The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-24 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A correspondent, who signs himself " A Ratepayer of Toxteth.
park," but for whose letter we cannot find room, suggests that,
instead of en arging the present St James's Market, it would
tie preferable, and, at the same time. more econemical. to erect
another market further to the south of the park. Fie says,
if the Corporation would purchase the field above St, John
the Baptist's Church, say about five acres, from t'e Earl of
Sefton, at a cost of shout .-e:2000, and erect a market on the
portion adj•dning Park-road, extending to Essex-street,
Church-street, and a ner; etc et on the tomb side, occupying
altogether an area of about 8.10 orb,) yards, the remainder of
the land, from its increased value for building purposes,
would realise the full cost of the whose. About :6'5900, he
thinks. would build a market sufficient for the wants of the
district ; whereas, .25;t0 to '3mo would he required for the
proposed enlargement of St. James's Marl et Such new
market, he states, would he near the intended new larding
slips at. the south end of the town, and would accommodate
the increasing population at the Po•teries, the intended new
yards at the south of the town, the Prince's Park, and the
inhabit ants of the neighboarhood. Ile adds that since the
site for St. James's Market was fixed upon, the population of
Toxteth-park has increased by abort 3.5,, 0 inhabitants, and
that another marke is required in the district where the in-
crease is principally located.
We are not much in the habit of complaining, after the fashion of
some of our contemporaries, of plagiarism teem our columns
without acknowledgment, although we have frequently sufficient
occasion. But ashen a whole column of original description,
which had cost us both expense, time, and tro"ble, is adopted
without a word to intimate our claim to authorship, we cannot
submit to the liberty with our usual philosophy. Last week the
Macclesfield Courier copied verbatim our description of the
course, levels, &c , cf the Birkenhead and Manchester Railway,
and passed it off as his own. which was shabby, if intended.
The worst of this practice is, that your extensive pilferers have
seldom any tiring in their columns with which we cart make free
in return.

We have not been able to obtain the information sought for by
" A Constant Real, r."

OLlje Riberpul &taifoarti.

TUESDAY MORAING, DEC. 24, 1844.

Our publication of this day will be laid upon the
breakfast tables of hundreds of our readers, whose
hearts and thoughts are full of anticipations of the
coming festivities of this festive season. The eve of
Christmas ! How many hearths this night will
shed their warmth and light upon happy faces, as-
sembled round them in joyous converse ! How many
tongues will this night dilate upon happy events of
the year now speeding to its close, and happy pros-
pects of the year which is to come ! How many
fond parents will be gazing upon the matured fea-
tures of beloved children, brought once more for a
brief period of holiday into the family circle !
How many will be listening with rapture whilst
they tell over their schoolday triumphs, or touch
mayhap upon subjects more delicate and more em-
barrassing to the ingenuous mind of the young and
the pure of soul ! The Eve of Christmas ! How
many a loving heart will be this night sadly dwelling
upon the tokens of decay in some endeared form—
how many an eye watching the dimmed expression,
the furrowed cheek, the stooping form, of those
whose mature strength and anxious care have shel-
tered them in their passage through this weary
world, and looking back the while, through the dim
vista of bygone years, to a period when life's pro-
spects were brighter—when the loved ones, now
hovering on the verge of the grave, were in their
young beauty, or in their prime, and their firm hold
upon the world and its joys and possessions seemed
to defy the envious hand of Time to launch his dart
against them! How many may be marking the
seat, now vacant, at the Christmas board, which last
year was occupied by some dear one, full of lusty
youth or mature health I—but pause we here. "It
is good for-us to go down into the house of mourn-
ing;" but ours shall not be now the task to start
afresh the tear which the hand of Time has dried,
or to bring a fresh pang to hearts whose beatings
resignation has stilled.

