The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-28 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY VENING

No. 16,934.

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES UNION
RAILWAY COMPANY.
Notice is hereby given, that a SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING
of the SHAREHOLDERS of this COMPANY will be held, at the
London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, in the City of London, on WED-
NESDAY, the 20th day of January next, at One o'clock, P.m., for the
purl ose of taking into consideration and approving, or otherwise, the
proposed application to Parliament for the partial Deviation of the
line, and the Amendment of the Act constituting this Company.
Al,o, in compliance with the requisition of the shareholders, for
the further purpose of 'sting into consideration and approving. or
otherwise, certain propositions for an Ama!gamation of this Company
with the Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction
Railway Company.
Any shareholders who desire proxies in order to vote at the said
Meeting will have the same forwarded to them on applying at the
Company's offices, and by payment of the 2s. 6d. each, the cost of
the stamp. By order of the Board.
CHARLES LOCOCK WEBB, Secretary.
Dated Company's Offices, 1, Peet's-corner, Westminster,
December 18. 1846.

BY ORDER OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY-
On and after WEDNESDAY next, the 30th instant, in com-
pliance with the orders of the Postmaster-General, the NIGHT
MAIL from Exeter to Paddington, will start at 9 r.m. instead of
9 35 P.M., as heretofore; it will leave Bristol at 11 50 p.m., Glou-
cester at 11 40 P.M., Oxford at 1 45 A.M., and the other Stations in
like proportion. Particulars of which may be ebtained at the Rail-
way Stations.
The Train from Teignmonth, in connexion with the Night Mall,
will start at 8 10 roc
By order of the Directors.
CHAS. A. SAUNDERS, Secretary.

CAUTION TO MOTHERS.
MRS JOHNSON'S AMERICAN SOOTHING
SYRUP.

This efficacious remedy has been in general use for upwards o
Thirty Years, and has preserved numerous Childress when suffering
from Convulsions arising from painful Dentition. As soon as the Sp-
..sp is rubbed on the Gums, the Child will be relieved, the Gums
soled, Ind the inflammation reduced. It is as innocent as efficacious,
tending to. produce the Teeth with ease ' • and so pleasant that no
Child will refuse to let its Gums be rubbed with it. Parents s,.uld
be very particular to ask for JOHNSON'S A.MERICAN SOOTIIIINTG
SYRUP, and to notice that the names of Barclay and Sons, 95, Far-
ringdon-street, London (to whom Mrs. Johnson has seld the recipe),
are on the Stamp affixed to each Bost a Price 2s. 3,1. per Bottle.

THEATRES-THE PANTOMIMES.

DRURY LANE.

