The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-25 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—I have had the misfortune of being obliged to
pay this odious tam for many years, not from any desire
to cast my mite into the Treasury, but being stopped on
the highway, the money was abstracted perforce, out of
my pocket. I consider this unjust, and a breach of
faith towards the officers of her Majesty's army ; there is
a scale of payment laid down for the army, and that
scale ought to have been held sacred and inviolable.
We cannot help ourselves from being robbed. Is there a
living soul who has ever stood in the front rank of either
House of Parliament to say that the officers of the army
should not be taxed ? None to plead our cause, although
a large body, we have no advocate, none to defend us,
therefore we have no alternative but to submit and obey
orders ;ifwe do submit, it is with a bad grace. How can
it be otherwise ? We, soldiers, who are paid a few shil-
lings a-day of the public money for our services from pole
to pole, fired at like a target as occasion requires, tossed
about on the tractless deep, dressed in scarlet arid em-
broidered livery by order, called upon almost daily for
subscriptions to one thing or other, exposed to all cli-
mates where choleramorbus, yellow fever, and all diseases
are in waiting (look to the West Indies just at this mo-
ment), I think it is the unanimous opinion of the army
that we might be excused from the payment of this un-
just tax. I have been upwards of 41 years in the service.
I attained to my rank by purchase, and, according to my
calculation, lam serving my country for nothing. lam
going to embark the eighth time for foreign service, and
this grievous injustice will follow me and find me out,
while the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland with his 30,0001.,
pays nothing of this odious tax. We have an Act
of
Parliament sent to us every year, as a New-Year's gift
for our edification and instruction—the leading
article'
begins with " For the better payment of the army." I
never could rightly understand this " better payment."
It really gets worse, no better I can assure you ; and if such
a tax is required to keep the State from bankruptcy, it
might be found in some quarter distinct from the army,
by the wise men who are fluctuating so wonderfully at
the helm of affairs. After an officer has expended, out
of his own pocket, the sum of 4,5001. for his commis-
sions, and attains to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and
has the responsibility of command, to keep in good order
and military discipline nearly a thousand men, with the
magnanimous pay of seventeen shillings a-day, do you
think it wisdom or justice to deduct from this miserable
pittance an Income-tax ? I have the honour to inclose
my card, and remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
A LIEUTENANT-COLONEL,
Commanding a Regiment.
Ireland, 22d January, 1853.

EMIGRATION.—The Emigration Commissioners have
intimated that on Thursday, the 27th inst., they will re-
ceive tenders for three vessels to carry emigrants to New
South Wales and South Australia. The ships are to be
ready for Sydney on the 7th and 14th of March, and
for Adelaide on the 9th of March.

DISASTER ON THE WELSH COAST.—On Sunday morn-
ing the Rhyl life-boat, in going to the assistance of a
schooner ashore on West Hoyle, upset, and six out of
the nine men who composed her crew were drowned.
The crew of the schooner are supposed to be lost, as no
traces of them could be found on board. Oatmeal sacks
marked "A. and F. N." have been washed ashore.
MR. DISRAELI AT DONCASTER.—Yesterday, the Right
Hon. B. Disraeli and his lady, accompanied by Mr. R.
M. Miffies, of Frystone, Pontefract (whose guests they
have been lately), the Hon. Captain Duncombe, M.P.
