GLASGOW.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 7, 23 November 1863, Page 2

GLASGOW.

y (1801 l OVB OWJ CORBBIPOKBEffT.) ,*■ , v-"" J. . '- sw -^ * . J, 7 Glasgow, 24th September. > The great event of the month has been the visit of the Channel Fleet under ihe eooVmand of - AdmiraMXApre^ to the Clyde. On the morning of the lit September, the' squadroriPentered the river, after a' abort andspeedyrpa from ILocbJfoyle, iwb*ere it had lain for ■dmeYtime stirring np tha embers of Irish loyally .fThe vessels- under the rommand*of the Admiral are the liable iron-clad -frigates' -Warrior and Blaok Prince, the, iron-clad, rams Defence and, Resistance, the iron-clad- frigate Royalf Oak, ~~the wooden two-decker Edgar, carrying the . Admiral's flag,' and the two modern frigates Liverpool and Emerald. The squadron^ was moored at the Tail of the Bank. opposite thevßay of Quick, well known to your Greenock readers, as the resort of the amphibious bravos, who in, jackets and knickerbockers try' what they can to upset themselves with - log aud spritsail. The Black Prince, out of compliment to the Greenock folks — justly proud of the triumph of ' Clyde shipbuilding — was moored nearest Greenock quays, and wa? - the cynosure of every patriotic eye. The Elgar with her lofty ' sides and taunt spars, lay further down the river, and ' behind these lay the I Warrior and the rams. The whole of the I West of Scotland liter illy crowded to see j the naval spectacle, and the co'urtsey *of i crews and officers 'made the visits to the I vessels a delightful and pleasant enjoyment. J During' the visit of the Fleet to Leith, the l working men of-Edinburgh had an oppor- j tunity of seeing the vessels on Sunday ' afternoon, but' the Provosts of Glasgow arid Greenock, at the bidding of tbe Sabbatarian party, laid their heads together to prevent the " chappies *' getting a t sight of the Warrior or Prince on Sunday. By a special, and it is believed, illegal- provision, the masters of the various steamers plying to tbe Fleet were prohibited from going upon Sunday, under a penalty of .£2O. " The * interference gave great umbrage to targe portions of the working people, and in a hot discussioi I overheard at the Greenock ' railway station among a number- of artisan excursionists both Established and Free Church ministers were referred to in anything but' clerical terms. -Saturday was of course th ** only day available for working people visiting the squadron,arid most unfortunate'y this day was what sailors call a " dirty " one, a real Glasgow wet day, with such blasts of wind as made the rain tei times more disagreeable. From, off Helensburgh J had an excellent view of the Fleet on the Saturday evening, which had cleared up; and was, particulary fine. A shoal of* siesta-tugs surrounded the Warrior and PMftce and from, funnels and steampipes a cloud of smoke enveloped both ships, leiylrig but a faint outline of their huge sides and over which their three tremendous masts rose at such a distance from one: another that it was difficult to believe they belonged to the same vessel. From various points of view which. l happened to enjoy, the sight was equally imposing, and the multitude who thronged^ the steamers running between theJFJeet* and both shores, appeared to appreciate every beauty. On Sunday " the vacuum occasioned by the withdrawal *of the* steamers was filled up by rowing boats from Greenock, Gourock, Helensburgh, and more distant places. Everything that* would float about Greenock seemed to have been pressed into 'service, and sailing boats of every sort of rig were cruising throughi out the Fleet. One racing boat' I saw I rigged out with a huge tartan plaid, from | " the Foot of the Hills " possibly, set un , on an oar, and the appearance of which I excited roa.s of laughter from various boatloads of " Britishers " going ashore on leave. Ihe queer craft Dowever. .made way and walked by some more pretentious' looking clippers, to the amusement of the " salts " who jeered the laggards.