The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-15 00:00:00

GUADALOUPE MEXICAN STEAMER

The New York Herald, of the 17th ult., gives the follow-
ing letter respecting the crew of this iron war-steamer from
its Vera Cruz correspondent :

" Vera Cruz, Sept. 16, 1842.
" I have just received the annexed statement srom one of
the crew of the Guadaloupe, the war-steamer arrived from.
England :

I shipped on board the steam-frigate Guadaloupe, Cap-
tain E. Charlewood. at Liverpool, at the close of June last,
as I thought, for China. The number of the crew was then
86, including engineers, firemen, &c. The day before the
steamer left Liverpool we were all called aft, when Captain
Charlewood read a written agreement, without a stamp, and
written by himself. It is stated that he wished all hands to
go with him—that he was ignorant of the destination of the ship
—and.that we must ask no questions. We were to receive £3
per month as wages, warrant and petty officers rated according
to rank. We sailed from Liverpool cn the 4th of July. Two
days after I noticed in the Liverpool Mail, of the 2d, that the
Guadaloupe had cleared out for Corunna. On the 7th we
called at Cork. Orders were then sent on board for the
captain to go ashore, and report the ship immediately.
He therefore piled on sail and put on steam, and we soon
left old Ireland in the rear. On the 15th we touched at
Funchal, took in coals, and left on the 18th. Shortly after
the captain ordered the boatswain to pipe all hands to quar-
ters. We were ranged on both sides of the deck. Captain
Charlewood then said, ' Well, men, it is my intention to in-
form you what my business is. I was ordered not to tell
you before. lam bound to Vera Cruz, in Mexico. That
place is blockaded by a set of half-bred Yankees, who call
themselves Texans. lam determined to break myself
through. I am well convinced that you are all a set of
picked men. We have a good ship, with two 68 pivots, and
we shall no doubt take plenty of prizes.'
" Two days after we saw the Mexican colours on board,
much to our surprise. From that day we were constantly
drilled at the big guns and small arms. It was laughable to
see the firemen, all so very green, handling the muskets. We
were piped to quarters whenever a vessel hove in sight. On
the 25th of August we reached Vera Cruz. On the 29th all
hands manned the yards and saluted the Governor. We
were then piped to quarters, and Captain Charlewood again
spoke : " Well, men, I wish to inform you that this ship is
going to exchange flags ; that of Mexico will be hoisted to-
morrow morning. If any of you have anything to say, now
is your time. Hereafter you must hold your tongues.' Se-
veral declined serving under the Mexican flag, and wished
to leave. Four were permitted to go. The others were told
that they must remain, as the Mexican government were
anxious for English sailors—so much so, indeed, that the
wages of the warrant-officers were raised. We were then in-
formed that Captain Charlewood would receive 450 dollars
per month; the first lieutenent, G. Wright, 150 dol-
lars ; Dr, Clementson, 150 dollars ; under purser and clerk,
each 150 dollars; and, after the capture of Texas, they are
to receive 300 dollars, to pay their passage home—and poor
Jack but 2.5 dollars. All those who should lose an arm,
an eye, or a leg, were to receive £6O, and £3O for a finger,
a toe, or for any scar. This is a list of prices adopted by
Santa Anna. He lost a leg, which was probable worth no
more than £6O. hence the list. Three men refused to com-
ply with these regulations and serve in the steamer. They
were consequently thrown into prison and confined three
days without any food. The British Consul refused to offer
any aid.

TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION AT A GRINDING
WHEEL BY A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER.

(From the Sheffield Iris of Saturday, 1.70 v. 12.)

