The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-24 00:00:00

OPERATION di? THE ifiEW TARIFF tIPON THE f

PRICE OF PROVISIONS

The partizans of the Anti-Corn-Law faction, when the
modification of the import duties was taken out of their
bungling fingers, maintained loudly that, from such a mea-
sure, no material alleviation of the condition of the con-
suming classes could result. And when the existing tariff
measure had been brought forward and passed—a measure of
infinitely more extended scope than any of which they could
have dreamed, in their wildest moments—it was sneered st
by these sages as a mere surface operation, wholly inade-
quate to produce any sensible lowering of prices. We had
been told at former periods, it is true, of the cheap beef and
pork of other countries—of beef and pork which could be
imported at 12d. to 2d. per lb., whilst the same articles, of
English growth, were at 6d. to Bd. ; but when they were met
upon this ground,—when the articles were imported and
brought at a low duty into the British markets,—it was all
at once discovered that they were unfit for consumption, and
that the grand specific for the national suffering lay in cheap
bread alone. The tariff was styled an inoperative measure.
It had " unsettled everything and settled nothing ;" and,
worst of all, it had brought no " cheap food" to the working
man's table. Let us see however whether this is true. Let
us examine how far the tariff has conferred the boon of
cheapness upon the consuming classes.
But, first, have we obtained this boon, and to what extent
are the provisions of the people cheapened ? We will not
refer to articles such as foreign fruits, rice, coffee, &c., of
which the cost is composer; mainly of the duty levied—(for
none can deny that these have been cheapened, or the amount
of comfort derivable from their reduced price)—but proceed
at once to the staple, butcher's meat. The price of beef,
then, in the London retail market, is at present to families,
about 6d. a lb. for all joints, coarse and fine together, of
prime meat. There is a saving here, we maintain, over the
prices of this season last year, of a Id. to 1-id. per lb. The
retail market, we must premise, we take for this reason. A
large proportion of the supply, now, is brought coastwise in
a ready killed state, and comes at once into the market for
consumption, the prices at Smithfield being thus—for infe-
rior meats especially—less sensibly affected than the carcase
and retail markets. The price of mutton has sustained an
equal fall. Wether legs of mutton may be bought at New-
gate and other markets at 5?,d. to 6d. per lb., and other
joints in proportion ; whilst mutton, of less first-rate descrip-
tion, but such as is bought by the working classes may be
bad a full penny a pound, or more than that, lower. Pork
has sustained a similar reduction; and it may be said, with
justice we believe, that butcher's meat, generally, is at the
least 25 to 33 per cent. below the prices of last year. So
much, then, for the metropolis.
The same state of things may be noted in all the great

meat markets throughout the country. In three weeks, we
are told, the Irish markets have fallen 9s. per cwt., or nearly
Id. per pound, in addition to previous reductions. Pork was

selling in Dublin last week at 3d per lb ! In Liverpool and
Manchester the fall, since last spring, has been 20 to 30 per
cent.,—in the former place even more. And this, it must be
borne in mind, has taken place, not because of any favouring
circumstances enabling the native breeder and grazier to feed
more cheaply, but the reverse ; for the last season's fodder
was far from being an extraordinary crop—the hay harvest
being, in many places, almost an utter failure—and the stock
of cattle of all descriptions being a deficient one. The farmer
must, by the result of his operations in feeding, have been a
heavy sufferer, and the consumer, indisputably, has been the

sole party benefitted.
We are told, however, by the free traders that it is the
inability of the working classes to consume largely which has
caused the reduced prices of food, and not the tariff: In
reply, however, we may urge that the condition of the work-
ing classes is improving, whilst the price of consumable ar-
ticles is falling weekly. The manufacturing population is
better employed now than at this period last year ; and yet
prices have fallen 25 to 30 per cent. in those districts. The
price of the working man's staple, too—bread—is full 30 per
cent. cneaper now than it was then ; and, according to every
theory laid down by the free trader, he ought to consume
more largely of other articles of food, and must do so,—if
his wages have not been reduced to the level of the prices of
both ! Even reduction of wages however, admitting that it
has taken place, and knowing that it will take place as food
cheapens, cannot have caused an "aggregate decrease in the
amount" paid to the working classes, and available for the
purchase of food ; for we believe the amount of employment
to be sufficiently large now, as compared with last year, to
more than compensate for the reduction of the rate to indi-
vidual workmen.

