The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-12 00:00:00

PETTY TIM MISER.

On the 2d of June, 1803, died Thomas Pett, a native of
Warwickshire. At ten years old he came to London with a
solitary shilling in his pocket. As he had neither friends nor
relations in the capital, he was indebted to the humanity of
an old woman, who sold pies, for a morsel of bread, till he
could procure himself a crust. In the course of a tew days
he was engaged as an errand-boy by a tallow-chandler,
whose wife could not reconcile herself to his awkward man-
ners and rustic gait; she dismissed him one cold winter's
evening, with this observation :—" Your master hired you
in my absence, and I'll pack you off in his." Her good hus-
band did not desert Tom ; he found him out, and bound hint
apprentice to a butcher, in the borough of Southwark, where
he behaved so well during his apprenticeship, that his master
recommended him, when be was out of his time, as a jour-
neyman to another of the trade in Clare market, For the
first five years he was engaged at twenty-five pounds a-year,
meat and drink. The accumulation and keeping of money
were the two sole objects of his thoughts. His expenses
were reduced to three heads—lodging, clothing, and washing.
He took a back room on the second floor, with one window,
which occasionally admitted a straggling sunbeam. Every
article of his dress was second-hand, nor was he choice in the
colour or quality ; he jocosely observed, when twitted on his
garb, that, according to Solomon, there was nothing new
under the sun ; the colour was a mere matter of fancy ; and
that the best was that which stuck longest to its integrity.
On washing, he used to say a man did not deserve a shirt
that would not wash it himself; and that the only fault he
had to find with Lord North was the duty he imposed upon
soap. One expense, however, lay heavy on his mind, and
robbed him of many a night's sleeep ; this was shaving; he
often lamented that he had not learned to shave himself ; but
he desired consolation from hoping that beards would one
day be in fashion, and the Bond-street loungers would be
driven to wear artificial ones.

He made a rash vow one night, when lie was very thirsty,
that as soon as he had accumulated a thousand pounds he
would treat himself to a pint of porter every Saturday : this
he was soon enabled to perform : but when an additional
duty was laid on beer, he sunk to half a pint, which he said
was sufficient for any man that did not wish to get drunk,
and die in a workhouse.

If he heard of an auction in the neighbourhood, he was
sure to run for a catalogue, and, when he had collected a
number of these together, he used to sell them for waste
paper.
When he was first told that the bank was restricted from
paying in specie, he shook loudly, as Klopstock says, took
to his bed, and could not be prevailed on to take a morsel,
or met his lips, till he was assured that all was right.
On Sundays, after dinner, be used to lock himself up in
his room, and amuse himself with reading an old newspaper,
or writing rhymes, many of which he left behind him on
slips of paper. The following is a specimen of his talents in
this way .

ON HEARING THAT SMALL SEER WAS RAISED.
They've rais'd the price of table drink ;-
What is the reason, do you think ?
The tax on malt, the cause I hear;
But what has malt to do with table beer?

He was never known, even in the depthof the coldest
winter to light a fire in his room, or to go to bed by candle-
light.

-He was a great friend to good cheer at the expense of
another. Every man, said he, ought to eat when he can get
it—au empty sack cannot stand.
If his thirst at any time got the better of his avarice, and
water was not at hand, he would venture sometimes to sten
into a public-house, and call for a penny-worth of beer. On
those trying occasions he always sat in the darkest corner of
the tap-room, in order that he might drink in every thing
that was said with thirsty ear. He was seldom or ever
known to utter a word, unless Bonaparte or a parish dinner
were mentioned, and then he would draw a short contrast
between kickshaws and the roast beef and plum-pudding of
Old England, which he called the staple commodity of life.
He once purchased a pint of small beer; but, the moment
he locked it up in his closet, he repented, tore the hair out
of his wig, and threw the key out of the window, lest he
should be tempted, in some unlucky moment, to make too
free with it.

Pett's pulse, for the last twenty years of his life, rose and
fell with the funds. He never lay down or rose that he did
not bless the first inventor of compound interest.
His constant saying was, that gold was the clouded cane
of youth, and the crutch of old age.
For forty-two years he lived in Clare Market as journey-
man butcher ; and lodged thirty years in one gloomy apart-
ment, which was never brightened up with coal, candlelight,
or the countenance of a visitant.

