The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-02-26 00:00:00

THE LIVER THEATRE.

The principal attraction at the Liver during the present week
has been the laughable jets d'esprit of "The Jewess," parodied
for the double purpose of burlesquing the original drama, and
of caricaturing the authors of me. ungenerous but successful
stratagem which prevented the production of that play at this
theatre. The public is fully aware of the shabby proceedings
resorted to in order to effect that object; and the fact is equally
notorious that the actors and actresses engaged, but not per-
initted to appear at the „Liver, are actually hired to exhibit
themselves in the Theatre-royal in the identical costumes which
they would.. have- worn had their first contract been fulfilled.
Well knowing' these 'Ciicumstanees, the audiences who have
witnessed the performances of the travestie were.predisposi,d
to
point its satire, and therefore may be said to have given a more
rapid flight to every arrow-. taketa•from the author's quiver of
ridicule.
Of the travestie little need be said. It is evidently a hasty
composition, but the leading events of the
.play are preserved,
and some of the hits at the monopoly are cleverly introduced.
The principal characters are those of ;Master Leopold Jones,
cHanunond,) and Thwiy O'Forrest,-(Raymond.) The first,
the' on of a Lord Mayor of London, is represeuted as an anti-
quated exquisite of former times; one of those un-idea'd things
who appear to exist only for the purpose of' caricaturing immu-
nity ; in the hands of Hammond, Leopold Jones is repre,,ented
sats4creaturet
twh
rhoougc
ha car,
hneitherc syp
(e)ft as cmt ,
anno rTitilat iTyk
0, 70' evenet.
Throughout the piece Hammond never relaxes from the a.uto-
mat.on-like appearance he assumes iu the fit st scene, and he also
perfectly understands the quiet humbur which causes laughter
in others, while he himself preserves the must imperturbable
graVity of countenance. Indeed the audience might reasonably
doubt svirether.his Unpaid Joaes.cutild ur ever did laugh.
In the closing scene the whole of the characters appear on
the stage and sing a finale. The verse assigned to Thady
O'Forrest is, we believe, to the following. effect :
" sadly bother'd what to say,—
But sure I'll speak out any way— -
Leave without license 0 ;
We got our turtle-soup, good truth,
When Old Monopoly got wroth,
And changed our soup to mutton-broth:
Leave without license.o."
The house has been crowded every night.—Mrs..Raymond's
benefit takes place On .Monday night. She is well known as
an agreeable and exceedingly clever actress, and' on these
grounds. has claims upon•the public which will, .no sloubt, be
amply rewarded. tow t ILM9SVO edl

