The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-14 00:00:00

ADELPHI THEATRE.

The manager of this establishment last night brought
out a new and very splendid ballet burletta. It is entilted
Lurline, or the Revolt of the Naiades, and the wild
story on which it is founded affords ample room for the
display of the painter's art and the machinist's skill. Sir
Hubert the Fearnought having exhausted his fortune
in wassail and revelry, is on the point of dismissing
the companions, as well of his dangers in the field as
of his feasting in the Lall, whe❑ he is informed by a
•age pilgrim that, if he be Wave and venturous, he
may yet retrieve his broken fortunes. Sir Hubert
eagerly inquires how such a desirable event cm be
accomplished, and being instructed that the Naiads of
the Rhine, who have immense riches at their disposal,
often become enamoured of the sons of men, when
they happen to be handsome and valourous, determines to
seek an interview with those water deities. He repairs to
the Rhine at the " witching time of night," and theme
encounters Lurline (Mrs. HONEY), the chief of the
nymphs. Although betrothed to Lady Una (Miss No-
VELLO), the daughter of the Baron of Lorchausen, Le
incontinently falls in love with the nymph, and boldly
pursues her into her submit' ine abode, whither he is fol-
lowed by his squire Baptiste (Mr. J. REEVE), who, in
his turn, has taken a fancy to Idea (Mrs. KEELEY), a gay
and sportive attendant on Lurline. Sir Hubert vows
eternal fidelity to his new love ; and, being loaded with
treasure, ascends to the upper world, under a solemn pledge
that he will return within a month. But no sooner
does he meet Una than his early passion revives, and
he hastens to espouse her. Ltnline is inconsolable on
account of his inconstancy, and she resolves, at the head
of her nymphs, to storm the castle of Lorchausen. The
fair revolters appear in warlike panoply ; and having
gone through a variety of graceful military figures, they
proceed to the attack, their hostile appearance having
been heralded by a tremendous thunder-storm. They
defeat the retainers of the Baron of Lorchausen ; but
Lurline, struck with commiseration for Lady Una,
foregoes all claim to the hand of Sir Hubert, and takes
her departure for her aquatic palace amidst a brilliant
display of fireworks. As a spectacle, this piece is entitled
to very high praise. We have seen nothing at any of the
minor theatres that in point of brilliancy at all approaches
it. Tiie scenery, by Dle•srs. Toatruns arid PITT, would
do credit to any theatre. The performers all acquitted
themselves well, and The Revolt of the _Naiades will, we
are confident, from the success which last night attended
it, command a long run.

The following has been communicated to us
by a confi.lential authority, as having occurred about a
fortnight since, in a village in the interior, about two hours
:et:ence from Ali Hessar :—" At the beginning of the
rooms`,and'w"esnet,
Li,entay:ar (1833), a Turk, of this village, put into his
he
kr,
hisnisderhble quantity of corn ; in the July following
,Ixtvhi Lavine
his
fashutrni
family
ypt the(,
K uctoaryna , in
and onere
returned
el the
in Is/over/Thep
assailed by an On entering his house he was immediately
by thousands of h:
and on openin;dtrr, Which he found perfectly intolerable,
piecemeal had door of the apartment, he was assailed
not Eie,rtats; they would have devoured him
to the place, and it Wear:i6e cries drawn the neighbours
that the Turk was „a,,,,.(r1y with the greatest difficulty
Smyrna Journal. A and the rats destroyed."—
BOY SUFFOCATED, 0
the afternoon of
Wednesday last, a little boy, ahn
je..:tru: three years of age,
etiliiir Pe:ration of the liquid
whose parents reside in Carneg
et, Edinburgh, seized
hold of a bottle of whisky which stood on
and drank a
a table, while
shmisamilogtuhaenrtirvtyasoefnigtsageeodnteinntso:lwiehr
got introduced into the windpipe, which chaaudsed the chil
almost
instant suffocation. The distracted mother
immediately conveyed to the infirmary, but life was found d i
to be quite extinct.—Aberdeen Observer.

LIT RRATVRE.

WORKS OF HANNAH MORE. Vat. I.
LONDON, 1834.

