The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-08 00:00:00

ENGLISH OPERA 110 USE.

Peake's pleasing piece, Manche of Jersey, was re-
vived here last night. To this succeeded Barnard's
laughable farce of the Mummy (the first time these
four years), in which Mr. G. Wild impersonated John
Reeve's celebrated character of Toby Tramp. Although
Mr. Wild's enacting of the part was somewhat deficient
in that unctuous drollery and comicality which Reeve
infused into it, yet, on the whole, it was an amusing and
humourous performance. To these were added the
burlesque burletta, the Area Sylph, the romantic
drama of Guido Fawkes, and also some miscellaneous
singing, the despatches of which detained an apparently
well-pleased audience beyond the midnight hour. The
Performances were for the benefit of Mr. Wild and Mr.
E. Harris.

SURREY.
. . .
Last night a new drama was produced successfully
at this theatre, under the title of the Peasant Judge;
or the Monarch of Savoy and the Son of the Alps.

LITERATURE.

OLIVER CROMWELL.-3 VaLs.
Colburn, London, 7 840.
The character of. Cromwell,
,which Clarendon,
Burnet, Hume, and others have loaded with such a
weight of obloquy, is now—thanks to the recent re-
searches of more candid historians—beginning to be
appreciated as it deserves. Time, which does justice
to all men who have played, an 'important part 'on
the world's stage, raising or depressing them to their
fitting level, and drawing forth the truth though
it may be deeper than ever plummet sounded—
Time, the avenger of the wrong, and the vindicator
of the right, has at length awarded to this illustrious
soldier and statesman his proper station in the
Temple of Fame. He is now acknowledged to
have been, what he really was, despite his inordi-
nate personal ambition, and frequent tortuous course
of policy, one of the most sterling public benefactors
that this country ever produced, and, just in propor-
tion as he has risen, has his rival Charles fallen in
popular. .estimation. Hume tasked all his, powers
of sentiment and expression to represent the Royal
despot as-a saint and martyr, and for years the his-
torian's influence was paramount ; but' our judg-
thent is no longer fettered ; the' scales are removed
froni our eyes ; we take Hume's authority for no
more than it is worth ; and see in " the man,
Stuart"—as the Independents called hini—nOt the
saint and martyr, but the fickle, treacherous, vindic-
tive tyrant, the tamperer with all parties, and the
traitor to all. It is curious to mark the causes
that led to the downfall of Charles the First in
England, and Louis the Sixteenth in .France.
In each instance, they were nearly, if not quite
the same. Both Kings were undone by their
wives. The fatal counsels of Henrietta con-
ducted Charles to the block ; the equally
disastrous influence of Marie Antoinette caused
Louis to perish by the guillotine. It tracing the
rise of Cromwell and Napoleon, we are still more
struck with the similarity of the causes that mainly
contributed to bring it about. It was his veteran
troop of Ironsides, which he had organized, and
drilled, and imbued with his own inflexible spirit,
just previous to the breaking out of hostilities
between the Court and the Parliament, that saved
Cromwell at that critical period of hisi-career, when
a great portion of the army began to exhibit dis,
trust of his motives ;—it was this gallant troop
that raised him to power, and by setting an ex-
ample of steadfast faith, enabled him to bear
down all opposition ; and, in like manner, it
was the army of Italy, which he had himself
changed from a body of raw, discontented, ill-dis-
ciplined soldiers, into one of self-confident heroes,
strictly amenable to discipline, and filled with admi-
ration of their young General, that revived the droop-
ing spirits of Napoleon on the memorable day of
Brumaire, and elevated him to the rank of First
Consul of France. Intracing the further fortunes
of these great men, we find them both mounting to
the summit of power by precisely the same means—
that is to say, by humouring and dexterously turn-
ing to their own account, the popular prejudices of
the day. Cromwell governed, by means of his ap-
peal to, the religious fanaticism of England ; Napo-
leon, by enlisting on his side the military enthusiasm
of France. The latter, we know, was quite sincere
in the court which he paid to the foible of the
" great nation," for' he was himself a national
zealot of the most ardent character ; but was
the former equally so, in the encouragement
which he gave, by his own example, to
religious phrenzy of the times ? 'Was' he a
hypocrite, or was he really and truly a fanatic ?
Did he believe himself man commissioned
of Heaven to " draw the sword of - the Lord
and of Gideon ;.',.or did he only affect this belief,
in order the :better to serve his purpoies of
,self-
aggrandisement ? We cannot answer this question.
The utmost' we can say is,• that as Cromwell's was
a complex chaiactera strange mixture of magna.
nimity and selfishness, of exalted enthusiasM and
consummate worldly shrewdness—it is not unlikely
that he was n fanatic up to the point (and no fur-
ther) that was necessary to keep alive the popular
ferment against Charles and his darling-Episeopaey.
jg the volumes before us, we have the character
of this immortal man pourtrayed with great spirit,
and in a nice vein of disgrimination. The author
(like ourselves) is evidently imbued with feelings of
warm admiration for Cromwell ; but we are not
aware that he awards to him more praise than is
his due ; indeed, in hiq 61.4 volume, he rather de-
preciates him than otherwise, by ling untiqc em-
phasis on his hatred and malignity towards the
ling,a spirit which he certainly did not evince
until 4a4 ginovered, after his memorable in-
terview with pharies ftf. Hrirton Court, that
not the slightest faith was to b 4 plved that
his professions. Then, indeedi,
fbruftromnottill
then, his determined animosity broke forth,
ands
bops 4,011) all before it. In conducting
the plot of srii'siory, X4e =.9lov,Til
fortu-
nate ; indeed his tale, • str4ptlY no
piot but pupsists, for the most part, of seyeral
stirring incidents ihrown spmewbgt ponfosedly to 7
gether, with a view to bring out the more marked