The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-30 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THE DAIRY AT BLENHEII!.I.—One gets a tolerable
idea of ►he almost extravagant opulence which is here
displayed, when say, that in a large vaulted hall for pre-
serving milk, cream, and butter, a splendid fountain had
been erected, to throw up the clearest spring water, which
falls down along several basins, growing gradually larger,
until it comes to a large basin at the bottom, which is so
arranged as to have upon its brink vessels and pans for
containing the cream and butter, which thus, in the
warmest weather, are kept at the degree of coolness, so
necessary to these useful kinds of food. In any other
place, this fountain would be used to ornament the en-
trance avenue, while here it merely serves to cool a dairy.
—.Enoland in 18-14, by Dr. Carus.
AWFUL IF TRUE.—A young rascal, a mad, reckless
vagabond, was drinking one day with some companions
in a pet-house. His money being all spent, he cried out
that if any both, would treat him to a can of good wine,
he would sell him his soul for it. Shortly after, there
came into the room a man who began drinking with the
scape-grace I speak of, and by and by asked him if he was
really willing to sell his soul. The fellow daringly ans-
wered that he was. Whereupon the new corner provided
him with as much drink as he liked for the rest of the
day. Towards evening, when the young man was quite
drunk, the stranger said to the rest of the company :
" Gentlemen, how say you: when one has bought a horse,
don't the saddle and bridle go with it ?" The people sit-
ting rotted were alarmed at these wor•ls, and for a while
made no answer. However, the stranger pausing for a
reply, they said, " Yes, the saddle and bridle go with it ;'
whereupon the devil, for it was he, clutched hold of the
miserable young man he had bought, and flew off with
him through the ceiling, since which time nothing has
been heard of the impious creature.—Michele€'s Life of
Luther. _ -

AN ARSENAL OF NEW YORK.--A visit to this depart.
ment would prove interesting to the tourist or citizen, at
this crisis in particular, when our capabilities for defence
in case of a hostile attack demand the attention of every
patriot and citizen. This building, which is situated in
Centre-street, contains the enormous amount of 50,000
stand of arms. together with 500 pieces of ordnance of
different calibre. The trophy room contains several field
pieces which were taken trona the British in the last war.
The whole are in excellent condition, and capable ,f imme-
diate use. There has been much agitation, for the past
few years. in the board of common council, about the lo-
cation of this necessary and useful public building. In
compa►ison to its size, the vast quantity of arms con-
tained in it, and arranged with extreme neatness and re-
gularity, would astonish any person in viewing the out-
ward dimensions of the building. The erection of a suit-
able building for the safety and protection of our military
stores, will doubtless soon excite the attention of the au-
thorities. We learn that New York could, in 21 hours.
bring into the field an effective force of 40,000 troops !
Good I—New York Herald.

PlTT.—Pitt was teneerly attached to a Lady Eleanor
Eden. and it nearly broke his heart to give her up ; which
he (lid from a conviction that the demands made upon his
time by public affairs, were incompatible with the atten-
tions due to such a woman. She is said to have been of a
lofty style of beauty ; quite dazzling from the grandeur of
her forehead. Lord Malmesbury tells us that there was
a report that he was going to be married to her—his at-
tachment had so far betrayed itself in society. He was
gracious in all companies to women, and possessed an in-
stinctive taste in matters of costume—he was himself so
plain and careless. Wraxall speaks of his " inclination"
for one of the Duke of Richmond's daughters; and Lady
Hester Stanhope says there was a young lady he admired
so much that he drank out of her shoe. Then he was
fond of round games with young people, and used to play
at speculation with the eagerness of a child. His private
intercourse was full of little humanities, which nobody
dreams of who regards him only as a statue mounted on a
pedestal, with some hard state-paper rolled up and clutched
in his hand. His manner was partly constitutional, and
had something to do with the integrity of his mind, which
did not deal in professions. All travellers in the highest
regions of the Alps have observed that it is the property of
the purest snow to be the coldest.—Bell's Life of CanNing.
THE ALPINE Edw.—The keeper of the chatelet had
a small mortar, which he fired off at our request. Ten
distinct echoes came back. From deep and awful silences
these innumerable peaks seemed aroused into sudden and
almost angry life. Report after report, like the rapid dis-
charge of a whole park of artillery, thundered through the
clear air. At length the echoes one by one, sank slowly
away, and I thought all was offer. Fainter and fainter
they grew, till nothing but a low rumbling sound was heard
in the distance, when suddenly, without warning or pre-
paration, there was a report like the blast of the last
trumpet. I instinctively clapped my hands to my ears in
affrieht. It came from the distant Wetrerhorn, and rolled,
and rattled, and stormed through the mountains, till it
seemed as if every peak were loosened from its base, and
all were falling and crushing together. It was absolutely
terrific. Its fearful echo had scarcely died away before
the avalanches which the sudden jar had loosened began
to fall. Eight fell in almost as many minutes. The thun-
der of one blended with the thunder of another, till one
continuous roar passed along the mountains, The tumult
ceased as suddenly as it commenced, and the deep and
awful silence that followed was painful; and my imagina-
tion painted those falling masses of snow and ice as half-
conscious monsters, crushed to death in the deep ravine.
The Alps and the Rhine.

