The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

SELECTIONS.

A GOOD IDEA.—In what was formerly the Bankrupts'
Ball, at. Amsterdam, was a group which fright perbaps'be
usefully exhibited in America. Above is a strong money
chest burst open, and rats clambering in and out : a man
is falling headlong below it; and fuittier down are sculp-
tured the relics of sumptuous feasts. The fellow fell by
living too fast. On ;he right is a figure of justice, with
sword and scales. It would strike the nerves of the
grandest defaulters to stand his trial amid such emblems
as these if an inexoraVe Dutch judge were on the bench
before him.—Dr. Durbin's Gbse,vations.

RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.—The grow-
ing inattention manitested iry bah houses to the perfor-
mance of their functions, is, we know, ,'aily more and
more complained of ; and this subject i, of infinitely more
moment than is generally considered to be. The respect
and confidence which the public have been accustomed to
feel for the d liberations and decisions of pall ament are,
indeed, lamentably diminished. The keen interests which
its proceedings formerly excited exists no longer. Even
the ambition to obtain a seat in parliarnert is lessened;
the difficulty of inducing well qualified candidates to come
forward is complained ot, and the whole relations between
the public and both houses are, we grieve to say, altered
for the worse. The tone in which public affairs are ers-
cussed is lowered, and a lanzuid iudifieretice is, by de-
grees, extending its chilling influence over the representa-
tives ot the people and the people themselves.—Edinburgh
Review.

FACTS ABOUT WOLVES.—WoIves howl more fre-
quently when the weather is about to change to wet.
They grovel with the nose in the earth, instead of dig-
ging with their paws, when they wish to conceal a part
of their food or the droppings about their lairs. The
parent wolves punish their whelps if they emit a scream
of pain ; they bite, maltreat, and drag them by the tail,
till. they have learned to bear pain in silence. Wolf-
hunters commonly assert that the aiiitnal is weak in the
loins, and when first put to speed that his hind-quarters
seem to waver; but when warmed, that he will run with-
out halting from the district where helms been hunted, tak-
ing a direct line for some favorite cover perhaps forty
miles or more in distance. On these occasions he will
leap upon the walls above eight feet high, cross rivers
oblit:uely with the 'current, even if it be the Rhine, and
never offer battle unless he be fairly turned, then he will
endeavour to cripple the opponent by hasty snaps at the
fore-lees, and resume his route. The track of a wolf is
readily distinguished from that of a dog, by the tNo mid-
dle elms being close together, while in the dog they are
separated ; the marks, however, when the wolf is at speed
and the middle toes are seperated, can be determined by
the claws being deeper and the impression more hairy;
the print is also longer and narrower, and the ball of the
foot more prominent. Inferior in wily resources to the
fox, the wolf is nevertheless endowed with great sagacity.
His powers of scent ire very delicate, his hearing acute,
and his habits always cautious. Tht- European variety is
naturally a beast of the woods; those of thearctic regions
and of the steppes of Russia and Tartary have different
manners, probably from necessity, not choice.—Smith's
History of Dogs.

PRECEDENT VIOLATED IN THE O'CONNELL CASE.—
We affil m, therefore, that the good old rule—viz. that
one good count would support a gr neral verdict and judg-
ment, though the indimment contained bad ones also—
was a beneficial rule, calculated to obviate inevitable diffi-
culties ; and its policy was so transparent to all the great
intellect; which have, both as judges or counsel, been for
so long a series of years concerned in criminal cases,
that no one ever thought of questioning it. The sup-
position of the three peers is not very flattering to
their distinguished predecessors, with the great Lord
Mansfield at their head—all of whom it charges with gross
negligence, ignorance, and, in plain words, stupidity—in
overlooking, from time to time, a point so patent and glar-
ing. The Lord Chancellor's answer to their argument is
triumphant ; and we refer the reader to it. We respect-
fully and firmly enter our protest against Lord Denman's
mode of getting rid of the efficacy of a custom or practice
which has been so long observed by the profession • and
regard it as one calculated to sap the foundations of the
common law of the land. An opinion, a practice which
has stood its ground for so long a series of years unchal-
lenged, amidst incessant provocation to challenge it—and
that, too, in the case of men of such vigilant astuteness,
learning, and determination as have long characterised the
English Bench and Bar—rests upon as solid grounds as
are conceivable, and warrants its subversion only after
profound consideration, and repeated evidence of mis-
chievous operation. Was any such evidence offered in the
argument at the Bar of the House of Lords, of persons
who had suffered either a kind or a degree of punishment
not warranted by law? None: but several cases were
put in which—
in spite of past experience to the contrary—
inconvenience and injustice might possiblfbeco
error—for error
we hereafter ! What, then, led to tbi
we must call it ? Let us candidly express our Opinion
that the three peers were fairly " overpowered"—to adopt
the frank acknowledgment of one of the most distinguished
among them—by the plausible fallacies
urged upon them,
with such unprecedented pertinacity and ingenuity, by the
traversers' counsel.—Blackwood.