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THE DRAMA.

THE only novelty at the Haymarket has been the first appearance of a young lady, Miss Paton, as Rosina, of whose voice and singing a particular account is given in our Musical Report. We pass on there

fore to the

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.

Two new pieces have been produced at this prolific theatre,-Gordon the Gipsy, a melo-drame, and Gil Blas, a five act opera, which last now carries Gordon pick-a-back, through the warm summer nights, in the shape of an afterpiece. To speak first of the greater novelty, Gil Blas,-novel in its construction, and taken from Le Sage's novel,-it is, indeed, an originality, an invention-a Gregorian innovation, wherein the Author, introducing his hero at seventeen, changes his style to twenty-five, and finally dates him at the ripe age of fifty-two. To effect this, two lapses-or leap-years are supposed between the acts, one of eight, the other of twenty-seven years; and the three ages are personated by Miss Kelly, Mr. Pearman, and Mr. Bartley. The attempt was strange, difficult, and dangerous; yet we anticipated that, well managed, it might prove a happy invention, and present an interesting abridg ment of the chronology of Gil Blas -a foreshortened picture of his life -with three distances-and lending our imagination to the leap, the transitions really did not shock us. We say this of the time only, for in truth we fancied a gap elsewhere, in the hero himself, who seemed to want some trait, some enduring characteristic to accompany him in his transmigrations, and to show that although so changed, it was still Gil Blas that was altered.

The Author, with some deviations, has followed the novel in his early incidents. After Gil Blas' parting with his uncle, who blesses him -with a bag of ducats-we have his adventure with Picaro, the false beggar-his first lesson of life at Pennaflor, as the Eighth Wonder of the World-his capture by the ban

ditti,-and his fortunate escape from their cavern, with the sweet warbling Donna Mencia (Miss Carew). In the third act, being eight years older, and so long beloved by the Donna, he is discovered in her father's garden,--fights with and wounds her brother, and is obliged to fly, but, rescuing her father in an attack of robbers, is rewarded with the hand of the lady; and here the play begins to outgrow the novel. The Senior Gil Blas, at fifty-two, is the happy father of Donna Antonia, and minister of state to Philip IV. That monarch, under the disguises of Duke of Lerma, and a knight of Calatrava, thinks proper to tempt his honesty as a father and a minister; and, as a further trial of his constancy, the inflexible Gil Blas is imprisoned, by order of the Duke of Lerma, in the dungeons of Madrid. Here he meets with his old acquaintance, the robber chief, now turned jailor, and is saved from his vengeance and dagger by Picaro, who visits him as a holy father, to the salvation of his body,-the gates are suddenly thrown open-the king enters with Antonia, guards, &c. &c. and the integrity of Gil Blas being formally recognised and lauded, the monarch graciously cedes Antonia to her lover.

Altogether, the play is sufficiently fruitful of incident, with some interesting situations for instance, that of Donna Mencia tying the negro's black leg to his white one, in the cavern-the scenery of which is very ingenious-and the attempted assassination of Gil Blas in the dungeon. The duration of the piece-its worst novelty--extending itself into the noon of night, was somewhat felt at its first performance, but after the necessary and judicious curtailments, "making it keep better hours," it met with a very favourable reception. We could wish that one song, "With spirits aching," had been left in, for the sake of the words as well as the air-but let that pass.

Miss Kelly, as the young Gil Blas, at seventeen-he does not look a day older-played very delightfully, but

