The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-11-26 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

A Dentist says he will advertise in our paper if we will
take it out in tooth-drawing. We have two few already, sir.
—Clipper, American paper.
" Teddy, me boy, jist guess ho many cheeses there's in
this here bag, a faith I'll give ye the whole five.". " Five,"
says Teddy. " Arrah, by my soul, bad luck to the man that
tould ye !"

A JOHNSONTAN TRUISM.—The zealots for liberty are
often actuated by a desire of plundering wealth and degrading
greatness, an eagerness to subvert and destroy, with very
little care what shall be established.
KANGAROO HUNTING.—After a short chase through the
interminable depths of an Australian forest, I viewed him
bounding at a prodigious pace across a grassy plain ; Fly and
Trip hard upon his brawny haunches. Giving the " view
holloa," with all the zest of a Meltonian, no object seemed
too great for my enthusiasm to encounter, and several
streams were charged and cleared, which few men in cooler
moments would essay, with only shanks's nag beneath them.
At length, having chosen his ground, the kangaroo wheeled
quickly round, and stood at bay, defying, with terrific
scratches, or rather rips, the best attempts of my courageous
dogs to run into him. He was a noble fellow, standing (as
I afterwards measured) 7i feet, and using his short fore
paws, or flippers, armed with formidable talons, with all the
skill and science of a well-trained pugilist. In vain did I
look around in search of some weapon with which to assist
my faithful, and now wounded, dogs ; when, just as a fallen
branch of the eucalyptus presented itself to my notice, poor
Trip was placed hors de combat by a rip, which stopped his
kangaroo hunting for ever.—Sporting Review.
MR. TELFORD AND THE ELLESMERE CANAL.—The ra-
pid progress of canal navigation in England had directed the
attention of the gentlemen of Shropshire to the advantages
of uniting the rivers Dee and Mersey with the Severn. They
accordingly made the necessary surveys, and obtained the
sanction of the legislature in 1793. Having been highly sa-
tisfied with Mr. Telford's management of the public works,
the county magistrates offered to him the superintendence of
this new and complicated nndertaking. Our author unhe-
sitatingly accepted the offer; and from that time he directed
his undivided attention to civil engineering. In conducting
the Ellesmere Canal, as this work was called, Mr. Telford
possessed peculiar qualifications. Skirting, as it did, the
base of the Welsh hills, no fewer than two aqueduct bridges
of unusual extent were required to cross the valleys of the
Ceriog and the Dee, and for such purposes architectural ex-
perience was pre-eminently necessary. The. first of these
works, namely, the Chirk Aqueduct, is an object of great
interest. It was completed in 1801, at au expense of £20,1898,
crossing a picturesque valley seven hundred and ten feet
wide, and carrying a canal at a height of seventy feet above
the bed of the river. It is twenty-two feet wide, and con-
sists of ten arches, each of which is forty feet span ; and,
from the perfect equality of them all, the bridge has a grand
and imposing appearance. But the werk possesses still
higher merits. Hitherto our aqueduct bridges retained the
water by means of puddled earth resting on masonry ; but
in many cases, even in the works of Brindley, the action of
frost had burst the masonry, and thrown down the aqueduct.
In order to avoid such accidents, Mr. Telford, in place of I
filling up the spandrills of the arches with earth, constructed
them with longitudinal walls, and across these the canal
bottom was formed by cast-iron plates fixed in square stone
masonry ; the sides of the canal being made waterproof by
ashler work, backed with burnt bricks laid in Parker's ce-
ment. Interesting, however, as this fine bridge must ever
be, it is eclipsed by the Pontcysylte Aqueduct, which crosses
the Dee, and adds new beauty to the picturesque valley of
Llangollen. In the design of this magnificent work, which
was completed in 1805 at an expense of £47,018, Mr. Tel-
ford adopted a new method of construction, which has since
been generally followed. The height of the canal was no less
than one hundred and twenty-seven feet above the Dee, and
after the width of the valley had been shortened by embank-
ments, one thousand and seven feet still remained to be cros-
sed. Mr. Telford saw the risk, as well as the enormous cost
of constructing an aqueduct of such length and height by
piers and arches of stone ; and therefore conceived the idea
of carrying the canal over the valley in a cast-iron trough,
supported on cast-iron arches, and resting on stone piers.
