The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-10 00:00:00

SELECTIONS.

MOUNT VEsuvros.—The crater is a vast circular pit,
with nearly perpendicular walls, about two miles in cir-
cumference and 200 feet deep. Its bottom consists of
waves of black lava or scoriae, and in the centre of it rises
a cone of scorim to the height of 150 or 200 feet. This
cone has two openings on its summit, from which a con-
tinual emission of white vapour takes place ' • and about
once in five minutes there is an explosion Jeard far within
the mountain, and which is followed in a few seconds by
the ejection of a vast quantity of fumes and fragments of
melted lava, which, by daylight, have the colour of blood,
but after sunset, are of a dazzling white heat,
while the
vapour is brilliantly illuminated so as to appear like flame.
Lava escapes in abundance from the base of the cone, and
flows beneath the hardened crust which forms the floor Of
the crater. Occasionally, however, it melts its _way
through, and flows in a broad stream over the surface,
which in its turn becomes hardened by cooling, and a
fresh eruption takes place elsewhere. In this manner the
whole crater will eventually be filled up, and when this
occurs, an eruption on a great scale may be expected.—
Polytechnic Review and Magazine.
PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE.-110013011, the author of
"The Seasons," wrote in bed his beautiful rhapsody on
early rising, commencing, " Falsely luxurious ! will not
man awake ?"

GEORGE FREDERICK COOKS.—His passion for strong
drink was so great, that when he was without money, or
means of raising it, he has been known to go to a pawn-
broker's, where he was in the habit of applying, and to say,
" I want five guineas; bat I have nothing to pledge but
myself—give me the money, they'll be sure to redeem me
when they want me." And having sent word to the thea-
tre of his situation, he has frequently been found seated
on the pawnbroker's counter with a duplicate pinned to
his button-bole.—Aingworth't Magazine.
FORCE OF GuepownEß.—Tha enormous force of in-
flamed gunpowder is known to depend on the evolution of
various gases, the volume of which, when cooled. it i•
easy enough to determine ; but at the moment of their
formation they are vastly dilated by heat, so that their ac-
tual effective volume and pressure cannot be justly ascer-
tained. It has been pretty correctly ascertained that a
cubic inch of gunpowder is converted by ignition into 250
cubic inches of permanent gases, which. according to Dr.
Dutton, are increased in volume eight times at the time of
their formation by the expansive influence of heat. Assu-
ming these data to be true, confined and ignited powdter
will exeq. at least, 'a
force of 20001bs. on every square
inch !—Polytechnic Review and Magazine.
LORD ASHLEY—CHARACTERISTIC ANECDOTE.—In

Lord Ashby I always found a r•-ady will to mmtribute
heart and soul, as though he really loved it, to the welfare
of others. The last time he ever came to Eton (at least,
I think so), h ►ravelled inside the coach, and I was mi

