The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-06 00:00:00

LET THE COBBLER STICK TO HIS LAST.—An amusing
instance of this acted proverb occurs in the life of Lord
Chancellor Eldon, as related by himself to his niece :
" During the period Of one of the riots in London (June,
1i80), when I was a lawyer, I had to take Bessy to the
Temple for safety. I never suffered more in my life than
as we went along, for we were exposed to all sorts of in-
sults. They tore off my wife's hat, the handkerchief from
her breast, and, when we arrived at the Temple, every
article of her dress was torn. We youngsters at the
Temple determined that we would not remain inactive
during such times ; so we embodied ourselves into a troop
to assist the military. We armed ourselves as well as we
could, and the next morning we drew up in the court,
ready to follow out a troop of soldiers who were then on
guard. When, however, the soldiers had passed through
the gate, it was suddenly shut in our faces, and instantly
locked; and the officer in command shouted from the
other side, ' Gentlemen, I am much cbliged to you for
your intended assistance; but I do not choose to allow
my soldiers to be shot, so I have ordered you to be locked
in,' and away he galloped. We looked very foolish."
MR. GEORGE STEVENSON.—This eminent engineer,
at a recent entertainment at Newcastle, gave the follow-
ing account of himself :—" the first locomotive that I
made was at Killingworth colliery, and with Lord Ravens-
worth's money. Yes ! Lord Ravensworth and Co. were
the first parties that would intrust me with money to make
a locomotive engine. That engine was made 32 years ago.
and we called it 'My Lord.' I said to my friends that
there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, pro-
vided the works could be made to stand. In this respect
great perfection has been reached, and in consequence a
very high velocity has been attained. In what has been
done under my management, the merit is only in part my
own : I have been most ably seconded and assisted by my
son. In the earlier period of my career, and when he was
a little boy, I saw how deficient I was in education, and
made up my mind that he should not labour under the
same defect, but that I would put him to a good school,
and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor
man, and how do you think I managed ? I betook myself
to mending my neighbours' clocks and watches at night,
after my daily labour was done; and thus I procured the
means of educating my son. He became my assistant and
my companion. He got an appointment as under-re-
viewer, and at nights we worked together at our engi-
neering. 1 got leave to go from Killingworth to lay down
a railway at Hetton, and next to Darlington ; and after
that I went to Liverpool, to plan a line to Manchester. I
there pledged myself to attain a speed of 10 miles an hour.
I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be made to go
much faster, but we had better be moderate at the begin-
ning. The directors said I was quite right; for if, when
they went to Parliament, I talked of going at a greater
rate than 10 miles an hour, I would put a cross on the
concern. It was not an easy task for me to keep t.ie en-
gine down to ten miles an hour, but it must be done, and
I did my best. I had to place myself in that most un-
pleasant of all positions—the witness-box of a Parliamen-
tary committee. I was not long in it, I assure you, be-
fore I began to wish for a hole to creep out at. I could
not find words to satisfy either the committee or myself.
Some one inquired if I were a foreigner, and another
hinted that I was mad. But I put up with every rebuff,
and went on with my plans, determined not to be put
down. Assistance gradually increased—improvements
were made every day—and to-day a train, which started
from London in the morning, has brought me in the after-
noon to my native soil, and enabled me to take my place
in this room, and see around me many faces which I have
great pleasure in looking upon."

- -
AN AMERICAN'S FIRST EXHIBITION IN A QUA-
DRILLE.—Jest then, cousin Beebe called out my name
from t'other side the room. I wish you could a seen how
they all stared ; it warn't more than ten minits arter that,
afore eenamost every one in there was at cousin Beebe tu
be introduced to me—the fellers with the brustles and all.
The purtyest gals in the room kept a flocking round me
as if they'd never seen a man that wrote for the newspa-
pers afore. Talk about soft sodder !—there's nobody on
arth can put it into a chap so smooth as a harnsome gal.
Somehow they melt it with their smiles, till it sinks through
his heart afore he knows it. I was talking with a rare
peeler of a gal, with two of the brightest black eyes that I
ever see, when somebody struck up a tune on the pianno-
forty, and two or three couple got onto the floor as if they
wanted tu dance. "Do you dance quadrills, Mr. Slick ?"
sez the black-eyed gal, as if she wanted me to ask her to
dance. " Wal, I don't know," sez I, " I never tried
them kind of things ; but I ruthur guess I can, if you'll
show me how." With that, I took the tip eend of her
white glove between the fingers of my yaller one, and went
with her into the middle of the room. I didn't know what
they were going tu dance, but I warn't much afeard, any-
how—for there warn't a chap in all Weathersfield could
beat me a double shuffle, or could cut so neat a pigeon-
wing without music as I could. Wal, the music begun,
and one of the fellers that had the hair on his lip begun tu
slide about with his eyes half shet and his hands a hanging
down, and looking as doleful as if he'd jest come away
from a funeral. Did you ever see a duck swim a mill-
dam, or a hen turning up its eyes when it's a drinking ?
If you have, you can git some idee how the lazy coot
danced. I thought I should go off the handle tu see him,
but the gals all stuck out their little feet, and poked about
jest in the same way. Think, sez I, when it comes to
my turn, I'll give you a littlespecimen of ginuine dancing.
I only wish I'd thought tu put a little loose change in my
pocket tu jingle, if it was only just tu show how well I
keep step. A young lady, with her hair twisted all up
with little white flowers, balanced up to me, jest as you've
seen a bird walk, and then it come my turn. I took two
steps for'ard, and then I cut a peeler of i pigeon-wing,
and ended off with a little touch of the double shuffle,
but my trousers was so plaguy tight that I couldn't make
my legs rather limber, all I could du: besides, the music
warn't much more like a dancing tune than Greenbank or
Old Hundred. At last I went up to the gal that was
playing, and se. "Look a here—just givens something
lively—Yankee Doodle, or Money Muss, or the Irish
Washerwoman, or Paddy Carey. I aint a going to twist
and pucker round in this way !" With that the young
fellers with the hair lips begun to push their cambric
handkerchiefs into their mouths, and the young gals
puckered up their mouths as if I'd done something to poke
fun at. But instid of sneaking off, and letting the stuck-
up varmints think they'd scared me so that I darsnit
dance, sez I tu myself, " I guess I'll let 'em see that I
warn't brought up in the woods tu be scared at by owls,
any how ;" so I jest turned tu the black-eyed gal that was
my partner, and sez I, " Cum now, Miss, let us show 'em
how it's done," and with that I begun to put it down
right and left like a streak of lightning. It warn't more
than two minits afore I heard the gals a talking tu each
other, and a saying, " How odd—how strange—quite the
eccentricity of genius—these literary lions never do any-
thing as other people do !—I don't wonder Miss Beebe's
proud of him !" The young fellers jined in, and stopped
larfin as quick as could be, the minit they begun to see
how the wind was a blowing up in my quarter ; and when
I finished off and led the black-eyed gal to one of the
footstools, there was no eend tu the soft sodder they all
put on tu me. Sez I to myself, nothing like keeping a
stiff upper lip with these stuck-up fashionables, for arter
all they aint more than half sartin what's genteel and what
aint.—Jonathan Slick.

