The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 17, 1864.

ten pounds. A sti►l better rule is the following—
that the master be prevented from having any per-
son under sixteen in his employ when he enters a
house for the purpose of sweeping a chimney. To
fulfil the design of this comprehensive enactment it
is arranged that a constable be authorised to arrest
" without warrant," any chimney sweeper who
thus offends, and also to detain the young person.
This is a very good rule, because it attacks the evil
at its source, There is no knowing what devices the ,
crafty will resort to to gain their ends, and there-
fore it is always wisest to check the commencement
of such practices. If achild is not in the house it can-
not possibly be sent up the chimney, but if for oneex-
cuse or another it is taken in, no one can tell what
may take place. When a chimney-sweeper is con-
victed of compelling a child or person under twenty-
one to ascend a chimney, he may be sent to prison
for a term not exceeding twelve mouths, with or
without hard labour. It seems almost surprising
that some such rules or regulations should not have
been made before, but better late than never is a
very true saying, and too much praise cannot be
awarded to the Earl of SHAFTESBURY for his stre-
nuous efforts to better the condition and emancipate
the race of these little negroes of a free country.
There is also a very sensible provision made to the
effect that when a chimney is built, or rebuilt,
notice shall be given to the Board of Health, or
other authorities, and clauses are put in this bill to
ensure the fulfilment of the required restrictions
being complied with. Surely now there is a good
prospect of this scandalous practice being discon-
tinued, and it is a great shame that so many per-
sons who were in a position to know the evils of
the habit should have permitted it to be carried on
in their own dwellings. •

The shipowners of Liverpool are now following
in the wake of those alarmists who have taken up
the cause of the Federals with such sympathetic
ardour. A petition has now been signed by those
who signed the memorial last year, with the excep-
tion of one. This petition states that the under-
signed " view with dismay the probable future con-
sequences of a state of affairs which permits a
foreign belligerent to construct in and send to sea
from British ports vessels of war, in contravention
of the provisions of the existing law." This is very
likely the genuine expression of those who utter it,
but the course that is proposed is a most dangerous
one, and can never succeed in effecting the objects
in view. After going on some time further in the
same strain, the meaning of all this lugubrious
statement is disclosed, namely, that it would be ex•
pedient to sanction the introduction of changes in
the Foreign Enlistment Act, to afford the Execu-
tive greater power in preventing the building of
ships destined for belligerents in British ports. All
this has been already proposed a score of times by
various supporters of the Government policy and
admirers of the Federals, but it has not as yet
gained many adherents, nor will it ever be popular
in the country for it to take place. The result of
these proposals and strictures against the rights
of subjects and the claims of others has always
been that of ignoring, and has always fallen on the
proposer of the innovation, and failure most com-
plete and mortifying has attended the venture.
Still no one ever can or will learn from it the ex-
perience of others, and it will not be at all surpris-
ing] if before long wo have another attempt to
change the present state of the law. Earl RUSSELL
has already hinted at something of the kind rather
vaguely, and he may be glad to take advantage of
the excellent opportunity, which the demands of so
many infiaEntial men may give him. It is to be
hoped that such extremities will not be resorted to,
because all such expressions of irritated feeling and
angry altercations as these proposals give rise to
arc beat aroided, nut: can but produce unpleasant
consequences. It wont(' be quite an innovation on
the free and unfettered course of action which has
hitherto been the birthright of our countrymen to
set down who they may build ships for, and who
they may not. The absurdity of the argument here
met with is, that any country may hereafter be-
come a belligerent, so to prevent:the possibility of the
mischance they dread. The petitioners had better
demand that no vessels at all shall be constructed
for foreign Powers. This will bo the readiest mode
of putting a stop to the danger, though perhaps
even they may think that this step will be going
too far. Certainly the advocates of these preven-
tive measures are doing their best to make foreign
nations believe that the period is past when Eng-
land was mighty in arms, and rich in resources of
all kinds for au emergency. First on one side, then
on another, we hear of the imprudence of this prac-
tice, the undesirability of that custom, and the ex-
pediency of a complete and immediate change for
fear a war should take us by surprise and find us
overwhelmed in a sea of difficulties. According to
present arrangements, there is no prospect of a
speedy resort to hostilities, but no one can tell how
soon the tide of affairs may change, and sometimes
the very means taken to prevent war may provoke
it to come to pass. One thing is certain, it will
not avail us then that to please foreign nations we
have sapped the strongholds of our own Constitu-
tion, and compromised the rights and privileges of
our subjects, in order to satisfy the scruples of over-
punctilious people.

