labour, but is intended so to do ; and what is
more, the Guardian is perfectly aware of the fact

We do not feel ourselves impelled to inflict upon
our readers any lengthy remark upon the five-act per-
formance—(tragedy, comedy, or farce ? we know not
which)—concluded on Monday night in the House of
Commons. A dull subject would no doubt provoke
a dull comment; and the somewhat dreary weather,
with which we have been visited for the past few days,
has not, we should imagine, enamoured our readers,
any more than ourselves, with that description
of mental food, which is calculated to produce
nausea instead of invigorating and elevating the
spirits. A running commentary upon the snap-
pish impertinencies of Mr. Cobden ; an attempt
to precipitate the solid matter, contained in a
frothy oration from that very superficial person, Mr.
C. P. Villiers, or to whip into liveliness the heavy mo-
notony of a speech from Mr. Joseph Brotherton,
might be tolerated at a time when the mind or the
temper required a sedative ; but with our present
somewhat depressed atmosphere, and animal and men-
tal energies, we shall spare ourselves and our readers
the probable consequences of the infliction.
We do this the more readily because of the convic-
tion, which it is impossible to shut out, that the cause
of the League is quite an impracticable one within the
walls of either house of Parliament. Unlike all other
ultimately successful party movements, the Anti-Corn-
law movement evidently makes no progress in the
legislature. True it is that the division on the present
occasion shesys a minority of 125 in favour of the mo-
tion of the member for Wolverhampton, or rather
ostensibly in its favour. True it is, also, that the
number in the minority last year was only 90. But it
is acknowledged that of this 125 a considerable num-
ber, like Lord Howick and Mr. E. Buller, would to-
morrow vote for a fixed duty, and repudiate, as strongly
as any ministerialist, the wild project of total repeal
and we challenge all the wise people of the Anti-Mono-
poly Association, or the League itself, to point to the
accession to the League party in the House of Com-
mons, of one member, whose opinion is worth a rush
upon this or any other great question ! The Anti-
Corn-law question may be decided by agitation and
clamour out of doors ; it can never be decided, against
England and her domestic agriculture, by dispassionate
argument within the walls of Parliament.
Upon one trifling episode, which enlivened the dull-
ness of Monday night's debate, we may remark.
That most amusing and consistent person—Mr. Thos.
Milner Gibson—we observe, by the reported proceed-
ings, took occasion to remonstrate (!) with the gallant
member for Liverpool— Sir Howard Douglas—for
presuming to speak and vote against the motion before
the house, when his constituents, to the number of
36,000, had petitioned for total repeal ! It would have
been very rash, we admit, if Sir Howard Douglas had
slighted, as Mr. Gibson accused him of doing, the opi-
nions of so large a portion of the bona fide inhabitants
of the borough which he represents. But we can in-
form the hon. gentleman that the member for Liverpool
did no such thing. Sir Howard preferred the legitimately
expressed, and repeatedly expressed, opinions of this
community, to those of the busy and factious clique,
who got up the petition in question, with its fictitious
and trumpery signatures ; and this was " the head and
front of his offending." Old generals, like the mem-
ber for Liverpool, are not to be caught by Mr. Milner
Gibson's chaff, or that of any other anti-monopolist.

The extra-branch of the legislature, to whose sittings
in Palace-yard we briefly called attention in our last,
met on Tuesday ; and, amongst other doings, pro-
pounded their plans for carrying the " total and un-
conditional repeal of the Corn-laws." The nature of
these may be best arrived at from the following reso-
lution :

