The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-12 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LRELTTER'S TELEGRAM.]

AMERICA.

The Hamburg and American Company's steamer
Bavaria, from New York on the 30th ult., has
arrived off Cowes. She brings 47 passengers,
105,000 dols. in specie for England, and 1,950 dols.
for Hambuog. Her news has been anticipated.

LIVERPOOL, JAN. 12.
The Canard screw steamer Hecla from New York
on the 30th ult. arrived here this morning.
Her news has been anticipated.

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.

ALTONA, JAN. 11 (Evening).

According to advices received here the families
of subaltern officers and others inhabiting the Castle
of Gottolp have been ordered to evacuate it within
24 hours, as the Government of Schleswig will be
transferred thither. It is said that the King and
Queen may possibly take up their residence in
the Castle.

The party in Schleswig favourable to the claims
of the Augusten burg family are reported to have
sent an address to Kid expressing their devotion
to the Prince of Augustenburg.

VIENNA, JAN. 12.

It is stated that the Danish Minister for Foreign
Affairs has addressed a note to the Austrian Cabinet
indirectly admitting that Denmark had not fulfilled
her engagements, and requesting that the negocia-
tions between Denmark and Germany might be
continued from the point at which they oeased in
1851-52.

SPAIN.
NEW ELECTORAL LAW.

MADRID, JAN. 12.

In the sitting of the Congress to-day the Minister
of the Interior read a bill for a new Electoral Law.
Opinions upon the measure are divided.
It is thought that a Ministerial crisis will now
soon take place.

THE HOSTILITIES IN INDIA,
The following tele;ram has been received at the

India-office :

"BOMBAY, DEC. 29.

" An official telegram from Lahore, dated Decem-
ber 24, states that the Guide Corps and a con-
tingent of the Bonair tribe, which were detached
for the purpose of destroying Mulka, have returned
to Umbeybh. The original object of the expedition
has thus been accomplished, in the destruction of
the seat of Hindustanee fanatics. The force, there-
fore, will return to the plains, and, after the exac-
tion of hostages from the Judoon and Othmanzye
tribes will go into quarters.
"The Peshawur district and border are quiet.

" The Punjab is perfectly trAnquil.
" Funds at Bombay.—Fours, at 9 per cent. dis
count ; Fives, at !Far ; Five-and-a-lialfs at 6i pre

mium."

FRANCE.

PARIS, Jan. 11, Evening.
The debate upon the Address was commenced al
the sitting of the Corps Legislatif to-day.

M. Thiers showed that the necessity for liberty
was now universal in Earope. He maintained that
the Emperor might become the initiator of freedom.
The speaker claimed the re-establishment of that
liberty the exercise of which was suspended by the
Empire, and insisted particularly upon the neces-
sity of restoring liberty to the national representa-
tion, and of re-introducing Ministerial responsi-
bility. M. Thiers further showed that France was
ripe for liberty, and said, "If the Chief of the State
does not know how to cede, the country will exact
that which it now respectfully requests." Upon this
condition M. Thiers promised his unreserved sup-
port to the Government.
M. Rouher, in reply, recalled the words uSed by
M. Thiers, " The country will exact," and stated
that he coesidered that expression a threat, of which
the Government was not afraid, as it did not belong
to those whom people menaced. M. Rouher main-
tained that none of the liberty demanded by M.
Thiers was deficient in the country, that the Par-
liamentary system which it was sought to bring
back had had its day, that the Emperor reigns and
governs, and that liberty would follow when the
time had arrived, but that it was necessary to wait.
M. Jules Fevre, replying to the speech of M.
Rouher, reproduced in part the arguments of M.
Thiers.

The debate will be continued to-morrow.
BOURSE, Jan. 11.—The market has shown more
animation, but without any
improvement in prices,
Tbrees, for the Account, being unvaried at 66fr.
90c. Mobilier remains unchanged at 1,035 f. Rail-
way Market firm, but without any material change
in quotations. The market again became heavy
towards the close, and left off as follows :

4t per Cents 94 90
Do. end month
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 80
Credit Mobilier 1025
Do. end month 1030
Bank Shares 3270
CrediVoncier 1245
Roman -

Italian Loan 69 05
Do. end month 69 40
New ditto
Do, end month — --
Russian
Austrian
Spanish
Rome Debt ••••••
Deferred

