The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-03 00:00:00

The Great Northampton Stakes.

Priestess' •.• ••• Ile • 411•• ••• ••• 1
Chantrey •,• ••• •• • ••• ••• ••• 2

SELF-SUPPORTING DISPENSARIES.—A highly re-
spectable meeting of the members of the medical profession
and other gentlemen, was held yesterday at No. 33, Edward-
street, Portiban-square, Dr. Daniell in the chair, when it was
resolved to establish a central association, under the title of
" The London Society," for the purpose of circulating infor-
mation and facilitating the establishment of self-supporting
dispensaries throughout the United Kingdom, on the prin-
ciples advocated by Mr. Smith, of Southam, whose philan-
thropic and unwearied endeavours in the cause of these insti-
tions were warmly acknowledged. Among those present
were:—Dr. Forbes, Dr. Moore, Dr. Cormack, Dr. Sir James
Anderson, Mr. James Yearsley, Mr. S. E. Alford, &c. Letters
of approbation and support were also read from Dr. Conolly,
Dr. Charles Hare, Dr. W. Stroud, the Hon. Henry Berkeley,
the Rev. Canon Dale, &c. •

THE SOUTH 'DEvoN RAILWAT.—The directors of
this railway have reduced their fares, and the reduction com-
menced on Monday. On return tickets the reduction is im-
portant, as it amounts to fully one-third. Recently the di-
rectors put on extra third-class accommodation on market
days between Newton and Exeter,' and also between Totnes
and Plymouth.

Four good mothers have given birth to four bad
daughters. Truth has produced" hatred; succesP, pride ;
security, danger; and familiarity, contempt; and,. on the
contrary, four bad mothers have produced as many good
daughters, for astronomy is the offspring of astrology ; che-
mistry, of alchemy; freedom, of oppression,•' patience, of
long.•suffering.— .E iza Cook's Journal.
TRANSPORTATION OF CONVICTS.—The hired con-
vict ship Barretto, jun., Captain Huggins, is appointed to sail
from Woolwich on the Bth of the present month, with 400
convicts, for Hobart Town and Port Jackson. The Sprightly,
war steamer, entered the Southampton Docks on Monday
night. Yesterday 100 convicts arrived at Southampton by
the Dorchester mail train from Portland, and were put on
board the Sprightly. A Tessel is waiting in the Cowes
Roads to receive them. Their destination!_ is believed to be
Australia.

.FIRE NEAR THE CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL —Last
night about nice o'clock, a very alarming fire broke out in
the drawing-room of the premises belonging to Mr. Jones,
but tenanted by a lady named Murray, 17, ,Laurie-terrace,
near the Catholic Cathedral, St. George's-road. Southwark.
After considerable trouble it was extinguiihed, but not before
serious damage was done, and CO/. in bank notes consumed.
Unfortunately the numbers of the notes were not known,
consequently they will prove a total loss.
HEREFORD CAT HEDRA L. —This cathedral,. which
has been closed for a long period of time for restoration
under the guidance of the late Mr. Cottingham, was opened
in part a few days ago for Divine service. We passed through
the city last week, and looked into the building. The nave
is completed, and here the temporary arrangements have
been made for service—a screen having been erected at the
junction with the transept. The lower part of the nave, as
some of our readers will remember, is .Norman (the work of
Bishop Robert of Lorrain, commenced 1097, and finished
1115), and the upper part is Early English. The whole of
the stonework here has been made perfect—much of it being
entirely new. The nave is paved with black and red tiles in
patterns; ar d the vaulting, which is of plaster,. some of
the miserable work of Wyatt, has been decorated with
colour, in a manner not commensurate with the greatness of
the work in hand. This decoration consists of brown scroll-
work. with, medallions somewhat coarsely executed. The
vaulting of the aisles is also painted, and with better effect:
The ceiling under the tower, at the crux, not included in the
part Opened, is decorated in blue and gold. The transepts
and choir are in a miserably ruinous state, and give some
notion of the extent of the work which roust have been
done in the. nave. The exquisitely beautiful Lady-chapel
and parts about it' have been thoroughly restored externally;
the new &4blo MOO here are oycr

