The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-09 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBEIt 9 1855.

..____.
Magic and Mystery is an entirely new entertainment, pos-
sessing distinctive 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,
for though everything becomes metamorphosed before the
eyes of the visitors no one can be positive that ho 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 whose generous aid he
has been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. Ho 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 devcted 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 forgotten that
it is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
tunity should not be neglected at exposing conjuring where-
ever it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
resorting to the conjuror's arts, in an illegitimate manner,
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 o! this singular delusion ; whilst
many of them boar melanchely evidence to the dangers which
attend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
resulted, Professor Andersen's expose of spirit-rapping and
his illustration of the so-celled 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 Andersen to reply at length to a tithe of the
communications which reach him on the subject. Ho regrets
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectual attainments, le would least have expected to have
been converts to a lelief so preposterous in itself, and so
easily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lynum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions on
spirit-rapping aro expressed, and every evening, within the
Lyceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
and elucidated. II is respectfully requested that this
public exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only node of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. Ho regrets that the
names •of the gnat and learned of the land should
have been made to figure in the documents emanating
from the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
tracted from the Iforning 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 ho 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 be too much of a ques-
tion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, has 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, on telling the fact in Loudon lately, simply
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 Bassnum, 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
editonal article of an established journal, the editor of whom
might be supposed to be sane. tiVen if Barnum does believe
in s?irit-rapping—does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
this accession to its adherents ? and, with Barnum's endorse-
mew to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
to In 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 t- be time for
bm 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 one
who was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
séance with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
table (t. large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
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 19th century, with the facts before us that
the most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to be 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 held in 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 the 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, on Saturday, November 10, at
2 o'clock ; the programme being thus arranged ;
Part I.—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-
ism, 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 Reeueils Choisies : or' Puck's Own
Pocket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
ev.euing's entertainment in the production cif the very voln-
ompolaincooeusfofrrotomb smallfoun volume, in the extraction of magnitude
fort
its existence,
ninuten esai,ni developingndiscovering
things
whereinnoodsia
places,ee ap ar
ands
Act 4.
in bringing forth
Trou-
ble. In wliaghichlealwillbe.
expected wonders from the most unlikely
oomooomtiponrio;odo_r,
tThiounAsditviconntowrietohoouftaTivroeud:
Wed-
ding Ring, the per
Transfor-
mation—black into white,
of a Bank Note, the Transfer-
in the position which eand the Discovery of every Article
would seem the most inappropriate.
Act 5. L'Ecrin de Verne
which, though made entirerei;y or,e the Casket of Cneesus. Into
and suspended so as to be i'isile- leglass perfectly transparent,
of? the eyes of all present,
the Wizard will cause the money
hvisitors to transport
itself, and rain into the casket, thohuiosgf
the
ouldidi be closed,
locked, and the key in the possession
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary • 'en"'
ecniktuts2pon the " inexhaustible
Bottle tilme
improvement
vße
mac or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
; or, the Novel Wine
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,
and Act.Sp Spirit AStNoreew.
Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
Epsom salts,
other wine or spirit required • and finally
noyean, or any .
pocket '
' to be filled with handkerchiefs perfectly dry,
proving
and occupying the w
hole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half au Hour withthe Spirits•
, or, an Exposé of
the spirit-rapping table and
Spirit-rapping. Introducing
tocsin of the invisibles.
Act. 9. Grand which theproperty
Mystic Amalgam, in
of
'll undergo some strange metamor-
the Wizard's patrons wi .
phoses, and, amongst others, their I
handkerchiefs become
transformed into the flags of victory—the banners of Eng-
land, France, Turkey, and Sardinia f .
which he who
Act. 10. The Enchanted Chia_o OW!. =ht ----- - - - -

seats himself will be under the magic spell, and appear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
tion as neculiar as perplexing.
Act, :1. 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 (I;'__e dahommed'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 Shortest
Route to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
ridding ourselves of a trouNesome friend, and the advantage;
of the newly-discovered dia-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, 3s. ; upper boxcl, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Box-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction)
of Mr. Chatterton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formance on Saturday. November 10, at 2 o'clock. Do ors open
at half past 1.

