The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

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Etteraturr.

VARIETIES.

Why is Cobden interested in opposing free trade in
wine?—Because he has bet..n long known to Stock-port.—

Mephistopheles.
It was observed lately, by the witty Lord , that
Lord John Russell is a very good Undertaker, but a very
bad Cabinet-maker.
Fox's OPINION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.—When Fox
'was asked whether he had any faith in political economy,
the doctrines of which had become fashionable in his day,
from the writings of Turgot and she French school, he
answered—" That it was too undefined for his compre-
• bension ; that its views were either too large, or too in-
distinct. to give his mind the feeling of certainty." He
well might say this, when no two of the modern political
economists agree, and when all the theories of the last age
are laughed at by all the theorists of the ore-
•sent. In the middle of the seventeenth century Sir Win.
Petty, one of the most acute, and also one of the most
practical men of the time, pronounced that the population
of England would take three hundred and sixty years to
double—the fact being, that it has doubk-d within about a
seventh part of that period. Of London he predicts, that
its growth must finally stop in 1842; and that then its
population must amount to half the population of Eng-
land. Yet London is still growing, day by day, and yet
its population scarcely exceeds a twentieth of the whole.
—Blaawood's Magazine.
POWER OF THE PRESS.—The power of the press is as
boundless as that of society. It reaches the throne—it is
welcomed in the cottage. It can pull down injustice,
however lofty, and raise up lowliness, however deep. It
castigates crimes which the law cannot reach, and pre-
vents those which the law can only punish, without re-
pressing them. Wherever an eye can see and a hand can

write, there is the press. Persons in tribulation rely on
it for redress, and they feel sure that wrong will not go
unpunished if it be known to the journals. Like light, it
penetrates into every nook and cranny of society, and car-
ries help and healing on its beams. It nips rising abuses
in the bud. It stops the tide of tyranny when setting in
full flood. It derives its vast power from the principle of
its being. Seeking out truth, and representing reason, it
concentrates on one point the whole moral power of society,
and persuades and governs, without violence, by the mere
knowledge that the physical power of society is always
ready to vindicate the right. As it comes into full opera-
tion, the course of society becomes uniform and equal, and
its ends are obtained:without those convulsions and rebel-
lions, by which a rude unlettered people make their will
known.--Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine.
THE MURDER OF THE WOUNDED FuonivE.—He
struggled on, he knew not how, through the darkness ;
moved on without a purpose, to no fixed goal ? and after
a while—many hours might have elapsed, or not one, he
knew not—he thought be heard the sound of human
voices around him ; and presently a bright light gleamed
before his face, so bright that he closed his eyes, and then
he felt a hand upon him, some one raising his head. He
was near the habitations of men. He opened his eyes,
and thought he saw a woman's face—the face of a young
Affghan woman. She bent over him ; she spoke, but the
only answer he rendered back was a piteous groan. He
thought, too, that there were children around him ; and,
presently, the woman went her way, and again returned,
bringing a bowl in her hands ; and she stooped down, and
placed i+ to his lips. He drank slowly, painfully—but
still the draught was most delicious. He thought it was
milk; it seemed to fill him with new life and vigour. He
spoke, as best he could—unintelligible the language, in-
distinct the voice—rendering back his thanks to the doer
cf this Christian deed. He spoke in a language foreign
to her; and she raised her hand, with a gesture exhorting
to silence. Then there was a noise—a woman's shriek, a
struggle—and in place of the gentle female face. there was
the ferocious countenance of a bearded man. * * And
the life-blood of Arthur Carrington spirted over the
woman's garrnents.—Long Engagements.— Chapman and
Hall's Monthly Series. . . . . _

