The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-04 00:00:00

t ) , c kxntn 4, 1855.] ' l li4 gag the body, a silver pin, about nine inches V %found sticking in the heart, through the e i. eq ° '„the body. A medical gentleman, who had tile deceased, declared that the pin was . tiN s . a c the request of the gentlema n , to p rev e n t j eo lbility of her bei ng buried ali ve . Th e j ur y, 44siderabl e consu lt a ti on , b roug ht i n a ver di c t if I kb, I Pr the visitation of God.' The co r p se still ' s , l i` a t ied in the vault."—Notes and Queries. 441 s -4 CII OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.t—A. match was being played, in which Drake and other ' 4 l:cer s o f th fleet were engaged, when a small 41)11,essel was seen running before the wind int o 'L haste, harb our , with all sails set. Her commander 'L ll ,,haste, and eagerly sought the place where sh lord-admiral and his captains were stand , kclp is name was Fleming ; he was the mas t er o f a ;0 1 1 1.1 vateer • and he told the English officers i a that Morning seen the Spanish armada off VNTa coast. At this exciting information the ik, e l47g . an to hurry down to the water, and there ed acing for the ships' boats, but Drake coolly tittki l ‘ b p comrades, and insisted that the match 4 k - 'JouPlayed out. He said there was plenty of be st " to win the game and beat the Spaniards. tt le , and brav es t ma t c h t h at ever was score d was L accordi ngly. D ra k e and his friends aimed 45 t bowls with the same steady calcul a ti ng cool which they were about t o po i nt their guns. V i laing cast was made : and then they went on an d prepared for action with their hearts as d their ner ves as fi rm a s they had been on the lai, c4v ling-green. Meanwhile the messengers and had bee n di spa t c h e d f as t an d f ar th roug h Id, to warn each town and village that 'the An J, had come at last. In every seaport there was ,qc inakin ready by land a n d by sea; i n ever y a zi n u d d ever c ity there was instant mustering of ma n. But E ng l an d's b es t d e f ence th en , as 'has in her fl eet ; and after warping laboriously 'lYinottth harbour against the wind, the ford tood westward under easy sail, keeping an ok-out for the Armada, the approach of i1, 4 ' t , q,',44 soon announced by Cornish fisher-boats, and // t , ''om the Cornish cliffs.—Tke _Fifteen Decisive D o,r the World. Arß p T L IFE'S INFLUENCE.—A woman has hen hus pottcaune in her power, because she may or she t i d tit conform to his circumstances. This is her N, l 3 '' , and it ought to be her pride. No passion 'O l4 . te t Yor display ought to tempt h er f or a momen t $' 4, in the least degree fro m thi s li ne o f con d uc t. i) l i :t r find her respectability in it. Any othe r 4 Wretchedness itself, and inevitably leads to ,kilotlii ng can be more miserable than the to keep up appearances. If it could succeed, )14 11 ' cost more than it is w o r th ; as it never can, ‘te,:e, involves the deepest mortification. Some L"limest exhibitions of human virtue have been ae Women who have been precipitated suddenly lth and splendour to absolute w an t. Th en a () ttunes are in a manner in the hands of his smt.p a stnuch as his own power of exertion depends moral strength is inconceivably increased s Otp,h 7 opathy, her counsel, her aid. She can aid 0 s ensely by relieving him of every c are w hi c h t, ) ''Npabl e o f t a ki ng u p on h erse lf. Hi s own ern d is are usually such as to require his whole t t, :t: h ( t his whole mind. A good wife will never \ t ' "er husband's attention to be distracted by Hti k % which her own time and talents are nlf she be prompted by true affection an d itc Wil If she will perceive, when his spirits are pNi and everwhelmed, she, of all human beings, . I tinister to its needs. For the sick soul, her !tc• li e I s quite as sovereign as it is for corporeal ills. N tli Weary, in her a s sid u ity it finds re p ose an d e 4 t. If it be harassed and w orn t o a mor bid 1 t Y , her gentle tones steal over it with a i,;v(! t .? more potent than the most exquisite music. ;1i th e e uterprise be dead, her pati ence an d f or tit u d e ' l 4 k Power to rekindle them in the heart, and he tr o °s forth t o renew th e encoun t er w ith t h e to i ls L ; 4 N i V tiles of life. ~lu C' and the world, and whatever we ca ll 41 4 we are, and feel, is an astonishing thing. tt'p,tlll. of familiarity obscures from us the wonder l oi t c)f e . 11( 4. We are struck with astonishment at transient modifications, but it is itself the k r . e le- What are the changes of empires, the "ynasties, with the opinions that supported SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. them ?