The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-20 00:00:00

BRANDY AND SALT MINISTRY

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—It seems that our ingenious Whig ministry, ever
ready to catch at a new plan for raising the wind, have
availed the►r_selves of your late valuable hints respecting
Brandy and Sail, and taking it for granted that it Will care
a deficiency in the revenue, as well as every other complaint
of the constitution, have determined to follow up the sugges-
tions, by taking the duty off Brandy and putting it on Sall,
in order that they may be taken in large doses combined,
with a full expectation of witnessing the most happy results.
Trusting that as well as a nation's thanks for your seasonable
suggestions, you may receive the spirited support of our
sagacious rulers.—Yours, &c. ,

BRANDY AND SALT.

THEOLOGICAL PARADOX

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—It was but yesterday that my attention was. draWn
to a letter in the Liverpool Mercury of the 21st February,
bearing the signature of " R. R.,' and dated Manchester,
Jan. 31, 18-10,• the writer of which professes to he " a lec-
turer on poetry, and a humble votary of • the muse." The
article is headed, " Critical Remarks on a recent Poem
_a''
and its object is, " the following passage, in a short poem
by
the Rev. J. Raffles, LL.D.," which it states " has been.
going the round of the papers :—"
" To die to the world and to sin,
To earth with its turmoil and care;
To look on the glories unseen,
And live as eternity's heir."
The critique upon the passage points to the words in ita-
lics, and the criticising lecturer asks, " How can be look on
what be acknowledges to be-unseen 7"
I confess, Sir, I any quite surprised at the gross ignorance
and destitution of. poetical taste which this criticism betrays
in its censuring author. Had he only turned to St. Paul's
second Epistle to the Church at Corinth, chap. iv. ver. 18,
he might have there read—" While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." This
is evidently the passage in the inspired volume which Dr.
Raffles had in his eye while writing the stanza in question ;
and it not only fully justifies the sentiment; and acquits it of
all " solecism," but is one of the most accurate, .as well.as
sublime expressions of any which adorn the inimitable writ-
ings of that holy and illustrious Apostle.
In his apologetic explanation of the apparent " solecism,"
the Editor of the Mercury assumes that Dr. Raffles intended
the vision of the unseen. objects to be the revelation of future
glory in another and a better world, as embraced by hope
rather than by sight. It is very possible that this idea might
have been connected with the Doctor's views, as expressed
in the lines under consideration, but the allusion is evidently
to present experience, and to the actual enjoyment in this
world of the blessing described and desired. This, the
Apostle's language above alluded to, fully justifies and re-
quires ; it runs thus—speaking of the afflictions to which the
profession of Christianity exposed its early converts, and the
consolatory prospects of a future, and " far more exceeding,
and eternal weight of glory," which awaited them in the
kingdom of their God and Saviour, St. Paul directs their at-
tention to that glory as a special object of their spiritual
vision, although invisible to their corporeal eye; he says;
" While we look net at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen :" and the reason which tilt!
Apostle assigns for this distinction and preference is—" 'For
the things which are seen are temporal ' • bat the things which
are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. iv. IS.'
Yet it is at those very things, " which are not seen," that
St. Paul exhorts the Church at Corinth to " look" with a
steadfast and unwavering eye! The language adopted by Dr.
• Raffles is therefore precisely that of the Apostle Paul, whom
I should hope .Mr. R. R. would hardly venture to accuse of
a grammatical solecism while describing the glories of the in-
visible world, as the objects of present vision. To explain,
however, this apparent paradox, it is necessary to recognise
the co-existence of two natures in man—the one corporeal,
and possessing senses corresponding with the material world
which we now inhabit; the other spiritual, and also possess-
ing senses, which are adapted to the contenaplation of those
things which belong, exclusively, to that spiritual world to
which we are all hastening. It is by the light of eternity
beaming upon what the same Apostle calls " the eyes of the
understanding" (Ephes. i. 18), through the medium of divine
revelation, that the realities of the invisible world are clearly
perceptible by the human mind, which thus takes, if I may
be allowed the figure, a telescopic view of the things which
arc totally invisible to the eyes of the body.
Perhaps one of the finest illustrations of this sublime sub-
ject to be found in human language will appear in the follow-
ing beautiful lines, by a truly evangelical poet:—
" The things unknown to feeble sense,
Unseen by reason's glimmering ray,
With strong commanding evidence,
Their heavenly origin display :
Faith lends its realising light,
The clouds disperse, 'the shadows fly;
Tll' invisible appears in sight,
And GOD is seen by mortal eye
(Wesleyan Hymns, No. fn.)
What, I ask, Sir, but the most pitiful ignorance and desti-
tution of true poetical taste, could induce the cold, pedantic,
and, I had almost said, contemptible criticism, which would
attempt the censure of this noble sentiment by telling us,
what every school-boy knows, that an invisible object cannot
be seen!" It is this very fact, which is literally true, that
constitutes the peculiar glory, and exquisite sublimity of the
admirable passage in question, the production of that' faith
which, in its glorious omnipotence, soaring far beyond the
boundaries of human p0wer,.....

