The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-11 00:00:00

combatants retire to rest wailer cover of a vesper fusilade
from the evening papers ; at dawn the batteries are again
manned, and a crushing fire of shot and shell is poured from
the guns which have been once more placed in position ; the
gunners being again relieved by the sharp-shooters of the
vesper squadrons. Thus rages the battle from Monday morning
till Saturday night. The matin echoes of Saturday are awakened
by a multitudinous roar of explosions from the weapons of sol-
diers of all arms, the daily round shot and shell being mingled
with a chaotic rattle from the hebdomadal howitzers pouring in
adestructiveshower of grape and rockets, strangely commingled
with fragments gathered from the exploded missiles of the
preceding week's combat. The hurly-burly of this battle has
been marked by several peculiarities. The most remarkable
being the falsity of aim with which the missiles have been
projected—the next in singularity, the extraordinary want of
courtesy displayed by the respective gladiators. Mercy to-
wards each other they have shown none, The sharp Minie
balls of the Press, fired off in favour of peace, have been
picked up and fired with a double-charge of powder by the
Observer, against its vivacious and dashing, but rather" in-
discreet Saturday antagonist. The daily batteries were
opened by the discharge of some heavy experimental shot from
the embrasure of the Morning Post, with in this instance
the same leaning as the Press, the chief value of which is de-
rived from a belief that the gunner had his range given him
from Lord PALMERSTON'S head-quarters. The return salute
to this came from the well-directed ordnance of the Morning
Herald, which contenting itself with having ascertained the
exact range and elevation necessary to sweep the defences of
its adversary, expended no further amunition than was indis-
pensable for that purpose. The random gun of the Post,
however, roused the vigilance as it excited the ire of the
bombardier in charge of the Daily News, and your radical
gunner being at all times bent on mischief, he loaded his
piece to the muzzle with all sorts of material calculated to do
damage, to make a display, and above all things to create a
loud report. The discharge in this instance rattled over a
great space, embracing the crown and the court, and all in
the Ministry and all out of it—its voice, like that of SEMPRO-
NIUS being, "still for war." A round shot meant for Austria by
some awkwardness in gunnery took effect on the French, the
Austrians receiving a dose which probably was meant for
Prussia; and singular though it may appear, this loose prac-
titioner of the artillery art found his chief defence under the
wing of Russia ; which, on the assurance of some private
information, probably, it held up as at once a shield
and a menace—a shelter for the safety of its own
views, a very MEnusa.'s head when confronted with
the peace-makers. While the battle raged thus
loud and long, the wary engineer of the Times took
up a position, as usual, so situated that he could pitch his
missiles into either camp ; and, as intimation that he was an
interested spectator of the fray, fired a blank gun to show
that he was in a situation which would enable him to enter
the melee as a combatant on either side. All parties being
thus on, the alert, the Globe skirmisher, on the part of the
Cabinet, took up a post under the flank of the Times, and
fired a small round shot somewhat in the direction at first
assumed by the Press and the Morning Post. The leaders
in this war being so placed, the out-posts and skirmishers on
both sides have taken up positions in support of their res-
pective leaders, and among these the combat has for some
time been maintained with considerable virulence and varying
sagacity and success.

Stripped of their columns of verbiage on both sides, it
• appears some overtures for bringing about a cessation of
hostilities with a view to the negotiation of a permanent
peace hare been made by Austria, and have been, or still are,
under consideration by -the British and French governments.
What the terms of the intended peace are, have not been
made public; but judging from the quasi ministerial state-
ments contained in the Morning Post and Globe, three
important points are included in them, viz. :—The freedom of
the Black Sea—the re-opening of the Danube—and the abo-
lition of the protectorate, religious or political, of the subjects
of the SULTAN. If such terms are in reality acceded to by
Russia, it matters little at whose instance they are proposed.
They will be the virtual relinquishment of the policy which
has governed Russia for the last hundred years, and which
seems engrafted as a condition into her political existence.
The quarter whence the negotiation originates is one on which
little reliance can be placed. Austrian diplomacy has already
cost the Allies dear ; it will be their own faults if they are
a second time the victims of such systematised duplicity.
The case is one involving serious consequences, how favour-
ably soever it may be looked on by those who place implicit
reliance on the omnipotence of diplomacy, and see no evil
in anything except campaigns and battles—sieges and warlike
expeditions. One consolation, and, one only can be derived
from the rumours which are so prevalent in reference to the
war or peace policy which is to guide our operations in the
spring, and that is, that, pending the performance of the
diplomatic necromancy, no cessation is to take place in the
preparations for a vigorous prosecution of the war.