He never treated man, woman, or child, to a glass of any
kind of liquor—never lent or borrowed a penny—never spoke
ill or well of any one—and never ate a morsel at his own
expense.

About three days before his dissolution, he was pressed by
his employer to make his will. He reluctantly assented, but
observed, as he signed his name, that it was a hard thing that
a man should sign away all his property with a stroke of a
pen. He left £2,475 in the three per cents. to distant rela-
tions, not one of whom he had ever seen or corresponded
with. About half an hour before he died he wanted to
bargain for a coffin.
The following inventory of Pett's oods and chattels was
taken after his death:— g
An old bald wig.
ATwo a
isrhoi rft
ss
tthat isg hetmpbarsosi
dfoe rr
efids
threads of di freren t
A pair of shoes, or rather sandals.
A bedstead instead of a bed.
A toothless comb.
An almanack out of all date.
A ricketty chair.
A leafless table.
A looking-glass that survived the power of reflection.
A leathern bag with a captive guinea.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert has consented to be-
come the Patron of the Brighton and Sussex Royal Cricket
Club.—Brighton Gazette.
The Bonetta, Lieut. Dechamps, which arrived here on
Sunday from the coast of Africa, has been four years on the
coast, during which time she has captured 13 vessels, with
1600 slaves. Only six persons have returned to England
four years ago.—Hampshire Telegraph.
A PATRIOTIC BAKER.—" A baker of Constance," says
the Cherbourg paper, " was pulled up the other day for
selling bread under weight. He alleged as an excuse that he
intended this bread for his English customers, and that he
would not have cheated his French customers for all the
world ! The rogue was fined according to law."

Cash. P.mile P.mile Passeng.
NAME. Passen-
gers.pr.wk.'p. day. per day.
.£. . X.
Birmingham - 15478. 1371 19;1 -
Grand Junction - 8462 87 121 -
South Western - 5189 67 -
Liverp. and Manch. - 4611 1481 21/
Great Western -
Newcast. & Carlisle - 1691 28 I 4 -
Greenwich 29666 1054 2764 394 4238
Birmg. & Derby 1204 314- 41
Manchester &Lees.ls 12268 915 671 9 1752
Croydon 16990 959 911 13 2427.
York &N. Midland :1062 483 25/ 3 437
Midland Counties.. 6121 666 .18 21 875
Ulster 7728 198 24 341 1040
Shore. & Brighton 6847 - I - - 978
On Tuesday Madame Grandin, residing at L'Atac, in St.
Ouen's parish, in the island of Jersey, presented her husband
with PIVE daughters, of whom four were still-born, and the
fifth died shortly after birth. The father of her husband had

Idin, residing at L'Atac, in St.
'Jersey, presented her husband
tri four were stilt-born, and the
The father of her husband had
vey Stur.

twenty-one children.—Guern.i
CURIOUS FACT.—At a recent meeting at the Royal Inst
tution, London, Mr. Faraday directed attention to a shot
which he had received from Woolwich. Experiment had
shown, that, by tilling a hollow iron shot with lead, its speed
and force, when fired, were greatly increased ; but a singular
effect on the heavier lead was observed. The lead was found
to have receded—to have been compressed into one half the
space it occupied previously to being discharged from the
gun. In the case exhibited, the iron case or shell had been
filled with leaden bullets, round of course ; but, after being
tired, and the iron shell broken, it was seen that all the balls
had coalesced, each sphere had become a polyhedron, and
complete aggregation had ensued. This effect is, doubtless,
attributable to the difference of inertia in the two metals, and
to the instant of time that elapses before the inner metal is
acted upon by the enormous force of the explosion.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHANCERY PRACTICE.—A family of
the name of H—t. The father was a highly respectable
clergyman, possessing some valuable freehold estates—on his

