The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-07 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

VARIETIES.

AN AGED FAMILY.—There is now residing at Hosted
Nook, in the township of Weardale and Wardle, an
aged family of seven individuals, all in good health,—
namely, James Matthews, 85 ; Robert, 75 • Thomas. 73 ;
John, 77; Mary, 82 ; Betty, 71 ; Richard, 67. Their
united ages amount to 530 years.—Blackburn Standard.
FRENCH PURITY OF ELECTION.—On Monday last,
the French Chamber of Deputies decided that the third
election of Mr. Charles Lafitte, for the borough of Lou-
viers, was not a good election, and ought to be annulled.
The ground of his rejection was, that he had been guilty
of " collective corruption," in having promised the elec-
tors to cause to he constructed a branch from the Rouen
railroad to that town !

TRAVELLING IN SPAIN.—We read in a Madrid jour-
nal—" Mail-roaches with three places for passengers,
like those of France, have been established upon all our
roads. It is difficult to give an idea of the multiplication
of public carriages of all kinds in Spain. They are run-
ning in every direction, and there is so much opposition
that the fares are extremely low, and travelling has become
so greatly increased, that the inns and other establishments
for their accommodation are as greatly improved. If our
highways are but cleared of the brigands who infest them,
foreigners will flock to explore our country and its inter-
esting curiosities, hitherto almost unknown to the rest of
Europe."--Galignanes Messenger.
A LIVELY PLACE.—They have a little town out west
which appears to have been overlooked by Dickens, and
other English travellers of his class, and which is all
sorts of a stirring place. In one day they recently had
two street fights, hung a man, rode three out of town on
a rail, got up a quarter race, a turkey shooting, a gander
pulling, a match dog fight, had preaching by a Methodist
circuit rider, who afterwards run a foot-race for drinks
all round; and, as if this was not enough, the judge of
the court, after losing a year's salary at single-handed
poker, and whipping a person who said he did not under-
stand the game, went out and helped to Lynch a man for
hog-stealing.—Picayune.

