The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-31 00:00:00

THE SON, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 1866.

that Eosin their power, but that is no reason why
we should leave them entirely unassisted. A very
simplii and ready means of doing them effectual
service lies at our command, and we hope it will
not be overlooked by the Government. A few gun-
boats on the lakes would afford effectual protection
to the Canadian shores, and would relieve the
colonists from much anxiety and expense. We
have plenty of gunboats lyingidle and a few of them
might surely be employed in this service with great
advantage.

It is said that in official circles in the
States very little apprehension is felt of the
Fenians making any active demonstration. The
whole excitement about the matter has, indeed, a
good deal subsided since St. Patrick's-day has been
safely got over. At Halifax there was still some
excitement when the Java left New York, the forts
having been manned by artillerymen and the militia
called out. The intelligence respecting the depar-
ture of the West India mail for Halifax is con-
firmed, so that Sir FREDERICK BRUCE was evidently
convinced of the necessity for prompt and decisive
action. We shall now see what course the Fenian
leaders will adopt, and whether they will still be
able to retain their influence over their infatuated
dupes. It is greatly to be hoped that this affair of
the invasion will have enlightened a good many as
to the true character of these enthusiastic patriots,
in which case St. Patrick's-day will have done more
service to the Irish than it ever did before.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

PORTUGAL.

LISBON, MARGII 30.

The official Gazette of to-day publishes a contract
concluded between Portugal, France, Brazil, and
Italy, for a telegraph to America.
The Cortes will close on the 20th April.

OVERLAND MAILS.
BOMBAY AND MAURITIUS MAILS.

ALEXANDRIA, MARcu 30.
The China left at 6 a.m. yesterday and the Euxine
at 6 a.m. to-day.
The former may be expected at Marseilles on the
4th, and the latter at Southampton about the 12th
proximo.

OUTWARD CALCUTTA, CHINA, AND AUSTRA•

LIAN MAILS.

MALTA, MARCH 30.

The Massilia, from Southampton on the 20th
inst., arrived to-day at noon, and left at 5 p.m. for
Alexandria.

The Nyanza, from Marseilles on. the 28th inst.,
arrived to-day at 6 p.m., and will leave at midnight
for Alexandria.

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, MARCH 21.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Poonah, with the heavy portion of the above mails,
has arrived here. She brings 70 passengers, £1,900
in specie, pearls value 4,300 rupees, and 619
packages of general cargo.
Heavy south-westerly gale 4 had prevailed at
Gibraltar, and several casualties had occurred

amongst the shipping.
The Governor, Sir Richard Airey, left Gibraltar
on tke 24th inst. for Seville, to witness the reli-
gious ceremonies and processions of Holy week at
the Andalusian capital.

Exehange on London, 49,1 2 ; on Paris, 5.13 ;
Madrid, 4to dis. Freights unaltered.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MAncll 31.

The Constitutionnel of this morning says :—" The
position of France in view of the present diffi-
culties in Germany is very simple, and is the re-
sult of a wise and far-seeing policy which may
be summed up in the word neutrality. God
alone can know if the crisis will be decided by
war, but the Imperial Government has provided
for all contingencies, and whatever may happen
France will not be found unprepared."

BOURSE, March 30, Three o'clock.—The marke
closed at the following quotations :-
41 per Cents 9G
Do. end month —
3 per Cents.
Do. end month 67 77
Credit Mobilier 648 7o
Do. end month
Bank Shares 3575
Credit Foncier —
Italian Loan 5B 90
Do. end month 5B 90
RAIL

Roman —
Ottoman Fives —
Mexican Loan 47 50
Do. Bonds 3OO
Russian —
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —

Deferred

rA.YS.
Cash.

Orleans ,
Northern ,

Acct.
... 865 -
- ... 1116 25

- - 875 -

- ... 550 -
562 50
- ... 537 50
- ... 107 50
383 75
396 25

-- - ... 165 --

- - ... 205 -

-' ----• •••

87 50

Mr. Woodin's New Entertainment.

