to sing the praises of such a
trump of an emperor. The air, which is chosen as the vehicle to carry
all this adulation to royal ears, is apparently one of those crashing,
clashing passages in the overture; and if the emperor does not hear the
voice of flattery, it is because the gentlemen who preside over the
kettle-drum and cymbals, seem to have entered into a conspiracy to
prevent it. The more zealous the chorus is in its efforts to make an
agreeable impression on their sovereign, and the louder the voice is
raised for this object, the more that irritable old drummer seems
anxious to defeat their sycophantic purposes. If you are one of those
excitable persons who are prone to take a side in every contest that
comes under their observation, whether it be two gentlemen ranging for
the presidency, or two bull-terriers "punishing" each other for the
possession of a bone, you immediately determine who you hope may carry
their point. In your admiration of the dogged perseverance of the old
drummer, you take part in favour of the instruments, and when you hear
that sudden and awful clash of the cymbals, which causes you to start
till you dig your elbow into an elderly gentleman on one side, and tread
on some corny toes on the other, you felicitate yourself upon the
victory of parchment and brass over throats; but the next moment your
pleasure is extinguished, for the tenor and soprano give their voices an
extra lift, and away they go up like rockets, far aloft above the din of
horns, cymbals and kettle drums.

The fourth and last act represents the terrace of a highly illuminated
palace, which may be seen in the back ground. Some masked gentlemen,
very bandy-legged and knock-kneed, dressed in tight hose, well
calculated to exhibit these deformities, are observed flirting with some
of the before mentioned thick-ankled ladies, who likewise rejoice in
dominos. Every thing indicates that this is a place, where people are in
the habit of being extremely jolly, and from which such stupid things as
parties to which a few friends are invited "very sociably", or family
re-unions, are entirely abolished. Presently all the company break out
with the expression of one general wish for the unbounded prosperity of
the outlaw chief and the heroine whom we saw betrothed in the last act,
and who have just been married. They make their exit shortly afterward
in great precipitation, having been frightened from the stage by the
appearance of a