The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-06-28 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL.

TIIE NEW COMIC PANTOMIME,

(Produced expressly for the Midsummer Holydays,) having
been received throughout with the most distinguished appro-
bation, will be repeated every Evening during this Week.

rinHIS present TUESDAY EVENING, the 28th instant,
IL will be performed Mr. Knowles's Tragedy of

VIRGINIUS.

Virginius... Mr. Stuart. I lcilius. Mr. Howard.
Virginia.. Miss Faucit. I Servia..Kr.s. Stanley.
After which, for the second time, an entfiely new fantastical,
• sarcastical, versatile, musical, mecha ice!, comical Panto-
mime, called
HARLEQUIN AND THE GO DEN GOOSE;
Or, the Charcoal Burners and the oblin of the Mine.
Founded on the popular Legend " • Idene Gause," with a
new Overture and original Music. 144 w and splendid Scenery,
Painted by Messrs. Parker and Johnson. Machinery, Tricks,
&c. by Mr. Willmore. Properties and Decorations by Mr.
MgCrum. Dresses,' &c. by Mr. Marshall an't Assistants; the
whole produced. under the immediate direction of Messrs. T.
and J. Ridgway.
Harlequin.... Mr. J. Ridway I Clown.... Mr. T. Ridgway.

Pantaloon.. Mr. Jonas I Columbine..Madlle. Marie.

On WEDNESDAY, WILLIAM TELL and the new Comic
PANTOMIME.

Mr. W.Farren, of the Theatre-Royal, Drury-lane, is engaged
for Ten Nights, and will make his first appearance this seaso❑
on Monday next.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The letter relative to some Irish Stock Physic Company is an
advert isement.

iLibtrpooi

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 28, [836.

We have received New York papers to the 9th instant,
but they do not supply any additional information froth
Florida or Texas. They only contain the same intelli-
gence which we have received more directly by way of
New Orleans. The extraordinary despatch of General
HOUSTON has created a sensation in New York, and all
his extravagant details are voraciously swallowed. These
people may know each other, but we confess we are not
yet disposed to attach any credit to them. General
HOUSTON himself has arrived at New Orleans in a state
of " ill health," as some say, and " badly wounded," as
others maintain. It is singular that, admitting him to
be wounded, the general is the only man who has been
permitted to leave the American force at so critical a mo-
ment. It is also curious that new volunteers are most
earnestly implored to eater the Texian army. Upon the
whole, it would not surprise us to learn that General
HOUSTON has been defeated, and compelled to retreat.
In Florida, the savage war still continues.

We cannot understand by what combination of stu-
pidity and malice any rational being can ascribe the
affair in which Lord MELBOURNE has been involved to
party feeling or tory artifice. So far from party feeling
being mixed up with the trial, we protest we have sel-
dom seen a case of the kind, where a public man in high
station was concerned, in which more tenderness or deli-
cacy has been observed by all classes of the community.
On the side of politics to which we-belong, we have seen
no harshness of allusion, no invidious sneers, no vindic-
tive animadversions. Lord MELBOURNE has received
fair play from the opposition press, and as regards our-
selves, we have until now carefully refrained from offer-
ing even a passing remark on the subject. •
The slander, Unfortunately and unadYisedly adopted
by Sir JOHN CAMPBELL, had its origin with the hacks of
the ministerial press, and we do net wonder at it. From
that quarter we are prepared for any baseness. Men
who can stoop so far as to screen the foul-mouthed men-
dacity of the Irish demagogue, cannot be supposed to be
nice as 'to the means they employ in defending their
prime minister against the "- pressure from without."
Had Sir JOHN CAMPBELL not borrowed and circulated
the slander, we should probably have remained silent
altogether. The noble lord is pronounced to be an in-
jured man ; we think Mrs NORTON a much more deeply
wronged lady ; but as both are declared to be innocent,
it will perhaps be worth our pains to enquire of what
have the jury acquitted them.
We deplore, in common with every right -hearted man,
the exposure of apprehensions, assumed to be realities,
founded upon such inconclusive and repulsive evidence.
The jury acquitted the noble viscount- of The criminal
offence. We are bound therefore to believe that he and
the implicated lady are both innocent. The law, as far
as the law can, has made them pure. But we must not
shut our eyes to those portions of the evidence, uncon-
nected with the criminal charge, in which the conduct of
Lord MELBOURNE is the very reverse of being gene-
rous, dignified, or exemplary. Even on the plea of in-
nocence the moral is reprehensible. Mr. NORTON may
have been the victim of jealousy or ill temper—of ma-
lice or simplicity ; but still throwing aside the grosser
evidence, enough remains to form an album in which to
record the exquisite drivellings of a venerable fool, the
prime, minister of England, settling the affairs of Eu-
rope, in a lady's chamber, at Storey's Gate, over a can-
dle cup, and a selection of baby linen.

