The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-09-25 00:00:00

THE WEST INDIA MAILS.

The Royal Mail Steam-packet Company's ship Trent,
Captain W. Clarke, arrived at Southampton on Sunday
night, with the usual West Indian and Mexican mails.
The general elections were progressing. Up to the time
of the packet's departure 35 members had been returned,
of whom 23 were advocates of retrenchment.
__

Two new daily papers had been started in Kingston,
advocating retrenchment principles.
The weather had become rather more agreeable, and
some fine showers had fallen. The crops promised fair
for 1850. The island was rather unhealthy and some-
deaths by dysentery and yellow fever are reported.
The commercial intelligence is again generally unfa-
vourable. Business in all departments was very dull.
Su2ar was quoted 19s. to 225. per 100 lb. Rum was also
in active demand.

MISS WHITNALL'S CONCERT.—We must remind our
readers of this musical treat, which will be given on Mon-
day next. We mistake if it be not the great treat of the
season.
THE COUNCIL MEETING YESTERDAY.—SeveraI of the
members of the Town Council were absent yesterday,
owing to a press of engagements, but it is only right to
say, that Mr. Neill paired off, on the occasion, with Mr.
James Holme, as (lid Mr. Tyrcr, with Mr. Wagstaff.
ROBBERY FROM A PUBLIC-HOUSE.--Yesterday, two
youths, William Lynch and John Croft, were charged
with having, on Saturday, stolen from the house of Mr.
Edmund Kirkby, Great Newton-street, a bottle contain-
ing a pint of whisky, and 4s. 6d. from the money drawer.
They were observed by a smart young woman named"
Sarah Mullin, who attended the bar, and she took such
means led to their immediate apprehension. Upon Croft
there was found a base half-crown.—They were both
committed for trial.
ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.—Buckstone and Mrs. Fitz-
william have been the stars here during the past week,
and have made a great hit. " The Daughter of the Regi-
ment," in particular, was received with enthusiasm, and
repeated to a crowded house. The piece was splendidly
put on the stage. Last night, Mr. Cathcart commenced
a series of Shaksperian plays, in Romeo, Miss Fielding
making a very pleasing Juliet. We may state that Mr.
Cathcart is engaged by Mr. C. Kean to appear in her
Majesty's private theatricals, and will also be a stock tra- -
gedian at Covent-garden, next season. On Thursday,
Buckstone and Mrs. Fitzwilliam commence a second en-
gagement of four nights.
PROTESTANT ORPHAN SOCIETY FOR IRELAND.—it
will be seen that during next week a series of meetings
will be held in this town and neighbourhood, for the pur-
pose of promoting the objects of this valuable society,
which has now been in existence twenty-one years, and
(luring that period, has afforded an asylum for eight
hundred and twenty-two orphans, who, without its assis-
tance, would have been, probably, left to grow up as
pests to society and torments to themselves. The society
provides diet, lodging, clothing, and scriptural education,
for the destitute orphans of deceased Protestants, and ap-
prentices them to masters of approved principles and con-
duct. It has the support of all the leading personages in
the sister country, and at this period of unhappy Ireland's
condition, calls for special attention. At the last election
there were 58 candidates, out of which but twelve were
alected, the funds not permitting the committee to admit
a greater number; hence no fewer than 46 of them are
still waiting another election ; again to be brought into
competition with others whose circumstances, perhaps,
mav present a still more pitiable aspect.
EXTENSIVE ROBBERY, AND CLEVER DETECTION.—On.
the Bth instant, Mr. Hunt, sailmaker, Harrington-street,
received two £lOO notes from the Union Bank here, and
also a £lO note and some silver. These he almost imme-
diately deposited in his drawer, at his office, and locket
them up. He had occasion to go out for a short time,
and on his return missed the whole amount. About a
week since, a woman went to the shop of Mr. Falkner,
draper, Athol-street, Douglas, Isle of Man, where she
made some purchases, presenting a £lOO note, for which
change was given. Mr. Falkner subsequently saw in the -
papers a notice of the robbery, and upon inquiry it turned
out that the note paid by the female was one of those
stolen. The facts were immediately communicated to
Liverpool and Manchester, and a supposition being enter-
tained that thewomanhad not left the island,Joseph Bates,
one of the detective police, was sent over, and the female
being recognised there, she was immediately taken into
custody, and subsequently, the officer found another £lOO
note upon her. Her husband, father, and a servant girl,
