The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-09-07 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

The study of truth is perpetually joined with the love of
virtue; for there is no virtue which derives not its original
from truth; as, on the contrary, there is no vice which has
not its beginning in a lie. Truth is the foundation of all
knowledge, and the cement of all societies.—Casuerba.

THE EARWIG.—The great dread of the ear-wig entering
the ear is a popular error, whence, indeed, the animal derives
its trivial name. Like many other insects, it enters any cavity
in search of food or shelter ; and it may. like them, enter the
human ear as well as any other hole or hollow, but that it has
a special predilection for that situation is a mistaken notion
respecting the habits of the Forticula.—Notes on Nets, by the
Hon. and Rev. C. Bathurst.

OPIUM VENDERS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.—TaIking of drink-
ing and dramming puts me in mind of the opium-eaters, on a
number of whom the sultan played a capital trick some time
back. He was passing through a quarter of the city where
they sold the noxious drug, and the thought struck him that,
as the father of his people, he was bound to put a stop to so
pernicious a practice; so, without mo►e ado, he pulled down
all the shops, over the site of which I have several times had
the honour of walking, and sent every single soul he found in
them to the madhouse, which happens to be close by; and
there they remained with iron collars round their necks and
chained to the walls for two or three months, at the end of
which time his sublime highness let them out on their solemn
promise never to go mad auy more.—Capt. Rose's Three
Months' Leave.

BEGGARS IN LONDON.—Of the number of beggars to be
met with in the streets of Londpn, it is computed that nine
out of ten are gross impostors, who have probably been com-
mitted repeatedly to the house of correction as vagrants; and
of these the very worst are the blind and cripples. The
records of that valuable institution, the Society for the Sup-
pression of Mendicity, afford surprising proofs of the profli-
gacy of the regular street beggars. and the inveteracy of their
idle and dishonest habits. Mr. Knivet, the secretary of the
society, mentions two cases, one of a girl who has been from
twenty to thirty times in prison within the last sin years, and
another of a boy who has been as often as twenty tunes im-
prisoned within three years. It appears bv a return from the
commissioners of police, that in the year 1837, 4,287 beggars
were apprehended by the police, and taken before the magis-
trates. Of these, 2,568 were immediately discharged, and
1,779 were convicted and sentenced to various terms of im-
prisonment.—Report of the Metropolitan Police Committee.
Rio PE JANEIRO.—The number of persons I met in full
dress—black coats, black satin breeches, silk stockings, gold
knee and shoe buckles, opera hats, gold headed canes, and
ponderous gold seals—led me to think there must be a great
many dinner-parties going forward. I was mistaken; for as
I went into a shop to buy a pair of gloves, the man-milliner
who served me was precisely thus attired. A little further on,
I saw a whole group of men in similar costume, sitting at a
shop-door, smoking cigars, and drinking lemonade. This
seemed odd ; but what was my surprise, as I proceeded, to see
two negroes meet each other, dressed in tattered and ragged
coats, waistcoats, knee-breeches, and opera-hats, but without
shoes or stockings ! They stood bowing the one to the other,
hat in hand, and in polite contention as to which should be
covered first. They at length seemed to agree that they should
return their hats to their heads simultaneously, so that one
should not have precedence of the other. A snuff-box was
then pulled by each from his respective girdle, with half a
dozen bows, a pinch of snuff was exchanged; and very cere-
monious inquiries were mutually made about their respective
senhoras, or ladies. The hats were again taken off, and low-
ered to the ground; and after an amicable struggle as to
which should take the wall, these curious specimens of Bra-
zilian politeness and etiquette walked on their several ways.
—Robertson's Letters on Paraguay.
AUSTRALIAN WINE.—Had New South Wales been the
colony of a vine-growing country, wine and fruit would have
been, years ago, among the staple articles of our export;
while at present not above 1,000 gallons of tolerable wine are
annually produced in the colony. The climate is dry and
warm; none in the world can be more genial to the growth
of the vine, or more favourable to the production of that juice
which so gladdens the heart of man. This soil is as various
as that of Europe, from the most barren to the most produc-
tive. Here we have the debris of the primitive granite, the
fertile soil resulting from the decom position of volcanic trap
extensive tracks of lime, unmeasured extents of drift land,

proceedinit from the decomposition of sandstone, equally ex-,
tensive portions of country consisting chiefly of alumina, and
rich alluvial gcent deposits, which to a great extent occur
on the banks'M our rivers 3. in short, we have soils in almost

Last week, the cuckoo was heard by a number of shearers
in a valve near Calvertou, amongst some oak trees. —Notts
Review, Sept. 1, 1838.

AN IRISH BLUNDER.—The Limerick Chronicle, in one of
its late numbers, announces " that the Countess of Essex's
nieces, the Messrs. Smith, are performing at Liverpool."

. IMPRISONMENT Foe DEBT.—In all cases where the debt
is under £2O, the law remains just as it was—viz , you have
to serve a process in the first instance, and that to proceed to
jugdment • upon which judgement you can arrest the person
of you debtor, or seize his property. Where the debt is
above £2O, and you might have been desirous of arresting
yonr debtor in the first instance, by merely making oath to
the bebt (which is called mesne process) the new law de-
prives you of any such power; you must, as in the before
mentioned case, serve your debtor with a process, which will
ripen to execution, and upon that execution you may take
the effects of the defendant; and if the effects are not
sufficient, you may take his person. So that, in truth, the
only alteration which the present statute makes is by enact-
ing that no action shall be commenced by writ of arrest, but
it shall he by summons or notice. The practical working will
be simply this—Heretofore the arrest of a debtor was resorted
to as an experiment to compel him to pay you, or to give you
security, and which, no doubt, in many cases had the direct
effect. Now, you cannot bring this experiment to bear until
you have gone through certain proceedings, nor until you
have incurred some delay and some expense in arriving at
judgment. These two latter considerations will make it
necessary to use some greater caution as to whom you will
give credit to, and as against whom you will pnt the law in
force. There are certainly in the bill increased powers against
the landed property and the funded property of your debtor,
if you can find, and you may also compel a man who owes
you £lOO to become a bankrupt after 21 days, so that be
surrender his property equally between you and the rest of
the creditors.—.l Correspondent of the Times.