The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-24 00:00:00

gees, are owners for the puipose of Inci rring the pentdtiee
under this act, and they will be personably liable to the pe-
nalties. Take, for instance, the case of a person (and there
are hundreds of such cases,) by his will bequeathing a ware-
house in trust for a daughter, as her share of his property.
The bequest would-be to A in trust to pay the rents to the
daughter for her life, and after her decease to her children is
equal shares. The trustee is, of course, in receipt of the
rents, and is called upon to alter the warehouse at an ex-
pense of some three or four hundred pounds. Where is he
to find the money? He cannot touch the rent; that must
be paid to the daughter, (and if he could so apply the rent
it would be depriving the daughter of the means of subsist-
ence probably for two years at the least ;) he cannot sell or
mortgage the warehouse to raise money for making the im-
provements ;—that would be a breach of trust. He must,
therefore, either make the alterations at his own expense, or,
he must pay the penalty.
Again, take the case of a mortgagee, in possessim ; the
mortgagee, perhaps, bankrupt, and the rent barely sufficient
to keep down interest. He is called upon to meet this enor-
mous outlay, which does not better his security one penny ;
it is, in fact, throwing so much money away. These are
cases of daily occurrence. Many serious questions will also
arise upon contracts for sale, whether the seller or purchaser
shall bear this exorbitant taxation.
It is also to be observed that this act is not confined in its
operation to the largo buildings in the vicinity of the docks,
but extends to the Parliamentary borough, comprising Ever-
ton, Edgehill, Kirkdale, great part of Toxteth Park, and in-
cludes not only what is usually understood by the word ware-
house, but every building in which some room shall be used
for the deposit of goods. ALPHA.

RUMOURED MARRIAGES IN HIGH LIFE.--A report is
very current in distinguished circles that Miss Coutts Bur-
dett is at length about to bestow her hand in marriage, and
Lord Wiltshire, the eldest son of the Marquis of Winchester,
and colonel of a dragoon regiment, is mentioned as the fa-
voured suitor. Lord Charles Wellesley will, we also hear,
shortly lead to the altar Lady Mary Cecil, the accomplished
daughter of the Marquis of Salisbury.—Brighton Guardian.
CHILD BITTEN BY A RAT.—On Friday night last, a
workman in the employment of Messrs. Appleby, Walkers,
and Co., of Renishaw Ironworks, was aroused from his
slumber by hearing cries from the adjoining bedroom. On
going to the bedside, he found his little boy, a fine lad about
two years and a half old, in a great fright, and apparently
much distressed. After quieting the little fellow, he retired
to rest; but in a short time he again heard a cry emanating
from the same room as before. On this, he immediately
procured a light; and hastening to the spot, discovered, on
examining the room minutely, that a large rat had procured
an ingress, and frightfully lacerated the little sufferer's lip
and the upper part of his forehead. The child is now doing
well.—Derby Reporter.

NORTHERN AND EASTERN RAILWAY.—A. special gene-
ral meeting of the proprietors of this company was held, on
Tuesday, at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, Mr.
Ward, M.P. for Sheffield, in the chair, for the purpose of
taking into consideration the company's bill, now before Par-
liament, for an extension of the line to Newport. Mr. Crow-
der, the solicitor, read the marginal notes and clauses of the
bill, the main object of which is to sanction the extension of
the line from its present terminus at Bishop's Stortford to
the town of Newport, in Essex. For this purpose the com-
pany are to be empowered to raise £152,000 in 12,000 quar-
ter shares. A clause is inserted in the bill limiting the com-
pletion of the line to five years. It was moved by Mr. Levy,
seconded by Mr. Allender, and carried unanimously, that the
proposed bill be approved of, and, after a vote of thanks to
the chairman, the meeting broke up.