AMATEUR PERFORMANCE.—Last night a per-
formance, organized by Mr. Lynch, was given in
"the Bijou" attached to her,Majesty's Theatre, for the pur-
pose of increasing the funds of a charitable institution in
Somers-town. The pieces selected were a " Cosy Couple"
and "The Rivals,'' and although it is usual to pass over
the efforts of amateurs with the usual complimentary phrase
of'' all acquitted themselves with ability," in this instance
we must particularly single out the efforts of Mr. Lynch for
high commendation. From first to last he appeared quite
at home on the boards of the pretty little theatre, and
elicited loud applause by the excellence of his acting. The
leaders also deserve great praise for the talent they exhi-
bited on the occasion. The performance gave great plea-
sure to the entire audience.

CHARITIES IN THE MZTROPOLIS.—It appears that
the gross income of the endowed local or parochial
charities known to be existing in the city of London amounts
to £06,356, and that of those in the city of Westminster to
£26,666. The purposes to which the income of the first
group of charities is applied are as follows :—Education,
£11,292-apprenticing and advancement of children, £1,777
—endowments of clergy, lecturers, and for sermons, £3,833
—church repairs and general purposes, £26,o4s—mainte-
nance of Dissenting places of worship and their ministers,
£s7—education of Dissenters, £93—public parochial uses,
£3B3—support of almshouses and their inmates and of pen •
sioners, £6o,oBo—distribution of articles in kind, £2,801—
distribution of money, £6,37B—and general uses of the poor,
£8,614. The income of the Westminster charities was de-
voted as follows :—Education, £7,o7o—apprenticing and
advancement of children, £2,299—endowments of clergy,
lecturers, and for sermons, £l,233—church repairs and
general purposes, £l66—support of almshouses and their
inmates and of pensioners, £ll,s63—distribution of articles
of kind, Lilt—distribution of money, £l,66o—general uses
of the poor, £460—medical relief. £l,2ol—and loans, £7Bl.
Besides these charities the gross income of a third group in
the county of Middlesex amounted to £51,793, which was
devoted to the following objects :—Education,Ll7,o24—ap-
prenticing and advancement of children, £2,72B—endow-
molts of clergy, lecturers, and for sermons, £66l—church
repairs and general purposes, £2,3l3—maintenance of Dis-
senting places of worship and their ministers, £545
education of Dissenters, Ll,6l2—parochial uses, £1,585—
support of almshouses and their inmates, and of pensioners,
£12,130—distribution of articles in kind, £6,2ls—distribu
tion of money, £s,l6l—general uses of the poor, £794
and medical relief, £2l.
The Nouvelliste of Marseilles mentions the death
of a little girl, 10 months old, in a rather extraordinary
manner. A small nine-pins in bone, stained red, was given
her to play with, She put it into her month, and sucked
off the colouring matter. In a few hours after symptoms
of poisoning
she gshdoiewd in a
showed themselves,
,and, in spite of medical
as

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

Adelina Patti in "la Sonnambula."