for the East Riding, Lady Galway, and Mrs. Dun-
combe, paid a visit to Doncaster. The party ar-
rived by the 12.50 p.m. train from Pontefract, and
proceeded, on foot, from the railway station to the
vicarage, the news of their arrival spreading very quickly
through the town. Having partaken of luncheon, they
afterwards proceeded, escorted by the vicar, Dr. Sharpe,
and the mayor (Mr. G. C. Walker), to inspect the parish
church, in which several improvements, including the
addition of three large stained glass windows, have
recently been made. A party of spectators who
were collected at the entrance to the sacred edifice,
cheered the right honourable gentleman as he entered,
and he acknowledged their salutations very cour-
teously. The party afterwards viewed the extensive new
markets, the Mansion House, the Guildhall, the Deaf
and Dumb Institution, the Grand Stand, the race-course,
&c. The right hon. gentleman expressed himself grati-
fied with the town, and made several inquiries as to the
municipal finances and other statistical matters. The
visit lasted about four hours, the party afterwards re-
turning by the 5.15 p.m. train to Pontefract. •
REBECCAITES IN SOMERSETSHIRE.—A good deal of ex-
citement has been created within the last two or three
days in the upper part of Somerset by its becoming
known that a turnpike gate had been carried off by a
number of people in the style which made " Rebecca" so
noted in Wales. It appears that the Black Dog
Turnpike Trust, from a failure of tolls, has for
some time been in difficulties, and that an application
made to the magistrates some months since by the
trustees under their act, with the view of com-
pelling the several parishes through which the
roads passed to undertake the repairs, was unsuccessful,
in consequence of a sum of about 5,000/., with which a
former treasurer of the trust had absconded, not having
been brought into the accounts. Since this time the trustees
and the parishes have each declined to repair the roads,
which bet ween Bath and Frome and Bath and Warminster
have consequently become in a very bad state. The bond-
holders, however, have seized the gates, and are taking the
tolls for their own security. The consequence of high tolls
and bad roads has been continued complaints from those
who have occasion to travel over the roads, and the griev-
ance appears to be generally felt throughout the
district, and has had last resulted in the forcible re-
moval of one of the gates, which has not since been re-
covered. On Thursday morning about one o'clock, the
toll-taker at the Midford-gate, which is situated about
four miles from Bath, on the Frome-road, was awoke by
the firing of several guns, which shattered the lamp out-
side the toll-house to pieces, and so alarmed him that he
was afraid to go out. He afterwards discovered that
the massive gates across the road had been unhinged and
earned away, and although search has been. made through-
out the neighbourhood since not the slightest trace of
them can be discovered, nor can can any one be found
at all inclined to divulge the secret as to the parties by
whom the act was committed. It is expected that other
gates will soon experienc a similar fate.
SOUTH DEVON RAILWAY.—The Sutton Harbour Sta-
tion for the receipt and dispatch of mileage goods will
be opened on Tuesday week., the Ist of the month.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

Mr. Douglas Jerrold's new play was acted a. second

time last night at the Princess's Theatre, and was re-
ceived with as much applause and enthusiasm as on the
first night, which we think was due more to the actors
than the intrinsic merits of the piece itself.
The period is laid in the first half of the eighteenth
century, and its plot is this :—Mr. Under-Secretary
Zero (Mr. J. Vining), a kind of ministerial Dogberry,
who sees a plot in everything, is employed with his ne-
phew, Sir Valentine May (Mr. Walter Lacy), in opening
and reading a bundle of intercepted letters. These,
though of the most trivial kind, excite Mr. Zero's grave
suspicions, especially one from Dorothy Budd to a sworn
confidant, in which-she relates, with all the warm credulity
of an innocent country girl, how a gipsy queen has pro-
mised her a rich husband, with a whole army of footmen at
command. Young Sir Valentine, who is but lukewarm in
this kind of letter-stealing loyalty, determines to see
Dorothy, and accordingly sets out for her house, at Ken-
sington, where he has a most amusing interview with icer
father, Dr. Budd (Mr. Harley), and, under a variety of
pretences, prolongs it until Dorothy herself (Mrs. Charles
Kean) appears. Poor Dorothy is immediately smitten by
the rich dress and handsome bearing of Sir Valentine,
while he is, in turn, so much charmed with her prettty
face, rustic manners, and genuine simplicity, that he de-
termines to remain near her, and to this end offers him-
self to the worthy doctor as a tutor for his school, aznd
as one who has undergone a long and severe training in
the school of adversity. For this post he is, after some
demur, accepted, upon the understanding that he is com-
petent to teach everything, from Hebrew and conic sec-
tions down to the broadsword, minuets, and music, for
the sum of 101. per annum. When fairly installed his
courtship of Dorothy begins, though it is somewhat
