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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd October 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, ^ am OrrroKim 2. 1858. 1 T H E L E E U.

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      ? Theatres And Public Entertainments. Py...

      carrv the operatic company ' s season triumphantl y ^© Christmas . The production of Martha seems as far off as ever . In announcing it for last Monday week , Mr . Harrison reckoned without his guests , the public , who still so zealously patronise the Hose oj Castille as to leave no other course open to the prudent manager than to let well alone . Stkand . —The prolific Pegasus of Mr . Charles Selby seems to have taken the bit between his teeth in earnest . In our last number we had to record the unqualified success of his second contribution to Miss Swanborpugh ' s repertory ; » nd we have hi My Aunt ' s Husband a piece so much more extravagant and farcical , so much more admired by the audience * that we only refrain from superlatives under the

      apprehension that we might exhaust our treasury , and be forced to dishonour his next week ' s draughts upon our admiration . My Aunt ' s Husband , for so is called Mr . Selby ' s last novelty , represents the passions roused in the bosoms of some quiet people , and the annoyances inflicted upon them by the prying , meddlesome propensities of a fussy old woman , whom the audience have the pleasure of seeing ultimately discomfited . A certain Mr . andMrs . Nettleiop ( Mr . Mowbray and Miss E . Wilton ) are entitled to claim a real estate should the life tenant , their Aunt ( Mrs . Leigh Murray ) , commit matrimony . Their curiosity is excited , and their acquisitiveness awakened , by a social detective in the shape of Mrs . ob

      Moulsey Miffins ( Mrs . Selby ) . This lady having - served indications of matrimony between the said aunt and one Captain Touchwood ( Mr . "W . H . Swanboroug h )* who suspiciously enough lodges in the same house , persuades the Nettletops to join her in a morning visit in . quest of the ocular proof . But a valet , Sniggers ( Mr . J . Clarke ) , and Kitty , the maid , ( Miss M . Tern an ) , who are aware of the scheme , defeat it by a timely warning to the Touchwoods , who , when the visitors arrive , are able to dissipate the notion of their being man arid wife . Sniggers heightens the effect by appearing in Gorgon guise as the abandoned wife of Touchwood , but the premature rejoicings of the successful schemers lead to a discovery . They are compelled to acknowledge the in the nick of

      marriage ; but a second will turning up time , the Nettlelops are saved further investigations , and their Aunt ' s Husband remains in quiet enjoyment of his wife and her property . All the performers exerted themselves to the utmost , and the result was a complete success . The extravagant costume and gestures of Clarke delighted the uncritical public beyond measure , and the most fastidious could not question the talent displayed by Mrs . Selby in the composite character of Mrs . Miffins , who combines the peculiarities of our old friends Mesdames Gamp , Malaprop , and Nichleby . The piece was announced , as usual , for repetition , with the usual absence of the one dissentient voice , that , if present , would inevitably have been drowned in the tempest of approbation .

      Olympic . —A one-act comedietta , called A Twicetold Tale , by Mr . J . P . Wooler , was produced here on Monday night , which , being of indisputably native origin , we are bound to notice at some length . Messrs . Barnacle Breezeley and Percy Gauntlett ( Lewis Ball and Walter Gordon ) , after many happy years of faithful bachelor friendship , turn their thoughts simultaneously towards matrimony . The latter , having an eligible match in view , sends the former as a spy

      into the promised land ; but the treacherous Barnacle , while sending a most uninviting report to his principal , wins the lady for himself , and is introduced to the audience as a Benedict , happy in the society of Mrs . Breezeley ( Miss Wyndham ) and her lady-companion , Miss Mannerly ( Miss Hughes ) . But n bombshell is thrown into his felicity when the betrayed Percy Gaunllett invites himself to spend a week with them , and he is put to his wits' end to conceal at once the charms of his bride and the fraud he has

      committed . Failing to persuado Mrs . Breezeley to adopt disguises and simulate deformities , he adopts her proposal to pass herself off as Miss Mannerly , and to introduce Miss Mannerly as Mrs . Barnacle . The result is that Percy , aware all the time of the plot , pretends to fall in love witli the bride , and the unhappy Breezeley , reduced to desperation and drinking , threatens to demolish every trace of his happy home , rafflo his baby , and destroy himself . He is in mercy spared those frightful steps by the confession of a precedent marriage between Miss Mannerly and Gannthtt , who had concocted between thoin this moral lesson against a first deceit . We have only

