The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

'LEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

the nature of its government, everyday threatening to
become more powerful lt was long the
wish of Peter, their great monarch, to have a fort in
some of the western parts of Europe ; many of his
schemes and treaties were directed to this end ; but
happily for Europe he failed in them all. A fort in
the power of this people would be like the possession
of a flood-gate ; and whenever ambition, interest, or
necessity prompted, they might then be able to de-
luge the whole western world with a barbarous inunda-
tion. Believe me, my friend, I cannot sufficiently con-
temn the politicians of Europe who thus make this
powerful people arbitrators in their quarrel. . . .
If once they (the Russians) get footing in the western
parts of Europe, it is not the feeble efforts of the sons
of effeminacy and dissension that can serve to remove
them.—Citizen of the Word (published 1760.)
A SNAIL DINNER.—The chemical philosophers, Dr.
Black and Dr. Hutton, were particular friends, though
there was something extremely opposite in their ex-
ternal appearance and manner. Dr. Black spokewith
the English pronunciation, and with punctilious
accuracy of expression, both in point of matter and
manner. The geologist, Dr. Hutton, was the very
reverse of this—his conversation was conducted in
broad phrases, expressed with a broad Scotch accent,
which often heightened the humour of what he said.
It chanced that the two Doctors had held some dis-
course together upon the folly of abstaining from
feeding on the testaceous creatures of the land, while
those of the sea were considered as delicacies. Where-
fore not eat snails ? they are known to be nutritious
and wholesome, and evensanaatisvethien
rTemheesteases delicacies, rr he
epicures of old praised them
and the Italians still esteem them. In short, it was de-
termined that a gastronomic experiment should be
made at the expense of the snails. The snails were
procured, dieted for a time, and then stewed for the
benefit of the two philosophers, who had either in-
vited no guests to their banquet, or found none who
relished in prospect the piece de resistance. A huge
dish of snails was placed before them—still philo-
sophers are but men, after all—and the stomachs of
both doctors began to revolt against the experiment.
Nevertheless, if they looked with disgust on the snails,
they retained their awe for each other, so that each,
conceiving the symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to
himself, began, with infinite exertion, to swallow, in
very small quantities, the mass which he internally
loathed. Dr. Black at length showed the white
feather, but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound
the opinion of his messmate. " Doctor," be said, in
his precise and quiet- manner—" Doctor, do you not
think that they taste a little—a very little green ?"
" D—d green ! d—d green ! indeed—tak' them
awa'—tak' them awa' !" vociferated Dr. Hutton,
starting up from the table, and giving full vent to his
feelings of abhorrence. So ended all hopes of intro-
ducing snails into the modern cuisine; and thus
philosophy can no more cure a nausea than honour
can set a broken limb.—Sir Walter Scott.

THE FUTURE OF SIBERIA.—It is a pity that Siberia
is so badly superintended. The choice of governors
has always been of the worst kind. I don't know
how'Muravieff, the present governor, behaves. He is
renowned for his understanding and his abilities ; but
the others were good for nothing. Siberia has a great
future ; as yet, it is only looked upon as a reservoir
which contains much money, furs, and other products
of nature, but which is cold, covered with snow, poor
in provisions and means of communication, and thinly
peopled. All that, however, is not correct. The
Russian government, which kills everything, which
produces nothing but by force, and by the stick, does
not understand how to give that impulse of life, which
would bring Siberia forward with American rapidity.
We shall see what astonishing results will happen,
when one day the mouth of the Amoor is opened for
navigation, and when America meets Siberia on the
confines of China. I said long ago that the Pacific
Ocean will be the Meditterranean of the future. In
this future, the part of Siberia is most important, in
consequence -of its position between the Pacific,
Southern Asia, and Russia. It is understood, of
course, that Siberia must extend to the Chinese
frontier. Why should we be obliged to tremble
with cold in Beresof and Irkutsk, when there is a
Krasnoyarsk P Even in the national character of the
Russian population in Siberia, something exists which
announces the possibility of another development.
The Siberian race is well formed, healthy, clever, and

