The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-21 00:00:00

Etberpool

-PROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING,

EvEny hour is big with events. Yesterday, especially
in the evening, the Clubs presented a scene of excitement
-and bustle rarely exhibited on a Sabbath, even at the West
end. During the day the parks were deserted, owing,
doubtless in part, to the unpropitious weather—wet, cold,
and gusty—by so much the more were the Clubs crowded,
and the most important secret papers connected with the
project of the CZAR• for the partition of Turkey, produced
by the QUEEN'S commands, late on Saturday, formed
ample subject for discussion. These documents are, un-
questionably, the most interesting parliamentary papers
laid before the country for many a day ; and, let the truth
be told, really do not reflect anything but apparent discre-
tion on the part of our Ministers with a wily antagonist,
and apparent duplicity on the part of the CZAR. His
intentions with regard to Turkey are evident from the
statements of his own month; and it is curious to observe
how candid the AUTOCRAT becomes in the progress of his
conversations with that able Minister, Sir HAMILTON
SEYMOUR. Human nature, we are told, is the same all over
the world. These conversations exemplify the fact. The
comparison, by NICHOLAS, of Turkey to " the sick man," is
capital in 'its idea. The fear of Constantinople falling
into the hands of the French leans naturally enough on
the part of the CZAR, but that fear as far as regards his
communications with the British Ambassador is assumed;
however, he had his answer from Sir HAMILTON, who
told him that he felt confident that HER MAJESTY'S
Government could be as little disposed as His Imperial
Majesty to tolerate the presence of the French at Con-
stantinople. I have no doubt at all of the CZAR'S
sincerity in his expressed wishes to stand well with Eng-
land; that, in shOrt, with us, he would not care as he
almost says a straw for the rest of the world. Bat then
there is this'differenee : NICROLIS must needs "play the
first fiddle " in such an arrangement, which, of course,
Jon BULL will always prevent, if he can. The
nonchalance with which the Russia treats
Austria must be galling to that r - state. "Oh,"
replied 3.TicHoLAs to the British Am' •1, -.8 feeler, "Oh
you must -understand that, when I s,,eak of Russia, I
speak df Austria as well; what suits tl one, suits the
other; our interests as regards Turkey are perfectly
identical." Altogether, as I have said, the papers are
deeply interesting. Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR, who plays
so important a part in the drama, well sustains the
renown of his illustrious name ; and the CZAR found a
match in his equally far-seeing, without the Emperor's
canning, Sir HAMILTON could grapple with it. To his
courtesy and manly bearing the nation is indebted for
these expressed sentiments of the Emperor of all the
Russias, who never would have committed himself, if he
had not been drawn out so nicely by the English
Ambassador.

Another topic of conversation has been the ramour—
that the EMPEROR had refused, what is; in diplomatic
.language, called the ultimatissimum—that he had re-
fused to evacuate the Danubian provinces of Turkey.
Knowing pretty well every inch of telegraph from Vienna,
I cannot think that this intelligence could Have arrived
so early as Saturday afternoon, as stated. Coming events,
I am aware, are said (poetically) to cast their shadows
before; with respect to telegraphic events, poetry, I
imagine, will have the whole to herself. Though lam free
to confess, that rumour, with her thousand tongues, has
travelled from Vienna, from Berlin, and from Frankfort
hours before the telegraph, and yet both were true. This
was neither more nor less, than a lucky guess—a coinci-
dence. One thing is certain, that the Czia's formal re-
jection is expected here this day, and then " up guards
,and at 'em," though WELLINGTON never used the words.

NAFIBIt'S last telegraph to the fleet before sailing—
" Ships for-the Baltic, a double allowance of chloroform,"
is as significant as some people think quaint and inappro-
priate. The last munition—if, indeed, they come within
that category—shipped was—mirabile dicta ! One can
hardly refrain from laughing even at the sorrowful cause
—about a thousand wooden legs ! A large quantity of
improved scaling ladders was also taken on board the Wel-
lington and other ships under sailing orders. The debates
in both houses this evening are looked forward to with
immense interest.