After a somewhat protracted absence, occasioned
by a successful tour in the provinces, Mr. Woodin
made his first appearance this season at the Poly-
graphic Hall, King William-street, Strand, on
Thursday evening last, in a new entertainment en-
titled " Baden-Baden," and " Up in the Air." The
first, as its title suggests, is a hit at the fashionable
gaming German watering-place, with its visitors
from all parts of the world, and, in the latter, the
fun is produced by the introduction of a variety of
English incidents and characters, " descriptive,
humorous, musical, mimetic, characteristic, national,
aeronautic, and domestic comical." On the rising
of the curtain a very excellently-painted view of a
well-known spot in Baden is disclosed, and the first
character introduced by our clever English Protons
is Alderman Dither, a visitor desirous of
becoming a resident—an invalid and a student
in search of health. The reflections and
conclusions of this civic visitor are laughable in
the extreme, although in the end they amount to
but two—how best to enjoy his dinner and his pills.
Next we have the pet German Doctor at Baden,

whose admiration for the English is very high, be-
cause they are "so very rich and so very stupid."
Then we have a gushing young lady, Miss Aurora
Spankle, eighteen, and rapid, who is in search of an
establishment. This young lady takes the audience
into her entire confidence ; and, after giving them
a graphic imitation of the many partners she had
in dance, both old and young, married and single,
tells them that husbands nowadays must be con-
sidered as part of the trousseau. The make-up for
this character is remarkably clever,—the bonnet !
the velvet jacket, embroidered with horse-shoes!
and the sky-blue moire skirt, trimmed with anchors
and Prince of Wales's plumes !—all tend to
make her the observed of all observers. We
have also a speculative Yankee, whose
father has struck ile and struck it harcl, who
has serious notions of buying the whole place as an
investment, .because it would be cini4;possible to
induce the President to take up his pernlinent
residence there, and to govern the States" by
telegraph. The other full-length portrait', is Mary
Ann Trew, an English nursemaid, whose IC9ver has
turned out false ; but she is consoled, even in her
trouble, by the thought that she is sure a Coldstream
never could have a warm heart. The saloon with
its gaming table is next introduced, where Mr.
Woodin gives up half-a-dozen more illustrations of
the sort of persons to be found risking everything
in the chances of rouge et noir. The race course
follows, and here we have the captivating Isabella,
the flower girl to the French Jockey Club, and
Joe Downey, an English jockey who can't under-
stand the way " things is done at Baden." This
concludes the continental portion of the enter-
tainment, but we must not omit to mention
that during its performance Mr. Woodin sings a
variety of songs, and in the last-mentioned character
actually gives us a jockey hornpipe! What can he
not do ?

" Up in the Air" is intended to illustrate the
aspirations and elevated ideas of those who delight
to moralise far above the haunts of common men.
The scene represents the flat roof of a house over-
looking Cremorne Gardens, and surrounded by
picturesque stacks of chimneys of every conceivable
size and shape, with the lofty Mr. Flyte keeping
them company—smoking. The inflated gentleman
relates the beauties to be found up in the air, more
especially in a balloon, which, if not the safest means
of travelling, is at all events, according to his idea,
the most pleasant—no turnpikes, no obstructions,
excepting the top of a church steeple, which
now and then, perhaps, may stop the way. Then
we have another young lady, Angelina, who has
induced her lover to avail himself of the facilities
presented by the repairs of the adjoining house, and
mount the ladder, and have an interview far beyond
interference. The lover obeys his mistress, but un-
fortunately an elderly maiden lady is also fond of
the leads, and of course she gets the notes and
presents intended for her younger neighbour. A
hodman, a policeman, and a distinguilhed fo-
reigner, who is on the look out for open trap-
doors which lead down to the plate basket, fill
up the scene, which is brought to a conclusion
by the appearance of Mr. Woodin in the Star
Scaler balloon " Up in the air," where he says he
must remain if his audience will not let him " go
down." The applause of the audience here was
enthusiastic, and assuredly the popular favourite
may congratulate himself upon the triumphant
manner in which his exertions " went down " on
Thursday evening.

