The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

CONTINUED ADVERSITIES .—As hot-mettled horses
require severer discipline than those of the ordinary class,
so the strong corruptions of some individuals render more
powerful remedies essential in their management ; and it
will accordingly be found, that they themselves are among
the first to justify the wisdom of the divine procedure by
acknowledging, with gratitude, in their better moments,
the absolute necessity of such a course of treatment.—
Poynder's Literary Extracts.
LORD ROSSE'S LEVIATHAN TELESCOPE.—To the frame
of this vast instrument is fixed a large cubical wooden
box, about eight feet wide, in which there is a door,
through which two men go in to remove, or to replace,
the cover of the mirror. To this box is fastened the tube,
which is made of deal staves, and hooped like a huge cask.
It is about 40 feet long, and 8 feet diameter in the mid-
dle. The Dean of Ely walked through the tube with an
umbrella up ! Dr. Scoresby, who has- viewed the moon
through this huge telescope, states that every object on
the moon's surface, 100 feet high, may be distinctly seen.
There are craters of extinct volcanoes, rocks, and num-
berless masses of stones : but there are no signs of habi-
tations—no vestiges of architectural remains—to show
that the moon is, or ever was, inhabited by a race of
mortals similar to ourselves. It presents .no appearance
which can lead to the supposition that it contains any-
thing like the green fields and lovely verdure of this
beautiful world of ours. There is no water visible ; not a
sea, or a river, or even the measure of, a reservoir for
supplying town or factory ; all seems desolate.— Sharpe's
London Magazine.
ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH ON A WEEKDAY.—That
distinguished Christian philosopher; Robt. Boyle, amongst
other pious acts, thou must know, founded lectures in this
church of St. Mary-le-Bow, for the defence of natural and
revealed religion. They are eight in number, to be
preached on as many Mondays in the year ; and they are
delivered on the first Monday in each month from January
to May, and from September to November. This was
the first of the autumnal course ; and, wilt thou credit it,
there was but a congregation of some four of us to hear it l
0 tempora, 0 mores ! A Boyle lecture in the parish
church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, in the midst of
one of the densest crowds of this densely crowded Chris-
tian city of ours—a lecture in defence of the Christianxe-
ligion in a city where, above almost all other cities of
Christendom, the Christian religion most needs to be de-
fended. if only against the abuses of it by those profess-
edly Christian citizens themselves—and there can only be
found four persons to listen to it, out of probably some
four hundred thousand who live and move within sound of
the church bells ! Independently of the sermon, or lec-
ture, there was the morning prayer. But even this rare
opportunity of enjoying the privilege of public worship on
a week-day morn was slighted by the hordes of Christian
men, and churchmen—or people calling themselves such,
at least—who were swarming in all directions around this
open sanctuary ! Can the church be in a healthy state—
can her clergy be exerting themselves as they ought to do
—where such contempt for sacred things prevails ?: Im-
possible !—Oxford and Cambridge Review.
POWER OF ENGLAND.—It is a suggestive fact that Eng-
land did not become a colonising and commercial nation
until Protestantism was established, and the Bible trans-
lated for dissemination in distant lands. A maritime and
mercantile nation appears to have been specially chosen
by the Supreme Disposer of Events for this hallowed pur-
pose. The English language is now more extensively spo-
ken than any other in the world, and in due time will most
probably be the medium of communication among all na-
tions ; the British sovereignty is more widely spread than
that of any known empire ; the richest plains, the loftiest
mountains, the largest rivers, the most capacious lakes,
the best-placed islands, the securest havens, and the
strongest fortresses, are all within the dominions of your
Majesty ; the commerce and wealth of this empire haveno
parallel in ancient or modern record ; enterprisf, skill, and
capital, have brought the most distant regions of the
earth, by steam navigation, within constant, speedy, and
certain communication : and the blessings of civil and re-
ligious liberty—of political and moral freedom—are firmly
established throughout an empire on which the sun never
sets. Such have been the glorious results of the princi-
ples established and inculcated by the regal predecessor of
your Majesty, Queen Elizabeth ; their, operating effects
were manifest in the foundation of colonies—in the exten-
sion of commerce—and in the dissemination of a pure
Chri4ianity, to which colonies and commerce have largely
contributed. Yet the British empire is but in the infancy
of its power, and we have scarcely commenced the moral
and spiritual duties for which dominion has been granted.
—Montgomery Martin's China.
THE. MEMBER FOR LINCOLN.—Once for all, let it be
observed, that however much one may be tempted to
laugh. from time to time at Colonel Sibthorp, he is not to
be regarded, as many persons who see him for the first
time are inclined to regard him, as a person simply ridi-
culous. There is a method even in what seems to be on
his part sheer folly. It is impossible to avoid laughing at
his grotesque figure and attitudes, or at his simulated
gravity, when assailed on all- sides by the merriment of
his audience ; nor is it without an admixture of that pity
which is not the most flattering to a man's amour propre,
that one sees the imploring yet half-despairing glances he
casts from time to time from under his shaggy eyebrows,
up towards the gallery appropriated to the press. But
these oddities are constantly redeemed by the sound sense
and forcible, if rather rude, truth of his observations.
Nor should we forget that Colonel Sibthorp has done
something. He is one of the few " private" members of
the House of Commons (" private", that is to say; as
distinguished from the leaders or direct servitors of party)
who have defeated a government. We need hardly re-
mind the reader that we refer to that memorable motion
of the gallant colonel, the result of which was the reduc-
tion of the proposed Ate to Prince Albert of £50,000 a
year to £30,000. This was a great triumph for Colonel
Sibthorp—the grand event of his life. It was at a time
when the Whigs, if not still in the plenitude of the power
they purchased by the Reform Bill, were, nevertheless,
the dominant party in the House of Commons. In spite
of strenuous efforts they were defeated ; and their annoy-
ance was the more acute, because the disgrace came from
a quarter where it involved ridicule also. It was then
that Colonel Sibthorp was a study. Not Sir Robert Peel
himself, when the government was within his grasp,
co
could be more confident of success, or more proudly n-
scious of his position. His bearing, his air of grandeur
and self-importance, were the very sublime of the mock
heroic. To see him one would have supposed that, anti-
cipating the result, he already contemplated a mission
from Windsor or Buckingham Palace, with her Majesty's
commands to form a new ministry. But the best part of
the affair consisted in the patronising airs he assumed
towards the Conservative leaders. Translated, they said,
as plainly as gestures could speak, " You, Sir Robert and
Lord Stanley, the great Conservative statesmen of the
age, have been striving in vain for years to get a majority
of the house; but 1, Colonel Sibthorp, who never have
held, and never would hold, a government office, have
but to come forward, and I succeed, even with the com-
bined influence of the ministers and the Queens name
against me !" Much of the license of speech since ac-
corded to Colonel Sibthorp is to be traced to this suceess4
—J'raser,