The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

CHINESE LlVlNG.—Articles of food form of course the
most extensive trade of all; and it is sometimes a difficult
matter to get through the streets for the immense quan-
tities of fish, pork, fruit, and vegetables which crowd the
stands in front of the shops. Besides the more common
kind of vegetables, the shepherds' purse, and a kind of
trefoil or clover, are extensively used among the natives
here ; and really these things, when properly cooked, more
particularly the latter, are not bad. Dining-rooms, tea-
houses, and bakers' shops, are met with at every step,
from the poor man who carries his kitchen or bakehouse
upon his back, and beats upon a piece of bamboo to ap-
prise the neighbourhood of his presence, and whose whole
establishment is not worth a dollar, to the most extensive
tavern or tea-garden crowded with two or three hundred
customers. For a few cash (1000 or 2000=one dollar) a
Chinese can dine in a sumptuous manner upon his rice,
fish, vegetables, and tea; and I fully believe that iu no
country in the world is there less real misery and want
than in China. The very beggars seem a kind of jolly
crew, and are treated kindly by the inhabitants.—For-
tune's Three Years' Wanderings in China. .•
A NEGRO'S IDEAS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY. —I felt that
the life and character of Jesus Christ were totally different
from that of all other men whom I could conceive had
ever lived before ; that he was altogether pure and spot-
less ; that in no sense did he ever seek his own aggran-
disement in a worldly sense—rejecting the offers of men
to make him a king ; that he went about continually do-
ing good, and performing before thousands such miracles
as were quite unheard of previously in the world. It oc-
curred to me also, that he who could feed thousands with
a few loaves and small fishes,—who could calm the raging
sea, and raise the dead from the grave, could also, if he
willed, have called up an army of men from the dust of the
ground ; but in place of this, he forbade his followers to
fight in his defence, and delivered himself up calmly to
the rage of his enemies ; and all this, that he might save
from some awful future calamity the whole race of sinful
and wicked mankind. To die for his worst enemies, and
even to pray for those who were the immediate instruments
of his death, seemed to me altogether so different frorns
the ways of the world, as far as I had seen or heard, that
I conceived such a sublime and uncommon idea could arise
only in the mind of some being altogether superior to the
human race.—Life and Adventures of a Negro King.
SCANTINESS OF ANIMAL LIFE IN THE ISLE OF MAN.
—I am not aware that there are any fresh-water fish, ex-
cept the trout, which abounds in many of the rivers, and
is generally small. Partridges, woodcocks, grouse, snipes,
wild clucks, and puffins, are generally plentiful; hares are
scarce, for want of corer. The bones of red deer and
other species are found in different parts of the island,
and a race of hardy ponies are bred -here; also short-
horned cattle, and small mountain sheep, coarse-wooled.
The puffin is extremely fat, and reckoned a great delicacy
by many. They build their nests in rabbit burrows, and
are very prolific. It is said that 5,000 of their young
were taken annually, without any apparent diminution of
their numbers. Many small hawks, called " meslyns,"
arrive here from Ireland and the western parts of Scot-
land. Wilson mentions the existence of eagles, but I
have not seen any. The curlew (scolopax arquata) is
occasionally seen about the Calf of Man. Other birds
usually seen upon the toast are, gulls, cormorants, shags,
herons, crows, &c.. The birds of passage that spend the
breeding time on the Calf of Man, are said to consist of
eight species, among which are the " alea aretica"
(puffin), and " torda " (razor-bill).—Letters fram the
Isle of Man.

