The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-22 00:00:00

1141,VPN N."(;_ r-.4m1"111 ON

HER MAJESTY'S THLATRE.

uonizetti's op,ra of Lucia di Lammermoor was per-
furraed for the second time this season, on Saturday
"e6ing, to a Very full and ashionable audience, in-
cluding- her M ijesiy, her Royal Highness the Duches
of the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Princess
Augusta of Cambridge. The parts
vvere sustained by
the same celebrated performers as last season, and
a more finished piece of art could hardly be desired by
the most fastidious. Signor Tati was encored in his Aria
but did not repeat it. This gentleman is a useful and
Unpretending singer, and we were sorry to see a de-
termination on the part of some half-dozen persons in
the front of the pit to check the popular feeling in his
favour. The opera was followed by Une bruit en Bat,
!,idivertissentent in one act, arranged by M. Guerra,
e promise of which was great, but the performance
little. The Russian Pas de Trois, by E. Guerra,
Elsler, and Proche Guibelei, was received with-
out aPP!ause ; and the arc/ameba, by four ladies, being
encored seemed a viasignal for numerous departures. It
Sat
altogether a poor affair. Mr. Laporte left town on
S4turday evening for Birmingham, to make arrange-
ments to give a seiies of concerts in the provinces im-
mediately upon the close of the subscription. Ile will
he supported with the entire force of the Italian coin-
Pally, these concerts being included in the engage-
ments for the season, an addition which had nearly de-
prived the public of
Ile talents of Signor Tamburini.

LITERATURE.
LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF M. G.
LEWIS-2 rur.s.
Coburn. London, 1839.
The most interesting portions of these volumes
are the letters (which are numerous) from Lewis
to his mother, whom he seems to have loved with
great ardour, and to have sided with against her
lady he unreservedly imparted all his literary and
other projects, when in England and on the Conti-
nent ; and the language he adopts throughout his
correspondence is invariably lively-and graceful, oc-
casionally reminding us of the epistolary style of Ho-
race Walpole---that most delightful of letter-writers.
Of the poems scattered throughout the volume we
cannot speak in terms of praise, in point of melody
tr, are smooth enough, but they are sadly de-
4elent in poetical character, and seldom rise above
common place. Lewis was a respectable prose
writer) but as a poet he was but so, so. His best
work was his first—namely, the " Monk," and
considering
man that it was the production of a young
under twenty years of age, it was certainly a
Most extraordinary performance. Its popularity
however has long since passed away, never to be
revived.' The present volumes, in addition to the
Piquant correspondence between Lewis and his
mother, contain many amusing theatrical anecdotes,
one of which furnishes a striking testimony to the
Powerful effect produced by the once popular melo-
drame of the " Castle Spectre."

•
4POSTOLICAL SUCCESSION, Erc., IN A
LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD
JOHN RUSSELL.
-By HENRY E. HEAD, A.M., Rector of Honiton.
Mr. Head has written this pamphlet apparently to
solace himself for the insult and contumely sometime
!Igo heaped on him by the Bishop of Exeter, by prov-
ing that his Diocesan is not a successor of the Apostles.
e
H goes a short way to work—declares that an Apostle
being a member of the Israelitish nation, commissioned
by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, personally to preach
the covenant to the Gentiles, admits of no succes-
sion. There is also the transmission, preservation, or
handing down of apostolic doctrine, but in this sense
the successors of the Apostles are faithful men, able to
teach others, and diocesan Bishops, he maintains, do
not answer to that character. If the Bishop of Exeter
rests his claims on a material form of laying on hands,
preferring, like the Romish Church, ceremonies to the
spirit of things, he is met by the declaration that the
Apostles could have no successor. If he claims his
power from teaching the doctrines taught by the Apos-
tles, his life with the life of his brethren is held to be an
irrefragable argument against their claim. We cannot
undertake to decide between the Rector and his Bishop,
but we are quite sure the latter would not be convinced,
whatever effect the Rector's writings may have on his
own flock. Mr. Head's pamphlet throws a new light
on the claims of the Bishops and of the Priesthood in
general.

ALISON'S HISTORY of EUROPE, Vol. VII.
Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1839.
The present volume of this able and, with few excep-
tions, impartial history, commences with the war be-
tween Austria and France in 1808, and closes with the
campaigns of Torres Vedras and the battle of Barossa
in the year 1810. Within this period occurred the
famous battles of Aspern and Wagram, two of the
moat destructive ever fought lay Napoleon, and by the
former of which, wherein he was defeated with immense
I;his empire and his hitherto invincible army were
111t.ned in imminent peril. The details of these san-
011°4rY conflicts, especially of the last, which was won
the'fij by the skill and bravery of Macdonald, whom
th ~7nperor, in conseq
vi uence, created a Marshal on
'e ueld of battle, are given with great spirit, and
‘Lith remarkable minuteness. The earlier chapters of
`ne volume are devoted to an account of the rise and
progress
of the English domination in the East Indies,
Which no more than the justice that is his due, is
oH to the Administration of the celebrated Warren
!tstings, who died at an advanced age, after having
triumphed over all the malevolence of faction by which
he was persecuted for many years of his life'. In the
fcourse of the volume we find elaborately drawn charac-
erst
°f Canning, Castlereagh, and Perceval, the two
u,” of whom are praised in higher terms than they
es
erve ; while Canning, on the contrary, has barely,
!ve think, justice done him. This is one of the few
instances in which Mr. Alison allows party prejudices
warp his judgment ; he cannot but remember that
they have never since recovered, to the old ultra-Tory
party—henee the discovery that the great statesman
was deficient in political principle.
THE PIIeINTOM SHIP. 3 Trois.
Co/turn, London, 1839.
A great portion of this tale—which we incline to think
is the best Captain Marryat has yet written, with the
exception perhaps of " Peter Simple"—has already ap-
peared in the pages of the New Monthly Magazine,
where it attracted very general attention. As we no-
ticed it when the successive portions appeared from
month to month, we need say little more on the present
occasion than that the tale keeps up its interest unim-
paired to the last moment, and that the scene of
the death of Amine, who is condemned by the In-
quisition to be burned alive at the stake for pre-
sumed sorcery, and more particularly the ac-
count of the last interview of Philip Vander-
decken with his father, the captain of the " Phantom
Ship," exhibit powers of description of a high and rare
order. Indeed, there are few passages, even in Scott's
novels, more earnest and impressive in their tone than
the sudden using up of the spectral vessel from the
bosom of the Pacific. It is Captain Marryat's most
successful attempt at the picturesque and romantic in
description.