The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-15 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

Mr. ALLEN begs respectfully to acquaint Friends, his Pupils,
and the Public that his FIRST BENEFIT' will take place on
THURSDAY EVENING, the 21st of March, on which occasion
ROSSINI'S OPERA, 0 MELLO, will be performed for the FIRST
TIME on the ENGLISH STAGE.

Private Boxes and Places may be had of Mr. Massingham, at the
Theatre. Tickets may also be obtained at the principal Music-shops,
and at Mr. Allen's residence, 19, Baker-strcet, Lloyd-square, Pen
tonvil le.

THEATRE ROYAL. ADELPHI.
THIS EVENING, MARCH 15,
. Will be repeated, by permission of Charles Dickens, Esq., THE
CHRISTMAS CAROL. Principal Characters—Messrs. 0. Smith,
Wright, Lyon, Maynard, Forman, Miss Woolgar. Mrs. F. Mathews,
Miss Chaplin, and Miss Lee.
'robe followed by ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA MARRIED
AND SETTLED. Antony, Mr. Wright; Cleopatra, Misi Woolgar.
After which, ULRICA ; or, The Prisoner of State. Principal
Characters—Messrs. Lyon, 0. Smith, Maynard, Forman, Wieland,
and Hamilton ; Mesdames Yates, D. Lee and Chaplin.
To conclude with DEEDS OF DREADFUL NOTE. Timid,
Mr. Wright; Fright, Mr. Forman; Mrs, Fright, Miss Emma
Stanley.
Boxes, 4s. ; Pit, 2s. ; Gallery, Is. ; Second price at Nine. Doors
open at Halt-past Six, commence at Seven o'Clock.

DAV MOE'S ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
THIS EVENING, MARCH 15,
Will be performed a New Drama, entitled THE LAST SHIL.
LING, supported by all the Company.
After which, FEMALE ASSURANCE. Captain olding, Mr,
J. T. Johnson ; Charles, Mr. Morrison ; Sophia, Mrs. H. Hughes.
To c nclude with THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST.
Count de Valmont, Mr. H. Hughes ; Florian, Mr. J. T. Johnson ;
Bertrand, Mr. N. T. Hicks; Eugenia, Mrs. H. Vining.
Places and Pnvate Boxes to be had of Mr. Kerschner, at the Box-
olice, from Eleven io Four.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, MARCH 15.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, :19 ; Highest, 48 ; Noon, 46.
BAROMETER, 29.56.—Wi5t), W.S.W.:
NOTE.—The number 32 on the Thermometer denotes the
freezing point, and 55 temperate. In Barometers fair is
usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

MGR WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE TR:S D4Y.
Morning .. 28 minutes after II I Evening .. 0 minutes aver 0.

that the practice, like other absurd practices,
must ere long fall into desuetude, provided
Parliament will but keep a still tongue in
its head, and make no more of the matter
than it deserves. When a usage manifestly ridicu-
lous in its nature—more ridiculous, indeed, than
dangerous, inasmuch as, in seven cases out of ten,
duellists quit the field just as sound as when they
entered _it—when such a usage is gravely and for-
mally discussed among Legislators, an air of conse-
quence, and even dignity, is imparted to it, which
gives it a sort of sanction in the eyes
of fools, and strengthens, rather than checks, the
vulgar prejudice in its favour. As for Mr. COWPER'S
remark that "he would suggest the appointment of
a Court of Honour; a jury might be selected
who were as nearly equal as possible in station to the
parties concerned, and who would, therefore, be able
to decide, in a satisfactory manner, upon the question
brought before them ;" we can conceive nothing more
ridiculous than this suggestion, to say nothing of its
impracticability. Suppose, for instance, that two
attorneys quarrel—for even attorneys are not
wholly free from the frailties of humanity—
how is it possible for them to get twelve
more of their amiable fraternity sufficiently
disinterested to neglect their own business, in order
to sit as a jury, and listen to the long story of the
dispute ? Is it likely that a dozen attorneys will allow
themselves to be called out of Court or chambers, in
order to decide upon the wrongs of a brother, whose
mishap it may be to have had his nose pulled, or a
horsewhip shaken over, his head ? Impossible. They
will pity him, no doubt ; and if his story be not a long
one, they will, perchance listen to it with attention ;
hut as for going gravely and minutely into the merits
of the case, they will repudiate the horrid idea of
such a tax on their time and patience, and leave the
injured man to get out of his quarrel as he got into
it. Courts of Honour might be all very well in the
olden time when Englishmen had plenty of leisure
on their hands, but in these hard-working days, when
time is money, it is not to be expected that any
twelve men, no matter from what class, can be
brought together to listen to the statements and decide
upon the claims of a gentleman "in trouble." For our
own part, if it be found impossible at once to put a
stop to duelling, we should recommend that all quar-
rels should be settled, as one was actually settled some
years since by a British merchant in Portugal, who
conceiving himself insulted by some remarks con-
tained in a letter from a correspondent in London,
wrote to the latter to " consider himself horse-
whipped." Whether the Londoner did so or not,
we cannot say ; but the conception was a bright
one, and worthy of general imitation, for it would be
an effectual preservative of human life, and prevent
the unpleasant necessity of gentlemen getting up at
day-break to be shot at, and carried on shutters-into
the agonized interior of Chalk Farm.

