The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

fectly certain he could not survive the dilatory pro-
ceedings of the Neapolitans. For two long hours did
he survive, when his voice became feebler and feebler
—perhaps as he, by slow degrees, slid deeper and
deeper into the crater, hope gradually vanished, until
the voice was entirely lost. An occasional groan was
heard, until after the expiration of the above time,
then all was silent. The body was many hours after
rescued by a guide, who descended 200 feet before he
found it ; of course it was perfectly lifeless, the
sulphur had suffocated the poor fellow.—Captain
Chamier's Unsentimental Journey.
THE WOLF'S ATTACK.---It is no less curious than
amusing to witness their ingenious mode of attack. If
there is no snow, or but little on the ground, two
wolves approach in the most playfol and caressing
manner, lying, rolling, and frisking about, until the
too credulous and unsuspecting victim is completely
put off his guard by curiosity and familiarity. During
this time the gang, squatted on their hind quarters,
look on at a distance. After some time spent in this
way, the two assailants separate, when one approaches
the horse's head, the other his tail, with a slyness and
cunning peculiar to themselves. At this stage of the
attack, their frolicsome approaches become very inter-
esting ; it is in right good earnest; the former is a
mere decoy, the latter is the real assailant, and keeps
his eyes steadily fixed on the ham-strings or flank of
the horse. The critical moment is then watched, and
the attack is simultaneous ; both wolves spring at their
victim at the same instant, one to the throat, the other
to the flank, and if successful, which they generally
are, the hind one never lets go his hold until the horse
is completely disabled, Instead of springing forward,
or licking to disengage himself, the horse turns round
and round without attempting a defence. • The wolf
before then springs behind to assist the other. The
sinews are cut, and in half the time I have been de-
scribing it, the horse is on its side ; his struggles are
fruitless—the victory is won. At this signal the
lookers-on close in at a gallop, but the small fry of
followers keep at a respectful distance until their su-
periors are gorged, then they take their turn unmo-
lested. The wolves, however, do not always kill to eat ;
like wasteful hunters, they often kill for the pleasure
of killing, and leave the carcases untouched.---The
Fur Hunters of the Far West.
WHY THE KINGDOM OF KANDY (CEYLON) FELL
INTO THE HANDS OF GREAT BRITAIN.—In 1812, there
reigned in Kandy a monarch who will be for ever
remembered for his cruelties. His name was Sree
Wikrime Rajah Singha. He had impaled several of
his chiefs ; and his adikar, or first noble, fearing
his displeasure, fled to the English. The king
seized the adikar's wife and children, with his brother
and wife, and relatives, amountinc, in all to seventy
persons, and sentenced all to death.° " The children,"
says an authentic report of the transaction, " were
ordered to be decapitated before their mother's face,
and their heads to be pounded with her own hands
in a rice-mortar. Which, to save herself from a
diabolical torture and exposure, she submitted to
attempt. The eldest boy shrank from the dreadful
ordeal, and clung to his agonized parent for safety,
but his youngest brother, stepping forward, encouraged
him to submit to his fate, and placed himself before
the executioner, by way of setting an example. The
last of the children to be beheade was an infant at
the breasts, from which it was forcibly torn away, and
its mother's milk was dripping from its innocent
mouth as it was put into the hands of the grim execu-
tioner." The mother, having stones fastened to her
feet, was pushed into a deep tank. Her sister-in-law
met the same fate ; and the adikar's brother, though
not supposed to have had the least connection with his
flight, was at the same time beheaded. Happily for
his people, this tyrant extended his atrocities to those
under our protection. In 1814, ten Singalese mer-
chants, belonging to the English provnacei, were
taken up while engaged on business in Kandy, and
sent home mutilated, with their ears and noses
fastened to their necks. An explanation was de-
manded—no answer was accorded ; whereupon the
governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, marched a force
into Kandy • took possession of the capital and king-
dom, and relieved the people from such a king and
his dynasty for ever.
FRENCH " APARTMENTS."—The French, like the
Scotch, live one above another, under the same roof,
in the separate floors of large houses ; thus econo-
mising space and money. In the principal streets, the

