The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-07-12 00:00:00

THE tIVERPOOt STANDARD, TUESDAY, ,TETY 12, ISS

TWO DAYS IN A SCOTTISH ISLAND.

BY EVERTON PAUL.

(2st Wednesday morning crossed from Ardrossan, a
fashionable little town on the coast of Ayrshire, to the
Isle of Arran—one of the loveliest " features" of the
Clyde. From the Firth we had a fine view of the town
we had just left—its castle and hill, the elegant summer
pavilion of the Earl of Eglinton, the handsome hotel
built by his lordship's uncle, and that beauteous line of
sand rimming the sea, on whose smooth surface " The
Devil of Ardrossan" was wont to wander wildly in the
olden time. This personage with the imposing title was
a member of the llontgomerie family, and was likewise
Baron of Ardrossan—the title, if we mistake not, by
which the late Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland is entitled to a
seat in the House of Peers. The old Baron was a
mysterious individual, and seems in some respects to
have borne a mental resemblance to the infamous pro-
genitor of the last Lord of Newstead, whose peculiar
ways gained for him the name of " Devil Byron." On
turning from our shoreward observations, discovered that
there were on board many " ladyes fair," who were
being treated to a sea-jaunt by their husbands or lovers—
for the Glasgow people are wondrously attached to the
Clyde, and " down the water" is a familiar phrase in the
Scottish Tyre during the summer and autumn months.
Admired the ladies vastly ; they are not so rosy or so
nicely-rounded perhaps as the English fair, but there is a
soft, calm, spiritual beauty about the Scotch lassie which
their contemporaries in the south lack. Steamed across
in a couple of hours to Brodick, the capital of Arran,
both in beauty and in size—boasting of a bay lovely
beyond description, with the proud old castle of the Duke
of Hamilton embosomed among trees, and backed by
hills enclosing some of the finest valleys which the Scottish
Highlands can reveal. Found the village full of visitors,
and lodgings at a premium. Doleful tidings of as many
as ten human beings rejoicing in the occupation of a
single room, the said room being at the same time peopled
with rats and other similarly vvell- favoured specimens of
the aboriginal inhabitants. After seeking about, with the
assistance of a kind friend got domesticated in the house
of a venerable old lady, who had kept summer boarders
during the greater part of a long-protracted life, and
whom one of our party recognised as the very individual
with whom she had resided in the island some twenty
years ago. An old barn, with a couple of beds, was all
the good lady could afford—as the rest of her house was
already occupied partly by a newly-married couple, who
warn thorn eriPnaing fhP. honoymann, and partly by tho
Sheriff and Procurator Fiscal, two important personages,
who had come across from the adjacent island of Bute on
one of their periodical visits to dispense law among
the unsophisticated natives. Had not been long there
till we were very strongly advised by our land-
lady's venerable daughter—a young woman of some-
where beyond fifty—to pay a visit to the Sheriff's
Court, which was then being held in a queer sort of out-
house at the rear of the village hotel. The sappers and
miners had been in the island for some time, taking the
trigonometrical survey of that portion of Scotland, and it
would appear that, in their acquaintanceship with the
rustic maids, they had provided a goodly amount of work
for the sheriff and his man—the red-coated intruders
having in nearly every case set all the orders of the resi-
dent justices at defiance. Wished very much to witness
a Highland trial, but preferred a sight of the neighbouring
glens, before we returned to a trout dinner in Wellington.
square, as the collection of houses, of which ours formed
a part, had been sarcastically named by a waggish visitor.
Up Glen Sherag, to the house of a friend, and down in
the gloaming, conversing by the way with a couple of
Scotch ladies, who promulgated to us their decided con-
viction that, so far as Arran and the Western Highlands
and Islands of Scotland were concerned, the most talented
preachers were in the Established Church, and not among
the Free body, who came out at the disruption of 1844.
Knew that exactly the opposite was the case on the other
side of the channel ; but, as we never had heard a High-
land sermon, did not attempt to contest the point with
our fair friends. On our journey that evening we saw
one church—a little bewildered building in the glen. Our
companions, although familiar with that part of the island,
had never seen the clergyman's house, and were inclined
to the belief that he did not reside near the scene of his
ministrations : certainly, in the character of the popula-
tion, there was indicated a startling necessity for his pre-
sence amongst them constantly. Ignorance and super-
stition clouded the countenance of the people; and, truly,
one who has alone waited the nightfall in a lone Highland
glen, cannot feel surprised at the fact that fancy and the
fairies should loiter there long after they have disappeared
from the mainland.

