The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-18 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

ENGAGEMENT OF MR. AND MRS. WOOD.
After an absence from London of some years, Mr. and
Mrs. Wood made their first appearance at this theatre
last evening. To what causes this absence is to be
attributed, how it came to pass that these, the first of
English singers, have been suffered to be so long with-
out a metropolitan engagement, we will not now stop to
inquire, but instead we offer our hearty congratulations
to Mr. Maddox on his good fortune in having been
enabled to secure their services, and our best thanks for
having provided for the musical public such a treat.
As might have been expected, the house was literally
overflowing. Before the opening of the doors crowds
were waiting to obtain admittance. The pit and gallery
were crammed to suffocation within five minutes after
the doors were opened. Those who were unable to
obtain admission to the pit rushed to the boxes—
many of them too late to obtain even a back
seat in the slips. Long before the commence-
ment of the performance there was not a plaoe
unoccupied, and had the theatre been three times the
size that it is, it would have been too small to have
afforded accommodation to all those who sought for ad-
mittance. The opera was the Maid of Judah, Mr. and
Mrs. Wood sustaining their original characters of Ivan-
hoe and Rebecca. She enters in the first scene, and
never do we recollect to have witnessed such a reception.
The house rose en masse, and amidst shouts of welcome,
the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and applause the
most enthusiastic, she gracefully acknowledged the
deafening cheering with which she was greeted. After
the cheering had somewhat subsided, there was a call
for one cheer more, which was most enthusiastically re-
sponded to, and then, and not until then, was she per-
mitted to proceed with the business of the scene, and
never do we recollect to have seen or heard her
to greater advantage. Her attractions are undiminished,
There are still the same beautiful and expressive fea-
tures, the same lovely and graceful form, the same appro-
priate and expressive acting, and her voice is as powerful,
as sweet, as mellow, and as flexible as ever, while she
has, if possible, even greater command over it than she
ever had. What can induce her to leave the stage (for
this is advertised as her farewell engagement) thus, in
the zenith of her powers, at a time too, when we hove a
really musical public, more capable than ever it has been
yet of properly appreciating the treasure which it pos-
sesses in such a prima donna as Mrs. Wood, we are at a
loss to imagine. Let us, however, hope that her resolu-
tion is not irrevocable. Mr. Wood shortly afterwards
entered, and was greeted with the most enthu-
siastic cheering. Ile looked exceedingly well, and
is decidedly improved both in acting and singing. His
Ivanhoe throughout was a fine manly performance, and
it was quite a treat to hear his fine and powerful voice
in these days of puny tenors. his voice, always power-
ful and melodious, seems to us to be of greater compass
and flexibility than it was, and it was evident from his
singing that he had now become a most accomplished
musician. Tasteful and expressive, he always was, but
he is now, a perfect artist—the first of tenor singers.
The opera itself is no doubt familiar to our readers. It
is an adaptation of the story of Scott's " Ivanhoe," to
the music of Rossini's Pietro 1 Eremita (which itself, by
the bye, is only an adaptation of a new libretto to the
music of Mose in Egitto), and was originally produced at
Covent-garden ; the Woods, then as now, sustaining
the principal characters. There are three grand scenes
for Mrs. Wood, each of which was given with the most
exquisite taste and power, and in each of which she was
rapturously applauded. There were loud calls for the repe-
tition of the scene in the second act; but these were met
with cries of "Shame, shame," and the encore was not
insisted on. Nothing, however, but the fear of fatiguing
the cantatrice prevented every one of them from being
encored. Mr. Wood sang the delicious melody, " All
by the shady greenwood tree," with great taste and ex-
pression, and was of course rapturously encored. Ho
was also encored in the magnificent bravura, "When
the trump of Fame loud calling." Well do we remember
the electrical effect of this song on the audience
when the opera was originally produced. It
at once fixed Wood's position at the head of
his profession. No ono has ever been able to approach
him in this magnificent song, and never did he sing it
better than last evening. At the conclusion of the opera
Mr. and Mrs. Wood were both called for, and again
greeted with the utmost enthusiasm. After which
Walton announced the opera for repetition on Friday
amidst the unanimous applause of ono of the most crowded
audiences ever assembled within the walls of a theatre.

EXTENSITn EXCISE PitOsECUTIONS. According
to the opinions of persons connected with the Excise depart-
ment, the system of fraud and adulteration of exciseable articles,
and, of course, those in a great measure of daily consumption,
never existed to so great an extent as at the present time, and
the cases of detection by the officers in all parts of thapeotintry
have multiplied to ar. unprecedented degree. As the whole of
these nefarious practices are reported to the Board of Excise in
London, and samples of the adulterated articles transmitted for
examination, some idea nay be formed of their number when
it is known that a practical chemist, who is kept by the Board,
and who is furnished with a complete laboratory at the Ace
in Broad-street, has been constantly engaged for the last two
months on analysing the various seizures of spurious and adul-
terated pepper alone, which amounts in the gross to several tons.
This, however, is only one of the many articles that the public
receive in an unwholesome form. Cocoa, properly a most
wholesome and nutritious accompaniment to the breakfast
table, has also come in largely for its share of adulteration
by the dishonest tradesman. A species of fine brown earth
is mixed with it, and to render it invisible to the casual ob-
server, and effectually prevent its being separated from this
genuine ingredient, a portion of mutton fat is introduced, which
binds the earth with the cocoa, and at the same time gives it
the characteristic richness of good cocoa, and only to be de-
tected by the experienced eye. During the past week, prose-
cutions under the authority of her Alaiesty's Commissioners,
took place at the following places, and in every case a convic-
tion, with the penalties annexed, was obtained :—For spurious
pepper, in Worcester, six informations, penalties 2501. ; in
Sunderland, twelve informations, penalties 3501. ; in Durham,
two informations, penalties 1001. ; in Bristol, three informa-
tions, penalties 1001. The adulterations in the above case'
were, red and white mustard husks, rice, chilies, saw-dust,
earthy matter, sago, linseed, rapeseed, and wheat bran. In
Manchester, Thomas Raingell was fined 2001. for adulterating
his stock of tobacco with turmeric and milow ochre. A great
number of other prosecutions for tobacco will follow, several
lots of which are adulterated with tar and sand to the extent of
14 per cent.