the outside, behind. There was a poor woman sitting
near me, who was evidently far gone in a decline, and had
' set out from London for the purer air of Henly-on-
Thames. It came on to rain heavily, and in such a man-
ner as to augur continuance. We changed horses at an
inn, and the poor woman moaned piteously, for the doctor
had told her, that any fresh cold would he fatal. During
the silence of the coach stopping, Lord Ashley heard her.
' on which he got out, and came round the coach, and
quickly asked me what was the matter. I told him briefly,
and it ended in the noble lord giving up his place inside,
to the poor woman, and himself taking a seat amid the
pouring rig& on the outside. While we were standing in
the passallll6f the inn, just after the woman had got in-
side, amid a profusion of blessings on Lord Ashley, he
said to me, " Well, this is somewhat unpleasant, for I
have no great coat with me" but immediately sprang for-
ward, as though the deed of kindness was sufficient com-
pensation for a g,od docking. The guard, however, lent
• his lordship an old rough coat, which was in reserve for
night-work, and in this Lard Ashley enveloped himself,
and arrived safely at the Crown Inn, at Slough, then kent
by one Mrs. Harell. On arriving there, Mr. Maitland,
who owned a mansion at Henley-on-Thames, wanted an
inside place; hilt Lord Ashley quickly went to the coach-
office, and paid for the poor woman's inside seat as far as
Henley.—Bentley's Miscellany.
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF
FOYPT.—It was now about mid-day, and the sun, quite
free from clouds. smote upon the Pyramid with great ve-
hemence ; so that, what with the warmth produced by the
labour of the ascent and the ardour of its rays, we expe-
rienced a heat resembling that of an oven. The air was
clear, and our view unimpeded on all sides. To the
south, scattered in irregular groups, were the Pyramids
of Sakkarah, Abousir, and Dashnur. glittering in the sun,
like enormous tents; and appearing from their number,
and the confusion of their arrangernent,f.to extend to an
unknown distance into the desert. On the west was the
wilderness of Libya. stretching away to the edge of the
horizon; arid, undulating, boundless, apparently desti-
tute of the very principle of vegetation, an eternal prey to
the sand-storm and the whirl-wind. A flock of gazelles
or a troop of Bedouins scouring across the plain, would
have relieved its monotony; but neither the one nor the
bother appeared. In the foreground the sand of various
colours, yellow, dusky brown, and grey, swelled into hil-
locks which looked like the nuclei of new pyramids. To
the north and the east the landscape presented a perfect
contrast to this savage scenery : night and day are not
more different ; and if the contests of Tyrhon and Osiris
represented symbolically the struggles between the desert
and the river—the one to nourish. the other to destroy—
the gods were still there, drawn up in battle array riga net
each other ; though the evil demon, alas ! had evidently
long prevailed, and was daily curtailing the empire of his
adversary. All, however, that remains of the valley of
the Nile is luxuriantly covered with verdure and beauty;
' corn-fields. green meadows, woods of various growth and
foliage, scattered villages, a thousand shining sheets of
water, and, above all, the broad glittering stream of the
Nile spreading fertility on all sides like a god. Beyond
this were the white buildings of Cairo, Babb lien, and Rho-
dab, hacked by the leng lofty range of the Gebel Mokat-
tam, reflecting the bright warm rays of the mid-day sun.
—L./Ovary of Travel.
PRINCIPLES OF THE JESUITS.—For a stake of suffi-
cient magnitude there is no rt•asqn to doubt that the prin-
ciples of the Jesuit Society would impel them to the em-
ployment of any or all of these criminal instruments. The
fumtimental rule ofAtie society, implicit obedience, and
the governing rule eircoeduct for its directors, the justifi-
cation of the means by the end, necessarily imply as much.
In these two principles lie the germs of all possible evil;
tor it is the duty of the Jesu-t to execute every command
of his superior, and it is the duty of the superior to effect-
uate the good of the church by every available means—
honest, if he can ; if not, by the needful means, be they
what they may. In times of peace, and among well !Ten-
lated communities, the aims of the society require no ac-
tual crime. Activity in instilling high church principles
into the minds of the youthful gentry, regularity in trans-
mitting written accounts of their proceedings to their su-
periors, and the prosecution of a small intriguing litera-
ture, are, in that phase, their chief, indeed their only vo-
cations ; many of them, accomplished and good-natured
men, remainii.g unconscious of the fearful extent to which
their obligations have committed them, and taught with a
laudable prudence to laugh at the idea of their obedience
being ever tested, beyond a clever apology for he last
bull, or a white lie at the most, in coutradictitigrstne in-
convenient scandal. But in times of revolution or social
excitement, when decisive blows have to be struck, ene-
mies discredited or silenced, and powerful individuals won
over or set aside, then scandals must be disseminated
with the speed of the wind, fanatical passions be raised to
their highest pitch, impeachments be sustained by the
needful evidence, riots be fomented, and, in the necessi-
ties of a great crisis, assassinations themselves be perpe-
trated, without hesitation, - without remorse, without
shame, but rather as so many acts of honourable duty,
piously done for the glory of God, and the good of the
Catholic Church. Christendom, which has given birth to
such a system, and suffers its continuance, reproaches
Hindooism for its Thugee with hut a bad grace.—Dublin
University Magazine.

