The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-22 00:00:00

Poetry.

ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

Yon moon and stars have shed M tweet a light
On ages gone as o'er' this calm of night,
And millioni of men; with an admiring eye,
Have traced them through as bright and blue a sky.
Those men are nothing now --their names have past
Like sands which role, and sunk upon the blast.
Thus shall succeeding generations gaze,
And mingle with the dust of other days ;
While the same moon and stars will still remain,
Through countless ages rise and set again,
In glory undiminish'd as they first began.—
Ah ! how unlike the changeful race of man !
Yet is a hope to the lone bosom given,
That Mind survives, an attribute of Heaven,
When disencumber'd of the mortal shroud,
Which veils the future, like an ambient cloud;
And I'll indulge that vision of delight,
Rapt in the spell of this most heavenly night,
And soothe me with the thought that yet again,
When purged by suffering from all earthly stain,
My spirit shall the loved and pure embrace,
In some sweet region of you starry space.

VARIETIES.

COMPETITION AGAINST IRELAND—A new tuberous root (the
'newspapers tell us) has been successfully introduced into this
country from Chili : it is called the Qua/is creneta, (which we
hope to see translated into Creneto v. Potato,) bears a yellow
gooier, is ornamental to the garden, and as an edible, superior
to the staple food of the Irish pigs and pisintry.
HINT FROM WALTER SCOTT.—SCOtt, in conversing with a
young man who was about to embark upon the perilous voyage
of letters in search of fortune and fame, made to him this pithy
remark—it contains a volume :—" Literature, my young friend,
is a good staff; but a bad crutch!"'—The Town.

SINGULAR Rocks.—cal rock, near the island of Corfu, bore,
and still bears, the resemblance of a vessel under sail : the
ancients adapted the story to the phenomenon, and recognised
in it the Phmacian ship in which Ulysses returned to his coun-
try, converted into stone by Neptune, for having carried the
slaver of his son Polyphemus. A more extensive acquaintance
with the ocean has shown that this appearance is not unique;
a similar one on the coast of Patagonia has more than once
deceived both French and English navigators ' and Captain
Hardy, in his Travels in Mexico, has recorded another near
the shores of California.—Foreign Review.
NEWLY-INVENTED RAILROAD.—Our attention has been again
drawn to the National Gallery of Practical Science, where there
is now exhibiting an UNDULATED RAILROAD, recently invented
by Mr. Richard Badnall, whereon a locomotive carriage travels
with a rapidity far exceeding that of a similar one when moving
upon the common or level railroad, the propelling power being
The same. The carriage model is worked by machinery, on
three differently constructed roads; and the object is to prove,
that a much less power is required to obtain the same speed on
the undulating than on the level road, and of coarse, that, by
availing ourselves of the irregular surface cf the ground, rail-
roads may be constructed much cheaper than heretofore, and
with an evident advantage in the lighter construction of the
engines and the consumption of fuel.-21thene147/t.
EXCESS IN THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE.—The principal
end why we are to get knowledge here is to make use of it for
the benefit of ourselves and others in this world ; but if by gain-
ing it we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be
useless in our hands; and if by harassing our bodies (though
With a design to render ourselves more useful,) we deprive our-
selves of the abilities and opportunities of doing that good we
might have done with a meaner talent, winch God thought suf-
ficient for us, by having denied us the strength to improve it to
that pitch, which men of stronger constitutions can attain to,
we rob God of so much service, and our neighbour of all that
help, which, in a state of health, with moderate knowledge, we
might have been able to perform. He that sinks his vessel by
overloading it, though it be with gold and silver and precious
stones, will give his owner but au ill account of his voyage.=
LOCKE.

