The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-20 00:00:00

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING
MANY topics of surpassing interest have, during the past
week, presented themselves for reflection by the cogitating
public of the British metropolis, conspicuous among which
have been the proceedings and embarrassments of pseudo-
statesmen and pretended philanthropists. The necromancy
of these distinguished performeri, which has been displayed
on stages widely separated from each other, has met with
formidable competition in the race for popular applause by a
female adept in the art of deception. The didactic effusions
of Lord Joni./ RUSSELL at Exeter-hall, and of the Right Hon.
W. E. GLADSTONE' at Chester,—nay, even the anti-national
patriotism of COBDEN, and his affiliated brotherhood of sym-
pathisers with the expatriated red-republicans, have one and
all been eclipsed in notoriety by the sublime artifices of "ALICE
GREY." The performers in all the cases have been veterans
in their respective lines of- art ; yet it must be admitted that
the lady excels the gentlemen in the ambidextrous facility
with which she played her pranks. While according the palm
of superior manipulation to the artiste whose trickery, like
that of many another counterfeit, was successfully traced at
" Birminghani," it would be unfair to overlook the pretensions
of the other candidates for notoriety. First in the list of
aspirants comes the knot of doughty charlatans who on Mon-
day last assembled in St. Martin's-hall, Long-acre, under the
congenial auspices of Mr. MramL, M.P., to protest against the
recent expulsions of refugees from Jersey, and against the
apprehended Alien Bill. This country is, and has long been
swarming with refugees from all parts of the continent, and
here the desperadoes of every land have been made secure in
their self-sought mid freely-granted asylum. No one ever pre-
tended to say or imagine that the British people were there-
fore identified with the political views of their uninvited guests,
much less that they shall be entitled to embroil our govern-
ment with those to whom they bear personal enmity. If any
man in private life selects an outcast, and, besides bestowing
on him the rites of ephemeral hospitality, admits him also to
the abiding sanctuary of his fireside and his home, he is
not understood to adopt the stranger's animosities and
friendships. On the contrary, if there be not an express
stipulation of an oppoSite tendency, the object of such hospi-
talities is expected to deport himself in such a manner as will
in some sort accord with the partialities of his host, or at all
events in such a manner as will neither bring scandal nor
danger upon his establishment. If, however, the stranger so
conduct himself as to draw down either of the latter upon
the individual or the household who have sheltered him, will
any man assert that it is a violation of the laws of hospitality
to extrude him from the mansion whose purity or safety he
has compromised ? Assuredly not ! Mr. MIALL himself
would be among the first to clear his own fireside of such
domestic pests, if by any accident they had obtained admission
to it. Are we, then, to understand that he and his brother pro-
testors are inclined to impose a code of social morality upon
the nation which they would repudiate in their own persons ?
—to regulate the public hospitality by rules which they would
not allow to govern that of their own household? Such a
rabble-rout of mal-contents would have been incomplete with=
out the accession of a Russian emissary, and that element has
been supplied by the adhesion of Mr. COBDEN. That worthy
does not deem it expedient to appear at the meeting in pro
pria persona, but he sends a carefully concocted missive, in
which, after expressing his cordial sympathy with the objects
of the meeting, he takes the opportunity of insinuating that
the present war is one of despotism against liberalism—the
latter principle being in his estimation represented by the
paternal sway of the CZAR, while the former finds fitting
champions in the valiant armies of the Allies. That the ex-
trusion of the refugees from Jersey, in which place they had vio-
lated every claim to the rights of hospitality; had no connexion,
immediate or remote, with the war against Russia, every one
knows ; but it would not have suited the object Mr. COBDEN
had in view to have represented the case in its true colours.
He has the cause of Russia to advocate, and he must
devise means for effecting that purpose. That it draws
him into strange absurdities, is no matter of surprise—the
surprise being that a man of his general astuteness is not
more on his guard, and that one so cunning is not more care-
ful in selecting his weapons. Mr. COBDEN is one of the Peace
society men, and, as such, objects to war as productive of misery,
rapine, and, above all, of slaughter. In his letter to the meeting
held under the auspices of MIA.LL, WILKS, JONES, and Co.,
he sympathizes with the exiles, and condemns their expulsion
from Jersey as a violation of our Constitutional law, forgetful
of the fact that the gentlemen with whom he desires to fra-
ternize are the avowed enemies of all existing laws, recogniz-
ing only the rights of might. For their benefit he would
uphold a law which he thinks would screen them from de-
served punishment, and leave them secure plotters against
the existence of that and every other law. He denounces war
on the ground of its inhumanity ; but he entertains no repug-
nance to the advocates of assassination. He in the most
emphatic terms condemns public slaughter under any
pretext; but sees no social disadvantage in a mass of
private murder, provided only the victims belong to the ruling
classes, and are not connected with the Russian Autocrat.