•t

f~~ ~ 3

WEDNESDAY-

LITERATURE.
117 LE ROMAN. A Dramatic Poem. By Sydney

leizdys.
Drawing hig inspiration from the late heroic
struggle of the Italians, the author of this volume of
poetry—poetry at once graceful and impassioned—
has in "The Roman" added one more remarkable
contribution to our contemporary literature. His
effusion, though evincing in its freshness and anima-
tion the ardour of an adolescent fancy, and the redun-
dant energies of a youthful and unjaded imagination--
is nevertheless, entirely devoid of the customary
tokens of immaturity. In this circumstance, more
even than in the frequent beauties scattered throughout
the work, we recc.gnize larger promise, promise of a
more brilliant character as to the future employment
of his abilities. It affords of itself a sufficient
intimation that already the hand that has struck the
chords of this lyre is the hand of a master—no tyro
touch, no school-bred performance this, no thesis of
a poetic pupilage—but the bold, earnest, and harmo-
nious ebullition of a young but copious and virile
capacity. It is told of Paganini, the Magician of the
Fiddle, that no human being ever heard him tune a
violin ; that an instrument which in other hands was
filled with discordance became at once in his sensitive
and capacious grasp an organ of inevitable melody ;
his exquisite sense of concord detecting at once the
nectssiti.s of imparting more or less tension to the
string., without obliging him, like all other violinists,
to scrape them into due relationship. Although we
are not going to designate Mr. Sidney Yendys the
Paganini of the Poetic L; re, we must, nevertheless,
avouch at once that he so far bears a resemblance to
that most miraculous of musicians, that he altogether
abstains from tuning his harp, at least publicly or
audibly, to the task of authorship. He runs his
fingers over the instrument of verse for the first time
—and from the first:it is concordant. Insomuch, that.
even to that most exquisitely sensitive of senses, the
sense of a refined and exacting criticism, we
believe that not a note will be found to jar either
into the sharps of rant or extravagance, or into
the equally distressing flatness of an irredeemable
mediocrity. He sings always in tune, and almost
always in time—his verse being invariably masculine
and melodious. For a first work,_ and especially a
poetical work, we scarcely ever remember one so
nearly altogether devoid of important blemishes.
Even to discern the lesser flaws which are inevitable
in every preliminary effort of the intellect, will require
a scrutinizing attention, and a captious temperament.
" The Roman" throughout is conceived •in a high
and pure strain, its execution .being all but commen-
surate in excellence. Vittorio Santo, a missionary of
Freedom, disguised as a monk (a sort of idealized Gio-
berti) is The Roman. And, according to an expression
contained in this poem commemorative of his genius,
his eloquence, and his patriotism, he is assuredly, in-
deed, and in truth (p. 61.), a " polyglot of prophets."
Imbibing his wisdom from the most evangelizing of the
Apostles, he-is "all things to all men." His oratory,
as elastic and adaptable as the form of Proteus, de-
rives its energy, like the thews of Antceus, from the
bosom'of his mother earth. All the children of that
historic country bow before the magic wand of his
rhetoric. He calls to them in the thrilling tones of
antiquity—his voice rings over ithe land like the
Last Trumpet of a political Resurrection. To all
grades of the community he appeals in the language
most calculated to rouse their latent civism, by pene-
trating within the circle of their comprehension.
Thus—he chides the husbandman—

" for the German weeds that choke
The Roman crop of glory."
He calls to a portly ecclesiastic in a voice of thunder,
and
"At parting gives him for to-morrow's text
The whip of knotted cords that cleansed the temple.
'Preach, priest,' he cries, that from these sacred bounds,
This outraged temple Italy, each Roman
Scourge those that sell the sacrilegious doves
Of perjured peace. O'erturn, o'erturn, he cries,
The tables of those German money-changers,
That make this house of prayer a den of thieves.'"
Pleading to the merchant in the name of Italy, that
Italy which he would see transformed into, one great
Roman Republic, he likens her to a
" glorious galleon,
Now stranded and forlorn: her freight of honours
Strew'd up and down the world, purpling strange
snows,
And loading cold barbaric winds with incense!"
Turning even to the village forge, he sends a whole
troop of
" Wrongs, hopes, land duties trooping through the soul
Of the stout smith, and there on his own smithy
Blows the rough iron of his heart red hot."
Then, again, with a resounding and impassioned pe-
roration,
" Seizing the magic time, with sudden hand
He stamps him to the quick;-Patriot! the hour

Is come io beat our ploughstiares into swords—
Our pruning-hooks to spears!"
Even to the gentler sex his burning adjurations are
spoken, and that, moreover, so effectually, that one of
them (a daughter of nobility) goes forth at his bid-
ding, like a new Cassandra, crying out, " Rome, is at
hand !" But we are anticipating. The poetical
drama of "The Roman," divided into
„pine scenes,
opehs with a' chorui of dancers, in rhymes
daintily itterated like the • throb of the cas-
tanets, and the twitter of the flute :
" Sing lowly, foot slowly, oh why should we chase
The hour that gives Heaven to this earthly embrace?"
&c. &c. &c.

