The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-11 00:00:00

&c. ; and
General Comx, Lord CLYDE, G.C.8.,
His Royal Highness the Commander-in
Chief, every one will rejoice to see now
awarded the baton of Field Marshal. That gallant
old veteran Lord GOUGH—dubbed in Et roystering
war-song that caught the public ear shortly after
the sanguinary battle of Cu illianwallala, a war-
song that MICKEY FREE himself might have
carolled over the bivouac fire—
"Paddy GOUGH-a cross betwixt
A Bulldog and a Salamander 1"
our veteran hero Lord GOUGH every one will re•
cognise again as worthily rewarded with his baton
To Lord CLYDE, famous of yore as Sir CoLIN
CAMPBELL, the new and crowning honour of his
life occurs only a s a thing perfectly en regle—a
supreme reward added to the others already
showered abundantly upon him. To Sir EDWARD
BLAKENEY the award of the Field Marshal's
baton must be immensely gratifying. One cannot
possibly help thinking, however, while observing
this lavish distribution of the highest of all mili-
tary dignities, that of Field Marshal—one cannot
help thinking with regret, almost with indigna-
tion, of others, great soldiers, great captains, war•
riors of the first order, conquerors of resplendent
reputation, who have died, old in years but no
in honours, without any baton ever having been
in their grasp as Field Marshal of England. A
single name will be enough to mention in illustra-
tion of our meaning—NAPlEß! The Conqueror of
Scinde ! The Victor at Meannee and Hyderabad !
Who died full of years, but not like Sir EDWARD
BLAKENEY, a Field Marshal—not like so many other
more fortunate (who, however, would venture to say
more successful or more distinguished ?) soldiers—
raised to the Peerage. However, if Sir CHARLES
NAPIER died only a G.C.8., not a Field Marshal,
not raised to the Peerage—Lord NELSON died a
mere Viscount at Trafalgar, when he ought to have
gone into that last and grandest of all his
victories a Duke and a Knight of the
Garter ! Sir JOHN JERYIS, for one of the
earliest of NELSON'S own victories (that of St.
Vincent) being recompensed with an Earldom—
though NELSON had actually won the victory for
him by flagrantly disobeying Sir JOHN JERYIS'S
orders! Verily there is indeed something of the
character of a lottery in the distribution of this
world's recompences. Upon the whole, however,
we cannot but commend as judicious the distri-
bution of the batons just now awarded in honour
of the Prince of WALES attaining his majority.

C A.MILLA' S HUSBAND.
A very agreeable drama by Mr. Watts Phillips, which
with a very little distension would have made a very
charming play, was produced at this house last evening
with the most unqualified success. Its story, which is new
to the stage, is another of those instances of truth exceeding
fiction which find their proof in real life—its prototype in
many respects occurring publicly at Liverpool only a
couple of years ago. A girl of noble family who has been
left her fortune on condition that she marries when she
comes of age—in order to escape a man she detests, enters
a neighbouring village where she encounters a
young and humble painter, the companion of a
travelling tinker, to whom she offers a sum of money if
he will marry her on the spot and part from her directly
afterwards, promising never to see her face again. His
want and desperation prompt him to accept her offer. They
are married, and they separate the moment before her pur-
suers come upon her track. With the means he has thus
acquired the painter goes abroad and studies, and a year
after returning to England is enabled accidentally to save his
wife from drowning. This leads to an interview, in which
he avows his love for her, which he says is the spring of
his ambition, but bids her, at the same time, be under no
alarm, as he is firmly resolved to keep his compact ; and so
leaves her in a tumult of new and strange emotions. The third
act carries us to London, where the painter has risen to
eminence, and where his wife, who is still apart from him,
has learnt to return his passion. On hearing he is
about to fight a duel with her cousin, who has
publicly insulted him on the score of his abject birth,
she flies to him, avows her passion, and extorts
from him on return a promise to avoid the combat.
Her cousin, however, arriving, and learning his decision,
taunts him with cowardice ; upon which his wife, stung by
his suffering, releases him from his oath, and bids him de-
fend his honour. This admirable position, which is one of
the finest that we have witnessed for a long time upon the
stage, thoroughly electrified the house, and secured the
triumph of the piece. The combat results in disabling the
cousin, and in being attended by the news that the painter
is of honourable origin, which we consider a great mistake
—and husband and wife embrace at last, all the happier
for the separation. With undeniable defects of structure,
both in respect to motive and to development, the
strength of character and strength of writing which are
presented in this drama place it among the most genuine
successes that have ever done honour to this house. They
are another testimony to the power which so eminently dis-
tinguishes Mr. Phillips at present, and places him so far
above the ordinary run of English dramatists. The acting
of this drama was quite on a level with its merits. Miss Kate
Saville in the heroine fully realised the anticipations which
we formed of her accession to this company, playing the
proud and wilful girl with a bearing as true to her sta-
tion as her spirit, and rising from her usual grace and
tenderness to a display of power in her great scene, which
recalled the memory of Helen Faucit, and we can scarcely
give her greater praise. Mr. H. Neville, as the
painter, in the three phases of his career, his
low and desperate commencement, his passionate
growth, and his dignified close—showed the true
soul of an artist, and played with an earnestness
and feeling which served to place his claims in a
new and superior light. Mr. Robson, also, who sustained
the comic portion of the drama in the travelling tinker—
who is a sort of practical philosopher, into whose mouth
Mr. Phillips has put some of his happiest conceptions
—it is needless to say rose to the side of his
serious associates and contributed his full share to the
general success. This drama —which awoke throughout
the greatest attention and excitement—was announced for
repetition amidst the loudest possible applause, followed by
calls for all the performers, and lastly, for the author, who,
as Mr. Robson informed his patrons, could not possibly
acknowledge the compliment, as he was at that moment in
Paris, We anticipate a long run for this very able and

attractive novelty.

PRINCESS'S THEA 7 RE.

ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER.

A lively and clever adaptation from the French was pro•
duced at this theatre last evening, under the above pro-
verbial title, and met with the most complete success.
Broadly farcical in character, both in its incidents and writ-
ing, it fairly sustains the reputation of Mr. J. M. Morton,
its adapter, and will doubtless prove attractive to the doors
of this agreeable theatre. Its plot turns on the intimacy
of a blacksmith's wife with that of a Plebeian Knight,
the latter of whom pays her friend a visit in company with
her husband, to discover, working at the farrier's forge, an
old admirer of her own, who has thus disguised himself in
order to gain access to his former idol. To shield the fame
of this lady, the blacksmith's wife pretends to the knight
that this person is in love with herself ; and thus a good comics
scene arises, in which the two husbands mutually pity each
other's blindness, winding up with the worthy farrier finding
reason to suspect his own peace is in danger by discover-
ing the disguised lover offering a salute to his own wife.
In the second act the two ladies are induced to change
dresses and positions, in order to avoid some further em-
barrassments which are only thereby hastened, till at
length the entire enlargement unwinds to the satisfaction
of all parties. This pleasant piece has the advantage of
being excellently acted—especially by Mr. Vining and
Miss Sedgwick, as the worthy farrier and his wife—the
quaint spirit of the one, and the exuberant humour of the
other, giving pictures of their respective characters that
were as full of vigour as reality. Mrs. Marston was also
very happy in the character of Mrs. Woodpecker. This
drama elicited the loudest laughter throughout, and was
announced for repetition amidst the loudest demonstrations.