The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-05 00:00:00

typo

tai

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
THERE has been a regular " rumpus" all the week in the
city, among the merchant princes, anent that silly and
uncalled-for address, to Louis NAPOLEN, setting forth
that England had the best possible feelings of brotherly
love towards Frenchmen. I must tell you that the affair
was got up by Mr. MASTERMAN, a worthy man, morally
and commercially ; Sir JAMES DUKE, the alderman, a
cannie Scot, of unblemished character, though, perhaps,
not of withering brilliancy of fancy ; and smug SAMUEL
GURNEY, the great Quaker bill broker, fugled by SIDNEY
SMITH, of corn-law notoriety. There are a great many
merchants in the city wha have not, and would not, sign
the address at all ; firstly, because they did not see any
likelihood of a breach of the peace between the two
countries

and, secondly, they considered it would be just

as well to let " booing" to the EMPEROR alone for the

present. Worse, however, remains behind ; the suppres
sio yen is a not very creditable act on the part of any
man, or body of men ; yet vast numbers, even of those
merchants who signed the address, declare, in scorn, that
they never would have done so, had they known that it
wasito be presented personally to LOUIS NAPOLEON.
In short, this fact was kept in the dark. The thing,
however, is done, and the EMPEROR and EUGENIE, his
oRa, certainly did the honours of the Tuileries
dinner in grand style, according to the accounts of several
who have returned after having been both balled and
dined. It was a droll sight to see not a few of the
staunchest English Conservatives so employed, in the ab-
sence of all the Conservative respectability of France !
Some say the address could do no harm ; I am not sure of
that. The merchant princes had no business to go half
way, as if they really were afraid that, for a moment, the
EMPEROR contemplated an invasion. At the same time,
the French don't like to be licked,—Waterloo still sticks
in the throats of the most peaceful of them : thousands and
thousands of French people, men and women, if truth is
spoken in cabaret and via ordinaire. Let " Lumber
Troopers"cajole, as theycan cajole, and go the whole hog—

'lye les Anglais—Vine every thing—Wa-
terloo lives in their memories—and rankles—a word, and
a blow if need be ; but it so happens there is, and shall be,
"no need be." For Lours' word nobody would give a
button, if he (Lours) were placed on the horns of a
dilemma. Luckily it so happens we are prepared for him,
though great Agamemnon be sick; in our preparation we
have our " flower safety" as from the " nettle danger ;"
and if the address to the EMPEROR (Help us !) was a
piece of surplusage, the parties paid for it at the price of
about £3,000, but they had into the bargain a nice Easter
jaunt to Pari, as the " buffers" are now calling Paris,
after the stay of a week. Fact, I assure you ; within one
hour ago I heard one of them, whom hitherto I had looked
upon as a rational and tolerably educated person, drawl
out Kalie for Calais. One hates humbug, with which the
city address began and ended.
Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN'S manifesto, all the way from
Van Diemen's Land, has caused some conversation and
commiseration in our political circles. Now that mostly

tations—

all the members of the legislature have returned to their
Parliamentary duties, I doubt not it will attract some
attention in the House of Commons. This, lam of opi-
nion, will not be absolutely necessary ; for, from what I
can gather, there is every disposition in the highest quar-
ter to hold out mercy and forgiveness ; in short, to allow
the once-misguided, wrong-headed, but not bad-hearted
man, to return to his "own dear country." So much am
persuaded of this, that I do not hesitate to express my
belief, as it certainly is my hope, that we shall have the
descendant of the kings of Ireland a member of Parlia-
ment once more. His address to the nobility and gentry
of Ireland, who exerted themselves for his release, in
placing a memorial to that effect before the Earl of
EGLINTON, might have been more tempered in diction ;
but, considering the man, it is evident he is much tamed
down. Poor fellow, I recollect him, when, MALvoLto-like,
he was kept prisoner in the cellar of the House of Com-
mons, no martyr appeared to be more proud, even when
the passer-by stood between the " Trish patriot" and
the little sunlight he had about a couple of hours in the day.
He says he don't remember ever having uttered a word
disrespectful of Queen VICTORIA. Certainly not; neither
her Gracious MAJESTY, nor her Ministers past or present,
accused him of that. But had the Priests stuck to him
and his mad scheme, no one could have predicated the
consequences. The Irish Priests, however, encouraged
him till no longer safe for themselves, and then left the
vain, deluded, and obstinate patriot to shift for himself.

