The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-19 00:00:00

OLYMPIC THEATRE•

This pleasant little snuggery was opened on Saturday
evening, by Mr. George Bolton, with a very strong com-
pany, including (in addition to the lessee himself) Mr.
Henry Betty, Mr. Walter Lacy, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr.
Leigh Murray, Mr. John Howard, Mr. J. Cowell, Mr.
S. Cowell, Mrs. Walter Lacy, Mrs. H. Gordon, and
several other ladies and gentlemen well known on the
metropolitan hoards. He has likewise engaged a nume-
rous corps de ballt.t. The piece chosen for the opening
was the Hunchback of Sheridan Knowles, which was
very strongly cast. Mr. H. Betty was the Master
Walter, who has been practising assiduously in the pro-
vinces since his debilt at Covent-garden some two years
since, and who is greatly improved since that period.
His Master Walter is an earnest and a feeling
performance,. full of energy and vigour. It is
certainly the best thing he has -done yet. Mrs.
R. Gordon's Julia is exceedingly beautiful ; she
has studied the character, and understands it thoroughly.
The simple trusting maiden of the first act, whose whole
soul is wrapped up in Master Walter, was pourtrayed
with a most touching simplicity, and then, when she
finds that CliWrd, believing her affected waywardness
(for after all her waywardness is affected) to be her na-
tural character, casts her off, the intensity of passion
which she exhibited was sublime. Very fine, too, was
she in the scene in the last act with Master Walter,
where her pride, completely subdued, she bids him find
out some mode to escape these nuptials. Indeed, her
delineation of the character throughout was perfect,
and henceforth she takes her rank as one of the first
tragedians of the day. She was loudly applauded
throughout, and was, with the other principal artistes,
called for at the fall of the curtain. Mrs. Walter Lacy
resumed her original character of Helen, and acted
as she alone can act it, for though others have
attempted the part, Mrs. Walter Lacy still re-
mains the Helen unapproached and unapproachable.
Mr. Walter Lacy's Lord Tinsel was admirable. It was
worthy of Richard Jones himself ; and Wilkinson made
more of Fathi‘m than we have ever yet seen made of the
character. His quaint stolidity told admirably in the
part. Mr. Leigh Murray acted Sir Thomas Clifford
carefully, and Mr. John Howard made a great deal of
the bookworm Modus. The comedy was preceded by
the following address, which was spoken by the lessee,
Mr. George Bolton :

Ladies and Gentlemen—
Pray tell your friends our little boat
Is christen'd, launch'd, and now afloat,
Bound for whatever•haven you
And they incline to waft it to.
We'll try to speed it to sutees—
Unto which end I now address
•
All present, with solicitation,
To aid us by your approbation.
D'ye wish to know our claim to this?
List, and I'll tell you what it is.
Our boat is built of English wood,
And mann'd by English flesh and blood ;
Our rigging is of wisdom made,
By the best workmen in the trade,
Set with such judgment as alone
Our mighty authors could have done ;
Our masts are of the strongest sense,
Fix'd with most solid arguments;
Our flag the name of Truth displays,
Surrounded by poetic rays;
Our anchor is determination,
To keep in sight of honour's station ;
Our rudder's your support, which, lost,
The ship must be to ruin tost.
And last, to tell with what we're stor'd,
We no bad feeling have on board,
But bring, in perfect preservation,
Peace and goodwill to all the nation;
We'd quarrel with no class of men—
' With us let no class quarrel then—
But treat us as to what we do,
Giving us help, if help ba due ;
We need the breath of every one
To urge our vessel safely on ;
Ourselves will do our best to steer
Of all the town's displeasure clear;
The Scylla and Charybdis shun
Of least offence to any one.
This fortune, then, to us befal—
But Hope's our grog—so " Health to all l"
The comedy was followed by a new grand burlesque
entitled The Civil War of Poetry, a strange mixture of
doggrel, singing, music, spectacle, and dancing. The
music, spectacle, and dancing were good. The doggrel
and singing very, very bad. It is intended to satirise
the prevailing taste for spectacle and ballet, but the ob-
jects of the others aversion to the spectacle and balbt,
which are introduced solely to be turned into ridicule,
are the only portions of the piece which are not too
dull to be even ridiculous. Let the lessee cut out all the
talkee talkee, and trust only to the spectacle and ballet,
and the piece may run, otherwise it will have a very
short life, but by no means a merry one. As it is, the
audience last night not only passed judgment, but
seemed inclined to move for speedy execution. The
house was crowded.

