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

SELECT EXTRACTS.

The study of truth is perpetually joined with the love of
virtue; for there is no virtue which derives not its original
from truth ; as, on the contrary, there is no vice which has
not its beginning in a lie. Truth is the foundation of all
knowledge, and the cement of all societies.—Castierba.

THE EA avvic.—The great dread of the ear-wig entering
the ear is a popular error, whence, indeed, the animal derives
its trivial name. Like many other insects, it enters any cavity
in search of food or shelter; and it may, like them, enter the
human ear as well as any other hole or hollow, but that it has
a special predilection for that situation is a mistaken notion
respecting the habits of the Forticula.—Notes on Nets, by the
Hon. and Rev. C. Bathurst.

OPIUM VENDERS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.—TaIking of drink-
ing and dramming puts me in mind of the opium-eaters, on a
number of whom the sultan played a capital trick some time
back. He was passing through a quarter of the city where
they sold the noxious drug, and the thought struck him that,
as the father of his people, he was bound to put a-stop to so
pernicious a practice; so, without mole ado, he pulled down
all the shops, over the site of which I have several times had
the honour of walking, and sent every single soul he found in
them to the madhouse, which happens to be close by; and
there they remained with iron collars round their necks and
chained to the walls fOr two or three months, at the 'end of
which time his sublime highness let them out on their solemn
promise never to go mad any more.—Capt. Rose's Three
Months' Leave.

BEGGARS IN LONDON.—Of the number of beggars to be
met with in the streets of London, it is computed that nine
out of ten are gross impostors, who have probably been com-
mitted repeatedly to the house of correction as vagrants; and
of these the very worst are the blind and cripples. The
records of that valuable institution, the Society for the Sup-
pression of Mendicity, afford surprising proofs of the profli-
gacy of the regular street beggars. and the inveteracy of t heir
idle and dishonest habits. Mr. Knivet, the secretary of the
society, mentions two cases, one of a girl who has been from
twenty to thirty times in prison within the last six years, and
another of a boy who has been as often as twenty times im-
prisoned within three years. It appears by a return from the
commissioners of police, that in the year 1837, 4,287 beggars
were apprehended by the police, and taken before the magis-
trates. Of these, 2,508 were immediately discharged, and
1,779 were convicted and sentenced to various terms of im-
prisonment.—Report o} 'the Metropolitan Police Committee..
RIO DE Jsrsaino.—The number. of persons I met in full
dress—black coats, black satin breeches, silk stockings, gold
knee and shoe buckles, opera hats, gild headed canes, and
ponderous gold seals—led me to think there must be a great
many dinner-parties going forward. I was mistaken; for as
I went into a shop to buy a pair of gloves, the man-milliner
who served rue was precisely thus attired. A little further on,
I saw a whole group of men in similar costume, sitting at a-
sh Op-door, smoking' cigars, and drinking lemonade. This
seemed odd ; but what was in4surprise. as 1 proceeded, to see
two negroes meet each 'other, dressed in tattered and ragged
coats, waistcoats, knee-breeches, and opera-hats, but without
shoes or stockings . They .stood bowing the one to the other,
hat in hand, and in polite
.contention as to which should tie
covered first. They at length seemed to agree that they should
return their hats to their heads simultaneously, so that one
should ner have precedence of the other. A snuff-box was
then pulled by each from his respective girdle, with half a
deeen bows, a pinch of snuff was exchanged ; and very cere-
monious inquiries were mutually made about their respective
senhoras, or ladies. The hats were again taken off, and low-
ered to the ground; and after an amicable struggle as to
which should take the wall, these curious specimens of Bra•
zilian politeness and etiquette walked on their several wars.
—Robertson's Letters on Paraguay.
AUSTRALIAN WINE.—Had New South Wales been the
colony of a vine-growing country, wine and fruit would have
been, years ago, among the staple articles of our export;
while at present not above 1,000 gallons of tolerable wine are
annually produced in the colony. The climate is dry and
wenn; none in the world can be more genial to the growth.
of the vine, or more favourable to the production of that juice
which 'so gladdens the heart of man. This soil is as various
`as that of Europe, from the most barren to the most produc-
tive. Here we have the debris of the primitive granite, the
feitile soil resulting from the decom position of volcanic trap
extensive tracks of lime, unmeasured extents of drift land,
proceeding from the decomposition of sandstone, equally ex-,
tensive portions of country consisting chiefly of alumina, and
rich alluvial recent deposits, which to a great extent occur
on the banks of our rivers;. in short, we have soils in almost
every possible variety, which influence the quality of the
wine to a greater extent than is generally supposed. We
may, therefore expect to produce wines of equally various
qualities. Some may have the roughness of port, some the
aroma of Burgundy, others the lusciousness of Cyprus or
Syracuse, others may partake of the dryness of Amontillado,
or the endurance and flavour -of Hock, or the sweetness of
Lacryma Christi: in short, we may produce every possible
variety resembling the wines of Europe, from the weak nor-
thern products of the Rhine, to the rich generous wines of
the south. The demoralising influence and the disorganising
tendency of spirits, as a beverage, are ever before us, both by
precept and example; and no town in the world exhibits
more vivid living examples of the dire consequences of its
use, than the streets of Sydney. A check has been proposed,
however, to the progress •of this ruinous vice, by some tempe-
rate and philanthropic men, who have mutually agreed to
abandon the common use of the product of the still for that '
of the press; and associations exist here, as in many other ,
countries, of which the members meet periodically for the
purpose of drinking wine as a solemn religious duty. Books
on the culture of the vine are already in the handS of the
colonists, whereby that, and the process of making wine
(from the use of which such evils are less apt to flow,) are
shown to be exceedingly simple and grape vines imported
by Mr. Bushbv, from which the most esteemed wines of
France are produced, are now growing in the colony, and,
Cuttings of them may be bad gratis at the Government Gar-
dens. Under these circumstances, it is wonderful how very
little the culture of that useful plant, with a view to its vinous
product, has hitherto been attended to in this country. Per
haps the inferior quality of the product of the vineyards at-
the Cape of Good Hope deters many from attempting the
culture of the grapes here ; but that ought to be no reason,
when it is known that the greater part of the .wines already
grown in the colony, are far superior to the generality of
those of the Cape.

