The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-16 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

CONVIVIAL BLUNDER.—The lord mayor, at a dinner
Even to the French ambassador, proposed the health of
he three consuls. The toast was repeated by the toast.
master, as the " Health of the Three per Cent. Consols.
Elip, hip, hip, hurrah."
To PRESERVE MEAT is HOT WEATHER.—First wipe
le meat gently and lightly with a clean cloth, then dust
ver every part with pure oaten meal. The meal imparts
t-sweet flavour to the meat. It must all be wiped away
.gore the meat is put down either to be boiled or roasted.
—Magazine of .Domestic Economy.
ANCIENT IMPORTATION INTO HULL.—About 1595,
F-Z find entered in the household book of the Cliffords,
sum of eleven shillings " for six cabbages and some
aret roots bought at Hull." These were then imported
:om Flanders, whence even Qaeen Catharine, in the
eign of Henry VIII., had her salads. Potatoes and tur-
ips were not generally known, even to the gardener, un-
a the reign of Elizabeth.—Hull Packet.
THE CAUSE OF CORNS.—If shoes were constructed in
he shape of the human foot, neither too large nor too
mall, and making an equal pressure everywhere, corns
nd bunions of the feet would never exist. But, unfortu-
tztely, shoes are seldom made after this fashion; and_in

e.s.''sboes especially there are generally two signal de-

ets,—first, the extremity of the shoe is much too Dar-
w for that part of the foot, (namely, the toes.) which it
to contain ; and, secondly, for the purpose of display-
g as much of the foot as possible, the whole of the tar-
and metatarsus is left uncovered, and the pressure of
e shoe in front is thrown entirely upon the toes. The
es are thus first squeezed against each other, and then
fished out of their natural position ; and all the project-
g points, chiefly where the bones are situated, are
eched and tormented either by the neighbouring toes or
the leather of the shoe ; and thus it is that corns of the
at are generated.—Sir Benjamin Brodie's Lectures.

A. RAPID COURTSHIP.—The history of Robert Hall's
irriage was a singular one. It has been related in a
aen different ways, but I believe the following account
't to be correct :—One day, whilst alighting at a friend's
• for the purpose of dining with him, he was joked on
,orship. He said nothing, but whilst at table

.Juserved to take particular notice of the servant girl,
J came in to replenish the fire. After dinner, as he
s sitting alone in the study, the young woman again en-
ed it with the coal-scuttle, when Mr. Hall, whom she
I supposed scarcely less than a king, said to her,
Jetty, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ ?" The girl
ied, that she hoped she did, taking the question merely
a accustomed one from a minister. To her utter sur-
and consternation, however, Mr. Hall immediately
ved it up by falling on his knees and exclaiming.
a, Betty, ycu must love me," and asked her to
In her astonishment she ran away, and said
. Hall had gone mad again (he had been
_..elged). Her master, like herself, was surprised,
on his speaking with Mr. Hall on the subject, the lat.
declared his intention of marrying the gill, who he said
i taken his fancy by the manner in which she put the
as on. They were married, and lived happily together.
Is widow survives him.—Pen and Ink Skelche3.
TREATMENT OF LIIERARY MEN.--The soldier, the
lot, the architect, the painter, are all within sight of
most lavish prizes of public liberality. Parliament has
t given titles and superb pensions to the conquerors of
Sikhs. The India Company has followed its example.
applaud this munificent liberality in both inseteces.
3 general officers have thus obtained a peerage, with
00 and £5OOO a-year. They deserved those rewards.
the whole literary encouragement of the British em-
with a revenue of fifty-two millions sterE;!,-;, is £l2OO,
more than the tenth part of the pension allotted to
two gallant men. £l2OO for the whole literary en-
--t of England ! There can be no greater scan-
-tnal honour of the country. The pettiest
—le limits its literary encourage-
t whether Weimar, between
did not give twice the sum
npetitios' with the liberality
u' te-le mean. Louis XIV.
Acel 80,0'0 francs a-year to
Acad my, a sum eiuivalent in
,to little lL En than ,000 a-year
.nd. Frederic 11. gave pensions
whole corps of litt. ary M 5 1. At
Is moment there is scarcely a man of any i er try dis-
action in Paris who has not a share in the hoecal and
se patronage of government, either in office or public
,sion. But if we are to be answered by a class, pletho-
,ith wealth and rank, that literature ought to be con-
eith living on its own means, must not the obvious
be—ls the author to be an author, down to his
ave. Is there to he no relaxation of toil? Is there to be
o allowance for the exhaustion of his over-worked facul-
es? for the natural infirmities of years? for the vexations
a noble spirit compelled to submit to the caprices of
ablic change ; and with its full share of the common
lamities of life, increasing their pressure at once by an
vitable sense of wrong, and by a feeling that the delight
his youth must be the drudgery of his age? When the
Dryden, in his seventieth year, was forced, in the
_es of his heart to exclaim `Must I die in tlie har
Aess ?' his language was a brand on the common sense,
aR ont he just generosity, of his country.—Blackwoos

