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

The ilionitc,cr 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 coupone.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA,
PLYMOU [II, 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 53, 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 Fiotow 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 Mr. Mapelson's
establishment. Two of these four (1. e. the two male
singers) being conspicuous among the accustomed
favourites at Her Majesty's—the other two 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 pourtrsy 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 Thurscley
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 Madlle. 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 "Marra" it will be remembered has no
more than five leading dramatis personce for its
four acts) yet requites 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 Tristano.
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 had some such opportunity
before venturing to pronounce an opinion as
to Signor Mazzetti'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 the outline 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 ezeaediag 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—but 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. " Tne 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 frolicksomo 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. Gang 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 Naticy 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 (tenor) Farmer, Lionel. This lase
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 inerradicableTregret 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 is, while
we are luxuriating in the enjoyment of
these good things, we can't for the life of us
help wondering, rather curiously, what poesib.e

period of our social stete, 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 hay.i 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
Mickleford, d'lnghilterra pari e lord, a gran
scudiero !" 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 prettiest dance-music !
Farmer Plumkett, in red velved breeches, sing,
ing a glorious drinking song, in Italian of
course, about beer " grata a ber"—Mr. Santicy
giving it superbly on Thursday and gaining
thereby a ringing encore! Farmer Lionel
going out of his mini 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 bon owci melody is the love-
liest in the whole opera—et" The Last Rose of
Summer !" Guigliui sang deliciously, however, on
T,ursday—tlie audience oppeLring to be delighted
with " Marta," plot and all ! And so, in spite of
tne thin house (cot S -,-quen; on GAribaldi's attracting