The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-11 00:00:00

THE COALITION MINISTRY.

Had they been of one accord among themselves, nothing
of this kind would have happened. If Lord Aberdeen had
been sole and supreme master in his Cabinet, it is possible
that Russia might have succeeded in acquiring a protec-
torate over Turkey. The Sultan could hardly have
attempted to resist without powerful European aid ; and
France, had she found Britain lukewarm or indifferent,
could not be expected to come forward as the defender of
the balance of power without a single ally. No doubt,
had this occurred, it would have given Russia a most dan-
gerous preponderance in Europe, and probably necessitated
a future struggle ; but, in the meantime, there would have
been no war. Had the Cabinet been under the guidance
of Palmerston or Russell, the first advances of the Em-
peror, if made at all, would have been met by a distinct
and peremptory refusal, and by a threat which would have
effectually deterred him from moving a step further. But,
unfortunately—most unfortunately for us, and for our
children, and for the general peace of Europe,—this is not
a united Cabinet. It is a congregation of men holding
totally opposite opinions—bred up in adverse schools—
adhering to antagonistical traditions influenced by
jealousy among themselves—and unable, upon any one
important point, whether it relates to foreign or domestic
policy, to arrive at a common conclusion. Take the case
now before us. But for Palmerston and Russell, and their
other adherents in the Cabinet, Lord Aberdeen might
have established the principle of non-interference between
Russia and Turkey, and there would have been no war.
But for Lord Aberdeen and his adherents, Palmerston and
Russell might have checked the designs and met the over-
tures of the Czar, by declaring at once that they would
not suffer him to send a single soldier across the Pruth,
and that if he persisted in his design, they would invite
the co-operation of France, and defend Turkey to the
uttermost, and in that case also there would have been no
war. But the Cabinet was split into two, if not three,
parties ; and the adoption of a middle course, of feeble
dissuasion, unaccompanied by any hint of ulterior conse-
quences, but rather couched in terms of extreme and
unworthy subserviency, deceived the Czar, encouraged him
to proceed,—and now war is all but declared, and oar fleet
is riding in the Baltic. * * * Let those who shudder
at the cost at least know to whom the cost is due. We
are now paying, and are likely to pay for a long time to
come, for the privilege of having a Coalition Ministry.

The magazine is not, however, wholly devoted
to serious questions. " The Quiet Heart " is con-
tinued in the same attractive style which induced
many readers to commence its perusal. There is
also an interesting article on " The Puppets of All
Nations," and an ably-written essay on fine-art
fallacies, • entitled " Chronological curiosities : what
shall we collect ?" We may also allude to a review
of a recently-published work on wanderings among
the various Arab Tribes of the African Sahara.

Colburn's New Monthly Magazine. London :
Chapman and Hall.

The April number of the New Monthly com-
pletes the hundredth volume of the Magazine ;
and, by the fulfilment of its tenth decade, recals to
memory a crowd of reminiscences connected with
those mighty dead, whose brightness of intellect has
shed a lustre over its pages. Prominently among
the great departed the finely attempered genius of
Campbell claims a passing tribute ; the regulated,
yet enduring brilliancy—the glowing imagery and
refined taste which pervade the Minstrelsy of
" Wyoming"—the spirited and chivalrous strains
of " Lochier —the nervous energy and heroic
daring of the " Mariners of England"— the thril-
ling pathos of the " Baltic ode," and the mysteri-
ous and awe-inspiring boldness of " The Last
Man," are too dazzling and too generally recog-
nised to require mote remark from us than simply
to allude to their author's long and intimate con-
nexion with the periodical before us. Between
him and the last of its gifted contributors, whom
the sickle of death has reaped and garnered in the
general harvest, many names of renown might
easily be placed ; but we shall feel content with
mere allusion to the last, the late Sir Thomas Noon
Talfourd, who for many years was an extensive
writer in its pages. The present number of the
Magazine contains a brief, but interesting, resume of
his connexion with it, from the pen of Cyrus Redding,
a gifted co-labourer in the same literary field. The
memorial paper concludes with the annexed :

PANEGYRIC ON ME. JUSTICE TALFOURD, AND OBSERVA-

TIONS ON HIS DEATH.

