The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-26 00:00:00

9 APRIL 26, 1850.

their fellow-citizens. They ought to have perfect
power over their own resources and their own
expenditure ; but, in justice and fairness, they ought
also to defray their own military charges ; and,
seeing they have neither within nor without any
enemy that can cope with a company of light ii fmtry,
the cost ought not to be oppressive to them.
The Australian colonies are, at present, governed
in a fas •( to produce discontent and recalcitra-
tion. .
N ot
re, consequenly, both troublesome
and expensi The nation absolutely gains nothing
by them that it would not gain, and even in a
higher degree, were they self-governed, or, for that
matter, were they even independent. Thus, emigra-
tion to them would go on at least in the same degree
as it does now. It does so go on, to the self-governed
colony of Canada, and to the country which was
once colonies, and this after a virtual separation of
three quarters of a century.
In like manner will our commercial intercourse
with the Australian colonies proceed under self-go-
veroment. In 1828, the whole exports of Australia
amounted only to the paltry sum of 181,000/., and in
1845, the, last for which there is a return, they had
come to 2,187,6331., or in seventeen years' time had
been increased by above fourteen-fold, a rapidity of
progress to which there is no parallel. At this ratio, of
course, they cannot be expected to proceed in future ;
fur the Australians, having coal, iron, and wool
in abundance, will soon learn to make coarse fabrics
for themselves. The finer they will long receive
from us, as America, after its long separation, still
does. But that the Australian colonies, under any
circumstances, are destined to become one of the
greatest marts of British commerce, may be con-
sidered as a matter of certainty. The only good
market in the world, for the wool, the tallow, the
train oil, and the copper ore of Australia is England ;
and to England they must come, even if Australia
were independent to-morrow ; and they must be
paid for, too, in British manufactures. Independence
has never kept the tobacco of America from finding
its best market in England, nor has it prevented
American cotton from becoming the greatest of
the raw materials imported by England.
A common lineage, a common langtiage, common
manners, customs, laws, and institutions, bind us and
our Australian brethren together, and will continue
to do so perhaps longer than the British Constitution
itself will last. They form, in fact, a permanent bond
of union; whereas the influence of patronage and the
trickeries of Conservative legislation, do but provoke
and hasten the separation which they are foolishly
framed to prevent.—Examiner.

[PRICE SD.

interview with Earl Grey yesterday, at the Colc-
nial Office.

The Rev. Mr. Tyler, rector of St. Giles, had an
interview yesterday with Sir George Grey. Sir
John M'Neil I had also an interview yesterday with the
Right lion. Baronet at the Home Office.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had
a general meeting yesterday.

