The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-31 00:00:00

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.

On Saturday evening a new play, entitled,
Sybilla *; or Step by Step,' was produced with
success at this theatre. It is from the experienced
pen of Mr. Palgrave Simpson ; and the story as
well as the drama is, we believe, his own invention,
and, therefore, it has the merit--so rare on our
stage—of being perfectly original. The prin-
cipal portion of the plot is as follows :
—Emma Hildenberg is the daughter of a
former Prime Minister, who having been
falsely accused of treasonable correspondence is im-
prisoned, his family being banished and proscribed.
His rival, Count Wolfenstein, is in power, and sup.
presses every application that is made to the King
in his behalf. To obtain access to the Royal ca-
binet, where the alleged document said to prove her
father's guilt, and which she knows to be a forged
document, is preserved, is the object of all her
coquetries. This she achieves by fascinating the
landlord's brother, the Minister's secretary; and,
assenting to his proposal of marriage, she allows
him to convey her to Copenhagen and lodge her
with a female relative. Once there she contrives
to attract the attention of the Minister and fasci-
nates him, and assents, apparently, to be his mis-
tress on condition that she has an apartment in
the palsee for a month, and is during that time
respected and treated as a sister and an equal.
Once in the palace she throws herself in the
way of the young King and fascinates him,
and finally gets into the Royal cabinet and
obtains possession of the document by which
she can prove her father's innocence. But one
thing remains to complete the task, and that is
to prove whose is the handwriting of the forged
document. Suspecting it to be the present Minis-
ter's Secretary's, she gets the King to order him to
write an order fir her arrest, which he willingly
does, and thus betrays himself. Thus, step by step,
she has achieved her object, and the King acknow-
ledging the fraud, her father is restored to liberty
and fortune.

The acting of the piece was very good. Mrs.
Charles Mathews looked and played the splendid
beauty with good effect, and with a mixed expres-
sion of coquetry and deep feeling which proved
her high artistic power. Mr Charles Mathews, as
the adoring but perplexed lover, was natural and
extremely humorous. Mr Ashley as the Minister,
and Mr F. Robinson as the young King, aided the
effect by their judicious performance. The com-
plete success of the piece can in no way be attri-
butcd to the splendour of the scenery; the drama
itself having so much merit that it needed not any
extraneous sensational aids.

ST. JAMES'S-HALL.—The boys from the Royal
Greenwich Hospital School, over SOO strong, accom-
panied by their double band and attendants, visited Profes-
sor Anderson, on his invitation, at St. James's-hall, on
Saturday afternoon. Upon their arrival at the Nelsen
monument, in Trafalgar-square, the boys marched round
the base of the column, greeting the statue of the hero with
three cheers. At the c reclusion of the usual programme the
Professor gratified the vast assembly by the introduction of
Miss Lizzie Anderson, to illustrate the so-called Rope-
tyeing Manifestation, who, after being secured and elabo-
rately bound by two of the senior naval pupils, placed on a
t We, and concealed by a large cover of wicker work, was
discovered in a very short space of time, unbound, with the
rope in her hand. She was then again concealed from view
for a few minutes, and when discovered was securely serf
bound, hand and foot ; nay neck and heels together, to the
astonishment of all present, several minutes being neces-
sary to rslease her, Professor Anderson presented some
150 of the elder boys each with a chap knife. The Wizard
will repeat (in public) his anti-spiritualist seance on Wed-
nesday afternoon next.

,LIFEBOAT SERVICE,—Mr Alex. Sim, of Lossie-
mouth, reports the following gallant service of the
National Institution's lifeboat on that station :—" At day.
break on Friday morning last a vessel was diacoverey
stranded amongst the breakers, about a mile to the east-
ward of this port. The lifeboat stationed here, belonging
to the National Institution, was immediately launched, and
rowed through a very rough sea to the rescue of the sh p-
wrecked crew of three men who were seen clinging to the
vessel's rigging. The lifeboat's crew were so exhausted by
the time they reaohed the wreck—some of them having been
washed out of the boat more than once—that they were
unable to pull the boat alongside through the breakers. A
largo crowd having collected on the boach the boat was run
ashore and a fresh crew shipped, who pulled most nobly
alongside the vessel, and wilh heroic 'exertions, and at great
personal danger, succeeded in taking off the three men and
landing them in safety. The vessel proved to be the
Agnes, Captain Winter, bound from Scrabster to this place,
with a cargo of stone. It is but right to add that the coast-
guard mon were first at the spot with Manby's apparatus,
and fired several well-directed rockets, but the vessel was so
far from the shore that they all fell short."

A LADY KILLED ON TETE BRIGHTON RAILWAY.
—On Saturday morning, on the arrival of the 11.30
up train from Brighton, at Henley station, a lady, who had
just previously been seen on the platform, stepped or fell
on to the rail, and one of th 3 wheels of a first class carriage
was seen resting on her chest as she lay face upwards. So
soon as the carriage was removed the dead body was picked
up and conveyed to the waiting room. It was ascertained
that she was a Miss Anderson, 65 years of age, residing
with her bister at Park-place, Peckham, who had been
staying with some friends in the neighbourhood of Ilorley,
—Oserver.