With respect, then, to this alleged decreased consumption
of food we incline to think that the very contrary is the fact ;
that the working classes consume now more beef and pork
and mutton, in proportion to their bread, than formerly ;
and hence the otherwise unaccountable depreciation of our
corn markets. The poor man, it is well known, consumes
more bread than the affluent. The loaf is the ready meal for
one who has but sixpence or a shilling to expend. But place
fresh meat and potatoes within his reach, and consumption
of bread stuffs must decline. The cheapness of one article
will cheapen another. The shop of the butcher will com-
pete with the shop of the baker. Such must be the case at
the present moment; for whereas we can see nothing in the
abundance of the late harvest—which was, after all. little
more than an average one—or, in the quantity of foreign corn
released, and no prospect of an early great importation
under the existing. mak, to account for the decline of prices
in every corn market throughout the kingdom, we can see
abundant grounds in the reduced and reducing prices of
butcher's meat for the falling price of the great staple corn.
The fact appears to us clear that the supply of cheap, and the
prospect of still cheaper, animal food have arrested the aver-
age consumption of bread stuffs.
The tariff, we maintain, affords every reasonable expecta-
tion of a continued fall in the price of butcher's meat ; and
we are satisfied that to the operation of that measure is to be
attributed the decline thus far. We do not refer to the im-
portation of live cattle; for years must elapse before any
material effect upon our markets can be produced from this
source. But from the improvement in the preparation of
American and Canadian pork and beef, vast effects may be
anticipated. The importations of last year, we admit, were
very inferior in quality, and unsuited to English consump-
tion. Much of it was old stock, and all too highly salted,
having, in fact, been cured when these articles, " slightly
salted," were prohibited. The importations of the present
season are, we understand, of a much changed description ;
and, when it is borne in mind that at the Canadian duty of
2s. per cwt. the article can be profitably retailed at 3d. per
lb., there is little doubt of both foreign corned beef and pork
becoming staples of the consumption of the working classes.
That such is the impression amongst the graziers and pro-
vision houses in Ireland very recent advice assures us ; and,
if this be admitted, why need we wander further than the
tariff as the cause of that reduced price at which provisions
of every description are now afforded us. Admitting that
the foreign article is inferior in quality—an admission, as
applied to American pork, which can scarcely be safely
made—yet its extensive importation and consumption must
affect the sale of our own inferior meats, and hence operate
upon the price of our best. Besides, it must be borne in
mind that every article available for food—and there are
many besides flesh meat cheapened by the tariff—must affect
the demand for and consequent price of the remainder. At
all events, we are confident that, taken as a whole, this mea-
sure has fully redeemed the predictions of its authors, that it
would save the consumer the amount exactedfrom him by the
income tax ; and if it be objected again that it has not pro-
duced, at once, the revival of commercial prosperity, what
can this objection, if true even, establish more than the fact
that free trade in provisions and cheap food are not the in-
fallible specifics for the national distress which they were so
loudly declared to be !

