The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-09 00:00:00

And make merry and love, and we dance and we sing;

To the life of a gipsy, what is that of a king ?"
The foreground of the painting is to the extreme left
facing the spectator, and represents a fresh arrival of gipsies
to the encampment, with donkeys loaded with provisions,
women, and children. In the centre of the painting, in the
back ground, fresh troops of gipsies, with their donkeys, are
seen arriving. In the immediate foreground to the left, two
gpisies are killing a kid, and proceeding to cut it up,
and two rough haired dogs are anxiously watching the pro-
gress, expecting to come in for a share of the provision. In
the centre of the painting' in the foreground, there is a sort
of bacchanalian group. One or two are playing tambou-
rines and other instruments, some are dancing, others drink-
ing, and some romping together and rolling about. Behind
this group a large number are engaged in some sort of dance.
In the back ground to the right of the picture, there are
several small encampments and cauldron fires, with groups
around them amusing themselves in various ways; others are
attending to the cooking. In the immediate foreground to
the right, a kind of " plighting of troth" is going on between
a handsome gipsy and his sweetheart, to whom he is pre-
senting some stolen ring, and extracting from her a coyly
granted promise of, to him, an equivalent. Behind these, a
large party is arranged in a circle, whetting their knives and
their teeth, at the sight of a large joint and sundry fowls,
which appear to be just taken out of the cauldron, and are
being handed to them by an old gipsy woman, who appears
to be officiating as cook. The individuals of this party
are characterized by every variety of attitude and expres-
sion. To the extreme right another old woman is lifting a
reeking joint out of the boiling cauldron. We have now
given a tolerable outline of the subjects of the picture. In
speaking of the merits of the painting, the left of the picture
has been made the point of view on which the artist has be-
stowed his chief care. T. give the artist a fair chance of
having his production rightly appreciated, opportunity should
have been afforded of seeing the painting at this point at the
proper focus of sight. At present the spectator is brought
too near upon it, and the right of the picture is brought
equally prominently forwards, which in some degree, destroys
the proper light, and renders prominent many slighting faults
in the picture. Great care is manifested in the drawing and
fiinish of the group to the left in the foreground, where the
artist has bestowed all his skill. The painting of the grey
donkey, from the fault of position, just alluded to, appears
flat, and wants relief; the dogs are exceedingly well drawn
and painted, and are full of character. The various little
scenes which are shown in lifting the women from the don-
keys are very clever. There appears, however, to us, to be
one reigning fault with all the young gipsy women in the
painting, and which we have elsewhere seen noticed, namely,
that they are ladies, not gipsies. The delicate refinement of
figure, and expression, and feature, which the artist has given
to some of them, is the very opposite to the natural coarseness
of the gipsy face. As we get to what is more properly the
background of the picture—to the centre and the right--
the painting of the various figures is slighted; there ap-
pears to be a hasty and slurred-over sort of finish. The dra-
pery of a girl in the foreground, dressed in a red gown, is
very sketchy and roughly finished, as is also the yellow
jacket of a man seated near. These faults, in a picture of
such magnitude—so crowded with incident, ought not' to be
too _severely criticised; but there is not a doubt hut they de-
teriorate from the merit and value of a painting. Looking
at the painting as a whole, it is truly a great painting; the
amount and diversity of character, expression, and grouping
in it, is enormous. It is a painting which requires consi-
derable study even to find out all that is in it. As a produc-
tion of art, it is characterised by bold, flee drawing. In
some parts the colouring is coarse and unfinished; but gene-
rally it is judicious and effective.

Pheasant shooting commenced on Monday week with a
prospect of good sport. The birds are said to be tolerably nu-
merous, strong, and in gobd condition.

The London attorneys have fixed the attendance of their
clerks to be from ten in the morning till six in the evening•
We recommend the example to the profession of Liverpool.
About 30 years ago the name of a very affected lady of
fashion was publicly mentioned, who always left town for
the country, to be absent on Michaelinas-day, because the
metropolis smelt so abominably strong of roasted geese.

THE COAT, TRADE AT MARYPORT.—The coal trade is now
very brisk, there being a great demand for them in Ireland.
The vessels belonging to Alaryport are seldom more than a
week over the voyage. The price at Belfast is from 13s. 6d. to
l4s per ton.—Carlisle Patriot.
Calais is now entirely lighted with gas, and possesses the ad-
ditional attraction of handsome and commodious sea-baths
erected on the dunes, with saloons attached for balls and even-
ing reunions.

