The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-11 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

FRENCH PLAYS—FIRST APPEARANCE THIS
SEASON OF MADEMOISELLE RACHEL.
The greatest actress France has yet produced—perchance„
the greatest actress the world has yet seen—certainly thegreatest.
actress now living, Mdlle. Rachel, commenced a short engage-
ment for six nights, at this theatrt!, last evening. The cha-
ratter chosen for her debut this season, was Camille in Cot-
neille's tragedy, Les Ilopaces. This tragedy, as most of ear
rearers are aware, is founded on the old Roman story of the
Horatii and the Curiatii. Camille being the sister of the Ho-
ratii, and betrothed to one of the Curiatii—the sister who is
ultimately sacrificed by her victorious brother, because she'
gives some natural tears to the memory of one, whom she had.
dearly loved. In order to appreciate all the beauty and gran-
deur of Mille. Rachel's acting, in this part it will be nemssary
to go through the tragedy almoit scene by scene, to develops the
character, as it were with her, to mark how she bringeout each
latent beauty of the part, and at the same time to obseeve with
what infinite art she hides the defects of her author, io more
than one instance converting even those defects into beauties,
and thus proving how much more appropriate, how much more
artistical, how much true to nature, is her conception of the
character of Camille even than that of Corneille himself. After
an introductory scenebetween Sabine, the wife of Horatius and
the sister of the Curatii, and Julie, her confidant, in which %re:
are made acquainted with the fact that war exists between Alba.
and Rome, and that the armies of the two nations.
are about to come to a decisive battle under the•
walls of Rome, Camille enters. She enters quietly
noiselessly—her footfall is scarce heard—her entrance
is scarce noted—yet from the instant she appears the spectator•
feels at once, as though by intuition, that she is the doomed.
victim, that she is already entangled in the meshes of an in-
exorable fate, from which it is impossible for her to escape_
that like the moth fluttering around the lamp, and impelled by
the strange instinct of its nature upon the very death it fain
would shun, she also enlist fulfil her destiny. Never were grief
and resignation more beautifully depicted than they were by
Mademoiselle Rachel ; at the commencement of this scene
nothing could exceed 'the exqu.isite pathos with which she gave
the lines—

