The writer for the Empire praises the 23 July 1868 Royal Victoria Theatre productions of John Oxenford's East Lynne and Thomas Haynes Bayly's The Swiss Cottage, and hopes that the public are 'alive to the great claims which the present lessee of the Victoria [William Hoskins] has upon them, in the unceasing efforts he has made and continues to make to place good plays upon the stage in an efficient style'.