The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-17 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY.
The Royal Mail steam-ship Canada, Capt. Lang,
has arrived in the Mersey with the usual mails
from the United Sates and British North America.
She left Boston on the oth inst., and Halifax o❑
the 7th, and has brought 117 passengers, but no
specie.

The following vessels had arrived out :—The
steamer New York, from Glasgow, and the Bor-
dassia, from Hamburg, at New York, on May 1 ;
and the Ariel, from Southampton, on the 4th.
The Europa, hence, arrived at Halifax on May 4.
The President had signed the Kansas Bill, which
finally settles that question.
Nothing of importance had taken place in Con-
gress.

Considerable agitation exists in Washington with
eferenee to the Yrsarri T►eaty, and it iy said that
it will not be ratified unless the transit monopoly
is abolished.

11.1 ward Dessling, the Prussian, arrested under
the extra,lition treaty, for fo-gery at Cologn=e, has
been acquitted.
Havannah advices to the 25th nit. represent
sugars as dull, at a decline of half a real on inferior
qualities.
Advices from Venezuela, state that the ex-Presi-
dent Monages had been given up by the diplomatic
body, but that his son had escaped. The Provi-
sional Government had issued a commission invit-
ing General Paery to return from New York and
resume the Presidency of the Republic.
The ship Majestic, from Liverpool to Charleston,
was burned at sea ; the passengers and crew were
saved and landed at Halifax.
At New York, on the 4th, stocks, though vari-
able, exhibited a slight advance. A considerable

- -
alteration had taken place in foreign exchange, the
market was firm at 109 i.
Cotton was without important change ; mid.
uplands 12g.
State and Western flour very heavy, and a shade
lower. Southern steady. Canada superfine nomi-
nal. Corn higher. Beef steady. Pork dull, un-
settled and lower. Lard dull and lower. Sugar
depressed. Freights firmer. The Europa's news
caused greater firmness in the New Orleans Cotton
Market on May 4th.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

NEW COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.

The inauguration of this superb and unequalled
Palace of the Lyrical Drama took place on Satur-
day night under the most auspicious circumst rotes.
According to a promise to that effect made public
about two months ago, the occasion selected for
the Opening Day was no other than Her Majesty's
Birthday, the official Birthday celebrated on the
15th of May, in anticipation of the real Birthday
of Queen Victoria, the 24th inst., Monday next,
on which day that happy event will be commemo-
rated among themselves by the Royal Family
as its veritable thirty-ninth anniversary. Con-
spicuous this time beyond all the festivities, official
and ex-official, given in honour of the Sovereign on
Saturday--beyond Her Majesty's own regal Draw-
ing-room in St. James's Palace, the various minis-
terial Banquets, the Grand Bail at the Prime
Minister's nominal residence in Dawning-street,
and the stately assembly at the would-be Premiar's
actual dwellimg (Cambridge House) in Piccadilly,
at which last mentioned abode the reunion, was "kept
up" until long past midnight in a manner perfectly
consistent with Lord Palmerston's recent and very
curious adhesion (in the wrong way) to the Sabbata-
Han movement! Beyond all these radiant and sump-
tuous festivities, aided by the customary review of
the Household Troops in the Park, the firing of
cannon, the ringing of church bells, the display of
flags and streamers, and the kindling after night-
fall of numerous . appropriate illuminations—there
was the grand event of Saturday evening, an event
which will long distinguish her Majesty's Birth-
day in 1858 among its many predeCessors, and we
hope also, with God's blessing, among its many
successors—namely, the opening of the new Royal
Italian Opera, the new Covent Garden Theatre,
according to solemn promise and engagement.
How that promise was kept it would be difficult
indeed to describe with any accuracy—it would be
bewildering even to conjecture. A rumour was
afloat among the audience on Saturday, shortly
after their admission within the walls, that the last
two hours were something very like madness ; yet,
assuredly, it must have been a madness with a
marvellous method in it, for there was this won-
derful edifice completed inside to its minutest deco-
rations, although up to the last minute before the
admission of the audience the preparations were
in active progress. In illustration of this we
may simply remark that while we were all waiting
under cover before the grand entrance (half-an hour
after time by the way, and no wonder I) there was
carried through the crowd across Bow-street from
the direction of Long Acre, some of the scenery,
to ba passed just in the nick by a side door in Hart-
street on to the stage to assist in the decoration of
the perforwances. Beyond which, after the crowd
had actually entered the building—there, behind
the lovely mimic draperied drop-curtain still rang
the clink of nail and hammer, the busy note of pre-
paration !