We have, however, a few words to offer to our
readers, which may possibly excite. thoughts not
pleasurable and regrets which may mar the other-
wise unclouded joy of a thoughtless hour. We
have to remind the lighthearted, the prosperous,
and the happy, who are now looking forward to a
succession of mirthful clays in prosp ct, that there
are those, in this world of ours, to whose dreary lot
the Eve of Christmas brings no alleviation—to
whose heavy hearts it brings not even a hope of
better things—to whose tear-dimmed eyes the em-
blems of our Christmas festivities, the holly and the
mistletoe, bring only added and bitter floods—in
whose ears the mirthful music, heard through many
a well-barred window, are but a mockery of their
misery. Before we meet, then, around our cheerful
hearths—before we shut ourselves up in the selfish-
ness of our enjoyments—before we raise the Christ-
mas hymn, and resign ourselves to the deluding
thought that we are performing all that is expected
from us, as Christians, when to-morrow we wel-
come, with prayer and thanksgiving, the coming of
the Star of Bethlehem—let us ask ourselves," What
have we done, each in our several spheres, to dry
the tears or to lighten the hearts of these outcasts
from joy and rest ? What widow blesses us ?—what
aged man's eyes overflow at the thought of our
bounty ?—what orphan tongue thanks us for a shel-
tering roof and a plentiful meal ?"
Alas! these are questions to which too many of
--us, we fear, will receive replies from conscience
_little calenlated to satisfy the heart. We may point
to our vast commerce, to our warehouses loaded
with merchandise, to our mills and to our work-
shops, and exclaim, " How many thousands have
these maintained in competence through the past
year !" But if this is all of which we can boast, it
will scarcely suffice to still the whisperings of the
accusing spirit. We may point to our munificent
charities—to our names emblazoned within the
'walls of hospitals and colleges; but even these will
not avail us much. We may boast that we expend
freely our means, thus giving employment to in-
dustry ; but, alas ! the motive—the motive of such
liberality ! The very extravagancies which we call
charity are too often made up of selfishness and an
avaricious spirit, and seldom extend their benefits
to those who most stand in need of our sympathies.
View the rich dress which adorns the fair form of
some youthful beauty. "There," the worldling may
exclaim, " is at least no evidence of a grudging,
griping spirit !" But, turn your eyes, reader; upon
another scene. Follow the feeble footsteps of that
pale young girl, as, half-clad and half-fed, she pro-
ceeds, shivering, to her home, in the bitter cold of
this joyous Christmas Eve. Her hands fashioned
the gorgeous dress of that proud beauty; her at-
tenuated frame was bent over it for sixteen or
eighteen hours in the day: and yet, what a wretched.
remuneration for her young bloom wasted does she
bring home to the miserable room which shelters
her, although it cannot warm her, during the few
hours of worn-out nature which she is permitted to
spend out of the crowded and heated work-room!.
What a " merry Christmas" is this to her ! And
yet such is the poor result of the bulk of that charity
which consists in the liberal indulgence of our per-
sonal vanity and love of ostentation. We have
made fat ourselves a different world and a different'
atmosphere from those in which the humble worker
toils and suffers ; we have set up a griping minister
of our charities, a sordid " putter out" of the em-
ployment which we offer; and we resolutely shut
our eyes to a knowledge of the miserable amount of
the pittance which finds its way from the brilliantly-.
lighted and splendidly-adorned shop—in which we
delight to feast our eyes upon the magnificent pro-
ductions of pa'ient industry and ingenuity—to the
humble hands by which they are wrought. "The
poor ye have always with you," said one who was:
himself poor and humble for our sakes; and yet,
Christian men and women strive unceasingly to.i
forget that there are such beings at their very'
doors, made. of the same clay of which God made
us all.

Oh, what a different world would this be if wealth
and even competence would know and perform their
duties to humble poverty ! How many a cold
hearth would this night be warm ! how many a
sunken eye beaming with light ! how many a heavy
heart throbbing with happiness ! Readers, we ask
you to think over these things before you sit down,
on this eve of Christmas, to its cheer and its joyous-
ness. Ask yourselves, strangers though you have
made yourselves to their wants, their sufferings,
their natures, if even yet there is no deserving fa-
mily near you whom your bounty might make happy
to-morrow around their own hearths, and your
constant kindness and protection, during the year
to come, might raise to permanent comfort, and the
indulgence of a better disposition,. towards their su-
periors in worldly station, than we fear now animates
them.

We have said our brief say ; and now conclude
by wishing to our indulgent readers " A Merry
Christmas." They may yet earn happier reflections
for to-morrow, and the blessing of some fellow-
worm, if they have neglected to earn their already.

