The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-27 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

RUSSIAN POLICY AND DESIGNS.
( From the Morning Herald.)
We publish to-day, in adjoining columns, the con-
tents of a pamphlet which has been issued by Mr.
Ridgway, of Piccadilly, upon the subject of certain
strange views which are said to be entertained by the
Czar of Russia upon the independence and integrity
of the kingdom of France. This statement upon its
very face, recommends itself so little to credit for au-
thenticity that if we did not know that nothing is too
gross for Russian ambition, or considered impossible
to its inordinate vanity, we should have rejected it as
a joke upon, or a sneer at, the credulity of that power.
There would appear, however, to be some plausible
evidence of the original having been found in the pri-
vileged clause of the imperial cabinet at St. Peters-
burg ; and, as a specimen of the speculations of the
Czar, it may be looked at as ,a curiosity. The project
thus developed contemplatesnothing less than the par-
tition of France, and its division into eighteen small
governments, which ale to be parcelled out amongst
some of the neighbouring states, and some other go-
vernments to be hereafter created. In these calcula-
tions no account at all seems to have been taken of the
capacity of the whole people of France, with their or-
ganised army and national guard, to resist this pro-
posed national dissolution. The Autocrat, of the state
of whose mind some unfavourable reports have been
rife in the German papers, is said to have adopted and
approved of this irrational project, and to have re•
warded the inventor of it with 30,000 roubles. We
may expect, no doubt, to hear much about it in the
foreign papers.

THE JOBBING CHURCH COMMISSION.
( From the Edinburgh Evening Post.)
In our last we noticed the extraordinary charge of
£3,000 for printing the Balaam reports of this commis-
sion, as it appeared in the government estimates placed
on the table of the House of Commons. We suffici-
ently informed our readers as to the probable cause
and nature of this curious charge. Our main reason,
however, for referring to the matter, was to put the
saddle on the right horse, by explaining that the re-
port was printed by an engraver, and not by the
Queen's printers. It will be remembered that the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer stated in the house that it was
printed by the Queen's printers. We should like to
know how it happened that Mr. Rice came to enter-
tain such a notion, directly at variance with the fact ?
We think we can explain this matter also. It appears
that the Queen's printers actually applied for the
printing of the report, which they claimed as govern-
ment work, to, which they were entitled under their
patent. The commissioners found that they could not
legally resist this demand; and so they had recourse
to a most contemptible quibble. They alleged that the
Queen's printers were not the only printers to her
Majesty in Scotland—that there was another party
who had a commission as printer to the Crown—and
accordingly the work was given to the latter, he being
a regular whit; canvasser. The quibble we have said
was utterly contemptible; and our readers will agree
with us when we mention that the party described as
a printer to the Queen, merely holds the appointment
of engraver and copperplate printer to her Majesty—
a business which has nothing whatever to,do with let-
ter-press printing. By this paltry trick were the
Queen's printers deprived of their rights ;—and, what
is of more importance to the public, an enormous job-
bing account, and a very imperfect publication have
been placed upon the country. We do not profess to
know who has reaped the profits of this snug affair;
all we know is, that the commissioners are the parties
whom the public have a right to accuse as the jobbers;
and, unless they can show that they did not participate
in the pecuniary advantages, or if they do not disavow
all connection with the job, we must hold them to have
been guilty of disgraceful peculation. We make the
charge broadly in order that they may free themselves
if they can from the imputation of gross corruption in
this matter. They may depend upon it that the mat-
ter will not be allowed to rest here.