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we like her best as Antonia - her own daughter by descent. We quite gave in to her re-appearance as very like her father when he was seventeen ;" and however much her compound relationship, with her own personal feeling of individuality, might be puzzling to herself, to us she was plural, multi-personal. Her first song, "Farewell, from Ovieda's towers," was pretty- and the bell accompaniment chimed in most dreamingly; but in her last, to the King, she was as arch as an angel, and so natural, that if there were not so many Sonnets to Nature already, we would write one to her, and desire nothing better than to hear her read it! Her dress too-to step out of our element -was tasteful and elegant; and, if the word were not applied vulgarly, Corinthian, in that crisp silky foliage on the sleeve; and as for her train O what a train to 'list in! Mr. Bartley played the fifty-second Gil Blas with great spirit, and gave him a body, like port-full, rich, and rosy; in his scene with the Duke of Lerma he seemed really to be father to his own indignation. Mr. T. P. Cooke, as the robber chief, looked very brave and handsome; and Wrench, as Picaro, was worth twenty omlets, and gave due effect to the jests he was entrusted with. He was by turns a thief, secretary, and pedlar, but came to an honest man at the bottom of his character, like the Hope in Pandora's box, which is something for a moral. The rest of the performers exerted themselves in a very laudable manner; Mr. Pearman, indeed, was scarcely what we could have wished, in Gil Blas, at twenty-five,-except in his dress, which was elegant-and not so "cunning at fence," as he ought to have been, if his adversary had not been worse. Mr. Ambrose reminded us rather too much of Punch in his yellow costume, but this is a fault that he may leave off.

The music was pleasing, and, accompanied by the sweet voices of Misses Kelly, Povey, and Carew, braced up our ears like tonics; we rather wondered that any one could hiss Miss Povey and Mr. Broadhurst in a duett, but so it was, doubtless by some one who had no ear for music.

Gordon the Gipsy is the name and title of a fierce northern outlaw-a personification of the spirit of revenge-which, when it lives under the black snaky ringlets worn by Mr. T. P. Cooke, is always terrible. He looked indeed like a Scottish mantiger-tartan-striped--that would pick revenge to the bones. Wildly and savagely he lurked about while his enemy crossed the lake, and fired his flaming signal in the dark moonlight, exulting in the requital of his father's murder, by the false Gavin Cameron, now master of the forfeited Drummond's Keep. Observing that his victim, on ringing a bell, is drawn up into the tower, he avails himself of the secret, and presents himself as the long lost son, Allan Cameron, whom he is said to have resembled. Alice, however, suspects her cousin's relationship, and, to prove his identity, brings Old Marian Moome, the nurse, who declares, in a tone which goes to the heart, that he is "no Cameron!" The old woman afterwards attempts his life in his sleep, but is prevented by Le Noir, a negro domestic, bound by a renewed oath of fidelity to the Gipsy, of whose fortunes he had formerly been a follower. Gavin, nevertheless, still believes in his son Allan -saves him from a band of soldiers who apprehend him in the keep; and finally falls himself, with his niece Alice, who is loved by Gordon, into the hands of the gipsies. Gordon, in the true spirit of Scottish revenge, takes Cameron on the lake, that he may drown him in the very place where his father had been drowned, and see him struggle, twelve feet deep, as his father had struggled among the grassy weeds; but at this moment the soldiers arriving, Gordon, after stabbing Cameron, is shot in the boat, the gipsies are dispersed, and Drummond's Keep, fired by the old negro, is burnt into ashes.

Mr. Rowbotham upheld the character of Gavin Cameron very respectably; Mrs. Bryan gave very ably the unable old nurse, tottering and nodding as if to her fall; Mr. Salter blackened his character very laudably in the Negro; and Mr. Broadhurst sang a very pretty song very sweetly, as Dunbar, the lover of Alice (Miss Carr). Tradition says,

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with the Gordon, he conducted himself right pleasantly, if not valiantly, and we heartily rejoiced to see him save his own life-as by a miraclewith a bullet through his bonnet.

The music was very well selected, and the scenery good; especially the night view of Drummond's Keep, in which a greater apparent distance was given to the moon than is commonly effected. We are not melodramatic in our taste, but the present one pleased us much; and it was given out for repetition with general applause.

ABSTRACT OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES.

