The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-30 00:00:00

COURT GOSSIP.

The patent is the joint property of Mr. Wm. Neilson,
builder, who has so successfully proceeded with the erection
of that splendid edifice, the new County Buildings ; of Messrs.
David Lyon, and Co., at present engaged in the construction
of the Victoria Harbour at_Dunbar ; and of Messrs. P. and
W. M'Onie, engineers, Glasgow, by whom this machine has
been made. The cost of these machines, with engines to
drive them, will vary, we belidve, according to size, from
£4OO to £6OO each.—Glaspow Herald.

SUBSTMUTE FOR COFFEE.--Sweet potatoes cut up in small
pieces, and'browned as you do coffeet.-and afterwards ground
in the same manner, and aftervigrdi'boiled as ground coffee,
make a substitute which cannot be discerned from the
genuine Havana. This information we get from Jno. V.
Singer, captain of the steamer Mustang.—Texan Times.
We have seldom had to record an instance of heavier
bereavement than the following, with which Mr. George
Smith, gardener at Hirsel, has been visited :—On the 6th
Nov., his eldest daughter, Margaret,, rged six years, was cut
off by typhus fever; on the 29th, Margaret Brown, his wife,
aged thirty-four; on the Ist Dec., James. his only son,
aged two and a half; and on the 14th, Elizabeth, his second
daughter, aged four—all by the sank disease.—Kelso
SUDDEN DEATH.—On Saturday last an awful instance of
sudden death occurred to Mr.. Robins, a respectable wine-
merchant of Brighton. Mr, ,Robins was engaged in his of-
fice on the Marine-parade, and complained of illness. He
got into his gig and proceeded to his residence, in the west
part of Brighton. On arriving at the door he was got out of
the gig with some difficulty, and although several medical
gentlewen v.ery iu lul m.Cdioto utLeuclanec, Le c,plictl Di a.
few minutes.

THE FEATHERED TRIBE OUT OF THEIR RECKONING.
Within the last few days, sparrows, in'several instance, have
been seen busily engaged in building their nests. They have
been thus observed at different farm-steads in East Lothian,
and also in the neighbourhood of-Musselburgh. The crows,
too, have shown indications of pairing. As a further proof
of the mildness of the season, certain kinds of trees are in
pretty full blossom, which in all likelihood will be nipt ere
long.—Edinburgh Standard.

MILDNESS OF THE SEASON.--111 the garden of the Royal
Caledonian Horticultural Society a splendid specimen of the
rhododendron dahuricum atrovirens is now to be seen in full
flower. This plant, which usually blossoms during the
months of February and March, came into flower about the
10th of December, and has been literally covered with its
delicate pink blossoms since that time. This hardy shrub
was removed to its present situation during April, 1841, but
did not produce its usual complement of flowers last spring,
which in some measure may account for the abundance of
its blossoms at this period.—Caledonian Mercury.
MONUMENT TO BURpIS.'.S HIGHLAND MARY. Our
readers will recollect thatygome time no a subscription was
commenced for the purpose of erecting a monument to High-
land Mary, over the spot where repose her ashes in the,West
churchyard, Greenock. Somewhere about £lOO was collected,
and a very handsome monument, designed and executed by
Mr. Mossman, has now been erected over the grave. The
inscription on the monument, unless good taste prevent it,
is to be the following bald conceit :—" Sacred to genuine and
love—to Burns and Highland Mary ;" it being considered
too common-place and vulgar to inform the stranger that the
monument is erected over the ashes of Mary Campbell.
FRENCH ATTEMPT ON MADAGASCAR.'—A letter from
St. Denis, (Isle of Bourbon,) July 22, states, says the Con-
stitutionnel, that two French corvettes had arrived there, on
their way to Madagascar, where they were going to join five
other government vessels that had taken possession of the
island of Nosse Be. It was said, that the expedition against
Madagascar was seriously spoken of. At present, we have
only succeeded in occupying some points on the seashore ;
and, for a length of time, we have been cooped up in the
island of Sante Marie, which is moist and unwholesome.
The Ovas, seconded by the English, who have neglected
nothing to render abortive our attempts at colonization,
could not resist a vigoious and well-combined effort. The
resources and advantages of all kinds which the island of
Msdagascar presents are immense. Its situation is excel-
lent, and the soil fertile. It contains spacious and excellent
harbours, where our navy would find a sure and easy shelter;
whereas, at Bourbon, the harbours are half the year untenable.