It is a lamentable infirmity, attending the oratory
of gentlemen possessed of a certain quantity of
brains and a negative quantity of discretion, that,
when they enter upon the advocacy of any particular
measure, they invariably prove too much. Such

infirmity we have often noticed as characterising the
proceedings of the oratorical amongst our neigh-
bours of Manchester. Wind them up for any pub-
lic occasion ; and, like ill-regulated specimens of
clock-work, they run themselves down, after having
proved, not only what they set about proving, but
just as much beyond the question, or to the con-
trary of their chosen position, as the durance of their
wind or the length of their chain will permit.
A striking instance of this infirmity is before us,
in the proceedings of a " borough meeting," held in
Manchester on Tuesday last, for the purpose of pro-
moting the repeal of the tax on cotton wool. We
have again and again expressed our own sense of
the impi)licy of that tax. We have urged it at a
time when the manufacturers and spinners of Man-
chester were not only indifferent with respect to the
advantages which its repeal was to confer upon
themselves and the but when they obstinately
set theirifaces against any measures directly calcu-
lated to alleviate the distress and depression, under
which the commerce of the country laboured; and
when, in the hope of coercing the legislature to grant
their favourite specific—a repeal of the Corn-laws—
they welcomed, with absolute rapture, every fresh
development of that distress. We raised our voice
at a time when the town of Manchester was for 24
hours in the possession of an excited mob, and
when, nevertheless, not a merchant nor a manufac-
turer in Manchester even mooted this very ques-
tion, which we now find is one of the most vital
questions for the legislature to deal within their be-
half. -We claim, therefore, for ourselves the merit
of consistency and forethought, as well as of a sin-
cere desire to procure the boon, now agitated for, of
a repeal of the cotton duty; and we cannot, there-
fore, be accused of a desire to impede the success of
such a movement when we state our thorough con-
viction that nothing is more calculated to produce
such a result, and to injure in the public estimation
the standing of the cotton manufacturers of Great
Britain in the eyes of Parliament and of the country,
than spouting such as that which formed the staple
of the proceedings of the meeting under notice.
Undoubtedly a strong case would have been made
out by the speakers in favour of the repeal of the
tax in question, had the speakers chosen to limit
themselves to that object. Mr. R. H. Greg shewed
that it presented a serious hindrance to the attempts
of the British manufacturer to compete with the fo-
reigner, in his own or in neutral markets. The
American manufacturer, he shewed, possessed, -by
the saving enjoyed by him in freight, insurance, and
duty, an advantage over the British manufacturer in
the production of coarse fabrics, of "from 25 to 30
per cent ;" and has already dispossessed us of the
greater portion of our trade in these articles with
the Indian, the South American, the Chinese, and
even the Canadian markets. Unfortunately the
statement is true in the main, although a little ex-
aggerated.
American domestics and heavy cottons
do occupy largely the space in foreign markets once
filled up by British goods, but we cannot admit that
such circumstance is altogether attributable to their
superior cheapness, and are rather more inclined to
impute it to the superior reputation of the American
manufacturer for producing an honest article. The
cost of the raw material is certainly less in the Uni-
ted States than in this country; but when we bear in
mind the greater cheapness of production in Great
Britain, the alleged advantage of the American ma-
nufacturer appears to us a little over-estimated at
"25t0 30 per cent." Nor is it easy to reconcile
this and the rest of Mr. Greg's statements and
authorities with the following extract from a letter
produced by him, dated "New England, 15th Nov.
1844.

" Upon this basis, it is clear that we can undersell you
in yarn. You will ask, if such is the case, why have we
not gone into that branch ? We answer, first, that while
cloth pays 15, 20, and 25 per cent., it has not been
thought expedient to make yarn."
Manufacturers who realise extravagant profits
like the above ought not to be such very dangerous
competitors with our own. The attempt made here
to. prove too much rather inclines us to doubt the
correctness of the remaining positions of the
speaker.

