The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-29 00:00:00

this accursed system, begun to awaken serious apprehen-
sions in minds in which it would have been well for the.
British Parliament and Biitish Pi otcstants if such alarms
had found a place ten years ago—apprehensions that a
fearful collision between truth-and error, whieh
is doing. its utmost to precipitate, is fast approaching:,
and that the question will once more come to be decided
whether the maxims of Popery are again to have the
ascendancy in European politics.

THE LATE DUEL.
( From the Morning Herald.)
We must inform our correspondents that we cannot
admit into, our columns any articles discussing the merits
of the late duel between a nobleman and the husband
of an actress. People of frivolous habits may think the
subject more interesting than any great national ques-
tioL, but, for our part, we look upon the whole affair,
from beginning to end, with unqualified disgust. Public
singers are very well in their own places, nor can they
complain that we are niggard of our notice of them in •
their proper vocation. Noblemen look very little when
they descend from their place to become the danglers
after singers, though the honest English name may be
pushed aside for the emasculated Italian cantatrice. If
such noble examples of morals and "chivalry" as we
have lately witnessed, were to become familiar, they
would speedily bring the " order" of nobility into public
contempt and unregretted destruction. May it be saved
from this Venetian degradation !
When we read of the proud achievements of the glorious
race of old English barons, who were neither Hippodrome
sportsmen or fiddlers, we do not like to think of the ig-
noble ambition of some of their successors at the present
day. We have seen, and that but lately, the very exist-
ence of the House of Peers at stake. Its strength is not
in the gilded scutcheons that dazzle the eve, or in the
castles and manors which are the circumstances, of its
grandeur. Its strength consists in its moral hold upon
public opinion. When that fails, the principle of its
stability fails along with it. The peerage itself receives
a blow whenever one of its members does anything which
tends to degrade it in public estimation. In the days of
chivalry groom fought with groom, esquire with esquire,
knight with knight. If operatic '° affairs of honour," or,
more properly speaking, affairs of folly, were confined,
as they ought to he, to the sons of harmony, we should
leave them to their pastime, only recommending that
they should choose for their instruments of conflict such
instruMents as Pan and Apollo contended with, instead
of exchanging their sharps and flats for swords and
pistols. In such a case, however, the din of the commo-
tion might affect sonic of our contemporaries who seem
to consider the foreign opera of far more value than all
the institutions of the country. We would he disposed
to take refuge in Dean Swift's lines applied to a similar
occasion.

" Strange all this difference should be
"rwixt Tweedleduin and Tweedledee."

We are no enemies to music or musicians, only we
say, let the rule of the Lancasterian schools be observed
in these matters, " a place for every thing, and every
thing in its place." We cannot help thinking that foreign
performers are spoiled by the adulation and pampering
which they receive in this country, to the great neglect
and discouragement of native talent. Flow is the Shake-
sperian drama with its manners-painting truth—its
torical glories—its sublime imaginings—its grace—its
tenderness, its masculine morality and elevated senti-
ment: forsaken, scorned, cast aside, in this our day for
the operatic productions of voluptuous and enervated
Italy? It would almost seem as if the prophetic maledic-
tion which Boadicea poured upon her Roman oppressors,
is destined to recoil upon her own offspring.

A PEDESTRIAN TOUR THROUGH NORTH \VALES.

NO. 111.

Haying made our comments on the smooth soft complex-
ions of the Welsh women generally, and on their fine large
expressive eyes, we drank off our porter, and again started
from nut-road-side resting place down the train road, which we
were told led to the slate quarries at Llanberris, a distance of
about five miles, where we should only be about a mile from
our destination—Llanberris. We had scarcely proceeded a
hundred yards when we were struck with the appearance of
some huge blocks of slate laid by the road side, like pieces of
timber, several yards in length, and some of them upwards of
a toot square; on getting upon them they had all the solidity
of appearance and bardnesss of iron, and when struck with a
stick or stone gave out a chinking noise not unlike iron. They
appeared as if intended for pillars. Passing on, a profusion of
neatly squared slates were scattered about. shaken off the car-
riages in their progress along the tram-road. We remarked
another - peculiarity ; the gate-posts, and even long bars ex-
tended from post to post, as fences, like our posts and railings
in England, were made -ef long, slender, solid spars of slate.
