The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-27 00:00:00

LON-DON, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 27, 1847.

( what secret papers should or should not he produced,
was vested absolutely and entirely in that branch of her
jesty's Government.
Sir JAMES LAW LUSHINGTON supported the motion
for adjc:urnment.
Mr SAVAGE was decidedly of opinion that the Raja.
of Sattara had been cruelly illtreated, and he should
support the original motion.
Mr. HAT MACKENZIE maintained that the papers
ought to he within+ i from the Court or the public, with.
out. the President of the BOard of Control gave suffieiet•t
retwins fur their concealment' He had iti,encled to move
That by the general law and usage regulating the ad-
ministration of the affairs of India, it is required that all
important proceedings of the sevi.ral Governments in
that countr) shal be regularly recoided, and that the
record of such pr, dings shall, with the special exc,p
ti• nof case,: tevi i-g rrrec), be commun;cated to the
Court of Directors. That in order to mnietain that
p.inciple, it is essential that no proceedings shall
originate with the Secret Oomtnitte, s unle.•s the R aril of
0,,,,,mi,i0nen, shall be of opinion that there is one
requiring secrecy. and that no ree(Til of .the proceedings
of tiny of thy' Indian Governments shall be retainf-d in
the secret department unless the said Board reprecented
by i,s president s. ha!) declare that to divul,e the contents
ow. f would be inlurions to the public interests.
Th,tt th“ papers now required by this Court. have been
withheld without any such declaration on the part of
th, B.,ard of Conimi,,sioners. and that, cons. quentiv, it
is the right :IA duty of this Gala to adhere to anti re
itenite :he re,olution pas,ed on the 25th of March
After some further discussion, in which Rungo
Ripojee, Mr. Twining, Mr. Sergeant Gazelee, and others,
took part,
Mr. LEWIS replied.
The Gotta then diviti,d, when there appeared—
For the adjournment .
Against it
Majority
The Court then adjouroA, at five o'clock

LITERATURE.
T_M WORLD'S' (7( ) IiPLAIN7"; and Other Poems.
By Charktte Young.
Among the many absurd notions now prevalent not
one is more absurd than that whi,h is so frequently
expressed, that the age of poetry has departed. It is
presumed that we are become so thoroughly an
utilitarian generation that we are wholly incapacitated
from participation iu the divine and spiritual regions
of the Poet. Our hearts are somehow considered to
he case hardened against all the gentler and holier
emotions. Men are depicted now-a-days as though
they were digesting auto'uata, thriving upon a heart-
less system of materialism, and yearning only for the
acquisition of wealth and the extension of a dry and
debasing knowledge. Monstrous as have been the
papullr delusions by which the energies of the com-
munity have been from time to time weakened and
misdirected, we maintain this to be the grossest
dilution by which society has ever been afflicted.
We maintain it to he a grosser delusion than that
,xtutel by .iternholt and Hopkins, than the credulity
in alchemy, than the helief in El Dorado, than the
superstition of the Chinese cobbler who refused to kill
the ducks wad Ihuig about his garden for fear that
peradventure one among them might have originality
been his grandmother. We maintain that Poetry
would now find as many appreciators as in the days of
Cowley or Byron—if not more! Notwithstanding
that our sylvan scenes are being marred by the en-
croachments of railways, that the picturesqueness of
the " pebbly dips" is destroyed by a gradient, or the
loveliness of the dingles interrupted by enormous
cuttings, we are satisfied that the worshippers of
Nature are more numerous than in the days of the
most bucolic minstrels from Virgil to Shenstone. To
express our meaning in the language of mythological
allegory, if- the strings of the Orphean lyre could
again vibrate—even though it were in the vicinity of
some branch of the Great Western Railway—the
trees, and the rocks, and the brambles, and the brutes
of the field would have as much inclination to dance
to the sound of its melody as they had in the days of
ancient Greece, and that is saying a great deal! Talk
as we may of our having become a more money-
getting race than formerly, we are convinced that the
ears of the million are not impervious to the voice of
the Poet, that they are not one jot less ready to wel-
come that voice than their predecessors ; that on the
contrary, the Poet may be certain of a more nnmerous
and discriminating, and even a more enthusiastic
audience than at any anterior period whatever. Mr.
Payne Collier may tell us of the Roxburghe ballads,
and Bishop Percy may become garrulous upon those
relating to Robin and his merry men of the thicket,
but we would ask them if ever ballads penetrated the
ears and the hearts of a whole nation so instantaneously
and earnestly as did the ballads of Thomas Hood ?
That is one instance out of a multitude in proof of our
argument. Let the name of your poet he as un-
poetical and uncaptivating as you please—let it las
James Hogg, or Thom the weaver, or Ebenezer Elliot,
or Motherwell, or what not—let his theme he as lowly
and uninspiring as it may be, upon a broomstick, or a
debate lin Parliament, or a milliner, or even a suicide
of a class that shall he nameless—iri spite of all this,
in spite of the jeers and decisions of the unsympa-
thising few, in spite of that utilitarianism of which we
are so perpetually reminded, the voice of' a true poet
is always listened to with attention, and his words
chronicled in the memories of the people. In this
manner, unassisted, unpuffed, and unparaded, Alfred
Tennyson has gradually grown up into a classic. A
goodly number of poetical writers now living, have,
ia this manner, surrounded themselves with thousands
of ad miring enthusiasts. Even the poet-actor can collect
an audience now by his small pipings We are satis-
fied therefore that the old outcry, that poetry is a
Irug in the literary market, is all nonsense ;
and we are rejoiced whenever any one is
adventurous enough to put in his denial
against the clamour by the publication of
verse—especially when it happens to be particultrly
excellent. The World's Coaiplaint, therefore, and
other poems, by Charlotte Young, are welcome ta us.
They are certain, moreover, of a cordial greeting and
an unbiased perusal from the public; like all similar
attempts to enshrine household thoughts and loving
principles in the amber of song. S'thiller, indeed,
has shown in a magnificent allegory, that at no period
can the magic of poetry he wielded in vain over the
multitude. In his exquisite poem of " The Partition
of the Earth," he describes how the Deity on the
rormation of the globe distributed the different por-
tions of the creation to different classes—the forest to
the hunter, the plain to the husbandman, the flood to
the fisherman, the main to the merchant. When the

