The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF " DIOGENES."

WHAT SAYS PAUL?—It appears that the members of a
"Nice Firm," which has lately evaporated in the Strand, are
to be rescued by some obsolete clause. We conceive it to be
anything but poetical justice that, while the depredators are
sheltered by a clause, their victims are undefended from their
clutches.
LOOK ON THIS PICTURE, AND ON THAT.—The number of
cheap pictorial papers which are being eventuated will go far
to prove that the recent alteration in the newspaper law will
not be wanting in illustration,
A Lady, whose pocket has lately suffered very much from
feline breakages, wishes to know whether the " Plate Glass
Company" insures plates and glasses.
GENERAL PELISSIEB AN IRISHMAN.—Yes : we knew they
would—the Irish claim him. The newspapers inform us that
" the Irish claim General Pelissier as the son of a countryman.
It is said that his father was a Limerick gentleman, a Mr.
Pelissier, who was obliged to fly from Ireland during the
troubles of 1798." Of course. It is notorious that from Ad-
miral Noah down to Admiral Lyons all the celebrated com-
manders by sea and land—all the sages, artists, orators,—
indeed, all the really great men have had Irish men for their
mothers, and Irish girls for their fathers. That is to say—
well, you know what we mean. Was not Confucius—his real
name was Conway—a boy from Galway, who, emigrating
during the troubles (and there always were troubles in the old
country), went to China and set up a paper ? Is not the appel-
lative " Grecian," as applied to Milesians, derivable from
Alexander the Great, whose parents were of the stock of the
Grady's, corrupted into Great-y or Great ? But why these
interrogatives ? Assertion, simply assertion, is all that is
needed for such undoubted Irish claims. St. Dunstan (query
Donovan) was an Irishman. So was Admiral Blake. The
Blakes are all Irish. Raffaelle's real name was O'Rafferty.
Michael (Mike) Angelo was from Cork. It is beyond dispute
that Homer is only O'Meara misspelt. Ossian was a an
O'Shehan, Sully an O'Sullivan, Christopher Columbus was
originally a Dublin clerk, by name Kit Dove, or Duffy, which
he, according to the prevalent practice, latinised into Colum-
bus in the same way as Linnaeus did his of Lin, or O'Lin. It
is a sin against Ireland to spell Raleigh otherwise than Reilly;
and, coming to more modern days, what was Cavaignac but a
Cavanagh, Lamartine but a Martin, La Moriciere but a Morris?
Is not the charming Empress Eugenie a sprig from the genu-
ine shamrock ? And, coming to a name which unites antiquity
with to-day—splicing the old rough with the modern debon-
naire—amalgamating the sublime penetration of the Cynic of
the porch with the acumen of the Reform Club critic—to that
of Diogenes, who can doubt that Irish blood is at the bottom
of the whole business ? What wonder, then, that Pelissier,
now that he is the talk of town and country, is claimed for an
Irishman; but let the General beware. Men are to be Irish
no longer than they are famous. If, in the end, he tarnishes
the brightness of his present glory, and fails to take Sebastopol,
a paragraph is in store for him—like a rod in pickle•—in which
it will be proved, clear as mud, that it was all a mistake, and
that there was nothing Irish about him.
FOOTPRINTS of famous men, by one who has had to clean
after them ; which, goodness knows ! they're dirty enough,
and never half wipe their feet in the mat.
A PARLIAMENTARY T(O)UTOR.—That we are in want of
an improved race of Politicians few will deny. In fact, if we
took the same pains in the rearing of " Hon." members as we
do with our Cochin Chinas, there is no doubt but that am im-
proved race would be the result. Birds with less of the goose,
and more of' the fighting cock in them—birds, in fact, whose
sittings would be far more profitable. We were led to make
the above profound reflection by the perusal of the following
advertisement, copied from Tuesday's Times :—PoLmcs.—
Any gentleman whose ambition leads him to public life, and