The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-27 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT
GARDEN, under the sole Management of Miss Louisa
Pyne and Mr. W. Harrison
THIS EVENING will be presented an entirely new and
romantic Opera, by Mr. W. Balfe, entitled SATANELLA ;
or, THE POWER OF LOVE.

Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon.

To conclude with the new Pantomime of LITTLE RED
RIDING HOOD; or, Harlequin and the Wolf in Granny's
Clothing.

Commence at Seven,

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.—Opera Comique.—
WILL OPEN on WEDNESDAY next, Dec. 29, with
Auber's celebrated opera, LA PART DU DIABLE, in which
Mesdames Faure, Celine Mathieu, Helene Morel ; Messrs.
Fougeres, Bryon D'Orgeval, Montclar, Georget, &c., will
make their first appearance in England. Director and Con-
ductor—Mona. Remusat. Nightly Admission—Stalls, 105.6 d.;
Box eatsS
led),reserve 4s. ; Pit, 2s. 6d. • Amphitheatre Stalls,
Is. 6d. ary, ; Private Boxes, £'l 45., £3 35., and £2 2s.
Subscriptions and Tickets to be obtained at Mitchell's Royal
Library, 3.3, Old Bond-street. City Agent, Mr. Alvey Turner,
19, Poultry. Box-office. open daily from 11 till 5, under the
direction of Mr. C. Nugent. Acting Manager—Mr. B. Barnett.
Doors open at half-past 7; commenca at 8.:

O
YA L IeRINCESS'S THEATRE.
-cu Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean.
THIS EVENING will be presented
THE JEALOUS WIFE. Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean.
After which, a new "'rand Christmas Pantomime, entitled
T/IE KING OF THE CASTLE; or, Harlequin Prince
Dfamond and Princess Brighteyes.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, MONDAY, (Boxing-night) Dec. 27, will
be performed SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. Messrs.
Buckstone, Chippendale; Mesdames Reynolds and Poynter.
After which, a new grand Comic Pantomime, entitled
UNDINE ; or, Harlequin and the Spirit of the Waters.
Comments at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE,

Manager, Mr. Edmund Falconer, This Evening, will be produced a new Burlesque, written
expressly for the Lyceum Company by Robert B. Brough,
and entitled THE SIEGE OF TROY. The new and gor-
geous scenery by Mr. William Callcott. The principal cha-
racters by Mrs. Keeley, Miss Julia St. George, Mrs. Weston,
Miss Portman, Miss Talbot, Miss Kate Saxon, Miss E. Romer,
ac. ; Mr. Emery, Mr. Charles Young, Mr. Ellerton, Mr. J.
Rogers, Mr. Barrett, &c. ; Miss Rosina Wright, Miss M.
Charles, Miss Harriet Dalton, and a numerous Corps de Bal-
let II ill also appear.

After the Burlesque a new Comic Pantomime, replete with
new tricks and mechanical devices. entitled HARLEQUIN
TOY HORSE ; or, The Cremorne Fete. Clown, Hr Charles
Lauri ; Harlequin, Mr. John Lauri ; Pantaloon, Mr. Henry
Lauri ; Columbine, Miss Jenny Lauri.
The Performances will commence on Monday (to-night) and
Tuesday with the Comedietta of TOO MUCH FOR GOOD
NATURE.

Reduced Prices—Dress Boxes, 4s. ; Upper Boxes, 3s. ; Pit,
2s. ; Stalls, ss. ; Gallery, ls.
Box-office open from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past
6, to commence at 7 every evening.

'MEW THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHI.
Sole Proprietoi and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
Open for the Season on Boxing-Night (This Evening), To-
morrow, and during the week, MR. WEBSTER'S COM-
PANY IS REQUESTED AT A PHOTOGRAPHIC
SOIREE. Manager, Mr. B. Webster; Photographer, Mr. J.
L. Toole; Memory, Miss Woolgar ; Everybody, by Every-
body else.

