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 the inward drag of
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 propensity 31
both hands indifferent ly, that the use of the rlg
preference is ever acquired. Children of fourllre
years. old even, will constantly forget, and offer
every d
hand in shaking hands---a mistake which
of the family corrects with a joke. What' them
,Sir Benjamin Brodie calls an " obvious 1.0011 for
~‘ instinct," may possibly be an obvious reas_°llht4ll
teaching." The etymology of the word hat 001
as applied to hand, would seem to inaplY PfiaL lii
the hand ruled or ordered for more espec'w '„-os'itis"
but a medical man can, however, proaoulleelife, tbel
as to any original difference in the hauds'„i 1 Iv
fore,
make the inquiry, as it is one cer--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.
vegtr/
" SUMMER WEAR."—The clothing of a -ot-
a hat and pair of shoes. Those who wearl'er.
are considered aristocrats.---American J OP ,oitsg
NATURE AND ART.—A lecturer adare;lfie
Hampshire audience, contended, with tires"til O
lixity, that art could not improve nature ; I'll.o
his hearers, losing all patience, set the roon3 "
by exclaiming—" How would you with°
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 man-of-war ; fof
" hugs the wind ;" when she
" runs
smack ;" when she is " after, a consort ;" dove o
OT
is " attached to a buoy !" cool
A CELEBRATED dandy was one eveuil?g* 1,--
n
with a young lady, and observing her lai.,
''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.

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k'qd,
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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 13,1
a man to convert a goat's tail into a judge
THE JEWS.—When the merchants of
plied to Frederick the Great for " protect
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 ani
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 inkeeiseil
system in studying, as well as in every-Oil-4e
a piece of paper and wrote off for him the toe',
important rules :-1. Learn one thing at 60'0'
Learn that thing well. 3: Learn its COnneeliefe.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 micll.,Pi
parallels of great actors," said Mr. Ellistonr,StoY
Mr. Moncrieff, whom he had requested to w`ia Vs"
biographer, "you will not fail to recollect thici O°A
could not sing : I can. That Lewis eOuj cow r
tragedy ; I can. That Mossop could not picalfe.
I can. That Kean never wrote a drama' Itionilotr
not forget these things, sir ; but, in ines:Allt"
you cannot help associating with inY 0,111(1"
memorable in the age in which I flouris'Ae.has
SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.—" Every reaurn-has ff4l
is a saying for which Sir Robert Walnate'Tetpi?l,3
He is supposed to have believed that 'or_ so,/
tensions a man might advance to probitY,?cji he
be named, or advantage offered, for will

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