The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-22 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
Amidst the applause and laughter which Don Panne. 7e
elicited last night from first to last, there was a contribtstA
to the enjoyments of the performance who was utterly for-
gotten. We allude to the author of the libretto—and stiff
to him infinite praise is due. Immediately after Bfetats-
tasio, in whose works passages sulillme as well as beauti=-
ful are so abundant—libretto ceased to possess even corn,
mon sense ; their anachronisms and absurdities proving
in their authors the most magnificent contempt of
all branches of ordinary education, and affording the
few amateurs familiar with the Italian language the great-
est amusement. The iguorance of that beautiful tongue,
and the absence of all cis comica in Italian singers some years
since, rendered the libretto of little importance ; of late, how-
ever, this language has become a common branch of educa-
tion—we are, therefore, greatly indebted to that admirable
critic and playwright, Romani, who has created a complete
revolution in this style of composition, and who writes out-
his plots and dialogues as fast, and full as ably-, as the com-
posers do the music—as he did in an incredibly- short space of
time with regard to Donizetti's Elisirc d'Amore. The author -
of Don Pasquale is a worthy rival of his : he is a young
student, and who has here made his debit in literature. No
doubt that his spirited dialogues have contributed to
inspire the composer, whilst they enable Lablache and Grisi
to display the resources of their comic vein, and keep the
delighted audience in a continual state of risible excitement.
The more pathetic portions of the libretto, introduced for the- -
sake of contrast, are not less admirably treated, and the
poetry, though unpretending, flows with sweetness'and grace.
To those who are not thoroughly conversant with Italian,
the following free translation of the first song of the Opera,
" Bella siccome un angelo," may not be uninteresting :
" Bella siccome un angelo," &c.
" Fair is she as angel bright,
On a pilgrimage to earth ;
Round her path a stream of light
Proves her heavenly birth !
Fresh as freshest lily bell, •
Opening in its em'rald cell
To the morning dew.
Then such soul-subduing eyes,
Sunny laughter lurking lies,
Wordless language, breathless sighs,
All is in their hue.
Hair that rivals ebon jet—
When the raven's wing is wet
With a rainbow shower,
'Tis less bright. And for her smile,
They who gaze on it awhile,
Fed—but too well—its power."
Last night Don Pasquale placed the audience in the best
disposition possible. Unfortunately in the ballet, after a
display of more than her wonted power and grace, Cerito
was taken suddenly ill ; the curtain fell at once. Coulon
came forward to announce the circumstance to the public—,
the peculiarity of his costume, combined with the sudden-
ness of his manner of expressing his desespoir, raised general
laughter. The ballet was then brought at once to a close---
turning the habitual transient chat of the crush-room into a
prolonged conversazione, but still of a most lively and agreeable
character. We are happy to be able to state that Cerito -
rapidly recovered from the swoon produced by her exertions.
It is with the utmost alacrity that we seize this opportu-
nity of reminding the public of the benefit of that unrivalled
artist who has the greatest claims on their patronage.
Lablache, although he neither has now, nor ever has bad, -
his equal, and although he has passed the meridian of life,
condescends to the smallest parts in his zeal for the manage-
ment, and in his anxious desire to please the public. An
example that finds but few imitators, either from want of
talent, zeal, or good policy. It is needless for us to remind
our readers what interest our highly intellectual favourite
infuses into every opera in which he thus appears, and what
importance he confers, and what fresh triumphs he elicits
from parts secondary performers have rejected as beneath
them. Lablache has made the happy choice for his benefit of.
that beautiful opera Il Afatrimonio Segreto, and we doubt not
the public will be eager to prove to him that they remember it.
was in the part of Geronimo he made his debit in our capi-
tal, and to prove that from that day to this his reputation
and popularity have constantly increased.
