The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-01 00:00:00

Feb. 1, 1848.

DENSE FOG AT: GLASGOW.—During the early part of
last week Glasgow was visited with a fog so dense thiii no
object could be seen at the distance of more than a few
feet. The inhabitants do not recollect its equal for twenty
years past. On Monday and Tuesday so dark was the at-
mosphere that no steamers ventured up or down the
Clyde. The frost OM at the same time excessively keen,
the thermometer being below zero. On Wednesday, the
air was Vain clear.
Qin,JOHN FRANKLIN.—The public will learn with
great satisfaction that the admiralty have lost no time in
meeting the wishes of the government and the public,
generally, by providing superior ships, and selecting an
efficient officer to command the perilous enterprise of
searching for this gallant officer—the distinguished Capt..
Sir James Clark Ross, who returned about four years
since upon a polar voyage—and who is the nephew of that
other celebrated arctic voyager, Captain Sir John Ross,-
C. 8., in whom the most unanimous confidence will be
reposed as a most experienced navigator.
GOVERNESSES.—At the last selection of annuitants by
the Governesses Institution, in London, there were 84
candidates for three annuities of £l5 each-84 ladies,
many reared in affluence, and all accustomed to the com-
forts and luxuries of at least our middle ranks, all seeking,
an annuity of £l5 ! Of these, 70 were unmarried, and:
of this number 7 had incomes above £2O, two derived
from public institutions ; 16 had incomes varying from
365. to £l4 ; and 47 had absolutely nothing ! It will be
recollected (say the committee) that all these ladies are
above 50 years of age ; and of the utterly destitute 18
were above 60.
AWFUL EVENT AND Loss OF LIFE.—On Saturday, at
Stirchley, a company of men and boys were being let down
into one of the pits, when one of those destructive and
awful misfortunes took place called a " whirl," or by some
a " runner"—that is, the chain flew off the barrel, and
, precipitated them all to the bottom ; by which dreadful
occurrence three poor boys have been killed in a moment.
There were about sixteen men and boys in the chains, and
several of them have been more or less injured. The three
boys were in the centre of the group upon whom the
chains fell, and they were killed almost instataneously.—
Shrewsbury Journal.
PRICE OF WHEAT.—It was precisely at this time last
year that wheat made a sudden jump of 12s. on the qr.
The price of wheat is at present less by 20s. than' it was
in the corresponding week of 1847. The Cambridge
returns for Saturday last gave it at 495. per quarter ; for
the same week in 1847 it was 725. ; having in the previ-
ous week of that year, been only 60s. Even then the
foundations were being laid of the recent tumble down
panic. The bubble was already swelling out into those
overstrained proportions which eventually yielded to the
first breath of disappointment, and burst with a loud ex-
plosion.—Cambridge paper.
FATAL EXCURSION.—A very sudden event occurred on
the Humber on Monday. The deceased are two young
men, both clerks in the office of Mr. George Cammell, of
Hull, merchant and shipping agent. One of them is -
named William Gray, aged 18, son of Mr. Gray, late
Leedf, corn merchant, and now of Hamburg ; and his com-
panion was Mr. Otby Hollingsworth, of Myrton-place,
aged 26, who has left a widow and two children. The
two deceased young men went in a boat upon the Hum-
ber to shoot wild ducks ; and through want of manage-
ment they ran foul of a schooner off the Citadel, their boat
filled with water, and sunk with them in it. They never -
rose to the surface.

WALES.—By the great outcry in letters and leaders, in
the liberal press of the Principality, we assume that the
Dissenters begin to have some fear of losing their hold of
this paradise of sectarian doctrines. The London
Examiner has called it the British Bceotia, though it has
never produced a Pindar or a Plutarch. The only excuse
for this nickname is the silly replies of scholars and school-
masters to the questions of the Education Commissioners;
but let them put the same questions to the schoolmasters
of the rural districts and villages of Northamptonshire,
Gloucestershire, and a dozen other counties, and they will
find the same abundance of wiseacres. The Whigs have
been the chief aids of the Dissenters, in extending their
influence in Wales; and now they complain of the igno-
rance they helped to propogate and extend.

BURGLARIES AND MURDEROUS ATTACK.—Recently,
the rectory of Lea was broken into, and plate, amounting
to upwards of £3O in value, taken therefrom. The par-
sonage houses of Laughton and Blyton have, also, been
plundered ; and the vicarage of South Leverton has been
ransacked, and the whole of the plate packed up, but for-
tunately the burglars were disturbed before they had an
opportunity of taking it away. We have now to record
another attempt on the rectory of Saundby,which had partly
succeeded ; but through the determined spirit of Mr. Hud-
son, and his capital defence of his house and person, the
burglars have not been successful, but on the contrary, one
of the guilty party, at least, was captured. He turns out
to be a returned convict, named Joseph Palmer, alias
" Duddy Palmer," a native of Clarborough, with whom,
from all we can learn, were three other guilty associates,
who are still at large. Palmer was brought up on Wed-
nesday week at Redford, when, after a long examination,
he was remanded. Mr. Hudson, whose face Was covered
with blood, was well enough to give evidence before his
brother magistrates. The shirt he had on whilst engaged
in the affray was exhibited, and presented one mass of
blood. A gun, the stock of which had been broken into
three pieces ; a life-preserver, heavily.charged with lead ;
and a bludgeon, partially covered with blood, which the
burglars had left on the premises, were also produced.—
Hull Packet.