That funny fellow, BUCKSTONE, the actor, and lessee of
the Haymarket Theatre—where may he prosper—in bis
capacity of treasurer to the General Theatrical Fuud,
at the last anniversary, held two or three days ago, men-
tioned in his speech that two gentlemen of the legal pro-
fession had vouchsafed certain advice and performed some
law work for the institution, gratis—free for nothing, as
PAT says—thereby saving the fund a good round sum,
available to charity, which otherwise would have to be
disbursed to pay the lawyers. The intimation was re-
ceived with more than the usual raps on the London
tavern mahogany—which, by the bye, has a deeply in-
dented margin all round, caused by knocks in aesnow-
ledgment of millions of pounds sterling given by after-
dinner gentlemen in charity. BUCKY'S announcement
was followed by the remark that so sensible was he of
th

e kindness of his forensic friends, that he had resolved
never, while he had the management of the Haymarket
Theatre, to utter one word, however piquant the word,
or tempting the opportunity, to the disparagement of
lawyers in general. This, of course, produced a hearty
laugh, and a hear ! hear ! or two. Well, I hope our
friends, the lawyers, will console themselves in part with
this. Certes, they and the clergyneed not go for brotherhood
to those two aristocratic nests, the Wyndham Club and
Arthur's, for there they are black-balled in a most sweep-
ing manner at present ; and what's more, the dukes, mar-
quises, earls, viscounts, barons bold, &c., of the two
establishments, say they don't want any more of the
" clergy," or of the legal profession, amongst them. I
neither applaud nor condemn the resolve ; I state the
fact. lam sorry, however, to add, that there is almost
in every club a coterie, which, without regard to the
rit or demerit of a candidate, black-ball, as the whim
In short, the " yea " or " nay " rests with the
members of this coterie, some of whom, it may be, I
would not set " with the dogs of my flock ;" but they—
not the dogs—are in, and keep better men out. These
remarks are not of a personal character. I never was
black-balled in my life, and for a very good reason—your
correspondent would " serve them out " if they dared.

Of all the City dinners I beg to recommend the Easter
banquet at the Mansion-house. That of Monday last
was, if anything, an improvement on its predecessors as
regarded three or four important elements ;—the wittals
and drink were superior, and the company, though more
numerous than select, was select enough to testify to the
popularity of my Lord Mayor CHALLIS. Besides, there
was no waiting till a quarter-past eight, as i have waited ;
sensitive ears greeted with certain subterranean sounds

