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'
Hall. at Amsterdam, was a group which might perhaps be
usefully exhibited in America. Above is a strong money
cbe-t burst open, and rats clambering in and out : a man
is falling headlong below it; and further down are sculp-
tured the relics of sumptuous feasts. The fellow fell by
living too fast. On the right is a figure of justice, with
sword and scales. It would shake the nerves of the
grandest defaulters to stand his trial amid such emblems
as these if an inexorable Dutch judge were on the bench
before him.—. Dr. Durbin's Gbset vations.

RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.—The grow-
ing inattention manifested by both houses to the perfor-
mance of their functions, is, we know, daily more and
more complained of ; and this subject is of infinitely more
moment than is generally considered to be. The respect
and confidence which the public have been accustomed to
feel for the deliberations and decisions of parliament are,
indeed, lamentably diminished. The keen interests which
its proceedings formerly excited exists no longer. Even
the ambition to obtain a seat in parliament is lessened;
the difficulty of inducing well qualified candidates to come
forward is complained of, 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 dis-
cussed is lowered, and a languid indifference is, by de-
grees, extending its chilling influence over the representa-
tives of 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 animal 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 he has been hunted, tali..
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
oblic:uely with the current, even if it be the Rhine, and
sever offer battle unless be be fairly turned, then he will
endeavour to cripple the opponent by hasty snaps at the
fore-legs, and resume his route. The track of a wolf is
readily distinguished from that of a dog, by the two mid-
dle claws being close together, while in the dog they are
separated ; the marks, however, when the wolf is at speed
and the middle toes are separated, 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 are very delicate, his hearing acute,
and his habits always cautious. The European variety is
naturally a beast of the a oods ; those of the arctic iegions
and of the steppes of Russia and Tartary have different
manners, probably from necessity, not choice.—Stnith's
History of Dogs.

PRECEDKNT VIOLATED IN THE O'CONNELL CASE.—
We affirm, therefore, that the good old rule—viz. that
one good count would support a general verdict and judg-
ment, though the indictment contained bad ones also—
was a beneficial rule, calculated to obviate inevitable diffi-
culties ; and its policy was so transparent to all the great
intellects 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
bas stood its ground for so long a series of years unchal_
knged, 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
up
on as solid grounds as
are conceivable, and warrants its subversion only after
profound consideration,, and repeated evidence of its
nzis-
chievous operation. II as any such evidence offered in the
argument at the Bar of the Douse of Lords, of persons
who had suffered either a kind or a degree of
punishment
not warranted by law? None: but several cases were
past experience to the contrary—
gut
in which—in spite of
inconvenience and injustice might possibly be conceived to
occur hereafter ! What, then, led to this error—for error
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 fa Ilacies urged upon them,
with such unprecedented pertinacity and ingenuity, by the
traversera' counsel.—Blockteood.