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

LAWYERS IN CHINA.—No attornies are authorised by
law in China; those self constituted are thus defined and
described by a Chinese classic writer :—Villainous and
perverse vagabonds, who are fond of making a stir, and
who, either by fraudulent and crafty schemes, excite dis-
cord ; or by disorderly and illegal proceedings, intimidate
and impose upon people!"—Chinese Olio.
THE DOG'S-EARED BOOK.—We respect a stained, dog-
eared book. It is a veteran who has seen service—not a
mere gilt ornament to an unread library. It has fulfilled
its mission among books. The marks it bears are the
scars of honourable service. It has been read, and re-
read ; pored over pensively or joyously. It has excited
high aspirations; rendered forth golden stores of wisdom ;
it has delighted, or instructed—or both. It has charmed
away idle hours, or soothed sad ones ; and many, per-
chance, have risen from its pages better and wiser men.
We would not give your old, thumbed, half-worn-out
tome, for the dandy, gilt and purpled volume, virgin in its
unread purity. The dog's-ears show that the midnight
oil has not been wasted. The more worn we find a hook
in the cottage window, or on the humble reading-table,
the greater is sure to be its author.—llluminated Mag.

ADVICE TO AUSTRALIAN SETTLERS.—There are two
descriptions of persons who are likely to do well in this
country—men with considerable funds, and those with just
enough to support them until they can procure a desira-
ble situation as overseer of some absentee's concerns. I
do not speak of labourers, mechanics, or such as Lauch-
lan Mackay : they will do any where in Australia; but I
allude to young men in the higher grades of life. Those
who arrive here with £5OO to £lOOO ought never to buy
sheep : their capital is swallowed up at once by the ex-
penses of a new station, arid they never recover the out-
lay. The following table, which I shall proce ed to give,
will show how short a way such a sum would go in pro-
curing even mere necessaries, and how inadequate it is to
meet the extra expenses to which a beginner is liable on
his first introduction to the bush. It is not the first out-
lay only of an establishment that is to be considered, but
the expenses of the following year. Wages—which, by
the way, have not fallen as they ought to have done in
these times—and casualties are annual; and the wool will
not pay these and other demands the first or even the se-
coud year ; and the luckless settler who has laid out all
his capital at first, finds himself, before he is fairly started,
involved in debt, and generally irretrievably so. I only
know one case more hopeless ; and that is, where the
newly-arrived settler, wishing to become at once a large
holder of stock, borrows beyond his capital, to accomplish
this, at ten per cent. interest. This is ruin and misery on
a greater scale, but not more certain. The following table
has been prepared, after very careful inquiry :

1,000 sheep may at present be got at ss. each, ewes £251
1 shepherd's wages 25

1 hutieeper's wages.

1 bullockAriver'swages

Rations (provisions) for four persons, at £2O BO
A dray and team of bullocks 9)

Two Buts, and hurdles for sheep
Plough, seeds, tools, mill, tarpauling, &c

A horse, saddle and bridle.

Travelling in search of a station, and removing to it. 6O
Wear and tear

Casualties from death of sheep and loss of bullocks ... lO
Stockholder's own extra expenses, beyond rations 3O
License and tax l5

Washing, shearing, and delivering wool first year, where

the station is 200 miles from Sydney 35
Cow,
Paddock for horses and bullocks
Surplus for sundries—a heavy item here . 140

£l,OOO
With the most economical management, these are all re-
quired within the first twelve months of a settler's resi-
dence ; and I have omitted to particularise many minor
expenses, which he will find will soon make up the £l4O
allowed for sundries ; nor have I supposed him to pay his
runs, nor stated his loss of interest. It must also be
borne in mind that the same wages are to be paid the se-
cond year, with the unavoidable addition of those of a se-
cond shepherd : and all he has wherewith to pay these
wages and to meet the storekeeper's bill, and other de-
mands, is the value of the wool of his one thousand sheep.
Matters will probably stand thus :-
1,000 fleeces of 2ilbs., at 20d. per
lb., in England; is. 4d. in .e 166 13s. 4d.
Sydney
Wages of two shepherds £so
liutkeeper
Bullock-driver
Rations for five lOO
Shearing and delivering wool 35
License and tax l5