Laughs at impossibilities, and cries,
It shall be done !"
I am, Sir, most respecfully, yours,
S. Sutton, near Prescot, 15th March, 1810. TUCKER.

-!~~EZis,fln

ANCIENT CONCERTS.—MS Royal Highness Prince Albert
has consented to become a director of the Queen's Concerts
of Ancient Music : the other directors are the Kind of Ha-
nover, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Wellington, the
Archbishop of York, Earl Portescue, Earl Howe, and Lord
.Burghersh.
•
THE LANCASTER AND PRESTON RAILWAY.—This work
is making capital progress. The fine weather of the past few
weeks has enabled the contractors to get on beyond their
expectations, and we believe there is no doubt whatever that
the line will be open at the appointed time in June next.—
Lancaster Gazette.
CHURCH ACCOMMODATION FOR THE SOLDIERY AT
WINDSOR.—The soldiers at present quartered at Windsor
amount to 2,000, and for this vast number of persons there
is no church or chapel of any description. The only reli-
gious service they can attend, is one' which lasts about ten
minutes, at eight o'clock in the morning, which is performed,
winter and summer, in the open court-yard. As there are
two barracks, the service is performed once a fortnight at
each. In the parish church and chapels of ease there is no
room for the soldiery, and they, consequently, never have
the advantage of hearing the word of God preached. A very
short time since £70,000 was voted by parliament for build-
ing stables at Windsor, and this while the soldiers attending
on royalty have no place of religious worship. Are they to
attend the projected Popish chapel ?—Morning Herad.
DRURY-LANE THEATRE:—Nothing is vet finally decided
upon as to the re-opening of this house. Two or three par-
ties are spoken of as anxious to wear the perilous honours of
management; and an operatic company, it is said, is ready
to take the field. The demands of the committee in the
matter of rent are, as they should be, moderate.
ELOPEMENT.—BRIGHTON, MARCH I7.—The universal
theme of conversation here to-day, has been the reported
elopement of the wife of Captain Heaviside, of Brunswick-
square, a magistrate for the county, with Dr.- Dionysius
Lardner, the popnlar.lecturer on the steam-engine, &c., and
railwatrexperinaentalist. Immediately on the unhappy.bus-
band discovering his dishonour,
about 30
fugitives, accompanied by, Mr. T. N. triginneirsili-tec:fhtehaer
the frail pair were traced to London, whence. they had sailed
for Ostend, whither the pursuers hsaovnelecol4loe;_e•eda.b
Heaviside is a most elegant woman,
years of age, and, we regret to add, is the mother of three
[We always thought Dr. Lardner
shoasi
rant
el a
isst
theme t
owbi
st
ehr- av
apt
ieorns oonf
children.—Evening paper.
aino veryre
ifoooolli isst
o than
person himbsue
lt
f.he
Boileau—

"Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.]

Thou knowest thou art guilty ! I feel thou art wrong :
'Tis for thee that I feel—not the torture I bear ;
My love ne'er can change—for to thee doth belong,
As a portion of life, my fond blessing and prayer. ,
Oh! repent thee—come back to the ark of thy rest ;
'Tis more hallowed, believe, than the world's luring fame ;
The home of thy first love—this pure, throbbing breast !
Can you look on my face, and not blush with deep shame ?

THE TRANQUILLITY OF IRELAND.
(From the Morning Herald.)

