The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-22 00:00:00

THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 1851.

THE S

.RKETS

Pald.

Nominal Prices. Bus.in'

Is don,
lay.

done

ARUNDEL, MAY 20.—The general demand has been
by no means active, yet prices are well supported. Beef,
from 3s 2d to 3s 10d; Mutton, 3s to 4s; Lamb, 4s 10d
to 5s 8d; Veal, 3s to 3s 6d per 81bs.
CHICHESTER, MAY 21.—0 n the whole, the trade has
ruled firm, at full quotations. Beef, from 3s to 3a 10d;
Mutton, 3s to 4s 2d; Lamb 5s to 5s 10d; Veal, 3s 2d
to 3s 6d per Bibs. Milch Cows, with their small Calf, 151
to 181 each.

BULWER LYTTON'S NEW PLAY•

NOT SO BAD AS WE SEEM.: or, MANY
SIDES TO A CHARACTER. A Comedy,
in Five Acts. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton,
Bart. Chapman and Hall.
Under ordinary circumstances, our attention could
not fail to be attracted by a new dramatic composi-
tion from the hand of this illustrious author, the poet-
novelist of our generation. Produced as the present
comedy is, however, under auspices so remarkable in
their character, and so beneficent in their tender)*
it is impossible for the critic to do otherwise than
r
welcome it with a very peculiar earnestness. After
reading through the whole of this singular produc;
tion, it remains no longer a matter of uncertaintz.n
to whom individually writers and painters are alike
for the suggestion, and altimately also for tplel
foundation, of the Guild of Art and Literature.
many generous sentiments,in many touching allusion:
in many elevated ideas, relating to the condition,
.
the unsuccessful labourers at the desk and at the
easel—sentiments, allusions, and ideas scattered Pr°.
fusely through the peges here under consideration--:
we may recognise the pulsations of that noble heart,
in which this scheme of magnanimity may be said, in
may
have first instance, to have originated. Whatever 1101.
have since been accomplished in the way of its pro
s
motion, whatever may henceforth be achieved with
view to its ulterior and perfect development, to Sir
BULVIER LYTTON will belong theglory
having elicited these timely tributes golfalra:
pathy, and sometimes too of admiration. As to
elusive testimony of this, we refer not so much
his grant of land to the projected institution, or to
the circumstance of his having proposed the under-
taking to several of his distinguished contenepore'„ies
.
at a time when they were partaking of his hospitalit.lo
at Knebworth, as to the internal evidence afforded
the brilliant effusion just published. Without any'
thing beyond a merely cursory allusion to the Tits
that the comedy before us was acted a few nig if
since at Devonshire House (as the title-page.eDi
records) in the presence of her Majesty and hie -1“)-T
Highness the Prince Albert, we shall restrict out
tic
ob-
servations entirely to an examination of its drama
efficiency and of its general characteristics all ti
literary performance. Charles Dickens and his elf,lld
teur company will, we are rejoiced to think, mai,
adequate recompense for their exertions, not so much
in the applause accorded to the display of their is'
trionic abilities as in the remembrance that they
were the foremost among the supporters of the scheme
submitted to them for acceptance or refusal by °ufet,
gifted dramatist. Were any tribute wanting to L'cl'b
exalted patrician who has already evinced so 1131 L
solicitude for the furtherance of the undertaking, "'.
yond that flowing from his own conscience and ire„,
;
the appreciation of the more discerning multitude,
it would be discoverable in the aspiratl°o
so gracefully expressed by Sir Edward
his simple but suggestive Dedication—" May each
loftier Cultivator of Art and Letters, whom the err
stitution established under your auspices may shelter
from care and penury, see on its cornerstone
princely name, and perpetuate to distant times t'e
affectionate homage it commands from ourselfes'e
With such emphatic acknowledgments of the sh!lird
taken by others in the organization of the GO.;
does its author preface the dramatic work which to
destined to be the germ of its resources. Nothinio
we are bold to say, could by possibility be more oda
mirable than the conception of the eorneciLl
and the manner in which that conception bah
been bodied forth is in a very great mesa°e
of commensurate excellence. Those who 0'
erroneously imagine that the same masterly delirle,A;
tion of female character which has embellished t"'
previous dramas of Sir Bulwer Lytton may be .11
ceived in the composition now lying under review, vg"
of course, as it were by necessity, meet only with distil)"
pointment. In extenuation of this should be remell3;
bered the circumstance that the play has been pence"
for the especial advantage of a body of amateur come.
diens, and that consequently but little opportunity
presented itself for the gratification of this skill la
poetic portraiture. The various abilities of the play"
wright have, nevertheless, in no other particularfalle'
in their most complete and most satisfac'
tory manifestation. Upon the principal personage,.
among the very numerous and motley dramal
perrono, an extraordinary amount of energy, ,e
passion, and of world-knowledge has been expendscie
The construction of the plot reveals an undiminisheo
facility of invention, or rather, we might Bey, en in-
genuity of contrivance which practice has perfected
to an adroitness absolutely incomparable. London
has been wisely selected as the scene of the incidents,
and those incidents are comprised within the narrol,
but ample compass of little more than from afternoon
to afterncon. By choosing the reign of King George
I. as the date of his comedy, the dramatist has enabled
himself to depict one of those literary unfortunates
who were the objects alternately of Steele's pity and
despair, or of Pope's contempt and indignation.
David Fallen will rank henceforth among the
most memorable creations of that Genius who has
called into being, among a multitude of others, such
ideal existences as Zanoni the Rosicrucian, as pith'
bard the Schemer, as Brandon the Man of Ambi-
tion, and Pelham the Man of Fashion—minds like
those of the eccentric Warner, the reckless Clifford,
the vulgar Copperas, and the dreaming Maltravers.
The lesson which Sir Bulwer Lytton has undertaken
to teach in the five acts of this admirable comedy it/
of a nature as humanizing as the indirect pur-
pose of the comedy is benevolent. He endea-
vours—and his endeavour is charmingly successful
throughout—to show that we, the people of
society, the units in an artificial aggregate, the
children of an elevating but often effeminating civili-
zation, are AO so Bad as.)Ve Seem, or, as the second
title more directly and emphatically intimates, that
there are Many Sides to a Character. Like this globe,
of ours on which we live, rolling through space half
in light and half in darkness, the circle of our own na-
tures is chequered by peculiarities as arresting in vi-
vidness, and the consideration of which is as inte-
resting to the humanitarian as that of the former iO
to the student of ethics and astronomy. Inspired by
this beneficent reflection, Sir Bulwer Lytton has
contrived to reveal in the most despised and appa-
rently the most despicable those traits of
goodness which are in each of us the rem-
nants of that divine talisman, blurred and
broken it may be, our Similitude to the Divinity.
Affording in this manner a new and exquisite illus-
tration of the power by which the true poet, like
the bee,

