The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-09-17 00:00:00

a professor

~covery

from his laboratory

insayed ; the

of Cambridge, could not be g
two well bred, the ladies too gallant to attempt it. Ther
was one man however, within hearing on whom all
this excited but pity and a smile—the old family-butler.
Of course he said nothing then, and Watson's discovery

was all in all : but on the following morning, finding the
Doctor in the library pouring over the lava and taking
notes,thinking probably that the honours of Dallam Tower

were now al

ate, and with the privilege of his order,
dministerad to him this salutary information :—" Dr.
Watson, excuse me, but I thought I heard you say at the
table yesterday that Helm Craig was an extinct volcano.
I don't know what an extinct volcano is, as I never saw
one ; but I do know that when I was a lad, my father
and I had a blast-furnace on Helm Crag, and that's a
piece of the cinder from the very spot.' Facts are
stubborn things: the doctor looked aghast over his spec-
tacles, put up his note. book, and with a gold guinea

silenced, at least until the doctor's departure, the disco-
very of the doctor's ignorance.— Worthies of Westmore-
land.

A CALIFORVIAN DEPUTATION AND MAGISTRATE.—
The democratic party, headed by the sheriff (one Johnny
Pulls, who contrived somehow to keep office under both
governments), and accompanied by a strong .and deter-,

mined number of their followers, proceeded one day in a
body to the office of the alcalde, and, presenting them-
selves as a deputation from a majority of the Yankee
citizens, demanded that the town records and papers
sbotid be delivered up to them. The :alcalde refused to
acquiesce in this demand, standing firm upon the autho-
rity with which he had been invested, and urging that he

archives, surrender possession of them into the hands of
a party not duly authorised to require them from him.
He should, therefore, decline to give them up. The de-
mand was then repeated, backed by a representation to
the effect that, according to the fundamental principles
of the American system of government, the will of the
majority was absolute ; and an intimation was, moreover,
thrown out, that unless the alcalde complied with it, the
party were determined to search for and- take them away

by
b force. •The alcalde reflected for a moment; and,
whilst he appeared to be making up his mind, suddenly
stretched outhis hand, and took down from a shelf be-
hind him a large horse-pistol, which be deliberately
cocked. As he did this, he said—" Well, gentlemen,
you can proceed. but you must be answerable for the
consequ:nces" ". Oh ! if that's what you mean," ex-
claimed Pubs, coolly withdrawing a similar weapon from
his coat-pocket, and examining the priming, " I've got
one of them 'ere things, too ; so it's who'll have the first
shot. Go in, boys," he continued, addressing his follow-
ers, as he levelled the pistol at the alcalde's head ; " if
he budges, he shan't squeak more than once." The
alcade, who, doubtless, never had really meant resistance,
but who probably thought that a show of it was necessary
at his hands, to save his honour, nowattempted to parley,
with a view to gain time; and assured the deputation that
the town records were mixed up with other papers strictly
private, so that-a few days would be necessary for him to
sort them. The delay was refused ; a couple of hours
only being granted to him for their production. A huge
waggon had accompanied the party, and was drawn up
outside, ready -to receive the documents, the waggoner
lying in it at full length, unconscious of what was pass-
ing. It had been brought out of bravado.; for there were
but few books and papers to take away. The alcalde,
finding that further resistance and excuse would be use.
less, finally surrendered the documents into the keeping
of the guard left to take charge of them. The waggoner
exacted two ounces of gold for his services ; and, upon
this sum being refused him, on the plea Of its being an
exorbitant charge, seized one of the principal and most
valuable of the books. and kept it until his demand was
complied with.—Ryan's Adventures in California.

WAS SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MONETARY POLICY DISIN-
TERESTED ?—Although not entertaining a shadow of a
doubt that all these evils have arisen from Sir Robert
Peel's monetary policy, we disclaim all intention of as-
cribing interested motives to him in adopting it. There
is nothing in his conduct or life which argues a selfish
character, in the ordinary sense of the word. He was
ambitious, but; it was of great and public objects only.
Possessed of immense wealth, he made a noble use of it.
Covetous of renown, he was altogether superior to the
vulgar appetite for money. He never made a shilling in
the public service ; he spent far more in office than he
ever received from it. His relations were provided for;
but it was for the most part from the facilities which his
own fortune afforded, not .by.quartering them in brigades
on the public service. In the distribution of patronage
he was not only liberal, but ultra-liberal; the principal
fault to be found with it was, that he gave far too much
to his opponents, and reserved too little for his own sup-
porters. It is impossible to suppose that a man who
acted thus, and whose conduct was so much the reverse
of interested, was influenced by selfish motives in the
course which he adopted in monetary matters and free
trade. And we adhere to this opinion, even although the
effeet.of those measures undoubtedly was to increase his
own fortune from one million to two millions. But
althotigh we sincerely and gladly absolve Sir Robert Peel
from all, selfish or unworthy motives in the monetary
measures which he introduced, we cannot absolve him
from the imputation of being swayed by the influence of
gold in Vie abstract, and in the estimate which he formed
of others. Personally disinterested, and actuated only
by a desire for the public good, he was not the less a de-
voted worshipper of mammon. He thought that the
public good would be best pursued by supporting its gains.
He disdained lucre himself, but he never overlooked its
importance in his estimate of those around him. Peti-
tions and arguments came with surprising weight to him.
when they wore urged by persons who had two hundred
thousand pounds of realised capital in their pockets. He
thought he could not go wrong in pursuing a policy which
they recommended. He regarded tnem as the fountains
of public prosperity—the sheet-anchor of the state,
which alone could be relied on to save it in the many
vicissitudes incident to widely-extended commercial trans-
actions. He measured the public strength by the number of
sovereigns stored in the vaults of the Bank—private weight,
in a great degree, by the magnitude of balances at bankers.
He owed his greatness to commercial industry, supported
by a protective policy, and an enlarged system of paper
eredit. But he soon forgot his origin, and was influenced
in manhood in his ideas, as most men are, by his present
position. He had no symeathy with wealth in the pro-
cess of formation : but the greatest possible with it when
completely formed. He was the heir of immense realised
commercial riches, and he became its representative. He
never forgot its interests—not because they were his
own, but because he never could divest himself of the
idea that they were those of the nation at large. In gold
he saw the only solid representative of wealth ; his great
object was to get as much of it as possible stored in that
imperishable form. He desired no more than he had for
himself, but he worshipped it in the abstract with a fer-
vour never felt by any of the professed adorers of Baal.
He never could believe the nation was other than prosper-
ous, if the hank had fifteen millions' worth of gold in
its coffers. He was honest, honourable, and patriotic,
but not chivalrous or high-minded; he loved his coun-
try, but he thought every attempt to serve it delusive
which was not based upon the interests of its moneyed
capital ; and deemed every measure expedient which went
to augment the solid metallic treasures of the nation.
To that unhappy conviction the most fatal errors of his
career may fLrectly be traced.—Blacktroornk Ma,gazine,