The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-25 00:00:00

THE Government financiers are hard at work, preparing
the Budget, and the Treasury clerks find themselv

es con-

strained, since Wednesday last, to remain at their desks
an additional two hours daily, preparing returns and sta-
tistical abstracts, which the CHANCELLOR of the rxcuE-

QUER (now that his mind is set at ease about the

ders necessary towards the con-
struction of a budget calculated to escape the fate of Mr.
DISRAELI'S scheme. On Saturday afternoon, the plea-

University election) cons

sure was mine of witnessing Mr. GLADSTONE'S helpmates
gathering materials for the great Coalition Budget : as is
rny wont, I visited several of the principal offices in

_
Downing-street, and found my old friend ROBERT WIL-
BRAHAM at the Treasury, installed as Mr. GLADSTONE'S
secretary ; while honest, laborious FRANCIS FITZGE-
RALD was discharging the duties of private secretary
to JAMIE WILSON, once upon a time, and that not
very long since, an expert manufacturer of felt hats for
the denizens of the transpontine district between Black-
friar's Bridge and the Surrey theatre, so well conducted
by CftEswicK. WILBRAHAM and FITZGERALD were up
to their eyes in blue books and income-tax details, ham-
mering away for the bare life at strange-looking columns

of complicated figures, and turning out in artistic style a
dainty dish to set before the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER. If the rumours I have heard be true,—and the
source whence I derive my information leads me to believe
it well founded,—this self-same income-tax,neatly dressed
up, and deprived of many most unjust, oppressive, and
inquisitorial provisions, is likely to form one of the main
ingredients in Mr. GLADSTONE'S financial pronounce-
ment. We are to have what is called differential income
rate, a complete remodelling of the schedules, a kindly
sop for the small-class farmers. You recollect GLADSTONE
supported DISRAELI'S celebrated motion for a committee
of inquiry into the burdens of the landed interest, with a
view to their removal or diminution ; and though last, not

least, an exempting recognition of the difference between
permanent and precarious incomes. I think you will
find that I am pretty near the mark in this my prophetic
anticipation of Mr. GLADSTONE'S Budget, so far, at least,
as the renewal of the Income tax is concerned. More
with certainty—it may be on semi.official authority—l
cannot now say ; but the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER'S friends incline to the opinion that we shall have
no new taxes, and very little shuffling of the old ones.
The scheme, it is expected, will be complete on Thursday
week, and submitted to a Cabinet Council on the follow.

THE

LIVE

These, as most readers are aware, give a concert now and

then ; a notice in the newspapers is much desired by
them, as it leads to engagements not only in England but
America, especially ; invitations to such concerts are now
returned, and Miss THIS, SIGNORA THAT, the poor
concert givers, see their benches thinly peopled, and have
the mortification also of going without mention. With
regard to my old acquaintance the EMPEROR OF THE
FRENCH, and the denunciations against certain English
journals, contained in the French Government organ, the
Moniteur, I believe that LOUIS NAPOLEON has nothing to
do with the aforesaid denunciations, desecrations, or what-
ever they are' called, beyond having given his sanction to
the government writers saying something on the subject.
Probably the most ignorant -class of litterateurs in the
world are your small, half-educated, and altogether ua-
travelled French political writers, though they are not half
so bad now as was the case even twenty years ago, when
Sir PEEL, Sir DUNCOMBE, and other bits of nonsense
studded the whitey-brown columns of the Parisian papers
—they, I mean the writers in Paris, are still far behind

having a true understanding or appreciation of the genius,

so to speak, of the English language. Hence the-quota-
tions and translations made upon passages said to have
been :in the Times, for example, are so far wide of the
truth, that they are in reality other articles, not only in
spirit but in word. .To give the " gentleman in black"

(the EMPEROR'S evening costume) his due, I do not think

he saw one of the articles in the Moniteur before it was
published. Louis NAPOLEON is no fool, whatever he
may be in other regards, though it certainly does
smack of the veriest:folly to give circulation in the French
papers to such obnoxious statements, which otherwise
would never have come to the knowledge of half a million
of the seven or eight who are represented to have voted

for L' Empereur.
A fop of a writer—let's see—CHESTERFIELD it was, says
that human nature is the same all over the world, though
education and habit may make all the difference. Certes,
if your readers know much of the women of Paris, from
those buxom ones of the fishmarket, kissed so recently by
the Emperor, up to the delicate plants of the salons, who
look as if a zephyr would destroy,—they, the readers of
the Standard, will easily believe that the Parisian belies

