The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-20 00:00:00

tempts to convince their readers, in opposition to the
evidence of facts, that the New Poor Law Bill is the
greatest curse ever inflicted on a country for its sins.
The former of these journals took a hatred to the law
because it was introduced under the auspices of Lord
BROUGHAM, about the time that the Noble and
Learned Lord, from being its distinguished pet, be-
came the object of its phrenzied hostility. Dr. JOHN-
SON said he liked a good hater. How he would have
adored the Times ! It hates not only its enemies, but
everything connected with or derived from them ; there-
fore it is that it cannot love the Poor Law, though
that law is as charitable in its spirit as it is wise in
the provisions by which it remedies the enormous evils
occasioned by ignorant legislation on the one hand, and
by the negligence—perhaps too the corruption—of
those whose duty it was to administer the :law on the
other.

The Herald follows at a humble distance in the wake
of the Times without knowing why. It found itself
one morning on the same tack, and for no other earthly
reason has continued so ever since. It has twaddled
on from day to day, until it is prevented by what it no
doubt calls consistency, from confessing itself in the
wrong. So the wayward urchin, which has begun to
cry without a cause, cries on till it is absolutely
ashamed to leave off.

LITERATURE.

THE PENNY WEDDING.
Grant, London, 1836.

The idea of this work has been suggested by
Wilkie's celebrated painting of the " Penny Wed-
ding," and is appropriately dedicated to that fine artist.
It furnishes the reader with an accurate and circum-
stantial account of the manner in which the weddings
of the peasantry and the middle classes of society in
Scotland were celebrated twenty years ago, when an
irruption used invariably to be made into the nuptial
bed-room by the male and female friends of the happy
couple, for the purpose of seeing the bridegroom
" strip to his shirt and drawers," and the bride " take
off one of her stockings and throw it over the heads of
the company." A wedding in those primitive times
must have been a rare scene of fun and frolic, and quite
puts to shame the degenerate marriages of the present
day, when after a scene of tears and sobs at church, the
bride and her Benedict, with a bridesmaid stuckbetween
them—we suppose by way of keeping them within the
bounds of moderation—are whirled off in a chaise to
Richmond or Windsor, with nothing to " create a sen-
sation" or denote the cause of their journey, but a
postillion, looking uncommonly foolish, with a bow of
white riband in his cap. The little book before us is
full of amusing information on the most generally amu-
sing of all topics—the nature of the marriage ceremo-
nies in use among our ancestors, and being illustrated
with a variety of well-executed, characteristic embel-
lishments will, no doubt, make, what is called in thea-
trical phrase, " a hit."

THE THEATRES.

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.

Mr. Leffler, who has made so successful a debut in Hela,
and has since so advantageously appeared in the new opera of
The Pacha's Bridal, came out last night for the first time as
Steady, in Dibdin's musical farce of The Quaker, and was
most flatteringly received. The mellow tones of Mr. L's.
voice fully qualify him to do justice to the pleasing melodies
allotted him ; and never, perhaps, since the days of Incledon,
has the popular song of " The Lads of the Village" been
more satisfactorily executed. He was unanimously encored
in it : but why he should omit the minor and concluding part,
" Those joys which are harmless," certainly not th 9 least
effective, we are at a loss to conjecture. The other parts of
the farce were efficiently sustained. Wilson sang sweetly in
Lubin, and Oxberry supported Solomon with much humour,
although somewhat deficient in power and distinctness of enun-
ciation. Mrs. Serle, ci-decant Miss Novello, played Gillian,
and Mrs. Fitzwilliam, who introduced Dibden's favourite song
of " As the bell finks," performed Floretta in a very agreea-
ble manner. The House, which was crowded in every part,
received the several performances with the greatest eclat.