The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

PHILHARMONIC-HALL.
CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCE
OF
HANDEL'S ORATORIO OF
THE INSTANT.
a 8 'EVENING (TuESDAY). THE 20rff INSTANT.
ail A TESTIMONIAL TO MR. WILLIAM SUDLOW

duty." What is done with the mopoo a-year ? why not
make the old fellows more comfortable ? they have
troops of friends,"—they are all new gentlemen; $o "the
manner born,"—they hunger after comforts which they
have not—but shall: if the good Archbishop can't, the
QUEEN and PRINCE Ai.BERT, the loyal 'Carthusian
Brothers believe, will answer their petition in the affir-
mative. The SOVEREIGN and the PRINCE CONeORT are

WHEN THE
MAJESTIC CHORUSES OF HANDEL
Will be brought out by th,,, ,Inited strength of the past

it" of the

thusians

preseni tn(
THREE HUN
Surpassing any previ
Tickets to be had at

Let me

t the reader down in the centre of Smithfield

t tberpoot

Ft was the last ;
Lad an ominous look about its; the very brutes-appeared
o bellow, bleat, baa, and squeal for more room, and sorry
an I to say that worse brutes than they bellowed and
swore, in voices horrid with bad gin, and colds caught
" one a'top o' tother." Sure such a sight was.never seen ;
hundreds of link boys running about in the narrow
thoroughfares which divide the "pens" made ,the scene
visible and picturesque. Many gentlemen, at -the above
early hour, were present; several foreigners, probably
graziers from Belgium, Holstein, &c.; stalwart fellows
they were, looking out from a forest of hair ! I need not
state that the " beast" (always pronounced in the singular
by practical men) were of the United Kingdom breeds ;
not but that plenty of foreign " tariff" cattle had been
landed during the previous week. Poor creatures ! they
were discreetly kept out of sight ; sent down among the
marshes of Essex to pick up some flesh. A sea voyage at
this season has a most deteriorating effect upon foreign
cattle ; many of them appear to require tarpauling to
keep their flanks together. In that space called " Smith-
field Market," in the very heart of the city, within a few
yards of an hospital, never without its hundreds of sleep-
less patients, there were on Monday morning :7,037 head
of horned cattle, 25,830 sheep, 253 calves—a most illused
or discontented people, if I judge from their plaints,—and
295 pigs—. merry roystering set they were ; 'heedless,
because ignorant, of the butcher's whittle already sharp-
ened for their weasands. Let us see, all these make a
total of 33,415 head for human food, independently of
nearly 5,000 head of foreign cattle. As Dominie Samp
eon said, " Prodigious !" And this has nothing to do wit
the feathered tribe now arriving, not in leashes, but •
°thousands, from the tender lark —his singing at " Heaven's
gate" forgotten ; now, alas ! skewered ,at a shilling a
-dozen—to the stately pheasant. Our club epicures are
all rejoicing at the great abundance of " small game"—the
wheatear, woodcock, teal, and so forth.
At no period in the history of our belles-lettres, since
the leviathan of literature—the great lexicographer and
moralist, SAMUEL JOHNSON, wrote in Bolt-court, and
there is no use going further back,—has literature of all
sorts, periodical and permanent, been in a mare healthy
state in the metropolis than it is at present. Authors
and authoresses are also healthy. Mrs. OPIE, the charm-
ing novelist of the last age, like a sheaf in fall season, has
been gathered to her fathers ; and Miss MARTINEAU,
who wields a plume of another description, though thick
of .hearing—thanks to " mesmerism,"—(ha ! ha !) she
says she is all right : and I think she ought to be, for she
is going to have a night not with MENDELLSOHN, but
with ." Doughey," the baker ! What is here meant ?
Manama, MARTINEAU is to give the journeymen bakers
a turn; for which purpose, like a judiciotawriter a writer
from facts,— all writing else is fudge, fancy, or bosh ; she
has had allotted to her for one night the bakery of a
" full-priced" master of the plastic art, to see, with her
own eyes, the modus operandi —the hardships of poor
knock-knees —the journeyman baker. She is to walk
into the shop without previous intimation - stay all night,
see the " sponge set," and not leave till " hot rolls" come
forth at eight o'clock. A droll notion for a female. But
to my thread:: It is a curious fact, and augurs well for
our sanitary condition, that in the memory of the oldest
secular and sacred reader, there never, at one period, pro-
ceeded from the .metropolitan press such an array of sound
religious works as at this present writing. I could enu-
merate about one hundred and twenty, either on the
stocks or launched—if the mixed metaphor be permitted.
The three great heads under which mere secular litera-
ture is usually ranged—Fiction —History—and Travel—
put together do not come within a century of the sacred
portion of works now published. They pay well too.
But what pays best of all is our light literature ; MA-
CA.ULAY gets his three or four thousand pounds sterling
for a volume of his history. This is almost the work of
a lifetime. I remember Ben SOUTHEY being paid two
hundred pounds for two or three hours' writing in a
quarterly about—the Arabs ! MACAULAY, last autumn,
had to fly to the Swiss Alps, for a mouthful of the only
air he liked, to bring him round to health ; so did not
ALBERT SMITH, who was at Cliamounix at the same
time. With SMITH as an example, I'll " pit" his in-
come, from his easy no-thought entertainment, against
that of the great historian's terse and elegant periods. Is
ALBERT SMITH a cleverer man than BABINGTON
MACAULA.Y ? No, no ! but he can do half a dozen clever
things that BAB. cant he can draw a tooth and a half-
crown at the same jerk ; play the cornet-11-piston, touch
the piano-forte, sing a song, tell a story pretty well,—all
together. Then again, another remarkable man, SAMUEL
LOVER, living in prime style, and whose " songs and
sayings" are promised to entertain us in town at Christ-
