The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-09 00:00:00

THE PRESIDENT

We copy the following very sensible remarks respecting
the delay in the arrival of the President from the Morning
Herald of yesterday. It will be noticed that our metropoli-
tan contemporary almost reiterates the suppositions which
were given in the Slandarda few days since. We have never
expressed any alarm as to the safety of this noble vessel, and
we sympathise too deeply with the relatives and friends of
those on board to indulge in any speculations which would
aggravate their naturally painful anxieties :
A deep andpainful interest attaches universally to the non-
arrival of the President steam-ship from New I ork, now 27
days from her date of departure from that city, therefore 11
or twelve days over due, but still out and no tidings of her
yet received, further than what the Orpheus packet-ship
brought, which bore her company for two or three days after
leaving New York, and lost sight of her in a gale of wind
by which both were overtaken. The premium for insurance
upon her rose at Lloyd's to-day to 30 guineas per cent.
But this should not be accepted as a proof of positive danger
in which the vessel should be placed, or proof of anything
beyond insurance gambling, which is common enough when
a chance of any sort occurs for working up exorbitant pre-
miums for apparent risks. The probability is after all that
the President, left by the Orpheus in a gale which might be
more boisterous in the particular course she was steering, or
locality where placed, than the packet ship was exposed to,
would, after making head for some days and running
short of fuel, or perhaps sustaining some damage in
her machinery, put back to New York to refit or re-
pair. If she had under the circumstances to use her
sails alone, it is clear she would make way heavily and slowly
on her return thither, and even if her machinery was unda-
maged and she was able to steam it back, it was not at all
probable that, as vaguely supposed by some parties, she
could have reached there before the sailing of the packet-ship
North America, which left New York on the 19th ultimo,
and in such case would have brought the intelligence of her
return thither. After the Orpheus parted company, on or
about the 13th, the President would probably bear up on her
course for a few days longer, and then only in the event of
fuel falling short, or any accident to the machinery, reverse
her course and return to New York, which it is clear she
could not reach till a few days subsequently to the departure
of the North America.

BELFAST THEATRE.—Friday evening being the last night
of the first season under Mr. Thorburne's management, it
was announced that he should address the audience in the
course of the evening. At the termination of the play (" The
Lady of Lyons," in which he personated Claude Melnotte,)
Mr. Thorburne was loudly called for by the entire house ;
the cheering was loud and prolonged. After presenting him-
self, and bowing to the audience, he proceeded to say, that
although he could not pretend to those feelings of embarrass-
ment under which, on public occasions, many shelter them-
selves when addressing an assemblage so brilliant as that he
then saw before him, yet he should consider himself an in-
sensible being indeed, if he did not feel considerable anxiety
to evince, in however humble a manner, his sense of the
personal kindness twice manifested by a Belfast audience, of
town and country, towards one who, like himself, had come
among them in a great measure untried, and as a stranger.
(Cheers.) Their reception had ever been flattering, and
under any circumstances could and should not be forgotten.
(Cheers.) He had no set speech to deliver ; yet, as he had
determined not to say farewell without a word at parting, he
had not so far overlooked the respect due to an assemblage of
patrons and appreciators as not to consider and arrange the
points, which he had merely to reduce to the expression of
words. (Hear.) The circumstances under which he had
taken upon himself the management of the Belfast theatre
were pecculiar, and any thing but inviting. Every one who
knew Belfast knew that. He could only allude to them thus
generally, and not in detail. Hoping against hope itself, he
acted on the belief that true taste could not remain dormant
for the support of the proudest literature of any nation or
country—the dramatic literature of England—(Cheers.)—
identified as it is with the language which is destined by pro-
phecy, and rapidly being fulfilled, to become the universal
language of the children of men throughout the globe.
(Cheers.) In making these remarks, he did so as appealing
to those who, under the common name of English, are the
representatives—(let the invidious, and the sowers of dissen-
sion pretend what they please)—the representatives of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (Vociferous
cheering.) Mr. Thorburne next noticed the difficulties of
organising and collecting an efficient company of performers.
Selection was the thing desirable, but it was of all things the
most difficult, and often impossible to accomplish. There
never was, nor never could be, " a popular manager." He
should consider himself happy who could, in such a capacity,
escape censure. " Hard is his fate on whom the public
gaze." Let him do everything that man can do his own way,
it would be wron in some judge's estimation—if he did a
thing " this way," even friends would say—" Oh, you should
have done it " that way. " A man at the head of any esta-
blishment must make up his mind, adhere, and go through—
leaving the issue to a general estimate of general services.
(Cheers.) He intended to return towards the end of Sep-
tember or the first week of October, and with a difierent
company. He intended that the entertainments should be
operatic and vaudeville, in addition to the staple of tragedy
and legitimate comedy. Till he met them again he bad to
repeat his thanks for their kindness, and wishing to every
lady and gentleman present " fair hours and happy thoughts,",
most respectfully did he utter the word "farewell !' Mr.
Thorburne retired amidst loud applause. Other topics were
alluded to, but we have given the substance of what was
addressed to the house—the fullest and most enthusiastic of
the season.—Belfast News Letter.