We took up one or two of the smaller of these. which were lay-
ing about for the purposeofexamination, and found them nearly
resembling solid square iron bars both in appearance and weight.
The slate is of most beautiful quality, and appears to be very
generally used in the cottages we looked into, for chimney
pieces, and when polished has nearly the appearance of black
marble, excepting in brilliancy of colour. We were frequently
struck ,at we passed along by the singular appearance of she
Welshwomen, whom we here. saw completely unsophisticated.
The women, as they grow old, are bread set, with large hips,
which, as they walk, alternately rise three or four inches. One
fine old woman in particular we remarked, who excited our
risible faculties by the extraordinary figure she cut. Let the
English reader imagine himself on a pleasant lane-like road on
a fine summer's evening, the birds chaunting away their joyous
evening's'song, and at a distance of four or five miles majestic
hills closing upon him the view of the horizon ; near the road-
side, two or three low cottages, with their chimney tops giving
vent to fragrant blue peat smoke, just peeping ahove.a cluster
• of thick shrubs, and then the whitewashed massive thick walls
seen through the interstices of the low trees, and he will have
some sort of conception of the scene before us. Out of one of
the cottages came an old Welshwomen about 60, extremely
robust and broadly set ; as she waddled along her hips alter-
nately rising at least three etches. and her hands placed upon
them with her arms a-kimbo: she was dressed in a long petti-
coat of blue coarse fabric, over this a sort of loose frock, coining
down not quite so far as the knees, and tied tight with a tape
round the waist, gatering it in plaits; on her head she hail a
very white cap, with tremendous frills on each side of the face,
which were made to sit close by a dark handkerchief tied round
the head, the corners tying under the chin, and thus giving the
cap frills the appearance of bushy white whiskers; over this she
wore a very broad-brimmed man's black hat ; this will give an
idea of her appearance. She reminded me very much of some
of the descriptions given by Captain Ross in his work, of the
Esquimaux Indians of North America; without the hat, her
dress very much resembled the seal skin habiliments of that
tribe of Indians. The old lady appeared highly affronted at our
laughing at her, for she was evidently in better trim than com-
mon—perhaps going to a tea-drinking with a neighbour. It
must not be supposed that all the Welsh women we saw were
equally well clad ; we frequently saw coarse and, sienetencs,
tattered garments; but they were always scrupulously clean.
My friend had frequently expressed his surprise at the good hats
the Welsh women we saw on board the steamers, and sometimes
in Liverpool, always hail on, and which were invariably well
brushed. Whilst on board the steamer his surmises to aewount
tee- this were set at rest by one rosy-cheeked little " Welse
'maniere" who told him they wore their bad hats at home;
.and she told us the truth ; for without any latitude of de-
scription. or poetical license of language, we saw sonic
" shocking had hats" adorning the heads of sonic of the
femines of the cottage doors—criviiless, shapeless, napless,
colourless articles, the very sight of which was enough to excite
laughter. The Welsh are proverbially a vain race—excessively
.vain; they have an idea they are immensely clever in evers,
thing they take in hand, and would not be persuaded otherwise
though all the world were laughing at them. Tell a Welsh
girl that she speaks had English, when she can scarcely make
herself understood, and you will affront her so that she will not
speak to pm again; even smile at her pronunciation of a word,
and her vanity is touched, and her indignation immediately
aroused. We saw one very laughable example of this. The
cook on board the steamer had been laughing at a pretty
Welsh girl's English, when she got into a great rage and told
him " to go apout his pesnesses." The cook,,who was a dry
sort of a fellow, said " I s'pose marm you can't afford to speak
English." " Yes. I can efforts to speak Englis,;' said the
young woman, with eyes syarkling and flushed face, " what iss
to make me not efforts it ?" " 'Cawse," replied the cook,
dryly, " it's a werry scarce article wi' you," and off her tor-
mentor walked, grinning, whilst the laughter which followed
sent the poor girl in the greatest rage, uttering anathemas in
Welsh, down into the fore-cabin. It may easily, therefore, he
imagined that our laughing at the " shocking bad hats" of the
women, that we occasionally met with, brought en us frequent-
ly a volley of Welsh upbrairlinswe and the quick retreat of the
perty, into their domiciles. When we had traversed along the
road about three miles further, we came to a very pretty chistet
of cottages; and standing in the middle of the roedevas a Welsh
girl, of no mean peetensions to beauty of a very high order. I
• 'asked her, in English. the way to " Llanberris," and hots' far it
was, but she understood not a word but Llanberris, and }minted
to the road we were pursuing, with sundry instructions in 'Welsh.
