The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-30 00:00:00

VARIgTIES

FORGIVE AND FORGET.—The occurrences of almost
every day shew me what cause I have to bless and adore
God, for enabling me to adopt and carry. into effect a very
simple principle, which brings the sweetest peace into my
soul. It is this :—A man strikes me with a sword, and
inflicts a wound. Suppose, instead of binding up the
wound, I am shewing it to every body, and, after it has
been bound up, I am taking off the bandage continually,
and examining the depth of the wound. and making it
fester, till my limb becomes greatly inflamed, and my
general health is materially affected ; is there a person in
the world that would not call me a fool ? Now, such a
fool is he who, by dwelling upon little injuries or insults
or provocations, causes them to agitate and inflame his
mind : how much better were it to put a bandage over
the wound, and never look at it again !—Diary of the
Rev. C. Simeon.
THE LONDON MARKETS.—The number of oxen con-
sumed in London yearly is estimated at about two hun-
dred and fifty thousand ; of sheep about one million, of
lambs about four hundred thousand, of calves three hun-
dred thousand, of pigs about a quarter of million, besides
various animals used as food. Considerable quantities of
butcher's meat have lately been imported from Scotland
and the provinces to London, in addition to what is
boug:lt at Smithfield and the other markets. It is reck-
oned that about one million pounds sterling per annum is
a fair computation of the value of live animals sold in
Smithfield market alone. About eight hundred thousand
gallons of milk are consumed in London annually, sup-
plied by about ten thousand cows. It is said that nearly
five hundred thousand pounds per annum are paid by milk
retailers to cow-keepers for the produce of their cows;
and that from the additional cent. per cent. added to the
original cost of the produce, independent of the loss
caused by adulteration, the citizens of London pay nearly
one million sterling for milk alone. Upwards of ten
thousand acres of land are under cultivation round the
city, in order to supply the regular vegetable market ; and
about four thousand acres are devoted to the cultivation
of fruits and flowers. Nearly seven hundred thousand
pounds sterling are paid at market for garden stuff's, and
upwards of four hundred thousand pounds for fruit alone;
and when we take into consideration that the retailers ad-
vance the price of these more than two hundred per cent.,
we shall find that the Londoners disburse above three
millions of pounds yearly for esculent vegetables. The
annual consumption of wheat inLondon is above one million
quarters, each quarter containing eight Winchester
bushels. About one million chaldrons of coals are con-
sumed. each chaldron containing thirty-six bushels, or
one ton and a half. Nearly two hundred and fifty thou-
sand barrels of ale and porter annually are brewed and
sold in the city, each barrel containing thirty-six gallons.
About twelve millions of gallons of spirituous liquors and
compounds, about seventy thousand pipes of wine, about
three millions of butter, and about thirty millions of
pounds weight of cheese constitute the articles of general
use. In Billingsgate market alone—that famous theatre
of eloquent persons, who from their dress and demeanour
might be supposed to constitute a third sex—upwards of
three hundred thousand tons of fish are annually disposed
of, and nearly one hundred thousand pounds are paid for
poultry during a season by the rich.--Hogy's Weekly
Instructor.
RIVETTING THE TUBES AT THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.
—By far the most curious part of the rivetting process is
to be seen on the., flat roof or top of the tube. This im-
mense deck, which we have already stated to be 472 feet
in length, is composed of a pavement of plates to be con-
nected together by 18 longitudinal rows of rivets, the
heads of which are to be only 21 inches apart. Beneath
this surface, at a depth of only Ift. 9in. there is, to give
additional strength, a similar stratum of plates, the space
included between both being divided into eight compart-
ments called flues, 21 inches deep by 20 inches broad,
exactly resembling those of a common stove. After the
horizontal bottoms and upright sides of these eight flues
have been firmly connected together by the battering
process we have just described, the upper stratum of plates
are loosely laid down, and, being thus, by the superin-
cumbcnt weight of the iron covering securely adjusted,
their final connection is effected as follows :—A tiny rivet-
boy—we observed one little mite only ten years of age, in
clothes professionally worn into holes at the knees and
elbows—crawling heels foremost for a considerable dis-
tance into one of these flues as easily as a yellow ferret
trots into a rabbit hole, is slowly followed by his huge
lord and master the holder-up, who exactly fits the flue,
for the plain and excellent reason that by Mr. Stephenson
the flue was purposely predestined to be exactly big
enough to fit him ; and as, buried alive in this receptacle,
he can move but very slowly, he requires some time,
advancing head foremost, to reach the point at which he
is to commence his work. On arriving there, his first
process, lying on his left side, is with his right hand to
pass through one of the rive', holes in the plate above him
a little strong hook, to which is attached a short hempen
loop or noose, which, supporting the heavy end of his
huge hammer, forms a fulcrum upon which he can easily
raise it against the roof, simply by throwing his right
thigh and leg over the extremity of the long lever or
handle of the instrument. When similar preparations,
by the injection of other little rivet-boys. and other stout
holders-up, into several of the other flues, have been
made, the signal for commencing operations is given by
several red-hot bolts falling, apparently from the clouds,

among the riveters, who, leaning on their sledge-ham-
mers, have been indolently awaiting their arrival. These
bolts have been heated on the outside of the tube on the
ground immediately beneath, in a portable furnace, from
which a gang of lithesome rivet-boys in attendance ex-

