The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-06-18 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

THE WRITTEN WORD REMAINS.—Now pause for a
moment, to contemplate the duration and triumph of
sacred song, and to observe how it has outlived other
things. David was ambitious to build the temple; the
Holy Spirit overruled him. He penned his Psalms. His
son built the fabric, which seemed to defy destruction.
The Ark, the Tabernacle, the Temple, the ancient walls
of Zion have vanished away. The sceptre of Judah is
broken—the very ground of Mount Zion has lost its
original aspect—but the songs of Zion, the melodies of
David, and the enraptured strains of the Prophets, have
outlived time and destruction, and the very enemies and
oppressors of Israel sing their songs in strange lands.—
Dr. Gilly.
ORNAMENTS ON STEEL.—Ornaments are now com-
monly put upon steel by the chemical action of
the solutions of the various metals, most of them
being combinations with acids. The steel being covered
with some etching ground, the design is cut through to
the metal, and, the metallic solution being poured upon
it, the metal, or its oxide is precipitated, and a super-
ficial chemical combination is thus effected. Steel
may be gilded by the employment of the ethereal
solution of gold. This is made by taking a neutral solu-
tion of chloride of gold and agitating it with some electrified
ether; the gold is thus separated from the one fluid, and
held in solution by the other. Upon dipping steel into this
the real solution an electro-chemical action appears to
take place, the result of which is that a film of gold is de-
posited upon the metal. In this way " gold-eyed
needles" receive the small coating of the precious metal ;
and many steel ornaments are thus fancifully decorated.
The coating which the steel thus receives is exceedingly
attenuated, and much friction removes it from the surface.
Art Journal.

BOY OR GIRL.—The following mode wag adopted a few
years ago in a branch of my family residing in Denbigh-
shire, with the view of discovering the sex of an infant
previous to its birth. As I do not remember to have
met with it in other localities, it may, perhaps be an
interesting addition to your " Folk Lore." An old
woman of the village, strongly attached to the family,
asked permission to use a harmless charm to learn if
the expected infant would be male or female. Accord-
ingly, she joined the servants at their supper, where
she assisted in clearing a shoulder of mutton of every
particle of meat. She then held the hlr.de-bone to the
fire until it was scorched, so as to permit her to force
her thumbs through the thin part. Through the holes
thus made she passed a string, and, having knotted the
ends together she drove in a nail over the back door, and
left the house, giving strict injunctions to the servants to
hang the bone up in that place the last thing at night.
Then they were carefully to observe who should first
enter that door on the following morning, exclusive of the
members of the household, and the sex of the child would
be that of the first comer. Th's rather vexed some of the
servants, who wished for a boy, as two or three women
came regularly each morning to the house, and a man was
scarcely ever scan there; but, to their delight, the first
comer on this occasion proved to be a man, and in a few
weeks the old woman's reputation was established
throughout the neighbourhood by the birth of a boy.—
Notes and Queries.
THE VERACITY OF A RED REPUBLICAN.—Ledru
Rollin, the careful gentleman who in June last so cleverly
escaped his deserts with some uneasy wounds to his per-
son and dignity, has just published a book on the
"Decline of England." As it is brimful of what is
politely called errors, we leave others to point out what
most concerns them, while we exhibit Ledru's veracity
with respect to the Church. This very truthful repub-
lican gravely tells his readers that, during the war cat ried
on by us against France, our clergy preached from the
pulpit that "to kill a Frenchman wheresoever you meet
him is a deed acceptable to God ;" and that after such
injunctions whole congregations were apt to issue forth
and massacre every Frenchman they could meet 1 In
another page we are told that the robbers, vagrants, and
prostitutes in our streets. are often the children of the
poorer clergy, too proud to assume humble and honest
occupations. The English clergy, we, or rather Ledru's
French readers, are solemnly assured, are of such a
grasping nature that they have obtained a power over
succession to property by arrogating to themselves the
decision of all testamentary questions ; while so lax is
the discipline of the Church, that even the widows of
peers are empowered to give an incumbent a dispensation
from residence ! Ledru then informs his French public
that English clergymen are such slaves that they read
the sermon, " in order that the priest may always be able
to place his discourse before the magistrate, if he should
be suspected of having prepaulgated doctrines contrary
to law ;" and finally—that is, not finally as to Ledru's
assertions, but as to our patience and want of space—that
circumstances sometimes present themselves in which
" the bishops send written sermons to the ministers, with
orders to read them without alteration!" We should
take Munchausen to be a dull book after the " Deca-
dence de l'Angleterre" of Citizen Ledru Rollin.
ROSSINI'S HABITS OF PROCRASTINATION.—Rossines
desperate idleness and habits of procrastination are pro-
verbial. On more than one occasion personal restraint
was resorted to, to compel the fulfilment of his engage-
ments. Thus, at Milan, sentinels were placed at his
door, and no exit allowed him, until he had completed
an opera of which the two first acts were already in re-
hearsal. Barbaja, the celebrated impresario, kept him
for some time prisoner in his palace on the Naples Toledo,
refusing him liberty until he should have composed the
long-promised opera of Otello. Remonstrances were
disregarded by the inflexible manager, se Rossini set to
work, and, with his usual facility, soon sent down a por-
tion of the score, headed Introduzione. This was trans-
mitted to the copyist; but the same evening Rossini ap-
plied for it again, on pretext of alteration. Next morn-
ang another MS. reached Barbaja, inscribed Cavatina.
It followed Its predecessor to the copyist, and, in like

