The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-05 00:00:00

Eagraturr.

N OTICE

The Mountain Minstrel,

By Edward M'Coll

London

Smith

This volume contains many beautifully and correctly
written pieces and songs—several, however, are capable of
much improvement. We perceive in the composition
much originality of mind, depth of feeling, and, occasion-
ally, elegance of expression. The book deserves to
occupy no mean place among our literary productions.
The following poem we select, not by any means as the
best, but because none.of our readers would thank us for
a lengthy poetic piece.

O why am I sad when I leave my own Cot?
Why the green ferny dell not in absence forgot
Fair scenes, where first bashful the love-song I wove,
Why seem ye still fairer the farther I rove?
Why are friendship's fond accents, unheeded before,
Now thought on with rapture, a thousand times o'er?
'Midst nature's fair grandeurs half mournful wky roam?
Let him answer who wanders from friendship and Home

Tjiough bind be the strangerthe city though Cie—
Tliough Art's thousand triumphs to charm me'combins—
Tl%ugh rich be the banquet. and high be the cheer,
Why still am I joyless ?—My home is not here.
'Tis there smile the faces most lovely to me,
There nature's wild graces unrivall'd I see;
From an Eden afar I, with transports, would come
To the Glen of my birth—to my sweet Highland Home!

Bradshaw's General Railway Directory, Shareholder's
Guide, Manual, and Altnanack for 1850, London,
W. J. Adams, 59, Fleet-street; Manchester, Bradshaw

and Blacklock, 47, Bro

wn -street,

The excellent work before us contains • and of infor-
mation of the most valuable descr* • on, especially to
those interested as owners, or othe •ise, in railway stock.
In addition to an almanack, it . ntains a carefully com-
piled manual, " shewing the .:e and progress and present
position of the railways of e United Kingdom, including
those established in Brit'. possessions and dependencies
abroad; also of such .reign railways as have been most
known in this coun •," by Mr. John Edwards, secretary
to the Mancheste •took Exchange, the data brought up
to the 15th De • ber last. The Directory furnishes the
localities of t. head offices of each company, the names
of the direc •rs, secretaries, &c„ in short, everything re-
quired in . ch a book of reference. An excellent map of
the rail •ays of the United Kingdom is prefixed, and the
work neatly got up in cloth boards, gilt letters. The
price is the very reasonable one of half-a-crown.

VARIETIES,

PATMos.—Patmoa is a small, rocky isle, with not a
tree visible upon it, like most of the islands we have
seen. There is little cultivation, although a considerable
hamlet is seen clustering on the hill-side, while a castel-
lated building crowns the summit. It is said that the
inhabitants are supported almost entirely by the proceeds
of the sponge fisheries along its rocky shores.—Expedi-
tion to the Jordan.
RECORDS OF A HEAD DRESS.—At the ball at Notting..
ham, in honour of Lord Howe's victory of the Ist of June,
1794, amid the glare of diamonds, pearls, and other jewels,
ostrich feathers and flowers, Mrs. Muster's head dress
was, with admirable taste, a simple wreath formed from a
branch of natural oak; three acorns from this chaste and
apposite appendage were, after breakfast the following
morning, planted in presence of the company, by the
Countess Howe, on the lawn at Colwick—all the acorns
grew, were " tenderly cared for," and are now handsome
trees.—Biography of "Jack Musters," in Sporting Rev.
BYGONE WINTERS.—The following is an extract
from the Newcastle Chronicle of January 29, 1780 :
On Monday, a funeral passed over the ice at Cocksgreen,
on the river Wear, to Washington church. It appears by
chronological tables that England has been visited by long
and severe frosts in the years 1638, 1661, 1684, 1708,
1716, 1739, 1771, 1774, 1776. The Gateshead Observer
adds, that in the year 220 Great Britain endured a five
months' frost; in 250 the Thames was frozen nine weeks ;
in 291, most of our rivers were frozen six weeks; in 359,
Scotland had fourteen weeks of frost ; in 508, the rivers
of Britain were frozen up above two months ; in 695, the
Thames frozen six weeks, and booths built on the ice ;
in 760, a frost began which endured from October 1 to
February 26 ; in 827, a nine weeks' frost; in 859 and 860
the Adriatic and Mediterranean were frozen over • in
908, most of the English rivers frost-bound. In 1716 a
fair was held on the Thames, and again in 1814. In the
latter year the Tyne was frozen to the depth of twenty
inches. The frosts of 1739 and 1780, recorded by the
Newcastle Chronicle in its youth, endured—the former
103 days, and the latter 84.
A BLACK PRINCE IN AMERICA.—Boyer had been
making a lengthened stay in Paris, where he had been
received as a gentleman and a man of education. He
had been a frequent guest at the Tuilleries, and had been
received on familiar terms at the houses of the foreign
ministers. But why recapitulate where he had been,
and what description of reception he had met with ? He
was received as a gentleman—what more can I say ?—and
enjoyed himself in the best society of Paris. An unlucky
fancy, however, seized upon Boyer, which was no other
than to vary the pleasant monotony of his life by visiting
the United States. The idea was no sooner conceived
than acted on, and he and his sable suite took passage
across the Atlantic, and in due time arrived at New York.
In common with every one else who visits this country,
he repaired to the " City of Hotels," the Astor House.
When, lo ! to his astonishment and dismay, he found thr
doors of the establishment closed against him and his !
They did not take in Niggers The poor prince next
tried to gain admittance to two other hotels, with equally
ill success. There was no home in the free (1) city for
the black man 1 At last, a despised liquor shop was
pointed out to him, whose owner earned a wretched live-
lihood by affording nightly shelter to these condemned
specimens of the human race ; and there the man who
was, in civilized Europe, a prince, and, what is afar more
distinguished title—a gentleman—was glad to lay his
head. At the theatre, similar slights and indignities
were offered to him, and the next day, indignant and
disgusted at the manner in which he had been treated,
Boyer and his suite took their departure, and shaking
from off his feet the dust of the great republican city,
declared that he must go elsewhere, if he hoped to find
freedom, for that there it was not.—Mrs. Houstoun's I
Travels in the West.

