The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-21 00:00:00

as it did on Monday, when applied by Lord PALMHRSTON
to Joss BRIGHT. I told you in my last, that there was
to be a spree about NirrEu's remark, that if he did not
find war in the Baltic, he would make it. In the course
of the debate, Mr. BRIGHT delivered a lugubrious lecture
to the HOME SECRETARY, who was chairman at the din-
ner. PALMERSTON was laughing, not merely in his
sleeve, all the time, and got up to answer the honourable
member for Rochdale, commencing, "the honourable and
rev. gentleman who has just been lecturing"—laughter
stopped the remainder 'of the sentence. It was in vain

that Mr. COBDEN came to the rescue, by rising to order ;
Mr. SPEAKER held his gloved hand over his nose, laughed
like the rest, said nothing, and allowed PALMEBSTON to
go on at a "slashing" pace. Both the peace members

were nettled, for even their own friends on either side of
them could not help joining in the cachinatory chorus.
I surveyed the Houses of Parliament a day or two
ago, much to the annoyance of my vertebral column,
albeit a stiff and strong one. This is, undoubtedly, the
age of gingerbread architecture. They are chipping away

at splendid specimens of oolite—for those who are not

geologists, this is a kind of lime-stone, and in England is

a considerable formation ; it is called, sometimes, and

very properly, freestone, for it does not hesitate to make

itself more free than welcome in breaking. There the
masons are at work; they have just succeeded in raising
into sight and obloquy a screen of the above staff or
stone all the way in front of the " palace," up to the
Victoria Tower : every inch of this elaborated screen, in a

season or two after it shall have been finished and exposed
to our weather, may be easily comminuted betwixt the
finger and thumb of a tolerably masculine hand—
broken up, made impalpable powder, like the stone of the
£lOO,OOO arch of GEORGE THE FOURTH. The masons, some
of them smart fellows, and rare carvers of heraldic mons-
trosities, and things pertaining to enscript floor of abbey
or cathedral—the masons know this of the stone they
cut ; else why those unseemly cowls which cover the
tops of the ornamented pillars, to protect their fret-work
from rain and atmospheric action generally ? Rubbish ! is
that the way England should build ? No. The great towel
which is to take twenty years in building, is certainly
going on magnificently; no stone from the oolitic district
is here to be seen,—good long-during Bolsover, and in
the plainest, chastest style of ornament. The arch is the
finest in the world; the largest, and quite geometrical.
But here's the plague of the business: if there be a breath

of air stirring, above and about us, the upper current is
sure to be impetuous and bullying; the height, even

already, of the great tower breaks this current, and
2EOlw, enraged, blows down, in perpetual gusts, all the

painful distempers in noseology, commencing imme-
diately with that which learned physicians describe as a
defluxion of sharp serum from the glands about the head
and throat ; together with catarrh rheumatism, &c.
Until the Victoria Tower rose so high, the archway under
a past DUKE Olf NEWCASTLE'S house, in Lincoln's Inn-
fields—a fine building, occupied by the Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge, only a brick and a half
from the Duke-street Roman Catholic Chapel,—used
to be considered the coldest place in London or
Westminster ; the coldest now is the spot by the tower
referred to, where the peers enter the house. It is a fact

—the cold of Nova Zembla, with the whistling wind of
the " vexed Bermoothes," a fine old sturgeon of a peer

must encounter, and in two minutes he has the sultry and

skin-parching air of Lahore, without the expanse of its
plains. Is not this too bad ? But they are both beautiful
houses ; yes, when there's nobody there to speak, and when
the weather is clear. Tox WAXLEY, or some other radical
—no matter—said, after sitting in the old house he spat
black ; they will find the present no improvement ; the
ventilation could not be worse if it were contrived on pur-

pose; a cold shiver at one corner, a .sweat at the next. I
was so glad to get into the " pantlers" that I invoked the

shade of Sir Joint VINBRUGH, whose church is hard by,
to give BARRY a hint, and vowing almost not to enter the

house until I was-summoned.
The sudden and lamented death of Mr. Justice TAL-
pouun, at Stafford, the very place where he, about four

years ago, received his appointment as puisne judge of the
Court of Common Pleas, has left a blank in the truly
social and literary circles of metropolitan society not likely
soon to be filled. The deceased judge was an elegant
scholar—an Oxonian—severely classical, vide lon—pas-

