The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-12 00:00:00

We (Suffolk Chronicle) give it in the speaker's own words :
.‘ Some of you have heard of Haydon, the painter, whose
death was rather lamentable; and, no doubt, you have beard
that Sir Robert Peel, the late Prime Minister of England,
sent that man 501. in his &stress. It ought to be known,
by my moving about the country in this manner—and I
never thought of self, for I always had faith that my country-
men would not allow me to die in a Union, and that the
Almighty would not allow me to ask for the common neces-
sar es of life— that I had spent all my money. I was at last
reduced to the utmost extremity. I wanted a crust of bread,
yet I kept the secret within my own breast. I set out for
an obscure village, where I thought I would end my days.
A friend called upon me. And when I had not a single
stilling in my house, when I had nothing to offer him, for I
felt I should degiade my cause by running into debt, when
my poor dog was as thin as my children, 501. came from the
Prime Minister of England, Sir Robert Peel. Thus you see
there are two men whom he has benefited. One is now in
the eternal world, and the other is the humble individual
who stands before you."
ESSEX.
A NEW SPECIES OP MO•sosIANIA.—At Stratford resides
an old and eccentric personage, possessed of considerable
house property, who has a monomania for empty houses, and
to such an extent does he indulge in this species of madness,
that houses which would realise an annual aggregate rental
of between 5001. and 6001. he allows to stand empty, nor will
the solicitations and importunities of his best friends induce
him to let them. lie is in the daily habit of calling on some
of his neighbours, as he states, for a chat to pass away the
time, but when interrogated about permitting his houses to
stand empty, he invariably replies he has no time to attend
to that matter. The loss already sustained, in parochial rates,
i.• the parish of West Ham, from this empty-house mania, is
estimated at from 1,1001. to 1,2001.

Vibe 'Drama.
HATMARKET.—So scanty was the audience at this
theatre on Saturday night, that the house, despite its fresh
and bright decorations, looked quite cheerless. It was time,
therefore, for the manager to offer some new entertainment
to the public, and accordingly there was presented, for the
first time, a drama, in three acts, " founded on the' Mous-
quetaires de la Heine,'" called " Queen Mary's Bower."
On the assumption that this piece is a fair specimen of the
distinction between " versions" or " adaptations" of French
plays, and productions " founded" on them, we unhesita-
tingly declare our preference of the latter. "Queen Mary's
Bower" turns upon a plot in the abstract identical with that
of Halevy'a opera, but the treatment is essentially English,
the personages, the wants, the allusions, the scene, all Eng-
lish. Then, instead of a clumsy translation of a vapid
French text, the dialogue is original, elevated in tone,
choice in diction, always vivacious, and often witty. Consi-
dered as a literary production, and making every allowance for
the fact that it is cleansed of the stupid lyrics which are
accounted proper to opera, " Queen Mary's Bower" is not
approached even by the work that suggested it. To the
foreign author, however, is due the invention of a story full
of dramatic effects, not improbable in its complications, but
diverting in its difficulties, and natural in the solution. The
scene is laid at Hampton Court in the days of James 11.,
and his Queen, Mary Beatrice, the least renowned of unfor-
tunate princesses. There quartered are Captain O'DonogAue,
and Lieutenant Ormond, of the Queen's troop of Life
Guards, and the Laird of Killekrankie, a major of Scotch
Dragoons; the first an Irishman of irrepressible spirits,
unostentatious courage, and insatiable taste for gallantry ;
the second a quiet contemplative Englishman; the third an
old soldier, who regards the duello as the subliroest institu-
tion of civilised society, hates O'Donoghue for the imper-
turbable good humour with which he explains away all topics
of offence, and loves Ormond as the son of an old and departed
comiade. On duty at Hampton Court also, as maids of honour,
to the Queen, are Lady Arabella Mordaunt and Miss Lucy
Desbrough. The hand of the former has been promised by
the Queen to a Spanish grandee, the Duke of Villa Hermosa,
but she is in love with Ormond, and she believes that he is
the person who overheard her make the avowal of her affec-
tion for him to one of her companions, and that it is with
him that she is interchanging, though before the world they
appear strangers, unsigned loveletters deposited in a certain
tree in thegarden. Lucy Desbrough suffers a sneaking kind-
ness, as it is termed, for O'Donoghue, who, though he really
prefers her, is the correspondent of Arabella, whose secret lie
has overheard, with the exception, indeed, of the name of the
person she loves, which, however, he fancies must be his
own. The first act terminates with a meeting between
Arabella, attended at a discreet distance by Luey and
O'Donoghue, in Queen Mary's Bower at 11 at night, in which
the7atter;escapes undiscovered, hut is dismissed for his forward-
ness, after the failure of some ludicrous attempts to induce the
lady to name the person she loves. In the second act it is an-
nounced to Ormond that by the death of a cousin he has become
the Marquis of Elrington. He, at once, makes known to
("Donoghue that he loves Arabella, and asks his friend to
present him to her. At that moment Arabella and Lucy
approach ; the presentation takes place ; and Ormond is
perfectly confounded at the treatment which he receives.
