The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-29 00:00:00

LOLA MONTEZ IN CAR,LISLE.

The Carlisle Journal of Friday says :—Last night this
celebrated lady delivered her lecture, " Portraits of English
and American Character," to a numerous, though not
crowded, audience, in the Athenaeum. She was unaccom-
panied upon the platform. The features most noticeable in
her appearance and demeanour were her low forehead—the
,‘ tenuqronte" so much admired by the Romans —her fine
eyes,—her arch and expressive mouth, the lips dosing with
a firm compression which one might expect from Madame's
energy of character,—her voice fresh and unworn, and
evincing a naive and delicate susceptibility of what she read,
—her occasional Irish pronunciation,—and her niiichieVous
smirk, when speaking of American courtships and the free-
doms of American flirtation. We borrow the following
sketch of her lecture from a Manchester contemporary
There stepped upon the platform a lady of middle height,
delicate in hmb and graceful as a fawn, with a head in which
the intellectual is considerably developed ; a face of pleasing
—some of our friends were inclined to say fascin:?totiiceng,
—expression ; a clear, sweet-toned, yet ringing
and an enunciation so distinct, that we venture to think
not a word was lost throughout the evening in that vast
area and that curiously-packed audience. Madame
Montez wore a high dress of rich black silk velvet, with a
small collar of white point lace ; her dark hair was free
from the encumbrance of jewellery, and she dispensed with
rings or bracelets, or that other class of modern ornament
to which good taste give a less complimentary appella-
tion. In the delivery of the address there was consummate
art displayed ; every point told, now exciting smiles and
lassott /ter, and anon, with rare eloquence,, drawing forth en-
thUslastic plaudits. Curiosity, no doubt, to see so remark-
, hie a character, brought those thousands together, but it
was evident that large numbers found their attention
secured, and their interest excited in the subject of her dis-
course, and in the artistic mode of its delivery. We have
seen no portraits of the far-famed Lola which give the,
slightest idea of her personal appearance ; for the charm
lies not in that sharply-cut Grecian nose, or that fine grey
eye, or that mouth in which intensity is strikingly marked,
but in the impression of general character noticeable in
manner and voice, which are expressive at once of fancy
and feeling. The room was densely crammed in every part,
although the expedient of placing forms upon the plat-
form and in every possible available place was resorted to.
In fact, many thought themselves fortunate in obtaining
standing room, and the forest of faces was perhaps such as
could be scarcely witnessed in one room in any other town in
England. Lola Montez commenced her lecture by pointing
out the difference between the Americans and the English,
and said that the settlers in the western states were most
unlike the English, for there was congregated a sslama-
gunda of all nations, having a character which England
had not originated, and which she need not regret that she
had not. The English were proud of the past history of
their country, the Americans looked forward to a glorious
future, for their constitution,. eomparatkvely speaking, was
but of yesterday's growth, and the graves of the
first settlers there were still to' be seen. She cha-:
racterised the spitoon as one of the institutions of
America ; although she was glad to say that it Was
York,ila gradually
afill.l33mosttohne, anddr she.g
roomssd oft New
Anglo-American commission should be !).17:11e313nted, which
,should sit twenty years to settle the great " saliva ques-
tion," which would have the ..affect of keeping the two
nations from going to war about a coast of 11losguitoes, in
the deadly swamps of Central America. Sly sonsideredlhe
excitability of the Americans was co-extensive with their
gullibility, and she cited the case of the visit of Kossuth to
America to show how they raised up an idol to themselves
one day to demolish it +he next. A leading feature in the
American character she considered was speed—the leading
feature in the character of the English strength, and whilst
the Yankees might be good at attack, she did not consider
that they could compare with the English for defence. The
element of speed characterised everything in America ,•
fortunes were made sometimes before breakfast 'one day and
lost before dinner the next; men often entered into the
learned professions with only three months of preparation,
and in six months they occupied leading positions in those
professions. -%Vith regard to the religion of the Americans,
there were about one hundred and fifty different sects there,
and devotion was carried on with that vehemence Which
Was rarely found in England allied with sanity. The
power of public opinion and the freedom of the'press in
America were next commented upon; as was also the re-
markable freedom allowed to young ladies, who could be
taken to balls and concerts by any respectable person with-
' out the slightest objection bting raised by papas
or mammas. She considered the American ladies
very handsome ; but if she had been a man, she would have
preferred an Englishwoman to an American for a wife.
The equality of the sexes was greater in America than
England. A man took no pleasures in which his wife did
not participate, and there was not that cringing of one class
to another, nor that undue deference paid to wealth,., in
America, which were too common in England. She con-
cluded her lecture with a glowing peroration upon the im-
portance of England and America maintaining a proper
and amicable political alliance. The above is only the
merest outline of the lecture', which, must be heard to be
appreciated, for the style of the delivery of the lecture by
Lola Montez is a thing which can never be pourtrayed by
dead letterpress.