—what is the birth and extinction of religions, and of political systems, to life P What are the revo lutions of the globe which we inhabit, and the opera tions of the elements of which it is composed, com pared with life P What is the universe of stars and suns, and their motions, and the destiny of those that inhabit them, compared with life P Life, the great miracle, we admire not because it is so miraculous. If any artist, we do not say had executed, but had merely conceived in his mind, the system of the sun, the stars, and planets, they not existing, and had painted to us in words or upon canvas the spectacle now afforded by the sight of the cope of heaven, and illustrated it by astronomy, what would have been our admiration I—or had imagined the scenery of the earth, the mountains, and the seas, and the rivers, and the grass, and the flowers, and the varieties of the forms and the masses of the leaves of the woods, and the colours which attend the rising and the setting sun, and the hues of the atmosphere, turbid or serene, truly we should have been wonderstruck, and should have said, what it would have been a vain boast to have said—" Truly, this creator deserves the name of a God." But now, these things are looked upon with little wonder ; and he who views them with delight is considered an enthusiast or an extraordinary person. The multitude care little for them. It is thus with life, that includes all. What is life P Thoughts and feelings arise with or without our will, and we employ words to express them. We are born, and our birth is unrememb ere d, and u fragments. We live, andor i i nneywe'lose n remembered the but in living appre hension of life. REMINISCENCES OF THE OXFORD erne-um—The late Mr. Bellamy, who went the Oxford and other cir cuits for sixty-two years, states that in every county on this circuit there was an assize-ball on the com mission-day of each assize. This ball was attended by the nobility and gentry of the county, and the judges and bar. The judges used to wear at the balls the black silk gown, band, and the two-curl bob-wig. They were attended by the high sheriff, wearing a full court dress, bag-wig, and sword, and his chap lain in his gown, cassock, and band. The judges did not dance, but they usually played at whist. In the recollection of Mr. Bellamy, in every assize town on the Oxford Circuit the two courts were held in the same room, without any division or partition, and so that one judge could see the other. This continued at Gloucester till the year 1816, and the alteration was occasioned by this circumstance :—Baron (then Judge) Bayley was trying a man for murder, and his jury burst into a laugh at one of Mr. Dancey's jokes in a horse case in the other court. The learned judge thought that it was time this was altered. Formerly the judges on their circuits had an immense number of presents—venison, fruit, wine, (U.—which half kept their house during the assizes ; but in the year 1794, when so much was subscribed for the defence of the nation against the threatened invasion, the value of the different presents was sub scribed, and the presents discontinued, and never re newed. About thirty years ago a story was current in Worcester, that the mayor always sent the judges a present of a loaf of sugar, and that the judges in re turn invited the mayor to dine with them ; but that the mayor being once uninvited, the sugar was dis continued ever after. Till the passing of the Munici pal Reform Act, the corporation of Gloucester always sent each judge in spring a salmon and a house lamb, and in summer a salmon and a whole sheep; and at present the corporation of. Oxford gives to each judge a pair of white lid gloves, edged with gold lace, and ornamented with gold tassels. A PEEP INTO A THEATRE IN OLD ROME.—See— there are the blushing simpering young Roman vir gins, all in fine white linen with silver hems, and their tresses powdered with gold dust. There is pretty little Livia Ottilia, the great heiress, whose cruel papa wanted her to give up her large fortune towards the expenses of the Punic war, and become a vestal virgin ; but she knew better, and ran off to Brundusium with young Sextus Quintilius. There is demure little Miss Octavia Prima—she looks as though spikenard would not melt in her mouth. Who would think, now, that she sticks gold pins into the shoulders of her slaves, and beats her lady's maids with crumpling irons P There are the young Roman beaux, terrible fellows for fast chariot driving, wild beast fighting, gladiator backing : yonder is young Flavius, the pre sident of the Whip club : his motto is " Quosque tan- 197 dem :" there, ambergrised, powdered, perfumed, is that veteran toad-eater and tuft-hunter, but