The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 29, 1861,

TILE YORKSHIRE CIIO.RAL

This association, which has existed for some time in
Yorkshire, has been formed under the auspices of many
persons of rank and influence belonging to and connected
with that county, for the purpose of promoting the culti-
vation of a branch of music for which this dis rict of Eng-
land has long been pre-eminent. It is a combination of the
choral societies of Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Sheffield,
and York ; its present president is Edward Akroyd, Esq.,
of Halifax; and its vice-presidents are Jas. Kilson, Esq.,
Mayor of Leeds; the Ven. Archdeacon, Musgrave, John
Brooke, Esq., of Huddersfield; Wm. Holdsworth, Esq.,
of Holdsworth; and Charles Cammel, Esq., of Sheffield.
The association has now, for the first time, paid a visit to
London, and given two great choral performances, from
which the amateurs of the metropolis have been enabled to
form an idea of the state of chorus-singing in the north.
The " Messiah" was performed at Exeter Hall on Thursday
evening ; and last evening there was a miscellaneous con-
cert of secular choral music at St. James's Hall. In the
" Messiah" the solo parts were sung by Mrs. Sunderland,
the celebrated Yorksllire prima dona—a lady who, though
she has chosen a provincial career, has the gifts and attain-
ments of a singer of the highest rank—by Miss Freeman
and Mr. Inkersall, excellent provincial performers, and
by Mr. Sims Reeves and Mr Santley. The whole per-
formance
was excellent, the choruses especially, which have
never been surpassed—if indeed, they have ever been
equalled—in Exeter Hall. Though the voices did not ex-
ceed 300, not half the numerical strength to which the
public are accustomed in Exeter-hall, there was no lack of
real power, the strength of the Yorkshire choir lying in the
full, rich quality of the voices, the body of pure musical
sound, uncontaminated by noise, which they produce, and
the thorough training, which enables them to give the most
delicate nuances and gradations of effect and expression. It
is by such means, and not by the congregation of unwieldy
multitudes (the fashion of the day), that true choral power
and grandeur are obtained. The performance of secular
music last evening was equally admirable. A number of
fine choral glees and part songs of Bishop, T. Cooke, Smart,
Mendelssohn, and other composers, were sung with mar-
vellous refinement and purity of harmony. These were in-
termixed with favourite songs and duets, sung by Mrs.
Sunderland, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Inkersall, and Mr.
Santley; and to give further variety, two pianoforte pieces
were played by Miss Arabella Goddard.

The whole entertainment was delightful, and rapturously
applauded.

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Royal Family, with the Crown Prince
and Crown Princess of Prussia and children, will leave
London for Osborne on Thursday, the 4th of July. Tho
Prince of Wales will leave for Dublin this (Saturday) morn-
ing, on his way to the Curragh of Kildare. Prince Louis
of Hesse will return to the Continent on Monday, the Ist
July.
A state concert of sacred music took took place at Buck-
ingham Palace last evening by command of the Queen.

The Prince Consort entered the ball mad concert room
accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince
and the Crown Princess of Prussia, the Princess Alice, no
Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary, the Duke of
Cambridge, Prince Louis of Hesse, and Prince Frederick
of Holstein, conducted by the Lord Chamberlain and other
Officers of State, and attend.d by the Gentlemen in
Waitinz. _ .

The band comprised her Majesty's private band, with
numerous additions from the Philharmonic Society, the
Royal Italian Opera, &c. The chorus were selected from
the Italian Opera, and the amateurs of the Sacred Har-
monic Society, Exeter-hall. The entire orchestra comprised
upwards of 200 performers.
Conductor, Mr. Anderson, director of her Majesty's pri-
vate band. At the organ, Mr. W. G. Cusins, organist of
her Majesty's private chapel.

- - -
The vocal performers were :—Mdlle. Titiens, Miss Las-
celles, Mdlle. Adelina Patti, Signor Gardoni, Mr. Santley,
Mr. Patey, and Signor Giuglini.
The number of invitations issued was large, but some of
those invited were prevented, by domestic affliction and
other unavoidable causes, from obeying her Majesty's con-
mands.

On the occasion of the state concert which took place last
evening at Buckingham Palace, the Queen passed the night
in retirement at the White Lodge, Richmoni-park. Her
Majesty was accompanied by the Princess Helena, and was
attended by Lady Augusta Bruce, Colonel the Hon. A.
Liddell, and Colonel the Hon. A. N. Hood. The Queen is
expected to return to the Palace this (Saturday) morning.

The steam floating battery, the Sagon, built by
M. Arman, of Bordeaux, which was to have been launched
on the morning of the 25th, could not be got off until the
evening tide of that day, when the operation was effected
with success.

