The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-18 00:00:00

At the clubs, I can assure you, that a dissolution of Par-
looked upon as by no means a distant object;

for my own pa

is to be

the leach

holds o

I cannot unde

nd how such an event

ided. Lord JOHN Russr.LL, though st

o only

Commo

he House of
—play fi

s, does not—

t fiddle elsewhere, as formerl

t hesitate to state

that he

In this

? sink lower, or retire to his lite-
rary labours on the " Life of Charles James Fox ?" Not
likely. Then again, the members of the United Service
Club, one and all, are speaking of the Duke of NORTHUM-
BERLAND SUptreeding Sir JAMES GRAHAM at the Admi-

where c

ralty. Old naval men certainly say that, in their expe-
rience, they never bad a better first lord than his grace.
And it could not well be otherwise; as Lord PRUDHOE,
he was a dashing sailor, a man and a gentleman in the most
dignified sense of the terms ; superadded were his tastes

Aar and an antiquarian. There are, it is believed,

two or three other hitches in the Government, of which

I don't know if many of your readers are well acquainted

good old B

rough of Southwark, where abide
the staunch constituency of one of HER MAJESTY'S
Minis,- LIAM MOLESIVORTH, the

rs, hight Sir W

champion of the ballot. Southwark is famous for two or

three things : among these are its ancient hostels with
their social clubs ; since the election of Sir WILLIAM,
the ballot has been freely discussed at these friendly
meetings. Now, I do not mean to say that the bal-
lot is unpopular among the majority of Sir WILLIAM'S
constituents ; but certainly some quondam supporters of
the system are altering their views, wisely saying to each
other, " What's the use of secret voting to you or to
me, who have known each other's politics all our lives ?"
And this will be found the simple state of the case all
over the kingdom, even among the most numerous and
scattered constituencies. The fast of which way a man
will vote, must and does ooze out. In Liverpool is there
a single voter, up to the highest merchant, whose
politics are not well known ? Not one. Why, then
have secret voting ? I am not going to " fug* the
topic ;" that's not my province. Even in literary and
scientific soqieties Lord BROUGHAM, no mean authority,
seems to think the ballot a humbug. The last time
I saw the noble and learned lord exercise the ballot-fran-
chise was at the Royal Society, the first literary society in
the world ; the assistant-secretary went round with the
ballot-box, containing one entrance for the hand of the
voter, with hidden divisions for yea and nay. Now Lord
BROUGHAM did not wish even the secretary to know how
he voted, as that functionary undoubtedly would have
done, bad he held the ballot-box in the usual manner.
Frequent practice would enable the most obtuse secretary
to know which way the hand tendedß, hence which way
the fatal ball, if black, fell. Lord BROUGHAM, like a
" knowing shot" as he is, took the ballot-box in, his arms,
and dropped the ball undetected, as he liked. The scene
was very laughable. Of course, ballotting for members of
Parliament, should such a chimera ever be called into
action in this country, would be managed differently.
Perhaps, as it has passed into a proverb that " they
manage these things better in France," the late ballot in
that staid country may afford a precedent.
What is that restless, discontented, deil-ma-care old
sailor, CHARLES NAPIER, about ? Depend upon it, Ad-
miral NAPIER is not now darkening the doors of govern-
ment offices for nothing. For once in his life he appears
joyous—happy. Though some Whigs are in who used to
annoy him, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL too, their wings
are clipped, and Admiral NAPIER may yet have some-
thing to say ; Lord JOHN• is neither Premier nor at the
Admiralty, and this causes great joy in the stout heart of
the Admiral. The fact is,---and your shipping and com-
mercial friends may rely upon it—that Sir JAS. GRAHAM,
after all, is practical at the Admiralty, and knows where
he can get the best advice ; and though, in my humble
opinion, as well as in that of one or two old sailors, the
Sidon steam Government-ship, called " Drunken CHAR-
LIE," it rolled so,—built under the eye of Admiral NA-
PIER at the expense of the country—is a mistake, " the
old Commodore" can give noble advice ; and, if I dared
tell you all I know, the authorities at the Admiralty
',aye much need alit. In a political point of view, Sir J.
__ is below zero. The wind bloweth where it