The Opera was well attended last night. Amongst the
company were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ; the
Honourable William Ashley and party occupied the Queen -
Dowager's box ; the Duke and Duchess of Leinstsr, Duke
and Duchess of Montrose ; the Marquises of Ailesbury, Sa-
lisbury, Douro, Abercorn, Huntly ; the Marchionesses of
Ailesbury, Abercorn, Douro, Westmeath; the Earls of Pem-
broke, Liverpool, Bruce, Shelburne, Wilton, Glengall, Ken-
mare, Belfast, and Maldon ; Countesses of Shelburne, Ken-
mare, Glengall ; Lords Ernest Bruce, Foley, Gardner, Sandy&
M‘Donald, Charles Wellesley, Templetoun ; Count Noailles;
Ladies Taylour, Ernest Bruce, Deere, Petre, Foulis, Mahon,
E. Balfour, Augusta Somerset, Shaw Stewart, Ingilby ; Sirs
F. Trench, H. .11eux, Denham Norreyr, T. Hare, IL Bold
Hoghton ; Hon. Colonel Upton, Mr. and Mrs. Aesheton
Smith, Mr. Wombwell, Colonel Knox, Colonel Wigram, and-
Major Baring.

- -
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE-
.
CHATHAM, MAT 20.—Colonel Sir Thomas Wilshire,,
K.C.B. , Commandant of this Garrison, issued this day a gar-
rison order, commanding Colonel Thomas Weare, K.H., to
hold the under-mentioned detachments of the provisional
battalion in readiness to embark at Gravesend, on board thee--
ships hereafter named, for the Presidency of Madras :—The
4th King's Own, 102 privates, with Lieutenant Bolton and
Ensign Collins; 19 privates, with Lieutenant Frost, of the
57th ; and Assistant. Surgeon Webster of the 21st Fn
fliers, .
making a total of 4 officers and 120 men, who are ordered to
embark on board the ship Claudine, on Saturday, the 25th
instant. The following embark the beginning of next
month :-8 privates of the 63d, and 109 privates of the 94th,
under the command of Captain Magee, of the 94th, with
Ensign Le Grand, of the 63d Regiment, and Second-Lieute-
nant Ballinghall, of the 21st Fusiliers; Lieutenant Ahmnty
and Lieutenant Grant, both of the 57th. These troops pro-
ceed to Gravesend on the sth of June, and then embark on
board the ship Wellesley; and on the Bth of June the ship
Ellenborough, of 1,100 tons, Captain M. C. Close; will receive •
on board at Gravesend 89 privates of the 21st Fusii;Prs, and 7 .
privates of the 63d, with Lieutenant Cumming, a 4th
King's Own, and Second-Lieutenant Peddie, of the 21st /7118 i.
kers. This ship will also take detachments from the Cavaliv
depot at Maidstone. The following detachments arrived
the invalid depot at this garrison on Saturday, the 18th
instant from Gibraltar, Col f::, and the island of Zante :-1
sergeant, 7 privates of the Ist 2 corporals ; 6 pri-
vates of the 7th Fusiliers ; 4 sergeants, 12 privates, of the
19th ; 3 privates of the 38th ; 3 privates of tt...e 45th ; I ser-
eant, 1 corporal, and 14 privates, of the 42d ; ;,!3 privates
of the 48th ; 7 privates of the 79th ; 1 sergeant, 1 cotim;:al, 28
privates of the 97th ; 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 15 privates, Of
the 88th ; Royal Artillery, including :a corporal of the Sap-
pers, 15 ; and 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, and 13 privates off
the Ist battalion of the Rifle Brigade, with Sergeant-Major
Jethro Florey, who has been in the service upwards of 3(!
years. This non-commissioned officer enlisted in the 95th on
the 16th of December, 1813, at Bow, near Stratford, and
during those years which he has spent in foreign climates
never had a day's sickness, and has the appesrance now of a. ,
man only 35 years of age. The Royal Artillery, Ist batta-
lion of Rifles, and the 97th, embarked at Corfu on the 18th
of February last, on board the ship Nautilus, 400 tons, Cap-
tain M‘Leane ; and at Zante the
.ship put in and took on
board the 19th ; and at Malta she took in the 88th and 42d ;
and arrived at Gibraltar on the 2d of April, when she took on
board the remainder of the detachments. Dr. Holmes, Staff-
Surgeon who left Chatham in December last with troops for
Crofu, returned with this ship to Gibraltar, where he now
remains ; and Dr. Burrs, Surgeon of the Ist Royals, took
charge of the troops to England. Major J. L. Smith, oF the
Royal Artillery, and Lieutenant Kerr, of the 19tb, came*,
this garrison with the detachments, also twenty-three womett
and forty-two children. During the ship's passage of three
months and four days, which was most severe, beating them
whole time against severe gales of wind, the troops lost
by death two soldiers belonging to the 88th, and corporal
Patrick Shaughnessy, of the 42d, with one child, and the
ship's cook ; also a civilian named Samuel Hempstead, 65
years of age, who has for the last 40 years of his life filled
at Gibraltar the office of public hangman, and for which duty
he received the daily pay of full sergeant. This executioner
was recommended to Government for superannuation allow-
ance, and was on his passage to be pensioned off. On the
ship's arrival off Portsmouth he was taken ill, and on Mow-
day morning, the 13th instant, he died, when the ship was off
Beochy-head, and his body was consigned to the deep. The.