GOD IN PROVIDENCE.—The same God, we also learn,
who is revealed in the Bible, is felt in providence, and
heard and seen in history. The shortest text and the
longest chapter. the most precious promise and the most
startling theatening, in the Bible, are alike inspired by
God. So in the history of the world, the minutest inci-
dent and the most momentous revolution—the sparrows'
flight and the angel's worship, are alike under the cog-
nizance, subject to the control, and associated with the
ultimate purposes of God. All the action of Providence,
notwithstanding its apparent antagonism, is really the
continuous carrying out of the plans, predictions, and
purposes of God. God pronounced the character of the
future, and promotes what he has predicted without ceas-
ing. The little flock, the church of Christ, we see has
outlived all trials and survived all shocks, and has given
evidence at every stage of its history and development
that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. The
church may be in danger, the chapel may be deserted, the
ministers of both may become apostate, but the everlast-
ing Gospel survives—makes the tomb of all the platform
on which it concentrates its force, that it may rise and
soar with the speed and splendour of an angel's wing.
Christ remains the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
His church shares in his glory. Let us always distin-
guish between the truth of Christ and the smoke that dar-
kens it, or the apostacy that overlays it—the one goes,
the other abides. The inexperienced eye, seeing the drift
resting on the mountain side, concludes that it is part of
the mountain itself; and when the wind sweeps the drift
away, the unpractised spectator is apt to imagine that
part of the mountain is gone—but it is not so ; it still stands
to attract from the clouds that sweep over it the blessings
which they bear, and to send them down its sides to re-
fresh and moisten the drooping heath-bell, and to form
streams which gladden, as they go, a thousand valleys,
and sweep onward to the main. Thus superstitions, and
apostasies, and errors. and controversies rage within and
without, and all around the sides of the mountain of the
Lord's house, and dart their lightnings and emit their
thunders, but they do not make or unmake the mountain;
its glorious summit rises high above the tumult, and burns
with perpetual sunshine, and all night long is visited by
troops of stars. Heaven and earth may pass away ; the
grass may wither, and the flower may fade; but the word
of the Lord endureth for ever : and this is the word which
by the Gospel is preached unto you.—Cumming.
AN AMBASSADOR'S TREATMENT AND REVENGE.
Oliver St. John, when Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, was despatched to Holland, as ambassador, against
his will :—" Ascham, another parliamentary ambassador,
had lately been assinated by the Royalists at Madrid ; and
St. John, dreading a similar fate, presented a petition that
he might be excused, alleging his important judicial duties
at home, his infirm health, and the insalubrity of the
climate ; but his timidity was derided, and upon a division
his petition was dismissed by a large majority. He was
allowed -£lO,OOO to pay his expenses, and 40 attendants to
protect him. Accordingly, he made the public entry into
the Hague with a retinue and parade becoming the rep-
resentative of a powerful nation ; but the populace saluted
him with groans and hisses, and the Royalists were not
only resolved to insult him on every occasion, but to offer
violence to his person. Edward, a son of the Queen of
Bohemia, publicly called him a rogue and a dog; and the
Duke of York, with the Princess Henrietta on his arm,
meeting him by accident near a turnstile at Verhout, there
was a struggle which should pass first ; upon which the
prince snatched the ambassador's hat off his head, and
threw it in his face, saying, ` Learn, parricide ! to respect
the brother of your king.' The ambassador replited—` I
regard neither you nor the person of whom you speak but
as a race of fugitives.' Swords were drawn, and it was
enfl.y
4y the interference of the spectators that fighting
was P/evented. Afterwardsl there was an attempt made
to break into St. John s house by ruffians who had a rope
with them, with which they meant to strangle him. On
various pretences the States General refused to grant any
redress, and put off from time to time the matters that
were to be negociated. St. John returned home abruptly,
vowing vengeance, and he was not a man to let his re-
sentment pass off in empty words. He delivered to the
parliament an inflamed account of the manner in which
the English nation had been wronged in his person.
Next he pointed out a plan in which ample punishment
might be inflicted on the offending parties. Hitherto the
Dutch had been the great carriers for the English as well
as other European nations ; and he proposed an ordinance
to enact ' that no goods, the produce of Asia, Africa, or
America should be imported into this country in ships
which were not the property of English subjects ; and
that no goods, the produce or manufacture of any part of
Europe, should be imported unless in English ships, or
ships of the country where such goods were produced or
manufactured.' The ordinance was quickly passed, and
was confirmed by an act of parliament on the Restora-
tion."—Campbell's Lives qf the Chief Justices.

