The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1864.

Men prayed for rain and Jupiter sent a flood.
We asked for legal education, and the council de-
puted to consider the subject have published a
scheme of examination which makes us shudder at
the bare recital of the work which the unfortunate
Btu dents are required to " get up" ere they can aim
at the honours of the profession. To be sure, the
quiet souls can slip through, as in bygone days, by
attending during one whole year the lectures of two
of the readers, or else passing a year in the cham-
bers of a barrister or special pleader. And, still
more lately, young men entering as students on and
after Hilary Term 1864 are required to pass an exa-
mination in Latin, the English language, and
general history. As far as it goes, the alteration is
an improvement. One would be inclined to say
a priori that there was a better chance or
learning something of law from an attend-
ance of two courses of legal lectures, as also
from one year's attendance in the chambers of a
barrister or pleader, than from eating ten
or twelve good plain dinners in an ancient
Gothic hall. Still all men who have had a length-
ened experience of public schools and universities
are sufficiently aware of the injurious character of
certain minds. Speaking from our own knowledge,
we could quote instances in which the whole period
from ten to twenty .two years of age has been scent
in the nominal study of the classical languages, and
a young man has come out of the process utterly
unable to construe two verses of the Greek Testa-
ment or half a dozen lines of Virgil in a creditable
manner. The passive power of resistance to
instruction which lies in idleness and inca-
pacity is inconceivably great. We conclude, then,

that as long as such a loophole is left open to
idlers, and to young men who aim at the degree of
barrister purely as a matter of social distinction, but
very little change from the old system will in reality
have been effected. Under that old fiery-port and
leg-of-mutton method the young men who regarded
the study of the law as a means of obtaining their
future subsistence, or who were inclined to enter
upon it from still higher motives, did their best to
obtain a competent knowledge of the subject. The
changes of the system can scarcely be intended
exclusively for their beneSt. If we understand
ar'ght the motives which led to the alteration
in our forms of legal education, they may in
the main be summed up in this one sen-
tenc2—that it was a scandal that a young man
should be admitted to the honours and practice of
a liberal profession, when there was no security
that he was in the slightest degree acquainted with
the simplest rules of the science which he possessed.
We examined our young candidates for holy
orders, our surgeons, our physicians, our attorneys,
our sea officers, our graduates in the various facul-
ties in the.universities, why, it was asked, should
" barristers " constitute the solitary exception ?
There is really no reason to be urged in favour of
this singularity, which would not apply with equal
force to all the other castes. Twelve years ago, in
Trinity Term, 1852, a new system was propounded,
which made it compulsory upon all students who
had not then kept more than four terms
either to submit to an examination, or else
to attend one year's lectures of two of the Readers
duringfour consecutive terms. And, later still, fresh
regulations have been propounded by the Benehers
of the Inns of Court, commencing as they did to all
students entering for the Bar on and after this last
Hilary Term, but alas, under it we find that
the door is left as wide open as ever to all
idlers who would come into the feast unprepared.
It may be that the authors of the scheme trust to
indirect influences, but in such matters the plainest
and shortest way is ever the best. There surely
could be no hardships in requiring from all candi-
dates for the degree of Barrister at Law, some little
proof that they are acquainted with the rudiments of
English Law. A smatters have stood for the last 12
years, and still stand, they may at their pleasure
undergo a public examination at which such posi-
tive proof is required, or they may if they simply
give their attendance at a couple of lectures, or even
avoid doing this provided they pass one year in the
chambers of a Barrister or Special Pleader, and
so slip unnoticed—through. It would have been
by far a more obvious course to have made it
incumbent upon all to undergo a moderate
but sufficient examination, and then to make
any further arrangements which might seem fit for
the encouragement of more ambitious and distin-
guished students. Such an improvement in the sys-
tem cannot be much longer delayed. Once admit
the principle of testing capacity as the condition of
admission to the degree of barrister, and who shall
remain unexamined ? As much as the arrangements
are too laxly conducted in one respect, so do they
appear to be constrained in others. We know not
