The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-14 00:00:00

N.. •N

‘1411(
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TUESDAY MORNING, FEB. 14, 1854.

"SOCIETY HAS A RIGHT TO PROTECT
ITSELF !"

SucH is the trite title of a very ingeniously writ-
ten, although rather sophistical, pamphlet which
has just been put into our hands. We echo the
sentiment:, and fearlessly assert, society has a
right to protect itself ! But how is this protection
to be brought about P where is it most wanted ?
and in what direction are the means to be applied ?
Our friend, the author of the pamphlet, says the
protection is to be obtained through the establish-
ment of teetotalism, and only through that means
....the agency for bringing this universal Ism into
operation, according to his view, is to obtain a
legislative enactment, similar to the celebrated
Maine Liquor Law, whereby a total prohibition of
all traffic in intoxicating liquors, unless under the
sanction of the medical license, shall become part
and parcel of the law of the land. Of the efficiency
of the latter portion of his remedy we entertain
grave doubts, against its injustice and expediency
we have a rooted objection. So adverse, indeed, is
it to the genius of our institutions, that, under
ordinary circumstances, the suggestion of such a
project might reasonably have occasioned more
anxiety as to the mental health of the proposer
than have excited dread in the mind of even
an alarmist as to the chance of legislative inter-
ference in any such way. Times are changed,
however, and we are changed in them. Since the
lower branch of the legislative body has beconie so
decidedly a popular institution as of late years it
has been made, no project appears too absurd to
obtain some abettors among the people's represen-
tatives. In point of fact, the game of legislation
has become the rage—the fashionable folly of the
day. No one now considers it worth his while to
ascertain how far existing laws provide against
unusual or new contingencies. Every constituent—
and who is not a constituent now-a-days ?—feels
himself ,qualified and entitled to point out to his
representative some cog or pinion in the legis-
lative machine which does not work exactly as it
ought to do, and to insist upon the introduction of
some new tooth or ratchet—some additional crank
or subsidiary fly-wheel, by which the supposed
imperfection may be remedied—regardless alto-
gether of its effect upon the general motion and effi-
cacy of the entireapparatus. This restless craving for
legislative interference in the ordinary business oflife,
as it is one of the most common, so it is one of the
most dangerous whimsicalities of the day ; and,
under the dread influence of its action, it becomes
us cautiously, yet resolutely, to scan any threatened
legislation, altogether irrespective of its seeming
absurdity. Under other circumstances, a project
for establishing the Maine Liquor Law in Eng-
land would be too ridiculous to merit serious
attention ; but from the pertinacity with which
enthusiastic theorists adhere to and push their
whims, there exists a remote chance that some
morning the English people may awake and find
the monomaniacal proviso fastened by legislative
cerements round its neck.
Should such an enactment ever emanate from
our legislature, what would be its effect ? Would
society become suddenly reconciled to so extraor-
dinary an abridgement of its freedom ? Of a cer-
tainty it would not. No effort for the improve-
ment of the human race has ever been successfully
carried out by force ; and all experience tells us
that no beneficial schemes have ever proved so
abortive or so futile as those in which coercion has
been depended on as a substitute for willing
obedience. The first and 'immediate operation of
such a law, if passed, would be, we fear, .an im-
mense spread of dissimulation—the doubtful or
the wavering disciple of temperance would be led
by the mere spirit of contradiction to evade its
operation—the intemperate would find an addi-
tional stimulant to excess in a bold defiance of the
law and an open contempt of its provisions. Men
of regulated appetites and sound moral convictions
would, no doubt, comply with the requirement, and
yield a ready obedience to the law ; but for such a
legislative enactment is not necessary ; their own
feelings of propriety secure them against any trans-
gression of such a law, and, acting in obedience to
these, ought to protect them from so degrading
an infringement of their liberty. Is society to be
trammelled and insulted, that men, with desires
less exalted than those which animate brutes, may
be restrained from the exercise of a filthy.indul-
gence ? As reasonable would it be to deprive all
men of their personal liberty, because some indi-
viduals are possessed of only latitudinarian notions
of the rights of property.
Before attempting physical restraints, however,
let us at least understand the case as it at present
stands. A desire for excitement is among the
earliest instincts by which man is characterised.
This instinctive craving, in the rude stages of his
uncultured intellect, is obtained by recourse to
coarse physical indulgences—of these, the, most
generally used, if not the most natural, are induced
byalchoholic stimulants ; a fact established among
inost people, in all ages and in every quarter of
the world. The progress of moral training, of
intellectual culture, and religious observance has
ever been to restrain and regulate this desire—to
supplant the grosser enjoyments by those of a less
sensual order. Such has been its course in ancient
times, and such we know to be its inevitable ten-
dency in our own day'and under our own sphere of
observation. In the days of our great grandfathers
it was hardly deemed an imprudence, in men of
even exalted rank, to pursue festive indulgence to
an extent, the bare idea of which would now be
shocking to a man of character, while its display
would be ruinous in most positions of life. In
our times a four-bottle man is almost as rare in
decent society as the mounted highwayman upon
our thoroughfares ; and promises speedily to be as
extinct among the human family as the dodo is in
Our living ornithology. The heavy drinker is no
more a man of consideration in the social scale—he
is one, in fact, whom none but the depraved would
cite as an example—whom none but the worthless
would seek to imitate. Drinking usuages, in
point of fact, are rapidly yielding to the
claims of purer intellectual enjoyments than
can be realised through their indulgence,
and this recession, though slowly, is gradually
and surely descending through all grades of
society—that too, in defiance of all the facilities
and allurements held out for the gratification of
degrading and disgusting vice. Statistics, no
doubt, tell us of the vastly increased consumption
of alchoholic beverages, in our day, as compared
with that of earlier times ; but statistics also tell
us of the immense addition to our population, and
of their greatly accumulated means of indulgence ;
the number of our countrymen,
and by comparing
the means at their disposal, and the amount spent
in such debasing indulgences at the present and
at former periods, we feel little apprehension at the
result of such investigation proving in favour of
our own time. If such be the natural course of
moral and religious progress, and we fearlessly
maintain it is so, why seek to cumber our statute
book with a new law, which at the best only aims
at substituting extrinsic for self-controul—which
in its provisions implies a censure more acutely
felt by the virtuous than dreaded by the vicious—
and which, by a clumsy process, more than doubt-
jul in its efficacy, seeks to supplant the healthy and

