The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-06 00:00:00

mucirranning in her, Mr. Powell pulled her back to her for-
mer place, and held her in till they came within about 100 yards
of the winning post, when he gave her her head, and passed the
horse, and won by little more than halt a length, pulling hard
all the way. It appeared evident, however, that Gipsey must
have won by a much greater distance had her rider been so
disposed. The mare looked, if not thorough-bred, es near it
as possible. She went, in fact, like a racer. And thus ended
the second contest, which gave general satisfaction to the whole
field, and to the assembled multitude. 'The line of country,
which is more than four miles from the starting-post to the
goal, was hilly, severe, and deep ; and the numerous walls and
fences were such as none but downright first-rate hunters could
face. The distance was accomplished in 14 minutes.

THE THEATRES.

DRURY-LANE.

The long promised drama of The Bronze Horse, which has
been many months in preparation, was brought out at this
theatre last night, with a gorgeous splendour of decoration
that may vie even with The Jewess. The drama is one of
Scribe's, done into English by Mr. Bunn himself, and the
original music by Auber has been adapted to our stage by
Mr. T. Cooke. Both the adaptors have done their tasks cre-
ditably. The spoken dialogue is smart and lively ; and the
words of the songs and concerted pieces, though they do
frequently look somewhat queer in the libretto, sing smoothly
and trippingly enough. In judging of the merit of such
adaptations, it is necessary to remember the great difficulty of
accommodating words to music already written—particularly
when the music has been originally made to suit French
rhythm, prosody, and accent so different from our own.
The piece, dramaticolly speaking, is a mere extravaganza,
a tale of Eastern enchantment, but destitute of the coherence
and consistency which are necessary to give effect to every
fiction, however wildly supernatural it may be. Though
amused by the incidents, we cannot pretend to trace their con-
nection (such as it is,) or to give any intelligible account of
the story. Yang, the Crown prince of China, has very wisely
fallen in love with a lady whose acquaintance he had made
in a dream. This, however, was not folly oil the part of the
Prince, but fate; for this lady is the daughter of the Great
Mogul, whose destiny is linked with that of the apparent heir
of the Celestial Empire ; but who, meanwhile, has been
transported (how or why we know not) all the way to the
planet Venus, to remain there till the Prince should break
the enchantment. At the same time there is an old Manda-
rine, Tsing Sing, who, being blessed with four wives already,
has just added to the number a farmer's daughter. This
damsel, however (Petri by name) prefers Yanko, a youth of
her own station, and is inconsolable for his loss. In despair
at her marriage, he had thrown himself on the back of a
mysterious bronze horse which had recently appeared on a
hill in the neighbourhood • the horse had caned him off, and
he had never been heard Of. After some time the horse and

he re-appear together ; but he will give no account of where
he has been, saying that his indiscretion in that respect would
cost him his life. The Prince of China, learnind this adven-
ture, determines to make the trial himself, and Orders the old
Mandarine to accompany him. They mount the horse,
which flies with them into the clouds. The horse returns
with the Mandarine, but without the Prince. The Mandarine
is importuned to give an account of his travels, but refuses;
till at last, dropping an indiscreet word on the subject, he is
turned into a statue. Yanko, too, commits a similar blunder,
and undergoes a similar fate. It is, however, to his mistress,
Peki, that Yanko communicates so much of the secret as to
determine her to risk a journey on the horse's back. She is
carried to the planet Venus, a world, it seems, inhabited only
by the fair sex. Every stranger brought thither by this ma-
gical conveyance was exposed' to the temptations of such an
abode. If he yielded to them so far as to give a kiss to one
of the fair inhabitants, he was instantly transported back to
the earth, and turned into a statue. The Chinese Prince had
found there the unknown object of his love, and had for some
time resisted temptation even from her fascinations'; but at
length he yields, disappears from her sight, and is added to the
group of statues. Peki, however, gets polsession of a certain
bracelet which has the power of breaking the charm ; and,
returning to earth with the Mogul Princess, re-animates the
Prince, the Mandarins, and her lover. The Prince, of course,
is united to the Princess, and the Mandarin resigns his young
wife to Yanko. _ _ _