Qmoi qu' a peine a mes matOie puisse resister
Jaime micux lea souffrir que us:
les mentor. She then describes her having consulter
the :oracle, which
reterned what she considered a favourable answer, but
La nuit a dissipe des erreurs si charmantes ;
songes affreex,
mile images sanglantes;
Ou plutot mille amas de carnage et d'horreur
Mont arrache ma joie et rendu ma terreur
J'ai vu du sang, des morts, et n'ai rien vu de suite,
Un spectre en pareissant prenoit soudain la fuite,
Its s'effacoient l'un l'autre ; et cheque illusion,
Redoubloit mon effroi par sa confusion.
These lines were given by Mademoiselle Rachel with alb
that feeling of honor which they were in well calculated to.
inspire. Nothing could be finer than her manner of describing
the appearance of these awe-inspiring spectres—her low, tre-
mulous, sepulchral tones—her averted eyes—her gesture, waving
off, as it were, the supernatural beings who sought to torture
her, were all true, touchingly true, to nature. Beautifully
touching, also, was the expression of despair with which .she
gave the lines.
Cher amant n' attends plus d'etres no jour mon epoux,
and admirably did it contrast with the manner in which, .are
instant after, she received from that very lover himself the•
intelligence that the war would end without a battle, as each
nation had agreed to nominate three champions, who should
combat for the rest. There was no transport, no attempt at
stage effect, although the situation was a very tempting one
fee such an exhibition. Her heart was too full for transports.
0 Dieu! que ce d!scours rends mon erne contente,
were the words she uttered, but from the tone with which they
were uyered it was evident that a heavy load of despair had
been taken off her heart, and accompanied by Curiattus she
seeks her father. In the second act she learns the dreadful
intelligence that her three brothers have been chosen as the
champions of Rome, end her lover and his brother's as the
champions of Alba. She turns fiorn her brother with an
evident effort at disguising the disgust which she feels at his
utterance of the sentiment_
Apres le combat ne pensez plus au mort ;
and left alone with Curiatius, in an exquisitely pathetic scenes
she endeavours in vain to induce him to resign the dangerous
honour which his countrymen have conferred on him, and when
ad her efforts are vain, with a perceptible feeling of her own ap-
proaching destiny, she exclaims,
Un insensible, amant ordonne que je meure.
Very beautifully, MO, did she give the lines in which, speak-
ing of her brother, she says,
Helas !j'eteis aveugle en mes vmux aujonrd'hui
J'en ai f,it centre toi quand j'en ai fait pour lui.
Horace and Sabine then enter, and Sabine endeavours to
induce her husband and her brother not to join in the unna-
tural combat to which the choice of their respective countrymen
would force them. Silent, but not expressionless, stands Ca-
mille during the conference. Never was the conflict between
hope and despair more beautifully depicted than by Rachel.
" Courage! ils s'amelisaent," exclaims she with an almost
hopeless hope. he father of the Horatii enters, urges -the
combatants to sacrifice love to honour, and Camille feels that
she cannot escape her fate. In the third act news is brought
her that the two armies have interfered to prevent
combat between those so nearly allied to each other, but the
victim feels too surely that the hand of fate is on her, and her
only reply is—
" Et tout l'allegrement qu'il en faut esperer,
C'est de pleurer plus turd ceux qu'il taudra pleurer."
In the next scene the father of the Horatii, with Camille, Sabine,
and Julie, are discovered together. News is brought that two
of the Horatii are dead, and that the other is fled. The old
man bursts out into a torrent of eloquent declamation—
" 0 ! mes &eras,"
is the only exclamation of Camille, but the grief conveyed by
those three words as uttered by Mademoiselle Rachel passes
expression. Could Corneille himself have seen her he would
hare been surprised at the feeling which she threw into those
three words. Ihe climax now rapidly approaches—
the time has come when the innocent victim is to be
sacrificed en the altar of Rome's supremacy. In
the fourth act, we find the old Horatio, exhausting
himself in maledictions against his son, who has fled from the
three servicing Curiatii. A messenger enters, informs him of
the victory of Rome, and that the surviving Horatiusf has slain
the three Curiatii by stratagem. Camille is present during
the recital—;he turns, she listens, her features, more eloquent
than language, betray the stunning,.erushing blow which has
fallen upon her—a slight convulsive motion of the fingers--a
tremulous, unsteady movement of the body—a seeking of sup-
port by the hands, not by the eyes, for sight is gone—a con•
vullim grasping of the chair—a sinking ir.to it as though
of one dead, and all is over. Not a sound is uttered from be-
ginning to end, and herein Rachel showed her superiority
over her author. Corneille has in this scene introduced but one
word, " Helas !"—it entirely destroys the poetry of the scene.
Rachel has the good taste to omit it, and consequently makes
the scene one of the most perfect exhibitions of despair in the
whole course of the drama. And here as it strikes us, the
tragedy ought to have ended That it did not do so is the fault
not of Rachel, but of Corneille. A rhetorical soliloquy on love,
which nothing but the exquisite recitation of Rachel could have
made tolerable follows; and then comes the last scene, in which
she is sacrificed by her brother. This scene, as given by
Rachel, was terrifically true to nature. Her curse on Rome
was even superior to Kean's celebrated curse on his daughter
in King Lear. In Let, she is a female Edmund Kean,
with all his power, all his truth to nature, but without his
mannerisms, without his defects. Never in our recollection
has there been a: tor or actress on any stage who could at all be
compared to Mademoiselle Rachel, and we assert this with
the full recollection of Miss O'Neill in her best characters.
Mdlle. Rachelle is to appear during her engagement as
Amenaide in Tancrede, and as Ariane in Thomas
Corneille's tragedy of that name. We look forward
anxiously to her appearance in these characters, as affording
even greater scope for the exhibition of her genius, as being
characters more true to nature than that of Camille, and the
nearer t., nature the character is, the more certain is the triumph
of Mademoiselle Rachel. She was called for at the conclusion of
the piece, and received with ail the honours. On this occasion she
was led forward by M. David, a gentleman who murdered the
part of Horace in a most butcher-like style. It would have been
more appropriate had she been led forward by M. Toussaint,
who, as Curiace, was the lover of Camille, and who acted his part
with great feeling and taste.

POLICE IA TELLIGENCE.
MANSION HOUSE.

