The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-14 00:00:00

Itrf satint.h.-N POTATXRESS

Our dinner took place on board the Turkish ship
Meshndiah ; present, two Turkish Admirals, Admiral

Slade, now acting in their service, Captain B.:lilase, Lord
George Panlet, Captain Drummond, one French, one
Dutch, one American Captain. Nye were invited for an
hour before sunset. We began with pipes, and then went

all the appurt

and forks, and the

sh constantly recurring ;
ery great compOsition from the breasts of
s ; no stint of wine, of which our Moslem hosts
Conversation flowed very easily, and we were
sort cordially.treated. I think the Turks pre-eminently

announced to

oe in the way of knives
anded regularly round,

1 almost endless s
was one

partook

red, and this attribute seems to belong naturally to
be which they
did that from which

ho-*ever elevated the

eition m

east makes

,ed, after a

An evident partiality for Greece and a lively,
sympathy with the Greeks, derived, it is obvious,
from the impress of early association, and the
charms of that immortalised civilisation, of which
()dery Greece presents few, if any, traces, beyond
lifeless symbols still existing in their noble
~ins, do not blind his lordship to their present
political and moral deg,radation. He

THE PR:

3, stations

15T CON

thus speaks of

R OF GREECE.

utntulty sum up, from all that
and among persons of different

Constitut

hat thi
)ut the

sent Govern-

Sat inefficient

th a nat

)4ed or vi
ringed ; and v

I is so worked as to
,ed ; the lihprf

ere no overt

'rem
, ...yno means make out
I fear b

--......, ../L•IJ
Aers, who regard the
Isated by the electoral
by the gens-d'arme-

gh trust and

tleman, the cultivation of the scholar, and the un-
obtruded candour of the man. The pictures he
produces are full of truth, yet that truth is reflected
in a chastened and kindly-tinted mirror, while they
are obviously selected by an eye which delights
and has been taught to look upon the sunny side
of nature.

Blackwood's 3fagazine. Edinburgh : Blackwoods.
We had only space last week for a brief notice of
the contents of the November number, and we now
redeem our promise by subjoining some interesting
The letter to Eusebius on " Civilisation
contains an entertaining commen-
he Census Report, No. 11. There are
f our readers who will agree with the fol-

Census

THE MARRIAGE LAW

A. gradual improvement in the morals of the people
- 1751. Lord Hardwicke's bill, in 1753,
first evident reforms in the law of mar-
Historians do not express the same sentiments
"e operation of this bill—some viewing it as a

menced aft,

to the aristocracy fortunes by marriages,
s giving a greater respectability to marriage itself.
the time considered by its opponents as likely to
population of the country. The writer in the
rt observes :—" Experience soon showed, that
Aping marriage, and the growth of popula-
__ —ad the contrary effect, by depriving the
arriage ceremony of disgraceful associations—by making
__z re verbal promise, but a life contract to be
u.ded, to be entered into with deliberation by persons
he enjoyment of their faculties, and to be kept invio-
, till death." And here it is fair to remark, that
bably no small share of the disrespect in which mar-
ges were held, and the consequent dissoluteness, may
ascribed to the Puritans, who, before Charles's arrival,
1653, had passed a bill for solemnising marriages by
tices of peace. The removal of any part of the sanctity
e has a tendency to bring it into disrepute;
t is better that it should be held even, as some would say,
nperstition, than merely as a civil contract, which,
most other civil contracts, may be broken ad libitum,
oy those who are willing to incur the penalties. Modern
legislation has, however, in. this respect, brought the cere-
mony of marriage down still lower than the Puritans, by
reducing even the official dignity of performance, and
authorising marriages at the Public Register-office. Where
there is little distinct religions feeling or principle, there
is a superstition akin to it. And there are few who do
^eive or remember, with a sense of awe, the solemn
„ " Whom God hath joined together, let no man put
asunder ;" and the evil suggestion, in the contrary case,
is ready enough—Whom man joins, man may put asunder;
and if man only, it little matters what man ! Parties may
assume that privilege to themselves. It is hard to see
how the Church of England can, at any after time, by
their official acts, recognise such marriages. What is to
be said of the monition or warning, that "so many as are
coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth allow,
not joined together by God, neither is their matri-

t was at
.frpet th,

the Act

t not a

of marring

with a sn

mony laWful

The writer, proceeding with this part of the sub-
ject, pays the following justly-deserved eulogy to
the private virtues of