Belle's new opera of The Bondman (Harrison, al-
though evidently still suffering from indisposition, being
sufficiently recovered to resume his part), was repeated
here on Saturday evening, previous to the production of
the now pantomime ; and we were delighted to
find that a Boxing-night audience had sufficient
taste to appreciate this the chef d'oeuvre of Balfe,
which was listened to throughout with the greatest
attention, was enthusiastically applauded, by a house
crammed to the ceiling. The pantomime, which is from
the pen of Mr. Morton, is entitled Harlequin and St.
George and the Dragon, and was completely successful.
It opens with the abode of Kalyba the Enchantress (Mr.
H. Horncastle), a locality not exactly known, but con-
considered by the Antiquarian Society to have been
discovered "somehow or other—sometime or other—
near somewhere or other." Kalyba is attended by
fiends and furies, and is: soon joined by the
spirits of the elements, Fire, Air, Earth, and
Water. The March of Intellect (Miss Anne
Payne), however, arrives in a balloon, and
puzzles Kalyba sadly. The Enchantress, by the aid of
air and water, drives a ship on a lee shore, but March of
Intellect, by means of a steam tug, again gets her into
deep water. Aided by fire and earth, Kalyba rends a
mountain asunder, creating a horrible chasm. Straight-
way March of Intellect bridges over the chasm,
by means of a viaduct, along which is seen
a railway train, proceeding on its journey.
Kalyba feels that her reign is nearly at an end, and
therefore determines to do all the mischief that she can,
and she therefore proceeds to Coventry Castle, where
she gets possession of St. George and the Seven Chatn-
pions—juvenile Champions, as yet, without any know-
ledge of arms except their nurses'—and takes them off.
According to the approved rule in " domestic dramas of
intense interest," an interval of fifteen years takes
place between this and the next scene, as is
shown by the following notice:—" Nothinge material to
our historie" occurring during a period of fifteen years,
the author trusts that the audience will allow him to cut
it, and come again to scene 4, Kalyba's House of Correc-
tion. At Kalyba's House of Correction a slight hitch
occurred, and Harley came forward, and requested that
the audience would permit the performance to be sus-
pended for a few minutes, in consequence of the sudden
illness of Mr. W. H. Payne, who was to appear as St.
George. After an interval of about five minutes, the
performance was resumed, and Mr. Payne's
recovery must have been as sudden as his at-
tack, for he not only appeared as St. George
but went through the character with all that quaint and
grotesque humour which is so peculiarly characteristic
of his pantomimic performances, and which never fails to
elicit shouts of laughter and applause. The washing,
and scrubbing, and feeding, and broth making, and suet
dumpling throwing, with which this scene is replete, are
exactly suited to Payne's humour, and he made every
hit tell. Kalyba falls in love with him, and having
turned his companions into stone, presents St. George
with her magic wand, whosa first use of it is to enchant
the old lady herself, so as as to put her hors de combat,
and his next is to disenchant his companions. The
scene then changes to the Dover Roads, and the seven
champions mounted on basket chargers armed cap. a-pie,
and attended by their squires, enter in grand
procession. They (with the exception of St. George)
set out for their respective destinations per rail, each
champion being accommodated with a horse box—
St. George himself proceeding per " The Ant" steamer,
which plies between Dover and Egypt for a penny. In