THE PEOPLE'S CLUB.
11- The progress of the People, the march of mirid, and
mss: other phrases, are common in the mouths of all ;
yes it
is a fact that very lit:,lo is done for them by the Government;
and although many praiseworthy efforts aro made by private
individuals and the richer classes, yet they fail of coming
home to the feelings and sympathies of the people.
The reason is, that all these are attempts to provide for tho
people much that the people do not care for, and much they
do not understand ; and bo:,h are frequently done in ai way
that offends the pride and self-esteem of the wor:ling classes,
who are as independent in feeling as any other class in society.
The consequence of this state of things is, that the Me-
chanics' Institutions of Lord Brougham, the Athenaeums of the
rich traders of Manchester and Liverpool, and even the Crys-
tal Palace of Prince Albert, are failures, as far as the veritable
people are concerned, who scarcely ever visit such places,
where they feel themselves intruders. They mingle -nith
classes who look down upon them, and-they keep, as most
classes do, to their own places of amusement and recreation,
such as they are, Fairs are mostly done away with., and
the bolslersTUsaaltitta«erluch /Inas liai:•4lolpaeleitlittifito'
scrambles for picking pockets and viler purposes.
Meanwhile population goes on increasing at a tremendous
rate. Every year the addition of hundreds of thousandsext ead
the area of this huge metropolis ; and whilst alllother classes
have their refining and civilising processes, the artisan alone
sinks lower and lower in the scale. The class of traders has
improved with every generation, and we now find their sons
and daughters aro more refined, have more knowledge, and
better taste than had the ancestors of many lords and dukes a
hundred years since. Their young men support the nume-
rous theatres, concerts, libraries, clubs, exhibitions, and in-
stitutions of this great town. They are well clothed and
well mannered, and in all essential respects gentlemen.
What a contrast is there with the artisan class, who go on
from generation to generation uneared for ; and although they
too have made some progress in civilisation, yet by no means
in a fair proportion.
Whencethis difference arises is plain to be seen. The
traders' sons aro not only better grounded in education, but
they have numerous sources of adult education. Their wits
are sharpened at the theatres, their minds are cultivated at
the various learned and literary institutions, and by mingling
in company at the Clubs and other places of resort. They
thus get, what no set or scientific education can give, some
refinement of manner and the elements of taste.
It may be said that our artisans anti workmen have the
same. opportunities, but it is not so. It is true the civilising
influence of the theatre is thrown open to them, and many
take advantage of it ; but the people at large require much
more than this; and many many thousands never receive
even this influence ; some by principle, and others by circum.
stances, being precluded.
The Crystal Palace comes the nearest to a grand refining
public institution ; but it is essentially removed out of the
reach of the working classes, except for occasional purposes.
What the people want is something that shall spontaneously
attract them. Some place which they can feel is their own,
some place where they are at home amongst their own friends
and their own class. A place in which they can take a pride,
and where they will find ease, and pleasure, and relaxation,
mingled imperceptibly with refining and instructing pro-
cesses ; where by mixing with men of all tempers and capa-
cities, they will acquire manners, and by associating with
portions of art, acquire refinement and taste.
No such attempt has yet been made. Hospitals have been
built for the sick ; metihanics' institutes for abstract studies;
schools for the ignorant; but nothing has been done to im-
prove the manners and the tastes of the great body of the
people ; and this we maintain, in spite of the British Museum
and the National Gallery being thrown open to all. The
wandering through, museums and galleries, without other
stimulants to the mind, is of little advantage, and that it is
se is proved by the inadequate operation of such places on
the minds of the people at large.
It, is a remarkable fact that the mind will remain dead to
all such appeals for ages, and that it is only earnestly arousA
and improved through the feelings. Thus the pulpit will lo
more than scientific lectures ; and theatres than dumb gal-
leries and overloaded museums.
Ir, then, the people are to be awakened to a full develop-
m of their capacities and power, they must have the means
of doing so. They must be sufficiently informed and culti-
vated to become a class. They must feel their own position
and respect it, and they must become powerful by cohesion,
and by a unity of taste and interest.
Looking at h in this point of view, the imperfectly existing
amount of civilisation, and among the working classes its
slow rate of progr, ssion, too plainly shows the mental state
of the greatest portion of mankind. Sanitary improvements
would not be so tardy ; mendicancy so extensive ; law so
inefficient ; and true 'religion so partial, if the minds of
mankind were fully informed, and the best feelings of the
human heart wore cultivated,
It has been, therefore, thought by use Who sincerely sym-
pathises with his own class, " The people," that a better
commencement of a new epoch, in which to arouse the pope
lar intellect, could not be devised than to erect on a magni
ficent scale,

