The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-27 00:00:00

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.

PROMENADE CONCERTS.

These, the original Promenade Concerts, still
keep up their high character. We visited them
last evening, and were delighted with the admirable
precision with which this excellently-drilled band
performed the music selected for the evening's
amusement. It was like ()Le vast instrument, in-
spired by one mind.
The evening's performance commenced with We-
ber's clief dceuvre, the Overture to Oberon. To
this succeeded a very pretty MS. set of Quadrilles,
by M. De Folly, which were much and deservedly
applauded ; and then came Bishop's beautiful
air, " Lo, here the gentle Lark," arranged as
a duo for the flute and elarionet, and most
exquisitely performed by Messrs. Richardson and
Lazarus. It was indeed a treat of a high order.
This introduction of duos is a most judicious inno-
vation on the established order of things in the
Promenade Concerts, and will doubtless tend to in-
crease their popularity. We trust that the conduc-
tors will give us others of our native melodies simi-
larly arranged. "Oh Nanuie," for instance, and
might be arranged in such a manner
most effective duos. In the mean time,
amnsoalooyvmoertahkoeefrspre and beautiful melody should miss
the opportunity of hearing Messrs. Richardson and
Lazarus perform " Lo, here the gentle Lark."
" Otello," Monsieur
Laurent,
a-piston, with a firmness and precision that
Overtureperformed to
a
o
solo on the cornet-
Aftern
s isoi
deservedly drew down the most rapturous
applause of his delighted auditors. Taking for his
theme the beautiful air of " Happy Land," he gave
a series of variations of his own composition, that
do equal credit to his talents as a performer and a
composer, and in which he seems to have purposely
accumulated all the difficulties of the instrument
' only to show his perfect mastery in overcoming it.
A pretty manuscript set of quadrilles by Tolbecque,
and Jullien's celebrated waltz Le Rossignol, com-
pleted the first part. The piccolo solo in this last
piece was given by Monsieur De Folly ; the pre-

cision of his touch and the clearness of his tone is
quite equal to Jullien, and his performance is all
the more pleasing from the absence of that exces-
sive action, bordering occasionally on the grotesque,
with which Mons. Jullien used to garnish his per-
formance of this beautiful waltz. In the second part
we had anew fantasia, arranged by Fessy,from Doni-
zetti's opera of " Lucia di Lammermoor," em-
bodying all the beauties of that favourite opera,
and containing a beautiful quintette for the flute,
oboe, clarionet, bassoon, and cornet-a-piston, ex-
cellently performed by Messrs. Richardson, Grat-
tan Cooke, Lazarus, Baumann, and Laurent, jun.
We had also the overture to " Fra Diavolo ;" a
solo on the bassoon, admirably performed by Bau
mann ; besides waltzes and quadrilles. These Con-
certs are now even better than those of last year,
inasmuch as they are more varied ; and he must in-
deed be a person of most difficult musical taste, who
cannot find something in them to afford him amuse-
ment. The house, although not uncomfortably
crowded, was well filled.

PROPOSED ALTERATIONS IN

THE CUSTOMS' DUTIES.

The following paragraph appeared in the London
Price Current of Friday last, with reference to an
alleged recommendation of the Committee of last Ses-
sion appointed to consider the working of the duties on
imports :

"CUSTOMS' DUTIES.-It is proposed by the Corn-
mittee appointed to revise the Customs' Duties to
make the following alterations :—The present rates on
clayed sugar, which are now 635., to be re-
duced to 505., and Muscovado to 20s. British plan-
tation, clayed or refined, to be reduced to 205.,
and Muscovado to 1.55. Refined sugar, rated at 81.
Bs., to be reduced to 50s. per cwt. Coffee and cocoa,
which are at present rated at ls. 3d. per pound, to be
reduced to 9d., and British plantation to sd. per pound.
N'4lle4 to be admitted at a duty of Bs. per quarter,
and other articles of food, including butchers' meat, at
proportionate low rates. Raw materials at present
subject to various duties to be reduced generally to
21 per cent. Cotton-wool and other materials of manu-
factures reduced to 1 per cent. Manufactures of
silk, leather, linen, and other similar articles to be re-
duced to 20 per cent., and minerals to 1 per cwt."
It is not true that the Committee proposed these
alterations. They appear, indeed, in the appendix of
the report of the Committee, under the head of " Pro
Forma Table, or Tariff of New Customs' Duties upon
a more equitable and fiscal basis," recommended by Mr.
John M'Gregor one of the joint secretaries of the Board
of Trade, who stated in his evidence, that he was of
opinion that the increase of consumption consequent
upon the reduction of duties which he proposed, would
advance the customs' duty from 22,962,0001. (the
amount of 1839) to 28,850,025/.
These alterations are of great importance, and would,
no doubt, be extremely useful both to the revenue and
the country, especially that. which proposes to fix the
duty on wheat at Bs. a quarter, but still it is desirable
that the exact state of the case with regard to the re-
commendation of them should be known.

