The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-07 00:00:00

CHARLES DICKENS'S READINGS.

Dr. Mar gold and the Trial from Pic`o,vick.
St. James's magnificent Hall was crowded last
evening literally to overflowing. Hundreds were
disappointed in their endeavour to gain admittance.
It is no exaggeration to say that the galleries might
have been filled three or four times over, if ordl
the audience could but have taken those ten minute
turns which were the happy-go-lucky rule down at
Bartlemy Fair, at Richardson's. Supposing the
Messrs. Chappell to have secured on lease that won'
derful expanding tent of the Oriental tale, then,
but then only, could the whole of the ap-
plicants of last night have been enabled t°
form portions of the vast assemblage. Punctual
to the hour named for the commencement of the
first of his Farewell Readings, Mr. Charles Dickens
made his appearance upon the raised platform et
the head of the great hall—the immense audienc3
welcoming him with round after round of the west
enthusiastic acclamations. His reception, indeed;
both then and at frequent intervals throughout
the night, and more especially at the moment
of his departure, was magnificent. It spoke °I
cordial welcome to him upon the first o3casion
of his appearance in public since his second visit t°
America, and it spoke also of the vivid sense the
public have of these readings being his very last--•
his readings of Farewell. Less remarkable, he'll-
ever—very much less remarkable to our thinking-'
than the crashing rounds of applause awarded 10
Mr. Dickens last night, again and again, bl
his enormous audience, was the breathlee°
interest with which every individual in that great
assemblage hung upon his every word and look
throughout the evening, save only when at
intervals his voice was drowned by their plaudit°
or by the bursts of irrepressible laughter,
awakened by the great humorist. Doctor Marigold
—that most wonderful of Cheap Jacks, although
merely a poor chap in a sleeved waistcoat-01y
trived once more last evening, as he has often don°
before, to hold the entire audience spell-bound by
his more than simply graphic delineations °
himself and his surroundings. Again, we all of 1.11
had evidence, visibly and audibly, that the greatest
of all our humorists as a writer, is also himself one
of the greatest actors now living. His power
realising to us his own creations is, in truth, sow):
thing marvellous. Never, of course, for one install'
in our appreciation of him, losing his own identity
he is, we may say, if not " everything by turns and
nothing long," certainly every one of those per"
fectly well-known creatures of his by turns, and
that with a rapidity of alternation or of sequence
actually instantaneous. It was thus all through
Dr. Marigold's prelection through which
we saw and heard a 3 distinctly as though
they had appeared before us in the flesh, in sue"
cession, sometimes almost simultaneously--the
wife with a temper—the giant with the feeble drew
lation—thefe-rocious Mim—the political Dear Jaeig
—the very dog who taught himself out of his evl°
head to bark at any one who bil as low as sixpence ,
And, through all the extravagant fun and grotesque'
ness of the narrative, the pathetic tenderness of the
poor Cheap Jack's love for his little Sophy, and
(after she is dead and gone) for her deaf and dunlbt
double, or at any rate successor in his gentle'
affections, again last night captivated the audi-
ence into breathless attention, touched man)" of
them to tears, winning, moreover, in the end for the
author of Dr. Marigold and for Dr. Marigold's
personator as well as creator, one of those enthusi-
astic bursts of applause popularly spoken of as an
ovation. Afterwards, at the close of the usual ten
minutes interval, we had the immortal Trial Scene
from "The Pickwick Papers," the Great Trial °I
Bardell v. Pickwick. And then, as ever, the laugh-
ter, in Homeric phrase, was simply inextinguiely
able. Sergeant Buzfuz, Mr. Winkle, Mrs. Cluppin°'
Sam Weller, and perhaps the best of them all, gg'
Justice Stareleigh, each in turn shook the hall again
and again with a roar of merriment. The laughter
—pealing in rapid intervals through it all—reaching
its climax at last when Old Weller at the verA
conclusion, exclaims in his guttural, voice, " v
Sammivel, Sammivel, vy worn't there a halibi !"
The admiration reawakened by these wonderful
Readings only serves to emphasize the regret, Will
which all of us know, that they are now being
given by Mr. Dickens in final Farewell.