Already it would be merely a platitude to say
that the new Italian Opera House in Covent-garden
is the largest Theatre in the World—still with
one exception, the renowned La Scala. Ey( ry-
body knows that. But everybody does not yet
know that it is actually and truly besides that with-
out any exception—the grandest, the loveliest, in-
comparably beyond all others in Europe, the most
stately and the mostmagnificent. Enteringthe house
and taking up our allotted position in perhaps the
very best place of all both for sight and sound—
for what our neighbours call the coup d'eell
and the tout ensemble, meaning the orchestra stalls,
the stalls—we glanced about us, we gazed our fill,
we drank deeply of the splendour and the beauty
of that all but perfect interior. It was soon crowded
—not to suffocation, for the place is deliciously ven-
tilated—not to inconvenience, for each spectator
is provided in the way of mere room for living and
breathing, with ample accoinmo It was filled
as a matter of course everywhere, in boxes, pit,
stalls, slips, gallery, and amphitheatre. Alto-
gether from one to two thousand, strictly speaking,
we believe, 1,698 persons were enabled with entire
comfort to see the stage, to hear the music, to
lounge at ease each in his arm-chair as though he
were slippered comfortably on his own hearth-rug,
or lolling in one of the very best specimens of the
modern railway carriage. Only that besides being
without the motion of the latter, you are anything
but (as in the' instance of the railway carriage)
cabined, cribbed, confined. Looking upwards to
the ceiling—there hung radiantly pendant and
resplendent from its centre, the largest cut
glass chandelier ever constructed-18 feet in height,
13 feat in diameter, consisting altogether
of three tons of the purest cut glass, comprising
700 gas jets and 120,000 glass prisms ! No e onder
the very chandelier itself when the gas was turned
on more brightly received a distinct round of ap-
plause, as though it had been one of the performers
—a star it certainly was and a very bright one of
the first magnitude. The applause might have
been appropriated to themselves by the fabricators
of this Wonderful Lamp in this Palace of Aladdin,
the Messrs. Defries of—Oh, unromantic name—
Hounsditch ! Having admired themammoth chan-
delier to the utmost, with a passing glance of appro-
bation at the small delicate triple branches with gas-
jets and cut-glass shades arranged round the grand
tier at each division of the boxes, and noted, not
without marvel, the astonishing row of footlights
exieuding along the whole width of that wonderful
elongated orchestra—we look up once more to the
ceiling. Not this time to reiealk the mammoth
chandelier but the half-dome-shaped ceiling
from the middle of which it is hanging and
glittering. A domical ceiling it is, supported ou
exquisite elliptical arches. The perforated centre
has a diameter, we aee told on reliable authority,
otherwise we should hardly believe it, a diame
ter of twelve feet, giving, of course, some thirty-six
feet as its c:rcumference. The decorations (while
throughout the house they are almost entirely pure
white and gold) are here, in the ceiling, gold upon
a delicate groundwork of the lightest azure, look-
ing, by artificial light, of the palest peagreen. Tee
design of the adornments overhead has been furnished
by the master designer of the whole theatre, Barry,
and this design has been truthfully and tastefully
executed by Messrs. Jackson. It is, so to speak,
if we may define it by any one word, geometrical
Divided int.) radiating compar. meats—bossed, and
looped, and trellised, altogether an exquisite fabri-
cation. As to the boxes, built up in three tiers,
and surmounted by a gallery tier on either side,
giving a total of exactly 124 boxes in all, they are
in simplest exactitude of phase, framed each like a
very charming picture—some of these pictures, by
the by, disclosing to the impertinently prying
telescopic gaze of our opera-glass, " originals"
of the "human face divine" better than any that
ever came from the easle of Sir Joshua or Sir
Thomas, of Grant or Gordon, of Vandyck or
Irelasquez. While the lining of these boxes is
crimson the silky curtains by which they are all
draperied in front are of a deep rose-pink. A
colour warming up the cool sparkle and freshness
of the prevailiug white and gold in the pannelling
and the p.llars—the pannels for the most pat t being
bossed with cupids, flowers, and fruit—the pillars
being of the most elegant spiral shape wall im-
aginable. The latter it may be 'observed, too,
meaning the pillars, are one mass of gold-leaf—the
former, i.e. the pannels, gold-leaf and cream-white
alternately. As to the amount of gilding in the
house it would be rather puzzling to gesess at—the
gold leaves must have been strewed about there as
thickly as the famous leaves of Valambrosa ! The
proscenium is one mass of the richest gilding—
that matchless and eminently beautiful proscenium !
This, of all parts of the house, if we could positively
have made any selection of the kind, we should
have chosen as our favourite. The proscenium !
—fifty feet high, eight or ten feet wider than any
theatre in London, wider even than that ofthe great
La S':a!a—lit porch or rather lattice to that gigantic
stage, a vast stage, no less than 9) feet square in
its dimensions. Above this lovely gilded, ornate,
soaring, in its lightness almost aerial, proscenium,
glows, in gold, the familiar medallion profile ever
delightful togaze upon, but certainly most agreeable
of all to look at when stamped in gold, the pleasant
English features of our gracious English Queen.
Grouped on either side of the shield bearing this
medallion are the classic and semi-classic) designs by.
Reffaelle Monti, iii alto and basso-relievo—i epre-
senting, on one Land, Orpheus and his ancient
Greek listeners, and on the other band Ossian and
his ancient British listeners. Both sufficiently
apocryphal—the latter lelnig the portraiiure of en
ideal scene that it would have done Mr. James
Macpliereon's heart good to look at ! Scanning, in
fact, the whole interior of this wonderful
edihce as a whole—taking the view of it into
the mini in one general survey—considering it no
long,,,rpieceuitml hut altegi_ther—we recogei e as
its chief attribute, as its paramount and con-
r.picuous characteristic (in spite of all the gorgeous
t.rofasion of gold leaf already particularised)—
vi hat ?--distinctly we say it, a lovely and chaste
and artistic simplicity ! In its proportions, in its
cutl nes, in its furniture, in its decorations. There
is nothing overlaid with ornament. There is much
tl at is gorgeous—there is nothing that is rueretii-
eious. It fe simply superb. The eye is charmed,

