The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-24 00:00:00

. fteraturr.

VARIETIES.

A HINT TO TttE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGEE.—The
first thought which a repeal of the Corn-laws would sug-
gest to a revived Pliny would certainly be some inconve-
nience to his literary pursuits; copy, not Cobden, would
be the object of his solicitude. At Last, he wrote in this
manner to a fiend during a season of agricultural depres-
sion. " I have received the same bad account of my own
little farms, and am, myself, therefore, at full leisure to
write books for you, provided I can but raise money
enough to furnish me with good paper."—Fraser's May.
PROBLEA.—The following problem we translate from a
German paper, aid shall publish the solution in our next.
A man had a certain number of apt.les, which he divided
amongst three boys, as follows •—To the first boy he
gave half the whole number, and half an apple ; to the
second boy, half of what remained, and half an apple;
and to the third boy, half of the residue, and half an ap-
ple. What number of apples had he, to make this divi-
sion without cutting any of the apples, and without hav-
ing any of the apples rernainine ?—Dorset paper.
STATISTICS OE Pawls.—Paris has a population of
912,035 souls; it covers a sunerficies of 396,800 square
metres, or 3,459 Lecteeres, 68 area. There are 42,000
houses, 1,922 public thoroughfares, 57 barriers 46 chemins
de rote, 37 quays, 20 boulevards, 37 avenues, 133
squares, 37 bridges, 105 " courts" or " cities," cloisters,
&c., 9 palaces, 23 remarkable edifices, 6 public gardens,
4 principal arches, 5 colums, 1 oblisk (the Luxor), 35
libraries, 15 museums, 2.i fountains, 38 churches, 25 con-
vents, 26 hospitals, 4 equestrian statues, 21 theatres, and
39 barracks.
SCRAPS FOR THE Contous.—lf a tallow candle he
placed in a gun, aid shot at a door, it will go through
without sustaining any injury ; and if a musket ball be
fired into waeer, it will not only rebaund, but he flattened
as if fired against a solid substance. A musket may be
fired through a pane of gtess, making the hole the size of
the ball, wet-lout cracking the glass. Cork, if sunk 200
feet in the ocean, wi!l not rise on account of the pressure
of the water. In the arctic regions, when the thermometer
is below zero, persons can converse more than a mile dis-
tant. Dr. Jamieson asserts that he heard every word of
a sermon at the distance of two miles.
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF 11IE PREMIER'S LAST
SPEECH.—Sir It. Peel's speech is only too successful. It
is a perfect triumph of argn went, but the victor is the
great captiv of the day. The procession, the spoils, the
trophies, and the banners, are beyond measure splendid ;
but when we look for the hero, we perceive him bound to
his own chariot wheels. He has crushed all objections,
but they were his own ; he Las demolished a party, but he
was once its leader ; he has revealed a great crisis, but
that crisis is the catistrophe of his own life's drama; with
one mighty effort he has brought the fabric of protection
and a crowd of antagonists down to the ground, but, like
the captive of Gaza, he is himself buried under the down-
fall. Every quality of greatness in the speech recoils on
the speaker. He proves the dire certainty of a famine,
and the impos-ibility of doing more than just alleviate its
horrors ; but a famine was always a possible, not to say a
probable event, and why was it not provided for ? He
demonstrates that protection is a blighting thing, and that
competition gives new life. Why iias he been so long
making that discovery ? He establishes the truth that
abundance is a bless'ng. How could he ever deny it?
His whole life is the full of this one cast. He has tried
protection these thirty years or more, and his only con-
clusion is the preacher's—that it is all vanity and vexa-
tion of spirit. Happily he is spared to undo what he has
done. He lights up a glorious beacon at last, hut what a
length of past aberrations the light betrays !—Times.
- -

APPEARANCE OF AI A.TURIN.—I have already hinted at
his personal eccentricity, and I shall now describe him a
little more particulariy,—not for the sake of ridicule,
which did nut attach to him, but that I may present a
graphic picture of his appearance ;—tall, thin, pale, with a
pensive expression ; large, full, but lightless eye; a grace-
ful figure; his dress, not merely on those country ram-
bles, but walking the erects, attracted general attention,
but the people knew it was Maturin, and he passed with-
out molestation; a large brown roquelaire, with a long
cape, which nearly hung to his feet, be held closely
round his person its colour had once been dark
brown, hut it had changed by time to that of high toast
snuff; his nether limbs were cased in old black web panta-
loons, a style that }IA once been fashionable ; his long
feet, thus looking longer, were cased in well-worn shoes;
his small hat was twisted into all imaginable shapes,
brown aad napless, and covert(' with ragged crape ; his
small wig scarce gave a stray lock to cover his high and
intellectual temples ;—such was the strange figure that
presented itself to citizens and strangers; but still, the
one could perceive that he was a perf-ct gentleman, nei-
ther decayed nor mad, while others only looked, smiled,
and said, " There goes Mattain." The contrast that he
presented sometimes to this was equally strange. I have
seen him dressed in canary-coloured shapes, and black
frock of most lashionable cut, scarcely reaching to his
knees ;—these trivial sanctions from custom or propriety
were very leniently rept-Jed in general ; some might
laugh at him, but he was loved by all.—Jerrold's May.

