The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-17 00:00:00

THE "MERCURY" SUNK BELOW ZERO.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Will you be kind enough to inform your readers the
cause of the great falling off in the circulation of Mrs. Twad-
dle, of the sign of the Pigeon and Penny Trumpet, in Lord-
street? Why has she dropped the blazing announcement
which was wont to grace the most conspicuous corner of the
twaddle-sheet on each successive Friday morning?
Why the doleful lamentation on Friday last, over " our
sacrifice of interest in our advocacy of the penny postage ?"
for who doubts the disinterestedness of Mrs. Twaddle ! Who
would ever suspect the old jade of advocating the penny
postage, without foreseeing that the " Brokers
Circulars"
would cost them less than fivepenny Afercuries 7 Nobody,
nobody. We all know old Twaddle to be too great a patriot to
allow his own interest to have any weight whatever in the
consideration of a " great national question." On the con-
trary, Mrs. Twaddle had foreseen all this loss at the com-
mencement of her disinterested advocacy; she only forgot to
say anything about it until she felt her penny patriotism press-
ing down the quicksilver!
But, sir, I asked you to inform your readers why circulation," as published by the old lady herself, " for the
quarter ending in April last amounted to 7824 weekly," and
this trumpeted forth weekly to catch advertisements, had
fallen to 7326 for the succeeding quarter ending in June, and
still further reduced to 7000 at the close of the year, for the
yearly average • so that she dared not to give the quarterly
average as before, I apprehend, as that would reduce " our
circulation" to 6824, probably, instead of 7824, as given in
April last. I hope that the conservative subscribers to that
twaddler will still see it their duty to withdraw their support
from it.
Has its low Billingsgate attacks on the clergy of the town
anything to do with falling off in " our circulation"—its per-
petual misrepresentations of Protestants, and its transparent
attempts to mask the villainy of Popery—is it attributable
to these causes or is it not ? Ask yourself, Mrs. Twaddle,
these few questions, and let us hear the lying story by which
you will extricate " our circulation" from this sad appear-
ance of a falling concern.
N.B.—Mr. Rathbone has not been reminded, for the last
three weeks, of the spitting business—has he sent in a
hint .7—Yours, OLD TORY.

Yesterday morning there was a conference at Sir Robert
Peel's, when the Duke of Wellington, Earl of Aberdeen,
Lord Ellenborough, Lord Stanley, M. P. the Right Hon.'
Sir James Graham, M.P. Sir Henry Hardinge, M.P. the
Right Hon. Henry Goulbourn, M.P. and several of the lead-
ing conservatives attended.—Morning Herald of yesterday.
POST-OFFICE REGULATIONS FOR THE HOUSES OF PAR-
ElAMENT.—Arrangements have been made, by which mem-
bers of parliament will be enabled to p.)st letters written at
the two houses, without the difficulty which would occur in
paying a penny with each letter. Covers will be sold to
members at the house, on payment of the postage, but such
covers will only be available if posted at the houses of par-
liament.
GRAND BANQUET AT APSLEY HOUSE.—Last evening his
Grace the Duke of Wellington gave a grand dinner at Apsley
House, to a numerous and distinguished party of his sup-
porters in the House of Lords. There were present the
Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Newcastle, Duke of Rutland,
Duke of Dorset, Duke of Buckingham, Duke of Montrose,
Duke of Buccleugh, Marquis of Londonderry, Marquis of
Bute, Marquis of Downshire, Marquis of Salisbury, Earl of
Wilton, Earl of Aberdeen, Earl of Jersey, Earl Bathurst,
Earl of Haddington, Earl of Eldon, Earl Cawdor, Earl
Clanwilliam, Earl of Shaftesbury Earl of Lonsdale, Earl of
Winchilsea Viscount Beresfor'd, Viscount Strangford ;
Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Abitiger, Lord Ellenborough, Lord
de Roos, Lord Montagu, Lord Maryborough, Lord Cowley,
Lord Forester, Lord Wharncliffe, &c.—.3lorning Herald of
yesterday.