Our able contemporary, the Standard, makes the
following observations on the subject of the much-
vaunted tranquillity of Ireland :

" We have just received the return of the Irish commit-
tals during the year 1839. After all that the public has
lately beard of the tranquillity of Ireland, it may naturally
expect a considerable diminution of the committals, particu-
larly in the committals for the class of offences accompanied
by violence. We are sorry to say, however, that such ex-
pectation will be grievously disappointed. The committals
for murder and manslaughter, in 1839, amounted, according
to the return, to the frightful number of SIX HUNDRED AND
EIGHTY-SEVEN ; the largest annual amount, we believe,
even in the black catalogue of Irish crime. The committals
for murder and manslaughter, in the first year of whig go-
vernment, 1831, reached no further than 210, and on the aver-
age of the twenty years preceding, years of tory misgovern-
ment and orange ascendancy, they did not pass 100. They
have multiplied, however, threefold, under the benign influ-
ence of whig administration and we are told by men who do
not laugh in our faces, though they must laugh inwardly when
they utter the audacious falsehood, that the tranquillity of
Ireland has prodigiously improved. They tell us that there
are no faction fights now ; perhaps not, the populace are bet-
ter drilled and now know whom to murder. They say there
are no tithe quarrels—true, the legislature has at length, by
adopting Sir Robert Peel's bill—though tardily—taken away
the opportunity."

It were foolish in the Protestant public of England
to seek to disguise from itself the melancholy fact, that
the Papists are rapidly re-conquering Ireland. The
stream of Protestant emigration, as Mr. Macaulay
sometime ago boasted in the Edinburgh Review, flows
as steadily at the present moment, from Ireland to
England, as it ever did, in the time of Cromwell, from
England to Ireland. Ireland is, in fact, the scene of a
wide-spread conspiracy against Protestant life and pro-
perty. Assassination is now the most approved me-
thod of asserting Popish supremacy. True it is, in-
deed, that since the frightful murder of Lord Nor-
bury, attempts have been made to suspend the perpe-
tration of crimes of the more atrocious kind on the
part of the priest-led peasantry ; yet, despite all the
precautions taken, the murders and homicides com-
mitted last year—during the year celebrated, above all
others, on the score of its " tranquillity"—amount, as
we have seen, to six hundred and eighty-seven !
It is melancholy to reflect that the Queen's minis-
ters are the real abettors of all these fearful crimes.
They are the allies of the man, by whose followers and
instruments these crimes are perpetrated : nay, amongst
our cabinet ministers may be found certain individuals
who have risen to office by the success of plans of
treason against England. But if it be melancholy to
see men in office lending countenance to a system of
murder and masked rebellion, it is yet more melancholy
to find conservatives still adhering with desperate te-
nacity to their most ruinous system of " conciliation !"
Further " concessions" are to he made to the authors
and prompters of the six hundred and eighty. seven
murders enumerated in the ministerial " returns."
The municipal corporations are to be handed over to
these savage enemies of the English name ! Within
twelve months after that fatal step shall have been ta-
ken, the murders in Ireland will, we venture to pre-
dict, be found to have doubled !

ROYAL ANECDOTE.—At the Ancient Concert, which was
a rich treat, under the direction of his Royal Highness the
Duke of Cambridge, a very interesting incident occurred,
which we are sure it will gratify the people of England to
hear. In the tea room her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Cambridge approached the Queen, and said, " I hope your
majesty will allow me the pleasure of placing the hand of an
old friend of mine in your majesty's,' to which the Queen
assenting, the Duchess lead up the illustrious Duke of Wel-
lington, whom her majesty most cordially received, and shook
his hand with great warmth and kindness. The happy effect
on the surrounding company may be imagined.—Literary
Gazette.

SAVINGS' BANK.—It gives us pleasure to observe the
great and increasing esteem in which these admirable insti-
tutions are held throughout the country, and especially in
our own neighbourhood. From the printed returns it ap-
pears that in November, 1837, the amount of deposits in the
United Kingdom exceeded nineteen millions sterling, and
that the depositors amounted to more than six hundred
thousand persons, two hundred thousand of which had been
added in the previous six years. In 1831 one person in every
thirty-four throughout all England was a depositor, and in
1837, one in every twenty-seven ; while in Kent, at the
former period, one in twenty-nine, and at the latter, one in
twenty-three had a sum laid up in a Savings' Bank. For
some years before 1832, the increase in our own Savings'
Bank was small ; but in that and the two following years the
number of depositors was augmented by four hundred and
seventy, and in the next three years by four hundred and
eleven ; while in the last year alone, there were two hundred
and sixty-eight, which is more than double the average an-
nual increase of the six former years. Such has been the
success of this institution, which is a great engine of morality
and comfort to the industrious classes, that one person out
of every nineteen in this neighbourhood is a depositor.