GEORGE 111. AND QUEEN CHARLOTTE

You will not be surprised to learn that to George 111.,
his Queen, and the example of his Court, is ascribed by
this writer, in the census, the change for the better in the
morals and manners of the people. Family sanctities

e establish

1. The house -influence of the virtuous
pother was felt throughout the land. That purity was
restored which had been nearly lost in the moral degrada-
tion of women of previous licentious times. It is with a
grateful pleasure, as one born during that moral reign,
and thankful for that love of a mother which was its law
and rule, and my individual happiness, that I make the
following extract :---"Of the political course of George 111.
and Queen Charlotte, opinions necessarily still differ; but
the truth of the testimony to the Queen's private virtues
will be universally admitted. Pure, and above all reproach
in her own domestic life, she knew how to enforce at her
Court the virtues, or at the very least, the semblance of
the virtues which she practised. The Queen devoted
much time to to the education of her family. The simple,
pure life of the royal family soon became known in every
cottage in England and Scotland, and afforded a striking
contrast to the scandals of 'preceding reigns. Decorum
reigned in the Court of George 111., but it was not the re-
sult of calculation or of philosophy, but of the love of
order, of duty, and of religion. This prince as zealously
promoted the family, as an institution, according to the
old Anglo-Saxon type, as Charles 11. propagated the Ori-
ental fashion, or its spurious modification. He was, to
the last, the 'good king' whom they had pitied and
blamed, but never hated; for he had placed the wife on
the throne, which the mistress had usurped; so that the
idea of the English family lived again in all its old beauty.
And this was the great social reform, which deservedly
preceded all oth(

changes.

A dialogue on " Peace and War," between the
Writer and a Quaker, supposed to have taken
place in a railway train, should be read by every
one, and at this time will prove doubly interesting,
We give the following ably-written

DEFENCE OF

War is doubtless one of the most awful facts of our condi-
tion ; but we know that the soldier may admire, even love,
the public enemy, and this partly from self-love; for his
enemy draws out his own virtues and puts them before
his eyes: he shows him his own manhood. Thus war
becomes to the combatants a sublime dispensation of the
Almighty, to overlive which is life-long glory, rather
than merely the most emphatic expression of the evil
passion of man. And modern war is more favourable to
this feeling than ancient war. The modern soldier's
courage is tested by having to face a rain of shot and
shell rather than by the hand-to-hand encounter. In old
times, every battle was more like a thousand duels in one
field, and when shield pressed shield, and sword bickered
with sword, and lance clashed with lance, men's faces
looked far more ugly to each other than now. Yet even
then, as we know from numberless instances, a high-
minded soldier could look upon the business with a purely
professional eye ; and perhaps this feeling was strongest
in that most maligned of professional men, the mercenary
soldier. Victor or vanquished, he liked a man all the
better, that he had felt the weight of his hand. In fact,
this respect for foes was the very essence of chivalry. The
appeal to the sword has indeed generally been found to
extinguish personal hatred between public enemies, in all
cases where war was carried on in the spirit of a soldier
rather than that of a cannibal. The general separation
prevents petty quarrels, such as occur in friendly ranks ;
the occasional intercourse, when such is permitted, creates
the kindliest feelings.