A great extent of grave and interesting conversation has
been set in operation among fashionable and military circles,
by the appointinent of the Earl of LIICAN to the colonelcy of the
Bth Hussars, a fact which has been officially announced.
About a year ago Lord LucAN was recalled from his command
of the cavalry in the Crimea. The recal, it was not concealed
was consequent on his connexion with the celebrated light
cavalry charge at Balaklava. The order issued, and which
resulted in that fatal charge, had been " blundered " by some
one, and Lord LUCAN was deprived of his command and re-
called from his post. No man enjoys an immunity from
error, and, under the circumstances, the presumption in the
public mind was, that his lordship was known to be the

"blunderer," for which he was accorded what was generally
considered a very mild punishment. • Stung by the condemna-
tion and implied censure, he demanded a court of inquiry,
which was denied to him- on the pretence that he was not
accused. So the stigma was fixed. Now he has had honour
and preferment conferred on him—more than this, he has
been honoured by an invitation to the royal table, from which
he had been practically excluded while undergoing this military
eclipse. His exoneration from any impeachment of his judg-
ment or stain upon' his honour has been completed; but still
the fact that some one " blundered " the order with tragic
fatality remains. It is now virtually admitted that Lord
LUCAN was not the man, who then was it ? • This is much of
a piece with the implied censure of Sir W. CODRINGTON, who
received no compliment for directing the attack upon the
Redan on the Btli of September, while his second in command
was promoted. Public indignation, in no very moderate
torrent, was directed against the gallant general, pointed
almost entirely on account of this presumed condemnation,
when suddenly the public were aroused by the notification
that he had been promoted to the command in chief of the
British army in the Crimea. In this case, as in that of Lord
Lucerr, either the reward or the punishment has been wrong,
as no man can deserve both for the same action. By such a
mode of proceeding, Ministers wound the feelings of deserving
men, and stultify themselves. Every one must rejoice that
tardy justice has at last been done to both the gallant officers,
but that satisfaction must be greatly impaired by regret for
the injustice to which they were first exposed.
The close and friendly alliance between Great Britain and
France is a potent fact—a source of justifiable delight to our
neighbours, as well as to ourselves. Its benefits are all but
inestimable ; yet, like all other affairs of human guidance, the
picture, however pleasing as a whole, has likewise its dark
side. The intercourse with our now friendly, though once
hostile, neighbours, has a tendency, like other friendships; to
bring us into familiarity with the less amiable, as well as with
the more virtuous, peculiarities of each other. Instruction of
this description is highly valuable, leading, as it frequently
does, the way to self-knowledge. It is not unapt occasionally
to 'do more than this. In certain ill-regulated natures it is
apt to engender a tendency to adulation and self-abasement,
instead of contenting ourselves with due appreciation of the
merits, and a desire to .emulate the better portion of our
neighbours' spirit. The display of fulsome adulation towards
our allies, and of depreciatory observations on ourselves, has,
of late, taken deep hold upon the sensitive organisation of the
Times. This, probably, is no more than was to be expected.
Your " awash-buckler" and pot-valiant bravo is ever your
loudest-tongued and foulest-mouthed reviler when the fit is on
him ; and it is not greatly to be wondered at that, in the
arrogance of its self-conceit, the clay-and-brass Jupiter of
Printing-house-square should Set about exalting the French
at the expense of the worshippers of his own country, the chief
cause of wonder being that he should do so with so little cun-
ning or discrimination. The recent great Exhibition in Paris
has afforded the Tiine* every element, save one for exhibiting
this peculiarity of a little mind—that wanting element has
been knowledge. To our French neighbours all the
world; and none more practically or more lavishly
than the British people, have long accorded the palm
of excellence in all that depends upon a lively inven-
tion, guided by an exqusiSite sense, of the delicate and the
beautiful. This award is -no -new thing, although for the
practice of his strange conceits it suits the oracle referred to
to trace the comparison no further than the Exhibition of
1851. This may be the full extent of the means of comparison
afforded by his knowledge ; if so, he may be excusable to some
extent ; but•even that shield of ignorance will not justify
him in parading his rush-light-before the world and swearing
it is the veritable sun, All the world knows that the French
were masters in bijouterie, and infinitely ahead not of Britain
alone but of all the world in ornamentation of every kind—in
porcelain, in paper-hangings and jewellery—in optical and
mathematical instruments, and in a hundred other things
besides, long before Prince ALBERT was born or an idea of an
Exhibition in Hyde Park had entered the brain of any man
alive or dead. By so much as the French excelled in elegance,