CORN AVERA GES. GENERAL AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN
For the Week ended May 15, 1851, made up from the Returns of the
Inspectors in the different Cities and Towns in Eagland and Walcs
per Imperial Quarter.
WHEAT. BARLEY.' OATS. RTE. BEANS. PEAS.
PRICE .. 3BB 2d 124 s 2d I 18s 11 d 25s 9d `2Bs 104 1273 2d
DUTIES ON FOREIGN CORN".
',ls HEAT. I BARLEY. I OATS. I AYE. I BEANS. I PEAS.
Od Is Od Is Od Is Od is Od Is Oci QUANTITIES OF GRAIN SOLD IN THE PAST WEEK.
Wheat, ;5,271 ; Barley, 13,319 ; Oats, 14,269 ; Rye, 112 ; Beans,
4,837 ; Peas, 341 quarters.

SHERIFFS' COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
(Before Mr. Under• Sheriff BURCUELL
V. LOFTUS.
This was an action brought to recover of the defendant,
Major Loftus, the sum of 5161. 18s. 3d., as premiums
paid by the plaintiff on policies of insurance on the life
of the defendant, which had been assigned to plaintiff,
defendant consenting to pay the premiums as they be-
came due.

Evidence was adduced to show that arrears were due
to the amount claimed and bad been paid by the
plaintiff.
The jury gave a verdict for the amount claimed.
FALSE IMPRISONMENT—GRAFTON P. WILTON.
This was an action to recover damages for false im-
prisonment.
Defendant having suffered judgment to go by default,
the present was for inquiry to assess damages.
It appeared by the evidence that plaintiff was a ser-
vant girl, in the service of a gentleman named Burgess,
who was residing at plaintiff's house, at Kingsland, until
a house which ho had purchased opposite was com-
pleted, arid during the time defendant, who was of eccen-
tric habits, frequently complained of being robbed, and
had made allegations against many persons. Few per-
sons appeared to have given much credence to her state-
ments, or accounted for the loss by the defendant invit-
ing water-cress girls and others into the house. Mrs.
Burgess, who was called, proved that defendant had
given the girl in charge for stealing a shawl and some
trinkets, but as she (Mrs. Burgess) did not doubt plain-
tiff's honesty, she retained her in her service notwith-
standing the charge; but on a previous occasion she
(Mrs. Burgess) had discharged a charwoman, who de-
fendant alleged had robbed her. Plaintiff had said that
defendant stole the witness's coals, and that appeared to
rankle in defendant's mind. The plaintiff was taken
before the magistrates, and discharged immediately after
her father's house had been searched.
The jury, after a short deliberation, gave a verdict for
101. damages.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.
(THIS DAY )
George Collins and William Collins, William Stapleton
and William lioldsworth, Henry Fame, John Darke, and
John Gore, who were severally convicted of common
nuisance, by keeping wharfs in the parish of Padding-
ton, for the collection and accumulation of dust and
manure, &e., were called on their bail to receive judg-
ment. But after a few remarks from the Learned Judge,
sentence was deferred further to nest sessions.
William Enser, a middle-aged man of respectable ap-
pearance, was convicted of corraptly taking a reward for
the restoration of a stolen dog, and was sentenced to three
months' imprisonment under the late Act.
The other cases tried this morning were destitute of
interest.