The piers are twenty in number, including the two abutment
ones; and are united by nineteen arches of forty-five feet
span. The piers are of solid masonry to the height of seventy
feet, but the upper fifty feet of them is built hollow, with one
cross inner wall; a device which not only saved masonry,
but lowered the centre of gravity of each pier. The parapet
of both the Chirk and Pontcysylte Aqueducts is an iron rail-
ing, which gives lightness and elegance to the structure. We
had occasion, in 1808, in the company of Mr. Telford, to ex-
amine both these magnificent works, and were filled with ad-
miration not only of the skill but of the taste of the engineer.
—Edinburgh Review.
MOSAIC WORK.—We are told, in the Book of Esther, that
Ahasuerus had in his palace "a pavement of red and blue and
blue and black marble." In Britain and other countries
once inhabited by the Romans, tessellated or mosaic pave-
ments have frequently been discovered, proving that the art
was known to them. In 1799 there was a mosaic pavement
discovered near Seville, in Spain, a little way below the sur-
face of the ground. It is forty feet long by thirty wide, and
contains a representation of the circus games in the centre,
three sides of which are surrounded by circular compartments
containing figures of the muses, &c. In the race-course are
chariots overturned, the charioteer thrown,horses in confusion,
and horsemen dismounted : the charioteer appears to be in-
jured by his fall, and is supported by two men. Several spec-
tators are looking on at the sports. The compartments arc
occupied by the muses and their respective attributes, the
centaurs, children in variously coloured tunics, and animals
of various kinds. The floor between the different compart-
ments also exhibited various birds, fruits, and flowers ; and
great diversity of colour is seen throughout the whole. A si-
milar mosaic has been discovered near Lyons. It is com-
posed of small marble cubes, sometimes interspersed with
pastes of different colours, and is about sixteen feet by ten.
The whole details of the circus games are represented, from
which it appears that not less than eight chariots started at a
time, some of which are broken, and the horses and cha-
rioteers have fallen. The horses are white, grey, and pale
bay, and havean elegant and animated appearance. A num-
ber of spectators, generally clothed in blue, surround the
circus. On the roof of the baptistry of the church of St.
John, at Ravenna, according to Mr. Dalyell, the baptism of
Jesus Christ is represented in mosaic, ascribed to the fifth
century; the ceremony is performed partly by sprinkling,
and partly by immersion. A circular compartment in the
centre is occupied by Christ standing upright in the river,
and John, holding a large mishapen cross in one hand, pours
water from a shell or some vessel with the other on the head
of Christ. It likewise contains a human figure, inscribed
Jourdaun, rising out of the water, which is probably a perso-
nification of the sacred river. This compartment is environed
by full-length figures of the twelve apostles; and the whole is
surrounded by a border, consisting of pulpits, altars, and other
subjects. The modern Italian artists have been celebrated
for the production of mosaics, which represent some of the
pictures of the great masters. When Napoleon had posses-
sion of Italy, he ordered a mosaic copy of Lionardo da Vinci's
celebrated picture of the Last Supper to be taken, the same
size as the original, viz., twenty-four feet by twelve. The
artist was Giacomo Raffaelli ; and the men under his directi•
on, eight or ten in number, were engaged at it for eight years.
This mosaic, which cost £7,500, is now in the possession of
the Emperor of Austria.—Penny Magazine.
