The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, EVENING, MAY 20, 1862.

8,000 of whom are soldiers. In 1831, under strong
popular pressire, the ELECTOR gave his people a
constitution stbstantially resembling that of Eng-
land, but, by the help of his soldiers, abolished it
almost immediately, and recommenced his absolute
course. Of course his people and he have been in
political antagonism ever since. The late Prussian
Chamber passed a decided vote in favour of Hessian
liberty—that is, of the restoration of the constitu-
tion of 1831. The KING of PRUSSIA had the
adroitness to eccopt this vote as the means of
strengthening his position as the great leader of
Northern Germany; but Austria also, whom we
are now to regard as a Liberal Power, thought well
to share the bid, and joined in demanding that the
Elector should recal an obnoxious scheme for elec-
tions) recently Issued, and summon a Parliament
according to the law of 1831. Thus the two great
German Powers agreed to squeeze the Elector to
his duty. The King of PRUSSIA, however, took the
strongest measures, sending one of his Generals to
demand compliance with the views of the Federal
Diet, and assembling troops as if ready to use them:
This, however, he has not yet done. Indeed the
Federal Diet has not yet formally made its requisi-
tion on the Elector, but the KING tells his house that
a final solution shall soon be arrived at without
hesitation.

Altogether, the progress towards some degree of
constitutional liberty in Germany is becoming esta-
blished. The late Prussian elections will do very
much to confirm it. They will reassure all the
numerous petty States of Germany of the liberal
tendencies of the Prussian people itself, and show
that the KING must follow their lead. Austria
herself will gradually be led to convert her sham
constitution into a real one, merely to keep her
place in Germany ; and the smaller States will seek
the co-operation of the larger ones in obtaining
their freedom, much in proportion to their convic-
tion of the sincerity of each. It may be slow work,
but if not disturbed in any way, it looks as if it
would be real, and that the score and a half of
petty German despots would before long become
constitutional rulers, to be all followed, some day,
by German unity.

.II_ER ..'l,4,ll:Bl'l'S CONCERT ROOM.

MR. AND MRS. CHARLES MATHEWS,
To the great mass of our playgoing and amuse-
ment seeking public, London without Mr. Charles
Mathews would be as dull as a wet 'Sunday. For
more tha❑ a quarter of a century he has been their
great comic restorative,—the agreeable mixture
they have taken nightly after the wear and tear of
the day, and found themselves for the most part
considerably better for it in the morning. He has
been a sort of social alcoholic test to them to prove
the soundness of their spirits, and the pleasantest
possible form of that excellent invention, the
"galvanic belt," since he can relieve the languor of
the system, without the slightest recourse to acids.
At this great Exhibition period there are many
would think their favourite more than ever indis-
pensable. Our World's Show for several months
will open the eyes and ears of the public, and it is
but a proper balance of organic functions to have
something that will also be pretty sure to
open our mouths. Nor does it abate from
Mr. Mathews' attraction that he hrs quitted
his old arena for a time—that he has left the
old firm in the Haymarket and started in
business for himself as a good mirthmaker, dis-
pensing with a company, and taking in lieu of
them a partner. His young, hilarious, and agree-
able wife brings no little capital into the enter-
prize, in the unfailing vigour of her spirits and the
abundance of her pleasantry. Mr. and Mrs.
Matthews on this occasion have shown an excellent
sense of fitness in associating with their experiment
one of our best dramatic humorists. Mr. Byron,
whose distinction is to startle us as much in prose as
hisgreat namesake did in poetry, the chief of modern
barlesnue pc.rc,a niugteuau in Iflo
realm of pantomime—forms with Mr. and Mrs,
Mathews a sort of comic tripod, on which the public,
when it rests—if not destined to become as enlight-
ened as an ancient Delphic priestess—certainly is
likely to exhibit a feir share of her convulsions. Not,
we confess, that we are always able to roar outright
at Mr. Byron. In order to vary our experience,
and possibly, therefore, intensify its palpable en-
joyments, he throws us occasionally into rather
exhausting speculations in respect to the iden-
tity and integrity of certain English words—that
nothing under the budelight cf a Max Muller could
elucidate. Dr. Richardson and others have shown
us how the English tongue is composed, and the
analytic Mr. Byron shows us how it takes to pieces.
He is the Frikell of philology, who turns a word
into a trick, and shows you at the same moment
that it is itself and something else. Mr. Byron,
however, can do more than play upon one string. He
has always exhibited genuine humour, and his pre
sent entertainment shows he possesses, in addition,
no trifling s,'lise of character. It has the merit, in
the first place, of being admirably compact. It lies
within the compass of two hours, and in a night or two
will exhibit all the signs of a good fit; it will come
on and go off with equal gracefulness and ease. Its
story has a right simplicity. All the world was
coming to London, so Mr. and Mrs. Mathews, in
order to get out of the crowd, resolved to. take a
country ramble. Their house, too, has an unfortu
nate proximity to the Exhibition, and might have
been converted by country friends into an extensio❑
of the refreshment rooms. They accordingly take
refuge in a little town, where they find a country
manager and his wife, who have lost their
company and their theatre, and have taken the
Town-hall in order to erect it into a temple of
Thespis, and immortalise it by the production of a

" sensation drama" played by themselves. Mr. and
Mrs. Mathews are therefore induced to give us a
notion of the experiment. They divide the picture
into two portions—the first representing the pre-
parations for the drama ; the second, the play itself.
The first portion become 3 accordingly a tolerable
vehicle for character. We have the manager
and manageress, Mr. and Mrs. Prospero Blogs,
converting the Town-hall into a stage, and
also laying their plans for converting the
towns-people into an audience. We have

the cleaner of the hall—Anna Maria Gulp—a capi-
tal sketch by Mr. Mathews—who relates all her

experiences of hall usage and employment, from
benevolent and missionary down to scientific and

" nigger" evenings—appreciating each of them by

the simple test of the amount of dust that they
kicked up or of dirt they left behind them. We

have a boy and girl coming to the play—Timothy

and Wilhetnina Worrits—a companion pair o

sketches, in which the personal was almost as strik

ing as the mental transformation, Mrs. Mathews

especially, looking and acting the child
to the life; and we have two of the lady patrons of

the town, Miss D. Tracter and Miss Pamela Python

who arc also its principal ccandal-mongers, who
hate every thing htit themselves, and each other most

of all; end are only happy when they unite in a
wholesale flood of defamation. The personal trans-
formation in thii case was quite as extraor-
dinary as in the others; and the duet to the tune of
" 6killygolee," in which they poured out their rap-
turous malignity, was One of the most comic and
effective features of the night. After some other per-
sonations, some capital songs, and a flow of dialogue,
always comic—and only occasionally of the philo
logical form of humour—the manager and mana-
geress re-enter to announce that their preparations
are eomp!skd
, the theatre ready, and what is more
important—so also is the audience. The manager
has paid a N'isit, =Ono others, to the principal
dentist of the
town, and, in evidence of his sym-
pathy, "he has taken two in front." Thus wecome
to the second
which, of course, is a bprlesquo en - some
portion—the grand sensation drawn,
of our rut-ca.,, London novelties and the

humour of wlieh may be inferred from
the mere 14,trie
iti hero—a captain of ban-
ditti, who il,,,noinina.tea—Stickitinhisghizzardi!

The Grceir :.Indrcnan G languages are distinguipledi