The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-20 00:00:00

THE S 14) LONDON,

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

We have to congratulate M. Jullien on the great
iayrovement which last night was visib!e in his opera
—,:ubjected, as it evidently had been, to a system of
wholesome and judicious curtailment. The audivnce
evidently shared the opinion, and the second and third
acts, both of which aynt s•omnewhit unsatisfactorily
on the opening performance, were last evening as
prosperous as the first. The opera, indeed, is shortened
by nearly en hour. We dare say the " cuts" went
to M. Jullien's heart, but he showed his good sense
and amenity to advice in making them, and last night
he reaped the benefit. Peter the Great, as it is now
played, is a far more agreeable performance than it
was on the first night. It has gained by the shorten-
ing of the chorusses and the excision of the repetition
of vocal passages and stege business originally per-
formed more than once. The chorus in the first act,
and the threatening of Rommi with the axe, have
been compacted with great advantage, and the ballet
has been shortened. So also of the ballet in the third
act, while in the second there has been a regular
sweep made of all the horses. There is no defiling of
the army--the scene opening in nicely arranged
groups of northern warriors instead ; the brass bands
are kept within limit, and the latter portion of the
act, particularly the lengthened chorus, is cut down
to more modest dimension. We repeat that the im-
provement has been great. The good points remain
the same, but they are brought closer, and thus made
to support each other, while the general effect is far
lighter and more varied. Pietro it Grande is now an
established triumph.

COUItT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, THURSDAY.
Her Majesty, his Royal Highness Prince Albert,
and the Royal Family walked in the grounds yester-
day.

At the Privy Council held yesterday the Marquis
of Granby was sworn in Lord-Lieutenant of Lin-
colnshire.

The Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Derby, the Earl
of Mdmesbury, Mr. Secretary Walpole, Sir John
Pakington, Mr. Herries, and the Duke of Northum-
berland had audiences of the Queen.
' At three o'clock the whole of the noblemen and
gentlemen who heal attended the Council embarked in
the steam•vessel Fire Queen, and crossed over to
Southampton.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer left town yester-
day for Hughenden Manor, Bucks.
Mr. Curry bad an interview with Mr. Secretary
Walpole yesterday, at the Home-office. Mr. R.
Hall had also an interview with the Right Hon.
Secretary.
Sir John Pakington left town for his seat, West-
wood- park yesterday.
The Cambridge University Commission had a
meeting yesterday at the official residence of the
First Lord of the Treasury in Downing-street. Pre-
sent, the Bishop of Chester, the Dean of Ely, Pro-
fessor Sedgwick, and the Rov.W. H. Bason (Secretary).
Dispatches were sent yesterday to the Governors
of Hong-Kong and Ceylon, the Lord High Commis-
sioner of the lonian Islands, and the Governor of
Malta, from the Colonial-office.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
COWES, AUG. 18.
At the Royal Yacht Squadron dinner were present—
Earl of Wilton, Commodore, in the chair; C. R.
M. Talbot, Vice-Commodore, in the vice-chair; Marquis
of Conyngham, Lord Ernest Bruce, Lord Bateman, Sir
B. Grailam, Sir J. Bayley, Lord James Butler, Sir H.
Bold Hoghton, Bart., Major-General Simpson and
Aide-de-Camp, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Joseph
Weld, Esq., Colonel Petre, Lord Exmouth, W. Dela-
field, Esq., T. Chamberlains, &q., A. J. Hamborough,
Esq., Captain Crispin, John Beardmore, Esq., A. Gre-
ville, Esq., and about 30 other noblemen and gentlemen,
dined together. Lord Adolphus kindly sent some ex-
cellent singers from the royal yacht, who afforded much
pleasure to the company.

AUGUST 19.
PRINCE ALBERT'S CUP —The following schooner
yachts started at 11 A.M., with a light breeze from the
northward:—
Alarm, 248 tons, Joseph Weld, Esq.
Claymore, 138 ton, A. Campbell, Etq.
Gloriana, 134 tons, J. Gee, Lq.
Gipsey Queen, 160 tons, Sir B. B. Hoghton, Bart.
The Gipsey Queen took the lead, as usual, but the
wind is so light, that there is great uncertainty where
the advantage really lies.
Glorious weather for the harvest.

THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD DIGGINGS.
We have been favoured with the sight of a letter from
a young man now at Adelaide to his parents in this
country, which contains some points of information that
may be useful to persons intending to emigrate. The
letter is dated March 1, and begins by stating that
" trade at Adelaide is at en end and the town deserted,"
there not being more than 100 men at that date in the
colony. Last December the writer joined a party who
travelled on foot overland 500 miles to Mount Alexan-
der to work at the diggings; but not liking his compa-
nions, he returned to Adelaide by sea, and was about to
start afresh with more congenial associates. He thus
describes the labours and sufferings he underwent in his
gold-digging excursions:—' I have been ten weeks
sloping on the ground without a bed, and for weeks
not undressed I have gone through swamps up to the
middle in water, traversed burning hot sands—deserts 30
miles across—travelled under a scorching sun, nearly
dead with thirst, and for days not able to wash myself,
from want of water. One of our party was killed
on the road, and we had to bury him 200 miles from
home." Again :—" The gold is not to be obtained with-
out hard work, such as labouring men can hardly en-
dure. Advise everyone who is getting a good living in
England to remain." Thousands, he anticipates, will be
disappointed; and he observes that none are fit for the
diggings who cannot sleep under a tree in the open air,
drink water of all colours, go for a week unwashed and
unshaved, and submit to be overrun with vermin. "The
Californians are coming over. There are about 30,000
diggers at present, all well armed. Hitherto they have
successfully resisted the attempts of Government to
overtax them. They have commenced lygneethrilda we,f and
e
the sooner it gets general the better, to
hordes of ruffians who are prowling about. Lynch-law
has no terrors for an honest man." Provisions are
very high: the 41b. loaf, le. 9d.; butter and cheese, ss.
a pound; and everything else in proportion. The
writer, who hopes to make his fortune at the diggings,
expresses his intention of returning to South Australia
to spend the remainder of his days in that colony, which
he has no doubt will in a year or two become exceedingly
prosperous.

SPECIMENS OF THE DELUGE.

A PROPHECY, BY LORD MITDSTONE.-IN LEAVES FROM
THE LOG.

Weather l'czy in the bay. Wind: Downing-street by
Somerset House. Tor,k soundings in the hold.* No
water; r should hays sent Harries to the pumps. Ordered
11,1D.0,.bnry aloft to look out : reported that Le cmild see
nothing before him : didn't expect he would. Ship rides
like a duck--souLiied aggain, and not a drop of water;
but thou, as Pakington says, we pitched it so very wrong,
Hazy weather; with scudding fogs. At 12 PM.
buinped against something: took soundings, with a piece
of butter sit the end of lead: brought up a bit of atone,
which, the B—p of L—n—n, bursting into tears, iden-
tified IA a piece of Fulham Palace. Fog very thick in-
deed. At noon, Dizzy takes an observation. Swears be
sees Sze. &c. &a, in distance: nobody believes him—
laughs, and says he doesn't believe it himself.
Wind, the Bank by Exchange-Change East. Noon:
Dizzy protests that, &c., &c., &c. This time, others
protest so, too—somebody floating in the distance. We
put up the helm, and shake out all red tape-1 mean all
reefs Approach the man in the water. Make him out
with our glasses—and so he proves to be—Palmerston
in his Windsor uniform, with his hair curled. What
can he float on? We put the helm up again and near
him. The B—p insists we shell • take him aboard;
Malinesbury opposes, swearing he'd take the ship from
us. We hail him through speaking-trumpet. " Pam.,
will you come aboard?" "See you drowned first."
" But, Pam., what do you fbat on?" Whereupon, Pam.
held up for a minute the cork—the single one cork—of
the bottle which, before the deluge, he judiciously held.
We put up the helm, and run afore the wind, Pam.
singing the "Bay of Biscay," and floating towards
Windsor.

