The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-08 00:00:00

Eiberpool tartbarb.

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING

THE first Levee of the season came off—as we say in hum-
bler affairs—on Wednesday. The day was cold ;so was
the fashionable gathering. Unlike the drawing-room
receptions at St. James's, there were no ladies, which, as
a matter of course, kept from the assemblage all its glow.
There was, moreover, one notable blank—the DUKE, ever
first in the throng, ever constant,—he was not there. The

company was few, the presentations comparatively many.
There was a brace of Scotch dukes—ducks were so called
in Scotia when 1 last was shooting there. Ireland had
her only Duke, AUGUSTUS FREDERIC FITZ GERALD ,
Duke of LEINSTER, who, though upwards of threescore
years of age, still looks well, and nobly sustains the
praise lavished on his graceful person by the Parisian
belles of forty years ago. I scarcely ever remember a
levee at which the members of the diplomatic circle at-
tended in such numbers. Carriage rolled into tha ambas-
sadors' court, just under the wi,,,ta as of the tolb ooth-
looking palace, after c.•=lage, with its lemon-coloured
occupant all glioGrlng with spangles. Top among them was
WALEsiri , the representative of the court of France, son of
NAPOLEON the Great, by a Polish lady of distinction. What
strange events time brings about. After WALEsm came
the Chevalier BUNSEN, the Prussian minister,—plump
and ruddy, one of the most English-looking men in Lon-
don. The Chevalier is much devoted to English society,
English everything, indeed ; he is a capital scholar, with
tastes devoted to literature and the arts. Soon after,

came Baron BRUNOW—pronounced BRuNoFF,—the am-
bassador of the CZAR. There are three men now living

of as diverse temperaments, as it is possible to imagine,
of nations wide as " the poles asunder," yet who re-
semble each other as if they were twins—excuse the
Irishism—in configuration of head, face, nose—especially
the nose ; Lord BROUGHAM, Baron BRUNOW, and Bop
OWEN, the New Harmony-man—Socialist, if you will.
They are as like each other as pease. The Russian am-
bassador is now .quits English--acclimated so to speak ;
he is a monstrous favourite in the world of fashion. His
lady, though pas

-day, is still a paragon of beauty;
Proud and imperious,

the hey
her bust, fit for PRAXITELES

with taste capricious in the extreme. I have seen the

baroness luminous with thousands of gems,—the diamond,
the emerald, the ruby, the sapphire, predominating ; here
and there in her dark hair—

" Like snow on a raven's back,
Was pearl barbaric."

At other times, one single gem—matchless, sat on her
small and polished forehead. Such a forehead as ItA..
PHA.EL and CANOVA gave to their graces. The LORD
MAYOR and SHERIFFS of London, as usual, were very
4 Sheriff CROLL remarkably so. This gentleman
arrived in the metropolis, 'free the north, a few years

since, with nothing but a good character, and a taste for
engineering science, capped by the usual caution—which

cowardice,—indomitable energy and unwinking
activity of his cannie countrymen. He is now a " pros-
perous gentleman." To return to the levee : the general
circle, as it is called, boasted the presence of the two
Archbishops. The Lord Chancellor, Admirals, Generals,
Colonels, Captains, Lieutenants, and Ensigns, almost
without end ; nothing but cap and feathers. The glo-
rious bands were in fine pipe, and played con gusto.
Fast by the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, on the
river's side, your readers, passing that way, must have
noticed a. small brick archway, guarded, as it were, by
some half dozen white-aproned servitors, apparently
ch bemused with beer," whose weazened visages
Wand sorrow," and the beer aforesaid, have in-
ith a species of intellect altogether observable
only in such people. These are the Trotty Vecks of
Doctors Commons ; and, indeed, for the matter of that,
one could testify to the fact that CHARLES DICKENS—
most faithful delineator—TENlEßs in truthful details—
must have taken one of these same waiting-men—ticket-
porters, or what you will—for his model of Trolly Veck.
Not to digress too far from the point in my mind's eye
when I furtively began this paragraph—CHAßLES
DICKENS had ample opportunity of depicting such eh-
When the germs of future excellence were but
developing themselves in the boy-mind of the future
novelist,—when CHARLES DICKENS was scarce merging
into early manhood,—a fine youth, most intelligent, and
tender-looking withal, he was great master of CICERO'S
early study,—stenography,—wonderful word-catching art,
when practised by the skilful DICKENS attended those
fearful courts—sinks—and reported, no matter what,
divorce or salvage ; here he must have picked up many
Original characters never dreamt of else. Well. vina.,
the archway you find yourself tempted. Doctors Com 7

