The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-06 00:00:00

No. T. of

I,egislators" cor
to no less than

fled." The Portuguese Question."
ous fellow : last month he had a
ehost ; this month he has a tale,
with a similar result. " Lathom

s us so wel

our readers will find a-great portion of it appropriated to

eur columns

VARIETIES

A. French surgeon asserts that, by exposing men and
animals to a galvanic current from Clarke's magneto-
electro apparatus, he has succeeded in rendering them as
insensible to pain as if they had inhaled sulphuric ether.
ANECDOTE OF CARLES Fox.—l have heard a good story
of our friend, Charles Fox. When his house in the coun-

up the next hill to
instance of philoso-

ike a drawing of the fire! the
y I ever heard of.—Cottle

Reminiscences

THE LOVE OF TRUTH.-0 love of truth ! believer in
all good and beautiful things ! Believer even in one's
self, and therefore believer in others, and such as are far
better than one's self ! Putter of security into the heart,
of solidity into the ground we tread upon, of loveliness
into the flowers, of hope into the stars ! Retainer of
youth in age, and of comfort in adversity ! Bringer of
tears into the eyes that look upon these imperfect words,
to think how large and longing the mind of man is, com-
pared with his frail virtues and his transitory power. And
What mornings of light and abundance thou hast in store,
nevertheless, for the whole human race, preparing to
ripen for them in accordance with their belief in its pos-
sibility, and their resolution to work for it in loving trust !
Then, oh ! shall they be thought guilty of deserting thee,
because out of the very love of truth they feel themselves
bound to proclaim to what extent it does not exist—be-
cause out of the very love of truth they will not suffer
those who care nothing first to pretend to a religious zeal
in its behalf, when the lie is to be turned against them-
selves ?—Leigh Hunt's Men, Women. and Books.
BIRKENHEAD Doc KS.--The regulations for the
'management of the docks, the dues, the lading and un-
lading, the warehousing, the railway transit,—all seem to
be framed in a liberal spirit, and to be capable of adaption
to any requirements of commerce. Of the shipping of
Birkenhead it is not yet time to speak. Two months only
have elapsed since the first dock was opened; and the
entries have as yet necessarily been but few. The future
must mark out its own course. The bale of cotton for
the Lancashire and Cheshire factories, the indigo and dye-
stuffs for the calico-printer, the silk from India and Italy,
the timber from Canada and the Baltic. the tea from the
east, and the sugar from the west, the tobacco, the rum,
the rice, the foreign corn—all have (if we may so say it)
a sort of commercial instinct, which tells them with won-
where they will find the most fitting
me. Be it Liverpool or Birkenhead,
md,—Commerce will find out her own
for the townsmen of each place to
do, and how far they will proceed, in
bores. The future, too, must say
gs at Birkenhead in respect to ex-
endence will be quite as much on
. When the North Staffordshire
it will place the Pottery towns in
with the route to London by the
h Chester and Birkenhead by the
.kenhead will then be in an admi-

derful quicknes
home and and v.
Fleetwood or II
best path: and
show what they

inviting her to thei

what will be the d

not

for the Potteries. Then again:
d and Manchester line is completed,
'heshire will have a direct outlet for
at Birkenhead; and Sheffield cut-
am iron, may, perchance, find their way
The young child, Birkenhead, is
.carting into manhood. May it follow worthily
ommercial footsteps of its great neighbour—Liver-
The Land we live in.

nense pro''
Rothe-'

THE BRITISH NAvY.—Who has not in his time gazed
with wcnder on those floating castles which the citizen of
England from time to time sees hovering on his coast,
the watchful

,es of his island hot

You are a dwel
day and summer month,

er in cities—you are lying, in some holi-
listlessly upon the beach—the
_ u, illimitable—and it almost terri-
fies the imagination to think of men passing out there
iin that wild waste of waters, given up to the two unthink-
ing and gigantic powers of wind and wave, that have no
more respect for man or his structures than if they were
still in the liberty of chaos. That men do go forth to the
uttermost ends of the world seems a thing almost fabulous
—incredible. You have eaten of the lotus leaf : why
should they go ?—go from the firm sheltering earth, to lay
their lives upon the winds ? But now comes in sight a
wail ; the extended wing floats unfluttered ; the tall taper-
ing masts are visible; it moves imperturbable, like a god
upon the waters. And look at that tongue of flame
drawn back with a serpent's swiftness, and that wreath of
whitest vapour that steals out from its side so soft and
graceful !—is that the deadly shot that levels stoutest
walls, and puts to silence the bastion and the fort ? So
beautiful—so strong !—it walks the waves, how fearless !

