The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-18 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL,

We have been greatly delighted with Miss Rainforth and
Mr. Harrison, who made their debut in the " Beggars'
Opera" on Monday evening. Although the " Beggars'
Opera" abounds with beautiful melodies, and the dialogue
is racy, witty, and piquante, it has never been a favourite of
ours. The moral is bad ; the characters, excepting Polly,
are all essentially low, vulgar, and debased ; and, though it
may suit a London audience, it has too much of the " Jack
Sheppard" school to prove attractive to the frequenters of
a country theatre. Say what they will, there is a refinement
and discrimination in the country that does not exist in the
metropolis—at any rate in matters theatrical. We have had
many, nay constant, instances of this. Witness the late
engagement of the Adelphi Company and their dramas.
They kept money out of the house instead of bringing cash
into it. The " Beggars' Opera," we believe, old as it is,
has had a run in London latterly. On Monday the boxes
were very shy of ladies ; and, in fact, in spite of two debu-
tants, the piece failed to draw. Such is the difference of
opinion in town and country.
Tuesday " Love in a Village" was performed in most ex-
cellent style. Miss Itainforth's Rosetta was very cleverly
done ; her songs were exquisitely sung. Miss Rainforth has
a neat figure, and expressive face ; her eye is sparkling, and
full of archness and animation. Her voice is of a sweet
tone, her enunciation very distinct, her execution brilliant.
She possesses taste, feeling, and judgment. In her scenes
with Justice Woodcock (capitally played by Mr. Baker),
she exhibited her powers as an actress. The playful manner
in which she quizzed the amorous old magistrate was inimi-
table. Miss.Rainforth has greatly pleased us. Mr. Har-
rison's Hawthorn is one of the best on the stage. This
gentleman is not only a good singer, but an excellent actor
also. His voice is of fine quality, and has a mound full tone,
with considerable power. Mr. Harrison does not appear
fond of embellishment, but when he does indulge, he shows
good taste and fancy. He sings without effort, and the me-
lody appears to flow from his lips without exertion. He
blends excellently the natural voice with the falsetto; the
latter is remarkably sweet. Remembering how few good
singers there are on the stage at present, we cannot but feel
delight in hearing this gentleman, and we may safely place
him in the front rank amongst his contemporaries. Ile
acted Hawthorn in a jovial, rollicking, farmer-like manner,
and appeared to enter into the spirit of the character. He
sang that delightful ballad, " We all love a pretty girl,"
most cleverly and with great humour, and was encored in it.
We were greatly pleased with the sweet ballad, " My Dolly
is the fairest thing." It was given with a pathos and feeling
which showed that he understood what he was singing.
Miss Honner played and sung Madge well. Mr. Slaiter's
Bodge was excellent : in it he showed his very peculiar
talent. Mrs. Clarke's Deborah Woodcock was also very
good : her humour is not to be equalled. Mr. Geo. Horn-
castle's Young Meadows was passableasent.—ln the after.
piece the Boleno Family delighted and astonished every one.
Never were such tumblers seen as these some of their
tricks were extremely droll. Miss Webster's dancing is
charming : although not a Taglioni, she promises fair to
become one.

On 'Wednesday " Fra Diavolo " was very well performed,
and last night " The Devil's Bridge," in which Mr. Har-'
rison sang Braham's song of " Is there a heart" most ex-
quisitely : it was rapturously encored. We have heard no-
thing like it for many a day. Miss Rainforth warbled " Lo!
here the gentle lark," very sweetly. _ .

This evening Mr. Harrison and Miss Rainforth take; their
benefit, with " Love in a Village" and " Rob Roy."—On
Monday the Vandenhoffs will appear.

REASONS FOR VOTING FOR LORD JOHN RUS-
SELL TO BE M.P. FOR THE CITY OF LONDON.

