The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

TEE WEATHER.—During the week just ended we
have had a pretty seasonable crop of rains, chilling south-
easterly winds, &c., with occasional hard frosts, slight
falls of sleet and snow, also boar frosts on a few mornings
thinly covering the ground, but all disappearing shortly
after their birth. Gardening and field operations are of
course nearly at a stand-still. Wednesday was a severe
winter day with a biting wind from the south-east in the
early part of the day, succeeded by heavy rain and sleet in
the evening. The following morning was comparatively
fine, and the wind had veered to the northward. Many
parties have been afflicted more or less with colds in va-
rious forms, but so far as we can learn, influenza and fever
have not been so prevalent as before. On Saturday and
Sunday the wind was again from the south-east, and the
latter day we lied some heavy showers. No severe frost
has yet been experienced, and the thickest ice we have yet
seen (on Saturday morning) was in altitudes exposed to
the action of the east wind. Yesterday morning, early,
the atmosphere became mild and agreeable, with a briskish
breeze from the southward, and the day was on the whole
fine, though rather cloudy.
NEW COTTON COUNTRY.—The Manchester Guardian
says—" We have seen a letter from a gentleman at
Liverpool, to the secretary of the Manchester Commer-
ciid Association, enclosing a sample of wild cotton,
gathered on the uncultivated island of Rodriguez (near
the Mauritius), on which the writer had suffered ship-
wreck, and had been compelled to remain for 58 days.
He states that the island, which is about fifteen miles
long by six broad, spontaneously produces a considerable
quantity of cotton, and he could easily have gathered four
or five hundred pounds weight. The shrubs, which
appear to have been those of the perennial flock-seeded
cotton, grow abundantly on the low lands at the mouths
of the rivulets with which the island is intersected ; and
they might, no doubt, be cultivated in other localities.
The sample of cotton sent to the Commercial Association
is very fine in staple, resembling the fine Bourbon cotton
formerly imported to some extent into this country ; but,
apparently, a little stronger. The writer states that the
island of Rodriguez is uninhabited, except by a few black
fishermen, though the land is fertile. the climate excel-
lent, and the natural productions valuable, including the
sugar cane, oranges, lemons, plantains, bananas, &c. ;
and it would, no doubt, yield all thd usual tropical
productions in abundance; but labourers would have to
be procured from India."
TOWN COUNCIL.—The first monthly meeting for the
present year will take place to-morrow, (Wednesday.)
The Finance Committee will present their annual report
on the state of the income, and surplus or no surplus will
become apparent- The other business will comprise a
report on the Town-clerk's establishment, recommending
the addition of £lOO to the salaries of Mr. Driffield and
Mr. Topping, and the appointment of an additional clerk ;
a recommendation to appoint Mr. Wightman surveyor to
the Corporation, at a salary of £l,OOO per annum ; the
laying of a watch-rate ; and the proceedings of the
Markets' Committee. The minutes of the Health Com-
mittee include a recommendation to accept the tender of
Mr. Rose to cleanse the ashpits and middens within the
borough for five years, for £10,400 per annum ; that it is
not advisable or expedient to admit reporters to the meet-
ings of the committee; and a recommendation to adopt
the public act for establishing baths and washhouses, and
to raise a sum not exceeding £25,000, for the purposes of
the act, it being competent to pay the interest on such
srm annually out of the surplus income ; to remove by
certiorari into the Queen's Bench the Recorder's decisions
on the compensation due to Mr. Deane and the others ;
and that Dr. Duncan be requested to devote himself ex-
clu.ively to the duties of his office, his salary to be £7OO
per annum. Mr. Parker will move that £5OOO be voted
for baths, &c., at the south end of the town ; and Mr.
Bramley-Moore that the resolution come to by the Coun-
cil on the New Dock Bill be varied or rescinded, and that
a clause be added to the bill giving powers to purchase
land north of the north docks. The business concludrs
with a motion by Mr. Samuel Holme, that Mr. Rushton's
salary be raised to £1,600.

LOCAL

MEETINGS

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING,

On Saturday a meeting of the Town Council was held
for the transaction of formal business. The re-election
of the trustees of last year of Mrs. Ann Molyneux's
Charity, and of St. James's Cemetry was carried. Mr.
Mr. James Aikin was elected in the room of Mr. Turner
as one of the trustees of the School for the Blind, and
Mr. Bennett was re-elected.