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK AT SCARBOROUGH.—lllustra-
tive of Professor Sedgwick's humour for a joke, a story is
told, that when once on a visit to Scarborough, where he
had an engagement to dine, he stopped by the way side,
and perching himself on a heap of stones, as is his wont,
pulled out his geological hanimer, and began hammering
away in fine style. While thus engaged, a lady drove up
in a four-wheel chaise. Interested, apparently, in his
labour, and mistaking him for a stone-breaker—for the
professor is riot very particular in the matter of dress
when on geological excursions—the lady, after asking a
few questions as to whether he could earn his living by
his occupation, how many children he had, and if he had
brought them up to stone-breaking, to all of which the
professor replied with befitting thankfulness and humi-
lity. gave him a shilling and drove off. On his arrival at
Scarborough, whom should he meet at the table of his
friend but the lady in question ! The lady did not recog-
nise him in his more civilised attire, but expressed her
conviction that she had seen his face before. " Oh, yes,
ma'am," replied Professor Sedgwick, " don't you remem-
ber speaking to a man on the road, asking him how many
children he had, and giving him a shilling ! " Here it
is," continued he, pulling the coin out of his pocket,
" and l'll keep it for your sake." So saying, the lively
professor whipped the shilling into his pocket again, and
very soon charmed the lady and 4.fie company with his
extraordinary conversational powers.
THE LITERATURE OF INSANITY. —We particularly
direct the attention of our readers (says the London Evan-
gelical Magazine) to the essays in the Journal of Psycho-
logical Medicine, by Dr. Winslow, on the practicability
of curing some of the more formidable kinds of mental
derangement by the exhibition of morphine; but, as Dr.
Winslow observes, the medicine requires to be adminis-
tered perseveringly, until the system is brought completely
under its sedative influence. Dr. Winslow maintains that
insanity is more susceptible of cure than is generally ad-
mitted, and that if grappled with in its early stages, before
the brain becomes organically affected, it may be cured as
easily as rheumatism, or any other bodily disease. How
gratifying must this announcement be to those whose
friends and relatives are suffering from this terrible cala-
mity ! Dr. Winslow has great faith in the efficacy of
medicine in the treatment of the disorders of the mind.
He considers that too much reliance is placed on moral
remedies ; and without wishing to undervalue in the
slightest degree the importance of a strict observance of
moral treatment, he considers that, as insanity is in every
case associated with derangement of the physical organs,
if a permanent cure is to be effected, it must be by acting
on the deranged manifestations of the mind through the
material organs with which it is associated, and whose
impairment is the cause of the insanity. He thinks we
might with as much reason attempt to cure a bilious
attack by moral means alone, as to think of re-establish-
ing mental health by an exclusive adoption of remedies
moral in their character."

