Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

AMUSEMENTS, &c.

THEATRE ROYAL.—The improvements and alterations
of this theatre have been carried on by Mr. Copeland
upon an extensive scale. We believe those who visit the
theatre on Monday night. will find that no establishment
of equal size in the metropolis, can compare with it either
for beauty of aspect or comfort of arrangement. Mr.
Charles Mathews commences an engagement necessarily
brief, on Monday night, and will not, we believe, again
appear before a Liverpool audience for a considerable
time. After the close of Mr. Mathews's engagement,
Madame Ristori will appear. On Monday, the 10th of
August, thisgrcat actress will be seen in Liverpool, for
the first time, as Bianca, in an Italianised version of
Milman's "Fazio."4on the following Wednesday she will
appear as " Camma," and on Friday as " Lady Macbeth."
To the lessee, Mr. Copeland, whose en erprise thus
enables Liverpool audiences
,to enjoy all the advantages
which not long since were confined to a metropolis, so far
as the engagement of dramatic talent of the highest class
is concerned, the public here must feel deeply indebted.

THE AMPEIITHEATRE.—Mr. Charles Dillon's Belphegor
is his masterpiece, and must be allowed to be, on the
whole, a masterpiece of acting. This part Mr. Dillon per-
formed on Tuesday and on Thursday night, each time
with the most enthusiastic applause of the audience. We
have had occasion to express an opinion of Mr. DiUeda
acting in other parts, which probably did not agree with
the estimate many of his admirers had formed of hiS
capabilities. We do not think Mr. Dillon is Qualified to
take the place of a great Shaksperian actor. Below that
grade, however, there lies a wide space on which many a
high and lasting reputation might be founded ; and here
we fully believe Mr. Dillon capable c f achieving success'
It would not be easy to behold upon any stage a more
simple, natural, and at the same time effective piece of
acting than Mr. Dillon's Belphegor. The effect it produces
is an effect wholly divorced from the efforts which usually
win a very transient and delusive applause upon the stage.
The poor mountebank whom Mr. Dillon pourtrays, is no
tragedy hero. No starts and strides, no effects, no
" points " aid in the success which he achieves. When
the audience are moved, they are moved by no merely meld'
dramatic effects. When they bestow their applause. they
give it to nature plainly rendered, and not to the storm?
and vehement displays which often startle an audianCe into
emotion merely by their surprising and electric character,
of their appeals. In ,this performance, therefore, Mr.
Dillon may fairly claim to have produced no effect but
such as genuine nature, rendered by faithful art, must
always produce. The play is, perhaps, itself, not one
of much merit, and the events are melo-dramatic and e:re
travagant, even beyond the:common dogree of melodra-
matic extravagance. But the character of the simple,
honest, passionate mountebank, as impersonated by Mr.
Dillon, redeems any defects of structure, and makes one
forget that anything but pure and genuine nature animated
the whole. His deep, fervid, honest love for his wife ; hiS
vehement and demonstrative grief at losing her; and his
passionate outbreak when he again finds her under such
circurnstnnces, so mutually altered, are equally made life-
like by a simple and truthful power, which as far trans—
cends the common displays of the stage as all real feeling
passes got-up sentiment. In such parts as this, Mr. Dillon
must always win the approbation of any appreciated
audience. To be great even, in such parts, is far better
than to bo second-class in those of a higher and wider
range. Having felt bound to declare our opinion where
we believed Mr. Dillon to have failed, we feel far greater
pleasure in recording what we conceive his well-deserved
success.

" THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE."—An Edin-
burgh paper observes :—Oar ever active sheriff, Mr.
Gordon, although blamed sometimes for taking the ordi—
nary business of his office easy, is ever at his post when a
strong emergency arises, and, accordingly on Saturday
evening we find him at the Zoological Gardens to recreate
after the toils of the week, and desirous, no doubt, to
witness the daring feat of Madame Rossini, who was to
ascend a tight rope:6o feet ; but, as the wind was gusty
and the weather doubtful, he then and there issued the
following interdict :

"Royal Zoological Gardens, July 25, 1857, 7,
"ilialf-past Eight p.m. -4
" Sir,—Considering;;the weather and the heavy and
uncertain gusts of wind, I feel it to be a public duty to
interdict and forbid, as: I hereby do, the ascent of the
tight rope this evening ,by:Madame Rossini.—l am, sir,
your obedient servant,
(Signed) "JOHN
n mT.anGaogßeDr.o:, Sheriff of Mid-Lothian.
~ To Mr. Robson,

REPORTED DEATH or M. LABLACHC—The Paris Presse
of Wednesday evening states that M. Calzado, the
manager of the Italian theatre, has received the melan-
choly news of the death of Lablache.

LIVE n root. BANYRUPTOT COURT.-YESTERDAY.-BL.
FORE MR. COMMISSIONER STzveNsoN.—lN re BENJAMIN'
CHADWICK. —The bankrupt, watchmaker, of Lord-street,
applied this day for his certificate. Mr. Evans appeared
on his behalf. His Honour granted a certificate of the
first class.

COUNTY COURT.—Mr. Harden, Judge of Chester County
Court, presided in the Liverpool County Court yesterday,
and disposed of nearly six hundred cases, which had been
adjourned from the 19th June and the 24th of July
courts. None of them, however, were possessed of the
slightest interest.

FATAL ACClDENT.—Yesterday morning, about 11 o'clock,
a man named William Venty, 33 years of age, a carter,
living in Hale-street, was killed at the stores of Messrs.
M'Kibbin and Cordukes, in a street off Dale-street. It
appeared that the man was in a cart, taking down boxes of
bacon from one of the store lofts, when a box about 3 cwt.,
which was being laid on another at the store door above
where the unfortunate man was in the cart, slipped
and fell on his bead, killing him on the spot. An inquest
will be held on the body this day.
SLENPY-lINADED CANADA ! Another achievement by the
Canadian steamers ! Beat the Yankee lines all to nothing !
Three boats left England for America on the Ist of July;
the Anglo-Saxon for Quebec, the Arago for New York, and
the city of Washington, also for New York. The
Anglo-Saxon left Liverpool at 3 o'clock on the afternoon
of the Ist, and reached Riviere.du-loup at 1 o'clock on the
morning of the 10th, thus making the voyage in 9 days 10
hours. The Arago did not arrive in New York till
Monday night, and we have not heard tbat the City of
Washington has got there yet—Quebec Morning Chronicle
18th July.

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

.By British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph.

SPAIN AND MEXICO.

PARIS, FRIDAY.

Lafargua, the Envoy of the Mexican Republic
to the Court of Spain, has arrived in Paris,
where the Conferences for the settlement of the
disputes between Spain and Mexico are imme-
diately to take place, under the mediation of
the French and English Governments.

The Three per Cent. Rentes closed to-day al
66 80—a slight advance.

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL.

ALEXANDRIA, JULY 22nd.
Sir Colin Campbell arrived to-day, en route for

THE EAST.

CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 22nd.

Rechict Pacha, the Grand Vizier, has tendered
his resignation, which has not been accepted.
The journal published here, entitled La Peesse
d'Orient, has been suspend©d for a week.