this scene, also, Payne " made fun" at a great rate. We
have then a grand hall in the palace of King Ptolemy
on the banks of the Nile, and we find every thing in his
Court upon the same grand scale on which every thing
is always found in all the Courts of kings of pantomime.
We have the marriage procession of the Princess, and
the entrance of the dragon (Wieland), who, after a mi-
nute examination of the trousseau of the bride,
elopes with lit r. A reward is proclaimed
for whoever will kill the Dragon ; and upon
hearing the proclamation read, certain staid and
sober-looking statues, pillars, if not of the state, at all
events of the palace, put their fingers to their noses after
a most improper and vulgar fashion, and one of them,
we believe, really so far forgot himself as to wink his
eye. St. George, however, sallies forth and attacks and
conquers the Dragon, and the combat between them
was taken advantage of by Messrs. Wieland and
Payne for exhibiting divers interesting and tasteful
and classical Poses Plastiques, from the designs of
Pistrucci, representing the reverse of the crown piece of
the British coinage. The scene then changes to the
Hall of Chivalry, and the transformation takes place,
Howell being the Harlequin, Miss Hicks the Columbine,
T. Matthews the Clown, and Priorson Pantaloon.
Then follow the jumpings, and thumpings, and
singings, and changes, and hits of pantomime.
One of the best scenes was a corn-chandler's shop,
in which were divers hits at the recent Cabinet mea-
sures and corn measures, a lot of " chaff" in both.
In this scene Harlequin proves that there are more
methods than one of being in clover for leaping head
foremost into a bin of clover-seed, the bin becomes a
bee-hive chair, in which Harlequin, attired in the dress
of a hall porter, takes a comfortable snooze. In the
scene representing " the Siamese villas " and
nursery grounds, we have a bed of African marigolds
transformed into the (Ethiopian Serenaders, and the
Clown steals a pair of boots and puts his foot into it.
They are patent Indian rubber, and, like the Dutchman
with the cork leg, he cannot stop himself when he begins
to run, for he bounds and rebounds like a tennis ball.
and when at last he is thrown on the ground, and an
attempt is made to take the boots off, they stretch the
length of the stage. Tho Spanish nut and the Orleans
plum was an illustration of the Montpensier marriage,
very cleverly managed ; but the trick that excited the
greatest laughter was the Clown's experiment with gun
cotton. He has charged his gun, and aims at some cats
which appears at the window. The cats disappear, and
re-appear at another window, and thus dodge him for a
while. At length he fires, and brings down a shower of
cats ; for some time it literally rains cats. This is
one of the most feline catastrophes to be found in the
whole range of the British drama. The Wellington
statue, of course, is quizzed. We have the interior of
a toyshop—a toy statue in a toy box, dragged by toy
dray horses, in grand procession to the triumphal
arch, on which it is scarcely fixed, when the whole dis-
appears, and we have a splendid tableau of Wellington at
Waterloo, with which the pantomime concludes. The
introduction to this pantomime goes trippingly off ; the
tricks are excellent, and the harlequinade first-rate.
Howell and Tom Matthews are alone sufficient to make
any pantomime go well, and they were admirably sup-
ported by Miss Hicks and Priorson. Another great
merit of the Drury Lane pantomime is, that it is short.
The performances on Saturday were all over by half-
past eleven o'clock, and this alone, in an entertainment
for children, is a very great merit.

