The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-20 00:00:00

AN Ad:

on his

powder
hours.

in every

xly's mou

a lady (

till nc

I can wri

rienced men, on

that he has purr

season as a blind !

partly taken

than the I

During

Y AfORNINC

Lot Sir CIIAULES NAPIBI

), in reference tc

ith. Of thi

kindly—

oliticians, ear

t NICHOLAS is not

osely sent his " relatives" here this
The smash I predicted last week has

nt. Sa

the latter ; well

this regard. Iki

wn in

nice on Brist
aforesaid dray

burrs or

not where the former c
is indisp

as I have intimated, car

they are out of town N
being
tion is

ployed—a crac

how spirit

has been in a

of our parish

Bence in

few of our metropolitan surveyors
art, wh

with a r

fastened

1 fond

Ar a prett

ion and the

lute ; certainly

d with, or where it

I to this, the

country air

New houses are

down falls the fabric,smother-

munication. There will be moi

) have cc

I. of a nine days'
wonder. Some of CnARLEs DICKENS'S bleak houses I

and WE

back to t

my last corn.

only the sur-

a the qui vine,

How long

expect will tumbl

Let me b 4

Bleak houses

nderstood : in a

anted nearly a dozen

itations

f the rat, the

disputed own

in chancery—
ted the atten-

hem att

Eon of CIIARLEi DICKENS, hence his current work.
Nobody will repair them, nobody will occupy them, but
the very wretched. There are several of these buildings
in the great thoroughfare of—nations I was going to say—
the Strand; in Holborn, also, possession is disputed of
many ; chancery and death does the remainder. One of the
most famous taverns in the Strand has no one to receive
its rents ; not a penny has been paid in rent for years. I
mentioned surgeons along with surveyors ; little will serve
for-them. None but good surgeons can now get a
living; the bad are dying off going gone to
Australia others. The dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of horrid cruelty
ch like words speaks the inspired one;
o Bermondsey.
Tunnel over

such 'DI
A visit to Lambeth firs
amongst the tanners, an

and the:

to -Wapping, enables me to say, that, with few excep-
tions, there is not a parish authority who ought to escape
impeachment, and if not beheaded on Tower Hill,--cer-
tainly thrown into Tower Ditch. Such filth—needlessly
SO—such stench from inattention—want of coercion—l
never experienced. We are naturally prone to evil, it has
been truly said ; among these people, read for evil—dirt.
In the last-mentioned locality, water, hot and cold, had been
let off ; the gutters were running pure and limpid. lam
not fond of praising Thames or New River water, nor water
company directors—several of the latter, however, had given
orders to their turn-cocks for a continuous run of water—
that all might wash and be clean. As if this were not
enough, the proprietors of large establishments—factories,
and so forth—also ordered a run of clean hot water down
the streets ; on either side of these streams I saw scores of
dirt-begrimed creatures—men, women, and children—
loitering, afraid to wet their feet as if they were cats.
What can you do with such people ? Force them to be
clean—set the beadle at them. Cholera feeds on filth and
bad air : we have got all three ! "Down among the dead
men" is a piece of grave music, which has every ap-
pearance of being popular, chiefly from the inactivity of
those who are paid to watch over us. Many portions of
London never were filthier than they are at present
though we have two boards of health and two sewers
-commissions.

" Westminster Abbey, or

Victory !

claimed the immortal IGLsoist, at the -affair of Teneriffe.
Sir ROBERT PEEL, the founder of the Income-tax, has
achieved Westminster Abbey : were he alive, I should
leave it to himself to define the character of the victory he
bragged so much of having gained just before his ill-starred
death. Hundreds of hard-working penmen, and, poorer
with each, a dozen hungry children at their firesides, when
they have coals or wood, moan, as they are compelled to
squeeze the obnoxious tax out of their shallow earnings ;
and putting aside the cant about the poor man being
soothed by the reflection that he would eat his bread all
the sweeter that it was not taxed, I hesitate not to state
that bread is taxed—double taxed—war-taxed; and the,
Income-tax, Sir ROBERT himself, years ago, said it was a
. war-tax—but it would not last long. At this moment,
years after its dire imposition, it is being collected within
the bills of mortality with an eagerness—a rapacity well
befitting resources for a beleagured town ! My mind
filled with these no very pleasant recollections, I went
down to Westminster Abbey to see GlnsoN's statue of
the dead statesman. I knew I could have my outraged
feelings soothed by the church service, and the glorious
canto fermo—better sung by the Abbey choir than in
most other places in which I have ever worshipped.
I was not disappointed : numbers of foreigners were
Present, and paid marked deference to the service.
But the statue of the corn-law repealer and income-tax
founder : it was unpacked a few days ago with the greatest
care, and placed on its pedestal—a solid block of rare
marble, with a surface as glossy and smooth as satin—so
said the creeping verger who attended me. GIBSON, the
artist, is a Scotchman of the right sort, thoroughly im-
bued with a love of his art, and purely classical. He has
studied much at Rome, where, indeed, the present statue
was finished. Sometimes Cansorr essays a grace beyond
the reach of art ; such as painting his marble. Oh, mon-
strous ! turning regal grandeur to meretricious tawdriness
. after daybreak and arrack at Vauxhall ! Classical in the
composition, we have SIR ROBERT PEEL presented to us