LONDON FASHIONABLE LIFE.—Of all the capitals of Europe,
London is the place where the forms of society are loosest in
definition and strictest in observation. The slightest infraction
of the arbitrary code of conventional law is tatal to the con-
victed culprits ; and not the most pitiful little court of ceremo-
nious Germany is half so scrupulous in the exaction of its eti-
queues and the infliction of its penalties. In the beau-monde of
May Pair, court any infamy rather than that of ridicule. In-
stead of the !ambient flame which, in foreign society sports,
alike innocuous round the head of the lance or the point of the
fan, you will find the persiflage of the English a scorching and
corroding fire, eating into your heart and bequeathing au inef-
faceable scar. Be vile,—be prodigal,—be false,—but do not
Make yourself ridiculous. A butt or bore ranks with the worst
of criminals. Believe only half you hear; say only half you
think; do nothing you are asked; and in process of time you
may achieve a tolerable degree of credit and popularity in
fashionable society.—Sketch Book of Fashion.
THE CORN CRAKE.—This interesting bird, which visits the
north of England and Scotland in summer, and keeps up in
the meadows its cry crake, crake, is well known, but it is not
easily seen. It runs with great rapidity and is loth to take
wing. When found, it has the instinct, in common with some
other animals, and especially insects, to feign death. A gentle-
man had one brought to him by his dog. It was dead to all
appearance. As it lay on the ground he turned it over with
his foot—he was convinced it was dead. Standing by, how-
ever, some time in silence, he suddenly saw it open an eye. He
then took it up—its head fell—its legs hung loose—it appeared
again totally dead. He then put it in his pocket, and before
very long he felt it all alive and struggling to escape. He to6k
it out, it was as lifeless as before. He then laid it again upon
the ground and retired to some distance ; in about five minutes
it warily raised its head, looked round, and decamped at full
speed.
JANUARY.—Byron has informed us that the heart of man has
its ides and epochs of sensibility; that March has its hares, and
May must have its heroine. But if there be a month peculiarly
consecrated to the tender perplexities of the female heart, it is
decidedly that of January. Every thing is so cheerless—so cold
—so desolate,—there is so little communication between house
and house, man and man, or man and woman ;—no rides, no
drives, no lounging visits., no sunshine, no flowers, no any thing
to distract the attention of the fair afflicted from her own emo-
tions. Seated in a well-scorched dress by the fireside, a book
in her hand, but her eyes engaged in building castles among
the glowing coals, she reviews the past, and speculates concern-
ing the future;—talks o'er again antecedent conversations,—
recalls to, mind every look,—to heart every sigh; accuses her-
self of harshness, of want of candour, of blindness to her own
happiness ;—then, sauntering to the window arid casting a wist-
ful gaze upon the sloppy state of the pavement or the slippery
condition of the roads, retreats back again to her chimney cor-
ner with the mournful certainty that it is "a naughty day to
swim in," and that she has no chance of the visit she would
give so much to secure.—Sketch Book of Fashion.

TrIE LONDON PRESS.•

PROPOSED PACIFICATION OF IRELAND.

Ireland again ! Lord Grey propounded his measures,
in the House of Peers, last (Friday) night, for the Stip-
preiSion Of disturbances and illegal associations in Ire-
land. It must have been very disheartening to the noble
earl, after devoting two long years to reform and the
redress of grievances in Ireland—after having •courted
and even bribed O'Connell—after having conciliated the
-very patties, in every possible degree,
.Whom he now
condemns, and delivers over to the Severities of military
law—it must, we say, have been very painful to the
noble earl to make the following humiliating confession:
" The extent of insubordination and outrage against the
law in that country,", said Lord Grey, speaking of Ire-
land, "had now risen to that fearful height that neither
far life nor 'property was there any security there, and
unless some speedy and effectual remedy was applied,
the most fatal consequences were threatened to the very
existence of society !!"
This is pretty well for a beginning, and must be tole-
rably agreeable to a reformed Parliament. The noble
earl then
_proceeds in the felloWing still melancholy
strain : " He (Lord Grey) had fondly iMagined 'at one
period, that the redress of grievances under which the
Roman Catholics so long and unjustly laboured, would
have led to the pacification and prosperity of Ireland. It
was With pain he was obliged to admit that all his hopes
-had been disappointed—most grievously disappointed" !