This is a long story, and sufficiently confused; but we be-
lieve it is not our fault that we cannot make it clearer. It is,
however, a good vehicle for spectacle and beautiful music ;
and the incidents, outre as they are, engage the fancy, though
they cannot in the slightest degree interest the feelings. The
music is full of beauties, though as a necessary consequence
of the character of the drama, it is merely gay and lively,
without the least approach to sentiment or expression. But,
then, the gaiety is exquisitely graceful and elegant—it is a
gaiety of which, among all living composers, Auber alone
is capable : and when we listen to these delicious strains, we
do not regret the want of the grandeur and pathos which the
composer has displayed in his Masaniello. In none of his
other operas has Auber exhibited so much delicacy of in-
strumentation. The accompaniments are highly wrought,
full of charming effects, clear and transparent, and wholly
free from the unmeaning noise of the Bellini and Donizetti
school. The overture is admirable, and in excellent keeping
with the tone of the opera. It will become a favourite piece
at our concerts ; and nsany of the airs in the opera will, like
the barcarole, &c., in Masaniello, he heard upon every piano-
forte, and every street- organ in the kingdom.
The performance was excellent throughout. Miss Shir-
reff, as Peki, looked pretty and piquante in her Chinese
costume, and sang beautifully. Her song, at the beginning'
of the second act (the air of which is introduced in the
overture) was particularly charming. We never were snore
pleased with Templeton, who was the Chinese Prince. He
was in excellent voice, and his intonation (not always the
case) was good. His style, too, was less ornate than usual.
Miss H. Cawse (whom we were glad to' see again) was
Very clever, both in acting and singing, in the part of
Taojin, one of the Mandarme's wives; and the part of the
Mandarins himself was sustained by Phillips with great hu-
mour and :consummate vocal skill. The character of Yanko,
the rustic lover of Peki, was played by Duruset with a mixture
of simplicity and archness that made it exceedingly effective.
It would be difficult to imagine anything more beautiful
than the scenery,. or more gorgeous than the general effect
of the spectacle. There is a grand ballet, in which, gro-
tesque and whimsical imitations of Chinese dancing are hap-.
pily introduced. The applause of an excessively crowded au-
dience was loud and unintermitting.

CO VENT- GARDEN.
The house was completely filled last night immediately
after the opening of the doors. Knowles's beautiful play, The
Hunchback, was performed, and it seems a second time des-
tined to revive and re-establish the fortunes of this theatre.
The only important novelty was the appearance of Miss Helen
Fancit in the character of the heroine ; and we speak quite
within compass when we say that we never witnessed a better
first performance, or one in which approbation was more•con-
stantly or enthusiastically expressed. We do not except even
the debut of Miss Fanny Kemble (we like her best by her
maiden name on all accounts), with which it challenges com-
parison. We do not say that Miss 11. Faucit has the talents,
even for the stage, of Miss F. Kemble ; if genius can at any
time be attributed to acting, Miss P. emble assuredly pos-
sessed it ; but Miss H. Faucit has ability amply sufficient to
ensure to herself a permanent and a prominent station in her
profession. With reference to the particular part of Julia, it
is to be recollected that Miss F. Kemble struck out the part
originally, and that all who have succeeded her have followed
the precedent she set without any very considerable improve-
ments. We do not of course blame them, and we only men-
tion the circumstance as a testimony in favour of Miss F.
Kemble's conception and execution of the character. If we
were to attempt any such ungracious task, we should hardly
know where to find fault with Miss H. Faucit, she so thoroughly
satisfied us. Perhaps here and there she exhibited a little too
much violence—the words " I hate you Helen 1" were an in-
stance—but a little practice and judgment will enable her to
moderate and overcome this defect. She has a good, expres-
sive, and intelligent face, without being handsome, and her
figure, though slight, is good and sufficiently commanding.
Her head is perhaps a trifle too small, but this might be owing
to the close and neat manner in which it was dressed. When
she first stepped upon the boards, supported by Miss Taylor,
in the part of Helen, Miss H. Faueit'S situation was really
painful; she seemed so utterly overcotne by the general and
continued greeting of the house, that her under-lip fell, and
quivered, and we really feared that she would faint. How-
ever, she was able indistinctly to articulate her first sentence,
and by degrees she regained her self-possession. MI our
readers know that the great scene of the play, as far as regards
Julia, is in
,the fourth act—the interview between her and
Clifford, in the character of the secretary. We do not think
that so much effect was ever before produced by the words—
" Clifford, why don't you speak to me ? " and the conflict be-
tween lore, pride, and a sense of what was due to her own
honour, was excellently and powerfully sustained. Her voice
has not yet attained either the strength or the facility of mo-
dulation it will hereafter possess, and for this reason chiefly the
celebrated exclamation

"Do it!
Nor leave the task to me "

hardly produced the electrical effect which shot through the
house, ‘vhen the words came originally from the lips of Miss
F. Kemble. After the curtain had fallen, Miss H. Faucit was
tumultuously called for, and made her appearance before it with
due obeisances. Sheridan Knowles was also obliged to show
himself, and thanked the audience that the play of The Hunch-
back had not grown out of memory.

THE MARKETS-(THIS DAY.)
CORN EXCHANGE.

There are short supplies of every article this week, and a scanty
return of Flour. The Wheat trade continues firm at last Monday's
rates. Barley. Beans, and Pease, support our quotations. In
Oats there has been a little doing on full as goods terms as Monday
Flour as last reported.

ARRIVALS.
1 Wheat. Barley. Oats. Flom.
English .............. 1,500 firs 1,120 qrs. 1,330 qrs. 1,359 sacks
Irish . ............... ... - - 5,150 --
Foreign ............... - - -

LIVING FOSSIL.—A small eel was lately thrown
up by an artesian well, in the Calvados. It would be dif-
ficult to account for its presence there ; but the circum-
stance of its being able to live is not extraordinary, as fish
of a higher order have been known to thrive in the waters
of these wells. Water of common wells contains numerous
invertebrte connected with various species, which easily re-
produce, and belong mostly to the class of crustaca3 termed
Daphne cypris, &c. The common shrimp, lately desig-
nated as Grammarus pulex minimus, is of this order. Se-
veral of the order of Nais and Planaires have also been ob-
served in certain subterranean waters.--Paris Advertiser.