The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

WHIG AND TORY.—The origin of these names is little
known, although the terms themselves are in every person's
mouth. We believe they originated in the early part of the
17th century, during the disturbances in the reign of King
Charles the First. A tory was then a nickname given by the
lower classes to any person who wished to support either in
precept or practice the ancient essays of the constitution, and
who strenuously opposed any ridiculous renovations which
were then in vogue. A whig, on the contrary, was a nick-
name for any one who opposed tory principles, and who was
desirous of stirring up the seeds of discord and discontent ;
in fact, an enemy to good and peaceable government, and one
who desired a change of any description.
THE NEGRO AND THE CHEESE.—The Boston Post says
that up at the west end of that city, there is a good-natured
fun-making negro, named "Parsis," who hovers round the
grocery stores in that neighbourhood rather more than is de-
sirable. Like many other gentlemen of colour, he prides
himself upon the thickness of his skull, and he is always up
for a bet upon his butting powers; and well be may be, for
his head is hard enough for a battering ram. The other day
he made a bet in a store that he could butt in the head of a
flour barrel, and he succeeded. He then. took up a bet to
drive it through a very large cheese, which was to be covered
with a crash cloth, to keep his wool clear of cheese crumbs.
The cheese, thus enveloped, was placed in a proper position,
and Parsis, starting off like a locomotive, buried his head up
to his ears in the inviting target. Parsis now began to feel
himself irresistible, and talked up " purty considerable."
A plan, however, was soon contrived to take the conceit out
of him. There being some grindstones in the store for sale,
one of them was privately taken tip. and wrapped up in the
same manner as the cheese had been, and looked precisely as
if it were a second cheese, and Parsis readily took another
bet for ninepence, that he would butt his head through it as
easy as he sent it through the first. The interest of the spec-
tators in the operation became intense. Everything was
carefully adjusted, and upon the word being given, Persia
darted off like an arrow at the ambushed grindstone—he
struck it fair in the centre, and the next instant lay sprawling
in the middle of the floor, upon which he recoiled. For
some minutes he laid speechless, and then he raised himself
slowly upon his knees, and scratching his head, said, with a
squirming face—" Dam bard cheese dat, massa ! Dey skim
de milk too much altogedder before dey make him ; dat's a
fac."

A VISIT TO MISS MITFORD.—I had written to Miss
Mitford my intention of passing the evening with her, and,
as we approached her residence, which is in a small village
near Reading, I began to feel a little tremulous about meet-
ing my " unknown friend." Captain Hall had made us all
merry with anticipating the usual denouement of a mere
epistolatory acquaintance. Our coachman (who, after our
telling him we were Americans, had complimented us on
our speaking English, and " very good English too"), pro-
fessed an acquaintance of some twenty years' standing with
Miss M., and assured us that she was one or the " cleverest
women in England," and the " doctor," (her father,) " an
'earty old boy." And when he reined his horses up to her
door, and she appeared to receive us, he said—" Now, you
would not take that little body there for the great author,
would you ?" and certainly we should have taken her for
nothing but a kindly gentlewoman, who had never gone
beyond the narrow sphere of the most refined social life. My
foolish misgivings (H. must answer for them) were forgotten
in her cordial welcome. K. and I descended from our airy
seat; and when Miss M. became aware who M. was, she
said, " What ! the sister of pass my door ?—that must
never be ;" so M., nothing loath, joinedbus. Miss M. is
truly "a little body," and dressed a little quaintly, and as
unlike as possible to the faces we have seen of her in the ma-
gazines, which all have a broad humour, bordering on coarse-
ness. She has a pale-grey, soul-lit eye, and hair as white as
snow ; a wintry sign that has come prematurely upon her,
as like signs come upon us, while the year is yet fresh and
undecayed. Her voice has a sweet, low tone, and her man-
ner a naturalness, frankness, and affectionateness, that we
have been so long familiar with in their other modes of mani-
festation, that it would have been indeed a disappointment
not to have found them. She led us directly through her
house into her garden, a perfect bouquet of flowers. " I
must show you my geraniums while it is light," she said,
" for I love them next to my father." And they were, in-
deed, treated like petted children, guarded by a very ingenious
contrivance from the rough visitation of the elements. They
are all, I believe, seedlings. She raises two crops in a year,
and may well pride herself on the variety and beauty of her
collection. Geraniums are her favourites ; but she does not
love others less than she loves these more. The garden is
filled, matted with flowering shrubs and vines ; the trees are
wreathed with honeysuckles and roses ; and the girls have
brought away the most splendid specimens of heart's-ease
to press to their journals. Oh, that I could give some of my
countrywomen a vision of this little paradise of lowers, that
they might learn how taste and industry, and an earnest love
and study of the art of garden-culture, might triumph over
small space and small means. Miss M—'s house is, with
the exception of certainly not more than two or three, as
small and humble as the smallest and humblest of our village
of S—; and such is the difference, in some respects, in the
modes of expense in this country from ours ; she keeps two
men-servants, (one a gardener,) two or three maid-servants,
and two horses. In this ver'- humble home, which she illus-
trates as much by her unsparing filial devotion as by her
genius, she receives on equal terms the best in the land.
