The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-27 00:00:00

nEe. 1536.

nts§to secure that limit is manifested by ministers. We
think they have, in some degree, proceeded undetected
in this design; and in proof of this, were we to ask
almost any one under what government we live, we
should receive for answer—" A mixed government of
Xitig., Lords, and Commons." This answer would also
have been given a century ago; but do the same words'
convey the same sense? We ale now a practical demo--
el'acY, mixed up with some aristocratic and monatchical
remains—sufficient, however, we think, if the country
continue firm, to regenerate-the constitution. But, as
We have before us the lamentable fact, that even the
the Rouse of Lords,. in which is lodged "that circuit,
sPeclion and mediatory cant ion which the wisdom of the
Peers afford," permitted the Reform-B:11 to pass as know
stands, sod' become part of the law of the land, so we
may fear worse issues; for assuredly .they never so com-
mitted themselves as when they suffered that floodgate
of national insubordination to be lifted up.

Such is the Uncertainty pervading England respecting
the state of the belligerents in Spain, and the unquiet in
Portugal, that if any one could be transported thither,
andbe placed in'the midst of the scene of action, we be-
lieve he would field the condition of affairs, in both coon-
tries, so little to accoui with our "foreign intelligence,"
and " titivate corresVondence," 'that he would •hardly
know whether to ascribe the whole to the work of ima

Rination, or. to the crude reports of-casual conversation.
In some of our metropolitan covitemporaries, this
or directly lying spirit, hailv7.en justly exposed.
But, Whilst We declare the little confidence that can be
placed in such rumours of foreign affairs, especially as
regards the minuter eircumstantials of events, yet there
may be colleCted sufficient information from them upon
which to ground most important reflections, and from
Which to draw most interesting inferences. If the wri-
ters do not know, and, therefore, cannot tell, correctly,
the movements of any one party, yet they cannot be mis-
taken as to the existence of intestine commotion—if the
speec of a camp cotirtc . cannot reach their ears; the
March of an army through the town in which they live
cannot escape their eyes: of one thin., therefore, we are
certain. Civil war,' and, with it, civil insubordination,
and all its gloomy train of concomitant evils, prevail
,there. We need make no demands upon imagination to
Picture the horrors of such a condition. Towns and vil-
lakes subject:to midnight surprise—trade and mercantile
imercotirse suspended—agricultural labour heartlessly
Performed, fatii the dread of frustration by the hand of
War, or the uncertainty, whether he who sows the grain
Will reap the crop—injuries inflicted, and wrongs tole
rated, without provoking the sword of justice—property
of every kind insecure—a universal jeopardy of the next
event—no one knowing " what a day may bring Nrth"
--horn the highest to the lowest, care and consternation
impressed on every countenance—the appearance of the
soldier and not the citizen, or the citizen called to be a
soldier, in their streets—imparting a martial character to
every scene—and " the spirit-stirring drum, and ear-
.piercing fife, and all the din and circumstance of war"—
. proclaim the unhappy fate of those self-devoted coun-
tries.

There is another conclusion of equal moment, and no
less certain, than that at which we have just arri‘ed— af-
forded by our " foreign intelligence," vague and contra-
dictory as it is—that the contending powers are so nearly
eqnal, in all the requisites of war, that any conflict "be
tween theta seems to be determined by P (mut adventitious
circumstance. Victory gives no ascendancy of power,
and defeat only shifts the. ground of snuggle; and,
hence, the only prospect of peace rests on the exhaustion
of the means of protracting war ; for whilst Mete is any
thing to be gained by contest, or to be sacrificed, that is
prized, the rage of hostility %%ill continue unabated.
Surely, if there he any, scourge more• terrible than all
others, it is the scourge of civil war.