The revellers are startled by the interruption of the
Monk, who warns them not to desecrate with the
dance the grave of his mother—arresting their atten-
tion with a story of fictitious suffering, until he tells
them that that mother is Italy, that that Italy is
Rome. " Look," he exclaims, " upon
" Her mountain boscm, where the very sky
Beholds with passion: and with the last proud

Imperial sorrow of depicted empire,
She wraps the purple round her outraged breast,
And even in fetters cannot be a slave.'
Again, transfiguring the land of his love and of his
nativity with the glory of her everlasting sorrows, he
cries out—

Your giant fathers
Call'd Atlas demigod. But what is she

Who, worn with CighteeicentUTies-ofbondage,
Stands manacled before the world, and bears
Two hemispheres —innumerable wrongs,
Illimitable glories." Subsequently he apostrophises his country to emerge
from her prolonged anguish! adjuring her.
" By her long agony, her bloody sweat,
Her passion of a thousand years !"
In a similar mood of horror he inquires later
on (p.

"Did tilts land, which bare God, spend all its strength
In the sublime conception, and birth-worn
Bring pigmies forth in these last days?"
All his eloquence when addressed to the voluptuous
revellers proves of no avail, even when he reminds
them that the land is what it was of yore in all
things but themselves, saying very gracefully, in
illustration

see d
flowersinto
waved
in.
ud
tiht
e, s hall
Egyptianbear thee;
hair
" Cast to-day .
TheA
Of Pharoah's daughter."
The dancers slink away one by one in succession,
all, except a young girl, Francesca, who has im-
bibed the intoxicating draughts of his eloquence, and
who demands to be enrolled among his disciples in
patriotism, exclaiming derisively in allusion to her
sex as affording but a flimsy obstacle—.
~... “ Doth Salique law entail
The heritage of glory ?"
From the first moment of her apparition from among
the trees it is sufficiently manifest that Francesca is '
in love with Santo. While endeavouring to
allay the impetuosity of her patriotism, the
Monk thus speaks to her in tones of
specimen of the vigour and terse-
sbol e naddemdi
rsble suavityaThe passage affords
and sarcasm.
est of our author's manner that we transcribe the
lines
alone
entire and untnutilated :
asnainegls:. That perfumed minion,'Led speech
..The feeblest tongue that freemen use will deafen
These ears where every word went bowing in!
These pamper'd ears, born in the purple chamber
Of silken state, these soil voluptuous ears,
Dainty; and fancy-fed, that of the tribe
ThatOirhf
at many-visagedduesbas tacourt
oi uarntd embassies.
I nel ambsngssu
Which runs the powder'd erracds of intrigue ;
That slave-born slave, that audible. obeisance."
In a different mood he warns Francesca from the
perils of her unfeminine ambition, observing— ,
" Child freedom bath sanctuaries
Wherein the chaste hands of her best high priest
Tremble to serve."
At the same time, on recognizing the sincerity of her
devOtion to the cause he is advocating, he encourages •
her by the assurance that—
a, The earnest soli).
Drawing
warrior
a sword it cap-a-pied !"
Having accepted Francesca as a handmaid' in the
great effort at Italian, or rather Roman emancipa-
tion, Santo goes forth in the neighbourhood of Milan
and encounters a band of insurgents, by whom he is
almost destroyed, in consequence of his hinting at a
general confederation of the states into one Republic.
and Francesca, •
fAr a mu
goho
tn lwi gi
with
ti
placsesioenateetC)lu.erlenmrestescoef° "motion on the
part of the latter, carries on the story of the drama to a
crisis—the denouement of which is clearly explained in
a tavern scene of students. The animation and humour
of this scene in the Italian hostelrie is felicitous,
the author evincing much comic power in his
sketch of the village schoolmaster Doctor Scio, in
the interpolated surprise of the hostess, the waggery
of some of the students, and the mingled pathos and
merriment of Lelio. The same faculty for appreciat •
ing the droll or grotesque is afterwards betrayed
towards the close of the poem in the curt inquisi-
tiveness of the President of an Austrian court-martial,
as well as in the babbling garrulity of Old Goffo, one
of the witnesses. Here is an indication of
his-. facile aptitude at
,the humorous. A con-
tention going forward among . the students,
a challenge is thrown out by Lelio, and

EVENING-,

many become clamorous for the decision, calling
loudly for " A ring, a ring !" •
. _