" RESOLVED, That this Conference recommends
the League forthwith to commence a registration of
the electors of the kingdom, in order to lie prepared,
at the earliest possible period, to call upon the Queen's
advisers, through the constitutional means of a humble
(qy. dictatorial) memorial to her Majesty, to dissolve
the present Parliament, and thus afford to the electors
of the kingdom an opportunity of revising their late
decision upon the question of the Corn-law."
Their subsequent steps are best described in the
language of the arch-agitator, Mr. Cobden, himself.
" If the members of the League did their duty in their
several localities, in registering their friends as electors"
—the payment of their rates is, we suppose, a part of
the scheme—" they might have a dissolution of Par-
liament in less than twelve months! If they got a
sufficient number of electors registered, and addressed
the Queen, a minority (in Parliament) could do one
thing for them—they could, by obstructing the business
of the House, compel the Prime Minister to dissolve
Parliament." (!) A pretty comprehensive scheme
this ; but there are one or two things required to en-
sure its successful accomplishment, upon which Mr.
Cobden calculates a little too confidently. There is an
assumption that the great body of the community may
not, in the mean time, get tired of t tir antics of his
confederacy of mountebanks ; there is an assumption
that the classes sought to be juggled may not, in the
mean time, acquire sufficient clairvoyance (if we may,
in speaking of such a body as the League, use the
jargon of a kindred quackery), to see through the de-
ception; and there is the question to be solved whether
the legislature itself, hacked as it will be by the right-
minded portion of the people, will submit to have the
public business "obstructed" by any factious minority
of its members. The forms of Parliament are no
doubt sufficiently expansive, at present, to permit of
such an operation being successfully accomplished,
when its object is merely to prolong a debate for ano-
ther night or another week ; but such an " obstruc-
tion" as may be required to coerce the Crown and the
Government to dissolve Parliament, is a different affair
altogether, and may not be so very safe an achieve-
ment. Besides, we suspect that some of the gentlemen
of the League minority may not be quite so anxious to
go before their constituents as the Bobadil of Stock-
port supposes !

Whatever may be the degree of feasibility, how-
ever, attendant upon this latest new scheme of the

philosophers, the duty of Conservatives is evident.
The efforts of the faction must he met. The registra-
tion, both in the counties and in boroughs, must be
looked to at once, with all the anxiety and vigilance
which would he displayed were the emergency one of
less remote probabilities. We trust we need not urge
this duty upon the " good men and true" of this Con-
servative town!

In connexion with the appeal which we have made
from time to time to Conservatives to throw off the
lethargy with which they have hitherto regarded the
agitation of the League, we are happy to see that the
agricultural body are at length about to assume a de-
fensive posture, and have provided themselves with an
organ—The British Lion—which is prepared to meet
their opponents, and contest their cause their
EXISTENCE, we might say—foot to foot. With every
consideration for the existing Conservative organs,
the seditious inroads now making by the League into
the agricultural districts of the country, fully justify
the establishment of a journal devoting itself entirely to
the task of tracking and exposing every falsehood
which issues from the ferti!e workshop of that body;
and we wish our new contemporary every success in
his proposed duty. The following is a specimen of
the nervous style of our contemporary :

" We consider it peculiarly incumbent on the landowners,
farmers, and every peraon connected with the agricultural in-
terest, resolutely to prepare for the approaching struggle.
Our enemies have actively marshalled their multitudinous
forces, and sedulously collect the sinews of war in various
districts of the country. They received during this year of
Anti-Corn-law agitation, upwards of SIXTY THOUSAND
POUNDS !!! Such sum has been expended, forsooth, in
adopting every scheme, and promoting every object for which
the Leaguers—as Cobden lately remarked—are banded toge-
ther, viz. " a total, immediate, and unconditional repeal of
the Corn-laws," or, in other words, the abolition of every
regulation, whereby any protection is afforded to British
agriculture.