tract them as fast as they are required, and then walking
away with them, without looking upwards, or apparently
caring the hundred-thousandth part of the shaving of a
farthing where they may fall, or whom they may burn,
they very dexterously, by a sudden swing of their pincers,
throw them almost perpendicularly about 45 feet, or about
ten feet higher than the top of the tube, upon which, as
we have stated, they fall among the asembled riveters as
if they had been dropped from the moon. As soon as
these red-hot meteors descend upon the flat roof, another
set of rivet-boys eagerly snap them up, and each running
with his bolt, not to the spot where it is required, but to
one of certain holes in the plate made on purpose for its
insertion, he delivers it into the pincers of the little
sweep, rivet-boy, or Ascanius, within the flue, who, hav-
ing been patiently waiting there to receive it, crawls
along with it towards his Pius Aneas, the stout recum-
bent holder-up. As soon as he reaches him he inserts
for him the small end of the bolt into the hole for which
it has been prepared, and through which, in obedience to
its fate, it is no sooner seen to protrude, than the sledge-
hammers of the expectant riveters, severely jerking at
every blow the heavy leg of the poor holder-up, belabour
it and " swage" it into a rivet—Quarterly Review.
THE WAY TO KEEP HER.—One evening, as I was
sitting apart from the rest, with two men of the London
world, to whose talk—for it ran upon the on-dits and
anecdotes of a region long strange to me—l was a silent
but amused listener; one of the two said—" Well, I don't
know anywhere a more excellent creature than Lady
Castleton ; so fond of her children—and her tone to
Castleton so exactly what it ought to be—so affectionate,
and yet, as it were, respectful. And the more credit to
her, if, as they say, she was not in love with him when
she married, (to be sure, handsome as he is, he is twice
her age!) And no woman could have been more flattered
and courted by Lotharios and lady-killers than Lady
Castleton has been. I confess, to my shame, that Castle-
ton's luck puzzles me, for it is rather an exception to my
general experience." "My dear * * "," said the other,
who was one of those wise men of pleasure, who occa-
sionally startle us into wondering how they come to be so
clever, and yet rest contented with mere drawing-room
celebrity—men who seem always idle, yet appear to have
read everything ; always indifferent to what passes before
them, yet who know the characters and divine the
secrets of everybody—" my dear * * *," said the gentle-
man, " you would not be puzzled if you had studied Lord
Castleton, instead ;of her ladyship. Of all the conquests
ever made by Sedley Beaudesert, when the two fairest
dames of the Faubourg are said to have fought for his
smiles in the Bois de Boulogne—no conquest ever cost
him such pains, or so tasked his knowledge of women, as
that of his wife after marriage ! He was not satisfied
with her hand, he was resolved to have her whole heart,
' one entire and perfect chrysolite ;' and he has succeeded !
Never was husband so watchful, and so little jealous--
never one who confided so generously in all that was best
in his wife, yet was so alert in protecting and guarding
her wherever she was weakest! When, in the second
year of marriage that dangerous German Prince Von
Leibenfels attached himself so perseveringly to Lady
Castleton, and the scandal-mongers pricked up their ears
in hopes of a victim, I watched Castleton with as much
interest as if I had been looking over Dechappelles play-
ing at chess. You never saw anything so masterly : he
pitted himself against his Highness with the cool confi-
dence, not of a blind spouse, but a fortunate rival. He
surpassed him in the delicacy of his attentions, he out-
shone him by his careless magnificence. Leibenfels had
the impertinence to send Lady Castleton a bouquet of some
rare flowers just in fashion. Castleton, an hour before,
had filled her whole balcony with the same costly exotics,
as if they had been too common for nosegays, and only
just worthy to bloom for her a day. Young and really
.
accomplished as Lienbenfels Castleton eclipsed him by
his grace, and fooled him with his wit; he laid little
plots to turn his mustache and guitar into ridicule ; he
seduced him into a hunt with the buckhounds (though
Castleton himself had not hunted before since he was
thirty,) and drew him, spluttering German oaths, out of
the slough of a ditch ; be made him the laughter of the
clubs; he put him fairly out of fashion—and all, with
such suavity and politeness, and bland sense of superi-
ority, that it was the finest piece of comedy you ever
beheld. The poor Prince, who had been coxcomb enough
to lay a bet with a Frenchman as to his success with the
English in general, and Lady Castleton in particular, went
away with a face as long as Don Quixote s. If you lad
but seen him at 5 House, the night before he took
leave of the island, and his comical grimace when Castle-
ton offered him a pinch of the Beaudesert mixture I No !
the fact is, that Castleton made it the object of his exist-
ence, the masterpiece of his art, to secure to himself a
happy home, and the entire possession of his wife's heart.
The first two or three years, I fear, cost him more trouble
than any other man ever took, with his wife at least—but
he may now rest in peace; Lady Castleton is won, and
for ever." As my gentleman ceased, Lord Castleton's
• noble head rose above the group standing round him;
and I saw Lady Castleton turn with a look of well-bred
fatigue from a handsome young fop, who had affected to
lower his voice while he spoke to her, and, encountering
the eyes of her husband, the look changed at once into
. one of such smiling affection, such frank unmistakeable
▪ wife-like pride,"that it seemed a response to the assertion
—" Lady Castleton is won, and for ever."—From " The
Cartons," in Blackwood's Magazine.