manner, was re-demanded for correction. Barbaja glee-
fully rubbed his hands at finding that these revisions did
not.delay Rossini, who sent down page after page of copy,
to the extent of an entire act. But the irritable manager
was like to go distracted when, on applying to the copyist
for the whole score, he found the introduction was all that
.had been composed. It had been travelling to and fro
between Rossini and the theatre, and, at each journey,
the incorrigible composer had headed it with a different
title. The trait is characteristic, and strictly authentic.
The same story is told, at greater length, and with some
embellishments, in one of Alexander Dumas' volumes of
Italian travelling sketches. Managers, however, found
compensation in Rossini's rapidity for his provoking idle-
ness. When he did set to work, he got over the paper at
a gallop ; and, when driven to the last minute, his fertility
and invention were wonderful. Some of his finest things
were composed on the spur of the moment, and in breath-
less haste. The celebrated air Di tanti Palpiti is one of
these. His dinner hour was at hand, when, driven to the
wall by urgent solicitations, he one day sat down to com-
pose it. His cook, learning that the Maestro was really
about to work—no very common occurrence—thrust his
head in at the door, and ventured a supposition that he
had " better not put the rice to boil." "On the con-
trary, boil it directly" replied Rossini, who was hungry.
Before the rice. that indispensable preface to an Italian
dinner, was fit for table, the air and its introduction were
composed. Di tanti Palpiti is still familiarly known as
the Aria dei rizzi.—Blackwood.

@tnera I AltOrtilanv.

The John Williams missionary ship has arrived from
the South Seas.

Fourteen ships have been destroyed by the spontaneous
combustion of coal dnring the last four years.
The Bristol Gas Light Company intend shortly to re-
duce the price of gas to 4s. 6d. per 1,000 feet.
Haymaking is proceeding in Gloucestershire, Somerset-
shire, and Wiltshire.
Fresh butter was selling at Hereford last week at five
pence per pound.
There are now more visitors both at Cheltenham and
Harrogate than has been noticed tar many years past,
and the season is not yet at its height.
Sir Charles Napier is expected to return shortly from
India, and it is said that Sir William Gomm will succeed
him.
The Earl of Shrewsbury, (a Whig Roman Catholic
landlord) has declined to make any abatement from his
Worcestershire tenantry.
The mortality of London continues so low that the
present year bids fair to present the lowest average on
record.