Rose on the morrow, after a not unbroken night's
slumber, and early astir as we fancied ourselves to be,
found that the village appeared to have been wide awake
for a good half day. So away at once, after a hearty
breakfast, to the summit of the great Benghoil, Anylice
" Mountain of the Mists," or, as it is called by the
common people and the maps, Goatfell. Past Brodick
Castle, through its antique and right pleasant park—
then, for some hundreds of yards by the side of a brawl-
ing rock and tree-crested rivulet, which has worn its daily
deepening channel down the mountain side for hundreds of
years—seen from the opposite coast like a silver streak in
the sombre granite, and now, when we are by its side,
murmuring into our minds fancies and waking dreams
which we never shall forget. From the base of the top-
most cone of the mountain we had a hard hour's climbing
among rocks and boulders—a task which almost made us
imagine at the time that Albert Smith and Mont Blanc
were trifles, but afterwards rendered us somewhat
sorrowful when we learned that all the labour was un-
necessary, as a path which led round the shoulder of the
mountain could have taken us to the summit at an ex-
penditure of a fourth part of the time and a tithe of the
perspiration. On nearing the top an uncivil mist (which
in Scotland means a soaking fall of rain as well as a fog)
descended, and we were fain to hide under a huge rock.
Imprisoned beneath the granite we searched our pockets
for a book, and the first that came to hand was the
common prayer. Straightway we read aloud that glorious
composition, The Litany—wondering the while if that
most inspired-like of all uninspired writings had e'er
before been read so near the Scottish sky, and in the
very heart of the clouds which o'er-canopy the land of
Presbytery and the Covenant. As we finished, the mist
came scudding up the hill to its summit, then departed.
It rolled up like a curtain from the surface of the sea,
leaving the deep blue furrowed waves, specked at intervals
with light, fleecy clouds, which lingered on the firth, as
if loath to rise from their sporting with old ocean.
" It's very wundy, sir," was the greeting of a lowland
labourer, who just as we were leaving reached the summit
with an immense load on his back for the use of the sap.
pers and miners, stationed on the mountain ; and, with
the wind blowing the way we went, a short half-hour
brought us to the base of Benghoil, to our thatched resi-
dence in " the square," and a right merry fireside, where
tale and joke went fleetly round. One of our party had a
very good story to tell. She resided with a woman in the
village, whose mother was far advanced in life, and quite
incapacitated from taking any part in the housework.
The daughter had some old friend on a visit, and to this
friend she had been heard on the previous night confiding
all her woes.

" I wish with all my heart she wur aneath the sod,"
said the unsophisticated islander. _ _

" Oh, Kate, how can you speak so of your mother ; she
is a very smart old woman, and does not give you much
trouble."

" Oh, aye," replied the crone, " Oh, aye Out she's
jist a great po-o-ther, though,"—meaning that she caused
work and did none herself.

You may rest assured that Kate was only a type of her
class in the island ; and when we left its pleasant shore,
and our aristocratic dwelling in " the square," it was
with an admiration and a love for the scenery which we
were sorry we could not extend to the people who had
been born and reared in its midst.
Everton, Liverpool, July, 1853.

RANGE OF THE HUMAN VOlCE.—There are about nine
perfect tones, but 17,592,186,041,415 different sounds ;
thus, fourteen direct muscles, alone or together, produce
16,383 ; thirty indirect muscles, ditto, 173,741,823 ; and
all in co-operation produce the number we have named,
and these independently of different degrees of intensity.
—Musical World.

