The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-04-20 00:00:00

a dictionary, and learned French. And this, my lord,
is what I have done. It seems to me that we may learn
everything when we know the twenty-four letters of the
alphabet. The Duke, highly pleased with the account,
brought this wonderful genius out of obscurity, and pro-
vided him with an employment which left him leisure to
apply himself to the sciences. Edmund Stone published,
in 1731, an edition of Euclid's Elements, with an account
of his life and writings, and a defence of the Elements
against modern objectors. In 1735, he translated and
published Barrow's Geometrical Lectures. He wrote an
account of two new species of lines, not noticed by New-
ton, which was published in the forty-first volume of the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which
he was a fellow ; he was also the author of a mathematical
dictionary, and some other works."

yld'B Atlas of the World,

Liverpool: J. R. Isaac

Mr, Wyld, the eminent map-seller and geographer
to the Queen, is publishing, in monthly numbers, a
popular and most beautifully-executed atlas of the world,
consisting of maps of different parts of the globe,
illustrated by geographical and statistical descriptions.
Each number has two maps and illustrative letter-
press. The first number contains a map of the world,
and another of Great Britain, together with an immense
mass
.of valuable statistical and general information. It

would be quite vain to attempt to'enumerateiicompre-
hensive range of subjects comprised in the descriptions.
The maps are extremely beautiful ; clear, correct, and
very detailed. The number of places dotted down is
wonderful, and the railways completed or sanctioned in
Great Britain are marked out with great care. The cheap-
ness of the work is marvellous.

VARIETIES

A PHENOMENON.—A governess, advertising for a situ-
ation, says " she is a perfect mitres of her own tongue."
THE HALL PORTER OF THE REFORM CLUB MAKETH A
JOKE !-Why is M. Soyer like the summit of Mont
Blanc ? Because he has a culinary (dool and-airy) situa-
tion.

CoNs.—Why is a dandy like a haunch of venison ?
Because he is a bit of a buck.—Why is the newly-disco-
vered remedy of sulphuric ether like Mendelssohn or
Rossini ? Because it is one of the greatest composers of
modern times.
QUALIFICATION FOR TEACHING.—A certain worthy
gentleman, in London, had an old servant too old to work,
but too deeply trusted to be turned out to starve ; he at once
set about raising a subscription for a school, and headed
the list with a sum which would have about paid one year
of the least annuity, which, in ordinary decency, he could
have offered to an old servant. His example was followed;
funds were raised; a house purchased, and the schoolmaster
established • to him, as the projector and the largest donor,
the choice Of a schoolmaster was confided, and he at once
nominated the broken-down servant to the situation ; and
though notoriously unfit for any such employment, the
man holds the place at this present hour. It would gratify
us to be able to state that this is a solitary instance—it is
not so : we could supply a long list of similar cases, but
the task is not a pleasing one ; ex uno disce omnes.—
National Education, by J. Dufton, Rector of Warehorne.
SIDMOUTH'S LAST DAYS.—OId age came on him at
last, but with singular gentleness. Some of his maxims
exhibit the mild philosophy of his temperament. "In
youth," said he, " the absence of pleasure is pain, in age
the absence of pain is pleasure." He characteristically
observed, " At my age, it strikes me very much, what
little proportion there is between man's ambition, and the
shortness of his life." Of the wars during his time he
said, " I used to think all the sufferings of war lost in its
glory ; I now consider all its glory lost in its sufferings."
In allusion to the desponding tone of some public men, he
said, " I have always fought under the standard of hope,
and I never shall desert it." At another time, he ex-
pressed the truth, which only the good man feels—" It is
a very important part of wisdom to know what to over-
look." He repeated a fine expression of George 111., of
which he acknowledged the full value,—" Give me the
man who judges one human being with severity, and every
other with indulgence." His religious feelings were such
as might be expected from his well-spent life,---zpre, be-
nevolent, and high-toned. Speaking to his fay, in his
last illness, he said, " Kind, dutiful, affectionate children,
all have been to me ; and if I am permitted to attain to
that happy state to which I aspire, and am permitted to
look down, how often shall I be with you, my children !"
On the 3d of February, 1844, he was seized with an attack
of influenza, which on the 10th became hopeless; and on
the 15th he calmly died, in his 87th year.—Blackwood.

-----
POLYNESIAN HOSPITALITY.—The Polynesians carry
their hospitality to an amazing extent. Let a native of
Waiurar, the westernmost part of Tahiti, make his ap-
pearance as a traveller' at Partoowye, the most easternly
village of Imeeo, though a perfect stranger, the inhabi-
tants on all sides accost him at their doorways, inviting
him to enter, and make himself at home. But the tra-
veller passes on, examining every house attentively, until,
at last, he pauses before one which suits him, and then
exclaiming, "Ah, ena maitai" (this one will do, I think),
he steps in, and makes himself perfectly at ease, flinging
himself upon the mats, and very probably calling for a
nice young cocoa-nut, and a piece of toasted bread-fruit,
sliced thin, and done brown. Curious to relate, however,
should a stranger carrying it thus bravely be afterward
discovered to be without a house of his own, why, he may
thenceforth go a-begging for his lodgings. The " kar-
howrees," or white men, are exceptions to this rule.
Thus it is precisely as in civilised countries ; where those
who have houses and lands are incessantly bored to death
with invitations to come and live in other people's houses,
while many a poor gentleman who inks the seams of his
coat, and to whom the like invitation would be really ac-
ceptable, may go and sue for it. But to the credit of the
ancient Tahitians, it should here be observed, that this
blemish upon their hospitality is only of recent origin, and
was wholly unknown in old times.—Melville's Adventures
in the South Seas.

