The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-05 00:00:00

EMIGRANT LABOUR.—Observing two young men ap-
parently brothers, and evidently emigrants, listlessly
walking along the streets, we asked them if they wanted a
job of work? They said readily " yes.' What wages do
you ask ?" " Sevenpence halfpenny an noun" they re-
plied. We asked, "had they ever sawed wocd 1" "Yes,"
was the reply. " Can you chop and split it ?" " Yes."
" Did you ever pile cordwood !" To this they were at a
loss to reply, because they did not know what it meant.
" How long have you been in Canada ?" " Three days."
" Where, then, did you ever chop and split wood ?" " Oh,
they had done neither, but no doubt they could." We
had just purchased three cord of wood, at Bs. per cord,
and wishing to enable the poor fellows to earn a trifle—
both having said that they had not a farthing of money,
we set them to work piling the wood at 71d. per hour.
Some business calling us away, we forgot our emigrant
wood-pilers for three hours, and on returning found them
still at work, and the wood not all piled. They complained
bitterly of the hard work, and boasted how hard they had
worked, and when the job was completed we had 6s. 3d.
to pay for what our Canadian would have gladly under-
taken and executed for 3s. ; and yet these men were quite
saucy and abusive when they were civilly told so. There
is a man in this city who makes it his business to go to
every emigrant he can get hold of, and caution them not
to work for anybody under 3s. 9d. per day, and his board.
These poor weakly creatures readily believe such state-
ments, and by following such advice, reduce themselves
to starvation and beggary.—Kinystoa Chronicle.
PECULIARITIES OF PLANTS.—Under the Spiny Col-
letia, a Furze-like shrub, figured in the " Botanic Garden
and Fruitist," for the present month, (October,) the
author has the following observations. "'There are two
circumstances in the economy of this genus of plants,
which naturally force themselves on our notice. These
are, their armature, or spines : and the absence of leaves
in some of the spices. Generally speaking, we say that
leaves are necessary for the elaboration of the sap, to ren-
der it suitable food for the flowers, and the fruit; and it
is very true, that where leaves are furnished to plants,
those leaves are necessary to the healthy development,
both of the tree and its produce : but leaves we see, ex-
quisitely organised as they are, can be dispensed with;
and yet the plant can produce its .flowers in beauty; and
its seeds it can nourish to maturity, for the continuance
of its species. There are other appendages too, impor-
tant, doubtless, to the plants which bear them ; but all
plants require them not ; thorns, bristles, glands, scales,
and such like forms of clothing, are common on some,
whilst others are as exempt from them as a piece of
polished marble ; and who amongst us has satisfied the
" why and because" of their existence, or their absence ?
Who has yet told us why the kindred fruits—the Peach
and Nectarine, have coats of a texture so completely
different ? No attention of ours can change either the
one or the other. Spines too, offer to our contemplation
as wide a field for speculation. In some instances they
are eradicated by cultivation, as in the Pear ; hence they
are said to be starved branches; but other spinous plants
are, which no cultivator has ever rendered spineless.
How little we know ! as Pope justly intimates—
"All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee ;
All Chance, Direction which thou calist not see; ,
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good."
INGENUITY OF Faauns—ln 1780 a gentleman of
eminence in the mercantile world was grieved by the con-
tents of a letter which he received from a correspondent
at Hamburg, the post mark of which it bore. From the
statement it contained, it appeared that a person, most
minutely described, had defrauded the writer, under extra-
ordinary circumstances, of £3,000. The letter continued
to say, information had been contained that the defrauder
—the dress and person of whom it described—was ocsa-
sionally to be seen on the Dutch-walk of the Royal Ex-
change. The object of the writer was to induce his cor-
respondent to invite the party to dinner, and by any moral
force which could be used compel him to return the
money ; adding, that if he should be found amenable to
reason and evince any signs of repentance, he might be
dismissed with a friendly caution and £5OO, as he was a
near relative to the writer. As the gentleman whose name
it bore was a profitable correspondent, the London mer-
chant kept a keen watch on the Dutch-walk, and was at
last successful in meeting, and being introduced to the
cheat. The invitation to dine was accepted ; and the host
having previously given notice to the family to quit the
table soon after dinner, acquainted his visitor with his
knowledge of the fraud. Alarm and horror were depicted
in the countenance of the young man, who, with tones
apparently tremulous with emotion, begged his disgrace
might not be made public. To this the merchant con-
sented, provided the £3OOO were returned. The visitor
sighed deeply, but said that to return all was impossible,
as he had unfortunately spent part of the amount. The
remainder, however, he proposed to yield instantly, and
the notes were handed to the merchant, who, after dilat-
ing upon the goodness of the man he bad robbed, con-
cluded his moral lesson by handing a check for £5OO as a
proof of his beneficence. The following morning the
gentleman went to the banker to deposit the money he
had received, when, to his great surprise, he was told that
the notes were counterfeit. His next inquiries were
concerning the check, but that had been cashed shortly
after the opening of the bank. He immediately sent an
express to his Hamburg correspondent, who replied that
the letter was a forgery, and that no fraud had been com-
mitted upon him. The whole affair had been plotted by
a gang, some of whom were on the continent and some in
England.—The Bank of England.