After the appointment of forty-one members of the
Council, as Commissioners to carry out the act for the
better regulation of the pilots of the port,
Mr. HENDERSON said it might be well to state that the
commissioners of pilots, in compliance with a recom-
mendation which they had received, appointed a board
for the examination of masters and mates. That board
began its duties in November, 1845, and from that time
to the present there had been a total of fifty-five appli-
cants, forty-eight of whom were masters, and seven mates.
Certificates had been granted to forty-two masters, and
four mates. Then, as to finances ; the receipts were,
£97 15s. ; the expenditure, £9l 12s. ; so that it had
just paid itself.—Applause.) It would require some little
aid from the Council in future. It was a good establish-
ment, serving to stimulate in seamen the desire for a bet-
ter education ; and he trusted that, when the proper time
came, the council would give it the encouragement which
it required and deserved.
Sir Thomas Brancker, Mr. Littledale, and Mr. Mann
were appointed Commissioners for the embankment at
Lelsowes.

THE LATE OUTRAGES : MEASURES BY THE MAGISTRACY

In reply to a question from Mr. S. Holme as to what
measures had been taken to suppress the continuance of
the outrages at the outskirts of the town the Mayor said :
—Some days ago, when the roberies became frequent,
with the concurrence of my brother magistrates, I issued
orders to the head constable to arm a hundred policemen
and place them throughout the outskirts of the town, and
I have the satisfaction to say that the town was never better
provided than at the present moment. A communication
has also been made to the county magistrates, suggesting
the propriety of having an armed horse patrol for the
outer boundary. The borough magistrates of course have
jurisdiction only in the borough ; the most ample arrange-
ments have been made by them, and I have no doubt but
the county magistrates will also do their duty.

PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.—On Tuesday, the annual
meeting of this society was held. In the absence of the
chairman, the chair was taken by the vice-chairman, Mr.
Todd. The treasurer's account was passed, and those
members of the committee who retired by rotation, were
unanimously re-elected. Allusion was made in the re-
port to the various performances of the past year, espe-
cially those in which Grisi and Alboni had been engaged,
and which appeared to have been beneficial to the society
in a pecuniary way. So also was the performance of
" Elijah." The report laid much stress upon the high
character of the music which had been presented to the
subscribers. The financial affairs of the society did not
present so favourable an aspect as was desirable. The re-
port went on to state that the concerts for 1848 should be
open to the public at prices hereafter to be fixed. The
band would thus be kept together till the opening of the
new hall in Hope-street. There would, in fact, be no
subscription for 1848, and for that year the public and
subscribers would be considered equal, but on the opening
of the new hall the subscribers for 1847 would merely have
to pay the annual subscription, whereas new subscribers
for that year would be charged the usual entrance guinea.
The new hall was represented as going on satisfactorily,
and Mr. A. F. Jones referred especially to the truss frame
for carrying the roof as a work of great artistic skill. It
also appeared from the report that the society had endea-
voured to engage Jenny Lind, but could not succeed in
consequence of her pre-engagements.
Docx COMMITTEE.—THURSDAY.—The plan fora life
boat house at Hilbre Island, at a cost of £BOO, was sub-
mitted and deferred.—A letter was read from the Rev.
Morgan Morgan, vicar of Conway, stating that the magis-
trates in that neighbourhood had been inquiring into
charges of stealing from the vessel wrecked in Llandudno
bay, and the committee might depend the magistrates
would make full inquiries into the matter.—Walter Stokes
was appointed landing foreman, at a salary of 30s. a week.
It was stated he had been brought from the West India
Dock, London, to be head man at the Birkenhead docks.
—Mr. Thomas Chamley, master of the George's Dock,
was appointed master of the King's Dock, at a salary of
£250 a year and a house. A medical certificate was pro-
duced as to the state of the health of Mr. M'Bride, mas-
ter of the Salthouse and Canning Docks, and it was agreed
to superannuate him at £2OO a year, he having been seven-
teen years in the service of the trust.—Mr. Thomas Her-
bert, assistant master, was appointed to be head master
of the Salthouse and Albert Docks, at a salary of £250,
and a house, and Mr. Joseph Curry was appointed assis-
tant master, at a salary of £2OO a year. A letter from
Richard Wooley, jun., stating that he had been discharged
from the Albert Docks because being once a Protestant lie
had turned Catholic, was referred to the Warehouse Sub-
committee, the chairman stating that if the contents of the
letter were true, some of the officers of the Albert Dock
would be implicated. Mr. Royden : We have nothing to
do with religion here. Mr. Molyneux said the applicant
was only an extra man, and had never been on the staff.
In all the appointments made they never asked what a
man's religion or politics were.—The committee were
about to elect a printer and a stationer to the trust, when,
after some little conversation, a committee, consisting of
the Chairman, Messrs. Nicol, Molyneux, Gladstone,
Henderson, and Mann was appointed to report whether a
more satisfactory mode could not be devised of appointing
parties to provide the printing and stationery.