Wishing, however, for another look or two ate face so pretty—
for, much as I admire engravings and portraits of the human
face divine, when well executed, no artist yet can equal the
living picture of nature—l put several other questions to her, it
was little consequence what, for she understood not a word.
There is a language of the eye, more perfect than the language
of words and infinitely quicker in communicating- a meaning ;
and who such clever linguists in such conversation as the women ?
It is astonishing how, to a very nicety, a woman always knows
the exact degree of her personal attractions, and how quickly
she perceives their effect; it seems instinctive; as an lrtsh
friend once told me—" it's a way dhey have got wid 'em."
The pretty Welsh girl before me was nn exception to the rest
of Eve's daughters, and smiled and laughed, blushed, and gave
herself sundry cognetish airs, immediately she perceived I was
admiring, her. It is true that her tongue spike Welsh and
mine English, and that we kept up a running conversation,
perfectly unintelligible to both; •but our eves weiee busy con-
versing in a language which both understood r, and whilst we
were thus pleasantly occupied, • her eyes dancing with merri-
ment as she had just _finished some pithy remark or other, at
which she laughed most heartily, our tete d tete was suddenly
put a stop to by weitout young fellow very unceremoniously
walking between tikand addressing the pretty Welsh girl with
a somewhat angry andemperative tone, after the usual saluta-
tion of sitters witty ? (how ate you ?) with what sounded to me
as " skitteraw, skilterow, skitteraw." Whether this was a severe
upbraiding or not, or a reproach for talking to a stranger, I
cannot say, but the pretty Welsh re'l appeared abashed, and re-
plied in a very humble seri of way ; all that I could distinguish
being the word " Llanberris," by which I supposed she was
telling him what I had first enquired of her. It street: me that
he was the sweetheart of the girl, and that be was giving her a
lecture for talking to me; however, " Skitterew, skitteraw"
semi frightened her in-doors, We had preceetled shout a mile
farther, enquiring our way as we walked alone, when we
arrived at a little Welsh village, where we were completely at
fault, there being several lanes, and which was the right one
we could not tell. Several women and chiielren who were
About, of ryhorn we enquired, could not undeeeatei ue, nor we
them. It is rather singular, but we very rarely saw any men
about. There was another the g we remarked--ail the signs
over the public houses. and the tea, coffee, and provision shops,
&e., were painted in English, " Licensed to sell" so and so,
whist not a soil about appeared to ontleretaiel anything hut
'Welsh. We had teen askew several persons our nay, when
a young man, in a quarryman's dre.s, a full s!•'t °lgoe(' fustian,
with a neat straw bat on his heal, walked towards us and said,

" I Own show you the way " We found our guide an est reinely
intelligent young fellow, and very communicative, ail it as we
passed along he gave us mitith intormation about that district of
country, aline the slate quarries, their neide et being harked,
&c., and also about several of the customs of the inhabitants.