Bellies charmingly tender and graceful two act
opera of "La Sonna.mbult " was performed last
night at the Royal Italiar for the first time this
season—Madlle. Adelina latti being the Amine,
Signor Naudin the Elvino, and M. Faure the Count
Rodolpho. A better cast among living artistes
could not be reasonably looked for. With the
Amine of Madlle. Patti the London public is already
familiar. The Elvino of Signor Naudin was, on
the other band, a novelty. While the appearance
of M. Faure as the Count vas greeted with evident
satisfaction by an audience that welcomed him with
the cordiality, alone displayed towards an acknow-
ledged favourite, by our usually blase, or, at any
rate, undemonstrative world of opera-goers. The
entrance of Signor Nandia a littie earlier in the
evening, namely, in the fifth scene of the first
act, by the way, being a signal for' no reception
whatever. For this apparent apathy or indiffe-
rence towards himself, however, the accom-
plished Frenc'a tenor was fated to win for himself,
more than once during theevening, the very amplest
compensation. We have hardly ever heard Signor
Naudin, in truth, to greater advantage than we
did yesterday. His impassioned singing and
cpetetdo
teontthheusriaansmge,
acting repeatedly r ocouhsiaes
rdeaxtettieeertaliuytdsaieedl nfa
is sufficiently in
To
fh
he ime
vu
es
ii ce
e, of a Es
tl ien
harmony with his capabi.ities generally, to secure
for it at his hands the advantage of an apt and, at
at times, most effective impersonation. Although
encores were by no means the rule yesterday
evening, the fact in regard to those attesta-
tions of pleasure being, in reality, exactly the
reverse, Signor Naudin's most impassioned de-
livery (at the close of the fourth scene of
the second act) of the "Ah ! perche non
posse odiarti"—agonized in the prevailing fervour
of its intonation, nothing hss than tearful in its
closing cadences—drew forth a thunder of applause
that virtually amounted to a demand for its repeti-
tion. Any repetition there, however, being simply
impracticable from the mere circumstance of the
"situation"—thelovere baying separated in anguish,
and the chorus of villagers having dispersed. Signor
Nandin so completely took the house by surprise
last evening by his representation of the character
of Elvin() that we have been tempted thus to make
first-mention of him in regard to last night's per-
formance. Mademeiselle Adelina Patti's Amine
has already, in point of fact, long since assumed its
place, in London as elsewhere, among her most
charming impersonations. As Amine among all
the most singularly gifted of living soprani, this
youthful, this still almost girlish cantatrice has
actually no superior, has, all things considered, no
competitor. By oee only most rarely-gifted
creature has she been surpassed, indeed (in our
recollection) as—that fairest of village maidens, la
sonnambula! Dazzling though the vocalisation
of Jer.ny Lind in Amine, at Her Majesty's,
bewitchingly though the character was represented
by Miss Romer at the Lyceum, and exquisitely
though her every look, and tone, and movement
was rendered by Madame Grisi, when la diva was
yetinker glory—still,
even then we would say, that,
upon the whole, Madlle. Patti's Amine has never
once been surpassed! But for Malibran !—but for one
of our earliest recollections, that of Malibran !—a rea
membranc.e caught at the most impressionable age of
all—one of the most vivid, as it certainly is also one
of the most treasured memories of childhood—but
for Malibran ! as thus heard and seen distinctly
in her great character of Amine, heard and seen
still it seems to us distinctly et that distance of time
(how many years is it ?)—bat for Malibran, we
say, we should have yet pronounced Patti's Amina
unsurpassed. Remembering Malibran, however,
as the somnambulist, remembering that incom-
parable genius of the 'yrical stage—among operatic
soprani what Edmuad Kean must have been among
tragedians, what Paganini must have been among
violiniats, just simply, in one word, unapproachable
