The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-10 00:00:00

tween private individuals, will not be cajoled into
the belief that all the mischief which has happened,
and may happen, is not owing to the vacillation or
something worse of the English Cabinet at the
commencement of the affair. Had the first threat of
Russia to cross the Pruth, and thereby to commit
an overt act of hostility to Turkey,been at once met
by an indignant remonstrance from England, and an
avowed determination to render the affair a Euro-
pean quarrel, because the territorial arrangements
of previous treaties were violated, there can be
little doubt that Russia would have hesitated, or at
least been open to negotiation on equitable terms.
But having been allowed to take the first step

without rebuke or remonstrance, Mahometan pride

was aroused, and actual hostilities only served to
make the breach wider. The EMPEROR of RUSSIA
counted, and not it seems without reason, on the
good offices of his friend the Earl of ABERDEEN ;
and now having gone too far to recede, he is mus-
tering the forces of his mighty empire for the
emergency.

If this be truly the only alternative to which we
have been driven through the treachery of the
Coalition Ministry,—the disgraceful position of
having made professions we never meant to per-
form, and the humiliating position of playing
second fiddle to the mushroom Emperor of
France,—the course to be pursued for the future
becomes a matter for the gravest consideration.
Much has been said about the independence of
Turkey ; but this is a mere phantom upon whi6h
it is not worth wasting powder and shot. No
nation can be independent which needs the arms of
its allies to defend its own territory, and such
would be the position of Turkey,were the combined
fleets to commence active operations in the Black
Sea. We should be virtually assuming a protec-
torate of Turkey, to accomplish which we should

have to hazard an encounter with the Empire of
Russia, at a loss which, whatever the issue, we
should fear to calculate. On the other hand, if we
now recede, or longer continue the same state of
inactivity, we shall be virtually surrendering to
Russia, and giving a tacit encouragement to those
ambitious designs which no amount of conquest
will satisfy until there is nothing left to conquer.
In the negotiations which have yet taken place,
both Austria and Prussia have joined with England
and France in deciding upon the terms which
Turkey ought to yield and Russia ought to accept ;
but should the worst apprehensions of war be
realised, it is strongly suspected that These powers
would join with Russia against the West of
Europe, unless, indeed, Austria should be restrained
by the fear of insurrection in those provinces
which Russia assisted her to reduce to obedience.
In any case, the alternative is a fearful one ; and,

though it is to be hoped that energetic diplomacy
may yet prove successful in averting the last appeal,
the blame is owing in a great measure to the Coali-
tion Cabinet of the Earl of ABERDEEN.

WE sincerely regret to have to announce that the
Rev. Dr. DVNEILE was suddenly summoned to Ire-
land, last week, to what has turned but to be the death-
bed of his venerable mother. She had attained her 90th
year, and, although retaining the perfect use of all her
faculties, she had long desired her d.parture. She expired
in perfect peace, surrounded by a family whose conduct
had for years constituted a chief ingredient in her earthly
happiness.

THE LIVERPOOL ROYAL INFIR-
MARY-ANNUAL MEETING.

THE annual meeting of the Trustees of the Liverpool
Royal Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum was held yesterday
morning, in the board-room of the Infirmary, for the
election of officers, and the transaction of the other usual
annual business in connexion with this excellent charity.
Major JAs. BotrarrE, the retiring President, occupied the
chair ; and amongst the gentlemen present we observed
Mr. John Cropper, Mr. Harmood Banner, Mr. Church-
warden Hutchison, Mr. Thos. Bourne, the Rev. Mr.
Stewart, Mr. Lawrence Peel, Mr. W. Moss. Mr. Mat-
thews, Mr. W. Carson, Mr. Thos. Arthur Hope, Mr.
Willink, Mr. E. Gibbon, jun., &c., &c.
The meeting having been opened with prayer by the
Rev. Mr. Stewart, the chairman said the first business
would be to get the treasurer to read the report.
Mr. ALFRED NORTH, the treasurer, said that he should
commence as usual, by reading a statement of the admis-
sions and discharges, &c.