The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

wine; ex

bid feeling displayed in parading before the reader the
heroes of anarchy and rebellion, and a vein of political
and social discontent which runs through many of its ar-
ticles, we could find much to admire as pleasing and in-
structive. In a paper headed " The Coming Reforma-
tion," the writer has already settled both Tories and Ra-
dicals ; and in the forthcoming number, if we may judge
from the context, he intends to demolish the Whigs.
Certainly, if he is liberal with the lash, he is also impar-
tial. So far, then, he deserves praise. The following ex-
tract is anything but complimentary to the Radical party :
" If a Revolution were to-morrow to place the country in
the hands of the Radicals, the utter inefficiency of that party
would be manifested by this dilemma._ Either, first, they

n a 'Asia that would admit of both Order and P]

secondly, they m
slightly modified

s of existing Institution

They could not do the first, simply because they have no
accepted theory of society upon which to found their Institu-
tions. Their efforts expend themselves in eloquence. They
have no theory of social hierarchy, though they (at least the
most intelligent sections) admit the absurdity of absolute
Equality. In action they would be powerless; or else they
would fall back upon existing Institutions, and try to adapt
• .•

good, Radicalism is a mere uproar and revolt; it good enough
at bottom, and only needing a little modification, then is
Radicalism not a doctrine, cannot be accepted as a Party, but
has at best the subordinate office of criticism.

whole, satisfied with the present social hierarchy
answer, No,' then I challenge him to bring forward his
of society with its new institutions and all its machinery ; does
he answer, Yes, but in some respcets it might be altered,'
then I say to him, r Sir, you are only a critic, useful perhaps in
your line, but playing too subordinate a part for me to trust
the destinies of our nation to you or such as you. Your efforts

Does he
orward his theory

are confined to Destruction; I want one who.can build,

The Critic : a Family Journal of British and Foreign
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brary and Book Club. London : Essex-st., Strand.
The three last parts of this valuable publication are
ying before us ; and we. hail its continued and prosperous
areer as a token of its due anoreciation by the read

public, whose varied tastes cannot fail of gratification in
its perusal, whether as a book of reference to guide the
librarian or private student in the selection of the best
works from the chaos of the prolific literature of the pre-
sent day, or as a pleasant companion for those whose
business pursuits render the perusal of an entire work too
laborious a task, and who will accept as a boon the choice

tracts with w

SKETCHES OF A TRIP TO THE
ITALY, AND EGYPT

CONTINENT

BY EDWIN

Vritten fi

;reeable

a strang

eir shoulde

u must infer severe

litans frequently mix

-drops and met

;h filth and

.lor enough to breed t

,etion. One well-

with 'African and CippOlina marbles ; noticed a marble
font, or vase, to receive the blood of human and bestial
victims. But in our perambulations around the lovely
vicinity of Naples, the one to the Grotto del Cani was the
most curious, that to the Palace of Cmsarta the most
magnificent. After passing through the Grotto of Posi-

bpi°, climbing up to see the tomb of Virgil, the fig-trees
growing wildly around ; listening to the rumblings far
_ _

arrived at a dreary lake, which might have been that of
Avernus. The man, like Launce, in Shakspeare, soon
appeared with his dog, a large half-bred terrier, near the
Grotto del Cani. We first tried, after the man unlocked
the door of the cave with great state and show of solem-
nity, the effect of the exhalation upon our lungs by stoop-
ing near the earth, when the carbonic acid gas nearly took
all sensation from us. Then followed the apparently, if
not really cruel deprivation of life of the poor dog : he lay
as if completely dead; but when restored to the air, a few
convulsive kicks, with foaming at the mouth, shewed
signs of returning animation ; in half a minute the whines
he uttered at entering the cave were exchanged for cheer-
ful, lively barkings, that his task was accomplished, and
he was allowed to run capering and caracoling where he
liked.

On our return from this excursion, we stopped at a
fishing village near the ruins of Caligula's Bridge, where
we refreshed our weary frames with bread, wine, and the
celebrated fish called lampreys, which in their flavour re-
semble the delicate pike of Windermere : and to the pre-
serves of these ferocious, shark-like animals, the Romans,
in their tyranous wrath, would sometimes throw their
hapless slaves ! How then, as now and ever it may,
did irresponsible power create cruelty, extravagance,
luxury, and tyranny. But my visit to the Palace and
Bridge of Cieserta, thirteen miles from Naples, and my
departure for Palermo, must be reserved for my next
chapter.

VARIETIES

The age of chivalry is gone! That of sophisters, econo-
mists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of
Europe is extinguished for ever."—Burke.
An American paper asserts that a man who is residing
on Long Island, was born in the seventeeth century, and
is now_lso years of age.