in the toga—speaking. The size is neither colossal,
heroic, nor life; just a little more than the latter. The
likeness is perfect, and very properly, methinks, a thought
too austere, as PEEL could affect to be when laying
down a great principle, or one which he doubted, for he
had the same expression of countenance in both positions ;
and herein, I imagine, was no great test of mind, either
as a man or minister. The statue could not be better
placed, had the Abbey been emptied for its reception. In
the north transept it stands immediately in front ;
indeed, adhering to one of the many light and elegant
pillars which form the yet more elegant arches, the great
beauty of the interior architecture. The pillar forms the
background to the statue, and sets it off admirably. The
statue of Sir ROBERT is in good company ; is it possible,
in such a place, to meet with questionable ? Rather not.
The next but one to Sir ROBERT is that tall, and courtly,
and brave Scot, Sir .conN MA.LCOLN ; next to MALcoLm
IS GEORGE CANNING ; opposite to CANNING is LONDON-
DERRY (CASTLEREAGH that was), and opposite PEEL is

that sturdy Scot and great lawyer, Loid MANSFIELD.
Luckily my esteemed and accomplished friend, Sir Rxcn-
ARD WESTMACOTT, one of the few English classical sculp-
tors extant, came into the Abbey to inspect the statue of
Sir ROBERT; he had received instructions from the Lords

of the Treasur
report thereon

it,—its disposition—effect, and
ARD went round and round it

Sir Rr

as far as he could—was picas
marble than the chiselling
my idea. I let the

_ mly have been
alone, hid myself behind PITT'S
,COTT had looked his fill. We
L ; Sir RICHARD spoke well of
id ; and then the sculptor cam
• in the thank Heaven

monument, until WI
then met in front of

! tone,

he pet sculptor of
seventy years of

taste, judge
and of socie

buumetricaa
-"Tee his remarl

even before w
DEA.N
denceNVEsrxilis
provi and th
least all that the
qnF once a giant in thew
brain, grand. In
sonal advant.— ""1

e best of sch
the last deg
, rather than

.t what

fired a

lICICLAND, or at
A.NAK he was—

partly knew: ventu
Great MICKLAND, his under r
ow unlike

traint," was the response.
gentle dulness"—yet you

in the dull part of the year.
ROBERT OWEN, prince of Socialists, as JoUN BUNYAN
was prince of dreamers ! ROBERT OwEN, once the patro-
nized of the philosopher and philanthropist, is now, I am
afraid, going clean daft for ever. In outward man, though
nearly ninety years of age, he is hale, his countenance
mantling as a man's of sixty, his eyes beaming intel-

andlicence, what, to my untutored fancy, is better— good-
nature. No man, short of a sea-captain, has ever crossed

the billowy Atlantic oftener to less purpose—pecuniarily
morally, and mentally, than 808 OWEN. Pecuniarily ?
know he is near a quarter of a million sterling poorer than
he was when I first heard his health drun in honest
sherry,— which, by the way, the aged nomadic father does
not eschew, old as he is. Morally These spirit-rapping&
—" second circle of the fourth sphere,"—are questionable
evidences. Enthusiasm in any man is a great blessing;
but then it must be reined in, applied to a good purpose.
ROBERT OWEN was and is of glowing enthusiasm,—one
of those " hot children of the sun" with whom that qua-

y—enthusiasm—is virtue, if I be allowed to take
,erty with the poet. Everything he has touched

mostly, has gone to smash,—no ballast, poor man, aboard
—no compass. His greatest dodge—Socialism—lives, but