After the first piece the New Act Drop by Clarkson Stan-
field, Esq., It.A., and painted by Mr. Wm. Telbin. With the
Occasional Address, spoken by Miss Woolgar, and presented
to Mr. Ben. Webster by Shirley Brooks, Esq.
GOON Volt NOTHING. Mr. Toole and Miss Woolgar.
To conclude with the grand Christmas Pantomime, entitled
MOTHER RED CAP ; or, Harlequin Johnny Gilpin's Ride
to Edmonton.:Clown, Mr. Croueste ; Harlequin, Mr. -Hilde-
brand ; Columbine, Miss Hayman ; Pantaloon, Mr. Lupino ;
Sprite, Mr. Le Barr.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborouzh.
TIIIS EVENING, THE RULE OR THREE.
After which THE MAID AND: THE MAGPIE.
THE LITTLE SAVAGE.
And THE BONNIE FISH WIFE.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

AST.LEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATItE,
Westminster-road.
Sole Lessee, llr. William Cooke.
Dress Circle, 4s. ; Boxes, 35.; Pit, 2s, ; Gallery, ls. ; Upper
Gallery, 6d.
During the week, the great Eastern Spectacle of THE
REVOLT IN INDIA; or, The Fugitives and their Faith-
ful Steed.
After which SCENES IN THE CIRCLE lay the Star
Riders of Europe.
'fa conclude with the great Oporatic and Burlesque-Eques-
trian Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN BARON MEIN-
CHAUSEN, AND HIS COMICAL CREAM COB
CRUISER. Harlequin, Mr. H. Hemmings ; Sprite, Mr.
Thorne ; Pantaloon, Mr. 11. Morley; Clown, by the inimitable
grotesque, Mr. A. F. Forrest. The gorgeous Transformation
Scone the perfection of modern art.

Stage Manager, Mr. Phillips,

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.—
Proprietor -C. MORTON.
The public is most respectfully informed that the FINE
A RI'S GALLERY, in connection with the above Hall, IS NOW
OPEN DAT AND NIG lIT, from 11 o'clock a.m. until 12
o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec-
tion of Piet urea, by Ancient and Modern Masters and is also
devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels
he may confidently assert-that, viewed altogether, the exist-
ing Music hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently
d Ante-Hall, will present an attraction which, whether
gards the architectural beauty of the structures them-
selves, or the varied and hitherto unattempted combinations
within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the
Kingdom.

The MuSicAL ENTIMTAINMENT commences as usual a

Seven o'clock
In addition to the usual entertainment, the SAUVLET
FAMILY, of Amsterdam, Eight in number, whose varied
instrumental performances have created so marked a sensa-
tion in the principal cities and towns of the Continent, will
perform every Evening at Nine an-I Eleven o'clock.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, DEC. 26.

THERMOMETER, TN THE SHADE.

49—highest since noon yesterday.
45—lowest this morning- and during the night.
50—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.33.
WIND, Westerly ; light, with fine sunshiny weather at
noon—rain in the evening. It blew a gale yesterday after-
noon, with continuous rain all the evening

Dec. 27.

53—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
44--this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.40.
WIND, S.W. ; light and fine.

A
- •
M
>

THE SUN.

MONDAY. DECEMBER 27, 1858.

