The Sun. — London, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

LITERATURE. raw. , iii•e•.w, LUr_,'RETIA; or THE CHILDREN OF NIGHT. 3 Vols. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. On the publication of his romance entitled " The last of the Barons," Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton announced his intention of therewith terminating his career as a novelist. That determination he has now relinquished ; he has yielded again to the dominant influence of his imagination ; as he himself humour ously observes in his apologetic preface, " bad habits l are stronger than good intentions. ' Never, we will undertake to say, has a half-promise been broken in a manner more to the satisfaction of th e lovers of IPaerature. We should, indeed, have had sufficient cause to grieve in the event of such a man proving obdurate in such a resolution. We should have grieved that a mind so eminently distinguished for its capacities, a mind so peculiarly creative and sympa thetic, a mind so essentially assthetical in its character, so prone to the adoration of the beautiful and good, could have lapsed into a mute and inglorious indo lence. We should have grieved that that imagination remained idle, or incommunicative, which had so vividly revived to our imaginations the domestic in terests and civic pomps of Herculaneum, the strug gles of the last Tribune for Roman liberty, the solemn and pathetic mysteries of the Rosecrutians, the brilliant but ominous youth of our third Richard. It was not conceivable to us, however, that an intellect which had hitherto evinced such an inexhaustible fertility, sad such an assiduous inventiveness, could remain altogether unoccupied. We felt assured that from its germination of thought (a germination which was as spontaneous as it was prodigal, and as mobile as it was spontaneous), that mind would continue to re quire some medium for its effusion ; that if the old channel were dammed up, a new one would be opened ; that there would be an increase of im petuosity in consequence of that temporary retention. Sir Edward Bulwer almost acknowledges so much in the observations prefixed to bis present production. He confesses that in resigning the costume of the romancist, he aspired to the wand of the dramatist. He was sated with the triumphs of a Boccaccio, and yearned for the popularity of a Terence. After various " unpublished and imperfect attempts," Sir Edward abandoned his new ambition. I found, he says, that my conceptions were too wide, or that I wanted the faculty of concentration. These candid avowals remind us somewhat of that pleasant intro duction written by Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, either to his tragedy of lon or of the Athenian Captive, where that master-poet shrives himself to the public on the score of his futile attempts as a school-boy rhymster, With Sir Edward Bulwer, however, the failure must have arisen more from fastidiousness than incapacity. Of this his admirable contributions to our national drama are a sufficient testimony. Nevertheless, he avouches his dissatisfaction with his recent labours as a playwright, and his final determination to embody his ideas in " that species of composition to which he was familiar." When we remember the eloquent and impassioned poetry of his Richelieu, we should: be almost inclined to regret this ultimate resolution, but for our remembrance of the more eloquent and more impassioned prose of his " Last Days of Pompeii," and " Rienzi." We should regret his relinquishment of the stage for the publishing-office, if, while we re membered the grace and tenderness of The Lady of Lyons, we did not remember likewise the pathos of "Night and Morning ;" the melancholy of " Maitre vers," and the charming discursiveness of the " Dis owned." We should scarcely feel compensated for the loss of another play like Money, but that we have not forgotten the wit of " Pelham," the solemn energy of " Eugene Ailm," and the less dismal vil lanies of "Paul Clifford." 'We could give to the flames a million dramas; like; the Sea Captain, instead of one volume of such a work as " Zanoni"—the most exquisite romance of modern times. Altogether, therefore, we are rejoiced at the final decision of Sir Bulwer Lytton, and we gladly receive the present fiction as a guarantee of his sincerity. " Lucretia " is a most loathsome and repulsive story—it is perhaps the most loathsome and repulsive story we ever met with; but it is inculcative of the holiest truth, it is illustrative of the angelic whiteness of virtue, it is dictated by a love of the purest morality and the most genial benevolence. We are not among those who conceive that the portrayal of vice mad infamy are wholly prejudicial, and who regard the most straight laced heroes and heroines, Lord Orvilles and Clarissa Harlowes, as the only fit subject for our contempla tion. We cannot induce ourselves to think that virtue requires to be puffed like a quack pill or a charlatanical ointment. It is, if we remember rightly, Mr. Dickens who, in his preface to the third edition of " Oliver Twist," impugns these cavillers against the representation of criminals as hypocrites and Phari sees. NV by—not to speak it irreverently—if the mention of sin and depravity were to be regarded as reprehen sible, the holiest book would be discarded! If the narration of enormities were to render a work exe crable, all history, ancient and modern, would be comprised in the " expurgatory index." If the fail ings and atrocities of mankind were never to be de picted, our views of life would be partial and one sided, we should be liable to endless disappointment, there would he no salutary warnings against tempta tion. It can never be repeated too frequently that the danger of such productions exists—in the manner nut in the matter, in the deductions not in the data, in the clothing of the vice, not in the vice itself. As Sir Edward has beautifully said, paraphrasing a couplet of Fletoher's, " Every human act, good or ill, is an angel to guide or to warn ; and the deeds of the worst have messages from heaven to the listening hearts of the best." It is because they have clothed sin with an aspect of fascination, and painted ruffianism as heroical, that the French novelists have perverted their high capacity, and rendered their writings more d:angeroua than panders and procuresses. It is the levity of Charles Paul de Kock which invests his brilliant and inventive genius with an air so peculiarly pernicious. It is because profligacy is rouged and padded with such 0o :summate art by George Sand, that its cadaverous and distorted hideousness is forgotten by her readers. No more striking extimple of the extent to which this vile deception may be carried can be adduced than the vicious but eloquent description of the death of Adrien Cardoville and Prince Djalma in the "Juif Errant." In that scene Eugene Sue has exalted sin into a shape of infinite and seductive beauty ; just as St. Jerome is said to have been tempted by demons in the form of beautiful women. While, however, we maintain that it is well for us to contemplate ourselves as surrounded, not only by goodness and virtue, but also by evil and crime, we cannot but acknowledge that there are deeds of such enormous and almost in conceivable atrocity, that the mere possibility of their perpetration should never be even hinted at. Such a deed is the incestuous act mentioned towards the conclusion of " Tom Jones," and the utter ance of which is a lasting disgrace to the immortal memory of Fielding. Upon the verge of such another enormity did the imagination of Sir Edward B. Lytton hover when, to the best of our recollection, he hinted at a similar occurrence in " Alice." By avoiding such pitfalls, and by faith fully depicting society as variously composed of saints and criminals through all the intermediate gradations, the novelist may best fulfil his mission ; he may then hope to add his own adornments to that light litera ture which our eminent author has apostrophised in this work as—" that grace and flower of human cul ture, that best philosophy of all, humanising us with gentle art, making us wise through the humorus, elevated through the passions, ten der in the affections of our kind !" (Vol. ii. 29.) By acting thus, morever, they are merely transcribing faithfully from the book of Nature, for be that ex quisite saying never forgotten (vol. iii. 284), " Evil is the shadow of good !" In " Lucretia" the author has endeavoured to exemplify the infamy of crime, the divine excellence of virtue, and the folly of what he has designated " the principal vice" of our own generation—lmpatience. " I hold," he says, " that the greatest friend to man is labour ; that knowledge without toil, if posrible, were worthless ; that toil in pursuit of knowledge is the best knowledge we can attain ; that the con tinuous effort for fame is nobler than fame itself; that it is not wealth suddenly acquired which is de serving of homage, but the virtues which a man exercises in the slow pursuit of wealth—the abilities so called forth, the