of what metal the young students are made who are
aiming at forensic distinction, but we are very
confident that some 30, or even 20 years ago their
predecessors would have stood aghast at the bill of
Fare which the Council of Legal Education are in
the habit, three times a year, of preparing for their
scientific sustenance. For example, the more
aspiring candidates are generally to be examined
under the head of constitutional law and legal
history in the following books, or rather works :
—" The State Trials, The Parliamentary
History, Clarendon,, Burnet, Millar, Rapin,
Tindal, and Blackstone Commentaries." 'They
are to be intimately acquainted with the pro-
gress of our institutions and the changes in our con-
stitutional government. They must make them-
selves so well acquainted with the history of the
period that they shall be as though they bad lived
through the reigns of HENRY VIII. and ELIZABETH,
and had taken share in the great constitutional
struggles which were acted during the dominion of
the STUARTS and in the reign of WILLIAM
They are to have more—particularly the stormy
discussions and open air contests during the reigns
of EDWARD 111. and RICHARD IL—at their fingers'
ends. They must be ready to give an account of
any point which arose in the course of the State
Trials down to the reign of Queen ANNE, as though
they had been in Court taking notes of the pro-
ceedings. Surely any one of the subjects named
is enough to exhaust the efforts of an industrious
and well-spent life. But, even so, the subject of con-
stitutional law constitutes but a section of the mul-
tifarious matters to which the law student must
direct his attention. Let us presume him to have
mastered tho Parliamentary History, the State
Trials, and the other little works above mentioned,
he must then remember that the reader on juris-
prudence and civil law will have something to say
to him. For this gentleman, he must prepare himself
in the Roman law of persons of real, verbal, and
consensual contracts, and in the course of his studies
upon this point, he may, if he will avail himself,
" Cotnmentari Juria Prevali Romani" of Warn-
koninz. Ho must then freshen up his Grotius on
ownership, promises, contracts, and oaths, not
forgetting the little treatise, "De jure Pais et
Belle," Dr. Whewell's edition. He should next
turn his thought to the digest, and when tolerably
familiar with this little work he may relax his mind
with " Kent's Commentaries on the Law of Nations."
For fear this somewhat antiquated law should at all
interfere with his future utility, he must consider
the knowledge he has acquired in connection with
the modification introduced into the general inter.
national law by the practice of the Crimean war.
When he has done all this, he will be in a pretty
frame of mind to " tip up," as our American cousins
would say, with "Story's Conflict of Laws," so far
of jurisprudence and civil law. When the diligent
student has placed himself in a favourable condition
to lay an intellectual backfall or two with the rea-
ders on constitutional and civil law, a third an-
tagonist awaits him, the toughest of the three.
He only escapes from the clutches of the two
dragons named, to fall into the talons of the griffin
or harpy who presides over the knowledge more
especially available in the High Court of Chancery.
This knowledge, as all men are perfectly aware,
is of a highly refreshing and delectable
character. First, in order to get just a foretaste of
future bliss, let the student take a snap at " Smith's
Manual." When his palate hath been thus whetted,
let him quickly degustate " Fonble,nque on Equity,"
a delightful work. After so much mental relaxa-
tion he can scarcely complain if he be required
thoroughly to master the "Act for the Improve-
ment of Equity Jurisdiction, 15th and 16th Vic-
toria." A bonne kouche, however, awaits him to
make amends, in the shape of " Mitford on Plead-
ings in the Court of Chancery," a work of which it
may justly be said that it is well calculated to
superinduce a calm and contemplative frame of
wind. "White and Tudor's Leading Cases," pith
all the notes, and Pothier's little trifle
upon ",Partnership," will conclude all that it
may be necessary fur the student to know
under this head at his outset in his profession.
Thus far of constitutional law, of the civil law,
sod of equity. The young man who aims at

THEMIS'S more distinguished favours must not
forget that there are such noble sciences in existence
as the law of real property and the common law.
We will suppose him, first to begin with real pro•
perty, es the subject is not very enlivening, and
doubtless the student would be glad to wash his
hands of it with all convenient despatch. Mr.
JOSHUA WILLIAMS'S excellent little treatise, to be
followed by " Stephens's Commentaries" and
" Sugden on Powers," will well launch him into
the subject. Then come the operative words ; the
student will be examined in the practice of con-
veyancing with reference to the framing of
purchase deeds, mortgages, and settlements.