MADELINE SMITH'S case, it might have been
hoped, would have necessitated the timely inter-
vention of the Legislature to render thenceforth
altogether illegal, and severely punishable, the
careless vending of a deadly poison like arsenic.
Nothing of the kind, however, has been the result
of that disastrous and melancholy series of revela-
tions. A striking testimony of this has very re-
cently been afforded, in a frightful manner, by
means of that cluster of domestic tragedies resulting
from the sale of a large quantity of peppermint
lozenges in the Bradford market-place. The story
of that lamentable and destructive catastrophe
requires no recapitulation. Everyone is, by this
time, perfectly well acquainted with the particulars
of a case, happily, in many respects altogether
unprecedented. The circumstances of this case,
moreover, have, within the last few days, been
vividly recalled to the popular recollection. Wit-
nesses have repeated their evidence categorically,
in open court, upon the trial but just now con-
cluded in connection with the Bradford Poisonings.
Twenty unfortunate victims perished, as we all
remember, some two or three months ago, in Brad-
ford and its immediate neighbourhood, in conse-
quence of several pounds' weight of cheap lozenges
having been adulterated with pure arsenic, instead
of what the pastrycooks call " daft," the chemists
terra alba, and the public at large know simply as
plaster of Paris. There is no doubt at all about the
deaths of all these people, young and old,
men,
women, and children. There is not the smallest
uncertainty about any one stage of the proceedings.
The huckster selling the poisoned lozenges at his
stall, the confectioner who supplied him with his
deadly ware, the confectioner's man who fetched
the adulterating powder from the chemist's shop,
the boy who there served him with it, the chemist
himself, who was ill in bed at the time—each indi-
vidual instance has been subjected to a careful ex-
amination over and over again. We know all
about it. We know perfectly well how it occurred.
The narrative is repeated all over yet once more,
and one of the upright judges of the land, and
twelve honest English jurymen, decide deliberately,

it. The representative who can so judiciously
eulogise a Minister for the very incident in his
career which most loudly calls for° reprehension,
would be, of course, the very legislator to run
counter to common sense in regard to the question
of the Ballot. According to Mr. MONCREIFF liberty
and the Ballot are incompatible. Though, upon
one hand, if the opponents of the Ballot point to
France, the advocates of the Ballot can, upon the
other, surely point to the United States of America.
What is not un-English to the Lords and Gen-
tlemen of England in their West-end Club

Houses—is consistently pronounced by logical
foes of the Ballot like the member for the
Leith burghs intensely and essentially un-English
in the humble artisan and shopkeeper in the
process of electing a representative to the Legis-
lature. Anti-Ballot secretly blackballs a candi•
date for admission to the Reform or the Carlton,
and immediately afterwards !Accosts him smiling,
and grasps his hand, as they meet outside there
upon the Pall-mall pavement. Yet anti-Ballot
protests at the same time, as against something mon-
strously base and despicable, against throwing the
aegis of the Ballot over the bard-working-GieTZ;;
who drops his vote into the urn for the nomination
of a representative in the Imperial Parliament. So

