The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-22 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

PORTUGAL AND HER STREET.—lnsolvency has long
been associated with the name of Portugal, from the Court
of the former being situated in the street of the latter.
Now that the Portuguese are in a sate of bankruptcy,
the location of the Insolvent Court in Portugal-street
appears singularly appropriate. —Punch.
CANINE SAGACITY.—The Progress of Arras relates
the following additional instances of the wonderful instinct
of the canine race :—About two months ago a person em-
barked for Africa, taking with him a sporting dog, given
to him by an inhabitant of Arras. But on Thursday
week the animal, who had jumped from the packet at
Toulon, made his way home again, where he arrived the
same day. The dog was seen travelling back through St.
Omer, where he was well known.

POLK AND CORDEN.—In swagger, ignorance, and self-
confidence, these worthies much resemble each other.
Nor are they dissimilar in their fates. Substitute the
name of Cobden for Polk in the following extract from the
Morning Chronicle, (whig paper,) and the remarks would
as well fit the fugitive from Manchester, as him who still
holds his ground at Washington. The Manchester de-
mocrats have found to their cost that the path Cobden
chalked out for them is the road to ruin :—" Retribution
seldom follows so very close on the heels of wrongdoing
as it has in the case of the Polk policy of annexation and
war. Retribution is usually too long dated for the pur-
poses of moral impression and effect. It too frequently
falls on the wrong men, and visits the children instead of
the fathers. Or it comes due at the wrong time—when,
the mischief has been done and forgotten, and the rela-
tionship of cause and effect is scarcely visible to the naked
eye. In the New World, however, everything grows
fast, and history is ready with her lessons before the sea-
son for edification has passed away. Mr. Polk's Nemesis
has been wonderfully quick with him. One of the greatest
of modern proficients in the art of rising' in democracies
seems destined to afford the world one of its best exam-
ples of the law of moral and political gravitation. He has
loved popularity and votes not wisely but too well, and
his popularity and votes desert him just when he is work-
ing hardest to propitiate them. More than any other
United States President, he has courted, flattered, and
pampered the passions of the democracy—and the demo-
cracy, by way of return, are cruelly ungrateful and vehe-
mently angry. One does like to see justice strike in this
way, while the iron is hot. Mr. Polk's disastrous and
unrenewed Presidentship will be a salutary warning to
public men in America—pointing, as it so happily does,
the valuable moral, that democracies have no gratitude
for men who pander to their passions, and unscrupulously
flatter their delusions, and meanly sacrifice the higher
aims and duties of statesmanship to the coarsest interest
of
_party."
CHINESB Lova or TRADING.—It is truly observed,
in an official report to the British government in 1837,
that. the Jews perhaps excepted, no nation is so much in-
fluenced by the love of gain ; and at the same time, so
utterly regardless about the means to attain this end. The
snore wealthy classes absorb their very existence in trade.
Commerce is the invariable topic of conversation, the

most important pursuit, the highest object of pleasure,
and the goal of all their wishes. Trade is the first and
last word in which all unanimously join, whilst the energies
of mind and body are consumed in following up this bent.
Trade is not here confined to one class of men, but to all
ranks and ages. Scarcely can a boy lisp, when he begins
to sell a few cakes, or a little sugar-cane. The poorest
try to gain a subsistence, if it be only to dispose of a few
rags. There is nothing in all nature which a Chinaman
might not turn to advantage, and trade in. All recesses
are ransacked to find a few trifles which may be sold to
advantage, and he would rather procure a pittance in this
way, than receive the money without displaying his inven-
tive genius. The Chinese may justly be termed the ped-
lars of the world ; wherever you go, there seem to be
more sellers than buyers. Nothing can exceed their affa-
bility if they think you are going to purchase anything
from them : they will refuse no money if they can be ever
;ners ; they are therefore quite the reverse of
who are rough, disobliging, and positive ;
k a price, will not abate their demand.

so little g,_
the Japanese, ..
and when they ask

But the Chinese turn every thing to advantage that offers,
and undertake the most difficult things for the least hope
of gain. The Chinese maxim is, that he who buys is for
getting things as cheap as he can, and would give nothing, i
did the seller consent to t ; upon this principle, they
think they have a right to ask the greatest price. The
dealer does not deceive, say they ; it is the buyer who de-
ceives himself. The buyer is under no compulsion ; and
the profit which the merchant gets is the fruit of his in-
dustry.—Montgomery Martin's " China."