COINAGE.—Coins are generally completed by one blow of
the coining-press. These presses are worked in the Royal
Mint by machinery, so contrived that they shall strike, upon
an average, sixty blows in a minute; the blank piece, previ-
ously properly prepared and annealed, being placed between
the dies by part of the same mechanism. Of these presses,
and of the other machinery and operations used and carried
on in the mint, an excellent account, with illustrative engra-
vings, has been given by Mr. Mushet, in the Supplement to
the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The number of pieces which
may be struck by a single die of good steel, properly hardened
and duly tempered, not unfrequently amounts at the mint
to between 300,000 and 400,000 ; but the average consump-
tion of dies is of course much greater, owing to the different
qualities of steel, and to the casualties to which the dies are
liable ; thus, the upper and lower die are often violently
struck together, owing to a fault in the lay 6--on, or that
part of the machinery which ought to put the blank into its
place, but which now and then fails so to do. This accident
very commonly arises from the boy who superintends the
press neglecting to feed the hopper of the layer-on with blank
pieces. If a die is too hard, it is apt to break or split, and
especially subject to fissures, which run from letter to letter
upon the die. If too soft, it swells, and the collar will not
rise and fall upon it; or it sinks in the centre, and the work
becomes distorted and faulty. He, therefore, who supplies
the dies for an extensive coinage, has many casualties and
difficulties to encounter. There are eight presses at the
mint, frequently at work for ten hours each day ; and I con-
sider that the destruction of 'eight pair of dies per day (one
pair for each press) is a fair average result, though we much
more frequently fall short of than exceed this proportion. It
must be remembered, that each press produces 3,600 pieces
per hour, but, making allowance for occasional stoppages,
we may reckon the daily produce of each press at 30,000
pieces ; the eight presses, therefore, will furnish a diurnal
average of 240,000 pieces.-13rande's Journal.
THE VAMPYRE BAT.—It was 'during our excursion this
day that I had an opportunity of witnessing (to me at least)
a novel sort of sport. The vampyre bat, or flying fox, as it
is called, is a species of animal well known in hot climates,
about a foot in length, with wings, when extended, measuring
sometimes four feet. Its head is something like that of a
fox, whence it derives one of its cognomens, and during the
day-time immense clusters of them, clinging to each other
like a swarm of bees, some by their hind and others by their
fore legs, are frequently seen suspended to the under branches
of such trees as afford them shelter from the piercing rays
of a noon-day sun. Some of the Indian castes on the
Malabar and Canara coasts esteem their flesh as highly as we
do some sorts of game; and, as they present a fine compact
mass where every shot must tell, they are occasionally
slaughtered by hundreds ; yet such is their tenacity of life,
that the moment an unprepared shot enters their bodies,
their claws or talons arc convulsively struck into the tree or
whatever they cling to, and in that state they die, Hearing
some of the natives [of Malabar] speak of a number con-
gregated together at a short distance, I determined to witness
their mode of business. Upon their being pointed out to me,
I fired with shot, and was much annoyed at none falling.
A nativestanding beside me at his first shot dropped several ;
and, seeing the others meet with similar success, I felt much
mortified by a second unsuccessful shot. Observing that
every one who fired killed several. I scrutinized their load-
ing, and discovered that the shot they used had been pre-
viously soaked in strong chunam or lime-water, with which
they were completely encrusted. I got a charge of these,
and I found the result similar to when the natives fired : for
it appears the chunam, when it enters the skin or flesh, causes
such intolerable pain, that the muscular action of their claws
is thereby relaxed to such a degree as to cause the animal to
fall imediately.—The Sportsman.

THE CHILDHOOD OF THE DUCHESS OF ST. ALBAN'S.--
Who her father was is not very clear; he passed at Cork for
an officer of the name of Mellon from India, on a sick fur-
lough, and either married or carried off her mother, the
pretty assistant to a milliner there. Returning to India, he
left his lady in the way to have a daughter; and was never
satisfactorily heard of more. The widow, who had previously
been stage-struck, and accompanied an itinerant company on
a Welsh circuit, rejoined them as dresser, and soon after
married a young fiddler in Lancashire of the name of Entwisle.
