The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-08-05 00:00:00

FREDERICA BREMER.—Frederica Bremer was born in
the year 1802. After the death of her father, a rich mer-
chant and proprietor of mines, she resided at Schonen,
and, subsequently, with a female friend in Norway. She
now lives with her mother and sister alternately in the
Norrlands Gatan, at Stockholm, or at their country seat,
at A rsta. If I were to talk to you about Miss Bremer's
romances you would laugh at me, for you are doubtless
ten times better acquainted with them than I am. But
you are curious, perhaps, to learn something about her
appearance, and that I can tell you. You will not expect
to hear that Miss Bremer, a maiden lady of forty, retains
a very large share of youthful bloom ; but, independently
of that, she is really anything but -handsome. Her thin,
wrinkled physiognomy is, however, rendered agreeable by
its good humoured expression, and her meagre figure has
the benefit of a neat, simple style of dress. From the
style of her writings I used always to take her to be a go-
verness ; and she looks exactly like one. She knows she
is not handsome, and, on that account, has always re-
fusrd to have her portrait taken. The one they sell of
her in Germany is a counterfeit, the offspring of an ar-
tist's imagination, stimulated by speculative booksellers.
This summer there was a quizzing paragraph in one of
the Swedish papers, saying that a painter had been sent
direct from America to Rome and Stockholm to take por-
traits of the pope and of Miss Bremer.- Boas' Letters
from Sweden. •
THE FATE OF STODDART AND CONOLLY.—At last it
was agreed that he (Stoddart) should write to England,
to be acknowledged as the accredited agent of Great Bri-
tain at the court of Bokhara, and that the King of Bok-
hare should be the acknowledged Sovereign of Turkis-
taun, &c. ; and Colonel Stoddart promised that in four
months an answer should arrive from the Government of
England. Though at his (Stoddart's) request, japar-
khanas (post-houses) were established from Bokhara to
Sarakhs, which did not exist either at Bokhara or in the
land of Turkistaun, from the time of Afrasiah, fourteen
months had elapsed and no answer arrived. During the
time that Colonel Stoddart was at Bokhara; Captain Co-
nolly went from Organtsh (Khiva) to Kholand ; where
he stopped a considerable time, exciting both countries to
wage war against the Ameer of Bokhara. He at last ar-
rived at Bathers, announcing himself as a British agent,
without having any letters from the British government;
and whatever Colonel Stoddart had agreed to he upset,
announci,g to the King of Bokhara that the British Go-
vernment would never interfere with the affairs of Turk-
istaun ; and all that Colonel Stoddart had agreed to went
for nothing. Thus it was clear that Colonel Stoddart was
a liar. During the stay of Conolly and Stoddart, they
took every opportunity of despatchinz, in the most stealthy
manner, letters to Cabul ; and on this account his Ma-
jesty became displeased; and Captain Conolly and Col.
Stoddart were brought, with their hands tied, behind the
Ark, (Palace of the King,) in presence of Makhram Saa-
dat ; when Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly kissed
each other, and Captain Conolly said to Saadat, " Tell
the Ameer that I die a disbeliever in the Muhamined,but
a believer in Jesus ' • that I am a Christian, and a Chris-
tian I die." And Conolly said, " Stoddart, we shall see
each other in paradise (Behest), near Jesus." Then
Saadat gave the order to cut off first the head of Stod-
dart, which was done; and in the same manner the head
of Conolly was cut off.—Dr. Wolf's Mission to Bokhara.
SPANISH RAILWAY VISIONS.-1n this age of quackery
_ _ _

we should look in vain for anything to match the scheme
of railways for the Spanish peninsula—the grand Madrid
and Aviles junction by Valladolid and Leon !—the grand
Madrid and Barcelona line by Zaragoza and Lerida !
the grand Madrid and Alicante !—the grand Madrid and
Cadiz !—the grand Madrid and Badajoz !—to be connected
of course with the grand web of Portugal ! But only
look at the map. See the enormous distances—the vast
desert plains—the huge obstinate hard sierras intersecting
the desolate ill-peopled wildernesses. Consider the few-
ness and the poverty of the far-separated, withered, idle,
tradeless towns—even the metropolis inferior in every
resource to any second-rate English city ; a venerable
adage asserts that the angels have many a tussel amongst
themselves for a place in the celestial balcony that com-
mands the best view of Madrid—but the capital of Spain
is not larger than Edinburgh, and there is more wealth
and business in one street of Liverpool. Consider the
lazy, loitering, do-nothing character of the lounging na-
tion—abstemious in everything but cigars and love—the
Asiatic fixture of the West. Consider that from what.
little traffic there is, never as yet have decent roads been
provided. Con-ider that the existing traffic has, from im-
memorial time, been in the hands and the sole support of
the most energetic body of men in Spain—that railways,
if successfully established by the force of English gold,
must be ruin to the muleteer. Consider the resistance of

these sturdy myriads and their innumerable allies—their
revenge, how easily they will impede, how instantaneously
they will destroy. Consider finally the fate of Spanish
bonds. We have no doubt that many of our readers are
overburdened with money—their case is hard—they have
our imaginative sympathy—no doubt they must endeavour
to get some means of relief—but we venture to suggest
that a chain-bridge from Dover to Calais, or a tunnel be-
tween Portpatrick and Donaghadee, would be a more ju-
dicious plan on the whole than the Spanish rail.—Quar-
terly Review.
CALVIN AND SERVETUS.—Once in Geneva, for the
last century, there was a public disputation on some theo-
logical scheme. It came to the question of toleration.
A Romanist, who happened to be in the n @sew bly, rose up
and said (as in the House of Lords), What will you say
to the case of Servetus ? What was the answer ? " Sir,
_ _