CONVEYANCE OF MAILS BY RAILROADS.
( From the Morning Herald.)
How often must we, reversing the adage, appeal
from "Philip sober to Philip drunk"—from the whigs
out of office, candidates for power, to the same per-
sons intoxicated with the possession of it ? While in
the former position, how unceasing were their efforts
to have the world believe that in their hands liberty
,and property would be held most sacred, and the rights
of every man as inviolable as if each one's individual
case was their own—to say nothing of the liberty of
the press, which they used to announce in their after-
dinner speeches, as the vital air, which was indispensa-
ble to man's very existence. How well they have sus-
tained consistency of character in these respects their
too long night of misrule hourly testifies. Of the
multitude of instances in proof of this that which
presses upon our attention at present is the disregard
of the most obvious rights of property which the whig
Attorney-General, as• the organ of the party, makes
no scruple of evincing in the case of the several rail-
roads. The extreme doctrines of this whig preroga-
tive lawyer were so ably dealt with and refuted in the
debate of Saturday by Sir James Graham, Lord San-
don, and others, tilat-it would be to kill the slain were
we to attempt their refutation ; and it is only to point
out the inconsistency of such doctrines, when broached
from such a quarter, that we advert to the subject.
That railroads should be made available for the public
service in the conveyance of the mails, and in every
other possible manner, there can be no reasonable
doubt ; and
the managers of such concerns can be little
better than insane if they attempt to turn away their
best customers b y the inordinate nature of their de-
mands. But railroads are in every respect the private
property of the undertakers; and the only species of
road to which they bear a strict analogy is a canal,
which no one ever heard of the public or the preroga-
tive extending to the use of without sufficient remu-
neration being made to the owners. In short, tbis
vel whig mode of extending the prerogative and inva-
ding the rights of property is not to be tolerated. We
well know what an outcry the whigs themselves, in
their out of office clays, Would have raised had the doc-
trines now propounded by their own law officer been
so much as hinted at by the tories. Nothing of the
kind was ever attempted or thought of by them. Iris
from the hands of its professing friends, in later times
.
at least, that public liberty has received the most m-
eat inroads.
1

ISLE OF MAN.—During the present week, our market has
been well supplied with various kinds of fresh fish, including
a few mackerel; bat herrings, of excellent quality, were by
far the most plentiful, which sold at the rate of 28 for a shilling.
Fine salmon could he bought at 7d a pound. Of late the
herring fishery on the other "side of the Island has proved un-
usually successful, many of the boats having occasionally
brought MI6 Peel harbour nearly 30 mease each, which met
with a ready sale at 3e a hundred.—Martz Liberal.

THE INN OF WOLFSWALD.

(Front Bentley's Miscellany.)

Tramp—tramp on the oaken floor !
Heard ye the spectre's hollow tread ?
He marches along the corridor,
. ...

And the wainscot cracks beside the bed
As he tracks his way through the jarring door,
Which the wild night-blast has opened.
THE YANKEE RHYMER.

My horse had cast a shoe ; and, stopping about sunset at a
blacksmith's cabin in one of the most savage passes of the
Allegbanies, a smutty faced, leather-aproned fellow was soon
engaged in enabling me again to encounter the flinty roads
of the mountains, when the operation was interrupted in the
manner here related :

