PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

The most noticeable event at this house during the past month has been the longpromised revival of Mr. Lovell's charming drama, "The Wife's Secret;" which was originally produced in 1848, and at once claimed the suffrages of nightly crowds, and that enduring place amongst modern dramatic creations, which the skill with which the situations are contrived, the universal sympathies to which the sentiments appeal, and the pure and eloquent language of the blank verse in which it is written, entitle it to. Sufficiently melodramatic to maintain an agreeable excitement and unflagging interest in the evolvment of the story in the minds of the audience, "The Wife's Secret" possesses elements of attraction and enjoyment which the artistic treatment of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean perfects. That touch of nature when the presumedly duped husband breaks into tears, unable longer to suppress the certain sense of his wife's falseness (after a long struggle between unquestioning belief and undoubting despair), is admirable. If less bridelike in appearance than when we first saw her in the part of Lady Eveline, Mrs. Kean has lost nothing of the force, dignity, and feeling with which she originally seconded the author's conception of the character. She plays it charmingly; and by her inimitable acting in the fifth act, creates quite a furore of sympathetic admiration. The part of the servile, cunning Jabez Sneed, was impersonated by Mr. Meadows, with a perfection of stealthy villany. Miss Murray played the part of the pert, pretty waiting-woman, Maud, in the most natural manner; and Miss Chapman impersonated the page. We hear from excellent authority that, after the close of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean's lucrative engagement at the Standard they are about to revisit America. It will be remembered that their last visit to the United States was followed by the production of "The Wife's Secret, which inaugurated the successful career that led to the management which, to our infinite regret, has just ended. At the

HAYMARKET THEATRE,

a farce from the French, originally played in America, by Mr. Charles Mathews (upon whose acting it entirely depends), has been produced during the past month. "Les Absences de Monsieur" now figures on the play-bill as "Out of Sight out of Mind;" and Mr. Gatherwool, in the person of Mr. Mathews, does his best to carry to perfection his inaptitude to the reception of more than one idea, and an utter confusion of action and intention. With an idiosyncracy so peculiar, Mr. Gatherwool is in the constant

ADELPHI THEATRE.

It is evident that to maintain a healthy audience at this house, it must be fed, from time to time, with legitimate Adelphi fare. Accordingly,

"The Flowers of the Forest" bloom once more

upon these boards-though faded, comparatively speaking, by the changes time has made in the original cast. Celeste-graceful, passionate Celeste-lives still in our memory as Cynthia, and Mrs. Billington but tamely represents the character. Neither can we forget the Starlight Bess of Mrs. Fitzwilliam, nor the original Cheap John of Wright. Perhaps time has taken from us the old flavour of the melodrama; but neither Miss Kate Kelly, although her personation of the part marks a decided progress in her profession, nor the Cheap John of Mr. Toole, satisfies us. Even the Kinchen, though the original Kinchen (Paul Bedford), has waxed heavy. But Lemuel, the wandering gipsy-lad (Miss Woolgar's Lemuel), is, if possible, more a picturesque work of art than ever. She alone recalls, by the perfection of her acting," Flowers of the Forest," as we first saw it at the Old Adelphi.

Mr. C. W. QUIN'S PHOTOGRAPHIC ROOMS, 51, OXFORD STREET.

A curiously elaborate and ingenious work of art has been for some weeks past on view at this establishment-a copy (full-sized) of the well-known London Art Union engraving of "A Merry-making in the Olden Time," entirely executed with pen and ink. Every line-the minutest detail-has been copied, every likeness preserved with almost photographic fidelity; so that it is scarcely to be known from a genuine impression, and is certainly a miracle of skilful

manipulation and personal industry. In reference to true art such an undertaking has no influence whatever, but as a specimen of how affluent leisure can be patiently and elegantly turned to account in the production of a picture with such simple appliances as pen and ink, which challenges, in effect, comparison with the finest works of the graver, it is note-worthy, and deserves the attention of all interested in works of art. The old spreading oak

FIRST FIGURE.-Green silk robe, striped with black, and double skirt; the upper one cut on the bias. Plain corsage, square at the top, and low, buttoned down the front, and decorated with straps of black velvet. Wide pagoda sleeves, trimmed like the body. Under-sleeves puffed, and ornamented with little knots of ribbon. Plaited chemisette. Pink crape bonnet, with a black lace fall thrown back on the head; within, a bandeau of black blond plaited; on the right side loops of pink ribbon fastened by black jet buckles.