, and Sir JAMIE, a practised hand at political
)ping and ch nging, is as uncertain
may by his
Let him console himself as mucitl's thel wind.afore.
and divers
4netrine of expediency, for whicha -11?
evioichfred to ,en have sacrificed consistwenhceyn,
ed by sterner politicians,
king, tilt distinguished mark of a sound statesman.l;37:
to return to affairs nautical :—The Dauntless, I am afraid'
ought to have her name changed, as the Beelzebub had
suggestion of a rev. scion of an
hers sometime ago -I sailing under the colours

consider

aristocratic house, who declinea ..
of such a " Prince ;"—bad provisions and yellow fever
require sound advice. Little NAPIE, as his friends call
him, is out-spoken • and he exhibited this characteristic
too soon and too fire uently —a dangerous error some-
times ; hence Lord LIN'S 'hints about indiscreetness
and that sort o' thilooking much
has for some time past. —e
better than he ng. The Admiral is liehis
ancles—apparently failing,gathers
gout for forty years_ino though
high-low's, which is a great improvement
Wellington's or good
he has not had the
standing. This last is poor. . to his under-
Pursiea.te of our steam
A word or two touching the present
navy. Notwithstanding all the brag certain authori-
ties, tbl
ual nit allpossesses the world
England at the present momet('a better
and more available Screw Steam Navy
months
shout
besides. There are our old friends—
principle,
principle—the Blenheim, La Hogue, and thoendithe old
present being adapted to the screw jar, at
altering their build. Besides these, in a few
be ready for sea—all on the screw—the Albert, 120 guns,wlll
the Wellington, 130, the Marlborough, 130. the Hanni-
bal. bal. 90, the Exmouth, 90, and the Royal George, 120:
together with half-a-dozen frigates. In emergency we
can draw noon our mercantile steam marine—the Ori-
ental, the General Screw Company, the South American,
the Peninsular, the Cunard line, &c. " Think of that,
Master Brook." I have been led into these remarks in
consequence of the magnificent banquet given at South-
ampton on Wednesday evening, by the directors of the
General Screw Steam Shipping Company, probably for
(mercantile), wealth, and intelligence, never
1-tl.

equaii -
Of the sights ever seen, the most
.grotesque and noisy,
if not altogether interesting, the exhibition of foreign and
domestic poultry now open at the west end, must carry
away the prize. To ca. 1.1 it a feathered Babel is to say
nothing ; a moment the creatures are quiet, anon one of

Your intelligent readers may supply the blank with the
Persian word " Bosh," the interpretation of which your
correspondent, not being, it is hoped, a vulgar one, with-
holds. The truth is, SHAKESPEARE'S plays cannot be
represented in their entirety any where ; not because,
as is frequently asserted, that the true SHAKESPERIAN
actors are not concentrated—they do not exist. CHARLES
KEAN, an actor, a scholar, and a gentleman, does SHAIC-
SPEARE. He (CHARLES) is cunning of fence—" a very
feather in the cap of youth"—skilled in all that can be
acquired ;—is he geniused ? does he evolve the deeper
and darker shades of the moody and philosophic PRINCE
OF DENMARK ? No. The ambitious MACEETFI ? Has
he grandeur for the Roman heroes ? If he had, who is to
support him ? CHARLES KEAN and his gifted wife, how-
ever, do much to sustain the poor embers of the legiti-
mate. Go to the theatre of SAMUEL PHELPS—Sadler's
WeIIs—PHELPS is good—passing good—in your Mot-
motsrns, and there be many in the field. His taste and
lavish expenditure in " mounting" must also be extolled ;
but noble SAMUEL is not a S.akspearian Atlas any more
than CHARLES KEAN. Oh ! but there's JAMIE ANDER-
SON, the " celebrated tragedian," who has drawn great
houses in Grub-street that was. Atone he did it. The prices,
were small, and Mr. ANDERSON'S having a good salary, as
he had until the other day, when pantomime superseded
him, certainly proves a popular love for our immortal
bard, and that even under constrained circumstances—
in the dramatic world—one swallow may make a summer.
Of new dramas, many have been on the anvil for the last
two months, and several are now being read daily in the
green-rooms of the metropolitan theatres, to keep the
game alive after the first blush of the pantomimes has
faded. Meantime, as a fit pendant to the foregoing,
several of the newspapers, daily and weekly, political and
literary, have sent in their relinquishment of the " pri-
vilege" of writing orders. To the which I say, bravo !

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