NAPOLEON, CATALANI, AND JENNY LlND.—Among
the hearers of Madame Catalani at the French Opera
House, was the Empeor Napoleon, who, although desti-
tute of any taste for music, wished to fix the admired
cantatrice in his capital, partly by an ambitious desire to
see himself surrounded by great artists, and partly with
the view of diverting the thoughts of the Parisians from
graver and more dangerous topics. Accordingly he com-
manded her attendance at the Tuileries. The poor wo-
man had never been brought before into contact with this
virtuoso of war, who at that time filled all Eupore with
the fame of his fioriture ; she trembled from head to
foot on entering his presence. " Where are you going,
Madame ?" inquired the master, with his abrupt tone
and imperial voice. "To London, Sire,"—" You must
remain in Paris, where you shall be well paid, and where
your talents will be better appreciated. You shall have
a hundred thousand francs a-year, and two month's vaca-
tion : that is settled. Adieu, Madame !" And the canta-
trice retired more dead than alive, without having dared
to inform her bruske interrogator that it was impossible
for her to break an engagement which she had formed
with the English Ambassador at Portugal. If Napoleon
had been acquainted with this circumstance, he would
undoubtedly have laid an embargo on the fair singer,
whom he would have considered a rich capture from his
enemies. Madame Catalani was none the less obliged to
make her escape from France without a passport. She
embarked secretly at Morlaix, on board a vessel which
had been sent for the exchange of prisoners, and to whose
captain she paid £l5O for his services. This interview
with the Emperor Napoleon made so deep an impression
on Madame Catalani, that she was wont to speak of it as
the most trying moment of her life. A few days before
her death, while she was sitting in her saloon, without
any presentiment of her approaching end, she received a
visit from an unknown lady, who declined giving her name
to the servant. Upon being ushered into her presence,
the stranger bowed before her with a graceful yet lowly
reverence, saying, " I ant come to offer my homage to the
most celebrated cantratrice of our time, as well as to the
most noble of women: bless me, madame, I am Jenny
Lind !" Madame Catalani, moved even to tears,
pressed the Swedish nightingale to her heart. After a
prolonged interview they parted, each to pursue her own
appointed path,—the one to close her eyes, with unex-
pected haste, upon earth, with all its shifting hopes and
fears,—the other to enjoy fresh triumphs, the more pure
and happy, as they are the the fruit not only of her be-
witching talent, but also that of excellence which wins
for her in every place the heartfelt homage of esteem and
love.— Weekly paper.
THE HOUSE FLY.—A fly on the wing is no less curious
an object than one on foot ; yet, when do we trouble our
heads about it, except as a thing which troubles us ? The
most obvious wonder of its flight is its variety of direc-
tion, most usually forwards, with its back upwards like a
bird, but on occasions backwards, with its back down-
wards, as when starting from the window and alighting
on the ceiling. Marvellous velocity is another of its
characteristics. By fair comparison of sizes, what is the
swiftness of a race-horse clearing his mile a minute to the
the speed of the fly cutting through her third of the same
distance in the same time ? And what the speed of our
steaming giants, the grand puffers of the age, compared
with the swiftness of our tiny puffers ; of whom a mon-
ster train, scenting their game afar, may even follow
partridges and pheasants on the wings of steam in their
last flight as friendly offerings. But, however, with their
game the flies themselves would be most in " keeping"
on the atmospheric line, a principal agent in their flight,
as well as in that of other insects, being the air. This
enters from the breathing organs of their bodies in the
nerves and muscles of their wings, from which arrange-
ment their velocity depends, not alone on muscular power,
but also on the state of the atmosphere. How does a fly
buz ? is another question more easily asked than answered.
" With its wings, to be sure," hastily replies one of our
readers. " With its wings as they vibrate upon the air,"
responds another, with a smile, half of contempt, half of
complacency, at his own more than common measure-
ment of natural philosophy. But how, then, let us ask,
can the great dragon-fly, and other similar broad- pinioned,
rapid flying insects, cut through the air with silent swift-
ness, while others go on buzzing when not upon the wing
at all ? Rennie, who has already put this posing query
himself ascribes the sound partially to air, but to air as it
plays on the " edges of their wings at their origin, as with
an molian harp sttring," or to the friction of some inter-
nal organ on the root of the wings nervures. Lastly,
how does the fly feed ? the busy, curious, thirsty fly, that
" drinks with me," but does not " drink as I," his sole
instrument for eating or drinking being his trunk or suck,
the narrow pipe by means of which, when let down upon
his dainties, he is enabled to imbibe as much as suits his
capacity. This trunk might seem an instrument conveni-
ent enough when inserted into a saucer or syrup, or
applied to the broken surface of an over-ripe blackberry,
but we often see our sipper of sweets quite as busy on a
solid lump of sugar, which we shall find on close inspec-
tion growing " small by degrees," under his attack.
How, without grinders, does he accomplish the consump-
tion of such crystal condiment ? A magnifier will solve
the difficulty, and show how the fly dissolves his rock,
Hannibal fashion, by a diluent, a salivery fluid passing
down through the same pipe, which returns the sugar
melted into syrup.—Episodes of Insect Life.

