The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-30 00:00:00

154 [OOTo SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STA.NDARD. mends thg starting point of the Canal at Ecaoes, and the route thgnee south-westward, being ideitically the same line as that selected by Paterson more than a century and a half ago. This canal would be only twenty-two miles in length, and - it could be executed, it is said, for £1,000,000. So much for the scheme of Pater sa27W-114—WEI s, without doubt, a man of great commercial knowledge and extensive experience in the monetary and mercantile affairs of the world, as was evinced by his famous Darien scheme, and still further, by the fact that he was the founder of the Bank of England. To return from this protracted digression to the hook of Mr. Tomes, it will be found to con tain much readable information, and albeit that the railway project, its prospects of success, and the banquetings and junkettings, duly solemnised at its opening, form rather more than a due pro portion of its contents, and are painted with rather too golden a hue, the book is a pleasant one to read. Hogg's Instructor. Edinburgh : James Hogg. The October number of this periodical calls for pore pointed observation than has been afforded to it by us for some considerable time past. In ,:,addition . to the miscellaneous matter with which pit is generally filled, the present number contains An article on the " Noctes Ambrosianze" of Pro fessor Wilson, under the title of " Christopher :North in Dishabille," and it is from the pen of the'_Aev. George Gilfillan. This reverend litera teur has, on more than one occasion, taken up gie physical, moral, and religious character of the late Professor as the subject of his criticism, and here we have him essaying the same topic once more. In writing upon so inviting a theme as the Professor's mental endowments, the critic exercises a right which is quite open to him ; but in so frequently recurring to it he is apt to lose sight of the fact, that he may have long ago exhausted the topic so far as he is capable of treating it. He is likely, under such circumstances, to repeat himself, and in doing so weary the patience of his reader, and probably to amplify and exag gerate faults which he had committed on previous occasions. This seems pre-eminently the case with Mr. Gilfillan in his treatment of the great man who, for so many years, was so bright a light in our intellectual hemisphere. From the first he appears to have been but imperfectly acquainted with Professor Wilson's person and literary habits, and that little knowledge he has obviously eked out by the scandal and small gossip of the tenth-rate literary circles of the Scottish metropolis. From these sources he has imbibed the idea that Wilson was not sound in his religious views—that he was very irregular in his habits—and coarse in his tastes. All these things Mr. Gifillan has at different times and in various ways insinuated or declared ; and in this paper we have the same stuff trumped up once more. An artful mode of endeavouring to reduce genius to the level of the reviler, is the disin genuous trick of conjuring up a false accusation against the object of attack, that he may feebly rebut it—to give revived currency to an obsolete slander that he may enter a hesitating caveat against its authenticity. Mr. Gilfillan tells us " We remember, although dimly, when the name of Wilson was a byword and a hissing with the majority of the Scottish public. A mad imitator of the Lake poets—fonder, however, of the poetry than of the water (the italics are Mr. Gilfillan's) of the lakes—a companion of gipsies, smugglers, flying tailors, blacklegs, and blackguards of all kinds—a disgrace to the moral philosophy chair— the unworthy successor of Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown, &c., &c. Such, literally, were the terms in which, as far down as 1831, we heard grave and learned seigniors, schoa masters, ministers, Edinburgh lawyers, and others, talk of this noble spirit." 'in what particular conventicle these ministers, schoolmasters, and lawyers held forth in such terms it is of course impossible to say. If ever such calumnies were uttered, their falsehood is too well known to require exposure ;. and what good end is to be attained by parading such dis creditable untruths before the public ? From personal knowledge we can aver that, if the malignant sillinesses above referred to did find utterance, it must have been in the secret pre cincts of some Independent " School for Scandal," of which the repeater of the slander may,.for what we know, have been a licentiate ; but they never found currency in the best informed and high lite rary circles of Edinburgh. A. similar inclination appears to animate Mr. Gilfillan in his hesitating defence of Wilson against the long exploded accusation of drunkenness, very likely originated by some of the "grave seigniors" with whom Mr. Gilfillan was familiar in his youth. As Mr. Gilfillan sits readily in judgment upon the literary delinquencies of others, let us see in what guise he exhibits his own hobby. He says of the Ettrick Shepherd, " Hogg himself was a rich field, not so much from his genius as from his vanity, egotism, and complacent glorying absurdity ; but Wilson was at great pains with the