The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-24 00:00:00

FEDERALISM.—Mr. Porter's project of a " federal"
union between Great Britain and Ireland has met with
considerable favour from two very numerous classes of
men—those who aim at a distincter nationality for the
latter island, and those who feel rather distressingly the
predominance of Irish subjects and Irish speeches in the
Imperial Legislature. A purely Irish Parliament in St.
Stephen's Green, and an equally expurgated British Par-
liament in St. Stephen's Chapel, could hardly fail to be
popular ideas in their several quarters. Mr. Porter
moreover writes with all the boldness of a man who feels
no particular anxiety for the welfare of any existing in-
terest or institution, and with all the candour that arises
from the absence of political or religious prejudices. It
might he expected that on a question involving the wel-
fare of so many millions, and the integrity of a mighty
empire, we should express some opinion as to the pru-
dence of the writer. But it is difficult to say what is
prudent when there is no general agreement as to what
should be desired ; and Mr Pcrter evidently regards as
rather desirable than otherwise consummations which
some of our readers would think it the best test of pru-
dence to avoid.— Times.

Two BROTHERS DROWNED.—On Sunday night week,
as John and William Johnson, brothers, aged 31 and 29,
of Shipley, Yorkshire, were attempting to cross the river
Aire, at midnight, with a w;:ggon and two horses, the
stream, which was very much swollen by previous heavy
rains, carried them down ; and though there were other
persons waiting with another waggon, but who remained
to watch the success of the attempt made by the John-
sons, the darkness of the night, and the velocity with
which the water poured down, rendered any attempts at
rescue not only useless, but absolutely dangerous ; and
the two unfortunate men met their fate unseen and un-
heard. The horses, dead of course, and ti.e waggon were
found at Esholt Mill, about a mile below the ford. Tire
bodies of the unfortunate men have not yet been found.
They have each left a wife and three children. We under-
stand that the unfortunate men were warned by their fa-
ther not to go by the ford ; but the elder, presuming that
as he had crossed in safety before he could do so again,
disregarded the counsel of his parent. The only advan-
tage gained by crossing would have been the saving of
about two miles' distance, and of the payment of toll at
Shipley Bridge Bar.
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STEAM V. SAILS.—A. publication of " Details,
tShteatsehsi,
official sources, has just been 'published. In the tables
relative to sea-going steam-vessels, facts are exhibited
which may account for the much reduced profit, and the
diminished occupation of sailing vessels in the carrying
trade coastwise; take the following :—" The number and
tonnage of steam-vessels employed in the coasting trade
and foreign trade, entered inwards from all parts, distin-
guishing British from foreign ships, including their re-
peated voyages :

BRITISH VESSELS.

Coastwise.

Foreign,

Ships. Tons. Ships. Tons.
1824 888 .. 124,073 139 .. 10,893
1843 ....... 13,633 .. 3,301,431 2439 .. 579,209

FOREIGN VESSELS—INWARDS.
Ships. Tons.
1824
1843
It may be presumed that steam navigation has created a
trade for itself to some extent, but at the same time it is
not easy to conceive that the success of steamers has not
otherwise been prejudicial to sailing vessels ; the latter
must in time lose all their traffic, except that which con-
sists of the carriage of heavy commodities. There is no
preventing the change—it may be looked forward to as
inevitable. Shall we not, then, endeavour to obtain some
relief from burdens which ships in the coasting trade were
only able to bear while unopposed by vessels more formi-
dable than themselves.—Shipping Gazette.
PERILOUS ADVENTURE.—On Saturday morning last a
party of twelve individuals, two of whom were women
with children, set out from this harbour, in a small boat,
for the Lady Isle, where they intended to wind up the
festivities of the race week with a pic-nic on that fine little
island. Here, according to their own account, they spent
the day so pleasantly that the shades of evening were
within an hour or so of closing around them before they
thought of steering their course homewards. Having,
ultimately, left the island, the fog became so dense before
they had proceeded any distance that they lost all know-
ledge of their track ; and, after trying in vain to make
the shore, they, eventually, gave themselves up to the
mercy of the wind and waves. After beating about for
some hours, in a state almost bordering on distraction,
they caught a glimpse of Pladda Lighthouse, which they
succeeded in making, after a great deal of exertion.
They were most hospitably entertained by the keepers;
and, as the wind was unfavourable during the whole of
Sunday, they were obliged to remain there till Monday
morning, when they set sail, and reached this about mid-
day. Their non-arrival on Saturday night created great
sensation ; and a boat was despatched to the Lady Isle,
on Sunday, in search of them; but, as it returned with-
out having learned anything whatever about them, the
anxiety of their friends and relations became most intense.
Indeed, before their arrival on Monday, all hope of see-
ing them alive was entirely given up ; and, when it at
length became known that a boat like that in which they
set out was observed in the bay, the crowd that collected
along the quay to witness their arrival was immense.
This adventure, we have no doubt, will cure all future
inclination of the party to go a pleasuring without some
competent person to manage the boat for them.—Ayr
Observer.