—it is no disparagement whatever to say of Madile.
Patti that in one instance, though in one instance
alone, in this character of Amine, has she been, in
our own recollection, surpassed. Malibran's exqui-
site, her nothing less than matchless Amina having
raised the Drury Lane Theatre as an operatic arena
to a level, in those days, with the noblest lyrical
stage in all Christendom. Who that once heard
her, that once saw her, that listened to her en-
tranced, that watched her through tears—can ever
lose the remembrance of it ? The passion, the very
rapture of her singing awakening a shadowy reflec-
tion of genius, as it were, in the English tenor who
then sang and acted with her as Elvino—poor past,
and gone, and almost forgotten Templeton ! No—
it is no disparagement whatever to say of Madile.
Patti that her Amina has been in that one instance—
in the instance of the incomparable Madame
Malibran-deaßeriot—not merely surpassed, but
surpassed ineemmensurably. Hexing been thus
surpassed by Malibran—for the one simple
) of the gift of genius.
reason that in Malibran the possession of the
_
di v n e sats
avoicebsol u
wastelycombined
rarest with the possession,
(quite
Apart from any comparison, however, with that
purely exceptional instance of Madame Malibran,
what a lovely and delicious impersonation it is, the
Amina of Madlle. Patti ! Bellini'a sleepwalking
heroine is, in fact, among the triumphs of imper-
sonation achieved by the most youthful and fas-
cinating of all living prima donnas. From the first
to the last, yesterday, from the warbling joy, of the
" Come per me sereno," to the rapturous end daz-
z:ing delight of the "Ah! non guinge uman pen-
sierou—Madlle. Patti's delivery of the lovely music
allotted to Amina, was worthy in every note of the
splendour of her reputation. The duet between
Amina and Elv:10, " Frendi, Panel ti
as given last niga.'"!by Madlle, Patti and
Signor Naudin, was ;specially entitled to
admiration, if only by reason of its evidencing
unmistakeably the enhancement, yet further during
these last few months, of the power Alice
familiar to us in the fresh and radiant organ of
the young eantatrice. Testifying, thus, that
still evenin
as her rare powers ara now, they are ,
appreciable process of development ! I'L Faures
Rodolpho, excellent throughout, from his tendery
and contemplative delivery of the famous
i
ravviso, 0 luoghi ameni," through all the
the bed-
agitating scenes that follow --
chivalrous
room scene, where the Count's
soul prompts him to leave the fair somnam-
bulist sleeping dreamily on his couch, unap-
proached, una wakened, undisturbed--down to the. ,
last breathless incident when, in Elaine's sight and
in the sight of all the villagers, she unconsciously
attests her own innocence by a repetition ever the
millroof, across the bridge, of her perilloue Born-
:
nambuiism. More than simplyexcellent, how-
ever M. Faure's Rodolpho was not. the rest of
the characters are so peculiarly insignificant that
they scarcely admit of being particularised. It
will be sufficient, therefore, to
mention t
Madame T hat
aglis Sign
fieor
o
Polonini was the Alessi°,
the intriguing Lisa, and Madlle. Auese, Teresa the
foster-mother of Amine the somnambulist. The
instrumental accompaniments of the action of the
piece by the orchestra, together with the occasional
choruses of the villagers, were all that could be
r ng
wished by the most fastidious
--Mr. Caste pesidi
•
over the momentary whirlwind and directing the
intermittent storm of both orchestra and chorus
with all his wonted misterehlP cs a conductor—as
the conductor. The magnificent area of the house
last night was very fully occupied in boxes, stalls,
and amphitheatre.
To-night Meyerbeer's " Itoberioll Diavolo" (first
given this season on Saturdee) will be repeated.
Thursday will be the first eight this season ofWe observ©,
Gonnod's "Faust Margherifl-"
moreover, that Flotow's opera of " -Stradella " in
lieu of Nicolaes " Merry wives of Windsor," is
announced by Mr. Gye as noW in active preparation.

