The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-04-30 00:00:00

A SPECIMEN OF BIRKENHEAD GASCONADING

Birkenhead will certainly before long be regarded as a
purely fabulous locality, if its advocates and authorities
persist in their glaring misrepresentations of its wonderful
progress. The stranger visiting our town, an& who takes
a trip to the other side of the river to inspect its Colos-
seum, which only exists upon paper; its college, equally
non-existent; and its docks, unfinished ; will be inclined.
when he sees the dilapidated reality, to agree with Betsy
Prig in her incredulity as to the reality of Sairey Gamp's
much-vaunted protogee, and to give an altered rendering
of her exclamation—" there is no Mrs. Harris."' It will
be ranked with such airy nothings as Jack Brag'S " little
cottage in the country," Sir John Falstaff's seven men in
buckram, Claude Melnotte's palace by the lake of Como,
and other similar coinages of the imagination.
A fortnight ago we shewed, on authentic information,
that the ratesof Birkenhead for the present year amounted
to 4s. 4d. in the pound, or a shilling more than those of
Liverpool. The correctness of our statement was not
impeached. Our friends on the Cheshire side durst not

venture on the attempt. A paragraph of the puff sort,
however, has found its way into the columns of several

of our contemporaries, in which that town is held up as
about to become one of the happiest localities in the
world for that class of the public who dislike the face of a
rate-collector. A tremendous reduction is about to be
effected in the local imposts, by some wonderful se'
or other; after which, the paragraph in question informs
us, " the rates in Birkenhead will be 2s. 6d. in the pound
less than Liverpool, even after the recent reductions.'
This would be a drop indeed ! To be 2:
below Liverpool the rates of Birkenl,
.•

S. 6d. in t
ad must

3e reduced

from. their present amount, 4s. 4., to 10d.,--w—hic

must pay
now Is.),

now Is. 6d.), lightir.

improvement (now is. 6d.), and sewerage (4d.)! Baron
Munchausen and Captain Bobadil may hide their dimi-
nished heads after this; and the unfortunate proprietor of
the Donkey, which died just after he had got him to con-
fine his appetite to a straw a day, will be nobody in com-
parison with any of the Birkenhead economists. What
a national blessing it would be if we had one of them occu-

pying the position of that most blundering and
of Chancellors of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood

'stinate

BEARD'S
COLOURED PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS
ARE TAKEN DAILY, FROM NINE TILL SIX, AT

MR. RICHARD BEARD'S ESTABLISHMENT
34, CHURCH-STREET LIVERPOOL;
Also, at

85, KING WILLIAM-STREET. CITY,
34, PARLIAMENT-STREET,
and the
ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION, REGENT-STREET,
LONDON.
Morocco Case or Fran

Prices, including

from 15s

Mistrtrt ReLus,

the collections at St. Ann

lanchester, on

Sunday

sermons by the Rev. H

amounted to nearly £2OO

On Sunday morning, at Ch
Bradshaw, jumped out of bed. a
go and drown himself. She followed him, be

ster, a I
d told I

!ner, named
ife he would

down, reached the river, and was soot.'

The election of a county treasurer will take place at the
adjourned annual sessions, on Thursday next. For the
situation seven candidates have offered themselves, viz.,

Chadwick, of Salford

The Blackburn Standard, in noticing a difficulty which
of the
"that

has arisen between the minister of a congre
Wesleyan Chapel, Clayton-street, Blackburr

gallery to preserve the peace, are hardly,

A Chester paper relates that

childre❑ were playing at the pits in Fiookersbrook, one
little fellow approached too near the water and fell in.

be near to rem

the screams of one of his playmates attracted the notice
of a little boy only ten years old, who gallantly succeeded

in rescuing he child.
THE DEE D►sruT}

Muntz's motion for an in-

junction against the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway
Company for subscribing money, and the Chester Com-

mittee on the Dee Bill for using such money, in promot-
ing the improvement of the river, before the Master of
the Rolls has been refused : but the Master of the Rolls
requires, that before any further amount be contributed,
the directors shall ask permission of the court.

