The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

WESLEY'S BIBLE.—At the Wesleyan Conference re-
cently held at Birmingham, it was announced, that the late
Rev. H. Moore, the surviving executor of John Wesley,
had bequeathed to the Conference the pocket bible used
by the founder of Methodism in field-preaching, and pre-
sented to him by Mr. Wesley.
RAILWAY TRAVELLING.—On the return of the Cabi-
net Ministers to London, after visiting the Queen, on the
birth of the Prince, they traversed the distance from
Slough to Paddington, eighteen miles and a quarter, by
the Great Western Railway, in fifteen minutes and ten
seconds, being at the rate of upwards of seventy miles an
hour 1

CONSERVATIVE Titrumett. The Anti-Corn-Law
League has sustained another severe defeat, in the rejec-
tion of its treasurer, Mr. Wm. Rawson, of Manchester,
as a candidate for the representation of Dudley, by a
large majority. The polling took place on Thursday, and
the numbers at the close were—For Mr. Benbow, con-
servative, 388; for Mr. Rawson, leaguer, 175 ; majority
for the conservative, 213. A majority which, considering
the numbers on the register is larger than any that the
conservatives have before achieved in this borough. At
the election in 1841. Mr. Hawkes, the retired member,
had a majority of 247 over Mr. Adams Smith ; but on
that occasion there were 921 names on the register, and
at present there are only 729. Dudley did itself honour
in 1834, by the rejection of Sir John Campbell, on his ap_
pointment to the Attorney-Generalship, and it has now
done itself still further honour by the rejection of the
league's nominee.

LONDON WOOL SALES.—The sales of sheep's wool,
which commenced on the 16th ult., in London, have been
brought to a close. The quantity brought forward amount-
ed to 29,557 bales, and the interest was pretty regularly
supported throughout, The experienced brokers give
their opinion that the prices have averaged very nearly
the same as at the last sale. It must, however, be re-
membered, that the prices with which this comparison is
made, were in advance of those at the beginning of last
year, not less than from 35 to 40 rer cent. Our colonial
wools are evidently in a regular course of improvement,
but, as far as preparation is involved, the improvement
made in the Cape wools was the most conspicuous. Our
colonial production is rapidly throwing the German wools
into the shade, and as the quantity can yet be almost in-
definitely increased, in a few years more we shall be'
independent of all foreigners, except for a comparatively
small quantity of the finest qualities.' There was a small
quantity of :Spanish wool in. the sale, and nothing can
more clearly exhibit the change of circumstances than the
fact that it sold from ls. 6d. to ls. 9d. per lb., whilst the
best Cape wool fetched 2s. 3d. to 2s. 10d. per lb.
SUGAR.—Sugar is characterized by its solubility in
water and alcohol, by its sweet taste, by being soluble in
alkalies, and by its crystallizing readily. There are
several varieties of sugar, but the two principal are cane
and grape sugars, the latter being that which gives the
sweetness to fruits, as to grapes, plums, pears, apples,
figs, &c. Although the difference between cane and grape
sugar in composition is merely that the latter contains
one atom more water, yet the former possesses sweeten-
ing properties in a much more eminent degree. Un-
fortunately for domestic economy the sweeter sugar can
be artificially converted into the one less sweet, but not
vice versa. These sugars can be distinguished from each
other by the action of acids and alkalies. Sulphuric acid
completely decomposes cane sugar, leaving nothing but
a carbonaceous mass, whilst it but slightly colours grape
sugar. Honey, which consists principally of grape sugar,
is merely rendered into a fluid like treacle, whilst a so-
lution of sugar candy is acted on very strongly, little else
but .a mass of charcoal being left. Alkalies have a con-
trary effect, acting strongly upon grape sugar, and but
slightly on cane. There are several other means of dis-
distinguishing between various sugars, and amongst the
best is their action on sulphate of copper.—Architect's
Journal.

CHINESE DWELLINGS.—In all China the houses are
built upon the ground ; i. e. without any cellar under
them. The apartments are paved with flat square bricks
—a thing very agreeable in warm weather, but very little
suitable to the severe season of the year. To defend them
from the piercing cold which they experience in the nor-
thern parts of the empire, the Chinese have devised sub-
terraneous furnaces in every direction under the bricks
of the floors, and on a kind of platforms on which the
Chinese sleep. They even pass through the walls which
divide the different rooms, so that the heat diffused by
the tubes produces in the apartments the temparature
desired. The fire is kept up night and day in the outer
stove or furnace, without the slightest danger to the
buildings, because a coat of bricks closely confines that
destructive element, and opposes its disastrous effects.—
Chineae Olio.

