The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-24 00:00:00

'4lB.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

11,11jor-Gen. Lord William Paulet, C. 8., Lieut..
Governor of Portsmouth, and commanding the south-
west military district, Las published, for the infor-
mation of the officers and troops under his command,
the following letter, which officers in command arc
to read to their men on parade ;

" Horse Guards, Oct. 20.

"My Lord,—l am directed by his Royal High-
ness the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief to
convey to you, and through you to the troops under
your command, the satisfaction which his rum
highness has derived from his recent inspection of
the garrison of Portsmouth and the troops in the
south-west district.

"I have also to request you will make known to
Colonel Gordon, commanding Royal Engineers, that
his royal highness highly appreciates the zeal and
skill with which his duties have been performed.
" I have, &c,,
"J. YORKE SCARLLTT, Ad j alant-General:'

Major Palliser's gun, on the improved principle of
strengthening the 65 pounder, has been sighted in
the royal gun factories at Woolwich, and is now
ready to be forwarded to Shoeburyness to be fired
1,000 rounds to test its power of endurance.
During th 3 absence on leave of Lieut.-Col. Clerk,
superintendent of the Royal Carriage Departmen.
at Woolwich, Lieut.-Co!. Shaw, assist.-superin-
tendent, has brought into operation the con-
struction of iron gun carriages and slides
both for naval and garrison purposes, which
for a considerable time has been under consideration.
The suggestion of introducing iron for the above-
named purposes met however with so much opposi-
tion on its being proposed, that the idea was for a
time abandoned. Several carriages, slides, platforms,
Bto., have now been completed at Woolwich 103
Lieut.-Col. Shaw, and have been approved by the
select committee. Oae of the carriages and slides,
adapted for 100 pounder guns, has been sent to the
Excellent at Portsmouth, and others are in course of
manufacture for the 300 and 600 pounders. A car-
riage is also about to be constructed of iron for Col.
Shaw's gun, now at Shoeburynees, on the muzzle
pivoting principle, without trunnions.
A wrought-iron carriage for the 0-inch smooth-
bore gun on board the gunnery ship Excellent, at
Portsmouth, has been received on board that ship
with slides of the same material, from the Royal
Arsenal, at Woolwich, and so far as it has yet been
tested has been found to answer admirably, com-
bining strength and lightness with efficiency. In
controlling the recoil of heavy guns fired with full
charges four kinds of compressors are now under
trial on board the gunnery ships r at the outports,
viz.—Sir Wm. Armstrong's compressor, the Excel-
lent's ditto, Mr Cunningham's ditto, and Mr Erics-
son's (American) ditto.
Some very successful firing has been made from
the Elcellent with Mr Hale's large rockets.
The sailing transport Now Era arrived at Spithead
with 56 invalided and time-expired soldieris and 20
women and children from regiments serving in
India- She sailed from Madras on the 27111 of July
and St. Helena on the 15th September.
The Imperial Russian screw corvette Rhinda, 11
guns, which anchored at the Motherbank, off Ryde,
Isle of Wight, a few days since,on her return home-
ward from service in the Pacific, is expectd to sail
from that anchorage this morning for Cronstadt.
The following appointments were made onSatur-
dey at the Admiralty :—Herbert H. Gain, paymas-
ter to Devastation; Frank Pitman,assist.-paymaster
to the Indus ; Augus'ua A. Ly ne, assist.-paymaster,
supernumerary to the Victory; Hugh Duncan,
engineer to the Indus from the Garnet ; and Samuel
Lloyd in the Hawke, promoted to be first-class
assist. engineer.