EDUCATION, SCIENCE, AND ART.—By a statement just
laid upon the table of the House of Commons of the estimates
for 1843-4, for the purposes of education, science, and art,
it appeared that there will be required for public education in
Great Britain, £50,000; ditto in Ireland, £50,000 ; schools
of design, £4,411 ; Professors at Oxford and Cambridge,
£2,006 ; University of London, £5,148 ; Universities, &c.,
in Scotland, £7,380; Roman Catholic College in Scotland,
£8,928 ; Royal Irish Academy, £3OO ; Royal Hibernian Aca-
demy, £3OO ; Royal Dublin Society, £5,600 ; Belfast Aca-
demical Society, £1,950 ; British Museum Establishment,
&c., £32,576; ditto buildings, £37,485; ditto purchases,
£5,275 ; National Gallery, purchase of pictures and expense
of the Gallery, £1,600; Museum of Economic Geology,
£2,008; and Scientific Works and Experiments, £4,000 ;
the total for the year 1843-4 is £210,889. In the expense,
therefore, of 1843, as compared with 1841, there will be an
increase of £6,443, and as compared with 1842, of £8,078.
SINGULAR ROBDERY.—At Worship-street (London) Po-
lice-office, on Monday, a man of very gentlemanly appear-
ance, about 30 years of age, named William Alexander
Grint, and who was stated to be the son of an officer in the
royal navy, was brought up before the magistrate, charged on
suspicion of stealing a quantity of plate, the property of Lady
Anne Playter. A son-in-law of the prosecutrix stated that
the prisoner was of highly respectable connections, and had
dined at Lady Playter's with him and a party of gentlemen
on the Sunday week previous. A servant in her ladyship's
establishment stated that on the 6th instant the prisoner '
knocked at the hall door about 8 o'clock, and witness ad-
mitted him. He said he had brought a note from Mr.
Squires, in the neighbourhood, and asked her when her mis-
tress would be up, and she told him at 9 o'clock. She asked
him if he intended to stop to breakfast, and he replied in the
negative, as be had ordered it at an inn, where he was staying.
Witness showed him into the parlour, and, after a short con-
versation, the prisoner pulled her mistress's work-box about,
and turned all the things over. She told him not to do so,
as her mistress would be angry, but he treated it as a joke,
and she quitted the room, leaving the prisoner there. Pre-
vious to admitting the prisoner she had set the breakfast
things, and the usual articles of plate were on the table.
Shortly afterwards another servant told her the fire in the
parlour was nearly out, and on going into the room she
found the prisoner had left the house. The salt had been
emptied out of the silver saltcellars into the fire, and the
silver teapot, the saltcellars, five silver teaspoons, several
gravyspoons, and a great many other valuable articles had
been stolen. She was not at first alarmed on missing the
plate, as she thought the prisoner had put it away and hid-
den himself; but, finding such was not the case, she became
very frightened, and informed Mr. Watson. On the pri-
soner entering the parlour, he at i
once lit Mr.. atson's
meersehaum pipe, and was smoking t when witness left the
room. No other person had entered the parlour but the pri-
soner, and she was convincedheprisoner
n o
oneh adbut a
taken
em
ectio a
his ;
own
taken the property. r
boots, which were very indifferent ones, and had put on a
good pair. He also took a penknife and a case of surgical
instruments. Lady Playter was so deeply affected in having
to press the charge, that she could not give her evidence.
The prisoner was remanded for a week.

CORRESPOWDENCE

VENTILATION OF CHURCHES AND PUBLIC

BUILDINGS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVEI

POOL STANDARD,

SIR,—As there is no subject connected with the health of
the community to which so little attentio❑ is paid, or of which
so little appears to be known, as that of ventilation (by which
I mean a supply of air in any building), I take the liberty of
submitting you a few facts relating to it, which are compiled
principally from the writings of some of our eminent physio-
logists, in the hope they may be the means of impressing
some of your readers with the importance of the subject,
and especially those who have the management of buildings
where many people are congregated together.
It is not generally known that it is necessary, for the pre-
servation of health, that every drop of blood in the human
body should be exposed to the action of atmospheric air about
once in every three minutes, in order to effect a change in
the blood named aeration—a change from venous, or black
blood, to arterial, or red blood ; nor that the same air cannot
produce this change twice. Hence the necessity of a con-
stant supply of air in every room, but especially in those
where many people are. The quantity of air required by
each individual has been ascertained by Finlaison to be about
18 pints each minute of his existence—air that has never
been breathed before : this will be in one hour 2 hhds. 20
galls., and in one day about 57 hhds. From ignorance of
this fact, we have experienced for many generations the evil
results of deficient ventilation, and suffered the penalty in
delicate health, fevers, and consumptions ; and yet architects
go on planning and erecting edifices, without bestowing a
thought on the means of supplying air for the number of
people they are to accommodate, though their health cannot
be retained without it ; and while ingenuity is taxed to sup-
ply water, air, which is of far more consequence, has been
left to creep, in, like a thief in the night, through any hole
by which it can find an entrance. Were a knowledge of the
facts stated above, and of man's structure generally, made a
part of general education, such inconsistencies would soon
disappear, and the architect would soon speedily devise the
means of supplying our houses with air, as the engineer does
with water.

