The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-09 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF 110018

vocics' s Musical Miscellany. London : It. Cocks.
An agreeable monthly publication, containing
several articles on music and musicians, in addition
to amusing anecdotes and pieces of music. The
ionnber for August contains the " Song of the
Omer," by Kiicken ; " Valse Melancolique," by
vreyshock, and the notes of some minor airs. An
=tide on the revived tragedy of Sardanapalus
shows that in the pronunciation the accent lies
upon the last syllable but one.

Xdmund Burke : being First Principles Selected
from his Writings. London : Routledge and Co.
The book before us is excellent in idea, and the
-public is indebted for its appearance to the Rev.
'Robert M9ntgomery, M.A., the poet, who has pre-
xed an introductory essay on the genius and life
gjf Burke—that statesman who is generally ad-
-Tnitted to have been one of the greatest men of the
eighteenth century. Mr. Montgomery's essay is
carefully and learnedly written, and conveys' an
*excellentimpression of the mental and religious
character of the British Cicero. We believe it has
Leen the selector's earnest wish that the "Fist
Principles" these pages so eloquently inculcate,
4H may be transcribed in all their purity, loftines,
and truth into the reason and conscience of his
countrymen. And among those for whose especial
guidance he ventures to think the profound wisdom
of these pages to be invaluable, are the rising
statesmen and senators of the day, who are either
leing trained in our public schools, at the univer-
sities, or about to enter upon the difficult but in-
spiring arena of the House of Commons." The
work will be exceedingly useful to those who have
mot the bulky volumes in which Burke's speeches
are contained; as well as to those who, with the
power, may not possess the inclination to dive into
those magnificent orations—a rare string of extracts
from which they will yet read with avidity.

231ackwood's Magazine. Edinburgh: Blaekwoods.
'The number for August commences with a review
d the late Dr. Pereira's works, under the title of
‘'‘ The Narcotics we indulge in." It treats more
especially of Tobacco and Hops, the former being
an article so generally indulged in, to the great
Lenefit of the revenue, that a disquisition of its
merits and demerits must needs excite interest.
Chewing is considered the worst mode of imbibing
its narcotic qualities, taking snuff less injurious,
and smoking the least objectionable. With some
constitutions it never agrees s vs,tt our author and
Dr. Christison, of Edinburgh, agree that "no
veil ascertained ill effects have been shown to
.result from the habitual practice of smoking."
iv' South American travel and adventure " is an
amusing commentary on two books of travels by
Dr. Weddell and Mr. Theodore Pavie, who describe
Tern, Bolivia, and other parts of South America,
which they visited, with considerable humour.
'"Napoleon and Sir Hudson Lowe" is a review of
3lr. Forsyth's recently published " History of the
Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena." This
revelation shows that the Ex-Emperor was any-
thing but a great man under circumstances in
'which true greatness of mind is displayed. He
grew peevish and restless, childish in trifles, and
ridiculous in his complaints, although his sympa-
thisers contrived to blacken the character of Sir
'Hudson Lowe, which this work seems perfectly to
clear. " New readings in Shakspere " is a some-
svhat elaborate disquisition on the notes and
.emen-
idations published by Mr. Collier from the M.S.
ieorrections discovered by him in a folio of 1632,
and the subsequent dissertations upon them. The
writer, taking several plays seriatim, discusses the
I)roposed emendations with much fairness, and
svhile he admits some of them to be improvements,
chows that Mr. Collier, by his adoption of others,
as entitled to very little credit as a Shaksperian
commentator. The next paper gives an interesting
account of " the Insurrection in China," from a
Gallery
published work by two Frenchmen, M. M.
‘uallery and Yvan The continuation of " Lady
Lee's Widowhood" presents an odd combination
of the serious and ludicrous, but considerably
advancing in the progress of the story. The
:number concludes with an article on "the Marquis
,tde Laroehejaquelin," or France in 1853, and
331ackwocd is this month without one of those
political essays for which it has acquired a well-
deserved celebrity. This, perhaps, is good taste,
considering the season of the year, and it might
Le almost as well if newspapers could follow the
example.

Jomance of _Natural History; or, Wild Scenes
rand Wild ituntere. By C. W. Webber.
London : Nelson and Sons.
The title of this handsome volume is one which, on
the whole, we rather like; it no doubt savours a good
deal of the ad captandum vuiqus, but nevertheless
it is expressive, and calculated to arrest attention,
which, in these mercenary days, must not be alto-
gether lost sight of, even in literary pursuits, far
less in publishing enterprise; moreover, the title
eally significant of much that will be found
"lensed
-volume is thin the pages of the work. The
Chiefly composed f anec of natu-
ralists, ePiscdesiefl in their lives, o
and briefdotes narratives
of adventure encountered by them in pursuit of
jheir
o,intenl.7l,ing and exciting, though precarious
callininterA.urs—e'wthinZ' the following, illustrative of the
„ took place between Audubon and
-Alexander Wusell, two of the most celebrated orni-
thologists the world has produced, although not
altogether new, will
yet be read with interest. In
jp,ftng of the great American naturalist, Mr.
'Webber remarks