o this sum

erary of

s, it is

to hundred years age., al

t da'y, and in Fra

bittern

iay, and in Engl,

THIRD EDITION.

Standard-office, 7liree o'clock.

LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE, This DAY.
We have received since this day week a moderate quan-
tity of Wheat and Oats, with a good supply of Flour
from Ireland, but of other produce thence, or of any
Coastwise, the arrivals are trivial ; whilst of Wheat and
Indian Corn, the imports from abroad are liberal, and of
Flour nearly 56,000 barrels, augmenting the stock in
bond here over 628,000.

ARRIVALS OF CORN,
From the I(th to the lith June, inclusive

IRS- COAST. i UNITED 1,0-

LAND. WISE. ,ST %TES. REIGN.

Wheat.. Ors. 2540 10 3833 4002
Barley Qrs. , 372 j 12
Malt Qrs. 91 733
Oats Qrs.l 4371 155
Rye Qrs.l
Beans Qrs. 105 1668
Pease Qrs.
Shelledl3arleyQrs.
Indian Corn. Qrs. 8778 2906
Rapeseed.... Qrs.
Oatmeal .. Loads 206 15
Flour. Sacks) 8013 6
Ditto

10385
384
824
4486

EXPORTS.—Foreign. Wheat, qrs. ; Barley,— qrs. ; Pease,
qrs. ; Oats, qrs. ; Indian Corn, qrs. ; Oatmeal,
sacks ; Flour, 337 brls.—lreland. Wheat, 400 qrs. ; Bar-
ley, qrs.; Beans, —qrs ; Oats, qrs.; Indian Corn, 1503
qrs. ; Oatmeal, sks ; Flour, scks, 10 brls. —Coastwise.
Wheat, 50 qrs. ; Barley, 10 qrs. ; Malt, qrs. ; Oats, 24
qrs. ; Beans, qrs. ; Pease, 23 qrs. ; Oatmeal,— sacks ;
Indian Corn, 31 qrs. ; Flour, 669 sacks Ito 7

Average prices of Grain, for the week ending June 6, 19-16.
Wheat 528.1nd. I Barley 2;s. Bd. I Oats323s. 4,1. Rye 32s lid
Beans.. 355. lid. j Pease.. 345. 10d.

Aggregate average of the six weeks

Wheat 555. 3d. I Oats,

235. Bd. 1 Rye 335. 2d,

Beans.: 345. 6Li. I Pease.. 345. 8,1

Duty on Foreign Producetlds week.
Wheatl7sOd I Barley gs lid I Oats .. 5s Od I
Rye.. gs 6d
Beans 7s 6ci I Pease.. fis 6e. Ind. Corn Os Od Flour lOs2id

Duty on Canadian.
Wheat.. Is. od. I Barley.. 2s. od. I Oats ..os.6d. I Rye.. Is od
Beans Os. 6d I Pease Os.6d. I Ind. Corn (•s.)d. I Flour .Os 73d

Duty on other British Colonial.
Wheat.. 4s. Od. I Barley.. 2s. Od. I Oats, n,. 6d. I Rye... Is. Od
Beans.. Os. (id. I Pease.. Os. 6d. I Flour. 2s. 51-1.
Liverpool Averages, week ending June 2, 1846.

Wheat, 1864 qrs., price 47s 6d; Barley, 45 qrs., price 24s ICd;
Oats, 487 qrs., price 245. 10d.; Rye, qrs., price Os. Od.;
Beans, 43 qrs.. 355. Od. ; Pease, 0 qrs., price Os. Od.