" No doubt can be entertained respecting the desperate
attempt which the Anti-Corn-law League are making for
the accomplishment of their baneful and destructive machin-
ations. They have been congregating, for several months,
large assemblages of the people in this metropolis, and
throughout the country, whilst their itinerant lecturers daily
promulgate the most fallacious statements among reckless,
ignorant, and unreflecting audiences. Besides, other parties
have been engaged to write, and newspapers are extrava-
gantly remunerated for inserting discontented and inflamma-
tory communications, in furtherance of the schemes devised
by members and partisans of the Anti-Corn-law League.
Nothing but an abolition of every measure, which gives the
slightest protection to farmers and landowners, or, in more
appropriate language, the destruction of British agriculture
itself, will satisfy these factious individuals. If suffered to
accomplish their perilous designs, would not the most fatal
consequences and greatest ruin unquestionably befal the
landowners of England, whose privileges must be thereby
seriously abridged, and properties inevitably destroyed?
" Under such circumstances, we consider the landed in-
terest imperiously required, in self-defence, to adopt such
measures as will protect their rights, and counteract the ap-
palling evils projected by their opponents. Never was there
such a❑ important crisis. Every rank and class of society
should UNITE, in order to maintain the agricultural power
and prosperity of England. Is not domestic agriculture the
sheet-anchor of our national prosperity and tranquillity ?
Nay, more, was not the cultivation of the soil likewise the
foundation of our greatness? Would not our condition, then,
appear paltry, debased, and contemptible, if every species of
protection were abolished ? Would not the inhabitants of
this once agricultural England—raised to the highest rank
among the nations of the world—be obligated to depend upon
foreign countries for the products which are now obtained
from our own soil at home ? In periods of peace, would not
such a system cripple and depress British landowners, farmers,
and husbandmen ? whilst in times of war, would it not reduce
this country to servile dependence on the whims and caprices
of antagonist nations, for the actual supplies whereon to
subsist?

" Whilst noticing these topics, we cannot more appositely
introduce some observations propounded by Mr. Van Buren,
late President of America. Considering the encouragement
of agriculture, as the best means for promoting the strength
and wealth of a great nation, he thus eloquently addressed
the Congress :--` Especially have we reason to rejoice in the
exuberant harvests, which have lavishly recompensed well-
directed industry, and given to it that sure reward which is
vainly sought in visionary speculations. I cannot indeed
view without peculiar satisfaction the evidence afforded by
the past season, of the benefits that spring from the steady
devotion of the husbandman to his honourable pursuit. No
means of individual comfort is more certain, and no source
of national prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a
people for a dependence upon others for the bread they eat;
and that cheerful abundance, on which the happiness of
every one so much depends, is to be looked for nowhere with
such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturists
and the bounties of the earth.' Ought not such remarks,
emanating from this distinguished foreigner, to make a
suitable impression in favour of encouragement and pro-
tection to our domestic agriculture?
" However, we cannot conclude the present observations
without invoking the Peerage, the Gentry, and the Farmers
of England immediately to apply themselves, with vigour and
determination, for the purpose of preserving their existent
rights and properties. Unless active measures of co-opera-
tion be speedily adopted, will not our opponents proceed un-
checked in their ominous machinations? Must not disas-
trous effects ensue, if these " bold, bad men" unfortunately
succeed, by their audacious wickedness, in annihilating the
resources of agriculturists, but, infinitely worse, were they
to abolish British ;riculture itself? Ought not, the Landed
Interest, therefore, to arouse from torpor and inaction?
Disregarding the slanders of their enemies, and contemning
the apathy of certain lukewarm persons, ought they not
boldly to resolve to pursue a course which, if duly devised,
must prove not only beneficial to themselves, their families,
and their posterity, but also peculiarly advantageous to the
peace, welfare, and happiness of these realms ?"

LOCAL NEWS.

The races at Aintree, for this year, take place on the 18th
July and the 21st September.

ESTER.—Visitors to Chester this season, in want of a
comfortable hotel, should go to the Nag's Head Inn. There
they will find the best accommodation and cheer.

The London Assurance Corporation is having a fire engine
of the best and newest construction, built by Messrs. Aler-
ryweather, the great fire engine builders, of London, ex-
pressly for the township of Birkenhead, and hundred of 'Wir-
ral. We understand it will take two months yet to complete it.

