The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-06 00:00:00

FROM OUR LONLJN CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
"WE live in strange times," is an exclamation which has
rung in the human ear, if not exactly since the existence of
those halcyon days when " ADA:2I: delved and EVE span," cer-
tainly from a period long antecedent to" the 'memory of that
fabled phoenix " the oldest inhabitant," and stretching back
into the midst of those remote revels, whereat the Muse of
History has been rendered unsteady by imbibing too largely
of the Lethean potations of tradition. Each repetition of the
oracular sound claims for itself, on comparison with its prede-
cessors, the peculiar merit of being not merely the latest effort
but the best entitled to "wake the slumbering echoes," and
receive the attention of an apathetic auditory. The most
recent provocative of the oft-repeated adage, was that which
on Tuesday last received its impulse in the Great Park at
Windsor, when and where numerous oxen, fed under the
special eye and authority of the Commissioners of HER
MAJESTY'S Land Revenue, were exposed for sale. That oxen
should become obese while roaming "at sweet will" among the
luxurious pastures of the Royal demesne, is no matter of won-
derment. Many a harmless drone has long ere this period
waxed fat amidst those secluded shades ; the remarkable
feature of the case being that the Commissioners of HER
MAJESTY'S Land Revenue should become bucolic, and turn their
attention to the fatting of beeves. So it hath come to pass,
however, and the first sale of oxen fed under their august aus-
pices took place in the Great Park on Tuesday last. The state
of the weather was unfavourable, but the novelty was great,
and the Great Babylon of modern days poured forth her nu-
merous connoisseurs of bovine symmetry and obeseness to
inspect and pass judgment on the success of the great experi-
ment which was to convert a state department into a com-
munity of graziers. It was pronounced successful in all
respects; and judging from one important criterion, the
money test, HER MAJESTY'S most honourable board of Land
Commissioners arc entitled to the credit which attaches to
successful "feeding." The stock exposed consisted of seventy-
three superior horned Scotch oxen, "rising five" as the stock
catalogue phrases them, eighteen of which were fit for the
butcher. These seventy-three beasts realized the large sum of
£1,250. After this display, who shall declare in his place in
Parliament or elsewhere, that " the right men have not got
into the right place," in the Land Revenue Commission ?
Such thrift pervading this great department will in all proba-
bility stimulate it in others ; notwithstanding the cogency of
such an expectation, there are not wanting those who whisper
in reference to this as well as other popular displays of public
economy, "all is not gold that glitters," and, in the homely
phraseology of the great Pennsylvanian printer, it is suspected
that in this instance the Commissioners may have "paid too
dear for their whistle."
From one branch of the public administration to another
the transition is easy at all times, -if not in every instance
natural ; and from the great park at Windsor the step, on
paper at all events, is but a trivial one, which lands us in the
Home-office. Here we at once come upon proceedings of a
different character ; and to some it may appear more in
keeping with official dignity than entering the competitive
lists with successful exhibitors at cattle-shows. It must be
fresh in the recollection of all HER MAJESTY'S well-disposed
subjects, that a week or two ago three revolutionary propa-
gandists, who, after issuing a printed address, counselling
assassination as a means of politically regenerating Europe,
and publishing an insulting letter addressed to the QUEEN,
were indignantly spurned from the island of Jersey. Equally
vivid must also be the recollection that, after their ignomi-
nious expulsion from that asylum, thirty-five of their coad-
jutors and admiring associates prepared, and signed, and pro-
mulgated, an audacious declaration in relation to that event.
In this declaration these abettors of murder and admirers of
assassination—among whom are included the " famous
romancer," VICTOR HUGO, and his sons—not only justified
the audacious letter, but, in the strongest terms their some-
what emphatic vocabulary could furnish, they denounced the
people of Jersey, reviled the English Government, and defied,
while they traduced, the EMPEROR of the FRENCH, conclud-
ing their doughty rigmarole with the insolent and sneering
adjuration—" Now, banish us !" The document having been
brought under the notice of HER MAJESTY'S vigilant Home-
Secretary, he, after a slight season of dozing, took the
haughty refugees at their word, and issued peremptory orders
for their extrusion from the island. This order has been
enforced, and, mirabile, the ringleaders, if not the whole fra-
ternity, of the revolutionary exodus, have squatted down upon
their injured honour, to assuage their outraged sensibilities
in the adjacent island of Guernsey. Whether, in this new
retreat, they will again so deport themselves as to call forth
once more the remonstrances of these loyal islanders, whom
they have constituted their involuntary hosts, it is, of course,
iMpossible to say ; but if they do, even the somnolency of
Downing-street will scarcely be a sufficient aegis to shield
them from the just resentment of the British people, long-
suffering though they are in extending the imaginary rights
of national hospitality.