An elderly man name ( IVilliam Archer appeared before
Alderman,Farneornee, by the advice of Mr. Booker, one of the
officers of Bishopsgate, for the purpose of making a representa-
tion about the conduct of the persons employed to administer
the Posr.law at Norwich.
Archer said that Wiltshire was the county in which he was
born, but he had lived as a tradesman at Norwich 26 years, and
during 12. years of that period he had paid 101. a-year rent,
which thoroughly entitled him to a settlement there. Having
fallen into poverty by reason of illness, and the general difficul-
ties which beset many industrious persons, he found it necessary
to apply to the guardians of the poor at Norwich for assistance,
and the answer he received, notwithstanding the apparently un-
den.ahle nature of his claim, was that the place of his birth was
the only place in which he had established a settlement, and that
thither he must go to receive parochial assistance. Along with
this information they supplied him with money to bear his ex-
penses, and they sent him up to London with directions, assuring
him that all he had to do was to represent his case, and be ac-
cepted as a claimant.
Air. Booker said, he lamented to state that poor and de-
crepit persons were constantly sent away from places in which
they had established settlements by guardians and relieving-
officers, whose only object was to get rid of the expense and
trouble, without. eating what parishes suffered from the unjust
infliction of both. The citizens of London were subjected to
that sort of annoyance to a very great extent, although num-
berless complaints had been made. There was a peculiar
hardship in the case of the unfortunate man, for het was
the
al-
most a cripple, and had been unable for six weeks
altoge-
ther,sc()rk whichand on wouldh
. he
havbeakdehnpet i 2
him
itherto
from
Alderman Fa KNCOMBE asked whether the man's account of
himself could be depended upon, and whether poor persons
eeTrat dependentthepa friosrh sn pimrt
were not in the habit of making charges without foundation
.Bookerand
ie saidtrns t
ehde
thathad t nh oe
Poor-law Commissioners could make inquiry into, and check
raegaasionns tt
tohdooseu bsithtlote()
inconvenience was certainly arising. 'f he applicant had been
a practice of so oppressive a tendency, and from which great
manci a tsesdt a? re na'l rn. t ,
in the parish of Bishopsgate for a few days, and the authori-
ties of that parish certainly would not send him into Wiltshire
when he had an undoubted claim upon Norwich.
Archer said the relieving-officer of Norwich had advised the
nii,eavnintlg.tohffiateeirmatticNe
Guardians to give him money to pay his expenses, in order to
get rid of hint.
osrh:iuohld, btehatseannt to the
Alderman Fa RNCOMBF. desired that the man' a examination
would he transmitted with the claimant forthwith. If that
sGhlurlliabnestaokretnhCcir‘e
order should not be complied with, the vestry clerk of
Bishopsgate could write to the Poor-law Commissioners
upon the subject.
A case relating to the os •
erehargss frequently made by some
Custom-house agents, came on a' few days ago, of which the
Lord Mayor requested a sort of general notice might be taken
by the newspapers, as likely to lead to remedy, without the
present addition of particular details.
A gentleman who resides at the West-end of the town, stated
that a Custom-house agent had made an excessive overcharge
in clearing one package of baggage brought to London in a
ship from Ceylon.
The Loan AiAYOlt, who is thoroughly acquainted with
questions of this sort, expressed surprise at the amount of the
charge, and declared that it was more than double what it
ought to have been. His Lordship advised the complaining
party not to submit to such an imposition, and expressed a hope
that the public would object to enormous charges made under
similar circumstances. His Lordship added, that, in his judg-
ment, it the question had been brought ender the notice of
the Honourable Commissioners of Customs the individtia, rt.

