The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-26 00:00:00

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FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
THE excitement at the West-end Clubs last nigl.t
betokens the speedy approaen of a political contest, cer-
tain to be attended with circumstances of a memorable
character, and not at all unlikely to prove most damaging
to the ABERDEEN Administration, should, indeed, that
strange admixture of imbecile Whiggery, preposterous
Peelism, and audacious dandified Radicalism escape
positive condemnation at the hands of a well-organised
and constitutional opposition. In ordinary times, our
clubs on Sunday present the dullest aspect imaginable.
At no period of the day or evening can you find more than
half-a-dozen familiar Parliamentary faces grouped together
in the salons of those fashionable resorts of our free and
independent legislators. But last night " Brookes's" was
positively crowded to inconvenience—the " Reform"
numbered at least one hundred and fifty of those who
may fairly be ranked in the category of Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL'S followers ; and the " Carlton" presented an array
of honest, genuine Conservative pluck and spirit, which,
when one considered the immediate cause of their anxi-
ous communing, made glad the heart of the oppressed
Income-tax payer. It was my good fortune to have
lounged an hour or two at each of those establishments,
commencing, somewhere between seven and eight o'clock,
at my own re-union, the " Carlton," where the cuisine,
by the way, under new management, is enchanting ;
towards ten o'clock eliminating the much-vaunted aroma

of Master " BROOKES'S" claret; and, as midnight st )1e on,
seduced by a brace of Manchester friends into the
" Reform"—under whose rather ricketty roof I found
Sir ALEXANDER COCKBURN and BEuee.aa. OSBoRNE,
surrounded by a group of Irish members pronouncing
painful panegyrics on the Cabinet, that they " hoped was
not soon about to fall in pieces." Into such company
no earthly consideration would have induced me to
venture, were it not that T felt inconceivably carious
to learn in what respect the state of feeling at the
Reform, " respecting the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER'S chances of success with his plagiarised
financial scheme, tallied with the evidence which had
been already afforded me both at the " Carlton " and
"Brookes's." Curiously enough, nearly the same opinions
pervaded each of the three clubs. Reformers, Whigs,
and Conservatives agreed in declaring that the Budget
was not the thing ; that in many respects it was most
objectionable ; and that unless Mr. GLADSTONE con-
sented to many material modifications, his propositions
must fall to the ground. At the Reform and Brookes's it
appeared to be generally feared that the Government
would experience defeat on the question of the Irish
Income Tax, by reason of the combined strength of the
Conservative and Ultra-Liberal section of the Irish re-
presentative body. At the Carlton there were slight
hopes that such a game might be played ; but my oyen
deliberate opinion, formed after six hours' careful con-
templation in the hotbeds of political gossip, leads to
the conclusion that the Ministers, by a majority of from
twenty-eight to thirty-five votes, will force all the essen-
tial elements of the GLADSTONE Budget through the
House of Commons ; and that for the remainder of the
session, at least, we shall have certainly no resignation
of Ministers, and nearly as certainly no dissolution
of Parliament.
I have no doubt that most of the readers of the Standard,
in their early days, have seen a nice little treatise, en.
titled, Hocus-Pocus ; or, the Whole Art of Legerdemain.
I remember it tickled my fancy much, especially the page
wherein were three rude wood-cuts of thimbles, and
as many peas about ; since well known as the " thimble-
rig"—a game which the late Premier, the Earl of DERBY,
did not practise, but expose. All CHANCELLORS of the
EXCHEQUER must, in some degree, be professors of the
art referred to ; and doubtless the CHANCELLORS of the
present day are as clever professors in their branch, as the
Hounia's and ROBINS entirely swallow up the fame of
the vulgar necromancers of fifty years ago. lam incon-
tinently led into the use of this apparently ill-favoured
allusion, from having a seance with our present CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER on Monday evening, when
he propounded what is technically called " The Budget."