'riday (says one of

le journals)

TamwOrth, at a public breakfast

CUMBERERS OF THE GROUND.—An American paper
says, " There are too many gentlemen paupers of the pre-
sent day—gentlemen who do nothing—who are maintained
by the public—by their relations—or by their wives.
They are great nuisances."
ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEXEC.—Among the great topics
connected with the commercial and territorial advantages
and prospects of the country, which the present position
of our foreign relations brings into view, the plan of unit-
ing the Atlantic and the Pacific through this isthmus is
certainly one of the most important. It will go far tow-
ards changing—and that to the signal profit_ of our
. _

whole subject is no doubt, receiving that careful consider-
ation at the hands of the administration to which it is en-
titled. It will be productive of great benefit to the world
at large, as well as to the United States. It will be by far
the shortest and most direct route between the United
States and our territories on the Pacific. It will stimulate
the resources and exertions not only on the western side
of the American continent, but of the eastern portion of
Asia, and all the intermediate islands on the broad Pacific.
—United States paper.
OCCASIONAL FASTING.-A degree of abstemiousness
is, by all reasonable persons, allowed to be favourable to
mental effort, but an occasional fast is also found, in
certain constitutions, to invigorate both mind and body.
sress ; or, I It seems to give time for the functions to complete_ their

work, and then rest for a while. Fasting, fora moderate
period, diminishes the carbon in the blood, and thus pre-
vents drowsiness, while promoting a free circulation of
highly-vitalized blood through the brain ; and as on this
kind of supply the ready power of the mind depends, a
clearness and rapidity of perception may reasonably be
expected under such circumstances, provided the muscles
are not much in demand. Those who by mental habit can
take advantage of this state may then attain the highest

ecstasy of meditative abstraction. Probably the greater
number of persons who think themselves morally and
physically in health, would find how greatly they are mis-

iduced to

more into subjection, and wait for something like urgent
demand for nourishment before they indulged in eating.
Instead of submitting to custom, and regularly resorting
to the table three or four times a day for the mere grafi&

cation of the palate, the wise plan would be sometimes
oletely to break through the habit, and enjoy the

quickening power of a rational will triumphing -_over

animal appetite. The health of boc
tude, which together constitute the best assuram
tellectual power, may be equally promoted.—
" Use of the Body."
SINGULAR METHOD OF ACQUIRING SURGICAL KNOW-
LEDGE.—From the moment Henry II of France received
g I the wound (which was occasioned by a splinter from a

y and menti.

Moore's

lance, which accidentally struck hill; on the head at a
tournament), he felt that his earthly career was terminated ;
and coon after he had been carried to his chamber, from
which all the court were excluded, he fell into a state of
lethargy, accompanied by fever. From this, however, he
was roused on the fourth day, recovering his senses per-
fectly, but displaying no other symptom of convalescence.

On the contrary, it would seem that the surgeons who at-
tended him had by this time given up all hope of his re-
storation to health. They had employed all the means
which the medical science of that day put at their com-
mand to remedy the injury he had received ; and for the

s to an expedient whici; must binientionedl

times, but of that disregard of all the forms of law and
justice which then prevailed in France. Choosing four
prisoners, condemned for various crimes, they caused
them to be decapitated privately in the Conciergerie and
in the great Chatelet ; and the heads being brought to the
palace of the Tournerelle, they forcibly drove the frag-
a mer

of the broken lance into the ey6 of each corpse. ‘o
ascertain in what manner the brain of the monarch had
been affected. But these inhuman researches proved of
—G. P. R. James's Life of Henry Quatre.
—lt is a universally known

FLOWERING OF PLANT

.e unfolded gradually later, as it recedes from the
regions, and approaches the colder ; and we ob-

.rve the same 'thing in ascending from the plains to the

I had flowered long
ago in the plain, and are even bearing fruit there, may be
found still in flower on the mountain at a proportional
height. Those who live at the foot of the mountains
enjoy the fruits of their country for a much longer period
than the inhabitants of the plain, for the fruit of the

plants on the mountains does not begin to ripen until
that of the same plants in the plain has been over for a
long time. In many tropical countries, which lie at the
foot of high mountains, the most useful fruits are even
enjoyed throughout the whole year ; for they ripen gra-
dually later as the elevation increases, until the time for
another crop on the plain approaches. The exact reverse
of this also takes place : all the periods in the life of plants

are hastened as they approach to warmer regions. M. de
Saint Hilaire, at the commencement of his travels, ob-
served the peach-tree without leaves or blossom at Brest,
on the Ist of April ; on the Bth he found them in full
bloom at Lisbon ; on the 25th, at Madeira, the fruit had
already set ; and on the 29th he got ripe peaches at Te-
neriffe. Numerous other instances might be given, as
Sehiibler has done in a separate treatise. The lily of the
Galley (Convallaria majalis) flowered in the year 1829,
at Parma, on the 26th of April; at Tubingen, on the
10th of May ; at Berlin, on the 17th of May ; and at
Greifswald, not until the 10th of June. By observations
of this kind, which were made on a number of plants by
various botanists, Schiibler, and before him Bijelow,
were led to discover the law according to which this ac-
celeration in the time of flowering takes place in different
latitudes. The result of Schubler's investigations is, that
for each degree that the station of the plant is nearer the
pole, the time of flowering is delayed almost four days,
and that it is accelerated by the same time for each de-
gree that the plant approaches the equator.--Meyen's
OutlineB of the Geography of plants,