The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-23 00:00:00

FOREIGN (5- COLONIAL, IN7ELLIGENCE.

WEST INDIES,

The Medway steamer, from the West Indies, arrived
on Saturday. The dates are—Jamaica, Dec. 24; Barba-
does, Dec. 26 ; Trinidad, Dec. 19 ; and Demerara, Dec.

21.
The House of Assembly at Jamaica had been prorogued
to the 6th of February, in conseeuence of the Christmas
holydays, and few bills of importance had now to pass the
Legislature. In this island the weather was not consi-
dered altogether favourable for agriculture. The question
of a reduction of the sugar duties continued to agitate the
merchant and planting interest. From Trinidad and Bar-
badoes there is very little news. In the former island the
small-pox had made its appearance, but the progress of
the disease was not alarming.
The Demerara papers contain no political intelligence
of importance. "Of the prospects of the crop," says the
Guiana Times, it is dangerous to write positively. The
weather to such estates as have completed this year's har-
vest is very favourable, the sunshine alternating with
genial rains. We believe that all over the country the
estates are in better order than they have been any year
since 1839. This promises well for the future. but large
arrears are to be made up. Throughout the length and
breadth of the land there is not a single agricultural so-
ciety. Some planters hope much from Singapore, for-
getting that more used to be hoped from Sierra Leone.
Others are sensible, that if the Chinese adhere to their
indentures, only a few capitalists will be immediately
benefited ; if they do not, then the colony will have to
pay an enormous sum for the cost of their introduction.
As an experiment, it may be well that the measure, strange
although it is, slioald have a fair trial."
The papers from Dominica and St. Vincent's refs to
shocks of earthquake experienced there, which fortunately,
however, had been attended with no further ill effect than
the alarm all such phenomena are sure to occasion.

AN IRON CHURCH.—The commune of Ifornu, near
Brussels, has determined on erecting a church which will
have its interior enti:ely of iron.

By a late decree of the Queen of Spain, her mother's
pension is to be restored, which, together with arrears,
will amount to £lOO,OOO. Such a sum was worth a little
intrigue.
Two gentlemen, members of the episcopal Church, in
America, have pledged themselves to support three cleri-
cal missionaries in China for a term of years. They have
engaged to give 3,000 dollars annually for this important
purpose.— Globe.

The Rev. M,-. Milne, of the London Missionary So-
ciety, has performed the journey overland from Ningpo
to Canton, a distance of 1,300 miles, in 38 days. He was
dressed as, and passed of course for, a Chinaman. He
represents many parts of country as extremely beautiful,
but others as of large extent, barren, and thinly peopled.

THE EMPEROR. OF RUSSIA.—A bankrupt merchant of
Warsaw has confessed that he was the person who fired
the musket shot, recently, at the Emperor, and that he
was engaged to deprive the Prince of life by two great
personages, (one in the department of the Finances and
the other in the Post-office,) who took advantage of his
misfortunes.

THE KING OF HANOVER.—We learn from a source
on which reliance may be placed, that there was not the
slightest foundation for a statement originating in one of
the German journals, asserting that the King of Hanover
had specially invited the Duke of Bordeaux to the Court
of Hanover. We are also informed that the King of
Hanover positively comes to England at the close of
March, and it is supposed will prolong his sojourn here
till August.
FRENCH FINANCES.—The budget presented by the
Minister of Finance to the French Chamber is of a cha-
racter which may extend confidence and hope beyond the
confines of the French territory. Three years of a pro-
found tranquillity have brought with them increased
wealth, a flourishing commerce, and an income which
already more than balances the expenditure of the nation.
The surplus of the revenue for 1845 is calculated to be not
much less than 1,000,000 f., and the whole income of the
treasury for that year to exceed the income for 1841 by
upwards of 28,000,000 f.
THE LATE EARTHQUAKE IN THE CnANNEL ISLANDS.
• —lt is remarkable that the men working, when this phe-
nomenon happened, in the mines of the Island of Sark,
more than four hundred feet beneath the surface, neither
beard any noise, nor felt the least motion of the earth
around them, although the effects above ground were of a
♦ery alarming character. The person engaged in the
steam whim house, observed the machinery shaking most
violently, and he thought the boiler had burst, the shock
being so tremendously awful. At Cherbourg the houses
were much shaken, and the furniture displaced, and many
articles were thrown down. No personal injury, however,
attended the concussion.—Globe.
FISCAL SEVERITY IN FRANCE.—The Baron Desch-
pelles, the celebrated chess player, was tried on Tuesday,
before the Court of Correctional Police of Paris, for hav-
ing in his possession a quantity of snuff and about 20
cigars. The Baron admitted that the tobacco and snuff
seized were of foreign manufacture, but declared that he
bad imported them from England by permission of the
Commissioners of Excise, to whom he had paid the legal
duty. " I," said the Baron, "an ancient Commissioner
of Excise, never would have entertained the idea of de-
frauding the revenue. I beg to observe, that I consume
1,500 f. worth of tobacco in the year, and that what was
seized was worth but if. 50c. The idea is absurd." The
Baron was acquitted.