RESCUE of THIRTEEN MEN AT SEA.—The screlf,
steamea Caledonia, Captain Macdonald, which arrived
Glasgow on Saturday, reports having picked up on the
25th Sept., in lat. 47 39 N., long. 50 16 W., the craw of the
bark Vasco de Gama, of Hull, bound from Quebec for Surii:
derland. It appears that early on the morning of the 251
the look-out on board the Caledonia descried a small boat
making signals some distance a head. On a nearer approach
it was found that the boat contained Captain Harci6:4°
and seven of the crow of the Vasco de Gama, which 11 a
been abandoned five days previously. Captain IlarriS°
stated that that same morning they had parted With I'4o
second boat, containing the first mate and five of the ere/s;s
who bad gone in pursuit of a sail. Captain Macdonald .°
once altered his course, and during the day succeeded /111
picking up the other boat with its six occupants. 13°t11
~
boats were very leaky ; one of them was without a rudder'
the oars had to do duty as masts. The bupply of fresh
4
water was almost gone, and the only food of the 13°4
fellows consisted of a few broken biscuits steeped in 53-
water.

SARAWAK.—Letters have been received fr°lll
~
Sarawak, dated the Bth of August, which announce the
succession of Mr. Charles Brooke, nephew of the late itaish;
Sir James Brooke, to the Government of this State.
correspondence states that " on the 25th of July the arriol;
of the mail put Sarawak in possession of the melancholy
tidings of the death of his Highness the Rajah. AU Pile
on mourning for the great and good man that was go
The consul's flag was kept half-mast until the Saturday'
when the Tuan Mudah (heir apparent) was publicly Pr'r
claimed Rajah of Sarawak in the Court-house, in the Fra'a
Bence of all government servants, the consuls, clergy, 311„
principal inhabitants of the city, all in full dress. 11;-,
a
Datu Bandar and ocher native chiefs had decorated t-
Court House in native style with flags and gaily-colouree
cloths, a guard of honour received the Rajah, and after ilia
proclamation was read a Royal salute was fired front tbo
fort. The ceremony passed off quietly and well, amid th I
evident marks of rejoicing and satisfaction of all classes
the inhabitants. Everything has now returned to its nsuit'a
quiet, and were it not for the signs of mourning ono wou'
hardlykuow that any such important change had taken plsce3
Her Majesty's ship Perseus arrived yesterday and salute,
the now Rajah and his flag. She will remain here onl9
f° t
day or two, and came over from Singapore expressly
this purpose." The country is perfectly quiet and V°s:o
porous, and it is said that the natives are most an:xWes
that the system of government organised by Sir J3lll
Brooke should continue.
TIIE BORDER BOROUGIIS.—Mr. G. Elliot ha:
abandoned the contest for the Border Boroughs, 1014111 j,
Mr. , Trevolyan in undisputed possession of the o',o
Having satisfied himself that the majority of the ele:00.
wore adverse to him, Mr. Elliot has acted honourabhY'
well as sensibly, in retiring at once ; he has withdr3s':,;4
like a gentleman, without saying an unkind word of ,
opponent. It must be mortifying to a member Of the
Elliot family, whose ancestral seat and possessions
within the range of the boroughs, to be thus compelled
yield, without a fight, to a young stranger. There isi%
doubt that Lord Russell's ill-judged intervention
prejudicial effect on the candidature of his relative.--?`
Mall Gazette.

SCULLERS' RACE FOR £loo.—Yesterday aftefi
noon William Biffen, a waterman's apprentice, n
Hammersmith, and James Griffith 3, also a wa,termau's
prentice, of Wandsworth, rowed from Putney to "g°'ol
lake for Xio a side in outriggers. The match areas out 0
the apprentices' race for the coat and badge at the I'';
Thames Regatta, in which both contended, Biffen winniv;
the coat, and Griffiths resigning the contest at half s'"'l3 ,
the form of the latter on that occasion was sufficient to Iljo
duce his friends to make this match. Betting— 3to 1 °be
Biffen, who had the best station and took the lead. At ;/..
Star and Garter he Iv as half a length ahead, and here Or),
fiths fouled a barge, but quicklyrecovered the lost grooo3
and at the Point was over his man. A splendid raco ens
to theDungWharf, where Griffiths suddenly ceased NW"
and Biffen finished at his leisure.