The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-18 00:00:00

ANECDOTE OF THE LATE DUKE OF CLEVELAND.—The
late Duke of Cleveland, on the disbanding of the militia, in
1816, had three gentlemen dining with him. In the course
of conversation his grace mentioned that he had bought an
entire lottery-ticket, and declared his intention, should it
prove a prize, of dividing it amongst the party assembled.
The day of drawing at length arrived, and to his grace's
utter astonishment, the identical ticket proved-to be a prize
of £20,000. We need scarcely add that the Duke faithfully
performed his promise to his fortunate guests, who were
his two sons-in-law,—Francis Forester. Esq., and Mark
Milkbank, Esq. ; and Major Heely, of the West York
Militia.—Northern Times.

MAID-SERVANTS AND THEIR " FRIENDS." - Every
master and mistress in the United Kingdom knows what a
maid-servant's friend is. Sometimes he is a brother, some-
times he is a cousin (often a cousin), and sometimes a father,
who really wears well, and carries his age amazingly ! He
comes down the area—in at the window—or through a door
left ajar. Sometimes a maid-servant, like a hare, " has
many friends." The master of the house, after washing his
hands in the back kitchen, feels behind the door for a jack-
towel, and lays hold of a " friend's " nose. " Friends ' are
shy ; sometimes a footman breaks a " friend's " shins by
plunging into the coal-cellar for a shovel of nobbies. We
speak feelingly, our own abode having been once turned into
a friend's meeting-house—a fact we became aware of through
a smoky chimney ; but a chimney will smoke when there:is
a journeyman baker up it.—London paper.

SUPPRESSION OF MONASTERIES IN CUDA.—The follow-
ing is an extract of a letter received in Boston,'(U.S.) dated
Havana, Dec. 21. "You have probably heard that the
Intendent of the island has published an order for the sup-
pression of eleven of the nineteen monasteries existing in the
island, and sequestration for the benefit of the state of the
entire church property, (excepting that of the nunneries,)
amounting to several millions. For the support of the monks
he has assigned a small pension, and also a fixed sum to be
paid annually by the state to the different churches for the
maintainance of religious worship. The begging orders are
prohibited asking alms in the streets, as they would thereby
have an advantage over the other orders whose property has
been sequestered. Those monks who secularise are to have
a pension one-fourth greater than those who retain their habit.
All the sacred vessels are to be distributed among the poor
churches. By the people of Havana, Matanzas, &c. this order
is looked upon as just and necessary; as the class of priests
who are thus ostracised are looked upon as fomenters of vice
in all its shapes. But in the smaller towns, and among the
plantations, the influence of these priests is not directly felt;
and as the measure is held up by them as a direct war upon
the church, the old Romanists are very much excited about it
These priests have had their own way so long that they
will not yield their power without a struggle to maintain it.
Ido not think they will be successful. Of the nineteen con-
vents spoken of, seven are in the city, containing one hundred
and thirty-four monks and novices—but three convents are
left, and as their rents are taken away, most of the monks
and all the novices will secularise. It is rather a bold stroke
thus to revolutionise the institutions which are coeval with
the settlement of this island by the Spaniards; but we live
in an age of bold measures, and there is no knowing what a
day may bring forth."—Boston Mail.
We understand that very decisive measures are about to
be adopted for the recovery of debts due by states of the
American union to British subjects. Mr. R. Crichton
Wyllie, himself a creditor, authorised by other holders of
American securities to represent them, has embarked in the
Columbia steamer for New York. His first object will
doubtless be to resist and counteract the dangerous doctrine
of the repudiation of certain English claims on American
states, a doctrine equally dishonest and dangerous, but set
up by some authorities in the Union. The amount of Bri-
tish money invested in American state bonds, banks, canal
and railroad shares, is from £20,000,000 to £25,000,300.—
Times.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL IN THE MANCHESTER UNION.—
The guardians of the poor of the Manchester Union are
about to erect a school, for the industrial and moral training
of the poor children of the union, upon a plot of land situate
at Swinton. They are advertising for a suitable design for
the edifice, which " must contain accommodation for one
thousand children, with a proper classification of the sexes,
and all requisite school, dining, day, committee, bed, and
store rooms; carpenters', shoemakers', tailors', and other
proper industrial workshops and rooms; kitchens, wash-
houses, laundry," &c.

