The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-09-07 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.
(From the Morning Herald.)
There is something exceedingly touching in the
kind, heartfelt, and paternal tone of eloquence in
which the Emperor Ferdinand of Austria addressed,
the other day, the states and deputies of the Tyrol.
In language that borrows its interest from its simpli•
city he speaks xithout reserve, and without the cold
complaint of the formality of courts, the emotions of
the father of his people. "It is with joy," says the
Emperor, " that I have come among you, my dear
people of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The solemn oath
of fidelity which you are desirous of swearing to me,
through your states and reprosentatives, proceeds, as
was the case with your fathers, from tried and faithful
hearts. My heart receives them with the same emo-
tion as did my ancestors—as did my father, who now
reposes in God. And so it will continue to be. The
Lord, who governs the destinies of empires, has hi-
therto, on every occasion, blessed such a bond with in-
creased prosperity, and times of severe trial have only
made it more firm. / will, therefore, my beloved, be
your father, even as my
.father has handed you over
to me as his children." The closing passage of this
interesting and pathetic address is particularly beauti-
ful—" Carefully preserve your religious spirit—your
simplicity of manners—your ancient truth, vigour,
and endurance—your filial reliance on the care of
your Sovereign, and with these be assured, assembled
states and representatives of the Tyrol and Vorarl-
berg, of my imperial and paternal grace and favour."
These are not empty words, coming as they do from
the lips of so good a man—so just and benevolent a
monarch as Ferdinand of Austria. A sovereign who
is as incapable of exercising absolute power to grind
and oppress his subjects, like Nicholas of Russia, as he
is of practising the low artifices to catch a hollow popu-
larity—the clap-trap contrivances for public stage-
effect, which distinguish Louis Philip, who is only the
"Citizen-King" in his speeches, but the despot in his
acts. He who has taken care that the liberties of
France should not endure much longer than the "three
days of July," in which so much blood flowed to.se-
cure them, who has been the incessant unrelenting
persecutor of the press ever since it helped to raise
him to a throne, is, in the tropes and metaphors of the
artificial eloquence of courtly deception, a clever and
not unsuccessful actor. But one sentence of the sim-
ple truth—the truly paternal kindness which the Em-
peror Ferdinand addresses to his people is worth all
the flourishes of rhetoric that ever obtained for Louis
Philip the momentary acclamations of the most thea-
trical people of the civilised world.
During the time that Ferdinand has now been on
the throne of his ancestors, the blood of not one ul his
millions of Austrian subjects has flowed upon the scaf-
fold. One man was condemned to death for•muider
in the second year after his accession; but his heart
revolted against the barbarous punishment which the
law still retains for that offence, and he commuted the
sentence to imprisonment ►or life—a punishment
equally coercive with death, but VI Nell gives the
offender opportunity and' inducement to repentance,
and does not destroy in the minds of the people the
salutary notion of the sacredness of life which
princes and legislatures should ever cultivate and
guard.
The spirit of religion which breathes the Emperor's
speech—the entire and unqualified dependence which
It expresses lied inculcates upon the will of the all-
ruling Providence in whose sight nations are but
"dust upon the balance," while he cares for the'
meanest of his creatures, might shame the "enlight-
ened liberality" of many of our British "reformers,"
who would achieve for the people the melancholy—
the fatal triumph of emancipating themselves from
the "yoke of religion," and exalting their free
natures to a level with those of the "beasts that
perish" by blotting the name of Divine Providence
from their acts and their remembrance.

But the true British patriot will say to the English
people in nearly the words of the Emperor Ferdinand,
" Carefully preserve your religious spirit—your
simplicity of manners—your ancient truth, vigour
and endurance—your filial allegiance to your sove-
reign, and hereditary regard for the ancient institu-
tions of your country." In these things your high-
minded and glorious ancestors found the elements of
empire, and as they are preserved or abandoned, so
Inspire will be maintained or lost."

CHESTER CHEESE FA IR.—Our fair yesterday was well at-
tended by both sellers and buyers from every part of the
country. Middling dairies fetched from 58s. to 60s. per cwt.,
and prime ones went off from 605. to 655. The quantity
pitched in the Halls was so great, that a good deal remained
unsold in the afternoon.—Chester Gazette.
BLOWING UP OP THE BoereE.—On Thursday noon con-
siderable curiosity was excited in this town, (Portsmouth,)
to witness Mr. Abbinot's experiment of blowing up the wreck
of the Boyne, off Southsea Castle, which was burned and
sunk in 1795. 'This wreck has ever since been a disgrace to
the naval energies of this country, affording as it did- an ob.
struction to all coasters and vessels of light draught of water.
When Abbinet first made an effort to remove it, parts of it
were only four feet under water: at this moment there is not
less than 18 feet over every part at low water, and therefore
great good has been done to the pavigation of Spithead and
the port purely by dint of private exertion. About, four years
ago, Mr. Abbinet, with a magazine of 2tX)lbs of powder,
blew off about 30 feet of the sternmost part of the wreck;
and it was only in the spring. of this year that he brought into
harbour a mass of timber weighing at least 30 tons, a portion
or the result of that explosion. We mention the time of this
first experiment to show that Colonel Pasley's late experi-
ments in the river Thames were by no means original ones.
On the present occasion, 6.301bs of powder were exploded,
and this was enclosed in an oil hogshead, into which two
step cocks were inserted; to these were attached two leaden
tube pipes, conteining an igniting match of 45 feet in length;
at the upper etel of each, port fires were attached, which
would burn about tour minutes. When the pipes were at-
tached, the magazine was very gently lowered into the water;
and as it sank, it was hauled" into the situation intended by
means Of a rope leading through a block, previously lashed
to or near the kelson of the wreck.
The , part fixed on was
main under the larboard bilge, abreast the chains with at
least 20 feet of the bottom overhanging,the ship a
on the opposite bilge. At this place about 30 feet of thse bot-
tomng aft was entire ; this is now destroyed orlaid flat, as well
also as the bottom for 40 feet forward. The whole wreck now
therefore is dispersed on the ground, the fore part having
been the original burning; and as the tides,
which destroyed
which run pretty strong over the spot, will no doubt soon
wash off the mud which has accumulated to some feet in depth,
Mr. Abbinet will be able to pick up the various portions, the
most valuable of which are copper bolts and copper sheathing.
The guns have been already nearly all picked up. When
the magazine was safe landed, the two portfires, with the
upper ends of the lead tube projecting upwards about two
feet, were securely lashed to an eighteen-,ellon cask as a
float; all boats and vessels were now orderedr to withdraw;
himself.
On Abbinet, having fired the matches, withdrew
On the explosion taking place, a huge mass of water, a.b.ou. t
40 feet square, rose up in a solid bulk for about six feet high,
and then broke in the centre, throwing up several foamy
columns for about ten feet higher. A low report was heard,
as of a heavy explosion at a great distance, but no flame was
apparent, nor was there any smoke: we imagine, however,
if it had been dark. that a flame would have been seen to issue
from the water. The day was beatifully fine; nearly 100
boats, filled with parties, were assembled; and it was quite
amusing to witness the subsequent scrambling for fishes which
were stunued or stupified, and to the number of hundreds
came up floating on the water. The Port Admiral, Sir
Philip Durham, was present; and as the experiment was
intended to have taken place on the preceding day, it would
have been a singular incident that be should then have been
present at the blowing up of one ship, as flag officer of the
Rene on the 56th anniversary of`the sinking of his own ship,
Mks Ro,yal George, near the same spot, at a time when he
WItS *got lieutenant of her,-11cinspahire Telegraph. •