The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-03 00:00:00

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
IT IS not at all improbable that at a late hour to-night,
or early to-morrow morning, the electric telegraph will
bring you the result of the debate and division on the
CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER'S Income Tax reso-
lution, DISRAELI having given Lord JOHN RUSSELL an
extorted promise that the Conservative section of the
House of Commons would not prolong the discussion

beyond the period I have indicated. If Lord JOHN me-
nages to keep in check his oratorical friends on the
Treasury benches, and should the ultramontane admi-
nistration-destroying representatives from Ireland, who
are working hard to manufacture political capital out of
the present important crisis, be compelled, by some mi-
raculous interposition, to abandon the resolve they have
long since formed, of submitting to the Legislature,
at wearying length, an alarming array of Irish griev-
ances, from the time of the Union downwards, then,
indeed, there shall be no further adjournment of
the debate. But if the English Whigs and Radi-
cals and the Irish declaimers must speak out for
the satisfaction and amusement of their constituents, then
I fear that the issue of the contest on which the Conserva-
tive followers of DISRAELI have so chivalrously entered
will not be known before Thursday evening. In my
letter last week, I calculated, with good financial assist-
ance, the majority for ministers at a point ranging from
twenty-eight to thirty-fire votes. Since then. some
members returned by Conservative electors, Colonel
HARCOURT, Sir THOMAS ACLAND, Mr. SANDARS, and Mr.
HERBERT among the number, have given their adhesion
to Ministers, and this contemptible conduct, coupled with
the pressure and manoeuvring which have been brought
to bear on ten or twelve of the Irish members, will, I
have heard, give the Government a larger number of sup-
porters than even their most sanguine friends believed
possible early last week. At the Carlton Club yesterday,
the majority was estimated at 45, while the Reform Club
men confidently " book" the ABERDEENITES to win in a
canter with fifty or sixty. The threat of an immediate dis-
solution, in the event of " an unsatisfactory division"—
unsatisfactory, meaning insufficient for Ministerial pur-
poses—has not been without its effect, and the reported
promise of a considerable modification of the Income
Tax in its application to Ireland has induced some of the
Irish representatives to determine, either or not voting
against the measure, or to go into the lobby with Minis-
ters. A deputation of the latter " Emerald Gems" had
an interview with the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER,'
who, by the way, is very ill, on Saturday, to protest
against the injustice of, at present, imposing the Income
Tax on Ireland, and to suggest the propriety of reconsi-
dering the proposed Budget on the basis that the Conso-
lidated Annuities and all arrears—only five millions—be
remitted, and that, if the Income Tax is to be forced
upon Ireland, it should be confined to those four sources of
income, which belong to the more opulent classes, and do
not involve inquisitorial inquiries or unproductive expenses,
viz., public funds, shares in public companies, public
salaries, and landlords' rents, according to Mr. GRIF-
FITHS' valuation, with due allowances for encumbrancers,
annuitants, and rent-chargers, who shall also bear their
proportion of the tax. The CHANCELLOR promised to
give the propositions every consideration, and I am told
appeared to regard, at least one of them, with favour.
Indeed, so anxious has he been to meet the views of the
Irish representatives who waited upon him, that he sent
Lord JOHN RUSSELL a copy of his minutes of the inter-
view, accompanied with his own observations, and they
were submitted by the leader of the House of Commons
to a council of his colleagues, at which Mr. GLADSTONE'S
indisposition prevented his attendance. The decision of
the Cabinet has not yet been made formally known, but
I should not be surprised to find some of the demanded
conceasions " most graciously granted."
Until Monday night, since the memorable closing of
WILLIAM the FOURTH'S first Whig Parliament, there has
not been a spree or row in the House of Lords worth
noticing. On the evening last mentioned, Lord DERBY
came down to the house as fiery as Hotspur—fiery in to-
to, as a poor punster said, for his lordship is sorely
plagued, especially at this season, with gout in his pedal
extremities—the toe toe. The noble Earl at no time
manifests a very bland expression of countenance ; and
he knew, to begin with, that he would not be able to Barry
his amendment, which, if carried, would have rendered
naught the Coalition Canada Clergy Reserves Bill, about
which not one in five hundred of the QUEEN'S lieges
know anything, and not one in five thousand of the same
catalogue care a rotten straw, or a grain of Canada maple
sugar, two of the most worthless things I can at the
moment remember. The debate, wearisome in the ex-
treme, " dragged its slow length along," until, late in the
evening, the Bishop of OXFORD'S lawn rustled a little,
after which he began to pitch into Lord DERBY with
" drum ecclesiastic." Opposing the amendment, the
Bisitor said something about chicane, and smiled ; it was
not a ghastly smile—neither ironical—neither jocose—
though the BISHOP, beeping his pardon, said it was. Lord
DERBY got up, and with some bitterness of expression,
and in menacing attitude, as good as told OXFORD, " Ah !
to be sure you did smile, but

" A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain."

