The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-21 00:00:00

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FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.

MlNrsrEns and military authorities have resolved, as
usual in such cases, to observe a strict secrecy with regard
to the movements of the forces, both naval and military—
chiefly the latter. Malta, in the meantime, is the ren-
dezvous ; all after that is sealed. For this point our
troops which have already moved are destined. Some
idea will be formed of the anticipated extensive labours
of the commissariat, and other army departments, when
I inform you that four picked gentlemen of talent and
experience were taken, two days ago, from the staff at the
Ordnance-office, for the purpose of proceeding imme-
diately to Malta to officiate—the superior as paymaster of
the troops, and the other three individuals to act as clerks.
On Saturday, by order of the QUEEN in Council, the usual
proclamation was ordered to be issued against the expor-
tation of arms, ammunition, and machinery of all kinds
available for war purposes. This order can be, and is,
acted on in periods of profound peace ; its issue at the
present juncture is perfectly obvious. It is a curious co-
incidence that, at the very moment the prohibitory order
was being framed by Ministers at Buckingham Palace,
in presence of the SOVEREIGN and His Royal Highness
the PRINCE CONSORT, one of the largest quantities
of gunpowder, probably, ever seized was being removed
from the ice well of the great railway carrier, in the Old
Bailey, and taken through the streets of the metropolis for
safety to the Tower. There is, I believe, no reason for
supposing that the ammunition was contraband, or des-
tined for clandestine shipment, which, by the way, I can
mention is now rendered impossible from the precautions
taken by the authorities ; cautions made necessary from
information of the proceedings of certain very patriotic
people, whose names had better not be mentioned at
present. The Horse Guards exhibit a most animated ap-
pearance by the, constant passing and repassing of
general officers, and, indeed, of officers of every grade.
Several scores of nice well-knit young fellows, short, but
stiffly built, all gentlemen by their appearance and man-
ners, have mustered in the Court-yard of the War-office,
several days lately, for the purpose of being entered for
active service. It is impossible to describe their glee.
The height of these young officers attracted much attention
and observatiou : they were nearly all of one size, short of
stature, as I have said ; by much shorter than- the Foot
Gnirds ; and as there is a fashion in everything, tight,
well-built little fellows, officers, and men, seem now to be
A 1 at the War-office. Perhaps Viscount RA RDINGE,
who belongs to this class, has taken a hint from some of
the cracks of Lours NAPOLEON'S army, whose personnel
is as I have described. One thing is certain, that the
Coldstreams, a tall body of men, when last in Canada,
were considered not so handy as men of less size. In
other regards, of course, this corps is beyond animadver-
sion. The higher officers, including RAGLAN, CARDIGAN,
CAMBRIDGE, &c., are, to a man, in "fine feather," and
have made their arrangements for leaving at a day's
notice. Meantime, much depends upon the receipt of the
answer of NICHOLAS to NAPOLEON 's superb and manly
letter. This answer will be the ultimatum. It is ex-
pected every hour from St. Petersburg ; although five days
since it was posted on the Paris Bourse, and telegraphed
to that of London, where it had no effect, and was at once
pronounced to be fudge ! Those best acquainted with
the telegraphic route from St. Petersburg to London,
state that the answer cannot be sooner than to-day. Se-
veral literary gentlemen have been depatched from town
by the journals to Malta, to follow in the wake of the army—
some will be in the van Iknow—for the puropose of sending
their reports regarding hostile operations ; other gentle-
men have been shifted from their established continental
quarters for the same purpose. Still, the public wonder
at apparent delays. " If Nimioras means to fight, are we
not giving him great opportunities to prepare ?" this
qiestion is put a hundred times a day. There is no time
thrown away. We know that the CZAR requires time,
and more of it than the combined powers of France and
England. He is not stealing a march on us. The fact
is, that Ministers are anxious to have a despatch from St.
Petersburg, with peace or war in it, from NICHOLAS, and
as that must come through NAPOLEON, we must wait a
bit. To-morrow ? In consequence of all this, mere com-
merce and trade—those branches, I mean, apart from
war and munitions of war—are languid in the extreme.
To compensate, as it were, other departments have not
for the last thirty years and more been so active.