mas. Does literature, alone, do all this ;or is it that
SAMUEL can paint the prettiest miniatures; in ballad-
writing is second only to his old friend, Tom Mow= ;
sings and plays ; writes prose, as an Irish humorist only
can. These attainments, you will say, are enough to
ensure comfort and respectability—if well directed. Be
it so. Who is that rather good-looking man, neither
young nor old ? He began literature as a living, or means
thereof, little more than twenty years ago ;—look at his
equipage and those macaronies of ponies—that's H.Ku.-
,hriFitmn.-9.coMyzrotzirie Illiszlonuc~vomiej2linzvfor.
long while ; but won't. Literature and literary men are
ever shifting ; some of the latter go to India. There's
young Blanchard off to Agra next week to edit a paper;
the proprietor of which just went to India, like the lad
BLANCHARD, some years ago,—made a fortune, and kept
a sound liver, and now leaves the younger to work.
BLANCHARD is to have a large sum per annum; lots of
servants at his beck ; and so on with other literary men,
not now to be named. It is said that BEN WEBSTER,
late of the Haymarket, now Adelphi, has become a news-
paper proprietor. I sincerely hope he won't burn his
fingers—again. I learn that the remission of the adver-
tisement duty has done the Metropolitan papers very little
good. The fact is, as far as regards the London journals,
advertising people will advertise—whether cheap or
dear—because they find their account in it. In short,
advertising is trade's thermometer ; and withdraw £5O
only in advertising, the trader loses £lOO ; and so on in a
" sliding" or backsliding scale.
In the recent history of English husbandry, the name of
Mr. MECHI, of Tiptree-hall Farm, Essex, and Leadenhall-
street, London, has been intimately associatedwith its inte-
rests, as well in regard to the legislation which the parlia-
mentary leaders of the Agricultural party combined their
exertions to defend, as to the undoubted advantages which
spring from improved implements, and scientific processes
of tillage. For a number of years past, this gentleman
has been labouring to convert the poor land of Tiptree
into a valuable and productive soil, and the success with
which his efforts have been crowned, abundantly attested
by his balance sheets, confers upon them all the charac-
teristics of superiority which entitle them to be regarded
as constituting a system of model farming. The impa-
tience with which (not unnatural under the pressure of
legislative misfortune) men listened to his teachings, has
now nearly died away ; and the state of the labour market,
amongst other causes, has operated wonderfully to teach
agriculturists that their only hope lies in making friends
with the machine makers, and proceeding by a better rule
than that which, in the poverty of language, has been
styled the " rule of thumb." Mr. MECIII has never
flinched from the text with which he set out, after the
experience which he acquired with a little rational enter-
prise, and he now, as strenuously as ever, urges the neces-
sity of employing larger capital and greater skill. During
the past week, he communicated the results of his
farming, during the past working year, in the shape
of a paper which he read before the Society of Arts,
on Wednesday evening last. It would be wholly
out of place to go into the numerous and minute details
which he gave on the occasion ; but, in the existing state
of agricultural matters, I have good reason to believe that
a general knowledge of his views and experience will be
useful. In the first place, he insists upon the importance
of a larger employment of steam power upon a farm in
proportion to horse power. The reason is sufficiently
obvious. A horse wastes a considerable portion of his
energy in moving his own weight, generally about 15
cwts., and the dynamometer shows that about 4 cwts. is
all that he transmits as effective moving force. Comparing,
this with steam power, we have this result. A loco-
motive engine, with its tender, weighing together only
38 tons, moves an express train, to which it imparts a
moving force equal to that of 1,000 horses. If the 1,000
horses were substituted for the machine, they would weigh
collectively 750 cwts. BeSidettransinitting, therefore, a
much larger power in proportion to their weight, steam
engines are further advantageous in occupying less space,
and consuming no food when not at work. As regards
the great principle of his farming, it consists in liquid
manure irrigation. Liquid, in preference to dry manures,
is attended with numerous benefits, and the failure, pro-
bably within ten years, of the existing supplies of guano,
as announced by Admiral Thoresby, will hardly leave
room for choice a few years hence. It has been observed
as a curious phenomenon in the physiology of plants, that
the spongiose portions of their roots reject all particles in-
tended to assimilate with their system, unless presented to
them in a liquid state. This observation seems to decide that
in a liquid or a gaseous form the manure should primarily or
ultimately be applied to the plant. Employing liquid
manure, however, the dread of the farmer that the subsoil
will be turned up to the surface, need no longer be enter-
tained. It is a proof that dry manures are almost confined
in their assimilating action to the extreme upper surface
of the soil, that the subsoil lying at a depth of only six
inches yields no crop when brought to the surface, and
hence the farmer's fear. Liquid manure, however, by fer-
menting the superior and softening the inferior strata,
entirely removes all occasion for such apprehension. It is
important that the manure should be in a state of extreme
dilution, or the effect produced will not be good, perhaps,
even injurious. Mr. MECHI obtains his manure by the
means of a large vaulted tank, 20 feet deep by 30 feet in
diameter, having a narrow opening at the top, into which
dead animals and other refuse of the farm are thrown. A