But, in order to comprehend the full force of the
writer's argument, we should read the following
comparison between the horrors of

PEACE AND WAR

What do you say to all that goes on about you ? What
do you say to the struggle of society to get on—to get
rich ? It is like a rush to a Bank that is stopping pay-
ment. All want to be first, for the first alone can get
anything, and are likely enough to be late. This is the
very-day life of a peaceful commercial society ; this is
if you like, but seasoned, whether you like it or not,

With envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. You
are at peace only because you decline to take part in the
selfish scramble. What say you to the mad ventures of
merchants of straw, and their outrageous gambling—men,
many of them, of religious profession, platform-orators,
Record-readers, horror-struck at whist, and petrified at the
mention of a quadrille—men of intense respectability, yet
gamesters on a larger scale than any yet found in the
Seine ? Does mercantile speculation stir up no evil pas-
sions ? What do you say to the railway mania of 1846 ?
There was greed surpassing that of the Bashi-Bazouks in
quest of plunder. War has made many families desolate
now, and filled them with a noble mournfulness ; but war
has never, and will never, afflict society with the anxiety,
the madness, the degradation, the want of self-respect,
which that railway mania did. It made, for the time, the
length and breadth of our green land a great roulette-
table, presided over by avarice and meanness, stamping
the faces of steady city-men with the abstraction, the
ferocity, the unnatural joy, sorrow, and despair of the
habitues of Homburg or Baden. A country desolated by
war is not a paradise, but a country infected with such
plague-spots is a pandemonium. And what do you say to
the whole history of strikes, and the general discomfort of
the relations between employer and employed ? In the
worst cases there have been two rival camps of the worst
. . .

restored, but heart burnings innumerable perpetuated.
Talk of the horrors of war !—these, and such as these, are
the horrors of peace ! * * * The shop-keeping spirit
is far too strong amongst us, and no wonder that Nicholas

was induced to believe that John Bull would not quit his
hold on his money-bags to go to war. I believe, if he had
known us better—if he had been able to judge of the
feelings of our silent classes—the aristocracy, the gentry,
the yeomanry, and peasantry of Britain—he would never
have been so misled. He mistook Manchester for Great
Britain, and Messrs. Pease, Sturge, and Co., for the United
Services. The day of the Alma has told him that, thougq
Manchester is large, England is larger, and that there is
a certain people north of the Tweed, wearing " petticoats,"
with whom, notwithstanding their appearance, his boasted
Imperial Guard declined to cross bayonets.

Erase,
The

Magazine. London: J.W.Parker and Son

November number of Fraser is, in all
respects, an admirable one—full of pleasing variety
and sparkling cleverness - these qualities being,
however, rather the setting of the gem than the
leading feature of its intrinsic excellence. The
number opens with an elaborate, as well as -able,
review of the novel entitled: " Hearts-ease ;or the
Brother's Wife." This is followed by an analytical

scarification of Lieut. Royer's " English Prisoners
in Russia," in which the unfortunate book-making
tar" is badgered with considerable good humour,
Ind taken to pieces by the hands of an adept in the
art of " critical dissection." After a good deal of
cleverly-applied badinage, the reviewer takes leave
)f the Russo-mystified sailor in the following

PERORATION

le advertise

ate set forth, in

some of his per.

tsritons by thus putting
With the Lieutenant's
1 his hatred of her.

service in the present
leas strongly felt and
_m,

against
His Imperial Majesty' girt
ce, could Lieutenant Royer
steam-gun-boat Toady let
1; the imperial property at
•, .....

Cingieve

wa tits Avacaitcr's Mot fQr the coy gi

Montandre had presented him with 'two sticks of sealing-
wax,' and where Prince Dolgorouki had pressed his hand ?
Or how could he have the Dolopian courage to land a
party of marines at generous Odessa, where every stone
would speak eloquently of his kind friends, where each
echo of the Minie musket would say reproachfully,—
Hic stetit Osten-Sacken, illic immitis Anenkoff.

