The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-09-26 00:00:00

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NATIVE IRISH PARLIAMENT A CENTURY SINCE.—
The Parliament of that century was a jobbing aristocracy,
banded into different parties, without much, if any, distinc-
tion of principle. The English government used their pa-
tronage to • ..-c! ase a majority. But the mouths of one

party we. sooner stopped by pensions and places,
than another rose to complain of profusion in the name
of their country, and to •?,sk for new extravagance in their
own. A fresh purchase only led to fresh pretensions.
and the very pensioners themselves had the effrontery to
exclaim against the burdens of which their own faction
and corruption had been the cause. While they have
acutely felt the injury and degradation to which they
have been subjected by English laws, every relaxation of
undue severity, and every dawn of a kinder disposition
towards them, has been met by a warmth of gratitude and
zeal of attachment which seem to have no memory for
past injuries, and no suspicions of future injustice.—Cor-
respondence of the Fourth Duke of Bedford.

HARVEST HoME.—Autum has been from the begin-
ning of time the season of sports and jollity. Even its
toils, among a simple people, have something pleasant in
them. When the husbandman sows, his mind rests on
the long and anxious interval during which an inclement
season, or the devastations of beasts and birds, or a thous-
and accidents, may intervene to blast his prospects. But
the reaper already touches the reward of all his cares and
toils ; the rustling grain into which he puts his sickle is
already in imagination garnered up; he is on that ecstatic
border-land where anticipation and reality fade into each
other like the tints of the rainbow. Autumn is also, in
such a society, the season when the labours of husbandry,
requiring method and forethought, are about to give way
to the chase and other occupations, which, from their
varying plans and unexpected incidents, have quite as
much of pleasure as of business in them. And lastly,
autumn is to them the season of abundance, when the
garner is filled, and the wine-press or the mash-tub runs
over, and the owner's heart expands with his wealth, and
welcomes all corners to taste of his first-fruits. Hence,
in all climates, of all festivals the autumnal is the most
jolly.

THE BACHELOR'S LETTER.—" It is now ten round
years since I sate myself down at my parsonage, and
commenced to preach and to hold examination, to bap-
tize and bury, and attend to my calling in the power of
my mind and well-meaning of my heart, and permitted
my house, as well as my kitchen and cellar, &c., to be
attended to by any one who for money would be
pleased to see after them. My sister once paid a visit to
me and my house. Brother!' said she, this is going
~,ear-box is emptied in two da• and a

nays,
pound of coffee a-week is not enough ! The potatoes
are treated as if they were to rain down from heaven ;
but it is no wonder that Madame Oberg's pigs are so fat!
The rolls are brought from town! It is a shame not to
bake at a parsonage! In the dairy three milk-pans are
standing without cream. My brother! my dear brother!
you are cruelly robbed and cheated ! I had myself re-
marked that lately the hens had eaten more coin than was
henlike, and Madame Oberg's pigs were continually lying
in my way before the steps. ' But,' said my sister, why
do you not live as becomes a minister and pastor of the
Church? Why are you not married? Did not our Lord
see that it was good for Adam—who certainly, however,
had small household cares—to be alone; and did he not
say; I will give him a help-meet, to whom he may cleave'
—` who shall cleave to him, it is written,' interrupted I :
' Women should never meddle with quotations, for they
always quote wrong.'—' Ay, it is just one and the same
thing,' answered my sister ; ' and when our Lord said he
would give Adam a help-meet, He clearly showed thereby
that a man cannot help himself without a wife.' "—From
Mary Howitt's new work," The President's Daughters."
THEATRICAL CRITICISM FORTY YEARS AGO.—On
the sth of October, 1805, a revival of Farquhar's comedy,
The Constant Couple, was advertised for that evening's
representation at Drury-lane Theatre. Late in the after-
noon handbills had been circulated, stating that, in con-
sequence of the sudden illness of Mr. Elliston, who was
to have personated Sir Harry Midair, the comedy
would unavoidably be deferred, and She Stoops to Con-
quer was then substituted. The following critique (!) ap-
peared in a journal called the British Neptune
" Theatre Royal, Drury-lane. Last night Farquhar's
sprightly comedy, The Constant Couple, was most bar-
barously murdered at this theatre. The lively knight
was by Mr. Elliston reduced to a dull piece of affectation
—it was Tom Errand in Beau Clincher's clothes.
Clincher was altogether lost in the hands of Bannister—it
approached Farquhar as nearly as the frog resembled the
ox in the fable. Miss Mellon wnc not thoroughly un-
ifica,m, in net representation of Angelica; but criticism
has not language severe enough to deprecate the imperti-
nence of Barrymore presuming to put himself forward in
the part of Colonel Standard. We were scarcely less
offended with Dowton's attempt at Alderman Srnuogler
it was only not absolutely the worst thing we ever saw."
Elliston, Barrymore, Dowton, and Bannister determined
to be revenged, and commenced a prosecution against the
old Il eptune, which would inevitably have brought him
from his coral palace to the dry floor of the Court of
King's Bench, but for the mercy of the very mortals
themselves whom he had so deeply injured. The prose-
cution was stayed—a compromise was entered into, the
proprietors of the paper paying, of c-urse, all expenses,
and a supplemental fifty pounds to the Drury-lane
Theatrical Fund.—Raymond's " Elliston Papers" in
Ainsworth's Magazine.