At Caen and Verdun, the itinerant venders of female finery
have adopted an irresistible method of attracting customers.
They announce that a magnificent shawl—un chdle d'honneur
—will be daily presented to the handsomest woman who may
grace their sale rooms with her presence.
LITERARY COTTAGE.—It is a remarkable fact that Home
wrote his tragedy of Douglas, Dr. Blair composed his " Lec-
tures," and Dr. Robertson compiled his " History of Charles
V.," in the same small white cottage, still to be seen at B urnts-
field Links, in Scotland.
Sir Gilbert Heathcote has had a severe loss in his stable.
A tine filly foal, own sister to Amato, (who won the Derby
so cleverly this year,) was seized with internal inflammation
last week, and died in twenty-four hours. Sir Gilbert would
not have taken 1000 guineas for the foal.
The dahlia is now become quite a valuable flower: there
are many instances of seedlings being sold this autumn for
thirty, forty, and even sixty guineas. Mr. E. Davis' of this
city, sold a fine yellow to Messrs. Brown, of Slough, at the
Bath show, for forty guineas.—Bath Journal.

SHIP BUILDING IN SUNDERLAND.—A paragraph has ap-
peared in the Sunderland Herald, stating that there are 105
ships at present building on the banks of the Wear. We have
made inquiry on this subject, and are gratified to learn, that,
instead of 165, there are no less than 118 ships at present on
the stocks in this busy and enterprising port.—Sunderland
Beacon.

Though, according to Mr. Whittle Harvey's account, his
new office entails a good deal of labour at first, there seems
to be every probability that when the licenses are all granted,
it will become a comparative sinecure, and may be executed
either at the `tamp-office or the police offices, without en-
tailing upon his constituents the loss of Mr. Harvey's valuable
services in parliament.
POSTAGE.-It is not, perhaps, generally known, that by
the Act, 1 Vict. cap. 34, sect. 2, it is enacted that in all cas s
in which it shall be so required by the Post-office Acts, or by
any regulations made by the Postmaster-General in pur-
suance thereof, the postage shall be paid by the senders on
delivering the letter to the post-office; in other causes it shall
be optional with the sender to pay the postage on delivering
the letter to the post-office; and if the postage shall not have
been paid by the sender, it shall be paid by the person to
whom the letter is addressed, on the delvery thereof to him;
but, nevertheless, if the letter be refused, or the party to
whom it is addressed shall be dead or caunot be found, the
writer or sender shall pay the postage; and this enactment
applies to every packet, newspaper, and periodical publica-
tion, and every thing whatsoever chargeablelwith postage,
which shall be transmitted by the post.

MARRIAGE DISAPOINTMENT.-011 Thursday morning a
novel scene was presented at St. Pancras' church. At the
usual hour of ten o'clock several parties arrived to be united
in matrimony, attended by their friends. One respectable
looking party suddenly halted in the porch, and when the
beadle directed their way to the altar, a young man an-
swered—" No, I have changed my mind." This individual
turned out to be the intended bridegroom ; expostulations
were of no avail—be persisted in committing "a breach of
promise," and walked hastily away, followed by his fair " in..
tended," who, with apparent mingled feelings of disappoint-
ment, shame, scorn, and contempt, (the latter Prevailing,)
threw the golden symbol of matrimony at him, and then re-
turned to her friends. The cause of this strange conduct did
not openly transpire.
IMPORTANT TO THE TRADING CLASSES.—Court of Bank-
ruptcy, Oct. 3.—Yesterday and to-day several affidavits were
lodged in court, under the Bth clause of the new act for abolish-
ing imprisonment for debts, which enacts, "that if any single
creditor, or any two or more creditors being partners, whose
debt shall amount to £lOO or upwards, or any two creditors
whose debts shall amount to £l5O or upwards, or any three
or more creditors whose debts shall amount to £2OO or up-
wards,
of the laws, now in
affidavit or affidavits
fwoarerdes,,reosrpaencytirt,grabdaenrk‘rvuitphlisn,
shall file
an
in her Majesty's Court of Bankruptcy, that such debt or debts
is or are justly'Lltie to him or them respectively, and, that
such debtor as he or they may verily believe is such trader as
aforesaid, and shall cause him to be served, personally, with
a copy of such affidavit or affidavits, and with a notice in
writing requiring immediate pa.yinent of such debt or debts,
and if such trader shall not within 21 days after personal ser-
vice of such affidavit or affidavits and notice pay such debt or
debts, or secure or compound for the same to the satisfaction
of such creditor or creditors, or enter into a bond in such sum,
and with such two sufficient sureties as a commissioner of the
Court of Bankruptcy shall approve of, to pay such sum or
sums as shall be recovered in action or actions which shall
have been been brought, or shall hereafter be brought, for the
recovery of the same, together with such costs as shall be given
in the same, as to render himself to the custody of the gaoler,
of the court, in which such action shall have been or may be
brought, according to the practice of such court, or within
such time and in such munner as the said court, or any judge
thereof, may direct, after judgement shall have been recovered
in such action, every such trader shall be deemed to have
committed an act of bankruptcy on the 22d day affer service
of such affidavit or affidavits and notice, provided a fiat in
bankruptcy shall issue against such trader, within two calen-
dar months from the filing of such affidavit or affidavits, but
not otherwise."
.This order, it is generally believed, will much
increase the business of the