The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-27 00:00:00

RUSSIAN LUXURY.

" I was compelleabYTstupA---prsumpCon to imitate
the luxuries of others, not at all regulating them by my
means. This is a universal fault in St. Petersburgh.
Lee there is like fireworks, much brilliancy, much
smiike, and after a while nothing is left. Every one
dues his utmost to surpass his neighbour ; t very
one is a copyist : one class copies the oth,r,
poer people copy the rich people. The one
who is not wealthy assumes the appearance of
w..ialth, and gets ruined; the one who is rich
etiers so much to luxury that he inevitably gets
ruined too. It eems as if eur nobility was seeking po•
verty; arid, indeed, see what different things have ren-
dered theteselvt s as ii:clispea able for us, as bread and
water; fit inst dice, the crowd of our house-serfs, the
legions of men in liveries, a major-domo, stewards, but-
lers, some thirty or forty men in all; then our mansions,
with drawing-rooms, dining-halls, studies, dancing
salons, our coaches-and-four, opera-boxes, dresses,
cards. In one word, I must say that, in St.
Pe:ersburgh, luxury is the first necessary of life. People
there think first of what is not necessary, and then
of what is; therefore you every d see noblemen's es-
tates sold under the auctioneer's hammer. And then
what passions rise from a discordance between income
and expenditure; to what doleful scenes they lead in
:amiliea; what a number t f persons have for ever lost
bath the quietude of their conscience and their self-
esteem and honour. Life in the capital, like a deluge,
carries away with it every one, everything, without
giving y,,u even time to see your position."
Aud here, by way of contrast, is a sweet glimpse of

A HAPPY HOME.

" Everything in the house of Ivan Vasiilievitseh's
friend was condor table, thou.'h simple and unpretendii.g,
but the smallest trifle was distinguished by an artistic
selection; ever) thing reflect( d the intl. scrittable light of
the presence of a 3 oung and beautiful woman. She wel-
comed Ivan Vaisthevitsch with a smiling friendliness
as if she had known him for many, many years,
and ha stopped in devout admiration before her.
It seemed to him as if till then he had
never seen a woman. She was not beautiful with
that beauty that troubles the passionate dreams of
youth; her whole being was an ideal of the highest
peace, of the most poetical quietude. Her soul looked
through her e 3 es—her heart spoke through her lips.
ii or child-like features expressed such a kind-heartedness,
such profound and holy love, that any man in looking
at her must involuntarily become a better man! Two
rosy-chteked children, at the view of the stranger
pressed their curly little heads to her knees. Ivan viewed
this picture as if it were a relic, and he felt that he had
before him the brightest illustration i.f the highest reward
for man's toils, labours:, and sorrows. How long he
stopped before this scene he was unconscious; he did
not hear a single word that was said to him, but his
heart felt wider and wider, all his feelings concentrated
themselves into one of quiet beatitude, all his thoughts
into a prayer."
In the chapter entitled " Merchants" is recorded a
curious scene at a tavern, where some merchants
are regaling themselves on the, apparently, favourite
Russian beverage, tea. An individual bearing the
euphonious name of Potapitsch enters the room; in-
quires if one of the merchants is going to Ribue, and
on being answered in the affirmative, consigns to his
charge more than five thousand roubles, to be paid to
some one residing at Ribua, without, to the astonish-
merit of the civilized Ivan, even asking for a receipt.
On the stranger's departure, the inquiring Ivan can-
not resist demanding of the merchant if the owner of
the money is a relative or intimate acquaintance,
and then naively asks—"but bow is it that he did
not ask you for a receipt for the money ?" The other
merchants laugh, and the one • concerned gets into a
passion. " A receipt he cried. out furiously ;" a
receipt. I woul d havebrclien his jaw with his own
money had he dared to ask me for a receipt. I have
been a tnerchant now more than fifty years, and I
have never yet been insulted by being asked to give
a receipt." In trifli-g matters like this the writer of
" The Tarantas" has exhibited with happy effect some
of the peculiar, and in some cases praiseworthy, cha-
racteristics of his countrymen. Brief as is the jour-
ney, and trivial as are the events which it reveals, a
trip by the Tarantas will be found by all who choose
to essay it both a profitable and pleasant pastime.

PUNCH VERSUS HUMBUG.
A delightful sarcasm, both pictorial and literary, is
given in the columns of our droll contemporary,
Punch, of this morning. Fain would we transfer to
our impression the large wood-cut, most grotesque
and humourous, pourtraying my Lord Ashley and
my Lord John Russell as Puritans—the latter ex-
claiming, with the genuine nasal twang of the conven-
ticle—" Verily, Brother Ashley—between you and
me, and the Post—we have made a nice mess of it."
Gladly, too, would we give the sketch of the " Puritan
Penny Postage Stamp' with the initial letters in the
comas, C—A—N—T. We must content ourselves
with transcribing the following facetious para-
graphs :
LORD SACKCLOTH-AND. ASHLEYS. •
WHEREAS,—On consideration of our desire to com-
memorate the pious services of our dear cousin, the
Member for Bath, and heretofore known as LORD
A SHLEY,—.
It is our pleasure, that, in consideration of our dear
cousin's succesful attempt to shut up, put down, and
otherwise confine and castigate Sunday, that he shall
henceforth assume the title and name of—
LORD SACKCLOTH AND ASHLEIS;
And further, that he shall be empowered to quarter
a cinder-sieve with his aimorial bearings,—a
ciudar-
sieve with a pilgrim's shirt of sackcloth proper.
Given under our hand, at our Office, 85, Fleet-street,
June 24, 1850. • PUNCH.

