The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
THE past has been a somewhat busy week with the royal
inmates of Windsor Castle. Wednesday being the day on
which the PRINCESS ROYAL completed her fifteenth year, the
auspicious event was celebrated in a manner worthy of the
occasion. The QUEEN held a Court and Privy Council in
course of the day. The Council was attended by most of the
ministers, and at it Mr. LABOUCHERE was sworn into office
and received the seals as Colonial Secretary ; he also kissed
hands on his appointment to office. The Court was fully
attended : among the presentations was that of Captain
_ _

ROBERT YCLIIRE, RN., the celebrated and successful
Arctic voyager. On this occasion Captain MCLURE had the
honour of knighthood conferred on him, as a recognition of
his distinguished intrepidity and skill as an Arctic explorer.
In the evening a dramatic entertainment was given in St.
George's Hall, which had been tastefully fitted up as a
theatre. The piece performed was SHERIDAN'S Comedy of
" The Rivals." The performance was honoured by the
attendance of all the ROYAL FAMILY, besides a distinguished
circle of the nobility and gentry, among whom were many
military notabilities, including Major-General Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL. On Thursday morning Prince ALBERT left
Westminster in a special train on the Great Western Railway,
en route for Birmingham, where he assisted at a grand cere-
monial, in which he laid the foundation-stone of the Midland
Institute. After the stone had been laid, an adjournment, in
accordance with the good old English custom in such cases
made and provided, took place to the Town-Hall, where a
sumptuous banquet was laid out, to which due honour was
done by the royal and noble and miscellaneous guests. When
full justice had been done to the comestible department of the
treat, the "feast of reason" was appropriately inaugurated

by the chairman, Lord CALTHORP;, proposing the health of

the QUEEN, which was drunk with areality of enthusiasm;
and was followed by the noble chairman proposing that of
Prince ALBERT, which was also received with robustious
applause and drunk with stentorian cheers. His ROYAL

HIGHNESS in reply, as is fit and proper on such interesting
occasions, delivered himself of a long and well-sounding ad-
dress. In this speech he reviewed with tact and appropriate
expression the advantages which material art receives from
science, and pointed out in felicitous terms the certainty which
scientific research confers upon the otherwise blind gropings
of mere mechanical experience. The practical application of
his homily he confined to advising those connected with the
institution to direct attention specially to the sciences of me-
chanics, physics, and chemistry, and the fine arts in painting,
sculpture, and architecture. Other speeches of merit followed
from other distinguished speakers, in which views kindred to
those enunciated by the PRINCE-CONSORT were further illus-
trated and insisted on. At the conclusion of the addresses
the ceremonial terminated, and after due time the numerous
visitors to Birmingham, who had been attracted thither in
contemplation of the imposing proceedings,

Each took off his several way,
In hope to meet sonie other day.

All is bustle and activity at Windsor, and even in the me-
tropolis, preparatory to the visit of the King of SARDINIA,
which event is expected to take place on Saturday, the first
of December. His Majesty's visit to England will be limited
to one week, and he will take his departure on Saturday, the
eighth proximo. It is intimated that his reception and the
order of it shall as far as practicable resemble that accorded to
the Emperor of the French. The King of SARDINIA will pass
through London, through the streets and parks, in the same
way as was observed on the late Imperial visit ; and arrange-
ments are in progress for his reception at the Guildhall. It is
also understood that he will visit Woolwich and the Crystal
Palace. He is to be conveyed from France to Dover in a
.French ship of war; and from England he will make the
voyage to Belgium in a vessel belonging to the British royal
navy.

