The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-14 00:00:00

HAY.

SmintrlELD.—Meadow hay, 55s Od to 84s ; clover, 60s to
105 s ; and straw, 30s to 36s per load. A small supply.
CUMBERLAND. —Meadow hay, 55s Od to 85s; clover, GOs
to 105 s; and straw, 30s to 36s per load. A slow sale.

WHITECHAPEL.—Meadow hay, 55s to 85s Od ; clovor, 60s
to 105 s ; and straw, 30s to 36s per load. Demand inactive.

The new drama " Valjean," which has been expressly
adapted from Victor Hugo's celebrated work Les Miserable,
for Mr. Charles Dillon, was brought out at the Theatre
Royal, Manchester, on Wednesday night. Those who
have road Victor. Hugo's work will have a general idea of
the main features of the drama, although the author of the
adaptation has been compelled to condense to a great ex-
tent, and has thought it necessary materially to alter the
denouement. The author (says a Manchester contempo-
rary) must be supposed to know better than one else his
own meaning, but a very great many, we feel certain, will
see in it, whether he intended or not, something higher
than the dramatic presentation of a social problem. They
will in it an exhibition of the very vital spirit of Chris-
tianity itself. Here we have a- poor ignorant benighted
French peasant, with only a glimmering of intellect,
consigned to the galleys for stealing a loaf of broad in
order to save from starvation the children of a sister
who has brought him up. For successive attempts at
escape, his first term of punishment is increased to a
period of nineteen years, tand when at length his long
period of slavery terminates, and ho is sot free, it is only
to find himself spurned byevery one, a mouthful of bread
denied him, and every door shut in his face, although he
has money to pay for food and lodging. In this dire ex-
tremity, and literally compelled to sleep in the streets, a
good Samaritan, a priest, has compassion upon him, takes
him to his own house, feeds him, and provides him with
a bed, locks nothing up from his grasp, leaves plate
within his reach, and when the old Adam comes over the
convict, and he decamps with his benefactor's valuables,
and is caught and brought before him, the divine spirit of
Christian charity steps in and saves him from the conse-
quences of his theft, the obdurate heart is melted, tears
that have not moistened the eye for twenty years flow
freely, and the immortal soul is saved. The good deed is
never forgotten ; ho henceforth lives an honest man,
though persecuted and tried to the utmost. This appears
on the face of the drama as the great leading principle.
The events we cannot detail, but WC think it necessary to
say so much as to what we conceive to be its key note.
The author has admirably worked it out, and probably
he could not have found an actor more capable of exhibit-
ing it successfully than Mr. Charles Dillon, who seems to
have a remarkable power of entering into and developing
this kind of drama.

At some of the Parisian theatres play bills of the per-
formances are now sold which contain in the centre a
photograph of some remarkable scene in the drama -which
is being played. The Vaudeville, the Opira Comique, and
the Ambign, aro the houses wherein at present they may
be obtained.

A new phase of co-operation has been developed at
llochiale. For some time past a theatre has been greatly
needed in the town, and at length a few working men
took up the matter, launched a co-operative society, with
shares of .£1 each, and obtained a fund of £G,OOO. Tho
theatre, which was opened a few nights ago, will accom-
modate 2,200 persons.