The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-22 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 22, 1342,

at the same time that they did not give him a
Boz bill at New York, and a Buz dinner at
Boston, and make wises of themselves for his
sake for weeks together, in order that he might
afterwards say of them that, hospitable as they
were, he did not altogether find .i.beni prodigies
of perfection!

A VISIT TO ITALY. 2 Vols.
Bentley, London, 1842.
Mrs. Trollops', one of the most indefatigable of
modern authors, and to whom .no species of
writing appears to come amiss, has just published
an account of a Visit to Italy, which she made
in the year 1841, and with which, on the whole,
she seems to have been better pleased than with
all her other continental trips put together.
' Quitting Paris fir Lyons, where she made a
brief halt; she thence crossed the frontier to
Turin, of which capital she speaks in the warmest
terms, observing that it is the most beautifully
placed of all the cities she has ever seen, being
situated on a fair and fertile plain, watered by a
noble river, surrounded by a circle of majestic
mountains, and blessed with an atmosphere of
exquisite purity. With Genoa " the superb "
as it is usually called—she was not less delighted,
though, notwithstanding its splendour and pic-
turesque beauty of situation, she honestly con-
fesses that she could not endure it "as a home
to live in," so lonesome and quiet, even to dul-
ness, are its splendid streets and buildings. If
we remember rightly, Lord Byron has made the
same remark in one of his letters dated from
Genoa. But it is Venice.that seems to have made
the deepest impression on Mrs. Trollope's ima-
gination, and accordingly she is never weary of
chanting the praises of this Queen of the Adriatic.
A great portion of .her second volume is devoted
to the descriptions of the streets, palaces, bridges,
canals, paintings, sculptures, &c., of Venice,
which we are glad to learn is by no means in
that state of hopeless decay so frequently insisted
on, and lamented
_by, recent travellers. Our
authoress, indeed, asserts that it is exhibiting
slow but certain traces of improvement under
the foreign sway of Austria; but we question
whether she is competent to fornt an opinion on
this point, Ibr, in the first place, her stay was too
short, and her means of procuring information
too limited, to enable her to come to any sound
conclusions; and, secondly, in her work on
" Vienna and the Austrians" she has shown far
too strong a bias in favour of Prince Metternich
and his stand-still system of policy, to be able
to speak impartially on any subject connected
with that dubious system. On the whole, we
have been much amused—we wish we could add
instructed-by Mrs. Trollope's journal of her
Italian tour; she is often flippant and superficial
in her remarks, and occasionally dogmatizes, es-
pecially when speaking of paintings; but the
tone of her narrative generally is animated, her
sketches are graphic without being elaborate,
and she izA, with scarce an exception, uniformly
in good humour with the people she encounters,
and the scenes which she visits. The following
curious anecdote of the once-celebrated singer,
Madame Catalani, may perhaps amuse our
readers

