The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-08 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1853.

LITERARY GOSSIP.

THE PUBLISHING TRADE in England is in a state of
general inactivity, so far as the free purchasing of copy-
rights is concerned. " The causes of this dulness," says a
London literateur of note, " are probably numerous, and
some of them remote; but to my mind the primary cause
is the alteration in the position of those who were last
century called authors by profession,' occasioned by the
influx into a sort of professional authorship of persons
following either other occupations, or no occupations at
all." The genuine " professionals " must take up the cri-
tical flail, and put a stop to this starvation stage of things.
THE AUTHORESS OF " VILLETTE," the hit of the
season, is Miss Bronte, the daughter of a Yorkshire
clergyman, whose incumbency lies amid some of the
wildest and dreariest of Yorkshire moors, and with whom
she lives in literary solitude.
AN ECCENTRIC PERSONAL DANDYISM was in earlier
years one of the most laughable characteristics of Mr.
Bulwer, now Sir Bulwer Lytton. One day, it is said, he
would appear all black—a black hat, black wig, complex.
ion died brown, back buttoned coat, black neckcloth,
waistcoat, trousers, boots, stick, gloves—not a speck of
white to be seen about him. Another day he would come
out all white—flaxen wig, light complexion, with a little
rouge, light overcoat, &c., &c., &c., down to a little pair
of tight boots, with just one speck of black observed about
the toes

POOR HADYN'S " Correspondence and Diaries " are
on the point of publication, edited by Professor Torn
Taylor, who is best known as the writer of those eloquent
and spirit-stirring verses on sanatory and other matters
in Punch. Professor Taylor, since he quitted the chair of
English literature at University College, has been in the
enjoyment of an easy and lucrative position under the
Board of Health.

DAVID MAssoN, a few years ago editor of the Banner,
an obscure Free Kirk paper in Aberdeen, has been
appointed Professor of English Literature at University
College, London.

THI
.AUTIIOII OF " VANITY FAIR" is triumphantly
pursuing his literary career in the United States. After
a long literary life, spent in the emission of cynical
satire, Mr. Thackeray seems taking to what is vulgarly
called " the conciliatory dodge !"

A REAL LIFE ROMANCE.-Mr. Cripps, a gentleman
residing in Linton, on his property, was formerly engaged
in an extensive brass manufactory in London. His son,
a youth of seventeen, was employed on the establishment,'
and one day chancing to get his ears boxed by his father
for some slight dereliction of duty, he absented himself,
and was never heard of till one day last week, when the
post brought a letter from the wayward, if not prodigal,
son, couched in suitable and dutiful terms, and giving an
account of his life during nearly twenty years' banishment.
On absconding he found his way to Sydney, and was there
employed in catching wild bullocks, of which he was to
have a certain proportion as his share. He is now the
Possessor of a large track of land, four hundred beasts,
and nearly as many horses, all his own ; and, though
married and settled," proposed ere long to return to his
fatherland
Eastern Gazette;t° enjoy a respectable competency.— South