partition is completed, "a figure comes listlessly on."
Lord Francis Leveson Gower has translated the Ger-

man original into English, with so much elegance,
that we quote a fragment of his version :
" The mien of disorder, the wreath which he wore,
And the phrenzy that fll-k-d from his eye,
And the lyre of ivory and gild which he bore,
Proela;med that the Poet was nigh ;
And he rushed all in tears at the fatal decree,
To the foot of the Thunderer'S throne,
And complained that no soot of the earth or the sea,
beenEiad given the Bs'd as his own.
The earth, said the Godhead, is portion'd away ;
Arid I cannot revere the decree ;
But Cie Heavens are mine, and the regions of day,
And their portal is open to thee,"
There is a poet's guarantee that his art can never
become old ! The little volume before us then comes
not in an unfitting season. It has been written as
the writer professes in her miniature preface, in the
hope that its readers "may find scattered here and
there some stray thought that may become a happy
one." As such it must be received then. The pieces
a,e fugitive, upon odd and capricious fancies associated
with life, and death, and home, and nature. That
the author has a natural capacit for the art is shewn,
we think, in a single line in they' Song of the Turret
('lock," when tne spirit of the clock—not the Chimes
h-la-Boz—has beer, commenting upon the fact of the
hands having been crumbled into clay by which it
had been constructed, and of it, a mere creature of
metal, still throbbing on after its creator is dead.
But, "Alas!" it cries,

'tis a glorious thing to die!
I've hat' d
Occasionally we percei-vtei!aisnyvnalinatthysigbhe:t'aieen the
imagination of Charlotte Young- sympathy
that ofsome of
Fto or instance,subject
u.ee t t%arecollectionwritten
ittheenrs
oblinyineet
hsc
he
auwrpmioine.
i,h,neFgr
rvoesrt:esatuonce contemporaries.
trbe ec al
samel
of the author of " Paracel,us," late Elizabeth Barrett
Barrett. Again we can d-tect a similarity between
the ideas and language of the former that sometimes
altno4 amounts to plagiarism. Take as an example
the piece beginoing—
h looking round
" How strange it eqms, while
trees,
To think this piercing winter b!ast
Will yield to gentlest brei.ze ;
Upon the leafie,s
That brooks in icy fevers bound
Once more will flow along,
And once again the echo mock
Tne amoreus bl4cabird's s• ng."
The notion of this—very prettily and newly ex-
pressed, it is true—is however identical with those
quaint but delicious stanzas of Keats, beginning—
" In a drear-nighted D.-cetnber,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne'er remember
Their green felicity :
The north cannot undo them,
With it sleety wh'stle through them ;
Nor frozen thawings glue then*
From budding at the prime."
As a.,peohnio of the writer's poetical straiiii -we. give
These; dainty 'verses :
Sing on, gay birds !
Tho' leave,: are falling fast,
And one by one
Your summer joys go past,
Yet still sing on !
81. orn on, fair flowers !
Tho' blows the autumn wind,
And pelting rains
Fall dismal and unkind,
Yet still blipaa on !
Smile on, bright eyes !
Do' you have seen d; part
Y ,ur youths' best hopes,
The childhood of your heart,
Yet still smile on !
Hope on, young hearts
Tho' you have learn'd to call
All live a cheat,
That cheers but to enthrall,
Yet still bope On !
Of h ippy thoughts like these the book has many ,
the expectations of the authoress will therefore he
realised.

