The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-19 00:00:00

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.

After Balfe's light and amusing opera of Diadesli, a
new one act farce, nnder the title of the Lilac Back
Parlour, was produced at this Theatre on Saturel,:y
evening last. It is a very agreeable trifle, and turns
upon the jealousies of a Mr. and Mrs. Simon Tubbs
(F. Mathews and Mrs. Garrick), and the loves of Mr.
Ti‘Etehre,
wtsh, ew
who
ohoslues
tawinetegdh t
to ftriumphantly
announced for repetition with very few dissentients.
It is full of bustle and incident, in
the manage-
ment of which, the author displays considerable
knowledge of stage effect. It requires a little
judicious pruning, more particularly in the mono-
logues which, in some instances almost amount to
soliloquies—when this is done we think we may pro-
phecy such a run for the Lillie Back Parlour, as will
prove satisfactory both to author and manager. This
was followed by Donizetti's delightful opera of the
Love Spell, in which
Balfe, decidedly the first, we had
almost said the only, English Buffo, was admirably sup-
ported by Miss Itainforth, Leffler, and Frazer. We
congratulate the latter gentleman particularly on his
acting and singingin Nentorino ; he has taken great pairs
with the part, and we have never heard him with more
pleasure than we • did on Saturday evening. He need net
shrink from a comparison with any of his predecessors.
The whole getting up of this Opera reflects great cre-
dit on actors and manager. Balfe seems determined to
do for English Opera that which Macready has done for
the English Drama, and we were happy to see that his
efforts were properly appreciated by a very crowded
audience.

MUTILATION OF THE INSCRIP-

TIONS OF TOMBSTONES.

On Saturday at the meeting of the St. Marylebone
Vestry, Mr. Joseph in the Chair, a deputation, con-
sisting of Messrs. Christie, Proctor, Drew, and other
gentlemen, waited upon the Vestry as the representa-
tives of nearly 100 proprietors and occupiers of property
situate on an estate in Bermondsey, called the Fendall
Estate, for the purpose of soliciting them to appoint a
committee of inquiry to investigate into an alleged sur-
reptitious alteration of the burial register of the parish
of Marylebone, and of the effacing of an inscription on
a tombstone, by which the claim to the above property
was sought to be effected.
Mr. DREW, one of the deputation, stated that the
estate called Fendalls, situate in the parish of Bermond-
sey, was occupied by himself and others, under leases
and various other ways, from a Mrs. Elizabeth Chapel
whose title was proved to the property 100 years since.
A person named George Fendall, residing in Woodstock-
street, St. Marylebone, had lately laid claim to the above
estate, and sought to dispossess the whole of the
present occupiers of their property, alleging that he was
the only heir, and that it had no right to have gone into
any other hands. A trial had been commenced, and
they (the occupiers) had searched all the burial grounds
and burial registers in and around the metropolis to dis-
cover the right line of the Fendall family. On examin-
ing the burial ground of St. Marylebone, they found a
newly-erected grave-stone belonging to the family in
question, from the inscriptions on which they were at
first led to believe that the claim which had been set up
by Mr. George Fendall was correct, but on search-
ing the register it was there discovered that in-
terlineations had been made, exactly correspond-
ing with the inscriptions on the new stone in
the church-yard. On pursuing their inquiries con-
cerning the original grave-stone, they succeeded in
discovering it in the stone repository of the church-
yard, with the whole of the inscriptions it had borne
completely effaced. On further search being made
the foot-stone to the same grave was ultimately dis-
covered standing against the wall, and on examina-
tion it was found to hear inscriptions totally at va-
riance with those on the new head-stone. This dis-
covery, and the omission on the part of the persons
who had obliterated the inscriptions on the ori-
ginal head-stone also to obliterate them on the foot-
stone, had been fatal to the cause of the claimant. In con-
gnence, all endeavours to bring the case to trial at the
Surrey Assizes had been useless, as the claimant refused
to appear. The occupiers of the property in question
now applied to that Vestry to appoint a Committee to
inquire into all the circumstances attendant upon this
very important case, and to order that the grave-stones
that had been meddled with should he left in safe cus-
tody, so that they might be produced at a future pe-
riod, since it was the intention of the present occupiers
of the property to prosecute the parties implicated in
obliterating an inscription so sacred as that on a tomb-
stone, and in effecting a falsified interlineation in the
burial register. The occupiers of the property, not
wishing to put the parish to any expense, would them-
selves offer a reward for persons who had committed
what might be deemed a sacriligious forgery.
Mr. WiLsoN—Can you tell, Sir, the exact time
when the new grave-stone was substituted for the old
one ?