S
VESTRY AND NEWTOWN RAILWAY, emphatically, conclusively, that nobody at all is in
—NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That an EXTRAOR-.
DINARY MEETING of the SHAREHOLDERS of the any way to blame throughout the whole of this
OSWESTRY and NEWTOWN RAILWAY COMPANY
will be held at the Town Hall, atWelchpool, in the county of deplorab
le transaction.
Montgomery, on TUESDAY, the 11th day ofn. January, 1859,
The decision in this extraordinary case, we must
at One o'clock p.m., for the purpose of authorising to be bor-
rowed by the Company, on Mortgage or Bond, such sum or confess at once, entirely passes our com:lrehension.
sums of money not exceeding. the sum of £83,000, being the
sasumshballtahtesCur Company's Special authorised to be borrowed, it certainly does appear to us wholly incompre-
Dated the 27th day of December, 1858. hensible hensible how an y one can fail to recognise negli-
. DAVID PUGH, Deputy-Chairman.
RICHARD STEPH NS, secretary. Bence in the sale of 121bs. of arsenic, when that
Company's Office, 17, Buckingham-street, Strand, London.
sale takes place, as it is positively sworn to have
taken place at Bradford, during the course of last
October. Common sense tells us that it must have
been, not merely negligence, but the most culpable
negligence—to have a large quantity of pure
arsenic in an open cask—in an unlocked garret—
without any label whatever upon the cask contain-
ing it : and then (having prepared the way for the
catastrophe thus elaborately) to send an ignorant
apprentice boy—who had had nothing at all to do
with drugs beyond three weeks previously—up to
this garret for twelve pounds' weight of plaster of
Paris. Another cask is in the same garret—also
uncovered, also unlocked—containing the required
daft, or terra alba, or plaster of Paris. The raw
apprentice lad of three weeks is sent up to make
his own selection of the white powder, to weigh
out 121bs. of it, to put these 121bs. into a couple of
bags, and hand them across the counter, without
any previous examination by any one competent to
decide whether the white powder happened to be
terra alba or ARSENIC. All this is clearly proved
upon oath by various witnesses to have actually
taken place, and yet the result of the judicial ex-
amination of the case is, that there was really no
negligence, that not one single individual could be
pronounced in any way blame-worthy. The judge
is reported to have distinctly said, after hearing
the evidence upon the matter, that " he really could
not see any negligence." His lordship eventually
" directed the jury to acquit the prisoner"—adding,
" How could it be said there was any negligence
here ?" and observing, furthermore, distinctly—
" He did not know what a man could do except not
keep arsenic."
_Obviously after this the jury had
no alternative before them—they had simply to
obey the instructions of the judge, and the report
of the trial naturally reads, therefore, with the
simple intimation (extremely gratifying, of course,
to Mr. HODG SON the chemist)—" The jury acquitted
the prisoner accordingly."
This is the administration of the law of the land
as it now stands in regard to the sale of poisons.
The judge who tried the case at the York Assizes
on the 21st inst., tells the jury distinctly that as
the law stands at present there was actually no
case at all to.go to them, and that the prisoner
must consequently be acquitted. Surely here is
proof clear and-positive that the law as it relates to
the sale of poisons requires instant scrutiny and
complete and careful revision. It should render
severely punishab—it should pronounce culpably
negligent, the keeping of a deadly poison like
arsenic for sale, unlabelled, in an open barrel, in a
garret accessible to 2n ignorant shopboy.

Mr. MONCREIFF'S sympathies evidently go rather
with the pensive muse of the late Mr. ROGERS
han with the more cheerful goddess inspiring
he verse of the late Mr. CAMPBELL. He appre
elates less the pleasures of Hope than the plea-
sures of Memory. His speech on Monday last
the Council Chamber at Leith must have indi-
cated this clearly enough to his constituents. It
was an harangue for the most part retrospective
in its character—the language of it being couched
partly in the tone of virtuous indignation. It
began with a panegyric on Lord PALMERSTON,
and closed with a repudiation of the Ballot. The
hon. gentleman is evidently not up to time,
ought to have lived in a past generation.
are all of us—Conservatives as well as Radicals
old-world Whigs and old-world Tories—we are al
of us eager to get_ on, to advance with the ad-
vance of knowledge, .to keep pace with the
progress of social and political enlighten-
ment. And Mr. MONCREIFF is for pointing
steadily backwards. Here in the instance of the
hon. member for the Leith burghs is manifestly a
genuine specimen of a retrograde. Instead of
endeavouring hopefully and earnestly to partici-
pate, if possible, in preparing the events which are
to be recorded upon the future pages of our national
history, now lying blank before us—he is for ever
fumbling over the dogseared leaves, blotted and
scribbled over, some of them, in no very symmetrical
characters—records which we all know by heart,
and some of which, by the way, we are heartily
sick of. However, instead of considering things as
they actually are, he scrutinises them pathetically,
wistfully, and in almost despairing admiration, as
they have been, and as we sincerely hope they
never may be again. Thus the breaking
down at last of the family compact of the
Whigs he laments literally, in so many words, as
a national calamity. At which affecting lamenta-
tion, by the way, some of those wicked folks down
at Leith—positively laugh. Lord PALMERSTON'S
three years' Ministry he considers will henceforth
1)e inscribed upon the annals of the reign of Vie-
ronrA, as about three of the most glorious years
in the national recollection. Founding his anti-
cipations in this way chiefly upon the treaty by
which the Palmerstonian Government brought the
Crimean war to a termination. Whereas we do
honestly believe, as we have done ever since the
conclusion of that all but disgraceful compromise,
that the terms of the treaty between the Allies and
Russia were distasteful to the British nation, and
justified the reverse of popular exultation. It was
a miserable anti-climax that abortive treaty—
after the continuous roar of those thundering guns
of the united armaments of England, and France.
and Turkey, and Sardinia before the
battlements of Sebastopol. Yet, for this paltry
compromise after the effusion of so much blood and
treasure—the ex-Premier has since then, ever
and anon been most preposterously glorified.
Remembering the panegyrics which opened the
speech at Leith, on Monday, we can hardly won-
der, in the least, at the repudiation which closed

