The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. 214 reward be his, even when his corpse lay pierced with wounds, stiffening beneath a foreign sky.—Kingsley's Sermons for the Times. AN APPEAL FROM LETTER IL—Letter H., in ad dressing his Dear Little Vowels,—a, e, i, o, and u, — reminds them that he has long held a very useful and honourable place in the family of letters ; that his special office has been to put himself at the head of the said vowels, to the end that people might know how to call them ; that, though sometimes he has most honourable aspirations to be first and foremost, at other times he is so humble that he only wants to let his next little brother speak, and does not wish any one to take the least notice of him; that he has heard both himself and his little friends talked about so much and called such curious names, that he could bear it no longer ; that a little prattling child told his mamma that he had 'urt his 'and, and to his (H's) great surprise, his mother did not ask him what he meant ; that a person who was very well dressed, and looked like a lady, asked a gentleman, who was sitting by her, if he knew whether Lord Mumble had left any Heir behind him ; that the gentleman blushed and stopped a little, to think whether the lady meant a son or a hare ; that his nerves received a fearful shock from hearing an old gentleman read aloud from his newspaper something about the Russians and the Hottoman Hempire ; that an attendant in a music shop, when a lady had forgotten the name of a song she wanted, suggested that she should 'um the hair ; that a democratic statesman told his brother politicians to hagitate , hagitate, hagitate, till they had gained their hobject : that a person while dining, actually told his servant to take down a dish of meat, and to 'eat it and bring it up again,when it was a little'otter:—that these atrocities are unbearable; that poorletter Hcannot stand it any longer; that he, therefore, calls on his little comrades the vowels, to hold a meeting, and see if they and he cannot do something in concert together to stop the mockeries they receive in common, and also to prevent the thousands who mock them from being laughed at themselves, and thought nothing of. Fancy the Queen calling for the 'ifp,h Steward of her 'ouse hold ; or the Prince Albert 'oping that Hadmiral Dundas would not hannihilate the Russian fleet, which he kindly 'asn't ! H's idea is good and laudable; but the restitution and reparation of injuries is easier in theory than it proves in practice. . . . Surely, when we have only six-and-twenty letters to manage, the task is not so herculean to set each its proper work to do, and to keep them all in their proper places. If we had five-and-thirty, like the Russians, we might claim a little excuse for occasional misdirections. People who will not mould their throat and tongue to give the sounds of h and r, should be condemned to short commons till they can pronounce the Sclavonic letter 111., or chtcha ; or they might like to take to the study of Chinese, a language whose words show no indication of number, gender, case, declension, or conjugation, but which is not a bit the easier for that. One European dialect (the Venetian) would exactly suit the vocal organs of our indolent talkers : it cuts out all the consonants, and leaves only the vowels. A discussion between a couple of gondoliers is a flood of a, e, i, o u, in inconceivable permutations and combi nations. Goldoni, who wrote comedies in the well buttered tongue, uses " siora mare," for " signora madre," and " fia mia," for " figlia mia." It appears that an experiment in Venetian-English is to be tried in a forthcoming Adelphi farce, in which Mr. and Mrs. Malaprop and all the little Malaprops are to give a lesson in' polished delivery and correct forms of address, which is sure to be received with screams of approba tion.—Dickens's Household Words. A PIONEER OF CIVILISATION.—Sheep multiplied, and the population did not multiply in proportion. Wool was low, and there was no demand for mutton. Tom had to pay his hard money, that is, so much per head for his sheep and cattle, to pay for stores from Melbourne, to purchase a dray, and a bullock-team, and wool-bags. Yet his stock still wonderfully in creased. People began in 'thirty-nine and 'forty, to flock over to the colony, and a bright future seemed to dawn. It was a delusive one. Lord John Russell's order, that no colonial land should be sold at less than one pound per acre arrived ; immigration stopped short at once, as at the command of an evil genius ; and the squatters gazed in consternation on their wonderfully multiplying flocks, which were thus