SECOND FIGURE.-Dress of watered silk, striped and sprinkled with Pompadour bouquets. Corsage round, high, and plain. Wide pagoda sleeves. Puffed under-sleeves, confined by a wristband. Black silk shawl mantelet, with a deep flounce, having a narrow plaiting of the same at the edge, surmounted by bunches of rich fringe and tassels. White tulle bonnet, puffed and crossed by mallow ribbons, which are intersected at intervals by narrow blond ruches, mixed with Parma violets, a bandeau of which ornaments the interior.

Apropos of bonnets: I have seen a very pretty one composed of green crape, trimmed with a light scarf of crape bordered with black lace, and fastened by a bouquet of azaleas. Another of rice straw, on soft foundation of Sevres blue poult de soie, with a toilette of white lace thrown back from the brim.

Here are two pretty robes, the models of which have only just arrived. The first (of white muslin) is made with two skirts, the second forming a tunic open before: the tunic is garnished all round with a wide bouillonnée and two headings of lace. A ribbon of mauve (Imperatrice) is run through the puffing. The first skirt is ornamented with bouillonnées like that trimming the tunique, which form mountings from the bottom of the skirt to the waist, and are perfectly distinguished under the clear tunic. There are nine puffings in these ornaments, with a running of mauve ribbon in each, and encircled with an edging of lace. The corsage is round and flat, with a bouillonnée forming a fichu Marie Louise, and is finished round the throat with the same ornament. Rachel sleeves, very falling, and garnished, like the robe, with knots of ribbon. The other robe is composed of blue taffetas, trimmed with seven narrow flounces at the bottom. Thecorsage is flat, high and round at the waist. The sleeves are large, and retained above by a bouillon renverse -which ornament is quite new in this material. To these I must add the description of a charming dress of rose-coloured crystal tarlatane, for evening or a concert. It is made with three skirts, each bordered with two volants, surmounted by a chicorée of rose tarlatane. It is worn over a transparent of rose taffetas.

It will be old news to many of our readers that the surmise attributing the authorship of 'Adam Bede" to Mary and William Howitt has been quietly set at rest by Mr. Howitt's letter to the editor of the "Literary Gazette."

The new favourite in public estimation is Miss Evans: and we shall be glad if, after all, George Elliot" proves to be the nom de plume of a woman. "What an advance," observes a critical correspondent, "on novel-writing and female genius since the times when Dr. Johnson and Burke sat spell-bound over Miss Burney's 'Evelina'!"

It has always been an article of our private faith that the punishment of death should be abolished, as a blot on civilization-worse than useless in the case of the criminal, and profitless as regards the community. We ignore the sentiment of vengeance, and are obliged to confess, that, as a determent and a warning, the scaffold

RE-EDITED.

and the hangman wholly fail. The exhibition does not even terrify the boy-thieves, who throng to witness it from the double enjoyment of picking pockets in the crowd; so little solemnity and wholesome horror is there in the act which unceremoniously deports a wretch, too guilte to be borne with by his fellow-men, over thy frontiers of eternity. Wise and good men of our generation have, at various times, protested against the fallacy of the punishment of death as a means of preventing crime. The annihilation of the criminal rarely gives more than a temporary shock to its course. Who remembers, except the innocent sufferers from his guilt, or the helpless relatives involved in the shame and horror of his end, the execution or the executed? However the finer nerves and nicer noses of the present generation may be shocked at the suggestion, the true end of capital punishment being to deter from crime

our forefathers showed a more common-sense appreciation of the end in view, when they left the murderer swinging on the gibbet, than we do who conserve the barbarous punishment of putting to death, and squeamishly remove the evidence: so that in one hour after an Old Bailey exit, the sole trace of the deliberate putting out of a life at the hands of the executioner, is the ribald brutality and disorder of the dispersing wit

nesses.

