The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-29 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

ROBBERY AT THZ SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.—A
young man, who gate the name of Richard Jones, was
placed at the bar charged with a robbery at the South
Kensington Museum.

James Thompson, of 65, College-street, Chelsea, said he
was employed at the museum, and was going to extinguish
the gas in one of the schools on Saturday night, when he
discovered the prisoner stooping down pocketing some gas
fitting tools belonging to prosecutor from his basket. The
police were called, and he was given into custody.
A policeman produced a steel binder belonging to a
sewing machine which he found upon the prisoner, and for
the possession of which ho could not give any account.
Thomas Saul, an attendant at the museum, said that the
steel binder produced had been stolen from that part of the
building appropriated to patents. It belonged to Messrs.
Wheeler and Nelson, and was sent by them to the museum
for exhibition. It was an invention for the purpose of put-
ting binding on cloth. It was nominally the property of
the Lord Chancellor. Witness last saw it safe in its place
on Tuesday night.

Mr. Selfo asked the prisoner, who refused to give his
address, where he lived and how he obtained his living.
Prisoner declined to give his address, stating that he had
none in particular at present.

Mr. Selfe said he must know something about him, and
remanded him till Friday.

LYCEUM THEATRE.

On Saturday night Mr. Fechter took his benefit
at this theatre, which closed on that occasion for
the season. In the course of the evening he ad-
dressed the audience as follows :

" Ladies and G. entlemen,—l am truly grateful for
your kind reception, and I take the opportunity it
gives me of troubling you with a very few words.
I close this theatre to-night, to re-open it, under
my sole management, in next October. Until then,
after a summer's rest, I shall have an honour I have
not yet enjoyed, the honour of appearing before
other English audiences in different parts of the
kingdom. I think you will be glad to know, from
my own lips that, as a manager, I am in the best
heart and hopes. If my success during the season
that terminates has not been quite as great as in
the two preceding seasons, I know that great suc-
cess cannot always be commanded ; and I most
cheerfully admit cannot always be deserved.
Practice is so much better than preaching, and per-
formance than promise, that I will leave my next
season to speak for itself ; I am greatly mistaken,
and I shall be greatly disappointed, if it does not
present you with a new feature and a new interest
in the art of acting. Ladies and Gentlemen,—
Though to many of you I am a Frenchman, I am
an Englishman born ; but, had I been an Esqui-
maux, your national generosity would have made
me at home here; and for that generosity I most
fervently and most deeply thank you. Until
October, in the name of all the artists engaged at
this establishment, no less than for myself, I most
reluctantly bid you farewell. I hope you will not
easily forget me, for I never can forget you."

THE QUARREL BETWEEN MR. BUCKSTONE AND
MR. BOUCICAULT has been at length brought to a
proper close, thanks to the good offices of Capt. German,
Mr. Montague Williams, and others. When the " Woman
in Mauve" was produced the audience condemned it, and
Mr. Buckstone made a speech in which he charged Mr.
Boucicault with having organised an opposition to the per-
formance. How groundless this charge was will be seen
from the following letter:—

" Theatre Royal, Haymarket, May 17.
" Sir,—When I made the charge against you in the
matter of The Woman in Mauve,' I was not in actual
possession of the proofs ; but I relied on their being in the
hands of certain persons from whom I obtained the infor-
mation, and whose names I mentioned in the Morning Post.
They have failed to furnish me with those proofs; I,
therefore, regret that any such charge should have been
made—Yours obediently,

" JNO. B. BITCKSTONE.

" To Dion Boucicault, Esq."
ilirbßoucicaultthereforeappeared
had
dparee in the permission
issioto publish this letter, and
t haMorning Post--a journal
which took up the matter very warmly,
and in which
several former letters were printed. Mr. Boucicault says,
very justly—" I have endured for many years petty at-
tacks equally unfounded, and which can only, as far as I
am aware, be ascribed to professional jealousy ; but this is
the first that has appeared in a sufficiently direct form to
enable me to meet and expose it."

THE SALE OF DAVID ROBERTS'S drawings and
pictures realised the large sum of £16,450.
THE DECORATIVE WORKS IN THE INTERIOR OF ST.
PAUL'S are stopped, shame to tell, for want of funds, £3,000
is needed for a new organ case.
MR. HENRY W. WEST, of the Northern Circuit,
Recorder of Scarborough, has been appointed Recorder of
Manchester, in the room of Mr. Armstrong, resigned.
THE HoN. HUGH HARE has been appointed a
Queen's Foreign Service Messenger, in the place of Capt
Hon. Henry Blackwood, who has resigned from ill-health.
—Observer.

MR. MADOX BROWN is engaged in painting a pic-
ture, of which the sketch, in pen and ink, is at the gallery
in Piccadilly, entitled "Jacob and Joseph's Coat," No. 69.
The design is intended to illustrate Messrs. Dalziel's Bible.
The picture may, at a future time, be added to the above-
named gallery.
, ORIGIN OF THE MALT AND BEER TAXES.—The
following memoranda may not be uninteresting to many of
our readers :—Alehouses were established in this country
as early as 721, and are mentioned in the laws of Ins, King
of Wessex. Public-houses were first licensed in 1621,
authority being granted for that purpose to Sir Giles Mont-
pessan and Sir Francis Michel, for their own emolument.
In 1553 the number of taverns in London was limited to
forty. The malt tax was established in 1697, increased in
1760, and newly modelled in 1766. An Excise duty on beer
and ale was first legally imposed in 1660.