THE EARTHQUAKE IN IRELAND.—In another page we
publish an account of an earthquake which was felt in Li-
verpool and its vicinity on Friday morning last. The shocks
were perceptible at a considerable distance, and, among other
places, were distinctly felt in Belfast and its neighbourhood.
Owing to the hour in which this agitation of the globe oc-
curred [between twelve and one O'clock at night], compara-
tively few people were awake to observe it ; and, from the
novelty of the occurrence, even those who were awake, or
were awakened, were not, at the moment, aware of what
was taking place. Of the fact, however, no doubt exis's.
The agitation was very perceptible. One gentleman, with
whom we have spoken, bad just gone to bed ; and, upon
observing the agitation, his reflection was, that " if he were
in a country which was visited by earthquakes, that was
one." Another gentleman got out of bed, supposing that
robbers had entered the house. Another rose and examined
his room, fearing lest plunderers had made their way into it.
Several other cases of a like kind have been mentioned to us.
In Holywood, and the neighbourhood of Killileagh, we un-
derstand that the shocks were felt. Captain Head, of the
Reindeer steamer, from Belfast to Liverpool, experienced
on that night a most unusually rough sea, though the wea-
ther was calm.—Belfast Whig.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FROM THE PAR-
LIAMENT OF 1688 TO THE PASSING OF THE REFORM BILL.
By William Charles Townsend, Esq.—The first volume of
this work, which must be looked upon as a desideratum by
every legislature, and, indeed, by ail Englishmen, is just
published. This work is intended to give a popular history
of the House of Commons of Parliament, and will compre-
hend the lives of the speakers, lawyers, orators, and states-
men, who have been most distinguished in its annals ; a
review of the privileges once enjoyed by members, and their
hard-won right to personal deliberative freedom; a record of
the vindictive powers exercised by the house over their own
body and strangers; a narrative of the internal economy of
St. Stephen's Chapel; the changes in the habits, manners,
and character of the constituency, with the decorum and
method of proceedings—in the tone and temper of discussion,
and in the progress of intelligence and refinement. It is thus
proposed to unlock the store of light reading, the fund of
interest and amusement which has been concealed from the
general gaze in the voluminous journals, state trials, parlia-
mentary debates, precedents of Hatsel, and contemporary
memoirs and pamphlets. The first volume includes the
period from the abdication of James 11. to the death of
George 1., characterised by " master spirits," critical events,
and stirring debate—a monument, however imperfect, to the
memory of those patriotic legislators who framed the Bill o?
Rights—conquered France in her height of pride—established
the union with Scotland—secured the Protestant faith by the
Act of Settlement, and, with the Septennial Act, confirmed
the independence of the representatives u. the people.

LOUIS PHILLIPPE AND TRIERS.—The soire'ec. Of M. La-
fitte (just previous to 1830) were very little more violent than
those at the Palais Royal. Undoubtedly, the then Duke of
Orleans (now Louis Phillippe) kept tip the appearance of re-
spect to his king and relative, Chas. X. ; but Barthelemy and
Mery, Benj. Constant and Lafitte, Beranger, Lafayette, and
all the uproarious and discontented spirits of the age, were
well received and applauded by the then first subject of the
realm. It was at this period that M. Thiers first made the
acquaintance of his future sovefeign, and it was then that he
paved his way for his subsequent reception at the palace of
the Tuilleries. It is a fact which has been too frequently
forgotten, that the revolution of 1830 was by no means an
"impromptu." It is not true that M. Thiers, for m
exaple,
was not fully prepared for its accomplishment. He, and
those who acted with him, planned the measures and the
opposition which should, in the end, compel the monarchy
to stand on the defensive. "We will drive the old Jesuit to a
coup d'etat," said M. Thiers, on one occasion, when speaking
of his king, Chas. X.: " they wish to govern legally, that is,
according to the letter of the law; but we will make him rule
according to its spirit !!" At the period of which lam now
speaking, little Thiers was a very poor man. His two franc
dinners, or ls. Bd., wine included, were by no means rare;
and none but himself would have dared to predict that he
would afterwards become the associate of the rulers and of
the prime ministers of Europe. Not, indeed, that such men
as Talleyrand ever forgot Thiers's origin ; but he who said
that " language was given to enable men to conceal their
thoughts," also said, " that Thiers was a fop without ele-
gance, an aristocrat without real pretensions or fa mily , and a
political demagogue without courage or foresight. Still
Talleyrand availed himself of his services, admired his dex-
terity in boxing the political compass, and used to declare
" that Adolphe was the only man of merit who had sprung
from the hot-bed of the barricades." "
—Talleyrand sucked
the orange, and rejected peel and pips," said Odillon Barrot
in one of his happy moments ; but, when little Thiers heard
of it, he vowed vengeance against both his patron and his
competitor.—Fraser. s Magazine.
- -

