The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1836-05-27 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CURIOUS CHINESE SUPRRST,TIONS.—Among the principal are " tnnney-swords," consisting of a'numher of ancient copper coins, each with a square hole in the midlle, fastened toglher on a piece of iron shaped like a sword, with a cross hilt. 'These are suspended at the heals of sleeping couches and beds, that the supposed guardianship of the Sovereigns in whose reigns the coins were issued may keep away ghosts and evil spirits. .'hey are chiefly used in housos or rooms where persons have committed suicide, or suffered a violent death; and sick people smoetimes resort to them in the hope of hastening their recovery;-The Chinese, by J. F. Davis.  - . . NEWseseEtes.—So much has been said, and is still said, by the metropolitan prints, concerning the proposed reduction of the newspaper stamp duty, that we may again ventuie to revert to the subject without making a fer•inal apology to our readers. In a previous number we stated our couvietton that this event would be the signal for the establishment of W rtnumb thought onemil. h ort rt e, t( ). bers of additional papers; it has, however, gone further than we expected. That new papers would be started individuals in various towns of the kingdem, vie sortable opposition enough, but we find we must go 'still • fu ther. The rage for joint-stock companies at the point of exhaustion must, it ,appeals, find a resting place in the pressits of the country; acooi,igt:i., we find prospectuses of joint-stack newspapers in London, 'Liverpool, and Manchester, in shares friitu ten /shillings to ten L d ijo ...it -s, the amount r f ' ) capital being fixed from ten to twenty anti forty thousand pounds. This may, at first sight, appear all very r, a. t I - etaif ‘• look a little closer into ifie matter, it will be kind that e without some alterations ale made with regard to the registration of the names of newspaper proprietors at the Stamp ofm.-e, the establishment of these jot-stock concerns will bee otne a great evil. For instance, suppose a joint-stock pa tal of glO,OOO, in shares of doper be established with a capieach, and that, upon an average, each shareholder was o • make the number of .proprietors five hundred. Now. if a libel were published against stn Individual in di' • • . bring his action against is paper, he would the person registered at the Stamp Office, who, merely barn;; the printer or publisher of the paper in question, mid the salaried servant of the company, would not be able to sustainan action, so that the party libelled about from pithai • to post between the five hundred proprietors, and inthe end gain no redress It is therefore our ()Pi nion, in common with a great majority of the provincial proprietors of ne pars, that a clause should be inserted in the new Act, compelling." ,I.east.tw?-thirde .of the proprietors of papers establisheda upon this wi 1 new e. or in fact any other, to register their names at the Stamp- OA - b " ce; ot e wisv they may Issue their libels to the world with impunity, and evidently enjoy an advantage over those papers row established and duly registered. We were unwilling to be the first to bring this matter before the public, , but we cannot forbear doing so, when we consider that it is of so much imFortance to the country at large.- -Stockport .44vertiser. • • • " N o,:\I AN IS A FlEuo To HIS VALLT;OR A PHILOSOPHER To Its