We asked him how he canto to speak Ewedish rowsll and he
told Us that be abet, with two others had baeo selected lr nil tine
men at Liao berris slate quarry to over to Ireland to a slate
quarry near Kilkenny, to leach the labour eta there hoe to work
the quarry and dress tire slates; and whilst in Ireland he had
learnt his English. lie told us that he and his comaanions
were engaged to go there for I'2 months, and to receive 3. a
week wages, at the expiration of which term they had re-
turned. Ile told us that he liked \Vales much better, and
though he did'not get so much, wages, he could save as much
money. His wages at the Llanberris quarry were 20s a week,
constant employment, and his board, lodging and washing cost
him only ss. a week; whilst in Ireland he could not live for
Ws. a week, and that not half so comfortably. It appeared to
him matter of astonishment how the Irisa contrived to live, for
while he and his companions that went with him were receiving
their 30s. a week, and did not lay by a great deal, keeping
sober; the labourers whom they taught were only paid sixpence
a day ; and vet, said he, every one of these Irish labourers,
• many with families to keep, on the Saturday, when their wages
were paid for the week, would get so drutik with whiskey that
they could not walk, and went reeling and fighting about as if
they were mad. He told us that at the Llanberris slate quarry
there were upwards of 2,000 persons employed, none of whom
received less than 10s. a week. As we walked on we rnet
fine healthy looking stout woman, about 50 years of age, who,
our guide was very proud in telling us was his mother, and to
whom, with much rustic formality, he introduced us. The
good old lady laughed, and spoke Welsh, and looked as pleased
and proud of her son as could be. The scenery here was very
beautiful. We were descending into a valley, at the bottom of
which before us, was the larger of the Llanberris lakes, a large
sheet of water about two miles in length, and nearly a mile
broad in some places, the glassy surface of which hail a rich
dark hue from the shadows of the surrounding hills. Before
us, within a few miler, was Snowdon rearing his majestic head,
towering above all surrounding bills, whilst the general appear-
ance of the country partuuk of a peculiar character of richness
combined with poverty, and the unobtrusive peacefulness atilt!
valley, and the stormy bleak grandeur of the precipice. The
valley and pieces of ta,de land were fresh and fertile, the
hedges being studded with innumerable young oak trees, the
luxuriant foliage of which gave hn. al most park-like appear-
ance to the scene; whilst close abutting upon this rose im-
mense craggy and precipitous hills, the grey rocky sides and
summits of which, worn by many a storm to a sombre hue, pre-
sented a hare front, on which apparently there was no herbage
for anything to exist, and seemed to frown down threateningly
at the happy valley at their feet. It was such an evening and
such a scene as all have felt some time or other, to be thought
of afterwards when memory brings past years, their joys, their
sorrows, and their incidents before us. Our guide also amused
us much by relating to us the Welsh mode of courting, which
they call bundling." It is certainly a strange mode to
English notions. 1 know not whether I shall offend, "eyes
polite" by stating it. Those, however, whose notions of pro-
priety are so squeamish that they cannot read of the custems of
a civilized country without being shocked, because they do not.
accord with their own ideas of decorum, must therefore pro-
ceed no further, but lay down the paper, and even, if they will,
imagine what follows to be very dreadful. Our guide told us
that the custom was for the fricud of the girl, when an under-
stood admirer paid her a visit, to sow up the bottom of her dress
with worsted, and she was then " bundled" on to a couch, and
her admirer "trundled'' himself beside her, where the two
proceeded to get to sleep us fast as possible, and drearn,
no doubt, very sweet things of each other. It appears,
however, to be
.a most efficacious mode of courtship;
for we were frequently told that such a thing as incon-
stancy—hear this, ye Englishwomen; we will excuse the.
men, for they are not one tithe so bad —was rarely
heard of—that after this plighting of the one to the other after
the fashion of the country, though thkparties were not for years
united in matrimony to each other, it was considered as some-.
thine' exceedingly disgraceful to fly off the engagement, and
was a circumstance of most rare occurrence. We arrived at
length at a small public-house on the north-east side of the lake,
where our guide said he was going, into which we, of course,
entered, and called for some of his favourite beverage for him.
