The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-15 00:00:00

Etbrrpoot tailbarb,

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

..--.--....--

MONDAY MORNING,

THE great feature of the week has been, of course, the
re-assembling of Parliament, and the first appearance at
St. Stephen's of the wonderful Coalition Cabinet, which,
if credence were to be placed in prophetic journalist an-
nouncements, is to " do the world and eV—such things
as no Ministry before attempted, and such as no other
Administration will ever have the genius to conceive, or
the daring to accomplish. Like many other men who
take an active interest in the political movements of
the day, I found myself in the Speaker's gallery of the
House of Commons, somewhere between 4 and 5 o'clock
on Thursday evening. It was known at my club that
Lord JOHN RUSSELL had been requested by the Cabinet
to expound at the first sitting of the Senate the policy
which the Givernment intended pursuing, and I made
up my mind to be one of those who should hear and
judge calmly and impartially for himself. You have had
an opportunity of reading the Ministerial manifesto
among the reported Parliamentary proceedings, but you
had not an opportunity either of observing the manner
of its delivery, or of mingling with the groups of the

people's representatives who canvassed its merits, and
on to the feelings which Lord JOHN'S
exposition created in their minds. It seemed to me that

gave expres

the FOREIGN SECRETARY was most anxious to render
himself as unintelligible as he possibly could ; and the

s, how so much of what he did say ever

reached the representatives of the public press who sat on
the opposite side of the house, for he spoke in an un-
usually subdued tone, without one particle of energy—
without the slightest semblance of sincerity, frequently a'
a loss for words to communicate the decisions of the
Cabinet, and as cold and phlegmatic as if he had been one
of the diminutive Chelsea pensioners standing on a win-

ter's afternoon repeating to some comrade the particulars
of an every-day occurrence, with no other earthly object
than that of the killing of time. According to very high
authority, Lord JOHN'S speech contained rather less
spirit than an ordinary auctioneer would put into his pre-
before a sale of old furniture, damaged
goods, or shop-fittings. Now, my knowledge of the
London auctioneers leads me to believe that this
high authority, which is no other than the Thunderer of
Printing•house Square, does them very great injustice.
There is not a man among our friends of the hammer,
who, when exposing his wares for public approval, ever
made half so unimpassioned, wishy-washy, and chilling an
as the FOREIGN SECRLTAAY thought proper to deli-

liminary remarks

ver, whea introducing the names and substance of our new

sessional measures. That statement, if any such induce-

e required, predisposed one to feel thoroughly
satisfied with the elements of legislation so feebly sha-
med forth, and among those who occupied places near

went vs

to your correspondent, left a feeling of regret that the
leadership of the House of Commons, the field of so many
brilliant oratorical displays, shouli have again fallen into
the ands of an icicled statesman, who, whatever may be
his powers of head, is without one attribute of heart cal-
culated to awaken generous sentiments of sympathy, or
to arouse the smallest particle of enthusiasm. So much
for the manner of delivering the Ministerial manifesto.
The matter can be easily disposed of. Men representing
almost every political section in the Ilouse of Commons,
concur in pronouncing it one of the most abortive pro-

grammes ever concocted by any Administration. The
Radicalg are especially indignant at its short-comings ;

and I am in a position to tell you, that at a 'very numer-
ous meeting of Conservative Peers and Commoners, held
on Friday, at Lord DERBY'S residence, St. James's-square,
when Lord ABERDEEN'S policy, as enunciated by Lord
Jonx RUSSELL, was thoroughly considered, nearly 300
noblemen and gentlemen declared it utterly insufficient
for, and ill adapted to, the requirements of the country,
and on that account entitling the coalitionist authors to

their vigorous and persistent opposition. 1
HER MAJESTY, you will have seen, has been giving a
series of banquets at Windsor Castle during the holidays,
now drawing to a close; among the later visitors were
ViscountH A aorNoE and SiriamEs GR. AHAM,—the former,
though close upon three score years and ten, and minus
an arm, as smart as a radish ; the latter, the gallant
soldier's junior by nearly ten years, bent and much worn,
thoough stately, and of mantlin; countenance, as Dis-
RAELI would say. The mention of Viscount HARDINGE
puts one in mind of the diversity which prevails respecting
the proper pronunciation of the brave soldier's name. As
a bit of gossip, it may serve to state that I recollect, when
he took the oaths as a peer, young ROSE, the Lords'
reading clerk, was going over the newly-made peer's
names and titles—Right Hon. Sir HENRY HARDINGE,
K.C.B , &c. The well-paid, but perfunctory clerk, pro-

