The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-19 00:00:00

THE SUN,

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.
JULLIE:`.•;',6 CoNcEi;,T;3.
For a bold, jubilant, crovvd-stii ring cor-urition,
commend us to M. Jullien. The "Army and Navy
Quadrill,s" have each had their ovation. Long-
slumbering melodies, which worked up the hearts of
our grandsires, have bsen evoked and stirred, es ii) the
la of peace, with the memorio; of past prowess. But
Jullien is not wholly anti-Cobdenie in his gymnathies.
He can tune you the shepherd's pipe as well as the
martial trumpet—nay, more, he can array trumpet,
drum, and cymbal, beside the amorous oboe and the
sprightly fiddle, and make tl-:ein blend their voices in
the hymen of peace. Last night raw him in his
height of glory and pride of success. The Great Ex-
hibition of 1851 has begotten in his brain a grand
" inspiration." To say that that " inspiration" has
assumed the form of a quadrille will be enough for
all who know to what superb dimensions that
class of composition expands itself under M.
Jullien's wand. Tier upon tier rise the merry
minstrels, some in the garb of peace, others in
the trappings of war. Instruments are there,
various as the myriad melodies gathered from all
regions. The bands of the Royal Artillery, the 2d
Life Guards, and the Coldstream Guards (under their
respective conductors, Collins, G. Cooke, and the ve-
teran Godfrey), ancient allies of M. Jullien, were on
this great occasion reinforced by some score of drum-
mers of the French National Guard, under the pic-
turesque direction of M. Barhier, the tambour-major.
This corps made the hearts of the audience leap, and
brought a rosy tint upon many a fair cheek, with their •
pas acceleres, redoubjes, reveilles, rappels, marches,
end other military ordonnances of the French
army. To the curious in the art of drumming,
their performance is a rare treat. The execu•
tion of a diminuendo passage in the rappel was
a most masterly performance. After solos by
Lavigne, Pratten, Collinet, those renowned guitarists,
the Messrs. •Cii,bra ; Souslle, on the Corno-Musa ;
Sommers' on the Borebardon ; Cioffi, Koenig, Strea-
ther, and Baldacci, we find ourselves hurried along in
the " March of all Nations." " The Morning of the
Inauguration," we quote M. Jullien's emphatic
precis, "of the Grand Exhibition is supposed to
have arrived. The great city, which, for the first
time shelters such masses from all parts of the known
world, is, as yet, tranquil, when, at day-break, the
festival is ushered in by the sounding of the chimes
of London, echoed far and near from each surround.
ing belfry. Soon the city is in movement, and the
multitudes hasten towards the same goal, all eager to
behold the most stupendous realization of human in
dustry recorded in the history of the globe. A tre-
mendous shout bursts forth, and the welcomed nations,
one and all, join in the cry—' God Save the Queen.'"
This is epic, and it is something more; for it is in-
terpreted to those who might happen not to have a
programme by the vivacious gestures, the flickering
baton, and the übiquitous gloves of Jullien. Nothing
was wanting to the most complete success, except, it
may be, a little more individuality in the gigantic
octo-basso, which filled a larger space in the eyes than
in the ears of the audience. The most cordial wel-
come was given to the French corps, whose martial
appearance and decorous recognition of the national
feeling, when more particularly challenged upon the
playing of the national anthem, commanded the ge-
neral admiration of a crowded and enthusiastic au-
dience.

