The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-23 00:00:00

men

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The Duchess de Talleyrand Perrigord and M.
Mallitoune formerly a writer in the Quotidcerine and
Constitutionnel, have just died in Paris.

The Palestine Exploration Fund.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sirs,--I have received a sixth report from Capt.
Wilson, R.E., dated Jerusalem, April 2, of which
the following is an extract :
" Since last writing to you we have come down
the country quicker than I at first intended, on ac-
count of our muleteers and servants who have left
us. The topographical work has consisted in fixing
the positions of Tubaz, Bedouin Camp near Jordan,
Deit Dejan, Turmus Aya, Beitin, and Jerusalem by
astronomical observations and sketching in as much
of the country as could be done on the march. The
discrepancies in the Position of Wady Zerka have
arisen from the peculiar course the stream takes of ter
leaving the mountains. The mouth of the Wady'is
nearly correct in Van de Velde, but the confluence
is some four or five miles lower down near Jisr Da-
mieh ; I am not sure of the exact distance, as the
work has not yet been plotted to scale, but we have
the necessary material.
Arch:eology—Plans have been made of an old
masonry tomb at Teyasir, and of the churches at
Beitin and Bireh. Seilun and Beitin were examined
with a view to excavation. At the former there is
very little rubbish, except the stone walls of the de-
serted fellahin village, and we could not see any
suitable plan for excavating ; at Beitin the modern
village covers the whole of the mound.of rubbish. I
intended to clear out the interior of what is
known as Burj Beitin, but found that since last
year it had been thickly planted with fig
trees, and the amount of compensation de-
manded was too exorbitant. I -may, however, be
able to come to terms-before leaving Jerusalem.
" The following photographs have been taken :
Doorway of mosque atNablus, two views of Nablus
tomb at Teyasir, Bedouin encampment, ruined
mosque at Seilun, general view of ruins at Seilun,
fountain of Seilun, general view of Beitin, two views
of ruins near Beitin, two views of church at Birch.

" I start this week for Urtas, and. shall be away
a few days tracing the course of the aqueducts be-
yond Urtas, and then go on to Tibneh. I have met
Sir Moses Monfefiore' since my arrival he takes
great interest in our work, and I hope may be per-
suaded to subscribe to the fund. Dr. Hodgkin has
been left at Jaffa seriously ill. lam afraid at his
age he will hardly recover."—Your obedient servant,
GEORGE GROVE, Hon. Secretary.

LORD STANLEY vice MR. DISRAELI ?—Our con-
temporary the Examiner humorously takes occa-
sion to remark—What will come of it, we sometimes ask
ourselves, if ho succeed to power vice Mr. Disraeli invalided
or recommended to retire ? Might not his first Cabinet Coun-
cil be imagined something like this —Lord Stanley, punc-
tual as his clock, in his chair at the head of the table. To
him enter, soon after, Mr. Henley, 'Mr. Walpole, Sir J.
Pakington, Lord Cranbourne, the two Lord Roberts, and
several other gentlemen. All being seated, Lord Stanley
opens—My lords and gentlemen, I think you may expect
me to give you a slight programme, merely heads, of the
measures I should wish to propose in the course of this
session or next. (Signs of interest.) %Veil, the Irish
Church, I think, should be ono of the first points. (Un-
easiness.) The time, it appears to me, has now come,
when the measure 34 years ago inchoated by my father
(marks of adhesion from the less knowing ones) should be
brought to its natural completion by his unworthy son. I
would propose, then, to secularise or hand over (Inter-
ruptions)—(But, my dear lord—really, Lord Stanley, it is
impossible to surely, my lord—) Lord Stanley
(calm as Thissell before his execution), gentlemen, I would
propose that I be allowed to proceed with my list, and
even when I have done it appears to me that it would faci-
litate matters if one person spoke at a time. The next
subject, &c, &e. After four or five other proposals, which
cause much unseemly interruption, Mr. Henley rises—lt is
the most extraordinary thing, but a most peremptory en-
gagement, which I had ontirely forgotten, &c. &c. (takes
his leave, and makes an almost ugly rush to the door.)
Confused conversation ; after which the guists, one after
another, depart ; most of them to call onMr. Disraeli, who
at that unusual hour, by some miracle, happens to be at
home. Lod Stanley, so/us, shakes his head three times
slowly ; then settless down to a cozy nap. (Resignation
next morning.)
CLASSICAL QUOTATIONS—in Parliament or out of

it—are thus commented upon in the London Review
—We remember Clive Newcome's distress when the dear
old Colonel, in the innocence of his heart, insisted on re-
minding his friends, in spite of every rule of accidence and
concord, " Ingenues didicisse fideliter artes emollunt
mores," &c. Yet, if we were disposed to be critical, we
might pick holes in cleverer men than Colonel Newcome
ever pretended to be, and might express our wonder at the
frequent inaccuracy of classical quotations in the more
pretentious daily and weekly journals. Even that pure
and perfect chrysolite of clii:Ssicality, the Satiziylay Review,
quoting, we suppose, by memory, from Ovid, writes the
following :