Wind variable, in all places at once. Dreadful to see
everywhere the bodies of Freetraders—even Dizzy
nearly wept! Colonel Sibthorp counted two hundred,
entering their names in
his own pocket-book of ass's
skin. Again put the helm up to get rid of the spec-
tacle. %Vied I;ght. Called upon Walpole' 05 make a
juke; and mast-headed him for disobeying orders.
Wind anyhow. Freetraders' bodies still float by our
galls of craft. Walpole swears he sees a man alive.
Boatswain Beresford declares he's only one of the rabble.
Man nears us, and proves to be the venerable and vera-
cious editor of the Standard. He calls for a life-buoy,
when Dizzy—(that Chancellor in the human sizape)—
throws him over, but he declares in mistake—a tile of
the sinking man's own paper: both instantly disappear.
Wind gone to bed. Ship answers everything but her
rudder; Dizzy says he's ready to answer for even that.
What a fellow ho is! Swears he sees next week in the
distance. Took an observation; found we were just
over Manchester. At 1 r.m. John Bright, floating in
his own hat, passed us. Sibthorp wanted to bring a
howitzer to bear upon him, but B—p interposed. Again
called upon Walpole for a juke: still obstinate, and
threatened him with irons.

Wind, worst and by worst. Found we were directly
over Free Trade Hall. Saw the top of one chimney at
least, with Cobden distinctly upon it, waving a flag of
distress, a Manchester bird's-eye. Saw the Agitator
through telescope; but remembered Nelson's blind eye
and the signal, and—thongh the B—p suggested some-
thing—would not see him.

Wind, squally. Passed Gladstone on a cotton bag.
Light airs. Saw l‘lanuers, whom we forgot to take
up when the deluge began, astride a dolphin.
Blowing a gale. Passed Joo Hume in a patent life-
belt. Going straight to the Exchequer. Dizzy wanted
to have a shot at him: B—p benevolmtly interfered.
Wind got down. Took soundings. Found we were
just over the Victoria Tower cf the Houses of Parlia-

ment. Thought we were sinking; to lighten the ship,
threw Malmeabury ovtrboard.
Foundered on the House of Commons.

(Here the log becomes broken and fragmentary )

"(July a shower," and no deluge afteralll

* Mr. Punch need not observe, even to the most ladylike
readers of even nautical novels, that the ship-knowledge of
the keeper of the log seems a good deal at sea.—Punch.

THE ELECTRIC TIME BALL IN THE

STRAND.

Yesterday, consequent upon an announcement to the
effect that the electric apparatus, desiged for distribut-
ing mean Greenwich time throughout London and the
provinces, would be in active operation at one o'clock,
when the ball would fall simultaneously, by electrical
sympathy, with the Observatory Ball at Greenwich, a
considerable concourse of people assembled in the Strand
and at the Electric; Tetegraph Company's station to
witness the novel experiment, but were doomed to be
disappointed. The announcement that the experiment
would come off on the occasion was, we are requested to
observe, not only premature, but erroneous and unautho-
rised, the fact being that the arrangements were not com-
plete for the purpose, the necessary wires, forming a por-
tion of the circuit, in connexion with the South-Eastern
Railway Company's wire to Greenwich, not being con-
nected. This, however, will be done immediately,
we understand, by Mr. Edwin Clark, the company's en-
gineer, and a given day will be fixed for the first re-
gular falling of the ball. It may be interesting to state
that although the experiment of causing the ball to fall
at the same hour with the ball at Greenwich (the great
object of the apparatus) has not yet been accomplished,
the ball of 186 lbs. weight has been liberated by a bat-
tery of two plates at Greenwich, that power being found
sufficient for the purpose. Yesterday the electrical dial
in the centre of the five thoroughfares opposite Hunger-
ford Market was fixed upon its ornamented bronze pillar,
and at night, on being illuminated, presented a very
elegant appearance; the four dial plates being formed of
enamelled glass, with the hours and minutes marked in
stAined glass upon the base, and the pillar surmounted
by a gilt ball. The appearance of the great ball or re-
gu!ator, of a bright vermillion, seabed with a gilt circle,
presented, from its prominent position, a novel and im-
posing appearance, and was the eubject of much admira-
tion during the day.