aal rta lavishs
concise
abundance
but
KNIGHT'S ONE -VOLUME RDIrrON OF
SHAKSPERE. Parts I. and a
The present work is about the cheapest and most
valuable that has perhaps ever been printed em-
rokrtsp,
ptsirhgiasuilln,gpitetrhieentiwrnohdotutiveceto(l) f
rey t hexplanatory marginal notes, and the frontispiece to
each of the dramas from the pencil of William Harvey
—the notes, the text, and the embellishments being
vrelmm shillingam
identical with those contained in Mr. Knight's more
voluminous and more costly edition. To the people
this publication must prove an inestimable boon, for it
will place the most wonderful writer of any age or
country within the reach of the most moderate
incomes, and form at the same time a really elegant
book when completed.

ivetsyxofvzt_hexx.
-ElLtionary pen;eatrnaEateN:eGfsulritShuelHdr
GI:
sIIEthIiLsITAPVS9rGiDoUdIiA:C.ajI
into the alphabet its utility and comprehensiveness
become more apparent. It is the very condensation
andl(i 4qceucni,tesse.:7l7. of
plan
nn :xnte•ynci
ileor eodni ai
ti.
completion to
the compilation of a popular and accessible biogra-
phical and geographical dictionary—a dictionary, say,

mentioning the name of every remarkable individual
in ancient or modern tunes, of positive existence or of
a merely supposititious existence, as in mythology,
naming merely the principal events in their careers,
the periods of their birth and death, and other simple
details. in the geographical department might be
comprised all the advantages of a gazetteer with divers
improvements, such as the result of the last census of
each town, the legislative influence possessed by its
inhabitants in sending a representative to the House
of-Commons, or the Peninsular Cortes, or the French
Chamber of Deputies, or the Prussian Diet, or the
Roman Conclave, &c. In all essential respects as an
etymological and pronouncing dictionary the present
one is complete.