ORNAMENTAL WATER JETS.—In reading accounts ot
ancient London, we find frequent mention of the public
conduits, which, if we except the works of London
Bridge, erected at a late date, and not extensively useful,
were the only means of supplying the wants of the inns-
b itants, until the completion of the new river works by
Sir Hugh Middleton. Judging kern the descriptions and
drawings, many of them must have been very beautiful
objects. They were elaborately decorated with the rich
carving of the medieval artists, and were des•gned so that
the water issued from them in jets and spouts of curious
device. Many a pedestrian, in the dust and heat of sum-
mer. would be glad to stop at such a resting place ; and
could fountains or conduits of a similar kind be erected,
they would form most pleasing features in the architec-
ture of our streets. Whether it be that the mind is sen-
sible of any gratifying contrast with the toil of business,
or that the motion of the water is always suggestive of
beautiful impressions, certainly there are tew adjunstc so
desirable to the architecture of cities, and none, of which
we are so unaccountably deficient.—The Builder.
Tars BUSY lobatts.—Besides the procrastinating and
perfunctory class, those are " slothful in business" who
do no business at all. And there are such persons—
agreeable, self-complacent, plausible persons—who really
fancy that they have done a great deal because they have
intended to do so much. Their life is made up of good
purposes, splendid projects, and heroic resolutions. They
live in the region which the poet has described :
A pleasing land of drowsy-he d it was.
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
And gay castles In the clouds that pass,
For ever flushing round a summer's sky.
They have performed so many journeys, and made so
many discoveries, and won so many laurels in this aerial
clime, that life is over, and they find their real work it
not begun. Like the dreamer who is getting great sums
of money in bis sleep, and who, when he awakes, opens
his till or his pocket book, almost expecting to find it full,
the day-dreamer, the projector awaking up at the close of
life, can hardly believe that after his distinct and glorious
visions, he is leaving the world no wiser, mankind no
richer, and his own home no happier fur all the golden
prospects wbich have flitted through his busy brain. What
a blessed world it were, how happy and how rich, if all
the idlers were working, if all the workers were awake,
and if all the projectors were practical men I—Life in
Earnest.

THE ORATORY OF M. TRIIERS.—M. Thiers has often
reminded me of a beardless woman, well informed and
witty —not standing, but seated at the tribune, who
chatted upon a thousand subjects, jumping from one to
another with the most gracetul levity, and without allow-
ing the labour of her understandine to appear upon her
lips, which are ever in motion. He is more elastic than a
spring of the finest steel—he bends and unbends—he rises
and falls with the subject—he will roll himself spirally
round about a question from its base to its summit—he
mounts, descends, remounts, hangs in the branches, hides
himself in the thickest foliage, appears, disappears, and
passes a thousand times in and out with the pretty agility
of a squirrel—he would extract money even from a stone
—where others glean, he leaps. He extends his plumage
and shows, by turns, every hue of purple, gold, and azure.
He does not speak, he coos—he does not c-o, he lisps—
he does not lisp, he warbles—and he is so dazzling both to
the eye and to the ear, that one does not know which to
admire m ,st, his plumage or his song. He will give you
a speech of three hours' length on architecture, poetry,
law, navigation, or war, and yet he is neither a poet, an
architect, a lawyer, a mariner, or a soldier—all he will re-
quire is an evening's preparation. if he describes a bat-
tle, he astonishes the oldest generals. If he speaks of
walls, roofs, stone, and mortar, you would actually believe
him to be a mason or an architect. He will dispute with
Gay-Lussac on questions of chemistry, and teach Arago
how to direct his telescope at Venus or Jupiter. The fine
arts, canals, roads, finances, commerce, history, the press,
politics, anecdotes of the streets, theatres, war, literature,
religion, municipalities, morality, amusements, great
things, middling things, little things—what does it matter
to him, he is ready at all. He is so, because in fact he is
prepared upon nothing. He does not speak like other ora-
tors, because he speaks like people of the world. Other
orators urepare themselves more or less, but he impro-
vises ; other orators perorate, but he chats ; and who can
be on their guard against a man who chats like you or me ?
What did 1 say? infinitely better than you, or than me, or
than any one else. I have one fault, however, to find with
M. Thiers. It is, that sometimes he cannot restrain his
laughter when he is descending from the tribune. Now,
a good comedian never laughs at the farce which he plays.
On this point, M. Thiers has something to learn. If M.
Thiers spoke slower, he would e less listened to; but his
volubility is such, that the house cannot go before him, or
even follow him. Once started, he proceeds at full gal-
lop, from the morning to the evening. It the Almighty
had foreseen that the day would come on which he would
create a Thiers, he wou!d undoubtedly have made the
earth turn on its axis in forty• eight hours instead of
twenty-four.—Dublin Univerhity Magazine. _

DANIEL DONE OVER.—The accounts from Rome
mention among other reforms set on toot by the new
Pope, that his Holiness has, by a decree, prohibited
" Mendicity and Vagabondism."
Othello's occupation's gone."—Alas ! poor Dan !

