ryt S4ratrts.
The theatrical season is dwindling into a series of benefits varied by the performances of Volunteer regiments in aid of some special object. The example of the Artillery Company, who played at the Lyceum a few weeks since has been followed by the Civil Service Regiment, who on Monday last performed a new comedy by "Captain Tom Taylor," which was followed by an address, written by "Ensign Edmund Yates" and spoken by Mrs. Stirling. It would not be fair to compare the comedy, which is called A Leeson for Life, and shows the calamities by which a Centel) spendthrift is redeemed from a course of dissipation, with those lively works which have so much contributed towards the prosperity of the Haymarket Theatre. The piece holds, as it were, a middle position between a real stage play and one of those harmless and highly-moral dramas which Madame Genlis and Miss Edgeworth wrote less for the recreation than for the instruction of youth. Even the more comic portion of the work refers too exclusively to academical interests to have any strong hold on the sympathies of a general audience, who would care little for the author's hints as to the superiority of Cambridge to Oxford. These peculiarities, however, arc by no means objectionable where the majority of gentlemen engaged in the Civil Service are to be amused ; and the comedy, exceedingly well acted, was received with unequivocal applause. At the conclusion of the address the volunteers of the Civil Service appeared upon the stage.
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