of justice; no more. They ask only for the few, very few hours which remain after a day of toil, to recruit the exhausted body, and provide that share of mental instruction and recreation, and of social intercourse, which may raise them beyond | the brute condition they are not content to occupy.

We would earnestly beseech those who may consider such a scheme as Utopian, to attend, whenever they may have an opportunity, such a meeting as that to which we refer. They will then have all their doubts most satisfactorily removed, and find that purchasers, that is to say, the public, would share with employers the advantages for which the assistants ask. Meanwhile, each individual will be doing a good deed, pleasant to look back on, who exerts his or her influence, in however small a circle, in preventing the late shopping, for so long as people will buy, sellers will be found. Let them remember, business is not done even when the shop closes; and let them ask, if twelve hours' incessant toil out of the four-andtwenty be not enough for poor humanity.

Macready, and an experiment again made in favour of the legitimate.

Of the Bohemian Girl, which ran so very many nights last season, it is unnecessary to say any thing, and the same will hold good of the Brides of Venice and Acis and Galatea, though several of the characters were differently sustained. The Bohemian Girl has been by far the most successful of the revivals, drawing, on every night of its representation, most crowded houses. The Corsair, also, has been the ballet, which has made a hit, and deservedly, for though it sometimes hangs heavy, yet upon the whole it is a most spirited and happily conceived affair, doing much credit to Monsieur Albert, its inventor. The pas de divers gens, in which Messrs. Delferier, Webster, and Mademoiselle A. Delbes appear, are very good, while the pas de deux, executed by Monsieur Montessu and Miss Clara Webster, gained the utmost applause. The dancing of Adele Dumilatre however, is the grand feature of the ballet, to which is added a very singular and elegantly conceived series of tableaux-"The Corsair's dream."

About ten days since, the manager produced the first operatic novelty of the season, in the shape of

AMUSEMENTS OF THE MONTH. The Syren, with the most complete and unquali

DRURY LANE.

fied success. It is a comic opera by Auber, with a libretto for the English stage furnished by Mr. G. Soane. It is full of the able composer's variety of conception, rich fancy, and correct musical taste, with brilliant and charming airs, and very effective concerted pieces. In the first act is a quartet “Oh, nymph too shy and fearful," beautiful, rich, and expressive, which was very loudly applauded. The plot of the opera was so exceedingly intricate that we gladly avail ourselves of an unravelment, since we ourselves had some difficulty in making it out; the interest which should attach to the Syren being too much centred on Scopetto, the captain of a band of smugglers and banditti, on the Abruzzi.

Alfred Bunn, regius professor of Drury Lane, has lately dared the perils of a patent theatre, and opened with an operatic, dramatic, and balletic company of very great ability. Of course, for reasons best known to themselves, certain parties have attacked the talented manager, and found fault with his non-production of Shakspeare and the legitimate drama. No word has been more desecrated than this same word legitimate. The opening of a theatre must always be a speculation, as the law stands, and a manager must produce that which will pay. Tragedy, comedy, and plays require to be produced at Drury Lane with a The piece commences with a scene in a solitary company so powerful and so expensive, that it vicarage, in the mountains, where two travellers cannot remunerate the lessee, for despite of every meet by chance. Scipio, the commander of the assertion to the contrary, the legitimate drama at Neapolitan gun brig Etna, and Bolbaya, the high-priced theatres does not produce a constancy manager of the theatre at Naples, in search of a of full houses. Mr. Bunn, therefore, has thought|prima donna. The conversation turns upon the fit to try operas, dramas, and ballets, and, in our opinion, very judiciously, and has shown his disposition to support native talent, by engaging some of our first English vocalists, Misses Rainsforth and Romer, Messrs. Harrison and Stretton, and by introducing a new and most talented singer, Donald King, to say nothing of Miss Delcy, who has been eminently successful. In the ballet department, despite the superior popularity of Adele Dumilatre, Clara Webster is native, and fully equal to many whose foreign names constitute their chief attraction. Adele Dumilatre, however, is a most elegant and graceful danseuse.