As therefore it is obvious that Great Britain and France
will be deprived of the co-operation of the Lieutenant of
the Tiger, we should advise that distinguished officer to
turn his dignity and leisure to some account. We would
suggest to him to give a course of lectures on the mode-
ration and magnanimity' of ' His Imperial Majesty,' on
the iniquity of the present war, on the superiority of our
civilised enemies' to our 'barbarous allies,' on the clothes
worn by the Grand Duchess Constantine and hen ladies-
in-waiting. If the lectures were illustrated by the actual
sword presented by the Emperor Nicholas (we mean of
course ' His Imperial Majesty,' and beg pardon for the
inadvertent and familiar address which has accidentally
escaped us), and the particular `two sticks of sealing-wax'
handed over by Colonel Montandre, the success of the
speculation would be certain. These precious possessions
might be guarded from the vulgar touch by a Koh-i-noor
cage, and under them would be appropriately placed the
Queen's commission, crumpled like waste paper in deference
to the imperial gifts. That Lieut. Royer will shortly
receive the grand cross of the Order of St. Alexander
Nevsky we do not doubt. The Minister of War requested
him to speak well of Russia to the outer barbarians, and
to hear was to obey. Surely then His Imperial Majesty
will not forget his faithful servant, nor refuse to him the
dignity lately bestowed upon General the Marquis of Cas-
telbajac. Saying which, we close the record of this
Sarmatian pilgrimage.
The number also contains au able review of

" Henry's Life of Dalton," in which an admirable
synopsis of that excellent biography is given ; and
the Magazine concludes with a paper of much pre-
sent interest, entitled " Russian Defeats : their
effect on, Europe," in which a clear-headed view
of the present position of European politics is laid
down. Besides those enumerated, it contains
several other papers of general interest

The Tricolor on the Atlas ; or Algeria and
the French Conquest. By Francis Pulzky. Edin-
burgh and London : Thomas Nelson and Sons.
Most readers of the present generation are ac-
quainted with Algeria, chiefly as a French settle-
ment of conquest, in which, after a series of sharp
military struggles, our ancient Gallic antagonists,
now our faithful allies, have contrived to fix them-
selves in a tolerable degree of security ; yet few of
them are conversant with the steps by which this
conquest was secured, and fewer still are aware of
the actual condition, military, civil, and ecclesias-
tical, in which the military colony exists—the'
arduous conflicts which preceded and accompanied
its acquirement—and its present and prospective
value to the conquerors. To explain these points•
is the object of M. Pulzky in the work now under
review, and to enable him to accomplish this object
he has freely availed himself of all the means
within his reach. In carrying out his plan, the
author, with considerable felicity, unites the pic-
turesque with the statistic—the descriptive with
the moral—and so arranges his scenery and inci-
dents, as to bring before the reader a lively idea of
society and manners as these exist among the
mixed and often discordant population of Algeria.
In this land of recent conquest, the Arabs still
continue to depasture their flocks and their horses
in the plains ; the Kabyles maintain their wild and
predatory independence among the mountain fast-
nesses, and succeed in extracting a meagre suste-
nance from the naturally fertile valleys, by a rude
and unskilful tillage ; while the Moorish natives
retain peaceful possession of the fields adjoining
the cities, and by active industry reap a reward for
the labour they bestow upon a grateful soil. Domi-
nant among these are the military colonists and
martial rulers from France ; together with an ad-
mixture of Italian, German, Spanish, and Irish
emigrants, the whole forming a population of con-
trasting manners, dissimilar habits, and conflicting
opinions. Such a population naturally affords
material for pictures of varied grouping, and much
richness of effect, in availing himself of which M.
Pulzky displays no inconsiderable artistic aptitude.
As an example of his skill and powers, take the
annexed picture of