There were a number of young quarry-men inside who knew
nut a word of English, and whom our guide, who acted as our
interpreter, got to sing soma Welsh songs forius. They were
very obliging, and struck up a real monotonous Welsh ditty, in
imitation of the harp; and it cost us no slight effort to refrain
from laughing. The \Velsh singing differs front ell other
singing I ever heard, and consists not so much iu a collection
of musical sounds, as in the art with which a certain number of
words are made to fit. as it were, a passage of music. There is
no duelling on vowel sounds through four or five tones as in
English singing, but the great perfection appears to be to utter
a syllable for every note, which gives it a strange, and some-
times laughable character. The song we were favoured with
was to imitate the pulling of the harp string, and was sung in a
montonous tone somewhat as follows;
"'Tom tom rum tom ti-di,
Rom torn ti,—ti turn ti."
Our guide, to impiove the music, joined them in a most dread-
fully-cracked falsetto, which reminded me very much of the
screeching of a peacock, and when the music was over, thinking
perhaps we were too sparinein our praise, told us for our infor-
mation, "that's threble " We were fit to crack with laughing.
Having got our company into a glorious good humour by treat-
ing them round to ale, and hearing several more "Tom torn
ti-di" songs with variations, we rose to complete our journey,
and crossing a small bridge over the neck of the lake, our guide
told us to pursue the road before us, and it would take us to
Llanberris, which was two miles off, and then shook hands with
us with the warmest cordiality, we having quite won his friend-
ship. It was now near ten o'clock, and the shades of evening
had completely set in. The road traversed the verge of the
lake, and on either side of it, close to it, were gigantic hills.
rising almost perpendicularly, whilst the perfect stillness of
death reigned around; there was not a sound, not a ripple.
The scene was one of great sublimity and impressiveness, and
gradually had an effect upon us, and we began to change from
boisterous mirth to he quite poetical, my friend quoting rope by
the yard. We imagined that the bold and solitary nature of the
scenery must have a great effect upon the character of the peo-
ple, and whilst the romantic and wild views fed the imagination,
and produced bardic legends • they must also lead to much de-
tsrmmation and energy of character, hardihood. and bravery;
and to the training up of many Llewellyn's in humble life.
Having proceeded about a mile, the read branched off in two
directions, and we were in doubt as to our right path. At this
place there was au immense narrow water-wheel, unconnected
with any building, which a mountain stream was slowly turn-
ing, and which kept making a continual clinking noise, as of
iron struck, which sounded amongst the hills to a great distance.
It reminded us, together with the scene and time of night, of
Don Quixote's bivouack near the fulling mills. I stepped
down to a little cottage close. to the lake to ask which was our
way, but the inmates were in bed. I heard a man's voice
growling out something inside, and walked on to the window,
and asked if we were in the right road to Llanberris • he again
growled out something in Welsh from under the bed-clothes
close under the window, which, of course, I could not make out,
and I immediately heard his wife "te he, te he," laughing and
tittering away besides him. I again gave a tap at the window,
and asked in English which was the path to Llanberris, but
with no better success, the husband growled a Welsb anathema
the road with i
netas
rest regul
rhoar clink,lake
at being awoke ; the wife tittered "te he te he he," and
the water-wheel madellitsaklii'ic'g
chorus
clink, clink, clink ; so
hap hazard, we pursued our way. I learnt etterwards that
the water-wheel was used to drag slate waggons up a railway.
We arrived at nearly H o'clock at Llanberris, greatly fatigued,
and went into the first inn, close to the lake, and ordered supper.
We then wade inquiries about a guide for midnight, and a com-
plete Welshman was sent to us, who proffered to be our guide
for 7s up to the top of Snowdon at midnight. We asked if it
was absolutely necessary to have a guide, and, of course, were
told it was, it being part of the business of the people so to per-
suade tourists. I had determined. however, if we could get a
party, we would go without a guide, and we were soon joined by
one gentleman, who said lie should be happy to accompany us.
