Public Amusements.

fever of nervous anxiety for the arrival of his old schoolfellow Bagshot , Mr . Charles Mathews , who has been travelling abroad , and whom he has not seen since the merry clays of boyhood . Bagshot arrives , and we soon discover that he is one of those personages who persuade themselves that they see to the bottom of everything at a glance ; who have no patience to listen to

exp lanations ; who draw instantaneous and portentous conclusions fromtheaccidentalclroppingof a simple word , or from the seeming significance of an unguarded gesture , and who firmly believe that whatever view they adopt they can never he mistaken . Bagshot has not been with his friend Tipthorpe five minutes before he convinces himself and Tipthorpe , too , that he ( Tipthorpe ) and

the whole of his household are involved in a "labyrinth of crime . " From what he has observed since he entered the house , coupled with the first few words of a confidential communication which Tipthorpe proposes to make to him , he concludes that he ( Tipthorpe ) has involved himself in a criminal liasion with a fair widow at Richmond ( Miss C . Hill ) , that his daughter Lucy

lias committed herself to an unworthy suitor in the person of Mr . Piper , the piano tuner , and that his young wife is madly iu love with Mr . Flitter , the AVar Office clerk . In the fervour of friendship he undertakes to emancipate the petrified Tipthorpe from the shameful trammels in which he assures him he has involved himself , and to baffle and overthrow tbe not less

shameful intrigues of the rest of the household . It is from the ludicrous complications which arise from bis endeavour to execute this sacred duty , as he calls it , with a complete misunderstanding of the real relationship that exists amongst all the parties concerned , that the whole amusement of the piece is derived , and it must be confessed that anything more entertaining has not often been presented upon the stage . AVhen at length the mischiefs which he has created are happily corrected and fairly set

to rights , Bagshot maintains his consistency , and congratulates himself and his friend upon the luckiness of his having arrived at the very moment that had enabled him so to interfere as to prevent matters from becoming worse , and to justify him in claiming the encomium of having acted like a guardian angel . ¦ " More like a bull in a china shop , " ejaculates the unsympathising

Tipthorpe , and so the curtain falls . Mr , Charles Mathews is , of course , the mainspring of the piece , and his acting of the part of the self-confident and ahvays mistaken Bagshot may be said to he absolutely perfect . He is , however , admirably supported by the other members of the company . A piece from the pen of Mr . T . J . AVilliams , entitled " Little

Daisy , " has also been brought out . Though designated in the playbill as a drama , it might be more truthfully described as a dramatic fragment , for it is a scene rather than a play , and the incidents on which it is based are materials rather for an anecdote than a story . The time is that of the Protectorate , and the place of action is the interior of a woodcutter's cottage in

the New Forest , whither have come a riotous band of Parliamentarians , in search of the young princess , Henrietta , who is supposed , not without good cause , to he concealed in the neighbourhood . It so happens that she is lurking with a few retainers in a cave a few yards off . Tlie secret of her hidingplace is known onl y to Daisy , the woodcutter ' s daughter , a

generous and intrepid little girl , whose ingenious contrivances to outwit the soldiers and throw them off the scent give to the plot all that it possesses of dramatic interest . She of course succeeds in her benevolent design . By first passing herself off for the young Stuart , and , when the deception is discovered , by coquetting with the sergeant , in whom she recognises an old

sweetheart , she absorbs the attention of the Roundheads , and keeps them long in parley . Meantime the princess gets well ahead of her dilatory pursuers , and manages to reach the

seaside , where a boat is in waiting to convey her to France . Miss Maria Harris , in whose especial interest the piece appears to have been written , takes the leading character , ancl plays it in a very engaging ancl expressive manner . She is alternately pathetic and humourous , and in each phase of feeling displays a certain air of youthful grace and ingenuousness which is exceedingly attractive .

LYCEUM . This house has opened with the long-announced " Bel Demonio . " The preliminary comedietta of " Uncle Baby , " was received with very considerable disaffection it is true ; but this was chiefly because the importance of the impending trial made it appear trivial and irrelevant . The audience had

assembled to see " Bel Deraonio , " and " Bel Deinonio" it would have . The drama in its skeleton form and outline is , in analogy , aversion of the " The Lady of Lyons , " Angelo , the son of a peasant , ancl leader of peasants—Brachiaforte—having fallen in love with the daughter of the Count Campireali , who reciprocates his passion . This , however , is but a partial resemblance ; a further

likeness is maintained by their marriage , —their separation—and union in thecaseof P «« ££ » 2 by marriage to another suitor ; in the case of / Jefiabyasacrifteial wedding to the church , whichis merely arrested in time to admit a reuniona t the fall of the curtain , and th o triumph of the peasant lover in the affection of his noble wife . Considered merely as a drama , it is full of incident , brisk and

startling—hut it is not a whit superior—is , in fact in many respects inferior , ( in probability among other circumstances)—to many Surrey melodramas . The dialogue is of the flattest and of the feeblest , not always grammatical , rarely dignified , never natural .

Looked at as an effort of management , the play cannot be otherwise than successful ; but Mr . Pechter has already shown in his management that mere pecuniary gain , if a necessary , is far from heing a sole ingredient in his view of success considered in this respect . Mr . Feehter never has more distinguished himself , by his zeal in his profession or as an artist than in the part of Angela . Throughout he acted the ardent and passionate lover ,

whose passion refines his existence , and elevates his pursuits" ' accommodating the shows of things to the desires of the mind , " and investing his prosaic life with poetry and romance , with most unequivocal success . Mr . Emery , as Jtanuccio—the bold and vigorous soldier—rough and prompt to service , was hardly inferior ; and , again , Miss Kate Terry distinguished herself by

an exhibition of her refined appreciation of the necessities of a part which tasked all the energies of the actress and the artisi to invest with character and poetic fitness . Mr . Brougham , as the Cardinal , ancl , indeed , all the company might he considered not less harmoniously adapted to the piece than the principals , and the result was well worth such qualifications as we have

pointed out—an undoubted popular success , ancl the triumphant production of a piece likely , in spite of its defects , to prove not less attractive to the public than its predecessor the " Duke ' s Motto . "

OPERA DI CAMERA . "AVith the same spirit in which Mr . German Reed has hitherto conducted his " Entertainments , " he has produced a novelty of the most important kind— -important , not less from the intrinsic merits of the new work , " Jessy Lea , " than from the great

influence which the production of such a work is likely to have in future upon the prospects and progress of English Opera and English Operatic singers . "Jessy Lea" is written by Mi-Oxenford , and the music is by Mr . G . A . Macfarren . Before tho opera fairly commences , Mr . German Reed makes his appearance >