and the third is :a test of the truth of woman's love.
Thus provided, he departs on his travels, and is by a
wish transported to a forest " five miles distant from the
place where forMerly stood Hicks's Hall." Here he
hears the cry of " Police," and four sanguinary ruffians
enter, dragging in Apricotina, own maid to the Princess
of the Island of Tranquil Delight, who has returned
from the island in search of her mistress' stray parrot.
Leander, rendered invisible by his cap, causes the ruffians
o quarrel and kill each other; after which he unbinds
the young lady, who, in a capital parody to the air of
" The Bold Dragoon," informs him that her mistress is
a beautiful young princess, who has been brought up
very strictly by her mother, and not allowed to see a
man. Leander is naturally anxious to see this charming
creature, but being told by Apricotina that she cannot
possibly convey him to the island, he has recourse to his
cap, and is conveyed in an instant to the Hall of Mirrors
in the Palace of Delight, where the Princess Xquizitelittle-
pet is discovered surrounded by her female court. The
daring intruder conceals himself by his invisible cap,
and assuming the voice of one of the pet parrots, keeps
up a very animated conversation with the Princess, with
whom he is already deeply enamoured. Apricotina
now returns, and, relating her adventures in the forest,
gives such a glowing description of her gallant deliverer
that the Princess is in love with him before she sees him.
The Princess and her ladies then go to supper, and an
amusing scene then takes place at table, where the
Invisible Prince eats all the nice tid bits to which the
Princess helps her favourite cat. After supper the
court retire, and the Princess repairs to a grotto in
the palace gardens, when the bank of the grotto opens
arid Leander appears as the statue of Apollo, after the
manner of the poses plastiques, on a revolving pe-
destal. The Prince sings, and descending from his
pedestal, becomes visible and addresses his mistress,
who is so terrified at the sight of a man that she
falls into a swoon. While lying insensible he discovers
by one of his roses, that her heart is true to him,
and, placing his miniature in her bosom, he escapes,
as Apricotina enters, to whom her mistress relates
that she has seen a living statue. The maid discredits
the tale, but the Princess maintains that she is right.
Apricotina brings the news that the island is threatened
with an invasion by Prince Furibund, who comes with an
immense army to demand the hand of the Princess,
who, in her despair, wishes for her statuesque lover,
who suddenly appears, accoutred as a Mexican Anse-
-1 son- and offers to carry a flag of truce to Furibond and
settle his claim without delay. We are now transported
to the camp of Prince Furibond. Leander arrives with
the flag of truce, and offers Furibond all his tents full of
gold if he will forego his pretensions to the Princess's
hand—to which he consents; but seeing the gold rising
in immense piles by the aid of the rose of wealth, he re-
solves to kill the envoy and keep the gold. In this he,
however, fails—for Leander, by means of his cap, ren-
dering himself invisible, Furibond's guards kill him by
mistake, and then proclaim Leander king in his stead.
The supposed killed Furibond is carried off the stage,
but during the finale of all the characters in the Palace
of Pleasure he suddenly re-enters, and concludes the
piece, amid roars of laughter and shouts of applause, by
singing the following comic epilogue:
" Stop !—l'am dead, but I'd not be forgotten ;
In the piece I've an int'rest, pray mind !
Let it go off—but not like gun cotton,
For that leaves no vestige behind.
Nitric acid no doubt is a treasure,
But be generous, ye critics who write,
And don't blow up our Palace of Pleasure
With the acid in which you delight.
Let us have a fair share of your leisure,
With the rest of the holiday sights ;
And make this house a Palace of Pleasure,
In the gay world of Christmas delights."
The piece was admirably placed upon the stage ; the
scenery, dresses, and decorations were truly worthy of
the Haymarket, and reflect the highest credits alike
upon the management and the artistes. As for the actors
we cannot say too much in their praise. Miss P. Hor•
ton, we must confess, was as pretty a little invisible
prince as we ever met with in any of our daily marches,
and one whose prettiness was only equalled by the ex-
cellence with which she sang her parody songs. Miss
Reynolds and Miss Julia Bennett were most warmly re-
ceived, and many of their songs, in company with Miss
P. Hort, in, were heartily and rapturously en-
cored. Mr. James Bland kept the house in
roars of laughter at his acting ; and the burlesque
character he made of the burlesque tyrant Furibond.
The piece was eminently successful, and was announced
for repetition amid the most enthusiastic plaudits of a
house crowded to the ceiling. The principal performers
at the fall of the curtain were called for, made their ap-
pearance, and bowed their thanks. Mr. Planet, e, also
acknowledged from a private box the gratitude he felt
for the continued good opinion of the public ex-
hibited to him and his works. We venture to
prophecy that the piece will have a long run, and
that Planehe, who has certainly shown great tact
and ability in the writing of it, interspersing
it as he has done with pleasant sallies and pertinent
allusions to many of the political events of the day, will
them-by receive the highest reward that an author can
wish for or desire—the approbation of a discerning
English public. The extravaganzl of The Invisible
Prince was preceded by Boyle Bernard's new drama of
The Round of Wrong and the laughable interlude of
Story Telling.