- ,
CONVERSATIONS OF THE SUNDAY-ROUND LETTERS.—
We have received a communication, signed ", St. Martin-
le-Grand," of so wonderful a nature, that if it had come
from anybody but a saint, and from any saint but St.
Martin-le-Grand, we should never have believed it. St.
Martin avers that the letters detained in a provincial
letter-box have been, in the interval between Satur-
day and Monday, owing to the stoppage of postal
communication in the meanwhile through puri-
tanical legislation, so impatient of the delay, that
they could not contain themselves, and have been ac-
tually heard to compare notes. Me gives the follow-
ing as a few out of many of their conversations:—
To letter A—which excites attention by heaving a deep
sigh, as if from the heart of the writer—says letter B,
" What are you about? You seem very sentimental; li
and you are sealed with a heart skewered on an arrow."
" Ahl" replies A, "I am addressed by a poor mad
young fellow, head over ears in love, to the object of
his affections, who has unaccountably neglected to
answer his last six billets. He writes to say that he
will destroy himself unless he hears from her by
return of post. What is your news?" "Mine?"
answers 13, " why, rather urgent, I should say; badly
tnia Your !tuner has bad a fresh amuck —put
p,urselt into a posichaise and come up instantly it )ou
want to see him alive.' " " Any thing particular ?" asks
letter C of letter D. " No," sumer. D. "I'm only

LOI4DON,

from a wife who writes to tell her husband that an
execution has been put into their house in his ah•
sent,', and that he must return home ilirec‘iy. and
not wait till the next (lay, or their gn:da will he all
sold off at a loss, and she and her children turned
into the street." "My tidings," rvtnarks C, " are of
some little importance." " So I should judge," observes
E. " from your black a, al." Tt.ry are these,"
says C:—'" Dear Tom,—Your poor uncle has died sud-
denly. He named you as his heir. Come up instantly,
or tnat old woman will make away with everything in
the house.'" • " And I," says E, " am to a surgeon of
Bartholomew's, now in the country, begging him to come
up instantly, as the danger is imminent, and a patient's
only chance is an operation." Saint Martin-le-Grand
says, that such news as that above instanced won't ke-p,
and ought not to be kept even on Sunday; and we would
take the word of St. Martin against that of St. AshiFy,
or St. Plumptre.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
The eighth representation of La Tempesta took
place on Tuesday evening ; the house was again
its
performance in every part, and the furore excited by
performance was as intense as ever. Madame Suntag
was in exquisite voice, and sang the music deli-
ciously. In her rendering of her "aria d'intrata" on
Tuesday night she surpassed herself ; never has such
exquisite delicacy of execution been displayed
as she displayed en that occasion ; her
concluding cadenza was the most wonderful, and
at the same time most delicate and most perf.,ct
piece of florid execution ever attempted, and excited
rapturous applause and an unanimous encore. Car-
lotta Grisi, as Ariel, was the most fascinating of
sylphs. We have heard it objected to Scribe that he
has made the part of Ariel a dancing instead of a
singing part, as it is in Shakspere.- With all due
deference to these hypercritics we contend that
Scribe is right, and is more Shaksperian in his
treatment of that subject than are his would-be
critics ; Ariel is a light and airy spirit, and
Shakespero evidently intended to draw a marked
distinction between the sylph Ariel and the human
beings of the drama, such a distinction as should at
once mark that Ariel was of a distinct and different
nature from that of the beings by which he is sur-
rounded. This distinction Shakespere has marked
by making Ariel sing whilst all the other characters
speak ; but in opera, where all the characters sing, it
became necessary, in order to preserve this distinction
between Ariel and the human actors in the drama,
that Ariel should not sing, and therefore has M. Scribe
acted most judiciously, and in a true Shaksperian
spirit, in making the part of Ariel a mute pantomimic
part. With such a poetess (for that is the proper
title to apply to her) as Carlotta Grisi the part of
Ariel is infinitely more effective than it could
have been rendered by the utterance of
any articulate sound. Her expressive gestures and
her graceful abandon are far more effectively
eloquent than would be any uttered language. La-
blache, magnificent Lablache, was as Caliban " great,
glorious and free ;" his dancing is of its sort as won-
derful as that of Carlotta, and Parodi was as usual
encored in the Brindisi. The choruses were beau-

tifully rendered, and the performance of the or-
chestra was perfect. La Tempesta is to be repeated
to-night, and on Saturday Bellini's I Montecchi ed
I Capuletti is to be produced for the rentrie of
Gardoni.