The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-17 00:00:00

ment, Chatham, during the season just terminated,
are ordered to be suspended, the official report
of the number of officers and men who have
gone through a course of diving, and the nature
of the submarine work undertaken; being
forwarded to the authorities. A report of some
highly important diving operations, effected
by means of Heinke's apparatus, was received at
' Brompton barracks yesterday. The divers were
sent down the Gurneypit, Pembrokeshire, to a depth
of 105 fathoms, for the purpose of removing some
of the pumping gear which had become detached,
and caused the flooding of the pit. The undertak-
ing, from its novelty, was attended with unusual,
difficulties, but was successfully completed by
Messrs. Wilton and Bolton, the divers employed,
the occasion being, it is understcod, the first in
which divers have been engaged in such a work.
The following appointments and promotions
have been made at the Admiralty :—Commander
A. 11. W. Battiscombe to be an Inspecting
Commander in the Coastguard; Strff Com-
mander Charles Bawden to the command of the
Supply, when commissioned ; Lieut. Henry S.
Hutchings to the Excellent ; Lieut. Edward H.
Verney to be Lieut. and commander of the Oberon,
commissioned ; Lieut. William E. Miles to the
Spiteful ; Lieut. Richard G. Kinahan, Lieut. Somer-
led M'Dougall, and Lieut. Henry A. Digby to the
Malacca ; Sub.-Lieut. Robert G. Baker and Sub-
Lieut. George S. La Costa to the Malacca ; Wm.
S. P. Graves and Allan M'Jephson, midshipmen,
to the Malacca ; Douglas Crampton, naval cadet,
nominated ; Charles E. Playfair, surgeon, to the
Cossack ; Dr. James D. Cronin, surgeon, addi-
tional, to the Saturn; John A. P. Williams, assist.-
paymaster in charge, to the Oberon ; Robert J. W.
Tucker, assist-paymaster, to the Irresistible ; W.
J. C. Row, assist.-paymaster, to the Lion ; John
E. C. Sullivan, assist.-paymaster, to the Victory,
as supernumerary ; Cecil R. Bloxom, master's as-
sistant, to the Malacca ; David Robb, chief engi-
neer, to the Oberon ; Wm. Pilcher, chief engineer,
to the Malacca; Edward D. Dooley, engineer, to
the Osborne; Nathaniel Stearn, ekgineer, to the
Malacca ; Matthew Litt, promoted to the rank of
engineer ; Joseph Wyllie, promoted to the rank of
acting engineer ; John Crew, first class engineer,
to the Malacca ; Richard Dobson and Peter M'Cor-
mick, promoted to the rank of first class assist.
engineers ; James R. Osborne, master, to the Cum-
berland, for the Icarus ; Richard T. Martell, engi-
neer, to the Irresistible ; and Henry W. Masterman,
second class assist. engineer, to the Spiteful.
The following list of promotions and appoint-
ments in the Royal Marine Light Infantry Forces,
dated the 10th instan, was yesterday received at
Woolwich—viz., Capt. and Brevet Major William
Alfred Garner Wright, of the Plymouth division,
to be Lieut. Colonel, and appointed to the Ports-
mouth division, vice Lieut. Col. Robert Seppings
Harrison, retired ; First Lieut. Arthur Huntley Hill
Wash, of the Portsmouth division, to be Captain,
and appointed to the Plymouth division, vice
Wright, promoted ; Second Lieut. Edwin Poole, of
the Portsmouth division, to be First Lieut., vice
Wolsh ; Capt. and Brevet Major George Went-
worth Forbes, of the Plymouth division, to be
Lieut. Col. and appointed to the Chatham division,
vioe Blythe, retired ; First Lieut. and Adjt Alexan-
der Basset Stephen Shairp, of the Woolwich divi-
sion, to be Capt., and appointed to the Plymouth
division, vice Forbes ; Second Lieut. Oliver Armi-
tage Beadon, of the Portsmouth division, tobe First
Lieut. of the Woolwich division, vice Shairp, and to
be appointed to a division to be hereafter named.
The undermentioned appointment, dated the 11th
inst., was also received at Woolwich yesterday.

namely, Francis Hender Mounsteven, of the Ply.
mauth division, is be First Lieut. at the same divi•
sion, vice W. H. Smith, resigned.

Mr. Charles Sean in America.

(From the Chicago Times of Oct. 31.)

