The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-28 00:00:00

even in the things above noted, reflect lustre on each
other. But JOSEPH Huani's heart is cold and worthless.
What business has he, forsooth, of all men living, if his
fealings be real and not sham, as I have almost inti-
mated,--what business has he to eke oat the income-tax
—add to it,—aid Chancellors of the Exchequer in burden-
ing poor people, already with fewer dinners than seven a
week ? Does that prince of accountants and political
economists, WILLIAM EwART GLADSTONE, require a hint
• from the dull dormitory of JOSEPH HUME'S mud-mind ?
6 I trove me nay. Yet JOSEPH has hanging over the
heads of thousands and tens of thousands of such people a
(till now) unheard of tax :—the CHANCELLOR OP THE
, ' EXCHEQUER is not likely to lose sight of it, seeing it comes
• from a Reformer. Ugh! JOE proposes that when a man
. with a wife, it may be,—for it is all one to the father of
, Reform,—and half-a-dozen children,—and it is wonderful
to see what an aid to population poverty is.—Humn pro-
poses that such a husband and father, if he earn 235. and
the fraction of a penny a week (260 per annum), shall be
liable to an income-tax. He proposed the monster-thought !
His reason for it ? Here it is, in Jox's own words almost,
indeed altogether :—those who had urged on the govern-
ment to go to war, at public meetings and elsewhere,
should be called on to pay their fair proportion of taxation.
What d'ye think of that, working men of England, who
have £6O a year, wage or salary ? It hangs over your
heads like the sword of antiquity. Chancellors of the
Exchequer resemble the eldest BONAPARTE—NAP,—WhO
said that no enemy was too insignificant to be despised.
So Mr. GLADSTONE thinks every little helps ;—he would
gladly have taken JOSEPH'S proposition ; but Mr. GLAD-
STONE thought it " too bad," more especially as the impo-
sition of the income-tax on sums from £l5O to £lOO had
only produced £250,000 ; and Mr. HUME'S proposition, he
was afraid, "would not at all produce a similar sum." No
suggestion, however insignificant, if it bring grist to the
CHANCELLOR'S mill, is to be despised. Mr. GLADSTONE
took good care to tell JosEmi to keep his proposition over
for a while,—till he saw how the present measure worked.
And JOSEPH answered and said, verily I shall do so.
One of the plague-spots of the vast metropolis—West-end
especially—is about to be remedied, removed. Gaming! Let
us take a ride in a night cab to Bury-street, St. James's,
the Haymarket, and streets ramifying, the " Silver Hells"
of Castle-street. Woe's me ; that poor, silly act, brought
in two or three years ago, and afterwards hurrah'd to the
sound of the dry bones in the dice box, which provided
that conviction should only follow gamblers being caught
in the act, or gambling instruments being found on the
premises. The act was laughed at ; the gamblers, know-
ing fellows, and the still more knowing ones who kept
the " bank," saw at glance they could easily circumvent
the warrant of the "beak," held by his most vigilant
officer. Iron-bound doors—examples for the ordnance
office—managed the one, and that science which relates to
fluids in motion, and more especially to the conveying of
water through pipes, did the other. A West-end plumber,
for £5O, puts up a tank, joked about in these sinks as Il
Taneredi ; it is arranged for a pipe, two inches in
diameter, with a bend here, and a bend there, just to
give impetus, and running bang into the common sewer.
A ton of water, in the moment of alarm, is let down ver-
tically,—adieu implements. Though they have been
going on to a great extent lately, it is curious to con-
sider the effect of the pitiful enactment last passed. In
a dozen of the " hells " referred to, old familiar faces
meet each other nightly over the green baize,—friend—
prostitution of the sacred word !—preys upon friend; few
strangers worth plucking turn up ; now and then a
"pigeon," it is true, but seldom. The same parties meet,
night after night, to fleece each other, and each as poor as
t'other. The very porter has been played with, and, in a
recent case, he cleared out the parties, and lent them cab-
hire. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S bill proposed, and
brought in on Thursday evening, is good ; it will surely
put down these gaming establishments. There are thou-
sands of gaming places—" more to be feared than they."
What follows, too commonly, the table d'hote ? Cards—
plunder. Two, three, five, ten, twenty pounds lost and
won ! The master-tradesman, the clerk, by this " friendly
hand," and a drop of gin, finds his quietus in the Thames!
This was the case the other morning.
Wednesday is a quiet day in the region of the Houses of
Parliament; the Earl of CARLISLE, when Lord MORPETH,
used to

- Throw up his cap,
And shout joy I joy !"

