The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-06 00:00:00

TIDE NORTHERN HOSPITAL,

The numerous calamitous accidents which have, within the
last few months, occurred in the northern extremity of the
town, call our attention to an institution which we have for
some time past been anxious to bring. before the public; we
allude to the " Northern Hospital ;" and notwithstanding
the frequent occasions that the name of this excellent cha-
rity has appeared in our columns, we feel convinced that its
existence, as a distinct institution, is unknown to many of
our readers, and its importance appreciated by few. In sup-
port of the last we have now stated, we proceed to lay before
our readers a short history of the hospital, with some details
gathered from the annual reports of the committee. In 1834,
the necessity of an institution for the reception of the casu-
alties which occurred in the neighbourhood of the docks and
manufactories being strongly felt, a public meeting was
called, the result of which was, that a house was taken in
Leeds-street, and accommodation provided for 33 patients :
this, however, was soon found to he quite inadequate to the
purpose, and in 1836, by the addition of the adjoining house,
the committee were enabled to fit up 82 beds, thus more than
doubling the number originally capable of being received.
Within the last few years, the rapid extension of the town
and great increase of population have again proved its com-
plete insufficiency to meet the numerous and urgent calls
which are continually made upon it. Since the first opening
of the hospital, we find that no less than 8,700 cases have
been received, of which 3,650 were accidents of a serious
nature, the limited accommodation preventing any but those
of a severe description being admitted. Of the entire num-
ber, 3,400 were natives of the town ; 850, foreigners; the
rest belonged to different parts of the United Kingdom. Of
the accidents, 1,435 occurred in the town, mostly in the im-
mediate vicinity of the hospital; 1,312 in the docks and
shipping ; 418 in the adjacent manufactories ; and the re-
mainder at the canal bank and warehouses. If we recollect,
too, that on several occasions accidents of the most fearful
nature have occurred within a short distance from the hos-
pital, we cannot but be impressed with an idea of its great
value and importance. We may particularly instance the
great fire and numerous shipwrecks which took place in the
beginning of 1839 ; also the falling of the chapel in Leeds-
street, when seven persons who had been buried in the
ruins were carried to the hospital, and received immediate
assistance. The present year has been characterised by an
unusual number of such calamities. From the late fire in
Galton-street nine men were received; from that in Great
Howard-street, twenty-five ; and from the late dreadful col-
lision, five—of which two are now lying in a most dangerous
state.

With such a body of facts before us, is it not surprising
that, with means so limited, so much good can have been
effected ? As an explanation of this apparently anomalous
circumstance we must state, that severe accidents arc never
refused admittance, medical cases, if at all fit to be removed,
being sent out to make room for them. During the last
week, we are informed that the number of the former has
been so great, that the beds usually appropriated to the lat-
ter have been occupied by accidents exclusively.
We trust that what we have now stated, and the details
which we have given, will be sufficient to arouse the atten-
tion of the public to a subject which we feel certain requires
merely to be mentioned in order to obtain that consideration
which its importance as one of our chief means of alleviating
suffering so imperiously claims for it; and having proved the
urgent necessity of increased and better accommodation, it
only remains for us to hope that, as assistance in severe ac-
cidents is valuable in proportion as it is administered early,
and as in many cases it is only immediate aid which can be
at all available, that the new building which must be ere long
provided, will be placed as near as possible to the present
site, so favourably situated in the immediate vicinity of the
sources whence most of the cases are derived. With these
remarks we conclude, in the full conviction that our towns-
men will not be remiss in coming forward to assist the com-
mittee in the furtherance of an object so laudable ; and
having it trust on its own merits, we are sure that the town
will soon have another institution worthy of the great cause
they are devoted to, that of alleviating the distress of the
lower portion of the community.

" Matrimony " may be anagrammatized into " 0! I try
man!" and "Husband " into " snub'd!" Good jokes
for bachelors, but no fun to married men.

• A court-martial is ordered to be held to try the Hon. Cap-
tain Charles G. J. B. Elliot, commanding her Majesty's ship
Spartan, in the West Indies, for having corporally punished
Mr. Gleig, a young gentleman of that ship, doing duty in her
as a midshipman.—Hampshire Telegraph.

