The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-15 00:00:00

of what some call modest assurance, while others apply to it a
much stronger epithet. He has, ou many occasions, earned the
reputation of speaking without understanding, and advising
without knowledge; but on no occasion has he made out his
title to all these qualities so fully and unmistakeably as in this
pamphlet. His right to lecture his countrymen in the most
ex cathedra fashion on the mighty power and invulnerability
of Russia, he assumes on the strength of a flying visit to some
portions of that vast and anomalously-circumstanced coun-
try. In a corner of his pamphlet, he narrates his expe-
riences of Russia, and, with a modesty truly Cobdenic, to
sneer at, and contemn as worthless, the experience and know-
ledge derived by others from long residence and continuous
travelling in the country. " These gentlemen," says he, with
a high burst of candour, " have, I doubt not, travelled longer
and further in Russia than myself" ( thus the Cobdenic gram-
mar). "My only advantage has been, that I had possibly an
eye and ear more open to the commercial movements and the
economical resources of the country." Now, all the world who
knows anything at all about RICHARD COBDEN, and his won-
derful travels in Russia, knows that they were performed in a
very brief period of time, and under circumstances which pre-
cluded the possibility of his seeing or knowing anything about
the " commercial movements and economical resources of the
country." He was, so far as an unenlightened world knows,
as ignorant of the Russian language as he is unacquainted
with the quadrature of the circle, or the practice of navigation.
From his own showing, like other inquisitive travellers in
those regions, he was under surveillance, and strictly watched
from the moment he set foot within his friend the CZAR'S
dominions till his final leave-taking at the frontier. " His
departure from Berlin," says the Daily News, one of his
Liberal friends, "was telegraphed to St. Petersburg. He was
taken possession of at the frontier by a Government official
appointed to receive ( and watch ? ) him ; and passed from the
hands of one official to another, ' like a bale of goods,' till he
left the country. He saw nothing but what they were pleased
to show him ; everything he was told was interpreted to him.
He spent one forenoon at the fair of Nishnei-Noygorod, and
remained in each of the other places he visited a corresponding
length of time. He proceeded straight from the Prussian
frontier to Moscow and Nisi:mei-Novgorod, and thence to St.
Petersburg. In short, he saw as much of Russia, and had as
good an opportunity of making observations on it, as Lord
MACARTNEY and his suite enjoyed in China, on their mission
to Pekin. And on the strength of this, be presumes to pass
off his plentiful lack of knowledge on the public as irre-
fragable wisdom."
Peculiar crises have arisen in the career of most great coun-
tries, when it has been found difficult to obtain the services of
the man best qualified to cope with them. The histories of

ie Roman and Greek Commonwealths afford numerous

illustrations of this truth; and the instance of CINCINNATUS,
in the former, of TIEEMISTOCIEff, of EPAMINONDAB, and of
others in the latter, will readily suggest themselves to the
mind of the scholar as examples; nor are cases illustrative of
the position unknown in our own annals. To be sure, in all
the recorded instances, the fitness of the " coming man " was
imagined, if not known to his confiding countrymen, and he
was called on to step into the gap, which, by common consent,
he was considered competent to fill. A statesman of the
"bagman school" has no occasion for, nor can he afford the
exercise of such modest forbearance. Ile knows that his
wares, if not pushed, will meet with no market ; and, like a
thorough man of business, he dashes at a chance of sale. Un-
acquainted with the wisdom which teaches. humility of
thought, and regardless of the rebuke contained. in the
aphorism that

--Fools rush in
Where angels fear to tread,
Mr. COBDEN has felt himself called on, as the cagy man who
can save the falling state, to point out what he should, do', if
placed at the head of gun MAJESTY'S government,,instead of
being, as at present, located at the very " tail " of ikER, M
JESTY'S opposition. Well is may he exclaim—"'What
Next ? and Next!" Listens good reader, and you shaltlearth
He would at once renounce hostilities ; but how about
the conditions ? These, like the counselled performanoes'of
HAMLET'S friends upon theepipe;.are "as easy as lying" atoll
Mr. COBDEN has theni on his-fihgers' ends. First he "'would,
seek, above all things, to withdraw every British soldier from;
Russian territory. Our army-may now be brought away with-
out further loss or discredit- It may not always be so." Not:
long, if they were entrusted to, the enlightened and humane •
management of Mr. COBDEN « Heevidently thinks the Bralish)
army has caught a tartar. "With.regardto the terms of peroe;.
I should attach no value whatever to the promises of Russia as,
a guarantee for the future." In: paint of fact, this refining:
political casuist objects to theword. " guarantee" altogether,-.
as-implyingmistrust of the parttfrom. whom it is exacted.,.
and so has a tendency to create.- serenest,- His late frienai.
I,l4cnoLas, had a somewhat, different• and more practicaLl
view of the- value of guarantees; and the importance of
promises. His third propositions is a, rigmarole about a'.
tripartite treaty between Britain, France;. and Austria, to.
establish, by' negociation, a western, barrier against the
aggressions.of 'Russia in that direction 1. the East he would
at once abandon. to its fate. Hew- the tripartite treaty could
bind Rossini. whose promises Mk. COBDEN. rightly values at
nothing, that incipient head ofqha government does not con-
descend to,say. His finale, however, if not. the most original
is the most. intelligible of his propositions,. "I," COBDEN
loquitur;. " would not risk they life of am Enclishman, or
spend another shilling, for the-barren triumph of extorting
pacific pledges , from the Russian • government ; and having
cometo this determination, there would. no longer be any
obstacle to, eace." Of course there would nob. The butcher
makes no. quarrel witluthe lamb which lies bound in the
shambles .awaiting. his- convmsience for slaughter. Having
withdrawn, the army. from Russian territory-, and having
resolved to extort no pacifiacpledges- from.the CzAa, there
remains only one other obstacle -to the • establishment of a.
permanent-peace,. and that clittacle would fl* like a cob-web
,before the. first application °Ma Cobdenie- broom. He would
annihilate -the • navies of and, France-I. Modest and
patriotic- counsellor, he wools], not annihilate them ; ,lont would
place them on a par with the-"navaltstamdard of the United,
States."'s What Next ? amLiNext ! . With Colima Premier„
who can,tell ?

