The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-05 00:00:00

&IDLERS WELLS THEATRE.

Last evening Mr. Buckstone commenced a short en-
ga..ement at this theatre, now under the management of
Mr. G. Webster. The piece selected was the capital
comedy cf " Marritd Life," in which Mr. Buckstone
sustained his original part of Mr. Henry Dove. The
audience were delighted at the acting of the lessee of
"the little theatre in the Tiaymarktt,” and at the fall of
the curtain Mr. Buckstone bad to make his bow amidst
the entbusia,tic applause of the audience. The engage-
ment of Mr. Buckstone promises to be the greatest
" hit" of the management. A new version of "La
Dame de St. Tropez," by Mr. Edmund Faulconer, was
also produced, the author taking the principal part. Mr.
Feu'coner ha-A much to learn before he can take his
position among our leading actors. The house was well
attended.

CITY OF LONDON THEATRE.

BEN LIEL, OR THE SON OF NIGHT.

This drama, adapted from the French by Mr. Wm.
Travers, was produced at this theatre on Monday night
with great success. Mr. Travers, well known as an
artiste of considerable merit, has been before the public
.n one or two occasions as a dramatic author, and with
:air success. The plot is rather intricate, and turns
op ,n the changing of two cMldren, by which one be-
comes an outcast, the other a duke. There are sorer
startling and novel scenic effects in the piece, upon which
Messrs. J. hnson and Nelson Lee have spared no ex-
pense. Mr. Charl-s Pitt impersonates the hero with
considerable effect ; Messrs. Harmer and Beaumont.
Hughsp, two villains of good birth, with great skill ;
And Mr. W. Seed-, a pirate chief, with great force.
Mrs. Campbell is rather too weighty and earnest in au
already heavy character. Miss Clifton is chaste and
earnest as the Lady Julia (mother of the hero). Mrs
Liudon, as the her ins, was truthful and ladylike ;
with no poir.truaking, she succeeded in making wonder-
ful way with the audience. The subordinate character,
were unusually well filled in. The piece may be judi-
ciously curtailed, but is ex'raniely well dramatised in
its incidents. Mr. Travers received a call after the
second act, and responded to another at the conclusion
of the piece. All the principa characters were recalled.
The house was well filled, and the audience very
attentive.

A MADEMOISELLE CATHERINE ILA YES.

SONNET.

O toi ! des connaisseurs defendue, applaudio,
Lorsque le mauvais goftt 1 l'esprit de travel's,
Servant, A son iusu, la l'iusidieuse envie,
Thi.tigrait cette voix qu'acclame l'univers I
Muse des bords riants do la cite aerie !
Pretresse d'Apollon en taut de lieux divers,
Toi ! qu'honore toujours la classique It ilie,
Daigle agreer eucor l'hommage de mes vers.
Saint f to Norma, ft Lammermoor si bale,
Anituant, emouvant Mute la plus reboil°,
Electrisant l'e3prit en de,thiraut le ccear ;
Ton triomphe est complet : au lieu de to naisance
Pour toi le vieux proverbs est futile et tuenteur ;
Touty est ft tes pieds jusqu ft la meaisauce.
P. Louis DUMOULIN.

Limerick, 30th April, 1857.

TIIE "URGENT" OF THE ADMIRALTY

The following letters have been arldressed to tte
Editor of the Times :
Sir,—To my astonishment I see in the Times this
morning, under the head of " Naval and Military Intel.
ligence,' that thelast,voyage of her Majesty's new steam
troopship Urgent to Barbadoes, with the 49th Regiment
on board, is characteri,ed as " a good passage from Spit
bead."

She left that port on the 28th of February, sprang a
dangerous leak in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, put
into Corunna on the 3d March in a half-sinking state,
and would certainly have foundered, but for calm
weather, and Vie daring act of an assistant-engineer, who
repeatedly, at the risk of his life, set free the valves of
the engine pampa at a time when the water had risen to
within a few inches of the fires, and when the deck
pumps were found totally in-ufficient, though worked
for hours. In case ot extremity her boats would not
have held °nu-third of the number ot the men on board.
She put into Madeiraon the 9Lb, took up her screw n
the trades, put her screw down again when the trades
fell light, broke some ot the engine gear almost immedi-
ately after, took 24 hours to repair, tried again, and
snapped again. Finally went into Carlisle-bay under
sail on the 27th of March.