RELIGION OF THE CHINESE.—II is d fficult to convey
a distinct idea or the religion of the Chinese. The higher
masses are Deists; and I heard their learned men express
an utter disbelief of a future state. In order that we
may be the better enabled to see the prospects which pure
Christianity would have in China, the followieg explana- '
Lion of the Confucian and other systems is given ; for
which I am indebted to Drs. Medhurst, Gut zlaff, Bridge-
man,
and others. While in China, I was favoured by Dr.
Gutzlaff's translating my " Analysis of the Bible" into
Chinese, which I caused to be printed ; it is now exten-
sively circulating throughout China, and said to be pro-
ducing a good effect. The`Conrucian system orreligion,
if religion it can be called, for it has little or nothing to do
with theology, is merely a scheme of ethics and politics,
from which things spiritual and divine are carefully ex-
cluded. In the works of Confucius there are some allu-
sions to Heaven as the presiding power of nature; and to
Fate as the determiner of all things; but lie does not ap-
pear to attribute oiiginality to one, or rationality to the
other. " Life and death are decreed by fate ; riches and
poverty rest with Heaven." The Book of Odes speaks of
the Imperial Supreme as " majestic in his descending
and surveying, the inhabitants of the world, and promoting
their tranquillity ;" who is to be worshipped and served
with abstinence and purification ; while he views the af-
fairs of men, and rewards or punishes them according to
their deeds. The principle of order, which regulates the
universe," is called the soul of the world. The heavens
and earth, together with all animate and inanimate things,
are, according to them, but one principle ; which is as
universally diffa-ed throughout nature, as water through
the ocean. Their description of the creation of the world
is as•follows. " Before heaven and earth were divided,
there existed one universal chaos; when the two energies
of nature were gradually distinguished, and the yin and
yang, i. e., the male and female principles, established.
Then the purer influence established, and became the '
expansive heavens ; while the grosser particles descended,
and constituted the subjacent earth. From the combi-
natio❑ of these two, all things were produced; and thus
heaven is the father, and earth the mother, of nature."
Hweenantze, an ancient author of China, whose works
are in great esteem, writes thus :—" Heaven was form-
less—a eliaos ; and the whole mass nothing but confusion.
Order was produced in the pure ether ; out of the pure
ether the universe came forth ; the universe produced the
air. When the pure male principle, yang, bad been dilu-
ted, it formed the heavens. The heavy parts coagulated
and formed the earth. The fine particles united very
soon, but the thick and heavy went on slowly ; therefore
the heavens came into existence first, and the earth after-
wards. From the subtile essence of heaven and earth,
the dual principles, yang and yin, were formed ; the joint
operation of yang and yin produced the four seasons ;
putting forth their generative power, gave birth to all
the products of the earth. The warm air of yang pro-
duced fire, and the finest parts of fire formed the sun.
The cold air of the yin, being condensed, produced water ;
and the finest parts of the watery substance formed the
moon."—Monrgornery Martins'a " China."
MACREADY AS AN ACTOR.—Mr. Macready has done
so much, both by bis personal performances, and his ef-
forts in the management of theatres, to uphold the
legiti-
mate drama, in an age when it was well nigh overwhelmed
by the amphitheatre and the melodrama, that his name
can never be mentioned but with the highest respect in any
disquisition on the British stage. If tragedy is not ba-
nished from our theatres, and supplanted by Timour the
Tartar, the Cricket on the Hearth, and Mrs. Caudle's
Curtain Lectures, it is mainly owing to his continued and
most meritorious efforts. As an actor his performances
entitle him to a very high place in the scale of histrionic
excellence. He is uniformly chaste, reflecting, and gen-
tlemanlike ; his conceptions are the result of long thought,
deep study of his author, and no small amount of historical
and antiquarian research. In the latter respect he much re-
sembles Kemble. He has his learning, reflection, and
elevated conceptions of what his profession should be.
' These are great excellencies; and his execution in many
respects keens pace with his ideas. We say in many re-
spects, for it would betray partiality to say that in every
particular his powers are equal to his ideas, or that be is to
be placed on a level with Kemble or Kean, in the force of
actual performance. This does not so much seem to be
owing to the want of physical powers, for they are very
considerable, but rather to the absence of vehemence and
energy of conception. He is learned rather than original;
correct than impassioned; free from fault rather than
overliwing with effect. There is little to criticise in his
acting, but sometimes not so much as could be desired to
admire; and Victor Hugo, at Paris, characterised the two
with equal justice and felicity when he said, after seeing
them act together, " M. Macready a le talent ; mais Ma-
demoiselle Faucit le genie." The best characters to give
an idea of Mr. Macready's powers are, King Lear and
Cardinal Richelieu. The first is an admirable conception,
and is by far the most perfect piece of acting by a male
performer on the stage. We doubt if Garrick's were
equally true to Shakspeare's idea; we know that Kemble's
was less effective. He has brought out this celebrated
and most difficult part to a degree of perfection never be-
fore witnessed in the English theatre. Nor is his Cardi-
nal Richelieu less admirable. The profound dissimula-
tion, firm determination, grasping intellect, end vast ca-
pacity of that wonderful statesman, peculiarly suit Mr.
Macready's powers, and are pourtrayed by him with ad-
mirable effect. His antiquarian and historical lore has
here powerfully come to the aid of his professional abili-
ties ; and he has apparently taken advantage of his resi-
dence at Paris to gather many interesting and graphic de-
tails of his manner, dress, and habits as well of mind as
body. Altogether, it is one of the most perfect persona-
tions now to be seen on the stage. He is classical, chaste,
and correct in Virginius—esteemed by many his best part.
But to those who recollect Kemble, the Roman counte-
nance, erect air, and restrained dignity which that great
actor exhibited in Brutus, Cato, and Coriolanus, appear
sadly wanting. Nature has not given Macready the ex-
ternals of a hero, and nothing on the stage can make up

for that deficiency.—Dublin University Magazine,

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