THE ManoNerEs.—The Maronite population are for the
most part comprisod in the portion of the range of which
Beyrout may be called the southern, and Gebail the north-
ern boundary. A much smaller space, within these limits,
exclusively appertains to them • that of the Kishruan, (the
Castravan of the crusaders) and which includes an extent of
ten miles only, to the northward of Dug river. Within the
latter district are more than 150,000 Maronites. Villages
arise at almost a stone's throw from each other, whilst the
feature of the scene is rendered still more remarkable by the
peculiarly bold and inaccessible character of this locality.
Hamlets, like eagle's eiries, stud the the surrounding heights ;
and not a spot can the eye detect but shows traces of the hand
of man, where vast series of terraces extend, flourishing un-
der the most careful cultivation. At every turning are seen
convents, nestled amid the richest and the most fertile nooks ;
whilst the vine, the fig, the olive, and the date-tree., intermin-
gled with the mulberry, enhance by their varied tints the fine
effect of the picture. Such is the country of the Maronites.
A word, next, as to the people themselves, The origin of the
Maronites, as a sect, may be proved to be of high antiquity ;
but at the same time, it is a point involved in some degree of
controversy. They profess to be themselves the disciples of
St. Maron, a Syrian abbot, who lived at the commencement
of the fifth century, and who maintained, say they, the pure
doctrines of the early Christian church. The celebrated his-
torian, William, Archbishop of Tyre, declares that these
people were only admitted within the pale of Christianity at
about the middle of the twelfth century. De la Roque, who
is the best modern authority on the subject, supports—and, I
think, satisfactorily—the prior claim of the Maronites. A
letter is extant from St. Chrysostom, addressed to Maron (Ad
Maronem Monachem et Presbyterum, Epist. St. Joan. Chry-
sost. xxxvi ;) and the Annals of Cardinal Baronius, in 631,
mention a monastic sect founded by such a man on the banks
of the Orontes. It would appear that the term Maronite was
soon employed as the first distinctive appellation for Catho-
licism in Syria, in opposition to the generally prevailing
dogma of Monotholism. In the reign of Constantine Pogo-
nat, this sect according to Cedrenus, an historian of that pe-
riod, would seem to have become considerably extended ; and
he states (in 676 of the Christian era,) that one of the Ma-
ronite partisans then, for the first time, established its doc-
trines in Lebanon, and it was considered under the autho-
rity of the Romish See. VolneY who durir, his eight months
residence in those mountains,eonsulted manyb of the native
chroniclers, states that, for several successive centuries after
the above period, Lebanont, becamei an asylum from religious
pc eo
ur snetc ifiot
ri on
the
of every
nvep Pagan• e as
and
Christian
hnro i
sotitahne
amalgamating
meansmal
gan canat
in
gwe ae
toge-
ther-
as they did for so Io-
ng a series of ages, and submitting
to be governed even by a single head. In 1588, during the
reign of Amurat the Third, the Lebanon was so far reduced
to a state of subjection by the Ottoman power as to be com-
pelled to pay tribute. That capitulation has remained in
everyinterffodrt by which the
effect to the present day ; but
Porte has since attempted further to
risons, or its direct rule, has successfully) introduce
e itswoithisitogoadr:
The renowned Druse Fakr-el-Din, in whose
trfamilyesthe su-
preme chieftainship was vested, rule over these
the early part of the seventeeth century. He at lengthbduring
the
ex-
tended his sway throughout the whole of the mountai
dis-
trict between Tripoli and Sidon ; and it was only after a long
and successful career, during which period he introduced a
great degree of civilisation into the mountains, that he fell a
victim to the jealousy of the Ottoman government, who,
however, did not achieve his overthrow without large efforts.
The family of Fakr-el-Din shortly after became extinct, and
the Shehab (its present rulers) were elected, by popular con-
sent, to succeed it.—Hunter's Narrative of the Syrian Ex-
, pedition.