The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-10 00:00:00

Pain LAKE OF GENESARETll.—Travellers have often com-
pared this lake with the Lake of Geneva. I could see very
little resemblance; it is not so large, and wants the variety of
scenery of the Lake of Geneva, and, above all, the lofty
summit of Mount Blanc. The banks of the Lake of Geneva
are crowded from one end to the other with villages and
villas, and its surface is covered with boats, and all the hurry
and bustle of a travelling population; this is in all the wild-
ness of nature, all neglected and uncultivated ; and, except
the little town of Tiberias, not a habitation, not even an
Arab's hut, is seen upon its banks, not a solitary boat upon
its waters. A single pelican was floating at my feet, and.
like myself, he was alone. He was so near that 1 could have
hit him with a stone; he was the only thing that I saw that
had life, and he seemed looking at me with wonder, and
asking me why 1 still lingered in the desolate city.—Ste-
phen's Incidents of Travel.

• 0
aAMAIIIA.—THE WELL OF JACOB.—I knew that there
was a difference of opinion as to the precise site of this inte-
resting monument; but, when I found myself at the mouth
of this well, I had no wish to look farther; I could feel and
realise the whole scene; I could see our Saviour coming out
from Judea, and travelling alonc, this valley; I could see
him wearied with his journey, sitting down on this well to
rest, and the Samaritan women, as I saw them at every
town in the Holy Land, coming out for water. I could ima-
gine his looking up to Mount Gerizim, and predicting the
ruin of the temple, and telling her that the hour was coming
when neither on that mountain nor yet in Jerusalem would
she worship the God of her fathers. A large column lay
across the top of the well, and the mouth was filled up with
huge stones. I could see the water through the crevices;
but, even with the assistance of Paul and the Arabs, found
it impossible to remove them.- I plucked a wild flower grow-
ing in the mouth of the well, and passed on. —Stephens's In-
cidents of Travel.
JASSY, THE CAPITAL OF MOLDAVIA.—The environs, with
their extensive gardens, are beautiful and picturesque; while
the town, being partly situated on a rising eminence, and
partly in a pleasant valley, with its wide spreading suburbs,
scattered about on The surrounding heigbts, and mingling
with the pretty forms of the domes in spires, impresses the
traveller with the idea that he is about to enter a very. consi-
derable city, rich and populous. But in these favourable
anticipations he will be miserably disappointed; and what-
ever may have been the former grandeur of Jassay, it is now
reduced to a level with one of the wretched capitals of the
east. The streets, like the roads, are unpaved, except one
or two of the principal, and these are merely boarded, a
channel for conveying away the filth of the streets being
formed underneath.; but, owing to the slovenliness of the
inhabitants, and the entire absence, we presume, of any
sanitary police to enforce cleanliness, it is suffered to accu-
mulate for months, thus poisoning the atmosphere, and en-
gendering a miasma sufficient to create a pestilence.—
Spencer's Travels in Western Caucasus.