EFFECTS OF BAD DRAINAGE.—BERLIN.—We look, in-
deed, about for some peculiar advantage to recommend the
choice of Berlin. We wonder whence come all the articles
of life, vegetables, fruit, and meat, to support 300,000
people. Not a single natural feature renders it attractive.
Besides its location in this wide sandy wilderness, it is built
on so dead a level, that they have never been able to this
hour to draifi it, but before every house, in the very best
parts of it, aye, in the immediate vicinity of the palace itself,
lies a stinking festering kennel, rank with bubbles of putrid
effervescence. So accustomed are the inhabitants to this
that they do not even cover it over. There it is, open to the
.clay. Children roll in it as they play in the streets, and the
whole city has the odour of a great sink. Yet, again, so in-
sensible has custom made the inhabitants to this nuisance,
that when we spoke of it they said, " 0, was that anything
uncommon? Tbey thought that was the smell of all cities."
The bills of mortality, however, are not so unconscious of
this, for they place Berlin amongst the very lowest on their
scale. London, with its vast population, has but one death
in about fifty.; Berlin,onein thirty.—From William Howitt's
" Rural and Domestic Life in Germany."
AN OLD OFFENDER.—The number of thieves lately
arrested at Paris, says the Gazette des Tribunaux, amounts
to about 50, of whom 20 are receivers of stolen goods. Of
the latter a man named Cottin appears to be the most re-
markable. Living with his mother in the Rue de Roche-
chouard, No. 31, this man bore the character of a perfectly
honest man. He never allowed anything to be brought
there'that was of a suspicious origin, but he had four depots
in different parts of Paris, where he purchased everything,
no matter of how strange a character, provided it was sold
cheap. To give an idea of this, it appears from the disco-
veries of some of the thieves taken up, that on September 12
he purchased 200 pairs of boots stolen from a man named
Poussieux, Rue Rambuteaa, No. 14, at sf. each ; a valuable
watch and pendule, stolen from M. Genetreau, watchmaker,
Rue Laffitte ; and several pieces of merino taken from a shop
on the Boulevard du Temple, at If. a metrs. This man has
been from the age of 14 engaged in robbery either directly or
as receiver, and has undergone not less than 13 condemna-
tions. Two of his associates were also arrested about the
same time, one named Rieux, and the other Lacour. At the
lodging of the former a complete collection of house-breaking
tools was discovered, and the mistress of the latter, a female
named Roque, had on, when arrested, a handsome dress of
blue merino taken from Malet, the receiver, who was robbed
in the Rue de Suresnes. In the Faubourg St. Germnin
band of theives, three are far more prominent than the rest.
Labru, of whom we have already spoken, was excited to
crime by his insatiable desire of amassing. He had already
founded an establishment at Villeneuve-le-Guyarn and
wanted to possess more. Gauthier is the father of a family,
and remarkable for his tender affection foi his children.
Seeing himself tormented by creditors, he robbed to pay
on account, and obtain time. "It was all over," said he
" I was on the point of giving up robbery, and living like an
honest man. We had a last affair to transact at General de
La Houssaye's, from which I should have got 25,000 f. or
30,000 f. I should then have retired to the country, and
lived a farmer's life with my family. I would have been
honest, and have done good. By that I could have compen-
sated for many mi" sdeeds, but which, after all, never injured
any but the rich. Flachat is a different man from his two
associates. He was formerly well to do in the world, but
having committed a crime, was sent to the bagne, whence he
returned with the most depraved habits, rendered more
dangerous from his being a man of feeble mind. Three
Juges d'lnstruction are engaged in investigating this compli-
cated web of crime, and the result will be to clear the
capital of some of its most daring theives.—Galismani's
Messenger

