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

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 Gentlemen,—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. Buckstono 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 thoso proofs; I,
therefore, regret that any such charge should have been
made—Yours obediently, _ _ _

_ .
" JNO. B. BUCKSTONE.
" To Dion Boucicault, Esq."
Mr. Boucicault had permission to publish this letter, and
it has therefore appeared in the Morning Post—a journal
which took up the matter very warmly, and in which
several former letters were printed. Mr. Boucicault says,
very justly—"l 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.
PAvi.'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.
SIR CHARLES WOOD'S RUMOURED ELEVATION TO
THE PEERAGE IS again gaining ground, as it was quite sure
to do before a general election. The ever new buoyancy
which seems to press Sir Charles Wood upwards to " an-
other place " is, wo conclude, in part due to his unpopula-
rity as a speaker in the House of Commons, and to the
known need of the Government for help in that direction.
HOT CROSS BUNS IN CHINA.—The following ad-
vertisement appears in a Shanghae paper, the Friend of
China, of March 7 :—" Good Friday.—Hot Cross Buns.—
Orders for these superior buns should be sent early—for, as
is well known to all good Christians, only a baker educated
in England is acquainted with the proper mode of manipu-
lation, and the demand by all customers is already
extensive."

THE MAILS, &C.—SOUTHAMPTON, May 27.—The
Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw steamship Delhi,
Capt. A. Parish, sailed hence to-day for Gibraltar, Malta,
and Alexandria, with the Bombay Mails, a full cargo, and
specie and jewellry value £2,828 Bs., viz., for Malta, gold
and silver watches, £lO4 Bs. ; for Bombay, bar gold, £B9O,
and gold and silver thread, £1,834. The Delhi takes out 33
first and 53 second-class passengers, and four proceed by
corresponding steamer from Marseilles, making a total of
90. Among them are the Count and Countess d'Eu, the
Duke de Nemours, Baron and Baroness de Lage, and the
count and countess's suite, en route for Gibraltar; Captain
Cuthbert, Lieut. Cartwright, and Capt. Laughton, for Gib-
raltar; Capts. Conway, Smith, C. J. Coote, E. S. Roberts,
and Hepworth, for Combay, &c. Tho Germania will leave
on Wednesday next, with mails for New York ; the Tas-
manian, Capt. Sawyer, on Friday, with the West India,
Pacific, and Mexican mails ; and the Ellora, Capt. Curling,
on Sunday, the 4th June, with the Mediterranean, China,
and Calcutta mails. The Shannon, Capt. F. Woolley, is
duo on Monday, with the West India, Mexican, and Pacific
mails. The Euxine, Capt. N. Roskell, is expected on Mon-
day with the Bombay mails ; the Ripon, Capt. J. M. Rogers,
on Wednesday, with the Calcutta and China mails ; the
America, Capt. H. Wessels, on Wednesday, with mails of
the 20th inst. from New York; and the Parana, Capt. R.
Woodward, on the sth proximo, with the Brazil and River
Plate mails.

APPOINTMENT OF RECORDER FOR MANCHESTER.-
We understand that Mr. Henry W. West, of the Northern
Circuit, the Attorney-General for the Duchy of Lancaster,
and Recorder of Scarborough, has been appointed by Sir
George Grey Recorder of Manchester, in the room of Mr.
R. B. Armstrong, Q.C., resigned. Mr. West belongs to the
Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1848. He is son
of Mr. Commissioner West, of the Leeds Bankruptcy Court.
—Leeds Intelligencer.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.—Her Majesty's birth-
day has been celebrated this year with unusual eclat in the
department of the Lower Charente, in France. The Bri-
tish vessels in the river Charente displayed their gayest
flags, and guns were fired from them throughout the day.
In the evening her Majesty's Consul, the Hon. H. Pren-
dergast Vereker, LLD., gave a sumptuous banquet to the
principal authorities and residents. The toasts proposed
by her Majesty's Consul were the " Healths of the Queen,
the Prince of Wales, and Royal Family of England,'
" The Emperor Napoleon," and " The Imperial Family of
France." " The prosperity of Charente, coupled with the
health of tho Mayor," by Captain Williamson. "Constant
friendship between England and France," by Judge
Gratteau ; and " The health of the Hon. 11. P. Vereker,
British Consul," by the Mayor of Charente. The con-
sular residence was tastefully adorned with British and
French flags and garlands of flowers, and the company did
not separate till a late hour, all being delighted with the
cordial manner in which English and French united in
commemorating the anniversary.
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, an 4 are mentioned in the laws of Ina, 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.
In 1863 there were 104 public libraries in the
United States, with upwards of 10,000 volumes in each.
They contained in the aggregate 2,403,477. It is estimated
there are upwards of 12,000,000 volumes in the whole of
the public libraries in the United States.