417DrBox's MODESTY

17..“ a. •
it is not the least extraordinaryas
characteristic of this
inan's unexampled career, that he should, until even late in
life, have been entirely
unconscious of the powers he pos-
,.
_Messed. Indeed, he repeatedly asserts that it was not until
4os meeting with Charles Lucien Bonaparte, on his visit
ti° Philadelphia, in 1824, that he had any thought what-
liver of publishing, or dreamed that he had been accom-
gishing anything very extraordinary. Bonaparte was
2tslonishecl, in looking over his portfohos of drawings, and
'exclaimed, in an irrepressible burst of admiration and
wonder at the simplicity of his unconsciousness : " Mr.
,thibon, do you know that you area great man-6 very
Rvtai t man —the greatest ornithologist in the world !"
this'language that first filled him with the thought
47:12,11blishing, which, as we have seen, on his retirement
in—tc,`""e solitudes of the Hudson, became gradually nourished
But let us see the most touching instance
h`rt"-orie;ausseci. ou.sness in his own relation of the manner
liv
rst interview with Wilson, the ornithologist. He
en— 4:_two years in Louisville, Kentucky, which was
business Paratively vrn. He was engaged in
"°' a we chant ortrader, yet, nevertheless, he says:
IDnrine Tr, ADDI7DON AND WILSON.
ivas employed .xsidencei at Louisville,. much of my time
mooted the habit pursuits. I drew and
my ever favourite
s
collection waB of everything which I procured, and my
dail • • individual who
zed a gun Y augmenting, as every
sent me such birds or
My portfolios
Jie thought might
already contained
111.' Prove useful to me. My
One fair raorair ards of two hundred drawings.
g, I was- surprised by the sudden
Ceram into s'Aintroom of Mr. Alexander Wilson,
the celebrated author of the " American Ornithologyp of
itvhose existence I had
never until that moment been ap-
iprized• This happened in March 1810. How ,well do I
remember mut) as ue then Walked up to me ! His long
sather hooked nose,, the keenness
of his
eyes,
azd
ent cheex-bones, stamped his countenance with vll2!n character. His dr ipecnbaress2 too, was of a kind ,not.
away seen in "4" Part of the country—a shorf coat,
4rvaaere, ad 10414"9914t 9r PAY cloth, ilk stature WU

ded to

patrona

when my Partner
" My dear Andulx

object of his visi
his work. He c

pccapations
I and

id requested my
tified at the sight

few of the plates, and

a pen to write my name in his favour,
ether abruptly said to me in French,
on-to subscribe to this

What induces

are certainly far better

1. von must know as much of the habits of American
"...man." Whether Mr. Wilson under-
aot, or if the suddenness with which I
used disappointed him, I cannot tell ; but I clearly per-
ceived that he was not pleased. Vanity and the encomiums
Mr. Wilson

stood French or

of my friend prevented-me from subscribing,
asked me if I had many drawings of birds. I rose, tool
down a large portfolio, laid it on the table, and showed
him as I would show any other, person fond of such sub-
ts, with the same patience

jects, the whole of t

me his own engravings.
reat, as he told me he never had
any other individual than him-

self had been engaged in forming such a collection. He
asked me if it was my intention to publish, and when I
answered in the negative, his su

seemed to increase

And, truly such was not my intention - for until long

aftei, when I met the

ince of

lusignano in

ours to the world. Mr. Wilson now examined
ith care ; asked if I should have any ob-

my drawings

jection to lending him 'a
few during his stay, to wliich I
replied that I had none - he then bade me good morning,
not, however, until I had made an arrangement to explore
the woods in the vicinity along with him, and had pro-
mised to procure for him some birds, of which I had
drawings in my collection, but which he had never seen.

It happened that he lodged in the same house with us,
but his retired habits, I thought, exhibited either a strong
feeling of discontent, or a decided melancholy. The Scotch
airs which he played sweetly on Ins flute, made .me melan-
choly too, and I felt for him. I presented him to my wife
and friends, and seeing that he was all enthusiasm, exerted
myself as much as was in my power to procure for him
the specimens which he wanted. We hunted together,
and obtained birds which he had never before seen; but I
did not subscribe for his work, for even at that time my
collection was greater than his.
This little book, which is very elegantly got up,
giving, as it were, the salient points of natural
history, tinged with the romantic hues of personal
adventure, and individual daring, is in many re-
spects admirably fitted for the instruction of youth.
Its narratives are tastefully drawn and appositely
introduced, and the whole is happily calculated to
awaken youthful inquiry, and to stimulate a desire
for further knowledge.