DEATH OF THE PRESTON OBSERVER.-011 Saturday last
the Preston Observer breathed its last. It was started in
January, 1837, and after a brief existence of little more than
three years of hard struggling, during which it met with
many reverses, it is consigned to " the tomb of all the
Capulets." Its first career was under the direction and
support of a joint-stock company, but having soon exhausted
their funds, it was disposed of to the late proprietor, who
also finding it a losing concern, offered it for sale, but could
not meet with a purchaser. Its principles were those of
extreme radicalism ; and its unprosperous career and un-
timely, end show with what little sympathy• such doctrines
are supported by the inhabitants of Preston. Its columns
were frequently disgraced with low personal abuse ; and even
on Saturday last, in its dying throes, the ruling passion was
strong, as an attack upon a clergyman of the Established
Church, formed the substance of its leading article, and its
farewell address was stained with the ravings of envy at the
success of a contemporary.—Blackburn Standard.
A " CORRECTED EDITION."—On Thursday evening Mr.
Wodehouse asked why Dr. Bowring's much-talked-of report
had not been forthcoming, and gave notice that if it was not
produced in a few days he should move for it " forthwith."
It is a great pity that the hon. member did not move for it
" forthwith" on the spot ; or, at least, that he did not insist
upon knowing what was become of it. Has the doctor had
it back from the Board of Trade for the purpose of making
a few necessary corrigenda and expunyenda 1 If he has
not, as things have turned out, he ought to have had; for,
to judge froni the epitome of it which, in the pride of his
heart, he communicated to the Chamber of Commerce at
Manchester, the prophecies with which he came piping hot
from the continent would not have cotton'd very well with
the event. The doctor foretold that our exportation of
manufactured articles would decline from year to year, and
that we should become mere exporters of yarn instead—an
unavoidable conclusion to which he was driven from what
he had seen was going on. Some rogue must have played
tricks with the doctor's spectacles. By a return just pub-
lished, it appears that in the year 1839, as compared with the
year 1838, our export of cotton yarn decreased about 74 per
cent., while that of our cotton manufactures increased nearly
6 per cent. ; the export of linen yarn decreased 24 per cent.,
while that of linen manufacturers increased 25 per cent ; and
that while our export of woollen yarn only increased 4 per
cent., that of woollen manufactures increased 84 per cent.
Very provoking all this for the doctor, and sufficiently ex-
planatory of his report, which was to have been ready four
months ago, not being ready now. It certainly must require
a finishing touch or two, and, it is to be feared, will not be
worth much when he has made the best of it. Nevertheless,
the public have a right to a thing they have paid for, although
it may be good for nothing, and it is to be hoped that some
member. when the editio &Men dat a of the report is furnished,
will move for the editio princeps.—Morning Herald.
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE AT DENHAM PARK.—
SUICIDE OF THE HON. EDWARD PERCIVAL.—OH the
night of Wednesday last, a melancholy occurrence, which Las
plunged several noble families into a state of poignant dis-
tress and grief, took place at Denham Park, Bucks, about
two miles from Uxbridge, the newly opened private asylum
for lunatics, belonging to Mr. Benjamin Rotch, the late
chairman at the Middlesex sessions. Every endeavour has
been made to keep the matter as secret as possible ; but our
informant, from the inquiries he has made in the neighbour-
hood, has obtained the following particulars, which we be-
lieve may he relied on. For the last five or six months the
Hon. Edward' Percival, one of the sons of Lord Arden, a
gentleman, 45 years of age, has been an inmate of the above
establishment, which is most extensive, and partakes of every
convenience of a private residence. On the night in ques-
tion the unfortunate gentleman managed, during the tempo-
rary absence of his keeper from the room, which was at the
top of the house, to reach the window, raise it up, and cast
himself therefrom, a height of about forty feet. His fall was
heard by the domestics of the establishment, who instantly
ran out, and raised him in almost a lifeless state from the
frightful injuries he had received, and conveyed him into the
house where he expired shortly afterwards. Information
of the melancholy occurrence was on Thursday forwarded
to Mr. William Charsley, of Beasonsfield, the coroner for
the eastern division of Bucks, who immediately issued his
warrant for the holding of an inquest on the body. The inquest
was held in the establishment, and some idea of the secresy
observed may be formed from the villagers being unaware of
the melancholy occurrence until they were summoned on
the jury, and then only the jurymen were aware of it. What
the exact verdict returned was we have been unable to learn,
but we suppose it to have been that of " insanity." Yester-
day morning, at an early hour, the remains of the unfortu-
nate gentleman were removed from Denham Park, and con-
veyed in a hearse drawn by six horses, richly caparisoned,
with velvets and feathers, and followed by a mourning coach
drawn by four horses similarly caparisoned, to London for
interment. The above, it is stated, is the second case of the
kind which has occurred at Denham Park.—Herald.