' About two o'clock on Monday morning, the inhabitants
of Abbey Dale, near Sheffield, were suddenly awoke by a
loud noise and violent shock, sufficiently strong to shake the
houses adjoining Mr. Dyson's grinding wheel, the building
containing which was shortly discovered to have been liter-
ally blown up with gunpowder. One of the workmen,
named William Price, lives in a cottage, only separated from
the grinding wheel by a workshop, and a doorway standing
at right angles to it, and to the building which was blown
up. Mr. Dyson is a scythe manufacturer, carrying on an
extensive business at Abbey Dale, and residing about 300
yards from the premises before mentioned. Upon Price, the
forgeman, hearing the noise, he and his wife immediately
jumped out of bed, and fetched Mr. Dyson to see what was
the matter ; and upon examining the grinding wheel, it pre-
sented a scene that is rarely witnessed in a country not at
war. The building is about 18 yards in length, by Bor9 in
width, with gable ends, and the roof, which was covered
with stone slating, being supported by four strong beams.
The whole of the walls were built of solid stone, and the
window casements were made of iron, glazed with small
panes of glass. Along the south side of the building runs a
long bench, called the buffing bench, about 4 feet wide, and
the same height from the ground, and under this bench,
about seven yards from the west end of the place, were dis-
covered the remnants of an exploded barrel of gunpowder.
This position seems to have been chosen by the incen-
diaries on account of its close proximity to the great wheel,
which is turned by a water-fall, and which wheel puts
into motion all the machinery used in carrying on the
business. Immediately above the spot, on the outside
of the wall, were the turning and boring chamber and the
joiners' chamber—and therefore the spot selected was one
from which an explosion would be fully felt in each of the
three departments of the premises, and fully indeed it was
felt. The door had evidently been forced open with a crow-
bar. The whole of the stone slating on the roof was com-
pletely blown to atoms—each of the gable ends of the
building blown outwards from top to bottom—and the stones
composing the west wall lying in almost the same regular
order as when first laid by the builder. Part of the skylight
was blown about twenty yards off in the Abbey Dale dam, a
fine piece dT water contiguous to the building. That part of
the buffing bench under which the explosion took place, was,
of course, non est inventus. The six windows on the north
side of the building were so shattered, that not a whole pane
of glass was to be found in any one of them. The wall which
separated the great room from the two chambers before
named, was very much shaken, and bulged towards the great
water-wheel with a threatening aspect. The floors, roofs,
and windows of the turners' chamber and joiners' chamber
shared the same fate as those of the large room in which the
gunpowder was placed—many portions of the roofs and
window casements being picked up at distances from 50 to
100 yards off. The object of the explosion was to destroy
most effectually the grinding-wheel and its attendant ma-
chinery, with any thing else that might happen to be within
the reach of the explosion. In the cottage occupied by
Price, the forgeman, the cupboard was shaken, and a pane
of glass out of one of the windows. Part of the iron case-
ment was picked up about thirty yards from the building.
Mr. Dyson, it seems, had not insured the premises, nor
have we yet heard the amount at which the damage is esti-
mated ; although it will probably not exceed £4OO or £5OO.
Amongst the grinders there exists a union, and if any mas-
ter employ men who are not members of this union, a decree
is forthwith issued that such master "is to be served out"—
i. e., he is to have either his dwelling-house or place of
business blown up with gunpowder, or some other matters
of a combustible nature. In this case, Mr. Dyson had two
men in his serrice who, though industrious and efficient
workmen, did not belong to the union, and therefore Mr.
Dyson came under the displeasure of the men who eompose
the committee appointed by this union. From some cir-
cumstances which have not yet transpired before the public,
three men were apprehended on Monday and Tuesday—viz.,
William and George Thorpe and Thomas Richardson. They
were taken before the sitting magistrates, Mr. Overend and
Mr. Bagshawe, on Tuesday, at the Town-hall, awl were re-
manded until Friday, on the application of Mr, Palfreyman,
solicitor for the prosecution. Mr. Broomhead defended the
prisoners, who were advised to hold their peace.

. ..... r —.
The explosion has caused an immense sensation in the
neighbourhood; and it is stated on good authority that 100
lbs. of gunpowder were fired at once, to effect the diabolical
object of which we have given a description.

