The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-31 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Last evening an extra performance took place at this
theatre for the benefit of distressed artizans, Mr. Lumley
having kindly given the use of the house for the occasion.
The performance was given under her Majesty's sanc-
tion, and with the patronage of a numerous list of the
nobility and gentry. Sir Robert Peel occupied one •of
the boxes on the grand tier.

The performance consisted of Rossini's Barbiere di:
Sivigtia, the last act of I Duc Foscari, a divertissement
including Madlle. Taglioni's scene from Coralia, a scene
in which this fascinating dancer last year made her first
and most triumphant impression upon a British audi-
ence, and the last new favourite ballet ol Fiorita.

The house was numerously attended by members or
the aristocracy and fashion, and the performances went
off with the greatest éclat. Mdlle. Cruvelli was in splen-
did voice, and i❑ the music scene in the Barlaere intro-
duced the charming old melody, "Sul Margine d'un rio,"
with variations, which she sang with great taste and
brilliancy. She was enthusiastically cheered in her last
variations, in which her ornaments and fioriture were
executed with surprising neatness and finish.
The entertainments in the ballet department wept off
with triumphant effect, Marie Taglioni and Rosati both
receiving immense applause and encores in their favors-.
rite pas.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—BENEFIT FOR Tete
IbiTRESSED ARTIZANB. His Royal Highness Prince
Albert, accompanied by her Royal Highness the Duchess
Kent, honoured the performances at her Majesty's
Theatre with their presence last evening. The suite of
their Royal Highnesses included the Marquis of Aber-
corn, Lord Camoys, Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps,
Lieut.-Colonel Seymour, Lady Fanny Howard, and Sir
George Couper. Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess
of Cambridge and the Princess Mary were also present
on this occasion, attended by the Baroness Beust, Baron
Knesebeck, and Mr. E. St. John Mildmay. Amongst
the general company we observed his Royal Highness
Prince Leopold of Naples (Count of Syracuse), who was
attended by his Excellency Prince Castelcicala; the
Count de Montemolin and suite; the Prince and Princess
Kotchonby, the Prince Louis Napoleon, the Duke of
Wellington, the Duke and Duchess of Leeds, the Duke
of Devonshire, the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady
Mary Howard, the Baroness Brunnow and Madlle.
Olga de Lechner, the Marquis and Marchioness
of Clanricarde and Lady Emily de Burgh, the Marquis
of Ailesbury, the Marchioness of Douro, the Marquis of
Lansdowne, the Earl of Munster, the Earl of Lonadale,
the Earl and Countess of Eglintoun, the Countess Grey,
the Earl of Darnley, his Excellency the Sardinian Mi-
nister, the Viscount and Viscountess Barrington, and
the Hon. Miss Barrington, Viscount Anson, Viscount
Ranelagh, Viscount Morpeth, Lord Adolphus Fitacla-
rence, Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, Lord Aylmer, Lord
and Lady Charles Wellesley, Lady Molesworth, Lady
Sondes, Lady Garvagh, Lord Teitiplemore, Lord Ernest
Bruce, Lord Robert Clinton, the Baron Nicolai, the
Count de Barke, Sir Robert Peel, Bart., Sir George
Wombwell, Bart., Sir Alexander Woodford, Bart., Sir
Henry Meux, Bart., Sir John Lowther, Bart., the Attor-
ney-General and Lady Jervis, Lady Shaw Stewart, Hon.
F. Stanhope, Hon. Mrs. Norton, Hon. A. Willoughby
D'Eresby, lion. F. Charteris, Mr. and Lady Margaret
Milbanke, General the Hon. H. Cavendish, Colonel
Dixon, Colonel Wildman, Count Kielmansegge, M. Ca-
nourgari, Major Backley, M. de Cottu, Lord Elphin-
stone, Lady Quinten, Captain Reynolds, Captain Smith,
Mr. Alexander Baillie Cochrane, M.P., Mr. Hubert de
Burgh, Mr. W. Rose, Mr. Montagu Gore, Mr. G. Cor-
newall, Mr. Tomlins, Mr. Hooper, and the Misses
Hooper, &c. &c. The following held boxes on the occa-
sion :—Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, his Excellency the
Hanoverian Minister, his Excellency the Turkish Mi-
nister, his Excellency the Brazilian Minister, the
Duchess of Leeds, the Duke of Cleveland, the Marquis
of Huntley, the Duchess of Somerset, the Marchioness
of Ailesbury, Mr. Charles Stokes, Lord Marcus Hill,
Mr. Henry Tufnell, M.P., the Countess of Arundel and
Surrey, Mr. Blackburn, the Countess of Jersey, Mrs.
Ewing, Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Parnther, Lady Montefiore,
Mr. Alexander Grant, Mr. Graham, Lord Lindsay, Mr.
Crombie, Colonel Otto, Mr• Williams, Major Aldrich,
Mr. E. B. Ashford, Colonel Storey, Lord Ossulston,
Sir Archibald Macdonald, Mr. J. Cavan, Miss Burdett
Coutts, Mrs. Pack Redwig, Mr. 11. Broadley, M.P., Mr.
J. Collett, M.P., Miss Beaumont, Mr. Bentley, Lady
Woodford, Mr. J. Sandford, the Right Hon. the Lord
Mayor, the Marquis of Granby, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Megan,
Mr. Hornell, Sir Philip de Broke, Hon. General Up-
ton, Sir J. Shaw, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Thompson, Mr.
Waite, :Mr. Hertford, Hon. D'Astley, Mr. Reynolds,
&c. &c.

