The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 18, 1863.

believed by very many both at New York and at
Washington to have been all but cut to pieces by
the victorious Confederates at Chancellorsviile. As
we could not but take occasion to remark on Satur-
day--a remark echoed, we are glad to obt,erve, to-
day by every one of our morning•eoncerporaries--
the silence, the reticence, the suppressio yeni notice-
able on the part of the Federal Government, as to
the result of the Sunday's fighting, as to the
events of the day following, looks ominous
of evil for the North, admits but of one very melan-
choly construction for the Federal population.
Contrary to the principle of the old familiar adage—
"No news is ill news" under any such a combina-
tion of circumstances. A Government similarly
situated, when it suppresses the announce-
ment of facts eagerly looked for by the
people, virtually acknowledges, and, by so doing,
that it has no news of a satisfactory character to
give—nay, on the contrary, that the news
it is known to be hiding is too disastrous
of its kind to be whispered about. Never before
have we had greater reason to look forward
with eager solicitude for the sequel of the
blood-stained narrative of yet another frag-
mentary incident of this direful civil war
in America. Eagerly looking forward to this
sequel, more eagerly, we say, looking forward to it
than ever, because upon the nature of that sequel
may, in truth, more probably than ever now
depend the chances of a close being at
length put to a carnage so very frightful, and
threatening at times almost, one might say, to be

interminable.
The once Commander-in-Chief of the Federal
Forces, General MiCLELLAN, is still, as we all
know, popularly spoken of by his admirers as
The Young NAPOLEON. For what reason no
rational European who has watched his career
hitherto can in any way, for the life of him, con-
jecture. If only General LEE, the Confederate
Commander-in-Chief, or General JACKSON the first
of his Lieutenants, knows in any partial
degree even, what the Great NAPOLEON
knew to perfection, how to follow up
a victory, our next c,dvices from America may tend
to strengthen the vague and fitful hopes that have
been awakened in us by the news brought to us on
Saturday by the Persia—the hopes, encouraged by
these later tidings now of the route on Monday of
General SEDGWICK'S division—the hopes, namely,
that, in regard to this deplorable war in America,
there are becoming at last momentarily visible the
glimmering indications of a beginning of the end.

does not differ on essvltial points from that of
another, and no great qualities that are wrongly
app ied cannot gain the esteem of toe present, will
obtain that of the future.

Sir RODERICK MURCHISON's letter will he perused
with great interest and satisfaction by a large class
of readers. In the first place, we must all rejoice
in learning the safety of the brave and enterprising
Englishman, who was reported a short time since to
have fallen a victim to his labours in the cause of
discovery. Consul PETHERICK is already familiar
with the peculiarities and dangers of the African
climate, and the interesting; work on the country'
which we owe to his pen, bears witness to his know-
ledge and ability. It will also be a great satisfac-
tion to those who are interested, as all intelligent
and cultivated minds must be, in the progress of
geographical science, to find that the great question
as to the source of the White Nile is believed on
good authority to be satisfactorily settled. Curi-
ously enough, it is the great lake Victoria Nyanza
whose discovery obtained for Captain SIEKE the
Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical
Society, that he now concludes to be....

" The cradle of that mighty birth,
So long a hidden thing to earth."

" The Victoria Nyanza," writes Capt. SPEKE, is the
great reservoir of the sacred Bahr el Abiad, or White
Nile and his discovery has thus proved to be of
even greater importance than was first supposed.
Another Englis.hmo;i,whose popular work on " The
Rifle and Hound in eeyton" has made his exploits
familiar to the English reader, has resolved to pro-
secute his researches still further, and has gone to
the south-west to extend his explorations, hoping
to find another great interne' lake, or branch of the
White Nile. He intends to be absent one year, but
tin chanced and changes of African travel forbid
an exact calculatien. He was the first Englishman
who encountered the returning party, and supplied
their wants with a liberal hand. Captains SPEKE
and GRANT effeccd their proposed junction with
Mr. PETIIERICK at Gondokoro, on the White Nile,
on the 23d of February, and Captain SPEEE, writ
ing a month later, reports that ho left Mr.
PETIIERICK, his wife and party, all well. The
spirited lady who shared her husband's
perilous exploits has, therefore, happily not
suffered from the consequent hardships.
Thanks to the energy and daring of our country-
men, combined with the love of science and die-.
covery which has always been a prominent feature
in the national character, the interior of that vast
continent, once a complete terra incognita, is now
becoming gradually opened to European enterprise.
It is not many years since the tide of discovery first
turned in the direction of Southern Central Africa.
It would seem as though, having exhausted the
secrets of the Northern seas, whose dreary winter
and terribe army of icebergs,rcndered the achieve.
ments of invasion a fruitless triumph, English ad-
venturers had naturally turned their inquiries to
districts where the task was more hopeful, and
offered, when accomplished, more substantial bene-
fits to mankind. The love of spoil has drawn

