The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-01-21 00:00:00

IRON TRADE-ENGLAND AND FRANCE

While the English Government has of late years been
gradually liberating our Iron trade from every sort of
restriction, the French have been hedging in theirs with
every imaginable sort of fiscal protection. Mark the
results. In 1841 the quantity of coal raised in this coun-
try was at least ten times the quantity raised in France ;
and in the same year four tons of iron were made in this
country for every ton made in France. The coal con-
sumed in the iron. works alone of Great Britain rather
more than doubled the whole quantity of coal raised in
France. In England the average quantity of coal raised
within the year by each person employed in coal mines
was 253 tons; in France, it was only 116 tons. In
France, 47,800 persons were employed in producing one-
fourth the quantity of iron produced in Great Britain by
42,400. The prices of iron to the consumer in France
are from 100 to 250 per cent. higher than in England.
France has not even succeeded in making herself inde-
pendent of foreign supplies ; the quantity of coal im-
ported in 1841 was within a trifle of half the quantity
raised ; and nearly 50,000 tons of British iron was im-
ported—pig iron being subject to a duty of £3 2s. 6d.,
and plates, bars, and rods, to a duty varying from £8 7s.
4d. to £l6 14s. 9d.

A greater number of vessels arrived at Runcorn during
the last year than at any former period, by nearly 300.
The second of the course of lectures now delivering at
St. Andrew's Church will be preached this evening. The
subject is, "The Christian in communion with God."
James Anderson, charged with attempting to poison his
wife and family, at Manchester, has been committed for
trial at the next assizes in this town.
The Commissioners of Customs have extended the
eight days to fourteen for ascertaining the deficiency of
corn warehoused.

SAD DEATH.—On Sunday week, a woman at Birken-
head, named Ormsby, was found dead in bed, having
been suffocated when in a state of drunkenness.

The building known as the Nelson•street Assembly
Rooms has been purchased by Mr. Edward Finch for
£4,000. The members of the Liverpool Festival Choral
Society are about to hold their performances in it.
We believe that fourteen vessels are advertised to sail
from Liverpool for China, against seven at this date last
year. This shows that the Chinese treaty works well.
There is also a slight increase in the ships laid on for Cal-
cutta.

RUNCORN.—The inspectors of lighting and watching
have chosen Mr. John Wright as their chairman for the
ensuing year. Richard Richardson, of the Manchester
detective police force, was appointed v,tchtnan, with a
salary of £7O a year, and the dwelling-house now occupied
by Mr. Hardy, constable; and, in order to secure his
services for the township alone, he is to be appointed a
constable also.

A special meeting of the Council will be held to-mor-
row, to consider the bill for amending certain powers in
the existing Dock Acts. Alderman Hodgson has given
notice of the following motion, which will be taken into
consideration :—" That it be referred to the Lighting Com-
mittee to consider and rep.ot whether it is desirable that
the Council should purchase the powers and privileges,
rights and interests, now vested in the Liverpool Gas
Light Company, and in the Liverpool New Gas and Coke
Company."
KIRKDALE EPIPHANY SESSIONS. —The Epiphany
Quarter Sessions for this county commenced on Wednes-
day last, at the Court-house, Kirkdale. The Reverend
Jonathan Brooks officiated in his usual capacity as chair-
man to the bench of magistrates. The calendar is re-
markably light, there being only fifty prisoners for trial :
forty-five for felony, and five for misdemeanors, &c.
None of the offences appear to be of a very serious or
aggravated character. The chairman alluded to the de-
crease of crime generally, as evidenced in the few pri-
soners in the gaol, and he attributed this favourable state
of things to the cheapness of provisions and the increase
of the means of employment. The CAM brought for-
ward were unimportant.