The past week has been one fertile in topics for grave dis-
cussion in the clubs. Ministerial shifts—l had nearly written
dodges—and quasi official rumours of different kinds have
kept the " button-holders" of the club•saloons in a state of
active mental oscillation. Combined with these have been out-
spoken declarations, and more alarming and portentous
because less understood inuendoes relative to our state of
amicable arrangements with those " tarnation smart" poli-
ticians who rule the roast in Yankee-land. Any, or all, of these
subjects, taken seriatuni, would have formed admirable topics
for consideration, and might not have proved too heavy for the
stomachs of those political epicures, the delicacy of whose
organization is overwhelmed by such un emb&rras des richesses.
The Cabinet vacancy, occasioned by the death of SirWiLmam
MOLESWOR.TII, has, for the last few days, been quite as great a
difficulty with the club distributors of office as it is said to have
proved in higher quarters; Among the leading luminaries
of the ministerial system Lord JOHN RUSSEL has been spoken
of, but he is still reckoned so erratic a political comet, that his
influence is dreaded within the perturbed sphere of Cabinet
action ; and as a prevailing opinion exists in the ministerial
mind that both his lordship and the PREMIER are charged with
negative electricity, generated by the rubs and buffets they
have mutually given and sustained, any attempt to bring them
together must prove abortive, without the intervention of a
positive, (goose ?) who would, of course, inevitably perish in
the explosive adjustment of the volatile fluid. The name of
Lord ELGIN has been mentioned, apparently by some one
deeply read in the " Art oflngeniously Tormenting." His lord-
ship's known performances in the colonial line being so an-
tagonistic to the club notions of a colonial secretary,
that they cannot see the chance of administrative co-
operation between him and those at present located in
the easy-chairs of Downing-street, while his qualifications
for any other Ministerial position are so remote that
no club lorgnette of sufficient power has yet been discovered to
bring them and possession into the field of view at the same
time. In desperation, Mr. LOWE has been spoken of, but his
Australian reminiscences are presumed to be of too recent, and
his displays connected therewith of too dazzling a lustre to
make that a safe or practical game. The Duchy of Lancaster
has been once more alluded to as a budding-bed whence a
recently-struck statesman might be transplanted with advan-
tage, and the Earl of HARROWBY, who, while representing

Liverpool, must necessarily have acquired some commercial
knowledge of colonial matters, is by more than one of the Club
oracles pointed to as the " coming man" who is to wield colo-
nial sway. This rumour connects itself also with a singular
letter penned by Lord STANLEY to Sir W. JONES, as chairman
of an educational meeting, and read by Capt. TOWNSHEND in
that capacity at Fakenham on Thursday evening. The Del-
phic oracles of old are supposed to have derived their chief
value from the great number of plausible interpretations
which could be readily put upon them ; and the Sibyline books
to have owed their principal virtue to the fact that while a
considerable cumber of them were destroyed, the remainder
continued of undiminshed value. Lord STANLEY, it is under-
stood, has been of late improving his mird by oriental travel,
and whether he has discovered the recipe for concocting oracles
which shall express any meaning the listener chooses to at-
tach to them, or has accidentally stumbled upon the rule for
compounding Sibyline books, it is no easy matter to conjecture.
bid if the note in question be an average specimen of his let-
ter-writing, the sublime art of mystifcation seems in a fair
way of showing a spirited revival in Lis hands. Every body
is familiar with the chapter of tll3 celebrated novelist,
entitled "An explanation in which nothing is explained."
Such is precisely the character of Lord STANLEY'S
letter. It - literally contains an infinite deal of nothing ; and
suppb.se the beginning, or the middb, or the end were taken
away from it, the remainder would still be of as much value
as the whole ! and that remainder g that whole would still
express any meaning the listener chose to put upon it. So
adroit a specimen of epistolary composition naturally arrested
the attention of the Times, and thrt adept in the science of
any or no meaning soon fitted the nissive with an interpre-
tation suited to its own views. Donring its conjuror's cap, and
assuming the most imposing of its sonorous tones, it thus
delivered itself in relation to the awful document : "We
believe it is not impossible that Lord STANLEY may become a
member of the present Government." Having contributed so
much to the general stock of infornation on so important a
point, the demonstrative Jurms, wrapping himself closely up
in his robe of mystery, retired to the highest pinnacle of his
political Olympus, whence he has not since deigned to look
out, leaving the wondering world 'a puzzled admiration of so
sage a commentary. Those who make less pretence, affirm
that some proposition has been made to Lord STANLEY in
relation to the Duchy of Lamaster ; and the Globe, the
official organ of the Government without committing itself to