The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

Her Majesty is expected to lev the foundation stone of the
new houses of parliament shortly after her marriage.

MORTALITY . AMONG THE PEEPS DURING 1839.—
During the past year 14 peer 4 have died, namely, 3 dukes,
the Dukes of Buckingham, Bedford, and Argyll; 6 earls, the
Earls of Zetland, Caledon, Essex, Lauderdale, Mount Edge-
cumbe, and Kingston; and five barons, Lords Hqwden, St.
Helens, _De Rooss Walsingham, and Rendlesham. Of the
above, only one peerage is extinct, that is Lord St. Helens.
The Earl of Caruwatli, Viscount Dutferin, and Lord Lang-
ford, all of the peerage of Ireland, have also descended to the
tomb during. the past year. Only four members of the House
of Commons have died during the same time, namely, Lord
W. Bentinak, Viscount Clements,- Sir J. Dunlop, Bart. and
Mr. M.. Praed.
REFORM CABINET'S cum' Gaoax.---That this Poor-
Law Amendment Act merinwhile-ahmild be,:as we rometimes -
hear it named, the " chief glory" of a Reform Cabinet; be-
tokens,
one would image, rather a scarcity of glory there. To -
say to the poor, ye shall eat the bread of affliction and drink
the water of affliction, and be very. miserable while here, re-
quired not so much a stretch of heroic faculty in any sense,
as due toughness of bowels. If pauperS are made miserable,
paupers will needs decline in multitude. It is a secret known
to all ratcatchers ; stop up the granary-crevices, afflict with
continual mewing, alarm, and going off of traps, your " charge-
able labourers" disappear, and cease from the establishment.
A still briefer method is that of arsenic; perhaps even a.
milder, when otherwise permissible. Rats and paupers can
he abolished : the human faculty was from of old adequate to
grind them down, slowly or at once, and needed no ghost or
Reform Ministry to teach it.--Chartism, by Mr. Carlyle.
OaENISM.—Last Saturday and Monday evenings, the
talented and indefatigable Mr. Brindley, delivered two lec-
tures in the large room adjoining the Northgate Hotel, Hali-
fax, against the Infidel principles set forth by Mr. Robert
Owen, which were both numerously and respectably attended,
and in the exposure of which Mr. Brindley was throughout
vociferously cheered by the audience. In the placard put
forth by Mr. Brindley, he challenged any Socialist or ac-
credited agent of Socialism to discussion ; hut, at the first -
lecture no one attempted to come forwards to refute him M-
any one point which he advanced. At the conclusion, how-
ever, of the second lecture, a poor simple fellow, known by
the name of Mad Dick, well known as a Chartist and So-
cialist in the neighbourhood, mounted the platform, and be-
began to speak, but the first half dozen words he uttered
were of such a disgusting nature that the audience would no
longer hear him. He was led away out of the room. A vote
of thanks was then unanimously passed to Mr. Brindley for
the excellent lectures given by him in exposure of " Owen's
licentious system of Atheism.—Leeds Intelligencer. .
CURIOUS CASE.—The following matter came to light in
the course of an examination last week before the magistrates
at Exeter. A very respectable 'woman, of the judicious age
of sonic two or three and thirty, appeared before the Bench,
and, producing a neat white cloth. with something bundled
up in it, placed it deliberately before their worships, and,
proceeding with some show of caution at first, which yielded
to a quicker movement preparation begat nervous anxiety,
she at lenath unfolded to the view of their worships a deca-
Pitated goose. Great was the surprise of the administrators
of the law as they saw the bird. lying prostrate before them,
the lady not having yet broken silence, nor introduced the -
bird with any show of customary ceremony. The feelings of
the lady were, however, too sensitive to be ceremonious, and
so she plunged at once into' a narrative of. fact to the follow-
ing effect :—" Your worships, I went to market last Friday,
to buy a goose for Sunday's dinner;, I saw one which took
my fancy, from the very young head it had ; I asked the
price, and the man agreed to take ss. Gd. for it, having re-
fused 7s. all day ; I bought it, took it home, prepared it for
cookery, intending to have a preliminary dish of the giblets ;
but, alas ! no sooner did I come to the neck, than I found
that this young head had been. fastened to au old shoulder
the head, possessing all the marks of youth and tenderness,
was actually sewn on to a shrivelled elderly neck. I was
amazed ; I could not account for this circumstance ; I knew
that they sow their fields in the country, but never heard
that they sewed their geese—not knowing what improvements
might have taken in agriculture, I determined to try the gib-
lets, and not to let the circumstance prejudice me against the
goose. I did so ; I boiled the giblets. The head was done
beautiful in an hour, but all the rest took three hours and a
half." Finding this to he the case, she wisely abstained from
trying her hand on the goose itself, and now stood a claimant
for justice against the false rustic who had thus beguiled her
of her judgment. The Bench listened with astonishment to
her narrative, and forthwith lent her a peace-officer to sum-
mon the man into their presence. He was found at a stall
in the market, and speedily made his appearance. The case
was now gone into finally, and the plaintiff averred that he
had warranted the goose young—she always judged by the
head, and that was decidedly young. The defendant said lie
was a native of Zeal Monachorum, and the practice in their
country was to kill the geese by chopping off the heads of
them ; and when they brought them to the market it was
their practice to sew therd- on again. He affirmed that it
was the invariable practice at Zeal—that he was an honest
man never before a magistrate in his life, and incapable of
doing such a deed by way of deceiving the public. The Bench
gave him a grave caution ; the magistrates shaking their
heads at the protestations of innocence which he made ; and
he having returned the money, and taken back the goose,
minus the young head and the old giblets, the fair plaintiff'
left, much comforted with the result.—Western Times.