health-giiing action of moral and religious train-
ing, by-a cold and lifelesss material regulation.
A much greater, more beneficial, and mare en-
during improvement in this direction, is to be
obtainedihrough moral agency, than can be hoped
for through legislative means. Let the ministers
of religion, the teachers of youth, and the other
philanthropic guardiins of public morals co-operate
heartily in providing for the working classes places
of resort where rational amusement, wholesome
instruction, and safe excitement may be brought
surely and soothingly within their reach—let them
be taught, in a spirit of kindness, to regulate their
passions, .and be led gently in the path of recti-
tude—supply them with other, and not less cogni-
zably attractive places of resort than the gin-shop—
secure for them comfortable habitations—create
and foster among them a taste for the good, the
pure, the holy, and you will not require to interdict
them from the use of degrading indulgence—
aleviate their moral nature and you will require no
penal statutes to guard them against grovelling
error—address your efforts to a regeneration of
their higher and immortal instincts, and purifying
those, you will avoid the thankless and fruitless
necessity of attempting to make them " virtuous
upon compulsion." By such efforts, and through
the application .of such means, demonstrate, estab-
lish, and give vital energy to the assertion that
" Society has a right to protect itself?'

THE CZAR'S LETTER TO THE
QUEEN.

( FROM THE PRESS.

'Our contemporary the Timer stated on Wednesday that the
' Czar was about to write an autograph letter to the Queen
of England. We are now enabled to lay a translation of
this letter before our readers from a copy received just as
we were going to press.]
iisswits, AND MT SISTER,

Deprived of our respective representatives, there is no
longer reason why I should hesitate, personally, to ap-
proach your constitutional solitude (isolement). If for
one moment I recur to recollections of hospitality and
paternal interchange (khange) of confidence, it is only
that I may strike, in your Majesty's bosom, a chord vibra-
ting in unison with that which inspires my present
utterance (parole). An accomplished musician, your
Majesty will not find this analogy frivolous.