" Pardon me, sir," cried a middle-aged traveller, riding up
to the smithy, and throwing himself from his horse just as
the shaggy-headed Vulcan, having taken the heels of my
nag in his lap, was proceeding to pare off the hoof prepara-
tory to titling the shoe, which he had hammered into shape,
and thrown on the black soil beside him. " Pardon me,
sir," repeated the stranger,raising his broad.brimmed beaver
from a head remarkable for what the phrenologist would call
the uncommon developement of "ideality," revealed by the
short locks which parted over a pair of melancholy grey
eyes, "matters of moment make it important for the to be a
dozen of miles hence before nightfall, and You will place me
under singular obligations by allowing this good fellow to
attend to my lame beast instantly."
The confident and not ungraceful manner in which the
stranger threw himself upon my courtesy sufficiently marked
him as a man of breeding, and 1, of course, complied at once
with his request by giving the necessary order to the black-
smith. fits horse was soon put in travelling trim, and,
leaping actively into the saddle, he regained the highway at
a bound; checking his course then a moment, he turned in
his stirrups to thank ine for the slight service I had rendered
him, and, giving an address which I have now forgotten, he
added that if ever I should enter —'s valley I might be
sure of a cordial welcome from the proprietor.
An hour afterwards I was pursuing the same road, and
rapidly approaching the end of my day's journey. The im-
mediate district through which I was travelling had been
settled by Germans in the early days of Pennsylvania—a
scattered community that had been thrown somewhat in
advance of the more slowly-extended settlements. In po-
pulousness and fertility it cou!d not be compared with the
regions on the Eastern side of the mountains; but the im-
mense stone barns, which, though few and far between.
occasionally met the eve, not less than the language spoken
around me, indicated that the inhabitants were of the same
origin with the ignorant but industrious denizens of the
lower country.
One of these stone buildings, an enormous and ungainly
edifice, stood upon a bill immediately at the back of the
Wolfswald Hotel,—a miserable' wooden hovel, where I ex-
pected to pass the night, and while descending the hill in'
rear of the village, I had leisure to observe that it presented
a somewhat different appearance from the other agricultural
establishments of the kind which I had met with during the
day. The massive walls were pierced here and there with
narrow windows, which looked like loop-holes, and a clumsy
chimney had been fitted up by some unskilful mechanic
against one of the gables, with a prodigality of materials
which made its jagged top to show like some old turret in
the growing twilight. The history of this grotesque mansion,
as I subsequently learned was that of a hundred others
scattered over our country, and known generally in the
neighbourhood as " Smith's," or " Thompson's Folly." . It
had been commenced upon an ambitious scale by a person
whose means were inadequate to its completion, and had
been sacrificed at a public sale when half finished, in order
to liquidate the claims of the mechanics employed upon it.
After that it had been used as a granary for a while, and
subsequently, being rudely completed without any reference
to the original plan, it had been occupied as a hotel for a
few years. The ruinous inn had, however, for a long period
been abandoned, and now enjoyed the general reputation in
the neighbourhood of being haunted, for ghosts and goblins
are always sure to. take a big house off a landlord's hands
when be can get no other tenant.
" We havt no room pfor inynheer," said mine host, laying
his hand on my bridle as I rode up to the door of a cabaret
near this old building; while three or four waggoners,
smoking their pipes upon a bench in front of the house, gave
a grunt of confirmation to the ungracious avowal of the
German landlord. I was too old a stager, however, to be so
summarily turned away from an inn at such an hour; and,
throwing myself from my horse without further parley, I.
told the landlord to get me some supper, and we would talk
about lodging afterwards.
It matters not how I got through the evening until the
hour of bedtime arrived. I had soon ascertained that every
bed in the hostelrie was really taken up, and that unless I
chose to share his straw with one of the waggoners, who are
accustomed to sleep in their lumbering vehicles, there was
no resource for me except to occupy the lonely building which
had first caught my eye on entering the hamlet. Upon in-
quiring as to the accommodation it afforded, i learned that,
though long deserted by any permanent occupants, it was
still occasionally, notwithstanding its evil reputation, re-
sorted to by the passing traveller, and that one or two of the
rooms were yet in good repair, and partially furnished. The
good woman of the house, however, looked very portentous
when I expressed my determination to take up my abode for
the night in the haunted ruin, though she tried, ineffectually,
to rouse her sleeping husband to guide me thither. Mine
host had been luxuriating too freely in some old whiskey,
brought by a return waggon from the Monongahela, to heed
the Jogging of his spouse, and I was obliged to act as my
own gentleman-usher.
The night was raw and gusty, as with my saddle-bags in
one hand, and a stable-lantern in the other, I sallied from
the door of the cabaret, and struggled up the broken hill in
its rear to gain my uninviting place of' rest. A rude porch,
which seemed to have been long unconscious of a door, ad-
mitted me into the building; and tracking my way with
some difficulty through a long corridor, of which' the floor
appeared to have been ripped open here and there, in order
to apply the boards to some other purpose, I came to a steep
and narrow staircase without any balusters. Cautiously
ascending, I found myself in a large hall which opened on
the hill side, against which the house was built. It appeared
to be ligthed by a couple of windows only, which were
partially glazed in some places, and closed up in others by
rough boards nailed across in' lieu of shutters. It had evi-
dently, however, judging from two or three ruinous pieces
of furniture, been inhabited. A heavy door, whose oaken
latch and hinges, being incapable of rust, was still in good
repair, admitted me into an adjoining chamber. This had
evidently been the dormitory of the establishment, where the
guests, after the gregarious and most disagreeable fashion of
our country, were wont to be huddled together in one large
room. The waning moon, whose bright autumnal crescent
was just beginning to rise above the bills, shone through a
high circular window full into this apartment, and indicated
a comfortable-looking truckle-bed at the further end, before
the rays of my miserable lantern bad shot beyond the
threshold.

Upon approaching the pallet I observed some indications of
that end of .t he apartment being still occasionally occupied.
The heavy beams which traversed the ceiling appeared to
have bee❑ recently whitewashed. There was a sma!l piece of
carpet on the floor beside the bed; and a decrepit table, and
an arm-chair, whose burly body was precariohsly supported
upon three legs, were holding an innocent tite-d-tite in the
corner adjacent.

