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    Soirees" during the month or two of real summer we are-cntijfled'td hope for in this country , there would be no lack of visitors and no fear qf disorder . On Saturday , the 18 th > and on Wednesday last , we attended the two supplementary fdtes of the . Larly Closing Association , an institution we have always delighted to honour . The entertainments of Saturday , in addition to athletic amusements , comprised a selection of pieces admirably performed by Mr , James Ooward on the great festival" organ , and an excellent concert , supported by Madame Clara Novello , Madame Weiss , Miss Raiisford , and Mr . Weiss . The fete of Wednesday , though not equally favoured by the weather , was as well attended , the iven to under

    company numbering , as we were g - stand , more than ten thousand souls , who intensely relished the athletic games of the Foot Guards , the archery , the racing , the club-feats of Harrison , and the fountains , as far as permitted by the rain , which chose that inopportune moment for its descent . We can congratulate the directors upon the strictly " popular" character of yesterday ' s gathering . We watch their progress in this direction with interest , convinced that it is their only road to success . The satisfaction of the crowd and of the performers in the sports were alike gratifying to witness , and warrant our expectation that in a year or two we may assist at some metropolitan i and scale

    meetings on a ggantic yet more profitable . While we are disposed to give the company and their cibary contractors , the renowned Messrs . Sawyer and Co ., every credit due to them , let us suggest the hardship , and , if the attendance of the sober masses is to be cultivated , the impolicy of charging fourpence for a cup of tea . This is one of those important trifles to which the interest of the proprietary requires -attention . We all know for what a cup of average tea is purchaseable in town , and it is not to be supposed that any enormous enhancement in its cost can occur between Cornhill and the Crystal Palace . We may be answered that the royalty paid to the Company by Messrs .. Sawyer and Strange must be raised somehow , and that

    the consumers of particular articles cannot be ¦ exempted from the taxation which those contractors are thus compelled to levy . But we know enough of John Bull to believe that-he will abstain from places of amusement rather than be either ill-fed or overcharged , and we imagine , if the public once took alarm on this head , that the maintenance of the twopenny overcharge required to support the twopenny royalty would be found to keep away a more than equivalent number of shilling visitors . We understand that Mademoiselle Piccolomini will take leave of the English public at a farewell concert at the Crystal Palace , on Tuesday , the 28 th inst . She sails from Southampton for a lengthened tour in the United States , on the following day .

    Stuand Theatre . —Mr . Charles Selby cannot certainly complain , as many may with truth , that lie has no field , no scope , no opportunity ; for , in addition to his still successful and really pleasing comedietta , The Last of the Pigtails , and before its freshness has in the least faded , the Strand management have availed themselves of another of his productions , at the same time affording him another opportunity of displaying his talent on the stage . The Bonnie Fishwife is a bagatelle of the light , gay , and rapid order , without any wonderful amount of what is called unity , 01 of that anti-hilarious stiffness ¦ which results sometimes from the laborious pursuit of it . The hero of the pieqe , Wildcats fjeartycheer—very

    agreeably acted and most becomingly dressed by Mr , Parselle—a frail , yet withal a rare good fellow , is desired , in the usual authoritative manner of stage fathers , by his genial parent , Sir Hickory ( Selby ) , to put attend to his youthful follies by a marriage with one Mi » 8 Thistledown ( Miss M , Oliver ) , a ricli and accomplished Devonshire heiress , whom , in his hot and jaundiced opposition to the parental behest , he has pictured to himself as a perfect Gorgon ; Sooner than be made happy with such a being upon compulsion , he retreats , but noc unobserved by the family , to a Scottish bothie , to indulge in wild sports and a passion conceived during the previous season for a bonnie little fishwife , Maggy M'Farlane . He renews his vows ; but being rather shy on the question

    ot niatnmpny , her parents , Mr . M'Farlane , late of the 42 nd , a besotted old Gael , and his hideous Meg Merrilies of a epouso , arc inclined to treat him with , 4 cant courtesy . Mollified , however , by his declaration of honourable intentions , this puir indulge for joy in a wild Highland fling , and having consented to the union , discover themselves to be the gay old 4 ? ar , o « etrftodJiiswVftlet ^ G aiVer »^ r 6 lATke ) r ^ lro ^ nmr inade MUs ThiatledQivn > alias Maggy , their accomplice in this mnsquorade to test the heart of the scapegrace heir , and to ensure and hasten hie extrication jrom his erratic orbit , Miss M . Oliver , as the draw-Wg-room belieand the broad Scotch lassie , displayed Mb usual Intelligence and grace , as well as a degree w voonl talent that ensured warm enwres for her flottgs , « Love ' s sweet summer , " and " Who'il buy fljy oftUorhorrin ' i" although wo nauat observe that

