The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

Kibtrpooi tanbarbf

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

Monday Morning.

THERE 'S something indescribably assuring and encou-
raging in the cetainty that a sound constitutional govern-
ment presides over the destinies of the country—a go-
vernment not made of squeez,ble materials, which only
requires violent pressure to yield everything it can yield—
a governMent that will not truckle to this knot of impu-
dent brawlers, or to that—a government that will not

throw itself into the meretricious arms of Democracy one

day, and the next rush frightened back to the protecting

embraces of legitimate Conservatism. Throughout the
country a feeling o security and confidence in the present
government man!festa itself in a thousand ways. In the
capital it is remarkably distinct—it is palpable to all who
will observe what surrounds them. Compare London
during the present season with what it was under the
Whig-Radical rule of the late administration, and the
contrast is most striking. Now life, hustle, activity,

prosperity-, contentment, pleasure. are visible on the
ccuntenances of all classes and all degrees. The shops
are file. with prctita!)l4-3 customers, the streets are
thrcnged with splendid equipages, the money circulates
through the wholo circle of society in revivifying currents.
The celebration of her MAJgSTY'S birthday was indeed

rlaznif.cont in every sense. it -reminded one of the good
old days of chivalry, loyalty. nobility, and courtesy. The

honours paid to the SOVEREIGN were nut mere formali-
ties prescribed by custom, in which the heart and the
feelings were unconcerned. There was a spirit of ,qcnuirie
enthusiasm pervading the general festivity—there was an

ardent desire to 'honour the QUErS, and to respect the
re7igious and political, of which she is the

in2tßutior,

head and the defender. What a superb assemblage of
rangy and beauty and distinction thronged the Royal pa-
lace of St. James on Thursday last ! It is many a long
day since so many lofty plumes, so many illustrious crests,
so many high-born dames, and greatly-gifted men, were
seen congregated in that grim but grand old residence of
rcvalty. The rooms of state, celebrated for their extent
and gorgeous magnifirence, the vestibules, the anti-rooms,
the staircases, the porches, the very court-yards, were
unable to contain the multitudes that eagerly bat grace-
fully pressed forward to hand the knee and make the
courtesy to the British QUEEN. The prevailing style of
costume, approaching, as it does, the elegant and flowing
fashions of the times of Louis XIV., ad, ed immensely to
the brilliancy of the scene, and rendered the whole cere-
mony surpassingly beautiful. Her 'MAJESTY was highly
gratified with this demonstration of loyal devotion, and
exhibited her pleasure by looks, and expressed her satis-
faction by words. The banquets, ministerial and other,
that followed, were worthy of association with this splen-
did birth-day drawing-room. Old Downing-street was
fairly shaken from its dull propriety by the incessant roll
of carriages that bore the creme de la creme of the aristo-
cracy and the intellectual greatness of England to the sa-
lons of the lady of the First Minister. The Duke. of
WELLINGTON'S magnificent ball on the following night,
given in compliment to the Princess MARY of CAMBRIDGE,
and to which twelve hundred of the high aristocracy were
invited, was a worthy corollary, to the birth-day solemni-
ties. It was a glorious sight to see the fine old man do-
ing the honours so gallantly as he did on this joyous oc-
casion, and looking us brisk and hearty as he did any time
these twenty years. It would be vain to attempt to notice
a tenth part of the feAivities that at present enliven the me-
tropolis. London fashionable life is now what it should be.
The days of shabby broughams, lanky coachmen, dirty
cabs, and hack carriages, with six ladies packed in them
like red herrings, is gone by, and the days of softly-roiling
chariots, jolly-fat coachmen, grand-dress liveries, and re-
sponsible bouquets are come back ; and, if I am not much
mistaken in my prognostications, the days—or rather the
nights—of hair powder, black beauty-patches, cloth of
gold, laces, bright eyes, and dazzling complexions, will be
here anon.-