Many excellent collections of precedents
are in existence extending throughout divers portly
volumes, and our young friend could not do better
than give himself up to the copying and recopy-
ing of these mystic forms, from eve to more, from
morn to dewy eve, by which progress no doubt he
will find his mind materially improved. It does
not consist with considerations of space, which we
must perforce regard, that we should follow the
rising lawyer through the remaining subjects under
this head to which his attention must be directed,
nor upon his appointed excursions into the more
flowery regions of the Common Law. Candour
compels us to admit that the Common Law pro-
gramme is framed with a better regard to the capa-
cities of the human mind than any of the other
sections it has been our duty to notice. The Counoil
of Legal Education in right reason expect that
any young man can attain a thorough knowledge
of the subjects they point at so as to be thoroughly
known without converting himself into an idiot at
the end of the process of his labours, are attended
with the most partial success. Possibly, it may
be admitted by the public as no insane boast, if we
say that we have in a certain slight degree turned
our attention to the subject of Parliamentary his-
tory, State trials, constitutional struggles, &c., and
we can only say, even now, when the best exer-
tions of our lives have been given to this single
subject, we should most unfeignedly shrink from
such an examination on it as is proposed by the
Council of Legal Education for the benefit of
young men. 25 years of age. We say nothing of
the "Digest" and " Jarman," and " Bythwood's
Conveyancing Forms," and "Fonblanque's Equity
Jurisprudence," &c. ; a man who was well ac-
quainted in middle life, after 20 years of continuous
study, with any one of these subjects must have
lived the life of a recluse, in order to make himself
a learned lawyer.

The important case of Malt versus Sugar was
argued at some length at St. Stephen's on Tuesday
evening, with results that will be found satisfactory
by most people. The question at issue concerns the
personal convenience of a good many, but we appre-
hend that Col. BARTTELOT will find the number of
his supporters out of doors to be as small in propor-
tion as his minority within the House itself, rot-
a ithstanding the unpopularity of the Malt Tax and
the repeated efforts that have been made to obtain
its repeal, or at all events its modification. Taxes
are at best unpopular things, and war taxes more
especially so. There is probably no impost whose
removal would not be strongly advocated by some
parties, and whose absence would not be felt as a
relief by some classes of the community. This is
certainly the case with the Malt Tax, one of the
few remaining Excise Duties, which presses heavily
upon the farmer in one form, and the general public
in another, end is accustomed in consequence to
meet with hearty denunciations from all sides. Still
in considering the point at issue on Thursday even-
ing it will not do to restrict ourselves to the con-
templation of the grievances and burdens imposed by
the tax on malt. There is another side to the ques-
tion, and the spirit of the debate was very truly
expressed by Colonel BARTTELOT in moving his
resolution when he said " The question was, which
would benefit the community most, the reduction of
the Malt Tax, or that the of the Duties upon
Sugar ?'' To this query the Commons returned an
unmistakeable answer by a majority of 248, and
prominent not only in the list of the voters, but
among the speakers who addressed the House
on behalf of the Budget as it stood, were
the names of such open and consistent advo-
cates of the total abolition of the Malt
Duty as Mr. DisRAELI and Mr. COBDEN. The
former of these gentlemen naturally represents
the strong agricultural interest which suffers from
the continuance of this impost, whi e the latter op-
poses its maintenance in accordance with those
principles of free trade, for whose advocacy he has
aiways been so much distinguished. No single
member was found to defend the continuance of
the Malt Tax in its present form, indeed one gen-
tleman, Mr. WESTERN, opposed the motion on the
groued that the reduction of only one-fourth of
the Malt Tax, the sum proposed to b 3 remitted,
would give no relief to the agricultural classes. It
was contended by the opponents of the measure
that, while costing the country £550,000 more
than the reduction of the sugar duties, the proposed
diminution of the Malt Tax would not perceptibly
benefit the farmer, and would produce no effect on
beer, which would not be cheapened at the rate of
one farthing per quart, were it carried. Conse-
quently the doubt as to the relative advantage to
the public, more especially as regards the working
classes, is very soon disposed of. Labouring men,
no doubt, would hail with intense satisfaction the
removal or diminution of any impost which keeps
up the price of their daily beverage—a beverage
too which, drunk in moderation, is no doubt a
valuable auxiliary to their health and comfort ; but
the women and children of the poorer classes, even
the artisans themselves, when sick or feeble, would
find it difficult to replace the treasured cup of tea
with any more stimulating but less refreshing be-
verage. A high authority—Miss NIGHTINGALE—
after speaking of the objections raised by some
scientific men to the use of tea and coffee, very
shrewdly inquires where they will find a satisfac■
tory substitute for the parched and weary invalid.
