The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-19 00:00:00

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1856

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
The QUEER, Prince ALBERT, and the Royal Family, arrived
at Buckingham Palace, from Windsor Castle, on Monday
afternoon. The Court will remain in town till the 22nd
proximo, when HER MAJESTY and her august family will
return to Windsor to pass the Easter holidays. A Court was
held at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, at which Prince

ALBERT was invested with the order Of the Seraphim, by

command of the King of SWEDEN. On Wednesday there was
a Cabinet Council held at the Palace, which was attended by
nearly all, if not the whole, of the Cabinet Ministers. At this
Council, which sat nearly two hours and a half, it is under-
stood that Lord CLARENDON received his final instructions
relative to the peace conference to be held in Paris. On
Saturday morning his lordship set out for that capital, where
he arrived the same evening. Most of the plenipotentiaries
of the conferring parties have now arrived in the French me-'
tropolis, M. de BRUNNOW, the Russian envoy, being the first
to arrive, and Asia PACHA., the envoy from Turkey, will be
the last, his arrival not being expected before Friday. The
conference will, it is understood, be formally opened on
Saturday, and some who lay claim to the gift of diplomatic
second-sight profess to know that the conferences will not be
of so protracted a duration as was at first anticipated. Others,
from the peculiar nature of the preparations, pretend to a
clairvoyant knowledge that the whole will have its beginning,
its middle, and its end in talk ; that, in point of fact, the
proceedings will consist entirely of " a great palaver," accompa-
nied by marvellous ceremonies, intended to demonstrate that
Louts NAPOLEON is in verity and by " Ceasar, Keeser,
and Pheezer, an Emperor ;" that there will be grave
and dignified discussions as to precedency—as to who
shall sit down or who shall rise up first ; that his
Majesty the Emperor of FRANCE will be specially designated
by all the conferring parties Monsieur, mon frere, but that
here the practical result will end, that the liberties of Europe
and the fair claims of the Allies to be indemnified for the ex-
penses of the war will be bartered for the application of those
three magic words. Many, who are sincere advocates for
peace, contend that the Allies run the risk of being utterly
bamboozled by the combined diplomacy of Austria and Russia.
In the meantime anticipated discussions as to the precise in-
terpretations of the fifth point give rise to a very prevalent
belief that both France and Austria will concur in the decla-
ration that razing the Russian fortifications on the east
coast of the Black Sea is not " a measure required by the in-
terests of Europe." Dwelling on this doubtful point, some of
the journals go so far as to hint that we may henceforth have
to wage the war against Russia single-handed; of which ne-
cessity ominous indications are picked out iu various quarters.
In the House of Commons, the other night, Sir C. Woon, in
describing the gigantic preparations for carrying on the
war, was particular in pointing out that 350 pennants for the
Baltic and 100 for the Black Sea, the intended armament for
next year's campaign, is an amount of naval force sufficient to
enable us to carry on war against any power on our own sole
resources. By many this is looked on as a shadow of one of
those coming events which most men would deem very unde-
sirable to meet ; but which, if in reality coming, cannot be
too soon or too steadfastly looked in the face. Others, with
probably more reason on their side, see in the observation a
friendly hint to our loving cousins in the United States.
The Times, as is its wont on extraordinary occasions, is ex-
ceedingly sententious and admonitory on the subject of the
conferences, and bestows on Lord CLA.RENDON such an
amount of advice and second-hand wisdom as may render
that statesman's task an easy and successful one, if he will
only consent to act on the disinterested counsel, and can
persuade the country to sanction it if acted on. " Let our
plenipotentiaries," says the typographic Jupiter, " bring us
home good terms and they shall be supported." Good,
doubtless very good ! " Above all," he continues, "we fear
nothing, so long as they maintain with suitable dignity the
honoir and position of the counntry. We shall forgive every-
thing to the man who shall err in asserting too boldly and
too loudly the rights and honour of England; but an Am-
bassador who should commit at Paris the error of Vienna,
and humble the nation to the dust before Potentates, would
commit an offence which our sensibility could never forget,
and ourself-respect could never forgive." Many years have
now elapsed since England was represented by the three
vicarious and self-elected tailors of Tooley-street, but even
they, in the wantonness of their self-imposed dignity, did
not soar so high into the sublimities of egotism as is thus
indulged in by the "fustian" manufacturer of Printing-house.
square.

