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

giving all concerned to kr

perious

the e final,

as 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
ions of state balls. Even with

less strinzency on the

respect to these, full m

ing the season" heave a

nber, re

ember I have known " dur-
and of Hibernian—not the
at a little rollickinz, after

d come to the Chamberlain's ear,

and prevented the issue of a ball ticket. This has been
the case at Buckingham Palace balls ; but, generally
eason was not allowed to go down upon the

speaking, a s

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 hadr_banqudts last
Monday, and, strange to say, the CHANCELLOR of the
ExcneQuett had ladies to grace his "feast of reason."
This is certainly an innovation. if not an improvement,
for Ministerial dinners are punctilious matters now-a-days.
The dinner being on the table, with scarcely an attendant
in the room when the seats are taken by the guests, to
The dinner, as far as regards the

prevent blabbing

produce of the cuisine is recherche, and varied enough;
the light wines of La Belle France and the clean
The dinner

vintages of Germany having the preference

is over in two

Italian opera or French play, w

of PITT and Fox are

down of an after

T used to run

'noon 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
a great while sorely puzzled to find out who were his
euests. PITT, who soon after dinner talked immeasure-

droll fe

The Blat

iface could not understand, he was such a
They were ultimately discovered and scared
Dofl. 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 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 the facts of
the honourable gentleman, and I have were—the
laughed out-
right at the schoolboy adage about the greattzs of truth
prevailing a bit. The fact is, Mr. WILsoN,3,lr. .
DEN, and JOHN BRIGHT threw the quaint maxim ovOeßr..

board—yet succeeded.
" The straw is moving," was a saying of that wily old
politician, WILLIAM COBBETT, when he expected what
be 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
insfurrection at Milan ; anticipated disturbances in Spain