The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-03-15 00:00:00

AN AGREEABLE DRAB GHT.—The waters of Freyenwelde,
one of the celebrated mineral springs of Germany, are said
"to taste like ink, and smell like gunpowder."
ROWLAND HILL.—On an occasion of his preaching a cha-
rity sermon he said, I once got £lOOO by a charity sermon.
I hope I shall get as much to-day. But observe, if any of
you are in debt, don't put any money on the plate. Recol-
lect—take time—deliberate. If any of you owe money, be
just before you are generous. Stop though ! On second
thoughts, those who don't give will be pointed at, ' Oh, he
or she is in debt, &c.' "

CONVERSIONS TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH.—
James Wheble, Esq. of Woodley-lodge, late High Sheriff of
Berkshire, in a letter to the editor of the Reading Mercury,
reckons the number of conversions to the Catholic faith in
England to be about 2000 annually. Within the last few
months, Dr. Walsh, Bishop of the midland district, has con-
firmed 692 converts in the eastern counties. Among other
converts, Frederick Lucas, Esq., of the Inner Temple, Bar-
rister-at-law, has abjured the tenets of the Society of Friends,
and embraced the Catholic faith.—Catholic Magazine
PErrlcoxr INFLUENCE.—Here we may be permitted to
offer an observation upon the peculiar and unaccountable in-
fluence which ladies of a shrewish turn so frequently exercise
over—we can scarcely in this case say—their lords and mas-
ters ; an influence which seems not merely to extend to the
will of the husband, but even to his inclinations. We do
not remember to have met with a single individual, reported
to be under petticoat government, who was not content with
his lot—nay, who, so far :from repining, did not exult in his
servitude; and we see no way of accounting for this apparently
inexplicable conduct—for which, among other phenomena of
married life, various reasons have been assigned, though
none entirely satisfactory to us—except upon the ground
that these domineering dames possess some charm sufficiently
strong to counteract the irritating effect of their tempers ;
some secret and attractive quality of which the world at
large is ignorant, and with which their husbands alone can
be supposed to be acquainted.—Mr. Ainsworth's Jack Shep-
herd.

MARK-LANE HONESTY.—A short time ago, I was a fre-
quent buyer of oats. I was in the market at Mark-lane, and
conversing with a factor I knew well. I perceived on his
stall the very vilest sample of oats I ever beheld. " Why,"
said I, " how came you to have such rubbish as these ?"
" Oh," said he, " these are paper oats." " Paper oats,"
said I ; " what do you mean by that title ?" " Why," he
replied, " the fact is, I bought a few hundred quarters of
these last market, and have sold a few thousands this at 13s.
a quarter (tolerable oats were then 255.) : the sales, of course,
are registered, and it brings the average down ; in fact, we
want a rise." " A rise," said I ; " a fall, you mean." " No,
no, a rise : the averages will fall : the duty, of course, will
rise : we shall then withhold the supplies ; sell no more
samples ; oats will get up, and some of us will do well by it."
" But why call them paper oats ?" I asked him. " Because,"
said he, " the price is quoted in the papers, goes all over the
kingdom, and influences country markets as well as this."
These are the means by which markets are swayed.—From
a pamphlet entitled, " The Factor, the Miller, and the
Baker."

THE FATE OF RACING HORSES.—Ambo, the fastest mile
horse of his day, and that won the Holywell Mostyn stakes
three years in succession, was consigned to drag an opposition
coach that ran through Shrewbury. When no longer capable
of that, he was degraded to yet lower labour, and was at length
found dead in a ditch from absolute starvation. Hit-or-Miss,
a good racer, was, during the last years of his life, seen
drawing coal in a giggler's cart, in the same town. Mameluke
is at this time drawing a cab in the streets of the metropolis ;
and Guildford, after having won forhis different owners seven-
teen years, was afflicted with incurable stringhalt, ,and was,
sold at a repository for less than £4. Thence the hero of the
turf was doomed to an omnibus. There he was cruelly used,
the spasmodic convulsion that characterizes stringhalt sadly
aggravating his torture. The skin was nabbed from his
shoulders—his hips and haunches were bruised in every part,
and his stifles were continually and painfully coming in con-
tact with the pole. In this situation he was sent by the
veterinary surgeon (the author himself) to 'The Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,' and bought in order to
be slaughtered."—Youate s Work upon Cruelty to Animals,
(just published.)
WHOLESOME DOCTRINE.--The celebrated Dr. Darwin was
so impressed with a conviction of the necessity of good air,
that, being very popular in the town of Derby, once on a mar-
ket day he mounted a tub, and then addressed the listening
crowd. "Ye men of Derby, fellow citizens, attend to me !
I know ye to be ingenious and industrious mechanics. By
your exertions you procure for yourselves and families the
necessaries of life ; but if you lose your health, that power of
being of use to them must cease. This truth all of you know;
but I fear some of you do not understand how health is to be
maintained in vigour—this then depends upon your breathing
an uncontaminated air ; for the purity of the air becomes des-
troyed where many are collected together, the effluvia of the
body corrupts it. Keep open, then, the windows of your
workshops, and as soon as you rise open all the windows of
your bed rooms. Inattention to this advice, be assured, will
bring diseases on yourselves, and engender among you typhus
fever, which is only another name for putrid fever, which will
carry off your wives and children. Let me again repeat my
serious advice—open your windows to let in the fresh air, at
least once in the day. Remember what I say ; I speak now
without a fee, and can have no other interest but your good
in this my advice."