Mr. DREW—The new stone has been in the ground
since the month of May, 1838.
Mr. WILSON wished to know who was empowered on
application to permit old grave-stones to be removed,
and new ones placed in their lieu i
Mr. noon, the Vestry-clerk, said no person could
either remove or erect a new tomb-stone in the church-
yard without application to, and the consent of, the
agent of the Vestry, Mr. Pace.
Mr. Soma observed that removals similar to the
present one must have been made with the cognizance
of the sexton ; and he wished to know in what way it
could be proved that the stone which had been found
so completely defaced belonged to the Fendall family ?
Mr. DREW—The sexton was subpoenaed to attend
the trial, having pointed out the grave-stone in question
as the original one of the Fendall
Mr. PROCTOR, one of the deputation—The way in
which we have discovered the foot-stone is thus :—the
sexton expressed his ignorance of what had become of
it ; but, as the deputation were about to leave the bu-
rial ground, he asked the grave-digger if he knew any-
thing about the stone, when the latter answered, " Oh,
yes, here it is," pointing to a stone placed against the
wall. _ _ -

Mr. HARBUTT—Was the appearance of the oblite-
ration such as would result from natural decay, or not ?
Alr. PROCTOR-The stone had been evidently rubbed
down on each side, as marks of friction were observed
on the surface. The sexton could not account for
those marks.

The CHAIRMAN—This application involves a matter
of considerable importance with respect to the right of
property, since obliterations and alterations of the in-
scriptions on tomb-stones, unless they were closely
watched, might affect extensively the claims of indi-
viduals and families. Such an application, therefore,
must meet with the most serious consideration of the
vestry, and accordingly they would attend to it.
On the withdrawal of the deputation,
On the motion of Mr. FOSTER, seconded by Mr.
llooD, a Committee was appointed in accordance with
the wishes of the deputation ; and after some routine
business the Vestry separated.

A CASE FOR LORD BROUGHAM.

A most remarkable case occurred at the recent Fer-
managh Assizes. A woman of bad character, named
Mary Crawford, was charged with stealing 12s. Gd. float
a person natuel James Gallagher, whilst the parties were
drinking in a public-house. The case of robbery was
clearly proved, and the waiter, Daniel Carroll, proved
that he searched the prisoner, and found the money upon
her person. We shall now quote the words of the re-
port, commencing with the prisoner's appeal to the
Jury :
Prisoner—Come, Carroll, tell the gtntlernen of the
Jury what I said, and I am sure justice will be done me.
lam not to be transported by such a villain. Witness
—She said, my Lord and gentlemen of the Ju y, that
the money was her own ; that Gallagher wa .te i to rob
her ; and she called on me, gentlemen of the Jury, not
to allow her to be robbed by a Papist (here the witness
stood up and slapped his hands in the most vehement
manner) ; and she said, my Lord, that the prisoner was
bringing the charge against her for fear she would speak
of Baxter's murder, as she knew all about it.
Chief Justice—But you found the money in her
stockings?
werey.o threefound
three half-crowns
half-crowns i n it.
Witness—l did my Lord.
Chief Justice—Did Gallagher describe the money to
you before it was found ? Witness—He did, my
so
concealed ? Witness—l did.
Locrchhief
e
One of the Jury to Gallagher—Could
11Juestsiacied—tiArned
you swear to
the money when you saw it found on her : Gallagher
—No man could swear to silver ; but I swear that it
corresponded with the money I lost, and that I saw her
found
stooping down just before it was in her stocking.
Chief Justice to the Jurymen—If you lose money in
a room whilst in company with another person, and
that money corre •
sponding with it is found on that pre-
son, it is no violent pres •
umption to say that it is the
same. The
case is perfectly clear.
Chief Justice to Carroll—What did you do with the
money found ? Carroll—l gave it to the police to keep
till the trial, and Mr. Irwin, the Magistrate, said I was
right in doing so.
Chief Justice—l say the same. nen turning to
the Jury—"-The case is perfectly plain against the pri-
soner ; you can have no doubt about it."
The Jury, without leaving the box, brought in a
verdict of Not guilty.
The Chief Justice looked up at them with arpirent
amazement. He said nothing to them, but to d the
clerk of the Crown to desire them to stand aside, and to
have another Jury

A BOY FOUND IN THE RIVER.—Un Saturday
morning, between five and six o'clock, a Waterman, named
Edward Logan, at Lambeth stairs, observed
i a floating
Gave
fallenb een
off ts
mass drifting with the tide, and on rowing to
ist found it
to be the body of a boy. lie brought it ashore and con_
ve)cd it to the bone-house of the parish, where it was dis-
covered to be the body of the son of Mr. Coombs, of
Lambeth-deceased,
bplace, Sooth Lambeth. The who
mliilfasri since
Tuesday
wasninela)seta,rasnd is ofyseuaprspoosfedagto he age,
while at play there.

.
AN AMERICAN BIGAMIST. One Henry
Sampson has gon., to jail in Buffalo for having no less
than six wives--tw, of them located in that city; two in
Rochester': one at Utica. and another somewhere in Ohio.
We are not: informed which of Sampson's wives proved a
Dalilah, and betrayed bun into the hands of the Philis-
tines. —.New York paper.
S'serat of the 42d and 48th, in this garrison, are
aftiieted
I+Kth typhus fever.- If the sickness should con-
tinue,it*. understood the 48th will move to Ternplemore.
LiWitt4ck Chronicle.
Al Nat
.dr seaman, who had escaped one of the re•
cent shipwrecks upon the coast, being asked by, a good
%°.."v,_,,h_katc.lt.whett the waves dashed over him, replied,
m "rn; very wet." .
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