The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-02 00:00:00

13 ottrp.

RECOLLECTIONS.
BY THE LATE S. LOUISA P. SMITH.

- .
I've pleasant thoughts that memory brings, in moments free

from care, -
Of a fairy-like and laughing girl, with roses; in her hair;
Her smile-was like the star-light of summers softest skies,
And worlds of joyousness there shone, from out her witch-

ing eyes.

Her looks were looks of melody, her voice was like the swell
Of sudden music, notes of mirth, that of wild gladness tell ;
She came like spring, with pleasant sounds of sweetness and

of mirth,
And her thoughts were those wild, flowery ones, that linger
not on earth.

A quiet goodness beam'd amid the beauty of her face,
And all she said and did was with its own instinctive grace ;
She seem'd as if she thought the world a good and pleasant
one,
And her light spirit saw no ill in all beneath the sun.

I've dreamed of just such creatures, but they never met my
view,
'Mid the sober, dull reality, in their earthly form and hue,
And her smile came gently over me, like spring's first
scented airs,
And made me think life was not all a wilderness of cares.
I know not of her destiny, or where her smile now strays,
But the thought of her comes o'er me, with my own lost
sunny days,
With moonlight hours, and far-off friends, and many plea-
sant things,
That have gone the way of all the earth on time's resistless
wings.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Commissioner, Nos. 9 and 10. Walmsley.

Whoever the author of this work may be be is a queer
fish, and possesses queer thoughts and fancies. The present
numbers are decided improvements upon the last. It ap-
pears to us that the tale is approaching a termination. It is
certainly the most original of the day. Portions of it are
amusing, though the general plot and incidents are un-
likely—amidst a great deal of nonsense there constantly
breaks out very apposite and trite remarks. The illustra-
tions are all admirable.

Our Mess. By Harry Lorrequer. Walmsley, Liverpool.
Jack Hinton, in this number, we find idling away his time
with the Bellews, falling deeper and deeper in love with the
" one fair daughter," and rescuing ber from a watery grave.
A rencontre with Ulick Burke is well described. The fol-
lowing terrific recital by " Tipperary Joe" takes place while
he and the dragoon are journeying together, the latter on his
return to head-quarters :
" Ay;'. cried he aloud, as his eye glistened with an unna-
tural lustre, " better be poor Tipperary Joe, without house
or home, father or mother, sister or friend, and when the
time comes, run to earth, without a wet eye after him."
" Come, come, Joe, you have many a friend ; and when
you count them over, don't forget me in the reckoning."
" Whist, whist," he whispered in a low voice, as if fearful
of being overheard, " don't say that—them's dangerous
words."
I turned towards him with a§tonishment, and perceived
that his whole countenance had undergone a striking change.
The gay and laughing look was gone ; the bright colour had
left his cheek ; and a cold, ghastly paleness was spread over
his features, and as he cast a hurried and stealthy look
around him, I could mark that some secret fear was working
within him.
" What is it, Joe, said I ; " what's the matter ? Are you
ill ?
" No," said he, in a tone scarcely audible, " no ; but you
frightened me just now, when,you called me your friend."
' How could that frighten you, my poor fellow ?"
" I'll tell you—that's what they called my father—they said
he was friendly with the gentlemen, and signs on it—" he
paused, and his eye became rooted to the ground, as if on
some object there from which he could not turn his gaze :
" yes, I mind it well—we were sitting by the fire in the guard-
room all alone by ourselves—the troops was away, I don't
know where—when we heard the tramp of men marching,
but not regular, but coming as if they didn't care how, and
horses and carts rattling and rumbling among them.
" Thim's the boys,' says my father. ' Give me that ould
cockade there till I stick it in my cap, and reach me over
the fiddle till I rise a tune for them.'
" I mind little more till he was marching at the head of
them through the town, down towards the new college that
was building—it's Maynooth I'm speaking about—and then
we turned to the left, my father scraping away all the time
every tune he thought they'd like ; and if now and then by
mistake he played any thing that did not plaze them, they'd
damn and blast him with the dreadfullest curses, and stick a
pike into him, till the blood would come running down his
back ; and then my father would cry out—
" II tell my friends on you for this—divil a lie in it, but
I will.'
" At last we came to the duke's wall, and then my father
sat down on the road sat, and cried out that he wouldn't go
a step farther, for I was crying away with sore feet at the
pace we were going, and asking every minute to be let sit
down to rest myself.
" ' Look at the child,' says he, ' his feet's all bleeding.'
" 'Ye have only a little further to go,' says one of them
that had cross belts on, and a green sash about him,
"'The devil.resave another step,' says my father.
" Tell Billy to play us " The Farmer's Daughter" before
he goes,' says one of the crowd.
" I'd rather hear " The Bowld Fox," says another.
" ' No, no, " Baltiorum! Baltiorum! " ' say many more
bchind.
" Ye shall have them all,' say my father, and that 'ill
plaze ye.'
" And so he set to, and played the three tunes as beautiful
as ever ye heard ; and when he was done, the man with the
belts ups and says to him—
" Ye're a fine hand, Billy, and it's a pity to lose you, and
you friends will be sorry for you —and he said this with a
grin—' but take the spade there and dig a hole, for we must
be jogging, it's nigh day.'
" Well, my father, though he was tired enough, took the
spade and began digging as they told him, for he thought to
himself, the boys is going to hide the pike and the carbines
before they' go home. Well, when we worked half an hour,
be threw off his coat and set to again ; and at last he got tired
and sat down on the side of the big hole, and called—
" Isn't it big enough now, boys?'
" No,' says the captain, nor half.'
" So my father set to once more, and worked away with
all his might, and they all stood by, talking and laughing
with one another. •
" Will it do now ?' says my father; for sure enough I'm
clean beat.
" Maybe it might,' says one of them : lie down and see
if it's the length.
" Well, is it that it's for ?' says may father : fair, I
never guessed it was a grave ;' and so he took off his cap and
lay down his full length in the hole.
" That's all right,' says the others, and began with spade
and shovel to cover him up. At first he laughed away as
hearty as the rest; but when the mould grew heavy on him
he began to screech out to let him up, and then his voice
grew weaker and fainter, and they waited a little, then
worked harder, and then came a groan, qad all was still
and they patted the sods over him and heaped them up ; and
then they took me and put me in the middle of them, and
one called out, March!' I thought I saw the green sod
moving on the top of the grave as we walked away, and heard
a voice half-choking calling out, ' There, boys, there 1' and
then a laugh. But sure I often heard the same still, when
there's nobody near me, and I do be looking on the ground
by myself."
',I Great God !" cried I, " Is this true ?"
"True as you're there,', replied he. I was ten years of
age when it happened, and I never knew how time went
since, nor how long it is ago, it was in the year of the great
troubles here • and the soldiers and the country people never
could be cruel to one another : and whatever one did
to-day, the others would try to beat it out to-morrow. But
it's truth every word of it ; and the place is called Billy the
fool's grave' to this hour. I go there once a year to see it
myself."
This frightful story—told, too, with all the simple power
of truth—thrilled through me with horror, long after the
impression seemed to have faded away from him who told it ;
and though he still continued to speak on, I heard nothing ;
nor did I mark our progress until I found myself beside the
little stream which conducted to the mill.