THE FACTORY EDUCATION BILL.—A crowded meeting
of the Evangelical Dissenters was held in Great George's-
street Chapel last night, for the purpose of expressing their
decided objection to the Factories Education Bill in its
present state. Dr. Raffles presided, and the chief speaker
was Mr. Thomas Blackburn.
AN ORIGINAL.—The following notice was handed the
other day to Mr. Palmer, special high constable of the hun-
dred of Wirral :—" to magestrets gentlemen, this to Imforme
you that J T— Contaberl of the T— of did 31 De-
cember padrowl the Roads From Peter Nichol's to
Woodchurch With Districte Constabel til A leate houre of
the Nite beaing Informed the Whas Two Bad Carectors
Lurking in the Roads."

DEATH OF MRS. DR. RAFFLES.—We regret to state that
the death of this lady, wife of the celebrated Independent
preacher, of Liverpool, took place at New Brighton, whither
she had gone for the benefit of her health, on Tuesday last.
She had been labouring under disease of the heart for some
time past, but no fatal result was anticipated from it by her
friends, to whom her death was awfully sudden.—[We take
this paragraph from the Morning Herald of yesterday ; but,
as we understand from our reporter that the Doctor was
present at the anti-education meeting last night, the state-
ment of the death of his lady must, we presume, be in-
correct.]
Tux PRINCE'S PARK.—At the dinner at the Town-hall,
on Wednesday week, the Mayor, in proposing the health of
M r. Richard V. Yates, paid that gentleman a very handsome
compliment on the public spirit which he had shown in
form, at his own expense, so handsome an ornament to the
town as the Prince's Park. The sentiments expressed by
the Mayor were very cordially received by the company, and
Mr. Yates, in returning thanks, expressed himself highly
gratified with the notice which his worship and the company
had taken of his new enterprise, and he said he trusted that
it would afford his fellow-townsmen all the pleasure and re-
creation which the company anticipated from it.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF A MATE ON BOARD
inquest was held yesterday, before Mr. Statham, the Deputy
Coroner of the borough, on view of the body of George
Benjamin Ward. The deceased who was 23 years of age,
was second mate of the barque Mysore, now lying in the
Prince's-dock, taking in cargo. On Wednesday morning the
deceased was down in the hold superintending the stowing of
the goods, which were taken in at the main hatchway, and
lowered by a winch. The men above had slung a large case
containing a marble tomb-stone, when at once it fell down
upon the deceased. Several men who were in the hold ran
to him immediately, and found that his head was completely
flattened, and that he was otherwise much injured. He gave
one moan, and died instantly. The weight of the case was
about six or seven hundred weight. It appeared from other.
evidence that the package fell in consequence of the pulls of
the winch having either slipped, or remained up without
falling in the wheel, so that the man who had hold of the tackle
fall (which was wound round the upper barrel of the winch as
a break) could not hold in such a weight, and it went down by.
the run. The manner of lowering the case was that usually
adopted in vessels, but one of the witnesses considered that
it would have been safer to lower such a weight by the han-
dles of the winch, the machine being at the same time pro-
perly attended to, so that the package would be slowly
lowered. Two of the witnesses stated that the winch had
safely lowered heavier packages on the same morning and on
the previous day, and that it appeared to be a good winch
and in good order. It came out from the mate, however,
that the man who had held the rope to lower the case had,
by mistake, taken his lowering turn round the upper barrel
of the winch in the wrong way, so as to reverse the motion of
the barrel, and render the pulls of no effect in stopping it.
A great deal of evidence was gone into, arid the ship visited,
to ascertain the fact, which was satisfactorily shown to the
jury to be the case. The man himself fixed a string round
two round pieces of wood, to show the manner in which he
had taken his turn of the tackle fall, showing that he had
evidently fallen into the mistake stated, and hence the acci-
dent. Some of the stone was inscribed with an epitaph.
The coroner summed up, pointing out the law as affecting the
case, and the jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death."

AMPHITHEATRE.—The late Mr. Ducrow's company and
stud are attracting very fair houses at the Amphitheatre.
There are some excellent equestrians amongst those engaged.
Le Petit Ducrow is a clever little fellow ; his style partakes
of that of the late Maestro in fearless agility and graceful
riding. Mr. Rockwell, an amusing " droll," who often
caused much laughter here when attached to the America❑
company, is engaged for a few nights. A very good piece,
called the " High Nettled Racer," has been brought out.
" George and the Dragon" is about to be produced for Mrs.
Hillier's benefit.