The royal visitor, being a widower and in the prime of life,
certain old women of both sexes, who have a remarkably keen
eye to funerals, baptisms and weddings, will have it that he
has left his own sunny skies to look for a second bride among
the Princesses of our " sea-girt isle." On this point these
venerable gossips seem quite agreed; but considerable diver-
sity of opinion exists as to who shall be the" Sardinian Queen"
elect. One set will have it that the PErscEss ROYAL is the
centre round which his matrimonial orbit has been traced ;
another is equally settled in believing that his homage is di-
rected towards the PRINCESS MARY of Cambridge. An Irish
crone or a Scotch spae-wife would be worth a Jew's eye to
either or both of these sets of popular delusion vendors.
The great Cabinet-maker of the hour has been at last
fortunate enough to fall in with two pieces of veneer timber
which, by a little trimming and fitting„have been found suit-
able to patch up the odd corners of the state escritoire. The
Colonial crevice has been so far filled up by the insertion of
Mr. LABOUCHERE, concerning whose administrative capabi-
lities the Post, the press patron of the PREMIER, says, it is
unnecessary to offer any opinion, as the public, according to
its version of the matter, cares nothing about any such quali-
fication ; " all it asks or cares for is," says the Post," "What
does the Colonial Secretary think about the war ? Is he truly
and strongly for carrying it out with vigour ?" Having de-
duced from the new Minister's late vote upon the Turkish
Loan an inference favourable to the presumed bellicosity of
Mr. LiBOUCHERE, the journal in question directs its next
attention to finding palliations for his acknowledged want of
oratorical power and elocutional tact. For these it finds con-
solation in the belief that the new Colonial Secretary is not
likely to have his head turned with Parliamentary applause
—that he will never be called on to administer the affairs
of the Colonies in that state of mental perturbation which
is produced by " sitting down nightly amid loud and
prolonged cheering from the House, after brilliant
speeches on the merits of the war." Sir WALTER SCOTT
makes one of his characters exclaim contemptuously of an
observation made by another, that "some folk are thankfu' for
sma' mercies ;" so let it be of the respectable Post. As, how-
ever, this very respectable apologist for Mr. LABOUCTIERE'S
anticipated shortcomings, and aide of Lord PALMERSTON,
concentrates all the ministerial merit of a Colonial Secretary
in a vigorous determination to prosecute the war with energy,
and makes the presence of that virtue a ready excuse for the
absence of every other, it might have been quite as satisfac-
tory if it had pointed to any unequivocal evidence that Lord
PALMERSTON'S newly-found "friend in need" is absolutely
possessed of the solitary merit pointed out. The presumptions
seem all to point in an opposite direction, and there are not
wanting plenty of individuals, reckoned sedate in their judg-
ments as well as penetrating in their inquiries into the conduct
of public men, who question the sincerity of the PREMIER him-
self upon this very subject. These parties point with an omi.
nous shake of the head to the circumstance that all the early
offers of the Colonial Secretaryship were made to men noto-
riously averse to carrying on the war, either vigorously or
otherwise. Lord STANLEY, to whom it was offered, is claimed
by the Peace party ; Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, who had the
second refusal of the vacant office, seceded from Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S Government along with Sir JAMES GRAHAM and
Mr. GLADSTONE on the ground that the war, although justi-
fiable at its commencement, has long since ceased to be so ;
the Duke of NEWCASTLE was put out of office by PALMER-
STON, RUSSELL, and Co., because he had failed to "carry on
the war with energy and spirit." In offering the Colonial Se-
cretaryship successively to these individuals, would the Post
have its readers and the country to believe that Lord PALMER-
STON was looking for a colleague having only the single qua-
lification of warlike zeal ? If so, the Post must be at least as
simple as it is respectable, and nearly as bold in its belief as
it is disinterested in its advocacy.
Further than this, however, Lord PALMERSTON'S sincerity
in regard to a vigorous prosecution of the war is open to
serious question, if not to absolute suspicion. Several of his
colleagues, including the Duke of ARGYLL, whom but yester-
day, as it were, he has promoted to the office of Post-master '
General, thereby giving him a second cabinet appointment,
and Sir GEORGE GREY, are known to be adverse to the con-
tinuance of hostilities. A Spanish proverb says " tell me who
your companions are, and I will tell you what you are." Ap-
plying this saying to Lord PALMERSTON, are the British

people to understand, that, while making bellicose speeches,
he merely

Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war?

