Glasgow Courier. — 1861-12-05 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE LIVINGSTONE EXPEDITION. From the South African Advertiser of the 21st October, just received, we learn that her Majesty's steamer Sidon arrived in Simon's Bay on the 14th from Quillimaine. Captain Crawford, of the Sidon, in a letter to the Bishop of Cape Town, states that the Rev. Mr Bur. nip had written on the 20th September' reporting that he and his party were all well, and hoped in a fortnight to start up the river to join the head-quarters of the mission. The Pioneer is reported to be firmly aground between two large rocks or donee, but it is expected she will be got afloat shortly. as the river rises. Dr Livingstone makes excursions from her into the country for some days, and it is probable he was absent on one of these when the Sidon called at the Kongone (mouth of the Zambesi) on the 22d Sept., in the hope of hearing something further. Captain Crawford wrote a few lines to the doctor, offering coals and any assistance within the means of the Sidon; but unfortunately the officer sent to communicate with him was told that the doctor had gone some distance into the interior, and would not be looked for at the Kongone before the end of Sept. Mr Rae, the engineer of the Livingstone expedition, who recently visited England for the purpose of superintending the construction of the small steamer Lady Nyassa, is now in Cape Town, and will leave in a few weeks for Natal, whence he will proceed to the Zambesi. Mrs Livingstoue, and the Rev. J. Stewart, of the Free Church of Scotland Mission, will go on to the Zambesi by the same op portunity.  Two fine Russian war vessels, a frigate and a corvette, are now under repairs at Gravesend, and have been visited by laige numbers of persons. The Prince of Wales will for the first time appear as an exhibitor at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show in competition with his royal father. A tire took place on Monday morning at the works belonging to the commissioners of the Great Exhibition, Kensington Gore, and a timber building, 36 feet long was consumed.  On Thu;s"day Mr George Neslen, of Gorleston, near Yarmouth, a person of independent means, committed suicide by blowing his brains out. Pecu• niary loss is supposed to have been the immediate cause.  The number of wrecks during the month of November was 298. The largest number in any previous month was 285 in February; and the lowest, 91 in July. The total during the present year is 1,788. Lumley, the fraudulent clerk of the Eastern Counties Railway Company, has been tried at the Central Criminal Court. As an awkward difficulty arose respecting the non-production of certain books, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The samples of cotton (chiefly South Sea Island variety) gathered and forwarded to London by the last mail, show that the climate and soil of our South African colonies is in favour of an almost unlimited cultivation of the staple. —Cape and Natal News. . .  The project for tlie creation of new docks on a scale of great magnitude at Northfleet has been revived, and the proposed site has been surveyed. The plans provide for basins, floating docks, sheds, warehouses, &e., and a loop line of railway to join the North Kent Railway at Gravesend. The penalty for a contravention of the Royal Proclamation is the forfeiture of the goods prohibited; but the 290th section of the Customs Consolidation Act enacts that if any goods so prohibited shall be brought to any quay or other place, in order to be put on board, then all such goods shall be forfeited, together with any goods which shall be found packed with or used in concealment. The up-mail train from the North was delayed three hours on Saturday morning by a collision on the London and North Western Railway, which took place about 2 A.M. It appears that two trains, one laden with cattle and the other with goods, were coming up to London, when, from some want of control over the engine of the rear train, it ran into the other, causing a tremendous smash. The engine drivers and others in charge of the trains escaped without injury. The line was blocked up for about three hours.