REFINEMENT IN THE, FEATHERED RACE. A few
days ago, a bird's nest was discovered in the pleasure-
ground of Earl Manvers, at Thoresby-park, composed of
the following materials, namely :—A lady's cap, a collar,
a habit shirt, and a quantity of lace, amounting in value
to 165., the whole being interwoven with twigs and bits
of bay and moss, and not at all injured. Several articles
of the above description had disappeared from the
bleaching-ground, and different persons had been blamed
for the supposed theft. The real thieves were a pair of
missel-thrushes, which had chosen a fine cedar tree near
the place for their summer abode, and had used the above-
mentioned articles to construct their nest ; but not being
skilful enough to weave in the strings, the nest was dis-
covered by one of the gardeners. The nest, when found,
was quite finished, and had received two eggs. It has
been carefully removed from the tree, and sent to his 1
lordship, who is now in London, and will probably find
its way to the British Museum.—Leicester Journal.
WOMEN AND PORPOISES.—WeII, it's the natur of por-
poises, when a she one gets wounded, that all the other
porpoises race right arter her, and chase her to death.
They show her no mercy. Human natur' is the same as
fish natur' in this particler, and is as scaly too. When a
woman gets a wound from an arrow shot out by scandal
or envy, or malice, or falsehood, for not keeping her eye
on the compass, and shapin' her course as she ought to,
men, women, and boys, parsons, and their tea-goin' gos-
sipin' wives, pious galls and prim old maids, all start off
in full cry, like a pack of blood-hounds, arter her, and
tear her to pieces ; and if she earths and has the luck to
get safe into a hole fust, they howl and yell round it every
time she shows her nose, like so many imps of darkness.
It's the race of charity, to see which long-legged, cantin'
bilious-lookin' critter can be in first at the death. They
turn up the whites of their eyes like ducks in thunder, at a
fox hunt, it's so wicked ; but a gall-hunt they love dearly,
it's servin' the Lord.—Sam Slick's Wise Saws.

THE MAIDS AND THE WIDOWS.—The following peti-
tion, signed by sixteen maids of Charleston, South Caro-
lina, was presented to the governor of that province on
March 1, 1733-4, " the day of the feast:"—" To his ex-
cellency Governor Johnson. The humble petition of all
the maids whose names arc underwritten: Whereas we
the humble petitioners are at present in a very melancholy
disposition of mind, considering how all the bachelors
are blindly captivated by widows, and our more youth-
ful charms thereby neglected : the consequence of
this our request is, that your excellency will for the
future order that no widow shall presume to marry
any young man till the maids are provided for ; or
else to pay each of them a fine for satisfaction, forin-
vading our liberties : and likewise a fine to be laid on all
such bachelors as shall be married to widows. The great
disadvantage it is to us maids, is, that the widows, by
their forward carriage, do snap up the young men ; and
have the vanity to think their merits beyond ours, which
is a great imposition upon us who ought to have the pre-
ference. This is humbly recommended to your excel-
lency's consideration, and hope you will prevent any
farther insults. And we poor maids, as in duty bound,
will ever pray. P.S.—I, being the oldest maid, and
therefore most concerned, do think it proper to be the
messenger to your excellency in behalf of my fellow-sub-
scribers."—Notes and Queries.

CORREPSONDENCE.

Letters addressed to the Editor should be accompanied by the
real name and address of the writer, not for publication, but
as a guarantee of good faith ; this is indispensably requisite
in any statement of facts.
The Editor wishes it to be understood that he does not hold
himself responsible for the opinions or statements of his
correspondents.

LIVERPOOL ELECTION-RADICAL CALUMNY.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—I have read with the greatest surprise some obser-
vations attributed to Mr. R. Gladstone and Mr. J. R. Jeffery,
and stated to have been made by them after the close of the
poll. These gentlemen are stated to have each uttered an un-
qualified assertion, that for £5OO the election would have been
theirs at two o'clock. Now, sir, I most fearlessly state that a
greater calumny on the Freemen was never uttered ; and, as I
take the unsupported word of disappointed partisans to re-
quire proof, I challenge those gentlemen to name upon what
ground they dare to make an assertion so fabulous.
Mr. Gladstone's attack upon the Clergy, and Mr. Jeffery's
statement, as to what number of men MIGHT be drunk, pass
for what they are worth ; but the statement, as to the Radicals
ever having a shadow of chance for .500, or £5,000, is prepos-
terous, and only shows how far partisanship will lead men
from the facts. If you refer to the poll, it will be found that
the largest number polled for the Conservatives, after two
o'clock, was under GOO, and the Radicals polled above 400; so
that the Conservatives only increased their majority by about
200 during the last two hours. Does not this prove that the
electors did poll early, and that if any undue influence was at
work, it must have been with the Radicals, for the gain to the
Conservatives before two o'clock was, on the average, above
200 per hour, and from two o'clock only 100 per hour? How
can any gentleman, with the facts of the case before him, dare
to make assertions as to the probability of undue influence on
our parts; and if the facts were unknown, how dare the state-
ment to have been made ? Now, sir, the gentlemen named,
Messrs. Gladstone and Jeffery, have given the world to under-
stand that an offer was made to them as to the purchase of
votes. I hope, sir, these parties will now be pressed for the
proof ; nothing must let them escape ; they must state who
made the offer ; by what authority such pretended person
acted : and why they—the purity men—did not Pilo Rurb
wholesale briber into custody. If this be not done, I feel
assured that the town will pass a verdict which will not be
relished by these professors.—Yours, respectfully,

