The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-23 00:00:00

YANKEE EXAGGERATIONS.

The American journals are filled with speculations on
the probable result of the late Chartist demonstration.
Brother Jonathan seems to have given rein to his imagi-
nation. Long after the last of the extraordinary guar-
dians of the public peace in London had flung down his
club at the feet of his domestic Omphale, and yielded to
the proud weakness of a hero returned home, the good
folks at New York gave us credit for having altered the
form of our constitution. In London we were at Year 1
of the British Republic, under the auspices of President
Cuffey. The " corrupt aristocracy" had taken flight, the
Dukes of Newcastle and Norfolk were seriously perpen-
ding by what means they could earn an honest livelihood.
The Bench of Bishops had been massacred in batches,
and a receipt in full for the national debt had been tende-
red for signature to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This has not been quite so, but it is amusing enough to
see with what Alnaschar speed the American sympathizers
built up their castles in the air. Here is the first note of
the trumpet :

"There is the greatest interest manifested in this city, and
indeed throughout the country, to receive later advices from
Europe. The new steamship America, which is now in her
14th day, may arrive at any moment. She will bring one week
later intelligence. Actual war between Russia and Germany
for the independence of Poland ; Austria and Prussia for
supremacy in Germany; Denmark and Prussia for the annexa-
tion of Holstein to the German Confederation, and Sardinia
and Austria for the independence of Italy; and a revolution in
England and Ireland for universal suffrage, and a repeal of the
union, or something more, may have broken out in even that
brief space of time."

There is an old comparison in the literature of the
United States--when it is wished to express speed the
simile of " greased lightning" is employed by the more
forcible writers. We have in Europe been proceeding at
a pace rapid enough in all conscience, without playing out
on all sides such a general St. Bartholomew's as this.
With the full recollection before us of the sepulchral tones
in which a few weeks back the itinerant newsmen wbo
traversed the more distant squares and streets of the
metropolis used to roar out their cry of " War ! war ! war t
Funds down ! Funds down !" we must demur to these
anticipations of our Republican friends on the other side
of the Atlantic. The passage we have just quoted relates
to Europe in general—here is one which deals with the
case of Great Britain in particular :
" The condition of England, or rather that of the whole
British empire, has, according to the last accounts, reached a
perilous crisis—one from which-there wbutd seem to be no
escape, without either a revolution or a bloody civil war. It is
an even chance according to the last accounts, whether England
is at this moment declared a Republic, or is in the midst of a
civil and bloody war that may last for years."

EXTINCTION OF THE PAPACY.

(From the Standard.)

The late revolution at Rome deserves more considera-
tion than our contemporaries seem disposed to bestow
upon it. The question seems properly to force itself
upon our attention. Are we fiot now witnessing the
fulfilment of one of the most striking prophecies of the
'Apocalypse—the overthrow of the mystic Babylon ?
We, at least, shall be thought free from being misled
by a strained interpretation of scripture, when it is re-
membered that, reasoning upon purely political grounds,
we predicted more than six months ago that Pius the
Ninth would probably be the last Pope of Rome. This
was a merely political prediction, and to this we adhere ;
for whoever shall conquer in the present strife, the tem-
poral authority of the Pope is extinguished for ever. If
the Austrians prevail, as we trust they will, they will not
be again guilty of the folly of re-establishing upon their
weakest frontier that which has ever proved the disturb-
ing power of Europe. If the French once more achieve
the Protectorate of Italy, they, we may be sure, will use
it as their predecessors used it forty or fifty years ago.
In either case the Papal States will disappear : in the
former, absorbed into the Lombardo Venetian kingdom ;
in the latter, making part of the French kingdom of Italy.
There is something so remarkable in the downfall of
the Papacy, be it but temporary, be it final (as we de-
voutly believe it to be), that we cannot withhold from
our recders the striking fact, that a pious interpreter of
Scripture prophecies, 147 years ago, fixed the event as
foretold in the Apocalypse for this very year One Thou-
sand Eight Hundred and Forty Eight.
The prediction will be found in a little tract, by the
Rev. Robert Fleming. published in 1701, under the title
of " The Rise and Fall of the Papacy." This little work,
of which some editions have been lately printed at a cheap
rate, is one of the most remarkable and interesting reli-
gious works that we have ever seen. It is written in a
pure Saxon style, a dear method, and in a sober Christian
spirit, as far as possible removed from enthusiasm. The
book extracts from the " Apocalypse," by reasoning
almost strictly arithmetical, a prediction of the persecu-
tion of the French Protestants in 1723—0 f the massacre
of the Protestants at Thorn in 1724—0 f the movement
against the Jesuits towards the close of the last century,
and the destruction of the French monarchy at its end,
placing the consummation of that destruction as to be
effected before the year " one thousand seven hundred
and ninety four"—a prediction fulfilled to the letter by
the murder of the king and queen in 1793. Using the
same canon of interpretation, Mr. Fleming foretells the
obscuration of the Papacy in the first years of the present
century (the imprisonment of Pius VI. by Napoleon),
and its final destruction for the present year 1848.
Mr. Fleming died in 1716, before the fulfilment of any
of the extracted predictions of which we have spoken, so
as to exempt him from the class of seers who prophecy
after the event. ,