EAST INDIA SHirrucer--dTht East Tpulia• and 'China
Association have publishe t eir annual comparative
statement of the number of British ships, with their
tonnage, which have entered inwards and cleared out-
wards from and to places within the limits of the East
India Company's Charter in the years 1846 and 1847.
The return of shipping entered inwards shows a total
increase, in favour of 1847, of 150 vessels, with 66,543
tonnage, the respective numbers being 852 vessels, with
360,039 tonnage, in 1846, against 1,002 vessels, with
426,582 tonnage, in 1847. Of this increase the port of
tonnage
; e
and
most Bristolnumerous
London received 107 vessels, with 47,830tonnge
and
Hull, ,• Li-
verp oo9l,v3e2ssveis, vessels, with
3,
with3.7l36t,so2n3natgoen.n
aarivals this year have been from Madras, Bombay,
Singapore, and Penang, the Mauritius and the South
Seas. The ref urn of shipping cleared outwards shows a
total decrease of 16 vessels in the year 1847 compared
with the preceding twelve months, though with respect to
the gross amount of tonnage an increase of 17,782, in
measurement, is established for the same period. These
results are thus arrived at :—ln 1846 the clearances in-
cluded 979 vessels, with 413,849 tonnage, while in 1847
they 'included 963 vessels, with 431,631 tonnage. The
port Of London in this respect was in decrease 1 vessel,
but the tonnage showed an increase of 8,207 in measure-
ment ; Liverpool was in decrease to the extent of 22
vessels, with 2,492 tonnage increase, while Bristol, and
Hull, and the Clyde, and other ports contributed, on the
other hand, an increase—in the former case to the extent
of 2 vessels, with 829 tonnage, and in the latter case 5
vessels, with 6,254 tonnage. The chief clearances with
tonnage have been for Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Sin-
gapore, and New South Wales.

A MELANCHOLY STORY.--A singular instance of ma-
ternal affection, and melancholy misery, occurred in this
city a few days since. A widow, who, unfortunately for
them, was the mother of six children, found . refuge in a
dilapidated dwelling in one of the lanes. The youngest
of her children fell ill, and died. The whole family were
in a state of the utmost destitution, and the disease rapidly
mastered the young orphan's energies. A coffin was beg-
ged. Coffin and corpse would have been borne, perhaps,
without the mother's assistance, to some graveyard near.
But she had lived at a distance of many miles from this
city, and in the burial ground of her native place her
friends were interred. The distance was far, and as few
would consent to carry a coffin, containing a stranger, so
far unnecessarily, the poor mother resolved to bear it her-
self. She actually did so. She had it placed on her back,
and slowly and wearily she bore it away, reached the
graves of her kindred, scratched a trench, we have heard,
with her hands, and thus consigned to the earth where
she wished they should rest the remains of her offspring.
She returned to the orphans. A second took sick, died
quickly, like the other; -like the other, was placed in a
charity coffin, and conveyed in the same way, by the un-
fortunate mother' to the same place of burial, and buried
in like manner by her own hands. She returned again.
A third child took sick, died speedily also, was stretched.
in a coffin procured from the charitable, borne away as
before by the sorrowing mother; and interred near to the
other two by the hapless poor creature's almost excoriated
hands. She returned a third time. A fourth child was
ill ; fell a victim as quickly as each of the others, was cof-
fined by charity, and carried off and laid by the mother
beside her three children. She came back to her wretched'
apartment.
ona llt hp
events,
e Aor c u
arenfifthdd:
aoa childofififfntthghebr was
wearisomeotdoysfeecieozlne seized
shi
jgeobnuyi
ehged t
yeos
madeotfh malady,
eddisease,
eat se:
tobfifth
rtt
the mother,
wasting progress of unalleviated hunger.—
Limerick Examiner.

OUR DEFENCES.—The Globe of Monday came forth
a very good article, in the way of ridicule, against the
Cornish Olympus, under the auspices of the pacific Sir
W. Molesworth, and the Birmingham Peace Club, of
Cobden and Sturge's fraternization. The subject does
not admit of argument. There is now another chance for
Sir R. Peel to follow the guide of the " unadorned elo-
quence" of the designer of print patterns, and his serfs
starving on his piece prices. Cobden argues that there
there are no longer any national antipathies in France
towards England; and beyond the clubs, &c., none in
England towards France. The Globe instances the fol-
lowing effects of disarming :—We saw this reduction,
which had been devised by a Tory, carried into effect by a
Whig Ministry according to the usual influence on each
others' measures of British parties. And we saw the
consequences, in the state of the British Mediterranean•
squadron in 1839 and early in 1840, and in the effect
which that comparative condition to the improvements
the French had been making produced on French opinion,
and indeed on European opinion generally.—Captain
Plunkett
:—"et observes,ln (past and Future of the British
1839,
and early in 1840, our ships in the

Mediterranean were, generally speaking, small, and under.
manned, and with very indifferent crews ; our flag ship,
although a three-decker, was smaller, and of les force
in men and guns, than the French two-decked ships.
Our squadrOn was also numerically weaker ; and thought
a subsequent increase of complement, by means of drafts
from England, inspired confidence and improved the
morale of our fleet, there certainly was a time when its

situation was very precarious."--Incidentally, in his
famous " Note," the Prince de Joinville remarks on the
same point—" We had at that moment the advantage over
the British squadron in organisation and in numbers.
Our sailors, commanded by an able and active chief, were
well exercised, and all promised a victory. Ido not here
rely on my own recollection, but upon that of one of the
most skilful officers of the British navy."—To the ques-
tion why we have wanted increased armaments since 1840.
we should have thought it enough to answer—because
our force was then dangerously low ; and because nothing
but a " happy accident," and a " petty fortress," toyed
our lame in she Okla of &mime.