►
ferred to, as having overcharged, would not be allowed to act
as a Custom-house agent any lenuer.
BOW-STREET.
Yesterday two men of respectable appearance were brought
before Mr. J(Stannts, in the custody of a city officer, charged
with fraudulently obtaining the sum of 331. from Mr. John
Dundee Lowden, a merchant of Jamaica, while playing at the
' well-known game of " thimble-rig," s.t Ascot Heath, on Thurs-
day last. The prisoners gave the_names of Richard Williams
and George Bignole.
Mr. Humphries conducted the prosecution, and Mr. Pelham
ppeared for the prisons'. N
Mr. Humphries said, he was instructed by the prosecutor,
who was a merchant from the West Indies, Co proceed against
the prisoners, by whom he was initiated into the mystery and
arts of gaming- on the race course at Ascot. It appeared he
went to the course, and seeing persons playing at a table, he
joined them, and in a moment lost a sovereign. He then declined
playing further, as he said he had no money, and the prisoner
Williams coming up to him, invited him to go to another table
where larger sums were staked, which he refused ; but the pri-
soner pressed him, saying, he could accommodate him with
money, at the same time placing 5/. in his hand, which he in-
stantly laid on the table. The men behind, the table having
covered it, witness raised the thimble, but to his surprise, and
that of his friend at the bar, the pea was in the wrong place.
The prisoner immediately supplied him with 10/., which was
a!so lost in the same way, and ettisseqnently with a further sum
of 20/., which shared the same fate. The prosecutor then
gave his wa'ch and chain as a security for the money adiiinced,
and being found by the ether prisoner, they came to town
together. On the next morning the prisoners came to wit-
ness's lodgings with the watch, and he desired they would call
yesterday merriieg at Lime-street, when he would settle with
theta ; but having consulted with his landlord upon the steps
lie should take, it was that gentleman's opinion he had been
swindled, and on their paying the appointed visit they were
given 'lite) custody.
Abe Pelham observed that the Magistrate had no jurisdiction
i the ease, as the offence had net been committed within'the
corroy or the district of the Court.
Air. Humphries replied, it had been committed within the
sf,str.et of the Central Criminal Court, and the sit ing Alagis-
trate of the Court had the power of adjudicating upon it.
Henry Ayres Ohiersietw, 513, City police. said, in conse-
quence or information he had received he took the prisoners
into custody in Leadeahall-street, when he found upon Wil-
liams six 5/. notes. two sovereigns, and the prosecutor's card;
and on the other 10s. lie had reason to believe, from what
he knew of one of them, he could procure further evidence.
Alr. JA/MINX refused to accept of bail, and said he should
order both the prisoners to be remanded, on a charge of larceny,
fer a week.
The prisoners were then removed from the bar.
MARLBOROUGH-STREE7'.
Yesterday James Glindon was for the third time brought up
fur further examination, charged with having been concerned,
with three well-known thieves who hare been since convicted
and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation in hustling and
rebbbing, Sir Wm. Henry Roger Palmer, Bart., of No. 12,
Ilereford-street, Park-lane, of his purse, containing 1/. 135.,
as he was proceeding along Regent-street on the 4th of
April last.
Mr. Wontner, the salicitor, again attended on the prisoner's
behalf. The particulars of this case appeared in The Sun on
the first examination. _ _ _

The prisoner was committed to take his trial at the ensuing
Westminster Sessions, and Sir Roger and the witnesses bound
over to appear against him. The prisoner was also identified
as buin4 an asszciate o! common pickpockets, and of having
been twice summarily convicted of that offence himself.
His mother, who is a respectable aged widow living on an
annuity from Government, was pr. sent during the examina-
tion, andLwas FO overwhelmed with grief that se was obliged
tube carried out of the office.
Thomas 0' Shen, a. middle-aged man, of dirty and dissipated
appearance, and three-parts drunk, was placed at the bar on the
following charge:—
The prisoner is an officer in the Hon. East India Company's
Pei-vice, on has-pay, and has been repeatedly brought before
this Court for drunken and disorderly conduct. On his being
brought into Court,
Air. HARDWICK exclaimed—Why, I sent that man to the
Howe of Correction only a few ca.is ago; how can he be
here now?
Mr. Fitzpatrick (the Chief Clerk) said he was committed
only for a week, and his time had expired.
Mr. Edward Tyler, of No. 300, Re;:ent-street, stated, that
about half-past eleven o'clock yesterday morning, as he was
walking arm-in-arm with his brother through Church-pas-
sage, Piccadilly, the prisoner came staggering up in front
of them, and spat in loth their faces. On being. reproached
by some bystanders at behaving in such a disgusting manner,
he boasted, that " if it had been the Duke of Wellintoa he
would have served him the same."

The prisoner was fined 31., but, being penniless, was sent
to the tsteadmill for a month.

ro MAGISTRATES, SOLICITORS, CLERKS OF
POOR-LAW UNIONS, &c. &e.

This day 6d. stamped, No. 23, Vol. VI., of
THE-JUS TICE OF THE PEACE;
Containing :.-.County Bridges, Treatise—Mines, Chil-
dren's Employment Commission ; k'ir.,t Report of the Com-
missioners, 1842. '1 he Queen v. the Inhabitants of North
Bovey—Settlement—Appeal—Notice—Hiring and Service—
Date. Dakins; clerk, v. Seaman, clerk—Church, Parson, and
Curate—Stipend in vacation—License-- Construction of 28
lien. VIII. c. 11, and 1 and 2 Vict. c. 106. Practical Points
—Titles and Dates of Acts of Parliament passed this Session,
etc. &e. _ _

London : Henry Shaw, 137, Fetter-lane.

THE W.EATHEIL—Noorr, JUNE 11.
fl) AL cm.rvarr OF SCIENCE, .A ELAIDE-STREET
Thermometer .... 77 ► Highest 7B I Lowest 5O
Barometer 30.27.—Wind E.

Jima w ATEt AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
?iorning l6 minutes atter 31 Evening .... 28 minutes after 3.

*. 4 rile,,-----.,‘„ f--- ---.