THE ALGERINE CATHEDRAL.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Cathedral of Al-
giers, was formerly a mosque. It is situated in the
upper part of the Divan-street; and though not larger
than the two mosques in the Rue de la Marine, its
style of building is much purer and grander. Even
the finest of the mosques are adorned only with low
colonades ; but in the cathedral, columns of fifty feet
support the cupola, which gets its
Slight from above
through stained glass. The altar is on the north side,
decorated by a picture of the Virgin, which has been
bestowed on this church by the Pope ; nevertheless, above
the picture we still see the sentences of the Koran in in-
terlaced Arabic characters, proclaiming that there is only
one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet. That these
sentences, though they form a most elegant ornament of
arabesques, should be allowed to remain in a Christian
temple is rather strange ; in fact, not only are they shock-
ing to the Christian, but the Mohammedan also would
rather see them effaced than placed above the image of a
deified female. And yet more strange than the interior
arrangement appeared to me the service and the assembly
in the Cathedral ; which, indeed, was composed of the
most incongruous elements. The mass is here almost a
military spectacle; the soldiers are drilled for it. A gay
martial music resounds in the building whilst the priest
mumbles his Latin formulas; the noise of twenty drums
thunders through the hall as soon as the sacristan rings
the bell ; the soldiers standing in the square before the
altar present the musket at the command of their officer,
and bend, at the same time, their right knee, and bow
their heads to the ground; whilst the thundering march
of the drums lasts until the priest has finished the Lord's
Prayer. Then the regimental music plays pieces of
Auber's and Meyerbeer's Operas ; the priest raises the
host and presents it to the congregation, amongst which
some people have prayed, many have listened to the
music, others again have turned their attention to the
pious young Spanish ladies ; and now—all are talking
and walking about the wide hall as if it were a public pro-
menade.

To convey instruction, mingled with amusement,
has been the aim of the author, and in carrying
his object into effect, he has been successful to an
extent so satisfactory as to reflect credit on him-
self ; while, by the style in which the book has been
brought before the public, the enterprising firm
under whose imprint it has been issued sustain the
reputation they have achieved for the elegance,
accuracy, and cheapness of their publications.

The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler. With
Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory
Notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan. Edin-

burgh : games Nichol.
The second and completing volume of this very
handsome library edition of Butler's Poems is now
before us, and in its pages we find ample testimony
of the care, taste, and liberality which are con-
joined in the production of this admirable reprint
of the works of our best poets. A distinct, as well
as a valuable feature, of the present volume, is
the painstaking judgment displayed in sifting the
poetical remains and fragmentary pieces attri-
buted to Butler, separating the genuine from the
spurious, retaining the former and repudiating the
latter. In judiciously discharging this duty, the
editor has earned for himself a title to general
gratitude, not less than that which he has won by
the praiseworthy laconism of the explanatory notes
by which he has illustrated without loading the
text. At the commencement of this series we
were unable to suppress our feelings of surprise
and admiration at the general beauty, combined
with the extraordinary cheapness of this publica-
tion ; since that period, if familiarity with the series
has diminished our wonder, it has not lessened our
appreciation of its merits, but has greatly aug-
mented the degree of pleasure with which we
hailed its advent. Nichol's Library Edition of the
Poets continues to win its way in popular estima-
tion by continuing to deserve it.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Pmpire. By Edward Gibbon, with
Variorum Notes. Edited by an English Church-

man. London : Henry G. -Bohn

This excellent reprint of Gibbon, with its copious
and well-considered annotations, has now reached
the fifth volume, and still maintains the character
by which, on the appearance of its first portion, its
publisher sought to establish for it a place in public
esteem. To an unmutilated and correct text, illus-
trated by carefully-prepared notes, the publisher
and his editor continue to adhere with a result
which cannot fail to prove gratifying to them.
The fifth volume, now before us, brings the work
down to the death of Mahomet. The chapter
devoted to the history of the Arabian impostor,
with which the volume concludes, is one which, in
the present crisis of Mahomedan rule in Europe, is
fraught with peculiar interest. When completed,
this edition of Gibbon's great work will be an
^nd v^' le addition to the cheap litera-

important and valuaD
tune of England.

THOSE who blow the coals of others' strife may chance
hewn Oho annnlra flyr in I.lulin fans.a_

)FTEN TEL

7enerally happens that a

.nsiead of lx

—My Friend, neither you nor myself need to
:an be happy in our own way ; but if dancing

>yment, why i

Fenelon

set eat nothing but
);)cfc.re hug fire."

must melt