SINGING.—We perceive that Mr. F. Shrivall, who has for
the last two seasons occupied, with much credit to himself
and gratification to the audiences, the position of tenore at
the Theatre-Royal, announces his intention of devoting his
talents to giving instruction in singing. We believe several
pupils are under his tuition at present, and when it is gene-
rally known that he is prepared to impart instruction in a
science in which he is so well qualified, there is no doubt he
will be able to number a large class. Those who wish to
become proficients in the art divine cannot do better than
place themselves under him ; his private testimonials of
ability are very strong ; and all who have heard him sing in
public will admit his claims for support. At present in Li-
verpool there are very few good teachers, and Mr. Shrivall's
entei ing into the lists as a candidate for patronage will be,
no doubt, hailed with satisfaction.
ROWLEY'S PATENT CENTRIFUGAL PUMP.—Several ex-
periments with one of these pumps have been made at the
Canal Basin during the present week, at one of which we
were present. The machine is extremely compact, being
only 12 inches in diameter, and 5 in width, but was capable,
when worked by three men, of lifting about 60 gallons of
water per minute, or of projecting a stream from a branch of
a three•quarter inch bore to a distance of from 10 to 75 fset.
There are no valves in the machine, it being worked by
an eccentric groove, nor is any air box required, as the lift-
ing of the water is so contimious as to cause one stream of
undiminished force throughout. The cost of these pumps
is, we !cam, from £24 to £25; and of a fire-engine on the
same principle (the rotatory), to be worked by twelve men,
complete, with tanks, &c., about £lOO. One of these en-
gines, the manufacturers, Messrs. John Coatman and Son,
of Manchester, will warrant to throw a stream to a height of
160 feet—a height that almost doubles that which the ordi-
nary fire-extinguishing engines in this town can attain.
Messrs. Coatman and Son are now manufacturing one of
this description for the Manchester establishment of the
West of England Fire Insurance Company. The pumps
similar to that now exhibiting arc intended to be applied, as
well as in cases of fire, to ships' pumps, not having that lia-
bility to choke that the common valve pumps have, and pos-
sessing the advantage of the power of projecting water with
sufficient force to wash the decks effectually, thus doing away
with the ordinary mode of washing decks with buckets.

