The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-07-02 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

A vessel recently cleared at New Orleans, for Turk's
Island, with a cargo of " Mississippi mud," intended to
be sold to the " salt rakers," for manuring their gardens.
It is noted, as the origin of the term haberdasher, that
a " berdash" was a name anciently given in England to a
sort of neck-dress ; and the person who made or sold
such neck-dresses was called a " berdasher."
HARD-WORIE.—Lord Campbell took his seat in the
Queen's Bench on Tuesday week, at a few minutes after
the usual time, and addressing the jury said, " Gentlemen,
I am some minutes after my time; but as I was sitting as
Speaker of the House of Lords until near four o'clock
this morning, I trust you will excuse it." The gentle-
men of the jury thereupon bowed to his lordship, and
proceeded to business.
A VILLAGE OF MADHOUSES,—In the midst of the
Campine, a desolate tract of moor and heath, occupying a
large part of the province of Antwerp, to the east of that.
city stands a large village called Gheel, the inhabitants of.
which, chiefly peasants, have devoted themselves far cen-
turies to a singular branch of industry. They employ
themselves in takine charge of insane persons, who, to the
number of 700 or 800, are sent hither from all parts of
Belgium, and they execute the trust with honesty, and
feeling forbearance. The mild system of treating lunacy
has long prevailed here. Gheel is said to have become
famous for the treatment of mental disease, from the mar-
tyrdom of an Irish saint, named Dympna, on this spot,
and from the cures wrought upon, pilgrims who have
resorted hither for centuries to worship at her shrine, and
adorn her relics. She has, in consequence, become the
patron saint of Ghee). and her altar is a very curious, ela-
borate combination of wood-carving, with gothic tracery
and painting.—Hayhe's Sketches in Belgium.
Gimsow.—The ardent genius and pictorial eye of Gib-
bon rendered him an incomparable delineator of events ;
and his powerful mind made him seize the general and
characteristic features of society and manners, as they
appear in different parts of the world, as well as the traits
of individual greatness. His descriptions of the Roman
empire in the zenith of its power, as it existed in the time
of Augustus ; of its decline and long protracted old age,
under Constantine and his successors on the Byzantine
throne; of the manners of the' pastoral nations, who,
under different names, and fora succession of ases, pressed
upon and at last overturned the Empire; of the Saracens,
who, issuing from the lands of Arabia, with the Koran in
one hand and the scimitar in the other, urged on their
resistless course. till they were arrested by the Atlantic
on the one side, and the Indian Ocean on the other ; of
the stern Crusaders, who, nursed amid the cloistered
shades and castellated realms of Europe, struggled with
that devastating horde " when 'twits strongest, and ruled
it when 'twas wildest ;" of the long agony, silent decay,
and ultimate resurrection of the Eternal City ; are so
many immortal pictures, which to the end of the world
will fascinate every ardent and imaginative mind.— Air.
Alison's Essays.
MADAME ANNA BISHOP IN MEXICO.—A correspondent
of the Mobile Register, of the 25th ultimo, writing: from
Mexico says :—" That celebrated cantatrice, having by
her splendid vocal powers turned all the heads in the
Mexican capital, Mr. Bochsa was applied to by several
musical amateurs, of a town in the interior of the re-
p'ublic for Madame to give a concert. Accordingly he
wrote to the proprietor of the only place in the town
where a musical performance could at all be given, viz.,
an open cockpit. arena, to ascertain terms, &c., &c.
When the answer came, an I with a contract in due form,
Mr. Beam was not• a little puzzled at finding, after the
amount of the of the sum of hire of the National Theatre
being nutted, a clause stipulating that the said sum should
be paid in genuine Mexican piastres, and not in pieces of
soap ! nor in cigars, nor in poultry, alive or dead ! How-
ever, Bochsa signed the contract,. but only obtained the
clue to this strange proviso after Madame Bishop's per-
formance, when the gallery or graffiti money takers
brought him, in account, numberless pieces of yellow
soap, cigars, and two fighting cocks alive ! Mr. Bochsa
remonstrated, but the Mexican colireradores said that
these commodities were generally what they received for
small money, and he tried to prove to the enraged direc-
tor that, if the soap was weighed and the cigars called by
the name of Anna, he would raise a handsome profit by
them. To quiet Mr. Bochsa and reconcile him to these
vendibles, the money-takers gave a glowing deseription of
the musical taste of a family who to hear the great prima
donna and• wonderful harpist did not hesitate to part with
two of the most celebrated fighting cocks of the town for
six gradin tickets. Mr. Bochsa, in acknowledgement, a
la Mexicanine, of this little bit of flattery, paid the mo-
ney-takers' salary of the night with four pieces of soap
and a packet of cigars, and had the cocks cooked for sup-
per.
ROMANTIC HISTORY.—In the reign of Edward 111.,
Robert Machim, an accomplished gentleman, of the second
decree of nobility, loved, and was beloved by the beautiful
Anna d'Arfet, the daughter of a noble of the first class.