deatli the fainily was involved in law ; the Court of Chancery
was the scene of action—the suit or suits continued, I think,
upwards of forty years ; and every branch of the family was
eventually reduced to extreme wretchedness and poverty.
About fourteen or sixteen years ago, a number of attorneys,
the sons and grandsons of their departed parents who had
been engaged in the suits before them, met at a certain inn in
S—shire, which might be named. They examined their
bills ; they had ascertained before they met the amount of
money in the accountant-general's hands, and found it just
sufficient to satisfy them, and they then determined (the
parties in the case being all, reduced to pauperism) the suit
ought no longer to be persevered in! This was generous.—
Woolsack.
ANECDOTE OF A DOG.—There is a Scotchwoman who
travels about our neighbourhood with a basket, of the name
of Jane Stirzaker, or Jenny Tysick, as she is commonly
called. She owns a small dog that generally accompanies
her. A few years ago she had a young child, which the dog
was very fond of, being in the habit of lying with it in the
cradle. But it so happened that the child took an illness and
died. Jenny was at that time living at llawkshead, but her
infant was buried at Stavely. From the mother's distress of
mind at the time, little notice was taken of the dog ; but,
soon after the funeral, it was found to be missing, nor could
any tidings be heard of it for a fortnight. But the poor mo-
ther, passing through Stavely, thought she would visit the
church-yard where the infant was interred ' • when, behold !
there was the little dog lying in a deep hole which it had
scratched over the child's grave ! It was in a most emaciated
state of hunger and privation. It had been 'seen occasionally
for some days in the streets of the village.—Kendal Mer-
cury.

A FRIEND IN NEED.—A few days ago, a little boy, driv-
ing a donkey on the turnpike-road from -Redruth to Cam-
borne, came to the gate, and being unable to pay the toll,
was obliged to retrace his steps to obtain the means, if he
knew where to find them. On his way back, he fell in with
a sailor, who seeing the poor little fellow in tears, asked
what he was crying for. On being told, he desired the boy

to follow him ; and on reaching the gate, the toll being again
demanded for the ass, Jack asked in a careless manner if a
man might carry anything through without paying. He was
answered in the affirmative; when suddenly turning round
and seizing the ass, he carried it through the gate in triumph,
to the great delight of the driver.—Woolmer's Exeter Ga-
zette.

PROSPECTS OF GAME.—The prospects of a very large brood
of moor game was never snore cheering than it has been this
spring on the moors near Blackstone Edge until within a few
weeks, when numbers of the railway men have been in the
habit of going in the moors in pursuit of and destroying game.
On Sundry last, a game keeper under James llearden, Esq.,
of Rochdale, went in pursuit of seven of the railway men,
who abused him in a shameful manner, and destroyed in his
presence 15 nests of grouse eggs. The keeper was glad to
get off the moors with his lite.
BEDFORDSHIRE CUCUMBERS.—In the southern counties
of England, pickling cucumbers are easily raised withoutany
artificial heat, being sown in drills in the open ground. The
earth is made fine and level, and shallow circular hollows are
formed with the hand, a foot wide, and half an inch deep in
the middle. The distance between each hollow is three feet
and a half, and the distance between the rows five or six feet.
Eight or ten seeds are deposited in each cavity. This is done
in the beginning of June. When the plants appear, they are
thinned out to three or four, the weakest or less healthy be-
ing rejected. They are watered occasionally, according to
the state of the weather. The cucumbers are gathered chiefly
from the middle to the end of August. Vast quantities of
these open-ground gherkins are taken to the London market.
The village of Sandy, in Bedfordshire, has been known to
furnish 10,000 bushels of drill cucumbers in one week.
The heart of Boieldieu, the composer, which was presented
by his widow to the city of Rouen, has been removed with
great ceremony from the chapel in the cemetery, where it
was deposited in November 1834, to the monument which
has been erected for its final reception at the expense of the
municipality.
THE SEA SERPENT ONCE MORE.—The strange monster
that has regularly, once a year, made its appearance in the
neighbourhood of Nahant, has this season taken up its resi-
dence on the coast of New Jersey. The United States Ga-
zette publishes a letter from Mr. Job Salmon, of Cranmer
Town, near Manalaawk, dated April 9, saying that four or
five persons saw his majesty of the great deep on the 28th of
March, quietly sunning himself on the surface of the waters
in Dinner Point Creek. It is a snug sort of hiding-place for
his snakeship, just large enough to allow him to sport at his
ease, which lie seemed to be doing, when Mr. Job Salmon
and several others suddenly came upon him one day proceed-
ing down the creek. He appeared of a black colour, 50 feet
long, eight inches in diameter, and holding his head five or
six feet above the water. A posse of villagers, to whom the
news of this extraordinary arrival had been communicated,
with arms, ammunition, harpoons, stakes, seines, lines, and
divers other instruments, proceeded to the beach to give a
warm welcome to the stranger, but he had snuffed the secret,
and hurried himself away.—New York paper.