I.—Because he can get no other place to have him, at least

for a continuance

In 1818 he entered parliament by means of the rotten bo-
rough of Tavisto6k. In 1820 he shifted his seat to the county
of Huntingdon : from this county he was ejected in 1826,
after a contest ; and took refuge in the close borough of Ban-
don-bridge. In 1830 he removed to Devon, from which
county he was thrown out by a poll, in 1835. He then re-
moved to Stroud, the electors of which arc now preparing to
dislodge him.

ll.—Because be has a very convenient knack of suiting his
language to his auditors.

1. When he sat for a county, he spoke of the electors of
London, Westminster, &c., as "THE WORST OF ALL RANDS'
in which the government could be placed."
He now wishes the electors of London to adopt him, and
therefore talks of the " honour" they do him, and •' hopes
to be sust fined by their enlightened approbation."
2. When he represented an agricultural constituency, he
thus defended the corn laws :
_....

" There is a party amongst us, however, distinguished in
what is called the science of political economy, who wish to
substitute the corn of Poland and Russia for their own. Their
principle is, that you ought always to buy where you can buy
cheapest !" " They count as nothing the value to the coun-
try of a hardy race of farmers and labourers. They ears not
for the difference between au agricultural and manufacturing
population, in all that concerns morals, order, national
strength, and national tranquillity. Wealth is the only ob-
ject of their speculation ; nor do they much consider the two
or three millions of people who may be reduced to utter beg-
gary in the course of their operations. This they call ' di-
verting capital into another channel.' It is to these men, I
suspect, that our ministers are about to give up the question
of trade in corn."

Now, representing a manufacturing borough, he takes the
very course which he formerly deprecated, and attacks those
same corn laws which he then defended! . _. .

3. When trying to gain popularity, he can attend religious
meetings, and mix with dissenters and methodists, as if one
of themselves ; and yet, when writing his Memoirs of the
History of Europe, for the higher classes, he thus libels one
of the principal of these religious bodies, the Wesleyan Me-
thodists :-
64

Another very palpable offence of methodism is the en -
couragement it affords to fraud and every species of cant."
" They multiply miracles far beyond the regular and limited
practice of the Homish Church. If a methodist preacher
wants a dinner, a suit of clothes, or a few pence to pay a
turnpike, he puts up a prayer, and his want is miraculously
supplied. Thus, between forgery audfanaticism, sober and
genuine christianity is utterly lost."—Memoirs of Europe,
vol. ii., p. 581.
" Upon the whole, it can hardly be said that the introduc-
tion of Wesleyan Methodism permanently improved the mo-
rals of England. It resembled some very powerful drug,
which suddenly obtains a reputation in physic, and is re-
nowned for the wonderful cures which it performs ; but pre-
sently the efficacy of the remedy ceases, and many of the cured
either relapse or fall into some new and incurable disease.
A quack medicine of this kind is soon famous and soon for-
gotten."—Memoirs of Europe, vol. ii., p. 584.

lll.—Because he is such a firm friend to civil as well as to
religious liberty.
1. He vehemently endeavoured, only two years since, to

take away the privileges of the city, and to bring the citizens
under the authority of the police commissioners in Scotland-
yard.

2. He seized and imprisoned, by an arbitrary and despotic
vote of the House of Commons, the two sheriffs of London,
for no other offence than their adherence to their oaths, and
their obedience to the Queen's will.
. 3. He resolutely maintains, and will hear of no modifica-

tions or abatements of—the despotic power assigned to the
three poor law commissioners, making their will to be law,
and their orders as binding as an act of parliament, through-
out the kingdom.
4. He firmly adheres to all the oppressive parts of the new
poor law system, which treats poverty as a crime, separates
parent from children, and husband from wife, and reduces
the diet for the poor man out of work, in many cases, below
the prison fare of the criminal.

For all these reasons,—if you like to make the city of Lon-
don a " refuge for the destitute," and to pick up the rejected
candidates of country boroughs ;—if you admire a man who
has one language for the farmer, and another for the manu-
facturer ;—if you are grateful for the imprisonment of your
sheriffs,—for his attempt to put your city under the West-
minster police,—and for his resolute adherence to tke new
poor Iaw,—VOTE FOR LORD JOHN RUSSELL, and
show that he rightly characterised you when he called you
" THE WORST OF ALL HANDS in which the government could
be placed,"

CARD OF THE RUNNING HORSES FOR THE L
VERPOOL CONSTITUTIONAL PRIZE CUP.