HENRY V. AT THE BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY.—The onset
was made by the archers of Hotspur, whose tremendous
volleys caused dreadful carnage among the king's troops.
" They fell," says Walsingham, "as the leaves fall on the
ground after a frosty night at the approach of winter. There
was no room for the arrows to reach the ground, every one
struck a mortal man." The King's bowmen also did their
duty. *A rumour, spreading through the host, that the King
had fallen, shook the steadiness and confidence of his parti-
sans, and many took to flight ; the royal presence, however,
in every part of the 'engagement soon rallied his men. Hot-
spur and Douglas seemed anxious to fight, neither with small
nor great, but with the King only ; though they mowed down
his ranks, making alleys, as in a field of corn, in their eager-
ness to reach him. He was, we are told, unhorsed again and
again, but returned to the charge with increased impetuosity.
His standard bearer was killed at his side, and the standard
thrown down. At length the Earl of Dunbar forced him
away from the post which he had taken. Henry of Mon-
mouth, though he was then no novice in martial deeds yet
had never before been engaged in any pitched-battle field ;
and here he did his duty valiantly. He was wounded in the
face by an arrow ; but, so far from allowing himself to be
removed on that account to a place of safety, he urged his
friends to lead him into the very hottest of the conflict.
Elmham records his address : whether they are the very words
he uttered or such only as he was likely to have used, they
certainly suit his character , " My lords, far be from me such
disgrace, as that, like a poltroon, I should stain my noviciate
in arms of flight. If the prince flies who will wait to end the
battle ? Believe it, to be carried back before victory would
be to me a perpetual death ? Lead me; I implore you, to the
very face of the foe. I may not say to my friends, 'Go ye
on first, to the fight.' Be it mine to say, ' Follow me, my
friends.' " The next time we hear of Henry of Monmouth
is as an agent of mercy. The personal conflict between him
and Hotspur, into the description of which Shakspeare has
infused so full a share of his powers of song, has no more sub-
stantial origin than the poet's own imagination. Percy fell
by an unknown hand, and his de tth decided the contest. The
cry, " Henry Percy is dead !" which the royalist raised, was
the signal for utter confusion and flight. The number of the
slain on either side is differently reported. When the two
armies met, the king's was superior in numbers, but Hot-
spur far more abundant in gentle blood. The greater part
of the gentlemen of Cheshire fell on that day. On the king's
part, except•the Earl of Stafford and Sir 'Walter Blount, few
names of note are reckoned among the slain.— Tyler's Henry
of Monmouth.

PNEUMATIC TELEGRAPH.—A model of a pneumatic
telegraph, proposed by Mr. Crosley, has been lately added
to the interesting collection at the Polytechnic Institution.
The general introduction of railways, and the speed of railway
travelling, seems to require that some means of communication
between station and station, by night as well as by day, should
be established, to guard against the collision of express-trains,
and other accidents. For this purpose hydraulic and electro-
magnetic telegraphs have been sugested, but we are not aware
that either have been adopted; and now a pneumatic telegraph
is offered. Atmospheric air is the conducting agent employed.
The air is isolated by a tube, extending from one station to
another—one extremity of the tube is connected with a gas-
holder, or other collapsing vessel, as a reservoir, to compen-
sate for any diminution or increase of volume, arising from
compression or from changes in the temperature of the air in
the tube, and for supplying any casual loss by leakage. The
other extremity of the tube terminates with a pressure index.
Thus, if any certain degree of compression be produced and
maintained in the reservoir at one station, the same degree
of compression will spedily extend to the opposite station,
were it will become visible to an observer by the index. Thus
(says Mr. Crosley) with ten weights, producing ten different

degrees of compression, distiziguiXed front each other
numerically, and having the index at the opposite station
marked by corresponding figures, any telegraphic numbers
may be transmitted, referring in the usual way to a code of
signals. The only experience in the transmission of atmos-

