The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-04 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY,

The consideration of the miscellaneous estimates was re-
sumed in a committee of supply.
The adjourned debate upon tile vote for the expenses of the
poor law commission was resumed, upon which
Colonel SIBTHORP moved that the vote should be reduced
to £20,000, that being the amount requisite for the poor
lawwere commissionreally
rfeogrulreland,
where he was of opinion poor
laws
cidedly objected to.

Sir J. 6aAnam—said that the refusal of the vote would be
an overthrow of the whole system.

Captain PEcRELL-Condem fled any interference with the
Gilbert unions.

Mr. HUMS supported the vote.
Mr. FIELDEN hoped the vote would be rejected, as a means
of getting rid of the poor law commission.

Mr. WAKLEY expressed a similar hope, for he was sure
the commissioners would not work without pay.
On a division the amendment of Colonel Sibthorp was ne-
gatived by a majority of 93 to 14.
Captain PECHELL moved that a commissioner and two as-
sistants should be reduced, but the motion was negatived
without a division.

On the vote of £39,200 for secret service, foreign and do-
mestic, being proposed, _ _ _

_ .
Mr. WILLiAms moved a reduction of the vote, on the
ground that money for home secret service was unnecessary,
if not mischievous, by leading to the employment of spies.
Sir G. CLERK said the amount of this vote had been gra-
dually decreasing.

Dr. Bowittivn said that it had been precisely the. same for
the last six years.

Lord STANLEY said the money was expended by each of
the Secretaries of State under the obligation of an oath, and
its expenditure was so strictly confidential that he could not
disclose it consistently with his public duty.
The committee divided, and the vote was carried by a ma-
jority of 100 to 13.

On the vote of £38,000 for salaries and law expenses of the
treasury, information was required by Mr. T. DUNCOMBE
relative to the sum of £15,000 for the expenses of the spe-
cial commission, and he moved that the vote should he post-
poned until the information should be granted. His motion
was however defeated by a majority of 115 to 43.
Several members, and amongst them Mr. Hume, said that
unless the required explanations were given, they would
move that the chairman should report progress.
Sir J. GRAHAM said if bon. members would allow the
business in committee to proceed, he would state on Monday
whether there was any objection to furnishing the details.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said it would be
unfair ou this account to stop the progress of the estimates.
Lord STANLEY said that £23,000 of the £38,000 was for
the current expenses of the year. The remaining £15,000
was for the expense of the special commission, and he ap-
pealed to the house if it was not reasonable to give time until
Monday to decide as to whether the details should or should
not be furnished.

Mr. F. BARING thought the vote might be postponed
without the slightest inconvenience, and it was quite unrea.
sonable to ask for a grant of money without assigning a single
reason to enable the house to judge of its propriety.
Sir J. GRAHAM then assented to the postponement of the
motion.

On the vote for the Model Prison at Pentonville,
Mr. T. DUNCOMIIE adverted to the effects of the separate
system which was rigidly enforced in that prison, and which,
judging from its effects in the Penitentiary, was likely to pro-
duce insanity amongst the prisoners.
Sir J. GRAHAM said the effects produced at the Peniten-
tiary were to be attributed to the silent system and not the
separate. He was sanguine as to the result of the system
adopted at the prison at Pentonville.
The vote was agreed to, and the chairman soon after re-
ported progress.

The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
house adjourned.

THE BLACK PRINCE AND PRINCESS.—We stated, last
week, that two relations of Christophe, formerly Emperor
of Hayti, had arrived at Southampton from the West Indies.
The Prince, if we may so call him, was a kind of butt for
the passengers during the voyage. He made great preten-
sions to dignity. On this foible the passengers played, oc-
casionally surrounding his royal highness, who, offended at
their familiarity, waved them back with his hand, saying
that he was not used to be approached so rudely by his in-
feriors! The Princess spent nearly the whole of the time in
her berth. This circumstance was noticed by the passen-
gers, one of whom, with a curiosity that excused his bold-
ness,buy her plenty of
asked his royal highness why her royal highness lay so
much in bed. The Prince candidly confessed, that his
princess was short of clothes ! But, chinking the dollars in
his pocket, said, with much glee, "These
fine clothes when she get to London.

