The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-19 00:00:00

SAMUEL HUGGINS.

VARIETIES.
Malevolence to the clergy is seldom at a great
from irreverence to religion.
THE CLERGYMAN AND SCEPTIC.—" If we are to live
after death, why don't we have some certain knowledge
of it ? " said a sceptic to a clergyman. " Why didn't
you have some knowledge of this world before you came
into it," was the reply.
There are now surviving three lieutenants who served
as such in the battle of Trafalgar, namely, Alexander B.
Howe, who served in the Leviathan ; James Hugh Par-
ches, who served in the Defiance, in Calder's action also ;
and W. H. Boyce, who served in the Mars.
THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY.—The Paris National,
Lifter a long tirade against the British aristocracy and the
Bank of England, which it asserts contributed more to
the overthrow of Napoleon's empire than did the Duke
of Wellington, concludes by saying, that until Great Bri-
tain rids herself of the aristocracy, she must of necessity
be the enemy of the entire world.
ONLY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.—A revising barrister
in the north recently treated the absence of a person in
America as no disqualification. He illustrated his view
by an anecdote of a Liverpool merchant, who bade his
Son just to " go over " to America to settle a matter cf
some little difficulty with which he had that moment
been made acquainted. The young man made ready his
carpet bag and set off the same day.
THE LAITY.—See here, a blind and unlearned man
stulging more rightly of divine things than the whole
learned council of the Pharisees : whence we learn that
'we are not always to be led by the authority of councils,
popes, or bishops; and that it is not absurd for laymen
sometimes to vary from their opinions, these overseers
being sometimes guilty of great oversights.—Poynder's
Literary Extracts.
Some years ago a number of Roman coins were found
near the ruins of Brough Castle ; and now again, within
a very few weeks, a great many more of silver and copper
have been discovered, bearing the impress of the following
emperors, viz.:—Julius Ctcsar, Galba, Vitellius, Vespa-
tian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trojan, Adrian, Antoninus
Pius, (with one of his wife Faustina,) Marcus Aurelius,
liteverus, Geta, Probus, and Constantine the Great, be-
sides a very great number of stamped pieces of lead,
brooches, rings, spear and arrow points, and hammers.
IDLE ARMIES TRANSFORMED INTO " INDUSTRIOUS
NAVVIES."—By a sort of exemplary inversion of Mr.
Weale's proposition to turn " navvies' into armies, 50,000
soldiers have been turned into " navvies," on the St.
Tetersburg and Moscow line of railway, and the immense
limited strength is thus turned to better account than to the
idle and continual waste of this description of " working
power," so prevalent elsewhere, yet so capable every
where of assisting great national works, not otherwise to
.be even dreampt of.—The Builder.
• ETYMOLOGY OF " LIVERPOOL."—This knotty point
seems completely smoothed down in the following extract
from .a review of Thorpe's edition of the Elfric Homilies,
in the Athenceum of last Saturday :—" On the passage,
King Xerxes wrought the arches over with golden plates,'
amid ggldenum ifcerum] the editor observes, ' In the
translation, I have followed Aldias, whose words are
Camera ipsa laminis aureis suffixa—though lefer signifies
a rush, and gylden lcefer the plant golden rod.' Now,
levers, or lever-leaves, (also livers, &c.) is yet the corn-
iron South of England name for the yellow flag (Iris
peeudacorus), and, for any other plant with long sword-
shaped leaves, as the leaf-bearing rushes or the like." It
'would seem, then, that Leverpool (as it is spelt in the
earliest known documents) means simply the rush-pool,
,on the sides of which the original town was built.
AN APOLLO WHO COULD REND THE HEARTS OF
DRINKING GLASSES WITH HIS PIERCING NOTES.—In
.Aubrey's MS, on Wilts, it is stated that Mersennus, or
Ciacher, says, That one may know what quantity of
liquor is in the vessel by the sound of it, knowing before
the empty note. I have several times heard great brasse
pannes ring by the barking of a hound, and also by the
loud voice of a strong man. " The voice if very strong
and sharp, will crack a drinking glass," adds J. Evelyn.
Air. Britton says in a note, " I have been favoured with a
confirmation of this note of Evelyn from the personal ex-
perience of my old friend, Mr. Brayley, who was present
Ott a party on Ludgate-hill, London, many years ago,
when Mr. Broadhurst, the famed public vocalist, by.sing-
ing a high note, caused a wine glass on the table to break,
the bowl being separated from the stern."—The Builder.
ROME IN 1847.—Rome is a city of priests. They pene-
trate, every cranny of domestic life with the subtlety of air
or light ; are found everywhere, from the torso to the thin-
goon; they cluster in the streets like musquitoes ; you
.cannot turn round without stumbling against an ecclesi-
astic ; in short, that which is a very large episode in the
life of all other Italian cities is the whole life of Rome.
This is the first and the last impression left on the mind
of a stranger. When you enter Rome the first thing that
strikes you is the immense concourse of priests, of all
kinds, crowding, pressing, driving, sauntering, and hang-
ing about the streets ; when you leave Rome this same
tumult of priests is the last thing you see and hear. The
image of that ghostly multitude rises upon your imagina-