MEDITATIONS OF X YOUNG NEGRO. —When I was
even a boy some very strange ideas of time and space en-
tered my mind. I used to lie down upon the ground and
gaze for an hour or two upon the glittering stars with feel-
ings of indescribable delight. The sun was too dazzling
and too splendid to gaze much upon ; but the moon, the
mild and gentle moon, •and the innumerable clusters of
beautiful stars, fascinated my sight, and filled my mind
with wonder. For what they were made, how they were
made, and of what they were made, altogether puzzled my.
imagination. I sometimes, however, reasoned thus ; sup-
pose I were carried this moment to yonder light-star, what
then should I see ? More stars I should think. And
what then ? More again—still more and more; and then
all will be darkness and nothing. But what then would
be beyond that darkness ? This was the puzzle. In the
same way I reasoned regarding time. After father dies, I
shall be king—then I have son, he king—he have son
again, more king—more son, more king. And what then ?
No end can I see. World turn up—all things end. But
how end ? Something must be. I could come to no de-
finite
or satisfactory conclusion ; yet I think that such
thoughts prove that Divine Providence, the light of na-
ture, or whatever it may be called, influenced me to a cer-
tain degree even in wild, dark Africa.—Life and Adven-
tures of Zamba, an African Negro King.
THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.—The New
Houses may be described, in plan, as a vast assemblage of
buildings, with the intervening courts, covering an area
of nine statute acres, with a frontage to the Thames of
nearly one thousand feet. In the centre of the plan is a
large octagonal hall, communicating by a corridor and
lobby, northward with the House of Commons, and south-
ward with the House of Lords. In a line with the latter
is the Victoria Hall and Gallery, for the royal entrance by
the Victoria Tower, at the southwest angle of the plan.
Flanking the "Houses" and offices arc eleven large open
courts; St. Stephen's Hall, and the crypt of old St.. St-
ephen's, to be used as a chapel for Divine worship; and
old Westminster Hall will form a grand vestibule of en-
trance to the entire pile. It will comprise fourteen halls,
galleries, vestibules, and other apartments, of great capa-
city and noble proportion; and eight official residences,
each a first-rate mansion, that for the Speaker being as
large as the Reform Club House. The space between the
principal apartments is occupied by open courts, and cor-
ridors and lobbies, besides libraries, waiting-rooms, &c.
In the river front is a central conference hall, with com-
mittee-rooms and libraries, for the Lords and Commoners,
Speaker and Black Rod Usher's apartments, &c.; the
whole plan numbering between five and six hundred dis-
tinct roams. The principal external features will be the
Victoria Tower already named, now built to the height of
ninety feet, and to be raised to four hundred feet; the
Clock Tower, at the 'Westminister Bridge end; and the
tower of the octagon or Central Hall ; besides the towers
in the river front. The exterior is of hard magnesian
limestone, from Boleover, in Nottinghamshire; and the
interior of Caen stone. The main beams and joists are of
iron throughout, and the several buildings are fire-proof.
The style of the architecture is florid Gothic : we have
not, however, space to detail its picturesque enrichments
--its canopied niches with statuettes of crowned sovereigns -
mitred churchmen, and sainted women; its thirty-five
shields of .arms of the sovereigns of England; its multi-
tudinous badges, religious and loyal inscriptions; its richly
gilt wind vanes, and erect-tiles, noble windows, massive
arches, and the numberless embellishments with which
the whole pile may be said to bristle. The style employed
may be best described in the architect's own words:—" It
has been his aim to avoid the ecclesiastical, collegiate, cas-
tzllated, and domestic styles, and to select that which he
considers better suited to the peculiar appropriation of the
building."—Sharpe's London Magazine.

NICOLL'S PALETOT, OF LLAMA CLOTTI, REG.')
6 AND 7 Vie., CAP. 65.—Messrs Nicoll, Court Tailors, of
Regent-street and Cornhill, London, have the honour re-
spectfully to announce that MESSRS. DAWBARN AND
SON, of 110, Bold-street, Liverpool, will continue to be
their sole agents for that town, and will have the exclu-
sive sale of this fashionable Coat. Messrs. Nicoll can
most cheerfully recommend this establishment to any of
their patrons residing in its neighbourhood who may re-
quire, with the Paletot Coats, either Dress or Frock,
Trousers, Waistcoats, &c., MESSRS. DAWBARN AND
SON being constantly supplied from London with every
improvement in taste and fashion, and more particularly
as the same principles of business for which their own
firm is now well known are maintained by Messrs. Daw-
barn, viz., very moderate prices, combined with every ex-
cellence of material for prompt cash payments. Messrs.
N. are well aware that there are some fashions which have'
so little of the enduring principle in them that they sel-
dom survive the fluctuations of a single season; others,
which from their intrinsic merit, acquire a firm footing in
public esteem and enjoy a more extensive vogue in pro-
portion as they become known to the public. To the lat-
ter order the Paletot has an undoubted claim, as by its
unassuming, yet gentlemanly appearance may be ascribed
the constant patronage of H. R. 11. Prince Albert, Prince
George of Cambridge, His Grace the Duke of Wellington,
and the principal members of the senate, the pulpit, and
the bar. Price of Paletot, rich silk lining, two guineas
and a half ; not silk, two guineas. The Paletot D'Ete,
only weighing a few ounces, one guinea. 110, Bold-
street, Liverpool.