IRISH SOLDIERS IN THE LEGION.—There are no
where to be found more amusing fellows than Irish sol-
diers, full as they all are of quaint humour and smart
repartee. " I have heard many droll traits and stories of
the Irish soldiery under Evans. On the 16th of March,
'37, when the Queen's troops were in full retreat, my
squadron was formed up on the road to Hernani, occasi-
onally charging down when the opportunity presented
itself', in order to cover the retreat. Up come an Irish
inHutry soldier, who, although following the example
pretty generally given him, and retreating, still seemed to
do it a contrecteur, and kept up a sort of running fight on
his own account, perfectly independent of anybody else
in the world. The fellow was steaming from what appear-
ed to be a mixture of heat and fury, and his face was as
red as Dan O'Connell's after a few hours' speech to the
finest pisanthry. His lips and cheeks were black with
biting cartridges. `Be —l' said he, thumping his
musket-butt down on the ground, and wiping his face
with a rag he took out of his shako, ` Be ! and they
call Join Carlos a pretindher! What a devil of a fellow
he'd be if he was in airnest !' When Irun was taken,
plunder was the order of the day, and a staff officer told
me that he met a soldier of an Irish regiment with a
case of beautiful Geneva watches in his hand. Knowing
that the fellow would either get drunk and lose them, or
sell them at five francs a piece to the French officers and
others whom curiosity brought in crowds across the
Bidassoa, my friend thought he might as well have one of
the time-keepers. ` Hollo ! my man,' cried he, 'give me
a watch, and here's a four-dollar bit for you.' And is
it four du '.l ye're afther giving me ? ' said Paddy. 'Ali!
then, yer . our, take a handful of em.' And he held
up the box. The officer laughed and took one ; but he
derived little benefit from his bargain, for bivouacking a
night or two after some marauder stole it out of the breast
of his jacket while he slept."—New Monthly Magazine.

ANECDOTE OF A COOS}
of a g

—An extraordinary instance
_ ose attaching itself to a man, " following him about
like a dog," was inserted in several journals last week,
copied from a co

nntry paper, and as an accompaniment
to it an amusing account of a Canada goose conceiving a
violent attachment to a dog is related i❑ Sharpe's copy of
" Willughby's Ornithology." He says—" The following
account of a Canada goose is so extraordinary, that I am
aware it would with difficulty gain credit, were not a
whole parish able to vouch for the truth of it. The Ca-
nada geese are not fond of a poultry-yard, but are rather
of a rambling disposition. One of these birds, however,
was observed to attach itself, in the strongest and most
affectionate manner, to the house dog, and would never
quit the kennel except for the purpose of feeding, when it
would return again immediately. It always sat by the
dog, but never presumed to go into the kennel, except in
rainy weather. Whenever the dog barked, the goose
would cackle and run at the person she supposed the dog
barked at, and try to bite him by the heels. Sometimes
she would attempt to feed with the dog; but this the dog,
who treated his faithful companion rather with indiffer-
ence, would not permit. This bird would not go to roost
with the others at night, unless driven by main force;
and when in the morning she was turned into the field
she would never stir from the yard gate, but sit there the
whole day, in sight of the dog. At last, orders were given
that she should be no longer molested, but suffered to
accompany it as she liked ; being thus left to herself, she
ran about the yard with him all the night ; and what is
particularly extraordinary, and can be attested by the
whole parish, whenever the dog went out of the yard and
ran into the village, the goose always accompanied him,
contriving to keep up with him by the assistance of her
wings ; and in this way of running and flying, followed
him all over the parish. This extraordinary affection of
the goose towards the dog, which continued to his death,
two years after it was first observed, is supposed to have
originated from his having accidentally saved her from a
fox in the very moment of distress. While the dog was
ill, the goose never quitted him day or night, not even to
feed ; and it was apprehended she would have been starved
to death, had not orders been given for a pan of corn to
be set every day close to the kennel. At this time the
goose generally sat i❑ the kennel, and would not suffer
any one to approach it, except the person who brought
the dog's or her own food. The end of this faithful bird
was melancholy; for whe❑ the dog died she would still
keep possession of the kennel ; and a new house-dog
being introduced, which in size and colour resembled
that lately lost, the poor goose was unhappily deceived,
and going into the kennel as usual, the new inhabitant
seized her by the throat, and killed her."