The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-13 00:00:00

LAST FEW DAYS.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. THIS
EVENING, and every evening during the
week, the GRAND ELEUSINIAN SPECTACLE of MAGIC
and MYSTERY, by Professor ANDERSON, the Great
Wizard of the North, in 12 acts, with ever-changing variety
of incidents, continuous surprises, novel and extraordinary
effects.
Magic and Mystery is an entirely new entertainment, pos-
sessing ilistinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
amusement. It is not a monologue, for the audience them-
selves perform their parts with the principal actor, some of
them on the stage and others in front ; it is not an exhibition,
!'or though everything becomes metamorphosed before the
eyes of the visitors no one can be positive that he sees any
one thing; but it is a comedy really performed by the com-
pany ; a melodrama replete with startling positions and unex-
pected denouements ; a magnificent spectacle, with 2,000 of
the public every night to appear as auxiliaries ; and an ex-
travaganza, in which all that seems to be is entirely beyond
the bounds of probability.

Professor Anderson returns his thanks to thronged and
fashionable audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Theatre to overflow, and by means of wbose.generous aid he
has been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. He believes that no professor of his art
has at any time or in any place been honoured with an
amount of success so extensive, so decided, and so unusual.
He would attribute that success to three causes ; first, that
in his present entertainment he has placed before his visitors
the results of a life sedulously devoted to the attainment of
perfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
has travelled the globe in every clime ; secondly, that he has
spared no trouble nor expense to put this entertainment on
the stage in the most elaborate manner, by the employment
of the first mechanicians and artists of the day ; and thirdly,
that, while endeavouring to provide amusement for those
who honour him with their presence, he has not forgetten that
it is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
tunity should not be neglected of exposing conjuring whey
ever it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
resorting to the conjuror's arts, in an illegitimate manrer.
the designing have succeeded in making dupes of the
credulous.
The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
fessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
theatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
terest
taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
many of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
.tend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
resulted, Professor Anderson's expose of spirit-rapping and
his illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
pose a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
communications which reach him on the subject. He regrets
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in
tellectual attainments, he would least have expected to have
been converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and so
easily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions o
spirit-rapping aro expressed, and every evening, within th
Lyceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
and elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
public exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. He regrets that th,
names of the great and learned of the land should
have been made to figure in the documents emanatinz
from the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
tracted from the Morning Advertiser of Thursday, Septem-
ber 20, and taken by that journal from the New York Spiri-
tual Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
spirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
frankly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what he has
witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
the whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
solution of the phenomena; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to helm much of a ques-
tion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, Las recently left England, and the following account of
who, and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 648:
--" This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
in Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
the Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offered him 2,000
dollars per annum if he would perform at his museum in New
York. Barnum then took it for granted that mediums could
be bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused. Hume, an tolling the fact in London lobolT, erespr,
and honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
acceptable to him, for he was poor, young (under 20), an or-
phan, and in very had health : but he would have been afraid
of losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
his life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
He inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
one of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whore
might be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believr
in spirit-rapping--does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
this accession to its adherents ? and, with Barnum's endorse
went to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likel3
to be negotiated ? Professor Anderson would believe not ;
but, when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
England have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
a swindle, when he finds that the incumbent of Wortley (the
Rev. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
writes a book on the subject, he considers it to be time for
'im to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
it is effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
Morning Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
David Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel,
in company with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
spirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
purposes. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
however, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from ono
who was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
seance with the spirits, in which the writer says, that "the
table (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the ino,n,
extraordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
cordion was convoyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
right hand, apart from any person, it played an air through-
out." With such a statement, printed for the edification of
the people of the 10th century, with the facts before us that
the most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to bo deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
subject of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
has actually been advertised to be hold is St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
ists of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
be received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
tempts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
jugglers.

In the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
visited tho Lyceum Theatre, —a larger number, it is believed,
than has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
short a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even.
ing, the programme being continually. changed. Grand
fashionable Day Performance, or Saturday, December 15, at
2 o'clock ; the programme being thus arranged ; - -
Part 1. —Act 1. The Mesmeric Couch : or, the Clinical
Capabilities of the Atmosphere : in which the Wizard will do
by magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
sm, and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
the air.

Act 2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
of producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
the possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements the most
complex forms of ornithological existence.
Act 3. Le Livre des Reeuoils Choisies : or, Puck's Own
Pocket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
evening's entertainment in the production of the very volu-
minous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
out of minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
for its existence, in discovering odd things in odd places, and
in bringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
place for to be found,
Act 4. Magical Locomotion ; or, Transition without Trou-
ble. In which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
ding Ring, the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfor-
mation—black into white, and the Discovery of every Article
in the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
Act 5. L'Ecrin de Vorre; or, the Casket of Cronus. Into
which, tkough made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
and suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all present,
the Wizard will cause the money of his visitors to transport
itself, and rain into the casket, though its lid be closed,
locked, and the key in the possession of the audience.
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
Act. 7. A New Bottle of Bacchus ; or, the Novel Wine
and Spirit Store. An improvement upon tho " inexhaustible
bottle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will not only be in-
exhaustible, but will change its contents, ad infinitum, at the
word of command, producing soda-water, butter-milk,
Epsom salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
noyeau, or any other wine or spirit required; and finally
proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs perfectly dry,
and occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half an Hour with the Spirits ; or, an Expos 6 of
Spirit-rapping. Introducing the spirit-rapping table and
tocsin of the invisibles.
Act. 9. Grand Mystic Amalgam, in which the property of
the Wizard's patrons will undergo some strange metamor-
phoses, and, amongst others, their handkerchiefs become
transformed into the flags of victory—the banners of Eng
land, France, Turkey, and Sardinia.
Act. 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which he who
seats himself will be under the magic spell,
and app ear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
tion as peculiar as perplexing.
Act. 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
Nucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
audience will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
of the evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
in mid-air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
all will be produced.