ADELPHI THEATRE.
A new drama from the pens of Mr. Robert Brough
and of Mr. Bridgman, a new aspirant for dramatic
fame, was produced here lust evening with the most
complete success. It is entitled Jessie Gray, and
Madame Celeste, of course, acts the part of the
heroine; she is supposed to he the niece of a benevo-
lent apothecary, Dr. Gray (Mr. 0. Smith), who is in
practice in Loudon, and whose assistant Jokes (Mr. G.
Honey) is the " funny man" of the piece, being over-
head and ears in difficulties, in love (with a marchande
demodes cleverly acted by Miss Kathleen Fitzwilliam),
and in terror, lest he should be arrested for hav-
ing, as he thinks, poisoned a footmen by mistake, and
being, moreover, haunted by that perpetual bugbear
of all unfledged medicos, " going up to pass." Jessie
Gray is loved by Philip Harville (Mr. Boyce), the
nephew of Sir Richard Harville (Mr. H. Hughes), a
cold-blooded haughty man, who determines to prevent
what he considers a mesalliance by exciting the jea-
lousy of his nephew. To effect this he works upon
the fears of Jukes, and forces him to give Jessie an
opiate, and when she is asleep to introduce
himself and the housekeeper into her bedroom, so that
their shadows are seen at thewindow by Philip, whom
he has taken care to have in waiting in the street.
In agony Philip declares that he will now marry in
accordance with his uncle's wishes, and he sees Jessie
to take leave of her. The scene between Jessie and
Philip is admirably wrought up, and was acted with
intense feeling by Madame Celeste. Her expression
of agony when she hears herself falsely accused was
harrowing. Still, however, there is some feeling
of love for Jessie yet lurking in the heart
of Philip ; and the Baronet, to make all secure,
determines to have her seized and conveyed away to
sea in his yacht. For this purpose he engages Pro-
fessor Chester (Mr. P. Bedford), a gentleman who,
having some years before gone to New South Wales
at the public expense, has returned to England at his
own, and is getting his living as the Hercules of a
poses plastiques exhibition. The professor is secreted
in Gray's house, and there he overhears a conversa-
tion between Jessie and the Doctor (Gray), from which
it appears that Jessie is not the doctor's niece,
but an orphan whom he had found deserted
at an hotel in Paris, and had adopted. The
Professor likewise discovers that Gray's housekeeper,
who is assisting in the plot for the abduction of
Jessie, is no other than his own wife, from whom, for
various reasons, he is anxious to keep the fact of his
existence a secret. The scene now changes to the
house of the Baronet, where the denouement takes
place. There is a large and fashionable party there,
and the salons are crowded with dancers ; the Doctor
cane, and is shown into a parlour; he demands
a private interview with the Beronet, and after
some difficulty obtains one; he reproaches him with
his conduct to Jessie, and his remonstrances are
received by Sir Richard with sneers and contempt.
Soon, however, the attention of the Baronet is
awakened, the Doctor speaks of years gone by, of a
secret marriage, of a wife deserted, and of a child lost
—the proud man now beseeches the apothecary to
say all he knows, that wife was his, that child was
his, and that child is Jessie Gray. He is overwhelmed
with anguish and remorse, when Jessie herself enters,
accompanied by the Professor. The Professor had
discovered the secret of Jessie's parentage, had saved
her, and had sent his own wife to sea in her stead.
Of course matters are now satisfactorily arranged,
and Jessie is united to Philip, while Jukes, having
" passed," is married to his pretty marchande de modes.
We know not to which of the authors the credit is
due of the construction of the plot of this drama ; if
to Mr. Bridgman, he has exhibited an arlistical know-
ledge of play building infinitely superior to that of
many an old and favourite playwright. It is one of
the best constructed dramas ever put on the stage; the
incidents arise naturally out of each other,
and all tend to the development of the plot ;
while the comic characters, which usually
are mere hors d'auvre, are in Jessie Gray so con-
nected with the drama as to form necessary parts of
the ensemble, and to be actively engaged in bringing
about the denouement. The piece was well acted,
Madame Celeste was admirably fitted in the character
of Jessie Gray, and acted it in that intensely im-
passioned manner which is so peculiar to her, and in
hich none other can approach her. Mr. IL
Hughes, in his line the best melo-dramatic actor
on the stage, acted the contemptuous, haughty, calcu-
lating villain with a cool assumption of superiority
that told immensely ; he seemed an incarnation of
intellect without feeling ; but when the heart was
touched in the last scene, his acting was full of
agonizing passion. No one understands the art of
contrast better than this gentleman, or employs it
more artistically or more effectively. O. Smith,
albeit unused to the melting mood, acted the part of
the virtuous Apothecary with becoming unction, and
used his white pocket-handkerchief with due de-
corum ; and Paul Bedford, as Hercules, was very
funny. The greatG hit of the night, howe,.er, was the
Jukes of Mr. G. Honey, he acted it with a dry
quaint humour that took the audience by storm ; he
kept them in a roar of laughter the whole time he
was on the stage, and at the conclusion of the drama
was honoured with the first call. Henceforth he
takes his station among
the best of the humorous
actors of the day. The piece is admirably put on the
stage, and is a decided hit. The theatre was crowded
in every part.