OPIUM CONSUMERS.—A correspondent of the Leeds
Mercury says " that in the county of Lincoln opium eaters
are quite common, and the consumption of that drug is la-
mentably on the increase. It is the practice in this part of
Yorkshire (Knaresborough) not to sell the article without
knowing the party, or what it is going to be used for ; but in
Lincolnshire the solid opium is kept weighed by all druggists
in pennyworths, drachms, and half drachms, and sold as
commonly as Epsom salts, without making any inquiry ; and
it forms a leading article with the trade. I have heard it re-
marked by people well able to judge that you may calculate
that every fourth customer who enters a druggist's shop in
Lincoln wants either opium, laudanum, or Godfrey's cordial ;
the two last are prepared from opium. Its sale is chiefly
amongst the lower'order of people, though many respectable
people may be included. The quantity they get accustomed
to take is almost incredible ; one young woman whom I served
for three years never took less than 30 grains every night;-one •'
man could (and did when he could get it) take six ounces
of laudanum every day. In consequence Of the stoppage of
the opium trade with China the price has fallen in this coun-
try from 17s to Ils Gd a pound, which I am afraid will in-
crease the consumption. lam not aware how far it is-already
spread, but the-- whOla of. Lincolnshire appears strongly • -
tainted :ass
A PARALLEL.—Nothing can exceed the wrath of a pick-
pocket, should he happen to find that his ,-own • art has been
practised upon himself. He not only seems.. to: think that a,
his monopoly hi " Cly-faking," as the fishidnable language of
the day terms his profession; has-been grosgly infring'ed ; but 's
lie cries out so.lustily against.the • villairtyaof-the . world, that a
a green-horn would imagine -him and his "pals" to be the
only honest men left in it. He-is not, howeVeS, without a
rival in his hypocrisy. Your whig is even his superior at it,
when he finds that lie has been served out with his own sauce. s
For instance, what a roar of indignatiOn did the Chronicle
indulge in yesterday, because whig influence has been some- - ,a 1
what damaged in Scotland by the creation of a few tory life-. raj
renters! "Fire- and faggots," it exclaims,' "are we &lie
fide people: to -be robbed of our supremacy in, this way.?" . s
The Chronicle should be reminded, as it does not choose to
remember, who first set • the example, and taught the art of
faggoting. How often, and in .hoW.many counties, has the • •
Earl Fitzwilliam been convicted of faggoting, so gross as to
have earned the sobriquet of the Milton Woodman ? Is that
remarkable case forgotten in which a lawyer at Bedford was
commissioned to cut as many faggots off au estate of the
Duke of Bedford's as.would swamp the county of Hunting-
ton, so as to secure it for Lord John himself—has that es-
caped the memory of the grumbler against tory machina-
tions? These are not solitary instances—they are merely
examples of what .the whigs have been at in every English
county at all accessible to them, since they found by the
second election, after the Reform Bill, that their footing in
them was not a jot better than it was before. Those who
live in glass houses should not throw stones at other people's
windows. If 'the tories have here and there fortified them-
selves by the creation of votes, it might justly be called a
fair - reprisal. and act of self-defence. Bnt it is something
more. Grimaldi returning home one night was stopped and
robbed of his watch in Islington-fields. Ile followed the
footpad, and adroitly abstracted from his pocket the watch
back again. The rascal had the impudence to complain to a
magistrate that some villain had picked his pocket. Gri-
maldi came forward and acknowledged the offence. It is
needless to say how the case ended.—Morniug Herald.