on its return. The late illustrious DUKE carried his love
of the day still further, by never coming down to the
horse at all, under any consideration, on that day, which
ever after became a dies non. The placid air (I do not
mean atmospheric) of the place does one good to have a
stroll, taking care you do not slide and tumble each glassy
step you take. Wednesday last formed an exception to
the rule. I was forcibly, and sadly too, reminded of Lord
BYRON'S famous first and last speech in the House of
Peers, when he stood up in support of the poor of Not-
tingham, touching the knitting-frame breaking-boys, of
five-and-forty years ago. Sir HENRY HALFORD, a kind-
hearted man, aware of one great grievance under which
groan the hard-working and harder paid makers of Not-
tingham hose, moved for a measure in their favour. Who
has not heard the jarring, sharp, and unmusical sound of
the stocking-maker's loom—chick—chick—chur For
all your improvements in science, exhibition prizes, &c.,
these noisy looms cost as much now as they did when they
first were patented—say from £l9 to £22 for the better
order. Scarce one stocking-weaver out of a hundred can
call one of these looms his own. Sharifellows, for the
most part, they say, butlers and other gentlemen's ser-
vants—a class who well know safe and profitable invest-
ments—purchase the machines, and let them out to the
poor worker of hose at a rent of 65., 75., aye, and Bs. a
week ! Is not this monstrous ? One year's rent of the
loom pays for it out and out. Here are gal the evils of the
truck system, without even the masteiPketting anything
by it. A man with half an eye could see that this enor-
mity demanded attention. No. Sir WiLLIA.m CLAY, the
Tower Hamlet baronet, opposed the measure, on the
ground that it " interfered with the labour market"—in-
terfered in a serious manner with the laws which regulated
labour as between master and servant ; a subject which
BROUGHAM, with all his age, experience, and forensic
lore, always approaches with jealous care. Sir WILLIAM
CLAY'S opposition is baseless ; the question is not between
master and servant—the truck system and middle-men
are the subjects ; and let us hope that Sir H. HALrouro's
bill will be ultimately carried. The second reading was
by a majority of 47.

- -
Half-a-dozen dramas, such as they are, have been pro-
duced during the week at the chief theatres ; all of them
artificial in plot, incident, language, and almost every
accessory necessary to the "legitimate." Yet they have
all been successful ; nay, more, an adaptation produced on
Saturday night by Mr. C. KEAN, that great stickler for
legitimacy and stage virtue, I am informed, was received
with the utmost favour, though unmitigated vice—male
and female—was rampant it in. The theatres are all
crowded,—at least those of them that I visit ;—standing
room all that can be had, unless seats are previously se-
cured. The winter season closed at Drury-lane on Satur-
day, with a bow from BROOKE and another from the lessee.
Some Chinese varlets make their appearance this evening,
preceded by opera. The impresario of the Italians has
issued his hot-pressed programme;—the same artistes as
before, with Lemacica—a great addition. Gaisi bids
farewell in July. It was stated that the season would
begin with " 11 Barbiere," LARLACIIE as Bartolo ; "Wil-
liam Tell" has been substituted with a grand cast,—a
change which no lover of music or musical scholar can
approve.

REJECTION OF THE SUMMONS
OF THE WESTERN POw.ERS.

A telegraphic dispatch, dated Berlin,March%,states that
on the pevious night an English courier passed through that
capital, bearing to his government the refusal of Russia
to accede to the summons of the Western Powers. The
messenger bearing the summons arrived at St. Petersburgh
on the 13th inst. It was immediately communicated to
the Russian Cabinet; and, on the 19th, Count Nesselrode
signified to the British Consul that his Imperial master
had no reply to make to the message of England and
France.

The Hon. E. W. Blackwood, messenger from St. Peters-
burgh, arrived at Dover on Saturday afternoon, and im-
mediately started for London. He reached the Foreign
Office at half-past ten o'clock at night. He is the bearer
of dispatches to our government, which were immediately
sent to the residence of Lord Clarendon. Mr. Blackwood
left St. Petersburgh on the 19th inst., having deferred his
departure till the last moment indicated in his instruc-
tions. It is understood that the Emperor would return
no answer to the Sovereigns of England and France.
The last authentic dispatches from Bucharest mention
great stir in the Russian armies. Some reinforcements
had arrived, and it was known that the Czar had desired
the capture of Kalafat at any risk and cost of money or life.

Tit AMERICA.3I 31.ms.—The steam-ship Andes, which
had been appointed to take the present turn of the Cunard
line of steamers from New York and Boston, had not
arrived previous to our going to press. Should she arrive
any time to-day, we will publish the news brought by her
in a Second Edition.

WE would recommend those who want to purchase
country residences to read Mr. Williams's advertisement.
Mn. ALBERT SMITH is stated to be writing a new
novel, the action of which is to pass in the varied localities
of London, Wolverhampton, and Ulverstone. The story
is said to be very dramatic, and to bear out the old adage
" that truth is stronger than fiction."
STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH WALEB.—A line of
steamers is about to rim between Cardiff and Liverpool ;
a large shed is now in course of erection at the docks for
the reception of cargoes to be brought by these ships.—
North Wales Chronicle.

Docz COMMITTEE.—The election of a member of the
Dock Committee in the room of Mr. Francis Shand, who
vacated his office as a representative of the ratepayers on
being elected an alderman, took place yesterday, when
John P. Palmer, Esq., deputy chairman of the Shipowners'
Association, was elected without opposition.
Tan AtAnco POLO, which sailed from here on the 9th
of November for Melbourne, arrived out on the 28th of
January. Later accounts state that on the 80th of January
she got on shore, and was not expected to be got off.
SERVANTS' WAGES.—In the County Court, yesterday,
the Rev. Dr. M'Neile was summoned by his late cook, for
the non-payment of £1 75., a month's wages, in lieu of
warning. The rev. gentleman said it was an understand-
ing with the plaintiff when she was engaged that she was
to have no visitors, except by leave of her master or
mistress, and that they made no objections at reasonable
times. On Sunday, while they were absent at church,
she admitted a " cousin," and on being remonstrated with
for her breach of regulations, she took fire as though she
had been brought up at Spit-head, and boldly defied the
authority of her master, who would not have pressed the
objection had she made any attempt at civility. The
judge gave a verdict for the defendant, and this produced
the plaintiff, who was
locked up
u another
she volley
fmni
couldntil
cool down.