pounced the name according to the spelling, as he con-
sidered, making the g soft, as in syringe. In an instant
the unfledged peer, having the Holy Evangelists in his
hand, (preparatory to the oath,) exclaimed, with the im-
perious croakpeculiar to commanding officers—HAßDlNG !
giving all concerned to know that the last syllable, malgre
the e final, was hard—like the first—ahem !
As a pendant to the foregoing, I can aver that, if the

guests at the Court dinners, during the festive season, are,
for the most part, the elite of both Houses, there is much
less stringency on the occasions of state balls. Even with
respect to these, full many a member I have known " dur-
ing the season" heave a sigh—and of Hibernian—not the
sigh but the member, regret that a little rollicking, after
the House was up, had come to the Chamberlain's ear,
evented the issue of a ball ticket. This has been
.he case at Buckingham Palace balls ; but, generally
speaking, a season was not allowed to go down upon the
wrath of the Court, and the member, who was tabooed at
the first ball, might, perhaps, be as much perplexed at the
last one to get his bag-wig and ruffles in order, as he was
by the apparent slight at the commencement. A word in
the ear of the young M.P. reader of the Standard. Go
to the balls at Buckingham Palace as often as you can—if
you are an Irish representative, go oftener. It is good to
be seen in such company ; staying away, on account of
trouble, may do you more harm than an adverse vote. At
all events, " go to the ball" has been the undeviating
advice I have given, and it was not repented of the next
day. But, in truth, the Royal balls are afar off—the
middle of next summer ; meantime, H. R. H. P. A. will
do the honours at the earlier drawing-rooms at St. James's.

Nearly the whole of the Ministers had; banquets last
Monday, and, strange to say, the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER had ladies to grace his " feast of reason."
This is certainly an innovation. if not an improvement,
for Ministerial dinners are punctilious mattersnow-a-days.
The dinner being on the table, with scarcely an attendant
in the room when the seats are taken by the guests, to
prevent blabbing. The dinner, as far as regards the
produce of the cuisine is recherche, and varied enough ;
the light wines of La Belle France and the clean
vintages of Germany having the preference. The dinner

s,—ltalian ope

ra or French play, when

s of PITT and Fox are

now entirely eschewed. The former minister used to run
down of an afternoon to The Black Dog, at Bedfont,
some fifteen or twenty miles from town, with a brother
minister or two, sans servant, or attendant of any kind ;
mine host being entirely ignorant of the quality of his
customers until after the claret had circulated well, when
the politicians used to talk so loud—sometimes wrangle—
that they could not but be heard and recognised. The
old landlord, not long since gone to his account, was for
e-reat while sorely puzzled to find out who were his

PITT, who soon after dinner talked immeasure-
Boniface could not understand, he was such a

ere ultimately discovered and scared
The prim gentlemanly ABERDEEN
couldn't stand the nonsense of those days.
" The historical misstatements and the fallacious argu-
ments of Mr. COBDEN"—so begins a letter in Thursday's
Times, from C. C. GREVILLE, the late Duke of WEL-
LINGTON'S principal man of business, in vindication of
" the Dead Lion." Mr. COBDEN, in his pamphlet, re-
marks—among other absurdities and crudities—on the
infirmities of the DUKE'S mind at the age of 80, as com-
pared with it at 40. Mr. GREVILLE'S great authority
sustains and vindicates the observations I considered it
my duty to make in a recent communication touching
Mr. COBDEN'S valuation of facts. I have often wondered
to witness at the Covent Garden Anti-Corn-law meetings
thousands of intelligent persons swallow, without strain-
ing—like great gobe mouches as they were—the facts of
the honourable gentleman, and I have since laughed out-
right at the schoolboy adage about the greatness of truth
prevailing a bit. The fact is, Mr. WILSON, Mr. Con-
DEN, and JOHN BRIGHT threw the quaint maxim over-
board—yet succeeded.
" The straw is moving," was a saying of that wily old
politician, WILLIAM COBBETT, when he expected what
he called a rumpus among the beggarly Whigs. COBBETT
said the phrase originated thus : When a country boy, he
and others used to go into the barn, armed with pitch-
forks, rat-hunting ; where the straw moved, the boys were
sure there was something below. So it is at the present
moment on the Continent; and I assure you the so-called
insurrection at Milan ; anticipated disturbances in Spain ;

- ...
droll fellow ! They
from The Black Dog