The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

A despatch from St. Petersburg, dated 29th
April, says :

" The prohibition of the exportation of gold has
been raised.

"The. Government has just published the treaty
of commerce and navigation with Japan. The
treaty consists of nine articles. The ports of
Simoda, Hakodada, and Nangasaki are thrown
open to commerce." •

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

THE BED OF JUSTICE.

Tha French throw out " ideas," the practical
English convert them into " facts." The science
of France is distinguished, but it is in England
that we apply it to the purposes of mechanics and
daily life. The French have talked of a " bed of
justice;" it is in England that the judgment-seat
has been converted literally into a bed—a bed
to sleep upon. We learn the consummation of this
process, which has been going on for some time,
from the last of the judges, TAM Chief Justice
Cockburn. " Nolo episcopari !"—Pius the
Ninth turned pale when he saw that the votes
were about to deseencl linen hipself., Sir Alexander
Coburn became a Jud;i:;‘& under the strongest
e6tions," under a " pang." it is " the alloy to
the happiness" which he has enjoyed as member
for Southampton, a successful politiCal man We
are quoting his own wordS. In his speech he
paused, and " appeared deeply moved ;" and then
he went on—" I can but feel that my political sun
has set." His own wish was to be the representative
of Southampton in Parliament, and to fill the high
office of lutorney•General in England : that was
to him the summit of ambition. " I desired nothing
further; and, if I could have had my will and
way, that was the position I should have filled to
this hour, and never have desired to part with it
while I had strength and energy to fulfil its duties
But, alas! man cannot frame his own destiny as
he will ; and I hemline conscious that many years

of acive life, and five of the combined efforts of
official and parliamentary labour, had produced
a certain amount of bodily wear and tear. I was
told that certain warnings were not to be neglected,
and that I should do wrong, and perhaps destroy
my capacity for public, usefulness altogether, if I
did not accept the highly honourable office which
I now fill, and which is far beyond any-
thing I could have laid claim to." This
is indeed a disclosure, but Sir Alexander Cockburn
unfolds something more—" What do I not owe to
this place ? every step of my career has been influ
enced by my connection with Southampton." It
is ae.a member of parliament that he has managed
to accomplish such an immense amount of success-
ful exertion. Sir Alexander's prosperty hae been
notorious; no man has been more fortunate than
.he has; the sweets of professional skill and
opportunity have come to him in abundance; and
he has so employed his opportunity as to produce
an amount of bodily wear and tear" the results
of which " warn" him to leave off For such pur-
poses he is an exhausted man. We are not to ex-
pect the same amount of active good out of him that
has been devoted to pushing his prosperity as
member for Southampton and successful man at
the bar. Having arrived at that stage in. his
career, his friends tell him that be wants rest--,-and
he mounts the jndgment sent. You may 'stand in
court and compare the two men. There is Alexander
Cockburn, Esq., at the bar, collecting facts with a
masterly comprehensiveness scarcely ever excelled ;
putting them together with almost the lucidity
of a ' Lyndhurst—with more than a Lyndhurst
persuasiveness ; telling the story, whatever the
jury may afterwards find the merits of the case
to be, in such a manner that you can
see the facts as he paints them ; the truth as
he tells it is self evident; the energy with which it
is is east upon your ear masters your conviction,
and the verdict is more than half given before the
counsel has done speaking. He knows what he is
about, and makes you know it as well as he does,
or at least as he intends you to know it. Compare
that man, Alexander Cockburn, Esq , at the bar,
with Sir Alexander Cockbnrn, C.J upon the bench.
litit let us pause, for we have not told the whole
case In Australia there is a wide expanse of
waste, at the present moment very thickly peopled.
It is not unlike the back premises of a London
" improvement " all heaps. and holes, with
men in rough costume going up and down, or
residing bodily at the bottom of the pit. It is the
gold field, from which these labourers are bring.
ing up the yellow ore. It is harder work than
carrying bricks to the top of a house, nothing but
the sweet satisfaction of knowing that every brick
is worth some hundreds of pounds, can repay that
irksome toil. Put that irksome toil is cheered by
muscular labour, by a brilliant sun ; and it is not
suoli_pain and drudgery as digging in the gold
fields of successful law practice. Far more exhaust-
ing is that; especially when the man strikes upon a
happy vein, and cannot check the appetite which
makes him try to carry it all up, bodily, to the pit's
mouth, to mark it for his own. If you want to see
the example of the existing effect of that labour,