GREAT WESTERN STEAM-SHIP COMPANY.—The affairs
of this company being in a very bad state, at a meeting lately
held, a committee of twelve proprietors was appointed to
confer with the directors, and report to the company on the
state of its affairs. The committee having prepared its re-
port, a special general meeting of the company was held at
Bristol on Friday, at their offices in Prince's-street, for the
purpose of taking it into consideration. Mr. R. Bright,
Chairman of the directors, having taken the chair, Mr. G.
Jones, chairman of the committee, read the report (a copy
of which had been previously sent to the directors with a re-
quest that it might be published for the use of the sharehol-
ders : this request was not, however, complied with.) The
report recommended the sale of the Great Western, of the
Great Britain, as she now stood, and of the company's yard,
works. and other property, and the winding up of the concern.
Mr. J. Cunningham having moved a resolution in accordance
with the committee's report, it led to a very long and stormy
discussion ; in answer to various questions put to the chair-
man, it was elicited that of the £370,000 subscribed capital,
there was due on calls £17,000. The liabilities of the com-
pany were stated to be £28,818, and deducting the £17,000
unpaid calls, it left a balance against the company of £6,818.
The entire cost of the Steam-ship Great Western was stated
to be £61,671, while the estimated cost of the Great Britain
would be £lOO,OOO. Loud complaints were made of the
extravagant management of the company's affairs ; Captain
Hosken being paid, as it was said, at a very much higher rate
than any of the captains of the Royal Mail Company, and it
being suggested that the salaries of Mr. Guppy, one of the
directors and manager of the works, for which he received
£5OO per annum, and of Captain Claxton, Managing Direc-
tor, for which he was paid £3OO per annum, might be saved.
It was also stated that the yard and implements had cost
about £60,000, while the company had only been offered
a very reduced sum for it, and that the highest bona fide
biddirr, for the Great Western, at the late sale, had been
£17,560. It was, however, stated in justification for the ex-
penditure at the yard, that no person could undertake the
building of the Great Britain, and it was therefore ne-
cessary to erect machinery of their own, and it
was stated that Mr: Guppy acted as engineer. It was
also stated that the Great Western of herself had paid
64- per cent. A counter resolution was proposed on
the part of the directorate, and very ably advocated by the
chairman, and ultimately adopted in a modified forM by the
meeting. The resolution was to the effect, that the directors
should be empowered to raise £20,000 on the security of the
company's property; that the Great Britain should be com-
pleted with all possible despatch ; that none of the company's
property should be sold at a sacrifice ; and that the Great
Western should continue her voyages to New York as usual,
unless sold in the meantime to advantage. The meeting then
separated.

TUESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 15, 1842

We look forward with painful anxiety to the arrival
of our next despatches from India and China. We
are now, it must be evident to all who have bestowed
the slightest attention uponthe details brought us by the
last mail, approaching, both in our opium war, and in
that hitherto calamitous struggle in Affghanistan, to a
decisive crisis. In China, our forces were, at the last
dates, rapidly nearing the stronghold of the enemy,
where the crowning blow, to be 'effectual, must be
In our Indian war, the British forces had
again plunged into the passes of Cabool, and were in
full march to that capital. The next mail, therefore,
we confidently anticipate, will assure us that the
hitherto-stubborn Emperor of the Chinese has bowed
his neck before the conquering arms of England, and
that the butcheries of Affghanistan have been atoned
for in blood upon the same sod which witnessed the
savage slaughter of an entire British army.
We cannot bring ourselves to contemplate, in
either of these struggles, a result less satisfactory than
a hardly-earned victory. We can bzirely imagine the
possibility of a calamity so sweeping and irreparable
as would be a defeat sustained in them. And yet
what is our position in either of these struggles. In
both—in China and in Affghanistan—we fight against
an entire people. In both we fight at vast distances
from our resources. Above all, in both we fight in a
causeless and an unjust quarrel. No good man, con-
templating all the circumstances of our position, dare
lay his hand upon his heart and say that, as a nation,
we deserve a blessing upon our arms. No man can
lay his hand upon his heart and say that victory, the
most complete and signal, can add one laurel to the
brow of England's monarch, or one trophy to the
fame in arms of her gallant troops.
We anticipate, certainly, a triumph for our arms in
both these quarrels ; for we have " a giant's power,"
and—shame upon us for the deed !—we have "used it
like a giant," to trample upon a defenceless people,
and to mingle in a quarrel which concerns us not.
But admit that victory is ours, and that the next
eastern mail will inform us of the submission of the
Chinese, gained by the massacre of thousands of their
unwarlike population, and of the fall of Cabool into
our hands at a vast expense of blood and treasure:
two questions will then present themselves, and must
be answered—" For what have we been fighting ?" and
" what use must we, or can we, make of our victories ?"
These questions, we repeat, must be answered, and
that, too, at the bar of Parliament. The honour of
England demands it; outraged humanity demands it;
the blood of the thousands of British subjects which
dyes the rocks of Affghanistan, cries up, before
heaven, to the assembled legislators of Christian Eng-
land, for their judgment upon the statesmen by whose
misdeeds the ineffaceable infamy of these disgraceful
and useless wars has been fastened upon the name of
their country.

