The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-17 00:00:00

bills of exchange for the Atlautic wore at Si to 9-441 " HONgSTY 1,, THE BEST POLIO •
prem. The distrust of bills was very great.

MEXICO.

The news from the west coast of Mexico is im-
portant. The operations of the united force of
the Generals Alvarez, father and son, had been
successful, and the revolutionary troops under
Generals Vicario and Juan Antonio were utterly
routed at Chelapa, after most severe fighting, which
endured for about four days. The elder Alvarez
had previously driven Vicario from the city of
Chilpanzingo with a small force of artillery. When
Chelapa was taken Alvarez ordered it to be sacked,
after the most approved fashion of vengeful
soldiers. He was well obeyed, for the most fright-
ful excesses were committed by his man. Neither
age nor sex was spared. General Antonio died
after his defeat, and Vicario was at Yguata in pro-
secution of his plans of revolt. Cuarna,vaca city had
declared for him.

A RAGGED SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT.
By W. H, MILLER, of Lambeth.
Last evening between 8 and 10 o'clock
p.m., this
really admirable entertainment was repeated in the
principal room of the Ragged School, Doughty-street,
Lambeth-walk, before another crowded and enthusiastic
gathering of spectators, conspicuous amongst whom"'
the honoured guest of the night—was no less distin-
guished a patron of the Ragged School System than the
Earl of Shaftesbury. From the very commencement to
the very close of the whole delightful performance, Mr:
William Henry Miller—the Originator of this inimitable
species of Elevating and Instructive Amusement for our
poor ragged school children—was applauded (as the
phrase is) to the echo, was observed and listened to
with evident and unaffected admiration. We do not,
is speaking thus earnestly, employ in any way the lea'
guage of mere complimentary exaggeration.
As afford•
ing conclusive testimony that we do not, we may here
mention at once the terms in which Lord Shaftesbury
himself, immediately upon the conclusion of the enter-
tainment, proposed yesterday a vote of thanks to the
artist, poet, singer, actor, orator, and, above all,
Moralist-Humorist, to whom the audience had just
become indebted for that varied store of pleasure and
instruction—" Honesty is the best policy." The noble
earl, among other things, observed that he thanked God
who had inspired Mr. Miller with the idea of this poets•
liar kind of entertainment, and with the genius to realise
his own de=ign ; adding a hope that he might be spared for
many years to come, exercising his abilities for the delight
and improvement, of the poor Ragged-school children,
and have ultimately inscribed over him the encomiastic
verses written by David Garrick in commemoration of
Sir Joshua Reynolds ! Every syllable of this earnest
praise being greeted by those who were there last night
to hear it, with something very like enthusiasm. The
occasion, indeed, was exceptional. It was the
inauguration—for we will not regard it as anything
less—of a perfectly novel description of entertainment
destined, let us hope, to improve in time the low,
squalid, obscene, and hideously demoralising penny
gaffs infesting so many of the bye-ways of this vast
metropolis. Anyone who shall help to rid the more
populous parts of London of that most appalling
and detestable abomination will necessarily take
high rank indeed among the practical benefactors
of the poorer classes among our uneducated population.
And already to this noble purpose we do believe that
this small end of the wedge of reform has been well
driven in by the author of `.‘Honesty is the best Policy.
Read, first of all, if you can—and supposing
you are
able so far to do violence to the holier instincts of your
nature, it will only be with an absolute's sickening
shudder of abhorrence as you glance down the page
Read, first of all, the fearfully vivid description of what
a Penny Gal really is, as depicted by that microscopl.o
daguerreotypist of crime, Mr. Henry Mayhew, in hill
"London Labour and the London Poor" (vol. i• PP•
42)—and then witness Mr. Miller's admirable entertain'
went, full of song, and dance, and jest, and fancy
half pictorial and half colloquial, a performance rt.
fectly exhilarating from first to last, and provocative
throughout of shouts of laughter I And from your ia'
most heart, if you have one in any way worthy of the
name, you will assuredly say—God-speed to the Giver,
.
and, we will even add, the Discoverer, of this new kind
of attractive and instructive Entertainment I
Mr. Miller
is his own artist—having painted, in illustration of the Enacted Story of "Honesty is the Beat Policy," a series
of panoramic pictures, some of them really charming—Of
for example, that one of the lighthouse, and that other one
pourtraying a beautiful rural church with a villagegreen
in the foreground. Mr. Miller is more than this : he is hie
own song-writer and his own song-singer—his own drama:
tist (for the narrative of John Reynolds's Vicissitudes
ill
eminently dramatic in its character)—above all, he is his
own dramatic company l As the hero of his tale he
appears successively in various disguises—first of all as
a country bumpkin, turning his first penny by selling
Catch 'em Alive 0 ! fly papers, with an uncommonly
comic song—then as a street shoeblaok of the Yellow
Brigade, with a penny whistle, and another droll little
incident to match the comic song of the flycatcher.
Finally, he is transformed into a gallant young tar, who
meets with divers adventures, and ultimately contrives
to reconquer his better fortunes at St. Petersburg.
It is during his voyage up the Baltic that he
hears a regular sailor's yarn told by one of his mess.
mates, an old man-of-war's-man, one Jack Dareall—the
spinning of which yarn was altogether the moat
triumphant hit of the evening. It was interrupted, in
the telling of it, with genuine roars of merriment.
Laughter as loud and hearty as that which afterwards
greeted each successive apparition of Mr. Miller's head
from a railway carriage (during the uproar of a stoppage)
—first of all, as an afflicted passenger with a severe cold,
and his face tied up in a handkerchief; then, as a frac-
tious widow lady ; then, as an exceedingly polite and
good-looking Frenchman ; then, as a phlegmati•
tally satirical Scot ; then: an unmistakeable
yokel or chaw-bacon-; and, finally as dapper Jack
Reynolds himself coming home from the seas, with his
little fortune made, to help his old mother out of the
workhouse. As yet " Honesty is the best Policy" has
only been performed twice, and (upon each occasion)
before adult friends and teachers of the Ragged School
Children. Heartily glad shall we be to announce ire
first performance before the Ragged School Children
themselves. When the evening arrives it will be the
commencement, we do sincerely believe, of a new era of
social improvement among the humbler ranks of our
London population. May that anticipation be speedily
and signally realised.