THE FALL OF ROME.
ITS CAUSES AT WORK IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE

(From Blackwood's Magazine.)
The people in our great cities do not call out, as in an-
cient days, for gratuitous distributions of corn from Ly-
bia or Egypt ; but they clamour just as loudly for free
trade in grain with Poland and the Ukraine, which has
the effect of swamping the home-grower quite as com-
pletely. The great capitalists do not make collossal for-
tunes by the plunder of subject provinc,s, as in the days
of the Roman proconsuls ; but they never cease to exert
theirinfluence to procure a contraction of the currency
by the measures of government, which answers the pur-
pose of augmenting their fortunes at the expense of the
industrious classes just as well. Political writers, social
philosophers, practical statesmen, fall in with the pre-
vailing dispositicn of the most influential classes: they
deceive themselves into the belief that they are original,
and promulgating important truths, when they are merely
yielding to the pressure of the strongest, or at least the
most noisy, class at the moment in society. The Reform
Bit gave three-fifths of the British representat on to the
members for boroughs. From that moment the eventual
adoption of legislative measures favourable to the inter-
ests of capital, and agreeable to the wishes of the inhabi-
tants of towns, how destructive soever to those of the
country, was as much as the daily distribution of Egyp-
tian grain to the inhabitants of Rome, Antioch, and Con-
stantinople was, when the mob of these cities became,
from their formidable numbers, an object of dread to the
Roman government.
The only answer which the partisans of free trade in
grain have evEr attempted to these considerations is, that
the ruin of the agriculture in the central provinces of the
Roman empire was owing, not to the importation of fo-
reign corn as a mercantile commodity, but to its distribu-
tion gratuitously to the poorer citizens of Rome, Con-
stantinople, and some of the larger cities in the empire.
They admit, in its fullest extent, the decay of domestic
agriculture, and consequent ruin of the state, but allege it
was owing to this gratuitous distribution, which was in
fact a poor-law, and not to the free trade in grain. But a
very little consideration must be sufficient to show that
this is an elusory distinction ; and that is what the unre-
stricted admission of foreign wheat by purchase, which in
reality, coupled with the contraction of the currency, de-
stroyed the dominion of the legions.
1. In the first place, the number who received these
gratuitous distributions was, as already shown, so small,
when compared to the whole body of the grain-consuming
population, that they could not materially have affected
the market for agricultural produce in Italy. Not more
than 150,000 persons received rations in Rome daily, and
perhaps as many in the other cities of Italy. What was
this in a peninsula containing at that period sixteen or
eighteen millions of souls, and with 2,300,000* in its capi-
tal alone ? It is evident that the gratuitous distributions
of grain, taking those at their greatest extent, could not
have embraced a fiftieth part of the Italian population.
What ruined the agriculturists, who wed to feed the re-
maining forty-nine fiftieths ? The unlimited importation
of cheap grain from Spain, Egypt, Sicily, and Lybia, and
nothing else.

2. In the next place, even if the gratuitous distributions
of grain had embraced twenty times the number which
they did, nothing can he clearer than that the effect on
agriculture is the same, whether cheap foreign grain is
imported by the private importer, or bought and distri-
buted by the government. If the home-grower loses his
market, it is the same thing to him whether he does so
from the effect of private importation or public distribu-
tion; whether his formidable competitor is the merchant,
who brings the Lybian grain to the Tiber ; or the govern-
ment, which extracts it as a tribute from Sicily or Egypt.
The difference is very great to the urban population,
whether they receive their foreign grain in return for their
own labour, or get it doled out to them from the govern-
ment store as the price of keeping quiet. But to the ru-

rat cultivator it is-immaterial: whether destruction comes
upon him in the one way or the other. It is the impor-
tation offoreign grain which ruins him ; and the effect
is the same, whether the price paid for it is the gold of the
capitalist, or the blood of the legions.

* 'I here ate now 200,00.000 inhab tants in Italy, and it was
certainly as populous in the time of Augustus. when Rome
alone, which now has 18),000, contained 2,385,000 souls.