THE CHURCH IN MALTA.—We confess we are disposed
to regard Malta somewhat in the,light of operations (to
use a technical phrase) for the CLurch of England in the
Mediterranean. Its military and therefore political im-
portance ; the vast number of foreigners from almost all
the nations of the earth who constantly meet there ; its
proximity to Italy, now beginning to be stirred after an
unwonted fashion; the easy and rapid communication
with Constantinople, at once the head-quarters of the
Eastern Church and the capital of the infidel empire of
Turkey, now evidently tottering to its fall in spite of the
efforts of the powers of Western Christendom to maintain
it; the near neighbourhood of the Mahometan states of
Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt, the former already crowded
with the overflowings of the Maltese population ; all these
circumstances conspire, we think, to give it an importance
possessed by no other British possession of the same ter-
ritorial extent. An attempt has been, or is just about to
be made, to turn to advantage this peculiarly favourable
position of the island in a missionary point of view, to
which we cordially wish every success. A college has been
established under the direction of a Committee in London,
of which the Bishop of Gibraltar is Visitor, the object of
which is to unite a school of the higher description for
English and other children, with a college in which natives
of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean may re-
ceive an education to qualify them as Missionaries of the
Church of England to their respective countries. At pre-
sent the school alone is in actual operation ; the latter
part of the scheme is suspended, we understand, until the
necessary funds can be raised, which it is hoped may ere
long be accomplished. The advantages of such an insti-
tution under proper direction, such as appears to be se-
cured to it, would be inestimable : a body of Missionaries
might be educated at far less expense than would be pos-
sible in England, qualified by their knowledge of the lan-
guages required, and by being habituated to the climate
and customs of the countries to which they would be sent
to preach the Gospel to Jews, Mahometans, and Heathen,
perhaps to aid in reclaiming the heretical bodies of the
East to the ancient Catholic and Apostolic faith. We
earnestly trust that this design will not fail for want of
means to support it : the present state of Western Asia
and of the north coast of Africa seem to offer an opportu-
nity for the diffusion of the true light, which, if neglected
now, may scarcely occur again for a long time to come.
It is for these reasons that we look to Malta with such
lively interest, and hail what has been already accom-
plished pclhisuhrecdhthcehrreonaisctl.hee beginning of greater things.—Colonial
Idharlehs's death-warrant, has not, perhaps, been suffi-
ciently
appreciated. We have already remarked that his
great religious error was his assuming for the mainspring
of his actions those inward impulses which he ascribed to
God, in preference to the explicit commands, of the Holy
cr lievlefdwihnilweheantgahgaesdbienenprdaeyneorm,
ori ted
,
a particularS,iptur
eslie be
faith."
im-
mediately after, he felt a lively conviction in his mind, he
thought that this impression proceeded immediately from
Heaven, and that he ought to follow it as the very voice
of God. If, on the contrary, his devotions remained
uid, he concluded that he ought to. abstain from the
I we might point to one denomination of Christians,
editated act. This is a common error in pious minds,
ark
cele
ate in such sentmnts. It was this guided
him
orated for their spirit of meekness and peace, who por-
tion)
Tip tn ,e sentence passed ione Charles, and freed
11 his doubts and scruples. John Cromwell, at that
him artici
from a the Dutch service, had come to England with a
time in
from the Prince of Wales and Orange to endea-
message .
vour 'to s ver, he reminded him of the royalist opinions
aye the king's life. When introduced to his
cousin Oh -nerly entertained at Hampton Court, The
he had for, ncertain as to the line of conduct he ought to
latter, still u. d, that he often fasted and prayed to know
pursue, replie
the will of Goc. 1 with respect to the king, but that God had
out the -way. When John had withdrawn,
not yet pointeu
friends again sought by prayer the path
Cromwell and lit
-4; and it was then the Parliamentary
they ought to folio
viction that Charles's death alone
first felt ts.L '-om that moment all was fixed :
ns._ •os —4e culs !ndecision was at an end : it re-
could save ss...earitls Ir, -I accomplish that will, how-
God had spoken: Oltiefs one o'clock in the morn-
mained now merely to asittas ' knocked at the door of
ever appalling it might be. At, lodged, and informed
ing a messenger from the genei'ai missed his doubts,
the tavern where John Cromwell .
ma and t thatdeei
decided
Republicansthe `forward by the
him that his cousin had at length dis,
argumentwserseo
nloonvsg. seed by the will
coPnufir‘ -se of Cram-
. but may
of the Lord. Enthusiasm, then, was the cats -sho de-
well's error. This is a serious ,in • • ieter-
fault religion
it not extenuate the fault in morals the
. Is a man s.
sires to obey God equally guilty '4
mined
to listen to his passions only Is
not God's wih
sovereign rule of good and evil ; •
beyond Chateaubriand, a witnes
suspicion on this •
which we have been point, speaking of the times at
under examination,
glancing, if not of the particular act
was everywhere, n, proceeds thus—" At this epoch, faith
and philosophers; it
in a small number of libertines
times even on tat impressed on the faults, and some-
moral, if the crimes, something grave, and even
victim of Polk the expression may be allowed, by giving to the
y conscience
the conviction of truth." of the martyr, and to error
opinion, the only important
This error in religion is, in our
well. At the same time it is the blemish to be found in Crom-
plains his whole life. His ex-
piety key which opens and ex-
not always sober. Yet if this erroryviits sincere, but it was
of the Protector's fault, the crime too great extenuation
which
must ever remain, in history, as a warning to terrify it
leyd him
who may base their conduct on their inwardiierrif those
rather than on the sure, positive, anti ever npressions,
-accessible in-
spirations of that Word of God which never deceives.—
The Protector, a Vindication. 13y Merle D'Aubign e

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