The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-25 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER

cally traced delineations of some of its more occult
scenes. In the present form, a handsome and
closely-printed volume, with many well-executed
illustrations, it has been pruned of some exube-
rances, without detracting from its general interest.
To the many readers who perused it with avidity
in the course of its periodical appearance, its re-
publication will be welcome ; and to numbers who
had not that opportunity, it will be an equally
appreciated treasure. It is indeed a tale of start-
ling interest, written with power and skill.

Orr's Circle of the Sciences. London and Liver-
pool : W. S. Orr and Co.

The aim of this work, and it seems so far suc-
cessfully carried out, is to supply to the reading
public, and especially to the young, a complete
cyclopmdia, the different subjects being treated of
from their most elementary condition to their
finished elaboration ; in each and all of them the
Great First Cause is visibly traced, and the power
and working of His wisdom indirectly insisted on.
In the parts already published we have interesting
treatises on physiology, animal and vegetable ; on
physical geography and geology ; and on the ma-
thematical sciences. The book is published at a
very low price, and is most tastefully got up.

Library of Biblical Literature. London: Freeman.
Of this serial we have before us the second,
third, and fourth parts. They treat severally of
Hebrew Life in Egypt, the Dead Sea, and the
Egyptian Life of Moses ; each of which interesting
subjects is treated of in a popular and pleasing
manner.

The Christian Family Advocate. London :

G. Collins.

This periodical, which is under the judicious
management of Miss Catherine Ponsonbb con-
tinues its able advocacy of Protestant principles
and practice.

REPLY OF RUSSIA TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR.—
The Russian manifesto, replying to the English and
French declaration of war, which is published in the St.
Petersburgh Journal of April 13th, is a specious worded
document, defending Russia's injured innocence, and
throwing the responsibility of hostilities upon England
and France. The same paper of the 12th contains some
remarks respecting the " confidential correspondence."
It states that the subject was brought confidentially to the
knowledge of the Sovereigns of Prussia and Austria, but
not to that of the Emperor of the French; because, at
that moment, the French Envoy at Constantinople was
employed in actively supplanting Russian influence there.
The article defends the Emperor's motive as correct and
honourable, and concludes as follows :—" These short
observations will suffice to reduce, to its just value, all
that falsehood, exaggeration, and malevolence has at-
tributed to the language of his Majesty. In the eyes of
impartial men, the publication which has just been made
will prove only one thing, the abuse of a generous confi-
dence, which has not been appreciated, and the injustice
of suspicions, which have been made the pretence of a dis-
astrous war, for which, had it not been for them, there

would have been no cause."
PRIVATEERS IN DUTCH PORTS.—The official journal of
the Hague has published the following very satisfactory
notice :—" According to orders from the King, the Minis-
ters of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and the Marine, make
known to those whom it may concern, that, in order to
observe a strict neutrality in the war which has just bro-
ken out, no privateers, having commissions or letters of
marque, either alone or with any prizes which they may
have made, shall be admitted to enter our ports, or the
months of our rivers, except in case of actual stress of
weather ; in consequence, orders have been sent to keep a
strict watch over such privateers and their prizes, and to
compel them to put to sea again as soon as possible. The
above ministers, with the authorization of the King, warn
all the inhabitants of the kingdom not to engage in any

