The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

Top of the whole varieties enume-

still standing untouched

the time an

it longer. Well,

plead " can I not do what I like with my own," is

,11 reasonable, surely it ought to be so considered with

:oming it too stroll;

D keep back grain under

the present circumstances

and kept back it will be, in

tne expectatio:

to this cans,

more than to a
n- all the

scarcity must rest the high price of provisions

subsidiary articles are dependent on t

rule" of the

above-named staple commodi

the weevil eat

every particle of ill-stored grain. The farmer cannot ob-

ject to such a wish

The Times tickled the public the oth

Liy by "coming

Int" with a " dainty device" in the form of a neatly-
xecuted penny stamp engraving, cheek by jowl with our
ime-bonoured friends,—

" The lion and the unicorn
Fighting for the crown,"
'literati=

in lieu of the nast

tamp-office daub per-

petrated by the officials at Somerset-house. Various were
the conjectures as to the cause of the change. "Another
sop," said one. " Ah, the Times is always favoured," said
another quid nunc. Let us look at the question; it is an
interesting one, and, it may be, will lead to a wonderful
change in the modus operandi in QUEEN VICTORIA'S
Stamp-office. In the basement of Somerset-house, on the
liver side, and below the level of the Thames, steam is at
work for the purpose of stamping everything stampable
by act of parliament, from the new penny receipt up to the
missive of lease, of I know not how many, hundreds of
pounds value; nor shall I inquire much into this part of
the business, contenting myself with stamps on knowledge.
In the principal quarter of the quadrangle of Somerset-
house, as indicated, facing the visitor as he enters from the
Strand, all the year through, save on Sundays, he may
notice huge covered waggons, with huger horses attached,
lazily casting their nose-bags about. These waggons have
brought tons of paper, packed in reams, from the wholesale
stationer sometimes, but most commonly from the manu-
facturers' paper-mills, situated on some pleasant and peaceful
stream, tributary to the Thames chiefly. Close to the
gateway of the department of stamps, you perceive a gaping
aperture, with a throat of ample dimensions, at an angle
of 45°, down this is slid ream after ream of material to be
stamped for the newspapers. In due time, but after long
.delay, the sheets come up stamped, fit to be taken to the
printing-office. Those who do business on a large scale
pay on the nail with a crossed cheque. The Times
pay now, even with the penny stamp, at least
£50,000 a year; they stamp two tons of paper on an
average daily. Cash down, of course, is out of the
question for this ; the crossed cheque presents a greater
facility of doing business. Woe betide the small pub-
lisher who may only require £l5 or £2O worth stamped,
and tenders his tin, over the well-used stamp-office coun-
ter; the slightest flaw in silver threepenny, fourpenny,
and so on, upwards to half-sovereign and sovereign, is
Pushed back—refused. The stamp people are right ;
they pay their money slick to the mint, and there's no
higgling there. Well, the stamp-office men are all busy ;
you can see by the smoke of the QUEEN'S chimney, which
does not _

