The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-20 00:00:00

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.

On Saturday night Mr. Alfred Wigan's first sea-
son at this theatre was brought to a conclusion, and
after the curtain fell on the " Scrap of Paper" the
manager advanced and addressed the audience as
follows

" Ladies and Gentlemen,..—l cheerfully accept the
modern custom, that the manager of a theatre should,
on the last night of his season, say a few words of
grateful recognition of the past, and admit his patrons
into his confidence as to hopeful expectations of the
future. In taking the St. James's Theatre, I would
not disguise from myself that I was experimenting
with a property the fortunes of which has not
hitherto been prosperous, but I remembered the
dismal forebodings that attended my first venture
in management ; I remembered in what a proud
and firm position your support had enabled me to
establish my first theatre ; and I was not dismayed
by the difficulties that surrounded this my second
venture. The last time I had the honour of ad-
dressing you from a stage of my own, and in my
own person, it was with mixed feelings of pride in
my position, and of pain that ill health compelled
me to retire, perhaps for ever, from the grateful
task of contributing to your amusement, and to
sever our connection in the full tide of success.
But it is with unmixed pleasure I appear before
you this evening. At the beginning of the season
my own health, and that of my active, indeed,
I may say, my indefatigable partner in all re-
spects, scarcely seemed to promise the energy ade-
quate to such an enterprise, and on that account,
our effort has been throughout a severe and anxious
struggle. But we have been sustained and cheered
by the hearty support of the public, and I am sure
I shall give no public offence if I add of a large
circle of private friends. Our company have cor-
dially seconded our efforts, and as a lover of my art
and my profession, I hail with pleasure the return
which they receive as most acceptable to them in
in their steady advance in public favour. The re-
sult enables me to-night to offer you on behalf of
Mrs. Wigan and the ladies and gentlemen of the
company:and myself our hearty thanks for the large
measure of success which has attended this our
first season. During a part of the vacation the theatre
will be occupied by a French company, but in Sep-
tember next, ladies and gentlemen, we trust to meet
you again with stronger health, a stronger com-
pany, and if possible stronger confidence in the
continuation of that support from which we shall
never cease to endeavour to deserve; Until next
season, ladies and gentlemen, most respectfully and
gratefully bid you farewell."
The speech was frequently interrupted by ap-
plause, and at its finish Mr. Wigan received hearty
cheers from all parts of the house.
To-night a French theatrical company open for
a summer season.

CRYSTAL PALACE.-110R7ICULTU.RAL

EXHIBITION.

The grand horticultural exhibition of the season
took place on Saturday, in the Crystal Palace,
under the most favourable circumstances.
The flower show itself was one of the most
beautiful we remember to have seen for many
years; benches were ranged up and down the nave
from end to end of the palace, and were filled with
flowers of every form and every hue. Standing in
the centre transept, whilst the band of the Cold•
stream Guards performed with their usual efficiency
fine selection of music, looking to the right or
to the left the scene was one which nature
and art seemed to have combined together with
the greatest success to produce, and was charm-
ing in the extreme. The number of visitors
throughout the day was more numerous than on
any other occasion this spring.

THE LORDS .AND THE BIIDGET.--We hardly see
how the Lords can do otherwise than accept the challenge
and throw eut the whole budget, leaving to the Ministers
the responsibility of having compelled them to take that
painful alternative. It would be much better that the fin-
ancial business of the country should be thrown into tem-
portly confusion than we should part with any of the con-
stitutional privileges of the House of Lords, or hamper in
any way the deliberations of a body whose services we need
so much. It is much more important to us that the con-
stitutional functions of each house should be maintained in
their integrity than that we should gratify Mr. Gladstone's
paltry vanity. And we are confident that if Ministers dare
to go to the country on this issue, the electors will be of the
same mind.—John Thu.

PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE.—Mr. George Craw-
shay, of Tynemouth House, having refused to pay the sum
of £9 Bs. Ild. levied upon him for assessed taxes, on the
ground that in his opinion the war in China was illegal and
unjustifiable, and this not being considered a valid reason
for his non-payment of the tax, Mr. T. D. Hadaway, col-
lector of the Queen's taxes, Nrth Shields, proceeded on
Friday afternoon, under the authority of the Board of In-
land Revenue, with the sale of certain articles of Mr. Craw-
shay's household furniture to obtain the amount due. The
first article put 'up was a rosewood work-table, which
brought 16s. The next was an easy chair, covered with
crimson damask, which realised £1 18s., it being purchased
by the auctioneer. After this, two easy chairs, covered
with Utrecht velvet, were introduced; the sum obtained
was £2 16s. for each chair. A set of mahogany dining-
tables was then put up, and was purchased for the sum of
£5. The company then proceeded upstairs into bed-room
No. 2, where a feather bed was sold for £2 i's. This con •
eluded the sale, the auctioneer announcing that sufficient
money had been obtained to meet the amount due with ex-
penses. The amount realised by the sale was £15135. The
amount due for the taxes, together with the expenses, will
be between £l3 and £l4, so that Mr. Crawshay will have a
small balance to receive. The sale was conducted in a quiet
and orderly manner, and for every article put up there was
competition.---Shields Gazette.

FORTUNE ESCAPE.—On Thursday, as a young
girl, about 17 years of age, a nursemaid in the service of
Mr. Robinson, at Weston, was looking out of an upstair
window, she by some means or other overbalanced herself,
and fell out head foremost. Luckily, on a level with the
next story there was a large water tank, into which she
plunged, and thus escaped without any injury beyond the
fright of an uncomfortable ducking.—Beth Chronicle.

SCOTTISH PAWNBROKING.—Mr. Stirling, of Keir,
in the House of Commons, proposed a new mode of raising
revenue. There were, he said, in Glasgow, 89 establish-
ments of one kind of pawns, and no fewer than 400 of the
other; while the number of pawntickets used in that city
alone were estimated at five millions per annum. The total
number of tickets used in the United Kingdom was not less
than 150,000,000. A tax of 4d. each would yield £150,000
a year.

The Nationalites of Turin announces that four
members of the U.S. Congress have arrived in that
city for the purpose of forming a foreign legion, if the
Italian Government does not object. On the other
hand, Mr. Patterson, the U.S. Consul at Genoa,
has issued a notice informing the public, that he
daily receives applications from Italian and other
officers, desirous of taking service in the army of
the United States, but that he is utterly unac-
quainted with the intentions of his Government in
that respect,

A
NE W S.
1.4 t 0 -1

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, MAY 20.
The Asia arrived here at 1.45 a.m. She brought
149 passengers, and 4,795 doll. for Ha7re.

She landed all mails, except those for Liverpool,
and 10 passengers, and proceeded at 2.30 a,m. All
well.

She experienced Etrong easterly gales on the

passage.

NEW YORK, MAY 8.
The Federal Government has telegraphed to
New York for 5,000 stand of arms.
The President of the Defence Committee has
telegraphed to Albany to the Governor of New
York, requesting him to send more troops to
Washington, as reliable information had been re-
ceived that the capital was in imminent peril.
The Governor of Virginia has issued a proclama-
tion declaring his intention to resist any invasion of
the State, and authorising the General of the army
to eali out as many volunteers as may be necessary.

The Governor of North Carolina has sent a war-
like message to the Legislature, urging the im-
mediate calling of a Convention of the people to
declare for secession and condemn President Lin-
coln's policy.

The Legislature of Tennessee has passed a seces-
sion ordinance, subject, however, to a vote of the
people.

A despatch received by the Associated Press
states that Arkansas has passed a secession ordi-

nance.

It is currently reported that Federal troops will
occupy Baltimore in the course of the present week.
The Southern Congress at Montgomery has
passed a law recognising the existence of war with
the Federal Government.

An Act has also been passed for granting letters
of marque.

The Vice-President of the Confederate States has
made a warlike speech at Atalanta. He declared
that if Maryland seceded the Confederate States
would claim Washington, as the right district of
Columbia would fall by reversionary right to Mary-
land.