" with sense so subtly true
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew."
Thus in the Grub-street Author, laden down by
calamities, steeped to the lip in squalor, grey in
ignominy, spat upon in all men's estimation as
the hireling traducer, the venal satirist, and the mer-
cenary pamphleteer, he has disclosed inexhaustible
springs of virtues the most pure and elevated, of
endurance, of forgiveness, of self-sacrifice, of amenity,
of hope even in the jaws of despair, of courage is the
agonies of destitution and abasement. David
Fallen, as painted by the master-hand of Sir
Bulwer Lytton, David Fallen, hitherto generically
regarded as the outcast both of society and of litera-
ture, may henceforth, we believe, be in some measure
loved if he be not actually respected, his conquest of
temptation may secure sympathy if it do not abso-
lutely command reverence. Here is his own sorrow-
ful but bitter epitome of the miseries he bad endured
while sinking from the heights of the sublimest aspira-
tions down to the depths of a penniless obscurity--
Hardnian.—You servo both Whig and Jacobite; do
you care then for either ?
"Fallen.—Sneering politician ! what has either cared
for me ? I entered the world, devoted heart and Joni
to two causes--the throne of the Stuart, the glory of
letters. I saw them both as a poet. My father
left me
no heritage but loyalty and learning. He sold all he
had to levy troops for King Charles, and buried his
gold in the red field of Marston Moor. Charles the
cond pvsrayiiisiejadwriLyipproasses
Second praised ray verse, and I starved; James the Se-
King ,edanvidatlinsptarrivsoedn
I; the reign of
" liardman.—But the ministers of Anne were gracious
to writers.
"Fa//en.—And offered rae a pension to belie my past
life, and write Odes on the Queen who had dethroned
her own father. I was not then disenchanted—l re-
fused. That's years ego. If I starved, I had fame.
NOW came my worst foes, my own fellow-writers. What
is fame but a fashion? A jest upon Grub-street, a
rhyme from young Pope, could jeer a score of grey
labourers like me out of their last consolation. Time
and hunger tame all. I could still starve myself ; I have
tohbeemrt.-- He
six children at home—they must live.
*4 hal dman.—This man has genius—he might hAyo
been, F
,aagllern._ace tpoiqhdisaiangseietlt'emrs_peripieexed ;renounced
pays services like these. Well—l serve him. Leave
me; go:" v
Sir Robert—
"
Well may Hardman, the rising Member of Parlia-
ment, exclaim after these declarations of the
—Not so bad as he
character:seeres—ano-
pamphleteer—
this
,moves ma; I've been a•
Hardmant(hreisin y)
veriPr myself. But the remedy A state see, hot
humble by alms; a rriuk;.rr corrupt by a bribe? what
Patron than for LeAtrrel—The public?_.JPs, for the
Author, wbPro talents the Public may chamcft to appre-
ciate. And tot those who, with toils. as severe, but
winth
wi genius ls shaped to the taste of the many, can
not tbe ear of the day, why perhaps in some far
distant age, when-h eaen enough of the strong have dropped
to death brorted, and enough of the weak
(bowed down by the tyrant Necessity,) have veiled in
shame and despair the eyes that once looked to the
stars; these rival children of light may learn at last, thnt
the tie they now rend should be the bond to unite them,
and help one another."
In a subsequent scene, where Wilmott, disguised as
Curl], the booleseller, endeavours to bribe David
Fallen to part with a calumnious manuscript by pro-
mising to hand over to him three hundred guineas—
one of the Most artistically conceived And exqui-
sitely written portions of the comedy—the
unfortunate bookman vindicates the innate goodness