indicating long abstinence, impatience, disappointment,
and all the other disagremins,—result of dinner deferred.
I do not believe that our present Lord Mayor would have
welted for that Russian crab-apple, PrinceMeilscamorF ;
as it was, nobody had to wait till the broth was spoiled.
There are, perhaps, two reasons why the people at the
Easter banquet look better—less vulgar, in short, than
they on the 9th of November, at Guildhall. At the
former dinner people have to go in daylight, and your
daylight is a capital detector of sham. One's " Mechlin "
must be real on Easter Monday ; and I am sure our
friends the lawyers, from Mr. Briefiess up through
Q. C.'s, sergeants, attorneys-general, solicitors-general,
barons of every grade, chancellors and vice-chancellors,
always have a handful more flour thrown over the
horse-hair ; the forensic " bib and tucker," too, give
evidence that the blancheseuse has been coaxed. The
Banquetting-hall, also, is of more elegant construc-
tion and appearance than the Hall of Guild, no dis.
paragement to which is meant. That at the Man-
sion-house is for refined conviviality—'tother for election
PTPoses chiefly. I advise all persons invited to the
Laster dinner at the Mansion-house to arrive a quarter of
an hour before the time fixed for dinner, especially if
the party have an odd name, such as BUGGINS, DOBBS,
PIPPIN, or any other that can by possibility be twisted
orally, contorted, or confounded. Irony, sharp and insuf-
ferable, to the numerous families of Wiooms and FIG-
GINS is always accorded, when either name is announced.
SMITH likewise seems to be a laughable name at the
Mansion-house. After the poor de'il SMITH has entered
the reception-alley,
well-fed, and somewhat " exhilirated" domestic, who
evidently likes a joke, and is amazing to witness how
many friends SMITH has got in the company, and to hear
with what solicitude inquiries are made—after his mother
'specially. Anotherpiece ofad vice 1 g tve,—should your vehi-
cle follow hot in the rut of aMinister of State, tell your man
to hold hard,—let the minister enter half a minute a-head
of you, else you will be bawled out " The Right Honour.
able the Earl of --, HER MAJESTY'S &c, &C." I was
served so once, and never will forget my agony. Being
a lover of my genus, 1 point a moral. Cave .' The two
first fiddles on Monday were played by two Scotelimen—
(no ill-bred allusion to the Scotch fiddle is here meant,)
the Earl of ABERDEEN and the Duke of ARGYLE. The
former looked less bilious than 1 have seen him, the latter
amiable and glib enough. I Ins a little surprised to see