that the engine is at work—stokers, cokers, porters,
stampers, characters of all descriptions—too numerous to
mention—are engaged. Hundreds of thousands of sheets
are stamped, each sheet has to be counted,men and horses
are waiting outside, the stamped sheets, when they are got,
have to be carted home, stamps having been previously
affixed to the wrappers. All this and much more has to be
achieved 'before the machine-man at the newspaper office
can manipulate a single sheet. The Times people have
been known to order 1,000,000 of the old supplement
stamps at a time to be ready, and to save trouble when
time could not be afforded. Such is a cursory glance at
the business of the newspaper stamping office ; the receipts
are prodigious ; the out-goings are also heavy. But touch-
ing the new dodge of the Times—the "dainty device"
aforesaid ! See how easy ! a bit of machinery works a die,
marked one penny in the centre, the copy is thrown off in
the Times office without going to Somerset-house at all.
Surveillance ? Td be sure. Do not excisemen lock up
soap-boilers ? Yea. The exciseman at the Times office,
at a salary of £4. a-week, may supersede a hundred times
the amount at Somerset-house. What do you think of
that, Mr. GLADSTONE ? You can save a vast sum by the
dodge, and simplify business: Of course, though the Times
has got the honour of introducing the new plan, if it work,
and work, it must, it will be extended to the other papers.
Let me break out in a fresh place. The "Life of JOHN
*ABERNETHY," by one of his pupils, just published, has
undeceived many thousands not only belonging to the pro-
fession, but among the elder branches of the upper
classes—those who remember the wonderful eccentricities,
the apparently coarse and gruff manner, yet undoubted
amenity, of the great surgeon of St. Bartholomew's Hos-
pital. Everybody believed JOHNNIE ABERNETHY to be a
Scotchman, and, in truth, in many respects he resembled
his confreres, the two HUNTERS, who were bona fide
Scotch lads. ABERNETHY was a Cockney, of Milesian
origin. Many curious anecdotes are told of him in the
work referred to—many more that I know of are untold,—
probably because they are too racy, or unknown to the
author. A boy of moderate comprehension could carry
away three-quarters of one of ABERNETIIY'S lectures—so
plain—so well arranged—so anecdotical. Who, that heard
it, will ever forget his lecture on the first application—or
exhibition—of that powerful medicine—Croton oil ? No
one. I doubt not that there be some of your Liverpool
professional gentlemen who were auditors on the occasion ;
it was delivered in the College of Surgeons when Sir
ASTLEY was president ; that courteous baronet sat in the
chair, and was compelled, during nearly the whole of ABER-
ICETHY'S lecture, to conceal his face—or at least the laughing
part of it—by placing his hand before it, as it would have been
deemed contra bonos mores for the president to be seen
smiling—let alone laughing ! The theatre resounded;
LISTON (the actor, not the surgeon) never produced more,
nor 'heartier laughter, than Joan' ABERNETHY, de-
scribing the cathartic effects of the first dose of Croton
in England—or, for the matter of that—anywhere else—
on a sailor. Does ABERNETHY'S biographer notice this ? I
think not. We have in the metropolis now scarcely an
operating surgeon worth mentioning. BRA.NSBY COOPER,
in midtime of his days, has gone, after acquiring some
fame and some obloquy, with "my uncle's knife." Poor
fortune ; it appears he has left personal property to the
amount of £6OOO. Those confounded horses and carriages
swallow up a fortune per annum. Sir BENJAMIN BRODIE,
the Sergeant-Surgeon, I keep out of the rerord, as he is
only seen among the rich from night to morn, dining late
in the evening, anyhow,—then out again to extirpate
carbuncles and look after broken legs,—badly set ; about
one or two o'clock in the morning you may have a
friendly epistle written to you. This is his only period of
relaxation. What a life ! Such is BRODIE'S ;it has re-
duced him to the appearance—l had nearly said, con-
sistency—of an animated mummy ! In no profession,
probably, has such a change come o'er the spirit
if it, as has been the case in the twin pro-
d one regrets that

'essions—r

the change does
well-earned and pr
With your HALF°

support the hitherto

13LBINGTorrs, and
e. The glory has

other great name
4,eParted. Inste
the healing art,

f the ancien regim

connection witl

° ur medical
Ch'
. leory n•nri

sys discussed, as heretofore, at
at have we for the most part ?

magne

lAr hose vy",
etiteo

since, I have mixed with
,nd archbishops, dignitaries
barons and knights of the

everyof
~,,(tegreeshire. ,
Then you rid e
di
the simple. tided Bishop of Non familiar and feathered varlet, the house sparrow—with
Duke of IsTonTlinisimantabin on a new disease in asp
gus, with a denurin;.,,

Sip with STANLEY
the habits of tha

biid hand eithei-"iabontTgih LtrwerEir BONAPARTE was no
e habits of birds : he used to
hold forth most co the
about the migratory character

of the swallow—LUclEN's bird, while the sparrow was
STANLEY'S. It grieves me much to say that the abhorred
utilitarian system—by me abhorred—is creeping into
high places, where all used to be heart-cordial. With
the exception of Buckingham Palace, the Duke of
NORTHUMBERLAND'S, the Duke of DEVONSHIRE'S, Miss
BURDETT COUTTS'S, and a few others, the cheese-paring
plan is followed. DEVONSifIRE don't abate a iot of me-

dd WEI

ne of the first