Th.
Cash. Account.
992 50 .. 995 —945 . .. 957 50

Orlf;tuas

Worthern
New ditto
945
Lyons and Mediterranean 940 .. —
New ditto - ..
S anthem
Western
Eastern ... 477 50 .. 477 50
Sardinian
Austrian - .. 40"
Lombard - •• 622 60
North of Spain
Saragossa.. 595 .. 596 25
Ditto to Barcelona

COLONEL HOPE.—We are requested by the
friends of Colonel Hope to state that the accounts
received by them to the 3d of December, from Nowsheras
near Peshawur, and also by the India-office, lead them to
believe that the report of his having died of his wounds is
not correct.
THE LATE LORD ELGIN.—The result of the post
rnortem examination of the late Lord Elgin has
proved what had been suspected from the first—that his
death was not attributed to any disease of Indian origin.
It was found that the heart was in a state of what is called
professionally "fatty degeneration"--that is, that it had
lost its muscular character, and becomes weak and diluted.
The right ventricle was fatally affected. There was also
advanced disease of the kidneys. The changes in the struc-
ture of these vital organs had been long in progress. It is
strange that they had not earlier given marked evidence of
their existence, for they would have proved fatal under any
circumstances and in any climate.
We understand that Mr. John Paget, of the
Middle Temple,
who has had considerable experi-
ence in criminal business at the Liverpool Sessions and on
the Northern Circuit, has been appointed a metropolitan
police magistrate, in the room of Mr. Combo, deceased.
Mr. Woolryoh will succeed Mr. Comb() at the Southwark
Police Court, and Mr. Paget will take Mr. Woolryelf s
place at the Thames Police.
EXECUTION AT MELBOURNE.—A Melbourne
letter of Nov. 25 says :—" We have had of late an
unusual number of murders. Western Australia, of course,
has contributed her contingent of offenders; Tasmania
hers. Among several other very horrible cases, we have
witnessed within the last fortnight the first female execu-
tion ever known in Victoria. A woman, young and very
good-looking, was hanged a few days back for inciting and
taking part with her paramour and with a third murderer,
her servant, in the deliberate shooting through the head of
her own husband as he lay sleeping off a drunken debauch
in his tent at one of the distant diggings. In company
with the two men she walked from her cell to the gallows
with the indifference—for all that appeared outwardly—of
one taking an ordinary morning walk. It has been aseeit-
, tained that all of these criminals are but late arrivals in
this colony ; that all received their education—such as it
was—in England ; and, therefore, even our moderate people
grow somewhat intemperate in speech when they read of
fresh intended arrivals from the same country via Western
Australia.