Between the orchestra and the dressing-room, they picked
up a scanty subsistence, but paid all the attention they could
to little Harriot's upbringing and education ; who, in good
time, rewarded them by appearing successfully in small cha-
racters till she reached Little Pickle at Ulverston, in 1787,
when about ten years old. Before this we are told, " One
great source of Harriet Mellon's influence over her fellow-
pupils was, the wonderful fact that she had actually been a
performer in a play with Manager Bibby's actors. The cha-
racter, to be sure, was not a very arduous one, being that of
one of four mourners ranged round Juliet's bier. But then,
as the smallest and prettiest of the little girls, she was placed
in front nearest to the lamps, and was consequently the
prima donna of the juvenile mutes; and she used to look
forward to the giving out of that particular play (and the
consequent white frock with its broad black sash) as an event
exceeding all others in importance. The future comic actress,
therefore, decidedly came out first in tragedy. Although too
young to appear in any character, except such as one of the
little princes in the Tower, she already could recite with con-
siderable fluency, and she like Wise could sing very prettily to
the accompaniment of the violin. Those who remember her
singing thus, state that she was always placed standing on a
table, so that her sweet little silvery voice might be on a level
with her audience. Mr. Entwistle used to carry her to dif-
ferent houses, to dance hornpipes to his playing; and after
executing the dance on the same elevated stage, she used to
run round its edge to levy contributions for her avaricious
relatives."—Memoirs ofthe Duchess of St. Alban.

PRIVATE FORTUNES OF SOME OF THE GREAT PERSON-
AGES OF ANCIENT TlMES.—Creesus possessed in landed
property a fortune equal to £1,700,000, besides a large sum
of money, slaves, and furniture, which amounted to an equal
sum ; he used to say, that a citizen who had not a fortune
sufficient to support an army or legion, did not deserve the
title of a rich man. 1 The philosopher Seneca had a fortune
of £2,500.000. Lentulus, the soothsayer, had £3,500,000.
Tiberius, at his death, left £23,625,000, which Caligula spent
in less than twelve months. Vespasian, on ascending the
throne, estimated all the expenses on the state at X 3,500,000.
The debts of Milo amounted to £600,000. Caesar, before he
entered upon any office, owed £2,905,000; he purchased the
friendship of Curio for £soo,ooo,'and that of Lucius Paiilus
for £300,000. At the time of the assassination of Julius
Caesar, Anthony was in debt to the amount of X 300,000 ; he
owed this sum to the Ides of March, and it was paid before
the Kalends of April ; he squander6d £347,000,000 of the
public treasures. A ppicus expended in debauchery, £500,000 ;
and finding, on examination of the state of his affairs, that he
had no more than XBO,OOO left, he poisoned himself, because
he considered that sum insufficient for his maintenance.
Julius Caesar gave Servilla, the mother of Brutus, a pearl of
the value of £40,000. Cleopatra, at an entertainment, gave
to Anthony, dissolved in vinegar, who swallowed it, a pearl
worth £BO,OOO. Claudius, the son of Esopus, the comedian,
swallowed one worth £BOOO. One single dish cost Esopus
XBO,OOO. Caligula spent for one supper £BO,OOO, and Helio-
gabulus £20,000. Misalla gave £400,000 for the house of
Anthony. The fish from Lucullus's fishponds were sold for
X 35,000. The usual cost of a repast for Lucullus was
£20,000. Scaurus's country house was destroyed by fire,
and his loss was estimated at £850,000. Otho, to finish a
part of Nero's palace, spent £487,500.
THE THREE Looxs.—The Short Look.—The habitual or
every day look, named the sensual, having a point of con-
vergence which, though falling always short of the object,
may lie at various distances from it, does not regard all the
different objects which presents themselves in the field of
view as an entire whole, but expresses rather an effort to sin-
gle out some particular object, or even some portion only of
an object with which it may occupy itself more exclusively.