To such a cup sugar is an indispensable adjunct,
and in removing some part of the cumbrous duty
upon it which has in some measure diminished the
benefit of the welcome reduction on tea, Mr..
GLADSTONE has given a very substantial boon to
a very large and various number. Yet important
as sugar is in its effect upon the comfort of the
people, regarded in its one aspect as a concomitant
of tea and coffee, there are dozens of other
ways in which it is daily used, and in which its
cheapness will be found of course a very great ad-
vantage. One of the strongest arguments in favour
of this portion of the Budget, was, however, brought
forward by the right hon, leader of the Opposition,
when he reminded the House that they had entered
into a compact with the public for its reduction so
far back as 1855, and that such engagements should
be faithfully kept. The sugar duty is a war tax
It is a part of the benefits we owe to that disastrous
Crimean war, in which England bought her ad-
ministrative experience at such a heavy cost. We
need not thank it for the legacy, and it is now
surely time that such a burden then imposed should
be removed. It was on this ground alone that Mr.
DISRAELI, one of the most strenuous and consis-
tent opponents of the ALtlt Tax, and ono of the few
who has had the opportunity of putting his profes-
4ions into practice during► his tenure of office,

Now, those addenda make the real difference
between the cost of the French and English
armies much greater to our disadvantage than it
would appear to be from the statement of Major
O'Reilly. The member for Longford sets down the
cost of the staff as about the same in each army—
namely, at the rate of two pound per man ; bat the
reserve, and men on leave, omitted in his calculation,
would greatly alter the amount in the French army,
if brought ;i to coca nutation, together with the 20,000
horses lant to the French farmers, which cost the
Government nothing, and are always in a fit condi-
tion to serve—their frequent inspections adding, of
course, to the expense of the French staff. So
that, in truth, the real strength of the French army
in horses is 105,000, and nut 85,000. The cost of
students at St. Cyr and the Polytechnique is quite
as high as at our military schools; it is in the regi-
mental schools that the great saving is effected under
the head of education in the French army. They
are superintended by a lieutenant, who is devoted
to the service—and who only receives his pay—and
he is assisted by monitors, taken from amongst the
cleverest of the soldiers, his pupils, who are granted
trifling remunerations; their services in the
schools counting in procuring their promotion.
Attendance at the school is compulsory on the
French army. If Mr. O'Reilly, insteed of taking
the gross number of both armies into the account
had confined his remarks to the number of soldiers
attending the schools in both services, the superiority
and cheapness of the French system would be more
striking.
The vast difference between tlree cost of clothing in
the two services is still more *remarkable, and is solely
to be accounted for by 'the numerous and overpaid
staff employed in were, The French soldiers are
better dressed in every respect than ours, although
it is but fare to admit that the clothing of the
English atAny is far better than it used to be. In the
French army an officer employed in the War De-
partment gets simply the pay of his rank on active
service ; in our service the superintendent of
clothing, a captain in the navy, receives £1,400
per annum, or just double what he would touch
if in command of a first-rate ship ; and
that, too, for fulfilling duties which entail neither
responsibility nor expense, and which secure him
continual employment; while his deputy has
£7OO a year—a post-captain's full pay—
tor performing duties a hiell it. ~.mould be difficult
to define, now that the clothing of the army is
manufactured at a depot belonging to the Govern-
ment and superintended by Government officers,
who, it is supposed, need no official superintend-
ence. One of the great causes of the cheapness
and efficiency of the French clothing system is
that it is regimental; a price is fixed for each
article, of which a sealed pattern is sent to each
regiment, and the committee of officers are
allowed to ffnd what is required where they best
can, but always at or within the specified prices.