      space to notice the ingonulty and care with which this little piece is constructed , written , and acted . POJLYQRAPHIO ILUX , KlNa Wn , LIAM-STttBET , WEST Stranp . —Herr Wiljalbu tfrtkoH continues to bask in the approbation of stalls , boxes , and area . His showers of drums , flags , bonbons , and flowers , and the wondroua contradictions of the old saying , " Ex nihilo nil Jit , " with which ho opened his eeason , have proved so attractive ] that , up to our last visit , ho had found it inexpedient to amend his bill . Wo were under the impression that such was his intention for Monday next , but unless our advertising columns announce

      to the contrary we must suppose him "to be taken as before . " Crtstal , Palace . —Mdlle . Piccolomini ' s farewell concert came off with eclat , pursuant to advertisement , on the 28 th . Mr . Manns , the company s director of musiej takes his benefit this afternoon , and promises a host of attractions . The names ofMadaine Poma , Mdlles . Louisa Vinning ; and Stabbach , and of Messrs . George Perren , Molique , and Kemenyi guarantee a well-executed concert , and we may fully rely upon Mr . Manns for a popular selection . We have always , we confess , missed the superb band of wind instruments which in former years used to animate the crowd on the terraces of the palace . The

      Stringed instruments , under the new and skilful conductorship of Mr . Manns , may gratify musical enthusiasts ; but though the company may not have observed it , the sounding brass and tinkling c j " ^ of the old regime , appeal adpopulum , beyond a doubt , far more than any recent substitutes . We hence anticipate a rush to the vocal and military festival announced by Mr . Distin for Saturday next , under every description of patronage ( forgetting the people themselves ) , from the altitudes of Royalty to the bathos of Lord-Mayoralty . Among Mr , Distin s minor stars , the bright particular luminaries are Mesdames Rudersdorffand Albertazzi ; Misses Dolby , PooleRansfordand Messent ; with Messrs . Perren ,

      , , Thorpe Peed , Donald King , and J . W . Morgan , of the Rochester choir . The orchestra will comprise the 1-and of the Royal Artillery ( eighty strong ) , with those of the Engineers , the 36 th and 47 th Foot , and the 1 lth Hussars , with a due complement of drum-, mers , fifers , and buglers , besides the Crystal Palace band proper , and the Distin corps of ten " Fliigel horns . " Under the management of one so thoroug hly at home in military music as Mr . Distin , we may look for a concert quite as attractive , if not superior , to that presented on the occasion of the visits of the renowned French and Belgian military band ' s . The presence of our own Artillery band is alone , we have no hesitation in saying , quite sufficient to ensure

      this . Egy ptian Hall , Piccadilly . — Mr . and Mrs . -Howard Paul have effected material changes , and also , we are glad to say , improvements , in their programme . Features we have previously noticed as interesting are retained , while new and very attractive matter has been added , upon which we intend to comment in an early impression . Hayma . rk . et . —This theatre has never looked more beautiful to us—and we are no young playgoers—than in its present simple , tasteful livery of white and gold . Its glass lustre cleaned ( not before it was desirable ) , and Mr . Calleott ' s new drop-scene , lend enchantment to thPview . The fine old comedies

      Mr . Buckstone delights to revive , and the fine old actors and actresses he selects for their illustration , have been so long before the public , that criticism upon them would be trenching upon the province of palaeontology .- These antique casts , of whose true merit we are too often reminded by the defects of the moderns , present usually a level surface of mediocrity from which the evergreen Buckstone and Chippendale , the progressive William Farren , and the handsome and painstaking Mrs . Buckingham White may be considered pleasant

      excrescences . Of the Spanish dancers it is enough to say that they are still so intensely interesting as to crowd the establishment with genteel amateurs of the ballet at half price ; and to impugn the public verdict upon the stock Haymarket farces would be little short of heresy . Mr . Bayle Bernard , whom his friends will be enraged to hear us call , for certain reasons , the English Scribe , is reported to be at work upon a new play for this theatre . As it has so far approached maturity as to be announced in the bills , we may encourage our readers to wait a little longer in hopes of a new sensation .

      ^ Am Orrrokim 2. 1858. 1 T H E L E E U.

      ^ am OrrroKim 2 . 1858 . 1 T H E L E E U .

      1035

      Once, I. I Sail'd Upon A Sunlit Sea Onco...