An Elementary Introduction to the Nautical Almanac, and
Astronomical Ephemeris, 8(c. By G. P. Payne, Optician,
Liverpool. Charles Wilson, London ; Melling and Payne,
Liverpool.
This is a truly valuable work, not solely as "An Introduc-
tion to the Nautical Almanac," but as containing clear and
familiar explanations of the whole of the technical terms and
phenomena appertaining to the sublime science of astronomy;
the whole illustrated by numerous diagrams, and rendered of
easY comprehension by students even of moderate capacity.
It forms, in fact, as stated in a secondary portion of the title
page, "An Epitome of Astronomy." and will be found as
en usefuland acceptable to the general student of that science
shore, as to those who seek only to determine by planetary
observation, the true position of a ship at sea, a pursuit
whiah
more fear, too generally neglected by nautical men,
from the want of such an "instroduction" to smooth the diffi-
culties
"countered in the onset, and who are thus thrown
too exclusively
upon a reliance on their chronometers. The
author, in a very
"Writers on eiembrief and unassuming preface, remarks :
the information ntosellttal astronomy generally either reserve
it on the supposition
,that sought by the curious, or detail
at the reader is a mathematician.
Undoubtedly no
great
mthgratchss can be made in astronomy
without the aid of the mathematics,
medium between a perfect aectuamma.tics, but there may be a
tance with these abstruse
studies and a sufficient knowledge to make astronomical data
easy of comprehension. The author,
fe%
andfo re in pursuance
of his plan has, be believes, familiarised
enable introduced
any student to
as
of
the
Celes-
Many scientific explanations as may
have
comprehend the facts and complicated theories
tial Phenomena." In this object, we think, those
who
but a moderate knowledge (like ourselves) of the
science,
will readily admit that he has fully succeeded. The expla-
nations are indeed so clear, and at the same time s.
- compre-
hensive, that a comparatively slight study of the work will
convey an entirely satisfactory knowledge of points which
the perusal of most elementary treatises on the same subjects,
left in cloudiness and doubt. The writer must have employed
unwearied research of the voluminous works of celebrated
men, and he has shown great judgment in the appropriation
and condensation of such facts only as were necessary for the
attainment of the object in view, without wearying the patience
or perplexing the understanding by disquisitions unnecessarily
abstruse. He has thus done an important service to students
of astronomy in general, and to the nautical world in parti-
cular ; and his book should be in the hands of all seamen,
young
and old, who are honourably ambitious of perfecting
themselves
in the higher branches of navigation, by which
the greatdesideratum of the longitude at sea can be accu-
rateetermined. The work is arranged alphabetically,
and -is thus readily accessible for reference. The explana-
tions 'tinder the following heads, appear to us tobe pe-
culiarly lucid :—Abberation, CentraForces, Comets,
pression., or Dip Ecliptic, (with two lessons andD-
a
map), Conic Sections, Moon,
Notation, Mensuration,a
(including the motion of light)
Refraction ; the whole
o
of the articles under the general head The Solar Sys-
tem," "The Seasons," and those headed " Tides," "Time,"
and " Winds," all of which are exceedingly lucid, and, we