The Complete Angler. By Izaak Walton and
Charles Cotton. New Edition. London : Ingram,

Cooke, and Co.
The Complete Angler, by Walton and Cotton, has
been so long a popular favourite, and the editions
of the book which have issued from the press, con-
sequent on this popularity, have been so numerous,
that a mere reprint of the work would not be
entitled to particular notice ; the handsome edition,
however, now before us possesses claims on public
attention sufficient to justify, indeed to call for
remark. Like many of its predecessors, this edi-
tion is profusely and tastefully embellished by
pictorial illustrations • but, in addition to these, it
possesses higher claims upon the favourable consi-
deration of amateur anglers, derived from a series
of valuable notes contributed by the present editor,
the extensively known " Ephemera" of Bell's Life.
These notes are chiefly directed to practical ob-
servations on angling as an art ; on the natural
history of some of our most valuable river and
lake fish, and on the most approved mode of hand-
ling the rod and angle, as that, has been acquired
in a long course of sedulous application. As an
example, take the following instructions for

SALMON FISHING.
The only pleasant and surely successful way of angling
for salmon is with the artificial fly. The young fly-fisher
for salmon has four principal parts to learn,—to know the
fly and line, to work the fly and line against the water, to
hook a fish, and finally, to play him within reach of land-
ing net or gaff. I advise the aspirant to salmon profi-
ciency to commence by fishing for salmon trout and grilse.
The former he will find in abundance in the County Kerry
rivers in spring, the latter plentifully in the rivers of
Sutherland, Rosshire, and in Caithness, and in the rivers
of the northwest of Ireland in July, August, and Septem-
ber. Why do I advise thus ? I'll tell. To capture those fish
it requires far lighter 'gear than to slay the adult salmon.
A rod of 16, nay of 15 feet, will suffice, whilst a joust on
fair terms with a mature fish-foe cannot be carried on
without a lance 18 or 20 feet in length. The young hand
can more easily Wield the lighter weapon, and when he
shall have mastered that, then let him handle the heavier
one. Sea-trout and grilse are fished for in the same way
as salmon, but with smaller flies and a lighter and shorter
line, the throwing of which is to be done as follows :--
The straight right shoulder cast, which is the most natural
one, and should be practised when fishing from the left
bank of a river, is done thus : the right hand holds the
rod above the winch, the left below it ; the right side is
next to the river, and the right foot foremost. You bring
your rod and line boldly and freely in a fine, easy, wide,
semicircular sweep over your right shoulder, until your
right arm is extended fully and vertically over the right
side of your head, and then you send rod and line strongly
forward, by communicating to the right arm sharp action,
just as if you were going to strike at something elevated
before you with the soft or little-finger side of your clenched
hand. If all this compound action—bringing back the
rod and line over the right shoulder, and then sharply
sending them forward—be performed dashingly and ener-
getically, without nervousness, stint of sweep, and strength,
your fly will be driven to its destination, which should not
be at first efforts much more than twenty yards distant.
If you cast that space, or say from one cricket wicket to
another, well, you need not much fear but you will be able
.to catch sea-trout and grilse, and ultimately succeed in
throwing ten yards farther, which I think far enough, all
matters considered, for the great majority of useful pur-
poses. Believe me that the best salmon-fisher is not he
who throws the farthest line, but he who throws it neatly
a moderate distance, and when his fly is in the water
makes the best use of the pretty lure. I have seen long-
limbed louts hurl or roll their fly an immense distance,
three or four • yards further than I could, and yet I
would stake my last florin to a farthing that I would
kill three fish or more for their one. The straight casts,
whether from the left or right shoulder, are, generally
speaking, the best. At any rate, executed by a profi-
perfection.
Lsacceduunracthy, so as to
cient, they are always the neatest, and should by begin.
Thneresybecatnhebfr
ptelrfeagited, andwitthhengrpreag
ae
enable the angler to determine, almost
wateralmost first,to and
inch,
enable
thel
precise spot on which his fly is to fall. They cause the
fly and casting-line to touch h
the fisher to commence working the fly, or 'showing it to
the fish sooner and better than he could do if much of
the winch-line came in contact with the water simul-
taneously with the casting-line, or a moment before it.
The salmon-line and fly must be thrown as straightly
down the stream as possible.
Casting down the current,
and completely in line with it, can only be done by stand-
ing in the water at the head of the stream, or on some
projecting, rock, bridge, or weir. When you cast from
the bank, throw slantingly down and across the stream,
und into a 11) e ith the current bringing the the fly re w ked
' wor
out delay. The salmon-fly is . ~ or humoured,
against the current, and never with it, or down it, like
the trout-fly. If it were worked downwards it would roll
over, on account of the general heaviness of its wings,
and frighten rather than lure salmon. When worked
against the current, it seems like some nondescript, beau-
tiful, large insect, swimming by fits and starts a little
beneath the surface of the water, and up-stream. The
salmon-fly must be worked towards you, up and down,
. The hands and through the water, by moving the rod up and down,
not very rapidly, or very high or low.
grasp-
ing the rod, move up and down, just as if you were pump-
ing leisurely with a light free-handled pump.
In a continuation of the same note the editor
gives excellent and elaborate directions for playing
and landing salmon after they have been struck ;
but we regret our limits will not permit of further
extract, and we must conclude our remarks on this
edition of the favourite treatise by " Old Isaak"
by' observing that the notes furnished by " Ephe-
mera," on angling for the different sorts of fresh
water fish, are equally practical with that from
which we have just quoted, although not quite so
elaborate. As a whole, the volume is very hand-
somely got up in every respect, and will be found
an ornament as well as an addition to the library.