The Albrighton hounds will meet on Thursday, the
23d, at Longford ; Saturday, the 25th, at the Kennels—
each day at half-past ten o'clock.
Sir W. W. Wynn's hounds will meet To-morrow,
(Wednesday,) the 22d, at Wvunstay ; Friday, the 24th, at
Crew-green; Saturday, the 25th, at Hanmer—each day at
half-past ten o'clock.
Sir W. M. Stanley's hounds will meet to-morrow
(Wednesday), the 22d, at Mollington Hall ; on Saturday
next, the 25th, at Arrow Hall.—at eleven
Sir Job

n Barrow has retired from the office of Second
Secretary to the Admiralty, after a service of 41 years,
and is succeeded by Capt. W. A. B. Hamilton.
On Saturday Sir C. F. Williams, one of the Commis-
sioners of Bankruptcy for the London district, died of an
affection of the helm

FIRES.—From two o'clock on Saturday morning, till
the same hour on Sunday, no fewer than four fires oc-
curred in the metropolis.
There appears to have been no truth in the reported
death of the Emperor of Russia. Letters received from
St. Petersburgh, dated Jan. Ist, make no mention of Hs
Majesty's illness.

DR.
WOLFF.—ST. PETERSBURGH, JAN. 9.—We have
received positive information that Dr. Wolff, who has
arrived ay Teheran, from Bokhara, will return home by
way of Russii and St. Petersburgh. We hope to see him
here very shortly.
A deputation from the Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and
Chester Junction Railway, consisting of Mr. Wardell,
Mr. Brown, Mr. Roy, and Mr. Williams, directors;
Mr. Robertson, engineer; Mr. Kelsall, solicitor, and
Mr. Ellicombe, had an interview with the Earl of Dal-
housie on Friday.
GEOLOGICAL CURIOSITT.—A piece of bass, from, the
coat mines of Messrs. Bournes & Robinson, exhibiting the.
fossil remains of a variety of shell fish, has been presented
to the Collegiate Institution by Peter Bourne, Esq.,
where it may be seen by the curious in such matters,upon
application at the Secretary's office.

STEALING FROM A SHOP.—A young man, named
James Burns, was yesterday sent for trial for stealing a
number of handkerchiefs, value 7s. 6d., from the shop of
Mr. Gressier, No. 1, Great Charlotte-street. The pri-
soner was seen taking them, and, the alarm being given,
he was pursued and captured, with the articles in his
possession, near the Amphitheatre.
GRAND CONCERTS.—The two concerts advertised for
next Friday evening and Saturday morning, at the Music-
hall, can be rightly characterised as " grand." The
presence of Thalberg alone should entitle them to that
appellation. Messrs. Hime and Sons, Church.street,
who are ever on the alert to procure the most splendid
instruments, will have on sale the piano on which Thal-
berg will, at these concerts, display his extraordinary
powers. It is, we learn, one of the most exquisite pieces
of mechanical skill ever produced.
SARAH FREEMAN.—This depraved creature, commit—
ted at Bridgewater, Somersetshire, for the murder of her
mother, brother, husband, and two children, is suspected
of further similar crimes. At the close of the inquests
on Saturday, the Coroner said—" I am afraid 1 shall
have further occasion for your services, although I have
no wish for any more cases of poisoning. I have a letter
from highly respectable persons, the statements made in
which are very alarming—namely, that five other deaths
have occurred in this parish very recently, and all of them
in one family. They were all children, two of whom died
on the same day, and were buried in the same grave, on,
the day or the day after their death ; and it is also stated
to me in that letter—l do not know how far it may be
true—that the woman Sarah Freeman was in the constant
habit of visiting at that house."
FALLING OF THREE Nzw HOIvSES.—On Thursday
night last, about ten o'clock, three new and unfinished
houses in Upper Canning-street fell with a tremendous
crash, the walls carrying nearly the whole of the joists,
floors, &c., into the cellar, and smashing the timber into
comparatively small pieces. The buildings were of four
stories in height, of brick, and formed the eastern end
of a new row of houses on the south side of the street.
Luckily, no one was by at the late hour stated ; had the
fall happened in the day-time, several lives would, no
doubt, have been lost. We find that the lower, or cellar
portion of the walls, up to the datum level, was roughly
built of broken pieces of soft free-stone, called " nob-
bling," and so imperfectly put together as to be inade-
quate to support the superincumbent weight, rising to an
elevation of 46 feet. The walls were but 9 inches (or
only brick length) in thickness, which is sadly short for
buildings of that size. The buildings are upon what was
formerly Moss-lake Field, in which the unbroken ground
is yet a black mess to a depth of two to three feet. The
foundations, however, were sunk below this to apparentlY
a stratum of soft sand-stone, and the probability is that
the houses gave way from the cause assigned.