:o be held in Sinithfiel

PROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

MONDAY MORNING

/MID PALMERSTON'S secession from the AL_____—
Iradstnr, and the almost hourly expected withdrawal of
the Marquis of LANSDOWNE from the Coalitionists, who
form her 3fAJEarr's state-advisers, are the great political
features of the week. It was not until Friday morning
that the fact of PALMERSTON

RDEBIC

resignation became

generally known ; but soon after seven o'clock, .on
Thursday evening, the salons and library of the Reform
Club tingled with mysterious rumours of grave Minis-
terial differences. From dinner hour, as the Club
gradually became better attended, those rumours assumed
a somewhat more tangible and less visionary form ; and
at eleven o'clock all doubt, misgiving, or misapprehension

on the subject were removed, by the entrance of one of the
junior Lords of the Treasury, who was in a position to
state, authoritatively, that Lord AnsuDZEN, late on
Wednesday night, had received from Lord PALatzEsncor

a communication, tendering his resignation of the office
of Secretary of State for the Home Department ; and
regnestin, that with all practicable expedition his resolve
might be laid before the Qtr HEN, with the view of obtaining
Her MAJESTY'S assent to his release from the cares and
responsibilities of a Cabinet Minister. The announce-

that surprise wi

[thin the

ment did not cause
walls of the old Reform mansion which one mi.

