The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-10-11 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

LONGEVITY.—Ann Mitcnell, a widow, died a few days ago,
at Bosham, near Chichester, at the age of 100 years. The old
lady retained her faculties to the last, and on last Easter Sun-
day walked to church attired in the wedding gown in which she
had been married 80 years before.—Times.

The papers from the Windward Islands do not contain much
of importance;
_the princiyal subject alluded to them is emigra-
tion, not from Europe, but the several islands to British Guiana,
and it is expected to Trinidad and this island. The importation
of liberated Africans—the reduction of military garrisons in
some of the islands, as preparatory, no doubt, to a general

change in that department.
A dinner to Lord Brougham is getting up in Edinburgh.
A requisition has been signed by many hundreds of the citizens
and Liberals of all shades; and we understand that to-morrow
morning a deputation leaves Edinburgh for Brougham Hall,
to present the same to his Lordship. The deputation named
consists of Bailie Macfarlane, Mr. W. Tait, Mr. A. Millar,
(late) and Mr. A. Thompson (present) Master of the Merchant
Company.—Caledonian Mercury.
In the kitchen garden of Earl Stanhope, at Chevening, in
Kent, is a muscadine vine, which was reared from a cutting 31
years ago by his present gardiner, Mr. George Fender. It now
extends over a space of 158 feet in length, and bears this year
2,040 bunches of grapes. Another vine of the same sort, and
planted at the satne time, a short distance from it, is only of the
ordinary size.—Times,
- -

EXAMPLE TO WlVES.—There is something very manly (says

a danadian paper) about the following advertisement, pub-
lished lately in Portland by one of the fair sex :—"This is to
certify, that I, Elizabeth Wright, wife of George Wright, have
left his bed and board on account of his misconduct. I do,
therefore, give up all right and title to him for life, as I flatter
myself that I can take care of myself, as I have always done,
since and before marriage.

MAN AN ORGAN.—If I were to compare the human ma-
chine to a contrivance of art, I should choose for my foundation
a large organ, wherein the bellows answer to the animal circu-
lation, the pipes to the organs of sensation and reflection, and
the organist to the mind. But the organist here does not make
all the music, for the pipes are so contrived as to sound with
the striking of things external upon them, or by the mere
working of the bellows, which plays as it were by clock-work
without a blower.— Tucker's Light of Nature pursued.
CLIMATE OF THE CAPE.—In a recent letter from Sir John
Herschel, full of astronomical investigations, the learned phi-
losopher says—" You may form some idea of this climate, as
regards clearness of sky, from what was told me by our profes-
sional governor, Colonel Bell—viz., that out of 42 successive
days he had been only three times disappointed in finding Venus
with the naked eye in broad sunshine. At 9 p.m. I read with
ease, a few nights ago, the most involved parts of a lady's
closely-crossed letter by the light of an eclipsed moon, then near
the zenith."— Times.