supposed to be accomplices, were also taken into custody.
The parties, who gave the names of Maher, and the girl,
who gave her name as Frances Sharpe, were brought up
at the Police-court yesterday, and remanded for a week.
THEATRICALS AT THE ANTIPODES.—Soon after our ar-
rival we received a playbill which rather surprised us ;
having been given to understand at Auckland that this
place was so interior a settlement to the capital that thea-
tricals seemed quite out cf place. Curiosity, however, in-
duced many of us to go to see what the place was like.
We went accordingly, and found the house so full that it
was with considerable difficulty we could get up to our
perches—which we were told were the boxes. However,
by dint of pulling from above and pushing from below,
we managed to get into them. The ladder which had
been placed for the accommodation of the audience mount-
ing to these seats, had been broken before our arrival, by
some of the audience during a slight disturbance. As
soon as our eyes had become accustomed to the cloudy at-
mosphere, which was strongly impregnated with tobacco
smoke, we discovered the stage and its recesses. The
piece was just about to commence, the pit having come to
an amicable understanding with each other, after consi-
derable demonstrations of pulling the boxes down and an-
nihilating the occupants. The first actor who made his
appearance was greeted with such a shout, and underwent
such an impertinent cross-examination as to where he had
procured his red striped pantaloons, how the moustache
was stuck on, &c., that he could not proceed. This be-
ing highly irregular, the manager came on to request that
order might be kept; unfortunately for himself, lie was
known to the colonists as a vocalist, and was accordingly
called upon for a song in such an energetic manner, that,
to save the stage from being upset, he sang " The Ad-
miral ;" and being in the costume of " Macbeth," it had
the whole a pleasing effect. He was loudly applauded-,
for his good-nature, which, however, was further put to,
the test by the wilful hearers calling on their first friend of
cameand
ea
enegi
%aetdleast
w a
alfp- tad
the red striped trowsers to favour them in a similar way :
songs
o then re mh on
were
he, however, not being prepared to perform in this way,
was hissed off the stage, and order was not restored until
one aote
succession,s ss
which
applause. The piece was then commenced. and went on
smoothly for half-an-hour, when poor Macbeth happen-
ing
to be left alone on the stage to get through some long
soliloquy, the wayward audience, knowing him to be a
dancing-master and excelling in the sailor's hornpipe, de-
manded it in a manner which would not bear a refusal.
The fiddlers were accordingly ordered. in a very peremp-
tory manner, to strike up ; and poor Macbeth was obligtd
to start of. His long sword rather interfering with his
steps, he laid it aside and went to work in capital style,
which brought forth such shouts of delight and uproarious
peals of laughter, accompaniid by such stamping and
screams and other symptoms of excessive approbation,
that in a few minutes down came the boxes, the supports
having been knocked away from ben: atb. This brought
the hornpipe to a finale, and with it the whole of the per-
formance. We, who had shared the downfal of the boxes,
were glad to get out into the fresh air, having luckily es-
caped with a few bruises.—Reminiscences of Twelee
Months' Service in New Zealand.

Ebt &tanbarti.

TUESDAY MORNING, SEPT. 25, 1849,

A FEW months ago that motley body, the Na-
tioNt.l Confederation of Liverpool, offered a prize
of £7O for the hest Essay "On the Equitable
Adjustment of National Taxation ;" and, as a
matter of course, the pens of a multitude of scribes
were forthwith put in requisition. The Committee
appointed to determine upon the merits of the
various productions submitted have at length
awarded the prize of merit to one of these, which

has been pritited by the Confederation, and is nov

before us

The opening pages of the Essay are devoted to a
History of Taxation in the early ages, when the
chief burthens were borne exclusively by the pro-
prietary of the soil, in the shape of Land Tax.
This portion of the Essay is not uninstructive or
uninteresting; but it is impossible to avoid detect-
n unfair share of the

log in it a
blame of

Josition to la

r present accumulation of burthens
ulders of this body. They are repre-
sented as availing themselves, at every opportunity,
of their preponderating influence in the legislature
to escape from their fair share of taxation, although
no attempt is made to spew it to have been just
that, when the middle or trading classes began to

upon the si

iinportar

ce, the land alone

expense of

eten ce