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

irbtro 17,Fbition

EPSOM RACES.
(THIS DAY.-BY EXPRESS).

The Durdans Stakes.

T'acorem
Joc o' Sot

Flare-up
Eatafette

... •••
The Two Years old Stakes.

Adino... ...
Lady in Waiting
Galipoli filly ...
Dorothea ...

Won by a length.
OAKS BETTING.
5 to 1 agst Payment
6 to 1 agst Hesse• Homburg
7 to 1 agst Iris
10 to 1 agst Breba—takon
10 to 1 ag-t Aphrodit6
11 to 1 agst lantho
12 to 1 agst Merry Peal

WOOLWICH, MAY 21.—The Master-General and
Board of Ordnance have approved the erection of new schools
to be constructed two stories in height in front of the Royal
Artillery Arms Tavern, at the north-west gate of the bar-
racks, for the instruction of :300 boys and 250 girls, sons and
daughters of the non-commissioned officers and men of the
Royal Artillery and Royal Sappers and Miners. The quar-
ters of the schoolmasters will be on the right, and of the
schoolmistresses on the left, and on an elevation in the centre
will be placed a clock. The officers of the Royal Artillery
intend giving a grand ball on Wednesday, June 11 • and the
officers of the Royal Marines intend giving their third soiree
this season on Wednesday, June 18, in the mess-room of
their spacious barracks.
SEIZURE OF AN ILLICIT DISTILLERY.—Yesterday
morning the detective officers of Inland Revenue, Messrs.
Scott, Elmy, and Pargeter, proceeded to a house, No. 7,
St. James's.place, Chapel-street, Shoreditch. They found
the front door open, a female being engaged cleaning the
steps leading thereto. Having entered the house, they soon
discovered that they were on the right scent, and in a back
room they discovered a copper still erected, and charged
ready for commencing the process of distillation. Another
copper still was in the room, but this was unset, and was
evidently intended for the purpose of rectification of the
spirits produced from the other still. Upon going into the
place they discovered a man engaged in setting molasses
wash for working, who was immediately taken into custody,
and who gave the name of Henry Montague. The officers
found a small quantity of spirits forty per cent. over proof,
about a hundred gallons of molasses wash, that was destroyed,
and the usual description of utensils. A communication for
the discharge of the waste wash had been made from the
cellar to the common sewer, in a very ingenious manner, by
means of a surreptitious pipe, and the whole place was ad-
mirably adapted for carrying on the trade. The whole was
conveyed to Broad-street warehouses.
The following paragraph, from the Southern Cross
(published at Auckland, New Zealand) of the 31st of De-
cember, illustrates the effect of the Californian traffic in
altering the route of communication with the Austrian
colonies. The vessel alluded to is owned by a Liverpool
house, and had previously performed some remarkable
voyages. In the present instance, as the sailing distance
between San Praneisco and Auckland is estimated at not
less than 6,000 miles, she must have kept up a speed of 207
miles a day throughout that passage :—" On Saturday last
our citizens were startled by an extraordinary `Novelty,'
the barque of that name having arrived in port from San
Francisco in the short space of twenty-nine days, and bring-
ing London news of the 2d and New York news to the 14th
of October. Here is another and a remarkable testimony to
the change in our geographical position which the Panama
route is certain eventually to effect, since with all the circuits
and delays of American and Californian transmissions, we
have been put in possession of European intelligence in the
hitherto unprecedented space of eighty-seven days."
A FAT FRENCHWOMAN.—A few days since a
female, only 25 years of age, died at the Hotel Dieu, appa-
rently from no other complaint than her extreme obesity.
Without any known cause, and without any change in her
usual regimen, which, moreover, was not very nourishing,
she became so fat in four years as to be incapable of moving
about. She weighed nearly 4501b5. Galigitani's Messenger.
QUIN'S INCOHERENT STORY.—Quin is said to have
betted Foote a wager that he would speak 501110 nonsense
which Foote could not repeat off-hand atter him. Quin then
produced the following string of incoherencies :—" So she
went into the garden to pick a cabbage-leaf to make an
apple-pie of! and a she-bear coming up the street, put her
head into the shop and said, 'Do you smell any s
she died, and very imprudently married the barber;
So
Airs. angitalcif
powder fell out of the counsellor's wig, and poor
kay's puddings were quite entirely spoilt; snd there was
present the Garnelies, and the Gobilies, and P
the great Pangendrum himself, with the little round i enn e!
bs
u,
tt andee
at top ; they played at the ancient gameof Catch who
catch can,' till the gunpowder ran out of the heels of their
boots."—Notes and Queries.
GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.--T
y.____Tho committee
on this company's Bill ,for cornmunitacatloraiy,with
Han
Grimsby the Man.
cheater, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire; 11w
hour branch and station at Sheffield, 1
have d eclared the pre.