Sir JOHN CAMPBELL admitted that there had been very
great familiarities between the parties. Now this is all
we shall take for granted. We make no charge of a
graver nature than this. Let us see then how the facts
look disencumbered of every superfluous covering.
Lord Viscount MELBOURNE, when his Majesty's Se-
cretary of State for the Home Department, is solicited
by a lady, whom he only knew by repute, to interest
himself in the fortunes of her husband whom certain law
changes had thrown out of professional employment.
The noble lord, with very remarkable politeness, an-
swers the letter in person. Curiosity does much in these
matters—vanity much more. The Lord of the Home-
office walks to Storey's Gate. The remains of a good-
natured, simpering dandy, sliding down-hill towards his
sixtieth winter, introduces himself to a handsome, inte-
resting, accomplished, elegantly dressed, and captivating
young woman of five-and-twenty. What took place at
the first interview we can only conjecture. Many pro-
fessions of regard were no doubt made by the one, and
gratefully accepted by the other. A profusion of senti-
mentality formed the interludes to professional business,
and much was promised, and very little expected, because .
probably neither considered the other sincere. Ques-
tionless the wife was anxious to advance her husband's
interests—perhaps the minister was willing to patronise
merit, and yield to genius what other and weaker men
would have given to beauty. However, in a very short
period the Honourable Mr. NORTON was promoted to the II
stipendiary bench of magistrates, and sent to avenge
justice, adjudicate between chimney-sweeps and-pick-
pockets, and listen to the wrongs and jars of costertnon-
gers and washerwomen in Lambeth-street, in the vicinity
of Whitechapel, the most disorderly and unsavoury loca-
lity in all London. Bow-street is about twenty minutes'
walk from Storey's Gate—Queen-square Office not three
minutes'. Lambeth-street, on the contrary, is a good
hour's walk, for which, on the score of healthful exercise,
Mr. NORTON could not be less than obliged to his noble
patron.
From the first hour of the husband's convenient 'but
not very lucrative appointment, the prime minister of
England became a frequent, almost a daily visiter, and,
of course, an ardent but innocent admirer of the wife.
The Home Office and Storey's Gate became almost
identical. Far more communications passed between
thern than between the Horse Guards and the Admiralty,
or Windsor and White-hall. ServantS, in plain and official
liveries, carried more important despatches than ever
passed between Lord PALMERSTON and the Dutch am-
bassador. The lord visited the- lady, and the lady the
lord, both with the most ingenuons and reciprocal sim-
plicity. During the long period in which this harmoni-
ous interchange of ideas took place; little variation in
the incidents occur. Theie were few interruptions, by.
any peculiar acidity or sweetness, to the correspondence.
The reform bill passed and the citadel of Antwerp was
blown up—Lord GREY went out and Lord MELBOURNE
went in-4he latter was turned abont his business by the
King and then taken back againbitt the noble premier
and Storey's Gate remained quite' the same. The in-
nocent intercourse of the parties was so pure, so inarti-
ficial, so natural, and, at the same time, go homely, that
even literary Subjects were neglected;for we hear nothing
of verses, nothing of playi, nothing of boOks, except an
epistolary notice of a curious volurne;' sent to the lady by
his lordshipli in which the author maktii an ardmous at.