ground floor consists of a shop; then comes the mez-
zanine floor, or entresol ; then a suite of rooms, on the
same level, which includes every convenience for a
family; and so up and up, to the highest floor. This
is usually divided into two sets of apartments, for
residents of humble means. At the end of a pretty
tesselated passage beside the shop, there is, at the foot
of the stairs, a snug little glass-case or lodge. Look-
ing in, you will usually see a woman in a clean cap
knitting a stocking ; a gilt pendule is certain to be
ticking on the chimney-piece ; and a clean bed en-
sconced in an alcove. This woman's husband—always
dressed, in the morning, in a cap and a coarse green
apron—is one of the trustworthy and serviceable class
of domestic ball-keepers, or porters, for which Paris is
remarkable. He polishes the stairs, polishes the ban-
isters, polishes everything he can lay his hands upon,
and has generally polished his own manners too. He
is shrewd, steady, observant, and can keep his own
counsel withal. Every floor pays him a small, fixed,
monthly stipend ; and he is the guardian genius of the
whole house. You ask his wife on which floor your
friend lives, and she, the portress on duty, takes all
sorts of pains to make you understand her directions,
if she sees there be any dulness in your foreign appre-
hension. You ascend a flight of oak stairs (carefully,
for the porter-husband is polishing his way down from
the top vigorously) by the help of banister supported
by bronzed and gilt rails. Your friend's door opened,
admits you to a little hall, in which, when it is shut
after you, you feel as much isolated from the world as
if you were standing on the mat of the private resi-
dence of the honourable deputy of St. Vitus's Back-
lane, near Camberwell-green. Little drawing-rooms,
dining-room, study, nursery, bedrooms, kitchen (and
a back-stair leading to it, for servants and tradesmen),
all furnished with an amount of sensible taste highly
suggestive to all the deputies in all Camberwell. And
all—horrid idea !---over a shop. Yet your friend may
be an English baronet or a foreign count, with thou-
sands a-year, and with some capital horses in a stable
close by. Does Monsieur Viteplume, chef de bureau
at the office of the Minister of the Interior, who lives
in the floor above, or Madame Bonnebonnet, the court
milliner, who lives over him, Or M. Burin, the en-
graver, who resides nearer heaven by the altitude of
one story, or Jules Cordon, the journeyman bootmaker,
or Mademoiselle Fleurschateau, who each inhabit the
attic apartments---ever interfere with the rich baronet,
or with one another ? Never. When the cobbler
meets the baronet or the government official, or
madame or mademoiselle on the same stairs, he claims
them as neighbours only by a polite bow, and " bon
jour."—Household Words.
ROME IN THE SIXTH CENTIIEY.—It was towards
the close of this interval that Belisarius felt a desire
to visit and survey with his own eyes the ruins of a
place that had been the theatre of so much grandeur
and renown ; and with this view he sallied forth from
the seaport at the head of a strong squadron of
his guards. A marble wilderness extended on every
side as far as the eye could reach, strewed with the
ruins of Vitruvian villas, temples, and aqueducts ;
the waste water of the latter had filled all the valleys
and overflowed the low grounds of the Campagna,
converting into marshes and mantling pools those
regions which ere while had abounded with all the
delights of the Hesperides. The thoroughfares of the
nations were silent and lonely as the double line of
tombs through which they passed. The towers and
inscriptions over the gates had been torn down, and
the bronze portals carried off in the plunder-train of
the barbarian. The rock-built walls of Rome lay low ;
and the tramp of their war-horses was muffled by the
grass, as Belisarius and his troops rode under a succes-
sion of dismantled arches, down towards the Forum,
along the " sacred way." The fox looked out from
the casements of the Palatine, and barked sharply at
the intruders as they rode on ; wolves prowled
through the vacant streets, or littered in the palace
halls; wild dogs hunted in packs, through the great
circus, through the baths, along the Campus Martins,
and on to the gardens of Sallust and Maecenas, through
the promenade of the Suburra. Outlandish beasts—
as if escaped from the menageries and keeps of the
amphitheatres—lay sleeping and enjoying themselves
in the sunshine of the porticoes, or tore one another to
pieces, as the factions had done of old, around the
rostrum, and in the assembly-place of the people ;
others growled and snarled, and gloated over the un-
buried carcases and whitening skeletons of the dead.

Ravens and vultures desi
guinary nestlings, to hoof
slowly among the prostr:
of temples that encumbe
or, starting from their
triumphal arch, hovered
above the plumage of th,
Roman eagle soars abo'
eyry from whence, for A
forth to carnage ; and
field of Mars resound agai
like response of legions--
the Samnite or the P
hideous medley of yells
roar, outtopped by the sh
startled from their roosf
and from the niches and
The warriors listened for
they listened, and lister
Palatine, the Forum, th
tins, and the Tiber flowil
mer-sky beneath the Tarp,
the emperors, the senate,
were they ?---Rome under

CONSTA.NTINOPLE AS I'
blinded in the streets by
have mud up to your elbi
everywhere,—dogs bald,
about without masters, any
a bone to pick. The pop'.
rags, sauntering lazily ;—dru
resembling bandits ;—ber
Backhilk!"—sweetmeat
porters, bending under t'
carriers, carrying water
Spaniard carries his guit:
Armenians with their poil
robes ;---7a few Turks of t
bans ;—a few effendis in
of the reformers ; such a:
crowd that passes by y 4
watch-chain ! Where, thk
resplendent with goldei
jewels, and passing, esco:
a trembling and obsequii
do the odalisques—those
perfumed tunics—o.o to
eyes shining from under 1
find those sumptuous pl
carried at a brisk trot by
are the Arab coursers--th,
with their silken trappings
scene of Oriental life, ner
appeared to us so mean, Si
The Arab coursers P—thee
jades—those lean aborti(.
vermin, and mounted by IT
selves, which wait for yol
station, and offer you, for
seat upon an unstuffed 5:
litters have given place to
barrieres, expatriated to
still offer the chance of a I
look so closely at them.
fashion, upon the seats of
he squats upon them, or si
divan ; while the coachm:
himself upon the coach-bc
horses, urging them forw.
stick. That woman who
but seldom),—that woman,
bare feet protected by w,
cotton trousers, and covers
ample folds of her white
you will soon retreat in dis:
of her neighbOurhood—a s(
of those fermented paste
the merchants sheltered in
burn under the noses of
is this middle-aged man, wi
green frock-coat is buttoned
cious stoutness, annihilatin
shoulders to his head,
wink
He wears spectacles, and his
a cabman. is he the bal,„
corner of the street ?
pacha, perhaps, with many _
—one of the noble Osmanli;
poor
devils who are followi
—the successors of the jam _
the kavas of to-day. They are huDgl