Shall I not doff the chapeau to HARRY BROUGHAM

He has returned from Cannes, and, though seventy-six
mortal-years old, is as lively as a kitten, and as brown as
an autumn nut. He has been among his Peers each
night since his return, and spurning the baron's bench,
he has taken up his seat for the live-long night—barring
when he moves about, which is sixteen times a minute—
on
the wool sack. He is very fond of that same seat,
which surprises one, remembering how he was pushed
from it. He tells all sorts of stories of Frenchmen—and
women, too ;—lugs in French law, of which he is an ad-
mirer—and justly so. With the exception of a French
tile and a waistcoat—neither improving him—Lord
BEouGnAM dresses just in the same slovenly—no, care-
less—manner as he did a quarter of a century ago—those
never-worn-out shepherd's plaid trousers gracing his
shanks as then. BROUGHAM, since he and CARLISLE
(MORPETH) were knights of the shire of York, has always
used such nether integuments. The Yorkshire lads—
cute uns—presented the knights with a pair a piece; they
wore them—did much to make them popular : CARLISLE
gave in ; BROUGHAM still stands out, wearing them win-
ter and summer, in France and England—save when he
dresses for an evening, and then he does look like
a gentleman, simply from the contrast he presents. He
has been to see his old and dear friend ANGLESEY—now
convalescent,— the finest, oldest, bravest, soldier, and
cleanest yachtsman in England. His yacht, the
Pearl, worthy of its name, is a picture : she is manned by
the finest fellows that ever sailed—they are not in the
QuEEls's command. The noble marquis is just ten years
older than Lord BROUGHAM ; that is not far from ninety.
I saw him not long ago, " stump" (he has but one real
leg), from his yawl up the side of his yacht; he lost his
faience, and was plump in the water, cork leg and all ;
perhaps it kept him up ; in two minutes he was on deck
as dry as a duck. The Times has thrown out a sugges-
tion for yatchtsmen sending their crews to mau the navy,
should need be. To be sure they will : but from what I
learn, and I had communication on Saturday with one of
the highest functionaries of the Admiralty, there does not
at present seem to be any occasion for such services.
WE have all heard of the fable of the mountain and the
mouse. Parturient, &c. Lord JOHN RUSSELL gave the
House of Commons and the country a famous example of
it, when he proposed the long-promised "New Reform
Bill." Save the mark ! On Tuesday evening, there was
this accompaniment to the morale of the fable, that the
noble lord favoured the House, and some fifty politicians
out of it—id est in the galleries and under them—with

one of the finest examples of " thimble rig" ever exhibited
within the walls of Parliament, since the Earl of DERBY,
then Lord STANLEY, first as wittily as bitingly applied
the phrase to his political opponents of that day. There
are but one or two good points in the measure ; all else is
complication. It gives a member to Birkenhead ! Laugh
n)f. Birkenhead is young : it never had a representative.
It is rising, it is thriving, and, for a variety of reasons
well known to your readers, must continue to rise and
thrive. If Liverpool live. Birkenhead is to have a mem-
ber. Lord Join evidently imagined he had made a hit
in this proposition, he swelled into magnificence, magni-
loquence, grandiloquence ; he looked to the right and left,
and opposite, and all round, tapped the box on the table,
and hungered for hear ! hear ! These he got ; which is
more than can be said for nearly all his other propositions.
Barring Belgravia! Belgravia, in which lives the noble
lord and Mr. SPEAKER, and hundreds more of the aristo-
cracy most respected, is to have a member, for is it not in
the district of Kensington and Chelsea, both populous
unquestionably, but, with the:exception of a knot of busy-
bodies, Radicals in short, who meet once a fortnight, and
eat a cheap and late dinner once a year, the great bulk of
the inhabitants don't want a member—don't need a mem-
ber. But here is the secret impulse : it is a nice place for
a fledging Whig to commence his summer flight. His
constituents, at least three-fourths of them, with whom he
will be in communication, are people of position ; commer-
cial or manufacturing intertst it has none, if I exclude
two manufactories, one for floor-cloth, t'other for distilled
water ! This point in the new Reform Bill gained a little
applause. The proposition of giving two members to the
Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, is certainly a new
idea—simply ridiculous. For years past, say thirty, and
that will do, the cry has been, " too many lawyers in the
house." The Inns of Court mentioned, and deemed neces-
"l7 by a wise minister to be enfranchised—how oddly
the word sounds !—are governed by elderly members of
their own ; slightly gouty, fond of port and claret, which
they have good and in
abundance;
shut their gates ; a
politician has no business there, so
little are they influenced by the public voice, or the public
wants. Again, 'every lawyer in the House' of Com-
ma ilits chambers in the Inas of Court, Ma'