If this be " a good passage from Spithead." I should
be glad ti. know what an indifferent one would be like.
As the vessel was " hourly expected at Spithead," there
vv.II, I presume, unless she again disappoint her frienJs,
be an immediate opportunity fur some one on board to
give a complete overhauling to the statement of
Your obedient servant on the
London, May 4. LOOK OUT.

Sir,—Perhaps you may think the enclosed account
of the last trip of the Urgent, with the 49th Rigi-
went on board, worthy of insertion. It is from one
of the officers of the regiment.
I remain, Ste.,
R. FANSIIAWE.
Dagenham, Essex, May 3.

" Barbadoes, April 6.

"I shall give you an account of our chapter of acci-
dents from the time we left Portsmouth. For the first
two days all went on very well, and we were looking for-
ward to a quick passa_:e ; on the third morning the Cop-
tain reported to the C.donel that there were 8 feet of
water in the hold, and that the pumps would not work.
We then set about clearing all the h at 4 and getting
ready a raft, as the boats would only h 11300 men, and we
had 800 on board. Fortunatelv, after much trouble, we
got the pumps to work before the fires were put out by
the water, which had risen to within a few inches of the
st kehole. At this time we were se miles from Corunna,
which was the nearest port. The ship's head was im-
mediately put round, and all the pumps being wanted
we set heartily to work, as you may suppose. The sea
was quite smooth, so we managed to get into port next
morning. After i,wo days we again started, and redched
1a leira without accident. Alt•-r leaving Madeira all
went very well for two or three days, whe❑ one night
about 12 o'clock the engines broke down and we had to
sail. After a few days they were set to work again, but
after wor ing very uneasily for a few hours th-y stopped
again. Toe screw had worked a large piece of iron from
one of the plates at the ship's stern. After this we did
not attempt to screw, se sailed in. after a month at sea,
the whole of whi time we had 30 men working at the
pumps, she took in so much water."

Sir,— In your_ paper of ye,terday there is the f
swing statement under tee head of "Military and
Naval Intelligence :
" Toil Adventure and Assii,tarce iron steam troop-
ships, fitting out at Portsmouth dockyard for the
conveyance of troops and stores to China, will not be
ready to embark them for a week or so. As the vessels
are children of the same parentage as the Transit it is.
possible her fate mey stimulete the powers that be'
to make them worthy of the pennant."
Your correspondent has been misinformed in saying
that the Adveicue, and Assistance are of the same
parentage as the Troosit.
Trio Transit, Urgent, and Perseverance were built
by Messrs. Mare and Ce, of Black wall, and sold to
toe Admiralty. The Adventure (formerly called the
Resolute) and the Assistance were built by we and sold
to the Aelterrelty in Janu-bry 1855
Tne difficulty of getting suitaele officers and eneineere
for vesseleof this class early n 11855 vas so great tha' the
Acirniraity requested me to enter into an arrangement
with them in Match of that year to manage these two
vessels for them as transports. I engaged to do so, and
had the appointment of captaics and otficere and the
entire control of working the vessels from that time
until they were paid off at Portsmouth in September,
1856.

During the time they were under my manlgqment
they were engaged as infan-ry and cavalry tran.p at-, in
the Mediterranean and Btick So*, and the Adventure
also made a voyage to qiehec. That they gave entire
satisfaction to the naval and military authorities is shown
by official documents in my posseAsion, and I believe no
transports, either private or belonging to the Adiniralty,
did their work better.
There is therefore every reason for supposing that
those two vessels will continue as serviceable as before if
properly managed and no alterations made tenting to
destroy the efficiency.—l atn, sir, your obedient am,
vent, JOHN LAIRD.
Birkenhead Ironworks, Birkenhead, May 2.

MR. FLEXMORE'S BENEFIT.—The im,st celebrated of
Enghch Pant,,mimist-; takes his benefit at the Surrey
Theatre to-morrow eveaing, Wednesday, the 6th inst.,
when he is to be supported by an extraordinary array
of talent, embracing the names of Madlle. Auriol ;
Barnes, the famed pantaloon ; Charles Sloman, Mack-
ney, and several like celebrities. Mr. Creswick, and
Mra. R. Honner, will appear in the "Rent Day;" and a
new comic ballet, by Flexmore, is to follow, succeeded
by scenes from the recent highly successful Pantomime
at Drury-lane, " See Saw Margery Daw." As a matter
of course the house
_will be fully and fashionably at-
tended.