The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-07-24 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 24, 1835.

We rejoice to observe that the House of Commons
has passed a vote in favour of admitting the ladies to
hear its interesting debates. Old RUTHVEN, of
Dublin, who is the very pink of gallantry and gentility,
and JOSEPH PEASE, the quitker, who is a lily of modesty,
but who, nevertheless,, as the song says—

" And a flattering tongue has he "-r .
form two of a committee to inquire into the best means
of accommodating the ladies. in some gallery to be
erected' for the purpose, the power of. admission to which

shall be vested in and form part of the official patronage
of the Speaker.
All this is as it ought to be. Some of the leading
whips, however, objected to the motion, amongst whom
was Lord JoHN RUSSELL. We can fully appreciate the
noble lord's motives, and enter most feelingly into his
awakened sensibilities. ;If we had been in Lord Jon N's
position as the leader of the house, and similarly and de-
lintely situated as be is in other respects, we should
most probably have voted in the minority as he- did.
There .are some men of a peculiar celebrity Who are held
in the highest estimation where they are least known.

The fortuneteller is most esteemed where she is the
greatest stranger. The medical quack seldom or never
mingles in social or convivial intercourse with his dupes.
The women are shrewd observers of character, and he
who by adventitious circumstances has gained an unde-
served reputation among them should avoid corning too
frequently into their society. For instance, there is one
LYTTON BULWER, who has written certain trashy no-
vels, the incidents of which being founded in facts are ar•
terwards coloured up into egregious lies which lead cap-
tive the imagination of many of the gentle sex ; but we
venture to assert that there are. thousands of these fair
admirers who gloat over Pelham and Eugene Aram, and
consider BULWER to be a man of surpassing genius, who
would not endure his presence or his familiar conversa-
tion for fifteen consecutive minutes. So is it with at
least an hundred of the popular members of the House
of Commons. Lord JOHN RUSSELL is one of these.
The name is a noble one in English history. Ladies who
never set foot in the House of Commons—who never
saw Lord JOHN—who never were within fifty or an hun-
dred miles of London, and who are necessarily compelled
to paint a fancy picture of the leader of the Commons of
England—draw strongly upon their wishes, and throw a
drapery of romance over him whom they conceive to be
a hero of noble bearing, of chivalrous gallantry, of splen-
did oratory, and commanding talents. Alas, for our gen •
tle cousins! They are too good, too kind, too generous.
Their idol is an ideal one. Admit them to the 4' Ladies'
Gallery" of the House Commons, and the -niy-stery
.would be unveiled, the mask would be torn aside, and
they would see before them, shrunk up into a shrivelled
epitome of humanity, and a perfect caricature of noble-
ness, the miserable, raven-voiced, crafty, but contempti-
ble leader of the whig administration. Then the charm
of the name would cease for 'ever. They would turn
away in all the sadness and sickness of unexpected but
overwhelming disappointment. For these reasons we
confess we are not surprised at the opposition which the
motion met with from Lord Jolts; RUSSELL.
The Mr. BERKELEY who introduced. it offered as an
argument in its favour what we should hardly have ex-
pected to hear from a radical member of the house. He
contended that the presence of the ladies would go far to
prevent those unseemly personal altercations and gross
terms of abuse which have disgraced the second as well
as the first reformed parliament. This is an important
admission. Mr. BERKELEY says that the language which
has characterized the verbal rencontres of the House of
Commons, since the passing of the reform bill, has been
alike ungentlemanly and disgraceful ; and, as experience
leaches him that no amendment can be reasonably ex-
pected from the present speaker, the influence of the la-
dies is, in his opinion, the only safe corrective, if not the
only sovereign remedy.
Such, by the humiliating confession of this honourable
member, are the effects of reform. The proposed cure
is, to say the least of it, a curious, and, perhaps, it. will
prove an agreeable one. Oh for a night of Mrs. Taw.-
LOPE during an angry debate in a fall house ! To hear
her describe the contortions of HUME under the lash of
Sir HENRY HARDINGE, or the wincings and screamings
of Lord JoHN under the flail of Sir ROBERT PEEL, would
be -a treat of the most exquisite kind. The ladies of
England have no idea what the popular members are, and
it is as well, perhaps, that they should only be permitted
to reconnoitre them from a respectful distance. A bawl-
ing blockhead on the hustings attracts some attention,
and appears to r ossear. something like magical influence