      ONCE , i . I sail'd upon a sunlit sea Onco when I was young , Laugh'd the sunshine down at me , Gilding my brown hair in its gleo , And burning golden on tho son , Once when 1 was young . ii . Heaven hung above her bright ewoot blue , Fniricti on tho green earth snng ; Tho flowers wore crystall'd with tho dew , Ami Faith was young and Hope was new , And ovory maiden fair and true , " Onco when I was young , XIX . There wna a music low and sweer , Like bells in other rung , And many a quaint and dear conceit I weav'd at our old trysting seat , Or lying at Ipst LllhiU ' s feet , . Onco whom I was young . FltEDEUIOK JR . NUGKNT .

      I N£I A.

      I N £ I A .

      Will, The English Eace Degenerate? [Seco...

      WILL , THE ENGLISH EACE DEGENERATE ? [ Second Article . ] One cause for the erroneous ideas prevalent on . the question of the generic character of the English is to be found in the definitions which have been laid down in ethnological works of the distinctive characteristics of races . There is such a desire for narrow and concise definitions among many scientificmen , such au affectation of compression , and such licit t

      forced attempts to realise the simp y of naure ,, that , as in many other cases , nature is set aside altogether . Thus the permanency of type is commonly rejected as a doctrine and a fact by most of the leading authorities , while those who admit it are none the less agreed to restrain the characteristics of the races within the narrowest liniits . Nature is said to be always simple , nature delights in squares and cubes , and cirfcles and spheres , and triangles and pentagons , and in mathematical discipline , so earnest are we that the omnipotent shall be confined to the

      powers so represented smallest range of operations , forgetting that there is no absolute mor al fitness in triangles , square s ^ and circles , that this is a mere imagination of the Platonists , and that a cycloid or an ellipse , or the most complicated figure , is as much within the compass of production . If we admit the doctrine of permanency of type it must be with an admission of the co-ordination of another doctrine that no _ t \ yo > individuals are in nature made alike , and that within , the liniits there is unbounded variety of modifications . One of the negro races is marked out to us distinctly and unmistakably by typical tokens of colour , for instance , and yet , on careful examination ,, no two individuals of one of these races is found

      to be identical . . i . Inasmuch as the families of the animal kingdom approach each other , so that in classification a system of groups is by some held to be more exact than a progressive system ; because the groups can be shown to have contact and . relations with each other , so in the groups or families great variety is to be recognised and distinctive individuality . The range of these differences varies greatly : it may be smaller or larcrer . varied by many causes—first , by

      the nature of the race , for some races have only a small range of variation , and more particularly the lower races ; and , secondly , by physical and moral causes , as those of climate , food , intermarriage , education , employment , and so forth . It does not follow because in a negro this range is very small ,, and because in a Jew or an Englishman this range is very great , that the negro is alone pure and the Jew and the Englishman to be held of mixed race-In the same way we may admit even a secular or periodical variation of the like character as the periodical variations in the operations of vital statistics pointed out b y the Registrar-General in his report on 185 G , published this week .

      Let us take the Jews , because there is a better agreement as to the fact of their constituting a type and a race . The hair is a very favourite characteristic with ethnologists , and the hair is a very valuable characteristic with regard to its texture and colour . Priohard went to the extent of referring all differences of hair and complexion to > three principal varieties : the melanocomous , or dark-haired ; the leucous , or albino ; the xanthous , or vcllow-haircd variety . In this latter he included

      all individuals who have light-brown , auburn , yellow , or red hair . Concurrently with these precise definitions it has been laid down that there is a Caucasian race , or family of mankind , embracing the Indo - Europeans , the Semitic races , and the Altaic or Turkish racos , and with regard to these Caucasians it is affirmed that the hair of the head is rarely of any other colour than brown or black . Having arrived at this apparent basis of definition , it could not fail to bo seen and acknowledged that the Caucasians , so far from being molanocoinous , are largely xauthocomous , for whether wo tnko jiuu

      Indo-Europoans or the Sonntio racos wo mm - viduals enough with red and yellow hair of various hues , and even with flaxen . Then tho olassifloation is carried down , and an attempt is nmdo to show tuac some of tho Indo-Eur 6 pcan raoos are mehuiocomous and some aro xanthocomous , insfanouiff among thelatter many Germanic raoos . If wo take tho Jews wo f ^^ . ^ J hair , indeed tho majority , and yet wo find nmny with brown and some with red hair , to such a number

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101858/page/19/