The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-01 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION.

Standard-office, Three o'clock

COTTON

MARKET-THIS DAY

A fair Tuesday's demand in our Cotton Market : about
2,500 bales sold chiefly to the trade at yesterday's prices,
with a quiet but steady tone about the market.

LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE, Txis DAY.

<From Messrs. R. Makin Sr Sons' Circular.)

Increased arrivals into this port since Friday, furnish a
fair quantity of Wheat, Oats and Oatmeal, and a large supply
of Flour from Ireland, with a few parcels of Grain coast-
wise, 1700 qrs. Wheat from Wolgast, and 3302 barrels of
Flour from Canada.

The favourable weather stated in our report of Friday
last was interrupted by a very heavy fall of rain during
the night, by which some fields of Grain were partially
laid ; but with drying winds since the close of the week,
they have mostly regained their upright position, and are
progressing gradually, though, from the want of sufficient
heat, not rapidly towards maturity.

The decline yesterday in London, had a depressing ef-
fect upon our market this morning, deterring the buyers
from all active proceedings in any article of the trade.
Wheat, of every description, accordingly continued to
meet an extremely dull limited sale, at a further abate-
ment from that above noted, thereby reducing our quota-
tions 2d. to 3d. per 70 lbs. below the current rates of
Tuesday last.

Monthly Account of Imports, Duties Paid, and Stocks
on hand in Liverpool, viz.:—lmported into Liverpool
from the Ist to the 31st July, 1843. Foreign—% heat,
3480 qrs. ; Flour, 508 barrels. British and Colonial—
Wheat, 11,374 qrs. ; Barley, 306 qrs. ; Oats. 12,850 qrs. ;
Rye, 212 qrs. ; Beans, 1297 qrs. ; Pease, 1176 qrs. ; In-
dian Corn, 20 qrs. ; Oatmeal, 21,382 sks.; Flour, 19,099
sacks 17.722 brls.—Duties paid in Liverpool from the Ist
to the 31st July, 1843. Foreign—Wheat, 1595 qrs.;
Barley, 430 qrs. ; Beans, 404 qrs. ; Pease, 90qrs. ; Indian
Corn, 313 qrs. ; Flour, 804 brie. Colonial—Wheat, 968
qrs. ; Barley, 100 qrs. ; Oatmeal, 113 sacks; Flour, 8538
Ms.—Stocks of Grain, Flour, and Oatmeal, in Liverpool,
31st July. In Bond—Wheat, 26,068 qrs.; Barley, 2275
qrs. ; Oats, 2576 qrs. ; Beans, 27,589 qrs. ; Pease, 7298
qrs. ; Flour, 6745 barrels.

ARRIVALS OF CORN,
From the 25th to the 3lst July, 1843, inclusive.

COAST- CANADA

DESCRIPTIONS.
LAND. j WISE

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

" THOMAS HOOD" AND THE MANCHESTER

ATH ENIEUM

A few days ago, the secretaries of the Manchester Athe-
naeum bazaar committee addressed to this author—(whose
good qualities as a man are as delightful to those who know
him personally, as are his exquisite humour and playful
wit as a poet, and a graceful prose writer, to that numer-
ous class who know him only in his works)—a request that
he would allow his name to be placed on the list of patrons
of the approaching bazaar. To this request, the secreta-
ries have received the following characteristic reply
(From my bed), 17, Elm Tree Road,
St. John's Wood. 18th July, 1343.

" Gentlemen,-11 my humble name can beOf the least
use for your purpose, -it is heartily at your service, with
my best wishes for the prosperity of the Manchester Attie-
nteum, and my warmest approval of the objects of that
institution.

" I have elsewhere recorded my own deep obligations
to literature,—that a natural turn for reading and intellec-
tual pursuits probably preserved me from the moral ship-
wreck, so apt to befall those who are deprived in early life
of the paternal pilotage. At the very least, my books
kept me aloof from the ring, the dog-pit, the tavern, and
the saloon, with their degrading orgies. For the closet
associate of Pope and Addison,—the mind accustomed to
the noble, though silent, discourse of Shakspere and Mil-
ton,—will hardly seek, or put up with, low company and
slang. The reading animal will not be content with the
brutish wallowings that satisfy the unlearned pigs of the
world.