ttither some adventurers who, have done
good service by exploring untracked paths
and opening communication with the tribes
of the interior. Captain SPEKE has long been
known as one of the pioneers of African
discovery. In conjunction with Mr. BUR-
TON he accomplished an expedition of
fatigue and danger. His subsequent explorations
in Zanzibar and its vicinity will be fresh in the re-
collection of the readers of Blackwood's Magazine,
from the interesting account of his ad centures which
he forwarded to its pages from time to time. His
long course of labours has now met a fitting reward
in this triumphant discovery, which Sir RCA) ERICK
MURCHISON—no incompetent judge—styles " the
mast remarkable geographical feat of our age." It
adds another to the many noble testimonies to the
labour and sagacity of.our countrymen : while the
rapid progress made in the path of African discovery
affords us ground for hoping that the dawn may be
breaking over that benighted country, and that we
may yet see in our own day the first steps taken
towards its civilisation and development. It is evi-
dent there is a large supply
of water in the interior,
which, when the appliances of science are brought
to bear, will be of inestimable value. The proposed
cultivation of cotton in Southern Africa is another
step in the right way, for if the thoughts of the natives
are once turned from the plunder to be obtained by
war to the profit made by peaceful traffic, from
the gain derived from the sale of wretched cap-
tives to the sums to be won by honest trade and
barter, a very important point will have been
gained. The travels of Dr. LIVINGSTONE, have already
done good service in the direction of the Zambesi, and
savage and uncouth as the interior tribes may be,
they have yet learned in many quarters to respect
the white man's justice, to trust his honcur, and
to fear his skilful hand and deadly weapon. It is
too much to hope that all subsequent travellers and
emigrants will keep up the high standard main-
tained by these gentlemen in their dealings with
the natives, but if such a thing were possible it
would be the most valuable ally we could have in
our dealings with the natives. 'Ye are glad to find
that Captain SPEKE and his party are now on their
road homewards, to receive, we doubt not, those
tokens of admiration and cordial welcome which
their countrymen will readily accord them.

On Friday the annual meeting of the National
Rifle Association was held at Willis's Rooms, the
Duke of CAMBRIDGE presiding. There was a con-
siderable assemblage present. The Duke of CAM-
BRIDGE made a brief speech, in the course of which
he alluded to several interesting facts. First of all,
his Royal Highness mentioned one circurnwanue

that was rather unpropitious, and that was the
annual subscriptions were not so considerable as thu
committee required. This was, he said, an invidious
task to perform, but it was also ,a highly caential
one, since unless the subscriptions were very consi-
derable it was difficult for the council to perform

their functions at all. " I hope," said his .11,
Highness, " that the council have met the feeling o

ho volunteers in the country, as we all know that

the arm in use by the volunteers should be brought
more forward, and arrarganents have been made
with that view." It is to be hoped that this defect
will be remedied before another meeting is held ;
K.nd it is of essential importance that st ifictent
means are afforded for the working of this excel-
lent association. The Duke of CAMBRIDGE simply
stated the facts, and left his hearers to point a moral
for thenEelves. It
too often happens that then
plans are set on foot with great enthusiasm at first,
but after a short time they are suffered to fdl into
decadence, until at lest they are given up in de-
("pair. It would be a great
pity if such an under-
t .king as this was to fail, and therefore it bdiovcs
all interested in its success to bestir themselves, and
to make great efforts to carry out its original inten-
tions with spirit and energy. The committee have
taken great pains to
meet the requirements of the
case, by establishing prizes for the next competi-
tion ; in particular there are the sixty new prizes for
all comers, rank and file, using the Govetnment
rifle. Too much attention can hardly be paid to
this subject; and although some persons may con-
sider it overrated and ruined to many other public -

