The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-20 00:00:00

(From the Times.)

In a letter which we publish this morning will be
seen what can be said by one of the cleverest London
managers in defence of theatrical management, as now
conducted, and as recently brought under public ani-
madversion. Mr. Charles Mathews, we admit, makes
the best of his case ; and if the result is, after all, but an
indifferent justification, we are sure the failure will not
be attributed to any want of ingenuity on the part of the
advocate.
Our complaint was to the effect, that the managers of
was
theatres, in receiving from their customers the price
of a seat, appeared to repudiate the obligation of pro-
viding
is advertisedtheseatfor w
as the
hichthem;naeryge for a place in
the boxes ; but, when application is made for the paid. Five
shillings
purchase of one of these places at the office opened
for the purpose, an additional shilling, or 20 per
cent. premium, is exacted. from the purchaser as
the condition of his obtaining what he has bought.
i
This, we asserted, was injustice and dishonesty, al-
though, of course, the notoriety of the usage might pre-
vent any personal imputat!on from attaching to particu-
lar managers. We conceive.that when once a seat has
been fairly bought at the price fixed by the proprietor
himself, the buyer is entitled to the enjoyment of that
seat without the necessity of any further intervention in
his behalf. What Mr. Mathews thinks the reader will
see. It can hardly be necessary to premise that the
employment ethis gentleman's name in the controversy
, is not intended to mark him with any_peculiar liability,

or to represent him as any special incarnation of the
system under censure. The manager of the Lyceum
has become the Richard Roe of the proceedings,
simply because the proceedings were originally opened
by himself.
- -

The present argument of our accomplished correspon-
dent can be put in a very few words. He regards the
extra charge as a charge paid for security. It insures
the seat,—that is to say, it renders it certain that what
has been paid for will be actually forthcoming. Now,
is this worth the consideration given for it, or not ? Is
it worth while to avoid scramble, confusion, or failure,
and to secure comfort and certainty by the payment of
this premium? "There," says Mr. Mathews, "lies the
whole question." The disbursement is entirely optional.
A man may have security and comfort for 6s. or uncer-
tainty and discomfort for ss. He may take his choice,
as he pays his money. "It is, of course, a matter of
opinion, and nothing more." So thinks one of the most
liberal of our London managers.

We hope our reply may not be thought rude, but we
are compelled to observe that this argument rests entirely
on that very vice of professional dishonesty against which
we remonstrate. Very likely what is obtained for 6s. is
so far preferable to what is obtained for ss. that the
difference in result may be well worth the difference in
outlay; but what can justify the existence of this differ-
ence to begin with ? Why should a seat for which there
has been already paid the whole price demanded by the
tariff be made so insecure and so uncomfortable as to
require a further outlay 1 The box-office is opened for
the sale of boxes, and box seats are advertised at ss.
The officer is perfectly acquainted with the availability
of every seat in the house. He tells you immediately
what seats are engaged and what are open. He
sells you one which is particularly specified, which is
confessedly vacant, and which consequently becomes
yours. A seat, therefore, known to have no previous
lien upon it, and purchased at the full, price demanded,
is conveyed to the purchaser for the evening ; and we
desire to know what possible pretence can be producible
for making this seat so uncomfortable and uncertain
that 20 per cent. premium must needs be given for ren-
dering it what it ought to be already ? If, in short, the
seat which Mr. Mathews sells for 6s. is nothing but a
seat which the buyer may reckon sitting in, what is that
seat which he sells for ss. ? We 'do not deny that the
advantages he describes may fairly be worth a shilling,
but what advantage ought any box seat to have over
another box seat which has been fairly paid for ? Whose
fault, and whose discredit is it, if scramble, confusion,
chance, or favour renders a place honestly purchased so
unsafe that a premium is well bestowed in securing the
goods for which the money was laid down? Railway
directors used to make second-class customers "uncom-
fortable" in order to drive them into taking first-class
tickets, and exactly in proportion to the "discomforts"
thus escaped might the result be described as " worth
the extra shillings ;" but did this justify the practice on
the public ?
- - - -