MISCELLANEOUS REISIINISCENCES, BY M. MACAULET.
—ln 1814, Dr. Milner again insisted on my passing the
Easter holydays with him ; and he was, if possible, kinder
than before. It was a time not to be forgotten by the youngest
nwehwos woefr et
haeb lfea
lt o
of cpo
amr ii)sr,eahne
tnd the
i o
fh
the
signsabdi
coaft
ipounb
ol joy.
N Napoleon,
l elh
o'ne,
arrived, I think, on the very day n which I went on my
second visit to the lodge of Queen's College. Cambridge
was illuminated • and my kind old friend was divided between
his wish that I should see the show, and his fear that I should
come to some harm in the crowd. He sent me out with all
sorts of precautions, and told me afterwards that he could not
compose himself to sleep till he knew that I was safe at home.
In general, this visit resembled the last; except that, as was
natural at such a season, he talked much more of history and
politics than of natural science. One story, which he told at
breakfast over his great bowl of milk, I well remember. " The
first time," he said, " that I ever heard about war or the
French was when I was a little child in London. I was taken
out of bed late at night, and carried to the window. All the
street was alive, though it was midnight. The watchman
was calling Past twelve o'clock ; Quebec taken.' The
news came late ; and the lord mayor had given orders that
the watchman should cry it, with the hour, all through the
city." He talked of the bearing of the recent events upon
religion, of the restoration of the Pope, of the suppression
of the order of Jesuits, and of the probability of its revival.
Then he went back to the Reformation, and found me, for
my age, an intelligent listener ; for I had lately been reading
his history at that time, and Robertson's Charles the Fifth.
I ventured to say some hard things of Luther; which he
pronounced to be most unjust, and took down from his
bookcase some letters of Melancthon, in order to set me
right. He was very severe on Erasmus, though the most
distinguished ornament of his own college. He said, "We
have no relic of him at Queen's, except a huge corkscrew ;
and I am afraid that there was nothing in his principles to
keep him from making very assiduous use of it." This
screw is mentioned by Dr. Buchanan, who, in his last visit
to Queen's College, inhabited Erasmus's rooms, as being
" about a third of a yard long."—Life of Isaac Milner.

THE SHAKSPEARE OF GERMANY.—If any one should
ask us to characterise Richter, we should reply, characterize
nature, and then we will comply with your wish. Richter
is nature, if ever man could so be called. Nor do we mean
that he is a man of no character. We mean to say, that,
in sur view and feelings, he is the Shakspeare of Germany.
We, too have, in our own mind' often been led, as Mrs. Lee
does at some length in the book before us, to contrast Jean
Paulwit
ushthe
another, who is perhaps more generally considered
amongst great
of German authors, namely,
man
Goethe. We, however, are inclined to make the contrast
much more favourable to Richter, or less so to Goethe, than
she does. This has always seemed to us the difference be-
tween the two men. that Jean Peul's heart embraced every-
thing, while Goethe's held every thing at a distance. We
mean to say, that what has been called Goethe's all-siderress
yvi 'which passed only as a curious
Avis on ; while Richter seems to
has always seemed to us to be a cold indifference of heart to
thepho
emn manyefnoor
nm
before
eof
of
humanity,
us, with his large and ging bosom, to meet all the aspects
of human life and lot with a profound and tender and im-
mortal interest. It may sound singularly to many, when we
confess we have often of late been tempted to illustrate to
our countrymen what Ritcher is as a writer, by calling him
low
tha German Dickens. Of course this comparison holds
only in respect to the exquisite blending of humour and
pathos, of the droll and the tender, and to that keen sense
of the difference between what is truly great, and what is
only disguised littleness, in human life, in which the English
writer and the German do certainly bear a striking likeness
to each other. suyeradd to Dickens a more wide and
and elevated acqnaintance with life in all its circles and
enrich his_ mind.
conditions,—immensly with stores of the
most heterogenous and significant facts, and images from
all ages and all departments of knowledge,—quicken his
already lively sense of the beauty of outward nature into an
all-animating and boundless. glow of emotion and love ; let
his mind be filled with all knowledge of the metaphysical
systems, without enslaving. in the least his own power of
thought—and you will have snmething
like a Jean Paul.
We mean to say that.. .
.in wit, and fun and fire," in the
union of tender s.enspility to what is more true and beauti-
ful, with moral indignation at what is base,—in short, in
some of those characteristics which make Jean Paul peculi-
arly dear to us, be may well be called the Boz of Germany.
We do not think we could better begin to recommend him
to American readers than by such a parrallel as this.—Chri3-
tias Observer, S.