have eipected. I happened to be in the great cen-
tral hall when the junior lord, fresh from Downing-
street, communicated to a circle of some thirty or
forty Whig-Radical friends, and one or two colleagues in
office, " the startling intelligence," as an old member of
the House of Commons instinctively characterised the

news, and, with one or two exceptions, there was no ex-
pression of astonishment at the steps taken by the suave
and crafty old member for Tiverton. Indeed, the contrary
feeling appeared to pervade the minds of those who, under
the influence of the three hours' previously circulated
strange and extraordinary gossipings, hastily rallied round
the Treasury official, to learn from his lips an authentic
exposition of the Ministerial difficulty or dislocation. 'lt
is just as I anticipated," said one. " PALMERSTON merely
went in to upset the coach," exclaimed another. "Throwing
down the gauntlet to Lord Jous," murmured a fourth.
"A repetition of the Militia-bill dodge," angrily ex-
claimed an irate peer, as he laboured to console himself
with copious potations of steaming brandy and water.
There was no regret whatever manifested at LOUD PAL..
MERSTON'S sudden desertion from the ranks of the Minis-
try,—l men regret so far as affects his personal identifica-
tion with the ABERDEEN Cabinet. But some long-
headed members of the legislature evidently appeared to
apprehend that his retirement from the service of the
Crown, at a moment of such importance to the interests
of the nation, might possibly lead to most disastrous and
disheartening results.

Out of doors, generally speaking, Lord PALMERSTON'S
resignation has been regarded with exultation, bat this
may mainly be attributed to the complexion which the
ministerial organs, in announcing the " blow up,"..gave to
the entire affair. According to the authority of those
printed conduit pipes, Lord PALMERSTON rested his ina-
bility to remain connected with the present Cabinet, and
to share in the responsibility of the measures of the ap-
proaching Session, solely, distinctly, and exclusively, on
the ground of his decided opposition to the projected
measure of Parliamentary Reform, which has been pre-
pared by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and assented to by the
other members of the Government. The cause, quoth the
same oracular organs, is unconnected with the foreign
Policy of the Government; it has not arisen out of the
difficulties of the Eastern question, nor is it true that dif-
ferences of opinion on that subject have manifested
themselves with such force as to lead to the retire-
ment of any member of the administration. Lord

- • .4 4- --a —..4.....i ',..,n fny.
extending the franchise, disfranchising corrupt boroughs,
increasing the so-called " popular" influence, and puri-
fying the representative system. Lord PALMERSTON,
who it is now discovered never sincerely and firmly
attached himself to the principles of that Liberal party
from which he has effected an abrupt separation, is op-
posed to Reform in any shape. He takes exception to
the RUSSELITE scheme, and on this plea alone vacates
Downing-street. Now, such an explanation is unques-
tionably calculated to lower Lord PALMERSTON in the
estimation of your franchise-frantic middle and lower
classes ; and hence the extent of the exultation which his
secession from the ABERDEEN Cabinet has occasioned.
But the story is the merest moonshine—the veriest delu-
sion. PALMERSTON and RUSSELL differ on the details of
the Reform Bill ; but, had there been no Eastern ques-
tion, that difference would not have left the Home Depart-
ment without a Secretary of State. Thorough and un-
mitigated disgust at the cowardly policy sanctioned by
Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues, is the actuating cause;
the Reform Bill the ostensible motive for Lord PaLmes-
STON'S 'resignation. He said as much himself, lam assured,
on Wednesday last, before he went down to Bowood, the
Marquis of LANSDONS'NE'S residence; and I understand he
will be prepared to state more in that direction when the
embarrassments of the Ministry come to be discussed before
the constitutional tribunal of Parliament. Both Sir
GEORGE GREY, Lord PANMURE, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL
are spoken of as Lord PALMERSTON'S successors. Earl
GREY'S name is also favourably mentioned; but I believe
no name has yet been selected for the QUEEN'S sanction,
each section of the Cabinet battling vigorously for their
respective favourites. Who the Peelites have put forward
still remains secret. The Council which sat on Saturday
remained in deliberation from two o'clock until six, the
Marquis of LANSDOWNE, as well as PALMERSTON, being
absent ; and it is said that the conference was not one of
the most remarkably peaceful character. PALMERSTON
came to town late that night, and at theclubsthey circulated
that his resignation had not been accepted by the QUEEN,
and that he was to remain in the Cabinet until the
settlement of the Eastern question, on the understanding
that no measure of Reform, such as Lord JOHN RUSSELL
had prepared, would be submitted to Parliament so
long as he continued his connexion with the Government.
I need hardly assure you, that I don't attach the least
credence to this "latest state of the Ministerial crisis ;"
but I am well inclined to prophecy that before four
months the existence of the ABERDEEN administration
will have closed through the immediate instrumentality
of Lord PALMERSTON, and that he, the once expelled,
and the now resigned minister of the Crown, will be
Premier" of England, working cordially with DISRAELI
and young STANLEY, and moving around him a compact
and formidable party, not the least interesting feature in
which will be the moderate Conservative and progressing
element.

