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

CHARLES DICKENS'S READINGS•

Dr. Marigold and the Trial from Pic. W'
St. James's magnificent Hall was crowded 1°
evening literally to overflowing. Hundreds were
disappointed in their endeavour to gain admittance'
It is no exaggeration to say that the g dleries might
have been filled three or four times over, if o°l
the audience could but have taken those ten millet!
turns which were the happy-go-lucky rule down a"
Bartlemy Fair, at Richardson's. Supposing the
Messrs. Chappell to have secured on lease that wolP
derful expanding tent of the Oriental tale, the°,
but then only, could the whole of the ar
plicants of last night have been enabled to
i
form portions of the vast assemblage. Punct°
to the hour named for the commencement of the
first of his Farewell Readings, Mr. Charles Dickey:
made his appearance upon the raised platform al
the head of the great hall—the immense audieuce
welcoming him with round after round of the Weil
enthusiastic acclamations. His reception, indeed'
both then and at frequent intervals throughput
the night, and more especially at the woment
of his departure, was magnificent. It spoke e'
cordial welcome to him upon the first oceael°e
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, 11°r
ever—very much less remarkable to our thinking"'
than the crashing rounds of applause awarded t°
Mr. Dickens last night, again and again, by
his enormous audience, was the breatlilea:
interest with which every individual in that grea,,
assemblage hung upon his every word and ROI
throughout the evening, save only when 11
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—e°°'
trived once more last evening, as he has often done
before, to hold the entire audience spell-bound
his more than simply graphic delineations of
himself and his surroundings. Again, we all of it°
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, some:
thing marvellous. Never, of course, for one install'
in our appreciation of him, losing his own ider.titr;
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 as 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 circ°:
latian—thefe-rocious Mim—the political Dear JO`
_the very dog who taught himself out of his owe
head to bark at any one who bid as low as sixpence I
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, AUL'
(after she is dead and gone) for her deaf and dumb
double, or at any rate successor in his gentle!'
affections, again last night captivated the lodic
ence into breathless attention, touched many 01
them to tears, winning, moreover, in the end for the
author of Dr. Marigold and for Dr. Marigold's ill!'
personator as well :as creator, one of those enthuev
astic bursts of applause popularly spoken of as ap
ovation. Afterwards, at the close of the usual tee
minutes interval, we had the immortal Trial Scelie,
from "The Pickwick Papers," the Great Trial 0'
Bardell v. Pickwick. And then, as ever, the laugh'
ter, in Homeric phrase, was simply inextinguisly
able. Sergeant Buzfuz, Mr. 'Winkle, Mrs. Cluppl°l
Sam Weller, and perhaps the best of them all, O.'
Justice Stareleigh, each in turn shook the hall agal°
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 Vert,
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, with
which all of us know, that they are now being
given by Mr. Dickens in final Farewell.

RESCUE of THIRTEEN MEN AT SEA.—The screisr
steamea Caledonia, Captain Macdonald, which arrived bt
Glasgow on Saturday, reports having picked up on the
25th Sept., in lat. 47 39 N., long. 50 16 \V., the crew of the
bark Vasco de Gama, of Hull, bound from Quebec for Sun'
derland. It appears that early on the morning of the 26111,
the look-out on board the Caledonia descried a small boa'
making signals some distance a head. On a nearer approach
it was found that the boat contained Captain Harrison
and seven of the crow of the Vasco do Gama, which had
been abandoned five days previously. Captain Harrison
stated that that same morning they had parted with the
second boat, containing the first mate and five of the cre'°'
who bad gone in pursuit of a sail. Captain Macdonald 3t
once altered his course, and during the day succeeded In
picking up the other boat with its six occupants. B°th
.
boats were very leaky ; one of them was without a ruddell
and the oars had to do duty as masts. The supply of frog;
water was almost gone, and the only food of the 1,00,0,
fellows consisted of a few broken biscuits steeped in 561"
water.

SARAWAK.—Letters have been received fronl
Sarawak, dated the Bth of August, which announce the
succession of Mr. Charles Brooke, nephew of the late Mall
Sir James Brooke, to the Government of this State. VI
correspondence states that " on the 25th of July the arrive
of the mail put Sarawak in possession of the melancholy
tidings of the death of his Highness the Rajah. All Put
on mourning for the great and good man that was goI3O
The consul's flag was kept half-mast until the Saturdoi,
when the Tuan Mudah (heir apparent) was publicly Po'
claimed Rajah of Sarawak in the Court-house, in the pre:
Bence of all government servants, the consuls, clergy, and
principal inhabitants of the city, all in full dress. The
Datu Bandar and ozher native chiefs had decorated the,
Court House in native style with flags and gaily-coloured
cloths, a guard of honour received the Rajah, and after the
proclamation was read a Royal salute was fired from the
fort. The ceremony passed off quietly and well, amid the,
evident marks of rejoicing and satisfaction of all classes of
the inhabitants. Everything has now returned to its usual
quiet, and were it not for the signs of mourning one would
hardlyknow that any such important change had taken place'
Her Majesty's ship Perseus arrived yesterday and salute 3
the new Rajah and his flag. She will remain here only
day or two, and came over from Singapore expressly for
this purpose." The country is perfectly quiet and pros"
perous, and it is said that the natives are most anxious
that the system of government organised by Sir Jarue°
Brooke should continue.

THE BORDER BOROUGHS.—Mr. G. Elliot JO
abandoned the contest for the Border Boroughs, leaving
Mr. Trovelyan in undisputed possession of the field'
Having satisfied himself that the majority of the elector°
were adverse to him, Mr. Elliot has acted honourably, ag
well as sensibly, in retiring at once ; he has withdraws
like a gentleman, without saying an unkind word of to°
opponent. It must be mortifying to a member of the
Elliot family, whose ancestral seat and possessions itr°
within the range of the boroughs, to be thus compelled to
yield, without a fight, to a young stranger. There id 11°
doubt that Lerd Russell's ill-judged intervention had °
prejudicial effect on the candidature of his relative.—Pal",
Mall Gazette.

SCULLERS' RACE FOR £loo.—Yesterday after
noon William Biffen, a waterman's apprentice, of
litmtnersinith, and James Griffiths, also a waterman's
prentice, of Wandsworth, rowed from Putney to Mort-
lake for £3O a side in outriggers. The match arose out of
the apprentices' race for the coat and badge at the late
Thames Regatta, in which both contended, Biffen winning
the coat, and Griffiths resigning the contest at half NOY ;
the form of the latter on that occasion was sufficient to in"
duce his friends to make this match. Betting—• 3 to 100
Biffen, who had the best station and took the lead. At the
Star and Garter he was half a length ahead, and here Grif"
fiths fouled a barge, but quicklyrecovered the lost grouLA
and at the Point was over his man. A splendid race ensued
to thoDungWharf,where Griffiths suddenly ceased rovrivg
and Bitten finished at his leisure.