The reckless desperation of Russian policy would be
gratified by the kindling of a revolutionary flame in Western
Europe; and Mr. COBDEN —who knows that in no other place is
it so likely to gratify the CZAR, and to promote his views, as if
the plans were concocted, the train laid, and the torch applied
in England with characteristic effrontery, although
slightly at variance with his usual cunning, joins those who
in all probability have very different objects in view from his.
The poet tells us, "poverty brings us acquainted with strange
bed-fellows ;" surely he could not have contemplated the
alliance so unnatural between an advocate for " universal
peace" and the propagandist of general assassination. The
enlightened constituency of the West Riding may possibly be
proud of their representative, although a strongly expressed
opinion to the contrary, is understood to be prevalent there,
and will be, it is said, emphatically declared on the first pos-
sible opportunity.
Concerning Lord Jowl RUSSELL'S two last displays, viz.:
that on Friday se'nnight at the Guildhall, and that on Tues-
day last at Exeter-hall, public opinion is greatly divided. In
the former, most men of judgment see clearly in his reception
the proper reward for that duplicity of political conduct which
induced him to seize upon the subject of Jewish Emancipa-
tion as a stalking-horse on which he might ride rough-shod
over the electors ; but which he conveniently stabled when-
ever his own electioneering purposes were served. Of late,
his popularity has been sadly dimmed, and the wretched
plight in which he was left by the exposure of his double
policy at Vienna sank him so low, that few in his position
would have thought of attempting a recovery. His Lordship
is admittedly a " plucky old boy," however, and was resolved
to have another trial. Failing on the Friday in his further
attempt upon Israelitish credulity, he came out strong on
Tuesday in his appeal to Christian charity and forbearance.
On the latter occasion he addressed to the Young Men's Chris.
tian Association "a very long and elaborate essay,. "on the
obstacles which have retarded moral and political progress,"
in which he no doubt uttered much which was new and not
a little which was true, the chief drawback being, that most
of that which was new was not true, and that which was true
was not new. Among the matters coming under the latter
description was his estimate of himself. " What I have to
deliver," said his Lordship, "may seem to you in many parts
to be proving that which has been abundantly and frequently
proved, to be enforcing that which needs no further enforce•
ment—and to be wasting time in discussing the value of that
which has long since been ascertained and appreciated." In
the perfect truth of these observations most people will en-
tirely concur. They are also equally applicable to the ready
prelection of which Mr. GLADSTONE has oftener than once
lately delivered himself in your neighbourhood, the chief point
to be gathered from which is, that iu him, as in the ease of
Lord John RUSSELL, the country is possessed of a statesman
out of employment.
Apropos of the lecturing system : many sound-headed men
are of opinion that it is carried rather farther than expediency
would dictate, or prudence warrant. The intent is no doubt
good, although the mode in, and the extent to which it is
carried, may well admit of question, if not of reprehension.
At the present time there appears an unreasoning desire on all
hands to acquire knowledge without, devoting to it the labour;,
and time indispensable for its acquisition.
