The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-28 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY.
The French and Spanish expeditionary forces
intended to attack Hue about the 19th of this
month.

A Paris letter in the Nord of Brussels says :
" The initiative of the negotiations which have
been opened for an extraordinary convocation of
the conference emanates principally from England,
Austria, and Turkey, These powers fear that the
organic regulation drawn up by the plenipoten-
tiaries will not be sufficient to guarantee the
authority of the Porte in the Danubian provinces.
No decision has yet been come to on the subject of
this proposition.

BOURSE, Dec. 27.—Heavy sales were effected at
the opening of the market, and tho prices gave
way. A variety of reports have been in circula-
tion relative to new loans and new subscriptions.
Threes have been done at 73f. loc., and are now
at 73f. sc. ; Mobilier varied from 977 f. 50c. to
970 f.. ; Austrian, 637 f. 50c. to 635 f. ; Lyons, 885 f.
to 880 f.; and Southern, 590 f. to 58f5. The follow-
ing were the last quotations :-
42 per Cents. .... 96 50 Credit Fonder 670
Do. end month .. 96 60 Belgian 41 . lOOl
3 per Cents. 73 Piedmontese (5) 93 75
Do. end month.... 73 Roman 93
Bank Shares. . 3005 Austrian
Credit Mobilier .. 975 Spanish Threes
Do. Account ..... 973 75 Home Debt 43 25

DRURY LANE.
It has seldom fallen to the lot of metropolitan managers
co achieve such a series of triumphs for the production of
pantomime as has attended the efforts of Mr. E. T. Smith.
Ever since he became the lessee of this national establish-
ment, one of the greatest features of his management—if
not the greatest—has been his Christmas entertainment,
and each successive effort, splendid as they all have been,
has fairly eclipsed its predecessor in brilliancy and magni-
ficence. To this fact may be attributed the immense crowd
that gathered outside the walls of " Old Drury" last night,
previous to the opening of the doors for the season of
1858-59. As early as five o'clock hundreds of per-
sons began to take up their position in front of the
many entrances to the theatre, and at half-past
six o'clock Russell-street and Bridges-street and the
surrounding vicinity vividly recalled to recollec-
tion the multitudes that used to assemble on nearly the same
snot when tha locrairoato ar.ma was In its palmiest days.
In a few minutes after the opening of the doors the house
was crammed in every part, and so tremendous was the
uproar until the pantomime commenced that it was quite
impossible to hear one word uttered by Mr. and Mrs. Barney
Williams, who appeared in a farce called "Latest from
New York." The first piece having been quickly gone
through the curtain rose on " Robin Hood ; or; Harlequin
Friar Tuck and the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest." The
introduction opens in the " Hall of Harmony," where
Music comes, and is met by her offspring, and successively
calls into her presence Italian Opera, in the shape of the
Trovatore and Traviata, English Opera, Canterbury-hall;
and all the little warblers and melodies which belong to
her large family. Here she is visited by the Year 1858,
who asks for a pantomime, which she may leave as a legacy
to the next year. The subject of "Robin Hood" is chosen.
During the progress of the opening more than one of the
famous exploits of Robin Hood are embodied ; and these
are enlivened by the presence of Maid Marian and all the
memorable associates of the bold eutlaw, from Will Scarlet
(a gentleman clad exclusively in red) and "Little" John (a