ASSIZE COURT OF L'ALLIER.

(From the Gazelle des Tribunaux.)

The Court has been occupied during the present
session with several charges of stealing vases and other
consecrated articles from churches in France.

The first of these robberies took place in the Church.
of St. Pierre, at Moulins, on the night of the 30th of
December last. The doors of the sacristy and taber-
nacle had been forced open by the aid of a crow-bar, the
marks of which were visibly enough left behind ; and
drops of wax on different parts of the floor showed that
the thief had used a lighted wax taper fot' the pur-
pose of assisting him to commit his depredations. In.
on examination it was found that one of the wax
candles was missing from one of the lustres in the
Church, and that to reach it the thief had stepped up on
the green cover of a large arm chair ; and the mark of
the heel of a boot in which there had been nails was
plainly to be seen both on this chair cover and at the
altar of the Virgin. On further search there were
missing two silver cups, a pyx, a patena, two proces-
sional crosses, a plated dish, and the wand of the ver-
ger, which was mounted with silver. It appeared that
the thief must have concealed himself in the church on
the day preceding the robbery, as there were no marks
of violence from without.

It was subsequently discovered that a man named
Tonard, a liberated convict, had been seen on the night
in question, about midnight, near one of the entrances
to the Church of St, Pierre, and during the evening
walking about the streets of Moulins. Suspicion at
once fell on him, and he was arrested at his lodgings at
Lenaz, in the canton: of Donjon, which being searched
a large portion of a processional cross of copper, plated
with silver, was found, which had evidently been but
recently broken. Tonard himself was found to be pos-
sessed of about 150 francs, and of a paper which showed
that on the 4th January, 1840, he sold a pair of ear-
rings to a goldsmith, named Villard, atGannat.
The prisoner was taken to Moulins, and recognised
as having been seen there on the day of the robbery.
On being questioned as to the churches of Moulins, ha
declared he had never visited any of them, but he was
identified by the sacristan of St. Pierre, as having been
there several times. Oa comparing the heel of one of
a pair of boots found at his lodgings with the marks on
the chair cover, it corresponded exactly. Moreover the
broken piece of the cross was identified by the cure of
St. Pierre and his vicars choral and choristers, and was
the only portion missing, the other parts having been
found in a neivhbouring wood shortly after the robbery,
as well as the other cross and the plated dish. It was be-
lieved that the prisoner had an accomplice, in the per-
son of a dishonest silversmith. He contented himself
before the Court with simply denying
rather conclusive against him, he everything that
was alleged against him, and, when matters appeared
exclaimed, " Oh
settle it as you will."

At the conclusion of the evidence of the facts de-
tailed, the Jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and the
Court sentenced him to twenty years'
public exposure.
hard labour with

VIENNA, OCT 15.—The account given in your
paper (the Allyemeine Zeieung) of the embarkation of Rus-
sian troops at Sebastopol and Odessa, rests on a mistake,
which may have been occ,isioned bythe circumstance that
General Luders caused the alarm to be given at Sebls?..o-
poi es a trial, in order to convince himself that every thing
was ready for embarkation at the first order.
the fact, that, though G.x>rge Cruikhank
GEORGE CRUIKSIIANK'S SINGULAR. ME
moat'.—What must appear, perhaps, very extraordinary is
trian along the streets with his eyes seeminglY fix"
on
vacancy, or as if uncomcious that there is a single human.
plays the pedes
being on the pavement but himself, he even then brings
home with him the most vivid rerembrance of anything
droll or ludicrous, whether in the shape of a living humanity
or of any other object which may'have crossed his path, or
whose path he may have crossed. And not only so,
but he will, at the distance of several months, summon
days and weeks.. To call this singular
again into his mental presence such persons or objects, and
transfer. them to his copper or steel, with as much fidenty
and minute accuracy, as if they had been in his study for
of extraordinary memory,employ the. proper
is not to power an exercise
phraseology. : it is a species of intuition : it is genius of a
peculiar. as well as of the highest order : it is somethinz
resembling a supernatural' gift _Pottrizts of Public
Characters, by the Author of ~.Random Recollections."