.To devise schemes
by which you thcan be converted into philosophers, before they
have ceased to trundle hoops or become adepts in the art of
playing at marbles, seems at present to be the universal rage
Every town, no matter what may be its size, now has its in-
stitute in which a " statesman at large" or a peripatetic scholiast,
crammed on some subject or other, may hold forth. It is an
object of merely secondary consideration what may be the line
of erudition in which the " professor",is great. That may be
the history of religious schism, or he may be devoted to the
most obstruse inysterics of natural philosophy ; he may have
a partiality for unfolding the beauties of Shakspeare," or ex-
cel on the " Musical Glasses," may have a penchant for " Ad-
ministrative Reform," and be a "dab" at demonstrating that in
his own particular case at least " the right man is not in the
right place." His object is still professedly the same, to make
lads wise without the trouble of thinking, learned without
undergoing the drudgery of study. This rage for acquiring
ready-made knowledge, like that for ready-made clothing, is a
peculiarity of the age, for which no individual is greatly
responsible. It belongs to all, and on all must the responsi-
bility of its culture and existence rest. Its tendency is to
nurture surface learning and give currency to shallow pre-
tence. In our better class of schools, and even in our univer-
sities, the Professor or Master .never pretends to teach a
language or a science by lecturing alone. He knows that the
principles of either can only be mastered by constant and

severe study; and that without mastering the principle, the
etudent can never be converted into the scholar. He will not
even recognize as students those who only listen to his pre_
lections, but carefully examines them to test their knowledge,
and supply deficiencies or suggest the means for doing so, in
collateral branches of science ; and ascertaining the extent of
their knowledge of the history of those subjects on which they
are engaged, and in stimulating them to further exertion. A
very opposite course from this is observed amongst the most of
our popular lecturers. The result of the learning-made-easy
system is an extensive cultivation of amusing exhibitions
highly pleasing in themselves, and, if not too much relied on,
much to be commended. Its abuse, however, is obvious in the
glib use of technical phraseology in relation to science and art
which obtrude themselves so unpleasantly, not to say absurdly,
into the intercourse of society. This abuse is also painfully
observable in the ready assumption of inferences and th,
enunciation of conclusions with regard to questions upon which
the wisest and most profound men of past ages have hesitated
to pronounce a judgment or come to a decision. The tendency
of the age has been and unquestionably still is to work, every
thing up to railway speed. The result is, that lads are crammed
with surface information upon the leading features of one or
two things, and are then passed off upon the world as men of
learning and knowledge. The working of our, public depart-
ments proves this to be incontrovertibly true. Of the numerous
competitors for public employment, the result of the examina-
tions would lead to the belief that " admirable CEICIITONS"
are as plentiful as blackberries ; yet when was complaint so
loud or so well-founded as to the incompetency with which_
every one of these departments is administered ? To judge
by outward appearances and surface reports, knowledge of
every. kind has departed from age and experience, and been
concentrated in the boldness of youthful speculation, and the
daring of inexperienced, temerity. In days gone by it used
to be a proverbial excuse for the shortcomings of youthful
instinct, that it was impossible to put an old head. on young
shoulders ; now the difficulty appears to be to find a young
head upon any shoulders. The heads at least are all old now,
if age is to be measured by the assumed acquisition of know-
ledge. The absurdity of such a system will be at once appar-
ent, when we recollect that even the shallowest of these lec-
tures, which is supposed to convey a wholesale amount of
ready-made knowledge into the mind of the unprepared lis-
tener, is itself the result of considerable study, and the con-
centrated essence, if it may be so said, of a large amount of
reading, digested and arranged and compared with collateral
facts and circumstances, of which the mere auditor is not
made in any degree cognizant.
From an incidental allusion to the mismanagement of pub-
lic departments, the transition seems a natural as well as an
easy one to those departments for the management of which
no one is immediately responsible. For nearly a month; two
important Ministerial offices have been vacant ; the Post-
office is without a head, because its head has been transferred
to India, a somewhat lengthened journey, nearly every body
will admit ; the Colonies for the better part of a month have
likewise been without a responsible director, the vacancy in
this instance being occasioned by the intervention of Him—

Who kings and tars despatches,
and who, in the present instance, carried off Sir WILLIAM
MOLESWORTH, a Colonial Secretary of pretty generally
admitted intelligence, and good intention. A Ministry which,
for so long a period, is unable to fill up two such important
departments for so long a time, whatever its apparent popu-
larity, cannot be a strong Ministry. This proposition seems
almost self-evident ; but it is borne out, and almost made
certain, by .ihe concurrent statement of men of all political
parties. Of course the remarks of the representatives of the
different political sections differ from each other in detail; but
among the two leading sections the same result is pointed out
unmistakeably—the one counselling, the other surmising, a
dissolution of Parliament as the means of solving the difficulty
by which they both consider the PREMIER to be beset. In
circles generally well informed, it is freely stated that the
Cabinet is once more divided, and seriously divided, on the
question of questions7the war. On the vital question of car-
rying on the war or not, the Cabinet is said by some parties to
be much in the same condition in which it stood before the
secession of Mr. GLADSTONE, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and Mr.
SIDNEY HERBERT. Another section of club gossip-mongers
maintain that Lord PALMERSTON is not " master of the
situation," but is coerced by German influences, similar to
those which caused his retirement froth Lord JOAN RUSSELL'S
government prior to his giving it the coup de grace on the
Militia Bill. These same parties add, that it is an attempt to
counteract those German influences which has induced the
generally flippant, but uncommunicative, member for Tiverton
to be so bellicose in his recent speeches, and in particular in
that which he delivered at the Guildhall on Friday week,
which met with so much applause, while the appearance of his
quondam colleague was received with derision and oppro-
brium. If half of what is said be true, as to the controlling
influences behind the Throne, Lord PA.LMERSTON should at
once, at least so say the oracles of all the club divans, apPeal
to the people ; others, not less observant, who give the
PREMIER credit for being " up to a thing or two," say that old
Peat is doing all that is right, and is cautiously bringing his
opponents to a " dead lock," when he will spiritedly brush up,
and show that he is THE MINISTER.