SUICIDE OF A FEMALE.—An inquisition was held yester-
day before Mr. Statham, the deputy coroner, on view of the
body of Jane Lucas, a married female, aged 3s years, and
the case excited considerable interest in the court. The fol-
lowing are the principal portions of the evidence. Elizabeth
Halsall, a child of ten years old, who lived with her sisters,
bonnet-makers, in Limekiln-lane, said she knew the de-
ceased, who lived et the opposite house. On Tuesday after-
noon last, deceased sent one of her little girls for her. She
went, and deceased asked her what her sisters cleaned bon-
nets with,—to which she replied, " oxalic acid." Deceased
then said she wanted to clean her little boy's hat, and her
own bonnet, and gave her twopence, telling her to get some
of the stuff at the druggist's for her. Witness had been in
the habit of going for it for her sisters, and she went to Mr.
Dean's, druggist, and being known at the shop, was served
by the young man, who wrote " poison" on the paper. She
gave it to the deceased.—James Lucas, husband of the de-
ceased, (who appeared to be much affected,) said he was a
file manufacturer, and his wife (the deceased) also kept a
small provision shop. He saw her between five and six
o'clock on Tuesday afternoon last, and she was then much
excited. She might have had a little drink, but was not
much excited from that cause. They owed a quarter's rent,
and the landlord had put the officers into the house some
days previously, but had withdrawn them on an arrangement
being made. He gave up some property as security. They
returned again on Friday, and agreed to take the fixtures for
the rent, and that he should take away his furniture and stock.
They came again. The house was taken in deceased's name,
who said she had no objection to their taking them if they
would wait till dark, but they wished to take them there and
then. Deceased then told the landlord's wife, who was with
them, that if they took them out she would not live to see
them. Witness then went out to get a settlement made
through the assistance of his brother-in-law, and was absent
about half-an-hour. On his return he was told by his little
daughter that the deceased had taken poison, which had been
brought to her by a little girl. He went to Mr. Dean's, and
that gentleman went with him to several places for a medical
man to attend deceased, and finally found Mr. Ackerly, who
went with him, but on reaching the house where deceased
was, they found her dead. Witness stated that deceased was
not much addicted to drink, though he had known her to be
intoxicated a little occasionally. She was liable to be very
passionate, and when in that state was frequently incapable
of judging for herself. When in that state she had frequently
attempted to do him bodily harm ; and when she recovered
herself would acknowledge that she did not know what
she was doing. lie was afraid of her destroying herself,
and had taken such steps as he thought advisable to pre-
vent it.—Elizabeth Rimmer, a respectable elderly fe-
male, who lived next door, said the deceased for the last
fortnight had been greatly troubled in her mind in conse-
quence of the conduct of the bailiffs; her feelings, she said,
were quite overturned by it, and she frequently spoke of self-
destruction. Deceased had told her they had promised to
come on Monday and settle, as agreed upon, for the fixtures,
but they did not come, and she became dreadfully troubled
and excited, saying that she (witness) must see her die.
Witness remonstrated with her, but her mind was unsettled
at the idea of the bailiffs coining and taking her furniture.
On Tuesday they did come, and she requested the principal
one to go up stairs, which she prevailed upon hint to do. She
saw deceased again same afternoon, and she was still much
troubled. Shortly afterwards deceased eame into her house,
and on seeing her in the passage, she sent the washerwoman
who was working in the house and knew deceased, saying it
was Mrs. Lucas. That person went to her, and shortly
after cried out to witness to come, as deceased was dying.
Witness went into her front parlour and found deceased on
the sofa dying. She died almost instantly. Witness had
never seen her incapable from liquor of attending to her busi-
ness or her shop. In her opinion her trouble during the last
fortnight was so great as to put her sometimes out of her
mind.--Mr. Ackerley, surgeon, said he was called to attend
her, but on reaching the house found her quite dead. On a
post-mortem examination, he found from the inflamed and
softened state of the membranes of the stomach, &c., ~nd
also from an analysis of its contents, that a large quantity
of oxalic acid had beets taken, and had caused death. Ile
also found about half an ounce of laudnurn in the deceased's
bedroom in a wine glass: Mr. Dean's assistant said he had
sold the poison to the little girl whom he knew as having
frequently bought it before for her sister's to clean bonnets
with. He had no suspicion that it was for any other pur-
pose. Mr. Dean was not in at the time. The coroner said
that no blame whatever could, under the circumstances, be
attached to Mr. Dean, or the young man. A daughter of
the deceased, aged 15, said that on Tuesday evening between
five and six, she saw deceased put something into her mouth
like salts, apparently in little white lumps. She afterwards
went up stairs to the room over the shop, and returned soon
after, when she seemed as if she was throwing up in her apron.
Witness asked her if she would have a cup of tea, and she
could not speak, but went out, and witness never saw her
again alive. Police-officer, Heydon found in the room
above stairs a small quantity of oxalic acid in the
cloth that covered the table, also a tea-spoon in which
there was also some, and which appeared wet, as if
recently used.—The coroner summed up the principal parts
of the evidence, leaving the jury to decide the main question,
namely, whether the deceased, when she took the poison, was
in a deranged state of mind ?—The jury immediately returned
a verdict, to the effect, that the deceased had destroyed her-
self by taking oxalic acid, while labouring under temporary
derangement of mind.—The quantity of the poison sold was
half an ounce ; and as very little of it was found in the house,
the deceased had taken nearly the whole—a dose so great,
that its effects were fatal in a very short time.