The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-07-25 00:00:00

Pernams, &c.
Bahia, &c... ,
liaranham .. ' 6*

Demerara,&ci 9
Egyptian 5i
C0m.W.1.&c.1 5i
Surat 1
Madras
Bengal.

PBODUCE.—A larger business has been done in
Sugar, but at lower prices. For Coffee a steady
demand. Rum in better request. In Tea a fair
business doing without change. Saltpetre dull.
Palm Oil rather cheaper. Tallow in good demand.
To-Bsy,the Sugar market continues well supplied,
and the business comprises 50 hogsheads and 250
barrels Barbadoes and Antigua at 31s to 355. ; 900
bags Benares at 38s. 6d. to 395. ; 220 hogsheads
Porto Rico at 335. 6d. to 665. 6d. ; 100 hogsheads
Surinam at 295. 9d. to 30s. 6d., and 15 cases, 300
bags low soft brown Maceio at 28s. 6d. per cwt.
There is nothing to notice in Molasses. A better
feeling prevails in our market for Rum, the sales
since Friday consisting of 200 puncheons Demerara
at about the previous currency. 500 bags Para
Cocoa are reported at 275.6 d. per cwt. In Tea we
have had a dull market, mainly owing to the fact
of large sales being declared, with all faults, for
Thursday next. The Rice market is a little easier,
and 4,500 bags Bengal have found buyers at 12s. 6d.
to 13s. 3d., and 2,000 bags Arracan at 10s. per
cwt. We have also to notice 10 chests common
Lac Dye at 6d. per lb., and 4,000 bags Calcutta
Poppy Seed at 555. per quarter.
WooL.—The transactions this week have been
to a moderate extent, at about former rates ; as
the London Colonial sales progress prices seem to
have an upward tendency, id. per lb. advance
having been established on the opening rates, and
a better feeling is now gradually creeping into the
trade. We noticed some slight improvement in
our remarks a fortnight ago, but it wasblast week
checked, for the moment, by the announcement of
several failures in the worsted districts, and, since
the past few days of fine weather, the improve-
ment has again become manifest, and, should it
continue, we may shortly expect to see more
business doing. In Scotch Wools one or two
inquiries, but nothing to report. The demand for
Irish continues brisk, good average parcels cannot
be had under 12 to 121. Imports for the week-
-826 bales, viz., 59 Australian, 304 West Coast of
America, 216 Mediterranean Ports, 160 Buenos
Ayres, 6 United States, 49 Scotch, and 32 Irish.
METALS.—The market generally is dull this week,
without any important alteration in prices. Manu-
factured iron continues firm and in good demand,
but speculative parcels of Scotch pig iron have
been sold at a reduction of two shillings per ton. In
other metals little doing, and no alteration in prices.

THE SENTIMENTAL AND THE HOMELY.—The Ohio
State Journal tells a story of an Irishman of the better
class, who thought he must conform to the fashionable
mania in paying a visit to the Falls of Niagara. "Gentle-
man" Paddy arrived at the Falls, and taking a look at the
surrounding wonders, addressed himself to another gen-
tleman.—" And is this the Niagara falls ?" "Yes," was the
reply, ;:And what's there to make such a bother about ?"

" Why," said the gentleman, "do you see the mighty river,
the deep abyss, the great sheet of water pouring down ?"
Pat, - looking at the water, replies hesitatingly, " And,
sure what's to hinder it ?"