THE TOW HALL BANQUET,

JUSTUS

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—The Liverpool Albion, of to-day, in its account of the
banquet to the Members and defeated Candidates, given by
the Mayor, on Saturday, states " that Mr. Bold responded to
the toast of the Vice-Chairman, in an injudicious speech, not-
withstanding the remonstrances of his friend. He was fol-
lowed by Mr. J. Buck Lloyd, who reprehended the introduc-
tion of politics on that occasion."

The health of the Stipendiary Magistrate preceded mine, and
that gentleman, in reference to the last election, complimented
the town on the total absence of intimidation or violence, and,
after so doing, used the words, " but I atop there."
On my health being drunk, I rose and expressed my satis-
faction at hearing the statement of the Stipendiary Magistrate,
and said, (for I felt that his words might have a meaning
attached to them beyond what he afterwards assured me he
meant,) "/ will NOT atop there," and added, " I believe so
perfectly pure an election never took place in the town."
What injudiciousness there was in this remark I am at a
loss to understand. I may add, that all my friends around me
approved of the course I so adopted.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
THOMAS BOLD.
Water-street, July 11, 1853.

" THE HOUSEL•ESS OLD FREEMEN."

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Slll,-1 pray you give this a corner. In the Albiou of to-day
I find a long panegyric on the modest and unassuming tactics
of the Liberal (?) candidates for the representation of " this
good old town ;" after which it states : " To cut a long story
short, we went to the poll, and were beaten by the independent
votes of the houseless old Freemen."

Now, Mr. Editor, I challenge your contemporary to prove
that the election was won (or that they were beaten) by the
houseless old Freemen. Thank God, to be houseless is not to
be despicable—(Foxes have their holes !)—and if he will take
the trouble to count the number of Freemen who voted, and
are rated above ten, twenty, or a hundred pounds, he will find
that they were not beaten by the " independent votes of the
houseless old Freemen ;" but rather that they were in the lane
while the right men had the field.—Yours truly, Mr. Editor.
BAT FELIX, Cricket on the Hearth.
Liverpool, 11th July, 1853.

VERACITY OF MR. ROBERTSON GLADSTONE

AND HIS " MAN FRIDAY."

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SlR.,—Although the election is now over, and any lengthened
notice of the practices of the opposite party may be considered
unnecessary, and tending to the maintenance of ill feeling, still
I may perhaps be allowed to make a few strictures on the
infamous insinuation made by Mr. R. Gladstone and Mr.
Jeffery, at the close of the election, in Clayton-square, when
addressing the supporters of Sir E. Perry. I allude to the ob-
s ervation about having the election in their own hands at two
o'clock, if they would purchase 560 Freemen. Such is not the
fact, those much maligned men having nearly all polled long
before that hour, and that without receiving any remuneration
whatever, beyond the gratification every man would feel in
performing a sacred and conscientious duty in an honest
and straightforward manner.
Because the Freemen will not kiss the hand that smites them
—because they invariably support Church and State Principles
—because they prefer the management and leadership of those
Conservative gentlemen, through whose noble exertions we
have been secured the advantages of the Bible in our Corpora-
tion Schools, and not those principles of Infidelity, Socinianism,
and any other ism which what is falsely termed Civil and Reli-
gious Liberty is so well calculated to encourage—we are to be
charged, on every occasion, with bribery and corruption in the
exercise of our franchise.