Admitting, however, the views of Mr. Greg and
others to be correct, what is the conclusion to which
they bring us ? Why that no mere repeal of the
cotton duties c-n restore to us this particular branch
of manufactures, of whose loss we complain. Take
away the impost of ten per cent., which the cotton
duty forms, the American manufacturer will still,
according to Mr. Greg's own sheaving, have an ad-
vantage over us, in the manufacture of heavy fabrics,
of 15 to 20 per cent., a circumstance which might
induce a statesman to go the length of refusing al-
together the boon required, when the beneficial
result must be so inconsiderable compared with the
sacrifice of revenue to be made, and when there are
so many claimants of similar favourt, each of whom
can make out quite as good a case.
Another speaker, however, Mr. Robert Gardner,
throws far more light than Mr. Greg has done upon
the nature and motives of the present movement for
a repeal of this tax, so far as the manufacturing
interest is concerned. The demand for a repeal of
the cotton duties is only a portion of an attempt to
get rid of every tax which, however remotely, stands
between that interest and its ambition to absorb the
trade of the whole world. Repeal this duty, then,
and what next ? It will be, by the admission of
these gentlemen themselves, insufficient to enable
them to undersell the American manufacturers ; and
the further steps, to insure such a consummation,
cannot be better described than in the words of Mr.
Gardner himself. " If," said the speaker, " English
manufacturers were not able to compete with their
rivals in foreign markets, they put their wits to a
stretch to ascertain how they could reduce the cost
of production,"—(mark the admission reader and
its bearing upon the League's outcry for a repeal of
the Corn-laws !)—" and as the spinner and the
weaver were perhaps the least capable of protecting
themselves, the reduction would probably first come
upon them."—(Candid, indeed, most philanthropic
free-trader !) "If the reduction in wages did not
enable the manufacturers to meet their competitors
in foreign markets, the neat reduction must come
upon manufacturers' profits,"--(aye, there's the sore
point !) " and then the next upon the wear and tear
and the interest of machinery." But to avoid the
dire necessity of a reduction in " manufacturers'
profits" or " interest of machinery," we must be
asked to repeal the Corn-laws, take the duty off tea,
coffee, sugar, every thing which can be imported in
exchange for cotton goods, and the reduced cost of
which will aid in the attainment of that great object
for which Mr. Gardner tells us that manufacturers
" put their wits to stretch," viz., " cheapness of
production !"
We are not at all inclined to under-estimate the
value to this country of the cotton manufacture.
We have already expressed ourselves in favour of a
•repeal of the duty on the raw material. But we
cannot, whilst contending for this concession, admit
the validity of the claim put forward by the manu-
facturer, that whenever, and by whatever circum-
stances, he ceases to be able to meet competition in
foreign markets, he is entitled to the aid of the
legislature, and the whole system of our revenue
laws is to be broken in upon for his benefit. What
is such a demand but a demand for protection—in
a modified shape, it is true, but still, substantially,
protection ? And under what circumstances is this
demand now made ? It is admitted, on all hands,
that the cotton trade was never more prosperous
than at the present moment—that never was money
being more rapidly amassed by the manufacturers
than it has been during the past twelve months. A
new world has just been opened to their enterprise;
and, to enable them to supply it, new mills and new
machinery are springing up in every manufacturing
town, village, and hamlet. And yet, because these
men, who are absolutely gorging themselves with
wealth, cannot grasp the wealth of the whole earth
at once—because other nations are able to enjoy a
pitiful fraction of its commerce—we are to pander
to their avarice, although it may lead us to peril the
national honour itself. We cannot recognise the
propriety of such a claim. We cannot believe that
it is consistent with the justice of the Almighty
Disposer of all things, that this nation should be
the workshop of the whole world, and monopolise
its supply with manufactured fabrics, any more
than it is in accordance with that benign wisdom
which has given to every land the climate and fer-
tility, the soil and the minerals, the herbs and fruits,
most suited for the necessities of its inhabitants,
that one portion of the earth should he a productive
garden and the remainder left a wilderness. This
may he unfashionable and unphilosophical doctrine,
but it is not the less likely to be true on that ac-
count.

Pudsey Dawson, Esq. of flornby Castle, is to be the
high sheriff for this county for the year ensuing.
The Rev. Wray R. Hunt, A. 8., has been licensed by
the Bishop of Chester to the ministry of St. Saviour's in
this town with the sanction of the rectors, on the unani-
mous call of the congregation.

PROPOSED DOCKS IN TRANMERE POOL.

In another part of the paper we present to our readers a
typographic plan of the new dock proposed to he formed
ni..on the site of Tranmere Pool. Its main features will
require littic description at our hands: The entrance, it
will be seen; is through a gut 70 feet wide, with double
gates the sills of which will be sunk nine feet below the
Old bock sill, and which wi!l afford ingress and egress
t ) the largest of our sea-going steamers. On the south
side of the gut is a quay of 100 feet in width running round
the east end of the dock and about two-thirds the length
of its south side, upon which it abuts upo'n the present
Tranmere slip, which, with that of Birkenhead, will be
ltfc untouched. The projecting gut on the north side of
the dock covers the site of the canal now forming by Mr.
Gilbertson ; and the west side affords space for addi!ional
quays. building yards, or dry docks, as may be found most
desirable. Th'e total water space afforded is 11 acres 1980
yards, in addition to which the open basin at the mouth
of the gut is proposed to be deepened to 9 feet below
the Old Dock sill. Two other plans have been lodged
by the projector of the scheme, Mr. Chamberlain, vary-
ing in details arid form ; hut that which we have given is,
we btlieve, the plan which meets with preference. The
estimated expense, we learn, is somewhere about £60,000,
and the engineer is Mr. John Hartley, son of the dock
surveyor of this port.