Paul
Twenty Years in the _Philippines. By
de Geroniere. Translated by Frederick
Hardman. London : Longmans.
The narrative of which the above is the title
abounds 'in adventure, told often in a manner so
bordering on the marvellous, as to savour of ro-
mance. The hero of the adventures commenced
his oriental career as a somewhat imperfectly
tutored surgeon, havinc, secured the appointment
of medical 'officer on board of a French ship trading
to the East Indies: His love of adventure led him
at an early age to settle in the island of Luzon.
Shortly after his settlement here, in October, 1820,
the cholera broke out in Manilla, and rapidly spread
over the whole island. Ignorance and suspicion,
powerfully excited by the fatality of the scourge;
led the natives to perpetrate a wanton and cruel
massacre of. the Europeans resident on the island,
from the fatal effects of which our author escaped
with much difficulty, and in a very miserable plight.
Subsequently his professional skill enabled him to
secure an important public position in Manilla
becoming disgusted with which, however, he retired
to Jala•Jala, which he had purchased. After his
settlement at Jala-Jala, circumstances, and his own
roaming disposition, induced him to visit the Tin-
guianes, a savage tribe inhabiting an inland district,
of the island. About the period of his arrival among
the linguianes, that race had gained what was held
in their estimation to be a great victory over the
Guinanes, a rival tribe of great ferocity and rude-
ness. This victory was celebrated by the victors
with, great and barlbarous rejoicing; part of the re-
volting ceremonial observed on the occasion is thus
described by our author:--

linrGrulta TRSTIVAt OP V/CrOSY.

o'docif,l4;4.Aieri of the NMI*, foi-
lwred by the ttitire plvulatiou, repsirgd t 0 the gust ham

its chief at its 1

kf the combatants,

loci lar

k made of sugar-cane juk
1 heads of Guinanes ; the latter Iv(
r. When all had tal
to Laganguilan took one of fl
,ed it the chiefs of the village, wi
ccompanying _ its display by

belong

present

iipeech,- addressed to the visitors

end, t.

he warrior took

a their places,
ads

he trophies of
warrior
d pre-

o showed it to all
a long laudatory

iead,-split

hatchet, and took out the brains. Irving the operation—
not very agreeable to witness—another warrior took a
second head, and presented it to the chiefs ; the same ora-
tion was made, and then the skull was split and the brains
at. With the other two In
,one through, and then the brains w
young girls into the jars containin.v. 4-1

Ids the same ceremony
!re crushed by
fermented can
+^oli the jars 4-

juice. When all was well mixed, they L, ‘o the
chiefs, who dipped into them small wicker cups, and drank
the contents With greedy delight. I turned horribly sick.
After the chiefs it was the turn of the warriors. The jars
were offered to them, and they quaffed the revolting be-
verage to the sound of savage songs. . There was some-
thing truly infernal in this sacrifice to victory.

This baie; or fermented cane-juice, is yeti- ardent and
intoxicating ; and the guests, who had drank immode-
rately of the hellish potion, sang louder than ever, accom-
panied by conch and tam-tam, whilst the 'chiefs divided

skulls into small fragments, intended as presents to

then and

there made, aid the ceremony declared at an end. Danc-
ing then began. The savages ranged themselves in two

niadmen

;an to jump about; howling like furious

Besides the singular and disg,usting orgies de-
scribed in the above extract, the author narrates
other circumstances, which leave no room to doubt
the practice of cannibalism among those degraded
and wretched savages. Their mode of burial is
also delineated with much force. It consists, in
its preparatory stages at least, in slowly drying,
by a sort of roasting process, the body of the
deceased, accompanied by certain rude and un-
couth ceremonies, which we regret want of space
will not allow us further to particularise. The
book, however, contains many interesting facts
relative to the inhabitants of the Philippine
Islands, and their peculiar habits. Those regard
their religious belief, which appears to be a very
loose kind of paganism, fluctuating in the objects
of its adoration, and rude as well as ruthless in
its forms of observance. As a whole, though
bordering, as stated at the commencement of this
notice, on the romantic and marvellous, M. Ge-
roniere's book is, nevertheless, one replete with
interesting materials ; and as it is a very cheap
work, forming one number of the series published
under the name of the " Traveller's Library," we
think it can hardly fail to attain an extensive po-
pularity.