OUR foreign abstract for the present month does not present features of very extraordinary interest. The affairs of Spain are beginning to assume a more favourable aspect. The events of the seventh of July, recorded in our last, were followed by the resignation of all the ministers, who have been replaced by staunch friends to the constitutional system. It now appears that the resistance of some of the royalist officers was instigated by Ferdinand himself. When some of them were put upon their trial, they pleaded the king's commands, and sent, through the legal officer appointed by the state to prosecute them, a letter for Ferdinand's recognition, which they alleged they had received from him. -Ferdinand without hesitation acknowledged the letter, but said they were great fools to act on it, when it was not countersigned by a minister, which alone could give it force! The legal officer, struck with amazement, indignantly remonstrated, but Ferdinand's only reply was-"No matter, you have been directed to prosecute, and I suppose you must do your duty!!" He then tranquilly turned away, leaving the unfortunate men to their fate. It is a melancholy fact, that the state of the country required the execution of some of these deluded dupes. One

good has, however, resulted from it; the new ministers, thus taught to appreciate their royal master, have proceeded, without the least scruple, to sweep from the palace every suspected person; the whole tribe of sycophants have been banished without ceremony, and the "beloved" is left in royal solitude, to meditate upon perfidy exposed, and tyranny defeated, without even one congenial soul to sympathise in his misfortunes. General Morillo has resigned; the household has been placed under the superintendance of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, a tried friend to liberty; and the celebrated Mina takes the command in Catalonia, with a sufficient force at his disposal to crush the factious in that unfortunate and disaffected district. The greatest attention to the state of the finances is paid by the new administration, and this is supposed to be only a preliminary to a more extensive military organization. It is said, that the moment the internal disturbances are quelled, and the army put upon a proper footing, a demand will be made upon the French king for the instant removal of the cordon sanitaire, which, if refused, will doubtless lead to important results. Indeed such a demand appears now to be imperiously called for, as the French ultras have thrown

off the mask, and openly declared in the chamber, that this cordon had objects ulterior to any sanitary consideration. Their instrumentality, however, in the accomplishment of these objects, may not prove so very facile, if it be true, as reported, that when the soldiers heard of the constitutional triumph at Madrid, they waved their caps in the air, loudly shouting, "Long live the liberties of Spain."

The French parliament has been prorogued, after another of those legislative exhibitions, in which the words "liar," " traitor," "slave," and "demagogue," were alternated with a facility which nothing but practice could give. The immediate cause of this altercation was an allusion made in the indictment against General Berton to four members of the left side of the chamber, two of whom are B. Constant and the Marquis La Fayette, a name consecrated to liberty. It is said to have been a part of Berton's plan, to have constituted these four members into a provisional government; but whether they participated in his design does not appear. They were naturally extremely indignant at the mention of their names. An impression had also gone abroad, not very likely to conciliate them, that the Austrian and Prussian armies were to enter France in considerable force, with the two-fold object of acting against Spain, and securing the obedience of the French army! In allusion to this, General Foy exclaimed in the chamber of deputies, "The holy alliance has been mentioned! The holy alliance! we know it only by the taxes which it has imposed; by the calamities which it has inflicted on us. But if its soldiers appear again on the national territory-if we are menaced with a third occupation, all Frenchmen, whether military or not-(the whole left side rose, exclaiming, all, all,)— all France would rise and march united to exterminate them."-If things go on as they promise, we think it not unlikely that the sincerity of this declaration may be put to the test.

In our last we recorded, with grief and horror, an account of the Turkish enormities in the isle of Scio; and with very different sensations cer

tainly, we have now to add a signal and providential retribution. The following is the detailed account, which has been since officially acknowledged by the Turkish government. Two Greek fireships, which had eluded the vigilance of eleven Turkish ships of war, penetrated in the night into the Canal of Chio, and succeeded in approaching the admiral's ship of 130 guns. One, about two in the morning, got so near as to grapple it closely on the larboardside, applying the fire there. The prodigious efforts of the crew at length succeeded in disengaging the admiral's ship from the fireship, after which the ship of the Captain Bey sunk it. But the second fireship also approached the admiral's ship, and set fire to it, while the Turks were endeavouring to get rid of the first. Within three quarters of an hour the fire reached the magazine, and the vessel blew up with a terrible explosion. The Captain Pacha, who had been severely wounded, but who did not wish to leave his ship, was forcibly put into a boat by his attendants. A mast, however, which immediately fell, wounded him mortally on the head, sunk the boat, and he was brought ashore on the wreck. He expired within an hour, and was buried on the sands of Scio, amid the ruins he had created. Out of the. whole crew, consisting of 2,286, scarcely 200 were saved. Two other ships of the line, and a frigate, were saved, but much damaged. The Greek crews, after achieving this exploit, succeeded, amid the alarm and confusion of the moment, in passing safely in their boats through the Turkish fleet, and returning to Ipsara, where the intelligence was celebrated by salvos of artillery, which lasted an entire hour, and the sound of which was distinctly heard at Scio. During the night of the 19th the Ottoman troops, enraged at the loss of the Captain Pacha, attacked the foreign consulates in the island, but were repulsed; after which they renewed their cruelties upon the few surviving inhabitants. We are sorry to have to add, that the receipt of this intelligence in Constantinople proved the signal for new enormities. In the first week in July no less than 1500 Greeks were apprehended, of