YORKSHIRE REBECCAITES.—There were Rebeccaitea
in England in the last century, and bold enough were
their proceedings, most certainly. On Friday, the Bth of
May, 1732, (says a Manchester paper of that date,)
" Benjamin Woodsworth, the bellman or common cryer
of Selby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, made procla-
mation, by ring of bell, in the public street of the said
town of Selby, for the inhabitants thereof to bring their
axes and hatchets, at twelve o'clock that night, in order
to cut down the turnpike erected at that place by act of
parliament ; and on the 7th, Bth, 9th, and 11th instant,
divers persons assembled in an outrageous manner, and
cut down and totally destroyed the great gate of the said
turnpike." 4101111•11 MI

THE USE OF TAPERS ON ALTARS.—In a church whose
meetings were held below ground, artifical light was a ne-
cessary accompaniment to every service. Some persons
have viewed in this custom the origin of tapers, employed
in the daytime by Romanists ; and have wished to consi-
der the continuance of candles in churches as a thank-
offering for liberty to worship God in the upper air; a
grateful recollection of former privations and concealment.
But history seems to c)ntradict so favourable a construc-
tion of the original motive of " candle religion," and to
reer it undeniably to a different source. The general
habit of using lamps, mostly of terracotta, is proved by
the discovery of thousands in the catacombs. The cubi-
cula clara, or chapels open to the day, were rare ; perhaps
they did not exist till after the last persecution, when the
fear of discovery no longer forbad an aperture from the
Compagna. But the employment of artificial light for the
mere purpose of rendering objects visible is quite distinct
from the ceremonial use of it, whether to illuminate the
shrine of a saint, or to " do vain honour to the Father of
Lights." This ceremonial use, against which the Homily
energetically declaims, appears to have been generally
connected with idolatry, excepting in the case of the
Jewish ritual, and to have been unknown to Christians
until after the time of Constantine. Toe burning of lights
is specified among the idolatrous rites forbidden by the
Theodosian code : " Let no one, in any kind of place
whatsoever, in any city, burn lights, offer incense, or hang
up garlands, to senseless idols." Vigilantius, in reference
to the custom of using lights in divine service, exclaims :
" We almost see the ceremonial of the Gentiles intro-
duced into the churches under pretence of religion : piles
of candles lighted while the sun is still shining; and every-
where people kissing and worshipping I know not what :
a little dust in a small vessel wrapped up in a precious
cloth. Great honour do such persons render to the blessed
martyrs, thinking with miserable tapers to illumine those
whom the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, shines upon
with the splendour of His majesty." This passage proves
that Vigilantius, who must have known well the customs
of Paganism, was struck with the resemblance between
them and the rites newly introduced into the church.—
Dr. Maitland's Church in the Catacombs.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF MRS. HEMANS.—I can-
not well conceive a more exquisitely beautiful creature
than Mrs. Hemans was—none of the portraits or busts
I have ever seen of her do her justice, nor is it possible for
words to convey to the reader any idea of the matchless
vet serene beauty of her expression. Her glossy waving
hair was parted on her forehead, and terminated on the
sides, in rich and luxuriant auburn curls; there was a
dove-like look in her eyes, and yet there was a chastened
sadness in their expression. Her complexion was remark-
ably clear, and her high forehead looked as pure and spotless
as Parian marble. A calm repose, not unmingled with
melancholy, was the characteristic expression of the face ;
but when she smiled, all traces of sorrow were lost, and
she seemed to be but " a little lower than the angels"—
fitting shrine for so pure a mind ! Let me not be deemed
a flatterer or an enthusiast, in thus describing her, for I
am only one of many, who have been almost as much cap-
tivated by her personal beauty, as charmed by the sweet-
ness and holiness of her productions. If ever poems were
the reflex of the beauties, personal and mental, of their
writers, they were indeed so in the case of Mrs. Hemans.
—Sketches qf Poets, Preachers, and Politicians.
ASCENT OF THE HOLY STAIRCASE AT ROME.—I never
in my life saw anything at once so ridiculous anti so un-
pleasant as this sight : ridiculous in the absurd incidents
inseparable from it, and unpleasant in its senseless and
unmeaning degradation. There are two steps to begin
with, and then a rather broad landing. The more rigid
climbers went along this landing on their knees, as well as
up the stairs ; and the figures they cut in their shuffling
progress over the level surface no description can paint.
Then, to see them watch their opportunity from the porch,
and cut in where there was a place next the wall! And
to see one man with an umbrella (brought on purpose, for
it was a fine day), hoisting himself, unlawfully, from stair
to stair ! And to observe a demure lady of fifty-five or
so, looking back every now and then to assure herself that
her legs were properly disposed ! There were such odd
differences in the speed of different people too. Some get
on as if they were doing a match against time; others
stopped to say a prayer on every step. This man touched
every stair with his forehead, and kissed it ; that man
scratched his head all the way. The boys got on bril-
liantly, and were up and down stairs before the old lady
had accomplished her half-dozen stairs. But most of the
penitents came down very sprightly and fresh, as having
done a real good substantial deed, which it would take a
good deal of sin to counterbalance ; and the old gentleman
in the watch-box was down upon them with his canister
while they were in this humour. I promise you.—
Dickens's Pictures from Italy.
LOVE OF DOGS FOR THEIR HOME.—A Newfoundland
dog of the true breed was brought from that country, and
given to a gentleman who resided near Thames-street, in
London. As he had no means of keeping the animal, ex-
cept in close confinement, he sent him to a friend in Scot-
land by a Berwick smack. When he arrived in Scotland,
he took the first opportunity of escaping, and though he
certainly had never before travelled one yard of the road,
yet he found his way back to his former residence in Fish-
greet H ill, but in so exhausted a state that he could only
express his joy at seeing his master, and then died. So
wonderful is the sense of these dogs, that I have heard of
three instances i❑ which they have voluntarily guarded
the bed-chamber doors of their mistresses, during the
whole night, in the absence of their masters, although on
no other occasion did they approach them. * * *
A few years ago some hounds were embarked at Liverpool
for Ireland, and were safely delivered at a kennel far up in
that country. One of them, not probably liking his quar-
ters, found his way back to the port at which he had been
landed from Liverpool. On arriving at it, some troops
were being embarked in a ship bound for that place. This
was a fortunate circumstance for the old hound, as during
the bustle he was not noticed. He safely arrived at Li-
verpool, and on his old master, or huntsman rather, com-
ing down stairs one morning, he recognised his former ac-
quaintance waiting to greet him. A similar circumstance
happened to some hounds sent by the late Lord Lonsdale
to Ireland. Three of them escaped from the kennel in
that country, and made their appearance again in Leices-
tershire. The love of home, or most probably affection
for a particular individual, must be strongly implanted in
dogs to induce them to search over unexplored and un-
known regions for the being and the home they love.—
Jesse's Anecdotes. _ _