Before long, other two parties arrived, and it was agreed
amongst us to ascend altogether at half-past twelve, taking the
ruidv with us lest we should miss our way and lose the sight we
went to see, namely, the sun rising, by being too late; and,
accordingly, we " stowed ourselves away" in different parts of
the inn, each party to his liking; some went to bed, others lay
on chairs and sofas, others sat up carousing till the time for start-
ing arrived, when we were all assembled by the boots announc-
ing the time. On collecting together outside the inn, the guide
informed us the cloud was on the bill, and we should see no-
thing if we went. Some of us wanted to ascend as it was, sus-
pecting the guide was lazy; but others, who had been awaken-
ed out of warm beds, announced their names to be" Walker," and
set off back again to snooze; our party being thus broken up,
we determined to ascend next morning. Whilst conferring
about it, a number of Welsh fishdlrmen going to net the lake
passed us. "Sidera (Locke?" (how do you do?) said my friend to
them, and they immediately crowded reund him to shake hands.
thought this very cordial, and would have a try what I could
do at Welsh, hap-hazard, like my friend, for he had only ga-
thered up the salutation, "Sidera docker on our way, and knew
not then its meaning. Remembering what the young fellow
had said, who had inter. opted my ate-a-tete with the pretty
Welsh girl on the road in the afternoon, "Skitterarn, skitteraw,"
said I, advancing, and holding out my hand; but the Welsh-
man whom I addressed put his hand behind his back, and, after
considering a moment, was going to throw a bucket at my bead,
whilst another quivered a switch as if he intended to give me
"a touch of its quality," and I was obliged to throw myself into
fencing position, and stand on my defence with my walking-
stick. A few explanatory words, however, from the guide, in
Welsh, set them all in a roar of laughter, and one of them get-
ting my hand in his bony fist, squeezed it and shook it till I was
fit to cry out with pain, and obliged me with set teeth to return
the grip with all my strength in self-defence. We all then ran
shivering into the inn, and tumbled as quickly as we could into
the arms of " Morpherus," as one of the party termed the sleepy
god, reserving for next day our ascent of Snowdon, which I
shall reserve for No. IV. T. C. F.

THE THAMES TUNNEL—The prosecution of this undertak-
ing is now carried on with vigour, and the shield is rapidly ap-
proaching the Middlesex shore. Several of the distinguished
foreigners who are now in this country on Saturday visited the
Wolk.

CURRENTS OF THE CHANNEL—M. Monnier has been oh-
serving the currents of the English Channel at various points of
the French coast, and comes to the conclusion, that their gra-
dual revolution in the period of half a day is effected in a direc-
tion exactly contrary to that which takes place at corresponding
hours on the coast of England.
Hum AN M A MMOTH.—A human skeleton has been brought to
Baltimore from the Rocky Mountains. It is perfect, and eight
feet nine inches high. " There were giants in the earth in those
days!" Antiquarians have been of opinion, that this continent
was inhabited by a gigant,c race of men, antecedently to the
Indians, who were the ancestors of the present so-called "abori-
gines;" and the circumstance of colossal skeletons and human
hones being found in the ancient mounds of the far-west would
seem to favour the supposition.—[lmportant if true.]-11forniny
Chronicle's Philadelphia Correspondent.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE; AT BOLTON.-011 .Monday afternoon
last, about twenty minutes before five o'clock, an alarm of fire
was given in the town of Bolton; and, being market day, in a
very few minutes a considerable concourse of pErstins 4as•at-
tracted to the neighbourhood of the large factory in Weston-
street, belonging to Messrs. ()rimed and Ilarecastle, and gene-
rally called the Royal George Factory. It appears that, about
half-past four, the work-people employed in the attic, or what
is there,called the "cockloft," of the mill, were driven from
Their work by tire, which originated in their room, either from
the friction of the machinery,. or the spontaneous ignition of
cotton, some of it being in a loose state, and consipting of
flyings, from the nature of the preparations for spinning; it
therefore ienited with a ra v scarcity imaginable, and the
work-people had scarcely time to procure the articles of cloth-
ing cast. off during working hours. By the active use of the
country engines, the fire was prevented•from communicating
with any other. !wilding. The nil!! a hich has thus been des-
troyed wns the large,t its Bolton, and contained, we believe,
shout 50,(1X) spindles. The tot:d less is estimated at nearly
iIACCO, of which about £26,C00 is covered l's insurance: and
the effect of the fire will be to throw four or fiie hundle I pet-
sons out of employment.