The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-02 00:00:00

TIM ENGLISHWOMAN. Part I.—Steil.

This little publication is got up in the sam3 style as

the La BelleAssembljc, and appears to us equally de-
serving of encouragement. We have plates plain and
coloured ; some pretty verses set to music ; rhymes in
great abundance ; and some very sentimental tales, in-
tended to move the hearts of sentimental misses and
their mammas—if the old ladies cannot employ them-
selves more usefully than in listening to them. The
present part is embellished with a handsome portrait
of the Princess Victoria.

PLAY-GOING GOSSIP.

STRAND THEATRE.

Fresh and reeking from the stern office of politics, it is 9.
pleasant thing to find oneself comfortably seated in a pretty
little theatre, gay and glittering with lights, laughter, and
lovely faces ; the cares of the day about to be drowned in light-
hearted recreation. It is like the relief we may suppose a
Knight of old to have experienced in doffing his heavy harness
after some stout joust, and suddenly entering the festive hall
redolent of lady-love and minstrelsy; or, descending to more
modern analogies, like the domestic peace of a Lord Chief
Justice's drawing-room, after he has settled the business of a
score or two of miserable wretches—rogues from love or ne-
cessity. One - cannot be always fighting, always at stern
duty, always frowning, always wise ; the deepest politician
may have a cheerful heart beneath his waistcoat ; yet even in
the gladdest places moodiness may be forced upon the merry.
In this well-arranged, closely-packed, and home-like little
theatre, where agreeable pieces arc played by agreeable ac-
' tors to agreeable audiences, the ungainly principles of misrule
are thrust in one's very teeth ; wrong is sure to work wrong.
At this convenient, elegant, and most orderly little theatre,
good people cannot take their evening's pleasure but at the
expet,se of a humiliating shuffle ; they arc not suffered to go
like honest folks, and pay their fah ly claimed entrance money
into rtands honestly extended from the right place ;
they must shroud themselves in a wretched evasion,
and provide themselves with tickets after a surreptitious
fashion. There is a species of strategy and trickery about it
that to the downrightness of fair dealing is odious ; for all the
world, like the dirty equivocation of some Turk of a true be-
liever, who comforts himself with forbidden wine by the in-
fraction of a law whose neccssariness he very much doubts.
This is very bad ; but until it is righted we can do no more
than follow the philosophy of our police magistrates in enfore•-
• ing the " sweeping penalties of a certain Act :" " my good
man, it is a cruel piece of legislation we know—every body
knows—a crying shame—but we must do our duty. You very
justly observe that if you don't break the law you must starve
or steal; well, that is no affair of ours--onlv don't be detected,
that's all." The badness of a law is a bon.us to its infringe-
ment. Judging from the audiences to be found here, small
compunction appears to be felt about the mode of obtaining ad-
mission ; so good-humoured, so satisfied, so throughly pleased
do they seem with the amusements proffered. And well they
'• may be. Mrs. Waylett is one of the best, if not the very best
English ballad- singer we now have ; there is something so
touching, so plaintive, so heart-addressing in her tones, that
captivates alike the cultivated or the uncultivated car; they do
not excite the passions, but far better, they speak to the
gentler emotions. Mrs. Waylett is not only a sweet vocalist
but a clever actress as well, and she has provided herself with
some very talented assistants. We wish her success, for she
derserves it.

It is positively certain that the Duke has declared,
thrtt until the arrival of Sir Robert Peel he will do nothing,
11,Q1• will he give any thing.