The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-11-01 00:00:00

COI'ENT GARDEN THEATRE.

The last night was one of novelty and experiment at this
house. Nothing less thin a new ballet faction, and a new
French monkey-! The ballet is a comic one, and entitled,
The Shipwreck
a comic piece, a " shipwreck," one would think. The new
of Policinelln,—ratber an odd subject for
Punch (not rnehe, but simply Po/id/he/1e) is one
Monaicur Ilazurier, of Parisian celebrity, who has
now Leen brought over, f r the first time, for the
purpose of delighting the audience (we beg pardon—the
spectators) of an English Theatre Royal. And a very ex-
, traordinary creature he is, as we shall presently show.
Shortly after the commencement of the ballet Policinello
is `perceived huffetting the canvass waves in the scene-
painter's Day of Naples. His ship has been shattered and
sunk by a storm, but he escapes from the wreck, and for a
time gets on swimmingly enough. Ile lauds in the middle
of a gay wedding party, and here commence his tricks and
feats of agility, which art. truly surprising, and leave his
wooden prototre a thousand miles behind him. Conceive
a paste-board Harlequin, such as we make for children,
only five feet eight inches in height, endued with vitality,
and instead of being bung together, a thing of threads,
shreads, and patches, possessing the thews, sinews, and
proportions of a man of flesh and blood ! Do this, and
you have a faint idea of Monsieur Mazurier. He has the
-activity of the paste-board figure in the person of a man of
mortal mould, and flings about his legs and arms as if they
did not belong to him. lie thrusts himself into all sorts
of impossible attitudes ; each step that he takes is in the
teeth of the whole system of gravitation, and every move-
inentlia Mira& ! Talk of the laws which govern mulcu-
lar action—he laughs them toscorn! and one can only etc-
cow i t for his motions and positions by supposing his spine an
elephant's trunk, his marrow to minis' of mercury, and his
knee-pans formed of two ivisible hinges! It is as though
an Egyptian mummy could grow immortal in motion, or a
skeleton, freed from the gross incurnbrances of flesh and
blood, retained animation and activity, and out of very
lightness had leaped out of its skin. *Monsieur Mazuricr
is a physical problem, and a puzzle to the anatomists.
Galvanism itself can produce no such motions as he ap-
pears spontanconsly to exercise. He possesses suppleness
enough for a courtier or a weathercock ; a magnetic pivot,
or a Minister of State ! With him all is by contraries : do
other people walk on their feet? he can do so too, for
his amusement—but he thanks you, and prefers standing
on his bead, for ordinary use. He throws his eyebrows
into the pit of his stomach, and when he wants a
pinch of snuff, thrusts his foot in his breeches pocket.
He falls down, as if never to rise again, and appears
broken to pieces, but lie quickly revives. He beats le
diahle lindens. at (lancing on two sticks ; and if he has not
acquired the secret of perpetual motion, seems to have
realized the primula mobile in his own poison.
But it were fruitless to attempt a description of what
must be seen to be appreciated, and which cannot be un-
derstood after all. Let our readers think what they will
(and we can hardly expect them to believe us), but we do
not attempt to deceive them. Indeed we fail to convey
' any thing like an adequate idea of the impression which
the strange performance of this extraordinary creature is
calculated to produce. No words can do it. Let people
go to have " the ocular proof."
Monsieur Mazurier would make an excellent Clown—
the best on our boards—perhaps in the world—and we arc
sorry he did not reserve himself for the Christmas panto-
mime. Then and there he would be ha his propel sphere,
and the objections could not be taken to his appearance
which a portion of the audience seemed last night to feel.
We are enthusiestic lovers of the regular Arama, and s%
not wish to see the stage trod by Ketnble and enobled by
Shakspeare debased in any way, or directed to the further,
ance of objects alien from and unworthy of ita high and ori-
ginal destination. The matter is in the hands of the pub-
lic. But if they will not encourage the legitimate drama,
what ars the managers of places of public entertainment to
do ? and-with what face can those who follow the devilries
of Faust us and the Freischutz cry out against a poor French •
Ape of unparalleled ingenuity in his way ? We shall
not moot the point as to the fitness of a -winter
theatre for exhibitions such as that of last night.
It is enough to say it was curious; and will, in our
opinion, be, to a limited extent, successful. The house
was the fullest of the season ; and notwithstanding a good
deal of disapprobation in tile course of and at the close of
the ballet, the applause greatly predominated.
The poor Frenchman appeared to feel the partial unkind-
ness of his reception. He made sundry deprecating obei-
sances, and at the conclusion bowed so low that the fall of
die curtain found him standing on his head !