THE CIRCASSIANS' RESPECT FOR AGE.—The man en-
feebled by declinin'g years, instead of becoming an object of
scorn and contempt to thoughtless youth, as is, unhappily,
too often seen in Europe, is here respected and venerated by
all classes of society. Wherever he moves, the crowd opens
a path to his progress • all the little attentions that a kind
people are capable of exercising ere certain to be his. In
winter the warmest corner of the fire is assigned : in sum-
mer his cushion is arranged under the shade of the veranda,
while the beautiftil hands of his lovely daughter are em-
ployed in tanning away the insects that might disturb his
repose; presents of sweetmeats, and all the little delicacies
usually given to children in other countries, are bestowed
upon him. In short, they act fully up to their own proverb,
—" Doubly accursed is the man that draweth upon himself
the curse of the aged." With regard to the respect paid to
women,. I have frequently seen the gallant chief of thousands
of warriors descend from his charger, and place on it some
lonely damsel who might be trudging along through the deep
valleys to visit a distant friend, and protect her safely to the
next hainlet.—Spencer's Travels in Western Caucasus.
ARRIVALS: LIVERPOOL SOME FIFTY YEARS AGO.—It
was my lot, not liking the confinement of a counting-house,
into which my uncle had taken me, to bind myself apprentice
to an old man, who was himself chief owner of the vessel :
he worked me hard, and fed me upon the coarsest food. 1
do not call it my misfortune, for through it I acquired habits
of industry and endurance of which 1 have experienced the
advantage all my life: what I then endured invigorated my
body, inured it to hardships, taught me to put my hands to
any thing, and shift for myself. He traded to Jamaica,
calling at Madeira; the longest voyage then made out of
the port, except to Africa. Liverpool was then compara-
tively in its infancy, and a foreign arrival was not an every-
day occurrence. When the signal was made for one on
Bidston Hill, it was buzzed all over the town, and the pier-
heads were crowded to see the stranger enter the Mersey;
and, immediately her white sails were, seen over the rock
point, the old church hells struck up an exhilarating peal.
As she touched the pier-head, the friends of the crew leaped
on board to welcome them back again; and, at night, at the
hour the master was supposed to have gone to rest, a band
of music regularly planted themselves at his door, to give
him a serenade, in order to lull him to sleep after the fatigues
of his long voyage. 'Then a master of a foreigner was reck-
oned somebody in society, especially the master of a Guinea-
man, as the slavers were then called, who could vie with his
employer in extravagance; to which dignity most of the sea
aspirants to riches looked. —Ellison's Prison Scenes.
THE EFFECT OF GOOD ROADS.—`An inhabitant of Hors-
ham, in Sussex, now living, remembers, when a boy, to have
heard from a person whose father carried on the business of
a butcher in that town, that in his time the only means of
reaching the metropolis was either by going on foot or riding
on horseback, the latter of which undertakings was not prac-
ticable at all periods of the year, nor in every state of the
weather; that the roads were not at any time in such a con-
dition as to admit of sheep or cattle being driven upon them
to the London markets; and that for this reason, the farmers
were prevented sending thither the produce of their land,
the immediate neighbourhood being, in fact, their only mar-
ket.. Under these circumstances, a quarter of a fat ox was
commonly sold for about 155., and the price of mutton
throughout the year was only five farthings the pound.
Horsham is 36 miles from London, and the journey between
the two places now occupies less than four hours; more than
30 stage-coaches travelling at this rate pass through Hors-
ham every day, on their way from and to llem metropolis,
the
traffic addition to numerous private carriages and pest chaises;
traffic of goods—principally coal and agricultural produce—
carried on in the district of which Horsham is the centre,
exceeds 40,000 tons a-year, besides which. the road is con-
stantly covered with droves of cattle and flocks of sheep.—
Porter's Progress of the Nation.
ANCIENT CARTHAGE.—Sir Grenville Temple, who a few
days eko ariived in Malta from Tunis, on board the Otto-
man frigate Suriah, has employed himself for the last six
months in making excavations on the classic soil of Carthage,
a city, the mete mention of whose name awakens in the
bosom of every scholar a thousand recollections of glory,
which once adorned the mistress of the African seas, and the
immortal rival of the Roman republic. His labours have
been well rewarded by the peculiarly interesting discoveries
he has made. Among them we may notice that on the site
of the temple of Ganath, or Juno Ccelestis, the great protect-
ing divinity of Carthage, he found about seven hundred- coins,
and various objects of glass and earthenware. lint the most
remarkable, and perhaps least expected, of his discoveries is
that of a villa, situated on the sea shore, and buried fifteen
feet under ground. Eight rooms are completely cleared,
and their size and decorations prove that the house belonged
to a wealthy personage. The walls are painted, and the
floors are beautifully paved' in mosaic, in the same manner
as those at Pompeii and Herculaneum, representing a great
variety of subjects, such as marine deities, both male and
female, different species of sea-fish, marine plants, a vessel
with female figures dancing on deck, and surrounded by ad-
miring warriors; other portions represent lions, horses,
leopards, tigers, deer, zebras, bears, gazelles, hares, ducks,
herons, and the like. Ten human skeletons, apparently of
those slain during the assault of the city, were found in the
different chambers. Sir Grenville also discovered in another
house other mosaics of great interest. These represent gla-
diators contending in the arena with wild beasts, and over
each man is written his name. In another part are seen
horse races, and meri breaking in yo.ung horses. Our limits
oblige us to restrict.these details; but we hope, indeed we
understand, that Sir G. Temple will shortly publish an ac-
count of his important and extraordinary discoveries.—
Malta Gazette.

