The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-05-01 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

ETYMOLOGY OF CONNAUGHT.—Sir Robert Peel's pro-
ject for the plantation of Connaught, which we trust will
turn out to be no mere political plant, has drawn atten-
tion to that unfortunate district, and, among other things,
to the etymology of the name of the province. Some say
that Connaught is of Celtic origin ; but in our opinion it
is merely a corruption of the plain honest Saxon Can-
naught, which pithily expresses the inability of its in-
habitants to help themselves.—Punch.
ATTACHMENT OF GROUSE TO THEIR MATES.—I re-
member an instance of a hen grouse being caught by the
leg in a common vermin-trap which had been set for
ravens. It happened that the trap was not looked at till
late the following day, when we found that the cock
grouse had brought and laid close to his unfortunate mate
a quantity of young heather shoots : they were enough to
have nearly filled a hat, and the poor bird must have been
employed many hours in collecting them. I cannot ex-
press how grieved I was at the hen having been caught.—
St. John's Tour in Sutherlandshire.
A NEW EVERGREEN.—An acquisition of the highest
interest has been lately received by Mr. Standish, of the
Bagshot Nursery. We allude to the funebral cypress.
This plant was first mentioned in Lord Macartney's
Voyage, as growing in a place called " The Vale of
Tombs, near the tower of the thundering winds," in the
province of Zhe-hol ; which is a mountainous district,
'yin:- in latitude 41 (leg. 58 sec. N. in Chinese Tartary,
and has a far more rigorous climate than is ever known in
England. The seedlings in the Bagshot Nursery were
raised from cones lately procured by Mr. Fortune, while
at Shanghae, from a place 200 miles to the north of that
port. We have also a dried specimen of it, which enables
us to say that it must be a plant of the greatest beauty.
It may be best described as a tree like the weeping willow
in growth, with the foliage of the savin, but of a brighter
green ; it is, however, not a juniper, as the savin is, but
a genuine cypress. It has long been a subject of regret
that the Italian cypress cannot be made to grow in our
climate, and to decorate our burial places ; but we have
now a finer tree, still better adapted for the purpose.—
Gardener's Chronicle.
ANECDOTES OF THE ACLAND FAMILY.—THE " RU-
LING PASSION."—This same gentleman (the father of
the present Sir T. D. Acland), as is generally known, had
a delightful residence near Minehead, which was burnt to
the ground, when forty thousand ounces of magnificent
family plate were melted by the flames. On some per-
sonal friend commiserating with him on the dreadful de-
_ .

struction of his valuable property, particularly dwelling
on the loss of his silver, this gallant sportsman was
known to have replied :—" That he cared little for the
house or the plate ; the one," said he, " can be re-built,
the other re-purchased ; but I am indeed grieved at the
loss of my splendid colection of antlers, which I have
preserved from stags killed by my own hounds, and which
I shall never live to kill again." * * * The
following anecdote of a member of this family is yet
more interesting :—" On Major Acland proceeding to
America with his regiment, his wife, Lady Harriet, a
daughter of the Earl, of Ilchester, was determined to
share his fate; and nobly did she carry out her intentions
even to the battle-field, for on the knowledge that her
husband had fallen in the action, and was taken prisoner,
she fastened a white handkerchief to the end of her whip,
and riding with this flag of truce into the enemy's camp,
boldly asked permission of its leaders to tend the suffer-
ing bed of her wounded or dying husband."
A RoYAL ROMANCE.-At the grand and brilliant ball
given by Prince Schwartzenberg, the Austrian Ambassa-
dor at Paris, in the year 1810, in celebration of the mar-
riage of Napoleon with Maria Louisa, at which the em-
peror and many illustrious persons were present, it is well
known that a most destructive fire broke out in one of
the temporary buildings erected for the occasion, by
which the young and beautiful hostess and several other
persons were burnt to death, and many seriously injured.
One of the visitors at this ball was the then Dowager
Duchess of Savoy-Carignan, mother of Charles Albert,
ex-King of Sardinia. This lady, prevented by the great
confusion from getting out in time, found herself in one
of the saloons burning on all sides. When in this most
perilous situation, and almost suffocated, she was acci-
dentally discovered by her courier, who resolutely rushed
through the flames into the room, ook his mistress in his
arms, and jumped from a window on the first floor to the
ground. By this heroic conduct he broke both his legs,
but the duchess was unhurt. Her life having been thus
miraculously saved through the courage of her courier,
she, of course, paid him all possible care and attention
during his illness ; and when he had recovered from this
accident, she married him. He received afterwards from
some Italian prince the title of Count Montelart ; and
ever since they have been living together, but not very
happily, in various parts of the continent, and are now in
Paris.—Globe.