CHINESE DOLLARS.—If the 21,000,000 dollars to be paid
by the Chinese on treaty of peace with Great. Britain were to
be extended in a straight line in a horizontal position, edge
to edge, they would more than reach from Brighton to Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed, or the whole extent of England ; comput-
ing the dollar to be 1 inch and 2-10ths in diameter, which
would be a line of 3971 British miles.
The inquiry into the causes of the fearful accident on the
Versailles railway, on the Bth of May lait, commenced last
week before the orrectional police; the act of accusation
accuses six persons belonging to the Company of " homicide
by imprudence," and then proceeds to state the causes and
results of the accident, which is attributed to a faulty state of
the ironwork of the machines in some measure. It appears
that there were 768 persons in the train, besides nine ser-

vants of the company.
VINE HOUNDS.—His Grace the Duke of Wellington came
on Wednesday to Hurstborne-park, the seat of Lord Ports-
mouth, to meet the Vine hounds. Although' the distaace
from Strathfieldsaye is about 20 miles, his Grace was, as
usual, punctual to the hour of 11. Mr. Fellows first drew
the osier-bed, a celebrated place, and found ; a very large
field of horse and foot turned the fox from his usual line, and
he went for Whewell-wood, a wood of some three and twenty
hundred acres, and his Grace had then above five and twenty
miles to return to Strathfieldsaye.—Berkshire Chronicle.

CHARGE OF MURDER.—On Wednesday last, and by ad-
journment on Friday, a case was heard before the Manches-
ter coroner, as to the death of a man by poison. Suspicion
attaches to the wife, and it is supposed she was prompted to
the awful deed by the wish to obtain possession of about

£lOO, which the husband had secreted in a strong box.
Most of the money was found upon her. She entrusted the
secret of her intentions to a neighbouring female, who has
also been committed to gaol, as an accessory before the fact.
This other woman purchased the poison, and was, no doubt,
to go share in the spoils. The case was again adjourned to
Tuesday (this day).
FEET OF TUE CELESTIAL BEAUTIES.—During our stay
at this anchorage we made constant trips to the surrounding
islands ; in one of which—at Tea Island—we had a good op-
portunity of minutely examining the far-famed little female
feet. I had been purchasing a pretty little pair of satin shoes
for about half a dollor, at one of the Chinese farmers houses,

where we were surrounded by several men, women, and chil-
dren. By signs we expressed a wish to see the pied mignon
of a really good-looking woman of the party. Our signs were
quickly understood, but probably, from her being a matron,
it was considered quite comme HAW for her to comply with
our desires, as she would not consent to show us her foot,
but a very pretty interesting girl of about 16 was placed on a
stool for the purpose of gratifying our curiosity. At firstishe
was very bashful, and appeared not to like exposing her
Cinderella-like slipper; but the shine of a new and very
bright loope ' soon overcame her delicacy, when she com-
menced unwinding the upper bandage which passes round the
leg, and over a tongue that comes up from the heel. The
shoe was then removed, and the second bandage taken off,
which did the duty for a stocking ; the turns round the toes
and ankles being very tight, and keeping all in place. On
the naked foot being exposed to view we were agreeably sur-
prised by finding it delicately white and clean, for we fully
expected to have found it otherwise from the known habits
of most of the Chinese. The leg from the knee downwards
was much wasted; the foot appeared as if broken up at the
instep, while the four small toes were bent flat and pressed
down under the foot, the great toe only being allowed to re-
tain its natural position. By the breaking of the instep a
high arch is formed between the heel and the toe, enabling
the individual to step with them on an even surface ; in this
respect materially differing from the Canton and Macao
ladies; for with them the instep is not interfered with, but a
very high heel is substituted, thus bring the point of the
great toe to the ground. When our Canton compradore was
shown a Chusan shoe, :the exclamation was ' He yaw ! how
can walkee so fashion ?' nor would he be convinced that such
was the case. The toes, doubled under the foot I have been
describing, could only be moved by the hand sufficiently to
show that they were not actually grown into the foot. I
have often been astonished at seeing how well the women
contrive to walk on their tiny pedestels. Their gait is not
unlike the little mincing walk of the French ladies; they
were constantly to be seen going about without the aid of any
stick, and I have often seen them at Macao contending
against a fresh breeze with a tolerably good-sized umbrella
spread. The little children, as they scrambled away before
us balanced themselves with their arms extended, and re-
minded one much of an old hen between walking and flying.
All the women I saw about Chusan had small feet. It is a
general characteristic of true Chinese descent; and there can-
not be a greater mistake than to suppose that it is confined
to the higher orders, though it may be true that they take
more pains to suppress the foot to the smallest possible di-
mensions than the lower:classes do. High and low, rich and
poor, all more or less follow the custom ; and when you see
a large or natural-sized foot, you may depend upon it the
possessor is not of true Chinese blood, but is either of Tartar
extraction, or belongs to the tribes that live and have their
being on the waters.—Bingham's Narrative of the Expedi-
tion to China.

