The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

THE MOTHER-TONGUE.

The mother's name is a heavenly sound,

As far as the blue sky bendeth ;
The mother's voice casts gladness round
Where the iciest realm extendeth.
Sweet in pleasure and sweet in woe,
Sweet in life and in death also,
And sweet in recollection.

Our mother's voice was the cradle song
That soothed us beyond all other ;
And sweetly soundeth the mother-tongue
When the first-born lispeth " Mother !"

Our mother-tongue is that in which
Our young souls first found exprossion ;
And the lover knows no other speech
To pour out his full heart's passion.

'Twas spoken by all those kings of old
Round whom our homage gathers.
And by those warriors true and bold
Whom we proudly call our fathers.

Our mother-tongue, in the people's mouth,
With words of nower it liveth ;
'Tis loved in the North awl in the South,
And its echo the green wood giveth.

Oar mother-tongue, like a flowery wreath,
BOth high and low it enfoldeth ;
Through it the souls of our fathers breathe,
And the true heart fast it holdetli.

Our hearts speak only our mother-tongue,
They know no foreign translation ;
'Tie it alone, whether written or sung,
Which from sleep can rouse a nation.

Our mother-tongue, by the sea-shore wild,
And in deep woods, smnmer laden,
How sweetly it sounds, from man or child,
But sweetest from the lips of a maiden.
Sweet in pleasure and sweet in woe,
Sweet in life and in death also.
And sweet in recollection.

LITERATURE.

BOOKS FOR REVIEW, &c.—Books, New Prints, Music, &c.,
intended for review, may be left at Mr. C. Mitchell's, Red-
lion-court, Fleet-street, London, addressed " to the Editor
of the LivEaroot STANDARD," when they will be forwarded,
and receive attention.

Report on the Cure of a Cataract of Ten Years'
• Continuance By John Nottingham, M.D.
_ . . . • _ _

Liverpool : Deighion and Laughton.

This is an interesting pamphlet, showing what
human skill, well directed, may do in the alleviation
of human suffering. Dr. Nottingham has treated
his patient skilfully, and, like Caesar, who could
handle the pen as well as the sword, he can describe
his own operations in graceful language as well as
perform them.

Report of the Superintendent of the Lancaster
County Lunatic Asylum at Rainhill. 1852.

This beautiful building, which was opened some-
what more than a year ago, gives promise of great
usefulness. The causes of lunacy in its inmates
were—intemperance, 16 ; poverty, 7 ; domestic
unhappiness, 3 ; grief, loss of money, and physical
causes, 2 each; hereditary disposition and fright, 1
each. Among the English patients there were 134
men to 118 women ; among the Scotch, 7 to 8 ;
among the Irish, 24 to 52 ; Welsh, 13 to 31.
Thus, in England the lunatic men preponderate
14 per cent.; while in the other three countries
jointly, the women preponderate 107 per cent.
Among women of known occupations, about the
half are housewives and domestic servants; among
men, 27 per cent. were labourers or sailors. The
system which has been called the soothing system
is employed here with the very best results, and
care is taken to keep the patients constantly occupied.

The Law, Constitution, and_Rrform of Convocation

London: J. H. Parker.

This is one of the many pamphlets on this and
kindred subjects ; but, though written with care, it
appears to us to be out of place. Church Reform
in a general sense must come first; and a Reform
of Convocation, if it come at all, will lie part of the
former or subsequent to it. To advocate it now,
must be viewed as an inversion of the natural order,
even by those who concur in the writer's views.

The Tagus and the Tiber; or, Notes of Travel in
Portugal, Spain, and Italy. By Wm. Edward
Baxter. 2 vols. London : Bentley.
Mr. Baxter is evidently a native of Scotland,
dating from Dundee, and in 1850-51 made a tour
through the above-mentioned countries, having
been previously accustomed to travel. He is a
man of intelligence and a clear observer, well read
in history, and with a good eye for the picturesque.
His descriptions do not abound in the marvellous,
as the writings of a very young traveller usually do,
from his want of familiarity with objects and man-
ners different from those at home. Nor do they,
on the other hand, assume too much; many of our
sketchy writers fancying that the things which are
familiar to themselves and their fellow-travellers do
not require to be told at home. The Scotch pre-
dilections of the writer show themselves of course:
all the world was to be agitated against perfidious
Albion, because the Free Kirk people at Gibraltar
had not a i•udiiciently excellent site presented to
them for a chapel. Like sensible people, however,
they purchased a site; so we trust that the writer's
wrath will be stayed, and that an appeal to Queen,
Lords, and Commons may not be necessary. The
following are extracts from Mr. Baxter's work :

GOVERNMENT IN ITALY.
Unfortunately for Central and Southern Italy, her
people have no choice between despotism and democracy.
" What can we do ? " asked some of them whom I met
while travelling, " we have no native princes to lead us ;
the Grand Duke of Tuscany is an Austrian ; the Pope
has made a league with our oppressors ; the King of Na-
ples is a tyrant of the worst possible kind ; one portion of
the nobility frowns on liberal principles—the other pos-
sesses neither energy nor talent ; we must trust to the
chapter of accidents, and, although no republicans in
theory, Ilazzini is our man." I mourn this lamentable
want of royal leaders; but the fact no one can dispute.
In the fourteenth century Rienzi cherished a noble idea
of uniting Italy in a great federal republic, of which
Rome should be the bead, and all the principal cities
members. His messengers, bearing in their hands the
white rods of embassy, traversed the Peninsula to explain
this at that time visionary scheme, and everywhere the
people on their knees asked Heaven to bless the under-
taking. Italy for the Italians—union against the north—
local administration, but mutual dependence—were the
watchwords which more than three hundred years ago
kindled a holy ardour in the breast of the last of the
Tribunes.