The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-12 00:00:00

THE AFRICAN MAIL.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

PLYMOUTH, MONDAY MORNING.

The Royal mail steamship Hope, Commander
Macintosh, arrived this morning. She left Lagos
June sth, Sierra Leone 20th, Teneriffe July let,
Madrid 3d.

The Hope brings some gold, and among her
passengers Mr. Campbell, Consul at Lagos ; Dr.
Davey, of the Niger Expedition ; Mr. Armstrong,
magistrate at Sierra Leone ; and Captain Murphy
'Pie, from the Gambia.

The coast is healthy. Trade is improving at

Sierra Leone.

The affair of the recapture of the French ship

Regina Cooli is looked on as a vexed question,

and will be adjudicated at Monrovia.

Her Majesty'a steam-vessel Hecla was at Lagoa

June sth.

The Alecto left Sierra Leone on the 19th June.

HAYMARKET THBATRB.

The season at this theatre closed with Mr. Buck-
stone's benefit, who on this occasion chose to
do two novel things, play Sir Bashful Constant,
and make a long speech. " The Way to Keep Him,"
one of the comedies of the period that lies midway
b -tween the profligate wit of Congreve and the sen-
timental rubbish of Morton and Reynolds, was re-
vived and curtailed for this occasion, Buckstone
playing the bashful man—we will not say the bash-
ful baronet—because, although he made it highly
amusing, he by no means confined himself to the
manners of the time, or the persons represented, or
intended so to be, by the author. These sententious
plays, the dialogue of which is half sermon, half
brisk impertiniencies, have no hold on this age.
They accolded. with the sentiment and style of the
time they were written in, but these being entirely
changed, they are now but listlessly listened to, or
else totally disregarded.
After the comedy, in order to give the manager
breathing time for his speech, Mrs. Howard Payne
sang very nicely her ballad of "King Frost," from
her popular entertainment of" Patchwork." This
being concluded, Mr. Buckstone re-appeared, and,
after being clamorously applauded, gave the follow-
ing speech in his very best style :
" Ladies and Gentlemen,—ln previous addressee, on
the occasion of my annual benefit, I have for five years
appeared before you only to thank you, and bid you fare.
well from one right to the next ; but after this evening
the curtain will fall for a vacation of seven weeks, for
the purpose of repairs and renovations necessary to be
done to the theatre ; and, but for which necessity, the
house should not have closed at all, although it has been
constantly open through summer and winter, for five
years. Such a long season has never before been known
in any London theatre ; and, as regards the Haymar-
ket, 1 trust it may be looked upon as a sign that
the drama is not destining in these classic walls,
whatever may be its coedition elsewhere. In-
deed, ladies and gentlemen, I can never join in the
dreary cry of that decline, for why should I ? And,
taking the present state of the stage generally, there is
no reason for such talk, for where rhymesters in addresses,
and old playgoers in newspapers, prate of the drama
being bankrupt, it can generally be traced to authors
who cannot get their plays acted, ambitious actors out
of engagements, or, more frequently, to that portion of
the public which never pay for admission. And what
is this state of bankruptcy ? One prosperous manager,
Mr. Webster, is rebuilding his theatre. The old Adelphi
was not large enough, or convenient enough, and there-
fore he intends to give you a more commodious and a
handsomer house. Is he bankrupt ? Mr. Charles Kean,
at the Princess's, places before you the plays of Shak-
i,pere, produced in a manner unknown and undreamed
of by the Garricks and the Kembles, and his theatre is
nightly filled by admiring audiences. Is he bankrupt
Are the worthy lessees of another thriving theatre—the
Olympic--bankrupts ? And are we bankrupts here ? As
Brutus says, ' I pause for a reply.' No, ladies and gentle-
men ; give the public anything good, and that public will
come to see it, and in greater numbers than it did fifty
years ago. During ,the past season of five years, ladies
and gentlemen, I have produced eighteen new comedies,
many farces and Easter extravaganzas, five pantomimes,
with ballets and the Spanish Dancers. Many of the comes
dies have been played for sixty, seventy, and one hundred
nights. It would be tedious to enumerate them all, and
I will therefore only allude, as a sample of what a suc-
cess ought to be, to the "Unequal Match." During these
five years, we have been so orderly and so peaceable
every night that for the whole of the time we have never
had anything approaching a tumult in the theatre. I
but mention this fact, ladies and gentlemen, that you
way know what respectable people you all are. My
great predecessor here, George Colman the Younger,
has said that ' few men glide through private life with-
out encountering an enemy ;' but an actor, a mana-
ger, and a dramatist, accumulates fresh opponents as
often as he courts fresh notice. But though, ladies
and gentlemen, I have been for many years, I hope,
an actor and a dramatist, and now for a consider-
able period a manager, I think I have reason to be
proud, that while I believe the number of my enemies to
be very small, the number of my friends can be known
by the numerous and brilliant assemblage of this even-
ing. We know that competition leads to exertion ; and,
while at school, most of us have written in our copy-
books, Emulation is a noble passion,' Of British com-
petition no one ought to complain ; but our English
managers have bad to contend against three Italian
operas and one Italian dramatic cempany. Whether
they have all succeeded I do not know, but the fact that
they have existed proves the British public may be
enrolled amongst the Friends of Italy,' though it is cer-
tainly not exactly right that, in a wealthy metropolis like
London, there should be three Italian operas, and not
one establishment for the encouragement of the English
composer and the English singer. As for the future
cioiageat the Haymarket, I can promise you many im-
portant novelties. New comedies by Mr. Tom Taper,
Mr. Bay le Bernard, and other well-tried dramatic writers!.
There will also be a pantomime at Christmas and an ex-
travaganza at Easter ; and as a better company of per.
formers cannot be procured for the purpose of represent- •
ing the standard comedies of England than that now
engaged here, there will be no material alteration in it,
although I shall certainly be constantly on the watch for
talented additions. I heartily thank you, ladies and gen-
tlemen, for your generous and constant patronage during
our long season in this ' The Little Theatre in the Hay-
market ;' and though it is no longer the little theatre of
the days of Foote, or of the commencement of the present
century, yet it will, no doubt, be called so to the end of
dramatic time, while my ambition will always be to make
it the great theatre in the Haymarket—that ie, great in
your estimation. And now, ladies, and gentlemen, I bid
you farewell until the let September, a day celebrated in
the sporting world, when, instead of bringing down par-
tridges, we shall again assemble here in the hope of bring-
ing down your applause."

