The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-15 00:00:00

MORE THEATRICAL LITIGATIO

(From the Opera-Glass.)
THE RENTERS OF COVENT GARDEN THEATRE

AT WAR WITH THE HOUSE.
No sooner has the legal question been mooted of the closing
of Covent Garden Theatre against the performance of Italian
opera, than, pendente lite, and during the abeyance of that
important point, a hundred matters of public prerogative
spring forth and grow into greatness, from among the disjecta
membra of violated contracts and broken faith. While, with
a morality as bad as their law, and a want of principle as
desperate as their undertaking, the adventurers of Covent
Garden seem to have encouraged the delusion, that time can-
cels honour,—that integrity is banished by Act of Parlia-
ment,—that the value of a deed vanishes with its infraction,—
and the terms of a lease lose themselves among the years
which roll it on to its finality,—the public—holding very dif-
ferent and more constitutional views—determined after the
truth, deeming honesty sacred, and quickly jealous of Its pri-
vileges, begins to make the gates of the new Babel quake
under a thunder of its own, and is proclaiming a will and
purpose which defy, and will assuredly crush, inroad after
inroad upon its rights.
Our article of last week—copied in full into the public
jonrnals, and iterated by the country press—has not only
told its tale of terror to the Covent Garden contractorsfor the
" pig in the poke," but has set the holders of other vested
interests to see how far the infringers of one right will be
the despoilers of another.
A description appears in the papers of the alterations and
desecrations which have been made architecturally within the
house; the renters read it, and exclaim, " Why, this new
management is laying the foundation of another spoliation;
our money consideration for the renters' shares will be
abrogated, as the money consideration for Mr. Lumley's ex-
clusive right to the performance of Italian opera would have
been abrogated, but for a warning from justice, and the in-
stepping of the law."
At once the renters are in arms ; and the result of their
resolution is, that they will, in the event of the opening of the
theatre under the projected scheme, so legally enforce their
statutable privileges, that the subscribers will be quite as
ready as the Chancellor to close the house.
We have received a number of letters from this class of
property-holders of Covent Garden Theatre. One of them,
a gentleman of position, who has authenticated his statement
to us, has also forwarded extracts from the statute by which
the rights of the renters are secured. One of these is a provi-
sion that _ . _

" Each renter or his nominee shall be entitled to be pre-
sent at and see gratis, in ANY PART of COVENT GARDEN
TPIEATRE, or place to be used in lieu thereof, except the
stage and behind the scenes, and except the boxes reserved"
Lmeaning the private boxes previous to the present altera-
tions], " every theatrical or other performance which shall
be publicly exhibited at the above theatre," &c.
This is as unmistakeable as the deed quoted in our last.
Our correspondent very properly argues, that the manage
ment can have no legal right to convert those public boxes,
in all of which the renters liave saleable shares, into private
boxes, front which they are to be excluded. No; the ren-
ters will be legally free of the private boxes, as well as (by
matter of course) cf the stalls; " unless," as it is playfully
remarked, " the lessee can make out in a court of law that a
stall is a reserved box !"
With much moderation, our correspondent suggestively
hints, that " he (the lessee) should not attempt to infringe
their indisputable rights, and thereby provoke hostility and
litigation, to which he must eventually succumb."
\ien, this is a very pretty quarrel us it stands; but 0 ye
gods, to what a consummation does it lead ! There are hun-
dreds of renters; and all of them are not, like our correspon-
dent, of the genns gentleman. Many a man of them will
have " that as is his'n " at any sacrifice of courtesy or good
taste. Many of the renters' shares are in the hands of those
ho bought them for a guinea, and are now premiumising
them among the multitude upon the; temptation of a possible
contact with fine company.
In the Times they are advertised from day to day, and the
right of entree into stalls and private bastes is the democratic
impetus which sends them up. The right of inconvenienc
ing the aristocracy is something, and hundreds would pay
for it with brutal pleasure Imagine Lady —, a sub-
scriber, rapt in the luxury of some divine performance, sod-
desly started out of propriety by the appearance of the
market-gardener who supplies her ladyship's greenhouse,
in the distinguished society of her ladyship's cook I Con-
ceive another Jeames, of Berkeley Square, the nonchalant
occupier of the crimson-cushioned sitting of his lordship's
private box ! Fancy a true connoisseur, arrived a little
late in the pit, and finding an unrelenting renter in his
fancy stall. And again, how exquisitely the project of
a lady's omnibus box, par exemple (and we have heard that
such an absurdity is on the tapis), would assimilate with the
notion of some fair frail renter—from one of the resorts which
the theatre—presented with a lean share by the hard-ex-
torted liberality of some stockbroker's Newman Noggs,
claiming her right of entree among the polished coterie; and
afterwards setting the fashions of Hart-street, from a careful
imitation of the glories of the emigrants from the West I
We confess, however, that while thus alluding to the
abomination of those precincts of the theatre, which defile
it by immediate contact, there is, nevertheless, one ad-
vantage of locality, which stands out in fine relief, and es-
pecially for the quelling of the renters' rows. The police
station is the resort in esse, for all practical purposes,
and now there had better 'be established an electric
telegraph between Bow-street and the boxes, the
station and the stalls! Or should legal assistance be
required in an emergency, the aristocracy of the
theatre will be convenient for the opinion of the
learned Baron of the Judge and Jury Club! There
is no doubt now that the renters will have their rows, if they
do not have their rights • and as what has already been done
in the way of alteration 'demonstrates that the rights at least
are to be defied, it is as well to be in the neighbourhood of
the police-office, for the rows that follow. Lovers of disturb-
ance, too, may take a round dozen of nightly brawls into
their account of the evening's entertainments; and we shall
have the critics of the morning papers writing currente
catamo, " Box 49 interrupted this beautiful aria with an
enrcute in alto, in which it was completely lost;'' or " the
obstreperous behaviour of stall 86 led to an exchange of
cards, by which a noble lord found himself in prospect of a
duel with his cheesemonger." The old O.P. and P.S. riots
—which really were riots in their way—will revive their
formidable character—not like a " giant refreshed with
wine," but" like a revolution refreshed with renters," and
while parvenu fashionable do their pugilism in the pit, there
will be ladies in the boxes in an hysteria of consternation at
the determined presence of " those odious renters or their
abominable nominees."

