The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-19 00:00:00

THE BALTIC FLEET

On Sunday night, about nine o'clock, her Majesty's
steamer Duke of Wellington, with Sir Charles Napier on
board, anchored at Spithead. The Admiral left the rest
of his fleet off the Scaw on the 12th, with the following
orders :—The Royal George, 120, Captain Codrington,
to proceed to Sheerness. The Nile, 91, Captain Mundy,
to proceed to Plymouth. Hogue, 60, Captain Ramsay,
and the Blenheim, 60, Captain the Hon. F. T. Pelham, to
proceed to Spithead. The Bulldog, 6, Captain W. K.
Hall, has sailed for the Tyne. The Rosamond, steam-
sloop, has sailed for Cromarty. The Driver, steani-sloop,
has gone to Harwich. The Edinburgh, 60, Rear-Admiral
Chads ; the Euryalus, 50, Captain Ramsay ; and tha Vul-
ture, 6, Captain Glasse, were left at Kiel. The Imperieuse,
50, Captain Watson, and the rest of the flying squadron,
were coming home under the flag of Rear-Admiral Chads.
THE HIMALA YA.—The compartments of the Himalaya
having been filled with water, and her mizenmast taken
out, her stern rose to the height required with very little
assistance, and the artisans of the dock-yard at Malta
were actively engaged in getting her ready for sea, by
repairing her shaft, which had worked loose, and rendered
her unfit for service. The crew, under an impression that
they were to return to England, struck work, refusing to
return to the Black Sea. But, as they had signed articles
for an indefinite period, the measures adopted by the
admiral-superintendent, and the punishment of one of the
ringleaders, had the desired effect upon the remainder,
and they returned to their duty. The Himalaya will be
ready for sea by Christmas. Captain Kellock, her late
commander, will take his passage by the Vectis to Mar-
seilles, en route for England.

THREATENED RESIGNATION OP

MINISTERS

(FROM THE TIMES OF YESTERDAY.)

IT is a common observation that mothers are the fondest
of those children that are in themselves the least worthy
of their affection. They will idolize a spendthrift, a pro-
fligate, a rebel, or an idiot in the one sex, and a flirt or a
fool in the other, in preference and even to the prejudice
of half-a-dozen well-conducted, affectionate, and high-
minded children. That this should be the case with
mothers, who are so much under the laws of instinct, and
whose life is a perpetual struggle between the strength of
reason and the weakness of nature, is at least intelligible.
Not so, however, the precisely similar infirmity in hard-
headed statesmen. What will the nation say to the
announcement that Ministers are actually threatening to
resign if the House of Commons will not undertake their
precious and most unexpected bantling—the Foreign
Enlistment Bill ? Next Tuesday this measure, of which
we believe that not a soul in the kingdom out of Downing-
street had an inkling a week ago, will go down to the
House of Commons, and if, as there is much reason to
expect, it should be rejected, Her Majesty's Ministers are
prepared, so it is said, to throw up the reins of govern-
ment. They will not be responsible fur carrying on the
war without foreign aid. The British people, whose
enthusiasm for the war is only too great, and who have, in
fact, driven on the Government to do what it has done,
much against its will, is not to be trusted for the supply
of men for the war; or, at least, it is to be confessed that
the war consumes faster than the nation can produce.
The war demands ready-made soldiers, and voluntary
enlistment, whether from the militia or from the smock-
frocks and fustian jackets, will not yield the amount of
soldiers wanted in the East in time for next year's cam-
paign. It is true that we receive every day accounts from
the provinces of recruits coming in by scores in one place
and hundreds in another. There are twenty to one more
recruits now, since the news of the Alma and of Inker-
mann, than there were half a year ago, when the prospects
of the war were limited to Gallipoli and Varna. Such is
the preference shown by the British people fora reality
over a sham, in war as in everything else, that no sooner
do they hear there is real fighting than they press forward
for their share in it. Nevertheless Ministers cannot trust
them, and are for sending the recruiting-sergeant over
Europe, picking up men who want to fight either for pay
or for their national hatred of Russia. This sudden scheme,
too, they cherish so highly, and think so necessary, that
they are prepared to give up their places, to unsettle public
affairs, to interrupt the business of every department, and
give Russia a political triumph that will compensate for
her disasters in the field, all because this one little
stranger, which has taken us all so much by surprise, is
not received with unqualified satisfaction.

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,

MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18.

LONDON.—Consols finally close at a fractional recovery,
91-a 3 rather buyers, and a tendency towards further im-
provement. In other Stocks no change. Turkish scrip
firm at closing prices. On 'Change, sales of Cotton only
200 bales. Spelter, £24 ss. to £24 10s. Scotch Pig Iron,
675. 6d. to 68s. Tallow, 635. 6d. to Gis. for P.Y.C. Lin-
seed Oil, 365. to 375.

No later foreign or general news.
PARIS, SATURDAY.—At the Bourse, prices closed at
70.65 and 96.