The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-17 00:00:00

THE MENAGERIE AT SCHOENBruUNN, NEAP. VIENNA.
—Ot ail the imprisoned animals none make so melancholy
an impression as the eagles and vultures. These great,
high soaring, far-circling lords of the air ought at least to
have had their prison-house arranged in some measure
according to their natural propensities. A wooden cage,
with iron grating, is a fitter den for a lion or tiger than
for the rock-th roned eagle's nest. In this narrow dungeon
they cannot even stretch their pinions, and yet this mo-
tion is no doubt as much a necessity to them as it is to
man to stretch his arms and legs after long continuance in
a sitting or lying posture ; indeed it is evident, from the
custom all imprisoned birds have of spreading their wings
slowly and yawningly from time to time, The eagle and
vulture sit upon their perches as motionl, ss as if they
were mere stones. One whom I was watching held his
head on one side and his eyes immoveably fixed on the
skies; another uttered a melancholy sound at intervals,
and lifted his useless wing. Some of them are extremely
old. I was told that one had been fifty years a prisoner.
In fifty years, if we assume that, one way or another, an
eagle can fly thirty miles a day, he might have traversed
590.000 miles; that is, he might have encompassed the
earth a hundred times. Good heaven! what a fearful
destiny to feel this power within, and be condemned for
ever to one narrow, dirty, stinking hole! As the eagles
are neither cheerful here, nor display their natural pecu-
larities in any way, they can yield neither pleasure to the
lover of nature, nor profit to the inquirer into her
mysteries ; and people would do much better, I am al-
most inclined to think, to free them at once from the
burden of life, and place them stuffed in a museum.—
Kohl's Austria.

LA ZIOURE as' A ILOTMENTS.-At a great agricultural
meeting. at Lichfield, on Tuesday week, Sir Robert Peel
thus expressed himself on this subject:—" The question
was agitated last Session, with reference to the policy of
allotments to farm labourers, and much important evi-
dence was taken upon the snhject, before a Committee of
the House of Commons. I have read that evidence, and
the impression on my mind, whether in a political or
moral point of view, is in favour of allotting to the re-
spectable labourer on a farm such a small portion of land
as would afford occupation to the vacant hours of himself
and family, and give him an interest in the soil in com-
mon with the great proprietor."—On the Question of
whether it was not an essential policy in landowners to
secure better farming in their tenantry, by granting more
extended terms, the Right Hon. Baronet said, that, on
his own property all tenancies were from year to year
only, according to the custom of that part of the country ;
but he gave notice, that he would be prepared to meet any
tenants of his who might consider that they should feel
it would conduce to their greater self-respect and satis-
faction to hold longer leases, and who was not at all pre-
pared to say he would witholdsuch leases after so conferring
with the parties. "Gentlemen," said the right Hon.
Baronet, ' I know nothing in English Society that pre-
sents a prospect more gratifying than a rural district well
cultivated, in which subsist relations of mutual confi-
dence between the landed proprietor and the occupying
tenant; and, let me add, the farm-labourer. Politics,
gentlemen, that is to say, politics that in anyway partake
of a party character, are wisely excluded from our pro-
ceedings ; hut it would be absurd to exclude that great
and comprehensive policy which must see in the success
of British agriculture one of the great foundations of na-
tionai strength and national prosperity."

. . .
LIFE All.KM.—The Eastern woman seems
as happy in her lot as her European sister, notwithstand-
ing the plurality of wives in which her lord indulges or
ventures upon. In her " public opinion's law" there is
no more disparagement in occupying the second place as
a wife, than there is in Europe as a daughter. The man-
ners of the patriarchal ages remain in Egypt as unchanged
as its monuments ; and the people of Cairo no more think
of objecting to a man's marrying a second wife, than those
of Memphis thought of questioning the legitimacy of
Joseph. The Koran, following the example of the Jewish
doctors, only allows four wives to each Musselman, and
they seldom avail themselves even of this limited allow-
ance to its fullest extent. Some hareems contain two
hundred females, including wives, mother in-law, concu-
bines, and the various slaves belonging to each. These
feminine barracks. however, seem very different from what
such establishments would be in Europe. In the hareem
there is as much order and decorum as in an English qua-
ker's home. It is guarded as the tiger enards his young;
but its inmates consider this as a compliment, and fancy
themselves neglected if not closely watched. This cause
for complaint seldam occurs, for the Egyptian has no
blind confidence in the strength of woman's character or
woman's love : he considers it safer, if not more glorious,
to keep her out of the reach of temptation, than to run
the chance of her overcoming it. Born and brought up
in the hareem, women never seem to pine at its imprison-
ment: like cage-born birds, they sing among their bars,
and discover in their aviaries a thousand little pleasures
invisible to eyes that have a wider range. There are no
literary ladies : knowing not the thoughts of others, they
associ to the more with their own; and who can tell what
wild and beautiful regions of imagination their minds may
wander through, unimorisoned, if undirected by educa-
ti-n. To them, in their calm seclusion, the strifes of the
battling world come softened and almost hushed ; they
only hear the far-off murmur of life's stormy sea, and if
their human lot dooms them to their cares, they are as
transient as those of childhood.—Dublin University Ma-