MR. BUNN AT kIItMINGHAM.
(From Aris's Birmingham Gazette, April 22.)
The attention of the dramatic community has been
very strongly excited during the past week by the
appearance of Mr. Bunn on the stage of this town,
which he directed so many years with such deserved
popularity previous to his assumption of the reins of
government of the national theatres of the metropolis.
Mr. Bunn introduced to us on this occasion the
" Monologue" which he has recently delivered with
remarkable success in London, and which has elicited
a more unanimous expression of public opinion from
the press, than any instance of recent date we remem-
ber having called forth. We are not at all surprised
at this, after watching, with highly gratified feelings,
his portraiture of character, his intimate acquaintance
with all the resources his subject brings into action,
his beautiful declamation, his animated manner, his
incessant humour, and thorough knowledge of his
art. The professed object of the entertainment is
to review the stage in its past and present condi-
tions, to bring into more general notice the unceasing
commentaries, and their mostly unmeaning matter,
on the great poet who has been, and ever must
be, the great prop and only permanent hope of the
drama, and while accounting for the apparent decay,
to ascertaia the prospect there is for the restoration
thereof. Mr. Bunn has grappled in a masterly man-
ner with the ablest, and has exposed in the most ludi-
crous manner the weakest, of the numerous writers
who, in attempting to exalt Shakspere, have had in
view the latent notion of exalting themselves ; and
who, in presuming to lay bate the fallacies of the
poet, have only exposed their own. Mr. Bunn has
been content to deal with those men of eminence at
the head of whom Dr. Johnson stands conspicuous,
and has judiciously passed over the more modern
body of critics (excepting Mr. Payne Collier, whom
he very highly lauds), because their writings for the
most part, are but a rechauffe of the opinions of their
abler predecessors, and have not carried with them
any degree of authority, influence, or interest. It is
impossible to combat with minor minds, and Mr.
Bunn has therefore taken no notice of those almost
diurnal reviewers whose genius is of that class which,
aiming at instructing the public, only exhibits its
own incapacity. It is evident that Mr. Bunn's study
of his subject has been deep and ardent, and he has
certainly brought more to bear thereon than
most of the commentators lumped together,
whose incongruities he has so properly lashed.
When listening to his exposition of their anachronisms.
we derive the highest instruction and the greatest
amusement at the same time ; for Mr. Bunn has so
admirably composed his work, that if, in the dry de-
tail which he must have occasionally to wade through,
the interest of the auditor should not keep pace even
an instant, with his own enthusiasm, he introduces
some touch of humour so irresistibly droll that the
spectators' feelings are poised throughout between
high admiration and uncontrollable laughter. It was
a matter of wonder to his delighted listeners how
Mr. Bunn, or, indeed, any of the eminent public
performers or speakers who have preceded him, could
for three successive hours, unassisted by a human
being, fix the attention of a whole audience in so un-
tiring and so delightful a manner. If the limits
of a weekly journal would enable us to do this,
we should derive a pleasure second only to
witnessing his performance, from analysing, in
the most minute manner, one of the most
powerful, most interesting, and most success-
ful entertainments the English stage has had to
boast of. We cannot do this, but we should be guilty
of an unpardonable omission if we did not refer to
his consummate delineation of the "Witches " in
Macbeth, which has never been surpassed, in our
belief; by any performance the English stage has had
to boast of; and it really leads one into a world of
wonderment, where we naturally are induced to ask
the question why Mr. Bunn, with every possible re-
quisite fur being one of the greatest actors ever
known, selected the position of a manager instead of
a performer ? He reached the topmost branch of one
tree, by leasing at one time—a thing hitherto un-
known—both Covent-garden and Drury-lane
Theatres ; and we cannot see why he might not have
perched on the loftiest branch of the other tree, by
pourtraying the genius of all our great dramatic
poets. The manner in which he placed before us the
wonderful language which Shakspere has allotted
to the Weird Sisters, exempting it from the mum-
mery which has invariably hitherto disgraced it, was
one of the grandest displays of histrionic art it was
ever our good fortune to witness. The manner of
Mr. Bunn altogether is animated,
familiar, but perfectly unobstrusive ; he can
sway his audience entirely at his will,
excite their sympathies, and when satisfied therewith,
he can command their loudest laughter. His general
readings of the language of Shakspere are the purest,
and at the same time most powerful, a'nd may cer-
tainly compare with any actor of eminence we can
call to mind. We are exceedingly sorry that the
visit of this highly-gifted gentleman has been so
short ; for, after witnessing twice his admirable en-
tertainment, and recollecting at the same time that as
an author of some of the best performances of the pre-
sent day, the poet who has sent into the world those
sweet ballads, in the mouth and on the piano of every
singer, and the most extraordinary manager that all
Europe has produced, we feel no small degree of pride
in recollecting, and in recording, that it was in this
town Mr. Bunn began a career that has been at-
tended with so much success and so much imperish-
able renown. We observe by the Manchester papers
that Mr. Bunn will give his entertainment in that
town during the present week.

