The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-07-26 00:00:00

?OM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
THE affair in chief, between Russia and Turkey, may now
be considered settled ; but the tug—not of war, it is true
—may yet come touching those little odds and ends,
referred to, rather bitingly, the other evening, by one of i
the best judges in the House of Commons—Mr. LAYARD,
who noticed the fact, of the rumour at least, that Russia
would not leave the Principalities unless the contract she
had entered into for a nine months' provision of her force
were paid. Then, again, a little longer delay, and what
is our fleet to do ? Stay where it is in Besika Bay all the
winter ? NICHOLAS is not likely to stand that, for it
would be what Russia considers a breach of treaty. On
the other hand, if the fleet don't stay, it must be off in a
short time to Malta, otherwise the season will prevent its
At all events, nothing new has transpired since
my last communication. The Cabinet Council sat on
Saturday nearly five, hours, and doubtless would have sat
longer, but for the six o'clock dinner, at the Mansion-
house, to which every body had been invited. What was
done at the Council I don't pretend to know ; the business
at the Mansion-house, as far as eating and drinking and
talking went,l can speak of. Never was there such a spread,
even in the Egyptian-hall, as regards the two former
elements of dinner. The banquet was all that could be
desired by the most Lucullusciate! I never heard such
after-dinner talking in my life. Twaddle unredeemed !
Some said it was because GLADSTONE was not there ; I
must say he comes out sometimes in the talking way ; he
did so at the very last Ministerial banquet in the same
hall. Did he :prate too much then ? _Blab ? And so
staid away on Saturday last? ABERDEEN:was frigid in
the extremest degree ; talked about his own great defi-
ciencies and responsibilities,—and that the essential policy
of the Government was peace; upon which, as the senti-
ment was borrowed from Louts NAPOLEON, he gave (for
ABERDEEN) a knowing wink to WALEWSKI, the French
Minister, as much as to say, "Ain't it peace ?" " Oui!
Oui !" responded the French Ambassador. Lord
JOHNNIE said something about commerce, of course; re-
duction of taxes, of course ; hospitality of the city of
Lunnun, of course ; the loyal assistance of the citizens
to the Government at all times, of course ;—these were
the threadbare sentiments, the clouted themes, delivered
in accents as namby-pamby as ever regaled the ear of a
Miss in her early teens over a cup of whipt cream. In
short, everything was tepid but the turtle. Peppery
HARDINGE, even in what he said, and in the manner of
saying it, would not have scared a goose on the margin of
Chobham common. PALMERSTON was infected, and as
a climax, he proposed the health—of all menliving—of Lord
DUDLEY STUART, an amiable and courteous Whig-Radi-
cal lord, christened by the wags about the House of Com-
mons, Lord Deadley Smooth, for which the aforesaid
wags ought to be reprimanded by Mr. SPEAKER. From
the general tone of easy, confiding simplicity and com-
placency which pervaded the Ministerial speakers, it was
quite apparent that they consider themselves safe in their
saddles for one month from this date,—the 25th of
August being now the day named for the prorogation.
Accomplish that, and they maylsnap their fingers, in-
dependently, till February ; so, " go it ye cripples !" From
my own observation, I feel as nearly satisfied as may be,
that there will be two withdrawals before that period.
ABERDEEN and LANSDOWNE can't stand the worry. The
Cabinet has been much badgered this week for their" do-
nothing" policy, allowing France and America (the latter
with regard to Kossta) to take the shine out of us entirely.
There is a small bill, (don't be afraid,) but of great im-
port, in its last stage before the House of Peers at present.
It is simply entitled Public Houses (Scotland) Bill, and I
entreat your readers, with their usual courtesy, not to
suppose I am such a donkey as to go far into the merits or
demerits of the measure. The public.house system
throughout the United Kingdom demand's at the present
period more than a passing notice. The bill mentioned
above was among the last acts of your late respected,
though unseated member, Mr. FORBES MACKENZIE.
The conduct of it has been taken by Lord KINNAIRD ;
though a Whig lord born and bred, he is one of the nicest
and most gentlemanly fellows in the ample range of the
peerage. He is, indeed, one of those who, like the Earl
of CARLISLE, the Earl of MANSFIELD, Lord JOHN
MANNERS, and two or three other " bricks," would
take up an equal number,man for man,of bakers, butchers,
and blacksmiths at foot-ball or cricket, and beat them.
All spice and pluck, like a well-made Haggis. is Km.