But whilst we deplore the. miseries which protract 'd
intestine fury must, eventually, occ.tsion to the countries
expose(l, to it, are we unconcerned spectators of the
atene Can one kingdom be kept in such a state t:f
warlike agitation, 7 for any length of time, and others,
connected with it by a thousand ties, receive no terror ?
Is there any political disease more contagious than that
Cq"vil insubordination ?—any cause that sooner unites
4heil'"sfected me-others of a state than rebellion ?—any
trore readily undertaken, or more vigorously,
prosect.ted, ll•Att that of which a crown is the reward, or
the subvet ;06
of a constitution is the end'? It was such
consideratim
these that raised Europe to arms at the
French revolutit, ; anti *1 the present struggle he some-
what murderously -,tiguinarv„anti regicidal, it is not less
fatal, as an example, ► that order mid good government
41" . hicktilehaPPin"7-4,f every ctuntry depent
To England especially stf`it a scene is full of the deep-
est interest. Imbecility in list goyeminent, and rebel
lion in one division of the empr..e—a large and reckless
faction in array against the Lris-,cracv of the land—p
ministry notoriously ungraciOns to Ow Sovereign—all
conspire to awaken feillingsfif intel'ose concern for the
issue of the strugglein Spain i'and France
even more to dread from that issue, if it should prove po-
pular, than ourselves. ' •
We know him- delicate a qUestion we are approaching.

Though we reprobate, as strongly as the firmest republi-

can himself, the interference of nations in the internal
policy of each other, we still think there. May arise a state
of anarchy, and cruet blood-shedding, in one country,
which may justify -the council, and if that he despised, the
restraining hand of another. All Europe thought so less
than fifty yeata ago. However the flippant tongue of
radical perversion may contort this into foreign aggres-
sion and--military tyranny.. we see no difficulty in obvi-
ating those fearful consecpiencesfrom such interference.
• Cana nation, they will petulantly exclaim, not settle its
own disputes witliont foreign arbiters ?- We reply, ask
Spain. If countries frowning horrible war at each other,
can, and, frequently are reconciled to friendship, by the
arhitrationrof a' disinterested part v, why should ►o a

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kingdom, falling by its-own hand, be moderated by the
•,---same interposition in its desperate designs? Some, ie r-
- haps, will tell us, that national interference would only be
the prelude to general war; but, surely, countries which
are seeking an occasion to commence hostilities-, need
not wait-for such a- pretext. If a man sees his fellows
furiously attempting each-other's destruction,:s it not his
duty to interpose, and endeavour to - set them "at one,
"'again•;"---rir, if this be- ,fruitles9,.then whO'
is injured against "him who did the wrong ?" , We think,
with some modification, the principle is applicable to
`- states; and applicable, without endangering the question.
of national independence—.--or even the right of a people
to modify; or change, the character of its government,

- In the lecture .of Mr. Hemming, to. which our atten-
tion is now drawn, we find very little that requites com
ment. It chiefly consist; of historical details and mecha-
nical operations, with which chemistry has little connex-
ion. Though highly interesting, they form a distinct
branch of incrity ; and much that is heard in the lecture
Toom mint be'read over again in the study, by those who
wish to remember so many isolated facts.
According to Dr. Watson, when the silver in galena
(toes not amount to nine ounces in the-ton, it is not worth
extracting; but since immense quantities of lead-are re
quired in a state of oxide, for the manufactuie of gl:wz,
ands, great variety of other chemical uses, it is some
times prepared, simultaneously with the extraction of the
silver, in, the state of lit harge ; indeed the presence of
silver, or antimony, or even copper, renders the lead
hard, and less valuThle for many purposes; so that the
previous extraction of the siker, and the subsecpient re-
duction of the lead, produces. a better article. That the
copper is not always extracted, may he easily ascertained
by pnttine a portion -of the litharge into cater, with a
small piece of muriate of ammonia, (sal-ammoniac,)
which will soon assume a blue tint, as we have repeat.
edly !wen. -

We are very much disposed to -question the truth of
the assertion of Mr. H., that.silver "combines very freelt•

with the sulphitrof gulphttretted h}•drogen," though we

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are aware or Berth('lieu's affirmation ; for Proust ex
pro.Nlr says of merenry, that "when it is agitated in a
- - aohition of a cplpilrlonn hydronulphurot, no el'a-n.«. in
-11"4-1MI, liyort the metal ;" but Wlien it is " agifsted