EMIGRATION TO THE STATES.
MR. CATLIN'S LECTURE.
Yesterday evening Mr. Catlin, the well-known
American-historian and traveller, delivered a farewell
lecture at Exeter Hall, on the Valley of the Missis-
sippi and the advantages of emigration to the western
states. The credit of placing before the public in
a dispassionate form the obstacles which encoun-
ter the emigrant, and the advantages which he is
certain to derive after these difficulties have been
overcome, is due to Mr. Catlin ; and, judging from
the number and enthusiasm of his auditors, it is
evident that his services in their regard have not
been altogether unappreciated. The manner in which
Mr. Catlin conveys his information is peculiarly at-
tractive. An earnest desire to benefit his fellow-men
appears to be his principal motive ; and while, on the
one hand, he points to the thriving homestead which
has been raised in the prairie's depths, as if by magic,
by the industry of some sturdy islander, he points
with the other to the consequences which must
inevitably await those who imagine that, when they
have crossed the Atlantic, a modern Canaan awaits
them, and that the golden fruits of enterprise and
perseverance are to be plucked without a manly
Catlin
struggle for their possession. Mr. calculates
that an industrious emigrant, possessing sufficient
capital to cultivate eighty acres of land in the
western states, ought to be able to support his fa-
mily almost immediately upon their settlement. The
emigrant about to make a settlement has nothing to
i
do but hire a keel boat n which to stow his family,
his goods, and the materials necessary for the con-
struction of a wooden house (and the latter are to
be had for next to nothing), and get himself towed
up the Mississippi to the location he has chosen.
To the emigrant, there appears to be nothing wanting
but society. Upon this subject, and also with a view to
economy, Mr. Catlin seems to think that the most ad-
visable course for intending emigrants to pursue
would be to unite themselves into associations, and,
having purchased large districts of land, subdivide
it into equitable proportions. A society, having for
its object the colonisation of certain districts
in the states on the mutual principle, is
now in course of formation in the metropolis,
and Mr. Catlin announced that he intended to
take the conduct of the first party of emigrants,
with a view to their settlement on the banks of the
Mississippi. It is afterwards his intention to
ascend the river, and, accompanied by persons expe-
rienced in mining operations, explore the auriferous
regions lying on the eastern slopes. of the Rocky
Mountains.
The lecture was illustrated by a series of maps on
a large scale, and by a number of paintings produced
from sketches taken on the spot. The latter formed
not the least pleasing portion of the entertainment.
The drawing and colouring afford evidence that Mr.
Catlin, who is himself the author, has been no unob-
servant admirer of nature in her varied forms, and
that he has added to his reputation as a traveller and
an historian the attributes of an intelligent and
talented artist.

-----
ADMISSION or SOLICITORS.—The Master of the
Rolls has appointed Wednesday, Aftiy 8, at the Rolls' Court,
Westminster, at a quarter past nine in the morning, for
swearing solicitors. Every person desirous of being sworn
on the above day must leave his common law admission, or
his certificate of practice for the current year, at the Secre-
tary's office, Molls -yard, Chancery-lane, on or before Tuesday,
May 7.

LITERA
"?THE RIFLE RANG S; or, Adventures of on
Officer in Souther .1 lexico. By Captain Mayne
Reid.
We must ad it that we were at first but little pre-
possessed in favour of a work recording the military
doings of America is Southern Mexico, but the
author won our good feeling by Lis modest preface,
end retained it by his free and easy manner through,
out a work which he has invested with much real
interest, first, because we find in it internal evidence
of the truth of most of the points which connect it
with history; secondly, because he has contrived to
give the whole narrative just so much of the spirit of
romance as to carry us with him, and make us almost
forget that he himself is the hero of his own tale.
Commencing his story with a rather curious adven-
ture, highly illustrative of the manners of America,
he at once makes himself known to the reader, and,
stealing (honestly) a leaf out of many a previous
" life and adventures," he contrives at once to make
his dibat in the war, and to secure a kind of
.fidus
Achates in humble life, between whom and himself
tacit understanding and solid attachment spring up,
like a certain kind of love at first sight, and proves
eminently useful to them while they are no less
interesting to the reader who is fond of sentiment;
and away they go in search of adventures, which fail
not to be forthcoming, and occasionally threaten to
bring their history and the progress of the work to
an untimely end ; and, moreover, to secure to him-
self compound interest with his friends and admirers,
the hero, besides his fidus Achates, has secured the
services of an antithetical character, in the shape of
a rival and competitor, whom he turns into a deadly
enemy, and thus provided with the alternate feelings
of friendship deep and trustworthy, and bitter, rank-
ling animosity, both exerted to the utmost towards
him, he needs but one thing more to become the
object of our deep-felt interest, and that thing will
not be wanted long. Ere we proceed many pages on,
we find him drinking deep of the waters of love, and
our anxiety for him is now fairly doubled. We pass
over a couple of amusing anecdotes, one of which
had well nigh induced us to fear that we were to be
introduced to a real ghost or two, leaving us in some
doubt on the subject ; and the other is a capital one,
proving that the new world has as many and as great
adepts in the art of raising the wind as the old;
we enter upon the real hard work of the hero, upon
his actual and positive campaigning, and wish him
joy of his many hair-breadth escapes. But of all
the adventures of our hero, that in which be deter-
mines to enter Vera Cruz must alone insure him the
admiration of all readers, particularly of that portion
of them we call "fair," were it only from its utter
want of all reasonableness. We confess we tremble
on reading this, not so much because we valued the
hero's life, which, like all heroes, is only worth a mo-
ment's purchase, as because we could not conceive
what he could have to say in a second volume, unless
he came as a ghost and "unfolded a tale." But we,
in indulging such a fancy, reckoned without our
hero's luck, for we had a rich store of incidents, ad-
ventures, critical moments, unexpected rescues, pro-
vidential escapes, &c., lying in wait for us, the fol-
lowing of which, as well as of all the history of the
" Rifle Rangers," is, to say the least of it, an agree-
able pastime.