JAMES COCKBURN BELXNEY.—ne excitement cre-
ated by the trial of this person on the charge of murder-
ing his wife, at Stepney, still prevails in North Sunder-
land and its neighbourhood,. where the miserable man
resides, and has been living since his acquittal. On
Monday evening last the populace collected in great num-
bers about S o'clock, and paraded the streets and lanes
in and near North Sunderland, with three effigies. the
first representing Belaney, the second " the archfiend,"
and the last one of Belaney's friends, who resides in New-
castle, and who took a very prominent part in the late
trial in favour of the prisoner. On the procession
reaching the gates of Belaney's house, about 9 o'clock,
they began to set fire to the effigy outside the gates, upon
which Belaney rushed out of the house, and fired off a
pistol in the direction of the crowd, but he was glad to
make a hasty retreat, dropping his pistol on the way.
His conduct so exasperated the populace, that they com-
menced a general assault on Belaney's house, battered in
the shutters, and demolished the glass frames. Having
effected an entrant they destroyed everything that came
in their way. In the confusion Belaney effected his
escape, and he contrived to elude the. vigilance of his
pursers by secreting himself in a neighbouring corn-
field, otherwise there is little doubt his life would have
been sacrificed. The crowd then set fire to the gates and
to two of the figures, and finally suspended that repre-
senting Belaney by the neck from the chimney-top of a
house on the opposite side of the road, where it yet
remains attracting the attention of the curious. The
house on the following morning had all the appearance of
a place that had undergone the fury of a military assault,
the walls being battered as if struck by hundreds of can-
non-balls. But the work of destruction did not end here.
The populace again assembled on Wednesday night, and
burnt the premises completely to the ground. The situa-
ation of Belaney's house was a very romantic one. It is
at the end of the village. near the edge of the cliff, over-
looking the sea, the drawing-room windows being only a
few inches from the summit of a fearful precipice. It,
was built according to a plan laid down by himself, and
has long afforded food for gossip among the rustic popu-
lation of that locality.
THE LATE POST-OFFICE ESPIONAGE.—The circum-
stances that first led Mazzini to suspect that his corre-
spondence had been tampered with (says the writer of an
article in the " Westminster Review," from whom we
glean these particulars), was a communication to the
Times, printed as a leading article, the writer of which
boasted of having then lying before him a mass of docu-
ments relating to the efforts of an association in London
for the emancipation of Italy ; and alluded to facts, of
which only a few members of that association could have
been cognisant by honest means. The attention of Maz-
zini had also been excited by frequent delays in the de-
livery of his letters ; and now, on examining the post-
mark, his suspicions were confirmed by observing, that
they invariably bore the mark of two different stamps,
the one intended to efface the other; the object of which
appeared to be to make the hoar of delivery to corre-
spond with that in which the letter had been received,
and so to prevent the original stamp or atte station of the
receiver of the time when the letter was posted, being
evidence of the fact of its detention. To be quite sure of
this Mazzini took the precaution to post, in St. Martin's-
le-Grand, letters directed to himself early in the forenoon,
when the receiver's stamp would be 10 F N 10. The let-
ters came to hand in the afternoon with the receiver's
mark, 10 altered to 12 ; the figure of 2 being stamped upon
the original 0, but not so as entirely and successfully to
conceal it. Mazzini then, in the presence of witnesses,
posted, at one and the same time, letters addressed to him-
self, and letters addressed to fictitious persons at the same
residence, and the letters were regularlytdelivered two hours
before his own. On consulting with his friends, other
dcoennetrei.vanLcee
Letters ewresr de
ing grains of sand, poppy seeds, or fine hairs, and so folded
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that the sand, the seed, or the hairs, could not fall out
unless the letters were opened. When ,delivered, sand,
seed, and hairs had disappeared. Other experiments
were tried with the seals. A wafer, carefully cut square,
was found to have altered its shape in passing through the
post-office; and in case of wax seals, the exact appear-
ance of the impression being carefully noted, it was found
that the subsequent post-office counterfeit was sometimes
placed more or less upright than the original.

THE STEAM NAVY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

(From the Times.)

Two returns have lately been printed by order of the
House of Commons, which at this peculiar juncture of
affairs will be read with interest, and, we are inclined to
think, with satisfaction. The first gives the " amount of
horse-power ordered for her Majesty's steam-vessels be-
tween the Ist day of April, 1839, and the 31st of August,
Bas follows :—Horse-power, 4,496 ; number of
vessels,
The second describes the " amount of horse-power,
8,e., between the Ist day of September, 1841, and the
t 41
108 ;
f jtounlyn,a gle: 84146,
~5,8t1h 11,261 ;
.
us
:—Horse-powernumber of vessels, 30 ; tonnage, 26,892.
,
From these statistics it seethe that in the first three
years of the present administration there has been an
addition of twelve to the number of our war steamers,
with a corresponding increase of more than 10,000 tons in
11
s day
their burden, as compared with the strength of the same
department during the two last years of their predecessors
—a period memorable for the isolation and the irritability
of France and the grand naval demonstrations in theEa.st.
It is, indeed, highly gratifying to diSCQVcr this accesfigni