Exactly the same remarks might be offered on our
correspondent's humorous description of his pit visitors
on a boxing-night, or any other night of particular at-
tractions. Cannot so keen an observer detect that all
this-violence, confusion, and pertinacity are the neces-
sary incidents of the system in use ! Why are 700
human beings " packed like biffins" for two hours and
a half in a close passage ? Why do they rush and tumble
over each other when the doors are at last opened ?
Because they know that nothing less will get them
the seats for which they have paid their money. Because
they know that any number of applicants will be ad-
mitted without any reference to the capacity of the house,
and because they know that when 500 sittings have been
sold to 600 purchasers, it is customary to let those pur-
chasers determine by fighting which hundred shall be
excluded. Half the money which Mr. Mathews reckons
on saving in a single night by the concessions of the
press would mark, number, and define every seat in the
pit of his theatre. As much more would provide a
metal ticket far every one of these seats. Now, does
Mr. Mathews fancy that, if these tickets could be peace-
ably bought, and if it was well known that every ticket
would infallibly secure its own seat, and no other, people
would waste two hours of their afternoon in preparing
for a scramble

In point of fact, however, our correspondent himself
cuts the ground from under his own feet by admitting
that he once attempted to abolish at least one of the
usages referred to. They are, in reality, all of a piece.
They all rest on the assumption that a box seat is not
bought when a box seat is paid for, and that the whole
legion of servants employed about a theatre may law-
fully gather their own peculiar perquisites in helping a
visitor to that admission for which his mere ticket is
held quite insufficient. The box office-keeper takes his
shilling for really selling what he sells, and the box-
keeper takes another shilling for actually delivering
what was bought. Each thinks, that as the cus-
tomer would never get his goods except by his in-
tervention, he has a. right to his compliment for
aiding the bargain. Nay, in the case which we in-
correctly attributed to the Lyceum, and to which
Mr. Mathews refers, the premium was actually demanded
for securing a stall, or, in other words, for reserving a
reserved seat ! But can these things be justified ? Is it
any wonder that people rebel ? Mr. Mathews obliges us
with the declared intention of a certain correspondent of
his, and asks the public to choose between the expedient
thus suggested and the easy payment of Is. But we do
not think the contrast either fair or successful. It is for-
tunately very " un-English" to take the law into one's
own hands, and "Anglicus," we trust, may think better
of his pugnacious resolution ; but it is equally " un-Eng-
lish" to purchase justice by a bribe, and we are really of
opinion that if any person disturbed in the occupation of
a non-engaged seat were to call in a policeman the box-
keeper might be made to suffer. We trust, however, that
extremities so alarming may be averted by timely adjust-
ment, and that, as the whole amount now allowed to be
gleaned in perpuisites is less, by our correspondent's
own showing, than one-fifth of that which he gains by
another arangement, he will not lose so very suitable an
opportunity of taking the sense of the public once more.
We freely acknowledge that he has truth on his side in
imputing much of the wrong to "human nature." It is
unfortunately too true that thoughtlessness in some cases,
and selfishness in more, will induce men to buy "an ad-
vantage over their neighbours," and this laxity of con-
science must always operate to the damage of good regu-
lations. The right course, however, in our humble opi-
nion, is not to legalise and encourage such dealings, but
as far as possible to check them. Let every servant of a
theatre be paid by the management, be bound to do his
duty fairly, and be discharged in case of offence proved.
Let the managers adjust their tariffs, like all other deal-
' ars, by the terms of trade, but let every seat once bought
at its fixed price be producible for the purchaser without
further tax or trouble.

ANNUAL RETURNS OF FIRES IN LONDON.