self-denials so imposed : in a word, that Labour and Patience are the true school masters on earth." There is a profound wisdom in those sentences, and it is well that in this ambitious age there is one mind adventurous enough to avouch those unwelcome truths. The necessity which really exists for toil and patience is most forcibly evidenced in this fiction, but it is evidenced through materials more repulsive and more monstrous than the most morbid imagination could well conceive. Mrs. Rad cliff never delineated characters so extravagantly vil lainous, Mc nk Lewis never described deeds of a more odious darkness, than the characters and deeds which are contained in "Lucretia." We should have dis carded the hook as a detestable caricature of humanity but that Sir Edward solemnly assures us in the preface that the crimes therein related " took place within the last seventeen years." So vast is the infa my of the chief personages in the story that we conclude its perusal with a shudder for our species. In trackin g the hide ous careers o f t h ese C h i ldren of Night we are baffled at the total and unredeemed blackness of their natures ; we can no t di scern , as their historian himself remarks, where " the monster vanished into the mortal, and the phenomena that seemed aberrations from nature were explained;' b :ircumstances, which are narrated in this romanc ee founded upon reality —and we have the author's guarantee that such is comprehend that re actually the case-- we can mark which he has elsewhere utteriutshaetv'; y T w r a h g o r e d e never quits the world—it surrounds The heroine, herself, Lucretia Claverin hik a demon in the form of a woman thangainisyrnre less hell-horn. Lady Macbeth has the purity of a g sa l l ri ss t and the gentleness of a seraph, in comparison. A ghoule at its repast could not be a more develish THE SUN, LON,3ON, spectacle. The: wife of Sawney Bean was not a I more diabolical being. And yet, after the catastrophe' of the tale, w hen she is confined in a mad-house as an incurable maniac, Sir Edward Bulwer asserts that he has seen Lucretia in that horrible captivity, " a , grisly, squalid, ferocious mockery of a human being ; more appalling and more fallen, than Dante ever fabled in his Spectres, than Swift ever scoffed in his Ya-hoos !" He declares, moreover, that his novel is compiled from the biographies of two criminals of recent times. One of these criminals, GabrielVarney (a character having rather an affinity for the Richard Varley of Scott, than for the Gabriel Vardon of Dickens), is as astute and almost as plausible a villain as the notorious Quaker-murderer Tawell. The other criminal, the chief one indeed, Lucretia Clavering, is nothing less than a Madame La f farge on wholesale. The destruc tion of life to her is a pastime ; cruelty is her only source of pleasure;; she wanders about the staircases at midnight clothed in black, creeping into chambers, infusing poison into the medicinal draughts of the sleepers, and rendering the young, the innocent, the beautiful equally her victims. She marries Dalibard, and Dalibard is assassinated at her instigation. She marries Braddell, and Braddell is poisoned by her hands. She calculates with a hideous glee upon the death of her uncle. She murders her son and her Deice. Her crimes are the most systematic, the most incessant, the most unsparing. Beyond all this, she kills, and beggars, and satisfies her thirst for blood, for money, and for revenge with the secresy of coward ice; but then, as the writer observes, "treachery and murder hatch their brood amidst the folds of a hypo crite's cowardice." Here is the picture of Lucretia, painted with infinite art. " Lucretia Clavering was tall—tall beyond what is admitted to be tall in woman; but in her height there was nothing either awkward or masculine—a figure more perfect never served for model to a sculptor. The dress at that day, unbecoming as we now deem it, was not to her—at least, on the whole—disadvantageous. The short waist gave greater sweep to her majestic length of limb, while the classic thinness of the drapery betrayed the exact proportion and the exquisite contour. The arms then were worn bare almost to the shoulder, and Lucretia's arms were not more faultless in shape than dazzling in their snowy colour—the stately neck, the falling shoulders, the firm, slight, yet rounded bust —all would have charmed equally the artist and the sen sualist. Fortunately, the sole defect of her form was not apparent at a distance: that defect was in the hand; it had not the usual faults of female youthfulness—the superfluity of flesh, the too rosy healthfulness of colour; on the contrary, it was small and thin, but it was, never theless, more the hand of a man than a woman; the shape had a man's nervous distinctness, the veins swelled like sinews, the joints of the fingers were marked and prominent. In that hand, it almost seemed as if the iron force of the character betrayed itself. But as we have said, this slight defect which few, if seen, would hypercritically notice, could not of course be perceptible as she moved slowly up the room; and Vernon's eye, glancing over the noble figure rested upon the face. Was it handsome?—was it repelling? Strange that in feature it had pretensions to the highest order of beauty, and yet, even that experienced connoisseur in female charms was almost puzzled what sentence to pronounce. The hair, as was the fashion of the day, clustered in profuse curls over the forehead, but could not conceal a slight line or wrinkle between the brows; and this line, rare in women at any age, rare even in men at her's, gave an expressionat once of thought and sternness to the whole face. The eyebrows themselves were straight, and not strongly marked,—a shade or two perhaps too light, a fault still more apparent in the lashes; the eyes were large, full, and, th o u g h b r i g ht, aston i s hngly calm and deep, at least in ordinary moments; yet withal, they wanted the charm of that steadfast and open look, which goes at once to the heart, and invites its trust; their ex pression was rather vague and abstracted. She usually looked aslant while she spoke, and this, which with some appears but shyness, in one so self-collected, had an air of falsehood. But when, at times, if earnest, and bent rather on examining those she addressed than on guarding herself from penetration, she fixed those et es upon you with sudden and direct scrutiny, the gaze impressed you powerfully, and haunted you with a strange spell. The eye itself was of a peculiar and dis pleasing colour—not blue, nor grey, nor black, nor hazel, but rather of that cat-like green, which is drowsy in the light, and vivid in the shade. The profile was purely Greek, and so seen, Lucretia's beauty seemed incontes table; but in front face, and still more when inclined be tween the two, all the features took a sharpness, that, however regular, had something chilling and severe; the mouth was small, but the lips were thin and pale, and had an expression of effort and contraction, which ad.ied to the distrust which her -idelong glance was calculated to inspire. The teeth were dazzlingly white, but sharp and thin, and the eye-teeth were.much loeger than the rest. The complexion was pale, but without much deli cacy; the paleness seemed not natural to it, but rather that hue which study and late vigils give to men; so that she wanted the freshness and the bloom of youth,and looked older than she was—an effect confirmed by an absence of roundness in the cheek, not noticeable in the profile, but rendering the front face somewhat harsh as well as sharp. In a word, the face and figure were not in harmony; the figure prevented you from pronouncing her to be masculine—the face took from the figure the charm of feminacy. It was the head of the young Augustus upon the form of Agrippina. One touch more, ' and we close a description, which already perhaps the reader may consider frivolously minute. If you had placed before the mouth and lower part of the face a mask or bandag e, the whole character of the upper face would have changed at once; the eye lost its glittering false ness, the brow its sinister contraction; you would at once have pronounced the face not only beautiful, but sweet and womanly. Take that bandage suddenly away, and the change would have startled you, and startled you the more, because you could detect no sufficient de fect or disproportion in the lower part of the counte nance to explain it. It was as if the mouth was the key to the whole: the key nothing without the text, the text uncomprehended without the key." It is absolutely impossible to conceive the abhor rence excited by the villanies of this monster without reading the novel from the title-page to the printer's name. To afford some feeble conception of the astonishing vigour with which her demo niacal nature is delineated by Sir Edward Bulwer, we transcribe a single sentence, which condenses, as it were, a world of infamy, of despair, and of woe. "If," says he, " amidst the punishments with which the sombre imagination of poets has