The only kind of air which will maintain the body in health
is that containing the precise proportions of the atmosphere
of oxygen and nitrogen, with a thousandth part of carbonic
acid. If the relative quantity of any ingredient be increased
or diminished, the blood will immediately suffer, and the
health be injured. If, for instance, the air contain more
carbonic acid than the minute trace of it in pure air, it will
be to that extent unfit for respiration, and act deleteriously
upon the system. Now, during its action on the blood in
the lungs, the air loses a great part of its oxygen, or life-
sustaining principle, and gives out carbonic acid, a poisonous
principle, in its stead ; therefore, if the same air be breathed
again and again, the quantity of oxygen is gradually dimi-
nishing, and that of carbonic acid increasing, till at last it
becomes incapable of supporting life. This is the cause of
feebleness, head-aches, and other symptoms, that so often
follow attendance at a church or meeting, where many hun-
dred pairs of lungs are absorbing oxygen and pouring out
carbonic acid for hours, no means being at the same time
used to carry off the breathed air, and to supply fresh. There
are numerous instances on record of the fatal consequences
of ignorance of this law of our nature. The black hole of
Calcutta affair is one in which about 130 individuals perished.
Crabbe the poet nearly fell a victim to this ignorance. He
and several of his playmates were punished for playing at
soldiers by being put into a large kennel. Crabbe was the
first who entered. The place was crammed with offenders;
the atmosphere consequently was rapidly consumed. Crabbe
shrieked in vain that he would be suffocated (he being far-
thest from the door) ; at last, in despair, he bit the lad next
him violently, roaring " Crabbe is dying! Crabbe is dying !"
and the sentinel opened the door. Crabbe says, in his ac-
count of it, " A minute more, and I must have died."
Walpole mentions another instance. A parcel of drunken
constables took it into their heads to arrest every one they
met, and thrust them into St. Martin's round-house.
Twenty-five were thus shut up all night with closed doors
and windows. In the morning four were dead ; two died
soon after, and twelve more were permanently seriously in-

j ured.
In these deplorable examples of the miseries caused by
ignorance of one of the simplest laws of animal life, the
effects of want of air are pourtrayed in appalling colours ;
but those which are produced by breathing an atmosphere
vitiated to a much smaller extent, are by no means less real.
God has decreed that a certain portion of air is necessary to
sustain health. If we adapt our circumstances to this law,
we reap comfort and health ; whereas if we transgress it,
and breathe an atmosphere with a less than usual quantity
of oxygen, and more than usual of carbonic acid, we have no
more right to expect to enjoy health, energy, and activity,
than we have to expect a fire to burn without air, or a fish
to live out of water. From opposition to this law much
suffering is incurred, especially in large towns. In 1838
about 60,000 died of diseases of the lungs in England, and I
observe that 344 died of similar diseases last week in London
alone. Now, it is an ascertained fact that the lungs, in most
instances, are the first part to suffer from want of air. The
blood, being insufficiently aerated, deposits tubercular mat-
ter in the lungs, and disease is generated. Ido not mean to
say that a strict attention to this law would have prevented
the whole of these deaths from this disease ; but experience

has proved to us, that as a knowledge of, and attention to,
this law have increased, in the same ratio these diseases have
diminished; and it can also be proved, that the deaths from
diseased lungs amongst those who, from their occupations,
are most shut up in ill-ventilated places, are by far the most
numerous; while butchers, and those who live in the open
air, hardly ever die of these complaints.
Dr. Combe (the physician, not " the philosopher"), from
whose work on physiology many of my preceding remarks
are taken, says on the subject, If the air we breathe be
impure, the proper aeration of the blood in the lungs will be
prevented, and consequently rendered unfit for its destined
purposes in the animal economy, and the h-Ith become im-
paired. Of its deteriorating influences, proofs everywhere
abound." Where, from the want of air, or neglect in any
way, the blood becomes impaired, bad health will never be
far distant. Let those who are not aware of the influence
of the blood consider what occasionally occurs in disease,
and they will obtain a more correct idea of the fact. Cases
are not wanting in which persons at the gates of death have
been resuscitated, and ultimately restored, by having healthy
blood transfused into their veins. Nay, the mind itself is,
in some measure, influenced by the pure or impure state of
the blood, because the co-operation of the nervous system
is indispensable to the action of the mental faculties; and,
therefore, if the brain is imperfectly sustained by blood, their
tone and activity also become reduced.
I have, however, said enough for the present. If you can
oblige me, I will trouble you with one more letter.

Yours, &c.,

A 'YOUNG PHYSIOLOGIST,

--.01.--.
THE BUILDING IN CATHERINE-STREET,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—The detailed account of the ecclesiastical structure
in Catherine-street, published in your late numbers, appears
evidently to have been written by authority, and taken in
connexion with a letter signed " Catholicus" on the same
subject, exhibits, evidently, a desire to attract public atten-
tion to it, as well by a detail of its splendour as by keeping
up as much mystery, and exciting as much curiosity, as pos-
sible.

In the first place, " Catholicus" ridicules the idea of mys-
tery altogether, but in the same paragraph wonders " what
authority they have for taking such high standing as a
church." He professes moreover to have been much grati-
fied and instructed by an hour's conversation with a " mys-
terious individual." What he learned, except that it was an
"attempt of man to make as beautiful an habitation for his
God as was in his power," does not appear. He may, per-
chance, have forgotten that " God dwelleth not in temples
made with hands." Acts, vii, 48. . .