    the fair vocalist might even add to the very pleasing effect of her singing and save herself needless exertion by the adoption of a somewhat slower tempo Neither the popular author of the Bonnie Fishwife , nor his worthy second , Mr . Clarke , who -were both excessively amusing in their Scoth disguises , are very successful in their Highland dialect , but we can , nevertheless , quite endorse the lively approbation bestowed by a numerous audience upon this elegant trifle . ¦ . _ . . Olympic Theatre . — Mr . Oxenford ' s admirable

    little comedy , TheDoubtful Victory , with the ever popular Mrs . Stirling , Hush Money , and Ticklish Times , were chosen by Mr . Robson for the opening of his winter campaign . This well-established favourite , who seems to have brought back with him a fresh stock of physical and mental energy , was received with every manifestation of delight by a crowd of visitors , of whom " the groundlings" especially found undoubted cause of satisfaction in the substitution of cushions for the well-worn knife-boards , for the hardship of which they have been used to be contented for the sake of " seeing Robson . "

    Sadler ' s Wells Theatre . —On Saturday last Mr . Phelps reproduced Sir E . L . Bulwer ' s Richelieu , in which this eminent actor has always reaped new laurels . The interesting part of Julia was confided to Miss Grace Egerton , a debutante of whom it is at present sufficient to observe that she has decided capabilities requiring a degree of development which , if permitted the continuous advantage of a position in Mr . Phelps ' s company , she can secure , and will doubtless profit by . The ofCas

    English Opera , Drurt I , ANE .-T- Rose tille continues to be so . attractive that we have still no report to give of the expected production of Flotow ' s Martha . Anxiously as we may look for that pleasure , we are yet glad to learn that this spirited enterprise , which , when first undertaken by Mr . Harrison , was , to say the least , hazardous , lias assumed so satisfactory a complexion as to decide him against the production for the present of any other work—in fact , to " let well alone . " the

    Lyceum Theatre . — While we gladly welcome reappearance of Mr . Leigh Murray upon these boards ( we hope for a longer engagement ) , and his succesful adoption of the part of Frank Hawthorne , in the comedy of Extremes , we can hardly part with Mr . Falconer , who , while seeking the right man for the right place , himself filled the part of his hero , without a kind and commendatory adieu . His addition of Mr . Leigh Murray ( who appeared on Thursday evering ) to the cast of his play is certainly advantageous , for whom could he have found better , nay , so skilled in the delivery of the Hawthorne sarcasms , or , of the noble resignation of wife , love , hope , arid fortune , in the last act ? Mr . Murray , who was

    fully as successful as we had anticipated , and warmly welcomed by troops of friends and admirers , exerted himself to the utmost . So did the everfascinating Miss Woolgar ; and Emery , who has mightily improved his costume as Robin . So , again , did Mrs , Weston , who , as glorious old dame Wildbriar , takes our hearts by storm as well as our sense of comedy . To conclude , we must say that although some of the redundancies have , as suggested by ourselves and all our contemporaries , been pruned away , the play is still—pardon us , gentle authorreally a full half hour too long . It drags , and somehow will drag , though even the slowest of its portions , we must confess , find favour with some part of the audience . It must be either too long , Or the dramatis personal must all " take the time , "

    musicians say , too slow . It seems to us that if the fire were a bit concentrated , the steam would be brisker , the whole train of the piece get on faster , and the Extremes would meet with even greater success than it has already so fairly earned . A new divertissement by Jonn Lauri , called the Rendezvous , now follows the comedy , in which the Lauri family , an admirable company of comic dancers , or as some one has bettor said , bovffa dancers , have made a great sensation among the amateurs of the ballet . We have pleasure in attracting attention to the announcement that Mr . J . Kinloch , a very worthy and well appreciated member of the profession , proposes to tako a benefit at this theatre on Wednesday next , when Mr . Falconer ' s comedy , and other entertainments , will be produced .