The two first in to be deolared the winners,

SANDO—A thorough-bred in good condition, has been
trained for ten or twelve years ; and has often won the cup
before : knows the Liverpool course well; a most valuable
acquisition to his right owner—John Bull.
CRESSY—Has run on the same course with Sando before,
and is decidedly a favourite. Has been some time in train-
ing, and has become very valuable.
SIR JOSHUA—A. fast horse, but rather a bolter, and too
fond of his corn ; has changed names ; was formerly known
as Birchrod, and was lately passed off as the Liverpool mare;
piebald and no breed •, has not run before, except as a hack.
It is ',expected that he will win the match—like the Irish-
man's race horse Botheration—by driving them all before
him. _ _

PALNIT—The Rat-tailed hack : an old stager on various
race-courses; has formed part of the Royal stud for very
many years, at an enormous expense to the nation, but has
had so many drivers that he is difficult to manage now ; is
entered for two courses at the same time, and it is not ex-
pected that he will run for the Liverpool cup.
BETTING.-2 to lon Sando and Cressy; 10 to 1 against
the other two—no takers.

A FRENCII DO-THE-BOYS HALL.—In the course of the
past week an exposure was made at the Mansion-house, Lon-
don, of the infamous system which has been pursued at a
seminary in France, a system which even out-does that de-
scribed by Boz in his details of the sufferings of the boys at
the Yorkshire seminary. About five miles from Bolougne-
Ser-Mer is the academy of Mons. de Bree, known also as
the " Chateau de la Capelle," a large ancient house, situated
in grounds of a very picturesque and enchanting appearance.
Monsieur de Bree is a single gentleman, who has raised a
school by periodically visiting London and advertising in the
public journals, soliciting parents to submit their children to
his care and educational instruction, promising every atten-
tion to their intellectual improvement, the cultivation of their
morals, and their domestic comforts. Till within a few
weeks of the present date, the establishment he had succeeded
in thus forming consisted of English and American youth.
In his circular M. de Bree set forth, that he professed to take
the whole responsibility of their education by his own ardu-
ous and undivided exertions for the proficiency of his pupils,
rather than to risk the negligence of tutors, while the domes-
tic arrangements of his household were committed to the
anxious and motherly superintendence of his revered
parent. Lulled by the speciousness of the charlatan, pa-
rents eagerly embraced an opportunity to send their boys
to be advanced in the French language at an establishment
apparently so comfortable and within so short a distance
from London, where they easily imagined a weekly cor •
respondence could be had with their children. Mr. John
Forrester, of the Mansion-house police establishment, hav-
ing some business at Bolougne, made a hasty visit to his son,
who was one of Monsieur de Bree's pupils. The father
was so shocked at the child's appearance and at the report
the boy gave of the treatment the pupils received from
Monsieur de Bree and his mother that he immediately re-
moved the lad, and with him his friend Mr. Ruthven's two
sons, who had been sent to the school by his recommenda-
tion. He brought his son home, and called upon the parents
of some of the other boys, to state his reasons for removing
the boy from the academy. Several other boys were im-
mediately removed, and the wretched state in which they
arrived at home gave fearful evidence of the truth of their
relations touching the treatment which they had experienced.
Should any persons be sceptical on the subject, however, the
vouchers are now numerous and well-authenticated. It ap-
pears that the poor boys were worked, starved, physiced,
beaten, and in short, treated with the greatest inhumanity.
They were left in a state of the most disgusting dirt and
wretchedness till their bodies were covered with sores,
while not even their education was attended to. They were
not suffered to write to their parents, and they could not
run away from the strict surveillance which was exercised
over them and the distance of the chateau from Boulogne.
In short, the details submitted to the lord mayor in proof of
the statements are disgusting beyond description. The lord
mayor said he considered it his duty to make the atrocious
proceeding as public as possible, and with this view, the
whole circumstances have been published at length in the
London papers.