DEFECTIVE VENTILATION A SPECIAL CAUSE OF
DISEASE.—This might be argued as a deduction from its
producing dissipated habits; but even where the men are
sober it is stated in the Second Report on Health of
Towns, as the result of a large induction of facts, that an
impure atmosphere in factories ' induces consumption—
renders the constitution inure prone to, and less able to
resist the attacks of diseases of various kinds, especially
fever. hence in Dundee we find one tithe of the whole
population attacked with fever during the last seven years,
and in Glasgow no fewer than 21,000 fever cases have oc-
curred in one year—the chief victims being wetrYing peo-
ple, exposed to a close and impure atmosphere. In the
evidence of Thomas Brownlow regarding the tailors, we
find the following testimony :—` Great numbers of them
die of consumi,tion. By their own rules, a man of fifty
years of age is superanuated, and is thought not to be tit
for a full day's work.' Toese being the deplorable effects
of a defective supply of pure air in the houses and work-
shops of the people, it becomes an important element in
vital statis,ics-1-1 ow is
this clamant evil to be remedied?
On prac:i, al details it is impossible for us at present to
enter. The grand remedy, however, is plain and patent
to all—a free circulation of fresh air. The amount of the
supply and the manner of its admission must in some mea-
sure depend cn the character of the house or workshop in
ques•ion. Eminent scientific men have paid attention to
these details, and we must again refer the reader to the
elaborate work of Dr. Reid, and likewise to the excellent
pamphlet of Mr. liiteHe on tile sanatory arrangements of
factories.—Hogg's treacly Instructor.

FIRST PEDESTRIAN MATCH OF CAPTAIN BARCLAY.—
The writer of some " Recollections of a Lover of Soc'ety,"
in Blackwood's Magazine, gives from his note-book, un-
der date Jan. 1800, the follow.ng:—The town is ringing
with an extraordinary feat of pedestrianism ; the first ex-
ploit of a young Scotchman, Barclay of Uri. lie had
betted £5301) that he would walk ninety miles in twenty-
one and a half hours, arid has won, leaving an hour and
seventeen minutes to spare. Feats of this order have a
valu as showing the powers of the human frame. They
would otherwise be merely vulger gambling. But if it is
of importance to know the extent of the mental powers,
those of the body also have their uses; and an effeminate
generation would only have to prepare themselves by the
exercises of this young gentleman, to be able to dispense
with post-chai-es and the gout. loe walker is but 22
years old ; and he has finished his exploit without any in-
jury to his frame, and, it may be presumed, with a consi-
derable advantage to his finances. All the " sporting
world," as they are named, were on the ground, which
was a measured mile, on the road between York and Hull;
lamps were erected to light the principal performer dur- ,
ing the night. A cottage at the road-side received him
for refl., shment, and change of dress, at intervals. A mi-
litia reg.ment, which happened to be on its march front
Hull, halted and filed on either side of the road, with the
gallantry of sportsmen, to give him free way ; and the ge-
neral interest taken in this singular performance was sur-
prising. The only drawback was the evident activity of
his frame, and his powers of endurance; for after the first
thirty tniles the betting began to be wholly in his favour,
and the spirit of speculation shrunk from that period, and.
long before the close no bets c ould be taken From day-
light, multitudes thronged to the course. All the car-
riages. of which such numbers pass along this communi-
caton between the two great northern towns, went to the
side of the road ; een the mails gave way. The affair
seemed national, and if the gallant pedestrian had failed,
it might have been followed by a general mourning in the
Ridings
THE PRESENT CRISIS. —We are even now on the
brink of a national crisis ; we are even now threatened
with the subversion of the laws. The rights of the pro-
ductive, above all, of the labouring, classes, so long pro-
tected by our legislature, are in the most imminent.
danger. An unscrupulous body of men, who control the
so-called League, demand that the labourer should be
sacrificed to their demand for gala. They ask, and ask
tumultuously, for unrestricted competition with poorer
countries, in which prices ate naturally far lower, because
money and " money's worth" are far more scarce. The
first principles of true political ecouemy, established by
a Sistnondi, supported even by a Malthus, they venture
to overthrow. They tell us that low prices are an abso-
lute benefit to all, forgetting that the very existence of
the productive and labouring classes is dependent on the
value of labour, which is one of the el:Lt. elements in all
money prices. These men, however, by dint of clamour
and insolence, have fought their way to the most danger-
ous elevation. Perhaps another year may witness the
triumph of their schemes, unless such men arise as may
have the moral courage" to speak the truth, and the requi-
site earnestness to enforce it. We say, then, that it is
high time fur the faith and genius of the country to awake
from slumber;- the handwriting is on the wall—this is
the eleventh hour ! The sacrifice of labour to the demands
of labour's direst enemies, who dare not show themselves
in the manufacturing districts before the masses, from
fear of being torn to pieces—this sacrifice, we say, if con-
summated, will involve a probable social revolution, and
that at no distant period ! 11 genius, then, exists in Eng-
land, awakened to a sense of the awful dangers of the
hour, let it not-hesitate to raise its voice, and risk its all
in the attempt to save our country. The fear of ridicule,
the droad of misconstruciiA, the natural shrinking of
modesty from the assumption of so high a post—all these
should not, and cannot, deter the true men of the hour
(if any such they be) from proclaiming their resolutions
and seeking their one goal. Finally, in bidding farewell
to this great historical work, let us draw one lesson from
its pates, and enforce it on those readers whose con-
sciencies may best apply our warnings. Pitt, a young
man at the age of twenty-four, overthrew the mightiest
political coalition that had ever been known in his native
land, through the agency of honesty, earnestness, and
resolution. An even still more fearful leaguenow exists ;
but that, too, may be defeated! It is always individuals
who rule the masses; and every age may be moulded to
their will by the true living spirits it produces.—New
Quarterly Review.