The mission of General CANROBERT to the Swedish court
continues a fertile theme for the gossip of metropolitan and
other coteries. According to some of them, the object of the
gallant general is twofold. The one to negotiate a marriage
between Prince NAPOLEON, heir-presumptive to the present
EMPEROR of the FRENCH, and a daughter of the Royal House
of Sweden : the other, to fix the terms of political alliance be-
tween that country and the other allied powers of "Western
Europe. The reception of the French Ambassador has been
of the most regal description. A royal carriage, drawn by
eight horses, was dispatched to bring him in state to the
palace, where the whole court had assembled to meet him.
By the Swedish press it is stated that the alliance is abso-
lutely concluded, and that, as a consequence, the Government
is about to convoke an extraordinary diet for February next,
whose sitting will be short—not more, it is said, than three
weeks, and immediately on its rising that war will be declared
against Russia. Beyond this, some persons assert it as quite
certain that the plan of a campaign in Finland, drawn up by
Colonel HAGELSTAIN, a distinguished Swedish officer, which
was prepared at the beginning of the present war, and sub-
mitted to the EMPEROR of the FRENCH, by whom it was
greatly approved of, will be speedily carried into execution.
So rapid and complicated are the relations of parties and
events in their fluctuations and re-combinations in the course
of a great war, that there is nothing to create surprise in the
statements above made. The probabilities are much rather
that they are premature than unfounded. The announcement
of such intentions by the press is, however, significant of their
being welcome to the great majority of the people. The sup-
position that such resolutions will be carried out leads to many
serious and interesting considerations. If the Scandinavian
monarch and his people, whose interests unquestionably lie
that way, join the Western Affiance, how will that operate on
the quasi neutrality of Austria and Prussia ? The answer to
this question is, in all probability, to be determined by the
estimate which these powers will form of its immediate chances
of success. If its speedy success is self-evident and inevi-
table, it is more than likely that those valiant and considerate
friends will at once join the coalition, and add the weight
of their persuasion iu bringing the CZAR to terms. If
very little doubt exist as to the early success of the Allies with
the aid of this newly-found friend, the Prusso-Austrian game
will most probably eventuate in some new arrangement of
the pieces on the diplomatic cheequers, by which an endeavour
will be made to let Russia down as gently as possible. The
contemplation of a doubtful, or even protracted issue to the
struggle, would, in all likelihood, bring the two dominant
German powers into immediate league with the CZAR, which
would inevitably inaugurate a general European war, of
which no living man can venture to predict the end, or limit
the duration. In such a contemplation of the subject as is
involved in this latter supposition, the safety of Turkey be-
comes a very secondary consideration. To the nations in
Europe it will be an effort for re-arranging their relations,
for restoring in many instances degraded nationalities, and.
" choking off," to use a vulgar though expressive term, the.
wolf which gnaws into their vitals. To Russia it will be a
deadly struggle for retaining place and prestige, for re-
sisting the disgorgement of her prey, for opposing the
retrocession of her policy, the relinquishment of her cherished
hopes and fondly indulged day-dreams of a century and a
half's duration ; and this will not be accomplished in. a day
nor in a year. That it is the real interest of all the European
Powers cannot be doubted, to combine in resistance to the
northern incubus, which presses downward and onward over
the whole range of the European Continent, while it settles
down on Asia, and presses its enormous paw upon America.
Events seem to point decidedly towards the commencement of
such a combination. In Sweden the popular voice has sofar al-
ready declared in its favour; and the recently promulgated Im-
perial decree, which permits the purchase of foreign ships, or the
entrance of materials for shipbuilding, duty free, into France,
will still further enlist the public feeling in its favour. The
bonds of union seem to be more closely drawn between the
Allies and Belgium ; and even Saxony and Bavaria are pluck-
ing up a courage not altogether new to them, but one which has
been long held in ominous and unsatisfactory abeyance. They
now proclaim themselves weary of the present state of matters
in the Diet, and have despatched able ministers to Paris to
lay before the Emperor the strong disposition existing in the
principal minor German States, not only to originate a new
course in their home arrangements, but to claim some share,
as they have some interest, in European negotiations. All
these considerations, while they augur ill for Russia, offer few
well-grounded reasons for believing that the war will be ter-

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,