PORTRAIT OF DR. BLOMFIELD, BISHOP OF LONDON.—
He combined a great talent for action with very limited
powers of thought. Bustling, energetic, versatile, gifted
with an indomitable perseverance, rand stimulated by an
ambition that knew no repose, with a capacity for master-
ing details and an inordinate passion for affairs, he could
permit nothing to be done without his interference, and
consequently was perpetually involved in transactions
which were either failures or blunders. He was one of
those leaders who are not guides. Having little real
knowledge. and not endowed with those high qualities of
intellect which permit their possessor to generalise the
details afforded by study and experience, and so deduce
rules of conduct, his lordship, when he received those fre-
quent appeals which were the necessary consequence of
his officious life, became obscure, confused, contradictory,
inconsistent, illogical. The oracle was always dark.
Placed in a high post in an age of political analysis, the
bustling intermeddler was unable to supply society with a
single solution. Enunciating second-hand, with charac-
teristic precipitation, some big principle in vogue, as if he
were a discoverer, he invariably shrank from its subse-
quent application the moment that he found it might be
unpopular or inconvenient. All his quandaries terminated
in the same catastrophe—a compromise. Abstract prin-
ciples with him always ended in concrete expediency. The
aggregate of circumstances outweighed the isolated cause.
The primordial tenet, which had been asiged with un-
compromising arrogance, gently subsi to some se-
cond-rate measure recommended with all e artifice of an
impenetrable ambiguity. Beginning with the second re-
formation, which was a little rash but dashing, the bishop,
always ready, had in the course of his episcopal career
placed himself at the head of every movement in the
church which others had originated, and had as regularly
withdrawn at the right moment, when the heat was over,
or had become, on the contrary, excessive. Furiously
evangelical, soberly high and thy, and fervently Puseyite,
each phasis of his faith concludes with what the Spaniards
term a transaction.' The saints are to have their new
churches, but they are also to have their rubrics and their
canons ; the universities may supply successors to the
apostles, but they are also presented with a church com-
mission ; even the Puseyites may have candles on their
altars, but they must not be lighted.—Tancred, a new
work by D'lsraeli.
How THEY MANAGE T FIINGS IN THE MODEL REPUBLIC.

—ln the Senate things still go on in the old-fashioned
way. There, when a member has once caught the
Speaker's eye, his fortune is made for the day—perhaps
for the week. Accordingly, be takes things easy from the
very first—kicks his spittoon to a convenient angle, offers

a libation of cold water to his parched entrails, and begins.
When he leaves off, is another matter altogether—but not
generally till he has gone through the round of human
knowledge, explored the past, touched lightly upon the
present, and cast a piercing glance into the darkness of the
future. Soon after three, the Senate adjourns for dinner,
and the orator of the day goes to his pudding with the
rest, happy in the reflection that he has done his duty by
his country, and will do it again on the morrow. We have
somewhere read of a paradise of fools. thrdoubtedly,
Congress is that place. There they enjoy a perfect impu-
nity, and revel in the full gratification of their instincts.
Nobody thinks of coughing them down, or swamping them
with ironical cheers. There—
" Dulness, with transport, eyes each lively dunce,
Remembering she herself was Pertness once,
And tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues,
With self-applause her wild creation views.
Sees momentary monsters rise and fall,
And with her own fool's colours gilds them all."

Indeed, all the arrangements of Congress favour the in-
fluence of the sable goddess. In the first place, the mem-
bers are paid by the day—eight dollars each. Permit us
to observe, Jonathan, that you scarcely display your usual
" smartness" here. It would be much better to contract
with them by the scrape. As for instance—To involving
the country in a war with Mexico, so much—To ditto
with Great Britain, so much more. One year you might
lay down a lumping sum for a protective tariff, with an
understanding that it was to be repealed the next at a mo-
derate advance. You would thus ensure the greatest pos-
sible variety of political catastrophes, with the least pos-
sible friction and expense. Again, the furniture of the
Capitol is altogalier too luxurioja. Each member is pro-
vided with a private desk, eta fiery ad lib., a stuffed
arm-chair, and a particular spittoon. No wonder, then
that your Simnises and Chipmans are listened to with
complacency. It's all in the day's work—it's considered
in the wages. While these worthies hold forth for the be-
nefit of distant Missouri and Michigan, their colleagues

write their letters, read the newspapers, chew tobacco, as
li;tle boys do toffy in England, and expectorate a', leisure.
No ode cheers, no one groans, no one cries Oh ! Oh !
all the noise that is made is on private account, and not at
all personal to the gentleman on his legs. Yet, such is
the deceitfulness of the human heart, that the Americans
are much given to boast of of

- -vwal .1 iue tuguny MILL uvuuluw VI
their Legislature, and to thank God that it is not a bear-
garden like another place of the kind that they wot of.
We must have been asked at least six times a-day during
our visit at Washington, " Bow Congress compared with
he British Parliament ?" To which we used to reply,
That they did not compare at all," an answer which
fully met the truth of the case, without in the least wound-
ing the self-love of the querist.—Blacku•ood'e Magazine.