Hitherto Sisters, and charmed to bear on their waters
an intercommunion of the riches of commerce, the Neva
and the Thames, are, it would seem, to be foaming rivals,
engulping (engloutissantes) amity.
To speak of our mutual resources were now a cold insult.
We know our strength, and repose in its embraces. A
great ruler but accomplishes destiny when he puts forth
(faisant voir) his utmost force. Heaven is power, and
the weak sovereign is an atheist.
Why (if it were permitted to question geography) were we
separated by the distance between London and St. Peters-
burg ? Had that barrier been absent,and I could habitu-
ally (frequemment) have presented myself, I will not say
at the Saint James's throne, but at the Windsor chair,
this deplorable condition of eventualities could never have
been consummated. The Sovereign of England and her
people would have been alike my friends. Is it allowed
me to forget the cheers that rang down the green turf
(gazon) of Ascot, when the riders of England deigned to
contest for the silver toy your Majesty sanctioned my
setting before their ambition ? Again let my murmurs
echo those of the intervening and chilling (frileux) Baltic.
But there is no Past for a Monarch, who must still ad-
vance onward, onward, the Juif Errant of institutions
Yet one word for history. It is not with helm on brow:
and sword in hand, guarding his creed and nationalities; his
that a Sovereign's troth shall be doubted. It is not a
Romanoff addressing a Guelph that shall be doubted. It
is not a brother writing to his sister who shall be doubted.
And truth is in her own holy vindication, and her name
is written in the stars.

That Aberdeen humbugged me in the most owdacious
manner.

This strife, be it long or short (and my wishes on the
subject are your Majesty's), results from the unrighteous
combinations (tracasseries) of that unrighteous old man.
I 11.1 not aware that since the days of Eve a more flagrant
Case has happened than this satanical irruption into the
'European Paradise.
I have the honour to swear to your Majesty that from
the very outset of the difficulties with France about the
Holy Places your Premier caused me to understand
(penser) that I should have everything I asked for, and
that England was quite arrayed with me against those
Papist Frenchmen. Fortified by this assurance I pro-
ceeded—but your Majesty knows the rest.
The sword—l would beg your Majesty's pardon for
naming such an article before a lady, but I know that I
speak to Britannia rather than to Victoria—is drawn.
Could it be replaced in the scabbard with honour, it
might be well ; but our new-born chivalry must receive
its baptism of blood—again begging your Majesty's pardon
for mentioning the article. But it is well that you, my
dear sister, and your people, should comprehend that but
for the half-hearted (faineant) policy of my Lord Aber-
deen, who first encouraged me, and then (I do him but
justice to say reluctantly) repelled me when he found out
the sentiments of your nation, the sword might have slept
in its scabbard, long and peacefully as he sleeps at Coun-
cil—inapt simile, for the sword carries its point, and the
Scottishman never does.

I have cleared myself with your Majesty. I would that
there were some possibility of healing the wound. It has
occurred to me that my trusted friend, Count Orloff, has a
desire to see the Sydenham Palace. Should Sir Paxton
invite him it would be a disrespect I would never forgive
did not Orloff solicit the honour of an interview with your
Majesty. I will not hurt myself with the idea that there
could be difficulty in according that interview, but would
rather dwell upon the pleasure I should derive from hearing
my friend detail (specifier) the amiable steps by which he
had led your Majesty to a view of matters more in har-
mony with that of St. Petersburg than that of St. Ste-
phen's. Your Majesty, I read in the journals, has visited
Sydenham, and will be enabled, should it be your gracious
pleasure, to intimate to Count Orloff (I enclose his address)
whether there is anything there worth seeing.

Whatever be the issues of events (and it would not be-
come me to be exultant in the convictions which tell me
that either no war is holy or I am the Sovereign of Turkey),
I have the honour, &c., NICHOLAS.

