At the Adelphi, that sort of attraction which consists in
dressing up a number of young ladies in military costumes has been adopted in a new farce, called Our National Defences. A substitution of pantaloons for pet- ticoats, with the addition of military evolution, is pretty sure to please some portion of a theatrical audience: here the ladies represent the boys of a boarding-school; to assist their French tutor (Madame Celeste) in visiting an old gentleman's niece, they assume the appearance of French invaders, and overcome the servants of the establishment, who have been trained by their invasion-fearing master into a body of grotesque soldiers. The only novelty in this piece is its application to a popular theme; but the best portion of it consists of the love-scenes between two servants of the esta- blishment, which are smartly written, and comically acted by Wright and Miss Woolgar.
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