amble proved.
WATERFORD AND KILKENNY RkfLWAY,--..rr, he
preamble of this Bill for sale or amalgamation and other
powers is proved.
CORK AND WATERFORD AND
of the KILLA2NEy JUNC-
TIoN RAILWAYS. —The_ preambles e Fills are declared
proved.
N. Callan.
isthe SpaCthrooon!
INCENDIARISAL—The. Dowdstown National
(county of Louth), of which Mr.
night, bet. weep the hours
was burnt maliciously on Sunday
of twelve and one. The house and ever
totally including books, maps, desks, and forms,y attic le it contained,
con-
sumed. No. reason can be assigned we 7,9
for. the . ysgracetul act.
Mr. Callan is a gentleman of kindly dispositi on, and gives
a great deal of employment to the rural pop motion of his
neighbourhood, and for many y
ears has expended a good
deal of money to provide the children in edccation, and for
which the resent act is a poor return,—.Drogheda Con-
servative.

THE LATE RIOT AT BIRKENHEAD.—Peter Fitz •
simons, one of the prisoners triad and convicted at the
Chester assizes of taking part in the riot at 1 lirkenbead, was
discharged from custody last week, Mr. Justice Williams,
who trieJ the prisoner, having certified to Sit George Grey
that. the conviction was against evidence.—Chester Courant.
DISCHARGE OF CAPTAIN PAULETT SOMERSET.—
esterday morning Captain Paulett.Somers,q, having com-
pleted the term of his imprisonment, was discharged from
the House of Correction, Coldbath-fields. A. great numbere
of persons had assembled to witness his departure a
usual hour, but the gallant officer had been dischargedtthe
usual
about an hour before that time.
DISCOVERY OF A NEW PLANET.--MY. J
has just discovered another new planet in theconsi Hind
constellation
Scorpio, about eight degrees north of the ecliptic, and form-
ing at the time an equilateral triangle with the stars
Scorpii and Libra). It
,is of a pale bluish colour, and its
liziat is about equal to that of a star of the ruath magnitude.

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 tendency,
it is impossible for the critic to do otherwise than
welcome it with a very peculiar earnestness. After
reading through the whole of this singular prcduc-
thee, it remains no longer a matter of uncertainty as
to whom individually writers and painters are alike
indebted for the suggestion, and altimately also for the
foundation, of the Guild of Art and Literature. In
ninny generous sentiments,in many touching allusions,
in many elevated ideas, relating to the condition of
the unsuccessful labourers at the desk and at the
easel—sentiments, allusions, and ideas scattered pro-
fusely through the pages here under consideration—
we may recognise the puleations of that noble heart,
in which this scheme of magnanimity may be said, in
the first instance, to have originated. Whatever may
have since been accomplished in the way of its pro-
motion, whatever may henceforth be achieved with a
view to its ulterior and perfect development, to Sir
13ULWER LYTTON will belong the glory of
having elicited these timely tributes of sym-
pathy, and sometimes too of admiration. As con-
clusive testimony of this, we refer not so much to
his grant of land to the projected institution, or to
the circumstance of his having proposed the under-
taking to several of his distinguished contemporaries
at a time when they were partaking of his hospitalities
at Kichworth, as to the internal evidence afforded by
the brilliant effusion just published. Without any
thing beyond a merely cursory allusion to the fact
that the comedy before us was acted a few nights
since at Devonshire House (as the title-page itself
records) in the presence of her Majesty and his Royal
Highness the Prince Albert, we shall restrict our ob-
servations entirely to an examination of its dramatic
efficiency and of its general characteristics as
literary performance. Charles Dickens and his ama-
teur company will, we are rejoiced to think, find
adequate recompense for their exertions, not so much
in the applause accorded to the display of their his-
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 our
gifted dramatist. Were any tribute wanting to the
exalted patrician who has already evinced so much
solicitude for the furtherance of the undertaking, be-
yond that flowing from his own conscience and from
the appreciation of the more discerning multitude,
it would be discoverable in the aspiration
co gracefully expressed by Sir Edward in
his simple but suggestive Dedication—" May each
loftier Cultivator of Art and Letters, whom the In-
stitution established under your auspices may shelter
from care and penury, see on its corneanstone your
princely name, and perpetuate to distant times the
affectionate homage it commands from ourselves."
With such emphatic acknowledgments of the share
taken by others in the organization of the Guild,
does its author preface the dramatic work which is
destined to be the germ of its resources. Nothing,
we are bold to say, could by possibility be more ad -
mirable than the conception of the comedy ;
and the manner in which that conception has
been bodied forth is in a very great measure
of commensurate excellence. Those who may
erroneously imagine that the same masterly delinea-
tion of female character which has embellished the
previous dramas of Sir Bulwer Lytton may be per;
ceived in the composition now lying under review, will,
of course, as it were by necessity, meet only with disap-
pointment. In extenuation of this should be remem-
bered the circumstance that the play has been penned
for the especial advantage of a body of amateur come-
dians, and that consequently but little opportunity
presented itself for the gratification of this skill in
poetic portraiture. The various abilities of the play-
wright have, nevertheless, in no other particular failed
in their most complete and most satisfac-
tory manifestation. Upon the principal personages
among the very numerous and motley dramatis
persone, an extraordinary amount of energy, of
passion, and of world-knowledge has been expended.
The construction of the plot reveals an undiminished
facility of invention, or rather, we might say, an 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 narrow
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 Dali-
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 is
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 .Not .so Bad as We 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 is
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,

