The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-24 00:00:00

niARKET THE.

A new play from the fanciful pen of Mr. Tom
Taylor, entitled " The Overland Route," was pro-

duced at this theatre last night, and achieved a
success as brilliant and genuine as its merits. It

is not remarkable for any elaborate complication o

incidents, nor for any very intricate mechanism in
the structure of the story ; but it has other and

higher qualities which awaken and reward atten-
tion. The piece is full of life, spirit, and anima-
tion, and the interest of the audience is kept inces-
santly on the alert by a continuous succession of
comic adventures, by the forcible contrast of
dramatic characters, and by the delightful ease,

elegance, and rapidity of the dialogue, which has
all the raciness of humour, geniality of sentiment,
and grace and felicity of expression by which Mr.
Tom Taylor's writings are so charmingly distin-
guished. During the first and second acts the
scene is laid on board one of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company's steamboats, bound homeward
after the Indian mutiny, and the passengers are the
dramatis persona whose strange sayings and doings
constitute the business of the play. Not to enume-
rate with tedious particularity all the members of
this motley assemblage, it will suffice to mention
those only who contribute most conspicuously to the
amusement of the spectators. In this number must
be classed Mr. Colepepper (Mr. Chippendale), a re-
tired civil commissioner of the Badgeripore dis-
trict, whose accounts are somewhat in arrear ; Sir
Soloman Fraser (Mr. Compton), a ci devant jeune
Amine, who, having spent his life chiefly at native
Courts, is now returning to England with a fine
head of false hair, and a set of teeth which he
takes out at night and puts in in the morning,
like his shirt-studs ; Captain Clavering (Mr. E.
Villiers), a udlitary young " swell" of the fastest of
all fast schools, who unfortunately has been known
to do a few things at whist which would not pass
muster either with Hoyle or Crawley; Major
Mac Turk (Mr. Rogers), a fire-eater with the voice
of a lion and the heart of a chicken ; Mr. Lovibond
(Mr. Buckstone), a Singapore merchant, who is,
moreover, a victim of society—a martyr to unfortu-
nate coincidences, but whose sorrows keep the
house in a roar ; his too obsequious satellite, Moles-
kin (Mr. Clark), a rascally detective, who follows
him like his shadow; and Tom Dexter (Mr. C.
Mathews), an adventurer, who, having been knocked
about rather unceremoniously by Fortune, and
having passed through a series of strange vicissi-
tudes, has at last the good luck to obtain the ap-
pointment of surgeon to the ship, in which capacity
he does a variety of noble acts, and under trying
circumstances proves himself not the physician
only, but the " guide, philosopher, and friend" of
All on, board. Among the ladies the most note-
worthy are Mrs. Lovibond (qrs. Wilkins), who, un-
conscious of the existence of her lord, much less of
his presence in the same vessel with her, fancies
herself a widow, and under this soft delusion en-
courages the savage suit of Major Mac Turk; Mrs
Sobright (Mrs. C. Mathews), a young married
woman, who is an object of the fiercest contention
and the most ludicrous rivalry between Colepepper
and Fraser, both of whose addresses she is vain
enough to receive, though well aware she has no
legitimate right to either; and Miss Colepepper
(Miss M. Ternan), on whose hand Clavering has
designs, which, however, ere not crowned with
success—his idol prefering to make Dexter the
happiest of men. The scandals and jealousies,
the plots and counter-plots, the conflicts
of interest, and the ridiculous revelations of
eccentricity and selfishness which are continually
going on in this little floating community, make
up the staple of the play ; and they are represented
upon the stage with a spiritedness and accuracy of
portraiture to which language can do but inade-
quate justice, and which, to be appreciated, must
be witnessed. In the course of the voyage the ship
runs aground on the Mazzaffa Reef, in the Red Sea,
and is totally wrecked. This sudden calamity "checks
the tide of laughter with a sigh," gives a dash of
serious sentiment to the exuberant fun of the piece,
and is also of service in bringing out the better
qualities of many of the passengers which otherwiAs
might not have been disclosed; for it is adversity
that tries men's souls and shows them in their true
light. All the characters in this little comedy are
drawn with a skill which intimates in the artist
surprising knowledge of human nature ; but
the personage who contributes most abundantly and
most unremittingly to the enjoyment er +he audi-
ence is, beyond question, Mr. EiliAond. This ill-
fated gentletiran, who had been compelled by the
tyrannical temper of his wife to fly his native land
tenwho is now timidly returning,
in they earshp
in the meantime have
hope
e that before, andshe
may
passed into another if not a better world, gets on
board at Aden, and, being mistaken for a runaway
felon, is incontinently pounced upon by Mr. Mole-
skin, the detective, who puts him in irons and
treats him with every indignity. Troubles thicken
around him, and the cup of his bitterness overflows
when at length he finds himself in the awful pre-
sence of his spouse, whose lover, the Major,
threatens to blow his brains out for robbing him of
the lady with whom he had hoped to spend his life
in matrimonial bliss.
The play receives all possible justice at the hands
of the actors. Mr. C. Mathews, as Dexter, acts
with his usual grace and spirit; Mr. Compton and
Mr. Chippendale, the jealous Indian veterans, in
pursuit of the same fair quarry, are both exceed-
ingly amusing ; Mr. Villiers, who has improved
very much of late, makes a capital military " exqui-
site ;" and Mr. Buckstone's Lovibond is one of the
grandest efforts of his comic genius. It is a master-
piece of broad fantastic comedy, and little less than
sublime in the incredible extravagance of its fun.
Mrs. Charles Mathews, as the married coquette,
plays with liveliness and naivete, and Mrs. Wilkins
also contribute.; to the success of the occasion by
her excellent performance of a difficult part—that
of the jealous, passionate, and susceptible Mrs.
Lovibond.
Mr. Buckstone announced it for constant repeti-
tition amidst universal applause. On a loud call
arising for the author, the talented lessee again
came forward, and with a countenance beaming
with good-humour, said—" Mr. Torn Taylor, ladies
and gentleman, is very much obliged to you—
(laughter)—but he has desired me to say he is not
here." Shouts of laughter followed this announce-
ment, amidst which Mr. Buckstone retired.

" A report" upon the manufacture of the Regu-
lation Leggings at Spill's Government Contract Works,
Stepney, contains much that is of interest. It would ap—
pear that after the production of the vegetable leather,
these leggings go through no less than thirty distinct pro-
cesses—a division of labour which gives employment in its
earliest stages to persons almost devoid of reasoning facul-
ties, and who gradually rise, according to their abilities,
into skilled hands capable, in turn, of teaching others,
until "The School," so to call it, ever increasing in num-
bers an efficiency (as at the date of the report) is enabled
to turn out; with the regularity and precision of the most
perfect machinery, some 10,000 pairs a day! This system,
it is stated, is the best possible guarantee for superior finish
and workmanship, as each person employed is in turn a
cheek upon the preceding process, and "thus a combined
power of production in this, and similar cases, is secured
equal to the most pressing emergency of the service."--
United Service Gazette.