This highly-endowed, excellent, kindly man is no more.
He pleased living, because all the world believed in his
sincerity : death put a seal to his high character. He has
departed, having kept up his reputation to the last. He
cannot change now, fall off, and forfeit our esteem. He
cannot cause a retractation of our opinions,lessenour regard
for his memory, or exhibit unkindly feeling, so opposite to
his former nature : action with him is no more. How
wonderful was his change from vigorous life and strength
to insensibility and decay ! It was an appalling moment
when, in his solemn professional robes, he was struck sud-
denly down before a crowded auditory, listening to his
address in the very sanctuary of justice, the attention at
once drawn from the speech to the speaker; in the twink-
ling of an eye, the lips unfolding the line of public duty
changed to the quiver of instantaneous dissolution ; the
flush of animation to the pallor of death ; the flexile
muscle to rigidity ; the fixed foot to helpless prostration. I
remember no parallel case in our law courts. Hope might
mitigate, skill procrastinate, and both lighten a coming
mortality ; but this was a scene of irreparable privation.
Never was the utter helplessness of our nature more trans-
parent—never has the pride of the living received a more
humiliating lesson in the midst of the most exalted duties.
To the above observations we shall offer no
addition ; they are sufficiently impressive to arrest
and gratify attention, and we shall not risk the
likelihood of weakening by attempting to amplify
them. The character of the New Monthly, as a
magazine of light literature, and of dramatic and
artistic criticism, has long been extensive as well
as high ; and we are glad to see it still deserves
the reputation it has acquired in these departments.
It opens with the commencing chapters of the fifth
part of an English tale, called " The Flitch of
Bacon, or the Custom of Dunmow," by W. H.
Ainsworth, the editor ; it contains likewise a paper
on the " Prospects of Art in England," in which a
good deal of rational opinion is mixed up with
arguments of a doubtful character. The writer
takes it for granted that art must look for its true
patrons among the middle classes, and laments the
defective knowledge they display in connexion with
it ; he might have added, and the false taste they
also manifest regarding it : but we cannot concur
in the conclusion inferentially drawn, that the mid-
dle classes of ancient Greece and Rome, or of
mediaeval Italy, were more highly cultured than
those of our own day. The teachings of history
lead us inevitably to the conclusion that in those
halcyon days of art, as in the present, its patrons
were the educated and affluent few, not the busy
and comparatively necessitous many. That the
middle classes may not ultimately become the great
patrons of English art, we do not mean to question;
what we contend for is, that our middle classes are at
the least equal in intellectual culture to the middle
classes of those days, when art achieved its highest
triumphs. Among the light literature of the num-
ber is an admirable jeu &esprit, ridiculing the
self-imposed Quaker Mission to the Czar ; it is
called " Mr. Jolly Green's Account of the Peace
Deputation to St. Petersburg," in which that gross
intrusion of humbug into the business of the world
is happily quizzed. Mr. Jolly Green is represented
as a gentleman actuated by shallowness, impudence,
and self-conceit, sufficient to entitle him to a vice-
presidency, at least, in the Peace Society ; he is
invited by Henry Beans, of Birmingham, to join
with him and Obadiah Starch, of Bullock Smithy,
to join the Peace Mission to the Czar, and forth
they sally. The narrative of their journey and
adventures is given with much satirical spirit, as
will be readily guessed from the statement of their

CHESHIRE AND WALES.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER

THE LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER entertained the Judges
of Assize—Mr. Justice Williams and Mr. Justice Crompton
—and a select party to dinner at the Palace, on Thursday.