Personal Narrative of Travels to the .Equinoctial
Regions of America. By Alexander Von Hum-
boldt and Aime Bonpland. Edited by Thomasina
Ross• • Vol.. lIL London • Henry G. Bohn.

This, which forms the concluding -volume of M.
Von Humboldt's personal narrative, is exceedingly
interesting. It abounds in philosophical specula-
tions, is imbued with a fine spirit of truthful en-
quiry, and comes upon the world now, towards the
close of the veteran naturalist's long and useful
labours, as a crowning trophy of his investigations
and his usefulness. At all times havinc, his ob-
servant eye open to the impressions inspired by the
stupendous magnificence of American scenery, he
never permits himself to be made the slave of ex-
cited feeling, nor to be led away by the surpassing
grandeur of the scenes and objects by which he is
surrounded. On the contrary, with a truthful
earnestness of thought and manner, he weighs the
realities of the positions and materials amidst
which he is placed, and faithfully imparts these to
his readers, without exaggeration, and with a
felicitous freedom from restraint. The immensity
of space and the variety of reflections which force
themselves upon the observation of an intelligent
traveller as he traverses the vast. American plains
are well displayed in Humboldt's description of the

IMMENSE EXTENT OP VIEW IN THE LLANOS.

After three days' journey, we began to perceive the chain
of the mountains of Cumuna, which separates the Llanos,
or, as they are often called," the Great Sear of Verdure," from
the coast of the Caribbean Sea. If the Bergantin be more
than eight hundred toises high, it may be seen, supposing
an ordinary refraction of 1-14th of the arch, at the distance
of 27 nautical leagues ; but the state of the atmosphere
long concealed from us the majestic view of this curtain
of mountains. It appeared at first like a fog-bank, which
hid the stars near the pole at their rising and setting ;
gradually this body of vapour seemed to augment and
condense, to assume a bluish tint, and become bounded
by sinuous and fixed outlines. The same effects which
the mariner observes on approaching a new land present
themselves to the traveller on the border of the Llano.
The horizon began to enlarge in some part, and the vault
of heaven seemed no longer to rest at an equal distance on
the grass-covered soil. A Llanero, or inhabitant ,of the
Llanos, is happy only when, as expressed in the simple
phraseology of the country, "he can see everywhere well
around him." What appears to European eyes a covered
country, slightly undulated by a few scattered hills, is
•to him a rugged region bristled with mountains. After
having passed several months in the forests of the Orinoco,
in places where one is accustomed, when at any distance
from the river, to see the stars only in the zenith, as
through the mouth of a well, a journey in the Llanos is
peculiarly agreeable and attractive. The traveller expe-
riences new sensations; and, like the Llanero, he enjoys
the happiness of "seeing well around him." But this
enjoyment,' as we ourselves experienced, is not of long
duration. There is, doubtless, something solemn and
imposing in the aspect of a boundless horizon, whether
-viewed from the summits of the Andes or the highest
Alps, amid the expanse of the ocean, or in the vast plains
of Venezuela and Tucuman. Infinity of space, as poets
in every language say, is reflected within ourselves; it is
associated with- ideas of a superior order ; it elevates the
mind, which delights in the calm of solitary meditation.
It is true also that every view- of unbounded space bears a
,peculiar character. The prospect enjoyed from a solitary
peak varies according as the clouds reposing on the plain
extend in layers, are conglomerated in groups, or present
to the astonished eye, through broad openings; the habi-
tations of man, the labour of agriculture, or the verdant
tint of the aerial ocean. An 'immense sheet. of -water,
Animated by a thousand various beings, even to its utmost
depths, changing perpetually in colour and aspect, move-
able .at its surface like the - element which agitates
it, all charm the imagination during long voyages by sea ;
but the dusty and creviced Llano, throughout a great part
of the year, has a depressing influence on the mind by its
unchanging monotony. When, after eight or ten days'
journey, the traveller becomes accustomed to the mirage
and the beautiful verdure of a few tufts of Mauritia, (the
fan-palm, or sago tree) scattered, from league to league, he
feels the want of more varied, impressions. He loves again
to behold the great tropical trees,—the wild rush of tor-
rents,----or hills and valleys cultivated by the hand of the
labourer. If the deserts of Africa, and of the Llanos or
Savannahs of the New Continent filled a still greater
space than they actually occupy, nature would be deprived
of many of the beautiful products peculiar to the torrid
zone. The heaths of the north, the steppes of the VOlga,
and the Don, are scarcely poorer in species of plants and
animals, than are the twenty-eight thousand square
leagues of Savannahs, extending in a semicirle from north-
east to south-west, from the mouths of the Orinoco to the
banks of the Caqueta and the Putumayo, beneath the
finest sky in the world, and in the land of plantains and
bread-fruit trees. The influence of the equinoctial climate,
everywhere also so vivifying, is not felt in places where the
great associations of gramina almost exclude every other
plant. Judging from the aspect of the soil, we might
have,believed• ourselves to be in the temperate zone, and
even still further northward, but that a few scattered palms,_
and at nightfall the fine constellations of the southern sky
(the Centaur, Canopus, and the innumerable nebula' with
which the ship is resplendent), reminded us that we were
only eight degrees distant from the equator."

