NOTES OF THE MONTH. 413 



" Dishonoured Bill," which bill was not accepted by the audience, it 

 wasprotested against and returned to the drawer after a few nights. It 

 has, however, been brought forward again, and is occasionally acted. 

 A new grand opera founded on Lord Byron's Corsair, and entitled 

 " The Pacha's Bridal," the music by F. Romer, the brother of the 

 vocalist, was received with more favour than it merited ; there is a 

 want of originality throughout; the melodies, such as they are, all 

 strike upon the ear like old acquaintances, and in the concerted piece 

 noise is the substitute for sense. The fine story of the Corsair is 

 made sad havoc with. All those splendours with which the poem was 

 so richly studded, the dramatist has omitted altogether, and rendered 

 all the characters as amiable as the members of a Temperance So- 

 ciety. From this charge Conrad must be exempted. He is trans- 

 formed into a jovial Bacchanalian, 'partial to the substantial joys of 

 the wine-cup, and perfectly devoid of that tender and romantic in- 

 terest with which the highly-gifted bard invested him. As the object 

 of this dramatist has been to transmogrify as much as possible every 

 well-known character in the poem, we suggest to him the adoption of 

 a similar course in futnre. Could he not turn " Richard the Third" into 

 a pastorah>pera, or make " Henry the Eighth" a singing misanthrope? 

 From the specimen now before us, there can be no question of his 

 success. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



August 27. " A cat of nine tails was turned out among other broken and 

 worn-out instruments of war from the Tower." Morning Chronicle. 



This gentle persuader to propriety of conduct was very improperly 

 presented to one of the by-standers, who, on beholding it, started 

 back a pace or two, and made an extemporaneous oration in the style 

 of the late Mr. Wilberforce ; after which display of eloquence he was 

 suffered to pocket " the cat," and depart to his domicile. Now all 

 this was manifestly wrong. The instrument in question should most 

 assuredly have been wrapped up and forwarded by a special messen- 

 ger to Sir John Cam Hobhouse to place'among his curiosities. It 

 would have awakened in him a series of agreeable reflections on his 

 consistency of conduct in parliament when the abolition of flogging 

 was canvassed Jin that assembly of talkers. Sir John, when "OUT 

 of place," thought it an implement too barbarous for the backs of his 

 countrymen, and spoke and voted accordingly. But now that he is 

 " IN place," he is decidedly of opinion that it is a very agreeable re- 

 creation, and extremely salutary to the constitution of the unhappy 

 victim who is doomed to wince under its torture. Alas, for the West- 

 minster radical candidate ! quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore qui 

 redit exuvias indutus A chillis ! ! 



September 1st." At Nantes, in the south of France, a man was sentenced 

 to be executed, but the fatal termination to his career could not be carried into 

 effect on account of the guillotine being out of order, and no carpenter could 

 be found to repair it, although a large sum was offered by way of remunera- 

 tion." French Paper. 



This occurrence is [particularly distressing. Either the people at 