Fox HUNTING IN WILTSIIIRE.—" A subscriber" (from
whom we should he glad to hear again) writes to us as fol-
lows :—During the last month, North Wiltshire has rivalled
Leicestershire in the sports of the field, her vales and rich
meadows maintaining the well-known fact, that the richer
the pasture the sweeter the scent. We have seen an English
Prince of true English character, like his reverend grand-
father, enjoying the chase in a truly English spirit, riding as
straight as the best of them, sometimes leading the Wiltshire
yeoman, as a crow would fly over his farm—as often follow-
ing him half smothered in dirt across its deep lanes, accom-
panied by some of the first sportsmen in the kingdom, whom
not even the broad waters of the swollen Avon can turn from
their course. We have seen several swimming neck and.
neck, after the impetuous pack, whose gallant daring, and
unerring nostrils will not give poor Reynard a chance, by ab-
lution in the rapid stream, of washing away the scent which is
so fatal to him. Each day, with the Duke of Beaufort's
hounds, the game has been found within ten minutes of en-
tering the covert, and the sport has been invariably good.
Lord Moreton has had some brilliant runs. Amongst others
may be enumerated one on Saturday, the 28th ult., at Charl-
ton Park. A fox was found immediately, which gave a bril-
liant run of about 25 minutes, over one of the sweetest coun-
tries in the world, and was killed in Shipton Wood. A
second fox was found in Keene's Wood, which gave rise to a
severe run of about two hours and a half in large circles in
the Braydon country, and neither horse nor rider could well
' wish for a harder day. Mr. Horlock's hounds met on Thurs.
doy, the 2d instant, at the Hillocks Windmill, but.did not
- find till a quarter before one o'clock, when; after araviagg.
the grassy and scentless covert of Hanmore for about a
quarter of an hour, a few hounds were observed gathering
near the boundary hedge. " A part of the pack are away,'
cried their indefatigable huntsman, who was not above a
minute or two in getting the body of the pack well up with
them. The fox broke towards the down ; and after running
about two miles through stiff enclosures, passing Whyrr
coppice, Richardson coppice, Berwick Bassett village, and
Winterbourne Bassett, lie then made over Hackpen Down to
Dean Bottom. Here he was viewed by the whole pack and
most of the field ; and, after running for about a mile and a
half in view without any tailing amongst the hounds, he wag
fairly run down in a plonahed field beneath Barbary farm.
A few yards further, the body of the pack were at his brush
—with only one check of about two minutes, affording an
Opportunity of admiring a judicious cast. The run lasted 40
minutes, and from point to point was absent seven miles.
For the last ten minutes the pace was at the top speed of the
fastest.—Bath Chronicle.
A FABLE.—AII old gentleman, of good sense and estate,
presented to his neighbours the melancholy spectacle of not
being able to exert the one for the proper control of the
other. On every hand he was tormented and eaten up by as
rascally a set of servants as ever ruined a good master ; his
steward was a knave, his gamekeeper a poacher, the groom
stole his corn, the butler emptied his bins • and his establish-
ment, in short, was one continued scene Of " high life below
stairs." Every year did Squire John resolve to make a clear
house of the whole gang ; but from time to time the prudent
resolve was overruled by a cousin Patrick, who had lived with
him so long that Squire John did not well know how he
should live without him. Pat was aware of this weakness in
the old gentleman, as well vs that he was fond of " peace and
'quietness ;" and, as the scamps were necessary to his plea-
sures, acted accordingly. Whenever the old gentleman talk-
ed of sending the tvorthless crew to the right about, Pat
swore that they were the bonestest set of fellows in existence,
and that if they were turned out, he would turn out too ;
while the knaves, on the other hand, daily dinned the old
gentleman's ears with what an orderly and affectionate crea-
ture Pat was as long as he had his own way, but with what a
devil he would be if they, his chosen friends, were no longer
present to keep him in humour ! Between them and his love
of " peace and quietness," the old gentleman was bambooz-
led to live on a life of torment to himself, and of ridicule to
the world, when one decided assertion of his authority would
. have rid him of his harpies, and have brought Pat to his
senses. This is all a fable, it. may be said ; but mutato no- • '
mine, good Joirs BULL, the fable might as well have been
told of you. It was a sort of Irish tranquillity which, like
. you, the old gentleman enjoyed, and, like you, paid much
more for than it is worth ; and, putting the comparison the
other way, are not you, in like fashion with him, bullied by
sO'Connell, plundered by the whigs, and laughed at by all
Europe for your easiness.? Study the fable well, and you. •
will be at no trouble to- extract from it a moral, and a very
ample one.—Morning Herald. •- •