The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-25 00:00:00

.ROIAL ITALIAN OPERA.

The performance of the " Prophete" at Covent-garden
last night was one of the most splendid we have ever seen
at this theatre. In the case of a piece which has had a long
run and has become familiar to the public, managers are
apt to relax in the care and attention, and to become saving
in the cost, bestowed upon its first production. Such is not
the case in the instance of the " Prophete." The scenery
is as fresh, the decorations a. rich and magnificent, and all
the details of spectacle and stage effect are as complete as
if the opera were performed for the first time. The repre-
sentation is also admirable. Tamberlik is not quite equal to
Mario, whose impersonation of John of Leyden was proba-
bly the grandest of all his efforts; but Tamberlik approaches
him mere nearly than any other performer now on the stage
is able to do. As to the beautiful and difficult part of Fides,
we say unhesitatingly that it never had such a repre •
sentative as Csillag. Even its original representative, the
gifted Viardot, failed to throw into the character the quiet
and simple pathos which is so remarkable in the acting of
Csillag. With all her genius, Viardot always had a ten-
dency to exaggeration, from which the Hungarian prima
donna in Antirely free, and Csillag sings the music much
more beautifully than any other Fides we have ever heard,
with the single exception of Alboni, whose vocal execution
always was perfection. The character of Bertha was on
the whole well sustained by Madame Itudersdorff. The
music of the part is brilliant, and she sang it brilliantly;
and with a little more quietness and smoothness of manner
her performance would be entirely satisfactory. The other
characters were cast nearly in the same manner as in for-
mer seasons.

E MONITOR AND TUE MERRIMAC.

The following misgivings as to the result of a second
encounter between these two vessels are from the Washing-
ton correspondent of the New York Times :—" The Moni-
tor's arrival in Hampton Roads some weeks ago seemed a
direct intervention of Providence. She stopped the Merri-
mac in her career of destruction, and was, consequently,
hailed as a national deliverer. The slow Departments of
the Government fell down and worshipped her, for her
prowess, luckily, saved them from an ignominious niche
in history. Immediately they all went Monitor-mad, and set
themselves about building several other Monitors ; and no
idea will be entertained of naval defence unless there is a
revolving turret and two guns in the case. The Monitor
fought the Merrimac well. It is the first instance in theworld's
history of a battle between iron-clad ships, and yet the Navy
Department thinks all experience exhausted in that one
combat, and improvement impossible in naval warfare.
Permit me to suggest that this may be a fatal mistake,
and that the nation is at this moment in extremest peril.
The Monitor is not the equal of the Merrimac, and nothing
but what infidels would call good luck,' and what Chris-
tians would call God's favour,' will save the Union from
the annihilating blows of the Merrimac. Why is not the
Monitor equal to the Merrimac ? Because she has not her
speed nor power; she has not an equal armament, and she
is liable to be hopelessly disabled by a single accident,
than which nothing is more likely to happen when she
goes into battle. Suppose the Merrimac to come out to-
morrow, as she may do, and that she engages the Moni-
tor, and that in the beginning of the battle the Moni-
tor bursts a gun. Do you not perceive that our navy
is annihilated in Hampton Roads, in the Chesapeake, and
wherever else the Merrimac may be able to go ? The
Monitor has only two guns, and in a turret. Her men
work the guns in that turret, and an explosion in that iron
drum necessarily kills every man there, and if it does not
likewise split the turret, the shattered pieces of the enor-
mous gun will so encumber the narrow enclosure that the
working of the only remaining gun will be impossible.
Upon this thread, then, hangs the fate of the most gigantic
campaign of modern times—the safety of each of the
Monitor's guns from a frequent accident of warfare. Upon
our Western gunboats already two rifled cannons have been
burst, killing an aggregate of 20 men. Let one like acci-
dent happen to the Monitor, and all our hopes of imme-
diate success in this war will in the deep bosom of the ocean
be buried. And then, the god we now worship, the turreted
Monitor, will be the treacherous devil that lure i us to de-
struction. While all men who are capable of reason admit
that an explosion of a gun in a turreted boat like the Monitor
will be fatal, and take it out of action, there is no desire
evinced by any one, in Cabinet or Congress, to favour any
plan of an iron-clad boat that shall be free from so alarming a
defeet. The Stevens' battery, which is to carry seven guns,
which can shield each one independently as perfectly as the
Monitor shields her guns—which fights all her men under
a plated deck, and apart from the guns—which can suffer
the explosion of six guns out of seven, if such extraordi-
nary ill- luck should occur, and still fight the last gun
without impediment, and without having suffered injury
to a man—this great vessel is in no favour with the Navy
Department, because she is not turreted like the Monitor I
She ought to have a man-trap, wherein the explosion of a
single gun will kill all her gunners, and disable every other
piece of ordnance she may carry. Nevertheless, well know-
ing the infatuation of the Department in favour of Moni
tors, and the consequent antipathy to anything different
(or better), the United States' Senate has refused to
allow Stevens' battery to be completed except in accord-
ance with the opinion' of Secretary Welles—the very
man of the Government, above all others, that the
Senate have helped to breed distrust of. If the House
has no more breadth of wisdom—no astuter perception of
palpable truths in regard to turetted boats like the Monitor,
then may the country despair of help in case the Monitor
shall burst a gun in her Next engagement with the Merri-
mac, or the Merrimac, by a lucky shell, burst one for her,
In the meantime we only live in hope that no such casualty
may befall the Monitor; for in the perfect exemption not
only of one but of both her guns from defect does the fate
of this nation absolutely depend. There is no assurance of
safety to our fleet in Hampton Roads, and hence, while all
men hope they do also fear. When we have lost all, then,
perhaps, the Navy Department will learn."