Act. 12. The Homological Evaporation ; or, the Shc,tcst
Route to the Antipodes, Illustrating the easiest mode of
ridding ourselves of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered Ilia-terrestrial passage from the west-
ern to the eastern hemisphere. _

Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at 8.
Private boxes, 1/. lls. 6d. and 11. ls., to be obtained at the
Box-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. ; dress
circle, Bs. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, Is. ; gall Pry, 6d. The
Box-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
of Mr. Chattorton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formance on Saturday, Deceraber:ls, at 2 o'clock. Doors open
t half-kaat 1.

CIVIL SERVICE of the EAST INDIA
- COMPANY.

E In Tilly, 1856. an examination will take place of candidates for
appointments to the Civil Service of the East India Company.
Notice will be here ,fter give n of the days and place of examination.
2. Any natural-born subject of her Majesty who shall be desirous
of entering the Civil Service of the .East India Company will be
entitled to he examined at such examination, provided he shall,
before the let of Mar, 185,,, have transmitted to the India Board,
Cannon-row, Westcninster
(a) A certificate of his birth, showing that his age, on the Ist of
May, 1856, will be above eighteen years and under twenty-three
years.

(b) A certificate, signed by a physician or surgeon, of his having
no disease. constitutional affection, or bodily infirmity, unfitting him
for the Civil Service of the E.,st India Company.
(c) A certificate of good moral character, signed by the head of
the school or college at which he has last received his education ; or
if he has not received education at any school or college since the
year 1853, then such proof of good moral character as may be satis-
factory to the Board or Commissioners for the affairs of India.
(d) A statement of those of the branches of knowledge here in-
after enumerated in which he desires to be examined.
3. The examination will take place only in the following branches
of knowledge :
English Language and Literature—

Composition
English literature and history, including that of the laws
and constitution

1,000

1,500
Language, literature, and history of Greece
” IP PP Rome 750
~ , l IP t France
.. ~ Of Germany
11, Of ft Italy
ivrathcmaties, pure and mixed
Natural science—that is, chemistry, electricity and magne-
tism, natural history, geology, and mineralogy 5OO
Moral sciences—that is, logic, mental, moral, and political
philosophy
Sanscrit language and literature
Arabic language and literature.

_
500
375
375

6,f475
4. The merit of the persons examined will be estimated by marks,
according to the ordinary system in use at several of the Universi-
ties, and the number set opposite to each branch in the preceding
paragraph de, otes the greatest number of marks that can be obtained
in respect of it.

5. 2;To candidate wi 1 be allowed any marks in respect of any sub-
iect of examination, unless he shall obtain, in respect that subject.
one-sixth of the number of marks set against that Darnell], subject.
6. The examination will be conducted by means of printed clues-
and by viva voce examination.
7 After the examination shall have been completed, the marks
obtained by each candidate, in respect of each of the subjects in which
he shall have been examined, shall be added up, and the names of the
twcnty candidates who shall have obtained a greater aggregate num-
of marks atan any of the remaining sand dates shall be set forth
In order of merit; and such twenty candidates shall be deetne I to be
selected candidates for the Civil Service of the East India Company.
Their choice, so tar as it can be allowed, of the Presidency in India
to which they shall be appointed shall be determined by the order in
which they stand on such list.

8. In August, 1857, a further examination of the selected candi-
dates will take place in the following subjects :
Law, including the ordinary rulr s of taking evidence and
the mode of conducting civil and criminal trials .. ... 1,000

The History of India
Political Economy ......... .......................
Any vernacular language of India, to be previously fixed
by the Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India 200
and such further examination will be conducted in the same manner
as that above described. (The umiier set opposite to each subject
denotes the greatest number of marks which can be obtained in
respect of such subject).

9. Any selected candidate who shall not, at such further examina-
tion in 1857, obtain in each of the subjects above-mentioned, one-
sixth of tf.e number of marks set against such particular subject,
shall he struck off the list of selected candidates.

10. The sale. ted candidates who, at such further examination,
shag he de. med by the examiners to have a competent nowledge
( ascertained iu the manner mentioned in the prececing paragraph)
of Law, the History of India, Political Economy, an 1 one Language
of India, shall be entitled to be appointed to the civil service of the
East India Company ; and the names of such candidates shall be
placed in a list in the order of their merit in such examination, esti-
mated as above by the total number of marks which they shall have
obtained in respect of all the subjects in which they shall have been
examined at such examination,

11. The seniority in the civil service of the East India Company
of such candidates shall be determined according to the order in
which they stand on the list resultin4 from such further exam,nation.
12. NO person will, even alter such examination, be allowed to
proceed to India unless he shall comply with the regul,tions in force
at the time for the civil service of the East India c ompany, and
shall be of sound bodily health and good moral character.
13 The Commissioners for the Affairs of India will be ready
to reeelvv, at auy time previous to the let of May, 1856, the
testimonials of persons desirous of being appointed t 9 the office of
Examiner; hut, with respect to the examinations above mentioned,
no such appointment will be made until after the date above men-
tioned.

14. All papers relating to the above-mentioned examinations are
.o be sent, and all inquiries are to he addressed, thus :

"E. I. C Civil Serv;co
`• Examination.`