The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-12 00:00:00

AND GENERAI

mblance to those of PALmEnsT

ti by GRATIAM

a single mitigating grace or redeeming mark of fun.
ABERDEEN, having added two sons to. his battalion of
Parliamentary supporters, has retired to "the shady dales
of Towe," or " Grongar," or some other sylvan retreat,
to puff the pipe of peace, and while away the listless
hours which must elapse between the planning and
the execution of the plot, intended, it is said, at some
time or other, to end in the 'capture of Sebastopol, the
destruction of Cronstadt, and the humiliation of his
boisterous friend, the CZA.E.. In the very absence of other
occupation, PALMERSTON has 'become snoozy, GRANVILLE
urbane, and MOLESWORTIf polite, if not indeed courteous.
At an early period of the recess, Lord Joni RUSSELL, in
search of that quiet which is death 'to his restless dispo-
sition, betook himself to Cumberland, where he was
speedily found out and suddenly seized on to do duty as
chairman of a bread-and-butter gala among the children
of "the lakers !" In discharge of this statesmanlike
function, his "useful-knowledge" aptitude displayed itself
so signally that the Sons of the Severn insisted on his
presiding at a similar gaudeamus for them ; an invitation
which his lordship "of course" agreed to accept. Thus
driven from his hiding-place, and still in quest of that
happiness which the Poet, as well as all experience, tells
us "centres only in the mind," his Lordship has hurried
off to Killarney, as if desperately resolved

Some asylum to gain,
Where the poor panting Times
May toil after in vain ;
Where Spectators come not,
And no good-natured friend,
Like the Chronicle, damns
What it meant to defend I

In the awful dilemma consequent upon public stagna-
tion and ministerial ambush, the gentlemen of COckney-
dom have been forced to look out for subjects of complaint.
The metropolitan "graveyards" having been put to bed
when Mr. CHADWICK was laid on the shelf; without
having been awakened by Sir BENJAMIN, the principal
topics of discussion have been centred in complaints
against the galleries of art in Trafalgar-square, and the
misarrangements at the British Museum. These stock
pieces, as targets for the shafts of Cockney ridicule, have
long been invaluable, and it is to he hoped will never be
removed from the prominent positions they occupy as
safety-valves for public grumbling. If their alleged
iniquities were excised, and their supposed defects
removed, what would become of us at such a season as the
present ? We would be without a recognisable ground of
complaint. An intelligent British public without a
grievance—fastidious, querulous London, without a cause
of monstrous complaint ! This would be a state of things
too unnatural to be contemplated—history has not as yet
revealed such an era in the world's progress through
childhood and youth, or in its advancement towards old
age—existing circumstances cannot show it, nor can
expectation lead us to anticipate so strange an event. All
good men are taught to look forward to that time when
" the lion shall lie down with the lamb ;" but even vatici-
nation has not ventured to shadow forth a time when
well-established grievances shall cease to be the invaluable
birth-right, the proud inheritance of Englishmen. Woe
betide the man, however potent his spell, who shall suc-
cessfully endeavour to remove from us our grounds for
grumbling. His power, however great, his fame, however
noisy, cannot survive the shock occasioned by the fall of
a monster grievance. Who so powerful as COBDEN a few
years back, armed with his great grievance the " Corn-
laws ?" The " League" his thunder-cloud—the filched
fire of cheated serfs his lightning—agriculture, the source
of England's greatness, the oak his bolts would rend—
bewildered fools and hireling knaves the adoring worship-
pers before his car. His bolt shot—the grievance ex-
ploded—the noble oak of British agriculture scathed and
shaken, where is COBDEN? Fallen from his place of
pride ! The gourd in JONAH'S dream was not more sud-
denly shrivelled, nor could it have become less trivial or
more insignificant, than the MIINCHAUSEN of Manchester
bagmen has now become. Henceforth let all take warn-
ing by his fate, and before attempting to " crumple
foreign empires," beware of how they extinguish or
attempt to extinguish grievances at home. Even those
most scared by the bombastical rhodomontade of the
itinerating orator are beginning to sneer at him as a facti-
tious bug-bear, now denuded of its terrors, and the
bucolic philosophers, a somewhat misty lot it must be
confessed, as these are represented in the annual gather-
ings at Tiptree, begin to wonder why they were so "sore
afraid."

