The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-20 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Avasr 14.—The Wisner Zeitung of this
day says—
" BUCNAREST, MARCH 24.—We have just heard
from Cronstadt that the outposts of Bem's army
arrived there on Tuesday, several unimportant
skirmishes having taken place in the vicinity of
Zaiden on the previous Monday.
" On Wednesday the Russian troops under General
Engelhardt quitted Transylvania, covering the retreat
the Imperial Austrian troops. These brave
ooldiers, who, during the past month, have often
aestified by act and deed that they are faithful to
stheir colours and to their Emperor, are now in the
most lamentable condition possible ; they have no
ammunition whatever ; consequently every attempt
at resistance would have been utterly futile.
" Omer Pacha, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial
Ottoman troops, in order to protect the frontiers
against marauders, has made all the troops march
from Bucharest and Statina to Kirnpulang ; they are
to be replaced by troops coming from Galary and
Braila.
" Kaimakana Kantakazeno has given orders through
the Minister of the Interior that all the miserable
fugitives arriving from the various frontier villages,
who have been compelled to leave house and home,
I be received with the greatest hospitality in
allachia, even without passports or the other usual
formalities, and everything shall be done to ameliorate
their sad condition."
The Vienna papers c fthe 14th confirm the intelli-
gence of the victory of the Hungarians, and afford
positive information of the occupation of the important
position of Waitzen by the Hungarians. The details
of this action, as given by the German papers, are to
the effect that Prince Windischgratz, at the head of
his best regiments, opposed the progress of the Hun-
garians in the direction of Comorn, and that he was
backed by the corps of Gota and Jablonowski. A
fierce engagement ensued, in which the superior
tactics of the Magyars proved irresistible. Gene-
ral Gota and many of his officers fell while fighting
is the streets of the city of Waitzen. The Imperial
troops were driven back and partly routed. The siege
of Comorn has been stopped in consequence, and part
of the Imperial army besieging that fortress has
marched to Waitaen to the rescue of General Ramberg,
who still attempts to stop the progress of the Magyars
from Waitzen to Comorn. The garrison of that fortress
has meanwhile made a sally upon the remaining
Austrians, and carried off part of their heavy
artillery. Such are the statements of the Austrian
press and of the correspondents of the German papers.
If we are to believe them there is nothing to pre-
vent the Hungarian General Georgey from commu-
nicating with the garrison of Comorn, and if the
rumour prove true of General
,Dembinski having
crossed the Danube, and led his troops to Weissen-
burg, nothing is left to the Imperialists but to retire
to Raab, for neither Pesth nor Buda can be held
against a superior force.
From Transylvania we have no news except ru-
mours of the vaguest kind. General Bern does not
appear to operate in that province ; on the contrary,
he is expected at the Hungarian head-quarters at
Waitzen.
Prince Windischgratz has resigned the supreme
command in Hungary, and General Welden has
succeeded him. Hammerstein will remain in Lem-
berg. General Pergen, who was in Hungary, will
go to Brunn, and General Perin, who was in Brunn,
to. Hungary. The General of the Ordnance, Nugent,
will go to Gratz to organize a reserve corps, and is to
be succeeded by General Buritz. General Castiglione
will succeed Buritz at €Elenburg.
The Wiener Zeitung contains a dispatch addressed
by the Austrian Cabinet on the sth inst. to the
Imperial Plenipotentiary, M. de Schmerling, at
Frankfort. This document, which was taken by
Count Rechberg at the same time with that of the
Bth instant, addressed to the Court of Prussia, may
be said to be composed of ten different heads. 1. A
request that the Vicar-General of Germany, Arch-
duke John, will continue to hold his high office
until such time as definitive arrangements as to the
Central Government have been made. 2. The Ger-
man Diet, instead of having endeavoured to form. one
great and powerful Germany, has attempted to create
an ideal empire. 3. The Central Diet has, by
paragraph 2, done all in its power to render Aus-
tria's union with Germany impossible. 4. The Na-
tional Assembly, by the resolution taken on the 27th
ult., respecting the election of an hereditary head
of the Empire, has departed from the projected plan
of federations, and attempted to form one united
state in a way which is incompatible with the inde-
pendence of each separate German Government. 6.