tbatt+ ABERDEEN drink Moselle, considering the weather. Un-
less during the glorious days of glowing summer, this is a
poor and cheerless beverage. Ido believe that the Earl's
general sour look is to be as much attributed to the use
of non-generous wine as anything else. What drank
your correspondent ?—the glass of fashion, of course.
tell you : After my green turtle, three thimbles full of
punch • no liquid else for above the space of two minutes,
then half a glass of hock, in proper time two glasses of
champagne, (Moet,) two of old port, (as basis for future
proceedings,) afterwards the tipple of the evening—
CLARET, winding up all with a nightcap of Cognac. I
don't think Earl GRANVILLE (a capital fine art man)
made much mistake in following this course. The
speeches were nothing. GLADSTONE infringed on poli-
tics, but we would not have it, and the affair went off as
dinner parties usually do.
The Times, within the last few days, has called atten-
tion to the worse than Uncle Torn slavery and bondage of
the English milliner and dressmaker—girls whose situ-
ation at this period of the year is truly deplorable. One
or two sensible letters have appeared in the leading jour-
nal, signed " A First Hand," which means one of the
best paid, because a cleverer workwoman than the others
;in the same establishment. The name of that amiable
' lady, the Duchess of SUTHERLAND, has been invoked by
the dressmakers, and I think appropriately enough ; for,
unquestionably, her Grace is " a First Hand"—Mistress
of the Robes to the best-dressed woman in the world—
the QUEEN, Goo bless her ! If the Duchess, it is ob-
served, were but to set the fashion—not in the make or
material—that she does already,—but in not having gar-
ments made after ten o'clock at night, nor before eight
o clock in the morning, slavery among thousands of our
countrywomen would have its "Quietus made with a bare
bodkin." I need not here refer to the hard work, long
hours, indifferent food,—bad cheese and dry bread,—cup
of tea at midnight to keep stitch, stitch, awake ; these
have been exposed already. I will attempt to describe a
yet greater grievance. The thorough-bred English beauty
possesses every puint of the animals of the same genus all
over the world, —education and habithave theirinfluence, as
that old pump or pink CHESTERFIELD is supposed to have
said,—but it is all the same in the long run ! English
female eyes, you will find as mildlyexpressive as those of the
childish idiots of Nova Zambia or Nootka Sound; others
flashing fiery indignation as those of the fieriest Italians
—eye-lashes prolonged, and silken—deeply and darkly
ciliated ; eyebrows, arcs, teeth, all to nothing ; soundest
and pearliest in the world ; bust and body, the ethereal
litheness of the Hindostanee girl, yet real and plump
as becomes the daughters of Arlon. These are not a
millioneth part of English women's charms. Many of
them are milliners and dressmakers, more have been—
yea, are—gay ! Doleful word. How effected ? We
shall see. There are several naturalists, writers about
birds and beasts, WILSON, AUDUBON; and I am not sure
but a less ambitious man than either might suit my pur-
pose—WlLLlAM KIDD. These parties tell you many anec-
dotes touching the training of one species of creature to
seduce another into its cage. The authors mentioned
write about "little warblers"—winged creatures who
have a deal of the evil one in them ! Caged in
the midst of limed twigs in the open field, they
commence their luring carol ; flap their wings, affecting
liberty at will. Anon, a silly one, is trapped. So that
the arts of seduction belong not 'exclusively to human
nature. But to my purpose : in the streets at the West-
end the milliners' work-rooms are situated ; not in front
of the house, you may be sure, but in the back. The
windows open for light, and especially air, vie a vie with
those of the dressing-rooms of the gay West-end women
living in the full possession of youth and beauty, such as
I have already weakly described. These females are
lolling in voluptuous ease. They laugh loud, sing and
play, show their jewels in diamonded bracelet, and so forth
—their satin attire made, perhaps, by the aching fingers
of the distressed dressmaker opposite. These women, the
former, live like queens. Fine horse-women many of
them are ! if not, the barouche, the brougham and the
britschka are at their command. All these blandish.
ments are not unobserved by the pale, but still young and
beautiful sempstress. They were intended to be seen,
heard, and envied. Is it to be wondered at that these
allurements should succeed? Hence, the needle and late
hours are abandoned in disgust, and—we can easily sup-
pose the rest.
If the rumours current at the West-end Clubs all yester-
day are well founded, the government of our Indian
possessions seems likely to cause HER 'MAJESTY'S Minis-
ters more perplexity and annoyance than they calculated
upon before the Easter holidays, when friend BRIGHT
brought the important subject under the consideration of
the House of Commons, and attempted to extract from
Lord JOHN RUSSELL an official promise, that during the
present session no measure of a permanent character
would be proposed with respect to the renewal of
the East India Company's charter. Upon that occasion
LORD JOHN, evidently not a little nettled at the Quaker's
rather inconvenient intermeddling, announced that the
Government, after much deliberation, had made up their
minds to grapple with the question at a very early period;
and that the Cabinet, after cardfully reviewing all the
objections urged against the policy and justice of sub-
mitting an enlarged scheme of legislation, without addi-
tional inquiry, of some two or three years' duration, had
come to the unanimous determination of proposing, im-
mediately after Easter, that measure which they believed
would best meet the requirements of the case, by providing
for the permanent, and not the temporary, government of
India, subsequent to the expiration of the East India
Company's present charter. Dame Rumour proclaimed
yesterday, that recent circumstances have brought
about an alteration in the minds of more than four
Cabinet Ministers anent this East India question.
CHARLEY WOOD, and the Peelite section, protest
against any concession to the earnest entreaties of
the Manchester School, while the moderate Whig
coalitionists are represented as inclined to meet
Tin Tc.twr and 11 SS IC aomat6iop, mare. tti.ww 1+.14.
postponing until next Session the permanent modification
of the charter, which the entire Cabinet agrees should
become the basis of our Indian Government. This, I
have good reason for believing, is the precise position of
the East India question. It remains to be seen whether
the Peelite or the Whig compartment of the Cabinet
will prove of more squeezable materials. Mr. RICH,
who was one of the junior Lords of the Treasury under
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S Administration, but who no
longer retains that lucrative post, having been displaced by
Col. CHARTERIS, one of the PEEL clique, evidently thinks
that the experiment should be made without delay, and I
understand that, on Saturday evening, he undertook, at a
meeting of Radical M.P.'s, held in the Reform Club,
to submit a resolution pledging the House of Commons to
refuse their assent to any measure of permanent legisla-
Von until the subject is fully inquirgd into by commission,
or such other plan as those reallyfanxious for the pros-
perity, peace, and happiness of Her MAJESTY'S subjects in
the East Indian dependencies may consider most advisable.
This resolution will receive the support of a large number
of those who sit on the Opposition benches; and should
the majority of the Cabinet insanely determine upon
resisting so equitable a suggestion, I look on the defeat of
Ministers as inevitable