• TAXI S ON KNOWLEDGE"
Yesterday a public Meeting of the inhabirintsnf .thisAciwn
Was held in the Sessions'-house, convened by the T.• MaVor,
in accordance with a requisition presented to hint," 'About"23o
persons were assembled. At one o'clock;the,hettr
the,Mavor 'entered,. the court amidst loud cheers, arid took,the
chair; was followed by Mr. Coglan, lilr.,,Brown,.lNlr. E.
Sreit, Mr. Hope, Dir. Rathbone, Mr. JaMes Branker, Mr., L.
Hecworth, and several other gentlemen.'
• The MAYOR then rose and said, that in consequence of a.re-
quisition which he had received, and whichhe would. hand Over
to the Town-clerk to read to them; he had convened that meet-
ing to take into consideration the most important subject of
which that requisition treated.
The TOWN-CLERK then toad the requisition, to which were
attached a number of signatures. The requisition prayed the
Mayor to convene a meeting to petition for the repeal of the
tax on newspapers, and all other taxes on knowledge.
• The Mayon again rose. He could scarcely imagine any oc-
casion on which the proper applications of the inhabitants were
presented to him, that he should not feel it his duty as well as
his warm inclination to comply with them. that they might legally
declare their opinions in public. (Cheers.) It', therefore, he
made a general statement of his predisposition to comply with
their requests, they would readily belie ee that on a subject like
the presen', he not only had no hesitation, but he felt the greatest
alacrity iu complying with their wishes. (Cheers.) Of course
the gentlemen who had signed that requisition would come pre-
pared with resolutions for their adoption, and be prepared to
advocate those resolutions. It would, therefore, ill become him
to antieipatetheir opinions; but he might be permitted to say
one word entire subject The first object of the legislature
was to form laws which would have for their object the well-
being of society, and it was the first duty of society to obey
thoshlaws. But, if in the course of their experience they found
that those laws, however well intended, failed in their effect and
became a dead letter, so that nu magistrate could convict—if
trts:le.rt,bheiurt
such a period arrived, it then became the dutyof then legisla-
ture to reconsider those laws,ir
o,i4ttegaltripviea view
modification, modification, -or their total repeal. With respect 'to the
laws on the- subject of unstamped
be no doubt whatever that they could ' not-,Pe.,carried into
publications, there could
effect. He did not mean .to defend those peraans:,whnillegally
entered into the province of the ti
the fair and legitimate trader shonfdbil..Put'on fairfbotieg
with them. The inflictiou of Abe po;j'altoe' incurred bi the in-
fraction of those laws had been an-object of the greatest' 'kill to
the magistrates. It was only the iv#o;ybefoiellio last that his
excellent friend, Mr. Hall, and hiMself,,ware'Obliged to iuffict
a penalty on an offender against these laws for the site 'of illegal
publications. The penalty was a very heavy one, and they had
• mitigated into the lowest sum. But they found afterwards that
even this heavy penalty Was insufficient to prevent the recur-
rence of the offence, for after the conviction they were told,
what had very- properly beets withheld from them by thentlM7
neys before, that this was the second or third conviction fur the
same offence, by the same individual. There could be no rea-
son to suppose that those persons who exclaimed against the
licentiousness of those cheap publications, should not be de-
sirous to do all in their power to give the same field of refuting
their licentiousness to the respectable prints. He, therefore,
thought that the best interests of society would be consulted by
a repeal of those laws. It would exert the abilities and talents
of the people; and it would improve society. He scarcely
anticipated arty difference of opinion on this subject; if such
should arise, he was sure that the persons who proposed that
meeting were too enlightened to prevent any expression of opi-
nion whether favourable or otherwise. ( bard cheering.)
Mr. HOPE took some blame to himself fps not having been
a party to the requisition; he had -.endeavoured all in his
power to make up for that omission by offering to propose a
resolution.—Por which, with the following resolutions' see
advertisement.]—There could be no doubt but that sound edu-
cation tended to security, to morality, and good order. He
did not mean to confine education as applicable only to chil-
dren, but as applicable to all ages and conditions of men. For
there appeared to him to be no greater mistake committed than
to conclude that education should cease when child ea left
school. To him it appeared that it ought to continue through
every part of their lives. The education of children was ma.nly
confined to books; but with reference to adults there was no
way of promoting education but by means of the press, and
there was no part of the press so likely to convey it as the news-
papers A newspaper conveyed information of events affecting
the welfare of this and every country; it became thus interest-
ing to all ranks and conditions of men, and there was no one
but must derive informatiou and instruction from it. It con-
veyed to the merchant information as to the market; to the con-
sumer it told the cost of the material; to the grower as to the
value of his produce ; and to the artizan it told what was the
value of his labour. By thus rnixiug itself up in the every day
concerns of life, it possessed a must potent influence. For, as
the great leviathan reviewer of the north had said, "the greiatest
revolutions in the mural and physical world were brought. about
by things of small moment, it was the worm whieh produced the
choral rock on which the proudest. vessel might be wrecked."
it was,l he added, "by the influence. of silent , means that
the nation was rapidly proceeding for the.bettor or the worse."
That the press was a powerful engine they Must allow—that
it
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