The foregoing may be taken as a specimen of
the contemplative and philosophising spirit which
pervades the narrative. The volume, and of course
the work, is wound up by a perspicuous and charm-
ing epitome of the geological structure of the
South American Continent. As a whole, the book
is not, only an extensive and valuable addition to
our scientific literature, but so interesting is the
manner inwhich the various topics are treated, that
it cannot fail to be as interesting to the reader of
popular literature, as it is acceptable to the scien-
tific inquirer.

Neil Songs. London : Cramer, Beale & Co.
These,, eminent publishers have lately issued a
number of new and popular songs of a high order,
which will, no doubt, obtain that extensive popu-
larity to which they are entitled. Hatton's song,
" Good bye sweetheart, good bye," is very effective,
and the charming manner in which it has been
sung by Mr. Sims Reeve, has already caused it to
be much spoken of: Silas' song, like all his other
composition; is of a very high class ; it is a beauti-
ful melody and has a very attractive accompani-
ment. " 'Twas on a Sunday morning," and " Let
nobody know," are charming ballads of a. very
original character, and have been rendered with
great effect by the admirable singing of Miss
Kathleen Fitzwilliams. Think on me," and
" Hither come," written by Thomas Blake, the
music by G. Linley, are already established
favourites : the poetry is really good, and
.the
music elegant and unpretending. They are, with-
out doubt, the best of George Linley 's compositions,
and promise a long run in popular favour.

WALICING-STICKS. —Walking-sticks were first intro-
duced into fashion by the effeminate Henry 11. of France,
but did not become a requisite appendage to the gentle-
men of fashion. in England till the year 1655, at which
time they were formed with an indented head, in order
to afford a more easy pressure of the hand which they
supported. Ingenuity, which, in matters of fashion, is
' for ever on the alert, now crowned it with the addition
of the round and hollow top, which sometimes contained
nutmeg or ginger; to warm the stomach; of the valetu-
dinarian, and sometimes sugar-candy for the asthmatic ;
but snuff soon after coming into universal use among the
bon ton of society, the cavity was exclusively appropriated
-to its reception, and the. meeting of two friends was in-
tiably marked, after the first, salutation, by the un-
tcreitirg of the tops rltli it walkipgiticks.

ARIETIES,

DAMP
" The Gas and Water _ If this exper..--
ceeds, it will shortly be followed by " The Gin and Wate
Advertiser," " The Soda Water Daily News,"
" The Milk and Water Chronicle."—Diogenes.
DON'T WALK -

e see a newsT)
Time*

ised, called

SO FAST.---I

I have often used," says
to slacken, or quicken the

Gretry, a singular stratagem,
ivalking companion ; to say t

pace of

fast, or too s
softly an air to the tune of the
and then, by degrees, either to (

)W, IS impoJ

Lite save

ur companion

ken the time or make

itslower:is a stratagem as innocent as it is con'
HOT AND Coin :—Climbing over a layer of

v, harder

spring, I sa

ne, by t

ig,steam of the hot

13rieldini rock, and sending the steam high up
The sight was most beautiful ;

massive
into the clear atmosphere,
the steep bank and the boiling hot water,
ing out, while flakes of snow lodged close around the eq,
of it, was a strange spectacle m such a region of frost
High over the edge of the bank hung ar, ;-
of snow, like a monstrous featl-

which shot hiss-

immense quant
er bed, just ready to s

down by its own weight. The steam -kept licking
lower pasts parts of the heap, while the sharp south-NT-
which blew through the dale, hardened the crust

,
tamed the snow in its precarious position. V The steam
itself congealed, and was transformed into icicles, and
thus served to prop the snow like so many columns. Out
of this self-formed winter palace rose the steaming vapour,
and the warm sun shining upon it, changed it into myriads
of glowing pearls, tinged with the most radiant and
beautiful colours of the rainbow.— Gertstaeeker's Journey'
Round the World.