While Mr..Connnw.hasbeen ,blowing off-the singular corn--
pound .of his pacific stear4operations of audiffe.rent character,-..
for the final pacification aEurope,.havebeen. undertaken and
are in course of being matured at Paris... On Tuesday last Si
COttllCil of War assembloi in the palace of the Tuileries, under
the- presidency. of the laaperor Lovat,NA.peraorr. It was-
composed, besides the Illinperor, of Prince NAPOLEON, tbb
Duke of CAMBRIDGE, Prince JEROME NAPOLEON, Lord COM/
LEA Sir EDMUND LICCeM, Admiral EttI.I.TDAS, Sir RICHAED.,
Ainnri &xi:TARRY JONES, General nn-r.A.ManwonA, Marshal
V.1.1.11.J.ET, Count WAL.RWSKI, General% CANBOBERT, HOS..
Q,VET,XELL, and MOATEXPEEIC.; , Admirals HAMELIN, GE4ANT
lEEE, and PENA.IIE- The result, of their deliberations will of
course-only become public as. the Ereseedings agreed up,on are
brought into operation ; but it is already rumoured, that
energetic attacks by, sea andlandi au, different portionLpf the
Russian territory will be carefully, considered and adapted:
Conflicting reports aslo the reception of the Austrisda
posals at St. Petersburg agitate-political circles omthe conti-
nent and at home. The• only thing connected with them
which can be relied, on, is the certainty of proorastination
which these pretended negotiations incur. A belief in their-
efficacy is noir, entertained anywhere. In the liritish,metro,
polls people are making up•their minds with oalra fortitude,
to the endurance of a futther augmentation of .the expendir
ture consequent one vigorous prosecution of the war. On.ail
sides it is hoped that the-provision made to meet, tbeexigency
will not lie limited, by the, peddling spirit which, unde,-the
guise of &pretended economy, is productiveof thntnost reck-
less extravagance.

In the literary, artistic, and dramatic world, there is not much
stirring.. The thirty-ftvo thousand copies of MAC.AVI,Ay's
Enghind have produced a surfeit among bookworms and
glut in the market. The sale has hung sadly. Among re-
cent literary curiosities of interest has. been. tb.oappearance
of WARREN'S "Ten Thousand r Year," in St, Petersburg
in a Russian translation ; anti it is curreo* rumoured
ii well-informed circles that 3 Danish translation of the
same author's inimitable sketches, " The Diary of a Late
Physician," is in progress by the celebrated HANS CIIRIsTIAN
ANDERSEN. The atmosphere of the artistic world appears to
be in a great degree stagnant, Some little stir was excited
a short time ago by the arrival of GIBBON'S statue of the
QrFan ; but, after provoking a small extent of adverse criti-
cism, it has sunk into the ocean of forgetfulness, and is no
more heard of. Madame GOLDSCHMIDT LIND continues to
reign alone as the " bright particular star" of our musical
hemisphere. Other luminaries are talked of as approaching ;
but they have not as yet risen above the horizon, though the
advent of some of them is looked forward to with much
anxiety. In the theatres, the orders "as you were" seem to
have been extensively issued, and sternly acted on.

BRITISH RAILWAYS.—In his annual address to the Insti-
tution of Civil Engineers, Mr. R. Stephenson, M.P., as chair-
man, on the Bth inst., in allusion to the railway system, said,
that 8,054 miles of railway have been completed in Great Bri-
tain and Ireland, at a cost of £286,000,000, equal to one-third
of the national debt. In 1854,111 millions of passengers were
conveyed on these railways, each travelling an average of 12
miles. The receipts of the railways in 1854 amounted to
£20,215,000. The wear and tear required the replacement of
20,000 tons of iron annually, and 300,000 trees were required
yearly to make good the loss of sleepers. Mr. Stephenson
also alluded to the Electric Telegraph, which he considered an
off pring of the railway. In the telegraph system, he said
7,200 miles of line, or 36,000 miles of wires have been, laid
down. He entered also into an elaborate statement of the
physical and moral effects of railway working, contending that
the benefits conferred by it on the public were incalculable.