the taste and judgment are together satisfied. But,
while we are gazing about us in delighted admi-
ration—there is a second peal of applause, at first
slight but rapidly rising into acclamation. Not
another Brobdignagian chandelier—no, it is the
orchestra filling, it is M. Costa at his desk baton
in hand. There is M. Sainton with his violin, by
right as well as by genius " first fiddle," there is
Pratten with his flute, there Lazarus with his
clarionet, there Harper with his trumpet, there
Chipp with his drum, there Prospere with his
ophecleide—there, above all, is the chef,
the maestro, Composer, Director, Conductor,
all in one—Costa. It is like his welcome
home again, that cordial round rising, and falling
and swelling louder, again and yet again, as he bows,
magic ward in hand, to boxes. gallery, and amphi-
theatre. The opera begins, the masterpiece wisely
chosen for the first night—" The Huguenots."
Tnere are long pauses between the acts, the last act
even is not performed at all, the National Anthem
bzing substituted for it as a conclusion in conse-
quence of Sunday morning having commenced.
Yet never perhaps has grander effect been given to
those three first acts than was given on Saturday
night to that three-quarter length of the great
original of Meyerbeer. What is the cast ? It is
the grand old cast
.of yore—before the late house
was burnt in'o rums. Read the names, and say
whether they sound not familiarly. As for
Mario, never did he sing more deliciously.
He was in glorious voice, and acted (as he
was) as though he were lord of the scene and
master of the situation. His welcome home again,
too, was an ovation. Cordial, also, was the reception
accorded to each in turn among the other favourite
performers. Particularly (as to a pet) to Madlle.
Didiee, as the stripling page Ur bano. But most of
all to the long-time Queen of Song, Madame Grier,
who was greeted at first with a storm of plaudits,
and at last with a brilliant and odorous shower of
bouquets. The mis en scene, even with all the
hurry of the first night, was admirable. The
scenery, new and sparkling from the ar-
tist's brush, the dresses, glossy and sparkling
from the hands of the costumier. The choruses
have been admirably drilled, and the orchestral
accompaniments were in every instance kept in
perfect' subordination—even at momenta of the
wildest fury of sound from drum and trumpet, as
in the crash of the grand chorus of malediction,
after the stealthy retreat towards the back of the
stage, the sudden wheel round upon the audience,
and the rush down to the footlights. Admirable
also was the famous chorus of the Huguenot sol-
diers with its " Rataplan " refrain. Madlle.
Didiee's ever delightful " Non —non, non,
non," won applauses that reminded us of the
encores always extorted for the same delectable
romance by Madlle. Alboni's rendering of it.
As ono morsel of humour in the midst of
the colossal solemnity and pathos of the great
opera, it should be remarked that Signor Talmo
provoked a burst of laughter by his lugubrious
comicality in dolefully chaunting that dismal little
stave as head of the Night Watch. Signor Taglia-
fico was the only chief performer who appeared to
us in any way at fault, and in the instance a'luded
to, somewhat unaccountably—we mean in his de-
livery of the Nobil Donzella when conducting his
bride to the nuptial barge at the close of the
second act. Fresh his voice may be in
every note but in this instance it was