vested

racters

-- -
mons ? inquires TROTTY VECK, peering into your heart of
hearts for a penny fee. Doctors Commons ! words
memorable to many. That young country-looking lout,
yet jaunty, has a golden holdfast in one waistcoat pocket,
with money to pay for a marriage certificate in the
other. Lean and lanky, with nether lip thrown up
in contempt—fit study for LE BRUN—is an individual
of another dercription. He too, in his time—all young
and gay, and merry, dreamless of bad faith, infidelity—
had a ring in his pocket, which did not bind, end certificate
of bond broken and now held accursed ! The one is
going to settle the preliminaries of marriage, 'tother to
dissolve it altogether. In these courts you can get both
consummations, most devoutly wished for, with equal
facility. The visitor is much puzzled, if alone, to find
out the court he wants ; as early as eleven o'clock in the
forenoon three of them may have sat—disposed of
business ; and the authorities, from the beadle upwards,
by noon, are on their way to join a pack of fox-hounds.
The pay of these functionaries is tremendous ; the obese
and red-faced man sitting in a corner of the
court, out of the way, with a black gown
all be-frogged, bearing tall, silver-headed weapon, is a
beadle, with a country mansion fifteen miles from town,
where he is styled—Esquire ! Faugh ! the thing smells
rank, and must be reformed altogether. 1 have been
incontinently led into these remarks, being a bit of a law
reformer, and deriving much pleasure from the debate in
the House of Commons on Tuesday, on Mr. COLLIER'S
motion for a select committee for the purpose of inquiring
.I,Ather the ecclesiastical courts might not be advanta-
Bly abolished, their jurisdiction over all matters not
y ecclesiastical transferred to other existing tribunals,
auo new courts established for the purpose of dealing
speedily and effectually with matters purely ecclesiastical;
and whether the jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty
might not be advantageously transferred to local tribunals,
with all the paraphernalia of different courts, different
judges, different registrars, different deputy registrars. differ-
ent doctors, different proctors, different surrogates, different
advocates, and so forth, almost without end. I am not now
going to weary your readers in noticing the MOORE'S
and other vampyres of these courts. The case proposed
by Mr. COLLIER, you will see, is left in the hands of the
government—perhaps as well—after receiving a good blow
or two from the " judicious bottle-holder "—PALMER-
STON, who said the government was anxious to sweep
away the abuses referred to—in fact to clean out the
Augean stable. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL also said the
abuses of these courts were intolerable. Let us hope that
in a short time the Courts of Doctors Commons will be
occupied by the honest, the worthy and indefatigable
warehousemen of Liverpool and of sister Manchester, at
present in the neighbourhood, and too much cramped for
room to hold their goods.
In the course of my communication last week, I re-
member I had occasion to refer to Sir ROBERT INGLIS—
type of the old English gentleman, and staunch Conser-
vative—and indicated that I might notice the personnel
of the worthy baronet on fitting opportunity. Sir
ROBERT is close upon seventy years of age, yet rotund
and rubicund—the honest result of good air, exercise, a
good heart, good claret, and an easy-going disposition.
Sir ROBERT INGLIS is a ripe scholar, D.C.L., F.R.S.,
E.T.C. ; not unfrequently crotchety and insufferably dull,
he can come out in debate like a man, old as he is. The
Oxonians admire him much ; he is their pet—honest even
to bigotry, if the expression can be justified ; he has
represented the University of Oxford for a quarter of a
century, and never displeased his learned constituents.
Sir ROBERT comes down to the house—it is always
" down to the house, even if you should steam it up the
river ; about four o'clock presents his petitions, stays an
hour or two, indeed, until that
tocsin of the soul,

The dinner-bell,
invites him. In two hours afterwards Sir ROBERT is seen
redolent with costly
camellia, his never-failing evening at-
tendant, stuck in button-hole; give me the man or wo-
man fond of such foppery, and he or she is sure to be
good. In this way Sir ROBERT drops into the Antiquari-
an, Somerset House, about 8 o'clock ; the subjects are :
antique copper—may he pinch-beck rings,—horse-shoes,
dug out of hogs,—musty records ; for to such high ends
the antiquarians of London devote themselves. I've
seen them at it, with ABERDEEN, the " travelled thane,"
and now Prime Minister, at their head. Anon, tea and
coffee,
and Sir ROBERT again is seen at the more aristo-
cratic reunion of the Royal Society ; it is only across the
carpet ; there you find him on the side bench, set to sleep—
like bishop and ambassadoroo nothd_fo
ro.n eitherin side of him—by the
readinz of a stupid, g
Paper, it may be on
the differential calculus. Shade of Anget:niEoEs! were you
but looking on, how you would sneer if such
,
sphodealn,,actAij
ear-
1-
lowed scientific sprites in " fields of A
wards comes the never-ending tea and coffee in the libraryt
of the Royals. Sir ROBERT is there. In another hour he
drops into some other assembly of savans, and at mid-
night finds himself in the house of Commons once more.
This is Sir ROBERT INGLIS s mode, from one end of the
Parliamentary year to the other. What the deuce does
he out of it ? He scarcely knows himself. Par example,—
after the close of a long, dreary, yet teasing Session, a
friend called at Sir ROBERT'S mansion, partly on business,
but chiefly on the score of good humour. NO, Sir ROBERT
was not at home. Le Diable! Lady INGLTS at home ?
Oh, yes. Her ladyship was spoken to,—Sir ROBERT had
gone out of town with a man-servant, but she did not