tion long after you have crossed the Roman frontiers, and
when years have elapsed you can never think of Rome
that the same heaving multitude of sacerdotal costumes
does not come upon you as vividly as ever.—Atlas.
A VISIT TO HENBURY CHURCH.—The little village,
the surrounding country seats, the brook, the bridge, the
old church, with its low fiat to wer, the picturesque gothic
school close by—upon all the soft air of peace, comfort,
and repose seemed to rest, reminding one of what I think
Mary Howitt has said, that no other country in the world
has a parallel for an English village. We crossed the
pretty churchyard with its cypresses, and looking as quiet
in its "russet mantle clad," as if none but those who
"slept in the Lord" slept there, to the sextoness's •cot-
tage, to solicit permission to see the inside of the church.
The good woman took down the key, and throwing her
bonnet loosely on her he-ad, civilly complied with our re-
quest. The "dim religious light" through the painted
glass, fell with its varied but subdued hues on the little
chancel, sculptured altar-screen, carpet and communion-
cloth, while a parting ray or two from the setting sun,
glancing obliquely through the more western windows,
lingered on one or two of the many white marble tablets
that around recorded the worth of those who had gone,
and the affectionate recollection of those who remained
behind. A silent church is at all times a peculiarly solemn
scene, but Henbury Church seemed to me on this evening
particularly so: all three indeed, even the sextoness, ap-
peared to feel, I thought, the "influence" of the hour and
place, and we walked noiselessly, about, as if instinctively
understanding each other's impressions, and unwilling to
disturb either them or the holy quiet of "God's House"
. with the sound of our own voices. The fretted roof, the
long-drawn aisle, the pointed arch, and the lofty column
of the cathedral, have all their awe-creating power ; but
the soft repose of this beautiful village church was of a
different character, and had a more soothing and almost
as solemn an effect, which was not at all diminished but
rather enhanced by the pretty even-song of the robin and
green linnet without.—The Church Goer • Rural Rides
or Calls at COuntry Churches.
THE STAGE COACHES OF BYE-GONE DAYS.—About
_ffty years ago, the Holyhead mail left London at eight
at night, and arrived in Shrewsbury between ten and
eleven the following night, taking 27 hours to run 162
miles. This distance, however, before the establishment
of railways, was done without difficulty in 164- hours. At
the time when this rate of travelling was considered all
that was required, there was a coach on the road between
Shrewsbury and Chester, called the " Shrewsbury and
Chester Highflyer." This coach started from Shrewsbury
at eight o'clock in the morning, and arrived at Chester
about the same time in the evening, the distance being 40
miles. This was a good hard road for wheels, and rather
a favourable one for draught. " But how," inquires a
writer in the Quarterly Review for 1832, " can all these
hours be accounted for ? Why, if a commercial gentle-
man' had a little business to Ellesmere, there was plenty
of time for that ; if a real gentleman' wanted to pay a
morning visit on the road, there could be no objection to
that. In the pork-pie season, half-an-hour was generally
consumed in consuming one of them, for Mr. Williams,
the coachman, was a wonderful favourite with the farmers'
wives and daughters all along the road. The coach dined
at Wrexham, for coaches lived well in those days—they
cow live upon air ; and Wrexham church was to be seen—
a fine specimen of the florid Gothic, andsilo one of the
wonders of Wales ! Threxham was famous for
en
its ale; there were no public breweries in those days in
Wales ; and above all the inn belonged to Sir Watkin.
About two hours were allowed for dinner ; but Billy
Williams,' one of the best-tempered fellows on earth, as
honest as Aristides, was never particular to half-an-hour
or so. The coach is ready, gentlemen,' he would say,
but don t let me disturb you if you wish for another
bottle.' " The Edinburgh mail ran four hundred miles
in forty hours, stoppages included. This Bred miles
eleven miles an hour. A coach to Exeter, the " Held. ,
went over its ground, 173 miles, in 20 hours, and teat is a
very uneven country ; and the Devonport mail
its journey, 227 miles, in 22 hours. This increase of
performed
speed was alarming to those who had been accustomed to
the old-fashioned slow coaches, and the rate at which the
new vehicles travelled was considered reckless risking of
human life. Nevertheless, the thing went on, and it be-
gan to be whispered, in spite of the merciless ridicule of
the Quarterly Review, that if steam were to be employed
on a railroad, it would be even possible to attain a speed
of some 20 miles an hour. In reference to a proposed
4.4ndon and Woolwich railroad, the Quarterly not only

'l3 acked "Old Father Thames against it for any sum,'
but assured its readers that the people of Woolwich
" would as soon suffer themselves to be fired off upon one
of the Congreve's richoset rocket as trust themselves to
the mercy of such a machine (a high pressure engine), and
going at such a rate (11 or 20 miles an hour !)" And the
reviewer expresses his trust, that " parliament will, in all
railroads it may sanction, limit the speed to eight or nine
miles an hour, which is as great as can be ventured upon
with safety." The experiment has, however, been tried,
rnd we all know with what success.—The Rail ; its Origin
and Progress.