POOP. RATES IN CLESEENWELL. -- On Saturday
upwards of 400 summonses were issued from Clerkenwell
Court against different householders of that parish
6d for arrears
the
of poor rate, which has latterly increased to
. .in
pound.
[ADVERTISEMENT. -- Another Sufferer from a
Liver Complaint cured by Holloway's Pills.—The wife of a
respectable tradesman residing in the neighbourhood of Thra
stun was suffering for more than two years from a severep-
liver
complaint, during which period she received the best medical
advice, but without deriving the slightest benefit therefrom.
She then made trial of Holloway's Pill, and by their use
alone she has been restored perfect health. Th
name of the party cured is not made public, but
Collier, bookseller, Thurpstone, can vouch for the au-
thenticity of the case. These pills are also an in-
fallible remedy for indigestion, bilious attacks, head-
aches, and disorders of the stomach.—Sold by all Druggists
Band,
and at Professor Holloway's Establishment, '244, St
London.
The large and beautiful estate of 13,0, in t} e
north-eastern part of this county, the property of Fri'
deaux John Selby, EN., of Twizell ]louse, Belford, con
taining 1,320 acres, and hitherto let at a rental of 1,760/
and which has been for several months in the rn,altet,
has, it is stated, been sold to Hugh Taylor, jun , Esq., of the
Coal Exchange, London, for the sum of 47,006/.—Netvcastle

.journal. -
William EJye, E 1.., master shipwright, has been
directed to examine and report on the caiscoors and docks at
the new works, Keyham. —.Devonport Independent.