IMPERIAL TRAVELLERS.—The Franche, Comte
paper states that as the train in which the Emperor
of Russia was travelling was obliged to stop at Besancon
for a few minutes to allow another train to come up and
pass, his Majesty alighted and took several turns on the
platform, accompanied by a magnificent black Newfound-
land dog. The Progres of Lyons, after describing the hand-
some preparations made at' the Grand Hotel of that city
for the reception of the imperial travellers, states that by
order no -bed was left in the sleeping-room assigned to
their Majesties, as they always when travelling had their
sleeping apparatus carried with them. The Salut Public
of the same city says :—" On their arrival at the hotel the
august travellers found two tables served—one on the first
floor for their Majesties and their children, and the second
in a room of the ground floor for their suite. The Empress,
who was in a suffering state, was removed in an arm chair
from the railway carriage to the apartment prepared for
her. She was not able, in consequence of her state of
health, to be present at dinner, but was served in her
room, around which MM. Maria and Ce. the eminent
silk manufacturers, had disposed a qu :ntity of rich
stuffs, as specimens of Lyons produce. The Empress being
anxious to retire to rest, sent word to those gentlemen that
she would make a choice among the goods sent for her in-
spection on her arrival at Nice. The Emperor graciously
invited Mantua Canrobert to join him at dinner. The
Emperor and Empress travel in such strict incognito that
positive orders were given that no one should be admitted
to the railway station ; all the company's ssrvants had been
sent away and the station-master alone remained to open
the door c,f the imperial carriage. The Emperor and Em=
press were dressed in the simplest manner ; the Emperor
wore a grey overcoat and ono of those round felt hats with
a flat brim which are now in fashion. As to the Empress,
without giving any special details as to her attire, we may
affirm that she was dressed with a simplicity that a bourgeoise
would have disdained. When a lady is Empress of All the
Russias she may wear the most simple articles with impu-
nity. On their departure Marshal Canrobert and the Coun.
cilior of State, Prefect of the Rhone, received their Majes-
ties at the station and accompanied them to the railway
station,"

- krZI
rt Ur/agar

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL, Oct. 21.

Tho Queen and Royal family were prevented
from going out yesterday morning in consequence
of the unfavourable state of the weather. Her
Majesty went out for a short time in the afternoon,
attended by the Hon. Emma L3scelles.

0,1. 22.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Helena, and
attended by Viscountess Jocelyn, drove yesterday to
the Lynn of Quoich.

Lyceum Theatre.

"THE _KING'S BUTTERFLY."

