The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-12 00:00:00

The Abbotsford Edition of Waverley.—No. 67.

The number just issued concludes "The Fortunes of
Nigel," and commences " Peveril of the Peak." The
illustrations, type, and getting up of the work, continue
quite equal to those of former numbers, and, indeed, are
even superior in merit.

SECOND EDITION.

Standard-office, Eleven o'clock.

ANOTHER DREADFUL COLLISION.
Sinking of the Brig Blundell, off 1:le
Magazines.

It is with exceeding sorrow that we have again to record
one of those casualties which have of late been of but too
frequent occurrence, and which it would almost appear
no human aid can avert. Tile Blundell, a fine brig, bound
to Trinidad, started from this port on Saturday—and on
putting back came in contact with the American ship
Feronia and sunk almost immediately. The following
particulars communicated by the captain, Mr. Townsend,
of the Blundell, will, we doubt not, be found interest-
ing.

The brig Blundell sailed from Liverpool for Trinidad
on Saturday, at half-ebb, with wind about N.N.W. At
midnight the pilot left her, the N.W. Light-ship bearing
at the time S. by W. Stood on for two hours, and then
stood towards the light. At two o'clock tacked ship, and
stood four hours heading W. and W. S. At 8 o'clock
made the Great Orroshead ; wind light.

About 8 o'clock on Sunday night a breeze sprung up
from the northward and westward, which freshened till
midnight, when a sudden gust carried away the jibboom.
The hands were at the time reefing the tuaintor-
sail. At four o'clock made Lynas 'Wit, broad on
the lee bow, distance about 8 miles. Wore ship, and
at half-past eight o'clock, the sea running tremendously
nigh, and the ship labouring and straining dreadfully,
carried away the foretopmaststay and foretopmast, which,
with all the gear, hooked the foreyard, and split the fore-
sail to pieces.

To save the vessel, the wreck was immediately cut
away, when it was found necessary to keep the pumps
constantly going. Stood on till twelve o'clock, heading
N.E., the wind still blowing tremendously in heavy gusts,
when they spoke the fishing-boat Eliza and Betsey, which
stopped by them.

Ai ten o'clock passed the Rock Light ; saw a ship to
the eastward, (the American ship Feronia,) and a collision
took place before there was time to clear her. The brig
had a light up, and a watch was, we learn, on the deck of
the Feronia. The Feronia's bowsprit hooked the main-
mast of the brig, and her cutwater struck her just abaft
the main rigging with such a tremendous crash that it
carried away a great portion of her side. At half-past ten
the brig was cleared from the ship, and almost imme-
diately went down, head foremost, in 91- fathoms at low
water.

At this time the vessel was drifting bodily to leeward.
Abont four o'clock a man came on board as pilot, the
N.W. Light-ship bearing about S., distant about twenty
miles. Got the ship to wear at 8 a.m., and ran her
through the Victoria Channel.
The Feronia was inward bound from Quebec, and was
anchored off the Magazines. The hands had barely time
to save themselves. The Blundell belonged to Messrs.
Barton, Irlam, and Higginson, and is, we learn, fully in-
sured in the Marine Insurance-office.

The John and Mary, of Dublin, from Quebec for Li-
verpool, out 57 days, was spoken on the 24th ult., with 4
feet 10 inches of water in her hold, making 2 feet 6 inches
of water per hour. The roaster feared she would not get
home.—The Eliza and Ann, reported yesterday at Cove
of Cork, picked up the crew of the John and Mary on
the 28th.

The England, from Liverpool. for Ichaboe, at Cork—
having beeu in contact with e wreck and stove her bow.
The Raw, from Ichaboe, for orders at Falmouth ; left
about 400 sail of vessels at Ichahoe.
BEAUMARIS, Nov. 11.—Put in, Sisters, "Smith, from
Liverpool to Penzance, with jibboom and foremast gone,
and sails split; and the Margaret, Hughes, from Dublin
to Liverpool, with part of her bulwarks washed away.
A flat went down at her anchors in Conway Bay ; par-
ticulars not known.

The Oriental. steamer, from Alexandria, arrived at the
Motherbank, Cowes, Nov. Nth.

REPEAL ASSOCIATION.—This body held their weekly
meeting as usual. A long letter was read from Daniel,
in which he says be will make his reappearance at their
meetings on the 25th, and in the meantime the " Repeal
cause is to be forwarded as if this interlude (Federalism)
had not occurred." The rent for the week, including £5OO
from New York, was upwards of £BOO.