With respect to clairvoyance, we learn that a gentleman
living near Bolton has offered to enclose an undoubted
banknote in an envelope made of ordinary cartridge paper,

which note he will present to any clairvoyant who will
read over correctly the number and date of the said note

while so inclosed. We think this is a fair challenge, and
its acceptance would put the existence of lucid vision to a

correct test

" A Manufacturer " has embodied in a short letter to
the Times, a suggestion made to government by some
millowners, for the purpose of setting at rest the present
discord between themselves and their workpeople as to
the relay system and the Ten Hours Act. The editor of
the Times has referred the proposal to the operatives, for
their adoption or rejection ; and to the decision of that

tribunal the matter may safely be left.
LOVERS OF DARKNESS WHOSE DEEDS ARE EVIL.—
The Stockport Advertiser states that "there is a spirit
prevailing in that borough, amongst a certain class of
shop-keepers, to discontinue the burning of gas, should
the borough justices persist in punishing those who pur-
sue their worldly calling on the Sabbath day. This in-
clination to retaliate is founded on the understanding that
the gas works being nominally the property of the cor-
poration, and the borough bench being its representative,
the mode of warfare intended to be adopted is considered
to be perfectly justifiable. This attempt to defy the law
(observes our contemporary) is after the true fashion of
those who would have ' civil and religious liberty' in their
literal sense."

STATE OF MANCHESTER.—A provincial contemporary
has published a letter from " a highly respectable" Free
Trade merchant at Manchester, in which occur the fol-
lowing terrible words in reference to the Manchester
cotton trade, " THE Gazette WILL REVEAL SOME
SECRETS SHORTLY, OR THERE IS A POWER OF SUSTAIN-
MENT BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION ! lam sadly afraid
that this great blow will fall, as it ever does, most severely
on the ?corking classes. LANCASHIRE, AGAIN, WILL
BE THE SCENE OF CLOSED MILLS—A STARVING POPULA-
TION—AND WIDE-SPREAD DISCONTENT. Truly, if the
Protectionists had dictated the circumstances that should
happen to further their views, they could not have ordered
the course of events better." Again he says, " There is
no prospect of a good business this year."—Bell's Weekly
Messenger says, "We are not anxious to assume the
prophetic mantle, but we have some forebodings that
unless India, Jamaica, or Natal, speedily conic to the
rescue, the days of the cotton manufacturer in England
are numbered."

WEST LANCASHIRE.—The season is now so far ad-
vanced that some tolerable judgment may be formed of
the forthcoming crop of wheat of the present year; and
although a good deal depends on the weather during the
summer months, as to what will be the quality of the
grain, yet, with regard to the bulk, there is no indication
at present but that it may be equal to last year's growth.
The fructifying showers of April, succeeding the dry
winds and frosts of March, have given a stimulus to vege-
tation which daily becomes more apparent in every descrip-
tion of agricultural produce. As is usual in this part
(Rufford, Tarleton, &c.), a good many acres of early po-
tatoes have been planted, and are now making their ap-
pearance above ground, but are rather injured by some
late frosty nights. Tne planting of winter potatoes also
has now become nearly general. Stocks of grain here are
now small, as the generality of farmers have been necessi-
tated to thrash freely during the winter, and sell at ruin-
ous prices to meet their demands ; and it is evident that
a drain on their capital must ensue under the present or-
der of things.
FIRST ARRIVAL OF COTTON FROM DAHOMEY.—During
the past week a small sample of Dahoman cotton has
rtached Manchester, where it has naturally excited much
curiosity. It seems that Mr. Duncan, on being shown a
specimen of the native indigenous cotton, was struck with
the superiority of its quality and colour, and desired to
send a specimen to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce,
and letters to that effect were forwarded to this country
some time ago ; but as the writer had ceased to exist, and
as the package had not made its appearance, the subject
was given up in despair. But a cask, containing ten
pounds of the cotton, forwarded from Wydah, the port of
the kingdom of Dahomey, to Manchester, has made a very
circuitous route, and encountered many strange adven-
tures, all of which are recorded by our Manchester
contemporaries with a minuteness' proportioned to the
very great importance of the subject. " The cotton,"
says one of the accounts, "is of good clear colour,' and
its staple is fine. It is intended to have some ginned,
by different machines, and then to exhibit it to the trade,
and especially to those skilled in the discrimination of the
variors shades of quality and value ; but already, we
believe, there is no doubt that if a few gins, and a packing
press or two, were sent to the King of Dahomey, on con-
dition that we should have all the cotton ginned, cleaned,
and packed in bales, ready for exportation, there would
be at once a very considerable supply of this valuable pro-
duct coming hither from that part of the world."