COMMERCIAL AND MONETARY NETT S.

MONDAY NIGHT.
THE week having partaken of the holiday charac-
ter of Easter, the changes have not been of impor-
tance; but the buoyancy which the public funds
attained at the commencement of the week was not
maintained towards the close, owing to the news
from the Continent being thought to be of not
quite so favourable a character. Notwithstanding
the receipts of gold from Australia, the returns from
the Bank of England show a small decrease in the
stock of bullion; but the arrival of the Great Bri-
tain and other vessels will very shortly swell the
return considerably. Some attention has been
excited to the question of establishing a mint in
Australia ; but the advantage to be gained has been
considerably overrated, as an immense quantity of
coined gold has already been sent from this country,
and the cost of transit on an article :of such little
bulk is too trifling to be of any serious consequence.
Another question in agitation is that of a decimal
coinage, and the announcement, made a few days
since, that the Government had resolved on the
issue of 500 tons of a new copper coinage, created
some alarm among the money reformers. The
proposed change would cause incalculable confusion
in the ordinary transactions of every-day life, and
render almost impossible the well-understood divi-
sions of commodities in common use, while all that
would be gained would be the saving of a little
trouble in calculations by clerks, who are well
accustomed to the present system. The adoption
of a decimal system would be inflicting a positive
injury in order to attain a phantom advantage.
The later advices received from America corrobo-
rate the views which we expressed a short time
since as to the groundlessness of the fears of over-
supply of raw cotton professed to be entertained by
the manufacturers of Manchester. To take the
most moderate estimate of the requirements for
consumption, including our own demand, which,
as well as that for the Continent of Europe and the
manufacture in America, is on the increase, a crop
of 3,250,000 bales would be by no means an exces-
sive one, but rather the contrary, and the probabi-
lity, according to present appearances, is that that
quantity will be but little, if at all, exceeded. Should
this view prove to be correct, the holders in Liver-
pool will be completely justified in the confidence
which they have displayed, and nothing has at
present occurred to warrant a contrary: opinion.
In making comparisons with the quantities of pre-
vious years, hardly a fair test is afforded, unless
ample allowance be made, not only for the average
rate of increase, but also for the new markets which
have been opened through the enormous emigration
to the Australian colonies, and the prospect of still
further augmentation as our commercial relations
with China and other parts of the East become
more firmly established. In Europe, also, the
consumption of cotton is largely on the increase,
and the demand, both for the raw material and
partly manufactured, is proportionately extending,
All these circumstances serve to show that, not-
withstanding the well-feigned alarm from Man-
chester, the apparent excess of supply, as compared
with last year, may be disposed of satisfactorily.
A cause which was tried in the Liverpool Assize
Court, on Wednesday, before Mr. Baron MARTIN,
has naturally excited a considerable degree of atten-
tion--the more particularly as, while it is difficult
to dispute its legality, its want of equity is seemingly
apparent. A merchant in Liverpool had offered to
him by a broker a quantity of iron at a certain
price, which he agreed to give, and a note of the
tranoction was rendered to him, The broker, who