SPINNERS' STRIKE.—We are happy to have to state, that the
dispute between the principal master spinners of Bolton, and
their journeymen spinners has been amicably adjusted. The
men requested 14 per cent. advance on the present prices for
spinning, and the masters have handsomely conceded 5 per
cent., and to abolish the payment for roving winding, which will
make a difference of about 72 per cent. in favour of the men.
We hope the workmen will duly appreciate the kindness of their
employers in the present instance, and that the most perfect
unanimity will be produced.—Bolton Chronicle.
The following curious experiment has been tried with success
on a mountain called Teufelsberg, near the village of Philipp.
sthal, within the Prussian States. It became desirable to get
rid of, a large rock, and in order to avoid the immense expense
of the ordinary means, it was resolved to try the effect of at-
mospheric electricity. To this end a deep hole was made in the
rock, and from it was raised a bar of iron 28 feet high. At the
first thunder-storm that ensued, the lightning was attracted by'
the iron bar, conducted in the ruck, which it shattered to pieces,
and was afterwards easily carried away.—German paper.
GIN-DRINKING IN THE METROPOLIS.—From the foot of
Pentonville-hill to King's-cross, a distance of about 100 yards,
there are three first-rate gin-palaces. On Sunday morning last
a gentleman took the trouble of ascertaining the numbers which
were "turned out" from each gin-shop at the hour of closing,
eleven o'clock. From the gin-shop known as the Maidenhead,
93, including women ; fit:an the White Hart, 76; and from the
Bell Tavern, at the foot of Pentonville-hill, 127! Out of the
296 thus vomited forth, 100 were quite drunk; another hundred
stupid; and the remainin" 96 had scarcely sufficient brains left
to enable them to stagger home. What a sweet picture of " the
Age of Intellect !"—Standard.
SEALS.—The seal of the Begs of Moldavia and Wallachia,
on their decrees and letters, and the arms placed over the gates
of their palaces, churches, and peculiar, covenants, is simply a
•hull's head, said to be in honour of St. Mark the Evangelist.
The seal of the Cral of the Poles, impressed on their battle-
axes, &c., is an eagle with two heads ; and the seal of the Mus-
covite Emperor is the same, said to be in honour of St. John
the Evangelist. The impression on the gold, silver, and cop-
per coins, is, on one side, an eagle with two heads, and, on the
other, the Emperor riding on a horse, under the feet of which
is a kind of dragon, which the Emperor is sticking with a spear,
after the manner of St. George.—Mirror.
• SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—Left this port, on Monday morning,
the South Australian Company's fine bark, Sarah and Eliza-
beth, Captain Wakeling, bound on a whaling voyage to the
South Sea, and thence to the above new colony, where her oil
is to be landed, and sent home for sale, while the vessel again
refits for the fishery. We hope that this beginning of our trade
to South Australia will lead to a constantly increasing inter-
course with a colony enjoying a fair prospect of success. The
Sarah and Elizabeth will be the eleventh vessel that has left
England for South Australia; and, by the arrangements of
the colonisation commissioners for Thai province, any of the
sailors who are married have the privilege of a free passage for
their wives, who will settle in the colony. Two more ships,
with emigrants, are about to leave London for the same destina-
tion, and they will be followed almost immediately by another
of the company's vessels, with an additional number of settlers;
and it is expected that in five or six months' tine the popula-
tion of the new colony will be between 2,000 and 3,000.—Hu1l
Rockinaham.
MODERN REFORMED LEGISLATION.—The following is an
entire clause, verbatim et literatim, of the new registration act:—
Clause XIV. And be it enacted. That the registrar-general
shall furnish to every superintendent registrar-general, foe the
use of the registrars under his superintendence, a sufficient
number of strong iron boxes to hold the register books to be
kept by such registrar; and every such box shall be furnished
with a lock and two keys, and no more; and one of such keys
shall be kept by the registrar, and the other key shall be kept
by the superintendent registrar; and the registrar books of
each district, while in the custody of the registrar and not in
use, shall always be kept in the registrar box, and the registrar
box shall always be left locked !" No penalty is provided either
for leaving it unlocked, or for having ' more than two keys."
And this is what the public have to pay for the printing of! A
subsequent clause (XL) makes it "lawful for the clergymen of
the Church of England to ask parties coming to be married
certain questions." What is to be done where ladies and gen-
tlemen shall feel it equally lawful to decline giving any
answers ?—Northampton Herald.
"VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE."—The Rev. J. A. James has ad-
dressed a letter to the Patriot complaining of the want of due
support to the Congregational School at Lewisham, of which
letter the following is an extract:--" Is this statement credible ?
Is it possible that it should be true ? It is : and we are com-
pelled to believe that an admirable institution for supplying
gratuitously a good education to the sous of poor Dissenting
Ministers, has but eleven subscribers in twenty-nine counties