CONCERT AT THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR'S, BEE•

LIN, ON THE 19th INST.-At this reunion, a work of which
several pieces were executed was a mass of Lord West-

morlands. A " Gloria" and " Laudamus" was sung by
Signora Penco and Dogliotti, and Signori Pardini, Bianchi,
and chorus; an air, " Gratias Aginus," sung by Signora
Penco, and a " Sanctus" and " Benedictus," sung by Signori
Fiocentini, Signori Pardini and Delle-Ssnte, displayed the
freshness and ease of expression familiar to the works of this
highly respected dilettanti, and which rise to a beautiful
rhythm. The effect produced was worthy of the classical
writings of this composer.
THE CONSTELLATION OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS.--•
The lower regions of the air were loaded with vapour for
some days. We saw distinctly, for the first time, the cross
of the south, only in the night of the 4th and sth of July,
in the 16th degree of latitude. It was strongly inclined, and
appeared from time to time between the clouds, the centre of
which, furrowed by uncondensed lightnings, reflected a silver
light. The pleasure felt on discovering the southern cross
was warmly shared by such of the crew bas had lived in the
colonies. In the solitude of the seas we bail a star as a
friend from whom we have been long separated. Among the
Portuguese and the Spaniards peculiar motives seem to in-
crease this feeling; a religious sentiment attaches them to a
constellation the form of which recalls the sign of the faith
planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the New World.
The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of
the cross having nearly the same right ascension, it follows
that the constellation is almost vertical at the moment when
it passes the meridian. This circumstance is known to every
nation that lives beyond the tropics, or in the southern
hemisphere. It is known at what hour of the night in dif-
ferent seasons the southern cross is erect er inclined. It is
a timepiece that advances very regularly nearly four minutes
a day, and no other group of stars exhibits to the naked eye
an observation of time so easily made. How often have we
heard our guides exclaim, in the savannahs of Venezuela, or
in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, " Midnight
is past; the cross begins to bend!" How often these words
reminded us of that affecting scene where Paul and Virginia,
seated near the sources of the river of Latiniers, conversed
together for the last time; and when the old man, at the
sight of the southern cross, warns them that it is time to
separate !—lltimboldt.

SINGULAR WAGER.—LEEDS, APRIL 24.—A very
singular affair came off at Leeds this day. Mr. Baker, the
attitudivarian of Cooke's Circus, at present in this town, un-
dertook for a wager of ten pounds to compress himself in a
basket two feet seven inches in length, one foot seven inches
in width, and the same in depth ; and in this manner to be
conveyed on a car to the railway station, to be dispatched to
Bradford at half-past two, at luggage price, and to return to
Leeds before half-past six. Mr. Baker is live feet tsu inches
in height. At the appointed time be made his appearance in
front of the circus, wearing a crimson skin dress. He placed
his great coat at the bottom of the basket, then got in him-
self, taking with him a bottle of brandy and a few oranges.
The basket was closed, and in this state was Mr. Baker con-
veyed to Bradford, and deposited at the Bermondsey Hotel.
Here he remained for a considerable time, when he was re-
conveyed to the station, and dispatched to Leeds, where he
arrived a little before half past six, thus winning his singular
wager. He was brought from the railway on a coach, and
in the presence of a great crowd was liberated from his con-
finement in front of the circus.

THE GREAT SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RAILWAY.

—Having always expressed a strong confidence in the
success of this railway we were not a little gratified to per-
ceive by the last returns a great increase in its traffic. The
receipts for the week before last had risen from less than
4,0001., the sum to which they amounted a short time since,
to over 5,0001., a point not touched before, and at which,
according to the authority of Sir Edward M'Donnell, the
revenue would be sufficient to yield a dividend of four-and-a-
half per cent. Even this amount is no criterion of the future
proceeds of the undertaking. The increase gives us especial
satisfaction, as following close upon the adoption of a system
of greater accommodation, which we frequently advocated,
not less for the interests of the company than those of the
public.— Co 7 k Examiner.