The National Assembly, by its resolution of the
28th ult., which ordains that the constitution it has
drawn up shall alone be law for the empire, as
also by its arbitrary declaration that it will remain
i ill permanence until the meeting of the Parliament to
be hereafter convoked, has entered into an illegal path
in which the different Governments cannot follow it. 6.
Austria is unable to enter into a confederate state, as
understood by the Central Diet, though it by no means
retsigns its rights secured by history and treaty.
7. This is the opinion of his Majesty the Emperor,
and from this he will not depart. 8. As his Ma-
jesty, in a dispatch of the 4th of February, pro-
tested against being subjected to a central power
vested in any other German Prince, so he is no
less determined not to subject, on any plea what-
Ever, the constitutional legislative power to be ex-
ercised by him, in unison with the representa-
tive bodies in Austria, to any extraneous legisla-
lative Assembly. 9. That as Count Rechberg, who
!tee been appointed your successor (M. de Schmer-
, ling's) is on his way to Frankfort, there is no obstacle
to your return to Vienna. 10. As to the Austrian
Deputies, they must consider their mission as at an
end, the debates on the Constitution being concluded,
and have to return to their native country, as any
farther connexion with Assembly which, by the
resolution adopted on the 211 h 8
of jwitice awl is . t ult., quitted the path
Bible.

TURKEY.
Redschid Pasha is indefatigable in his exertions to
render the naval and military forces of the Turkish
empire in a state of the utmost efficiency. Mer-
chantmen sailing under the Turkish flag are for-
bidden to leave the harbour, and an exact account is
taken of the tonnage of every ship. Troops are being
sent to the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and also to
Thessaly. Prince Woronzow is collecting a numerous
army in Georgia and the Crimea, with which it is
probable he will approach Constantinople from Lesser
Asia. The Greek ships which in the winter season
usually congregate, in order to run out into the Black
Sea at the beginning of spring, are exciting a good
deal of suspicion in the Turkish authorities. More
than 2,000 of them have been preventing from quit-
ting the harbour. M. Rosas, the Greek Consul, has
written to his Government for instructions on this
subject. The Russian Ambassador, M. Titoff, pro-
tested against this, and insisted upon making the
Porte responsible for any damage which might arise
from this arbitrary measure.

THEATRE ROYAL DUBLIN.
THE WIFE'S SECRET.
On Saturday night the first sppearat.ce of Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Kean, in itself an event, was signalised by
the production of a drama, new to the citizens of Dublin,
but which, since its original introduction in America,
has been attended with an immense amount of success,
having been performed with undiminished eclat at the
Haymarket for
,sixty successive nights. The au'hor
of Ihe Wife's Secret, Mr. Lovell, has written
two other successful dramas, both of which
have been represented in our theatre, and the
announcement of a new piece by him brought
out under such attractive auspices, drew, as we antici-
pated, a full and fashionable attendance. The plot of
The Wife's Secret is extremely simple, but there are
many admirably-contrived and telling situations during
its progress. The interest is sustained in a most ab-
sorbing manner from the first scene to the last; and the
language possesses all the rich poetical imagery, origi-
nality, and vigour that characterise the works of the earlier
dramatists. A fugitive Cavalier (Mr. Bland), who has
suffered defeat in an ineffectual rising against the Pro-
tectorate, takes shelter with his sister, Lady Evelyn
Amyot (Mrs. Kean), having first bound her by au oath
not to reveal his presenCe to Sir Walter Amyot (Mr.
Kean). The latter, one of the leaders of the Roundheads,
arrives at the mansion almost at the same instant with
the fugitive whose concealment forms the " secret" that
alienates the husband from the wife. Jabes Sneed (Mr.