The Bohemian Girl, Acis and Galatea, Brides of Venice, and The Syren have been produced with much success, and we have little doubt a very prosperous season will show the wisdom of the manager's policy. We still hope, however, that Covent Garden will be opened on the return of

daring actions of Marco Tempesta, a notorious smuggler and bandit, who is said to be invulnerable, and who has succeeded his father in his illegal profession. Much, however, as Bolbaya dreads the terrible Marco, his fears are mastered by his curiosity to discover a mysterious being called the Syren, who is said to possess a marvellously sweet voice, and has frequently been heard singing in the mountains. Could he but engage this ravishing vocalist as his prima donna, his fortune would be made. While they speak, the Syren is heard warbling her wild notes outside the window, at the moment Scopetto (who, by the way, is the real Marco Tempesta), enters to take shelter from the rain, which has begun to descend in torrents. The frank bearing of the young naval officer takes Scopetto's fancy, and he even goes so far as to offer him his sister Zerlina's hand in marriage. This proof of the stranger's partiality to him is modestly declined by Scipio, and he then informs him that

an aria, which irresistibly draws from their posts the guards, who were placed at the different entrances to prevent the escape of Marco Tempesta. As the finale terminates, all the guests and guards are grouped around the fascinating songstress; and while they are applauding her last roulade, Scopetto, or, as he should now be called, Marco Tempesta, leaps from the terrace into the sea, and escapes, and thus the opera terminates.

Miss Rainforth, who undertook the part of Zerlina, the Syren, sang with all that exquisite grace and elegance, as well as judgment, which have raised her to so high a place in public estimation. Harrison, as the bandit chief, was unusually successful and happy, both in voice and acting; while Donald King, as Scipio, was most correct and effective in his personation of the part, while his singing was graceful, elegant, and tasteful, fully bearing out the high opinion we have previously had occasion to express of him.

The scenery was magnificent, the choral department and orchestra on a scale of effectiveness and power to be found at no other theatre, doing much credit both to the spirited manager, as well as Messrs. Benedict and Tully. In fine, the opera in every department, musical, dramatic, and scenic, was completely successful, and will doubtless attain to a very great degree of popularity, which it certainly deserves, were it only for the prodigious efforts made by the manager to produce it with all necessary brilliance and effect.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

his heart is already engaged, and that he is then on his route to Naples to report the capture of a smuggling vessel, in which Marco Tempesta had embarked a cargo worth fifty thousand piastres. The communication of this disagreeable intelligence to the smuggler fills him with rage, and he is about drawing his poignard upon Scipio, when the invisible Syren is again heard singing. Scipio, thinking he recognizes the tones of the voice, and Bolbaya, anxious to secure the mysterious vocalist, rush off in the direction from whence the voice proceeds. A new visitor now enters- this is the Duke de Popoli, Governor of the Abruzzi, who has been accosted by a female mask whom he had met the preceding evening at a ball, and who had appointed to meet him at the lone vicarage in the mountains. The duke recognizes Scopetto as a former servant of his, and instantly bestows on him his full confidence by relating to him the cause that induced him to visit the mountains. The masked lady does not, however, make her appearance, but a letter is conveyed instead to the duke from the Syren, informing him that she is in possession of certain papers which establish the existence of a legitimate child of his elder brother, whose recognition would deprive the duke of his title and estates. This document she offers to place in his hands in exchange for fifty thousand piastres, the value of the cargo belonging to Marco Tempesta, seized by Scipio, and now in the duke's possession. The duke plans with Scopetto to inveigle the Syren into some place where he shall have a party of troops in ambush, under pretence of acceding to her terms, and thus secure the paper and the Syren herself at a cheap rate. Scopetto, or Marco, who has also his own game to play, steals a description of himself which the police have transmitted to the duke, and substitutes for it a close description of Scipio, who is consequently seized by the gens d'armes who have come into the Abruzzi to capture the smuggler chief. In the second act the scene is laid in an inn, which, being open in front, and backed by the overhanging mountains, through whose winding and precipitous paths persons are seen ascending and descending, produces a very picturesque and novel stage effect. This inn is the rendezvous of the smugglers; and here Boibaya and Scipio enter, after an unsuccess- Few managers have been so fortunate as Mr. ful pursuit of the Syren through the mountains. Webster, and this by catering to the public taste The life of Scipio, whom the contrabandists recog-in a legitimate and praiseworthy manner. Comedy nize as the commander of the Etna, is on the point of being sacrificed by the enraged band, when Scopetto fortunately arrives in time to save him from their daggers. The duke, who has also been disappointed in meeting the Syren at the appointed place with the paper, next arrives at the inn, where Scopetto introduces the smugglers to him as the operatic company of the Court Theatre, with their manager, Bolbaya, who had been seized and stripped in the mountains by Marco Tempesta and his troop. The duke, who has a grand fete on the following day, instantly engages, also, by the advice of Scopetto, the whole corps, and they depart forthwith for the duke's palace of Popoli. It need scarcely be added that the impostor corps rifle the palace during the festivities, and that Zerlina, the Syren, who is Scopetto's sister, sings