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY,—TIIS
Directors hereby Give Notice that they Is al rece:ve Alo Y
on Loan, to pay ofr Dc D. -ntures :ailing due, and are prepared to Reck
Tenders for the ae for a period o' 3,5, o- 7 yews at 5 per con •
per annum. Ap fikitioa tray i made to the undersigned.
By order of the Directors.
CHAS. A. SA.UNDERS, Secretary.
Paddingtoa Station, 2d Novemb r, 1855.

LONDON and N
RAM wAY.—CONTRACT
Tne Directors are prepared to ref
the undermentioned Stores, viz.:—
No. of Contrac
I. Bras Sheet and Tnlses for
Locomotives
• Iron tubas
3. Coogr
4. Canvas
s.lcarpets and Rags
p: Crucibles
.10. Curled Hair
I'l. rlav,"2r and Brass Work
12. Colours
l• Drysaltery
13. Coach Trimmings
14. Cotton Waste
16. Glass, Plate
Ica. Glass, variols
17. Hardware
17a. Brushes and Pencils
7b. Nails and Tacks
I 7c. Screws
17d.Gas Fittings
17e. Locks
rf. Lamp Cottons

OR TH-Vit EST ERN
for STORES for the Year 1855.
:eive Tenden for the Supply of

No. of Contract-
-18. Leather.
18 a. Leather
19. Lead, White and Red
19a. Lead, Ingot, Sheet and ripe
20. Iron, Yorashire
22. Iron Work
24. 011, Burning, 7kc.
25. Oils, various, and Turpentin3
26. 011 Cloth
28a. Augurs, [Lammers, &c.
29. Tin Block
30. Tin Sheet and Spelter
31. Varnishes
32. Sundries, consisting of Bas-
Ae s, Felt, Candles, Soap,
Brooms, Pitch, Links,
Sponge, Hose Pipes, Fog
Signals, Sieves, Cement, In-
drarubber, Flannel, Calico,
&e.,
34. Rats
35. Caps

Specification and Forms of Tender may be had on and after Mon-
day, November sth, on application in writing, to the Secretary,
Euston Station, Londcn.

Forms of Tender for each Conti' 'ct are printed separately, and
parties applying should state the particular Contract or Contracts for
which they propose to tender.
Patterns may also be inspected on and after Monday, Nov. sth,
from Ten till Four o'clock, at the Company's Pattern Room, Easton
Station, and any further information require! may be obtained on
application to the heads of the several departments.
Tenders to be sent in on or before 'fen o'clock on Monday,
Nov. 19th.

By order of the Directors.
CHAS. E. STE WART, Secretary.

Easton Station, October, 1855.

'

OFFICE, 72, CORNWELL, London.
Established 1824.
Policies on Healthy and Diseased Lives, at Home and Abroad, for
Civil, Military, and Naval Employments. The Office being on purely
P:oprietary principles, no Partnership among Policy-holders is in-
volved For prospectuses, proposal papers, &c., apply to
MANLEY HOPKINS, Resident Director.