CLI-OPATRA'S BANQUETS TO ANTONY.—On her
landing (from the Cyndus) she invited Antony and his
generals to a dinner, at which the whole of the dishes
placed before him were of gold, set with precious stones,
and the room and the twelwe couches were ornamented
with purple and gold. On Antony's praising the splen-
dour of the sight, as passing anything he had before seen,
she said it was a trifle, and begged he would take the
whole of it as a gift from her. The next day he again
dined with her, and brought a larger number of his friends
and generals, and was of course startled to see a costliness
which made that of the day before seem nothing; and she
again gave him the whole of the gold upon the table, and
gave to each of his friends the couch upon which he sat.
These costly and delicate dinners were continued every
day ; and one evening, when Antony playfully blamed her
wastefulness, and said it was not possible to fare in a more
costly manner, she told him that the dinner of the next
day should cost ten thousand sestertia, or sixty thousand
pounds sterling. This he would not believe, and laid her
a wager she would fail in her promise. When the day
came, the dinner was as grand and dainty as those of the
former days ; but, when Antony called on her to count up
the cost of the meats and wines, she said that she did not
reckon them, but that she would herself banquet on the
ten thousand sestertia. She wore in her ears two
pearls, the largest known in the world, which, like the
diamonds of Eurcpean kings, had come to her with her
crown and kingdom, and were together valued at that
large sum. On the servants removing the meats, they set
before her a glass of vinegar, and she took one of these
pearls from her ear and dropped it into the glass, and
when dissolved drank it off. Plaucus, one of the guests,
who had been made judge of the wager, snatched the
other from the Queen's ear, and saved it from being drunk
up like the first, and then declared that Antony had lost
his bet. The pearl which was afterwards cut in two, was
made into a pair of ear-rings for the statue of Venus in
the Pantheon at Rome; and the fame of the wager may
be said to have made the two half pearls at least as valua-
ble as the two whole ones.—Sharpe's History of Egypt.

