Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-24 00:00:00

THE MARKETS, &c.

The love light from wkose eyes,
Was mill as mellow moon be..ms,
From Oriental rktes.

►as
ad
he

Ferb3 make grass,
And ;rut m ik,s hay,

'LD CHRISTMAS, AGAIN.

IV4lconae, Old Christmas, once again! That face, although
tall of wrinkles, and hearing evident marks of the plough.
.share of thy elder brother, e Time," is still welcome! We
like that old face, although the eye be not so laughing, or
tee Emilie se gay, as in days of yore; yet, once again, we
benison be on thee, Old Christmas ! Over thy
444--tuark, none can step with impunity ; for the moment
We prepare to pass thy bounds, necromantic memory
titttches, ns by the throat, crying aloud —" stop, and
'member " How many good resolutions had you made
`415 time last year, and how many have you truly kept
44 performed? You start, do you? Well, indeed, it is
1)111Y a pang, and like the flesh of forked-lightening, passes-
-1,14 leaves it nothing behind ? How many old years hest
1110 a seen depart? and how many new ones hast- thou
Welecitned in ? and art thou all the better for the lessons
a_
light by those silent but sure monitors ? Put thy hand
4:1_1 thy heart, and tell me truly are thou one whit improved
"Itt this day twelve months ? Thou art twelve moons
tlearer to that bourne from whence no traveller returns,
,tll4 what preparation hast thou made for thy journey ?
'here is a season and a timo for all things ; hast thou
Iltsfited by taking alvantage of these? How many
Illleerful hearths hast thou not contributed to enlighten-
-414 ask yourself Where are your friends, your playmates,
1114 kindred? How many will answer this with a sigh,
sad bow many eyes will be filled with tears, as the words,
.
'last Christmas," involuntarily escapes the lips ? How
1:.4.1,1:1_17 vacant places—where some loved one used to sit—
"l be found about our hearths.

And wh"n we remember all
Thn words of love then spoken—
Th- eye. that ?bone,
Vow don'ed and rens,
The cheo haute now broken.
4nd -yet, after all, old Christmas, we love thee We are
Ilot Of the Latrant or Cynic school—no " dog in the
finger'' for us—if we cannot participate to the fullest
:teat in the enjoyment, such as the world paSsing on-
-IPlrd affords us, why we like to see others able to do so.
011ectivelynorindividually man was not made for self,and
.
tWe could find out any man whcw heart beats not respon-
41te to the Jehovah salutation of a " happy Christmas,"
ite should at once jump from the sublimity of fEolian
tetry to plain sympathising prose, and catch the rascal
tY the th.roat, crying out !‘ Xou Sepoy I '' And yet
itt'l're moons have only circled this earth (query, is the
earth really round?) since we met—three hundred and
a7tY-fivediurnals—and yet in that brief span in the order
17 Urge, how many laughing face*. and bright eyes, and
(1113- cheeks, and faultless forms, and buoyant steps, have
tided away from arnongit ? How many households
,s,
;ss the pet and pride of the family," in the everlasting
'acne° of th it beautiful girl, bursting like a flower into
.4 and life—

iltllorr many a " brave boy," the stay of an aged mother
.4 the proud usurper, Death, laid low, without the aid
tlrsvP it'd or pestilence, -inte last W. greeted Old Christ=
;4? Wo fain would be on a merry rather than
alancholy train of thinking, because if our valued and
teaerated friend "Christmas' brings his sorrows, yet we
rot the joys that accompany him will preponderate
heZ. °Pposite scale, to sur.:ll an extent, that the balance
"911 he all in favour of the purchaser.
1)?ell, if we have lost dear and beloved faces, there is
we consolation, that others have sprungup, for
v_oo may break, ,0,1 may scatter, the vete as ynn will,
I, t the scent of the rOses will hang round it stilt l
although one blossom fades to-day, to-morrow
new buds appear, and, in due time,
4t6
,May look to these for flowers also. Christ-
-41 is, after all, a happy time—if we could only see
8 It. The misfortune is, though, we never can see anything
its proper light and true bearings—that's certain-.
:PP°se we could live some two or threo hundred years,
tic-414 we, by any possible effort, enjoy life more than we
at Present knowing you must die some time or other ?
:lila this broad coestion to the reader, young and old
tllas t" You not seen mil enjoyed some pleasant Christ-
ou va",„7-4e1"?" To be sure you have : very:well. then : don't
""', If you live, that some Christmas to come may
0", quite so happy T. But that?e no reason I should
late to die now. We never saidi.it was. Then don't be
114411 g on with your dolesome sort 'of talk in this way, for
4ift-You know, as well as I do, that