(From the Cheltenham Looker-on.)
There seems to be no doubt but that there is to be another
intermarriage between the Citizen-King and that of the Ducal
House of Coburg. The second son (Prince Agustus) of
Duke Ferdinand of Coburg Kohary is to marry the Princess
Clementine. Duke Ferdinand fixes the apanage of his son
at £4,000 a-year, which few will think a very liberal pro-
vision for one who is to support a daughter of the Royal
House of France. We will undertake to say, that the Duke
of Hamilton will do something better for the Marquis of
Donglas when he marries the Princess of Baden. The present
Duke of Bedford, when Marquis of Tavistock, tiad £lO,OOO
a-year settled on him by his father, when he married. It is
not as if Duke Ferdinand were very poor, for he married the
heiress of the first and last Prince of Kohary,—one who made
an immense fortune in trade, and invested it in a title and
estates, leaving his daughter one of the greatest matches in
Germany, and of whom Duke Ferdinand was the greatest
wooer. Duke Ferdidand must therefoie be rich; he has no
other children to provide for, his eldest son being on the
throne of Portugal, and his daughter is Duchess de Nemours ;
this son is therefore to be the heir of the Kohary property.
£4,000 a-year secures therefore rather a shabby allowance
for the future Kohary and husband of a royal bride; but in
pecuniary matters both papas are likely to look very sharp,
for Louis Phillippe has the reputation of being rather a keen
man, and so, perhaps, after all, it is only " diamond cut
diamond."

The approaching accouchement of her Majesty is beginning
to be a subject of conversation. We do not affect to be in
the confidence of either Sir James Clark or Dr. Locock, and
therefore we do not pretend to fix a day when this interest-
ing event may be expected to happen. There are two fashion-
able newspapers, however, who would fain persuade us they
are in the secret; but, unfortunately, one fixes the time at
the latter end of February, and the other the latter end of
May, which is guessing with rather too wide a margin to be
very satisfactory. The fact is, that her Majesty has become
much more matronly since the birth of the Prince of Wales,
and she has latterly adopted a style of dress which tends to
conceal, in a great degree, any alteration in her appearance.
We must, therefore, be content to remain for the present
unenlightened. Connected with this subject has appeared a
hint, that it may be expected that the Duchess of Kent,
assisted by Prince Albert, will hold the Drawing Rooms this
season ; but we hold this to be fudge—neither more or less.

IRON MASON, OR STONE-CUTTING MACHINE

On Friday, the 23d instant, a number of gentlemen en-
gaged in the building business of the city and neighbourhood,
were invited to witness the performance of the new Patent
Stone Dressing Machine, erected in Mr. Neilson's quarry,
Kelvin-street, North Woodside. The machine since its
erection in the early part of the year has been principally ern_
ployed in making experiments to ascertain the best forms and
method of setting the tools, and to find out the proper velo-
city for their notion, and for the advance of the stones to be
dressed under them ; besides this, however, a number of the
blocks employed in the erection of the new County Build-
ings 'were hewn by it. It is driven by a strong steam engine,
and is intended for the larger sizes of stones, but-can be used,
we understand, at any time for the smaller kind. The ex-
periments of Friday were to show how the machine will dress
the Kenmure rock, which is perhaps the best and stiffest of
the freestone employed in the buildings of Glasgow, and
most extensively used for the finer fronts. The trial showed
that this new and giant mason is perfectly able to put out of
his hands beautiful work, and at a rate which, if practised in
a complete establishment and on a large scale, will go far to
revolutionise the trade, and it is not unlikely that in the
coming season it will be widely brought into operation. The
stones pass through the - '

machine on a long train of carriages,
each carriage having one stone fixed into it. The cutting is
performed by revolving wheels having tools fastened in them.
The stones enter at one end of the machine, rough as they
come from the quarry man's pick, and at the other end come
out hewn and polished on the surface, and cut straight and
square down the sides. The stones dressed on Friday were
of the size of ordinary ashlar. Eight of them, containing
forty feet of surface work and thirty feet of side hewing,
passed out in twenty minutes, which is equal to the labour of
120 men ; but as the capacity of the machine is for work two
and a half times the breadth of this, and as it has already
dressed the broad work many times with the same facility, it
is equal, we are informed, to 300 men.
The greatest difficulty in the way of preparing building
stones by machinery, was presumed to be the preserving the
corners and edges unbroken and unhurt. This difficulty,
however, has been effectually obviated by giving all the cut-
ting wheels a slight inclination, or, in other words, by giving
the plane in which the points of the tools revolve, a slight dip
where the tools first strike into the stone, so that in passing
away off the stones the tools are elevated so as not to touch
them. Many of the most eminent builders and architects of
the city have at various times witnessed the experiments with
high satisfaction, and in the present instance the trial was
eminently successful.