Some have it, that his Lordship is really serious in his warlike
ebullitions, and is willing to reduce to practice the most ram-
pant of his post-prandial declarations, but that heis controlled
by a power behind the throne, not less formidable, and much
worse to be disposed of than the "bed-chamber women's"
conspiracy which upset the tactics of the great political strategist
of his day, the late Sir ROBERT PEEL. The believers in this
conjecture say that the PREMIER, while feeling the bonds
which shackle him, is determined not to yield to what they
denominate a German influence ; but is resolved to throw him-
self upon the nation for support in carrying out his views.
These parties, and they are numerous in all the clubs, main—
tain that a dissolution of Parliament is imminent. That Lord
PALMERSTON has determined on it, and that the new Parlia-
ment will meet early in February. The "little bird" kept by
the establishment in Printing House Square has whistled to
its masters that all the debating talent of the present House
of Commons has, through some inexplicable influence, found
its most congenial resting-place on those benches where
Ministers and their friends do not delight to sit. How a dis-
solution would re-arrange the "debating talent" it is not easy
to perceive. Few of the acknowledged political orators of our
day are at present condemned

.to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

and, unless some new elements be brought into operation,
which are not very apparent on the surface of things, the
probabilities are great that the debating talent, after re-elec-
tion, would, in obedience to the well-known law of elective
affinities, be found pretty much in the same position as it now
occupies. If, in the turmoil of a new election, it could be
hoped to spike all the great Parliamentary guns, and replace
them with ordnance of very inferior calibre, while the two,
four, and eight pounders of the Ministerial batteries were
allowed to retain their places, the relative roar of senatorial
eloquence might, for the time being, preponderate in those
benches on the right hand of Mr. SPEAKER but this could
only be effected at the sad sacrifice of power as an attribute of
the Parliamentary ordnance. A dissolution may occur before
the ordinary time for re-assembling the Houses, and indica-
tions concur in favouring the belief that such may indeed be
the case ; but how an exchange of the debating talent is to be
put upon the cards of that hand seems a puzzle which even
the " Wizzard of the North " would fail in making plain to
common comprehensions.

In the meantime, the "grim-visaged wear," which is the
theme for discussion, and the fertile topic of dispute in every
circle and in every company, seems for a breathing space at
least to have

- smoothed his wrinkled front;

