The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-18 00:00:00

false lessons. Young naval officers were, perhaps, better
instructed in the contents of the daily papers than in the
duties of their profession, and were therefore likely to pay
too much attention to the remarks of those gentlemen who,
sitting at home at ease, seemed to be oaf able of saying all
kinds of things upon all subjects. No naval action ever
had been or ever would be decided at long ranges. On the
contrary, he believed in the tactics gallantly pursued by the
Austrians in going into close quarters and doing what they
could, although in that case, as in many others, two to one
was one too many.

A vote of thanks brought the proceedings to a close.

Mr, Dion Boucicault and Mr, Webster,

" THE FOX CHASE:'

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—An announcement to the following effect has
been made to the public by Mr. Webster, the manager of
the St. James's Theatre, in reference to toy new comedy,
in five acts, entitled the " Fox Chase" :

" Notice.--This comedy, when sold to Mr. Benjamin
Webster, was guaranteed to be new and original,' or it
would not have been so announced; but Mr. Eoucicault
has just acknowledged, in a private letter, that ha took the
idea from the French drama of ' Sullivan.' "

As this notice has been freely repeated and commented
upon by the press, I beg of your courtesy and sense of jus-
tice ,to admit my reply. I have not acknowledged in a
private letter that I " took the idea from the French
drama ' Sullivan;' three weeks ago, in a letter to Mr.
C. Mathews, I observed that the story of my
piece was the same as " David Garrick," then forthcoming
at the Haymarket ; the anecdote underlying the two sub-
jects being the same. I now beg Mr Mathews to suffer
this letter to be published. There is nothing in it of a pri-
vate nature, and there could be no reason for withholding
the whole of it from publication, except a desire to mis-state
a part of its contents. Mr Matthews knew that I had pro-
duced the piece completed, and in good form, in America,
in 1844, and he wrote to me concerning these alterations and
additions. I replied that I had no copy by me of the New
York edition, and if the incomplete copy in Mr Webster's
hands were thrust on the stage, it would barely escape
failure. The facts are these :—ln 1863 I offered Mr Webster
an unfinished comedy in five acts, called "The Married
Bachelor; or, Don Quixote the Second ;" he lent me £5O
upon it; and it is needless to observe that such an amount
is a very small part of the value of a "new and original"
comedy in five acts, such as Mr. Webster states he pur-
chased under my guarantee. He made no inquiries as to
its originality. For eleven years the play remained un-
noticed ire his possession, until the 2d of May, when he
advertised simply "a new comedy," by Dion Boucicault,
Esq., to be produced on Saturday, May 7. On that day he
postponed the performance for three days, and altered his
description of it, calling it a "new and original" comedy,
which announcement he maintained for th►ee days—long
enough to enable him to issue the above notice on the day
of performance.

As "David Garrick" was produced at the Haymarket a
week before my comedy was announced as "new and ori-
ginal," as my private latter was antecedent to that period.
11r. 'Webster was fully acquainted with the similarity
which existed between the two works, and his announce-
ment was thus made to create an occasion to make an
apology in the form of the above notice.

nil leave it to the public to form their own opinion upon the
motives which have induced this gentlemen to produce my
work in a manner to secure the failure I predicted, and then
to place a playbill in the hands of the audience on the first
night, containing a further inducement to them to condemn
the play tendered for their entertainment.—Your obedient
servant, DIoN Bouclcktna.
Manchester, May 13.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Utterers of untruths should have good memo-
ries," is an old saying, and Mr. Boucicault's is rather at
fault.