£250

Deficit .4'83 fis. Sd.
In the foregoing statement, unfavourable as it may ap-
pear, I doubt not the settler would accuse me of having
underrated his expenses and overstated his receipts ; but
it is an approximation to the truth. As regards my charg-
ing the expenses of the shearing and delivery of wool for
two years, while I take credit for only one year's value of
wool, I do so because the expenses of the second year are
incurred before the price of the wool of that year is re-
ceived. I am aware that it is even too favourable a ba-
lance sheet in other items—stillthe error is not great ; and
I conceive the result proves that the possessor of such a
sum would do well to accept bank interest (seven per
cent.) for it, and look to some other investment than
sheep. One grand mistake is committed by almost all
young men, and by others too ; and that is the desire to
commence with an immense stock at once—some seven or
eight thousand sheep, whether their funds be adequate or
no ; in short, to buy beyond their capital, in hope of being
able, by good fortune and the chapter of accidents, to pay
off their debts gradually. The phrase a respectable com-
mencement,' has deluded many ; and the ill effects of this
delusion are, at this very moment, cruelly proved by the
experience of hundreds.”—Hood'e Australia.
THE CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL PROCESS, AND
THE SOCIAL INFLUENCES 01 THE PENNY POST. —At
a recent meeting at the Royal Institution, in London,
the Rev. John Barlow, in lecturing on the subject said—
The notion of separating, by a system of stamps, the
financial department of the Post-office from the trans-
mission and delivery of letters, originated with Mr. C.
Whiting, fourteen years since. This gentleman has been
rewarded by the government for the taste and mechanical
skill exhibited in the method in which he proposed to
adjust his plan to the penny-rate adopted at the recom-
mendation of Mr. Rowland Hill. With this notice of
the history of letter-stamps, Mr. Barlow entered on the
manufacture of the adhesive label. These are executed
by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon, and Petch, on Mr. Perkins's
principle of steel engraving by transfer. The process
depends on the property of iron to become hard or soft
as it receives or loses a small quantity of carbon. This
was demonstrated by experiment; and the description of
the process was illustrated by the exhibition of hard and
soft steel rollers, plates, and impressions furnished by
Messrs. Perkins & Co. Mr. Barlow laid great stress on,
the absolute identity of every engraving, however nu-
merous, produced by this method. He then observed,
that the engine-work on the adhesive labels is of so close
a pattern that it cannot be taken of by lithography or any
similar contrivance, while on the other band, the eye is so
accustomed to slight differences between one face and
another, that the most skilful imitators of a minute en-
graving of a human countenance (as that of the sovereign
on the label) could not possibly avoid such a deviation
from what he was copying as would ensure the detection of
a forgery. Mr. Barlow next adverted to the qualities of
the coloured inks with which the labels are printed.
Though sufficiently permanent to withstand the effects of
sun-light, rain, &c., they would be discharged by any
fraudulent attempt made to remove the obliterating stamp,
for the purpose of issuing the label a second time. The
gum used for fixing these labels to letters, Mr. Barlow
described as being probably derived from potato-starch,
and therefore perfectly innoxious. The manufacture of
the postage envelope is effected by many powerful, yet
accurate machines. The paper is pervaded by coloured
threads against fraud. When sent from the manufactory
of Messrs. Dickinson, it is delivered to the firm of
Messrs. De la Rue. It is there cut into lozenges by the
engine of Mr. Wilson. One of these was exhibited, and
its power contrasted with that of the old bookbinder's
plough. Thirteen thousand five hundred lozenges for
folding were cut in a few seconds. To exhibit the preci-
sion of this engine, 1000 strips of paper, each 1-80th of
an inch in width, were cut in the same short time. Pre-
viously to being stamped, each lozenge has a notch cut
in each side, for the convenience of folding : this is done
by an angular chisel. The envelopes are then stamped at
Somerset House. The machine used for this purpose,
combines the operations of printing and embossing, and
was invented by the late Sir W. Congreve. Mr. C. Whit-
ing enabled Mr. Barlow to exhibit the whole process, by
sending one of these machines, which executed several
stamps, slightly differing in device from that on the
postage envelope. One of Mr. De la Rue's folders also
attended, and showed the rapidity with which the en-
velopes are folded and gummed after they are stamped.
The government envelopes employ at Messrs. De la Rue's
thirty-nine folders on an average, and a quick hand can
fold 3,500 in a day. Mr. Barlow then noticed some sta-
tistical conclusions. One engraving on Mr. Perkins hard
steel roller will afford 1,680 transfers to soft steel plates :
these again will, when hardened, admit of 60,000 impres-
sions being polled from each, so that one original will
afford 100,800,000 impressions of labels, enough to paper
one thousand apartments of 24 feet by 15, and 12 feet
high, making allowance for door, two windows, chimney,
pier glass, and dado. Twelve years ago, common en-
velopes were sold at ls. the dozen : now, the postage en-
velope, with its medallion, may be bought wholesale at
half a farthing (exclusive of the stamp), and yet though
the manufacture is peculiarly costly, it returned
s..raelmanall
profit to the government. More than two ho
Now, taking a common sized letter as a is quan-
tityn unit, this
would pave a road 25 yards wide (the average width
e
with Oxford-street, pavement included) from the general
post office in London, to the
of Oxford. Or,
supposing all the letter-boxes in the entrance
p9sted_
twenty millions of chargeable letters were 1843.
entr
i
tt a ffho
er d ed
inquirertoh after truth.
ate with one large spout, the
it at the mean rate letters would keep flowing through . of
14 in a second. Mr. Barlow then briefly noticed some ot
Unitede Kingdom to
be open, and to communicate
the social advantages of the penny post. He touched on
of home—on the motives of self-education which it sup-
d t
He stated, that at present about five millions sterling
are forwarded through the Post-office h
-Y money or
ders, and noticed the advantage of this arrangement
theplie s eonng tthh
ea na
id d permanencei
t mi
nist ere d
to
to all, but especially the humbler ranks. He asserted
that nothing is too valuable or too fragile t
to be influences
s trusted ru
to this cheap conveyance : birds eggs diamonds,
living d •
amonds
living insects, and watches, pills, plaistere
, and bills of
exchange, are committed to it with
equal confidence.
Mr. Bagster sends each sheet of his P
the Holy Scriptures ten times througholyglot edition of
the Post-office,
some of these transmissions being to
at a distance from London ;so learned men residing
that, under the old sys-
tem, the postage on each
volume of this work would have
amounted to £165. Mr. Barlow concluded by a short
but expressive quotation from
an anonymous writer, de-
claratory of the manifold benefits of the Penny Post, and
of the obligations which the country 0 the owes t
origina-
tor of the system."—A • rchzteces Journal.