" I've bad a rougher roosting-place than this," thought I,
as I placed my lantern upon the table, and depositing my sad-
dle-bags beneath it, began to prepare myself for rest.
Div light having now burned low, I was compelled to expe-
dite the operation of undressing, which prevented me from
examining the rest of the apartment; and, indeed, although
I had, when first welcoming with some pleasure the idea of
sleeping in a haunted house, determined fUlly to exp:ore it for
my own satisfaction before retiring for the night, yet fatigue
just.
when caprice made me now readily abandon the intention just
when my means for carrying it into execution were being
withdrawn; for the candle expired while I was opening the
door of the lantern to throw its light more fully upon a mass
of drapery which seemed to be suspended across the further
end of the chamber, The total darkness that momentarily
ensued blinded me completely; but in the course of a few
moments, the shadows became more distinct, and gradually,
by the light of the moon, I was able to make out that the ob-
ject opposite me was only a large old-fashioned bed-stead
prodigally hung with tattered curtains. I gave no farther
thought to the subject, but, turning over, composed myself to
rest.

Sleep, however, whom Shakespeare alone has had the sense
to personify as a woman, was coy in coming to my couch.
The old mansion wheezed and groaned like a broken-winded
buffalo hard pressed by the hunter. The wind, which had been
high, became soon more boisterous than ever, and the clouds
hurried so rapidly over the face of the moon that her beams
were as broken as the crevices of the ruined building through
which they fell. A sudden gust would every now and iben
sweep through the long corridor below, and make the ricketty
staircase crack as if it yielded to the feet of some portly pas-
senger. Again the blast wouid die away in a sullen moan, as
if based on some wild night-errand ; while anon it would
swell in motlotonous surges, which came booming upon the
ear like the roar of a distant ocean.

I am not easily discomposed; and perhaps none of these
uncouth sounds would have given annoyance if the clanging
of a window-shutter had not been added to the general
chorus, and effectually kept me from sleeping. My nerves
were at last becoming sensibly affected by its ceaseless din,
and, wishing to cut short the lit of restlessness which I found
growing upon me, I determined to rise and descend the stairs
at the risk of my neck, to try and secure the shutter so as
to put an end to the nuisance.
But now, as I rose from my bed for this purpose. 1 found
myself subjected to a new source of annoyance. The mock-
ing wind, which had appeared to me more than once to sylla-
ble human sounds, came at length upon my ear distinctly
charged with tones which could not be mistaken. It was the
hard-suppressed breathing of a man. I listened, and it
ceased with a slight gasp, like that of one labouring under
suffocation. 1 listened still, and it came anew, stronger and
more folly upon my ear. It was like the thick suspirations of
an apoplectic. Whence it proceeded 1 knew not; but that it
was near me I was certain. A suspicion of robbery—possibly
assassination—flashed upon me; but was instantly discarded
as foreign to the character of the people among whom I was
travelling.

The moonlight now fell upon the curtained Led opposite
to me, and I saw the tattered drapery move, as if the frame
upon which it was suspended were agitated. I watched, I
confess, with some peculiar feelings of interest. I was nut
alarmed, but an unaccountable anxiety crept over me. At
length the curtain parted, and a naked human leg was pro,-
trotted through its folds; resting there, it seemed to me at
least half a minute before the body to which it belonged was
disclosed to my view.
Slowly, then, a pallid and unearthly-looking figure emer-
ged from the couch, and stood with its stark lineaments
clearly drawn against the dingy curtain beside it. It ap-
peared to be balancing itself for a moment, and then began
to move along from the bed. But there was something hor-
ribly unnatural in its motions. Its feet came to the floor
with a dull heavy sound, as if there were no vitality in them.
Its arms hung, apparently, paralysed by its side, and the
only nerve or rigidity in its frame appeared about its head;
the hair, which was thin and scattered, stood out in rigid
tufts from its brow, the eyes were dilated and fixed with an
expression of ghastly horror, and.the petrified lips moved
not, as the hideous moaning which came from the bottom of
its chest escaped them.
It began to move across the floor in the direction of my
bed, its knees at every step being drawn up with a sudden
jerk nearly to its body, and its feet coming to the ground as
if they were moved by some mechanical impulse, and were
wholly wanting in the elasticity of living members. It ap-
proached my bed, and mingled horror and curiosity kept me
still. It came and stood beside it, and, child-like, I still
clung to my couch, moving only to the further side. Slowly,
and with the same unnatural foot-falls, it pursued me thither,
and again I changed my position. It placed itself then at
the foot of my bedstead, and, moved by its piteous groans, I
tried to look calmly at it;—l endeavoured to rally my
thoughts, to reason with myself, and even to speculate upon
the nature of the object before me. One idea that went
through my brain was too extravagant not to remember. I
egvillage
for
aie the
.to
ear
Then,r moment
asuch b y.
thought, among
y s other things, that the phantom was a corpse,
animatedsame
rc
kgalvanic
thattoeffect—supposing
h
tpereccr)tce—e
wassssun inpp order
oaone
s in
to
no
recollectedaeven the experiment possible—l rejected the supposition. ^
How, too, could those awful moans be produced from an in-
animate being? And yet it seemed as if every thing about it
were dead, except the mere capability of moving its feet and
uttering those unearthly expressions of suffering. The
spectre, however, if so it may be called, gave me but little
opportunity for reflection. Its ghastly limbs were raised
anew with the same automaton movement; and, placing one
of its feet upon the bottom of nay bed, while its glassy eyes
were fixed steadfastly upon me, it began stalking towards
my pillow.
I confess that 1 was now in an agony of terror.
I leaped from the couch and fled the apartment. The

