The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-04-29 00:00:00

S a wastc

n brilliancy and glory

lE RAGGED.-TI

ire are schools

r• the thousar

t the r
ce. VG

our apparel is not such

are to be fount

to attend public we

required

ng in them

us set the

s of the church

gainst the
Let not

)üblic-

for the comfort of their bodies : forget
souls.— The Builder.

ARD ITT.—I have an

ho in early lif

n the habit of saying, " I knew a
a man who knew a man who danced at
of Richard Ili." Thus there have
ne who knew Richard 111.
s acquaintance could name

who were members of his own family :
o?en forgotten, but his name was Har-
rison, and he was a member of an old Yorkshire family,
and late in life settled in Bedfordshire. Richard died in
1484, and thus five persons had sufficed to chronicle an
incident which occurred nearly 370 years since. Mr.
Harrison further stated that there was nothing remark-
able about Richard—that ha was not the hunchback
lump of foul deformity" so generally believed until of
late years. The foregoing anecdote may be of interest as
showing that traditions may come down from remote
periods by few links, and thus be but little differing from
the actual occurrences.—Notes and Queries.
CANNIBALS IN BORNEO.—Mr. Macdougall, the mis-
sionary of the Borneo commission at Sarawak, after
giving an account of the erection of a new church at
Borneo, proceeds thus :—" We have had here for some
time an interesting Dyak from a long way in the interior;
lie says a fortnight's journey from this. He left his tribe
on account of a skin disease, ' which,' he says, ' gave him
iao peace, and puts him to shame in his tribe, as the other
men have all clean skins.' He heard I could cure it, and
came to ask me to do so ; but the case is too inveterate,
I fear, for poor Koosoo ever to be cured. He is an intel-
ligent fellow, and gives a most enchanting description of
his country, in which, he says, there are large lakes and
fine mountains, and which abound with wild cattle, deer,
and other game, in abundance. But his account of a
;ace of Kayans, who border upon his tribe, is very re-
markable, and forms the reason for mentioning him.
These people are cannibals, and of all the anthropophagi
I ever heard of they seem to be the worst. They are
perfect gluttons in human flesh, and prefer it to any other
food. They carry attached to their sword-scabbards a
sharp skewer of about eighteen inches long, which, when
they have killed a victim, man, woman, or child, they
introduce into the flesh, and pass it along the bones of
the extremities and spine, working it so as to divide all
the muscular attachment from the bones. They then
take off the skin and flesh together, beginning at the
soles of the feet and carrying on the operation from
below upwards, doing it so rapidly that, in a few minutes,
nothing but the bones and viscera are left. They take
out the brain and cook it slightly in a particular Kind of
leaf, and consider it the great bonne bouche of their
abominable feast. When they have cooked and eaten all
they want, they cook and smoke the rest, as the Dyaks
and Malays do boars' or deers' flesh, and will eat no other
flesh while it lasts. Koosoo says, when his tribe go to
war, some of these people always come to eat the bodies
of the slain. They never kill their friends for food, but
always eat an enemy when they can get one—eating all
indiscriminately, men, women, and children. But, with
the exception of this horrible taste, Koosoo describes
them as very good people, and as more civilized and
clever than the Dyaks. He has lived amongst them once
and again, and has always found them kind and hospitable
to strangers, and very honest in their trading transactions.
He is quite sure they would not eat white men, but would
take great care of them. This narrative, which I quite
believe, from the perfect simplicity and artlessness of the
man, establishes the existence of cannibals here—a fact
long disputed. These cannibals are a numerous and
powerful nation, governed by a rajah, but religion seems
to be at a lower ebb amongst them than even amongst the
Dyaks. I am trying to get a vocabulary of his language
from Koosoo ; it is very different from that spoken by
our land-Dyaks."
THE MERSEY AND IRWELL NAVIGATION IN THE
YEAR 1720.—1 t was during this time (about 1720) that
the first Liverpool dock was completed. In the same
year acts were passed for rendering the rivers Mersey and
Irwell navigable from Liverpool to Manchester ; the river
'W'eaver navigable from the salt district of Cheshire to the
estuary of the Mersey ; and the river Douglas navigable
from the coal field of Wigaii to the mouth of the Ribble.
Shortly after the South Sea year, when confidence had
again been restored by the prudent measures of Sir Robt.
-Walpole, the act for constructing the first turnpike road
ever formed in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, was pas-
sed, namely, the road from Liverpool to Prescot. Previ-
ous to that time, the Lancashire roads were nothing
better than horse-tracks, scarcely passable for wheeled
carriages, except in very fine weather; nor was there a
proper carriage road from Liverpool to the great north
road at Warrington, until about the time of the acces-
sion of George the Third. The act for making and keep-
ing the rivers Mersey and Irwell navigable from Liver-
pool to Manchester was passed in the seventh year of
George the First. It sets forth that the making and
keeping those rivers navigable for boats, barges, lighters,
and other vessels, from Liverpool to Hunt's Bank, in
Manchester, would be very beneficial for trade, advanta-
geous to the poor, and convenient for the carriage of coal,
cannel, stone, timber, and other goods, wares and mer-
chandise ; and would tend very much to the employing
and increase of watermen and seamen, and be a means of
preserving the highways. It therefore proposes to ap-
point,
and does appoint, certain parties as undertakers,
for making the rivers Mersey and Irwell navigable from
Liverpool to Manchester. The parties the act authori-
- to scour, enlarge, or straighten the rivers Mersey
to make new cuts for shortening distances ;
'ee3 ; to build bridges and form sluices ; to
from adjoining lands ; to alter bridges,
'' down mills or weirs ; to make towing
'her matters and things necessary
"ntinuing. and perfecting the
"T.rsev and Irwell. The

his prede
their nan

3 Incell

take r
turn h

r make

the rive

he river slim]

S to hinder the working
11 be built within a mile

ithout cons(
her goods ca

to the unde

rivers Mersey

takers not exceeding 3s. 4d. per ton

and that on pay-

all be esteemed

ment of those duties L., -
navigable from Liverpool to Manchester, and free for all
the king's subjects paying the said duties. The act is
declared to be a public act. Under its provisions the
Mersey and Irwell navigation was managed until the year
1794. when an act was passed, forming the then proprie-
tors into an incorporated company, though without
making any important change in their powers or respon
History of Liverpool.