Her literary reputation might have gained for her this eleva-
tion, but she started on vantage-ground, being allied by
blood to the Duke of Bedford's family. We passed a de-
lightful evening, parting with the hope of meeting again, and
with the most comfortable feeling that the ideal was con-
verted into the real. So much for our misgivings. Faith is
a safer principle than some people hold it to be.—Miss
Sedgwick's Letters from Abroad, 8(c.
OUR ARISTOCRACY.—Those who are in the habit of ex-
pressing their wonder at what the British aristocracy "do
with their own," will, perhaps, learn with surprise that none
know better than the nobility of this country how to ex-
pend their kingly incomes. To prove this we extract the
following particulars of the consumption of wine and ale,
wax-lights, &c., at Belvoir Castle, the seat of the noble
Duke of Rutland, from December, 1839, to April, 1840, or
about thirteen weeks :—Wine 200 dozen, ale 70hhds. ; wax-
lights, 2,330 ; sperm oil 630 gallons. Dined at his Grace's
table, 1,997 persons ; at the steward's room, 2,421 ; in the
servants' hall, nursery, and kitchen department, including
corners and goers, 11,312 persons. Of loaves of bread there
were consumed 8333; of meat, 22,963 lbs. ; exclusive of
game.—p. 329. The money value of the meat, poultry,
eggs, and every kind of provision except stores, consumed
during this period, amounted to £1,329 7s. llid. The
quantity of game killed during the season, over all his
grace's manors, is thus stated :-1,733 hares, 987 pheasants,
2,101 partridges, 23 wild ducks, 103 woodcocks, 135 snipes,
947 rabbits, 776 grouse, 23 black game, and 6 teal. The
particulars are given in a history of Belvoir Castle, recently
published.

THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR POLISH INDEPENDENCE.—
The fifty-first struggle was the seige of Warsaw. The Rus-
sian army, composed of 100,000 men, attempted two days to
take possession of Warsaw, defended only by 25,000 Poles.
Appalling and melancholy was the picture, when the suburbs
of Warsaw were consumed in flames by the Russian artillery.
They opened batteries of 500 pieces of cannon, which played
like an infernal orchestra round the tottering houses. The
trembling and fainting females filled up the churches and
chapels, which were mournfully covered with black. Tears
of anguish ran down their pale and melancholy cheeks ; with
outstretched hands to God, were raising their ardent prayers
for their fathers, husbands, and countrymen. Every burst-
ing sound of cannon that shook the church, terrified their
imagination that it was the messenger of death to their dear-
est friends. That tremendous bombardment lasted two
days; it seemed like a canopy of destructive fire, which sur-
rounded and covered the devoted capital. The intrench-
ment of the fortification was filled up with the dead bodies
of the Russians, who mounted upon 25,000 of their slain
countryman to gain the wall. The. Poles counted 9,000 in
killed and wounded. Next day, however, Warsaw was taken.
This was the end of that ardent struggle of the Polish revo-
lution, which lasted eight months. During this time the
Poles fought 55 battles : 420,000 Russians, with 500 artillery,
had been sent against only 70,000 Poles and 120 cannon :
200,000 of the Russians fell victims in the Russian territory.
