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

LLOYD'S SHIPPING.--(This Day.)

LO ,rDOII, Doc. 17.—Wind this day st noon, S.W.;
moderate breeze and cloudy, with rain.
COWES, Dec. 16.—Wind W. —Arrived—lndiaman, from
Callao ; Mernuna Purentium, from Havannah for Ham.
burg.
SOUTHAMPTON, Dec. 16.—Arrived—Charles Napier,
from St, Michael's, with loss of spars. Sailed—Arago (s),
for New York.

PLYMOUTH, Dec. 16.—Wind W.—Arrivel—James P.
Keelie, for,Sunderland for New York.
PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 16.—Wind S.S.W.—Arrived—
H. Ledwine, from Akyab.
GLOUCESTER, Dec. 16.--Wind S. W. —Ari ved—Cal
fore ia from New York ; Malakhoff, Prince Edward's

BEAUMARIS, Dee. 14.---Wind S.W.—Arrived—Mes.
manger, from Liverpool for Monte Video, with loss of fore•
topmast and jibboom.
_HOLYHEAD, Dec. IG.—Wind S.W., frosh gale.—Ar
rived—Mari, Saosa, from Liverpool for Gibraltar

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.).
LIVERPOOL, Thursday Moming.

Wind W.S.W.
Arrived—Robert Ritson, from Mauritius.
Off—Thomas H. Perkins' and Underwriter.
Sailed—Hoidelberd, for New Orleans; Jijon, St. Mi-
chael's ; Nova, Constantinople ; Volutina, San Sebastian ;
William Peen, Philadelphia ; Nonpareil, Savannah.
QUEENSTOWN, Dec. 15.
_ _

Wind S.W.
Arrived—Anna Robertson, from Taganrog.
SOUTHAMPTON, Thursday, 10 a.m.
Wind W., blowing hard, with rain.
A
Arrived—Wonder, (s), from Jersey • James, and Mary
Ann, Newport ; Le Coq, Cherbourg ; Alliance (s), Huveo;
Othello, Newport.
Sailed -Amp (s), for New York; Despatch, (s), Jer-
sey; Havre, (o:Havre ; L'Etoile, Canaan.

(BY SUB)IABINS AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
*Wind N.W. ; tide ono hours' flood; five,
Arrived, Dee. 16.—Leon, from Gravelinos'.
Arrived, Dec. 17.—Moselle, from Rotterdam ; Baron
Osy, steamer, Antwerp; Earl of Auckland, steamer, Rot-

tezdatn.

" HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.'

j 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 vahom---
, 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,
in speaking thus earnestly, employ in any way the len-
guage of mere complimentary exaggeration. As afford*
ing conclusive testimony that we do not, we may hers
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 alit
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 peva.
liar kind of entertainment, and with the genius to realise
his own design; 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 ever him the encomiastic
verses written by David Garrick in commemoration 01
Sir Joshua Reynolds 1 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.), sickening
shudder of abhorrence as you glance down the page :
I Read, first of all, the fearfully vivid description
of what
a Penny Gal really is, as depicted by that microscopic
daguerreotypist of crime, Mr. Henry Mayhew, in his
" London Labour and the London Poor" (vol. i. pp. 40-
42)—and then witness Mr. Miller's admirable entertain-
ment, full of song, and dance, and jest, and fancy,
half pictorial and half colloquial, a performance per.
fectly exhilarating from first to last, and provocative
throughout of shouts of laughter I And from your in-
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 1 Mr. Miller
is his own artist—having painted, in illustration of the
Enacted Story of "Honesty is the Best Policy," a series
of panoramic pictures, some of them really charming—as,
for example, that one of the lighthouse, and that other one
pourtraying a beautiful rural church with a village green
in the foreground. Mr. Miller is more than this : he is his
own song-writer and his own song-singer—his own drama•
tist (for the narrative of John Reynolds's Vicissitudes is
eminently dramatio in its character)—above all, he is his
own dramatic company 1 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 flycatoher.
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 Battier that he
hears a regular sailor's yarn told by one of his mom
oanietoJgoatchkerDatrheeall—mothste
ompainteosi,nagn oolfd mwhanio-hof-wyaarr'us-mwaans,
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 frao•
tious widow lady ; then, as an exceedingly polite and
good-looking Frenchman ; then, as a phlegmati-
cally 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 its
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 are
about to assemble there.
Mrsarorra 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 taken 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;
T. P. Wright, the Revs. N. Wade, J. Rowsell, .T. V.
Povah, R. C. Smith, Dr. Biber, H. Clissold, T. Wood,
A. Joseph, B. Tyrwhitt, &a. Resolutions in accordance
with the objects of the meeting were carried unani-
mously.
At Hamburg the rate of disoount has receded to 9 pea.
cant. The Exchequer-bills recently issued can be nego
tiated at 6 or 7 per cent.
About 115,000/. of gold was taken to the Bank yester-
day, of which 50,000/. was Russian.‘
JUVENILE REFORMATORT.—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 °Welly
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 Or SUBGEONS.—The following gen-
tlemen, baying undergone the necessary examinations
for the diploma, were admitted members of the College
at the meeting of the Court of Examiners on the 11th
last.:—Messrs. George Bentley, Halstead, Essex; Piero'
Morris Crosbie, Tralee, county of Kerry ; Wilto.n
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, Penrith, Cumberland ; and
Richard Morris, Aberystwitb. The following gentlemen
have just passed the preliminary examination (in classics,
metbematics, and French) for the Fellowship of the
College :—Messrs. James Herbert Brown, West-street,
Brighton ; Frederick Fawson Lee, Charles-street,
Trevor-square; Francis Mason, Bedford-place; and
Walter Gilson Walford, Cambridge.
ACCIDENT TO MR. WIDDICOMB, AT THE SURREY'
THEATRE.—ShortIy before the conclusion of the perfor-
mances at the Surrey Theatre, on Tuesday night, the
audience were somewhat alarmed in consequence of the
following accident to Mr. Widdicomb, the well-known
and popular comedian :—Whilst the company were
enacting the farce of " Wellington Figgs," and whilst
the audience were screaming with laughter, their mirth
was suddenly stopped : Mr. Widdicomb, who took the
ust
as who
Mr,
part of the hero of the piece, is concealed behind a screen,
and one part of his performance is to throw down the
is screen,t
when
s h
ahe is
eaitteaecrteMiss E.
Webster,
a t , just
Widdicomb had laid hold of the corner of the screen to
dressedadubuyfo rn
throw it down, Miss Webster, by some mistake, in.
stead of striking the screen with the sword, struck the
hand of the hero of the farce with such violence as to
cut through the nail of the middle finger, layieg it bare
to the bone. Excessive haemorrhage followed, and Mr.
Widdicomb becoming exceedingly faint, he found it
impossible to proceed further with the performance, and
the audience was informed of that fact. Mr. T. M.

Donahoo, the burgeon of No. 3, Westminster-road, was
at once sent for, and that gentleman dressed the wound,
and after some time he was enabled to go home with
his hand in a sling. It is to be hoped that Mr.
Widdicomb may be speedily enabled to resume his pro
fessional duties.
The Lie of Dogs tolls were yesterday put up to auc-
tion by the trustees of them, at the Guildhall Hotel,
King-street, Cheapside. Last year they realised 7001.
Yesterday a considerable competition took place between
them, and they were eventually parted with to Messrs.
Macnamara and Bolton for 9004