Hazlitt begins his essay on the tragedy of " Lear"
with the words, " We wish that we could pass this

play over, and say nothing about it"—a remark

with which the critic would gladly dismiss Kean's
noting of it, nut because of any shortcoming or in-
adequacy therein, but because all that can be said
in a few hurried words must fall far short of the
subject itself, and of what the writer conceives of
it. To say that Charles Kean was, in the first place,
true to Lear's rash hate, his violent impetuosity, his
blindness to everything but the dictates of his pas-
sion, or affections that produces all his misfortunes,
that aggravates his impatience of them, that enforces
our pity for him ; to say that he passed over all that
awful interval, through the pitiful sense of ingrati-
tude, cruelty, and final bereavement, to that of
"Matter in impertinency mixed !

Reason in madness !" -
is to say perhaps what will best recall his action to
those who witnessed ; and words are indeed feeble
to describe or even suggest it to those who were not
present with Kean through all Lear's terrible transi-
tions from proud and wilful strength to hopeless
madness, and the helplessness of age, and grief, and
death.

If Mr. Kean was grand in the most stormy
,assages, it was in the more pathetic ones, with
which fortunately the play, except in the opening
scene abounds, that he was most himself and
most the character he assumed. The gradual
dawning of the consciousness of his daughters'
ingratitude, his struggles against it, his eager
haste to seize upon any pretext which
could afford him a moment's rest from mad-
dening grief, the perversion (obscuring, it cannot
besaid), of his wits, his fear of madness, his struggles
against it, and his convictions of its approach and
presence—all were presented with a fidelity which
by turns moved the audience to indignation, pity,
grief, and terror as though all were real. No one
who saw can ever forget Lear's ironical prayer, in
which there was a thousand times more of tender-
ness than of sarcasm, as he kneels before his cruel
daughter, "Dear daughter, I confess that I am
old ;" his pathetic appeal to the heavens, " if your-
selves are old, make it your cause ;" his half-
rational plea, " I am a man, more sinned against
than sinning ;" his pitying and pitiful cold comfort
to the fool, " Art cold ? I'm cold myself !"—his
transition in Act 111. to unmixed madness, in
contrast with the assumed madness of Edgar,
(excellently performed by Cathcart), and above all,
the tender, half-sure, half-doubtful recognition of
Cordelia in the closing act, " Be your tears wet ?"
To name Mr. Kean in these few culminating pas-
sages is to praise him in all the scenes of the most
consistent, sustained, and truly powerful assump-
tion he has yet given. His Lear is superior to his
Louis XI., not in act, perhaps, or in fidelity to his
theme, but because of the thousand pointsu tohfastym
pathy between it and all the human he
re-
spond to its indignant or pathetic appeals. It only
remains to say, in the same general terms, that Mr.
Everett played the noble role of Kent with really
commanding power, and Miss Chapman that of
Cordelia with intelligence and feeling. The house
was well filled.

MUNIFICENT DONATION.—The friends and sup-
porters of the British House for Incurables, Clapham-rise,
will be gratified to learn that the Most Hon. the Marquis
of Townshend has lately presented the noble sum of
£l,OOO to the funds of that excellent charity.
In the Court of Chancery yesterday Vice-Chan-
cellor Wood, on the motion of Mr. John Camden
Hotton, the publisher, granted an injunction restraining
certain parties from the publication of his edition of
" Artemus Ward." It has been so edited and annotated by
Mr. 'Totten that he is able to claim the protection of the law
THE LATE CASE OF ALLEGED POISONING BY A
SWEETHEART, AT SALISBURY.—WM. John Storer,
the surgeon's assistant lately charged with administering
strychnia to Miss Emily Sophia Blake, the daughter of Mr.
Blake, surgeon, of Salisbury, has, since his committal, en-
deavoured to obtain poisonous drugs, with the view, itis
supposed,
of committing suicide. He wrote out a prescrip-
tion under an assumed name, and addressing a letter to
Messrs. Savory and Moore, of London, succeeded in in-
ducing a newly engaged turnkey to post it for him, a
further arrangement being also made for the " medicine"
on its arrival, to bo loft at the turnkey's house. Messrs.
Savory and Moore, finding that the prescription included a
dose of morphia more than sufficient to destroy life, imme-
diately put themselves in communication with the police at
Salisbury. The, result of their investigation went to prove
coilusion betwoen the turnkey and the prisoner. The
turnkey was at once suspended, and a further inquiry into
the matter has been entered upon by the visiting justices.