Mademoiselle Nau for a prima donna, and WalThe Syren, and Don Casar de Bazan, with lack, as a hero in the play, have been completely successful. The latter is full of humour, incident, character, which too often is manifest in plays of and intrigue, with something of the objectionable French origin; however, it has been completely successful, and is performed nightly amid the most enthusiastic applause. This house, supported as it is by a most talented company, Mademoiselle Nau, Mrs. Stirling, Mrs. Clifford, Mr. Wallack and others, has commenced a season which gives every promise of being eminently successful.

HAYMARKET.

of the higher school, light and elegant pieces, clever farces, are the dramatic efforts which characterize this house. Vanbrugh's comedy of the Confederacy has been revived, first produced at the old Haymarket in 1705, and being now supported by Farren, Strickland, Charles Mathews, Madame Vestris, Miss P. Horton, and Miss Julia Bennett, has met with the most singular success. A farce, entitled Thimble-rig, founded on a clever tale in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, "Ten Pounds," has been very happily adapted and played by Buckstone, and a new version of Don Casar de Bazan, called a Match for a King, serves to bring the peculiar talents of Mr. Charles Mathews forward very effectively. Miss Julia Bennett, a clever and rising actress, was an admirable Marilana. The house fills every night.

arranged in chicerée wreaths; violet and green are favourite colours for these bonnets: a good many are lined with white satin. Those for halfdress are usually of light hues, as straw colour, pink, and blue; some have the exterior trimmed with velvet flowers, panaches, and the interior decorated with knots of velvet ribbon, shaded in the

fashionable a few years ago, will be revived, but that is not yet certain. Fur camails, so fashionable last winter, have reappeared, under the name of mantelets: they are of a large size, and made with sleeves; they are also fichu mantelets with long scarf ends, the back is of the fichu form. The Victorines are of a similar shape, but the scarf ends do not reach much more than half-colours of the flowers; others are decorated with way to the knee. Muffs have not increased in size. Cashmere shawls at present divide the Vogue with cloaks, though as the cold increases, they must be laid aside till the spring. The most novel, and I think the most beautiful, are the chales Mogador: I have sent you a model of one. There is more variety in the form of cloaks than I ever remembered to have seen; some that will be very much in vogue, composed of black velvet or satin, well wadded, and lined with gros de Naples, they are of rather more than a three-quarter length, and though not quite in the camail form, have a strong resemblance to it. Those composed of satin are either trimmed with velvet, or with a new and rich kind of cord laid on in different patterns; if the mantle is velvet, it is either trimmed with sable fur, or with passementerie. The manteau russe, always composed of velvet, has a tight corsage descending below the hips, and a sable or ermine pelerine attached to it of the heart form, but terminating in bands, which encircle the bottom of the corsage; long sleeves of moderate width, with fur cuffs. The mantle part falls in easy folds, from the shoulders, and is considerably shorter than the dress; it is always bordered with fur. Some of the most elegant pardessus, for carriage dress, are of the redingote form: they are composed of either velvet or satin, and made a little larger than the robe, so as to go on easily over it. They are lined with silk or satin, wadded, and always open in front. The trimming may be composed of fur, of embroidery in chenille, or of passementerie. There are several new kinds of the latter garniture. Another envelope that seems very likely to be fashionable is the paletot Grec; it is certainly a decided improvement upon the original form of that unbecoming wrap; they may be composed of velvet, satin, or