PECULIARITIES OY THE 'AUTHOR OF " WEALTH OF
NATIONS."-Sounewhat akin to these peculiarities was
his habitual absence, not only muttering in company as
unconsc'ous of their presence, but even unaware of the
obstructions be might encounter while walking in the
streets. One that knew him, which the sufferer did not,
was a good deal amused to hear a poor old woman, whose

nartiiriind whiln_hallXlo.ll.l. an with hie Mantle
behind his back and his head in the air, exclaiming in
some anger, " doating brute !" Another was amused at
the remark of an old gardener, near Kiri.ald), who only
knew him by having answered his questions, somewhat
incoherently put in his walks, when the " Wealth of Na-
tions" appeared, and he found who was its author :
" Weel a weel !" quoth he, they tell me that lad Adam
Smith has put out a great book. lam sure it would be
lortg before I would thing of doing a thing of the kind."
It is related by old people at Edinburgh, that while he
moved through the Fishmarket in his accustomed atti-
tude, and as if wholly unconscious of his own existence or
that of others, a female of the trade exclaimed, taking him
for an idiot broken loose, `• Heigh, sirs ! to let the like of
him be about! And yet he's well enough put on"
(dressed). It was often so, too, in society. Once dur-
ing dinner at Dalkeith, he broke out in a long lecture on
some Political matters of the day, and was bestowing a va-
riety of severe epithets on a statesman, when he suddenly
perceived his nearest relative sitting opposi►e, and stopt ;
and he was heard to go on muttering " Deil care, deil
care, it's all true."—Lord Brougham.

AN AMERICAN'S NOTION OF THE LONDON Docxs.—

We find the follow ng in an American paper called the
Chronotype :—" We next proceeded to the London docks,
which are much larger, enclosing about twenty acres of
water. This, also, is surrounded by immense warehouses.
We went into the cellar of one of them. It is devoted to
sherry wine, and covers five acres. We were furnished
with lights, as if descending into a mine. There, into
those intermediate grim archways, are piled up thousands
of mouldy pipes filled with the great brain-stealer. I forget
the number of pipes, but in another cellar which we visited,
of equal extent, we were told there were 37,000 hogsheads
of rum. Into the latter repository of infernal spirits they
allow vo light to be carried. There is a range of windows
on one side, and the light comes dimly gleaming over the
long tiers of hogsheads, and when they wirla to read the
marks on the heads they use reflectors, to throw the light
down upon them. These east vaults, both for wine and
rum, are traversed by railways for removing the ponderous
puncheons and hogsheads. In the wine vaults we saw cer-
tain vats for mixing old and new wines to produce the
requisite quality and flavour, which contained 10,000 gal-
lons a-piece. We were also astonished at the size of the
tobacco warehouse, which covers four or five acres. To-
bacco is enormously taxed ; on some kinds to the extent of
960 or 900 per cent. I was told half the amount used is
made up by hmugeling and adulteration (though what stuff
vile enough to adulterate tobacco with, they can get is

past my comprehension), and what vast, yea, sublime
quantities are here of the genuine weed l People are be-
witched for cigars and pipes, and you will see men whiffing
their tobacco in the street—strange-smelling tobacco—

probably adulterated, who don't look as if-they knew

where to get a dinner, or were on any terms whatever with
the tailor. What a luxury! Here is tobacco enough to
mak, a Niagara of juice, to be chewed by a nation said to
be starving ! It was comfortable to get away to hoards of
other luxuries, less suggestive of, the ruin of human nature.
AFFECTING TRAGEDY.--In Colonel King's" Twenty-
five years in the Argentine Republic." a brief but affect•
ing history is given of the destruction of the Masa
family. Don MaAR was the President of the Legislative

