The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-10 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

IF WOMEN knew their real power, and wished to exert
it, they would always endeavour to shew sweetness of
,temper, for there they are irresistible.

THE YANKEES assert that all their children are born
geniuses, and, to verify this, they say that when a baby is
not sleeping or eating, it is rolling its eyes about, thinking
how to improve its cradle.

DESCENT.—Francis I. asked one day of Duchatel, the
learned Bishop of Orleans, if he was a gentleman. "Sire,"
was the prelate's reply, " in the ark of Noah there were
three brothers—l cannot tell from which of them I am
descended."

" No MAN," said Mrs. Partingfon, " was better calcu-
lated to judge of pork than my poor dear husband was ;
when he was living, poor man, he knew what good hogs
were, for he had been brought up amongst 'em from hii
childhood."

THE BISHOP AND THE FOXRUNTING PARSON.—Bishop
Blomfield was a very young man when first he came into
the diocese of Chester, and some of the older clergy ra-
ther presumed upon this. There were at that time many
among them who would cross the country, and take a
five-barred gate as if it were that fortieth article of which
Theodore Hook spoke to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford.
The bishop one day met a number of these black-coated
Nimrcds. The scene was not far from Manchester. After
dinner some of the old incorrigibles persevered for a long
time, with marvellously bad taste, to talk of their dogs
and horses, and nothing else. His lordship looked grave,
but was silent. At last one of them, directing his con-
versation immediately to him, began to tell him a long
stot y about a famous horse which he owned, and which he
had lately ridden sixty miles on the North-road without
drawing bit. It was the bishop's turn now, and down
came his sledge-hammer with all the force of a steam-en-
gine. " Ah," he said, with the most cutting indifference,
" I recollect hearing of the same feat being once per-
formed before, and, by a strange coincidence, on the
north road too ; it was by Turpin, the highwayman."
ExERCISE IN THE COVNTRY.—Walking is good; no
stepping from shop to shop, or from neighbour to neigh-
bour, but stretching out far into the country, into the
freshest fields, and highest ridges, and quietest lanes.
However sullen the imagination may have been among
its griefs at home, here it cheers up and smiles. However
listless the limbs may have been when sustaining a too
heavy heart, here they are braced and the lagging gait be-
comes buoyant again. However perverse the memory
may have been in presenting all that was agonising, and
insisting only on what.eannot be retrieved, here it is first
disregarded, and then it sleeps ; and the sleep of the
memory is the day in Paradise to the unhappy. The mere
breathing of the cool wind on the face in the commonest
highway is rest and comfort, which must he felt at such
times to be believed. It is disbelieved in the shortest in-
tervals between its seasons of enjoyments; and every
time the sufferer has resolution to go forth to meet it, it
penetrates to the very heart in glad surprise. The fields
are better still, for there is the lark to fill up the time
with mirthful music, or at worst, the robin and the flocks
of fieldfares, to show that the hardest day has its life and
hilarity. But the calmest region is the upland, where
human life is spread out beneath the bodily eye,—where
the eye moves from the peasant's nest to the spiry town,
from the school-house to the churchyard, from the dimi-
nished team in the patch of fallow, or the fisherman's
boat in the cove, to the viaduct that spans the valley or
the fleet that glides, ghost-like, on the horizon. This is
the perch where the spirit plumes its ruffled and drooping
wings, and makes ready to let itself down by any wind that
heaven may send.

How EMINENCE IS ACQUIRED AT THE ENGLISH BAR.
—For mine own part I should not be uneasy if it was not
for your anxiety and the present heavy expense of liv-
ing and buying very dear books, so many of which are in-
dispensable. You are aware that none but easy matters
can or ought to be intrusted to a beginner at the bar, as
the least mistake may materially injure the whole progress
of the cause ; and consequently, while men of long ex-
perience are always to be had, attorneys cannot, in fairness
to their clients, procure any but the best advice and as-
sistance. Add to this. that they are almost always in the
habit of employing particular men, with whom they form
a sort of connexion, from which they are reluctant to
depart, and it will not seem wonderful that business does
not come at once. I have taken a great deal of pains to
inquire how men of great practice at first got on, and I
find that it has almost invariably been by very slow
degrees • at first being only employed when easy business
happened to occur, and when men more advanced were
either out of the way or so much otherwise employed, that
they could not use the despatch which in particular cases
happened to be necessary. On thus finding that many
men who are now making great fortunes were sometimes
for two or three years without getting any business, and
sometimes for eight or ten years hardly able to maintain
themselves, I see no reason for being anxious but the
present difficulties to which I have alluded. On every
other hand I am more comfortable than I have been ;
being very much more reconciled to my business, to which
I now devote my whole attention, and far which 1 have
relinquished every other pursuit. My whole time will be
passed either in chambers or in court ; and, if being always
in the way and always attentive to my business will give
success, I shall be successful, as soon as favourable cir-
cumstances concur to give me employment. When that
may he I am afraid does not depend on myself, but on the
friendly disposition of others. I should be very glad
indeed of some employment, but I confess that if a great
deal were to come to me all at once 1 should be afraid to
undertake it ; and if it were not on account of having
money in hand, I would rather not have it, because I am
convinced that by begining slowly I shall have a better
chance of doing more in the end, after the example of
many men who are now very eminent in the profession.
I have said all this in the hope of persuading you that in
time I shall succeed, and of preventing your being uneasy
at the time which is requisite. But, in the mean time, I
eannot express how uneasy I always am at the thoughts of
having been, and continuing to be, so heavy a burden to
you ; but, indeed I hardy know how it could have been
other, ise. In clothes and living I have been as econo-
mical as I could, consistently with keeping up a decent
appearance. My chambers are certainly expensive ; but
to have worse, or in a worse situation, would hardly be
advantagious to me on many accounts. The buying of
books harasses me most, and must continue to do so, till
I have a better stock; and they are so very expensive,
that a law-book generally costs twice as much as any other
of the same size. I have, at different times, paid nearly
£2OO for three or four shelves full, ( which I could not have
done without selling several other books for which I had
not immediate use,) and still I am in want of some which
are essential ; the Statutes at large, for instance, which at
this time cannot be bought for less than £5O, and others,
though not of equal importance, yet very necessary ? for a
lawyer's library is like a tradesman's stock in trade, with-
out which his business cannot be carried on.—Memoirs
of Lord Langdale.