THE SLAVERY OF TEE STAGE.--"And how are you
getting on, aunty," asked Angela. "Oh ! pretty well,
my dear," said Mrs. Bong, in deep and melancholy tones.
" The money is regular, such as it is. Bttt it is hard
work to earn it. For the last six weeks, and till ate
closed, I headed a conquering army, and also a band of
brigands, every night, with five fights ; but that's nothing.
But I had to be carried over the rocks, tied on a wild
horse, which with my weight is rather nervous business ;
and I have had to double a part which poor little Mrs.
Scurchin was obliged to give up, being as ladies do not
wish to be when they have to ride on an elephant, and
slide down by his trunk. Then we have a nautical piece
three nights a week, and I have rather a tiresome bit
that—l have to hang from the mast, in a storm,
the ship rolls and pitches up and down, and this goes on
as long as the applause comes; one evening they kept me
swinging for ten minutes—and the week before last the
thing broke, and I fell through a trap and bruised myself
sadly. I was obliged to lay up one night, but they stopped
my salary, and that won't do, you know, with five mouths
to feed, so I crawled to work again directly. And our
rehearsals are very heavy, with so much:spectacle ; and I
fully expect to break my limbs one of these mornings out
of a cockle-shell of a car which they are trying to make
six horses bring in on their backs, at an awful height,
and me in it—the poor things kick so and get so unmerci-
fully beaten ; but Brax swears it is as safe as a cradle—a
cradle on the tree-top I tell him. However, it's only
slavery for life, that's one comfort, and it'll be all the
same a hundred years hence, that's another." "By Jove,"
said PauL And he became thoughtful for full three
minutes, considering how hard some people worked for a
morsel of bread.—Bentley's Miscellany.
OBTUSENESS OF THE AFRICAN NArnms.—They have
no way of distinguishing days, but reckon by the rainy
season, the dry season, or the pig-nut season. When in-
quiries are made about how many days' journey off a place
may be, their ignorance of all numeral ideas is very an-
noying. In practice, whatever they may possess in their
language, they certainly use no numerical greater than
three. When they wish to express four, they take to
their fingers, which are to them as formidable instruments
of calculation as a sliding rule is to an English schoolboy.
They puzzle very much after five, because no spare hand
remains to grasp and secure the fingers that are required
for " units." Yet they seldom lose oxen. The way in
which they discover the loss of one is not by the number
of the herd being diminished, but by the absence of a face
they know. When bartering is going on, each sheep must
be paid for separately. Thus, suppose two sticks of tobacco
to be the rate of exchange for one sheep, it would sorely
puzzle a Damara .to take two sheep and give him four
sticks. I have done so, and seen a man first put two of
the sticks apart and take a sight over them atone of the
sheep he was about to sell. Having satisfied himself that
that one was honestly paid for, and finding to his surprise
that , exactly two sticks remained in hand to settle the
account for the other sheep, he would be afflicted with
doubts ; the transaction seemed to come out too " pat "
to be correct, and he would refer back to the first couple
of sticks, and then his mind got hazy and confused, and
wandered from one sheep to the other, and he broke off
the transaction until two sticks were' put into his hand
and one sheep driven away, and then the other two sticks
given him and the second sheep driven away. When a
Damara's mind is bent upon number, he is too much occu-
pied to dwell upon quantity. Thus, a heifer is bought
from a man for, ten sticks of tobacco ; his large hands
being both spread out upon the ground, and a stick placed
on each finger, he gathers up the tobacco ; the size of the
'mass pleases him, and the bargain is struck. You then
want to buy a second heifer : the same process is gone
through, but half ;-sticks instead of whole ones are put
upon his fingers ; the man is equally satisfied at the time,
but occasionally finds it out and complains the next day.—
Gallon's Narrative of an African Explorer.
MAIMIAGE•I3LZ DAVGIITZIIEL—if anything exemplifies
the vanity of hlnnaaa wishes, it ie oar effbrte to maa ,y vur
daughters, and our regrets when the plans succeed. Tom
goes to India, and Billy to sea, and there is scarcely a gap
in the family circle. "The boys" were seldom at home—
they were shooting in Scotland, or hunting in England, or
fishing in Norway. They never, so to say, made part of
the effective garrison of the house; they came and went
with that racketty good humour that even in quiet families
is pleasurable ; 'but your girls are household gods : lose
them, even one of them, and the altar, is despoiled. The
thousand -little unobtrusive duties, noiseless cares, that
make home better a hundred-fold than anywhere else, be
it ever so rich and splendid—the unasked solicitude, the
watchful attention that provides for your little daily wants
and habits, is all their province. And just fancy, then,
what scheming and intriguing we practise to get rid of
them ! You'll say that this shows we are above the selfish-
ness of only considering our own enjoyment, and that we
sacrifice all for their happiness. There you mistake ; our
sole aim is a rich man—our one notion of a good marriage
is, that the husband be wealthy. Its not a man like myself
who has sometimes paid fifty, ay sixty per cent. for money,
that can afford,to sneer at and despise it ; but this I will
say, that the mere possession of it will not suffice for hap-
piness. I know fellows with fifteen thousand a year that
have not the heart to spend five hundred.. I know others,
that with as much, are always over head and ears in debt,
raising cash everywhere and any how ! What kind of life
must a girl lead that marries either of these ; and yet would
you or I think of refusing such a match for a daughter ?
Let me tell you, Tom, that for people of small fortune, the-
nunneries, were flue things ! What signifies serge ,and
simple diet to the wearisome drudgery of a governess. If
I was a woman, -I think I'd rather sit in my quiet cell,
working an embroidered suit of body clothes for Father
O'Leary, than I'd be snubbed by the family of some vulgar
citizen, tortured by the brats, and insulted by the servants.
—The Dodd Family Abroad.
CHARACTER or Gomasmirn.—Who, of the millions
whom he has amused, doein't love him ? To be the most
beloved of English writers, what a title that is fora man !
A wild youth, wayward,' but full of tenderness and affec-
tion, quits the country village where his boyhood has been
passed in happy musing, in idle shelter, in fond longing
to see the great world out of doors, and achieve name and
fortune—and after years of dire struggle, and neglect and
poverty, his heart turning back as fondly to his native
place, as it had longed eagerly for change when sheltered
there, he writes a book and a poem, full of the recollec-
tions and feelings of home—he paints the friends and
scenes of his youth, and peoples Auburn and Wakefield
with remembrances of Lissoy.- Wander he must, but he
carries away a home relic with him, and dies with it on
his breast. His nature is truant ; in repose it longs for
change : as on the journey it looks back for friends and
quiet. He passes to-day in building an air castle for to-
morrow, or in writing yesterday's elegy; and he would fly
away this hour, but that a cage of necessity keeps him.
What is the charm of his verse, or his style, and humour ?
His sweet regrets, his delicate compassion, his soft smile,
his tremulous sympathy, the weakness which he owns ?
Your love for him is half pity. You come hot and tired
from the day's battle,' and this sweet minstrel sings to
you. Who could harm the kind vagrant harper ? Whom
did he ever hurt ? He carries no weapon-r-save the harp
on which he plays to you; and with which he delights
great and humble, young and old, the captain in' the
tent, or the soldier round the fire, or the women and
children in the village, at whose porches he sings his
simple songs of love and beauty. With that sweet story
of the " Vicar of Wakefield," he has found an entrance
into every hamlet in Europe. "Not one of us, however
busy or hard, but once or twice in our lives has passed an
evening with him; and undergone the charm of his de-
lightful music.—Thackeray's Humorists.