"PROGRESS" OF RADICALISM.—Nothing I admire
more than the readiness with which the noble lord talks
of a settlement of the question. A settlement of what ?
Of a question that you yourselves have unsettled. (cheers
and laughter.) The noble lord goes about looking for a
great question for the session. He finds among his free-
trade allies some crude and gewgaw theory. He takes it
up—attacks some great interest opposed to it. Immedi-
ately a great agitation ensues, and having produced the
agitation, the noble lord comes forward as a great states-
man to appease it. (cheers and laughter.) That is the
whole policy of the Whig party. (renewed cheers.) To-
night they have a great ally with whom they seem to be
well satisfied. I mean the gentleman who has decided
between re-action and progress, and who has determined
to stand by progress. Progress ! Progress to Paradise,
or progress to the devil ! (much laughter.) The people
of Engl nd are sick of hearing those indefinite windy
phrases about progress. They want to know where you
are progressing to—what you are at—what you mean to
accomplish, and then they will be able to say whether
that which they possess be worth more than you promise,
but cannot pay. (cheers.) And, sir, with the disciples
of progress we have arrived at that point. We want to
know what they are about. The gentlemen of the Man-
chester school tell us frankly what they are after. They
have told us they will attack the Church, that they will
destroy the landed interest, that they will completely
change the electoral law, and do many other things which
may be fatal to this country, but which when advocated
by them we know what they are about. With them we
deal with manly foes, and we hope and believe we shall
defeat them. (loud cheers.) But these dilettanti disci-
ples of progress are very dangerous opponents, and I ex-
tremely regret that one so experienced and so practical as
the right hon. baronet the member for Ripon takes his
stand where he does, because I, for one, must express my
belief that where he is, there he will remain. (cheers.)—
Mr. Disraeli's speech. _ _

IMITATION.--Captain C—d. of whom, by the way,
Stephen Price used to say, " He is the only amateur per-
former I ever saw to whom I would have offered a salary :
I would have given him, sir, five-and-thirty shillings
a-week," was another proficient in this art, and Mathews
used to narrate an amusing instance of his imitation of
the well-known " Dickey" Suett, which was, he said, far
more exact than his own. They had both, then very
young men, been invited to attend the funeral of the
" poor player," and were placed in the same coach with
Jack Bannister and Palmer. The latter sat wrapped up
in angry and indignant silence at the tricks which the two
younger mourners (who, by the way, had known but lit-
tle of Suett) were playing • but Bannister, though much
affected, nevertheless could not refrain from occasionally
laughing, in the midst of his grief, while the tears were
actually running from his eyes. At length, on the pro-
cession reaching Fleet-street, on its way to St. Paul's
Church-yard, where Suett lies buried, Mr. Whittle,
commonly called "Jemmy Whittle," of the firm of Laurie
and Whittle, stationers, came to the door of his shop to
see the remains of his old friend pass to their place of rest.
An obstruction in the road at this moment caused a short
delay, when C—d called out in the exact voice and man-
ner of the dead man, " Aha! Jemmy ; oh law ! hew do ?
oh dear ! going to be buried ! oh law ! oh lank ! oh dear !"
The astounded stationer rushed back to his house,
shocked, surprised, and possibly not a little alarmed at
the sound of the familiar tones. It was a little singular,
that at the conclusion of the ceremony, as the benediction
fell from the lips of the clergyman, a grinning urchin,
perched on a tomb-stone close by the iron rails, began
vigorously to clap his hands. So practical a compliance
with the plaudits," at the actor's grave, struck the
whole company ; the boy, however, on being questioned
and taken to task for his irreverence, blubbered out,
" La, sir, there was only them two dogs outside as wanted
to fight, and was afeard to begin, so I just did it to set
them on like," The coincidence was a very pretty one
as it stood—it was trpity to disturb it !—Life of Theodore
Hook.

TRIALS OF A GOVERNESS.—IS it not, I may ask, a
beautiful and noble thing to see the many instances, which
all of you may have, in some degree, witnessed of females
born and nurtured in the very hotbed of wealth and
luxury, educated to the highest degree, and in the most
expensive mode that can be afforded—beings thus ren-
dered apparently frail as fair, and adapted only for the
calm and sunshine of life ? Is it not a beautiful and
noble sight to witness these seemingly helpless beings
(when family misfortunes may have fallen upon them to
destroy all this outward splendour) casting out all sensi-
tive and selfish feelings, girding themselves up for the
unexpected contest with adversity, subduing all feelings
of individual pride, and that little vanity which might be
so readily excused, and at once without a murmur, (if not
perhaps without a sigh,) applying, not for their own ad-
vantage alone, but for the benefit of their suffering family,
all those varied accomplishments and accumulated know-
ledge which their costly education had enabled them to
acquire ? Thus it would seem that, in women also, even
as in men, trials and difficulties and adversity seem
unable to subdue the indomitable energies of the great
Saxon genius of our country. It has been stated by
Seneca, that there is no sight more pleasing to the gods,
than that of a good man struggling nobly against adver-
sity. Surely, then, when we see beings, formed for all
kind and gentle things, ordained to be the recipients
rather than the artificers of fortune, struggling more
nobly than man can struggle against the pressure of ad-
versity,—casting away at once all their previous ideas of
worldly pleasure as mere feathers to the wind, turning
back again to their true hearts and minds, rousing up the
noble aspirations within them, and strengthening their
failing hearts to gain their daily bread, with far more
toilsome and irksome labour than he who obtains it by
the mere " sweat of his brow." Surely, when we see such
fortitude, such resignation, such noble efforts, such im-
molation of all selfish feelings, such a sacrifice of perhaps
long-cherished hopes on the altar of a stern but sacred
duty, who can contemplate the spectacle unmoved ?
Who can withhold his tribute from that institution which
will comfort so many noble hearts in their painful career,
by the conviction that they will not be forsaken, that
they will not be left destitute at its close.—Mr. Bain-
brigge's Lecture.

QUEEN BESS.
How vary opinions about great Queen Bess,
How her enemies rail, and her friends how they puff her
But this may be said of her temper and dress,
Her coil-ar WaS•ruff, and her ch.QI-er was rougher..