The Unke of Cumberland honoured the Prussian Mi-
nister with his company to dinner on Sunday.
Yesterday the Duke of Cumberland visited his Royal
Sister, the Princess Sophia, at her apartments at the
King's Palace, Kensington.
Prince IVartz:mhurgh paid a visit yesterday. to die Date
of CumberlantVat his residence at the Kings Palace, tit.
James's.

The paragraph which appeared lately in some of the
Morning Papers respecting the worthy Muter of Saint
Peter's, Cambridge, having undertaken to ride eight or ten
miles upon the backs of two, three, or more men, we
have ascertained is wholly without foundation; the gentle-
man whose name is so unwarrantably used, having derived
his first knowledge of the infamous libel in the perusal of
the London Journal. _ _ _

IVe understand that the action for damages brought by
Government, respecting the building of the Custom-house,
has been commenced only against Mr. Peto, the builder.
The name of Mr. Laing, the architect, was joined with
his by mistake.
It has been stated in various quarters, that the failure
of Mr. Williams would be severely felt in Manchester and
Liverpool. We are happy to say, however; that this. is by
no means the case. In what quarter the principal part of.
Mr. Williams's engagements lie, we have not been able to
learn ; but when the extent of his connexion with America,
and the amount to which this town is interested in the
American trade, are considered, it is truly astonishing
tkat so little of his paper should be held by Manchester
houses ; and we believe the case is nearly the same at
Liverpool. In this town no has than four failures have
taken place within the last few days ; two of them (we
fear, from the extent of business which the partici; have
been doing for some time) to very considerable amounts.—
Manchester Guardian.

l'aoDoeas's 11ANicaurrcv.—At a late meeting of the
Commissioners, held in Ludlow, on the affairs of the bank-
ruptcy of l'rodgcr'a bank, the claims proved amounted to
about 140,000/. and the amount of cash in the hands of the
Commissioners to 40,000/. It is expected that 6s. Bd. in
the pound will be paid before Christuuts.;. =l. that -Ake
whole dividend wi'l be about U2s. in the pound.—Sh,•ews-
burry Chronicle.

It is stated in a letter from Boulogne that the exporta-,
tion of brandy is carried on to a considerable extent, and
that it is nearly all landed in safety, notwithstanding tile
vigilant look-out of the Preventive Service.
Dicta° BFIJ.S.—A patent has been obtained by Thomas
Steele, Esq. A.M. of 'Magdalen College, Cambridge, for
son.e very important improvements in the construction and
apparatus of the diving-bell. The improved bell will en-
able a directing engineer to descend and remain at any
depth at which divitv•-beils can be worked, without being
subjected to endure the pressure of condensed air, and the
working itself is rendered 'n) u c h more safe and effective, by
means which jtMr.9ter•le"tus invented for communicating
by conversation with thoseabove, which will supersede the
present imperfect and insecure system of signals by strokes
of the hammer. He has further invented, by the applica-
tion of optical principles, an instrument for the stronger il-
lumination of objects under water, and improved the oceans
of detaching men from the bell.

GLASS EATIR.—A millwright, in the employment ofi
Mr. Scott of this place, a few days ago, when in company
with some individuals before whom he was noxious to
exhibit his powers of glays-eating, engaged, upon a bet, to
tit your a wine-giass, which he actually FA) far accomplished
as to leave only the stalk remaining. It appears that he
had formerly performed a similar feat. with impunity ; but
on this occasion he was soon • after atized with a violent
pain of the stomach and bowels, with a threalening of con-
illl,Sioll3 over the whole tystetn. Drs. Scott and Wiseman
were immediately called in, by whose skilful and timely
assistance this infatuated and suffering individual hes been
placed out of tleiger.—Cetrar Herald,