" Later experience enables me to depose to the comfort
and blessing that literature can prove in seasons of sick-
ness and sorrow—how powerfully intellectual pursuits can
help in keeping the head from crazing, and the heart from
breaking,—nay, not to be too grave, how generous mental
food can even atone for a meagre diet—rich fare on the
paper, for short commons on the cloth.

Poisoned by the malaria of the Dutch marshes, my
stomach, for many months, resolutely set itself against
fish, flesh, or fowl ; my appetite had no more edge than
the German knife placed before me. But, luckily, the
mental palate and digestion were still sensible and vigi-
rous ; and, whilst I passed untasted every dish at the
Rhenish table d'hote, I could yet enjoy my Peregrine
Pickle, and the feast after the manner of the ancients.
There was no yearning towards calf's head a la lorlue,
or sheep's heart ; but I could still relish, Head a la Bran-
nen, and the heart of Mid-Lothlan.

" Still more recently, it was my misfortune, with a
tolerable appetite, to be condemned to lenten fare, like
Sancho Panza, by my physician,—to a diet, in fact, lower
than any prescribed by the poor-law commissioners; all
animal food, from a bullock to a rabbit, being strictly in-
interdicted ; as well as all fluids, stronger than that which
'lays dust, washes pinafores, and waters polyanthus. But

the feast of reason and the flow of soul' were still mine.
Denied beef, I had Bulwer and Cowper,—forbidden mut-
ton. there was Lamb,—and, in lieu of pork, the great
Bacon or Hogg.
" Then; as to beverage, it was bad, doubtless, for a
Christian to set his face like a Turk against the juice of
the grape. But, eschewing wine, I had still my Buller;
and in the absence of liquor, all the choice spirits from
Tom Browne to Tom Moore.

" Thus, though confined, physically, to the drink that
drowns kittens, I quaffed mentally, not merely the best of
our own home-made, but the rich, racy, sparkling growths
of France and Italy, of Germany and Spain—the cham-
pagne of Moliere, and Monte Puiciano of Boccaccio, the
hock of Schiller, and the sherry of Cervantes. Depres-
sed bodily by the fluid that damps every thing, I got in-
tellectually elevated with Milton, a little merry with
Swift, or rather jolly with Rabelais, whose Pantagruel,
by the way, is quite equal to the best gruel with rum in
it.

" So far can literature palliate or compensate for gastro-
nomical privations. But there are other evils, great and
small, in this world, which try the stomach less than the
head, the heart, and the temper—bowls that will not roll
right—well-laid schemes that will " gang aglee "—and ill
winds that blow with the pert•nacity of the monsoon, Of
these, Providence has allotted me a full share; but still,
paradoxical as it may sound, my burthen has been greatly
lightened by a load of books. The manner of this will
be best understood from a feline illustration. Everybody
has heard of the two Kilkenny cats, who devoured each
other ; but it is not so generally known, that they left
behind them an orphan kitten, which, true to the breed,
began to eat itself up, till it was diverted from the opera-
tion by a mouse. Now, the human mind, under vexation,
is like that kitten, for it is apt to prey upon itself, unless
drawn off by a new object—and none better for the purpose
than a book. For example, one of Defoe's ; for who, in
reading his thrilling " History of the Great Plague,"
would not be reconciled to a few little ones? _

" Many, many, a dreary, weary hour have I got over—
many a gloomy misgiving postponed—many a mental or
bodily annoyance forgotten, by help of the tragedies and
comedies of our dramatists and novelists ! Many a trouble
has been soothed by the still small voice of the moral
philosopher—many a dragon-like care charmed to sleep
by the sweet song of the poet! For all which I cry in-
cessantly, not aloud, but in my heart—thanks and honour
to the glorious masters of the pen, and the great in-
ventors of the press! _ .

" Such has been my own experience of the blessing and
comfort of literature, and intellectual pursuits; and of the
same mind, doubtless, was Sir Humphrey Davy, who went
for `consolations in Travel,' not to the inn or the posting
house, but to his library and his books.—l am, gentlemen,
yours very tray. " Txos. HOOD."