TETE LORD CHANCELLOR, SHEIL, AND HUME.—
Everybody must remember the " swel ering venom" with
which Mr. Shell, Mr. " Success-to•fox-glove " Sheil,
some time ago revived against our excellent Lord Chan-
cellor the oft-refuted falsehood with respect to the im-
puted alien speech. Will it be believed that what Mr.
Sheil, with a " rhetorical artifice," attributed to the
Chancellor as applied to the Roman Catholics of Ireland,
was actually applied by a co-joint of the " tail "—no less
a person than the vetitable Joseph Hume—to the Protes-
tants of that country ? On referring to the debate on the
King's speech in 1833, as reported in a generally-recog-
nised journal of the proceedings, we find Joseph thus
unbosoming himself:—" Why, I would ask, is it that
Catholics are carefully excluded from the list of twenty-
six stipendiary magistrates recently appointed
.by Lord
Anglesey, in Ireland ? Why are they carefully excluded
from suc:i situations, and twenty-six FOREIGNERS ap-
pointed to them ?" (Several members—" Hear, hear !')
" Yes, I contend that they are foreigners—they are per-
sons foreign in their hal,its and religion to the bulk of the
people. I say, then, that foreigners were appointed to
these offices." Mr. Shell heard this. The man who
thus dared to malign the loyal Protestant population of
Ireland was a Scotchman—yet, foreigner as he was, an
Irish member—the Kilkenny joint of " the tail ;" au ex-
conservative, and then radical! Verily, the " rhetorical
artificers" who calumniate Lord Lyndhurst bad better
look at home. At this time, however, the poor " tail"
had scarcely a home to look to.—Herald.
WHAT IS THE CHURCH DOING ?—TESCtariatliSnl has
seen its zenith. It was true that a few had gone over to
Rome. Let Rome have her own. We could afford her
a few traitors from the camp. He only prayed that, like
the sincere-minded Sibthorp, they might discover their
error. He was happy to say that he knew several clergy-
men who had held Tractarian opinions, who had wholly
renounced them, and now preached sound Evangelical
doctrine. The Church of England, though troubled, was
not perplexed ; although persecuted, she was not forsaken.
If Rome had built fifty mass•houses within the last ten
years, the Church of England had built 600 new churches.
If Rome had built twenty or thirty schools and colleges,
the Church of England had built and opened between 300
and 400 daily schools. Rome had applied for aid to build
one or two schools; the Methodists two schools • the Bri-
tish and Foreign School Society some thirty or forty; but
the Church of England had applied and received grants
for 500 new schools. This did not look as if the Church
of England was heartless in the cause of education. He
wished, however, for no amalgamated system of educa-
tion. The Church of England was strong enough to
stand by herself, and as it was a glorious English Queen
who nursed and cherished the Reformation, in a compa-
ratively weak state, so he hoped it would be a British
Queen under whose fostering care and protecting hand
the Church would be rescued in the time of her peril. Of
this her Majesty had given some pledge when she went to
worship in a church which had been branded as Samaria.
—Speech of the Rev. Hugh Stowell.
INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER.—Datens has selected
many passages from Greek and Latin authors, favourable
to the opinion that gunpowder was known to the ancients.
He mentions the attempt of Salmoneus to imitate thun-
der, of the Brahmins to do the same thing; but his most
remarkable quotation is from the life of Apollonius Tya-
nteus, written by Philostratus ; showing that Alexander
was prevented extending his conquests in India, because
of the use of gunpowder, by a people called Oxydracee.
The passage to which we have alluded is so curious, that
we make no apology for giving it. " These truly wise
men (the Oxydracce) dwell between the rivers Hypharis
and Ganges ; their country Alexander never entered, de-
terred not by fear of the inhabitants, but as I suppose by
religious motives, for had he passed the Hypharis, he
might doubtless have made himself master of all the
country round them ; but their cities he never could have
taken, though he had led a thousand as brave as Achilles,
or three thousand such as Ajax, to the assault; for they
come not out to the field to fight those who attack them,
but these holy men, beloved by the gods, overthrew their
enemies with tempests and thunderbolts shot from their
walls. It is said that the Egyptian Hercules and Bacchus,
when they overran India, invaded this people also, and,
having prepared warlike engines, attempted to conquer
them ; they in the mean time made no show of resistance,
appearing perfectly quiet and secure, but upon the enemy's
near approach they were repulsed with storms of light-
ning and thunderbolts hurled upon them from above."—
Polytechnic Review.
EFFECTS OF SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND.
When the scheme of Scriptural education was decided on,
about six or seven and twenty years ago, confident predic-
tions were hazarded of its certain and speedy failure. The
Roman Catholics, it was said, would not read the Bible—
would not accept secular instruction, on condition of re-
ceiving Scriptural also. Notwithstanding the discourage-
ment of such insinuations, the system was tried—and was
found to prove successful, to the utmost extent to which
the parsimony of public grants, made for its support, ad-
mitted of its being carried out. It is unnecessary, and
would be tedious, to repeat the arguments by which this
truth has been unanswerably proved—but there is one form
of the argument which has not yet received the notice it
merits, and to which we beg the reader's attention. The
experiment of Scriptural education was a trial whether,
and how far, the Irish people could be influenced to re-
ceive the Bible. It was proposed first in the form of a
test, whether their hostility to Scripture was such, as that
they would not accept of secular education, if accompanied
by Scriptural; it gave, at the same time, to the people at
large, an opportunity of showing what they thought, (whe-
ther favourably, or otherwise,) of the propriety of making
children acquainted with God's word. The result xas very