Lucy is induced to mediate, and is successful ; but, just as a
page brings a note, summoning him to the presence of his
mistress, Ormond is arrested on • charge of treason and
murder. The punctiliousness of his Scotch friend had com-
pelled him the night before to challenge a man, named
Barnewell, and that very morning had been fixed for the ,
duel; but, almost immediately after the quarrel Barnwell had '
been slain in the street. The duel has not taken place, but
on the body treasonable papers implicating the Marguisof
El-
rington have been found. At the news of the arrest, Arabella
and Lucy come forward, and the curtain drops on the second
act, as they declare, to the amazement of Ormond, the con-
fusion of O'Donoghue, and the delight of the Scotch major,
that they will, in a court of justice, attest on oath the pre-
sence of Ormond in Queen Mary's bower, for the purpose
of keeping an assignation with Arabella, at the very moment
when the murder of Barneteell must have taken place. In
the third act, the innocence of Ormond has been made clear ;
he is about to marry Arabella, with the Queen's consent;
but, is an interview with her, he discovers the trick that has
been played by some one, and he vows the death of the man
who has been guilty of it. He first applies to the Scotch
major to find out and challenge the dehnquent ; but that
worthy has forsworn the duello, having made a vow to St.
Andrew that if Ormond should escape he would never again
engage in a personal quarrel. He then applies
to ("Donoghue, who promises that he shall be
avenged. To keep this promise without committing
suicide, the Irishman hints to the Scotch major that
he would like to fight a duel with him; and, after a most
amusing scene, in no way inferior to the similar one in " The
Rivals," the Laird becomes convinced that to fight in
Ormond's quarrel is not to fight in a personal quarrel, and
the duel is arranged. Before it takes place O'Donoghue
finds Lucy, with some solemnity takes leave of her, and at
the same time charges her to deliver a certain letter to
Ormond an hour after he has gone. Before she can recover
from the perplexity and distress which this communication
has occasioned, Ormond appears, and produces a glove which
be has picked up in the bower, and she pronounces it to be one
that O'Donoghue had snatched from her. The violence of
Ormond induces her to hand him the letter, which contain's
O'Donogltue's avowal that it was he who had met Arabella.
It is only by confessing her love that Lucy succeeds in paci-
fying the enraged marquis ; and at that moment the Laird
appears, congratulating himself on that coolness of eye and
skill of hand which has enabled him, nn discovering
that O'Donoghue was not defending himself, to divert to the
arms a lounge aimed at the breast of O'Donoghue.
Arabella then enters, and the piece terminates in the re-
conciliation of the two friends, the arrangement of a double
marriage , and the approbation of the Laird. This piece was
admirably acted, and equally well put on the stage. The
burden of the performance rested chiefly on Mr. Hudson,
who played the Irishman, and Mr. *Webster, who enacted
the Scotchman. These gentlemen brought out the contrast
of the two characters most happily, and in their individual
parts exhibited proof of great care and matured study.
Though the play, considered as a literary performance, is supe-
rior to the French original, in dramatic interest it is inferior.
The latter has all the incidents of the story above narrated,
and, for the extrinsic influence to which the personages are
subjected, an element of terror more potent than the wrath
of James 11., and all his court—it is on the will of Richelieu
that the fate of the personages is made to depend.