The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

The Surrey Sensation Drama,

(Front Punch.)
Without quite echoing the playbill, that Ashore and
Afloat " eclipses _Black-eyed Susan," and presents " One
Blaze of Triumph" from the first to the last scene, I must
admit that, when I saw it, the drama was received with
" tumultuous applause ;" and there were starings, shout-
ings, stampings, and hand-clippings enough to be described
as " acclamations of wonder and delight." The plot was
more intelligible than I quite expected ; and all throughout
the piece the author clearly did his best to prevent a Bri-
tish audience frog making a mistake between villainy and
virtue, and so took care that the murder which was done in
the first act should be committed coram populo, and not
behind the scenes. The humour was peculiar, as in these
over-water dramas it usually is ; but in neither word nor
gesture was aught to be detected at all savouring of coarse-
ness; and this is more than may be said at some genteeler
theatres which I fcrbear to name. To tell your friend in
confidence, " Well, if 'tie so it is, and it can't be no'tis-er"
may not appear, perhaps, a very brilliant epigram, but the
audience seemed perfectly delighted with its pungency and
point; and when Hal Oakford, being tempted to turn
traitor at Algiers, turns his quid instead, and, hitching up
his trousers, says, " What I sail under false colours ?
damme, no ! sheer off, you monkey-eating swab I I mean
to die True Blue, and not Turkey Rhubarb," there is a
roar of approbation at the gallant fellow's courage, and the
house is quite enraptured at the sparkle of his wit.
Perhaps it is because he has the real cataract in his eye
that the author seems throughout the play to strive after
reality, and to make his characters do just what they nate..
rally would do in real life. Thus, in the murder scene, a
person who, according to the playbill, is a " wealthy but
miserly landlord," while out walking with a friend, on a
sudden recollects he has £2,000 about him, and so hands
him this small trifle to keep for a few days, which is pre-
cisely what a miser would most naturally do. Meek villain,
miser's bailiff, stabs friend with his pocket-knife (which
bears, of course, his name on it, and which he takes good
care to drop) ; and, as the notes for £2,000 are on a bank
which breaks unluckily before he gets them cashed, ho walks
about for four years with them in his pocket, that at the
right moment they may prove his guilt. Then, when
Algiers is bombarded, on oomes Mr. Shepherd as a gallant
British sailor, with a broadsword in one hand and a big
Union Jack (a famous thing to fight with) in tho other, and
a terrific " one, two, over, one, two, under" fight ensues
between him and the Dcy, who also wears a broadsword,
as Turks usually do. All this, you see, is strictly true to
nature and reality ; and people who read history, and are
induced thereby to fancy that Algiers was taken by Lord
Exmouth, may discover at the Surrey that history is quite
wrong, and that the capture in reality was made by one
Hal Oakford, who, with his soft and cheery voice and light
and springy bearing, reminded me a little of dear old 'E. P.
Cooke.
As to the sensation scene, which takes place in a coal-
mine, its chief novelty consists in the fact that all the cha-
racters are left hanging in mid-air at the falling of the cur-
tain, and when the curtaia again rises at the bidding of the
audience, the rescued heroine and her friends aro still in
bodily suspense. Perhaps the next sensation climax will
take place in a balloon, and a terrific broadsword combat
will come off in the car between the hero and the villain,
when the villain, being worsted, will proceed to draw a
blunderbuss out of his left boot, and, firing bang at the
balloon, will laugh La ! La! tua it collapses, and the act-
drop will descend while they both vanish down a trap.
Of course, in the next scene the audience will:learn that the
villain has been smashed; and the hero will bs seen with
one arm in a sling and the other round the heroine, who
being startled at her needle by the banging of the blunder-
buss, looked out and caught a glimpse of the balloon as it
collapsed, and so, with woman's wit and quickness, scam-
pered from her cottage, carrying a feather-bed, which she
laid upon the grass plat just in time to break her long-
loved Harry's fall.
Trusting that Hal Oakford and the girl ho nightly res-
cues will neither of them
runesbrek their legs, or even sprain
their ankles, before their
scribe Myself as usual, ONE WHO PAYS.

TIIE CONVICTED MURDERER WATKINS.—Thomas
Watkins, the man who was convicted at the late
Hereford Assizes of the brutal murder of his wife at Ren-
ner, near Leominster, has had the day of his 6xecution com-
municated to him by the under-sheriff, Mr. N. Lanwarne,
which he bore with equal firmness to his trial and sentence.
Since his condemnatio so has eaten his meals regularly,
and has generally sleptndly. He has up to the present
time been constantly visited by his mother and sister, and
the meetings have been of a very sad and affecting nature.
It is believed that Watkins has communicated, not only
to his relatives, but to others about the precincts of
the prison, the fullest particulars of the dreadful
tragedy, for which he is on Tuesday next to surfer the ex-
treme penalty of the law. To the exhortations of the
chaplain of the gaol he is by no means heedless, though he
does not exhibit symptoms of intense mental feeling, con-
trition, or regret. Some faiut effort emanating from the
family was made up to get up a petition to Sir George Grey
to grant a reprieve, but public sympathy having been probed
and found to be deaf to the interests of the murderer, it was
abandoned. The visiting magistrates have ordered the con-
demned man to be supplied with any reasonable amount of
food, and that of any kiwi he may desire. Great precau-
tion has been taken to keep the day of the execution from
the public, in order to prevent such a concourse assembling
as did on the execution of William Hope, in April last.
AMERICAN MAILS.—The Inman steamer Etna left
the Mersey yesterday with mails for New York. To-day
the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company's steamer Peru-
vian sails for Portland with Canada. mails ; and on Saturday
the Cunard atenmer Asia sails with American mails for
Boston.
A SCOTCII MILLIONAIRE.—Mr. William Baird,
of Clart4terrio, has left behind him a fortune cf two mil.
Ilen3