In the centre of the obscurest and smokiest part of
London, there is a house of education and benevolence,—
it may be of charity, the latter; though Tom SUTTON, as
he was familiarly called upwards of two hundred years
ago, so chroniclers mention, meant it no charity at all.
The house I refer to is very old—older than the two cen-
turies stated. Go in and look at it ; they are very civil
People there. The fine old open hall,—Norman of aspect,
—big and wide fire-place ; they required more room forcook-
111F then than we do now ; for utilitarianism, like a " var-
mint," has crept into the sanctuary of our y
kitchens—
Cooking ox whole b gas ! oh monstrous improvement !
The house I am to speak of contains much learning, much
money, much poverty, much hilarity, wit, humour, and
all the " diel ma' care" feelings which fill the silken sails
of life, contra the ballast,—sorrow,—which most of the
seniors in that old house have had their ships freighted
withal ! That house is Carthusian, an ancient brother-
-1100(I—Charte1—Charter-house School, to ears polite ; for the " poor
scholars" of Taosus SUTTON are "gentles all." Fine-look-
ing fellows, several I have known, and good scholars. The
!ellnlars
al the 0 are, they say, limited to forty ; they were
• •
founam4 parchment called "poor boys;" on the

,c ---..tun there were also to be double the number o, large quantity of water is admitted to this vessel, in which
Poor brothers." Now we come to realities ! Take one decomposition is allowed to take place. By means of a
T,,,,oeall:MoscntEP, once the stipendiary poet of Drury-lane steam-engine, and underground pipes and force-pumps, the
havingo tre--long since blind ; yet Tom used to laugh at manure is conveyed to distant points of the farm, from
PrOduced p air f t des at the T. R., D. L., whence it is discharged through a hose, with a nozzle at
.„`n one year, thouagh- attreroe wBpasecaacataract in one of them. its extremity, and thus spread over the whole of the farm-
-4.01t refe
Carth . rred to "the cataract of the Ganges." Poor. land which needs. it. The result of this system has been
usian brother, he has had enough of cataract since to cover a soil with fine green grasses, feeding cattle satis-
-li?ntlidershaB;"nw. Re,
bellious sons are these same " poor factorily, and producing an abundance of butter and milk,
they sit at night in their rooms, talk,—how which formerly,. as Mr. Mscm. describes. it " resembled
tliteYra"fin talk
1 They commune :it is pleasant to be with bird-lime in winter and cast-iron in summer." Mr.
of £6OO during the
4.lo,ooev,erY• " Here we are ; the income of our house is MECHI'S balance-sheet exhibits a profit
with 04dlear: you and I and all of us have only ,E 25, past year, exclusive of items which, intheir.nre.s.sulitin,
mwiell.
it
beggar's 1'14,7 every day—barring our holidays—with a swell the next year's account. The process,
candles>, cloak every two years ; bread and butter and rous details, is eminently worthy of the sttdy of all who
poke ,eal;, hear, hear). Ah, but recollect you werei are directly or remotely interested in land, and is of para-
tr',B2l!ess• You had, the first day you entered, mount importance as a matter of
.public concearnv.eryln this
general eil`Zei, an iron fender, and a pair of bellows '. (a little sketch I cannot pretend to give but n
members slight
` Bunwe ""_of : brother, burn the bellows r—burn summary of the subject, strongly.recommeteg
brothers indeell.' and so on for some time, until the of the agricultural community in Laneas and else-
w ic •
winded !) They mid their own bellows rather short- where to make themselves masters of the facts la' h Mr.
"It is too bad,--4lg tie:, a respected brother loquitur,— MECHI has made public.
have done so. I have
readPetitthion. for little more." They -
and LONDON, and Peclt eir. petition. CANTERBURY,
t, with that meek and learned T V .
judge CRESSWaLL, and
.HE HIGH SHERIFF for
, one or two other governors met Fort, Egg of Read Hall, aitthheerOeen:LtilLnagNyceaaareeirs Gazette.
she petition with—. ' Could 11Qt consbitently with 'their - ""