We are disappointed, on looking over the resolu-
lutions agreed to by the House of Commons, on Mon-
day, the 4th instant, in reference to railways, at finding
that they are merely seven orders touching the
organisation of Committees for the consideration
of pending Bills to authorise the construction
of competing lines, and the suspension of
certain standing orders. The resolutions are
purely technical, without a particle of public
interest about them, or the slightest bearing
on THE public interest in connection with railways.
We have very recently expressed our own views of
the necessity, on every conceivable ground of sound
policy, and the present and future convenience of the
public, for some great and intelligible system of
general supervision, as to these important works, on
which Government itself should take the initiative.
The slightest consideration of the extent of social
comfort or derangement involved in the execution of
such undertakings,—of the magnitude of the capital
invested in them,—of the variety of properties, rights,
tenantcies, &c. &c., affected by them, must satisfy
one that the great outlines of their projection, con-
struction, and administration, and the adjustment of
their relations to other and similar enterprises, pre-
viously entered upon or already accomplished—should
not be left entirely to be determined by the result
of the conflicting interests of private speculators. It
should never be forgotten that errors in any of the
particulars we have just recapitulated, are, practi-
cally speaking, irremediable in completed lines of
road. The public is familiar with cases in which it
has been satisfactorily demonstrated—after the execu-
tion of dangerous and most costly tunnelling, has
been completed—that a slight departure from the ori-
ginal line, too hastily adopted, would have obviated the
necessity for any tunnel at all, and would have con-
tinued that portion of the railroad by a much more
convenient curve, and at a considerable saving of
expense, or have approximated it to given points,
which it would have been most desirable, on every
account, that it should have been brought nearer to,
than it has actually been left. Besides, any
one who will examine a map of Great Britain, in
which are traced the several lines of railway
already executed, or now in course of construction,
will perceive at a glance, that for want of a pre-
concerted scheme of radiating lines, from one or more
great centres, converging ultimately in the metropolis,
as their common point, some of our principal rail-
roads, having their termini in London, approach each
other so nearly at certain stations in their respective
courses as to be within sight and hearing of each other.
The necessary inference from this vicinity of two lines
is, that remoter, and perhaps more important, districts of
country, are deprived of their fair participation in
the benefit and accommodation of a travelling rail-
way. Anything like preconcerted scheme, whilst it
might have allowed ample latitude for choice between
numerous given lines of projection, would surely
have obviated the practical anomaly of two being
run, at some distance from London, within five miles
of each other.

Any reform of these matters is, of course, im-
practicable as to railroads already complete, or near
completion,—and in whole, or in part, in actual
working. But with regard to such as are the im-
mediate objects of the resolution of the House of
Commons of the 4th of March, namely, new and
competing lines, we are strongly disposed to think
that some such comprehensive, matured, and
efficient system of control, limited to the particulars
we have indicated, should be immediately applied.
In justice, indeed, to the existing railroads, the Di-
rectors of which cannot be blamed if they have not
conformed their lines to some plan which might have
been more advantageous to the public, but which
was not formed for the adoption of the Com-
panies referred to, when they began the works
they have with so much spirit and energy
constructed, and so magnificently administered—
some such guarantee from actual, though it may not
be in technical strictness, illegal, encroachment by new
lines, should be assured them. The great objects to be
secured, however, are the public benefit and accom-
modation. If we could imagine that such a Go-
vernment contract as we advocate could not be
exercised without entailing some degree of vexa-
tious, or inquisitorial, or unwarrantable
ointer-
vention with the unfettered appropriation of private
,capital,uld
be the legitimate branches of
of a any pp icat on,
interferencev‘' e
m
on the part of the Legislature or the Executive. But
(as we took occasion in a former ' article to remark)
the Irish government of the Marquis
of NOR-
MANGY-or, in justice to the admirable official
talent and vigilance of Lord MORPETH, we should
rather say the Noble Secretary of that Lord
Lieutenant has supplied us with an encou-
raging and signal example of the pern,a_
nent advantage which the community may de-
rive in the matter of railroads, from the previous
cases, investigations, and ordinances of public func-
tionaries and servants of the Crown, who will under-
take to watch the growth, and direct the early
progress, of such undertakings, not merely out of a
conscientious desire to discharge to the uttermost the
demand of official duty, but from their love of
national improvement for its own sake.

We resume to-day our comments on the speeches
and proceedings of the llarleston (Suffolk) meeting,
held on 'Wednesday, the 4th instant, and spe-
cially referred to in our leading article of Monday
last. We then concluded by quoting a remarkable
passage in the Chairman's speech, in which he showed
that, pending the operation of the Corn 13111 of 1815,
and the prohibition, of foreign wheat when the price
of wheat here was under 80s. per quarter, the ruin of
the tenant-farmer and the labourer commenced; and
yet that in the same period, namely, in 1819, the

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SECOND EDITION.