AN ARTFUL TRICK.—A man, having the appear.
ance of a county) man, and laden with a bundle of hay, ma-
naged cne day last week to fall through a pane of glass,
value 301., which adorned the establishment of a large mercer
in the Edgeware-road, London. The shopkeeper quickly
seized upon the fellow. mho protested he had no money, and
pleaded the weight of his load for an excuse. Two gentle.
mon, lookers on, testified to their having watched the
" stupid clown," and just before remarked that his gross care-
les,ness would lead to some mischief' ; and they suggested
that the " booby" should be searched. This was promptly
done, and the production of a 50/. note was the result.
Vainly did the countryman, with tears in his eyes, proclaim
the note to be his " maesters," the proceeds of his journey to
market. The mercer paid himself the 30/. by giving the
boor 201. in Bank of England notes, and retaining posse„jun
of the one fNund upon him. The Wight said he would go
and left the premises; and the two tl
and fetch a policeman, that he might " have the lsw" upon
shopkeeper,dyook their leave, after congratulating
hich bird :trended theirt he
gLn e-
wthe reader guesses the
stit "r:aeetda
ge es sibt
il a
oa nnr oofn
athe
search.fortunate
Of resultcour course
upshot—the 501. note was a forgery, and the whole proceed-
ing a trick.

HIGHLAND DRESS.—When the kilt, as now worn,
was invented, is unknown ; that it is a comparatively recent
arrangement is certain. In the authentic portraits of royal
and noble personages of Scotland, and also the painting of
the surrender of Mary Queen of Scotts at Carberry-hill, no
distinction of dress appears, which could not have been the
case, had there been a national habit at that time in Scot-
land ; nor would Prince Charles have invariably assumed
the trews bad the kilt been the only orthodox costume of the
country. Gildas describes the Picts and Scots of his time
as being naked savages, with only a piece of clothing tied
around their loins; and in one of the earliest representation.
of a Highlander, found on Speed's map of Scotland, it isle
figure with merely a checkered mantle thrown over. toe_
shoulders. Such scanty clothing seems characteristic
barbarous tribes all the world over, and also amon.g nation.ears
whose names alone are handed down to us. But
.i.eanPrPe _
particularly strange that in civilized Britain theeilnau,ateilge3
that a portion of her army should in their dress 1
South sea Islanders. Even these savages
dawn of civilization
of propriety ; for no smiler does theteach us a lesson
o f a tropical
to walls
aria,
Be it also kept in
they seek to cover their naked forms.
open their perceptions to a more refined state of feeling than
to the •
is exposed cutting
mind these savages rejoice under tb,
'whilst our poor Highland soldier
snow on the ground,
winds of a northern latitude, probablyriayas
and not at thelsame time a free
biting blast compelled
to and fro on the one space, as tsearches every
part of his half-clad frame.--Edinburgh Witness.
INSTITUTIONS DURING It OPENING or INSTIT NATIONAL
reat public liuildings—such as the whole
EXIIIIIITION. —Our g
Houses ot Parliament, the metropolitan cathe-
range of the Ho
enerallv, Tower l
drals, the museums g pa aces, gardens (Zo-
' I and others), together with institutes of all kinds,
ologica
eryedly and gratuitously opened on this grand
occasion, so that one glorious saturnalia of science might evi-
dance to the world the advance of arts and the unthought
wealth of this great country. On the first admission of John
Bull's family to the gardens, some slight damage. were done
to shrubs and flowers—till acquaintance with their value
taught even the " snob" to appreciate and respect beauty in
nature; familiarization with beauty in art would follow as
essentially, and the result be the same. No act of the excel-
lent Prince to whom is due the origination of the coming
National Exhibition, can more illustrate his fame or more
endear him to the country, than the study to which he has
devoted his fine intellect, namely, to connect the name of
England and the annals of his era with supereminence in
art. The eulogium of an ancient historian (Quintus Curtius),
on the character of Philip of Macedon, seems to me to be
apposite to the merits of Prince Albert, in the instance of the
approaching exhibition, and to have escaped notice, for in
that early and rude age the consequences of an aggregation
of arts and manufactures are there demonstrated. In the
present epoch of philosophic research, and perfection in me-
chanism, what may not be anticipated! Let England, then,
the mistress in arts, be the foremost in munificence: let her
open her repositories of hoarded wonders to convince the
stranger of her supremacy, and to assure her own native chil-
dren of toil that the issues of their industry are existent and
indestructible, although long concealed from the artifice 4-•
Builder.