ANOTHER EFFORT TO FIND SIR JOHN

FRANKLIN.

Whatever depends upon human zeal and ingenuity has
now been attempted in order to convey assistance to the
missing expedition to the Arctic Seas. The Admiralty,
acting in obedience to the general wish, has a second
tine despatched the Enterprise and Investigator in quest
of Sir John Franklin and his companions. This time
these exploring ships will take another direction, and
from a westerly point enter the inhospitable region in
which Sir John Franklin may yet be expecting the assis-
tance of his countrymen. In the sailing orders directed
from the Admiralty to Captain Collinson his path has
been chalked out for him until the first of August, when,
according to calculation, he will have past through
Behring's Straits, and struck the ice. A brief recapitu-
lation of the precautions taken may serve to show that
nothing has been neglected to secure a favourable result.
The orders given to Captain Collinson are to the effect
that he shall take the command of the Enterprise and
consider the Investigator under his orders. The ships are
furnished with provisions for three years as well as with a
quantity of extra stores, and have been fortified in every
respect against the dangers and inclemencies of the Arctic
seas. Captain Collinson is to proceed to Cape Virgins,
where he will find a steamer in waiting to tow him
through the Straits of Magellan and the Wellington
Channel, and so on to Valparaiso. From this port the
two ships are to proceed to the Sandwich Islands, where
they will receive despatches from home, and meanwhile,
if possible, effect a junction with the Herald and Plover.
In case he should join company with these vessels, Cap-
tain Collinson is directed to add Commander Moore and
the Plover to his expedition, and make all despatch so as
to reach Behring's Straits in July and actually strike the
ice by the first of August.
Once arrived at the ice, for three years Captain Collin-
son is left to himself, subject only to some general direc-
tions as to winter quarters. For three years he will be
sedulously engaged in despatching parties of men in such
directions as may seem the most likely to produce favour-
able results. The expedition of Sir James Ross was un-
fortunate from the premature and unwonted severity with
which the bad weather set in ; and the westerly course,
by way of Melville's Island, into the heart of the Arctic
region was hopelessly blocked up. So with regard to the
more recent advance of the boats of the Herald and Plo-
ver, steering east, which reached the mouth of the Mac-
enzie River. It is scarcely possible that Sir John Frank-
lin and his party, if their ships be lost, as seems probable,
should have arrived so far west. Thus, by an unfortu-
nate conjunction of circumstances, the researches of the
parties on either side have just stopped at those points
where they were likely to become most useful. With
regard to the boat expedition from the Herald and Plover,
it may fairly be supposed that, had our missing country-
men been able at all to strike the northern coast of Ame-
rica, they would rather have made for the interior than
have directed their steps along the shores in an easterly
direction. The distance was too great, the impractica-