It will be observed, by the report of the proceedings of
the dock committee, on Thursday last, that the whole of
these plans have been submitted to their inspection ; and
that without pledging themselves with respect to the
course to be adopted towards them, they evidently regard
the project with no disfavour. On the other hand, looking
at the valuable property, possessed by the corporation on
the north side of the pool, including the Birkenhead Ferry
and estate, that body cannot look upon a project. whose
success must tend materially to increase the value of such
property, with a hostile eye. It is probable, therefore,
that no material local objection will be offered before par-
lilment, provided, however, that the scheme can be car-
ried out without abstracting any portion of the tidal water
at present discharged from the pool, on which ground
the dock committee, last session of parliament, based
principally their opposition to the Wallasey plans. It is
said, we know not with what degree of truth, that the
acting conservator of the river, on the part of the admi-
ralty, has set his fkce against the scheme, being of opinion
that the volume of water held by the pool in its present
state cannot be furnished. This, however, is a question
of practical engineering which we should think could
easily be got over, when the now greatly reduced capacity
of the pool is considered.

It has occurred to us, and we dare say will suggest itself
to many, that a scheme so feasible in its details, and so
comparatively inexpensive. ought not to be allowed by the
authorities of Liverpool to pass entirely out of their
hands ; and th..t they ought rather to become parties to
its construction than to oppose it. We suggest this, not
solely because of the operation which its success must
have upon the value of their extensive estate in its neigh-
bourhood, but as calculated in itself to be of great utility
to the general trade of the port, whilst it cannot be re-
garded as calculated to damage the interests of the docks
of Liverpool. It may be argued that this would be a
course full of inconsistency, after the opposition offered
to the Wallasey Docks. We do not think that the pub-
lic at large, or the shipowners and merchants of the port,
will regard it as such. There is no great danger here of
any serious diminution of the tidal waters and consequent
decreased action upon the banks outside. There is no
extensive beaching ground abstracted from the shipping
of the river; and rather than regard the adoption of this
project by the dock committee as an inconsistency, we
much question if three-fourths of the intelligent public
have not for years past been directing their attention to
this particular locality as the spot on which docks on the
Cheshire side of the Mersey should be erected, if required
at all. We leave this matter for better judgments than
our own to decide upon.

MESSENGERS OF TuE:COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Szrt,-A letter signed "A Solicitor" has appeared in
the Liverpool Mail and Courier, stating that the mes-
sengers of the Court of Bankruptcy exact the enormous
sum of £3 14s. in every insolvent case, for advertisements
alone.

Mr. Green, a solicitor practising in insolvency, having
acknowledged to my solicitor that he is the author, I
shall feel obliged by your doing me the justice to insert
the following items of a messenger's bill, so that the pub-
lic may judge between us, and so dispense with my giving
the unpleasant denial in more direct terms. If truth
travelled as rapidly as fiction, I would not have tres-
passed on your valuable columns.
MESSENGER'S BILL IN INSOLVENCY.
INTERIM ORDER.

Advertisement in London Gazette
Postage..
Copy of Gazette for file..
Messenger's fee for preparing advertisement for

. . -
Gazelle
* Advertisement in newspaper . .. 0 9 6
We pay sometimes as much as 12s. or 15s. ac-
cording to the length, but make no extra
charge. .
Copy of newspaper for fi1e......
Messenger's fee for preparing advertisement for
newspapers

£1 10 6
The whole of the above business to be repeated
for the final order of the insolvent, viz .... 1 10 6

£3 1 0
Examining insolvent's property, and the whole
of the charge of the messenger through the
insolvency, as allowed by the court. ... 0 13 '4

£3 14 4

I may add that the messengers are bound to find
ink, paper, and attendance at all their meetings and ad-
journed meetings in the Court, for which they are al-
lowed—nothing.
Your obedient servant,
L. T. GASKILL,
Messenger to the District Court of Bankruptcy.

* In Bleakley's (case of Mr. Green's) the Mercury's charge
for the insertion of the advertisement is Ios. 6d.