    Koyal Dramatic Colleom . — At the meeting of the executive committee at the Freemasons' Tavern on Wednesday last , Mr . Webster in the chair , many new subscriptions were announced , and among them a most gratifying one of 1 lit . ? 6 a . GJ ,, the result of TJeT ^ irTrrtlo ^ Tlie very feeling letter of Mr . James Henry Chute , covering the remittance , says that , " performers , musicians , the press , printers , gas company ' s servants , doorkeepers , and supernumeraries gave , and gavo cheerfully . " This was something like a benefit , The charity of the givers demands recognition at the hands of nil frionda of the drama , and its imitation throughout tho profession would support a noble institution indeed .

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    WILL THE ENGLISH BACE DEGENERATE ? A . . favourite objection to English , settlement in the hill regions of India , is that the race will degenerate and in the fourth generation become extinct . These views are boldly put forth by some of the so-called practical men connected with India , but strangely enoug h , there is no proof of degeneracy in . the hill children , and as the first cottage in Simla itself was only ^ builib by Lieutenant Ross in 1819 , and as a fourth generation has not yet been born , and no

    generation has become extinct , there is not a tittle of evidence to support the notions . Mr . Ranald Martin , Captain Ouchterlony , Colonel Onslow , and other witnesses connected with the lulls , all bear evidence that the English children are ruddy and healthy , and as fine-grown as can be desired * and many of the hill climates are considered particularly favourable to them . It is strange , but none the less true , that the theory of degeneracy has been very widely propagated and is seriously discussed , being one of the cunning and paltry devices put forward to obstruct English settlewinch at

    ment in India , the opponents of stop no invention : Thus we were told officially , with respect to some of the finest countries in the world , that they could produce nothing , and that there was not a field a Wndred feet square to be got in them . The degeneracy doctrine belongs to the same class of inventions , but being propagated by men connected with India is believed in by many and is acting prejudicially : because it is held to be quite futile to send English settlers to India , as their offspring must degenerate , ' and become extinct , without creating any permanent English , population in India .

    The reason for this zeal in checking emigration is the simple one that the parties still desire to exclude Englishmen from India , in order that they may , if possible , retain the government in their own hands , unrestrained by an active and enlightened English public ; and also keep the whole population within their territories subject to the Black Act . On the other hand , all the authorities connected with the hill and upland regions—Colonel Onslow , Dr . Archibald Campbell , Lord J . Hay , Captain Ouchterlony , and the other superintendents and exsuperiutendents of the hills , are strenuous in inviting English settlers , and have been supported by the home and supreme Governments in giving liberal grants of land and every facility to settlers , civil and military .

    If the assertion were true that the English race degenerates in the hill regions of India , it would be a very serious matter ; at all events it is worth consideration , and the more so as the supporters of it have taken upon themselves to revive the notion that the English race is degenerating and dying out in the United States , and that the same fate attends it in Australia . While the world at large believes that our race lias made good its footing in the northern continent of America and is extending in Australia and South Africa , there are not wanting -some who pronounce its doom . The degeneration , theory is allowed to be propagated with the less

    check because there is among the pubho a favourite theory that the English are a mixed race , a special compound of Romans , Welsh , English , Panes , and J ! 4 o , rmans . i , an , 4 this , doctrine leads to . very , confused ethnological xiotions . The subject has this disadvantage , that the facts have never been properly brought together . There is consequently no agreement on the premises , and tho laws which affect ^ the characteristics of race are by no means well determined . Tho same persons who are most ardent in broaching the theory of degeneracy of race—that is , the loss of tho

    characteristics or permanent distinctions of race—do not admit that there are permanent distinctions of race , or that tho Anglo * Saxon race possesses such distinctions . The subject , however , is one which can ^ 0 « inor ^» fftvouinably » 8 Uidied » by-thetobservantKlndiau----than by any member of the community , because , in India , there is suoh a variety of races , so mauy hybrids and so " many of varying poriods of introduction , as to afford good scope for tho disoussion of the phenomena . These foots could bo brought to bear upon the question now under discussion , and would materially assist in doternuuing it . What is tho English race , wluofc m to bo J ^«* » dogouoracy and oxtiuotion , ought to bo tho Orst pomt

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    ^ ^ 1007

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    IN I > I A .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 1007, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2261/page/23/