- -
EPIDEMIC AMONGST CATTLE.—At the recent meeting of
the Royal Agricultural Society, Dr. Whitlaw declared his
full persuasion of the deleterious nature of butter cups, and
other species of ranunculus in pastures, to the cattle feeding
on them—attributing to the poisonous properties of these
plants not only the recent epidemic, but all former attacks
of the kind, rendering the animals poor and unwholesome as
food. • He would, therefore, recommend to the society and
the public to try the experiment of ploughing up the old pas-
tures, saturated as they were already with the poisonous exu-
dation of deleterious weeds. He would also refer to the evil
effects of bringing animals to such a degree of obesity that
their fat might be literally termed neither more nor less than
the " essential oil of dung."—The Duke of Richmond said
that butter cups were no novelties in our pastures, and there-
fore, that if they were indeed the cause of the distemper in
question, why, he would ask, had we not had it before? Be-
sides, it would be presumptuous in any man to assert the
cause of a disease before gleaning from every quarter the ex-
perience on which he was to found his reasonings.—Worcea-
ter Journal.

THE GREAT Boy.---In the Albany Evening Journal there
is an account of a young Vermonter, the son of a Mr. Den-
slow Barber, of Richmond, Chittenden county, who, though
but 3 years and 11 months old, is 4 feet in height, weighs
about 1001bs., and with the exception of a slight curve of
the legs below the knee, occ.agroned by walking too early,
and the great weight of the body, is in every respect propor-
tioned like a man, and has the muscular strength of a boy of
16. ' The general expression of the face exhibits the spright-
liness and prying curiosity of the child of 6 or 8 years, while
the hair, whiskers, voice, and physical lineaments, are those
of a man of 30.

TIIE NEW CONSERVATORY AT CHATSWORTII.—By the
summer of 1840 (says the author of Sketches in Derbyshire),
this will prove another attraction. It is on an immense scale,
extending over an acre of ground ; and, when replete with
choice exotics—some of nature's rarest gifts—cannot fail to
become a novelty of general interest, and to have many
claims on the attention of our more learned horticulturists.
Some idea of its magnitude may be formed on knowing that
the centre arch of the roof is 76 feet high, with a span of 70
feet ! affording ample room for the stupendous growth of the
American aloe (Agave Americana); or, indeed, the loftiest
green-house plant ever fostered in these islands.
EARTHQUAKE.—A letter from the Carpathian Mountains,
received at Vienna, says —" On April 26, we had a violent
shock of earthquake, attended with a frightful storm ; and on
the 30th, between ten and eleven at night, the shock was re-
peated with such force that at Altendorf, the frontier town
between Galicia and Hungary, many chimneys were thrown
down, and the church-bells were set a ringing. Large cracks
are to be seen in house walls, and fissures have been made in
the banks of the rivers. Soon afterwards we had a return of
winter, and the mountains are again covered with snow,
which has also fallen on the plains and in the valleys. From
the 7th, however, the weather has become rather mild, but
vegetation comes on slowly."

DEATH OF AN OPIUM EATER.—A man, who played the
pianoforte at a public-house . in Ratcliffe Highway, killed
himself on Wednesday, by chewing a large quantity of opium.
He was in the habit of taking laudanum ; but not having his
phial with him on that evening, he sent for a pennyworth of
opium to a druggist's shop. A woman in the shop sold the
quantity asked for, and the pianoforte-player put it in his
mouth and kept it there till he fell down in a stupor. The
stomach-pump was applied in vain.

VESSELS ENTERED FOR LOADING.

(SINCE OUR LAST PUBLICATION.)

EAST INDIES, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, 8(c.
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NEW SOUTH WALES.

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WEST INDIES AND MADEIRA.
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Thomas, J L Perry, 112 Jamaica, Graham & Taylor
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Sirius, 1) Croal, 236 Berbice, W N Moore

SOUTH AMERICA.
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