On another evening we again forsook the Cascina
for the purpose of passing a few hours with Madame
Catalani Valabrique, and very delightful hours they
were—for not only did she again sing to us—and still
as nobody but her charming self can sing—but she
recounted to us an adventure which had befallen her
some five-and-twenty years ago, with a degree of spi-
rit and dramatic effect that was delightful.
It seems that while making a professional visit to a
certain city in Germany, she heard in every circle of
a horrible phenomenon at that time enclosed within
its walls—namely, a woman who had been convicted
of having committed above sixty murders ! The
monster, though 'still a young woman, had for seve-
ral years, followed the profession of a garde malatie,
and, from the evidence upon her trial, it was proved
that, beyond the possibility of any doubt, she had
been in the habit of making away with her miserable
patients by means of poison, which she constantly car-
ried about her in her curling' papers, and which she
had never scrupled to administer when the poor suf-
ferers appeared to her to linger too long!
On hearing this tremendous statement, a most vivid
feeling of curiosity seized upon our eantatrice to be-
hold a creature so awfully marked out as a terrific va-
riety of the human species. Whether this wish to
see her arose from the same impulse as made Garrick
visit Bedlam—whether she thought that any index-
lines of her countenance might create ideas that
should become professionally useful, I know not; but
so strong was the wish that she mentioned it, to seve-•
ral influential people in the place, in the hope that by
their interest she might obtain it. But she was as-
sured on all sides that it was impossible, as the same
wish had been shared by so many, that it had been
found necessary to refuse its gratification in the most
peremptory manner.to all. Yet still the desire pur-
sued her; and finding herself one day seated at a
dinner•party, next the Supreme Judge of the Court
in which the woman had been tried,. she once more
stated her wish. The venerable Magistrate replied
that he was extremely sorry to say that it was impos-
sible to comply with it. The charming petitioner
wss silenced for a minute or two, and then—it was
with her own well-remembered smile that she
related it—and then she began to revolve in her mind
what she could do, or say, that might be most likely
to shake the resolution of the recusant Judge. "Je
vous chanterai une jolie petite canzonette," she replied
in a whisper. An Orpheus may have power on this
side the Styx as well as on the other. A day and
hour were fixed, before the party separated, when
she might repair to an appointed place, and hope to be
led where she wished to go. • The appointment was
punctually kept on both. sides ; and now, trembling
at finding herself on the eve of doing the thing she
had so earnestly desired to do, the fair philosopher
committed herself to the care of the official dignitary,
and proceeding with him to the prison, reached the
small chamber in which this unparalleled homicide was
confined. The solitary wretch was weeping bitterly,
and the lower part of her face was wholly concealed
in the handkerchief which she held in her hand—but
the upper part of the countenance was visible, and the
animated narrator declared that she thought she had
never looked upon a lovelier face. The brow was
large, finely formed, and delicately fair; the eye
long, having a rich black silkan eve-lash, from be-
neath which the -big tears rolled slowly down her
pallid cheeks. Madame Catalini said that she looked
at this beautiful sad face till the memory of her crimes
was actually forgotten, and she herself wept too, for
company.
" N'ayez pas pitie de cette scelerate atroce, Ma-
dame !" exclaimed the Judge. The criminal removed
the bandkrchief from her mouth.-:•-and in an instant,
d villanyde r that
A i t
everything like beauty disappeared, leaving an ex-
pressionfwas impossible to look
upon without
strong
confirmation this
of Lavater's theory, that though intellect speaks
h ard s
h t a
through the eve, moral propensities are indicated by
the mouth. Madame Catalani told us that before her
execution this wretched creature not only confessed
her crimes, but explained as clearly as she could the
sort of infernal impulse which led her to commit
them. She liked, she said, to see the spirit pass
away, and it was where this result was doubtful among
the unhappy ones whom she was employed to watch
that she took means to render it certain.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT .

CITY, FRIDAY EVENING.

TIMES.—The house of Evans, Poster, and Lang- r
ton, the failure of which has been announced on
'Change, was one of respectable standing, and was
connected with Manchester and the Indian trade.
Their stoppage has, it is understood, involved the firm
of
Althoughll em s ley,
tßrothers,e re simportance.
othe attendance
on 'Change was carried unanimously at the meeting
held a few days ago at the London. Tavern, there are
still several persons who are not satisfied, and who are
resolution fir
alteringot* minor
inclined to be of the same opinion as the one gentle-
man who preferred half-past four to four o'clock as
the closing hour. Among these, the impression is,
that the interests of a few were. rather represented at
the meeting, than that of the generality who assem-
ble on 'Change. The gentlemen
for thewho formed them-
selves into a Committee being, most part, near
residents of the Exchange, it is objected that they
cannot sufficiently know the wants of those whose
business calls them to the more distant docks, or to
those public sales which are not over till a late hour
in the afternoon. Another peculiarity observed in
the Committee is, that it is chiefly composed of gen-
tlemen Who never attend 'Change ,except on foreign
post-days, some .of them being'large takers of foreign
bills. These, it is argued, might, if they pleased,
have made such alterations in their hours of businesS,
as would have suited-their oWn convenience, without
making such an alteration as should affect the whole
of the attendants on 'Change.. • • •
On account of the great importance of the news
usually brought by the overland mail from India, a
suggestion has been made that steam-vessels should
be employed to bring up to Bombay the latest ac-
counts from China, to connect with the departure of
the regular mail. What may in this manner be
effected was ascertained at this period of lust year,
when the mail from Bombay of the Ist of October
brought intelligence as late as the 24th of August
from China, which arose from the dispatch of a steam=
beat direct for Bombay, which made the passage in
37 days, and put the merchants in possession of China
letters in 73 days, the shortest time on record. As
there is no expectation of the employment of such
means for the mail about to arrive, the calculation is,
assuming it to leave Bombay on the Ist inst., that it
will bring dates from Calcutta to the 13th ult., and
from China to the 25th of July, at the latest. The
date from China by 'the last mail was the 10th of.