tide per misadventure.
MAR FOREST.—Some days ago, as a young man,
from the parish of Abernethy, was crossing the hills on
his way to a market at Braemar, and whilst within
some distance of Mar Lodge, he was met by the
Duke of Leeds's gamekeepers, and conducted by them—
although much against his inclination—to the Lodge,
where he was ushered into the presence of his
Grace. The poor Celt was threatened with the
severest vengeance, and took his leave promising,
almost upon oath, never to retrace the same
path. The practice of annoying the enthu-
siast who seeks to admire nature in her wildest forms in
that sublimely b. autiful part of,our country, which his
Grace of Leeds at present occupies, is bad enough ; but
the interruption and delay caused to a pedestrian on
business, unarmed and alone, is an actien quite unworthy
of the dignity of a titled Nobleman.— Inveiness Courier.
SKYL—A correspondent writes, that in this island,
up to the 7th inst , the weather has been favourable for
leading, and nearly all the oat crop has been safely got
in ; and from all accouuts the crop is a good average
one in weight and quality. Meal brought from the south
is readily purchased, and several vessels have this sea-
son unshipped cargoes of it. Herrings have appeared
in considerable shoals on the southern side of the islaw!,,
and great quantities have been t; k ,n, but fro:, the
scarcity of potatoes to eat with them, the demand is
great'y lessened. The poor people are, besides, anxious
to buy what meal their stinted income a ill allow. Our
correspondent aids, that a great number of the men who
quitted Skye for the fishing in the east, and the harvest
work in the south, have procured work on the railways,
and have not returned home as usual ; and others are
ready when the crop is all secured, to leave Skye for
similar employment. Macleod of Macleod, Talisker,
and Lord Macdonald, arc said to be making great exer-
tions for supporting the poor throughout the winter and
spring, since there is no prospect of receiving aid from
Government.—lnverness Courier.
THE POTATO CROP.—AII surmise as to the yield
of this year's produce is at an end by tbe general gather-
ing of the crop. On lands in this neighbourhood the
potatoes are found to be small in size and 'deficient in
quantity, but the epidemic does not seem to have ef-
fected them to any greater extent than last year. There
is every reason to believe that the disease was arrested
by the fine harvest weather of September ; and it has
been stated that the identical potatoes which were
known to be diseased in the beginning of August n iw
turn up sound. The immediate planting of potatoes for
next year is strongly recommended, and many farmers
in different parts of the kingdom are adopting that r'
Agriculturists who tried the experiment I--
found it answer admirably—and it se'.
the accounts given in the new-
little whether the seed ,-
grew luxurianit-
sou.nd.—'