Baker), a canting steward, whose dishonesty Lady
Evelyn had discovered, and thereby made him her
enemy, suspecting that there is some deep mystery
connected with the locking•up of the chamber in which
the Cavalier is bestowed, seeks every means to discover
this secret. Having climbed up to the window
of the Cavalier's retreat, he discovers Lady
Evelyn'e brother, and having already vainly sought
to poison Sir Walter's mind against his wife, and
been rebuked for the attempt, he instantly communi-
cates this discovery to him. Sir Walter, however,
is so conscious of his wife's purity that, though he listens
to Jabes, he cannot believe aught to her discredit, until,
through the window of her closed chamber, he beholds
Lady Evelyn embracing the Cavalier, who was about to
attempt his escape. A terrible and crushing revulsion
of feeling follows, and Sir Walter falls senseless to the
ground. In the last act, after some scenes of deep
pathos, thrilling tenderness, and passionate feeling,
between the still fond husband, wishing to conceal
from every soul but his own what he believes
to be his wife's dishonour, and the purely-proud
Lady Evelyn, indignant that a doubt or suspicion
should be entertained of her honour, the " Wife's Se-
cret" is revealed, and the drama terminates happily for
all. This is but a very faint outline of the plot, the de-
velopment of which is most skilfully carried out, and the
graver portions being admirably relieved by the love
passages between a dashing, handsome, vain young
Page (Miss Fitzpatrick), and a pert and pretty
waiting maid (Miss Beaufort), forced by the man-
ners of the times to assume the attire, speak in the
nasal twang, and adopt all the demure bearing of a staid
Puritan. When we say we have never beheld either
Mr. or Mrs. Kean to more advantage in any of the wide
range of characters they have made their own than in
those parts of Sir Walter and Lady Evelyn, we feel that
we cannot utter greater praise. Indeed the chief em-
barrassment in noticing their performance consists in
our inability to convey to others the impression made
upon ourselves. The noble nature of the fond husband, so
generous and manly, resisting, till conviction appeared
to forbid longer resistance, every doubt of his wife's
purity—hoping against hope that he might have been
wrong in his jealousy—and then, at the last apparent
proof being afforded, determined to screen her guilt at
the sacrifice of his own peace, was truthfully and beauti-
fully depicted by Mr. Charles Kean. His alternate bursts
of rage, despair, and grief, were painfully real, not the
least exaggeration marring the perfection of his acting.
His deep dejection and utter abandonment to sorrow were
touching in the extreme; though at the same time they
never bordered on the weak or the womanish, but were
characterised by a fine manly tenderness throughout.
In many of the noble passages with which the play
abounds, his distinct and impressive delivery added
beauty to the poetry of the author. Thus, nothing
could be more exquisite than his apostrophe to his happy
I home—
"Sly home, my home—oh, what a worldless joy
To be in thy familiar clasp again.
In absence it seem'd almost too much bliss
Fur hope to picture. My returning foot
Paus'd on the threshold doubting still lest change,
Like a spring frost, had nipped some bud away.
But not a leaf is wanting----all's the same
Love, peace, and joy, flutter in every breeze ;
And my full heart—too small for its great wealth,
Flows over with its rapture."
Again, when Jabez is distilling his poisonous doubt of
woman's purity into his ear, it was with the loftiest
grandeur of manly scorn that he thus rebuked him—
" Thou infidel, would'st thou be blind,
And thank the lot that hid from thee the rose?
Deaf, and rejoice thou couldst not hear sweet music?
Fie, fie on thee—the tongue that rails at woman
Blasphemes creation in its brightest work.
A ribald jest upon her purity
Is flinging stain upon the brightest mirror
Where Heaven is glassed below."