THE TOMBS IN THE CATACOMBS GIVE NO SUPPORT
TO RoMIsH SUPERSTITIONS.—When we reflect upon
the trials which awaited the church, and the combined
powers of earth and hell which menaced its earliest years,
it is impossible not to recognise the fostering power of a
heavenly Hand in thus providing a cradle for the infant
community. Perhaps to the protection afforded by the
catacombs, as an impregnable fortress from which perse-
cution always failed to dislodge it, the Church in Rome
owed much of the rapidity of its triumph ; and to the pre-
servation of its earliest sanctuaries its ancient superiority
in discipline and manners. The customs of the first ages,
stamped indelibly on the walls of the catacombs, must
have contributed to check the spirit of innovation soon
observable throughout Christendom : the elements of a
pure faith were written " with an iron pen, in the rock,
for ever ; " and if the church of after-times had looked
back to her subterranean home, " to the whole pit from
whence she was digged," she would there have sought in
vain for traces of forced celibacy, the invocation of saints,
and the representation of Deity in painting or sculpture.
Whatever dates may be attributed to other remains; this
fact is certain, that the Lapidarian Gallery, arranged by
the hands of the modern Romanists, contains no support
whatever of the dogmas of the Council of Trent. Rest-
ing upon this distinction, virtually drawn by themselves,
betweeu what belongs to a pure age, and what to the times
of innovation, we may safely refer to the latter a number
of inscriptions of doubtful date, preserved in the vaults of
St. Peter's, which contain prayers to the Virgin Mary,
and other peculiarities of Romanist theology. The his-
tory of Christendom as well as that of art supplies the
means of fixing the age of many such monuments; for in-
stance, the time of Vigilantius, when some bishops,
moved by his arguments, refused to ordain unmarried
deacons, cannot be confounded with an age in which the
celibacy of the clergy became compulsory : nor can we
easily mistake for the work of a century that knew only
the sign of the cross in its simplest form of two straight
lines, the wretched representation of the passion, in a
crucifix the size of life, smeared with the imitation of
blood, and surmounted by a crown of actual thorns.—Dr,
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs.;

AGRICULTURE AND THE FALL OF ROME.—So general
was the depopulation of the empire in the time of Justi-
nian, that it suggested to many of the emperors the pro-
ject of re-peopling those favoured districts by a fresh
influx of inhabitants. " Justinian 11. had a great taste
for these emigrations. He transported half the popula-
tion of Cyprus to a new city near Cyzicns, called Justi-
nianopolis after its founder. But it was all in vain. The
desolation and ruin of the provinces continued, and up to
the very gates of Constantinople, which was maintained
entirely by grain imported at a low price from Egypt,
and cattle from the Tauric Chersonesus." As a natural
consequence of this entire or principal dependence of
Rome on foreign or provincial raising of grain, there was,
on any interruption of these foreign supplies, the greatest
scarcity and even famine in the metropolis. All the vigi-
lance of the emperors, which was constantly directed to
this object, could not prevent this from taking place.
Tacitus says, that in the scarcity under Claudius, there
only remained a supply of fifteen days for the city. Fa-
mine in Rome was frequent under Augustus, Tiberius,
Claudius, and Nero. Claudian laments, that after Egypt
had been assigned to Constantinople, Rome had come to
derive its subsistence solely from Lybia, and depended
on the double chances of the seasons and the winds.

" Nunquam secura futuri,
Semper mops, ventique fidem poscebat et anni."
" When Africa revolted under Gildo, in the reign of
Honoring, Rome," says Gibbon, " was on the brink of
starvation, from which she was only saved by large im-
portationsfrom Gaul." She still depended on her pro-
vinces; domestic agriculture was ruined. Claudian re-
presents the genius of ancient Rome bewailing, in Pathe-
tic and eloquent terms, her dependence for food on the
nations she had conquered, in words which all govern-
ments rendering their people dependent on foreign sup-
plies would do well to bear in mind. " Formerly," says
the poet, " my prayers used to be that my legions might
triumph on the banks of the Araxes, or that the consul
might display his eagles at Susa ; now all I ask is a sup-
ply of food to avert the extremities of hunger. The
province of Africa, which furnishes corn to my people, is
under the power of Gildo. He intercepts our supplies,
and our food is at his mercy. He sells the harvests which
belong to the descendants of Romulus; he possesses the
fields purchased by my blood. The warrior people which
conquered the world, now dishonoured and in want, en-
(ires the miserable punishment of peace; blockaded by
no enemy, they are like the inhabitants of a besieged
town. Death impends at every moment; there remain
only doubtful supplies for a few days. My greatness has
been my ruin I was safer when my territory was more
; would that its boundaries were once more at my
gates ! But, if lam doomed to perish, at least let me
have a different fate ; let me be conquered by another
Porsenna ; let my city be burnt by a second Brennus.
All things are more tolerable than hunger."—Blackwood.