TRAVELLING " DAWK."—It is a delightful thing to
travel dawk. 1 suspect that people in England know as
little of the manner in which we get over the ground in
that fashion as they do of other matters Asiatic. We are
supposed to wander over wide and desolate plains, upon
extensive elephants. attended by a gentleman in front,
who drives a species of boat-hook into the animal's head,
and a gentleman behind, who screens us from the piercing
rays of the sun with an ample umbrella. borne folks, who
have very general ideas of Oriental life, place us on the
backs of camels, and suppose us to make one of a pa-
triarchal cavalcade ; while others, of more brilliant ima-
ginations, take it for granted that we start by the mail,
'• all on springs, like a corps de ballet," fall fast asleep at
Calcutta and wake at Delhi. Few ever heard of The
Dawk, or can cohceive it possible that distances of a thou-
sand miles are accomplished in little boxes borne on the
shoulders of four sable fellow-creatures. Yet such is the
most common mode of transit, and, to my plain thinking,
it is the most agreeable and independent method of getting
over ground known to the civilised world—always except-
ing the luxury of your own carriage, fast post horses, and
reads as level and smooth as a bowling green. It is true
the bones acne aft, r a long dawk trip in a manner to con-
vey a lively idea of rheumatism ; you can never sleep more
than two hours at a stretch, because you are disturbed by
the appeals of the relay bearers, who want buxis at every
stage—the oil-fed flambeaux of your torch-bearers are
flashed under your very nose the whole night through—,
and your ears regaled incessantly with the buzzing, hum-
ming, chanting, of your bearers—but sill the dawk is a
delightful species of carriage. We have not yet arrived at
that point of civilization when travelling can be rendered
absolutely comfortable under any circumstances. 'rake
the railroad ! You see but little on your journey. arid a
pebble may whisk you to eternity before you can say Jack
Robinson. The mail ! You are pent up for hours with a
curious, forbidding old woman, via-a via, afflicted with an
obstinate cough and a yelping lap-dog; on your right is an
invalid attorney, who must have both windows up, and the
fourth of the partie carr6e has impregnated his garments
with cigar-smoke; the guard allows you but little time to
bolt a few slices_of indurated, time-honoured hem, and a
cup of boilingrhot tea, and there is every chance of a de-
tention, on the most desolate part of the road, from a lbst
linchpin or a broken coach-pole. Their for the travelling
o' horseback, as is our wont in Persia and Asiatic Turkey,
it is wed enough for the ride, but you are exposed to all
weathers, subjected to long halts, or relays of unknown
brutes. A quiet camel ? Sea-sickness without the com-
fort of a steward and a swingcot. A ship I—according to
Sam Johnson, imprisonment, with the chance of being
drowned." A boat on the Nile, the Ganges, the Eu-
phrates? Confinement, sand-banks, contrary winds, and
tedium vita. Locomotion—barring the carriage and post
horses aforesaid—is monstrously an ioying iu the best
form : but as it is not given to mortals to transport them-
selves without auxiliary aid, and as every spot on the fair
earth is worth visiting, commend me to the Indian Dawk.
You are your own master; your pidankeen is at once your
arm-chair by day and your b d by night; your dressing-
table, your kitchen, your library, are all compactly stowed
before you. Your patient bearers stop when it pleaseth
you, and where it pleaseth you. Here you feast your eyes
upon a magnificent landscape, in which silvery rivers rush
through luxuriant jungles, and lofty mountains, covered
with rich foliage, invite you to add to the wealth of your
portfolio; there you are arrested by the picturesque re-
mains of some antique temple, the half-effaced inscriptions
on whose mural adornments excite your curiosity and
perplex your learning. Now you descend from your pa.
lankeen to sniff the morning air, and catch from tle wild
cry of the partridge, the carol of the lark, and the crow o.f
the jungle cock, (he pleasant infection of exhilarated spi-
rits—and anon you are reclining on your portable couch,
carried, in imagination, by an agreeable novel, to the land
of the loved West, until the subdued pace of your porteurs
apprizes .you that you are reaching one of the comfortable
little bungalows or asylums for travellers where attentive
domestics supply you with a bath arid a breakfast, and you
stretch your limbs preparatory to another stage. I have
tried every description of locomotion, the 1200 ton
steamer, the 1500 ton Indiaman, the Leith smack, the
barque, the brig, the buggalah, the canoe, the elephant,
the camel, t e horse, the mule, the donkey, the rail-train,
the mail, post-coaches, post-chaises, the diligence. the
!minibus, the eil- walgon, the vetturino, the gig, the kad-
Java (or pannier), the sledgi., the—all, in short, excepting
the ostrich and the balloon ; and the dawk still stands
A 1 in my register of their respective virtues and recom-
mendations.
The feeling born in 1820 exists in all its
original force in 1844.—Asiatic Journal.