THE MxnA.ctmous TREE.—It seems that the longing
which has taken root in the mind of the Empress to pre.
sent the Emperor with an heir, has grown us isle more
intense than ever, and has led her into the- t of -all
sorts of small naif Romanist follies, in w 'loch there is
certainly no harm, considering that human nature must
indulge in some sort of folly or another, and those wear-
ing a religious dress being in general so well disguised
that they produce the effect to the perpetrator of being
the result of wisdom. Close to the neighbourhood of
Paris there exists a village, the last where the mysterious
rites of St. John's eve are still religiously observed. A
huge tree is cut down, carried to the Place opposite
the church, decked with ribbons and banderolles, hung
with fire works and crackers, and there left till sunset,
when the cure, in grand costume, followed by all
the authorities of the place, bearing tapers, and hun-
dreds and thousands of votaries, all having something to
ask of the saint, form in procession, and walk round the
fallen tree, singing the beautiful hymn of St. John all
through its forty-two verses, accompanied by flutes and
hautboys and other rural instruments, with most soul-
stirring effect. When the hymn is concluded the cure
steps forward, and uttering certain prayers and forms of
exorcism reserved for the occasion, sets fire to the tree,
which begins to blaze and crack and send up fierce flames
amid the shrieks and shouts of the votaries, who gene-
rally are as numerous, and quite as green, as leaves in
Valombrosa. All rush forward at once to seize the burn-
ing boughs, to carry off the blazing twigs, or to jump
across the flames ; which latter ceremony is the one neces-
sary for those ladies who wish to be soon . . . incapable
of jumping at all. Now the cure of this place is a man
of sense and strength of mind. He was formerly an officer
of dragoons, and pities delusion, let it exist in whatever
shape it may ; so he had been busily endeavour-
ing to do away with this remnant of the ancient
sacrifices, which he deemed a disgrace to his parish. He
had applied to the ecclesiastical authorities in vain ; they
all thought " that these simple ceremonies were good to
keep awake in the minds of the people," &c.; that "it is
dangerous to touch the most insignificant portion of the
august fabric of the holy church," &c. In short, he found
that, under one pretext or other, he should for ever be
condemned to sanction what he called an impious and
superstitious rite ; a Pagan ceremony, indeed, from which
his soul revolted. In his dilemna he wrote a letter to the
Empress, begging for her interest with the archbishop, to
put an end, at all events, to the public display of such
folly ; but, to his utter dismay, he was informed that his
application, so far from producing the effect he had hoped
for, had created in the mind of her Majesty the most in-
tense desire to hurry to C— on St. John's Eve, herself,
and jump over the holy fire in order to try the effects of
the ceremony upon the imperial dynasty of France.—
Paris correspondence of the Atlas.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OP THE GOSPEL.—
A public meeting was held on Wednesday at the Mansion-
house, London, in furtherance of an effort now in progress
to procure a permanent increase of the income of the
SoCiety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts. The Lord Mayor presided, and the Archbishop of
Canterbtiry, and the Bishops of London, Oxford, New
Zealand, and Natal took part in the proceedings. The
following facts were set forth in a statement read by the
secretary, the Rev. E. B. Hawkins :—" The society's gene-
ral fund, which amounted last year to £59,441, is already
pledged for the maintenance of existing missions, about
two-thirds of it being appropriated' to colonial and one-
third to heathen missions. Appeals, chiefly for spiritual
aid to our heathen fellow-subjects, are now- before,the
society in such numbers that an addition of £20,000' per ,
annum to the society's income would hardly suffice to
meet them. It was to be hoped-that the effort begun in
the metropolis by the present meeting would be extended
throughout the kingdom. The oblect, iropoied was
to Sincrease by one-third the present amouttr.of, the
society's general fund, which might be effected eitheeby
preaching annual sermons for the society in those churches,
where there is now only a triennial sermon, or by a
more systematic canvass of parishes where an associa-.
tion was established, combined with the foundation of
additional associations in parishes where they do not now
exist. Though for upwards of a century the society's
operations had virtually been limited to the North Ame-
rican and West India colonies, yet within the last thirty •
or forty years they had been extended to India, Van Die-
men' Land, New Zealand, South Africa, and Borneo ; and
within the same period 25 additional colonial bishoprics
had been founded, and in 21 of these the,society had mis-
sionary stations. The total sum expended by the society
during the year 1853, for the maintenance, in whole or in
part, of 447 missionaries and 700 catechists' schoolmasters,
and theological students (over and above funds hilly'
appropriated by the donors), was £50,000. In answer to
the objections made, that a large share of the society's
funds is expended on the older colonies, and that the
society confines its efforts to the maintenance of clergy-
men in British settlements, while the vast field of heathen
missions is left to other societies, it was stated—first, with
respect to the society's expenditure in North American and
West Indian Colome4hat it would be seen by the report for
1843 that the expenditure for that year in the diocese of To-
ronto was £6,500, while in 1853 it was only £3,100; and that
in the six dioceses of British North America there had
been, since 1843, a total reduction in expenditure to the
amount of £5,000, while the number of missionaries dur-
ing the same period. had been largely increased. The
reduction of the society's expenditure in the four West
Indian dioceses, within the same period of ten years, had
been from £11,200 to £2,600. To the other mis-state-
ment, that the society confined its operations almost en-
tirely to people of British descent, and took little or no
part in missionary efforts for the conversion of the hea-
then, the following was the short and conclusive answer.
The single diocese of Madras (Southern India) had re-
ceived during the past year the sum of £10,150, or more
than the three Canadian dioceses put together ; while the
diocese of Calcutta (besides a large grant from the Jubilee
Fund) had received the sum of £B,OOO, or more than twice
the aggregate amount of
.what was contributed by the
society to the font Australian dioceses and Tasmania. In
short, the East Indies and Ceylon had received during
the past year more than one-third of the society's whole
income, and the total annual expenditure on missions to
the heathen could not be reckoned at lesa than £23,000.