The following return of the number of fires within the
metropolitan district, which were attended by the Lon-
don firemen during the last 12 months, is made on the
authority of Mr. Braidwood, superintendent of the Lon-
don Brigade :
Apothecaries and dealers in drugs, but having no che-
mical works carried on had 6 fires ; bagnios, 2 ; bakers,
13 ; ditto biscuit, 1 ; ditto muffin, 1 ; ditto, pie, 3 ;
basket makers, 1 ; barge and boat builders, .1 ; beer-
shops, 5 ; blacking makers, 1 ; bleachers, 1 ; booksel-
lers, binders, and stationers, 18 ; bottle merchants, 1 ;
brewers, 1 • brokers and dealers in old clothes, 9 ; build-
ers, 9 ; cabinet makers, 15 ; carpenters and workers in
wood not cabinet makers, 56 ; chemists, 2 ; chan-
dlers, 15 ; coachmakers, 1 ; coopers, 2 ; curriers and
leather dressers, 2 ; churches, 2 ; corkcutters, 1 ;
coffee roasters, 1; coffee-shops and chop-houses,
18 ; cotton wool warehouses, 1 ;.,chocolate makers, 1 ;
charcoal and coke dealers, 2 ;.. confectioners and pastry-
cooks, 3 ; cheesemongers, 7 ; caoutchouc manufacturers,
2 ; cane dyers 1 ; cement works, 1 ; colour makers,
1 ; distillers (illicit), 11' ditto tar, 2 ; ditto turpentine, 1;
drapers, woollen, linen, and mercers, 38 ; druggists,
wholesale, 5 ; drysalters, 1 ; eating-houses, 14 • engi-
neers mechanical, 3 ; firework makers, 2 ;
stock, 8 ; founders, 4 ; furriers and skin dyers, 1 ; fire
annihilator works, 1 ; grocers, 7 • gas works, 4 ; glue
makers, 1 ; hat makers, 1 ; hempdressers, 4 ; horse-hair
merchants, 2 ; hotels, including club houses, 2 ; japan-
ners, 3 ; lampblack makers, 2 ; laundresses, 3 ; lodgings,
86 ; lucifer match makers, 5 ; Manchester warehouses
in London, 6 ; marine store dealers, 7 ; musical instru-
ment makers, 2 ; milliners and dressmakers, 9 ; nuts,
dealers in, 1; oi and colourmen, not colour makers, 13;
oil works, 1 ; private, 249 ; paper-stainers, 3 ; paste-
board makers, 1 ; printed baize makers, 2 ; pipe makers,
1 ; printers, 5 ; ditto, copper-plate, 1 ; public buildings,
1 ; pawnbrokers, 1 ; painters, plumbrs, and glaziers,
3 ; paper mills, 2 ; rag merchants, 4 ; railways, 3 ; rope
makers, 3 ; sale shops and offices, 37 ; saw-mills, steam,
7 ; ships, 5 ; ditto builders, 2 ; ditto chandlers, 1 ; ditto
steam-ships, 1 ; stables, 16 ; soot merchants, 1 ; straw-
bonnet makers, 2 ; sugar refiners, 2 ; steam-boilers, 1 ;
schools of industry, 1 ; silk merchants, 1 ; tanners, 1 ;
tallow-chandlers, melters, wax-chandlers, and soap-factors,
4 ; tailors, 14 ; tarpauling makers, 2 ; tinmen, braziers,
and smiths, 7 ; tobacconists, 7 ; toy warehouses, 3 ; un-
occupied, 6 ; under repair and building, 11; upholsterers,
1 ; varnish makers, 3 ; victuallers, 40 ; warehouses, 6 ;
weavers, 2 ; ditto, mats, 3 ; wine and spirit merchants,.
4 ; wood merchants, 2 ; wharfingers, 1.
From the above it will be seen that during the year
the total number of fires which occurred was 923, which
are divided into two classes, viz., those totally destroyed
and considerably damaged, and those slightly injured.
Of the former there were 263, and of the latter 660.
There were also 93 false alarms, and the engines were
called 89 times to what turned out to be chimneys on
fire, making 182 extra calls for assistance.
The engines had likewise attended at 22 fatal fires, one
of which was in Haydon-square, Minories, where Alfred
Wilson, and Crampton, another fireman, wero crushed
to death by the falling of one of the lofty walls. For
sixteen years before the brigade had lost only eight men
by accidents.

EMIGRATION FROM PLYMOUTH.—SeveraI sh ipwrights
and other mechanics, as well as labourers, have an-
nounced their intention of quitting the docky and at this
port, for the purpose of proceeding to Australia
ymouth,
wages for all kinds of labour are very highs. —Plwhere