THE RUSSIAN GREEK CLERGY.—It must be confessed
that the station of the secular clergy, or popes, in Russia,
is not respectable ; yet the contempt that attaches itself
to the men seems to have no influence upon the offices
which they perform. This apparent contradiction has a
twofold cause. Their reverence for clerical sanctity arises
from the childish religious notions of the Russian 'people.
oTheirfattention
nei
gnd tetiahot
henoefmytroadetoltiogenuirootintwstarrtreordduuulbcycleeerscethihmtaerotmaoncisteeaeslr;vieseastrnicyd simpleoT with
hiThis
shh the people,
pnmo
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deoaertpnt matl
ter
thoughtsview
and forms the bond of unity throughout the whole line
of Russian Church history. Most of the co
the Russian Church have been about fasts, formali-
tiestheenlonsff
of crossing, the consecration of churches, and the
signs of clerical honours. With the tiresome and most
fruitless disputes of the west about points of abstract
divinity, the Russian Church has little to do. The posi-
tive ordinances of the church are so purely and entirely
regarded as.positive dogmas that they are in no danger of
falling into controversy with any system of philosophy
or
natural religion. Thus we find the Greek Church in
Russia, from the oldest times, remaining at the same
point of developement. The greatest strictures in the
observance of forms procures the greatest religious justi-
fication and satisfaction. The priest, as a necessary in-
strument for their performance, maintains his official
dignity. To the preservation of uniformity the law con-
tributes, which forbids all original preaching among the
clergy, lest in their comments on scripture they should
get astray into subtleties and contradictions. By this rule
the people are accustomed to regard their priest, entirely
neglecting his personal character, as an authorised instru“
ment uncler the control of a supreme power. As a man,
the pope is subject to the judgement of the peasant; but
when arrayed in his official dress, he rises far above all
private opinions. If the clergy of the present day in
Russia stand low, for personal qualities, in public estima-
tion, the past is to be blamed for it as well as the present;
for the mental requirements made of the clergy have
always been so low that they cannot be accounted edu-
cated men. When a foreigner wishes to learn the Rus-
sian language, he is advised to find his quarters with a
pope, where he will be sure to hear nothing else. And if
the idle mode of life of the secular priest leads him
to sensual pleasures, the error lies in his situation,
which excludes him from all mental interest and activity,
It must be considered, too the sucular priest in country
places is generally dependent upon the rude peasantry,
and must accommodate himself to their modes of living,
if he would be comfortable among them. When divine
service is over, the peasant goes to the Kabak, and soon
drinks himself under the table : and if his priest is not
willing to do the same,
he is reckoned proud and unsocia-
ble, and must be content with the meanest pay for his
services. In this abandonment of all independent in.
quiry and conviction, there is no ground for the develope-
ment of any manly and virtuous character. The perso-
nal character of the clergy is the natural consequence of
his dependence upon traditional authority, which deprives
him of every disposition to cultivate a will or a way of
his own. * * * * As the wives of the popes are
unequally uneducated, there is no hope of a better pro-
geny in these conditions. Only in a few convents are
exceptions to be found to this character of the Russian
Greek clergy. From its exclusive regard to. the external
ceremonies of religion, we may partly explain the tolera-
tion of the church with respect to varieties of opinion.
What other sect can boast that, like the Russians at
Topperdorfe, near Moscow, they provide Christian burial
for unknown strangers and celebrate masses for the souls
of men whose names, origin, and creeds they know no-
thing of ? No people manifest more reverence for conse-
crated places than the Russians. Whenever they see a
church or a church-spire, near or distant, they stop to
uncover their heads and cross themselves. The dimen-
sions of the crosses they make vary with their stations,
decreasing in proportion to their respectability ; and I
have seen gentlemen make their tiny crosses under the
cover of arranging their cravats.—Travels in I?ussla.