The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-21 00:00:00

ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT.

(From a letter to the Queen,..by " Papa Nicholas" in the

Morning Herald.) -
Whilst your Majesty is engaged in the arrangements and
consequences of the step which you have just taken, shall I
tell you what Europe is occupied about, what Europe is
calculating upon ? Yes, ,I will. Europe is occupied with
the decadence of Great Britain, with her fallen glory, with
her bastard policy, and with her childish voice, that once
roared thunder in the ears of all, but which now whistles in
her sounds. Europe is comparing navies ! counting ships !
corresponding with O'Connell ! negotiating with him as to
the probabilities of the result of landing on the shores of Ire-
land! calculating what would be the result of French,
Spanish, and American squadrons, with Russia neuter, if
directed to the coasts of England ! Discussing the difference
which the introduction of steam boats and steam vessels must
produce in the materiel, the physical difficulties of a landing
on the strands of the country over which you govern. " How
many steam boats would he necessary," asks a French libe-
ral print, " to enable France to effect a landing of 50,000
troops and the materiel on the Irish coast ; and in how many
hours could it be effected ?" Does your Majesty think that
such questions, such discussions, were put and mooted some
twenty-five years ago, when Great Britain held out the olive
branch to Europe, and conferred on her peace and liberty ?
Does your Majesty think that such questions were abated
when your royal father, yet later in life, occupied himself
with the establishment of Lancasterian schools, and said, in
one of his addresses, " This is the country of which we may
be proud, which, after having secured peace to the world,
and established her empire on the seas, now devotes herself
to the moral and religious instruction of her own rising gene-
ration ?" Does your Majesty think that such questions were
debated even when your late royal uncle and predecessor,
William IV., wrote to Codrington his famous Navarino
bulletin of "Go it, Ned?" You need not that I should
answer these questions. You know quite enough of the
modern history of Europe to be well aware, that not till
within the last five years has this continent ever seriously
thought of waging a real and permanent warfare against the
British Navy. When Europe saw the flagitious and un-
principled economy of Joseph Hume adopted by the Ad-
miralty or by the government ; when Europe saw the wooden
walls of old England discarded or neglected by the heads of
the administration ; when Europe saw the vessels were broken
up, the naval service neglected, and the old and brave officers
of whom England was proud, wholly unnoticed by the mi-
nisters of the crown ; when Europe saw all the protests of
the navy disregarded, all the petitions of the people treated
with contempt, and all the efforts of the conservatives to fix
the attention of the government to this subject actually fail;
when Europe saw, that in proportion as other governments
and other naval powers made immense efforts to strengthen
and increase their fleets, that the British navy fell lower and
lower in the scale ; then it was that Europe began those efforts
which have ever since been continued, and which must end,
unless a total change of system be adopted, in the overthrow
of British naval pre-eminence.

A STORM IN ORKNEY.—A gentleman resident in the
island of Sunday writes us as follows :—" For the last three
months we have had long-continued storms, almost without
intermission. An Orkney storm is a striking object. If the
tourist has the fortune to be in Orkney during such a visita-
tion, he will cease to regret the absence of some of the softer
and more common beauties of landscape, in contemplation
of the most sublime spectacle which he ever witnessed. by
repairing at such a time to the weather shore, particularly if
it be the west side, he will behold waves of the magnitude
and force of which he could not have previously formed any
adequate conception,' tumbling across the Atlantic like mon-
sters of the deep—their heads erect—their manes streaming
in the wind, roaring and foaming as with rage, till each dis-
charges such a Niagara flood against the opposing precipices,
as makes the rocks tremble to their foundations, while the
sheets of water that immediately ascend hundreds of feet
above their summits, deluge the surrounding country, and
fall like showers on the opposite side of the islands.—lnver-
ness Paper.

"A INIARTYR FOR FIVE SHILLINGS I—Step P ladies
gemmen—step up, ere his to be seen, hall haulive
halive, caged
d imprisoned for hupwards of 12 months, a sufferer in hall
aakindsnn
ctyranny
churchvictim
merseenary of the
tyrannical
'alvkiiifte,
rloaudsiescryanodf
gemmen, and honly see !" Such w.as the\ vociferous
wMra.kTiehyr
ofaasfDoruenscaoider:bwe,hoilfsFt Finsbury, partner of Mr. Thomas
yttilliaegs
tahs
uotwitintaunr
nteoaMo
out
!phnan; although
lorogonoodthminagLes
a John
marvellous
T h orog o o d
bad, c o
speculationb l er, o n Tu:fsiodrra.
John
tiring
ylbeyi—nFitigendlisuublislitu-
there can be little doubt that
a capital thing of it. He gets his
alvtolicleplEapsstone'snot%'orn
PAVEMENTS.—Theout therec
recently
tion of timber for stone,- for the purpose of paving streets,
has awakened a strong interest in the north. The
timber-
merchants and manufacturers of the counties of Ross and
Inverness deprecate the admission into this country of
Norway timber at an ad valorem and almost nominal duty,
to the detriment of the home trade, as well as that of the
revenue and the humbler classes of the people. They have
accordingly passed resolutions to this effect. The heritors
of Rossshire have concurred with them, and directed the
County member (Mr. Mackenzie, of Applecross) to com-
municate on the subject with the Treasury, besides using his
best endeavours to prevent the anticipated injury to the borne
trade.--Inverness's Paper.