NAlRD—the best, certainly the smartest, master of the
buckhounds in my recollection, and I have a dreamy
remembrance of GEO. M. losing his periwig in Windsor
glades. Well, Lord KINNAIRD was very near exempli-
fying an old proverb, familiar to him, when he and others,
not now to be named, played truant in Scotland some
years agone,—to the effect that "he is an ill bird who
defiles his own nest." To the back-bone, KINNAIRD
is a Scotchman ; he is fond of the religion, the toddy, the
songs, and eke the lasses of Scotia. So am I. He might
have moved the committee on the bill without running
down the glorious habits of his glorious country.
men. There is not a bad habit among them, or, if
there be, it leans to virtue's side. However, KINNAIRD
went on with some statistics furnished by certain silly
gentlemen, how that two hundred such in Scotland had
made minute inquiries regarding the number of people
who frequented Scotch public-houses, especially on Sun-
days. They were so-and-so. Bow-wow ! Nothing of
the sort ; but let the bill pass. FORBES MACKENZIE,
like KINNAIRD, is a Scottish gentleman ; and one pro-
vision of the bill ought to be carried " Over the water to
Charlie." I refer to that stopping Scotch grocers selling
their wretched " big still" whiskey over the counter.
But let us leave Auld Scotland to herself, " She'll no gae
far wrang,"—l hope my Scottish spelling is nearly cor-
rect. Mr. FORBES MACKEN ZIE'S bill,—l must call it his,
—like the fruit of the tree of knowledge, has opened the
eyes of our legislators, and though the grocers of " Sweet
Edinbro', I smell thee noo," " Bonny Dundee," the
ugliest place I have ever seen—Dundee is worse than
Genoa,—Glasgow, with its " flourish,"—Aberdeen, with
its dialect as sharp as Euroclydon—though these lose their
Spirit licences for the grocers, it will be as dust in the
balance. The eyes of our law-makers are opened, com-
mittees have sat, and witnesses have been examined ; and
now for "along pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,"
ye victuallers of Liverpool, to aid your brother " bungs"
in London ; the trade is as sure to be thrown open in
England as it is to be partially closed in Scotland. Be up
and doing, if you regard your families and the moneys you
have laid out on your establishments. Combine against
this, to you, ruinous measure. You may avert it. I can
tell you it will not be mooted this session ; it will, how-
ever, break out more virulently soon after next February.
Be prepared ; prime yourselves ; remember the trade of
the licensed victualler is to be experimented ith
w,—a
moderate portion of respectability,--tin to pay for the
license, and a marine-store dealer can obtain it.
Among the works laid on the library tables of several
of our literary and scientific societies—the Linnean, for
example—a practical work on Popular Economic Botany,
and commercial characters of the principal articles of
vegetable origin used for food, clothing, tanning, dyeing,
building, medicine, &c., by a townsman of your own, Mr.
T. C. ARCHER, has attracted some observation. The
accomplished author, it appears, had the charge of the
Liverpool imports in the Great Exhibition. in Hyde
Park. The way in which he acquitted himself in that
regard acquired for him much praise from those best able
to appreciate his efforts. Mr. ARCHER'S experience at
the Liverpool Customs has been turned to good account
in the work now referred to. A graceful feature in it is
the frank and generous acknowledgments made to some
of our most distinguished living botanists and vegetable
physiologists, PEREIRA, ROYLE, LINDLEY, &C. The
author would, perhaps, have laughed (in his sleeve) to
have seen the last-named professor turi
himself over his pages,
and speak well of them. No quack , LINDLEY
abhors quackery in the beauttuifruel. study of botany, and of
There are some fine
her burly brother, horticul
work, which, for some time to
plates in Mr. ARCHER'S ,
Onecommercial
lmikeersr
itaol
come, will be referred to as an auftrehomthat money-making
rietyg.
reat m
see a book of this kind come h
town, such as Liverpool, as it s ows
and money-keeping do not always freeze the " genial
current of the soul."
Let us have a touch at the police, Id h
espe.cially as I see
your neighbours are at it. A police strike wou aye
those dis-
rather more meaning in it than a strike among
membered but necessary varlets, the snips. Our police
force consists of two corps proper—the cityand the
metropolitan. The former is under the command of as
knowing a shot as ever came out of locker—DANIEL
WHITTLE HARVEY, I know thee well,—a fine-looking
old man, with plenty of grey hairs, bestowing adventi-
tious aid on natural cunning. I use the word by no
means offensively. WHITTLE has secured a good berth
for himself, does his work with attention, manages to be on
good terms with Aldermen and Lord Mayor—he would
see them both far enough, if he could do without them ; '
he takes good pay, and therein is the rule. The city
police, generally speaking, is composed of stout, good-
looking young men ; many of them have wives and
children ; their wages are too low for a single man :
they are kicking up a row, and telling WHITTLE
HARVEY that they must have more money. Now there
is as much feeling in DANIEL as there is milk in a male
tiger ; he goes to all the city feeds, and once a month he
dons his Sunday coat and broad-brimmed, to have a pala-
ver with PAM at the Home-office ;—CUPID and WHITTLE
are old files. They understand each other. Meantime
the city policemen do hard duty—no holidays now—for
some shillings a-week under a pound,—not enough in
these dear times. I
wish Sir ROBERT PEEL were living,
that he might have to pay for a dinner of common victuals
and drink. Confound his tariff; ditto his free-trade rub-
bish ; confound his tergiversations ; confound his income-
tax ; confound his—no, not his memory. He was, in my
poor opinion, for all the brag about him, the worst mirii3.

stirring