MOZART'S "IL DON GIOVANNI."
Mr. Holmes, in his " Life of Mozart," gives the
following interesting history of the opera of Don
Juan :
" His emotion at the' reception of Figaro in Prague
was so great that he could not help saving to the
manager, Bondini, As the B ,heinians understood
me so well, I must write an opera on purpose for
them.' Bondini took nun at his word, and entered
with him on the spot into a contract to furnish his
theatre with an opera for the ensuing winter. Thus
was laid the foundation of 11 Don Giovanni. Hav-
ing now completed all his arrangements for Don
Giovanni, he set off on a second expedition to Prague,
accompanied by his wife. Not a note of the
music of his opera was yet upon paper, but he
had thoroughly digested the sulject in his mind.
The original libretto, entitled, dissoluto punito
ossia II Don Giovanni,' was adapted by Da Ponte
from the Spanish tale, El combidado de piedra,' of
'Firs° de Molina ; and of all the dramatic subjects
treated by Mozart, this appears to have taken the
strongest hold on his imagination. From the
beginning to the end he has sustained it without a
symptom of fatigue. On reaching Prague, he first
took up his quarters at the inn called the 'Three Lions,
in the Coal-market ; but subsequently removed to his
friend Dussek's, who resided at a vineyard at Koschitz,
in the picturesque suburbs of the city. Here, on an
elevated site, which commanded a view of the antique
magnificence of Prague, its faded castles, ruined
cloisters, and other majestic remains of feudal times,
under the mild rays of an autumnal sun and in the
open air, Don Giovanni was written. Dussek's
house was a scene of great resort and revelry while
Mozart was his guest, and it is remembered that
there was often considerable playing at bowls in his
grounds. In the midst of all the talk and laughter
with which the amusement was attended, the com-
poser pursued his work; but rose from time to time,
when it came to his turn to take part in the
game. The original score of this opera is written
on various kinds of music paper, apparently the first
that came to hand. Nothing more happily illus-
trates the decision of Mond, who never made
sketches, or retouched compositions ; though we now
and then find him improving a thought in the act of
.writing. Il Don Giovanni was finally completed,
excepting the overture, on the 28th of October, 1787,
about six weeks after Mozart's arrival at Prague.
[he parts were given out to the singers as they were
finished, and the composer rehearsed them privately
with each, while the rest of his work was in course
of completion. A week only was left for stage re-
hearsals ; from which fact, much previous and a good
general notion of the business of the drama are to be
oreauppOsed. In directing the first rehearsal of his
opera, he- was obliged to stow the orchestra at the
scene in the ceaietery Di rider finirai,' Ribald°
audace,' &c., as one of the trombone players did not
execute his part correctly. The scene was origin-
ally accompanied by three trombones only. As the
passage, after repeated attempts had no better suc-
cess, Mozart went to the desk of the player, and
explained to him that he would have it done.
The man, who was a crusty fellow, answered
with some rudeness, It is impossible to play ;
and if Ican't play it, I am sure you can't teach me.'
Heaven forbid,' returned the composer, smiling, 'that
I should attempt to teach you the trombone; here,
give me your part, and I will soon alter it.' He did
so on the spot, and added two oboes, two clarionets,
and two bassoons. The coincidence of the modula-
tion in this celebrated scene, and of the oracle in the
Alceste of Gluck, is remarkable. Mozart has, how-
ever, strikingly improved upon his model, and in-
creased the solemn and uneari hly effect of the voice of
the Commendatore, by terminating on the fifth of the
key. The original Zerlina of the opera was Signora
Bondini, daughter of the manager. In rehearsing
this part of the finale of the first act, where she is
seized by Don Giovanni, there was some difficulty in
getting her to scream in the right manner and place ;
it was tried repeatedly, and failed. At length Mozart,
desiring the orchestra to repeat the piece, went quietly
on the stage, and awaiting the time that she was to
make the exclamation, grasped her so suddenly and so
forcibly, that., really alarmed, she shrieked in good
earnest. Ile was now content. That is the way,' said
he, praising her, you must cry out just in that
manner.' He gave at this time a fresh instance of
his extraordinary memory. The drum and trumpet
oarts to the finale of the second act of Don Giovanni
were written by him without the score, from mere
recollection. He brought them himself into the or-
chestra, and giving them to the players, said.
• Pray, gentlemen, be particularly attentive at this
place,' pointing t', one, as I believe that there are
four bars either too few or too many.' It proved to
be as he had sail. The brass instruments have fre-
quently no place in the original scores of Mozart.
tie wrote them continually on a separate paper,
carrying the composition in his memory at the time.
Everything went so smoothly and comfortably in
the production of this opera, that the time was one
of great enjoyment to the composer. At the conclu-
sion of the first rehearsal, he went out walking with
the organist and orchestra director, Kucharz. Among
other confidential WI, the discourse fell upon the new
opera ; and Mozart asked, What is your opinion of
of Don Giovanni. It is quite of a different character
to Figaro. Do you think that it will please as much ?,
On receiving an encouraging reply, he continued,
Your assurance quiets me ; it comes from a con-
noisseur. But, indeed I have spared neither labour
nor pains to produce something extraordinary for
Prague. It is a very great error to suppose that my
art has become so exceedingly easy to me, I assure
you there is scarcely any one who has so worked at
the study of composition as I have, You could hardly
mention any famous composer whose writings I have
not diligently and repeatedly studied throughout.'
The time pasted in festivities of various kinds, and the
composition of the overture to Don Giovanni was en-

tirely neglected until the night of the 3d November,
1787. This was the eve (if his great triumph. A large
Party was assembled at Dussek's, and Mozart was en-