—Count Sypniewski's " POland."
RAPID VEGETATION OF NORWAY.--The difference be-
tween the vegetation of Norway and of Scotland is indeed
very remarkable, and cannot help striking the most cursory
observer. In some respects, it may depend on cause beyond
our ken ; at the same time, much of the former's apparent
superiority may be explained by considerations from its very
excess of northern latitude. The Norwegian winter is long
and severe ; but then many seeds do not require to be sown
until the spring; while many plants and trees are so protected
by nature as to suffer little from cold, during a period of
suspended germination, similar to the hybernation of animals
in the same climate. Again, the summer is, alas! very
brief, if we reckon the number of days from the last of the
previous to the first frost of the succeeding winter; for we
cannot talk of springs or autumns in this latitude. But,
then, each day may be always counted as double, since for
three months the sun shines uninterruptedly, with oblique,
but still very powerful, rays upon the earth, which thus has
scarcely any time to cool. This, added to the fact, that the
energies of vegetation had never been weakened by the,
occasional deceptive warmth of our winters, and perhaps
also the fertilising effects of thawing snow, causes a rapidity
of growth that is quite startling. It seems as if the seeds
are scarcely put in the ground (only just cleared of snow),
when their green shoots begin to appear ; in a few days they
have attained a considerable height ; in a few weeks they are
ready for the sickle. On revisiting a place after a lapse for
the night, during the height of a northern summer, it is
difficult to believe it to be the same spot, so totally are the
features of the cultivated parts changed, in what appears so
brief a period.—Two Summers in Norway.
The soil or earth is, as will be supposed, very variable in
composition; its nature is always a good deal dependent on
the subsoil and stony matters which are buried beneath the
surface, many of which are slowly decomposing or crumbling
away, and adding to the soil the substances of which they
were composed. The constituents of soil may be divided
into two classes—the inorganic and the organic. The
inorganic are the earthly bases with their compounds, and
silica, which together form the principal bulk of most soils ;
metallic oxides, of which the only ones of importance are the
oxides of iron, and small quantities of various saline corn.
pounds of the alkalies and earths. The organic matters in
the soil are chiefly derived from the decay of animal and
vegetable substances, the latter consisting usually of the
remains of vegetables which at a former time was grown on
the soil, and which, under the influence of air and moisture,
are slowly undergoing the kind of change before alluded to,
and evolving carbonic acid, by the gradual combination of a
portion of the carbon they contain with oxygen. The most
abundant constituent of soils is commonly silica, which fre-
quently forms nearly nine-tenths of the whole of its weight ;
but this is by no means always the case, for in calcareous or
limestone countries we frequently find soils containing a very
large quantity of lime ; whilst others again contain a large
proportion of alumine. These differences in the proportion
of the earthly components of the soil gives rise to the varieties
of light or free, and stiff or clayey soils, which are also
modified by the presence of a greater or less quantity of
organic substances. Soils differ greatly in their mechanical
as well as in their chemical nature, as the same substances
constitute a soil possessing very different properties according
as they are in the form of little grains like sand, or in very
fine powder. This state of mechanical division is of great
importance for several reasons, and most particularly in
relation to water. A soil containing a large quantity of
alumine is generally known by its stiff tenacious character,
and is remarkable for its great retentive power for water,
whilst those consisting principally of silica, and more especi-
ally those in which it exists in the form of sand, are generally
light and porous soils, and far less retentive of water. The
best soils are those in which the earthy constituents are so
proportioned that the light porous qualities of some are
balanced by the close retentive properties of the others, as
they are 'then most uniformly suitable to vegetation.—
Extract front the Gardener's Chronicle.
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, JULY 17.—
We have had a brisk market for flannels to-day, and many
have been sold; but there has been no advance, in price.
hTahveer e
gheanse br
aelle
yn aalssko ead
aa changead
advanced
ed wool
en: abrakte met
the: t
mh ea
nsellers
.
turers have been very unwilling to comply with their demand.

LIVERPOOL :
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA FLETCHER LACE, of 53, Grove-street, and
LEONARD ADDISON, of 14, Great Orford-street,
AT No. 4, ST. GEORGE'S CRESCENT. -
FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1841.