SURREY THEATRE.—Mr. Benton, the much-re-
spcsted treasurer of this theatre, takes his benefit on
Wednesday next, on which occasion the gentlemen of
the St. James's Histrionic Club have kindly volunteered
their services, and appear in the tragedy of Macbeth.
In addition to this treat for the lovers of tragedy, Mr.
Benton has provided an excellent bill of fare ;for the
general play-goer and sight-seeker, and has also secured
the services of Mr. Ramsay, who is unrivalled as an
imitator of the past and present London performers.
We trust Mr. Benton will meet that reward from a
generous public which he deserves, and that his benefit
will turn out a bumper. _

Cholera, plague, fever, after all, are species of
poisoning, almost if not entirely as much within human
control, as poisoning by arsenic or corrosive sublimate.
Preventive measures are just as efficient in one case as
in the other. If the opinion of one who has paid this
subject long and anxious consideration be of any weight,
I would utter it as my most sincere conviction that the
above-named diseases would have no power whatever
over a community whose sanitary welfare was even
tolerably provided for. The rich will look to them-
selves, but the poor and ignorant must be minded ;
they neither know nor care to look to themselves. Their
dwellings should be entirely reconstructed ; they are
every where, at least as regards these kingdoms, a dis-
grace to civilization—nay, to common decency. I can
speak from experience. I have been in the huts of the
Africans, of the American Indians ; I never saw the
filth, the desolating, appalling wretchedness, that I have
over and over witnessed in England, Ireland, and Scot-
land. It would be a glorious aim for the noble profession
of architecture, to devise dwellings such as the working
man ought to inhabit.—Dr. M'Cormac, of Belfast, in
The Builder.