great ocean is before

and nothing on the sea can harm it, and nothing on the
shore resist. Where now are the great waters that swal-
lowed up all enterprise, and smote the heart with despair ?
The sea is ours !—we live, we revel, we figEt, we conquer
on it. The ship casts anchor, and you rush with many
others upon the shore, and you enter a skiff, which will
take you off to a nearer survey of this great visitor. You
approach, and mount the sides of this floating arsenal. Is
this the thing you saw moving light as a bird upon the
horizon ? You look down as from a house-top. That
yacht which bore its pennon so gallantly in the air, and
s now moored under the stern, can just lay its flut-
lid deck you are walking. Look
eight ; look up—and you
for there rises the enor-
laying its steady spars

tering flag on th
down

-you are giddy with th
are again level with the water

mous mast, piercing the
against the blue ether. I
that makes t

broad Can

ull with all its iron stores,
0 Clas merdin !

bound
—thou

,f the wave

a-defended
ifice thou art

ich, and so great, is the
Lp upon the deep to the
p thy homes for ever un-

touched by the in

s Magazine,

ad-school of
It has done
g sentiment (

'HEIR TEACHERS.----The Douglas
Lism is clearly a foreign importa-
e to enervate the manly and truth-
: English mind than all the circurn-

man's condition

,epreas the working
,ults of that propa-
i as her special mission—
statics of the gull-
fire, and sword,
is spirits of her
universal

One of the

,ndism which I

and desolation, b
Grande Arnie'e.

)eace be assumed

d. TI

.ye its c

lAATHOM HOUSE, AND THE STANLEY FAMILY

(From Fraser's Magazine)

Lathom House, seated on a flat, boggy tract of land,
and encompassed by a wall of two yards in thickness, was,
in days of yore, as strong a domestic fortress as any armed
host might invest, or general view in silent despair. On
the wall above mentioned were raised nine towers, each of
them planted with six pieces of ordnance, so mounted as
to enfilade the country, and command every approach. A
moat, twenty-four feet in breadth, and six in depth, sur-
rounded this strong wall, between which and the grass was
a row of palisades. From the centre of the house rose the

ogle Tower, surmounting the whole edifice, and con
acted, in the remeTbranee of the first owners of the he-

ritage, with a tale of no common interest. On each side
of the gate-house, at the entrance of the first court,
frowned a strong tower, and in these, in time of siege,
were stationed the best marksmen to harass the assail-ants.
Thus stood Lathom House in the days of its first owners,
the De Fitz-Henrys, or De Lathoms, when an incident is
said to have occurred which, whether real or imaginary
seems to be worth describing

•t de Fitz-Henry, in the time of the Plantagenets,
pted the surname of Lathom, from his place of
as Lathom, in the
Iloy, that inherit-
lv honours,

Sir Tho

n of Henry IV., enjoyed, with o
No son promised to prolong tl
were vested in the young Isabel, the heir
gad lands, for whose favour knight and noble huM-
bly proferred suit. One day, however, as Sir 'I homas and
his lady were walking in their park at Lathorn, they were
startled by loud cries ; the place was solitary, but in no
direction could they perceive any object. They soon,

however, discovered that an eagle had its nest in that se-
cluded spot, and on searching the eyrie, an infant, in rich
swaddling clothes, was found lying unharmed within its
warm enclosure. Sir Thomas and Lady Lathom were not
devoid of the superstitions of the day, and they had its
pious charity, too. The foundling was a boy; they
adopted him, and, bestowing on him the name of Lathom,
intended, it is said, to leave him heir to that estate. So
far goes Tradition, but Reason steps in, and dispels a por-
tion of the romance. Sir Thomas, it appears, owned a
base-born son, whom he was desirous of introducing into
his lineage. He, therefore, had the infant conveyed to
that spot, where, by an appointed " chance," if one may
so speak, lie and his lady walked just when the child was
deposited, as if dropped from the eagle's nest, in a safe,
retired nook. Sir Thomas managed his part well. He

of rearing the little stranger as their heir. Lady Lathom
—excellent Mrs. Shandy as she was—assented, and the
child was brought up in all the odour of legitimacy. He
was christened Oskately, and, at the usual age, knighted
by Edward 111. He assumed, too, for his crest, an eagle
flying from a child which it had left uninjured on the
ground ; " the fictions of romance" being, as old Collins
observes, " sufficient for the whimsical distinctions" of
heraldry. (Profanely does he speak!) So far Isabel La-
thorn ran a narrow chance of being treated with injustice,
but Conscience interfered. Sir Thomas, before his death,
acknowledged his son to be illegitimate; and having en-
dowed him with certain manors, bequeathed to Isabel the
greater portion of his possessions, and amongst them La-
thorn House.

And now, how did the Stanley family profit by all this ?
Who were they ? Whence came they ? How comported
they themselves in all the various stages of their greatness
—in its dawn—in its zenith ?