BURNING OF THE THEATRE AT
CARLSRUHE
Thb Gazette de Carlsruhe of the 4th of March gives an
account of the interment of the unhappy victims of the late
awful fire. The whole city wore an air of deep mourning.
The shops and warehouses were closed. The funeral cortege,
accompanied by a crowd of the relatives and friends of the
deceased, followed by the greater part of the inhabitants of
the city, left the Hotel de Ville for the cemetery, which is
beyond the city.
This procession presented a most heart-rending spectacle.
Almost every individual was in tears, and the death-like
silence which prevailed was only interrupted by the sighs of
the mourners
Eight coffins enclosed the remains and the fragments dug
out of the ruins. The mutilated remains of those who were
involved in one common catastrophe are now laid in one

grave.
The Roman Catholic priest who accomppied the proces-
sion, with a Protestant clergyman and Jewish Rabbi, blessed
the ground in which they were about to be deposited.
The three ministers of the three different faiths, each in
his turn, said a last, prayer over the grave, which was fre-
quently interrupted by the great grief of the attendants.
According to the official list of the victims of this terrible
disaster, infancy and youth have been the principal suf-
ferers; of 62 names which are known, 29 young persons from
the age of 10 to 20, 22 from 20 to 30 years, and only 4 per-
sons of from 40 to 50, have perished.

THE WELLINGTON STATUE.
70 THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—In the pending controversy respecting the position of
the Wellington Statue,l beg very respectfully to suggest to the
gentlemen forming the committee of msnagement of the same
the propriety of exchanging the respective sites oft hat and the
statue of Achilles—a pedestal to be formed on the spot of the
latter of corresponding size and proportion to the colossal di-
mensions of the former.--I am, Sir, Sec., W. A.
Furnival's Inn, March 11, 1847.

" RUFF'S GUIDE TO TUE TURF " for the ensuing
season made its appearance on Thursday last, and from the
mass and variety of informationit offers in a, cheap and
pocketable shape, is likely to have a good run. Its chief con-
tents are a calendar of all the races in Great Britain in 184t3,
the entire English and Irish nominations for 1847, all the
great racing lots," a list of nearly four hundred trainers
and jockeys,
laws of racing, colours of the riders, lengths of
courses, Sic. Sce.
BRISTOL SUGAR-MARKET, MARCH 12.—A fair
amount of business has been done in our sugar-market this
week, and prices are rather dearer, particularly for Mauri•
tius, f which the assortment offering has been good. The
refined market is very quiet.—Bristol Mercury.
The statement of a dissolution of Parliament in
June is not at all likely to prove correct. Whatever may
have been the desire to bring the labours of the session to an
early termination, and to obtain the assistance of a new Par-
' lianient before the harvest, wee believe that the state of public
business affords no probability of such an arrangement.—
Observer.
MARRIAGE IN Man LlFE.—Viscount Ebrington,
eldest son of the Earl of Fortescue, was on Friday married
at Came, in Dorsetshire, to Miss Darner, eldest daughter of
the Hon. Colonel and Mrs. Dawson Darner. After the cere-
mony,
which was attended by a large circle of relatives of
both the noble and distinguished families, the noble pair left
for Dropmore.
CROCKFORD s CLUB HousE.—On Saturday, at the
Special Sessions for granting new licenses, held in the board-
room of the workhouse, Mount-street, Grosvenor-square, tip
plication was made for a license for the St. James's Assembly
Rooms and Club House, late Crockford's, in St. James's-
street. Mr. C. Clarkson read the petition of the applicant,
which was to the effect that he had taken the premises for
many years, which he bad refitted at a great expense. It
had been constructed for public balls and concerts, for the
amusement of the upper classes, from whom he had received
,
very extensive patronage. he applicant said that it would
be his constant endeavour to maintain order. He, therefore,
trusted that he should receive the countenance and support
of the bench. The chairman said, after some consideration,
that as it was intended to have public balls and concerts,
they must refuse the license, which they did unanimously.