abso lutely reduced to no value at all. In eighteen hundred L and forty-two came the crash of ruin on the land, and sheep were valued at a shilling a-head. Meantime Tom Scott had had to pay heavily for labour in splitting slabs and shingles for his wool-shed, for the fences of his paddocks, for plough, harrow, hurdles, and watch boxes ; for stores, stockyard fences, milking-ball, calf pen, garden fencing and planting, and heaven knows what besides ; for all which a huge balance had run up against him at his merchant's, in Melbourne, spite of his wool sent down, which seemed, indeed, swallowed up as nothing : while sixteen per cent. interest, which was charged on all the balance, and had been growing like a foul monster from year to year, stood there against him in the books of Davy Macleod, as a most formidable something. In eighteen hundred and forty three, you would have said, had you looked on Tom Scott's station, that he was a flourishing and happy man. He had come thither with something less than two hundred sheep, and now they numbered eight thousand ! Four shepherds regularly watched as many flocks, at four different huts, on the beautiful uplands —an estate befitting a prince. But if you looked on Tom himself,the delusion vanished. That clean-built, clever-looking fellow, with that fair and good-souled countenance, had shrunk into an old man. Not seven, but seventy years, seemed to have settled on him. His face was withered, his head was bald, his body stooped ; his bony and knotty fingers clasped a stout staff, which enabled him to drag along a pair of legs that stooped feebly at the knees, and feet that seemed too large for the man, and were shrouded in shoes slit and slashed, to give ease to their rheumatic deformity. That was the work of outward exposure, and th e i nwar d d rag o f a monstrous oppression. Care, and the fear that kills, had done their work, as well, or rather worse, than the elements. Tom Scott was actually perish ing of past adversity and present abundance. His flocks had flourished and grown till they had positively annihilated their own value. That year, douce Davy Macleod sent him word that the balance against him, on his books, was seven hun dred pounds. That his eight thousand sheep, at one shilling each, reached to the value of four hundred pounds ; that the colony was ruined for ever, and that, therefore, his hut and few other traps must be thrown in, the station made over to the said unfortunate Davy ; and he must endeavour to content himself with a bad bargain. Behold poor Tom Scott suddenly reduced, and after all his years of enormous exertions and incredible sufferings, from a squatter to a mere overseer. In the midst of a flock of eight thousand sheep, and on an estate of a beauty and extent worthy of the best prince that ever lived, a pauper and a ' cripple. Old in comparative youth ; destitute in the midst of abundance; a ruined man in fortune, frame and mind. . . . That was the fortune of the old squatter : the original pioneer of the wilderness, one of the forerunners of the present great Australian race of pastoral magnates, one of the founders of the pre sent magnificent trade in wool. But Tom Scott was no solitary victim : he was only one of a thousand. The same causes swept off the majority of the same class of men. Some yielded sooner, and some later, to the irresistible momentum of adverse circumstances ; but small was the remnant which escaped altogether. Theirs was the fate of the first heralds of human pro gress, and the whole victim race of discoverers, inventors, and projectors, the advanced guard and the ; forlorn hope of the army of the world's destiny.— Dickens's Household Words. THE " RIGHT" AND " LEFT" HAND.—IS it really a physiological fact, that men naturally use their right hand in preference to the left P Sir Benjamin Brodie, in his Psychological Inquiries, p. 203, speaks of it as an instinct. He even suggests that it is probable it is "an original instinct," adding, " The reason of our being endowed with this particular instinct is suffi ciently obvious. How much inconvenience would arise, were it necessary for different individuals to co operate in manual operations, if some were to use one hand and some the other !" The truth of this last remark is obvious enough ; but unless medical men can show some anatomical differences between the hands (which of course would settle the doubt at once), we suspect a jury of nurses and mothers would draw a very different conclusion from Sir Benjamin Brodie. They would aver that the use of the right hand is a thing which has to be taught from babyhood; that if a rattle were offered to an infant, it would just as