aim ; he was also an elegant gourmet, a character, be it
observed, which he did not repress, though he never car-
ried it to excess, because the embodiment was accessory to
much refined enjoyment. TALPotrun's parties were not
distinguished by the merely rich—the vulgar rich. On
the contrary, perhaps with the exception of his old brother
law student, WILLIAX CIIARLES MA.CREA.DY, the actor,
there was not a man at the judge's table with a money-bag
worth carrying away ; yet all were, and most of them still
are, " prosperous gentlemen " in their vocations. MA-
CREiIDI was the firsgon, HELEN TREE (Mrs. C. KEAN)
was the second, and far and away the best that ever tried
it. CHESWICK, of the Surrey, is good in it. Mr. Justice
TALFOIIRD was fond of the theatre; and in this respect it
is curious to observe many capital lawyers, who, after a
hard day's work in a fetid court, snap a hurried dinner,
and in the evening are seen enjoying the mimic scene with
a gusto worthy of a ploughboy, though doubtless 'with
more intelligence. Look at the Attorney-General, Sir A.
OOCKBURN, in the side box of the dress circle, sit out a
whole evening's performance; THBSIGER in the bend ;
PARRY in the stalls; and old Sir JOHN OWEN, the " tub
barrister," up to the last at the play every night. I think
a penchant for the theatre has been encouraged when they
were students in solitary chambers, and that they have
never got rid of it, as dignitaries of the Church, who have
been first educated at the Blue Coat School (Christ's Hos-
pital), have ever afterwards a partiality for halfpenny
buns.

Lord BEAUMONT; of whom I lately gave you a "picture
in little," was found in the city, the other day, presiding
at a meeting of the Peace Society—no, the Arbitration
Society—more generally known in the neighbourhood of
Threadneedle-street, and more appropriately, perhaps, as
the Society for promoting Tribunals of Commerce, and
thus place the heel on the gorge of law and lawyers. The
society has been established about two years ; is as amia-
ble in its object and end as the Arbitration Peace Society
of Mr. COBDEN; they are entirely the same in principle,.
and are likely to go the same way. Mr. COBDEN'S Peace•
Society and arbitrating brotherhood is but simply ridicu-
lous ; the Tribunals of Commerce establishment is on,
an infinitely smaller scale, and much more workable in its.
character. Lord BEirmoyr eulogised these tribunals in
a great commercial country like England; tribunals of
mercantile men, his Lordship contended, being paztica
immediately acquainted with the subject in dispute,. were
much to be desired ; for it would be better at once to be-
gin to decide, leaving out the discussion of preliminary
details. After all, however, his Lordship seemed to have
a certain class of cases in view, where appeal might be ne-
cessary. Were we in a doric state of society, the tribunals
ought to be hailed with satisfaction and gratitude to
their founders ; but we are not so situated. Beyond this,
however, there is a small, but formidable band of lawyers,
with Lord BROUGHA.3I at their bead, caning themselves

" The Law Amendment Society." This institution, it
appears, looks with jealousy, it may be alarm, on the inci•
pient proceedings of the arbitration people, considering
them as rivals. Perhaps this is a good sign. Certainly

the lawyers and the Law Amendment Society would not
have much to do were the tribunals referred to estab-
lished, and in working order. At all events, opposition
from suck a quarter indicates the existence of an appre-
hension that damage may be done to the learned profes-
sion by such an institution. Unfortunately, I have heard
of no mercantile case, or case of any kind, having been re-
ferred to it, though the secretary states that it had suc-
ceeded in obtaining the countenance and support of the
traders and merchants in the city. The case of Malta was
cited, to show the practicability, eases and efficiency of
these courts, if I may venture to designate them as such.
Various recommendations were made, suggestions thrown
out, and resolutions carried, for the promotion of Tribu-
nals of Commerce throughout the country, and for com-
municating with the Chambers of Commerce of Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, &c. The promoters are certainly
hearty in the cause.

A measure of much importance to Liverpool, and to
every part of the United Kingdom, passed a second read-
ing in their Lordships' House, on Thursday night. The
bill was ordered to be committed—its all but penultimate
stage—under such circumstances as fairly to warrant its
final acceptance. I refer to the Coasting Trade Bill, in the
conduct of that shrewd peer and business man, Lord
STANLEY, of Alderley. The measure last passed in Par-
liament, effecting so great a change in our Navigation
Laws, and which was so fiercely opposed at the time, had
notoriously many defects. The present bill removes some
restrictions especially those which prevent foreign vessels
being employed in the coasting trade, to remedy as far as
may be the deficiency of British shipping, more particularly
at the present juncture. A curious argument used by the
noble lord in proposing the second reading of the bill was,
that in passing it into a law, it would thereby prevent the
railways getting the lion's share of the home trade. Lord
COLCIIESTER, a sailor of many years' experience, viewed
the bill as a very harmless affair, seeing what mischief
had already been committed, It appeared, ,s alleged,
that the result of the act of 1849 was au increasing tow.