diversified the Realm of the tortured Shadows it had depicted some soul condemned to look evermore down into an abyss—all change to its gaze forbidden—chasm upon chasm, yawning deeper and deeper, darker and darker, endless and infinite—so that, eternally gazing, the soul became, as it were, a part of the abyss, such an image would symbol forth the state of Lucretia's mind." One gleam of redemption, however, was left her, one means of re clamation to humanity—the love of William Main waring. This solitary gleam is extin guished, this single means is debarred her, and then— " lone again in the universe rose the eternal I." Not even the potent influence of ancestry could redeem her from the sins of degradation ; and the author beautifully says that our fathers " are made by death our household gods," and that " pride of family is the guardian angel of its heirs." Besides her own innate tendency to evil, Lucretia is fostered into an infidel and a murderer by Olivier Dalibard, to whom " good or evil ss ere but subordinate genii, at the command of mind ; they were the slaves of the lamp." This Dalibard--quite a emsar Borgia at heart—is most powerfully conceived. He reminds us of Arbaces in the " Last Days of Pom peii," but is, if possible, more of the fiend and less of the voluptuary. Gabriel Varney, again, has a cer tain resemblence to Lumley Ferrers in " Maltravers" and "Alice," a seeker of bodily enjoyment at all hazard. The difference existing between these three wretched and depraved mortals is given in a few words where the romancist is speaking of their pur suit of wealth through bloodshed. " To Gabriel's sensual vision," he says, " the image presented itself in the shape of unlimited pleasure and prodigal riot ; to Lucretia it wore the solemn majesty of power ; to Dalibard it was but the Eureka of a cal culation—the palpable reward of wile, and scheme, and dexterous combinations." Among the other and gentler characters of the book the most original, and, indeed, the most admirable, is Beck, the crossing sweeper. After telling us that "all education was unknown to Beck, so was all love," and that the poor sweeper's character was "as austere as Charles the Twelfth's," the writer exclaims—" Through the heavy clod which man's care had not moulded, nor books enlightened, nor the priest's solemn lore informed, still natural rays from the great parent source of Deity struggled, fitful and dim.' In Beck as here delineated poetry has been extracted from the ragged outcast guarding with his broom " an isthmus of the kennel." Sir Miles St. John is the very prototype of what an old English gentleman should be —generous, benevo lent, kindly, hearty, refined, and thoroughly domestic. Charles Vernon (with his " adorable impertinence") is a noble character, and this would scarcely be antici pated from the first description of him, to the effect that " his whole dress and air was not what could properly be called foppish—it was rather what at that time was called rakish." Walter Ardworth com pletely divulges his disposition where he chuckles over a verdant landscape ; " in this green banquet of nature," he exclaims, " no man sits below the salt cellar : the birds are an older family than the St. John's, but they don't throw their pedigree in our teeth." ,Tohn Ardworth, on the contrary, is given to no such bucolic reflections ; he is a splendid model of what may he gained by toil and patience. Although his narrator remarks that Ardworth "did not flirt with the muses, and that on the granite of his mind few flowers could spring," still he was endowed with reverie and sympathy, " the two wings of that spirit which we call genius." His whole life is modelled upon a doe ! trine which he himself utters :—" What men want is, not talent, it is purpose ; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour." And by this doctrine he is sustained in publishing his first toireninma. edi ting a daily newspaper, or in entering r utraent as a representative. Percival St. John and . Aite ,_ miedahaxtactuteer in sir wa E ri d n w g a a r. r d e ß , perhaps, the s th e e ve m r o im st a e g a i r ed t diabolical crimes by which they are en compassed their hearts are animated with a solemn and affecting holiness. " Lucretia," is adorned, in deed, with several charming contrasts of this descrip tion. For example, the first indication of depravity in the heroine is preceded by this beautiful and fan tastic fancy :—" The lights were out, all save the lights of heaven, and they came bright and still through the casements. Moonbeam and Starbeam, they seemed now to have the old house to themselves. In came the rays, brighter, and longer, and bolder ' —like fairies that march, rank upon rank, into their kingdom of solitude. Down the oak stairs, from the casements, blazoned with heraldry, moved the rays, creepingly, fearfully. Ori the armour in the hall clustered the rays boldly and brightly, till the steel shone out like a mirror. In the library, long and low, they just entered, stepped short —it was no place for their play. In the drawing room, now deserted, they were more curious and ad venturous. Through the large window, still open, they came in freely and archly, as if to spy what had caused such disorder, the stiff chairs out of place, the smooth floor despoiled of its carpet—that flower dropped on the ground—that scarf forgotten on the table—the rays lingered, upon them all. Up and down, through the house, from the base to the roof, roved the children of the air." They are followed by the imagination of the writer to the chamber of Lu cretia—" Moon and starbeam, ye love what lovers read by the lamp in the loneliness ;" to the chamber ' of Varney—" Moon and starbeam, ye love the slum bers of the child ;" to the chamber of Dalibard— " Moon and starbeam, ye love the midnight solitude of the scholar." In a very different scene, namely, in that incident where Tom Varney, the penniless artist, is elated on being invested with " the novel grandeur of the man sponged upon," Sir Edward has, unwit tingly, been guilty of a plagiarism. The exhibition of cruelty, in trying to put out the eyes of a canary with a red-hot tobacco-pipe, is plagiarised fromone of Hogarth's powerful, but terrible paintings of the " Four Stages of Cruelty." As an expression of the author's yearning for the advancement and improvement of his fellow-men " Lucretia" must be regarded as successful. It is a lesson to society, but a very fearful one. It is fraught with evidences of how the man can be degraded to the fiend, but it also shows how he may he elevated to the angel. It is commemorative of the gloom of sin, but it is likewise inculcative of the effulgence of virtue. For that great people, which he has expressively termed " the shadow of an everlasting audience," Sir Edward Bul wer Lytton has written " Lucretia"—if read rightly, it will not have been written in vain. NARROW ESCAPE OF THE KING OF SWEDEN. STOCKHOLM, Nov. 27.—Yesterday at noon an ill dressed young man appeared at the Palace, and with violent gesticulation, required Colonel Peyron, his Majesty's Chamberlain on duty, to procure him audience of the King. The Chamberlain declining to do so, he threatened the Colonel with a pistol, which he drew from his pocket, and soon afterwards aimed a secomd pistol at Count Horn, Governor of the Palace, who had hastened with some men from the guard-house to arrest him. The pistol was discharged, happily without in juring any one. From the examination of the prisoner, which immediately took place in the police-office, it appears that his name is Platen, and that he was quarter. master in the regiment of Dalecarlia ; that he has been for a year in the lunatic asylum of Danviken, from which he was discharged as cured on the 20th of May, 1845, when he was sent back to his relations, and had only been two days in Stockholm. The two pistols were fully loaded with iron shot of different sizes. The reports of the physicians who have examined him state that he is completely insane ; and he will, therefore, be sent again to the hospital at Danviken. There is reason to believe tha t the intentions of this unfor tunate man were not so criminal as they at first appear. In consequence of the danger which threatened the King yesterday, the audience at the theatre called for the national hymn, which was sung amidst the loudest ap plause. Th© Post och Inrikes Tidninger gave what has been found the most authentic of the reports in circula tion. The so-called Colonel Van Platen, when he required the captain of the guard to introduce him to Colonel Peyron, was extremely dirty and ill-dressed, that when he announced his desire to hare an audience of the King, the latter gave him an evasive answer, and desired him to leave the palace, and to come another day. He then repeated his refusal; upon which the man declined to state any particulars of what he desired of the King, and immediately drew out a pistol, and held it to the breast cf the Chamberlain, exclaiming, " An nounce me, or I will fire !" The Chamberlain turned aside the muzzle, and got possession of the pistol, sent to the