I shall notice, in a conversational or gossiping style, rather
than in a severe manner, several of those points which
seemed to take the house,—or rather the strangers in it ;
that small sample of Messieurs the Public, who had
access ; taking that way, as most likely the fairer mode of
judging of public feeling out-of-doors, for, on such a
many-membered subject as a Budget, representatives
cannot be accepted as fair expositors. The Hot.e
was immensely crowded, I must tell you, and
GLADSTONE came in punctually, looking prim and pale,
and somewhat big with importance. ft is a trite remark,
that a case must be bad which occupies a long time in the
defence. Now, though Mr. GLADSTONE spoke five mor-
tal hours, and spoke well too, the thousand and one
topics, Argo -briarien like, he had to grapple with, vindi-
cated the length of time consumed, though I make no
reference at all to the budget of his immediate predeces-
sor, which occupied in the delivery exactly the same
number of hours. That right hon. gentleman, you may
be sure, was close by, listening with deep attention, now
and then shrugging his shoulders far up among his hype-
rion curls, which appeared to have had an extra drop of
l'huile divine, as well as an extra twist of the tongs,
Never mind. " A sop to Cerberus," quoth one shrewd-
looking billy, seated in a good part of the SPEA KER'S gal-
lery—duty off the supplement was then being proposed
by the CHANCELLOR. The murder was out at once.
" Who will be bettered by this ?" " The leading Jour-
nal," quoth our friend, who had much the appearance of
one of those cosey, well-to-do, and good-natured people
who have mills on the banks of our still clear and
peaceful tributary stream s—mills for the manufacture
of paper. There can be no doubt of it. I tried to
remember when and where I had seen a supple-
ment save that of the Times; but failed, though
I have a glimmering of a supplement, "a long time ago,"
of some other London paper. However, the halfpenny
was well enough received, though the Thunderer did not
want " greased lightning" to aid him in the support of
the Government. This proposition is looked upon as
nothing less than an attempt to propitiate the powerful
organ I have mentioned. The reduction in the advertise-
ment duty was hailed as a grand step in the right direc-
tion,—perhaps you will laugh and pity my ignorance when
I state that I firmly believe this is the only really tangible
and beneficial proposition of the whole. Thousands will
advertise who were heretofore debarred ; especially will
this be the case with a host innumerable of workers,
clerks, and cooks, and servants of all classes. There was
a bit of humbug brought forward, namely, the remission
of the post-horse duty. Cui bono ? That huge " roarer,"
the iron horse of the rails, has sent all his flesh and blood
predecessors to " grass" long ago ; and, excepting a
wedding party, like an angel's visit, or a " peppered"
beast hired for the day by clerk or shopman—horse and
rider easily distinguished,—the former from its excess of
grooming, and great need of it,—the latter by his gaucherie,
the job-master has had little or no duty to pay for a
long while. But it sounded well,—" Remission of the
Post-horse duty !" Don't it ? Three or four points of
Mr. GLADSTONE'S financial scheme were either plagiar-
ised or taken by -consent from Mr. DISRAELI. That
about the Tea, for example. The Income-tax move is one
of the grandest attempts at dust-throwing in Jolla: BULL'S
eyes. Let me have it as it is for two years, Mr. GLAD-
STONE might have said, and you may have it off altoge-
ther afterwards, if you like. But this would not have
suited the wily CHANCELLOR'S plan. He must appear to
go cautiously about his work—do his financiering as Ariel
does her spiriting—gently. Mr. GLansToNEknows as well
as I do, and every one,.save and except his own immediate
worshippers, that in much less than two years the exist-
ence or non-existence of the Income-tax will be to him,
as a Minister, a mere matter of moonshine : as a loyal
subject, of course, he will pay it. There w a laugh,
when he, in a rather grandiloquent manner—perhap_. .t
was assumed—introduced to the notice of the House a
contemplated reduction of the duties on certain important
articles of human food, enumerating cheese, eggs, and
apples ! Transporting his auditors at once to those
./rcadian and lacteal regions which still are to be found in
,k,
inertia England," where the lowing of the cow is
heard, the cackling of the hen, and, ill luck to it !
sour cyder is drank. Eggs and apples ! Foreign abo-
minations. The pullets-spume of France and Belgium
ought to be doubly taxed, and so drive us to encourage the
production of good English eggs from English fowls. Foreign
apples again—beautiful indeed are they to the eye, but de-
ceitful; they are all either what is called" sleepy," the pulp
dry and woolly, or sour as crabs. For what we have re-
ceived, however, in the budget, let us be thankful. This
is certain, the Government at present are determined to
stand or fall by it, while the opposition-Conservatives
have determined to join the Irish members in throwing
out the Income Tax clause as regards Ireland.
FINCH HATTON, commonly called the Earl of WIN.
CHELSEA, which he is and eke of Nottingham, though in
his sixty-second year, is as fine and manly a specimen of
the real Englishman as you will meet with in a day's
march. Good-looking, burly, and remarkably broad