Few writers of modern times have attained a
more extensive celebrity than Hannah More,
and few have deserved it less. Of course, we
here speak of her solely in her capacity of au-
thoress ; with her private character we have
nothing to do. As an authoress, then, we
boldly say, that she is—or rather was, for her
fame just now is in a sad state of decrepitude—
the most over-rated woman of her age. She
had no nerve, or grasp of thought, to set the
reader on his mettle ; she afforded no scope for
inquiry or opposition by remodelling old truths,
or enunciating new ones ; she had not an atom
of fancy, and about as much sensibility ; no
wit ; no lightening play of sarcasm ; nothing of
that splendour, or sunshine, or irresistible, be-
wildering fascination, by which genius so often
rivets the attention of the reader, even while
it is misleading him. Hannah More had
nothing of this sort about her. No one
ever yet got a headache by poring over, and
endeavouring to sound the depths of, some
profound, recondite meaning in her pages, such
as we perpetually turn up in those of Burke,
Brown, Hall, or Hazlitt. She affords no ma-
terials for thinking. You rise from the perusal
of her works just as wise as when you sat down
to them. How, then, did she achieve her ex-
tensive celebrity—for extensive it certainly was ?
The secret may be told in a few words. She
was a shrewd, active woman of the world, with
far too much tact to offend conventional preju-
dices ; and quite enough to enable her to see
the taste of the day, and write up to it. She
found poetry—the drama—the essay—and the
novel, at the very lowest ebb—and she took
special care, in her works, to leave them all
where she found them. Hence, by that vast
mass of common-place, which goes to make
up, what is called the " reading public," she soon
began to be looked on as a safe, respectable
writer, whose works might be put into the hands
of all classes and parties with equal benefit,
because she was careful always to tread, like a
horse in a mill, the same trite, hackneyed round
of conventional propriety ; and to discover in
" things as they are," whether literary, political,
or religious, proofs of an all but perfect system.
Sentiments like these were not slow to recom-
mend Hannah to the notice of the High Church
party, which in those days was omnipotent, and
which of course brought in its train the patronage
of all the aristocratic and influential circles. Such
were the means by which the author of" Ccelebs"
achieved popularity. By always siding with the
majority, and never disturbing society by any
bright, bold, or original thoughts of her own,
she kept in favour to the last. But these facti-
tious advantages can no longer avail her. She
is now to go before the high court of posterity,
whose decree is as impartial as irreversible. We
fear she will cut but a poor figure there ; that
that august tribunal will find her guilty of
incurable common-place, and consign her
name to eternal oblivion. For Hannah More►
though she may perhaps have amused, has cer-
tainly not improved her age. She has added
nothing to its stock of thought ; she has directed
its tastes into no new, healthy channel ; she has
thrown no new lights on the past ; broached no
new ideas for the guidance of the future.
The staple of her mind, whether as poet,
dramatist, essayist, or divine, is essentially
common-place. Her prose is feeble, mono-
tonous, and worse than any thing we know
of, except her verse. Her private character was,
however, spotless. She was a sincere friend, a
good relation ; fond of the society of the great—
perhaps from gratitude, since they made her
what she was—and zealous in the performance
of her religious duties, which, however, would
have been still more praiseworthy, had they
savoured more of the Publican, and less
of the Pharisee. The present is the first volume
of her collected works. It contains a few dull
prose tales ; a brace of still duller allegories ; and
a memoir of the authoress, remarkable for no-
thing but its copious panegyric upon her social
and intellectual qualities. The writer evidently
thinks he is discussing the merits of a phceno-
menon, and, of course, lays it on thick.

BELFAST STEAM PACKET.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Order to prevent any unnecessary alarm
which might he occasioned by the circulation of exaE,r-
gera,ed and unfounded reports concerning an accident
which happened to the Be?fast Steam Boat, as she was
entering Calais harbour yes•eeday morning, and which wia
fortunately unattended with injury either to the passengers,
the cargo, or the steam boat, I am desired to forward to
you The following extract from a letter received this morn-
ing from the agent of the Company at Calais:—

`-‘ Calais, Jan. 13, 1884,
" The Belfast, in trying to enter this harbour at two
this morning, was arisen on shore about a hundred paces
distant fiorn the East Jetty by a hurricane, which sud-
denly came on with such excessive violence that the sailors
here all agree they never witnessed anything to equal it.
I am happy to say that the passengers and baggage
were all landed safely by five o'clock, and that no damage
is done to the cargo; and that the machinery and the
vessel are not injured. The wind has now abated,
and the Captain expects to get off by two this afternoon.
The Harbour-master, the Custom-house officers, and
the Commissary of 111 trine, have been very active in offer-
ing and rendering every possible assistance, and in seeing
that everythin! was safely landed."
I am, Sir, your moat obedient servant,
CHARLES BESSELL, Secretary.
General Steam Navigation Company,
69, Lombard-street, Jan. 14.

Lyons has been the scene of a fatal duel
between M. Vitton, formerly Mayor of La Guilotiere
under the restoration, and M. Clore. The parties fought
with pistols, at twenty-five paces, and M. Vitton bad the
first fire. His pistol miseed fire three times, and the
seconds in vain interfered to put an end to the dispute.
At the fourth discharge his weapon went off, but 111.
Cl6re was untouched. The latter then fired and shot
him dead by a ball in the breast. The contest arose out
of a political discussion.

An intelligent mechanic, of Canterbury, has
nearly ready for the mid a steam.carriage, with an engine
on the rotatory principle, in which respect it will be dif-
ferent from every other that has yet appeared.—Me-
chanic's Magazine.

One hundred and fifty casks of bronzed sta-
tues arrived at Nov York from Liverpool, faithful like-
nesses of Bonaparte, Wellington, Van Buren, Jackson,
Swartwont, Cambrelling, Hamilton, Biddle, and other
distinguished personages, which turned out, on inspec-
tion, to be lead, some weighing 50 lbs. The bronze
figures are free of duty; lead pays three cents per lb.
The whole will be seized and melted down. What an
amalgamation ! Let's have no fighting in the crucible.--
New YorA Star.