‘ A STUDENT—GO call thy thughle-, hostess,
Here's that wilt make he: hones!.
HOSTESS-Sir ?
STUDENT—A ring."
But in the midst of this mysterious scene, in the
tavern, the gay Lebo tells a tale of burning woe and
tragedy—how the young Francesca, to purchase the
escape of Santo from his dungeon, had. yielded up
her beauty to a libertine, and having gained the
ransom first, had saved her beauty by her poguiard.
The pathetic nature of the incident is inde-
scribably enhanced by . the rude " setting "
of the comic by which it is surrounded.
Then comes a charming scene before an Italian cot-
tage at sunset, the emancipated monk gaining over to
his cause a young father and mother who are there
watching the gambols of their children in the midst
of the serene and unruffled felicity of their domestic
seclusion. The song of the children is a dainty bijou
of verse, so:dainty that we give it by way of quo-
tation—

64 [The children are sporting.
among myrtles, and sings.
" GlRL—Whither wingest thou, wingest thou, winny
wind
Where, winny wind, where, oh where?
BOY (singing)—My sister, my sister, I flit forth to find,
My sister, my sister, the °rang( -flow'r fbir !
GlRL—Since thy songs thy soft sister seek,
What wouldst with her? say, oh say.
Boy—Oh, to pat her pearl-white cheek,
And court her with kisses all day !
[The child bursts from her hiding place, and the
children chase each other over the. plain."
The appreciation of the charms of a child is not only
evinced by Sydney Yendys in this sweet little lyric,
but in a subsequent passage, where Santo calls the
boy—" the vindication of God—the everlasting promise
which no man keeps," &c. Beautifully and nobly is
it said by Santo, when appealing to the father's
patriotism, that on scanning the surface of the Roman
soil,

The girl hide

"Here and there
•
Rude heaps, that had been cities, clad the ground
With history. And far and near, where grass
Was greenest, and the unconscious goat browsed free,
The teeming soil seas sown with desolations." .
With reference to the subsequent developement of
the narrative we shall consign it to the curiosity of
the reader, satisfied that by so doing we shall best for-
ward the interests of the poem, and convinced, likewise,
that our previous excerpts and observations will inevi-
tably tickle the poetic appetite of the public into a zest
for further examination. Among the most remark-
able passages in the work, we must, however,
be permitted to particularise the description given by
Santo (pp. 95-96), of the awakening of the
dumb genius of his patriotism—and his dream of
the combat of Telemachus in the Colosseum. Our
author's idea of the nature and otlice of the poet
is worthy of consideration. " The good man," he
says, " hears
" The voice in which God speaks to man. The poet
In some rapt moment of intense attendance,
The skies being genial and the earthly air
Propitious, catching on the inward ear
The awful and unutterable meanings
Of a divine soliloquy."
The notion is consonant with that of the Viscomte
de Chateaubriand, when speaking of the entrance
of the allied armies into Paris, he says that thus
" God had pronounced one of those words by which
the silence of eternity is at long intervals inter-
rupted." Poets—they both heard the voice of the
unseen Divinity. For felicities of expression we
may particularise also these of manly passion
"We men are calm or hurricanes. The heart

Fills silently, and at the last wrong bursts,"

Of the sorrows of Mary and of Rome :
Thou.who three days didst watch a tomb in tears,
Pity our vigil of a thousand years."