full robes, and the Foreign Ambassadors in the state dresses of their respective courts, presented a truly grand and imposing appearance. At very little after two o'clock, the King entered the House in his parliamentary robes, wearing the crown, and took his seat on the throne. The Duke of Wellington carried the sword of state. The Earl of Liverpool as Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, took their stations near the throne. The Commons were immediately summoned, who appeared at the bar in considerable numbers, headed by the Speaker. The Right Hon. gentleman, on presenting some bills for the royal assent, entered into a review of the labours of the late Session; he dwelt particularly on the attention which had been paid to the finances, on the great remission of taxation which had been effected, and on the benefit derived by the state from the reduction of the five per cent. annuities. He also reverted to the state of Ireland as reported by Lord Wellesly at the commencement of the session, and the harsh measures which it was found necessary consequently to adopt; after this, he reverted to the subsequent famine, and the supplies which Ministers had recommended to avert it; concluding this very brief epitome of their labours, by declaring that Commons had performed their duty, and hoped that they would meet the public approbation." The royal assent was then given in the usual form to the several bills which the Commons had brought up; after which, his Majesty, in a clear audible tone, delivered the following speech from the throne.

whom two hundred were immediately
strangled, and the rest were thrown
into prison, in all probability to
share a similar fate. A rising in
that capital of the Janissaries had
also taken place, but it was repressed
by the Vizier, who called in the as-
sistance of the Asiatic troops; 200
of the Janissaries are stated to have
fallen. The insurrection was caused,
it is said, by a suspicion on their
part, that the Turkish government
intended to get rid of them-a not
improbable suspicion certainly, if we
consider the frequent mutinies and
massacres which they occasion. A
meeting, we are glad to say, has
been called in Edinburgh, in favour
of the Greeks, and a subscription
commenced for the surviving Sciots;
the first resolution says most happily
and truly, that "the name and his-
tory of the Greeks are associated
with recollections of the most sacred
nature, and excite in the breast of
the scholar, the patriot, and the
Christian, a deep and lively interest
in the fate of that once illustrious,
but long oppressed and degraded peo-
ple." The meeting was numerously
attended, and its object taken up
with a zeal to which we heartily wish
success. It is now said, but with
what truth we know not, that the
Russian army upon the borders of
Russia had shown very decided symp-
toms of a new born democratic spirit!
If this be true, perhaps Russian boors
may yet write the epitaph of the
Holy Alliance. A considerable op-
position begins to manifest itself to
the nomination of Iturbide, the new
Mexican Emperor. He has promul-
gated his free constitution; the first
article of which is, that "the Catholic
religion is the religion of the state,
and that none other shall be tolerated!”
Our domestic abstract for this month
contains some intelligence of public
interest, and some, we regret to say,
of a painful nature. We shall take
the details, however, in their order.
On the 6th of August the parliament
was prorogued by his Majesty in
person. The House of Lords was
opened at an early hour, and every
possible preparation was made to
give eclat to the ceremony. We
never witnessed a finer display of
beautiful and magnificently dressed
females, who, with the Peers in their

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My Lords and Gentlemen,-I cannot release you from your attendance in Parliament, without assuring you how sensible I am of the attention you have paid to the many important objects which have been brought before you in the course of this long and laborious Session.

I continue to receive from Foreign friendly disposition towards this country; Powers the strongest assurances of their and I have the satisfaction of believing, that the differences which had unfortunately arisen between the Court of St. Petersburg and the Ottoman Porte are in such a train of adjustment as to afford a fair

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