MILITARY AITTHORS.—It is a curious fact, formerly
stated in this magazine, that the private soldiers of Eng-
laad, though taken from the humblest classes of society,
all few in number when compared to the hundreds of
thousands forced by conscriptions into the ranks of Con-
tinental armies, have yet surpassed all foreigners as much
in letters as in arms. We have several highly-interesting
books of military adventure written by private soldiers,
and conveying vivid pictures of their habits, feelings, and
opinions; as well as the dangers and terrible hardships to
which they are exposed in the field. No work of this kind,
deserving of notice, has been produced by either French or
Germans, for the memoir of the French Serjeant Guille-
ruard is a poor and paltry fabrication ; and though the
Germans have two works of military adventures edited by
Goethe, even they were both written by soldiers who had
served in the British army, and only convey to German
readers pictures of English military life. This literary
triumph of our countrymen is not, indeed, likely to silence
the liberal and patriotic persons who so constantly tell us
of the brutality of English soldiers ; but, as an established
fact, it may be successfully urged by the unbiassed against
the mere declamations of party orators.—Fraser's Maga-
zine.

THE ROMAN ARCH.—I agree with Mr. It. C. Long,
of Baltimore, Maryland, in his very judicious remarks
relative to the capabilities of the Roman arch, which he
considers has not yet been fully developed as a beautiful
feature in architectural composition. What in the archi-
tectural world can exceed in sublimity and grandeur the
long unbroken line of arches in the Roman wilderness?
But there must be no higgling, sniggling, paring, frost-
ing, tinkering, and the rest of the little ings and things
with which our modern arches are ornamented. I verily
believe that the man who spoils an arch with a dropping
keystone could be guilty of inserting a ring in the nose of
the Venus de Medici, and though it might be merely his
own bright idea, he might think all the while, persuading
himself that others thought so too, that it had been se-
lected by the fair hand of science to set off the Queen of
Beauty to advantage. 1 have seen, or perhaps only think
I have seen, sculptured keystones which had a good effect,
the sculpture alone being in relief. By the bye, sculp-
ture is too seldom called in aid by architects to embellish
their works. I do not mean the Paul Pry intruding or
protruding keystone with mere glyphs, but something like
what is to be found in nature relieved on a smooth ground
appearing like a single star in the firmament, or to speak
of things terrestial, a single and well selected ornament
on the arched and unwrinkled brow of beauty.—Civil
Engineer.

A PLEASANT BEDFELLOW.—I was awakened last night
at midnight by a violent storm of thunder and lightning,
and wind and rain. Hard dreaming as I was, I had sense
enough left to feel something moving in bed, and, by the
light from a flash of lightning, to my unspeakable horror,
I saw crawling over the mattrass a cobra de capello. He
reared his head when he came to my body, and slowly
crawled on my legs ; and, as tbere was nothing over me
but a thin cotton sheet, I could distinctly feel the cold,
clammy body of the venomous reptile, through the sheet,
the heat of my body seemed agreeable to the monster, as
he coiled himself up there. I lay dead still ; I knew my
life depended upon my remaining motionless, for had I
moved a leg or an arm he would instantly have bitten me,
after which I could not have lived many minutes. A cold
sweat ran in a stream down my back ; I was in an agony
of terror ; home and friends, and all that was dear, rushed
to my memory ; my whole life passeclin review before me.
I saw no way of escape, and considered my doom sealed;
every flash of lightning showed me my new bedfellow in
all its loathsomeness. When I had lain in one position
about three hours, my legs became sore and stiff, from
having been kept so long motionless ; and at this time I
gave an involuntary shudder, which attracted the notice
of the reptile. He raised his head about a foot high,
thrust out his forked tongue, looked around him, as if for
some living object to prey upon. I now thought it was
all over with me. 1 prayed mentally (for I dared not
move my lips, for fear of attracting notice) for the forgive-
ness of my sins, when—heaven be praised—the reptile
unfolded his coils, and crawled slowly away from off my
limbs, on to the bed, down by the bedpost to the floor,
and left me. It has been said that poverty makes a man
acquainted with strange bedfellows ; it might be added,
so does wandering in foreign climes.—Journey of a
Wanderer.