Aerie air through conduit tubes, which applies particularl:
to this subject, may be referred to at three railway establish

ments—namely,Edinburgh, Liverpool, and EustOn Square

. . ,
London. In These establishments, air tubes, from one mile
and a quarter to two miles in length have been employed, for
the purpose of giving notice when a train of carriages is ready
to be drawn up the inclined plane by the stationary engine at
the summit, so that it may without delay, be put in motion.

This notice is communicated by blowing a current of air
through the tube at the foot of the inclined plane, and sound-

. •
ing an organ pipe, a whistle, or an alarm bell, at the stationary
engine. This operation has been regularly performed from
two to four years, without one single failure or disappointment.
Mr. Crosley also states, that a trial was made with a tube of
one inch in diameter, very nearly two miles in length, return-
ing upon itself, so that both ends of the tube were brought to
one place ; the compression applied at one end was equal to a
column of seven inches of water ; and the effect to the index

at the other end'appeared in 15 seconds of time.—;lthenceum.
A GERMAN DINNER.— (From Mr. Gleig's "Society,
Morals, and. Religion in Germany.")—There is no country
in which the business of dining is more gravely dealt with
than in Germany. There is no city in Germany where men
dine with greater zeal than in Hamburg. The affair is, in-
deed, a momentous one to all concerned ; and the deli-
beration and seriousness with which its details go forward
are truly edifying. Figure to yourself, gentle reader, a long
table, spread in the centre of an uncarpetted room, with
covers for some 30 or 35 guests, each of whom has a station
assigned to him, more or less removed from the chair, ac-
cording as his sojourn in the hotel may have been more or
less protracted. As the clock strikes four, mine host—in
this instance a grave portly personage—seats himself at the
head of the board; his wife, for such I presume the lady to
have been, taking her place at the right hand. A tureen of
soup is then planted before him, from which he proceeds to
administer to his guests their respective portions, with all the
dignity, and not a little of the patronising air which marks
the bearing of a noble towards his country visitors. The

soup is eaten leisurely, and with great relisli; the operation
being enlivened with much talk concerning money, and
the occasional sipping of wine or beer, of which liquors
you may or may not partake without exciting the sur-
prise of any human being—not eyen of a waiter. This
done, and the tureen having been removed, there arecar-
.

ried round two dishes of hOuille, that is to say,
_of beef,

entirely innocent of fat, and boiled to tatters ; -Of which,
with the addition of sour sauce and putrified cucumber,

;he Germans eat greedily, while. you, if your gorge re-

volt from it, must eiercise-Your patience, for it comes alone
in its glory. But all things that had a beginning must like-
wise have an end. The bouille disappears at last; and there

succeeds it a solitary dish of fish, which, after it has stood
perhaps a second or two in front of mine host, goes, like its
predecessor, the round of the table. It is not despised by
any one, though I do not recollect that either here or at any
other table d' hote, was the same dish eaten of twice, at least
by a German. Next comes roast beef, at first presented

entire, then removed to the sideboard, Cut into slices, and

handed round. Then follows a plum pudding, and last 'of all
a haunch of roasted venison with stewed prunes. Now when

it is borne in mind that these various dishes all made their

appearance one after the other ;—that no vegetables, except
cucumbers and sour crout, bore them company ; that the
guests lingered over their several morsels, as if to enjoy them
had been the point towards which from early dawn their
fondest wishes were turned ; that the head waiter, after seeing

that the strangers were helped, sat down at the end of the
table and helped himself ; the beef was succeeded by fish,
and plum pudding by venison, and that to get through the
whole occupied a space of not less than two hours and a
half, it is scarcely to be wondered at if, in the eyes of such as
had never witnessed the like before, a table d' hote dinner at
. .

the Hotel de Russie in Hamburgh should have appeared pre-
eminently absurd.