The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-09-17 00:00:00

peculiarly adapted for Spouts, Gutters
or Wooden Roofs, Tarpawlings.

Brilliant Black at 25., and r
PS. -Orders received by T
chants, Great Howard•etreet
street, Vauxhall-road, Liverpc

VARIETIES

The best edition of Newton's " Principia"• isthat of the
Jesuits, the preface of which says that, "as it has been
decreed by the Church that the sun goes round the earth,
of ,course it does scr; but nevertheless Newton's theory
is consistent with the facts."

THE KNOCKIN43-UP” BUSINESS AT TWOPENCE PER
E . —ln passing through Manchester, my attention
was attracted by a card to the above effect, placed in the
window of a decent house. Not being able to make out
the meaning of this strange announcement,. I determined
to inquire at the "-knocking-up" establishment itself.
When I asked the master of the house, he informed me
that he was employed by a number of young men and
women, who worked in factories, to call them up by a
certain early hour in the morning ; for if they happened to
oversleep themselves, and to arrive at the mill after the
work had commenced, they were liable to the infliction of
a fine ; and therefore, to insure being up in good time,
employed him to " knock them up " at twopence a week.
—Dickens's Household Words.
PLAGIARISM OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.—He borrowed all
his general ideas on every subject on which he spoke from
other men, but he supported and illustrated them by a
vast variety of facts, for which he was indebted only to
his own untiring industry and vast powers of;
His arguments against the Catholics were taken from Mr.
Percival and Lord Eldon ; those for them from Mr. Can-
ning and Mr. Plunkett. In advocating the contraction
of the currency, he merely worked out the principles of
Mr. ;Horner and Mr. Huskisson, and the Bullion Com-
mittee of 1810; in supporting the corn laws he adopted
the views of Lord Castlere igh and Lord Liverpool. In
introducing free trade he embraced the views of Mr. Cob-
den and the Anti-Corn-Law League. We are not aware
of a single instance in which an original idea or expression
can be traced to Sir Robert Peel, though no man has
more frequently introduced, or more ably supportedenovel
measures in legislation. Even the celebrated expression,
so long the watchword of the Conservative party—".lt is
in the Registration Courts that the battle of the Consti-
tutionis to be fought and won," was not his own. It
appeared in capital letters in this magazine, which -Sir
Robert Peel regularly read, on May 1, 1835, before he
ever introduced it into a speech. His mind was adoptive,
not creative. He was the mirror of the age, not its di-
rector.—Blackwood's Mag.
ITALIAN BEARDS AND POLICEMEN.—An Italian gen-
tleman, who has just returned from Milan, gives a very
amusing account of the present state of travelling in
Italy. Our hero is a fat gentleman, who indulges in a
considerable amount of beard, which, like Mr. Pickwick's
horse, got him into a great deal of trouble. " You must
cut off that beard," said the police authorities at every
post. " Then I shall no longer answer to the description
in the passport," replied the fat gentleman. " What are
you going to Milan for ?" " To see my parents."
" Who are they ?" At this point of the interrogation
the traveller found it necessary to fumble in his pocket,
and as he did so his interrogator eradually softened his
tone. " You're not a political character ?" " Not at
all ; I think the people ought never to speculate on poli-
tics." " Ahl I see, you're an honest man." By this
time the money is actually out of his pocket, and glisten;
ing in the palm of his hand. By seine strange accident,
it silently falls into the fob of the police-officer, and the
scene concludes,with a kiss, and bon viagoio caro alnico
The fat gentleman, although occasionally thus highly
flattered by the .police authorities, assured me his beard
cost him a large sum of money between Milan and
Naples ; but there was no help for it. "II feared to
shave," observed the unhappy man, " because it was
registered bearded; in passport ;so I travelled all the
way, calling myself a fool, and hating a beard., which, I
confess, had hitherto been the pride of my life."—Nea-
politan Corrnponden tor the Daily News.
A TRAVELLER'S TALE.—When this was over, and the
lady had obeyed a call to the piano frankly and well, a
gentleman asked Mr. M`Gillyray what truth there was in
the accounts of the dancing pheasants in the north-west,
adding, that although he was at first incredulous, be could
scarcely remain so after Mr. (Could's statements respect-
ing the pastimes of the bower bird of Australia. Here
our friend Mr. Thompson said he had repeatedly stumbled
upon what might be called Al "pheasant's ball," among
the glaies on the eastern flanks af the Rocky Mountains.
In those grassy countries the almost noiseless tread of the
horses' feet (unshod) sometimes is not noticed by the
busy birds, but the intruder must not be seen. " The
pheasants choose a beach," said Mr. T., " for the dance,
a tree with boughs, several on the same level, and only
full leafed at their ends. The feathered spectators group
around. Six or seven pheasants step on the trembling
stage, and begin to stamp and prance. and twinkle their
little feet like so many Bavaderes—skipping with balances
et chassez from bough to bough—or they sit with curtsey
and flutter, arching their glowing necks, and opening and
closing their wings in concert. But, in truth, the dance
is indescribable, most singular, and laughable. When it
has lasted ten minutes, a new set of performers step for-
ward, and the exhibition may last a couple of hours., '
confess to have been at the time greatly staggered by this
story; but we see it has been verified, as well as another
as incredible, from the same gentleman. He told us that
in the far north-west, near the Arctic circle, the ice forms
over a river, and the water sometimes deserts its bed.
There is a dry channel, with a high arch of rough ice
overhead, tinted white, green, and earth-coloured, if the
banks are lofty. Ile said he had travelled for the best
past part of a mile in such a tunnel, simply because it was
the beet road,-13;yetele Shoe and Canoe,