decidedly flat, and, so far as relates to any pleasure
resulting from it, beyond all manner of doubt, un-
profitable. It is almost needless to say that a very
cordial reception was accorded to the various im-
personators of the chief characters. While, it
must be admitted, that M. Zelgor gave a respect-
able rendering of the great part of Marcel, it can-
not possibly but be regretted that Herr Formes
somehow failed to appear as the old puritanical
swashbuckler. This inevitable regret was all the
more poignantly experienced on hearing Zelger's
version of the grand old Puff Paff song of blood-
and-thunder. Signor Polonini, it will have been
remarked, appeared as formerly as Count de
San Bris—Signor Soldi as Travannes—Signor
Rossi as De Retz—and Signor Pierini as
Meru. It was in his famous interview with
these in the third act that Signor Tagliafico, as the
Count de Nevers, appeared on Saturday both as a
singer and as an actor to the highest advantage.
But the grand histrionic and lyrical triumphs of
the night were of course won pre-eminently and
beyond all question, mais cela va sans dire, by
Madame Grisi and Signor Mario, as Raoul and
Valentina. Who does not know Grisi's " Salva
Raoul per me non terao ?" and yet more, the "B
the morra ma per salver ?" Who has not a grateful
remembrance of the dulcet and delicious tones of
the great tenor, of the thrilling passion and ten-
derness thrown by him into the " Per tutti ii
ciel," or, best of all, into the " Bella diving incant-
atrice ?" The climax of the acting and singing Of
e tch being capped by the renowned scene at the
close of the third act, with which, as we have raids
this Famous First Night of the new Theatre iii
CJvent-garden terminated. The memorable event
of that first night is a triumph to all concerned in
it--above all, it is a wonderful triumph for Mr.
Gye, whose absence on the occasion was a matter
of universal regret—more particularly from the
circumstance of that absence being unfortunately
attributable to the exhaustion consequent upon his
extraordinary efforts to fulfil his apparently inspes-
Bible, but punctually realised engagement.
The Queen's box was occupied by Lady Caroline
Barrington and Miss Barrington, Lady Georgians
Grey, Mr. C. Barrington, Mr. Sartoris, and Mr.
West. Among the fashionable company present in
the theatre were—the Duchess of Montrose and
Lady Agnes Graham, the Marquis of Stafford, the
Earl Granville, the Countess of Glengall and Lady
Margaret Butler, the Earl of Carlisle and Lady
Blantyre, the Earl and Countess Constance Gros-
venor, Earl Spencer, the Earl of Uxbridge, the Earl
and Countess of Stamford and Warriugton, the Earl
of Coventry, the Earl of Cardigan, the Countess of
Kinnoull, the Earl of Gifford, the Earl and Countess
of Bective, the Earl and Countess of Bessberough,
the Earl of Shelburne, the Countess of Fife and
Miss Wemyss, the Countess of Bradford and the
Ladies Bridgman and Miss IVloncrieffe, the Conn'
toss Dowager of Harrington, Viscountess Villiers,
Viscount and Viscountess Malden, Viscount and
Viscountess Duppliu and Lady Henrietta Morant,
Viscount Ranelagh, Viscount Clifden, Visccunt
Exmouth, Lord Ward, Lady Wharncliffe, Lady
Augusta Seymour and the Misses Seymour, Lord
H. G. Lennox, M.P., Lie. d G. G. Lennox, M.P.,
Lady Hislop, Lady Georgiana Codringtont
Lord Henry Thynne, Lord Adolphus Vane
Tempest, M.P., Lord Arthur Hay and the
Ladies Jaue and Julia Hay, Lady Elinor Caven-
