The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-09 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

The revival, last night, of Gluck's celebrated
opera, Iphigrnia in Twirls, was an occurrence of much
interest to lovers of music, if not to the general public.
The opera is unquestionably one of the grandest and most
beautiful ever brought upon the lyric stage ; it was
splendidly got up and superbly performed ; and the acting
and singing of Titiens, Garduni, and Santley often roused
the admiration and delight of the audience; but
still a sense of heaviness evidently prevailed, and
there was little of the enthusiasm often caused by
works of a much inferior order. The taste for dramatic
pieces founded on subjects taken from classical mythology
has in a great measure passed away ; and in music there is
a craving for that florid, ornate, and garish style which is
not gratified by the plainness and simplicity of the great
old masters, whose music is often, in truth, too good for
the vitiated taste which is fashionable now-a.days.

PRINCE ALFRED AND ME CORPORATION OF
LONDON.—Thurstlay, the 7th of June, has been appointed
for the attendance of Prince Alfred at Guildhall, to receive
the freedom of the City of London, to which his royal
highness is entitled by patrimony, he having signified to
the Lord Mayor that that day would suit his convenience.
The ceremony will probably take place, as usual on such
occasions, in the Council-Chamber, if not in the Guildhall
itself, which would be a much more desirable place, hold-
ing, as it does, at least five times the number of people
that could be accommodated in the Council Chamber, and
having regard to the extremely attractive appearance of
the interior of the ball in its restored and embellished state.
On the City Lands Committee the duty will devolve of
making the necessary preparations fur giving all due
dignity and effect to the proceedings, and they have a pre-
cedent for resorting to the great hall on the occasion in
the fact that it was there the Prince of Wales received the
freedom of the corporation on the memorable visit of his
royal highness and the Princess of Wales to the City shortly
after their marriage.
THE CATTLE PLAGUE.—The third and final
report of the Cattle Plague Commission has just been
issued. It considers scientifically the symptoms, nature,
origin, method of propagation, and treatment of the
disease. As was stated in their second report, the commis-
sioners requested some of the most eminent physicians,
veterinary surgeons, and chemists of the day to investi-
gate the cattle plague from various scientific points of view.
The reports made by these gentlemen are printed in the
Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners. Some of
them represent that their investigations might with ad-
vantage be carried still further, and the commissioners
recommend these suggestions to the consideration of the
government. But enough has already been ascertained to
supply us with some valuable results. They renew the
recommendation for the slaughter or quarantine of cattle
at the ports of disembercation, and urge that ad-
vantage should be taken of the present opportunity to
render permanent those alterations in the ripply of meat
to large Myna which it has been proved could be effected
with such little comparative inconvenience. From the
opinions of the commissioners that the disease is purely
contagious, and that no method of treatment or disinfec-
tion can be relied on, the conclusion is obvious that our mea-
sures must be almost entirely directed towards preventing
contagion, and that =eh measures should be both stringent
and continuous.
The scholars of Nichol-street (Spitalfielda)
Ragged School have contributed, in pence and half-pesos,
the sum of 4/., in aid of the lifeboat fund now being raised
in many of the Sunday Schools in London for the purchase
of a lifeboat to be presented to the National Lifeboat
Institution.