pretty poet, Q. Horatius Flaccus ; he will write a charming copy of Sapphics on the occasion, dedicated to his influen tial patron the Marquis Maecenas, who will probably ask him to dinner and give him roast pig stuffed with honey, garum, and slave-fed carp. There is Ovidius Naso, who was a [fine man once, but now goes among the gay youths by the name of Nosey. He has led a very dissipated life, and will be compelled to fly from his creditors by-and-by, to some remote corner of Asia. Minor, attributing, of course, his forced absence to political reasons. There, also among the audience, you may see P. Virgilius Maro, in top boots and a bottle-green toga. He, too, is a poet, but is a great authority on matters bucolic, breeds cattle, is a magistrate of his county, and president of the Cam panian Agricultural Association. There is Curing Dentatus, that conceited fop, who is always showing his white teeth ; and Aulus Gellius, who is a very Othello to his wife ; and Pompeius Crassus, who is considered to be very like his friend Caesar ; and Mark Antony, who has iucurred something like: odium for his conduct to Mrs. Mark, and his shameful carryings on with a mulatto lady in Egypt ; and there is Cato, the censor, who disapproves of theatricals, public and private in the abstract, turning up his nose in a corner and pretending to read the last number of Sibylline Leaves.---Household Words. PEVENSEY CASTLE, but a very short ride from East bourne, Sussex, is one of the most extensive examples of a Roman fortified town remaining in this country. Its identity with the Roman British town Anderida, appears now to be generally admitted : and there can be no doubt that the outer walls, lofty and thick, with huge solid and round-ended bastions or bulwarks, the whole faced with square stones and having continuous layers of Roman til es a t i n t erva l s, are of the Roman period. Some writers have thought otherwise, and attributed the earliest part to the Norman period ; but this must.have been done without due examination. It is known that there was a castle here before William the Conqueror arrived, and that he earrisoned it. The Notitia, a list of the civil and military appointments of the Roman empire, compiled, it is supposed, in the reign of Theodosius the Younger (A.D. 450), or earlier, perhaps, mentions, as amongst those under the govern ment of the count of the Saxon shore, the commander of a detachment of the Abulci, at Pevensey. More over a comparison with the remains at. Richborough, Lymne, and elsewhere, sets the question at rest. Within the area enclosed by the outer walls, a large one, a mediaeval castle was erected, with its gateway, bastions, moat, keep, chapel, and well, commenced probably by the conqueror's half-brother, Robert, Earl of Mortain. For many years these walls supplied the neighbourhood with stone, but it may be hoped that no further destruction will be permitted. It is a beauti ful ruin full of valuable teaching. The wild pear whispers, and the ivy crawls, Along the circuit of thine ancient walls, Lone city of the dead ! and near this mound, The buried coins of mighty men are found, Silent remains of Ciasars and of kings, Soldiers of whose renown the world yet rings, In its sad story ! These have had their day Of glory, and have passed, like sounds, away !". These stones are suggestive : they afford an insight into Roman character, and give us a more personal interest in the early history of their country. We have but incomplete accounts of the condition and progress of Britain during the 400 years of Roman domination ; but we find enough in the monuments of that period which still remain, their military stations, roads, villas, and walls of defence, the pavements, coins, inscriptions, implements, and works of art which have been dug up in all parts of the country, to prove the energy with which, when they had completed the subjugation of the original inhabitants (no easy task), they sought to introduce the arts of peace. A SUNSET AT SEA.—The wind had lulled com pletely, and it was quite evening as we entered on what is certainly the gem of oceans. I could not have conceived anything more beautiful than this miniature sea, lying with its clear waters, still and limpid as those of an inland lake, and the green hills closing round it in so perfect a circle. Comparatively small as is this fairy ocean, we seemed to have made but little way over its pure quiet breast, before night, fell alto-. gether ; but I was very glad that my last night at sea in the East should have been in so beautiful a scene, in order to leave me a favourable impression of what I 18 5 ' 5 al be l d it t 1 4, 1 1i A t l'''' ,r 5 h ~1 1 1 4f4 )OP - ' Pt/ )1;,, e/