out of the fifty-two of_which England and Wales are composed!
" 0 tell it not in Gath ! publish it not in Askelon !" Ls this
the power and efficacy of the voluntary principle ?—this the love
of non-conformity, which beats so strongly and glows so ardently
in our bosoms ?—this the ground and support of our boast of the
liberal manner in which our institutions are supported ?—this
the way to prove how well we can do without the Regius's
Donum.? We are valiant, indeed, in words, chivalrous in pro-
fessions ; but does the state of the Congregational School, and
of our other denominational institutions, sustain our tone?
We want provision for the education of a hundred boys, and we
have premises that, with enlargement would, I believe, admit of
it, and we have not funds to educate above thirty! An individual
founded also a girls' school, not long since, with the hope that
others would enlarge it; and are there at this time a dozen
pupils there?"
COUNTY ELECTIONS.—The act for rendering more easy the
taking of the poll at county elections, passed last session, enacts
that his Majesty may, on petition from the justices of any
county, riding, or division, in quarter sessions assembled, re-
presenting that the number of polling places for such county,
&c., is insufficient, and praying that the place or places men-
tioned in the said petition may be a polling place or places, di-
rect that the justices of the peace for the said county, in quarter
sessions or some special sessions assembled, as in the said act
mentioned, shall; conformably to the said act, divide such
county, riding, parts, or division; into convenient polling dis-
tricts, and assign one of such districts to each polling place;
and every such direction or order for creating additional polling
places shall be certified under the hand of one of the clerks in
ordinary of his Majesty's privy council, and when so certified
shall be published in the London Gazette, and shall be of the
same force and effect as if the same had been made by the au-
thority of Parliament. No such petition, however, is to be
made without a month's previous notice to the clerk of the peace,
signed by two justices or ten inhabitants being registered voters;
persons objecting to such motion to he heard against it; but at
every contested county election the high sheriff is to provide as
many polling booths at each polling place as will allow, one for
every 450 electors.
THE WOMEN OF THE LEGION.—The specimens of the British
"fair sex" brought over by the Legion, were certainly not cal-
culated to impress the Spaniards with high notions of our female
beauty, and their tattered appearance, with dirty straw bonnets
and blowsy mob-caps, was enough to astonish the trim senoras,
and put into their mouths the often repeated question, "Whe-
ther all women in England were like these?' The tribes of
shoeless Moll Flaggons from the Green Isle, who came over
with our Irish regiments, are past all description, and the figure
they cut in the rear of a battalion on march, with a pyramid of
babes on their backs, and a couple trotting on each side, was
singularly marvellous in the eyes of the natives, who at last
looked upon them as a regular and necessary adjunct to the
British Legion, or as a supernumerary company of wives and
washerwomen to each regiment. How the numbers that came
up with the convoy contrived to subsist on the march, I never
could divine; for as their presence with the troops, at that pe-
riod, was contrary to orders, they were allowed no rations, and
were totally without money, having had no opportunity of re-
ceiving any from their husbands fur the last six weeks. And
vet they trudged along through dust and mire, in fair wetgl
and in 'foul, for many a weary league, with light hearts and
and
cheeks, bidding defiance alike to the order of the lethe
the accumulating hardships of the road, until they
21Ponths in the
faction of passing the gates of Vittoria—Twelve
Leoion. l nie " said Mr.
PARTICULARS OF PIE-MAKING.—o Wea r ,
he eatables on the grass.
Gaed satis-
Weller, soliloquising, as he arranged t . ,
made"Werjyt, thinggaonoddii;
re like weal that the wery pie-
°an dKanfotwer the
all, nt
though,an as
where's the odds,
quite is
surea w
posing. " Not they, sir," re-
and a wery nice man he was—
eitalapni,e,,klthteenns );
(I,incs his hat. " I lodged in the same
—mi;ake pies out o' anything he could.
men themselves downh'tenktnhko7v:ottheser° difference ?" " Don't they,
IS,laiemd?'l%'isra.idw,M.elrierP,ictkouvSei
once,
„11.,
houser
ess ' l a rwi clevertha Ps
i cehhmea:Pan,
‘Ah,' says h,
wt:ir:kin at me; ' they ant to sseaays.so nI, till when
htehrte
You must be wery fond o' scats,'
says he. •'Other
says he. ' Not • •
winter, thougn,
esdaaoYspvaolur.t
combination o' the butchers to keep up the price o' meat,' says
sgpia:yd:,:pghllloiea.ett,iisan,:ftAnris.:aistnbeie?"srilt.ha,c)chlaitintshse):ilsuo,ukTte.eh:lTlSlWl:isi.ehayißis,eorwvehldbts'°a'aysg.
he. • Mr. Weller, says he, squeezing my hand wery hard, and
visperiug in my ear —e don't mention this here agin, but it's the
seasonin' as does it. They're all made o' them noble animals,'
says he, a pointing to wery nice little tabby kitten, ' and I sea-
son 'em for beef steak, weal, or kidney, 'cordin to the demand; and
more than that,' says he, ' I can make a weal a beef stake, or a
beef steak a kidney, or any one ou 'ens a mutton, at a minute's
notice, just as the market changes and appetites wary!' " " He
must have been a very ingenious young man, that, Sami" said
Mr. Pickwick, with a slight shudder.—Pickack paws.,