COLONELS STODDART AND CONOLLY.—The last ac-
counts from Dr. Wolff are to the 26th November, on
which day he left Trebizond for Erzgeroum. He has
experienced the greatest kindness during the whole of his
route. A letter has been received from Lieutenant Eyre,
dated Camp Kurnaul, November 16, which states that the
Iran Barenstein, who said that he had witnessed the exe-
cution of Stoddart and Connolly, had been proved to be
an impostor. Lieutenant Eyre states that an Affghan had
arrived at Hyderabad from Bokhara, who left Stoddart
alive and at liberty. He could easily escape if he had but
the will. The Affghan says that " Stoddart has scruples
about escaping without an order from the English Govern.
anent, being a man of exceedingly strict notions of duty."
Lieutenant Eyre relies upon this intelligence, having seen
authentic documents.

A MAN OF BUSINRSS.—There died lately at Colmar,
in the Haut Rhin, an Israelite, at the age of 98 years,
leaving an immense fortune. This he accumulated by
buying and selling land, by purchasing reversions, and by
granting loans of money at usurious interest. He was
blind for the last 20 years of his life, and yet examined
personally all the property he purchased before he conclud-
ed the bargain, which he took care should be a good one
for himself. When land was the object, he went over
every part of it, and when a house was offered to him,
he visited every room from top to bottom, running his
hands over all that he could touch, and making his guide
give him the details of such parts as he could not reach.
He had, it is affirmed, between 6,000 and 7,000 persons
who owed him money, and whenever it was required to
settle an account with any one of these, his numerous
debtors, he immediately gave, from memory, an accurate
statement of every item, principal and interest, dates and
circumstances, being, in fact, a living journal and ledger.
—Galignanits Messenger.
THE CORN TRADE.—The Journal de 1' Agriculture
states, that although the wheat crop of last year in the
north of Germany is inferior in quality to that of the
preceding year, the price is firm in the ports of the Baltic,
in consequence of an expectation that the English would
require a supply to provide for the deficiency of their last
harvest. The merchants of Marseilles are impressed with
the same feeling as those of the Dantzic, and hope that
the English may be obliged to have recourse to them ;
and in order to meet their demands a vast quantity of
wheat imported from the Black Sea is stored at Marseilles.
The Itioniteur publishes the monthly returns of the corn
trade in France, from which it appears that in November
last the importation was—wheat, 7,841 metrical quintals ;
other grain, 4,874 ; flour, 16; the exportation—wheat,
10,080 metrical quintals ; other grain, 7,831; flour, 4,177 ;
the quantity lying in the public bonding-stores, on the let
of December last—wheat, 37,202 metrical quintals; other
grain, 9,521 ; flour, 10,586. The imports, during the
11 months ending on the Ist of December, amounted—
wheat, to 1,449,579 metrical quintals ; other grain,139,114 ;
flour, 3,224 ; the exports—wheat, 58,175 ; other grain,
78,550; flour, 29,095.

A PRACTICAL .YOKE.—The following adventure is re-
lated by the Gazette des• Tribuuaux to have occurred on
Friday morninr, in the Tribunal de Premiere Instance :
" M. N-, :dramatic author, and formerly manager of
a theatre on the Boulevard, went to the Palace de Justice
on some cause connected with that management. He was
accompanied by an old friend and associate, M. C
While waiting in the court, M. C observed that
the pocket of his companion's peacoat gaped so wide that
Lis gold snuffbox and purse were exposed to any adven-
turer. To give him a lesson, M. C took both box
and purse, and deposited them more securely, as he
thought, in his own pocket. After the lapse of half an
hour, M. N— had a craving for a pinch of snuff, but
found a vacuum where he hoped to meet with a supply.
On the proclamation of the loss, with no small degree of
vexation, M. C offered to give him a pinch, and
presented to him his own box, together with the purse.
The contents of the box were undiminished, but the purse
was void of 37f. that were in it when they entered the
court. The fact was that the money was still there when
M. C— took the purse, but some adroit pickpocket
had abstracted it from his possession, emptied it of its
contents, and then given back to M. C the empty
purse."

MANUFACTURING DISTRESS IN FRANCE.—The Na-
tional publishes the following letter, signed by a number
of manufacturers of Cambrai :

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL.'

"As the minister has not feared to affirm that com-
merce is in a prosperous condition, and as a controversy
may be raised on this assertion, we send you some infor-
mation relative to the position of our arrondissement, the
most considerable in the department of the north.
" Never since 1815 were commercial affairs in a worse
position. _ _

" The trade in cambrics is completely null.
" A crisis exists amongst the cotton and woollen manu-
facturers. The operative weavers can only earn from 10
to 15 sous a day.
. _

" The oil trade, which formed the most important
branch of commerce in the arondissement, is so com-
pletely paralysed, that a mill which some time since cost
100,000 f. would not sell for 20,0001.
" 7he value of house property has fallen 40 per cent.,
and what is worse, landed property has fallen 33 per cent.
"There is in fact but one trade in a prosperous condi-
tion, and that is the trade of a banker who discounts at
7 and 8 per cent.
" We defy the government to contradict a single one of
our assertions, and we are ready to prove what we advance.
We authorise you to publish this letter.
"Jane a." ignatures.)
(Here follow the k