- A tiny melodrama, called The Headsman—showing the unpleasant situa-
tion in which an executioner may be placed who holds his office by lineal descent—has been written by Mr. Albert Smith, and produced at the Olympic. As soon as the humane young headsman is attacked by the mob of Bruges, because he lets his axe drop instead of decapitating his oriminal like a man, he is released by the discovery that he is the son, not of the old headsman, but of the Count of Flanders. No interest whatever is attached to the criminal; he is a mere supernumerary, introduced to give the execu- tioner a job. Two things are striking in this little piece,—one, that the author should have chosen a subject so slight; the other, that he should have made so much of it; for the principal situation, on which the curtain falls, and to which all the rest is subservient, is certainly wrought with a great deal of power. Mr. Leigh Murray's interesting figure and spirited acting give effect to the one character of the piece, the young headsman; and the manager has provided a very special scaffold and mob for the con- clusion. A pretty young lady named De Burgh played the headsman's betrothed, in a very pleasing, unpretending manner; which promises well in a ,lbeginner.
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