Each regiment, tco, has its depot of the articles
made within the regiment, such as the
,uniforms
and boots, as well as of those procured from the
manufacturers, such as knapsacks,
shakos, and
pouches, which are under charge of the clothing
captains, and are kept in one of the barrack-
rooms under the care of a sergeant; and thus the
inspectors
and expense of our vast stores, with the
and storekeepers to mend and air the vast accumu-
lation of things lodged in them,is altogether
avoided. In the clothing department a vast saving
can be effected, It is ridiculous that in England,
where clot e is cheaper, the cost of dressing a soldier
should be just double as much as it is in France.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS FOR THE
ENSUING WEEK —lVlonday Asiatic, at 3—Archi-
teats,Mr. Heywood—Anthropological,
at 8. Tuesday—Statistical at 8—" Resources of
Brazil," at 8—" Skulls
from Annabom, japtain Burton and Mr. Blake"—" Two
Principal Forms of British Skulls," Dr. Thurnam—Engi-
nears, at 8—" Santiago and Valparaiso Railway," Mr,
I loyd—Royal Institute at 3—" Conservation of Energy,"
Professor Helmholtz. Wednesday—Horticultural—Azalea
show—Meteorological, at 7—Society of Arts,at 8—" Patent
Laws," Mr. Webster—Society of Literature, at 4—Anni-
versary, Thursday—Royal Institution, at 3d—" Consen
vation of Energy,' Prof. Hehnholtz—Zoological at 4
General ; Numismatics, at 7—Linnean, at 8—" New
Species, &c., of Annelids, in Bzitish Museum,' Dr. Baird
Eumolpithic Group of Phytophagous Coleoptera," Rev,
P. A, Marshall—Royal, at SA—Chemical,
at 8—" Philoso-
phy of British Agriculture,' Mr. WaY• Friday—Royal
Institution, at 8—" Lycurgus," Prof. Blaekie. Saturday
—Antiquaries, at 8—" Metallic Elements," Prof. Frank-
land.--elthenceum.
THE PICTURE GALLERY AND LIBRARY OF
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE, with its Shakspere treasures, has
been liberally thrown open to the public by the Earl of
Ellesmere.—The Reader.
SIR WILLIAM NAPIER must have been a singu-
larly handsome man when young ; "six feet high,
formed in the most powerful mould it is possible to
mth an
con-
ceive as compatible with extraordinary grace and activity,
He was able to jump six feet in height. The head of an
Antinous, covered with short clustering black curls; the
square
mouth brow,
dbotthhe wsqiudaeraenmdashsiigvhe,itahwe,
indicating indomi-
table firmness and resolutiou, aquiline nose, the
a
the eye of that remarkable
blueish grey so terrible in anger, so melting in tenderness,
so sparkling in fun. In his youth his head and face might
have served for a portrait of a god of war. In his latest
years, with milk-white hair and beard, his appearance was
that of a Jupiter.
JAMESMit. GRANT, the author of "The Romance
of 'War," has a new novel in the press, which will shortly
be published by Messrs. Routledge under the title of
n
" Second to None."
INSPECTORS OF MINES.—
I consequence of the
resignation of Mr. Hedley, the Government Inspector of
Mines for the Midland District, the appointment has been
conferred on Mr. Thomas Evans, who for many years has
been Inspector of Mines for the South Wales District. It
is not known as yet who will be Mr. Evans's successor.
CAPTAIN SPEKE is preparing a new volume on
the subject of his great discovery, under the title of " What
led to the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile."
THE NUMBER of PARIAMENTARY ELECTORS IN
ENGLAND AND WALES.----A parliamentary return
issued yesterday states that the total number of electors for
cities and boroughs in England and Wales was 468,966 in
1862.63, and 487,604 in 1863-61. The total number of
electors for counties was 534,085 in 1862-63, and 535,788 in
1863. 64.

DISTRESSING AND FATAL ACCIDENT TO THE
HUSBAND OF LYDIA THOMPSON,—Mr. Tilbury,
who marrieil some 12 months ago tha favourite actress of
Drury-lane Theatre, Miss Lydia Thompson, has met with
his death under most painful circumstances. Last Thurs-
day some local steeplechases took place at Brentwood, in
Essex, at which Mr. Tilbury had entered some of his horses.
In the second race he rode himself, and in attempting to
leap a hedge with a small ditch at the other side the animal
swerved and threw his unfortunate rider with terrific force
upon his head, and then rolled over him. Mr. Tilbury was
taken to a farm-house close by, and never spoke afterwards,
dying at 1 o'clock p,m. yesterday. His wife was soon made
acquainted with the sad news, and immediately repaired to
the spot. Her grief at the sudden calamity is most serious,
and great anxiety is caused for the result, vs they were very
for.dly Mulched to eech other,—Ero,

The Moniteur of this morning publishes a decree
of the Emperor Maximilian creating a committee
at Paris deputed to form a great book of the foreign
public debt of Mexico. Relative to the Mexican
loan of 200 million francs, 6,600,000 francs in 6 per
cent. Rente will be inscribed in this book to the
credit of the French Government, who will give in
exchange a receipt for 66 million francs applicable
to the diplomatic Convention of the 10th April.