A brilliant audience assembled on Saturday
evening to inaugurate the commencement of the
season at this elegant theatre, and on the occasion
a new drama, entitled " The King's Butterfly," in
which Mr Fechter sustained the principal part, was
produced. Although perhaps one of the mat
elegant pieces as far as the mounting is concerned,
the drama is not a new one to the metropolitan
stage, a version of it having been produced at the
Princess's Theatre under the title of " Court and
Camp," with Mr George Vining and Miss Any
Sedgwick as the hero and heroine. The piece eves
very well placed upon the stage on the occasion we
have just mentioned, but to compare it with the
splendid exotic produced at the Lyceum would be
to set a dahlia against a daisy. Everything that
the most lavish expenditure and refined taste could
effect has been done, and that most certainly will
secure crowded houses for some time; yet as far
as the drama itself is concerned, in a literary point
of view, it is not one that is likely to be looked
upon with much favour. The original piece, written
by M. Paul Meurice, was entitled "Fanfan la
Tulippe,' and divided into seven acts, hut in the
version under notice the seven have been reduced
to five, and certainly had the five been still further
curtailed, we should have had, to say the least,
a much more compact drama, and one which
might have worked its way into public favour.
The story of "The King's Butterfly', is, like
most French dramas, extremely complicated,
but, in brief, it is to the following effsct
A certain Baron d'Alvere has formed, with others,
e plot for unseating the reigning minister of
Louis XV., and substituting in his stead Count
Maurepes. To clot this it is also necessary to
remove the Marchioness de Pompadour, the King's
favourite mistress, and they hope to do this by
placing a young lady, Alice de Rasel, in the way of
his impressionable Majesty. Plotting still further,
the Baron seeks for some founding to represent
the heir of a rich relative lately killed in battle,
whose wealth he wishes to secure, and finds one
to answer his purpose in the person of Fanfan.
Fanfan, however, instead of being a passive tool,
turn out to be more than a match for the diploma-
tists. He save Madame de Pompadour from the
fury of a mob, believing her to be a citie in's
daughter, and falls in love with her. His psesion
is almost reciprocated. He is summoned to Ver-
sailles, where a marriege his been arranged for him
by the Baron with Alice de Rosel—the Baron's
ward—to make him sure of obtaining her property.
Though Fanfan knows that Alice loves his foster-
brother Gabriel, and is beloved by him in return,
he accedes to the Baron's wishes, but only to out-
plot him, and save her from the Ring.
His conduct lays him open to the cruel suspicious
and insults of all his friends, except Alice
and her attendant, Fiorette, who believe in him--
the most violent in their suspicions being Gabriel
and Madame de Pompadour. Fanfan, however,
perseveres. He has the good luck to save the life
of Marshal Saxe at the camp in Flanders, which
gives him a certain amount of power, and this
power he uses to save both Madame de Pompadour
and Alice from imminent peril. The Baron, who it;
with the army, has turned traitor, but is exposed
by Fanfan, and the drama concludes with the
discovery that Gabriel is the lost heir to the pro's
party cove.ted by the Baron. Madame de Pompa"
dour is left to resume her influence over the
King, after she has expressed a eerY
strong platonic attachment for Fanfan, and Fan"
ft n, promoted to a high rank in the army
by Marshal Saxe, is left to marry Fiorette.
In order to give the above outline of the drama we
have had to omit various small circumstances which
only tend to involve the plot in great complexity,
but we have said enough to convey a correct idea of
the play, which many, we think, will be of opiniole•
is not exactly the sort of thing to afford Mr. •
Fechter an opportunity to display his great and
acknowledged abilities. Fanfan, the " King's But-
terfly," is a light-hearted French trooper, with 5
great affection for his beautiful charger Minerva ;
but, notwithstanding the part abounds in nice little
`‘ bits," yet, as a whole, it is not one that seemed
exactly suited to Mr. Pechter. To say that he
acted with grace, force, and taste, would be but
ro repeat that which is already universally
acknowledged; there appeared, however, to be a
something wanting to give a completeness to the
portrait Mr Fechter had placed before the audience.
The great effort was in the fourth act, where Fanfare
listens to the villany of the Baron, and then, to save
the life of his foster brother, he resolves to accept
his supposed rank, and thus, to all outward appear*
ince, to become a participator in the villany plotted
against his benefactor, and a false friend to his
much loved brother. Here, indeed, was a true out"
burst of genuine feeling, and one which the audience
were not slow in recognising; but the remainder
of the part was only that of the brave soldier who
from boyhood has followed the precept of his good
instructor—" to suffer gaily." Mr Ryder assumed
the part of the villanous Baron after the most ap'
proved conventional fashion, Of course he dressed the
character very well, but, to us, there seemed to be
a certain carelessness about his noting, and a tea"
dency to rant that made the part anything but a
performance worthy of very high commendation-
Mr. as Remponneau, the comic mall
of the play, evoked the usual laughter, but nothing'
more;:and, with the exception of Mr. F. Charles,
who enacted the part of Gabriel very nicely, the
other male characters call for no further remark..
Miss Carlotta Leclercq, as Madame de Pompadour,
was pretty and coquettish, but at the same time
very etagey. Miss E. Lavenu made a good and
loveable lighthearted village girl, and Miss Henrtide
an interesting but somewhat languishing Alice.
Fanfan's mare Minerva, with her shining coat, her
bright fiery eye, looked the very perfection of
horseflesh, and went through her part in the per
formance with great effect. Thus having noticed
both the male, female, and equiae performers,
we come to the "mounting" of the piece, and here,
we begin to feel somewhat unequal to the task 01
adequately conveying a correct idea of the extreen°
beauty of the scenery. Each scene is an elaborate
" set," but the penalty inflicted on the audience in
the shape of tedious waiting—on an average 2e
minutes—was, it must be admitted, sornees hat
heavy. The opening scene, a Norman village in the
autumn time, with its antiquated water mill and
rustic bridge, was exceedingly beautiful. The
saloon at Versailles was another wonder of scenic
art. At the rising of the curtain the room is die'
covered in darkness, but presently the servants enter
end unclose the shutters, when a flood of sunlight
admitted, which produced a most magicaleffict. The
audience were in raptures at this novel construe'
tion ; but scarcely had they ceased praising the
beauty of the arrangement when the curtain •
ascended, at the commencement of the fourth act'
and showed us the exterior of the Palace at Ver-
sailles, with its interminable walks and alleys 0f
embowering trees, the distance being most chsrlll4,
ingly painted, which again called forth tremendous
applause. The scene of the fifth act, the
bivouac of the French army in the Low Countries,
near the Mill of Leefeldt, was a Learnt of Pe':
turesque design. The painter, Mr W. Calcott, 011
course was summoned, and, on his appearance. was
greeted with the most rapturous cheering. flof
As a brilliant spectacle " The King'a "ter je
will certainly prove attractive ; so, it
part of it does not merit unbounded approba
uirci
the scenic portion will be certain to produce 1
vernal satiedaetien, the lite
tr.oiei