CANALS.—There are 104 eauals in the united kingdom.
The Leeds and Liverpool, 130 miles ; the Ellesmere, 109 ;
the Grand Trunk, 93, with 37 of branches ' • the Grand
Junction, 93k, with 53 of branches; and the Oxford, 91,
are the longest. The oldest is the Bridgewater, in 1758,
and the next in 1770. In 1838, there were 2200 miles of
canal in England, and 1800 of improved river navigation.
In Ireland there were 300 miles of canals and 200 of rivers.
536 miles of canal in the united kingdom have been made
since 1800. In England, (to 1844,) about 2400 miles of
navigable canals have now been made, and wholly at the
expense of private companies or individuals; in Ireland,
300 miles ; in Scotland, 200. These works are unequalled
for extent, and for difficulties of all sorts successfully
overcome. As specimens of the latter may be mentioned
the tunnel at Blisworth, on the Grand Junction Canal,
which is 3080 yards in length. The underground cuttings
in the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal are said to be alto-
gether 18 miles long, and to have cost £170,000. The
Marsden tunnel, in the Huddersfield Canal, is 5451 yards
long. The tunnel at Sapperton, on the Thames and Se-
vern Canal. is 2a miles in length, and 250 feet below the
highest point of the bill through which it is made. In the
Thames and Medway Canal, between Gravesend and Ro-
chester, a tunnellk miles is cut through chalk ; and one
of the tunnels of the Leominster Canal, at Penax, is 3850
yards long.—Salt's Statistics.
A VISIT TO THE " TIMES" OFFICE, JUNE 17, 1844.
in the evening we had dinner, as usual, and then an ad-
venture by night ; At twelve o'clock we ordered our
carriages, and whither did they take us? To the office of
the Times—that enormous journal, which with its impe-
rial folio covers the breakfast tables of the English every
morning as punctually and as amply as their breakfast
table-cloth,—that journal, of which every night 20,000
copies are composed and printed, and which pays yearly
to the revenue the sum of £35,000 sterling for stamp
duty ! It was not without interest to look for a few mo-
ments at this process, which is really calculated to dis-
gust one for ever with all which, in the language of trade,
we are accustomed to call authorship ! The whole of an
extensive building scarcely contains the offices of the re-
ceivers of notices and advertisements, the political writers,
the clerks, and compositors, of which latter many first
set up, at the same time, single columns, as we say, in
companies, after which others arrange all together in suit-
able order, until the broad sheet is full. When all is now
ready the forms are then lifted into the steam press,
where the printing proceeds with enormous rapidity,
while a boy only is required to lay in the white, damp
sheets. If, compared with this facility of fingers, we re-
flect upon the tedious birth of a great classical work in
art, or in the sciences, requiring ten years, where here
only as many hours are sufficient, we arrive at singular
results. These flying sheets now govern the age. The
deep study of a single great work, the product of mind,
will become more and more the property of the smallest
Lumber.—Dr. Carus's Visit of the Kiny of Saxony.
SIR JAMES GRAHAM IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—
His demeanour in the house is a study. As he enters
below the bar, his red despatch-box in hand, his figure
towers above most of the members, notwithstanding that
of late years he has contracted a slight stoop. Extreme
hauteur, tempered by a half-sarcastic superciliousness, is
his prevailing characteristic ; and, as he slowly drags
along his tall and massive frame, which still retains much
of the fine proportions of youth, in his heavy-measured,
almost slip-slop tread, towards his seat at the right of
the Speaker's table, there is a self-satisfied, almost inane
expression on the countenance, produced by a peculiar
fall of the nether lip and a distorted elevation of the eye-
brows, that does not by any means prepossess you in his
favour, or suggest any high idea of his intellect. He ra-
ther looks like some red-tape minister of the Tadpole
school, or some pompous placeman, conceited of his acres.
But by-and-by you learn to separate the more fixed habit
of the features from this odd expression of the counte-
nance, till you see that the superciliousness is real, though
exaggerated by the physical peculiarity. There are no
traces of ill-nature in the face; but, on the other hand,
there is nothing to encourage. Meanwhile he has seated
himself, placed his red box on the table before him,
stretched himself out to his full length, and awaits, with
arms folded and hat slouched over Isis face, the question-
ing to which he knows he will be subjected at this parti-
cular hour, from half-past four to half-past five. He is
not left long in his moody silence. Some one has put a
question to him. It is Mr. Duncombe, who, if one is to
judge by the malicious twinkle in his eye, and Isis affected
tone of moral indignation, has got hold of some grievance
—some letter-opening delinquency, or some case of ma-
gisterial cruelty and Home-office indifference with which
he has worked upon the members who do the " British
public " part in these little political dramas, for they are
crying " Hear, hear 1" with a forty-John-Bull power.
Does the Home Secretary start up to answer? Is he in-
dignant at the insinuations thrown out by his smart and
ready-antagonist? Does he burn to relieve himself of the
odium of having sanctioned a system of espionage, or of
having neglected to redress some wrong—as he, the poor
man's ex-officio trustee, is bound to do ? Oh, no ! he is
in no hurry. The breath of the questioner has fall time
to cool, and the voice of moral indignation to abate its
energy, ere he stirs. Then he uncoils himself. rising
slowly to bis full height and confronting his antagonist
with a well-assumed consciousness of the extreme absur-
dity of his question, and the absolute impregnability of
the defence • if, indeed, he shall condescend to make any
answer at all; for you are left in doubt a moment whether
he will not allow his supercilious expression to expa-id
into a contemptuous laugh, and so sit down again.
However, such things not being allowed by the sovereign
people, and, as ministers, however despotically disposed,
must answer questions, the next thing to be accomplished
is to give as homoepathic a dose of information as possi-
ble, conveyed in the largest possible amount of indiffer-
ence, superciliousness, and wholesome parliamentary con-
tempt. There are stereotyped forms. The initiated know
clmost the words. The cool, phlegmatic, impassible style
is, of course, peculiar to the particular Home Secretary
of whom we speak. His idea of the functions of his office
seems to be, that he is to exercise the utmost possible
power with the least possible accountability. He is to
know nothing, see nothing, do 'nothing, but e hat he is
absolutely compellable to know, see,,or do. If the enemy
can ferret out a fact and prove it, so much the better for
his case. Then, perhaps, it may be admitted. But the
usual course is for Sir James, in his low-monotonous
voice, and steady determined manner, to give an elaborate
formal statement of words, with as few facts as possible,
and leaving the matter as nearly as possible where be
found it. This course has its advantage; for the ques-
tions put are often unmeaning, and even detrimental to
the public service. Sometimes, however, matters grow
more serious. The cool, hard', impassible functionary is
compelled by a sense of duty to make a more elaborate
statement, and then it is you perceive his superiority as a
minister. The clearness, firmness, extent of information,
and sound knowledge of his duty he displays, show him
to be not deficient, either in act or in explanation, when
he thinks it necessary. His questioner is then put hors de
combat, and he himself gets a sort of license for that su-
perciliousness and apathetic indifference to populai cen-
sure which are so fatally urged to his prejudice.—Fraaer's
Magazine.