Another decree of the Emperor of Mexico orders
that 20 half yearly coupons due to the Mexican
bondholders are to be consolidated into new 3 per
cent, stock, at an issuing price of 60 stock for each
£lOO coupons.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA,
PLYMOUTH, SATURDAY MORNING.
The screw steam gun vessel Espoir (5) Comman•
der Sholto Douglas, from the West Coast of Africa,
arrived in the Sound this morning,

ST. PETERSBURG, APRIL 16.

The Bank of Russia has lowered its rate discount
on three months bills of exchange on St. Petersburg,
Moscow, and Riga to 5 per cent., and on six months
bills and advances on goods and securities to 51- per
cent,

Flotow's sprightly four act opera "Marta" was
given at Her Majesty's Theatre on Thursday even-
ing to a very meagre but apparently a highly de-
lighted audience. The extraordinary attractions
drawing the bulk of the fashionable world to the
great rival establishment in Covent Garden, that
same evening, accounted completely for the thin
attendance. While the exhilerant charm of the gay,
vivacious music of Flotow accounted no less com-
pletely for the admiration, again yet and again ex-
pressed throughout the Night by those who were in
attendance, there, at Her Majesty's. The four lovers
in this fantastic opera were, it should be said at
once, admirably well distributed among four of the
principal "stars" this season at ?Ir. Mapeison's
establishment. Two of these four (i. e. the two male
singers) being conspicuous among the accustomed
favourites at Her Majesty's—the other t wo(i. e. the
two female singers) being accessions this year to the
old attractions of the company. Signor Guiglini's
Lionel, the London public are already acquainted
with, yet never did he pourtray the character more
charmingly than on Thursday evening. Mr.
Santley's Plumkett, it should be said, on the con-
trary, was witnessed, then, for the first time, that
being the first appearance of that gifted artist
in the character. And, as an accomplished musician,
endowed by nature with a noble voice, no less than
as a capital actor, whose very appearance is
greatly in his favour, Mr. Santley on Thursday
produced an impression as satisfactory, we
should imagine, as he himself could in reason
have wished or anticipated. As for the Martha of
Madlle. Vitali, it seemed to us, by reason, perhaps,
of the girlish frivolity of the part, precisely adapted
to the young cantatrice, and therefore one in which
she could be, listened to with the utmost satisfac •
tion. Added to this, it should be said that the
Nancy of Madlie. Bettelheim afforded that recent
debutante the opportunity yet wanting to her for
the setting off, by a pretty and picturesque costume,
of her charming appearance, and for the display,
throughout the score of Flotow, of the remarkable
compass of her rich and resonant contralto. Be-
sides the artistes already mentioned another to
whom the only remaining character of any
importance in the opera had been allotted
(for " Marta" it will be remembered has no
more than five leading dramatis personae for its
four acts) yet requires to be particularized. And
more especially does this other singer require
to be so particularized, for the simple reason that
his, Signor Mazzetti's, appearance on Thursday
evening in "Marta" was his debut as Lord Tristan°.
That part, however, is so utterly nonsensical as to
afford him, neither as singer nor as actor, the opportu-
nity of making anything at all like a sensation, or
even an impression. We must wait, therefore,
until he shall have bad some such opportunity
before venturing to pronounce an opinion as
to Signor Mezzetti's capabilities. While we say
this of the character of Lord Tristano, we
should in reason say identically the same of all the
characters, of the whole of the plot, of this musically
pretty and graceful, but dramatically absurd and
ridiculous opera of " Marta." In the story of it,
in the characters working out that its story, the
libretto, we would say, is simply and utterly non-
sensical. Librettos generally are, of course, far re-
moved, as a rule, from the rank of intellectual per-
formances. But the libretto of " Marta," just frankly
let us say it at once, bears away the palm from all
others by the very excess of its feeble and silly ex-
travagance. It is, for all the world, as if theoutane of
a plot, intended originally for the ballet-master,
had by some ludicrous mistake, fallen into the hands
of the musical composer. And as if the latter,
accepting the sketch (intended for the bal-
let-master) as if seriously designed for himself,
M. Flotow had thereupon set this preposterous
story in an extremely graceful and ingenious
score—the wretchedest of little flies in the most
translucent of amber—all this of course during a
period, for M. Flotow, of profound hallucina-
tion. Has any one ever seriously thought this,
we wonder—about " Marta!" What—among other
things—the period, the locality, the personages, the
incidents of this ridiculous opera really import !