TiTe flies fast. the poet sings,
Then surely it is wise,
In ro,y wine to steep Ws wings,
And
Tr 6
°P there. We had jest coruo; to the culminating point
*. 'a You took up that simile about old time and rosy
4;4; and so let tn walk back, linked together, to the
liPitable mansion of Old Christmas, who only
GiV3Il " a b•cw out" once a year,
But when he does, he gives him good cheer.
a large mansion hath our good old relation ? How
It44hlful hia domain (the grasping lawyers call the last
o
de4zesnc) is laid out ; the branches of his oak, with
hundred arms so strong," stretch far and wide ;
41; gardens are replete with everything good for,food,
Plea3aut to look upon ; his forests are great, for I
°II
ill beholding
Trees, tall tape'ing troes,
Thy fcrros I love to :zee,
t ,er lathed by the tempest,
GE f,,n'd by tLe bre,zo,
ou'ie beautiful thiogs t) ma
th; art thou sociable, indeed; now art thou coming to
'%til---this is Eomettling like old Christmas, for
utbo4Bh hialtrees are leafless, there is a good natured
444 recognizable about them that says, as plain as
Nki jag trees can say, WELCOME! Welcome, then,
Nh, old, good-natured, benevolent, hospitable, and
-"Ural Christmas ; and when other men and other
th 4:" salute thee, may thy shadow never be less, and may
thor"arld be at peace—may plenty prevail, and enlight-
freedom govern the land, and our ships govern the
ttt'
t ill tranquil commerce.
hi t4iug done this bit of poet-astering, we think it right
ItinY a little task of prose-astering ; but we fear w;
tiktrlot gr.t on so well in that line as the former, for it is
% easier to couple "love " and " dove, or to write a
tl',4t to tho black eye-brow of Nancy Malone, or a suit
4(1240141e—a ready made suit we mean—than to apes-
* prize ox, a couple of South Down sheep, a
tiktitil Pound capon, or a gorgon turkey 1 fat pork pigs,
44‘ tides of beef, well fe /calves (too many of them we
t4:4 tnoustre South ,Downs, with a variety of other
'II"' such as—

rabbit. and Hares,
‘1.4 And Pheasants in pair?,
14141enlated to produce an; idea rather than that of
top the muses—these arc stern realities ; but so
111.1 t -"4c lass poetry become in the save of dairy produce,
Ity.._llm
celebrated feeler o; pigs, in Wiltshire, has made
ve
Ntt tQtnpqng offers to the present writer (unier..a
htlncePtlon that he was the greasy laurate) to eulogise
414:141% and his knuckles, and his sid..s, aad, above all,
~tj/-. and other productions of his stye. But the
415:1% feeling that he had not &imbed high enouth up
l'et-4t Par nassas for the accomplishment of the task, was
bl4tly obliged to refuse the golden bait by telling
that

•
And cow- eat it up, "
Afto. And it'L butter next day !
"qt all, and notwithstanding the crisis—we know a
1/4 ttiZ, word for ‘• crises," far, an, away hotter than
for e.ratn"is for ‘• tele,raph, —but 1
as we are not paid
1,0,44! We shall, for the present, reserve if, until some floe
the t.llllB we will astonish the Norld—that we will—with
‘`t•4llbBtitute. But, as we were just Paying, for all. the
1111:R4tIle8s "—and it must be confessed that the wri er, ,
I)t,p.le e the run "on the banks, has frequently ex-
tp %srieed a sort of hand-cut Ting sensation about his
e ,
thi.% r -
a Pockets that almost induced him. on two or
BPeetal occasions, to imitate " better rime —that is,
tki,Bl4l3osed to possess more money than he does—and
lab11:414 Cash payments ;" but he is particu'arly happy
14%11'N:that his milk bill has been liquid-Wed, and that,
the:teller has been fully satisfied with 193 and 1111 in
I‘llcl 4:1141. He was about saving that people must eat
d and whether they can consume more food and
440; about the close of the year than at other periods
e"~rAtaini but it is very certain that more is provided
4bliocorepetition, not. to mention the consumption,