These gentlemen I now call upon emphatically to prove their
statement; they must do so to clear their own characters;
though probably possessing, as they do, no regard for the cha-
racters of their opponents, they can hardly be expected to care
much for their own good name.—Yours,
A CONSERVATIVE FREEMAN OF EXCHANGE WARD.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN ON THE
MISSISSIPPI.—No. I.

WE have been favoured with some letters which have been
received by a gentleman in Liverpool, from an American
friend in the valley of the Mississippi, who, in 1851,
travelled on foot, through a great portion of England and
Scotland, making himself acquainted with the condition
and manners of the people in the old world, and fulfilling
the wish of his early youth, to visit the land of Bruce and
Burns—the home of his maternal ancestors.

"yiqua, lliam!. Co., May 20, 1853.

"The spring I spoke of in my last few w-,ords to you
has nearly passed away ; and though the birds send forth
their morning and evening songs with as much seeming
mirth as they did in early spring, we must soon lay aside
the present name and call the season summer. Then it
will be the summer songs of birds, though merely a repe-
tition of those they sang before. The mocking-bird will
not quit his mimicry because we say summer has come,
nor will the robin stay his chant because we say spring
has gone. We shall soon seek the shade of tall forest
trees, which were clothed in verdure by the spring.
Spring, indeed, is about to take its departure, but then
we shall have summer with us, and what matters. Spring
is not so much more beautiful, after all, than her sister
seasons. I love spring while it is with us, but I shall love
summerjust as much when it comes. So, let the seasons
go and come, I shall love them all in their proper turn.
" Some nights ago I sat beneath my window casement
musing upon the beauties of spring, when all at once a
strain came pouring across the fields from a boatman's
horn, filling the whole atmosphere with most delightful
melody. Oh ! how my heart rejoiced as the notes danced
upon the breeze. This, thought I, 'is another of the
accompaniments of spring ; yet, will not the same strains
float as buoyantly upon a summer breeze ? The boatman
knows not of, neither cares he for seasons as they pass,
but winds his horn as the spirit moveth him.
" When I last wrote you, the farmers were just planting
their corn (not wheat and oats, for these Americans sow),
and now it is growing and waving in the wind like small
forest trees. Fruit-trees, which were then just in bloom,
are now loaded with green fruit, which progresses rapidly
towards the maturity which renders it fit for the harvest.
And it is seldom that a season has been more liberal in
its promises of abundance. Everything green looks ex-
ceedingly well—wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, potatoes,
and the various grades of vegetation that form staples,
are promising far more than we usually gather from the
fields in one season ; and when the products of this great
valley of the Mississippi are cast abroad over the earth,
we shall be able to say, after feeding the nations of the
world, we have still plenty for ourselves. You can have
little conception of the great productiveness of this valley
until you have spent a season in it. Its extent is quite
sufficient to raise food for every being in the world, and
its fertility even surpasses that of the Nile. The grass
which grows spontaneously upon its prairies reaches a
height that is truly wonderful, often growing far above
the common height of man. The fruits which are native
to its soil are various, and some of the varieties possess
nutritious qualities equal to the domesticated fruits of any
clime ; and the whole valley, with an area of many
thousand miles, is beautified with flowers of every imagi-
nable hue, shedding a perfume which cannot fail to de-
light the admirer of the beauties of nature. At the present
time, indeed, we are in the midst of flowers. The horny
locust, a tree of gigantic dimensions, is covered with
flowers that fill the atmosphere with delightful fragrance;
and the wild rose, which occupies the quiet nook, beckons
the stroller to pause and admire ; while the grape-vine,
which has climbed to the topmost branches of the sturdy
oak, is now loading its sprigs with fruit, that we may, in
the proper time, go and " help ourselves " to the sweet
burden of its summer pilgrimage. The pawpaw tree, too, '
promises a rich feast of autumnal fruits, Oh ! what a
lovely season is near at hand. Spring is just taking its
departure, after spreading a carpet of flowers beneath our
feet, and summer comes to ripen the fruits of the earth ;
and then comes autumn, the season for gathering ; and
winter, when we may " pile up the fire on the old
hearth," and there sit to enjoy the social blessings that
seem too good for such undutiful children.
" Now, my dear W., have I said enough about this