The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE.

(From the Rio Jornal de Commercio of Nov. 11.)
The Imperial Government has reoeived intelligence
of the capture at Bahia of Africans who had just
disembarked. The provincial authorities had re-
ceived information that two slavers were expected at
a well-known spot on the coast. The Pre-
sident gave orders for one of our vessels of
war to go out immediately and cruise in those
parts, and his orders were obeyed with such zeal
and promptitude that the war vessel reached the spot
of landing before the arrival of the suspected vessels.
She had not, however, long to wait; for she immedi-
ately espied a brig and gave her chase. The latter,
seeing the impossibility of escaping from the cruiser,
steered towards land and ran aground. A strong
south-west wind was blowing, and the sea dashed
violently against the shore. Notwithstanding this
the landing of the negroes commenced immedi-
ately, and, as was to be supposed, many of them
perished amidst the surf of the waves. The cruiser,
who could not expose herself to the fate of the slaver,
returned immediately to Bahia, to report the occur-
rence to the authorities, in order that measures
might be taken to meet the exigency of the case.
The storm continued, but this did not retard the
acts of the provincial Government. Senhor
Wanderley, chief of police, started off immediately
for the point of debarkation, and, according
to the latest information, it was ascertained that
a considerable number of Africans had been cap-
tured, and that some were concealed in the woods
and were being pursued by the police force that ac-
companied Senhor Wanderley. The zeal and intel-
ligence of this worthy magistrate affords the assur-
ance that the commission he was entrusted with will
be well fulfilled. The result will, we confidently expect,
prove to the slave dealers that their epoch is termi-
nated for ever, and that the laws of the country are
not to be violated with impunity. This was a
case in which the vessels to be captured were boat
fide slavers, and not a single British cruiser appeared.
All was effected by the authorities of the country ;
and in the meantime the capture of the Magano, of
the Novo Mello, and the burning of the Amalia and
the Piratinim, there they are to testify to the acti-
vity and the
cruisers, and to justify the assertion of Lord Palmer-
ston, that to them alone is due the credit of sup-
pressing the slave trade.

THE WESTMINSTER PLAY.
On Monday the great event of the year in West-
minster School came off by the performance of the
Eunuchua of Terence. To it the students look for-
ward with the greatest interest and anxiety, and
no inconsiderable amount of training has to be
gone through in order that " the actors" may acquit
themselves creditably, of the parts assigned to them.
many persons—rationalists
in There
education—whoare not
wanting
object that too much of the
student's time is lost in the endeavour to master a
' single author; but, on the other hand, there have
been most successful teachers, who maintain that the
very best means of acquiring a precise and ready
knowledge of a language is to become perfectly fa-
miliar with some one of its best authors. A more
serious objection is, perhaps, the selection of Terence
for such a purpose, who, though acknowledged on all
hands to be a writer of the purest Latin, abounds in
hnsiootnut oaautpiropenrdos''aecustom. however, if in obedience to a time-
honouredpassages of which modern taste does
the IVestminster alumni must wear
the sock and buskin for a few nights previous to
the Christmas holidays, the limited range of the
Greco-Roman drama leaves the authorities very
little choice in the matter. The language of Plautus
is too antiquated and impure, and his raillery is too
coarse, to be made the object of modern representa-
tion,nqt his rough, rude, Roman style is
utrue to the character of the
people before whom his plays were to be acted than
than that of his successor. Terence, on the other
hand, lived on terms of easy familiarity with some of
the first patrician families of Rome, and his pieces are
tesatlitohnoaubglhy more
adapted from the period of the new comedy, in which
the domestic life of the Athenians was represented with
less exaggeration and less personality than in that
of the middle comedy, which Plautus for the most
past imitated. It should always be remembered, in
witnessing a play of Terence, that, although we hear
the Roman tongue, we are never brought face to face
with Roman ideas, Roman manners, or Roman cha-
racter. Everything—the inner spirit and the out-
ward form, even to costume and locality—is
Grecian, and for the most part Athenian ; and it is
undeniable that not a single new character was
added by the Roman playwrights to those
they found already existing. The Eunuchus
for instance, is a mere copy of Monander's
play of the same name, the two principal characters,
Guatho and Thraso, being dovetailed in from the
Kolax of the same author. The characters were dis-
tributed last night as follows :—Phcedria, Mr. G. de
L. Lacy ; Parmeno, Mr. G. B. IVlacilwain ; Thais,
Mr. F. H. Dodgson ; Guatho, Mr. S. Joyce ; Chaerea,
Mr. W. G. Armitatead (captain of the school) ;
Pythias, Mr. Q. W. F. Twiss ; Chremes, Mr. V. T.
Green ; Dories, Mr. IL Linscomb ; Dorus, Mr. C.
W. Fendall ; Sanga, Mr. A. F. A. Slade ; Sophrona,
Mr. F. H. R. Hewett; Laches, Mr. E. Somerville.
Mutm Personae : Pamphila, Mr. E. Wodehouse ' • Sima-
lio, Mr. J. G. Edwards ; Dorox, Mr. H. Salwey ;
Syriscus, Mr. A. L. Onslow; Ancilla lEthiops, Mr.
R. T. Waters; Ancilla, Mr. H. W. Harrison. We
can only add that the acting was in the usual
style of excellence manifested by the " Westminster
Boys," although the play does not afford so many
salient points as the Andria, which was the play of the
preceding- year. The Guatho of Mr. Joyce was a
rich and unctuuus personation, and the Ghosrea of
Mr. Armistead had all the order and vehemence re-
quired in the delineation of that character. The
Pythias of Mr. Twiss excited much laughter, and the
whole performance amply merited the plaudite with
which the play concludes.

CASE OF DETERMINED SUICIDE AT DOVER.—On
Thursday night, about ten o'clock, a London gentleman,
whose name, as far as can be at present ascertained, is H.
Lepine, committed suicide at Rogers' Terminus Inn, Beach-
street, opposite the ,railway terminus, by hanging himself.
The unfortunate gentleman had been staying at the above
inn on that day. He is supposed to have attempted to
destroy himself by drowning, having been found in the har-
bour the same afternoon, where it wag then supposed he had
accidentally fallen. Some person on the spot succeeded in
saving him.
George Hudson, Esq., M.P., has presented Messrs.
forCh atrhletofinrastndvePsseevlenrloewy,businlding
i p-buoi Ind etrshe,
swoiuththaset
Dock, of
sctionlodurers.
land. Her burden igS 375 Was!