ANECDOTE OF THE REV. EDWARD IRVING.—WhiIe the
star of the celebrated Edward Irving yet lingered near its
meridian, I happened to be amongst the auditory which
thronged his newly erected church in Regent-square, Lon-
don. " The princes, the governors and captains, the trea-
surers, the jndges, the councillors, the sheriffs, and all the
rulers of the provinces," no longer, as in previous years,
disputed for seats, or even standing-room, wherefrom they
might listen to that mighty master of language. But a nu-
merous company still attended him, devoted to his doctrines,
receiving with greedy ears his marvellous proclamations, or
(for he well deArved such tribute to his eloquence and
power) captivated by his unrivalled fluency of diction and
strength of reasoning. The church, on the Sabbath to
which I refer, was crowded in every part. With some diffi-
culty, and not until I had pressed my claims as a clergyman
upon a very courteous, though sadly beset verger, was a
place assigned me, where, partly through his exertions, and
still more by my own, I was driven down as awedge between
two females, whose apparent respectability failed to protect
them from such mechanical force. In due time the
gentleman ascended the pulpit. Those who have -seen him
need not be reminded of what must be ineffaceable from
their recollections, the inexpressible solemnity and awful
dignity of his aspect; and to such as have not, no descrip-
tion could convey an idea of it. After a prayer of the deep-
est fervour, he began his discourse, taking his text from
Exodus xx—" Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven
image," &c. His greatest excellence consisted in the denun-
ciation of idolatry ; and never did be equal, before or since,
the surpassing vehemence of that Lord's Day. It seemed as
if his very soul was on fire—like a burning lake, on whose
agitated billows the enemies of the true Jehovah were cast.
The impressions which he made exceeded all pourtraying ;
the congregation waved to and fro, as if moved by the giant
arms which, from above them, gave vent to, rather than in-
dication of, the emotions of his inflamed spirit. Every word
he uttered struck down some " refuge of lies," and destroyed
an adversary of the Lord. This wonderful scene endured
for many years, increasing more and more in interest, the
preacher appearing to gather strength as he went along. But
his patience and address were about to sustain a singular
proof, which I proceed to tell. It was while he was rapidly
ascending to the summit of the most magnificent climax of
withering condemnation of image worship I have ever heard,
and while a breathless audience listened with motionless
attention to the deep sonorous tones of his unrivalled elocu-
tion, that from the outer door, at the further extremity of
the building, a voice, which seemed, by contrast, shrill as an
infant's, exclaimed in a key that pierced every ear—" That's
not true." It need not be said that every head turned to-
wards the spot from whom whence that strange interruption
issued, and every eye was strained to discover the perpetrator
of it, who had either concealed himself in the crowd, or
escaped. The preacher, quite undisturbed, paused for a
moment ; then, waving his right hand, spoke—" Give heed,
brethren, to the Word of God." He then completed the
sentence, which I almost imagined to have been improved by
the momentary del;!),; and, as he closed it, looking towards
the distant door, said, with incomparable gravity —" I'm glad
the devil spoke from the possessed man, he will now come
out of him."

FIRE LAST NIGHT.—A fire broke out in Hotham-street,
last night, just as we were going to press. We cannot give
the particulars, owing to the lateness of the hour.

WIGAN.--MONDAY EVENING.

IMPORTANT REPORT RESPECTING THE SUPPLY OF WATER

IN WIGAN

At the council meeting, on Wednesday last, an interesting
report, of which the following is an outline, was read by the
Town-clerk, and entered upon the minutes of the proceed-
ings. Much valuable information is contained in it con-
cerning an adequate supply of water for the town, which is
so essentially requisite for the health of the inhabitants and
protection in case of fire.
An estimate of a new water-works to supply the town of
Wigan with good and wholebo►ne water:—

To 1,140 yards of a five-inch pipe, from where
the water is to be collected from different £ s. d

places of supply
Soughing and walling at LhlFerent places
To 10,000 yards, or an acre of 10,240 yards, at
£7 p r ai:nuro-30 years purchase
To making a lodge, 100 yards square and six
feet deep, welled and paddled, with flagged
bottom
To walling round, 4 yards high and 500 yards
long, at Gd. per yard
Length of pipe to supply the town, with a main
of five feet, with lateral pipes into different
streets
Sundry cocks arid stoppers for different places
in the main and supply-pipes
Making and preparing soughs, &c., to collect
the water into the summit