it is not the Socialism of 808 OWEN. The Socialism of
the present day is tamed down by the salutary spirit and
healthful action of our laws, which won't stand non-
sense of that sort. True, the Socialists still have their
crowded Sunday meetings twice or thrice a-day ; they
have an orator, for the most part a poor grammarian ;
and they have their music; in this they rather excel.
The tunes are secular. The last time I attended a Social-
ist meeting I had previously been at a rather distingue
but dull dinner party, one door from Bedford-iquare,
which I left for an hour or so, and dropped into the meet-
ing-house hard by ; it was crowded, and lots of men and
women singers, with a compensation grand piano-forte ;
the subject of discourse was our first parents in Paradise ;
that I will let pass—mere ribald nonsense, vapid attempts
at profane wit—no more. Previous to the holdforth, there
was a hymn finely sung by the male and female voices,
evidently well rehearse

to the true English air of "A
The leader was a famous man in

hunting we will

his way, whom I had not seen for some years
gave me a few early lessons in part-singing. Th
went off well, but it was theatrical and heartless. ROBERT
OWEN has got a fine mare's nest in the supposed Chelsea
ghost ; writing about it, he at once puts up the affair as of
the genuine " Spirit-rapping" class. Now it has not even
the merit of being an imposture; a poor fellow has a fit—
his brain is softened—a dreadful affection, produced, I
need scarcely say in this place, by several causes—hard
study, hard gin drinking, among others. The individual
referred to fancies he sees and hears things not of this
world ; the " Chelsea snobs" wonder, Owen learns of it,
immediately he telegraphs PERCY BYssHE SHELLEY, and
the Duke of KENT, they " take sights" of each other, and
forthwith OWEN gives to the world (or the Morning Post)
what he considers to be veritable assurances. Ridiculous
—sinful as this is, it is better than no belief. BACON, if I

and who

remember aright—wisest, meanest of mankind—says, that
superstition is better than negation. ROBERT OWEN is
now going about our streets apparently as happy as a
prince or the discoverer of a real gold-field.

THE

THEATRES

THE THEATRE ROYAL opened last night with the
popular new comedy of " Masks and Faces ! or before and
behind the Curtain." The principal characters were per-
formedby Mrs. Stirling and Mr. Compton, who are, engaged
for a limited number of nights. At this theatre we per-
ceive with much pleasure Mr. W. Farren is announced to
give a series of performances prior to his final retirement
from the stage. Mr. Farren will be supported by Mrs.
Phillips and Mr. Robson, from the Royal Olympic Theatre.
We are also gratified to learn that it is intended to give a
series of grand Operas, Italian and German, at this house,
commencing at the end of next month.
AT THE ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE, the amusements of
the week, like those of several weeks preceding, have been
chiefly such as to afford scope for displaying the pecu-
liar and varied talents possessed by Mrs. Fitzwilliam and
Mr. Buckstone ; the " Ascent of Mount Parnassus"
being still a leading and attractive feature in the enter-
tainments. On the whole, there has been considerable
variety in the pieces performed, and the theatre has been
fairly attended. Among the novelties recently produced,
was one entitled " Cruel Kindness," which was so well
received as to call for its repetition. The burden of the
acting, in this piece, unlike those generally in which Mrs.
Fitzwilliam and Mr. Buckstone appear, does not devolve
on those performers, but was sustained, and, on this
occasion, most creditably sustained, by Mr. and Miss
Cathcart. The elocution and acting of the former were
of a high and gratifying order, while the lady displayed no
small amount of talent, tempered by judgment and good
taste. Several new scenes were introduced, painted ex-
pressly for this piece ; one, in particular, a forest scene
by moonlight, was spirited and truthful. On Friday
evening, Mr. Buckstone took, what is termed, his farewell
benefit at this house ; the performances commencing with
Brinsley Peake's comedy of " The Sheriff of the County,"
followed by the new drama of " Snapping Turtles," and
" The Ascent of Mount Parnassus"—the two latter pieces
from the pen of Mr. Buckstone. In " The Sheriff of the
County," Mr. Buckstone, as Pansey, was irresistibly
comic. His hits were generally telling as well as laugh-
able. The character is one requiring tact and stage ex-
perience, rather than histronic power, and Mr. Buckstone
being a master in ' both these walks of his profession,
brought them beautifully into play, and frequently con-
vulsed the house with laughter. His by-play in general
was capital, and being introduced with propriety, it had
often the effect of rendering a scene highly comic, which
would otherwise have been eminently dull. Mrs. Fitz-
william, as Kitty Crawley, was, as she always is, natural,
pleasing, good-natured, and engaging. The other
characters in the play were in general respectably per-
formed ; the Ensign Tardigrade, of Mr. F. L. Villiers ;
and the Nonpariel, of Mr. Frederick Younge, being
entitled to considerably higher commendation, In " The
Snapping Turtles," Mrs. Fitzwilliam and Mr. Buckstone
had the matter all to themselves, and they succeeded in
keeping the audience in high good humour. " The
Ascent of Mount Parnassus" concluded the performances,
and was received with its usual meed of approbation. On
Saturday, the new play of " Cruel Kindness" was again
repeated, and met with a good reception. It was followed
by " Good for Nothing" and " The Ascent of Mount
Parnassus."

