debt to Italy was ingeniously expressed--though not by _Punch_--in the Latin tag: _Costam subduximus Apennino_. Balfe, it is true, had scored a resounding success in 1843 with _The Bohemian Girl_, which still holds the boards. The fact that it is commonly known in the profession as "The Bo Girl" is perhaps the best index to its artistic value. But Balfe was at least equally well known as a conductor of Italian opera. _Punch_ supported the claims of native and national opera, and regretted that Adelaide Kemble, "our first English operatic singer," should not have made an effort in its behalf in connexion with the venture at Drury Lane in 1841, when a Mr. Rodwell was the only native composer represented. The reason alleged for the rejection of other English operas submitted was the badness of the _libretti_. Italian opera _libretti_ were often satirized by _Punch_, but those of Fitzball and Bunn were, if possible, worse. Italian opera, however, the only opera which really counted in the social world, was the luxury and appanage of the nobility and gentry. The importance and significance of the institution at this time, and for many years afterwards, are really very well summed up in an article which _Punch_ reproduced from the _Morning Post_ in 1843 with italics and comments of his own at the expense of "Jenkins":-- "The Opera is the place of rendezvous of those persons who, _de facto_, as well as _de jure_, are, in their several different spheres, the leaders and models of society. It is not only to hear an Opera which they may have seen a hundred times that the distinguished subscribers assemble. There, most men of consequence _literary and artistical_ (pretty egotist) as well as the noble and fashionable, have agreed to meet during the season. There, the fair tenants of the boxes receive those friendly and agreeable visits which do not consist in the delivery of a _piece of engraved postcard to a servant_. Charming _causeries_ are constantly proceeding _sotto voce_ (of course Jenkins listens), the music filling up the pauses of a conversation which the more often it is interrupted by the bright efforts of the singers--with the more zest and piquancy _it is resumed_. We, whose office it is to record daily events--things as they are--and hold the _glass up to fashion_ (whilst fashion arranges its evening tie) can but seek to imitate this course of things--and we do so with only one regret--that motives of delicacy compel us to reflect rather the general sentiments that prevail, than those private opinions which have most piquancy." [Sidenote: _"Jenkins" as Musical Critic_] For sheer ecstasy of flunkeydom "Jenkins" was unsurpassed and unsurpassable, but at least he was capable of recognizing native talent, as may be gleaned from his notice of _Semiramide_ in English in the winter of 1842:--