The foundation-stone of the Wesleyan Methodist New.
Kingswood School, at Lansdown, near Bath, is to be laid
on the 20th inst., by Mr. Heald, M.P.

Twelve hundred lizards have been imported into Ply-
mouth from Jersey, and are intended for exhibition in that
town. They are valued at nearly £3OO.
A vessel which has arrived from the West Coast of
Africa has brought several head of live cattle, the produce
of that quarter of the globe.
Cheshunt penny bank was opened last Monday, and a
considerable number of depositors attended. The pro-
moters are sanguine of success.
The steam-ship, City of Glasgow, sailed again for New
York, from Glasgow, on Friday, with a full complement
of passengers, and a good cargo.
SINGULAR EXPORTATION--The Ann and Mary, sailed
on Wednesday from Falmouth, with a cargo of asses
bound to Havre.

An old man was accidentally run down and killed on
the Gloucester and Birmingham railway. The unfortu-
nate man was deaf, and was crossing the line.
Mr. James Smith, of Deanston, the eminent agricultu-
rist, was found dead in his bed on Monday at the house
of his cousin, Mr. Buchanan, Catring, Ayrshire.
On Tuesday last, about 200 baskets of potatoes were
landed at Penzance, from Scilly, and forwarded to Lon-
don via Hayle.

Out of 561 vessels trading with Bristol last year, carry-
ing 128,215 tons, only 77 vessels, of 29,471 tons, belonged
to the port of Bristol.

Mr. Catlin, the extensive North American explorer,
considers Texas to be the most desirable spot among the
United States for emigration. _ _

Miss Wilson, daughter of Lady Seymour, was killed at
Oxford on Tuesday, by a fall from her horse. The animal
trod on a loose stone, and its stumbling threw the unfor-
tunate lady from her seat.
A Scotch paper states that one of the Lochcarron
dwarfs, tired of celibacy, intends shortly to lead a young
shepherdess to the hymeneal altar. The damsel is the
happy dwarf's junior in years. but double his in length.
The salaries of all the officers of the -Dorchester poor-
law union, with the exception of the relieving officers and
the master of the workhouse, have been reduced by the
board of guardians 15 per cent.
When the city of Hamburgh was destroyed by fire, in
one week, in the city of London alone, nearly double the
amount already paid over to the Royal Exhibition Com-
missioners for 1851 was subscribed.

At Wells, in Somersetshire, Eliza Card was recently
fined 10s. for taking a load of calves, with their legs tied
and their heads hanging over the sides of the cart,
thereby causing them to be in great torture.

An old woman, named Broadley, is now living at
Banks, near Huddersfield, in the same house she has oc-
cupied for 78 years. During the whole period she has
only slept twice in any other house.
TnE STRIKE IN WALES.—No arrangement has yet
been made between the masters and men for the hours of
labour in the mines, the men, as a body, still persisting
only to work six hours, instead of eight per day.
A lady-like female, named Chambers, has been sen-
tenced to transportation for life, for forging the name of
the Rev. C. Randolph, to an acceptance for several hun-
died pounds.
There are frequently as many as ten or a dozen French
ships discharging cargoes of corn and flour in Penzance
Pier at one time, the whole of which return to France in
ballast without expending £5 in the place.
Last week, when the Orion ( from Liverpool to Glas-
gow) approached Greenock, a young man pulled a razor
out of his pocket, and, in the presence of all the people
on deck, cut his throat from ear to ear, and died imme-
diately.
The boiler of a steam-engine, attached to a thrashing
machine, employed on a farm near Peterborough, burst a
few days ago, and three corn stacks were burnt down,
having been set on fire by some of the hot cinders thrown
about by the explos'on of the boiler.
A Romish priest named Daniel O'Connell was com-
mitted to prison for seven days at the Thames Police-office,
London, on Thursday, for being drunk and disorderly.
He had knocked several street preachers off their stools
because their remarks offended him.