By virtue of a royal warrant, Machim was incarcerated for
his presumption; and on his release endured the bitter
mortification of learning that Anna had been forcibly
married to a noble, who had carried her to his castle, near
Bristol. A friend of Machim's had the address to intro-
duce himself to the family, anti became the groom of the
broken-heasted Anna. who was tiles persuaded and enabled
to escape on board a vessel with her lover with the view
of ending her days with him in France. In their hurry
and alarm they embarked without the pilot; and the sea-
son of the year being most unfavourable, were soon t the
mercy of a dreadful storm. The desired port was missing
during the night, and the vessel driven out to sea. After
twelve days of suffering they discovered faint traces of
land in the horizon, and succeeded in making the spot
Still called Mschico, at Madeira. The exhausted Anna
was conveyed on shore ; and Machim had spent three days
in exploring in the neighbourhood with his friends, when
the vessel, which they had left in charge of the mariners,
broke nom her moorings, anti was wrecked on the coast
of Morocco, where the crew were made slaves. Anna be-
came dumb with sorrow, and expired three days after.
Machim survived her but five days, enjoining his compa-
nions to bury him in the same grave, under a venerable
cedar, where they had, a few days before, erected a cross
in acknowledgment of their happy deliverance. An in-
scription, composed by Machim, was carved on the cross,
with the request, that the next Christian who might
chance to visit the spot would erect a church there. Hav-
ing performed this last sad duty, the survivors fitted out
the boat, which they lied drairn ashore on their landing;
and, putting to sea in the hope of reaching some part of
Europe, were also driven on the coast of Morocco, and
rejoined their companions, but in slavery. Zargo, during
an expedition of discovery to the coast of Africa, took a
Spanish vessel with redeemed captives; amongst whom
was an experienced pilot, who entered the service of Zargo,
and gave him an account of the adventures of Machim, as
communicated to him by the English captives, and of the
landmarks and situations of the newly-discovered island.—
Madeira, by Dr. Mason and J. Driver.
MODERN v. ANCIENT LOCOMOTION.—UntiI the middle
of the eiehteenth century, most of the merchandise which
was conveyed from place to place in Scotland was trans-
ported on pack-horses; but when it was necessary to
carry merchandise between distant places, a cart was used.
The time required by the common carriers to complete
their journey seems. when compared with our present
standard of speed, quite incredible. Thus, it is recorded
that the carrier between Selkirk and Edinburgh, a distance
of thirty-eight miles, required a fortnight for his journey,
going and returning. In 1678, a contract was made to
establish a coach for passengers between Edinburgh and
Glasgow, a distance of forty-four miles. This coach was
to be drawn by six horses, and the journey between the
two places, to and fro, was engazed to be completed in
six days. Even so recently as the year 1750, the stage-
coach from Edinburgh to Glasgow took thirty-six hours
to make the journey. In this present year, 1849, the
same journey is made, by a route three miles longer, in
one hour and a half ! In the year 1763 there was but one
stage-coach between Edinburgh and London. This
started once a month from each of these cities. It took a
fortnight to perform the journey. At the same epoch
the journey between London and York required four days.
In 1763, the number of passengers conveyed by the
coaches between London and Edinburgh could not have
exceeded about twenty-five monthly, and by all means of
conveyance whatever did not exceed fifty. The intercourse
between London and Edir burgh in 1835 was one hundred
and sixty times greater than in 1763. At present the in-
tercourse is increased in a much higher ratio, by the im-
proved facility and greater cheapness of railway transport.
Arthur Young, who travelled in Lancashire about the
year 1770, has left us in his tour the following account of
the state of the roads at that time :—" I know not," he
says, " in the whole range of language, terms suffieiently
expressive to describe this infernal road. Let me most
seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally pro-
pose to travel this terrible country to avoid it as they
would the devil, for a thousand to one they break their
necks or their limbs by overthrow's or breakines down.
They will here meet with ruts, which I actually measured'
four feet deep, and floating with mud, only from a wet
summer. What, therefore, must it be after a winter ?
The only mending it receives is tumbling in some loose
stones, which serve no other purpose than jolting a car-
riage in the most intolerable manner. These are not
'merely opinions, but facts; for I actually passed three
carts broken down in those eighteen miles of execrable
memory." He says of a road near Warring on, " This is
a paved road, most infamously bad. Any person would
imagine the people of the country had made it with a view
to immediate destruction ! for the breadth is only sufficient
for one carriage; consequently it is cut at once into ruts ;
and you may easily conceive what a break-down, dislo-
cating road, ruts cut through a pavement must be." Ho
says of a road near Newcastle, " A more dreadful road
cannot be imagined. I 'was' obliged to hire two men at
one place to support nay'ehaise from overturning. Let
me persuade all travellers to avoid this terrible country,
which must either dislocate their bones with broken pave-
ments,- or bury them in muddy sand. T
Railway Economy.