It appears, according to " a gentleman connected with the
works," that " it is to be a Catholic Apostolic church, dedi-
cated, not to any particular saint, but to the whole of the
apostles ; and that all who have been baptized will have free
admission within its pale." The gentleman, however,
aithough so well acquainted with its destination, with lauda-
ble caution and desire to keep up his character for carefully-
disclaimed mysteriousness, " would not undertake to say
from his own knowledge, whether the doctrine of this church
would assimilate to those of the disciples of the late Edward

Irving." ,
However, the next week it is distinctly stated
that they are not the same." but that " the Liturgy, we find,
includes a very great portion of those prayers which our own
church has adopted." Pray, Mr. Editor, does it need any-
thing further to tell us that this mysterious and cruci form
building, with its carved choir, its elegant aisles, its lofty
clerestory, its gorgeous roof, its splendid windows, its oblong
monumental-framed altar, with canopy of carved work, its
rich and powerful organ, its credence or table of prophecies
for the sacramental elements, its Sedile, and its Piscina, its
carved rood or cross over the entrance, and its range of
oaken stalls for the ministers who will he attached to it, does
it need, I say, anything more to inform us that this fragment
is to be, when completed, a SUPERB ROMISH CATHEDRAL?
It may be noticed that this church, which is to be dedica-
ted to all the apostles was, according to the account given to
Catholicus, " never intended" to be handed over to the
bishop for consecration. Of course not, so far as the title
bishop means any bishop of the church of England ; but no
doubt the gentlemen connected with it look elsewhere for
authority to consecrate. I bnly hope that our protestant
townsmen, when visiting this attractive edifice, will be on
' their guard against the instruction they may receive from the
' polite and jesuitical gentlemen with whom they will come in
contact.

CATHOLISSIMUS—PROTESTANS
March 22, 1843.

[Our correspondent appears as wishful as " Catholicus"
to keep up the mystery connected with this unusually splen-
did structure. We had no other desire of giving a descrip-
tion of it than we have had in noticing any other remarkable
building in our good old town, and altogether disclaim any
intention of creating any curiosity by attempting to attach
any needless mystery to the architectural designs of the erec-
tion or to the doctrines or ecclesiastical discipline of its sup-
porters. " Catholissimus-Protestans" knows however little
about the matter to surmise that the " fragment" is intended
for a " Romish cathedral." If he will look through the
liturgy intended to be used there, he will find it opposed
essentially to the glaring errors in faith of popery, though
we are not prepared to say so much of its opposition to the
superstitions and some of the practices of that apostate
system.]

TO THE OWNERS OF WAREHOUSES AND OTHER

PROPERTY IN LIVERPOOL

It is quite time that your attention should be directed to
the Fire Prevention Bill, which has been already framed and
is intended to be passed into an act with as much haste as
possible. The most objectionable clause is section 8, relating
to existing warehouses, which enacts " That every warehouse
now built within the borough, and not being in accordance
with the provisions of this act, shall be by the owner thereof
altered and improved according to the regulations in the
schedule (B) to this act annexed ; and if the owner of such
warehouse shall not alter the same within six calendar
months after notice in writing for that purpose shall have
been given by one of the surveyors under this act, every
such owner shall for every such default forfeit any sum
not exceeding £lOO, and not exceeding £5O for every week
such default shall continue unamended." The first
question upon this clause is, what does schedule B re-
quire to be done? Upon turning to this you will find
that it requires doors and door-frames, or jambs (external
only), door-sills and heads, window-shutters and frames,
pent-houses or cat-heads, and teagle•blocks, to be of wrought
iron, but door-frames and door-sills and heads may be of
wrought or cast iron. The thickness and construction of
the doors, &c., are then regulated. The expense of these
alterations must of necessity he very great. I have been
informed that in some cases it would exceed £5OO for a sin-
thou
re-
build such
the
en
wholeou lay, ,f
front,
eat
in
most
order
tyrannical
aankie'di
gle warehouse. Now, the compelling
ownerntuhtteljsuesato alterations.
arbraiol
oelnircetsilE
In many cases it would be necessary to take down and -
year or two, taking down an old warehouse for the In ninny cases a party may contemplate, :hose:
purpose
o,
withoutof
s ae
to expend a large sum upon his old .
of rebuilding ; but this act will compel him, in the mean-
time,ld
adding one farthing to their value, o •
nalty of £5O per week. subject him to a pe-
nalty
other serious injuries and ies will appear
inconvenienc
upon a consideration of the term owners,
as used
By the interpretation clause the word owner" in
the
bill.
shall mean
the party in possession, or in receipt of the rents or profits of
any tenement. So that trustees, executors, and mortga-