FINLAND.—One who has never visited the north, who has
dreamed of Finland only as a country bathed in blubber and
whale oil, will be perhaps surprised when I tell him, that
Helsinfors is a beautiful modern town, with a theatre and a
ball-room, both of which were open yesterday, and to which
we were invited; that half the population flocked to the pier
on our arrival, and the military band hailed us with airs from
the operas of Rossini. Bellini, and other fashionable com-
posers; whilst a very diminutive steamer, capable of holding
perhaps twenty persons, and no larger than a wherry, co-
quetted round us with a band of vocal performers in German
and Swedish songs, The day was delicious, the weather ge-
nial, the-se-a- in a perfect calm; in short, we enjoyed the full
flavour of the elements. In fine weather, the bay here is
delightful; it is
,quite a diminutive archipelago. I observed
the custom exists here, as I am told it does all over Sweden,
of covering the staircase of an inn with chopped fir sprouts,
and the dining robm with festoons of green leaves. The sa-
loon of Hotel du Nord. where I am staving, is elegantly gar-
nished. I found the inn here not bad; and althoug,h they
serve the soup in the middle of dinner, and Alpine straw-
berries and cream after the fish, I was able to make a hearty
repast: All over the north of Europe, from the 53d degree
of latitude, spirits with cheese, caviare' or some other stimu-
lant, is taken before the principal meal. * • * * •
That most salubrious, and, to me, delicious vegetable, the
potato, has not yet found general acceptation amongst the
lower orders' in Russia : it is with difficulty the peasants can
be induced to grow and consume it in the vicinity of St. Pe-
tersburg; and even here it is not served at meals, unless ask-
ed for—the indigestible cabbage and gourds are the pet food
of the nation.—Standish's Northern Capitals of Europe.
MOLDAVIAN BRUTALITY.—The Greek Arnouts, in their
picturesque costume, are here the police--a very fine body of
men, but most merciless tyrants. I witnessed an instance of
their brutality during the time my passport was being signed
at the Town-hall. A starving peasant had been taken in the
act of making too free with a loaf in a baker's window; au
Arnout was sent for, who, seizing the poor wretch by the hair
of the head, dragged him, screaming most piteously) before,
the Inap..,iet-rate; every feeble attenrpt-be-Macle to escape not
only provoked a blow from the. Herculean islander sufficient
to fell an ox, but his hair was torn from his head. Without
either trial or witnesses, he was instantly condemned to re-
ceive twenty strokes from the whip of a Cossack—a weapon,
from its great size and weight, capable of inflicting a most
severe punishment when wielded by a powerful executioner,
which happened to be the case in the present instance. The
unfortunate culprit was not only struck across the neck and
shoulders, but on the head; then, covered with wounds and
bruises, he was kicked out of the yard into the street. I en-
deavoured to prevail upon the judge to mitigate his sentence,
which only excited a contemptuous sneer from him and the
bystanders; but when I threw the poor wretch a handful of
piastres, the greater number laughed heartily, most probably
at the folly of a well-dressed man expressing sympathy fora
miserable object, shivering in rags, and covered with dirt.
The unhappy being himself was nut insensible to gratitude;
kindness must indeed have been a stranger to him, for he
threw himself on his face, and repeatedly kissed my feet.—
Travels in the Western Caucasus.

ARAB FAITH IN MEDICINE.—The Arabs in general con-
stantly have recourse both to charms and medicines nut only
for the cure, but also for the prevention, of diseases. They
have, indeed, a strange passion for medicine, which shows
that they do not consider fate as altogether unconditional.
Nothing can exceed the earnestness with which they often
press a European traveller for a dose; and the more violent
the remedy, the better are they pleased. The following case
will serve as an example :—Three donkey-drivers, conveying
the luggage of two British travellers from Boulak to Cairo,
opened a bottle which they observed in a basket, and finding
it to contain, as they had suspected, brandy, emptied it down
their throats; but he who had the last, on turning up the
bottle, got the tail of a scorpion into his mouth ; and looking
through the bottle, to his great horror, saw that it contained
a number of these reptiles, with tarantulas, vipers, and beetles.
Thinking that they had poisoned themselves, but not liking
to rely upon fate, they persuaded a man to come to me for
medicine. Ile introduced the subject by saying, " 0 Efen-
di ! do an act of kindness : there are three men poisoned;
in your mercy give them medicine, and save their lives :"
and then he related the whole affair, without concealing the
the theft. I replied, that they did not deserve medicine; bpt
he urged that, by giving it, I should obtain an immense re-
ward. " Yes," said I ; " he who saveth a soul alive, shall
be as if he had saved the lives of all mankind.' " I said this
to try the feeling of the applicant, who, expressing admiration
of my knowledge, urged me to be quick, lest the men should
die; thus showing himself to be no unconditional fatalist. I

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gave him three strong dosesof tartar emetic; and he soon
came back to thank me, saying that the medicine was most
admirable, for the men had hardly swallowep it, when they
almost vomited their hearts and livers, and every thing else
in their bodies.— Lane's Notes to his Translation of the Arabian
Nights.