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LIBERTY AND LICENCE.--It is said that _The Maske of Flowers_ would
never have drawn gold on Monday last to the coffers of that excellent
charity, the Convalescent Home at Westgate-on-Sea had not one of the
Prominent Performers consented to become the responsible and actual
Manager of the "Theatre Royal, Inner Temple." By the terms of his
licence he was bound, amongst other things, to see that no smoking was
permitted in the auditorium, no exhibition of wild beasts was allowed
on the premises, and no hanging took place from the flies. It is
satisfactory to learn (that, in spite of many Benchers being present)
none of these wholesome regulations were infringed. It is true that
the Music of the _Maske_ was duly executed, but then this painful
operation was conducted (by Mr. PRENDERGAST) from the floor of
the building, and not from its roof. Thus the orders of the LORD
CHAMBERLAIN were strictly observed by a Barrister, who can now claim
to have been Manager of a genuine Temple of the Drama.

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A REMINDER.--Mr. EDMUND B.V. CHRISTIAN, in _Baily's Magazine_, quoted
by the _P.M.G._ last Thursday, complains "that cricket, the most
popular of games, fills so small a space in literature." Does he
forget that CHARLES DICKENS devoted one entire Christmas Book to _The
Cricket on the Hearth_?

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LETTERS TO ABSTRACTIONS.