PRIM

,TREE

DONNA DIANA.
" Donna Diana," a comedy in three acts, adapted
from the Spanish of Moreto, by Westland Marston,
Esq., was produced at this theatre last evening,
and met with the most brilliant success.
It is with more than ordinary pleasure
we record the fact because the result was as
genuine as it was spontaneous. In many in-
stances means are taken to secure an apparent suc •
cess of a new drama irrespective of its merits, but
generally in such cases, although the end desired
may be attained for a time, the play, like other
things, finds its own level, and notwithstanding the
most fulsome adulation has been heaped upon it after
a few representations it passes into oblivion, and
is heard no more of. This has certainly
been the fate of most of the "new and:extraordi-
nary successful" dramas produced of late years ;
but such will not be the case with " Donna Diana."
It will become a favourite and stock comedy, and
will take its place amongst the brilliant comedies
of Shakespeare, which are never represented with-
out producing the most elevated thoughts and
feelings.
The plot of the new comedy is clear and
compact—virtues that are not now common
amongst dramatic authors, for intricacy, not
to say impenetrable mystery, is often relied
upon to procure a favourable verdict. The
comedy opens in Barcelona, the duke's daughter,
Donna Diana being the bright sun round which all
the love-sick swains in his domains revolve. This
lady, strange to say, has foresworn all allegiance
to love, and has determined to set a pattern to her
sex, and showithem that woman has a right equal
to that of man. The lady at the time the play is
supposed to comment has three lovers, all dying
for the possession of her fair hand, but, notwith-
standing their entreaties, she coldly repels two of
her flatterers, and determines to do the same with
the third. Don Cesar, however, previous to his
interview with Diana, meets, and makes a confidant
of Perin, a gay light-hearted countryman of his
own, and who, moreover, is a gentleman attached
to the suite of the imperious beauty. Perin
advises Cesar not to approach the lady, as all
before him have done, with sighs and entreaties,
but to meet her disdain with disdain, and thus
create her astonishment at his seeming indiffer-
ence to her great attractions. This he resolves
to do, and Diana is piqued nearly beyond endurance
by the declaration of Cesar that he has determined
to solicit her hand—not because he bears the
slightest love for woman, but simply because it is
necessary for state purposes that his dukedom
should have an heir. Diana stung at his coldness,
determines spite of himself he shall fall in love
with her, and that when she has the pleasure of
seeing him at her feet she will have the still greater
delight of rejecting his proffered love with scorn.
She arranges her plans accordingly, and begins her
attack on Don Cesar's heart by making it appear
that chance has made him her cavalier for the
Duke's masked ball. Cesar is informed by Perin of
the stratagem, and for a time he acts with the
utmost coolness towards the scheming lady,
but most unfortunately his resolution forsakes him,
and in a short time he is brought, on his k nee, to
the feet of the triumphant beauty. With im-
perious scorn she throws back his preferred love,
and Cesar is, for the moment, lost.in utter despair
Fortunately he remembers the character he has been
selected to fill at the ball, and collecting all his self-
possession, he calmly raises himself erect, and in
the most careless manner asks the lady whether she
really thought him in earnest. Amazed at the
mistake she imagines she has made, Diana's pride
is sorely wounded, ,and she determines on another
scheme more potent, she believes than the first.
This also fails, and thus, while she is using all her
arts to subdue the :stubbornness of Don Cesar
her heart gradually opens to real and un-
affected love for him. Her pride prevents its
avowal, the sentiments she formerly held compels
her to be silent, and her only hope of forcing from
her seemingly adamantine lover a declaration is to
work upon his jealousy. Here Perin has again to
screw up the Don's failing resolution, because he
imagines the fruit is not ripe, and that the proud
and disdainful lady has not felt the anguish of un-
requited love long enough. The last scheme fails,
and Diana, with a bursting heart, is about to pro.
flounce, in the presence of the Court, her intention
of marrying Don Louis, when she encounters the
gaze of Den Cesar, and her resolution falls irre.
trievably to the ground. Pride is conquered—Cesar
makes an avowal of long hidden love—
the lady hears the delicious words with
ill concealed rapture, and the curtain falls
of course upon the union of Don Cesar and Donna
Diana. There is a capital comic underplot for
Perin and the lady's waiting-maid, the former re-
pelling with a bluntness almost amounting to rude-
ness, the spells of the pretty little coquette, although
he is, in fact, as madly in love with her as Don
Cesar is with Diana. It told immensely, and pro-
voked the most enthusiastic applause.
The part of Donna Diana was allotted to Mrs.
Hermann Vezin, and, great and numerous as have
been this lady's triumphs, she has never
achieved a more splendid one than that of last even-
ing. The different and difficult phases of the part
—coldness, indifference, scorn, and contempt almost
amounting to hatred, jealousy, and utter despair—
were ponrtrayed with consummate art. It was, in
a word, a charming performance. Mr. Vezii
as Don Cesar was also highly successful.
His coolness as the indifferent lover was finely and
carefully hit off; but his great triumph was in the
second act—his warm, impassioned, avowal of love
to Diana, and the sudden change to freezing cold-
ness on recovering the mastery over his feelings,
which he had temporarily lost. It is an admirable
performance, and one that cannot but add an-
other laurel to his well-won wreath. Mr. G. Vining
as Perin had a character that fitted him to nicety—
an assumed woman hater, but in reality a perfect
volcano of love. He was as full of spirit and vivacity
as a bottle of champagne, and never have we seen
more genuine comedy embodied. Mr. D. Fisher
has a small but telling part, and the same may be
said of that supported by Mr. Forrester. Miss Rose
Powell acted delightfully as the pretty little wait-
ing woman in love with Perin, and Miss Carson and
Miss Emma Bennett gave their parts with good
effect.
The applause throughout the piece, and at the
fall of the curtain was unanimous and enthusiastic.
The calls for Mr. and Mrs. Vezin were frequent
during the representation of the comedy, and at its
conclusion they had again to appear to bow their
thanks. The same mark of honour was conferred
on the talented end energetic manager, and
although a strong determination was shown to have
Mr. Westland Marston " before the floats," the
audience were ultimately satisfied with his bowing
his acknowledgments of the appreciation of his
latest work from a private box.
The dresses were sumptuously beautiful, and the
scenery and appointments were elegant and appro-

ffiate.