concerns, it is not so in reality, and the Duke of
CAMBRIDGE is entitled to the thanks of those whom
it immediately concerns for coming f‘x ward so
spontaneously and doing his best to advocate the
claims and uphold the importance of this associa
lion. A ti:nely watnirg is often of great servic-,
and it is to be trusted that it will prove so in this
instance, and that the meeting of July will record
more satisfactory details of flourishing finances.

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

THE NEW COMEDY.

An original comedy from the pen of a grand
' daughter of Sheridan is an event in theatrical
annals of more than ordinary imporlance. The
theory that genius runs in the blood-- /-,owever
materialistic in respect to mind, and however rarely
supported by any distinctive and decisive instances
—has nevertheless an attraction for us which is
pretty generally diffused, and which leads to exp, c-
tations that are more easily indulged than they
can be accounted for. Little wonder, there-
fore, that a name so illustrious .as that of
Sheridan should excite such expectations
in a more than ordinary degree, and hestr.w on the
event in question an infinitely higher interest then
has been raised in dramatic circles for very many
years. Another circumstance must be referred to
as greatly strengthening such impressions. The
writing of elegant comedy has become so rare in
recent times, that we were beginning to include it
in the list of the lost arts, and accordingly its as-
sumption, by Lady Glferd, seemed such a
coming to the rescue that we welcomed
the effort for its opportuneness, quite as
much as its superior promise. A most
important branch of our drama seems in the last
stage of decline—and here was the promise of
resuscitation held out to us from the highest chan-
nel—the removal of the greatest want in the comic
literature of our day was connected, however re-
motely, with the greatest name in its especial pro-
vince that has enlarged the honour of our country.
We wish it had been in our power to say these hopes
had been fulfilled.
The new comedy by Lady Gifford, produced at
the above theatre on Saturday evening, under the
title of "Finesse," is, in the first place, not a
picture of existing English manners. Its scene is
laid in the Mediterranean half a century ago;
and its aim is mainly to illustrate one of
the many chequered phases of the old Napoleonic
war. Its action takes place at Messina in 1811,—
when Sicilywas under the protection of England—
and was the asylum of Ferdinand the 4th, who had
been driven from Naples by Murat, and its story
turns chiefly on the intrigues of the French party
on the Island headed by an escaped English convict
named St. Clair, and a certain Count Filipo—who
seek to subvert the English authority, and whose
roils are frustrated by the skill and fiefelity of a Dr.
Bertrand, a French Emigre, and his son, Jules Dar-
tigney, the latter of whom is in the English service
and volunteers as a spy to obtain a knowledge of the
enemy's plans and direct evidence against their
leaders. With this leading historical interest,
which is by no means clearly made oat, two minor
ones are combined—the story, in the first place, of
the Emigre, who believes he has lost his son in
France, and unconsciously employs him as the spy,
in utter indifference to his fate—his son purposely
withholding his secret from his father, and volun-
teering for his dangerous task in order that he may
secure the latter's safety—and, secondly, the story
of Lucy Branden, who is beloved by an English naval
officer, but is destined by her aunt, the wife
of a visionary German, to become the bride,
or rather the victim, of one of the French
conspirators. With this foundation is interwove;
some broadly comic situations, consisting of the ad-
ventures of a Mr. Poppleton, a young Englishman
who disports him at Messina as a specimen of a
British sailor, abounding in his distinctions of a
love of hornpipes, grog, and fisticuffs ; and also of a
German baron, who believes he has discovered the
elixir vi, w, and proposes to try it on a mummy
with which he is to be furnished by Dr. Bertrand,
with the view of restoring the dead to life.
Such a melange as this, even though it referred
to our own day, could scarcely be classed with
comedy, and especially that of Sheridan, nor is the
divergence narrowed by the writing, which, though
agreeable enough throughout, makes no pretension
to the wit and satire of the great exemplar we have

just named. This comedy is, in fact, a comic
drama in three acts, which, on the interest of
the Emegre and his son, threads some capital broad