When, in the last act, Lady Evelyn, at the suggestion o
Maud, hands him the safety-pass she is about to use for
her brother's escape, in order that he may append the
Aignature that, in his distraction, he has forgotten, the
nsti-''tones of reproach in which he noticed her col-
lectedness, while he was all unhinged, fell like
accents of real sorrow on the ear. in truth, we
could follow with equal eulogy every passage uttered by
Mr. Kean till the falling of the curtain, and even then
not be satisfied that we bad rendered him justice. When
we inform our readers that the character of Lady
Evelyn is exquisitely gentle and feminine, full of
woman's purity, truth, and devotion, they can ima
gine how beautifully such a part must have been
personated by Mrs. Kean. So admirably through-
out did this graceful and gifted actress preserve
the gentle and tender features marking the Lady
Evelyn of the author, that the sterner traits of the
part—when, with the haughtiness of conscious right,
she abhorred the imputation on her faith—came out into
much bolder relief by reason of the contrast. When,
in the agonies of his doubts and fears, contending with
his undiminished love, Sir Walter adjures her to prove
to him her purity, that he may take her to his heart
again, the splendid burst of impassioned feeling with
which she thus replied held the audience spell-bound
for an instant, and then drew down a peal of the most
enthusiastic applause:—
" Never ! The woman once suspected
From that hour is never safe again;
The sacred fence that hedgel her in (when once
A doubt has entered) is broken down,
Another doubt will follow
With less obstruction. Easier still the next,
'Till they have worn themselves a beaten track,
And trust there dwells no more."
And when, in the phrensy of his jealousy, Sir Walter at
length utters language that, in her soul, she knows he
never should have addressed to his wife, the bitterness
of feeling with which, slowly, distinctly, and emphatic
ally, she said,

" I did not think
I could so nearly hate thee,"
was thrillingly, touchingly effective. Her despair in the
last act was really fearful; and altogether we have never
beheld a more perfect piece of acting. Miss Beaufort,
as Maud, the metamorphosed waiting maid, pleased
us greatly. In fact, both this clever actress, and
Miss Fitzpatrick, ea the malapert page, added mate-
rially to the success of the piece. The alternation be-
tween the nasal twang of stage Puritanism and her natu-
ral round and sparkling accents—the merry twinkle of
her laughing eye, shaming her demure garb, and her
perpetual returning to her own proper flirting self on
every possible opportunity, displayed rare -comie
powers, for which we frankly confess we did not
give Miss Beaufort sufficient credit. And then Miss
Fitzpatrick, as the Page, besides being admirably
dressed, and displaying, good reader, a very proper
leg, did not commit any of those mincing prettinesses
that young ladies in the male garb are given to, but ac-
quitted herself after such a bold and manly fashion as a
youth would do, engaged at twenty to be married to
that delicious bit of affected prudery, Maud. Baker's
Jabea Sneed wait too sardonic for our taste, but it was
clever, as everything is that he attempts; while
Bland, as the reckless Cavalier, and Barrett, as the
French Captain, performed the little they had to
do creditably. We cannot praise too highly the manner
in which The Wife's Secret was put upon the stage;
and our only wonder is, that, with the small encourage-
ment Mr. Calcraft has met of late, he could have
had the spirit to undertake the large expense it
must have entailed. The new scenery is splen-
didly painted. The antique fashion of the Round-
head's dwelling was exhibited in several life-like inte-
riors, and the presence of some of those rare old
chairs,
that curiosity-collectors have such a thirst for,
socienceo.
neTeahlemeßnotw;orr Cthheamcbeevree,liwerhicah form
added greatly to the general effect of the raise en
ndth
formed
of the place
of concealment for the Cavalier, and the Armoury,
in Sir Walter's mansion, pr'esented pictures of
the olden time especially worthy of commendation; and
indeed the new scenery altogether deserved the admira-
tion it elicited. The farce of the Irish Lion followed,
in which Hudson convulsed the house with laughter.
The Wife's Secret will be repeated to-night and on
Thursday, and as the present engagement cannot pos-
sibly be prolonged, we recommend our readers not to
omit the opportunity of being present on either occasion.
—Dublin Evening Packet, April 17.

Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Colonial office, for the Governors of Ceylon and Hong -
song.