field, he has trenched,. drained, dunged it, and the result is the unparallelled crop of sense, nonsense, shrewdness, stupidity, ineffable coarse ness and magnificent poetry which flourishes in the " Noctes.' " The figure assumed by Cie critic is not a very happy one, and he has worked it out in a most clumsy fashion. Dunging a very ordinary field may indeed produce a crop of such husky corn as Mr. Gilfillan proves to be, but it will not, we apprehend, even under the direction of a Wilson, ensure the production of such pure grain as the Ettrick Shepherd. One other remark, and we shall quit this gentleman. When quoting illustrative poetry, it might be worth his while to quote correctly. We opine he will search Gay in vain for such a line as How happy with either, were the other away ! although he might with little trouble encounter such a distich as How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away ! He has surely now done his best or his worst with Professor Wilson, and had better leave him Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy. Part I. By Dr. Lardner. London: Walton and Maberly. This hand-book is, as we are told in the pros pectus, intended for all who desire to attain an accurate knowledge of physical science, without the profound methods of mathematical investiga tion. In pursuance of this object, the various subjects introduced are treated in an eminently popular yet strictly accurate manner. Abstruse and pedantic terms and formula are studiously avoided, and the rationale of the matters treated of is strictly logical and accurate, without being obscured to the general reader by a profuse array of technical jargon. To the practical mechanic and artisan this hand-book must prove highly valuable. Evangelical Christendom : its State and Pros pects. Loudon : Partridge, Oakey, and Co. The October number of this periodical contains highly interesting communications in relation to the state of Protestantism in the different countries of Continental Europe. The narrative of pro ceedings recently held by the Evangelical Alliance at Lyons, is full of matter deserving of the most earnest consideration ; as are also the reflections on the visit of Queen Victoria t° sidered in a religious point of vi.. e .l visit, the. writer in the magazine , e r n ( and kr ,portant results to the cauP : : on the Continent generally, an d rifliyoft' ticula r. The Paris conference'dig fel' Chris tians forms, however, the 1° , 1 ,4 ses el l, the :number, and in discussing ;oil whicl was gathered from all (I,ctiteuhlie globe, there is necessarily conies amo tint of valuable information ? o r exl and prospects of Protestant truth of •the world. -1 1 161 THE 8EG 64 ' )... 0 0 '11 0 I MANY years since,_ when 0 Itti. about twenty years.of age, 110 1 0 ‘ si spend Sunday with my mothers' pit Versailles, this being the only d i j s iocl is % could leave Paris. I generalli pees .71 the Barrier, and thence I toolc;llogitept the public carriages. omy moth e r - 1 4 S I happened to be- too early for' orOrtod, 4 6 used to stop and converse witil'illo ri cos y , name was Anthony, and wilcox it iOve station at the Barrier de Pas 0 0 4 1.# voice he solicited alms from evel t o with a degree of perseveranae t ,' . 0 O r," astonishing. I generally Pile out inquiring. whether he ' partly because I got into the and partly to get rid of his: day in summer, as I waiteu found Anthony at his usual accustomed form of petitioT Heaven, bestow your alms Messieurs„ Mesdames,. the gratefully received." - While Anthony was. in his exclamation into the e` came within the reach of his many of respectable appear' had a pleasant expression very well dressed,. and it mig. that he was a man in good was a fit subject for a begg his advances, proclaiming poverty, and soliciting relief " You need not be a begg replied the gentleman, " whi of ten thousand crowns !" You are pleased to jest , " By no means," said di e was so serious in my lifel friend. You perceive that 1 ,,/ sre I tell you that I have everi t ''' 0 may desire." " Ah, sir, you are a fortunate 5 11 s ie b e ; " Well, my friend, I wou ld are dob3g'ff I had sat and begged, as yo 8. 0114 1* " have no other means o f obt " Are you lame 7" !, tt " No, - sir." " You are not blind, nor dea f ' r a j are not dumb, as every Passe-bil Listen ! I shall tell you words. Some fifteen or twenty a beggar, like yourself ; at lengt' that it was very disgraceful to of others, and I resolved to aba ll ' ful way of life as soon a s I P ° quitted Paris, and went into begged for old rags. Th e p eoPle i to me, and in a short time I re, with a tolerable large stock 04 fair p, collecting, until, to my g reat ou enabled me to purchase rags, 1 ;ail deer': o f art, 4 ,-4 lie .40 , IPO */133P°rtilv. u% :d forttDe i i mo d ia i p os, e 1 ky ~, ~, f or ', i kiktliv: on ~,0 0 14 th. , on A rot. ~,, -, suid.nest t ,. ,t 1 ,4e 0 , ili,, this 10 11 A . • of eti ' e' oars is voice, SOll . ll ' raiace, j(3 , 41 of coil' ti . 0 1 ' ght be see', , circti.,.. a t i ~. ;ar, obolv r '4 41 iti o, P" -: A . • !f you i# e r i D Y aru 0 1 e I •tlet, hen tit) , fi 4 o ir,'' osi_.. 01 t hi sernalit ill stee rnera ore; to iisi: ;4 , t LuinAS "6 ' s 4 , 11411 d .bY a i s to l lo4 44 ve 0- a doll the ' e t 4 eta ° 1 . 4 4 rf 4 ,4 1 ,14 , eri ri ce ' 11 , e jOl t, s o t" °la] 0 _,,