Despatches from Pensacola state that General
Bragg is making active preparations to attack Fort
Pickens.

Mr. Seward, in answer to inquiries made by New
York merchants, has telegraphed that a foreign
vessel could not be sent to load cotton at Norfolk
for a foreign port.
Mr. Seward's official correspondence with the
United States Minister at Paris has been published.
He requests the Minister to inform the French Go-
vernment that the Federal Government would
never allow a dissolution of the Union.

The steamships City of Baltimore, North Ame
rica, and Africa, have arrived out.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
NEW YORK, MAY 7, EVENING.
Exchange is somewhat firmer. Bankers' bills,
104; to 105. Stocks have improved ; the following
are the closing quotations :—Erie, 22i ; Illinois
Central, 63 ; New York Central, 73k.
The cotton market is firmer. Sales to-day 2,300
bales. Middling upland is quoted 13,tc.
Breadstuffs and flour are steady. Wheat in mode-
rate demand. Freights slightly improved.
NEW ORLEANS, MAY 7.
Cotton, middling, lOic. to Ile. Sales of the last
three days, 1,800 bales, against 5,000 at the same
period last year. Decrease at all the Southern
ports, 890,000 bales. Freights heavy.

TURIN, MAY 18.

The Nationalites of to-day says :—" General
Klapka has taken his departure for Caprera, to pay
a visit to General Garibaldi. He will return to
Turin to meet Kossuth."

The Turin journals of to-day announce the arri
val of Kossuth in this city.
M. de Martino, the new lieutenant of the King
will leave to-morrow for Naples.

NAPLES, MAY 17.

One hundred thousand ducats, destined to pay
the reactionary bands, have been seized at the
house of a person attached to the Bourbon party.
A depot of spoil, the results of the late plunder-
ing expedition of the reactionary bands, has been
discovered at Isernia.

TRIESTE, MAY 18.

The Empress of Austria arrived here this morn-
ing in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, which
was accompanied by the Osborne. The Emperor
went to meet her Majesty at Pirano.

AGRAM, MAY 18.

In to-day's sitting of the Diet of Croatia docu-
ments relating to the abdication of King Ferdinand
were laid on the table.

PESTH, MAY 18.

The discussion on the proposal of M. Beak, rela-
tive to the address, was continued to-day in the
Lower House of the Diet.

M. Lonij ay declared that Hungary, reserving her
right, was ready to bear her share of the common
burdens of the State, and would enter into nego-
tiations on the subject with the council of the
empire.

VIENNA, MAY 19.

By virtue of an Imperial resolution, M. Asboth,
formerly general of the Hungarian National Guard
of 1848, and who was lately arrested, has been par-
doned and unconditionally set at liberty.

COPENHAGEN, MAY 19.

The Copenhagen journals of to-day publish the
following as the full speech of the President of the
Council of Ministers, in reply to the address signed
by 71,006 electors, which was presented to him on
Friday last :

Mr. Hall said—The Government share the
views expressed in the address, and consider that
they have acted in accordance with them. They
await the moment when a more complete statement
can be made to the Diet without damaging the
interests of the country by an anticipation of the
result of the negotiations which are still pending.
Nevertheless I will state that it is the conviction of
the Government that a solution of the question now
the subject of controversy is urgently necessary.
Painfully acquired experience has convinced me
that a solution is only attainable when such an in-
dependent position is granted to Holstein as may
enable the King, without allowing any encroach-
ment on the government of those parts of the coun-
try which do not form part of the German Confe-
deration, to satisfy the demands made by the Federal
Dist on the Duke of Holstein, even if they be not
founded on federal right. Friendly powers have
acknowledged the conciliatory nature of the steps
taken by Denmark, and have admitted the danger
of leaving the question open. I may, therefore, be
permitted to express a hope that they will adopt
the view of the Government, that this is the only
possible solution. The Government are preparing
for any eventual conflict, but they still retain the
hope of a peaceful arrangement and a re-establish-
ment of good relations between Denmark and Ger-
many' which are both natural and desirable."