The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-14 00:00:00

DRAMA.

-- •
LYCEUM.
In a recent notice of Mr. Fechter'a appearance
am boo Ccrear De Boma we took occasion to remark that
melodrame was probably the most popular form of dramatic
entertainment to an English play-going public : for than
who hold this taste Madame Celeste hu provided a treat, by
the production of The Home on the Bridge of Notre Dame.
This piece, the translation of one with an exact correspond-
ing title written by MM. Theodore Barrier, and Henri De
Kuck, and played last year with immense mom et the
Ambign Comique, is essentially melodramatic in title, in
tone, in dialogue, and in incident ; it can perhaps be best/
described ass refined and scholarly venion of a herr-
pontine blood-and-thunder piece, and as such productions
are now somewhat rare, and as the drama under noises is
well played and asmir►bly put upon the stage, it will be
likely to attract an unusual amount of attention.
The Count de Fouquercdles, dying, bequeaths all his
fortune to Ernest de la Garde (Madame Celeste), his wife's
son by a former marriage, who is then resident in Marti-
nique. The Chevalier de Fouquerolles (Mr. George Vining),
brother of the deceased Count, who had expected to
inherit the property, is disgusted at the will, and
being a loose drunken debauchee with a taste for
villany of every kind, he determines that young
Ernest shall not come to his inheritance. Accordingly
he waylays the young man on his journey to Paris, decoys
bisaleto a roadside inn kept by one Rigobert (Mr. 'Willard.
manhole elleiting from him all his history, suggests that ha
should forego his inheritance in consideration of being paid
a settled income. Ernest refuses, discover, his interlocutor
(who had assumed a pseudonym), and upbraids him with his
sinister intention. A duel ensues, in which the Chevalier
unfairly takes advantage of a pause made by his adversary.
stabs him, and with the aid of Rigobert hides the body in a
cellar. The Chevalier then departs, and Eigobert is left alone;
bat in a few momenta a knock is heard at the door, and
Rigobert, opening it, gives admittance to Zambaro, a gipsy
boy, in face, figure, and articulation the exact counterpart of
the murdered Ernest—both the parts being played by Ma.
dune Celeste. Rigobert is a designing villain, and imme-
diately determines to profit by the resemblance ; he has
heard Ernest's story, he hu in his possession a pocket-book
and papers which the Chevalier took from the murdered
body and told him to destroy, but which he has kept ; he
will pima Zambia% as Ernest, who hu not been seen by
his relatives for many years, and they will share the fortune.
Zambaro consents, and after Rigobert has fired the house
with the intention of concealing all trace of his crime, the
worthy pair leave the place. Here it must be remarked
' that all the action of this scene, from the entrance of the
Chevalier and Ernest down to the proposal to substitute
Lunbaro for the murdered youth, has been witnessed by
ens Pettiso (Mr. Rouse), a lawyer's clerk, who was con-
ceded on a staircase, and who, finding the house in flames.
escapes through the cellar (where the dead body is), which
communicates with the banks of the river.

In the second act the plot is at work. The Mee Ernest
has been introduced to his mother and received by her,
much to the chagrin of the Chevalier, who of course blow'
that the youth is an impostor, but cannot so proclaim him
without revealing his, own guilt. Fortune, however, stands
his friend. Melaine de st. Ange (Miss Kato Saville), a
young Creole of Martinique, to whom Ernest was engaged,
has followed her lover to Paris ; she, only recently parted
from Ernest, will at once see the imposture practised by
Zambaro, and she shall be the Chevalier'■ instrument.
Birthed., however, has also learnt the nese of Melaine's
arrival in Paris, knows, moreover, that she is lodging at
the house of his own sister on the Bridge of Notre Dame,
and determines that Zambaro *hall visit her under cover of
the darkness and endeavour to persuade her to quit Paris,
and that if she refuses she shall be murdered and thrown
into the Seine.

The third act opens with the House on the Bridge, very
cleverly boat on the stage, the front wall being taken off,
iI and showing the interior. Zambero visits Melaine and
attempts to induce her to fly, but she refuses ; and even-
tually, discovering his imposture, she gives the alarm, and
is forcibly seized and carried off by Rigobert's associates.
Zambaro becomes penitent, and, refusing to concert any
further with Rigobert, is shot and mortally wounded by
that prince of scoundrels. He lives to drag himself to dm
salon of the Countess de Fouquerolles and to confess his
imposture, and then dies. The Chevalier is now in high
glee, but his merriment is stopped by tho sudden appear-
ance of Ernest do la Garde, who we find was only severely
wounded in the wayside inn, and was rescued from the
cellar by Pettiso, who has aided the ends of justice by pre-
tending friendship with both the villains, and who has not
only saved Ernest, but rescued Melaine from Rigobert's
boatmen.

The piece sadly needs compression ; for though some of
the incidents are exciting the action works but slowly, and
the dialogue is of the tamest and most conventional. The
entire interest centres in Madame Celeste, who plays with
wondrous spirit and energy-, and whose changes of costume
and character are executed with extraordinary rapidity.
Mr. George Vining, though somewhat hard and metallic.
good as the Chevalier, Mr. Rouse is quaint and pains-
taking as Pettiso, and Miss Kate Saville plays, as she
always does, with much impassioned earnestness and true
womanly feeling. The humours of a flower-girl, played by
Miss Lydia Thompson, have no connexion with the plot,
and might advantageously be omitted.
The piece is very well placed upon the stage.

i"

11!