are anything but pleased at the :new imperial declaration
of love to Miss FITZPATRICX,—I beg pardon—the most
lovely Countess DE TEBA, who has, in Paris for the last
three months, attracted all eyes in admiration of her peer-
less beauty. A capital breed that must be from Spanish
and Irish. WISEMAN, Cardinal, par example ! Dna
IMONTEZ. So also the destined Empress of France.
LABLACHE, too, the gros de Naples of the Opera, if I
don't mistake, has mentioned that he has the same frisky
pater et mater—nity. Badinage apart, this last resolve
of NAP. 111. cannot come to good ; antecedents are
against it ; he does not strengthen his crown by the alli-

The dramatic novelty of the week was the production of
DOUGLAS JERROLD'S " St. Cupid ; or Dorothy's For-
tune," at the Princess's, on Saturday night, the play
having been represented on Friday evening at Windsor
Castle before the court. The drama is essentially one of
JERROLD'S ; characterisad more by terse language and
pungent wit than distinguished for construction of plot ;
though in this respect it is an improvement on mostly all
of JERROLD'S previous plays, which are remarkably defi-
cient in connected incident. The two principal charac-
ters in the comedy are sustained—rnirabile dictu I—by
Mrs. C. KEAN (a schoolmaster's daughter) and Mr.
WRIGHT (a gipsey). Of Mrs. C. KEAN it is unnecessary
to say a word. This excellent actress always vindicates
her author. Mr. WRIGHT has hitherto been considered
little better than a buffoon : his comedy was always broad,
—too much so for farce ; he had a vulgar habit also of
playing to the audience—winking even to a sweep in the
gallery. In the character of Queen Bee, allotted to
him by JERROLD, WRIGHT appears altogether an
artist,—careful, attentive, rigid. It is not perhaps saying
too much, that the Royal children (dressed and seated
precisely as on the previous Friday evening,) enjoyed
WRIGHT'S personation more than any other in the
drama. JERROLD himself is looking right well :

much bent, chiefly by hard work, he is as cheer-
ful as a linnet ;—living much in the country, and
seeing only a friend from town now and then,
and among them his old friends and collaborateurs,
MARK LEMON, editor of Punch, a noble-hearted unmis-
takeable feIIow—GILBERT A. A'BECKETT, most piquant
and punning of writers—discreet magistrate, and modest
man. In conversation Mr. A. A'BECKETT is the least
obtrusive person I have ever met,—barring the late
THOMAS HOOD—the man of the shirt—Hoon's deafness,
however, might in part account for his shyness. Poor
Tom HOOD ! he was miserable for the night, if a pun
missed fire. He is going to have a brave monument,
thanks to that remarkable woman with a real English
name—aiza CooK. But lam forgetting JERROLD and
his visiters. Well, then, there's PERCIVAL LEIGH,
yclept " the Professor," author of the Comic Latin
Grammar, &c., another of the " Punch-men"—quiet
withal, excepting at dinner. I may safely say that the
Punch people are the heartiest eaters and laughers in
the world. " Who the deuce are they, who are making
so much noise in the next room ?" asked a Cabinet
Minister at a Greenwich fish-dinner. " Oh, it 's the
Punch-men," was the response of our friend in the
" smalls " and white waistcoat. JOHN LEECH, too,
prince of illustrators and good fellows, is another of
" Duggy's" friends. I believe that JERROLD will soon
have his claims, as an author who touches the heart-
strings, recognised by our gracious QUEEN. He got one
of his sons slipped into the Treasury two or three years

A pleasing enough drama, L. Jervais, or some name
like that, for I never touch a play bill—they dirty one's
kids so—was produced by Mr. FARREN the other evening
at the Olympic; it deserves notice,thoughof French origin.
MORRIS BARNETT, the adapter, has invested it with Eng-
lish interest, a rather difficult task with some of the outre
dramas of our Parisian friends,—mentioning whom puts
me in mind of JOHNNIE MITCHELL'S programme for the
forthcoming French plays. All the dons are secured, and
BOUFFE, if he get well. With regard to the prospects of
the two great lyrical establishments,—Her Majesty's
Theatre and the Royal Italian Opera,—it looks very
likely that they will be in the hands of one man
next season. I have before me nearly half-an-acre of
paper (not yet published) of intended performances at
Her Majesty's Theatre, in which that most unmusical
instrument, the auctioneer's hammer, is the chief.