- For the instruction of yonr .readers who have no notion of the appearance of a naval ram, I may explain that the Defence and Resistance have exactly the appearance' of | ordinary vessels with the differende that, the bow of the' rams rises out of tbe water with a gentle curve upwards and backwards instead of (forward as in ordinary vessels The head is altogether under, water and can do no damage. to a high: vessel until the ram's bowsprit has: been smashed off, .or driven in on deck. Each of the vessels appear to carry. a boarchaser in the lorm of a 1101 b; Armstrong, the fine rifleing of which it is, now found speedily gets fouled with the lead coating or jackets of the Armstrong cylindrical shot. Tbe old ' fashioned smooth bore sixty-eight iS the only gun that can be depended on for knocking in the 4A-in iron of the French ,r Gloire,V and it is i of little use for such a purpose/ I asked one of tbe crew of the wooden frigate Emeratd, how heshduld feel alongside such a vessel as the Prince. Why, •■* says he pretty well indeed. You see she mightput her whole 7 Droadside through and' through us, and wa should plug up the holes she left ; but, why, if we knocked a hole in her plating, they'liavenVa caulk-' ing iron aboard as wouhrclose it." There was sufficient logic Nin the. remark to a grin from his messmate, and somewhat alter my notions of the invulnerable character of our costly ironclads. A " Seeston ', man who had come from' further than the ** Sneddon, to seethe-. Shipping ! " opposed the .braggart in tha! Emerald, and told him he might as well try to fire " a tatie bullet through a kail pot as put a shot ia the Prince," but the Englishman lost' both the seose r and .vigor of tbe vernacular. 1 have dealt rather tedimsly upon tbe channel fleet, but,", the visit from it, has really been the feature of the season, and waa felt to be such an honor, that even the police officers were warned to let Jack have full swing with-' out interference. The result \of this particular license was bhown in many strange and novel antics. , One tar I saw squatted' on a porter's hurley, crossing the Broomie* lawland making for the- Greenock Rail- | way Station. The porter attempted ter get rid of his "fare" at the Station by canting up ths wheelbarrow, with about' the same result as would have followed an, equally futile attempt to, get quit of a cat. Jack held on, and cabby was forced to drag his troublesome passenger across the pavement, and' deposit him on ( the 'steps. Another ingenious rogue /drove through the streets, perched on a cab, and with a new frying pan he had purchased, apparently for the purpose, most dexterously squelched the hatt of passers by over their eyes. > Out of drunken frolics, a good number did not manage to, escape

hlrtthpii^%ra| ing acquaintance Hjfh the , police.T v On norn than one^moniMr, while the fleet lay at Y&f>enock, come scores of , seamen were, brought before the 7 sitting magistrate at our central ofJkwYto have a sermon oo temperance, delivered by Bailie Govan, br^some other luminary equally enthusiastic and rirosy. In closing 'tS ( own jprosy narrative on naval affairs, 1 may mention that "the emperor of China," onto Jiff., Davis, thinned tha Clyde of its clipper steamers. The Rothesay Guile I saw on th*3id Inst, pass "Gourock" Bay. on her trial trip, before proceeding to vNassau. via Sne waa laden down until her paddle ways were scarcely eighteen inches" clear of tha. water, and fiom her ffeat length, ha JV rather drowned rat look. - After going outside, she had to return and discharge a quantity of coals, bnt has finally left on her perilous voyage. The havoc" made among the blockade, runners which sailed from the Clyde has been immense, and' can^only be accounted for by the fact that .from tbeir Jow*build they dare not steam he«d on at fulhspeed, and. whenever they run off the wind the Yankee: cruisers set'eanva* and "overhaul them with the~aid'jof wind and steam. The old Giraffe was, F observe, recently chased for nine hours, and although the fugitive could do eighteen or twenty miles an hour? when 'pushed* she had* to tumb'e overboard avdeckload of cotton to escape. An ironclad v frigtte is said to be building on the Clyde for, the C*MStfederates, but there is no chance -of her getting away after the uproar made about the two built by the Lairds of Birkenhead,, and now detained at Liverpool. v.ShipbuihJin< of every sort progresses in the Clyde, v and the shipwrights have riot had a better time of it for years. -So Ira-iy are the yards, that some" of the 'unemployed weavers- have 7 been taken' 'in to work as laborers at 10s andr 15s per week, and, which to the forlorn wretches has proved \a perfect godsend. The spirit of parsimony continues to, reign so triumphantly over onr Jocal * • relief committee notwithstanding ~„ the, 7,diminution ,of applicants *foir /'aid that in a recent case, a poor mm was denienf a pair of shoes by a.member. of . the committee, * although the plea put forward by the supplicant was a desire to go to the dockyard for work, and thus take, himself off the idle list, but which praiseworthy intention could nor be carried out upon a rather flimsy paif~~of,, stocking soles Another instance of gross cruelty has turned up ta* connexion with the relief committee's proc ediugs.; The