The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-26 00:00:00

L STANDAhI).

THE ENGLISH NATION IN 1695.—The following curious
document is from a manuscript in the British Museum, by
Gregory King, " Windsor Herald :"—Annual Income—Forty-
two millions and a half stirling, supposed one million less than
in 1638. Taxes—Five millions, and he calculated that the war
of that period could not be sustained beyond 165 without much
improvement in the national income, or a general excise. The
coined gold and silver of 1688 was reckoned at eleven millions
and a half, but reduced in 1695 to seven millions and a half.
In 1698 he calculated that the gold and silver coin would be
reduced to four millions and a half,—viz. to one tenth of the
annual expense. Less than this, he adds, would not circulate
the whole. France was in this year estimated to have a popu-
lation of fourteen millions ; England and Wales, five and a
half ; Holland, two millions and one fifth only. The total
number of the poor of the kingdom maintained in hospitals and
alms-houses was reckoned at 14,400, and their total expense for
maintenance, £334,000; and with officers and contingent ex-
penses, £165,000. Worknouses for the palish poor are not
noticed in this document.
WORDS OF THE WISE.—" The words of the wise are as
goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which
are given from one Shepherd."
The sinner's conscience may be asleep for a while, like a
fierce wild beast gathering vigour; that being awakened by the
hand of God at the approach of sickness or death, it may more
implacably rend, devour, and torment for ever.
If Christians will not love one another till they all come to
the same mind, they may even lay aside that duty till they
come to heaven ; but they who lay it side on that account, do
not look as if they were going thither.
The death of the body 'does no more interrupt the life of the
soul, than the breaking of the chrystal glass destroys the sun-
beam that shined so brightly in it.
There is nothing besides life, that is diminished by addition.
To want prudence is, in some measure, to want virtue.
Other griefs leave the mind strength to grapple with them ;
but oppiessive melancholy cuts the very sinews of the soul, so
that it lies prostrate, and cannot exert itself to throw off the
load.
The idle man is the Devil's cushion, on which he taketh his
free ease.

I will account no sin little; since there is not the least but
works the death of the soul. It is all one, whether Ibe drowned
near the shore or in the midst of the sea. _

Christianity teaches us to put the most favourable construc-
tion on every thing; to submit to evils which we cannot re-
medy; to repel their force by the shield of contrast.; to select
the undeserved mercies which we enjoy from the deserved. ills
which we suffer, and thus " in every th►ng to give thanks."
A holy life has a voice. In more convincing tones, it echoes
the instructions of the lips, which have already been as a foun-
tain of wisdom. Its eloquence never ceases. It speaks when
the tongue is silent, and is either a constant attraction, or a
perpetual reproof.

THE LONDON PItESS.

(FROM THE TRUE SUN.)

We animadverted, as they say in Parliament, in our
Paper of Saturday, upon the painful regrets and patri-
otic sorrow of the noble Chancellor of the Exchequer,
upon finding himself obliged, after " subsequent consi-
deration" to abandon all idea of taking off the Whig-de-
nounced Taxes on Knowledge. His Lordship's " very
sorry," is, as all he utters is, very frank and candid.
He is very sorry to find himself in such a dilemma. He
is very sorry that lie cannot hit upon more specious ar-
guments for inconsistency, prevarication, and disho-
nesty. Each sigh that escapes him is a peg (as the late
Lord Castlereagh would have said) to hang a moral
comment upon. His tears pay " angel visits" to his po-
litical sins, and blot them out as fast as he commits them.
So fast indeed fall these redeeming drops, so freely do
his eyes rain contrition, that his sight is dimmed, and
his Lordship is unable to see even to the extremity of his
own noble nose.

But this system of blotting out as we go, has been
tried by older sinners than Lord Althorp, with less ef-
fect than the all-lauded simplicity of his nature will admit
of his conceiving. Facts are things far too stubborn to
be washed out with a few " very sorry's," and inexpres-
sible regrets. While his Lordship is crying, the country
is crying out. While he is lamenting that these taxes
upon knowledge cannot be removed, the world is laugh-
ing to think that he himself had previously shown that
they could. All sensible people are shaking their sides,
or turning away their heads in disgust, to see his Lord-
ship, with a very lachrymose countenance, and many pro-
testations of sincerity, labouring to show that the taxes
are still bad, but that it is good to keep them on; and
insisting that there is no outlet to knowledge, though the
direct road to which he was wont to act as a finger-post,
is still visible to everybody but himself.