They flourished in Plantagenet times by the appellation
of Audleigh, or Audley ; the younger branch took the
name of Stanleigh, or Stanley, from a Moorland Manor
in Staffordshire, with which they were endowed ; and one
of these, a valiant follower of our most valiant Edward 111.,
won by his gallantry in the lists, the love of the heiress of
the De Fitz-Henrys. Thus passed the wide domains of
Lathom with the Lordship of Man into the possession of
the illustrious house which still retains the former ; but
which conveyed the latter as a woman's dower to the
house of Athole, that it might be surrendered to the Eng-
lish crown for the sum of £70,000.
It were long to tell the gradual progress of this great
family in honours, wealth, and fame. One interruption
to it happened in the dark reign of Henry VII., when, de-
spite his services at Bosworth Field, Sir William Stanley,
not of Lathom but of Holt Castle, Cheshire, lost his head
on the scaffold for an idle speech. But it was, in truth,
Sir William Stanley's great wealth that moved the jea-
lousy of the hard-hearted, hard-headed monarch ; for,
says Lord Bacon, in his Life of Henry VII., Sir W.
Stanley was the richest subject for value in the kingdom,
" and for his revenue in land and fee, it was £3OOO a-year
old rent, a very great matter in those times." However,
he was courageous enough to believe, and I am apt to
agree with him, that Perkin Warbeck was no impostor, a
conclusion which Henry's very precautions seem to autho-
rise ; for ere he dispersed his band of spies throughout the
kingdom, be caused them, says Lord Bacon, to be so-
lemnly caned at Paul's Cross," in order to destroy any
impression that these lofty-minded men were honoured
with royal patronage.
Thomas Stanley, the first earl of Derby, was a
great man in great times, being the brother-in-law
of Neville earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, and the
friend of Hastings. The loyal servant of Edward IV., he
loved, for that monarch's sake, the fair and ill-starred boy
his successor, whose fate is but dimly shadowed in the
chronicles of that period. For his sake—that of the fifth
Edward—Stanley encountered the hatred of Richard 111.
The tragedy of Hastings' death is familiar to every one.
Who, indeed, can forget it that remembers the Jane Shore
of Miss O'Neill? that powerful, passionate, and finished
acting, which gave even to the irresolute Hastings' fate
so deep an interest. The night before the death of Has-
tings, a dream visited the slumbers of his friend Stanley.
He instantly informed Hastings of it, and begged him to
fly from the scene of peril, But Hastings was imprac-
ticable. On the following day he was seized at the coun-
cil board of the Tower, and his head struck off; whilst
Stanley with difficulty escaped the blow of a halbert
aimed at him. The portentous dream was mournfully
recalled, and the rash incredulity of Hastings censured ;
for "a boar" (I quote from the authority of Sir Thomas
More), " with his tusks had " (in Stanley's dream) " so
razed them both that the blood ran about their shoulders."
Stanley escaped with a short imprisonment, and married
soon afterwards the justly celebrated Margaret Beaufort,
the mother of Henry VII., and the foundress of
Christ's and St. John's Colleges in the University
of Cambridge; and it became Stanley's fate to pluck
the crown from the brow of the usurper Richard,
as he lay dead on the field of Bosworth, and to place it on
the head of another usurper, namely, his own step-son,
of pious and avaricious memory.
Whereupon," writes Arthur Collins, with solemn
emphasis, "he was advanced to the dignity of an earl, by
the title of Earl of Derby; " and he went on flourishing
and accumulating dignities and wealth until the year
1504, when he was buried in Burscough Priory, adjacent
to Lathom, having provided his tomb—the fashion in
those days—with a perpetual remembrance to be prayed
for.

---Of this Sir Thomas there is still a memento at
Knowsley in a portrait of a stern man in black, wearing a
George. He left a goodly band of sons and daughters, of
whom the former maintained the valiant character of the
house.

I pass over a track of smaller stars, just here and there
noting down some one other of peculiar brilliancy. By
way of instance, bear with me, ye hasty readers, whilst I
dwell for one brief page or so on the virtues of Edward,
Earl of Derby, in Elizabeth's days, one of her privy
council, and so chosen, notwithstanding he had served her
royal sister—a rare instance of that Tudor penetration,
which might well be called kingcraft, and which the
Stuarts never possessed—the liberal selfishness of employ-
ing superior men, even though their talents had formerly
been engaged in the service of a foe. This nobleman ap-
pears to have been a pattern of all the lordly virtues.
His greatness supported his goodness, and ins goodness
endeared his greatness. His great birth put him above
all private respect, but his great soul never above public

service. Indeed, he repaired, by ways thri
what his family had impaired by neglect."
It happened, unluckily for the Stanleys
claimed kindred with the blood royal. This w
the Nevilles, the King-maker's family, the La _
Neville, or Alianore, having married the first' Alianorc
ried the first Earl of Derby. Nov Lad
aunt to the Princess Anne, the consort of
le all of that race. Still
is were loyal, their fidelity incorrupt ; but their

that they
as through
ly Eleanor

having r

Eleanor NI

lichard 111

Wo seen

fate was ad
came the vic

earl of ,Perby, be-

who tempted him, but in vain, to assume the title of
king. The youth was wise, and rejected that counsel.
He was, however, threatened by Hesket with sudden
death if he exposed the plot,—nay, even if he hesitated
to give his compliance to it. The high spirit of the Stan-

ket was apprehend

; but the you

He did not expire suddenly ;

tortured the ill-

,den, as b,

a post ft