. ,
gees, are owners for the purpose of incurring the penalties
under this act, and they will be personably liable to the pe-
nalties. Take, for instance, the case of a person (and there
are hundreds of such cases,) by his will bequeathing a ware-
house in trust for a daughter, as her share of his property.
The bequest would be to A in trust to pay the rents to the
daughter for her life, and after her decease to her children
equal shares. The trustee is, of course, in receipt of the
rents, and is called upon to alter the warehouse at an ex-
pense of some three or four hundred pounds. Where is he
to find the money? Re cannot touch the rent; that must
be paid to the daughter, (and if lie could so apply the rent
it would be depriving the daughter of the means of subsist-
ence probably for two years at the least ;) he cannot sell or
mortgage the warehouse to raise money for making the im-
provements ;—that would be a breach of trust. He must,
therefore, either make the alterations at his own expense, or,
he must pay the penalty. _

Again, take the case of a mortgagee, in possession ; the
mortgagee, perhaps, bankrupt, and the rent barely sufficient
to keep down interest. He is called upon to meet this enor-
mous outlay, which does not better his security one penny ;
it is, in fact, throwing so muck money away. These are
cases of daily occurrence. Many serious questions will also
arise upon contracts for sale, whether the seller or purchaser
shall bear this exorbitant taxation. _ _

It is also to be observed that this act is not confined in its
operation to the large buildings in the vicinity of the docks,
but extends to the Parliamentary borough, comprising Ever-
ton, Edgehill, Kirkdale, great part of Toxteth Park, and in-
cludes not only what is usually understood by the word ware-
house, but every building in which some room shall be used
for the deposit of goods. ALPHA.

RUMOURED MARRIAGES IN HIGH LIFE.—A report is
very current in distinguished circles that Miss Coutts Bur-
dett is at length about to bestow her hand in marriage, and
Lord Wiltshire, the eldest son of the Marquis of Winchester,
and colonel of a dragoon regiment, is mentioned as the fa-
voured suitor. Lord Charles Wellesley will, we also hear,
shortly lead to the altar Lady Mary Cecil, the accomplished
daughter of the Marquis of Salisbury.—Brighton Guardian.
CHILD BITTEN BY A RAT.—On Friday night last. a
workman in the employment of Messrs. Appleby, Walkers,
and Co.. of Renishaw Ironworks, was aroused from his
slumber by hearing cries from the adjoining bedroom. On
going to the bedside, he found his little boy, a fine lad about
two years and a half old, in a great fright, and apparently
much distressed. After quieting the little fellow, he retired
to rest ; but in a short time he again heard a cry emanating
from the same room as before. On this, he immediately
procured a light; and hastening to the spot, discovered, on
examining the room minutely, that a large rat had procured
an ingress, and frightfully lacerated the little sufferer's lip
and the upper part of his forehead. The child is now doing
well.—Derby Reporter.

NORTHERN AND EASTERN RAILWAY.—A special gene-
ral meeting of the proprietors of this company was held, on
Tuesday, at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, Mr.
Ward, M.P. for Sheffield, in the chair, for the purpose of
taking into consideration the company's bill, now before Par-
liament, for an extension of the line to Newport. Mr. Crow-
der, the solicitor, read the marginal notes and clauses of the
bill, the main object of which is to sanction the extension of
the line from its present terminus at Bishop's Stortford to
the town of Newport, in Essex. For this purpose the com-
pany are to be empowered to raise £152,000 in 12,000 quar-
ter shares. A clause is inserted in the bill limiting the com-
pletion of the line to five years. It was moved by Mr. Levy,
seconded by Mr. Allender, and carried unanimously, that the
proposed bill be approved of, and, after a vote of thanks to
the chairman, the meeting broke up.