Assembly. He had been the tutor of Roses, and was one
of the most respected personages in the state. The Eve.
tator conceived a suspicion of him and commanded his
resignation. Don Masa at first declined, alleging his de-
sire to see the sufferings of the people first relieved. But
afterwards he complied, and the day for his retirement
was named. His son was a colonel in the service of Ro.
sac., and a salter to Donna Clara, a lady of distinguished
family. The brother of this lady, Don Juan, was also in
the service of Rosa., holding a commission as lieutenant.
This young officer received an order to assist in arresting
Colonel !Masa. To overcome his reluctance he was in-

formed that his own father was under arrest, and would

surely suffer were any hesitation on his pa;t
Don Juan, accompanied by some soldiers, went to his
si-te,'s apartment, where Colonel Masa was visiting
Donna Clara at the time. The Colonel at once yielded
himself, but begged only a few moment's delay, Ile re_
tired to a room, and wrote a few lines to his fattier to
warn him of his danger. Don Juan stood guard at the
door, but the soldiers became impatient, and the young
lieutenant was attacked. Colonel Masa was in an instant
beside his Friend, but two volleys of musketry brought
them both to the ground. Grievously wounded as they
were, they were thrown into a cart. and conveyed to pri-
son. Don Juan survived but a few hours. While his
sister Donna Clara, and her mother were waiting in ter-
ror in their dwelling, it was invaded by a body of soldiers
who came to search for papers. Donna Clara, excited to
madness, resisted them, till she sank pierced by a b,yonet
wound in her side. Almost at the same time that these
events were occurring, the President Masa was seated
alone in his council chamber signing his resignation. Lie
had just given it to his secretary, when he observed some
men muffled in cloaks approach him. Before he could
cry for help they had approached, and stabbed him to
death. Rumour asserts that llosas was one of the assas-
sins, and the leader of the Massnreaa another. Intelli-
gence of his father's murder was brought to Colonel Masa
in prison. He was exhorted at the same timr. to reveal
plots which had no existence, and to give up accomplices
he never had. The young officer indignantly rejected
these overtures. The agents of Rosas reported they could
elicit no information from the prisoner. An order for his
execution was instantly given, and that same night he was
taken from his bed, carried to the coral, being unable to
walk, and there shot.

THE CHINAMAN'S TAIL: TOUCUP MY TAIL, TOUCH
Ml lIONOUR.—A Chinaman's love for his tail is prover-
bial, and it is truly amusing to see the pains and trouble
they take concerning it. Most of them aro dressed aid
plaited with singular neatness and care, and are of such a
length that they sweep the ground when walking. Those,
however, who are not sufficiently fortunate as naturally to
possess a very handsome app mdage borrow a portion from
their barbers; and should it get disengaged from his head,
the owner has to bear the same ridicule as an unfortunate
dandy does, who in Europe, by ill luck, should chance to
lose his wig. The front portion of the head is very care-
fully shaved, for which purpose they make use of a curious
and very peculiar description of razor, resembling in mi-
niature a butcher's chopper. This love of their tails
p roduces a very easy method of restoring order, or re
straining personal violence, when any cause of dissension
or dispute may arise among them. The peons or govern-
ment police, catching some half dozen of the crowd by
these heady ornaments, deliver them over to one of their
force, who with a drawn sword, holds them in check,
threatening, upon the slightest unruly movement, to razor
their honourable appendages.
FRENCH Am USEMENTS.—Nothing illustrates a nation's
peculiarities so effectually as a correct insight into the
way in which they severally amuse themselves. All men
make out an invoice pretty much alike, and the common
enemy regulates office hours; but when a man, or twenty,
have each a day, or an hour or two, with means for the
occasion at their disposal without dictation, the natural
bias of the mind is shown in the freedom thus allowed it
for action. I have watched for anything like a reading-
room, or institute for the mechanic or his class, in the va-
rious towns iu which I have resided in France. I see
groups of hundreds sipping black coffee—and, by the way,
brandy too, in anything but petits verres—playing a mo-
notonous, stupid band at dominoes, or piquette, with cards
made for dolls, one would imagine, from their diminutive
siz