guard• house and to the police-office, all which the assassin observed, but remained still, with his hand in his pocket. About an hour afterwards Count Von Horn, the Gover nor of the Palace, came from the guard-house, and ordered his men to arrest Platen, who stood behind a screen, and drew out a second pistol, and fired at the Count, whose cheek and temples were grazed by the shot, so that his hair was singed, and the bullet entered the wall. Platen was seized without much resistance, and taken to the police-office, where during his examination he spoke very boldly, threatened the officers, the French Ministers, &e. On examination he was fuund to have a large knife, a watch with a metal case, some printed phicards in bad Swedish, which were to prove that his proper name was the Duke of Bourbon ; a bundle of papers, but not a penny in money. On being questioned, he stated that it was his intention to demand the punish ment of those who in the year 1844 had placed him in the lunatic asylum at Dauviken. Being asked why he went armed, he said that a Duke of Bourbon never went unarmed. In less than an hour he seemed to have for gotten everything that had passed in the forenoon. The physicians declared him to be insane in the highest de gree. Yesterday afternoon he was again conveyed to the lunatic asylum. He is a young man, between twenty three and twenty-six years of age, and has suffered mental aberration for many years, but without showing any violence. According to the Afton Bled, his name is A. G. G. Von Platen, born 1822, son of Captain C. A. Von Platen, and has served as quartermaster in the regiment of Delecarlia. GRATUITOUS MARRIAGES ♦T ST. JOHN'S CLERKENWELL.--Yesterday morning, pursuant to a notice, some week since issued by the Rev. Hugh Hughes, the rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell, that mar riages would be celebrated by him gratuitously between parties who were too poor to pay the marriage fees, the Rev. Gentleman attended to perform the ceremony. In the district Df St. John's, Clerkenwell, comprising a population of above 9,000 inhabitants, the majority are of the lowest class, numbers of whom cohabit together without the performance of the marriage ceremony, in extenuation of which they almost invariably plead that they are too poor to pay the marriage fees. With a view of remedying this moral evil, the rector published notice that he 'souk] twice a year, via., on the first Mon day in December, and on the first Monday in May, marry such parties free of charge, and that the clerk should give notice of such banns without fee. Yesterday morning only two couples availed themselves of the benefit thus offered. The rector has further given notice that the children of the parish will be christened and registered iwithout fee on Advent Sunday and Whit- Sunday in each year. SUICIDE or A FEMALE IN THE PRESENCE OF HER CHILDREN.--Yesterday, Mr. William Carter held au inquest at the Cannon, West Moulsey, on the body of Mary Anne Watford, aged twenty-four, the wife of a ballast gatherer. On the evening of Friday last, a person in whose house the deceased lodged was asto nished at hearing screams of children proceeding from the deceased's apartment. The children of the de ceased were found on the bed, and screaming moat violently, and their mother was discovered hanging to the bedpost. The deceased was cut down, and a mes seuger was sent to Hampton Court for medical assist ance, but by the time the surgeon arrived life was found to be extinct. It was proved that the deceased had been for some time in a low and desponding state of mind, arising from ill health. The jury returned a verdict, " That the deceased destroyed her life whilst of unsound mind." SUICIDE IN THE STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE.— Yesterday information was forwarded to the coroner's office, of the death of Charles Fisher, aged 38, an inmate of the Strand Union Workhouse, Cleveland street, St. Pancras, who committed suicide under the following circumstances :—The deceased (a baker) had been re siding with his brother, of the same business, in I,locr street, Seven Dials. In consequence of his exhibition of mental derangement, it was resolved by his friends that he should be placed under some restraint, lest he should lay violent hands on himself. On Thursday week he was removed to the above institution in a state of in sanity, where he was attended by Mr. Jones, the house surgeon. That gentleman not considering his case sufficiently bad for immediate confinement, the deceased was placed in the accident ward of the infirmary, on the fourth floor. The unfortunate man continued until nine the same evening giving vent to all kinds of incoherent expressions, when he suddenly arose, and proceeded to an adjoining closet, opened the window, and precipitated himself therefrom. An alarm was immediately given, and on being picked up he seemed comparatively unhurt; but on a medical examination it was proved that he had received severe internal injuries. He continued to linger until Saturday evening last, when death put a period to his sufferings. THE STOCK OF THE LONDON AND NORTII-WESTERN COMPANY.—We understand that the directors of the above company, in consequence of the recent amalgama tion of the various companies in their interest, have re solved upon valuing the whole of their stock of locomo tive power, &c., and for this purpose have appointed Mr. M'Connell, locomotive engineer of the Bristol and Bir mingham Company, in conjunction with two other gentlemen, to examine and value the engines, tools, &c. The inspection and valuation of the stock will commence to-clay, at Crewe, where a town has sprung up, since the Grand Junction Company commenced the making of the engines, carriages, &c., used upon their line. A few months ago we gave' a description of this important ma nufactory, its various departments, extensive works, &c., and if access can be had to the details of this vast stock, we shall again revert to the subject. Anything like a rough estimate of the stock would be little short of conjecture. BODY or A CHILD FOUND.—The dead body of a new-born child, wrapped up in a handkerchief, was dis covered yesterday morning, shortly before eight o'clock, by a boy within the enclosure surrounding the parish church of St. Marylebone. It was conveyed by a policeman to the workhow, where it awaits the coro ner's inquest. UESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 8, lBi 13, Great Marlborough-street. NOTICE. -THE LANDED GENTRY. Subscribers, and the public in general, are requested to take notice that Mr. BURKE'S " HISTORY OF THE LANDED GEN TRY " is now COMPLETED, by the publication of the FOURTH PAR r ; and they are advised to complete their sets as soon as pos sible, to prevent disappointment, as the Parts and Volumes will not long continue to be sold separately. *** Orders received by all Booksellers. henry Collsurn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street. Just ready, In 3 vols. post Bvo.. MEMOIRS OF F r llE LIFE OF GENERAL PEPE. Comprising THE PRINCIPAL MILITARY AND POLITICAL EVENTS OF MODERN ITALY. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. Richard Bentley, New Burlington street. (Publisher in Ordinary to her Majesty.) THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE. THIS EVENING Ca's new Opera, rlos, 3 entitled LORETTA ; tr. Rafter; Ferdinand, Mr. W T b o e p s e e r v fo ll r i t e n . ed L p a o T i elu King ; Philippo, Mr. Borrant ; Provost Marshal, Mr. Howell ; Don Juanito, Mr. Weiss; Lo;etta, Madame Anna Bishop; Florinda, Miss Poole Gaetana, Miss Rebecca Isaacs. After the Opera, will be presented a new grand Ballet, called THE WAGS OF WAPPING (performed at the Academie Royale' Paris, ander the title of " Betty.") In which will appear Mdlles. Sophie Fuoco, Louise, Benart, Madame Giubilel ; MM. Huguet, Adrien, Paul, Tell ; Messrs. Howell, Priorson, &c. THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET. Under the Management of Mr. B. Webster, sole Lessee. THIS EVENING Will be revived the Comedy of SECRETS WORTH KNOWING. The characters will be supported by Messrs. Howe, Rogers, Stuart, Lester, Buckstone, Tilbury, Farren; Mrs. E. Yarnolo, Miss Julia Bennett, Mrs. Glover, &c. After which, a new Farce, entitled STORY TELLING ; or, Novel Effects. Dr. Ilardenber, Mr. Ferrets; Raps, Mr. Buckstone ; Grab, Mr. Rogers; Rose, Mrs. llumby. BurnTg the evening the Band will perform the Overture, "Pre aux Clercs," " Clementinen" (Mazourka); " Camellion" (Galop); the " Esterhazy" (Walzer); a New Overture; and a Fantasia - by Mr. F. Reed, " La Sonnambula." To be followed by the Drama of SUZANNE. Mr. Brillsly Bounceby, Mr. Webster ; Simon Swallow, Mr. Duckstone ; Suzanne, Madame Celeste. To conclude with a New Operatic Drama, called THE YOUNG PRETENDER. Captain O'Neal, Mr. Hudson ; Captain Cocker, Mr. Buckstone ; Chevalier Charles Edward Stuart, Mr. Braid ; Mrs. Craggie, Mrs. Clifford ; Mary Armadale Miss P. Herten. Box-othce open from Twelve till Four ; under the direction ol Mr. T. Archer, Box Book-keeper. I'HEATRE ROYAL, ADELPIII. UNDER TIIE