The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-30 00:00:00

"Smiles may be false, but tears must be true ;"

and many a true tear ran down stern cheeks on Tuesday night.
As for the ladies, God bless them, no wonder they should
weep—they would have been no women to have refrained.
We never saw such a scene ; a pin might have been heard to
fall until the curtain dropped, when a tremendous burst of
applause rang through the house, continuing until Mr. Kean
appeared, leading on Mrs. Warner, to receive the courtesies of
the audience. The closing farce of "The Sleeping Draught"
proved anything but a " sleeping draught" to the audience.
Mrs. Clarke, as Norma, and Baker, as Popolino, kept the
audience laughing for 'the rest of the evening. Noma's
packing her lover up in the grave clothes was most ludicrous.
Verily, Mrs. Clarke has no compeer in similar characters.
To-night, -" Macbeth will be repeated, for Mrs. Warner's
benefit.
PUBLIC CHALLENGE TO ALL SECRET ORDERS.—A Mr.
Doherty, from Manchester, having placarded • the town in
every direction, threatening a " heavy blow and great dis-
couragement" to all secret societies, inasmuch as he would
deliver a lecture at the Music-hall,• on the utter absurdity

and fallacy of Oddfellows, Foresters, Druids, Recabites, &c.,
and that he would there develop a plan much safer, and more
n in accordance with the attributes of justice, he, according to
this public announcement, lectured on Wednesday night at
the above-named place, when upwards of 1000 persons at-
tended. A great deal of noise and confusion ensued with
regard to the election of a chairman—Mr. D. wishing Mr.
Dix to occupy the chair, he belonging to no society what-
r I ever, and the majority of the meeting being in favour of a
Mr. Kelly. A show of hands being called for, Mr. Kelly
had a great majority. Mr. Doherty then commenced his
lecture; and although he had stated in the bills that he
would show the risk persons were subject to who were in
anywise connected with secret societies, he never touched
that point, unless when he alluded to the last quarterly report
of the Reckabites, where two cases were enumerated of
persons being guilty of fraud, and over which cases the ma-
gistracy said they had no controul, thesociety notheing enroll-
ed according to the act of parliament. The whole tenor of his
lecture bore upon the superior system, as he stated it to be,
of insurance. He, along with a number more, had adopted this
plan ; but, previous to doing so they had waited upon the
directors of the Norwich Life Insurance. Society for the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether they would insure to the amount
of £25. They had for answer that this was rather a new
feature, and would require consideration. In about three
weeks after they received an answer, stating their willingness
to adopt this system, and consequently they had all enrolled
themselves under the banners of the Norwich Society for a
life assurance for £25. The manner he proposed to raise
the 10s. per week for the sick was by. a levy from each mem-
ber. so that the money ts be received after death, and the
sick allowance, were altogether distinct—the members de-
pending on the Insurance Society for their burial allowance,
while the other was controlled by themselves. In favour of
his system he urged the benefit to be derived from the mem-
bers being protected by law, which secret orders could not
boast of. After he had concluded, he was warmly attacked
by a few gentlemen belonging to the different secret orders
in town, one of whom, Mr. Hardwick Taylor, chal;enged
Mr. D. to a public discussion on the merits of the insurance
system and the system adopted by secret orders, the largest
plaCe in town, which could be had, to be taken for the occa-
sion, and twopence to be charged for admission—the receipts
of the evening, after paying expenses, to be given to some
charitable institution. Mr. Doherty accepted the proposal,
and the parties were to meet after the close of the meeting
for the purpose of drawing up the preliminaries, such as fix-
ing the place and night of discussion, &c. The meeting
throughout' was rather turbulent. Mr. Dix stated, previous
to our leaving, that he had never as yet belonged to any so-
ciety, but, from the discussion be had heard, he would cer-
tainly take the eatliest opportunity of becoming a member
of one of the secret societies, and that would be the ,Odd-
fellows. Mr. Kelly, as chairman, acted in an extremely
impartial manner.