The author of the entertainment is Mr. T. W.
Robertson, the scenery is by Mr. John O'Conner,
and the music by Mr. Wallerstein.

The National Choral Society.

The three grand oratorios given by this society,
under the direction of Mr. Martin, during Passion
week attracted the usual overflowing audiences.
On each occasion every seat in the large hall was
occupied, and the pleasure given to the vast assem-
blage was perfect and complete. We can only
again do that which we have so frequently had the
gratification of doing, compliment Mr. Martin on

the admirable manner in which all his concerts are
conducted.
The next oratorio we believe will be "Israel in
Egypt." " Acis and Galatea" is in active prepara-
tion.

THE BR IGH TON RE VIEW. —Mr. Wyld, of Charing-
cross, has just issued from the press a plan of the ground
and the purposed manoeuvres at the Brighton Review. The
movement will be one of the most effective that has ever
been witnessed in England, and the plan, which is pub-
lished at a low rate, will greatly assist visitors in under-
standing the evolutions.

DTP. BEECHER ON THE VETO.—Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher, in the course of a lecture delivered in Brooklyn,
on the 23d ultimo, said:—" There is a Freedmen's
Bureau. There was in Congress a bill for the more efficient
organisation of it. All men's hearts have been to-day ex-
cited by the tidings that the Freedmen's Bureau Bill has
been vetoed by the President. (Some hisses.) lam sorry
that he felt it to be his duty to veto it, and Z am sorry that
the bill was so drawn that he was obliged to feel it to
be his duty to veto it. But, mark, this is not vetoing a
bureau, nor an amended or reorganised bureau, but only
that particular form of bureau which that bill contained.

It does not commit the President against any proper de-
partment administering to the blacks throughout the South.
We know, on the other hand, that he is in favour of such
a bureau, and I confess that on reading his Message it has
left a profound impression on my mind, that he urges most
serious and weighty measures why, in the form in which
it went before him, it should not have become the law of
the land. But I believe, and am sure, that no man in this
land is more in favour of some legislation that shall amount
to an efficient protection of the black man. (Applause.)
They are to be protected, but they are not to be protected
at the expense of the Constitution, but by its integrity.
No one in the United States is more in need of having that
immortal instrument maintained than the poor, recently
enslaved, but now emancipated black man. Men who
have knowledge of the freedmen may be warped by their
sympathy and their generous sentiments so as not well to
consider that, while legislating to save the freedmen, it
may be at the expense of those laws and those instruments
in which its very safety itself resides ; and if they are car-
ried past the point of moderation it is well there should be
opportunity for reconsideration." In another part of his
lecture Mr. Beecher said:—" I hold it dangerous to place
too much power in the Central Government. It is a most
extraordinary spectacle of the times to see Congress
gathered from the people, representing the great mass of
the people, passing a bill and putting it into the hands of
the President, and thereby clothing him with a power
greater than any monarch ever yielded, and the President
vetoing it and returning it, saying, cannot give my assent
to it'—vetoing a bill that makes him so strong. What if
we had a President there then like him who sat there
before our martyred Lincoln, would he have refused so
much power? What if we had that President that was
there before him—l forget who ho was. (Laughter.) Do
you suppose that you will always have a President like
Mr. Johnson ? But lam mistaken in my judgment if
there has, since the earliest and best days of our presi-
dency been a man more honest, more single minded for
liberty, who, without bias of the feeling or of the heart,
without bias of any kind, endeavoured to do what ho
thought best for the interests of the country and the
whole country. (Applause.) Not another man. I should
hold it to be a bad sign if, on that account, I should pass
without criticism his acts ; if his power should be with-
out review. It is dangerous to have any man in the com-
munity that is not amenable to the criticism of all his fel-
low-mon ; President Johnson more than any other, because
he is in a place of the greatest importance to the well-being
of the country. But while you hold the sovereign right
to criticise, do not forget that you have an able statesman
and an honest and pure man and patriot in your Presiden-
tial Q 44.7 (ciqat applause.)