it was a remnant of Popery." Ido not deny that Calvin,
as well as Meldnctbon, held the opinion that a man
who kills the soul by his error is to be punished, as well
as a man who kills the body by his hand. All the men of
that time did believe 50,7-the great Martin Luther, per-
haps, excepted,—and this is his greatest glory. Ido not
deny that Servetus, condemned to death by the Rornish
Archiepiscopal Court of Vienne, in Dauphine, flying from
the Popish scaffold, and coming to Geneva, (where, he
knew by his correspondence, that Calvirtwas at that time
on very bad terms with the Council of the Republic,) in
the hope of finding there a proper field for the diffusion of
his heresy. Calvin felt it a duty to give notice to the ma-
gistrates of the arrival of that dangerous guest, whose
doctrine would have overturned the Reformation, and
ruined the feeble republic. But this was all. It is false
that Calvin attracted him .to Geneva by supposed letters.
It is false that he did all that was in his power to have
him burned ; for, quite the contrary, he did what he
could to prevent that horrible and Popish kind of death,
and to obtain a milder one. It is false that he acted as a
violent man ; he did all in his power by conversation and
prayer to enlighten the mind of Servetus, to bring him to
acknowledge the Divinity of our Lord, and so to save
him from death. It is false, above all, that Calvin was
the efficient means of the death of Servetus. I am quite
sure that had Calvin been taken away suddenly at the be-
ginning of the trial of Servetus, this man would neverthe-
less have been condemned. Calvin and the Council of
Geneva were, as I told you, on very bad terms at this
time. Calvin bad excommunicated for bad conduct, some
of the members of the Council; and very far from com-
plying with his wishes, the Council opposed him where
they could. But here lies the true cause of the death of
Servetus. The Council of Geneva consulted the Evan-
gelical cantons of Switzerland, and especially Berne,
Zurich, Schaffhausen, and Bale, and all answered, The
heretic already condemned by the Popish Archbishop of
Vienne—the heretic who called in his book the triune
God Cerberus—must die. For, if the Romanists can say,
" 'You receive and you deliver the heretic whom we have
condemned, it would be an eternal reproach on the Refor-
mation." A deputation from the Popish Archbishop
came to Geneva, asking that Servetus should instantly be
given back to them to be burned, but the Council refused.
I affirm then, that Calvin can in great part be cleared of
the case of Servetus, and that the only true answer to all
adversaries, is, in wag a remnant of Popery. And re-
member it well, only one case on this side, while Popery
has killed hundreds and hundreds, thousands and thou-
sands, and that, according to her principles and doctrines.
—D'Aubigne's Speech.
THE PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT.—If Pym and
Hampden, and Coke, who was as distinguished a lawyer
as the others were patriots—if they had lived to see the
times when there was no longer any danger of an infrac-
tion of the privileges of parliament by the crown—waen
the apprehension was directed, not towards the crown but
towards the people—and when the crown and the minis-
ters and the houses of parliament are united together so
perfectly, and work together so harmoniously upon all
occasions, that the only possible use of privilege must be
not against the crown but for the crown, because parlia-
ment and the crown have become really one and the same
—if they had lived to see these times, be was fully con-
vinced that the authority of the Cokes, and Pyrns, and
Hatripdens, would not have been on the side of privilege.
But the accident of parliament being pitted against the
crown gave rise to their support of the high parliamentary
privileges; and he might remind their lordships of the
excess to which they carried this privilege. Suffice it to
say, that the very year after the year 1641, the earliest
great case of privilege with respect to the printing and
publishing of libels—the very next year saw the issuing bf
three ordinances by that house, which had thus clothed
itself with power, which had thus seized, under the name
of privilege, the right to declare what it pleased, and to
act as it chose. The year 1642 saw an ordinance issued
by that one house of parliament, without the crown's
consent, without the lords' consent, for marshalling the
train bands ; another ordinance for raising two troops of
horse to defend the parliament—to " protect its privileges"
said the doctors of privileges in those days—to give the
needful protection to their witnesses who were examined
against the king, and against the bishops, and against the
lords ; and the third of those ordinances was to levy
money for the sake of protecting those privileges upon a
bill issued by the commons' house of parliament itself.
But the train bands and troops of horse were used not
merely in favour of the privileges of the commons, and to
protect their witnesses when under examination ; they
were used to put down the lords, and to imprison the
king, and to commit regicide by the destroying the king's
person, after having thus, step by step, undermined his
authority ; and the third of these votes for money was to
afford the sinews of war to the advocates of privilege,
who had grasped power against all privileges and all the
rights of the country at large. If he were to remind their
lordships of the precedents which bad been referred to,
and which were at this moment in full observance, though
not in practice, but which existed upon the standing
orders, some of their lordships would start to hear them.
He would not go back to the case of 1621, when an 'in-
happy gentleman from the principality of Wales, Mr.
Edward Floyd, thought proper, very indecorously toward
James I. of pious memory, to call his son-in-law, the
Electoral Palatine, " Goodman Palsgrave," and the
Princess Elizabeth, " Good wife Palsgrave." Here the
privilege was exercised in favour of the crown, as it always
was in these early cases. They sentenced him, by their
own authority, without trial, to be carried upon a horse
from Cornhill to Charing Cross, with his head towards
the tail of the animal, to be whipped, to be twice put in
the pillory, to pay a fine of Xl,OOO, and to be imprisoned
in Newgate for life, merely for the offence which be had
named.--Lord Brougham'e Speech in the House of
Lords,