way in the present war, by means of armaments, as no
letters of marque, issued by the belligerent powers to
Dutch citizens, without the authorization of the King's
government, will have legal value. The ministers hereby
make known to the public, that the Dutch government,
in observing the most absolute neutrality, will not sanc-
tion any commission or letter of marque ; therefore, the
subjects of the King, and all those who are subjected to
the laws of the kingdom, would, by taking any part in the
war, by fitting out vessels, run the risk of being treated
as pirates by other nations, and expose themselves to pro-
secutions before the Dutch tribunals, as well for making
an attack on the safety of the state as for piracy."
PREPARING FOR VICTORY.—Within the past week,
the dies for three medals have been sunk in London, (and
by an English artist,) intended as decorations for the
Russian army of the East, and proof-medals have been,
we are informed, struck in copper. The largest of these
medals, which is to be of gold, is to have a circlet of
diamonds ; there is a group of figures in the foreground,
with a view of the Holy Places" in the background,
and a diamond inserted in the sky, valued at £4O, to re-
present the " Star in the East," which, it is conjectured,
is to be the name of a new order. In the larger and most
valuable medal the part representing the sky is to be
formed of torquoise stones, and in the two smaller ones
of a blue enamel : the design is the same for all three. In
the model we understand the torquoise stones were so
beautifully set as to appear all one stone, and altogether
so superbly executed as to produce a most exquisite effect.
The dies are now in the hands of the Russian agents in
London. The order, we are told, came through the terri-
tory of our good ally Prussia. The reverse of the medal is
of course left blank till the victories are achieved.—United
Service Gazette.
A Paize.—On Friday evening, between six and seven
o'clock, no small commotion was caused in Portsmouth,
by the appearance in the roadstead of one of her Majesty's
steam-vessels, having a sailing ship in tow, and making
for the harbour with all speed. Her Majesty's steam-
cruiser Argus, Commander M. W. S. Grandy, which left
Southead on Thursday, fell in with the Froya, for Abo,
410 tons, 15 men, Wickmann, master, between the Owers
and Beachy Head, (about 18 miles from the latter point,)
and boarded her, ultimately making prize of her. She is
a fine ship, four years old, and apparently in goad condition.
She left Lisbon on the 28th ult., with about 600 tons of salt
as cargo, and was bound for Abo, although her master (who
speaks very good English) says Elsinore. No opposition
was offered to her detention, and Commander Grandy
accordingly took her. She carries two nine-pound carro-
nades, together with small arms for her crew, and a little
ammunition.
THE BALTIC FLEET.—Very gratifying (says. the United
Service Gazette) are the accounts which reach us from
correspondents in the Baltic Fleet. Everything seems
progressing favourably. There is an absence of unneces-
sary evolutions and worrying orders, but in all essentials
due attention is given to the service the ships are likely to
be called upon to perform. The prevailing opinion in the
fleet is that the Russians will not come out tofight. Their
plan of operations appears to be concentration, for what
ultimate purpose cannot now be divined. The inference
is, that the Czar is aware of the incompetency of his naval
commanders and weakness of his ships, On paper the
Russian fleet is overpowering. Thirty large sail of the
line, besides frigates and sloops ; yet with all this show
we find the Czar abandoning the important position of
Aland, and endeavouring to collect his ships at his prin-
cipal stronghold in Helsingfors. The approaches to Cron-
stadt are being rendered impassable; blocks of granite
and other impediments are sunk in the narrow and only
available deep water channel. Practical men are averse
to any expedition against Helsingfors or Cronstadt. The
latter, indeed, is out of the question. The pilots consider
that ships drawing more than twelve feet water could not
be brought into a position to bombard Cronstadt with
any effect, and as we are destitute of ships of sufficient
force drawing so little water that idea must be abandoned.
Helsingfors is again defended by Sveaborg, a fortification,
or, rather, series of fortifications, comprising tremendous
batteries, calculated to deal destruction upon any ship
approaching within their deadly range. Copenhagen and
Algiers have been mentioned as proofs of the vast powers
of ships' batteries, but we think the comparison is not to
be sustained. The fleet under Lord Nelson, at the former
place, 'as well as under Exmouth, at Algiers, were per-
mitted to go into action and take up their positions with
little molestation. Had the Danes resisted the approach
of the British in 1801, a different result might have en-
sued ; and, moreover, had it not been for Nelson's master-
piece in negotiation, it is barely doubtful whether one of
his ships would ever have left their anchorage. At
Algiers, also, had the Dey opened fire upon the Queen
Charlotte and other ships as they advanced to take up
their allotted stations, they would all have been very
roughly handled, as the Impregnable was. The Russians
would not forego that advantage. Our ships would be
exposed to a terrific raking fire, to which no return
could possibly be made ; hence the inexpediency of
attacking such places as Sveaborg. At Port Baltic or
Revel our chance would be better; and it seems pro-
bable that one or other of those places will be captured.
Port Baltic, which is a capacious harbour, might be found
particularly useful. The number of prizes taken. by the
British steam-frigates Conflict and Tribune, in the Baltic,
amount to 14. The report that the frigate Amphion had
got ashore off Dago was incorrect ; it should have been
the steam-sloop Alban. She is now again afloat. An
officer on board H.M.S. Leopard, which was dispatched in
company with the Imperieuse to reconnoitre Revel, writes,
on the 11th of April, from opposite that port :—" We met
very rough weather going by the Island of Gotland, and
yesterday it blew a heavy gale of wind, and oh ! the cold—
every rope in the ship was enveloped in the ice an inch
thick, and long icicles hung from all the bowsprit rigging.
There was scarcely any walking the deck ; every sea that
fell aboard of us was instantly frozen into a sheet of ice,
and this, with the pitching and sending of the ship, made
walking a work of no small nicety. We overhauled a num-
ber of ships, but none with contraband goods on board.
This morning we came up with the ice in large floes
knocking about, and in some places very extensive fields.
We steamed full speed through it, passed Revel on the
right, and, faith, the look of it at ten miles off was not such
as to make any of us wish to go nearer. It appeared
bristling with cannon, but we could see no ships ; we then
crossed the Gulf, and, at one p.m., at twelve miles off, we
sighted the formidable fort of Swieborg, full of men-of-war
of all sizes. Having satisfied ourselves of the fact that the
ice was sufficiently broken to go up to it, we very prudently
turned about and steamed away as hard as we could back
to rejoin the fleet, before any of the ships at Swieborg chase
us, for if they do they will either sink or make prisoners
of us. We are keeping a sharp look-out astern, and very
few will sleep on board to-night ; the men will be at the
guns most of . the night, and probably sleep at quarters.
Instantly on our rejoining the fleet, I fancy, we shall dash
at both these places, and that before this day week. Such
have been our movements. What will happen before I
get another chance to write, God only-knows ! I could
count eight line-of-battle ships lying at Swieborg !" A
late letter from the Baltic announces that Sir Charles
Napier has ascertained that the Russian fleet in that sea
consists of 30 sail of the line, and a corresponding number
of steamers, &c., and also that there are 800 gun-boats.