MIRY Gums, housekeeper at Kinmel-park; and who
formerly served the Earl of Sefton in the same capacity,
was tried last week, at the Denbigh assizes, for larceny.
She was found guilty, and sentenced to eighteen months'
imprisonment. _ _

BIRKENHEAD FERRY RECEIPTS.—The following state-
ment was read at the meeting of Birkenhead Commis-
sioners, on Tuesday :
Receipts during March, 1853
. Ditto ditto 1854
Total receipts from 24th April, 1852, to
March 31, 1853 £20,117 15 1
Ditto ditto 1853 to 1854
Total expenditure from 24th April, 1853, to
30th March, 1854, including the new boat 20,943 19 5
SHREWSBI7RY AND CREWE RAILWAY.—Mr. Gill, of
Weston, and other gentlemen employed by the London
and North-western Railway, have received instsuctions to
commence immediately the purchase of lands required
for the Shrewsbury and Crewe Railway, in order to facili-
tate the progress of the works.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY.—The traffic for
the week ending 2nd April, 1854, was as follows :
Passengers, parcels, &c., per railway, £2049 ls. 6d. ;
steam-boats, £324 ls. 11d. ; total, £2373 3s. 6d.: goods,
£1437 Os. 7d.: total, including Carnarvon traffic, per
rail, £3486 2s. Id. ; steam-boat, £324 ls. 11d. Cor-
responding week last year, per rail, £3175 17s. 3d. ;
steam-boat, £228 9s. Od. Increase, £405 17s. 9d.
PRACTICAL PATRIOTISM.—The work-people employed
by Price's Patent Candle Company, not only in their
extensive works in London, but also in those in course of
construction at Bromborough Pool, on the banks of the
Mersey, have voluntarily agreed to pay each a halfpenny per
week towards the support of the wives and children of
soldiers engaged in the Eastern war.

DEATH OF LORD MOSTYN.—The Right Hon. Edward
Pryce Lloyd, Baron Mostyn, died on Monday, the 3rd
instant, at Pengwern, near St. Asaph. He is succeeded
in his title and estates by his son, the Hon. Edward
Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, M.P. for the county of Flint. A
vacancy in the representation of Flintshire is caused by
the elevation of Mr. Mostyn to the peerage.
THE BIRKENHEAD DOCK WALL.—The trustees of the
Birkenhead Docks received, at their adjourned meeting,
on Wednesday, a report from their engineer, detailing the
cause of the late accident at the river dam. This report
differs in no material respect from what has already been
made public. It contains, however, an undertaking on
the part of the contractors to bear the entire responsibility
as well of replacing the darn as of the cost of the fallen
one ; and further, that the water shall be excluded from,
the tidal basin by the Ist of July next. In the meantime
the delay consequent upon the accident is in no way to
interfere with the progress of the river walls.
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPERS? ACM—Charles James, a
master chimney-sweeper, at Birkenhead, was summoned
before the magistrates on Thursday, on a charge of send-
ing his son, under ten years of age, up the chimney of
Mr. Josiah Bazley, of South-bank, Oxton. He was
ordered to pay a fine of £5, and in default of payment
committed to gaol for twenty-one days,
EXECUTION AT SHRRWSBURY.—Oniziday John Lloyd,
convicted of the murder of John Gittins„ a blacksmith, at
the village of Nescliff, eight miles from, Shrewsbury, was
executed in front of the gaol of that town.. It will be re-
collected that the deceased, while sitting: in his kitchen,
was shot by Lloyd, a quarrel having previously taken
place, during which the deceased accused. Lloyd of having
been too intimate with his wife. Theconviet confessed
his guilt, and was very penitent.
BIRKENHEAD COMMISSIONERS.—The monthly meeting
was held at the rooms, Hamilton-square, on, Tuesday, Mr.
Green, the chairman, presiding. There' were present
Messrs. Gough,. Curry, Storey, Henderson, Whittingham,
Bradley, Bailiff, Willoughby, and Hohne. The proceedings
of the Watch, Health, and Market Committees were read
and confirmed. In those of the first was included a recom-
mendation for the erection of a dead-house at the junction
of Cleveland-street and Bridge-street, at an estimated
expense of £5O or £6O. The road and improvement com-
mittee recommended that three months' notice to quit the
refreshment-room. in. the park should be- given to Mr.
Gough,. and that the room be advertised. to-be let ; that
the nursery ground in the park should be cleared of rub.
bish ; and that permission should be given to Mr. illeakin
sub-contractor- for the. new dock works, under Messrs,.
Brassey and, Co., to cross the Corporation road with their
rails at several points specified, to take clay from the high•
lands for use at the dock works. The proceedings were
confirmed. The Finance Committee, in reference to an
application from the Birkenhead Cricket Clubi.for a reduc-
tion of rent to g 5; recommended a reduction. to £7los.