gazine.
ENGLISH AND COSSACK HORSES.—A wager was laid
by Mr. Gibson, the English Consul, that two English
horses would beat any two Cossack horses which could
be selected, at a race of 50 versts, or upwards of 33 Eng-
lish miles. This took place long after the Cossack horses
had been improved by the admixture of English and Ara-
bian blood, and Mr Gibson had no particular horses in
his view. He commissioned a friend to send two hunters
for the purpose. Two tolerably well bred, but at that date
naturally not thorough-bred, hunters were sent out to
him, whilst the Russians selected out of some 50,000 of
the best horses in the Cossack country. The race took
place in the presence of the Emperor Alexander; regi-
ments of Cossacks acre diseersed along the line to keep
it clear, thousands of pounds were betted on the issue of
the match. and an immense concourse of people assem-
bled to witness it. It commenced under these disadvan-
tages for the Englishmen—firstly, that they had grown
men to ride, whilst the Cossack horses were ridden at
feather weight; asd, secondly. that one of the two Eng-
lish horses fell dead lame at starting. The other, at the
half-way station, arrived whist the two Cossacks were
far out of sight, and being full of contempt for his anta-
gonists, he dismounted. both to refresh himself and his
steed ; meanwhile the Cossacks came up and passed on-
wards. Now, it happened that one of the Counts Orloff,
commander of the Cossack horsemen stationed to keep
the line, was deeply interested in the issue of the race,
and, by a very ingenious if not a very creditable piece of
jockeysbip, he had contrived to be made acquainted at
every instaat with its progress. For this purpose the
Cossacks had private orders, whenever the Russians were
ahead to hold their lance perpendicular, when the English
were foremost to drop them horizontally. As the horse-
men were in sight of each other. tuis signal was in a few
minutes telegraphed from one to the other, up to the
Count. At about the middle of the race, where the Eng-
lish horse had stopped, the lances, after being constantly
down, were suddenly raised up, and Orloff, imagining that
now the bottom of the Cossacks was beginning to tell,
made sure of victory, and betted another 100,000 rubles
on the event; but, alas! be was caught in his own trap,
the lances went up again, the English horse came in at
last, in miserable plight it is true, but the Cossack horses
never came in at all, either dying or being obliged to be
killed where they had fallen.—New Monlhlp Magazine.
MR. GRATTAN'S. CHARACTER OF DANIEL O'CON-
NELL IN 1815.—" Examine their leader, Mr. O'Connell
—he assumes a right to direct the Catholics of Ireland—
he advises—he harangues—and he excites; he does not
attempt to allay the passions of a warm and jealous peo-
ple. Full of inflanitnatory matter, his declamations
breathed everything but harmony, venting against Great
Britain the most disgnsting calumny, falsehoods, and
treachery, eq'ialled only by his impudene; describing
Great Britian as the moat stupid, the most dishonest, arid
the most besotted nation that ever existed ; that Ireland
could not confide in the promises of England, &c. With-
out discrimination he pronounced all Protestants ' bigots.'
When he advocated the grievances of the Catholic body,
he omitted the greatest yreviance—himself! A man that
could make the speeches he has made, utter the senti-
ments be has uttered, abuse the characters he has abused,
praise the characters that he has praised, violate the pro-
mises that lie has violated, propose such votes and anch
cenbures as be has proposed—can have little regard for
private honour or for public character; he cannot com-
prehend the spirit of liberty, and he is not fitted to re-
ceive it. lie betrays such a scattered understanding and
barbarous mind, that if he got liberty he would immedi-
ately lose it. Almost unsuited for the British constitu-
tion, and almost ignorant of the bonds of civil society,
of such a mould, and such a disposition, as to be incapa-
ble of accomplishing any rational object, his declamations
to the lower orders are full of extravagance, wildness and
ambiguity, and set afloat the had passions of the people,
make them restless in disposition, and impatient in action.
He leaves a vacuum in the meaning of his harangue, to be
filled up by the elevated imagination of a warm-hearted
and sensible people. It is the part of a bad man to make
use of grievances as instruments of power, and render
them the means of discontent without a single honest
attempt at redress. He knows, or at least he ought to
know, that this coraduct is of such a nature as must al-
ways tend to confusion in bad m:nisters, and strengthen
their authority ; it seduces people into mischief not inten-
ded, and, after exciting them to folly, it abandons them
through fear. It may lead them to rise asainst an ex-
ciseman or titheman, to burn a hayrick, or murder a
farmer, but will never teach them to redress greivances,
or to bring the offending minister to the scaffold. This
leader in spirit is poor, his courage is of a hesitating
quality, his political confidence is prodigious also; in de-
bate he is more than a hero; in every sentence there is a
challenge ; in the field he is a diplomatic. He was insult-
ed, and did not fight ; again insulted, he was goaded to
the ground, where his antagonist Rodergo fell. He then
offered an insult, was noticed by the condescending spirit
of an imprudent minister, was challenged, travelled 400
miles incognito, was arrested through an unforeseen acci-
dent ; did not go to the ground, being prevented by an
' unavoidable necessity. His speaking is extravagnt dic-
tion—a vulgar boast, a swaggering sentence, affected
bombast, and ludicrous composition. Ills liberty is not
liberal, his politics are not reason, his reading is not learn-
ing, his learning is not knowledge; his rhetoric is a gaudy
hyperbole, garnished with faded flowers, such as a drab-
bled girl would pick up in Covent-garden, stuck in with
the taste of a kitchenmaid. He makes politics a trade to
serve his desperate and interested purpose. This man
can bring about nothing good ; in abortion be is the most
fertile ; the womb of his mind is of such sinful mould
that it can never produce anything that is not deformed.
He never succeeded in any project except the loss of your
question. He barks and barks, and, even when the filthy
slaverer has exhausted its poison, and returns to its ken-
nel, it there still barks and howls within unseen. No ad.
ministration but would injure their reputatiou by advan-
cing such a character."