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1 of Mr. Fechter's appearance
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BRITANNIA.
TRW IMMO. THE LIVE Olr A ht/I.DIER.—The sth Act of
BLICHIETH.—And THE PRINCE AND Tim IfOKIC stcs.cs.
rltt, hwy. Jean and Norton'. Millie. C. Ftkphan,
BIM A. Boartdog, Mtn W. Cranford.

SIGH WATFJt AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TI DAT —Morning. tA. 44e3 Alterman, AL ARM
TO4ieLlow—Murumg, h. Liu Memos.

LONDON, THURSDAY, PED. 14.

Tne withdrawal by Mr. Dicer SEYMOUR of
his proposed motion for extending the Borough
Franchise leaves the The
clear for the hon.
bleinle,r for Leeds. The Bill which Mr. BAINES
proposes to introduce is of the simplest possible
description, dealing only with the Borough Fran-
chise, and the one existing species of qualification :
it provides for an extension of the suffrage to all
occupiers of houses at a yearly rental of six
pounds. While thus simple, however, Mr.
BAINES'S measure is neither petty nor delusive.
It embodies a real and substantive reform—the
gist of the whole question, indeed, so far as the
suffrage is concerned. Rejecting all comprehen-
sive principles and fanciful details, Mr. BAUM{
goes straight to the practical point of an extended
Borough Franchise, which all genuine Reformers
have most at heart. In the present position of the
subject, and the present temper of the HOUR of Cont-
emns, this is the wisest and most useful course that
could be pursued. If any measure of Parliamen-
tary Reform has a chance in Lord DIRER'S Par-
liament this has. If the simplest measure of
Reform cannot be carried in a House elected ex-
pressly for that purpose, let it be clearly known
on whirs heads the responsibility of the failure
rests. Last session this responsibility was bandied
about from one side of the House to the other,
Issither party having she courage or honesty di-'
redly to oppose the mewl,. both secretly con-
spired to destroy.
Mr. BAINLIeM measure will put an end to this
discreditable shuffling and cowardly confusion. As
the Bill of an independent member nobody of
course is hound to support it, none are asked to
do so unless they heartily sympathise wills its
provisions. No attempt is made to win back the
faithless swains who after publicly flirting with
Reform have secretly found another mistress.
Concealment is no longer necessary. Let each
fickle lover confess his frailty like a man, avow
his changed affection, and openly celebrate the
Conservative reaction that is soon to command
devoted majorities, and he shall be upbraided no
more. All who do not want Reform in any
shape—sod their number in the present Parlia-
ment is, we know, considerable—will now have an
opportunity of saying so in the most direct and
emphatic manner. Last year the position of
many nominally liberal members was one of
painful perplexity. They were distracted by the
conflicting claims of duty and inclination ; the
duty of publicly supporting a measure they hated
in their heart of hearts, and desired above all things
to destroy. Many compromised the matter by
stabbing it in the dark. These were
the more saturnine and determined amongst
the secret enemies of the Bill. Others of lighter
temperament masqueraded in sentiments not their
own, wore the mask of the hypocrite,
or used the double tongue of the slanderer.
They were reduced to these ignominious shifts
plainly from the fact that the hated Reform was
proposed by the Government to which they owed a
nominal allegiance. New they are wholly free from
this embarrassing obligation. The official patron-
age of Reform being at an end, they may
speak their minds, and we earnestly hope they
will do so. They are to be heartily congratulated,
indeed, on their improved parliamentary position
—a position so much more favourable to the vir-
tues of sincerity and straightforwardness than the
one from which they have just escaped. Neither
Mr. BAIN YA nor anybody else wishes for a moment
to lead them back into the Egypt of dissimulation
and hypocrisy from which they have been so re-
cently delivered. An honest way of parliamentary
life is at length open to them, and we trust they
will embrace it. They really think Reform an evil :
let them say so. They are at heart opposed to any
extension of the suffrage : let them by all means
avow it. Mr. BAINES'S measure will give them the
opportunity of doing this, and we hope that every
anti-reformer in the House will cast off, once for
all, the old ADAM of dissimulation, and make a
clean breast of it.

On the other hand, this is precisely the measure
which all genuine Itefonners can without hesitation
unite in supporting. It goes at once to the point on '
which they are all agreed—the extension of the
borough franchise—and it secures this in so direct
and nnincumbered a form that no room is left for
hesitation or delay. The objections that might be
honestly urged against a larger measure by fasti-
dious and speculative Reformers cannot apply to
this. We are told, for example, that this is not
the time for comprehensive measures of Reform.
Mr. BAINEeI Bill meets this objection. It is of
the simplest possible description. This is not
the time, it is said again, for trying experi-
ments on the constitution, by introducing new
and diverse qualifications for the enjoyment of the
suffrage. The Member for Leeds, avoiding all
fancy franchises, advances on the well-trodden
path of house rental and occupation. He has
avoided all the questionable details that, however
valuable in themselves, might have afforded scope
for discussion and difference of opinion amongst
the friends of Reform; and he has secured in its
simplest form the one point about which there is
and can be no question—the very kernel of the
whole matter, in fact. What he proposes is a pure
good, to be secured in the purest manner. No
room whatever a left for opposition on the part of
those who really desire Reform. Mr. BAINZSmay
therefore confidently reckon on the support of all
genuine Reformers, and the public will watch with
no small interest the working of the decisive
test of sincerity in the emus which his Bill
supplies. The country will not, however, be
may be sure, be satisfied to remain a silent
spectator of this parliamentary trial, in which it
has so deep an interest. The people's voice may