COAST DEPENCEB.—The recruiting for the naval volun-
teer force for the defence of the Scottish coasts has been
proceeding in this quarter during the last week. Captain
Craigie visited Berwick on Wednesday for the purpose of
enroling volunteers. His success in that town, however,
has not been very great. Only eight of the fishermen
were induced to come forward and enter themselves. At
Eyemouth sixty-four men have been enrolled, and at
Dunbar eighteen. Out of the 1,500 men required for
Scotland, upwards of 800 have already been obtained.—
Kelso Mail.

OUR Coax SUPPLIES—A GLANCE AT SPA.IN.-7,We
noticed a few weeks ago the prospects that were being
opened of an increased commerce with the Peninsular in
the article of grain, and the possibility of plentiful supplies
being drawn from that quarter at prices which would al-
leviate the dearness now universally complained of, and
yield increased employment and profitable remuneration
for the agricultural industry of Spain. To this important
result, as we then observed, there is only one impediment,
viz., difficulty of transit—an impediment, however, which
pubic enterprise will not long permit to exist where a
lucrative commerce is practicable. It is well-known that
for the abundance and excellence of her cereal produce
Spain is almost unrivalled, and that with the lightest of
labour she can produce an immense surplusage of food for
export. It is therefore important, at a period of dearth
and dearness, and on the eve of a crisis which must render
our ordinary supplies very precarious, to take advantage
of so rare a source of relief, and develope it to the utmost.
Strongly confirmative of our recent observations on this
subject, we have read with pleasure a series of articles in
a Spanish journal—the Bulletin of Commerce of Santan-
der, which furnishes us with some definite statistics as to
the present amount of trade, but deplores that the large
supplies of CAstille are virtually locked up in the interior
of the country and rendered unavailable for European con-
sumption by the three-fold obstacles of tardiness of trans-
port, severity of weather, and badness of roads. It ap-
pears that upwards of 300,000 carts and waggons passed
over the turpike road to and from Santander (the great
outlet in the Bay of Biscay for Spanish produce) during
the last year, and that the carriage of flour alone from Alar
to Santander realised in the month of September last
6,400,000 reals, or £64,000. To show the rapid develope-
meat of commerce in this district even under the disad-
vantages we have named, it may be stated that the exports
from the ports of Santander and Requejada have increased
from 3,099,245 arrobas (251bs. weight) in 1849 to 6,098,349
in 1852. If this could be effected with the present
wretched means of transport to the sea-board, what may
not be expected when a line of railway is carried into the
interior from Santander, through the rich provinces of
Castille and Madrid ? The produce of wheat in Castilla
during the harvest of 1853 was 8,000,000 fanegus, or
6,640,000 cwt., equal to 1,600,000 English quarters : and
it is no exaggeration to say that were the agricultural
resources of Spain duly developed, and the proper means
of transit afforded, we might draw from that country
annually several million quarters of grain, to say nothing
of other produce and of the increased amount of manufac-
tures which we should export to the Peninsular.—The
Empire.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.—On Monday, at eleven o'clock, M. de Kisseleff
quitted Paris for Brussels, to meet Baron Brunow. The
Moniteur announces the departure of M. de Kisseleff in
one line. On leaving Paris he was accompanied by all the
personnel of the legation. There now only remains at
Paris the Consul-General Eberling, charged with civil and
commercial affairs. According to the correspondent of
the Morning Chronicle, all the Russian families resident
in Paris have received notice that they will have to quit
France without delay. M. Lejeune, one of the attaches
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, left Paris on Tuesday,
with despatches recalling General de Castelbajac, the
French Ambassador at St. Petersburg. The Journal de
St. Quentin of Wednesday says that the government has
ordered large quantities of shot and projectiles from the
iron-foundries in that neighbourhood, and also from those
in the department of the Ardennes. These orders are
made on account of the Minister of the Marine. This is
of itself a proof of the great activity prevailing in the
arsenals of France, for it very seldom happens that the
government has recourse to private enterprise for its sup-
ply of the sinews of war. The expedition of arms from La
Fore to the northern frontier continues. Some of the
Paris papers are delighted with the documents laid before
the British Parliament upon the Eastern question, as they
go to show most satisfactorily that Lord Aberdeen has
been coerced into a more decided policy by the energetic
conduct of the Emperor Napoleon. The ocean squadron,
commanded by Admiral Bruat, has put to sea from Brest,
and will, it is believed, proceed direct to Toulon, where it
will shortly be joined by Admiral Corry, the united fleets
being destined to carry out French and English troops to
the East almost immediately. The Journal des Del ats
announces that the government has refused the numerous
offers that have been made to it for effecting a loan, and
has.concluded an arrangement with the Bank of France,
which has placed at its disposal a sum of 60,000,000 f.
SHlN.—Letters from Madrid state that the young
Princess of Asturias, the only surviving child of the Queen
of Spain, is dangerously ill. Her death would once more
open the succession to the Duchess of Montpensier. The
Spanish ministers seem satisfied with having got rid of
some of the most troublesome of the opposition generals,
and to have abandoned the idea of a coup d'e'tat.
AIISTEIA..—The Austrian, and, indeed, the whole Ger-
man press is all but unanimous in condemning the conduct
of Russia, and its disregard for the peace and order of
Europe. Count Orloff and Baron de Budberg left Vienna
together on Wednesday. The Austrian Correspondenz
of that day has an article complimentary to the Czar,
though letters state that the last propositions have been
refused. Prospects of peace on other bases continue to be
held out. The nature of the neutrality professed by Aus-
tria is still a matter of doubt, and there is a feeling in.
Vienna that Count Orloff may have gained great •advan-
tages for Russia. The Oest. Correspondenz of the 7th,
announces that while Russia and Turkey were fighting in
Great Wallachia, Austria saw no reason for placing a
corps on the Turkish frontier; but now that Lesser Wal-
lachia has become the theatre of war, the Government has
resolved to station 25;000 men in the Woywodina for the
security of the frontier. A telegraphic .despatch from
Vienna, of Thursday evening, says :—" Count Buol has
declared to the Turkish Ambassador that the recent con-
centration of Austrian troops on the north-eastern fron-
tier is intended as a measure of precaution against
Turkey."
RllSSlA.—Letters from St. Petersburgh, of the 29th
ult., mention a report that the Emperor, who was suffer-
ing from erysipelas, had written a letter to Queen Victoria,
professing his most ardent desire for peace.
ITALY.—The :Piedmontese Gazette of the 6th instant
announces that, at five o'clock a.m., on the sth,theDuchess
of Genoa was safely delivered of a prince, who received the
names of Thomas Albert Victor.