The bullion in both departments of the Bank of England
had increased from £16,737,613 to £16,865,905, being a
difference of £128,292. The paper in actual circulation
bad decreased from £20,413,863, to £20,354,851, being a
difference of £59,012.
At a meeting at Grantham last week, a preacher named
Rogers, was expelled the Wesleyan Connexion, and
another named King, was suspended. A number of
Wesleyans assembled outside the building and hissed and
hooted the leaders as they left the meeting.
A swarm of bees alighted on the face and neck of Mr.
Newton, yeoman, at Woodhouses, Cumberland, on Sa-
turday week, and after nearly an hour the bees were safely
deposited in a new hive, without having done him the
slightest injury.
A public meeting was held on Wednesday, in Sack
ville-street, Piccadilly, for the purpose of raising a fund
in honour of the, memory of the late Queen Adelaide, to
be applied to the relief of orphan daughters of naval and
marine officers.

The lord provost and magistrates of Edinburgh have
resolved to give a six weeks' trial to a plan, proposed by
Councillor Wemyss, for fixing a uniform hackney carriage
fare of a shilling to all places within the parliamentary
bounds of the city.
Among the most recent inventions is one for encir-
cling the tires of carriage wheels with india-rubber,
whereby their progress is rendered noiseless. One of the
advantages alleged in favour of the invention is its great
economy, the wear and tear being very slight.
CRICKET.—The Hereford club have arranged to play
the Eleven of All England, in August next, at Hereford.
Fourteen players of Yorkshire, at Sheffield, on Monday
and Tuesday last. beat the All England Eleven by eleven
wickets.

The Viceroy steamer was spoken on the 4th instant, at
10 a.m., in latitude 55 38, longitude 21 30, by the Sesos-
tris, just arrived. It was blowing a gale of wind from
the west at the time. The Viceroy appeared to be steam-
ing about seven miles an hour.
One of the clergy of the town of Dorchester refused the
church's burial office a few days since to an unbaptised
child. The body was subsequently interred in the church•.
yard by the undertaker, at ten o'clock at night, amidst
considerable popular excitement.

. .
On Wednesday, in London, a young woman, whilst
imprudently sitting on the sill of an attic window, which
she was cleaning, suddenly let go her hold, and falling
backwards, fell upon the pavement with a fearful crash.
Death was instantaneous.

The magistrates of Aberystwith, South Wales, hare
been engaged in instituting inquiries into the death of
Mr. Edward Edwards, a respectable farmer occupying
lands at Roscellan, near that town, and who is supposed
to have been murdered on or about the 15th of last
month.

A new and elegant adhesive postage envelope has just
been issued by the stamp-office authorities ; the improve-
ment consisting in making the envelope adhesive, and
appending an embossed displaying the national em-
blems of the rose, thistle, and rhamrock, in raised white,
upon a delicate pink ground:
In Ayrshire and Lanarkshire the strike still continues,
and much distress must exist among the families of the
workmen. A meeting of the masters was held yesterday
week, when it was resolved that the colliers should not be
allowed to return to work at wages over 3s. 3d. per day,
with the former outpit.
Two young men, named Elliot and Metcalf, were
drowned in Windermere on Sunday evening week, by the
upsetting of a boat. They were accompanied by two
brothers of the name of Bolton, who were saved with
much difficulty. All the parties, it is said, had been
drinking too freely.
A Commission that has been sitting at Hellingdon,
Middlesex, has declared the Rev. Herbert Charles Marsh,
Rector of Barnack, near Stamford, and son of the late
Bishop of Peterborough, to have been of unsound mind
and incapable of managing his own affairs since February
last.

A Scotch paper relates that on Friday evening week a
young couple were married at Barrhead, and on the fol-
lowing Sunday morning the husband was suddenly seized
with madness, rushed out of the house, and was not dis-
covered until the following day, when he was found
wandering in the streets of Glasgow, in a state of mental
derangement that rendered it necessary to place him iu
the lunatic asylum,