struck

Let us see what answer can be given to these ques-
tions. And first—" For what have we been fighting?"
In China, to force upon it a noxious drug, to demo-
ralise and debauch three hundred millions of people !
We have fought, there, in a smuggler's quarrel, for
the right of introducing delirious and gibbering idiocy
amongst an ignorant population, in defiance of the
declared will of their government. Yes : England,
who boasts, and justly boasts, of her noble efforts to
put down slavery throughout the world, thirsts to be
permitted to inflict upon a whole people that worst of
slavery—the slavery of the mind—THE SLAVERY OF
INTOXICATION! Shame upon us ! shame upon the
lips which dare to extenuate the NATIONAL INFAMY
which wastes the best blood of England in a quarrel
so utterly indefensible and vile !
And, in Affghanistan, for what have we been
fighting ? To force upon a free people, as their ruler,
a licentious and profligate dotard whose yoke they had
cast off as intolerable, and who only breathed in safety,
within his own capital, when fenced round with British
bayonets ! Yes, in such a quarrel it is—for a wretch
stained with a thousand vices—for a being as trea-
cherous and ungrateful as he was cowardly—that
England embarked her hitherto honoured name in this
calamitous struggle. What marvel, we ask, that an
all-seeing Providence has withheld its blessing from
her arms, and that her every step against the liberties
of this people has been marked with shame and
slaughter ?
And when victory shall have crowned the exertions
of our troops--when hecatombs have been slain, and
vengeance glutted—what use can we make of our vic-
tories ? Shall we direct our efforts to colonisation ?
Shall we erect a second eastern empire beyond the
Indus, and subject China to the British crown ?
Surely not. Surely the colonial poSsessions of Great
Britain are amply sufficient in extent to satisfy the
most boundless ambition ; and even if this were not
the case, and we could dream of the appropriation of
our conquests, through what an ocean of blood must
we wade before we could occupy either China or
Affghanistan by any other than an armed and con-
stantly pressing tyranny ?
At every step we have made, or are making, in these
conquests, we are sewing inextinguishable hate in the
breasts of the population which we vanquish. If the
cause in which we are fighting is not a Christian
cause, neither are the weapons with which we fight
Christian weapons. The reckless destruction of vine-
yards, of fruit trees, and of villages, is a mode of war-
fare which British soldiers have as yet little practised.
But in this Affghanistan war every license appears to
be practised :
" While our troops were advancing," remarks the Bombay
Times, " parties were detached to set fire to the houses and
villages ; and the force afterwards remained on the ground,
employed in cutting down the vineyards and mulberry trees,
' to which much value and importance were attached by the
enemy ! ' The wanton and useless havoc occasioned, and
applauded by a portion of the press, will not, it is said, be
recovered for from 25 to 30 years ! The inhabitants were seen
watching from the pine-forests far up amongst the hills the
ravage and devastation which continued in progress after re-
sistance had ceased—having never, probably, in their own
savage contests witnessed war carried on against unoffending
orchards because they were valued and could not be restored !"

What wonder, we ask, if the hoarded vengeance of
a wronged people, for such acts committed before
their very eyes, should visit us at every step we make
in our unjust invasion of their soil; and what chance
of colonisation or extension of our commerce, in a
land thus strewed with hideous wrecks, and peopled
with wild and savage men, sworn to avenge their ruin
upon the head, of the oppressor whose hand has
made them houseless wanderers upon their native

This subject, we repeat, whatever be the issue of the
crisis which is at hand, must be gone into immediately
upon the assembling of Parliament; and the questions
which we have put must be answered, and satisfac-
torily answered. No garbled despatches--no falsffied
correspondence must, this time, be suffered to blind the
eyes and to warp the judgment of the legislature and
the public, The full light of day must be permitted to
fall upon the darkest recesses of the Foreign Office, in
Downing-street; and even the secret council of the
government of India must no longer cloak from the

world the weakness, tl

of those statesmen wl

in the o:

cc, and TILE CRIMES
'd policy, as exhibited

d

disgrace upon the arm

,rid the character of their
country. The national honour must be vindicated,
and retribution must fall upon the heads of the guilty,
however high may be their station, and however boastful

their pretensions to superior wisdom and virtue!