SOUND OF BELLS ON WATER.—Dr. Arnott relates a
case where the sound of bells was heard on board a ship
sailing along the coast of Brazil, far out of sight of land.
The sound was heard during an hour or two, at a particular
spot on deck, and it seemed to vary as in human rejoic-
ings. Ail on board came to listen, and were convinced
as to the existence and nature of the sound, but to account
for it was impossible. Months afterwards it was ascer-
tained, that at the time of the observation, thebells of the
city of St. Salvador, on the Brazilian coast, had been
ringing on the occasion of a festival; their sound, there-
fore, favoured by a gentle wind, had travelled over. per-
haps. a hundred miles of smooth water, and had been
brought to a focus by the concave sail in the particular
situation on the deck where it was listened to.
ARRIVAL AT BEYROOT.—The travekler, whose good
fortune it has been to make his first approach to Syria by
sea, and to land at Beyroot, must always esteem it a
happy coincidence that themost frequented port on all the
coast is likewise precisely the point where a man of taste
and quick feeling would choose to receive his first im-
pressions df the country. Long before the vessel nears
'the shore, the sunlit peaks and wavy ridges of Lebanon
are seen marking the blue sky, while its sides are hid from
sight by the haze upon the. waters ; by and by the craggy
masses of the mountain come forth like airy promontories.;
the eye gradually distinguishes the deep and dark valleys
that cleave its flank-s; the rocky crests assume a bolder
outline; and you half discern villages se .ttered on the
mountain sides, and monasteries like feudal fortresses
crowning their summits. Each object caught sight of is
hailed with delight; all hands are on deck; every eye is
strained, and each gazer has continually some new disco-
very to impart to his companions. It is always an ex-
citing thing to have a mountain land in view as the termi-
nation of a sea voyage; but here the charm is felt with
tenfold strength, for the land before you is endeared by a
host of associations linked with your earliest and most
hallowed recollections. Meanwhile, the vessel holds on
its course • the land grows beneath the eye:; the white
walls of the country houses, spread all along the plain at
the toot of the mountain, peep out with a look of welcome
from between their clustering trees, and the air is loaded
with the perfumed breath of orange and lemon blossoms.
At last the anchor is dropped, and you are riding in the
bay of Beyroot, in front of a long promontory, rising
gradually from the water, above which are seen the mina-
rets and towers .of the town, and beyond them the sum-
mits of the Jebel Sunnin, and the Jebel Kneese, and the
long lines of the Jebel el Drus.—Library or Travel.
DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER.—We not unfrequently
speak of things as being "as fine as a hair." Now the
human hair varies in thickness from the 1-2.oth to the
1-600th part of an inch ; and it is a massive cable in com-
parison with the fibres produced by other animals. The
thread of the silk-worm is many times finer, being from
the 1-1700th to the 1-2100th of an inch. This, however,
is nothing to the slenderness of the spider's thread, which
has been found in some instances to be no more than
1-30,000 th of an inch in diameter. It is difficult even to
imagine quantities so small; and the best way to realize
them to the mind is to consider that 30,000 such threads
laid side by side would make a riband only one inch broad.
But this is by no means the entire wonder of the spider's
thread. Each of these slender cords is composed of four
or six twisted together ; and every one of these is formed
by the pressing mut of a viscid fluid through a sort of teat
or spinneret at the hinder part of the animal, the point of
which, instead of having a single orifice, is perforated by
not less than 1000 very minute apertures. The thread of
each spinneret must be formed, therefore by the union of
not less than 1000 fibrils ; and four or six of these threads
go to form the cord of 1.30,000 th of an inch in diameter,
of which the spider's web is constructed. It has been
calculated that two drachms (120 grains) of such thread
would reach from Edinburgh to London. The fibres
yielded by the vegetable kingdom are notse fine as these;
yet their minuteness is most astonishing. Every fibre of
flax is composed of a bundle of other fibrils, which have
been found to be about 1-2500th of an inch in diameter.
Similar fibres, obtained from the pine-apple plant, have
been ascertained to be no more than 1-5000th or even
1.7000 th of an inch in diameter • these when twisted into
threads, and woven, are said to form cloth of very beauti-
ful texture. The glistening spiril fibrils which are drawn
out when the leaf-stalk of a geranium or a strawberry s
snapped by drawing the ends apart, are not more than
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A GOOD CRITIC S OPINION or ERNST.—Secondh in diameter.—Popular Cyclpadia
feature in this concert °PclieitlYh.a—r Philharmonic n prominentic ap ear
be the continental
iflanscheio°lt; to affect a contempt of English judgment, it is
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yet, unquestionably, a fact. that the greatest artists of all
countries seek from the Philharmonic audience the last
and conclusive testimony to their powers. In the case
of Herr Ernst, this was yielded on Monday evening in a
manner too prompt and enthusiastic to be otherwise than
gratifying to him. We have already spoken on several
occasians of this extraordinary violinist. He has, assu-
redly, no superior as an executant, even among the most
madly emulous of the fashionable gymnasts ; while in
that deeper and less acquirable excellence, the genial in-
terpretation of musical poesy, no one but he has been
able to sustain the all-passionate idola which Paganini
created. He could not have made a better selection
for the display of his prodigious capabilities than the
Scene Cantante of Spohr. The recitatives, the can-
tabile, the ! final allegro,—all were absolute perfec-
tion. We have heard Spohr execute this same com-
position, but, nevertheless, prefer its rendering at the
hands of Ernst. Nothing, of course, can transcend
Spohr's understanding of his own work; but the youth
of Ernst is yet hot and fresh with him, and he sings
through his lovely gush of pathos, not as a cherished relic
of by-gone feeling, but as the prompt exponent of pre-
sent and living passion. His solo in the second act,
though less interesting to the musician, was, perhaps,
necessary to substantiate his position among the wonder-
workers of the day. As a collection of miraculously
achieved difficulties, we have heard nothing beyond it;
one variation, indeed,—an overwhelming torrent of rapid
chorns—was so obviously an all-but preternatural marvel
as to compel a tremendous encore. Ernst was vociferously
received throughout, and he deserves it. As a player he
is certainly second to none ; but his composer-lice feel-
ing and genial attachment to everything intrinsically
excellent in music, place him above all comparison in his
walk of art.—Atlas.

A VETERAN.—The late Sir Jahleel Brenton entered
the service in 1777 ; was made a Lieutenant on the 22nd
of November, 1790, and as such served on board the
Barfleur in Lord Bridport's action off Cape St. Vincent's
n 1697 (in which were also his gallant friends, two of the
Admirals at the present Board of Admiralty); was made
a commander on the 3rd of July, 1799; and in command
of
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mand of the CEesar distinguished himself in the severe
action off Algesiras, of the 6th of July, 1831. Subse-
quently, in command of the Minerva, when that frigate
got. aground in a fog and was lost near Cherbourg, lie de-
fended her during a heavy fire of several hours, for which
unsurpassable gallantry he received the highest praise
when acquitted at a court martial for the loss of his ship.
In 1807, when in command of the Spartan frigate, Sir
Jahleel assisted in driving the French garrison out
of
Pezaro and destroying the castle; in the following month
he assisted in blowing up the Castle of Cesaratico, destroy.
ing a neighbouring battery, and compelling the Island of
Sussin to surrender; assisted at the reduction of Zante
and Cephalonia, and particularly distinguished himself at
the capture of Cerigo, where he was first in command.
These and many other important services did this 11 ga ant
officer render in the Adriatic. In the same ship in 1810,
in concert with the Sussex, he fought a most gallant action
with and defeated, a French squadron in the Bay of
Naples, in which action he was severely wounded. The
gallant deceased was created a Baronet on this occasion,
and received other honours, and on the Bth of February, 1
1811, had a pension conferred urn him of £3OO per
annum for the wounds he had received, lle obtained his
flag promotion as Rear-Admiral on the 22d of July, 1830,
-
and as
Vice Admiral on the Ist of July 1810, and sub-
Iquentiv had another pension conferred upon hint of
,1e0() per annum for good service: he also received a
grant from the Patriet;c Fund. The gallant deceased was
the EMI of the fete Rear-Admiral Brenton, lie was twice
trilrried. elde-t son. Mr. 'Anne. lot Charles Lee
Erent,,n, who succeeds
to the Baronetcy, was torn
in 1807.