POLICE COURT-YESTERDAY.

ROBBERY BY AN OFFICE BOY.--A lad named Robert '
Laird was placed at the bar, charged with stealing a frock
coat from the office of Mr. Michael Belcher, cotton broker,
Exchange-buildings. The prisoner is a son of police-officer
520.—Mr. Clough stated that the prisoner, who is an
office boy in the employ of Mr. Belcher, was brought to
the office about a fortnight ago, by a pawnbroker in
Fontenoy-street, charged with having stolen the coat.
—The pawnbroker stated that the prisoner offered it to
him for sale for five shillings, and having reasons to be-
lieve that he had obtained it by improper means, he gave
him in charge. On questioning the prisoner at the police
office, he stated that the cashier at Mr. Belcher's had
given him the coat, and his story being believed, he was
discharged, Since that time, however, it had been ascer-
tained that the coat belonged to Mr. Belcher, and that the
prisoner had stolen it from the office. In the mean time
the prisoner had absconded from home and gone to Ire-
land.
He returned on Saturday, when his father, officer
520, brought him to the police office, and he was again
given in charge. Mr. Belcher yesterday identified the
coat as his property. The cashier was at present in Scot-
land, but it was altogether unlikely that he could have
given it to the prisoner. Several articles had lately been
missed from the office, and on Saturday last he (Mr.
Belcher) received a note from Mr. Bean, of the Albion
office, in whose employ the prisoner formerly was, cau-
tioning him to be aware of him. Mr. Bean stated that
he had, whilst at the Albion office, endeavoured to prevail
upon the other boys there to steal the type and other
articles.—ln answer to a question, the prisoner's father
stated that he was not aware, before now, that the prisoner
had been guilty of such practices.—The magistrate said
it was a very painful case. The prisoner was evidently a
boy of a very bad character, for it was clear that he had
not only stolen the coat, but in addition to this, he had
endeavoured to prevail upon other boys to steal printing
type from the Albion office.—The prisoner was remanded
for a week.
PICKING POCKETS.—EIIen Melville was committed for
three months, for attempting to pick the pockets of a
lady in London-road, on Saturday afternoon, about half-
past four o'clock.
ROBBERY OP WEARING APPAREL.—A woman named
Harriet Appleton, a domestic servant, in the employ of
Mrs. Moore, in Hawk-street, was charged with stealing a
quantity of wearing apparel, the property of her mistress,
and pledging the same with Mr. Perry, pawnbroker, in
Brownlow-hill. The prisoner had formerly been in the
habit of frequenting the night asylum, to which she ob-
tained admission by a false representation. She was
committed for trial at the borough sessions.
COMMITMENT.—A n named John Baker was charged
by police-officer 639, with stealing a bottle of ale from a
cask in Duke's Dock. The officer saw the prisoner coming
from the dock with something under his coat, and on exa-
mining him he found that he had a bottle of ale secreted.
On making inquiry at the dock, it was ascertained that
the property had been stolen. The prisoner was com-
mitted for fourteen days.

AN OFFICER in the Liverpool Police force, named
Isaiah Taylor, was on Thursday last convicted in the
penalty of £5 and costs, or, in default, to be committed for
a month, on a charge of fraud. He had received a silver
watch from the master of a flat trading to Chester, to
keep secure for him, which he had not only failed to re-
deliver. but which, on being questioned afterwards by

%M. VGI , ••• ... ,
his superior officers, he said he had not received. tie
had, however, taken it to a watchmaker's shop, where it
was subsequently found.
OPENING SAFETY LAMPS.—At the Worsley petty ses-
sions two colliers, named John Greenhalgh and Richard
Barry, were charged with breaking the rules of the colliery
on the estate of the late Duke of Bridgewater, by removing
the tops of their Davy lamps, while at work, to light their
tobacco-pipes. Mr. Ridyard, inspector of the Worsley
coal mines, caught them in the act on Tuesday, and, as the
prisoners had been fined for this offence three ties before,
it was considered desirable that they should be m
made an
example of in a more public manner. Although the
observance of the rules is absolutely necessary for the
preservation of the lives of the miners, yet they are so
reckless as to break them continually. A good deal of
conversation took place upon the question in court, but
the case was ultimately settled by the offenders agreeing
to sign a form of submission, to be made public, acknow-
ledging their fault, and promising not to offend again on
condition of forgiveness.