crossed by a cousin of hers, a certain Ensign Bellefieur
(Mr. G. Everett), who, while supposed to be absent from
his regiment on sick leave, is really engaged in plots on
behalf of the Pretender. Sir Valentine is anxious to
befriend his rival, and he bribes the gipsy woman, Queen
Bee (Mr. Wright), to drop some hints of the peril
in which he is placed. Queen Bee applies these hints
the wrong quarter ; and the effect of them is to per'
suade Dorothy that the Usher is in danger of Tower-hir:
In the meantime the Under-Secretary has had a spy
at work, one Checker, who tries to gain the confidence
of the maid-servant Juno (Mrs. W. Lacy), by the pro-
mise of a large accession of scholars, and who overhears
enough to satisfy him that the Usher, the Ensign, the
Doctor, and his daughter, are all Jacobite conspirators;
and under this impression he brings the Minister to the
head-quarters of the conspiracy. In the meantime Miss
Dorothy has been informed by her cousin that the
Usher is a spy ; and this notion receives some confirms'
tion from his announcing to her that he had only been
acting a part, and was about to leave her. A burst Or
indignation follows this disclosure, but is as rapidly suc-
ceeded by the confidence of deep affection. The craft,Y
Under-Secretary at first supposes that his nephew has
accomplished a great achievement of state policy, and
obtained the confidence of the family for the purposes' of
discovering treason ; but be is soon undeceived by the
honest avowal of love, which, after all her trials, secures
the happiness of Dorothy. Matters are brought to this
crisis by the appearance of a file of soldiers in the
court-yard of the Doctor's house. Dorothy supposes
that they have come to arrest t'ie Usher on a charge
of treason, and as she clings to him with the desperate
fondness of depair, he declares that death only shalt
separate them. His uncle, addressing him by his proper
title, in a few words of expostulation, first reveals to the
astonished maiden, and the delighted Doctor, the trile
rank of the Usher, and the truth of the gipsy's propheeP
In the meantime the soldiers have searched the house
for the real traitor, but have found only the Queen Bee,
who had, at the instance of Sir Valentine, supplied
Cousin George with the means and opportunity of escape'
As a literary work St. Cupid will not add much to Alf'
Jerrold's reputation, in our opinion it falls far short of
many of his previous efforts, and but for the perfect manner
in which it has been placed upon the stage, and the
circumstance of its having been performed with dis;
tinguished approbation at Windsor Castle, it world
scarcely have met with the success which has so f 0
attended it. Smart dialogue and witty repartees 1
have in profusion, though that not of the most brilliant and
sparkling nature. Mr. Jerrold has hitherto accustomed
us to look for, but we look in vain for anything like °
continuous plan of action, and from the opening seep°
to the fall of the curtain we are totally in the dark as tcl
what the clever personages before are driving at, or
what the termination of their proceedings will et
Even in the minor incidents of the piece there is much
that needs elucidation, and it is left for the audience t°
guess, unsuccessfully in many instances, why certaa_
things are said and done which appear only to hinder t,h'
clear progress of the piece. Again, most of the persoF;
ages are wanting in breadth and tone of character ; i‘„
Mr. Douglas Jerrold's delineation of them there is no-
thing thing whatever new or beyond common place, and ‘,l_l.
this instance again the author has to thank the actors P-14
the successful use which they have made of his 11'4
meagre materials. Mrs. Charles Kean's Dorothy
the most delightful piece of acting we have seen for 5001"„
time, full of those fine and delicate touches which she,
well knows how to employ ; alike admirable in the
less simplicity of a somewhat wayward country gir'4,l°J
the tender pathos of the loving, trusting.
completely won the hearts of her audienCe and not ate
but watched her through each scene with increasing lir
terest, rejoiced in her gaiety, sympathised in her troll"
bles, and felt it a personal pleasure when Sir Valera'
tine claimed her for his wife, and the gipsy's prophecy
was fulfilled. Mr. Wright's Queen Bee was anotherr.
gem ; without being one inch too broad, it fitted 31
Wright to a nicety, and displayed his genuine cooli,
ly
power. A more amusing compound of rascality, Ora? r
tery, and drollery, we never witnessed. Mr. Wel°
Lacy played the somewhat difficult part of Sir Valentin,
with great finish and ability ; and Mr. Harley, as I)r'
Budd, Budd, was the pompous, bustling schoolmaster, whil
he alone can be. None f the witticisms excited so nilic
laughter as those entrusted to him, and throughout he
kept the audience in a roar. We ought also to mentil
Mrs. W. Lacy's acting of the servant maid Juno, which
gave no inconsiderable weight to the piece, and 0„,
carefully and gentlemanly manner in which Mr.
walked through the commonplace part of the Under:
Secretary Zero. Altogether, a better-acted piece we hari:
not seen for some time, and as an acting play, St. Cupid'
however it may fall short as a literary performance, Ww
have, we doubt not, a long and prosperous career.