The Right Hon. S. Herbert, M.P., and Mrs. Herbert,
leave Belgrave-square, to-day, for Wilton House, near
Salisbury. A large circle of distinguished friends ar•
about to assemble there.

MISSIONS IN INDIA.—A. meeting was held yesterday
afternoon at Willis's Rooms, St. James's, in aid of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, which proposes to extend its labours in India
when peace shall be restored in that dependency. The
chair was takes by the Bishop of London, and among
those present were the following :—The Bishop of
Jamaica, Lord John Manners, M.P. ; Mr. J. G. Hub-
bard, the Rev. Professor Slater, of Bishop's College,
Calcutta ; the Venerable Archdeacon Abraham, of New
Zealand ; the Rev. W. H. Goy, of Gwalior, India ; Mr.
T. P. Wright, the Revs. N. Wade, J. Bowmen, J. V.
Povab, R. C. Smith, Dr. Biber, H. Clissold, T. Wood,
A. Joseph, B. Tyr whitt, &c. Resolutions in accordance
with the objects of the meeting were carried unani-
mously.
At Hamburg the rate of discount has receded to D per
cent. The Exchequer-bills recently issued can be nego
tiated at 6or 7 per cent. •
About 115,0001. of gold was taken to the Bank yester-
day, of which 50,0001. was Ruiaiian.
JUVENILE REFORMATORY.—An earnest appeal has.
been made to the benevolence of Roman Catholics, in
behalf of the institution called St. Mary's Agricultural
Colony, Mount St. Bernard's Abbey, Leicestershire.
This reformatory institution is capable of accommoda-
ting 300 boys, but it appears that within the last fort-
night 10 boys convicted by magistrates to the colony
have been refused admission ; because from want of
funds it has not been possible to complete buildings in
course of erection. It is stated that this appeal, which
has been approved by the Abbot of Mount St. Bernard's
Abbey, would not have been made at this critical time
had it not been absolutely necessary for the present well-
being and future prospects of the colony.
ROYAL COLLEGE Os' SUB,GEONEL—The following gen-
tleinen, having undergone the necessary examinations
for the diploma, were admitted reetnbets of the College
at the meeting of the Court of Examiners on the lith
inst. :—Messrs. George Bentley, Halstead, Essex; Pierce
Morris Crosbie, Tralee, county of Kerry ; Wilton
Everet, Stepney ; Wm. H. Smith, Clapham-road; Robt.
Luther Bagley, Eignbrook, Hereford ; John Soden, Mo-
bil!, county of Leitrim ; Edward Wynne Thomas, Os-
westry ; James Galloway, Penritb, Cumberland ; and
Richard Morrie, Aberystwith. The following gentlmen
have just passed the preliminary examination (in classier,
methematics, and French) for the Fellowship of the
College : —Messrs. James Herbert Brown, West-street,
Brighton ; Frederick Fawsou Lee, Charles-street,
Trevor-square; Francis Mason, Bedford-place; and
Walter Gilson Walford, Cambridge.
ACCIDENT TO MR. WIDDICOMB, AT THE SL/11821.
for-
per
THEATRE.—ShortIy before the conclusion of the
mances at the Surrey Theatre, on Tuesday night, the
audience vvere.somewhat alarmed in consequenos of the
following accident to Mr. Widdicomb, the well-known
and popular comedian :—Whilst the company were
enacting the farce of " Wellington Figgs," and we
re
the audience were screaming with laughter, their mirth
was suddenly stopped : Mr. Widdicomb, who trek the
part of the hero of the piece, is concealed behind a screen,
and one part of his performance is to throw down the
Miss E.
,Wjeubsstt ear; w3shro
.
is dressed when
ns
Widdicomb had laid hold of the corner of the screen to
an
i soaffit attacked e dubnyf
throw it down, Miss Webster, by some mistake, in.
stead of striking the screen with the sword, struck the
band of the hero of the farce with such violence as to
cut through the nail of the middle finger, laying it bare
to the bone. ExJessive hemorrhage followed, and Mr.
Widdicomb booming exceedingly faint, he found it
imp-ssible to proceed further with the performance, and -
the audience was informed of that fact. Mr. T. ge
Donahoo, the surgeon of No. 3, Westminster-road, was
at once sant for, and that gentleman dressed the wound,
and after some tune he was enabled to go home with
his hand io a sling. It is to be hoped that Mr.
Widdicomb may be speedily enabled to resume his pro
fissional duties.
The Ide, ot Dos tolls were yesterday put uP to
auc-
tion by the trusteges of them, at the Guildhall Hotel,
King-street, Cheapside. Last year they realised 700 l
Yesterday a considerable competition took place between
them, and they were eventually parted with to Messrs.
Macnamara and Bolton for 900/.