giant of some 12 feet in stature) to the immortal Friar
Tuck. Having (in accordance with the metrical legend)
waylaid the butcher in the forest, they proceed to the fair
at Notting-ham, where they excite the suspicion of the
sheriff by carrying off all the prizes for the sports and pas-
times which our ancestors were wont to practise on those
festive occasions—as, for example, climbing the maypole,
jumping in the sack, archery, &c. All this is represented
on the stage with graphic minuteness and wonderful ani-
mation, not the least enlivening incident being the morris
dance, into which the members of the ballet entered with
just as much spirit and vigour as they had already
displayed in the foregoing scene, where the quaint
French pastoral imparted such a widely different physiog-
nomy to their evolutions. The issue of the contest for
firizes in Nottingham market-place is a discovery of the
identity of Robin Hood and his companions, who are forth-
with ordered to be arrested by the Sheriff, but (or historical
tradition would have been strangely set at nought) effect
the discomfiture of the enemy and their own escape with
that consummate address for which poets and romancers
have so frequently apostrophised them. Pursued to their
haunt in the depths of Sherwood Forest, and on the point
of surrendering, they are rescued by the Fairy Queen, who,
with the facility natural to her tribe, transports, in a trice,
the whole of the dramatis personce to the " Retreat of the
Fairies in the Region of Bluebells and Wild Flowers,"
where the time-honoured "transformation" takes place.
Robin Hood becomes Harlequin (Signor Milano), Maid
Marian Columbine (Madame Boleno), the Butcher Panta-
loon (Mr. G. Tanner), and Friar Tuck Clown (Mr. Harry
Boleno) ; with which merry company are speedily
associated yet another Harlequin, Columbine, Panta-
loon, and Clown, (Messrs. S. Maine and Delevanti,
Signor Delevanti and Miss Brown), besides a " Harle-
quina" so-called (MiSs Lamb), sprites and juvenile
pantornimists (the Lauri and Delevanti families).
In scenic splendour Mr. Smith's pantomime this year far
exceeds anything yet introduced at Old Drury, and the
tremendous applause bestowed upon Mr. Beverley when he
made his bow upon the stage in obedience to the calls of
the delighted audience, was richly deserved. The first of
these pictorial triumphs is entitled the "Arcadian Haunt
of the Forest Fairies." Nothing can exceed the splendour
and fairylike softness of the scene. Here we have rustic
swains, in costume a la Watteau, revelling under silver
trees bearing golden fruits, and the background is artisti-
cally fitted up by a romantic cascade of real water, which
adds such a freshness and reality to the picture that the
audience become quite enraptured. The transformation
scene is another wonderful production. It is one of those
wonderful " opening" tableaux, each succeeding effect
adding fresh brilliancy to that which was magnificent
before. The grouping of the wood--nymph was a perfect
triumph of art, and when the picture was lit up by ruby
emerald-coloured fire, a coup d'ccil was produced that really
defies description. The comic business embraces some
very capital tricks, puns, and witticisms, and, taken as a
whole, we can say say without fear of contradiction that
the pantomime of last night is beyond question the most
magnificent that has been produced within the four walls
of any theatre in England. There was not a single mis-
take from the commencement, and Mr. Smith must indeed
feel gratified at the success he has achieved.