and the contending hosts in the Crimea and on the waters of
the Baltic have withdrawn from active conflict, and are de-
voting their ingenuity and powers to recruiting that strength
and contriving those means which, whenthe benign influences
of spring have re-awakened the dormant energies of the bounti-
ful and teeming earth, shall be once more employed in forward-
ing the work of destruction, and guiding their efforts for mutual
annihilation. True, hostilities have not yet entirely ceased, even
for the season ; affairs of outposts, and minor expeditionary en:
terprises, are still conducted with spirit and success by the allied
fleets and armies in the Euxine, and the Turks are making a
gallant defence of their territory in Armenia. Still the great
warlike undertakings of 1855 must be looked on as closed.. At
such a period public thoughtfulness, not less than public
curiosity, tempts to a retrospection of the leading features of
that great campaign which has been all but concluded. Its
opening scenes present to the mind's-eye pictures greatly the
reverse of pleasing, and such as offered to the ordinary
observer few points to which hope could readily point her
cheering finger. Our gallant army emerged from the
benumbing and enervating shackles of a rigorous climate and
cruel winter, depressed in spirits, exhausted in body, thinned
in numbers, and all but bereft of hope. Their physical powers
were prostrated ; but their undaunted courage remained
unbroken. Before their wearied eyes the frowning fortress
they had so long beleaguered, as it might seem in vain, still
scowled in dark and death-denouncing gloom ; and when the
vernal breath of spring wooed the green leaflet from its
wintry concealment, our debilitated heroes were called on
once more to resume the thankless and apparently never-
ending task of consolidating the earthworks of their foes by
pouring into them masses of iron, which were at once engulphed
in their rapacious and insatiable maws. As spring speedily
gave place to the gorgeous glories of the Crimean summer,
hope and vigour spread themselves among our ranks—rein-
forcements brought with them added confidence, and that
which had been resumed as a task of duty soon became an
animating principle. Step by step, and inch by inch, the dis-
puted ground was dearly won ; the Russians were driven
from their stronghold, and the Gibraltar of the Black Sea WAS
wrested from the Russian grasp. The magnitude and
the importance of this achievement may in some degree
be inferred from the course of events which has subsequently
revealed itself. The Allies, no longer compelled to concentrate
all their efforts in maintaining a position not less defensive
than aggressive in front of Sebastopol, have been enabled to
divide their resources, so as to inflict heavy damage upon the
enemy, in numerous and widely-distant places—to subject his
resources to frequent and severe losses—and to close the cam-
paign on him with his military prestige exploded, his Black
Sea fleet annihilated, an immense amount of his commissariat
stores destroyed, his veteran army defeated and hemmed in
with_ circumscribed means of procuring subsistence, and ex-
posed to the fatal influences of a remorseless climate. In Asia,
his previously victorious army has had the tide of success
rolled back upon its footsteps, and, in these regions, the smiter
has been severely smitten. Such are only a few of the widely
different circumstances under which the campaign of 1856 has
been begun and ended.
Under such greatly changed circumstances, it is scarcely a
matter for wonder that the position of affairs is changing in a
variety of particulars. New alliances are, it is said, with every
show of reason in favour of the rumour's accuracy, being
brought into operation ; and, among these, the rumoured ad-
hesion of the Scandinavian monarchies to the Western Alli-
ance continues to gain credit. A stern and portentous move-
ment is easily traceable among the unwilling vassal states
which crowd the south-western frontier of Russia. This rising
although probably not directly countenanced by the Allies'
there can be no doubt meets with countenance and support
from them. The British Government, it is now formally an-
nounced, has given its sanction to the formation of a Polish
Division. This step has been taken with manifest reluctance,
although long clamoured for by a great section of the people;
and it is understood now to have been forced on them by dis-
gust at the obvious ill faith of Austria, and the unequivocal
partialities of Prussia. Imperceptibly, indeed, the European
community seems, slowly, though steadily, " drifting" into the
arena of battle and confusion. The struggle has long since
taken a wider object into contemplation than the- safety
and- integrity of Turkey, European safety itself is now
seen to be seriously endangered by the grasping avidity
of Russia for southern territory, and the apathetic weakness
or guilty connivance of Austria and Prussia in the designs of
that relentless policy which has gradually converted the larger
portion of Europe and a vast tract of Asia into Russian
territory, and reduced their population to the degraded
state of unreasoning serfdom. The strife of nationalities
which has long been foretold seems now about to burst forth.
As if through the intervention of a special Providence to
work out such a consummation, although doubtless with
the opposite object in view, the " brave and politic" . young
Emperor of Annuls having bound himself and his subjects
in an iron chain, has delivered the keys of his and their.
fetters into the hands of the Popx. The concordat entered
into the other day between those sovereigns will be- the
trumpet-sound for awaking indignant resistance to a measure
which promises to throw back the progress of religions
toleration, and to install Papist supremacy to a point and in
a style which have both been unknown to Europe since the days
when HILDEBRAND treated the Emperor of GERMANY with
the haughtiness of despotic contempt. The Polish yearning has
long been proclaimed in- the face of Europe:; and- Other
nationalities will, without doubt, be 'speedily evolved in the
progress of the contest. Lombardy has already, - though
stealthily, sent many daring warriors to the field. ,The
moving of a national banner in Poland would certainly be
responded to by the flutter of ' the Hungarian flag in
defiance and in spite of the efforts of her grim and armed
gaolers ; should the battle cry of liberty once more, and
under present circumstances, be raised in Poland and
Hungary, the panting yoUth of the Italian states will speedily
find occupation for the Austrian Emperor, and test the value
of the Popish panoply he has' thrown around himself, which
he is likely to find, like other ill-fitted armour, better adapted
to oppress than to defend the wearer.

On all sides the elements of discord, instead of being cleared
away, seem thickening and becoming more threatening and
more complek. As if in consciousness of these forbidding
appearances, rumours of pacific interference become also more
positive. The newest rumour of this description is to the
effect that Prussia, becoming alarmed at the present aspect of
European affairs, has arranged proposals which she believes
will satisfy the Allies, and has sent these to be presented to
the CZAR ; should he accede to them, there will be an end to
the war ; if he refuse, Prussia will once more submit them to
the Autocrat, unchanged in all respects, but with an intima-
tion this time that Prussia is prepared to aid in enforcing their
adoption ! Proposals or peace which emanate from Prussia,
if ever made at all, must naturally be looked on with great
suspicion by the Allies. The time for her energetic interfe-
rence has gone by. Had she assumed an attitude decisively
favourable to European tranquillity, at the commencement of