A PLEA FOR SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN.—However
praiseworthy the efforts of those may be—and none can
impugn their motives—who have waged war upon fer-
mented liquors, we think that they would eventually do
more good, and be more likely to carry out their inten-
tions farther, if they would insert some saving clauses in
favour of the grape and John Barleycorn. We cannot
imagine that the English people can forego the use of
malt liquor consistent with their nationality, and that,
when they awake from this play which is now acting be-
fore them, they will say, with Christopher Sly, " And
once again a cup of the smallest ale ! " It is worthy of
remark, that the increase of dyspeptic complaints has been
very great of late years ; and such hosts of these affec-
tions, if we may judge from medical records, were not to
be found among, the same class of people in the good old
days when John Barleycorn reigned autocratically. This
is due to that great change which has taken place in the
march of society—to that restlessness of mind which has
engendered so much uneasy feeling—that desire of "going
' ahead," which has pervaded all classes of people to such
a degree, as to leave it a query whether any one class is
particularly adapted to any one station in life. The ex-
citement attendant upon that species of education, which
has only taught so many to be what they are not, rather
than what they are, has unhinged the lower orders. If
happiness be not compatible with profound ignorance,
neither is it with that spirit of dissatisfaction, disquietude,
disloyalty, which are the result of having placed the means
of education in the people's way without securing to them
its real advantages. Where is the yeoman with his twenty
acres of land, his sons following the plough, his daughters
in the dairy or at the spinning-wheel ? Contented with
their means, to them reward enough to tap the Christmas
barrel, are they happier that they have quitted their
sphere to be wrecked on a sea of adventures ?—Fraser's
Magazine.

TRIUMPHS OF PITT IN PUTTING DOWN JACORINISM.
In January, 1793, the cruel murder of the innocent and
unfortunate Louis XVI. had been perpetrated by the
National Convention—an act which Napoleon long after-
wards pronounced " a grand political error, sufficient to
stamp the government not merely with guilt, but with in-
fatuation." The French minister at the Court of St.
James's was ordered to leave the country, and war was
proclaimed. The revolutionary committees in England
now assumed increased activity. Communications were
established between them and the Jacobin government;
and while France prepared for war, English republicanism
prepared for revolution. The time of the struggle was
fully come. The English minister now buckled on his
armour. A succession of vigorous measures employed
the legislature during the whole period ; they were fiercely
combated, but they were all ultimately carried. Opposi-
tion never exhibited more brilliant parliamentary powers.
Fox was matchless in declamation; alternately solemn
and touching; Sheridan, Grey, and a long list of prac-
tised and indefatigable talent, were in perpetual debate ;
but Pitt, " with huge two-handed sway,, finally crushed
them all. The classic illustration of Hercules destroying
the Hydra, was frequently used to express the solitary
prowess of this extraordinary man in resisting the multi-
plied, wily, and envenomed attacks of his opponents; and
he realized the fable to the full—he not merely crushed
the heads, but be seared them. lie extinguished that
principle of evil increase, by which all the efforts of fop
reign governments had been baffled in their contests with
Jacobinism ; and in the midst of an empire at all times
inclined to look with jealousy on power, and at that mo-
ment nervous for the suspended privileges of its constitu-
tion, Pitt utterly extinguished the Whigs. Fox was de-
feated so hopelessly, that he gave up Parliament altoge-
ther, and his party followed his example. Pitt had not
merely cut down the statelier trunks of Opposition, but
he had swept away the brushwood, and smote the ground
with sterility. His bold enterprise had not merely taken
the citadel of faction by storm, and driven its defenders,
faint-hearted and fugitive, over the face of the land, but
he had sown the foundations with salt. The total soli-
tude of the Opposition benches, during the greater part
of the minister's political life, was the most unequivocal
and striking evidence ever given to ministerial supremacy.
—Blackwood's Magazine.

DRAPERY.—it will be seen by reference to an adver-
tisement in another column, that the remaining portion
of Mr. M'Connell's excellent stock is now selling at Mr.
Kerr's, by whom he has been succeeded, at half the origi-
nal cost.

NEW FANCY REPOSITORY.—It will be seen by an ad-
vertisement in our paper of to-day, that Mr. E. Flower,
who is meritoriously known to the public as having been
one of the most strenuous advocates of early closing, has
opened a shop in Renshaw-street. Amongst the stock
are many novelties. We wish him every success.
ICE.—AMERICAN REFRIGERATORS.—Having already
said so much in favour of American ice, to dwell fur-
tber on its excellent and sanatory qualities at this time,
would be a work of supererogation. But we owe another
duty to the first spirited importer, Mr. Dean ; and that
is, to state that his American Refrigerators, repositories
for the preservation of the ice, and of anv perishable
article of food, the most delicate, are being constantly
constructed by him, at a moderate price, and will be found
most serviceable and economical for house-keepers. They
theare
viaintuhd,
the form of a double chest, with the ice below, and
&c., on a latticed shelf above them—the whole
being so contrived, with a nonconducting substance be-
tween the double sides, &c., that not only the ice, but the
meat is preserved for a long time, even in the warmest
weather. We have since writing the foregoing to add the
name of another competitor for public favour in the same
line,—namely, our respected townsman, Mr. Lynn, of the
Waterloo Hotel, who is also an importer of pure Ameri-
can ice, and has a supply on hand of the same refrigera-
tors. Mr. L.'s long standing in the town as a purveyor
of all the good things of this life to his customers, gives
him also a strong claim to support in this department, and
there is ample room for both. The ice trade isonem
i which it s scarcely possible to suppose that one will keep-
the other in hot water."