Few things can last for ever; and although many people,
whose opinions are generally itunctou., began co have

s of the

Windsor Courts-partial, as they have been not inappro-
priately termed by some, even they have at last come to a
conclusion ; although I cannot for a moment entertain the
idea that the proceedings arising out of the inquiries
there originated, have terminated, far less exhausted the
subject. The proceedings before the military tribunals
have ended, as all the world knows by this time, in the
cashiering of Lieutenant PERRY, the sentence anoma-
lously including permission fo; him to sell his commis-
sion; in the removal from the service of Lieut. GREER,
but also allowing him to sell out ; and in a severe repri-
mand to Lieutenant WALDY. Civilians not deeply
skilled in military morals, and but little acquainted
with the laws of martial etiquette, are sadly puzzled to
understand the rule by which this pyramid of punishment
is made to stand upon its apex instead of on its base.
Lieutenant WALDY has been, out of his own mouth and
by his own handwriting, convicted of telling a deliberate
untruth, and he is reprimanded; Lieutenant GREER has
been found guilty of conduct "unbecoming an officer
and----" (it is

unnecessary to insult society by inserting
the word which generally follows those stated), and he is
ordered to quit the service, yet allowed to sell his commis-
:eutenant PERRY is convicted of saying he wrote
a letter, to his Colonel, which that Colonel avers he never
received, and PERRY is cashiered, but also allowed to re-
tain the money value of his commission. Let me go over
the inverted pyramid of punishment and crime again, to
make sure it does not topple over. PERRY says he wrote
a letter, which the man he says he wrote it to says lie
never received—therefore PERRY has told a falsehood,
and is dismissed the service ; GREER has been convicted
of conduct which the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF stigmatises
the following terms : " Such ungentlemanlike conduct is
calculated to degrade an officer in the eyes of his men,
and to destroy his power of maintaining discipline ;
person who does not shrink from the utterance of such
disgraceful language is unfit to preserve his position of
social equality in a regiment among his brother officers ;"
and for deporting himself in a manner to warrant these
strong terms of reprobation, he is advised to sell his
commission and quit the service ; WArnr, says Lord
HARDINGE, "appears to be a weak, gossip•-'

sion ; Lie

ing young

man, insensible of the duty of a rigid adherence to
the truth !" In another place his lordship, speaking
of this subaltern, says, "As a witness on oath, before the
Court-Martial, he denied or forgets that he had written
such a letter," adding, " even if he did forget, his levity
is deserving of the severest reprehension." This gentle-
man of weak and gossiping habits, and of insensibility to
the duty of adhering to truth, is to be " severely repri-
manded, and cautioned, for the rest of his life, to adhere
strictly to the truth." From this, it appears clearly
enough, that the CommANDEn-is-CHIEF, whether he
believe that the Ethiopean cannot change his skin, or the
leopard his spots, or not, has a large credulity in reference
to the mendacious habits of Lieutenant IVALny ! The
gentlemen composing Courts-Martial as well as the COM-
MANDER-IN-CHIEF, and most of the officers of the 46th
regiment, seem deeply imbued with a belief in respect of
military peccadilloes, that
In such a time as this, it is not meet
That every nice offence should bear its comment.
The nicety of the offence consisting in the use of language
"disgusting and disgraceful," and the adoption towards
each other of practices more disgraceful and more disgust-
ing.7After all, however, it is possible that I may have
entirely misapprehended the meaning of Lord HAuDINGE,
and that that gallant and noble veteran may mean
to imply that the severest punishment he could inflict
on the " weak gossipping young man," insensible
to the duty of adhering to truth, was to continue
his associations with those officers whose conveni-
ence of memory will be a perpetual foil to his in-
sensibility ; and whose grossness of behaviour may
be a continual reproach of that squeamishness which led
to WALDY'S adoption of a " lie with a circumstance," in-
stead of falling back upon the paltry equivocation. From
one end of the country to the other, society denounces the
practices unfolded by that inquiry, and condemns the pro-
ceedings as contradictory of the first principles of justice,
and subversive of the laws of social order. For the first
time in our military history, the conduct proved to have
been general among the officers of the 46th, has compelled
the public to admit that there may be a wide difference
between the conduct of an officer, and that of a gentleman.
Such a stigma cannot be permitted to remain in connex-
ion with the service—the military profession owes it to
itself towipe out so foul a stain; and without doubt the
earliest opportunity will be seized on by its members to
set themselves right by a searching Parliamentary inves-
tigation. As the matter lam stands, 4t is established that
a sublaltern, if insulted ix the grossest inner, can have

COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER

dress if I

as complaining against them, will, as in the case of PERRY:
subject him to a sentence of degradation, without allowing
him the advantages afforded by the ordinary rules of evi-
dence to attempt the justification of his complaint. In
the meantime, it is said that Mr. PERRY, acting under
legal advice, is about to bring the matter under review of
the Court of Queen's Bench—to have the sentence of the
military tribunal set aside as contrary to common sense,
at variance with the evidence, and subversive of justice.
The 'conduct of the war is once more stirring the
depths of public indignation against the Ministry.
Again and again we have been told that our efforts were
in a great degree restrained to meet the wishes and afford
save for the powerful intervention of Austria. The
CZAR emphatically rejects the new Vienna proposals, and
Austria as emphatically repudiates that refusal as a casus
belli. She continues satisfied with her position of " per-
fect neutrality," and waits very patiently for our capture
of Sebastopol. By waiting the issue of the Austrian in-
tervention we have lost six months of the best season for
military and naval operations. Our fleet and our army
have been exposed in unhealthy positions to the ravages of
disease, waiting for the issue of this tardy and undecided,
if not hypocritical, diplomacy. We have lost more men
than would have been sacrificed in the contests of an
active campaign. During the period of our inactivity and
suffering the Russians have been busy in preparing means
and concerting measures for the defeat, or at least for the
resistance of our attempts on Sebastopol. A single month
has sufficed to dispel the illusions regarding the strength
of granite batteries. Six months have not dispelled the
weak and fatal reliance on Austrian diplomacy. But with
the present Administration it seems to be the leading
object to neglect great enterprises and cherish small
endeavours—to sacrifice important to secondary Sims. So
far as present appearances justify the conclusion, the sole
object of the war has consisted in the invention of a new
office that Lord Jonx RUSSELL might have some osten-
sible duty to perform, and a decent pretext for pocketing
a salary. Under pretence of consolidating the military
administration, £17,000 has been added to our annual
expenditure ; and the Government has been armed with a
phalanx of new appointments, by filling up which they
have been enabled to fortify their entrenched camp of
office, while our gallant soldiers have been left to perish
in the swamps of Varna. Such a state of things calls for
a thorough reformation.

RESIGNATION OF ARCHDEACON

W ILBERFORCE

A PERSONAL sacrifice, a sacrifice of income or of position,
or both, is an'earnest, to some extent, of the sincerity of the
party who makes it. - And when that earnest of sincerity
is given, men are not disposed to be hypercritical as to
the form in which the act is done. Still, a public an-
nouncement embodying a statement of facts must be sub-
ject to correction, in the event of those facts being in-
accurate ; and without calling in question the bond fides
of the Archdeacon, who has, no doubt, his own way of
viewing the state of the case, we must demur to the
grounds on which he puts his resignation of the offices he
has hitherto held in the Church of England.
The causes assigned by him as having given rise to the
determination at which he has arrived, are two,—one, the
controversy in which he has become involved on the sub-
ject of the Holy Eucharist, the other, the difficulties he
feels on the subject of the Royal Supremacy. The con-
nexion in which he places these two topics with his resig_
nation is somewhat curious. The difficulty about th
Royal Supremacy, he intimates, had suggested itself to his
mind while he was waiting for legal proceedings against
him on the subject of the Holy Eucharist, in expectation
of which he gives the public to understand that he has
delayed his resignation for some time past. On the other
hand he has now determined no longer to delay his resig-
nation, because he has waited in vain, so long that he
gives it up in despair at last, for the opportunity of de-
fending his doctrinal views.

To our apprehension, and to that, probably, of most of
our readers, there are here some slight anachronisms.
Archdeacon Wilberforce's difficulty about the Royal
Supremacy, we had always imagined, was as old as the
protest published by him, conjointly with the late Dr.
Mill, and the prevert Manning, after the decision of the
Privy Council in the Gorham case. Still more do we feel
surprised at the despair which the Archdeacon seems to
feel as to the chance of vindicating his doctrine of the
Holy Eucharist in the Ecclesiastical Courts ; for we labour-
ed under the impression that definitive steps had been
taken, with the concurrence of Archdeacon Wilberforce
himself, to bring the matter to an immediate issue; and
our Ecclesiastical Intelligence of last week contains the
positive announcement that the Archbishop of York had
determined to send the case to his Provincial Court, at
the instance of the Rev. John Jarrett, Vicar of North
Cave.

For the sake of historical accuracy we deem it right to
call attention to these facts. For the manner in which
they present themselves to the mind of Archdeacon Wil-
berforce, and are reflected in hk letter of resignation, we
are not in a position to account. We may add, however,
that painful as all such occurrences must ever be, we see
reason to be thankful on two grounds,—first, because
Archdeacon Wilberforce has not followed, and for his own
sake we earnestly trust he will not follow, the example of
Mr. Manning and of his own brother, in throwing him-
self, as they have done, into the arms of the idolatrous
Church of Rome,—and, secondly, because, as far as he is
concerned, at all events, our Church will be spared the
extremely painful spectacle of a legal argument in the
Courts upon a mystery of the faith on which hang the
deepest and most sacred associations of every true Christian
heart.—John Bull.

OUR LOCAL CHARITIES

A. VISIT TO THE LIVERPOOL

SCHOOL FOR

THE DEAF AND DUMB,

DIE approaching opening of St. George's Hall will, no
doubt, call attention to those Public Charities which it is
intended to benefit by the proceeds of that

great occasion

As the advantages conferred by these Institutions are at
once an honour and a blessing to the community, so
should their reputation and character be, to everyone
amongst us, a source of pride. From a London periodical,
just issued, we extract, with pleasure, the following ac-
count of a recent visit to our local School for the Deaf and
Dumb. None of our charities has a more useful office
than this Institution. Its objects, and the manner in