Northern Times. — 1857-06-23 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

GENERAL WALKER AT THE SOUTH.—The terms in which the New Orleans press speaks of Walker and his advent in that city create some doubt in our minds whether the editors have gone " demented," or English words and phrases bear the same meaning on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico as further North. Any one who his read the article in the Delta, and is aware that New Orleans is the first city in the South, must feel some pardonable hesitation in deciding whether the piece of fustian was a bad caricature, or he had been grossly imposed upon in the recent accounts of Walker's doings in Nicaragua. When one hears of enthusiastic crowds waiting on the quays of a great city to welcome a small man with " blue-grey eyes," and proclaimed by the local newspapers " the champion of Isthmian Republicanism," the hero," " the brave warrior," " the unassuming, mild-looking, light-complexioned man," " the impersonation of as glorious and daring a chivalry as these latter days of ours have seen," " the man of destiny," " he of the blue-gray eyes," " a man destined to face the boldestl daugars unappaled," "he whose name has become a household word in the South, and whose deeds have been the subject of American and European conversation, comparatively speaking, as much as any of the great captains of modern times," one naturally expects to hear, if not of a good man, at least of a great one. If we don't expect to hear of the gospel preached, of the naked clothed, of the hungry filled, of hospitals endowed, churches built, aqueducts made, laws codified, and cookery improved, we at least expect to hear of great battles fought, of rapid and successful campaigns, of large armies overthrown, powerful fortresses captured, of kingdoms subdued, and dynasties extinguished. If you do not look for a Colbert or a De L'Hopitat, you look for a Turenne or a Napolean. With such an intolerable deal of sack you can never be content with a half-penny worth of bread. If you compare a man, as the New Orleans Delta c Jmpares Walker, to Napoleon on his return from Elba, the comparison is worth little, if you cannot tell of his Lodi, his Arcola, his Marengo, his Wagram and Austerlitz, his convention of Campo Formio, his treaty of Tilsit : if you cannot tell of a genius which baffled all men, and overcame all things, which was proof against the cowardice of some, the apathy of others, and the treachery of many and which wrung victory from the most adverse fate with the most unpromising materials, your encomiums only bring ridicule on yourself and contempt on those who accept you as their organ. To say that a man is as much talked of in Europe and America, comparatively speaking, as any captain of modern times, is to say very little for either his abilities or his reputation. The phrase "comparatively speaking " plays fearful havoc with the compliment, bad as it is at best. Comparatively speaking, Barnam has been as much talked of in Europe as Wellington, and we venture to say Busteed has been as familiar in the mouths of those Frenchmen who know anything of America as any warrior we have produced since Washington. A. man need neither be brave, nor wise, nor good, to be talked about. Fame follows on the heels of the swindler, or murderer, or burglar, with as much impartiality as on those of the hero or philanthropist. The place she awards them is, in history, doubtless not the same, but the amount of public notoriety she deals out to each is tolerably fairly balanced. To call General Walker's doings in Nicaragua "a war," is about as absurd as toe conduct of the Brahmin whose sad mishap Macaulay relates so feelingly, who, being in search of a sheep for sacrifice, was persuaded, by the united testimony of some scoundrels, into taking a deceased dog for the animal of which he was in search. The people of New Orleans are very much in the position of the unhappy Brahmin. For the benefit of those who may ba disposed to deduce from the follies of the New Orleans zealots the conclusion that the people of this country are afflicted with such obliquity of moral vision as to take Walker for a great hero, and his filibusters for soldiers, we have only to say that the disease, like the yellow fever, is local.—New York Times.