joying hitnself with Vaem, apparently thoughtless of
the overture. His friends, however, became uneasy, and
one of them said to him, ' Mozart, the first perform-
ance of Don Giovanni is to-morrow, and you have not
yet written the overture.' He appeared to consider
awhile, and about midnight retired to his apartment,
desiring his wife to make him some punch, and to
stay with him- to keep him awake. Schlectegroll
thus records the circumstance, which has been con-
firmed by the widow herself. ' She accordingly be-
gan to tell him fairy tales, and odd stories, which
made him laugh till the tears came. The punch, how-
ever, occa-ioned such a drowsiness, that he could
only go on while his wife was talking; as soon as she
ceased, he dropped asleep. The effort svhicb he made
to keep himself awake, the continued alternation of
sleep and watching so fatigued him, that his wife
persuaded him to take some rest, promising to awake
him in an hour's time. He slept so profoundly that
she suffered him to repose for two hour's. At five
o'clock in the morning she awoke him. He had ap-
pointed the music copiers to come at seven, and
by the time they arrived the overture was finished:
['he overture was ready by the morning, but
the copyists were less diligent or less successful with
their work. The opera should have commenced at
seven in the evening, but there was no overture, and '
the crowded theatre was kept waiting until a quarter
to eight, when the parts were hastily brought into the
orchestra covered with sand, and with them entered
Mozart, to take his place as conductor. His appear-
ance was greeted by the general applause of the
theatre; and the unrehearsed overture was then com-
menced. During its performance the audience gave
many signs of renewed pleasure, which at length broke
out into a loud exclamation. When the curtain rose
and the first scene of the opera was going forward,
Mozart said to some of the musicians near him, "The
overture went off very well on the whole, although a
good many notes certainly fell under the desks." He
was well acquainted with the talent of the
orchestra of Prague, ani it is not unlikely
that this most unusual exhibition of an over-
ture played without a rehearsal was a de•
signed compliment to it. The original cast of
the characters were as follows :—Don Giovanni,
Signore Bassi ; Don Ottavio, Signor Baglioni ; Lepo-
rello, Signor Felice Ponziani; Don Pedro the com-
mandant and Masetto, Signor Lolli ; Donna Anna,
Signora Saporiti; Donna Elvira, Signora Mecelli ;
Xerlina, Signora Bondini.
"Thus with no other inducement than love for his
art, and attachment and gratitude to his audience at
Prague, Mozart produced another great work, com-
bining the labour of the greatest melodist, sympho-
nist and master of dramatic expression ever united in
the same individual. Whether we regard the mix-
ture of passion in its concerted music, the profound
expression of melancholy, the variety of its situations,
the beauty of its accompaniment, or the gradeur of its
heightened and protracted scene of terror in the finale
, of the seconi act, Pon Giovanni stands alone in dra-
m2.,tic eminence. Of all musical romances it is cer-
tainly tha first. lie received about one hundred
ducats for this opera—a slender c in -ideration, which
i was a little auzmented by the sale of scores I
•
to the the tires of Vienna and Warsaw ; but when he
i found how badly his opera was got up at Vienna, he
regretted that his necessities had prevailed with him

to let it be played. Don Gtovannt, said he, was
rather written for Prague than Vienna, but chiefly
for myself and my friends. It is an extraordinai y
fact that the Tarrare of Salieri, which was brought
forward at Vienna with Mozart's new opera, far ow--
stripped it in popularity. At this distance of time it
appears strange that an opera, known only for one
tolerable ronncVshould have had the success described;
but the fortune- of works, when backed by the i::
fluence of living composers, and when submitted aPer-
wards to the tribunal of posterity, is Often very dif-
ferent. Tarrare is now only named with a smile, or
to provoke the inquiry, What was it all atiout ?'
The criticism which the Viennese made upon his best
operas tried his forbearance to the utmost. He had heard
it said of Figaro, that it was too difficult,' and ' too
much spun out for a comic opera,' and now he heard of
Don Wovanni, that fur a romantic opera it was too
learned, too much crowded with effects of scientific har-
mony.' Ciiticism of this kind, taint praise qualifies
with-blame, was beStoWed on Don Gi Tanni by an
assembly of composers and dilettanti at the house o
Prince Radzit% ill, where that work was performs,i
soon after its production. Haydn, who h:id long sat
silent at this party, was at length appealed to 'lt is
difficult to decide,' said he, among your various
opinions. All I know is,' he added with vivacitv
that Mozart is the greatest composer now f xistino..►•
The floe compositions in the appendix to Don Giovanh,
distinguish the year 1788. In this he introduce,:
some of the singers, who thought themselves neglecte.l
with regard to songs, into more prominent sirtiations
in that opera. The fine song of 'Don Ottavio,
sua pace, was composed for M. Morella; the due;
between Zerlina and Leporello' Per quella tue manine:
for Madame Monbelli and Signor Benaci ; and th,
recitative and aria of 'Elvira, Ali tradi,' for Madllf.
Cavallieri. We are thus furnished with the names o•
the original representatives of these characters a.
Vienna, and the pieces he now supplied for them ar,
in no respect inferior to those written in the first hen'
of production."