DIRECTION OF MADAME CELESTE. THIS EVENING Wilt be performed a grand Fairy Spectacle, founded on the Ballet Of LA GISELLE, entitled THE PHANTOM DANCERS; or, the Wills Bride. Principal characters lay Mr. Wright, Mr. P. Bedford. Mr. 0. Smith, Mr. Cullenford, Madame Celeste, Miss Marian Taylor, Miss Emma Harding, Miss Ellen Chaplin, and Mrs. Laws. After which the popular Musical Comedy, in two acts, of SWEET HEARTS AND WIVES. Characters by Messrs. Lambert, Selby, Wright, Worrell, Cullenford; Mrs. F. Matthews, Mrs. Tates, Miss Woolgar, and Miss Brooks. To conclude with a Itozalan Sketch, in one act, called MRS. DAMP'S TEA AND TURN-OUT. Principal characters by Messrs. Cullenford, Worrell, Ryan, Wright, Munyard ; Miss M. Taylor, and Miss Ellen Chaplin. PRINCESS'S THEATRE, OXFORD-STREET. J. M. Maddox, solo Lessee and Manager. THIS EVENING -, _ _ will be performed an original romantic Opera, in three parts, entitled TILE NIGHT DANCERS ; founded on the Story of " Giselle." The principal characters perBenifled by Miss Oeergiana Smithson, Miss Rourke, Miss Sara Flower, 31iss Somers, Misses Marshall; Messrs. Leffler, Allen, Bodda, Walton, T. Hill, Honner, l'cren, &e. . ---, After which an entirely new Comic Drama, entitled THE TWO RAINBOWS. IR the course of the Eyening the Band will perform " The Perlen IVeltzcs." To conclude with Goldsmith's Comedy of SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. Sir Charles Marlow, Mr. Wynu ; Young Marlow, Mr. Vining; Hardcastle, Mr. Granby ; Tony Lumpkin, Mr. Compton ; Hastings, Mr. Roxby ; Diggory, Mr. Cowen ; Miss Hardcastle, Mrs. Stirling; Miss Neville, Mrs. Hughes; Mrs. Hardcastle, Mrs. Fosbroke. FRENCH PLAYS.—ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. Lessee, Mr. John 3litchell. THIS EVENING TO-MORROW EVENING Will be performed LE CODE DES FEMMES. Paul Fauvel, M. Rhozevil ; Mignonet, M. Cartigny ; Romain, M. Pagenier ; Louchon, M. l'riston ; Emma, Madame ingele ; Femme de Chambra. Mdlle. Ley d er. After which, Moliere's celebrated Comedy of LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMM E. M. Jourdain, M. Perlet ; Nicole, Mdlle. Brohan. To conclude with LE MARI ET L'AMANT. Col. Saint Leger, M. Langeval ; Ernest, M. Berou ; Frontin, M. Dumery ; 31. Motus, H. Tourtilln; Madame Saint Leger, Madame Adele Delue ; Lisette, 3ldlle. Brohan. Boxes, 6s. ; Pit, 3e. 6d. ; Stalls, 35.; Gallery, 2s. Doors opened at half-past Seven, and the performances commence at Eight. DAVIDGE'Ii ROYAL SURREY THEATRE. Lessee, Mrs. Frances Davidge. Will be performed Shakspere's Tragedy of RICHARD THE THIRD. Duke of Gloucester, Mr. J. R. Scott ; Earl of Richmond, Mr. E. F. ; King Henry, Mr. Heslop ; Duke of Buckingham, Mr. Fredericks ; Tressel, Mr. Johnson ; Queen, Miss Richardson ; Lady Anne, Mrs. Saville. After which a grand Military Ballet of Action, entitled LE REVE DU SOLDAT. The characters supported by 3ldlle. Theodore and the Dentin Family. To conclude wills the New Drama, called PASSION'S SLAVE ; The Outcast Son. Supported by the principal talent of the 'ompany. AST LET'S BOYAltv .AMPHITHEATRE. Proprietor, r. W. Batty. PA!ronised by her Most °melons Majesty the Queen, Prince Albert, and Royal ramily. Notwithstanding the present concentration of novelties, and the ex pensive engagements entered into with the most eminent British and Foreign Artistes for the Christmas Holidays, Mr. BATTY has purchased. the whole of Mr. White's trained Lions, Tigers, Leo pards, &c. Likewise in preparation, a splendid Comic FAIR! PANTOMIME, with other Gymnastic and Equestrian novelties. THIS EVENING Will be perthrmed a grand new Magical Equestrian Romance, en titled THE DEMON HORSE ; or, The Twelve Wishes and the Charmed lilt. New and entire change In the SCENES of the CIRCLE. To conclude with the grand Military Spectacle of THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. Napoleon, Mr. Gomersal. tux -otlice open from eleven till five o'clock.—Doors open at six an' c , mmence et half-past six o'clock.—Stage Manager, Mr. W. Itroadfoot. on the part of the people, and that there are nume rous excuses for the young and inexperienced QUEEN. It is indisputable that the liberties of the community have been shamefully trifled with, that the existing Administration has been illegally forced upon the nation, that the Government has evinced a grievous subserviency to the pleasure of a foreign Cabinet It is equally indisputable that MARIA DA GLORIA has been exposed to a variety of potent temp tations, which her youth, and the bankrupt condition of the exchequer, only tended to render more power ful. The wilymonarch of France, whose faculties of persuasion are becoming proverbial, has exercised his abilities with the utmost assi duity in Lisbon as well as Madrid, through DIETZ as well as BRESSON, upon Queen MARIA as well as upon Queen ISABELLA. By his machinations in Spain the friendship between England and France has been dissevered ; by his machinations in Por tugal the peace of that unfortunate kingdom has been destroyed. So much astuteness may be regarded as a partial apology for the recent proceedings in the palace at Lisbon. It has been insinuated that the leaders of the insurrection have been actuated by selfish and interested motives, and that their fdlowers have been coerced into their service. Both accusations are preposterously foolish. The popular chieftains have evinced in the most signal manner their inte grity and their forgetfulness of all personal advan tages. Men do not usually conceive it to be their interest to act in such a manner that their properties are confiscated, their titles forfeited, their lives most imminently perilled. Selfishness forsooth I It would be the selfishness of zanies and mooncalves. As to the forcible detention of entire regiments under their banners, the notion is a monstrous absurdity. It is certainly very probable that well-armed troops should be compelled by a body of rude peasantry to fight against the forces of the Sovereign ! Supposing such were literally the case, then are the soldiers of Por tugal the veriest poltroons that ever burnished a bayonet. PAROLLES would be a SALADIN to them. There is undoubted testimony, therefore, before us that the present insurrections in Portugal have originated in the unconstitutional employment of the sovereign authority. It cannot be denied that the population has been driven to this outbreak by the in tolerable intrigues of the Court faction ; that if the QUEEN is surrounded with difficulties and dangers she owes them to herself; that the noblemen who are styled the "rebel chieftans" have risen because they concientiously believed some interference with the acts of the unpopular Government to be necessary. These facts cannot be concealed by garbled statements or distorted by specious quibbles. As a specimen of how repeatedly statements are garbled and quibbles employed, we may allude to the dispatches from Lis bon which have just been paraded with so much ostentation by some of our Contemporaries —dispatches which are merely the exaggerated revivals of news which was stale ten days ago. The defeat of SA DA BANDEIRA at Chaves, on the 16th November, and his subsequent flight to Oporto, was fully commented upon in The Sun of the 27th ultimo. Nothing of particular importance has subsequently transpired in that portion of the Peninsula, saving the continued investment of Conde DAS ANTAS in Santarem by the royal forces, under SCIIWALBACII and the hero of Almoster. Matters cannot continue much longer in this state of suspense. All differences may be definitively settled, but the QUEEN must be true to herself, and the people must be true to themselves. It was with feelings of regret that during the current year we have, more than once, felt ourselves constrained to notice the conduct of the authorities of Alma Mater. The disgraceful consequences inci dental to a " town and gown" row, by which life was seriously endangered, and, subsequently, the extreme moral delinquency of a clergyman of the Established Church, as proved in another court of justice, neces sarily called forth some reflecting observations upon the luckless system of education pursued at our twin Universities. It is wonderful and lamentable to reflect how slow are these clerical bodies—for such they define themselves to be—voluntarily to under , take any reformation, how great soever the enlight enment of the age might seem to warrant any altera tion in either their peculiar laws, or in their adminis tration of the same. Unless some striking event should occur, by which public indignation is aroused, ani an obvious change for the better be loudly de manded, these comfortable patentees of the surplice sleep on at their posts, reckless of the continuous violence which, under their auspices, is offered to the feelings of humanity and the cause of civilization. And even when the eclaircissement is rendered, to their prejudice, familiar to the public mind, it is most unsatisfactory to witness the dogged resistance, or, at any rate, the sullen spirit in which they oppose themselves to any revi sion, which would mould their statutes in con