NEW AND EASY METHOD OF GENERATING CHLORINE
GAS.—It may not be generally known to our readers, that
chlorine gas may be generated in an easy manner, and a pure
state by means of chloride of sodium (salts), nitric acid, and
some metallic oxides. The process and the quantities which
I employ are as follows :—Some chloride of sodium is put
into as much water as will dissolve it. A sixth part of nitric
acid, and as much black oxide of manganese or peroxide of
lead (minimum), is next added. A gentle heat is then applied
to the vessel, when the gas passes over in great abundance,
and is very pure. The chief advantage of this method is,
that there is no sudden and violent action, nor any chance
of breaking the vessel, which is the case when sulphuric acid
is used.—January No. of the Chemist.
A WORD IN FAVOUR OF ASSES. We should like to
knowe ,
by what right tEsop and Gay, and all the fable-mon-
g have pitched upon one unhappy
animal, and made him a mock and a by-word and a laugh-
ing-stock for all succeeding generation to crack their " fool-
born jests upon. Now, in a goose there really is some-
thing ridiculous; his very waddle is vain-glorious; he
stretches out his head and elevates its antipodes with all the
pride of a peacock ! his hiss is most superlatively self-com-
placent and contemptuous—it is eloqnent of irrepressible
misanthropy ; a child can see through his pretensions to
dignify ; his folly breaks out in the very means which he
takes to hide it, but an ass ; pshaw ! there is no deceit about
an ass ;—he pretends not to beauty which he does not possess ;
he makes no ostentatious display of his sagacity ; he is con-
tent to slip through existence as peaceably and silently as we
will let him ; he wants but little, and he gets it ; he can
teach as many lessons as the ant, and he finds, if possible,
fewer disciples.—Blackwood for January.
INDIAN SUPERSTITION.—The power of the Datar is sup-
posed to be peculiarly shown upon this spot ; and his aid is
here, it is believed, most successfully entreated. Nume-
rous poor people, from all parts of Western India, when
afflicted with leprosy, travel hither, and enter into vows to
remain until the merciful Datar vouchsafes a cure. if their
sufferings from this cruel disease are of long continuance,
suicide is commonly the result ; the belief being general,
that, in the event of a leper dying a natural death, the
disease descends to his posterity. A few days before we
visited the sacred hill, an aged leper desired permission from
the British authorities to cast himself into the sea at Man-
grole : this being refused, he left Junagarth ; and about three
miles from the city, the aged sufferer caused himself to be
buried alive; his only son, for whose immediate sake the
act was committed, covering the grey hairs of his afflicted
parent with an earthern water vessel.—His. Postans's Wes-
tern hulk, in-1838.
HABITS OF THE Fat.—The fox is fond of fish. When-
ever a litter of cubs happens to be laid up, if there be a well-
stocked fish-pond within a reasonable distance, fish bones
are sure to be found at the mouth of the subterranean retreat
as soon as the cubs have-attained sufficient strength to devour
such food. Reynard is remarkably sagacious in avoiding
traps and snares_ set for his destruction: it is almost impos-
sible thus to deceive him. A few years since a couple of
foxes made their appearance. .on the' extensive manor of
Wriglitihgton,:ftt: _Lancashire, belonging to Charles Scads-
brick; Esq., which'_ the ,:keepers .were . anxious to destroy—
, and,
,be itTlcolleCted, no fox., hounds are Iceptin the county
of' Lancaster. .-Tbese.foxes..baa_iio .doubt: descended from
the.hilly.-nfonrland country
sortie. wiles to the south-east, to
feed upon the rabbits *bleb Jiteraliy swarmed in one part of
the township. yain-the.keeper _set snares, set traps nicely
s these not be tahnui
ms cal
lesc ei d
main-
tained their' ground:';
in
.concealed with earth; thdeiefo:tep
defitme of every4l-I!we happened to be Shooting on
- -
Wrightington at the time, when one of the keepers mentioned
the su.. wort, anxious for ouradvine. ." shoot theni? '
we otnerved.—SP:Ortsinah-lbr January.