WALLASEY BOARD OP HEALTH.—The monthly meet-
ing
was held on Thursday, at the Queen's Arms Hotel,
Liscard. Present :—Messrs. Penny (in the chair), Hill,
Ball, Coulborn, Pooley, Crump, Wilson, Odell, Lawrence,
and Beausire. The clerk intimated that there were no
proceedings of the health committee, and the watch and
bye-law committee had never met, being unable to obtain
the number of members required to form a quorum—A
conversation.took place upon the subject, and Mr. Pooley
animadverted in strong terms on the conduct of the com-
mittees in not meeting for business, charging them with
neglect of their duties. Mr. H:11 suggested the desirability
of having weekly meetings of the board, instead of com-
mittees at all. The Chairman said that unless they could
come to some better system of orp,anization, they would
fail in carrying out the provisions of the act. Mr. Pooley
submitted a motion to the effect that the immediate at-
tention
of the watch and bye-law committee be requested
to the subject of the disorderly conduct on the shore, more '
especially on Sundays. The motion was seconded by Mr.
Hill, and. adopted unanimously The Chairman stated
that, as regarded an alteration hi. the• postal communica- 1
tion of the township, the matter was under the considera-
tion of the postal authorities, and an answer might be
shortly expected. The Law-clerk, said that the summary
of the receipts and expenditure- of ' the. township.for nine
months, ending the 25th. March, last had been prepared,
for the purpose of being auditetli The receipts amounted
to £2237 65., and there had beethexpended £1262 17s. 5d.,
leaving; balance of £994 Bs. 7d. The Law-clerk was in-
structed to apply to the Birkenheaddock trustees relative
to proceeding as early as possible with the sewer between
Seacombe ferry and the Birkenhead: docks. A letter com-
plaining of the dangerous, state-of the coastway at the
Seacombe slip was referred to, the- surveyor. The Law-
clerk. intimated that a communication had been received
from,the general board of health, stating that the term for
the existence of the Nuisance. Removal Act was to be ex-
tended to six months longer.. The question as to holding
the. monthly meeting at Egremont, instead of at the
Queen's Arms, was again. raised. Mr. Coulborn moved
that a certain portion of the, resolution passed at the last
meeting, negativing a proposition made to hold the meet-
ings at Egremont, be rescinded:. The speaker went into
a history of the question, urging- the same grounds for a
removal which had been preciously advanced. Mr. Pooley
seconded the motion. Mr. Odell objected, contending
that it was a farce to remove, to Egremont, and incur an
extra expenditure, without- having proportionate accom-
modation. Mr. Hill also opposed the motion' arguing
that they should remain where they were until they had
offices of their own. Ultimately, Mr. Coulborn withdrew
his motion. A committee was appointed to consider and.
report on the subject of removing to new offices, the mem—
bers of it being Messrs. Odell, Pooley, Hill, Coulborm
and the Chairman. Instructions were given to the clerk
to issue notices requiring persons within a given priod,
to pave, flag, sewer, conformity with the provisions
of the Health Act. After the transaction of some routine.
business, the board adjourned.
Ora PLACE IN. Pnornßev.—On Tuesday evening,, a
lecture on this important subject was given by Dr. Cum-
ming, of Loudon, in the School-room of Christ Church,
Claughton. The-chair was taken by the Rev. Dr. Blake-
ney, and a highly respectable audience filled the-room.
The lecturer prefaced his address by calling attention to
the prophecies in Scripture which refer to the stirring
times in which we live. He observed that dates have
been given for the past, and therefore they may also be