Previous to the restoration of Charles 11., the
Park of St. James's appears to have attracted little
attention, and to have been left to the guidance of Na-
ture alone. Charles seems to have had Versailles
in view when he laid it out from Le Notre's design.
A long straight canal was formed in its centre from
a square pond which existed at its foot near the
Horse Guards. Rows of elm and lime trees were
planted on each side of it, an aviary was formed
in that place still called " The Bird Cage-walk ;"
and in the large space between this walk and
the canal, and nearest the Abbey, an extensive
decoy for wild fowl was constructed, popularly
termed " Duck Island," and of which the famous
St. Evremond was appointed a salaried governor.
Charles, who was exceedingly fond of walking, and who
tired out many a courtier who tried to keep up with
his quick pace, was continually seen here amusing him•
self with the birds, playing with the dogs, or feeding the
ducks. On the opposite side of the canal, three broad
walks were constructed and shaded with trees, one for
coaches, the other for walking, and the centre one for
the game of " Pall-Mall;" an athletic exercise, of which
the King and gentlemen of the day were fond. The game
consisted in driving a ball through a ring at the extremity
of the walk, which had a narrow border of wood on each side
of it to keep the ball within bounds. The floor of this por-
tion of the park was made of mixed earth, covered with
sea•sand and powdered shells, as at Versailles. The park
was much secluded, except on this side, which was that
only accessible to the public in general. There, Spring
Gardens, e ith its bowling greens and gaming-tables,
seduced the idle and dissipated, until the Mulberry
Garden (which stood on the site of Carlton Gardens),
put forth its attractions; and which, as Evelyn says,
became " the only place of refreshment about the town
for persons of the best quality to be exceedingly cheated
at." The plays of the period abound with intrigue and
adventure carried on at both places. The Mall ceased
to be the resort of royalty at the death of Charles; but
it continued to be the fashionable promenade until the
close of the last century.—Art- Union Journal.
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGIN/MRS.—MA/ICH 28,
1848.—Joshua Field, Esq., President, in the chair.
The paper read was " The Engineering of the Rhine
and the Moselle," by Mr. G. B. N. Jackson, Assoc.
Inst. C.E. This communication was written during a
short visit made to Holland, for the purpose of inspect-
ing personally the works with which the author had
become familiar in the writings of Beaiudemoulin,
Vanderbergh, Defontaines, llibbert, Krayenhoff, Ock-
hart, and Wiebeking. It commenced with tracing
the geographical course of the Rhine from its source
on the Babers, in the canton of the Grisons, to its
numerous outfalls into the sea. It then treated at
considerable length the geological character of the
country through which the river and its branches thus
traversed. The ancient works, as far back as the time
of the Romans, were then briefly described, and the
general state of the bed of the river, with the compara-
tive levels, the inclination and the velocity of the stream
at the commencement of the modern works, were then
laid down in a tabular form as points of data, and then
the capability of the Rhine for forming banks by
warping or depositing the matter held in suspension
was discussed. The remainder of the first part
of the paper was tken occupied by descriptions of
the modes of straightening the bed of the river,
and of constructing the dams, weirs, division arms,
spurs, and shoreworks, and the method of blasting the
rocks, which latter considerably impeded the course of
the stream. Our limits will not permit us to follow the
details of these works, which differ so essentially from
any in our own country; but the whole proceedings ap-
peared to be given with such precision, that the paper,
when it is published at length, with the copious details
with which it was illustrated, will form a most interesting
portion of the minutes of the proceedings. The second
part of the paper, containing an account of the engi-
neering works on the Moselle, compiled chiefly from a
paper by Mr. Vandenbergh, the eminent engineer,
under whose direction the works had been executed, was
reserved for reading at the meeting of Tuesday, April 4.

MILITARY MOVEMENTS.-GrAt excitement was
created in the town on Monday night, in consequence of
the sudden orders for the dispatch of 300 marines at a
moment's notice, and the unexpected arrival of th• route
of the 39th regiment, which was to leave for Manchester.
One detachment left yesterday, another to-day, and the
remaining three companies are to follow to morrow.
Two companies of the 9th arrived yesterday from Win-
chester, the remaining detachment, with head-quarters,
is expected to morrow, and will occupy Cambridge and
Forehouse barracks. Two companies of marines were
ordered for Ireland by the Birkenhead, which had its
steam up, and we believe the baggage on board and the
men on their march, when the order WAS countermanded.
—Portsmouth Guardian.