Farce of the German Thron and the amateur Sailor,
which also presents a lively picture of the motley
life that diversified the time and place that it pour-

trays, and which, on the other hand, has the defect
of an historic portion that is almost unintelligible as
it is detailed, and which is wholly uninteresting.
We shall not attempt to follow the complications of

the plot that remind us of nothing so much as the si-
nuosities of a Bauyon stream iu Louisiana—but aim-
plycootent ourselves with saying that the youngspy
having succeeded in penetrating to the councils of
the French leaders and obtaining evidence against

them, is enabled to return to the English lines by
being conveyel as a dead body in a mummy chest
to the German Baron, who proposes to restore
him to life by means of his elixir virm—from whence
he makes his way to his ship, and at length returns
from it with a iorce in time to arrest the French
conspirators just tie they are on the point of making
capture of Lucy Brandon and her friends.
The success of this drama, which was very great,
was undeniably owing to its acting. Mr. Wigan

Ls Dr. Bertrand—who is [mother version of his

Mons. Tourbillon, changing the lost dlughter
for a son—played with all his usual truth and
feeling ; and in the last scene, where he
believes his son is about to be arrested,

fzed he seizes a sword to defend him, exhi-
oited a force that was so masterly it contributed

much to the result of the night. Scarcely less im

portant, however, was the exuberant humour of Mr.
Buckatone in the English tar, after the fashion of
,ur old minor theatres, with his perpetual jig and
fisticuffs, or the dreamy characterisation of Mr.
Chippendale as the Garman Baron—the scene of the
two especially, when Poppleton takes the place of
the escaped spy, and is supposed by the Baron to
be the dead body that his elixir Vita!, has
rescuscitaled, causing an uproar of laughter
ouch as that we have never heard exceeded.
The notion of restoring a mummy to life by means
of an elixir vitae, is taken from the old Lyceum
farce which John Reeve was once so famous in ; but
the result of the resuscitation as given in this scene,
where the Baron fancies he has saddled himself
with a great scoundrel for the rest of his
days, was an original conception, that. was very
humorously worked out. Miss Angel, in the slight
sketch of Lucy Brandon, was very engaging ; and
Mrs. Wilkins, as the Baron's wife, who is jealous of
nim, aryl believes he has resuscitated a natural

son, was very spirited and comic. Mrs.
Wigan, in the servant Bobbin, a girl who detests
foreigners and is full of horrid tales about them, was
very natural, but so weak, that half the effect
of the part was lost, especially when contrasted with
what it would have been in the hands
of Miss Louise Keeley. Mr. Howe, as the Eng-
lish officer, was manly and pleasant as usual; and
Mr. Walter Gordon and Mr. Braid, as the two con-
spirators, played with character and purpose. We
must not forgi-t also the very earnest sketch of the
nuns spy by Mr. l'cr.R.rr&n.

The house, it is lie€ dless to odd, wos filled to over-
flowing, and the audience at the fall of the curtain,
after calling with great heartiness for the loading
actors and the alithOress, received the antounce-
went of the drama for every evening with a loud
burst of approbation.

THE DERBY AND OAKS.--TELE " COURT JOUR-
NAL."—The sporting article in the Court Journal is gene-
rally acknowledged to be the best that appears in any Eng-
lish newspaper, as being addressed to the practical ques-
tion, and founded upon exclusive and, to others, inacces-
sible information. The number for Saturday,
y 16th,
is especially worth consulting, as the review of the Derby
and Oaks is not only much longer and more detailed, but
far more accurate, than that appearing in any :of the pro-
fessed spotting papers. Price sd. ; stamped 61. W.
Thomas, 29, Brydges-attest, Covent-garden, and all
nowgagents,,

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