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, on 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 Caen'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-Novgorod, 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 Nishnei-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, he 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
the Roman and Greek Commonwealths afford numerous
illustrations of this truth ; and the instance of CINCINNATI'S,
in the former, of THEMISTOCLES, of EPAMINONDAS, and of
others in the latter, will readily suggest themselves to the
mind of the a holar 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. He 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 only man who
can save the falling state, to point out what he should do, if
placed at the head of HER MAJESTY'S government, instead of
being, as at present, located at the very " tail " of HER MA-
JESTY'S .opposition. Well indeed may he exclaim—" What
Next ? and Next!" Listen, good reader, and you shall learn.
He would at once renounce hostilities; but how about
the condition's ? These, like the counselled performances of
HAMLET'S friends upon the pipe, are "as easy as lying," and
Mr. COBDEN has them on his fingers' 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. He evidently thinks the British
army has caught a tartar. "With regard to the terms of peace,
I should attach no value whatever to the promises of Russia as
a guarantee for the future." In point of fact, this refining
political casuist objects to the word " guarantee" altogether,
as implying mistrust of the party from whom it is exacted,
and so has a tendency to create soreness. His late friend,
NICROLAS, had a somewhat different and more practical
view of the value of guarantees, and the importance of
promises. His third proposition is a rigmarole about a
tripartite treaty between Britain, France, and Austria, to
establish, by negotiation, a western barrier against the
aggressions of Russia in that direction ; the East he would
at once abandon to its fate. How the tripartite treaty could
bind Russia, whose promises Mr. COBDEN rightly values at
nothing, that incipient head of the government does not con-
descend to say. His finale, however, if not the most original
is the most intelligible of his propositions. " COBDEN
loquitur, " would not risk the life of an Englishman, or
spend another shilling, for the barren triumph of extorting
pacific pledges from the Russian government ; and having
come to this determination, there would no longer be any
obstacle to peace." Of course there would not. The butcher
makes no quarrel with the lamb which lies bound in the
shambles awaiting his convenience for slaughter. Having
withdrawn the army from Russian territory,, and having
resolved to extort no pacific pledges from the CZAR, there
remains only one other obstacle to the establishment of a
permanent peace, and that obstacle would fly like a cob-web.
before the first application of the Cobdenic broom. He would_
annihilate the navies of Britain and France.! Modest and
patriotic counsellor, he would not annihilate theta ; but would.
place them on a par with the "naval standard. of the United'
States." What Next ? and Next ! With COBDEN Prernier,_
who can tell ?

While Mr. CODDEN has been blowing off the singular corn.-
pound of his pacific steam, operations of a different character,
for the final pacification of Europe, have been undertaken and
are in course of being matured at Paris. On. Tuesday last a
Council of War assembled in the palace of the Tuileries,. under
the presidency of the Emperor LOUIS. NAPOLEON. It was
composed, besides the Emperor, of Prince IsTaroLsos., the
Duke of CAMBRIDGE, Prince JEROME NAPOLEON, Lord COW-
LEY, Sir ED3II7ND LYONS, Admiral DIJNDAS, Sir RICHARD
ACRE; Sir HARRY JONES, General no L.A.MAnaLonA, Marshal
VAILLANT, Count WALEwszr, Generals CANROHERT, Bos-
QUET, NEIL, and MORTEXPREY ; Admirals HAMELIN, GRAN-
IERE, and PENAIID. The result of their deliberations will of
course only become public as the proceedings armed upon are
brought into operation ; but it is already rumoured that
energetic attacks by sea and land on different portions of the
Russian territory will be carefullo, considered and adopted.
Capflicting reports as to the reception of the Austrian pro-
posals at St. Petersburg agitate political circles on the conti-
nent and at home. The only thing connected with them
which can be relied on, is the certainty of procrastination
which these pretended negotiations incur. A belief in their-
efficacy is not entertained anywhere. In the British metro,..
polis people are making up their minim with calm fortitude
to the endurance of a further augmentation of the expendi-
ture consequent on a vigorous prosecution of the war. On. all
sides it is hoped that the provision made to meet the exigency
will not be limited by the peddling spirit which, under the
guise of a pretended economy, is productive of the most reck-
less extravagance.

In the literary, artistic, and dramatic world there is not much
stirring. The thirty-five thousand copies of MACAULAY'S
England have produced a surfeit among bookworms and a
glut in the market. The sale has hung sadly. Among re-
cent literary curiosities of interest has been the appearance
of WARREN'S " Ten Thousand a Year," in St. Petersburg
in a Russian translation ; and it is currently rumoured
in well-informed circles that a Danish translation of the
same author's inimitable sketches, " The Diary of a Late
Physician," is in progress by the celebrated HANS CnursTlAN
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 GIBSON'S statue of the
QUEEN ; 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 GOLDSCIIMIDT 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 IlAnwirs.—ln 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 be considered an
offspring 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.