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' prudent. The children of settlers, the Siberians know
nothing 'of the authority of the landed proprietors.
There exists no nobility, and consequently no aristo-
cracy, in the towns. The officials and military officers,
the representatives of the power, are rather like a
hostile garrison, placed there by the conquerors, than
like an aristocracy. The immense distances release
the peasants from a too frequent intercourse with
them. Money saves the merchants, who despise the
officials in Siberia, and yield only apparently to them ;
but look on them as on what they really are, that is to
say, their clerks of affairs in civil matters of business.
The use of arms, which is everywhere necessary in
Siberia, with the habit of encountering danger, has
rendered the Siberian peasant much more martial,
dexterous, and more able to offer resistance than the
Russian. The long distances which generally separate
him from churches, have left his mind freer from
superstition than is the case with the Russian. He is
indifferent as to religion ; there are a great many
sectarians. In many of the more distant villages, the
" pope" comes very rarely during the year • then he
baptises, marries, and buries people, hears iheir con-
fession, &c., for all the past time.--My Exile in
Siberia, by Alexander Rerzen.
CHANGE IN A RECRUIT, AND WHY.—A year or
two passes, and you meet the same lad again— if indeed
he is the same. For a strange change has come over
him : lie walks erect, he speaks clearly, he looks you
boldly in the face, with eyes full of intelligence and
self-respect; he is become civil and courteous now;
he touches his cap to you "like a soldier ;" he can
afford now to be respectful to others, because he
respects himself, and expects you to respect him. You
talk to him, and find that the change is not merely
outward, but inward ; not merely owing to mechanical
drill, but to something which has been going on in
the heart ; and ten to one, the first' thing he begins
to talk to you about, with honest pride, is his regi-
ment. His regiment ! Yes there is the secret which
has worked these wonders : there is the talisman which
has humanised and civilised and raised from the mire
the once savage boor. He belongs to a regiment ;in
one word, he has become the member of a body. The
member of a body, in which, if one member suffers,
all suffer with it; if one member be honoured, all
rejoice with it. A body which has life of its own, and
a government of its own, a history of its own, and
allegiance to a sovereign, all which are now his life,
his history, his allegiance ; he does not merely serve
himself and his own selfish lusts—he servgs the
Queen. His nature is not changed, but the thought
that he is a member of an honourable body has raised
him above his nature. If he forgets that, and thinks
only of himself, he will become selfish, sluttish, drunken,
cowardly, a bad soldier : so long as he remembers it,
he is a hero. He can face mobs now, and worse than
mobs ; he can face hunger and thirst, fatigue, danger,
death itself, because he is a member of a body.
For those know little, little of human nature and its
weakness, who fancy that mere brute courage, as of
an angry lion, will ever avail, or availed a few short
weeks ago, to spur our thousands up the steppes of
Alma, or across the fatal plain of Balaklava, athwart
the corpses of their comrades, upon the deadly throats
of Russian guns. A noble feeling, a more heavenly
thought was needed, (and when needed, thanks to
God it came) to keep each raw lad, nursed in the lap
of peace, true to his country and his Queen, through
the valley of the shadow of death. Not mere animal
fierceness ; but that tattered rag which floated above
his head, inscribed with the glorious names of Egypt
or Corunna, Toulouse or Waterloo, that it was which
raised him into a hero. He had never seen those
victories ; the men who conquered there were dead
long since ; but the regiment still lived, its history
still lived, its honour lived ; and that history, that
honour were his, as well as those old dead warriors'.;
he had folight side by side with them in spirit though
not in flesh ; and now his turn was come, and he must
do as they did, and for their sakes, and count his own
life a worthless thing for the sake of the body to
which he belonged ; he, but two years ago the idle,
selfish country lad, now stumbling cheerfully on in the
teeth of the iron hail, across ground slippery with
his comrades' blood, not knowing whether the next
moment his own blood might not swell the ghastly
stream. What matter P They might kill him, but
they could not kill the regiment; it would live on and
conquer ; ay, and should conquer, if his life could help
on its victory; and then its honour would be his, its