THE POPES HEALTH.—" The latest news of the
Pope's health," writes our Paris correspondent, " is alarm-
ing. He has an abscess in the right leg which infects his
whole body."
The GRAVE OF COUNT CAVOUR.—A Turin letter
says :—" Visits continue to be paid to the tomb of Count
Cavour at Santena, a village not far from here. Yesterday
the students of two colleges, to the number of 200, in mili-
tary uniform, and with flags in mourning, marched to the
spot and laid two garlands on the grave."
We are authorized to state that there is no foun-
datiuu fu, the zcport of the approaching marriage of the
Due de Richelieu and Mademoiselle Duvernay, now Mrs.
Lyne Stephens. _ _

We are authorized to state that no corps under
the establishment of a battalion, unless it belongs to an ad-
ministrative brigade or battalion, will be allowed to take
part in the Volunteer Field-day at Wimbledon on the 13th
of July. The attendance of administrative brigades and
battalions will not be sanction.d unless the field officer
commanding in making his application certifies that his
brigade or battalion will be represented by at least four
companies. All applications from corps forming part of an
administrative brigade or battalion are to be sent in to the
field officer commanding.

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.—An ordinary
general meeting of this society, for the election of Fellows,
took place yesterday (Friday) in the Council-room, at the
Gardens, South Kensington ; the Earl Ducie, vice-presi-
dent, in the chair, when 80 new Fellows were ballotted for,
and duly elected, including the Alarchioness ofAilsa,Lieut.-
Colonel James Bourne, the Baron de Brunnow, Sir Joseph
Copley, Sir Hector Greig, K.C., Lady Heathcote, Lady
Knatchbull, Sir John Kynast(3q, Col. Paget, Major E. L.
Parry, Major Balcarras Ramsay, the Marchioness of Lon-
donderry, the Lady Willoughby D'Eresby, the Lady Jane
Walsh, Sir James Tyler, and Lady Templemore. The
Council have fixed Monday, July 8, for the next special
general meeting for the election of Fellows, so as to be in
time for the great rose show on the 10th. To-day the
police bands make their public trial in the gardens of the
society.

THE FRENCH IN SYETA.—The accounts from
Beyrout, which come down to the 16th inst., state that the
evacuation of Syria by the French troops commenced on
May 50, and was completed on the 10th inst. The troops
forming the expeditionary army amounted to about 8,400
men, who were embarked on board 14 ships of war and
transports, and the embarkation was effected in perfect order
and created no excitement among the populace. General
Beaufort and his Staff, who, after the embarkation of the
troops had been completed, remained at Beyrout waiting for
a frigate to convey them to France, were expected to sail on
the 17th in the Moga tor, which had arrived shortly before.
It is satisfactory to learn that down to the latest dates trap•
quillity continued to prevai. in that part of Syria and in
the Mountain.

STAGE LIGIITING.—A new system of stage
lighting has just been adopted at the Grand Opera, doing
away with the old float or sawnpe, which had been found so
injurious to the eyes as well as to the voices of the per-
formers. In the present arrangement the float is placed 80
centimetres (21 feet) below the boards of the stage, and the
emanation from the burners are carried off through two
pipes reaching to the top of the roof. The lumin,us rays
collected by a double reflector in the shape of a sea-shell,
are transmitted to the stage, through a sloping aperture,
covered with a plate of dull glass which subdues the glare
of the gas. By hie contrivance .011 dangor of the Rotroaaaa'
dresses catching fire is obviated, and a source of hut tful
emanations and disagreeable heat, as inconvenient to the
spectators as it is to the actors, is removed. The air, being
no longer disturbed by the vibrations caused by the heat,
the propagation of the sonorous rays is much more regular,
and even the light cast on the stage is stronger and better
distributed. M. Lissajoux, professor of natural philosophy
at the Lyc6e St. Louis, is the inventor of this system.
THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH.—The renewed
concession of the French Government to the Submarine
Telegraph Comany having stipulated that a third cable
should be laid for a more direct communication with Lyons,
Bordeaux, Toulon, Genoa, and the Mediterranean, the Asia
screw steamship took on board SI miles of cable for that
purpose, and, with Mr. Henley, the contractor for laying it,
proceeded to Dieppe on Saturday. The shore end having
been successfully laid on Monday at Puy, a bathing village
about a mile to the east of Dieppe, the Asia returned, steer-
ing a course N N.W. quarter W., to Beachy Head, making
581 miles, and the cable was carried ashore without acct.;
dent at Birling Gap, about a mile to the westward of Beachy
Head, on Thursday, the tide not having served until that
day. This cable constitutes an addition of 60 miles to the
806 already laid by this cimpiny. It consists of six con-
ducting wires in gutta percha, served round with a hempen
strand, and protected by 12 iron wires, spirally woven round
it, such being the manufacture and form of these cables
which the Submarine Telegraph Company has found to be
best adapted for working and most durable.
THE SUEZ CANAL.—It is reported that the
unfortunate workmen whom M. de Lesseps has snatched
from their homes in Egypt to fill his Danaides tub at Suez
hase.teamleerf,t oTt
oiunlaopnprfooprri ate
Portly named,
tot ho ebSrihnagrkt
h(e/
have broken out in insurrection, and that a French war
n),
me 1 oe tabg'.
eir
senses. The probability is that this report is tree; it may
be confidently expected that the Latrie and other semi-
(acial prints will contradict it,