taken for the-future, as already testified by the titre, fixed
for the Israelites being in Egyptian bondage—the. cap-
tivity of the Jews—the advent of our Lord, foretold in
the three-score and two weeks prophesied by Daniel. It
was not, therefore, unfair to presume that some dim
shadow will also be given of the second advent of the
Messiah. Daniel says the Little Horn shall have the
saints given, into his hands 1260 days, or prophetic years.
The same is mentioned in the Book of Revelations, with
reference to the Two Witnesses, who should prophesy
1260 years. The great western apostaey was the power
which should wear out the saints. The church which
existed for 1200 years was not the true church—the true
church commenced on Mount Calvary, and was always a
Protestant church. The 1260 years began when the
Popish church reached its greatest height. In 532 the
Papal power developed itself. It closed in 1793. The
Papal power was then to be consumed—destroyed by
'The brightness of His coming." In 1793 infidel and
Christian men, of every sort of religion, assailed the
Papists, and the Pope was soon afterwards carried as a
puppet by Napoleon to France. In, the Bth chapter of
Daniel the Little Horn is mentioned—at the end of 2,300
years it was to be destroyed—in other words the river
Euphrates should be dried up, to make way for the Lord's
people. This is admitted to refer to Mahomedanism ; and
is fulfilled by the progressive. Medo-Persian empire. The
year 430 B.C.—the time of Xerxes, was the time men-
tioned as the commencement, and by calculation the con-
clusion was the year 18201 If that be correct we should
consider that the river Euphrates, the place from whence
the Turks originally came, should begin to be dried up.
In that year (1820), Ali Pasha revolted against the Sultan
—the Greeks also and the Crimea followed in revolution ;
in 1827 the Sultan's fleet was destroyed—soon afterwards
the Russians crossed the Balkan
; and in 1832 the Rev.
Mr. Walsh noticed that "in the last twenty years Turkey
lost half of her popu,lation." At this moment, in Turkey,
as Lamartine says, Turkey is dying for want of Turks"
There are now nine millions of Christians in Turkey, and
only three millions of Turks. He saw a mighty dynasty
springing forth—a Christian dynasty--emerging from the
ruins of Mahommetanism ; and the reason of the Czar
stepping in was, to seize Constantinople while it was
seizable, that it might be a gem in his diadem, whilst he
also was throwing dust in the eyes of England and France.
Just at the close 9f this dispensation, (as our Lord says,)
the " budding of the fig-tree" shows that the end is at
hand. The fig-tree (which represented the• Jews) is now
budding, it feels the warmth of the approaching spring,
which will shortly bring forth everlasting bloom. He
next alluded to the vain boastings of Babylon, testified in
the pomp of Cardinal Wiseman, and the curious pheno-
menon called a Puseyite. lie described the latter as
missing the right thing, at the same time being in earnest
about what he was doing. In the 38th chapter of Ezekiel
we have the daily progress of the Autocrat of Russia
described as if the prophet were now alive, and "setting
his face " against " Mesheck and Tubal, the Princes of
the North," who should " think an evil thought," and
"go against the unwalled villages." He hoped that Eng-
in spite of Popish aggression. Even if we
• land's heart was sound to the core, and would shine out
still brighter,
did not attempt to convert the Papists, down must come
the Papacy ; and Dr. Butler, who sat on the lecturer's
right, indicated the fact that men of learning were
prompted to " come out of her," and join the Protestant
church. The concluding portion of the lecture was given
with great emphasis, and titrilling efrect, and was well
received by the audience,