The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-31 00:00:00

VARIETIES

A PRamous NURSERY GROUND.—The children of the
sloping isle of Rattray, when they first begin to toddle about,
are tethered to a stake to prevent them from rolling off into
the.seal— Wilson's Voyaye round Scotland.

The world is like a large plum-pudding. :There is an
abundance of fruit in it too, but somehow it does:not appear
to be well mixed and stirred ; for we daily see some cut a
slice and get nothing but the burnt crust ; while others, with
less brains, and born to good luck, obtain a plum.

LF.NGTH OF BRIDGES.—The longest bridge in Spain is
the Alcanta, stone, 1,990 feet; in France, the wooden bridge
of Avignon, 1,710 feet ; in Ireland, at Belfast, wood, 2,500
feet ; in England, at Berwick, stone, 1,154 feet ; Black-
friars, 995 feet; Waterloo, 1,242 ; Westminster, 1,223;
London, 930; in Wales, Menai Bridge, 1,600 feet.
MIS-SPELLING.—Few words are so often erroneously
spelt as those ending in y or ey, when they change their
form, as when the singular noun becomes plural, or the verb
in the first person is changed to the second. In an advertise-
ment of a work on arithmetic I lately saw " monies !" and
we frequently see " attornies," " vallies," &c., an error
which only be matched by " follys," " ponys," "jellys," &c.
The proper rule is very simple : y following a consonant, re-
quires ies ; ey requires only the addition of a. Hence attor-
ney, attorneys ; valley, valleys ; money, moneys ; survey,
surveys ; and also, pony, ponies ; folly, follies ; carry, car-
ries, &e. These are correct, and the difference may be easily
remembered.

TPE KEMBLES.—EVADING PENALTIES FOR PERFORM-
ANCE OF THE REGULAR DRAMA.—By the minutes of evi-
dence before the select committee of the house of commons
on dramatic literature, in 1832, it would appear, that four of
the Kembles once acted together, Mrs. Siddons being at that
time the heroine (it is believed at Wolverhampton), and no
money was taken at the door; but a playbill was handed
about with,—" Nola Bene, no money taken at the door, but
Mr. So-and-so (naming the performer) has a very excellent
tooth-powder at 2s. Id. a box ;"—this tooth-powder being
purchased and considered as a ticket, and the trick being
adopted with the vjew to evade the statute-imposing penal-
-teainst persons performing for hire or reward any inter-

ludo, &C

SCIEIDE A. MISDEMEANOUR BY THE ENGLISH LAW.
-
In charging the grand jury at the Hull sessions, the present
learned recorder mentioned the curious circumstance of two
cases of attempted suicide, for which the parties were char-
ged criminally at the sessions. The learned gentleman said ;
•' There were two cases in the calendar which he had never
seen brought before a court of justice in the course of his
practice ; they were attempts to commit the crime of suicide.
Now, there could be no doubt that this was a crime, and one
of a very deep character; and an attempt to commit it was
a crime of misdemeanour. When that attempt succeeds,
the guilty party cannot be brought under human law ; but
when the party makes the attempt and survives, he may be
called upon to answer for his conduct. It is an indictable
offence, and one of a very high nature."—Juryman's Legal
Hand-book.

RUSSIAN RAILROADS.-It appears from a statement made I
at St. Petersburg by Count Benkendorff to a general meeting
of the shareholders of the Zarskoe Zeloe railroad, that the
number of passengers conveyed by it during the last year was
432,294, that the total receipts amounted to 238,138 silver
roubles (nearly a million of francs) and the expenses to
106,669 roubles, leaving a profit of 131,468. In 1841 the
number of passengers was 42.5.552,. the receipts amounted to

profit to 414,079 roubles. From this account it is seen that I
the number of passengers in 1842 exceeded that of 1841 by,

6,772, and th.e receipts of the last were greater than those of
the preceding year by 2,167 roubles, although in 1841 there
7,000 roubles paid for the conveyance of the crown provi-
sions, an item which does not appear in the account for 1842.
In this last year the net profit exceeded that of its prede-

expeuditt