England is the country suppoeed to be peopled by
those exceeding absurdities :to wit Plumkett,
Martha, and the rest of them. The particular
locality in England, where the scene lies is
situated not a hundred miles away from us here
in London, neither in the direction of the Land's
End nor of John o'Groat's—bat at Richmond !
Not Richmond in Yorkshire, but Richmond within
easy view—it should be said within extremely easy
view—of Windsor Castle. So close to it, indeed,
that the Castle (not the hotel but the palace) seems
to be actually in Richmond. "The Queen,"
moreover, is repeatedly referred to in the course
of the opera—has a very important part in-
deed to play (behind the scenes) in the working
out of the plot. But whether Queen Victoria,
or Queen Elizabeth, or Queen Boadicea, is left
entirely to our imagination. The " Period,"
it should be observed, is in no way arbitrarily
"fixed." We can settle down at any point in the
centuries, past, present, or for that matter,
future, that we may please to select. The plot
of the story may be told in a very few words indeed
—almost in a sentence. A frolic is entered upon
by one of the Maids of Honour, or Ladies
in waiting at the Court of the Queen of
England—this frolicksome Lady-Courtier being
the Lady Henrietta, who goes masquerading as
a servant girl, under the name of Martha, to
the village fair or mop at Richmond. Going thither
with her vivacious companion, Nancy, and with
that absurd Tristano—the two latter also, in their
costumes, masquerading ! Here, at the village fair,
a couple of farmers hire Nancy and Martha as their
maid servants—the (bass) Farmer, Plumkett—such
a name for an English farmer!—a sort of a fantastic
combination between " Plunkett," a name not
unfamiliar on this side of the Channel, and " plum
cake"—and the (teller) Farmer, Lionel. This last
mentioned, that is Lionel, turning out, before the
story is finished, to be—(quite as much to his own
surprise as to everybody else's)—of all people in the
world—the Earl of Derby! A ring that he has worn
(we presume an expanding ring) ever since his
infancy revealing the fact, when it comes to be
shewn to the Queen (as already said " behind the
scenes")—namely, this very astounding fact that
Farmer Lionel is really and truly, somehow or
another, the Earl of Derby. Whereupon—shall we
confess it—we have a sense of chagrin, as the
curtain falls at the close of the last act, a
certain inerradicable7regret that, by some other
novel stage device (say a strawberry mark) the other
Farmer (Plumkett) has not, for his part, turned
out to be—Viscount Palmerston. However—as it is
—here, in " Marta," are good thing enough to
render us grateful, without greedily wishing
thus for more ! Yet, even as it ie, while
we are luxuriating in the enjoyment of
these good things, we can't for the life of us
help wondering, rather curiously, what possible
period of our social state, here in England,
could have been floating through the mind of M.
Flotow, or rather of the ingenious poet who furnished
him with his outrageously absurd libretto—what
conceivable period could have been referred to,
when even "an idiot" of a servant could announce a
nobleman thus "as a lord and peer of England,
a baronet and great squire"—" Sir Tristan di
Miekleford, d'lnghilterra pari a lord, a gran
scudicro !" However—we are in the veriest fairy
land of absurdity all the while we are sitting look-
ing at, or listening to, these four acts of " Marta."
And so—let poet and musician have their way
completely—while our English villagers caper
in pink tights to the prettied dance-music !
Farmer Plumkett, in red valved breeches, singe
ing a glorious drinking song, in Italian of
course, about beer " grata a ber"—Mr. Santley
giving it superbly on Thursday and gaining
thereby a ringing encore! Farmer Lionel
going out of his mind in a scarlet fez and parti-
coloured drawers and a shell-jacket, while warbling
over a flower of Martha's to the tune (literally)—
and, by the way, this borrowed melody is the love-
liest in the whole opera—of " The Last Rose of
Summer !" Guiglini sang deliciously, however, on
Teursday—the audience appearing to be delighted
with" Marta," plot and all ! And so, in spite of
the thin house (cot, winent oil Cianbaldi's ettraoting