naturally take it in the left hand as in the right, and that it is only because nurses and mothers are perpe- [DECEMBER 18, 185 Wally counteracting the natural prop en sity 3 1 both hands indifferent ly, that the use o f the rlg preference is ever acquired. Children of fourllre years . old even, will constantly forget, and offer ev ery d hand in shaking hands---a mistake whi ch of the family corrects with a joke. What' them , Sir Benjamin Brodie calls an " obvious 1.0 011 f o r ~‘ instinct," may possibly be an obvious re as _ °ll ht4 ll teaching." The etymology of the word hat 001 as applied to hand, would seem to inaplY P fi a L lii the hand ruled or ordered for more espec' w '„ - o s'iti s " but a medical man can, however, proaoulleelife, tbel as to any original difference in the haud s '„i 1 I v fore, make the inquiry, as it is one ce r--11 Y consideration.—Notes and Queries. VARIETIES. le tte' WHY is the letter a most uncertain cause it is always in doubt. WHY is a joiner less handsome thao 0 Because he is a deal-planer. veg tr / " SUMMER WEAR."—The clothing of a -ot a hat and pair of shoes. Those who wearl' e r. are considered aristocrats.---American J OP , o itsg NATURE AND ART.—A lecturer ada re ; l fie Hampshire audie nce , con t en d e d , w ith tires"til O lixity, that art could not improve nature ; I ' ll . o his hearers, losing all patience, set the r oon 3 " by exclaiming—" How would you wit h° wig?" area{. A SHIP is evidently a most affectionate c ';oti and may be said to be in love when she " mate ;" when she is a ship of great size ' l eo when she is a tender, to a m an-of-war ; fof " hugs the wind ;" when she " runs smack ;" when she is " after, a consort ;" dove o OT is " attached to a buoy !" c ool A CELEBRATED dandy was one eveuil?g * 1,-- n with a young lady, and observing her la i ., '' sB ite poodle, advanced and begged the utt, marking that she ought to have as much him as she had shown to a dog. " Sir, " I never kissed my dog when he was ap fellow took the hint and was off. . . 1 i. -1 it ' to , ef 4 k'qd, !'et)l A CELEBRATED engineer being examin , where both the judge and counsel trier brow-beat him, made use in his evidence o sion, " the creative power of a mechanic," judge rather tartly asked him what he me: creative power of a mechanic." " WV; said the engineer, " I mean that power w 1 3 ,1 a man to convert a goat's tail into a judge THE JEWS.—When the merchants of plied to Frederick the Great for " p r otect the ruinous competition of Jewish dealers, asked how the Jews managed to draw bush hands. The answer was, that they were ' ll late, always travelling about, lived very CC and were contented with small gains an i turns." " Very well," said the enlighten' " go and be Jews too in the conduct of your RULES FOR STUDY.—The other evenin Davis, the eminent mathematician, in C' with a young friend of his upon the inke e iseil system in studying, as well as in every - Oil- 4 e a piece of pap er an d wro t e off for him the to e ', important rules :-1. Learn one thing at 6 0 '0' Learn that thing well. 3: Learn its COnn ee l iefe .d tD far as possible, with all other things. 4. to know everything of something is better know something of everything. ( 10,0, 4 , 4 SUBLIME SELF-CONCEIT.---"When you m icll . ,Pi parallels of great actors," said Mr. Ellistonr,StoY Mr. Moncrieff, whom he had requested to w`i a V s " biographer, "you will not fail to recollect t h ic i O°A could not sing : I can. That Lewis eO uj co w r tragedy ; I can. That Mossop could not picalfe. I can. That Kean never wro t e a drama' I t ionilot r not forget th ese thi ngs , s i r ; b u t, i n ine s : A ll t " you cannot help associating with inY 0 , 111 ( 1" memorable in the age in which I flouris'A e . has SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.—" Every reaur n - has f f 4l is a saying for which Sir Robert Waln a te'T e t pi? l ,3 He is supposed to have believed that 'or_ s o,/ tensions a man might advance to probitY,?cji he be named, or advantage offered, for will si kd ke t h 11.4 ~~e s~rp ir is vv, — ,: ea - ; her ' a h a ' , e favour, 0 I h chart said tbe, yak 9uPPY' , 4 ) I i 0 ben Led Led pe ',, k : 3d Jo vIA Y . . -1 DI the er ' ti a l .. ,10 0 i is 0 13 :by A l, ' , l. k is ea t lot I° s e, hi c '',ig• % 4 44 e l re 5 10 10 . 1 0 ,,, r,,:' or , , ,l b :it ties _ 0 0 , !:, wp, the 0 j i 4s 11 ' 0 kit' l ill e ' po rli ci jjf t i ! I u p v 0; tft 4, 4l ? coo o ,a h i h d r 4 orc , , i ll L i l ~,v o i , ,; t qt io i l ie- (k k ' k. r U ,„,,,fet;o 1 ag . 1-r ceO filr°l k ‘ ‘l al cOt t t oe" N e . t lit o pOr ise ,d ,1 4 1 e a oOq, yh . l'l ft , , '' ) qs h e 0 ,.., , f p' L t a t 'O l3 l, .yiii wq.'„'fet 0 s,tted