THE BEAZlES.—Advices received by the steam-ship
Lusitania state that the political affairs in the Oriental re-
public had not experienced any material alteration since
the Lady Eglington sailed. General Flores continued
his exertions to suppress the disaffected party, and several
skirmishes of trifling importance had occurred during the
month, in one of which Colonel Borez, a chief belonging
to the latter party, was killed. The only party of any
consequence still in opposition to General Flores was
Colonel Moreno, who might have about three hundred
men under his immediate command, whom the former
was using every endeavour to disperse ; but the latter ap-
peared to wish to avoid a general action. There was a
probability that Brazil would interfere, and, by the pre-
sence of an armed force, compel both parties to maintain
order. The demand for manufactured goods had been
very slack for some time, and, until tranquillity was res-
tored, little improvement could be expected. Produce was
scarce, and prices continued high. The accounts from
Buenos Ayres were in general satisfactory, but the differ-
ences with the provinces remained in statu quo. General
Urquiza will by this time have been elected constitutional
president of the thirteen provinces. The commercial ac-
counts from thence was favourable. Exchange 41k to
42k Monte Viedo ; 66 3 at Buenos Ayres.
AFRlCA.—Thescrew-steamer Hope arrived at Plymouth
on Sunday, with the usual mails from the coast of Africa,
twenty-one passengers, a general cargo, and a quantity of
gold dust. Trade was extremely dull along the whole
coast, and at Lagos it was quite stagnated. At Bonny
disturbances had occurred, the chiefs having deposed the
King. A force was dispatched to protect British interests.
It was hoped that affairs at Lagos would be settled with-
out further recourse to arms. Hostages had been left
with the British, as guarantees s,good faith.
Sierra Leone was healthy, an ad cffliscd.