THE SECRET PASSION.—We hear that the author
of those truly original works, " Shakspare and his
Friends," and " The Youth of Shakspeare, has ts new
novel on the point of appearance of a highly attractive
nature under the title of " The Secret Passion," where,
in a story of great novelty, told in that picturesque
style which directed such general attention to his former
works, he has made the principal feature a married
lady of high rank, distinguished not less for her beauty
than for her unrivalled, moral, and intellectual attain-
ments, struggling against the influence of a dangerous
sympathy. for one whose genius was not less •exalted
than his virtues were ennobling. Thus placing two of
the most admirable examples of their sex under cir-
cumstances that would at once both try, and prove their
pretensions to the excellence for which each was cele-
brated. Report speaks highly of this work as affording
delineations of human passion of absorbing interest, and
as being equally remarkable for its intellectual character
as for its moral tendency,
THE LAW OF DivoacE.—A deputation waited
yesterday on Dr. Nichol on the subject of the present law of
divorce in this country, to request him to introduce into any
measure he may have is contemplation for the reform of the ce.
cicsiastical law a clause to enable injured individuals who may
appeal to that Court to obtain a divorce a vineulo tnatrimenis.
1 he deputation were most courteously received by Dr. Nickol,
wko promised to call the attention of the Communist totlr:
necessary and important alteration in so unjust a state of the
present law, which entirely puts it out of the power of
in-
jured party to obtain any redress except at an outlay of •
trout
1,000/.
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patient carefully avoid acids, whether in food or beverage.
rheumatism. The heads may be eaten in the usual way, but
tea made from the leaves of the stalks, and drunk three or four
times a day, is a certadu remedy, though not equally agree-
ably... York Courant. . .

THE WEATHER —SUN OFFICE, JAN. 18.
TtIRKMOMETER, Lowest, 39 ; Highest, 43 ; Noon, 49.
BAROMETER, 30.27.—W1ND, W.
NOTE.—Th© number 32 on the Thermometer denotes
Om freezing point, and 55 temperate. In Barometers
fair is usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning ... 11 minutes after 0.1 Evening ... 50 minutes after O.

Robert Hanna, Henry-street; William Longfield;
William Ord, Cork-street.

The Attorney-General then rose and commenced
his address for the prosecution. He stated the nature of
the offence and the law of conspiracy, supported
by numerous quotations from law authorities.
He went into a lengthened history of the
repeal agitation, gave sketches of the different Associa-
tions that have been connected with the movement, and
grounded his case against the individual traversers by
quotations from the repeal press, from the speeches
of Mr. O'Connell, and the evidence of the
organisation of the Association itself. In de-
scribing the repeal card of membership, the
mention of the portrait of Brian Boru, which is
one of its illustrations, excited considerable merriment,
which he immediately reproVed, appearing somewhat
vexed at a merriment he considered so out of place.
In reviewing the different scenes which had been
exhibited during the repeal agitation, he pointed out
the illegal course pursued by Mr. O'Connell. That
gentleman, he said inculcated peace and order, but
his object was to carry out the designs of the con-
spirators ; for if the peace was not kept
till the conspiracy was ripe, its purpose
would be frustrated. And what were they to say
of the law put forth by Mr. O'Connell, that
the Irish Parliament could be revived with-
out applying to the Imperial Parliament at all ?
Could it be that a lawyer, eminent as he was in his
profession, spoke as he believed, when he laid down
such a doctrine, in the face of the 3d article of the
Act of Union ? No, said he, it was laid down
for the purpose of lulling the apprehensions
of the authorities. His object was to crouch,
but it was the crouch of the tiger to clutch
its foe in its grasp. As another instance,
he said, of the objects of the accused, at a meeting
held on the Ist of February, 1843, Mr. O'Connell
said, England is in distress, and now is the time for
Ireland. Could Ireland have been worse if she was
a dependency of France ? In the speech made by
him on that occasion, he evidently intended to
convey the idea that Ireland had the power of
driving her oppressors into the sea—every road
was a defile—every field was a redoubt—
and cavalry could not act against the people. He
next alluded to the wild speeches of young TYLER in
America, and quoted some spirited verses entitled
" The Memory of the Dead," and at five o'clock the
Court adjourned. The Attorney-General was to
resume his speech on Wednesday morning. The
jury then retired to their homes. No officer of the
Court was appointed to attend them. The speech of
the Attorney-General was' carefully got up, and
delivered with firmness, but it was destitute of that
fire and animation which distinguish Irish speakers.