LONDON LIFE ASSOCIATION.
Instituted 1806.
Office, 81, KING WILLIAM•STREET.
PRESIDENT—CHARLES FRANKS, Esq.
VICE-PaEstma—JOHN BENJAMIN HEATH, Esq.
This Society is essentially one of Mutual Assurance, in which
the Premiums of its Members are reduced after seven years.
The rate of reduction of the Premiums for the present year is 70
per eent., leaving less than one-third of the original Premium to be
paid.
The Society also undertakes other descriptions of Assurance, in
which the Assured do not become Members, and having ceased to
allow any comm, sion to Agents, the Society has been enabled to
reduce the Premiums for this class of Assurances to the following
rery low rates :
Annual Premiums for the Assurance of £lOO.

Age Xs.d. 11 Age I£s. d. Age Xs. d.
20 1 13 7 35 2 7 6 50 4 1 2
25 1 17 0 40 2 15 5 55 6 1 0
30 2 1 5 45 3 6 0 60 6 5 10

The Court of Directors are authorised by the Deed of Settlement
ro advance money on the security of Policies in this Association.
EDWARD DOCKER. Secretary.

MUTUAL ASSURANCE.

SCOTTISH WIDOWS' FUND
AND LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

The INVESTED FUND or CAPITAL arising from the accumu-
iat'on of Premiums, and which belongs exclusively to the Assured,
DOTT amounts to upwards of
TWO MILLIONS EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS

PUBLICATIONS.

To be had of all booksellers,

CIHEAP EDITION of MISS STRIOK-
n _) LAND'S LIVES of the QUEENS of ENGLAND.

With ail the late Improvements and Portraits of every Queen.
complete in 8 volumes, price 7s. Gd. each, bound, either of which
may be had separately.

Hurst and Blackett, PublisberP. successors to Henry Colbarn,

MR. LONGFELLOW'S NEW POEM.
Now ready, in Foolscap Svo., 55., cloth,
THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.
By HENRY WADSWORTII LONGFELLOW.
David Bogue, Fleet-street.

NEW SERIAL WORK BY MR. CH iRLEB DICKENS.
Uniform with " Dombey and Son," " David Copperfield," "Bleak
house," &c., &c.
On the Thirtieth of November 'will be Published, to be completed in
Twenty Monthly Parts, Price One Shilling each, the First Monthly
Part of a New Work of Fiction, called
IT TL E D ORRI T.
By CIIABLES DICKENS.
With Illustrations by ILmor K. Baow;eE.
Bradbury and Evans, 11, Bouverie-Street.

Just published, price 65.,

NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. No. XLVII.
CONTENTS.
I. Educ Won and the Metropolis of Manufactures.
Ir. Samuel Butler.
111. France under the House of Orleans.
IV. Books :-.‘om Ireland.
V. Home Reformation and Christian Union.
VI. Government by Parties or by Statesmen.
VII. P;elding and Thackeray.
THI. Mozley on Predeqination.
IX. The Pass Exposition and the Patent Law.
X. The Significance of the Struggle.
Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy. London : Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
Dublin: J. McGlashan.

KINBIJRN, OTOHAKOV, NICHOLATEV.-
Stanford's Map of the Roads, &c., between Odessa, Iticho.
-laley, Perekop, Sin3pberopol, and Sevastopol, with enlarged Plans
of Odessa and Nichol.%ley, compiled from the En.sian Maps in the
possession of the Royal Geographical Society, the Admiralty Charts,
and other documents, is now published. Price in one large sheet, 4s. ;
case, 7s.

Also, Stanford's Map of the Roads between Odessa and ?erekop.
Price 25., sheet ; 48. 6d., case. •
London : Edward Stanford, 6, Charing-cross ; and Letts, Son, and
Co., Royal Exchange.