quartered at Sultanpore and at two other places on
this side of Oude, and probably a detachment will
be kept here. At present we have two companies
of the 54th Lancers, and some native troops; among
others a Sikh battery. The natives in the neigh-
bourhood are bringing in arms daily, and a good
many have already been broken up. Occasionally
a rusty iron gun is brought in. Detachments and
details are daily passing through, and supplies for
the army in shoals."

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CALCUTTA, MONDAY, Nov. 22.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's Mail
steamer Candia arrived in Madras on the Bth
instant, and on the 16th we received by tele-
graph from Madras the heads of political and
commercial intelligence by her from London of
the 9th of October. On the 11th inst. the mail of
the 18th of October was telegraphed from Bombay
as having arrived, and we were furnished with the
usual political and commercial intelligences. On
the 13th we received our mails per Candia here.
On the night of the 19th we received by express
from Bombay our files and letters from London of
Oct. 18.
• The produce market has again assumed a dull
aspect, and business during the fortnight under
review has been chiefly done to fulfil :lo:mer en-
gagements. The accounts from home and the high
cost of goods here have taken buyers aback. In
indigo we have heard of no further sales. Raw
silk in moderate demand only. In cQrahs hardly
anything doing. Sugar very sparingly dealt in in
consequence of the high prices demandel by the
holders. Saltpetre in less demand, and value &-
dining. Linseed in small inquiry for Great Bri-
tain, but a fair business doing for America. Saf-
flower inactive for want of good parcels. Cutch
delivering and in neglect. ,
THE IMPORT MARKET.—A very_brisk and exten-
sive demand has sprung up for all descriptions of
piece goods, both gray and bleached, and extensive
transactions have taken place at extreme rates.
The accounts from all the principal up-country
marts have been very favourable, which has been
the principal cause of this favourable state of affairs
here, but we very much fear that our market will
again relapse to its former level when the demands
of the buyers are satisfied.
The money market still continues easy, and we
have no doubt will remain so for some time to come.
The Bank of Bengal has made no alteration in their
rates of interest and discount.
Government Promissory Notes. —On the an-
nouncement being officially made that the interest on
the Indian Loan was made payable in London by
draughts on India, at the option of the holder, the
Five per Cents. improved to Company's rs. 4.12
discount, and the Four per Cents. to 10 nomi-
nally, for little was done. Rates again receded,
and are now at Company's rs. 5.12 discount for
Five per Cent. and 12 for Four per Cent. Some
misunderstanding arose as to the- endorsement of
these securities in London, which is now cleared up,
and improvement may be reasonably looked for.
All papers sent to England must be enlaced stating
the interest to .be payable at home by draughts on
the Indian treasuries, and made payable to any
party in England who has the power to transfer by
endorsement. in London, as is the practice here. If
the notes are sent back to India, these are to be en-
faced as interest payable here and transferred to a
party in India who has power, as now, to transfe
one to the other by endorsement.

CHINA.

(From the Overland Friend of *China.)