I hear an immense chatter on all occasions : there
are three fellows under my window, called labourers.
whose tongues rattle on every subject a great deal fa:)ter
than their spades. I have watched these fellows narrowly
for several days, and would not give half-a-crown a-day
for the three : they lean on thei • pickaxes and shovels
every third minute to have a " jaw,' shaking their hands
in their paroxyms of rioquence as if it was a quarrel. in-
stead of the usual yearning to talk instead of work. I see
a vast flourishing of hats, loathsome salutations among the
men, and hear a great scraping of fiddles in the various
salles for dancing: but no otter-hunt, cricket match, or
any out-door amusement whatever.—Sylvanus.
No SOLITUDE IN NATURE.—And so, reader, let us
breathe awhile in this green solitude—if, indeed, it be a
solitude. For who shall count the little eye-like flowers
peeping at us from hedges—looking up from the sward in
our face, openly as loving innocence ? A solitude ! What
a world of grasses do we tread upon, a world so crowded
and humming with insect citizens! If only one turn of
the peg we would let down our pride—of all the heart-
strings the bass and grumbling one—we might compare
many of these children, fathers, and grandfathers of a day,
with the two-legged kings of creation, the biped majes-
ties of three-score years and ten. We might watch
their little runnings to and from their hoards; their pain-
ful climbing to the very needle point of some tall blade of
grass; watch them and smile, even as the angels, at their
pleasant leisure, watch and smile at you, Grubbings, when
you go to the bank and add to your sweet salvation there,
the balance ; smile, as at poor Superhus when, climbing
and climbing, he rose to the great told stick, and kept it
twenty years—to angelic computation just twenty throb-
bings of a fevered heart. Surely there is not an insect
that we might not couple with an acquaintance. Here, in
this little trim sobriety, is our quaker friend, Placens ; and
here, in this butterfly, tipsy with its first day's wings, is
Polly, foolish Polly, who cannot consent to see the world,
unless she sees it in her finest clothes. And so, looking
at a piece of turf, no bigger than a lark's footstool, we may
people it with friends and world acquaintanc-. Is this
solitude ? The earth has no place of solitude. Not a rood
of the wilderness that is not thronged and eloquent with
crowds and voices communing with the spirit ot man; en-
dowed by such communion with a knowledge whose dou-
ble fruit is divinest hope and meekest humility.—Ter-
rold's Magazine.

FACKTUE OF THE BENCH AND THE BAR.—One day
that Dunning (whose exterior graces were by no means
cornmensur,te with his personal vanity), had been cross-
examining a young woman at considerable length upon
the age of a person with whom she professed herself well
acquainted, he asked her, " How old now do you take me
to be ?" and was considerably dumbfounded by her
promptly replying, to the universal laughter of a crowded
court, " From your appearance sixty, from your question
sixteen ?"—Sir William Grant was notorious for the re-
serve and taciturnity under the disguise of which he pos-
sessed the richest stores of hoarded legel knowledge. Men
of great learning and research bad one day in his company
been wrangling for a long time upon the construction of
a particular act of parliament, and, unable to agree among
themselves, referred the matter to Sir William Grant,
who had not yet said a word, but upon being appealed to,
soma arily terminated the discussion by the following cute
remark : " The statute in question has been repealed."—
Of a late celebrated chief-justice it is related, that of
the physicians who surrounded his death-bed, he with dry
humour took leave in these terms, " Gentlemen, you are
discharged," the words with which from the bench a judge
is accustomed to dismiss a jury.—The late Justice
whose profound attaintnents were only equalled by the ur-
banity and gentleness of his nature, had by his guileness
simplicity of dispo,.ition endeared him to all his profes-
sional brethren, amongst whom, until his elevation to the
bench, he had been designated by a friendly and familiar
nickname. At a banquet given in celebration of his at-
taining the judicial dignity, upon returning thanks to the
h;e health. the new Judge expressed
a modest hope that "in court at least, they would thence-
forth no longer call him Joey.—Upon another occasion,
sitting in banco, Judge interrupted the interminably
long speech of a Q C. upon a very dry subject, with the
following sly inuendo : " It you think you will put me to
sleep like my three learned brethren beside me you are
mistaken."—A former clerk of Justice had com-
mitted suicide in his master's chambers. A successor to
that office had applied for a short leave of absence in ordei
to get married, and received permission to do so in these
terms:—" You may take a wife—you will bang yourself,
I have no doubt you will—but if you do so, do not hang
yourself in my chambers."—Wht n disencumbered of the
toils and trappings of office, Judge— loves to pursue the
country recreations with the independence of a private
gentleman. Being one day nut partridge shooting, and
seeking shelter from a passing shower in the tap room of
a little country inn, he was recognised by an attorney, and
accosted by his title of "my lord." " lam not my lord
here, you," was the brief reply.—The eminent —,
who as all the world knows was the son of the earl of
S—, was walking in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields with a witty
chief commissioner; " I must step into Green's Hotel
and get a sandwich," he observed "It ghti right," re-
joined his companion, " one good turn deserves another."
—A barrister was speaking to Sir with much com-
placency of a lately-purchased estate, and in his newly-
awakened taste for agricultural pursuits, dilated at some
length upon his farm and pigs. " Stick to the fee farm
and guinea pigs." in terrupted the other."—Dolman's Mag.