A PICTURE OF RUSSIAN LIFE.—The picture of Rus-
sian manners varies little with reference to the prince or
the peasant. The first nobleman in the empire, when
dismissed by his sovereign from attendance upon his
person, or withdrawing to his estate in consequence of
dissipation and debt, betakes himself to a mode of life
little superior to that of brutes. You will then find him
throughout the day with his neck bare, his beard
lengthened, his body wrapped in a sheep's skin, eating raw
turnips and drinking quass, sleeping one-half of the day,
and growling with his wife and family the other. The
same feelings, the same wants, wishes, and gratifications,
then characterise the nobleman and the peasant ; and the
same system of tyranny, extending from the throne down-
wards, through all the bearings and ramifications of
society, even to the cottage of the lowest boor, has entirely
extinguished every spark of liberality in the breasts of a
people composed entirely of slaves. They are all, high and
low, rich and poor, alike servile to superiors ; haughty and
cruel to their dependants ; ignorant, superstitious,
cunning, brutal, barbarous, dirty, mean. The Emperor
canes the first of his grandees • princes and nobles cane
their slaves ; and the slaves their wives and daughters.
Ere the sun dawns in Russia, flagellation begins ; and
throughout its vast empire, cudgels are going in every
department of its population, from morning until night.
—Dr. E. D. Clarke's Travels.
FIRST VIEW or CONSTANTINOPLE.—There stood the
swelling domes, the arrowy minarets, the shining palaces
and towers of Constantinople gleaming in the morning
sun. At first view a mass of temples and human habita-
tions were crowded on a mountain side, and the gardens,
cypresses, and pinnacles appeared to be thrown in the
midst of them without regard to arrangement; but we
soon distinguished Stamboul and Scutari, and then we
rushed by the Seraglio Palace into the mouth of the Golden
Horn. Pexs rose from the water's edge with the new
marble image of the Sultan on the Bosphorus, and there
we came to anchor, having Scutari behind us, Stamboul
on our right, with St. Sophia, the St. Peter's of the Moslem,
and a score of mosques with their surrounding minarets in
full view ; and Pera surmounted by the Russian Palace on
our left. The Golden Horn, an arm of the sea, was
stretched out before us, clasped by a bridge, and filled with
the shipping of every clime ; a sight, in all its parts, of
such extraordinary elements of beauty and grandeur, as
the approach to no other city in the world presents. No
wonder that it has been besieged twenty-six times ! No
wonder that every conqueror who comes in sight of it
covets it and resolves to have it, No wonder that Nicholas
longs to transfer his palace from the frozen borders of
Finland to this QllChalltiPg 70ne ! —Letters qf Irenceus,