THE RED MOON.—It is believed generally, especially in
the neighbourhood of Paris, that, in certain months of the
year, the moon exerts a great influence upon the phenomena
of vegetation. Gardeners give the name of the " red moon"
to that moon which is full between the middle of Arsril and
the close of May. According to them, 'the light of the moon
at that season exercises an injurious influence upon the
young shoots of plants. They say that when the sky is
clear, the leaves and buds exposed in the atmosphere stands
at many degrees above the freezing point. They say, also,
that if a clouded sky intercept the moonn's light, it prevents
these injurious circumstances to the plants, although the
circumstances of temperature are the same in both cases.
Any person who is acquainted with the beautiful theory of
dew, which we owe to Dr. Wells, will find no difficulty in
accounting for these effects, erroneously imputed to the
moon. If the heavens be clear and unclouded; all substances
on the surface of the earth which are strong and powerful
radiators of heat, lose temperature by radiation, while the
unclouded sky returns no heat to them to restore what they
have lost. Such bodies, therefore, under these circumstances,
become colder than the surrounding air, and may even, if
they be liquid, be frozen. Ice, in fact, is produced in warm
climates, by similar means. But if the firmament be enve-
loped in clouds, these clouds, having the quality of radiating
heat, will restore by their radiation to substances upon the
surface of the earth, as much heat as such substances them-
selves lose by radiation : the temperature, therefore, of such
bodies will be maintained at a point equal to that of the air
surrounding them. Now the leaves and flowers of plants are
strong and powerful radiators of heat ; when the sky is clear,
they therefore lose temperature, and may be frozen; if, on
the other hand, the sky be clouded, their temperature is
maintained, for the reasons above stated. The moon, there-
fore, has no connection whatever with this effect; and it is
certain that plants would suffer under the same circumstances,
whether the moon is above or below the horizon. It equally
is quite true that, if the moon is above the horizon, the plants
cannot suffer unless it be visible; because a clear sky is in-
dispensable, as much to the production of the injury to the
plants as to the visibility of the moon ; and, on the other
hand, the same clouds which veil the moon, and intercept
her light, give back to the plants that warmth which•prevents
the injury here-adverted to. The popular opinion, therefore,
is right as to the effect, but wrong as to. the cause.; and. its
error will be at once discovered, by showing that, on a clear
.night, when the moon is new, and, therefore, not visible, the
pants may nevertheless suffer.--Monthly Chronicle,