In this case there is in the mind some determined bias, some
natural capacity, which, if correctly appreciated and followed,
allows the individual to succeed in one particular line of life
for which he is best fitted, but seldom in any other. He
feels himself attracted by common and familiar objects, which
he employs in the ordinary manner for their ordinary pur-
poses, neither impairing nor improving them. In him the
activity of the eyes and of the hands are always united upon
the same object ; and the point of convergence of the visual
axes therefore does not extend beyond the reach of his hands.
The mind of such a person is satisfied with the things which
it ordinarily finds within a narrow circle of vision ; it has no
other want : the look, therefore, never rests upon objects at
a great distance. His ideas do not rise beyond sensible ob-
jects, and his mind is not even inclined to reflect upon impres-
sions and ideas derived through the senses. The individual
is perfectly satisfied with the enjoyments of sense ; is more in-
different towards the moral feelings ; is contented to hear les-
sons of morality without taking further notice of them. Such
men are not exactly to be feared, but it is necessary to be
on our guard in our intercourse and dealings with them.—
The Middle Look.—The habitual look to which the term in-
telligent has been applied, where the point of convergence
coincides with the object, indicates a prevailing effort to single
out and fix upon a particular object, or some part of it, yet to
view it at the same time in the aggregate. Here also there
is a natural bias in the mind to apply itself practically to or-
dinary things ; but there is more freedom in the exercise of
its powers, and the mind reflects upon the ideas acquired
through sensation. The objects are used, it is true, with a
regard to their purposes; yet they are also compared with
other things, and employed in connexion with them, and in
various and experimental ways, from whence improvements
and inventions frequently arise. Such men unite acuteness
of the senses with the power of acute observation : they are
ready at devising expedients, and skilful in investigating the
true causes of things ; and according to the adage, know how
to "hit the nail on the head." Their mind is not insensible
to enjoyments of sense, yet does not feel itself satisfied with
them; it seeks its gratification rather in methodical activity
and in the exact sciences, in mathematics, mechanics, and in
experimental inquiry. With regard to ethics, the individual
inclines to rationalism ; he believes only what the understan-
ding comprehends ; he loves that which is true and just both
in word and deed. Such men are cautious and suspicious in
every thing, but when once their minds are convinced they are
decided in their actions, and are therefore to be relied on ; in
such men as them our confidence will not be misplaced.—
The Through Look.—The habitual, look, termed the can-
templative, having a distant point of convergence, which,
though always behind the object, may lie at various distances
from it, attends principally to the ensemble and less to indi-
vidual parts, although it by no means overlooks the latter,
or leaves them unobserved. There is here a natural inclina-
tion, not strictly speaking to extraordinary things, but rather
to those which are not immediately obvious at the first glance,
not quite common and familiar, and the true nature of which
is only to be learned by meditation and reflection. Persons
of this class do not make use of the things that come next to
hand in a blind and empirical manner; and when they are
occupied with ordinary things, they perceive more in these
objects than actually appears in them, or they see rather
their own ideas reflected in the objects than the objects as
they simply appear. They are comparatively indifferent to
the enjoyments of sense, although they do not despise them ;
they live rather in the more refined enjoyments of the mind,
are inclined to meditation and contemplation, to philosophical
pursuits, and delight in framing theories. In a moral point
of view, they perceive and honour that which is just and true
in word and deed : sometimes, however, this perception or
knowledge is overpowered by an intensity of feeling, which
borders on the domain of passion ; but reason and the sense
of right most frequently regain the ascendancy. Men of such
character, though certainly never guilty of fraud or deceit,
require to be treated with the greatest delicacy, attention,
and respect ; otherwise they are not to be relied upon with
implicit confidence.—Dr. Franz on the Eye and the Look.