The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-26 00:00:00

CANTERBURY HALL.

The lovers of classical music enjoyed a rich treat last
evening at this highly popular place of entertainment, in
listening to delightful selections from Gounod's charming
opera of "Faust," which was produced, for the first time
in this country, on the occasion; and we may, in passing,
observe that, whether we regard the pleasing solos with
which the opera is interspersed, or the effective choral com-
binations which it contains, it fully justifies the encomiums
which have been bestowed upon the composition by the
highest Continental musical critics. The interpretations of
the solos were assigned to Miss Russell, who sustained the
interesting character of Marguerite, to Mrs. Anderson, who
appeared as Siobel, to Mr. H. Herbert, who represented
Faust, and to Mr. C. Bernard, as Mephistopheles.
The first piece selected to illustrate the opera was the
grand chorus, " Wine or beer," which was given with
such stirring effect by the whole of the artists as at once
to establish the high character of M. Gounod'a compOsi-
tion. This was followed by the delightful cavatina, " Oh,
sacred home," which Mr. Herbert sang with great taste
and feeling, and was rewarded for his highly effective vocali-
sation by the warm approval of the audience. The beautiful
recitative and air, " In solitude I'm lonely," and " I laugh as
I pass," was rendered in a charming manner by Miss Russell,
whose rich, full, and flowing soprano voice was admirably
suited to the recitative and air in question. She was equally
effective in the duets, " Yes, oh yes, I love thee," and " Holy
Angels in Heaven blest," which she sang with Mr. Herbert,
who sustained throughout in these duets his well-earned
reputation as a first-class tenor singer. The fine charac-
teristic chorus of soldiers, " Ah 'tis a pleasure of such scenes
to tell," was given with great power and finish, and the
opera, as a whole, went off with the greatest eclat.
The band was full and complete, and under tke able di-
rection of Monsieur Jonghmans, the conductor, did good
service in ensuring for the opera the great success which it
achieved.
The hall was crowded in every part,. and the audience
were evidently highly gratified with this new effort on the
part of Mr. Morton, the proprietor of Canterbury Hall, to
afford to the frequenters of his establishment a fresh oppor-
tunity of listening to another of the chef d'ceuvres of our
modern musical masters.
The other entertainments of the evening consisted of se-
lections from " Dinorah," " Trovatore," " Macbeth," and
some admirable comic singing, which brought forth fully
the musical resources of the company,
In the course of the evening the Fine Arts Gallery of the
establishment, which contains a large assortment of admi-
rable specimens of pictorial art, was visited by the com-
pany, who were thus afforded an additional source of en-
joyment, and the general arrangements reflected the highest
credit on the proprietor in catering for the enjoyment of the
public.

IMPORTANT TO RAILWAY COMPANIES.—A case
of some interest to manufacturers was tried in the Oldham
County Court last week. It was an action against the Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire Railway Company for an alleged
detention of some bales of cotton. The plaintiffs, Messrs.
Gee and Co., of Bottom of Moor, had, it appears, 10 bales
of cotton left for them at the railway station, Liverpool, on
the 26th of January. The cotton should have been delivered
to them on the 27th, according to usual practice, but in
this instance it did not reach them till the 30th, and by the
non-delivery the plaintiffs stated they had lost upwards of
£2O. The jury gave a verdict for the plaintiffs far £l5, to
which the judge added the costs, his honour laying it down
as " clear law and clear reason" that the railway company
were not at liberty to detain goods, because when they re-
ceived them they took them on the assumed contract that
they were to forward them by the first conveyance.