The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-11 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, JANTTAIty

The Art-Journal. London : Virtue.

There is perhaps no publication which possesses
higher claims to public patronage than the one be-
fore us. For a comparatively small charge, its
patrons are supplied each month with three steel
engravings of a first-class character, together with
a profusion of wood engravings, to say nothing of
nearly forty large quarto pages of articles on
various subjects connected with the fine arts. It
is by such means as these that the love of art is
disseminated, and no work has more contributed
to this end than the Art-Journal, which numbers
its readers by tens of thousands; and, after a career
of several years, comes before the public with un-
diminished exertions to secure and increase the
favour it has so well earned. The first part for the
new year is equal to any that have preceded it. The
subjects of the steel engravings are, "The South
Sea Bubble," from the picture by Ward, R.A., in
the Vernon Gallery; " Uncle Toby and the Widow,"
from the picture by Leslie, R.A., in the same collec-
tion ; and " The Children in the Wood," from a
group in marble, by John Bell. Any one of these
is worth the price of the whole number. In
addition, there are a great many wood en-
gravings, including an illustrated almanac of the
month ; a series of designs illustrating passages in
the voyage of life ; illustrations of a work by Mrs.
Merrifield, on "dress, as a fine art ;" and also of
" The domestic manners of the English during the
middle ages ;" a portrait of Nicholas Poussin, and
several specimens of his works; illustrations of
Scott's " Lady of the Lake ;" the progress of art
manufacture; an artist's ramble from Antwerp to
Rome, &c. It is really difficult to particularise,
where beauties are so profuse, but our readers
should judge for themselves.

Reply of the Professional Life Assurance Company

to the attacks of its assailants

The author of this pamphlet, which extends to no
fewer than fifty-two pages, is Mr. Edward Baylis,
the resident manager and actuary of the society,
and whose name has long been before the public in
connection with the important subject of life assur-
ance. This subject has lately undergone much
discussion, in the course of which some of the
recently established offices were unsparingly
attacked by those in the interest of the older ones.
Without disputing the charge that many of the
new offices have been established on an insecure
basis, Mr. Baylis enters the lists in defence of the
one with which he is connected, and cites as one of
the best proofs of the soundness of the system
which he has acted upon, the gratifying fact that
the shares of the six life insurance offices which he
has established now bear high premiums, varying
from 25 to 100 per cent., the highest premium
being the office to which he is now allied. It is a
subject in which the public are largely interested,
and ought to be perhaps more than they are, for it
is a melancholy fact that out of the great number
to whom life assurance would afford a safe means of
providing for their families against contingencies,
very few avail themselves of the opportunity.

The Home Companion. London : Bennett. The
True Briton. London : Hall. The Cheerful
Visitor. London : Evans.

Among the many cheap publications which ema-
nate from the metropolitan press, those before us
can claim the character of cheapness, not only for
the low price at which they are published, but the
extent and variety of the entertainment and infor-
mation which they afford. They are all of a large
quarto size, of which sixteen pages are given for a
penny in the two former, and in the latter there are
eight pages for a halfpenny. The contents are a
miscellaneous collection of tales of fiction, poetry,
instruction in domestic economy, farming and gar-
dening, biblical queries, anecdotes, and matter of a
similar character. The first has been published
fourteen months, the second five, and the third four
months.