formity with the acknowledged principles of the con• stitution. In our publication of yesterday we reported an inquest which was held at Cambridge, on Friday last, upon the body of a girl, ELIZABETH Hows, of loose habits. The facts are shortly these :—one night, last month, between eight and nine o'clock, one of tit( University proctors, the Rev. Mr. KINGSLEY, ac companied by two constables of his own, who, it seems, are, appropriately enough, styled " bull-dogs," undertook, at the instigation of one or both of his redoubtable companions, who informed him she was a person of ill condition, to arrest the unfortunate deceased, and to convey her to a black-hole of a prison, called "the Spinning-house." She was con fined an entire night, in a miserable cell, with a broken window, and without fire, a comfort for which she, and another female prisoner, pleaded in vain with the keeper. The victim here laid down on a damp bed, " on the head of which there came a great draught ;" she was discharged in the morning, severely smitten with illness, after which Mr. NEWBY, the surgeon, attended her and "found her unable to move," from rheumatic fever, which speedily termi nated in death. The Rev. Mr. KINGSLEY admitted that she was conducting herself with no impropriety when he undertook to deprive her of her liberty ; in fact, that she went so "quietly," that he recommended the Vice-Chancellor to release her in the morning. Our readers should know that the cells of the Spinning house are described by the Coroner as " pests and nui sances," and that in the view of the jury they are" unfit for the worst of felons." Thus, in this arbitrary manner, without warrant, but by virtue of a charter nearly 300 years old, which Mr. KINGSLEY conceded he had never read, and which, for the honour of the University, should have long ago become obsolete—without any knowledge of his own — but, acting upon the simple ipse dixit of one or both of the bull-dogs (who might have had no more accu rate acquaintance with the party than had the clerical inspector himself; or, if they had, might have been actuated by malice, or me rel y stimulated by an functions), that zeal for the discha r g e of their that ELIZABETH Howz belonged to an unfortunate class,—in this tyrannical manner, so repulsive to a sense of justice, so at variance with the common law of the land, was this w retched creature prematurely hurried into eternity Let us glance for a moment at the reproachful mode in which Mr. EDWARD WIL SON and the Rev. Mr. KINGSLEY tendered their evi dence in this truly melancholy business. The former alleged that the single square of glass in the window was not broken the night deceased came in. It was extracted from the latter, through the exami nation of a juror, that the glass was broken the last time he saw the cell. Perhaps the keeper wanted anything in the shape of an excuse for having refused the poor girls a fire during a cold November night. If the pane was broken subsequently, some proof of it might have been offered. The keeper believed there was no fire on the 6th of November. Why, Euzi WRIGHT swore that they . both asked him for one, when he replied, he would not have a fire for two girls ! Again, WILSON deposed that the cell was well pro tected from the weather. ELIZA WEIGHT de clared she laid down with her clothes on, that the bed-clothes were very damp, that she was not ill when taken to the Spinning-house, but, when there was taken ill with a bad cold and pains in her bones. The Rev. Mr. KINGSLEY, who was properly compelled by the Coroner to answer a ques tion which he had at first refused to answer, said, the Spinning -house appeared to him a proper place to con fine females ! He admitted afterwards that he did not know how females are accommodated in gaols. So that, really, if we were to rest satisfied with the evidence of the keeper, and the humane Mr. KINGS- f LEY, we should be drawn into the cp'nion that the I Spinning-house was a most comfortable, weather proof receptacle for prisoners ; and yet it is as clear as noonday, and the jury so found it, that ELIZABETH HOWE died of rheumatic fever, occasioned by her incarceration in a cold and damp cell, unfit for the worst of felons ! Bad enough, assuredly, for the keeper, but is it not monstrous that a clergyman, who had the use of his senses, and had actually visited the cell, should bring himself to give such mincing testimony as the above ? For what pur pose ? To blind the ends of justice, and perpetuate an odious power, which has ended thus fatally. Looking to the manner in which the Coroner ex torted a portion of his evidence, and jurors drew out from him the remainder, we can easily conceive that his Reverence's hands would be ready enough, without the least provocation, to de prive a fellow- creature of the hallowed privilege of liberty. The jury have, rightly enough, taken care that the whole of the proceedings shall be forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, We feel, therefore, assured that the earliest means will be adopted for preventing the public being chagrined by a repetition of such horrible conduct. There can be no doubt that this obnoxious power, which has sunk ELIZABETH lIowE into her grave, will be promptly wrested from the hands of the University. We shall close our remarks by giving an extract from a letter of a civilian in Cambridge, which has appeared in public, demonstrative of the cruel consequences that flow from the exercise of a privilege so obstructive of natural liberty " A young lady of the highest respectability was quitting a friend's house in the company of a male re lation; the latter returned, after passing the gate, in search of a forgotten umbrella, leaving his fair compa nion for an instant unprotected; and, to his astonish ment, on hastening to rejoin her, found that she had disappeared. The young lady, in spite of her appear ance and protestations, had actually been conveyed to the Spinning-house by the loathsome satellites of a proctor, whom I hereby invite to publish his own name if he dare, and to disprove the above statement if he can. " I have simply adduced the above instance to show that a girl need not even be known to these gentlemen, far less misconduct herself in their presence, to insure an introduction to their pestilential establishment. The merest accident may place a modest and virtuous young woman in the immediate society of the most abandoned of her sex." This relation needs no comment. The Austrian Observer, of the Ist of December, announces, from authority, that no secret treaty on the subject of Cracow has ever been entered into by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. We have received the Moniteur ' Grec of the 20th of November. On the 19th the Chambers were opened for the third Parliamentary session, by the KING in person. The speech from the Throne recommends the Legis lature to occupy itself seriously with the amelioration of the financial system. The budget, it states, will be immediately submitted to them, and henceforth the Government will not be under the necessity of asking for provisional credits. His MAJEszr states the agriculture and the commerce of Greece to be in a flourishing condition. M. COLETTI had been dangerously ill from inflam ation of the kidneys, but was getting better. Up to the 17th of November the state of his health caused the greatest alarm. Upwards of 40 vessels were wrecked in the Black Sea during the late storm. The Journal de Constantinople states that the cho lera broke out at Tabriz on the 11th of October, and at Diarbakir on the 10th. Madrid papers of the 30th have been received. A Ministerial crisis had happened on the 29th. Senor PACHECO, the leader of the Opposition, holds the office of Public Prosecutor in Madrid. He applied for leave of absence from the Government to attend his election at Seville. The Government refused to grant the leave required, and Senor PACHECO resigned his office. Senor ISTURITZ accepted the resignation of PACHECO, but when the QUEEN was asked to sign it she refused, declaring she thought the Ministry had used Senor PACHECO excessively ill. Thereupon ISTU RITZ and his colleagues tendered their resigna tions, which were accepted ; and the Marquis of VILLUM A. was sent for by her MAJESTY, and commis sioned to form a Ministry. The Marquis, however, failed, and acting on the advice of Count BRESSON, the QUEEN sent for Senor ISTURITZ and his col leagues,-,who, on the acceptance by her MAJESTY of Senor PACHECO'S resignation, consented to resume their offices. A fire broke out on the 29th in the office of the Minister of Marine, which destroyed the archives of that department. News from Lisbon to the 22d November had ar rived at Madrid. The novo states that BOMFIN and CELESTINO had effected a junction with DAS ANTAS at Santarem, having completely out-mano3uvred the Viscount SETUBAL, who had endeavoured to prevent them from effecting the junction. The losses of SA DA BAN DEIRA in his action with CAZAL, at Chaves, have been much exaggerated. In the bulletin published by SA DA BANDEIRA he admits that two regiments deserted to CAZAL, but states that, notwithstanding this desertion, he defeated the troops of CAZAL. Neither party seems inclined to accept the mediation of Colonel WTLDE. MADRID BoIAA, Nov. 30.