Of autumn—

" Behold,
Even now th© harvest seedeth, and the ear
Bends rich with death."
A multiplicity of other minor beauties scattered
throughout the pages by way of poetic decoration,
might be instanced, but we have said enough. " The
Roman," with its pensive lyrics, and its heroic
songs of war, and its tender lays of love, and its con-
trasting and variegated metres, may now plead itself for
the approving voice of criticism. That occasionally
it should be marred with such undignified epithets
as " kickshaws," and such applauding cries as
" Well done," is an accidental and subordinate
blemish that can only be invested with im-
portance by the declaration, that as a
whole, " The Roman " is an elegant poetic
composition. Its prevailing characteristic is this.
Elegance of execution—fervour of thought—aptitude
of scholarship fluency of expression grace of
imagery—combine together for its embellishment.
They leave the mind unsatisfied with the abruptness
and confusion of the " end," but this kind of termi-
nation was possibly the most appropriate that could
have been selected, being the most in accordance with
the sudden and calamitous close of the Italian Revo-
lution. Such are the prominent peculiarities and
merits of a poem, the perusal of which must be plea-
surable to every lover of our literature.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
An event unprecedented in the annals of the
Italian musicaLdtanaa in England took place at her
Majesty's Theatre , last evening. We had, an Italian
opera performed, in which the prima donna, the primo
tenore, and the conductor of the orchestra were all
English, and performed, too, in a style of such sur-
passing excellence as no lyrical establishment could
exceed, and few, very few indeed, could equal. 'Once,
and once only, have we had an English prima donna
and an English primo tenore appearing together in the
same opera on the Italian lyrical stage in this country,
and that was about half a century since, when Mrs.
Billingten and Brabam appeared together in Gli
9razzi e Curiazzi, but the event of last evening is
altogether unprecedented. The opera was Lucia di
Lammermoor, which was produced for the debut of
Miss Catherine Hayes in the character of Lucia, on
which occasion Mr. Sims Reeves sustained the cha-
racter of Edgard° for the first time on the Italian
boar& in this country, and both performers achieved
a most brilliant triumph. Miss Catherine Hayes has
greatly improved since she was last heard in. London ;
her voice seems to have gained in power and compass,
without having at all deteriorated in. expression or
sweetness, and both her acting and singing is replete
with expressive: delicacy and feeling. Nothing could
exceed the exquisite beauty of her fioriture ; the orna-
ments she introduced were quite novel, and as
beautiful as they were novel, and the closeness of her
shake ha's never been surpassed. She rose to the
very highest altitudes of the scale without effort,
and in, the very highest notes her voice was of a deli-
cious flute like softness, there, was not the slightest
approach to shrillness during any portion of her per-
formance, and she has this great merit over the
greater number of her competitors in the representa-
tion of the character of Lucia, she is always ex-
quisitely in tune—indeed, a more finished perform-
ance than the Lucia of Miss Catherine Hayes it is
difficult to imagine. We rank her Lucia immedi-
ately after that of Jenny Lind, and far far before that
of any other prinsa donna who has attempted the part.
Her acting was full of pathos and feeling, yet dis-
tinguished for its grace and its delicacy, and its truly
womanly tenderness. She was called on four times
during the course of the opera, and achieved a suc-
cess at once most brilliant and most deserved,
a success worthy of the pupil of Sapio,
of Filippo Roncotii, and of Manuel Garcia,
The Edgardo of Mr. Sims Reeve is by far the best on
the Italian stage. He has all the power of Fraschini,
without coarseness, and all the finish of Mario,
with infinitely greater power. He was in excellent
voice, and never have we heard or seen the
character of 14igarde ,so magnificently per-
formed. The malediction scene was rendered with
a terrible and awful earnestness that was perfectly
sublime, and the whole of the kit scene (the celebra-
ted Fra aico) was given in a mournful yet
sweet, exquisitely sweet, and touching accent
of despair • that went at once to the heart.
The audience expressed their admiration by loud
and enthusiastic 'plaudits, and he fairly shared
with Miss Catherine Hayes, what our French neiols-
bours would call the honours of the sitting. Mr. Sims
Reeves is, without exception, the most, perfect Edgard()
that has ever appeared, and (with the single
exception of Jenny Lind) Miss Catherine Hayes
is the • most perfect Lucia. Beletti was the
Enrico, and sang and acted admirably, as be al-
' ways does. We have never heard' the opening
duet of the second act so effectively rendered as it
was last night by Beletti and Miss Hayes. At its
conclusion they received the honour of an immediate
recal. The excellent singing of F. Lablache in the
comparatively unimportant character of Raimondo,
contributed materially to the completeness of the
cast. Between the acts, Madlle. Amelia Ferraris re-
performed on Saturday week,
peat, d the pas which she
and more than confirmed the favourable opinion which
• we formed of her on that occasion. She is the first
dancer of the day who has attained the highest posi-
tion in er proteslion per saltum (we do not mean this
as a pun), and who will maintain it against all com-
petitors.

Good-nature, like a bee, collects honey from every
herb. 11l nature, like a spider, sucks poison from the
sweetest flower. Eliza cook's Journal.

SOUTH WALES RAILWAY.--Mr. Brunel is having
constructed a great iron bridge to be thrown over the Wye,
at Chepstow, 600 feet in length, with four arches, one of 300
feet, and three of 100 feet each, so as not to interfere with the
navigation. '
THE BARRHEAD AND NEILSTON RAILWAY.—THe
half-yearly meeting of the Glasgow, Barrhead, and Neilston
Railway Company was to have taken place at noon on Satur-
day, in the company's office, at 40, George.square, but a quo-
rum of shareholders not having come forward, no business
Was Proceeded with, and the meeting was adjourned sine die.
.—,Forth kritish