THE EARTHQUAKE IN IRELAND.—ILI another page we
publish an account of an earthquake which was felt in Li-
verpool and its vicinity on Friday morning last. The shocks
were perceptible at a considerable distance, and, among other
places, were distinctly felt in Belfast and its neighbourhood.
Owing to the hour in which this agitation of the globe oc-
curred [between twelve and one o'clock at night], compara-
tively few people were awake to observe it ; and, from the
novelty of the occurrence, even those who were awake, or
were awakened, were not, at the moment, aware of what
was taking place. Of the fact, however, no doubt exists.
The agitation was very perceptible. One gentleman, with
whom we have spoken, had just gone to bed; and, upon
observing the agitation, his reflection was, that " if he were
in a country which was visited by earthquakes, that was
one." Another gentleman got out of bed, supposing that
robbers bad entered the house. Another rose and examined
his room, fearing lest plunderers had made their way into it.
Several other cases of a like kind have been mentioned to us.
In Holywood, and the neighbourhood of Killileagh, we un-
derstand that the shocks were felt. Captain Head, of the
Reindeer steamer, from Belfast to Liverpool, experienced
on that night a most unusually rough sea, though the wea-
ther was calm.—Belfast Whig.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FROM THE PAR-
LIAMENT OF 1688 TO THE PASSING OF THE REFORM BILL.
By William Charles Townsend, Esq.—The first volume of
this work, which must be looked upon as a desideratum by
every legislature, and, indeed, by ail Englishmen, is just
published. This work is intended to give a popular history
of the House of Commons of Parliament, and will compre-
hend the lives of the speakers, lawyers, orators, and states-
men, who have been most distinguished in its annals ; a
review of the privileges once enjoyed by members, and their
hard-won right to personal deliberative freedom; a record of
the vindictive powers exercised by the house over their own
body and strangers • a narrative of the internal economy of
St. Stephen's Chapel; the changes in the habits, mariners,
and character of the constituency, with the decorum and

method of proceedings—in the tone and temper of discussion,
and in the progress of intelligence and refinement. It is thus
proposed to unlock the store of light reading, the fund of
interest and amusement which has been concealed from the
general gaze in the voluminous journals, state trials, parlia-
mentary debates, precedents of Hatsel, and contemporary
memoirs and pamphlets. The first volume includes the
period from the abdication of James 11. to the death of
George 1., characterised by " master spirits," critical events,
and stirring debate—a monument, however imperfect, to the
memory of those patriotic legislators who framed the Bill o?
Rights—conquered France in her height of pride—established
the union with Scotland—secured the Protestant faith by the
Act of Settlement, and, with the Septennial Act, confirmed
the independence of the representative:, of the people.

LOUIS PHILLIPPE AND TRIERS.—TiIe soireeft of M. Lc-
fitte (just previous to 1830) were very little more violent than
those at the Palais Royal. Undoubtedly, the then Duke of
Orleans (now Louis Phillippe) kept up tlie appearance of re-
spect to his king and relative, Chas. Y.: but Barthelemy and
Mery, Benj. Constant and Lafctte, heranger, Lafayette, and
all the uproarious and discontented spirits of the age, were
well received and applauded by the then first subject of the
realm. it was at this period that M. Thiers first made the
acquaintance of his future sovereign, and it was then that he
paved his way for his subsequent reception at the palace of '
the Tuilleries. It is a fact which has been too frequently
forgotten, that the revolution of 1830 was by no means an
"impromptu." It is not true that M. Thiers, for example,
was not fully prepared for its accomplishment. He, and
those who acted with him, planned the measures and the
opposition which should, in the end, compel the monarchy
to stand on the defensive. "We will drive the old Jesuit to a
coup d'etat," said M. Thiers, on one occasion, when speaking
of his king, Chas. X.: " they wish to govern legally, that is,
according to the letter of the law; but we will make him rule
according to its spirit !!" At the period of which lam now
speaking, little Thiers was a very poor man. His two franc
dinners, or is. Bd., wine included, were by no means rare;
and none hut himself would have dared to predict that he
would afterwards become the associate of the rulers and of
the prime ministers of Europe. Not, indeed, that such men
as Talleyrand ever forgot Thiers's origin ; but he who said
that " language was given to enable men to conceal their
thoughts," also said, " that Thiers was a fop without ele-
gance, an aristocrat without real pretensions or family, and a
political demagogue without courage or foresight." Still
Talleyrand availed himself of his services, admired his dex-
terity in boxing the political compass, and used to declare
"that Adolphe was the only man of merit who had sprung
from the hot-bed of the barricades."—" Talleyrand sucked
the orange, and rejected peel and pips," said Odillon Barrot
in one of his happy moments; but, when little Thiers heard
of it, he vowed vengeance against both his patron and his
competitor.—Fraser's Magazine.