At a meeting of the Council on Wednesday lag, in
r?ply to a question from Arlr. Bushell, Mr. Alderman
Evans is reported to have said, that " he should desire
above all things" the introduction into the DOck Cow'
mittee of parties Nrho were inimical to the erection °f
warehouses on the dock quays, " because many had
come upon the committee who were at first inimical,
but, they were so well convinced afterwards,. that they
had all dropped into his views." A most extraordinary
fact !—highly elucidatory of the Circrean powers °f
Mr. Evans, but little complimentary to the
gentlemen
who have so tamely " dropped" into his views. The
fabled fascinations of the rattlesnake are nothing when
compared with the fascinations of the wily Alderman'
Silly birds only are said. to " drop" from their twig'
into the maw of the potent reptile; whilst men, reputed
to possess intellect, judgement, and experience, suc-
cumb readily, and " DROP"—we must not part With the
expression—into the maw of the more potent llamas
charmer.

We are not at all disposed to question the veracity
of the above assertion ; but really it does suggest °
us some considerations which are far from being 0111:
fortable, or flattering to the intelligence of the present
generation. What weak beings are the mass of 111311:1
kind ! How little to be depended upon, the best all
wisest of them The merchants of this great port se'
lect, from amongst themselves, men having opinions to
unison with the majority of them, with respect to the
mode of administering the dock estate. The Conned
pursues a similar course in its selection of members (If
the Dock Committee. And when they look for the
fruits of their exertions;—when they look for the inea.
sures to which their representatives stand pledged he-
fore the world—they are coolly informed by the mighty
magician who presides over and directs our dock affairs
that those representatives have eaten of the " r°°t

which takes the reason prisoner"—have drunk deeply
of his own persuasive eloquence, and " dropped"--
fallen—from their self-dependence and consistency, t°
become his blinded and infatuated followers.

Let us take this opportunity of calling the attenti°ll
of the Dock Committee to the above boastful parade
of their slavish submission to the great Dictator. Are
these things so, Gentlemen ? Have the opinions °f
the representatives of the dock-ratepayers, and of the
Conservative majority of the Council, merged or
" dropped" into the " sic volo, sic jubeo, stat pro
ratione voluntas" of Mr. Alderman Evans ? If they
have, then away with the farce of the representative
principle in that committee, and let the proud words
of Coriolanus be engraven upon every future erect°
upon the shores of our noble river—" ALONE, I PIP
IT ! EYRE EVANS."

The world has not as yet, it would appear, arrived
at a knowledge of the extent of the mismanagement °(
the Bank of Manchester. It will be remembered, that
amongst the debtors to that now notorious concern
was a firm doing business under the style and title °(
"Joseph Raleigh and Company," and which, at the
stoppage of the bank, was indebted to it in the wag'
nificent amount of some HUNDRED AND EIGHTY
THOUSAND POUNDS. What, then, will our readers
say to the fact, which we now publish, that by the act
of the bank itself—by its attempted evasion of the
requirements of the Bankruptcy Act, in order to take,
advantage of a preference over the other creditors 0'
the firm in question--the whole of this vast claim had
become forfeited, and the shareholders thus deprived Oe
the dividend which may arise from the realization of
the property of the bankrupts ? Yet, such is the fact'
The Bank of Manchester has no longer a claim for 3
single shilling of this almost unheard of amount f
debt; and Messrs. Joseph Raleigh and Company, its
creditors, are thus released from the bulk of their
liabilities.

Let us endeavour to convey to our readers the trode
in which this queer transaction has been• managed'
By the eighth section of the Bankruptcy Act it is