The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-14 00:00:00

THE DRAMA.

On Tuesday night last Mr. Hackett performed the part
of Rip Van Winkle, in the dramatic ,romance of that name,
taken from Washington Irving's well known. tale. In this
character he shone as an actor of the first grade, and exhibited
powers that convince us of his having studied in other than the
Yankee slang-schools. The contrast at the opening of the se-
cond act between the hale, hearty, bluff Van Winkle of fifty,
who ascended the Kaatskill mountain, and the old man who had
unconsciously slept for twenty years, was beautifully imagined
and finely executed. His astonishment at finding the " leetle
sma-al bush" on which he hung his rifle, as he supposes, the
night before, grown up to a " great pig tree,"—his beard
lengthened, his clothes worn out, and the stock of his rifle worm-
eaten, and the barrel rusty, were so natural as almost to
convince us of the reality of the scene. We have seen this
character performed by Yates, who throws into it an indistinct
recollection of his having undergone a twenty years' captivity in
the phantom ship. Hackett has no other recollection than that
of having caroused on the mountain with some "queer fellows"
on the night before ;—heuce, his astonishment is the greater at
finding the village changed, himself unknown to every crea-
ture in it, and " The King's Head" altered into that of " The
General Washington." The Most popular of Mr. 14tatikett's
characters is that of Colonel Nimrod in the Kentai..-kian.
This piece has been constructed for the purpose of ridiculing
Mrs. Trollope, but, with the exception of the Colonel himself,.
it is far from being cleverly hammered together. A Cockney
grocer, of the name of Jenkins, is introduced under the assumed
name of Lord Granby, and of course passes, until he is disco-
vered, for a very decent sort of-nobleman in that laud of alliga,
tors and other plebeians. Connecting the English heroine with
this impostor, the Americans intimate that her's is a swindling
speculation. Now, to say the least of it, this is a mean and ex-
tremely-vulgar way of attacking a woman. It is " far-down-
west," and "rotten" coarse in the very idea. She sketched
them to the life; she painted every leg, and nose, and top-boot,
and cat-skin cap in the whole republic; but she did not invent
anything ; she did nut libel them as they do her. The truth of
this is confirmed by every scene in the piece itself, by the din-
ner bell, the " free gemmen of colour," the language, and by
Nimrod himself, who was so ferocious 'cute, that although his
father could lick the best man in Kentucky, he could lick his
fattier. Hackett's acting, however, is spirited in the highest
degree. He is the very soul of the piece, and, if we mistake
not, is capable of drawing characters of a much superior order
to any we have yet seen him attempt. It would be worth his
while, perhaps, to favour us with a specimen of a first-rate Ame-
rican gentleman. We don't want a gentleman of congress—
none of their senators—no generals or mayors—but a simple
gentleman, of elegant manners, and correct education. That
we have never yet seen attempted. Even Cooper fails mise-
rably in depicting an English nobleman in one of his best
novels. He has no idea of the character, and we suspect few
of his countrymen have. They must wait for the portrait until
they. have a monarchy. The house has been well attended this
we week, and we hope will be to-night, when Mr. Hackett
takes his benefit.

TOE COUNTRY BANKERS.—The resolutions agreed to by the
committee of country bankers against the proposed alterations
in the system of banking are conceived in a spirit of very strong
opposition- to them. The following are a few of the arguments
that have been circulated in support of their view of the ques-
tion :—That in case of a general substitution of Bank of Eng-
land notes for country notes, the agricultural interest will be
liable to suffer materially, because, as business is now managed
by country bankers issuing their own notes, the advances made
by them to farmers are usually the last to be withdrawn. That
looking as well as other men of business to the rate of exchange,
and the probability of some difficulty in the supply. of money in
London, the invariable rule laid down by them is to- shorten
the accommodation in London, and to maintain all their coun-
try advances to the full. That supposing country bankers to
us 4 Bank of England notes exclusively, and that the Bank will
regulate Its advances to the country by -the rate of exchange,
advancing freely when the exchange is high, and withdrawing
them as it declines, the country bankers will necessarily follow
the course of the Bank, and in the case of a falling exchange
will call in their 'advances in the country. That in consequence
of this, the implied bond between the country banker and his
customers wilt cease. As the case now stands, the customer
assists the country banker in the first instance by taking his
notes, and afterwards circulating them; therefore, when the
season of difficulty comes, the country banker feels bound in
honour not to withdraw his advances._ Under the new system
no delicacy of this sort can be exercised. The country banker
will feel himself at full liberty to choose between the. person
who owes him a certain suns of money and the securities he
holds in London, which will have fallen in price, and to save
himself from.loss by the sale of his securities, he will call in
his advances from his country customers as a matter of course.

A woman named Catherine de Brouwer died in the refuge
for the aged, in the former Convent of the Ursalines at Brus-
sels, on the 29th ult., iu the one hundred and seventh year of
her age; she was born iu 1726, under the reign of Charles VI.,
Emperor of Germany; her prodigious memory revealed all the
remarkable events that took place at Brussels during the fol-
lowing reigns, which she related very minutely, with the addi-
tion of many curious anecdotes. The number •of descendants
now living, children, grand children, and great .erand
1:),/