In foreign affairs the old game of the bulls and bears
is in the ascendant ; one day's telegraph is merely the
precursor to its contradiction by the following flash, both,
perhaps, to be proved mere " inventions of the enemy"
of truth, by the arrival of the regular correspondence in
the ensuing third or fourth day. Thus, at the beginning
• of the week, they took Kalafat for the —th time, I am not
sure of the figure or figures that should be written here.
Of course, we, since, as well as before, were convinced it
was not taken at all. The like dreadful fate, with the
massacre of its inhabitants, and the capture of stores,
guns, and munitions of war, befel Matschin, at the oppo-
site eastern extremity of the map of Turkey in Europe.
This, too, was very sad, but IVlatschin, like Kalafat, was
used to being taken, with the addition of being burnt ;
accordingly, the last news tells us that the Russians, in-
stead of taking Matschin, very nearly got taken them-
selves. They were repulsed, with a loss of three officers,
half-a-dozen subalterns, and some three hundred men,
had they not been covered by their flotilla, would
have been captured by the Turkish cavalry. This re-
minds us of poor JOHNSON'S laconic explanation to Don
Juan, in the slave market at Constantinople, of how he
came there, namely, by failing to do what he went about :
"Wbo, taking lately, by Suwarrow's bidding,
A Turkish port, was ta'en instead of Widdin."

The Russians, however, did not come in for the polite at-
tentions of "Six Tartars and a drag-chain," but may yet
find a hotter reception from the combined and emulous
soldiery of•the two greatest nations in the world, whose
glittering bayonets and silken ensigns will soon be seen
-on the Danube ; while Britannia's thunder shall again
awake the echoes of the Baltic on the northern shores of
the common disturber of Europe. Of course, it would be
here surplusage to give you the force and quality, the size
and number, of the first division of the fleet that left Spit-
-head on Saturday week ; but I may state that Kiel, or the
Sound of Wingo, will be their joint rendezvous. The
latter, lately reported on by the Hecla, is the more
probable. In the Indian world, we know, by the arrival
of the Nile at Marseilles, that all is tranquil in Persia and
Affghanistan. Though old D'UNDAS is still at Beicos, a
cruize to the north of the Black Sea, and operations on
the shores of the Crimea, are confidently spoken of. Au
reste, Austria and Prussia are still endeavouring to "hold
-with the hare and run with the hounds." The latter has
sent Prince HCHENZOLLERN-SIGMABIN GEN to Paris,
where the Eatlrcuou has adroitly given him his answer
before hearing his question, in this point resembling, in
some measure, the young lady known as

"The forward Miss Baxter,
Who said yes to the gent afore ever he axt her."

When the prince with the unpronounceable name was in-
troduced, HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY congratulated him
warmly on his visit, expressed his delight at seeing him—
but, oh, cruel kindness ! finished by saying that, if he had
brought any bases for negotiation, "he was, unfortunately,
too late." General GROEBEY, who has brought the
counterpart of these propositions to London, has not
found such promptness and candour here. He went down
to Osborne to see the QUEEN, and the " good ABERDEEN"
• will give him time to see the lions en attendant the
answer of His IMPERIAL MAJESTY the autocrat, de
toutes les Rus(s)es which is hoped for by him on the 26th.
To those who have time, a rainy day on hand, and a
-little knowledge of the French language, a perusal of
either, or of all, the French papers will produce immense

fun, by reason of the numerous and absurd blunders made.
I am not about to cite many examples. The Earl of
ABERDEEN, we were gravely told the other day, after the
delivery of one of his long speeches on the Russian
tion, hurried to the Argyle-r and that wascluteshe-
noble earl's usual custom to repair
fora
that Terpsichorean
temple ! Rather a curious resort minister of
the Crown on the verge of threescoreraresstd years and ten.
Argyle-house, the Earl of ABEEDENN'S residence, of course
was meant. One of the last numbers of the c ena:fvtelliye
fills up an omission, made by the London reporters
late banquet given to the Admiral of the Baltic fleet, in
the Reform Club ;—it is an exquisite specimen of a full-
fledged French canard. The correspondent of the Siecle,
writing upon the NAPIER dinner, says there was an inte-
resting wager offered by Sir CHARLES NAPIER, and
registered in the books of the Reform Club. Sir CHARLES
'proposed to lay £12,000 (300,0°° francs) that he would,
on the day following that on which the first cannon shot
-was fired between the Russians and Anglo-French forces,
bombard Cronstadt ; that he would take it within twenty
hours, or within five days afterwards would anchor off St.
Petersburg. The wager was accepted, and I need not say
how happy the gentlemen who accepted it will pay if they
lose. The pride of JOHN BULL will, indeed, be gratified
when his flag floats on the Neva. This beats the COBDEN
wager all to nothing.
Since the uev er-to-be- forgotten-but-somewhat n consi.
derate-aud.harsh
adjective applied to a Hants clergyman
by Mr. CANNING , the application of the word " reverend"
Sias
not caused so much mirth in the Rouse of Conunons,