INDIA AND CHINA.

(From Yesterday's Times.)

We received on Saturday evening our despatches from
India and China, which left Bombay on the Ist of April.
The chief intelligence of the month relates to the con-
duct of a part of certain native regiments on the north-
west frontier, which refused to march to Sciude, in con-
sequence of some allowances granted to the troops on the
banks of the Indus during the time of war being with-
drawn when that province was declared to be in peace
and annexed to the British Empire in India. The pay
of the native soldier is five rupees and a half (11s.) per
month, besides which he receives subsistence money
(called batta and half-batta) of one rupee and a half in
cantonment, and, if marching in the Company's territo-
ries, an additional sum of the same amount called " extra
batta," whereby his pay becomes eight rupees and a half
Per month. If he is on a foreign station, and in peculiar
cases of scarcity, he receives an additional sum called
" ration money," as a compensation for the dearness of
the articles of his use, such as grain, &c. Thus there
were three indulgences to be considered, viz., Ist, the
cantonment rate of half-batta ; 2d, the marching rate of
extra batta ; and 3d, the extraordinary indulgence of ra-
tion money.
All cause for alarm had ceased, and the several regi-
ments ordered were proceeding to their stations on the
Indus. Three regiments have been ordered to be dis-
banded,—viz., the 7th Light Cavalry, and the 4th and
34th regiments of Native Infantry.
The 61th regiment, in which but a few began the mu-
tiny, having proved that the mass of the men knew nothing
of it, and having volunteered to go to Scinde, had been
allowed to proceed, and with the Foot Artillery, under
Captain Graham, had embarked at Ferozepore on the
18th of March. The 6th Irregular Cavalry, which had
not, to its honour, shown the smallest symptom of dis-
affection, was also in progress there. The Artillery had
also at first begun to march, but the Hindoo Brahmins
and the Mussulman Mollahs had gone to tamper with the
men, and produced for a time some disinclination, which
ceased on explanations being given. The government,
which has made the concessions to the troops, will take
care to weed the disaffected out of all these corps.
The propriety of an increase of the Bombay army had
been admitted by the Governor-General, and lists had
been prepared of the officers to be appointed to four new
corps, from which it appeared that the colonels had served
40 years, the lieutenant-colonels upwards of 30 years, the
majors more than 25, and the majority of the captains 19
and 20 years, while it would leave the average of two
brevet-captains to each regiment after 15 years' service.
There was a great wish expressed in Bengal and Madras
that Scinde should be made over to the Bombay Prssi-
dency as an appanage, and that its army should be aug-
mented to meet the demand on its service. In such cir-
cumstances the augmentation of 10 regiments would be
necessary ; but the Bombay army has- never yet been
stained with mutiny on any occasion whatever.
The 47th Madras Regiment, which had shown a muti-
nous spirit in Bombay, had been sent to garrison Aden.
The cost of the grant to the Sepoys in Scinde is va-
riously estimated ; it has been calculated at £50,000 per
annum, but the improvements going on in the districts
on the borders of the Indus will soon repay it. Fortu-
nately for India the flourishing state of the revenue will
not cause any pressure from the grant of the batta to the
Scinde and Gwalicar armies. Such is its prosperity, that
the Governor-Goneral has issued a notification abolishing
the transit duties in the Presidency of Madras. This is
considered as a most useful measure, as introducing uni-
formity into the various provinces of India.
The news from Scinde represents that district as tran-
quil and comparatively healthful. The Bombay troops
there were satisfied to retain it, and an augmentation in
that army was expected.
From Lahore the news is of great importance. There
a civil war is raging; a chief called Casbmeera Singh, a
bastard of Runjeet, is opposed to the new Prime Minis-
ter, Heer Singh, and, as Sikhs support him, it is proba-
ble there will be another revolution within a few months
in the Punjaub. The notorious Affghan leader, Akbar
'Khan, had led his troops to invade Peshawur and be will,
in all probability, force the Lahore Government into an
application to the Governor-General for assistance. It is
not improbable that there will be another conflict with the
Affghans on the plains of the Panjaub, where the Indians,
when not aided by the English, have almost always been
routed by the hardy mountaineers. It seems that these
mountaineers have an established right to overcome
the people to the east of the Indus, and when they
lately invaded Peshawur they were surprised at being
beaten back by the Sikhs under foreign generals. The
conquest of their country by the British army had
surprised them ; yet now again they are to be seen moving
to the Indus, and there the British army must again meet
and defeat them. The Sikhs have lost their weight in the
scale of, India since the death of old Runjeet, and it is
therefore imperative on the British government to be pre-
pared to conflict with the Shiks against the Affghans, and
not to allow them to make a junction, which might lead
to numberless invasions on the. fertile north-western pro-
vinces of the Company's territories. The late rumours of
a mutiny amongst the native troops had encouraged both
the Sikhs and Affghans to exhibit a ho.Jile spirit towards
the British. The antipathy between the Affghans and the
Sikhs is proverbial ' • they are continually quarrelling, and
as the Sikhs have latterly, by means of foreign generals
and British aid, been successful, the former now seek an
opportunity of having another conflict, for they are
anxious to become masters of Peshawur, and of Cash-
mere.