While all eyes have been turned with less or more of
anxious speculation towards the Conference at Paris, and with
even more anxiety to a contemplation of the means by which
war is to be carried on with vigour, if the negotiations fail,
the proceedings in Parliament relative to these have been
attentively scanned. Although Joan- Bum, is admittedly
sensitive in reference to any move which threatens to dip into
his pocket, the announcement made by Sir CHARLES WOOD,
on Monday night, that the naval estimates for the coming
year are formed upon a war and not a peace policy, has met
with general approbation. It is looked upon as the most elo-
quent mode of advocating the benefits of peace, to show that
we are also fully prepared for war. Among all classes of poli-
ticians the intimation of unrelaxed endeavours to conquer a
satisfactory and lasting peace, will give more cogency to the
arguments of our ambassadors than any extent of Bombastes
Furioso exhortation which can be bestowed upon them;
with such respectable backing as that represented by 450 war
vessels, and an efficient and well-disciplined army, the British
plenipotentiaries at Paris will find themselves in a position to
propose and insist on good terms. Such terms the country
looks for from them, and will rigorously exact.
The Parliamentary session, although little more than com-
menced, has already been marked by the discussion of several
questions bearing seriously upon the public interests, too
many of them, however, beh.g of a character little fitted to
give general satisfaction. The one which for the time being
has created the greatest amount of jealousy and anxious dis-
cussion in Parliament and out of doors, has been the attempt
to tamper with the constitutional privilege of the second estate
of the realm. By an extraordinary indiscretion in the use of
the Royal prerogative, Ministers have created disputes among
themselves, have provoked serious suspicions as to their real
intentions, and involved the Crown and the House of Lords in
an unseemly contention, all of which could have been easily
avoided. In raising Baron PARKE to the peerage, if the patent
had been issued in ordinary form, little risk would have been
entailed of making a permanent addition to the peerage, if it
was considered desirable to avoid such an addition. The
learned Baron is so far advanced in life as to render his con-
tinued celibacy a matter of secure calculation. How, under
all the circumstances of the case, Ministers should have felt
themselves tempted into a conflict on so unnecessary a subject,
it is impossible to divine; unless it be referred to the pro-
verbial science of the Whigs, in constructing walls to knock
their own heads against. The first meeting of the Committee
of Privilege, to which the consideration of this question has
been referred, was looked forward to with much interest ; but
it resulted in little beyond the arrangement of the preliminary
steps for bringing the question to issue. In the meantime, it
has assumed an important aspect, through the operation of
-adventitious circumstances. The LORD CHANCELLOR and
other members of the Government affect to stand
aloof from the inquiry, and the question immediately arises, is
it the intention of Lord CELNWORTII to enforce the preroga-
tive of the Crown, and insist on Lord WENSLEYDALE taking
his seat in the House of Peers, whatever may be the decision
of the committee ? If such be the course he intends to pur-
sue, he will have done more to disturb the harmony of the
British constitution than any man who has held office since
the revolution of 10£18. If he does not mean to do this, but
'to submit to the decision of the committee, he has, probably
*Without any such intention, subjected Baron PASSE to an
amount of annoyance and a degree of indignity as wanton and
'unwarrantable as it was unnecessary and unconstitutional.
That the step is felt to be an unwise one, is evident from the
peevishness and irritability exhibited by ministers in relation
to it. The LORD CHANCELLOR, who tendered his resignation
on the subject, as his opinion differed from that of several of
his colleagues, treats the matter in a morose and dogged spirit.
Lord Gutorvma is pettish, and snarls at any one who dis-
putes his dictum on the question of ministerial interference
with the peerage. Those affecting to be deep in the cabinet
secrets say that ministers calculate on defeating the inquiry
by putting obstacles and raising difficulties in the way. The
tact and resolution of Lord LYNDHURST and the other law
lords, who are all against government on the subject, will prove
too much for such a style of tactics, which, if resorted to, will
tend greatly to lower ministers in public estimation.
In the House of Commons, some interesting and important
discussions have occurred during the past week in connexion
with matters referring directly to the law or to its administra-
tion. On Tuesday evening the propriety of appointing a
Minister of Justice was introduced to the notice of the mem-
bers by Mr. NAPIER, one of the representatives of the Univer-
sity of Dublin. The propriety of some such measure as that
suggested by the Right Hon. Gentleman was concurred in by
both sides Of the house, and the motion, slightly modified as
proposed by Sir GEORGE GREY, was agreed to, and will, in all
likelihood, be consigned to the limbo of vanities, in which the
Tond intentions of parliament are said to be locked up, On