The old drama of the Rebellion of the Belly and the
Members has been revived at the Imperial Theatre at
Westminster. It is an English adaptation, and not the
original Roman comedy that has been rehearsed. The
plot of this little vaudeville is simple and short, but
vitally interesting. It having been found that the Com-
mons were growing uncommonly saucy, the LORD CHAM-
BERLAIN bethought him of a way of taking the conceit
out of them, and with that intent he determined to fight
them with their own weapons—" stopping the supplies."
As major domo of her MAJESTY'S police of Westminster,
he forthwith issued a decree interdicting their daily allow-
ance of penny buns, lemonade, gingerbread, and oranges
—in short, all the elements of long speeches and effer-
vescent oratory. This declaration of war upon their very
existence, roused the spirit of the modern HAMPDENS to
boiling heat. They determined not to be starved out ;
they resolved to rebel desperately against short com-
mons toile que ecAte. Alderman HUMPHREY led the
van of the discontents, declared that to stop their
cake and ale was to deprive them of their consti-
tutional privileges, and proposed to raise a rifle corps
of aldermen in defence of the entire body or whole
corporation of legislators. Little ROEBUCK, whose
general diet is an Abernethy biscuit and a cup of milk,
and who never drinks anything more alcoholic than a
glass of water with a gooseberry in it, felt so keenly the
unconstitutional nature of the interference of the LORD
CHAMBERLAIN, that be declared he would swallow a pint
of brandy under the royal official's very nose,'and sell
apples himself in the corridor, in pure defiance of royal
authority, merely to try the issue. BRIGHT, although a
man emphatically of peace, cried for " war to the knife;"
and even old BROTHERTON, who is a decided vegetarian
and absolute teetotaller, shouted out he could not stand
it. Things looked rife for desperate action, when the
politic CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER calmed the
angry spirits. He offered his mediation between the
hunger-stung house and the comfortably provisioned
LORD CHAMBERLAIN. That mediation was fortunately
accepted, and thus for the present the great constitutional
contest between the Commons and the Crown is held in
abeyance.

What I anticipated last week has come to pass. The
faction who made the welkin ring by shouting for a dis-
solution of Parliament and for electoral reform have
laboured incessantly, and too successfully, in stopping
reform, and in postponing the appeal to the country.
They who can agree in nothing else, agree in obstructing ;
and, whether under the leadership of GLADSTONE or of
COBDEN, is a matter of indifference to them. Nothing
can be more disgraceful than the senseless obstructions
offered to the Militia Bill, and which, it appears, are to
be continued this week. Even Lord - I
OHN RUSSELL
has been ashamed of them, and keeps out of the House,
leaving BRIGHT, COBDEN, and MILNER GIBSON to do
the dirty work. As to the Maynooth debate, although
the motion for a committee of inquiry has been virtually
carried, it is doubtful if a division can be obtained on the
question in the existing Parliament, on account of the
factious and obstructive course of proceeding which the
Pope's brass band have sworn to adopt. The whole
Ultramontane confederation have declared their intention
of consuming the time of the House by making inter-
minable speeches, and thus protract the debate. That
they will pursue this disgraceful system, is not to be
doubted. Excommunication stares them in the face.
They must obey the commands of the Vatican, or stand
its thunders.

Who can doubt the fanatical prostration of such per-
verts as MONSELL, and such priest-driven slaves as
MOORE ?

They are sworn to die on the floor of the house, or stop
the committee.

" This vile apostate bends to Baal the knee.
And, for a little meat and guzzle,
This sneaking cur, too, takes the muzzle."

But, by whatever Jesuitical devices or Romish frauds the
appointment of the committee of inquiry into the Maynooth
hot-bed of superstition and Popery may be delayed, the
days of that establishment, as a state-provisioned one, are
numbered. Timely and powerfully did the great Protes-
tant meeting at Exeter-hall come to the assistance of
Parliament in enlightening the public upon the iniquitous
doctrines taught and the demoralising principles incul-
cated in the Irish seminary of priestcraft. Never did Dr.
isI,NE/LE, Mr. NOLAN, and the other gentlemen who
spoke at Exeter-hall, do greater service than on that
occasion, and never was there held in this great metropolis
a more important or more influential meeting.
Unbounded was the joy of the popish band on Tuesday
morning last, when they learnt that Mr. SPOONER had
met with an accident on the previous evening, and high
were their hopes that he would have been unable to come
down to the House of Commons to bring forward his
promised motion. But Mr. SPOONER'S heart and soul
are engaged in the Maynooth question, and despite the
pain he was enduring, and in defiance of the advice of
his medical attendant, he persisted in accomplishing the
task he had imposed on himself. He was led supportd by his
worthy colleague and another M.P. to his place in parlia-
ment, and though his voice was weak, and his physical
energies were impaired, he made a speech that will be
ilciAid throughout the length and breadth of the land, and