PRIZE FIGHTING.—On Tuesday. last a prize fight was an-
nounced to take place somewhere in the vicinity of Kirkby
Lonsdale. The circumstance had, of course, reached the
t
ears of the police, and Inspector Armytage proceeded to the
neighbourhood of Kirkby Lonsdale, and found the ropes ar-
ranged in a field, where a large crowd of persons had assem-
bled.sq.,
andT thathelnsmpeacgtiostrraatpepglriead immediatelyntedawarranto the Inspector,
to E. Tatham,
E
who thereupon warned the parties off, and prevented the
fight, so far as the county of Lancaster was concerned. Sus-
pecting that the scene of conflict would be transferred to the
neighbouring county of Westmoreland, the Inspector con-
sulted with the authorities, and the result was that the com-
batants were driven out of Westmoreland also. The fight
subsequently took place at a spot called Scotch Jeans, in
Yorkshire, as many as five thousand persons being present
to witness it, but owing to the interruptions that had occur-
red, the affair did not happen till late in the day. The prin-
cipals were one Gouldie, a Scotchman, and Langan from
Liverpool. We understand these men fought for two whole
hours and seventeen minutes, having during that period had
nearly one hundred rounds. So dreadfully reduced were both
!nen, that they fought at last upon their knees, and only gave
in from pure exhaustion. Ward and other celebrated fight-
ers accompanied the parties, and we understand the stake
was £l5O a-side.—Lancaster Gazette.

THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE.—At the trial of the
Staffordshire rioters, Mr. Serjeant Talfourd thus concluded
his reply to the defence of the pi isoners. " The defendant
Cooper promised us he would show that the members and
agents of the Anti-Corn Law League were the originators of
these most afflicting outrages in the Potteries. Gentlemen,
I need scarcely say, because you know it, there has not been a
tittle of evidence produced in proof of that assertion. Gen-
tlemen, I do not stand here to defend the Messrs. Ridgway,
nor have I any sympathy with the members of the Anti-Corn
Law League. If, as stated in that able publication the Quar-
terly Review, such statements as Mr. Cooper quoted have
been uttered, then I say the parties giving utterance to those
statements ought to be prosecuted. The only time whenever
I have said anything about the corn laws was in this place,
when I was addressing a jury upon some exciting language
reported in a local newspaper. I then took occasion to say,
and I now repeat it, that of all subjects in the world to which
popular passion should be the last directed, and which ought
to be inquired into after statistic examinations, with calm and
philosophic thought, that question was as to the restrictions
or non-restrictions imposed upon the food of man--the ques-
tion of all others which ought to be deprecated. Gentlemen,
I cannot conclude without also referring to a quotation which
I then made from a speech of Mr. Curran :—" I have known
tumult and disorder make many a rich man poor, but never
knew it make a poor man s ich !"

ComET.—Public attention having been excited in no
ordinary degree by the passage of one of the great family of
comets through our system, may I be allowed to offer one
remark through the medium of your widely circulating jour-
nal? I would advert to that fear which thousands, and
among the number many well-educated people, never tail to
experience at the appearance of these mysterious bodies.
They have only, however, to dwell on one fact, and their
apprehensions will, in a great measure be dissipated, I al-
lude to the extraordinary rarity of the substance composing
the bodies of comets, and on which sufficient stress is not,
I think, generally laid. Through the centre of Encke's
comet stars of the fifth magnitude have been known to shine.
The comet that approached Saturn so near that it was
thought danger must have happened to that planet, was
found to have produced no apparent effect upon its motion ;
and the comet of 1454, which passed between our earth and
the moon, did not even disturb that small satellite. The
notion, then, of Halley's comet, or any other having caused
the deluge, seems to be scarcely admissible ; and startling as
the assertion may appear, it is impressed on me, that since
the gaseous substance of which comets are composed is
many times rarer than the atmosphere we breathe—for the
ray of no star could possibly permeate 50,000 miles of so
dense a medium as the latter—even were a comet to approach
within the attraction of the earth, so as to be drawn to its
very embraces, the light and subtile fluid, so far from com-
ing in contact with the solid portion of our sphere, or even
disturbing our tides, would merely float and be diffused on
the confines of our atmosphere, engirding, of course, that
atmosphere completely, but neither obscuring our day, nor
hiding the stars from our vision at night.—Correspondent.

AERIAL STEAM CARRIAGE.--We gave in our last a de-
scription of this novel machine. The London Journal of
Arts and Sciences, after mentioning the invention as a chi-
mera the most visionary and fallacious, goes on to describe it
as follows :—." The apparatus consists of a car, containing the
goods, passengers, engine, fuel, &c. ; to which a rectangular
frame, made of wood or bamboo cane, and covered with can-
vass, or oiled-silk, is attached ; this frame extends, on either
side of the car, in a similar manner to the out-stretched wings
of a bird, but with this difference,—that the frame is immo-
vable. Behind the wings are two vertical fan-wheels, fur-
nished with oblique vanes, which are intended to propel the
apparatus through the air. These wheels receive motion
through bands and pulleys, from a steam or other engine,
contained in the car. To an axis at the stern of the car, a
triangular frame is attached, resembling thetail of a bird,
which is also covered with canvass or oiled-silk ;
this may he
expanded or contracted at pleasure, and is moved up or down,
for the purpose of causing the machine to ascend or descend.
—Beneath the tail is a rudder, for directing the course of the
machine to the right or to the left; and, to facilitate the
steering, a sail is stretched between two masts which rise
from the car. The amount of riPePc-