—Tha Three par Cents. were done at 34 ; the Four per Cents. at 21 ; the Five per Cents. at 211 ; and the Coupons at 19k. We have received the Paris papers of Sunday. The Ministerial journals contain long accounts of the fete given by M. GuizoT to the Bey of TUNIS, on Friday. A great number of Peers, Deputies, and Foreigners of distinction were present, but the only Ambassador there was the Spanish Ambassador, MAIL. TINEZ DE LA ROSA. Lord WILLIAM HERVEY was there for a short time. Of the Royal Family the Dukes DE NEMOURS and D'AUMALE were present. There was a grand concert performed by the pupils of the Conservatoire, under the direction of MM. AUBER and HABENECK. The Duke DE MONT-. PENSIER joined the festive party at 11 at night. There was a grand review in the Champ de Mars on Saturday, in honour of the BEY. There were 25,000 troops on the ground, under the command of General TIDURCE SEBASTIANI. The Artillery was commanded by the Due DE AIONTPENSIER, Count MOLE visited the KING of the FRENCH on Thursday, at St. Cloud, and was most graciously received by his MAJESTY. The case of the prosecution of the agent of Queen CHRISTINA, by M. LEFEBUZE, to recover 11,181 f., for some valuable lace sent to Madrid at the time of the Montpensier marriage, came on before the tribunal of Commerce, on Friday. The Court decided that it had jurisdiction, and the case will therefore proceed. The Three per Cents. were done at Tortoni's on Sunday, at 82f. 30c. MAusztr.t.Es, DEC. I.—Marseilles and Avignon, 866 f. 25c. ; Northern, 635 f. ; Paris and Lyons, 497 f. 50c. LYONS, Dsc. 4. —Paris and Rouen, 865 f. ; Avignon and narsailies, 866 f. 25c. ; Northern, 632 f. 50c. ; Paris and Lyons, 498 f. 75c. BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, DECEMBER 7. Central of Spain, 1 / 2 —Direct Bombay and Madras, % Dutch Rhenish, 5-Jamaica South Midland Junction, 1 5 8 — Luxembourg, —Northern of France Constituted, 10% — Orleans and Vierzon, 1314 —Orleans and Bordeaux, 8 1 ,4 Paris and Lyons Constituted, 5 1 / 2 —Rouen and Havre, 25 %/ Strasbourg and Bale, 3%. THE FRENCH PLAYS.—The Conde de Montemolin, attended by his Chamberlain, Colonel Merry, General Don Juan de Montenegre, and Don Jose Garci di Martin, honoured the French Plays with his presence last evening. There were also present, Prince Louis Napoleon, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Marquis and Marchioness of Lorn, Lady Leveson Gower, the French Ambassador and suite, the Earl and Countess Brownlow, Lady Caroline Maxse, Count and Countess de Jarnac, the lion. Miss Foley, Lady Augusta de Nieumann, and Lady Georgiana Codrington, Lord John Manners, Earl of Charleville, Sir Ralph and Lady Howard, Lady Selina Bridgman, Countess of Blessington and the Misses Power, Lady Maui, Lord Clifden, Sir J. li. Lowther, Sir IL Webb, and Mr. 11. T. Hope. EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT. — The members and friends of the Metropolitan Early Closing Association, established to effect an abridgement of the hours of business in all trades, held a public soiree last evening at the Queen's Concert Room, Hanover- square, in further ance of the objects they have in view. Mr. B. Bond Cabbell, M.P., presided; and the meeting, which was very numerously attended, was severally addressed by other influential gentlemen. In the course of the even ing sentiments, framed in accordance with the views of the promoters of the movement, were proposed and car ried unanimously. 'IMPORTANT RISE IN IHE COTTON-MARKET. — Our Liverpool letters state tliat yesterday the sales of cotton amounted to 30,000 bales, at a further advikuce, • NIWNEY and COMMERCIAL NEWS' CITY, QUARTER TO THREE. The Cotton Market at Liverpool yesterday was in an exceedingly excited state, and an immense business was done at an advance of to id. per lb. About 30,000 bales were sold, including 14,000 on speculation. The sales included 1,500 Pernams and Maranham at 7d. to Bd., to 9d., 1,600 Bahia at 7d. to 7id., 500 Egyp tian at 70. 4,000 Surat at 4d. to 5d., 40 Sea Island at ls. 2d. to ts. id , and 22,000 American at sd. to 71d. per lb. Shares had been again rather dull. Much disappointment has been fe lt in the City a the non-arrival of the West India Mail s t e am -ship, o now over-due. That she has been imp eded by boisterus weather does not admit of a doubt, as there are roan)? other vessels from other quarters after date. The intelligence received from Lisbon b y express this morning of the signal defeat of the insurgents by the Queen's troops, has given much satisfaction to those con: netted in this community or provincially with tbs" country. With a tranquil administration of but a few, years, there is not a doubt but this fine country wool a be brought round to a state of sound prosperity. By ;be paragraph which is at the head of this day' s article it will be seen that the sales of Cotton at Liver pool yesterday amounted to 30,000 bales, of which 14,000 were for speculation. It is very much deplored, slog( mercantile members: connected with ex p ortation,.o manufactured fabrics, that the rage for "time" bar Ons in the staple should be so greatly carried on, as the T; evitableresulc must be to raise prices, and prevent t h d completion of the orders lately received from the Unit e , States for goods, at the limits given in the advice,. positive necessity will therefore arise for the working b ° o short hours, and the loss to masters and men will great indeed. tea A considerable amount of business has been transacted in the English Stock Market to-day. Prices may r to be firm. Consols have been done at 951 and 951; Ao money at 951 i; Exchequer-bills at 7s. to 103• preinienV, and India Bonds under 1,000/. at 21s. premium. vn!, Stock has fluctuated from 2061 to 207 i. The 4 ` e Three-and-a-Quarter per Cents. command 961. * The intelligence received from Lisbon has given for r . considerable degree of animation to the market re_ tuguese Four per Cents., which have improved The 3911 to 401 for the Account, and to 39,E for Mono'. 7 1 Spanish Three per Cents. have been d one oulY s t "l a and 371 ; Mexican, at 221 i; and Brazi lian, at 0 6 . g , the other Foreign Stocks there has not bee n any Wine-- transacted this morning. The market for the s l Railway Shares an d ScriPnu; been rather firm, but without any considerable gee— l - of business being in progress. Il4° CLOS oNE TRI. A A C°I i PRICES OF BRITISH FUNDS. O'CLOCK. • „,,gu xv- Bank Stock 206% 207% ""'w 94 3 per Cent. Reduced Anns 94% I% 9 4 95 3 per Cent. Consols Annuities 9 5 14% 9 4 1 1 3 per Cent. Annuities, 1726 New 3 1 4 per Cent. Annuities 96% 9 15 1: I.ongAnnuiticstoexpireJan.lB6o 9% 1546 0 fr.- Ditto 30 years, Jan. 5, 1860 lO 1-16 .... 21 I' lndia Bonds, 1,000/ Ditto under 1,0001. .. ...... .— 2 l 2l p ..- South Sea Stock 94 1 4 ,5 Ditto New Annuities Consols for Account 95%2% 10 P Exchequer Bills, 10001. liAd. ... 10 710-- P 1 0 P i ritto, 5001 - P 10 P Ditto, Small - P ~,1 0 c1,00 , --, 4 wirE I'ItI CP ' O'CLOCIC ..- 04 , RICES OF FOREIGN FUNDS. - Brazilian Bonds Ditto, New, 1829 and 1839 Equador Bonds - 22 1 ' Mexican, 5 per Cent. 1846 2 2 1 / 2 14 22 Ditto, Account . 224 40‘ 89A Portuguese Bonds, 4 per Cent Ditto, Account 4O 39% " 20 Spanish 5 per Cent. 1840. ..... Ditto 3 per Cent. Ditto, Account 373 d 1 1 . Dividends on the above payable in Lon ° 694 Dutch, 214 per Cent . .1.0 0811- nucEs OF Bris/NES :IAILAY SILUIES PAID. o l CLOG D AT 0NX..... Aberdeen ..... Amber., Nott., Boston, ..... Olt -.....0w W and Eastern Junction 2% 2% .......... ..0 Armagh, Coleraine, and ....... Portrush l% — .......... .. Belfast & County Down 4 3 4 — ........... ... Birmingham and Dudley 425.... Birruin. and Gloucester-100 Ditto New 17% Birmingham and Ox ford Junction .. . •. - . .... Birkenhead, Lancashire, ........... and Cheshire June.... 2 3 / 4 - • ............ Boston, Stamfd, & Birm. 225. ."-- ............ Bristol and Exeter 75 .. ....... ...... Ditto, New ... .. ... . Bristol and Gloucester 3O ..«.. -- ........... Bristol and Liver. June 2%...... '''' Buckinghamshire - • ........ ....... C aledonian ... .•••• Ditto Half Shares—. 2% . ........... Cambrian & Grand Jane 42s Chester and Holyhead... 27 1 / 2 -- ••"::::::::...., Clzurnet and Blythe Chester and Manchester 425. Chelte*ham and Oxford 2 Clydesdal e Junction.. ... 20 Cork, Blackrock, and Passages Cork and Killarney ... 2% — ............... Cork and Waterford ... I'4 — Cornwall Ditto, Half Shares ... 2%...... •••••..•• Cornwall & Cent'l Devon 2% — Direct Lincoln, East Ret- __ . ford,and Sheffd. June. 2% — Direct Northern Direct Norwich 78 7 , 23% Dublin and BelfastJunc. 12% - Dublin, Belfast, and Coler,3ine - Dublin and Galway..... 4 - • ...... ••• Dundalk & Enniskillen 10 - ............. Eastern Counties 14/. 165.,,.... 22% ............... Ditto New Ditto Perpetual, 5 per Cent, No. 1....... 6/.135. 4d - ............... ' Ditto ditto. N 0.2... 61. 13s. 4d 1,4 P••• ....... Do., York Extension.. 