keen-sighteduess of fear enabled me to discover an open
closet upon the other side of the hall: Springing through
the threshold, I closed the door quickly after me. I had
neither lock nor bolt, but the closet was so narrow, that by
placing my feet on the opposite wall, I could brace my back
against the door so as to hold against any human assailant
who bad only his arms for a lever.
The sweat of mortal fear started thick upon my forehead
as I heard the supernatural tread of that strange visitant ap-
proaching the spot. It seemed an age before his measured
steps brought him to the door. Ile struck :—the blow was
sullen and hollow, as if dealt by the hand of corpse—it was
like the dull sound of his own feet upon the floor. He struck
the door again, and the blow was more feeble, and the sound
duller than before. Surely; I thought, the hand of no living
man could produce such a sound.
Ifknow not whether it struck again, for now its thick
breathing became so loud. that even the tnoanings which were
mingled with every suspiration became inaudible. At last
they subsided entirely, becoming at first gradually weaker,
and then inaudible only in harsh, sudden sobs, whose dura-
tion 1 could not estimate from their mingling with the blast
which still swept the hill-side.
The long, long night had at last an end, and the cheering
sounds of the awakening farm-yard told me that the sun was
up, and that I might venture from my blind retreat. But if
it were still with a slight feeling of trepidation that I opened
the door of the closet, what was my horror when a human
body fell inward upon me, even as I unclosed it. The weak-
ness, however, left me the moment I had spun!, from that
hideous embrace. I stood for an instant in the fresh air and
reviving light of the hall, and then proceeded to move the
body to a place where I could examine its features more fa-
vourably. Great Heaven! what was my horror upon disco-
vering that they were those of the interesting stranger whom
I had met on the road the evening before.
The rest of my story is soon told. The household of the
inn were rapidly collected, and half the inhabitants of the
hamlet identified the body as that of a gentleman well known
in the country. But even after the coroner's inquest w..s
summoned there was no light thrown upon his fate, until my,
drunken landlord was brought before the jury. His own
testimony would have gone for little, but he produced a
document which in a few words told the while story. It was
a note left with him the evening before by Mr. --, to be
handed to me as soon as I should arrive at the inn. In it
the stranger briefly•thanked me for the slight courtesy rer.-
dered him at the blacksmith's, and mentioning that, notwith-
standing all precautiou, his horse had fallen dead lame, and
he should be obliged to pass the night at Wolfstvald, he would
still further trespass on my kindness, by begging to occupy
the same apartment with me. It stated that, owing to some
organic affection of his system, he had long been subject to
a species of sonnamhulism, resembling the most grievous fits
of nightmare, during which, however, he still preserved
sufficient powers of volition to move to the bed of his servant,
who, being used to his attacks, would of course take the
necessary means to alleviate them. The note concluded by
saying that the writer had less diffidence iu preferring_his re-
quest to be my room-mate, inasmuch as, owing to the crowded
state of the house, I was sure of not having a chamber to my-
self at any event.
The reason why the ill-fated gentleman had been so urgent
to press homeward was now but too apparent ; and my in-
dignation at the drunken inn-keeper, in neglecting to hand
me his note, knew no bounds. Alas! in the years that have
since gone by, there has been more than one moment when
the reproaches which I then lavished upon him have come
home to myself; for the piteously appealing look cf the dying
man long haunted me, and I sometimes still hear his moan
in the autumnal blast that wails around my casement.