Mr Boucicault, in his letter relative to the comely of
" The Fox Chase," says that he did not state that he took
his idea from the French drama of " Sullivan," but from
the same source as "David Garrick" at the Haymarket,
which is avowedly " Sullivan"—a distinction without a
difference. "We must speak by the card, or equivocation
will undo us," it seems. I hope Mr C. Mathews will com-
ply with Mr Boucicault's request and publish his letter. I
ask for no better sample of Mr Boucicault's epistolary style.
I have a vast number of Mr Boucicault's letters which, if
he desires to see in print, his wish shall be instantly
acceded to, with notes.
Mr Boucicault states that in 1853 he offered me an un-
finished comody, in five acts, called "The Married Bachelor;
or, Don Quixote the Second." That I lent him £5O upon
it and made no inquiry as to its originality. Now mark, sir,
how a plain tale sets him down. Ihe comedy was not only
finished up to the last speech, but had been carefully rewritten
in parts, as the manuscript in my possession will amply
prove. In verification of its being finished, it was offered, and
I presume accepted, at the Royal Princess's Theatre on
DAcember 12, 1552, nino nannthia before he brought it to
me, and afterwards to the Lyceum Theatre, but whether
before or after it was sold to me I havo no date at present
to ascertain precisely.
Knowing that Mr. Boucicault's originality in "London
Assurance" and other dramatic works had been rather
seriously questioned, I required Mr. Boucicault's assurance
that this comedy was " new and original." He assured me
it was entirely so, and on the title-page of each act is written
by Mr. Boucicault himself "A new and original comedy in
five acts, by Dion Boucicault." In addition to this, the
memorandum of agreement, dated September 5, 1853, drawn
up by himself and witnessed by my son, commences—
" Received fifty pounds on account of my new and original
comedy, Don Quixote the Second,' being half the entire
purchase money, if successful."

It must be understood that Mr. Boucicault was in the
continual habit of borrowing sums of money of me, and
working a portion of each piece. I have before me now
his I 0 U for £2OO, dated Juno 23, 1853, scarcely three
months before the arrangement for the comedy. This I 0 U,
with many others, are now only curious autographs, as
Mr. Boucicault's incidental residence in America for sevea
years allowed him the advantage of the Statute of Limita-
tions.

The production of the comedy until now was delayed in
consequence of the illness and death of Mr. Wright, for
whom the character of Tom Waddy was written. I pro-
posed it as the first piece to bo produced this season at the
St. James's Theatre, and knew nothing of its not being
original; but " The Silver Lining " was preferred.
However, being confident in the word and honour of Mr.
Boucicault as to the originality I did not conceive delay was
dangerous. Upon finding that I had been imposed on, at a
time when I was his only friend, I thought it a duty to
myself to announce the fact. I appeal to the public if his
borrowed work has not been produced and cast in a manner
to secure the success of any drama deserving success, and
not in a manner, as he asserts, to secure its failure and
condemn the play. The artists saved it, and were twice
called at the end. Doubtless Mr Boucicault has been con-
founding this comedy with three or four others that he had
advances of money to write, but forgot to do all but the
titles.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,

B. WEBSTER.

Royal St. James's Theatre, May 17.

Condemnation of La Pommerais.

PARIS, May 17 (Evening).

The trial of the poisoning case of La Pommerais
was concluded to-day. The jury found the prisoner
guilty of poisoning the widow De Pauw. No men-
tion of extenuating circumstances having been
made, La Pommerais was condemned to death.

The main points relied upon by the prosecution

were :

1. That the deceased died of poison.

2. That the poison was the nature of those
which, belonging to the vegetable kingdom, might
leave no characteristic traces in the organs, and
might not be eliminated by chemical analysis, but
which revealed their presence by their effects, and
were discovered by the deadly action which they
exercised upon living animals.
3. The experts attracted not only from the matter
vomited by Madame Pauw on the flooring of her
loom, but also from the organs which were analysed,
a toxical principle which, being tried upon animals,
produced effects analogous to those experienced'by
Madame Pauw.
4. These effects and this action greatly resemble
those known to be produced by digitalis, and the
medical men, without positively affirming that digi-
talis was the poison used, say there is a strong pre-
sumption that Madame Pauw's death was caused
by that substance.
5. Madame Pauw was in no ~way ill till the day
before her death ; the alleged affection of the heart
and stomach for which she consulted several doctors
was like the fall she said she had had—fables in-
vented by her, or to which she lent herself.

6. The autopsy sho wed conclusively that she
neither died from a fail nor from internal hemorr-
hage, nor acute or chronic gastritis, nor from a per-
foration of the stomach, nor from any natural

cause.
7. That poison was found in the prisoner's house,
which he cannot account for.
8. That digitalis was one of these poisons.

TUE PRUSSIANS IN JUTLAND.—Wo learn from a
reliable source that on the 11th inst,, the day previous to
that fixed for the cor.mencement of the truce, Field
Marshal Wrangel imposed a fresh contribution on the in-
habitants of Jutland, and that the troops under his corn •
wand actualiy levied it on the 13th and 14th fast,