"-- 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 in 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 had endured
thnhii egl e sgasunbodibi
jsmcaeuesortbi tiaytse—.l3ira-
;
while sinking from the heights of
tio::
ro
dv:
Ina
7tl
yh eo depthss2rr o ofb at h neivn
do
you care then for either ?
.. Fallen.—Sneering politician ! what
has either cared
for me ? I entered the world, devoted heart and soul
to two causes—the throne of the
letters. I saw them both as Stuart, the glory of
a
no heritage but loyalty and poet. My father left me
learning. He sold all he
had to levy troops for
ink, Charles, and buried his
gold in the red field f DMarston Moor. Charles the
Second praised my verse,
praised my and I starved; James the Se-
cond King witham_iprose, and I starved ; the reign of
passed that in prison I
" Hardman.—But the ministers of Anne were gracious
to writers.
" Fallen.—And ff o ered me a pension to belie my past
life, and write Odes on the Queen who had dethroned
her own Sather. I was not then disenchanted—l re-
fused. That's years ago. If I starved, I bad fame.
Tny came my worst foes, my own fellow•writers. What
is fame hut 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
six children at home—they must live.
" has dman.—This man has genius—he might have
been a grace to his age. I'm perplexed; Sir Robert--
" Fallen.—Disdains Letters—l've renounced them. He
pays services like these. Well—l serve him. Leave
me; go!"
Well may Hardman, the rising Member of Parlia-
ment, exclaim after these declarations of the
pamphleteer—
" Hardman (risiny).—Not so bad as he seems a
ther side to the character: this moves me;
I've been a
writer myself. But the remedy ? A state may but
,
humble by alms; a minister corrupt by a bee
b
:what
Patron then for Letters!—The public?—yes, for the
Author, whose talents the Public may chance to appre-
ciate. And for those who, with toils as severe, but
with genius less shaped to the taste of the many, can
win not tho ear of the day, why perhaps
in some far
distant age, when enough of the strong have dropped
to death broken•hearted, and enough of the weak
(bowed down by the tyrant Nee
shame and despair the eyes that once lookedessity,)haveveiled in
to the
stars; thane rival children of light may learn at last, that
the tie they now rend should be the bond to unite them,
and hflp one another."
In a subsequent scene, where Wilmott, disguised as
Cur.ll, the bookseller, endeavours to bribe David
Fallen to part with a calumnious manuscript by pro-
mising to hand over to him three hundred guineas—
ope. of the most artistically conceived
and exqui-
sitely written portions of the comedy—the
uni4tunate bookman vindicatesinnate
the goodness