dish and Mr. C. Cavendish, Lady Panmure and
Mr. Power, Count Louis Corti, Capt. the Hon. C.
Hay and Mrs. Hay, Capt. the Hon. T. H. G. Per-
mor, Hon. E. S. Russell, M.P., and Mrs. Russell
and the Hon. Miss Russell, Hon. Mrs. Colville,
Hon. John Fortescue, Hon. Mrs. Ives, Hon. Mrs.
Biddulph and Miss Seymour, Hon. Otw ay Toler,
Hon. Mrs. Charles Cust, Hon. Mrs. Ricardo, Sir
Alexander Bannerman, Sir George Armytage, Sir
William de Bathe, Lady Webster, Sir Geo. Womb-
well, Lady Macfarlane and Miss Macfarlane, Sir
John Lowther, M.P., Sir Henry Cetterell, M.P.,
Col. Brownlow Knox, M.P., Col. de Bathe, Col.
Ellison, Col. Bigg, Col. Meyrick and Miss Meyriekt
Major Gage, Major de Horsey, Major Cook, Capt.
E. St. John Mildmay, Captain Dawson Damer,
Captain and Mrs. Leyland and Miss Leyland,
Capt. Dampier, Capt. Vivian, Capt. Shearson, Mr.
Bentinck, M.P., Mr. Conyngham, M.P., and Mrs.
Conyngham, Mr. Henry Baring, M.P., Mr. Ha-
milton Beckett and the Hon. Mrs. Beckett, Mrs.
William Duff, Mr. Hubert de Burgh, Mr. Theo-
dore Uzielli, Mr. Woodford, Mr. Ellis Williams,
Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish Bentinck, Mrs. Mountjoy
Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Villehois, Mr. Antrobus,
Mr. Chas. Webster, Mr. F. Webster, &c.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The Queen's box at
Her Majesty's Theatre was occupied on Saturday by
the Duchess of Maocbe3ter, Lady Churchill, Lady
Blanche Egerton, the Hon. Arthur Egerton. Amongst
the fashionable company honouring the theatre with
their presence were the Duke of Cleveland and Lady
Augusta Poulett, the Duke of Hamilton, bill
Excellency Baron Brunnow, the Marquis of Clan-
ic irde, the Marchioness of Downshire, lord
Ward, his Excellency Count Kielmansegge the
Marquis of Sligo, and the Ladies Browne, the
Countess of Harrington, the Earl of Chesterfield, the
Earl of Wicklow, the Earl and Countess of Essex, the
Earl and Countess of Mountcharles, the Earl of She!'
borne, Viscount Clifden, Viscount Poweracourt, Mr.
Charles Klingernaen, Count Anolsjorn Sparre, Count d
Bark, the Lord and the Lady Mayoress, Lady Charles
Somerset, Lady Geraldine Somerset, and Lady Edith
Somerset, Lady Brougham, Lord Ernest Bruce, Lord
James Stuart, Lord William Lennox. Lord and Lady
Harry Vane, Lord Sandys, Lady Charlotte Egerton,
Lord Ashley Lady Rjan, Lady Wilson, Hon. Mrs'
Stuart, Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Ward, Gen. the
lion. IT. Cavendish, Col. Paget, Capt. Bateson, Admit's'
Ryder Burton, Sir Joseph Hanley, Sir Ralph apd
Lady Howard, Sir John Gibbons, Sir J. Buller Ea,t ;
Sir Cipack and Lady Roney, Capt. Lyon, Ss J. Rennie,
Kr. Fortes Campbell, Gen. Taylor, Gen. Knowles,
Mr, Alfred Montgomery, Mr. Hoops I, M.P., and Mr°-
. R int), II ; Col. Hammill, Col. Lockyer Frecstun, MY•
nd Mr-. Freest au, Col. Crispin, Col. and Mrs. Wit,
son, Mr. Packe, and Mrs. Pack() Reading ; Mr. and
NlrA. Kay, Mrs. Trelawny, Mr. Border, Mr. Alphretus
C. Biluge, &c.
APOTHECARIES HALL—The following are the nano%
of gentlemen who passed their examination in the
~eielcc and practice of medioine, and received certificates
to practise, on Thursday, May 13:—Henry
Castle-street, Hastings ; William Yande, Lamb
Conduit-street ; William Harris, Waterford, Ireland ;
Henry Hope Atkinson, Redhiil, Surrey ; Jas. Oliver ;
John Morton Beaumont ; Nicholas Feawick
Pangholll73, Eerie •

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