HARRISON AINSWORTH'S ROMANCES.
Vol. XI.—.JA (Jr; sHErp.ARD.
There is a dignity in the silence preserved by Mr.
Ainsworth in reference to his literary assailants.
" Jack Sheppard" eppears in his new and popular
form without any prefatory notice whatever. We
cannot but regard the circumstance as in the higheet
degree hounurahie to the disposition of the novelist.
Nevertheless, while appreciating the amenity of tern •
per evinced by the emission, we cannot but regret
that the author of " Jack Sheppard" has not given
utterance, in some measure at least, to those senti••
wents of indignation which must inevitably have
been long cherished by him with regard to his
literary assailants. After so many virulent attacks
as have at different periods been directed against the
popularity of Mr. Ainsworth's writings, with a view to
deteriorate his reputation, we should have rejoiced to
hear from the lips of our author himself some reply,
no matter how scornful or incidental. Not that we
regard his popularity as needing any vindication, in
reference either to the selection of his subjects, or to
their treatment as romances. On the commencement
of the present admirable re-issue of his collected fic-
tions we took occasion ourselves to expose the folly,
not to say the egregious injustice, of assailing Mr.
Ainsworth as the first offender in a style of narrative
which had been tolerated more or less in most of his
literary predecessors and contemporaries—in some
instances eulogised even in terms of extravagant
enthusiasm. It can scarcely be forgotten by the
lovers of modern literature, that in answer to a
charge somewhat similar to the one here hinted at,
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton penned a response to the
hypercritics, in the form of a most cogent and mas-
terly pamphlet. In that brochure the poet-novelist,
taking his text, as it were, from the higher orders of
imaginative composition, maintained that the consi-
deration of crime was the essential prerogative of the
tragic dramatist, and that upon the same reasoning it
was also a no less allowable theme for the tragic
romancist. eEschy lus may be said, indeed, in a great
measure to have based his celebrity upon the accept-
ance of this principle. Sheksoere again, with a like
appreciation of the veritable attributes of the "poet"
or creator, infued the same ghastly truth into
his most remarkable masterpieces. It would
be somewhat difficult, we conceive, to show that
the atrocities perpetrated by Clytemnestra have ever
been surpassed by the most villanous criminals whose
sinister histories have been recorded in the pages of
the Newgate Calendar. Neither to our thinking
would it be less embarrassing to demonstrate the
existence of a greater amount of depravity in the
housebreaker, whose hands were never stained with
blood, and whose principal shame was that of having
adopted burglary as his profession, than in the re-
morseless thane whose investiture with the diadem of
royaltylrose out of one of the most dastardly mur-
ders ever perpetrated—that of an aged guest slumber-
ing under his roof—and whose continued
possession of the sceptre was attributable only
to a series of bloody assassinations. The heinous
infamy of Macbeth has never yet been considered suf-
ficient to remove him beyond the pale of our sympa-
thies. Yet criminals we might almost say infinitely
small in comparison are regarded as altogether with-
out the reach even of our regard or consideration. It
may be said, or rather is said, that in the one instance
the grossness of the crime is in a manner sublimated
by its poetic treatment, whereas in the other instance
the felon is submitted to our notice in his natural as-
pect through the homelier medium of a prose narra-
tive. Than this we can conceive no more shallow or
more preposterous argument. Instead of justifying
the dramatist at the expense of the novelist,
the circumstance does exactly the reverse.
For, assuredly, vice may be invested with
attraction and crime with a sort of diseased
sublimity by their celebration in the lofty numbers of
pussy—while the portraiture of either the one or the
other in the humbler guise of a prose description re-
webs their more obvious and undeniable characteris-
tics. Hence it is that the delineation of the darker
phases of humanity by the hand of the novelist ap-
pears to us calculated to be beneficial rather than
pernicious—revealing atrocity in its true form, and
dragging before us crime in its very nakedness, not
tricked out in the pomp of a poetic masquerade. A
fanciful theory has been advanced by Mr. Disraeli,
if we recollect rightly, in his psychological romance
of " Contarini Fleming"—to the effect that the poet
having breathed out his soul to the world, first in
ballads, then in odes, then in epics, then in dramas,
after employing as the medium of his inspiration all
the ingenious styles of composition, the idyll, the
elegy, the sonnet, the hymn, the psalm, and the la-
mentation, has at length, in a more perfected age of
civilization, adopted, as the vehicle of his thought,
the form of the rhymeless and tltythmless, but still
poetic, romance. Whether this notion be strictly
correct, or otherwise, it is certain that the novelist
is the child, or descendant, of the poet, and that, as
one epoch spoke through the tragic or comic drama,
our own speaks through the prose romance. As
the heir of the poet, the novelist is, therefore,
entitled to the use of those great prerogatives for-
merly enjoyed by his predecessor, and, among these,
not one is more inestimable in its influence or mere
capable of judicious employment, than the preroga-
tive according to which crime and criminals may be
delineated. Fielding felt this when he penned the
history of that most despicable wretch, the thief-
taker " Jonathan Wild"—Godwin felt it'when he made
the interest inspired by a murder the main-spring of
" Caleb Williams"—Scott felt it when he caused the
evil practises of Dirk Hatterick to infuse a charm
into the pages of " Guy Mannering"—Bulwer
when he celebrated the life of the highwayman
" Paul Clifford" Dickens when he painted
the grim and bloody figure of Sykes flying
from the corpse of his paramour, in those
powerful chapters which precede the close of " Oliver
Twist." Actuated by the same sentiments, Harri-
son Ainsworth wrote his enthralling romance of
" Jack Sheppard." A narrative of more absorbing
interest we cannot cell to our recollection. Once-
commenced, it is idle to think of putting it aside
until read to its conclusion. Every leaf contains an
incident, and these incidents are chiefly of the most
breathless character. From the storm on the Thames,
magnificently described at the outset, to the exe-
cution of the hero, with which, of course, the
story is brought to an appropriate termination,
the work rivets the attention of the reader, and
that too by the strong and legitimate power of the
descriptions. Throughout "Jack Sheppard" the
crimes of the more diabolical characters introduced
are always held up to unmitigated detestation, as
may be especially seen by reference to Jonathan
Wild—the Jonathan Wild of Henry Fielding! Poetic
justice is done to the vices and felonies of the hero by
his being ostentatiously conducted to the gallows at
Tyburn ; and our sympathies are excited towards
Jack simply because of his possession of some excellent
qualities, or through the admiration very justly ex-
cited by his daring and even wonderful escapes from
confinement. In the person of Thames Darrell
and in that of Winifred Wood, the author
has well vindicated his capacity for the de- •
lineation of the more gentle aspects of
humanity. Mrs. Sheppard herself, the mother of the
burglar, is charmingly conceived, and it is impossible
not to recognize fine traits of a better disposition
than might be expected even in poor Blueskin.
Among the most vigorous portions of the work, al-
way s excepting the account of Jack's escapes from
incarceration, is the passage relating to the assassina-
tion of Sir Rowland Trencleard in the well-hole, by
the thief-taker and his Jewish satellite, Abraham
Mendez. It reveals in the intellect of Mr. Ains-
worth that- supreme command over the horrible
which, if he had been a paiater instead of a novelist,
would have induced' him to portray such incidents
as that transpiring in the prison of Ugolino. For our-
selves, one or the most masterly and interesting chapters
in the romance is the one in which Jack is visited at
Newgate by Sir James Thornhill, Gay, Figg, and
Hogarth. Happily, however, for Mr. Ainsworth, the
time has passed by when a detailed criticism on
" Jack Sheppard" was requisite to introduce it to pub-
lic consideration. All that remains far us at present
is briefly to notify the fact of the present republice-
tion, a republication the more interesting when it is
remembered that this eleventh volume comprises.
perhaps, the most remarkable of ail the fictions of
Harrison Ainsworth, with the single exception of
the " Miser's Daughter."