HAYMARKET.
The pantomime at this house is exceedingly brilliant,
fanciful, and effective, and well sustains the high reputation
which the Haymarket Theatre has, acquired under Mr.
Buckstone's management, not only for admirable acting
but also for scenic splendour and pictorial beauty of its
holiday pieces. The entertainment, which is entitled
" Undine; or, Harlequin and the Spirit of the Waters," is
founded upon the well-known legend of the same name by
the Baron de la Motte Fouque, whose German has been
" done into English," as old writers were wont to phrase it,
by Mr. Buckatone himself with point and neatness. The
outline of the story may be sketched thus :—Undine, the

A pantomime at Christmas, burlesque at Easter. Such:
Used to be the rule prescribed to managers, and long ad-
hered to by them, but in these" fast" times audiences have
grown (or are supposed to have grown) more exigent ; and
we presume it is to meet the increased appetite of his pa-
trons that Mr. Falconer last night commenced his new
season with a burlesque and with a pantomime. The sub-
ject of the first and chief production is classical, being ne
less than the Siege of Troy worked into a novel shape by
Mr. It. B. Brough. The story of the Trojan war and the
episode of the wooden horse have furnished materials for
theatrical authors before now, but certainly never have
they received a colouring so broad, and so ludicrous as in
Mr. Brough's version of the Homeric tale. The piece
opens, after a brief prologue, with a view of the Greek en-
campment before Troy, in which are assembled the leading
chiefs of the besieging force, who, while solemnly engaged
in holding a council of war, are interrupted by the entry of
Chryses, the priest of Apollo, who demands the restoration
of his daughter Chryseis, a captive of Agamemnon, but
that redoubtable chief refuses to give up his fair prisoner,
whereupon Chryses invokes the aid of Apollo, and the sun
god darts his rays upon the earth with such intensity as
to prostrate all the assembled chieftains. At this moment,
howeter, a new captive is announced, " Our Own Corres-
pondent," no less a person than the poet Homer (Mr.
Emery), who explains his object in visiting the camp to be
the collection of materials for his forthcoming work, and
warns his hearers not to offend him lest their names should
bo omitted from its pages. By his recommendation Aga-
memnon. restores Chryseis to her father, but compensates
himself by appropriating Briseis, a captive of Achilles.
The latter chief is so indignant that he withdraws with his
force from the Grecian camp. In the next scene, "the
Sea Shore," Homer meets with Cupid (Miss St. George),
who visits earth to animate each of the contending parties,
and Achilles also appears to prefer his complaint against
Agamemnon to his mother, Thetis, who demands the
assistance of the deities. The next scene is the ‘‘ Plea-
saunce of the Immortals," in which is presented a ballet,
introducing Iris, Hesper, and Vesper, with the Twenty-
four Hours. Miss Regina Wright, with Al iss A!. Charles
and Miss Al. Dalton, performed some pleasing 2)(1,9, but
the scene was perhaps a trifle too protracted. The thread
of the story, if such a thing may be supposed to exist, la
resumed—the scene of action being transferred to within
the walls of Troy. The duel between Menelaus and
Paris takes place, the truce is made, and Hector (Mrs.
Keeley) appears in a war chariot drawn by three real ponies.
The Trojan hero having declared his passion for fighting,
and his determination at all costs to have it, departs from the
walls, and in the next scene we find him at the lists pre-
pared within the Grecian camp. He here encounters Ajax
(Mr. C. Young), who manifests an equal degree of anxiety
for mortal strife. The two heroes then enter upon a t 4 ter-
rific combat," which each party enlivens during the tempo-
rary discomfiture of his foe by executing a kind of Nigger
dance round his fallen rival. Ultimately, of course, Hector
is the victer, and Eaving charmed the Greeks by his valour
he proceeds to astonish them by his talent in horse-taming,
a la liarey, and as a reward for his skill he receives a pre-
sent of the famous wooden horse. Hector having fraternised
with the Greek chiefs, is next seen returning in a somewhat
elevated state, and thus meets Patroclus (Mr. J. Rogers) a
toady admirer of Achilles (Miss Talbot), whom he proceeds
to attack and finally vanquish. In the next scene the
"Wooden Horse" is made to disgorge its armed contents,
and an attack is made on the city, which is terminated in
some mysterious manner by all parties being conveyed to
the " Ocean Cave, where Aurora is supposed to sleep," and
thence to the "Dawn of Mount Olympus," a gorgeous
scene, reflecting the highest credit on the artist (Mr. Call-,
cott) ; but the machinery on this occasion, as, indeed
throughout the whole burlesque, worked most imperfectly,
and marred to a great extent the effect of the artist's
labours. The pantomime then succeeds rather abruptly,
but apparently not too soon for the tt..ste of the audience,
who welcomed the well-known figures of Harlequin,
Columbine, and their accustomed pursuers. To Mrs.
Keeley and Miss St. George, by their admirable acting and
singing, the author is much indebted for his success, and
Mr. C. Young, as the pugilistic Ajax, earned the applause
of a densely-crowded audience. Mr. Emery, also, as the
note-taking Homer, acted with much humour.

ADELPHI.
The new of the comic muse in the Adelphi was
opened last night, under the most flattering auspices—re-
gard being had to the many difficulties attending a building
from which the artificers had to be expelled to make room
for the audience. Long before the cloois were opened
an eager crowd were clamouring for admission. The
rush was terrific at the pit and gallery entrances, but in
a few minutes the house was completely filled, without
any accident. The interior of the building presents a very
beautiful appearance. The panels of the boxes shone with
burnished gold, the candelabra reflected a thousand pris-
matic hues, and the drop scene was formed to realise all
that had been said in its praise. The corridors and saloons
were of course unfinished, but a very few days will suffice to
reduce the whole to harmony. The seats were admitted on