The town of Miramont (Haute-Garonne) was
thrown into consternation threo days since by a dreadful
homicide committed on the
person of the mayor, M. Birag.
net, a cloth manufacturer. About nine in the morning a
respectable man named D--- called to see the mayor,
w
and the latter, after a 10, interview, was taking leave of
his visitor at the door,
when M. D-- stabbed him in
the neck with a table knife, inflicting a wound which termi-
nated fatally soon afterwards. The assassin immediately
after the crime threw himself into the river with the inten-
tion of committing suicide, but was got out alive and de-
livered over to the police. He is supposed to be insane,

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

GIBRALTAR.

MAY 12.

A telegram received some days ago from Malaga,
reported the wreck of an English vessel on the
African coast, near the Spanish settlement of
Allaucemas. Her Majesty's gunboat Procris and
the Redpole were therefore despatched to the rescue
of the wreck for the purpose of saving the crew,
and whatever might be left of ship and cargo.
There being no vestige of the ship discernible on
the shore, the commander of the Procris communi-
cated with the Governor of Alhucemas, from:whom
he learnt that the vessel had been wrecked about
four miles to the eastward of that settlement. On
proceeding to the designated locality, the com-
mander ascertained from the Riflians on shore,
with whom ho communicated by means of a
Moorish interpreter taken from Gibraltar, that a
large English vessel, supposed to be a barque, had
been wrecked, that three of the crew were drowned,
and that the survivors, seven in number, had been
sent in one of the Riff boats to Tangiers.

The week had entirely broke up. The Procris
had left for Tangiers to bring over the seven men
who have been sent there, and in case the Riff
boat should not have reached Tangiers, we under-
stand that the Procris is to coast along the African
shore to Tetuan, with a view of intercepting the
boat in its passage. The name of the English
barque is not yet known.
Commercial accounts from the Western coast of
Barbary received by the Languedoc, speak of the
difficulties which have been experienced by the
European merchants in their commerce with
the Moors, on account of their ill, more or
less disgusted with which tae Moorish authorities
regard all trade with the Sultan's subjects and
foreigners. A regulation made by the Moorish
Government, about a year and a half ago, that pro-
duce should be sold only in open market at the coast
towns, and that agents of foreign merchants should
not be at liberty to traverse the interior for the
purpose of purchasing the productions of the
country, although not strictly in accordance with
the treaties between the Sultan and several
European Powers, appears to have been acquiesced
in as an experimental matter. The result seems
not to have been satisfactory, for we learn that the
British Vice-Consols on the coast have now been
informed by a circular from her Majesty's Minister,
Sir John Hay, that British subjects would be pro-
tected in their rights to make purchases by them-
selves and their agents beyond the jurisdiction of
the coast towns. This would, it was thought, give
an impulse to business. The supply of wool coming
to market in Mozegan was not abundant, and there
was a report that the Sultan at the end of the pre-
sent clip would prohibit the exportation. Prices of
wool were higi, not only on account oF the short
supply, but because vessels were in the bay loading,
and their charterers were therefore under the neces-
sity of completing their cargoes at the high price
demanded by sellers, or sending away their ships
half empty.
Cad'z papers says—" The object of the visit of
the Duke and Duchess de Montpensier to England
is to be present at the marriage of their daughter,
Dona Maria Isabel d'arleans, to the Count de Paris,
which is to be celebrated on the 30th inst.

The Spanish Minister in London 11.. s also been
directed by Itlyal order to be present as a 'witness
of the marriage.
The following British vessels have arrival here
since the departure of the last mail :—Schooner
John Pierce, 23 days from Liverpool ; schooner
Mary and Jane, 14 days arum Cardiff; schooner
Exchange, 17 days from Cardiff; steamer Arasces,
61days from Liverpool ; steamer Marathon, 51,- days
from Liverpool; steamer Syria, 5 days from South-
ampton ; and steamer Peninsular, 81 days from
Swansea.

Exchanges are quoted on London, 90 days' date,
50Z- to ; Paris, sf. 32c.; Marseilles, sf, 32c. ;
Genoa, sf. 32c.; Madrid, eight days' sight, par;
Cadiz, 2 dis.; Seville, 1 dis. ; Malaga, 1 dis. ; Bar-
celona, prem. ; Almeira, Valencia, and Alicante
par.