GREAT EXHIBITION, 1851.--Messrs. J. and R.
M'Cracken, of No. 7, Old Jewry, have this day rec.'ived
a further consignment from the Russian Commission,
consisting of 129 pachages, which they are taking steps
to deposit with the previous consignment under the re-
gulations establisheil by the Board of Customs for the
custody of the goods from the northern ports, until the
building in Hyde-park be ready to receive them.
THE EXHIBITION or 1851.—Notwithstanding the
additional gallery accommodation which it has already been
determined shall be attached to the building in Hyde-park,
it appears that still further space is deemed requisite, and to
7110
estimatesnStr C teats, &c.,
eEzs
ac.m,
provide for which Mr. B. Edgington has, at the request of
Mr. Digby Wyatt., attended several days, and given nume-
rousterd suggestions to effect the required extension by frn'ans of
understooday was
ea.ndltyiessdesired rend.,
eto
increasedfurnish
space to be thus given will comprise an area of about 350
square feet.

EXHIBITION OF 1851.—Her Majesty's Commis-
sioners have received information that the President of the
United States has given orders to the Secretary of the Navy
to place at the disposal of the United States exhibition com-
mittee a vessel of the national marine, of such a character es
will be most useful in conveying the articles destined for the
Industrial Exhibition of London free of charge to the con-
tribr. tors

'Pitt: ELECTION OF LORD RECTOR OF GLASGOW
UNivEnsurv.—The majority for Sheriff Alison is, numeri-
cally, a majority greater than has ever declared itself since
the triumphant return of the late. Sir Robert Peel. Mr.
Macaulay, it is true, had a majority is each of the four
nations, but his numerical majority was not so large as that
of Mr. Sheriff Alison. The prevailing sentiment appears to
be that Lord Palmerston will not expose Mr. Macaulay to
the invidious task of recording his vote against so large .
numerical majority of the voters.—Edinburgh Courant.