LYCEUM.
For some time past the holiday offerings of this thes-
pian temple to its bounteous friends, the public—and
never were they more bounteous, more boisterous, or
attended in greater numbers, than on " boxing night"—
have consisted in burlesques replete with rich wit,
sparkling repartee, and broad genuine humour, which
were wont to set the house in a roar. Not so on Satur-
day night, as far as the kind of performance is con-
cerned, for after the Battle of Ly'e, in which the blood-
less battles of the heart are so truthfully depicted, and
in which Mrs. Keeley, who is a host in herself, draws
tears from those unused to the melting mood, by pieces
of the most natural acting, and as natural pathos as we
ever heard, the curtain rose and introduced us for the
first time here at least, for our memory may
be treach-
erous, since the reign of the Keeleys, to a pantomime
bearing the airy title of the Butterfly's Ball. We first
behold the " butterfly's bower" and Priam, King of the
Trojan butterflies (Miss Daly), Papiliona, his
,
Queen
(Miss Howard), and the butterfly court in a flutter at
the expected birth of Chrysalinda, afterwards Colum-
bine (Miss Laidlaw), who emerges from a cluster of
flowers, after having snapt in twain the chrysilis which
confined her. Nonparel (Miss J. Coleman), who subse-
quently becomes Harlequin (Mr. J. Laurie), and other
gallants in attendance on the court, are smitten with the
fair intruder, and sue for her hand. The royal pair de-
fer their decision until they have given their daughter a
fair opportunity of selecting a partner for life, and pos-
sibly thereby enabling her, like real parents in the
world, to " better her condition in life." They determine
therefore. to old a ball, and to invite their insect friends,
and Gadfly (Miss Turner) is dispatched from the Trojan
Court with the invitations. In her progress she encoun-
ters in " Croker Creek" Count Hornet, afterwards Clown
(Mr. J. W. Collier), Colonel Fitz-Scorpion (Mr. Bel
lingham), afterwards pantaloon (Mr. T. Gough), Mrs.
Webb, a garden spider (Mr. Yarnold), who, on hearing
of the entertainment, and that they are not invited, vow
vengeance on the butterfly tribe, but particularly on
Priam, his queen, and lovely daughter ; but Entomo-
logia, the guardian sprite and fairy queen of the insect
race (Miss Grove), overhears their determination, re-
solves to break it to the Court, and to bring confusion to
the hornets. The messenger wends her way to " corn-
fields and the grasshoppers' glade," where the insect
world—frogs, bees, bluebottles, cockroaches, glowworms,
grasshoppers, beetles, &c., are in full activity. They are
invited to the ball, and in the next scene, entitled "The
Fungus Fen," a succession of dissolving views by Mr.
Child, exhibits the procession of the insect world" to
the butterfly ball, to which we are next introduced, and
in which various dances take place—a butterfly polka,
by Master Forrest and Miss Frampton ; a grand Pas de
Papillon, by Miss Laidlaw and the butterfly court, and a
mazourka and galope by the whole insect tribe. The
uninvited insects unceremoniously appear upon the scene,
disturb the festivities, and the hornet is in the act of
carrying away Chrysalinda, when the guardian sprite
appears, makes Nonparel and Priam's daughter happy
as Harlequin and Columbine, and the hornet and scorpion
Clown and Pantaloon, in expiation of their offences.
and the two frogs (Master F. and C. Lauri), attendant
sprites upon the harlequin. The usual stirring scenes of
pantomimic life ensue; hard blows are struck and returned
with interest, and the leading events of the expiring
year are hit off with some smartness—the despicable
charlatan " What is it ?" and the "Wellington Statue"
coming in for their share of ridicule. In scene ten Mr.
Collier drew down shouts of laughter by a fine piece of
burlesque. A soldier, with a wooden leg, is put to
bed, part of which protrudes through the curtains ; with
a saw, which he from time to time greased with a
candle, he determines to amputate the limb. Whilst
preparing:for the deed he depicted the melodramatic mur-
derer to the life ; the eager listening, the walking to and
fro and up and down, the sudden starts, and gutteral sounds
from the throat, and then the dismembering of the stump
and the washing of the blood-stained hands, were richly
comical. Some of the tricks, particularly the changing
of Trafalgar-square and the National Gallery into a ship
of war in full sail, and the old wooden-legged pensioners
into young midshipmen were good. The Lauri family,
consisting of Mr. J. Lauri, who made an excellent har-
lequin, and Masters F. and C. Laurie, went through se-
veral gymnastic evolutions, which pleased the audience.
Miss Laidlaw was a pretty and agile Columbine, and
Mr. Collier, who is the " inventor and director of the
comic busin,ass," but who was troubled with a bad cold,
a clever awn ; and Mr. Gough a very respectable Pan-
taloon. The scenery, the dresses, the music, and the
dancines„ in fact, the whole production, reflects great
credit on the management. The piece was successful,
and will no doubt be performed for many nights to come.

ST. JAMES'S.—ETHIOPIAN SERENADERS.
Albeit the Ethiopian Serenaders do not vary their
performances on account of the season, yet in giving an
account of the various amusements of the metropolis, we
cannot omit the mention of these most talented, most
entertaining, and most original performers. Our young
friends who are home for the holidays would do well to
visit the St. James's theatre to hear the Ethiopian sere-
naders. They are perfectly unique, and perfectly unap-
proachable. They imitate not, neither can they be inn-
toted.