With these happily non-peculiar views upon the subject of capital punishment, we are glad to see it suggested by the Times, that, in all probability, when these lines see the light, the recently-pronounced sentence in the case of Dr. Smethurst will have been commuted to penal servitude for life. And though we do not pretend to understand what is meant by his "case being one for conviction, but not one in which the capital punishment should be carried out," either the man is guilty-cruelly and deliberately guilty or he is not: in the latter case, why punish him at all?—in the former, what a precedent for future commutations, and the eventual (and, we hope, not far off) displacement of the scaffold, for some more salutary punishment, not only so far as the criminal, but as society, is concerned!

To turn to a more grateful subject: the third part of the journal of the "Workhouse Visiting Society" is before us-a society which originated in the efforts of two or three lady residents in the parish of St. Pancras, to remedy some of the crying wrongs which every parish meeting and frequent police reports gave currency to; and which has resulted in a highly influential committee, and a list of lady visitors, from whose active philanthropy we hope the best results will follow. The inmates of workhouses may be divided into two classes-the decent and deserving, and the idle and vicious. Yet, wide as is the distinction between them, no difference is made in their treatment when misfortune drags the former down to the dread level of penury. It is in the power of lady visitors to remedy many of the discomforts within the house, and to quicken the interest of those in power to the much-needed amendments in a system which in effect renders poverty

penal, and reduces the decent rate-payer, who has outlived the power to labour, to the degraded condition of the incorrigible and voluntary pauper. We rejoice to see amongst other healthful propositions, the formation of branch societies in the principal towns in connection with the Central Society; and also that gentlemen be induced to become guardians. It is also suggested to interest all classes in the work of visiting, and to invite the wives and daughters of tradesmen, and especially of the guardians, to assist.

The journal is full of occasion for melancholy thought; broken, however, by the fact of its own existence, and the hope that the light let in on the evils of the workhouse system will eventually lead to their correction.

Scotland has produced a new type of Mada me Ida Pfiffer in the person of Mrs. Louisa Kay Kerr, who has, we learn, visited China, the East Indian Archipelago, Egypt, and other countries, and is at present employed in archæological studies and investigation relative to the former Slavonic races. At present she is residing at Vienna.

Mrs. Kerr is a member of the Asiatic Societies of London and Paris, the Archæological Socie ties of Great Britain, Palestine, and Athens; of the Société Geographique of Paris, and of several other learned societies. It is, we understand, her intention to visit Servia again, with the view of eventually publishing a work on that country.

Amongst other traits of the women of our times, it is pleasant to learn that an English lady-the widow of Mr. Ambrose Crawley, of E. I. C. S.-happening to be travelling in the vicinity of the sufferers of Solferino, converted her journey of recreation into a course of devoted service to the sick and wounded. In common with the good and pitying ladies of the country, she visited the hospitals, comforted the suffering soldiers with words of sympathy and condolence, and inquired after their wants and provided for them. In the name of all the wounded, Emilio Pallavincini Capitano del Bersaglieri has written her a letter of thanks, and such thanks are prayers. C. A. W.

"E. M. F." will please to accept our thanks. "J. A. D., Reading."-Without having read the papers it would be impossible to reply. Much would depend upon the style, and treatment of the subjects.

W. R., junior."-Too much of rose-water in the composition of these ryhmes to suit our pages. The title, too, is a misnomer: instead of "The Speech of the West Wind" it is a speech to it. Let the writer strive to write manly verses, and we shall have pleasure in publishing them. We are quite overwhelmed with the rhymed regrets and poetic plaints of lady sentimentalists.

"M. H. J." is thanked for the offered MS., which, however, is not sufficiently finished in style

or interesting in subject to suit our pages. We fear he has not very recently seen "Sharpe's Maga. zine."

POETRY accepted with thanks: "Sybil ;" terations this poem shall appear); "The Book of "The Three Teachers ;" "Winnie" (with some alLife" also requires amending; "The Face at the Window" (will the author oblige us by altering the third verse, which is far from clear?) "The Widow" (we regret to be obliged to decline this poem).

"L. M., Thornton."-We cannot comply with the requirements of this correspondent. We have too many poems on hand, more, indeed, than we can find space for.