remarkable, Before the end of thirteen years, exclusive
of the Sunday schools, amounting to considerably more
than a thousand—perhaps, to nineteen hundred, in which
two hundred thousand children were instructed, there were
found one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven
schools, under societies, in which Scripture was read—and
of daily schools, not under societies, four thousand one
hundred and seventy-nine were avowedly Scriptural. We
say avowedly, because a large proportion of schools hid
declined sending an answer to the query which demanded
if Scripture were read in them. It is not, perhaps, too
much to say, that nearly two thousand of these schools
should be added to the amount of the Scriptural. But,
further, Scripture was read in 2,667 schools, under Roman
Catholic masters—and was read in many schoals under the
roofs of Roman Catholic chapels, and under the govern-
ment of their priests. Such was the result, when the state
demanded of Ireland that the education of the people
should be Scriptural. In the year 1812, there were in Ire-
land six hundred schools, no doubt all Protestant, in which
Scripture was read—the attention of the people at large
was aroused to the question which the state propounded ;
and in about thirteen years after the experiment was in-
stituted, the judgment of the people was expressed in the
existence of wore than eleven thousand schools in which
the Bible was read. Within that period, surely, secular
schools had not increased in number—nay, notwithstand-
ing the great increase in the population, they appear to
have diminished ; while Scriptural schools, to which so
fierce and effective an opposition was anticipated, had been
welcomed by all classes and communions, and had increased
more than thirteen-fold. Such was the issue which a
Whig government regarded as a failure—let :t be com-
pared with that which a Tory government exalt and en-
dow, as a great success.—Dublin University Magazine.
FORMATION OF RAIN.—The opinion of Professor Ste-
velly and Mr. Bowall is, that each particle of vapour
rising through the air carries with it its portion of electric
fluid according to its expanded surface; that if it remains
within the electrical attraction of the earth, the vapour is
condensed, and forms dew; but, if it rises beyond the
electrical attraction of the earth, and is there condensed,
the electricity, being insulated, forms an atmosphere
round each particle of vapour, and on the removal (by
any cause) of the electricity, including the vaporous par-
ticles, the repulsion is remo'ed, and they then attract
each other, and form rain. Having observed that there
was more rain and less thunder at Belfast than in Lon-
don, I was led to examine into the cause of the peculi-
arity, and especially on account of the electric fluid being
less abundant in the atmosphere at the latter than at the
former place, and found the above hypothesis to agree
most perfectly with the peculiarities of the neighbourhood
of Belfast, which is surrounded by hills. The highest of
these is to the north of the town, and one of them, named
Devis, twelve miles from it, is nearly 400 feet above the
level of the sea. Whenever any mist or cloud descends
upon the top of this mountain, it is a sure sign of rain ;
r and I have never observed it rain without some previous
indication of the kind, which frequently takes place for
hours before the rain comes on. The cause of this ap-
paers to be, that Devis, which is conical, acts as a con-
ductor to draw the electric fluid from the cloud, that a
portion of the clouds descends with it, and, as the fluid is
drawn off, the watery particles in the atmosphere unite
and descend as rain. On the 6th of May last, I had the
good fortune to observe a remarkable instance of the
drawing off the electric fluid from the clouds by this
mountain. The weather, in the early part of the day,
was clear and warm. Between 1 and 2 p.m. clouds ga-
thered ; they became gradually more dense, and were
strongly charged with electric flud. When I first ob-
served them, they were moving from Devis to the west ;
but the wind, along the surface of the ground, was mov-
ing in the opposite direction, namely, towards that moun-
tain. This was before the clouds presented any signs of
a strong electric charge; after they assumed this appear-
ance, a slight shower fell, and the clouds and wind at the
surface reversed their direction, the clouds moving from
Devis, and the wind at the surface towards it. When
this shower ceased, the clouds became stationary, and the
wind at the surface of the ground ceased, the smoke from
the factory chimneys, which had moved in the direction
of the surface wind, rising perpendicularly. At this
juncture a peal of thunder ensued, and a heavy shower
fell; the clouds then remained stationary, and the wind
began to blow at right angles to its former direction. It
then gradually veered round until it blew direct towards
Devis, and the clouds began to move to the same point.
In four minutes the shower became very heavy, but in a
short time the weather cleared up. I was so situated that
I could not see .Devis during the fnie of this phenome-
non, but at 6 p.m. it was repeated, when I was able to
attend particularly to it, and watch that mountain. At a
quarter-past six the clouds had gathered again, and were
much charged with the electric fluid. After the occur-
rence of similar movements to those mentioned above,
the clouds became stationary, the wind moving from De-
vis, the clouds overhanging the mountains became denser
and denser, but they appeared to be kept by some influ-
ence from touching it, assuming the form of a mould in
which the mountains had been cast. After they had re-
mained stationary some time, the wind still blowing from
Devis, some fragments of them began gradually to de-
scend to the top of that mountain, a peal of thunder
scarcely perceptible ensued, and a body of c'oud, sufficient
to cover the summit, descended with rapidity and rested
upon it, whilst the other clouds began to ascend. Within
two minutes after the thunder and descent of the cloud
upon Devis, a very heavy rain came on, accompanied by
violent gusts of wind. At 8 p.m. the rain had ceased,
and the clouds reposed in streaks of white and black, on
lines from north-east to south-west.-41olytechnicReview.