DEPARTURE OF THE COURT FROM THE ISLE OF
WlGHT.—Monday next is understood to be fixed on for the
departure of the Royal Family from Osborne.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ALICE.--
Powlease House, East Cowes Park, for some years occupied
by her late Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, has been
taken for some of the Royal visitors to Osborne in June
next.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cuddy has returned to town
from visiting his brother-in-law, John Claudius Beresford,
Esq., cousin to the most Hon. the Marquis of Waterford.

MURDER IN LIVERFOOL.—WiIiiam Finnigan, a
tailor, of Liverpool, killed his wife on Monday evening, by
brutally kicking her on the head and neck. She was a
drunkard, aid at the time of her death she was under the
influence of liquor. The coroner's jury on Wednesday re-
turned a verdict of" Wilful murder" against Finnigan,
and a warrant has been issued for his apprehension. The
attack upon his wife (the deceased) was most deliberate, and
had he not killed her by his kicks, he intended, as he said,
to " rip her up" with a pair of scissors. On one occasion
he inflicted a wound upon his own arm, and endeavoured,
by giving a wrong statement to the police, to get some per-
son apprehended for assaulting him.

It has become a very common practice for the
Chinese at the Australian gold diggings to export their
dead relatives to China. The Bendigo Advertiser of Feb. 7,
mentions a case of a Chinaman coming from China to the
Bendigo diggings, and applying to the authorities there to
permit him to take home the body of his father, who had
been buried there three years before.

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY.—WiIIiam Shake-
speare's birthday was commemorated with the customary
festive demonstrations in his native town on Tuesday, the
day being observed by the inhabitants of Stratford-on-
Avon as a partial holiday. Flags were displayed on the
principal buildings, bands of music perambulated the streets,
and places of business were closed during the afternoon.
The Shakespearian Club met in the morning, and received
a report from the birthplace committee.
CURIOUS EXCHANGE.—Secretary Seward has
sent to his Holiness Pius IX. the entire edition of the
"History of the Stato of New York," consisting of 13
quarto volumes,handsomely illustrated with coloured plates,
and richly bound in Turkey I:Derma° and gold ; also a copy
of the diplomatic correspondence for 1861, bound in liae
manner. This was in return to the compliment recently
paid by his Holiness to the Secretary, by the presentation
of the superb edition of Bl Vatecano," a colossal work
of 12:volumes, containing illustrations of all?paintings and
statuary belonging to the Papal Government hi Rome.
The remains of a mammoth elephant (Elephas
primigenius) Wag found a few days since near Domblans,
by some workmen employed in the construction of 0,40
railway between Besangon and Bourg. They consist of a
tusk, about 4ft. Tin, long, 111 inches circumference near
the base, coma b°zes, and part of a molar tootle. Thoa,
remains, which were buried at a depth of about 9 feet in
alluvial ferruginous sands have been plat Qd to Museum
9f 14q8'1"4419h
.. _ •