-AN IDIOT AS RE IS SUPPOSED TO BE, AND AS is.—
The popular notion of an idiot would, probably-be found to
vary very little, essentially, in different places, however
modified by- local circumstances. To the traveller in
France or Italy, the name recalls a vacant creature all in
rags, gibbering and blinking in the sun with distorted
face, led_ about as a possession and a stock-in-trade by
some phenomenon of filth and ugliness, in the' orm of an
old woman. In association with Switzerland, it suggests
a horrible being, seated at a chalet 'door (perhaps possess-
ing sense enough to lead the way to a neighbouring water-
dangling from - his throat, like a great skin
fall}, of stunted and misshapen form, with a pendulous
caeweight in it. In the highlands of Scotland, or
bagex excrescence
withscen
on the roads of Ireland, he becomes a red-haired Celt,
rather more unreasonable than usual, plunging ferociously
out of a mud cabin, and casting stones at the stranger's
head. As a remembrance of our own childhood in an
English country town, he IS a shambling knock-kneed man
who was never a child, with an eager utterance of dis-
cordant sounds which he seemed to keep in his protruding.
forehead, a tongue too large for his mouth, and a dreadful
pair of hands, that wanted to-ramble over everything—
our own face included. _ But in all these cases, the main
idea of an idiot would be of a hopeless, irreclaimable,
unimprovable being. And if he he further recalled as
under restraint in a workhouse or lunatic asylum, he will
still come upon the imaginatioaudn as wallowing in the
loweSt depths of degradation neglect ; a miserable
monster, whom nobody may put to death, but whom every
one must wish dead, and be distressed to see alive. Until
within a few years, it was generally assumed, even by
those who were not given to hasty assumptions, that
because an idiot was, either wholly, or in part, deficient in
certain senses and instincts necessary, in combination with
others, to the-due performance-of the ordinary-functions
of life—and because thosesenseS and instincts could not
be supplied--therefore nothing could be done for him, and
he• must always remain an object of. pitiable isolation.
But a closer study of the subject. htis now demonstrated-
that the cultivation of such senses and- instincts as the
idiot is seen to possess, will,,besides. frequently developing-
others that. are lateilt within him, .but obscured, so
brighten those glimmering lights; is immensely tolinProve
.his condition both, with referenoe to himself and to society.
Consequently_ there is no greater justification for abandon-
ing him, in his 'degree, than for abandoning any 'alter
hiunan Catare.—.Dickettee " Houseltold Words."