old man has left behind him a son, who is a wool-merchant
at Gibraltar. upwards of thirty sick men were conveyed-to
the Hospital at b ort Pitt in vans from Gravesend, at which
glace the ship arrived on Friday, the 17th inst.

CONSEQUENCES OF FRIGHTENING CHILDREIC—•
A schoolmistress, for some trifling offence, most foolishly
put a child into a dark cellar for an hour. The child
was greatly terrified, and cried bitterly. Upon return-
ing to her parents in the evening she burst into tears
and begged that she might not be put into the cellar.
The parents thought this extremely odd, and assured
her that there was no danger of their being guilty of
so great an act of cruelty ; but it was difficult to pacify
her, and when put to bed she passed a restless night. On
the following day she had fever, during which she fre:,
quently exclaimed, "Do not put me in the collar !
On the fourth day she was taken to Sir Astley
Cooper, in a high state of fever, with delirium, fre;
quently muttering, " Pray don't put me in the cellar.
When Sir Astley inquired the reason he found that the
parents had learnt the punishment to which she had
been subjected. He ordered what was likely to relieve her ;
but she died in a week after this unfeeling conduct.
Another case from the same authority may here be
cited. It is the case of a child, ten years of age, who
wanted to write her exercise, and to scrape her slate
pencil went into the school in the dark to fetch her
knife, when one of her schoolfellows burst from behind
the door to frighten her ; she was much terrified, and
her bead ached. On the following day she became deaf ;
and, on the next, so much so as not to hear the loudest
talking. Sir Astley saw her three months after this had
happened, and she continued in the same deplorable state
of
.deafness. A boy fifteen years of age was admitted
lamnbireiernilac from fright.teofllunde Whene
Lunatic
twelve
Asylum, having become
apprenticed
day toalightbusiness ; years of age h
andsometriflinge
was
aricleg onebein missing, he was, along with others,
locked up in a dark cellar. The children were much
alarmed ; and all were let out, with the exception of this
poor boy,. who was detained until past midnight. He
became from this time nervous and melancholy, and
sankinto a state of insensibility, from which he will
never recover. The missing article was found on the
following morning, exculpating the boy from the guilt
with which he had been charged. Parents should be
extremely cautious not to allow their children to be
beaten or terrified at all by unfeeling teachers. It has
been found out that there is not the slightest occasion
for coercion even in the asylums for the insane, and why
should people suffer their children to be cowed and
beaten merely to gratify the passion of some little-
minded domine, who knows no more about human nature
than ho does about the valleys and mountains in 020
moon ?—Glasgow Constitutional.
DEATii OF THE LADY ELIZABETH LOWTS!ER.--.
We regret to announce the death of the Lady Elizabeth
Lowther, relict of the late Sir John Lowther, of Swillington,
Bart., whose demise we recorded on 'lrednesday, last. Her
Ladshi bad been for some time indisposed at Swillin4oni.
but s y
since the death ofthe venerable Baronet she sunk rapidly,
and was on Saturday so ill that orders were sent to delay the
preparations for the funeral of Sir John, which had been
fixed for Monday last, at Swillipgton Church, near Leeds,
but as her Ladyship rallied during the day, the orders were
countermanded on Saturday evening. Her Ladyship,
how-
ever, grew worse in the course of the night, and expired
late in the evening of Sunday last. Orders were, of course,
forthwith given to postpone the intended funeral from Men-
day to a future day, when the remains of both will be in-
terredwas in
in
theth the
seventy-fourthsame vault a
year
same
hteirmaeg. Here. she Ladyship
th
e
third daughter of John the' ninth Earl of Westmoreland,
and sister of the late Countess of Lonsdale, who was the
eldest
.daughter of the same Earl of Westmoreland by his
first wife. The deceased Lady Elizabeth was married to Sir
John Lowther in 1790.