The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-09-09 00:00:00

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.

The Throne ! the Throne of England
That hath for ages stood,
For which the true, the brave, the free,
Have shed their noblest blood.
Now in its hour of utmost need
Let all repeat the vow :
" Our fathers have upheld the throne,
We will uphold it now."

The Lords ! the Lords of England I
The bulwarks of her power,
Her champions in the time of dread,
Her strength in danger's hour.
That strength the vaunts of hosts of foes
Have never made to bow ;
To traitors it bath never bent,
And what shall bend it now ?

The Church I the Church of England !
Through martyrs' blood and flame,
The holy house of God bath stood,
And standeth still the same.
Our sires in days of war and strife
Bled for that Church ; and how
Can we reflect on what they bore,
And not protect her now ?

The foes I the foes of England
That ne'er have conquered yet :
In battle-plain, in council-tent,
Their star bath ever set.
But aye the crown of victory
Ilath decked her patriots' brow,—
They have been conquerors of old,
They shall be conquerors now

Now is the time to strike the blow
For truth and liberty ;
Be England's glory all our care,
Our watchword, "VICTORY ;"
Thus must we fight for freedom's cause
And heed our solemn vow,
They have not beaten us of old,
They shall cot beat us now.

LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.

Lives of the Queens of Scotland,

By Agnes Strickland

Vol. 11. Edinburgh : Blackwoods.
The lives of Mary of Lorraine (consort of James V.)
and the Lady Margaret Douglas (daughter of Queen
Margaret Tudor) are contained in the present volume.
The work is written in a pleasing and ►ively style, and
altogether free from that political bias to which so many
of our historians (and amongst them very modern ones)
have been unfortunately too prone. No pains appear to
have been spared in collating the original documents;
and while we think Miss Strickland promises to be quite
as successful with the " Queens of Scotland" as she was
with the " Queens of England," we are sure the getting
up of the work reflects the highest credit on the publishers.
The following extract is interesting, as it refers to the

BIRTH OF MARY STUART,

"The pause of national gloom in which Scotland had been
plunged by the disaster at Solway Moss, and the morbid me-
lancholy of the King. was at length broken by the accouche-
relent of the desolate Queen in her wintry bower at Linlithgow
Palace. The people had confidently anticipated a prince—for
hitherto Mary of Lorraine had brought forth men children
only; but now. at this distressing crisis, when a msle heir to
the throne of Scotland appeared more requisite than at any
other period, she for the first time gave birth to a daughter.
The unwelcome "maiden bairn," who thus entered an inimical
world in evil hour, bringing disappointment with her as her
ominous heritage, was that beautiful and ill-fated princess,
Mary Stewart, literally the child of sorrow. But, whether wel-
come or unwelcome, she was the heiress of the realm, and im-
mediately recognised as such, though not after the manner
prescribed by ancient custom ; for the royal sire, whose duty it
was to have been at his consort's side on that occasion, to greet
the new-born infant with his blessing, and present her to his
assembled peers and prelates as his undoubted offspring and
lawful successor, (in failure o' male issue,) was far away, reck-
less of every consideration on earth but that morbid sense of
dishonour which was wearing away his life. flow bitter to the
poor Queen must have been the sudden change which, after
five years of off, ctionate union, had come over the darkened
spirit of her royal husband, and without any apparent fault of
hers, produced an estrangement as unaccountable as it was
cruel. Cases of monomania were not understood in the six-
teenth century ; and those inscrutable impulses originating in
heart-disease, or inflammatory action of the brain, were attri-
buted to wilful perversity in the sufferers, and too often treated
by their near-ist and dearest ties of kindred as crimes. But
whatever were the panes that oppressed the heart of the anxi-
ous consort of James V. on this trying occasion, she endured
them silently we may rest assured; for if a single word of a
guerulons or impatient nature had escaped her in her distress,
it would have been chronicled to her reproach, with exaggera-
tions, by her enemies. Mary of Lorraine had completed her
seven-and-twentieth year a few days previously to the occur-
rence which was destined to give a fatal importance to the resi-
due of her We—the birth of the infant heiress of the crown.
The most credible as well as the most numerous authorities,on
that somewhat disputed point, affirm that this event took
place on the Bth of December, 1551."

Blackwood's. Magazine Edinburgh : Blackwoods

The political article in the present number, " Disfran-
chisement of the Boroughs." is a severe commentary on
the policy of the Whigs and their new Reform Bill. " A
Campaign in Taka" is a curious but interesting narrative
of travel, from a recent work by Von Werne. "My
Novel ; or, Varieties in English Life," Part 13, is not
quite so amusing as in some precedine, numbers. There
is also a review of Mr. Ruskin's works on Painting and
Architecture ; a paper on Portuguese politics ; a clever
tale, " The Congress and the Agapedome," in which the
absurdities of the apostles of peace are exposed ; and a
continuation of " Paris in 1851," from which we extract
the following description of

THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDS

"This is beyond comparison the finest space in Paris. I
i
cannot call it a square, nor does t equal in animation the Boule-
vard ; but in the profusion of noble architecture it has no rival
in Paris, nor in Europe. Vise la Despotisme ! every inch of it
is owing to Monarchy. Republics build nothing, if we except
prisons and workhouses. They are proverbially squalid, bit-
ter, and beggarly. What has America, with all her boasting,
ever built, but a warehouse or a conventicle? The Roman
Republic, after seven hundred years' existence, remained a
collection of hovels till an Emperor faced them with marble. If
Athens exhibited her universal talents in the splendour of her
architecture, we must recollect that Pericles was her master
through life—as substantially despotic, by the aid of the popu-
lace, as an Asiatic king by his guards; and recollect, also, that
an action of damages was brought against him for " wasting
the public money on the Parthenon," the glory of Athens in
every succeeding age. Louis Quatorze, Napoleon, and Louis
Philippe—two openly, and the third secretly, as despotic as the
Sultan- -were the true builders of Paris. As I stood in the
centre of this vast enclosure, I was fully struck with the effect
of scene. The sun was sinking into a bed of gold and crimson
clouds, that threw their hue over the long line of the Champs
Elys&s. Before me were the two great fountains, and the
Obelisk of Luxor. The fountains had ceased to play from the
lateness of the hour, but still looked massive and gigantic; the
obelisk looked shapely and superb. The gardens of the Tuille-
ries were on my left —deep dense masses of foliage, surmounted
in the distance by the tall roofs of the old Palace ; on my right,
the verdure of the Champs Elys&s, with the Arc de l'Etoile
wising above it, at the end of its long and noble avenue; in my
front the Palace of the Legislature, a chaste and elegant struc-
ture ; and behind me, glowing in the sunbeams, the Madeleine,
the noblest church—l think the noblest edifice, in Paris, and
perhaps not surpassed in beauty and grandeur, for its size, by
any place of worship in Europe. The air cool and sweet from
the foliage. the vast place almost solitary, and undisturbed by
the cries which are incessant in this babel during the day, yet
with that gentle confusion of sounds which makes the murmur
and the music of a great city. All was calm, noble, and
soothing."

Dublin University Magazine. Dublin : M`Glashan

" The Church of Rome in her Relations with Secular
Governments," is a useful digest of the reports presented
to Parliament last session, on the relations between the
Church of Rome and foreign governments. " Leaves
from the Portfolio of a Manager" are continued; as also
" Maurice Tiernay, the Soldier of Fortune," of which
three chapters are given. The following extract from a
very clever article on the Water Cure, describes a visit, at
Graefenberg, in Upper Silesia, to

PRI ESSNITZ, THE RENOWNED WATER DOCTOR,

" At first sight he strikes one as harsh, reserved, and unpre-
possessing in a high degree. He is little above the middle size,
has an upright, stiff, and somewhat military carriage, and is
spare, but muscular and active-looking. He has a rigid cast
of features ; a firmly-compressed, determined mouth, intelli-
gent eye, and well-formed forehead. His weather-beaten,
ellovvish complexion, and numerous and deep wrinkles, make
him look old fur his actual time of I,fe, which is little above
fifty. After introducing myself and mentioning my object in
coming hither, I spoke a few words with him, in order to as-
certain whether his experience led him to think that a case of
debility in a person in whom I was deeply interested, and
whose symptoms I described to him as well as I could, was
likely to derive benefit from the peculiar mode of treatment
pursued at this place. But he very frankly replied, after a few
practical inquiries which seemed to imply a knowledge of the
nature of the case, that he had great doubts as to its applica•
bility ; and, moreover, declared his conviction that the present
season (the beginning of October) was, at any rate, quite too
advanced, ant the weather already too cool for any person of
weak circulation, and little reactive power in their constitu-
tion, to attempt commencing " the water-cure." Those who
have made a beginning in summer, and already added mate-
rially to the general strength of their system by the process,
may go on with it during the winter; for this watering-place
is, in a more remarkable degree than any of the other baths of
Germany, independent of season ; some convalescents prolong-
ing their stay throughout the whole course of the cold weather
with safety and advantage. Having thus gratified the desire I
had so long felt to see this remarkable man, and obtained the
opinion I came to seek. I felt nowise prompted to prolong the
interview. Priessnitz was too much the man of business in his
manner, looked too expressly the Atlas of the place, with end-
less heavy work on his shoulders, for my venturing needlessly
on the dangerous ground of a protracted conversation. Nor
was there in his reception ought which invited familiarity or
confidence. Though he is without anything of what is called
n.anner or address, he seems, by mere force of character, quite
at ease. Abrupt and unceremonious, he appears to be totally
indifferent to pleasing; and, doubtless,finds in his "brusque,"
short, decided manner, a potent means of awing his patients,
ensuring their obedience to his directions, and husbanding his
own time; for with such a medical adviser few consultants
would venture, I apprehend. on unnecessary prolixity. In-
deed, from what I afterwards beard of him, he seemed by no
means a general favourite with those who apply to him for his
advice, though they have every confidence in his skill and sin-
cerity, and faith in the generally successful result of his treat-
ment."

Fraser's Magazine. London : W. Parker and Son.
The present number contains some very excellent pa
pens, amongst which may be noticed " Rome and Italy
from 1815 to 1850," " Memoir of Bishop Copleston,"
" Notes on the Newspaper Stamp," and a continuation
of the " Revelations of a Common-place Man." From
the latter we extract a description of what the hero's aunt
considered her