The Governor-General arrived in Calcutta on the 28th
of February, and was well received.
In Gwalior tranquility prevails. The new contingent
was arranged, and the people appeared satisfied. It is
worthy of remark, that the neighbouring district of Bun-
delkund has been thoroughly pacified by the subjugation
of Gwalior, and so far was that pacification effective that
the whole of the Bundelkund contingent had volunteered
to proceed for three years to Scinde, thereby demonstrating
that the late disaffection relative to money matters in the
four regiments of Bengal had not any extensive ramifica-
tions.

In all parts of India tranqu;llity prevailed when the mail
left. Amongst the late passengers from Bombay were Sir
R. and Lady Sale, and their daughter, Mrs. Sturt ; they
left in the ship True Briton, and are coming to England
round the Cape.
The news from China comes down to the 27th of Feb-
ruary, but presents nothing remarkable. Sir H. Pottin-
ger was at Hongkong, which island was healthy. He was,
while waiting for his successor, engaged in regulating
some of the buildings at Victoria, and also in making pro-
per arrangements for the trade at the new ports. The
Chinese were robbing houses and plundering the foreigners
as well at Macao as at Hongkong.
Great anxiety prevailed in India respecting Colonel
Stoddart and Captain Conolly, as the rumours on the sub-
ject were conflicting.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CHINA.

The accounts received state that the Chinese new-year
holidays had almost entirely put a stop to business, and
few transactions either in imports or exports had been
effected. The following report of the Cotton•market
comes down to the Ist of January :
Deliveries in Dec. Stock Ist Jan.
American
Bombay.
Bengal
Madras....... 10,915 .. 24,813

Total bales .... 41,877 127,260
Cotton was quoted at T. 5i to T. 7 for Bombay ; Ben.
gal, 6.2 to 8.6 ; Madras, 6.4 to 8 ; American, 6 to 6.5.
In the Cotton Piece Goods market there was a good deal
of activity, and large sales had been made at the
following quotations :—Grey Longclotbs. 2.80 dole. to
3.20 dols. ; Bleached do., 3.60 dole. to 4.20 dols. ; Drills,
2.30 dole. to 2 35 dols. ; American Sheetings, 2.45 dole.
to 2.60 dols. The demand for Cotton Yarn continued as
before. Sales were with difficulty made at 22 dole. to 24
dols. for Nos. 16 to 32. There was no inquiry whatever
for the higher numbers. The demand for Woollens had
fallen off considerably. We give below the quotations at
which large shipments of Tea had been bought : Congou
Tea, 15 to 20 per pecul ; Hyson, 32 to 70 per pecul ;
Young Hyson Tea, 25 to 36 per pecul: Hyson skin, 14 to
35 per pecul; Gunpowder and Imperial Tea. 38 to 70 per
pecul. The export of Tea to Great Britain, in the month
of December, in 12 vessels, was of black, 5,955,1031bs ;
and of green, 592,4521b5.; total, 6,547,645. The total
exports in six months from July 1 to Feb. 22 was of
black, 29,429,3351b5. : and of green, 5,770,9561b5. ; in all,
35,200,2911b5. Prices of Opium were quite nominal—
namely, Malwa, 670 dols, to 680 dols. ; and Patna, 595
to 600 dols. Exchange on London, six months' sight,
4s. 6d, ; with Bengal, 30 days' sight, 224 rs. per 100 dole.