2 ..• ••• 3 % % ............ [ E t a a DDDDI), s t t ii: ae:Dtt...rtt,:loneed:,rxea Unionc4 h tiiz ieu ' n r ba t andNo r ' c h 1 - - ............... 35 .. ... - ... ........ . .r ( t all e n r adr S ‘E l v i i a ley r h e . s ) 2 8 1 L is i .. ... .. .... _-__ .. ..................................... East Lancashire 14 ...... -- •• •••• .... ....... Do . , d o N i ° , (7. do. Huntingdon re uus N i(w at i n - ll East r eas toti ‘it i v e e l i LE, El : ° ll.: l si e) nt i itat t bS : en t t i r o o l d, rl : 4 H h a Half I'° Shares Gl as g o . w . . 5 10 ° ..' . . 2 . - -- 0 1 .. .. .. .................... •*. . I Quarter ''Slic c z S 3 l :r on i.lB. : Pa.t. r n.o. e . :. s ' 1 1 551 2 2 1:%% ; , •••• . 1.1 . . 1 ........ ...... ...... I -- - 12 511•11141: .:::.:: . 1: ... .• . • :1: E li d a i i i n ib b u ur r y g g l ei i i) & %ain N i:lBz o i r )D t e h ro e trh r s i 1 5 2 3 .. :. ....................... -' • .•••• ... i t 2 1 3 1% .... " ...... Enniskillen and Sligo ... 21/ - ........... • Glasgow, Kilt - nan o & Ayr 50 . - ............. Ditto, New .. 15 - -- -- ...... .. ... Do., 1 Shares (5 per •..•••'' cent. guar.) Glouc.,Abei ystwith,and Central of Wales ....... ..• 1 %•••••• •"" .......... Goole, Doncaster, &c. - ........ Grand Union (Notting .. ••••• and Lynn - •• .. ..... Great Eastern &Western 2 LA..... -- ....... GreatGrimsby and Shef• field - •••• .......• • Great South. and West (Ireland) 27%..... -- •••• ... Great Munster ••• 2 1 ( 2 ...... ••••• ............... Great North of Scotland 2A.. . . . . - ... " .... Great North of England-100 235% 231"' ...... Ditto New 5 ...... -- •" ..•••• - Ditto, New . - .......... ... Ditto, New - ••••• Great Great Western B5 ......134 ............. Ditto % Shares 5O ...... 77 .............. Ditto 1,.4 Shares lO ...... 18;‘... ...... ...... Ditto Fifths - ............. ... Ditto, New .. 2 ...... 7 1 A • ....... . Huddersfield & Manches. 13 ...... 174- ... " .. .. .. .. . Ditto, Extension Hull and Selby Ditto - 1 / 4 Shares . 2% .......... . ICI •••• ................ ............. Do. Half Shares - ••• " ..... Ipswich & Bury St. Edm. 11 1 ,/e ...... - ............... Do., do., and Norwich 2%....• 3 .............. Lancaster and Carlisle 5O ...... ......... ... Do. New Leeds and Bradford 3O - • ......... .... Leeds and Carlisle - •••• ....... „„ Leicester & Birmingham 225....... - ••• ......... .. Leicester and Bedfard 22s. ...... - ........ ...... Leeds, Dewsbury, &c 22% ...... 33 .. ......... Do., Branch (Blue) Do.Extension(Green) 2%.. ..• .... : .... ....... Leeds and Thirsk 1 7% ...... 15% 16% . .•.... Ditto, New Lpooi., Iltinchstr &New .. ••• castle Junction Bverpool and Bury London and BlaAwall. 16/. 131.4d1- •• .... ..... Do. New - ..... .. ... .... •• Ditto Extension London, Brighton, and .... South Coast .. •• 587/9%. ....... ....... Ditto, Fifths Do. Guarant. 5 per ct 9 ...... - • ........... London and Greenwich 12/ 15s 4d... - ........ .. Do. Preference ...181173 2d...... -- ........ London, Hounslow, and ••••• . .... • Western Landon end N. Wt aternloo •••••• - - .......... Do. Quarters - .......... Do., do., New Dooit.totAFifsthhasre.s..(.G. .. J .... ) 5 2 .. ............ ......- ........................... .: Do 40/.Shares(L.M.) 8 • ...... 7. 7,/ ....... •••••"••• Do. 40/. (M. & B.) ............ D D , 0 ,. . 1 1 0 0/ L . ( ( .3 11 1 1 . . &&1B3..)) Ii 5 ................. Lon v. Do. New Consol. Bths 40 ...... --__ ............... Do. New - ............. . 1 11 ../ Do. New t .. t . & e .. r . 1 2 .. .4 . ) . 1 . ? A . . 6 1 5181510 d..................... 0 12 5 i,‘ :'LL/;" . ..................1 . • • •• ... ... ". ..... Ditto Tenths ..... .....,` ................. Ditto Tenths ... ............ Ditto Scrip ....../' ... ...... .. ••• ... • • ••'' LlDnditotno an dit d to yo . r .i ...... ........ .....: Do. Extension ...... .... ........ London and Windsor . 1A• London, Salisbury, and _. , ..... .... ................. Yeovil ...... ... •••••••• j 'h• .. .... 0 ..... ....... ...., Londonderry& Coleraine 15 .... Lynn and Ely ........... :_. ..... ...._ ............ 49 Lo k n i d n o e n n d . e . rry .... and Ennis. il Lynn and Dereham .... - ........ ... ..., Manchester and Leeds 92 .. 49 ........ . ... ... . .... .... ••••• Do. Quarters 5 •••••• .. ........ 10 , Do. Fifths ..•... . , __. ......... DittolA. Shares ........... ..... ....... Do. Sixteenths ..... ............. ....116671 D. Extension ......... 1. ............ 1 1 /8 P ........ ............... • 2;34 74 P 14 9 I ,i ..- 201 1; 1 4 , is% X 7l 77 11 30 1 144 1 0 5 5 94 5,4 , bB4 ..•, 71 12 12 6 6 3% --- b~ 5~ RAILWAY SHARES BY PUBLIC SALE. MES.It --- S .-- .LAMOND and Co., RAILWAY SHARE AUCTIONEERS, beg to thank their Friends and the Public for their continued support and patronage, and to annoanc• that their Public Sales of Railway Shares, &c. take place every TVEADAY and FRIDAY, at One o'clock, at the Hall •f Commerce, Threadneedle-street, London, to which place, favours, containing instructions (with a reference), are respectfully - equested to be addressed. All Scrip and Share Certificates must be deposited, the day previous to their being offered; sad advices of results will be forwarded by the first post after the sale, au,' the proceeds hnme 11.itely disposed •f according to instructions. Offices. Hall of Commerce. Threadneedle-street, London. ROYAL VICTORIA THEATRE. - . '1 he success of the reduction of prices of admission at this Theatre is without precedent, nightly overflows being the result. Boxes, Is. ; Half-price, 6d. ; Pit, 6d. ; Gallery, 3d. Continued success et the splendid Drama of " The Black Doctor." THIS EVENING Will be performed THEBIJACK DOCTOR. In which Miss Vin cent, Mrs. G. Lee, Miss L. Pearce, Mrs. R. Barnett, and Messrs. Edwards, Bird-, Searle, Forman, &c., will perform. After which TILE STAGE-STRUCK LOVERS. Tommy Tape, Mr. Forman ; Sally Scragge, Miss Lydia Ptarce. To conclude with JACK RAIrN ; or, Sixteen-string Jack, and the Knaves of Knaves'-acre. TUE WEATHER.—SuN OFFICE, DECEMBER 8. ttERHOMETER, Lowest, 35; Highest, 41 ; Noon, 4 BAROMETER, 30.26.—W1ND N.N.E., fine. WA.'fi,flit AT LONDON-liiitnut, DAt Horning .. I mlnute3 after 5. I Evening .. 22 minutes after 5. -41,10",‘ 4 4 • eikjoo4:4lllolov4 '41.0.4k 1 g et Jowl. LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1846. The most contradictory accounts are continually arriving from the Tagus. i If we were t o repose im plicit credence upon any individual statement, instead of collating every species of information --instead of extracting the kernel of facts from the husk of mis representation—we should unquestionably be de ceived. Watching any disturbed country from so great a distance, and deriving our intelligence from separate spectators, we are, so to speak, looking upon that remote spectacle through so many different glasses. Taken singly, these glasses afford us only a very distorted view of what is transpiring—one is concave, another is convex—one magnifies, another diminishes—one exaggerates ever} thing into a pre posterous magnitude, another reduces everything to a ridiculous minuteness. It is only by combining these lenses, as in the telescope, that their different powers of refraction can be made to harmonise, and that we can thereby discern the various occurrences and cha racters and interests in their true proportions. According to the advocates of the royal cause, Queen MARIA- DA GLORIA has acted constitutionally in the selection of her Ministerial advisers—the Duke of SALDANHA is the impersonation at once of loyalty and patriotism—the population are disposed to confide in the wisdom and liberality of the _new Administra tion—the insurgents are little better than the spawn of lawless insubordination. According to the well wishers of the popular party, on the other hand—the SOVEREIGN bas violated the most sacred principles of the constitution—the present Government is formed of the creatures of the Gallic Cabinet— the nation is throughout animated with feelings of resentment against those who would thus endeavour to subvert the principal engagements of the Charta—the armed guerillas, championed by DAS ANTAS and his col leagues, are a phalanx of patriots. According to the Court sycophants there never was so causeless a rebellion. According to the enthusiastic admirers of the present movement the nationality, the freedom, the very independence of the Por tuguese are jeopardised, and hence the insur gent chieftains are regarded as the saviours of the population. It is almost unnecessary to observe that neither of these assurances can be regarded as strictly correct ; neither of them, indeed, can be said to possess even a moiety of truth. Both are egregious exaggerations. O ne i s the puff direct " of royal coercion, the other is the pu ff collusive of popular excitement. We should be merely pandering to the tastes of partizanship did we aide with either of these interested representations. Scanning the present position of affairs in Portu gal, we cannot but acknowledge to ourselves that there is infinite reason for a revolutionary movement o• Liv er 11, :•h sip r, • .