very niggardly' support given -to our' local- relief fund by the shopocracy and snobbcracy of this ciiy, had 1 left the relief ' committee without means to .aid those still in want, and any project for getting quit of the idle, would of course be appreciated by men put in such straits as the members of the committee have for sometime been. ' A scout, it is alleged, employed by the committee, discovered thatTwork might be had in Dundee for some of the idle mill girls resident in Glasgow, and -forth with, two separate, batches of young' women were forwarded to that town, to begin work in the flax factories.' The relief committee sent the girls through free, . aiid put them into a lodging-house until they should be able - to shift for themselves/ "Hfd money was ' given to the young women, and they had to accept such accommodation*" as wa^ given them ; but which proved tp be most "" objectionable. --**The girls from Glasgow found the lodgings^ they had been placed ih were frecjnent-rf hy written who 'came in drunk Wairiiouxs of JliV night, who swore, and used^tht^vilestclanguage,^ sand who 'applied (the imoH disgusting epi-, thets to the west country lasses. Finding; . no relief to their ' ooinplaintf,' nine of the" girls determined to leaver 7 Dundee, and "' walk back^ t6'"pla*fsm~j3fXiirt.y of^Parth. The runawaysstarted. without a copper^and' "finding' that travelling onan empty stomach is no joke, they sold the petticoats off their backs to purohase fawl' i ahd tbe shelter .of a .house during the two nigkts they were oa I^^^^^!^'^.^^' 6? the 1 girls left behind, spent tne-^night in the j'Sheriffitnuir, but the whols-jreacned Glasg6w~^Bafety, 1 00 thapks jb the thought-' JesswPeruel philanthropists who sent them upon such a trying jphirney. The local criminal annals of the month have been withoujflhUiist. y. The^ savage and murderous 'spilß'whi-ch was- for a time rampant in the^cit/has apparently subsided, and. at ,|the Autumn Circuit, commencing in Glasgow on $be-28th,v;not a single case of, murjdef is entered for trial* a pleasant" novelty; after the bloody calenders • which;- yapr have recently been accustomed to.- < At Li#-e^rpool;yfour men, ha^rsijuat been -handed" at-oiMße-V^and 'thiar spectacle oughttto strike > embryo 'assassinl with terror, if bangiir^ is\o be of any use.. Whether or not the example made frill* be felt on? thw^side the T^^a there; ii^not tinie foir jndgihg^ hut v it js tb be hoped that-the fate of the three* sailors hung up at Kirkdale jail, will n^tdify ihe^emeanor of -the i»lt waterrufl^M,; who7fAhJ»ng the' Broomielaw,theßridjr^/andJamaiea,street, and who are^wTrealtlyy witk thUr sheath, knives 'when a" fight ; conmenees. The Sandyford mystery is getting into the background, asettledebhyictiotfof Mr Fleming's innocence, arid r 'M'Lachlah's guilt, being observable ahiolig theCftw' who yet wrangle furiously over the r dstarls : t of the*' 'tragedy. 1 % x \ ; '- «* r "*' **_ * The Municip^ eleotions,aro*again drawing.near^ and, th^ jpromise ul,*, littld more stir thu year^hatt- last. 7 Br Blackie, of the publishing firm of Blackie and Sons, i and at present nl^li« l >s^Wu of ia likely to succeed the " CloustOß, whose reign hse k«h7 made memofc able by the New Pette«; Bill, and Lord Palmerston's* visit- to v* Crlasgowr - Bailie Blackie is one ofthe n^h^ guid^awl . there' is no hope for sinners .while .he w lar oflice. * He has alr^dy signified b»s intantion to wear tlt^chiuns;oronic*,s^ Lo^ Provost Blackie, may therefore^ be conaider^duly^ekctedVxY; i^y)i~^.~ * The coal miners 7in the, neighboring districts are in s troubled sute. In struggles for wages, both.nusters and miner* are wasting valujbl^mesns7;,hut hithertsr no * better - pfttt. * i thatf^ .the - clumsy device of st|tikes has s \bejfc;7empk»y«! io adjust „ the . value of' t&^f colliers work. The miners employed bjfc the extensivo firm of the Summerlee Gompanv ire at present outof the cont-st involving the miners onthe I^eppock Hill pita and others in the immediate vicinity of the oity; ' . : , A local event of importancs to, some of yonr townsmen is the presetftafitm of XI SO by the underwriters to Captain, Wilkie, of the Aboukir, for bringing his ship safe home round die Horn undetljury masts,' after carrying everything, overboard in a collision with, an ,iceberg. y The, Aboukir sails from Glasgow for Qtago ai soon as sheis-filled up, and h», loading is now being proceeded with. " . " ' Vrbe Brechin Castle is to be despatched to-morrow from Glasgow foif Dunedin by r Patrick Henderson; who lays on the Resolution, of 2000 tons buruien for the October packet.

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