The facts here stated require no comment, and
the public perfectly appreciate Mr. Buckstone's
able and diligent manageruent during a season of
unprecedented length.

The offices of Dean of the Arches and Official Princi-
pal of the Arches Court have been conferred by the
Archbishop of Canterbury on the Right Eon. Dr.
Ludington. The functions of the Dean of the Arches
are now merely nominal, but the Official Principal of
the Arches' Court is the Judge of the Court of Appeal
of the Proviuce of Canterbury. The Court of Appeal
was formerly held i❑ Bow Church, or the Arches'
Church Sancta Maria de Arcubus), and hence it de-
rived its name of the Arches' Cuurt, which accompanied
it when the seat of judicature was transferred to the
Common Hall of the College of Advocates in Doctors'
Commons. It is reported that Dr. Travers Twias will
succeed Dr. Lushiegton as Chancellor of the Diocess of
London.

NARROW ROAPES.—gre. Orr mentioned a narrow
escape she had (a; the siege of Lucknow) some time ago.
She was sittiEg on a chair outside her door, and was in
the act of /eating ferw at d to pick up something for her
child, when a rout d shot came in and broke the chair
she was sitting on without touching her. A gentleman,
ft)tv days ap,,o, had half his pillow carried cff by a
round shot whilst he was lying on it, and it L.id n,,t even
awake him. These wonderful escapes are so frequent
here that one hears them related without feeling much
aritouisbmeut—Day by At, at Lucknow, 4 Mrs, Case.