Cashmere; the corsage, formerly so shapeless, now sits close to the figure at the back; the fronts are as before-loose, and in a single piece only on each side. Wide sleeves, particularly so at the bottom, they are cleft half way up the forearm, and laced with silk cord, The skirt, of a half length only, has an opening at each side, laced in a similar manner. The garniture of the entire is always embroidery either in braiding or chenille.

Little change has as yet taken place in the forms of chapeaux and capotes; the brims of the former are something wider but not deeper, they remain of the same length, and are rounded at the corners; the crowns are a little, but very little, raised. Velvet, velours épinglé, and satin are the materials at present employed, but the latter is less extensively seen than the two former. Some fancy materials have appeared, but their vogue is as yet uncertain; a good many morning bonnets, and some half-dress ones are of satin, drawn in large runners; the first are trimmed with ribbon generally

willow plumes, ostrich, and fancy feathers, of which we have this season a very great variety. Velvet capotes, with demi-voiles of black lace, retained by a long ostrich feather, are much in request in négligé; and those composed entirely of black lace, trimmed with ribbons, striped or figured in black and rose colour, are among the prettiest half-dress coiffures for the spectacle. White satin capotes lined with pink, the interior trimmed with small flowers of a deeper shade of red, intermixed with blonde lace, and the exterior decorated with a wreath of white and rose-coloured shaded têtes de plumes, will also be in great request in half-dress. An attempt is making, but I think it will be an unsuccessful one, to bring velvet into favour for drawn bonnets; several of the velours épinglé chapeaux are trimmed at the edge of the brim, with a satin biais, and a satin bouillonnée on the left side of the crown; the right is decorated with a bouquet composed of apple blossoms intermixed with wild flowers and foliage; others of straw-coloured velours épinglé, are trimmed with knots of satin ribbon of the same hue, intermingled with a fullness of black lace. Black, ponceau, green, and violet, seem likely to be the favourite colours for velvet chapeaux. I have seen also several of light brown velvet decorated in the interior of the brim with a plissé of ponceau satin ribbon, and the exterior with a plume dentelée, shaded in white and ponceau. Shaded feathers and black and white lace have lost nothing of their vogue in the trimmings of chapeaux, shaded ribbons corresponding with the plumes generally accompany them. Black lace, though fashionable in half-dress, is also employed for the promenade, but white is seen only in demi toilette. A new style of trimming for the interior of the brim is composed of tulle, arranged

The majority of robes, both for the promenade

in a novel kind of bouillonnée.

and demi toilette, are of the redingote form, close corsages are gaining ground, and even those made open in front are much less so than they have been for some time past; thus there is but little of the chemisette seen, but that little is beautifully embroidered, as is also the collar of the chemisette. There is, as you will perceive by the models I send you, a good deal of variety in sleeves; those of the demi Espagnole form, I mean slashed at the bottom, are, I think, the most novel. There are likewise a good many made of a three-quarter length, or rather better; they are of the same width from the bottom to the top, but are cleft at the lower part. A good many sleeves of a threequarter length are quite tight to the arm, they are always made with mancherons and cuffs trimmed with bouillonnée embroidery in braiding, and velvet ribbon or ruches. If a sleeve is quite tight, there is nearly always some kind of trimming adopted. Velvet ribbon is in very great request. I have