The Earl of CLARENDON, usually a mild-mannered man,
jumped up immediately facing DERBY; the table was happily
between them. I am sure that BEN CAUNT never " set to"
with so much tact and defiant pluck. CLARENDON screamed
ungrammatically in C alt. " Its me ! its me !" The
papers, I perceive; put itotherwise, probablylest they should
he visited by LINDLEY MURRAY'S ill-used ghost. The
row was terrific : hod it taken place in a tavern, the police-
office would have been the beginning of the end in bail
for two. Of course the Bishop of OXFORD smiled
when he applied chicane, trick, artifice, to Lord DERBY ;
it was :only in joke—" poison in jest," as the :nan in the
play says—and of course my Lord DERBY merely quoted
a poet when he uttered the word villain. The Earl of
DERBY lost his amendment. This row was fierce, but
ended in nothing outside the walls of the house. The
only other breeze in the memory of the oldest habitue of
their lordships' house was far more peppery. BROUGHAM
was Lord Grizzle—l beg pardon—Lord CHANCELLOR;
hut he looked a great deal more like the late
JOHN LISTON, as Grizzle, than any other person I
have ever seen. BROUGHAM was Chancellor, and kick-
ing up a dust about the Reform Bill. The real
lords would have nothing to do with it, and intimated
that they would not read the bill a third time. " Won't
you ?" said BROUGHAM. " GREY, create more peers !"
The idea was soon ventilated. "If you do," said WIN-
CHILSEA, " and a batch of new Deers come in at one door,
I shall go out at another." This was poor revenge, and
never had occasion to be put in practice. The Earl
GREY—the present's father—was a gentleman, though a
thorough Whig, and did the business after a different
way. " Dissolve," said the Lord HARRY. GREY left
the House, and sounded the KING about nine o'clock in
the evening. WILLIAM had closed his arm-chair nap—
" his custom in the afternoon," and received his minister
like a king. The MASTER OF THE HORSE was spoken to ;
he did not much like the rig ; said the state coach and
the cream-coloured's could not be ready by the morrow.
"Never mind," said the KING. " I'll go down, if it
should be in a hackney coach ;" and down the sailor-
KING went in gallant style to the House at little more
than half a day's notice,—bells ringing, cannon roaring,
people hurrahing, with all the other demonstrations.
HENRY HARDINGE, hearing the cannon, said " the next
time they are fired they may be shotted ."' The House
was at boiling-over heat ; the Wibigs and Tories were all
wrangling ; the House was crowded with beautiful wo-
men, who stared—some of them drop'd a diamond-tear,
fearful of the result ; the yellow-clouted ambassadors (I
speak of those some years ago, when dirty gloves did the
honours) stared also, but they did not understand what was
said so well as their confreres of the corps diplomatique
of the present day. The shrill but most musical sound
of the silver trumpets indicated that the KING was in the
House. Lord MANSFIELD, a clever man, though he
seldom spoke, was denouncing the jugglery of the Whigs
in closing Parliament at a moment's notieL ; the Marquis
of LONDONDERRY was sitting behind MANSFIELD, and
though deaf as a door nail, knew the KING had entered
the house in regal state. LONDONDERRY pulled MANS-
FIELD by the tail of his coat, he lost his balance, but
found himself all right on the front bench of the peers.
He was told the Sovereign had arrived ; all was hush !
Loyalty swallowed up every angry feeling. The foreigners
looked awe-struck. They even yet do not know how
England loves and respects her Sovereign ! King
WILLIAM heard his brawling peers and laughed ; patted
them afterwards on their be-robed shoulders, told them
to be good boys, and go home to their abodes in the
country, and look to the administration of justice there ;
which they did. HARRY BROUGHAMis not Chancellor
now, though he seems as lively, as eccentric, droll, and
irrepressibly gay, as ever. Sometime or other I will
describe HARRY at the opera.
Having met Lord WROTTESLEY frequently at the mfet-
logs of the Royal Society on the Thursday evenings
during the season at Somerset-house, and being aware
that his lordship had been very properly
.chosen the
medium of communication between the Society and the
House of Peers touching certain correspondence mo
valuable to the navigation of " the highway of nations,"
which had taken place in a tripartite manner between the
American Government, our own Government, and the
Society aforesaid, I paid some attention to his lordship's
i
observations the other evening. The noble lord spoke n
an exceedingly indistinct manner ; owing to this cause,
and probably to the profound and scientific character of
his remarks, little of them have appeared in the papers.
The utmost good-will and hearty co-operation in the
course of the experiments have been maintained by the
two Governments, piloted by the Royal Society. The
experiments and observations refer to soundings. oceanic
temperature, currents, tidal waves, and so forth. The
only peers present were the Marquis of LANSDOWNE,
who cheered much ; the Earl of ABERDEEN, who coldly
sat out the conversation; the Earl 9RANVILLE, who
warmed up and spoke nobly on the subject ; Lord ROSSE,
the president of the Royal Society ; Lord MONTEAGLE,
at
and three or four others. The peers I have enu-
merated are all F.R.S. j need scarcely tell your
intelligent readers, that the Royal Society is
years
allhe
most distinguished in the world ; for the last 200 ye
the great names have been enrolled in its archives. JOHN
ABERNETHY, the famous and eccentric surgeon, thought
himself insulted if addressed by any other appendage to
his name than F.R.S. For some years past—until lately—
the fellows were accused of doing nothing, vexing them-
selves and those who attended their aristocratic reunions
with papers on tiuxions and kindred subjects ; the most
acute,--astute, could not carry away an atom of intel-
apers read. A Bishop snored, a
ligence from the P