THE FUNDS, SATURDAY NlGHT.—Business at the
Stock Exchange, though not particularly brisk, to-day
was sufficiently good to give prices an improved appear-
ance, and Exchequer-bilis rose to 635. to 655. p.m. Con-
sols for the account left off 100+; Bank Stock, 2081 to
2091 ; Three per Cents. Reduced, 1001 to ; Three-and-
a-Quarter per Cents., 103 k to s ; Long Annuities, 12
1-16; and India Bonds, 745. to 78s. premium.—ln the
foreign house a good deal of speculation was going for-
ward, and the general movement seemed to be in favour
of a rise. Spanish Stock was particularly buoyant. the
Five per Cents. leaving off 26k to I, and the Three per
Cents, 38} to ; Russian closed 119 to 120 ; Peruvian, 29
to 30 ; Portuguese, 581 to 591 ; Mexican, 361 to ;
Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Cents., C 3/ to 64} ; the Five
per Cents., 99} to a ; Danish, 89 to 90 ; Colombian, 14+
to 1; Chilian, 091 to 1001; Buenos Ayres, 37 to 38;
Brazilian, 831 to 891; and Belgian, 102 to 103.
PROSPEROUS STATE OF THE REVENUE OF THE LI-
VERPOOL CORPORATION.—The reduction going on in
the bonded debt of this estate, from the recent sales made
to the Dock Commissioners of Wallasey and to our own
Dock Committee, promises very shortly to place the
Corporation of Liverpool in possession of a large surplus
revenue, to be expended in the improvement of the town,
and in advancing the health and comfort of its inhabitants.
On Friday last 415,000 was paid on account of the pur-
chase in Wallasey Pool ; another sum of £25,000 is to be
paid in the beginning of the present week, and the balance
of the whole amount of £200,000 on the 31st of December.
This, with thedeposit of 10 per cent., already paid, wid make
the entire amount received by the Corporation from this
property duringthe presentyear£2B6,ooo, in addition tothe
interest which has accrued since its sale, making in round
numbers nearly £300,000, by which the amount of the
bonded debt of the estate may be diminished. The
amount of the sales to the Liverpool Dock Committee,
in all £254,000, paid for in dock bonds at 31 per cent.,
will make a present reduction in the bonded debt, from
these two sources alone, of, in round numbers, £550,000,
or, in other words, increase the ordinary income of the
estate by £17,000 to £lB,OOO per annum.

THE WEATHER.—After a few days of thaw, with occa-
sional slight showers, succeeding the severe cold of the
previous week, a change took place on Thursday night,
and a fine black frost gradually set in with, for the most
part, a clear and bracing atmosphere. By Saturday,
which was a remarkable fine winter's day, the skaters
were again busy at their recreation on the pits and lakes
in the neighbourhood, the ice having attained considerable
strength. It is remarkable that though in the beginning
of this frost there was here only a light breeze from about
the east-north-east, strong easterly gales were experienced
nn the eastern coast of Ireland, and several vessels were
lost or damaged, including a fine barque outward bound
from this port, stranded near Dublin. Sunday was
a fine clear day, and so was yesterday, the frost continuing.
SOUTHERN AND TOXTETH HOSPITAL.—On Sunday
morning last, after a most eloquent and touching appeal
from the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, the sum of £67 was
collected at St. Jude's Church in aid of the funds of the
Southern Hospital. The reverend gentleman made a
most appropriate allusion to the recent meeting at which
so•many congratulations were offered about the anticipated
extension of our commerce ; and argued, that as we must
therefore necessarily increase our dock room, timber
yards, forges, &c., and in consequence multiply propor-
tionately the number of casualties, we were bound to en-
large the spheres of our benevolence, and provide, pro
tanlo, more accommodation, with every other requi,ite
for the immediate relief of those who may suffer from such
calamities.

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIXTH ANNIVER-
SARY OF THE SHUTTING OF THE GATES OF DERRY.—
The commemoration of this great event in the annals of
Derry, and in the pag of British history, was this year
conducted with an energy and enthusiasm worthy of our
palmiest days.—Although the spirit of discouragement
for some years past has presided supreme among many
who ought to encourage and perpetuate the recollection
of the great and noble exploits that decided the glorious
Revolution ; and although, in too many cases, the ill-
concealed dislike to the principles then enunciated and
established has exhibited itself in successless censure
against the celebration of those deeds of glory ; the ar-
dour and fervent zeal of the youthful citizens of Derry
have become strengthened and confirmed during those
times wherein the friends of the British Constitution
looked upon the ascendency of adverse principles. Dur-
ing the day (the 18th December), cannons were fired,
colours were seen on the public buildings, and an im-
mense procession was formed to the Cathedral, where a
sermon was preached by the Rev. J. Graham. In the
afternoon, the burning of an effigy of Lundy the trai-
tor" took place, and in the evening, ti a Ipprentice boys
sat down to an excellent dinner.