NATIONAL TESTIMONIAL TO
MR. VILLIERS.
(From the Edinburgh Chronicle.)
We continue to receive letters, from various parts 01
the kingdom, communicating the gratifying fact, the
but one opinion prevails concerning the strange neglec
of Mr. Villiers's claims, witnessed in the Free Trade
Testimonials. !A number of influential gentlemen, in
Manchester and elsewhere, are hem upon repairing this
neglect at the earliest possible moment ; but they state
that it is deemed advisable to postpone any general
movement with this object until the Cobden tribute and
Bright memorial are completed. In the expediency of
this view we are disposed to concur, although we retain
our original opinion that Mr. Villiers's earlier services
should not have bean suffered to remain the last for ac-
knowledgment.
There can be no doubt that, whenever a committee is
formed and subscriptions commenced with this object, it
will be found that Mr. Villiers's claims are estimated far
more highly by the public than the delay. to offer him a
testimonial hitherto has indicated. The intimations we
have received satisfy us that a large number of those
who have already subscribed so munificently in the case
of Messrs. Cobden and Bright, are prepared to contri-
bute with equal liberality in honour of Mr. Villiers.
There is a class of free-traders, too, who have been far
more backward than they should have been in the case of
the Cobden and Bright testimonials, who may confi-
dently be expected to contribute largely in the case
of Mr. Villiers. We allude to the Whig aristocracy.
With the exception of Lord John Russell, Lord
Morpeth, and a few others, the members of this
body have not testified as they ought to have done their
sense of obligation to the distinguished leaders of the
great movement which has placed the Whig party once
more in power. Whether this backwardness has pro-
ceeded from unworthy Whig jealousy of the merited po-
pularity and political position acquired by these illus-
trious members of the formerly-derided " cotton-lord''
fraternity, or whether it has arisen from a mere ex-
cusable sense of the slight offered by the free-traders of
the manufacturing and mercantile classes to a member
of the aristocracy who had worked so long, so hard, and
so ably in their cause as Mr. Villiers, we will not un-
cl,rtalce to determine. But we believe no such back-
wardness will be exhibited when a corresponding testi-
monial in behalf of Mr. Villiers is set on foot. The Whig
aristocracy must feel anxious to testify the pride they feel
in possessing at least one member of their order who can
fairly lay claim to share with Messrs. Cobden and Brigkt,
and the principal leaders of the League, the applause
and gratitude of the public. Now that the principles
which Mr. Villiers had so long and so ably advocated
have received the sanction of every enlightened states-
man of the age, the Whigs must turn to him with admi-
ration of his judgment and prescience.
Although the political ambition of the Hon. Member
for Wolverhampton is not of a selfish nature, it must
have been discouraging and mortifying to his feelings to
see his services thus remarkably overlooked by the public.
At a period when the press has been industriously hold-
ing' up to public admiration the individuals who have most
prominently contributed to the triumph of free trade,
and when the various popular constituencies of the
kingdom have vied with each other in offering tributes
of public gratitude to these patriots, the apparent
total unmidfulness of Mr. Villiers's claims could scarcely
fail to be painful to that gentleman That, with a few
important exceptions, such unmiudfulness has been dis-
played, is obvious. These exceptions, however, must
have been peculiarly gratifying to Mr. Villiers, emanat-
ing from the quarters they have. In the case of the
newspaper press, writers pre-eminently distinguished
for their talent and ardour in the cause of free trade
have been found to call to mind Mr. Villiers's intaluable
services, at a period when all others appeared to have
lost siccht of them. Wo allude to the Times, the Ex-
aminer, and Douglas Jerrold. In the ably written re-
marks with which the Times some months ago noticed
the farewell articles of the League newspaper, the writer
took occasion to render a well-merited tribute to Mr.
Villiers, and to express satisfaction that the important
aid which the ne mber for Wolverhampton had
rendered to the anti-corn-law agitati n Appeared
to be adieitt. d by the org: a of • the League.
More recently the tallented editor of the Examiner
signified his sense of Mr. Villier's claims anti
his regret at the apparent neglect thereof, tit ft leading
aricle, headed " T'2.e Overlooked Servicest' and bonglas
.Terroki's Wee',,iyNewspaper still more recently reminded
the tgenfiemen of Manchester and other manufacturing
c Thniureties of their somewhat unbecoming exclusive-
-1
ness in acknowledging past services in their cause, by
the eloquent biographical memoir which we transferred
to our columns.
These testimonies, we have no doubt, hihst hate been
peculiarly gratifying to Mr. Villiers, under the cirtuna-
stance of the singular rarity of such refhrthces to his
services on the part of the preset of latel and the tee/
personal acknowledgments which hate been afforded
must have been equally so, froth the same dense. Of
these latter we are sorry to 'MO noticed only tsto
instances since the period when, in the course of
their united struggle, Mr. Catlett and the delegates to
the great Manchester and London gatherings of` free.
traders were necustomed to proclaim their sense of Mr.
lqauwe n
At
ss
o votesci
aot
if 0
itlh, a
annkds . a
are the. e oft e late ilrneictaetinctestre:
Villiers's brilliant abilities and Parliamentary services
resolutions of the Glasgow A nti-
mThoree
bC
ye
rf nr e-
beurtee!efri.otmo
the pen of Sir Robert Peel. Compliments from a com-
munity so important as the ci •ty of Glaspw, and from a
statesman so distinguished as Sir Robert Peel,
ert Peel, must have
gone far to recompense Mr. Villiers fez' the '
paucity of
such acknowledgments from hot er quarters.

THE N
„ SCREW-PROPELLED STEAM FRIGATE.
I w .team-frigate, now building in the dock) ar 1,
. 00l wicb, is rapidly approaching completion. Ihe
workmen are at this time engaged in planking her. Her
Ocirober tonnage is 997 tons, N.M. She is constructed of wood,
according to from the lines of Mr. Laing, master shipbuilder of the
-papers, that it mattered dockyard. Her length is 200 feet, breadth 36 feet, hold
..as diseased or not—the tubers 30 feet 6 inches. The screw will be set in motion by a
and the crop is found to be perfectly double condensing engine of 25Q-borse power, acting
_-,..7tafferclehire Mercury. directly upon the shaft.