" Facies non omnibus una,
Nec diversa tamen, qualis decet, esse sororum."
The use of quails for qualem after decet would have sent a
fifth-form boy down one form at least. Again, the refined
pall-Mall Gazette exhibits a deeper ignorance by making
scandala magmata the plural of sacandalum 4nagnantum, as if
magnatum" was not itself a genitive plural of "mag-
nates." And only last week another paper speaks of
spretainjuria, which is simply nonsense, although, of course,
everybody can see it is a loose recollection of the Virgiliau
spretrs iinjuria forma,. These are the dangers to which
would-be scholars expose themselves when once they leave
the flowery paths of the Latin grammar. But we are .not
discouraging quotations from foreign languages. Far from
it. Once be sure of your audience, and you may win golden
reputation-s. There is not the slightest doubt that if you
were to conjugate an irregular Greek verb in the pulpit at
the right time, it would Froduce an immense effect, as a
quotation from some orthodox father of the Church. For
instance, what could sound nobler than this ?—" The
single-hearted saint could not entertain such a proposition
for an instant. No,' he cried, with a gentle but decisive
wave of his hand—lkatesthio, katedomai,' adding, with a :ad
smile, his favourite expression, katededoka, katephaycn."
That this is simple nonsense, and merely the four princi-
pal tenses of a Greek verb, is nothing. It is a good sound-
ing quotation, and with an ordinary audience would be
rapturously received from one who was popular. Indeed,
we hardly like to think how much of this heedlessness
there must be in the pleasure with which some text of
familiar sound is hailed by the unlettered part of a congre,
gation, to whom it cannot convey the smallest idea of any-
thing at all. It may be an exaggeration to represent an old
woman saying that she found great support in the com-
fortable word " Mesopotamia," but the spirit which ani-
mated her is really very widely diffused in other old women,
and young women and men too.
THE COINAGE AT THE MINT for this year will cost
£49,182, of which £10,040 is for gold, £4,000 for silver, and
£7,500 for copper. A sum equal to the last will be reco-
vered by the sale of old copper not required for the re-
coinage. The seignorage to be paid in to the Exchequer,
in respect of the year's coinage of silver, is estimated at
£3O, 000.
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE is expected in London
in about three weeks, from a tour in the Iloly Land.

THEATRE ROYAL LYCEUM.