MISCELLANEOUS REMINISCENCES, TiY MR. MACAULEY
—ln 1814, Dr. Milner again insisted on my passing the
Easter holydays with him ; and he was, if possible, kinder
than before. It was a time not to be forgotten by the youngest
who were able to comprehend the signs of public joy. The
news of the fall of Paris, and of the abdication of Napoleon,
arrived, I think, on the very day on which I went on my
second visit to the lodge of Queen's College. Cambridge
was illuminated ; and my kind old friend was divided between
his wish that I should see the show, and his fear that I should
come to some harm in the crowd. He sent me out with all
sorts of precautions, and told me afterwards that he could not
compose himself to sleep till he knew that I was safe at home.
In general, this visit resembled the last; except that, as was
natural at such a season, he talked much more of history and
politics than of natural science. One story, which he told at
breakfast over his great howl of milk, I well remember. " The
first time," he said, " that I ever heard about war or the
French was when I was a little child in London. I was taken
out of bed late at night, and carried to the window. All the
street was alive, though it was midnight. The watchman
was calling Past twelve o'clock ; Quebec taken.' The
news came late ; and the lord mayor had given orders that
the watchman should cry it, with the hour,'all through the
city." He talked of the bearing of the recent events upon
religion, of the restoration of the Pope, of the suppression
of the order of Jesuits, and of the probability of its revival.
Then he went back to the Reformation, and found me, for
my age, an intelligent listener ; for I had lately been reading
his history at that time, and Robertson's Charles the Fifth.
I ventured to say some hard things of Luther; which he
pronounced to be most unjust, and took down from his
bookcase some letters of Nlelancthon, in order to set me
right. He was very severe on Erasmus, though the most
distinguished ornament of his own college. He said, "We
have no relic of him at Queen's, except a huge corkscrew ;
and I am afraid that there was nothing in his principles to
keep him from making very assiduous use of it." This
screw is mentioned by Dr. Buchanan, who, in his last visit
to Queen's College, inhabited Erasmus's rooms, as being
" about a third of a yard long.”—Life of Isaac Milner.
THE SHAKSPEARE OF GERMANY.—If any one should
ask us to characterise Richter, we should reply, characterize
with your wish. Richter
ni
sa tnuarteu,r
ea n, di f tehveenr
mw
eanwciolluled°snolPhleY called. Nor do we mean
that he is a man of no character. We mean to say, that,
in sur view and feelings, he is the Shakspeare of Germany.
We, too have, in our own mind' often been led, as Mrs. Lee
does at some length in the book before us, to contrast Jean
Paul with another, who is perhaps more generally considered
amongst us the great man of German authors, namely,
Goethe. We, however, are inclined to make the contrast
much more favourable to Richter, or less so to Goethe, than
everybee thing at a distance. We
called Goethe's all-sideness
she does. This has always seemed to us the difference be-
tween the two men. that Jean Peul's heart embraced every-
thing, while
tvsudisialey,Guoleatthwe'hsaltie hasld
has always seemed to us to be a cold indifference of heart to
the many forms of humanity, which passed only as a curious
phoenomenon before his dry vision ; while Richter seems to
us, with his large and glowing bosom, to meet all the aspects
of human life and lot with a profound and tender and im-
mortal interest. It may sound singularly to many, when we
a writer, by calling him
tc
tha German Dickens. Of course
ucounrfuensusnwtreymhaevnewohfutetnaoi
illae_treishueesn tempted to illustrate to
this comparison holds
do certainly
a life, in which the English
writer and the German n
only in respect to the exquisite blending of humour and
pathos, of the droll and the tender,
and to that keen sense
fbetween what is truly great, and what is
only the
d i s
hear a striking likeness
to each other. superadd to Dickens a more wide and
and elevated acqnaintance with life in all its circles and
og uised difference
littleness,
conditions,—enrich his mind immensly with stores of the
most heterogenous and significant facts, and images from
all ages and all departments of knowledge,—quicken his
already lively sense of
the beauty of outward nature into an
all-animating and boundless glow of emotion and love ; let
his mind be filled with all knowledge of the metaphysical
systems, without enslaving in the least his own power of
thought—and you will nave something, like a Jean Paul.
We mean to say that .in wit, and fun arid flre," in the
union of tender sensibility to what is more true and beauti-
ful, with moral indignation at what is base,—in short, in
some of those characteristics which make Jean Paul peculi-
arly dear to us, he may well be called the Boz of Germany.
We do not think we could better begin to recommend him
to American readers than by such a parrallel as this.—Chris-
tiaw Observer, 11. S.