-lillErfit"
Tr E - •
Etill LELEILT•

Brilliant First Night of "Dot."
Saturday evening marked another unmistakeably
onward step in the progress—the triumphantly suc-
cessful progress—of Mr. W. 11. C. Nation's Manage-
ment at Sadler's Wells. The house, to begin with,
—known, as it is, to playgoers in all parts of London
as one among the most popular of all our little subur-
ban establishments—was crowded in every part of
it ! Again, the audience thus collected together
was vigilantly attentive from the very commence-
ment—was often keenly discriminative in the evi-
dence afforded by it of its appreciation of the perform-
ance--and was manifestly in a high state of de-
light with that performance from first to last.
The attraction of the night (to account for all this
in a very few words) was simply the fact of
Saturday evening having been announced as the
first night for the production at Sadler's Wells of
Dion Boucicault's charming little dramatic version,
in three acts, of Charles Dickens's exquisite Clist-
Inas story of "The Cricket on the Hearth." As an
Adelphi Drama, entitled Dot, this really beautiful
little dramatic :version of "The Cricket on the
Hearth" has long been known to fame, and has long
enjoyed (and quite deservedly) a wide popularity. Re-
vived upon the stage of Sadler's Wells, and enacted
there by the Sadler's Wells Company under Mr.
Nation's management, Dot appears once more before
a London audience under the happiest auspices and
at the best possible advantage. The scenery, newly
painted for the occasion by Mr. John Johnson and
his assistants, is admirably good—one of the set
scenes especially (presenting to view at one and
the same time a wintry exterior and a wintry
interior) exciting so hearty a burst of admiration
that the artist had to appear before the footlights,
there to bow his acknowledgments. The dresses,
moreover, and the various stage appointments,
have been very carefully attended to. But
—beyond all this—it is to the judicious
distribution of the parts among the company that
we would here more particularly direct attention as
accounting for the triumphant success achieved by
the whole performance. Dot, dimpled, little, homely,
sprightly, bustling Dot, the heroine of the piece,
found a fit and proper representative in Miss Ada
Dyas. The John Peerybingle of the night—mis-
spelt, by the way, in the printed list of the dramatis
personie in the playbill—the John Peerybingle
in this revival of " Dot" (Mr,. Swinbourne)
being the very John Peerybingle of the original
story—the veritable John Peerybingle of " The
Cricket on the Hearth"—in voice, in look, in dress,
in manner, in every minute particular. Ned Plum-
mer, too--who has secretly returned from ,the
golden South Americas—Ned Plummer, under both
of his appearances, first of all when disguised as the
stone deaf old gentleman, afterwards when seen in
his own proper identity as the bright, handsome,
curlyzheaded young sailor, returned to claim his fair
betrothed, May Fielding, was excellent ! As for
Tilly Slowboy, with her invaluable dummy
of the baby—well ! the shouts of laughter
elicited by her every word and act, and ,
repeatedly by her more casual bye-play, evi-
denced throughout the piece, that in Miss
Lizzie Wilmore, that most whimsical character
of all in the drama, had found a capital impersona-
tor. Then, as for Tackleton—the raspy-voiced
old curmudgeon of a toymaker—Mr. M'lntyre,
made up the part, looked the part, spoke the part
so nearly to the life, as to be little less than detestable!
Until the ill-nature of the man is miraculously
dropped-in the Christmas dance at the very close
of the crowning incident. Then, again, in the
alarmingly genteel person of old Mother Indigo,
meaning (we beg pardon) Mrs. Fielding, Mary's
mother, that highly-starched representative of a
family who can " look back"—a family, the fortunes
of which only fell under a cloud, as she tells
us, through circumstances not altogether uncon-
nected with a crisis in the indigo trade—Mrs.
Poynter displayed so much genuine appreciation of
the humour of that class of character as to have re-
called to oar recollection poor Mrs. W. Clifford, for-
merly, years and years ago, the very best imper-
sonator upon the London boards of this peculiar de-
scription of ladylike old harridan. Lastly— and
we have purposely reserved the mention of them
to the very last—there were Mr. G. Belmore as
Caleb Plummer, and Miss Hudspeth as Bertha
poor Old Caleb's blind daughter ! The latter im-
personation being charmingly affecting and graceful
throughout ! The former indicating on the part of
a very clever low comedian, a remarkable capacity
for the display of pathetic tenderness, and at
moments even of genuine tragic passion. The mere
make up of the character—the mere haggard worn
look of the face—indicated of itself, quite clearly, the
artist ! In the last scene of all, however, the great scene
in the third act, where poor Caleb recognises the
fatal error of his loving deception in regard to poor
Bertha, Mr. Belmore won for himself a triumph
over his audience that many another actor on the
boards might have envied ! A triumph evidenced not
only by the heartiest rounds of applause, but by that
best tribute of all to an actor's powers, the tears of
the spectators ! The Fairy Episode, it should here
be added—that Fairy Episode which it: may be
remembered has been so charmingly borrowed
from our great Novelist's haunting little Christ-
mas Tale of Home, and so very gracefully adapted
to actual representation by that master of stage
effect, Dion Boucicault, in his dramatised version of
the tale under its theatricals title of Dot—it; is
only fair to the management that we should
here remark has been most gracefully in-
troduced upon the boards of Sadler's Wells—
in a picturesque forest scene in the first instance,
afterwards in the magically opening back-ground
of the hearth of the poor Carrier—with eight light-
footed, bright-eyed young impersonators, respec-
tively, not only of our old-world friends Oberon,
Titania, Puck, and Ariel, but of those elfine crea-
tions of the poetic fancy of Charles Dickens,
Home, Cricket, Kettle, and Cradle ! As the curtain
descends at last upon the happy close of the drama
of " Dot," the melody of the Fairy Chorus—heard
again and again at intervals, during the progress
of the piece, like a refrain—not only contrives to
linger upon the ear, but clings long afterwards
hauntingly to the recollection. Altogether, upon
the brilliant success of Saturday night, as the night
of the first performande of " Dot" upon the stage
of Sadler's Wells, under his management, Mr.
Nation may here receive, as he is certainly entitled
to receive, our warmest congratulations.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

-0^

Re-appearance of Mr. Fechter as Hamlet.
According to announcement, on Saturday—Mr.
Mr. Fechter re-appeared in his great impersonation
of Hamlet. Again, as a matter of course—when-
ever " Hamlet" is revived under his management
—the house was crowded in every part ! And again
—as always happens on a first night of Fechter ,
in a new part, or of Fechter in a revival, but espe-
cially of Pechter in a revival of " Hamlet"—the
audience was of a picked and peculiarly dis-
criminative character—theatrical critics, artists,
men of letters—the very cream of your Lon-
don Playgoers. The cast, if we remember
rightly, is --with two exceptions only of any import-
ance—identically the same with the cast upon the
previous revival of Hamlet on the boards of the
Lyceum two years ago under the same manage-
ment. These two exceptions being the substitution
of Miss Carlotta Leclercq in lieu of Miss Kate Terry
as Ophelia., and the especial engagement of Mr.
Addison, this time, for the impersonation of Polo-
nius. As for the hero of the night, it is suffi-
cient to remark now--so perfectly well-known are
even the subtlest beauties of his exquisite embodi-
ment of Hamlet—that at the close of each of the five
acts of the master-tragedy, he was summoned be-
fore the footlights with a sort of enthusiasm, upon
the fifth and last occasion, we may say, by acclama-
tion.

THAT SIR E. LY'rroN is not more famed for his
oratory, says the Reader, is entirely duo to his transcend-
ent fame as a novelist. _

SYDNEY Smqu, passing through a bye-street be-
hind St. Paul's, heard two women abusing one another,
from opposite houses. " They will never agree," said the
wit, "they argue from opposite premises."